RJ Writing Ink

I’ve spent the last week going over some of the best fan works for Star vs. The Forces of Evil. More so I wanted to do this for my enjoyment. I’ve saved the best for last, though. This AU’s good enough to be it’s own show, hitting all the right notes to tell an original story that retains all the hallmarks of Star. This is the story of a boy who was raised by monsters, Light of the Sun and Stars.

Light of the Sun and Stars

Written by: ThDorkMagnet

First Published: July 13, 2017

Type of Fan Work: AU

Status: Ongoing

Synopsis:

All his life, Marco Diaz has only ever known the monsters who raised him. Despite being one of the their hated Mewman enemies, the monsters consider the boy one of their own, save for their leader, Toffee. Then one day, Marco’s longing to see the outside world leads him to escape the cruel lizard and set out on his own into Mewni where he meets a certain blonde princess. This young girl takes it upon herself to be Marco’s guide to a world that’s filled with wonders he never knew existed. Together, the two become the closest of friends as they change each other’s lives, and their world, forever.

Review

I’m going to come out and say it: I absolutely love this fan fic! It’s incredibly well-written, the characters are faithful to their show counterparts, and the premise is so much fun. I couldn’t stop reading it until I got to the latest chapter.

First, let me give you an overview of how Star and Marco are portrayed in this story. I know it contradicts what I said about them being faithful to the show, but their core personalities remain the same.

Marco Diaz

Instead of being a human, here Marco’s a human-mewman hybrid. His parents died when he was a baby, so Buff Frog raised him as part of Toffee’s army. While he considers the monsters his family and loves them very much, his true desire is to one day go out and see everything the world has to offer. When the story begins, events force him to leave behind the only home he’s ever known and enter a world he knows nothing about.

This version of Marco has a childlike curiosity about the world, being constantly left in awe at all the new and amazing sights he sees. At the same time, he’s very shy and a little insecure. This is more due to having never another Mewman, though, rather than an inherent personality trait. Once he gets past that, though, he has no trouble making friends, winning people over with his kind-hearted nature and infectious, childlike enthusiasm.

He does share plenty of canon Marco’s traits. He’s kind and friendly to everyone he meets, he still likes red hoodies, and shares his counterparts talent for cooking and dancing. Yet he still carries the scars of his past, and sooner or later, he will have to confront them.

Star Butterfly

When we first meet her in the story, Star’s closer to the way she was in the second half of Star vs. The Forces of Evil. Events in her life, though, have forced her to mature faster than she did in the show. With her parents away on business, she’s left to run Mewni on her own on top of mastering her wand. That’s a lot of pressure!

Despite all this, Star remains the same kind-hearted and outgoing girl fans know and love. She doesn’t hesitate to help others, even taking dozens of orphans into her home when they nowhere else to go. Unlike in the latter half of the show, here most of Mewni loves Star and sees her as a guiding light in dark times.

While she appears happy and upbeat on the surface, she’s gone through some traumatic events of her own in the past. These events not only led her to almost abandon the happy-go-lucky demeanor she once had, but even feel ashamed of it at times. Her loved ones notice the problems she’s dealing with, but don’t know how to help her. That is, until Marco comes into her life.

A Meaningful Title

One of the more abstract things I love about this story is the title. There’s a good reason why the story’s called “Light of the Sun and Stars.” It’s referring to the relationship that Star and Marco develop and how much they come to mean to each other.

Having never seen another mewman before, much less magic, Marco’s completely captivated when he first meets Star practicing her spells. He thinks she’s the most amazing, beautiful person he’s ever seen and can’t help wanting to be around her. He just lights up whenever he sees her. She becomes the guiding star in his life, showing him all the amazing things the universe has to offer.

Conversely, Star finds herself drawn to Marco, as her initial curiousity and compassion compel her to take him in. She takes a vested interest in his well-being, and without realizing it, grows to deeply care about him. Little by little, Marco’s warmth and kindness help to heal from her past trauma. Everyone, literally everyone, notices that how being around him makes her happy, happier than she’s been in a long time. Marco becomes her sun, radiating warmth and happiness on her.

As an aside, the “sun” aspect refers to Marco’s cheekmarks, which are suns in this story.

The way Star and Marco’s relationship develops may seem cliche to some, but I love it. The way they quickly become friends and the most important people in each other’s lives is really sweet. I couldn’t help but feel it tugging at my heartstrings a bit. Everyone needs at least one friendship like the one Star and Marco have.

Yes, they do fall for each other. The cute thing about it, though, is that Marco doesn’t even realize its love. All he knows that being around Star makes him happier than he’s ever been. It makes you want to go “aww.”

A Re-Imagined Mewni and Cast

ThDorkMagnet changes up Mewni and the cast as well, with Earth taking a backseat. Unlike in the show, Earth and Mewni already have an established relationship. While they were once rivals due to Mewni trying to invade Earth, the two dimensions are now close allies. People travel regularly between the two dimensions, and some humans even emigrate to Mewni.

With the focus on Mewni, the castmembers from Earth are re-imagined as living on Mewni, such as Jackie and Janna. Jackie’s human, but has lived on Mewni most of her life, while Janna’s a monster-mewman hybrid. The two are Star’s oldest friends and live with her in the castle, and are among the first to recognize how much Marco means to her.

I won’t spoil anything else, but plenty of the other characters from the show make appearances, so you have that to forward to.

Better Monsters

Of course, it wouldn’t be Star vs. without the monsters. Sadly, from season two onwards, the show only focused on a handful of monsters as main characters. Buff Frog makes an appearance as an important secondary character, and his paternal side’s on full display with his relationship with Marco. As Marco’s adopted dad, Buff Frog gets the most importance out of the monsters in Toffee’s army.

Fortunately, the story also makes efforts to make the other monsters more than simple mooks. They have more three-dimensional personalities and motivations. Case in point, despite being a mewman, they genuinely care about Marco and his well-being. In turn, Marco knows that they’re not the heartless enemies mewmans think they are. Except for Toffee.

Using Toffee Right

Which brings me to the last thing that I love about this story. Unlike in the show, Light of the Sun and Stars uses Toffee to the fullest extent of his evil nature. While a scary enemy in the show, here he’s downright terrifying. He’s led the monsters on a brutal guerilla war against Mewni for years, slaughtering villages and killing thousands of people. He’s pretty much the boogeyman of Mewni.

Already a deadly warrior and strategist, Toffee’s also a master manipulator that I compare to Disney’s version of Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Both are psychopathic villains forced to take in an unwanted ward. Both try to keep them prisoner by emotionally manipulating them into feeling guilty for wanting to leave. The big difference is that, unlike Frollo, Toffee’s willing to resort to physically beating Marco to force him into line.

This is how you use a villain like Toffee. He’s ruthless, terrifying, and one of the deadliest beings in Mewni. The only reason he even lets Marco live is because of how fond the monsters are of him. So when he escapes, Toffee will stop at nothing to get him back. What happens next, I urge you to read for yourself.

A Fan Fiction On Par With the Show

Light of the Sun and Stars is one of the best fan fictions that I have ever read, hitting all the right notes. It keeps the show’s mythology intact and remains faithful to its source material. At the same time, it’s not afraid to come up with new and original stories, each of which ends up being very entertaining. ThDorkMagnet updates every two-three weeks, and she says that she plans on continuing it even though the show’s over. That shows that she’s committed to seeing this story through to the end.

As far as I’m concerned, ThDorkMagnet’s a true fan of Star vs., and it shows in the care and attention to detail She puts into her writing. If you haven’t read Light of the Sun and Stars yet, then I urge you to do so. Its one fan work that you won’t be able to stop once you start.

Click here to see my other animation stuff.

Star vs. Fan Week, Day 5

I have been having a blast writing about the different fan works for Star vs. The Forces of Evil this week. Even if people don’t read them now, it’s been as fun writing about these works as it was reading them. This next one, though, is going to be darker than any of the other ones I’ve done. Marco Diaz becomes an unlikely hero in The Royal Protector.

The Royal Protector

First Released: November 16, 2016

Author: The Eternal Winter

Type of Fan Fic: AU

Status: Ongoing (I hope)

Synopsis:

Unlike in the show, The Royal Protector never has Star sent to Earth, so she and Marco never meet like in the show. Instead, Marco’s put in charge of helping Janna and Oskar Greason become better students, while Star gets sent straight to St. Olga’s, where she’s basically a prisoner.

The abuse that Star ensures for the next two years becomes so bad, it fractures her mind in two. When she finally prays for someone to help her, the universe answers and sends her none other than Marco. Together, the two escape St. Olga’s and set out on a quest to repair the damage to Star’s mind and get her home. With monsters, assassin’s, and more after them, Marco and Star will need each other if they wish to survive.

Review

If this story sounds dark, that’s because it is. It’s one of the darkest and most mature stories in the Star vs. fandom that I could find. The author’s not afraid to include mature themes that Disney would never approve of, but that’s part of the appeal The Royal Protector has. The best way I can describe it is that it’s like if Star vs. was written like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

For those wondering how St. Olga’s could break Star so badly, remember what it was like in the show? Here, it’s even worse. They took her wand, locked Glossaryck up, and forged every letter she sent to her parents so they wouldn’t know what was happening.

It gets worse. Ms. Heinous subjects Star to what’s essentially mind rape, forcibly separating all her so-called “negative traits” to suppress them. The end result leaves a boring, stereotypical Disney Princess that won’t even defend herself.

I’ve seen a lot of messed up things in fiction, but reading what happened to this version of Star makes me sick to my stomach, especially since the torture backfires, and leaves her with a split personality. You can barely recognize her afterwards. This is the Star Butterfly that Marco meets.

Red Star, Blue Star, And Marco

Marco’s more or less the same as he is in the show, but there are a few key differences. First, he’s a lot stronger since he spent an extra two years practicing karate and other physical activities; he’s got abs. Second, and most importantly, having added Janna and Oskar to his pool of friends has made him less socially awkward and more confident in himself. At the least, when he’s thrust into another world as Star’s Protector, he handles it calmer than canon Marco would have. That’s how I think, at least.

It’s a good thing Marco’s like this, too, because he gets thrown in the deep end right away. Aside from battling monsters and the guards at St. O’s, he has to deal with the antics of both halves of Star. For conveniences sake, he eventually dubs the two personalities Red and Blue.

Blue Star’s all the positive aspects of the Star we know and love. She’s kind and compassionate, but she’s also the result of Ms. Heinous’ horrendous abuse. She’s the stereotypical princess who won’t fight back. Red Star’s like the Hulk: she’s all of Star’s pent-up emotions and passions, and above all, she’s angry. Angry at her parents, Heinous, and the world for what happened to her.

One of the things I liked about this story is Marco’s interactions with both halves of Star. Both are smitten with Marco, but Red’s more aggressive with her feelings, to Marco’s irritation. Despite everything, though, Marco understands that Star’s a broken mess and needs help, which spurs him to stay at her side through everything. It’s a very unconventional relationship, but they both end up caring as much for each other as they do in the show.

A Story I Want More Of

As of now, there are only eight chapters of The Royal Protector out, with the last one released almost a year ago. The author claims to have wanted to wait until the final season ended for more inspiration, but we have yet to get anything so far. Despite the lack of activity, though, this is one fan story that I want to read more of.

The Royal Protector is darker than what we see on the show, and seeing what happened to Star makes my stomach churn. In spite of this, I couldn’t stop reading the story. The writing’s good and the relationship between Star and Marco is among the most unique of all the versions I’ve seen of them. There’s a lot more I want to say, but I think you guys should read it for yourself. It’s a good read, and I hope we get more now that the show’s over.

Click here to see my other animation stuff.

Star vs. Fan Week, Day 4

One of the big things that I’ve learned about the fan community for Star vs. The Forces of Evil is that there’s a lot of shipping. When there’s a lot of shipping, that leads to the concept of next gen original characters, and there are kids from almost every pairing in SvTFOE. Kids from Star and Marco, Star and Tom, Marco and Jackie, even a few for Marco and Janna. Basically, if anyone thought they’d make a good pair, the fans made kids for them. So MoringMark and a bunch of other fan creators had the idea of banding them together in one place. That leads us to today’s Star vs. Fan Work, SvTFOE Metaverse.

Fan Work: SvTFOE Metaverse

Created by: MoringMark (Originally)

Type of Fan Work: Webcomic/Anthology

Status: No Idea

This doesn’t really have a synopsis to it, so I’m skipping that in favor of giving an explanation.

The whole concept’s based on the Citadel of Ricks from Rick and Morty. Which, in turn, was based on the Council of Reeds from Marvel Comics. Existing in a dimension separate from the rest of the Multiverse are bases for every next-gen fankid where they can hangout with their inter-dimensional siblings. The focus is mainly on the largest base, the Citadel of Starco, home to all the fankids of Star and Marco.

Since MoringMark originally created the idea of the Metaverse, his Starco kid, Elizabeth Butterfly, plays a major role as head of security. Unfortunately for her, she ends up getting into a lot of trouble dealing with threats and fankids from other bases. Her biggest headache seems to be dealing with the kids from the TomStar base. They keep trying to sneak in or just mess with her all the time. I think it’s a funny meta reference to the rivalry fans have over who Star should have ended up with.

As far as a plot, there really is none, and while that would normally bother me, there doesn’t need to be one. The SvTFOE Metaverse was created to give fans of the show a means to collaborate and work on. It does a pretty job of it, too. Most of the comics are funny, slice of life stories that will make a fan chuckle, and anyone can add onto it. I don’t think anyone’s posting about it lately, but it can’t hurt to at least look it up.

Also, check this out:

Click here to see my other animation stuff.