Recap / Star vs. the Forces of Evil S4 E19 "Queen-Napped"

Star, Marco, Janna, and Ponyhead have to rescue a kidnapped Eclipsa.

---

Tropes:

• Call-Back: The mailwoman from "Ransomgram" and "Out of Business" delivers Star's mail, clearly fearing Star's wrath after the latter incident. It includes a bill of damage from "The Ponyhead Show!".
• Cutting the Knot: Star tries to find Eclipsa immediately by using the All Seeing Eye. Unfortunately, the kidnappers found out Star was looking, and threaten to kill Eclipsa if they look again. It's also likely Star seeing them there was All According to Plan.
• Easily Forgiven: Star outright calls Ponyhead staging Eclipsa's kidnapping to make the queen (and herself) more popular "awful", but doesn't hold it against her, because it worked.
• Engineered Heroics: Pony Head put Eclipsa through all that trouble just for huge publicity stunt where she's the hero who saves Eclipsa from the kidnappers. But Pony Head gets Eclipsa to be better-liked, so Star is OK with it.
• False Crucible: Eclipsa wasn't in any danger, she was just playing a video game while Ponyhead, her sisters, and Sea Horse turned her disappearance into a public spectacle.
• Infernal Background: The kidnapped Eclipsa is first shown behind a wall of fire, which Janna assumes means she was in the underworld. Turns out it was just a projection on a wall.
• Organic Technology: The strange octopus-like thing on Eclipsa's head turns out to be a organic VR headset for a video game.
• The Scapegoat: Ponyhead tries to double-cross her sisters by telling the public they alone were responsible for the kidnapping. This is purely played for a joke, and it's unclear if anyone actually bought it.
• Sequel Episode: The ransom isn't just meant to pay for damages to Reflectacorp property incurred in "The Ponyhead Show!", the whole kidnapping was staged as a continuation thereof.
• Sequence Breaking: Ponyhead was pushing to investigate a park, as the whole ordeal was a public spectacle she orchestrated. Star's party avoided going there entirely, forcing the conspirators to move their sequence of riddles up.
• Social Media Before Reason: Pony Head posts a social media update for every step they take finding Eclipsa and encountering enemies, which Star realizes the kidnappers can probably see. But the whole thing was staged by Pony Head, so posting social media updates did manage to dig up extra buzz.
• Working Through the Cold: Babs, the assassin from the episode Yada Yada Berries returns to deliver a ransom arrow....despite the fact that her pinkeye hasn't cleared up and her pneumonia has developed into bronchitis.
• You Can Keep Her!: The general public of Mewni don't really care that Eclipsa went missing. Surprisingly, they change their mind when told she's going to be killed—although that's mostly because they were invested in the melodrama. If she is killed, where's the fun in that anyways?