When the show was first announced in Comic-Con 2014, one of the first things that caught my interest was the opening, I found the theme song catchy and the setup was interesting; a Magical Girl and Slice-of-Life wacky comedy.
When the show finally premiered on March 2015, I wasn't impressed but I still wanted to give the series a shot. However, after some episodes (maybe like 6 or 8) the series stopped for months and I lost interest.
I started to watch the show again after season 2 premiered and I was impressed. The animation was less cheap (the first season used flash while the later seasons used digitally-drawn animation), a Myth Arc was introduced and there was more emphasis on the setting and the characters rather than wacky adventures with Queen Moon (Star's mother) being given a very interesting sideplot and I was hooked with the season finale.
I believe myself that the second season was when the series expanded in popularity and really developed its loyal fanbase thanks to the improved storytelling, characters and setting.
With the increase in popularity, the crew of the show started promising many things for season 3 including an hour-long TV movie that would wrap-up the second season's storyline leading up to the real plot of season three and that Mewni (Star's homeworld) would be explored in more detail.
The Battle for Mewni TV movie was a fun, if uneventful movie that wasn't the promised epic battle between Star and Toffee that the fanbase was told it would get but it got the ball rolling with its final scene where Queen Eclipsa; a past Mewman Queen that was crystalized for practicing dark magic and eloping with a dreaded monster, being implied that she eventually was going to escape her crystal prison.
The rest of Season 3, when it finally premiered, was a mixed bag thanks to its unfocused storyline that ignored the Myth Arc in favor of wacky adventures or shipping drama episodes but it had some world-changing twists and some funny conclusions of some season two plots and a action-packed season finale that left many things unanswered and the characters feeling uncertain about the future.
It was in season three that the eponimous "Forces of Evil" of the show's title was in reference to racism in a big allegory for post-colonialism with the monster races being an allegory for misplaced, oppressed and hated native people with the Mewmans being an allegory for post-colonial North America and the British Empire who stole their lands and systematically killed, oppressed and misplaced them for more land without any guilt.
After a year, Season Four premiered and many people had a year to theorize where the story was going. Similarly to season three, it suffered from the same problems with emphasis on wacky adventures or shipping drama to toy with "Starco" shippers' emotions, but this time the fans started to really rally against the shipping drama episodes since it was announced that season four would be the final season of the series. Many things happen in season 4, none of them were close to the popular theories before its premiere, something that really angered some fans, I myself felt that the show wasn't focused on exploring the possibilities of the show's characters or setting as much as season two but still had some good episodes and some good twists with the characters including reveals, reunions and betrayals and a very intense final arc that unfortunately failed to properly end the series without feeling rushed and esoteric.
The ending of the show itself it's own can of worms thanks to its forced finality to the story without exploring the consequences of the characters' actions.
Review and Overview of the Series.
When the show was first announced in Comic-Con 2014, one of the first things that caught my interest was the opening, I found the theme song catchy and the setup was interesting; a Magical Girl and Slice-of-Life wacky comedy.
When the show finally premiered on March 2015, I wasn't impressed but I still wanted to give the series a shot. However, after some episodes (maybe like 6 or 8) the series stopped for months and I lost interest.
I started to watch the show again after season 2 premiered and I was impressed. The animation was less cheap (the first season used flash while the later seasons used digitally-drawn animation), a Myth Arc was introduced and there was more emphasis on the setting and the characters rather than wacky adventures with Queen Moon (Star's mother) being given a very interesting sideplot and I was hooked with the season finale.
I believe myself that the second season was when the series expanded in popularity and really developed its loyal fanbase thanks to the improved storytelling, characters and setting.
With the increase in popularity, the crew of the show started promising many things for season 3 including an hour-long TV movie that would wrap-up the second season's storyline leading up to the real plot of season three and that Mewni (Star's homeworld) would be explored in more detail.
The Battle for Mewni TV movie was a fun, if uneventful movie that wasn't the promised epic battle between Star and Toffee that the fanbase was told it would get but it got the ball rolling with its final scene where Queen Eclipsa; a past Mewman Queen that was crystalized for practicing dark magic and eloping with a dreaded monster, being implied that she eventually was going to escape her crystal prison.
The rest of Season 3, when it finally premiered, was a mixed bag thanks to its unfocused storyline that ignored the Myth Arc in favor of wacky adventures or shipping drama episodes but it had some world-changing twists and some funny conclusions of some season two plots and a action-packed season finale that left many things unanswered and the characters feeling uncertain about the future.
It was in season three that the eponimous "Forces of Evil" of the show's title was in reference to racism in a big allegory for post-colonialism with the monster races being an allegory for misplaced, oppressed and hated native people with the Mewmans being an allegory for post-colonial North America and the British Empire who stole their lands and systematically killed, oppressed and misplaced them for more land without any guilt.
After a year, Season Four premiered and many people had a year to theorize where the story was going. Similarly to season three, it suffered from the same problems with emphasis on wacky adventures or shipping drama to toy with "Starco" shippers' emotions, but this time the fans started to really rally against the shipping drama episodes since it was announced that season four would be the final season of the series. Many things happen in season 4, none of them were close to the popular theories before its premiere, something that really angered some fans, I myself felt that the show wasn't focused on exploring the possibilities of the show's characters or setting as much as season two but still had some good episodes and some good twists with the characters including reveals, reunions and betrayals and a very intense final arc that unfortunately failed to properly end the series without feeling rushed and esoteric.
The ending of the show itself it's own can of worms thanks to its forced finality to the story without exploring the consequences of the characters' actions.