Review: Star vs. the Forces of Evil “Death Peck; Ponymonium”

DEATH! DEATH! DEATH!

Overview (Spoilers Below)

“Death Peck”

Following her cause to bring Unity between the Monsters and “Mewman’s”, (basically the people native to Mewni) Star needs her royal peers to sign a petition to help make her noble idea a reality. However with one petition signature left, The last person Star needs the signature of, is a recently introduced character from Club Snubbed who’s a Prince by the name of “Rich Pigeon”. With Star, Marco & Pony Head unsure how to speak with the “Pigeon Kingdom” due to their language barrier, along with Marco’s impatience, Marco simple-mindedly thinks they can just take one of Rich’s claw-legs to hold the signature pen to sign it but consequently ends up breaking Rich’s tiny leg by accident. The rest of the episode at that point is mostly spent on Star & Marco trying to fix their mistake but are feverishly chased by flocks of pissed-off pigeons within the kingdom, leading to a series of well animated comedic setpieces while Star is unable to defend herself with the valid excuse of accidentally leaving her wand at home.

Eventually, Star attempts to surrender since all she wanted was just a signature, but Pony Head ends up letting her selfishness get the better of her when she may have stolen a few things including the prince himself for “leverage”. Because of Pony-Head & Marco’s fuck-ups, they get sentenced to “death by 1000 pecks” which was easily one of the funnier scenes until Rich Pigeon shows up and in a shocking twist speaks like a human and demands his kingdom to “set them free” while going into a powerfully impassioned speech that even left me speechless but he gets the point across that for peace to happen, their kingdom needs to stop pretending to be mindless animals and bring forth change into the future. The episode ends on quite a positive & hilarious note when Rich Pigeon signs Star’s petition (revealing his full name) and offers them dinner leading to an obvious but well-executed bird joke.

“Ponymonium”

The episode begins when Star enters the Cloud Kingdom of the Pony Heads with a “gingerbread ice cream casserole”, having been invited to dinner by Pony Head. As Pony Head welcomes Star at the castle gates, she warns her that her sisters are “jealous” because she herself is next in line for the throne. After a funny introduction that reveals each of her siblings which vary in dysfunctional personalities & quirks, Star learns they have a missing sister named “Teta” leading to an argument between the sisters over why Teta ran away, which is made worse when they unintentionally annoy the shit out of Pony Head and she angrily excuses herself. At that point, Star follows her attempting to talk with her but fails, and returns to the dinner table and starts to confide in Pony Head’s sisters, about her relentless drama-queen attitude.

After deciding that they don’t need their oldest sister to have fun, much of the episode is primarily spent on the sisters being friendly to Star and treat her as a sister which at first seems fine, until Star learns some dark & messed up secrets about the Pony Head sisters who all have a disturbing plan to de-throne her which involves a twist even I didn’t expect. Much to Star’s horror after discovering this plan, she tries to convince the sisters not to go through with it, but they refuse to change their minds and hilariously get into a petty argument over which of them should be the rightful heir to the throne. As Star attempts to leave and warn Pony Head, the sisters threaten to harm her until Pony Head enters, having overheard & recorded everything her sisters talked about and plans to use it evidence while also revealing that Pony Head only invited Star to dinner so she could get proof of her sisters’ plans. Understandably angry & upset over being used as Pony Head’s pawn, Star is about to leave, but Pony Head tells her that, despite all the dysfunctional crap they get into, she still loves her sisters. And despite Star never having a sibling, Pony Head actually considers her a true sister she can bond with. And the episode ends when the two reconcile with a hug before Star flies back to her Kingdom.

Our Take

“Death Peck” felt like a proper continuation to the episode Starfari as Star really wants to make difference by giving equal rights to the downtrodden Monsters who inhabit it. I didn’t mention or talk much about Rich Pigeon in the previous episode “Club Snubbed” because at first, I thought he was just a random visual gag, but here, Rich Pigeon now has a greater significance and the twist regarding his ability to talk makes him a fully realized character with a stoic personality and strong convictions. It would’ve been a much shorter episode if Star used her wand but it was refreshing to see a sort-of mature & diplomatic side to a sometimes hyperactive teen who just so happens to be the heir to an entire kingdom.

For the latter episode “Ponymonium”, It was a decent filler episode that found a way to make dark comedy work in a children’s show while fleshing out this other side of Pony Head through her dysfunctional sisters. The Jokes were on-point with a few horse-puns here and there, the twist in regards to their plan to dethrone Pony head was actually funny, but easily the funniest moment was the ending when Pony Head’s Dad whisper’s something funny in Star’s ear that’s worth checking out for the episode alone. What also makes this episode even more memorable is the fact that Star’s colorful mushroom-themed outfit was actually submitted by a fan who won a Disney XD contest as explained in this video by the shows creator Daron Nefcy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rg1yMPPV8o

I think these two episodes are possibly the few times Star never had to use her Wand to get herself out of a Jam, but I’m very glad this brought back some much-needed levity & humor after Lava Lake Beach left a bad taste in my mouth with its rabid fandom shipping.