#eclipsa the queen of darkness

I made the queens of Mewni from Star vs the Forces of Evil with the Lily Story app

An Image Meta-Analysis of the ‘Grandma Room’ in the Episode “Into the Wand”

So we all know that there is always a reason and an order to animation - and I think that the four queens emphasized in the “Grandma Room” all reflect an aspect of Star’s person and personality.

The basic thread of my theory is that Celena, Solaria, Eclipsa, and Moon - all were specifically emphasized in the episode to portray certain aspects of Star’s character as she goes through adolescence, leaving behind the key element, which personality represents the fifth point of the s/Star?

When Star first rides into the room in her memory-constructed “Grandma Room” on her father’s chair pulled by Lil’ Chauncy, the doors open to reveal  two symbols in the door - a Spade and a Heart (Eclipsa and Star, peoples~).

Now, obviously, there’s a lot of card suits (hearts, spades, clubs, diamonds) imagery in the show and with the Mewni queens so I’ll go into that more.

Next, the scene moves to the skylight slowly opening up into the shape of a star,

Shedding light first on a suitor displaying the neck of a goose for Celena,

Solaria slaying a monster,

And the half-lidded eyes of our favorite frozen Queen Eclipsa.  

These three are the queens that represent the most outward characteristics of Star (again, I’ll go into further detail) but they are also the queens we didn’t know anything about (if release dates coincide with a canon timeline of events). The shot of the suitors represents Star’s romantic prowess - Tom, Oscar, the two-headed demon who worked for Ludo (refer to “Fortune Cookies”). According to the Guide to Mastering Every Dimension, Celena was is a very beautiful, sought-after queen - just like Star.

The shot of Solaria parallels to Star excelling at fighting monsters - the show iscalledStar vs. the Forces of Evil.

And like Eclipsa, she has an affinity for dark magic (her wand turns green MANY times and I did not want to go back through and screenshot all of those times so please believe me! But if you don’t, the episode “Baby” shows this which leads me to think that is what tipped Baby off to the Eclipsa parallel).  

Back to big-picture, the next shot shows Star turning her attention to the burger juice on the Wall-Rug of Celena the Shy (and I cannot believe I am devoting all of this time to writing a meta-analysis on a children’s television but here we are).

Welcome.

Celena the Shy (Great-Great-Grandma)

Her inscription reads:  

What hides behind the golden fan

the hand does sweetly hold

a trove of cosmic secrets

that never will be told

Celena manifests the element of secrecy and insecurity in Star. For a character that very boldly acts as the Yang of the Yin-Yang balance, Star still holds many many things secret. This is then juxtaposed against Star’s inquisitive side (“Don’t be shy, you can tell me.”) but obviously still points to the fact that Star has a Secrets Closet (“…that’s full of secrets”). As an adolescent, Star is figuring out who she is as a person - but there are things, many many things about her that she is insecure about - her future as Queen, being a magic-user, her crush on Marco, her abilities as a magic-use, etc. She does not know how to effectively deal with this issues, hence the closet. And her go-to behavior is to “Avoid [the] problem until it goes away” (from ep “Face the Music”). This makes up a huge portion of Star’s character, constituting one of the five points.

Now for the image-based characteristics of the tapestry.

The flowers, I’m thinking, represent the romanticism of Celena, again, being known for her multiple suitors (including a girl~~ so impressed with this show, dudes).

Primarily, her golden fan which is very purple for a gold fan -__- has moon imagery. I’m sure most of you know about Star and the Butterflies being associated with night symbols while Marco Diaz represents the day.

Then, there’s one hidden eye and the other gazing at Glossaryk in fear of being caught(?), in camaraderie of a shared skeleton in the closet(?) - who knows. The inscription even states that she hides a trove of cosmic secrets.

Also, she dons gloves and a cape all to conceal her beauty and her knowledge - which again refers to the traits of secrecy and concealing, and of popularity that Star inherits from her Great-Great-Grandma. There is only so much that Star is willing to share which conflicts with her upbeat desire to over-confide but that’s what is making this show SO DAMN GOOD, you guys, because that’s what adolescence is - finding the balance between your extremes. For Star, she has FIVE.

And the second is her aggression.

Solaria the Monster Carver

Inscription:  

A castle stormed is a hero born, with might

as strong as steel. Kneels

the void before

her and the crushing

force she wields

Now THIS is interesting - well…as an English major…I couldn’t help it. Anyways, in the Guide, the inscription is indented by rhyme scheme as are the others - but HERE, in the show, where they had to DRAW IT, on the pedestal - IT IS DIFFERENT. This was specifically formatted differently, not by the rhymes, but by the impact of the content. What struck me here was the unique punctuation of her inscription. “The void before” is separated, accentuated, set apart with her insignia, the lightning bolts - I’m surprised they didn’t just straight-up highlight it. Each of the queens has to deal with a destiny of cosmic proportions - Celena and her secrets, Solaria and the void, Moon and the Toffee, etc. The Queens of Mewni all were mentored by Glossaryk - the thing that always belonged in the tapestries, the one eternal constant, representing the deep intertwining the queens had with grandiose cosmic fates. I bet you, Solaria was the one who brought down the Temple of Monsters, which will - hopefully- parallel to institutions Star might destroy in Season 3 (fingers crossed).

Now imagery,

Solaria is defined by lightning bolts and hearts - power and passion. Her eyes closed but her mouth is open, symbolizing aggression without foresight. Solaria is - quite obviously- representing Star’s belligerent aggression, her battle-readiness, her ease with fighting monsters. Again, the show iscalledStar vs. the Forces of Evil. But we know that Star inherited both the good and the bad from this battle-worn grandmother. Star easily jumps into things without thinking it through. Another tension between the extremes as Star tries to balance out and grow as a person.

And then we have…

Eclipsa the Queen of Darkness

Inscription:

Eclipsa Queen of Mewni

to a Mewmen King was wed

but took a monster for her love

and away from Mewni fled

“Oooh, bad girl.” 

People obviously caught onto Star’s parallels with Eclipsa with the very obvious “I haven’t seen anything like this since Queen Eclipsa” from episode “Baby” (S2E16A). So I won’t beat a dead goat-pig any further and I’ll go straight into the imagery in this tapestry.

Firstly, the Spades. According to the symbolism of the suits, spades represent winter, wisdom, transformation, and death - fairly fitting of this charismatic queen and her “Monster Love”.

However, with Eclipsa, I don’t think being the queen of evil is not the defining characteristic that is passed down to Star, it’s competence.

Wisdom, intelligence, and prudence are things are favorite Princess Star Butterfly is not really known for - but boy does she have the capacity for it. Her magical potential is boundless and competence is what she inherits from Eclipsa. This queen wrote a whole chapter on a subject that no other queen dared to touch.  

Furthermore, we have the all-seeing eye which is a consistent symbol for knowledge on the tip of her parasol, which is Greek/Latin for “shield against the sun” (and I only just realized that’s what parasol meant and I took Latin in middle school you guys…I just..I can’t like I didn’t figure out that Netflix meant interNET and movie flicks…I STUDY THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AS MY JOB. Anyways.) This refers back to the night imagery of our Mewni queens. This parasol is studded with a glowing diamond - which refers to the intertwining use of suits symbols (that I’ll get into later).  

(And can I just say, this tapestry is beautiful - like I saw it in the show and I was like, Damn…this is so well positioned with the symmetry of the whole thing, the demon lover and his arm…so good).

Eclipsa has half-lidded eyes which could represent condescension, scrutiny, mystery, etc - all of which have connotations of I know something and you do not - again, referring to that element of intelligence.

Star and Moon in corners again show a repetition of night imagery, which, I keep forgetting to mention, links to the reversing Yin-Yang balance of Star and Marco. And her four-eyed demon-lover with a ring on the middle finger - mirror parallels to Toffee which makes me and nearly everyone else think that Toffee is the offspring of Eclipsa and her monster love - which would make SO MUCH SENSE AND JUST BE SO POETIC IN TERMS OF NARRATIVE LIKE OMG OK.

Now, we get to…

Moon the Undaunted

Inscription:

The immortal

monster will long

be haunted by the

darkest spell of

Moon the Undaunted

Being Star’s mother, of course,Moon and Star share similarities but from the get go the show seems to push how different these two are. With diamonds on cheeks representing responsibility, values, femininity, judgment - everything a queen ought to uphold, isn’t it strange that her epithet is “the Undaunted”? Moon is a warrior herself but the imagery shows the roundedpersonality of this current queen of Mewni. Circles and the large full moon behind her profile of her fearless (syn. for undaunted) stance against Toffee (who has spades and diamonds on his skull shoulder caps - cough cough). She, like Star, is a warrior-princess but is fully aware of the responsibilities of her title. The castle of Mewni in the background symbolizes her values. To her, her duty as a queen comes first foremost, so the symbol of the kingdom would make sense in being sewn into the tapestry. Star inherited Moon’s fearlessness and courage but also the anxieties of the role of being a princess and future queen, including her part in the grand scheme of her vs. the Forces of Evil.

To recap, Star (1) attracts yet conceals (Celena), (2) is passionate yet aggressive and belligerent (Solaria), (3) has a prodigious affinity for magic both good and dark, (4) is undaunted but also anxious about her fate. Dichotomies and tensions EVERYWHERE. Each point represents a tension that is manifested in a previous queen…

But what is the fifth element/characteristic/person that would make the holistic five-pointed Star?

We have hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades in a deck of cards. But a 5th Dimension deck of cards uses another fifthsuit - yes, yes, YES, a suit of stars.

And what is our sun if not a star?

That’s right, and you probably saw this coming, but the last point/element/person/character/whatever probably is…

Brian, the life coach.

(Sorry…couldn’t help it)

Yeaaaaahhh, it’s Marco, duh - but I think it is really what Marco represents in the narrative, which I will leave for Part II, where I’ll talk about the Yin-Yang symbolism, Marco’s destiny and his part in helping form Star’s person, Toffee, and the Suits symbolism of four-five elements coming into play later on.