Today I’ll be continuing the Double Take series with a look at “The Banagic Incident.” The goal of this series, as you may recall, is to closely examine the earlier episodes of Star vs. the Forces of Evil – usually lesser-liked and seemingly-unimportant ones – in order to delineate the often complex ideas in them, connecting those ideas to those in later episodes, which are obviously grander in scope.

In other words, my argument is that certain early episodes are a blueprint or “primer” consisting of subtle ideas whose introduction serves to prepare the audience for the return of those ideas in a more fully-realized form.

Why This Episode?

Where do I even begin with “The Banagic Incident”? I’ll be honest: even now, I can’t say that I really like this episode. In fact, when I first saw it, I was shocked by just how off the whole episode feels. Star doesn’t seem like Star. Marco doesn’t seem like Marco. Nothing feels right. I simply don’t know what kind of overall effect this episode is trying to accomplish.

On the other hand, strange though it may seem, there are some ideas in this episode that are clearly linked to ones in later episodes. Therefore, I’ll be talking about Star’s quest for the Banagic Wand, Marco’s firewalk, and what these might mean in context of season two.

Medieval Romance and the Grail Quest

At the beginning of the episode, Star’s declaration borrows a number of common phrases in order to give her quest for the Banagic Wand an air of importance. Some of these phrases are direct references to other works, such as this intriguing reference to Gone with the Wind:

Star: As me as my witness, I’ll never go bored again!

Scarlett O'Hara: If I have to lie, steal, cheat, or kill, as God as my witness, I’ll never be hungry again!

Gone with the Wind is considered “an epic historical romance” – and romance, I think, is the key word in understanding “The Banagic Wand.” I have written before about romance in Star vs. the Forces of Evil, but today it’s medieval romance in particular that we’re interested in and which can be defined as a story that

involves a single knight seeking to win a scornful lady’s favor by undertaking a dangerous quest. Along the way, this knight encounters mysterious hermits, confronts evil blackguards and brigands, slays monsters and dragons, competes anonymously in tournaments, and suffers from wounds, starvation, deprivation, and exposure in the wilderness. … Medieval romances often focus on the supernatural.

It’s no coincidence, then, that we hear the metallic scraping of a sword being drawn when Star removes her wand from her purse; this scene is intentionally invoking medieval romance and the concepts associated with it.

If you’ve read my post on the Holy Grail, you can probably predict where I’m going with this.

That’s right: the idea of Star as a knight-errant on a quest returns in the latter half of season two – and in a far more serious context. No longer is Star merely a bored girl on a quest to buy some piece of junk from late-night TV – she’s a young woman on a quest to retrieve something that was stolen from her.

Season two won’t be the last time we see the motif of Star as a knight. I predict that the third season will feature even stronger and more complex depictions of Star as a knight-errant. (Indeed, this may be related to an idea I’ve been developing that the series is gradually shifting from Sailor Moon to Revolutionary Girl Utena … but that’s a post for another day.)

“The Banagic Incident,” as far as I can tell, is the first explicit reference in the series to medieval romance. In typical Star vs. the Forces of Evil fashion, it introduces a crucial idea in a frivolous way. And that, I think, goes back to the idea of “underestimating.”

Star the Underestimated

First, let’s discuss the end of “The Banagic Incident.” It’s odd, to say the least:

Star: I guess you could say I’ve totally mastered Earth.

Marco: Sorry. I underestimated you.

Star: You underestimated me?

Marco: Uh … yeah. I did. Sorry. This stuff looks delicious, though.

[Star knocks the bowl out of Marco’s hands.]

Marco: Why did you –

Star: There was a fly on it.

Star obviously takes the idea of being underestimated to heart, since we later see her refer to herself as Star the Underestimated in “Into the Wand”:

I believe that the idea of “underestimated” applies not only to Star but to the series itself. By now, it should be clear that the series is intentionally downplaying its biggest concepts. For example, it introduces the idea of Arthurian legends by having Star pursue some piece of made-for-TV junk she read about in a teen magazine. Or it introduces the idea that not all monsters are evil with an episode as silly as “Lobster Claws.”



In other words, Star vs. the Forces of Evil hides its complex thoughts behind a facade of frivolity – and it works. It has most everyone fooled. Why does the series do this, though? The weird, unsettling end of “The Banagic Incident” gives us a few clues.

Star is clearly unhappy and upset with Marco underestimating her. As we know from watching the series, Star is the problem child who thinks of herself as a screw-up, so much so that she even uses her own name as a synonym for screwing up in “Pixtopia” – which, quite frankly, is heartbreaking. For Marco to think that way as well must be particularly painful.

Star’s reaction – knocking the bowl from Marco’s hand – is therefore a sign of her immaturity at this point in the series. Star lashes out when people underestimate her. Yet compare this to her view of herself in “Into the Wand”: instead of lashing out, she uses the idea that she’s underestimated to her advantage, transforming it into motivation to succeed.

Analogously, Star vs. the Forces of Evil is gradually revealing the true complexity and depth of its ideas as the characters and the show’s audience grow more mature. Put succinctly, the form mirrors the content. I can’t help but admire the writers for taking such a risk, since having the show hide its depth has indeed led to criticisms that the show is generic, frivolous, or badly-written.

You have to pay close attention and do a little work to discover the ideas hidden within Star vs. the Forces of Evil, and few people are willing to put in that effort. Hence, the series is underestimated.



Speaking of underestimated, there’s another character who, in season two, delivers Marco’s exact line from “The Banagic Incident”: Hekapoo.

Marco’s Trial by Fire

In “Running with Scissors,” Marco meets Hekapoo and tries to earn a pair of dimensional scissors from her.

Hekapoo: Not bad for a human. You truly earned these. I underestimated you.

Considering what she puts Marco through, it’s no coincidence that Hekapoo echoes these exact words from “The Banagic Incident.” Neither is it any coincidence that Marco attempts to firewalk in “The Banagic Incident” and Hekapoo, being made of fire, burns a bald spot into Marco’s hair.

“The Banagic Incident” introduces the idea of a literal trial by fire for Marco, an idea which is later repeated in a more sophisticated way in “Running with Scissors.” In both cases, Marco somehow grows or changes during the single-minded pursuit of some goal, whether that goal is thrashing Jeremy or earning a pair of dimensional scissors.



And given how much I’ve written about the Holy Grail in Star vs. the Forces of Evil, it’s difficult for me not to read too much into this image:

… But it’s still amusing nonetheless. On the other hand, Marco’s prize at the end of “Running with Scissors” is entirely different and laden with all kinds of symbolism:

As evidence of his maturity, Marco doesn’t negatively react to Hekapoo saying that she underestimated him – and, of course, it’s amusing, given what we know about her feelings toward being underestimated, that Star shows up as soon as the line is delivered:

In fact, it’s the idea of being underestimated that provides an additional connection between the two of them: Marco is underestimated because he’s just an ordinary human, and Star is underestimated because she’s so undisciplined. Thus, “Running with Scissors” intentionally hearkens back to “The Banagic Incident,” changing the ending from one of conflict and separation to one of agreement and harmony – though keeping the somber tone.

Completing the Quest

“The Banagic Incident” has an unusual title. I’m not entirely sure about this, but my best guess is that it refers to the Noodle Incident trope in that “The Banagic Incident”

is something from the past that is sometimes referred to but never explained, with the implication that it’s just too ludicrous for words

As a lesser-liked episode, “The Banagic Incident” might be reduced to a kind of noodle incident for the series – something few talk about. And certainly, I think the writers have no intention of explaining the ideas presented in “The Banagic Incident” – the ideas of medieval romance and trial by fire – but they certainly do refer to those ideas later in season two.

We haven’t seen the last of these ideas; they’ll be back in season three. Count on it.

I hope you enjoyed reading this analysis, and I hope that Double Take is continuing to highlight for you some interesting ideas hidden in Star vs. the Forces of Evil. Feel free to send me an ask if you’d like me to write about an episode in particular – or even if you’re just curious about any other subject you might like to see me write about.

