This segment was actually a pretty decent one. Sure, it’s far from great, but given its concept, it really could have been a lot worse.
With these misinterpretation plots, worst case scenario, the character misinterpreting things has to be made dumber than usual to make the story work in the first place. As a result, you end up with a dose of character derailment before the story proper begins. But with Star’s case, it’s actually handled pretty carefully. Given that she comes from a much more violent and fight-happy place, it actually makes sense that she would interpret Marco and the other students’ statements as the football game being an actual fight. What also helps is taking phrases usually taken for granted in our real-life logic and twisting them on their head bit.
Because of this, Star is pretty cleverly written here. Her mindset comes from an understandable place despite how utterly wrong she is, and you can definitely tell her heart is in the right place. That alone puts this above most other plots of this type, and I appreciate it for that.
It’s with everything else that the segment kinda suffers. Star trying to get the traps ready is played out basically in the background half the time, taken over by Marco trying to keep Ferguson from getting kidnapped by the rival team, what with him being the new mascot and all. And these bits are…not really much of anything? They’re not really strong in the comedy department, and it doesn’t really do much for their characters, so it comes off as just filler. This is especially apparent since this little subplot doesn’t even amount to much by the end. Ferguson gets taken away by the rival team, Star’s traps rescue him, and there’s a fake death scene. You could honestly remove this subplot entirely and not lose anything.
Oh, and this is probably just a nitpick, but how did nobody notice the gigantic mines that Star placed on the field? It’s not even like they’re subtly hidden under a tuft of grass; they’re jutted out like rocks, and yet only Marco notices them when Star mentions she booby-trapped the place. I think with an animation tweak, that could have been made not so stupid.
So yeah, this one was pretty hit-or-miss for me. The Star stuff is pretty solid and I honestly wish it focused more on that. The rest is pretty damn weak. If nothing else, it was kind of worth it to have Star’s crazed eyes. That should be memed more.
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