The most interesting information from Daron Nefcy's ASS Podcast

Last night Daron went to the Animation Success Stories Podcast, and dropped some really interesting information. Here’s what I found more relevant:

Daron Nefcy did storyboard tests for Adventure Time, Regular Show and American Dad before getting her first job at MAD.

In 2009 Daron made a 2 minute Star short for Nickelodeon.

Luke Pearson (creator of Hilda) did some early environments for SVTFOE.

We know that during her pitch at Disney, someone suggested Daron that instead of Star being a little girl who imagined having magic powers, actually be a teenager with real magic. But Daron had that suggestion literally right before meeting Eric Coleman, vice president of Disney Television Animation. That last minute change clunked her pitch to the point of making her fear she blew it.

The unaired SVTFOE pilot has been show to test audiences, so there are kids out there who have seen it (oddly nobody has mentioned it online).

Daron pitched 5 other shows while she was trying to pitch SVTFOE, but none of these pitches is part of a future project so far.

Daron likes the idea of releasing the show’s pitch bible.

It was hard for her to get full control of the show, but she has it now (before anyone complains about something being “fan service”).

Production of SVTFOE will wrap up in April 19th. That means that in less that two months the show’s finale will be ready to broadcast, when that happens only depends on Disney’s scheduling decisions.

Daron is currently pitching a new project, no info on what is it about.

Aaron Hammerslein and Dominic Bisignano “really got the show” she wanted to make. Their work in Star is done, which means no more books type of merchandise, at least linked to the story.

Daron hates the bomb format. The bomb tightened production time for Monster Bash.

Disney’s Standards & Practices wasn’t keen on having an episode titled Mewberty.

One of the Korean animators had sneaked in a graveyard for a “Mo Lester” in Bon Bon the Birthday Clown. They had to replace that background in postproduction.

That same animator tried to sneak a penis shaped melted candle (we can assume it was on Total Eclipsa of the Moon).

Sometimes people see things they think are edgy or risky elements hidden in the show, but they’re just seeing what they want to see

Daron got cocky and left S3 in cliffhanger not being sure there would be a S4. Had S4 not been approved, she would have argued for a least half hour to wrap the story up.

When S4 was greenlit, they decided to write it as the final one.

Daron had planned a finale when they wrote the first season, but she decided to change it and that’s all we’ll ever know about that original ending.

Doing the finale animatics, Daron felt like she was losing Star from her life, as if her child was leaving home to never return.

Daron loves that fans are making OCs and their own stories.

Daron says she’d like to pull a JK Rowling, exploring where characters will be in the future. That’s a solid base to assume we won’t have a time skip in the finale.

Daron doesn’t have pierced ears,if anyone here cares about that sort of thing.

Daron’s favourite episodes: Blood Moon Ball, Mewberty, Goblin Dogs, Booth Buddies, Ludo in the Wild

Literal quote: “There’s a little bit of me in Star, and a little bit of my husband in Marco”.

Dominic Bisignano boarded Janna to give Marco an extra obstacle in Mewberty. Daron liked her so they made her a recurring character.

Daron would love if Disney included Star in Kingdom Hearts, and may help if fans keep asking for it, like the GF DVDs.

Ponyhead would be Star’s imaginary friend in the webcomic project Daron planned in case no network picked the pitch.

Daron loves Bam Ui Pati :|

“All those people who don’t like Ponyhead: screw you!” (She was joking, don’t freak out)

The Magic Book of Spells was made during production of the 4th season, and you’ll enjoy it more if you read the book.

There is one thing people haven’t figured out about the Book of Spells, and Daron is surprised fans haven’t found it yet.

Daron says again she’s down to revisit the characters in the future, but not as a full time gig.

Daron would love to see another Funko Pop Set, featuring Princess Marco, Eclipsa, and Adult Marco, stating she has more ideas for that. But Daron has no control whatsoever over merchandising.

She’s had a few “offputting” situations with fans (but you know, rwinger24 still hasn’t been banished from the community, for whatever reason). And when she posts about her daily life, stop complaining that she’s not posting about the show.

Daron was friendless in high school, so she tested out her way out of it. “Highschool is bullshit”. Is not important for your future life.

Here’s some old information regarding the creator of SVTFOE. I’m glad she’s open to revisiting the show because there’s still a lot she needs to address to her fans.

The conspiracy theory that Mina killed Comet and Toffee was just blamed for it was truly too galaxy-brained to ever be canon.

As of the season finale we know that Mina canonically would not hesitate to kill a Mewman queen/princess if she gets too chummy with monsters (Eclipsa) or gets in her way of doing that (Star, Moon). How do you think she’d have reacted to Comet making genuine attempts to achieve peace with monsters? She’d absolutely be ready to kill her. What would happen if she did?

The MHC would freak the fuck out of course. How do they cover this up?? Conveniently, there’s a General in the Monster Army who’s unhappy with how the Monster King is handling the war and has gone rogue. He’s a Septarian too. Great they have a bad rep anyway, so let’s use him as a scapegoat!

But Mina would not be content with that, would she? A rogue general who explicitly went against what the monsters as a whole wanted. She can’t use that to convince Moon to go to war with all of monsterkind with the goal to wipe them out! So when interrogating the Monster King, what does she do? Try and get him, the representative for monsters as a whole, to admit the assassination happened on his orders. Because that might convince Moon.

It doesn’t work, of course, and Moon goes to settle things with Toffee personally. The daughter of the recently assassinated Queen rolls up in the enemy camp, she does not have her wand at hand to attack, nor does she have any guards to defend her. Yet when Toffee, who supposedly was so dead-set on ending the royal bloodline, walks up to her, he does not immidiately order his soldiers to attack her nor does he bring his weapon to stab her or sth.

No, instead, after greeting her, he asks “What do you want?” with this annoyed tone like she’s a door-to-door saleswoman interrupting him while he was watching his favourite tv show. Gee, I wonder why Toffee would not immidiately assume the daughter of the recently assassinated Queen is here to avenge the death of her mother! Almost like he didn’t think it involved him at all!

Also, can you imagine how absolutely dramatic the reveal would have been? Imagine Mina saying that she ‘has to kill Eclipsa just like she had to kill Comet back then’ IN FRONT OF MOON.

Now that, would have been a plot twist

The plot twist of plot twists.

Why do I feel that us Svtfoe fandom have better plot lines than the original writers? Like, why waste your last season in shipping material when there is SO MUCH TO EXPLORE ABOUT?

“What do you want?”

“I want you and your army to leave immediately or face the consequences.”

“Your mom couldn’t defeat us and neither can you.”

Guys. I’m just now realizing these sentences could easily be used in a different context. They could easily be used to say that Comet and her soldiers tried to fight them and failed, and it keeps the same meaning whether or not Comet died. No one in that whole scene explicitly speaks of Comet’s death at all (even Toffee calls Moon “princess” as if her mother is still alive, if only in a mocking manner).

Theory/story idea for how Toffee “killed” Comet…

Comet and Toffee were at a huge disagreement on how to change the fate of Mewni, just about to rip each others’ heads off. For guidance, Comet turns to dear grandma Celena, who tells their fortune. That fortune is this:

There are 4 Suites, each bearer being among the strongest Butterflys ever to live. The bearer of each cheek mark has control over a different aspect of magic: a Spade of Darkness, a Diamond of Light, a Clover of Entropy, and a Heart of Creation. In the very near future, 4 different people will near these cheek marks simultaneously, and each one will bring about great change in the fate of Mewni.

*However, only three of them will change the kingdom itself. One will not.

Glossaryck, Comet, Lekmet, and Toffee all make a four-way magical contract. They each bet on one cheek mark: whoever’s mark ends up being the one that fails will lose. Two main terms of the contract: the loser will give up their authority and leave Mewni forever, and all four vow never to speak of this bet to anyone until the events of the prophecy come to pass.

Toffee bets on the Spade of Darkness.

Glossaryck bets on the Heart of Creation.

Lekmet bets on the Clover of Entropy.

Comet bets on the Diamond of Light.

After all four have placed their bets, Celena reveals which mark fails to change the fate of kingdom: It is Moon, the bearer of the Diamond of Light. Comet has lost the bet, and must leave Mewni forever.

Wooooow

That’s very interesting. I haven’t seen these four together since Moringmark draw them playing poker in the “Soup Dimension”

Turns out that

there’s two winged ladies that

look a little more like moths

than they do like actual butterflies

Just a though

“We are also called upon by the moth spirit guide to pay attention to the symbolism in our dreams, interpreting the information and applying it our lives, specifically during dark and difficult times.”

The old “Mermaid Jackie” theory

I’m just gonna add something besides her all ocean style that not many people talked about before.

So, it’s confirmed in Star and Marco’s Guide to Mastering Every Dimension that the aqua streak Jackie has is natural.

And we know that streak wasn’t there when she was younger in “Freeze Day”.

That means Jackie would possibility grow more aqua streaks through time, or maybe even start to have some mermaid features, like a fish tail. (Poor girl if the time really came, she wouldn’t be able to skateboard anymore)

I highly believe that she was found as a baby by her earth parents near the pier and they adopted her. But she’s actually a half-mermaid and someone for some reasons sent her to earth.

What do you think, Mr Count Mildrew, who definitely looks nothing like Jackie at all?