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  • Writer's pictureSamantha Cross

Archives on TV: Star vs the Forces of Evil, "Total Eclipsa the Moon"

Updated: Aug 20, 2021

There's so much stuff here, it's impossible to find anything. Unless you know where to look. - Eclipsa

Quick Facts:

  • Season 3, Episode 15b

  • Original Airdate - March 3, 2018

  • Written & Storyboarded by - Dominic Bisignano, Kristen Gish, Jushtin Lee, Kenny Pittenger

  • Directed by - Dominic Bisignano & Aaron Hammersley


Plot: As Queen Moon (Grey Griffin) prepares for Eclipsa's (Esmé Bianco) trial, her sense of unease grows about her family's history. With the Butterfly family record book in tow, Moon visits Eclipsa and asks her to identify her daughter's portrait only to find that the woman pictured in the record book, Festivia, is a stranger to Eclipsa who claims her daughter's name was Meteora. To find out the truth, Moon and Eclipsa journey to the royal archives in the Bureaucracy of Magic.


Where is the Archive?: It doesn't take long for the episode to start moving towards the archive. Once Eclipsa is unable to identify her supposed daughter in the Butterfly family records, she's quick to suggest the archive is their best bet to figuring out the mystery. There's a brief interlude of the two getting to the archive, but the bulk of the episode, and the action, take place inside the automated wonder of the royal archive.





What Does it all Mean?: Queen Moon gives a fairly scathing summation of the royal archive as a place where they save lunch receipts and office supplies, but it's Eclipsa who's quick to tell her that they shouldn't judge a room by its supplies. Eclipsa understands that the archive holds the truth. Once they enter the archive, Moon is in awe of its contents, claiming she had no idea the facility even existed. Moon's preconceived idea of the archive turned her away from utilizing it as part of her investigation, thus maintaining the lie of the Butterfly family's history.





Upon finding Eclipsa's personal scroll among the vast collection of family histories, they see how far the lie has been carried out. Meteora's name has been ripped out of the scroll and Festivia's literally sewn into the narrative. The Butterfly family history is a major storyline of Star vs the Forces of Evil, but it's only after visiting the archive - and being bombarded with deadly quills from sentient recording devices - that the plot takes a much darker turn.

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