Ship War AU by MoringMark

Star vs. Fan Week, Day 2

What would happen if your future kids came back from the future to make sure your parents get together and preserve their existence? It sounds like a version of “Back to the Future” or other time travel stories, but this one has a twist. In this case, the kids are from two separate futures… and have two different moms. This scenario is precisely the dilemma that Marco Diaz faces in this next fan work, Ship War AU by MoringMark.

Ship War AU

Written by: MoringMark

Type of Fanwork: AU Comic/Shipping

Status: Uncertain/Incomplete

Synopsis:

The comic starts in the middle of Season Two episode “Bon Bon the Birthday Clown.” Only in Ship War AU, Marco and Jackie’s date gets interrupted by two unexpected visitors. One’s Elizabeth Butterfly, Star and Marco’s future daughter, and the other’s Jam Diaz, Jackie and Marco’s future son. Both came back in time with different motives, but they’re each determined to ensure their existences.

The rest of Season Two unfolds as Jam and Elizabeth try to blend in and make sure Marco ends up with their respective moms. Meanwhile, Marco’s just trying to keep his relationship with Jackie intact while dealing with the fact he has two teenage kids to handle, plus Star.

Review

I don’t know where the author, MoringMark, learned to draw, but man he’s good. Looking at Ship War AU, it almost perfectly captures the art style of the show, right down to the backgrounds. You can almost mistake it for the show itself, at times. The resemblance is more than just skin-deep though, as MoringMark nails the characters personalities, or even expands on them. Since the whole premise behind the fan comic’s a shipping war, it focuses less on the events of the show at first and more on the shipping. The events of season two eventually play a significant role, but that comes closer to the end.

In terms of the shipping dynamic, one thing the comic succeeds in doing while the show fails is demonstrating the effect that Star’s feelings for Marco have on Jackie. In the show, Jackie eventually broke up with Marco because she knew he liked Star but moved on. Here, though, we see how that could have affected Jackie in the show. We see her openly admit to feeling jealous of Star for her looks, personality, and popularity. Then just when she thinks she has Marco, his future daughter with Star shows up, and that jealousy gets a lot worse.

Speaking of the future children, it’s time for some character analysis regarding Elizabeth and Jam. This will get a little long since I want to cover both their backstories and personalities. I can’t help it.

Elizabeth Butterfly

This is Princess Elizabeth Butterfly, Star and Marco’s future daughter in Ship War AU. In her timeline, Star and Marco are happily married as the rulers of a futuristic Mewni. Glossaryck tasked her with traveling back to the events of the show to deal with a space-time anomaly, only to run into Jam, who has his own goals. Now she has to ensure her existence while keeping Star from figuring out her identity.

Appearance-wise, Elizabeth’s practically the spitting image of Star, inheriting her eyes, cheek marks, and physical appearance, while getting Marco’s hair color. As far as personality goes, Elizabeth takes mostly after her mother, albeit more subdued. She’s got a giant sweet tooth, capable of being as reckless as Star, and loves fighting bad guys and bullies. Fortunately, she got Star’s magic and wand and Marco’s skill in martial arts.

While her personality reminds a little too much of Star to call her wholly original, I like Elizabeth because she has some of the best aspects of Star and Marco. She can be snarky and sarcastic at times, but she’s every bit as selfless as her parents and quick to make friends. After some time passes, she even tries to reach out to Jam, despite their initial attempts to ensure their existence. Underneath her confident exterior, though, is someone whose worried that they won’t be able to live up to Star’s legacy. It’s learning how to stop comparing herself to her mom and the rest of the family that drives her character near the end of the series.

Jam Diaz

This is Jam Diaz, Marco and Jackie’s son from the future. His name comes from the acronym “Jackie And Marco.” Unlike Elizabeth’s happy childhood, though, Jam’s was hell on Earth. In his timeline, Star disappeared a few months after the events of Bon Bon the Birthday Clown, and then a phenomenon known as the “Stapocalpyse” saw Earth overrun by monsters. With both Jackie and Marco dead, Jam came back in time not to ensure his existence, but to stop the Stapocalpyse. Then he has to deal with Elizabeth.

Appearance-wise, he got Jackie’s eyes and the blue streak in the otherwise brown-hair he got from Marco. He also wears his late mother’s seashell necklace as a memento, and always carries a skateboard and helmet on him at all time. Ironically, his severe and stoic personality resembles the “bad boy” image that we saw Marco trying so hard to create before he met Star. Also ironically, his good looks and personality lead him to become as big a chick magnet as Marco was in the show: just look.

I like Jam because he reminds me of Future Trunks, and Future Trunks is my favorite character in DBZ. Both are time-traveling warriors trying to stop an apocalyptic future and are super awesome. Unlike Trunks, though, Jam’s slower to trust others since he’s been on his own since he was a kid. He also serves a good foil for Elizabeth. While Liz is more emotional, Jam’s stoic. More importantly, though, Jam’s goal is to stop the apocalypse that kills his parents; he’s okay with sacrificing his existence if necessary.

Original Content vs Canon

I’m still new to the whole fan works thing, so my opinion on what makes a good fan work is yet being formulated. One thing I do know that I like, though, is fan works that try to remain faithful to the source’s canon, but also tell their own story. It’s hard to explain. In the case of Ship War AU, we have a fan comic that, while telling a new story, more or less follows the plot of the show from Season Two onwards. Most of the significant events from the episodes still take place: some happen as they did in the show, and others end up having different outcomes entirely. It’s enough, though, to keep me interested in the end. Sadly, we may never know what happens, as the series was never finished.

Stuck in Hiatus

The comics end around the start of Season Three of the show, just as we get to the big fight against Toffee. Unfortunately, we never see what happens, as MoringMark seems to have moved on to other projects. It is a shame, because with SvTFOE over, I’d love to see how he’d end the comic. There’s always hope, though. In the meantime, Elizabeth and Jam have made appearances in other fanworks done by MoringMark and fans of the show, so they’ll be around.

Conclusion

If you’re one of those people who’s into Star vs. for the shipping, then this should be right up your alley. If you’re not into the shipping, then this story will at least entertain you. It captures the essence of the show in a very reliable manner, both stylistically and in terms of tone and characters. We may never know how it ends, but that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying Ship War AU. Full disclosure, this won’t be the last time we see MoringMark or his work this week. What can I say? He’s just good. You should go check out his Tumblr page, right now. Click the link here

Here’s a hint about tomorrow’s fan work choice: it involves another fan-made child character.

Click here to see my review of yesterday’s fan work, Starfall