About
Tomco is the romantic (and sometimes bromantic) pairing between Marco Diaz and Tom Lucitor. The ship is fairly large and could be considered the third or fourth biggest in the fandom, behind Starco, Jarco, and StarTom. This ship shares moments of Bromance.
History
Tom’s first full appearance in “Blood Moon Ball” not only raised interest in the character himself, but also ships involving him. The biggest one out of them being between Tom and Marco. Despite the quick reception and surge of popularity of the ship after the episode, Tom and Marco interacted initially very little, and on bad terms. Their first interaction had Marco slicing off his hand, believing him to be a monster. After a brief handshake, Tom refocuses his attention on Star. Marco spends the rest of the episode attempting to stop Star from going to the Ball, saying that he doesn’t trust Tom. In the climax of the episode, after Marco and Star dance under the Blood Moon, Tom loses control of his anger, attempting to attack Marco before being frozen by Star. Star changes his anger free sticker to Zero.
Tom returns Marco home, and apologizes to Star in "Mr Candle Cares".
Tom wouldn’t appear again until the next season in “Mr. Candle Cares”, where he once again attempts to get back together with Star, by means of Mr. Candle. Marco figures out his plot before this can happen, and lies to Mr. Candle about being “smooch buddies” with Star in order to bring out Tom. Enraged by hearing this, Tom captures Marco and interrogates him, causing Marco to confess that he was lying in order to bring him out. Still angry, and not wanting Marco to go back to Star with the information that Tom tried to trick her once again, he challenges Marco to a contest, where if Tom wins Marco will be killed, but if Marco wins Tom must take him home and tell Star the truth. They decide on table tennis. While facing off, they bond over their admiration of Star. Despite Marco being unable to get in a single win, Tom continues the game for several rounds, which could be seen as Tom simply enjoying spending time with him. While Tom wins highhandedly, Marco convinces him that killing him won’t change the fact that he can’t force Star to like him, which Tom concedes to. Tom takes him back home and admits the truth to Star, even side glancing over to Marco before he does it for some reassurance, and although she is a bit upset Star does forgive him. After his departure, Star asks Marco whether he still acts “Dark and Broody”, to which Marco confirms, but adds that he “isn’t that bad”, which opened up potential for these two to officially be friends in the future.
On October 3rd, "Friendenemies" aired, Tom's last huge episode in season 2. Marco, devastated that he is unable to see a movie marathon of his favorite dead martial artist, Mackie Hand (A clear play on Jackie Chan), agrees to hang out with Tom when he tells him he has two tickets to the show. Marco is skeptical at first, but after a push from Star he and Tom spend the episode in Tom's carriage. Tom's carriage turns out to be bigger on the inside and he welcomes Marco in, however Marco is very suspicious on why Tom would want to hang out with him. Marco starts to ask him questions on Mackie Hand to confirm his liking of the fucc martial artist and Tom tells him his favorite movie. Marco apologizes for not believing him, which leads to Tom revealing he's very used to people judging him and is friendless because of this. Then two drivers honk at Tom's carriage and make fun of him, leading to Marco putting an arm around Tom and using his wits to get the drivers arrested. Tom is pleased by this and Marco reveals he likes a boyband called "Love Sentence", the first time Marco has ever mentioned liking it on the show. Marco feels embarrassed about it at first, only to find out Tom ALSO likes Love Sentence, and has a shrine dedicated to it. The two have a montage of them bonding and having fun with the band playing in the background, the song "Awesome Feeling" describes them perfectly. But then Marco wants to head out to the marathon, as it was getting very late, only to be stopped by Tom. Tom ends up getting angry, and it turns out he was being monitored by Brian (Who was in a tiger suit) the entire time. The entire event was actually an test by Brian for Tom to pass his anger management class, and Tom invited Marco because he is supposedly, "The person Tom hates the most". When Marco finds this out, he yells at Tom and exits the carriage, heartbroken. Tom chases after him however, realizing how much he messed up, telling him he wasn't lying about Love Sentence. Marco isn't having it, so he continues to leave until Tom starts to sing. This prompts the first duet in the show, this duet is done to "Too Little Too Late", which returns in "Just Friends". Tom uses it to apologize, but Marco still doesn't fully forgive him. Tom then uses his magic to summon Mackie Hand from the dead, using up all of his energy, he appears to be speaking in a demon tongue, but in other languages it has been translated to :
"I here now muster
the dark forces of the flames
that burn like the heat (or passion) of my heart "
Tom and Marco smile gently at each other after Tom used a seemingly exhausting amount of power to resurrect Mackie Hand from the dead
Marco thanks Tom, and they share a genuine smile at each other, and despite everything still attempt to go and see the marathon with their undead martial artist companion. Tom destroyed the tickets in his rage, so they aren't allowed in. But Mackie Hand starts to attack the security team there and Tom and Marco watch them fight. They eat cereal and share "I Still Don't like You" 's to each other, but as they are smiling as they say this, they clearly were not malicious.
Tom and Marco speak again in "Naysaya", as Tom put a demon curse on Marco to keep him from asking out Star. It is revealed here that Tom and Marco hang out often and regularly, and it disproved some fans who believed the "I still don't like you" 's in "Friendenemies", were genuine.
Tom and Marco discuss Oskar's "bromance" usage.
In the Star vs Book: "Star and Marco's Guide To Mastering Every Dimension ", Marco plays a game of Court, Marry, Or Make Disappear, and before they start he asks Star and Ponyhead to not give him Tom as an option to marry. This isn't due to him not liking Tom, but rather to him "Wanting to work on being friends first", as if he was actually being asked to marry Tom. In this same book, Tom interrupts an interview Marco has with Oskar, they start to bicker when Oskar calls them out for "Bromancing" and leaves. Tom and Marco then exchange an odd look at each other and deny that they were "Bromancing", and Tom then says a very interesting line, "Because if I was bromancing you, Marco.....if i was, you would know it". It's not said when either of these events takes place, but it seems to be after the events of "Friendenemies", and the book itself is confirmed as canon.
When Marco arrives back in Mewni in "Lint Catcher", Tom shows up from Star's bathroom, singing the Burrito song. Marco seems very confused by his presence at first, but then he and Tom greet each other excitably before Marco gets tackled by the guards.
In "Stump Day", Tom arrives to Star's party, and when Marco gets frustrated that Star doesn't want a party, he gets upset with Tom for not going through the effort to plan a party for Star while he did. They fight, but when the stump attacks, Tom and Marco hold hands and forgive each other in order to stop the stump.
In the season 3 finale “Divide” & “Conquer” we are shown multiple other interactions between the characters. Tom makes his first appearance in the finale when he shows up late to when Marco’s team “Marcnificent-7” is figuring out a strategy to defeat Meteora when he shows up just on time to tell Talon Raventalon to “listen to their commander”. Unlike when Ponyhead showed up late (where she is greeted by an annoyed Marco) Marco appears chipper and happy to see the demon. Later Tom confronts Marco and tells him that he felt bad for treating Marco poorly in the past (Naysaya, Blood Moon Ball, the Mackie Hand tickets and the ping pong game) and then proceeds to confess that he actually genuinely thinks Marco is a great guy and gives him encouragement by saying, “Whatever happens today, we’ll make it through.” Marco then drapes his hand over Tom's shoulder and thanks him, saying that he’s happy Tom's there.
When the ‘Marcnificents-7’ plan fails, and Marco and Tom are the only ones left; Marco tells Tom to go find and warn Star while he stays behind to buy them some time by fighting Meteora alone. This upsets Tom who is quick to tell Marco he’s not leaving him and tells Marco that he is his best
friend. Marco looks guilty before telling Tom about the kiss he shared with Star in the episode “Booth buddies” and tells Tom that it means he doesn’t owe Marco anything.
Marco gives himself up to Meteora and only a moment before he’s about to get his spirit sucked out of him Tom appears in front of him, covering Marco from Meteora and protecting him. After Tom getting multiple spirits sucked out of him Marco escaped from Meteoras grasp and proceeds to kick her in the face, freeing himself and Tom. He just has enough time to tell Tom to run before Meteora steals his spirit. For the rest of the episode, Tom carries Marco around with him and tries to protect Star and Marco by taking them to the Underworld.
At the end of the episode Marco, with the rest of the people of Mewni, gets his spirit back and is embraced by Star and Tom.
In "Lake House Fever", Tom nonchalantly brings up the idea of him kissing Marco in response to Star kissing Marco and not telling him. This could be interpreted as him having thought of kissing Marco in the past.
In "Curse of the Blood Moon", when Star, Marco, Janna, and Tom are all falling in the elevator, Tom and Marco are shown hugging each other in fear. This becomes even more significant given that Marco was right next to Star before the elevator fell, meaning that Marco could've very well easily hugged Star instead of Tom, but hugged Tom instead of Marco.
In "A Boy and His DC-700XE", there's a ton of Tomco moments here.
- This episode is just generally tomco-centric.
- Throughout the entire episode, Marco shows care for Tom, and always stops to makes sure that Tom's alright whenever he's losing control of his dragoncycle and, later on, when he was visibly afraid of doing the Annual Devil's Mark jump.
- When Tom and Marco come back from dragoncycle riding together, Talon Raventalon says "The lovebirds finally show up." and Kelly teasingly warns Tom that "Being breakup buddies isn't all it's cracked up to be."
- Near the end, Tom confesses that he wanted to get a dragoncycle because he thought that Marco having one was cool. Marco, in return, says that Tom's the cool one.
- Marco also offers to pick Tom up on the other side of the Annual Devil's Mark ramp.
In "Cornonation", Tom and Marco share a reprise duet of "Too Little Too Late" while holding hands and dancing.
Popularity in the Fandom
Tomco is a ship that, while not initially having a big amount of in-show substance, still maintains a very large fandom. Fans of the show took note of Tom's anger issues, and Marco's knowledge of psychology, and interpreted it as a sign Marco would benefit Tom and help him overcome his anger. The fans greatly enjoy the idea of these two becoming a ship and falling in love thanks to their growing bond and how they provide each other emotional support.
While this popularity has helped and sustain the ship greatly, it has also generated a fair amount of controversy with it. An amount of Starco fans have expressed their annoyance of the ship, and vice versa, an inevitable clash, as both are the most popular ships on the show and have a character in common (that being Marco Diaz). Despite the at times intense fighting between fans of both ships, it should be noted that the majority of shippers are completely fine with both existing, and at worst express apathy.
The episode "Friendenemies" has caused a good portion of the previously independent Starco fandom to actually ship Tomco as well, and some are open to Tom, Marco, and Star being a poly ship.
The Tomco fandom marks October 3rd (The day "Friendenemies" aired), as quite a bit of a holiday considering how important of an episode it was to the relationship between Tom and Marco on the show. They celebrated its one-year anniversary in 2017 with a week of Tomco art.
Canon Probability
Although Tom and Marco began their relationship harshly in “Blood Moon Ball”, it has since smoothed out in “Mr. Candle Cares”, though it was still unknown at the time whether they would become full-fledged friends. The episode, “Friendenemies”, was released on October 3rd (ironically enough National Boyfriends’ Day), in which Tom and Marco were center stage, and is set to be a huge deciding factor for the two’s relationship. Another weird coincidental fact that fans noticed is that when Tom enters the room he has ice cream with the pansexual flag colors, and the highlight on the red (like Marco's hoodie) portion of the ice cream looks vaguely like a heart.
It was also noted that during "Blood Moon Ball", when Tom went out to confront Marco for dancing with Star, he too stood under the light of the blood moon for several moments before it faded away, leading some to believe that he may have been bonded to Star and Marco as well, though the exact nature of the bond isn't known at this time.
Daron attended a Creativa Fest in Mexico in May to talk about the show and was asked whether Tom and Marco would have more moments in season three. Her response was quote, "Oh, ehm- I can say… probably yes? There will some more Tomco happenings. I am a fan of Tomco myself.",[1] making Tomco the first and only ship Daron is confirmed to ship and enjoy as Starco has always been considered neutral to her in previous interviews.
The Crew working on the show also seems to enjoy the relationship between Tom and Marco, as they do draw art of them often, and some are romantically implied.
Tomco becoming canon has never been denied by the crew when asked, and implications that happen between them are intentional and were worked hard to get.
There were gay kisses present in "Just Friends", and the characters Rhombulus and Lekmet were confirmed by the crew to be dating, which presents some hope that Tomco has much more potential in future seasons.
Both Songs in "Friendenemies" were written specifically for the episode, "Too Little Too Late" returned because it had emotional significance that fit in future episodes. "Awesome Feeling", was written to be based on Tom and Marco's relationship, and the lines consist of them always having fun together, taking down bullies, opening up to each other, and having great chemistry together, quote, " found out we have chemistry".
The "Friendenemies" Poster (see top of page), is in fact, the real poster for the episode. At the time, it was the most unique poster of the season since it was made by a different artist then the other posters, but that was before "Bon Bon The Birthday Clown". The Poster was made by Sabrina Cotugno, who is now a director working on season 4, she worked on this episode with some other tomco shipping crew members, the most obvious being @heymadeleine on Twitter; who teases and draws tomco art pretty often. Sabrina wanted it to look like a Romance Poster, so yes, this poster was intentionally romantic. Sabrina posted the poster on her official Tumblr as well, but her version has a caption, "It's never too little too late for love". It's suspected this is the original version and the caption was removed as to not spoil at the duet, but it's also possible the original was the blank version and Sabrina added the caption for the version on her blog because she enjoys the ship. Daron posted the poster on her Tumblr along with "Is Mystery"'s poster, as she always did for the next upcoming episodes, and hilariously put a winky face in the caption.
Daron has a fan art wall full of fan-made art that she enjoys and likes, she posted a picture of it, and there was quite noticeably romantic Tomco art on her wall, along with some other ships and characters.