#the owl house review

[ordinaryschmuck]

Why I Love The Owl House-Part Two: The Relationships

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Salutations, random people on the internet who are already skimming past this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

And welcome to part two as we discuss everything I love about The Owl House. Because a single review wasn't enough, and, boy-howdy, did I prove that with Part One. Like...Wow. That was a lot.

But where Part One discusses the lengthy list of great and sometimes bad characters, Part Two is all about relationships. Because on top of having a diverse cast of different races, genders, sexualities, ages, and even species, The Owl House also has a diverse set of relationships that can be familial, platonic, antagonistic, and, of course, romantic. Each one is adorable and entertaining in its own right, and we're going over the best of the best today.

Quick disclaimer, though, we're NOT going to discuss relationships that didn't get much attention or ones made more interesting in fanon. I would love to talk a lot about how Luz and Vee are like sisters, but they only interacted in one episode and there's not much to go off of with the small tidbits of photos we see in the finale. And I would adore talking about how Camila's the honorary mother of every child who had come into her house. However, aside from a handful of conversations, she never interacted with anybody outside of Luz. Which is a shame because I would LOVE to see how she would get along with her future daughter-in-law. With that said, I will discuss characters who interact a bunch but note the missed opportunities they represent. Do we have an understanding? Good.

(Also, this one is going to be 26 pages long...Still better than last time, right? Right...)

Now, for this one, we’re going through it by category. Starting with…

Families

The Owl House has a surprising amount of family drama in a variety of ways. Whether it’s between siblings or parents and their children, there are a lot of stories to be milked out of with these relationships. And to start things off, let’s talk about what’s probably the healthiest mother/daughter relationship in the show.

Camila and Luz: I talked a lot about this kinship the two had last time, primarily through how Camila feels about Luz. To keep things brief, Camila LOVES her daughter. The only ones who denied that are idiots who focused too much on the negatives. Despite some missteps, Camila is proud of everything that Luz is, and came to realize that she should NEVER have tried to change a thing.

But that’s everything on Camila’s side. On Luz’s side, the love is very much mutual. No matter what mistake Camila made, Luz NEVER resented her for it. Luz may have felt sad for going to summer camp or worried about keeping Camila’s promise, but there was never any anger. The closest we got was her absolute refusal to go to summer camp, but even that was followed up with Luz feeling a quick moment of guilt for having to lie to her mother. This is because Luz LOVES Camila and, above all else, wants to make her proud and happy. The problem is Luz doesn’t approach things the right way, accidentally causing Camila strife through causing trouble at school and choosing to lie for too long so Camila wouldn’t be worried about what’s happening with Luz’s current situation. And when coming back, Luz still apologizes for leaving AND for lying, knowing that her choices weren’t the best ones to make and she regrets making Camila’s life harder. Camila’s actions weren’t the best either, but Luz was never bothered by that. She loves her mom. When stuck in the Isles, all Luz could think about was returning to her, and that’s because Camila is the one thing that connects Luz to the Human Realm. She has no friends, significant others, or mentors that made life fun in the Human Realm. Camila’s all Luz has, and vice versa.

When Manny died, it left Camila and Luz with just each other for the longest time. Because of that, they’re trying their best for one another. Camila does all she can to be the mom Luz needs and Luz, in turn, attempts to be the daughter Camila deserves. Neither got it right, but that doesn’t change their love for each other. They’re both all they have, and it’s sweet to see a mother/daughter relationship where both ARE and AREN’T at fault for a lot of stuff but still hold a great amount of love and respect for one another. They’re probably the healthiest example of a mother and her child. Though, in fairness, that’s not a steep competition.

Odalia and Amity: Yup. Might as well rip this bandaid off as soon as possible.

I think the best way to start off with these two is to ask a question: Did Odalia love Amity? I know that’s a weird question to ask considering EVERYTHING Odalia did but it’s still worth bringing up. Because I think that the answer is YES…upon CONDITIONS. As long as Amity acted exactly as Odalia wanted and followed this “perfect plan” she laid out, then Amity has Odalia’s love. When Amity DOESN’T, Odalia’s “love” turns to anger, and that’s because Odalia doesn’t want a daughter. She wants a mini-version of HER. You can see it in Amity’s Season One design, where her dyed hair and how she wears it is meant to be a reflection of Odalia. It explains why Odalia puts so much pressure onto Amity, forcing her to succeed and gain the highest ranks of society. If Odalia couldn’t be the most influential and powerful witch in all the Isles, then surely her daughter, who looks and acts exactly like her, should. And yet, Odalia’s still surprised that Amity chooses to rebel and be her own person instead of a mini-Odalia.

Amity’s resentment towards her mother is easy to pick up and the same goes for her inaction. To many kids, there’s nothing scarier than a parent, especially one like Odalia who can be very violent when angered or scorned. Amity has often rebelled in LITTLE ways against her mother, but it isn’t until meeting Luz does Amity find a lot more to fight for. She wants to carve her own path and becomes less afraid to stand up against Odalia. Amity dyes her hair and calls out Odalia’s behavior because it’s worth it for the fight for individuality. But despite this rebellion, it’s interesting that Amity still makes one last attempt to reach out in “Clouds on the Horizon.” Because while Odalia isn’t a good mom, Amity has it in her head that, surely, Odalia isn’t evil. I think a lot of kids, even ones with truly awful parents, have that mindset. Because even if they’re bad at parenting, that doesn’t mean they would stoop so low when lives are at stake, right? Except, not only does Odalia completely dismiss all life that isn’t her own, but she is surprisingly okay with the complete genocide of her people. The woman IS evil. Amity didn’t want to believe it because…well, no child DOES. But it’s that last bit of confirmation that Amity needed to cut Odalia out of her life forever…I just wish that conclusion had more of a satisfying punch to it.

I know I said it last time, but it really does suck that after everything Odalia did to Amity, things end by Amity proclaiming that she’ll never talk to Odalia again and blatantly ignores her in the finale. The thing is, I can see that being satisfying in its own right, but with how much Odalia messed up Amity’s life, treating her as a tool instead of a daughter, you can’t blame a schmuck for wanting Amity to do more. Still, I can understand Amity’s desire not to even ACKNOWLEDGE Odalia and I can live with THAT being the conclusion to their relationship. It’s definitely a better pill to swallow than what happens between—

Amity and Alador: On paper, making Amity a Daddy’s Girl sounds sweet, as does making Alador a caring father to contrast Odalia being…Odalia. But in terms of execution, this is an idea that could have definitely utilized more time to be perfect.

Amity’s desire to seek Alador’s approval and be like him feels way too sudden as every instance Alador’s been on screen before “Reaching Out,” it shows him doing something Amity has to fight back on. Granted, he was likely doing it to keep Odalia from doing WORSE things to Amity, but the audience didn’t have the knowledge of HIS situation yet. So to us, it’s more of a bitter pill to swallow that Amity wants to be like him. It’s slightly easier to understand on a rewatch, but just barely. Then the writers try to sell that Amity has a ton of faith that Alador would be on her side when going against Odalia, and it's similar to Amity trying to convince herself that her mom isn’t evil. The only difference is that, this time, Amity’s right. Her father ISN’T evil and he actually cares about his kids, which is sweet but it’s still information given to us LATER than it should. The same goes for Amity’s love for her dad. Knowing that she had such an admiration for him is something best left revealed as soon as possible and is NOT as easy to reveal through a retcon. Previous episodes leads us to believe that Amity fears and hates BOTH her parents, so having it where she loves her dad leaves one to scratch their head in confusion. But that’s just on Amity’s side. For Alador’s, it…barely works still.

I mentioned it last time, but the retcon that Alador is a father who actually loves his children is an idea that works well enough, but could be better. As sweet as it is to give Amity ONE parent that cares, it still comes up way too late in the series. By the time “Reaching Out” premiered, The Owl House was almost over, leaving not enough time to prove how much Alador cares. There’s some cute moments like him telling Amity that she did a good job through just an ATTEMPT to escape a forcefield, accepting “Luz” as Amity’s girlfriend, appreciating Amity’s new hairstyle, and giving her those little mittens. The writers ARE trying to make this idea work, but it admittedly feels like it’s too little too late.

Amity and Alador’s relationship COULD have been something great. It just either needed to be presented earlier in the series or more time to develop properly. Unfortunately, neither of those options were provided, and what we got was something that was awkwardly done. It’s still nice to see Amity get along with a parent for once and the epilogue proves that Alador kept his promise to be a better father, what with how happy he is to see her after what looked like a long journey. It’s just that, despite these attempts at cute moments, the relationship could have been done better. Still, on the bright side, at least they got along better than either did with Odalia. And, at least with her siblings, Amity has SOME positive relationships with her family…eventually.

Amity, Emira, and Edric: At the start, Ed and Em seem like antagonists to Amity, wanting to make her life suffer. I remember seeing a few fanfics that treated Edric and Emira in such a way because…well, how could there not be? Their very first episode involved them wreaking havoc in Amity’s safe space and threatening to leak pages of her diary for everyone to see. While me and my sisters definitely had our problems, they NEVER acted that way to me. It’s why I’m glad that after realizing they took a prank too far–And accidentally creating a monster that nearly killed Amity–Ed and Em went from antagonists to supporting characters. Oh, they still messed with Amity for the shits and giggles, but now it’s more out of how LOVING older siblings screw around instead of how the two twits acted in “Lost in Language.” They tease, jab, and mess around in Amity’s personal space, but it’s definitely out of love instead of malice, creating a dynamic that’s a lot sweeter to see. They went from another hardship of Amity’s homelife to one of the only people in her corner. Though, in this case, it’s less of a feat caused by character development and more by the writers changing their mind on what to do with them. Thankfully, unlike Alador, they changed their mind soon enough where this little course correction for Edric and Emira is a lot more believable and MUCH easier to swallow. It also benefits Amity by giving her two people to rely on…Or, just one.

Yeah, Edric’s primarily the odd man out in this dynamic. Emira and Amity have this adorable sisterly relationship where Emira tells Amity what she needs to hear and provide advice. With Edric, both Emira and Amity treat him as the dumb one, either making sure he doesn’t hurt himself or reticule him for his stupidity. There is SOME adorableness, though. Like how Edric ran in a full body cast and went through physical pain just so he can hug Amity. That shows he cares IMMENSELY about her and doesn’t care what happens to him to prove it. And with Emira, there’s something fascinating about how Edric’s fear is being alone forever and Emira’s is being alone with HIM forever. It IS likely that she’s joking at Ed’s expense, but there might be some truth to it. They do a LOT as a pair. They dress the same, act the same, wear similar outfits, and even have similar names. Emira definitely cares about Edric, but she doesn’t want her whole life to be defined as being his twin. It’s part of why they both went off to do different things and have their own careers not defined by what the other does. It’s great showing that while these two are similar in a lot of ways, they’re still very much different. But, once again, this is an analysis based on what’s implied and not what the series shows. There’s not enough time to build off this idea, and it still leaves Edric out of having something meaningful like what Amity and Emira have. And even then, what Emira and Amity have is something based on a few short scenes of Emira being a GOOD older sister. Still, it’s sweet for what it is.

The Blight siblings don’t have a deep or compelling relationship, but they don’t need it. Edric and Emira fill a supporting role for a secondary main character, and for what they do, it’s great. Emira’s sweet, Edric provides comedy, and they both EVENTUALLY give Amity what she needed. Her mom never truly cared and her dad…could’ve been better, but at least Amity had two siblings who care about her to a great degree. They might drive her crazy, but that’s siblings for you. Plus, at least none of them cursed one or the other. I mean, could you IMAGINE? That’s be crazy…

…

…

Eda and Lilith: These two…are complicated. And I’m well aware of how much of an understatement that is, but it’s true. As kids, they were thick as thieves, with both of them willing to do so much for the other. Lilith would share a scraped knee with Eda and Eda…would be willing to sacrifice more. She would throw herself under the bus so Lilith wouldn’t get in trouble with their literal demon of a principal and would willingly give Lilith a position in the Emperor’s Coven. The show makes it clear that Eda cares a great deal for Lilith. All they really had was each other in school and Eda didn’t want to change that situation, already assuming, as a teen, they would spend the rest of their lives doing EVERYTHING together. It’s sweet…and it makes Lilith’s petty jealousy and cursing Eda feel so wrong.

Lilith ALSO loved her sister, but took Eda for granted. Lilith’s drive to be the best, earning a place in the most powerful coven on the Isles, led to her fighting to be better than Eda. This fight started a rift between them, even before the curse. After quizzing Eda, and showing that she knew more than Lilith, Lilith started studying HARDER, trying to prove that SHE can learn more. She couldn’t stand being second place to Eda, so it drove Lilith to try harder and to get desperate. By the time Lilith cursed Eda, that rift between them only got worse due to a mix of Lilith’s guilt and her position as a Covenhead. Once they were adults, Lilith is in a position where she HAS to hunt Eda down for the Emperor, but in a weird way, Lilith still puts Eda first. Despite Eda’s criminal antics, Lilith wants to give her sister a chance to join the coven on HER terms, only going overboard when feeling threatened by Belos. In moments like that, Lilith tells herself that it’s all for the greater good, that Belos can cure Eda and that she and Lilith can finally do EVERYTHING together, just like they wanted as kids. And Eda might want the same thing. She might resent Lilith for hunting Eda and Eda CONSTANTLY takes Lilith down a peg, but she still loves her. Just look at when Eda races Lilith for a flower and tries to remind her about how they used to do the same thing as kids running to their kitchen. Or the times Eda showed Lilith mercy, like saving her from that crab spider or giving Lilith Eda’s ring so she wouldn’t go back to Belos empty handed. Even during their first witches duel, Eda didn’t really go out of her way to hurt Lilith. She saw it more as a game, with a lot of Eda’s attacks being more to contain Lilith or aggravate her. It’s proof that her sisterly love didn’t entirely go away all those years later…Until Lilith went too far.

The second Lilith kidnapped Luz, Eda was already out for blood, being the most violent she’s ever been towards her sister. But when Lilith revealed that she cursed Eda, she  lost all sense of mercy and was willing to go for the throat. There was this brief moment of Eda BEGGING Lilith to keep Luz safe, likely reaching for SOME goodness she HAS to believe is in her sister. But that sentiment disappears quickly as Eda was willing to spend her last moments of life on trying to KILL the little traitor. Needless to say, Lilith did a lot of damage and it seemed like she had a lot of work to do…Only for things to go back to normal after one confession and another grand gesture. Sure, Lilith sharing a curse is a great start, but Eda treats it as if it’s enough with her acting like it never happened. She mentions the curse in a flippant manner, but that’s something that a person does YEARS after someone made up for betrayal, not a week. And Lilith doesn’t do much better. Despite her moments of wanting to be better, Lilith still acts like she has to be better than Eda while also behaving like she already believes she IS. Still, after all this time.

I think I like the potential Lilith and Eda’s relationship has more than what’s done with it. There’s some interesting stuff surrounding Eda’s desire to keep Lilith and Lilith wanting to make up for taking Eda for granted, but it’s NOT explored enough. They act about the same as they did in “Covention,” the episode that introduced this relationship in the first place, only now there’s a slightly less of a desire to strangle each other. Slightly. There’s some sweet moments, with Lilith comforting Eda about the stress of the Day of Unity and Eda reassuring Lilith that the curse isn’t so bad when she gets used to it, but those scenes don’t stop their dynamic being nothing no more than…acceptable. There’s a fun sibling rivalry between the two mixed in with some heart, making something entertaining to see. But when the show presents interesting ideas like Eda’s love and Lilith’s guilt, only to gloss over BOTH of them, it leaves me wanting a little bit more. I’ll take what I have, but you can’t leave a guy wanting.

But as unhealthy as things got between these two, at least they didn’t nearly cause the end of the world.

Nah, that’s the NEXT sibling relationship.

Caleb and Philip: It feels weird to talk about this one because we only know about one side of the relationship. And yet, it’s the catalyst for EVERYTHING revolving around Belos and his creation towards villainy.

In his own twisted way, Belos loved Caleb. He was all Belos had and Belos would go to great lengths to “save” his brother from damnation. I went over it last time, and I won’t repeat myself here, but while the show makes it clear that Belos’ twisted love for his brother is what drove him, we never really know how much Caleb cared for Philip. Through the memories in Belos’ mindscape, we can see that they cared much for each other as kids and Caleb was happy to see Philip again in the Boiling Isles. There’s some definite brotherly love there, but people keep circling back to how Caleb abandoned Philip. To me, with the information we have, it’s more like how Luz went to the Boiling Isles without telling Camila. There was never any malice behind the action. Some carelessness, perhaps, but neither Luz nor Caleb meant any harm to disappear into this new world and make life-changing relationships. They were both willing to come back to this person that means the world to them. Just look at Caleb’s smile upon seeing Philip again. You don’t smile like that when you resent someone or feel glad to have abandoned them. I’m sure there was love there, but again, we never get to see Caleb’s perspective of things aside from implications from Belos’ memories. For all we know, Caleb WAS a bastard bitch who hated his little brother. There’s never really an answer and I’m kind of glad there isn’t. Because Belos’ admiration for someone, even if he does or doesn’t deserve it, is still an engaging aspect for his motivation even if we don’t know the whole story.

Belos’ obsession towards his brother caused a monster to be born. He already hated witches, but losing what mattered most caused him to become genocidal. Again, I’ll skip past it because I went over it enough last time. But one thing I don’t think I can skip over is how Belos’ feelings towards his brother reflected over how he treated Hunter.

Belos and Hunter: Once again, I’ve talked a lot about their relationship last time, primarily how Hunter feared Belos. I don’t think Hunter was ever looking for love from his so-called uncle, likely because he didn’t understand the concept of love upon his creation. What Hunter looked more for was respect, to be seen as the perfect soldier that he thought Belos wanted. The problem is that Belos wanted more than a soldier and perhaps more than a tool. What Belos wanted was an outlet to project his issues toward Caleb onto.

Granted, Belos likely wasn’t aware what he was doing with Hunter, or ANY of the Golden Guards for that matter. He was creating tools for his own evil plans, but because Belos made these tools through the literal bones of his dead brother, it creates this sort of power dynamic that I think psychiatrists could make entire books about when trying to dissect it. Belos practically brought his brother back from the dead, but each time, he was always younger than Belos, reflecting the perfect brother he remembered. Only this time BELOS is the older one who knows better and gets to decide what they do and how they do it. Not only did he create a role reversal between him and Caleb, but he created a version of Caleb he hopes to have no free will. To Belos, he wanted his brother back, one that would never betray him again. Except that he did. They ALL did. Every single Golden Guard found free will and willingly went against Belos. This always leads to Belos killing these “failures,” these unusable copies of Caleb that fail to understand that Belos knows best. He refuses to accept that no version of Caleb will ever see Belos’ way, so he keeps trying to make one that does.

By the time Belos gets to Hunter, he does all he can to wipe away ANY sense of rebellion, even if he has to beat it out of him. Sorry if that statement was dark or triggering, but it reigns true for Hunter and Belos. Their relationship and everything Belos does to Hunter is a result of one man’s incapability to accept his brother’s choices and takes that as an excuse to hurt Hunter. It’s a painful reflection of real life abusive parental figures as a lot of them treat children as an object to take frustrations out on. It’s never healthy and no one should forgive an evil bastard like that no matter WHAT justification they have. All you can do is hope the child gets out of this situation and learn what real love is.

Thankfully, Hunter got that happy ending through Darius. And I WOULD go over that, but I think I said as much as I could about those two last time. The real meat of it is on Darius’ side of things as we never really got to see how Hunter felt about him aside from how the love was mutual. It’s sweet, despite not having much to talk about. As for Eda and Dell, I said about all I could last time and the same goes for Gwen. They’re characters defined by their relationships of their kids and I’d ONLY repeat myself here. But don’t fret, there’s still ONE OTHER good parent/child relationship we can talk about.

Willow and Gilbert and Harvey: No, not Gus and Perry. Due to how little of an impact Perry had in the series and how he and Gus barely interacted, we don’t get much of an idea about what their relationship is. We know they love each other, but there’s not much aside from that. With Willow and her fathers, we don’t get much with them either, but the crumbs we DO get offer some decent insight.

Willow LOVES her dads, that much is sure. Two of her biggest core memories involve her spending time with her papas, having fun and laughing with them. But more than that, Willow idolizes her dads. “Any Sport in a Storm” shows us pictures of her dads when they were younger AND that they were on the same flier derby team. It hints that Willow got her love for the game through them and wanted to become the best player she could be to honor them. It’s SORT OF stretching the facts because we don’t know for sure, but it’s still a sweet thought and how much Willow loves her dads as they love her.

Gilbert and Harvey were willing to quit their jobs just to homeschool Willow and give her the best possible education after she got expelled from Hexside. That is…an intense amount of dedication to caring for your daughter. Sure, the previous scene had them ground Willow for an insane amount of time, but that’s clearly a reaction that comes from being upset over your child being suspended. Odds are they were going to relax on that grounding with time. And even then, Gilbert was willing to let Willow sneak out and to pretend he didn’t see anything. There’s a definite love all three of them have for each other, and you have an easier understanding of why Willow misses her dads the most in the final season. With Gus, we don’t know enough to really GET how much he misses Perry, and we all know the complicated mess between Amity and Alador. It’s easier with Willow and HER dads because while we don’t have much, we have ENOUGH to get a better picture. Though I DO wish we had more time with them all together to make the relationship feel stronger, and to give more appreciation to gay parents. They keep showing up in media, especially animation, but rarely do they feel like actual characters with defining relationships with their children. While I appreciate what’s done between these three, I AM left demanding for a little bit more.

And with that, I’m finally done talking about families. But don’t worry, there’s TONS more to talk about with our next category.

Friends

There are a LOT of friends in this show, mainly because The Owl House is the kind of series that values the friendships one has with other individuals. Families are important, but the friends we make, the groups we create, can lead to more changes in our lives. They can sometimes bring out the best of us just as effectively as any family member, while also providing a great escape if our families become too much. Most of the friendships in the show are all about this, and we’re going to go through all the ones that are important.

Starting with what’s probably the most talked about friendship in the show…

Amity and Willow: The second that Willow revealed she used to be friends with Amity, the intrigue behind their dynamic SKYROCKETED. Because it would be one thing if Amity was simply a bully to Willow, but knowing that they were once close friends brings up a ton of questions. Why were they friends? Could they be friends AGAIN? Why did they STOP? Er, well, okay, that last one was answered pretty quickly by Willow in the same episode, but after “Lost in Language” hinted that Amity’s bullying is an act to not show weakness, it begs the question if there is more to it. And “Understanding Willow” proved that Amity WAS forced to end the friendship, meaning that every interaction she had with Willow since then was Amity pushing Willow further and further away to save her from a worse fate. It’s another interesting way to look at Amity’s bullying, because she DOES care about Willow. The problem is that, as Amity perfectly puts it, she wasn’t brave enough to be Willow’s friend, to fight for something she WANTED. Finally, thanks to a certain human, Amity started to gain that courage and apologize to Willow, promising to be better. Thankfully, Amity does, talking Boscha down for making fun of Willow and not even hesitating to step up and join Willow’s grudgby team when they need a third member. It’s a reflection of both Amity’s character growth AND her platonic love for Willow. She wanted to be friends again and, once gaining the courage, she set out to do just that…The problem is that Amity might have been TOO willing to be friends again.

My absolute favorite scene between these two comes in “Follies At The Coven Day parade.” Amity comes over to Willow’s after stressing over something going on with Luz and Willow, in turn, offers a healthy distraction to take Amity’s mind off her worries. At that moment, Amity says she’s glad to be friends again, but Willow’s response to that is fascinating. She doesn’t disagree, nor does she nod. Willow just…keeps quiet, frowns a bit, and lets Amity braid her hair, leaving Amity’s comment hanging with no real response aside from a light hum. While Amity’s more than happy to pick things up where they left off, this moment shows that Willow’s not exactly there yet. She’s not entirely AGAINST the idea, she would have been more vocal about her disapproval otherwise. But Willow’s not willing to COMMIT to their friendship again, feeling like there’s still more to do before getting to that point. And I love that the next episode that focuses on Amity and Willow’s relationship, “Labyrinth Runners,” expands on this idea. Amity is trying too hard to pick things back up where they left off, acting like Willow’s someone to be protected. The problem is Amity's thinking of the Willow of the past and not acknowledging the Willow of the present, who’s capable and willing to kick ass if necessary. Willow’s trying to take Amity’s attempts at support on the chin, but it doesn’t stop Willow from finally blowing up and telling Amity to back off. It wasn’t out of anger but frustration, as Willow gets Amity’s attempts to be better, but things won’t work unless Amity accepts that WILLOW changed too. It’s a great progression from how this relationship started and where it would inevitably go, and I’m glad that Willow presented boundaries that Amity needed to respect…I wish they stretched THAT aspect out a little bit more.

After “Labyrinth Runners” established that Amity needed to learn to see who Willow is NOW, the episode ends with her doing just that…and the rest of the series goes on thinking that’s enough. Yes, it’s a good start for Amity to see the error of her ways in the same episode Willow calls her out on, but then they go straight to fist bumps, counseling one another, and jumping with glee together with their arms intertwined. They’re right back to being the same friends they started as after one major hiccup. In fairness, there could have been MORE interactions offscreen where they worked through more stuff, but we never see that. All we have is what the series showed us, and it’s…fine. It’s FUNCTIONAL. But after an intriguing concept of two friends reconnecting after a BAD ending to their relationship, it could have had stronger pacing to make it feel more impactful. But despite how rough things got with Willow and Amity, at least Willow had TWO friends to count on.

Willow, Gus, and Luz: Gus and Luz were the exact friends that Willow needed after falling out with Amity. With Gus and Willow, they share a camaraderie through being near the bottom of the social ladder. Willow’s picked on for not being powerful enough with her magic and Gus was a kid whose naivety was taken advantage of by older kids who had no brains of their own. They didn’t have anyone else for friends in school, but they always had each other. That idea alone is sweet enough, but the things these two did for each other is even sweeter. Because all they had was one another, they protected one another in different ways. Willow was there to keep Gus emotionally stable, calming him down when he feels stressed or lifting his spirits when he’s down in the dumps. Gus, of course, repays that by supporting Willow’s interests, being protective when he’s suspicious of someone like Hunter, and hyping Willow up whenever possible. They both care IMMENSELY about each other, which makes sense when you become friends with someone you met at your lowest moment. But as great as Gus is for Willow, he was never really there to help her grow. Oh, don’t get me wrong, he was always a shoulder to cry on and all, but both were content to be at the bottom at the bottom. It’s until a certain someone ELSE came along did Willow realize she deserved more.

Here’s where Luz comes in, as a friend Willow needs to push her FORWARD. Luz would support Willow no matter what, but in almost every instance of character growth Willow went through, Luz was almost always responsible for it. Helping Willow cheat at Abominations class led to her proving her great strengths as a plant witch and allowing shenanigans to happen ended up jumpstarting Amity and Willow reconnecting. Of course, Luz could be TOO pushy, like training Gus and Willow too hard for a game she didn’t want to compete in, but there’s a reason for that: Willow’s the first and only friend Luz has ever had, so she goes above and beyond to make Willow’s life better. Even if Luz can sometimes go overboard, it all works out in the end, with Willow appreciating all the ways Luz helped her blossom (Haha). And in turn, Willow was there for Luz in a lot of ways, either by being her magical muscle in a dangerous situation, supporting some crazy scheme Luz comes up with, or being the voice of reason when one crazy scheme goes too far. Luz went out of her way to help Willow, so Willow returns the favor by protecting Luz to the best of her ability. It’s a perfect give and take relationship where both get something out of it. However, there’s something to be said about how Luz and Gus are the best friends Willow could ask for, they don’t really act like they’re best friends with each other.

Don’t misconstrue my words, Luz and Gus DO care about each other. Gus hypes up Luz as much as he does Willow and Luz is as supportive and counseling towards Gus as she is towards everyone she cares about. The problem is that you don’t FEEL that friendship. You get it, but you don’t FEEL it as effectively as you do with Gus and Willow or Willow and Luz. And that’s because there’s not many interactions between Gus and Luz. Throughout the course of the entire series, there has only been TWO episodes that focused on Luz and Gus’ relationship, and Gus was using Luz for selfish reasons in one and they both ditched the other to hang out with crushes in another. There’s not many positive moments between these two, which wouldn’t be TOO bad if the show didn’t paint Luz, Gus, and Willow as a TRIO. They’re ALL supposed to have this big connection together, and there’s a piece of the puzzle that’s missing. Willow and Gus are often paired together as they’re often shoved to the side, and Willow’s often treated as Luz’s first true friend, but there’s hardly anything with Luz and Gus. It doesn’t help matters that Luz barely interacts with EITHER of her best friends in Season Two onward, which is especially weird given how much importance Season One gave their friendship. Still, at least we got a lot of cute moments and two great dynamics that warms the heart, even if it wasn’t as effective as it could have been as a trio. Which gets odder when you remember that Luz and Gus have a common friendship with someone ELSE, and still not with each other. Still, to be fair, Luz barely has a strong connection with this other person too.

Luz and Hunter: Luz’s friendship with Hunter is interesting but underdeveloped. They start off strong with this dynamic that has big brother/little sister energy with the two of them annoying each other easily, more so with Luz annoying Hunter than the other way around. But despite their annoyance with each other, there’s this connection through a shared interest of wild magic…only for the show to drop that idea. Yeah, there was something there about Hunter being fascinated and even excited about wild magic, but hides it due to fearing what Belos might do to Hunter if he gets too curious. It could have been a great way to establish a connection between him and Luz, but that idea’s forgotten as quickly as it’s brought up. I’m not entirely complaining as the sibling-like bickering was fun enough as is and there was even a BETTER connection formed between them: Shared guilt.

“Hollow Mind” is an episode that chewed Luz and Hunter up and spit them out with a TON of issues. It was an unintentional mission for Luz to show Hunter how evil Belos really is, with Hunter being in denial throughout most of it while Luz becomes more and more frustrated with him. But despite that frustration, she’s still willing to help Hunter leave Belos and be there for him when confronting how disposable Hunter is in Belos’ eyes. It tells us that Luz cares about Hunter and wants him to be safe, which is a given with Luz. She’s a caring person in general to people who have a good heart shielded by a rough exterior, and that’s no different from Hunter. There were brief moments of warmth between him and her in “Hunting Palisman” and I’m sure Willow talked up the good parts of Hunter after “Any Sport in a Storm.” Luz knows there’s something worth protecting, likely why she’s working so hard to convince Hunter Belos is evil and have him be on HER side so she can help and protect him. She just didn’t expect things to be more messed up, making Hunter realize how severely screwed he is and the type of monster he helped. Things didn’t get any better when Luz realized that Belos was actually Philip and that she accidentally helped this demon of a man. So after BARELY escaping death, Luz and Hunter were left with the knowledge that they helped the most evil person alive and indirectly caused so much pain to others, including people they deeply cared about. Needless to say, it left Luz and Hunter severely messed up. And when Belos almost won and a NEW threat came to be, Luz and Hunter would feel WORSE about the pain they had a SLIGHT part in causing. They didn’t have anyone else to talk to about it due to fear of rejection and isolation from the ones they care about, but Luz and Hunter still had each other to confide in with their issues. It’s why Hunter goes to Luz about his fears that Belos is back. Neither wants the others to worry and both know that Belos is likely to spill the beans just to mess with heads. These fears give Luz and Hunter something great to bond over…And it STILL feels like their relationship is underdeveloped. Despite this big thing that brings them together, there’s hardly any attention on it as it's only focused during ONE episode. Now, don’t get me wrong, they feel SOMETHING for each other. Hunter broke down in tears when Luz said he’s worth being protected too since he’s part of the family. He HAS to care about Luz’s feelings for him if that was the case. And in “Watching and Dreaming,” Luz’s nightmare revealed that she feels a little guilty for getting a palisman in less than twenty four hours after Hunter lost Flapjack. Hunter doesn’t even blame her for that one, but it proves how Luz cares about him like she would for any other friend. But that’s the thing: Out of everyone in the friend group, Luz probably has the most one-on-one time with Hunter, yet he’s still just one of her friends. There could have been a stronger connection, and it’s not there. What they DO have is fine, it works, but when Luz has a personal bond with most of the Hexsquad and barely has anything with Hunter, it feels a little off. And it gets even weirder when Hunter accidentally steals Luz’s best friends out from under her.

Gus and Hunter: Oh, don’t worry, we’ll get to Hunter and Willow’s relationship later. For now, I want to talk about how CRAZY it is that Gus and Hunter have this brotherly dynamic. I mean, it was inevitable that Gus and Hunter would go on an adventure together. Hunter shared the spotlight with the others in previous episodes, so Gus was due a turn by the time we got to “Labyrinth Runners.” And at that point, most of Hunter’s walls were cracked and crumbling, with him trying and failing to build them back up. By the time Gus found Hunter, the poor boy was emotionally vulnerable and capable of breaking down at any moment. When he finally DOES, Gus was there to pick up the pieces and help Hunter through his panic attacks and offer advice about what could help Hunter in the future. Hunter, in turn, tried to save Gus from danger and provide some comfort too, even if Hunter is a little awkward at it. This dynamic ends up being what these two share through the rest of the series. When Gus figured that Hunter was hurting about being a grimwalker, Gus offered him a book series that gave Hunter the exact thing he didn’t know he needed with a story that had a character Hunter could relate to. This helped him a lot, and it’s an obvious attempt from Gus to get Hunter to slowly work through what ails him, and I’m certain that Hunter appreciates all of it. The same goes with the way Gus might appreciate Hunter protecting him. It was Hunter who had a protective arm around Gus after “King’s Tide” and he saved Gus’ palisman, not wanting his little buddy to go through the same pain he did. There’s an equal amount of care and comfort with these two, added with secret handshakes and the two wrestling with each other in one after-credits image. It really does feel like they’re brothers to each other, and it’s crazy to me that despite having comparatively less interactions together, Gus has a closer bond with Hunter than he does with Luz. Or, I should say, a more well-defined bond that’s easier to understand and describe. Luz and Gus are close, but you FEEL how close Gus and Hunter are. And that’s great, every guy needs a bro, but how does this happen? How does a central character done dirty by lack of screentime ends up being more of a best friend to a reformed baddie than his best friend who’s the main character? It feels crazy, and the only way it could be crazier if it was a comic relief character who became besties a reformed—

Lilith and Hooty: How?! No, seriously, on paper, this sounds LUDICROUS! Yet it WORKS!

By Season Two, Lilith is at the lowest point of her life. She lost her magic, career, and the respect of hundreds of witches. So when Lilith is stuck with Hooty, a bird tube so desperate for friendship that he’ll take it from ANYBODY, including trash like Lilith, she takes it. At first, like any reasonable person, Lilith REFUSED Hooty’s attempts at friendship, feeling like she was better than him. But when it finally occurred to Lilith how much she NEEDED Hooty, she gave in and became his first REAL friend. The best part is that she didn’t fake it. Lilith was kind to Hooty, laughed at his jokes, and gave him caring words of advice when he started doubting his place in “Knock, Knock, Knockin’ On Hooty’s Door.” Lilith DID treat Hooty as a friend because he was the only one who gave her respect in a time when she didn’t get any from anyone else. This leads to Hooty treating Lilith as his favorite person…maybe a LITTLE obsessed at times, asking for hair and beating up anyone who he thinks might steal Lilith away (Poor Steve). But Hooty being so…let’s say, ENTHUSIASTIC about Lilith is because she’s the first ever person to treat Hooty right. Everyone else either verbally berated or physically assaulted Hooty due to disgust, annoyance, fear, or all of the above. Sure, Lilith acted the same way at first, but after giving in, she became friendlier and Hooty decided he would do ANYTHING for her because of it. Whether it's to face enemies for Lilith or even step in the line of fire for her, Hooty’s willing to go above and beyond for his Lulu. Heck, it was HER voice that somewhat broke whatever spell The Collector had on him. And Lilith, in turn, was so happy to see his face again while trying to bring him back. And it’s…adorable! I can’t believe that’s the word I’m using to describe Lilith and Hooty’s friendship, but it fits! Despite how ludicrous it sounds to give Lilith and Hooty one of the most wholesome friendships in the series, the writers ran with that idea and made something that worked when it had no right to. What’s next? Making one of the main characters befriend someone that  fans expected to be a new main antagonist?

King and The Collector: WHAT THE F**K?!

But jokes aside, things between The Collector and King are more or less one-sided, and I’m willing to bet that was intentional. King treated The Collector as something to be controlled, to be reigned in so he wouldn’t cause too much damage. Meanwhile, The Collector treated King as a true best friend, someone to play with and have adventures together. They never clued in how King was never really ALL IN with the friendship. He acted nice with The Collector, but the line is somewhat blurred with whether or not it’s genuine or King trying to prevent a cosmic sized meltdown. But The Collector appreciated it all the same, having a similar reaction to Hooty in which he was all alone for so long that someone genuinely being NICE to The Collector caused them to treat King better than he would with anyone else. When asking to have Francois sleep with them, The Collector was fine with the boundaries King set and respected them instead of getting angry. Sure, The Collector pushed to have King leave Francois on the nightstand, but he still kept their promise to leave Francois alone like a good little godling. And, heck, when assuming King was considering a FINAL solution for The Collector, he looked about ready to cry. The kid was angry, throwing a temper tantrum with Belos the second he dropped The Collector down a cliff. It only hurt more with King because, despite having different intentions with The Collector, he WAS genuinely nice. There may have been some annoyance about being The Collector’s playmate and the OCCASIONAL raised voice, but for the most part, King treated The Collector with kindness and patience. He knew that The Collector was just a kid who needed to mature a little and learn how to treat others properly. King acted as both a voice of reason AND a conscience, acting as The Collector’s friend to keep him happy AND maybe because he learned from Luz that it’s better to befriend your enemies. It explains why he was so patient and even believing that The Collector can be reasoned with. He knows that they’re POWERS are dangerous, but The Collector is still a lonely kid who just doesn’t know better. It’s why despite all the missteps, King wasn’t willing to give up on The Collector, hoping for the best with acting as his friend and maybe being genuine near the end there. I believe King when he says he hopes that The Collector comes back soon, because there couldn’t have ALWAYS been bad times during their months together. And now that The Collector proved that they DO know better, it could mean a better friendship for him and King. Things were definitely rocky for them both at first, but the finale left them off on what could be a good start, even if what we see will be all we’ll get. As for what we DO get, it’s a complicated relationship that I say works well enough leaving it up to interpretation to how close King and The Collector are.

But seriously, how many characters end up befriending characters we thought we would hate?

Gus and Matt: Gus befriended ANOTHER baddie?!

Okay, but seriously? I wasn’t sure where to put these two. Gus and Matt were definite rivals only to become FRIENDLY with each other near the end of “Through the Looking Glass Ruins.” Still, even then, Matt admitted that he wasn’t sure if he and Gus were friends. It felt IMPLIED, but future episodes didn’t really prove that they were friends now. At least, it doesn’t prove it on Gus’ end. He still acts annoyed with Matt while Matt seems more…indifferent? He doesn’t clap back, but he doesn’t really react at all. I guess that’s not a bad thing, but it doesn’t give a definitive answer to whether or not these two are friends, and I’m willing to blame the fact that Gus got screwed over as a character with little to no solo episodes to develop him and his relationships. Gus is friends with characters who are important in the plot or are within the main cast so that he has more of a chance to develop bonds because the story moves WITH them all. Matt is a very minor character so there’s less of a need to develop a friendship between him and Gus. This results in a weak connection between them, making it feel like they would have been better off as rivals than friends. Which is a shame because I do like the idea of Gus making peace with a bully instead of continuing a never ending cycle of them constantly trying to one up each other. Now, that’s not ALWAYS the case in life, but it’s not a horrible thing to teach kids. Especially when the show proves that there are bullies best NOT to be friends with.

Amity and Boscha: Hey, not every friendship has to be good.

There’s not many interactions between Amity and Boscha, but despite that, so much of their relationship is easy to understand and dissect. From the first time we see them together, it’s clear that their friendship is as real as Amity’s hair color. Boscha seemed to believe that she and Amity were friends, but it’s pretty telling that in the end of “Hooty’s Moving Hassle” that Amity chose to sit AWAY from everyone during the Moonlight Conjuring. Amity doesn’t see the other girls, especially Boscha, as real friends. “Understanding Willow” confirms this as it’s revealed that the only real reason why Amity’s friends with Boscha is because her parents approved it. So, believing that she had no better options, Amity kept the charade going to keep her parents happy and Amity safe. But when Amity finally found someone worth fighting for, and the bravery to match, she dumped Boscha for REAL friends. It was freeing for Amity to be rid of something, only for the writers to later decide that it wasn’t fake for Boscha.

I know that I said last time that the reveal that Boscha had a form of obsession with Amity felt rushed and forced, but that doesn’t stop it from being an interesting idea. Despite the friendship being forced upon them, Boscha DID consider Amity a real friend to do everything together. What she didn’t know was that those feelings were very much one-sided because…A. Amity didn’t appreciate having a friend forced upon her after losing another. And B. Boscha wasn’t a good friend. Not just with Amity either, as Boscha had this bossy, controlling attitude with ALL her “friends.” Now, we never saw Boscha act this way towards Amity, but there’s not really any evidence that proves she wouldn’t, either. And given how Boscha inevitably became the most controlling president of the entire school during the apocalypse, I wouldn’t put it behind her. Despite that, though, Boscha never saw herself as a bad friend and initially believed Amity’s making a mistake by aligning with “losers.” Amity never cared, and that just made Boscha frustrated, even jealous when Luz and Amity became close. Those feelings were easy for the audience to pick up, only for “For the Future” to further confirm them and put Boscha’s reactions in a new light. We now understand more about how torn up Boscha was in previous episodes and that’s why I don’t hate this last minute idea that the writers threw in. It’s still rushed and forced, but the potential it COULD have had makes it interesting. If there were more episodes to develop this idea, then it could have been a better relationship to dissect. As is, things are still fine, but weakened by doing too much too late.

But that’s enough about friends. Now that we started something negative, it’s time to lean into it by going over some enemies.

Rivalries/Enemies

The Owl House may be a show about friendship, family, and being kind to those you didn’t expect to deserve it, but there are still some characters who hate each other. These are more than negative, toxic relationships. These are pairings between characters who mutually hate each other, even if one side strongly dislikes the other more. And we’re going through a lot of hate, so let’s start with something light.

Willow vs. Boscha: It’s a classic dynamic: A bully and her nerd. That’s how it’s treated, that’s how it’s mostly seen, but I understand it as something more. I said so last time that Boscha is the perfect rival to Willow. There’s similarities in how they’re physically driven girls who need to affirm that they’re capable of being strong. The difference is their attitudes, as Willow goes out to prove that she’s as good as ANY witch and Boscha insists that she’s better than EVERY witch. Boscha believes that she has nothing to prove because she’s already perfect. So it makes sense that she feels threatened when Willow gets more attention. Boscha thinks that Willow is at the very bottom of the social ladder due to her lack of magical talent and made fun of her for years because of it. So when Willow gets a confidence boost and people notice her more as a result, it infuriates Boscha down to her core. So it’s no big surprise that Boscha doubles down on her bullying to make Willow’s life worse…For one episode.

Yeah, you would think Boscha’s worsened bullying would be continuous, but instead she lets up after the end of “Wing It Like Witches.” To be fair, it makes sense NARRATIVELY that Boscha would stop as the episode presents this idea that no matter how superior she ACTS, people will still praise how cool Willow is. That look of fear on Boscha’s face when her friends swarm Willow and ask her to join the team is a sweeter victory for Willow than beating Boscha at grudgby. And it SHOULD work…but it’d be better if Boscha was just a one-off bully. Except that she’s not. She’s WILLOW’S bully who spent so much time making Willow’s life miserable. So while it makes narrative sense for Boscha to back off, it doesn’t make sense for her CHARACTER and her place in Willow’s life. Plus, “Wing It Like Witches” isn’t exactly a satisfying end to their rivalry. It becomes more noticeable as an issue in “For the Future” when Willow finally stands up to Boscha without anyone else doing it for her. That’s a great start but then Boscha gets a forced redemption and Willow goes “This isn’t over” in a more playful tone instead of a spiteful one. And…that’s the end of that. Willow doesn’t have any final fight to shut Boscha up for good or even say, “Stay away now and forever.” They just end things on friendly terms and that doesn’t seem right? I mean, it fits with this whole “Make friends, not enemies” idea that The Owl House loves to use, but not only does this seem like a case where it would have been fine NOT to use it, it also feels a little cheap. Like, that’s how the rivalry ends? They hardly interacted in the very last episode that they’re together in, and all they did to each other comes to a close with one-sided playful banter? It definitely could use more punch to it, preferably one from Willow. And sure, you could argue that they weren’t meant to be rivals in the first place, but even if that’s true, which I honestly believe it isn’t, it would be a missed opportunity to take, which it honestly kind of is anyway. I like MOST of what we got with these two, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want more.

But, hey, at least SOME rivalries lived up to their potential.

Kikimora vs. Hunter: Okay, this one’s definitely more or less one-sided, but it’s everything it needed to be.

Kikimora had an INTENSE jealousy towards Hunter, and that’s putting it VERY lightly. She tried to kill him three times, with her not knowing it was him the second time, and Kikimora decided her new life purpose was to prove that she was better than Hunter. And Hunter…couldn’t care less. It’s actually kind of funny how much he considers Kikimora as a non-threat. If anything, he’s threatened by what Kikimora USES, whether it’s a dragon, a mech, or a small battalion of grunts. As for Kikimora herself, Hunter reacts to her surprising the others in “For the Future” the same way a person would if they forgot to buy milk. She’s a minor inconvenience to him at best, and Hunter has no fear dealing with her. Meanwhile, Kikimora continues to plan his death as if their rivalry was on equal terms, even though it very much is NOT. And while the conclusion to this one isn’t strong either, it doesn’t really need to be. It’s a rivalry used for entertainment value and to further emphasize how detached from reality Kikimora is to believe that the Emperor’s right hand considers an angry little gremlin as a worthy opponent. It’s a short and fun dynamic that works because the show didn’t need it to be anything more. It’s not like they’re the BIGGEST enemies in the show…That’s the next relationship.

Luz vs. Belos: Out of everything in the story, the relationship between the main protagonist and antagonist is one of the most important things to get right. Fortunately, The Owl House understands this with Luz and Belos. Like most antagonists, Belos is a dark reflection of Luz. They’re both humans who came to the Isles, worked hard to find a way to do magic like everyone else, made connections with others to help get by, and changed the world through their actions. However, that’s where all the similarities end with these two, because even though they have surface level comparisons, they couldn’t be more different with what they did and why they’ve done it. Luz changed lives for the better, all because she loved the Boiling Isles and all the friends she made in it. Belos changed lives for the worse because he despised witch kind and wanted to eradicate them all from the inside out. And when both faced the other, Luz and Belos had different ideas of who was the hero of this story. To Luz, it was obvious. Almost ANNOYINGLY obvious, as she couldn’t get how no one else could see how Belos was clearly evil. As for Belos, he didn’t necessarily see Luz as the villain, but instead as a tragedy. Just like his brother, Luz was taken in by the witches and their sinful allure and was too far gone to fix. Belos is still “merciful” to her, but that’s because Luz is the first human he has met in years and he’s willing to refrain from eradicating her like a common witch because there’s a chance that she might see the light. It’s why, even during his death, he is begging for Luz to reclaim her humanity again and be better than those witches. There’s just one problem: Everything Belos believes Luz to be is complete horseshit.

Luz isn’t a tragic loss, she’s a GOOD PERSON. Hell, she’s more human than Belos could ever be as Luz treats everyone in the Isles as actual PEOPLE instead of sinful monsters. Luz chose to help witches because she genuinely cares about them and wants to save THEM from danger. Right from the beginning, Eda was more than willing to let Luz run away back home only for Luz to stay because these witches and demons needed her help. That doesn’t make her a tragedy but a person who’s actually pure of heart. And as for Belos’ “mercy,” it was out of selfishness despite how much he’d tell himself otherwise. When letting Luz free to save Eda, he practically did it with a gun to Eda’s head so Luz would be willing to give up the portal door. That and likely because he deduced that he needed Luz’s help to get The Collector. And after nearly killing Luz in “King’s Tide,” he decided to stop because Luz convinced him that she could be his guide in the modern human realm and verify his achievements. Belos may have believed that he was being altruistic, but in reality he backed Luz in the corner, forcing her to do and say what Belos wanted. Only for Luz to prove that she’s NOT an idiot by outsmarting him both of those times, nearly killing Belos the second. It shows that not only does Belos misunderstand the kind of person Luz is, he underestimates her. The man who lied and tricked his way to the top got beaten at own game by some teenage girl who is great at sleight of hand and appealing to someone’s needs. Yet despite this, Belos still thinks that he can outsmart Luz one last time by blaming his actions on a curse. Because he still believes he knows that Luz is a misguided girl and tries to use her kindness towards others as a way to convince her. But while Belos fails to understand Luz, Luz came to learn EXACTLY the kind of person Belos is.

Being a fan of fantasy as a genre, Luz could tell upon seeing Belos that he was evil. And, again, it’s pretty telling how Luz feels about him when she, the kindest character in the show, immediately went for the head. But while Luz was aware that Belos was obviously evil, she didn’t know with Philip. Her first impression of Philip was that he was a wise man who could potentially help her, which is the exact image Belos tried to portray with Luz years later. The only reason why it works with Luz when she meets Philip is because she read his adventures, which were personally revised by Philip himself, and he didn’t look like much of a threat. It isn’t until Luz catches onto what type of con artist Philip was that she soon switched gears to hating the old bastard. Rightly so, of course, but it would unfortunately come too late as Luz already helped Philip without even knowing that he was on his way to becoming Belos. The realization that Luz accidentally created a monster haunts her and will continue to do so for years. It’s why she REFUSES to buy any other trick or lie Belos tries to pull and kills him without any mercy. She knows that there’s nothing he could say to change Luz’s mind, because all the tricks in the past proves that he’s full of it. And as he berates witches with his last breath, it’s all Luz needs to know that she’s making the right choice. Belos was a monster that ruined lives, including Luz’s, and she’s most definitely glad to be rid of him.

Luz and Belos has a perfect hero/villain dynamic that I adored. I DO wish they interacted more to further sell that dynamic, but that’s nitpicking at best as they’re both still wonderfully written. There was definitely no missed potential with these two…Speaking of missed potential…

Darius vs. Alador: Alright, in fairness, this one might not have had much attention on it anyway, even if the show had more time. And large and part because it’s something that’s more or less written in the background of everyone else’s stories. Just small comments like Darius calling Alador a hack and actions where Alador tosses Darius’ book away in disgust. They were never a focus of an episode, but the writers still made it a fact that Alador and Darius couldn’t stand each other. And it works for what it is…but then there’s this level of intrigue presented in “Them’s the Breaks, Kid,” a flashback episode that briefly revealed that Alador and Darius were once friends. That inevitably led to questions, all circling around what could have happened between then and now to cause their friendship to change into a rivalry. There’s some definite intrigue to what could have happened, and it’s why I’m willing to say it’s a missed opportunity to not explore it…HOWEVER, I will also admit that it’s not a HUGE thing to focus on. Out of everything in the series, there’s bigger fish to fry than explaining why a secondary character’s dad came to hate a side character. If the show had all the time in the world, it would definitely feel more like a missed opportunity. As is, it’s still perfectly functional as a rivalry with a bit of unresolved intrigue. I would have loved more, but I’m not losing hair over it.

And yes, I know, there’s a possibility that these two could be a couple, but that’s more or less hinted as a possibility because of ONE interaction near the end. I wouldn’t say it’s anything official outside of that…But since we brought up SHIPS…

Couples/Ships

Quick stipulation, this isn’t about popular ships within the fandom. You’re not going to see Viney and Emira or Viney and Skara just because there’s a lot of fan fics and MoringMark comics about them. There’s also not going to be any POSSIBLE ships here. We’re discussing what’s canon and official based on what we’ve seen in the show. So no Veesha, despite how adorable and crazy it is to have a crack ship actually be a possibility.

No, instead, we’re discussing the ships that were built up within the show, their ups and downs, and how they worked as a couple. And to start, let’s just go ahead and rip off the bandaid. There’s one ship we ALL know deserves to be talked about, and it’s best to start off with…

Alador/Odalia: Hey, not every couple is good for each other. 

Full disclosure, I had NO idea where to place these two. I THOUGHT about putting Alador and Odalia in the family section, but their relationship cannot be described as that. Even putting them HERE feels like a stretch. But there’s not really any better place for these two. I could call them enemies, but that also feels like an oversimplification because they don’t really hate each other…At least not until “Clouds on the Horizon,” but we’ll get to that.

Just like asking if Odalia loved Amity, I have to wonder if she loved Alador. Because, truthfully, I think she DID, once upon a time. I look at that photo of Alador winning the Bonesborough Brawl, and it definitely hints that there was SOME infatuation there on Odalia’s face. Granted, being attracted to someone and loving them are two different things. Dozens of fans hate Odalia with their final breath, but will go on record saying that she’s pretty hot. And…yeah, fair. But I definitely feel like she felt SOMETHING that went beyond physical attraction once. As for whether she feels the same in the PRESENT, I definitely say that same spark no longer exists as Odalia sees Alador as nothing more than a business partner than a romantic one. She compliments his work, but you can argue that’s just Odalia being glad that she’ll be getting richer instead of admiring Alador’s passion in his craft. And when Alador says something Odalia doesn’t like, she doesn’t waste a second to threaten divorce and take away what Alador really cares about: The kids. Odalia may not fully care about her children, but she knows Alador does and is too willing to use them as leverage. Any attraction Odalia may have felt is certainly gone, with the only thing she has left to feel is maybe physical, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Mainly because Odalia seems like a woman who would have private affairs with better looking men, and can get away with it because she’s in charge of every aspect of the relationship. And Alador suffered for it.

Now, as for whether or not ALADOR loved Odalia, I’m once again willing to say yes…to a point. Some say that their marriage was more or less arranged for the sake of business or Odalia pitched their marriage as a business proposition rather than anything romantic. And while I can definitely see that, a part of me believes that there WAS something there and that Alador stuck with Odalia because he initially fell for her. If it was strictly a business thing, Alador would have walked out any time with how Odalia treated him as an employee rather than a partner. And the arranged marriage seems off too because Alador, even before working through hell, seemed too messy to be from a rich family willing to do business with Odalia’s. So I believe that the best explanation is that Alador used to love Odalia once, but that love would fade away over the years. The only thing that kept Alador by her side despite the anguish is both the kids and, quite possibly, because Alador’s feelings didn’t COMPLETELY fade until “Clouds on the Horizon.” Trust me when I say that for some couples, even married ones, find it hard to get out of a relationship that’s toxic because they cling too tightly to the good times. You know you can do better, but you stick it out because your brain keeps telling you “Well, they’re not ALWAYS this bad.” I feel like the show hints how THAT’S how Alador feels with Odalia. Look at that smile he gives her in the end of “Escaping Expulsion.” Odalia’s compliment might not have been wholly genuine, but Alador’s smile was. It’s almost as if he’s taking the compliment at face value and sees it as an example of Odalia being not so bad. He takes little moments like that until finally meeting his wits end in “Clouds on the Horizon,” where after learning that he missed so much of Amity’s life in “Reaching Out,” Alador’s a bit more willing to fight back against Odalia. Still, there’s that part of him saying, “Well, she’s not THAT bad.” And just like Amity, Alador’s telling himself that Odalia couldn’t be THAT evil in selling weapons to a genocidal maniac. But once finding out that she IS, it’s the last push Alador needed to shut up that voice inside his head and officially cut ties with Odalia forever. It’s a great representation of how a toxic marriage can grow over time and that even men can face abuse from women…At least, that’s how it should be on paper. But much like the rest of Alador’s character, everything is better on paper than it is in practice.

A lot of what the writers do with Alador and Odalia still works…enough. It’s right on that line where everything the writers try is still functional but could still be better. A lot of my analysis between them is based on looking deeply at minor implications at best and seeing something that isn’t there at worst. It would benefit MORE if we saw the good times Alador and Odalia had together or if we saw more of a conflict with Alador’s perception of Odalia. As is, I still LIKE what’s done and what it represents, but I still admit that it could have been better. Maybe with more time, it COULD have been, but alas, that’s not the case.

But that’s enough of a ship that sank. Let’s talk about one that had SOME fans at first only to SKYROCKET into popularity when the writers started making it a possibility. To the point where you see them almost everywhere. And that is…

Willow/Hunter: I’m not kidding, it feels like these two are EVERYWHERE now. I remember seeing, like, one or two bits of fan works of Willow and Hunter together that made me question people’s sanity. And then “Any Sport in a Storm” happened and a lot of people, including myself, went, “I get it now…”

There’s a lot of potential present with Willow and Hunter. They’re both people who work hard to prove that they’re stronger than anyone expects. Willow is quick to identify with Hunter’s self-deprecating view of being “Half a witch,” and Hunter admires Willow’s show of strength and determination. The ideas of these two becoming a couple grow stronger the more “Any Sport in a Storm” goes on, with Willow showing that while she understands Hunter’s plight, she doesn’t treat him like a wounded puppy and YANKS him away to prove that NO ONE should be underestimated. It shows that while Willow cares, she will be direct and to the point, the type of language Hunter understands. And to Willow, it’s really smart that she was introduced to HUNTER first instead of the Golden Guard. To her, Hunter wasn’t a threat, but a kid. A weird kid, sure, but one who still has insecurities and comes across as a little awkward in a charming way. Even when the truth comes out, Willow’s taken in by the charm of how Hunter clearly doesn’t know how to act as a kid. As for Hunter, he’s definitely the one who developed a crush first, proven by that little hint of a blush near the end of the episode. It makes sense, given how Willow was the first person Hunter met that was BEAMING with positivity and didn’t immediately want to kill him. Add that with the fact that Willow is a no nonsense person who has some of the most powerful magical abilities he’s ever seen, she likely checks the boxes that Hunter believes to be noteworthy. But it’s Willow’s kindness that sucked Hunter in.

Hunter knows Willow is tough, but he appreciates the way she seemed willing to forgive Hunter despite kidnapping her and the rest of the Emerald Entrails. Willow’s nice, and she continues to be so when stuck in the human realm. Willow cuts Hunter’s hair as he’s having an identity crisis and supports his bizarre fashion choices after he reads Cosmic Frontier and gains a better understanding of himself. The best part is that Willow didn’t know the full picture during these moments. She just thought Hunter wanted his hair cut and was trying something new and fashionable, but the facts didn’t matter because she was a hundred percent on board anyway. That level of support was something Hunter rarely got in his life, and he got it from Willow the most. It all adds up to why Hunter has a crush on Willow, making it easy to buy why he does…The problem is that I can’t exactly say the same about Willow’s crush on Hunter.

I get that Willow likes Hunter and that she cares deeply about him. She’s crying the most when it looks like Hunter’s dying in “Thanks to Them” and it’s when Willow fails to help him in “For the Future” that almost breaks her. We GET that she cares, but there’s never really that MOMENT where Willow’s clearly crushing on Hunter beyond implications and two “blink and you’ll miss it” blushes that come near the end of “For the Future.” There could be the argument that Willow likes Hunter the MOST out of the friend group, with some pointing out that she went the most feral in “Clouds on the Horizon” when she thought it was HUNTER who was in danger. A friend of mine pointed out that Willow would have acted the same way if she knew it was Luz, and while that’s definitely true with her attacks on Kikimora, Willow went from the first to hijack an airship to save Hunter to the most held together when she found out it was Luz. So I could definitely see the case that Willow cared a lot about Hunter but never realized it was a crush. What bothers me is that it doesn’t feel BIG when Willow discovers her crush. I mean, yeah, it’s sweet that Hunter admitted how much Willow means to him and that he’s willing to be a shoulder to cry on…but that’s the same with Willow’s other friends. There’s nothing that different with Hunter as there is with Luz or Gus, and by the time Willow’s blushing it feels like something that NEEDS to happen to confirm her crush. And I fully blame how underdeveloped it is on the show’s shortening.

Hunter and Willow becoming a couple was an idea brought up when the show was nearing the end, leaving the writers with a handful of episodes and three specials to make it make sense. What went wrong was that they focused more on Hunter’s feelings than Willow’s and made it canon as quickly as they could. And even then, the canonicity of their relationship is more implied if anything else. Like, it’s obvious to anyone with EYES and a BRAIN that Hunter and Willow are a couple, but there’s never this verbal or physical confirmation that they’re together. They have their arms around each other in the finale, but there’s not much other than that. On the one hand, that’s great role reversal as shows for YEARS had to rely on implications towards their same sex couples while being as explicit as possible with straight ones, where The Owl House is the exact opposite. But on the other hand, why even make these two a couple when you’re not even going to make them kiss?

Back when I said “I get it now” after “Any Sport in a Storm,” I realized I was excited more by the IDEA of Hunter and Willow without knowing the actual execution. We could have seen Hunter deal with his first ever crush and Willow learn that she has someone who loves her no matter how “powerless” she can be to others (Primarily Boscha). What we got instead was HALF of that, watching some great stuff with Hunter but not much with Willow. Still, these two have their fans and I can definitely see why. The IDEA of them together is great and it’s why I still like them being a pair. However, based on what the show gave us, their love didn’t bloom (Hahaha) as effectively as it should.

But I know the REAL couple you want me to talk about. It’s one of the biggest relationships in the show, due to how effectively it appeals to the LGBTQA+ community. And that is…

Raine/Eda: Because, let’s face it, older people can be queer too.

On top of being a stellar representation to have one of the main characters fall in love with someone non-binary, The Owl House does great at telling Raine and Eda’s love story. Cleverly, the writers introduce Raine as someone Eda knew and was obviously in love with. By withholding most of their past for future episodes, it leaves this first assumption that they were both in love with each other for years but likely never bite the bullet by asking each other out. I mean, they were nervous together with Eda being a blushing mess half the time. It’s not like they were exes, because people don’t act that way towards someone they broke up with…Then, literally, the next episode later, it was revealed that they WERE exes. Even better, Eda didn’t want to break up. She DID want Raine, but Raine felt like they weren’t wanted because Eda wouldn’t let Raine in to help with the curse. Eda left them at arms length to keep them safe, only for Raine to break things off because, well, how would YOU feel about your partner being distant when all you want is to be close? This brilliantly recontextualizes “Eda’s Requiem,” as Eda’s the one always blushing and looking away, as if she doesn’t want to let on how much she still loves Raine. Yet, upon seeing them for the first time in YEARS, Eda practically jumps at the chance to work with Raine in rebelling against Belos, partially because of the chaos she’s excited to cause and because struggling to grasp that her kids might leave one day so Eda throws herself into the first relationship she can think of reconnecting with. Raine, albeit too late, catches onto this and stops Eda before she makes a mistake she can’t take back, helping her live so that she can be better to her kids than she was to Raine, letting them stay instead of pushing away when it feels easier. And likely because Raine still loves Eda too.

Then Raine grew kidnapped…sort of. They ARE taken away with Terra trying to brainwash Raine into changing everything they are, but Raine’s smart enough to avoid the obvious trap and tricks everyone into believing that they WERE under Terra’s influence. The thing is, though, that Eda AND the audience didn’t get this information until FOUR episodes after being fed information that they’re brainwashed. So when Eda tries to rescue Raine, they had to keep up the act because Eda would ABSOLUTELY interfere or throw herself into danger for Raine. But Raine doesn’t want Eda in danger, so they lie and keep her as far away as they possibly can…doing almost the same thing Eda did years ago that caused Raine to break up with her. The details aren’t exact and the circumstances are more complicated, but the spirit is still there as Raine tries to keep Eda as far as possible from any danger so she won’t get hurt. Only for Eda to prove that she’s one to face danger head on for the ones she loves and that the safest place is right by Raine. It also helps that Eda initially contacted them, begging Raine to save Luz because she needs to be FAR from danger and Eda doesn’t care what’s going on with Raine at the time doing this. Eda trusts them more than anything, and this moment of fragility helps Raine realize they’ve been thinking backwards in trying to help Eda. And helping Eda is all Raine set out to do, trying to give her any out possible from being branded with a sigil and ripping Eda’s arm off so she wouldn’t die with the others…It sounds horrific out of context, but trust me that it proves how much Raine cares for Eda, willing to do anything for her survival. The love between these two is as clear as day, and how the writers went about showing Raine and Eda’s feelings is smart…BUT…

As good as this ship is, a ship like Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen from Adventure Time shows what Raine and Eda could and SHOULD be. It’s a similar dynamic, as Bubblegum and Marcy broke up in their younger days only to reconnect MUCH later because they needed more time to grow before becoming the perfect couple they were meant to be. It’s to show that your first love CAN be your true love, but sometimes people need time apart to become better before realizing you never wanted this person out of your life in the first place. That’s not the same for everybody, but for these old gays, it is. The difference between Raeda and Bubbline, though, is that Bubbline focuses on the growth BOTH characters have to go through. Bubblegum and Marceline have their own baggage to overcome and the majority of their time on the show is about them learning to deal with it not necessarily for each other but for themselves and the people they love. With Raeda, it’s the same idea, but it’s Eda who grows more. And that’s because Eda, upon conception, was her own character where Raine, as I said last time, was a love interest. Still wouldn’t say that makes Raine less of a character, but for this relationship that means there’s less attention on THEM to grow as they’re often treated as this perfect person who Eda tries hard to fight back for. Now, there’s stuff that Raine did wrong too, with pushing Eda away from danger and constantly putting Eda’s needs in front of their own. However, the show never really digs deep into those issues, nor is there a moment where Eda confronts Raine for how THEY acted. Granted, Eda doesn’t have a leg of her own to stand on, but we’ve at least seen her grow past pushing people out of her life and letting them back in. Most of Raine’s development coincides with Eda’s, making it where Raine can’t adequately grow past their own failings. It makes it feel like it’s EDA that has to grow more to get Raine back, which would be fine, but it also makes Raine feel more like a prize Eda needs to earn instead of a character who has their own stakes in the relationship. It’s the part of Raine and Eda’s love story that gets to me a little, but, even then…I still loved that these two got back together.

Raine and Eda’s chemistry is on point and you get why they love each other. They’re both agents of chaos, Raine going for more controlled chaos while Eda is just all in for pure havoc. Eda brings extra fun into Raine’s life while Raine makes sure they BOTH don’t get into trouble. It’s like Raine and Eda were made for each other and you DO want them to get back together. Those scenes where Eda peppers Raine’s face with kisses and later snuggles up to them when all the craziness is over is ALL I ever wanted. I’m glad I got it, even if the development of their relationship could’ve been better, I’m still happy that they BOTH got their deserved happy ending.

But that’s enough teasing. You may have noticed that I haven’t talked about ONE relationship yet. One that is HUGE within this series. A relationship so big, so important, that to lump it in with all these others is a disservice to how major it is. A relationship SO GOOD that it deserves its own category as…

It’s Own Thing

You all know who they are. They’re a relationship that makes the show what it is and are the very reason why it’s so good. They’re so important that The Owl House wouldn’t be the same without them. And they are…

Luz, King, and Eda: Or our main trio, to be short.

Yeah, crazy enough, the most essential relationship in the show happens to involve the three main characters in it. The Owl House starts with them, ends with them, and features them almost always going on adventures, sometimes alone but always ending up back together. Together, they’re more than a group of weirdos stuck together. They’re a family.

Luz and Eda have this VERY obvious mother/daughter dynamic. Eda may have called Luz her human, apprentice, and, most times, KID, but it always felt like she was one slip of the tongue away from saying “daughter.” Eda’s motherly instincts kicked in nearly instantly, where the second Luz is put into too much danger, all the woman can think of is getting Luz FAR away from it. It’s large in part because Eda’s a naturally caring person, whether she likes to admit it or not, and doesn’t want this young girl to get hurt. But the more time Eda spends with Luz, getting to know this crafty kid with a good heart, the more it becomes clear that Eda wants to protect Luz because Eda sees Luz as her own. Not only can see it in all the ways Eda smiles at Luz’s antics or comforts Luz when she needs it, but Eda’s motherly love for Luz is clear as day when you notice that Eda’s at her most panicked and angry when Luz is in danger. Anyone can be nice to some random teen that refuses to leave their home, but it takes a mother to be equally soft and protective towards that child. And let it be known that the feelings are very mutual, as Luz often looks up to Eda as a second mother. Just like how Eda is always SO CLOSE to saying “daughter,” Luz always sounds like she means “mother” when she says “mentor.” Luz constantly goes right to Eda for help, information, and advice on pretty much every aspect of her new magical life. Sure, this could be because Eda’s the closest thing to an adult that could take Luz in, but Luz ALSO forms a better bond the more time they spend together. Luz cares so much about how Eda sees her and wants Eda to be happy above all else. You could say that it’s the least Luz could do for freeloading in Eda’s home (and you’d be a prick for saying that), but it comes from a genuine love, respect, and admiration for Eda. Hell, it’s LUZ who’s the first to admit that they’re like family and to say, “I love you” in “Young Blood, Old Souls.” They both clearly see each other as a mother and her daughter, even if neither of them use the actual words “mother” or “daughter.” The spirit is definitely there and it’s adorable and entertaining to see each episode.

However, out of the three, I feel like it’s King who’s often treated as an afterthought. For Luz and Eda, King’s either treated as a sidekick, a friend, a son/brother, and a pet. Although, this is primarily because the writers clearly didn’t know what to do with King until Season Two, which is around the same time Luz and Eda started treating King more consistently. Luz became more of a protective order sister and Eda became more of a mother (Mainly because King legally made himself her son). BUUUUUUUUUT, it doesn’t change how off the inconsistencies felt early on, nor was there enough time to make these dynamic changes feel like they stick. Especially since King rarely showed any genuine care until near the end of Season One. He still showed that he appreciated Luz and Eda and was happy to have them, but also treated them both VERY poorly, like with how much he intentionally annoyed Eda or cracked jokes at Luz’s expense. He didn’t hate them, but it definitely took King more time to love the family he has. Likely because Season Two made him realize that he didn’t have any biological family outside of Luz and Eda (and sometimes Hooty). Even when the idea that his real family is out there, King still considers Luz and Eda a part of it. It’s all sweet to see even if it feels a little late to the game.

The best part about these three, though, is the mutual amount of love and care for each other. Some of the sweetest scenes in the show feature Luz, King, and Eda lifting each other up, comforting one another, or just…goofing off and having fun. Their bond and chemistry as a trio is on point and you get how important it is when this trio splits up for Season Three. Because Season Three…was better than it had any right to be. “Thanks to Them” started the season out strong as the best episode in the series, “For the Future” also existed as good but not great, but it wasn't until “Watching and Dreaming” did things start to feel right. As good as “Thanks to Them” was, it felt like one of the pieces of the puzzle was missing. I loved almost every minute, but there was something that made “Thanks to Them” unable to be the best representation of what makes the show so good. And what was missing was King and Eda. It felt so wrong to watch an episode without either of them being right there with Luz, almost as if the show was incomplete without them. Things didn’t feel much better in “For the Future.” King and Eda were there, but separated from Luz as they dealt with The Collector while Luz was dealing with…a lot more. We saw all of them in the same episode, but something STILL felt missing. It’s not until we get to “Watching and Dreaming” does it become clear: What was missing was seeing the trio TOGETHER. Seeing all three of them reunite and interact with each other again finally made it feel like I was finally watching The Owl House again. You could have a great show if it was Luz with her mom and friends, dealing with teen drama. You can even have an okay show if it was Eda and King going through some magical nonsense. But when you bring them together, have them go through everything with each other close by or by their side, then you get The Owl House. All these other relationships could’ve been cut and the show wouldn’t suffer, but The Owl House wouldn’t be the same without Luz, King, and Eda’s bond.

And…Yeah, that’s about it.

The relationships in this show are varied, both in the different dynamics each character has and the quality of how they’re written. There’s a lot of great ideas, but some seem like there’s not enough time to make them meet their full potential. Regardless, the ones that DO work succeeds in bringing more warmth and intrigue to an already great show. There’s much more ups than downs, and it’s always endearing seeing great characters forming perfect bonds with other great characters.

That’s all for now, though. So I will see you all next time as I discuss—What? Why are you looking at me like that? Did I forget something?

…OH! You thought I forgot ANOTHER relationship. One that features two of the best characters in the series. 

A relationship that’s adorable and gave me so much happiness in this dark place we call Earth.

A relationship that is IMPRESSIVE LGBTQA+ representation due to its normalization and how much attention is given to it.

A relationship that, while The Owl House wouldn’t be the same without our main trio, the very same could be said about this other relationship.

A relationship SO GOOD, that to just go over it as simply as I went over the others would be too great of a disservice.

Because that relationship is, without a doubt, the best thing about the series. And no, I’m not kidding.

You’ll see why…next time.

Next Part >

#the owl house #the owl house review #LONG POST AGAIN #sorry #luz noceda #eda clawthorne #king clawthorne #camila noceda #amity blight #willow park #gus porter #hunter deamonne #emperor belos #what i thought about

[peterstanslizzie]

King befriends another BLIGHT 💖 yet again

ALL except Odalia

what a pity...🙄

P.S. Aww did you see Alador protecting King from Kikimora’s Abomatron? Lowkey one of my favorite moments 😍 from the episode (and trust me, I have so many of them)

#toh #toh spoilers #toh season 2 #the owl house #the owl house season 2 #king toh #alador toh #clouds on the horizon #alador blight #disney channel #disney #the owl house review #toh review #toh recap

[idontlikeitgere]

I'M FUCKING CRYING

The gamer what the fuck xkfjjdkckfmms

#not tag for pap #toh #the owl house season 3 #toh season 3 #the owl house spoilers #the owl house meme #the owl house review

[lgbtpopcult]

Best WLW animated shows 2023

Harley Quinn

The Owl House

I'm in Love with the Villainess

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady

Rwby

Disenchantment

Yuri is my Job

#yuri #yuri is my job! #anime #animation #animated series #disenchantment #harley quinn #the owl house #rwby #I'm in Love with the Villainess #The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady #lgbt #lgbtqia #2023 #year in review #lesbian #gay #lgbtq #wlw #bi #girls who like girls #sapphic #tv

[kebbopulos]

I FINALLY DID IT

After hours of work I have compiled a chart of Tumblr's top 100 ships according to Tumblr's "Year in Review 2022" ships and organized them by fandom.

So! Here's how much of the top 100 each Fandom takes up!

#year in review #year in review ships #Byler #Steddie #Destiel #BlackBonnet #Ronance #Buddie #Lumity #Nandermo #Geraskier #Stranger Things #Marvel #Harry Potter #Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir #The Owl House #the DC universe #Star Wars #Amphibia #avatar: the last airbender

[dragonflyable]

Special mention to Avi Roque

Their voice acting in this episode is brilliant!

The performance and choice of words really make you believe it’s Belos possessing Raine. To voice a different character the same as your co-actor by changing your way of speaking, but without changing your tone of voice is no easy feat!

#avi roque #Matthew Rhys #voice acting #toh spoilers #the owl house spoilers #toh #the owl house #meta #toh meta #the owl house meta #for the future #my own meta #belos #emperor belos #raine whispers #the collector #review #my review

[feathersnflowers]

doing this little art review thing I realized how little I drew in some month and how much I did in others

Template under cut

#art review 2023 #art #toh hunter #the owl house #huntlow #toh fanart #It's basically all owl house stuff

[leepingfromdetentionaire]

The BEST mystery cartoon that nobody has heard of

Hello folks!

Today, I wanted to provide you guys with an amazing cartoon recommendation! This is one especially for fans of shows like Gravity Falls! The cartoon is one from the early 2010s called Detentionaire! 

It’s about a high school student named Lee, who, on his first day of tenth grade, gets framed for a huge prank and gets detention for a whole year. Now, he spends every day trying to find out who set him up. However, he soon realizes that the prank was a small component to a huge conspiracy that involves government projects, clones, prophesied events, monsters and even his own family.

If you love shows like Gravity Falls, I would definitely check it out! It is quite similar in terms of the amount of mystery it has in it, and it has a lot of lore. If I were to describe it in any way, I would say it is what you get when you combine Gravity Falls with Total Drama - the characters are all teenagers, but the show has an overarching mystery, and it gets more and more paranormal as it goes on.

One thing I will say is that the first few episodes are a bit slow, which may turn some away, but once it picks up, it is amazing. It is definitely one of the best cartoons of the 2010s, and it deserves more attention, so if you are looking for a new cartoon, I’d check it out!

There are two places where you can legally watch it:

YouTube

Tubi

Also, I just want to say that if there are any cartoons you find underrated, please make me aware! Detentionaire was a series which was screwed over by the network, and this led to it not being too well known. As a fan, I would love nothing more than to see it grow in terms of popularity, and I would also love to give more shows a shot as so many get swept under the radar!

#detentionaire #gravity falls #total drama #amphibia #the owl house #sym-bionic titan #infinity train #6teen #steven universe #she ra and the princesses of power #cartoon #cartoons #nostalgia #2010s cartoons #cartoon recommendations #cartoon review

[thingsaday]

It's time for this blog's 2023 Year In Review!

These are (some of) my favorite pieces from every month this year! Check out the links below to see full animations + uncropped versions of the pieces above :0)

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

#art #year in review #artists on tumblr #toh #the owl house #toh fanart #the owl house fanart #luz noceda #omori #omori fanart #basil omori #kel omori #barbie #dhmis #don't hug me i'm scared #dhmis fanart #fionna and cake #adventure time #adventure time fanart #fionna and cake fanart #steven universe #steven universe fanart #fandoms #drawing #inspiration

[oakwyrm]

The Owl House has wrapped, so let's look back at the series as a whole.

#youtube #the owl house #eda clawthorne #disability #review #neurodivergence #luz noceda #lilith clawthorne #toh #principal bump #dell clawthorne #toh hunter #gus porter #emperor belos #phillip wittebane

[ordinaryschmuck]

Why I Love The Owl House-Part One: The Characters

Salutations, random people on the internet who are already skimming past this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

Back in 2018, when The Owl House was announced, I didn't think much of it. I looked at the teaser poster and knew that it would be a show that would gain a following, but I didn't think it'd appeal to me specifically. Then, in January 2020, just before the world made an oopsie, I saw that Disney Channel uploaded the show's first episode on YouTube. Having finished my homework and studying at the time and having nothing better to do, I clicked it out of morbid curiosity to gain a first impression of this series. And I'm not kidding when I say that the second the episode ended, I said, out loud, to myself, "I think I just found my new obsession for the next few years."

Yeah, I went from thinking the show wouldn't exactly be my thing to being obsessed with it. And obsessed I was! I wrote fan fiction and reviews and even drew a handful of fan art you are NOT allowed to look up due to how bad it is. The Owl House, with no exaggeration, also changed my life as it gave me quite a decent following on Tumblr for thoughts and stories I've crafted regarding the show and even gave me a new friend or two to share those same thoughts and ideas together. One of my closest online friends is someone who once reached out to me as a proofreader for a fic I wrote once upon a time, and I probably wouldn't have talked to them if not for The Owl House. I owe so much to this series that I adore that to explain what makes it so great...can't be done with a single review. I even considered writing a long review after Season One ended but gave up on the idea after realizing there's so much to talk and praise about the series. And that was with Season ONE! That was before Season Two made the show more spectacular in nearly every conceivable way!

So, yeah, we're gonna have to do this in parts, each dedicated to a specific theme. However, before we discuss THIS review's theme, I should get one thing out of the way: I'm not just going to praise The Owl House in every single review. There are problems to be had with the show, and I can't ignore them because the praises are stronger. I love The Owl House. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't. But it's because I love it that I have to point out problems as they come because to truly love something means to take the bad with the good. And while there's a lot of good, there's still some bad worth mentioning.

With that said, let's finally begin by discussing the backbone of any series: The characters. And BOY, does The Owl House have a LOT of great, well-written characters, to the point where I initially considered that there wasn't a bad one in the bunch...I say initially because I finally woke up to how much I despise Tibbles (Yeah, wait until we get to him). Although, know that while discussing characters, we're not talking about one-offs like Bria and her lackeys in "Through the Looking Glass Ruins" or ones who weren't named in the show, like Amelia and Cat. We're focusing strictly on frequent players and fun side characters that nail the short time they appear. And we're also going in order from my least favorite to my most favorite. And just know that this is in order based on how good they are as CHARACTERS and not as PEOPLE. There’s a difference, and I’ll be able to explain as I go.

Now, without further ado, let's begin this wild journey together with the worst character in the series.

(Also, be warned, this is going to be the LONGEST post you’ll ever read. The Google Doc is 33 pages long…)

Tibbles: Yeah, really no contest here.

Tibbles is, quite frankly, the only character that I consider inadequate. I get the idea the writers were going for: He's a secondary antagonist for lighter adventures amongst heavier ones. The problem is that type of character does not function for a show like The Owl House, a series where the writers were told they'd be cut for time while working on Season Two and having little time for lighter tales. Maybe if the show had enough room for twenty more adventures or if The Owl House had a slight lean toward episodic misadventures like Amphibia, Tibbles might have functioned better as a comedic villain that occasionally screws with the main characters for filler. But because The Owl House has so much to do and would eventually become a series with no time to do it, Tibbles becomes more annoying when he distracts from the plot. Fortunately, he's only in three episodes. Unfortunately, Tibbles never becomes as entertaining as he could have been. He has one good capitalism joke, and that's all the good I can say about Tibbles. Let's move on…

Jacob: Another secondary antagonist that would have worked better if the show had more time. Maybe make him a constant threat (read: annoyance) to Vee or the rest of the Hexsquad while they're stuck on Earth. Instead, he's nothing more than a one-and-done threat who makes a singular cameo in the best episode of the series ("Thanks to Them"). At least Jacob being a crackpot conspiracy theorist is kind of funny. Otherwise, he'd be lower than Tibbles.

Perry Porter: He has next to NO character. Barely even a scrap.

He’s the father of one of our primary characters, and Perry has NOTHING going for him other than that and being a reporter. At least he’s not annoying.

The BATs: Yeah, might as well lump these three together because they started off making you think they'd do SOMETHING, only to have very little to do with the plot, with only one of them having a definite personality (It's Amber, and I love her).

Katya's kind of fun as this weird fanfic writer who has a hint of appreciation of showmanship, given how she very clearly wrote Raine's speech. But then you also have Derwin, who's so forgettable that I know for a fact that you had to Google his name to remember who Derwin is. These three are a mixed bag of sometimes being fun yet forgettable, to the point where I don't blame the writers for forgetting their existence when it came to the rest of the series. A shame, really, because there could have been something interesting to explore with this secret resistance organized by Eda's ex. The problem is, just like Tibbles, there's not enough time for characters like the BATs to flourish. They're missed potential, sure, but that doesn't make them bad. Just less than remarkable members of this very extensive cast.

Gilbert and Harvey Park: Have slightly more personality than Perry with Gilbert having more of a playful and laidback side to him and Harvey being the more serious and worried of the two. You can see glimpses of this through the little details like Willow falling onto Gilbert in that swinging memory in “Understanding Willow.” Gilbert laughs with Willow while Harvey looks a little worried. That’s sweet. They balance each other out.

Also, they’re gay, and gay characters are always better. It’s why they’re a step above the BATs. NEXT!

Warden Wrath: He has the same problem with Tibbles and Jacob, where Warden Wrath is a secondary antagonist in a show that doesn't really have the time for him to be as effective as he COULD be. What makes him BETTER is that Wrath is at least funny. Like, the man chopped off Eda's head and then asked her out. That's humor, baby.

Also, he's a good dad to Braxus, so...you know.

Though I will admit, I'm surprised how little a role Wrath played in the show. In "A Lying Witch and a Warden," he gave off main antagonist energy with his look and menacing demeanor. Turns out he's just a throwaway character, and that's for the best. He doesn't overstay his welcome, never distracts from the plot, and has a few hilarious lines and moments. Not the strongest threat or character, but decent's good enough for me.

Kikimora: I might be the only person who doesn't hate this little gremlin, and even I have to admit she's not that great.

Don't get me wrong, I adore how insane she acts and how obsessive she can be in wanting to beat Hunter, specifically. She has a lot of fun moments and, weirdly, looks adorable when not wearing a cone of shame. She has her fun moments...but fun enough to be a recurring antagonist throughout the series? To the point where the characters have boss fights with her in three prominent episodes?

I...don't think so. I like Kiki just fine, but only in spades. Her voice can get grading after a while, and you do get sick of her obsession with the Emperor's coven given time. She's at least funnier than Wrath, though. I will ALWAYS stand by that. But that's not enough to get her higher.

Adrian Graye: He's yet another secondary antagonist that would have benefited from more time...I'm noticing a theme here.

Eh. Either way, this guy's great. His whole schtick is being a bad and nitpicky director, and that's funny to me. It's what I would expect from the head of the Illusions Coven, who are witches best defined as ones with a sense of showmanship. Some might find Adrian annoying, which...yeah, he's kind of intended to be. But I get it. Not everyone would laugh at this guy as much as I do, and that's okay. Comedy is subjective, after all. My only complaint with Adrian is that we don't see more of him. He's too fun of a villain with an equally entertaining concept to be wasted as a one-and-done antagonist that resorted to only cameos in the future. Still, if the worst I can say about a character is that I want more of them, is that actually a problem?

Tinella Nosa: Also known as Dana Terrace's self-insert. She's used primarily for comedy, and thank goodness for that. I don't know if I would have appreciated this character as much as I did if Tinella was best friends with the main cast or had some stake in the plot. In fact, the one plot and subplot that feature Tinella in a prominent role was some of the worst the show has ever had. Thankfully, she's mostly a character for random comedic bits, and I really wouldn’t have it any other way.

Barcus: Another character whose primary purpose is to be funny. At least Barcus is a dog that radiates stoner energy, giving him a ton more bonus points.

Braxxus: ALSO a comedic character, but is only better because the joke's funnier. I mean, Braxxus is just a character who's a little toddler that looks and sounds disturbing. How can you NOT laugh at that?

Eberwolf The Huntsman: Quick aside: Was anyone going to tell me that Eberwolf was apparently a man, or was I supposed to find that out for myself? I mean, shame on me for assuming genders, I guess...But I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one on that.

Anyways, Eberwolf is fine. In the short time he's in the show, Eberwolf offers great humor by being this feral little rascal that primarily annoys Darius. Not much to say other than that, and I doubt having more time would benefit Eberwolf. He really does scream "Comedy Relief" to me, and sometimes being entertaining is enough. Not everyone needs depth.

Boscha: Speaking of depth, I will forever stand by my claim that Boscha worked better as a one-dimensional bully than a three-dimensional one. Sure, three-dimensional bullies can be interesting because it leads to us learning why they do their harsh acts and that there are reasons why they're bad kids...However, that's why we have Amity. And for a redeemable bully like HER to work, you need an irredeemable one to show up to prove that not every little s**t can be better with time. Some are just sadists for no reason. And that's where Boscha comes in as a bully that knows full well she's hurting people but doesn't care because her only justification is that they deserve it. Why? Because Boscha believes she's better than them. That inflated ego makes her the perfect mirror of what Amity could have been and causes Boscha to be the best rival to Willow. Willow starts off with confidence issues, where even though she gains more of a boost thanks to her friends, there's still lingering self-doubt in the back of her brain. Boscha lacks that. She may do some affirmations to her reflection, similar to what Willow does in "Any Sport in a Storm," but while Willow briefly second guesses herself, Boscha says every word as if she knows its universal truth. So when these two go up against each other, it's great because it allows Willow to prove that she IS the best while proving that Boscha's the worst. It was perfect, and it's why I had no issues with Boscha remaining one-dimensional...But then the writers had to SCREW IT ALL UP!

Now, don't get me wrong. Revealing that Boscha had codependency issues with Amity and Boscha's other friends is interesting. There's just one problem: They introduce this idea in the second to last episode of the series. There's next to no time to fully flesh it out, leaving Boscha with a character arc that feels both forced and rushed. It might have been better if this idea had been established from the beginning instead of using most of that time writing Boscha as a one-dimensional bully with no depth to her. I still say she's entertaining, but maybe the writers tried TOO HARD with her.

Matt Holomule: But sometimes, it's better to try for a character that used to be the most universally hated.

How in the hell did I go from hating this little stink rat to being genuinely entertained by him? He's not my favorite or anything, but, like...compare Matt's first appearance with his last. He was an insufferable little prick who caused problems for Luz and Gus all because Matt wanted power and drama. That's it. Just those two things: Power and drama. Yeah, those are not great motivations for a character.

In fairness, it was clear we were supposed to hate Matt, and humor comes from watching him fail miserably. The problem is that he didn't do it enough, and while I'll laugh at the little stink nugget getting messed up at the end of "Something Ventured, Someone Framed," Matt still won by the end of the day, getting everything he wanted. He just got a little messed up along the way, is all. So while the idea is there, it's not strong enough to make the character entertaining.

But then the writers decided, "Hey since we're not going to try with Boscha, let's try SOMETHING with Matt." And it worked! "Through the Looking Glass Ruins" showed why Matt was such an insufferable, slimy weasel because he attended a school where the more powerful received more respect. Matt never got that in his old school, so he tried again in his new school, looking for power and drama because it's all he knows. Then by "For the Future," not only is the guy actually competent, but he's hilarious through false bravado and not being smart enough to know that he's been crushing on a robot. It's a huge improvement...but only from a character that makes three primary appearances and sucks with one of them. A character who's decent two-thirds of the time isn't too bad, but that still doesn't make him high up on my list, where characters are better for far more than that.

Viney: Or a character that has a better vibe despite...barely having anything to work with.

Viney...is insane. She dumps friends over the tiniest of misunderstandings and uses her griffin as an assistant for everything. She's clearly not well in the head...and that's what makes her entertaining.

Vine is a looney nut who might be unaware of her crazy actions. It's good fun, but the problem is that there's not enough of it. Like Matt, Viney has very few prominent moments in the series, and you can tell she's not as entertaining as she could have been. If the writers went all the way with her insanity or made her a character that's the textbook definition of "zero chill," you can bet Viney would be one of my favorite characters. As is, her craziness is only...a scrap of what could have been a great personality. I like her, don't love her.

Jerbo: Jerbo's higher because he has more of a well-defined personality. And he wasn't instantly unlikable, so...

And that really is all there is to say about Jerbo. He's fun as a fearful boy down on his luck and has a bit of intrigue with how he wanted to change the coven system forever. And he does, which is honestly pretty cool. Still, not a lot to make him higher.

Owlbert: Hey, look! It's a character that had a ton of prominent appearances in Season One and was all but forgotten in every season after!

This is a shame because Owlbert is one of the two palisman in the series that feels like a genuine character. The others are cute (my favorite is a tie between Ghost and Stringbean), but Owlbert, for a few episodes, felt like a prominent member of the cast with his loyalty to Eda and the connection formed with Luz. In fact, he and Luz had such a great connection that, for a while there, I assumed the show would do a thing where Eda passed down Owlbert to Luz as a form of passing the torch from the master teacher to the master student. But that didn't happen, which I can be fine with because Stringbean's perfect, and I will not hear any argument about it.

Still, it's weird how Owlbert showed up a fair amount of times in Season One, even having an entire episode dedicated to him, only to be forgotten and discarded by the time Season Two rolled around. And I know someone who'll be mad about that.

Bat Queen: And she's a character that had her own kind of potential only to be forgotten in Season Two. Only in this case, I'm willing to be more forgiving toward Bat Queen. It sucks that we'll never fully know who her owner is, but that always felt like a minor story beat for someone who wasn't that major of a character. Or, at least, someone who never had TIME to be a major character. The Bat Queen had intrigue as a discarded palisman who dedicated her life to looking after abandoned ones, but someone like her doesn't really have a place in the grander story of the show. Plenty of characters in the series have good reasons to have their stories continue or their personalities develop, whether having close ties with a main character or having a narrative purpose. Bat Queen doesn't really have either of those things, so it's why I'm not someone who’s losing sleep at night just because she has this engaging backstory brought forth but never followed up on. I'd still like to see it, but I always knew that after hearing Disney shortened the show, it was always going to be the Bat Queen's story that would fall on the cutting room floor. Missed potential for sure, but at least we had an interesting character for a short while.

Odalia Blight: And the winner for the worst mother of the year goes to--Yeah, I know. An easy joke to make. But I can't help it! It's always served on a silver platter!

Anyways, Odalia's the worst. Yet that's what makes her the best, funnily enough. She's the most snobbish snob that's ever snobbed while having zero respect for other people, least of all her family. You hate her with every fiber of your being, and you cannot wait to see her fail miserably despite trying so hard to reach the top. And Odalia absolutely is a character one loves to hate. She called Amity and her friends into the office and soon scolded Amity for not being in class. It is a challenge to make someone that kind of entertainingly despicable, yet the writers nailed it. However, they might have worked too hard to make us hate Odalia and not enough to deliver her just desserts.

I have no problems with Odalia being an awful mother, wife, and overall person throughout the show. I figured it was only a matter of time before she got hit in the face with SOME karma that would make it all worth it. Sure, it was nice to see her bend to the whim of a literal god that craved pizza bagels, and I do love that Belos, who values life less than her, didn't even want to use Odalia as his meat puppet. Still, she deserved worse. After everything Odalia did and the bridges she burned, it would have been nice to see either Amity or Camila knock her lights out for being a terrible mother. Hell, we even saw Kikimora doing community service and grunt work after her crimes, so it would be fitting to see Odalia right there with her. Or giving her SOME punishment other than making the last time we see her being Odalia standing off to the side and acting like she doesn't care that she lost everything. And that...doesn't feel right. After everything Odalia's done, we, the audience, and her family, deserve to see Odalia receive the worst punishment she had coming to her. Maybe not death or even going to jail. But SOMETHING is better than nothing. She was entertaining, but being so goes only so far without a proper failure.

...But at least she's hot. I know that's out of left field...but we all know it's true...Camila's still hotter, though.

Gwen Clawthorne: ...At least she's a better mother than Odalia?

Alright, I might be the only person who doesn't hate Gwen like others in the fandom, just like with Kikimora. But unlike Kiki, Gwen has much more to like...at least to me. Yeah, her falling for scams isn't great, and realizing the error of her ways could have been done better if not...quickly paced, but I don't mind her. Upon her introduction, it's clear that Gwen wants to try and help Eda with a vile curse. She may have been a bit hostile with her wording, but we soon learn that the curse not only turns Eda into a savage beast but one that clawed Gwen's husband's eye out and ruined the family business that's been around for generations. You can't really blame Gwen for being...agitated about the curse. Or wanting to try anything and everything to cure it. Yes, Eda's curse is often used as an allegory for a chronic illness. And a pretty decent one at that. But sometimes, with a story, you have to remove the allegory from what's shown, and doing so helps you gain more of a perspective for why Gwen reacted the way that she did. Was it right? Well...Not really. I guess she could have seen sooner that she should have been there for Eda instead of scaring her off, not to mention the damage Gwen caused in her debut appearance, but Gwen was at least quick enough to come around and realize what she did was wrong, and APOLOGIZE. Most parents like her won't be that easy, obviously, but another thing about fiction is that you have to realize that it's...fiction. Not everything equates to real life, and you should accept a character's choices and actions if it suits the story. Not many kids can do that, sure, and that's where the hesitation fits, but I think Gwen's kind enough to prove that she's worth believing in. She still spent years trying to help Eda, even if it was misguided, and was ready to kill the guys scamming her. Gwen is not a bad person. Her heart's mostly in the right place despite the troubles she caused, and I'm willing to bet she learned her lesson in the end. Just listen to her speech to Eda (and a little to Lilith) near the end of the episode. That's a mother's imperfect love if you ask me.

Masha: Admittingly, there's not much to them. Masha's a solid character. They have tidbits of personality as someone who's into the grim and horrifying but has a good sense of humor about things when they laugh off reading Vee an accurate fortune by saying she needed bath bombs or humorously sum up Belos' backstory about him being upset that his brother got a hot witch girlfriend. Plus, there's the genuine representation of having Masha be non-binary but still comfortable dressing and looking feminine. From what I've learned, being non-binary doesn't mean sticking to a gender-neutral style. Some like to look feminine, while others are fine appearing masculine, and it's cool for The Owl House to represent that through Masha. I only wish there was more about them. I could go on and on about most of these characters, but for Masha, there's not enough to go off of. It really is the good vibes and representation carrying them, but that's not much to complain about if you ask me.

Skara: SKARA IS THE BEST GIRL!

What's that? She barely has much of a consistent personality and is an over-glorified background character, if anything else? Well, too bad, because she's the best girl.

Honestly, I don't know why I love Skara so much. She hardly has any character to her, but something about her is just so gosh darn endearing. I'm telling you, sometimes a character can be entertaining by having a good vibe alone.

Steve: THIS MOTHER F**KER, however, had NO RIGHT being as entertaining as he was! Nor how popular!

Steve. F**king STEVE! All he had was one or two lines in a less-than-stellar episode, yet the fandom ADORED this mother f**ker! And, yeah, they were funny lines, but not "OMG, best character EVAH" levels of funny! But sure enough, people loved him! So the writers brought him back, and gosh dang it, he's so endearing! He's the most chill and reasonable character in the entire show! He gave King insight into who he was in one of the biggest character moments in the series! He's...NOT the golden god that I think people were picturing him as under that mask, but DAMN, is he still a handsome fella! He's so great, that I honestly wish he was in the show MORE! Gosh, DANG IT!

"If you love him so much, why are you acting angry about it?"

Because it's FUNNY!

"No, it isn't."

Yes, it is! Moving on!

Terra Snapdragon: Finally! Some good frickin' secondary antagonist!

Terra is why I hoped the series would dive deep into the other covenheads, primarily the clearly evil ones. This woman radiated supervillain energy as someone who seemed super sweet but would kill you with zero hesitation. And we learn in the flashback episode that Terra was somehow more bloodthirsty, having zero care for the lives of others, least of all children. The woman was despicable, and it was a treat seeing her return when she did. And, unlike Odalia, Terra had a proper amount of punishment. Sure, it sucks that she slinks away in the finale, but her forced to play pretend with the Collector while in an outfit that...did not work on her is pretty decent karma for someone who saw others as below her. Plus, she at least turned into a puppet for being too big of a big mouth, which is more than what Odalia got. I'd prefer if Terra had MORE punishment, but who knows? Maybe she went to jail or...tripped and snapped her spine off-screen.

If anything, my only complaint was that Terra wasn't in the series more. Make HER the main threat in "For the Future" instead of Kikimora and Boscha. THAT would have been fun. Regardless, she's entertaining enough as is, even if more screen time would have made her better.

Principal Bump: This man deserved more love...He said, while still leaving Bump below several characters.

For real, though, Bump deserves more credit, even from me. He's the school principal in a children's animated series, but instead of making him the demonic, overbearing dictator, the writers made him...the exact opposite. If anything, Principal Faust is more of what I would expect as a cold, careless, and horrifying hater of fun and children. Thankfully, that's not Bump. The man may be strict and have no problems throwing a kid into a detention pit, but he still cares about the safety and well-being of his students. Hell, he loves his students. Even with trouble-makers like Luz, Gus, and Willow, Bump can't help but cry because he has fond memories about the three of them and the trouble they caused. And while he can be dead-set in some ways, Bump is still willing to admit when he made a mistake and chooses to correct it, like in "The First Day" by letting the Detention Kids pick multiple tracks to study from. He's kind and reasonable, and that's what's to love about him. Plus, Bump's got some Grade-A snark on him. Some of the show's funniest and most quotable lines come from his dry remarks, and it's partially why he's bumped (ha) up so high. As I said, Bump deserves more love...It's just unfortunate that there are more entertaining characters than him.

Lilith Clawthorne: Admittedly, Lilith would not be up this high if she remained the person she was in Season One. Back then, Lilith wasn't the worst. She functioned nicely as a foil to Eda's wild side and had a great design for a secondary antagonist. The problem is that Lilith was a little boring, her motivations weren't made clear until the finale for the sake of a twist, and that same twist REALLY hurt her character...for about a week until everyone was quick to forgive and forget after a poorly paced redemption. And that's another fault of Lilith: Her redemption. She cursed Eda, ruined the family, ostracized Eda from society, hunted her down for YEARS because of blind faith in a man playing her like the cheap-ass kazoo that she was, and it all got wiped away almost instantly. Granted, there is one asterisk to this: It was all an accident...Sort of. 

Lilith did mean to curse Eda but didn't intend for it to last as long as it did. And you at least get a sense that Lilith feels some remorse for doing so, even stopping their first duel together the second Eda brought up the curse. The problem is that she doesn't feel enough, still treating Eda as lesser than her despite the two of them being close and Lilith supposedly feeling guilty about cursing her. And, again, it feels like everything got resolved too quickly. I accepted everyone is quick to say, "Everything's good for now" in "Young Blood, Old Souls," but only because I expected Lilith to get dragged through the coals in Season Two. But she didn't. She was quickly treated as one of the gang, and Eda did nothing but jokingly remind Lilith that she cursed her. You do that after years of getting over something, not after a week. So, as a redeemable antagonist, Lilith might as well get a C-...Thank goodness she became an entertaining character, regardless of that.

By Season Two, Lilith becomes an almost different character. Better yet, she becomes what I wanted Viney to be: Bats**t insane. Lilith is violent enough to tell Philip that he better be digging his own grave and punches him in the face without hesitation, ecstatic about banisters and having barnacles on her head, and willing to devote her whole life to an eight-year-old and perform blood sacrifices in his honor. The woman lost her mind, and I was all there for it. Even then, though, she still had a bit of intelligence, being hesitant to trust Philip after seeing some similarities to Belos and studious enough to figure out glyph combos herself. It's just that now because there are fewer worries and fears about keeping an image and being the best, Lilith can let go of inhibitions and go nuts. Her redemption could have used a lot more polish, but being so dang entertaining in Season Two is what made Lilith a character I couldn't care about to one I was excited to see when I could.

Alador Blight: Wish I could say the same about this guy...

I think I love the idea of Alador much more than his execution. Upon his introduction, he's presented as the lesser of two evils between him and Odalia, with Alador being easier to talk to without threatening to kill anybody and trying to find compromises that could stow Odalia's fire when she becomes unreasonably angry. Initially, one could assume that he's on the same agenda as hers, only to later find out that Alador's being mistreated too, with Odalia working him to exhaustion, too tired to even notice his children's problems half the time because he's too busy working for Odalia to the point where he never even took a sick day. In Season Two, this lines up with a lot of his behavior. It's why he acts so scatterbrained and unsure of what to do in most appearances. Or the way he tries to tell Odalia they've demonstrated enough with the Abomiton and how he forces a compromise by making Odalia stick to her word and sneakily tell her that being with friends makes Amity stronger, and how he promises to Amity to let Odalia back down in "Reaching Out." If you look solely at how he acts in Season Two, I believe it's pretty decent character work/development, showing a man who loves his kids but can't be the father he wants and needs to be because of his overbearing wife...However, there is ONE moment that spoils everything.

Yeah, that one. This is the scene that everyone points back to when discussing Alador's change of heart and whether or not he earns Amity's love despite it. He's very clearly on Odalia's side in this argument, being just as cold as her. Some argued that because this memory came from Amity as a kid, she might misremember the details and misconstrued how Alador acted that day. Even his silhouette seems different from how he looks in the present, and I was willing to agree because I remember days when my parents got a LITTLE mad, and it was the scariest thing in the world. However, not only would you be surprised how more traumatic experiences stick with kids, but the show makes it very clear that memories inside one's mind recreate things to the exact detail. Sure, there's the fact that it's Amity's recollection in Willow's brain, which, as far as we know, isn't as perfect as a picture. But The Owl House never explicitly establishes how weak a witch's memory could be while already inside a memory. It's a very weird distinction to make but necessary to prove that Amity's memory isn't as exact as it looks. Although, if you want explanations, I have some of my own. One realistic, another analytical, and one argumentive.

Realistically...this is a retcon. The writers had a new idea of what to do with Alador and realized, too late, that they had to make changes to his character for it to work. Changes that go beyond a scene where all we see is his silhouette. And when a retcon's made, it's sort of a team effort between the writers and the fans to explain how it works, with the writers providing the information and the fans analyzing previous scenes to see how it holds up. And after writing about how he's under Odalia's abuse and manipulation, here's where the analysis comes in.

Alador works so much and dismisses his kids because, if he doesn't, Odalia will have the kids do work for him. Not wanting to let them go through what he does, Alador reluctantly goes along with what she demands, only getting her to back down when he sees an opportunity, like in "Escaping Expulsion." Unfortunately, just like that episode, he's still on her side most of the time, doing what she wants and saying what SHE thinks is right even if he probably doesn't want to. Because if he doesn't, he and his kids are in WORSE trouble. That day, when Alador scolded Amity, might be a day when he felt like there was no other choice because Odalia left no room to back down and was forced to do and say what she wanted.

Plus--and here's where I get argumentive--We forgave this:

Granted, there are some arguments against this as well, one I'll get to when talking about Amity. For now, I will say there are three reasons why we're willing to forgive Amity: One is that she's a kid. People are more willing to forgive a child's behavior because they can outgrow it and become better. People have this idea that adults can't do the same thing, that they should already know better...even though adults rarely do, and they could live up to seventy while still unaware of how their behavior is wrong. Number two is that we spend more time with Amity, learning how much she regrets her actions and proving how she'll work hard to be a better person despite them. We can't have that with Alador because the show has to do so much and has very little time to do it. Some corners can be cut, and Alador was one of them. Thirdly, and this is the one I can't argue against, people understand Amity's plight because they WERE Amity. They've had experience with neglectful and abusive parents, and that experience beats any argument a person has. It doesn't matter if you, me, or anyone else argues that Alador isn't badly written. THOSE people, the ones who had an Alador of their own, will always feel uncomfortable by how the writers made him because those people know not every parent is like him, and they don't want kids thinking THEIR parents are the same. I mean it when I say I can't argue against that because that's a fair reason to not like a character.

Personally, I like Alador enough. At least, I like the idea he represents. It's good to show that parents can be mistreated too, especially a father because not enough people take men getting abused in a relationship as seriously as women do. The execution is a little sloppy because of that one scene in Season One, but it doesn't bother me. It DOES, however, bother others, and for reasons I can't help but sympathize. I won't call Alador a bad character, but I won't stop others from disagreeing. But at least his kids are great (and, yeah, we’ll get to them).

Dell Clawthorne: Dell's kind of both a symbol and a character.

Symbolically, he's the physical representation of Eda's biggest regret. She blinded and crippled her father, ruining the family business in the process. But the sad part is that none of it was her fault. Yet Eda still blames herself, not even wanting to go and SEE Dell because the pain of knowing what she did to him is too great. He proves that Eda can turn into what she is afraid of becoming. Something that we see in her nightmare in "Watching and Dreaming." Something that no one wants to be: A monster. A monster that doesn't deserve forgiveness or love. A monster that should be locked away for the safety of the ones she loves. But the crazy thing is that Dell DOES love Eda. He DOES forgive her.

Dell has every right to be angry. He lost his eye and his job. Who wouldn't be angry after that? And maybe he was for a bit, but I doubt he was ever angry with Eda, let alone resent her for it. Instead, after years of her running away and never wanting to talk to him again, Dell only wanted to see his daughter again. His scene with Eda in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen," where he clarifies that what happened was tragic but still loves Eda despite it, is one of my favorite interactions between two characters in The Owl House. And trust me, that's a hefty list to get on.

Dell's time on the show wasn't long, but what he does gives a lot of substance to the show for a guy who probably has less than five minutes of screen time (I don't know, I didn't do the math). Maybe he could have offered more, but I'm glad with what we still got.

The Titan: The same goes for this fluffy individual. We only knew them for a short amount of time, but holy hell, did the Titan make the most of it. Even though, technically speaking, we knew them the whole time.

I don't think I've seen a show where the setting happens to be an essential character in the plot. I'm pretty sure everyone assumed the Titan was a corpse that our characters had adventures on, and that's it. Any idea that they were a being that could talk to others could get shot down because the only person to "talk" to the Titan was Belos. And with him being the serial liar that he was, any fan could assume that even talking to the Titan was impossible, and meeting them was even more so. Turns out it wasn't.

And the Titan, the powerful being whose corpse is big enough to form a landmass, also turns out to be a chilled-out individual. There are brief moments of seriousness and even nobility in their final moments, but for the most part, the Titan is just a laid-back, jovial person. Personally, I'm into god-like beings that are like that. Not one that's wrathful or vengeful, but kind and acts like someone you could, I don't know, have a beer with. Not that I drink beer, but...you know.

Granted, the Titan WAS a bit wrathful with how they treated the Collector, but they clearly feel bad about it after finally realizing the Collector meant no harm, and it was the Collector's SIBLINGS who did the dirty work. The Titan admitted to making a mistake, making them both a kind god and a humble one. It amazes me how much characterization was given to the Titan in how little time they were officially introduced in the show. There are characters who are better after having more time, but there are also ones who might just be worse. So I appreciate that they made the Titan so top-tier, even if making them nothing more than the Isles, and the show's setting, would have been more than enough.

Emira Blight: I will forever be grateful for the course correction that the writers took with Edric and Emira, not only making them great supporting characters instead of semi-antagonists like in "Lost in Language" but also giving them their own personalities that help them stand out instead of being exact copies like most twins in media. Unfortunately, Emira might be the least interesting Blight sibling.

THAT DOES NOT MEAN BAD! Just because Amity's more engaging and Edric's more entertaining, that doesn't make Emira a horrible character because of it. It just means that, comparatively, she's not as high as her siblings. With that said, Emira's still pretty fantastic as the only Blight with a functioning brain cell. She calls Edric out for his occasional stupidity, gives proper advice to Amity when she's freaking out, and has her thoughts together because Emira didn't work herself to exhaustion. It also makes sense why Emira's a healer. She's there to keep her family physically and emotionally safe, making sure Edric doesn't hurt himself or counseling Amity when things are too overwhelming. Not only is Emira the most sensible, but it might make her the glue that keeps the family together. But despite that, she's still playful, still mischievous. Except, unlike her brother, there's a more controlled intelligence behind the fun and games Emira pulls. It's a bit more subtle, but it's there. So, while she might be the weakest Blight sibling in terms of story value, Emira is still a great character in her own right, being a fun yet essential family member with that perfect older sister energy...Mainly because she's the older sister, but my point still stands!

Edric Blight: Ah, the one Blight sibling that proves how most of the brains went to Amity and Emira while he got only the scraps.

Edric is not smart. And that very fact leads to two kinds of entertainment. Firstly, it's funny seeing his dumbass stumble through life. He tried to eat snow, attempted to keep a wild bat as a pet, couldn't pick up a hint to save his life, and ended up in a full-body cast after a reckless rescue mission. The poor boy is a riot because of how dumb he acts, which leads to the second thing entertaining about Edric: He's aware of his lack of smarts and how others see him as "The Dumb One." It causes Edric to be a little insecure about his talents, despite having great knowledge of Beast Keeping and decent skills with Potions. It's as if the writers saw the fans' preconceptions about Edric and decided to do something with it. Unfortunately, they only did it for one episode because we're strapped for time, but that brief instant of character insight is what's to love about this show. We have so many characters to use and so little time that instances like Edric helping Eda and King make a potion is enough to be considered great character development for someone who could have easily been "The Dumb One" and nothing more. He was funny enough with that simple character trait, but one tends to appreciate when a show goes the extra mile, even if it's for one episode only.

Hooty: Oh, Hooty. Sweet, dearest Hootcifer.

At first, I did not like you. You were an annoying addition as comic relief, whose screechy voice only made me hate you more. But then something interesting happened. As time went on, you became less annoying and more endearing by nature. Having an eagerness to please others mixed with a constant ignorance of social cues made you quite humorous. Yes, quite humorous indeed. The laughs brought forth by things you have done and said were plentiful, and I was delighted by each appearance you've made.

And best of all, dearest Hootcifer, you've made Luz and Amity a canonical couple. In an episode that will be nearest and dearest to many fans' hearts, you have not only brought out beautiful development between King and Eda but also managed the most adorable display of young love to occur. A young love between two girls, no less, meaning this moment of spectacular representation for the LGBTQA+ community is all thanks to you, a character best described as a "bird worm." That is both mildly hilarious as well as incredible.

Unfortunately, dearest Hootcifer, your time on the show was not perfect. Whilst Season Two was you at your best, it took all of Season One for me and others to warm up to you. And by Season Three, with every other characters taking story prominence, there was nary any time for you, Hootcifer, to add anything of value. You hardly had any lines, nor did you manage to have any final words in the series finale. Other characters in the series had faced this injustice too, but it is extra ludicrous for you, Hootcifer. You were there since that very first episode, becoming the fourth member of the Owl House family. To think that your last line was only in the second to last episode, despite how much of an impact you've left on the others and the fans, it pains me that you were one of the few cheated out the most with that final season.

Regardless, despite everything, Hootcifer, you are a well-done character with humor and heart. Tis no wonder that the show is named after you, for you are worthy of such an honor.

...In short, Hooty is funny, endearing, and surprisingly grows on you. I have...no idea why I gave that sentiment across in such a fancy way, but oh well.

(He deserves it anyways)

Flapjack: *Sigh* Another loving bird...

Just like Owlbert, Flapjack's the only palisman with enough prominence in the series to feel like a character, but unlike Owlbert, the writers actually explore more with Flapjack. But that may be because his story is tragic.

It is heavily hinted that Flapjack is Evelyn's palisman, who also lured Caleb into the Boiling Isles and indirectly sparked DECADES worth of...bad stuff. And within that time, Flapjack lost an eye and an owner and spent so much of his life alone. That is until he met Luz...who then introduced Flapjack to Hunter.

It really was a solid expectation subversion that Flapjack chose Hunter as an owner. He had a kind and playful energy that matched Luz perfectly, but no. He wanted Hunter, possibly because he looked so much like Caleb. And not wanting to lose another Caleb, Flapjack seemed to make it his number one goal to help Hunter in every way possible. That's when it hits you why Flapjack is perfect for Hunter: He's what Hunter NEEDS. Flapjack may have worked well with Luz, but Hunter needed him more than she did. Hunter was all alone for most of his life and went through so much emotional and mental stress in his unfortunate existence. Then here comes Flapjack, cheerfully supporting Hunter in his interests and literally pulling him to people who will make him happy. Flapjack's basically a therapy bird if I've ever seen one. And it really was nice seeing the majority of the time he's spent in the series be dedicated to making someone else happy...because it makes his death all the more tragic.

All Flapjack wanted was to make Hunter happy, ignoring the fact for so long that being near Hunter was the biggest risk that Flapjack could have ever taken. The second Belos might see Flapjack, he'd be as good as dead due to Belos' need to feed off the souls of palismens and because of Belos' hatred for everything that Flapjack represents. Yet Flapjack still stuck it out and stayed by Hunter's side despite these risks. His death was all but inevitable, but it hurt all the same because while we knew, deep down, it would happen, we didn't WANT it to happen. But it did, and it stings that a bird that wanted to do nothing but good only paid a horrible price for his kindness. On the bright side, Flapjack died doing the one thing he did best: Helping Hunter. No, SAVING Hunter.

Flapjack was loyal to the end, and we all love him for it. And miss him all the same.

Darius Deamonne: Hey, look! It's another character that's important to Hunter! And this one is FABULOUS!

I'll forever be blown away by the expectation subversion the writers did with Darius. Upon his introduction, you think he would be this menacing secondary antagonist the characters would have to fight through in a final battle against Belos. That was definitely the vibe I got from the guy, with how menacing he acted and how he looked in his abomination form. Turns out, most of that was an act...Most of it. I'm willing to bet that he really was ticked off by whoever was screwing with him, and his annoyance was real with Ebberwolf. But by using what we NOW know, it's clear that Darius was playing SOME of his behavior up to make it convincing enough that he's on the Emperor's side in case any ears are listening in. Belos does have eyes and ears everywhere, after all...somehow. Plus, it makes the reveal that Darius is on the side of good all the more pleasant of a surprise. He's certainly less menacing, but not as a fault. Darius still has the same snark and agitation towards people who are more, let's say, foolish than him, just as Darius did in his first appearance. It's just that now he's more subdued because he's surrounded by people who Darius doesn't need to scare. Even when dealing with the Emerald Entrails, Darius acted cold but reasonable. And when actually TRYING to scare the kids, you can argue he wanted to further scare them away from joining the Emperor's Coven, showing them what type of person they'd be dealing with.

But the biggest surprise came when he turned out to be a decent father figure for Hunter. Unfortunately, we never get to see him as an actual father, but it's still sweet seeing Darius show Hunter the first amount of respect and care from an adult the poor boy ever got. Darius shows interest in Hunter's interest, respects his decisions, and encourages him to be a kid and not a soldier, likely because Darius knows full well where that leads for the previous Golden Guards. It warms the heart to see how much Darius cares for Hunter, getting worried when he's in danger and feeling joy when he's safe and sound. It's all great...and it SUCKS that Darius is one of the few screwed over in the finale. No final lines, just pure silence...and some shipping fuel between him and Alador. At least there were still moments of Darius showing he cares for Hunter, and they're both happy together. I didn't really expect much from Darius. He was already fun upon his introduction, but having him become this stern yet caring person was such an interesting twist that I can't help but admire more. It's not what I expected, but I appreciate it nonetheless.

Vee Noceda: That IS her last name, and I will hear NO SLANDER ABOUT IT!

...Anyway, Vee's a great character.

I am forever impressed by how great of an, yet another, expectation subversion Vee is. Everyone, including Luz, upon first seeing Vee, saw her as an evil doppelganger trying to steal Luz's life. I still remember the shock and fear I felt when first seeing Vee, worried about what this could mean for Luz and Camila. And then we got to know Vee...and I much prefer the character we got over an evil clone or whatever the popular theory at the time was.

Vee, quite possibly, might have the most tragic life out of everyone in the show. She was born in a cage, was treated as a lab experiment and nothing more, gained a ton of PTSD surrounding rats and cages, and likely never knew the feeling of a warm bed or a good home-cooked meal until meeting Camila. Vee's life was a nightmare before running away to the human realm, and after learning about all that, it makes her finding a home with the Nocedas, being a part of their family, all the sweeter. A friend of mine said that her plan was a LITTLE flawed because Vee didn't know whether or not Luz would return, but in fairness, Vee said that she didn't mean to keep the act up forever, but Camila was nice to her. Vee was operating off of emotions due to getting an inkling of what love feels like, even if Camila's motherly love wasn't for Vee exactly. And with the family she's found and the friends she made in the Human Realm, it's no wonder that she prefers a life there, graduating high school with Luz and having a form for herself to gain an identity of her own. It's amazing how much care and attention the writers put into Vee and her story...Especially since she's basically a minor character.

Yeah, it's crazy to think that a lot of this stuff that happens with Vee is for a character with a substantial role in TWO episodes. Honestly, I wish she had more and could have time to bond with Camila and Luz, showing how much of a happy family she's gained. But, even after "Yesterday's Lie" ended, I already assumed the odds of seeing Vee again in something big were NEVER to become a reality. The shortening of the series, leaving fans with only half a season and three specials, meant that the odds weren't in Vee's favor to grow and develop more than she already did. In a case like that, you have to learn to accept what you HAVE instead of complaining that you didn't get what you WANT. And as for what we have with Vee, it's still good and compelling stuff for a character that makes two appearances. Sure, the potential of a greater character is there for Vee, but for a minor character, she's still really great. Now, if she was a MAIN character, THEN it'd be an issue...Speaking of which.

Gus Porter: Ah, NOW we're getting to the important characters.

Gus is...probably the least interesting out of the main cast. That doesn't make him bad, mind you. I mean, look how far he's come in this list. It's just that, compared to everyone else, Gus felt as if he had less going on. While everyone else was dealing with trauma, family issues, and self-worth, Gus was always kind of...there. The worst part is that there are a lot of hints of there being more to him. He somewhat admits to Hunter in "Thanks to Them" that, while things aren't awful, Gus isn't happy. He missed his dad, and Gus was the first to break down and cry after "King's Tide." There's something there to explore, but because it's a season where so much is going on and there's little time to focus on everybody, Gus, unfortunately, gets the short end of the stick when dealing with HIS trauma. And there's not much going on with his family. There's no discussion of what happened with his mom or any animosity between Gus and his dad. They have a healthy relationship together. Which is appreciative, don't get me wrong. But it's NOTHING compared to Amity's issues with her parents, Eda's strained relationship with her sister and mother, and Luz's difficulty in getting her mom to understand her. The closest bit of intrigue we get with Gus and his dad is how bored and kind of annoyed Gus looked during the Grand Prix in "Eda's Requiem." There could be something to explore there, maybe talk about why Gus went with his dad even though he clearly wasn't having a great time. Unfortunately, this was during a season when the writers were told the series would get cut, and they had to rush to close up as many character arcs as they could before reaching the end, with Gus, again, getting the short end of the stick. Thankfully, the show does something about Gus' self-worth, showing his doubts as an Illusionist and some anxiety about being used by others for personal gain. It's engaging stuff, but it comes at the cost of Gus being overshadowed by an admittedly cute couple and the fandom's favorite white boy.

We definitely get a good amount where I say that Gus is an engaging character, but never enough to stand above the others. And that, right there, is why Gus is the least interesting in the main cast. There are great things about him to explore, but he's never given a chance to truly shine. Thankfully, Gus is still great in a supporting role, acting as the group's cheerleader and hyping them up to do something. Or how he acts as the little brother, having sometimes naive optimism and playfulness compared to everyone else. He's still a smart cookie who knows when to be serious, but it's clear that he's the second or third youngest in the cast, right next to King or the Collector. So, while Gus would have been even better with more time dedicated to him and him alone, that doesn't mean he's any worse of a character because of it. He's still endearing with how supportive he is, even if that makes him less interesting than his friends.

Speaking of which...

Willow Park: Willow...has a similar problem as Gus, but it might be a little worse. Because while Gus has entire subplots in episodes dedicated to him and his issues, Willow has consistently shared the spotlight with other characters throughout the series, where they get a lot of development, and she gets the scraps. To the point where fans talk more about the people Willow has a relationship with instead of Willow. She used to have a friendship with Amity? They latch onto AMITY'S side of things. Hunter's her boyfriend? They latch onto HUNTER'S side of things. In fact, I think people talk more about her BULLY than they do about Willow. Rarely does Willow get any attention in the fanbase and even in the series, which is a shame because she IS a solid character.

Willow's your typical shy girl who learns to gain more confidence. Only this one has more of a violent edge and seems more than capable of killing someone for hurting her but doesn't due to her self-confidence issues. Plus, instead of stretching out those issues throughout the entire series, Willow gains more confidence at the end of Season One. An annoying thing about shy girls is that they remain progressively so, getting better through inches instead of miles. With Willow, she gets over it pretty soon, to the point where I genuinely thought Willow didn't have much to do in Season Two because the writers figured her character arc was done. Which is a shame because even though her friends have more development than her, Willow is a great straight man to their antics. She's often remembered as a friend with the one functioning brain cell in the group, acting as the voice of reason when her idiot friends have a dumb idea. But she's still supportive of their ambitions and adventures because THEY were supportive of her. It's her way of paying them back. Willow just has a better idea of when to draw the line.

Plus, there is an interesting idea about Willow that the writers manage to explore beyond her shyness, even if it's not to as great of an extent as everyone else's development. You see, Willow has a problem processing trauma. In "Understanding Willow" (which ironically helps us understand Amity better), Willow states that it's best to hide away what's upsetting her while saying, "Out of sight, out of mind." Only for that to QUICKLY backfire as Amity takes things further by burning the very thing Willow only wanted to hide. They both learn it's better to confront the things that make them uncomfortable, gaining an understanding (ha) that you need to face your pain to heal from it. Except that Willow somewhat forgot that lesson in "For the Future," which showcased what makes Willow great. She's there to help her friends and their issues but ignores her own because she believes her friends’ are more important. All the girl needed was a good cry over her dads, but Willow instead repeated to herself, "Keep it in," not wanting to let her own problems overshadow everyone else's, which caused her emotions to grow more out of control. This side of her is an engaging idea, and it sucks that it's only been explored twice while her friends got more development. I'm willing to blame the shortening of the series for this one because there's no way she only had such a small role to play in the series upon conception. Willow acts as great support like Gus, but she could have been so much more. And that's a "What if" that's going to unfortunately be lost to time.

King Clawthorne: I have mixed feelings towards King, at least in the first season. I didn't hate him. It's just that, within Season One, King hardly had a direction. More often than not, he was the comic relief that went off doing silly things in the B-Plot while everyone else went on the real adventures. It led to entertaining bits, like gaining an army of sentient stuffed animals or using the Owl Beast as a tool to dominate the playground. But then there were times when they felt like an unnecessary distraction, like being an MC at Grom or being mistaken as a substitute teacher. And most of the time, it's all for the sake of an unrealistic goal. I could tell from the beginning that he would NEVER be the actual King of Demons, and it was just something the other characters played along with because even THEY knew it would never be a reality. So there was never anything King could add to the show besides humor, which he did well due to Alex Hirsch's hilarious delivery with a few jokes. If King stayed the same as he does in Season One, he'd go just above Hooty as someone entertaining with a few solid scenes of heart with the rest of the main cast, but nothing more than that.

...But then the writers decided to make King an actual character in Season Two.

King became more consistent and engaging in the series from "Echoes of the Past" to beyond. In most of the series before this moment, King always went back and forth as either a child, a pet, or an immature adult with delusions of grandeur. Post "Echoes of the Past," it's pretty clear that King's a child but one with a bit more maturity than others. He acts naive and has a definite need to be protected at all costs when he acts sad. And Alex Hirsch KILLS it when portraying King's youth, where the times King cries or gets emotional sounds like an actual kid rather than a grown man playing a kid. His delivery isn't just good for humor but for some amazing voice acting that surprisingly adds to the illusion. It's sort of like how John Roberts convinces me that Linda from Bob's Burgers is a New Jersey Mother in a way that's better than any voice actress ever could manage. Sometimes, you need to give in to the illusion.

As for what makes King engaging, that's where his purpose comes in. King wanting to become the King of Demons and have people bow down to him is...cute and results in some good humor. But King wanting to know what he is and where his Dad came from? Now THAT is a way to make someone invested in a character we already enjoyed. King was entertaining before, but seeing his struggles to find answers about his past and heritage was always endearing and helped you feel for the little guy. And when he finally DOES get answers, it cleverly gives King what he wanted in Season One: To be something that people would bow down to in respect and fear...and King doesn't want that anymore. After learning he's the last of his species, that his blood family is dead, and everything is falling down around him and his found family, King doesn't want to be the monster everyone fears. He just wants to be King and have things go back to normal. Or, HIS version of normal, anyway. It's pretty compelling to show King's growth as comic relief to an actual character by giving him everything he thought he wanted, only to practically refuse it. King is almost a completely different character by Season Two, and it really is for the best. Season One King wasn't too bad, but his Season Two self really gave him the boost he needed.

Raine Whispers: Raine is best defined as a pretty flawless character. At least, in my eyes, they are, as there's not really a bad thing I can say about them.

Upon conception, Raine was nothing more than a love interest to Eda...and that tracks. So much of Raine's development and story occurs when Eda is there, fawning over them and wanting to reconnect. Even their debut episode was more about Eda's issues and how Raine was there to guide her to the right path when it mattered most. They're very much a character severely connected with Eda and never had the chance to star in the spotlight instead of sharing it. A shame, really, since Raine organizing a resistance against Belos could be enough for an episode of its own, but, unfortunately, not the case for a series that got shortened. However, just because Raine's a character connected to Eda, it doesn't make them any less fun or engaging.

First and foremost, you GET why Eda is so in love with Raine. Where Eda is an agent of chaos, Raine is more for CONTROLLED chaos, willing to join Eda to cause some mayhem but in a way where they don't get caught or in trouble. And that's just them as kids. As an adult, Raine wants to destroy a militaristic dictatorship from the inside out, determined to keep the act going and fight literal brainwashing no matter how often they get caught. They're also pretty determined, fighting against Belos infecting Raine's brain and fighting with their last breath when Belos tried to get to the heart of the Titan. Because while Raine was one for chaos as a kid, they're still a good and caring person. Raine didn't want Eda involved so she wouldn't get hurt and MEANT their promise to Luz to make sure nothing bad happened to Eda during their mission on the Day of Unity. But on top of everything else: Raine is a charismatic dork, having enough charm to make Eda the Owl Lady blush but still having the dorkiest smile when announcing their crew's name is "The CATs." Raine is ALL these things, and the result is someone who's a blast to watch, even if they're simply Eda's love interest. They still add enough entertainment and drama, even if some of it, unfortunately, focuses more on the Eda side of things. Would I love more of a spotlight to shine on Raine? Of course. They're an outstanding character who unfortunately got put through the wringer, what with being physically tortured, used as Belos' meat puppet, and MAYBE groomed by Terra Snapdragon (That creepy witch). But when a character's conceived as a love interest, even if there's more to them, you gotta take the good moments when they're badass and awesome and appreciate when they contribute to the story on the sidelines as a supporting character than a leading one. At least they were right there to kill Belos and lived happily ever after, snuggling with Eda. Not too bad for a love interest, huh?

Oh, and Raine's also the first non-binary character in a kid's cartoon with a major influence on the characters and the plot. That's pretty cool too.

The Collector: Here we have a character that turned out WAY better than I imagined. I didn't admit it in the past, but I was a LITTLE worried that the writers would make The Collector like Bill Cypher: A chaotic god-like character who takes pleasure in treating others like his playthings. And The Collector IS that...but there's something that makes them a different yet intriguing character: The Collector's a kid. Yes, he's a kid who turned the Boiling Isles into their playground and the residents into toys, but they’re still a kid.

Upon our introduction of The Collector, we're given this idea that he’s a sick and twisted little gremlin who's just as excited as Belos is about the genocide of the Boiling Isles (which might be an image aided by the fact that it's Belos' memory). But every time we saw them since, the more the writers leaned into the Collector's child-like behavior, showing that the reason why he might be all for Belos' genocide and treat people as literal playthings is that they don't understand what life and death means. He doesn't MEAN to be a problem. It's just that no one has ever taught them otherwise. And that's a more interesting way to go about this character instead of making The Collector a new primary antagonist. It might have worked fine, but when you make a character with god-like powers, it becomes difficult to believe anyone could defeat them. So, the idea to stop The Collector by TEACHING him what's right and wrong before it's too late is a clever way to go about things, especially when it's King that does most of the teaching, using his newfound maturity to teach The Collector what Eda and Luz taught HIM. The result is a new, engaging character that also shows the stellar development of another. Not too bad for someone added to the series at the last minute...Yeah, no, that's what The Collector is, though.

After finding out the series would get shortened, Dana Terrace and the writers thought, "Hey, let's just go NUTS this season!" So, they threw in The Collector as a way to add more spectacle to the final three specials of the show. Sure, the writers had SOME idea of what to do with The Collector beforehand. But after getting the bad news from the executives who decided the series no longer fit the brand, it was the final nail in the coffin to shove The Collector in there. And MAN, there is no better representation of the show's forced conclusion than The Collector, as they're this thing that ALL the characters react to, whether protagonist or antagonist, and are forced to work through their story arcs and character development around within the last few minutes of the show. It's a pretty fun way to look at The Collector, even if he's still a great character despite all they represent. Regardless, I'm still grateful the writers didn't just turn him into the new primary antagonist who killed the old one to show off their threat level...Especially since the old one is REALLY good.

Emperor Belos/Philip Whitebane: "YOU LIKE BELOS MORE THAN WILLOW, GUS, RAINE, AND EVERYONE ELSE?!"

Yes...As a CHARACTER. Not as a PERSON. Because he's NOT a PERSON. He's a FICTIONAL CHARACTER.

I'm serious. People should stop equating "good character" to "good person," especially in this fandom. You can't talk about how well-written Belos or Odalia are without someone coming around and saying, "THEY'RE AWFUL PEOPLE!" I know that. Most...SHOULD know that. But here's the thing: Belos is an antagonist. A character whose purpose is for the audience to love to hate him. If that's done well, he's a good character. And guess what: Belos does it REALLY well, to the point where he's one of my favorite antagonists in a Disney property. Probably one of my favorite antagonists of all time.

Upon his introduction, Belos scared the crap out of me. From his design to even the way he spoke sent chills up my spine. He didn't even SOUND all that threatening, with a deep and scary voice. He sounded like a dude, but it’s in the way he said things, as if Belos knew what he was saying was messed up. But he didn't care, almost like it was because he thrived on people fearing him. And that was just on his INTRODUCTION. From a few of his future appearances, the writers showed Belos acting MORE horrifying, having disturbing spells unlike anything we've seen before, being aware that SOMETHING is spying on him, and revealing that he has a curse that turns him into a somehow MORE terrifying monster. It was pretty effective in getting me to fear this creepy son of a non-witch...And then "Eclypse Lake" showed us his face, revealing that he not only SOUNDED like an ordinary dude but LOOKED like one too. Sure, he had that weird green mark that went down his face, but so much fear I had of Belos went away when I saw that he looked like someone's grandpa who forgot to wash his face. But as the show went on, the more it made sense to make Belos look like a regular man. Instead of portraying a fantastical evil, the writers went for a more realistic one...with supernatural powers, yes, but consider the villains of OUR world. They're people who look like you and me, using their faces to hide dark intentions and charm their way to a position in leadership. That fits Belos' actions to a T, and you see how perfectly it matches in real life when Luz voices her frustrations that no one can see how evil Belos really is, only for King to tell her that no one wants to realize that they've been following the wrong guy. Do you want to know why members of your family refuse to accept that a LOT of Republicans are evil? It's because they spent years, even generations, believing the opposite. So to tell them the truth, even if they NEED to hear it, they'll refuse any facts given to them. So having Belos be the exact representation of all of that, showing kids what to be wary of, is a great way to educate them to learn that sometimes the most dangerous people in society are those who control it in the first place. Even making him a grotesque monster doesn't really take away from the allusion but adds to it, letting Belos' true, inner self take physical form and showing kids what happens to these monsters when you're too late to stop them.

And that's not even getting into the motivations! I didn't feel TOO shocked when it was revealed that Belos was Philip Wittebane. Don't get me wrong, I was still a LITTLE shocked, but I predicted it and expected that Belos' big plan was to return to the Human Realm in some way, but that left some holes into why he spent so much time controlling the Boiling Isles to do it...And then it was revealed that Belos was a WITCH HUNTER. And I'll never forget the dread I felt when I realized, "Oh, they're doing THIS. Oh, no..." The level of fear that I once had for Belos skyrocketed once his real plan became clear and how INTENSELY close he was to reach his ultimate goal.

The scariest part of all is how believable it is. Given how real-world politicians are willing to wipe out an entire group of individuals just for existing, someone like Belos isn't too far of a stretch. Neither is how he came to be the monster that he is. Philip was only an orphaned child raised to believe that witches were Satan's spawn set to destroy everything. And one witch "stole" his brother, the only family Philip had left, and left him feeling like his rage was justified. Except...it's not. It was NEVER justified. Caleb left Philip on his own volition and, when Philip found him again, tried to convince the twit that Evelyn was fine. Philip could have easily taken his brother's word for it and changed. Philip would later have YEARS, possibly CENTURIES, to learn that he was wrong, but he never did. The conditioning was put too deep into his brain, and Belos was the result. I wouldn't say that makes him a tragic character, but it DOES explain so much about why he acts the way he does.

The best part about Belos is that he's consistent. Because of his conditioning, he never once wavers his opinions or questions if what he's doing is wrong. Belos considers himself the hero of his story and views Caleb and Luz as tragic losses. When met with the LITERAL GHOSTS of his sins, Belos yells at, or flat out ignores, them, proclaiming that he was doing the right thing and it's not HIS fault that their souls were too far gone. And with Luz, Belos tried to kill her on three separate occasions, actually succeeding the third time around. And when backed into a corner, realizing he's as good as dead, does Belos ask for surrender? Does he beg for forgiveness? NOPE! He initially tries to manipulate Luz, attempting to take advantage of her good nature into thinking he's good now. And, when THAT instantly fails, Belos yells at Luz, saying she's betraying her humanity and is nothing more than the very evil he spent his whole life fighting against. Luz doesn't buy a word of ANY of it, least of all when he says they're better than this petty revenge and killing out of a twisted form of justice. Even though that's exactly what he's been doing all his life.

Evil to the end, Belos is an antagonist that works because of how perfectly diabolical and realistically despicable the writers made him, making him interesting to dissect while having it feel so cathartic to watch him get stomped to death by the very people he hated. I could honestly go on and on about what makes Belos so engaging to watch and easy to hate...but this gosh dang review is long enough already, and I haven't even gotten to my top five favorite characters yet!

Speaking of which, let's talk about the ONE good thing Belos did with his life...After we talk about Amity.

Amity Blight: How's THAT for a smooth transition?

Anyways, Amity's great because with nearly every new appearance she's made, she becomes a better character, and I mean that in two ways. For one, she becomes more intriguing as we learn about her home life, interests, and motivations, all three being connected in some capacity. Everything that Amity did, she did because her parents (her Mom, mostly) told her to do it. Ending her friendship with Willow, forcing her to be friends with Boscha and her mean girl squad, be the best of her class no matter what, and join the coven that she slowly doesn't want to join anymore. These are all the things Amity was forced to do, and had no choice to do it.She had almost no free will, but that doesn't mean she couldn't rebel in the tiniest ways. She took time out of her day to read to kids and used the cover of it being extra credit to keep doing it. She has a secret room with a collection of Azura books to enjoy a fantasy series, idolizes the purest hero, and has some creative freedom if that fan art on her diary's cover is anything to go by. Even her bullying has SOME ways of cheating. Amity may have said that Willow had no talent, but it was an attempt to get Boscha and the others to stop while covering her tracks so they won't tell anyone she went soft on Willow. And in "I Was A Teenage Abomination," some of Amity's words almost sound encouraging. There's a mocking tone to a lot of it, but the subtlety of her going "keep it up" is still there. Sure, Amity would later have a rage later regarding Willow and Luz’s cheating, but even that is more or less justified. They broke the rules, and, knowing how Odalia reacts to failure, Amity is NOT willing to let go of her "Top Student" badge without a fight. Maybe I'm stretching, and maybe I'm looking deep into things that aren't there. But it's the same thing I do with Alador: When presented with new information about a character, it's a collaborative effort to look at what came before and figure out how it works. And I think there's enough to Amity's actions in the past that are justified by her motivations yet still have a bit of her good side shining through. Which is good because that brings me to the OTHER reason why Amity gets better with each episode.

Piece by piece, bit by bit, Amity becomes a better person after learning a new and valued lesson by the end of every episode. And unlike a blonde-haired character I hate from that frog show, Amity has a clear and definite desire to become a better person. The writers SMARTLY confirm early on that Amity doesn't want to be cruel. She specifically can't show weakness, so she builds walls to hide away her good side, believing that part of herself is weak. But through Luz, the best thing that ever happened to Amity, all those walls come crumbling down, and the Amity SHE wants to become would soon blossom. She's less reserved, more open about feelings, smiles instead of sneers, and acts nicer to Luz and others around her. There's still some anger, annoyance, and the occasional snark, but it was nowhere near as bad as how Amity USED to act. And through each wall that falls gives Amity courage to stand up to her parents and finally become her own person, to the point of dying her hair to reflect the kind of person she wants to be. By a quarter of the way through Season Two, Amity finally gains an identity that reflects what she always had hidden underneath. And it's satisfying...And then writers made her Luz's girlfriend.

Yeah, this is a complaint you'll often see floating around. The second Amity and Luz start dating, a lot of her individuality tends to trickle away, with most of Amity’s problems being related to or overshadowed by Luz's. Just look at "Reaching Out," which has Amity dealing with her issues of Alador's neglect and wanting to form SOME connection with him. But it's barely touched upon due to the real meat of the episode being Luz using the event as a distraction towards her own issues, which I remember more regarding that episode than anything Amity went through. And things get worse by Season Three, where almost every character has something to go through or a chance to highlight their grief, and Amity is...just kind of there, being looped in with supporting her girlfriend and dealing with an ex-friend instead of dealing with her own problems.

It definitely sucks that after all that fighting that Amity went through to gain independence and discover her true self, only to be sidelined once she gets it. But I will say that while Amity is forced into being categorized as Luz's girlfriend, that role still highlights Amity's development. She acts warm, kind, and, most of all, understanding towards Luz and her issues, the same way Luz acted towards Amity, proving she can give as much as she can take. It's not how I wanted things to turn out, but hey. At least Amity got a complete character arc before being pushed to the side. That's WAY more than what I can say about Gus and Willow, the characters introduced to us as Luz's best friends. Guess a girlfriend takes more of a priority.

But that's enough about the fandom's favorite white girl. Let's NOW talk about the fandom's favorite white boy AND the writer's favorite punching bag.

Hunter: In all seriousness, Hunter feels like a character where the writers went, "Hey, remember Amity? Let's just...f**king do THAT again. But BETTER."

And they did! Hunter pretty much has the same journey that Amity did as a character, but with all the strengths and NONE of the weaknesses. Upon his introduction, you think he's a charismatic yet evil little brat who doesn't value the lives of others with how quickly he threatened to kill Luz, Eda, and King. But, just like with Amity, the more we learn about Hunter, the more we realize why he WOULD act the way he did and even why he SHOULD.

Hunter is the supposed "nephew" of Emperor Belos, a man who hates failure to the point where he's ready to kill after you let him down ONCE, and you don't want to push his limits too many times. Hunter knows AND fears this fact, so he learns to hold his tongue when possible so as not to gain another injury during one of Belos' temper tantrums. So, Hunter does what he's told, acts carelessly toward others beneath him, and constantly tries to prove himself as a valued soldier instead of acting as a teenager. The poor boy has his own set of walls built up, and instead of letting the cracks grow, he often tries to patch them as quickly as possible because he fears Belos WAY more than Amity fears her parents. And rightfully so, because Belos would absolutely kill Hunter if he betrayed him. He's done it before.

Hunter being a Grimwalker shouldn't surprise me, as the pieces were there and...not really subtly hidden. Yet that doesn't change how horrifying it makes Hunter's situation. It's one thing to fear being replaced by a better soldier in his ranks or something. The fact that Belos can and will attempt to make a better, more efficient clone of Hunter and kill him if needed...makes Hunter digging his own grave in "Eclypse Lake" more fitting than we realized. It makes him not only replaceable but disposable, with that newly acquired knowledge making Hunter shatter, having a panic attack as it hits him all at once that his fears are more than justified. The worst part is that Hunter spent YEARS with that monster, never standing up because he couldn't do it as easily as Amity did to her parents. She can always run away, hide out in someone else's home to escape a mother who probably doesn't even want her. There's NOWHERE Hunter could go that could keep him away from Belos for long, what with him being the Emperor and Hunter having little to no friends. Thankfully, the ones he had did a lot of work.

Luz, Amity, Willow, Gus, and ESPECIALLY Flapjack all helped to give Hunter a better life. Luz offered perspective, showing Hunter that there's more to life than being told how to live it and that the authority figure he listens to isn't perfect. Amity represents evidence, showing Hunter that if you let good people in your life, they will help you with what tortures you. Willow gave companionship through herself AND a group of people that made Hunter genuinely smile for what must have been the first time in his life. Gus then offered comfort, showing Hunter how to calm his anxieties and fears he'll continue to have. And the one to provide all of these things is Flapjack, who gives Hunter perspective, evidence, companionship, and comfort through his own actions and dragging Hunter to people who could offer more. This gave Hunter a support group of individuals that slowly but surely gave him the desire to be the person he wanted to be and gain an identity. Sure, Hunter would build his walls back up each time they tore them down. But there were always cracks that made it easier to convince him what was the right thing to do for others AND himself. And it all gave him the courage to finally stand up to Belos, who saw Hunter as nothing more than a meat puppet, metaphorically and literally.

Hunter's journey does share a lot of similarities with Amity's. I will admit to that. But where she's later demoted as a character defined by a relationship, Hunter is a character that grew because of the support system he gained and was allowed to keep a sense of identity after his friends brought out his good side. They're the ones who guided him down his path, but what Hunter chose to do after was all his own. Plus, it feels SO GOOD to see that after Hunter's grief and knowing how many others before him died tragically to Belos, he gets his happily ever after. Hunter has a home life that's healthy, friends to support him, a girlfriend to LOVE him, and a chance to genuinely smile every day. He LIVED. He SURVIVED. And that must feel inspiring to those who feel there's no escape from the tragedy of their own lives. I love Amity's journey, but Hunter's definitely better and more impactful in ways you won't believe.

And he'd be the best character in the show...if it weren't the fact that I love three more. At this point, you can probably tell who they are, so let's get started with the fandom's favorite MILF.

Eda Clawthorne: I swear that Eda being hot isn't the reason she's in my top three...Maybe.

But for real, Eda is the only character on this list where if the show was about HER...I would watch it. There is SO MUCH about Eda that makes her a blast to see and a lot to dissect that makes her engaging as she is entertaining.

When regarding her personality/character traits, Eda is an instant gem. She's a con artist, frequently driven by greed, has NO problems breaking the laws, and is more than willing to beat up anyone who messes with the kids she's grown attached to. Now many, myself included, have pointed out that Eda's character shares similarities to Grunkle Stan from Gravity Falls. And...yeah, there's definitely a lot to compare, but there's much more to contrast to help make Eda stand out more as a character. For instance, while Stan one hundred percent loves Dipper and Mabel, Eda still feels warmer towards Luz and King. She may show some annoyance at Luz's enthusiasm or playfully mock King believing he's the most dangerous creature alive, but when it matters most, Eda's there for her kids. To protect, counsel, and sometimes cry over them when situations seem dire. Though she'd probably hate to admit it, Eda has a good heart and one that isn't buried after years of emotional baggage (don't worry, we'll get into that). And she doesn't need much bonding experience to help bring that goodness inside her. When Eda saw a little creature alone in a dangerous environment, Eda took it in and raised it as her own. When seeing a young girl with the same amount of spirit as Eda did when she was younger, Eda decided to accept that young girl's offer and teach her the best she knew. Eda was a caring mother figure to King and Luz when they needed her. As for being a teacher...she could have been better, what with barely teaching Luz anything. Still, she tried, and that's primarily in part because of her own love of magic.

Eda may be a criminal striving to get rich, but those two things aren't mutually inclusive like it is for Grunkle Stan. Eda's a criminal because she disagrees with this close-minded rule that witches should be in a coven, doing one kind of magic for the rest of their lives, except for a small group of elite soldiers picked out by the Emperor himself. Anyone with half a brain can see the flaws of this, and Eda was one of them, breaking the law for years because Eda couldn't help but see how it never made sense. So, she never joined a coven, something considered a major offense against Belos' rule, with Eda being considered a wild witch by her community. And the woman RELISHED that idea. Due to not joining a coven, Eda was allowed to do any type of magic she wanted without being in a stuffy uniform and listening to the vague lies of an evil emperor. It left her with a bit of an ego boost, claiming that she's the most powerful witch on the Isles, but at least Eda gets to do what she loves. Even as a kid, Eda had a PASSION for magic, wanting to learn as much as she could and knowing more than Lilith, a character proven more studious than Eda. It's why you can buy Eda being the better witch than Lilith, because while Lilith can understand the technique, Eda has a better grasp of how good it feels to do magic. After all, she loves doing it in a variety of ways. Even her being a new headmaster of a magic college makes a lot of sense. She may not have been the best teacher for Luz, but they were both dealing with a form of magic that neither really knew much about. The only time their teaching clicked was that moment when Luz had natural magic, and Eda could finally offer advice she KNEW would work. Natural magic is what she understands and has a greater passion for, and teaching "wild magic" to the new generation, giving them something she always wanted and a chance to learn further, makes all the more sense when you take the time to think about it. It's a side of Eda that I don't think fans talk about much. A shame, really. It's an interesting part of her that's worth sharing and deserves to have more attention drawn to it. The show certainly didn't...Though, to be fair, there was one last aspect of Eda's character that's, admittedly, more engaging.

Eda's past, from her family to her ex and to her curse, is a subject that follows Eda throughout her life whether she likes it or not. One way or another, something keeps crashing back into her life, and the results lead Eda into an emotional rollercoaster that ends in tears or violence. Some healing comes from it, but the tears and violence are still prominent. Her fights with Lilith, turning into a rage monster due to her mother's meddling, losing Raine, and her father wanting to talk are all emotional situations with Eda and the tattered relationships she had over the years. The hurtful part is how it all leads back to her curse, one way or another. I'll talk more about Eda's journey with her curse and the allusion it represents in future parts, but I'll still say that so much of Eda's pain, her drama, became prominent because of something Lilith did and how Eda reacted to it. She always ran away or denied there was a problem in the first place, making a horrible situation even worse as it left her burning bridges she'll want to rebuild later. And the worst part is that this is something Eda struggles with the most.

Despite all her pain and trauma, Eda tries to cover it up with jokes and a cocky smile or anger and determination. When the curse started overtaking her in “Agony of a Witch,” she looked at Luz with a smile to make things light, but the fear in her eyes betrayed everything. When losing Raine to Darius and Eberwolf, she choked back her tears and forced herself to focus on anything else. Because to her, it's better to deny how hard you're hurting than face it. She'll voice her worries from time to time but often hides just how strong those emotions are for her. And she definitely doesn't want to relive emotional memories due to how hard it was keeping things together the first time. The only time when Eda tends to embrace her inner turmoil is when things are so intense that she can't help but cry and voice how scared/worried she is. It weirdly makes sense that the only thing that could make Eda finally open up is facing the end of the world where it's not just HER who's in danger but the people she loves too. Because above all else, while she may hate to show it, Eda is a softie to the ones she cares about, especially Luz and King. The three of them have gone on so many adventures together and faced so much danger that you can understand why it's almost always them that brings Eda to tears. Luz's attempt at a goodbye in "Young Blood, Old Souls," King's adoption in "Eda's Requiem," knowing how deep in trouble Luz is in "Edge of the World," and finally revealing that there's no plan in "O' Titan, Where Art Thou." Those kids mean the world to her, as she would be nothing without King and Luz giving her purpose, love, and a healing heart...Which makes it weirder how little Eda got to do in Season Three.

Yeah, a lot of characters got the short end of the stick in Season Three, even members of the main cast like Amity and Gus. While most got some narrative or development, others got forced into the supporting role to help those more important characters. But for Eda, it feels weird because she's part of the main trio. Nearly every poster and promotional material featured Luz, King, and Eda. Nearly every episode featured Luz, King, AND Eda. And every version of the show pitched, even if they didn't look the same, it was always Luz, King, AND EDA. So to have a season where she takes a narrative backseat while Luz and King have more relevance to the story feels off. Although, to be fair, it's not like there was much to be done with Eda. Pretty much every narrative she had got wrapped up with Season Two. She's accepted the curse as a part of her, made peace with her family, and reunited with Raine (even if they didn't seal that deal with a kiss). It's almost as if the writers knew they wouldn't have a chance to explore Eda further with a shortened season, so they completed every arc they could with her in the remaining time they had left. So I can see why they didn't do much with her because what else could they have done? But it doesn't stop how weird it is that Eda could have easily been written out of the season if not for the fact that she's part of the main trio, and it'd be even WEIRDER to have a final season without her. Because, truth be told, the series wouldn't be the same without Eda.

Eda offers humor, heart, and tragedy to The Owl House. Her past, trauma, relationships, and love make for someone that deserves main trio status. Probably even main character status too. I would love to see more of her with how much intrigue Eda has, even if a lot of it is done already. Would I want to watch a spin-off of her as a teen? Probably not. But I wouldn't mind seeing more adventures this wild witch would get into.

Also, I'll say this much about her: There's a consensus in the fandom that Eda is the best mom in the show. And while she certainly is a great mother like no other...there's someone we ALL know, deep down, deserves the title for Best Cartoon Mom.

Camila Noceda: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH, I have been waiting for this one...

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I am incredibly biased towards Camila. Upon her introduction, I always thought she was neat as a mother who truly cares about Luz, her interests, and her wonderfully creative mind. She said so within the premier. And even when sending Luz away, all Camila tried to do was look to the bright side and convince Luz that her summer won't be as miserable as she might predict it to be. Camila could tell that going to Reality Check Camp was the last thing Luz wanted to do, so Camila tried her best to make it seem like a fun time despite how down it made Luz feel. It shows that while she may not be a perfect mom for sending her daughter away, Camila is still caring enough towards Luz, and she wants her to be happy despite encouraging a decision Luz wouldn't like. I considered that a fascinating angle towards a mother like Camila, providing a reason for Luz wanting to leave but never out of malice. I liked it...But a quantifiable portion of the fandom did NOT, with too many people claiming Camila was an awful mother who hated her daughter. Camila had maybe a minute, maybe TWO minutes, of screentime, and that's somehow the interpretation people made. I wouldn't say I'm the best at analyzing and interpreting characters, which is a crazy thing to bring up THIS FAR into my longest review yet. Still, even I have to say that people's interpretation of Camila was a MAJOR reach. Like...how do you look at a woman who explicitly states she loves her daughter, gives her multiple kisses goodbye, and you immediately go, "Oh, she HATES Luz." How do you do that? And how do you claim she's a worse mom than Odalia? Yeah, that was a thing! People genuinely would defend Odalia for being a good mom with their last breath and then turn around to s**t on Camila. Even after finally meeting Odalia and seeing how bad SHE was, people still somehow considered Camila worse. I never understood how it got out of hand, and I'm convinced the writers somehow picked up on all this overreacting and decided to make Camila better with every single appearance she made soon after.

From that premier, I already gathered this idea that Camila was a flawed but caring mother trying her best despite mistakes. By "Yesterday's Lie," I was convinced she was the best mom Luz could ask for, even if powerful emotions caused Camila to make mistakes. When Vee acts like the "perfect daughter," you can see, on Camila's face, how Camila noticed something was off and how much she didn't like it. To her, "Luz" was throwing away everything that made her Luz, and Camila didn't WANT that, made even more evident by bringing all of Luz's stuff back in after Vee tried throwing them away. Then when the real Luz "calls" Camila, acting like her true self again, Camila seems ecstatic and is willing to play along with what she assumes is a weird game because she's so happy to see Luz be herself again. Through these small moments, you understand more how much Camila cares for her daughter, despite sending Luz to a camp to teach her to fit in better. It was an action done out of love, not malice. Camila couldn't be FARTHER from a bad person, as proven by how she reacts toward Vee. There may have been initial fear of finding out what Vee really was, but through some coaxing from Luz, all Camila can see is a poor girl locked in a cage and needing help. It's there that you understand where Luz got her kindness from. Because even though everything is going beyond Camila's comfort zone, the woman's still willing to kick a flat-Earther's ass to protect Vee. She's kind and warm to the people she cares about and violent to the ones that hurt them. Like mother, like daughter. But Camila isn't all too perfect. As the events finally come crashing down on her at once, she feels ALL the emotions as she has this breakdown. There's fear that Luz is stuck in a demon realm, anger knowing she WILLINGLY went there, and despair at the idea that Camila might never see Luz again. All of this leads to Camila BEGGING Luz to promise to come back, with Luz interpreting her words as "stay here and NEVER return to that awful place." This caused Luz to be fearful for the future, and more fans hyper-focussing on the negatives instead of the positives. They saw a mother telling her daughter to abandon everything that made her happy when anyone with a single functioning brain cell can tell you that it's just Camila being worried about Luz and not fully grasping the whole story. She knows Luz had SOME fun in the Boiling Isles, but Camila's strong emotions at the moment caused her to fail to understand why Luz loves it. Or, at least, misconstrue the facts, thinking it was just Luz living out a fantasy, the same thing Camila sent Luz to summer camp for. It might seem weird that Camila also focuses on the negatives instead of the positives, but in fairness to Camila, the woman went through the worst thing any mother can go through: Losing contact with her child for who knows how long. I can't blame her for her judgment being clouded by everything she's going through. Still, fans clung to the negatives, too...So it's good Season Three shut them all up for good.

Season Three might as well be the season of Camila, because of all the things Season Three did right, diving deep into Camila's character is one of them. Where her first two appearances showed how much of a caring mother she can be, Season Three took it up to TEN notches. She took so many children into her home when they had nowhere else to go, stayed up late to figure out how to get them everything they could need for a happy life, acted nurturing when they had a tough time, chose violence for someone even saying ANYTHING mean about her baby, and dove head first into a dirty graveyard pond to save a child. Camila earned the title "Mother of the Year.” And she wasn't even trying. But while the season shows how kind, nurturing, and even badass Camila can be, it also had her face some mistakes. Camila wasn't bad for sending Luz away or asking her to stay home. She's a single mother who lost her husband, who probably connected to their daughter in better ways and left Camila to do everything alone. She wanted to be the best possible mom but second-guessed every decision and was unsure if she was doing the right thing. So I like that most of this season is about her trying to LEARN from these unintended mistakes, asking for advice from Luz's friends, and finally sharing with Luz the mistakes Camila made and how she now comes to regret them. What's even better is that Camila tries her best to understand Luz's world. A lot of it scares Camila and makes her uncomfortable, even years after being aware of the Isles in the epilogue, but she still puts in the effort to TRY. It's because Camila loves Luz and wants to be a part of every aspect of her life. Camila may struggle, but she still wants to try. And THAT'S what makes her the best mom.

Camila is warm, loving, and just so much fun to see. She isn't perfect, but instead of denying those imperfections, Camila chooses to confront them and TRIES to better herself. It's evidence that not every parent gets the assignment as they receive it, but they're not instantly failures because of it. Yes, there are horrible parents who refuse to change, but I like that the show teaches kids that there are those who care enough to do better. That's what Camila is, and I love the hell out of her for it.

But do you want to know her GREATEST achievement? She gave birth to the best character in the show…

Luz Noceda: Luz Noceda. Luz fickin' Noceda. A character so good that I made an entire post discussing how she's a fan-frickin'-tastic character. And even then, it felt like I barely scratched the surface of what makes her so good. I mean, how can you accurately explain everything that you love about your favorite protagonist ever? Better yet, how can you summarize it for a review that's gone long enough already? Well, I'm at least going to try...Emphasis on try.

Luz is a character that won me over instantly. The happy, goofy character is always fun for me as I think they're perfect for humor and endearing entertainment. That's Luz to a T, as her antics and attitude towards so many things cause me to smile to no fail. How can I not when she has a kind smile as a snake bites off her doll's head or when she has an argument with her hands? Luz is almost always a delight, but what's interesting about her is that while she's primarily happy and fun-loving, that doesn't make her naive or stupid. Luz has a good sense of maturity, even before her angst arc (Yeah, we'll get to that). In "Covention," I was impressed by her response to Eda's disdain about joining a coven. Luz made it clear that she understands Eda's outlook but wants to go and make her OWN decision. In fact, Luz is mature enough not to follow ALL of Eda's orders. There are times when Luz DEFINITELY should, but I like how the writers gives her enough emotional intelligence NOT to listen to ALL of Eda's wild and free ideas of anarchy. She has enough emotional intelligence to know what's right and wrong at times but is still young enough to learn more when put in danger at a time she really SHOULD have listened to Eda. Luz IS a teen, after all. She wouldn't have all the answers.

But now that we're talking about her intelligence, that's probably an aspect of Luz that's looked over the most. Because Luz is smart, and that shouldn't be an argument. It should be a fact. The girl endlessly worked on glyphs until getting them right, often having scraps of paper lying around her after past experiments. And not only is she studious, but Luz is also crafty at any moment. Some of my favorite scenes with Luz are ones where she comes up with a great plan on the spot, like how she thought up a way to brand Belos as he was killing her. It makes sense the girl wanted to try out for theater because her improvisation is on POINT. And she has the power to back it up. I said in that character analysis that Luz is powerful but not TOO powerful. My good buddy @l-egionare pointed out how I misjudged how powerful Luz CAN be, given how a single plant glyph made that big tree in "Enchanting Grom Fright" and how she wiped the floor with Emperor's Coven members and Conformitorium guards. She certainly has the power. I highlighted her intelligence more because I love characters who win fights by outthinking their opponents rather than overpowering them. The truth is, Luz, CAN do some epic stuff. She's just not AS powerful as Eda and Lilith were at their best, due to Luz having limitations to her glyphs and how she sometimes casts them. Luz can be invisible but only for as long as she holds her breath, and the strength behind her glyph depends on how much she uses and how big they are. She can do great stuff, even with very little, but nothing TOO grand until the Titan gave Luz that power boost in the finale (which I didn’t initially want, but DAMN amI not complaining). Besides, as cool as Luz CAN be, and how underappreciated that part of her is, it’s not her best feature.

I think we can all agree that the best thing about Luz Noceda is her kindness. She’s not naive enough to believe that there’s goodness deep down inside everyone. Her kindness has limits and it says something that Luz’s first instinct upon finally meeting Belos for the first time is to go for the head. While she will help others that need it, Luz will still take the violent route if you mess with those she loves. Speaking of, do you remember your favorite characters? You know all that development and growth they all went through? Do you know who’s responsible for ALL of that? Luz, that’s who. She helped reconnect Eda with her family, led King to gaining a sense of identity, helped Willow blossom into becoming more confident, indirectly helped Gus make new friends, and helped Lilith, Hunter, and ESPECIALLY Amity become their truer, better selves. They wouldn’t be who they are now without Luz, as every person she made a connection with had their lives changed for the better. And the crazy thing is that’s…not entirely mutual. Another great point my buddy @l-egionare made is that Luz’s life wasn’t doomed for the worst, and his argument has legs. Luz could have made friends like Vee did at summer camp or befriended those two kids in “Thanks to Them” who seemed to love Luz’s brand of weirdness. After high school, Luz could have also gone on to be a writer, sharing her love of fantasy to the world. Heck, she might even  fall in love with someone else one day, like with a horror nerd that loves gore and doughnuts…Just spitballing ideas here. The point is that while Luz’s friends on the Boiling Isles ABSOLUTELY need her for a happier life, she doesn’t necessarily need THEM. It’s an interesting interpretation to think about that makes Luz even BETTER. She’s a protagonist that leads others to their change and growth, which is a primary directive for most protagonists. Not only should THEY grow and change throughout the story, but they should lead the rest of the cast to do the same. It gives importance to the main character, showing just how much they’re needed for the world and the people in it…Which is why it pains Luz to find out she’s indirectly responsible for some strife too.

Like most plucky protagonists, Luz goes through an angst phase, mirroring how the show started off as light-hearted only to become darker as time went by. Luz’s angst, in particular, started in “Young Blood, Old Souls,” where a bit of Luz’s wackiness remained, but she still slowly got more serious as Season Two continued. By the time we reached “Hollow Mind,” an episode that forces Luz to realize she accidentally helped BELOS, most of Luz’s silliness and optimism became fizzled out, with damn near all of it being gone by Season Three. This is due to her seeing what Belos almost accomplished and the damage that The Collector was already capable of. Luz was accidentally and unintentionally the cause of these issues, and it broke her for reasons that ARE understandable…but they’re not justifiable. You DO get why Luz blames herself for everything that happened. She prides herself on her kindness and helping others, with the idea of being a burden crushing Luz in “Separate Tides.” So, to find out that she’s accidentally responsible for Belos, it hurts her because it makes her believe she’s a burden to EVERYONE, to the point where she believes that the Boiling Isles would be better off without her. Even though we LITERALLY just established how that’s false. There are some haters and idiots out there who do like to point out how none of Luz’s friends wouldn’t have had any strife if she never came to the Isles. Except…No. They absolutely would have. I mean, do you SERIOUSLY think Belos wouldn’t have tricked anyone else? The man pulled off a genocidal scam for DECADES. He could have easily tricked somebody else to do his dirty work for a few minutes.

“But he was driven out of too many towns! No one would trust him!”

Which is why he made a false identity to fix that problem. For all we know, he could have done it sooner.

“But Luz gave him the light glyph!”

A glyph that did nothing but offer Belos a shortcut to finish a job he was already 99% done with. Besides, he could have learned it on his own or maybe even through The Collector, who already knows that glyphs are the language of the Titans. Belos’ plan would have gone forward no matter WHAT reason you bring up. And what’s weirdly interesting is Luz’s refusal to see it. Yes, Belos could have tricked ANYBODY, but it’s still LUZ that he tricked. That guilt eats away at her and I’m kind of glad it’s not entirely resolved by the series finale. Don’t get me wrong, I want my favorite character to live the happiest life imaginable, but there’s a sense of realism that, even though she killed Belos, there’s still a bit of guilt. It’s hinted that it sticks with her years later, as she missed birthdays just so she could help rebuild the Isles. Although, that doesn’t stop Luz from living her life. She still hangs out with friends, joins her school’s softball/baseball team, and goes out with her family. Luz’s guilt is a lot like that scar above her eye. It’ll be small and hardly noticeable on some days, but it’ll still be there, as a reminder that life isn’t a fantasy.

It’s pretty ironic that Luz escaped to a fantasy world to avoid Reality Check Camp, only to get a reality check anyway. Everytime Luz tries to apply her favorite book series or pop culture to a problem she and her friends face, it always goes wrong. Within the second episode of the series, Luz learns quickly that she’s not some chosen one predestined for greatness…I mean, she kind of is, but not in a way most fantasy stories tend to play it. Luz quickly learns that her coming to the Boiling Isles was an accident, and that the environment she’s forced to adjust to isn’t as pretty as it is in her books. Things are difficult and solutions are complicated with there being no easy answers. Luz learns this throughout her adventures and grows to understand that being a witch like Azura isn’t simple. Luz even goes through a sort of identity crisis, now realizing that her dream to be a witch was always a little too vague and that she has no idea what she wants in life after the adventure’s over. It’s a compelling aspect to her character to have Luz realize that she’s not your average protagonist. So many of us want to be the main character of the world’s story, when we should realize that job would be extraordinarily difficult. Luz learned that the hard way after experiencing pain, suffering, and literal death that will haunt her nightmares for life. I wouldn’t call Luz a cautionary tale of what happens when you continue to live in a fantasy. That’s more like Marcy from Amphbia. Instead, I’d say Luz is more of a representation of a character understanding the cruelness of reality, but through a fantasy setting. We all learn best through the things that interest us, and Luz is no different. And that’s one of the MANY reasons to love her.

I could go on and on about how much I adore Luz alone. And probably would if this thing wasn’t THIRTY-THREE PAGES LONG! And you can’t blame me. She’s my favorite protagonist in anything, and is definitely up there as one of my favorite fictional characters. There might be problems with her character, but I’m more than willing to overlook them because of how much I enjoy Luz and the journey she went on. She is flawless in my eyes, and I will never look at her in a negative light no matter who tries to make me.

And that’s it. That’s EVERY IMPORTANT CHARACTER in The Owl House…My goodness.

As you can probably tell, there’s a LOT of characters here. One could argue too many, as it becomes evident that a few of them could be better if the show had more time to let some of them grow. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a world where The Owl House had three full seasons and all the time in the world to let all its characters blossom into their beautiful selves. But with that said, there aren’t any characters in the show that I’m willing to call bad.

Okay, Tibbles is still inadequate, but he’s still not the worst. None of them are. If any character is lower than the other, it’s due to them being unable to compare to the rest of the show’s standard. Because The Owl House managed to have an expansive cast of lovable, endearing, and complex characters, with a lot of them worth a deep-dive analysis of their own. I can’t get enough of them and they will stick with me for a while.

But as great as these characters are…how well do they work TOGETHER?

Tune into part two, and I might just tell you.

Next part

#the owl house #the owl house review #LONG POST #too long to tag every character #so here are the important ones #luz noceda #eda clawthorne #camila noceda #amity blight #willow park #gus porter #toh hunter #hunter deamonne #raine whispers #emperor belos #toh the collector #king clawthorne #darius deamonne #emira blight #edric blight #what i thought about

[peterstanslizzie]

Hunter checking to see if Gus is enjoying his food makes my HEART melt 💙💛

Even if they’re probably just eating some stale ass bread 🤣

#toh #toh spoilers #the owl house #the owl house season 2 #toh season 2 #king's tide #the owl house review #the owl house recap #gus toh #hunter toh #gus and hunter

[welcometogrouchland]

im so predictable. time skip huntlow

[ID: a digital drawing of Hunter and Willow from the owl house in their epilogue designs. The image is a redraw of the "girl kissing guy against a fence" meme. Willow holds Hunter up against a wall of vines and kisses him, while he grabs onto the wall behind him. There's a cartoonist "smooch" onomatopoeia written between the two and the background is orange. End ID]

Had to fulfill this request in the most obnoxious way possible. This is what timeskip Huntlow was made for, in my eyes <3

#the owl house #toh #hunter toh #willow park #huntlow #watching and dreaming #i wasn't originally gonna use my texture brush for the lines #but it got me out of the ''dont wanna go past the sketch in case i ruin it'' stage. so ultimately I'm cool w it #also listen I'm. not good at drawing kisses #i do not understand how 2 draw them. but i tried VERY hard here 😭 #yeah she's kinda just kissing his mouth and hes not really kissing back but it's fine. it's in character #i think this is good huntlow art bc when i showed it to izzy she leaned forward until her face touched the screen #and then she started air-punching me #that's a top tier friend review and that's all i need #also no shading bc ha. hahahaha. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah #no <3 #<- i am very tired <3

[lgbtpopcult]

Best WLW TV of 2023

The last of us

Harley Quinn the animated series

Lucky My Love

NCIS Hawaii

wtFock

Special ops lioness

The Morning Show

Station 19

Everything now

Love Senior

Las Pelotaris 1926

Fall of the house of Usher

Stupid Wife

Wheel of Time

XO Kitty

Yellowjackets

The Owl House

4 Estrellas

Deadloch

Disenchantment

#year in review #2023 #my 2021 tumblr year in review #new year #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtqia #tv #sapphic #girls who like girls #wlw #bi #lesbian #gay #the owl house #stupid wife #xo kitty #yellowjackets #the wheel of time #fall of the house of usher #gl #lesbiana #yuri #love senior #everything now #lucky my love #the last of us hbo #the last of us #harley quinn #wtfock

[livrosencaracolados]

"Rose" (Rose #1)

Sɪɴᴏᴘsᴇ Oғɪᴄɪᴀʟ: A grandiosa mansão do Sr. Fountain, o famoso alquimista, é um mundo bastante diferente do orfanato escuro onde Rose foi abandonada. Quando vai para lá viver, Rose começa a perceber que a casa está a transbordar de magia cintilante - e consegue senti-la. Pouco a pouco, Rose apercebe-se de que, também ela, é capaz de ter um pouco de magia… Mas quando algumas crianças do orfanato começam a desaparecer misteriosamente, a magia de Rose é colocada à prova. Conseguirá ela encontrar as crianças desaparecidas antes que seja demasiado tarde? A primeira das enfeitiçantes aventuras de Rose…

Aᴜᴛᴏʀᴀ: Holly Webb.

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ALERTA SPOILERS!

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O Mᴇᴜ Rᴇsᴜᴍᴏ: Se há uma coisa que é clara no orfanato de St. Bridget para meninas abandonadas, é que há regras. Desde a forma como se come, a quando e com quem se sai à rua e até ao comprimento exato que as unhas de uma órfã devem ter, tudo é regulamentado. Nem se pode usar um balde sem autorização! Mas não faz mal, Miss Lockwood apenas tem os melhores interesses das suas raparigas em mente, afinal, o grande objetivo da instituição sempre foi formar criadas capazes de ganhar a vida de maneira independente num mundo frio que não oferece ajudas. Assim sendo, não pode ser permitido o espaço para explorar ou brincar quando a futura sobrevivência das pequenas órfãs está em jogo. Para garantir o foco das meninas no trabalho e não lhes corromper as mentes com fantasias e aspirações impossíveis, as janelas do orfanato são poucas, pequenas e estritamente proibidas, escondendo por trás dos seus trincos o segredo de um tipo de riqueza que as órfãs não conseguem sequer imaginar, e que cobre as ruas do mundo exterior na forma de damas pomposas e crianças propriamente alimentadas. Mas nem as restrições da diretora nem a falta de comida conseguem impedir as raparigas de sonhar, e é isso que elas fazem todos os domingos, quando lhes é permitido ver os poucos artefactos que as ligam às suas famílias biológicas. Isto não é o caso de Rose, que além de não ter nenhuma relíquia que tenha pertencido aos pais que não conhece, não sonha, nem o quer fazer. A sua única ambição é ser contratada como a criada que foi treinada para ser, alcançando um sustento autónomo. Ora, quando um dia uma senhora elegantérrima chega ao orfanato com a intenção de levar consigo uma rapariga pronta a trabalhar, Rose vê o seu desejo realizado, fazendo do seu novo lar a mansão do Sr. Fountain, um alquimista de renome. Rose, que nunca sequer imaginou ver magia ao vivo devido à sua natureza cara e rara, acaba a trabalhar numa casa onde ela existe em abundância. Quando as histórias que inventa começam a materializar-se em superfícies brilhantes, os miados de um gato majestoso passam a soar como palavras e se torna aparente que nem todos veem a mobília a dançar, a mais recente criada do palacete chega à conclusão de que, se calhar, a magia não pertence exclusivamente às classes altas. Infelizmente, o povo repudia todos os feitiços, e por conseguinte todos os feiticeiros, que não estão envoltos em cerimónia e teatro, então até os próprios empregados do Sr. Fountain, que interagem diariamente com o supernatural, encaram muito do que é mágico com desdém. Aterrorizada com a ideia de perder a nova família que encontrou na criadagem da mansão, Rose decide abdicar dos estranhos poderes que ameaçam chegar à superfície, para não ser posta na mesma categoria que os detestáveis snobes mágicos com quem ninguém simpatiza. No entanto, os seus planos são interrompidos quando, para salvar a vida do aprendiz do Sr. Fountain, ela agarra um espírito elemental com as próprias mãos, mostrando em aberto as suas capacidades. Entretanto, muitas das suas amigas órfãs parecem desaparecer sem deixar rasto, e o clima de medo intensifica-se perante a descoberta de que crianças abastadas também estão a ser raptadas. A única forma de a Rose garantir que as suas amigas regressam com vida é unir-se às pessoas de quem se queria afastar, e abraçar o lado mágico que pode afastar todos os que realmente quer à sua volta. Sessões de vidência, assaltos ao orfanato, encontros à luz da lua com um aprendiz de mago altivo (que só quer alguma atenção) e um plano arriscado, onde a preciosa filha do Sr. Fountain é usada como isco, vão levar à cave da raptora de crianças e a um segredo macabro que revela os contornos mais horríveis da magia. A questão que se coloca é: estará a Rose preparada?

Cʀɪᴛᴇ́ʀɪᴏs ᴅᴇ Cʟᴀssɪғɪᴄᴀᴄ̧ᴀ̃ᴏ:

Qᴜᴀʟɪᴅᴀᴅᴇ ᴅᴀ Pʀᴏsᴀ: É deliciosa no que toca a descrições, adorável e emotiva quando a Rose fala e aterrorizante na conclusão cortante do livro. Em suma, transmite todos os momentos com o tom perfeito, e a história consegue criar a sensação de um abraço mesmo quando a situação não chama a isso. Adorei.

Hɪsᴛᴏ́ʀɪᴀ: Só o conceito da história já é super interessante: um mundo onde há magia e ela é conhecida por toda gente, mas que não é mágico, encantado ou especial em nada que importe, pelo contrário. A magia existe numa espécie de pedestal, estando demasiado alta para que alguém que não consegue comprar a sua viagem até ao topo lhe toque. É assim que as coisas funcionam e o povo não se importa, habituando-se, para manter a sanidade, a ver a feitiçaria como um iceberg, confiando apenas nas doses controladas que, normalmente, estão à vista de todos, e apelidando de bruxaria, com repulsa, tudo o resto. A perspetiva dos mais pobres sobre o funcionamento do sobrenatural só encoraja a propaganda dos abastados, que mesmo que não sejam abençoados com o dom que, supostamente, só eles podem ter, se vangloriam do contacto regular com a magia que o dinheiro lhes permite. E é desta forma que, uma benção maravilhosa e inocente, acaba por se infiltrar na complicada teia que é a ordem social, encontrando uma entrada nas concepções já podres que separam as pessoas e, inevitavelmente, explorando-as de forma a transformar a linha que distingue cada classe num fosso que não pode ser atravessado. À boa moda humana, algo que não lhe pertence passa a ser dominado e usado como ferramenta de chantagem pelos poderosos, que materializam os seus sonhos mais loucos num mundo onde todos têm de viver, justificando o seu poder de decisão com a superioridade que lhes foi concedida pelos Céus. Isto é, até aparecer uma pequena órfã escanzelada e com tendências pessimistas, que nasceu com habilidades tão inegáveis que quebram por inteiro todo o discurso que tem sido martelado nas cabeças do povo por décadas. O status quo é, pela primeira vez, posto em causa, e quer a rapariga decida inserir-se exclusivamente num dos lados ou não, chega a hora da classe alta descer alguns degraus do seu pódio e do grande público reconsiderar o nojo que adquiriu por algo que também lhe pode ser inato. Este é o enredo e é executado perfeitamente, tendo também à mistura alguma comédia, sentimentos nus e crus, maravilha e mistério. A única crítica que posso levantar a este livro é a questão de o final, apesar de explosivo e de subir ainda mais as apostas (o que é raro, os autores não costumam conseguir lidar com as expectativas que eles próprios criam), ter uma resolução que parece demasiado fácil. Depois disso, o livro conclui-se quase com pressa e somos deixados à deriva. Isto não é um problema muito grave, é óbvio desde o início que este volume só nos está a introduzir ao universo magnífico da Rose, que tem tanto potencial que uma pessoa fica aos pulos a querer mais, mas é um pouco exagerado da parte da autora despedir-se dos leitores com tanta prontidão.

Pᴇʀsᴏɴᴀɢᴇɴs: A Rose é uma protagonista fantástica. Em termos técnicos, ela tem tudo o que faz uma ótima personagem: características distintas de personalidade, motivações, um conflito interno que se reflete no seu ambiente externo, algo a ganhar e a perder com o seu envolvimento no problema central da narrativa, a capacidade de fazer sacrifícios e de mudar ao longo do enredo... Mas mais do que isso, uma menina que é brutalmente leal, ridiculamente humilde (ela quase chora ao receber o seu próprio conjunto de costura, de tanta gratidão que sente) e o epítome da responsabilidade e do compromisso, traços que não estariam tão desenvolvidos se ela tivesse tido a infância que merecia, funciona como um símbolo de rebelião a tudo o que está imposto. Ela nem o quer, não tem oposições ao valor que lhe ensinaram que o seu baixo estatuto merece, mas a sua mera existência vai contra as leis conhecidas da magia e da sociedade, e isso faz dela algo que nem todos estão dispostos a compreender. O seu trabalho é perceber se prefere ser apenas uma observadora do mundo mágico, sacrificando a única parte de si que lhe diz algo sobre de onde veio, para não arriscar ficar sozinha, ou se aceita o que é e se transforma em muito mais do que alguma vez sonhou. Além dela, todos os outros personagens têm uma voz própria e singular, mas entre eles, o Freddy destaca-se. Sinceramente, ele começa a história como um autêntico idiota, revelando uma excessiva arrogância e um claro sentido de superioridade que explicam a antipatia que todos (incluindo o Sr. Fountain) têm por ele. Quando a Rose, inadvertidamente, começa a descuidar-se com os seus poderes e se mostra naturalmente talentosa para o que lhe exige horas e horas de esforço e estudo, a raiva vem-lhe ao de cima, e todas as ideias elitistas que lhe foram incutidas explodem em direção à rapariga. Mas, nem ele consegue fingir que ela não lhe desperta a curiosidade, e ao arranjar desculpas para a observar, vai ficando fascinado com a novidade que ela representa. A paciência que a Rose tem com ele, se é por empatia ou por não querer perder o emprego é debatível, vai-se tornando na primeira experiência de amizade da sua vida, e, pela primeira vez, ele começa a pensar noutra pessoa que não seja ele próprio. A convivência com ela, muito devagar, inspira questões e o reconhecimento da estupidez que são as extremas divisões entre classes e, no fim do livro, ele prova que está substancialmente mais maduro, defendendo o direito da Rose de aprender magia. Ele finge que não, mas é um fofo.

Rᴏᴍᴀɴᴄᴇ: Não há, PORQUE ALGUÉM (chamada Holly Webb) decidiu fazer os seus protagonistas crianças para a narrativa ter mais impacto. Já ouviram uma coisa destas? Não faz sentido nenhum, nah-ah! Mas...na minha cabeça, há algum romance, porque a Rose e o Freddy têm uma química irrefutável (é o que dá quando adultos escrevem miúdos, depois o leitor sofre quando as coisas não se concretizam). Se fossem mais velhos, poderia dar-se o caso de inimigos para amantes, já que ele gosta tanto de fingir que é sério e importante demais para a Rose quando, na realidade, age como um cachorrinho abandonado, andando sempre atrás dela.

Iᴍᴇʀsᴀ̃ᴏ: A linda prosa da escritora aliada ao cenário cativante de uma Inglaterra alternativa do século XIX, torna impossível não ler a obra toda de uma só vez. Os encantamentos, a ilusão da beleza das ruas e o perigo só adicionam a essa sensação.

Iᴍᴘᴀᴄᴛᴏ: É a segunda vez que leio este livro e, apesar de me lembrar de o ter adorado (e de ter ficado enjoada com o fim), não tinha ideia da complexidade do universo da Rose e da importância de toda a simbologia presente. Agora sim, vai-me ficar na memória.

Cʟᴀssɪғɪᴄᴀᴄ̧ᴀ̃ᴏ Fɪɴᴀʟ: ⭐⭐⭐⭐+ ½

Iᴅᴀᴅᴇ Aᴄᴏɴsᴇʟʜᴀᴅᴀ: É uma obra ótima para todos os amantes de fantasia, contudo, não aconselho que gente com menos de 13 ou 14 anos a leia. O final é realmente marcante de uma forma perturbadora e, mesmo que não sejam sensíveis ao sangue, é impossível passar pelo capítulo com indiferença.

Cᴏɴᴄʟᴜsᴀ̃ᴏ/Oᴘɪɴɪᴀ̃ᴏ Fɪɴᴀʟ: Creio que já disse tudo, este livro é um início de coleção praticamente irrepreensível e oferece tudo. É reconfortante, interessante, assustador, tem animais mágicos, diabretes ricos que só precisam de um bom abraço (nunca percebi isso, como é que alguém que tem o poder de transformar objetos banais em ouro, não sabe levar os filhos ao parque?) e, questiona, de uma forma que aparentemente só as obras para os mais novos conseguem, o sentido das classes na sociedade e a natureza do preconceito. Estou ansiosa para ler o segundo volume e sei que vocês também ficarão se derem à Rose uma oportunidade. RECOMENDO.

Pᴀʀᴀ ᴏʙᴛᴇʀ: Rose, Holly Webb - Livro - Bertrand

Assɪɴᴀᴅᴏ: Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ 𝐿𝓊𝓏 Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

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[dragonflyable]

A Deal With Belos - Storyboard

Let’s take a look at this alternate version of the scene. While this storyboard by Yasmin Khudari is close to what we eventually got, there are some interesting differences.

“What do you think they did to you?!” Personally, I think this dialogue is more interesting. Here Luz calls out Belos, saying he’s the one who’s destroying lives. We all know Belos is thinking about his brother in that moment, yet he can’t say anything in response. It’s almost like, deep down he knows she’s right but won’t admit it. So Luz goes on to call him a hypocrite. Until that moment Belos thought Luz could be like him, but it turns out she’s just like Caleb.

When Belos lets go off Luz the petrification spell reverses. They made the right decision to keep that spell in effect in the actual episode until she convinces Belos he needs her. It keeps the tension high. If she had made that deal while not turning in to stone, it wouldn’t have been as impressive and memorable.

The way Luz stares Belos down after she brands him with no remorse… This was probably cut for time or editing reasons, but it’s still a cool moment to see. He’s just so shocked that she betrayed him like that. This is the moment Philip now truly sees Luz as his nemesis.

It’s always fun to see what could have been compared to what we got. And we got is still amazing, but I do wish they kept some of this dialogue.

Find the full storyboard on Yasmin Khudari website

#Yasmin Khudari #toh #the owl house #season 2 #s2 #storyboard #concept art #meta #the owl house meta #toh meta #my own meta #toh analysis #review #toh storyboard #king's tide #luz noceda #emperor belos #belos #philip wittebane #my review