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theseerasures · 4 months

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notes on the owl house, season 1

was gonna do a sequence of liveblogs but then??? i got really into it??? so i guess the most important tl;dr is that yes lesbians you were right this time

S01E01

*watches first scene, where a single brown mother gives her kid a brochure for Conformity Camp with a cartoonish image of a child being crowded into a box, when her kid has already been established as being comically and cartoonishly imaginative, while a flock of doves fly into the air spelling out the words THIS IS A JOKE PLEASE DO NOT MAKE A DISCOURSE ABOUT THIS*

*pauses episode*

*gently and reverently rests finger on screen* a discourse happened here

i knew that Wendie Malick voices Eda before i started and thought i'd properly girded my loins and yet every time she opens her mouth i think she's gonna tell Luz she's punishing Luz for being alive

S01E03: gotta say i'm appreciative of this show's policy of "NO BOYS ALLOWED" unless the boys are the LITTLEST GUYS IN THE WORLD in which case "SON BOY ALLOWED"

S01E05

it's weird that the Adora in this show has Catra's haircut

wait

siSTER???

i guess kudos for subverting my expectations but between this and Frozen what is it with Disney properties courting the Incest Yay people

was the thought that since Eda and Lilith are Old(tm) it wouldn't happen this time because. uhhhhhh

i guess since Catradora was NebulaGamora you could argue Dana Terrace was just returning the trope to old familial roots??? bah i'm not gonna think about this anymore. Lilith def cursed Eda tho

spotted: Amity Blight and her best frenemy Luz Noceda dueling over the last open spot to the Magic Yale welcome luncheon!!!! xoxo GossipWitch

S01E07

not only does Amity have siblings her siblings are VEX AND VAX??? what is happening

Amity: you're a bully Luz!!!! i would know, because i call myself that in the mirror every morning!!!! not because i'm self aware though. it's to pump me up for another day of Bratz the Movie level shenanigans

wow this enemies-to-lovers is turning around fast. i was expecting Amity to at least girlboss if not gaslight but she barely got to gatekeep before being all "i guess :) we both learned something today :)"

yes Amity Luz accidentally hurting your precarious sense of self once is definitely the same as you tormenting Willow for years

S01E12

oh i've seen this Steven Universe episode.

*sees the monster* and so have the storyboarders

why is everyone so mean to Hooty :(

seriously tho i get having one person in the friend group that everyone inexplicably dislikes is a comedy standard or whatever but. it feels out of place for a show that otherwise bellows "it's great to be weird!!!" from the rooftops

Hooty never did nothing to nobody!!! except be all powerful and occasionally asking to be included in shenanigans

on the other hand given King's design they had to work REALLY hard for me to dislike him, but wow! it's definitely paid off, he's the worst

this is the third episode in a row where King's plot is that he has to learn a lesson about not being Disney-brand-selfish and i know this didn't happen but i'm suddenly imagining the world where he eventually takes over as the main character and The Owl House became Disney's answer to Teen Titans Go

S01E13: okay fine King reaching Todd Chavez levels of shenanigans in this episode was good. he can stay

S01E14: MAYBE THEY SHOULD CALL IT SHAPESHIFT LAND. BECAUSE IT'S A LAND WHERE YOU GO TO SHAPESHIFT

S01E15

can i just say that. naming a powerful-but-overlooked witch--who is the BFF to the main character, who thrives on both a) The Hubris and b) The Resentment--Willow is. well no harm in wearing your influence on your sleeve i guess

she does plant magic! it's not like they could have called her Glimmer

i can't believe Amity was made to end her friendship with Willow by CAITLIN GLASS'S SHADOW LAUGHING ON A WALL

*Amity pulls on Skara's invitation like she's gonna rip it apart* NO AMITY THAT'S AN ACTUAL BUTTERFLY

Amity: i'm not actually gonna rip it because it's a real butterfly, but you get the gesture, right?

me: ...fine. FINE

>:(

*watches Amity release the butterfly invitation as a symbol of overcoming her past self* wow. trans Amity confirmed

all the Blight kids are trans actually the twins transed and nobody even made a fuss bc their parents are terrible and Amity is a fourteen year old with youngest most specialest child syndrome

S01E16

Amity: i can't fight my worst fear because it's SO EMBARASSING

me: Amity if it's the one where you fail a test and then your mother shows up and calls you fat i guarantee everyone in school has already guessed

i guess we're just getting everybody's mommy issues huh

Luz's greatest flaw is how hard she commits to the bit, truly the ADHD representation we need

like it has literally not occurred to her that she could change course with what to tell Camila at any time. she chose her path and it's the only one for her now forever

oh Amity's greatest fear isn't even the obvious mom thing!! it's that Luz might turn her down!!! that's so fucking stupid Amity never ever change

S01E17

the recurring potshots at JoRane's intellectual property this season sure are.

this was produced and came out during the years she went public about losing her fucking mind, so like. everyone had to deal with it in the way they felt was appropriate. i'm not really out to judge the exact timbre of one's response so long as said response does not align with her bigotry, and i sympathize with the petty joy of belittling something owned by somone hateful, especially if that something once meant a lot to you...

i guess i'm just not super comfortable with it because a) you're still picking at a wound even if you end up making funny shapes out of the scabs, b) these hot takes are about general magic-school tropes but often are so specifically about her it feels like we're giving her credit for creating them, and c) owning her like this feels like an opiate when the real issue isn't that her fictional society is founded on 11 year olds taking one uquiz, or that the fake sport she made up is hideously unbalanced, it's that she's...the leader of hate group

all of which are misgivings i have about the Disney Corporation as well and i get that people don't watch this show to be REMINDED that we live in a society, so like. whatever i'm gonna stop talking about this

that Amity sure is gay amirite! she went from "mostly bormal about her obvious crush" to "Jodie Foster at the Golden Globes" in the span of one episode

S01E18

wow!!! Hooty saved everyone's bacon by being all-powerful. thank you Hooty sorry your squatters just take you for granted

oh hey Hordak

the fact that Willow and Gus immediately figured out what Luz was up to because of the helpful diagrams she drew for her non-plan is just so. i'm love them, actually

LILITH??? cursed Eda???? what an unexpected turn of events

okay yes Eda sacrificing her soul to her chronic illness for Luz provoked some genuine emotion from my flinty irreverent heart

it was just the emotional climax of Brave with a Last Agni Kai color scheme but hey i cry during the emotional climax of Brave, so

S01E19

is King...not sad his momowner is about to die??? i get that Luz is the focus here but it's weird that he's not even a little bit distraught

Lilith

oh my god what

what????

you really think someone would do that??? just ESTABLISH A FASCIST STATE AND TELL LIES????

Lilith how the fuck did you become the head of the secret police when you're like THIS

MINDWIPED WILLOW HAD MORE DEDUCTIVE SKILLS, LILITH

i thought there'd be SOME fascist ideology buy-in like cursing Eda made her scared of Power without Discipline or something but she's...only here??? because this one thing Hordak said he'd do???? HE DIDN'T EVEN PINKIE SWEAR LILITH

like yes yes i know. "cop older sister fails upwards and yikes her way into defending her genocidal boss" I KNOW the only way she could be more my type is if she had dyed her hair white, but i can't pay attention to any of that bc i'm too distracted by the logic-defying stupidity

Lilith when you ditched your glasses for your Goth makeover did you just. never get contacts??? because the only reason i can think of for even you blithely sailing past every red flag is that you were literally too blind to see them

i just

i can't believe i thought Winter Schnee was the purest encapsulation of "in my defense your honor i really am the dumbest bitch alive" when Lilith was there all along

i guess her existence is a powerful statement that MILFs can be morons too

*Luz confronting Lilith and displaying a level of anger that's probably supposed to be unsettling* oh my god Luz YES GET HER PUT HER OUT OF HER FUCKING MISERY

Lilith: i just don't understand why even after i've restrained and assaulted them no one believes i just want to have a civil conversation :(

tHIRTY YEARS????

like yes okay i'm sure there are some profound implications here we can draw about grooming and abuse and sunk cost fallacies but i just

Lilith: i was on the fence about cursing my sister, but when i asked for the Emperor's advice he said "god forbid women do anything."

Luz:

Lilith: i'm realizing now that was bad advice. and that he probably meant it in a different, even worse way than how i interpreted it.

but don't worry gang! her solution to fixing all the evil she's been complicit in is to...uh, continue being complicit in the evils! it's the best way to ensure that the incredibly specific scenario that befell Eda and herself will never!!! happen!!! again!!!

quick Lilith, Hordak just ensnared you in tentacles! this is a perfect opportunity for you to show exactly how you're going to prevent "~this" from ever happening ag--oh she's gone

Eda, finding out Lilith didn't actually mean to curse her forever and this was all her sister's incredibly weird way to make amends: what kind of fucking mORON--wait actually this makes perfect sense

Eda honey obviously i love you for trying to shield your sister and petson from petrification but i don't think Lilith noticed you did that

given the established buffer speed of her brain i'm not sure she's even put together that the owlbeast and her sister are the same person

okay okay i'll move on

:') Luz you brave darling sunflower you've never done anything wrong ever in your life and i'm glad you committing to the bit saved the day, even if it came at such a high price

not sure you'll be taking home the coveted gold for Committing to the Bit tho, now that your witch-aunt has revealed herself as the undisputed champion of Blindly Committing to the Bit for the thirtieth consecutive ye--OKAY YES WE'RE NOT BEATING THIS DEAD HORSE ANYMORE

because i do want to take this show seriously, and nothing demonstrates "i'm gonna take responsibility for my own actions now" better than using your literal body to bear some of the harm you inflicted on others. it's a very nice way to bring their relationship full circle, and it resonates with other instances when characters are forced to stop defining themselves by outside standards and embrace what they're already good at.

(and what Lilith is good at is soothing the pain of others via self-harm! which i think is the point the Helen's-Type-Generator starts emitting confetti and oily black smoke)

is this the first instance of magic having a cost or rebound in this world? beyond "whew i did a lot of magic today, i'm tired?" hm

Dana Terrace really went "i'm gonna give the whump enthusiasts everything they want" with this trope huh

Going Forward

yes i liked it yes i know the second season is more heavily serialized yes i will watch that soon

this did make me think about how all seriality in TV these days seem to be about building up to one series-wide showdown as opposed to different seasons having their own mytharcs, but that has less to do with this show specific and more with the death of television as a medium and we ain't got time for that

given how much my exposure to this show beforehand was Lumity (to the point where i wasn't sure there were other characters besides Eda) i'm...kinda surprised at how sparse Amity's presence was in this season. i liked what we did see of her, but i went in expecting a lot more antagonism for a lot longer in that dynamic

but i guess that's tied in with this season not having much in the way of antagonism until the very end, and not-Hordak seems to be the only one actually invested in his whole world order. we don't have any sympathetic true believers, which I assumed would be Lilith and/or Amity? i guess neither Shadow Weaver nor Catra really gave a shit about the Horde's ideology either, but Shadow Weaver remained an unrepentant ball of spite until the end and it didn't really matter that Catra didn't give a shit about the Horde because the Horde was the only thing she knew. in contrast Amity and Lilith's ties to the existing system feel very shallow--in the latter case so much so it kind of boggles my willing suspension of disbelief?

i suppose the next season can change that, i know new characters get introduced so--

oh wait is that what's gonna happen to the bad sad twink

i've only seen his armor but given how many AO3 fics seem to be about him i'm just gonna assume that he's a bad sad twink

wait can i call someone a twink when he's probably in his early teens like the rest of the cast?

is there discourse about this i hope not

don't make me break out the flock of doves

#owl house #helen writes meta

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theseerasures · 1 year

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two questions going into the finale, and some possibilities for answers:

how can the Curious Cat go to Remnant?

it's clear that certain rules have to be followed--rules which seem to contradict. in rough chronology of how CC might have figured them out:

it has to be someone from Remnant. self-explanatory.

it has to be someone who WANTS to go back. Jaune was in the Ever After before Alyx and Lewis and (given how CC remembers all the way back to this world's sundering) CC probably knew about him before they encountered him with Alyx and Lewis. but at the time Jaune didn't want to leave, because he had to look for Team RWBY.

conjecture: it has to be someone who promises to take them along? this seems to be the operating theory with Alyx and Lewis. CC keeps harping on how ALYX said they could come, and how ALYX tricked them in a way they took very personally. would also explain why CC couldn't have just left with Lewis when Lewis left. so: Alyx promised she was leaving, and she could take CC, but then Alyx didn't want to leave, which in CC's mind also broke the promise. at this point it doesn't seem like possession is part of the plan to leave; they use the expression leave WITH.

humans are tricksy and change their minds, so CC will possess them to make sure they keep their promise. unclear on how CC knew how to do that, but the description we get is similar enough to how CC describes giving Herb a piece of their heart that it seems like an evolution of their power.

conjecture: starting with Alyx? it definitely seems like CC attacked Alyx in some way after Lewis leaves to try to MAKE her leave (and take them with her). that didn't work either, because...

sub-conjecture 1: like Neo, Alyx has no attachment back on Remnant? which seems impossible given her brother just went back there, so

sub-conjecture 2: the possession didn't take? because it seems like CC can only possess someone who is heartbroken and bereft of purpose--someone who needs to Ascend--and it seemed like Alyx already had a new purpose, and CC couldn't override that. which explains why it's so pressing for them to break Ruby out the tree before she gets a new purpose, too.

Ruby is the best chance for them to go to Remnant. Alyx wasn't a suitable vessel (and the process might have "broken" her in some way), and Neo is, but Neo has no reason to go back to Remnant. Ruby--before Ascension--fulfills both criteria, partly thanks to CC working her over this season. and CC obviously doesn't want to start from scratch because a) it's a lot of work and b) no one trusts them anymore.

what feels unresolved, to me, is the conundrum where once CC possesses someone, the vessel's identity--and presumably their attachments--are overwritten by CC's own, and it's clear that CC's own attachment to the Maker(s) is not enough to send them to Remnant. Neo is by all parameters an Afteran at this point, and CC doesn't think that will be true of Ruby, but i'm not as convinced. in fact, i'm not convinced that ANY of these rules are real; they could be as artificial as Jaune's schedule for the Paper Pleasers: crafted by CC in an attempt to circumscribe a world doesn't make sense. it's possible that the Gate, like the Tree, is a place you go once you are ready.

who will emerge from Ruby's cocoon?

well--Ruby, obviously. in much the same way Penny emerged from her old bodies, Ruby will be Ruby no matter what happens. wherever you go, there you are. WBY has pretty much confirmed it. but there are some gradations when it comes to what of herself Ruby gets to, or will WANT to, keep. CC said that Ascension doesn't work "like that" for people from Remnant, which is misleading at best and an outright lie at worst, so how will it work? and how will it stack up against other examples of reincarnation in the show (i.e., Ozma, the Maidens, Penny?)

HERE, I MADE A GRAPH:

(to be clear: i mean "evolution and regression" as discrete stages of being as determined by a previous incarnation. that's why Oscar and Cinder are at baseline, because their relationship with their previous incarnations is contested/nonexistent.)

(Herb doesn't have lines after his Ascension, but i assume from the imagery that he metamorphosed positively.)

touching on the extreme ends of each axis:

extreme one: Ruby returns with full memory. CC wasn't lying, EXACTLY, because Afterans don't come back with memories except those of the heart and for people from Remnant it's more like...when the Doctor regenerates. thematically appealing because it underscores how there is no easy way out of being yourself: Ruby's arc is ongoing, and the only way she can get that heart forged Fullmetal is through. she pops out with not much being different except probably a Vacuo-ready outfit, and has to reckon with both her own bitterness that this is all she gets, and reactions from her teammates in the way Renora got to react to Jaune in Volume 6.

extreme two: Ruby only remembers what her heart does. CC is a lying liar and Ascension works exactly the same. she's still Ruby at her core, but she doesn't have concrete memories of WHY she's like this. thematically appealing because Ruby has always been so burdened by the context for her existence, and here's her chance to be without that, only to find out that psych!!! she ends up speedrunning to become basically the same person. a side writerly perk would be it would heighten our hero's "out of the loop"-ness when they go back to Vacuo. interesting in terms of character dynamics as well, because WBY would still NEED to react to all this, but have to wrestle with whether this new Ruby deserves that, and with how much of a person's core is made up of their memories anyway. it'd be very Steven Universe, but...Ruby WILL need those memories back at some point. we've been following this version of her for too long.

extreme three: Ruby Ascends to become the person she always wanted to be. hey, apparently next episode is going to be really long! maybe she figures it out, or at least makes some in-roads toward it. it's not about attaining perfection--Penny's human form was decidedly imperfect--but about intent. Ruby never asked to be made, and now she is making herself. the possibility for evolution is there: the Paper Pleasers Ascended with a conscious, particular want, and they got exactly that. Herb's intent wasn't as clear, but presumably now he is better at helping people in the way he wanted. in order for that to happen, though, Ruby has to figure out what she WANTS, as opposed to the growing list of what she doesn't want.

extreme four: Ruby takes the easy way and decides to reset into Summer/her Beacon self/whichever. i'd certainly sympathize if she did. Ruby doesn't know what she wants, because she's never been allowed to want much of anything, and the Afteran with the closest dilemma to that was the Red King, who "couldn't cope with losing" and so defaulted to what he decided was most important, which was winning. in a way this extreme horseshoes back to the previous one: this would still be what Ruby WANTS to be, just...toxic. which, y'know: could be fun! and echo Jaune's whole deal this season. it would also be a huge bummer to end the season (and likely the series) on, but hey--that's the Atlas arc for ya.

#rwby #helen writes meta

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