#A lying witch and a warden

[soyalexnajera]

Everything's come full circle baby!

[qcoded]

Man, 4 years already. Shoutout to The Owl House for being the only show to make me shed tears multiple times 😭😭😭 Lil redraw to celebrate !!

[Image description: a screenshot redraw of Luz from The Owl House in the first episode, holding a live snake and an Azura doll in the principal's office. She has pimples, and curly hair in she wears a headband. Her nails are also painted purple, and she's wearing a yellow, turquoise and white bead necklace. She's frowning slightly, looking down uncertainly. End description.]

[accidentally-drank-paintwater]

its been 4 years *vomits*

[shadysadie]

Owl House Episode Name References

[owlhousetarot]

King of Wands Demons: King Clawthorne

Upright: Natural-born leader, ambition, vision, taking control, decisive, bold, optimistic

Reversed: Tyrant, forceful, impulsive, ruthless, high expectations, haste, ineffective leader

At his introduction, both the upright and reversed qualities of the King of Wands fit King to a T—or at least, they fit his perception of himself. The once-mighty King of Demons, loved almost as much as he was feared, ruler of the Boiling Isles, leader of vast armies, and ruthless tyrant: reduced to a cute and cuddly not-quite-pet, feared by few and coddled by many. The King of Wands is someone who has a grand, ambitious vision which he realizes by enlisting followers and leading them through the process. Likewise, King is obsessed with collecting "minions" and assembling an army, craving the feeling of being respected, feared, and in control. He is often forceful and impulsive when he tries to get his way, like demanding Eda explode his insubordinate playmates, or buying a sketchy potion to get rid of Willow and Gus when they monopolize Luz's attention. The reversed King of Wands can indicate someone is either not suited for a leadership role, or not quite ready. Despite all of King's delusions of grandeur, in reality he's a child who needs a bit of guidance himself.

Deck Order:

< Previous: Queen of Wands | Next: Back To Masterpost >

Show Chronology:

< Previous: The High Priestess | Next: Seven of Cups >

[cartoonsofthecosmos]

When I saw what the Collector had done with the place, I thought first, as I’m sure many of y’all did, of Mabeland from Gravity Falls. That brought my mind to the theme from that Gravity Falls episode of using fantasy as a means to refuse to face reality. And y’know what that made me think of next?

“Mija, your fantasy world is holding you back. Do you have any friends? Real ones? Not imagined, or drawn, or reptilian?”

Camila’s line from the very first episode of The Owl House, spoken not even two minutes into the start of the show. What Camila is accusing Luz of here is very similar to what the Collector is actually doing. He’s created a fantasy world for himself to live in, and the friends he has in it are not real. They may as well be imaginary, given that the Collector has complete control over them. 

And now, Luz has to fight against the Collector! In a way, isn’t she fighting against this misguided perception of herself? Is she proving once and for all that she is not denying reality by choosing to also engage in the fantastical? And she’s going to do that with friends standing by her side, showing that she can have real friends without changing who she is!

This idea needs some more fleshing out, but I’m very excited about it. It’s all coming full circle now.

[feathersnflowers]

Wow I can't believe it's been 4years, I mean I haven't been here for all of it but still

[nerdalmighty]

First and Last Last Lines of The Owl House: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |

[realtimefanduboutofcontext]

Long Division from the Owl House RTFD?

Real-Time Fandub | The Owl House, "A Lying Witch and A Warden" (2021)

[butterstikk]

S1, Ep1: a lying witch and a warden

[yahoo201027]

Day in Fandom History: January 10…

Luz, a self-assured teenage girl, accidentally stumbles upon a portal to a magic world where she befriends a rebellious witch, Eda, and an adorably tiny demon warrior, King. In order to get home, Luz must help them with a mission. The first episode of The Owl House, “A Lying Witch and a Warden”, premiered on this day, 4 Years Ago.

[sorryiwasasleep]

The Titan was watching from the in between all along

(Scene from the very end of ‘A Lying Witch and A Warden’! The Owl House blinks! And I am now rewatching post-Watching and Dreaming and I noticed it and this is now my theory since the reflections is how Luz communicates from there in ‘Yesterday’s Lie’)

[iamthegodofdestruction]

HAPPY THIRD BIRTHDAY OWL HOUSE!!!!

It’s been three years of TOH, thank you Dana and the crew for this amazing show!

Some Lumity for the soul 😔

[that-ari-blogger]

The Owl House And Introducing Character

So, everyone has a story that is special to them. For a lot of people, it is Avatar: The Last Air Bender, or the Harry Potter books. For me, this story is The Owl House. I have watched this series more times than I am willing to admit and I genuinely believe that the series holds up and is on par with, if not better than other stories that have gone down as classics. It’s definitely the best story about a wizarding school that I have ever read.

This series of posts will not be a review of the show, but an analysis of why I think it is so incredible.

SPOILERS AHEAD

“So, you have a different way of doing things, a different way of seeing things. That might make you weird, but it also makes you awesome.”

A Lying Witch and a Warden is the first episode of The Owl House, and it comes out swinging, thematically. The quote above is a thesis statement for the entire show. What makes you unique is what makes you special, and it’s rather telling that she’s telling this to prisoners in “The Conformatorium”, a place where people are sent to stamp out their weirdness.

I find it interesting that, at this point, nobody’s species or physical appearance is brought into question, the “weirdness” is the personality traits. This is a story about inner strength, not external appearance, so the character designers get to go wild. But there’s another thing about the character designs here that I love, in a story about being yourself, no two characters look the same (and even the twins are noticeably different from each other), in the boiling isles, you are free to be whoever you want, with the villain trying to impose conformity onto everyone else.

In any case, the point of analysis that I would like to highlight here is the three main character introductions and how well they set up the rest of the story, Luz, Eda, and King. I’m also going to mention Camilla, but that isn’t as dwelled upon, yet. (I will get there eventually)

Luz is introduced in a fantasy of her own making. She’s wacky and fun, and “Now eat this, Sucka!” is iconic, but she’s stuck in this world of make-believe because people in the real world don’t understand her. Or more accurately, aren’t willing to understand her. This entire episode is Luz’s introduction, but the self-indulgently nerdy opening sequence (the book report bit) is so quintessentially Luz.

It’s also notable that this sets up the fairly flat character arc that Luz has in season 1. I don’t mean flat as in uninteresting, I mean she starts off being quirky and the main point of the series is the message that you don’t have to change. She does grow as time goes on, but she stays herself.

Luz does have a character arc, but she doesn’t become someone different, she learns to embrace herself. This book report is such a fantastic introduction for Luz because it establishes the contrast between Luz and the tropes she is pushing through. The Owl House is tropey as all hell, Luz literally calls out half of the references in the story, and I don’t think it's worse for doing so. But Luz is distinctly separate from the tropes. She’s unique, and she’s going through her own path, but she needs to learn that she is doing that, and setting that up with a book report is awesome.

Eda is introduced as the most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles and doesn’t really falter from there. What’s interesting is how she foils off Luz. Eda has embraced her weirdness but is exiled for it, or so we think. There is more under the surface, but we don’t really get more details on it, yet. I find it really interesting that the first thing Luz does to help Eda is fix a television. Changing it from a “box that reflects only sadness” to something that shines and gives off colour and noise. She brings something to life, and I think that’s what she does to everyone she meets.

Finally, there is King. King’s whole story is about his sense of self-worth and finding his purpose. As such, we are introduced to his shadow first, an inflated image that is terrifying and overbearing, and then it’s a little furball and a rubber ducky. He’s like Luz, with an expectation of how his life will turn out, only to find out later on that he will just turn out like himself and that’s okay.

There’s something fascinating that I haven’t touched on yet. These characters all have two introductions: an image, and a reality. Luz has the book report, we meet Eda and King’s shadows first. Even Warden Wrath has a mask and a true self. It’s a recurring theme that things aren’t what they seem at first glance. Each image meets a specific, very simple, trope, but then when we meet the characters, we find their complexities and weirdness. Then there’s Camilla. We only meet Camilla briefly, and she is an incredibly simple character. She’s the disapproving/misunderstanding parent figure. But, if everyone else has something deeper behind their first impression, I wonder what Camilla is like beyond what we see here.

Next

[owlhousetarot]

Temperance: Camila and Luz - Fantasy vs. Reality

Upright: Balance, moderation, patience, harmony, peace, perspective

Reversed: Imbalance, excess, extremes, disharmony, recklessness, hastiness, clashing priorities

The Temperance card presents us with a major theme of the show, and the initial conflict between Luz and Camila: Luz’s need to temper her love for fantasy with a healthy dose of reality. At the very beginning of the show, we see both of them go to opposite extremes; Camila sends (or at least tries to send) Luz to a three-month-long camp in hopes that she will learn to conform to “normal” social rules and make friends, and to escape this, Luz abandons the human realm entirely in hopes that she’ll be able to live out the fantasy adventure of her dreams in the demon realm. Both of them are reacting to their respective traumas; Camila herself was bullied for not conforming when she was younger and wants to spare her daughter that pain, and Luz is clinging to her most powerful remaining connection to her father, the Azura series, as a form of escapism. It’s clear they’re not fully seeing things from the other’s perspective, nor are they ready to meet in the middle quite yet.

Eventually, though, their perspectives shift. Luz ironically gets that reality check in her fantasy world, developing a sense of responsibility and learning not to project her expectations for adventure on a foreign world. Likewise, Camila comes to realize that camp would cause Luz more harm than good when "Luz” comes back and has seemingly suppressed her sense of creativity and individuality. In season 3, with Luz more grounded and Camila openly supporting her daughter’s fantastical life, they are both more prepared to answer the question not of which world Luz will choose in the end, but how they’ll strike a balance between the two.

Deck Order:

< Previous: Death | Next: The Devil >

Show Chronology:

Next: The Fool >

[morningstar-chronicles]

What episode was the human only force field in? I haven’t watched The Owl House in a while

the first one! when luz first comes to the demon realm, eda says she needs her help to get through a forcefield that "only humans can enter" to get king's "crown of power" back