#A story that doesn't hinge on the Weird Route? Check.

[cursed-appleblood]

S1-E1: A Lying Witch and a Warden Analysis

A Lying Witch and A Warden demonstrates one of the most crucial aspects of The Owl House; Getting across a lot of information in a short amount of time.

This is the first of what will hopefully, eventually, cover every episode of the series. At least for now, this will be about interpreting each episode on their own, as one would a short story, and seeing what it has to say.

The opening scene shows Luz remonstrated by her mother and principal for a chaotic presentation about her favorite book, conveying how her passion for fiction and creativity are in conflict with the expectations from authority figures in her life.

This episode hinges on key symbols, as is traditional good storytelling in the medium of 20 minute animated shows. Creators want to express what the character is going through visually, and create literal situations and objects to represent internal and abstract conflicts. Gravity Falls did this too, almost to a formula, in a way that I find useful as a baseline. But I digress.

The book the presentation was about, The Good Witch Auzora, is a symbol for everything positive and joyous about fantasy and fiction. Throughout the show, Luz embracing Auzora are linked to moments of empowerment, liberation, joy and freedom (see: NOW EAT THIS SUCKA!!!), whereas discarding it is meant to show Luz giving up, her depression and resigned conformity. Luz is emotionally attached to the book, and it played an important role in her development. We learn later in the show that the book was a gift from her late father, which both re-contextualizes the book as a link to her father, and subtextually states that her father understood and nurtured his daughter's creativity. What Auzora represents throughout the series is really rich, and I appreciate its symbolic use throughout the series.

The other main symbol in this episode is the Reality Check summer camp Camilla intends to send Luz to, which represents, quite blatantly, the pressure to fit in to the crowd, abandon uniqueness, whether inherent or purposeful, and keep one's creativity in check. This serves both as a plot device to explain why Luz can disappear from the human realm as well as symbolizing the main problem in Luz's life. In the climax of the episode, the Conformitorium is a parallel to Reality Check camp- the logical extreme of that idea, a literal dungeon where individuals are incarcerated for harmless but unconventional traits.

"None of you actually did anything wrong, you're just a bunch of weirdos... like me." / "Let this be a lesson to all of you: There's no place in society for you if you can't fit in."

The climax of the episode allows Luz to battle a literal manifestation of her conflict, and in doing so proves her belief of the intrinsic value of weirdness and sticking with other outcasts. She then literally chooses between the two symbols, freedom of expression and authenticity vs the conventional route and pleasing the people who don't understand her.

In summary, I think this episode showcases how effective metaphor and symbols can be in short form storytelling. It allows the audience to understand what meaningful decisions Luz is making in a simple and deliberate way.

In the first minutes of the episode, it's showed through montage and dialogue that Luz does not fit in with her peers due to her weirdness. I would say it is not just that Luz is "weird", but it's a combination of these personality traits: Out of the Box Thinking, Commitment to the Bit, and Lack of Social Awareness. She gets an idea ("what if I made a baby griffin model?"), commits to it completely ("well, it'll need spider breath to be anatomically correct- I should fill it with living spiders!"), and doesn't understand/see what will make others uncomfortable (this point is just apparent in the entire montage- she doesn't consider a spider infestation might upset her class, like how she doesn't understand flipping her eyelids will gross people out, because she's so interested in what she finds interesting about it).

So Luz uses the escapism of fiction to deal with her social ostracization, because it's an outlet that 1. aligns with her passionate interests and 2. is free of judgement.

I find one line that Eda says particularly interesting: "Every myth you humans have is caused by a little of our world leaking into yours." Initially, PARDON? The canon implications of that are astounding-- but taking it on a narrative level, this kind of means Luz literally stepped into fiction itself, the place where everything fantastical originated from. And this makes sense, as The Boiling Isles allows her to live out her dream of being a witch.

I want to say I'll get better at writing these as I go, but for now this post is like a test of concept. Future episodes will also have more to talk about, of course. But generally, if I can do this for every episode, I'll have a cohesive interpretation of the entire show on stand-by. That's the goal for this project- The Owl House is dense and deliberate, so by looking at it piece by piece, I can see look at what it says without holding a massive amount of information in my mind at once. It will probably take a long time, and probably with long gaps between.

DEVELOPMENT ART:

Interestingly, The Warden's went through a lot of different versions before his final design. They seemed to generally know they wanted a big, broad shouldered, looming guy, but look at all the different mask types and different fashion styles. I think the design + voice combo in the final episode was really effective, as imo he's a really memorable character for such a short appearance. And I think the simplified outfit makes more sense given what he represents.

Scene Art:

losing my mind at these. they're so intricate!! The Boiling Isles art has so much in it, it conveys what I appreciate about the setting- It's not just a random land of various fantasy elements disconnected, it's it's own world with it's own verisimilitude to uphold. The composition of these shots too, really just show the knowledge and skill of the artists on this show.

I also really like that the title of this episode, because yeah, Eda lies constantly in this episode, and I like that it's foreshadowed in the title. I think that's neat.

[stardestroyer81]

DarkLight is clearly the real deal, Deltarune is just the AU lol.

SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK 😎

[the-writers-wrench]

You have a typewriter? Lemme see it and also where do I get one I want one it’s the only weird writing shit I don’t have.

I have two actually! First one I got was a 1969 Smith Corona Super Sterling. Named him Wesley Smith O' Rona for reminding me of Smith and Wesson and being a Corona in the Corona pandemic (it might be weird to name typewriters, but IDK). Interesting feature is that the top part slides forward instead of hinging up like most typewriters.

The second one I got was a Royal Quiet De Luxe from (I think, based on serial numbers) 1951. She is named Reine Ginny De Luxe Tranquil for being a Royal Quiet I got in Virginia. She is from the era when typewriters didn't have a 1 key, and instead used a lowercase L to denote 1s. That's why many older fonts have 1s and Ls look very similar. Of the two, she is in a bit better material condition and the one I use the most. Fun fact, apparently Ian Flemming and Ernest Hemingway both used them extensively. Flemming even bought a gold plated one as a reward for finishing Casino Royale and wrote the rest of the James Bond stories on it.

As for getting one, you've got a couple of options. One is to buy online. Facebook Marketplace always has some, and I got Wesley off of Ebay. Couple things to consider though, you might not be able to check the typewriter out yourself before buying and discover any quirks or issues the seller didn't know about/mention. There's also shipping; I got lucky with Wesley, but I later heard horror stories of typewriters not faring well in the mail. If you go this route, consider leaning towards Facebook marketplace where you might be able to check it out before buying and transport it yourself.

Another option is the way I got Ginny: old people. I was at my great Aunt and Uncle's place for dinner and casually mentioned Wesley because I knew they liked old stuff. My Aunt immediately said "Oh, I think we have a typewriter in the attic, would you like to take a look at it?" One thing led to another, and I'm walking out with a new typewriter (This was not my intention I swear). So if you've got older relatives/friends, maybe ask around if they have one you could buy/take off their hands.

The last method is thrift stores. A lot of them will have a couple sitting around waiting for a good home. Some, especially the "portables" (both of mine weigh about twenty pounds, even ultra portables are around 9) will get put in with suitcases and luggage since their cases look a lot like them. If you find one, see if you can do some tests. Make sure the carriage moves smoothly, that the lever will advance the platen (the rubber roller). Check that all the keys work, or don't stick too bad. Even if the ink ribbon is drier than rice crackers, it should still have enough ink to show faint letters to make sure they're all working/in order. Any quirks or issues you come across will have to either be fixed or lived with, so keep that in mind.

A honrable mention, Royal still makes modern typewriters. You can get one on Amazon for like $250, but I haven't heard too much on them. Besides, why would you get a new one when the older ones look way more cool?

A couple of final miscellaneous things:

You'll probably want to get the platen redone. The rubber will have gotten old, and start having flat areas or have paper slip around (If the typewriter has the switch, disengage the platen when you're not using it so it doesn't rest against anything. You don't need to remove the whole platen though, except for cleaning maybe). There's a company in New York that still does platen repair, about 80 bucks depending on the model.

I'd recommend checking out Just My Typewriter on Youtube, she goes through a lot more about the buying process of typewriters and cleaning them (she has over 30 and names them too, I'M NOT CRAZY!) There's also the Typewriter Database, which is a good resource for finding when a typewriter was made and some repair guides too.

When typing, put a second sheet behind the one you're typing on, it'll keep the period key from punching through too much.

If it still has them, save the metal ribbon rolls. Typewriter ribbon is like eight bucks on amazon and you can transfer them from the cheap plastic rollers to the nicer metal ones.

Lastly, search stuff up. Reddit has some subreddits on typewriters and typewriter repair, and there's plenty of other resources out there I haven't thought of.

Thanks for the ask! I love ranting about typewriters for thirty minutes.