#episode discussions

[koalathebear]

Video: Maxton Hall - Scene Discussion: The Dance (episode 3, season 1)

I've been doing a few short videos to discuss why I liked certain scenes in the series.

I did a really short one for when James sees Ruby at Cyril's party .. but this is a slightly longer one about why I really liked their actual dance scene together.

The dance scene in a teen drama is such an overdone trope and can be super cringe and awful .. but I really liked this one and thought it was done really engagingly and in a way that progressed their relationship.

Spoilers for episode 3 and a reference to episode 6.

[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.

[idiotsonlyevent]

it is completely understandable to be uncomfortable with the sexual assault in dandadan. it's important to discuss how it's framed, whether it's handled poorly, or if it could be been portrayed better. but the number of people - even fans - stating that it is only fanservice, irrelevant, or could be removed is frankly bizarre to for SO many reasons, starting with the fact that this parallel exists.

the anime made it even more obvious by interpolating cuts from the first scene into the second one.

i thought this scene showed that momo gaining her powers by believing in her relationship with her grandmother gives her the strength to fight back against what is basically a horrific, much more aggressive and abstract (maybe even absurd?) representation of her shitty gross ex - who was demanding she 'put out' and pay for the love hotel in very first scene.

while the escalation from one scene to the next is surprising, it's not something that comes out of nowhere. this first scene is meant to be a set-up to what will happen later. it sets the tone, though significantly more lighthearted at this point. it tells you that sex, sexuality, etc. is something dandadan will touch on - though you don't know what the scope and depth will be until later in the chapter.

i cannot recommend this video enough, as it discusses some interesting interpretations of what the serpoians and turbo granny represent in their respective assault scenes, as well as how right now the treatment of both scenes is unfortunately uneven.

more notes about plot and thematic relevance below the cut. spoilers for anime-onlies (up to chapter 8, will probably be covered in episodes 4/5).

momo was assaulted, and almost cut up by the serpoians, much like the other victims turbo granny appeared around. this is an intentional parallel. turbo granny goes to momo because that is what she does. again, SUPER unclear how that factors into turbo granny's assault of ken, but if we keep the video's interpretation of cynicism in mind, it could be related to that; maybe turbo granny has a cynicism toward men - similar to momo in chapter/episode 1 - and this is why she chose to attack ken. unfortunately, it's still too early to really understand and explain a lot of her motivations.

again, completely understandable to not like how the sexual assault was handled or portrayed, and it's important to keep discussing it. but this is what dandadan does for many different types of trauma and difficult life experiences. this is a huge part of dandadan's identity. if you don't like it, that is fine, but calling the sexual assault 'just fan service' is blatantly untrue.

[essektheylyss]

the visceral gut drop of "—and in his place is a gently floating male drow—" vs the absolute giddy high of "—who is no longer Seth. Instead you see, a dark elf—" like, Essek Thelyss really is narratively That Bitch and he sure knows how to make a fucking entrance

[egophiliac]

Hi it's just to let you know that the official romanization of Revaan's name is Raverne ! Also they have romanized Baul's name to Baur !

Twst coming back at us again with the least expected romanization! thank you everybody (oh god my inbox) (no it's great, I literally asked for this and the reactions have been INCREDIBLE, thank you all!)

I do like Raverne though, I think it's got a nice fancy sound to it! (I had kinda suspected it was going to be an R instead of an L, so the fact that it's SO close to Laverne except for that is hilarious to me personally.) and Dragoneye Duke is honestly probably the best translation for his title, I wasn't envying the localizers that one. :') Baur instead of Baul I was NOT expecting, but in retrospect I think his name's supposed to be a reference to the Bauru crocodile, so that actually makes way more sense!

someone else also said Meleanor has become Maleanor, which is the REALLY weird one to me, because I was so surprised it was written as Mel instead of Mal in the first place?! oh god no I can't decide which one I like better. 😭 (I wonder if they might change it to Mal...they have made romanization changes before) (like I remember House of Distraction being corrected to House of Destruction in Playful Land) (I did check and she's still Mel for now, but I dunno, they might Mal her up and some point and save me from having to make a decision about which one to use) (HECK I CAN'T DECIDE)

uhhhh thank you for letting me ramble about anime names, let's just say MONOGRAMMED SWEATERS FOR EVERYONE

[notbecauseofvictories]

Watching this again, it becomes incredibly clear in s3 that Nate is teaching Parker how to run her own crew. He fully anticipates that she will be his legacy, and more than anyone else---more than Sophie or Hardison, more than Eliot (though I would argue that Eliot never even slightly wanted it)---he is teaching her how to take over, think like he thinks and plan like he plans. He fumbles some of the emotional stuff, never actually tells her explicitly...but by the time you reach s3 he's clearly all-in. He's decided. Parker is going to be Nate 2.0, with different more exciting bugs than the 1.0 version.

[bob-com69]

Ok what the fuck was today's dungeon meshi episode!?

We get hit with Senshi's is he a cannibal or not arc which was a roller costar in of itself with playing the guessing game of is he or is he not then the great wave of relief when it's revealed he isn't a cannibal

But then they had to hit us with this guy

...

WHY IN THE BLOODY HELL DID STUDIO TRIGGER PUT FUCKING ELF SENSHI IN THE SAME EPISODE AS THE BLOODY CANNIBALISM ARC!?

MY HEART HAS FUCKING RISEN TO HEAVEN AND THEN PLUMMETED STRAIGHT TO HELL 20X OVER FROM ONE EPISODE PURLEY FROM SHOCK! WHY SUCH A DRASTIC CHANGE OF TONE!? I'M DYING!!!

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

OP: Check out. The fully-sexual charged cinematic movement design.

Cnetizens: How did the director come up with the idea to have him kneel on a playing card, adding so much aesthetic energy, is that some kind of genius?

[preacherboyd]

House M.D. | 2x19 House vs. God

[spicyvampire]

He sure was using his mouth the whole time [Tharn's version]

THE SIGN (2023) EP. 10 + EP. 9

[nellasbookplanet]

I know that after Downfall the perspective of 'the gods are a FAMILY' has permeated fandom on both sides of the kill-all-gods argument, but frankly that isn't all they are and acting as if it's suddenly their only motivation flattens both them as characters and the narrative they (and bells hells) are in.

The Wildmother and The Raven Queen didn't 'let' Lolth get away with nabbing Opal and killing Cyrus because she’s their sister. Come on man, we've already seen that the primes are plenty capable of opposing and fighting their siblings on the side of mortals (is the calamity a joke to you??). I'm not saying the primes aren’t capable of picking the lives of their betrayer siblings over mortals (downfall showed as much) but that's not what the situation with Opal and Lolth was about in the slightest.

They let Lolth 'get away with it' not because she’s family, but because this is the very rare instance of them not only having the same goal, but of them actively fighting for their lives. As far as we know that has only happened once before on Exandria, and that time they also entered a truce to defend themselves. The vast majority of the time, the primes picking their siblings over mortals won’t happen because mortals can’t actually threaten the gods (normally), making the 'they're family argument' a moot point. The primes won’t necessarily agree with Lolth's methods, but they won’t go throwing away both hers and their own champions in a meaningless struggle when they need all their strength to stop the fucking apocalypse.

[recurring-polynya]

rip twitter, if it weren't for you i would never have known about the only good moment from the bleach dub

[marzipanandminutiae]

it really feels like there's this culture right now on Tumblr like

"be okay with friends and loved ones not talking to you! be okay with friends and loved ones leaving you for months on end! don't ever expect anyone to text you back! omg you want friends to actually CONTACT you? you feel hurt when you're always the one reaching out? wow just say you hate mentally ill people and go!"

I've seen a lot of folks saying that it's your responsibility to work on abandonment issues if you have them, and that's true. but nobody ever says "maybe work on not abandoning people, too"

[theweeklydiscourse]

Some Atla fans are deeply unwilling to engage with the fact that their beloved series may bear the marks of being written by two white men in the early 2000s. They can’t conceive that the show might’ve been anything less than perfect and that there are certain problematic elements within it that are consistently overlooked by the fandom at large.

[beaulesbian]

THE TERROR (2018) S01E07 "Horrible From Supper"

They also told us lemon juice would ward off the scurvy. I heard, when it gets bad, your gums pull back. Scars dissolve and open back up.

[aaronsinferno]

“BuckTommy’s should’ve seen their relationship for what it was 🤭”

We did, and we still do. But we also see what it could be, and that’s why we enjoy it. We fell in love with their story and all their possibilities just as Tim, Oliver, and Lou intended. You refusing to invest in them and instead bash their relationship and Lou/Tommy at every turn because you’re too busy betting on a dead horse is on you. Stop projecting.