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that-ari-blogger · 3 months ago

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Fantasy Australia (The Edge Of The World)

How do I open this post?

Almost every episode this season has had majour revelations, but this is one of the most significant. Every episode has had multiple themes that it has played with, but this one weaves them all together so incredibly seamlessly. Every episode has made an attempt at emotionality, but this is one of the few that genuinely has me bawling at almost every watch though.

So, yeah, this episode is dense, but it doesn’t feel like it. There is a ton of information here that goes straight to your brain without having to be pointed out. Combine that with the substantially ambitious plot, and this episode is really efficiently written.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD: (The Owl House, Nimona, Glee)

I’ve said before that certain stories don’t go places, and instead start there and get more detailed in their examination of it, and I’d like to clarify that here with a contrasting example. The Owl House goes places.

For an example, let’s look at an earlier episode that tried to do something with King, that being Really Small Problems. I know it isn’t a fair comparison, but that’s kind of the point here.

Really Small Problems comes towards the end of the first season. The series has got its mind around what it wants to do, and it shows us the growing camaraderie between the characters. Amity isn’t Luz’ friend yet, let alone girlfriend, and Eda gets in trouble with the “Fun Police.”

It is a fun episode, with the main conflict being King’s fear of abandonment. He doesn’t want to be left behind, so he accidentally causes an issue. By its very nature, this episode is small in the big scheme of things, and it’s not trying to be anything else.

“Dumb kids? Wait, those are my dumb kids!”

This isn’t from King, but it does help me segway into The Edge Of The World. By the time the final arc rolls around, Eda realising she has to look after people has turned into a desperation to protect them from all danger.

“This is so much bigger than I imagined, Lily. I thought Luz was just some lost kid, but because of me she’s wrapped up in this thing with Belos and its… it’s just not fair. She and King are children. They shouldn’t have to deal with this.”

Up until this point, I agreed with everything that Eda had said. They are kids, get them away from the danger, that’s basic parenting. This isn’t a “let them make their own mistakes”, this is something that could get them killed and is actively detrimental to their mental health as it is.

I genuinely love the shot composition of this one moment. We get Everyone at a different distance, guiding your eye through the shot. But you also have Eda leaning in to get between them all and physically disrupt their plans.

However, I want to disagree with Eda on one key element of this. It is not her fault.

Because, yeah, if she hadn’t been exiled from society, or if she hadn’t been cursed, things would have gone much better for everyone. But I’m using passive voice for a reason. It wasn’t Eda’s fault that someone cursed her, it wasn’t Eda’s fault that society exiled her. Someone decided that wild magic was punishable by death, I would place more blame on that person than on Eda.

Focusing in on the curse bit for a second, Eda has forgiven Lilith, and the two have a much healthier relationship. This is most exhibited by fact that Eda can be honest with her, and the reaction she gets is a hug and reassurance.

“We have a whole week until the Day of Unity. We'll figure out how to keep them safe.”

Did you catch that, though? Two lines, and we have two character arcs set up, as well as a deadline being established. The next few episodes all take place in the span of a single week.

This is the equivalent to the last season of The Clone Wars turning to the camera and saying, “Duku’s dead, buckle up”.

This is the opposite of drip feeding, it’s a lot of stuff happening very quickly. Your brain can only focus on one element, but you do register the rest subconsciously.

The technique has already been used less than thirty seconds prior to this, with Hooty dropping the Chekhov’s Gun that is the army on the house’s doorstep in the middle of Eda’s breakdown. You are so focused on the fact that this is white noise to her that you almost miss this. Almost.

If you did notice that information becomes Hitchcockian suspense, as you will spend the rest of the episode stressing about Eda and Lilith. If the episode just ended on the cliffhanger with no setup, you would panic at the end, but you know it’s coming. You look forwards.

Zooming out for a second, I want to talk about the purpose of storytelling and how it relates to analysis.

Stories exist, first and foremost, to communicate with their audience. That is how we end up with shallow stories and dense stories. A shallow story is trying to communicate itself and not much else, and this is not definitively worse or better than a more complex story. Sometimes, the story just wants you to have a good time watching it, and that’s ok.

As such, a key tool in any writer’s arsenal is engagement. If an audience member connects with a story, they are a more likely to understand the plot and themes and all other relevant elements.

It’s not essential, There Will Come Soft Rains is a short story by Ray Bradburry that is intentionally uncomfortable to read, and that’s because the aim is to get you to stop reading and take action.

Look at these character designs. They're so unique and personable. But they're also weird. King's eyes don't match these at all. Maybe they aren't as similar to him as they claim.

The Owl House is a series that, for the most part, likes to be engaging, and The Edge Of The World does this especially well through worldbuilding. You find out that this world has a version of Australia, and you don’t ever get to explore it, you just get glimpses.

The series has rewarded curiosity up to this point and trained you to pay attention to its actual plot. So, let’s actually talk about that.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. A character spends the story learning something about themself that explains part of who they are. But oh no, the characters family, who was so accepting up to this point, is suddenly unforgiving. All the character wants to do is engage with their family and cultivate that relationship, but the basic detail of who they are gets in the way of that, culminating in the following:

“You were never one of us.”

This is the plot of Nimona, my single favourite moving picture ever made.

Nimona is a fundamentally queer movie, with its eponym’s shapeshifting nature causing her to be ostracised. She is othered because of who she is, when all she actually wants is friendship.

But Nimona is actually a secondary character in her own movie. It’s not about her, it’s about the other side. Nimona is about someone who has been societally conditioned to be a bigot learning the error of his ways.

The film is a subversion that doesn’t focus on humanising the queer person, instead using that as a baseline and explaining that it is possible for an asshole to change.

But this is all very cerebral. What about a more blatant example?

“I’m just too tired. I have to just be me.”

“Everyone has secrets, Santana. They are called secrets for a reason.”

This is part of a conversation that takes place between Santana and her Grandmother in Glee, leading up to Santana’s wedding to another woman. This is Santana coming out to her grandmother, and I want to highlight the acting here.

It’s quiet, and comfortable. You can tell that these two share a kinship. But the second Santana starts being honest, Abuela starts looking around for an escape, clearly wanting to be anywhere she is not. Who Santana is has created a rift between her and her family.

This is, notably, subverted at the wedding itself. There are not many moments in any media that can make my stomach drop without fail, but the second Abuela walks through the door is incredible. It’s a moment of connection and overcoming of prejudice. It’s a story beat that communicates itself to you entirely in four seconds.

If we pivot this back to King for a moment, we end up with a very similar story. It’s about King discovering he is a Titan, a word that doesn’t mean anything in our world, so we are free to engage with it as we wish. Then, he is shunned by the people who claim to be his family.

His fear of abandonment from previous episodes has been put on full display. We have set up why this would hurt him as much as it does

You could make a note about how this episode relates to interpretations of faith through the Titan Trappers' admiration for the Collector, who in turn doesn't appear to know who they are, so the Trappers are instead making things up as they go. You could notice that. But I won’t.

The Owl House resolves its main conflict by giving King two families of his own. The first is the found family of Luz, Hooty, and Eda, who contrast the stereotypical family things that the Trappers do with actual love and affection. But, he also has the land itself, which guides and protects him.

Before I go, I want to briefly mention a piece of fanart. Spoilers for the entirety of the series from this point onwards.

The most important shot of this episode, to me, is one of the final ones. King, looking out, returning to his home, but with different eyes. He’s choosing to engage with it, but he’s still staring at the vastness of his own future.

The artist @kaereth then offered another angle on this scene, quite literally.

The land is guiding King, his parent was always there, always watching, always looking after him. Because someone can’t talk to you doesn’t mean that they aren’t present.

The Titan is effectively dead in this series. Like, sure, he’s alive in there, but he ain’t doing much. This is the closest the two get to actually sharing a conversation, and it’s the moment before everything goes to hell.

Fun fact, this is what traveling in Australia actually feels like, so kudos for the accuracy there.

Final Thoughts

This is what I meant about The Owl House being a queer story rather than just a story with queer people in it. It’s about identity and family and belonging. It’s about freedom and escape from bigotry.

Because being queer doesn’t make you any different from anyone else, it just means maybe you like or don’t like different people or express yourself in a different way. It’s just a thing that people are.

Next up, Labyrinth runners, the culmination of the most important character arc in the entire show. That of one Principal Bump. Stick around if that interests you.

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