#tho they're also doing their own episode rewrite ideas which are for more extensive than mine lol

[yardsards]

if i could change one thing about the owl house, i'd change the main point of conflict in clouds on the horizon from "odalia's okay with genocide, alador isn't" to "alador is willing to listen to his children, odalia isn't"

first off, i'd make it so that odalia *didn't* know what the draining spell actually did. her knowingly participating in genocide just serves to overshadow her pre-established abusiveness, and feels like the writers didn't trust the audience to understand that she was Bad and deserved to be cut out of her family's lives on the basis of abuse alone.

(also it. kinda doesn't make sense why she'd be okay with it? like she is greedy and short-sighted. but the draining spell would negatively impact her personally, and while the idea of her being so distracted by greed that she acts against her own interests is extremely neat and an apt commentary on real billionaires, it's just,,, a big stretch.)

instead, i'd have her dismiss the truth with "i'm not going to put such a good business deal in jeopardy because of some unfounded suspicions" and "i trust the emperor far more than i trust a bunch of children"

next, i'd replace the scene where king talks to alador. while it was a really nice scene that revealed more about alador's situation and kinda laid the groundwork for king being helpful in the next episode, it's not the best way for alador to learn about the draining spell in my version of the episode. because in that scene, alador believes king is a coven scout -an authority figure- so trusting what he says about the day of unity is not any kind of challenge for alador.

instead, i'd make it so that *emira and edric* are the ones who tell him about the draining spell (maybe king helped the twins escape? that gives him a purpose within the episode and there's a fun parallel with him freeing the collector later).

i don't think the twins were deliberately looking for alador, but they saw him sitting out there as they broke out and they had two choices: sneak past him and continue trying to stop things themselves, or talk to him. and they don't quite trust alador to listen and do the right thing, but amity seemed so convinced when she told them he'd listen, and they trust *her*, so they decide to talk to him.

and he listens and promises to put a stop to it. and he tells them to go find safety, and emira is like "but shouldn't we stay and help/make sure amity is safe" and alador tells her that it should have never been her responsibility to handle everything (i am starving for her whole parentified older sister thing to get addressed can you tell) and promises that he's going to do better for all of them, and apologizes for being so negligent -and Maybe explains a bit of why he was like that and what odalia did to him (if i could fit it in without it being clunky and keeping it clear that it's an explanation not a full excuse)

so the twins go to take shelter at hexside (no more "wtf did he just leave them in gay baby jail???" that we had in canon) and alador and king go confront odalia/save amity like in canon

and then in that confrontation, perhaps alador brings up the abuse and overwork (since it maybe wouldn't come up in my rewritten scene w him and the twins like it did in canon's scene w him and king). and the general vibe w him confronting her is less "this is the final straw" and more "i should have done this years ago"

and overall i'd want the episode to keep the "he is also a domestic abuse victim and, at times, messed up because he was acting out of fear and trying to protect them" that it introduced in the canon version of the episode (i know some people have criticized the show's choice to make him a victim too and while i can understand some of their reasons i overall liked the concept so it stays) while keeping in mind the "sometimes he messed up because he was trying to do what was 'best' for his kids whilst ignoring what the kids actually wanted/needed" that they established in reaching out