#titan luz's design is so epic I just had to draw it

[qquoe]

💫 Titan Luz, Luzan 💫

[kinghijinx22]

The Owl House Watching and Dreaming review/analysis part 4

Part 4 Titan Luz vs Belos

So Luz returns to the Boling Isles, now with the power of the Titan and a new badass form to go with it. She shows up just in time to save Eda, King and the Collector makes a really cool entrance while exclaiming "I'm back" which then turns into a loss for words as she tries to think of a cooler line to say which is so perfect and fitting for Luz. What I love about this is that even after gaining the power of god and anime she's still remains her true to her funny dorky self and what I also love is this is the thing that helps Eda to realise that it really is Luz. Although Luz's palisman Stringbean was able to sense that it her right away, flying by her side and turning into her staff which was another cute detail. I also love everything about Titan Luz's design, the long curly hair which is definitely what Luz with long hair would look like, the black fur, the horns, the black eyes with yellow pupils, the fang, her keeping the witches hat, literally everything about it is perfect and a detail I appreciate is that she actually looks like a mixture of herself, Eda and King. While she's now part titan, she not only has King's fur and horns but also Eda's fang and eyes. The adopted Owl family now looks like they are all a biological family and there's something beautiful about that.

Luz with her new Titan form along with Eda and King go on to fight off Belos's growing influence while the Collector goes to the archives to help Camilla and kids to rescue everyone who was turned into puppets in the Archives by stopping it from falling. This whole sequence of the Owl family flying across the Boiling Isles and destroying Belos goo is beautiful and where the animation really pops off. The Owl House always looks good but during a lot of action scenes or important story scenes the animation quality will just shoot up and it turns really smooth and always looks amazing. A lot of the scenes with Titan Luz look amazing and the animation exploding just makes it even more special. Something I love about this whole sequence is that even at the end of everything and even though Luz has all this power, Eda still holds her hand tells her to concentrate when she struggles with shooting the Titan magic which shows that Eda will never stop being a loving mentor to Luz. We have King teaching her to use the Titan yell, which feels like how he always wanted to teach her about demons. And then the three of them use Stringbean the palisman staff to draw a giant light glyph in the sky which is also very fitting, light being the first discovered and most important glyph after all. During this entire action scene an epic remix of the intro theme plays, making everything feel even more special and final.

The three of them fly into space and we get a nice view of the Demon Realm which shows us the far away unexplored lands and the other Titan corpses that make up islands like the Boiling Isles. It's a beautiful sight and gives us good idea of the scope of the Demon Realm really is. Luz figures out exactly has happened, that Belos has spread himself across the land with the help if the Titan's heart, and she figures out exactly how to stop it. Luz references what she had learnt from Eda all the way back in The Intruder, the fourth episode of the entire show which is a brilliant call back. In was there that Eda had taught Luz that magic is natural to witches and demons because it comes from bile sack next to their heart. Luz reminds Eda of magic comes from the heart before they all plummet down to the Titan's heart, and I want to add that when they all say "from the heart" it feels like they are saying that both their own magic is coming from the heart and that it's where they need to go to stop Belos. They crash into the Emperor's castle but before they can go into the throne room to confront Belos at the heart, they find Raine Whispers, tied to wall with Belos's goo and loosing their energy. They are missing their glasses, and whispering the iconic tune Raine's Rapsody/Eda's Requiem, the special song that Eda had written and performed for them while they were originally a couple. It's the song that has played during several of their more significant scenes as a couple, and speaking of those moments we can another intimate moment with the two of them here as Eda approaches to rescue them and put their glasses back on their face so they can see her. She pulls Raine off the wall and they embrace as Eda showers them with kisses on their forehead in a scene that's really cute. As well as getting another Luz and Amity kiss scene which we do luckily end up getting two of, another thing that I really wanted from this special was getting a Raine and Eda kiss and while this is closest we get, at least the two officially get back together by end and do get share some nice moments at least.

Now with Titan Luz, Harpy Eda, King and Raine our main heroes go in to finally face Belos in the final battle. To defeat him, Luz must pull him free from the Titan's heart to drain his energy and it's here that the animation pops off even more then it did before. Luz's magic looks beautiful as she draws a spell circle of fire and creates some ice steps to reach Belos, running across the ice using Stringbean to fly up to him. She grabs his ribcage, using the ice steps as leverage and starts pulling as her adopted family protect her from all of the gooey hands that Belos tries using to stop her. Luz is getting to finish Belos of directly, and her family are there to make it fair and it's here that we get one of the powerful scenes of the entire series, literally everything was leading to this. Luz finally gets to be the hero and defeat Belos, and as she does we get a call back to the very scene in the series. Luz's very own version of an important line originally spoken by the heroine of her favourite book series that had inspired her to want to become a witch in the first place. The book series that was given to her by her now late father Manny, the Good Witch Azura.

"Do not underestimate me Belos for I am the Good Witch Luz. Child of the human realm, student of the Demon Realm and Warrior of Peace… NOW EAT THIS SUCKA!" She shouts as she rips him out in the most satisfying and beautifully animated way possible. A great detail about this scene is that not only is it a well built up and sincere call back to a now iconic line, but it also feels like Luz has really found herself after everything she's been through and is reasserting this, her identity.

After the defeat of Belos we see his goo that had spread across the land disappear and his kaiju self turning to stone before also disintegrating, ironic karma given Belos's abuse of the petrification spell to punish wild witches. Belos himself fascinatingly turns back not just into his human self, but his old self from hundreds of years ago. And so Luz comes face to face with Belos's pathetic 16th century puritan self. Even to his very end he's just as manipulative and conniving as he always has been to his very core as he attempts to make one last desperate attempt to appeal Luz's kindness and what makes this scene so glorious is that she doesn't buy any of it. Everything that spews forth from his mouth is just more lies, that is until the acid rain comes down and begins to melt him down to his goo form again. Physically and metaphorically his mask is removed and his dissolves into threatening that Luz will become "just as evil as those witches." Just as you think he's going to have a slither of self awareness in to his vileness in saying that Luz will end up like him, even in his dying breathes he refuses understand reality and blames all of his problems on the minorities that he has chosen to oppress. Luz decides to step away, letting him burn in the rain and rejecting his toxic ideology before her family- Eda, King and Raine step in to finish him off by giving the remaining bits of a him a good stomping, finally finishing off the dictator once and for all.

What I love about Belos's death is the significance of it and what it means to the story. As I said before about the Collector's attempt to use kindness with Belos, this is a glorious subversion of the "redeem all your enemies and become friends with everybody" trope that a lot of stories especially in recent times like to employ. And not only are some people so vile to the core that they refuse to change, but there are people who just do not deserves forgiveness and that's ok. From the start Belos has had a hateful, close minded view of the world and has only ever wanted to cause suffering to others. He craves violence and in 16th century puritan fashion he has chosen the witches as his victims, literally committing hundreds of years to his genocidal schemes and killing his own brother when he didn't agree with him. There is nothing that Belos could do at this point to redeem himself, he is beyond redemption and I love what the Owl House has to say about this. Belos is fascist dictator who refused to change his world views over hundreds of years of opportunities and has attempted actual genocide, this man is unforgivably evil and needs to removed from existence before he can hurt anybody else. Something I love about the Owl House is that not only does is celebrate oppressed and unrepresented minorities, but it directly calls out the evil people who oppress them. It's beautiful and it's realistic and what I love about how this show presents all this is how literal it is.

Just like that, Belos is gone and our heroes are free to relax. The power of the Titan leaves Luz's body and as it does we get one final look the literally fiery soul of King's dad. King himself gets one good look at his father before he disappears into the sky and Luz turns back into a human. In a heartwarming moment Eda and King hug Luz and they all fall to the ground, finally able to look up and breath. The Owl family is reunited for good, and Luz gets to tell King what his dad had wanted to say to him and it's a cute call back to King's love of bread puns, showing that she was watching over him this whole time. "I loaf you."

[jeremys-blogs]

The Owl House: Season One Overview

When Owl House first crept onto my radar, back when the first teaser trailer came out, I admittedly didn't think much of it. I thought it had a neat aesthetic and I was confident it would have its appeal, but at the time I just felt that it was one of those shows I might watch once or twice, like, but then not think about again. Then new information started coming my way, most notably that Alex Hirsch, the creator of my all-time favourite Disney show was going to be one of the voices. Now that definitely caught my interest, even more so when I started seeing other notable names attached to the project, like the always-awesome Wendie Malick. So I decided then and there that this was starting to shape up as something special, and that I was going to keep a close eye on it. And I'm definitely glad I did, because the Owl House has proven itself to be a true gem of a cartoon, with characters, animation and stories that haven't engaged and enthralled me this much since the days of Gravity Falls, and that's saying something. With its first season over, and having thoroughly impressed me in doing so, I decided it might be worth me saying just how well this show has fared thus far.

Now, the story of a youth who goes to a magical world and overcomes dangers and adventure is by no means a new idea in fiction. Heck, Disney themselves did that exact premise not so long before Owl House, with Amphibia. But I've always been of the belief that just because an idea is old doesn't meant it can't still be good if you do something interesting with it. Maybe put a new spin on it or explore the idea in ways others haven't. Does Owl House do this? Yes, I'd say it does. We've all heard of magical worlds, but probably not one made from the corpse of an ancient titan. We've all seen stories of witches, but likely not an entire race of them who do magic in the way these ones do. We've seen schools of magic, but again it isn't probably not the kind we see here, if only because of how casual everyone is about danger. There's lots of things here in the Owl House that has been done before, but interesting twists coupled with bizarre and unfamiliar character and background designs certainly help to make it stand out. In fact, I'd call this the least conventional conventional fantasy story ever put out there, if that actually makes any sense. Probably not, but hey, it's the best way I can think to describe it.

Characters are, as always, the biggest draw of any show for me, and luckily the Owl House has a plethora of great ones to offer me. Luz is a fine central heroine and immediately endeared herself to me in her first appearance with her wide-eyed enthusiasm and boundless love for both life in general and the fantastic in particular. However, what I loved about her introduction is that they made it clear that she has a lot of learning to do before her story is finished. She may be the typical oddball who doesn't fit in with her world, but the show doesn't shy away from the fact that she was a disruptive and often dangerous influence back there, particularly to the other kids. And in the episodes following that we see her make mistakes that get others in a lot of bad situations. Normally this would put me off a character pretty quickly, but the show remedies this well by not only having Luz be a very caring and well-meaning person, but also showing her be willing to do whatever it takes to make up for the errors she makes. And that, coupled with her general energy and optimism, makes her a very likeable main character for the show.

Eda and King, voiced by the aforementioned Wendie Malick and Alex Hirsch respectively, also do a great job of impressing me as characters. Firstly, we have Eda, an "outcast and proud of it" type of mentor with a rebellious streak that dwarfs even that which Luz herself had back in the human world. Now, having a mentor who's on the bad side of the law isn't new, but Malick brings a really fun energy to this character, with her snark being easily one of the most entertaining things about the show overall. But she gives her greater depth beyond just being a sarcastic mentor, as Eda is shown to be someone with her own struggles, her own pains, that draw you in and fascinate you in a way you might never have expected from her time in just that first episode. King likewise proves to be a character with many layers to him. Introduced as a demon who has fallen from power and constantly trying to regain that position, he often proves to be a great source of comedy, but also shows himself as capable of warming up to Luz and others and being genuinely caring towards them. These two have both proved to be great otherworldly characters, and ideal companions for Luz during her time in the Boiling Isles.

And like any truly great ensemble piece, Owl House provides plenty of other wonderful characters to enjoy over the course of the show. Hootly, the titular Owl House himself, is a truly entertaining comic relief character, and Hirsch, who voices him as well as King, clearly has a lot of fun in bringing just general random comedy into the mix. Luz's friends at school, Willow and Gus, are as endearing as her, proving supportive and just generally likeable kids that it's always a pleasure to see, with Willow in particular having some real standout moments in the show. And then we have Amity Blight, and here's a character who really does showcase a lot of what makes this story wonderful. Someone who appears as one thing, in this case a quintessential school bully character, and then gets revealed to have far more to her than we might have ever expected. And her growing close relationship to Luz has shown to be one of the most interesting things about the Owl House thus far, at least to me. I could probably write a whole essay on that relationship, and trust me, I have plans to, but for now just know that she, along with the rest of the recurring cast, have shown themselves to be a real delight to watch.

The stories in this show, in a similar vein to Gravity Falls, follow a sort of quasi-serialized format. There will definitely be hints of something larger and ominous building up in the background, with reference and mentions of things happening that we never get to see, but for the most part the show largely seems content to have episodic stories. But there will be interconnectedness there too, as some episodes will come about as a direct result of things established in prior episodes, such as Willow's past friendship to Amity, or Eda trying to get Luz enrolled at Hexside. And I've always had a fondness for that kind of storytelling. Sure, fully serialized stories that tell big, sweeping epics are all well and good, but smaller and more self-contained outings have always just appealed to me more, especially since it always seems that Owl House has character interactions be at the forefront of its priorities. I could honestly just watch an episode of three or more of these recurring characters just hanging out and talking to each other and be completely satisfied with it. But of course, there's the big end-of-season arc, and without spoiling things it definitely upped the seriousness, drama and stakes of the show. There had been risk and danger before, but that finale absolutely took it to eleven, which was fine for me, given how the rest of the show had been.

The Owl House, like any genuinely great show, has a number of themes and big ideas it wants to explore, and above all there seems to be the recurring idea of the individual vs society. Who a person is and what they want to do vs the needs of everyone and needing to be more like the rest of the group. And what strikes me as interesting about this show's take on it is that it doesn't seem to want to demonize one side or another. Throughout the story we're shown both the ups and downs of both sides, and Luz herself even states in the episode "Covention" that she wants to make up her own mind rather than simply blindly follow Eda's stance on individualism as the true right way, which is a nice change of pace for shows like this. The coven system, for instance, restricts all but specific types of magic in those who join, yet by refusing to join Eda has been driven to outcast status, often struggling to get the things she needs, like her elixir. Luz is a free spirit who is drawn to Eda's wildcard mentoring, yet also has a desire to learn from the structured style of Hexside. Granted, the finale does put the society side in a far more negative light, but the show did try a more nuanced approach to the argument than I was expecting, which I really do admire about it.

Overall, I'd say the Owl House is off to a fantastic start. Is it good enough to usurp Gravity Falls as my personal favourite Disney show? Well, it's still a bit early to make that decision, as well as a bit unfair. The show isn't finished yet, so it's entirely possible that the second season might not live up to the standard set by the first. But, as far as that first season goes, I'd say I'm pretty hopeful about it. The characters, the world, the stories it's given me have been hugely engaging so far, and as long as the people making it stick to those things that made this show good in their second year, I have every confidence that they can make it just as good, if not better. It's a fantasy show that does a lot to veer away from what a lot of other stories in that genre typically try to do. It's characters are layered and grow with every passing episode, and by the time this season was over I was even tempted to call some of this cast among the best characters any Disney property has ever shown me, which is some pretty high praise. A first impressions go, the Owl House has definitely done a fine job, and I thoroughly look forward to seeing what Dana Terrace and the rest of the crew do when it eventually returns to us 🥰