#two episodes in and I already have all the feels

[dindjarindiaries]

Crosshair making the shot to free Omega was more than just a heroic moment of redemption. It was a display of trust that, more than anyone else, Crosshair absolutely needed to finally make peace with himself.

This analysis is somewhat piggybacking off of this one about The Return, in which I discuss Hunter's true motivations during that episode and how earning trust and loyalty back from Hunter is one of Crosshair's greatest desires, especially as a younger sibling. While he may have started to earn it back then, this scene is the full culmination of it, and it's the moment when Crosshair can finally let go of the past and just be himself with his family again.

As always with any analysis, this is a disclaimer that you may view this moment in an entirely different way due to various biases, one of the most notable being based upon your own favorite characters and your own life experience. All I ask is that you read through carefully before chiming in with any counterarguments!

This analysis hinges heavily upon this line/moment, which indicate two major things for Crosshair: trust from both Omega and Hunter in taking the shot, the latter of whom knows he's down his shooting hand.

It starts, of course, after Hunter's killed CX-2 and he's preparing to go after Hemlock and Omega. Being the protective eldest brother/sergeant he is, he tries to convince Crosshair to stay behind, but Crosshair refuses and insists on helping. It doesn't take much at all to convince Hunter, and in probably one of my favorite underrated moments, he immediately picks up a second blaster for Crosshair - something that alone is a massive sign of trust in his brother and his abilities, even if they're both barely functioning.

Because, again, Hunter knows that Crosshair is down his shooting hand, but he doesn't doubt that his brother will still be able to use the weapon. And it's not just that.

Hunter knows that his brother can still shoot better than him. Not just because Hunter and his senses are no doubt absolutely overloaded right now, but because he has true faith in his brother and his sharpshooting abilities.

(Also... bonus points for this shot of them supporting one another. I hate what led to this, but I live for them literally leaning on each other again after everything they've been through.)

So then, we get this. The position they automatically assume, with Crosshair's blaster positioned on top of Hunter's shoulder. This is already establishing Crosshair as the primary sharpshooter here. Even before Hunter says a word, he's showing Crosshair how much he trusts him to make the shot when the time comes.

After this, we get out first hint of Omega displaying strong trust in both of them.

(She, of course, doesn't know yet about Crosshair's missing hand, but that wouldn't have matter anyway. We all know she still would've displayed the same amount of trust in him that Hunter does here.)

It doesn't matter what Hemlock put them through. It didn't matter to her when he first caught her trying to free them. She has complete, utter faith in her brothers to protect her. As someone who's so big on loyalty and has been trying to earn that full loyalty and trust back from his family, can you imagine how this made Crosshair feel already? Seeing her so confident in their ability to save her, even when she has a blaster pointed at her head?

Hemlock moves himself and Omega closer. This is when one of my favorite subtle moments happens: Hunter literally looks over at Crosshair, as if he already knows exactly what's about to happen.

Again, he already knows that Crosshair's going to take that shot and that he's going to make it. Hunter wouldn't risk Omega. Ever. If he had anything other than full confidence in Crosshair making the shot, then he wouldn't have allowed it.

But Hunter isn't just looking at Crosshair for that reason alone. He can also recognize that Crosshair is unsure, and scared. Hunter might even feel that way, too, but he's ever the eldest brother and sergeant, so he makes it his duty to make a plan and to give Crosshair the reassurance to do what Hunter knows he can do. What he trusts Crosshair to do.

Not only is Hunter telling Crosshair here that he trusts him, but also that Omega trusts him. In fact, he's insisting that she trusts him enough that she already knows exactly what to do to give him the perfect opportunity to take the shot.

Hunter also doesn't frame this as a choice. He tells Crosshair what to do, proving to him just how much confidence he has in Crosshair's ability to pull it off. Instead of a "Come on, you can do it!" it's literally a "You will do this."

And again, it's not like Crosshair missing wouldn't be a big deal. If Crosshair misses here, like he points out, it could risk Omega in several ways, either her being hurt by a stray shot or Hemlock getting the upper hand and killing both of them. But Hunter, protective Hunter, tells Crosshair that it has to be him. That it will be him.

Then, of course, Crosshair takes the shot - and makes it.

(And now, a moment of appreciation for the swiss cheesing...)

(I just noticed Hunter's knife is gone? Give it back??? What's he gonna do without his emotional support knife???????)

Now, the moment when Omega is finally about to reunite with them... but she notices Crosshair's missing hand. She realizes that, even without his shooting hand, the one he's been struggling with ever since their first imprisonment on Tantiss, Crosshair still made the shot. He's still worthy of that trust. And Omega and Hunter have known it, but Crosshair hasn't.

This is when we get another one of my favorite subtle moments (if you've been following me here, you'll know I've talked about this one before). Hunter's gaze guides Omega over to Crosshair and his missing hand, though I think it's a lot more than pointing that out. To me, it's Hunter saying "It was him. It was all him."

And that's when Omega runs forward and gives Crosshair the hug he really, really deserves.

This look in Crosshair's eyes... is everything.

That's the look of a man who's, of course, in utter shock, but it also dawning upon a massive realization. He's really, truly, cared for. And not even just that, but he's trusted, with their lives. You can't tell me that Crosshair didn't know at this point that Hunter's life was tied up with Omega's, too. If Omega had been lost, Hunter would have lost himself, too. By entrusting Crosshair with that shot, Hunter was essentially putting his own fate into Crosshair's hand, too.

And they both trusted him enough to do it. Finally, finally, he had their trust back. This embrace is proof and celebration of that, just as it's also proof of their loyalty to him.

(Hunter having a hand on both their backs I'm gonna be sick! I love them all so much!)

Remember, just a few hours before this, Crosshair was volunteering to Plan 99 because he felt as if he truly deserved that fate. He had clearly forgiven everyone except himself as far as their pasts went.

But here, Hunter and Omega - the two people whose approval Crosshair seeks out the most - both proved that they trust him with their lives. Even when he's far from being at his strongest.

All Crosshair ever wanted from his family was to have their trust and their loyalty again, and this moment is when he finally saw that he had it, and it's what allowed him to finally, at long last, make peace with himself again.

[averycutesalamander]

hello baefy….. humbly requesting 18 or 24 from that list you rbed:3 with the silly cowboy….. geheheheh

BEACH EPISODE BEACH EPISODE BEACH EPISODE !!!!! kinda did my own twist on this one :) suggestive toward the end

24: Tracing your names together in the sand.

Boothill has to admit that you have impeccable taste in vacation spots, because he's not sure he's ever seen a beach as stunning as this one. 

The water is incredibly reflective to the point that he can't see beyond the surface, which gleams like molten, glittering silver in the daylight. The sand on the beach is exceptional as well; it's white and strangely glassy, shifting colors depending on the angle he looks at it from. The view when the two of you first emerged from the treeline was fantastic – a kaleidoscope of color meeting with a sea of silver, stretching into the horizon. He's not even sure how the hell you managed to find this place, because there's not a soul in sight other than the two of you. 

Oh, but it all pales in comparison to the sheer look of awe that envelops your expression the moment you lay eyes on the scenery. 

(There's so many ways that he finds you beautiful, but there's something a bit exceptional about the way you look like this – continuously and routinely dazzled by the world around you, no matter how many other fantastical sights you've seen. His chest aches with an affection so deep and heartfelt that he swears it'll kill him, one day.)

You were tentative about this location, admittedly; his body can handle water just fine, but it forces him to replace parts more often – doubly so for salt water. Thankfully, this is a freshwater beach – which means he can get into the water with you without too much concern. The water is pleasantly cool, which lets him seal off his vents without much worry of overheating. He still sinks like a rock, granted, but the water is shallow enough that he's at no risk of accidentally drowning himself. 

It's not so shallow that he can't vanish under the surface, however; he can hold his breath quite a bit longer than a human – and what kind of man would he be if he didn't use it for nefarious purposes?

Surprisingly, visibility beneath the surface is impeccable; it's almost crystal clear aside from a faint grey hue. Naturally, this means he can see exactly where you are – but the opposite isn't true at all. He lurks beneath the water, crawling around like the horrible little goblin he is, circling you as you cluelessly marvel at the mirror-like surface above; you were so mesmerized by it when he went under that he's certain you haven't even realized he's vanished. Tiny fish dart away from him as he prowls, retreating under stones or into miniscule burrows in the sand below. 

When he gets close enough to you, he brushes his fingers against your ankle – just hard enough to be suspicious. He retreats backwards as you jump, and he grins wildly at the muffled yelp that escapes you as you spin around. 

Through the water, he hears you grumble, “Oh, that is so unfair.”

He laughs despite himself, bubbles escaping his nose; your goggles are still in your bag on the shore, which means you're practically blind. 

He only realizes his mistake when you turn right toward where he's hiding – and lunge.  

He yelps as he scrambles away, just barely dodging your seeking hands as he flees into deeper water. You fumble for a moment while the sand and water settles, then promptly give up once you've realized that he's slipped away. 

“C’mere, little sharky,” you croon, spinning slowly as you search for any sign of him. “I thought you wanted to play?” 

Oh, he'll certainly play. 

Now that he's sure he's hidden again, he resumes his gradual circling, careful not to move too quickly, lest he disturb the surface and give himself away. His hair drifts around him like a curtain of silk, and he can feel the grit of sand in his joints, but he already knows this is going to be worth it. You don't move away from the spot you're standing in, clearly trying to spot him – but he's cautious enough that he won't give anything away. Gradually, he closes in on you, his lips twitching in open amusement. 

He leans closer, ever-so-slowly, careful not to disturb the water – and then he takes a chomp at your calf, careful to angle his teeth in a way that will only scrape, but not pierce. 

You jump damn near two feet out of the water in surprise, and the cutest little shriek leaves your throat. He's honestly expecting you to move away instinctually – but you catch him off guard when you leap toward him again, faster than before. He squawks as he scuttles away again, but this time, he's too slow and too close, and your hand grabs blindly onto his ankle. 

Ah, fuck. 

He flails like a caught fish – which he supposes he is, at the moment – careful not to use too much force but earnestly trying to slip out of your grasp. You don't let him get away, splashing down halfway on top of him as you blindly fumble to get a grip on him. 

Then, he grins, wide and wicked and menacing. He braces himself on the sand and surges upwards, gathering you up in his arms and laughing triumphantly as you flail and giggle. He clenches you tight against his chest as you squirm, burying his face into the crook of your neck and chomping theatrically, noises and all – though he's careful not to catch your skin on his teeth, so he's more or less mouthing at you like a fish. 

He only lets you push him away when you start to go breathless with laughter. He pulls away, grinning down at you. “Looks like you're just chum, now.” 

You're still snickering as you ask, “Am I tasty chum, at least?”

A lascivious look crosses his eyes, and he leans down toward you and purrs, “Oh, you're delicious, baby.” 

He watches in delight as the euphemism hits you full-force, your eyes widening as you sputter. Then, he waggles his eyebrows obnoxiously, instantly breaking the atmosphere he created, and you both burst into laughter at the sheer absurdity of it all. 

“You're such a fucking dork,” you snicker, pressing your face into his chest as he turns and starts to cart you off to the shore. “I can't believe anyone thinks you're intimidating.”

“I'm plenty intimidating!” he proclaims haughtily. A moment later, he reopens his vents to let some of the heat escape; the sun is already warming him significantly, but it doesn't compare to the radiance of your smile.  

“I'm shaking in my boots,” you say dryly. “Practically quivering in fear.”

“You're just sayin' that because ya already play close to the fire, sugar,” he huffs as he sets you down on the towel you set up in the shade, settling next to you with his feet still in the sand. For effect, he snaps his teeth close to your nose, snickering at the way you jump. “Don't forget that I could burn ya.” 

You hum dismissively, still smiling widely as you lean closer. “But what if I like the heat?”

He grins, moving to meet you, his eyes hooded and tempting. “Well, that'd make ya a lil' fudgin' freak.” 

He laughs in sync with you, foolishly amused by it all. You press a quick kiss to his lips, clumsy with your snickering. You lean back, and the two of you stare at each other fondly, oblivious to the world around you. 

(He'll never get over how pretty you look like this – how your smile lights up the world like the sun. He'll do anything to see it again.)

Suddenly, you turn your gaze to the sand beside you, hunching over before beginning to drag your finger through it. For a moment, he thinks you're just idly fussing with it – but then he realizes that you're moving quite deliberately. 

Curious, he watches you work, openly befuddled. “What in the world are you doin’?”

“One sec,” you deflect, biting on your lip in concentration. Cute. After several more seconds, you look up at him, your eyes damn near sparkling. Brightly, you proclaim, “It's you!”   

He peers down at the lines in the sand, his brows furrowed. It sort of looks like a blob? Is that a… fin? Suddenly, he sees it – a cartoonish little shark, grinning widely, touting a crude version of his hat and gun. 

He bursts into laughter, hearty and earnest and so painfully endeared that it makes his chest ache. He looks over at you, and you have the dumbest, cutest fucking look on your face, so irresistible that he wants to bite you. 

“You're too cute for your own good, sweetpea,” he says, shaking his head. “‘S gonna get ya in trouble with me, one of these days.” 

You smile, rolling your eyes playfully. “Oh, no,” you drawl, long and exaggerated. “I'm so scared. Whatever will you do with me?”

His smirk widens into something devious. “I dunno,” he drawls. “Come over here and find out.”

“And fall right into your trap?” you say skeptically, raising your brows. “You're gonna have to try harder than that.”

He hums, giving you an evaluating look; then, he drops his gaze down to your cute little doodle in the sand. 

Hm… He thinks it could use some company. 

He slowly begins to trace a tiny drawing of his own, biting down on his tongue as he focuses. You watch eagerly as he scrawls, and when he's done, he looks up at you with the goofiest grin he can conjure. 

You squint, peering at the lines quizzically. “Is that… a shrimp?” 

“Yep,” he snickers boyishly. “‘Cause you're my cute lil' shrimp. Bite-sized n’ everything.”

You laugh, your eyes sparkling. “Oh, I'll show you bite-sized.”

(Hook, line, and sinker.)

Just as he hoped, you pounce on him playfully, and now you've become the devious shark, chomping obnoxiously at his jaw and cheeks like it's your life's purpose. He laughs and lets you have your fun, pushing at you with just enough force to be playful – though he does legitimately start to squirm when you begin to target the place where his skin meets his metal; he doubts that he'll ever get used to that strange dual sensation. You cling to him like a leech, though, relentless in your assault. 

Then, in one quick motion, he grabs you by the waist and flips you, grinning at the way you yelp as he pins you onto the towel. 

“Didn't have to try that hard to catch ya, huh?” he says smugly, a note of mischief in his voice. 

To his surprise, you meet him with a look twice as sly. 

“Are you sure I'm the one that got caught?” you ask, your eyes glittering with mischief.

Before he can even fully process what you've said, you clench your fist carefully in his hair, yanking him down until he meets your lips in a bruising kiss; he groans quietly into your mouth, a heated thrill of pleasure skittering up his spine. He leans further into you as you slowly comb your fingers through his hair, and he shivers when you nibble at his lip. Obediently, he lets you press your tongue slightly into his mouth, slowly tracing the sharp points of his teeth. 

All too soon, you tug him away by the roots of his hair, and he has to bite back a disgruntled whine when his lips break away from yours. 

“Say,” you begin slowly, your smile widening deviously, “I think I got some sand under my bathing suit.” With a heated look in your eyes, you lean closer, just out of reach of his lips. “Do you think you could help, honeybee?” 

He swallows heavily, caught off-guard by your intensity – but he certainly isn't opposed. 

“I'm sure I can figure somethin' out,” he rasps, raking his eyes down your body. Slowly, his fingers trace up the heated skin of your thighs, skirting closer to your hips. 

…Perhaps there are some unforeseen benefits to finding such an isolated beach. 

@opheliaflavoredinstantnoodles @ikeagroceries @shadowstadium @theswashbucklingspy @cosmo112 @fxngtasy @rinzis

[miwiheroes]

Dropping Byler Evidence Every Day Until Season 5

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ Day 18: Mike's Bedroom Scene . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁

Everyone knows this scene, everyone here LOVES this scene (or they better love it). It's so ripe for analysis in every single way, not even just for byler, but for things that happen later on in the season. I think shots like this are extremely thought out. They chose a wide angle shot to show you Mike's bedroom for a reason. They also showed you this bedroom right after seeing El's, to show the contrast between their two lives and how they view each other.

I've already talked about this contrast between their two rooms and the fact that Mike has nothing from El in his room in this post.

1. Rainbow Letter + Closet

I want to talk about something else before the glaringly obvious queer coding first: and that is the fact that El has her own stationary specific for writing Mike's notes, while it is canon that Mike just writes his letters to El on some scrap pieces of paper, showing the unequal amounts they are putting into their relationship:

Anyways, back to El's letter to Mike having literal rainbows on it. For El, this is some clear foreshadowing for her being in the rainbow room, and we can all agree on that right?

So if we can agree on that, then I think we should agree that it could also be true this is queer coding for Mike. It's the first thing you see in this scene, even before you see a shot of Mike himself. Also the fact that the next shot of the scene is Mike next to the open closet with the light on, kind of implies or foreshadows his story being tied to queerness for the rest of the season.

Having the light on in the closet is also to draw your attention toward it. I've talked before about how often in film it is to use light to mean truth, meaning this would imply that being in the closet is the truth that Mike is hiding, since a lot of this scene is taken up by the fact El's lying to him. So what does he have to hide? The set designers utilise light in this scene very carefully, which I will touch on in the later sections <3

2. Posters

This is such a famous piece of evidence that I feel like I don't really need to say anything here lmaooo, like we can see in multiple different shots that instead of having posters of literally anything else on his walls, he has posters of men. Specifically buff men (or a dragon if u wanna be pedantic guys).

This seems so on the nose that it has to be queer coding, just like the scene where Mike goes to the wrestling gym while on his search for a DND replacement for Lucas, and stuff like this has been used on many different queer coded characaters in media for a long time.

I've heard people argue that there is also a girl character in the Conan the Barbarian poster, but honestly, if you watch the film you would know why this is not a great thing to say or equate women to lmao... Basically this film does not shy away from the fact that men in this time period treated women like property so I'd be careful saying that.

If you want to go past talking about the fact this CtB poster is just a poster of a buff man, I'd say that it could symbolise Mike's need to be normal and fit into the "male role" in society that we saw in S3. To be honest, if I saw a guy with this poster, I'd.....run, girl RUN

So anyways, not only is there one poster of a buff guy, there is another. The one on the left is a poster designed by Rick Ruhman, whose other posters can be seen in the show, like in Reefer Rick's house. Buff dragon poster you'll always be famous <3

This is two instances already of Mike being associated with buff men, um, and to be honest that should be enough, but it's funny that there are two other instances of this happening in the show. Another is literally in episode 1 of S4, where Mike goes to the wrestling gym, and another is when he mentions Superman in relation to El for some reason, rather than calling her 'Supergirl' like Argyle does 10000 times.

This is a pattern, everyone. And can be compared to the fact that other male characters who were around the same age as him have posters of women surrounding them in different scenes.

In Steve's room: he was 17

In Lucas's scene with the other basketball guys: he is same age as Mike

3. His Noticeboard

thanks to @runninguplenorahills for this very good photo haha

First of all, want to establish that the lamp is placed next to this notice board on purpose, in order to draw your attention towards it, just like his closet earlier on (and later, you shall see). So you are meant to view this notice board as having little hints on it.

And there are! Not just towards his queerness. and they are pretty much confirmed to be foreshadowing for some of the plot points in S4, so other stuff in his room could also be foreshadowing , but for his queerness too.

These Garbage Pail Kids cards clearly foreshadow some events of S4. I think Heavin Steven may have something to do with Steve literally biting the head off of a demobat, which makes sense, or it could be about him randomly pouring his heart out to Nancy in the caravan. Evil Eddie obviously foreshadows that everyone thinks Eddie is the head of an evil cult and has murdered a woman, which is what's happening in the card. Live Mike is either a reference to Eddie playing his guitar later on, or it could be a reference to Mike's monologue where there are many lightning strikes at the most interesting times... Finally, Mad Max's card shows a brain being outside someone's head, foreshadowing her mind visiting Vecna's mindscape and her being braindead by the end of the season.

Also on his notice board are:

Escape Fun City: reference to California

Pizza Sticker: foreshadowing his time in the surfer boy pizza van and the pizza place.

Will's Drawings: obviously showing that he places more care in Will's drawings than El's letters which I talk about on one of my previous posts. He also still has Will's drawings in his basement.

So how is this byler evidence? Well, I really think this proves just how much thought and care went into making Mike's room foreshadow some later plot points, because the audience can hardly see what's going on here, but it still foreshadows stuff. This leads me onto....

4. The One Way Sign ;)

This one is a classic, and if you don't know this already, then I guess you must be new here hello

I just want you guys to think for a second about the intentionality of this. And I want you to imagine people setting up his room for filming. Because it wasn't just created out of nowhere, people genuinely thought about each decision. Imagine this just being written off as a coincidence, because let's lay out some facts here:

A light has been set up in Mike's closet

That light has been pointed so that it is a beam towards Mike

The closet door has been opened for no practical reason

A one way sign has been ordered, put on the wall in this specific spot.

A one way sign does not foreshadow any other plot points in S4.

I am baffled when I talk to people and they don't think this type of stuff is intentional. It's a blink and you miss it hint, yes, but those types of hints are supposed to be subtle so that when you look back on them, they make a lot of sense.

Overall, this shot of Mike's room is the perfect introduction to his character this season and makes the most sense. There is no other way that he could have been introduced in S4, in my opinion. It's subtlety is only for people who care enough to look, but it heavily queercodes him nonetheless. Just because they're small, doesn't mean they are insignificant.

[brynnsasha191]

(Tldr at the end) Okay here goes.

People really misunderstood Callum in episode two, s7 (that's okay, the writers didn't do a great job of conveying what I'm about to say, no hate to them though) Callum did not betray Ezran

I see a lot of people criticizing Callum for prioritizing Rayla instead of Ez and saying Rayllum is toxic because it got in the way of familial relationships. But that's not what Callum's actions were really about, they weren't about "oh rayla is upset so I'm going to burn down all bridges for her" like a lot of people seem to think. His actions had a lot to do with Rayla but they also had a lot to do with the fact that Callum genuinely believed what Ezran was doing wasn't right.

(btw I'm writing this with Callum's opinions in mind, I'm not just projecting mine on Callum. I believe Runaan did something wrong and deserved punishment for it, and I believe both Rayla and Ez were both right and wrong. I am on everyone's side)

In the beginning of the episode, we see Callum trying to reason with Rayla and defend Ezran by telling her to give him a minute to process what recently happened to him. And he says "he [runaan] did kill it's king" but he never actually said he agreed with Ezran, he was just trying to get Rayla to see Ezran's side.

Ezran and Rayla's fight during the council meeting was understandable upsetting for Callum, his two favorite people were fighting. And when he tried to follow Rayla to get her to come back, Ezran commanded him to do otherwise, as the king, Ezran has a right to do that. But that moment probably felt uncomfortable and belittling and frustrating for Callum, it's the same unhealthy push and pull dynamic that I talked about in my 'why Callum shouldn't be high mage' meta. It made Callum disinterested in the council meeting, and while that's not Ezran's fault, it is the same corner that the broyals keep walking themselves into.

Callum goes outside and sees Rayla crying, that is also understandably distressing for him, but he doesn't blame Ezran at all. He apologizes for his choice in that moment, he says he should've gone after her, not "Ezran shouldn't have done that or said that", if Callum was completely choosing Rayla over Ez, he easily could've deflected the blame to him, but he didn't, he apologized for his own actions which to me shows that Callum isn't the type to blame Ezran unnecessarily.

When Callum goes to Ezran and calls him a jerk face (very uncool thing of him to say to Ezran, Ezran didn't deserve that) Rayla and Callum already finished their conversation where Rayla decided to secretly get Runaan out, there wasn't a point to try to convince Ezran to let Runaan out then. He went to Ezran, not to convince him to free Runaan, but to convince Ez he wasn't doing the right thing. As the scene progresses, Callum's voice gets softer and he starts speaking sensibly and reasonably without ad hominem attacks. He acknowledges Ezran's feelings about Katolis being destroyed but also acknowledges that that particular part of Ezran's pain isn't connected to Runaan. And Ezran has no problem sharing his true feelings with Callum, Callum doesn't dismiss them once. He puts his hand on Ezran's shoulder and validates his feelings, also not to mention he apologizes immediately after calling Ez a jerk face. And when Ezran says "he killed our father" Callum doesn't know how to respond because he isn't completely siding with R&R. He knows Ez has a point.

Rayla and Runaan could have been seriously injured during the fight with Soren and the soldiers. Aanya was going to shoot them, and Ezran was going to let her. It's really weird that this fandom seems to think Callum should've sat by and not stood up for them. Callum absolutely shouldn't have condoned Rayla breaking Runaan out without permission, he should've told her to stop and stay put until he had a chance to talk to Ezran's more. But that's not what happened, what happened was a messy game of tug-o-war between two people who love each other that nearly killed people and almost destroyed relationships. Callum didn't choose Rayla, he chose what he thought was right, and that was not Ezran at the time. People get so mad at him for not standing by Ezran's side but he wanted to, but standing by someone's side doesn't mean sitting back and letting them do something that you believe is wrong.

He gave up his role as High Mage because he knew he couldn't continue to play that role after this, for him and Ezran's sake. He can't be his High Mage but he'll always be his brother.

TLDR: Callum actually did handle this situation maturely. The problem didn't lie with Callum or anyone else. This situation was an ugly and messy one that anyone would have a hard time navigating especially a kid who the people closest to him in the entire world were actively hurting each other. He's willing to do anything for Rayla, but this isn't about choosing Rayla, it's about what he thought was right.

[sunsetsover]

looking back at kantbison's relationship and specifically kant's relationship with submission throughout the show after episode 8 has really put a lot of things into perspective for me.

bc like. it's complicated. i'm not gonna pretend that it's not. there's too much there in kant's character to ever really be able to isolate one thing he says or does before like. episode 6 or so. and be able to say 'this was exactly what he meant, this was his sole feeling and/or his sole motivation here' bc everything's far too intertwined to ever pick apart properly.

that said though. i always felt there was a sense of reluctance in kant when it came to giving bison power over him and specifically the bdsm thing. and i could never quite figure out bc i didn't particularly get the impression that he disliked it either but there was just something that was off about it that i could never quite put my finger on, but i think i've finally figured it out. and it's really not that surprising, bc as this show's gone on it's become increasingly clear that with kant all roads lead to the same place, and that's the issue of choice - or lack of choice, in kant's case.

submission was never really the issue i don't think. kant knows how to submit, is good at submitting - at the end of the day, isn't that what he does with christ? submit to his will, follow his orders? isn't he collared and chained to him? isn't he such a well behaved dog for him? kant knows very well how to submit. but the thing is is that it's not a willing act of submission where christ is concerned. kant submits because, like with pretty much every other facet of his life, he has no other choice. he behaves because he has to.

and then the next thing kant knows there's bison, outright telling him that he'd like him to submit. to let bison take charge and have kant bend to his will, to follow his every whim. and bison wasn't pushy about it - if anything it was the opposite. he was reluctant, assuring kant that it was fine, that he didn't have to, that actually maybe it was better that they didn't. he gives kant the choice. but it's not a real choice. kant's answer is already laid out for him.

and i think that's where the dissonance entered. you see hints of annoyance and frustration before then, but the much more subtle 'off' feeling that i felt started around then. and i think it's bc for all intents and purposes kant was already completely submitting to bison's will. he was already going along w whatever bison wanted bc he had to, bc he needed bison to trust him, bc saying no to anything thrown his way wasn't (and had never been) an option.

but ofc bison didn't know that. he just wanted to dom his boy. but i think he could also feel the reluctance and the confusion around it all. bc despite what he said and did to reassure bison that he was into it and wanted it too, kant was always subconsciously resisting. and as i said i think there's a lot in that too, it's not simply one thing - bison is a murderer at the end of the day, and dom/sub dynamics are supposed to be built primarily on trust, and kant didn't trust bison not to hurt him too much or go too far. it was also clearly a new thing to him considering he didn't even know what a safeword was. and it was maybe even some weird sense of loyalty to christ. you know what they say: you can't serve two masters. and kant already had one. he was already collared and chained, already submitting. and kant's current master had an awful lot of power over him. he knew what kind of punishment awaited him if he disobeyed.

but above all else kant knew he couldn't really say no. and he hated that.

and so we're back to choice again. the one thing kant has never had. here he is getting forced into submission again - not by bison, but by circumstance. and so no matter what he says or does or how into it he really does seem, there's always this subtle reluctance that rolls off of him. there's always just something off about it all. (which, thinking about, may have been one of the reasons why so many people were turned off by kantbison, bc there was just something not quite right in the vibes, but i digress)

but obviously things change. kant accidentally falls in love with bison, despite his best intentions. and, maybe even more importantly, bison falls in love with kant. and that love changes bison - bison, who needed power so desperately when they first met that he turned nearly every interaction they had into a game of tug of war. bison who, despite not necessarily needing kant's submission, would also never ever give in to kant's will, not even a little. but that same bison falls for kant, and he begins to yield. starts to let himself just be, and by extension let kant just be too. bison begins to settle, become a little docile. he lays on kant's chest and kisses his feet. he rolls onto his back and lets kant loom big and dominating over him, despite how desperate he once was for power. and kant is clever, he knows that's what bison wanted. that's why he gave into him all the time. but by letting kant maintain some of the power in their relationship without a fight, he's basically telling kant i would like you to submit to me, but i don't need it. i just want you. and kant hears that. and that changes things. because without knowing it or even really meaning to, he's given kant a choice.

and we all know what kant chooses.

and to be clear, for the most part i think this is all happening on a subconscious level without either really realising it or thinking about what's happening. but the choice is conscious. it's his. and kant chooses the master that gives him the option to choose. that choice changes everything for kant. everything. it recalibrates his whole world view, his whole life. and the minute he chooses (chooses!) bison, he submits himself to him wholeheartedly. he puts the collar on himself.

but we don't get the reality of what that means until ep 8 bc of yknow. all the stabbing and kidnapping and manipulation and retraumatisation and scheming such. but then we do see it. and we see just how deep it goes for kant, that ease of submission, and his desire for it. how he doesn't run despite having many, many opportunities to do so. how he doesn't eat even when bison's nowhere to be found and he has freshly cooked food in his hands bc bison hasn't said he can. how he doesn't untie himself despite being able to bc bison tied him up for a reason. and sure, all of that is love too, and it's also playing nice bc he desperately wants bison's forgiveness. but this is all also an active form of submission, the same way a dog submits to their owner when they say sit, down, stay, wait. a good dog doesn't eat until it's given permission. and ultimately doesn't the fact that kant safewords tell us exactly what kind of state of mind he's in? what he thinks about their situation and their relationship? (and i won't go over it bc i've already talked about in length here but the act of safewording truly said so, so much)

and yknow, thinking about it really it shouldn't even be surprising bc we were literally shown who kant was back when they first met. and what did he do? went when bison said to go, came when bison said to come back. bison said you're not doing this alone and kant sat still and let bison ride him to his heart's content. it was very subtle, but he really was submitting to bison in little ways all the way back then! the signs were there!

and the beautiful thing about it to me is that in episode 8 there is not a single moment of dissonance between kant and bison. there's no more weird vibes. there's just kant and the first choice he's ever got to make. kant and his chosen master. kant and the hand at the end of his leash. kant and bison.

[hanamukes]

Uika in Ave Mujica episode 4

For episodes 1-3 of the Ave Mujica anime, I felt like while there was definitely stuff going on with Uika that's worth unpacking, the scenes were straightforward enough in what they wished to convey that I didn't feel like they warranted explanation. Episode 4 has completely turned my view of this character on its head though. It feels as if her every word and action in this episode completely contradicts what we knew of her prior. What is going on with her?

I wanted to talk about her in a longform post, so here I am. This is maybe half analysis, half just me rambling my thoughts on what's happening on screen.

DISCLAIMER: If you're not familiar with the way I discuss this character, let me make it clear now that I absolutely love her! This post is essentially a love poem dedicated to how fantastic I think her writing is. That said my tone here might come off a bit sharp, because of how contradictory she is (which I say as a compliment) and how I want to grab her by the scruff and shake her until she tells me what's going on inside that head of hers. Just wanted to mention something before anyone gets the impression I'm criticizing her or the writing when I'm doing nothing of the sort.

Her first moment happens and immediately a lot stands out to me

First: the models in this anime fall under two specifications, girls who always have a blush programmed in and girls who don't. For instance, Sakiko has one so she's always blushing no matter her mood. Uika doesn't. But throughout this entire episode, she does. Why? Why is she so... eerily happy, in a way we have never seen her before?

Secondly, what is her aim here? Sakiko expressed her discomfort with everyone's attitudes, and rather than just being "Sakiko's second voice" as she has been up until now (take the episode 3 fight as an example), she's taking everyone else's side. Her actions are already in total contradiction with the Uika we've seen up until now, who didn't care about anything except easing Sakiko's feelings

Then this happens. Uika is basically in la-la land daydreaming about having her destiny tied to Sakiko's forever (especially because Nyamu points out that sounds like something Sakiko would say), yet she's ignoring her beloved who sits on the other side of the table

Uika, do you really love Mujica as it is when Sakiko's expressing to you directly that she's unhappy?

Ironically, when she does acknowledge Sakiko directly, it only leads to further frustration for Sakiko

Because she's focusing on the wrong thing. She's more worried about Sakiko's exhaustion from writing songs (which is something she can physically see, thus easily pick up on) rather than Sakiko's concerns with the band (which is something she'd have to actually stop to think about). It really feels like she doesn't understand Sakiko at all. How much does she actually stop to think about her feelings? How surface leveled, rose-colored lens does she view her?

Her actions here scream, "well, so long as I get to stay with Sakiko, I don't actually care if she's happy," regardless of if that's her intent. Sometimes your inner feelings aren't enough, Uika. Sakiko is actively looking miserable in front of you and what are you doing about it?

Are you really just going to leave without saying anything to her? You express concern when halfway out the door, yet when face to face with Sakiko, you act like nothing is wrong?

Again, yes, Sakiko is exhausted, but that's not all there is to it Uika. And she hasn't exactly been subtle about what she's worried about!

Mortis keeps the focus of the conversation to Sakiko having to write all the scripts (thus prompting Uika to point out that she's been pulling all-nighters and maybe that's the problem), but I quite like this line, as there's a lot to unpack here

前はそういうの絶対見せなかったのに

The translation gets the idea across fine to be clear, but in Japanese, there's an emphasis on the "never" part. It feels unthinkable to Uika that Sakiko would perhaps lash out, or show her exhaustion to the others. Kind of putting a mental pin in this because that's not the impression we, the viewers, have seen from prior episodes (Sakiko in this episode was acting incredibly in line with what we've seen of her already in this anime), so I wonder where Uika got this idea from. It makes you wonder just what Uika's impression of "normal" or "prior" Sakiko is

This line is genuinely sweet of her, if not a bit ironic because Uika's already absolutely overworking herself for Sakiko, which Sakiko pointed out in episode 1 (a lot of the officially published interviews have been pointing this out over and over too, just as a side note). They really want to ease each other's burdens...

Yeah, we're not even being subtle about Uika having to "borrow" ways to cheer people up anymore

I actually noticed this about her even back in It's MyGO. When Uika comforted Tomori in episode 10, it was eerily close to what Sakiko did in episode 3. Tomori even associated Uika's actions as being reminiscent of Sakiko's behavior. I had no evidence about Uika copying what Sakiko did then (I don't... think? know? that Uika saw Sakiko's meeting with Tomori and thus could copy it), but now? There's evidence that perhaps her acts of generosity are in fact just things she's imitating from others. If you're curious about the It's MyGO example of this, I highly recommend watching this for yourself

Oh, I'll also mention that in my pre-anime analysis post for Uika, I mentioned she probably doesn't "shine" at all as an idol without Mana, and she more or less just confirmed that for us

Again there's a lot to unpack with this part

Hoo boy. Let's go back an episode. In episode 3, Uika was feeling insecure about the fact Sakiko "knew" Mutsumi "very well since they were kids." She looked visibly bothered by it before changing the topic. So hearing from "Mutsumi" herself that "Actually, you're the one closest to Sakiko, not me" must be making her day. Mortis is actively using Uika's affection for Sakiko against her (well, for the sake of the band, but she's still manipulating (for lack of a better word) her regardless). It's a bit harrowing when you realize that Uika's happy that her "competition" for being close with Sakiko is dead, despite her not realizing Mutsumi more or less is dead at this point...

Moving on to the scene in her apartment, my only addition here is... well, it sure is something how the only things she said to Sakiko were what Mortis told her to say. She has no lines here that weren't just parroting advice. Is that really all you have to say to your beloved?

This is an interesting comment from her

Because there's a couple ways you could interpret this. Is Uika referring to the "stiff" expression, or the close proximity? We know for Sumimi, she views herself as having a "terrible expression" (when Mana's not around to change her energy), but it's also not lost on me that it could also be referring to "my image of Sumimi [where we take photos together in close proximity]"

Sakiko's reaction to this is what makes it so meaningful to me

Nyamu and the photographers are saying "this doesn't look like Mujica at all, but that's a good thing," which Sakiko is obviously displeased about. Why would going against Mujica's worldview be a good thing? And yet... even Uika, who founded the band with her and who writes all their songs, is saying she likes the photo. Once again, Uika is completely disregarding Sakiko's feelings despite how close she is to her. Physically, they're almost close enough to brush shoulders, but emotionally, I don't think Sakiko's ever felt further from her. The betrayal in her face and voice feels so obvious, yet Uika's still in la-la land like she was earlier in the episode and doesn't acknowledge it at all... we really can put ourselves in Sakiko's shoes throughout the whole episode, because truly, what is going through Uika's head?

Uika doing sweet gestures for Sakiko. This is the character I recognize!

It's not lost on me that 1. she has two umbrellas like she does in her apartment, and 2. there's this almost eerie focus on Uika making coffee for people. I say this because the opening itself has a shot of her mugs, there's that weirdly placed clip of coffee dripping in episode 2 (it's also in one of the trailers), the donut scene in episode 3, and now this. I'll be interested in seeing why this is so important to her

I do wish we had gotten to see the conversation Uika and Sakiko had here. Sakiko has a habit of brushing Uika off, but she was finally able to open up to her about something. They finally talked together amidst all of this miscommunication and not understanding one another, but we didn't get to see it... (which may be a sign they didn't really talk about much, but hey, I like my Uisaki crumbs where I can get them)

Thank you for the confirmation that Uika would be the first victim in a slasher film. Moving on

I love the way this comment is framed. If Sakiko left the band, who would be most hurt? Sakiko or Uika?

Uh oh. She's having her words used against her

What she said in episode 3 was honestly a bit careless* (she said it in front of Sakiko, who famously broke up Crychic by leaving it)... but she did have a point. She just wanted to articulate that Ave Mujica should be the 5 of them, and that surely they have a strong enough bond that if one of them left, they wouldn't be able to carry on and just "find a replacement," right? She's our kindhearted front of the band who loves everyone equally, right?

Well

(To clarify the translation, it's not super clear whether Uika said this directly to her, or if Mortis just hit the nail on the head)

Oops! Now that's an awkward position to be in, especially in front of Sakiko herself! Zero denial either...

(*I'll just tack this thought on here, but there's potential Uika's "Please don't hate me" line from the trailer could be because she feels guilt for having said the "if one member quits it's over" line (and thus bringing about the downfall of the band))

Last thing for this episode...

Same, Mortis. What? Why does she have no fight in her? Why doesn't she care? Why is she not saying anything? Are her feelings of guilt, embarrassment and self-hatred actually overpowering her drive to be with Sakiko? Is it over for her, now that the cat's out of the bag regarding the fact she only ever cared about the band to be with Sakiko?

I noticed she acted like a kicked puppy in episode 3 as well. When someone points out how selfish she actually is, she loses all her edge and goes quiet. She wants to escape the situation. She can't fight against what's true about her (the ugliness in her heart), after all, lest she drives herself into a corner as a hypocrite even more than she already has. But her reactions are fascinating to me, because you'd think the front of the band, and someone who swore her life to Sakiko out of profound love for her, would put up more of a fight to keep the band together so she can stay with her. She's not doing damage control at all, she's just taking the hits and all the impact that comes with it. Maybe it's some form of self harm...

(I'm also incredibly curious to know what Sakiko thought of all of this, but maybe that was the least of her concerns...)

Anyway, we'll see what happens next week. I wonder if and when we'll get closure on why she's been so apathetic to Sakiko, despite her claimed devotion for her. I get the impression Sakiko will be moving out (next episode?), so we'll have to see how she reacts to that...

[the-crooked-library]

Ellen from Nosferatu is disabled? .o. Can you tell me more about that? I was already interested in watching the movie, but hearing the main female lead is disabled makes me ever more excited to see it! Do they say/imply what she has at all?

Yes, she is - though it's a mix of real-world and horror genre things! There are some details the film says outright and some it implies. To sum it up: Ellen is neurodivergent and psychic at the same time, which results both in social isolation and outright medical abuse. If you don't mind some spoilers (all regarding Ellen's condition rather than the plot), here's a brief overview of it!

From the beginning of the film, Ellen is implied to be in some way neurodivergent. Naturally, since most of the action takes place in 1838, there is no specific term for what she is; personally, I would guess her to be autistic. As a child, Ellen was considered odd, "running wild" in the woods near her father's property and struggling to follow established social conventions; she mentions at one point in the film that her father forcibly isolated her in the house when she failed to grow out of it; and she continues to struggle as an adult, as well, unable to fully understand or conform to the rules that everyone else considers per the course. One of the characters is actually shown to hate her for it - though his sense of manners prevents him from acting/saying anything on that subject until a certain point. Once it's out in the open, however, he admits that he dislikes her specifically because he could always tell (even before the story begins to unravel) that she is actively faking her propriety - in essence, masking.

That said, her psychic symptoms are more of a focus (it is gothic horror, after all). During her astral projections, Ellen experiences altered mental states and seizures. This leads her father to threaten her with institutionalization; and later in life, the other characters tie her to her bed and drug her for days on end after witnessing several of her episodes. These symptoms are visible - and, in fact, impossible to hide, as they have a distinct physical component; and the story centres this as one of the primary reasons her surrounding society abuses and rejects her. It is also important to note that the film reiterates several times that she would be subjected to this regardless of the vampiric aspect of the plot; she was born this way. She cannot be cured of it. It is, for all intents and purposes, a chronic condition that can only be managed and accommodated for - which the bigoted, misogynistic, industrialized society around her refuses to allow. Despite the genre, the horror of Ellen's life is painfully mundane, and all the more brutal for it.

The medical aspect of it is absolutely explicit. It is heavily stressed throughout the film (intersecting with the running theme of misogyny, as well). As in Stoker's Dracula, two of the characters are doctors; and even the most benevolent of them pushes a needle through Ellen's arm to demonstrate that her soul "isn't there" during one of her episodes. All human characters are complicit in this - either through perpetrating that violence themselves, or by letting it happen unimpeded. She's infantilized when people around her are feeling benevolent, and demonized when they're inconvenienced. Considering the history of the horror and gothic genres, and their numerous tragic and/or murderous madwomen, I think Nosferatu is a fascinating subversion of the trope. For a genre that so often frames the "lunatic" from the perspective of a horrified narrator, its centering of Ellen is rather unexpected; but, according to Robert Eggers, that was quite blatantly the point. He mentioned in some interviews that he'd wanted to make a film that actually explored the story from her POV - and god, did he deliver.

If you do end up watching the film, I hope you enjoy!! It is, truly, breathtaking. As a longtime fan of gothic horror, I could not have asked for more.

[markantonys]

so! the siuan pic is definitely from the opening sequence when she fights liandrin. the pic of the wondergirls in their fierce outfits being from 3x01 makes it almost definite that this is a vision in an accepted test, and thereby makes it almost definite that the accepted test(s) will happen right off the bat, as i've been speculating. and we also have lanfear creeping around, maybe in TAR based on her hairstyle unless she's also gotten a trim in the waking world.

both pics of the gang drinking together are also from 3x01. no surprise on the wonderboys pic, but there was some rumbling about the show maybe changing it so that aviendha goes to tanchico since elayne's outfit in the avilayne pic looks tanchico-y. but since that pic is from 3x01, i think it's safe to say elayne's outfit is simply something she wears out of the tower to hang out in tar valon and aviendha will still go to the waste as expected (further supported by ayoola reacting to/interacting with the new aiel actors on instagram more than she did for any of the other new cast announcements; it feels like she's worked with them personally. also! she just mentioned being excited to bring us the waste in s3 in her post, so definitely seems like she's involved in that storyline). phew! i love avilayne as much as the next person, but it really would not make any sense for aviendha's story to send her to tanchico this season, so i'm glad we can put that momentary speculation to rest.

as was the case last season too (iirc), the lion's share of the first stills are from the first episode, which makes sense! don't want to give away too much! it seems like our main focus this episode will be the big tower battle (stated to be the first 15mins), egwene's accepted test (maybe also elayne's, but i won't be surprised if that one's offscreen), and everybody taking a breather and spending time together and figuring out their next moves.

then, morgase and elaida at the tower is in 3x02. this tracks with our previous speculation that 3x02 would be a good time to introduce the caemlyn crew. there was also a leak of these two actresses filming on a location shoot that's believed to be the caemlyn palace, so perhaps the cold open of 3x02 shows them in caemlyn and then the episode proper picks up with them arriving in tar valon. (i'm curious how big of a role morgase and gaebril might have this season. will they return to caemlyn after 3x02 and have their own storyline for the rest of the season, or stay in the tower with elaida and the boys for a while? i'd imagine morgase will be back home before the coup, at the very latest.)

also, rand and lan training already in 3x02 is interesting! do they reach the waste that soon? or this could be taking place en route to the waste, or outside tar valon; the landscape looks soooomewhat arid to me (and mountainous), but not Full Sandy Desert the way it is in the rhuidean shots we've seen.

the gang looking out at rhuidean is in 3x04, and the other gang is in tanchico by 3x06. no surprises there!

moiraine and the orb in 3x08 is veeeeery interesting. it's clearly a different outfit and lighting than all the trailer shots of her with the orb, so i would guess the trailer shots are of her first finding it in rhuidean in 3x04, and then she takes it with her and uses it in the finale showdown in 3x08. my one question is how she got such a fantastic outfit in the middle of the desert djkfjg maybe some of her and lanfear's showdown takes place in TAR?

[coraniaid]

Actually, on reflection, I think I'm persuaded that the "poor Willow is a magical junkie now and it's not her fault :(" subplot in Season 6 is, contrary to what I've said before, actually the worst multi-episode subplot on Buffy.

Say what you like about the other two contenders for that honor: the non-mystery of "is Giles really the First Evil and why hasn't anyone thought to check yet?" or the banality of "shall we engage seriously with the fact Spike has a soul now and how that might change him as a person, or shall we just say that a mean ghost hypnotized him?". But neither of those plots involve a woman telling her significant other (and I am really not paraphrasing much at all here) "I don't like that you used magic to violate my mind and rob me of my ability to consent to our relationship, because it's not good for you".

Moreover:

While the two Season 7 subplots are both pretty bad and boring to watch and are certainly part of why I don't enjoy that season, I don't think removing or somehow rewriting either of them would automatically make the season much better. By contrast, the Willow subplot of Season 6 is the worst thing about that season -- one which I think otherwise had a lot of potential and is arguably the most ambitious season the show ever did -- and fixing it would improve the season as a whole a lot.

The Willow subplot also takes up a lot more of the show overall than the two Season 7 subplots do. Giles as the First is a complete waste of everyone's time, but it's also fully resolved in less than half a dozen episodes (we first get the fake out that Giles might be dead in Never Leave Me, the ninth episode of the season, and we see that he isn't in The Killer In Me, the thirteenth episode). The Spike hypnotic trigger lasts a lot longer, but it still over within about half a season. But the Willow subplot dominates most of Season 6 and also continues to have ramifications for WIllow's character development (or lack thereof) for the rest of the show.

It's easy, I think, to understand why the writers resorted to the two Season 7 plots. They needed some excuse for Buffy's friends to not trust Spike, but for various reasons are committed to the idea that having a soul means Spike himself is now inherently Good and Blameless and so the reasons not to trust him can't be related to anything he's ever chosen to do himself, it has to be something done to him against his will. And the writers obviously stopped caring about Giles as a character with any sort of inner life the very minute ASH asked to be partially written out of the show so he could move back to England. I honestly don't believe the writers were capable of writing good subplots for either Giles or Spike by this point, even if they'd tried. But the Willow subplot comes out of nowhere and completely derails what was going to be a really interesting story line about Willow that the show had been patiently building towards since at least Season 3 and arguably even longer.

More broadly, both the Season 7 plots are bad in part because they are attempts to make the First -- previously a forgettable monster of the week whose primary powers included 'making people who have done bad things feel suitably bad' and 'not being able to touch anything'; a plot device which Buffy herself already rightly dismissed as all talk all the way back in Season 3 ("I get it. You're evil. Do we have to chat about it all day?"). Of course they're not successful attempts: there's no way to make the First as menacing and important as the writers wish it was. Being annoyed at the way they fail almost seems like missing the point.

Most importantly, I can more cheerfully ignore the two Season 7 subplots because I don't really care about either Spike or Giles at this point of the show's run. But I like Willow, so it bothers me more that she's subjected to all this dreadfully bad writing and that her character never really quite recovers from it.

[midnightdahlias]

First Impressions

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summery - (based on pilot episode) you meet the boys for the first time, and it doesnt exaclty go smoothly word count - 1.1K cws - fem!reader, mentions of a gun, very very slight threat , mentions of john winchester (horrorfying ik), lmk if i missed anything a/n - Hi so this is my first time writing, hope you like it. I apologise if it's not the best, english isn't my first language. BUT I hope you like it either way and any feedback is appreciated !

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“Dean. Something is starting to happen. I think it’s serious. I need to try and figure out what’s going on… [muffled voices]… If you don’t hear from me, call the number I left you. Be very careful, Dean. We’re all in danger.”

After running it through EVP software, neither of them was any closer to figuring out what the hell John Winchester had gotten himself into.

“What about the number he mentioned? Have you called it?” Sam asked, his brow furrowed as he replayed the message in his head.

“Tried it twice. Straight to an automated voicemail both times. Whoever it belongs to doesn’t seem keen on answering,” Dean sighed, frustration creeping into his tone. He had assumed it was a contact of their father’s, someone John trusted, but the silence from the other end only deepened his suspicions. Maybe something had happened to that person, too.

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Working odd jobs was your way of staying afloat between hunts. Running scams and hustling drunks at bars could only get you so far. As much as you hated working in crappy diners, the little bit of honest money made you feel better about yourself—well, slightly better. Hunting wasn’t exactly a glamorous life, but knowing you were helping people survive the creatures that go bump in the night gave you purpose.

You were just wrapping up your final shift at a shitty diner, ready to head out of town, when your phone rang again. Unknown number.

This was the third time today, and you were getting sick of it. The first call, you’d been asleep and missed it. The second time, you couldn’t pick up because you had a customer at the counter. But this time, you were free to finally figure out who was bugging you. You weren’t used to calls like this—you could count on one hand the amount of people that had your number, so to call this weird was a bit of an understatement.

But before you could even answer, the call cut off after just a few seconds. Weird. You almost didn’t bother calling back, but as you started to switch your phone off, it buzzed again.

You didn’t hesitate this time—just hit ‘answer’ and pressed it to your ear.

“Who is this?”

All you heard was some muffled noise on the other end before the call dropped.

It wasn’t exactly paranoia that made you hesitate to call back. More like years of experience dealing with sketchy things that were best left alone. But you couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right, so you stuffed the phone in your pocket and started walking back to your motel. The day had already been stressful enough, but as you made your way down the empty street, a prickling sensation crawled up your spine. You were being followed.

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“Where’d she go?” Dean frowned, looking around. She had been just a few feet ahead of them, and now she was gone.

Sam didn’t even get a chance to reply before Dean’s body slammed into his, knocking him to the ground in a tangled mess of limbs.

“Who are you, and why are you following me?”

The voice above them was calm but carried a dangerous edge. Looking up, the brothers found themselves staring down the barrel of a gun.

“You’ve got about ten seconds to answer,” you warned, your grip steady as you studied the two strangers.

Dean raised his hands in mock surrender, trying to defuse the situation. “Hey, hey, how about we put the gun down and have a nice, calm conversation?”

“You didn’t answer my questions,” you countered, cocking the gun for emphasis. “Who are you, and why are you following me?”

“Okay, okay,” Sam said quickly, his voice trying to calm the situation after his brothers failed attempt. “My name’s Sam, and this is my brother Dean. We’re the ones who called you.”

You narrowed your eyes. That answered part of your question, but it only left you more confused.

“What?” you asked, confused, but not about to lower the gun just yet.

Dean blurted out, “Look, we’re looking for our dad. He told us to call you if we couldn’t reach him. We saw you pick up at the diner, and we got curious.”

“So you followed me like a couple of creeps instead of just talking to me?” you shot back, irritation creeping into your voice.

The brothers exchanged an awkward glance, clearly realizing how bad it sounded, trying to come up with a defense that made them sound less like creepy stalkers.

“Wait, who’s your dad?” you asked, cutting off whatever pathetic excuses that were about to escape their mouths.

“John Winchester,” Dean offered plainly. Glad of the change in question.

The name hit you like a truck. You’d crossed paths with John only a few days ago, working separate cases in the same area. You hadn’t thought much of it when he disappeared; you’d assumed he’d wrapped up his hunt and moved on. Clearly, that wasn’t the case.

“You’re John’s sons?” you asked, though it was more of a rhetorical question. “Well, that makes sense.” You sighed to yourself, eyeing the two.

You lowered your gun and holstered it, extending a hand to each of the boys, helping them to their feet while silently offering an unspoken truce.

Dean accepted your hand, brushing himself off. “You know him?”

“Yeah, I know him,” you replied, the faintest hint of distaste creeping into your tone. Sam caught it, his lips twitching in amusement, though Dean didn’t seem to notice.

“He’s missing,” Dean said, his voice steady but tinged with concern.

John Winchester missing? That didn’t sit right with you. Although a right ass, the guy was tough as nails, one of the best hunters you’d ever met.

“He was hunting something out here and just vanished. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

You thought for a moment before answering. “I saw him a couple of days ago. Last thing he said was that he was heading to Sylvania Bridge to check something out.”

Sam stepped in, his voice hopeful. “Would you help us find him? If he told us to call you, he must’ve thought you could help.”

You hesitated. You weren’t the type to work with others, especially hunters. They were usually more trouble than they were worth. But there was something about these two that made you pause, something that felt like you were meant to help them. Not that you believed in fate or anything…

“Fine,” you said with a sigh. “I’ll help. But don’t make me regret this.”

[ordinaryschmuck]

Why I Love The Owl House: Part Six-Praises, Problems, and Perotations

Prev Part

…Perotations is a synonym for “Conclusions.” Had to stretch for illiteracy, there…Anyways.

Salutations, random people on the internet who are already skimming past this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

Here it is, friends and followers. The very last thing I have to say about The Owl House. Or things, plural. You see, this isn’t like the previous parts. In the past, we’ve discussed the show in every possible aspect all while circulating around a common theme, whether it’d be the characters, their relationships, the arcs, and the messages that the series is trying to tell. However, there’s a lot more to discuss about The Owl House than just those four things. It’s just difficult to find a theme for each topic because, well, I don’t have much left to say. That and there’s nothing these last few points have in common with each other to lump into a shared post. So this final part of this whole long ass thing is sort of me just me listing out the last few praises and problems I have with the series before reaching that perotation. And yes, I’m still sticking with perotation. Might as well commit.

Also, to keep things fair, each praise I give the show will be immediately followed up with a nitpick—I mean, problem. That’s how it’s gonna go for this whole part, as we go back and forth from praise to problem, praise to problem, and so on and so forth until we reach the end. We’re in the homestretch here, folks, so let’s stop stalling and finally wrap up a review that’s three years in the making as I finally answer WHY I love The Owl House.

Praise: It rewards multiple rewatches

That’s the best thing to say about a serialized show like The Owl House. Knowing about big reveals or the direction of the story is going helps make rewatching it a little more fun. You get to pick up on all the little clues that the writers left behind or how moments can be recontextualized. There’s little stuff like how Amity tried running away from Luz in the ROMANCE section of the library or the proud look in Alador’s eye as Amity fends off the abomaton, showing that there were ideas that the crew were planning to set up but left behind these hints, both subtle and not, and making fans realize that the writers thought that far ahead (Most of the time). Even the little things like seeing a Grom poster in the background in an episode leaves a nice teaser for something fun that’s to come while making fans smile at that particular attention to detail.

But it gets better with the bigger reveals. Raine especially is a great example of this, as they have two big moments that recontextualize how they interact with Eda in previous episodes. In “Eda’s Requiem,” it’s clear that there’s some romantic tension between the two, with Eda particularly being a blushing mess. It leads viewers to believe that the two share feelings for each other, but never admit it, with a few fans even joking that Eda isn’t that suave if she’s so flustered around an old crush. Then in the VERY NEXT EPISODE, we learn that Eda and Raine aren’t old crushes but are instead exes. It makes all the romantic tension in that episode feel more engaging now that you have that information in mind, as it tells you that these two still have feelings for each other, with Eda’s being the strongest seeing how she didn’t want the relationship to end but willing to keep quiet because she’s not willing to admit it. It’s a great utilization of recontextualization that makes the text more engaging, with the crazy part being the writers do it AGAIN in the same season. In “Follies of the Coven Day Parade,” we’re led to believe that Raine’s brainwashed by some potion Terra gives them, with Eda’s attempts to break Raine out looking like they’re WORKING but not hard enough. The biggest sign that Eda broke through was a tear from Raine, but even then it didn’t look like much as Raine went right back to chugging Terra’s concoction. Only for “Them’s the Breaks, Kid” to reveal that Raine was NEVER under any hypnosis or spell. They used bard magic to change the mixture with just a whistle, which we see Raine do when they first drink something Terra gave them. Not only is that a brilliant case of laying down the groundwork for a bigger reveal down the road, but it makes all of Raine’s actions in that episode have an extra sense of drama to them as we now know they’re faking being brainwashed and are trying to push Eda away from the oncoming conflict. “Follies at the Coven Day Parade” is already an engaging episode, especially with the Eda and Raine subplot alone, but the prior knowledge of what’s really going on with Raine just gives it an extra bit of edge that it didn’t even need but I’m appreciative of it anyway.

The same applies when fan theories turn out to be true. Now, there were a LOT of crackpot theories in this fandom, some of them going so far as believing that Luz would be possessed by The Collector (Remember that?). As for other theories, the show didn’t have much that was as big as that. There was Hunter being a grimwalker, but the show basically spelled that out to us with how it practically shoved that spell book into our faces. There was King being a Titan, but that originally felt like a crack theory based on the SLIGHTEST things with no follow through only for the show to give us all the information we needed in one fell swoop. The only real theory that had any weight, large in part because the clues felt subtle enough to glance over and were frequent enough to remind fans of its possibility, is Belos being Philip/a human. I personally picked up on the possibility as early as “Young Blood, Old Souls.” He didn’t cast spells like other witches and his staff and parts of his robe looked more mechanical than magical. It made me think he had no natural magic of his own and, with humans being the only beings who lacked magic, the logical conclusion was that HE might be human too. Sure, his face revealed he had pointy ears, but they were noticeably smaller than most witches. Almost as if he sliced up his own ears to help make them look more like a witch’s. And I know you can’t SHOW something like that in a kid’s show, but you can heavily imply it…which the series did through a portrait in Belos’ mind. Regardless, the show always left the validity of the theory as a possibility, with new information being thrown into the mix of whether Belos used to be Philip. They certainly sounded similar and, upon meeting Philip, a lot more of the pieces started to fall into place. His charm, inflections, and demeanor all pointed to the signs that these two were the same guy, with “Hollow Mind” only confirming it to the audience. With all this proper build up and explanations of who Belos is and why he acts in a certain way, not only does it make forming and reforming the theory more fun, but it makes rewatching Belos’ actions become more engaging as you get a better idea of what he’s going for. We know why he’s vague about his plans for the Day of Unity, why he treats Hunter so disrespectfully, and why he wants a portal to the Human Realm. It makes an already threatening villain more vile and intriguing all because we know exactly who he is, rewarding fans who already got close to predicting the truth by giving them more than what they bet on.

This is the fun of watching a show like The Owl House. With its tight continuity and story consistently building off of itself, it makes you appreciate all the finer details and see how it all mostly lines up. Not everything was planned out, but, for the stuff that was, it makes rewatching the series feel better and better as you know the writers spent so much time making sure everything they make lines up perfectly as they could. By knowing the truth, it can make fans appreciate even the TINIEST of moments in Season One that would HEIGHTEN the experience once you you got to Season Three…Unfortunately, though, there is ONE thing that the writers didn’t fully work out, to the point where it kind of breaks the series when we get to that final season.

Problem: The timeline is all kinds of wonky

I don’t mean all the stuff in the past. Caleb running away with Evelyn, Belos’ rise to power, Eda’s curse and all the consequences that came with it all line up well enough. What I’m talking about is all the things that happened in the present. From “A Lying Witch and a Warden” to “Thanks to Them,” a lot of the show’s attempts at making a timeline of events falls short.

At first, it seemed that they were doing a good job of it. They said that “I Was a Teenage Abomination” and “Covention” were a week apart from each other, with the same being the case with the ladder episode and “Lost in Language.” There, the writers were explicitly giving us an exact timeline of events, being relatively easy to follow. But either they realized that they’re making the summer move along a little faster or they stopped caring about consistency, because they stopped mapping things out after “Lost in Language.” From there on, the writers become noticeably vague about how far apart these events occurred. “Keeping Up A-Fear-Ances” has Luz assume that summer is over, so it’s definitely been months since the first episode, meaning we’re probably in Fall…but then it gets trickier. Because by the end of “Reaching Out,” it shows us this calendar next to Camila that it’s currently the last week of August. Now, some summer camps don’t last the WHOLE summer, I’m sure…But Camila, in the very first episode, specifically said, “The next THREE MONTHS will fly by.” If it’s been three months, depending on the school Luz went to, we would be in August by “Keeping Up A-Fear-Ances.” However, it’s weird that we’re STILL in August in “Reaching Out.” In order for that to make sense, every episode after “Keeping Up A-Fear-Ances” would be a day apart from each other. Is that plausible? Probably. But ONLY if camp ended at the exact time as “Keeping Up A-Fear-Ances.” What we saw in the ending could have been a few days, maybe a week at some random point of August. 

And even IF events were a day apart, that still wouldn’t work. Assuming it’s the middle of August, that either has not enough episodes or not enough days. And even then, to think that all of these episodes, EACH ONE, takes place a day after the other is INSANE. It definitely doesn’t do Hunter’s redemption arc any favors if it took less than a month to change his perception of reality. Plus, something Raine said in “Follies at the Coven Day Parade” makes things MORE confusing. They said they’ve spent a MONTH in bed. Could be a part of the “brainwashing” that’s making them say that, but still, a month WHEN? A month BEFORE or AFTER “Eda’s Requiem?” Because if it was a month BEFORE, why would the Emperor’s Coven make Raine think they’ve been taken care of BEFORE becoming an official Bard Head? And if it’s a month AFTER, then HOW?! IS IT?! STILL AUGUST?! I’m telling you, it HURTS the brain to think about, and it hurts even MORE when there’s a frickin’ scrap book in “Thanks to Them” that explicitly says the Hexsquad spent a  SUMMER together, WHICH THE PHOTOS PROVE TO BE ACCURATE! When’s the last time you’ve seen people go to the beach in the mid to late September? Or go tubing when we’re getting close to October? Or relaxing in the sun or enjoying your time in the garden when it’s the middle of FALL?! The math is NOT mathing in this scenario, and it really almost breaks the series.

Now, the question is this: HOW did this happen? Well, there are two theories, one generous and the other reasonable. The generous theory is that, given most of the timeline started getting broken in the second half of Season Two, it’s possible that this was a result of the story getting shortened (Yes, I’m playing that card. Stick with me). The writers confirmed that the first half of Season Two was already written and put into production before Disney decided we can’t have nice things and shortened the series. There were a LOT of things that were likely to happen in that longer version of The Owl House, with a “summer” in the human realm being something they thought up as a way to make the story more interesting despite the constrained time limit. However, like I said, that’s being generous. Because the reality, in what I can assume, is that writers didn’t do the math right and failed to properly communicate with the art department. Stuff like the calendar and scrapbook is something made by the background, prop, and storyboard artists, likely trying to clean things up and add more fun to the story, only for it to turn out that they didn’t get the proper notes they needed. The results…doesn’t fundamentally destroy the series, but it does break things everytime you think about it. If you’re not paying attention, you won’t be bothered by any of it, but if the only solution is to tell people not to think about something in the series that’s so broken…is a bit of an unfair suggestion to make. You can’t tell people to ignore something wrong with the story, no matter how good the rest of it is. It’s still worth being brought up, even if it’s something small that turns into something BIGGER down the line. That way, it could help future writers, or people working on this show moving onto bigger things, to avoid facing a similar issue and make the NEXT story end up being a little less broken…But I can tell you what ISN’T broken in THIS series.

Praise: The Characters all feel solid.

“What does that even mean?”

Good question! Because I don’t know.

Yeah, this one’s more based on a FEELING I get when watching the show. It’s something I notice when watching it alongside Amphibia, Gravity Falls, or most other 2D shows. It’s even something I noticed with MoringMark’s comics, which often nails a close approximation of the show’s art style, but SOMETHING always felt a little off. And it’s not when looking at the show do I realize the reason WHY is because The Owl House has a certain…volume to it. Like, I can almost TOUCH these characters when they’re on screen. As for how, again, I have no idea. It could be how the characters are colored, the weight in their lines, the way they’re shaded, or even the ways they’re meant to move. I don’t know how or why The Owl House accomplishes this feeling I get from it, but I feel like it’s something worth mentioning, even if briefly.

See? Not every part of this final review will be long winded. Sometimes, I just gotta bring up small things that enough people talk about, to show how I appreciate The Owl House in most facets. Certainly helps when I bring up something that might get people angry.

Problem: The animation’s a bit too stiff at times 

Not all the time, mind you. There are a lot of scenes where the series goes all out and adds so much fluidity in such a short scene. The problem comes when you realize how great THOSE scenes look causes the rest of the show to…NOT look like that.

To be clear, the animation’s not AWFUL. I’d say more times than not, the show looks good. It’s just that you can see where most of the budget went into for certain scenes. It’s a tactic that action oriented shows use all the time, to have the dialogue heavy and character focused scenes be slow and stiff so that they can save the best work on the  weekly fight scenes. However…The Owl House isn’t an action oriented series. It’s a fully character driven one, as I’ve thoroughly established for five frickin’ parts now. There are only a handful of big fight scenes, with only a quarter of them having that smooth as butter animation. Yeah, while hype up the big battles like Eda’s duel with Lilith, there’s actually SOME fights where it’s the usual standard for the rest of the series, looking a bit stiff and slow. Sometimes, the same episode can have different animation for fights, with “Follies at the Coven Day Parade” having a stiff fight between Eda and Raine and a smooth one with Luz and Amity teaming up against Kikimora. The difference is noticeable and, the crazy thing is, I don’t dislike either battle, regardless of its quality. I think both are still good in their own right, but the noticeable difference sticks out and makes you realize…how the rest of the series looks. Again, it’s still good, especially in Season Two where it feels like most of the stiffness got cleaned up a bit. It’s just a thing where, despite how good some things look, it makes one almost feel that they’re watching a different show when it suddenly turns up the quality. It feels weird that the show looking amazing is a problem, but it only is when it sticks out like a sore thumb…That being said, though, the show DOES look frickin’ awesome when it wants to.

Praise: It has AWESOME fight scenes and cool uses of magic.

Is this contradictory? Only a little. And, to be fair, while there are times when the FLUID fight scenes DO stick out, they deserve all the praise in the world. Because unlike a certain book series that has magical fights in it, there’s more of an attempt to go NUTS with the action outside of “I’m pointing my wand as hard as I can!” Shout out to How It Should Have Ended for nailing that, by the way, because…Yeah, it’s accurate. If the best magical action you can come up with is characters pointing their wands at each other, it’s not really that visually compelling. Now, for The Owl House, you get a LOT more than pointing wands. You have characters dashing themselves away from big, magical blasts. Abomination goop being used as a shield, fists, or swords. Our plucky protagonist flying at the seat of her pants to try and defend herself from an evil emperor throwing everything he has at her. When the series wants to go hard, it does, regardless of how noticeable the quality difference is. And I appreciate the fact that The Owl House crew try so hard to make all magic that characters can do look awesome, regardless of it being an action scene or not. Outside of Oracle Magic, which never really got that much of a spotlight, all the other eight magical tracks are often shown to be–To put it bluntly–super cool. “Eda’s Requiem” has a ton of moments like that with bard magic, giving us an actual idea of what it’s capable of and, albeit briefly with a guard putting on earmuffs, imply that it’s limited by people being able to HEAR the tunes bards play. Plus, the final act shows the capabilities of Abomination and Beast Keeping Magic with Darius being able to teleport people with goop and morph his body into goo while Eberwolf has better tracking skills and being able to summon beasts. Sure, it adds intensity to the scene and proves just how powerful these two are, but it also shows us–Without telling us–what their magic types can do and how powerful one can get with a type of skill. Even something as simple as Viney casting a shield through healing magic or Bria making stone columns through construction is enough to tell the audience what we need to know about these types of magic and infer what ELSE witches like them can do in their respective tracks. It creates fun speculation on top of making the magic more interesting to watch as compared to the film adaptations of the unspoken book series. You should know which one by now.

However, as cool as the magic CAN be, how it’s casted could use some more punching up.

Problem: The magic system is kind of boring.

KIND OF. There being eight magic tracks is interesting and, as established, how those different magical spells are used can look visually intriguing. They definitely avoided the problem of characters just pointing wands for a fight, but they ran into this new issue of how the magic is casted. For every spell in every single track…it’s just the characters drawing circles. Sometimes big circles, sometimes small circles, and sometimes multiple circles at once. The only time a circle isn’t drawn is when a character uses a staff…most of the time. Even then, there are instances when a circle needs to be drawn, even if they’re not as frequent as a character casting magic without a staff. And I’m not gonna lie, this is an issue I’ve had since the first few episodes of Season One. It’s just such an uninteresting  way for characters to cast magic, especially since it’s done by everybody, regardless of what spell it is. And you wanna know the worst part is? The show offers a more INTERESTING magic system than what most witches have.

Luz’s glyphs, much more than the spells, sucked in a lot of fans’ attention. There were people drawing their own ideas for glyphs that matched what COULD be in the show, or coming up with possible combinations when Season Two established that glyph combos are a possibility. And the reason WHY is because the glyphs are a more fascinating concept. They offer more variety of what they can do for Luz, and look more visually interesting than a circle in the air. What also benefits the glyphs are the limitations they have. They can do anything Luz wants, but she has to draw them EXACTLY as they’re meant to. No line can be out of place, and the circle has to be perfect every single time. Amity proved what happens if you draw the glyph wrong in “Reaching Out,” and that was just with ONE glyph. When it comes to drawing glyph combos, not only do you need to combine the right kinds of glyphs with a specific amount, but you need to draw them in a specific way. It’s more than just drawing two glyphs on the same page, it’s drawing one on one part of a circle that connects it to another. It’s complicated, and gets more so, depending on the spell. Belos’ teleportation glyph proves that you need more than paper to draw the whole thing out. And that’s not getting into the other limitations Luz has with glyphs, like how the invisibility glyph can only work for as long as the user holds their breath. That’s a cool concept and makes one wonder how other glyphs can be limited despite the power they present. Which is more than I can say about spell circles.

Spell circles are just missing that little extra OOMPH. It’s interesting that performing magic is more like a skill that a person needs to train themselves how to do. Like learning how to whistle or learning how to balance on one leg. Nothing strenuous, but nothing easy, either. Plus, the fact that there’s occasional strain from doing a spell too big or characters collapsing after doing one for too long does at least SHOW that magic’s not easy to do. It just doesn’t always LOOK hard, not from a viewer’s perspective. Maybe if something like Beast Keepers needed to make claw marks in the air or Plant Witches needed to draw squiggly lines to mimic vines. Or even if a spell requires a different colored circle, and being able to mix spells means you have to draw a variety of circles. Just…ANYTHING to make it seem like there’s more of an effort outside of drawing circles, all while impressing audiences with how cool the magic system could be. It doesn’t kill the show in any way, but it does feel like there could have been more creativity. It’d be difficult, but the show isn’t afraid to present something engaging through visuals. And not just through the fight scenes…

Praise: The show does great at showing development  through outward appearances.

It might not be on the same level as an epic action scene, but this IS a nice attention to detail. You know why you often see characters wearing the same clothes in every episode, often with little variety? It’s because doing so makes it easier for the animators, giving them a sense of consistency to know how to draw a character each time throughout the series, only changing it up for one episode, specific scenes, or even a quick gag. So to either make a permanent or even gradual change to the character’s design as we reach a certain point in the story, it’s got to take a great attention to detail and continuity to make the change stay. Not only that, but there has to be a GOOD reason to do it. Sometimes, there isn’t. Like, for Eda, I feel as though some higher ups started to discover the lewd art fans were making and told the animators to show less skin on her (Didn’t work, they just made her look hotter). And for Gus, it’s just because the voice of his VA started getting deeper so they gave the character an older design to reflect that…even though, to this day, it makes me question what the hell “witch puberty” is. But while those are small cases that are either done “just because” or “for convenience,” there are some design changes that are often used to help tell the story and show how characters have grown and developed through the course of the series.

In a more permanent case, you have King and Amity. In “Echos of the Past,” King regains a piece of his old horn that Luz then glues back onto him…It’s weird that the horn fits perfectly and that it continues to grow as he ages, but, eh. He’s a baby god. There’s probably some god magic they’re that we’re not aware of.

Regardless of how the horn’s apparently magic, there’s significance to why this horn is now reattached to King. In that episode, he learns that there’s this new part of himself and his history that he wasn’t aware of before. Because of that, he wants to TRY to connect to his roots, even though he doesn’t know who or WHAT he is. Having his horn back is the first step in that journey, making him look more like what he EXPECTS his species to look like. It’s a small thing, but it still does so much to represent King’s character and the journey he’s about to take.

As for Amity, her big change is a bit more significant. After finally wanting to be her own person, she decided to change her hair to help reflect that. Instead of a colder shade of green that makes Amity look like her mother, Amity had it dyed into a warmer shade of lavender. Even how Amity has her hair made up offers this more welcoming appearance as opposed to looking like a smaller Odalia. Whether Anity wears her hair long or short, it frames her face in a much friendlier manner, showing off how much she grew into a kinder person. When I often think of Amity, I think of the nicer young lady with adorable cotton candy hair, as opposed to the snarkier, more intense teen with a colder appearance. It actually breaks my brain a little when I rewatch earlier Season One episodes, because I don’t associate that look with Amity anymore, let alone her behavior. It proves how much she’s changed, inside and out, all while trying to be her own person instead of a carbon copy of someone worse. Sure, the change was a bit jarring and, admittedly, I missed the green hair upon the big reveal, but it’s a necessary change to make the fandom’s favorite white girl happy. It’s not like everyone can have a more gradual change like the fandom’s favorite white boy.

Hunter’s interesting because he’s the only character in the show who has a different appearance in almost every episode. Whether it’s something subtle like a new emblem being added to his cape or something drastic like…whatever you could call his outfit in “Labyrinth Runners.” Either way, he never really sticks to the same style, and that’s fine. His whole character is about discovering himself and who he wants to be instead of becoming the soldier and symbol Belos wanted. It’s why, during the final season, he starts wearing messier, looser clothing that is an outcry to the more professional outfits he went for. And while he ends the series the most scarred he’s ever been, it’s a nice detail that it looks like Hunter is the happiest he’s ever lived through his smile, lack of eye bags, and more loose body movement. It’s a mix of subtle and obvious details that showed how Hunter became a changed person despite all the hardships he went through. It’s beautiful and he’s not the only character that goes through this kind of change.

When I saw what Lilith looked like in the past, and how the bright vibrancy clashed with Lilith’s cold presence in the present, I was hopeful that her road to redemption would be her trying to look more like her old self. And while her redemption was rushed in more ways than one, it is great that the art team did lean into the idea of Lilith slowly shedding her old design for a warmer, kinder one. She ditches a proper set of robes for some spare rags Eda had laying around, eventually gained a uniform when she found stability in her life, allowing her hair to curl once more while adding a pair of specs, and ends the series with her red hair fully returning. At the start, she looked like the most blatantly evil antagonist with how much darkness encompassed her design. By the time skip, she still wears those cold colors, but the short orange hair, the specs, and even how loose that outfit looks gives this sort of eccentric professor appearance. Sort of like she’s Miss Frizzle’s cousin, but one that goes against dressing brightly and colorfully. It definitely fits the vibe Lilith’s current personality goes for, and it works. It’s another case of a character’s improved behavior reflecting in their appearance. However, sometimes the show can do well in the opposite direction by showing how WORSE a character has gotten.

Luz and Belos are the main instances of this. Luz was more brief, as she looked disheveled during “Thanks to Them.” Her clothes were baggier, her smile is basically gone, and it looks like she’s stopped caring about herself or her appearance. It perfectly shows us the mental and emotional state that Luz is in throughout the special, caused by her stress and guilt formed by Belos’ manipulation. Speaking of, through the final season, Belos gradually looks more monstrous and decayed as he continues his quest to kill all witches. It appropriately reveals how much of his true self started taking physical form and overshadowing the charismatic manipulator, all while his body melts and breaks apart to show that time is catching up with him every second. It’s the best kind of visual representation of what Belos has become and this final season will be his final moments. Both him and Luz have perfect visual representation for how worse they got this season, even if Luz’s change was more temporary than Belos’. But, even then, she spends the rest of the season dressed as her hero Azura, making her look like everything she wanted to be in the Boiling Isles as she gains determination to save it. So even though this season started with Luz at her worst, she still managed to evolve into becoming her best self while Belos continued to devolve into his worst self. There’s some hero/villain symbolism for ya.

The art and animation team work their hardest in making the show look as good as they possibly could, often aiding the equally great writing. Changing up the characters outfits and designs can say so much without needing the characters to say anything at all. It’s the perfect cooperation of writing and animation that makes some of the best animated shows function so well. In this case, it offered a great attention to the story at play and made for great visuals at the same time…Though, those same visuals aren’t exactly PERFECT…

Problem: The color scheme is a little off.

“That seems subjective.”

Oh, it’s VERY subjective. I’m not one who knows color theory or what some colors represent (Honestly, I find the whole thing nonsensical). I’m a guy who goes off of gut feeling and thinking to myself “Do these assortment of colors look good?” And the colors in The Owl House don’t look AWFUL, as there’s never a point where I feel like the show is unwatchable. I’ve seen uglier looking works of fiction, all because the creator or director thought it might “improve” the film. Whether it’s to hide the obvious CGI or because the director wanted to match the “grittiness” of the real world, there have been clearer cases where artistic expression or intent tends to harm how a show looks. Even things I like, such as Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss, run into the problem where the red and black characters tend to blend too much in the red and black backgrounds. I get that we’re in Hell and the shows often look gorgeous otherwises, but holy hell this must be torture for people who are colorblind. But again, The Owl House never gets THAT bad, even though it matches a similar intent.

Dana Terrace wanted to make a magical world that isn’t as pretty as your usual fare. Doing that means you have to avoid using bright and inviting colors, allowing viewers to appreciate the beauty in what others considered ugly. A nice sentiment, sure, and they don’t completely use unappealing colors. For the most part, the orange, red, and browns of this world create this sort of Fall atmosphere, while the blues, greens, and also browns of certain creatures and characters look devilish and/or ghoulish. The intent is clear and it’s not a bad look at all, but there’s something a little off going on.

I THINK it’s how the colors mix with the characters? It’s hard to explain, but when I look at a character like Gus, who frequently wears his Hexside uniform, something is off. Like…the cold blues and blacks of his uniform clash with the warm hues around him. Or how something like Willow’s original casual outfit had colors that blended in the rest of the world. Or how Luz’s bright white and purple hoodie contrasts her dark jeans and leggings. I guess what I’m getting at is that the colors of the character’s outfits are the problem? They either clash or blend in, to my eyes, at least. Again, NOT a color theorist, I’m probably just talking out of my ass here and going too much into detail about something that’s basically a nitpick. The colors of The Owl House don’t ruin the show for me, I still like the majority of how it looks. This is just a little thing that stops me, personally, from saying it looks perfect. Don’t take it too seriously, this is, again, totally subjective. It’d be the same as me complaining about the show’s comedy or music…Speaking of the music, though, I have NO complaints regarding that.

Praise: The Music is amazing.

Told ya.

And again, this is totally subjective. A show’s soundtrack is either going to strike a chord in you (ha) or not. And while The Owl House doesn’t have an AMAZING score, it’s still one that often fills me with delight no matter what episode I’m watching. Composers TJ Hill and Brad Breeck do a great job in giving The Owl House its own sound. There’s themes that can fit a certain character, like with how The Collector has this very bouncy yet very off-putting base whenever they’re doing wacky nonsense. There are also motifs that suit a relationship, like how Luz and Amity had this little tune that got warmer and gentler as the two got closer to becoming an pair. And, there are cases where there are songs that play just for a certain episode or theme, like that beat that played during “Echoes of the Past” when Jean-Luc was on screen. There’s a lot of effort put into the music of the series like there is in a lot of the show, and it’s often pleasant to the ears like how the visuals are pleasant to the eyes. There’s a total of ONE case where the score got a little lazy and that’s when they played the same track for when Lumity became canon during the scene where Gus introduces Cosmic Frontier to Hunter. That’s a very specific score that never got used again, and works well for the FIRST scene it’s used in. To reuse it for such a minimal moment is baffling, but it’s at least the ONLY time the composers did it. In a lot of other cases, they go hard with the instrumentals, with TJ Hill’s theme for the show being a pretty good listen. Wouldn’t rank it among some of the best theme songs for cartoons, but definitely better than most.

The closest I can find to a problem with the show’s music, outside of the one weird reuse of a specific track, is that it almost sounds TOO similar to Gravity Falls. Like, if you were to play a few notes from the background, half the time, it’s gonna take me a minute to figure out if it’s from The Owl House or Gravity Falls. I can let it go, of course, because both shows share a composer and The Owl House has a bit more of a…magical feeling to its sound, I guess. You know it when you listen closely, and it helps give The Owl House more of that unique feeling…But since I brought up similarities, there’s more to notice than just the music.

Problem: The show feels…similar to other modern cartoons.

Though, to be fair, almost every huge show since Adventure Time and Gravity Falls feels similar. There’s definitely been a trend where modern animation tends to start as comedic and mostly episodic, becomes gradually serious over time, starts telling a more cohesive story arc, and shocking twists that even surprise a few adults a lot of the time. It’s a trend tiring for some while exciting to most, with The Owl House being one of the better examples of this pattern done RIGHT. I have no problems with what the show wants to be, but I can’t help but notice instances where it does something similar to other shows that came out. Dana Terrace and her writers have put their own spin on ideas, but don’t stop these feelings like how The Collector’s playtime is a chiller Weirdmageddon, or how the final season is a repackaged version of Amphibia’s. I already went over that ladder two parts ago, so I’m not going to repeat myself here. As for the former, I’m not going to dwell on it because more than enough people did when “For the Future” started. The Collector is NOTHING like Bill Cipher, so they both go about causing chaos in different ways, with The Collector’s actions being unintentionally messed up while Bill fully knows what he’s doing and loves it anyway. The differences lead to two apocalyptic scenarios that are unique in their own right. Still, the similarities ARE there and are fairly noticeable.

I don’t like giving problems like that attention, though. It’s a nitpick at best and it’s always people using surface level similarities just to make a nonsensical argument about how nothing is original anymore. As someone who believes that originality is a myth and that it’s near impossible for people to make something wholly original, I find it pointless to point out how similarities are a problem, especially if what’s being made is still good.

“Then why bring it up at all?”

Well…because it does stop The Owl House from standing out, just a little bit. If you offer a story that’s too similar to others, you need to offer some differences that make it more appealing. To make it STAND OUT more from the crowd of great cartoons that tell their own great stories. Otherwise, why bother watching a show when there’s another version of it that’s just the same, if not better? And sure, whether something is better or not is purely subjective. I personally enjoy something like The Owl House more than Amphibia, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that. But there’s also people who disagree with that and treat Amphibia as untouchable where it’s The Owl House that’s flawed. Trying to be better isn’t a big enough difference because not everyone is going to believe your story stands higher than others. But keep in mind, that doesn’t stop the show from being GOOD. Even if there are some familiarities with other things, you’ll still have a good time with what you watch. But think of it like this: There are dozens of sitcoms out there, each of them following a certain formula or character dynamics. Yet the ones people remember the most aren’t just the funniest but the things they did differently. Boy Meets World sort of grew up with its audience by having its main character grow up, going from simple plots of Corey painting his neighbor’s fence for a super soaker to him defending the right to punch a guy who sexually assaulted his girlfriend. Malcolm in the Middle forgoes having a simple, caring family household for a messy family of a-holes that are often at odds with each other but still look out for one another, even if it causes chaos for themselves and others. And The Office, instead of having people go through extreme and almost cartoonish situations, has real types of people living out realistic scenarios and laughing at how stupid and secondhand embarrassing they can be…At least at first. Things get a little bit off the rails later on in the series. Regardless, shows tend to stand out in pop culture due to the differences they presented, not just the quality. The same applies for cartoons like The Owl House, which has a similar vibe to other shows, not just ones produced by Disney. Now, it has differences that make it stand out ENOUGH, but I can’t really blame people for thinking that the series is a little similar to others. I only draw the line when people treat it as an actual detriment when, again, it’s nothing more than a minor nitpick. YOU might not think it stands out, but there’s an entire fandom that says otherwise. And to keep things fair, let’s go over a few differences to prove how well the show stands out.

Praise: The look of the world is great

I said it in the colors section, but Dana Terrace didn’t want a PRETTY magical world. She wanted something a little spooky and demonic, taking art inspiration from paintings by Heironymous Bosch. And while things never get to that level of intensity, let it be known that The Owl House tries to match the same level of weirdness. Or, at least, try as much as Disney would allow. Because if you’ve seen Dana’s non Owl House art on her socials, you can see for yourself how much she was restrained by making something family friendly. Hell, by the time I’m posting this, the teaser for her next big show came out and it definitely looks like Dana Terrace unfiltered. But no matter the limitations, the final result makes for a pretty unique world. By the second episode alone, the show reveals that everything takes place upon the corpse of a Titan. That’s already an awesome idea that I’ve never heard of before and things just get crazier as we see the many demons, witches, and creatures that exist in this world. You have obvious reimaginings of classic beasts and monsters in mythology, with the series putting their own spin on both the designs and what they can do, making these creatures fit with the mythology that the writers are trying to make for this series. As for the NEW creatures that exist solely in this series, there’s not a LOT of ideas that the show puts a lot of emphasis on aside from slitherbeasts and those…weird butterflies, but there’s still a good amount of random one-off monsters, both friendly and menacing, that have a good amount of creativity that puts into how they look. Even that tentacle monster Luz said good morning to in “Witches Before Wizards” has a lot more effort put into its design despite showing up once for the entire series. In fact, that brings up another positive in the look of this world: There’s a lot of effort in making EVERYONE look unique. Every single character and demon that Luz interacts with has a different design to them, with it being rare for the show to reuse character models to fill out a crowd. Now, most of them don’t have a consistent VOICE, but at least the animators and artists did good in making the people of the Boiling Isles look as weird as possible. None of them really look horrifying, but that might help the series more than you think.

The whole point of The Owl House is finding beauty in the bizarre. To accomplish that, you need to create a world that’s weird but not horrific. Make the people odd but not creepy. Have the creatures look dangerous but not horrendous. Basically, it’s all about finding that balance of looking off-putting to any normal person but never to the extent that it isn't something you can’t get used to. The show applies this to characters and the backgrounds, creating a world that’s odd everywhere you look but in a way that’s almost inviting. The Boiling Isles isn’t a place that the main character would want to escape from, but wishes to stay in because of how “at-home” she feels. It’s handled well in every episode, giving the series a look that allows it to stand out on its own just well enough…I just wish we could have seen MORE of this world.

Problem: The world feels small.

I said this before when talking about the arcs, but The Owl House doesn’t really have that expansive of a magical world. Granted, it’s a character driven series, it doesn’t NEED to have a GRAND landscape filled with adventure, it needs a place that the characters can interact and hang out in. It’s totally fine to tell small-scale stories in a small, contained area. There’s just two problems with that: For one, Dana Terrace clearly wanted a larger narrative near the end of Season Two, and doing so led to realizing how little we’ve seen of the Isles. More than that, it makes a fan like me realize I simply don’t care about the rest of the Isles. I care about the primary characters and I don’t want anyone to die, but I also realized that I don’t have the same strong connection to the Isles that Luz does because I haven’t much of it.

As for problem number two, it feels like a waste to limit such an interesting realm. Everything is either near or in Bonesborough, while occasionally moving through forests during SOME adventures. There’s an entire ISLAND to explore and we mostly stay in one area. What’s crazy is that, after Season One wrapped up, Dana Terrace did a Q&A where she promised that Season Two would have more island exploration. And all we really did was see a new city and a FEW islands that were only made for one-off adventures. Granted, I think she promised this BEFORE being told that the show would get cut down, and it’s possible that plans had to change at the last minute, but it doesn’t change how the Isles feel smaller than they are. And with how interesting this world looks, it’s a shame we only get to see it in a microscope view instead of seeing it expanded. The story isn’t RUINED by this, it’s just a missed opportunity caused by spending most of Season One in the same five places and having no time to explore more. Fortunately, the show’s good at a lot of other things regardless of limitations.

Praise: They made something OUTSTANDING despite restrictions

And there are more than just THE BIG ONE. I’ll admit that The Owl House is one of the few shows that adjusted well to a forced cancellation, knowing exactly what to keep in the original plan, how to combine one plotline with another, and come up with an epic, satisfying ending even though it wasn’t the ending the writers originally planned. In all regards, The Owl House managed to soar past expectations and still make some really great episodes and specials when, for other shows, getting a shortened series may as well have been a death sentence (Just look at what happened to Danny Phantom). But as much as the show deserves this kind of praise, it’s also worth mentioning that a shortened series is NOT the only restriction the writers had to deal with. They also managed to surpass expectations when you remember EXACTLY what The Owl House is.

The Owl House, first and foremost, is a children’s cartoon on the Disney Channel. Because of that, there are ideas and elements that the writers and artists can’t go all the way with because Disney still wants to appeal to that family-friendly crowd. So when the show gets away with something that you wouldn’t expect, it makes you appreciate it all the more. Sometimes it’s getting incredibly dark, both in the story and it’s humor, and other times it’s as simple as showing two girls in love. This is a REALLY LGBTQIA+ friendly series produced by DISNEY, and that’s somehow more surprising than ninety percent of what happens in “Hollow Mind.” And that’s an episode filled with death, torture, and destruction, so that says a lot, really.

The Owl House, much like Gravity Falls and Amphibia, really tries to push the envelope of what’s okay for kids or not. To me, though, it feels like it managed to push things further, mainly because cartoons of the past really helped in pushing boundaries too but also because of how deeply it managed to strike a chord in me. Like, I was an ADULT by the time the first episode premiered. I was NOT in this show’s age range and yet I managed to be both impressed and invested with every episode and what it managed to do. And keep in mind, that’s not an easy task to accomplish. As I get older and older, the more I realize that cartoons meant for children aren’t meant for ME (Shocking, I know). Themes are fairly simple, stories are becoming predictable, and the humor’s definitely more for younger audiences and not just ME. So if a series made for children still manages to get strong reactions out of a schmuck my age, it’s clearly doing something right. That effect isn’t going to be the same for everyone, but I personally see it as the show doing something incredible. Dana Terrace wanted to tell a GREAT story with wonderful characters, all with themes and imagery that certainly challenge younger minds, and created JUST that…Though, the story itself isn’t exactly PERFECT.

Problem: There are noticeable retcons caused by the writers wanting to go in a different direction.

This isn’t new for ANY show, let alone serialized cartoons. Adventure Time basically improvised its lore and backstories on the spot, and every reveal and change is almost perfect with only the SLIGHTEST retcons to make it coherent. And don’t even get me STARTED on the things comics have done. Did you know that Alfred wasn’t Bruce Wayne’s family butler? He was just some wannabe detective that actively chose to work for Batman and Robin.

The point is that I get WHY retcons happen. Large or small, subtle or blunt, it’s all because the writers decide they want to tell the story differently and try to change things around so it can fit with everything else they’ve already written. At its best, you barely care that it happens. At its worst, it’s blatantly obvious and you can tell that the writers decided at the last minute that they didn’t like the direction they were going in. And The Owl House…is right between that.

Keep in mind, the changes the show made is almost never towards the story. The narrative is often kept intact regardless of forced shortenings and censorship. The only times the writers decided to make any changes was towards antagonistic characters that the writers wanted to be redeemable. Amity, Ed and Em, Alador, and The Collector are VERY MUCH different characters from how they were introduced and how the writers decided they SHOULD be written soon after. Amity is definitely the best written out of this lineup, as the writers already knew that she had to be redeemed sooner than later and laid out a plan to make it work. However, the plan kind of falls apart when they reveal Amity feels regret for being mean to Willow only to show no form of regret at all in “I Was A Teenage Abomination.” I went over that scene enough, but it still shows how flawed The Owl House is in changing course when it comes to these characters.

Even with changes that I like, it comes across as something more sudden instead of an idea they had from the start. If Edric and Emira were meant to be Amity’s support system, then why would they do something so heinous as leak her diary onto the internet? That’s not tough love, that’s reprehensible. And if The Collector was just a child who didn’t understand how dangerous they were, then why make him act so malicious in their introduction. Yes, it was in a memory and you could argue this is how Belos remembered the scene, but everything else was exact so why would JUST The Collector act differently? These are very clear cases of the show wanting to do something different but only AFTER they were too far into production with certain episodes and soon decided to change course when we see them next. I at least LIKE these changes, I prefer them, but there is ONE case where this type of decision making did NOT work out in everyone’s favor.

Yeah, let’s go ahead and beat the dead horse that is Alador’s redemption again. I originally said that I’m not TOO bothered by this. I get the intent and, to Dana’s credit, she DID state beforehand that Alador is more complicated than fans might think. So I get that redeeming Alador was always part of the plan, but given the strong negative reactions this decision had, especially from fans who have had BAD experiences with parents like him, it’s clear that the writers didn’t plan far ahead enough. You can defend this decision all you want. I’VE definitely tried. But there’s no escaping the fact that showing us Alador acting just as bad as Odalia only to LATER say he’s not is a bold and flawed choice that feels worse the more you think about it. 

Who knows why these particular changes were made to these characters after introducing us to them. Maybe it’s a decision of the writers that they didn’t think through or maybe it’s Disney influencing how some characters are written. One thing’s for sure, I don’t want to use the “There wasn’t enough time” excuse for this one. These were sudden retcons that weren’t properly done when it came to changing these characters. At the end of the day, I still PREFER these changes but I would have loved it if they were better eased into the series. Especially since the show IS good at taking its time for other things.

Praise: The writers waste no time giving fans exactly what they want in a timely manner.

Do you want answers to your fan theories? Do you want to see if a ship you love becomes canon? Do you want one narrative to be continued instead of pushed to the side to the point where it’s basically forgotten? Well, good news! The Owl House gives you pretty much what you want to see and you don’t have to wait that long to get it!

It always amazes me with how little time is wasted in The Owl House. Almost every episode has SOMETHING going on with it, whether it’s a story thread being continued, a relationship being developed, or a character you love making another appearance. The series is often good at delivering what the majority of fans want and doing so without really having that much input to work with. The first season and a half of The Owl House was being developed before any of the cast or crew were aware of how big of a fanbase they’d get and were already on their way in making fans satisfied. I mean, there were already Lumity fans hyper fixating on the ship LONG before “Enchanted Grom Fright” confirmed that they WILL become canon at some point. And even then, the writers still planned to feed the fans well by making it canon halfway through Season Two, potentially hoping to have more episodes in the series dedicated to these two nerds being in love. They planned something this special, not knowing how popular a ship Lumity would be. Just like how they planned to give Hunter a lot of attention without knowing he’d be a fan favorite character or make Steve the most lovable coven guard without expecting fans to love a SINGLE interaction he had with Lilith. I’m sure Dana Terrace and her writers went in hoping to make every character, relationship, and story excellent, but when you’re making something, you can never be too sure what fans are going to gravitate more to. So the fact that they managed to hit a bullseye over what the majority wanted is VERY impressive. Now, not EVERY fan is satisfied. There are some underrated concepts, characters, and relationships that some fans wished would have gotten more attention, both in the show and the fandom. I can certainly understand that, but I can also argue that it's more of you wanting more from The Owl House instead of appreciating what it already gave you. And yes, I know I just complained about not seeing more of the world not that long ago, but there’s a difference between wishing to see the creator of this insane world create more insane things…and wanting an episode dedicated to Emira Blight. Yeah, I’d like that too, but sometimes you need to judge what the creator and their writers gave you and not so much what YOU wanted.

When I say that The Owl House gave fans what they wanted, I’m almost always talking about the vast majority, and they certainly seem pleased enough. Especially with how they didn’t have to wait long to get what they wanted. There’s a total of TWO episodes that I’d consider filler because of how little they offered, both for the series and fans (You probably know which ones). The rest of the time, the show is perfect at delivering what it needs to, and it’s almost always at the right time in the series. Things are constantly moving forward, and it sometimes leads to a small complaint about how the show is badly paced. For me, though, I always describe the series as differently paced. We’re so used to shows that take their time building up to a ship becoming canon, carefully integrating characters into the main cast, or slowly writing out this big arc that when something like The Owl House practically speedruns the whole process, it causes this idea that its pacing must be off. Except that I never really think that it is, as almost every interaction these characters have often feels like a natural progression as you’re watching these people improve themselves and the relationships they have around them. Or the way they’re running out of time to solve these BIG problems leads to feeling the intensity of the situation as there’s not much room for error left for them. It creates a new experience compared to other shows and it makes sense why The Owl House in particular wastes no time. Some say that the writing was on the wall that the show wasn’t going to get that third season, I say…that Dana Terrace knows how things work with televised animation at Disney. The average lifespan of a Disney cartoon is three seasons. Very rarely does anything get four and it’s even RARER to get up to five. Not everything can be like Big City Greens where it’s basically The Simpsons but for kids. And keep in mind, this is a problem BEFORE streaming made things ten times worse for televised animation. Disney does NOT play the long game when it comes to their shows, with it often being inconsistent with what lasts long and what doesn’t. Dana likely expected her show wouldn’t get much time so she planned accordingly, getting to those big moments for the characters and story as quickly as possible without it feeling TOO quick. For the most part, I still say that the final result is handled well, giving fans exactly what they want with little to no fluff or filler…However, there are SOME cases where I can’t help but admit–

Problem: The series clearly needed another season. 

Stop me if you heard this before: This aspect of The Owl House would have worked better–

“--if the show had enough time.”

Yeah, you get it by now. EVERYONE gets it by now. It’s the main criticism thrown around a lot, being applicable to a good amount of the show’s problems. Not EVERY issue, mind you, as Lilith’s redemption in particular is still all kinds of rushed BEFORE the writers were told they only have a season and three specials to wrap up the series. Regardless, The Owl House is a series that is BURSTING with potential with dozens of characters, story concepts, and themes, only to be restricted with how much they can cover. And oftentimes, the end result is still GOOD. I almost never feel like there’s an aspect of the show that was handled poorly with the time that the writers were given. Yet, as good as everything is, I can’t help but often feel like it could have been handled better. Luz’s conflict about choosing the Isles or the Human Realm, Willow and Amity’s friendship, and Raine’s rebellion are just SOME of the things that would benefit with a longer series. And the thing is that I’m not blaming the WRITERS for most of this. They were given a bad hand and tried to deal with it in the best way they could. I still stand by that what they made is AMAZING regardless of how little time they had, even if it’s clear that some ideas had to be cut out entirely or get rushed to an adequate conclusion. It isn’t perfect, but our favorite media rarely is.

Still, I won’t say this fixes EVERY problem in the show. An extra season would have benefited in giving more characters and narratives focus, allowing the writers to further explore these ideas they had better, but not necessarily helping the OTHER problems in the series, especially ones I’ve mentioned before in this part alone. Having more time just allows the writers more of a chance to let the series BREATHE and fully expand on what was necessary. As is, The Owl House will forever be one of the most popular cases, to me, where a show reaching perfection got held back by a network limiting how much they could have done. It’s not the first, it likely won’t be the last, unfortunately, but it’s still one that comes to my mind frequently. And a part of me can’t help but wonder what could have been if the series was allowed to go on longer. As well as make assumptions as to why it wasn’t, because so far the best bet is that it has to do with the NEXT praise I have with the series.

Praise: It has GREAT diversity.

Before you say the shortening ISN’T because of diversity, Disney is currently trying to scrub out any sense of transgender storyline out of its popular programming and seems a bit too keen to end shows early that continues to diversify casts and normalize certain aspects in society. So don’t F**KING tell me that there’s not any other reason The Owl House suddenly didn’t fit the brand, when the higher ups are making it clear that they want the brownie points for being inclusive but don’t want to go too far to scare off their conservative audiences! Well, guess what! THEY’RE not getting the brownie points, Dana Terrace and the writers are…And they really do deserve it.

The Owl House has a pretty colorful cast, to say the least, with the majority of the primary characters being people of color with only a handful of white people thrown in. And pretty much all of them are on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, highlighting and normalizing different sexualities, genders, and gender norms with the show explicitly stating it, implying it, or having the cast and crew come in to confirm or deny certain headcanons. I know we should take Hunter and Willow being bi and pan with a grain of salt because DANA confirmed it instead of putting it in the show…but is it really going to stop anyone? I think when your show has two thirds of your main trio be confirmed bisexuals, I say it’s perfectly fine to believe that anyone in the show can at least be a LITTLE gay, confirmation be damned. The show is very LGBTQIA+ friendly, like I said earlier, with several characters that many people can see themselves in. Though, some viewers to have notes about how…perfectly accepted races and sexualities are, as that’s not exactly realistic or it ignores the experience that many people tend to go through. To that I say…valid, but I get why it’s not exactly handled here.

Dana Terrace has gone on record that she wanted to create a world without any REAL discrimination for the sake of escapism. Kids likely get too much of that crap enough, and this is a way to appreciate watching characters who look like them, act like them, and seeing it without being reminded of what the real world’s like. The Owl House is a series to help children feel seen without reminding them of the stress they have to go through. Would it be a BOLD choice to talk about the homophobia and racism in the Human Realm and the culture shock Luz faces when she realizes that doesn’t exist in The Boiling Isles? Absolutely. But I do feel like, because The Owl House is a kids’ show, you gotta keep the kids happy. Doing that means showing them that who they are is NORMAL and they shouldn’t feel shame for it. I don’t hold it against the series to do things like make Camila accept Luz’s sexuality, I just think it's beautiful that this series is telling kids they can and WILL be accepted by the right people. Unfortunately, that’s not going to be the case for everyone, but I still say it’s good to tell kids that there’s nothing wrong with who they are.

Another benefit is that because The Owl House is a kids show, it teaches kids, specifically white and/or straight kids, that there’s nothing wrong with ANYTHING The Owl House presents. The color of a person’s skin does not stop you from seeing yourself in them. That person’s sexuality also doesn’t stop them from being nice or welcoming. Gender? It doesn’t matter because this show goes out of its way to prove gender’s a social construct, if anything else. A girl can dress up as a boy, a man can dress up more flamboyantly, and some characters can just say “screw two genders” altogether and be non-binary. Heck, one of the short-term antagonists has He/They pronouns, that the characters inexplicably respect despite not knowing The Collector has he/they pronouns, proving that no matter what a person is like, you should still acknowledge what labels they go by. And that’s GREAT! Normalization educates kids who AREN’T part of these races or sexualities that they should be ACCEPTING of it. It’s okay if two girls want to kiss, it’s okay for two men of different races to raise a daughter, and it’s okay for a Black kid to be one of the highest performing kids in his grade. Even if SOME parents get so mad at these ideas that they break their child’s TV and Funko pop collection (That happened, by the way. It’s a core memory I have when seeing this show trend on Twitter once).

The Owl House doesn’t NAIL the full experience of all these groups, but that’s not entirely a HUGE detriment to the series. A kid is going to see Lumity become canon for the first time and feel happy to know that they’re not alone in this world. They’re going to see great characters like Raine and see that it’s good to look and be a certain way. It’s less about educating kids about the culture of lives these types of people might have, but it’s perfect in teaching children that there’s nothing wrong with being a certain way. I feel like the writers deserve SOME type of credit for what they wanted to do, because that in of itself is ADMIRABLE…But admittedly, there is ONE note that can’t be denied.

Problem: It puts a LOT more importance on the WHITE characters.

You remember that handful of white characters I mentioned earlier? Well, they seem to be the writers’ favorites with how often they get more attention than the POCs.

“But the main protagonist is an Afro-Latina!”

That she is…but how much do we know about Luz’s history and family compared to Eda’s? Or compared to Amity’s? Hell, you could argue that we know more about BELOS than Luz. We learn it through portraits in the background of his mind, but we still learn.

“So, what? You think that the writers are RACISTS?!”

I did not say that. I never said that. NO ONE who brings up this criticism has ever said that. The writers aren’t racists for putting a lot more attention on their whiter characters as opposed to the NON white ones. The non-white characters are still well-written and highly regarded in the fandom, with some having more popularity than most of the white characters. In fact, I think I see more fan art of Skara than I do of Viney, despite both having very little presence in the series. The writers did good at making us love the characters who are POC and wrote them to be endearing to anyone regardless of race. There’s just this imbalance between them and the white characters, and it gets more noticeable in Season Two when the fandom’s favorite white boy gets a prominent role in SIX episodes while his half-Korean girlfriend is forced to share one with him. And share HALF a role with her white best friend. And keep in mind, I…wouldn’t willingly trade away Hunter’s screen time. I love Hunter, and so does the majority of the fandom. INCLUDING the POC fans, who don’t like it when white critics talk FOR them in saying that only racists can like Hunter. I’ve seen it. But as much as I love Hunter and his story, I would ALSO love it if Willow got just as much attention in the show as he did.

“Well, maybe if the show had more time—“

Don’t do it. Don’t even try it. Alright? Because I told you, the extra season would have fixed a lot of problems but not ALL of them. This imbalance started becoming more of an issue as early as the FIRST half of Season Two, a portion of the series already written before the writers were told that the show would get cut down. In that first half, fans were already pointing out how little screen time characters like Willow and Gus were getting despite being in a close, chaotic friendship with Luz. The first season started with them being major characters, and now it felt like they were being written out of the plot. In an episode where Luz, Gus, and Willow are ALL expelled, it’s mostly about the family drama Amity has with her parents while Willow and Gus do nothing to save Luz so AMITY can look the most badass and Luz gets a crush on her. In an episode where Luz is too sick to go on an adventure, AMITY gets to go and help reform HUNTER, while Willow and Gus have to stay behind and look after Luz. And even then, they don’t do anything. They just sit there listening to whale songs with Hooty as they remain ignorant to a crisis. Plus, while Gus may have HALF an episode to himself, he’s playing second fiddle to Lumity getting closer to canonicity. Meanwhile, Willow got squat, despite being the third person Luz met in the Isles that became an important part of her life and having a ton more prevalence in the previous season. I first dismissed it as maybe it’s because Willow’s arc of finding confidence came to a complete end in Season One, so maybe they didn’t know what else to do with her…but looking back, that’s a pretty flimsy excuse. A completed arc doesn’t mean a show should just STOP using that same character. You just need to find more uses for them other than being someone defined by their relationships.

“Well, what if people thought Willow was boring?”

I mean…Fair? Kind of? Not everyone’s going to like the same characters and if one isn’t your cup of tea then you’re not really going to miss seeing them, regardless of what race they are. I remember seeing Schaffrillas’ review of the first half of Season Two, and he definitely didn’t shed a tear to there being not much Willow content because he found Willow so boring. However, just because it’s not YOUR favorite character, that doesn’t mean it’s NO ONE’S favorite. And after just going over how important it was that this series makes kids of any race feel seen in this dumpster fire we call a planet, it still feels unfair that those same characters are often pushed to the side so that the whiter ones can take more attention. The cast, crew, and FANS pride themselves on how good the representation is, but as good as things are, the imbalance is what makes it imperfect.

WOOF…That was heavy. Maybe we should move onto a lighter topic?

Praise: Its drama is SUPER compelling.

I said LIGHT–Aw, screw it, this is good to talk about.

As I mentioned earlier, I am a grown-ass adult man. So the fact that this show made for literal children managed to get me so invested in its drama is a TESTAMENT to how good it is. When a character cries, I’M almost moved to tears. When someone’s in danger, I feel nervous for them. When the main character is dying before my eyes, I’m screaming like The Punisher as he’s strapped to the chair while begging for these masked men to not kill his family! That is NOT an exaggeration, I still remember the trauma and it’s the main reason I don’t willingly rewatch “Watching and Dreaming” most of the time. And no, that’s not a joke either, it’s…it’s a heavy scene from a heavy episode…

But that’s my point. This show often leaves me an emotional wreck in a way that’s on the level with a few shows that are meant for adults. Again, THE SHOW FOR CHILDREN is making me feel the strong emotions that I would for any adult series. Not all of them, mind you, and it’s entirely possible that not everyone would feel this way…But you want to know WHY it works so well for ME? The same reason why everything else works in The Owl House: The characters.

That’s more than just a fourteen year old biting the dust, that’s my FAVORITE CHARACTER. Hell, she’s probably one of my favorite characters in all of fiction, one I was endeared with through forty plus episodes of her wacky hijinks and lovable antics. So when she goes through something heavy like the cold embrace of DEATH, I’m naturally going to feel worried and sad over her going through it. And that’s just the SERIES FINALE! All the way back in Season One, my heart cracked in half at the end of “Agony of a Witch” when Luz collapsed and started crying her eyes out over Eda being gone. I love this character, I love the relationships she has, and I love the characters IN those relationships. And it’s a good thing I do, because otherwise the drama would not have hit as well if these characters weren’t likable.

Even the personalities of the cast often helps aid the drama. If a happy and optimistic character like Luz is starting to feel doom and gloom, you KNOW things are starting to get dark. And if the usually confident Eda is bursting into tears because she’s feeling the pressure of being unable to protect her kids, then that just proves how bad things really got. It’s not only proof of how good the characters are, but how genuinely good the writing is. These writers aren’t messing around, making something adults can appreciate but never really going TOO intense for kids…most of the time. “Hollow Mind” is STILL very messed up.

And it’s good that the drama is so well-done because the comedy…sure isn’t.

Problem: Its comedy is often hit or miss

I’ve said it once, I’ve said it again, and I might say it once more in the future. But The Owl House…just isn’t that funny to me. Not always.

When the jokes hit, they’re hilarious. My mind always goes to “The choosey hat” bit or Hooty’s…general Hootyness when I think of what makes me crack up with this series. When it’s good, it’s great. When it’s not…it’s like a C-Grade MCU movie.

*Dodges gunshot*

More specifically, it’s sometimes what the internet THINKS a C-Grade MCU movie is like.

*Dodges several gunshots*

Yeah, hate me all you want, it really does feel like that at times. Not ALWAYS, but often. There’s just a lot of moments that a joke feels forced in because we gotta make the kiddos laugh between all this magic and adventure, and it’s awkward every time. Gus noting how Luz must run fast because humans have dorsal fins is on level with that glob thing in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania wishing he had holes. Or how Luz, after making this big hero speech being met with nothing, says, “Not the response I was expecting…” That’s on the same level of someone going, “Well, that just happened.” It’s pretty much the show’s humor at its worst, and it often makes me roll my eyes instead of smile.

“Well, maybe your first mistake was expecting a kids show to make you laugh.”

Okay, fair point. I DID just say that these are basically jokes to make kids in the audience laugh, so maybe it’s just a thing where I’m too mature for these jokes…Counterpoint: Hilarity knows no age. Because Gravity Falls, a show meant for the same age range as The Owl House, still makes me laugh as an adult, just as much as it would when I was a kid. And if you wanna go further than that, an episode of Bluey, a show for MUCH younger audiences, manages to crack me up far more easily than The Owl House ever has. Being a kids show isn’t what holds back The Owl House’s humor. It’s just…not that funny. Not to me. If it is for you, more power to ya. But for me, I feel like the reason why it didn’t work so well is because Dana Terrace didn’t put too much of a priority on humor. There was more attention put on the characters, themes, and eventually telling darker narratives that the show being FUNNY became something they didn’t worry too much about. Everything else seemed to have come first, with jokes being on the bottom of the list. There were some great laughs to have, and a few cute chuckles sprinkled in, but most of the time, it’s just not that uproarious.

And that’s it…That’s the last thing I have to say about The Owl House…And it’s a nitpick that’s more subjective, if anything else…That’s not fair. After spending six parts and about three years talking about why I love this series, it’s unfair to end it with “The show’s not funny.”

So, instead, let’s end it by finally answering this big ol’ question that’s at the beginning of every post: Why do I love The Owl House? Really, why is it THIS SHOW that’s stuck with me for so long and one that I’ve obsessed over for about five years now? It’s not really the best animated series ever made. It’s not even the best made within the last five years (Have you SEEN Arcane?!). So why is it that it’s The Owl House the show I obsess over? The show that I’ve written fan-fics, analysis posts, and entire reviews to show my appreciation for it? The show that I’ve dedicated FIVE YEARS of my life hyping up as one of the biggest things of the decade? Well, to put it bluntly…It just is.

That’s not a BIG answer, I know, but it’s the truth. The Owl House is something that I love because it did all the right things in all the right ways at the exact right time. And it did it for me and MANY other fans who came together and voiced their LOVE for this wacky series produced by the company everyone hates. It’s not perfect, NO show is, but the imperfections never really mattered. They exist and I can’t blame people for feeling the need to point them out, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the series. NOTHING can stop me from enjoying the series. Dana Terrace would have to come out as a transmisogynistic Nazi who loves the tears of puppies for me to turn away from this series, and even then…it won’t be an easy thing to do.

The Owl House is exactly why I’m here right now. I’ve gained friendships, followers, and had expressed my creativity because of this show. A show I NEVER expected to like and who KNOWS what would have happened if I decided to NOT watch that first episode late one night during college. For all I’m concerned, I might have become the…Lily Orchard to the Amphibia fandom or something…*Shudders*

Will The Owl House stand the test of time and be fondly remembered in the animation hall of fame? To be honest…not sure. Not a future seer. But will it stand the test of time in my heart? Most definitely. Because I may forget some shows and I might forget some aspects of this series like who was the voice of Luz or certain fan-made projects that got drowned out over the years (Remember the “Little Miss Perfect” Animatic?). However, I sincerely doubt, in the deepest part of my soul, that I’ll forget moments like THESE:

The Owl House is FAR from a perfect show. I know that’s true. But to me, no matter what people say, no matter how much better shows will come out…it’ll always FEEL perfect to me.

Thanks again to Dana Terrace and her crew for doing more than changing my life. You changed it for the better, and I’ll always be grateful for that…

[tia-amorosa]

Episode 8: Last Day for Two (Part 1)

The next morning, breakfast was accompanied by one of the family's older ghosts, Victor Grusel. At least more or less. “And you're sure you'll find your mother, my dearest?“/”I'm not sure, but I'll try everything…“/”We used to have many scientists, but no one who dared to venture into such spheres. I wish you every success“/”Thank you, great-grandfather”…

After breakfast, Cassandra went upstairs to change her clothes. “Oh, you've made yourself pretty, Cassandra. But surely not for the desert? I don't want to know how hot it is there"/ ”No, I want to go straight to Don's, he's off again today. I'll definitely pick something else for Strangetown"/ ” mhm. Then make the most of today"/.

“Thanks, I will. And try to get out a bit too“/” well, I wanted to get some new oil paints anyway,…"/,,See, that's a good reason to stretch your legs outside. I'll be back here tomorrow morning"/ ‘Oh… I see. See you tomorrow then’. Cassandra deliberately wanted to spend the last few hours together with Don. Due to work, there was always little time to really spend the day together. Today was going to be different.

A little later. Don opened the door with a big grin. “Hey, wow, you look great“/”hn-hn, and you too, actually, as always grin. Can I come in?“/”Yes, sure. Have you had breakfast yet?“/”Yes, not even an hour ago”. He took both her hands and looked into her eyes. Then he kissed her and slowly pulled her into the house.

He closed the door once they were inside and go on with it. He kissed her passionately, which she was only too happy to accept. He pressed her tightly against him again and kissed her neck, then returned to her lips. “oh, D-Don, don't make me so weak“/,,you just taste so good, Cassy, hhh, there's nothing I'd rather do right now than taste everything of you”.

“I'm sorry, Don, you know I want nothing more than you right now. But I can't…” Her voice trembled a little. “What was the old witch thinking? I'm allowed to kiss you, but not sleep with you?“/”It's about the act itself, Don…And…we'll probably have to wait a little longer now, I have to go away for a few days“/”what? where?“/”Strangetown, a few colleagues asked me to come there because of my mother”.

“You have to go to another city because of your mom?"/ ”It's about all the equipment that's supposed to help me find her. Don. Everything is already different between us anyway… I understand that you're sleeping with other women just because you… can't wait until I'm ready for you. But I love you…”. Don paused for a moment. Then he looked at her and realized how important the whole thing was to her now. “And you love your mother. So take care of that first, okay?"/ ‘And you're not angry…?’…

“No…why should I be mad? Because I'm horny as my neighbor's dog and my fiancée is under a curse and I'm not allowed to sleep with her? It's damn unfair, yes. If I didn't want you, I would have broken up with you long ago, wouldn't I? Besides… I feel partly responsible for your mother being gone. I shouldn't have called her here so late, then maybe she wouldn't have disappeared"/ ‘Oh Don’…

“We are a strange couple. I let you sleep with other women just because I'm not free and only a wedding can redeem me“/”what do you actually do when you get this craving for another body?“/”I… I do what anyone else do in this situation“/”mmh. O.k…. When do you have to leave?“/”Tomorrow”.

“And how long will it take?“/”That depends on whether and how quickly mom can be found“/. “And the boys are Experts?“/”Yes, quite good ones and Polli too“/”who is she?“/”thihi, no “she”, Pollination is an alien who has been living there for many years.“/”uh, a real alien?“/”mhm, do you want to come and see it, hn?“/”no, I'm needed here, you know that. If I was on vacation, I'd say sure!. But I'm irreplaceable at the moment”.

“And do you have accommodation there?"/ ”The boys have a guest room in their house, I can sleep there. Pascal has a son"/ ‘and they're all married or what?’/ ‘No, not as far as I know. hey, is this going to be an interrogation? don't worry, I have to be abstinent anyway, huh?’/ ”Hehe. If I sleep with other women, you can flirt with other men too.” She rolled her eyes. “Oh please, I don't think I'll get around to it there"/ ,,hnhn. And now?” he asked her with a slightly challenging look.

“Well, I don't have to go to the institute today and you don't have to go to the clinic. Either we make ourselves comfortable here with a few movies, or we avoid any atmosphere that could lead to… Sexual desire and get me into trouble. We could go swimming instead“/”you in a swimsuit, or worse, bikini…hmm“/”hmm…let's just go out, shall we?” He smiled, kissed her again. “Alright, I'll take you wherever you want”.

@greenplumbboblover , @solorisims , @plumbobgothica 🙂

Note: Unfortunately, I can't say which poses I used back then. I really don't remember. Sometimes I get really annoyed that I don't make a note of which poses I used at a given time. It's often difficult or even impossible to find them again.😥👀

My story posts are also welcome to be shared.😊🙂

[baggebythesea]

Guys… I.. I just want to tell you that to have two of my fics - no, scratch that, chapters and snippets - so casually remembered and referenced is really heartwarming. Thanks for making my day! I love this fandom.

I love your ideas and I'd love for you to expand on them (and I'm delighted that you use Glimmer dates everyone and Friendship Wrench as a part of it), but as for me - I'm honestly pretty happy with what we got, because from where I stand we got a wonderful, heartfelt mutual apology between Glimmer and Entrapta.

My take on their relationships is that despite they both hurting each other a lot, it's not personal. It's about their own relationship to the world.

Glimmer has very strong feelings about Entrapta, but she doesn't know her all that well. The problem is that - just as Glimmer rubs against Entrapta's insecurities (it's in her princess alliance Entrapta feels left out), Entrapta does the same to Glimmer.

Entrapta seemingly died trying to rescue Glimmer, which directly lead to the princess alliance dissolving, thereby demonstrating Glimmer's inability to keep her allies safe. This lead to Glimmer's and Bow's ill fated rescue attempt of Entrapta, that led to both the humiliation when they kidnapped Catra, and the devastating reveal that Entrapta didn't want to be saved, striking a blow both against Glimmer's ego and the fundament of the new princess alliance. Scorpia could be explained away as indoctrinated, but if Entrapta switched sides is not the princesses against the Horde any longer.

Entrapta froze the whispering woods. Entrapta built the portal. Glimmer realizes that there is no malice behind those acts, but since Glimmers worldview is so shaped by the war, she doesn't get WHY Entrapta did it.

When the tension between Glimmer and Adora reaches its peak Scorpia puts fuel on the flames by telling them about Entrapta on Beast Island. Yet again Glimmer gets what she wants in the worst way possible. She desperately wanted to save Entrapta - and now she has the chance. But if she does, she risks to lose Brightmoon. And after that, after all betrayal and desperation and isolation, and after finding it in herself to make peace with Catra, and even be forced to look at Hordak more emphatically than before, Entrapta was instrumental in saving her. With no reproach, no "I told you so", just happily doing her part. While Glimmer's stomach churns with guilt, Entrapta just happily moves on (or rather, has already processed her feelings towards the princesses).

This puts Glimmer in a similar position as Catra, emotionally. And if we had seen an onscreen apology from Glimmer, it would have been just the same. Perhaps Entrapta would need some more prompting to figure out just what 'the pink one' was apologizing for, but she would accept it just as casually.

The thing is, that Glimmer's big problem with Entrapta is not really what Entrapta has done - not even the truly damaging stuff like the whispering woods or the portal. It's that Entrapta's choices put Glimmer's own choices in question. It threatened Glimmer's idea of herself. And by the time they reunite, Glimmer has already been thoroughly humbled. She KNOWS she was wrong to trust Light Hope, know that she should have gone to Beast Island with Bow and Adora (please note that this isn't about what would have been objectively right in that situation - this is what Glimmer herself believes), she should have remembered that no princess is left behind.

And Glimmer rebuilt from that. She apologized to Bow and Adora. She was immediately on board with rescuing Catra. In short, she worked really hard to be the person she SHOULD have been when Entrapta needed her to be.

And if that's not an apology in a language Entrapta understands, I don't know what is. I truly love Glimmer during those episodes in the middle of S5 when she works so hard to be the BEST at friendship to make up for her little boo-boo in s4.

Glimmer didn't say a single word to question Entrapta during this entire time at Darla. She's completely onboard with refueling on the crystal planet. She has no issue with the name of the space ship or steering into an asteroid field. She follows Entrapta's directions on Krytis without questions. The closest she came to disagreeing with Entrapta was asking if dying was a possibility during the infiltration of Horde Prime's ship, and wrecking Prime's computer while Entrapta was working on it. And most importantly, Glimmer jumped to accept Wrong Hordak. Entrapta brought a stray clone? Sure, absolutely. It's not like Glimmer just beat up a room full of them or anything. This is Entrapta's clone, that mean he is OK. He's Glimmer's baking buddy now. Glimmer's every action after Catra rescues her speaks of trust in Entrapta.

Glimmer and Entrapta both hurt each other during the run of the show, but they both grow into a version of themselves that can do better. They demonstrate this to each other in a way they fully understand - and I think that's beautiful.

Bonus: Glimmer clinging to Entrapta during atmospheric reentry

Wow, that was a bit of a ramble.

TLDR: Glimmer and Entrapta's conflict was not personal, but they both hurt each other. Their apology consisted of working hard to be the person the other needed.

I’ve been trying to come up with my own head canons for this and I felt like I made a break through with Bagge’s Fic: “Glimmer dates everyone” but how would you have imagined her and Entrapta’s reunion after rescuing her in space?

Considering Glimmer’s earlier decision to abandon Entrapta on Beast Island and after everything how do you think she’d go about apologizing and trying to make up for that?

Sorry if this ask is kind of incoherent. I’d just like to hear an interpretation from someone who understands Entrapta better than I feel I ever could.

Ah, well; I don’t know how well I understand Entrapta, but I do have something of an opinion on what you ask!

Personally, I would have enjoyed Glimmer and Entrapta’s reunion to have involved an acknowledgement of Hordak. Given how Glimmer was very... let’s say “less enthusiastic” about rescuing Entrapta, while Entrapta was very much instrumental in rescuing her, I feel like a good way to deepen their relationship and actually cement a friendship between them would be Glimmer making an effort to help Entrapta regain what she’s lost (AKA Hordak).

And I know this might seem difficult, given that Glimmer is Bright Moon’s queen and has a less-than-positive stance on Hordak, but! She saw what happened to him on Prime’s ship. She saw what he actually was, what his life was actually like. And having a front-row seat to that... I think it would be meaningful for her to offer Entrapta comfort, and to have some level of conflict in her views on the situation. Especially given how she embraces Wrong Hordak. 

Obviously not something that happened in the show, but I would have enjoyed it!

[theflagscene]

Not Kant asking little bro Babe to help him win over his man! Lol, that’s so cute! It’s funny because the whole ‘do it for the cops’ thing went out the window the second Kant saw Bison’s face. He only accepted because it led him to being able to see Bison again, the dude was love struck the second he saw him in the bowling alley. If he wasn’t serious about it—for himself, not hot daddy Captain Christ—he’d still be whoring around and getting laid whenever he felt like it, just like he was before he met Bison.

[s0fter-sin]

one of my favourite aspects of supernatural that you very rarely see in paranormal shows is that sam and dean are already versed in the world they live in. there’s no sudden discovery of ghosts and demons and now they have to learn about them along with the audience; they are born into it and already know all about it. it allows the audience to follow their personal story instead of also trying to figure out this new world and its rules

the first season is full of knowledge we never see them learn; “w*ndigoes are in the minnesota woods or- or northern michigan. i’ve never even heard of one this far west.” […] “great. well then this [his gun] is useless.” (1x02), “you don’t break a curse. you get the hell out of its way.” (1x08), d: “it’s a god. a pagan god, anyway.” […] “the annual cycle of its killings? and the fact that the victims are always a man and a woman. like some kind of fertility right.” […] s: “the last meal. given to sacrificial victims. d: “yeah, i’m thinking a ritual sacrifice to appease some pagan god.” (1x11)

almost every episode in the first season is a monster they’ve faced before that they then explain to the audience in a way that should feel patronising; like it’s the same speech given over and over again but instead, the audience almost feels included in the knowledge. it’s stated with such an innate confidence and comfort in said knowledge that it feels like we already knew it too; “spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. if they want inside, they just go through the walls.” […] “the claws, the speed that it moves; could be a skinwalker, maybe a black dog.” (1x02), “it's biblical numerology. you know noah's ark, it rained for forty days. the number means death.” (1x04), “no no no, not the reaper, a reaper. there's reaper lore in pretty much every culture on earth, it goes by 100 different names.” […] “you said it yourself that the clock stopped, right? reapers stop time. and you can only see 'em when they're coming at you which is why i could see it and you couldn't.” (1x12)

they already know and, at least in the first season, already have what they need to kill whatever they’re hunting; already know to salt and burn bones for spirits, fire for a w*ndigo, exorcisms for demons, a silver bullet to the heart for shapeshifters. there’s only three times in the entire first season that they run into something new to them; 1x14 when sam gets his first vision that leads him to another psychic, 1x16 when dean calls caleb for help on the sigil he put together and he tells him about daevas, and 1x20 when they find out vampires are real- and they only don’t know that bc john thought they were hunted to extinction and not worth mentioning

(there’s also technically two half instances if you count one of them knowing something the other doesn’t - sam figuring out the tulpa in 1x17 and dean already knowing about the shtriga in 1x18 - but those still rely on sam and dean having prior knowledge)

even when they’re uncertain about facing something, it’s not bc they don’t know what it is; it’s precisely bc they know what it is and acknowledge that it’ll be a difficult hunt (“i don't know, man. this isn't our normal gig. i mean, demons, they don't want anything, just death and destruction for its own sake. this is big. and i wish dad was here.” 1x04)

so much of the tension in paranormal shows typically comes from the main character(s) not knowing what is happening to them/the people around them and having to find out how to resolve it. supernatural is unique in that it operates more like a police procedural. the tension comes from solving the clues and identifying patterns to figure out who (what) the killer is and intercepting before they can take another victim

it’s such a different tone to go for when compared to other shows that came both before, during, and after its run. it sets sam and dean on even footing with each other since they both have the same knowledge going in, and it puts them in a place of authority usually reserved for an outside character

the shows i compare spn to most is charmed, buffy and teen wolf; every main character in those shows are brought into the paranormal world knowing nothing, putting them on the same level as the audience, and they have their mc interact with others already knowledgeable about that world in order to overcome their problem/monster of the week. the audience organically learns about this new world as the characters learn about it. it’s a sound writing strategy that prevents “as we already know”-style exposition but something that complicates it is if your world building isn’t unique or intriguing enough, this slow introduction can become boring

we’ve seen shows like these before; sitting through the same tropes of characters learning to use their powers, struggling with no longer feeling normal/relating to the regular world around them, and not knowing how much they can trust the people already involved in this new world gets repetitive. all three shows eventually reach the same level of comfort with their new world that spn starts with but if the characters aren’t enough to draw you in, you can end up dropping it before they reach that point (and often, before the overarching plot can really kick in and evolve the show beyond the villain of the week format)

it’s the superhero origin movie in tv format; dragged out and overplayed. dropping the audience into an established world of course comes with its own problems but you also have the benefit of pre-existing established character dynamics that let the audience slot in like they’ve always been there instead of just getting to know all the characters while the characters also get to know each other

sam and dean already knowing about the supernatural lets the audience immediately get to the core of the story; the conflict between sam and dean, the search for their father, and the mystery of what killed their mother

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

So, I started watching Link Click...