A Look at the Journey of Willow Park from The Owl House
Who would’ve thought that the shy, timid girl Luz first met would become one of the strongest Witches in her generation? Because that’s what happened with Willow Park on The Owl House, and I love her for it. The first friend her age that Luz made on the Boiling Isles, Willow started the series as an insecure wallflower. Going into the series finale, she’s good enough at plant magic to give Poison Ivy a run for her money. Willow’s one of the show’s most dynamic characters, and it’s been enjoyable getting to see her blossom, pun entirely intended.
I’m RJ Writing Ink, and we’re continuing my in-depth look back at the most dynamic characters from The Owl House to prepare us for the finale. Today, we’re looking at Willow Park, the girl who went from a wallflower to a mighty tree.
A Girl With a Lot of Pent-Up Frustration in Her
Introduced in the episode “I Was a Teenage Abomination,” Willow is the first person her age to meet Luz Noceda, the Human girl who aspired to be a Witch. Unfortunately, that first meeting also showed that Willow had a lot of pent-up stress. Bullied and called “Half-a-Witch” by her classmates, including her former best friend, Amity Blight, and stuck studying a type of magic that she had no talent for, Willow tried to bottle all that stress up, only for it to keep leaking out. Thankfully, Luz came into her life.
After meeting and befriending Luz, Willow’s life changes for the better. While their plan to pass Luz off as her Abomination project at Hexside almost leads to Luz getting dissected, the incident allows Willow to let her true talents with plant magic shine. Bump’s so impressed he immediately lets Willow switch tracks, providing her with the environment she needs to hone her skill and gain a new friend in Luz Noceda.
From this moment on, Luz, Willow, and fellow Witch Gus Porter become virtually inseparable, giving each the friendships they’ve been lacking. However, despite being happier with her life, Willow’s still someone plagued by feelings of inferiority. She desperately wants to prove all her naysayers wrong, especially regarding Amity. This ends up getting her and her friends in hot water during the “Hooty’s Moving Hassle” events when they accidentally animate the Owl House itself. Willow’s insistence on showing this off to Amity almost gets the trio killed by Demon Hunters, and Hooty sent to slaughter. They get out of it, but the underlying issues remain unresolved.
Making Amends With Amity and a Fresh Start
Willow’s issues with Amity Blight appear in the episode “Understanding Willow.” When Amity tries to erase Willow’s memories of their friendship, thinking she would be better off that way, it backfires by erasing all of Willow’s memories, potentially damaging her mind. Thus, it falls to Luz and Amity, with help from Eda, to go inside Willow’s mind and restore it before the damage becomes permanent. While things go smoothly at first, they soon run into a problem. A very, very angry problem.
Willow’s inner self manifests itself as an entity that’s wrapped in literal fires of rage. It’s a visual manifestation of how much anger towards Amity the young Witch has been suppressing over the years, essentially blaming her for how miserable her life at Hexside’s been before meeting Luz and Gus. Now Willow’s mind is directing all that emotion onto Amity herself, becoming willing to destroy itself to burn away all traces of Amity, even if that means killing everyone. It’s not until Amity reveals she had no choice but to end their friendship, thanks to her parents blackmailing her, that Willow can let go of all that anger. While they don’t renew their friendship right away, Amity and Willow’s relationship becomes far more positive when compared to what it was before.
Willow loses a lot of emotional baggage thanks to making amends with Amity. Without that to weigh her down, she grows more confident and sure of herself, and her talents truly begin to blossom. Thanks to that and the support of Luz and Gus, Willow goes from being a timid girl into one of the most popular people at Hexside. However, this also draws the ire of mean girl Boscha, who starts bullying her even more, and she shrinks back into her old self. Even more so when Luz challenges Boscha to a Grudgby game over Willow’s protests. Thankfully, even though they lose the game, Willow wins the respect of Boscha’s teammates. Once a failing student, Willow’s become one of Hexside’s finest.
As a side note, Willow’s also one of the first people who pick up on Amity’s crush on Luz. That silent look of judgment says it all: “If this girl hurts Luz, she’s gonna answer to me.”
Growing like a Strong Tree
During the show’s second season, Willow doesn’t pull as much focus as before, taking a backseat to allow the rest of the cast to develop themselves. A key moment, though, is her getting her Palisman in the form of Clover, a giant bee. This moment also solidifies who she wants to be: someone strong enough to protect those she loves and make those she opposes regret doing so.
It’s a brief moment, but it helps solidify who Willow is at her core. She’s someone that wants to be strong, capable, and who others can see as dependable. It shows, as well, with Luz, Gus, and even Amity coming to them with their problems and needing help. In Amity’s case, it’s with Luz keeping secrets about her trip to Earth, which gives them a chance to mend their friendship further still. In Gus and Luz’s case, it’s saving them from a rampaging locker.
In essence, Willow becomes someone who can stand firm in the face of adversity, much like a tree can do the same thing. Suddenly, Willow’s name gains a lot of extra symbolism.
Starting her Sports Team and Meeting Hunter
Willow’s growing self-confidence culminates in her decision to start Hexside’s first Flyer Derby team. She knows what she wants in life, and she’s ready to let others know it, too. However, there are still those who would drag her down, like her former Abominations teacher, Mr. Hermonculus. Who isn’t someone qualified to be a teacher, given how he shows blatant favoritism and destroys the self-esteem of students that don’t meet his standards, like Willow. So when he forbids Willow from forming her team, it’s an act of malicious spite meant to put her back down. But Willow ain’t having any of it, even if forming a team in time to beat her former teacher seems impossible.
She finds Hunter and persuades him to join, not knowing he’s the Golden Guard.
I plan on talking about it at length in my look at Hunter, but I just want to say how well Hunter and Willow work off each other. Despite their different backgrounds, both deal with similar fears and insecurities, being seen by others as failures and wanting to prove everyone wrong, making them emphasize each other’s plight. More importantly, while Hunter’s actions do come close to making her doubt herself more than ever, his decision to stand up for their team helps to reaffirm that what Willow’s doing with her life is the correct choice. It also kickstarts HuntLow, which I am a huge supporter of. Those two deserve someone special, and I love the fanart of them together.
Exiled on Earth and Working to Return Home
By the end of Season Two of The Owl House, Willow’s grown powerful enough to stand alongside her friends as they fight Emperor Belos himself, fighting to save their own from the madman’s attempted genocide. However, their efforts almost come to naught, as it’s only with the appearance of the Collector that the Day of Unity’s stopped. When the Collector proves to be a bigger threat, though, Willow, along with the rest of the Hexsquad (as fans call them), finds themselves stranded on Earth. And while Willow holds it together pretty well, the event clearly traumatized her as much as everyone else.
What she does on Earth during this time will either be left to graphic novels or fanfics, but given what we see throughout “Thanks to Them,” Willow manages to adjust to life rather well. She becomes quite the shutterbug as she photographs her and her friends’ time on Earth and even gets the chance to let out her more playful, mischievous side. She also encourages Hunter’s dorky ideas about fashion, which, again, is sweet. Those two are meant for each other!
Eventually, Willow, Gus, Vee, and Amity find a means to return to the Boiling Isles and plan to surprise Luz. However, the return of Belos derails whatever plans they had on Halloween Night. Once more, Willow shows her strength as she and her friends force the former Emperor to flee back to the Demon Realm. However, the fight tragically ends with Hunter almost dying in Willow’s arms and a mortally wounded Flapjack giving his life to save Hunter, another moment that’s also deeply traumatizing for Willow to watch.
Finally, Confronting Her Biggest Flaw
“For the Future,” the second part of the three specials, had a lot going on, but an important subplot addressed Willow’s biggest character flaw.
Since we first met Willow, we’ve seen how, despite her kind demeanor, she holds a grudge for a very long time, such as what happened with Amity. Worse, rather than dealing with that resentment healthily, she tends to repress it to dangerously unhealthy levels until it starts to leak out. In the first few minutes she was onscreen, we saw firsthand how Willow would let her anger and stress overtake her mind, causing her to lose control of her powers and lash out at everything around her. And while she did lose a lot of that baggage when she started making up with Amity, the underlying issue remains.
Willow Addresses Her Emotional Problems
As we see in “For the Future,” the stress of what’s happening in Willow’s life is starting to get to her. However, because everyone now sees her as “the dependable one,” she tries to act like she’s under control. She doesn’t want to freak everyone out; more importantly, she doesn’t want to be seen as weak again. While this does lead her to stand up to Boscha, it soon becomes clear that Willow’s anything but fine when her powers start to go out of control.
I liked the symbolism behind Willow losing control of her magic. It represented this fear of others’ expectations isolating oneself from help. And the more they try to keep things together, the worse it gets. I’ve never seen it myself, but I know some people go through this stuff every day, and my heart goes out to them. No one deserves to feel like the weight of the world’s on their shoulders, and thankfully, Willow has someone to remind her of that: Hunter.
The whole time he’s known her, Hunter’s admired Willow, seeing her as this strong young woman he can look up to and probably love. Willow’s one of his life’s most positive influences, helping him finally break free of Belos’ abusive control. So it’s only fitting that Hunter is the one that comforts her at her lowest point, letting her know that it’s okay to admit she’s scared. And just like that, Willow lets all the pent-up anger, stress, and fear of the last few months out in a moment of cathartic crying.
Is it any wonder why people ship these two so much?
Willow is a Powerhouse. Never Forget That
Willow’s path in life has been anything but easy. From her best friend turning her back on her to her teachers continually destroying her self-esteem, she’s had it rough. It makes it all the more impressive seeing how far she’s come. From Wallflower to mighty tree, Willow is like a younger, nicer version of Poison Ivy. Whatever happens in the finale, I don’t think I’ll forget her anytime soon, and neither will the fans.
So, those are just my thoughts on Willow. Do you guys agree with them? Let me know in the comments below as we prepare for the finale!
Click here to see my other animation stuff.