RJ Writing Ink

The Owl House Season 2, Episode 14 Review

One of the things that Luz and Amity have in common is that they don’t have the best relationships with their parents. In Luz’s case, her relationship with her Mom’s strained by her choice to stay in the Demon Realm. Amity’s is because she’s got a control freak of a Mom and an absent-minded Dad. But they still have each other, and are there to help each work through their problems. Even if one of them refuses to admit that they have a problem to begin with, like Luz with her Dad.

A Very Important Day for Luz

While Luz has shown no interest in returning to Earth beyond showing her Mom she’s alright, the day this episode takes place is an exception. We open up to a reminder on her phone for a very important event with her Mom that she quickly tries to ignore. In addition, she spends the rest of the day trying to stay as busy as possible by helping Amity with her problems.

The annual Bonesborough Brawl is taking place that day, and Amity’s always dreamed of winning it like her Dad did back in the day. However, her Dad’s too busy to care and wants her to go to the Emperor’s Coven tryouts. Rather, her Mom wants her to go, something she has no interest in. It drives home how much of an influence Luz has been on Amity when she says she may not even want to join a Coven at all. Luz’s solution is simply to go anyway and compete in disguise.

However, things get derailed when Luz decides to ultimately compete in the Brawl herself, all while claiming that nothing’s wrong. It all comes to a head when Luz ends up alerting Alador to what his daughter’s really up to, making Amity mad at both of them and storming off. What follows is something that fans suspected but is now confirmed.

RIP Mr. Noceda

From the beginning, fans have speculated about the abscence of Luz’s father. Some people thought that her parents were divorced. Others thought that he was a Witch. However, I guessed that he was actually dead this whole time; and it turns out I was right. Luz’s dad died some time ago, and this date marks the anniverserary of his passing. Her Mom and her would lay flowers on his grave to honor his memory every year, and the fact that she can’t do it is eating away at the poor girl.

Once again, I would like to say that this was something that I already suspected. However, knowing this doesn’t diminish the importance of this moment any less. If anything, Luz’s obvious grief tugs at the heartstrings even more. Despite loving her life in the Boiling Isles, she does miss some things from Earth. And this led her to cope by trying to help Amity sort out her own paternal issues.

Hearing her motives is more than enough to get Amity to forgive Luz, and hearing her girlfriend’s lack of a father spurs her to confront Alador as he’s fighting a mutated Warden Wrath (long story!) Afterwards, the two have an honest heart-to-heart, where Alador admits that he hasn’t been the best parent, but is willing to respect her daughter’s choices and be there for her. I hoped that Alador was the good parent.

Cracks in Belos’ Reign

In the b-plot of the episode, Eda, King, and Edric team up to learn more information about what Belos is planning, and why Raine’s acting weird. Their planned blabber (truth) potion backfires, though, and leads to Wrath being mutated and everyone having to lay down the smack on him. It doesn’t even matter in the end, though, as Wrath got demoted for stealing coworker’s lunches! However, they do learn a little bit of information.

It turns out, not everyone in the Emperor’s Coven is into the Day of Unity plan. Belos claims it will unite them all with the Titan, but some think that no good could come of that. If all the signs shown thus far are true, than they’re right to be afraid. Belos might be planning on using the Boiling Isles residents as fuel for a massive spell, one that could destroy everything in the process. However, we won’t know until the Day of Unity arrives.

Parent-Child Bonds Transcend Worlds

The episode ends on a very somber note. In the Boiling Isles, Luz and Amity pick flowers and send them skyward on an Abomination balloon. On Earth, Mrs. Noceda puts flowers in a vase while solemnly looking off into the night sky, thinking of her husband and daughter. It’s a very sad moment. In fact, the whole situation seems sad.

This was a suprisingly emotional episode of The Owl House that touched on character arcs and past decisions, but it was one that I loved. It showed just how far Amity has come since we first met her, and how far she has to go. And while Luz might not be able to work things out with her Mom right now, she’s not alone. She’s got others to help her through this.

I Give “Reaching Out” a 4/5

Stray Observations

• I love how Alador automatically calls Luz Eda’s kid!
• The tree from Grom is still there
• My friend JP-Ryder and his beta-editor got Luz’s Dad right in their fanfic!

Click here to see my other animation stuff.

The Owl House Season 2, Episode 13 Review

I’m sorry that I didn’t get to this yesterday, but I had a busy day. But do you know who probably had an even worse day? Hunter, AKA the Golden Guard, AKA Emperor Belos’ supposed nephew and/or magical clone of his brother. Ever since he debuted in the second season premiere, fans have just fallen in love with Hunter. He’s funny, adorkable, and probably in more dire need of a hug than anyone on the Boiling Isles. The more time passes, the more we see how bad Hunter has had it in life, growing up under an emotionally manipulative man such as Emperor Belos. After seeing this Hunter-centric episode, though, I feel more sorry for him than ever before.

Hunter Just Wants Some Respect

Poor Hunter really has it rough in life, and that’s not just because he’s the Emperor’s supposed nephew. All he wants is to earn the respect of the people who work for Belos, and they treat him like dirt. When Belos puts him in charge while he’s doing other things, the Coven Heads outright reschedule a meeting just so they don’t have to deal with him. Being the insecure teen that he is, he ends up taking the head of the Abomination’s Coven remark about “finding new recruits” as an actual mission. Thus, he goes undercover at Hexside to do just that.

Meanwhile, it’s club day at Hexside, and Willow’s looking to start the school’s first Flyer Derby team, which is like Quidditch meets capture the flag, only more extreme. Through a series of events beyond his control, Hunter gets drafted into joining Willow’s team for their first match against her old Abominations teacher. From then on, the episode shows just how messed up Hunter’s life has really been. It turns out, joining the Emperor’s Coven means going through boot camp that would make the Navy SEALS look tame in comparison. What’s worse, Hunter’s grown up thinking that it’s normal to lie and stab your friends in the back, as this is what the Coven heads do under Belos.

This just shows how messed up things are under Belos. He emotionally manipulates people to do what he wants, while also having them at each other’s throats to curry his favor and keep them from becoming a threat. It’s like the Skeksis from The Dark Crystal, but for kids.

Baby Steps, Hunter

Ultimately, Hunter’s “mission” at Hexside does do some good for him. Willow, Gus, and the other students serve as a positive influence on him, ultimately leading Hunter to stand up to Darius when he’s ready to attack them after trying to escape. And fortunately, Darius actually respects Hunter for this, saying that it’s about time he get a life outside the palace. Maybe he’s not such a bad guy, after all. Then again, he does work for the Emperor, so…

The end result is that Hunter gains yet another positive emotional connection in his life. He’s changing for the better, people, but his full heel-face turn won’t come until he realizes that his Uncle Belos isn’t worth it.

Take That, Us!

Meanwhile, in the episode’s B-Plot, Luz and Amity discover that the author of the Good Witch Azura books is in town for a signing, and they eagerly attend. While doing so, they come up with more and more outlandish theories to explain who the author is. Like, is she a Witch who can travel between worlds? Is she Luz’s mom as a teenager sent forward in time? Kikimora?

Turns out, it’s none of these things. The books are just normal books that find their way to the Boiling Isles and sold by Tibbles. However, it turns out Amity is the only one to buy them.

So, the entire B-Plot of the episode was a funny jab by the show’s team at the fans for coming up with crazy explanations for mundane ideas. It’s all done in good humor, though, and I couldn’t help but laugh about it. You got us, Dana!

This was a fun episode, all around, and I just love seeing Zeno Robinson voice Hunter. He’s a rising star in the VA world, people!

I Give “Any Sport in a Storm” a 4/5

Stray Observations

• More Steve!
• Look and you’ll see a Remy Remington bobblehead in Hunter’s room. A nice reference to his role in Big City Greens

Click here to see my other animation stuff.

The Owl House Season 2, Episode 11 Review

When we learned that Amphibia and The Owl House would be airing the back half of their final seasons together, I came up with a plan. Saturday’s, I would post about Amphibia; Sundays would be for The Owl House. However, that plan just went off the rails because I cannot keep quiet about the new episode of The Owl House. Ever since we learned about the existence of Phillip Wittebane, fans speculated if he has some sort of connection to Emperor Belos. In this week’s episode, “Elsewhere and Elsewhen,” it’s all but confirmed the two are connected! The Belos-Wittebane Connection is real, people!

Personal Inadequacies in the Clawthorne Family

In the wake of her first attempt to create a new portal to the Human Realm, Luz is stumped by her failure. She followed Phillip’s Diary to the letter, yet it still failed. She’s not the only one who’s feeling like a failure, though. After moving back in with her parents, Lilith’s got a new job as an assistant curator at a local museum. However, meeting her Indiana Jones-style mentor, Flora D’Esplora, makes her feel like a huge failure. Thinking they can both help each other out, Luz proposes they seek out these mystical time pools to travel back to the past to learn more about Phillip Wittebane.

Meanwhile, Eda’s dealing with her own inadequacies, but of an entirely different nature. Turns out, her Dad came to visit, causing her to freak out. She still feels guilty about attacking him as the Owl Beast years ago. In addition to maiming him, it also ended his career as the Boiling Isles premier Palismen-carver, something she hasn’t forgiven herself for. After a, frankly, sad attempt to get out of it, she and her Dad meet anyway, and Eda confronts the trauma she’s been avoiding for almost two decades.

Thankfully, Dell Clawthorne doesn’t hate her daughter in the slightest for what she did, like any good parent should. What matters is that they can still be there for each other. If anything, he’s found new purpose growing back the trees needed to create Palismen.

Anyway, onto the meat of the episode: the Belos-Wittebane Connection!

The Savage Ages Are a Lie

Throughout the entire show, we’ve kept hearing people say how the Coven System is great for the Boiling Isles. That the time before that was chaotic and wild and uncontrollable. However, most of us took that with a grain of salt, with it likely being propaganda on Belos’ part. This episode basically confirms that Belos is, at best, exaggerating how bad things were; at worst, he’s lying.

As Luz and Lilith see, far from being a time of chaos, the pre-Coven Boiling Isles are fairly nice. People use whatever magic they want with no negative repercussions, and the whole place seems far pleasant than the present-day. Either there’s something that we’re not seeing here, or more likely, Belos has been lying the entire time to maintain control.

This is a tactic used by many repressive regime’s in fiction and real life. A sole dictator comes to power and manipulates the people into believing that their way is what’s best for everyone. They cement that control even further by rewriting history to suit their own needs, thus ensuring the next generation will grow up believing their lies. This only makes what Belos is doing even more sus in the end.

But that’s nothing compared to what we learn about Phillip himself.

Phillip Wittebane’s a Total Jerk

Luz and Lilith actually meet Phillip Wittebane in their trip to the past, and at first, he seems to be everything his diary makes him out to be. He’s an outcast human in another world, yet also wise, scholarly, and a total badass with magic. Yet the more the two spend time with him, the more he doesn’t seem to be what he says.

I have to praise Dana and her team for the subtle build-up throughout the episode. He continually compliments and praises the two throughout their journey, but Lilith notices that something is off about him. Having worked under Belos for years, she recognizes all the signs of emotional manipulation. Then, there’s the fact that his bag has a Palismen and the fang of a Witch that previously helped him out.

In the episode’s big twist, we see Phillip’s true colors: rather than the sagely hero, we get a sociopathic conman who manipulated people into doing dangerous jobs for him, and then left them to die in the process. That, and he acts so smug about it in the process, like he’s better than anyone in the Boiling Isles. He deserved getting socked in the face by Lilith. But the story doesn’t end there.

The Belos-Wittebane Connection

Since the first mention of Phillip Wittebane, fans speculated that he’s somehow connected to Emperor Belos. This episode, though, all but confirms it.

Firstly, there’s the way he calls the people of the Boiling Isles savages with their free use of magic. Sounds like something Belos would hate? Secondly, there’s the reveal of how he uses magic. In a dark reflection of what Luz can do, he carved glyphs onto his arm. However, this act seems to be destroying his body from the inside out. The only thing that can stop it is taking the magic from a Palisman.

The evidence all lines up: Belos is really Phillip Wittebane. The Belos-Wittebane connection is real. He’s somehow lived far past what a normal human could be capable of. And judging by what he says at the end of the episode, the Day of Unity is going to be much more than what he claims it will be.

This episode managed to reignite my excitement for The Owl House, just like last week’s episode of Amphibia did for that show. In short, I’m looking forward to the next few months as we watch all this awesome new animation. This is going to be amazing!

I Give “Elsewhere and Elsewhen” a 4.5/5

Stray Observations

• So did Phillip leave his brother to die beforehand?
• It’s nice to know that the tower in the Owl House once belonged to her Dad.
• They invited Steve to Lilith’s party. Steve Rules!
• We should know who Flora’s a shoutout to!

Click here to see my other animation stuff.