RJ Writing Ink

A Deep Character Dive into Luz Noceda from The Owl House

Well, here we are, at the end of this week-long, deep character dive into my favorite characters from The Owl House. I decided to save the best for last, the character that I think has changed the most on the show, and is responsible for changing almost everyone else I’ve mentioned. I’m, of course, talking about Luz Noceda.

When we first met Luz, she was a self-assured, confident, and optimistic girl who couldn’t fit in on Earth. So when she found her way to the Boiling Isles by complete accident, she saw this as the chance to live the life she always wanted. To become a great and powerful Witch like her hero, Good Witch Azura! The Boiling Isles proved to be equal parts amazing and difficult. Luz learned how to use magic, she made many friends, and even found love.

However, time and again, she found herself facing great loss, hardship, and evil that threatened to tear her apart. By the time she returned to Earth, she was an empty shell of what she once was. However, the people she met along her journey stood by her like she stood by them, and while she still has a ways to go, she managed to regain the idealism that the world tried to take from her. More than that, though, she found something she didn’t even know she was looking for: people who understood her.

As someone who is himself neurodivergent and can be seen as different like Luz, her story has resonated with me in a way that few characters in fiction ever do. While she goes through hell during her journey in The Owl House and begins to think of herself as a failure, the lives she’s changed for the better tell otherwise. I’m RJ Writing Ink, and as we get ready to watch the series finale tonight, we finish our deep character dive into The Owl House. This is the story of the girl who’s the light that could save the Boiling Isles.

My First Impression of Luz Noceda

When we first meet Luz Noceda in the series premiere, our initial impression of her can be summed up in two words: she’s different. She’s energetic, likes to express herself in ways that others think are weird, and can’t seem to fit in with her peers. This, of course, tends to get her in frequent trouble with her teachers at school, who all just want her to act like everyone else. 

Like I said before, I’m neurodivergent myself, and was no stranger to being treated differently in school while growing up. My behavior was seen as disruptive (which it could be), and I frequently got in trouble with adults trying to keep me in check. I lost count of how many times I got sent to the Principal’s office at one point, and based on what we know, it looks like Luz dealt with similar problems. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to have people in my life who knew how to channel my energy toward something positive best. Luz, though, never seemed to have that sort of thing. 

Why Luz Ran Away From Home

Time and time again, people would get frustrated with Luz’s free-thinking nature, trying to make her conform rather than helping her. As we see in the series pilot, it got to the point where her Mom’s convinced the best thing to do is to send her to a summer camp to teach her how to be normal. The universe, though, seemed to have other ideas, as she winds up in the Boiling Isles, a terrifying and wonderful world that seems like a dream come true. 

After spending the pilot helping Eda and King break into prison, leading a prison break, and beating the Warden, Luz realizes that she fits in far more on the Boiling Isles than she does on Earth. So Luz basically says “screw summer camp. I’m going to stay here and learn how to be a Witch.” And thus, Luz begins her new life on the Boiling Isles, something that will be more wonderful and terrifying than she could’ve thought possible.

Learning a Few Lessons

As Luz learns on her second day living in the Boiling Isles, things aren’t going to go like they would in the fantasy books she’s always reading. For starters, she finds out that Eda doesn’t really know how to be a teacher and keeps dragging her heels on her lessons. Secondly, she learns that being a Witch as the Boiling Isles sees it is impossible since they’ve got an extra organ that generates magic for them. Something she very much lacks. Lastly, her wide-eyed and idealistic nature makes her a magnet for trouble, like how she got conned by one of Eda’s rivals. Or almost got dissected at Hexside.

Despite her shortcomings and having to continually re-learn that there’s no shortcuts to becoming a Witch, Luz does start to make a positive impact on those around her. She quickly endears herself to both Eda and King, neither of whom are used to having someone so nice around the house, with Eda coming to view her as the daughter she never had.

Making Friends, and Discovering Magic

Her sneaking into Hexside gives Willow the chance to show her true talents with plant magic and get into the track she’s good at, and provides the Human-loving Gus a chance to meet an actual Human. And while she and Amity start off on the wrong foot at first due to the latter seeing her honest attempts to be nice as malice, the events of “Lost in Language” finally see her start to get through Amity’s barriers. It also helps that both of them share a love for The Good Witch Azura books. 

More than that, though, Luz manages to prove everyone who said a Human couldn’t do magic wrong when she discovers Glyph magic. As the first season progresses, she continues to discover more Glyphs, allowing her to use more and more magic, and she proves to be a natural at it!

Continuing to Make Moves and Shake Things Up

Eventually, Eda makes the decision that she can only teach Luz so much at her home. So, despite loathing the educational system for failing her, Eda gets Luz enrolled into Hexside, trusting that her student will be smart enough to not buy into the “one-track magic” system and be able to change things for the better. Once we learn that Eda had tried, and failed, to do exactly when she was Luz’s age, this vote of confidence takes on new meaning.

As it turns out, Eda’s faith in Luz is well-founded. Despite Hexside trying to force her into a single track, and then put her in detention when she rebels, Luz meets other like-minded students who combine magic as she does. And when they save the school from a Greater Basilisk, they convince Bump to let students study as many tracks as they want. Only in school for one day, and Luz is already changing things for the better!

Luz’s kindness and enthusiasm only continues to change the people around her for the better once she’s in Hexside. Thanks to her shenanigans, she indirectly manages to get Amity and Willow to confront the long-standing issues that caused their past friendship to fall apart, helping Willow get rid of years of repressed anger. She helps Willow stand up to the likes of alpha girl Boscha and win the respect of her teammates. Most significant of all, though, her kindness makes Amity Blight go from hating her to having a massive crush on her!

“Grom Fright” is One of those Moments on TV I’ll Never Forget

Now, because we have to talk about this, it’s time to discuss “Enchanting Grom Fright.” That episode wasn’t just a major episode for the show, but it was a major milestone for Disney as a whole. Fans blew up the Internet when they saw Luz and Amity’s dance, and that only increased when it was revealed that the person Amity wanted to ask to the dance was none other than Luz. Dana Terrace eventually followed this up by not only revealing that Amity was lesbian but that Luz herself is bisexual, a first in Disney’s century-long history. When you consider how Disney, straight-laced Disney, agreed to let this happen, then you know that Luz has to be special. 

Milestones aside, this episode also revealed how deep-rooted Luz’s issues with her Mom are. Not only has she been lying to her about being in the Boiling Isles, but her biggest fear is her Mother finding out the truth. She honestly thinks Camila’s ashamed of who she is, and is terrified at the prospect of telling her the truth. As it turns out, she’s right.

All good shows must come to an end, lest they end up like The Simpsons. While The Owl House got cut short by Disney’s meddling, Dana Terrace, the cast, crew, and fans all intend to make the final months count. And nowhere was this evident than at NYCC, where The Owl House had its first (and final) panel while the show was on the air. I wasn’t lucky enough to go to NYCC this year, but I did manage to see the livestream, and it was plain to see how much this show has meant for everyone. Luz and her friends might not get a full season of getting into hijinks on Earth like we did with Amphibia, but Dana Terrace and her team are going to make sure The Owl House goes out with a bang.

Which leads into what I want to discuss the most. As a treat to attendees, the panel showed them the opening six minutes for the first special, one that will air on primetime on Disney Channel one week from now. The Owl House is getting its own Halloween special, and if you know how much I love Halloween, you know that this is a big deal for me. The Owl House is a comedy-horror animated series at its heart, so it getting a Halloween episode before it ends is the best.

Picking Up the Pieces

While the footage of the first six minutes was meant for the panel attendees, it was only a matter of time before it made its way onto YouTube, both as clips from Disney itself…or fans who recorded it. While the livestream I watched didn’t show the footage, I did hear the audio. Combined with the later clips, and the new trailer for the first special, I wanted to go over everything for next week.

The special opens with a replay of the final minutes of Season Two, with King’s tearful goodbye to Luz as he forces them through the portal to Earth. Luz and her friends are all traumatized, but they still make their way to the Noceda’s house, where Luz finally reunites with her Mom. 

The clips that have been released online then pick up in the immediate aftermath as the group recovers in the Noceda house and brings Camilla up to speed on what happened. In a universe where Disney didn’t cut the show short, I would love to have the group recap all of their adventures with Luz to Camilla, to show her just how much she’s come to mean to them, and them to her. At least we’ll have the fanfiction for that, though.

Secrets Kept

There are two things that are kept secret from everyone, though, courtesy of Hunter and Luz. The former doesn’t know how the others would react to learning that he’s basically a clone of Belos’ dead brother, a former witch hunter. I know the show got cut short, but I hope that Hunter finds closure with this and fully breaks free from his abusive uncle’s shadow. As for Luz, she’s terrified that she inadvertently helped Belos find the Collector, thus enabling his rise to power in the first place. Both fear this will cost them what little they have left of the place they love so much. 

If it wasn’t made clear enough, the teaser for the first special spells it out: Luz blames herself for everything. For running away to the Boiling Isles, for accidentally helping Belos, and stranding her friends and girlfriend far from home. She tries to stay positive (which isn’t hard, since she’s Luz,) but she’s going to have to come to terms with everything. And while it was her choice to stay in the Boiling Isles, she shouldn’t feel so guilty about it. It made her happier than she’d ever been, and did help her grow as a person.

The Owl House Season 3 We Never Got

From here, we get a montage as part of a time skip as the kids settle into life on Earth. They experience everything Earth has to offer from food to fashion, and seeing Gus gush over all the stuff Earth has is so precious. As is seeing everyone try out Earth-fashion, and Hunter looking like such a lovable dork in his bird costume. And seeing Vee create her own human form, thus allowing Luz to resume her life on Earth. I hope to God that Camilla formally adopts Vee as her daughter and give Luz a sister.

Speaking of Camilla, she pretty much adopts the Boiling Isles gang as her own children. We may not get the chance to see it in the show, but if MoringMark’s comics are any indication, then the fandom is thinking the same thing. That being that, while strange, Camilla’s grateful to the Boiling Isles kids for giving her daughter the friends she had wanted her to have. That was the whole reason she thought sending her to that summer camp was a good idea, and while it didn’t pan out, Luz still found friends.

Luz Comes Out as Bi. Eat it, Haters!

By far, though, the most wholesome moment of the montage was Luz coming out to her Mom as Bi. Through use of a home movie showing photo’s of her and Amity spending time together. I would not be surprised if some of the photo’s were made by fans for the show. By the end, Camilla’s just so happy hugging her daughter and daughter-in-law. It’s the kind of reaction that everyone who is LGBTQ+ should get from their loved ones, and I hope this show encourages greater acceptance of them in society. Also, it’s nice to see that Dana decided to go for broke and include all that in her show. Eat it, haters!

Every Ending Has a Beginning

The whole montage is a very bittersweet thing, no doubt. Sweet because it’s so adorable to see how Luz’s friends are living on Earth, and bitter because of the knowledge that we’re not getting a full season of this. Amphibia got half a season of Anne and the Plantar’s living together on Earth, and it feels like Disney truly robbed us of something amazing. At least we’ll still have MoringMark’s comics.

Despite all the fun energy, though, the end of the montage makes it clear that they still haven’t found a way back to the Boiling Isles. And as Halloween approaches, Luz is now back in school (alone, I assume), and they’re no closer to getting everyone home. Hopefully, the events of the first special will see them make the breakthrough they’ve been looking for, with Luz and the others returning to the Boiling Isles to save it from the Collector. That, and I want to see Belos get what he deserves, since he’s still alive and still a threat. 

I have no idea how long we’ll have to wait between each special for The Owl House to come out. However, I’m going to enjoy every second of it, since this will mark the end of the era of story-driven cartoons on Disney. 

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