Saturday, November 28, 2020

Escape of the Palisman - (The Owl House Season 1 Episode 10) - 'Toon Reviews 42

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Escape of the Palisman

You may recall that Luz’s whole character arc started with her going overboard with her fantasy passions which caused trouble and distress for the world around her.  With that in mind, it’s great that following her coming to a place suited for her interests, almost all her adventures have taught her many necessary social skills.  As we reach the halfway point of the first season, this adventure offers the most direct lesson for Luz to learn, covering matters of thinking things through before acting.  A touch of world building helps a lot too.

It starts with Luz learning of the nature of palismen, or little sentient figures suited for a specific witch’s staff.  In Eda’s case, her palisman is a small owl called Owlbert who gives her staff the power of flight, and hops off to gather artifacts from the human realm.  Palismen are also revealed to have a strong connection with their owner with Eda seeming genuinely loving and protective towards him.  These are interesting additions to the already extensive and fascinating lore of witches, and circumstances convince Luz to take advantage of it.  She’s joining Willow and Gus to attend a sports match, but they miss their transport.  Wanting to cheer up her friends, Luz proceeds to borrow Owlbert so they’ll be able to make it to the match after all.  To her credit, she does plan on asking Eda permission before borrowing Owlbert, but all she gets is a half-hearted claim from King that Eda says it’s ok.  Even then, Luz feels this doesn’t count, but goes through with borrowing Owlbert and the staff anyway.  It’s after this when Luz realizes the consequences of her brashness when she discovers that palismen need a lot of care.  Because she does not have the experience needed to guide Owlbert to fly Eda’s staff, Luz ends up crashing the staff which also gives Owlbert a bad head injury.  Naturally, Owlbert becomes frightened of Luz because of this and runs away from her into the woods.  That right there is a firsthand account of what comes from Luz rushing in to do something cool and magical and how it affects others.  For that, it’s commendable that the rest of the episode is about Luz doing whatever it takes to atone for her mistake.

She, Willow, and Gus follow Owlbert deep into the woods and find him in the layer of a former one-off demon, the Bat Queen.  Her main impression from a while back was that she assigned the main trio to look after her babies.  In spite of her threatening design, she came off as a fair, appreciative figure, especially with how handsomely rewarded Eda was for her efforts.  Here, a darker side is revealed to the Bat Queen, but not one to make her seem like an all-out bad creature.  It’s clear that all her emotions and actions are out of love for who all the hurt and downtrodden who come to her, and Owlbert certainly qualifies as hurt.  It even gets to the point where even after all Eda did for her babies, the Bat Queen is now as untrusting of her as she is of Luz for raising the being who hurt Owlbert.  For that, she intends to keep him like one of her own, but Luz, knowing that Owlbert belongs with Eda, is willing to do whatever it takes to reclaim Owlbert’s trust.  She has to endure the Bat Queen’s many trials, which basically turn out to be simple chores with a monstrous side to them.  Though there are claims that no one has ever successfully completed them, Luz pulls them off fairly well, showing just how much she wants to make up for her actions.  What’s more, Owlbert actually recognizes Luz’s efforts and ultimately sees that she never intended to hurt him.

It’s here where focus shifts to the complexities of the Bat Queen.  Luz holds up her end of the bargain, and Owlbert starts leaning towards trusting her, but the Bat Queen still doesn’t want to let Owlbert go.  She adds on one last challenge for Luz to face her, and the odds are clearly slim of an average human teen girl against a huge monstrous face with bat wings.  Luz, however, uses compassion and fascination with lore to her advantage when she discovers something interesting about the Bat Queen.  Like Owlbert and other palismen, there’s an interlock under her foot, which means she was meant for a staff.  Apparently, she was separated from her owner, who was a giant, thousands of years ago.  With that in mind, it’s no wonder that she’s so protective of her babies, Owlbert, and all other palismen as it turns out, so that they won’t have to endure the sad fate she did.  While she still wants Owlbert to stay though, she’s still considerate enough to consider that he wants to go back with Luz, though Luz does promise to find the Bat Queen’s owner.  If it was a giant, I personally have a feeling that the answer can be found if one takes a closer look at the Boiling Isles itself, but that’s another topic.  This whole experience is a strong element of the episode brimming with lore and character development for Luz and how she genuinely learns to be more aware of her actions.  The only weak point is that Willow and Gus seem to stick around for the adventure for nothing.  They say they can help or get Eda, but their roles basically consist of getting stuck in the Bat Queen’s webs repeatedly and their efforts failing fast.  It’s a distraction, but it does no real hindrance on the truly important elements, especially with Luz and Owlbert forming a clearly adorable bond when all’s said and done.

As for why Luz was unable to get real permission to borrow Owlbert in the first place, this steers us to the episode’s subplot which is a definitive show of Eda and King’s dynamic.  Things have reached a point where Eda’s curse has gotten significantly worse, and even she herself is seriously worried about it.  However, this story gives King an opportunity to really take advantage of things.  Fitting his lust for power, King wants to rule over something as juvenile as a playground, but feels persecuted over being usurped by a little tyke who really needs to wipe his nose.  It’s practically humorous that he takes it this seriously, but it isn’t long before his goals become in reach.  He finds that Eda’s curse has enacted faster than ever, but there’s a catch to it.  While she’s in her monstrous form, she can hear King and follow his command.  With this discovery, King uses the cursed Eda to dominate the playground like he wanted.  

Then, like Luz in the main plot, he discovers the consequences of acting without consent.  The destruction that cursed Eda has caused gets the attention of the local beast hunters, and the curse soon intensifies so much that King’s orders are useless to Eda.  As for an even more disturbing development, Eda’s special elixir can’t stop the curse either, intensifying its role in the series from hereon.  At the same time, the final resolution comes from endearment when King finds another way to bring Eda back.  Playing off of an earlier scene of him squealing with rage at that little kid, King voluntarily performs that squeal which is enough to have Eda turn back to normal.  With this connection, it’s pretty heartfelt that it resolves the matter for now.  King may want to be taken seriously as an all-powerful ruler, but he knows what’s important deep down, and will do anything to help Eda when she needs it.  This is especially good as the subplot ends with Eda now more concerned than ever about her curse, a strong departure from her predominant laid back ways.  One can only guess what major events the curse will lead to.

In all, this episode is very effective in what its story does for the main players.  They all add important pieces to development when it comes to thinking before acting, and putting in the effort for worthwhile connections.  Along with fascinating new bits of lore to the world they live in, the experience is overall very satisfying.

A

The Ranking

1.      Lost in Language

2.      The Intruder

3.      Covention

4.      Escape of the Palisman

5.      I Was a Teenage Abomination

6.      Witches Before Wizards

7.      Something Ventured, Someone Framed

8.      A Lying Witch and a Warden

9.      Hooty’s Moving Hassle

10.  Once Upon a Swap

The next Owl House review reveals Luz's alternate goal to become a writer as she and King struggle to work together during a writing contest, and Eda gets up to some interesting bonding with Lilith.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the midpoint of Amphibia Season 1, "Toad Tax" and "Prison Break."
If you would like to check out other Owl House reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

1 comment:

  1. FINALLY SOMEONE WHO DOES THIS EPISODE JUSTICE. I never understood why many fans thought this episode was weak. It revealed more about the Bat Queen and also furtherly developed Eda's curse while also doing a fun subplot. I honestly thought it was a great episode.

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