Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Wing it Like Witches - (The Owl House Season 1 Episode 17) - 'Toon Reviews 42

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Wing it Like Witches

After so much time getting to know the main members of the cast and watching them grow, the show has reached the point where they feel fleshed out enough to enhance any plot.  In this episode where sports take the forefront, everyone involved makes the experience all their own and big on unique charm.

As popular Boiling Isles sport, grudgby, becomes the hot topic, focus is also shown on the major character developments that have occurred lately.  Boscha, established as the grudgby champ of Hexside, expects major worship, but in a surprising twist, everyone is far more interested in Willow than her.  It’s huge enough when you consider how Willow was a major outsider from her peers back in the beginning, but even better is that this shift is mainly all on Willow herself.  She became more confident in her abilities ever since patching things up with Amity, and now she’s accepted for who she is.  In addition, Amity also holds up her word of not letting Boscha pick on her by putting her cold mannerisms to good use by telling Boscha off whenever she goes into petty rants.  It’s developments like this that give the show and its cast great benefits if you ask me.

However, Boscha, being one-dimensionally mean, can’t accept this and proceeds to relentlessly pick on Willow, and by extension Luz and Gus when they try to stand up for Willow.  In a disturbing sense, grudgby season is so big around school that Boscha easily gets away with things.  When you look at just how badly she bullies Willow and the others, it’s hard to sit with.  It’s just lucky that Luz is the kind of person who will do anything to help her friends in need, and how she goes about it features a lot of character endearment.  In a rare instance of her asking for advice on how to go about things, Luz quickly turns to Amity when she sees her passing by.  In the process, you can’t help but feel the charm of how much of an effect Luz has on Amity now.  With her love for her being firmly established in the last episode, Amity is a flustered, blushing mess who’s simply crazy over Luz.  Given how she was introduced and how she continues to strive to look studious, this can be seen as a fascinating layer for Amity.  Despite this, she’s still able to assert herself well enough to help give Luz ideas on how to deal with Boscha, and Luz, tending to really value Amity’s opinions, takes them to heart.  That being said, what Luz ultimately does has a lot of concern points.  After Boscha performs one more brutish act of bullying, Luz immediately says that Willow challenges her to a grudgby match, all without Willow’s consent.  One can easily predict that little to no good comes from forcing conflict onto anyone. The following direction agrees with this sentiment while further showcasing interesting developments.

In addition to wanting to be a good friend, Luz is also using this scenario as an opportunity to do something we haven’t seen her do in a while; apply the mythos of Azura to real life.  She and her friends being underdogs challenged to a sport makes her think things will play out just like a sports movie she loves.  She has all the mechanics played out with an upbeat coaching attitude, a creatively staged training montage, and the perfect idea for a game-winning move.  While her intentions are good and her practices entertaining, what ultimately happens teaches Luz something that was kind of a long time coming.  She’s still pushing Willow and Gus into a sport they know little about and having them perform a complex move certainly doesn’t help.  Even when they’re clearly tired from it, Luz still wants them to keep on trying. Ultimately, Willow stands up to Luz and bluntly calls her out for her practices, even going as far as to step away from her.  As dramatic as this is, it’s astounding that one of Luz’s biggest character flaws has gotten one of the most realistically staged repercussions one can expect.

Out of this slight fallout is endearment when Luz once again gets meaningful advice from Amity.  This is particularly sweet since earlier, the very thought of being on the same sports team as Luz left her seemingly too flustered and love-struck to join in.  Thankfully, that wasn't enough to stop her from giving Luz the emotional support she needs.  As Luz confides what happened, Amity reveals that when it comes to grudgby, she was once a lot like Luz.  She used to be captain of the team, and in one game, she pulled off the same Azura-based move to win.  However, it ended up hurting much of the team, and she was so ashamed that she quit and never played again after that.  The big thing about this is that this was all before Luz came into Amity’s life and when she was cold and uptight about all her successes.  It’s very nice to know that even back then, Amity had some consideration for others and never really wanted to harm anyone.  Moments like this greatly balance her appeal where in addition to adorably crushing on Luz, she’s still extremely helpful to her causes.  This case is no exception when this talk has Luz decide to quit the grudgby match on Willow’s behalf and take the blows of Boscha’s attacks.  Tapping into her natural tendencies to protect the one she loves, Amity rushes to get Willow and Gus to help Luz, in the process inadvertently saying exactly what she loves about her.  Despite her trying to hide it, you get the feeling that at least Willow can see something’s up with her feelings for Luz; in fact she may be the only one who notices.  Either way, the featured character moments do their part to come together as a solid way to fix the prior drama and lead into the long-awaited grudgby game.

Luz is saved from Boscha’s attacks, Willow calls for the game to go on again, and Amity even joins their team, proudly declaring she’s made her social life better out of this decision.  All of this is very pleasing, and with the teams together, the game goes on to enjoyable effect.  Magic moves and obstacles keep things exciting, but little character moments all throughout make it a standout moment for the episode.  Willow’s confidence is at a new high when facing Boscha, Amity further charms as being protective of Luz during her plays, and Luz even picks up another spell in the process.  The last play of the game is an exciting end with everyone confident enough to try that intense play Luz was pushing for and they pull it off well.  Granted Boscha still wins just by picking up a special artifact, which Luz rightfully roasts for being a stupid rule for all magic sports, but that doesn’t matter.  Everyone, even Boscha’s team, shows more appreciation for Willow just for being a good athlete, and good friend.  It’s a true ending of justice with this seemingly unredeemable jerk getting what she deserves.  Amity is also given fitting attention too with it revealed that in helping Luz’s move work, she ended up hurting her leg.  She gets one more adorable crush moment when Luz offers to carry her, and I’d like to think it says a lot about things.  I mean, Amity insists she’s fine, but Luz just happily scoops her up to carry her anyway. This suggests that in addition to being a good friend, carrying Amity is something she really wanted to do.  In my opinion, this is a good suggestion that they can them as a couple is a plausible outcome even if Luz doesn’t notice Amity’s feelings at the moment.  Nevertheless, it’s nothing short of rewarding to see Amity accepted as part of her main circle of friends now, especially when episodes like these showcase their great appeal.

In a more plot-oriented direction, focus is also on Eda reliving her past as a star grudgby player.  This is mostly a background for yet another encounter with her sister Lilith once again after her to get her to join the Emperor’s Coven.  The thing is, she’s now giving weight for Eda to join.  Apparently Emperor Belos has big plans he somehow needs Eda to be a part of, begging a lot of questions.  Even with this weight, Eda uses the leisure of grudgby as an attempt to duck out of the Emperor’s hold again.  She thinks she can easily beat Lilith, but she's reminded that she was not grudgby captain like she thought.  Lilith was actually captain, and this claim leaves a strong suggestion that she’ll win and Eda will finally have to face the Emperor.  During the match, with its own share of magical surprises courtesy of Hooty, they both seem evenly matched, though Eda comes off pretty strong character-wise.  She plans on using her special brand of tricks to win, but Luz apparently cleaned out her box holding them.  However, she goes along with playing fair, and ultimately wins.  Also, as a continuation of the events of “Sense and Insensitivity,” she still shows good sisterly love to Lilith, allowing her to take one of her rings back to the emperor.  However, there’s still some foreboding undertones from Lilith lamenting going back empty handed, and that she won’t be facing Eda alone next time.  With all this said, the episode gives the audience something big to look forward to on top of the charming character moments.

The main players come together in this episode to show off how they’ve grown, how they continue to grow, and how they go about favorite pastimes.  At times it’s held back by some unpleasing moments and obvious bad choices, but as a character-driven work, it’s a winning entry for the series when all is said and done.  However, with this episode, it’s time to officially move into darker territory…

A

The Ranking

1.      Enchanting Grom Fright

2.      Understanding Willow

3.      Lost in Language

4.      Adventures in the Elements

5.      The Intruder

6.      Covention

7.      Escape of the Palisman

8.      Wing it Like Witches

9.      The First Day

10.  I Was a Teenage Abomination

11. Witches Before Wizards

12.  Something Ventured, Someone Framed

13.  A Lying Witch and a Warden  

14.  Sense and Insensitivity

15.  Hooty’s Moving Hassle

16.  Really Small Problems

17.  Once Upon a Swap

As was previously mentioned, the next Owl House review is going to venture into darker territory where matters of Eda's curse and the emperor take the forefront, and lead to emotionally devestating results.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews are the Amphibia episodes, "Cursed" and "Fiddle Me This."

If you would like to check out other Owl House reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

2 comments:

  1. Yet another underrated episode that I loved so much. Thanks again for the review sir! This show really needs support.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah I wouldn't put it past Willow to notice Amity's "subtle" feelings. I mean we know she has two dads's, so she's probably seen gay panic a lot:-).

    ReplyDelete