King's Tide - (The Owl House Season 2 Episode 21) - 'Toon Reviews 48

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King’s Tide

For a significant portion of the series, possibly the most recurring plot point has been the Day of Unity.  So many questions have been begged over what it exactly was, what was to happen, and, after those questions were answered, how our heroes would possibly stop it.  After setting up such a plan to stop it for the last several episodes, it finally comes together here, resulting in one grand experience for such a grand season to go out on.  However, while the ride is very exciting, everything that happens throughout leaves a lot of heavy emotions over the ultimate fates of the characters.

Coming right off the previous episode, there’s a huge sense of urgency to resolve things, as well as dread over how certain characters are unaware of opposing factors to the plan.  On the side of Luz’s friends, they’re still in shock and worry over her move of giving herself up to be taken to Belos all unbeknownst, and desperate to reach her and help.  King, however, is especially desperate to help in some way, understandably so since he is a Titan.  

As an endearing scene of a tense confrontation between the young witches calming down thanks to their palismen shows, he sees that there’s always an opportunity to help.  This idea becomes very central to what unfolds throughout the episode, considering that the situation desperately calls for an opportunity for anyone to help.  At the actual Day of Unity, it’s practically disturbing that so many inhabitants of the Boiling Isles believe they’ll be enlightened for all this, when it’s really all genocide.  The coven heads especially bring an air of disturbance with Raine Whispers putting it well that they all believe they’ll be royalty when they’re in as much danger as everyone else.  

The best hope available is for Eda, who got a sigil of her own after opposing covens for her whole life, to corrupt the draining spell with her curse.  The way to that plan has so much heart as Eda bravely steps towards her assigned position, taking the form of Raine through illusion magic.  All the while, she’s greeted with good wishes from Raine, Lilith, and all her closest loved ones; it’s a powerful way to lead into something so huge.  At first, things go according to plan when an eclipse occurs, starting the draining spell, and Eda’s curse proves effective in corrupting it, preventing the sigils from killing anyone. 

That said, the plan turns out to not be so easy with the warning from the previous episode that Belos and his cronies knew of the plan to stop the Day of Unity proving correct.  Surrounded by two coven heads known to fully support the Day of Unity, Terra Snapdragon and Adrian Graye, Eda is quickly exposed and her position is taken up by the real Raine.  As a result, all claims from them about participating in all this being a big mistake are ignored and the Day of Unity goes as planned.  Consider this a first sign of how dire and hopeless things become for many as a result of this episode.

To add another layer of fear and dread to the situation, Belos demonstrates true villainy and sadism during his role in the event.  As soon as his draining spell begins and he says his propaganda speech to his subjects, he just leaves them to perish, which again, said subjects are unaware of.  If that’s not all, while proceeding to don his old appearance to once again take on the role of Philip Wittebane, he shows how brutal he truly is to his own confidants.  It’s shown in a small instance when Kikimora appears with a captive she believes to be Hunter. Belos coldly shows no gratitude and nonchalantly shuts down her request to be his new second in command.  

True unfeeling betrayal is really shown through his interactions with the Collector, who’s been very anxious to be free as soon as the draining spell was enacted.  However, their growing fears of being betrayed, their childish innocence, and desperate desires for freedom keep them from really understanding the dangers of what’s happening.  These circumstances make them more relatable than ever, and this is further shown when Belos fiendishly reveals that he was never going to free them.  Like with almost everyone else, he just lied to them to get what he wanted. Now he’s just going to use the remains of the Titan blood to open the portal to the human realm and escape there.  All the Collector can do is break down into a frenzy over Belos lying to them as the moon disc keeping them imprisoned is thrown down a pit.  It further presents this strange entity as relatable, and a believable portrayal of a child, all of which will be further shown later on.  For all the uncertainties and strangeness that come with them, their reaction really sells the true force of evil at hand.

As for the captive brought to Belos, as the audience already knows, it’s actually Luz willingly allowing herself to be brought before him.  What unfolds show that even when she’s clearly over her head, Luz is ready and capable to take on these great pains for the sake of all her loved ones.  Even though Belos already knows who was really brought to him, Luz still appears strong enough to take him on, armed with glyphs and glyph combos.  She’s certainly powerful in her own right and has come a long way, but the fact still remains that she’s a long way behind Belos who’s been working this magic for many ages.  As he still proves well-matched for her though, he does make a major point of depth to his character clear.  He’s aiming to wipe out witches because he feels that they corrupt people’s minds and warp their ways of thinking.  Since Luz is the only other human here, he feels that he can convince her that neither of them belong in this realm. 

When it becomes clear that Luz still holds onto care for the witches here, Belos does an especially dark deed. He enforces a petrification glyph on her, aiming to put Luz out of her misery by turning her to stone.  In this grim occurrence, Luz shows great ingenuity by proving that raw strength and skills alone are not all it takes to get the upper hand.  Belos is about to set off for the human realm, but Luz offers him a deal where she’ll be his guide, letting him know how much it’s changed in the centuries he was gone.  

It feels like a desperate attempt to save herself, with the process of all areas of her body turning to stone staged to look particularly horrific.  Very luckily for her, the deal appeases Belos, and he stops the petrification before it can take Luz’s life, making it seem like she’s stuck serving an evil man for life.  That’s where the great wit and resource of Luz’s character makes itself known, for this deal was nothing more than a ruse of her own. 

Just as she and Belos are about to shake hands to confirm the deal, she surprises him by using a magic glove to enforce a deadly sigil onto him.  Now as the eclipse goes into full force enacting the draining spell, he suffers its effects along with everyone else.  If that’s not enough, Belos’ weakened state allows the spirits of all the palismen he’s consumed to overtake his body, turning him into a multi-eyed freak made of gunk.  It’s a clever visual metaphor to show that while Belos claims to want to save humanity, he’s lost all sense of humanity himself.  At the same time, Luz proudly admits she’s not like Belos who insists humans like them don’t belong in the demon realm.  Luz knows this realm is where she belongs, growing up impressively better than ever, and getting great connections to love and protect.  This is why it’s not only impressive that she got in a strong blow against the all-powerful Belos, but now stands strong while fighting him to get him to stop the spell.  However, it’s this great show of character that makes what follows all the more hard on the emotions.

With the draining spell still going on, things become very intense and desperate on many fronts, and not just from Luz’s confrontation with Belos.  Since the plan for Eda to infiltrate the coven heads and corrupt the spell with her curse was exposed, every witch with a sigil quickly feels its effects.  Even Belos’ biggest supporters like the most loyal coven heads are shocked and distraught to feel dangerous weakness instead of paradise.  Innocent civilians of the Isles aren’t even allowed to escape, trapping them at the mercy of this deadly procedure.  It’s a real heavy-hitting show of dismay connecting to the regret of not listening to those who opposed the coven system all this time.  One of those people, Eda, is now feeling the worst of the draining spell, for since she’s not channeling it with the other coven heads, her curse allows her sigil to disintegrate her; it goes without saying that the stakes are now effectively raised.

There are also signs of close relationships breaking as a result of all this on the side of Luz’s friends in their attempts to reach her.  Their pursuit leads to the airship they’re using getting struck down and crashing, with King getting a warped vision due to a crack on his skull.  Even with everything looking blurry and sounding muffled, there’s still strong emotion from this perception.  

One particular emotional instance features Amity witnessing her dad, Alador, being surrounded by his own abomination robot creations as the draining spell starts weakening him.  He hands his daughter a remote needed to shut the robots down, and then kisses her goodbye as he stays behind to face ones surrounding him alone.  It’s visibly hard and almost devastating for Amity to leave her dad behind like this considering that she just reconnected with him, and he started making up for his past faults.  Not only that, but with her mom disowned and her siblings held captive in parts unknown, as far as Amity’s concerned, she may have lost her entire family.  Such a feeling is very heavy, and only intensifies as a result of what happens later.  So not to make this sacrifice be in vain, Luz’s friends become desperate to find her at the head of the Titan all while the draining spell gets deadlier.  

Fortunately, they arrive just as Luz starts fighting Belos now stuck in his monstrous form. While she did put up an impressive fight on her own, it’s still rewarding to see her get strong backup since building all these strong friendships is a huge part of her arc.

Even with Luz aided by these great loyal reinforcements and a wide variety of magic being used against Belos, the destruction from everything occurring persists with no sign of stopping.  In some cases, it can get intense on a personal level like when Gus uses his newly obtained illusion magic artifact to trap Belos in his memories.  Since this includes a glimpse alluding to Hunter being a clone of Belos’ brother, Hunter himself, being self-conscious about this, keeps the memories from persisting long.  That said, Belos still recognizes Hunter’s true identity, mainly from his palisman, all while still insisting he’s trying to help him, further demonstrating his beyond warped ideals.  Basically, the situation feels frantic and hopeless, with King overhearing that none of them, not even Belos, can stop the draining spell.  However, it’s here where the little Titan finally hears of an opportunity to help. 

The only being with the power to end the spell is the Collector, the mystical entity King happens to have a connection with.  As he heads down to the pit where Belos threw down the moon disc imprisoning the Collector, King learns several interesting factors to their background.  The Collector is neither a witch nor demon, but a perpetual child of the stars.  At one point they wanted to play with King as soon as he hatched, but King’s dad, the original Titan, wouldn’t allow it and imprisoned them.  It’s unknown exactly why the Collector was imprisoned or why the Titan was insistent that they never play with King.  While it can still be certain that it was for a good reason, it’s somewhat easy to feel for the Collector’s genuine disdain over being lonely and wanting to be free.  Still, the draining spell is only building in intensity, as a subsequent scene of Raine saving Eda from it by ripping off her sigil-marked arm before collapsing shows. With things being desperate King pulls an equally desperate attempt to earn the Collector’s trust by tapping into their desire to play.  He tells them of a new exciting game they can play, affectionately titled Owl House, and that successfully appeases them.  While clearly making the game’s rules up as he goes, King mentions a crucial factor that they’ll need an Isle’s worth of players, but they’re all perishing from the draining spell. 

From there, a series of huge events are set into motion as the Collector offers a fix for it.  Once King lets them out with a simple pinky swear releasing them from the disc, the Collector’s true nature is shown at its most prominent.  They happily arrive at the scene of Luz and her friends fighting Belos, and despite the tense atmosphere and everyone beaten up, they see what’s going on as a fun game.  Then, when Belos, the one who lied to them all this time, notices them free, and they respond with a simple offer to play tag.  However, they’re incredibly destructive through their simple touch sending Belos into a wall, causing him to splatter into gunk, ending his terror (to some extent).  

This show of power from such innocent gestures naturally disturb everyone, but the Collector does still do some good.  A simple touch and swipe moves the moon out of its current position, ending the eclipse as well as the draining spell, and shots of witches waking up suggest all is well.  As genuine as the Collector’s desire to play is though, it is the catalyst for another calamity to take the place of the one that nearly came to pass.

The release of a powerful entity of the stars who’s so warped in the thrill of their games spells oblivious chaos to the Boiling Isles.  This in turn brings the most powerful show of emotion to close Season 2 via one particularly climactic sequence.  The Collector starts crafting their own Owl House to play Owl House by destroying the skull of the Titan they were trapped within all this time.  While they’re excited to play, everyone around is disturbed by the danger coming from this occurrence for them and their home.  They spot the open portal to the human realm and quickly decide to get to safety through there.  Luz, however, can see that doing that will mean separating from their families; in her case it’s Eda who not only did so much for her since she came to the Boiling Isles, but add some particularly endearing family bonding moments with her just before the Day of Unity started.  Just leaving her behind makes Luz hesitant to go with her friends, but another strong connection of hers is taken into consideration.  Amity, her girlfriend who just may not have any family left, tearfully begs Luz to come with them, clearly not wanting to lose another special person in her life; maybe even the most special person in her life.  Naturally wanting to please her loved ones, Luz ultimately does agree to escape and not cause her girlfriend anymore distress. 

While like this is the course of action Luz decides to take, she suddenly spots the portal breaking. This indicates that if they go through, they won’t be able to come back for their families later.  As a result, Luz opts to use her glyphs to hold the portal open to allow her friends to get to safety while she stays to get Eda and later find a way back to them. From her perspective, this seems like a noble way to do what’s best for everyone, but in reality, it more likely can’t really work.  The Collector’s power is so unpredictable, she might not be able to get to Eda. Not to mention she’s yet to succeed in making a working portal to the human realm, so she probably won’t even reach her friends or be there for Amity.  Ultimately, Luz doesn’t even get a chance to carry the plan out when King is reminded of the arrangement to play Owl House with the Collector and sees that Luz’s plan is in vain.  To kick off the episode’s real emotional highlight, King tells Luz, who's desperate to keep everyone together, he was lucky to have had her as a big sister, like he’s saying goodbye.  Then he uses his voice powers to force Luz through the portal along with Amity, Willow, Gus, and Hunter. They all land in front of that old shack in the human realm that started Luz's journey into the demon realm while a rain storm is occurring.  If that’s not all, when Luz rushes to open the door, all it leads to is the interior of the shack, meaning she and her friends are now stuck in the human realm, proving her worries correct.

All of this leaves for a big mess of emotions to close Season 2 on.  There was such a frantic effort to stop the Day of Unity, and while that was technically successful, it ended up replaced with another catastrophe.  Some remnants of the earlier threat to peace even persist as the gunk of Belos is shown to have stuck to Hunter and seems to have some sentience of its own.  It’s undeniably sad that these innocent kids who have already been through a lot are put at the mercy of even more hardships.  Now they’re faced with so much uncertainties over being stuck in another realm with no way back, if their home is even ok, and most of all, if they’ll ever see their families again.  Luz, in particular, no doubt has it the worst of everyone.  There was a big reminder of how much she valued her Owl House family before she set off to face the Day of Unity, and now it’s been torn apart.  Considering she’s already lost one family member a long time ago, having to potentially lose two more after trying hard to stay together is as painful as one can imagine.  Even if they are ok and she and the others do find a way back, she might not go because of the promise she made to her mom to stay in the human realm when she returned.  Speaking of which, the last shot of her bringing her friends to her house where a surprised Camila greets them features a notable expression to sell the tone.  Luz is noticeably beaten and about to shed tears over the stress of what’s happened, but still struggles to smile and hold back the pain as she sees her mom once again. 

These are all heavy things to deal with, but it should be noted that these events are not without their bright sides.  The biggest one being that even though Luz was sent back to a realm she never really fit into, she wasn’t sent back alone.  There’s noticeable refreshment that a piece of the demon realm came with her, and it’s in the form of the friends she’s made, including her girlfriend.  Not only will she have support in getting through the turmoil, and turmoil they all relate to no less, but it can also help her and her mom coming to an understanding.  Opportunities are now present for Camila to really get to know the friends Luz has made, and in turn learn the real reason she chose to stay in the demon realm.  It would also be refreshing to Camila since she herself had expressed concern over Luz not having real friends at the very beginning of the series.  By doing so, it’s easy to think that Camila will find it wrong to have Luz cut them out of her life.  As for what this will mean for Luz’s connection with Eda and King, while there are no clear ways of how they’ll find each other again, there are reasons to not despair too much.  Of course, there’s the urgency to get back to the demon realm in regard to Luz’s friends needing to know if their families are ok. Even now though, nothing has made the family bonds of Luz and the Owl House family any weaker.  For that, the hope in this area lies in the simple principle that family will always find their way back to each other, no matter what.  Along with the heavy somber emotions of how the season ends, there are also some interesting and reassuring ideas of what to look out for in whatever comes next.

As far as finales go, this one is clearly a grand and awesome end to a high-quality, visionary season.  It brings many long-running plot points to climactic turning points with exciting staging and action, every character getting moments to shine, and a wide range of emotions.  When looking into how well this show brings such a consistent streak of greatness, especially in the second season, this send-off is perhaps the best example to turn to.

A+

Fan Art

Series Ranking

1.      King’s Tide

2.      Clouds on the Horizon

3.      Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door

4.      Reaching Out

5.      Hollow Mind

6.      Enchanting Grom Fright

7.      Eda’s Requiem

8.      Follies at the Coven Day Parade

9.      Yesterday’s Lie

10.  Agony of a Witch

11.  O Titan, Where Art Thou?

12.  Elsewhere and Elsewhen

13.  Hunting Palismen

14.  Echoes of the Past

15.  Escaping Expulsion

16.  Understanding Willow

17.  Lost in Language

18.  Adventures in the Elements

19.  The Intruder

20.  Covention

21.  Keeping Up A-Fear-Ances

22.  Eclipse Lake

23.  Through the Looking Glass Ruins

24.  Labyrinth Runners

25.  Edge of the World

26.  Them’s the Breaks, Kid

27.  Young Blood Old Souls

28.  Any Sport in a Storm

29.  Separate Tides

30.  Escape of the Palisman

31.  Wing it Like Witches

32.  The First Day

33.  I Was a Teenage Abomination

34.  Witches Before Wizards

35.  Something Ventured, Someone Framed

36.  A Lying Witch and a Warden

37.  Sense and Insensitivity

38.  Hooty’s Moving Hassle

39.  Really Small Problems

40.  Once Upon a Swap

Final Thoughts

Upon its premiere, The Owl House proved to be a very impressive high-quality show.  It was easy to believe that the second season would continue the streak of greatness and go even further with its potential as second seasons of great shows usually do.  Not only did it accomplish that very thing, but Season 2 goes practically way above and beyond expectations to craft a truly unforgettable animated experience.  Thanks to the clear visions of creator Dana Terrace and enough freedom for her to make them reality, the series succeeds in showing off exactly what it can do.  Not only that, but with every episode rated with either an A or an A+, this particular season may just be the closest to perfection of any series, animated or even otherwise.

Of course, being a full-fledged fantasy show with lots of creative lore and world-building, the most surface-level expectation to see is how much more creative layers can be added.  This was actually a major benefit to Dana who had a fair share of executive notes to deal with when she first began the show.  This would result in the first season feeling more episodic and lighter to specifically appeal to the kid demographic targeted by the higher-ups.  While that season would still be strong overall, a fair share of episodes there were still significantly weaker and not as memorable or impressive as others.  In the second season, Dana was given much more freedom to shape her show into what she really wanted it to be, and it really shows.  Every episode has a point to it, and leaves a significant impact to areas like plot development, characters, and world building.  Speaking of world building, many elements take what was established in the last season and allows them to flourish better than ever.  The setting this show has created broadens its appeal with explorations of the capabilities of glyphs and how they’re combined to create other types of spells; the nature of palismen and how they connect to witches through convictions to what said witches want for their future; the ways different realms are connected and what lies between them; exactly what Titans are and why they’re not around anymore; the list goes on. 

However, the most impressive lore elements of the season are all about history which makes the world of this show feel more alive than ever, and stand as something all its own.  This in turn is a real benefit to the atmosphere of the stories as well as backgrounds of the cast and a fair amount of interesting mysteries.  Some examples bring insight to things like where King and his desire for power came from, and big answers to how the owl beast curse came to be with details that are explored later.  The biggest show of history for the season though is all about the main antagonist, Emperor Belos, whose intrigue and emotional impact grows with every new reveal.  His general rule of the Boiling Isles has been well established at this point, so nothing more drastic than usual comes up from him at first.  If anything, all history related to him seems innocently interesting in how it all begins.  There’s a look at how there was another human who lived in the demon realm long before Luz, and how information on him helps her in her goals.  Then a journey to the past reveals him to have been a very unlikable deceiving scoundrel, and unbeknownst to the protagonists, someone with a big disdain towards witches.  It isn’t long before it’s known to both the audience and the protagonists even more telling signs of the nature of this old human and how it relates to Belos.  In addition to a reveal on the true nature of covens and the sigils that come with them turning out dangerous as intended by Belos, he himself turns out to be that old human.  His rule was nothing more than an ages-long scheme to wipe out all witches, and everything he’s been saying about purifying magic and talking to the Titan was a lie.  There are also huge details regarding his tragic falling out with his brother and how his disdain towards witches began told through literal pictures in his mind.  All of these reveals together lead into the biggest answers regarding the long-discussed Day of Unity in which rather than uniting realms, it’s a ploy to see all witches destroyed.  Such implications lead to heavy emotional responses from the characters over what’s at stake, and make for a frantic dash to stop it and save the many lives. 

Even at that, the only way to truly stop this deadly spell is to release a being called the Collector, who gave Belos the magic to pull off the Day of Unity in the first place.  This being’s nature is a big mystery by itself as it’s hard to tell their true sense of morality.  Teaching Belos how to drain life from witches as well as involvement in what happened to the owl beast doesn’t do any favors, but things soon get complicated.  All the Collector’s present day scenes feature them talk about wanting to be free and play games.  This could be taken as a double meaning for masking deadly motives, but once they’re free, their desire to play feels very genuine.  Even so, while this factor does good in stopping the Day of Unity and gets rid of Belos (mostly), they just end up replacing one major conflict with another.  Setting up a new crazy game brings a lot of destructive implications to the surrounding world and leaves a lot of turmoil for many characters.  It would still be hasty to call the Collector downright bad, but there’s still a lot of unknown elements to the character.  However, these are solid thing to explore in the next part of the series, and it’s all led into by the great visionary handling of lore and backstory in this second season.

While fantasy elements alone can be a strong selling point for the series, even more important things are considered to really make them work.  In fact, these things do great justice for it as a work of animated storytelling as it never holds back in the heavy universal themes to make this fantasy setup feel real and relatable.  This allows for strong connections to the characters, and more importantly, major emotional responses to everything that happens.  It’s very surprising how often certain threads and topics show up in various different ways this season.  Many characters seem to have some sort of turmoil relating to feeling the need to follow a certain path and dealing with the hardships that come with it.  These hardships include a lack of self-worth leading to feeling like a burden if certain things aren’t accomplished; dealing with past belief being a lie leading to a lack of identity; experiencing harsh consequences of going against regular routines even if doing so makes one happier; painful memories of being belittled by peers and even things as heavy as the loss of a parent; guilt of following someone who shouldn’t have been trusted and intensely worrying about how others will react; adult subjects of growing so fond of found family to the point of feeling uncertain about everything, including the will to live should the members of this family ever leave; the parental stress of how hard it is to keep those viewed as one’s own kids safe; and most pressing of all, having to live through something as horrifying as a big attempt at genocide, something that really affects both the old and the young.  It’s clearly a lot of heaviness going on and it never holds back on how hard each of these subjects affect the cast.  This is a huge benefit in showing that while this is a full-on fantasy show, there’s a big touch of reality to in making the experience feel believable. 

However, just as believable as the internal and external hardships are the common ways everyone finds their way through them.  No matter how hard or emotionally exhausting the season’s events are, it’s always refreshing for the characters to find some peace and reassurance through one common thing.  It’s all about the strong social connections they've made throughout the series.  Now, the series has always had some sort of a theme of the importance of a sense of belonging, which is especially important for those who have trouble fitting in.  With everything that happens in Season 2, this central theme is stronger than ever, with it practically crystal clear that the featured characters need their good relationships.  They provide everyone involved with the comfort, security, care, and understanding to make every hardship the characters involved face bearable.  Whether it’s familial, friendly, or even romantic, each relationship is just as refreshing as they are charming and endearing.  They even have a common thread of how they work through communication.  A lot of the time, the characters’ struggles are so big, it seems like they can’t be shared since it seems like no one will understand, or the characters in question will feel like a burden.  For that, they often opt not to talk about them understandably thinking it’s the best way to go, but it actually only makes things worse.  Only when talking about problems with loved ones is when things get better.  Not only that, but since those so close to others actually listen instead jumping to conclusions, their relationships actually become stronger and even more endearing.  Some might say that it’s these bonds that make the life these characters live worth supporting despite any danger, horror, and grueling challenge that come with them.  That’s just the way this show, especially its second season is so successful at resonating with viewers of all ages. It’s got a huge emotional range to its story and themes where some of the worst challenges imaginable don’t hold back with difficulties. But as a counterpoint, it’s also universally relatable in the best ways to overcome them, enhancing its appeal to an overall pleasing degree.

When discussing The Owl House, one area that can never be overlooked is its amazing cast of characters, easily what makes the series as great as it is.  It’s because of them that the lore is so impactful and the themes and range of emotion prove so effective.  The events of this season allow them not just care and sympathy from the audience, but noticeably strong growth and development.  There’s also a smart cohesive way of handling the characters which in turn enhances the power of their many connections with others.  After all, as previously explained, these bonds are the best comfort and reassurance they have in such difficult times.  The season takes the deep arcs of the most central characters to the series and connects them with those of many other interesting characters.  This way, the cast as a whole comes together as a successful means of endearment that really enhances the appeal of the show, and themselves.  It also really helps since the main characters’ arcs for the season are very strong and demonstrative of the huge emotional range.  Their worldviews are challenged to maturely compelling degrees; all hardships and comfort they face do not hold back; and they even allow for significant growth into better selves.  The latter point is really made clear with an entire episode devoted to major status quo changes for each of them which says a lot about how much there is to them. 

Now, out of the three main players, the once most central to this season is King.  Being introduced with a background of being a powerful demon of authority always left a lot of questions and mysteries to its legitimacy.  For a while, his references to his supposed status just felt pretentious and indicative of some sort of Napoleon complex.  Throughout Season 2, King’s beliefs are seriously challenged by revealing the truths of these matters and setting him up for a new more legitimate role in life.  There’s a trip to his place of birth where he claims to have reigned supreme as a huge ruler of demons, but he was really born naturally as the small creature he is now.  That’s not even mentioning how his status of grandeur derives from childish games and gestures that Eda just played along with after adopting him, and he took seriously.  The emotional effects of King’s genuine beliefs being factually inaccurate never sugarcoat how hard this is to take, and are topped off with a full-on understandable breakdown. 

Even with this hard almost devastating truth, King is able to find comfort with the loving family he already has, which is also beneficial in his arc of learning of his true self.  A conversation with them not only helps him recover from the emotional stress of the reveal of his true past, but also find truth in one of his original claims.  This in turn helps him recognize his dad and sets him up to find his identity.  Said identity is developed even further when a substantial, lore-filled, if unconventional health lecture reveals he has a power to emit powerful waves with his voice.  No matter where he came from, it’s clear King sees his true family as the Owl House inhabitants he’s always been with, as shown with him legally adopting himself to them.  This is one of the more endearing parts of King’s arc and is one of many examples of how the relationship between the main trio as a whole is just like a family. 

There are challenges to it later on though when King’s questions get substantial answers, albeit answers that are also very hard to deal with.  A letter gives the impression that he’s found his father at last, but it turns out to be a hoax that leads him to a group who hunts and kills Titans while serving the Collector.  This means that King is a Titan himself, a being worshiped by all of witch-kind that technically gives him the status he wanted, but brings a sense of somberness as well.  As the islands of the demon realm are composed of corpses of Titans and they, including his dad, were hunted by these frauds, King is all alone in this side of his family.  In addition, there’s some distress to his other family too with a belief that he’ll have to live a life without them someday, particularly a life without Luz.  These other hard truths and fears ultimately shape an effective conclusion for his arc where he grows to accept that grandeur and power alone are overrated; opts to find ways to serve others as a Titan instead of rule over them; and makes a big decision to save everyone including his family.  The attention on King this season does it a great service by bringing closure to long-standing mysteries, and being one of the best examples of its big emotional range.

While not as prominent as the other members of the Owl House trio, this season offers a good number of strong character moments for Eda.  Her arc follows a noticeable theme of effectively growing from a shady isolated witch acting against the law to a very loving and devoted parental figure.  With the previous season leaving her without the magical abilities that used to make her a powerful force, it’s practically demonstrative that Eda is left open to major life adjustments.  Regarding her lack of magic, following up on a suggestion at the end of the previous season, that’s soon taken care of as she adjusts well to glyph magic.  This in turn gives this form of magic legitimacy and prominence by branching out to other characters and paves the way for other breakthroughs like spells made from combining them.  However, this is just a small example of Eda’s adjustments with its real extent going to something bigger.  This season dives deeper into how she became so isolated to begin with while in the process developing one truly noteworthy area of her character, her owl beast curse.  She did use to be very close to her family, but when her curse enacted and caused a lot of harm (unbeknownst to her because of her sister), she was led to hide away in shame.  She’d constantly be blaming the curse as well as herself for all the harm that came from it, leading to a life of major delinquency.  At this point from the family Eda’s made, she’s certainly come a long way, to the point of growing to accept the curse, helped in large part by her constant elixirs.  For an even bigger measure, through an unethical yet very healthy move, Eda’s acceptance of the curse grows more as she sees where the owl beast itself is coming from.  Through learning that it too is a helpless victim, of the Collector or even their descendant no less, she sympathizes with the creature and convinces it to call a truce.  As a result of accepting the bad thing that happened to them instead of fighting it, they come to a compromise with Eda taking on a new healthy form for her curse.  She gains the ability to turn into a harpy, quickly gains the ability to enact it on cue, and said form proves to be very helpful on many occasions.  It’s a satisfying instance of growth for the character, and it can also be seen as relatable in a somewhat allegorical sense. 

In overcoming the physical difficulties, Eda is able to grow in maturity too by adjusting to a role suitable to all her social connections.  It helps that her bonds with Luz and King were already strong enough to be comparable to a family, but for this season, she practically adopts a full-on parental role. In fact, if one were to view her as a parent, they wouldn’t be exaggerating when calling her one of the best.  She let these kids without anywhere to go into her home and greatly provided for them, but Eda’s parenting goes even further to a more endearing extent.  Even when she has her own problems to deal with, Eda shows the best thing her kids need when it comes to their hardships and worries, and that’s consideration and understanding.  As an example of healthy social connections being a common element to this season, those associated with Eda get some of the best of them.  Whenever her kids have a problem with their self-worth or a lack of direction, Eda seems to know just what to say and do.  This is especially apparent with Luz who, when feeling like a burden, gets great reassurance from Eda that it isn’t so; and when she lacks a palisman and idea for her future, Eda provides a solid means to get around it and patience for when the time is right to use it. 

As supportive and well-adjusted Eda is as a parent, there’s also apparent emotional weight from the stresses and challenges that come from being a parent.  Since both Luz and King have other families, Eda is left worrying over what will become of her should the kids leave to return to them.  An entire episode is even devoted to her worrying about not being needed anymore and going back to being all alone to the point of trying to make a new life for herself.  Things even take a darker turn where she considers throwing her life away because of circumstances.  Luckily, she’s convinced to not go that far and learns that even when she and her kids are apart, she’ll still be needed in their lives.  Even if Eda doesn’t worry much about her worth after that, emotional problems are still very present, particularly later on in the season as the Day of Unity draws near.  There are constant fears and worries about how she’s going to keep Luz and King safe from harm, something that any adult watching could relate to.  Protecting and providing for family is one of life’s biggest responsibilities, and something bad happening to them can easily haunt said adults for life.  Watching Eda break down over how unfair it is for her kids to be put through this and later losing the will to fight since she has no plan really hits close to home.  It even puts a strain on things when she resorts to sending them away after making it seem like she trusts Luz and realizes how much she’s grown.  As hard as what Eda deals with is on an emotional level, it’s refreshing to see her get good reassurance from this hardship too.  She ultimately remains open with how proud she is of how much her kids have grown.  It may not be as prominent as the rest of the main trio, but Eda’s role in Season 2 stands as a grand instance of character growth and mature relatability.

In growing into a mature, responsible parental figure, Eda gains, or rather regains, strong connections with people outside her Owl House family to really help and support her.  Some of her closest connections come straight from her family with her sister Lilith being the most noticeable.  That’s very interesting to note considering how high tensions were between them at the start of the series.  Back then, Lilith was a very cold and uptight figure with major loyalty to the emperor.  She also had a soft spot for wanting to be with her sister, but her ways clashed too much with Eda’s free spirit.  Now that it’s revealed that she put the owl beast curse on Eda and that the emperor was never going to help heal it, this second season allows Lilith a major life adjustment.  Granted, she still has some of her old ways like honoring major entities like Titans, being desperate for attention since Eda gets it all the time, and competitiveness.  However, seeing fault in the life she followed as well as willingly taking half of Eda’s curse herself has allowed Lilith positive changes for the better, akin to some transformation.  In many ways, she gets a more caring outlook on life seen through things like being a supportive aunt figure to Luz and especially forming a strong friendship with Hooty.  

Regarding Eda, Lilith is one of the best sources of reassurance she has, which is fitting considering she’s partly responsible for her suffering.  Along with sharing the curse to understand what she put Eda through, Lilith is around to help her through present hardships whenever she can.  It might seem hard to believe since the season starts with her living with Eda, then she goes off on her own for a while, and comes back to join Eda when danger arises near the end.  Still, whenever Lilith does show up to support Eda in providing comfort over worries of protecting Luz and King or looking out for her well-being does very good justice for her growth.  It’s one of many examples of how strong relationships make up the great appeal of Season 2 in a thematic sense.  The same can be said for Eda’s reconnections with her parents after the curse drove her away from them, each given their own episode to flesh them out.  Her mom Gwendolyn is a very loyal parent spending many years trying to end the curse, but is also open to learning she was wrong and getting Eda’s perspective on treating it.  There’s also an endearing reconnection with her dad Dell whom she attacked and seriously injured as the owl beast, leaving her too guilty to even talk to him.  They have a wholesome talk about moving on from the past and being more open to asking him for help.  This right here really exemplifies Eda’s arc for the season and the ongoing theme of the importance of good connections and communication.

Another major connection of Eda’s this season looks into her love life, with a significant portion highlighting her relationship with Raine Whispers.  The non-binary head of the bard coven has a lot to them as a character, being very talented with their brand of magic to the point of getting very clever with it.  This allows them to be one of the few coven heads to see bad implications to the emperor’s plans and try to stop it.  Raine’s rebellious nature involves forming a rebellion with other bards to secretly act against coven scouts; faking being brainwashed into serving one of the coven heads most loyal to the emperor; and going undercover to corrupt his draining spell.  That’s just how Raine stands out on their own as a character, but a lot of their strengths are especially highlighted when looking into how they connect with Eda.  One whole episode this season is a flashback of how they met when they were younger, both being supportive and fully compatible almost instantly.  Their relationship is also shown to have been very healthy, lasting for several years and consisting of them passing on strong moral values to each other.  However, it also demonstrates a more somber part of this season’s main theme by showing what a lack of communication can do to relationships.  One flashback shows Eda now deep into her owl beast curse, and in an attempt to keep Raine safe, she kept insisting that everything was fine when it wasn’t.  As this had apparently been going on for some time, Raine ultimately got very frustrated with her, particularly when Eda kept covering the truth even when Raine guessed it correctly.  For that, they broke up, and Eda became estranged from Raine just like she was with everyone else.  

Still, health wins out to make this romance worth caring about by showing that Eda and Raine continue to be important to each other.  It’s through Raine where Eda gets an idea of what to do with her life when feeling her kids will move on without her.  Then, after Eda sees that Raine was faking being brainwashed, she’s understanding enough to see that they did it to protect her just as she did to them.  For a culmination, both Eda and Raine work closely together in their mission to stop the Day of Unity with Raine pulling ultimate moves for the sake of protecting Eda.  With this display of openness, honesty, and understanding, Eda and Raine’s relationship shows what it takes to make connections so strong and engaging.  What this will mean for their relationship going forward is unknown, but it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to hope for the best outcome between them.

Being the main protagonist of the series, it makes sense that Luz herself goes through a lot this season.  The biggest thing to all her experiences here is how they challenge her goals, help her realize what’s truly important in life, and reveal a lot of background to her character.  This is a character who started out as lonely and friendless with only her special fantasy interests to keep her company.  She’d often tried to make her fantasies real, but the trouble they caused only isolated her more.  When coming to the Boiling Isles, it at first seems like Luz has a place where her fantasies can be made real, and she can fit in by becoming a witch.  While this may seem like the case at first, there seems to be an even bigger reason for her wanting to stay here, which even comes as a surprise to Luz herself.  This season features young witches coming of age by getting their own palismen, a notable sign of growth that stands out for revealing convictions to their future.  For Luz, believing that she wants her future to simply be a witch reveals how baseless and lacking of a purpose her staying in the Boiling Isles seems to be.  It’s one of the most telling yet relatable signs of lacking a sense of belonging which in turn makes Luz very sympathetic in everything she goes through.

A more prominently shown challenge to Luz deciding to stay in the Boiling Isles is a clear lack of self-esteem.  She frequently blames herself for every bad thing that happens, including things that happened at the end of the first season, making her feel like a burden.  That’s a sorry enough state of affairs for her to think that, and these feelings tend to drive Luz to feel like she needs to make up for them in the most extreme ways.  Any time something bad happens to her close connections of the Boiling Isles, Luz takes on dangerous tasks to fix everything and attempt to redeem herself.  She hunts for an expensive bounty to earn enough money so things won’t be so hard for the now powerless Eda; she puts herself at the mercy of a dangerous showcase in an attempt to get her friends back in school; she feels guilty about her very loved one losing her library job, so she takes on dangerous chores to get it back; in desperation to not disappoint anyone over whatever realm she stays in, she helps out an enemy with similar loyalty problems to get hope to her situation; she becomes desperate to stop the Day of Unity as quickly as possible after a particularly traumatizing trip into the emperor’s mind reveals she helped him come up with it; and when the day comes, she allows herself to be captured, nearly petrified, and further traumatized to protect her friends and found family.  Along with her deep guilt and lack of self-worth, these many dangers are easily hard things for Luz to be put through.  They present a realistic outlook on life to counteract her fantasy interests and aspirations, causing this realm to evolve from simple escapism to a near-reflection of reality.  While this helps a lot in making Luz mature, it’s also somewhat depressing to see her think that putting herself in danger like this is the only way to make her seem worthy of connections. 

That’s just the thing though, as Luz herself practically embodies the season’s main theme of the importance of connections.  Even as she feels like a burden, the friends and family she’s made for herself in the Boiling Isles never see her like that no matter what.  It becomes clear that the sacrifices and changes in outlook they made are all as a result of caring for her and seeing her as a good person, a light in their lives in a way.  Whenever she’s out doing something dangerous, they’re always quick to follow and do what they can to help as a measure of genuine care.  The Owl House family is no exception, and since she’s been living here upon arriving in this realm, one might say that this is where Luz truly feels at home.  Through watching her arc in Season 2, it becomes clear that no matter how dangerous the Boiling Isles can get, Luz’s connections are the reason why this place is where she belongs.  In fact, her ties to the place are so endearing and refreshing for her that it’s hard to want her to leave it behind.

Taking Luz’s time in the Boiling Isles into consideration, attention is also brought to another goal for her this season.  Much of it features her trying to make a new portal back to the human realm on account of her having to destroy the old one to save Eda.  It’s easy to see her devotion to achieving this goal with all the time she spends researching how to make a portal, including finding some particularly hidden information.  However, there’s an impression that actually coming back to this world may not be what’s best for her.  A few moments throughout the season suggest this realm as a source of many hardships and anxieties that seem to offer plausible explanations for certain behaviors.  The extreme ways to make her fantasy interests real and lack of friends seem to be a result of being bullied when trying to befriend others, and lots of heartbreak with crushes.  There’s also the matter of having to deal with the pain of losing her dad at a young age, as revealed in an emotionally powerful episode, making her feel even lonelier.  It’s not directly stated, but there’s a feeling that all of Luz’s fantasy stunts were her way of coping with these hardships by associating with what was always there for her.  This no longer has to be the case with all the friends she has in the Boiling Isles, and regarding the truth about her dad, this believably drives a desire to keep those closest to her together. 

There is, however, one big connection Luz has in the human realm that majorly complicates matters for her, and it’s a very personal one.  Despite Luz not having any friends in this realm, her mom, Camila, is clearly a great source of love and care for her.  In fact, she may be the only good thing to the human realm in Luz’s eyes, and it’s the prospect of wanting to be there for her that drives her to get a working portal.  When Luz does have one and tests it out, she learns that Camila was actually not left alone. A shapeshifting basilisk went through the portal and took her form upon arrival in the Boiling Isles.  She initially plans to have the basilisk keep up the act, but circumstances result in said creature getting captured, so Luz has to call on Camila to help save her.  At the same time, Luz is driven to finally tell Camila about the Boiling Isles.  It seems that her mom takes things well as Camila frees the basilisk and even allows her to stay.  However, there’s still a realistic reaction to the scenario as Camila is very distressed and distraught over her daughter in another world, especially since she already lost her husband.  The matter gets even tenser when she hears that Luz chose to stay in that world, and jumps to the conclusion that it’s because she hated living with her.  From a parental perspective, these feelings are understandable, but it’s still sad that Camila can’t see the truth and that Luz doesn’t have the time to explain it.  The audience has seen just how beneficial the Boiling Isles has been to Luz where her experiences helped her mature and build a strong social life.  To Camila, it just seems like Luz just wanted to be in a place where she could live her fantasies forever and put that ahead of her, meaning she can’t fully grasp her daughter’s growth.  For that, she has Luz promise to stay in the human realm when she returns there, which potentially means leaving the realm where she truly fits in behind.  This brings one of Luz’s biggest emotional problems to light where it becomes increasingly difficult to please everyone she loves.  No matter what realm she lives in, she’s going to bring sadness and disappointment by just leaving them behind.  It does show that she’s grown to see the value of connections, which again has her embody Season 2’s main theme, but this growth is not without strife, building Luz sympathy.

It’s clear that Season 2 is a heavy hitter in making things especially hard for Luz, but within her social life are certain connections that help her through them particularly well.  One of them features a real stand-out character who back in Season 1 had perhaps the best development of the cast which continues well into this season.  Out of all of Luz’s social connections, the one who shines the brightest with how much there is to her is Amity Blight.  The biggest thing to her character was how she appeared to be one type of person, and a kind of unlikable one at that, but actually was so much more.  She seemed to be an uptight condescending perfectionist, but had the layers to make her seem much softer and more considerate. However, she was taught to conceal that side away by her parents, particularly her legitimately cruel, heartless, purely business-oriented mother Odalia.  Amity would be subjected to a life of striving for nothing but perfection in school and magical abilities, but meeting Luz turned out to be the best benefit she could ask for.  Luz seeing the real her, showing her kindness, and making her genuinely happy for once slowly got Amity out of her old mindset and inspired her to show off her real caring self.  Amity later developing a major love for Luz would be the ultimate culmination of her coming to a better place.  Her arc was indeed a highlight to the first season, which makes it off-putting that she was the only major character to not take part in any action at the end of that season.  Luckily, recovery of exactly what had Amity sidelined takes liberties instead of taking a long time to heal like it would in real life.  As a result, right near the start of Season 2, it becomes clear that Amity is still very relevant and has a lot to offer with her arc.

While it would be easy to say that Amity is defined by her relationship with Luz this season and nothing else, looking at the big picture shows that her role really isn’t that simple.  As her first healthy relationship to bring her happiness, Amity’s relationship with Luz is actually an ends to an even bigger means for her character.  Her worst qualities, which were the first that the audience saw of her, were a result of the influence of her cruel mother.  In fact, for how much Amity had grown and improved herself in Season 1, the start of Season 2 still has her giving into the old authority.  Her mother has Luz and her friends expelled from school since Amity thinks more of them than keeping up her perfect grades, and Amity’s too scared to stand up to her.  It’s only when Luz puts her life on the line in the Blight Industries showcase to resolve things when Amity gets the courage she desperately needs.  In saving Luz and making her desires to be a nicer and more considerate person clear, Amity challenges her old influence in favor of a newer, healthier one.  Throughout the rest of the season, it’s easy to see that the closer Amity becomes to Luz, the more she changes for the better.  In fact it would be most appropriate to say that she goes through a real healthy transformation this season which is very pleasing considering how she started.  Her next Season 2 appearance shows Amity willingly break rules to help Luz’s goal, and she’s hardly ever been disobedient before.  She does question the benefits of her ways being changed by Luz’s influence when this act gets her in trouble, but a bigger change to her ways helps her through the confusion.  Since she used to be cold, distant, and too hesitant to talk about her problems, it says a lot to see her open up about these concerns to her older twin siblings.  Doing so gets her helpful advice to see that Amity’s bond with Luz is indeed good for her with it outright stated that it’s making Amity happy for once.  As an aside, this coming from her siblings does further benefit to Amity’s character since she didn’t exactly get along with them well at first. 

Amity accepts how much Luz has changed her because of this, and the transformation process is in full force for the rest of the season as she becomes a healthier individual.  She continues to be open with communicating her problems by telling King about her worries over Luz potentially dumping her if she fails to help; asking Willow if she should examine Luz's personal belongings to understand her strange behavior; and once again opening up to her siblings on how worried she is for Luz during the Day of Unity which has her learn a way to calm herself.  As well as being open with her problems, Amity shows no hesitation in showing off softer more caring emotions and her special interests.  This means a lot considering that she was taught to never show weakness.  She becomes wiser in who else to associate with such as trying to bond with her dad, Alador, who despite enabling his wife’s abuse, actually does want to be a more caring parent; and continuing to reconnect with her old friend Willow in spite of continuing to repeat old claims of her being weak, intending to try and protect her.  Speaking of the latter point, Amity does tend to repeat ways of her old influence, but grows to see genuine fault in them.  She sees Luz as something she needs to earn like her top student status, but later learns Luz’s acceptance is unconditional, so she doesn’t need to try so hard.  As a result, she admits that her lessons on doing things to justify existence were wrong, a real breakaway from her old way of life to something healthier.  As for her treatment of Willow, it’s akin to looking down on witches who seem weaker, but luckily how much she’s changed allows her to listen better.  Once Willow makes it clear she wants her real strength to be known, Amity understands her wishes, and later shows trust in what her old friend is capable of. 

Amity’s most prominent change though is how there are certain customs of her mother’s influence that she willingly goes against for the sake of her happiness.  The biggest example relates to her hair which is said to have been green as her mother’s way of keeping her children color-coordinated.  The fact that it was also styled just like her mother’s is reflective of her standing not as her own individual, but as her double or clone with no independent thought of her own.  Upon hearing of how Luz coming into her life has made her happy, Amity considers her hair and decides to style it in her own unique way.  In dying it a completely different color and cutting it into a different fashion, this has got to be the most liberating thing for Amity to do.  It’s a very symbolic way of Amity’s transformation as she stands as her own witch making her own choices and not a figurative clone of an abusive parent and individual.  Taking her full arc of the series into account, this thematic symbolism is sure to come to mind whenever the audience watches an episode with Amity in her new hair.  This way, she can always be seen as a prime example of a truly great character with a compelling arc.  There are other notable instances of Amity willingly renouncing her old ways too, one of which brings long-awaited clarity on her stance on the Emperor’s Coven.  When tryouts for it come to town, she’d rather ditch them in favor of participating in a fun magic brawl.  She outright says she’s lost all interest in covens, and later tells her dad that her joining the Emperor’s Coven was always her mom’s dream and not her own.  This makes sense since she never really talked about joining it outside of the one episode where her tie to it was introduced.  An even bigger break from old influences comes near the end of the season when Amity tries to get her mom to stop serving the emperor by providing him with an army.  Not only does she not listen, but she actually knows of the emperor’s deadly plans and doesn’t care since the Blight family will allegedly live like royalty if she helps him.  Such lack of consideration for others makes Amity’s transformation very clear as she disowns Odalia as a mom and shows she values safety of the world around her over status.  By the end of the season, one can’t help but be impressed and proud of how healthier and more independent Amity has become, all a result of connecting with the right person.

Since Amity’s great change as an individual is a result of her relationship with Luz, it would be most appropriate to take that into consideration.  Even though it’s more fitting to look at their romance as a tool in their development, as a romance by itself, it’s executed to a very charming degree.  In fact, it may be the healthiest and best executed love stories between youths in all of western animation.  Seeing Amity develop a love for Luz near the end of Season 1 and that love being made explicit was a nice positive step in her arc.  However, it had certain factors that threatened to have what was cute at the time get old and tiring fast.  Luckily, Season 2 avoids going that route and instead takes several directions to keep up the appeal of the relationship and avoid dragging out any potential concerns.  For one thing, while Amity’s feelings for Luz were always clear, it was debatable if Luz felt the same way, coming off as oblivious to Amity flirting with her.  However, as if to symbolize Amity coming to a better place by breaking from her mom’s control and associating with who makes her happy, that’s when Luz’s feelings are known.  The moment Amity saves her from the Blight Industries showcase which causes Luz to blush is when the idea of them actually getting together starts seeming plausible. 

Later events and reveals to Luz’s character even suggest that maybe these feelings for Amity were inside Luz all along with things like blushing at her quickly becoming frequent.  For one thing, when they go against the rules of the library which could cause Amity to lose her job there, Luz is considerate enough to try and keep that from happening.  When the worst ends up happening anyway though and Amity laments how being around Luz makes her do stupid things, Luz says she tends to do the same thing with Amity.  It seems like a way of letting Amity know she’s not alone, but it’s also something to put Amity in a whole new perception in Luz’s mind, as if she’s extra special to her.  For that, it’s practically devastating to her that she believes this mishap might have ruined things with Amity.  It’s after that moment when Amity realizes the happiness Luz has brought to her life and starts making her own decisions and makes the first move in really showing her true feelings.  Considering that her biggest fear has been revealed to be Luz rejecting her, it’s certainly bold of Amity to kiss her cheek, preventing her being too nervous to move forward from getting old.  

While she is still embarrassed by this act and disappears for a while, during this absence is a further look at how important Amity is to Luz.  It also says a lot about Luz’s background as she plans ask Amity out, but is hesitant due to trying to do so many times in the human realm, always resulting in her being made fun of.  The weight of this dread is shown when she and Amity are sent through a fabricated tunnel of love, and seeing it as something cheesy, Luz proceeds to destroy it.  As this was to prevent herself from being made fun of, this not only shows just how much Luz wants this love to work, but also further points to her old life not being so great.  In fact, seeing how much she dreads crushes making fun of her brings a whole new perspective to how Luz views Amity.  Perhaps she always had feelings for her, but never looked into them to avoid the pain romance always brought her, until recent events made the feelings hard to ignore.  It could also explain why she’s been so oblivious of Amity’s flirting for so long, and make one believe that Amity’s fear of rejection has her act the same to Luz’s flirting.  

Luckily after that, communication wins again as Luz is open and honest about her actions in the tunnel of love, and ultimately, she and Amity become an official couple.  This is the best way to keep an appealing couple fresh and interesting.  Instead of doing what most shows do and leave it to the end, Luz and Amity’s relationship upgrades to a whole new status the series now has time to explore.  They’re very intimate with affection when interacting; considerate of each other’s backgrounds and attempts of understanding them; and let each other know they have nothing to fear with their insecurities.  Even when they’re not together in episodes unrelated to their relationship, there are brief yet notable moments where they clearly think of each other and make sure to stay in touch.  These are clear signs of how being a couple may be new territory, but the ones involved have what it takes to make it work into something healthy.

The most notable thing to the health of Luz and Amity’s relationship is how they handle conflicts.  In the spirit of keeping up drama, it’s normal for shows to have conflicts between main couples be dragged out for a long time.  No matter what, this always leads to messy storytelling that devalues the heart and care put into bringing the couple together.  It’s also pointless to have this be a big source of drama when there’s so much drama coming from other areas of the story.  With Luz and Amity, it feels like they always know how important they are to each other and never let things that come between them last long.  Through approaching conflicts as they do, their characters get good benefits as well with Luz opening up more, and Amity having changed enough to be able to handle things.  The most notable instances feature Luz have a problem and being too hesitant to share it, which makes sense given her constant feelings of being a burden.  First, following her first portal attempt and her emotional encounter with her mom, she’s scared to talk about what happened and disappoint everyone.  However, Amity gets the feeling that she’s hiding something, and when the time is right, she confronts Luz about it.  In doing so, she provides Luz with a safe place to unpack everything instead of getting mad about her keeping things from her.  This turns out to be perfect for Luz as Amity just listens to the details, never jumps to conclusion, and is open with a desire to support.  It’s kind of an opposite of how Camila handles things like this despite meaning well. 

For a more pressing conflict, something similar happens a few episodes later when Luz tries helping Amity compete in a brawl so she can connect to her dad better.  Her strange behavior she expresses in the process leads to the plan backfiring and Amity getting in trouble, and she runs off from Luz.  This could usually spell trouble and devalue the heart of the relationship the audience has become so accustomed to, but here’s the thing.  Amity isn’t concerned about what Luz does, but the reasons behind her actions, knowing this isn’t like her.  What gets her upset is that she asks what’s going on with Luz who just brushes off the reason as unimportant.  She still tries to get Luz to open up, as if to show that she knows that it’s all that needs to be done to fix things, and guesses the reason based on the prior similar incident.  By doing so, Luz, clearly caring for Amity’s feelings, opens up once again and tells her precisely what’s going on which relates to her losing her dad at a young age.  It’s emotionally taxing and takes a lot of energy out of Luz to go into so much detail, but once Amity knows all the facts, her first impulse is to comfort Luz however she can.  In doing so, their relationship only becomes stronger instead of falling apart from the earlier misdeeds.  It really shows that even the healthiest relationships can’t always avoid conflicts, but in focusing on the reason for the issue and not the issue itself, they can still work.  It’s also one of Season 2’s clearest examples of the importance of communication as that seems to determine how well this relationship goes.  On another note, these conflicts allow Amity to connect with Luz’s family in getting herself involved in what’s between Luz and her mom, and learning said family’s background.  This is very good for her since she never really had that great a family herself, especially not a good mom.  Also, given how Season 2 ends, it’s especially good to see her in the presence and care of a maternal figure like Camila.  In fact, of all the relationships that are torn apart from that ending, it’s good to know that the one of Luz and Amity was not among them.  In addition to a good mother figure, they’re going to need each other, especially Luz needing Amity, easily one of her very best social connections.

The last major character connected to Luz’s arc is initially found within the antagonistic forces of the Emperor’s Coven simply known as the Golden Guard.  He was first introduced as a silent obedient authority figure standing alongside Emperor Belos, building a lot of mystery.  In his first moments of the season, he expressed an energetic attitude in serving the emperor, while also stressing he’s not a forgiving man.  Did he really honor the emperor, or was he just acting in fear? Things about this mysterious Golden Guard eventually become clearer once Luz has an encounter with him.  Since it’s a moment where he’s seen without his mask, it’s kind of symbolic of her seeing this guard for who he really is.  While trying to retrieve a nest of palismen, she learns his real name, Hunter.  He was allegedly born without magic and taken in by Belos who told him that the Titan had plans for him.  That said, when looking at prior and later scenes of Hunter interacting with Belos, things are almost always very tense and unhealthy.  Hunter is eager to serve Belos, his uncle as far as he knows, especially with some sort of ailment where he can’t keep his physical form together and becomes a monster of mud.  Belos only reacts violently towards him since Hunter’s ideas usually involve wild magic, later revealed to just be normal witch magic, which he has a huge disdain for.  The violence as well as mean and condescending remarks present an unhealthy environment Hunter lives in that only pressures him to act accordingly to some sort of plan.  

This in turn allows him to really connect with Luz, for as Hunter has to act with a future planned out for him, Luz doesn’t know what to make of her own future.  Despite seeing him as a villain before and later teasing him like he’s a brother, there is a notable connection between Luz and Hunter as she does see reason to hope for the best.  They work together to save the palismen and beat back another Emperor’s Coven member, the crazed rival for Belos’ approval, Kikimora, and they both seem compatible.  Hunter, sadly, still holds onto his connection to the emperor and acts hostile towards Luz near the end of the rescue, making Luz doubt her judgement again.  It isn’t a total doubt since Hunter still allows Luz to escape, and he gets a red cardinal palisman to make desires for his future clearer, presenting his situation as complex.  So even with some doubt of him still lingering on, Luz does bond with someone whose hardships are similar to hers and knows how it feels, which further adds to her social life. 

Still, Hunter is far gone with believing in what’s seemingly planned for him and continues to serve Belos and hold onto his Golden Guard position.  In fact, after fluctuating with his loyalty throughout the season, it takes a traumatizing trip into Belos’ mind to get him to know the truth.  After spending it making excuses that Belos’ evil acts with sigils, covens, and destructions to towns were for the greater good to Luz, Hunter finds that he can’t defend them.  Not only does he learn those things were all to lead up to his big draining spell plan, but there’s a catch to his role as the Golden Guard.  He’s one of many who were created as clones as someone from Belos’ past who are flat out killed when they veer against what Belos wants from him.  In other words, Hunter’s entire existence is built on a horrifying lie and one that can result in his ultimate end at that, causing an understandable major panic within him.  It’s also fitting that this is also where Luz learns that Belos is actually the old human Phillip Wittebane whom she unintentionally helped.  The connection over traumatic experiences is an interesting one, and makes for some of the strongest senses of understanding in dark times that Luz can possibly get.

The idea of important connections ends up applying greatly to Hunter as it allows him not only a path to a better life, but also great security from his trauma.  It just happens to be found within Luz’s main circle of friends where each play a role in helping him change for the better albeit with varying success.  Luz relates to his hardships in both their major encounters, but it’s not exactly enough to change his ways or give the security he needs.  Some might expect the most developed of Luz’s friends, Amity, to help Hunter come to a better place.  At one point, they meet and relate to how much they both stress pleasing important people in their lives.  Amity ultimately learns how unhealthy it is to serve people who think you’re worthless unless you do things for them and one should be with those who care unconditionally.  When she tries passing that onto Hunter though, it backfires as he still insists on being loyal to the emperor.  

In an admittedly smart storytelling move, the members of Luz’s friend group to get through to Hunter are those who have had the least development, Willow and Gus.  This move is not only beneficial to Hunter, but these two characters in question as well.  They had a huge prominence in Season 1 as the ones to join Luz in adventures the most out of her three friends, but they really didn’t have much to offer.  Their roles were mostly to just tagalong with her and do what they could to assist her but ended up being mostly unproductive, begging questions why they were included in the first place.  While some may disagree, this is why I personally don’t mind them not having many roles or material in the first half of Season 2; they didn’t have much to offer or work with in their relationship with Luz, so it made sense to just not use them.  Bigger potential for Willow and Gus did exist with Willow learning to be more confident in her abilities, and Gus wanting to be taken seriously despite his young age.  However, since they were rarely explored with them being nice and supportive friends to Luz and nothing more, the characters just didn’t feel that important in the grand scheme.  This is not the case with Hunter who provides a strong outlet for the deeper sides of their characters. 

When Willow meets him, they both bond over how they feel insecure about their abilities as witches, which ends up giving them both the confidence needed to bring out their best.  It’s all in something as fun as a sport which gives Hunter a major element of a healthy lifestyle, true friends.  The chemistry between them in this sport is so great, one can easily see the benefits that come with it.  Even when Hunter reveals that studying the abilities of Willow and her team were a test to have them eligible for the Emperor’s Coven, he’s genuinely happy they seem good enough.  Sure, he imprisons the team and threatens to take them away from their families, but he really does see them as friends.  Through seeing them as friends, Hunter takes action to atone by saving the team from being taken to the Emperor’s Coven and defends them from harm.  Thankfully, Willow still sees Hunter as a friend, and is more confident than ever.  In fact, she even goes on to let her real strength be known to everyone, and even adopts somewhat of a leadership role during the big finale.  

As for Hunter, his building social connections don’t stop there.  While his ties to Willow are clear, and even have hints of even bigger feelings for her, there’s much to be said about Hunter’s bond with Gus.  His big desire for being seen as mature and worth taken seriously is teased prior to meeting Hunter in a one-off adventure where he tries magic different from his usual illusions.  He teams up with a group of other kids who seem to offer sound advice on outcasts sticking together, but they turn out to be jerks who betray Gus’ trust.  These feelings of falling for phony friends are followed up in a later episode when he runs into Hunter who’s just learned the truth of his background.  They both share experiences of being played and the stress it brings them both. Not only does this calm them in intense situations, but it leads to them forming a brotherly bond.  These simple moments between these friends are exactly what Hunter needs to get the healthy security he desperately needs.  He even realizes this for himself as he’s later shown to be desperate to keep it, right down to wanting to keep his status as a clone a secret, fearing his new friends will take it badly.  This also allows for further connection with Luz and how she fears others will react to her helping Belos.  One thing’s for sure though, the fact that circumstances from this season’s ending place Hunter with Willow and Gus is another benefit to a very emotional situation.

It’s easy to tell that Season 2 offers a lot with themes, emotion, lore, and character moments, all working together to serve its story and make it very impactful.  It’s a grand sign of Dana Terrace’s storytelling capabilities, and by the end, they all come together.  In the process, the season’s ending brings a lot of sympathy for the current situation as well as interesting things to look forward to.  The most heavy-hitting part of the finale is that after so much effort for many relationships to stick together, circumstances badly mess with those plans.  This is especially clear with the main trio of Luz, Eda, and King who have basically become a full-on family always trusting and supporting each other.  However, when the Day of Unity comes close to fulfilling its dark purpose and tactics to stop it don’t go as planned, big decisions have to be made.  King acts as a protective Titan to the Boiling Isles and frees the Collector, whose powers seem to do good by stopping the draining spell.  Doing so, however, unleashes a new danger as the Collector proceeds to turn the Boiling Isles into their own playing area to a destructive degree.  This is where the emotional effects really get intense through what it does to each of the three main characters.  Eda is left spared of the draining spell with the resistance, but her arm has to be cut off so she won’t be disintegrated along with it.  She doesn’t even have the comfort of her kids, no matter how much Luz tries to keep her family together.  With the way things go, King feels he should send Luz to the human realm to keep her safe, especially after willingly putting herself in danger so much.  This also seems to confirm his belief of having to live a life without Luz, but it’s easy to see where he’s coming from.  Still, for how much this show has stressed these weirdos sticking together, it hits hard that they all end up not sticking together.  They’ve lost what felt like a strong family, ended up in positions and places they were never comfortable with, and are left more uncertain than ever. 

At the same time, there are still some positive things to take from the dark situation.  In freeing the Collector and staying to deal with them, King begins to embrace his role as a Titan and discover his purpose.  As for Luz and Eda, while they’re separated, they’re also not alone and are left with the people outside the safe hub of the Owl House they’ve really connected with.  Eda is left with her old love interest Raine who loyally stick by her to the end, and Luz has all the friends she’s made during her time in the demon realm, including her own love interest.  Even in the darkest of situations, they’re dealing with them with connections that remind them of how much they’ve grown.  Luz in particular seems to have the best support with all her friends with her to help her through things.  They could even be the best bet of resolving things between her and Camila who’s sure to learn that these connections are the reason Luz chose to stay in the Demon Realm.  After all, Luz making friends was what Camila wanted for her all along.  In resolving these things, one can easily believe that the main protagonists will be able to resolve everything, uncover the Collector’s game, and save everyone.  This is an ending to effectively wrap up the events of this season and pave the way for the next one.

On the matter of the next season, there's one more thing to cover before we wrap up.  While the previous two seasons were full standard ones with plenty of episodes to develop the world, characters, and story, the upcoming third season will not be like that.  Dana Terrace apparently had to fight hard just to get enough time in the show to carry out her vision completely.  However, all the Disney executives would allow after the second season would be three 44-minute specials, meaning the next season will contain them and nothing else.  It’s hard to figure out why this decision was made since the show has gathered a sizable fan base on social media; trends a lot on Disney+; resonates well with the LGBT community the best out of any Disney content that represents said community; and even won a Peabody Award.  The only explanation given was that the one executive who called for this move felt the show didn’t fit the Disney brand.  There are many ways one can interpret this, all of which are flawed to an extent.  It could reference how dark and depressing it can get which is ridiculous considering the true nature of Disney's most celebrated content throughout history, but more on that later.  Some could also believe it’s because of how overt it is with its LGBT representation since it’s very prominent and majorly involves main characters.  This is a sure way to cut funding in foreign countries who aren’t nearly as accepting of this community as America.  Then again, Disney is revealed to be disingenuous with its LGBT content since current CEO Bob Chapek supported Florida’s infamous Don’t Say Gay Bill in early 2022.  Even though he’s been making an effort to backtrack this action, this means they only support this representation depending on how much they can profit from it. 

However, the clearest reason from Dana herself for The Owl House not fitting the brand is its nature as a serialized series.  There is some logic to this since this is a show where being there to watch every episode as they air is vital to follow what’s going on.  Viewers have to keep track of all the details the episodes present and put them together, meaning it’s more than just mindless entertainment.  From an executive perspective, this is hard for the demographic they target with their content, 6-11 year old kids.  They can’t even properly rerun these kinds of shows without the risk of leaving said demographic being lost and confused over what’s happening.  This isn’t the case with their more episodic series like Big City Greens and The Ghost and Molly McGee which can be rerun at any time without much confusion.  As a result, the future of Disney’s TV animated output is going to mostly consist of episodic fare guaranteed to really appeal to that particular demographic.  The thing is though having this be what it means to fit the Disney brand is kind of ludicrous.  For one thing, serialized continuity-based shows have been around for a long time now, and many have proven to be very popular and acclaimed.  In fact, these types of shows have the advantage of appealing not just to the executives’ targeted 6-11 year old demographic, but really all ages. 

This relates to the other point of what it means to be part of Disney.  For almost a century, this company has had animation evolve from just a cheap novelty to an art form to be cherished for all time. Every decade, the company’s output has demonstrated the medium's full potential through major technical innovations; emotional depth within what’s basically a series of drawings; dark moments that are honest with how intense the world can get; and a clear intention to use the content to help every grown-up and child watching recall an untouched spot of a genuine desire for good entertainment within them.  It’s these keys to success that allow Disney animation to stand out from all the rest as absolutely timeless and destined to be enjoyed by everyone no matter what age.  From this extensive analysis, it’s pretty clear from this perspective that The Owl House totally DOES fit the Disney brand.  It’s gorgeously animated, goes all out with its emotional moments and dark moments, and has great heart within its story and characters to bring it all together.  It could even be an animated work to do Walt Disney himself proud, which is even more impressive considering that Dana actually isn’t that big a Disney fan. 

Times have sadly changed since Walt’s days though. His intentions were always to make great timeless content for the world to enjoy. All Disney leaders after him seem to solely care about making profits instead of using profit as a tool to create a great timeless product.  While the company still makes great things in many areas, this is reflective in other areas like soulless live-action remakes of animated classics; and forgettable trendy live-action teen sitcoms.  Basically, the nature and intentions behind Disney animation don’t seem to be realized by the corporate side of the company.  As a consequence, great areas of the company’s creative side, including The Owl House, unjustly suffer.  The important thing to take from this situation is that the creatives are still given enough liberty to carry out their visions without enough interference to compromise quality.  For that, the shows are able to reach the timeless standards needed to shine as a genuine work of Disney animation to be proud of.  Even after they end, these standards will allow the show to be continuously revisited and discovered by new generations and all ages.  This is especially good since Disney actually has the decency to keep their content on their streaming service, unlike a certain HBO Max in light of recent events, but I digress.  Really apparent after its near-perfect second season, it’s easy to believe that The Owl House is destined to be among the revisited and rediscovered.

For how hard it’s been to make this show for Disney in its current state, it’s impressive that The Owl House turned out so amazing, especially with its second season.  The care put into the storytelling, emotional range, and characters results in a lightning-in-a-bottle banger-after-banger final product.  Just thinking about exactly how much there is to this season makes it clear that no matter what Disney says, it’s a perfect fit for their brand and their legacy.  There may only be 3 specials left to the show, but Season 2 proves that Dana and crew have the talents to make the restrictions work and keep the great streak going.  So be sure to check out this legitimately grand show if you haven’t already, with this second season really representing its fullest potential as an exciting experience for animation.

Very Highly Recommended

Now as for this blog going forward, I'm afraid content won't be as consistent as it was before.  For one thing, I'm currently working on my art more, including a project to delve into doing actual animation; you can learn all about it here.  However, there will still be reviews coming to whenever I can get one for the week.  They'll be in more of a wild card distribution with some main ones appearing on weekdays, and minor ones appearing on weekends, or something.

The main review sets in mind are:

• DuckTales Vol 4
• DuckTales (2017) Season 1

I'm also eager to talk about Ed Edd n Eddy Season 4, and you can bet that I'll get to talking about Amphibia Season 3 one of these days.  That season will probably start being looked into after The Owl House specials start airing.  By the way, those specials will be reviewed shortly after they air since they differ greatly from regular episodes.

It's hard to describe how the distribution of these reviews will go, but there's still some interesting reviews to look out for on this blog.  Until then:

Stay Animated Folks!