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Echoes of the Past
Out of all the major players of the series, the one who seems to stand out the least is King. There is some potential intrigue to constant recounts of how he used to rule over all demons, standing high and mighty among innumerable subjects. However, it’s always been hard to take seriously given his scrawny, youthful, almost cute appearance and him sounding pretentious when bringing these claims up. These seemingly lackluster factors to King’s background serve as an intriguing basis for what the episode ultimately brings. Among intriguing moments like more of Lilith and Hooty’s surprisingly endearing dynamic and Luz creating a glyph for invisibility, attention is given to King’s days of grandeur. Talk of commanding armies and having feasts isn’t much new, but then attention is given to a whole new layer to King’s background. Apparently, his small size and childish disposition is a result of falling from a high height and a dark spell being cast upon him. With how prominent magical forces are in this world, this new detail feels legitimate, though it makes sense that the others still don’t believe King’s claims. In fact, according to Lilith, there’s no such thing as a king of demons as they weren’t united until the rule of Emperor Belos. With the amount of doubt facing him, King takes initiative to prove his past valid. From there, the episode takes a traveling approach as King leads Luz, Lilith, and even Hooty in his own portable pack to the castle where he grew up in.
Once they reach the castle, the episode really delivers on the potential for fascinating lore with the intrigue of the reveals meshing with the reactions of those who doubted King. It’s apparently surprising enough that the castle even exists as Lilith explains that it’s not on any of her maps. There are also very peculiar features to the location as well like a symbol at the entrance made of an unknown material and lines of rock stacks arranged like an army. King appears to recognize all of this as familiar instantly too, as his talk of his high and regal past would lead one to expect. Then comes the most telling point of his claims being legitimate of all. Another part of the castle features an ancient carving of a figure who looks just like King, except bigger. It’s so telling that Lilith and Hooty actually start believing that King truly is the king of demons after all. It even gets to the point where they address him as a liege and ruler, demonstrating seriousness to their findings. Clearly, this is King living the life he’s longed for or always remembered having, but what’s revealed later on turns these interesting finds into something emotional.
During her own explore of the castle, Luz uncovers a chamber full of strange creatures of inexplicable origins with crescent heads and shapeshifting veins. One of them comes alive and proceeds to attack the visitors to the castle, seeing them as intruders. The fact that this creature doesn’t even have a name or speak adds a huge air of mystery to the sudden encounter. That said, it and many elements start developing somewhat of a legit background when Eda suddenly appears to save everyone from the ambush. She had found out that King was taking the others to his castle, and from her expression of worry and shock, that was the biggest sign that the castle had something ulterior to it. As the mysterious creature can’t attack them outside the castle, everyone has a chance to uncover that truth. It starts when Luz suggests that the reason they were attacked is because the creature was protecting the castle from intruders. This is the first thing to get King upset because this one simple remark reveals that Luz didn’t actually believe his constant claims of being a ruler like he thought she did. There’s always been enough clues for this from Luz’s constant coddling of King since the beginning to King’s less than grand stature, but the pain of betrayal is clear from his point of view.
Then Eda answers one of the show’s biggest questions; how she first met King to begin with. Said meeting was all a result of her looking for a hiding place from the Emperor’s Coven eight years ago. Taking refuge in that very same castle, she came across what looked like a strange animal with an unusual skill of perfectly stacking rocks into his own army of figures. That strange animal just happened to be King. This backstory doesn’t only answer how these two characters met either. There’s also consideration to King’s peculiar characteristics and where they came from. The chip on his horn is a result of that creature shooting an arrow at him; the collar is a result of Eda treating him like a pet; and most of all, him believing he’s an actual king of demons all comes from his childhood pretending shown through his stacking that Eda just played along with. It’s here where everything there is to King is put in a new perspective. His talk of grandeur isn’t just pretentious anymore; it was always a background he took to heart and believed was true to his identity. Instead, it was all a childish exaggeration that everyone indulged, and what he grew up believing. I can only imagine this as a believable effect of not growing out of childish beliefs when you get older. Now that the truth’s out, King suddenly loses his sense of identity and suffers a meltdown, and one that feels totally real and heavy-hitting at that.
While King learning that his entire background was a lie is very emotional for himself as well as the audience watching, there are solid ways to balance the somber with good reassurance. It’s endearing enough that Luz is quick to comfort King by telling him that even though who he thought he was isn’t true, who he is has a lot to admire. Sincere and uplifting as this is, there’s an even bigger and more eye-opening thing to take from what ultimately happens as Luz finds legitimacy in one point to King’s claims. The feasts and armies are clear exaggerations of the truth, but one thing that’s hard to disprove is the claim that King fell from a high height. As a result, everyone heads back to the castle to scale their way to the top and see if there’s any truth to King’s background after all from there. This gets the climax off to an exciting start as it makes good use of earlier established scenes covering Luz’s new invisibility glyph and the Lilith and Hooty dynamic. It’s a lot of great action to lead everyone up to the high shaft, but at first, it feels like everyone’s just at another dead end.
That’s when the payoff for all the emotion and heavy feelings comes in making the whole experience satisfactory. Technically, the truths of King’s background already obtained are sufficient, but what’s uncovered here builds up to something big to look forward to. At the top of the castle, King ends up opening a door to a hidden chamber, the very room where he was born. Then when reapplying the bit of his horn that was chipped off, which Eda had on her all this time, King reobtains some hidden memories. One is of a roar he heard before hatching out of his egg and another is of that creature taking him down from the shaft to be nurtured. The big takeaway is that the roar means that King is the son of whoever made that sound, and that creature was assigned to take care of King. In other words, King gets a clue on the identity of his father, and he is therefore set up to see who it really was. Like all mysteries uncovered throughout the show, including the ones solved in this very episode, there’s major intrigue to get the audience excited for what’s to come. This particular reveal especially stands out for after so much of King being disproven, there’s a legit spot of hope for something big and reassuring. It’s all the more fitting for such a likable cast.
One of the biggest strengths of this show is its ability to constantly have the audience rethink the meaning behind earlier moments and episodes. That’s the biggest strength of this episode where all there is to King’s character is put into a new perspective, bringing emotional effects and huge promise for big reveals in the future.
A+
Fan Art
Series Ranking
1.
Enchanting Grom Fright
2.
Agony of a Witch
3.
Echoes of the Past
4.
Escaping
Expulsion
5.
Understanding Willow
6.
Lost in Language
7.
Adventures in the Elements
8.
The Intruder
9.
Covention
10.
Young Blood Old Souls
11.
Separate Tides
12.
Escape of the Palisman
13.
Wing it Like Witches
14.
The First Day
15.
I Was a Teenage Abomination
16.
Witches Before Wizards
17.
Something Ventured, Someone Framed
18.
A Lying Witch and a Warden
19.
Sense and Insensitivity
20.
Hooty’s Moving Hassle
21.
Really Small Problems
22.
Once Upon a Swap
The next Owl House review features the first appearance of Eda and Lilith's mother who arrives with a cure for Eda's curse...or so she says.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Truck Stop Polly" and "A Caravan Named Desire" from Amphibia.
If you would like to check out other Owl House reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
