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incorrectguardians · 1 year

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On Otulissa, and her similarities to the villains.

I don’t have to go into why she’s such a loved character, I could gush so much about Otulissa just in general, any day of the week, but there’s something curious about her growth and development throughout the series.

Otulissa is a very fun character, because she very much, more often than not, acts as a foil to the major and sometimes minor villains. Most notably to The Striga and Gemma, yet surprisingly, also to Nyra.

While I wouldn’t go so far as to call Otulissa and Nyra foils, they are connected and quite similar, Otulissa is the one who gave Nyra her scar, after all.

Here, so:

Nyra’s a very vengeful and vindictive owl, she’s named after an ancient tradition of Nyrolian Owls, and takes pride in it, reminding everyone of it when she can.

She believes that violence is the only way to achieve what she wants. Violence and conquering, to achieve full and total control of the owl kingdoms.

She loved Kludd cause he was the only one who could match her, they could create a powerful union together, and bring the Pure Ones to a new era. They were perfect for each other, complimented each other.

That sounds a little familiar, doesn’t it? At its core at least.

While I would not call Otulissa a vengeful owl as in that she believes in an “eye for an eye,” but she is vindictive as in, how to put it…

It’s partly due to the fact that Otulissa and the rest were only just ‘grown’ when the first whispers of the Pure Ones arose, they still had so much left to learn. The scar she gave Nyra was during the first official battle she ever fought, and it was out of revenge. Nyra had just killed her beloved mentor, Strix Struma.

Otulissa has a very strong sense of what is right, and what is wrong. When she feels she has been wronged, she’ll do whatever she can to make it right. This does lead to spats, disagreements, this can lead to violence. She's demonstrated moments of rage and anger when she has been wronged, but it’s not because she believes in an eye for an eye.

Otulissa is a very traditional name for a female spotted owl in the Northern Kingdoms, a mark of very distinguished heritage, and she takes a lot of pride in that fact.

But Otulissa is not from the Northern Kingdoms, she knew that her ancestors came from there to the south at some point (evidenced by the discovery of her beloved Strix Emerilla), but she’d barely have an idea of how many generations separate her from that era. Otulissa was born and grew up in the Southern Kingdoms. She was also orphaned very young, like the rest, it’s likely she only knew the tip of the iceberg regarding her family (added to what Audrey may have told her). Everything she knows about them is from her own research. She wanted to be just like her distinguished predecessors.

Nyra, however, is from the Northern Kingdoms, and she’s similarly named after an ancient tradition that spans back centuries, maybe even before the time of the legends. She carries the name of that first, ancient, Nyra. She also takes a lot of pride in that fact, naming her son after the same tradition. Nyra is just like her predecessors, born on the night of an eclipse, but she uses that power for evil. In comparison to Otulissa, she knows her heritage, grew up at her roots. She also describes herself as a very practical owl, much like Otulissa.

Regardless, Nyra thought she was better than everyone else.

But in Otulissa’s case, if her peers only thought that Otulissa thought that she was better than everyone else, it didn’t matter. Because whether or not she, at some point, actually believed so, very soon her and everyone else were going to get a shock that made them stop believing that. You can thank the Pure Ones.

There’s a dangerous slope there, between what is simply just pride in one’s heritage, and the great evil that Nyra was threatening.

Everyone is going through their own struggles, everyone is just like everyone else. Otulissa just needed to learn how to live with it.

Even so, Otulissa puts quite a bit of emphasis on this heritage of hers, something that I cannot accurately claim is unique to her, but is definitely brought to attention more through her than anyone else.

This gives her a contrast to other characters we meet, who are often instead proof that it is not someone’s origin that matters, it’s their actions that count. While Otulissa still knows this, she struggles with it at times, and is shown to be close minded, calling Soren treasonous when he had refused to train Skench and Sproon in The Burning.

When she met Cleve, she grew interested, they were much alike, he was perfect, such a distinguished gentleman, in her eyes. Like Nyra, It certainly felt like another match made in Glaumora (well, Hagsmire for Kludd and Nyra).

Otulissa was shocked to find out that he was a pacifist. Because he was a prince with such an illustrious history! From a long line of warriors! From the same hollow Strix Emerilla came from! For Glaux’s sake!

If Nyra were here, she would have spat at something and called him a coward, yeepish, etc etc.

Otulissa? Otulissa did not say any of those things out loud.

She’s instead just, extremely confused. Because why wouldn’t she be. For one, she’s from The Great Tree, she’s been growing up and learning how to fight. At the moment she met Cleve in The Burning, she’s coming into her own, preparing for a war strategy that she came up with, that she knows is vital to stopping the Pure Ones and vanquishing the evil. She knows that there would be no simply talking to them, that there would be no ‘negotiating for peace’ with the Pure Ones, that war is the only option.

And for another, Cleve is from an aristocratic family that is drenched in a history of warfare. Otulissa herself is very proud of the weathertrixes in her own family. She doesn’t understand why he would still choose to be a pacifist, isn’t he proud?

On the other hand, a Nyrolian owl is always destined for great things. To Nyra’s credit, conquering the owl kingdoms believing it is their Glaux-given right as Barn Owls, is a ‘great’ thing indeed (Even if horrific). In fact, in her eyes, the only great thing worth striving for. As a Nyrolian Owl, shouldn’t her own son agree? Be striving for it as well?

But… back to Otulissa, if there’s one thing she’s been learning to do so far, it’s how to open her mind. So she and Cleve begin to understand one another, even if their differences are vast.

And then when Coryn, the son of Nyra, came to the Beyond and met Otulissa. It was part of a continuous lesson she’s been learning, that heritage doesn’t have to mean anything to you if you don’t want it to, and it dictates nothing.

It’s what you do with it, whether it’s in spite of, or with respect to, or in defiance of it, that matters from start to finish.

Gemma was the creator of the Guardians of the Guardians of the Ember, so otherwise, she’s not a major villain. There’s a bit of foreshadowing at the beginning of The Golden Tree, where she constantly mentioned Ezylryb and how she shares a kinship with him because they were both Whiskered Screeches. Trying to claim things about him that were completely incorrect, of course everyone in the moment who knew him personally had something to say about it. But again, it sounds familiar.

You could say that Gemma started out the same way as Otulissa, not knowing who she was, relying on how others similar to her, who came before her, were like. Gemma never knew her heritage face to face, neither did Otulissa, she likely read about it, just like Otulissa.

Like Otulissa, Gemma has a strong sense of what is right in her eyes, and what is wrong. But Gemma didn’t care whether or not what she was saying was factually correct or not, she was okay with lying as a means to getting her way. Because, according to Gemma, if she’s just like her ancestors, then clearly her ancestors were just like her and believed the same things she did. Otulissa however, all she did was read, read, read, and read, searching for what was fact and separating it from what was false. Otulissa leaves very little to assumptions, and further still has very little patience for what’s fictional.

However, I’m not sure if anyone tried to help Gemma or not, because it’s clear that she’s younger than Otulissa, or at the very least hasn’t been at the Great Tree for as long. But not young in general, because she’s in parliament.

Yet she remained as she did, and the events of The Golden Tree happened as they did. Gemma did not develop an open mind and instead let herself get consumed by her own fear and ignorance, and Otulissa didn’t.

Mostly because Otulissa was sitting in jail the entire time.

In general, Otulissa always hated anything and everything that could be considered flashy, vulgar, and completely unnecessary. Always has and won’t budge. No owl would need to wear clothes, that’s an Others thing. Her hollow only needs what is beneficial to her work, and of course, a perch and nest to sleep on. She’ll pursue her own comfort, evidenced by her keeping a coal grate in her hollow in The Hatchling. But she wouldn’t keep anything solely for its aesthetic value, and, when she was younger, actively scorned others when she saw that they did.

Of course, as an adult, she now mostly begrudges it, accepting that it’s just not for her, and would not deny an owl the right to have them. Even going as far as agreeing to hide Madame Plonk’s teacup for her during The Golden Tree.

Similarly, Otulissa despised joke books because she found them completely vulgar and they taught nothing. She didn’t mind, but could not find herself interested in fiction. She wanted to know what was real and true. But she loved poems and music, because they often reflected things like the writer’s personal life, the state of the world, and the feelings in one's gizzard, and that was real to her.

Once again, despite her reservations, she would never prevent another owl from reading any sort of book.

She couldn’t stand it when others would mess around and make unprofessional what an important outing with the chaw was going to be, especially when it’s her own teacher perpetuating and encouraging it. It’s very undignified, nothing like her.

So when The Striga was welcomed to the Great Tree and began talking about ‘vanity,’ Otulissa, now grown, found that she could agree, to an extent. But what The Striga was suggesting bordered on dangerous.

At a glance, The Striga assumed that he and Otulissa were very much alike, two birds of a feather, but the feeling was absolutely not mutual.

When he met Otulissa in the library, The Striga claimed that only the practical studies were free of vanity, that anything else was “anti-glaux,” and that he approved of Otulissa’s choice of book at the moment (a book on atmospheric pressure, by Strix Emerilla, of course). But added on that one should never be too prideful, that pride was another vanity.

Otulissa was very proud of her ancestors, but was never one who did something for the approval of someone else. Everyone is different, going through their own struggles, just like everyone else. Due to previous events in her life, Otulissa was also instinctually wary of any owl that attempted to preach an ideal Owl World based on quantities of “purity.” Even if The Striga had tried to call it “true owlness.”

The Striga then attempted to use this encounter to get Otulissa out of the Great Tree, along with the band, but he clearly underestimated her, since she elected to stay behind. The encounter also later gave Otulissa what she needed to make the decision to smuggle books out of the Great Tree, the ones she felt were at risk of disappearing thanks to The Striga.

Then later, when she lost her eye, she went one step further to separate herself just a little bit more from The Striga’s ideals. With Trader Mags’ help, someone who she historically never got along with, she picked out a rather “jaunty” bandana for herself to wear over the injury. Saying that there was nothing wrong with a bit of vanity.

I don’t believe that were Otulissa left to her own devices, she’d grow up to be something evil. Likely only just bitter, snooty, stuck-up, and snobbish and a ryb who was a horrible teacher that everyone hated and would celebrate when she died. Much like Dewlap, who I omitted from this analysis because …. I forgot, my bad, because this is long enough as it is.

But she had friends and rybs who taught her as much as she taught them, and instead she grew up to be a, still a bit snooty, ryb whose a great teacher… despite the mixed opinions of her students.

I just think it’s very interesting that she’s had so many similarities to the villains that seem purposeful.

Because Otulissa was never something to be fixed, there was never anything wrong with her, she didn’t have to get a new personality. Everything she grew into was something she did herself, she just needed someone to see who she truly was, what she could do.

#guardians of ga'hoole #gahoole #ga'hoole #guardians of gahoole #otulissa #nyra #the striga #gemma #analysis #I started crying a little at the end there #mostly because this is an edited version of the one I wrote in a notebook #underneath a nightlight at 3 am #yknow how it is

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