#the owl house critic

[daystarvoyage]

You know what I call amity nowadays ever since her name trends through social media.

Lil miss self insert

MORE ON MY AMITY POST SOON, I’m just speaking facts and proof.

[soldrawss]

Watching and Dreaming doodles cause im 🥺🥰

[mebssann]

Amity pestered Principal Bump enough times that he finally allowed Hexside to have a student council

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

“catra is a complex poc” fuck that. here are some ACTUAL poc animated characters who are just as, if not more complex than catra.

grace monroe (infinity train) • black american

connie maheshwaran (steven universe) • indian-american

katara (avatar the last airbender) • inuk

wolf (kipo and the age of wonderbeasts) • black american

suhara/shadowsan (carmen sandiego) • japanese

korra (the legend of korra) • inuk

jesse cosay (infinity train) • indigenous (apache)

lars barriga (steven universe) • filipino

azula (avatar the last airbender) • japanese

ryan akagi (infinity train) • japanese-canadian

luz noceda (the owl house) • afro-dominican american

(there are a lot more, so i'll be making a part 2!)

[guardianjameslight]

gO wOkE gO bRoKe, then explain success of these.

And there's more.

[autistic-ben-tennyson]

Still Salty About the Flanderization of Steven

Many SU fans have had to see these memes and are probably tired of them. I really hate the way people who have never even watched the show and probably just LO’s video flanderize Steven into a bumbling wimp or take scenes like him crying about wanting to be friends with Connie or trying to talk down Spinel out of context. People hate him for not killing his enemies on sight and act as if all he does is talk no jitsu. People act as if he’d die trying to redeem Big Jack Horner from Puss in Boots even though he’s met villains like Jack with Aquamarine and Eyeball and not only did he kick their asses but accepted that they were beyond help. Steven prefers to talk over fighting but isn’t stupid and knows when he has to get serious. Even during his “I can make a change” song that’s twisted out of context, he was still fighting defensively against Spinel. He just wasn’t fighting to kill. As for the meme above, did the creator watch Alien Force? The way Ben handled the Dragon, Reiny and the Highbreed would be pretty similar to how Steven would. The idealistic hero who teaches violence isn’t always the answer has already been done so why does Steven get the most hate for it?

I reblogged a post about this but I really am tired of how TOH is propped up as the anti SU when Dana is friends with Rebecca and praised the groundbreaking work Rupphire did. The Owl House crew doesn’t hate SU and wasn’t doing a “take that” by killing its villain or claiming not everyone can be talked down with a hug. They’re two different shows with different stories and themes. Steven would also know that some like Belos can’t be redeemed and he didn’t actually redeem the diamonds. He didn’t like them and acts uncomfortable around them in Future but he needed them to cure the corrupted gems. The point of the diamonds as well as Andy was not that you have to accept bigoted family members but a wish fulfillment where queer people could get their families to accept them. I saw this on Reddit but I think Steven gets so much hate because he teaches the idea that retributive violence isn’t always the solution and because he got a good life with a loving family, girlfriend and adoration of everyone without being a self centered sexist asshole. Internet Dudebros hate the character who showed healthy emotion, treats Connie as an equal and taught stuff like acceptance, boundaries and kindness, as they hate the idea that they don’t have any of that because of how bigoted, self absorbed or toxic they are.

[flower-boi16]

Can we talk about the fact that TOH, a kid's show that aired on the Disney channel, has an unironically a better gay/sapphic relationship with Lumity than either of these "adult shows"?

Lumity is an incredibly well-developed ship; Its gradually built up throughout season 1 and season 2A and they don't drag the shit out of it, they are just incredibly cute together. The ship isn't abusive and toxic...

...unlike Stolitz, which is a very toxic ship where the victim is portrayed as the abuser and the abuser is framed as just an UwU soft boy. Another thing about Lumity that makes it a good relationship is the fact that Amity is her own character; she isn't solely defined by Luz, her relationship with Luz is an important part of her character, sure, but she still has a lot of development in the series that makes her a well-developed, three-dimensional character.

Compare that to Chaggie, which while not nearly as bad as Stolitz, still has issues, that being how Vaggie's character entirely revolves around Charlie, she doesn't have any real development outside of that. There is the stuff about her being a fallen angel but we'll have to see what the show does with it to make a full judgment, but the reveal that she is a fallen angel feels too rushed to give her depth.

Vaggie doesn't feel like her own character, she feels like she's completely defined by her relationship with Charlie, and she doesn't have that much of a character outside of that. Amity meanwhile, is her own character beyond her relationship with Luz, even in Season 2 where people say that supposedly Amity became just "Luz's girlfriend", she still had that whole conflict with her parents.

Lumity is infinitely superior to both of these ships guys.

Then again TOH blows HH/HB out of the water in every single aspect so...

[stanlunter]

Dana Terrace on her way to steal everything she sees form other shows instead of making up at least something herself:

[palisman273]

So yeah, Hazbin just got renewed for a 3rd and 4th season. Clone High reboot was just about to get good and it got cancelled. Inside Job and Dead End got cancelled on Netflix. The Owl House got cancelled by Disney and given a shortened final season.

Yet, this gets renewed before the second season even airs. I just...after all the shit Viv has done and is still doing, she does not deserve this. But it's happening. This fucking world.

I sincerely hope the pacing will be a bit better now that they at least know there are two more seasons, but I doubt it given Viv said they seemingly spent even less time developing Season 2 than Season 1 (which already turned out a mediocre mess).

[anona1-mous]

saw some of the reddit comments on my belos fanarts and safe to say it was hilarious

remember, the more hate i get, the more belos fanart i will create 🫶

( also isn't it funny that the show's message is literally "us weirdos have to stick together" and not fitting in with the norm? but the moment you go against the majority of this fandom and like the villain, you're immediately "gross" LMAO )

[citricacidprince]

Can I give another massive sorry to the Owl House crew and Dana here?

Looking at the first 6 minutes of season three and I can tell they wanted to make a whole episode of Hunter discovering that book and cutting his hair. They wanted to have an episode of Luz finding out a way to come out to her mom about being bi and dating Amity. They wanted to have an episode of Vee finally figuring out how they want to look like since the can't look like Luz anymore. They wanted to have an episode of the witch kids making up human disguises and seeing what the human world has to offer. They wanted to have an episode that shows the kids working on the door and failing time and time again to get it to work. They wanted to have an episode where all the kids, yes even Luz, struggling to adapt being in the human world. They wanted to have an episode of the witch kids discovering human things for the first time, like rain, and falling in love with Luz's world.

They wanted to, but they couldn't.

Disney said the show didn't "fit their brand" and now all these moments we would've had episodes for are forced to be in a 2-3 minute long montage. And while I'm happy we get to see these moments at all, a part of me is very bitter knowing what Disney did to Dana and her crew.

I hope they know that I appreciate all that they could do with what limited time they had.

I hope they know I want to kill Disney with my bare hands knowing how they cut this amazing shows lifetime short.

Edit: In honor of some of the comments I've been getting I made this

[daystarvoyage]

The reason why Disney Renascence villains work in the stories they’re in is because they’re in a simple narrative of good guy vs bad guy. Gravity Falls and Amphibia also have this narrative and never have the protagonist questioned if the could’ve been like the big bad.

TOH did do that and tries to add nuance but never follow through it.

So long as you’re the good guy (or a likable henchmen for the big bad), then you did nothing wrong and just misunderstood. But if you’re the bad guy then you’re just wrong and pure evil.

CORRECT

That’s what I’m saying, we have works throughout animation in 2020s that don’t get proper nuance and character writing without it’s DEI interrupting the story for discourse. (with only shipping and major sexuality defining a character instead of good writing and proper perspective being compromised.)

yes we can have a lot of great stories and themes that so I’m gonna go down a list of how gravity falls and Amphibia did a better job then toh .

amphibia: They did a great job during its first run we had alot of great episodes even though filler to flesh out characters and world building. we get to know them without the story driven narrative rushing the show, everyone had a fun time to stand in the spotlight, we known buncha lore and comedy sprinkled into the mix of things and getting to know the backgrounds characters , so on this voyage i STAN a dark skin Asian girl anne boonchuy and the villain was a great redemptive character with such good writing with Keith David's help (who’s also a great voice actor.) to humanize him. and I feel Matt braly and the staff did a great job on blessing out the characters in general.

Gravity falls, during its release in the 2000s, it was Disney animations first edgy shows that paved the way for story driven shows, you had a great batch of colorful characters with good chemistry to give life to its surroundings and villain Lord Bill who was a fun energetic character of such crazy proportions, which he instantly became a likable villain that gave us a good look at his origins with we the fans can appreciate.

Hope i answered all your questions & articulated well.

[mr-damian-s-power]

Mini-tangent incoming, but this thing always got under my skin a little bit. Crazy fantasy/sci-fi worlds where the entire main cast is almost exclusively Humans or species that looks almost entirely Human but with a very minute difference. I know it's the ultimate first world problem and really just a nitpick at the end of the day, but I'm gonna pick!

Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with having a main cast that is just all Humans or 'Humans but with pointy ears', but when the world they're in contains a bunch of fantastical and interesting looking species, that's where it gets a bit boring.

Star Wars is the main culprit of this! Hundreds of thousands of unique Alien species, but 90% of main casts are Human or 'Human but green', with maybe a single Droid or Alien to break it up if you're lucky. How about a story where the entire cast is a bunch of crazy Alien designs. Or a ragtag group of runaway Droids from different jobs.

Then, you've got the Owl House! The Demon Realm is a world of all kinds of crazy Demon people, but most of the characters of significance are Witches, which are just Humans with pointy ears. Look at Luz's friendgroup, the Hexsquad. You've got Witch, Witch, Witch and magic Human/Witch hybrid clone who looks exactly like a Witch.

Wouldn't it have been cool if one of the Hexsquad were a quirky looking Demon person? Make Willow or Gus a Demon! Luz's first friend could've been a Demon! Fits her characterisation as a weirdo! Hell, make Amity a Demon! Luz falls in love with a non-Human because she can look past physical differences. It doesn't matter that Amity has 6 arms or 12 eyes or is some weird giant Mantis creature, she's still her Batata!

Any other franchises you feel this applies to? Tell me!

-

Okay, tangent over! You may all go back to your tedious lives!

[s0up1ta]

some huntlow fluff based on this fic by @avatarmerida because these two have consumed my entire existence :)

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

i really wish eda had retained some of her initial morally grey edge in the later seasons. it feels like she was this cool rebellious and somewhat selfish character in the first season and then she just becomes the resident mom.

i like that she got fleshed out more and we got to see her backstory and see her develop relationships with new characters, i just wish they hadn’t erased all of her initial characterization for that. she basically becomes an archetypical hero, just with some added sass.

i feel like gravity falls strikes a good balance in this trope with stan pines. he starts off as a money-minded con artist and later gets fleshed out into a more complex character, while still being the same money-minded con artist.

we see his backstory, we see him develop his relationship with ford, the kids and even soos and wendy, but he isn’t reduced to just a parental figure. he is still hilariously cunning and greedy, and i love him for that.

idk maybe i just like morally grey bastards too much lol. i really liked eda in the beginning because she was kind of like the female version of stan, but still unique as a character. and i hate that by the end of the series, she became somewhat flanderized. and fans only talk about her in the context of her being a mom to all the younger characters, or in regards to her relationship with raine.

[let-us-cultivate-our-garden]

I just remembered the "Please. I don't want to see another human life destroyed by this place” line, and honestly did they have scenes of Luz starting to wonder if Belos' had a point and going into the island did destroy her life? If not, they should have had.

No, they did not have Luz ever wonder how the isles affected Belos--except in the storyboards:

Luz still calls him out for trying to destroy the isles and being a hypocrite but there's still that moment of empathy in which she asks point blank: "What do you think they DID to you?!" She briefly contemplates just why someone would go so far to destroy an entire population and what his mindset might be. Unfortunately, this was not included in the final version and Belos' expression is blank instead of pleading.

Then there's this storyboard from For the Future in which Luz, Eda, and King explain to the Collector how people like Amity and Lilith became their friends:

Luz's line about "people being complicated" is in the episode but the entire exchange between her and the Collector is not even though it opens up a lot of interesting ideas and themes. Without it though, the show becomes straight up hypocritical when it states that people are complicated but reduces its villains to generic archetypes and its hero characters as being simply misguided or victims of the villains.

And no, this doesn't mean that the show should have excused Belos' actions or even forgiven him; but they could have and should have acknowledged the complexity of his character by keeping this nuance in and how the characters react to it. By doing so, the message of "people are complicated" becomes clear and strengthens the other characters as well. Luz gets to self-reflect on how she sees other people and learn that even the worst people among us are incredibly complex and have driving forces that are uncomfortably close to our own, thus making it much harder to demonize them. The Collector--instead of being a Giant Star Baby--keeps both his childlike bluntness and keen observational skills that he had in season 2, thus fleshing out the character instead of devolving him.

Regrettably, that nuance is absent from the show and we have a rather black-and-white narrative about Good vs. Evil; people are only ever really "bad" if someone tricked them or if there was a misunderstanding and all the Real Bad People are just selfish jerks who are power hungry and controlling.

This is not compelling storytelling; this is a tale as old as time. And the worst part is that there was a great story in The Owl House but it was left in the rough drafts.

Storyboards by Yasmin Khudari and King Pecora