i saw a post a bit ago that i cannot for the life of me re-find

that talked about how a long while ago, dana said the blight parents were less black and white than they seemed. and speculated that because of s3 getting cut, we only got to learn more about alador, and odalia's character had to be simplified. and that maybe we'd learn that she herself came from a toxic household

and i think that could've been such a cool concept, to show that she has her reasons for being Like That and isn't just evil out of nowhere. BUT to never have her actions be justified or minimized. and then have her not even TRY to grow or redeem herself.

and that could be played in stark contrast to how amity, alador, and (to a lesser extent) the twins were abused and ended up perpetuating the cycle of abuse, but learned the error of their ways and made the conscious decision to break that cycle. that contrast could really drive home that whole family's theme of "just because you were abused doesn't mean it is acceptable for you to abuse others"

and that could've worked SO WELL with her oracle magic and its connections to ghosts. maybe have her necklace be an heirloom tied to the previous generations of blights (i'm gonna assume blight was her surname and alador married into the family for this post). it could be shown connecting her to the ghosts of the people who abused her (and the people who abused them and so on). we could see the ghosts speaking to her, tormenting and abusing her, through that necklace.

we've already seen her use her necklace, which could be revealed to be the symbol of the abuse she faced, to abuse her children and husband. that could be made into a metaphor for her using her own past as an abuse victim to hurt others.

the way the ghosts of her ancestors speak to her through her mind via the necklace could be paralleled to the necklace she made amity wear in escaping expulsion so that she could speak to her through her mind. and she'd be given the chance to follow in amity's footsteps, to break the necklace that was allowing her own abusers to invade her mind. but odalia wouldn't take that chance. she'd continue clinging to the necklace, refusing to let go of the power it gave her (a power she mostly uses just to abuse others). refusing to break both the necklace and the cycle of abuse.

hey so i was doing a little research and i noticed something interesting abt king tides:

[Image ID: King tides occur when the orbits and alignment of the Earth, moon, and sun combine to produce the greatest tidal effects of the year. WHAT DO KING TIDES SHOW? King tides bring unusually high water levels, and they can cause local tidal flooding. Over time, sea level rise is raising the height of tidal systems. /.End ID]

so. what does this signify? well. when the most significant celestial bodies in our solar system come together to form a tidal effect (and for my point, i'm going to go with the idea that a tidal effect is like a ripple effect but quicker and on a larger scale), this tied in with the fact that it's:

a) our season finale

b) the gif rebecca rose made, which is probably just a tear but could also be a reference to water

i'm willing to bet that this is going to end with a cliffhanger, and also it's going to have Great Emotional Impact not just with the fans, but also within the series.

and another thing. the way this is supposed to "raise the tidal system"? this could also be a metaphor for king bringing more power to the day of unity- like, say, belos capturing him and honing his essence to boost the power from the covens.

all very mysterious... i just really hope king doesn't get hurt, my poor child :-(

people are debating whether amity remembered the events in understanding willow correctly and my two cents, from personal experience, are:

when something awful is done to you, especially when you're so young...

you may misremember or outright forget small details about what happened. what the physical space around you looked like, what they were wearing (this is already shown in how she remembers them as silhouettes on a white background) or what exact words or tones they used (like how luz often misremembers things)

but you DON'T forget or misremember WHAT happened.

so misremembering can explain things like why her parents seem so much more proper and aristocratic back then (tho it's also not *impossible* for them to have actually looked different back then). but it can't be used to explain away the part alador played in it

i know we WANT for things to not have been that bad, for her to have at least one parent who was never cruel to her. but that's not how it was. he very much perpetuated the cycle of abuse onto amity.

it makes a ton of thematic sense, that we would see how alador perpetuated the cycle of abuse onto amity (not just isolating himself from her; sometimes partaking in actively mistreating her) in an episode all about how amity perpetuated the cycle of abuse onto willow (not just cutting her off; actively partaking in bullying her). some of it was probably done in a deeply misguided attempt to act in amity's best interest (like how he tried to make her join the emperor's coven in reaching out), just like how amity may have, at times, been actually hoping to help willow improve (like her being condescending in the beginning of i was a teenage abomination). but some of it was probably done with him knowing full-well that it was wrong. he didn't wanna make waves with his wife like how amity didn't wanna make waves with her new "friends". in both cases, they probably didn't want to upset the only people they had left after being forcefully isolated, but that's an explanation, not an excuse.

if we're not gonna justify or explain away what amity did to willow (which we shouldn't) then we REALLY shouldn't try to justify or explain away what alador did to his daughter

Ok so. This has been bothering me since I first watched the new ep at like.. 3am Sat. And since the new ep is coming up and we've seen a few leaked images I'm gonna finish this theory up while I can

Since when was Bard in between Abomination and Beastkeeping? Beastkeeping was always the middle one before when these three were lined up together

Why did they suddenly get rearranged?

The DOU plan circle originally went (starting at the top going left to right): Potion Oracle Plant Construction Abomination Beastkeeping Bard Healing Illusion

Now we have the actual DOU circle and it's organized as (starting at that dash on the right going down): Oracle Plant Potion Abomination Bard Beastkeeping Construction Healing Illusion"

It seems random to shuffle it around like that right? Perhaps it wasn't set in stone before and that's just, how the Coven Heads filed into the lecture hall that day to watch the glimpse of genocide DOU

But then remembering what Kikimora said

The rearrangement must be intentional

Belos knows there's going to be a struggle at the DOU -- he'd be a fool to not assume so -- and us viewers know the DOU doesn't get stopped initially (because ep names/descriptions, there's still 4 eps left, thematically there has to be some kind of struggle for the payoff to land, all that stuff), plus as Kikimora confirmed here Belos seems to know whatever plan they concocted centers around Eda.

Raine (Bard) is a known rebel, even if they were caught and "subdued" since, they displayed rebellion before and they have a known close history with Eda. If this was just to cover Bard, it'd make more sense to have Plant (Terra) as one of the ones flanking it right? Sure, Darius and Eber were the ones to catch Raine before, so it's not unreasonable to flank their sigils around them, but I think that's actually a sign that Belos knows Darius and Eber are rebels too. He's banking on them feeling secure that Bard was placed in between Abomination and Beastkeeping, so that they'll bring up Eda.

It also follows up with this theory @fannishcodex posted that Belos must suspect Darius specifically and probably has for years. Why else would Kikimora also go to capture Raine if not one but TWO Coven Heads we're already on the job? Belos killed the previous Golden Guard whom he knew was a mentor to Darius, and it's safe to assume because Belos kills GGs for "betraying him" (i.e. no longer falling in line with genocide plans) that Darius was probably a factor in the previous GG turning.

Belos showed back in "Agony of a Witch" he's able to hear everything in the castle, whether by himself or thanks to the Collector being there also seeing everything going in the castle, and we've seen that the Collector lives in the in between where you can see anyone just by saying so, like Luz did in "Yesterday's Lie".

I think it's highly likely there isn't a single traitor, but that Belos knew all along this rebellion was going to happen, and staged the Coven Heads order this way specifically because he knew all of their plans, like say The Owl Lady with the power to tamper with magic would be sigil sealed if maybe they felt she would be safe being placed in the middle? They all foolishly care for each other after all, if there's some... Sense of security? Maybe it'll be easy to trick them to all fall in one fell swoop.

Which, given the leaked screenshots and episode descriptions, yeah, seems like Belos will "win" during the Day of Unity, because he knows exactly what to expect.

a bit ago i made this post about how amity was expected to join the emperor's coven or become a covenhead but neither of her parents were pushing her to follow in her father's footsteps, and how that was probably from alador trying to protect her from suffering like him

a couple people in the notes talked about how amity said her joining the emperor's coven was "mom's dream" and. okay when i was typing that post i was thinking maybe odalia figured that, because of her deal with alador to not make the kids take his place, she figured a prestigious job like the emperor's coven was the next best thing

BUT WHAT IF

she doesn't ACTUALLY want any of her children to take alador's place, that that was just a threat that she never planned to act on (she never thought he'd disobey)

not because she is above exploiting her children but because like.

when amity is being punished, odalia makes her participate in *her* side of the company, the business and showmanship side, rather than the engineering side with alador (despite amity being awkward and much better suited to be in a lab than on a stage). and we have no clue what she wants the twins to do, but my old spitballing idea of her wanting them to inherit the company and take her role isn't entirely out of the question.

but. odalia sees her children as an extension of herself. and she doesn't want them to do anything that would reflect poorly on her.

and. maybe she sees alador's job as something not worthy of respect/honour, that would reflect poorly on her if her children did it

a bit because it's a messy and non-glamorous job and she's all about image and showmanship.

but mostly? it's because she doesn't respect alador. she exploits him and talks down to him and she doesn't appear listen to him unless he can make a persuasive case as to how something could benefit her. and she mocks the "stupid face" he makes when upset (a trait amity inherited from him)

she wants them to be as little like him as possible. she dyes amity's hair so that she doesn't look like him. her decision to isolate him from their children may have been, at least in part, driven by a desire to stop any of his traits from metaphorically rubbing off on them

she sees her husband's life as as much of a grim failure as he does. and she doesn't want to raise a failure; that would just look bad for the family, after all

Fun fact! You can hear Hunter make a noise when he dodges the Abomatron in Clouds on the Horizon. While it's not super obvious at first glance, it doesn't actually line up with "Hunter" running away, but instead with "Luz" crashing into Willow.

Okay. I gotta go sleep, & I probably won't have time tomorrow to say this, but I am saying this NOW because I gotta & everyone is full of gloom about King's fate.

I DO NOT THINK KING IS GONNA DIE

Honestly & truly I don't. I am certain with no reason why that King is going to change but not die. I am hoping for a metamorphosis caused by an eclipse & I wish I'd been smart & rewatched the ep with the flashbacks to his hatching & stuff to see if we get any indication of celestial events then, but I'm not smart.

Anywho, yeah, I'm literally rooting for kaiju King here, I dunno about proper island size, but def a growth spurt, though possibly a painful one.

How probable do I see this...ehhhhh. 40% I'd say. Like, I'm around 80% sure he ain't gonna die...but there's always a margin for error.

Though really, I do think growth is gonna happen, not death.

Not to get all sad HC posting about Alador Blight after COTH but

The loudest we've ever heard him speak was when he was cheering on/consoling Amity about the barrier and then when he was excited about the jetpacks working.

Otherwise he's consistently rather monotone and soft-spoken. Even when he finally stood up to Odalia after everything, he didn't raise his voice.

Given how easily he used to laugh as a teen vs his demeanor now, or how quickly Amity would fall silent whenever her mother telepathically communicated to her in EE, it was probably trained behavior in that household to be silent around her.

So Alador's probably very accustomed to reigning in his voice/emotions around her, which means there's a good chance he'll start talking louder or more freely going forward. I think it'd be a sweet scene if post-defeating Belos there's some soft epilogue showing everyone afterwards, and in it he's there laughing over something, and then maybe one of the kids mentions it's been a long time since he's laughed like that. It'd be a sweet touch showing the ways she negatively influenced all of them are slowly being undone, kind of like how we've seen Hunter come from flinching before/when being touched vs now he and Gus have their own secret handshake.

(Not) Ready for Saturday

me before clouds on the horizon: so, amity's dream used to be to join the emperor's coven, and in escaping expulsion, alador mentions her becoming a covenhead (presumably taking darius's place). but isn't it weird that amity taking on the family business is never discussed as a possibility? like yeah, having a kid in a sorta political job like that would be good for lobbying reasons. but you'd think they'd have their more charismatic older children go for that and have their daughter who is gifted in abominations take over their abomination company. or do they want the twins to take over as heirs in a sort of CEO position and just outsource the labour, leaving their youngest daughter to not inherit anything and fend for herself? favoritism or maybe an old fashioned firstborn thing? or maybe her childhood dream of joining the emperor's coven is one of the few things they conceded on. but it sounds like she looked up to her dad a lot when she was little- was the emperor propaganda just that strong? or did she already know, on some level, that her family was bad and was trying to distance herself from them? but also "but dad, i decided i wanna be like you and take on the family business :)" would've been SUCH a good excuse to skip the emperor's coven tryouts and the fact that she didn't even use it as a lie points to the idea that that straightup wasn't an option for her. supporting the theory that the twins are the planned heirs? ooor maybe she just isn't good at thinking up lies. still, though.

me after clouds on the horizon: oh. oh. *thousand yard stare*

alador probably subtly discouraged his children from planning on taking his place or even made it plain old seem like that wasn't even an option for any of them because he knew what a nightmare it actually was. and i guess odalia never pushed the kids into it because of her deal with him

also, no wonder he was pushing amity so hard to not "goof off" end up like him. i didn't see why he acted like being extremely wealthy and helping run an extremely successful company was a bad place to end up. but now i do and good gravy that's awful

some people have pointed out how odalia threatened amity and alador in the same way. she threatened the futures of their loved ones (willow in amity's case and his children in alador's case) to blackmail them into isolating themselves from the aforementioned loved ones

but i also noticed:

amity and alador, when they see those loved ones again, both don't understand how much they've changed while they were separated.

in labyrinth runners, amity treated willow like she was still the same shy powerless witchling that she was friends with when they were just little kids. in reaching out, alador treated amity like she was still his nine year old baby girl- tiny and defenseless but with big dreams of becoming a member of the emperor's coven when she grew up.

amity, back when they were young, probably took a protective role towards willow (whether she actually needed it back then or not), because willow's powers were slow to develop and she was probably being teased for it even back then. and obviously alador would try to take a protective role towards his children, that's what parents are meant to do.

amity didn't tell willow about how she had to cut her off or else her mom and dad would get her kicked out of hexside, letting willow believe that amity just didn't love her anymore because she wasn't good enough. amity thought she had to protect willow from the truth but that was wrong, amity should've treated willow like her equal and told her. then, even if they did have to separate, willow would know the real reason and not feel ashamed of her slow magical growth

alador probably never told his kids that he had to stay away from them and keep working constantly or else his wife would force them to take his place, probably making them feel like their dad just didn't love or care about them anymore. though in this case, i don't know if telling them would've helped anything- neglecting your kids all day is gonna damage them deeply even if they know the reason why

by following the terms of odalia's deals and trying to protect their loved ones, amity and alador both ended up doing the opposite of protecting them. amity turned a blind eye or even participated when her "friends" were bullying willow. alador was simply not there, turned a blind eye, or even participated when his wife was abusing their children.

it's interesting how the steps toward breaking odalia's deal and rebuilding those connections happened in different orders for amity and alador.

with amity, she made the decision to break the deal and reconnect with willow and stop participating in hurting her (understanding willow), protected her against the people she was previously aiding in the mistreatment from (wing it like witches), stood up to odalia (escaping expulsion), then protected her when she didn't need it but learned to see her for the person she really was now (labyrinth runners)

with alador (and i'm just gonna focus on him and amity rather than him and the twins here, for simplicity's sake), he protected amity when she didn't need it but learned to see her for the person she really was now (reaching out), made the decision to break the deal and reconnect with her and stop participating in hurting her (talking to king in CotH), protected her against the person he was previously aiding in the mistreatment from (breaking the barrier spell in CotH), then stood up to odalia (that whole fight in CotH)

and then the obvious parallels between willow's "it's a start" at amity and amity's "it's a start" at alador. it feels like amity learned that from willow

and there's something about the way that alador perpetuated the cycle of abuse onto amity, taking part in blackmailing her with willow and presumably helping to abuse her in other ways, then amity perpetuated the cycle by taking part in bullying willow. but amity broke the cycle first, before alador did. idk

Obviously the other person is cut off in the first picture, but another small thing I noticed is that the bird isn't in the first one either.

No, heres the confusing thing tho

(ID: Screenshot from the end of The Owl House, Clouds on the Horizon. The shot looks down to the skull of the Titan, a red moon looming ominously above it. /end ID)

Red moons happen during a lunar eclipse, due to the shadow of earth blocking the moon from the sun's light.

However

(ID: A promo picture for The Owl House, King's Tide, drawn by Bridget Underwood. The picture depicts King's empty skull with a crack above the left eye. The shadow of said skull is distorted with crescent shapes. /end ID)

These crescent shaped shadows only occur during a solar eclipse, due to what's called the pinhole effect.

What's more is that we've mostly seen solar eclipse imagery associated with the Day of Unity

(ID: Two screenshots from The Owl House. The first is from Hunting Palismen and shows the Titan's skull displaced in the human world, a partial solar eclipse above it. The second is from Follies at the Coven Day Parade, and showcases a banner depicting many branded arms reaching towards the Titan's skull, and a stylized partial solar eclipse above it. /end ID)

But then also, Belos said the tides would be at their lowest during the DoU, but due to the combined gravity of the moon and sun aligned with the earth, tides are actually at their highest during an eclipse - solar or lunar. In addition, 'king tides' is a term to describe tides that are exceptionally high. The lowest tides would actually occur at the perpendicular locations, 90° from where the eclipse would be visible.

So????

Something that has to be taken into account is that Odalia belongs to the Oracle Coven (a coven known for making predictions of the future) and it is no coincidence that Odalia is in this coven because she cares more about the future than the present to the point that she forgets that for for a good future to exist, you have to work with the present in a healthy and positive way, because a healthy present guarantees a good future, but a negative and toxic present will only bring a future full of ruin.

This can be seen in how her main concern is her future and that of her children, but in turn she leaves aside the present and forgets how it can affect the future of her children. She wants her children to be the best in everything and to associate with people of high status only so that they have a successful future assured, forgetting how this negatively affects their children (they feel obliged to meet very high expectations that generate stress in addition to interacting with people they really don't like to be with and this causes long-term anger and frustration, bringing them a bitter and negative future). This is also seen in her point of view of Day of Unity where she cares more about the life of privilege she thinks she and her children will have afterwards than what might happen to her and her children during Day of Unity, not realizing that she and her children will probably disappear just like the others.

Odalia doesn't care what happens to Alador nor does she care about the emotional damage she does to her children in the present if ir means that they have a comfortable and bright future.

It's ironic that Odalia, who belongs to the Oracle Coven, is so obsessed with the successful and bright future she wants for herself and her children that she can't see that the present is in danger and that if she doesn't help stop Belos and save the present there will be no future for her, her children or anyone else.

WAIT

WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE

Do you guys remember how in Understanding Willow the inner Willow was so pissed and hurt by amity that she destroyed every memory involving Amity even if the actual Willow wouldn’t want that or could even be hurt by it????

Okay so we’ve seen Philip’s little gallery where all pictures of his brother before he went to the Iles (them as kids and just cute bonding stuff) are sliced apart at the eyes.

Now what I’m saying is that the inner Bellos is actually doing this against what the outer Bellos would want — see how quickly the inner Bellos was to replace Hunter but the outer Bellos seems like he’s not nearly as happy about having to replace him. The inner Bellos takes sadistic pleasure in showing Luz and Hunter who he really is while the outer Bellos I don’t feel would have put all his cards on the table like that. Why reveal all that to Luz?? It’s not a good play when you’re systematically trying to murder everyone who trusts you and thinks your one of them.

I think the inner Bellos is so corrupted and angry that he’s been intentionally going against what Philip wants by erasing or minimizing the good times that Philip had with his brother who he loved and from the faces Bellos made in the newest episode I’m hoping that he cares about Hunter and his brother a little more that he initially let on. I mean why keep bringing his brother back? The only reason to for Bellos would be his own personal feelings.

Also I think that Philip is way Less evil than he used to be. I mean the way he looked into the knife after murdering Caleb was cold and he definitely didn’t regret killing him but now…of course his and Hunters relationship is still horrible — he’s still been abusing him and lying to him his entire life— I think he might now regret killing his brother so rashly. Idk maybe I’m crazy but I love a complicated and morally split villain😭

Foreshadowing

At least you know what she looks like. All I have is a wall carving! What if that just graffiti?

-King (2.4 "Keeping up A-fear-ances")

Given what we see in "Edge of the World", it probably WAS graffiti, left by Titan Trappers (Slayers? if the carving are ancient enough) who didn't manage to find King's egg.

It’s so fucking cool how Dana and the crew took such an overused concept “invade the earth and make it out new utopia” and flipped that shit on its head y’all. Instead of Luz protecting the earth she’s protecting the Iles from Phillip killing everyone. So fucking good!!!

i think one thing the owl house has done really well is with tying events to characterization. a lot of the time in other medias, things happen and the characters react to it, which is all well and good, and that frequently leads to role reversal fanfics and whatnot.

but toh has a very unique way of creating scenarios where the thing happens specifically because of who the characters are. an eda-lilith roleswap wouldn't make sense bc eda isn't ambitious enough to curse her own sister - and i really can't think of any other scenario where doing so would have even occurred to her.

the last ep i saw made a point of comparing amity to hunter, and while they definitely have a lot in common, they don't react to things quite the same way.

every time a character makes a decision, it feels like it's that character doing it, like other characters would react differently or even not have ever ended up in that position by sheer virtue of who they are as people.

anyway it's really good

I love how easily and flippantly The Owl House subverts tropes, specifically overused fantasy tropes and makes it something funny and or tragic, like from the very beginning we’re introduced to Luz as the “weird girl” and she’s thrown into a world she doesn’t know and the audience doesn’t know and we expect she’s going to be treated special because she’s human and is probably “The Chosen One”

But no, right out of the gate that’s nipped in the bud when Luz thinks she can be The Chosen One, she goes on an epic quest, goes to hunt down ancient artifacts, save towns people, dispel an ancient curse etcetera, but it’s all a fake set up to make her feel bad about herself.

Then we get that scene with Eda and Luz looking over The Boiling Isles, people aren’t chosen and sometimes you want to be for something, for anything, but everything is weird and just happens and “weirdos have to stick together” and that really sets the narrative for the entire show that no one is chosen specifically for a purpose, and everyone is just finding their place to belong in the world.