#young blood young souls

[l-egionaire]

I'd have loved to know what happened at the conformatorium the morning after this.

Warden Wrath: Now....if anyone asks, WHAT do we tell them?

Guard #1: It was an army! One hundred-no! TWO HUNDRED wild witches broke their way in here!

Guard #2: Each one as powerful as the Owl Lady, if not more!

Warden Wrath: AND?

Guard #2: We gave it to them as good as we got.

Guard #3: We slew each and every last one of them, no matter how many of us were defeated!

Guard #1: And THAT'S why the human was alone when she reached the Owl Lady. We DEFINITELY didn't all get beaten by a child.

Warden Wrath: Good.

Guard #3:....What do we tell Frank's family?

Warden Wrath: That he died honorably in battle.

Guard 1: Yeah! He may have went down, but he took over a dozen of the wild witches with him!

Guard #2: He did NOT get taken out in one shot and then slowly and pitfully freeze to death. Absolutely not what happened.

Warden Wrath: Excellent.

Guard #1:....Do you think that humans going to come back?

Warden Wraith: Titan, I hops not......

#The Owl House #ToH #Owl House #Conformatorium #Warden Wrath #Emperors coven #Young blood old souls #Luz noceda #luz owl house #luz toh

[smallpapers]

I am the monster you created

#the owl house #eda clawthorne #lilith clawthorne #edalyn clawthorne #eda the owl lady #toh eda #toh lilith #young blood old souls #myart #toh fanart #owl beast #toh #huhuhuhuh #if u catch the lyric ref

[theowllhouse]

WHY DOES THIS KIND OF KNIFE KEEP REAPPEARING????

#the owl house #toh #dana terrace #disney #the owl house season 2 #king clawthorne #king toh #hollow mind #belos #emperor belos #philip whitebane #hunter toh #young blood old souls #mine #edge of the world #S2E17

[h-doodles]

Connection // Consumption // Possession is my way of Love & you are mine as i am yours, various - a web weave for it's quicker & easier (to eat your young) by @pinkcannibal 💖

#IM SO INSANE ABT THIS FIC IM SCREAMING I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU #anyways hehe #web weaving #marilyn thornhill #marilyn thornhill x reader #christina ricci #lee makes stuff #simp.txt #clown.txt #to me i am hers the same way she is mine and we are two halves ripped apart and 2 puzzle pieces who's been lost in the dark #and we are connected in the same way the greek gods have created soul mates and connected in the same way the fates have woven their thread #and we are one in the same one in the same one in the SAME!!!!!!!! #bound by blood and by love and by our sheer force will and i want nothing more but to sink my teeth in to her neck just as she does mine #and claw my way into her chest and fall asleep next to her heart raw and bruised and bloodied #i am. being SO normal abt it. #eat your young

[drachenfalter]

Belos trying to kill Lilith at the end of Young Blood, Old Souls is a very interesting detail in the context of Elsewhere and Elsewhen.

Because it means that either

a) Belos had no idea that Lilith and "Aunt Lulu" are the same person until after it happened

or

b) Belos doesn't care about preserving the current timeline, and so was willing to take that risk.

But we know Belos figures out Luz is "Luzura." And if he did tell Flora to give Lilith the means to travel back in time, that implies he needed that to happen.

Which only leaves us with option a, of course.

Belos didn't figure out Lilith broke his nose three centuries ago until after he'd thrown her out of his coven and almost killed her.

#elsewhere and elsewhen #young blood old souls #the owl house #toh meta #lilith clawthorne #emperor belos #Sorry to everyone who thought Belos spent thirty years getting revenge on Lilith for something she did centuries ago #he didn't #he's just an asshole to any witch he meets #including those most loyal to him

[owlhousetarot]

Justice: Lilith Splitting the Curse with Eda

Upright: Justice, accountability, truth, honesty, integrity, law, cause and effect, fairness, karma

Reversed: Injustice, dishonesty, corruption, unfairness, avoiding accountability, retribution

The Justice card represents a moment of comeuppance; all actions have consequences, and now karma has come to collect. Lilith committed an unjust, dishonest act in cursing Eda to cheat in their duel. Doing so proved she is not above the corruption taught by Belos, and in keeping this secret from Eda for multiple decades, she tried to avoid full accountability for her choices.

However, the Justice card also indicates that, in a pivotal moment, you do have a choice to redeem yourself. Upright, this card represents fair judgement, integrity, accountability, and truth. Lilith exemplifies these principles when she admits the fact that she cursed her sister and takes on half of the curse herself.

< Previous Card: Wheel of Fortune

> Next Card: The Hanged Man

#the owl house #toh tarot #major arcana #justice #lilith clawthorne #eda clawthorne #young blood old souls

[that-ari-blogger]

Witch Side Are They On? (Young Blood, Old Souls)

Hero and villain are nebulous terms, the definitions of which can be taken to mean literally any character. Although, almost everyone knows one when they see one. It's a vibes based classification. Nobody is trying to argue that The Joker is a paragon hero (except some people), for example.

Certain characters break from the mould, with some protagonists displaying more morally challenged motivations or methods, some villains being redeemed, and some "morally grey" heroes ending up being written as power fantasies and you can usually tell when that happens.

I find the classification of characters rather redundant, as people have a habit of being complex. Sure, I have met people who fit stereotypes to a tea, but they are the exception not the rule, and the more you get to know someone, the less tropey they seem to you.

So, instead, I would like to examine the actions that The Owl House frames as evil, as well as the point at which the series decides a character is no longer redeemable.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD: (The Owl House)

Because good and bad are subjective, and this is the internet, I am going to define heroic and villainous actions in this context as "behaviours that The Owl House presents as desirable and undesirable" respectively. Knowledge, expression and kindness are heroic in this context, and willful ignorance, cruelty, and repression are villainous. Ok?

These themes are really well emphasised by the light and dark motif going on. Luz's name literally means light, and she is very much associated with that concept through her magic.

Compare that to Belos, who has managed to spend the entirety of the series up to this point either in literal shadows or figurative ones. We haven't seen him outside in the daylight; we haven't even seen what he looks like yet. The man exists in darkness.

What I mean by this, is light reveals, shadows conceal. A light can bring hope, show you the way out, or let you glimpse the beauty of an artwork, if someone keeps you in darkness, your eyes will adjust eventually, but you won't be seeing the full thing.

Now, here's a question: what exactly is Lilith's motivation? The flashback gives her a history, and shows her actions and sacrifices, but it doesn't redeem her by any stretch of the imagination.

Lilith made a sacrifice for power. She has been chasing Eda because of Belos, and we will get to that. But the curse was her own misdeed, and I think its fascinating how the concept of willful ignorance plays into that.

"I thought it would just be for a day."

Now, I don't know what was on that scroll. Maybe it came with a sticky note that says, "guaranteed 24-hour magic removal or your money back". But, it takes some serious mental gymnastics to decide that the thing you wanted to do because you wanted to do it with someone was worth sacrificing that someone to achieve.

And when the curse turned Eda into the beast, it never occurred to Lilith to tell anyone. I think providing evidence of the magic that caused it might have helped to fix it, but Lilith kept it a secret.

Also, if you see a system that outcasts your closest family member and TURNS PEOPLE IT DOESN'T LIKE TO STONE, and you devote yourself to upholding that system "because of all the good it does", you are deliberately ignoring some major factors.

So, Lilith engages with the theme on two fronts, she keeps the world in the dark about her own actions, and she actively ignores things about the world she is in, and that is the key here. Lilith is presented as highly intelligent and rational, but someone the clever should surely notice some things that she very much doesn't. Which leads me to believe that she is either unintelligent and rational, or intelligent and irrational.

I don't think Lilith is a villain in the series, entirely. I think she is an antagonist, and thematically opposed to the heroes. But the motivation for the specific acts of antagonism are, fundamentally, altruistic. She wants to heal her sister. The problem is that being motivated by guilt and compassion doesn't square with the actions she has taken to get to this position. So naturally, she ignores the incongruities until she runs face first into them, and her redemption comes later through her actions and decisions to seek out and understand.

Belos plays an interesting role in this as well. I mentioned in my previous post that Belos manipulates her agency out from underneath her, and I stand by that here for two reasons. 1) Belos is the system she has bought into. He has directly and intentionally, through propaganda, convinced a world that wild magic is bad and that sacrifices must be made. 2) He found a woman who was conflicted about her actions and saw a way to get rid of the most powerful witch in the boiling isles.

So, Belos too features the theme of wilful ignorance, imposing it on the boiling isles, and making use of Lilith's blind spot to further his own goals.

I've mentioned Belos' restriction of expression in the past multiple times, but there is one more of the core themes that the emperor engages with, and I think the way in which he does that is rather funny. Belos is cruel, and it is constantly tripping him up.

So, what spur's Lilith's redemption? She gets shown her actions are wrong immediately after performing them, so it can't be realisation. So, what is it that prompts her to reconsider her life choices? What causes the leader of the coven heads to bail? Lilith backs out of the coven system because Belos is a jerk.

Belos could have kept the manipulation going. He could have said that he tried and failed to heal Eda's curse. He could have said that Eda attacked him and left him no choice. But instead, he decided to gloat.

"Ah, taking her to the healing ceremony?" "I will not be healing her." "But, you, promised me." "Don't be so naïve, Lilith."

This isn't even the only time the man's desire to gloat self-sabotages him in this episode. So, let's get to that fight scene.

"Okay, I'll play."

I feel the need to point out that Belos wins the fight part of this scene hands down. I recommend UnholyBasil's excellent video on this scene, but suffice to say, anyone with the power to instantly quadruple the animation budget for a moment is a terrifying threat, and Belos is definitely that.

Up until now, the emperor was just an ideological roadblock. The antagonist has been the coven system and the Emperor's Coven that want to restrict magic. Belos has simply been the guy at the head, the one Luz must symbolically defeat.

But now, Belos barely has to lift a finger, and Luz is on the back foot. She can't even touch him. And that is the key to why the ending of the fight is so cool. Belos is untouchable, emotionally and physically, so Luz does both. She puts a crack in his armour, not enough to defeat him, but enough to break the facade he has put up and make him look like an Undertale character.

Remember what I said about self-sabotage? Well, it happens again here. Here is someone who is trying to kill Belos, someone with magic that he has seen. And he decides to waltz up to her and present his face as a target, just because he wants to needle at her mind, the man would have succeeded had he been intelligent.

That is my takeaway from Belos. He is an eejit with delusions of grandeur. Don't get me wrong, the man is a decent manipulator, but his inability to look past himself and his need to be cruel repeatedly puts a dampener on his whole mastermind shtick.

Also, he didn't think to check for the obvious glyphs on the side of the suitcase he was given, he just assumed he had won and didn't feel the need to make sure. Are we sure this guy is clever and not just charismatic?

Now, I haven't talked about Luz or Eda much, and I think it's time to rectify that.

Lilith's character design is a mirror of her sister's. She is restricted in her dress, and perfectly symmetrical. Eda meanwhile is unkempt and wild, with the torn outfit making her look unbalanced and volatile.

The Clawthorn sisters also have a Red Oni, Blue Oni motif going on between them, a trope about characters with a duality to them that has shades of colour symbolism and mythology thrown in for spice.

According to TV Tropes:

"The Red Oni is associated with passion, wildness, and defiance. The red oni character is often more brawny than brainy, extroverted, enthusiastic, determined, and filled with a zest for life. They are also much more likely to break conventions and rules than their counterpart."

Meanwhile:

"The Blue Oni is associated with serenity, control, and observing authority. A Blue Oni is more intellectual, proud, traditional, introverted, and cultured."

I those two don't sum up Eda and Lilith respectively, I don't know what does. And if you have been paying attention, the colour symbolism there appears in the designs of the two. Lilith bears more cool colours, with the blueish hair, eyes, and gem, while Eda scraps all subtlety and just wears red and orange.

So, Eda and Lilith represent two ends of the spectrum, chaotic and lawful. But its notable that when Lilith gets redeemed, she doesn't lose the logical, heavily rationalised mindset, she loses the restrictions. She ends up being free to be whomever she wants, and that person doesn't have to be as overtly wild as her sister.

Luz and Belos, however, are extremely similar characters, with one Luz and Belos, however, are extremely similar characters, with one main difference. One is kind, one is cruel. In terms of character mechanics (how they approach problems), that is the main difference. The rest of their actions come as a result of this dichotomy. Both have a form of main character syndrome, for example, but where Luz wants an adventure and to save the world, Belos wants to remake the world in his own image.

I'm not saying they are identical, or that they are the same character, I am saying that they are similar except for the most fundamental of points, derived from this difference of kindness vs cruelty. All of the lessons that Luz learns but Belos ignores, come from selflessness, all the differences come from expanding out this over and over again until you get a hero and a megalomaniac.

They are both charisma-based artificers, but they have different alignments, and that has led to them making different choices, and leading different stories that have clashed with each other. They started in a similar place, but because of the one difference, their paths diverged wildly.

Final Thoughts

Belos is a villain who would be right at home with Wiley Coyote if he wasn't so terrifying and megalomaniacal, because he cannot stop bringing about his own downfall in spectacular fashion.

I wanted to find the Tolkien quote about evil destroying itself for this post, but instead I found something that sums up The Owl House really well.

"You have to understand the good in things, to detect the real evil."

Tolkien was a man who fought in both the first and second World Wars, including the battle of the Somme, and yet he was a profoundly optimistic man, as well as being a realist. His most famous work is about someone small accomplishing a great thing against all the odds because evil cannot comprehend the simple acts of kindness.

That, transformed by generations of nerds, has resulted in The Owl House, where a villain, by dint of being clad in gold, can only shine by reflecting the light of the protagonist. And he cannot comprehend the simple kindness of community, and harmony.

Light, do not faulter.

Next week, I am diving straight into the next season, with Separate Tides, and the introduction of the woobie, so stick around if that interests you.

Previous - Next

#rants #literary analysis #literature analysis #character analysis #what's so special about...? #the owl house #toh #toh belos #the owl house belos #emperor belos #the owl house lilith #lilith clawthorne #toh lilith #young blood old souls

[mirrorroad]

so i just finished season 1 of the bird show

#the owl house #toh #toh s1 #young blood old souls #snail.txt

[eldragon-x]

Philip Wittebane / Emperor Belos throughout The Owl House (Season 1+2)

#I hate this guy #owl house #gifset #the owl house #toh #philip wittebane #emperor belos #through the looking glass ruins #elsewhere and elsewhen #hollow mind #young blood old souls #eclipse lake #kings tide #king's tide

[tenracoonsinacrisis]

So I was rewatching TOH, when I came across this

Gus's desk. And I saw

Gus kept mattholomule's things.

Gustholomule crumbs.

#toh #the owl house #Owl house #toh spoilers #toh s1 #Toh s1 spoilers #gus toh #toh gus #gus porter #gus the owl house #the owl house gus #gustholomule #toh mattholomule #mattholomule #mattholomule toh #gus x matholumule #Mattholomule x gus #Young blood old souls

[toontownportraits]

Disney XD is playing all the toh episodes so i turned the channel on while drawing. had a hankering to draw lilith as a result LOL

#the bagel draws #fanart #toh #the owl house #the owl house fanart #lilith clawthorne #lillith clawthorne #young blood old souls #ilu lilith ur so sillay #if ur wondering the ep they're playing rn is s2a ep4 keeping up afearances #keeping up a-fear-ances

[wizardandgalaxy]

Dumb Connection That Was Probably a Coincidence, Let's Go

"You're not coming from a place of intellectual honesty, so debating you would be pointless!"

"But that man doesn't care about anything but his need to be the hero in his own delusion."

(Plus a bonus, perhaps more serious parallel I found while getting these pictures:)

#The Owl House #TOH #Young Blood Old Souls #Watching and Dreaming #TOH finale #TOH Belos #TOH Luz #Ice glyph #This is objectively very silly #Especially because I feel like Papa Titan's line was NOT the most effective way to convey the main thing in the first place #But I can't make art or writing easily because Oof Ouch Ow My Arms #And I am frustrated and it is very late #So in lieu of the stuff I actually wanna work on #Have this

[smallpapers]

hey mom, are you proud of me?

because I’m not

#the owl house #lilith clawthorne #toh lilith #thems the breaks kid #Toh fanart #the emperors coven #coven scout #myart #toh spoilers #young blood old souls #the agony of a witch #hahahahahahahahahahha #toh

[witch128chick]

Soo hii! We're here

It's time for

Young Blood, Old Souls

Agony Of A Witch was the last ep with the happier intro :((( shit is about to go down

People praise toh for having accurate sibling dynamics. AND YES I COULDN'T AGREE MORE BC WTH THIS IS ME AND MY BRO

Lilith you finally came to your senses

This reminds me of the time when i was in primary school (wtf my keyboard recommended "prison" when i started typing "pri" 😭😭😭)

I was such a lil rebel bitch i love that for me (and i miss being like that)

I didn't do anything awfully bad just little things but those still pissed off either a teacher or my parents

I skipped classes for example in 2nd grade!!!! Wtffff- and lied to a teacher so that she'd let me go to a friend's place after school instead of staying there yk until my parents picked me up (mom was FURIOUS)

Anyway i feel like this scene with Luz and King is kinda similar to what i've done lol

I LOVE how sassy Luz was in this episode

Alsoo it's so cute that Willow and Gus went to the petrification to help Eda and Luz 🤧 their friendship is everything

Gus is like a cool secret agent btw

No but this scene omg 😭😭😭 i'm crying 💔💔💔

"TALK TO THE GLYPH, WITCH!" iconic. I-CO-NIC.

Did i say i love Luz? Well yea i love her. LUZ YOU'RE THE BEST

Baby Clawthornes 🥺😭🤏🏼 lil tiny babies

HOW CAN THEY BE SO ADORABLE

and have such a tragic past

This was legit so beautiful-

And they saved Eda together!!!!

👀

Well... this was another ROLLERCOASTER. I love this episode too it's sad, it's painful and it's angsty. But also beautiful. I just love it

So i'll give it a 10/10

Here 🐰 brought you 🍫 (if you don't like it or can't eat it, take a 💐 instead)

#if it looks rushed no it isn't #i mean i am exhausted i practically didn't sleep at all last night #but why sleep when you can hang out with your cousin am i right #so yea anyway #young blood old souls #toh rewatch #toh rewatch thursday #but i'm doing this on friday bc yea i wasn't at home #owl house #toh #eda the owl lady #the owl house luz #king owl house #owl house lilith

[thenadnerb02]

Lilith: “I knew Edalyn would beat me. She was younger, but worked twice as hard.”

“Emperor Belos always said to be great, you have to make sacrifices. What would he do in my situation?”

Hmm. Yes. What would Belos do in that situation?

What Indeed

#the owl house #toh #lilith clawthorne #toh lilith #emperor belos #philip wittebane #caleb wittebane #siblings #harsher in hindsight #young young blood old souls #hollow mind

[owlhousetarot]

The Magician: Luz with the Elemental Glyphs

Upright: Manifestation, resourcefulness, skill, power, ability, concentration, desire

Reversed: Manipulation, illusion, wasted talent, deception, trickery, unfocused, untrustworthy

The Magician represents new beginnings, opportunities, and willpower. She has taken the inner potential of the Fool and has manifested her ambitions through willpower. In a reading, this card tells you “You have everything you need at your fingertips,” and classic designs of this card depict the Magician wielding all four suits of the Tarot, so I thought it was appropriate to depict Luz wielding all four of the base glyphs! This card is all about bringing all your resources together synergistically so the end result is greater than the sum of its parts; fittingly, glyph magic is based on combining base glyphs for different effects. The Magician is also considered the bridge between the earthly and spiritual realms, which fits Luz’s connections to both the human and demon realms. Overall, Luz’s journey to find all the glyphs is what allows her to flourish in the Demon realm and to fully realize her lifelong dream of being a witch, making her a perfect fit for this card.

The reversed meanings, on the other hand, perfectly fit Luz’s narrative foil, Philip. He took many of the same qualities as Luz — resourcefulness, skill, and desire for power — and used them to manipulate and deceive an entire realm of people to do his bidding. (It would have been cool to include him on the card, but I didn’t want it to get too crowded lol)

< Previous Card: The Fool

> Next Card: The High Priestess

#the owl house #toh tarot #major arcana #the magician #luz noceda #young blood old souls