Words alone cannot describe how happy this scene makes me!

Disguising yourself as your sibling is a Clawthorne thing

Ok but when King said "y'know, I've never really met [my dad]" AND THE GUST OF WIND PUSHED HIS SWING A LITTLE

Was... was that the Titan trying to play with his son? To prove that he was there for King?

rotating this episode in my head like a microwave still it won't leave

if i could change one thing about the owl house, i'd change the main point of conflict in clouds on the horizon from "odalia's okay with genocide, alador isn't" to "alador is willing to listen to his children, odalia isn't"

first off, i'd make it so that odalia *didn't* know what the draining spell actually did. her knowingly participating in genocide just serves to overshadow her pre-established abusiveness, and feels like the writers didn't trust the audience to understand that she was Bad and deserved to be cut out of her family's lives on the basis of abuse alone.

(also it. kinda doesn't make sense why she'd be okay with it? like she is greedy and short-sighted. but the draining spell would negatively impact her personally, and while the idea of her being so distracted by greed that she acts against her own interests is extremely neat and an apt commentary on real billionaires, it's just,,, a big stretch.)

instead, i'd have her dismiss the truth with "i'm not going to put such a good business deal in jeopardy because of some unfounded suspicions" and "i trust the emperor far more than i trust a bunch of children"

next, i'd replace the scene where king talks to alador. while it was a really nice scene that revealed more about alador's situation and kinda laid the groundwork for king being helpful in the next episode, it's not the best way for alador to learn about the draining spell in my version of the episode. because in that scene, alador believes king is a coven scout -an authority figure- so trusting what he says about the day of unity is not any kind of challenge for alador.

instead, i'd make it so that *emira and edric* are the ones who tell him about the draining spell (maybe king helped the twins escape? that gives him a purpose within the episode and there's a fun parallel with him freeing the collector later).

i don't think the twins were deliberately looking for alador, but they saw him sitting out there as they broke out and they had two choices: sneak past him and continue trying to stop things themselves, or talk to him. and they don't quite trust alador to listen and do the right thing, but amity seemed so convinced when she told them he'd listen, and they trust *her*, so they decide to talk to him.

and he listens and promises to put a stop to it. and he tells them to go find safety, and emira is like "but shouldn't we stay and help/make sure amity is safe" and alador tells her that it should have never been her responsibility to handle everything (i am starving for her whole parentified older sister thing to get addressed can you tell) and promises that he's going to do better for all of them, and apologizes for being so negligent -and Maybe explains a bit of why he was like that and what odalia did to him (if i could fit it in without it being clunky and keeping it clear that it's an explanation not a full excuse)

so the twins go to take shelter at hexside (no more "wtf did he just leave them in gay baby jail???" that we had in canon) and alador and king go confront odalia/save amity like in canon

and then in that confrontation, perhaps alador brings up the abuse and overwork (since it maybe wouldn't come up in my rewritten scene w him and the twins like it did in canon's scene w him and king). and the general vibe w him confronting her is less "this is the final straw" and more "i should have done this years ago"

and overall i'd want the episode to keep the "he is also a domestic abuse victim and, at times, messed up because he was acting out of fear and trying to protect them" that it introduced in the canon version of the episode (i know some people have criticized the show's choice to make him a victim too and while i can understand some of their reasons i overall liked the concept so it stays) while keeping in mind the "sometimes he messed up because he was trying to do what was 'best' for his kids whilst ignoring what the kids actually wanted/needed" that they established in reaching out

IM CALLING IT NOW.

ALADOR AND DARIUS ARE GONNA TEAM UP IN THE NEXT FEW EPISODES AND ARE GONNA KICK ASS TOGETHER AND DARIUS IS GONNA LOOK AT ALADOR AND SAY "IM GLAD YOU'VE FINALLY DECIDED TO STOP BEING A HACK."

AND ALADOR IS GONNA LOOK SUPER ANNOYED BUT THEN SMILE AND SAY "IM GLAD TOO."

Hunter, Luz, and Gus appreciation time for the illusion trick in Clouds because it required all three of them to be convincing enough to pull it off, but also because Gus and Luz knew the risk of pulling the trick and once Hunter realized it was happening, he didn't stop them because he trusted them.

The amount of power Gus was using to keep up the illusion while they were in a fight, tracking two illusions and also casting a darkness illusion at the same time is AMAZING. Luz coming up with the idea and successfully executing it because she knew she had a better chance of survival and was willing to put her life in danger for her friend and also for the chance to protect the Boiling Isles/ her family. Lmao and Hunter for being very polite to Alador when Alador's like. "I'm happy you're my daughter's girlfriend." and Hunter was like. no thank :)

I may be reading too much into this scene bUT-

In this scene, Luz entered through the balcony of the Blight Manor right?

And then had her first kiss with Amity!   

Now, doesn’t this scene seem a little bit familiar?

Romeo and Juliet had a famous balcony scene as well in their play!

And well-

 :3 

watching ofmd with my parents surely nothing bad will happen to any of the characters in the last 3 episodes of the season. right guys. they would never do that would they.

Crikey!

I get the impression that money was a bit tight on clouds on the horizon in general, what with the uneven time put into the lumity kiss vs the hexsquads fight outside blight manner w/ the infamous cha cha slide, plus background details going wonky (like baloony hunter), but my favourite semi-wonky frames are the closeups on Hunters face when he's talking with Luz about him being a grimwalker.

bc the proportions are just. So funny to me. Why is his nose so long. Why are his eyes in the middle of his face. When did his forehead get so big. What's happening. Did I die. Is this purgatory. I unironically love this bc it reminds me that this show was made by people who were trying their best. And sometimes their best looks the Bunter Vs hexsquad fight in thanks to them and other times it looks like this

[ID: a screenshot of a close-up on Hunters face from clouds on the horizon. The placement and proportions of his face are slightly off. End ID]

(although in searching for this image I was informed that a different studio than normal animated clouds on the horizon. Which is probably at least part of the reason why there's so many bungled frames. Also probably why the cha cha slide got animated the way it did. God I love animation)

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Amity is the sun.

Some of my favorite screenshots of this episode

the luz and hunter switch was a little obvious tbh like as soon as i saw luz do the yellow teleporty flash i was like “oh did gus switch everyones places” but then amity and willow started using their own magic so i was like “oh its just hunter and luz then” and what really sealed the deal was when they cornered odalia and everyone had their magic stuff but instead of her glyphs luz was just like (ง •̀_•́)ง

but also in retrospect it was hilarious bc hunter later said he didnt know what was going on? so this dude looks down and he looks like his annoying little sister now and then looks up and sees himself being kidnapped by kikimora and he just. rolled with it. don’t ask questions until ppl start insinuating that you’re dating your worstie i guess.

Obviously there’s a lot to talk about in the new episode but can we just appreciate the squad’s new LOOKS though?

king is collecting family members like pokemon cards