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they-call-me-haiku · 5 months

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whenever someone says they dislike huntlow, the usual comeback from toxic huntlow fans is that “you're a misogynist and you don't want to see the woman in a relationship being stronger”. so i want to address this issue today. is huntlow bad only because willow is stronger than hunter and isn't a damsel in distress?

in my opinion, absolutely not. that's not the case. i myself am a fan of subverted tropes and relationships where the woman isn't just a passive damsel with no personality. i like seeing independent women and i like seeing men being vulnerable for once.

to demonstrate my point on why huntlow doesn't pull off this trope well, let me compare it to a ship with a similar dynamic: sokka and suki from avatar the last airbender.

let's go through each of the reasons why sukka works as a ship where huntlow fails.

1. Does it make sense for the characters?

the first question here is: do the roles of the strong independent woman and weaker man suit these characters?

sokka was introduced as.. just a guy. he was a regular teenager who wasn't trained in combat. he could fight well enough if he wanted to and being the only man in a village full of mostly children and elders, he was the best warrior in his village (if we are even to believe his claims in s1, that is).

suki, on the other hand, was a trained warrior. she had spent her whole life training in combat and fighting to continue kyoshi's legacy. in her very first appearance, suki is confirmed to be a skilled warrior who is much stronger than sokka.

this setup makes perfect sense. it wouldn't come as a surprise later on that suki is stronger or a better fighter than sokka, and would have to rescue him or help him out in a moment of crisis.

now let's come to huntlow. in s2, hunter is introduced as the emperor's right-hand man who is young but powerful. while most of his intimidation factor came from his artificial staff, it was clear that he was not an amateur and had decent combat skills.

this assumption is only solidified when we see him go head to head with amity, only losing because 1. he was using a new staff 2. he was sleep deprived and 3. he was in an extremely erratic emotional state.

willow, on the other hand, was the sokka in this relationship. she was a regular teenager who grew up in a normal family and went to a regular magic high school.

she was certainly incredibly skilled in plant magic but she was not a trained child soldier like hunter. she had a lot of potential to be a good fighter but she had only recieved the education that every other student had recieved. not to mention, most of her stronger magic came from her emotional outbursts.

so.. does the whole girlboss-malewife dynamic work with huntlow? no. it really doesn't. even if willow trained and grew as a witch, there's no reason why she should be stronger and more skilled in combat than hunter, who had to pass seemingly impossible trials in order to qualify as the golden guard. especially since after the first half of s2, hunter was not only weaker than willow but just weak in general.

i get it, he doesn't have natural magic like the others. but he was still shown to be a very competent fighter. he was also shown to be cunning and strategic, being able to find a way out of any situation if he wanted to. but after joining the hexsquad, he is dumbed down to willow's shy and pathetic boyfriend, who doesn't really do much on his own.

2. are they in character when in a relationship?

when writing a relationship, this is really important. if you write a relationship where one or both characters have to act wildly out of character to make sense for the relationship to happen, those characters are not compatible. it's like when your friend acts uncomfortably different around their crush or partner.

let's start with sokka and suki.

sokka is goofy, cynical and quick-witted, with or without suki. his relationship with suki doesn't drastically change his character, but it does improve it. suki helps sokka change his misogynistic worldviews and respect women, but apart from that necessary improvement, sokka is still the same. he is not out of character when he is with suki.

as for suki herself, we don't see a lot of her away from sokka but it's still safe to assume that she is being herself around sokka. she is not forced into a new role in order to be in a relationship with sokka. the times we do see her on her own, she is pretty much the same rational, independent and nonchalant person that she is around sokka.

and yet, both of them have incredible chemistry and very clearly care for each other. it's not one-sided and it doesn't feel unnatural.

but huntlow?

hunter is introduced as a sarcastic and bratty but deeply traumatized teenager. he is quick to start a banter with whoever he is with, he tends to talk too much, and he generally has a nonchalant attitude to cover up with trauma.

but with willow? hunter is not just shy or awkward around her, he is a completely different person. i can understand that being attracted to a person can make you act strangely sometimes. but with hunter, that awkwardness never fades away. he is always blushing around her, he is often portrayed as pathetic and helpless, and constantly needing willow's support and guidance.

as for willow, she is introduced as this insecure and good-natured teenager. after her confrontation with amity, willow is pushed to the back for a while. all we know about her at that time is that she's the supportive mom friend of the group. she builds her confidence after a while but she is still shown as a kind person who doesn't use force on someone else, unless necessary.

but with hunter? willow is suddenly not just confident but also dominant and forceful. she basically snatches him from the sky and drags him to the ground, just to invite him to her flyer derby team. hunter is practically terrified at this point, but it's played off as a fun cute-meet. later, when hunter wants to leave the team for understandable reasons, instead of respecting his wishes, willow once again forces him to join her again.

i wouldn't call willow toxic or abusive, because she isn't. but i would say that she didn't respect hunter's boundaries in the slightest. she doesn't treat anyone else the way she treats hunter. she's not exactly mean to him but she also does not seem to respect him as an individual. again, she is written wildly out of character just so that she could fulfil the role of the “powerful girlboss” in the relationship. and it doesn't help that a dominant and forceful figure is the last thing hunter needs, considering how he was controlled and abused by his uncle his whole life.

3. Equality

it is my opinion that in a relationship, both individuals should play an important role. and they should balance each other out, instead of clashing with each other. it doesn't necessarily have to be an “opposites attract” situation, they just need to have qualities that brings a balance to the relationship.

in sokka's and suki's relationship, we've already established that suki is the brawn. she's the trained warrior and her agility, skill and speed are her strengths. sokka, on the other hand, is the brains. suki is still a rational and smart person but sokka is the strategist, the “idea guy”.

here, there's a balance. neither sokka nor suki are weak or incompetent, they're just skilled in different areas.

but when it comes to huntlow, willow is the brawn while hunter.. does close to nothing. after meeting willow, he's basically useless. the most impactful thing he does is stand up against belos in “Thanks to Them” and rescue willow from a short fall in the next episode. otherwise, he is mostly pushed to the back despite, again, having a personality and his own strengths prior to meeting willow. the problem here isn't that hunter shouldn't be weak or vulnerable, but rather that he is forced into the damsel role when it goes against his original character.

4. Screentime, interaction and development

one thing that huntlow and sukka had in common is neither ship had too much screentime together. suki wasn't officially part of the gaang until s3 and before that, she just gets two interactions with sokka. but these interactions were used to their fullest potential.

when they first meet each other, sokka and suki do not get along well. sokka was convinced that women aren't good warriors and his pride is hurt by the fact that suki is stronger than him, while suki is understandably put off by sokka's misogynistic and condescending attitude. after he tries to teach her how to fight and is consequently defeated by her, sokka rethinks his worldview. he goes back to suki and asks her to teach him how to fight, apologizing and admitting his mistake. suki agrees to teach him and through this, they bond. it is revealed at the end of the episode that both sokka and suki may or may not have a thing for each other. afterwards, sokka has to leave and suki has to stay behind.

their next meeting is a lot more brief but even here, we see a clear demonstration of their dynamic. sokka is overjoyed to see suki but he still hasn't moved on from yue, so when suki confesses to him and tries to initiate a kiss, sokka rejects her. suki apologizes to him later for what happened, and sokka kisses her as a confirmation that he has now moved on and likes her back. we see a clear respect of boundaries and personal choices from both sides.

finally, after suki is captured by azula, sokka frees her and they are reunited again until the end. at this point, they're basically a couple. there's no more awkward blushing or stuttering; they're just a pair of teenagers who are in love with each other. they have a bit of playful banter and they're very casual and comfortable around each other.

suki was originally supposed to be a one-time character so it's incredible that they pulled off on the best ships in atla with her and sokka. their chemistry was undeniable from the beginning, and the writers knew how to expand on it.

now let's come to huntlow. hunter and willow meet each other for the first time in the s2b episode ‘Any Sport in a Storm’. willow is looking for candidates to join her flyer derby team and she sees hunter flying on his palisman. completely unprovoked, the willow who normally never attacked or forced something on people for no reason, decides that the best way to scout this random guy she doesn't know is by encasing him in vines and dragging him to the ground, destroying the concrete in the process. this may have been portrayed as something of a slapstick comedy, but that kind of humor never stuck with me.

after willow explains herself to hunter, he agrees to join her team, thinking it would be an easy way to recruit students into the emperor's coven. fast forward, they get a few members to their group.

hunter notices that all of these members are visibly slacking off and gets discouraged. he turns to leave and willow stops him in his tracks. when she tells him to give them a chance, hunter ‘opens up’ to her a little, by telling her that he had to earn chances, especially as a “half a witch”. this comes out of nowhere because we never see hunter being referred to as half a witch by anyone prior to this. there were certainly characters who disliked him, like lilith and kikimora, but they called him names like “golden brat”. in fact, it's not even clear if anyone other than hunter and belos knows that he has no magic. the whole half a witch line was added so that hunter and willow would have something in common.

willow, instead of reasoning with hunter or respecting his choice to leave, drags him to the ground once again and seemingly teleports him back to the flyer derby team. while this may not have been done with malicious intent, it was still another instance of willow invading hunter's boundaries and forcing him to do something.

hunter is convinced that the team is, in fact, competent. he plays the game with them and has fun doing it. after getting the team captured to join the emperor's coven and saving them from darius, the episode ends with darius turning out to be the good guy and hunter getting a penstagram (or whatever they call it, i forgot).

after this, the huntlow scenes are very scarce. we barely see them interact, especially not alone with each other. in the next episode, we see willow standing up for hunter and hunter blushing and recognizing that the fake willow isn't willow. while this would be sweet for an already established couple, since hunter and willow barely had a bond at this point, it just comes off as hunter being observant. which is somewhat in character for him.

afterwards, there's just a sprinkle of this ship, most of it consisting of hunter being shy and nervous around willow. and willow treating him like she treats everyone else. there's no sign of willow liking hunter back until literally the episode before the finale. where, instead of focusing on hunter's recent trauma with being possessed by his abusive parent and losing his best friend, the show decides to focus on willow's issues instead. of course willow deserves her own arc, but she already got it back in s1. there was no reason to give her ANOTHER issue to work on, just so that hunter can comfort her and give her a reason to like him back.

overall, it was really forced and these two characters never had the kind of natural chemistry that sokka and suki did. their interactions were either awkward or surface-level wholesome. we get exactly two (2) episodes where they interact properly and even that isn't done well. it just feels like these characters were pushed into a ship dynamic that they didn't naturally fit into.

#anti toh #toh criticism #toh critical #toh discourse #toh salt #anti huntlow #anti huntl0w #toh #atla #avatar the last airbender #the owl house spoilers #the owl house salt #the owl house criticism #the owl house critical #the owl house discourse #the owl house

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azural83 · 1 year

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Gus seeing belos' memories was just used for him to be a supportive friend towards hunter huh

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imsosocold · 1 year

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#canon do be feeding my hcs that Belos regularly hallucinates out of guilt #the owl house #owl house #toh #the owl house for the future #owl house for the future #toh for the future #the owl house critical #owl house critical #toh critical #the owl house criticism #owl house criticism #toh criticism #anti huntlow #noelle's rambles #excuse the spelling mistakes I'm too tired to fix anything

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azuremist · 1 year

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I feel like we haven’t given The Owl House enough shit for cannibalizing a 16-year-old from the inside-out, killing his emotional support animal, changing his eye color, giving him new scars and having him attempt suicide on-screen and then Not talking about it after. Like, just straight-up never bringing it up again

#i started thinking about toh again and got mad what else is new #the owl house critical #toh critical #toh salt #the owl house salt #the owl house #hunter #azure does a thing

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sukunasbabygirl · 1 year

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I think something that needs to be understood is that Wittebane fans understand that the brothers and Evelyn aren’t the main characters of the show, we understand the true focus is on characters like Luz, Eda, King, the Hexsquad etc, I mean I love those characters just as much.

The reason I’m personally frustrated, and many other enjoyers of the wittelore are as well, is because it was genuinely built up. We weren’t fixated on small crumbs, we were fixated on an entire story that was relevant to the world of the isles today and the characters today, we were fixated on something that made the antagonist both irredeemable yet human. Which, sidenote, I’ve made a few posts before on why it’s important that we have more villains who are both humanised yet irredeemable and why I loved Philip for that, so you can imagine how he was treated in the finale bothered me quite a bit, I digress however.

In Thanks to Them especially there were set ups that we never really got answers for, and there is a difference between show not tell and… show half of it but not the rest, which feels like what they did. We don’t actually know how Caleb found his way to the isles, or why there were clues to find the Titan blood, or how Philip got there afterward, being as he seemed to have arrived later than Caleb but had no idea in TTT where the Titan blood was. These all feel like questions that could be given very quick answers too.

They hinted at Philip’s guilt multiple times but never really went anywhere with it, and with how the finale played out, it would be better if they just didn’t show it at all. And I have so many feelings about how his death played out but I’m struggling to word them all right now, I know it was the intent to humiliate him and that’s fine, but the way it was executed was such a jarring tonal flip and to me at least, narratively, didn’t feel all that satisfying in the long run?

Also the fact that it’s confirmed now that the Titan was looking out for Luz… does bother me a lot, considering the early themes of the show. The fact they were just two humans who made their choices, and Luz looked to the sky and saw the light and Philip didn’t, it made them so interesting as foil characters, especially as Philip believed the isles was hiding the glyphs from him. But that was the thing, it wasn’t, at least not originally.

Back to the Wittebanes though, you can absolutely leave most of their story vague and told through portraits while also addressing the stuff that probably should be known, and honestly I feel like removing the Collector would allow this. I don’t hate the Collector, when he was originally introduced I found them fascinating as a character, for both his parallels to Philip and to Luz, but in the end, he didn’t exactly add much narrative or theme-wise to the story, which wouldn’t be a problem if these weren’t the final episodes, and he honestly felt under-utilised. Also there’s so many little confusing contradictions with their character. I feel like he could have been written to tie in with the wittelore and also remain a foil to Luz which would have worked well, but in the end it came off as very messy and the storylines didn’t really connect, which is a bit of a problem for a finale.

I know the show was cancelled and cut short, but the Collector we know was a decision made after they found this out, so it feels like we may have gotten more wittelore originally, which would have kept the story and themes cohesive. I think I’m starting to repeat myself now, and I’ve gone off on a bit of an unrelated tangent. I just have so many thoughts and nowhere to put them, and this episode really didn’t feel like The Owl House to me, it just lacked that same emotional flare that focused more on character and story beats in big fights than the shock value or enormity.

I wasn’t so keen on For the Future after rewatching and I think a lot of the arguably wasted screen time during that episode, causing a lack of proper set up for this episode, definitely affected things.

I love this show and I always will, and if you enjoyed the episode then I am so glad you did, these are just my own personal, very complicated feelings on things.

#toh critical #the owl house critical #toh #the owl house #toh criticism #hopefully most people have the critical tags blocked I don’t wish to make people feel negatively if they enjoyed it and don’t feel the same #toh spoilers

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asherisawkward · 3 months

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I found Luz not caring about the demon realms history annoying. I get it. Some of it was made up, but most of it wasn't, just why the crusade was started. It seems a lot of the history she got was through word of mouth.

You figure a fan of fantasy would be excited to learn the history and culture of a magical realm, not just magic. I'm surprise a lot more demons and witches didn't get fed up with her. The only thing who seemed to have anything against it was Hunter, but I could be remembering it all wrong. Sorry if this comes off as a rant.

I absolutely get what you mean!! Luz, from what I remember of TOH, spent a lot of time trying to fit the Boiling Isles into her opinion of what a fantasy world should be. She doesn’t really listen to the laws or the cultural norms. I suppose that it makes sense to ignore the laws to a certain extent, considering they’re made by a witch hunter pretending to be a benevolent ruler, but she doesn’t even try to think about things critically. Especially in this day and age, you are supposed to research and analyze before you draw a conclusion, not just take the word of some criminal who doesn’t even off you any proof. I love Eda. She’s badass and creative, and I adore how she grows to care about others through the series. But she is a biased character to introduce a world through, and Luz doesn’t even question it. She hears Eda’s “oh, he just wants to control magic” and runs with it.

The biggest example of her complete dismissal of the Boiling Isles culture, laws, and norms would be when she continued to push to be in all classes. Not only does she lack the necessary knowledge to cast precise spells, but she is asking the principal, the teachers, and all the students to risk themselves for her fantasy. This isn’t some petty pickpocketing that she’s asking a few people to ignore. She asks to be allowed to violate one of the most important laws in the whole country—it has the death penalty, for fuck’s sake! Principal Bump could have been executed for allowing this; the teachers could have gone to prison! And the students who don’t turn her in, while unlikely to suffer so severely, are likely to be punished as well! How many people could have been hurt or killed by her thoughtless violation of the laws if Belos had been shown to be a bit more how Dana claims he was? (Because, all things considered, he’s not shown to be the harshest ruler ever.)

Additionally, it bothers me that she never bothers to explore any real cultures or traditions on the Isles. She “wants to be a witch,” but doesn’t focus on anything other than the magic of it. If it were Harry Potter world, where witches are exclusively humans with human culture but magic, I’d get that, but it isn’t. It is a whole other world where everything from childhood to the system of government is different. Her refusal to let go of her preconceived notions and just explore what the BIs is like comes off a little bit like a weeb in their mother’s basement saying “I want to be Japanese,” going to Japan, and then never exploring it beyond their notions of what Japan is like from anime. I love Luz, and it was incredibly impactful for me to see a fellow neurodivergent fantasy nerd on screen, but she has a tendency of treating the Boiling Isles like her escapist fantasies. It bothers me that it’s not really addressed.

Finally, this lack of exploration leads to limited knowledge on what the actual inhabitants of the Boiling Isles are like aside from a select handful. What beliefs aside from the Titan do people have? What rituals do they perform, holidays do they celebrate? What are the people of the Boiling Isles like? Part of what I love about Amphibia is the time it takes to world-build, to show us all the different ways that the world works, and how there are varied, diverse, and unique cultures that are a part of it. It makes Amphibia dynamic and alive. The Owl House doesn’t do that with the Boiling Isles, and I’m bummed about that.

I hope this is close enough to what you’re talking about, because this got me on a tangent.

#The Owl House #TOH #The Owl House critical #TOH critical #Luz Noceda #Luz Noceda critical #Ask

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unfried-mouth-wheat · 10 months

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I think what annoys me the most about the handling of Belos’ character is that the show has shown multiple times that it knows people will do bad things for fully understandable reasons.

Amity is cruel to Willow and associates with bullies because her mother pressures her into doing so. Lilith attempts to attack, capture, and force Eda into a coven because she believes this is the only way to cure Eda and thus undo her greatest regret. Hunter is willing to sacrifice countless palisman because that means easing his uncles curse. Eda actively lies to King about his history because she knows the truth will hurt him. Raine knowingly puts Eda through great distress over them because they want to keep her safe. King lies to The Collector because he wants to protect his friends. The Collector is willing to do horrible things, like share his knowledge about the Draining Spell in the first place, because he’s lonely and wants to be free.

Like this show is so unfathomably understanding and forgiving to all of it’s characters when it comes to the cause of their actions. And obviously Belos wasn’t going to be redeemed, but the show gave us his reasons for what he did, shows us the true source of his villainy, and then completely backtracks.

It feels particularly disingenuous because the show goes through great pains to show that most characters do have deeper motives, and that under different circumstances, they would play completely different roles. But that same care isn’t given towards the literal main villain of the show.

#the owl house #the owl house critical #emperor belos #philip wittebane #i am going to scream

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unpopular-popular-opinions · 4 months

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hezuart · 5 months

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What do you think is wrong with Belos as a villain?

His plan is ridiculously long and convoluted, and we don't really get clear motivations behind his actions. On top of it all, he was so pissed off with his brother for falling love with a witch. Instead of blaming the witch or feeling hurt over his brother's choice, he went an even weirder route of cloning his own brother to manipulate, lie, then kill the clones in cold blood for several generations... for no good reason.

#its implied he's a salem witch trial 1700s colonial religious man #but the show doesnt... actually show that #hes just some guy really #and makes this elaborate plan to become the king and control the witches and then he finds this random star kid to help aid him and like #its this whole thing i really dont understand what the goal is here #the owl house critical #text post #ask #its also implied his brother actually did have a kid #so belos has or had a REAL nephew- not a fake one - and that is never addressed #i really dont understand what the point of hunter is honestly #hunter should have just been his real nephew- or a descendent that belos stole and manipulated #i dont understand why on earth he did this weird monster clone thing like what is the point #luz is the one to defeat belos too like hunter doesnt really feel like part of the story after that he's just there as Willows love interes

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they-call-me-haiku · 6 months

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hot take: gustholomule was way better developed and had more chemistry than huntlow, despite not being a canon ship

#i still don't understand why they chose huntlow over gustholomule #gus and matt already had a solid foundation #but they had to throw in a ship that had zero chemistry #smh i hate it here #toh criticism #toh critical #toh discourse #toh salt #anti huntl0w #anti huntlow #the owl house criticism #the owl house critical #the owl house discourse #the owl house salt #anti toh #gustholomule

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azural83 · 1 year

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Now that I think about it,thanks to them was the perfect opportunity for them to have willow suppressing her emotions instead of her... pretty much doing absolutely nothing. It could've foreshadowed her arc in for the future but nooo they had to randomly bring it up then wrap it up in 2 minutes for shipping moments

Willow deserved better writing

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thewiglesswonder · 1 year

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Oooh what are your thoughts about toh finale 👀 bring on the salt 😤

Alright everybody, buckle your fucking seatbelts.

First thing's first, I think that this show was suffering from major story-related issues that started as far back as mid-season 2. My problems start officially with Elsewhere and Elsewhen, because this is where I feel the show dropped the ball on one of the most important elements of any piece of media: its villain.

I firmly believe that a story is only as good as its villain, and up until this point, The Owl House had been doing an amazing job with Belos. The audience was kept in the dark about the true nature of his backstory, but, crucially, with enough material and hints provided to extrapolate the nature of it before it was revealed.

And many, many people came to the same conclusions. Luz, our lovable protagonist since day one, has had to come to her own grips with her weirdo-hood, the fact that she's not a Chosen One, that this world doesn't operate by the laws of her fantasy books. What better way for our villain to be than to have him directly foil this? Prior to Elsewhere and Elsewhen, this was the main thought about Philip Wittebane. Someone just like Luz, ostracized from his community in a much more visceral and potentially violent way, who also found sanctuary and some kind of acceptance on the Boiling Isles, before something causes him to become the Emperor we know today.

Elsewhere and Elsewhen and Hollow Mind essentially took this idea and spat in its face. The villain they gave us had absolutely zero depth, and was outright stated in the finale to be just that: only evil and deluded.

Even with the look into Philip and Caleb's life provided in Thanks to Them, the finale still took this and did what? Absolutely nothing with it. I just have no idea why they would put that much effort into giving Philip a backstory that's as potentially sympathetic as what we see, only to write him off as evil and only evil.

I've seen other people lauding this choice, because "good for them for showing us that not everybody has to be redeemed!" I am not saying that Belos could have or should have been redeemed, in fact, I had been rooting for him to die since the early seasons, a good death befitting of a good villain. Actually examining his backstory and fleshing him out as a character does not mean he would have been redeemed! If the Owl House's moral is that "people are complex", this would have aided in the delivery of that message!

Instead, what we got was three specials full of nothing but hot air, a gigantic amount of screentime devoted to a character that always felt like a shoehorn-in at best with the Collector, and the most disappointing, anticlimactic villain defeat I've ever seen in my life. And yes, I know there are people who loved it and think that this series can do no wrong. I acknowledge that this show is incredibly important culturally and that it was unfortunately limited by its cancellation. But this does not protect it from any and all criticism, especially when said criticism has to do with the integrity of the plot and the overall message of the show.

#tldr: why the fuck did they give belos such an involved backstory if they were going to handwave it away #why did they give the collector so much screentime when he really didn't do shit #why did they have the perfect opportunity to foil their villain with their protagonist and just NOT #AND WHY DID THE FINALE UNDERMINE EVERYTHING THEY'D BEEN BUILDING UP OVER THE SEASONS #feel free to talk to me about this. like I said #bottomless well of salt #asks #the owl house #toh #the owl house critical #toh critical

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azuremist · 1 year

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The worst thing in The Owl House is EASILY the way that BOTH of the “half-a-witch” storylines end up.

Willow’s getting bullied because she’s the witch equivalent of disabled? Well, joke’s on you! She was just in the wrong class! She’s not REALLY disabled, so stop bullying her!

Hunter’s a powerless witchlike being who uses his palisman as a disability aid? BOOM kill off the disability aid, now the disability is cured! Don’t even worry about it!

Wow. Thanks. I hate it.

#we got two storylines based off of characters facing in universe ableism. AND WE DIDNT EVEN GET A DISABLED CHARACTER OUT OF IT.#toh critical #toh criticism #the owl house critical #the owl house criticism #<- tagging it as this so hopefully people won’t be weird about me daring to Have Problems With The Show again #the owl house #hunter #willow #azure does a thing

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flower-boi16 · 4 months

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My Problems With Raine Whispers

Before I start this post, I just want to say that I'm a big fan of The Owl House. It's my personal favorite cartoon of all time - I think it's one of the best modern Disney cartoons out there. That being said, as much as I love The Owl House, the show isn't perfect, and today I'm going to talk about my problems with a specific character from the show; Raine. I never really cared for Raine, I didn't hate them but I didn't really like them either, they were just kinda meh to me. However, after a while I began to realize my real problems with Raine as a character and how their written. This is probably going to be a pretty big hot take so without further ado, let's begin with this post...

1. Raine doesn't feel that developed

This is something that's just an extension of a much bigger problem with Raine that I'll get to later, but a major issue I've always had with Raine is that they never really felt that developed of a character. Seriously, nothing about them was really that interesting to me, the show doesn't really develop them much. Now, I'm not expecting the show to give a full-length character arc to a side character, however, the show has many side characters like Matholamule, Hooty, Viney, and Boscha.

Raine has waaaay more screen time and plot importance than any of the characters I just mentioned yet they still feel less developed than those characters. Granted, this is probably something that could just be blamed on the shortening, but it's still a major problem nonetheless. But this is something that is just a part of a greater issue, which is the fundamental problem with Raine to me:

2. Raine feels solely defined by Eda

This is my biggest issue with Raine; their character feels like it's solely defined by Eda. Now, having a relationship with another character be a core aspect of a character isn't a bad thing; take Amity for example, Amity's relationship with Luz is definitely an important part of her character, the first thing people think about whenever they think about Amity is that she is Luz's girlfriend.

However, while Amity's relationship with Luz is a core aspect of her character, she isn't just "Luz's girlfriend". There are still many aspects of Amity's character beyond her relationship with Luz, and she gets her own character arc of gradually becoming a better person throughout Season 1. Even in Season 2 where people say that Amity is just reduced to "Luz's girlfriend" she still has some episodes in Season 2 developing her as a character where they explore her relationship with her parents.

And If I'm going to be honest, Raine kinda feels like everything that people say Season 2 Amity is. Like, really think about it, what other aspects are there about Raine's character aside from "Eda's childhood friend/Ex"? The only other things about Raine I can really think of are that their a bard and a Coven Head rebelling against the EC, but that's...kind of it. And these two traits aren't as prominent as their relationship with Eda.

Raine's whole character feels like it's solely defined by Eda. The character they interact the most with is Eda, the character they spend the most screentime with is Eda, and the biggest and most prominent trait is their relationship with Eda. And Eda's awesome, she's one of my favorite characters in the show, but when a character is developed beyond their relationship with another character, that's kind of a problem.

It never feels like the show really develops Raine beyond "Eda's childhood friend/Ex", they do not have many major characters aside from that and the few that they do have are overshadowed by this one trait. The entire concept of Raine's character IS defined by Eda. I'll admit, Raine is a cool idea for a character, but the show really develops them beyond that idea and it ends up being very mediocre in execution.

Again, there's nothing wrong with making a character's relationship to another character a core aspect of them, again Amity is an example of how to do that right, but you need to develop a character and give them more traits beyond just their relationship to another character. Otherwise, you end up with that character becoming solely defined by that other character, and that simply isn't good writing to me. Again, I know these problems were probably caused by the shortening, but they are still major issues that I feel need to be pointed out. Besides, the shortening didn't stop Season 2B and Season 3 from being amazing anyway.

Again, I know that Raine's just a side character, but considering that their the side characters with the most plot importance compared to others, I feel like It isn't unreasonable to expect the show to develop them well.

3. Conclusion

So uh, that's why I don't really care for Raine as a character. If you like Raine, good for you, but I just don't really find them that good of a character. I know this is kind of a hot take (which is why I am very scared of posting this) so uh if everything I just said is objectively wrong then uhhhh please tell me lmao. And that's it so...

...bye

#raine whispers #toh #raine toh #the owl house #toh critical #toh criticism #the owl house critical #the owl house criticism #toh analysis #character analysis

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