Toh Breakdown - Blog Posts

Reaching Out - Part 3 : Edric, Eda & Worldbuilding

Finally & hopefully the last part of this breakdown... The subplots ! And this episode did very well with them !

As previously stated in Part 1; even outside of Luz/Amity/Alador, we've got some neat stuff going on in the background.

Eda is trying to find out more about Raine's situation & the Day of Unity; while Edric is feeling kind of useless & inadequate. And together, they both help the worldbuilding !

Point n°3 : Through her relationship with Raine & her worries, Eda helps to keep the whole season cohesive. She lets kids be kids, but in almost all episodes keep asking questions regarding Raine's situation : this episode is no exception, and thanks to her we get some new precisions on the Day of Unity !

It also helps the worlbuilding, as last episode did, because the Emperor's Coven has been looking less & less like a monolith. Whereas we could have been tempted to think last season that most people wholeheartedly agreed with Belos, as time pass more & more cracks start to show and even characters from directly under Belos' rule start showing some hesitation.

Point n°4 : On the other hand, Edric's subplot is (like Darius in last ep) a perfect example of how to develop a secondary character without highjacking other characters screentime ! Through making him work with Eda, the writers have enabled Edric to show off both his capabilities as well as his insecurities while making him fit inside the plot in a fairly natural way, and thus keep the screentime + plot from scattering everywhere. And when your secondary characters get developped, the world thanks you !

Thanks to Reaching Out, we learn how to better differentiate Edric from his twin; and I have hope we will get a similar subplot for Emira later on !

-> When a family isn't working as it should, all members are always affected in some way. So if Amity is bearing the brunt of her mothers' expectations & expected to behave almost perfectly... Edric seems lost as some kind of middle child : treated as a joke by both his sisters (though neither mean ill) and unable to find his place & carve his niche (at least officially) in the family as a result. He is a jokester for sure, but this episode shows clearly that constantly being the brunt of the joke takes his toll like most things do when in excess, and that he isn't good at asserting himself. Edric would love to help & make himself useful, since as of now he has some clear self-esteem issues.

-> Even better : Edric's character and insecurities help the plot, because it ties back perfectly into the problems surrounding Covens & wild magic. Edric is a character who doesn't seem to be an ace or A+ student in Illusion magic, but rather a jack-of-all-trade who knows some stuff from multiple fields of Magic (Beastkeeping, Illusions, Potions) and likes to play with it and invent stuff. However, this kind of pedigree isn't particularly validated in their world's, and even less by Odalia (most likely) which leads him to feel useless or incompetent. Whereas, as Eda says herself, he could have "a great future in wild magic" !

This directly contrasts Amity who, despite knowing Luz & supporting her in everything, firmly centers her interest & future around Abomination magic. Which is just as valid ! Thus showing that over-specialization AND playing around with every field of magic are both perfectly valid way of learning, but one of these stay unorthodox and illegal under Belos' rule.

--> Even outside of his nefarious plans for the Day of Unity, this episode is a great reminder of how Belos' reign has harmed the witches world, and many teenagers are forced to join a Coven when they would be much happier dabbling into several fields, and end up feeling "wrong" or "not good enough" because of the mold they're forced into.

While I- wasn't a big fan of Emira jumping in front of Edric to ask for a T-Shirt as well ;; (sort of stealing his thunder & putting herself in front again) I do not hold it against her.

I hope in the future we'll have a Emira subplot to get a better handle on her character, but as of now it is likely that she suffers from the opposite problem : still a prankster but also stuck in the big sister position, and feeling the need to be the helpful & responsible one and take good care of her siblings if her parents won't. I don't think we have had the same Wild Magic vibe from her as we did Edric's so far however : she uses Healing magic along with her Illusions yes, but this is still very in line with the ''responsible big sister'' energy that she carries and not some for fun/curiosity skill that she would have picked on simply because she wanted to like Edric seem to have.

Being twins & more often than not being together is a double-edged sword : problematic for the both of them, for entirely different reasons. So I hope that Emira will find a place outside of her family as well and if possible an adult to count on ! I don't know if Eda is that person for her, and if joining the Bad Girl Coven is her answer (it'd still put her & Edric right next to each other, so I don't know if that would be my favorite answer personally). But I have full hope we will get our answer in the future !

Final Point : I had to comment on this after seeing some people pick up on it while I didn't but...

-> About Sharing your burdens with other :

The way they handled Luz's difficulty with sharing her problems and fear of being a burden, the details... were all perfect.

The "immediatly trying to downplay the gravity of whatever you're trying to say before even starting". The carefully controlled & matter of fact delivery to hide the wavering of her voice. How ready she is to brush it off in case Amity isn't interested in delving into it. And how what makes her voice crack is the painfully small & almost inconsequential line of "and I don't have any flowers"

Because listen, I don't have Luz's backstory, and my problem doesn't reside so much in distracting myself from my problems as much as it is not being aware of them in the first place. But, and I'm sure many people can agree... I relate to this behaviour very much.

I'm a very positive person in general, I'm fine more often than not & I rarely realize when something is wheighing on me or only after 3 more problems have piled up on top of it. Sharing something wrong or genuinely sad & important feels almost alien : i never know how to even start and nothing feels natural. So I end up automatically saying I'm fine, and then it's kind of too late to get back on the subject isn't it ? But when I do share, or when the bad stuff starts to snowball & I have to acknowledge it, it always starts to crack with one small inconsequential line like this. And that's the case for so many of us !

Because of course the problem isn't just that Luz doesn't have flowers, but that's an issue so... simple and palpable. So concrete.

It's easy to ignore big imposant problems, but the small ones always manage to dig under our skin and make our throats close up like this. It's never the flowers, or the "you didn't talk to me yesterday" or the "my uncle didn't ask anyone what kind of gift i'd like". It's everything that surrounds it, follows it but that you're unable to tackle without first cracking about the small stuff. The voice acting was perfect, and I felt so much for Luz at that moment

-> About Grief & Luz's family : and FINALLY, by answering our questions about Luz's dad, this episode helped to broaden Luz's character & make her family seem all that more real. Several time already, The Owl House has jested & rejected the concept of Chosen One : but Luz's dad was still a mystery and some people already imagined that it would be a big plot point. And now we see... it isn't. Or it is, but only in how his death impacted Luz and contributes to developping her character. Because it means back on earth, it really was JUST her & her mother, through no fault of her dad.

At the same time, it does good to Camilla's character. She tried her best, as a lone mother, grieving her husband, trying to be there for Luz. And it makes the end of Yesterday's Lie all that more heartbreaking because her "Did you hate living with me that much ?" takes a whole other subtext with that information in mind. Did she fail ? Did she not manage to be there for her daughter and make up for her dad's passing ? Camilla had a husband and a daughter, she lost one to death and then the other to another world without even knowing it. She had both and then she had neither. She was left alone without even knowing it.

Really, this information & this episode in general did so much for so many character : incredible job here TOH crew.

ALSO I LOVE LUZ'S NEW HAIRSTYLE & I LOVE HER WITH EDA'S JACKET. I HOPE SHE'S GONNA KEEP IT <3 <3

That's it everyone. Nex is out

Reaching Out - Part 2 : Amity & Alador

Next in my Reaching Out breakdown : this time we learn more about Amity, her hopes for the future, her relationship with Alador, and her brother Edric (for part 3) !

Point n°2 : So what's up with Alador ? Unhealthy family relationships are very complicated, and though in some situations entirely dropping your family members to find yourself people that actually care about you is the best and RIGHT solution... In many cases the situation won't be as easy. Because kids care about their parents, or one of them, or like the idea of a family too much to give it up, or simply because sometimes parents fuck up without really meaning to, or fuck up because they got too busy but weren't actively trying to be malicious, and they can want & try to do better if you confront them about it. It's up to each individual's, and no one ever HAS to forgive anyone; but these things are often full of nuance and different for each individual. I think TOH in this episode striked a great balance on this subject.

-> This episode shows that if Amity has genuine struggles & problems with Odalia and her controlling nature, she has some curiosity and respect for her father. She wants to know him better, she wants to relate, she loves Abominations just like him, she knows he's not just this monolith of an inventor because he was a kid like her who did combat competitions and who (possibly ?) was the better parent before getting too busy with his company : based on anymore in Amity's "You don't listen to us anymore !". She wants to see if there is hope for a relationship here, or for mending one, and I think this ambiguity & messiness is very realistic & (hopefully) relatable to many kids out there.

-> At the same time, Alador clearly is neglectful. Not as bad as Odalia, but he did do wrong by his kids & hurt them by simply standing by and not taking the time to be with them and get to know them as people. Amity isn't interested in suddenly forgetting everything and hugging it out as many kids wouldn't in her situation. Hope & boundaries overlap in a very mature resolution, through Amity refusing her father's hug in favor of a handshake and reminding him that this is good... but only a start. (This can also parallel Amity & Willow "reconciliation" since we have hints here & there that Willow isn't completely over it either.) I hope we will see the effects of this episode on their relationship in the future, and that Alador will try to be better, for Amity's sake, and since it does seem that he loves his kids to some extent... but is shitty at parenting.

In conclusion : a good story line to tackle Amity's relationship with her other parent. We know what to expect from Odalia with what we've seen; but seeing as Alador likes to keep to the background there were some loose ends to focus on & screw tighter. Now we have a better idea of where their relationship is at; and I'm sure we will get hints in the upcoming episodes if Alador does end up working on himself as a parent !

Next part to wrap up this episode by tackling together all the loose ends & subplots !

Reaching Out breakdown Part 1 : Luz & Amity

Last ep was AMAZING. Best ep of the S2B in my opinion, seeing as the show (so far) has suffered a bit from trying to put 2 plotlines in each episode (I don't hold it against them seeing as Disney is cutting them short), plotlines that weren't always cohesive or could appear to take time from each other. But the last one ?? *chief's kiss*

To start off : we are still left with 2 plotlines (even more we could say) but as they are all focused in the same place, the overall pacing & the episode itself is way more cohesive and it allows them time to let everyone have their spotlight & development without any frustration. There are even more plotlines than the previous ep and it is still AMAZING. Because let's review, we have :

Luz struggling with the aniversary of her dad's passing + still reeling from the ramifications of not being able to go back home

Amity trying to relate to her dad, fighting for her future and suffering the consequences of Luz's inability to reach out

Eda scheming and attempting to get informations out of the warden Wrath regarding Raine & the Day of Unity

Edric feeling useless, overshadowed & out of place compared to his siblings because of his "jack-of-all-trades" disposition that isn't highly valued by most of the witches world.

Development of Amity's family in general, through making Alador more of a character with his own failings (neglect) different from Odalia's downright abusive and controlling behaviour, and showing more of Edric & Emira's personnalities.

And all of the plotlines went together swimmingly, which I really really loved ! Like, my fav character is probably Hunter, I really liked Any Sport in a Storm, but I can't tell you how much I appreciated Reaching Out. It made me love & care soo much about Luz & Amity all over again.

Point n°1 : The Lumity, and Luz & Amity themselves, were absolutely amazing. I absolutely love these girls' relationships but was personally sorta dissatisfied with their intervention in Any Sport in a Storm... Mostly because I don't really care about the Luzura books and thus this subplot really didn't speak to me. THIS EP THOUGH ? Both of them really shined, as HUMANS with mistakes to their name.

-> Luz, for starter, is an amazing teenager. She's friendly, curious, full of energy & compassion. But it's also refreshing to let her make mistakes & be imperfect : in this episode, she wasn't. She was going through a really hard time, and inadvertently used Amity to distract herself from it even if it meant only ''pretending'' to be doing this for her & inadvertently causing her trouble in the end. The episode acknowledged it, but didn't bash Luz in any way for it. Because we as humans are a complex canvas and wonderful people can make mistakes, can hurt people. And it doesn't make them any wonderful as a package. Luz, in general, has a problem (similar to Eda) with sharing what's bothering her. It's 2 times in a row now that she's failed to share with Amity what was on her mind and brushed her off, and this time really managed to show how hurtful it can be as the other party, even if Luz doesn't have any ill will while doing this. This episode allowed Amity to be upset over Luz (however inadvertent) hurtful actions & how her tendency to run away from her emotions can come back to bite her in the back later.

Luz acknowledged what she did was wrong, that she had reasons but not excuses, she even let herself express some ugly feelings; and she genuinely apologized. She allowed herself to be weak and to share what was bothering HER, all while admitting that her way of coping wasn't healthy or fair to Amity. I loved that, not because I hate Luz but because she's a teenager, she will make mistakes as we all do, and what she did showed an incredible emotional maturity. I am only proud of her <3

-> Amity got another episode to shine again as her own person, to explore her aspirations for the future outside of her realtionship to Luz, and how she felt about her other parent. She was allowed this episode to be disappointed & upset over the turn of event, and to show how Luz's inability to share her problems was hurting her girlfriend (both mentally & in more concrete ways). At the same time, Amity showed incredible care & gentleness because these two love each other and Luz had a damn good reason to be feeling down and out of place. A concept I heard in a Cinema Therapy video is called "putting it on a shelf" : it occurs when (in any kind of relationships) both people have something they want to do or say, or both have an issue; but one of said things/issues is way more important at the present time and so you put "on hiatus" your own situation to properly take care of the other. Amity this episode made a great use of this concept, and showed herself to truly be an "Awesome Girlfriend".

Amity listening intently to Luz and dropping the judgment as soon as her girlfriend opened up, as well as taking the time to reassure her that she LISTENED, she HEARD and she definitely CARED for what she was going through was an absolutely amazing show of love; and I appreciated that so so much.

In conclusion : an incredible Lumity episode, that doesn't hesitate to tackle some very real issues with honesty but kindness. These girls are still growing, they're bound to make mistakes. But so long as they care about each other and vow to do better : they will be okay.

Part 2 with the other plotlines incoming !