Exploring Morality in The Owl House

the Animal House is a show that understands that the strongest story isn't going to be making a black and white statement about good versus evil there are no serious claims that the power of friendship or whatever is going to triumph over the evil of bellows or that good deeds allow one to earn a place in society Instead The Owl House foregoes the rudimentary complexes that hold up evil as an immutable inevitability of the existence of good and instead goes for a theme that I think is a lot stronger the Paradigm of the owl house is not a battle of good versus evil it's a war between understanding and willful ignorance best represented by our hero Luz noceda and our primary antagonist Philip whittibaine AKA Emperor Bellos today we're going to take a look at how the Owl House embodies these ideas in Lucent fellows and how this empowers the audience in a way that is simpler assertion of good over evil doesn't but first let's wander into the Garden of Eden and take a look at the basics the truth of the knowledge of Good and Evil secure the broad concepts of Good and Evil are part of a dogmatic black and white mindset that the Owl House deliberately rebukes at every opportunity but what does that actually mean generally speaking ideas about Good and Evil in media are assumed in Broad Strokes along a utilitarian or humanitarian rail whatever benefits the most people versus what harms the most people these days antagonists have reasons which is great sometimes very compelling emotional ones that while not excusing their actions still give context for why we should understand the situation as complicated and empathize with them this produces anguish in a confrontation one of the strongest emotional resonances possible however shows rarely dig into the why of Good and Evil they're simply assumed to exist as forces in the world as elements that cannot exist without the other as some sort of cosmic balance where they come from what produces their effects in people goes unexamined which is fine in plenty of cases not every story has or requires this kind of examine nation which no matter how you slice it is going to add a philosophical or religious Dimension to your narrative and regardless of how determined and bad Disney was at trying to strip this out of the Owl House a philosophical and religious cultural rebuke is one of the show's defining aspects you can put us in a New England cemetery and take out all the crosses you can give us a literal witch-hunting villain who screams this I can cleanse this petition myself which is a much more specific religious term than the word hell but Bellows and what he represents can't really be separated from his Twisted relationship to certain ideas about good evil crime and punishment but stepping aside from him for a moment I want to take a second to talk about what this cultural rebuke looks like in the show there's the very obvious visual stuff like how our light aligned hero is heavily associated with snakes in Christian lore snakes represent Satan and evil where many pre-christian and non-Christian cultures associate snakes with things like transformation fertility wisdom and immortality there's the deliberate choices of giving heroic characters things like red eyes or fangs secondary color palettes as opposed to primary color palettes but let's take a walk in the weeds for a moment about how the Thematic rebukes takes shape for one thing the owl house doesn't have Redemption arcs for any character bear with me here I fully plan to die on this hill in a later video but the important part for today is this every transformation the characters in The Owl house go through is much better described as an Awakening Arc these characters eyes are opened to something that changes them hold that in mind as we proceed moreover even when the characters have done terrible things there is way less emphasis on punishing them for their actions The Owl House lets them feel the consequences asks them to grow but punishment is left out of the equation in favor of restorative justice forgiveness when there's a sincere desire to grow and this isn't limited to Compassion or forgiveness in these cases either we also see instances of pure Mercy which is when punishment is withheld even if the person in question may actually really deserve it from the perspective of the wronged I find it extremely interesting that this is sometimes held up as a criticism of this show like it wasn't intentional we are so used to shows making really specific kind of simple moral statements about punishment so much so that when it's absent it feels strange more than a few people complain that Lilith Amity and even Hunter somehow deserved more punishment than they got and frankly I feel like this kind of misses the point you're supposed to feel that absence however the application of that forgiveness and kindness also isn't a blanket answer to complex moral issues even when our heroes favor restorative justice over retribution the absurdity of applying forgiveness to a character like Bellows is frankly called out for a childish understanding of a moral situation where the villain really does need to die sometimes good characters make stupid mistakes and while the show doesn't feel the need to punish them they do feel the consequence of their actions with varying degrees of severity black and white thinking isn't applied however the Owl House does take strong positions on what good and evil are not really in fluffy terms of philosophy but in terms of actions committed with agency that affect the world around the characters and through that it has a pretty unflinching stance on it but what specifically does that mean well let's shed a little light on that by taking a look at the show's main representative motifs of Good and Evil light and Shadow knock knock human is framed as unambiguously good associated with light why when so many protagonists these days are developed with a bit more Darkness to make them more complex Philip widibane Emperor Bellows is drawn exclusively in Shadow with very little in the way of nuance why when other villains in recent years get a much more gentle light speckled approach light is usually associated with goodness and dark with evil now on the one hand there is a primal quality to these associations we are mostly human and humans are dinaural we can't see in the dark therefore scary light keeps things that want to hurt us away light shows us things that we previously could not see and dark obscures that which would remain unknown the darkness hides and distorts information what ends up happening when this is taken for granted this blanket binary of light good dark bad is you end up with a class situation where the metaphor extends to all moral things this isn't always terrible such as in Broad allegorical epics like the Lord of the Rings which do need to be taken with heaps of salt these days anyway but often in cartoons when it's played straight it doesn't really capture a plausible scenario kids know that things aren't perfectly black and white all the time and it's where the depiction becomes well cartoonish you end up in a situation where a show will deliberately subvert the light and dark motifs shoving into this notion of dark isn't bad just misunderstood hold on to this one as we proceed this is especially true in media that deliberately invokes light as a pure Authority that has an ulterior motive to deceive and manipulate but it does put us in a cultural situation where light these days is just as likely to be distrusted representative of authority that tells us it's good without actually being good this is as far as many media get distrust Authority think for yourselves the light may have an ulterior motive but the message of user-critical thinking skills to examine what is good and what is bad is only as powerful as the narrative allows it to be good and evil as concepts are really only etched into the visual motifs when a show is trying to go out of its way to ask us to sympathize with the bad guys and hope they will see the error of their weights in modern shows good and evil are a lot more likely to align with other more tangible ideas like oppression versus Freedom or something as broad as hope versus nihilism rather than dig into the details of what environment create good or produce evil most of what we get along that particular track is the villain has an understandable reason a good reason if you will unless the villain in question is a completely Unapologetic and uncomplicated sack of [ __ ] however what makes the owl house so special to me is that it does go deeper than that we do have the common and Powerful oppression versus Freedom hope versus Despair and apathy but the real Paradigm in the Owl House operates within a box that contains the capacity to discuss all of those Topics by getting to the root of it in the Owl House good and evil isn't a binary axis upon which the world spins it goes further goodness is the result of understanding and willful ignorance is where evil thrives let's take this concept and extend it a little further because frankly this is something I never heard really discussed or pushed growing up no really why are we so scared of what's in the dark because it's unknown the dark is unknown and it is light that makes The Unknown Known so with all of that in mind let's go ahead and circle back to talk about the source of light in this show our hero I'm loose loose the way the Owl House names its characters is probably worthy of its own little video but I'm going to start with the basics today the name loose is very common in Spanish-speaking countries and literally means light the name noceda is likewise also pretty common and has more to do with walnut trees than anything else but it is a pun on the Spanish command for don't give in taking together the hero of our story is basically named light don't give in this is pretty well known in fandom spaces at this point but the reason I bring it up here is I want to take it a little bit further with respect to what loose's role in the story actually is sure she is the hero the story shows us this but the fact of the matter is that loose's main role in the story isn't about vanquishing evil or a specific person that is something she does as our protagonist but the goodness she sows revolves around her being herself in proximity to others and by doing so allows them to do the same for themselves this by the way is basically the power of representation in action so how does loose accomplish this loose is unspoken and unknown deepest desire at the beginning of the narrative is to be understood this strives to be understood is what enables her to empathize and understand others so well even if she hasn't consciously comprehend this until the end of the narrative she comes to her relationships first by seeing someone as they are without the baggage they've either stuck to themselves or have been saddled with and then by trying to understand them by asking questions engaging or otherwise being sensitive to wounds she's able to reach them simply by being her weird neurodivergent quirky inquisitive self even taking into account the biases she does have based on the kind of media she likes they're all things that are a pretty factually correct about the people who would become her chosen family loose leads Ida to a greater understanding of herself and her condition understanding that Eda denied herself she accepts King like a brother as someone who despite his childishness and age is worthy of respect respect he hasn't gotten anywhere else that empowered him to grow and mature with Willow loose doesn't see weakness or lack of control she sees strength and resolves to help Willow Discover It by supporting her in her school crimes Gus isn't someone loose just indulges she goes past the child prodigy thing and sees his anxieties about usefulness and inexperience and tries to give him tangible proof of the opposite that he can ground himself with now if I was to try and dissect every example of this it would just end up being a summary of the entire show so for our purposes let's take a look at the two tougher cells on Lucy's list to show exactly how loose's light empowers positive change in the people she meets say you're not a witch I'm not a witch loose breaks the mold of your why a fantasy protagonist in a number of ways but for this bit we're going to focus on how she affects change in other people instead of defeating feeding perspective party members with this impassioned charismatic species or a combination of both that Ram the errors of an antagonistic's character's ways down their throats loose's approaches weirdly a lot subtler by existing as herself honestly and unabashedly she sheds light on the parts of the other character that they were self-diluting or in denial about the parts of them that they come to realize that they don't really like or are in conflict with how they want to see themselves Lucy's proximity inspires the character to make changes by revealing these things let's start with how this worked with Amity all bisexual Panic aside loose approached her with respect interest and compassion a position that assumed that Amity had a reason for acting like a huge [ __ ] and Amity spends this entire episode railing about how witches and humans are different only for loose to gently show that they have a lot in common with their shared desire to become great Witches by doing this it prompts Amity to see herself reflected in loose something she can't unseat watching how loose is is with her friends reveals to Amity how toxic and broken her own relationships with her friend group are and with no prodding or external coercion Amity begins to push back first and small ways and then later in Greater Stripes apologizing and revealing to Willow how she broke the two of them in the first place and really importantly expecting nothing from Willow in return by season 2 episode 2 Amity spells it out for the audience in a very pivotal moment for her character and the plot rewards that with hard earned strength it's from here that Amity is able to take massive Leaps and Bounds away from the authority seeking biddable and high-strung version of herself to one that Embraces her own Rebellion these are defined by her new boundaries and critically a good faith empathy that informs how she interacts with Lou's Hunter and Willow all this without loose ever pointing a finger at her and telling her that she needs to change just by being close to her loose inspired Amity to transform herself so that's one enemy to love her in the bag but how about enemy to brother let's talk a little bit about Hunter with Hunter for that he was a bit of a jackass and an enemy The Moment The Mask came off loose didn't see an enemy Hunter isn't personally feared the golden guard however must be which puts hunter in a weird position of having to compartmentalize himself to a ludicrous degree in order to fulfill the role the cocksure playful confident parts of his nature are stuck to the golden guard's mask as a result and the moment it comes off the brutalized mess of a teen that he is gets laid completely bare Lucy's appear someone very like herself in terms of interest and Fascination and frankly someone who was in danger and in need of help so much help oh my God but starting at the beginning loose and her PJs and him with his face revealed she just by being herself treats him like people this is depressingly pretty new for him and very importantly like one would expect of a normal interaction asks for Hunter's name now at this point in the story The Audience doesn't quite realize how huge of a deal this is I talk about this more in my hunter video but Bellows uses Hunter's name as a choke chain an intimacy only Bellows is allowed to have as evidenced by the fact that no one else uses it it increases the distance between Hunter and his own personhood he is a tool to Bellows not people but Loose by empathizing with him sees and treats him like a person like a friend and by the end of the episode he is so moved by this that he willingly puts aside the golden guard long enough to claim that just listen to the way he says the words my name foreign he's not just offered loose a very dangerous vulnerability here by loose treating him well the way that she'd like to be treated with understanding she's revealed his well Humanity isn't quite the right word but you get the idea and this is a threshold he can't uncross it's this critical thing the seeing of his own Humanity that makes it possible for him to interface with the likes of Flapjack it enables him to empathize with Amity and makes him capable of making and keeping friends and finally it gives Hunter the psychological protection to survive bellows's attempt on his life in Hollow mind loose extending the understanding she wishes for herself to others leads characters to growing in empathy for themselves and as a result and acting positive and interpersonal change good things love trust compassion all grow in the light of understanding so why doesn't this work with Bella after all the formula for many kids shows in the past has been to extend understanding to even horrifically evil villains forgiveness is demonstrated to have the power to fix them however an equal number of shows a stew that mode these days by allowing the villain to be soundly defeated we've talked a lot about light now it's time to head into the shadow realm and take a look at the deepest nastiest source of darkness in this show Emperor Bellos who wraps himself in white and gold it does feel good to hear another human say that name let's start with names then Philip witabane is a very scrub-tier Puritan name in that the given name Philip is common derived from the greek lover of horses point is it's very common and not particularly special widobain simply means bane of witches so there's that frankly as far as Puritan names go with names like this on the roster he got lucky imagine if you will for a moment Philip abuse not with a bane regardless this is the name the emperor Bellows tends to use with respect to himself even going so far as to risk and [ __ ] up his entire end game plan just to hear another human being he thinks he's beaten say it we'll come back to this Bellos is a little more complicated the most common and frankly sensible interpretation is that it's derived from the Babylonian God Bale Bale or at the very least the fact that Bell is a prefix that generally means Lord Master husband whatever and the OS suffix becomes this idea of Lord the bail connotation however given the name status within Christian demonology would be perfectly in keeping with the man's tendency to make horrible private jokes to himself with respect to names given how he found it amusing to name a whole ass person after his job in a very tee sort of way and uses Catholic imagery Pomp and Circumstance to subjugate the Demonic and witchy masses it would make perfect sense for him to choose a name derived from Bale and thus name himself king of demons however there is another interpretation I also quite like that I think also follows the format of the show's very literal naming system bellows in the language of major import Spanish or Latin gains a connotation with the word beautiful from bail Lucifer Morningstar the Devil Himself was said to be amongst the most beautiful of the angels and it's hard not to notice how this man wraps himself up in a mask of gold and cloak of white and is fully undone by stubborn Pride that utterly defeats a very smart man in the dumbest ways possible this guy who at the moment of his goopy monstrous death is insisting on his Humanity after having become the closest thing to Satan himself possible for this world I'm inclined to lean a little more in this direction than the bail one if only for its Elegance however all of these play into his role in The Narrative regardless he is the villain however also like loose the most potent aspect of his role as the villain is how he executes it what I find most interesting about Bellows is even though his root in broad sweeping Strokes is very conventional in terms of outright villainy his defining characteristic isn't his genocidal Ambitions or even the fact that he's a profoundly Petty serial killer he's a liar but that you say being a liar is hardly a special characteristic for a villain well here's the thing bellows in this text simply put is a brute he's a genocidal serial killer who drinks up the pain of his victims he built his Empire by manufacturing the threat of wild witches through terrorist attacks and maintains his role with threats of violent imprisonment and torture during Hollow mind he's he's leading these kids by the hand while actively contemplating the creative decisions that will hurt them the most individually and smiling the entire goddamn time he enjoys playing the role of the infirm old man for a captive audience of one the dude loves playing his roles I swear if he could have had a musical number for hollow mind he absolutely would have as far as Disney villains go scar Ursula and the [ __ ] shadow man should take notes from this guy however despite having the clever Mind of a tinkerer and a crack scientist when presented with the choice of the smart thing and the cruel thing he consistently chooses cruelty over a sense like clockwork sometimes he even goes out of his way to pursue it it is astounding and it keeps [ __ ] him over and he keeps doing it however what interests me so much about him and frankly what I think is the most compelling thing about him is that people don't often think of bellows as being a brute at all he's usually imagined in the fan imagination as a smooth soft-spoken and subtle bastard all of which is contrivance the fact of the matter is he's strangled and blindfolded everyone around him with lies and he's made himself the solution to their problems so even though it seems like he's controlling all his little puppets with very subtle movements of his hands when the strings are wrapped around these characters metaphorical throats and they have willingly put on blindfolds gives Bellows his violence a very Sleek mask so much so that even large portions of the audience buy into his [ __ ] and this yes my friends is where the motif of Shadows come in Shadow is not the opposite of light its light's parasite Shadow can't exist without it darkness is an absence of light light is not an absence of Shadow the purpose of a lie is to hide the truth to tangle it in confusion and dim the vision bellows's role as the villain is the universe of loose in that he's the antagonist sure but where loses proximity to people leads them to discover things about themselves and others to empathize and thus perform acts of goodness compassion and self-sacrifice Bellows his proximity to the cast actively obfuscates truths about themselves and others which enable acts of self-sabotage cruelty and well evil and for this to work they have to buy into it willfully because the horrific truth is harder to face than a beautiful lie so let's take a look at some examples of how Bellos wields willful ignorance and from that begets evil he is no wizard he's what you call a puppeteer bellowska strives to be smoother and more powerful than he is because of the methods he uses to control people I want you to take a look though at the people who are following orders here or actively enabling them there are people like Tara and Adrian who are clearly pathological pieces of drawn to the power of the emperor's coven and would be doing no matter who was in charge and then there are the rank and file of The Emperor's coven they're [ __ ] cops there are people attracted to power and hungry for the egoic satisfaction of punishing others regardless of how disproportionate it is all this is built on a foundation of Bones and revised history it makes the population vulnerable to a prevailing propaganda campaign even when it's completely ridiculous on its face like the whole coven system however to get a clearer look at how Bellows Darkness Motif distorts how characters and proximity to him see the world and also themselves we need to take a look at those directly in his shadow Lilith kikimura and Hunter Lilith's authentic self is exuberant melodramatic and deeply emotional and when she's able to recognize the person in the mirror her intelligence and analytical skills flourish so it's very telling to me that when she's introduced even if it's only for a moment she's wearing a mask and proceeds to give the impression of someone who is cold serious and desperate to see herself as dignified and in control with varying results someone motivated by ambition and the right thing rather than well guilt Bellows presents himself as an alternative solution to her ugly emotional problem so let's take Lilith's guilt for example ambition which often comes from a place of wanting to be acknowledged led to her actions that ruined her sister's life Eda her sister who was her best friend someone she loves Lilith is emotionally frozen into that guilty teenage place and has been unable to reconcile that part of her life with any kind of honesty the horror is just too much she needs to bury it with justification distraction anything that will allow her to reframe herself as someone trying to do good she is not excellent at hiding this and Bellows if not particularly subtle is very perceptive of other people's fears especially when he had an active hand in shaping the wants of a populace for over a generation Bella's approval represents acknowledgment a greater good salvation and a role that's easier to stomach than the messy reality that characters like Lilith Kiki Mora and Hunter would otherwise have to address if they were able to stare it in the face and it's so much easier so much safer not to they stop acknowledging the root of the emotional issue guilt insecurity replaceability in favor of putting on the mask that Bellows provides this gives them an alternate identity and a role that better fits his narrative and actively obscures who the person actually is in favor of the person bellows's promises will win his approval Bellows take whatever shape he needs to in order to fill the hole in that person's heart made all the easier if it's a hole he put there himself and as a result these characters in part become the mask that he's given them come to love it Bella's Shadow blinds them to the person they actually are until someone turns on the lights by forcing a confrontation between the mask and the reality of that person hiding in a corner of their own mind for Lilith it was the battle with Eda in part one of season 1's finale Agony of a witch loose being in the middle of that brought out the heroic Mentor the mother and Powerhouse in Eda and also shed direct light on Lilith's guilt enough that she confessed directly to Eda in one of the most heartbreaking line deliveries in the entire show and why so easy to curse after this Lilith's commitment to her willful ignorance is damaged enough that she's able to start on a path of more honest self-examination and accept help for KiKi Mora even though it's less direct even literal proximity to loose gave Bellas the opportunity to choose a final cruelty towards her and dispel the illusion that kikimura was special in her master's eyes it revealed to her that her motivations aren't slavish loyalty but Petty power in that one given the opportunity kikimura helps save the world simply by pursuing a private Vengeance her willful ignorance that held up Bellows as the thing that could validate her needs is ruined and she's able to pursue whatever the [ __ ] this is with full honesty and as for Hunter it was loose literally experiencing him as a peer unmasked and asking him for his name in hunting Talisman this reminded Hunter however reluctantly that he is more than the golden guard he is a person whose orders and severe brainwashing are in direct conflict with his gentleman nature in Hollow mine even though Bellows delightedly Twisted the knife of Truth on purpose Hunter's intelligence and love still Shone through in that he asked Bellows the damning question that unlocked the door to the cage around his heart I find it very interesting personally that the people that Bellows has the strongest control over are these two child women and the literal Child Soldier that he has raised the bellas's ability to warp how people see themselves is not limited to those he has direct power over no Bellows Shadow is so long that it's able to make loose's light dim her perceptions of herself Lucy's genre savviness is often played for Laughs in this show however it's critically important to note that as funny as this is the genre Savvy the fourth wall leaning isn't in this show as a joke its purpose is to humanize loose but also reveal that she has a strong awareness of Storytelling convention she Begins the owl house as someone who struggles was separating fantasium from reality very similar to Philip in that way I'll get a little more into self-deception in a second but what's important for this section is that as loose develops and begins to ground herself in the reality of her situation and rise to meet these occasions as the hero she actively chooses to be come her genre savviness is both a blessing and also a curse that makes her vulnerable to Bellows his manipulations particularly the fallacy that the two of them are similar in situation and therefore their motives must come from the same place it's this genre Savvy this idea of narrative Convention as truth that makes loose doubt herself smothering her intelligence and critical thinking about her own motivations and actions to the point where she's ready to identify herself as someone as bad as Bellows they're both humans that came to the demon realm with delusions of heroism they are Outsiders forming on the opposite ends of the war taking place Bellows has given his impassioned speeches about his motivations surely if he believes what he's doing is right that makes him the same as loose who sincerely believes in the rightness of her own actions right there is so much to be said about how this is the narrative that loose has internalized it's the one we all grew up on after all that the villain is usually misunderstood and forgiveness can always fix that objectively you're not different really especially if you hit back that somehow if you retaliate against an oppressor if you hit back you're as bad as the person who started it what this of course is nonsense but it is a very pervasive shadowy message that actively limits understanding it is black and white in a way that reduces complicated topics to always right or always wrong and that doesn't have a place in reality but this proximity to Bellows makes loose doubt herself smother her own intelligence and the positive aspects of her genre Savvy in favor of an instinct to obey this convention it dims her light it makes her depressed and apathetic and nearly leads her to seed the fight to Bellows not once but twice to understand something is to accept the pain and struggle of nuance where it reveals itself this is reality and sometimes the reality is that some things are nasty small and painfully mundane a complex light show can't make a piece of dog crap more than dog crap in lights but why does the power of light fail to make Bellows into a friend the thing about light is that it doesn't work very well if the person in question on some level doesn't want to see and Bellows just shuts his eyes Bello spends the entire run time lying to everyone around him but the person he has deceived most perfectly is himself we're human we're better than this over the course of this video it might be assumed that I think Bellows is unintelligent far from it he's not wise which is a completely different thing but the only thing he really understands about people are their fears and from that like any charlatan worth his salt he could put together a decent cold read for an attempt at manipulation but it's really important that as someone who is defined by his lying to understand that he's not exempt from this he starts off the whole conflict of this entire show by murdering his brother and claiming that it was to save his soul we know based on everything else he's ever said in this show that he is lying the story of Hollow mine and the hayride tell us what we need to know regardless of any extrapolations or interpretations that can be made from the text Philip never saw Caleb as anyone with more autonomy than the Grim Walkers Caleb was his and the boiling Isles represented by Evelyn took that away and his motivation dressed up in the frocking language of religion does doesn't really go much further than Petty serial killer Revenge even though Bellows has literally transformed into Satan and ends up a snot-covered skull groveling lies at the foot of a girl who is pointedly not human in this scene at all he is insisting on his humanity and therefore his assumed superiority over the world he damn near destroyed because of sounds like big bro got a hot witch girlfriend and little bro got upset the near non-sequitur of well we ain't enabled by loose's proximity in the scene glittering with light behind her only further highlights the absurdity of bellows's final lie and he's never able to complain about it not even to himself he he dies mad about it and that unfortunately is one of the things about willful ignorance no matter how brightly one shines if someone is determined not to see it they won't so much of this story has incredibly Grim implications bearing down on the audience's emotional pressure points but so much of that power is in taking pain trauma anxiety and painting them into these characters that we can like and root for and cry for and it makes those pains visible to us where we would not have seen it in ourselves even the darkest thing in this show Bellows himself by coming to us through a medium of pure light makes plain extremely mundane and Petty agonies wrapped up into a guy named Philip anyone can be this Phillip widibane is an incredibly common son of a [ __ ] in all the ways that matter but Luz no Saida light do not give in the hero who chose herself and takes the world with light and eyes wide open and a willingness to see ugly Nuance to understand and empathize is what makes good so much more possible in the world we live in Lucy's goodness rather than make her boring is frankly what makes her so compelling and complicated it is so easy to choose versions of ourselves offered by a pervasive Narrative of established power it is so easy to see evil and Badness and despair as somehow more truthful than good when really they are in a way the emotional equivalent of shutting our eyes The Owl House however by choosing understanding rather than amorphous idea of good empowers the viewer to approach the world a little more bravely and I hope a little more wisely this story that broke its genre is hard to forget and what is once seen after all cannot be unseen and while closing one's eyes is so much easier in a world that often asks us to strain to find light I think one of the strongest encouragements that Dana and the crew left us is this light do not give in thank you all so much for watching don't forget to like And subscribe and let us know your thoughts what did you all think of the motifs of light and dark in the owl house I'd also like to give a special shout out to the amazing draconator for the beautifully animated bounce bat intro and also to Tumblr user riska for the beautiful Fan Art thank you both so so much we will treasure them forever in other news the idol screen team has expanded I'd like to introduce to you all the bird who is an amazing producer and also the be our new admin we are so happy to welcome them to the team and you can look forward to their incredible contributions in the coming months summer is here so wear your sunscreen do your best to stay out of all this smoke and we'll see you on the next one [Music]

the Animal House is a show that understands that the strongest story isn't going to be making a black and white statement about good versus evil there are no serious claims that the power of friendship or whatever is going to triumph over the evil of bellows or that good deeds allow one to earn a place in society Instead The Owl House foregoes the rudimentary complexes that hold up evil as an immutable inevitability of the existence of good and instead goes for a theme that I think is a lot stronger the Paradigm of the owl house is not a battle of good versus evil it's a war between understanding and willful ignorance best represented by our hero Luz noceda and our primary antagonist Philip whittibaine AKA Emperor Bellos today we're going to take a look at how the Owl House embodies these ideas in Lucent fellows and how this empowers the audience in a way that is simpler assertion of good over evil doesn't but first let's wander into the Garden of Eden and take a look at the basics the truth of the knowledge of Good and Evil secure the broad concepts of Good and Evil are part of a dogmatic black and white mindset that the Owl House deliberately rebukes at every opportunity but what does that actually mean generally speaking ideas about Good and Evil in media are assumed in Broad Strokes along a utilitarian or humanitarian rail whatever benefits the most people versus what harms the most people these days antagonists have reasons which is great sometimes very compelling emotional ones that while not excusing their actions still give context for why we should understand the situation as complicated and empathize with them this produces anguish in a confrontation one of the strongest emotional resonances possible however shows rarely dig into the why of Good and Evil they're simply assumed to exist as forces in the world as elements that cannot exist without the other as some sort of cosmic balance where they come from what produces their effects in people goes unexamined which is fine in plenty of cases not every story has or requires this kind of examine nation which no matter how you slice it is going to add a philosophical or religious Dimension to your narrative and regardless of how determined and bad Disney was at trying to strip this out of the Owl House a philosophical and religious cultural rebuke is one of the show's defining aspects you can put us in a New England cemetery and take out all the crosses you can give us a literal witch-hunting villain who screams this I can cleanse this petition myself which is a much more specific religious term than the word hell but Bellows and what he represents can't really be separated from his Twisted relationship to certain ideas about good evil crime and punishment but stepping aside from him for a moment I want to take a second to talk about what this cultural rebuke looks like in the show there's the very obvious visual stuff like how our light aligned hero is heavily associated with snakes in Christian lore snakes represent Satan and evil where many pre-christian and non-Christian cultures associate snakes with things like transformation fertility wisdom and immortality there's the deliberate choices of giving heroic characters things like red eyes or fangs secondary color palettes as opposed to primary color palettes but let's take a walk in the weeds for a moment about how the Thematic rebukes takes shape for one thing the owl house doesn't have Redemption arcs for any character bear with me here I fully plan to die on this hill in a later video but the important part for today is this every transformation the characters in The Owl house go through is much better described as an Awakening Arc these characters eyes are opened to something that changes them hold that in mind as we proceed moreover even when the characters have done terrible things there is way less emphasis on punishing them for their actions The Owl House lets them feel the consequences asks them to grow but punishment is left out of the equation in favor of restorative justice forgiveness when there's a sincere desire to grow and this isn't limited to Compassion or forgiveness in these cases either we also see instances of pure Mercy which is when punishment is withheld even if the person in question may actually really deserve it from the perspective of the wronged I find it extremely interesting that this is sometimes held up as a criticism of this show like it wasn't intentional we are so used to shows making really specific kind of simple moral statements about punishment so much so that when it's absent it feels strange more than a few people complain that Lilith Amity and even Hunter somehow deserved more punishment than they got and frankly I feel like this kind of misses the point you're supposed to feel that absence however the application of that forgiveness and kindness also isn't a blanket answer to complex moral issues even when our heroes favor restorative justice over retribution the absurdity of applying forgiveness to a character like Bellows is frankly called out for a childish understanding of a moral situation where the villain really does need to die sometimes good characters make stupid mistakes and while the show doesn't feel the need to punish them they do feel the consequence of their actions with varying degrees of severity black and white thinking isn't applied however the Owl House does take strong positions on what good and evil are not really in fluffy terms of philosophy but in terms of actions committed with agency that affect the world around the characters and through that it has a pretty unflinching stance on it but what specifically does that mean well let's shed a little light on that by taking a look at the show's main representative motifs of Good and Evil light and Shadow knock knock human is framed as unambiguously good associated with light why when so many protagonists these days are developed with a bit more Darkness to make them more complex Philip widibane Emperor Bellows is drawn exclusively in Shadow with very little in the way of nuance why when other villains in recent years get a much more gentle light speckled approach light is usually associated with goodness and dark with evil now on the one hand there is a primal quality to these associations we are mostly human and humans are dinaural we can't see in the dark therefore scary light keeps things that want to hurt us away light shows us things that we previously could not see and dark obscures that which would remain unknown the darkness hides and distorts information what ends up happening when this is taken for granted this blanket binary of light good dark bad is you end up with a class situation where the metaphor extends to all moral things this isn't always terrible such as in Broad allegorical epics like the Lord of the Rings which do need to be taken with heaps of salt these days anyway but often in cartoons when it's played straight it doesn't really capture a plausible scenario kids know that things aren't perfectly black and white all the time and it's where the depiction becomes well cartoonish you end up in a situation where a show will deliberately subvert the light and dark motifs shoving into this notion of dark isn't bad just misunderstood hold on to this one as we proceed this is especially true in media that deliberately invokes light as a pure Authority that has an ulterior motive to deceive and manipulate but it does put us in a cultural situation where light these days is just as likely to be distrusted representative of authority that tells us it's good without actually being good this is as far as many media get distrust Authority think for yourselves the light may have an ulterior motive but the message of user-critical thinking skills to examine what is good and what is bad is only as powerful as the narrative allows it to be good and evil as concepts are really only etched into the visual motifs when a show is trying to go out of its way to ask us to sympathize with the bad guys and hope they will see the error of their weights in modern shows good and evil are a lot more likely to align with other more tangible ideas like oppression versus Freedom or something as broad as hope versus nihilism rather than dig into the details of what environment create good or produce evil most of what we get along that particular track is the villain has an understandable reason a good reason if you will unless the villain in question is a completely Unapologetic and uncomplicated sack of [ __ ] however what makes the owl house so special to me is that it does go deeper than that we do have the common and Powerful oppression versus Freedom hope versus Despair and apathy but the real Paradigm in the Owl House operates within a box that contains the capacity to discuss all of those Topics by getting to the root of it in the Owl House good and evil isn't a binary axis upon which the world spins it goes further goodness is the result of understanding and willful ignorance is where evil thrives let's take this concept and extend it a little further because frankly this is something I never heard really discussed or pushed growing up no really why are we so scared of what's in the dark because it's unknown the dark is unknown and it is light that makes The Unknown Known so with all of that in mind let's go ahead and circle back to talk about the source of light in this show our hero I'm loose loose the way the Owl House names its characters is probably worthy of its own little video but I'm going to start with the basics today the name loose is very common in Spanish-speaking countries and literally means light the name noceda is likewise also pretty common and has more to do with walnut trees than anything else but it is a pun on the Spanish command for don't give in taking together the hero of our story is basically named light don't give in this is pretty well known in fandom spaces at this point but the reason I bring it up here is I want to take it a little bit further with respect to what loose's role in the story actually is sure she is the hero the story shows us this but the fact of the matter is that loose's main role in the story isn't about vanquishing evil or a specific person that is something she does as our protagonist but the goodness she sows revolves around her being herself in proximity to others and by doing so allows them to do the same for themselves this by the way is basically the power of representation in action so how does loose accomplish this loose is unspoken and unknown deepest desire at the beginning of the narrative is to be understood this strives to be understood is what enables her to empathize and understand others so well even if she hasn't consciously comprehend this until the end of the narrative she comes to her relationships first by seeing someone as they are without the baggage they've either stuck to themselves or have been saddled with and then by trying to understand them by asking questions engaging or otherwise being sensitive to wounds she's able to reach them simply by being her weird neurodivergent quirky inquisitive self even taking into account the biases she does have based on the kind of media she likes they're all things that are a pretty factually correct about the people who would become her chosen family loose leads Ida to a greater understanding of herself and her condition understanding that Eda denied herself she accepts King like a brother as someone who despite his childishness and age is worthy of respect respect he hasn't gotten anywhere else that empowered him to grow and mature with Willow loose doesn't see weakness or lack of control she sees strength and resolves to help Willow Discover It by supporting her in her school crimes Gus isn't someone loose just indulges she goes past the child prodigy thing and sees his anxieties about usefulness and inexperience and tries to give him tangible proof of the opposite that he can ground himself with now if I was to try and dissect every example of this it would just end up being a summary of the entire show so for our purposes let's take a look at the two tougher cells on Lucy's list to show exactly how loose's light empowers positive change in the people she meets say you're not a witch I'm not a witch loose breaks the mold of your why a fantasy protagonist in a number of ways but for this bit we're going to focus on how she affects change in other people instead of defeating feeding perspective party members with this impassioned charismatic species or a combination of both that Ram the errors of an antagonistic's character's ways down their throats loose's approaches weirdly a lot subtler by existing as herself honestly and unabashedly she sheds light on the parts of the other character that they were self-diluting or in denial about the parts of them that they come to realize that they don't really like or are in conflict with how they want to see themselves Lucy's proximity inspires the character to make changes by revealing these things let's start with how this worked with Amity all bisexual Panic aside loose approached her with respect interest and compassion a position that assumed that Amity had a reason for acting like a huge [ __ ] and Amity spends this entire episode railing about how witches and humans are different only for loose to gently show that they have a lot in common with their shared desire to become great Witches by doing this it prompts Amity to see herself reflected in loose something she can't unseat watching how loose is is with her friends reveals to Amity how toxic and broken her own relationships with her friend group are and with no prodding or external coercion Amity begins to push back first and small ways and then later in Greater Stripes apologizing and revealing to Willow how she broke the two of them in the first place and really importantly expecting nothing from Willow in return by season 2 episode 2 Amity spells it out for the audience in a very pivotal moment for her character and the plot rewards that with hard earned strength it's from here that Amity is able to take massive Leaps and Bounds away from the authority seeking biddable and high-strung version of herself to one that Embraces her own Rebellion these are defined by her new boundaries and critically a good faith empathy that informs how she interacts with Lou's Hunter and Willow all this without loose ever pointing a finger at her and telling her that she needs to change just by being close to her loose inspired Amity to transform herself so that's one enemy to love her in the bag but how about enemy to brother let's talk a little bit about Hunter with Hunter for that he was a bit of a jackass and an enemy The Moment The Mask came off loose didn't see an enemy Hunter isn't personally feared the golden guard however must be which puts hunter in a weird position of having to compartmentalize himself to a ludicrous degree in order to fulfill the role the cocksure playful confident parts of his nature are stuck to the golden guard's mask as a result and the moment it comes off the brutalized mess of a teen that he is gets laid completely bare Lucy's appear someone very like herself in terms of interest and Fascination and frankly someone who was in danger and in need of help so much help oh my God but starting at the beginning loose and her PJs and him with his face revealed she just by being herself treats him like people this is depressingly pretty new for him and very importantly like one would expect of a normal interaction asks for Hunter's name now at this point in the story The Audience doesn't quite realize how huge of a deal this is I talk about this more in my hunter video but Bellows uses Hunter's name as a choke chain an intimacy only Bellows is allowed to have as evidenced by the fact that no one else uses it it increases the distance between Hunter and his own personhood he is a tool to Bellows not people but Loose by empathizing with him sees and treats him like a person like a friend and by the end of the episode he is so moved by this that he willingly puts aside the golden guard long enough to claim that just listen to the way he says the words my name foreign he's not just offered loose a very dangerous vulnerability here by loose treating him well the way that she'd like to be treated with understanding she's revealed his well Humanity isn't quite the right word but you get the idea and this is a threshold he can't uncross it's this critical thing the seeing of his own Humanity that makes it possible for him to interface with the likes of Flapjack it enables him to empathize with Amity and makes him capable of making and keeping friends and finally it gives Hunter the psychological protection to survive bellows's attempt on his life in Hollow mind loose extending the understanding she wishes for herself to others leads characters to growing in empathy for themselves and as a result and acting positive and interpersonal change good things love trust compassion all grow in the light of understanding so why doesn't this work with Bella after all the formula for many kids shows in the past has been to extend understanding to even horrifically evil villains forgiveness is demonstrated to have the power to fix them however an equal number of shows a stew that mode these days by allowing the villain to be soundly defeated we've talked a lot about light now it's time to head into the shadow realm and take a look at the deepest nastiest source of darkness in this show Emperor Bellos who wraps himself in white and gold it does feel good to hear another human say that name let's start with names then Philip witabane is a very scrub-tier Puritan name in that the given name Philip is common derived from the greek lover of horses point is it's very common and not particularly special widobain simply means bane of witches so there's that frankly as far as Puritan names go with names like this on the roster he got lucky imagine if you will for a moment Philip abuse not with a bane regardless this is the name the emperor Bellows tends to use with respect to himself even going so far as to risk and [ __ ] up his entire end game plan just to hear another human being he thinks he's beaten say it we'll come back to this Bellos is a little more complicated the most common and frankly sensible interpretation is that it's derived from the Babylonian God Bale Bale or at the very least the fact that Bell is a prefix that generally means Lord Master husband whatever and the OS suffix becomes this idea of Lord the bail connotation however given the name status within Christian demonology would be perfectly in keeping with the man's tendency to make horrible private jokes to himself with respect to names given how he found it amusing to name a whole ass person after his job in a very tee sort of way and uses Catholic imagery Pomp and Circumstance to subjugate the Demonic and witchy masses it would make perfect sense for him to choose a name derived from Bale and thus name himself king of demons however there is another interpretation I also quite like that I think also follows the format of the show's very literal naming system bellows in the language of major import Spanish or Latin gains a connotation with the word beautiful from bail Lucifer Morningstar the Devil Himself was said to be amongst the most beautiful of the angels and it's hard not to notice how this man wraps himself up in a mask of gold and cloak of white and is fully undone by stubborn Pride that utterly defeats a very smart man in the dumbest ways possible this guy who at the moment of his goopy monstrous death is insisting on his Humanity after having become the closest thing to Satan himself possible for this world I'm inclined to lean a little more in this direction than the bail one if only for its Elegance however all of these play into his role in The Narrative regardless he is the villain however also like loose the most potent aspect of his role as the villain is how he executes it what I find most interesting about Bellows is even though his root in broad sweeping Strokes is very conventional in terms of outright villainy his defining characteristic isn't his genocidal Ambitions or even the fact that he's a profoundly Petty serial killer he's a liar but that you say being a liar is hardly a special characteristic for a villain well here's the thing bellows in this text simply put is a brute he's a genocidal serial killer who drinks up the pain of his victims he built his Empire by manufacturing the threat of wild witches through terrorist attacks and maintains his role with threats of violent imprisonment and torture during Hollow mind he's he's leading these kids by the hand while actively contemplating the creative decisions that will hurt them the most individually and smiling the entire goddamn time he enjoys playing the role of the infirm old man for a captive audience of one the dude loves playing his roles I swear if he could have had a musical number for hollow mind he absolutely would have as far as Disney villains go scar Ursula and the [ __ ] shadow man should take notes from this guy however despite having the clever Mind of a tinkerer and a crack scientist when presented with the choice of the smart thing and the cruel thing he consistently chooses cruelty over a sense like clockwork sometimes he even goes out of his way to pursue it it is astounding and it keeps [ __ ] him over and he keeps doing it however what interests me so much about him and frankly what I think is the most compelling thing about him is that people don't often think of bellows as being a brute at all he's usually imagined in the fan imagination as a smooth soft-spoken and subtle bastard all of which is contrivance the fact of the matter is he's strangled and blindfolded everyone around him with lies and he's made himself the solution to their problems so even though it seems like he's controlling all his little puppets with very subtle movements of his hands when the strings are wrapped around these characters metaphorical throats and they have willingly put on blindfolds gives Bellows his violence a very Sleek mask so much so that even large portions of the audience buy into his [ __ ] and this yes my friends is where the motif of Shadows come in Shadow is not the opposite of light its light's parasite Shadow can't exist without it darkness is an absence of light light is not an absence of Shadow the purpose of a lie is to hide the truth to tangle it in confusion and dim the vision bellows's role as the villain is the universe of loose in that he's the antagonist sure but where loses proximity to people leads them to discover things about themselves and others to empathize and thus perform acts of goodness compassion and self-sacrifice Bellows his proximity to the cast actively obfuscates truths about themselves and others which enable acts of self-sabotage cruelty and well evil and for this to work they have to buy into it willfully because the horrific truth is harder to face than a beautiful lie so let's take a look at some examples of how Bellos wields willful ignorance and from that begets evil he is no wizard he's what you call a puppeteer bellowska strives to be smoother and more powerful than he is because of the methods he uses to control people I want you to take a look though at the people who are following orders here or actively enabling them there are people like Tara and Adrian who are clearly pathological pieces of drawn to the power of the emperor's coven and would be doing no matter who was in charge and then there are the rank and file of The Emperor's coven they're [ __ ] cops there are people attracted to power and hungry for the egoic satisfaction of punishing others regardless of how disproportionate it is all this is built on a foundation of Bones and revised history it makes the population vulnerable to a prevailing propaganda campaign even when it's completely ridiculous on its face like the whole coven system however to get a clearer look at how Bellows Darkness Motif distorts how characters and proximity to him see the world and also themselves we need to take a look at those directly in his shadow Lilith kikimura and Hunter Lilith's authentic self is exuberant melodramatic and deeply emotional and when she's able to recognize the person in the mirror her intelligence and analytical skills flourish so it's very telling to me that when she's introduced even if it's only for a moment she's wearing a mask and proceeds to give the impression of someone who is cold serious and desperate to see herself as dignified and in control with varying results someone motivated by ambition and the right thing rather than well guilt Bellows presents himself as an alternative solution to her ugly emotional problem so let's take Lilith's guilt for example ambition which often comes from a place of wanting to be acknowledged led to her actions that ruined her sister's life Eda her sister who was her best friend someone she loves Lilith is emotionally frozen into that guilty teenage place and has been unable to reconcile that part of her life with any kind of honesty the horror is just too much she needs to bury it with justification distraction anything that will allow her to reframe herself as someone trying to do good she is not excellent at hiding this and Bellows if not particularly subtle is very perceptive of other people's fears especially when he had an active hand in shaping the wants of a populace for over a generation Bella's approval represents acknowledgment a greater good salvation and a role that's easier to stomach than the messy reality that characters like Lilith Kiki Mora and Hunter would otherwise have to address if they were able to stare it in the face and it's so much easier so much safer not to they stop acknowledging the root of the emotional issue guilt insecurity replaceability in favor of putting on the mask that Bellows provides this gives them an alternate identity and a role that better fits his narrative and actively obscures who the person actually is in favor of the person bellows's promises will win his approval Bellows take whatever shape he needs to in order to fill the hole in that person's heart made all the easier if it's a hole he put there himself and as a result these characters in part become the mask that he's given them come to love it Bella's Shadow blinds them to the person they actually are until someone turns on the lights by forcing a confrontation between the mask and the reality of that person hiding in a corner of their own mind for Lilith it was the battle with Eda in part one of season 1's finale Agony of a witch loose being in the middle of that brought out the heroic Mentor the mother and Powerhouse in Eda and also shed direct light on Lilith's guilt enough that she confessed directly to Eda in one of the most heartbreaking line deliveries in the entire show and why so easy to curse after this Lilith's commitment to her willful ignorance is damaged enough that she's able to start on a path of more honest self-examination and accept help for KiKi Mora even though it's less direct even literal proximity to loose gave Bellas the opportunity to choose a final cruelty towards her and dispel the illusion that kikimura was special in her master's eyes it revealed to her that her motivations aren't slavish loyalty but Petty power in that one given the opportunity kikimura helps save the world simply by pursuing a private Vengeance her willful ignorance that held up Bellows as the thing that could validate her needs is ruined and she's able to pursue whatever the [ __ ] this is with full honesty and as for Hunter it was loose literally experiencing him as a peer unmasked and asking him for his name in hunting Talisman this reminded Hunter however reluctantly that he is more than the golden guard he is a person whose orders and severe brainwashing are in direct conflict with his gentleman nature in Hollow mine even though Bellows delightedly Twisted the knife of Truth on purpose Hunter's intelligence and love still Shone through in that he asked Bellows the damning question that unlocked the door to the cage around his heart I find it very interesting personally that the people that Bellows has the strongest control over are these two child women and the literal Child Soldier that he has raised the bellas's ability to warp how people see themselves is not limited to those he has direct power over no Bellows Shadow is so long that it's able to make loose's light dim her perceptions of herself Lucy's genre savviness is often played for Laughs in this show however it's critically important to note that as funny as this is the genre Savvy the fourth wall leaning isn't in this show as a joke its purpose is to humanize loose but also reveal that she has a strong awareness of Storytelling convention she Begins the owl house as someone who struggles was separating fantasium from reality very similar to Philip in that way I'll get a little more into self-deception in a second but what's important for this section is that as loose develops and begins to ground herself in the reality of her situation and rise to meet these occasions as the hero she actively chooses to be come her genre savviness is both a blessing and also a curse that makes her vulnerable to Bellows his manipulations particularly the fallacy that the two of them are similar in situation and therefore their motives must come from the same place it's this genre Savvy this idea of narrative Convention as truth that makes loose doubt herself smothering her intelligence and critical thinking about her own motivations and actions to the point where she's ready to identify herself as someone as bad as Bellows they're both humans that came to the demon realm with delusions of heroism they are Outsiders forming on the opposite ends of the war taking place Bellows has given his impassioned speeches about his motivations surely if he believes what he's doing is right that makes him the same as loose who sincerely believes in the rightness of her own actions right there is so much to be said about how this is the narrative that loose has internalized it's the one we all grew up on after all that the villain is usually misunderstood and forgiveness can always fix that objectively you're not different really especially if you hit back that somehow if you retaliate against an oppressor if you hit back you're as bad as the person who started it what this of course is nonsense but it is a very pervasive shadowy message that actively limits understanding it is black and white in a way that reduces complicated topics to always right or always wrong and that doesn't have a place in reality but this proximity to Bellows makes loose doubt herself smother her own intelligence and the positive aspects of her genre Savvy in favor of an instinct to obey this convention it dims her light it makes her depressed and apathetic and nearly leads her to seed the fight to Bellows not once but twice to understand something is to accept the pain and struggle of nuance where it reveals itself this is reality and sometimes the reality is that some things are nasty small and painfully mundane a complex light show can't make a piece of dog crap more than dog crap in lights but why does the power of light fail to make Bellows into a friend the thing about light is that it doesn't work very well if the person in question on some level doesn't want to see and Bellows just shuts his eyes Bello spends the entire run time lying to everyone around him but the person he has deceived most perfectly is himself we're human we're better than this over the course of this video it might be assumed that I think Bellows is unintelligent far from it he's not wise which is a completely different thing but the only thing he really understands about people are their fears and from that like any charlatan worth his salt he could put together a decent cold read for an attempt at manipulation but it's really important that as someone who is defined by his lying to understand that he's not exempt from this he starts off the whole conflict of this entire show by murdering his brother and claiming that it was to save his soul we know based on everything else he's ever said in this show that he is lying the story of Hollow mine and the hayride tell us what we need to know regardless of any extrapolations or interpretations that can be made from the text Philip never saw Caleb as anyone with more autonomy than the Grim Walkers Caleb was his and the boiling Isles represented by Evelyn took that away and his motivation dressed up in the frocking language of religion does doesn't really go much further than Petty serial killer Revenge even though Bellows has literally transformed into Satan and ends up a snot-covered skull groveling lies at the foot of a girl who is pointedly not human in this scene at all he is insisting on his humanity and therefore his assumed superiority over the world he damn near destroyed because of sounds like big bro got a hot witch girlfriend and little bro got upset the near non-sequitur of well we ain't enabled by loose's proximity in the scene glittering with light behind her only further highlights the absurdity of bellows's final lie and he's never able to complain about it not even to himself he he dies mad about it and that unfortunately is one of the things about willful ignorance no matter how brightly one shines if someone is determined not to see it they won't so much of this story has incredibly Grim implications bearing down on the audience's emotional pressure points but so much of that power is in taking pain trauma anxiety and painting them into these characters that we can like and root for and cry for and it makes those pains visible to us where we would not have seen it in ourselves even the darkest thing in this show Bellows himself by coming to us through a medium of pure light makes plain extremely mundane and Petty agonies wrapped up into a guy named Philip anyone can be this Phillip widibane is an incredibly common son of a [ __ ] in all the ways that matter but Luz no Saida light do not give in the hero who chose herself and takes the world with light and eyes wide open and a willingness to see ugly Nuance to understand and empathize is what makes good so much more possible in the world we live in Lucy's goodness rather than make her boring is frankly what makes her so compelling and complicated it is so easy to choose versions of ourselves offered by a pervasive Narrative of established power it is so easy to see evil and Badness and despair as somehow more truthful than good when really they are in a way the emotional equivalent of shutting our eyes The Owl House however by choosing understanding rather than amorphous idea of good empowers the viewer to approach the world a little more bravely and I hope a little more wisely this story that broke its genre is hard to forget and what is once seen after all cannot be unseen and while closing one's eyes is so much easier in a world that often asks us to strain to find light I think one of the strongest encouragements that Dana and the crew left us is this light do not give in thank you all so much for watching don't forget to like And subscribe and let us know your thoughts what did you all think of the motifs of light and dark in the owl house I'd also like to give a special shout out to the amazing draconator for the beautifully animated bounce bat intro and also to Tumblr user riska for the beautiful Fan Art thank you both so so much we will treasure them forever in other news the idol screen team has expanded I'd like to introduce to you all the bird who is an amazing producer and also the be our new admin we are so happy to welcome them to the team and you can look forward to their incredible contributions in the coming months summer is here so wear your sunscreen do your best to stay out of all this smoke and we'll see you on the next one [Music]

Transcript for:Exploring Morality in The Owl House

Transcript for:
Exploring Morality in The Owl House