Chapter Text
Opening minute and a half
The first minute and a half of a Lying Witch and a Wardenintroduces us to the protagonist Luz Noceda while also quietly and efficiently setting up all four of the series central over-arching themes: Fantasy vs. Reality, Authority/Control vs. Rebellion/Freedom, Familial Devotion and Conflict, and Identity and Belonging. Every single episode of The Owl House produced so far contains at least two of these four themes but most episodes contain more than that.
Identity and Belonging can be rephrased in form of a question “Who am I and where do I belong?”. This theme often overlaps with the theme of Authority vs. Freedom, as authorities try to tell people who they’re supposed to be and or where they belong. Fantasy vs. Reality can be rephrased as false narratives vs. the truth. For brevity sake I’ll often refer to the theme of Familial Devotion and Conflict simply as the theme of Family.
The series begins with a melodramatic fantasy battle in which the good witch Azura vanquishes an evil snake; then immediately cuts to Luz in the principle office for bringing snakes to school and accidentally letting them get free and bite people (she also brought fireworks). Luz has somehow deluded herself that she “knocked it out of the park” with her book report. This introduce both the themes of Fantasy vs. Reality and Authority vs. Freedom. It’s also our introduction to The Good Witch Azura books, which are a symbol of Fantasy and Innocence.
This scene is played for comedy it establishes something very important about Luz’s character: Luz isn’t just a harmless goofball; she’s reckless and detached from reality in a way that makes her legitimately dangerous. Living a fantasy can make life more bearable and make you feel better about yourself, but it also makes it easier for you to hurt other people. This incident also sets a precedent for some of the insanely selfish and reckless choices Luz will make in later episodes of Season 1.
When Luz looks back at the snakes running amok she just goes “Huh, so that’s where the backup snakes were” Luz doesn’t acknowledge that her actions hurt people and doesn’t express any regret or guilt. She knows what she did broke the rules but doesn’t seem to understand why what she did was wrong. To her, this is just another one of her wacky antics that went unappreciated. Luz’s underdeveloped sense of guilt at the start of the series, contrasts the abundance of guilt she feels by the end of the season and during season 2. In Season 3, Luz learns to forgive herself and finds a balance.
The theme of Identity and Belonging or “Who am I and where do I belong?” is established in the previous three incidents which landed Luz In detention; these flashbacks also reinforce the theme of Authority vs. Freedom. Unlike the snake incident we just saw none of the previous incidents of weird behavior actually hurt anybody; nobody was hurt by Luz going overboard during the play, nor by her doing that freaky thing with her eyes, the only thing which could conceivably have hurt anybody would be the spiders she put in the taxidermy Griffen but most spiders in the Untied States are benign so chances are that wasn’t harmful either. These overreactions on the part of the school show that the rules Luz acts in defiance of are often just as arbitrary as her own whims.
The theme of Familial Conflict and Devotion is first introduced through Luz’s mother Camila. Luz’s mom Camilla Noceda decides to send her daughter to Reality Check summer camp where Luz will be taught to “think inside the box”, bearing that in mind it would have been painfully easy for the show to portray Luz’s mom as a stereotypical unreasonable adult but The Owl House doesn’t do that. It would also have an easy to have her coded as homophobic/biphobic but the show doesn’t do that either.
Camilla Noceda’s characterization is very sympathetic. Camilla says she loves Luz’s creativity and even takes a knee to speak to Luz on her eye level; Camilla also has a very gentle voice. Even after her daughter’s actions cause physical harm, Camilla was still willing to give Luz another chance, until the snake in Luz’s hand got free and attacked the principle. We see that Familial Conflict doesn’t have to come from a place of malice.
One witch’s trash...
Eda’s introductory scene shows her throwing away a diamond ring and a golden glowing chalice, declaring them both garbage, then taking out a pair of joke glasses with eyes on springs and saying they’ll make her rich. This joke sets up the idea that value is relative; one man’s trash is another man’s treasure and visa versa. It’s important that Eda specifically holds up a toy as being worth more than diamonds or gold. This foreshadows the true nature of King’s crown.
Arrival on the Boiling Isles
Shortly after Luz arrives on the Boiling Isles, she meets a fairy and expects it to tell her that what she’s experiencing is just a fantastical dream, instead the fairy shows off it’s teeth and yells at her “Give me you’re skin!”. This establishes the fact that Luz’s knowledge of fantasy tropes hasn’t prepared her for life in the Demon Realm. Luz at one point declares “this isn’t the PG Fantasy world I always dreamed about” but this realization is fleeting. Luz’s Innocence and her belief in fantasy tropes are weaknesses which make it easy for Eda to trick her.
Luz being Wrong Genre Savvy is a actually a trait she has in common with Emperor Belos; they each came to the Boiling Isles with a set of preconceptions about witches and magical beings based on narratives which were never true to begin with.
King
King serves as a reflection of Luz Noceda; his characterization ties into themes of Fantasy vs. Reality, and Identity and Belonging. King and Luz are both chaotic adorable beings who aren’t taken seriously; in Luz’s case this comes from her eccentricities and later the fact that she’s human, in King’s case it comes from his small size and adorable behavior. Luz’s life on Earth was sad and lonely and she coped with her problems by escaping into a fantasy world where she was powerful and special. King is doing the same. Luz imagined herself as chosen one/witch, King imagines himself as the ‘king of demons’. The series repeatedly correlates Fantasy/delusion with Ego. So King’s self-image is founded on a delusion and he doesn’t know who he really is. He’s far from the only character like that on this show.
Family: Two mothers, Camila and Eda
The theme of Family this episode is expressed through two contrasting mother child relationships; Luz and Camila, and King and Eda. King mirrors Luz but their respective mothers act as foils this episode.
Camilla tries to ground her daughter in reality; while Eda plays along with her son’s fantasy and even drags Luz into it. There appears to be a communication breakdown between Luz and Camilla. Luz declares “no more weirdness” but never acknowledges her behavior has hurt people. Similarly Camilla tries to make Luz feel better about going to Reality Check but unintentionally highlights all the reasons the camp will probably make Luz miserable. Eda and King on the other hand always seem to be on the same page this episode and communicate easily. Eda is also able to communicate with Luz, though she uses this ability to manipulate Luz. Camila is also lawful where Eda is chaotic.
Eda vs. Warden Wrath
Warden Wrath is an agent of oppression tasked with enforcing arbitrary social norms; he’s also a guy who abuses his position of power to try and bully a woman into dating him. On the other side you’ve got Eda, who doesn’t exactly come across as a heroic rebel. Eda lied to Luz to trick her into going on a dangerous and unnecessary mission to retrieve King’s cardboard crown; she was completely nonchalant about Wrath torturing a small creature and she showed no interest in freeing the innocent prisoners (though she did help Luz do so when Luz asked her). The fact that she was willing to go on this mission however emphasizes how much Eda cares about King, Eda also upholds her end of the bargain by giving Luz a way home.
The parallel between the innocent weirdos unjustly imprisoned and Luz’s unnecessary detention is so obvious that Luz herself points it out. What Luz fails to do however is take this line of thought to it’s logical conclusion and recognize what the existence of a place like the Conformatorium implies; the same arbitrary rules and pressure to conform which Luz faces in the human world exists in the Demon Realm as well. Warden Wrath himself even says “Let this be a lesson to all of you. There's no place in society for you if you can't fit in.”
Luz repeats Eda’s line ‘us weirdos have to stick together” in order to rally the prisoners to save Eda. This moment is important because it establishes Luz’s charisma. This ability to rally and inspire others is a surprising one considering Luz’s friendless background, but it’s one that will come in handy again and again. It’s also another trait she has in common with Emperor Belos.
Luz imitates Azura during the fight with Warden Wrath, showing another side to the Fantasy vs. Reality theme. Fictional narratives can inspire real heroism.
Ending of the Episode
When Luz rebels against Camila by staying on the Boiling Isles to learn magic instead of going to Reality Check Summer Camp, Luz is declaring an answer to the question “Who am I and where do I belong?” There’s a brief moment near the end of the episode, after Luz receives the text “How’s summer camp?” where Luz seems like she might be conflicted about her decision. Very quickly after that however, King curls up at Luz’s feet and Luz happily types back “I think I’m gonna like it here”. Whatever semblance of guilt Luz was starting to feel is forgotten, for the time being, and the episode ends on an uplifting note.
Despite refusing to go to camp. Luz will still have a summer full of reality checks.