Disability in The Owl House
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- čas přidán 3. 05. 2023
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It’s funny how Belos’ last attempt to trick Luz is basically just him pulling an apology video with the whole “I was in a dark place”
I just loved seeing Luz standing there looking at him in pure cold silence
He does the Scary Movie 3 "Thank you all. Your love has broken the curse and freed my soul. I'll never have to kill again." thing
"You can make a promise
You can make a plan
You can make a difference
You can take a stand"
“I made a severe and continuous lapse in my judgement.”
Omg somebody should animate a belos apology video
I like to think Eda got a prosthetic elbow and just chose to have a hook hand.
Same, I'm picturing the healers going "oh my titan yes of course we'll get you a replacement arm right away"
And then eda goes "no, hook"
Eda choose the pirate life I gotta respect that
Genuinely yes
Honestly, i love the way that Eda's curse was handled. And the whole "keeping it a secret from her kids thing", was possibly not to scare them but also, being secretive is her character flaw. She hid what King's past was and she didnt tell Luz where she found the door until after it was destroyed. Being secretive and lying was Eda's flaw until Luz broke down her walls.
I love that they didn't so much cure her but she had to accept it as part of herself and channel it to good instead of thinking of it like an inner demon
Haven't watched TOH that far, but harpy eda is... Just my autistic heart.
For me it immediately read as "oh. So she dropped the mask and is feeling infinitely better for it"
If we read it as plurality:
Some persecutors are in a crapload of pain. Sure. Lashing out might not be the smartest idea to say the least. But we're sapient creatures. We make mistakes.
I've seen persecutors heal. Multiple times. Sure. Some just won't. But some will. If given an environment that is conducive to it.
And while I'm currently singlet, previous inhabitants of this vessel were not.
- March
@@theaureliasys6362 we can vouch for that too, prosecutors often are in a lot of pain, I mean they pretty much have to be traumatized to exist.
Our first prosecutor had a bad habit of shouting at the host when they went nonverbal in a crisis, the reasoning was that he wanted us to express our needs so we didn’t get hurt worse, but his methods were harmful
The only way I’ve ever seen prosecutors heal is through ✨communication✨
So if we look at eda through the lens of plurality it’s honestly pretty good too
Same. I have Autism and ADHD and i Instantly understood that Harpy Eda was her embracing the curse and no longer running away from it
Yeah, sometimes we lash out because, guess what, that's what happens when you're traumatized: you don't feel safe most of the time.
@@theaureliasys6362 yess!!!! we love the plurality *and* autistic view of Eda!!!
You know I feel like of anyone, eda would be the fastest to adapting to be an amputee simply because she already could remove her limbs and so has at least a smidge of experience with loosing one permanently. Also I could definitely see her joking about how she looses limbs around her house all the time and at least she knows where that one went
Okay, but Hunter is very good PTSD representation! As someone with PTSD, I appreciate it.
Agree I also have ptsd and liked how his was depicted and handled
same :]
Me too, made me feel seen and I understood how hunter felt.
Hunter is SUCH a good depiction of PTSD, even showing traits of C-PTSD!
Same, it made me feel heard.
Gotta be honest. I was so afraid you were gonna say that Harpy Eda is a cure.
I was admittedly afraid that it was during it's first appearance. But I never actually got the impression after the fact that it was.
It's simply evolved to a more manageable state. Thanks to the medicine and years of learning to understand the curse.
I think also if you read it as neurotype rather than chronic pain (both work though) harpy eda is about rejecting the notion that we’re always battling against autism or whatever, when we accept all parts of ourselves we can grow into something so much more than was thought possible. There is no cure, so we should strive for radical acceptance and autistic joy
edit: wait my use of “so” is misleading, I personally do not want a cure at all, its more like “instead of a cure, we should strive for radical acceptance and autistic joy”
@@benjisaac Some days I would like a cure.
But honestly, most days I don't really think much of it.
Having autism has become my norm.
I had special training and can read body cues and most social cues, when I'm not anxious.
But on those days where I get overwhelmed and anxious, I do sometimes wish I could just turn it off 😂
@@uma4158A lot of my feelings about a cure come from the fact that I genuinely don’t think its possible or ever will be (unless we discover like, magic). Autism is such a big system, so I think trying to remove it from a fetus would be futile and trying to remove it from a living person would be horribly dangerous because its the baseline for our entire brain. Also neurotypicals trying to cure it are always targeting the visible autistic traits like stimming that aren’t even the issue, its the anxiety that’s the major quality of life effect (and the neurotypical-oriented society that actually disables us). So I just think the conversation should be directed towards making a society that accommodates everyone and not pathologizing autistic traits so much
@@uma4158 Sorry to reply again but I saw a quora answer years ago that said “there is no (poster name) without autism” that has always stuck with me. Maybe my life would be better if I wasn’t autistic but it wouldn’t be *my* life, I would have to have a fundamentally different consciousness. *I* wouldn’t exist. Because I do not think there is any aspect of my worldview, personality, or beliefs that isn’t colored by autism. Neurotypicals will just have to deal that I am an entity who exists and maybe has a worse life than them (don’t really think so though) but I am alive
@@benjisaac Bro... That's deep.
But yeah. I don't believe there's a cure either. But I do hope someday there will be a genetic altering thing, that allows neurodivergants to have children with a lesser chance of mental disabilities.
I've had many conversations with some of my autistic friends, mentioning wanting kids, but the possibility of having a kid with more disabilities than they themselves are struggling with, is too heartbreaking to even imagine.
I know there's currently something like that right now. But I'm not sure it goes beyond physical traits.
Like hair and eye color.
One can only hope.
The world is constantly changing. Trying to become more inclusive.
Mental disabilities has become more openly talked about.
Like I said, I don't believe in a cure either. But I do believe someday our daily life will be less of a struggle and our needs more openly met.
For the prosthetic arm issue I think the apparatus actually has it's own elbow joint. Prosthetics have gone a long way over the years.
I too had assumed right away that the prosthetic itself had an elbow joint. I think with inventors like Alador on the Isles it's quite possible that's the case.
Also, and I acknowledge this is a bit of a cop-out answer, this setting has magic in it. Including magic that can reliably mimic flesh that can articulate on its own. I definitely think if we had more of the final season, given how much effort TOH put into getting representation right, we would have seen how the prosthetic itself functions. But as it stands, I think we can accept the answer of "its a magical prosthetic" because, while we haven't physically seen one to my knowledge in the show, all of the structure necessary to make that leap believable was done properly imo
edited to add: I can especially see a prosthetic like that working given the resurgence of wild magic practices mixing different types of magic together. If you managed to make an abomination prosthetic that used oracle magic to understand the intentions of the user, that would be a believable, to me at least, way to show a prosthetic that can function seamlessly as a fully articulating lower arm without the user having an elbow joint.
i think someone said somewhere that the elbow did exist, but for the sake of the animators, it was cut out for efficiency?
it's a copout but it's plausible
that and they literally have magic lol
I'm assuming she could in fact have had a whole replica arm made, but the hook was just more her style.
My theory for Eda's arm is that Alador made it, meaning it is an extended joint so she can still use it like a normal arm. He's known for making that kind of stuff so it makes sense.
Having not seen s3 and noticing that all the clips here don't show skin in that area, I'm inferring that it does attach at the elbow and the prosthetic is the thing that is bending.
Maybe if Disney hadn't been Disney, we could get this confirmed.
@@fenixmeaney6170 We still got Dana, even if she's left Disney-- she took all the secrets of TOH with her. Though if enough people bother her on twitter, we might get a decent answer./lh
adding to it: It likely took some kind of surgery (or equivalent) to fix the joint to the point they *could* make a prosthetic for her
@@tayloradams3993 yeah, did you see the way Raine yanked it off?
He could’ve made her a fully functional hand, but she really wanted a hook
As a person with Dissociative Identity Disorder, I felt very seen by Eda and the Owl Beast communicating. The curse isn't "cured", the Owl Beast wasn't erased, and their healing wasn't about becoming "one person" but by working together. It's a great example of DID in a fantasy setting.
yessssss oh gosh yassssss : D fellow fella from a dissociative system here, Eda is so far one of the best system representations we've encountered! we also felt like Lilith might (at least!) have ageregression going on, if not being a system as well ~ z
The Owl House was a really good show, the plot was well written and the show was really entertaining to watch. It's really nice that most of the characters have disabilities, having a disability is something that is and should be seen as normal and no one should be judged for having one.
When you just want a fun, quirky protagonist and suddenly the entire ADHD side of the fan base goes "One of us. One of us."
Disney: NO
Also I have ADHD
@@OsirisLord or when you just want representation and a fun quirky character provides that the creator confirmed Luz's ND and was always supposed to be that way
@@OsirisLord its funny, when I first watched season 1 of the owl house I didn't have my diagnosis and didn't know really anything about ADHD. But I saw luz and her life experiences and I was like: that's me. I related so hard to that feeling. Later I found out I had adhd and suddenly it clicked
Same here speaking as a person of autism. I related a lot to Gus back in the Labyrinth Runners episode. On how Gus felt overwhelmed and frustrated at times. I was like that during middle and high school when I was obsessed with getting good grades. Until I eventually learned that perfection isn't everything, along with being able to get the help I needed. And as long as it was a passing grade, I would be fine. In a way, TOH helped further inspire me for my future career as a special ed teacher. So children who were like me and others with various disabilities can still achieve their goals their way, no matter the disability.
Eda's power before she lost her magic was unrivalled by anyone except The Collector. Raine, Darius, and Eber had to do a whole ritual to get into Belos' mind. Meanwhile, Eda just put people inside of Willow and casually forgot.
I imagine belos has a lot more protections on his mind in comparison to willow
I see Hunter less as autistic and more with PTSD, or at least both. You cannot tell me that boy doesn't have trauma
See I know people want to assign him as autistic but we are talking about a child who was emotionally and mentally abused and socially isolated for his entire life, and that def affects how you function, but I am not knowledgeable enough on those effects to say if any of them compare.
PTSD can give a younger person ASD like symptoms, we don't really know what his early childhood was like before he became a Golden Guard or much of anything so PTSD could very well amplify already made ASD taits. It's a spectrum for a reason.
personally, I don’t think hunter would be good autistic rep because all of his behaviors can be explained by ptsd and his isolated upbringing and that seems to be what is implied in the show
@@miamaru414 i wouldn’t say all of them. but even if it was, autism and ptsd are very comorbid
Agreed. He is by far first and foremost a survivor of a highly abusive relationship and childhood, which would explain alot of his personality traits, behavior, interests and habits. Could he autistic? Sure, but his whole character is about breaking out of the world view that was fed to him, seeking his own truth, building new healthier relationships, finding who he is as a person , coming to terms and exercising his own thoughts, feelings and interests and most of all finding adult mentors who align with his values. He went from one abusive"uncle" who didn't allow him to think or share his ideas to having adoptive dad figure, who wants him to have friends and be kid, a tradesman teacher, teaching him how to turn his love for palisman into reality, adoptive mom in Camilla who showed him what a safe home is like, an aunt like figure who probably encourages him to explore without fear. And a good handful of friends.
It's also worth mentioning that it's very possible the Owl came out during For the Future because it had to face the Collector - a kid that reminded it of the Archivists, who are the beings that imprisoned it in the past
I hadn’t thought of that before but that actually makes a lot of sense, that would pretty directly trigger the owl beasts trauma, and it would probably see it as more dangerous than it was in an already nightmarish situation
@@linneathesystemsdruid308 Yeah! And honestly, Eda herself was very worried about King in that scene, but she didn't look stressed. The Owl however, has all reasons to be super stressed from the sight of the Collector, so that's what makes me think that's what triggered the transformation
I picked up on that straight away. Maybe Eda had even learned to keep the owl beast at bay in the months she was hiding in his archives. The apparent demise of Luz was everything she needed to give up that fight and meld her rage with the owl beast.
tbf i assume the lackluster handling of eda's prosthesis is bc the show got cut short. it would have probably been further explained if we got a full s3
Eda's reveal post time skip will never not be amazing. The curse once isolated her from her loved once and society, and now she's surrounded by her family and she's embracing her nurturing nature as a teacher. Her staff spinning is a staple move for her, so of course when she lost an arm, she learned to do it one handed and with even more flair than before. Whatever difficulties the curse has thrown at her, Eda makes a point to rise above it in the most beautiful, spiteful Eda way possible.
I love the owl house and as a person with a disability and is also queer I very much appreciated both the great disability representation as well as the great lgbt+ representation. besides luz being bi, Raine being NB, amity being gay and willow's parents, dana has confirmed many other characters being part of the community including representation that is rarely shown (pan, aro, ace). Dana confirmed while the show was still airing that Lilith was both aro and ace
All true, but i still dont count toh as having aro/ace rep (just like dumbledore doesnt count as gay rep)
@@rachelle5169lilith is very good aroace rep imo
@@pokemonlover4894 think what they're saying is that ultimately Lilith being aroace doesn't really have any impact on the show. If nobody told me Lilith was aroace, much like the Dumbledore being gay example, I wouldn't have known she was aroace. Don't get me wrong, I'm ace and I'm thrilled she's like me as well, even if her ace-ness and aro-ness doesn't affect the plot.
@@pokemonlover4894 agreed I’m part of both ace and aro umbrellas and related to Lilith’s depiction of being part of those unbrellas
@@rubysmolen5155 iam also aroace and i relate to her alot
Something I really appreciate about the ending is that not everyone got paired off as couples. Neither Gus or Lilith had any romantic plots in the show and they didn't end up with anyone post time skip. And they're still shown to be happy! As an ace/aro person I love it much
As someone with DID, I really liked how you explained the relationship with Eda and the owl beast. If we are reading Eda and the owl beast as some sort of system (DID, OSDD, etc) I personally think of the owl beast as a persecutor to a persecutor protector by the end of the show. For reference, persecutors are usually the alters that media turns into the "evil alter" because they sometimes lash out due to the severe trauma they have experience and hold in their memories. Persecutors sometimes carry the worst and severe trauma of the system and they are in pain, scared, confused, and angry because they cannot fathom why someone did to them what they did. Remember that DID systems are formed due to severe and repeated Trauma before the age of 8 years old.
After Eda starts to understand the owl beast and they start to heal together, the owl beast becomes more support orientated which is where it becomes more of a persecutor protector or even a full on protector, which is when your role in a system is mainly to protect the body when you are triggered out due to outside forces.
To be fair I can kinda understand why they introduced the owl beast the way they did. Before you know that you are a DID system, it can feel a lot like how it is depicted in the show (not to the extent in the show but you know). There is a huge reason why if a system grows up severely religious, they are seen as being possessed because there is literally more than one person living in the body and alters in a system can be very different people and/or not even human due to their trauma.
Please be aware that I am using persecutor, protector, and persecutor protector as broad umbrella terms. DID is very severe and complicated that deals with complex ptsd/cptsd and literally no system is the same. What alters are created for is a spectrum and these labels are only really used to get a rough idea of how an alter interacts within the system.
But if we are reading it as coming to a healthier balance of disability, it is very well done. It is so awesome to see a show nail and show so many different types of disabilities, both nd and physical.
:this comment will probably be edited in the future
It's also worth noting that DID is far from the only form of plurality. I myself have a protector headmate, but there's nothing dissociative about our system.
A lot of us have a very short fuse, and if certain types of people think we're dangerous, maybe that'll keep them away from us. Hopefully?
What exactly is DID?
I'm not sure if I've heard of it before, but now I'm curious
@@kanalzumkommentieren2169 you know how most people have one continuous identity in their noggin?
There's like 30 in our head. Mostly as a result of having to dissociate through our childhood to avoid trauma. And we all take turns.
@@fenixmeaney6170 Ok, thanks👌
I also think it’s very in character for Eda to choose a hook over the alternatives. I can imagine her, Darius, Alador, and Raine discussing the possibility of using abomination goo or something to make a new arm for Eda but nope she chooses a big flashy hook. This is the same woman who reclaimed the moniker of “the Owl Lady” for herself, she would also detach her limbs for convenience or to make Raine laugh. Of course she’s not going to want a prosthetic that LOOKS like a normal arm. Eda is going to want something functional, flashy, and something that’s recognizable as a prosthetic. She’s Eda the Owl Lady with a hook for a hand. You know she’s rocking it with pride.
I also like to think Professor Hermonculus uses his abomination magic as mobility aid from what we’ve seen
I always love how Luz is neurodivergent along with how coded some of the other characters are in the show.
All of the main kids are definitely neurodivergent. I'm autistic and my neurodivergent radar is going crazy off them.
as an autistic person, hunter is autistic and no one can convince me otherwise
@@cinnapurrin His passion over hyperfixations makes me feel so seen :D
luz has adhd by the way
@@lily_faito.28 Yes, I know she has ADHD which makes her neurodivergent.
My girlfriend and I really love the Gwendolyn episode- entirely too real lol. Someone on the writing crew has to have direct experience with chronic disability/alt med quackery for sure
Not to mention the family dynamics that come about from having a disabled/ND child with siblings.
As someone with chronic pain and fatigue, when I first watched "The Intruder" I was surprised and happy to see the mundanity of the curse. It was just... normal. A thing that happened to her.
The first stage of healing is acceptance. She and the owl fully accept each other. She will not be cured from it, but she is cured from the fear of lashing out and not having control.
The best comment on this video 👌 Very well said
@@mrmightyena8786 Thank you so much! I love their relationship. As strange as it is.
Ever since I watched that third episode, I rarely called my medication by that name. Now it's the elixir.
I’ve never known how I’ve seen hunter, autistic traits are super common for him, but also cptsd in children often looks like autism, and part of me just wants a character with cptsd to exist like that (cptsd is another form of nd), there’s often overlap, and as someone who’s spent years working with doctors to see what traits are my cptsd, or my autism, it’d be cool to just have a character with cptsd (I haven’t actually seen anyone point out that he cannonly has it), at the same time, it’s for common for cptsd to heighten autistic traits. I just find it interesting the conversation around him
Also I’ve never seen them as DID head mates and I love that headcannon so much-
I love how the owl house portrays Eda. She's introduced as just some quirky old witch but really developed over the series. She has flaws, and gets to develop through the story. No one has it all figured out, and Eda's story is focused on.
About the people who thought Harpy Eda was a "cure" misunderstood the fact it is supposed to be her being able to live with and cope with her disability in a healthy manner. It took her a long time to do this is in most cases and as you pointed out, she still has episodes but because she's been able to live with and help cope with it, its fewer and far between. Also I kinda relate to Eda in a sense I hate admitting about my disabilities to people in fear they will judge me.
IDK if anyone else talked about it yet, but I must add that there's also, for me, psychosis representation from Gus. Or at least, in the episode with his illusions going wild, it really, really reminded me of what it feels like to have delusions and hallucinations, and it felt incredibly good to feel represented this way. So yeah, for me at least, with how it was represented, Gus has hallucinations, and it's, as far as I can tell (from myself and from what the usual bad tropes are) quite good rep!
I didn't even notice that Eda had an elbow in the end, I think it was an animation overlook lost in the attempts to make the animations as smooth as possible. But I like the explanation of abomination goo acting as her elbow; it has flexibility and durability, along with being able to communicate with the user about what it needs to do. I can imagine a healing/abomination coven dedicated to prosthetic joints after the end of Belos' reign. Maybe even a healing/beast/oracle coven for studying better potions to help cursed individuals communicate and cope with their curses.
One thing I noticed about Lilith was her being kind of a hallmark for "the Glass Child." After she cursed her sister, their parents predictably tried everything in their power to help their daughter and focused all attention on Eda and her new Owl-Beast problem, for better or worse. Because of that, Lilith was pushed aside for the rest of her childhood and even a chunk of her adult life. Her needs were either put so far on the backburner that there was nothing left, or ignored entirely. Her coming to terms with being the glass child for so long, as well as her place in her family after the fact, may have had some part in reaching her own understanding with the Raven-Beast, and I hope that might somehow be addressed at some point in time.
Maybe it would have... IF DISNEY DIDN'T CANCEL IT
You knowing what a headmate is, -and using the word HEADMATE-, made me squee in joy. I love your stuff, and it made me so happy to see you talk about systems so casually and positively.
With Eda's hook, my assumption tbh is that she got one of those full arm prosthetics and had a hook at the end. Because, yeah, she would.
i could also imagine the hook being from passive influence for the owl "beast" to feel more represented in the human form
One thing I'm surprised you didn't bring up during the final episode (spoilers ahead so beware)
Before his final defeat, Belose tried faking that he was cursed and even compared it to Eda's as a means of getting sympathy from Luz to get away with what he's done.
And that is obviously a horrible thing for Phillip to do, trying to get an excuse for his actions by saying he was cursed when we already know, and I think Luz, cause we already know Hunter knows about Belos consuming palisman, but Lux didn't even have to know that he wasn't cursed, and it was so satisfying for his death, he was quite literally, stomped to death by the one thing he hated and probably feared, witches and demons, and we never seen or heard Belos refer to Raine as any other pronoun or even their own pronouns, and since he was alive during the Puritan age, and obviously, his view didn't change, my guess is that Belos just called Raine by their name, not their pronouns or any pronouns, and in history, there is evidence of gay relationships, but during the Puritan era, I think if you were to live with your same-sex lover, you would be accused of a witch for doing what any other hetero relationship, but if in the Boiling Isles, there's a way for same-sex relationships has a way of reproduction, like magic reproduction based on Willow and her dads, and Willow was supposed to be a black aisan but I think Disney also shut down that idea
The way you talked about Eda and the Owl made me so damn happy when you mentioned DID and the way you talked about it so casually was really uplifting for me as someone with it.
I just realized, bump’s palisman is like his service animal. And I think eda’s harpy form is somewhat like therapy to help her with her condition/curse.
I hate myself for never knowing that’s what that dream was, was the owl beat’s backstory, oh my god
Thank GOD I’m not the only one who didn’t realize what that was!
YEAH! Like, was that ACTUALLY the Collector? an archivist? a cultist? was the Collector supposed to be different before the cut?
@@claran3616 Considering what we know now, I'd probably assume it was actually an Archivist, not the Collector like how it was listed in the credits.
But you'd think they have better things to do than curse a random animal then LOSE it.
@@claran3616 according to the wiki, their whole deal is that they exist to "archive" creatures on the brink of extinction, and they do so by turning the last members of the species into various forms of objects or concepts. However there is no moral obligation whatsoever about how they go about it and they often do so against the creature's will (if it has a will, i don't imagine trees care that much about being turned into a toy, for example).
I too am still salty season 3 got cut short by disney. TOH deserve at least a season 4😭
it was too gay for disney but i agree. there shouldve been more
Seeing Eda’s curse affect her really hit home, my mother suffers from an invisible disability and the way Eda reacts to it really hits home especially since I already adored Eda, and it makes me wanna give my mom a hug every time!
I was hoping you would do another owl house video. Im really glad they didn't "fix" Eda's disability and didn't just give her a magic perfect arm back. I was a little worried during the finale.
Honestly I've always seen Luz as more AuDHD than ADHD, but that might also just be me projecting my own AuDHD on her. Also really happy you mentioned the DID thing with Eda's curse! As someone who's part of a system, especially one with non human alters, it was really nice to bring that possibility up! It actually helped us make the mental connections needed to realize why we enjoyed Eda so much besides just "her disability feels familiar but can't figure out why"!
I want to speak as an ND dude who had a lot of trouble with neurodivergency in media - Eda's curse's arc is honestly right up top as one of the greatest portrayals of psychosis.
Every single part of it is so damn well thought out, managing to keep a realistic yet easily understandable depiction of a psychotic disorder. It's a small thing, but I absolutely love this specific line from *The Intruder:*
*Eda:* "No one likes having a curse, but if you take the right steps, it's manageable."
Because that is PRECISELY the relationship I and many others have with disruptive neurodivergency - yeah, it sucks, but it's still livable. The lesson from that same episode about not messing with someone else's meds is also a FANTASTIC one to teach kids, in my personal opinion.
*Hooty's Door* also made really good strides, and honestly, I never really saw Harpy Eda as a 'cure'. I paralleled it with my own experiences of learning to work with my ND, and it really did hit home on that one. Made me cry manly tears of manly joy, although I'm a little salty that I didn't get a sickass magical transformation for coming to terms with myself.
Vague other unrelated thoughts: I must clarify, I don't have autism myself so my say isn't exactly worth much, but personally I think Hunter scans more as disorganizational schizophrenic rather than autistic, which is plenty swell. Also, I have heard that Amity reads as autistic as well based on her habits of repeating phrases she's heard from others, among other things.
Yes the hooks/claws can be great, especially since the high tech, but more realistic looking prosthetic hands are hard to use and require lots of training compared to the hooks. Coming from someone who works in the prosthetics field (I'm not an amputee myself tho), I also totally saw that as an elbow disarticulation. However, I have seen people with very small residual limbs who are trans-radial amputees, so it's not impossible that Eda's arm was wrapped in a way that prevented the elbow from bending such a small remainder of a forearm. My guess is that they didn't want to do the harnessing part of upper extremity prosthetics wrong so they kept the elbow. To make a prosthetic elbow and/or hand move (even some hooks require it), a harness around the shoulders is usually necessary (especially for non-electrical ones). Harnesses are also meant for holding the prosthetic limb in place, but I'll get to that later. Harnessing for limb movement purposes usually involves wires and straps and with the limited time the writers and animators had left, I get kinda why they went with "no, she still has her elbow." It also works out since she has straight up a hook, so harnessing wouldn't be needed to move her hand. I think I also saw draft ideas of Eda's season 3 outfits and some of them showed her having an elbow and tiny limb below it. "But what about that suspension factor you mentioned?" you may be asking, and to that I say even with it being a tiny forearm, Eda may not have a harness and it still would be accurate in her prosthesis wear. While harnesses tend to also be important in holding a socket on an amputee's limb, there are such things as sockets that are self-suspending sockets. One that comes to my mind is something called a Munster socket, which has been used by a lot for people with very small forearm limbs. So there's my conclusion on how Eda makes sense as a trans-radial amputee. Hope you enjoyed my rambling
Honestly as a person with chronic illness, Eda’s story and the process of her becoming harpie eda really hit home. I’ve had this condition since I was very little, it’s caused me to miss events with family friends and partner, caused my parents to miss things because they were helping me, and made me suffer in school due to my absence from class. It’s been a struggle and I always antagonized my condition, and hid it from people. I was afraid of being made fun of or not taken seriously. Or I didn’t think they needed to know and I could handle it myself. But over time I started to realize there’s no good in fighting what I can’t run from, and it’s better to use the recourses I have that can help me, and learn to accept it. It also helps that my partner doesn’t shame me or anything for my condition, and takes it seriously and cares for me. Which i can’t recall anyone aside from family doing that before. Also, like Eda, I have a mom who falls into big pharma conspiracy’s and tried to find me alternative medicine. In short I’m still working to make life better with chronic illness, without suppressing or antagonizing it. And Eda is a beacon of hope for me.
I also like how Eda looks like Captain Hook with the red robes along with the actual hook.
I actually wonder if maybe Eda IS missing her elbow, and it's the HOOK that was designed with a bending joint so she can move it around a little better. After all, her sleeve covers up her entire arm. We don't know what's going underneath it, so maybe the hook is longer than it initially appears, and the hilt the hook connects with is not the entire prosthetic. It's just what's visible.
Eda (and Lilith) are the first rep of chronic illness (even if it was through a sort of metaphor) I've ever seen and they mean so so much to me. The other thing I also appreciate about Luz and Gus being very blatantly ND is that they're also not white and that type of rep is also much more difficult to find, in conjunction with how underdiagnosed poc are or how often poc get misdiagnosed with disorders that imply "disobedience" or that are stigmatized as violent due to racism.
I’m going to get tested for ADHD, and I’m also Hispanic, so Luz as a character was SUPER relatable. I have a couple hyper fixations, which I spend time into learning everything there is to know about them. I can’t focus on things that don’t “interest” me, (or really focus at all, actually.) I fidget with just about anything, string, pencils, and sometimes get into trouble for not staying still. I can’t go to do other tasks without getting distracted or just forgetting what I was going to do. I. Absolutely. Hate. It.
_reading comment while literally playing with string_
That is interesting.
I've actually already been diagnosed. Even if you do nothing with it, just finally knowing what you're dealing with is something of a relief. However it turns out, I hope it goes well for you.
I like to think that Eda has a collection of prosthetic hooks all different sizes and colors and some more complicated than others just hanging on a wall in the owl house.
As a woman with asd and adhd (who has many issues that come with it), the Owl House made me stupidly happy. I got to see so many positive rep for all sorts of people, in one of the most normalising way possible. Aka: "this person has this thing, and it's There but not their whole personality"
As someone who autistic and temporarily physically disabled due to a severe muscle tear, and family to someone who has ADHD and is permanently disabled due to injuries from a car accident, I saw a lot of characters in the owl house that I and family can relate to. I even got the rest of my family hooked, and the show itself is a special interest of mine. Thank you for speaking about the representation in this show. I think it's important for disabled and neurodivergent kids and adults to see themselves on TV. It definitely helps me to feel less alone when I can relate to characters like Hunter and Gus, who I headcanon to be autistic too.
Something I appreciate about the Owl House is that it ends with a message of queer hope. I think we need more of that. Along with the nuanced disability representation, of course.
By the way, I found a webcomic created by someone who has worked on the Owl House. It's titled The Glass Scientists and is a queer retelling of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Highly recommend it.
One more thing, one of my favorite fantasy book series, the Stormlight Archive, has several characters in the main and supporting cast who are mentally or physically disabled. I would be interested in your thoughts about the series.
Thank you for the rec!! I just looked up The Glass Scientists and absolutely love it. Definitely found a new favorite! ❤
Knocking on Hooty's Door fundamentally changed my life and changed how I view my chronic illnesses. Before that, I struggled with accepting myself and hated my body. It isn't fair, I thought, that I had to deal with this illness. But accepting it has truly changed my life for the better. It's also helped that I have a pain med that better manages the chronic pain. It can still be debilitating, but I'm in a much better place than I was before that episode. I've even come up with animals that I feel fit my diseases, and it gives me a lot more empathy towards my body! I'm so glad that the owl house exists.
How the hell didn't I notice Luz having ADHD???
I HAVE ADHD, and it seemed so obvious after you brought it up!
Ptsd is also a disability and the show handles that very well too. Hunter isn’t the “token traumatized one” and it’s always treated like a serious thing. No one makes fun of him for flinching or being triggered. They accommodate and care for him. They offer him gentleness.
The amount of times I cried seeing Luz do things I've done my whole life and never seen represented... I needed a show like this when I was younger. Would've made my life make a whole lot more sense.
hearing the DID comparison as someone with DID actually makes me pretty happy. its very relatable and i totally get the repression fear because i repressed our alters, especially our persecutor, because i was scared. and when i finally took that step it felt similar. that comparison makes me happy and i love how accurate it is.
I know that this comment isn't about the owl house, but I can't describe how happy I am to see disabled figures for dnd. I've had my fair share of people saying that I shouldn't play a disabled character because "magic can fix that." So I'm ecstatic to see representation.
... How it never occurred to me, someone part of a DID system, that Eda and the Owl Beast could be seen as headmates, I've no idea. We project onto anything that vaguely resembles a system, how on earth did we miss that?? With that you could also consider Harpy Eda to be showing integration! Neither are gone, but they are communicating and working towards common goals, any sense of loss of control is gone, and any potential amnesia is gone as well! Even when the Owl Beast really takes over, being an integrated system doesn't mean there aren't switches, it just means they are more controlled and involve less frustrations - but during times of intense stress, it would make complete sense! Hell, even the dreamscape makes sense as a kind of inner world that a lot of systems have where parts can more freely communicate. Oh now I'm all obsessed with this idea, what you for even just the brief mention!
The first time I started watching the owl house I deeply related to Luz Noceda and saw her behaviors as an exact replica and she was my sort of mirror in some way? I never realized until I got deeper into the show and saw video essays on her and her character that she was possibly neurodivergent (now confirmed) and around that time I got my diagnosis as well. It's so funny to me how absolutely amazing this show was and it was done so well I'm sure many of us feel connected and relate to the characters. Thank you Dana Terrance and everyone else for such a wonderful show that helped me and others feel truly comfortable in their skin whether they were disabled, neurodivergent, queer and everything else that has been discussed in the show. Thank you Dana
Honestly someone i'm surprised you didn't mention is flapjack (and post time-skip waffle)
Not only is flapjack missing an eye he's pretty much hunters emotional support bird.
He's seen around hunter more than any other palisman (with the exception of bump) and clearly does help with hunters obvious PTSD both from being a child soldier and the abuse from belos.
Hunter never would've even joined the others if it weren't for his palismans help
Kinda upset that you didnt mention that at season 3 episode 1 end he died, and got new scars before or after he came back to the life because of flapjack
flapjack basically ricked his life by giving hunter his heart so hunter had a heart transplant and now that allows him to live on though if it was more realistic hunter would have to take medication to make sure his cells dont attack the foreign organ
@@Ashenthewarlockwell he is made of palistrom wood just like Flapjack, so there probably wouldn't be much in terms of differences for his body to reject
@@ricegorm I never thought of this before but this is cool and makes tons of sense world building wise
The scars over lap where the Belos goo crawled across his skin. Same thing happened to Raine in Watching and Dreaming, they got scar tissue around their eyes from the Belos infection.
@@ricegorm so it would be more of a blood transfusion nice
It probably was just an animation miscommunication/gloss over, but there may very well be some magic-mechanics at play in Eda's epilogue prosthetic. They're on good terms with Alador, who could totally design a prosthetic elbow for Eda, on which to attach the simple hook.
I can excuse the arm inconsistency. It’s likely just an oversight that can just be explained in a couple different ways, but I particularly love the idea that abomination slime was used as a joint to connect the prosthetic to.
21:07 i had similar feelings to those who were upset when hunter got palismwn dash ability after flapjack died as "dialsability cure" for hunter. When hunter is still infact disabled and cant do magic the way others can. And his new ability to me read more as a healing from ptsd allegory. So much of hunters storyline is about trauma, ptsd, and isolation from support. In flapjacks last scene hunter finally stands up to his abuser and stands firm in his own dreams desires (wanting to learn wild magic and carve palisman) while being surrounded by the support of his new family/friends. The whole experience is teaunwtic and further scars hunter, but its also healing so him getting a small ability is reflective of that. And it came at a great cost.
It could also be read as getting a transplant from a family member. Like yes youre physically better now bc of a new heart/lungs but you would have probably have preferred to keep your loved one ibstead
The thing i love about owl house was that no one aside from gwendolyn even HINTED at trying or even wanting to find a cure for eda. Sure Luz may have bought the cure claims for a few hours but she was also the frist one to call her out and rightly tell her that she was wrong and try to make things right.
It means so much to me that eda is still disabled and she still gets a happy ending. The only other media I’ve seen that handles disability with this much grace and positivity is HTTYD.
It makes me sad to see owl house go as i have never before watched a show where I connected to almost if not all of the cast in such a personal way aside from avatar the last airbender ane maybe steven universe. As a neurodivergent who was approximately the same age as luz give or take a year when the show started, i had never before felt so seen or heard as the “weirdo” kid who was just trying her best and had big dreams. Quite literally it has changed how my brain chemistry works and im glad it has gotten the recognition and proper send off it deserves
My headcanon is that with the magic-technology available she could have just had a full prosthetic hand but she wanted a hook "cause its more badass"
There are other fans who theorize that Eda’s curse - instead of disability - is representing a chronic illness, which also makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Either way, we love representation and I wish there were more shows that showed these topics☺️
It can be both. Chronic illnesses can lead to disability in some cases. I know there are people who have the same chronic illness I do who are on disability.
chronic illness is a physical disability
@@sporogymno , thank you for pointing that out. It is important to keep in mind that disability is an inclusive umbrella term.
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 People generally don't realize how inclusive such terms are! Saying neurodivergent only refers to ID/DD/LD and such when it's not so exclusive. Mental illness is a psychiatric disability in fact! People just gotta remember that adaptive functioning is a huge issue with disability -- and be glad if theirs isn't impaired much!
I thought it was more like a chronic mental illness, like perhaps a personality disorder, since it can negatively affect those around her if untreated or if she gets overwhelmed. But I guess that’s technically a disability in a way as well.
I would say, regarding Eda's hook: I honestly think that was a continuity error caused by a shortened production timeline. They probably still would have given her a hook, but they might have made a full arm mechanism more obvious if they hadn't had to rush out their final season. I really think that was an overlooked error caused simply by art designers who probably didn't have the time to thoroughly work through the design and make sure it matched their previous one.
It also was probably done to simplify animation, they didn't have to be as meticulous about making sure the arm moved correctly for not having unconscious use of the elbow. It sucks, but I'm definitely throwing the blame at Disney for this one.
Harpy Eda to me reads as when you accept your disability and start to use mobility aids and let yourself be visibly disabled. And I love that people don't look at her weirdly or judge her for it.
Bonk and his monocular vision representation was nice to see because that rep is so rare. I'm mostly blind in my right eye and have started losing vision in my left eye too so it was really nice to see.
One thing I'll mention is that partial blindness in one eye can often be harder than full blindness in one eye. When it's partial you frequently suffer migraines and fatigue from eye strain.
Which is why I frequently wear an eyepatch over the bad eye, I'm mostly better off not seeing out of it at all.
The way I literally screamed when you said Eda was a system made me so happy. I had never connected the dots before until now, truthfully.
as a girl with undiagnosed neurodivergencies (due to a lack of accessible resources and personal anxieties surrounding getting diagnosed), luz means a lot to me. her character arc connected with me in a way no other nd coded character ever has, and a lot of my own feelings ive never known how to express or understand i saw in her. especially her relationship with her mother. i also only have my mom as family and her desire to be understood by her but never ever blaming her for the miscommunication is something i really related to. luz is one of my favorite characters of all time and i miss her terribly.
Luz is canon ADHD Im so happy to have representation
wait it's canon? When was it said?
@@birb70 I believe Dana said that she had ADHD but took it back and said that she's neurodivergent instead.
@@quaxlyquixote4003 Dana said she never intended Luz to be adhd when she was creatingher and just neurodivergent, however then confirmed it when many people with adhd asked about if she had it or not.
I always read Harpy Eda as her learning to accept her curse(/disability) and in therefore became (LITERALLY) more comfortable in her skin, with it now showing through and truly allowing her to be the best her she can be, it wasn't a cure but it was her finally learning that "hey. it's not wrong to have what i have, and I'm actually quite happy with it all."
I thought I was the only one who thought of Eda and the Owl being headmates, thought I was self projecting.
I also feel like confusion about if it was a cure also reads that the assumption is "Disability has to suck and if it doesn't then you're not disabled" She got a cool winged form so she's all better now. There's quite a few people I think who'd say their disability came with an upside or two. A big one is Toph. She can do incredible things but she still misses out on some things because she can't see. She's still disabled.
I took an EMT class with a guy that used hearing aids. Because he used hearing aids, he had to use a special type of stethoscope that sort of plays the sound through his hearing aids, making him able to hear much better through his stethoscope than anyone else
I have also seen a take that Eda's curse could be a metaphor for PTSD. I don't personally have it, so I can't speak much to the metaphor. But my friend (who does have cPTSD) says that her nightmares and episodes are simmilar to their nightmares and episodes. The medication of the potion also plays a part in this.
As someone who's on the autism spectrum, I never realized how many characters from the show were on there as well. I really like how you presented Eda's connection with the Owl Beast. When you said that the Owl was showing Eda how it became a curse, I never knew what was going on in that part of the episode, but you helped me realize how Eda started to understand the Owl, and come to an agreement with each other. When I saw that part of your video, I had the thought, "Yeah, there's a difference between getting cursed by a hex or spell, and getting a curse that was once a living creature!"
14:25 holy crap my headphones gave a low battery notification at the perfect time. “It would be a whole lot worse if he wasnt, you know, BATTERY LOW”
I’d just like to say thank you for taking about systems the way you did, it was only a short mention but talking about so casually and using the term headmate made my day quite a bit better
Thanks
My best guess for the prosthetic is that it made a magic pseudo-elbow that Eda can control (somehow? idk how but still), and Eda wears her sleeve over the elbow part for aesthetic. Great video, love this show, thank you for the analysis!
I really like how you talked about the owl beast like it was DID, and now that you brought that up, I do want to say this much. If you have undiagnosed DID like I did for the longest time, your disability might actually be scary and those not used to it or never even heard about it might try to repress or bury it. I know I did because we thought I was having seizures and when i found out I had DID, i was misinformed and told that there's always an evil or toxic personality, and I had dozens i had to go through to figure out who were the toxic ones. Because i didn't know who was who. Eventually though, as in the past month, I've met just about everyone and have started the process of working with them and getting my system back on track.
I like to think that Eda's prosthetic has a functional elbow to show that the Isles has the magic/technology to make prosthetics that function exactly like real limbs, to emphasize that the hook was a conscious choice on Eda's part
Can you do a video on Gabriella from the The Little Mermaid TV series? She was a deaf/mute mermaid that Ariel meets and became friends with, and there's real ASL used in the episodes. Her introductory episode was about the beauty of how she expresses herself with ASL. Not only that, but she's based on a real little girl who loved the movie and wrote letters, but she passed away from chronic illness before she could see the episode air. The creators managed to get the parent's permission to add her to the series
Fun fact
My grandma is actually really good friends with Gwendolyn’s voice actress I met her once when I was a kid, she’s pretty nice😊
That's really cool!
I haven't had the emotional energy to watch the finale yet but i want you to get the views so im watching this on mute and i'll come back to it after i've finished the show and watch it again. Love your content!
Honestly the owl curse is like a number of conditions that even I've had. Even if you have them under control they always spike in times of extrema emotional or phonical stress. I mean name one medical thing that doesn't go ham when under stress.
Furthermore her "understanding" of the condition to me is like finding a better med.
Sure the potion is still the same and much like other medical conditions you can't make it go away. But you can find better treatments. Eda found something that worked and then through a combination of luck and trial and error she found a new treatment that works better.
Much like how modern medicine can discover more effective treatments for old conditions.
As someone with cerebral palsy, I love this!!
As kids/adults/teens with disabilities, we should be accepted and treated as equals!!
Holy hell i loved your section on Eda and the Owl Beast resembling headmates. I have never thought of it like that and as someone in a system i can see it so well and i can relate so much to alot of it. I love the owl house it helped me accept alot of myself especially my neurodivergent in many ways. Forever a favorite of mine i will miss it. I wouldnt be where i was today without media like that
I don't really like Hunter but I did apriciate the fact that he had face scares and he was still seen as a character who was worthy of love and got a happy ending
As a DID system, I found the inclusion of harpy eda to be incredibly meaningful. We're still prone to falling apart and having difficulty in life due to disagreements, amnesia and bad flashbacks, but to me, Harpy eda Is Symbolic of coming together to find equal ground and promising to each other to work together for a better future. At least, that's how we interpreted it. (Honestly Eda & The Owl Beast are incredibly relatable for us)
I like to belive that the Harpie form represents a person's self acceptance to their own disability.
I felt that way ever since I first saw Harpie Eda.
I'm also salty about how the third season had to be cut short. Also agree with pretty much everything. Probably some video essay could be written about scars and such tropes, Belos is almost an inversion of the scared villain, wearing a mask to hide what nobody but himself would judge him for, using his scars as part of his propaganda and then showing that he could have hidden them at any time (I wonder if there was a dropped plot point of him using basilisks like Vee to figure out shape shifting) He's surrounded by a world that shows scars and differences openly, but hides his own to stay apart from it. so many layers to this show and it was all so good.
You know I never thought I would see the day when you would say the words "the owl was perfectly content just munching on playground equipment" but here we are
This was such a great video! Watching the show, I never gave Eda's hook a second thought. It would have never occurred to me that that prosthetic wouldn't make sense for her injury. As someone who hopes to write shows like this professionally one day, this video's exposed me to a lot of cool new ways to include meaningful representation. Thank you so much for making it!
I really liked to hear someone discuss disability in the Owl House. It really helped me to process my feelings about the show.
On the subject of your sponsor, i actually always wanted to make an apocalypse story with a survivor that's a wheelchair user that mods out their mobility aid into a piece of survival gear, there are other survivors but the base isn't accessible
Wheelchair bound really isnt the best terminology. "Wheelchair user" is far more correct to the actual experience.
@@InnsannaStories oh ok thanks for letting me know, I'll fix that right away
@@InnsannaStories tbh the area I'm in is so anti progression that some medical "professionals" still use the R slur as part of the diagnosis! I'm so fortunate to have internet access to learn things cause I'm currently financially trapped in one of the worst educated states in the US
@someone awesome yeah, i wish education about this kinda stuff was more widespread, i know so much more thanks to the internet
So sad that TOH is over
Same
Disability in TOH is the video that actually introduced me to the channel so it is kinda nice to see you go back to this!
Also your first sponsor?! Heck yeah!! Congrats for the sponsor!