Chapter 58: The Ballad of Eda, Part 1
Art by Crash X Fusion: You never forget your First Friend, and Eda prides herself on being memorable.
Eda remembers her first visit to the human world, when she made a friend in a small town.Tropes that appear in this Chapter:
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Severine debuts during the events of "Eda's Requiem" instead of "Labyrinth Runners" as does Skara's cricket palisman, which debuted in "Any Sport in a Storm". Head Witch Adrian Graye Vernworth also makes his speaking debut here.
- Adaptational Explanation: Downplayed, but Lilith getting a job at the Bonesborough Museum of Supernatural History is because of Flora making her the offer.
- Anonymous Benefactor: The Shadowy Secret Expozers mention that they have a benefactor, but their identity isn't revealed.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Ehile Darius gets easily annoyed by Eberwolf, he considers them a dependable friend who helped him to deal with the sacrifices he made for his position as Coven Head.
- Ballad of X: "The Ballad of Eda", Part 1.
- Batter Up!: Angel used a baseball bat against the guys who tried to rape Eda.
- Bookends: The chapter begins and ends on a flashback of Eda on Earth right after she left home.
- Boots of Toughness: As part of Angel's badass look, she wears black Timberland boots.
- Brutal Honesty: Not really brutal, but Luz is incredibly skeptical that Geist is related to Odalia since he's spontaneous and fun-loving and doesn't hesitate to announce it.Luz: (to Amity) Are you sure he wasn't adopted?
- Call-Back:
- Boscha mentions how she got her book on humans being witch hunters from a vampire and the repercussions using such information put her through. She still believes said information is true.
- Eda's reason for wanting to befriend Sandra is because of her threatening Nicole in "Blindsided". Sandra's reasons are because Luz saved Matt from both the Coachman and his horrible Glandus friends.
- Kikimora has started her job as a Coven Scout following her demotion 2 chapters ago.
- Calling the Old Woman Out: Hearing Angel's mother tell her to apologize to Eda's muggers for attacking them and not listening to Angel try and tell the truth causes Eda to tell Ms. Sinclair off.Eda: Hey lady, what Angel said is true! If she hadn't come to my rescue, who knows what those punks could've done to me! And she is not going to apologize to those fuckers who deserve much worse than they got! It's you who should apologize to her, she shouldn't have to apologize for saving me! And if you can't realize that, then fuck you!
- Continuity Cameo:
- Larry is kidnapped by Amity, King, and Luz so they can ask him to get adoption papers for King.
- Gus, Willow, Skara, Jerbo, Barcus, Simon, the Shadowy Secret Expozers, Amelia, and Cat are among the characters shown watching King's video. Cat's brother Moose is also heard shouting in the background. Several palisman, including Skara's cricket, and Batric are also seen with their owners.
- Viney gets two. She is shown watching King's video for his dad and she later shows up at Geist's for a date with Emira when Amity and Luz go there for lunch.
- Viney's father is once again seen in a photograph she has.
- Adrian Graye, coven scout Severine, Steve (impersonating Raine using an illusion), Terra, and Eberwolf all appear at a shooting for an Emperor's Coven recruitment video.
- Webstor appears when Hunter goes to talk to Ludo.
- Kikimora makes her first appearance as a coven scout.
- Closet Geek: Considering Boscha's reaction to Tom finding a copy of the Good Witch Azura among the books she gives him and how she takes it back, it's implied she's a fan of the series.
- Continuity Nod:
- Luz's reason for sitting out the Gland Prix is to not hurt Owlbert with her new ability, which caused Maya's destruction.
- Darius mentions Hunter's therapy sessions with Abel and his breakup with Edric.
- A ghost ball is utilized again, and it takes an oracle to subdue the ghosts.
- A Day in the Limelight: As per canon, Eda acts as the focus character.
- Distant Prologue: The chapter begins 30 years ago, picking up from when Eda entered the portal into the Human Realm for the first time.
- Easily Forgiven: Owlbert doesn't hold what Luz did to Maya against her and refuses to be afraid of her.
- Expy
- Failed a Spot Check: Eda never knew about Luz being omitted from several public incidents including the slayground incident because she never watches the news.
- Faking the Dead: Admiral Barack and his crew faked their deaths during a Selkidomus hunt and went into hidong in Foot Fungus Forest.
- Flashback B-Plot: Throughout the chapter, flashbacks show how a teenage Eda met and befriended a human girl named Angel during her first visit to Earth.
- Foreshadowing:
- "The War on Witchcraft" features an illustration of a face eclipsed with a crescent moon shape.
- Tres' anger towards Lilith would continue on to the next chapter.
- Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Even though Luz has forgiven Lilith for causing Camila's death, it still creates tension between them.
- The Ghost:
- Lilith mentions Flora, who offered her a job at the museum.
- Maya is brought up when Luz shows guilt over what happened to her again.
- The Nocedas mention Dipper, with Camila still expressing hope that she'll get to meet him.
- Vanz Ator is brought up by Boscha as "the vampire" who sold her "The War on Witchcraft".
- Star Butterfly is alluded to for the first time, as is the rest of the Butterfly family.
- Gwendolyn and Dell were both mentioned during the flashbacks when Angel asks Eda about her parents.
- Mattholomule is mentioned by his mother while Eda talks with her along with Willow's dads, Odalia, and Calypso.
- Given Name Reveal: Angelica "Angel" Sinclair is the name of Eda's first human friend.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: Angel Sinclair wore a leather jacket, and was tough enough to knock out two guys harassing a girl and intimidate the other two.
- Internal Reveal:
- Amity is revealed to have met Larry, who had been told of her relationship with Luz by Eda.
- Boscha learns about Mewni and its racism from Tom. Hunter also learns about Mewni from Ludo.
- Eda meets Levi & Goonla and Luz meets Geist for the first time.
- Eda is told about Luz being omitted from the reports on the Boiling Zit incident and she & Lilith learn about Belos' plans for the Day of Unity.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- King gets Eda to adopt him then streams a message hoping his dad might watch it.
- Lilith is offered a job at the Museum of Supernatural History.
- Tom not only knew Star at one point, according to him, she still fought for equality between monsters and mewmans with little success.
- Skara's palisman ends up being a cricket.
- A hunt for the Selkidomus had still occurred at some point.
- It's All My Fault: Eda blames herself for both Angel's death and for not warning Perry about Jenny despite sensing something wrong with her.
- Lack of Empathy: Ms. Sinclair doesn't believe Angel when she says Roger and Smith mugged an innocent girl and demands that she give them an apology. Eda swiftly defends Angel and calls her mother out for such an idiotic defense.
- Laughing Mad: Ludo did this when he realized Mewni was lost, and remembering that moment causes him to laugh, scream, and cry as he has a breakdown.
- Luminescent Blush: Amity has one when Larry says Luz picked a good girlfriend.
- Meaningful Name: Invoked; after saving Eda, Angel jokingly says that she's Eda's "guardian angel".
- Multi-Part Episode: This is the first of a two-part chapter splitting up the events of "Eda's Requiem".
- Noodle Incident: At one of the twins' birthday parties, Geist was supposed to make a cottontail rabbit appear: he made a cocktail waitress appear.
- No-Sell: Purple tries to get out of being arrested by Coven Scouts by showing them her tattoo of a Beast Keeping coven sigil. They quickly deduce it's fake since they've been finding a lot of those recently.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Boris started giving wild witches tattoos of coven sigils to avoid arrest, but now the EC is figuring out his scam.
- Once More, with Clarity: The chapter begins with Eda first exploring the town of Gatesfield, Connecticut on Earth before getting mugged and being saved by Angel, her first human friend as mentioned in "No Dancing Around" and "Going Through Changes".
- Out of Focus: Most of the main cast is shafted in favor of Eda, with King and Camila disappearing once things shift focus away from the Owl House.
- Pet the Dog: Hunter brings food for both Ludo and Webstor. While he wanted information from Ludo in return for the food, he got nothing out of giving food to Webstor yet did it anyway.
- Point of Divergence: To "Eda's Requiem": King having Eda adopt him and broadcasting his message to his missing dad happens before the Gland Prix while Amity decides to race in it with King since Luz is scared of consuming Owlbert's essence. Plus, Skara's palisman also debuts earlier.
- Public Service Announcement: Darius is called into work to star in one regarding Fae Awareness.
- The Reveal:
- The human girl who saved Eda from her muggers and was killed by the Owl Beast was named Angel Sinclair.
- Larry mentions he has a husband and two pet griffins.
- Skara has finished carving her Palisman.
- The Shadowy Secret Expozers have a benefactor.
- Camila and her husband were planning on having more kids when Luz got old enough.
- Prof. Snope is working with Alador and Darius to cure Alador's siblings. He mentions that he was Alador's apprentice when he worked for him.
- Darius is revealed to have an ex-wife and son, having become estranged from them due to his job.
- Boscha is revealed, or at least implied, to be a fan of The Good Witch Azura.
- Tom was told of Mewman bigotry towards monsters by Star and ignored her warnings, calling him a hypocrite due to his wealth preventing him from knowing such hardship.
- Mewmans and Monsters are said to have had an all-out war at some recent point, before Mewni was destroyed.
- Sandra's last name, and thus Mattholomule's, is revealed to be Storms.
- Raine did manage to get Eda's messages warning them about Belos being onto them and had to lay low after leaving the castle so they couldn't contact her.
- Boris has been giving wild witches tattoos of coven sigils using his Bard magic, but the Emperor's Coven has recently been cracking down on them. Levi has such a tattoo, so he can still use his bard magic.
- Levi, Goonla, Perry and Witch Rick have joined the Bards Against the Throne, with Perry feeding them information on the Day of Unity. His latest intel reveals that Emperor Belos plans on waging war on the human realm and using Luz as a weapon to win.
- Eda was told about what Jenny did to Perry and admits she had suspected something was off about her. She also never knew about the news media covering up Luz's existence.
- Geist's lounge was popular until changing times forced him to reimagine its image every time to keep up. He mentions that before then, several famous singer performed there with Odalia having performed with him on occasion.
- Geist also mentions that Odalia forced him to change his last name to Blight.
- G.B. Gates, the author of "The War on Witchcraft", was Gabriel Belmont Gates, a witch hunter and his descendants run the town of Gravesfield, even renaming it Gatesfield. G.B. Gates also knew of the Collector.
- Eda once dated a vampire woman.
- The Runaway: Lampshaded by Angel, who hopes to do this so she can finally escape from Gatesfield and calls Eda cool for doing it, labeling her a rebel over it.
- Sequel Hook:
- The Shadowy Secret Expozers decide to research King's origins by examining the symbol on his collar.
- Emily is planning on entering the Gland Prix and prepares to train.
- Whoever found the "War on Witchcraft" book pockets it in their cloak.
- Shout-Out:
- Mullet and Mustache, the two guys who spoke when mugging Eda, are actually named Roger and Smith.
- One of the ghosts unleashed by the ghost ball is rather friendly and asks Kikimora to be his friend.
- The Noodle Incident regarding the cocktail waitress is based off this scene
of 
Bewitched, which Word of God says fits because Geist is based off of Uncle Arthur. - Eda's vampire ex is a tall woman with a wide-brimmed hat, like Lady Dimitrescu in Resident Evil Village.
- There's a BAT member with a name that's Spanish for a number who harbors a hatred towards Lilith since she was the leader of the Emperor's Coven and one of Luz's friends' dads joins the BATT's to protect his child. Sounds like something out of another OH fic where Eda is Luz's mother... of course, it's been confirmed to be a Contrived Coincidence.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: When Tom finds an Azura book among the books Boscha gave him, she snatches it from him saying she doesn't know how it got there with an embarrassed look.
- Symbolism: When Eda performs for Raine on the lute, she creates an illusion of an young orange-haired girl being saved from a pack of wolves by an angel, AKA her first few moments in the human realm and being saved by Angel.
- Trauma Button
- Wham Episode: Eda officially adopts King as her son, Boscha learns about the bigotry on Mewni and gets rid of the "War on Witchcraft" book which someone claims, Perry, the Thians and Witch Rick have joined the BATT's, Perry informs Eda of the Emperor's Coven initially covering up Luz's existence and Gravesfield is shown to be owned by and renamed after the Gates family.
- Wham Shot: One of the illustrations in "The War on Witchcraft" is of a face eclipsed with a crescent moon shape.
