The Owl House: a horror-comedy Disney series

You can really see where elements were recycled for different contexts

they practically cannibalized the pilot for spare animation,it's a fairly standard practice

Yeah, it’s perfectly fine. I was just reading the list of proposed episodes and recognizing bits

Edit: I do wonder though why the pilot was changed by the time it became a finished episode to remove Lilith, Amity, and the school. All things that wound up much more important to the plot than the Warden or Conformatorium.

Edited by Bocaj on Apr 26th 2024 at 7:39:42 AM

So it is true. I made an analysis of how Belos seems to be two different characters forcibly mushed into one because his real agenda vs how he actually rules the Boiling Isles in Season 1 are so contradictory that it would have worked better if Belos and Philip were two different characters who fight each other, with one being a witch supremacist bent on taking over the Human Realm and the other a fanatical witch hunter trying to kill witches to "save" humanity.

I didn't expect it to be hitting right on the mark.

Love the note on how the supposedly dystopian Boiling Isles is actually look better than a human world, which is something touched upon in one of MoringMark's fan comics.

The one with Masha?

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Apr 26th 2024 at 12:18:27 PM

Yeah.

@ Shadao, I don’t think it’s so contadictory, Belos already made clear he had no intention of invading Human World at the moment he didn’t have reason to lie and even then it was made ambiguous whether he really speaks with Titan.

When it comes to gathering army of witch hunters, Belos is shown to be Glory Hound who wants to return after having singlehandedly wiped out evil amd even then portal door is just one door that is pretty impractical for bringing army and can’t just be created easily (he ruled Isles for centuries and still needed existing one to get back home). His lack of real world prejudice is likely more because of network it was on than anything.

Isles ressembling more of “real world” under his rule is more of statement about out world that anything and even then Might Makes Right World of Jerkass it is under his rule seems more of product of his influence and regime than anything intentional. Belos strikes me as kind of person who dosen’t care how his avarage citizens live as long as they fall in line, esspecaly since he plots to kill them all anyway.

Granted there are some things like seeming conection between him and heart and his seeming omnicince within the castle that do imply his character wasn’t completely finalised until they started working on second season. But overall I don’t think there is anything that truly “breaks conection” between Philip and Belos.

As far as not encouraging racism and homophobia, probably because it would be met with some opposition and to him, they're beyond saving anyway in his eyes.

And remember before becoming Belos he was ran out of towns as Philip, so until his plans were fully doable, he had to be as little as himself as possible.

Also, I feel on a meta level his portrayal was for us to find his trickery believable, otherwise we wouldn't be sympathetic to the Isles citizens being led astray.

Also very interesting that EDA was the one being forced to work for the bad guys in the pilot. I can see why that was changed. Kinda contradicts her whole character.

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Apr 26th 2024 at 4:43:31 AM

Huh cool to finally see design bible. I was wondering what was up with Belos beta design and mention of insect king

FYI, looks like Disney had the pilot taken down. Anyone wanna track down some screenshots or clips from before that? I might.

To me, the issue is that Belos' plan is so convoluted and overly complex (namely taking centuries to pull off) for a fanatical witch hunter to come up that is far easier to believe a witch hunter building a giant portal to bring hordes of witch hunters to kill all the witches the old fashion way, and one witch rising to power and becoming a tyrant in response to the witch hunters.

Not to mention that vision where the Coven Heads got of the Boiling Isles being transported to the Human Realm.

The production bible only confirms what I suspected of Belos. He feels like two different characters merged into one because that's what really happened. He is a sort of hybrid of Oberon and William, with Oberon being the evil ruler planning to invade the Human Realm and using the Coven Signals to turn the witches into his mindless slaves... and William being a time-displaced human Witch Hunter who is horrified of the future and thinks Luz is a witch.

Edited by Shadao on Apr 26th 2024 at 4:29:00 AM

My impression is that role William would have played eventually became Hunter and maybe Caleb, mainly due to familiar connection he and Obron would have.

Edited by EmperorGeode on Apr 26th 2024 at 4:39:24 AM

I don’t think the pitch bible mentioned turning witches into mindless slaves. Just control them. Like he did in the series, through propaganda and rigid systems of rules.

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Apr 26th 2024 at 7:36:13 AM

It may have some DNA of Hunter, but I recall Dana saying that "Prince" William wasn't really reused in the Owl House. And honestly, he's a far different character compared to Hunter. He's more like a teenaged Philip Wittebane in a more comedic light. Actually, he reminds me of Pip from Pip in Time.

Edited by Shadao on Apr 26th 2024 at 4:39:09 AM

You suggest that Belos could have more efficiently gathered an army to take over the Boiling Isles? That seems like a plan that is far riskier than what Belos came up with. Caleb grew up in a culture of rampant witch hunts, and yet when he actually met a witch, he fell in love with her. It's not unlikely that there would be defectors in Belos's army. And that's ignoring a bigger problem. Unless Philip brought a truly insanely huge army (risking more defections), the Witches win the fight, especially with 17th century tech.

The Draining spell on the other hand is a cold methodical charm. Nothing save for the Collector's power can stop it from working. With Belos so fully controlling society, the survivors would be so sparse that his remaining abominations could almost certainly wipe them out.

The thing is, a fanatical witch hunter like him rarely goes for the complicated plan even if it could theoretically work flawlessly. Witch Hunters simply go for mob hysteria and utter conviction that God will protect them from the witches.

Of course, when everyone is a witch, Belos needs a plan…

I imagine the collector may have helped him plan, though.

Found another pitch bible page.

He was really only able to build a portal when he got Eda’s door. And it has been well hidden before Eda found it.

Found a clip of the EAT THIS SUCKA moment from the pilot, now that it’s gone.

Interesting how Azura was more a princess than a witch.

To be fair, it’s not like Belos could get his hands on any Titan’s Blood…

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Apr 26th 2024 at 8:49:21 AM

Honestly we should stay on the lookout. Someone's probably downloaded it by now, so hopefully it's archived somewhere.

Of course, now we need The Owl House cast reacting to the original pilot. Eda and Amity telling themselves "You're making me, er uhm yourself look bad.".

Found this interesting bit in the series bible about a group of characters who didn't make it onto the actual show:

Edited by Trooper924 on Apr 27th 2024 at 7:05:04 AM

that noise you can hear is the fandom furiously writing the fics