“The Owl House” Season 2: A Somewhat Rushed Dark Fantasy Yuri Masterpiece [Review]

It’s rather depressing that you can tell The Owl House season 2 is a rushed affair. It’s no wonder since Disney axed the show during production of season 2. With multiple storylines often packed like sardines into individual episodes, the whole series feels hyper-compressed and overly accelerated all at once. And yet, despite all of that, Dana Terrace still manages to make it into a dark fantasy horror comedy masterpiece for the ages. Complete with a healthy dose of yuri to boot, courtesy of all the canonical Lumity shipping.

The Owl House Season 2: Details

The Owl House season 2 is the 21-episode second season (you can read a review of season 1 here) of this dark fantasy horror comedy animated series. Dana Terrace remains the creator and executive producer for this series. Wade Wisinski is the producer, with Kevin Locarro (season 1-2) and Dao Le (season 3) as editors. T.J. Hill (season 1), Brad Breeck (seasons 2-3), and Andrew Smith (season 3) composed the various music you hear in the series. In fact, Hill composed that catchy opening theme music you hear before every episode. Lastly, Disney Television Animation is the production company behind this series.

The Owl House season 2 features the voices of Sarah Nicole-Robles as Luz Noceda, Wendie Malick as Eda Clawthorne, Alex Hirsch as King and Hooty, Mae Whitman as Amity Blight, Tati Gabrielle as Willow Park, and Issac Ryan Brown as Gus Porter. Other notable voice talents include Zeno Robinson as Hunter, Cissy Jones as Lilith Clawthorne, and Matthew Rhys as Emperor Belos.

The Owl House season 2 premiered on June 12, 2021 on Disney Channel, and last aired on May 28, 2022. If you don’t have cable, then you can watch it on Disney+. Of course, this is a paid subscription, so you’ll need to pay $7.99 per month to watch this series along with everything else on Disney+. Or $79.99 per year if you’re willing to spring for that kind of Disney+ pricing.

Warning: spoilers for The Owl House season 2 below. If you want to see just how rushed this yuri dark fantasy masterpiece is for yourself, then stop here, and come back once you’ve escaped Emperor Belos’s plan for the Boiling Isles.

The Owl House Season 2: Plot Summary

The Owl House season 2 picks up where we last left off, just after Luz, Eda, and King narrowly escape petrification; and even now have Lilith in tow due to her defection. As Luz and co. try to figure out what Emperor Belos is up to with his Day of Unity and Eda reconnects with her sister again, they get a new adversary in the form of the Golden Guard. Said Golden Guard may not be entirely evil, judging from how he played around with King. Oh, and we find out that King isn’t really a king of demons. That was just something tiny baby King (the most adorable creature ever invented) made up, and Eda went along with it because she couldn’t bear to break the tiny precious little King’s heart. To be fair though, it’s an understandable action. Who would want to willingly break chibi King’s heart?

As Luz has adventures with her school friends and even manages to finally confess her feelings to Amity (and go on a date with her at long last), Luz also gains info on Philip Wittebane: the first human to ever set foot in the Boiling Isles. Her fact-finding though culminates in a trip through a time portal back to the distant past with Lilith. There, they actually meet Philip, but also discover that he’s evil and really hates witches. After this obvious foreshadowing, a bit of trouble with the Golden Guard reveals that he’s actually a young man named Hunter. Hunter ends up becoming a main character, and a major force for change in the story. Especially once he gains his own palisman, who he names Flapjack. Why? Well, because Emperor Belos is eating palismans to heal himself, of course.

It Only Gets Darker From Here on Out

Eda reconnects with her old lover Raine as they go resist Belos together as part of a resistance group, only for the group to be captured save for Eda. As Eda keeps the pain to herself while trying to find out what happened to Raine, Luz gets into serious trouble with Hunter when they accidentally end up in Belos’s mind. They finally find out the obvious fact that Philip was Belos (and Luz’s actions accidentally helped Belos gain a magic mirror central to his Day of Unity plans), while also finding out what the Day of Unity is all about. As it turns out, the magic mirror contains a being called the Collector. Belos plans to use the Collector to drain all the magic from everyone in the Boiling Isles, killing them all in the process.

Luz and co. (including a defecting Hunter) try to stop Belos on the Day of Unity. After a struggle involving a berserk Belos with a coven sigil branded on his own wrist (courtesy of Luz), King manages to find the magic mirror Belos discarded after betraying the Collector. Seeing Luz and co. about to be killed by Belos and the Day of Unity draining spell, King agrees to free the Collector in exchange for playing with him later. Specifically by playing a game called “The Owl House”. The freed Collector not only splats Belos, but stops the Day of Unity spell by moving the Moon with a finger. Luz, Amity, Hunter, Willow, and Gus (and secretly Belos through a piece dripped onto Hunter) escape back to Earth through a portal Belos stole. King has to stay behind though to distract the Collector.

The result is that Luz and co. show up at her mother’s house on Earth, wet and miserable. With Belos as a secret stowaway to boot. What is the fate of those on the Boiling Isles, now that the Collector is loosed upon them? Well, that’s what we’ll hopefully find out in The Owl House season 3.

The Owl House Season 2: The Good

Oh, where to even begin for the good things about The Owl House season 2? Let’s start with the story, since that’s the best part about it. Dana Terrace’s blend of dark fantasy and horror comedy produces one of the best stories for a show in existence. The dark fantasy and horror parts suck you in, while the comedy and cuteness keeps you from being overloaded. Any writer who can achieve a perfect blend like that deserves respect.

Then of course, there’s the romance in The Owl House season 2. Oh, who am I kidding? I’m specifically talking about the Lumity here. The canonical shipping between Luz and Amity is one of the best parts of this show. Luz and Amity have actually achieved quite a few Disney firsts here. They’re the first same-sex couple in a leading role in any Disney property, as well as achieving the first same-sex kiss in the same. Yes, this show is the first officially yuri show in the history of Disney. It’s a big win for LGBTQ groups. It’s unfortunate that the Disney execs seem determined to make it the last show to feature a same-sex couple.

The art of The Owl House season 2 actually sees a marked improvement over season 1. The animation seems much higher quality, as well as being more fluid. Especially during important scenes, like the entirety of “Hollow Mind”. The animation definitely enhanced the horrors in Belos’s mind.

The Owl House Season 2: The Bad

As great as The Owl House season 2, I can’t give it a perfect score. The main reason for that is how rushed the story is. You can especially tell in episodes like episode 8 “Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door”. 3 different story arcs mashed together into a single episode makes it feel hyper-compressed, no matter what Dana Terrace tries to do with it. It honestly feels like season 2 is at least 2 seasons worth of material packed into 1. And really, that’s what it is.

See, Disney cancelled The Owl House right after they approved season 2 for production. They couldn’t very well stop production since it had already begun. However, they seem determined to prevent any more of the show from being created. Hence why the upcoming 3rd and final season has only 3 episodes in it. According to Dana Terrace, Disney gave their reasoning for this as because the show “did not fit the Disney brand”. I would not be surprised though if the show’s LGBTQ representation played a major role in its effective cancellation though. Whether out of possible homophobia or a desire to satisfy the conservative members of Disney’s audience, it no longer matters at this point. If you want someone to blame for The Owl House only having basically 2.3 seasons, then blame Disney.

Source: Disney+

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