#well see how the writing handles it all
This is not really a criticism, but I can’t help but feel like “Raine was pretending to be mind controlled all along!” is not the most interesting narrative direction the Owl House could have taken there?
I love me some competence plot twist, don’t get me wrong, I love heist movies, but in this case it barely works because we don’t really… know Raine? They’ve shown up a whooping three times, including TTBK. The entire flashback was needed to (re) set them up as this magical badass because without it, the plot twist would have fallen absolutely flat, me thinks.
And now that Raine is trying to keep Eda out of the rebellion by not communicating, which, as many people have pointed out parallels Eda’s behaviour about her curse, it feels like the plot is leading up to this non-communication causing problems for Eda and Raine, if not on the DOY directly then at least in an important episode leading up to it. And it’s definitely a thing of personal preference, but I’m rather tired of such miscommunication plots used for drama, never mind that it feels redundant with Eda chewing herself out for not letting Raine in all those years ago about the curse. Like, the two have been there, and sure, now it’s Raine’s turn to do the thing, but…
Call it trope preference, but Eda maybe being forced to decide to try to keep reaching out to a mind controlled Raine, versus just letting them go (for now), but ultimately deciding to pursue them anyway and help them fight past the mind control, be that via magical-shared-memory-adventure or Raine simply thinking about what she said at the parade, maybe starting to find holes in Terra’s story on their own, or realizing the EC treatments are all wack and should be stopped, and therefore breaking out of the mind control because they still trust in Eda even after all these years apart, or Eda finally reaching out and not letting go, having to make herself vulnerable and open to reach Raine because she’s let them go once and is not willing to do it again and watch them destroy everything they’ve built for themselves that’s… yeah, Imo just way more dramatically satisfying long term than the short satisfaction of “Haha, fooled you, I had a plan all along!”
(Especially because now the EC barely feels like a threat anymore. It’s Belos + Terra + maybe Kiki, as seriously as she can be taken these days vs Raine + Darius + maybe Eber + Owl House crew + plus Hunter at some point later and uh, yeah, one of those sides is clearly outnumbered. Idk what about the other coven heads. At the conversion rate we’re looking at, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out half of them are also rebelling and the other half turn coat as soon as the whole Draining Spell is revealed to them. I’d be disappointed about that, however. Either way, until the other Coven Heads get lines that indicate any narrative staying power, I’m not considering them for these kind of threat assessments.)
