Subverting Tropes: The Owl House and Pet Characters
The Owl House as a series is a giant middle finger to the other animated fantasy series of the last decade. It takes all of the things that we have grown to expect from this genre and either eliminates them, improves upon them, or completely flips them on their head. And this is why the show works.
Intending to subvert expectations, the show purposefully builds their main protagonist differently than the typical fantasy protagonist. Unlike nearly every main character in a strange place, it is established very early on that she is NOT a chosen one. She’s not particularly remarkable in her abilities. She has no special or more powerful magical powers than the people around her. Luz, unlike most people in the isekai (or other world) genre of fantasy, is a normal teenage girl. She doesn’t have a harem of love interests but a singular committed relationship. She does not possess the most power of nearly every other character. And she isn’t the one to defeat the villain or save her friends — her pet character companion is.
King is only character within the series possessing animal features and tendencies making him the main cast’s pet character. In terms of character archetypes, the pet character is one of the least influential characters in a series. They enable plot lines but are typically just cute faces that are easy to turn into merchandise with no real purpose to the overarching story-line. They are easily replaceable because they do not have much motivation to fight and are mostly there to be a cute comedic presence. They aren’t particularly important which is why viewers not in love with their design or cutesy behaviors will often find them annoying.
While he carries all of the physical and behavioral indications of a Team Pet character (especially in Season 1), King serves a greater purpose to the overall story of the Owl House. Instead of serving as comedic relief only, he develops useful abilities such as his Sonic Shout which can blast objects and people several meters away from him. He is given an interesting backstory which makes him more of a character than a set piece. Additionally, as Season 2 neared its end, it became obvious that this backstory was incredibly significant to the plot.
It was revealed in Season 2 Episode 17, Edge of the World, that King was the descendant of this fantasy realm’s version of God: The Titan. The Titan was a being so powerful that it was at the center of nearly every major plot point of the series. It had blood that made it possible to travel across worlds. The people considered it so sacred that the series antagonist suggested that he could speak directly to the deceased being, and as a result, became emperor. It is a sin to speak its name in vain and it is occasionally used as a standard curse or filler word. Within a couple of episodes, King went from adorable pet, to interesting character, to the epicenter of every conflict of the series.
The ironic part? No one in universe acknowledged this.
Even the people who helped King make this discovery and tried to help him cope with it like Luz and Eda didn’t let him lift a finger in the final fight of the season, refusing take into account the power he held. They mimicked what the audience had thought of King ever since the show came out. He was a cute set piece who didn’t fight. He was someone for a few characters to talk to and someone for the others to protect.
However, during the Season 2 finale, King forces the audience to realize he is so much more than that now. In an attempt to save his friends from the evil Emperor Belos, King is led by one of the Emperor’s recently fired employees, Kikimura, who wants to exact revenge for her mistreatment she endured when in her previous position. She leads King down through a pit to a mirror, holding another god like being, more powerful than anything the series had introduced us to prior: The Collector.
The Collector was a child character with power having seemingly no limit. He was manipulated by Belos throughout the series and, when he had done everything Belos wanted from him, he was quite litterally thrown to the wayside, a deep dark pit, trapping in his mirror prison. Until King decides to make a deal with him.
This role in the plot couldn’t have necessarily been filled by just anyone. The Collector tells King and the audience that he has a history with King’s deceased father who never allowed the Collector to play with baby King. He also alerts us to fact that he was imprisoned in the mirror because of King’s father. So King takes the opportunity to make a bargain. He will right these wrong, promising to both free The Collector and to play a game he makes up called The Owl House Game, if the Collector spares his friends. The Collector agrees. This works because of King’s lineage, the strange relationship his predecessor had with this other god-child. It is possible another character could have convinced him, but it is most likely that the strange connection these two particualar beings share is what mostly allows this to work in a believable manner.
Once Belos is disturbingly, but swiftly, defeated, King along with his friends try to make an escape through a portal that will lead them to a different, safer realm. However the Collector reminds King that they had a deal, and begins to literally tear apart random portions of buildings to create what he believes they will need for the game. King, in a dramatic display of emotion and integrity, sends his friends through the portal with the force of his Sonic Shout and makes the choice to stand by his word.
Not only does King make a heroic sacrifice that firmly establishes that he is not a set piece, but one of three incredibly important protagonists, the writers of the series have put the fate of an entire realm in his hands. The Collector has no idea what the Owl House Game is, but since King promised he would play it with him, he has to come up with something. The fate of that entire world rests in the hands of what audiences deemed as an insignificant cutesy character.
Writing like this is what makes the Owl House great. Taking tropes that people use to predict the flow of a story or significance of a character, the creators change the game, turning around things the audience expects to be consistent with every other fantasy series they’ve seen. The show grips the attention of so many people because of how it takes every trope it can sensibly use and simply changes what it means. They make the Team Pet have more raw power and control than the main character. That is a big middle finger to the rest of the animated world and, quite honestly, the best kind of middle finger they could give.
