Curse As Disability

The Owl House... good.

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[TangledInYarn]

I sometimes walk with a cane. My mom doesn't like my cane, I can't even use it in the house when my dad is around. Mom's always trying to find various cures for me (we're looking at a diagnosis for EDS since I'm a textbook case, but diagnoses take years for that one), and I'm sick of being dragged into the next quack cure mom's found. Drinking/soaking my feet in hydrogen peroxide, pyramid scheme medications, etc. Just let me use my cane and finger splints and be done with it.

[TeamFriendship]

As someone with autism, it's ironic how the people who intend to cure disabilities can end up harming disabled people more than the disability itself. They tend to treat us like there's nothing to us beyond having a disability, and ignore our input because apparently we don't know how we feel. Logically speaking, I think searching for "cures" is fruitless and it would be more productive and useful to listen to the voices of disabled people and ask how we can make society more welcoming and inclusive.

[lunastar]

The take away from this: when writing a character that has a disability or hindrance that parallels a disability, make sure to focus on how that hinderance/ disability affects the person themself, not the people around them.

[docfox]

As someone with high functioning Autism, I really appreciate how the idea behind Eda’s curse is that she wants acceptance and not a ‘cure’. She chooses to just accept herself, and even incorporates the owl as her motif to show the universe she can roll with the punches.

[pLanetstarBerry]

As someone with a chronic illness, that moment where Eda was rushing to restock on her potions hit me home because I've had a medication emergency where I thought I had more time to refill my prescription but misread the refill expiration date. So I had to call my rheumatologist and explain what happened and hope what I have left holds out for the rest of the week while this gets sorted out. And the episode with Eda's mom hit me home because I've had relatives that mean well, but I have to explain to them things like "no, I can’t do this kind of therapy, it triggers my symptoms" or "no I can't take that, it has an ingredient that messes with my medication." And most of the time it's just quack medicine or pseudo science. They're starting to listen, I just wish they listened the first time I said something.

[hopscotch]

There's a really good webtoon I've read called Cursed Princess Club.

The premise is that this princess named Gwen has a family who're all really pretty and take after their father, while she takes after her mother and isn't up to the standard of beautiful. But bc their dad kinda hod them away from society for most of their lives, Gwen didn't really experience society or their views of who she is (and she's actually a very sweet girl) and her siblings see her as just as beautiful and amazing as they are

But then one day, a prince she was excitedly engaged to told his brother that he didn't want to marry Gwen because she was ugly, and she overheard this and was kinda shocked. But she was super hurt and ended up running away, and tripped and got knocked out in a forest

In that forest is a cozy little vacation home where a bunch of cursed princesses (and one prince and butler) live and/or hang out. They've all got curses of their own but there was never any cures for any of them. Some of them were thrown out from their kingdoms or were miserable in their homes or just wanted people to relate to. One girl's missing her eyes and another can't open her mouth without frogs falling out and another's mouth is full of acid and another is aged way faster than she was actually and- you kinda get it. They've all got curses.

They also helped Gwen after she passed out, and all assumed she was cursed in some way, but she wasn't, but they let her stay bc her self-esteem was starting to kinda go bleh and the Prez, Capernia, wanted to help her love herself.

But the way the curses are handled are rlly nice, I think, and the character arcs and story writing is rlly good as it goes on. If I talk more and more about it, this'll just be WAYYY too long. My paraphrased version isn't as good as actually reading it.

[CapitanaGabs]

It´s amazing the way The Owl House tends to representated disability and diversity. They always put the focus in how something affect the person who is living it, not in the people around them.

In my personal case as someone with ADHD, I see a lot of paralelism in Luz Noceda (I dont know if its oficial but it seems to me she is highly neurodivergent coded) and my own experience in a empatethic way. Great video!

[eleniaristeidou]

I know this is random, but can we talk about how she has a non binary love interest? AHH I'm so excited as a non binary person

[jamievasilias]

At first I was a bit confused about how Lupin is bad representation of disability, as I always kind of thought of him as disabled growing up (only learned about JK and the HIV thing later in life). But then I realised that most of my image of Remus came from casting moon shadows, the fanfic, which is a hecking lot more better at representing his condition as a disability. It's always (or almost always) about him and Sirius and how Remus deals with his lycanthropy. How he likes chocolate, and how his friends help him during his transformation, how isolated he felt during first year because he had to hide his condition from others, how he used to, and how he now does, deal with his condition. I think that fanfic (although I haven't read it in a good time, so who knows if it's still the case if I'd re-read it now) shows lupin a lot better, in a better light, and does a lot of what you're saying the owl house does well and what harry potter lacks.

[julietofthebriar]

FINALLY someone put into words how i feel abt lupin. prisoner of azkaban was my favorite book and movie, but after developing chronic illness how i related to lupin changed so much. everyone talks about how rowling fucks up lgbt representation with lupin and werewolves specifically, but nobody mentions how his illness is never treated like an illness. even fan works that try to correct rowling's werewolves into 'good queer rep' end up losing everything that makes lycanthropy an illness.

it gets worse in the books where the discrimination Lupin faces is vague. There's a mention of 'anti-werewolf laws' but we never see how this impacts lupin except for a single scene where he looks 'worse for wear'. its all just a reference to his struggle put into the narrative to make you hate the villain when it should have been a moment of empathy for the affected group. rowling has also said that disabled people don't exist in harry potter because magic can cure everything and regrow limbs or whatever (guess we'll ignore the ex-cop with one eye and a peg . . .) and its pretty clear that she never had the interest of any minority in mind while making her series.

ive never seen the owl house but the clips you showed genuinely made me cry. i cant remember the last time ive seen a 'curse as disability' character actually receive empathy. sure, you have the stock 'wah feel bad for me im a monster' but that's not empathy, that's pity. god im gonna have to go watch the show now because anything that can successfully tackle a disability narrative about how cure mentality harms disabled people is a must-see. tysm for this video!!

[ultimateninjaboi]

As someone whose neurodivergence can manifest as severely decreased ability to self regulate my anger ir frustration while off my meds, its REALLY great seeing TOH do this trope so well. Because it hits home SO hard, with the whole "my issue can cause me to hurt the people i love." And with how sympathetically its written in regards to Eda, it gives me legitimate hope for myself, even with it just being a matter of representation.

[Rupert]

Though the metaphor stops being a 1-1 to chronic illness later on, can I just say that I love how they address Eda's internalized ableism by having her character make peace with the owl beast and learn to love her curse-body? Such a great show!!

[Snowspring]

Also, adding in the fact that (from what I recall) Eda's potions were EXPENSIVE and likely were partially why the Owl House fam were typically strapped for cash. Coming from a US perspective where whether or not health insurance covers meds, it can still be a significant chunk of weekly funds put into it. I like this realistic touch.

[Zephirite.]

Eda’s curse as a metaphor for chronic illness occurred to me too, since it comes and goes, can be spread, and is manageable with medication.

The emperor’s coven/distributors taking *advantage* of Eda’s dependence on potions could be read as a commentary on the pharmaceutical industry/insurance companies making drugs less accessible.

Fascinating video!

[ajjjzachiel]

I'm not disabled but I do have chronic pain so this really meant a lot to me. This s video perfectly outlined my feelings about owl house, 's curse parallels to my own experience : )

[sotakovatereza]

Well, I think that it is logical that the Harry Potter characters fear Remus Lupin in his werewolf form because, as you said, he loses all of his human logical thinking and he can infect others. I honestly LOVE Remus Lupin he is so kind and sweet and I really felt bad for him when he lost his job. Sure he was the best DADA teacher, but the main thing I can remember running through my mind was "How is he going to find a new job? What is he going to do now that people know he is a werewolf?" I also never really got why people distance themselfs from werewolf and refuse to give them jobs when they only turn into mosters once a month and they can't infect anyone otherwise.

[garbagefae]

as someone with bpd, turning into a giant monster that is difficult to reason with and could hurt yourself or others is very relatable. I know bpd is a mental illness and not a physical one, but Owl house really nails that feeling of trying to control a monster inside of you and surrounding yourself with coping mechanisms.

[epicdunsparce]

Man, the moment of panic I felt at the words "stealing all the potions" was VISCERAL. You're right - that is deeply abusive and horrifying! And the fact that you still find her forgivable makes me really wanna check this show out. :D

[princembat]

i know obviously that her curse is meant to be like a chronic illness like you said, but i also like how it can be a metaphor for mental illness too. to me the owl beast feels like trauma, especially the fact that stress only makes things even worse. i hope that interpretation doesnt take away from it all to other people, it just personally connected to me in that way since ive got trauma and mental illness, but not physical illness

[ineedmoresleep]

The lupin thing in HP sounds so much like the whole “Minorities are descended from demons and white people are descended from angels” thing the shadowhunters show keeps low key implying