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The Owl House Season 3 is almost upon us, and the hype is reaching fever pitch. Last week saw a panel hosted at New York Comic-Con that unveiled a new trailer, plenty of details, and six minutes of the full special that have now emerged online. Fans are losing their collective minds, and after watching it for myself, I’m right there along with them. It’s everything I was hoping for, setting the stage for three specials set to tell a surprisingly ambitious story.
But I’m also a Froot Loop, so of course the queer stuff stood out to me first and foremost. Lumity is my lifeblood. I will take the adorable witch lesbians to my grave as I hyperfixate on them for all eternity. We always knew their romance was going to play a pivotal role in the final trio of extended episodes, especially as they take on Emperor Belos and find a way back to the Demon Realm, but Dana Terrace is really pulling out all the stops when it comes to depicting a finale that is gay, inclusive, and filled to the brim with wholesome surprises.
The opening six minutes features a montage that also acts as a timeskip. We see characters grow a bit older, take on new appearances, and set in motion a plan that will come to define the first special. Luz’s wound has healed, leaving a permanent scar. Amity is taller, and her hair dye has begun to fade, while Hunter has given himself a haircut to avoid association with Grimwalkers of the past. Vee has a cute new appearance too, and is welcomed with open arms despite no longer resembling Luz. So many changes done in so little time.
Luz also comes out to her mother. Given her bashful personality and strong relationship with Camila I expected her to be out already, with the introduction of Amity being one of the big moments for all three characters in the opening minutes. Turns out I was wrong, and I’m so happy I was. Set to the tune of a funky new theme song, she opens her laptop to unveil a goofy PowerPoint presentation complete with Comic Sans font and a bunch of adorable pictures from the Boiling Isles. It even says ‘Lumity Studios Presents’ with the heroine clearly leaning into her own fantastical life and how it resembles her favourite fanfiction.
Homophobia isn’t a thing in the show, at least not in the demon realm, and The Owl House has always been vocal in expressing its desire to avoid any opposition to accepting queer identity across its themes and characters. This also extends to the human realm it seems, as Camila immediately embraces Luz and Amity as she welcomes the witchling into her family with no hesitation. She might have lost her daughter for months, but to see her come back a stronger, wiser, and more loving person in spite of her misgivings is such a rewarding piece of character development. Even Amity’s mother, despite being a total bitch, wants to give her daughter a girlfriend who isn’t a troubling human instead of erasing her queerness entirely.
The coming out scene is perfect, and doesn’t need a single piece of dialogue to express how much this moment means to everyone involved. Luz is confident and excited in sharing this part of herself, smirking up a storm as she closes the laptop and doesn’t even have time to react as Camila pulls her and Amity into a loving hug. Amity just stands to the side, waving with a blush because she doesn’t really know how to greet the mother of her girlfriend. This normally happens under less apocalyptic circumstances, and you’d likely bring home a partner who isn’t a witch from another dimension you are currently trying to return to by any means necessary. But the gayness shines through, and Gus making copies of himself to wave around pride flags amidst a constant flow of rainbows is the very fruity cherry on top.
Queer audiences are conditioned to accept tragedy and heartbreak, and only recently have we seen LGBTQ+ stories where the entire thing doesn’t end with a confession and a kiss, but we are instead given time to see these characters grow amidst the joy of romance and identity, something that Lumity represents so beautifully. None of us expected them to be canon at all, let alone get together so early in the show’s narrative and become a central reason why so many came to fall in love with it. Disney’s sudden cancellation of the show also put it on a pedestal, turning The Owl House into a hopeful bastion of representation that will see its upcoming specials make waves we haven’t seen from a Disney Channel show in years. Fans view it as a form of rebellion or giving the finger to Disney, but the third season being so outwardly clear and proud of it is a fun coincidence more than anything else. Not to say we can’t celebrate how far we’ve come, and how big a step forward this show really is.
I cannot wait to see more Lumity in the coming weeks and months, and this small preview is a tantalising glimpse at all the gay goodness that awaits us. We even see them dancing in the rain, no longer fearing it will burn them to pieces before embracing amidst the downpour.
That is some top tier gay shit right there, and I am absolutely here for it.