The Owl House’s Most Interesting Character Was Also The Show’s Best Villain

The Owl House was a rare event in television, with vivid world-building, bombastic characters, and a propensity for challenging the genre’s established tropes, especially concerning schools of witchcraft, chosen ones, and magical otherworlds. Its villains are essential to driving the plot, and they are just as subversive, calling into question the purpose of their archetypes.

The Owl House follows fantasy-loving human Luz Noceda (Sarah-Nicole Robles), who wanders through a portal to the magical Boiling Isles and decides to stay and train under the tutelage of rebel witch Eda Clawthorne (Wendie Malick), a.k.a. The Owl Lady. Completing the main trio is the childlike demon King (Alex Hirsch, creator of Gravity Falls).

Though it has been described as Harry Potter meets Adventure Time, The Owl House makes fun of Harry Potter quite a bit, while being hugely influenced by the legacy of Gravity Falls (for which creator Dana Terrace was a storyboarder). For much of The Owl House, it seems as though there is one main villain, until another truly chaotic one shows up — but they are not what they seem either.

The Collector Was The Owl House’s Most Complex Villain

Emperor Belos (Matthew Rhys) is The Owl House‘s primary villain, who has a familiar storyline; he is a cruel, calculating overlord who has taken control of the systems of governance and covertly convinced the population to streamline his plans. With a past as a witch hunter, his goal is simply to wipe out all witches, whom he sees as the embodiment of evil.

Belos’ modus operandi is absolute power and alleged purification, as we have seen in several past fantasy villains. But the story takes an unexpected turn in season 2 when we first hear of The Collector (Fryda Wolff). The Collector is a chaotic neutral deity who was trapped in the In Between Realm long ago, preventing them from taking physical form or wreaking havoc there.

Belos sought out the mirror that was the physical manifestation of The Collector’s prison in order to learn powerful magic from the ancient being to further his plans. The Collector willingly helped Belos, believing he would be freed after Belos had achieved his goals (Belos casually betrays them, having always planned to leave them trapped).

King releases The Collector in a moment of desperation to save the rest of the Boiling Isles. It is immediately clear that The Collector has untold power to bend reality, but absolutely no discipline or regard for human life, and their freedom means everyone on the Boiling Isles is subject to their whims. But as King is stuck as The Collector’s playmate, a darker truth emerges.

The Collector isn’t hurting people because of active malevolence: They just have no concept of mortality or how people might be affected by a loss of free will. He is essentially a child, but has been taught nothing of accountability or consideration for others. Their imprisonment was, in its own way, tragic, as he desperately longed for the freedom to play, for friends.

This perspective is ultimately sympathetic, as what has happened to The Collector would be very traumatic, especially for a child. The Titan (Arin Hanson), however, imprisoned The Collector because his sheer power was a potential danger to his child (King). But The Owl House is nothing if not optimistic, so The Collector eventually learns that they need to be more aware, allowing a happy ending for most of the characters.

How The Collector Redeemed Himself In The Owl House

Following The Owl House season 2’s finale, Luz returns to the Boiling Isles to find that The Collector has basically made it his personal dollhouse, Eda and her sister Lilith (Cissy Jones) are surviving in hiding, and King is doing his best to keep The Collector pacified. Meanwhile, Belos is gathering his strength in order to see his mission to completion.

Luz reunites with Eda and King, and they attempt to talk some sense into The Collector, who quickly comes to see Luz as a new friend. They impart to him a worldview of compassion, making a genuine impression. When Belos rallies with even more power than before, The Collector naively tries to reconcile with him. The main trio, however, realizes that this is not going to work.

Luz is actually killed by Belos, a devastating moment because The Collector finally comprehends what death is and that it cannot be reversed, in addition to Eda and King’s reactions. Luz is revived by King’s father shortly after and defeats Belos. But The Collector learned their lesson and puts the Boiling Isles back the way it was.

Therefore, in The Owl House‘s ending, The Collector leaves the Isles to return to the cosmos and reflect. King gifts The Collector Francois, his favorite stuffed animal, and The Collector returns occasionally to visit in the years to come. Though he did a lot of damage, The Owl House commits to its morals by wrapping up its secondary villain’s arc in this way.

The Collector Ended Up Being One Of The Owl House’s Most Important Characters

The Collector is crucial to The Owl House because they are a foil to Belos. The Emperor is an adult who should know better, but there is no reasoning with him when he sees destruction as the only way forward. The Owl House tells us that we can’t resolve things peacefully with everyone, but it is worth trying if ignorance is the main culprit.

The Owl House‘s pacing is also very interesting regarding how the two villains are given focus at different times. When The Collector is first mentioned, it seems as though they are going to emerge as the greater evil than Belos. They certainly have greater raw power, but the show ultimately turns back around when it is revealed that The Collector can change.

Luz, as a character, always wants to help people be better and defeat enemies by befriending them, as she quickly decides this is how she wants to deal with the initial mean girl, Amity (Mae Whitman), in season 1 (Amity and Luz later begin dating). Amity is a smaller-scale instance of what Luz and King manage to do for The Collector, an act that represents one of the show’s central themes.

The Collector embodies the creativity and compassion that runs throughout The Owl House, and the subversion of genre and pacing expectations that is Dana Terrace’s bread and butter. The Collector and the Titans are arguably the two most important entities in the backstory of the Boiling Isles and its magic, and The Collector’s meeting with Luz and King decides the realm’s future.

All episodes of The Owl House are available to stream on Disney+.