My issue with Luz Noceda (The Owl House)
For those who have followed me for a while may already know that i like talking about The Owl House. It isn´t a show i talked about a lot but it’s still one in enjoy analysing.
Now,while The Owl House it’s a series i think is great there is one issue i have with the protagonist Luz Noceda: Her lack of real character flaws.
You see, Luz is a character that find enjoyable. She is funny, cute and a good person. She delivers some nice moments in the series and it’s hard to hate her. She has had decent character development since the Season One like opening up to other kids and learning to be more responsible.
My issue with her is that she appears to lack depth in comparison to the rest of the characters: King has his huge ego and insecurities, Amity has problems with her family, Willow lacked confidence, Eda and Lilith had their own conflict. What i mean is that Luz is overshadowed by the rest of the cast,who usually have more interesting conflicts going on than her.
I get it. Luz is the protagonist, that means that she has to be a good person and help everyone since she supposed to be the heroine. She is supposed to be easy for the audience to identify with.
Or does she have to be written this way?
This is when i talk about one of my favourite character protagonists, Rex Salazar from Generator Rex
For those who don’t know: Generator Rex was a series that aired in the early 2010´s. It was created by the company Man of Action. They are known for creating Ben 10 franchise too.
Generator Rex its set in a post-apocalyptic world were nanobots have invaded every living organism on Earth. A person is capable of turning into a mutant (E.V.O.) whenever they least expect. That´s when Providence comes in: They are in charge of controlling these dangerous mutants to protect the human population.
Rex Salazar is a human hybrid EVO that is capable of controlling the nanobots in his body to create gigantic metal robot body parts. He can also cure people or animals that have turn into EVO´s too.
Much like Luz Noceda, Rex Salazar is latino. He is both Mexican and Argentinian. His culture it´s important for his arc because he doesn´t have memories from where he came from and who his family is.
He is a very caring and selfless guy. He does what he does because he wants to help people. He is an empathic and nice guy.
But, on the other hand. he can be arrogant, very reckless, impulsive, doesn´t like following orders, can be a jerk and doesn´t think things through. He struggles a lot his not knowing his past. That makes him do certain risky choices to learn more about it.
Being a EVO hybrid, he stuck in this conflict between the EVO’s and humans. As the story goes on, Rex learns that EVO´s aren´t all bad and humans aren´t completely good either. There tons of episodes in the series that make Rex gain a new perspective on this conflict, understanding that its more complex that it seems.
What i´m trying to say it´s that Rex has a real character flaws. He changes a lot through out the series and does questionable things. He is a very interesting character. In comparison, Luz Noceda feels like she lacks this complexity that Rex has.
I could go a bit further and talk about other character i really like: Lilo Pelekai from Lilo and Stitich.
Lilo Pelekai lives in Hawaii. She isn´t latinx like Luz Noceda or Rex Salazar. I want to focus on her because she shares similarities with Luz Noceda: Both being POC girl characters protagonists of their own story and both are usually headcanoned to be neurodivergent by their respective fandom. They both have issues with fitting in with other kids too.
The difference is that Lilo struggles with understanding how Nani, her older sister, is trying to take care of her in the film and she sometimes does bad stuff like hitting Myrtle (its understable why she got angry at her) or not listening to Nani. She shows having PTSD symptoms that come from her parents´ death and she misses them a lot.
In Lilo and Stitch the series (yes,there is a series) Lilo sometimes does bad things to impress others. Like many kids at her age she can be reckless, selfish and impulsive. I think she is allowed to have more flaws than Luz has while still being a very nice girl.
In conclusion: Luz Noceda´s main problem is that she lacks real flaws unlike other The Owl House characters. This isn´t exclusive of Luz, some animated shows struggle with having interesting main protagonists too. I compare her to other characters (POC) that i think have more depth than she has.
The Owl House isn´t over yet, there is chance this may change in future episodes. We haven´t seen Luz confronting Camila about having lied to her and getting stuck in the Boiling Isles. There is hope for her character yet.
Note: If anyone wants to make a response to this post with another post talking about Luz Noceda´s character flaws and her development, you can tag me in your post and i´ll read it.
tangentwithtanner
blakekathryn
andulkaphoto
turnnoffyourmind
areudirty
