The way Follies at the Coven Day Parade handled Raine’s possession/brainwashing or whatever you want to call it was brilliant. It’s not obvious. It creeps up on you. And I’ve never seen the possession trope done that way before.
I think the vast majority of the fandom expected Raine to be almost like a zombie (probably because we all watched She-Ra and Save the Cat.) So when they weren’t, I was initially relieved. They were talking. They weren’t being puppeted. They seemed in control of their own actions. Obviously the fight scene was absolutely heartbreaking, but for the most part it wasn’t as bad as we all expected, right?
Wrong. The more I thought about this after watching the episode, the more I realized that Raine’s predicament is worse than it seems. Because yes, Raine is missing their memories of what happened during Eda’s Requiem, but they’re also missing their personality. Who they are.
Let’s not forget that Kikimora told them “Night night” the last time we saw them. Those aren’t empty words. Raine may be walking and talking like a normal person, but they’re not acting like Raine.
The Raine we know is incredibly endearing, compassionate, and has an incredibly strong moral compass. Even when they didn’t know everything the Emperor was up to, they weren’t out there actively supporting discrimination.
Even in their very first scene this episode, their demeanor is just…off. Yes, Raine has stage fright, but the way they talk about disliking people in this scene with Kikimora has a disdainful tone to it. They sound bitter, even haughty. Exactly the opposite of how they sounded during their interview back in Eda’s Requiem.
There’s pieces of their real self present in the fight with Eda, but they’re still harsh to her. Cold. Outright hateful. They’ve never ever been this way towards anyone before, except possibly the Emperor because they genuinely morally disagreed with him on a profound level.
To see Raine like this…almost normal but not quite, more bitter and cruel, is deeply unsettling. And the more you think about it, the more you realize just how off they’re acting.
The fact that Owl House dropped enough hints to confirm that they’d be possessed and still managed to have this realization sneak up on us is downright brilliant writing. And props to Avi Roque for voice acting this subtlety so well!
