#rhaaa

THE OWL HOUSE IS SO GOOD

IT'S SO WELL WRITTEN

IT'S SO AWESOME

I LOVE IT SM

Because Thinking Out Loud is told through Santiago's perspective --and the pacing and panel layouts are so intuitive to follow-- it's easy to forget our perception of the flow of time and events is filtered through the way Santiago percieves/experiences it. By virtue of the medium of comics, things can't be in real time when (loosely) text=time. And more time is given to his thoughts than words (this is also why it's clever when his thoughts become words- it breaks that separation in time!) When you remove Santiago's thoughts from the prologue, it becomes clear just how impactful they are to the reading experience, and especially our perception of events, and especially our perception of jamie (more on that later). In the panels people don't have their faces scribbled out, they're actually looking at him pretty normally, if they even care at all.

you automatically take santiago at his word, because why shouldn't you? he's the protagonist! You can see what he's talking about right in front of you/him, right..? But we have to remember that not only are the sequences in santiago's memory unreliable (anybody else know the scott pilgrim 'memory cam' gag?), the things he's experiencing in real time are, too. When the tall girl 'looms' over him, he thinks he's gonna die, that she's gonna kill him, but really, she's just kind of ticked-off. she even shows concern and offers him advice.

Santiago thinking everybody hates him is clearly just through the filter of anxiety. He himself admits how, about the party at the Hanna(h)s, 'or at least, i think they hate me.' he can't be sure what other people think of him, as he himself admits he's bad at reading faces, and so for whatever reason (ill put links here to a couple theories on why when i finish writing them) jumps to assuming they hate him/want to hurt him.

jamie might not be as shitty as we're led to believe.

Based on the above, i have reason to believe jamie isn't actually as awful as santiago thinks he is (or if he is, we don't see the worse stuff he's done) (also im not trying to woobify him he still kinda sucks). Santiago tells us he 'ignores other people’s feelings and takes advantage of their generosity’ and 'does whatever he wants, says whatever he thinks, and never stops to wonder if he's getting in anyone's way. But this is just... Not fully true? At least when it comes to santiago. If anyone, Jamie legitimately seems to care about Santiago and how Santiago feels. He brings him along to a party uninvited, because he cares more about how santiago feels than how the hosts might. When you remove santiago's internal dialogue in the prologue, jamie is constantly reassuring him and hyping him up:

the things santiago cites as jamie's selfishness are all things that are either purely theoretical/DISPROVEN; like him full-on ditching santiago (the girls on the couch later say they just saw him, which means he's still there!),

or have their basis in SANTIAGO'S UNCOMMUNICATIVENESS:

why would jamie know these things bother santiago if santiago doesn't tell him? even when the doorslam occurs, jamie DOES ask if he's okay! and apologises!

it's santiago who minimizes the damage, and THEN jamie acts relieved.

If santiago never voices his anger at jamie, and isn't honest about the impact of his actions, how can he expect him to be able to pick up on it? it's especially ironic given how we know sanitiago is bad at reading others. The other things jamie does that seem 'assholish', too; specifically locking santiago's water bottle in the car and making a huge intro for them, he does because... well, jamie can only concieve of doing things in the way he wants to do them. And he assumes that the things HE would want somebody to do for him if he was in Santiago's place, are what Santiago wants him to do in 'return'. so jamie locking santiago's water bottle in the car 'forces' santiago to drink -> drinking is something jamie likes and gives him a good time -> he wants santiago to have a good time, too. And there's a precedent for Santiago having liked this kind of thing in the past, too!

'You made sure i never missed out on any of the fun'. 'You went out of your way to bring me along.' That's EXACTLY what jamie is doing here, by bringing santiago along uninvited to a party.

Jamie can't concieve of anyone else feeling differently to him about something-- he thinks/assures santiago everyone will like him because HE likes santiago. he just doesn't go about showing he cares in the way Santiago wants (and what would that way even be..? what does santiago want from him??).

the animation is SO good !!!!! The characters are super cool and fun ! The idea of having to stop the good guy from winning is amazing !

IT'S AWESOMMME I LOVE IT !!!!

GOBBLES MY BOYYYY