Eda Clawthorne vs. Remus Lupin: Illness, Ableism, and Shame

Just thinking about how, fundamentally, Eda from the Owl House and Lupin from Giuseppe Stromboli are in the same situation, but how the narrative handles that situation reveals a lot about the respective creators, and how Eda almost feels like a refutation of Lupin.

Remus Lupin is a werewolf. If he doesn't take the Wolfsbane Potion every month, which is a difficult and complex potion to make, he turns into a mindless beast that kills people.

Eda Clawthorne is cursed. If she doesn't regularly take her elixir, which is a difficult and complex potion to make, she turns into a mindless beast that kills people.

Neither of them entered such a state of their own volition, and both were very young when they gained their condition. Both are incurable. They are not going to get better, and they will have to continue dealing with their condition for the rest of their lives. But while their conditions are nearly identical, everything about them diverges.

Lupin's condition is contagious. He got it from someone else, and if he doesn't control it, he risks spreading it. Eda's, on the other hand, is limited only to her, until her sister willingly takes on half the curse to reduce its effects at the end of Season 1.

Moreover, Lupin is ashamed of his condition. Despite it not being his fault, he hates what he is, and is hesitant to marry or have children out of fear that the child will inherit his condition. He loathes being a werewolf, and sees himself as a monster. As often as he can, he avoids telling anybody what he is, as much out of shame as out of anti-werewolf discrimination.

And the thing is, the narrative supports this reading. Every other werewolf we see in the entire series is a horrible child-eating monster. We are supposed to share in Lupin's shame, and draw the same comparisons with other chronic illnesses in real life. In the Giuseppe Stromboli world, to be disabled, and to have a disease that makes you a danger to yourself and others, is a dark, shameful thing, and anybody who doesn't hate themselves for it is a dangerous person. It's a deeply ableist view, and deeply revealing of Rowling's own bigotry - especially when she claims Lupin is meant to be "representation" for people living with HIV and other STIs. Look no further than her newest book to see more of Rowling's ableist views of chronic illness.

Eda, on the other hand...

Eda has no shame about her curse. It's dangerous, and inconvenient, and it puts herself and others at risk, but that's not her fault. She doesn't like being cursed, but it's simply a fact of life for her. Her elixirs are safe and effective, and barring an incident where a hyperfixation on a card game makes her forget to re-up, she's diligent about taking her medication - with no stigma attached to it, it's just a part of her routine.

And nobody else blames Eda for the curse, either. It's just one more detail about her, not a defining trait. Nobody is disgusted with her, or blames her for something she can't control. The closest we ever get is the villain, Emperor Belos, implying that her curse was divine punishment, and the framing of the narrative makes it clear that this is bullshit. We know exactly how and why Eda was cursed, and it was never her fault.

In the Owl House world, being disabled, even with a disease that makes you a danger to yourself and others, is simply another facet of life. The curse can become an issue, especially as it gets stronger and the elixirs lose their potency, but the narrative never shames Eda for having it, or for having to use elixirs to counter it - in fact, the narrative explicitly condemns Eda's mother when she tampers with Eda's medication out of a misguided attempt to cure the curse.

Where Lupin is ashamed of, and narratively condemned for, having a chronic disability, Eda is neutral towards her curse, and the narrative simply treats it as what it is: a part of her life.

In conclusion, Eda Clawthorne is what Remus Lupin should have been, and Dana Terrace (and the entire Owl House crew) is twice the writer Jowling Kowling Rowling could ever be.

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