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In its recent mid-season finale, The Owl House all but confirmed a popular fan theory that connects the beloved Disney cartoon to Gravity Falls.
Over the season and a half it’s aired on Disney Channel thus far, Dana Terrace’s The Owl House has established a sprawling, magical world for its characters to play in. Even so, fans of the show have noticed a fair bit of crossover potential. And while The Owl House has mostly (and justifiably) prioritized telling its own, self-contained story, it also recently took the time to canonize a major connection between the show and another fan-favorite Disney cartoon: Gravity Falls.
Throughout its run, one of The Owl House‘s most prominent fan theories has been that the character of Eda Clawthorne (Wendie Malick) was once briefly married to Stan Pines (Alex Hirsch), aka Grunkle Stan, from Gravity Falls — which itself ran for two seasons on Disney Channel and Disney XD from 2012 to 2016. The theory dates back to February 2020, having first been presented by Instagram user inlovewithcartoons.
inlovewithcartoons provided multiple pieces of evidence, starting with an alternate, in-character commentary track Gravity Falls creator Hirsch (who also voices King and Hooty in The Owl House) recorded as Grunkle Stan for the Season 1 episode “Land Before Swine,” which was included in the 2018 Gravity Falls box set. While Stan having an ex-wife has long been established, this track provided some new details.
In the commentary, Stan recalls being married to a woman named Marilyn for “less than a day” while in Las Vegas. As it turns out, though, “Marilyn” only married Stan so she could make off with his casino winnings. “I guess her name was fake and hair was fake,” Stan says. “But you know, the love was real. She really was the one that got away. Like, literally, it was a proper getaway. She was chased by cop cars for a mile out of Vegas…”
One of the first things The Owl House establishes is Eda’s portal to the human realm, which she uses to steal various items that she can then turn around and sell for a profit back home. And given her reputation as a notorious criminal in her own realm, marrying Stan just to rob him blind certainly sounds like Eda’s M.O. (no honor among thieves, and all that). What’s a bit more interesting, though, is how Stan describes “Marilyn,” making mention of her “pale bingo hall skin” and “one weirdly sharp tooth,” further pointing to his one-time bride actually being the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles.
Stan also mentions that “Marilyn” was wearing a neon pink t-shirt reading “over 30 and very flirty.” While Eda has yet to wear such a shirt in The Owl House so far, an official piece of concept art from the show does see the witching sporting a white shirt that reads “30 and flirty” in pink letters. In the show itself, she also has a coffee mug with the same tagline.
Finally, there’s the 2018 graphic novel Gravity Falls: Lost Legends, which was written by Hirsch and co-illustrated by Terrace. The comic features multiple nods to The Owl House, including a wanted poster calling for the capture of a shadowy figure — who just so happens to have Eda’s pointy ears, round earrings and trademark hairstyle.
Still, while all of these Easter eggs were clearly deliberate on the part of The Owl House and Gravity Falls‘ respective creators, their canonicity was also questionable at best, especially seeing as how Terrace has described The Owl House as being set in its own universe. Moreover, while fans certainly seemed convinced that Eda was Grunkle Stan’s ex-wife, there was still the “Marilyn” issue. Many believed “Marilyn” was simply a pseudonym Eda used in the human realm, though The Owl House itself never confirmed as much — that was, course, until Season 2’s mid-season finale, “Yesterday’s Lie,” which aired back in August.
In “Yesterday’s Lie,” main protagonist Luz Noceda (Sarah-Nicole Robles) discovers that a basilisk named Vee (Michaela Dietz) has assumed her identity back in the human realm. Luz aids Vee on a quest to locate more magic so she can keep the façade up, pointing her towards a local café that Eda had been banned from. Upon arriving at the café, Vee learns that Eda was banned for trying to pay for her drink with a live raccoon. More importantly, the employees don’t actually know her as Eda, but as Marilyn, all but confirming the theory once and for all.
It remains to be seen when exactly The Owl House will return for the back half of Season 2, or if the show will in any way double down on its Gravity Falls connection. Nevertheless, we can now confidently deduce that, as fleeting as their union may have been, Stanley Pines and Edalyn Clawthorne once tied the knot.
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