#but yeah outside of huntlow i dont really see as much focus on willow doing a violence

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

i think what would make the huntlow ship a lot more palatable for me is if they arent portrayed with such an imbalance of physical power. i know fandom flanderizes any popular ship/characters to a single dynamic/trait but i will still grump about it.

the dynamic between hunter and willow is most often willow being the physically stronger and more powerful of the two and hunter being her simp, usually either being fearful of her power (in a funny way bc “hes a guy”) or otherwise portrayed as weak and kind of pathetic.

(and socially he is kind of pathetic i guess, although we as a fandom are sleeping on hunters pathological need to be seen as cool and intimidating in favor of framing him as a helpless lost puppy.)

(i’ve grumped about the implications of hunter, an abuse victim, joking about his romantic partner being able to beat him up, and how his support of willow, especially in fanworks, seems to be an extension of his blind trust in authority figures. but im sure there are good fanworks that address this and portrays their dynamic as more healthy.)

my beef is that the portrayal of hunter being weaker than willow in terms of strength/combat abilities is just. not true. willow has powerful magic and yeah she yoinked hunter with her vines that one time but hunter has been trained since childhood to fight. he’s visibly more built than every other kid his age and even some of the adults. he beat up kikimora TWICE.

(i count the offscreen minecart chase in eclipse lake as one of their fights) (also in that fight he was fighting kikimora AND that EC captain AND two scouts AND a few abomatons) (also i dislike the scaling down of power of the coven heads in fandom too these ppl have been fighting with magic for decades kikimora is not a weak toddler she is a powerful witch)

hunter has shown in every episode he appeared in that hes highly skilled in combat. they had to injure him, exhaust him, and give him a new staff and a mental breakdown in eclipse lake for his fight with amity to be fair.

willow, in comparison, just grows vines everywhere because she’s never had to fight. this is very evident in the hexside fight in labyrinth runners, where hunter’s the only student doing any physical fighting while the other kids haphazardly throw spells around. hunter saying willow wouldn’t be afraid of him isn’t him saying that she would beat him in a fair fight. hes pointing out her general proactive attitude.

yes, willow can tie people up with vines but only if she has a timing advantage. hunter and willow wouldn’t fight because they’re friends. but in a theoretical fair fight between them, she would have to catch hunter off guard and completely restrain and disarm him before he can make a move. (the hunter vs amity fight shows that even when she tied him up hunter could still teleport out if he had his staff. also i think he PUNCHED that abomination bubble open???)

the point is that hunter is a child soldier and willow is not. he is much more skilled in combat than she is, and his hand to hand and staff-based combat obviously can compensate for magic uses considering he’s survived this long in the EC. (the magic duels in scout training, anyone?)

also, even if willow is stronger than hunter in terms of muscle (which i sincerely doubt bc of all the child soldier training but idk some people just naturally have more muscle than others) like her friends, willow isn’t the type of resort to fighting unless absolutely necessary. shes ride or die for her friends but she usually tries to “ride” until they get cornered and HAVE to “die.” just because hunter’s first instinct for everything is “flight” doesn’t mean willow’s first instinct has to be “fight.”

the portrayal of willow as everyones cutesy therapist who solves all her friends problems with violence is an unfortunate mischaracterization. the portrayal of hunter as a helpless, depressed, and traumatized child in need for everyone to take care of him all the time is also an unfortunate mischaracterization. these portrayals are only vaguely based in canon and i suggest fans rewatch the show during the hiatus to remember their other character traits.

for every charming fanwork with willow lifting hunter like a dumbell for her workout i want another charming fanwork with hunter lifting willow like a dumbell for HIS workout. the huntlow ship is BOTH strong enough to lift each other like dumbells and if i saw that more i might even stop calling them “the huntlow ship” and maybe indulge the thought that they might end up canon.

anyway all of this is to say. if in season 3 they deal with a minor villain like that museum guy and he still doesn’t back off after willow and the rest of the hexsquad gives him an emotional shounen protag speech. and also after hunter tries to get everyone to run away but it doesnt work bc the museum guy traps them or he falls face first into a puddle. what if willow beats the shit out of him. and after shes done she hands the reins to hunter and he beats the shit out of him. and somewhere during all that gus gives one of them a metal chair like that one MoringMark comic would that be the shit or what

#toh #the owl house #shut up pandora #hunter toh #hunter wittebane #willow park #huntlow #still not down with the huntlow ship because of reasons ive grumped about before #but this is more of a fandom mischaracterization #even outside of the huntlow ship stuff hunter still gets really woobiefied #and i think it would be more interesting to show him depressed and traumatized but still retaining that snark and badassery #and uh #fandoms gonna have implicit racist and sexist bias #because outside of the huntlow ship stuff willow shows up a lot less #i think fans are appreciating her more but its still very little compared to hunter #to be fair they are very different archetypes and people always love an angsty white boy #but yeah outside of huntlow i dont really see as much focus on willow doing a violence #its mostly her getting into dumbassery with her friends which is pretty nice and i want to see more of it #but yeah rule of thumb violence is never willows first answer its her third or fourth #she will not start a fight but she is willing to finish one #violence is hunters third answer i think if he wasnt explicitly told to do a violence #his first two answers are grovelling and running away to fall facefirst into a puddle #in that order