#because there are many people who don't relate to Luz and are just getting their hearts broken over how she's thinking
one amazing thing about the Owl House finale is that it finally contextualized for me one of the central metaphors of the show. Spoilers for the series finale Watching and Dreaming ahead.
we good? no one spoiling themselves? beauty
for a long time now, I thought we had a pretty standard coming-of-age metaphor dichotomized by the show's central antagonists. you've got your protestant witch hunter Belos who introduces a maturity and ugliness to Luz's narrative; he clearly represents a particular, restricting form of adulthood, and just when Belos becomes his most threatening, boom, enter the Collector, Luz's dangerously naïve inner child to ruin all her development on the Boiling Isles. Seems simple enough
what I didn't anticipate was just how specific and personal their roles in the story actually are to Luz once you have the full context from the series finale
look again
this story - this whole series - is about the grief that a neurodivergent kid experienced at a young age, introducing the cruelty of loss and adulthood before she was ready to handle it. and, how to reclaim a more whole understanding of herself as she rebuilds her life with people who get her
Belos is designed to infect the titan carcass like a disease. a cancer. it's super goddamn significant that the titan is King's dad (King, who became Luz's younger brother). they set up Belos not just to be another fascist kids' cartoon villain (although yeah, he do be doing some of that), but to specifically become a force that oppressed the weirdness from the one place that understood Luz. the Iles. the dad. And by the end of the story, Belos's goopy body-horror isn't just for show, he's just like the cancer or other terminal disease that took Luz's dad from her
he's the thing Luz hasn't processed in season 1 that comes in at the end like a warning. he's the threat that forces Luz to grapple with her own humanity, feeling somehow (often completely unjustifiably) harmful to those around her, through the grief she doesn't want to be a burden or the weirdness (neurodivergence) others don't understand. he's the force that says there is something wrong with you, Luz, give in to your grief, this is what you can't face. this is the lie you've been telling to those closest to you: that you're okay
then you have the Collector. (notable that he's a collector, and we see Luz's mom and dad had quite the collection of nerdy memorabilia)
the Collector is the child too young to understand death. Too young to understand consequences, or why their playmates don't feel like playing anymore with someone so weird and maybe a bit too involved in their own world. The Collector is Luz's inner child, that kid we see right before the "worst week ever" — the one who didn't and couldn't understand what was about to happen even as it was going down. unapologetically weird, a bit destructive and short-sighted, but wholly colourful, wholly themselves. that's why the Collector wants to live out Luz's adventures, but without all the depth. just the fun escapist fantasy
but don't think I forgot the internal conflict! :D
because Camila's role also gets an added depth too: Camila was framed at the outset of the series as someone who loved Luz, but wanted her to fit inside a box that she just didn't. later, Luz completely misconstrued her mom's breakdown when she learned that Luz chose to run away. as many people have pointed out by now, Luz misremembers the actual dialogue that Camila says: Camila only wanted her daughter safe, not to lose her. Luz meanwhile felt like she had to choose to destroy this part of herself, or give up her connection with her mom altogether
but we know now Camila actually deeply relates to Luz. she may not understand Luz's fascination with horrific things like on the boiling isles (very akin to a kid getting more grim hobbies in the wake of a death, like Luz's taxidermy), but she loves Luz for who she is. all of her. she never wanted Luz to change
Luz was the one framing the central conflict of the show as go back to her mom or stay in the boiling isles. Luz was the one who felt like she had to punish herself by rejecting the one place where she felt like herself. once Camila realizes what's been going on, and how deeply connected it is to the loss of Luz's dad, she knows Luz is trying to make a "very bad choice for herself." And she won't let that happen (what a great mom!!)
But Luz does have one real choice ahead of her
because of the inner child who once again has to confront death (this time, Luz's own), Luz is able to connect with a father figure, the titan, the one place she feels understood. in the form of a power-up that makes her into a fantasy witch straight out of the Good Witch Azura, the one place she got joy after that huge loss, the titan gives her the strength to face the cancer—a force draining everything good in her life from her and making her question she deserves it in the first place—but only if she can choose herself
and that means choosing happiness, choosing found family, choosing love and friendship and self-discovery in the place she feels most at home! every bond she's forged, everything she's worked for, it all comes down to choosing to face grief and move on in life with weirdos who stick together.
hoot hoot, that's some good metaphor
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It's really surprising to think about it, but it occurred to me that throughout the entire show, amidst all of her accomplishments, we technically never see Luz make a single human friend. This obviously doesn't count her parents, who are blood relations and (should be) friends by default. And it's not as if Luz didn't try, she quite explicitly did, although her attempts were dismissed by everyone else.
I don't think this is really a bad thing at all for Luz, because she has plenty of witch and demon friends, after all, and there's no meaningful existential distinction between humans and the Demon Realm's inhabitants by the end of the day, contrary to what others might claim. Likewise, there's the pretty obvious implication given by Yesterday's Lie that Luz could've made friends at the Reality Check camp, given how well Masha and co. resonated with Vee there and managed to retain their identities.
There's also those two kids (whom I named Mike and Bridget after the crew members they were based on) that invited Luz to the Halloween hayride, although Luz obviously had too much on her mind at the moment to be receptive. I wonder if Luz ever became properly acquainted with them once she started healing during the time skip, as the existence of the Earth and Demon Realm exchange program suggests that other humans have also been introduced to the Boiling Isles.
It's implied that Luz grew distant with Masha and co. after taking Vee's place, on account of technically having never been close to them to begin with; And like with those two kids that invited her, I suspect it had to do with Luz's trauma and the awkwardness of secrets creating a gap between them, in addition to Luz needing to help her friends adjust to Gravesfield. Under other circumstances Luz would've been eager to embrace her fellow weirdoes, but with her guilt over everything (including depriving Vee of her friends, I imagine) it just wasn't the time.
Again, I find the introduction of Masha and co. to be really effective because I think it rattles Luz's sense of self by making her question her decision to stay in the Boiling Isles; Because seeing Vee and her friends just suggests to Luz that maybe the Reality Check camp could've worked out, and she'd have been able to get friends without having to lie to, hurt, and be separated from her mother in the process. Which makes Luz second-guess herself, and in addition to Camila making her promise to stay, causes Luz to begin mistakenly regretting her decisions.
But as we all know, if Luz DID go to the camp, so many terrible things including genocide would've been allowed to happen without her, and so many people would've continued suffering. And she also got to live out her dream of being a witch, which you can't really blame her for attempting when she got the opportunity. What happened already happened and it's not as if Luz can be blamed for it, because how could anyone anticipate the chain of events, and ignore others who certainly did much more, with actual malice, to contribute to the trauma? Luz had to see things the whole way through and she did; Choosing herself helped others, it didn’t hurt them like Luz thought!
Anyhow, it's basically canon that Vee got to reconnect with Masha and co., and more than likely reveal her true nature and history, especially with Gus leading an exchange program she’s part of. So I like to think Luz DID make human friends in Masha and co., as well as the two who invited her to their hayride; I love how they seem to lowkey adore Luz as a fellow weirdo, and tbh, it's not as if Luz needs human friends when she already has human connections, because witches and demons are no less 'real' in terms of being people and all.
But it'd be nice if Luz ultimately found it reassuring, the realization that there were weirdoes in Gravesfield like her, and that she could've been friends with them; Especially if it did happen anyway because Luz chose both worlds and not just one. My point being, we need a lot more content with Luz meeting Vee's friends, and especially hanging out with Mike and Bridget, since we actually saw human strangers like Luz for being Luz!!! They’re canonically fans of Luz from her chaotic reputation (not the one Vee made) and were curious to see if she’d do a crazy costume again like last Halloween!!! And their existence reassures viewers that they needn’t go to another realm entirely to find weirdoes like them, because they exist right here on this Earth!!!
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i keep seeing bad belos takes on twitter and i feel like. he's an extremely interesting character and we don't Need to look at him as We Cannot Like Him At All Ever Because He's Bad. this tends to happen with antagonists a lot where for some reason liking their writing is conflated with justifying their actions when i think it's just fun to analyze why they do what they do and how it relates back to humans and why we do what we do
like the thing thats really interesting about belos is that every horrible decision he makes is to justify what he's done. this whole show is about communication and accepting yourself and others and he's the opposite of this. instead of just accepting that Hey maybe he was wrong and it's okay to be different from others and maybe he could have a better life than the stifled one he had with a bunch of puritans he goes "no there Must be some kind of reason behind it." and kills people for their differences from him just like the people he knew back home. he sits there for 400 years trying to justify killing his brother because he HAS to be right. that, or he has to accept that he killed someone he loved for pretty much no reason. that he's killed and ruined countless lives for nothing. he had so many chances to just move on and accept that he was wrong and he took the wrong choice every single time
i could talk for a while on my belos thoughts and the various parallels between him and luz and how trusting in others and communicating is very important and whatnot but i think that's all i have to say for now. belos is such an interesting person and it's such a shame some people won't think about him a little bit more cuz he sucks. like i for one think it's interesting that he somehow just keeps making terrible choices cuz it's such a human thing to do, just like luz choosing to love others is just such a human thing. i love when things really get into characters heads and their choices to forgive and love or their refusal to move on and continue to shut everyone out all the characters in this show are so well written im so excited for the last episode
shout out to the people on here who make fantastic belos content i love u all sorry if this is incoherent
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I don't know if you've watched Gravity Falls or been deep in the fandom but I just realized how similar Luz and Mabel kinda are. They're both young quirky girls whose selfish actions helped the main villain achieve their goal (supposedly, in Luz's case) and learn the lesson of facing reality instead of being stuck in a fantasy world where they get everything they want (although Luz doesn't really learn this even though it was kinda set-up for her in s1) (they also have a girl rival with shit parents that the fandom ships them with but anyway-)
I'm not saying this to shit on Luz though, I like Luz. But it mind boggles me how Mabel gets shitted on way more than her does despite being younger, actually learning her lesson, and apologizing for it. It might because they're different shows but I know a lot of TOH fans were/are GF fans because of the creators' relationship so the fandoms aren't that different from one another. It MIGHT be because Mabel trusted Blendin so easily despite the situation being shady as hell (while Luz just thought Philip was a normal human in the demon realm) but to be fair, Mabel was cornered in a moment of vulnerability and she literally didn't even know what she was giving him. Abandoning her friends and family for her own fantasy land while an apocalypse going on was really horrible, I won't deny that, but Luz also pretty much did the same when she chose the demon realm (place she doesn't know anything about with STRANGERS) over her own world in the first episode. Sure there wasn't anything horrific going on in the human realm so her ignorance of it wasn't as bad as Mabel's– BUT THEN in TTT she thinks of leaving everyone behind by staying in the human realm while the Collector was doing who knows what???
I don't know, this might be kinda petty, I haven't rewatched GF in ages, but I just think it's unfair Mabel gets more hate than Luz. I feel she's had more character progression compared to the latter and at least she always got called out when she did something wrong and learned from it.
So take all of this with a grain of salt because while I've heard a little of this discourse, I haven't watched a lot of Gravity Falls (recently tried again and found myself not loving the first episode if I'm honest) and have never been a part of its fandom. However, this is a chance to talk about why Luz is so liked and 'relatable' to so many because it is not hard to figure out why people like Luz. Why? Well... A lot of it comes down to framing and how the two shows see the two girls.
Gravity Falls sees Mabel as a tweenage girl.
The Owl House sees Luz as the embodiment of what a teenage nerd wishes they were/could be.
Those are VERY different goals and framing.
One, Mabel, is going to be INCREDIBLY fallible. Neither her or Dipper are anywhere close to perfect people because... Well, they're teenagers. They get way too into certain things. They're awkward when it comes to those obsessions. They're awkward about how to deal with change, consequences, etc. like that because that's just the age they are. They're figuring out the world and are going to run face first into it and that will be awkward, clumsy and often destructive without any sort of excuse besides they didn't think the consequences through. That's kids for you.
The other is... More idealistic. Luz doesn't face real consequences for testing her boundaries and is always bailed out. When she fucks up, she always does it with the best intentions and/or no one actually gets hurt. People coddle her and always make concessions to her desires with minimal push back and always end up on her side unless they're just a REALLY big meanie head. She always makes peoples' lives better, she never gets real criticism or ridicule for her interests and is always accepted by the right people for those interests. Always given more and more for being her quirky self!
A lot of this for Luz is because she's an audience surrogate and TOH wants the audience to feel good about themselves. It knows that a lot of nerds will be the ones watching it and leans in. This is actually contrasted by the fact that, well, Mabel isn't the audience surrogate or the absolute primary character of Gravity Falls. Her role is more complicated versus Dipper who IS the nerdy one who's closer to being the audience surrogate.
Just to really drive this home: People on my Discord have talked about this and one of the biggest 'crimes' as seen by a lot of the fandom is that Mabel causes Dipper to lose out on his dream of researching with Ford and staying in Gravity Falls. I could even see some arguments of things like "He's planning a future!" or "He's making the world better!"
But... Let's shift the framing for a moment from "Mabel caused Dipper to give up on his dream" to "Mabel made sure Dipper chose reality over fantasy." After all, his desire was to throw away his friends, his family, EVERYTHING to just continue hanging out with this one old dude and studying the weird phenomenon of the world, an inherently isolating job. He gets to go on this big adventure and follow his intellectual drive... At the cost of reality and everything he has known.
So why don't people get upset at Dipper for trying to do this? Well, there's a lot of potential reasons that I can't really narrow down without watching the show. It may have just been framed as a positive while Mabel's is framed as negative. It could be that while Mabel's is just a generic, girly fantasy that not much of the core audience actually wants, Dipper's is the cool, smart fantasy that is totally not just a fantasy, but a CAREER. Or it could go back to the root problem: Because Dipper is closer to the audience surrogate, closer to the main character, there is a bias to inherently see his actions as good. We could literally watch two characters do the same thing and we will root for the main character simply because that is who we are trained to root for.
A great example of this from TOH is how Luz is allowed to get mad at people for lying to her but not the other way around. She literally attacks Eda and gets the two captured in Titan, Where Art Thou? because Eda lied to her and she is supposed to feel justified in this anger to make the tragedy angle work. Meanwhile, there is ONE time when anyone gets mad at Luz for lying and honestly, the framing and reactions cause it to end up feeling much more like it was just for a prettier scene change during Reaching Out. After all, Amity still wants to fix Luz's pain before Luz even apologizes for breaking her word by lying. So why doesn't anyone call out the hypocrisy here? Why is NO ONE allowed to get upset with Luz about this?
Because she's the main character. Because we are trained to root for her and, well, Luz also is the one we are told to want to be. She is the every nerd. She is meant to connect to a very wide net of outcasts who feel like they don't belong and wish things were different. Wishes people weren't mean to them or didn't get mad at them when they made mistakes. That just let them be the hero of their own story.
So of course, they don't want Luz to be yelled at, even when that is the actually human and reasonable thing for someone to do. They don't want to question what she does so when the show gives them an excuse, or they have to go to reality if the show itself doesn't give an excuse (This is why people emphasize Luz's age and nuerodivergence to excuse her while bluntly ignoring Mabel's age when it comes to her actions), so that they don't have to recognize that Luz does some REALLY shitty things, especially in the back half of the show. It is simply more convenient for the narrative they want out of the show for Luz to be this way.
And that is okay from a casual standpoint. A lot of fiction is escapist. There's nothing wrong with wanting to jump into a world where you're never actually wrong and never in trouble. Where your angst is always met with hugs and understanding rather than actual human emotion. That's how media works. Most mass appeal products are escapist. It's part of why the Isekai genre is SO prevalent right now because it is one of the purest forms of escapist fiction out there, especially due to modern isekai tropes.
But if you're going to talk critically about something, escapism is very rarely a good jumping off point for it. It will make you ignore a LOT about the work because it's uncomfortable for you to ask questions about it. I'm not talking about "Why does this world have magic" sort of things mind you. I'm talking about, say, "Why does this character get so many power ups, so easily, and with little effort in earning them?" When you want escapism, the pacing won't bother you. If you're actually looking at themes and payoffs, it will bother you a LOT. And yes, this does tie into TOH because if you want to be Luz, getting the glyphs feels great! If you actually interrogate the story, you go "Wait, they hadn't actually done like... ANYTHING with her not having magic in a magical world and she already gets a spell? And two of these spells she does literally nothing for. Arguably three since she is put into timeout as a punishment and gets the glyph I guess for being a bad person." That TOTALLY is good storytelling and makes sense with positive themes and proper explorations of its own ideas.
*sigh*
It's a rough push and pull and it can make it so people, even if they like the show, who disagree with the popular opinion, the one that usually lifts up the audience flattering elements the most, are just in a rough position where they hear the same opinions over and over again. All while knowing that if they speak up, they'll be stomped on.
Just like Mabel was while Dipper was raised into the spotlight. At least by the fandom.
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I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead.
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
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And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.
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as the OG source of the A Little Kindness AU aka Raine adopting Hunter I would LOVE to know how you would change it to be canon compliant. i mean obviously the reveal would be after everything, but god just imagine Hunter worrying about his anonymous friend/caretaker and he finds out its the FUCKING OWL LADY'S PARTNER and hes just so happy theyre ok and to know who helped him out all the time but also OH TITAN LUZ IS GONNA BE HIS SISTER EVEN MORE NOW!
~adoption anon
the little gray box who started it all!!!! welcome back
good lord there would be so many overhauls...just so incredibly many I gotta try to break it all down to smaller sections to even get. a glimpse
1) okay so as we have learned Raine was NOT, in fact, under any mind control, just pulling the biggest brained move on Snapdragon she ever did see. so raine doesn't even go missing in the first place, if anything they might halt the notes altogether but still remain in the castle just because they were under constant vigilance and meeting eda again mightve made them triply afraid of getting other people involved with their work. hunter stresses about it, as you do, but flapjack isn't freaking out cause HE'S seen raine's face, and he knows that they're fine, but he has no idea what happened, so Hunter is less concerned since Flapjack isn't. not by a lot tho.
2) so INSTEAD of Hunter booking it to Luz to plead for help on some criminals, he instead takes all of this suppressed fear and worry and stress and just kinda. balls it up. and then shoves all of it out in the open during Eclipse Lake. he goes HARD trying to get that Titan's Blood and the thing where he tried to relate to Amity over being a failure? he doubles down on that shit TREMENDOUSLY and their shared failing to live up to what other ppl wanted and pushing away their friends (granted Amity actually pushed Willow away to try and help, Hunter didn't push Raine away he just thought he did). you think his breakdown in Eclipse Lake was concerning? hes about to make it even more concerning. hes very very afraid for Bat and he would really rather they hate him than anyone found out they'd been talking to him and they got murdered, so he better try and beat the shit out of Amity! if Belos is pleased with him, maybe he'll hesitate on whatever punishment Bat might be having right now
3) Raine, bless 'em, keeps trying to help Hunter how they can, dropping these tiny hints they don't mean to drop. Hunter's part of setting up and preparing everything for the Coven Day Parade and Raine is noticeably always checking in on the Golden Guard. we know now that Hunter started showing his face more after the Palisman incident, but Raine isn't seen around often, so I imagine it's around the Coven Day Parade that they finally see what Hunter looks like--and good lord that IS a literal teenager what the hell did they DO TO HIM---alright scrap all the plans. darius, eberwolf, change of plans. everything stays the same, but we're kidnapping Hunter on the way out
4) Any Sport in a Storm is pretty much the same, Hunter is just even antsier & more desperate to get these new friends to like him bc. Bat. and also punts Darius twice as hard. Darius for his part is only marginally nicer because he knows Raine's weirdly attached to this little rat of a child--oh wait nvm he sees why now. alright valid point. Darius is a firm believer in "for the love of god just tell him you're Bat it will save everyone a lot of stress" but unfortunately Raine subscribes to "if anyone i really care about is within fifty feet of me we are All Going To Die"
5) mostly everything would stay the same in Hollow Mind, i think? Raine, Darius and Eberwolf might actually go up to the Owl House and speak when Hunter and Luz get trapped in Belos's mind since its both Raine and Darius that are stressed as fuck over the kid? in that instance then everyone teams up much quicker (and in confusion) but Hunter still books it out at fast speeds into the woods and somehow makes it to Hexside. he's a slippery little bastard, but luckily now theres a whole gang teamed together to track him down and hes found by Darius pretty quickly after the Owl House is evacuated and torn apart. however Hexside is VERYYYYY on edge over coven heads claiming to want to "help" and "have betrayed the Coven" so they're all beating Darius back like a rabid raccoon and Hunter thinks he's here to kill him. so thats fun. eventually Darius gives up, scruffs Raine, and throws them down at Hexside and demands they finally clear shit up. its a very cute scene of Raine sneaking in and slipping little notes under the door of whatever classroom Hunter's hiding for his life in, wherein he realizes Bat's come back. and Hunter's finally brave enough to yank open the door to---RAINE?????
6) more stuff that mostly stays the same. Hunter however is very stressed over Raine when they're trapped in the human realm which eventually leads to him and Luz talking a lot and him realizing "im sorry waht the fuck do you MEAN that the owl lady and raine whispers were a THING??? WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERES STILL SOMETHING THERE????" but above all i want to fuck this boy up so insanely bad and at least give him a GLIMPSE of Raine's puppet body being possessed by Belos. even if there is no interaction other than Hunter seeing them for a brief flash I know in my heart that would fuck him up so bad. he would blame himself so so much. Belos really here to kill everything he loves before he can finally be free huh
7) MOST importantly they finally get to hug when everyones reunited and hunter feels SO INCREDIBLY GUILTY when he sees all the fresh new scars Raine has courtesy of Belos. to which Raine, in peak parent fashion, just goes "nah, i dont mind 'em. now we match :]" and Hunter's just god u are missing the point so badly but i'll let it slide. how'd you know my new scars were from belos. and raine just stares like "how did i know your new scars were from WHAT????? oh im so glad i killed his ass" "YOU DID WHAT"
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[OOC: Any interesting headcanons? I wanna know them all-]
(Oh god, where do I even START
Get ready for this ride LMAO
I HC that the Collector can change their age, like an age shifter. They're a God, who says they can't do that?
The reason I think they can do that is because whenever they were imprisoned in the mirror, they never had a chance to really "grow up." By canon standards, they were around a VERY long time, and sure, being imprisoned in the mirror might have stopped aging completely, but I think that their personality can determine their age. They didn't know about mortality and had to be taught, implying that their siblings (the Archivists) never taught them SHIT. Maybe if they actually knew things and were taught things, they wouldn't be so childlike!
I also HC that, eventually, King gives the Collector a nickname like "Colli" so it'd be easier to say than "Collector." Because, after all, how many Collectors are out there? We only see Colli on the Boiling Isles but what about the Archivists? Where are they? It'd be nice to give them a little nickname!
I HC that trustworthy people associated with the Emperor's Coven get to keep their palismen, like Lilith and Raine. Raine's palisman seems to be their fox on their violin and Lilith's is, as expected due to familial relation, is a bird. They both had a reason to stay there- Lilith for Eda's sake, Raine the same- so it was highly unlikely that they'd betray Belos until absolutely necessary
I imagine if a Collector dies, they become a star in the night sky. I just thought that'd be cute. This doesn't really come into play unless Colli (or a secret character >:3) dies, but it did come into play when my partner and I created an AU called the Fallen Star AU where Colli protects King from Belos similar to how Luz protects Colli. I like angst, what can I say?
I also hc that all Collectors don't like liars because, as shown by Colli, he always wants to do pinky swears as a sort of "contract" (even if it isn't the most reliable one)
I hc that the Archivists are on another planet as their home and are waiting for a time to strike, and maybe they might've shown up if Disney didn't cancel TOH.
I HC that Colli also has scars from when Belos' lichen shit started attaching to their arms and spreading
Similarly, I think the reason it took a long time for it to infect them is because of their Godly status and powers
Also, unrelated to the other HC's, I HC that King 100% sleeps in weird positions like my fucking dog. One day he's fucking twisted and laying on his back and Eda walks in and breathes through her teeth like "How tf is that comfortable?"
I also hc that King's glyph(s) are more Titan-like, as shown by the Light glyph in the finale, because he's actually alive unlike his father
Also I think the Archivists and Colli have never really bled before due to their strength, so if they get a cut or injury, they kind of have a moment of panic upon seeing their own blood
Similarly, I think their blood would be purple or something abnormal like that. Purple and blue are my guesses, maybe red like a red star
I also HC that all Collectors have some phase of the moon on them, like how Colli has a crescent moon. Maybe one of them had/has a blood moon marking on them, or a full moon, or something! And I think that'd correlate to their power and/or their blood color. Maybe full-mooned Collectors are stronger, though that doesn't mean crescent-mooned Collectors are weak. It just depends on how well they can use their magic and have trained for it!
I think there's more, but I can't remember all of them right now! If I remember more, I'll post them!
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I don't know when the comshippers thought that the types of ships of humans x non-human, minor x minor, enemies and other ships were comships.
I feel like they did that because "if they cancel me, then they cancel you too" or an attempt to make the anti ships hypocritical, because on tiktok I find comments like "you say you're anti comship but you like amity x luz or furry ship" bruh.
A lot of people who like these ships don't feel comfortable being related to them and/or don't like being called a comshipper and I see some people getting attacked because they think you're a comshipper, when you really aren't. so I propose that there be a new tag that likes ship dynamics at first but is against/doesn't like zoophilic ships (furry/beasts x human is not bestiality because furry/beasts if aware, can consent and his physique is humanoid), minor x adult and incest.
I do not wish him death, because it is understandable that some are comshippers, because surely many are children who have a trauma and I used it as an outlet or their parents did not explain why an adult should not be in a romantic relationship. A problem would be if you romanticize and normalize questionable things just because you thought a zoophilic ship, incest and pedophilia was cute.
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You know, as a bi person, I really kind of hate the aggressive pissing on hetero ships by virtue of it being hetero and not for the actual faults of the couple or characters.
Mind you; this is not the same problem as homophobes people who insist they don't hate gay stuff but have 0 gay couples and fight headcanons saying that they're gay. Those people, even if they don't know it; are homophobic. Their stubborness to face the fact that they're bigots makes them even more bigoted because bigotry does not inherently = being mean, but is about the inability to accept or think of other people. It's scary how many people earnestly think you have to shout some Westbro Baptist Church bs to be actually homophobic, and all that's before you get to internalized bigotry within the LGBTQ culture. Speaking of which...
I saw a thread where people were hating on Friendship is Magic because Pinkie Pie canonically gets with Weird Al's ponysona. --Obv I'm biased because that being made canon was the only part of the finale I liked as obviously I loved Cheese Sandwich for being his own character apart from Pinkie Pie and Weird Al-- but, BESIDES THAT; The complaint was talking about how some characters were "forced into being straight" by the writers and...really? You're incapable of headcanoning Pinkie and Cheese are bi or in an open marriage or just invalidating Pinkie now because she's the only one of the mane 6 who canonically had a kid with a stallion? Really?
There's being queer baited and wanting more gay couples that are also main characters and not off to the side cyclops police. And then there's getting mad that a character without a canonized sexuality is in a hetero relationship at least once in their life. Not even that they themselves are for sure straight, just that they're married or w the opposite sex.
Naturally, I only have women shippers to talk about. I can't quite talk for gay men or m/m shipcourse. Whenever I see lesbiansapphics be all "even canonically straight characters should be made gay"/"this ship would be fine if it were lesbians"/"this character should have gotten with this character so I can have lesbians", I do know it's all just joking. At least, I'm pretty sure. I know the reason you want more lesbians -I want more lesbians too because lesbians are great! You are right in how and what kind of scrutiny is held against you for liking women and like fiction women liking other fictional women...but...maybe don't be so judgemental of the ladies on your side who happen to like some m/f ships more than your appointed 'good' ship?
"We're not judgemental. You're the one who's judgemental for not being able to take some light rubbing abt your ship being straight."
Am I though? When you hate on a m/fships because seeing people support them in ANY WAY means you have to make fun of them just to validate your own feelings...idk pardon MY autistic arse for feeling a tad bit picked on or lumped in with the really not okay straights. Am I excluded from defending myself because I'm not the ideal lesbian? I'll never survive the sapphic hunger games if I don't have specific standards for my gay couples vs my straight ones?
I've seen people adore The Owl House for being gay because it is but absolutely hate that Willow/Hunter is implied and then be mad that Luz didn't get with Willow because "Amity is a bad girlfriend". It's not Dana's fault that Luz got with the "wrong woman", the show was written with Lumity being endgame and Hunter being an important side character because he's related to the main villain who is a man. Cope. I've seen people hate on MysteryElk because Elktaur/General has a standardly attractive' hunky design; I've seen people hate Edred from Unicorn Warriors Eternal for being an icky 'generic' guy. If you actually know the characters and the relationships in question with their lovers, you'd know that the fact that they're a man is the LEAST problematic thing they got going on! No, the men in these couples being women would not "fix" anything not just for shippers but in the actual show with the relationships. Like, you DO get that the problem is Nowhere King is the aggressor and that Edred is clingy and unsupportive, right? That those are the actual problems with these couples? And GOSH do I now hate Clone High's insistence that JFK is actually a decent person because he's not a 'pick me' like Abe. I hate that, in the wake of the internet realizing how bad tumblr sexymen nice guys really are, we apparently have to pick out the men who are "salvageable" or obsess over the problemed ones problems because they are men. Which- come to think of it, isn't that part of the issue with SnapeWife-types who stan flawed male characters like their the second coming but antagonize women characters for being flawed? Shouldn't we, idk, maybe encourage people to love characters for their flaws and not because we can 'fix' them somehow or hate them because they exemplify a person you hate irl?
Overall, the (hopefully) ironic demand for gay couples all the time like it's a supremacy is kind of irritating to me. I'm just not into living with the "this majority group are all the things wrong"-mindset, or even a "you deserve to feel the bigotry I already experience because that's cathartic for me". I know exactly why people are in pain. I know that pain because a lot of it is the same I have to go through. The reason I'm 'biting back', not at the gay community I'm in but at this specific mindset? Yeah it IS because I'm obsessed with people judging me, but I think it's because I'm self aware of this problem I have that I don't want to indulge the part of me that wants petty payback at all. When and if I like my petty payback, I want to make sure it's not at the people who might be judging me vs the people who actually, honestly are.
TL;DR: I love me some 'straights are not okay'-jokes, but there comes a point where I can not hear them when you clearly don't mean it as a joke.
No amount of active bigotry in this world will make the toxic absolutism you got as a result of that bigotry something I need to deal with as the butt of your anger. I and other bi/pan/ally people are not your stress dolls, inherently. The straights (a group) are not okay, not the straights (individuals), k?
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I've seen FTF and I have many things to say, but the first one is who or what is the figure we see when Luz is in the portal. Many people have say that that is a Titan but... Is it possible?
Where is Alador? I don't remember anyone mentioning him (at least Emira and Ed are okey. Well, almost Okey hahaha).
When they go to the memory class (I don't know the name of it): they just leave Luz's memories there. I mean, wouldn't that be like so dangerous? We don't see in any point that they put them again into Luz's head, so I suppose that would play an important role in W&D (?). I think it would be awesome if we get to see Luz's memory lane (although it is kind of impossible, because, yk, time, plot...).
Also, Odalia deserved that, for being a b*tch hahaha.
Oh, and I loved how Camilla threw the bat after kissing it and splashing Kiki's face. That killed me HHAHAHA
I also wonder what happened with the owl beast when it saw the collector. I mean, it was supposed that Eda had controlled it, but no, and then we see in the credits an image of King and Eda out of control. But it also drags my attention that Lilith didn't get out of control when she was near to the collector.
Oh, and I didn't understand the whole scene in the memory class with Hunter, Willow and Gus. I mean, I didn't get it, like: Willow and Gus were trying to make Hunter more comfortable but they fucked it? Or what?
And now Lumity hehehe. I didn't like so much their relation in season 3 (well, in TtT we got to see them dancing in the rain and a whole PowerPoint presentation with photos of them, I can't complain), but in the episodes we didn't get to see so much of them (at least not a proper focus). For example, the cute scene of both talking about palismen in the owl house: it IS so cute, and Amity kisses Luz's head (awww), but then Luz just don't respond to it and it seems like she doesn't want it? It was so rude :'(
Well, and what do you think was that thing that Luz had to tell Amity just before they were interrupted by Kikimora?
Oh, and I also loved how Amity gets Luz out of the portal by the feet hahaha.
I also think that Stringbean likes, like a lot, Amity? I mean, if you see slowly that scene, you can see how the Palisman rubs softly against Amity's cheek. AND THAT IS SO F*CKING CUTE I'M GONNA CRY.
And the whole Boscha - Amity thing. Boscha was behaving like the obsessed -toxic-ex and that made me even laugh.
Overall, the episode was fun and good, although it felt a bit slow. Many say that is because it's not plot centered, but character centered (and, well, ofc it is, they managed to have like a thousand characters on-screen and develope or end their arcs in a proper way -> I mean, when I thought Amity's arc was over like since season 2 episode 2, now we get a whole vision of Amity's change when in detention pit).
And one last comment. Luz's palisman hatches when she is able to figure out what she really wanted (to be understood), but I think that wouldn't make much sense. Let me explain, for the character is absolutely something that would fit, because we've seen how Luz had struggled with the world in general. But for the palisman itself is sth like "?", Because we've seen that, for example, Amity's desire was to make her own path and that's something that takes a long way (I mean, it's not something that can be fulfilled in an instant), but Luz's desire is now fulfiled because her mother has finally understood her (at least that how Luz feels it). Idk if you get me.
There is a Lot going on here so I'm going to answer it all under a read-more :)
1). I mean, it's either a Titan or it's a Titan Trapper. It looks exactly like them, so I can only imagine they'll pop up again in the next episode.
2). I also think we'll see Alador in the next episode. I think he'll probably be okay, but maybe wounded in some regard. I'm honestly just assuming he's a puppet somewhere right now.
3). Yeah, I know what you mean, but honestly I think that's just a detail we'll have to forget about, unless it does somehow come up in the finale (which I doubt will be the case). It is dangerous to leave the photos alone like that, so... maybe after a certain amount of time they automatically disappear without harming the legitimate memories? Something like that.
4). Odalia's still going to be an issue in the finale, though. Mark my words.
5). Camila was PEAK in this episode. "Kikimiki" murdered me.
6). I don't think the Owl Beast likes The Collector at all, which would track, considering what we know of their experiences with one of them, though it wasn't necessarily this Collector. But Lilith's curse is honestly still more manageable than Eda's is, and I don't think she really has an Owl Beast inside her, just a bit of one, which is why she didn't lose it as well.
7). That scene was the culmination of Everyone's issues, but specifically Hunter's and Willow's. Willow was trying to help by showing him a picture of him being happy with Flapjack, Hunter was touched by the gesture and didn't know how to say it, Willow thought that meant she'd messed up, Gus blamed himself for not talking to Hunter earlier, and they just didn't communicate with each other. It's a really well-done scene and it's heartbreaking to watch.
8). I don't think it was rude of Luz, and Amity didn't either. She's hurting, she was damn-near suicidal in Thanks to Them, and Amity's being Peak GF by supporting her, no matter what. As for what she was going to tell her, it was going to be her decision to leave the Boiling Isles.
9). Episode didn't feel slow to me at all! Just different, obviously, and in a good way.
10). I disagree, actually. Sure, in the moment Luz does feel understood by her mother, but that's an eternal goal, especially if she continues on her path in being a witch (and she will). She's always going to be the odd one out whether she's in the Human or the Demon Realm, and now she knows what she can always work toward.
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tagged by @baynton thank you!! 💙
8 shows to get to know me better
1. BBC GHOSTS
copying nat here to say that this is also where the mat obsession started 😈 my friend hallie (who i will also be tagging to do this obviously) got me into it and i cannot thank them enough for giving me the brainrot! i've watched this show.... idk how many times now i'm constantly rewatching it but i still laugh (and/or cry) every time. don't think i needed to know how absolutely FERAL and UNHINGED and RABID i was capable of being, i swear i was normal before i saw thomas thorne. i WAS, and no one can disprove that so just believe me 🤡 he is my sopping wet babygirl pathetic chewtoy and i love him.... so much..... and i want to d*e on the button house property and become a ghost more than anything in the whole world. anyway this show is fantastic and it changed my life and there isn't a single bad main character!
2. STRANGER THINGS
not sure if it's because i watched this show the year it came out (and on the night before/night of my 18th birthday, so it ended up being the best birthday i've had in years which is. still true lmao) but it continues to hold such a special place in my heart, and i can't truly explain why. gonna be honest seeing that winona ryder was in it immediately made me want to watch (and i love joyce byers + jopper a normal amount) i'm also really into horror and gross shit and this show really delivers on that sometimes, it's fantastic 🫡
3. THE OWL HOUSE
i don't think i can talk about this show for too long without crying lmao, but for a silly starter: THERE IS SO MUCH GOD DAMN FUCKING PURPLE IN THIS SHOW IT IS VERY PLEASING TO MY EYEBALLS!!!!! i'm a huge blubbering baby when it comes to the found family trope and this show has that! not to mention the incredible lgbt+ rep that truly shocked me to my core. i've also never related to a fictional character more than luz noceda, it's almost unsettling. still haven't watched the finale because i'm in denial about it being over and fuck disney channel for cancelling it.
4. DOCTOR WHO
besides glee and pretty little liars (that i'm surprisingly not putting on this list for reasons) this was one of the first real tv shows i've gotten into. my friend and i stumbled upon it on netflix (back in the ancient times of the early 2010's) she wasn't into it AT ALL but when i went home i immediately started watching the rest of it. i love all of the doctors/companions/eras in so many different ways, and every time i rewatch this show it feels like home <3
5. YONDERLAND
99% of the characters in this show are complete dumbasses and i'm truly here for it,. also seeing mat as so many different freaky sexy characters fixed me made me worse. HOWEVER.... the felt puppets still strike fear into my heart, i've gotten somewhat used to it but i still want to scream and poop my pants whenever i see them.
6. COMMUNITY
as we've established i'm a fan of the found family trope (even the FUCKED UP PROBABLY MENTALLY BAD FOR EACH OTHER kind of found family) besides how funny this show is (and how much i love troy and abed AND WANT WHAT THEY HAVE MORE THAN ANYTHING) it was also the first time i interpreted autism portrayed in a somewhat better way than i had ever seen before on television (of course abed being autistic isn't technically canon, hence "interpreted") but i really appreciated it and the fact that he IS canonically the most mentally stable in the group is incredible and i love it. will NEVER forgive them for making a felt puppet episode though, it haunts my nightmares.
7. SANTA CLARITA DIET
drew barrymore plays a zombie milf and timothy olyphant plays her hot husband who helps her kill shitty people to eat. wtf else do i need to say? it's a masterpiece and i wake up every day hating netflix for cancelling it
8. TOO MANY SPIRITS
YEAH THIS IS A SHOW! I'M COUNTING IT AS A SHOW! i knew i was going to put at least one watcher show on this list because i love these idiots so dearly. i chose too many spirits because the amount of times i've almost (😐) pissed myself from laughter watching these morons get drunk and tell stupid stories is TOO MANY..... spirits! like the name of the show! too many! too many times 🤡 anyway
tagging (no pressure to do it!) @larryrickard @reysorigins @softdavidrose @karura @captainsjack @jugheadscrowns @bejeweledantihero @hannamarins
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Hi!!! Hope you're well!
1, 5, 11, and 20 for the TOH ask game! ✨
What episode got you invested in the show? Why?
I actually don't think there was one specific episode I can pin it on. I started watching TOH right before S2 aired but back then I was just like "Oh this is a cute little show!" and that was it. I didn't think about it too much after that. Then right before S3 was supposed to air I decided to go back and rewatch it all to prepare myself and for some reason that second watch-through flipped some kind of switch in my brain and suddenly I was obsessed with it. I guess I would just have to say it was the culmination of every episode in the first half of S1, where we are exploring the world and learning about Luz, that got me hooked.
5. Favorite platonic relationship?
This one's tough because there's so many! I guess I would have to say Luz and Hunter. While they are, of course, very close with the rest of their friend group, I feel like those two have been through a lot together and have shared experiences that no one else would really fully understand. Belos hurt everyone on the Isles, technically, but those two definitely got a lot of the brunt of it in a lot of ways. I like to imagine that sometimes if Hunter is over at Camila's or if their whole friend group is having a sleepover and one of them has a nightmare, the first person they'll usually go to is each other. Even after King's Tide, I think they would have leaned on each other a lot considering they both knew each other's biggest secrets.
11. Any songs from the soundtrack that stick out to you?
This might just be because he's my favorite character and I've analyzed him a lot but- Hunter's theme.
It such an ominous and menacing sounding song, even in comparison to Belos' (the literal main antagonist). Belos' starts off menacing but then kind of changes suddenly into something sadder, whereas Hunter's just stays menacing the entire time. Before we really know who the Golden Guard is, the music makes sense for him and it doesn't really hint towards anything deeper but then we actually get to know the boy behind the mask and suddenly the music doesn't seem right for him anymore. He's not menacing or evil or really even much of an antagonist at that point. The music isn't Hunter's theme, it's the Golden Guard's. The music is part of his mask.
20. Which character do you relate to the most?
Luz, hands down. I relate to the others in a lot of ways but Luz's character really resonated with me as a neurodivergent kid who was told to "grow up" or made fun of for my interests, trying to escape from reality by immersing myself into fictional worlds. Having no friends, being an outcast at school, and feeling like no one in the world really understands you.
Also just the whole hero complex and thinking that it's your responsibility to see the good in everyone and trying to help them and learning the hard way that some people are just beyond help. Also her blaming herself for what happened after King's Tide- thinking it was her fault despite only having had the best intentions...I've definitely been in similar (thought obviously less exaggerated) scenarios.
Thank you for asking!
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Luz for character bingo! c:
okay, there just weren't really many spaces that adequately explain my feelings about Luz, so.
i love her. she is an absolute delight and probably my favorite cartoon protagonist of all time. i find her intensely, painfully relatable, and therefore also an absolute joy to write - getting into her headspace is so easy for me. if you spliced Luz and Hunter into one incredibly fucked up person, that person would have been me as a teenager.
okay, so, Luz. gosh. she's such a good character. i love how idealistic and hopeful and caring she is, how sweet and kind and compassionate, and yet how she also clearly has her own issues - deeply buried grief over the loss of her father (boy did the nail the "my dad is dead and it's kind of a big deal but i'm saying it's not because i really don't want to have to deal with someone else's feelings about it right now" feeling in that episode where she tells Amity about that), her own loneliness and awkwardness, the way she tends to just internalize everything and push away her own feelings and needs...
she's so awkward and clumsy in so many ways, but also so earnest. she cares so much about people and even though she's often very impulsive and intense, she's also pretty socially adept in some ways. she's good at figuring out how other people are feeling and what they need and trying to offer that.
i see Luz as the kind of undx'd/untreated (seriously, Camila, don't send the kid to social skills camp, send her to a fucking psychiatrist and get her some damn ritalin) adhd kid who's always just been... too much. too loud, too weird, too intense, too emotional, too invested in the wrong things in the wrong ways. the kind of person who has a switch where everyone else seems to have a dial.
i can imagine her as a younger kid having more trouble controlling her emotions than she does now, and being a lot more prone to impulsive displays of negative emotion - i notice that Luz tries really hard to put a positive face on things, and it feels a lot like someone who's very wary of her own capacity for anger and negativity.
she's clearly so isolated at home, without any real friends, and has just retreated hard into self-directed fantasy hobbies as a way of coping. but give her the chance to bond, and she jumps for it - she's not aloof, she's just been hurt and rejected so many times, but when she has the chance for a fresh start, she grabs it with both hands.
she tries so hard to see the good in everyone and give them the benefit of the doubt, which is helpful for people like Amity and Hunter, but comes back to bite her with people like Philip. i really enjoy how, idk, cohesive her whole personality is as a character - all of her good traits can be flaws, and many of her flaws can also be good!
she shows compassion to everyone, but some people don't deserve her compassion, and being too trusting gets her hurt. she's intense and impulsive, but it makes her very good at learning and teaching herself things, and means she doesn't overthink situations the way people like, say, Lilith do, and she's not afraid to do what she thinks is right.
she cares so much about other people, but she uses that as a way of suppressing her own issues. she neglects herself emotionally, bottling everything up inside and trying to project onto others and solve their problems as a sort of proxy for solving her own. very 'unaddressed trauma' type of feeling there, trying to give everyone else the care and compassion and support that she needs but doesn't know how to ask for or feels like she doesn't deserve.
i just love her a lot. she's so vibrant and real. as for 'better as part of a dynamic' - i think Luz is completely fascinating on her own, but she really shines when you get to play her off of other people. after all, isolation was her whole problem in the human realm. give her friends, enemies, foils, and watch what she does! the way she relates to and interacts with all the members of the cast is just endlessly fascinating.
i'm especially interested in playing her off of Hunter and Philip, because they're my faves, and the parallels and mirroring there are just delicious. but she has great interactions with everybody. she's a good kid and a good character.
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Since everyone is talking about Belos' past anyway with the Hollow Mind portraits, I thought I might as well share my ideas/receipts about how Belos concealed his past when presenting himself as Emperor.
Like he's been a public figure in the Boiling Isles for a long time. So I was wondering how much others knew or suspected about the truth. Here's what I've come up with:
1. There are traces of Philip still around.
S2E4 Gwendolyn tells Luz, “Humans are rare. My great-grandmother told me about a human who once lived here. But one day he just vanished. Rumor has it he left something in the library.”
S2E5 Luz finds an article in the library that tells her: “Hundreds of years ago, there was a human named Philip Wittebane living in Bonesborough. And he donated his diary to this library.”
The diary is so old that it’s kept in the Forbidden Stacks, only accessible by library staff members. It seems unlikely that many people have read it. But even if they did, there doesn’t seem to be anything really connecting it to Belos. Because:
2. Others think Belos is a witch
S1E18 Willow says, “the Emperor is the most skilled witch that's ever lived.”
S1E19 King says, “a mysterious witch appeared who declared that he, and he alone, could speak to the island.”
S1E19 King also says, "He's the Emperor! He's the most powerful witch alive!"
S1E19 Lilith says, "Being in the Emperor's Coven was my dream. I wanted to work alongside the most powerful witch on the Isles and make the world a better place."
I don't remember anything contradicting this. There are demons on the BI that look pretty similar to witches, and demons (like Hooty) can be immortal ig, so it matters to me that Belos was specifically presenting himself as a witch.
That said, the lifespan of witches is never officially confirmed afaik (and I do hate that thanks). Bump gets that throwaway line about 300 years until retirement or whatever. But since we are shipping witches and humans, they have to have similar lifespans. You cannot convince me otherwise lol.
So that makes it even more implausible that the human that showed up and vanished centuries ago is at all related to Belos, the ~most powerful~ witch on the Boiling Isles.
The fact that the Emperor also has a 16 year old nephew lends further credence to the idea that he's a normal witch, aging normally, with normal (if mysterious) family ties.
3. Belos’ appearance
S1E19 The Unauthorized Boiling Isles History reads, “Before he ascended to the throne, Emperor Belos gained prominence as a crusader for unity during the Savage Ages.”
S2E16 We get to see Belos during this crusade period. He definitely already looks old:
We also know that Belos has been Emperor for ~50 years:
S1E17 a Hexside teacher says, “Over 50 years ago, Emperor Belos appointed a head witch to each coven.” [Bonus fun: this means Terra could be the first head of the plant coven]
S1E18 Kikimora says, “Up until 50 years ago, witches and demons practiced wild magic during what we called the Savage Ages [...] until our great Emperor ascended to the throne, and taught witches how to use magic properly.”
So that's 50 years on top of his age when he was crusading. Hasn’t anybody noticed that Belos is unreasonably old for a witch yet? (And if so, what did they think he was?)
I think Belos could have handled this discrepancy by carefully planning how he travels around the island and changing his name as he goes; standard secret immortality stuff. This would also serve the double benefit of making it seem like he has a broader base of support from the start, if there’s the appearance of several crusaders going around spreading the ~good word~.
At some point, though, he did start covering his tracks. By present day (s1), Belos’ Emperor outfit makes his age much more ambiguous:
This is also how he appears in all the official, state-sanctioned portrayals of the Emperor that I remember seeing. Examples:
Which brings me to my main point:
4. History is written by Belos
Lilith is a historian and the former head of the Emperor's Coven. She didn't seem to know any truths about Belos' past. Hunter had access to and was actively reading restricted books about wild magic from the Savage Ages. We get no hint that he came across anything, either.
But they also weren't looking. So let's say you're highly suspicious of Belos and actively digging into his past. How much could you find out about him? We already have the official narrative: Belos ended the Savage Ages and united witchkind 50 years ago. So what about the unofficial narrative?
This brings us back to The Unauthorized Boiling Isles History from S1E19. This is a book owned by Eda, the most infamous wild witch on the Boiling Isles. Here's King's full narration from this scene:
A mysterious witch appeared who declared that he, and he alone, could speak to the island. He said that we were using magic all wrong. His teachings took hold, his strength grew, and he became... Emperor Belos. Belos said that mixing magic was wrong, that only he had that right. So he created the coven system. And there, our knowledge was restricted, and our potential sealed away. Those who resist are called wild witches, and they face harsh punishment. Emperor Belos has since retreated into his castle. There are whispers that say he's planning something big.
King's narration is different from the text on the page. Here's the page on Belos:
“He rules by fear and an iron fist, and his past remains largely unknown.”
So it sounds like Belos has indeed done a very good job of establishing and maintaining information control. He has erased his past so thoroughly that even an unauthorized history book offers no real rumors or speculation. Both inside the castle and in pockets of dissent, we find no trace of the truth of Belos' past. It is believable to me that even highly-ranked coven officials who are suspicious of Belos and actively looking for information about his past from inside the castle still wouldn't be able to find anything at this point.
With that said: there are probably rumors. There probably are witches who remember Belos from his crusades and grew suspicious. They probably did try to spread the word and warn others.
At the same time, I’m sure that there are plenty of witches saying plenty of things about Belos. Belos is the most influential and powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, after all. So looking at it from the perspective of someone trying to piece together the truth:
How plausible does it sound that the witch ruling the Boiling Isles is actually a human? How plausible does it sound that he’s actually 400+ years old? How do either or both of those rumors weigh up against all of the other scraps of information and official propaganda and baseless conspiracy theories that you’re also coming across?
How much are either of these rumors worth considering if your primary concern is to, say, try to figure out what’s actually going to happen on the Day of Unity?
(At what point do you decide to just go straight to the source?)
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No need to apologise for the derailing loved reading all of it (and as person who tends follow a stream of thoughts i relate)
When it comes to shipping in every fandom the characters / dynamics tend to be simplified for the convince (and bc id be hard to whip out a whole essay about in and out s of their relationship everytime you wanna make a silly joke, but it tends to be so widely and often used that it makes me sometimes think "wait you don t really think that they would act like that right?"But that s something that s just gonna happen ig and who am i to police ppl on jokes🤷
Loved the insignt about his military upbringing and automantically analysing ppl s strenght which i haven t though about but very much agree.
Althought i also think that beside willows powers she has proved to be quite fearless (let s overlook ladybugs / j) especially in front of Hunter where she stood up to Darius and was ready to protect EE with her body. She knew she was gonna lose and that she s weaker than the coven head but that didn t stop her. That s one of the reasons (i think) Hunter recognised fake willow so soon. Because real willow regardless if she s stronger or not overlooks the dangers and focuses on doing everything to save her friends.
And willow + gus being Hunters safe space is so dear to me it s honestly ridiculous
Hopefully after some time in nocedas household he ll have time to relax/heal and be a lil snarky maybe in a form of sibling like banter with luz?
//and back to willow and her strenght there s this hc i have about beta willow. That althought beta universe is way more dangerous/bloody i like to think willow wasn t that much violent there? But unhinged for sure, using plants attacks and refusing to "unspell" them after fight (they are her beloved plants and she s not heartless enough to make them disappear just after bringing them to life) leaving those dangerous creatures (but before the battle she always thinks what kind of flowers would grow the best in this climate/soil etc)
(was the last addition totally off the topic? ... perhaps Is this ask a mess? Very much yes. Sorry!)
I'm happy you liked it!! I appreciate when other people whose thoughts are similarly many but disorganised see my stuff and are like "yeah me too man."
And yeah whenever I make a silly little joke about Huntlow that's not entirely a reflection of how I really see them I always think about that one post that's like "oh no they're gonna think I don't understand themes and narratives!!" But like. I have several essays I can whip out if anyone questions me about it. I am very easily coaxed into writing huntlow essays. Practically dying to at all times. All somebody's gotta do is bring up a specific topic of discussion and their own opinion to get me started and I'll go off the rails.
Willow is SO brave man. And I like to believe that it's character development, going by season 1 where she went into denial over stepping on bones. I think the Eda petrification thing really changed her brain chemistry into understanding that the world they lived in was corrupt and you either gotta learn to protect or get protected.
She's still just a kid tho. You KNOW that deep down she was probably terrified during her confrontation with Darius, especially after it was demonstrated that she was way WAY outmatched in this fight and she hadnt a chance of winning. But she did it anyway because her friends' lives were at stake and somebody had to fight for them. Man Willow is SO cool.
(Something kinda tragic about her eventually giving up and throwing her arms out to shield them and shutting her eyes tight. She thinks she's gonna die protecting them. And it's noble. It really is. But we gotta remember that she blames herself for all of them being in this mess.)
I love this scene a lot because like both the "half-a witch" admissions from earlier, it's a moment between Willow and Hunter where they realize "Oh. You're like me."
They're both brave to a recklessly suicidal extent. They're protectors. They're self sacrificial.
Hunter sees her bravery in this scene and he understands it completely. She was prepared to handle this herself and lose in the process and he begs her to please just let him do it for her. His tone of his voice, the intense eye contact, his use of "Captain" and his plea? He knew she wasn't going to run away unless he begged. It wasn't the kind of person she was.
Hes known her for a DAY!!! But he gets it!!! He fucking gets her!!!!
Of COURSE this was one of the many reasons he realized LR Willow was a fake. After this girl pulled some shit like THAT there is no way she's getting spooked by illusions.
I know Hunter's gonna have some rough times in season 3 but I also know he's not just gonna be angsting the whole time. He's too funny. As much as the crew loves putting him through shit, they also clearly love him in comedic situations. They love Hunter man. You can clearly tell. He's gonna be so snarky he's gonna be so annoying. Hes gonna argue with Luz and probably Gus and maybe even Amity. It's gonna be great.
I'm so excited for s3 Luz and Hunter dynamic. It's coming I know it is. Its gonna be big and everything I ever wanted. Its so interesting to me how, besides Flapjack, Luz is the character Hunter has been the most comfortable around. They just have something special man. They're gonna have their snarky snippy little bickering, I know they will.
Beta stuff isn't really a thing I'm all that interested in. I'm happy people have their fun with the designs and coming up with lore and headcanons for those versions of the characters and the lore but I'm so attached to the canon interpretations that I can't really get invested. But I do love this!! Even in canon itself, I'd love to see Willow be the kind of person who dotes and fawns over her horrifying poison mucus spraying briars or whatever other plants her creatively unhinged little brain conjures up. Like they're her BABIES!!! It makes people uncomfortable but Willow is just so sweet that they don't have the heart to tell her to get rid of them.
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Okay, so now what I've slept and the episode is up on YouTube, I'm gonna dump all my thoughts on For The Future out in a single (very long) post like I did for Thanks To Them.
Of course, that means heavy spoilers, so do not click keep reading unless you've seen the episode (or if you don't care about spoilers for the ep, which makes me wonder how you even got to this post).
Okay so. Oh my titan. Where do I start? Beginning's probably the best choice.
I had a hunch they'd do the 'End of King's Tide from the other perspective' thing, but I can't say any of that quite went how I was expecting. I kinda thought—and I think a lot of other people did too—that King was gonna be fully separated from the rest of group on the BI from the moment the Collector was let out. Lilith and Eda both attempting to confront the Collector and save King immediately was not at all what I really expected.
I'm a little curious as to how the three of them made it to the point that they did after the intro, though. I get that Lilith made new elixir for Eda's curse, but then how did Lilith get un-puppetified ahead of that? I might've missed a detail somewhere, but as far as I can remember that wasn't really elaborated on. Maybe King asked the Collector to un-puppet her?
I do love the new designs for Eda and Lilith though. Lilith's hair being back to her natural color does make it really feel like it's been a long time (plus it makes her color palette look a bit more like the aroace flag hehehe). I also like that Eda's arm hasn't been replaced by anything, just bandaged. I feel like I saw a lot of people's design-guesses for her had given her a new arm in some capacity, and I always kinda felt like it was more in-character for Eda to not really see it as something that needs a replacement.
At least they still seem to be a bit happy.
But, moving on from that, I'm absolutely going absolutely insane over the fact that the Hexsquad and Eda/Lilith/King still haven't actually gotten to reunite. Like, the Hexsquad saw King, but other than that, nobody's really aware of how the other group is doing at this point. It hurts so bad.
But speaking of the Hexsquad, there's a lot to unpack with them. I'm kind of amazed how many personal arcs are still getting fit into the show with so few epsiodes.
Willow's arc especially kind of surprised me, though it's a welcome one for sure! It was—for better or worse for myself—a very relatable thing to see portrayed how it was. And the way it tied into Hunter's whole deal as well was so artfully done.
Like, damn, this hurts.
Immediately following up the Hunter-saves-Willow scene of that arc with Luz's "The only thing I've ever really wanted was to be understood" felt like it was equally calling me out. Like damn, all these characters are so relatable it hurts.
The way Camila and Luz's arcs in this episode informed one another was super elegant. Their daughter relationship is so wholesome.
Amity getting her chance to finally confront Boscha fully was another thing I really wasn't expecting to still make it into the season with it cut down so much. In fact, I can't say I was expecting Boscha to get a chance for any sort of active role. I really need to stop underestimate how well Dana and her team are managing to work with the small number episodes, they clearly know what they're doing.
Which, as it stands, I guess the only member of the Hexsquad who hasn't had a significant season 3 arc is Gus (outside of his role in Hunter and Willow's arcs), but he went through so much in season 2 that I kinda hope he doesn't have to go through anything more.
However, a character I DO hope has to go through more BS is Belos. I'm still kinda reeling from the fact that he apparently already had a new grimwalker on the way, and then tried to POSSESS it. I'm a bit relieved that it didn't work, because I don't think I could've handled it (nor could Hunter, frankly), but Raine being the second option isn't great either.
Moving past main characters;
Getting actual characterization of The Collector has been very interesting, mainly because it seems like everyone seemed to get it pretty right that they're an Enzo Gabriel. I really do wonder how aware they are of the harm they're doing, because it seems to be getting kept a bit vague on the actual truth of that. They seem pretty largely oblivious to the fact that it's anything other than a game, but the edit to the 'bedtime story' seems to imply that they at least know some amount of it.
What affairs? "Seal them up so they never fade"??
Mom-dalia??? How in the name of the titan did she manage to pull off getting to be The Collector's mom-figure instead of getting puppeted immediately. It kind of implies that she somehow hasn't managed to actively do a single thing that annoyed the Collector this whole time, which I'm amazed by. Though, to be fair, Terra apparently hadn't done so either, so the bar might not be that high.
Caleb and the past grimwalkers have me a little confused. Are they ghosts? Guilt-formed hallucinations? Something else? Is there a link between grimwalkers and their creators that means Belos has been getting haunted by all of them this whole time? Regardless, seeing a bunch of the past grimwalkers was not something I expected either.
This shot is haunting as hell.
Mattholomule's name actually being Mat Tholomule does feel like it makes sense in retrospect, but it's also very cursed.
Edric and Emira's reunion with Amity was the first part of the episode that got me to start crying (though it was far from the last.)
Moving past characters...
The scene that revealed String Bean was kind of funny to me because "A dragon? A bird?! Oh, an otter! A spooky bat? Uh, a snake?" is almost definitely a direct callout of the fandom's guesses as time went on. Though, all of the respective guesses are also very in-character for each person (Hunter's "A bird?!" does hurt my heart a little).
The design of The Collector's House/The Archives is a little interesting to me because the way it's floating over The Titan's head makes it look like a halo. Or a crown? I feel like there's some symbolism I'm missing.
New Hexside was a very fun concept in general. I feel like the idea of "a town/society that's entirely composed of schoolchildren" was very accurately portrayed.
I dunno if the scene right at the end was meant to be the 100% canon confession or just lead-up to something in the next episode but I sobbed either way!!!!!
*chanting* Huntlow! Huntlow! Huntlow!
I think I've finally run out of things to say (though that might change).
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the owl house s3.e2 for the future
finally watching it, i've seen some spoilers... well... a lot of spoilers by waiting, but i'm sure i'll still love watching it the first time. also damn 50 minutes? nice.
i love that the new bbeg, the most powerful living being we've seen in the show is a kid, with bright kid colours.
oh, that's a horrifying way of taking people out. i mean better then turning people to stone, but way more unsettling.
how Raine looks up at Eda when she transforms. the reason she left them was because of the curse, and they are not scared, just in awe. so short, yet so impactful.
wait, the curse is still also a problem? bit odd. i thought the whole deal was that she kind of merged with the curse, no longer needing potions to keep it in check. not a fan of this... change?
oh, back here. that's not a good sign.
weird connection to make but damn if the changed boiling isles doesn't remind me of the sistar system from the lego movie 2, which is unsettling to characters in the same way.
pffffff, Luz hurts me. i've been in that headspace, it's not good for you but when you're in it it's really hard to see that. deny yourself your own joy, your own life, for the sake of others.
oh no, Willows mental state may be the worst of all. just convince yourself it's fine, surely there'd be no problems boiling up with that.
i love that sparkles are a huge danger. i love that Luz protects others more then herself even in just small animations. and good god that is horrifying.
oh gods, it's the collector pretending to be Luz... that's.... that's just messed up in a very curious way.
yay the multi track students are still (partially) alive.
oh shit it's most of the school. really curious of where they're going with the kids with no guidance thing.
seriously falling apart belos, gruesomely showing bones and losing limbs is less out of place in this kids show then everything collector related.
oh, Odalia lives... of course she does.
the collector is amazingly unsettling, a kid with ultimate power and no sense for what'll kill people.
oh, OH, their very nature is... wrong. they collect things, including people. and now it reminds me of the ruby phoenix from dice will roll who too was walking the path of villainy. oh and if people interfere destroy their whole planet... fuck. and the collector knows it, and decides not to, and doesn't want to be alone... fuck how to solve this problem?
Eda is still very Eda, and yay for that sibling bond... and what the FUCK happened to Liliths hair?!
"did you ever had any doubts in your mind?"
"yes. many, many doubts."
"are you ok?"
"i don't know"
fuck that's powerful, and something i'm probably too familiar with.
so she was familiar, yet i didn't see though it. that's impressive in animation.
really love that they talked about everyone clearly needing therapy after all this, that this is too much for a kid. something never talked about before in a kid show i know of.
yep, welcome to the breakdown of Willow. also really reminds me of this animation of the nowhereking https://youtu.be/LZT6hrgPxPI
oh, so that's why all titans are dead...
i love Camila's fuck ups. true serious fuck ups that are just so real.
oh, that's a realization Luz just had... and... i'm going to have to process that a lot.
Luz gets her magic "with a darkside" (:
"Luz has a staff" "why does that make me nervous" i mainly watch stories for the story, the arc, but i do love good humour.
i really can't wait for the next part. trying to redeem the most dangerous thing... wait... THE COLLECTOR IS JUST FUCKING DISCORD!!!
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