#i like the implication - regardless if it was intentional or not - that wild magic saved Hunter from meeting the same fate of Caleb.

[theprinceandthewitch]

Hmm... it's interesting how they made Luz wear a witch's cloak in Hunting Palisman - the episode where she introduces Flapjack to Hunter. This is also the episode where Hunter defies Belos by choosing Luz over him. He goes back to his palace empty-handed and he doesn't hand over Flapjack to Belos. Unbeknownst to Hunter, he is following Caleb's footsteps.

But then, in Hollow Mind, they made the choice to have Luz not wear her witches cloak - instead they made Luz wear a jacket with a giant "E" on it. They could have given Luz a completely different outfit like they did in Hunting Palisman. But they don't... they make her wear this specific jacket...

...They also make Hunter wear Caleb's symbol in Hollow Mind... an episode where Luz and Hunter are trapped in Philip's mind... where we can see paintings of the two most important characters in Philip's life - his brother and a witch from another world.

But I'm sure this is all unintentional.

You know, like this is:

oh, nbd, just a painting being paralleled with the scene happening right before our eyes

here's a more high def image of the painting

Oh, hmm, okay, this is a painting of Caleb standing next to a witch with short dark brown hair and who just so happens to be a witch from another world. Both of them are startled by Philip...

Hunter, the Grimwalker who looks the most like Caleb, is standing next to someone who ALSO just so happens to be a witch from another world with short dark brown hair... both are startled by Philip's monster form...

Hmm, must be unintentional I guess.

there's also this:

Mhm, okay, I see... I see, very interesting. Here we have Caleb being lead away from Philip by a witch from another world after the brother's have a fall out. This fall out marks the point of no return for them, as Philip later kills Caleb out of anger.

Hunter and Philip's relationship completely deteriorates because of Luz, which leads to Philip's decision to kill Hunter. She shows Hunter Belos' true nature and she offers Hunter sanctuary at The Owl House right after he finds out Belos has been lying to him his whole life... Luz saves Hunter's life and changes it forever.

Hmmm... very interesting

But I'm sure this is unintentional [I'm being sarcastic]

#lunter #there is literally no way they didn't have a name for Evelyn at this point bc they already had a final design for her character. #Hunter also saves himself using wild magic - the thing he was taught to fear - in this episode. #i like the implication - regardless if it was intentional or not - that wild magic saved Hunter from meeting the same fate of Caleb. #Once In Hollow Mind and the second time in TTT - Flapjack is made of wild magic #hm. interesting. #I also like how Flapjack is the one who brought Hunter back looking like Caleb... in an episode where he asks Luz #-who is dressed like a witch and is #a witch from another world - to help him avenge the physical representation of Caleb and Evelyn's love #interesting. Since TOH was canceled right after TTT i guess we'll know how the ending would play out :( #but yeah TOH has an audacity abt it where it thinks it can just eff around for a full season #without ever letting the protagonist and main antagonistic force intereact UNTIL the end of season 1 #so crazy #speaking of TTT I still can't believe they made Hunter's fav animal wolves knowing Luz's school team is called wolves #then they color coded his wolf shirt and made that one lady say Luz must have been raised by wolves #hm yes. unintentional. whatever helps the antis sleep at night #like how that lunter kiss in SAI was unintentional teehee

[feralphoenix]

HOWMST BELL THE CAT? - A treatise on one aspect of how the Pale King sealed the Radiance

sup hollow knight fandom, i’m back with the picante takes again after having Noticed A Thing.

as with my previous essays i’ll put this guy up on dreamwidth later for accessibility purposes, since my layout text may be too small for high-res pc users. i will attach that in a reblog at a later point.

CONTENT WARNINGS FOR TONIGHT’S PROGRAM: This essay discusses canon-typical body horror and bodily boundary violations, with some side mentions of colonialism.

all game screencaps are mine. the screencap of the wiki is from the “developer notes” (style guide) section of the “cut content” page.

ALSO: if youre from a christian cultural upbringing (whether currently practicing, agnostic/secular, or atheist now), understand that some of what i’m discussing here may challenge you. if thinking thru the implications of this particular part of hollow knight worldbuilding/lore is distressing for you, PLEASE only approach this essay when youre in a safe mindset & open to listening, and ask the help of a therapist or anti-racism teacher/mentor to help you process your thoughts & feelings. just like keep in mind that youre listening to an ethnoreligiously marginalized person and please be respectful here or wherever else youre discussing this dang essay, ty

HOWMST BELL THE CAT? - A treatise on one aspect of how the Pale King sealed the Radiance

We understand more or less how the Pale King’s plan was supposed to work. Stuff Radiance into a no-thoughts-head-empty and silent Pure Vessel to trap, isolate, and silence her, both putting an end to the Infection and killing her for good. Stick that vessel in the Black Egg, which harnesses Void BS to both keep the vessel alive indefinitely and to cover Hallownest (and its neighbors) in a time-defying stasis so that the Pale King could successfully hoard his favorite shiny FOREVER, threatened by nothing. Then put a seal on the Black Egg to prevent anyone from getting inside and harming said vessel while it’s strung up and helpless. And THEN, put protective seals on the anchors (the Dreamers) to the Black Egg seal to protect them from any external harm: The stasis means the Dreamers won't die of old age or starvation.

All in all, a pretty foolproof plan!

...except that the Dreamers are still vulnerable to having their minds breached with the moths’ magic... and the Pale King failed to take into account that his Pure Vessel was a person actually and the amount of toxic stress his training/upbringing put on them made them REALLY POORLY SUITED FOR THEIR JOB... and also that killing 99% of his million children and turning the Abyss into a landfill for baby corpses would take enough of an emotional toll on his wife and #1 enabler the White Lady that she would walk out on him, ensuring he’d only ever have one shot at this whole deal...

Basically it’s the sort of plan that an emotionally constipated, low-empathy sort of guy who pours all his points into INT and has a big fat zero for WIS might think is foolproof. It has big holes in it that the Pale King did not consider to be big holes until he got owned by the various consequences of his actions and fell down said big holes, making the shocked pikachu face all the while. Rip in die, my guy.

Anyway, there’s a lot of incidental information scattered about the game that gives us more insight into the stages of TPK’s plan. Looking at Monomon’s notes in the Archive suggests that she was probably involved in designing the Black Egg; the hidden room in the Weavers’ den points to their being the ones to blueprint the Dreamer seal; the White Palace’s hidden rooms reveal both TPK’s morbid fascination with the Void and his mea culpa wrt his motives and the Path of Pain is certainly suggestive of a lot of things. The White Lady tells us straight out that she walked out on the Pale King because she wanted no part in a second vessel batch, but how TPK didn’t handle that is only revealed via map design and some incidental dialogue from the Old Stag.

This stuff presents us with, if not a full picture, then at least a decent connect-the-dots of certain aspects of crater politics and Pale Court drama at the time, and how exactly TPK’s plan came together.

But there is still one glaring question that these cookie crumbs do not provide us an answer to:

Who shall bell the cat?

How did TPK et al manage to stuff Radiance into Hollow in the first place?

This is the subject of a lot of memes and jokes within the fandom because it's so absurd. Radiance fuckin hates that dude! She’s probably gonna be pretty wary of him considering how he stole her people in the first place! And considering the anti-colonialism slant of the writing - beyond the general sympathetic view Team Cherry gives of each indigenous bug society, Seer makes it very clear that Radiance has very good reason to take violent action against Hallownest - the answer is probably not something like “she’s just that stupid” or “she rolled a crit fail”.

Well... I have an idea of how TPK managed to get Radiance in there. It raises about as many questions as it answers, mind, but it may be someplace to start.

[desc: the hollow knight's entry in the hunter’s journal. top text/ghost’s comment reads: “Fully grown Vessel, carrying the plague’s heart within its body.” bottom text/hunter’s comment says: “The old King of Hallownest... he must have been desperate to save his crumbling little world. The sacrifices he imposed on others... all for nothing.”]

Here we have Hollow’s bestiary entry. Most of what we’re concerned with here is the top text, which says the seal has literally trapped Radiance inside their body. (First of all, ew, TPK.)

We already knew Radiance is literally actually inside Hollow, though: The Infection is leaking out of their body, and to get to fight Radiance, Ghost has to go traipsing into their sibling’s mind. So what’s significant about that here?

[desc: screencap of the outside of the black egg temple, post-infected crossroads. there are large infection blobs in the foreground and background, connected to each other by veins that come from inside the temple.]

The infection blobs are weird and get weirder if you kill enough Lightseeds for the Hunter to tell you their origin story, i.e. that the literal actual sun has been having a very long bad day and cried a lot, and some of the liquid coalesced into living flesh, and some of that living flesh took on a mind of its own to become Lightseeds. (Hollow Knight is a WILD place.)

Lightseeds are Radiance’s accidental children and share a lot of her traits: They are harmless creatures that try to avoid conflict if possible but if pushed will get creative and find ways to fight regardless of their physical limitations. (For the Lightseeds this involves hiding inside Broken Vessel’s corpse and puppeting it around to try to stab you.) They even have her same distinctive yell. And according to the Hunter, they’re born from the infection blobs. These enemies only ever appear in the Ancient Basin, which both Radiance and the Void have ransacked, and in the Infected Crossroads.

The infection blobs are connected to and sort of a weird extension of Radiance because the Infection itself is sort of a weird extension of Radiance. In the game’s internal style guide Team Cherry explains that the Infection started as an accident, not her original intention but what happened when Hallownest tried to block her out.

[desc: screencap from the wiki of style notes attached to seer that describe a sketch of radiance’s finalized backstory. text reads: “The moth tribe were (perhaps) descended from Radiance. However, the King convinced them somehow to seal Radiance away. I guess so he could rule Hallownest with his singular vision, as a god/monarch with no other gods. The moths sealed Radiance away by forgetting about her. Hallownest was born and flourished. However, the memory of Radiance lingered (eg [sic] the statue at hallownest’s crown) and soon she began to reappear in dreams and starting [sic] exerting influence. The King and the bugs of Hallownest resisted this memory/power and it started to manifest as the Infection. Thus the first attempt to seal Radiance failed, and the King had to try another method - the Vessel.” emphasis mine.]

Some fans have posited the blobs as deposits of pupa juice, but given Team Cherry's description of the Infection’s origins I don’t know how likely that is. Since the Void also sticks its squamous tentacles into things via veiny looking things and the Nightmare’s Heart has similar veiny nonsense in the Nightmare Realm, I wonder if it isn’t just a Meddly God Shit thing in general.

Whatever the case, the blobs are very much connected to/a part of Radiance.

And when you’re hanging around them, you will notice two things: They pulse like they’re part of a circulatory system, and you can hear Radiance's heartbeat emanating from them.

[desc: screencap of the game’s title screen with the infected menu theme in use: a glowing orange ball at the center of a lot of black tendony webbing.]

Let’s also think of the Infected menu theme, which you unlock after getting either of the endings where Ghost takes over from Hollow and absorbs Radiance out of them. Ghost is infected and then sealed inside the Black Egg in Hollow's place. It’s suggested by the animation’s staging that Radiance briefly struggles to get out of Ghost after absorbed but is ultimately stuck in them, at which point the seal is reestablished.

If you haven’t used the Infected menu theme yourself, the... interesting thing about it is that it moves organically. The light ball expands and contracts - y’know, sort of like a living organ - and so does the black webby stuff around it.

Also, Radiance’s heartbeat is included in the theme's ambiance.

[desc: hollow’s bestiary entry again]

To cut to the chase, this part of Hollow’s bestiary entry that says “the plague’s heart”? I don’t think that’s just Ghost/Team Cherry being poetic. I think there’s a good chance it’s LITERAL.

I think TPK is the sort of person who could cram a native woman’s literal living beating heart inside his own child’s body so they can use it as... say, a focus to absorb and trap her mind/spirit inside their body, too. Mr. No Cost Too Great is capable of a lot in the name of keeping other people’s claws off his Big Shiny kingdom. This is kind of his whole brand.

But also, like, yuck.

This fits the worldbuilding too; generally speaking Hollow Knight is Body Horror City. Also there’s the case of Grimm: While he and Radiance are loose counterparts at best with WILDLY disparate outlooks and ethoses, his existence serves as precedent that a Higher Being’s heart specifically can be separate from the rest of them.

As I said before, though, this DOES raise as many questions as it answers. If this is another piece in the puzzle of how TPK belled the cat, we’re now left wondering how he got Radiance’s heart to use as Hollow's focus to begin with.

We know he has access to the Dream Realm because that’s ultimately where he hid when Hollow’s seal failed, but who did he send to do the stealing and how did they get away with it? (TPK certainly wouldn’t have gone; his own life’s the one cost too great for him to willingly pay.) Was Radiance’s heart separate from her like the Nightmare’s Heart, or was it a part of her body? (I think the latter is more likely just from her personality; Grimm’s hidden heart makes sense because of how he keeps even his own servants at arm’s length emotionally, whereas Radiance is all heart all the time. I think this makes more sense with their equal opposites schtick too. But this would make for a WAY riskier mission.)

I can imagine all kinds of possibilities. None of them are definitive, but the thing they have in common is that they are all Awful... and how on-brand that is for Hollow Knight as a whole is, maybe, the most persuasive argument for It’s Literally Actually Her Real Physical Heart there could be.

#hollow knight #hollow knight spoilers #hollow knight meta #the radiance #hk radiance #not sure if i should tag tpk bc i doubt therell be anything in here his stans will enjoy lol #long post under cut - #essay

[sepublic]

Lilith didn’t intend for Luz to be truly hurt (but she was still awful)

           So, a lot of people rightfully give Lilith flack for… well, just about everything she did! This woman is low-key a screw-up in life and a lot of her issues come from acknowledging this, but then either doing nothing to address it, or handling the problem in a rather non-productive manner, for fear of further guilt and retribution for her mistakes; The way a child hides the vase they broke, even if they fully admit in their head that this was their own fault and the result of a mistake they no longer intend to commit! They’re still leaving the person who also suffers from this to deal with the pain on their own, even if they pretend to be innocent and buy a new vase! And that’s even assuming Lilith doesacknowledge/notice that she did something wrong.

           And while Lilith using Luz as a human shield IS pretty sus, and not gonna lie, part of why Agony of a Witch is so genuinely painful to me is BECAUSE of Lilith’s treatment of Luz in that episode (legit it really riles me up)… But once I step back to acknowledge the way things were working from her perspective, I don’t think she intended THAT much harm? That isn’t to say Lilith STILL didn’t mess up big time and she deserves to be called out for this, on-screen or at least implied between events. It’s just that…

           Lilith didn’t intend to harm Luz? I don’t think she did, at least, there was no reason to… At worst, she may have been operating on the ‘bluff’ of hurting Luz, but I don’t think that was ever her intention. To her, it may have just been a matter of keeping Luz and Eda separate that would’ve compelled her sister to arrive- I’m not sure if she actually intended to hurt Luz, and it’s worth noting that Lilith makes a major point to Luz that the magic bubble was meant to protect her.

           Which, given it was cast by Lilith- I think that says a lot about her original intention! The worst she planned could’ve been just to imprison Luz, or at least ‘rehabilitate’ her and/or send Luz back to earth. Which, that IS messed-up as well, but it’s not outright child murder, and more akin to what Camila almost did. Still wrong- But at least a lot more understandable…

           Then later in the duel, when Eda is clearly going to overwhelm and kick Lilith’s butt, as she always did? THEN Lilith begins using Luz as a shield, but at the same time… She operated from the very beginning, under the original assumption, that Eda cares a lot for Luz; Even if Lilith doesn’t understand why, she can’t argue with this reality at least. Especially with Belos’ threat of execution, more on that later…

           Lilith could’ve easily set up any other kind of shield to protect herself; Luz’s bubble was strong, but not THAT strong, given how Luz herself was able to puncture it. So it stands to reason that when Lilith puts Luz in front of her, it’s not necessarily as a meat shield meant to tank damage; It’s under the impression that Eda, who cares for Luz, will redirect her attacks in response, and by consequence miss Lilith! Lilith’s cowardly tactics admittedly hinged entirely on the –correct- assumption that Eda would not hurt Luz, no matter what. So again- No intent for Luz to actually be hurt, if anything Lilith’s life kind of dependson that?

           Then there’s Lilith shoving Luz into a spike- And THAT is very much sus. But again, I don’t think Lilith necessarilyintended for Luz to actually get impaled; I think she just wanted Eda to assume Luz would, or act to prevent this anyway just in case and ‘fall for the bluff’, so to speak. In doing so, Eda would drain her magic, and then she’d be defeated, allowing Lilith to capture her sister and have her cured by Belos! In other words, I’m not sure if Lilith would’ve actually, fully gone through with impaling Luz had Eda done nothing to stop this- It’s possible she would’ve stopped in realization and maybe concern, but then go back to fighting Eda traditionally.

           And Lilith already knows that Eda is willing to risk her victory in that duel for Luz’s sake, as shown when she maneuvered around Luz and went out of her way to protect the girl! So she knew that Eda was going to save Luz, that LUZ likely wouldn’t be in any real danger… And finally, it’s worth noting what Belos said. How earlier that day, he basically threatened to executeLilith, to kill her for failing him.

           This is a different Lilith than one we’ve been used to. This is a Lilith who is stressed-out, more than she’s ever been, a Lilith who’s terrified for her life- A Lilith who is low-key being held hostage herself, because her own life is being threatened? It wasn’t literal, but it’s the Boiling Isles equivalent of holding a gun to someone’s head, unlike when she cursed Eda way back when. And as Head of the Emperor’s Coven, Lilith likely knows ALL the horrible things that Belos can do, he knows how unstoppable he can be once he sets his mind to things…

           (More on her knowledge of the Emperor’s messed-up stuff later.)

           And, if Lilith dies? Then Eda isn’t going to get captured. Eda won’t be cured, Eda will remain cursed forever… And so Lilith isn’t just doing this because she’s being threatened, she’s also doing this for Eda’s sake! Under the impression that if Lilith dies and fails, Eda will never be cured… Eda will never get to embrace her full potential in magic, and with how the curse has accelerated her aging, Eda would likely have a shorter life as well- So to Lilith, this is all a matter of Eda’s life too! Not to mention Lilith wants desperately to be with Eda a lot, so there may have been some resentment towards Eda for caring more about Luz, a stranger she’s known only for a few weeks, over Lilith, her own sister since childhood…

           Especially since Lilith never thinks to ask Eda just to come join the Emperor’s Coven, under the knowledge that Belos will kill her otherwise! Obviously this speaks to Lilith’s knowing guilt… But to her, Eda doesn’t know that Lilith cursed her! So to Lilith, it’s a bit frustrating that Eda really doesn’t seem to care for her own sister… Because Lilith is operating on the idea that Eda would rather continue to be a Wild Witch and let her sister be executed, than join the Emperor’s Coven to save Lilith’s life! Even though Eda said she’d go out of her way to rescue Lilith beforehand, as seen in Sense and Insensitivity… Lilith is doubting how much Eda would care for her.

           This of course, DOES make me question if Lilith would’ve gone that route, of mentioning Belos’ execution; Had Luz not gotten captured! How would Eda have reacted, if Lilith was honest and admitted that her own life was on the line, otherwise? I can only imagine… And of course, if Lilith is under the impression that Eda would prefer being a Wild Witch even if it meant Lilith’s demise… Then maybe she should’ve asked herself why that was the case? Why Eda would be so distant to her, if Eda didn’t know of the curse? Perhaps there was ANOTHER reason for why Eda hated the Emperor’s Coven so much, maybe something related to her disagreements with the system? Maybe Eda had motives unrelated to the curse for not joining Lilith?

           This is Lilith we’re talking about here, so of course she doesn’t bother to consider the implications of this… Amidst being distracted by Luz’s sudden arrival, as well. Regardless, if Eda really hated the kind of environment that the Coven System offered THAT much, to disregard Lilith- Then maybe it says a lot about how horrible the Coven System is to her, rather than Eda simply not caring for Lilith! But this is Lilith, so instead she focuses on how her relationship with Eda is defined by this, because clearly to her, everything Eda does has to be with Lilith’s own best interests in mind. How DARE Eda prioritize her own life over Lilith’s?! Eda already has so much in life, why doesn’t she ever consider what Lilithneeds or wants?

           It’s Lilith’s narrow-minded, tunnel vision; That in this world, only her relationship with Eda and vice-versa matters! That Eda doesn’t have any thoughts or dreams of her own, no other relationships (as Lilith herself claims at first), no personal beliefs against the Coven System or anything! It’s all about Lilith, it’s all about being sisters… And no doubt Lilith is projecting a lot of insecurities, but. STILL, that’s kind of messed up, Lily!

You already know what the Emperor’s Coven does to other Wild Witches, are you really not considering Eda’s own compassion for others to be enough reason for her NOT to support Belos? Or did you secretly think those other witches deserved it while Eda was special as someone you knew… Which of course, I can’t blame Lilith for being biased towards her own sister, but still. It’s all very selective stuff, it’s Lilith ignoring everything else, or attempting to justify it despite the unfortunate implications.

           Which, gets me back to another point… But before I can do that, I need to return to the main discussion. Namely, back to that specific scene of Lilith trying to shove Luz into a spike… This is just speculation on my part. But if the Grudgby cards are any indication, it’s that Witches have an inherent healing factor that allows them to regenerate limbs… Possibly it’s the result of the bile naturally flowing through their veins, and thus not something that would require active Healing Spells to pull off, although those always help with the process! Though it DOES make me wonder how this would effect Eda, whose bile sac is no longer producing magic… But given all of the weird stuff with HER, how her survival of dismemberment could be due to the curse, or what she’s done to herself, or her own species’ abilities…

           Eda might be fine anyway, and the latent effect of bile on her healing abilities might still exist, even if they can’t overcome the curse- Not that anyHealing Magic was capable of that, as far as we know! Regardless, my point is that while impalement would no doubt hurt a lot… It might not be nearly as serious of an injury to Witches, as it would be to humans! It’d definitely suck a lot, but it might be more akin to breaking your leg, VS outright death. STILL messed-up, but not irreparably so…

           Of course, Lilith knows that Luz is human. But she may not be aware of the full differences, or at least forgot to take this into account… Understandable, Gus is a ‘Human Expert’ and even HE is baffled by human anatomy and has a lot of wrong guesses, among them being gills! Skara also apparently knows that humans are more ‘fragile’ than Witches… But that sounds like street knowledge and not a definitive fact she could’ve outright researched and confirmed. And given Lilith is Head of the Emperor’s Coven, I think her brain is full of other important information unrelated to humans… Such as how to cure a curse you cast decades ago!

           Which, leads to a morbidly-hilarious scenario of Lilith having no idea why Eda is so insistent on protecting this human, clearly this won’t hurt her THAT much, it’s like losing your mind over someone getting their toe stubbed! At the very least, a broken ankle wouldn’t necessitate losing all of your magic! And then Lilith finds out that oh, that WOULD have actually killed Luz, because humans aren’t as sturdy as witches… And then she has an utter dilemma, because this realization would’ve occurred post-YBOS, and thus when Lilith was making an effort to actually take other people into account as well.

           So in the end, I don’t think Lilith actually expected Luz to get hurt at all that entire fight… Or at least not seriously, especially since she might not realize that humans are more fragile than witches! She DID make an initial effort to protect Luz at least, before the desperation of her losing duel forced Lilith to resort to dirty tactics, especially since her own life –and maybe Eda’s- was on the line if she lost. That’s another point to consider… that if Lilith dies, she knows that Eda will never join the Emperor’s Coven without her sister to convince her, meaning inevitably Belos WILL track her down and kill her!

           …But at the same time, even if she never expected Luz to be genuinely hurt, or at least not killed; It’s still reckless endangerment of a child. Even if Lilith didn’t decide to hurt this random kid just for the sake of it, she was still low-key taking out a lot of her resentment onto this poor child, just because Luz was a better person to Eda and thus more loved than Lilith by her for it! It’s still showing little regard for Luz’s safety, and even if Lilith never thought she would get seriously injured, she still played around with Luz’s life too lightly, and took too many chances.

          Those chances paid off in the end, sure… But regardless, it’s like my past comparison of Lilith to a gambler who keeps making the same mistake in the hope that things will finally pay off, that previous failures and losses won’t have been for nothing! Even if Lilith saw her and Eda’s lives being on the line, that doesn’t excuse kidnapping and taking a child hostage, and Eda would never consent to that either! Maybe Lilith needs to consider how Edawould’ve felt… But she didn’t really, because she seemed surprised at how much Luz meant to Eda. Obviously she adapted to this …

          But once again, it shows how Lilith refuses to acknowledge any other motive besides the curse as a reason for why Eda would be distant with her. And it’s not JUST because you failed to go after her the first time Eda transformed, and even if you did try to ‘make up’ for this by finding a cure for Eda… Again, it’s obvious there’s more to Eda’s issues than just holding a grudge over that kind of abandonment after the duel, especially since she went out of her way to save Lilith in Sense and Insensitivity! It’s funny how Lilith mocks Eda for having poor memory because of the curse… Because Lilith’s memory is even worse, because of how selective it is! And that’s her own fault…

          Which is another recurring theme of this show, of people who have the ability to do better, of having the privilege to avoid a failing, going ahead and doing that mistake anyway! Just as Odalia is rich and powerful enough to let her kids be their own individuals without concern for their futures, yet goes out of her way to abuse and indoctrinate them more than anyone else would… Lilith has the power to change what she’s been doing at any moment, to alter her circumstances- But she doesn’t. It seems those in the position to do the most good end up either being irresponsible and negligent with that power, and/or using that power to make things worse.

           The thing with Lilith isn’t that her memory is selective, either; She has a poor grasp not just of the past, but of the presentas well! She expects Eda to abandon her after getting attacked by a monster, implying Lilith knows there’s a reason for such callousness besides the curse; Or that Eda isn’t THAT selfish and apathetic… After all, she did abandon her spot in the Emperor’s Coven for Lilith’s sake! That, or Eda really DOES have an issue with the Coven System and what’s why she left the spot… Lilith really is full of contradictions and holes in the logic of how she views the world. A lot of her world-view consisted of accepting whatever was most convenient to her, or even making those kinds of facts up!

           …Though, I WILL give her credit; Lilith seemed intent on letting Eda join the Emperor’s Coven at her own pace, on her own terms, as revealed in Sense and Insensitivity. Obviously there’s the assumption that Eda will eventually do so because clearly there’s no other choice and that’s why it’s an inevitability… But at least Lilith DID try to respect Eda’s feelings, to an extent. Even if she did so in a way that was more flattering to her own expectations in the end, she at least couldn’t outright deny that Eda clearly didn’twant to join the Emperor’s Coven. There’s still the expectation that Eda would ‘get over’ whatever ‘silly’ reasons she had for not joining Lilith, but Lilith wasn’t a lost cause for a reason!

           After all, Lilith had that change of heart at the end, even if she was low-key forced into doing so because Eda would’ve straight-up died otherwise, which again ties back to her cowardly nature, only doing the right thing when there’s literally no other feasible option she can turn to. It was a LONG time coming, finally admitting the truth –more by accident honestly- and sharing the curse with Eda… But hey, better late than never, am I right? And it’s a pretty big reason why I’m no longer as mad at her as I was post-Agony of a Witch… Though I’ll still give her the stink-eye in general for that, because that episode messed me up and Lilith contributed the most to that.

#the owl house #owl house #the owl house lilith #lilith clawthorne #the owl house luz #luz noceda #the owl house eda #edalyn clawthorne