#isle of the lost spoilers obviously

[ur-local-demon1]

My thoughts on the Owl House finale

So you guys got the silent treatment from me for a while, sorry about that lol. I’m finally back (sorta) to briefly talk about the Owl House Finale, and I might dive deeper into analyses and shit as a future video on my YouTube channel. I’ll talk both about what I didn’t like, and what I did like in that order so we can end this post on a good note. Here we go!

If you click keep reading, you’re okay with seeing spoilers for watching and dreaming.

I didn’t like:

Not getting to know more about the whole Caleb - Belos - Evelyn - Hunter situation. Hunter still doesn’t know that Flapjack used to be Caleb’s/Evelyn’s palisman, that he is technically related to the Clawthornes, or that Caleb stopped being a witch hunter since he legit dated one. I would have given an organ to live in a universe where in the five seasons this show deserved, there would have been an episode where idk, Hunter would have communed with the dead and got moral support from great great great great great [...] Grandpa Caleb and Grandma Evelyn. 

The close to no explanation as to why the Titan was trapped in that in-between space, why was Luz here and not actually dead, and why couldn’t he use the last of his magic to go back himself. We don’t know a lot about papa titan and it’s sad because I really like him. The past of the boiling isles as a whole is still a very abstract concept, even the characters don’t know a lot about it, or the truth anyway. 

Willow’s body in the time skip. Now I believe this is the point where people are rolling their eyes at me, but that’s okay I stand by what I’m about to say. If you write in representation in any piece of media you are creating, you can’t just write it out afterwards. Allow me, a mid-sized girl with a body shape similar to pre-time skip Willow, to deconstruct the arguments used against the people who spoke out about it. “Isn’t losing weight a good thing?” --> It depends on why someone lost weight, but in Willow’s case, no since she isn’t a real person. She’s fat rep. She was written to be fat to represent fat people, especially potential fat kids who watch the owl house and want to see people like them on screen. “She works out everyday, and she’s a flyer derby player, of course she lost weight” Skinny ≠ healthy + Fat ≠ unhealthy. You can be fat and an amazing athlete. Wrestlers are often fat and it gives them an advantage. You can be fat and also have visible muscles in other parts of your body like your legs or arms. If she was a real person, that wouldn’t be a problem obviously, but she’s not. The only reason she is fat is for us to have representation and see ourselves on screen. We would have went crazy if a tv show announced that the main character is a lesbian, only that in the final season she starts dating a man because she found out she was just confused or some shit. That’s basically what happened with Willow. Anyway, much love to the animators who tried to fix the damage and draw her with an accurate body type in some scenes here and there of the time skip.

What I did like: 

Belos’ death. A pathetic death for a pathetic man. The panic settling in him as he slowly realises that there is no way out for him, the last futile attempt at fooling someone in hopes of getting his power back, the growing frustration the more he understands he has truly lost all control over everything, even his own body, while still refusing to admit he inflicted this fate upon himself for absolutely no logical reason. He isn’t given a death where he breaks down and sees the error of his ways with terror as the end closes in on him, no. He is crushed, much like his dreams of being the brave martyr witch hunter general who saved humanity through any way possible. 

Luz’s death. A slow, quiet, painful yet still beautiful moment that she somehow accepted. Much like Luz, no one knew what to say, and the small moment where we didn’t know what would happen to her were genuine torture. I’m a sucker for MC’s who die but not really (Hi Anne, Adora, Magnus, Hazel and now Luz.)

Papa Titan. Follow up, Papa titan being genderqueer/nonbinary idk, a Quing. 

The fact that there is a way for Luz to go back to the boiling isles and the human realm. Really happy they didn’t pull a second amphibia parallel lol. 

LILIT’S HARPY LOOK AAAAAAH-

Alador x Darius, I see you (Darius’ blush, him shaking Alador like a ragdoll). I have a thing for ships that barely get talked about in canon and are about old gays.

WAFFLES ToT

Amity’s new hair. Some of my friends don’t like it but oh well. The little Grom Queen crown crystals fit her. 

THE COUPLES EXCHANGING JEWELRY

The ending scene. We got to see Luz’s quince (kinda, I still would have loved a full episode but oh well). The fourth wall break where everyone says bye to the collector but also to us, seeing all the characters we’ve loved for years grouped together to celebrate this. It’s bittersweet, mostly sweet.

#the owl house #watching and dreaming #toh #toh spoilers #watching and dreaming spoilers

[fireheartwraith]

What happens after the season finale?

Disclaimer: this is all my crack theory, I don't follow any news sites or pages on TOH to avoid spoilers, so I barely know how season 3 is going to work. This isn't a comprehensive take or anything like that, I just think it would be neat if this is how things worked out

Let's be real, Belos will succeed, at least in part. The season is almost over and there still needs a plot for the specials, so my guess is that the CATs sabotage works and the Collector decides to mess with the portal because the Emperor is a little shit, so a few key characters get stuck in the mortal world.

Because I like to suffer, I want the gang to be split up and Hunter to be one of the people stuck in the mortal realm. He ends up finding Camilia who obviously immediately adopts Hunter, so he gets to be a real teen with a caring parental figure for the first time basically ever, and this time he doesn't need to hide from the emperor coven or feel lesser because he can't do magic. And, since he now knows Belos' true identity, he can research him and figure out who he's a clone of. Angst ensues when he inevitabily tries to act like him because he thinks that's what he's supposed to do, but they help him out.

I also think Luz should get stuck in the mortal realm. She has the very real oportunity to simply forget the whole thing ever happened and live a normal life, and her mom might even encourage that in a misguided attempt to protect her forteen year old daughter from the genocidal maniac that wants her dead, but she comes around once she sees how miserable Luz is being stuck here without being able to help her friends. Also Vee needs food. So the four of them start a researching journey trying to figure out how the Wittebanes got to the Demon Realm in the first place and recreate that.

Back in the Boiling Isles, total chaos. Even though the spell failed, it worked for long enough for everyone to realize what the Day of Unity (and Belos) are really about, so now it's time for Revolution!!! Some fanatics or crazies like Odalia remain on Belos' side, so it's open war in the streets and everyone is scared.

In the Owl House, everyone majorly freaking out: not only they are in the midst of a civil war trying to take care of very eager children, they managed to lose two of them. It's guilt fest with the Clawthorne sisters, the Hexside friends are super worried, but the real focus here is on King. In his mind, his worst fear came true, he lost Luz to the Human Realm. People try to cheer him up by saying that Luz didn't abandon him, she just got sucked into an interdimensional portal with no way back! Needless to say it doesn't work. Little guy is really in the dumps.

Until he gets a very special visit in his dreams: during the showdown, the Collector realized that King is a Titan and promises to show him a way to get Luz back as long as they get something in return. What King doesn't know is that, as a Titan, he can make interdimensional portals on his own, so he just sold his (very powerful) soul to an immortal interdimensional being that is chaotic neutral only on good days. Fingers crossed that the power of friendship and found family wins them over and dissuades them from causing chaos on the multiverse just because they're bored lol

#the owl house #the owl house season 2 #toh #toh theory #the owl house theory #the owl house season 3 #toh s3 #toh s3 speculation #luz noceda #toh luz #toh king #king clawthorne #toh hunter #emperor belos #toh belos #phillip wittebane #the boiling isles #the demon realm #the collector #toh the collector

[panthera-tigris-venenata]

If you could create an ideal space to work on this WIP, what would that space be like?

What is your favorite way to procrastinate?

What is a spoiler you can give us for something incredibly insignificant in your WIP?

What is the weirdest thing you've had to google for this WIP so far?

If you could go back in time to when you first had the idea for this WIP, what would you tell yourself about it?

Ideal space to write:

I want lot of seating options!! A chair. A bouncy gymball. Sofa or something where I can half-lie. Hard flat surface to sit cross-legged on!!

Also fireplace would be nice so I'd be warm :)

Rn I want that laptop tray so I could sit cross-legged on my table (or on the floor) and still write comfortably.

Favourite way to procrastinate:

Scrolling through Tumblr, obviously.

And writing nonsense by hand while a comfort movie plays in the background.

Spoiler:

...Do I look like I have a solid plot to spoil?? Or differentiate between minor and major spoilers??

Let me try anyway.

For the story with Hooks as Narrators, I'd love to write a scene where Harry asks Uma to narrate. Like, „Just describe what you see? Please? For me?“

Also a scene in which poor Ginny Gothel finally snaps.

For Utopia of the Lost, well.

Jack Sparrow is coming back to the Isle. He will be the most functional adult the kids have seen in like ten years.

Evie poisons Helena Sinclair. Don't worry, it was consensual.

Mal refuses to go to the port in fear of being beheaded again.

There is something going on on the Lost Revenge and Harriet hates to see it. (She lost a bet over her brother. Again.)

The corruption arc of Arabella Triskelion continues.

And Mulan decides that in some situations, swearing is okay.

Weirdest thing I had to google.

I don't google that much stuff? I just tend to wing it?

But I had to find some neat moniker for Hades.

And translations of some nice lethal poisons.

Also that thing when I just type description into the search bar and hope it gives me the word I need.

What would I tell myself about my writing when I started?

„Don't worry about finishing it. You wrote more than you ever did, you made yourself and few readers feel things. You met amazing people. Just go for it.“

Look at me being nice to myself.

[that-sleepless-bard]

My thoughts on Edge of the World because oh gods on Olympus that episode was just… speechless.

Obligatory spoiler warning

Also swearing warning

- Whaaaaat is happening.

- Oh it’s a dream.

- Hooty does not have a digestive system. He consumes things for fun and is essentially a living storage container.

- King found the letter. King found the letter.

- Eda needs therapy. She used Lilith as a shoulder to cry on, but now I want to know how many times she hasn’t had that support when she felt bad about something.

- Lilith going into must-comfort-younger-sibling mode. I’m not a big Lilith fan but it’s so wholesome.

- Okay, cool, guess we’re abandoning the sisters for the rest of the episode.

- Yay more sailor Luz!

- It is creepy and sketchy as hell that you need an ancient tooth to teleport to this place.

- That was a super quick switch from “I’ll kill you” to “Oh yes obviously you were expected” and I don’t trust it.

- If all of King’s kind is here and the messenger was only traveling to deliver the letter, why the hell is King’s dad gone? Where did he have to go that he couldn’t wait for King to come before taking off?

- Please do not give the eight year old heavy weapons. A dagger will do just fine.

- Creepy old jerk.

- Something is super off here. How was King lost? Why wasn’t he under heavier guard if he’s so important? How do you lose an egg the size of a large soccer ball?

- *intensely stares at wall poster about King, trying to figure out why seeing it instantly triggered my “get the fuck out of there” instinct*

- Creepy old jerk.

- Everything about this messenger guy feels so off holy shit.

- Aww King wants to play catch so bad.

- WHAT THE FUCK DO NOT MURDER THE CHILD HE’S EIGHT-

- *trying not to cry at King still insisting on playing catch*

- WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE’S A TITAN??? AND YOU’RE JUST GONNA LEAVE?!

- OH SO YOU JUST DROP THAT MASSIVE PIECE OF INFO ON HIM AND GO MAKE PANCAKES OKAY BECAUSE WE TOTALLY DIDN’T JUST GET A HUGE BIG OF LORE WHAT THE FU-

- WHAT KIND OF ENDING IS THAT??? WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO TO EDA??? …oh, and Lilith. WHAT ARE THEY GONNA DO TO EDA AND LILITH???

Bonus round! Three A.M. thoughts afterward.

- Please someone just give this poor kid his game of catch.

- So titans really are a doomed approves, huh? Poor King the only living member of his kind.

- Are the bones that make up King’s island the remains of King’s father?

- How long was King in his egg for before he hatched?

- Do titans have two forms— one gigantic and one small? Or will King just outgrow being able to live on the Boiling Isles?

- Belos probably sent the guards to get Luz because she threatened to spill his secret about the Day of Unity. What if he captures Eda and Lilith to use as leverage against Luz?

- Nah, Eda won’t get caught. She’s one heck of a fighter.

- But if Eda does get caught, Raine is gonna be pissed.

- Now the synopsis for O’ Titan, Where Art Thou makes a lot more sense.

- But at the same time, what the fuck is that supposed to mean?!

Thank you for listening.

#the owl house #toh #raine whispers #toh eda #eda #edalyn clawthorne #toh raine #raine #eda clawthorne #king clawthorne #toh king #toh luz #luz noceda #toh spoilers #thoughts #lilith clawthorne #toh lilith #toh hooty #hooty

[tbookblurbs]

Taliesin - Stephen Lawhead

3/5 - Interesting characters, very much a prequel. Spoilers below!

This book served as a prelude to the classic Arthurian legend, and it places itself in the British Isles (Wales, to be more specific). Lawhead takes a pretty creative approach to bringing the Arthurian legend from strictly/mostly fantasy to being grounded in the real world. Obviously the fantastical elements are still there, but most of them seem to be attributed to Christian spiritual journeys instead of the classic Druidism, like that shown in BBC's Merlin for example.

I went into this recognizing the Pendragon name and was very thrown off to not be entering into the traditional beginning of this legend. That said, the Atlantean plotline was a lot of fun. Charis is a determined young woman, but the whole backing plot of her evil younger sister (Morgana, spelled differently) was lost on me. It's much less sympathetic to women than I was hoping.

Similarly, Taliesin was an engaging character, but it takes over a hundred pages before we really meet him as a young man. It just feels like this book started a little earlier than was prudent. We get lost in the weeds of court politics and village disputes before the story has a chance to really start.

The conversion to Christianity in the third act of the book also starts to feel really preachy, which I didn't appreciate. Lawhead's prose prior to this is fairly enjoyable, but it's not something that immediately captured my interest.

#taliesin #stephen lawhead #charis #pendragon cycle #book review #historical fantasy #historical fiction

[noctisvixen]

Me and my friend, Willow, were talking last night about wedding vows and stuff cause of one of our roleplays. And we got on the topic about how like "till death do we part" was just another way of saying "when you die, I'm out".

Granted, we acknowledge that's not what the phrase is intended to say, but we as "sound intellectuals" (at 4 in the god dang morning, at least for me) thought; we could do better.

So, for the vows between the king and queen of our roleplay, at the end they say; "We are in this together. Forever and always". And for the record, my king is supposed to be the antagonist who has an amazing relationship with his family and I'm sitting here resisting the urge to make him redeemable.

Then, there's what I did with Afterfall, which is something I did literal months ago in my notes and never have been the same since about it. Their vows end with "I'll love you forever, and the years that follow after that".

But it doesn't end there. See, these boys are so in love with each other that its pretty common to hear them reference their vows, but do it in a specific way thats a nod to their dynamic in the story.

Sometimes this is flipped, but you'll usually hear them go like;

Kelly: "I'll love you forever."

Silver: "And a day after that."

Spoilers for Afterfall ahead, but;

Kelly, who was supposed to die young and met Silver for the first fime when he was dead, knows that death won't take them apart. Silver is the God of Death afterall and genuinely loves and cares about him. So he tells him that he'll love him forever, because he knows there will always be a forever for eachother, either in the living realm, the Isles, or the After.

Silver obviously knows this too and while he acknowledges there's a chance Kelly might leave him for whats beyond the After, he knows he will love him long after that. He was once mortal, had friends, a sister, parents, even a girlfriend he courted after he became a God and while he didn't experience it at the time, he's grieved over the fact that he has lost them permanently. His sister might had reincarnated into Winter, but Destiny no longer exists, and the rest of them disappeared to the beyond. Its been centuries and he still loves them. So, when he says "a day after that" to his husband, its a reference to his fact.

What he doesn't expect after the events of the final arc is for his hopes to come true, that Kelly decides, with no hesitation, that he would rather exist in the After with Silver forever. This is also a parallel to another scene where Silver picks Kelly and their found family over the other Gods, who had become like his pseudo-family over the centuries of them being Gods and outliving everyone. This decision leads to him being exiled from the Isles, something that was made clear to him before he announced his choice.

Silver and Kelly love each other in a way thats gentle, but fierce, and its in a way that always makes me stim from pure joy. I think I speak for everyone who works with me on Afterfall that this ship is the true OTP of the series just because of how well they fit together.

Anyways, thanks for staying for my TED Talk.

#vixspeaks #silver #kelly #afterfall #story talk #I SHOULD ALSO MENTION BEFORE I FORGET #all the Gods in Afterfall are formally mortal with the exception Epah #but only by technicality #every God is trapped in their 20s #I won't go into specifics yet but they aren't immortal either #they can't die from age but they can be harmed or physically killed #they also need to eat still but nowhere near as frequent as mortals do #Silver (and Geode) are stuck at the prime age of 24

[hinasho]

isle of the lost vs descendants 1 characterizations

the book ends literally when the movie starts so their personalities cant be that different right? lets see

(similarities posted at the bottom!)

DIFFERENCES:

book: when evil queen goes on about beauty related things, especially in regards to her daughter, usually evie would begrudgingly recite whatever “tip” eq taught her and just go along with what she says. not to say she hated those kinds of things, but whenever her mother brought it up, she never expressed similar excitement or engagement. more often than not she was indifferent to her mother’s beauty antics, and we only see her talk about them in regards to herself in the last few chapters (im not talking abt the mirror incident, but the one liners she’d drop about her appearance here and there) movie: when the parents first tell their kids about going to auradon, eq talks about sprucing her daughter up before she leaves and evie is visibly excited about the makeover. she also goes onto encourage it on others as seen when they’re all in the limo and she tries to put makeup on mal.

book: the villain parents are not friends and we almost never see them together. the one time we saw the parents/adults all together was in the prologue scene for evie’s 6th birthday party. after that they never interact and dont pay each other any mind. this is especially true regarding evil queen and maleficent, as they state in the book that they’ve been at odds ever since they fought over who’d rule the isle. eq has also just been welcomed back into society after being banned by the other, so time-wise, at worst, they are still enemies and, at best, barely tolerable acquaintances. movie: evil queen & maleficent have a significantly close relationship, so much so that eq knows her house like the back of her hand and where maleficent keeps things, specifically that her spellbook is in the fridge. they even have a laugh about how they use to run things before being forced to live on the isle. they seem to be genuinely close. 

put the rest under the cut bc this post is too long lol

book: jafar and jay’s mantra is “whoever has the gold makes the rules” which was significant because it helped them while in the forbidden fortress movie: jafar and jay’s mantra is “there’s no team in I” (while this change was surprising, i also wasn’t that upset abt it bc both book and movie!jay struggle with teamwork)

book: carlos is not athletic at all and goes on about how he hates gym class. he is very focused on stem and doesn’t really care about any other kind’ve hobby. meanwhile jay is athletic and does casual parkour when going anywhere. movie: both of them do extreme parkour in the opening song. im not referring to the dancing ofc, but the extra flips and tricks they do. this is not unusual for jay, but is in regards to carlos.

book: jay isn’t the only one that goes around stealing things, mal very much does it to. at the end of the day they’d even compare how many things they’ve stolen to see who’s the best thief. jay usually wins, but still, both are thieves. movie: when they get to auradon, mal is very confused as to why jay would take the time to steal things and even needs for him to explain why he does it.

book: ben describes audrey as a classic fairy tale princess. she finds all things in auradon lovely and beautiful, and even has a bird land on her finger during their date. while she does think negatively of everyone on the isle, she acts mostly “lovely and sweet” before anything else, and it is not faked. think: giselle from enchanted. movie: idk how else to explain this difference besides “audrey just has a different vibe”. she is more regina george-esque than genuinely cheery, and puts on an obviously fake smile and attitude so often that queen belle expresses distaste for her 

SIMILARITIES:

mal likes art and goes around the isle putting up tags --- (the romance storyline wasn’t bad, but it would’ve been nice to see mal maybe join an art club? or get into painting or smthg else related to her hobby)

carlos is afraid of dogs --- in the book he can’t even say or hear the word bc it’s a trigger for him. he can say “puppies”, but he cannot say the word dog. whereas in the movie, he says the word several times. this is an extremely minor difference to be fair

when they’re afraid/think they’re in danger, they all cling to jay

they’re not used to sunlight 

the ben & mal tension on first meet (and continued infatuation before the cookie scene) --- in the book both characters have had a dream about the other. they didn’t know who the other was, but they remembered the dreams vividly enough that they were able to describe their faces in detail. in the movie when they first meet, both pause on each other several times. it’s likely because of the o’l Disney Romance™️, but it could also be because of curious recognition. 

jay is a flirt/smoother charmer and girls fawn over him

carlos is good with and likes science & technology

mal wanting to prove herself to her mother & the others not being as set on it --- in the book, mal is constantly reminded of the times her mother has called her “not worthy of bearing her own name or of being her daughter” and it causes mal to lose her cool several times. the other VKs also have parental issues ofc, but ones that are not as focused on proving themselves like mal’s are. theirs lean more towards other problems. in the movie she is extremely insistent on reminding them what they’re at auradon for and that this is their “one chance to prove themselves”

the core four freeze in fear when confronted with the reality of their parents’ pasts

mal can touch maleficent’s scepter --- to be fair that dance number in the museum was most likely just mal daydreaming, but still

jay going off on his own/following his own plan --- in the book jay and jafar plan for him to go with mal to the forbidden fortress and then double cross her and steal the scepter for himself, taking it as their “big score”. in the movie when they first see the wand with their own eyes, he runs off in front of everyone and only opens the gate enough for himself to squeeze through. carlos has to open it wider so they can all get through it after him. and once theyre in the same room as the wand, he reaches for it first against mal’s wishes.

carlos is bad at sports --- this is in both the differences & similarities section because, while in the book & movie he’s bad at sports, in the book he also doesnt like them and has no desire to do them as he is completely focused on science & tech. while after some practice in the movie, carlos joins the tourney team alongside jay. (i personally would’ve preferred for him to join a computer or engineering club)

mal can manipulate people with ease (book: evie / movie: jane & ben)

fairy godmother is mainly the one that enforces the “no magic” rule --- beast may have created it, but both in the book & the movie, people/creatures talk about fairy godmother being the one that restricts them

carlos climbs trees/searches for higher ground when afraid

evie knows how to use her looks, specifically her smile, to get the things she wants (book: persuading dr. facilier / movie: getting info out of chad)

audrey likes to dance 

carlos is sarcastic & competitive 

mal cheers up evie when she’s upset 

evie is good with academics

ben wanting to be his own person rather than act like his father --- this was a good continuation from book to movie as ben only realizes he needs to be himself in the final chapters, which he just continues to encourage in the movie. 

mal’s spur of the moment saving tactics

the villains aren’t good with computers/the internet --- the isle canonly doesn’t have wifi and in the movie the villains struggle with the laptop that was most likely given to them from an auradon representative

audrey’s family still being deeply traumatized by what maleficent did 

belle not letting beast talk shit 

mal pitying her mother for what she went through --- in the book: when she sees the past of what happened at aurora’s christening and sympathizes that her mother was nothing but a sad lonely girl. in the movie: the “and i really wish you hadn’t gotten there yourself” line during ben’s coronation

annddd yeah!

honestly there were a lot more similarities than i was expecting, and i am pleasantly surprised! book to movie things dont usually crossover well, but honestly, the first movie didnt do too bad of a job of it. 

tbh i think the one that probably suffered the most was audrey’s character. she really seemed very different from her book counterpart. this isnt to say that book!audrey was a saint and would’ve treated the VKs kindly, but she also wasn’t a fake person and was genuinely that cheery and upbeat all the time. whereas in the movie, it seems like almost nobody likes her (except chad) bc of her “fakeness”. 

i personally think if they were gonna go with the “bad girl and her minion” role, then audrey should’ve been the minion. in the book she was kind’ve an airhead (?? idk she just tended to have her head in the clouds a lot) and if one of the auradon girls told her to act a certain way towards the VKs for the “good of auradon”, i could see her listening to them. i dont know if she’d be the one to come up with the evil deed herself though. 

overall, the continuity flowed pretty well. i wish they didn’t change audrey’s character like they did (they probably could’ve had jane play the role of ‘stuckup girl’ tbh since she was a new character and her mother had a higher position in the kingdom compared to audrey’s parents anyway, so smthg to boast abt), but other than that, the movie’s characterizations were kinda close to the books!

#descendants #babbles #long text post // #now i gotta read Return #isle of the lost spoilers obviously

[sepublic]

SEASON 2 OF THE OWL HOUSE!!!

          RUHGISN/LIFNALARNGLIENARE

           Onto business first and foremost! We get twenty-one episodes, an extra one to make up for the rather odd, nineteen-count from the first season! That’s forty episodes in total! Then Season 3…

           OH, Season 3… I love it but it hurts! The Lord giveth and taketh away, it’s confirmed, but it’s only THREE 44-minute specials! By my calculations, that’s about the length of SIX normal episodes… THE OWL HOUSE IS SO DANG POPULAR AND THIS IS WHAT YOU DO DISNEY?!?!! First Amphibia’s finale gets screwed over, THEN this?! But at least Amphibia gets its full third season… At least I assumeit does, oh for the love of Titan if it doesn’t…

           It is extremely imperative that we petition Disney to let TOH’s third season be full-length! Because Dana herself admitted that the main reason she left Twitter was to cope with THAT news, and… OH MY GOD POOR DANA you fought SO hard against all odds to give us this show, this previous love-child of your mind and heart and spite, for this!? But it might not be too late- If we assault Disney with our demand, they MIGHT just change their mind! SO GET ON WITH IT! Let the cartoon community rally AGAIN!

           But, right-

           The first half of episodes for Season 2 is going to be TEN episodes, the second half will be eleven! Already better than the first season, but as a reminder, that’s what we’re getting so far before our mid-season hiatus! And on THAT note…

           We have confirmation for the first FIVE episodes, which will begin airing just a mere FOUR WEEKS from now! We have Separate Tides, Escaping Expulsion, Echoes of the Past, Keeping Up A-fear-ances, and Through the Looking Glass Ruins!

           These episode titles spell out “SEEK T”, presumably “Seek t(he)”, so we can already guess the next two episodes after TtLGR! That leaves fourteen more letters for the Season 2 message; The last one was “A witch loses a true way,” so perhaps this season is advising Luz to seek something that will help her get back home? Something that will help her confront and defeat Belos? A little bit of both?

           Separate Tides is the season premiere! Luz is feeling guilty about the loss of Eda’s powers, poor girl, so she’s going to set sail for a lucrative bounty? Interesting… Perhaps a real Bloom of Eternal Youth? Something magical and bile-related? More lore on the nature of magic and its origins???

           Escaping Expulsion… hoo boy, THAT’s what we’ve all been looking forward to! Odalia and Alador get Luz, Willow, and Gus expelled?! No rights for them, even if that was already obvious but WOW. But more importantly, Luz strikes a deal with the two?!? What do Odalia and Alador want from Luz, to get her back into Hexside?!?!

           Dana mentioned how Season 1 had more focus on Hexside at Disney’s request. Given how Season 2 is more her style and freedom, we might see Luz and the others remain expelled from Hexside, if only to detach them from the coven system for the time being as their rebellion grows… And give focus to OTHER things as well! Which is going to suck a LOT and I’m going to hate Odie and Al even more for this, taking away not just Luz’s opportunity but also Willow and Gus’… Especially Willow since they DID follow through on that threat, holy shit, Amity and Willow must be hurt and traumatized from this!

           But what do Odalia and Alador want from Luz? Do they want to use her as leverage against Belos? To use her FOR Belos? I’m suddenly reminded of that idea I had about Odalia and Alador being interested in Luz as like, an actual suitor for Amity… GOD my Lumity heart would actually love it if that were the case! Obviously in the long run it’s bad and for THEIR purposes, but the idea of Luz learning to be more proper for them, for AMITY really… Oh man, this is reminding me of my speculation of Luz and Alador parallels! We might just see what makes Alador so interesting to Dana in this episode, and just the SECOND one of Season 2, no less- Right into the story meat!

           ECHOES OF THE PAST! King lore! KING LORE!!! Even better Luz, Lilith, and… HOOTY… go to a new island?! An island related to King’s past? Is Eda sticking with King to make sure he doesn’t do anything, or god, did King’s antics get her into trouble again? And Hooty… HOOTY is coming with Luz and Lilith???! I’m grateful for Luz and Lilith interaction, we might get to see them talk things over, but how is Hooty…? Is the house coming along?

           Dana mentioned two spoilers and a lie, one of them was Hooty leaving the house! I guess this is one of them… The others were Camila beating someone up and Gus getting a growth spurt, which we’ll get onto later; So I think Camila beating someone up is the lie! Dang it… But a dangerous new island, could this be related to the various pieces of Titan bones mentioned in The Unauthorized History of the Boiling Isles, scattered throughout the boiling seas, all alluding to another incomplete Titan?!

           Are they KING’S REMAINS??! And his bones are incomplete because he still has his SKULL!!!!

           Keeping Up A-fear-ances is pretty obviously Gwendolyn. Screw you, Gwen, and the confirmation that her presence is causing strain for everyone… YIKES. Hopefully we’ll get Young Eda and Lilith backstory, and see how they transitioned from the YBOS flashback to present-day! Perhaps Gwendolyn DID help Eda when she first transformed… Either way, I do not like her. But she’ll be fascinating to see!

           Through the Looking Glass Ruins! As I said before, Gus gets a growth spurt, and he’s trying to impress kids from Glandus… Which YES GLANDUS, more schools lore! But uhh… If they’re at Glandus, is it because they didn’t get back into Hexside after all, and they’re moving to a different school? Luz and Amity are exploring a dangerous library there, which, Lost in Language flashbacks! But why is AMITY there… Oh Titan, does SHE choose to leave Hexside at the end of Escaping Expulsion, as a means of defying her parents’ will, to go with the friends she loves! If so… YEAH AMITY! That, or she’s out on a visit. Will Amity run from home and live with the others, or maybe Willow and her dads? Gus and Perry? Or will she still be at the Blight Manor… Dana wasn’t kidding about Emira and Edric being distracted from Grom!

           Maybe Amity works something out that gets her expelled from Hexside, and Glandus is the new school for her, who knows? Perhaps it’s because of Belos, and so Odalia and Alador are furious, but they want their kid at a school regardless, so Glandus it is! The Hexside Banshees lost their best captain… Not that she was even playing so it doesn’t matter, but still! THIS would be quite a shock and change for Amity! And Luz, Willow, and Gus… Dang, they’re just losing a lot huh?

           If they ARE going to Glandus and enrolling there, then maybe the episode will end in a failure, or maybe they’re pretending to in order to access the library, maybe a library incident will get their enrollment cancelled! I’m interested in seeing Glandus’ location, we know it’s on an island elsewhere… I kind of want to see the principal of Glandus, will they be cool like Bump? Have a rivalry with him??? Hexside lore??? FORBIDDEN SHIP BETWEEN BUMP AND GLANDUS PRINCIPAL??!?!

           But yeah, those are the episode synopses, and they promise a LOT! It seems each episode so far is just pure character or plot stuff… Not to dunk on ‘filler’, which I think is misused for a lot of episodes honestly, but I like it! I guess Dana and crew have to make the most of their time thanks to Disney’s weird thing with Season 3, screw you Mickey… But yeah! I’m definitely gonna say more stuff and talk about the intro, but for now, I AM HYPED!!!

#The owl house #toh #the owl house season 2 #dana terrace #speculation #analysis #theory #the owl house luz #luz noceda #the owl house eda #edalyn clawthorne #the owl house king #the owl house lilith #lilith clawthorne #the owl house gwen #gwendolyn clawthorne #the owl house gus #augustus porter #the owl house willow #willow park #the owl house odalia #odalia blight #the owl house alador #alador blight #the owl house amity #amity blight

[hookingminor]

three lessons - mat barzal

a/n: new series idea I just had, spoiler there is filth and the next parts will be as well also im not the best at writing smut so you’ll have to bear with me here. anyway! let me know what you think! comments/thoughts are always appreciated! also, I know it briefly mentions being the younger sister of a teammate, but I know nothing about the isles so its literally just for plot purposes don’t expect much from that and this isn’t proofread sorry

word count: 4.2k

summary: you’re tired of being a virgin, so you hit up Mat to help you with your problem and strike a deal

warnings (18+): loss of virginity, smut

PART TWO

-

This was by far the worst idea you’ve ever had.

In your twenty-one years of life, you’ve never had a worse idea. Your initial plan was crazy in and of itself, but adding Mat to the mix? It’s like you were asking to get your ass kicked.

The original thought came to you a year ago when you were sitting on the couch of your friend’s apartment, four glasses of wine into the night. She was complaining about her latest hookup, raging over the fact that he didn’t know where the clit was.

This is how it usually went between you two.

She was the one who got all the guys, the one who could pick up anyone from the bar and spend the night in a stranger’s bed without a second thought. You, however, were the wingwoman, the person who was left behind when your friend eventually decided to leave with a man.

It didn’t bother you that much. It’s not like you felt like you needed a boyfriend, you were secure in almost all aspects of your life, but the nagging thought in the back of your mind kept saying that you needed to get fucked. And soon.

Maybe it was the alcohol coursing through your bloodstream or the fact that you hadn’t masturbated in nearly two weeks, but you rolled your eyes at your friend before you finally snapped.

“At least you’ve had someone to fuck the past few months! Be grateful you’re not me and still a virgin at twenty!” You shouted, fed up with hearing stories about how your friend’s sex life was so terrible. At least she had a sex life to begin with.

“Oh my god. I’m so sorry,” you apologized quickly, bringing your hand to cover your mouth in shock, “I didn’t mean that. I’m sorry, it’s just… it’s hard listening to you talk about this when I can’t contribute to the conversation.”

“No, you’re right. I’m sorry for always talking about it,” your friend said, eyes softening when she heard how regretful you sounded, “How about we change the subject?”

She didn’t wait for your response before launching into a monologue about how classes were going and her upcoming finals. You tried listening to her, but your mind was still stuck on the previous topic. Of course it was unfortunate that you happened to be twenty and with no sexual experience, but it didn’t bother you before like it was bothering you right now.

Ideas began racing through your head of how you could rectify this, and that’s when the seed was planted.

Now, almost a year later, your carefully thought out plan was almost complete; though, ‘carefully’ could be more loosely translated to ‘reckless.’

You paced outside of Mat’s door, walking back and forth as you fiddled with your hands, working up the courage to knock. This was such a bad idea. You brought your hand up to the door, pausing before your fist made contact before bringing it back down and resuming your pacing.

After another five minutes of deep contemplation, you made your decision. You knocked on the door before you could second guess yourself, now bringing your hands to tug at the strands of your hair.

The few seconds it took for Mat to answer the door felt like a lifetime, and when he opened the door, you were met with a confused look.

“Y/N? What are you doing here?” He asked, peeking his head out of the door to glance down the hallway.

“Hi, I know you weren’t expecting me and you have to leave for practice soon, but I needed to talk to you about something,” you explained quickly.

Mat’s brows stayed furrowed in confusion, but he opened the door further to let you inside.

“Firstly, I just wanted to say that Anders doesn’t know I’m here, and I’d really appreciate it if you never mentioned it to him,” you said as he closed the door behind you.

Mat ushered you into his living room, gesturing for you to take a seat on the couch as he crossed his arms and waited for you to continue.

“This is going to sound absolutely crazy and you’re probably going to reject me but just hear me out,” you said, taking a deep sigh. He was totally going to shut you down, but there was no turning back now.

“I wanted to ask you if you’d have sex with me. You’d be doing me a favor as my friend. I’m kind of… a virgin… and I really don’t want to be anymore,” you took a breath to watch his reaction which was unreadable, “You’re probably thinking it’s a terrible idea, being that I’m Anders’s sister and everything, but I promise I won’t say anything to him. I just want to get a little experience under my belt… it’s kind of embarrassing. Anyway, I just wanted to ask if you’d give me a few lessons or something.”

You raised your eyes to meet Mat’s as you finished your rant, worrying about what he was going to say. A long silence fell between you two as he processed what you said.

“Uh… I don’t really know what to say,” he started awkwardly, bringing his hand to rub at the back of his neck, “I’m honored, I guess? That you asked me to help, but I’m just a little confused since we don’t really know each other.”

Okay, you could give him that. It was true that you weren’t the closest of friends, but you’d met on a handful occasions. It’s not like you were complete strangers, but other than knowing what you were studying in school and that you were Anders’s much younger sister, he didn’t know much about you.

“That’s fair,” you said, “I asked you because, well, you’re obviously hot which I’m sure you know. Also, not knowing each other is what makes this perfect. I’m not attached to you in any way and vice versa. Honestly? You’re one of the few guys in town that I feel comfortable around, so it was either ask you or find a random Tinder hookup and have to do this speech all over again but ten times as awkward.”

Mat didn’t like the last part of that explanation: the whole ‘random Tinder hookup to take your virginity’ part. He may not have known you that well, but he knew you were a nice girl and deserved to be more than just a notch on the bedpost of someone who didn’t care about you.

“I know you’re probably thinking I’m insane, and I get it. I felt a little insane when I thought about this too. But I really feel like you’re the best option. I understand if you think it’s too weird, though,” you said when he hadn’t replied. Your eyes watched him as he sat still as a rock across from you.

“I… I have to leave for practice soon,” was the only thing he responded with.

You felt your heart drop at his statement. Of course he was going to say no, you were an idiot for even trying.

“Yeah, totally, I’ll get going,” you said quickly, gathering your stuff and making your way to the entrance.

When you reached the door, you turned back one last time to see him still in the same position.

“Can you not tell Anders, please? I know this was a crazy, stupid idea but… just don’t tell him, okay? He doesn’t need to know about my sex… well, lack of sex life,” you added before shutting the door behind you.

-

Mat had lost his mind.

Truly and honestly, he had lost his mind if he was even considering your proposition. Which he was. He was really considering your proposition, and he wanted to punch himself for it.

He couldn’t possibly agree to this, could he? You were the captain’s younger sister. Sure, you two weren’t the closest of siblings, but the code still applied. And the code clearly said he was not allowed to fraternize with relatives of his teammates in any way. He hadn’t broken this rule yet, and he couldn’t believe he was even thinking about breaking it now.

Inside his head, he weighed the pros and the cons of sleeping with you. Well, teaching you would be a better phrase. If Mat was being honest, he had blacked out after the terms ‘virgin’ and ‘have sex with me’ fell from your lips. He watched you from his spot on the couch, his eyes following your mouth but not processing the words you were saying. Truthfully, he ran over the conversation a million times in his head and he wasn’t sure he was actually processing them now.

You wanted him to take your virginity. You wanted him to give you experience. You called them lessons.

You were, quite literally, asking him to be your sex tutor.

When you left the apartment, he did what he did best. He compartmentalized. Instead of thinking about the awkward conversation he just had with you, he pushed all thoughts of you from his mind and went to practice. For a whole three hours he focused on hockey. He even had the courage to look at his captain despite the weird interaction he’d just had with his sister.

But then practice was over, and Mat was left with nothing to do but think about what you said. Thinking turned into contemplating, and contemplating eventually turned into pulling up your Instagram page.

Mat typed and retyped the message a million times, deleting it before he could accidentally pressed send. He went back and forth between wanting to say yes and throwing his phone as far away from him so he wouldn’t be tempted.

What could be the worst thing that happened? He thought.

A million bad things could happen. He knew this deep in his heart that it was, for all intents and purposes, the worst idea ever to teach his captain’s sister how to have sex, but his head and desire to get laid had other plans.

So, he picked up his phone one last time and composed the same message he’d written a hundred times.

to @yourusername: does your offer still stand? text me 212-203-3849

-

For the second time in a week, you were pacing outside of Mat’s apartment. You’d received his message almost six days ago, and now here you were.

Your chest nearly collapsed with relief when you’d seen he wanted to take you up on your offer. And then your stomach filled with butterflies, nerves wracking your body as you now had an official plan to lose your virginity.

You eagerly liked the message, dialing his number in your phone so you could hash out the details over text. He promised you two would go over some ground rules in person, saying it felt too weird to have a written contract or something over text. You agreed to his plans and set a date to go over to his apartment that following weekend.

Feeling more courageous than you did a week ago, you knocked on the door with confidence this time. If you were going to lose your virginity tonight, you weren’t going to look like a frightened kitten when you did.

Mat greeted you with a warm smile this time, his eyes lighting up when he saw you. Same as last time, he ushered you into his apartment and directed you towards his couch.

“Do you want anything to drink? I was about to open a bottle of wine,” Mat asked, already moving to the kitchen.

“Yeah, wine would be great. Thanks,” you replied, taking a seat on the edge of the couch.

Mat tinkered around in the kitchen for a couple minutes before he joined you, handing you a glass of red. You took a long sip as he settled down, hoping the wine would work fast to calm your nerves.

“So, what did you want to discuss first?” He asked after a moment.

“Well, we should probably have some ground rules. I was thinking that since you’re the expert and all, you should decide how these lessons go. Oh, and I think that we should keep this to a three-time thing. Anything more than that will probably get more complicated,” you answered with ease. Not to say you had spent the past week thinking about what you were going to say, but you definitely did.

Mat nodded in agreement at your suggestions before adding his own.

“Yeah, that sounds good. Also, we can’t tell anyone about this because, you know, your brother and the team and all,” he said. You hummed in response, that much was a given. No one could know about this.

“So, where do we start? Should I take off my clothes or?” You asked.

“No,” he said with a chuckle, “We’re going to watch a movie.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. For now at least.”

You hadn’t known what you were expecting, but it was not a cuddle session on his couch. You imagined that maybe he would’ve just ripped your clothes off the minute you walked in to get down to business, but he was being way more casual than you were feeling. Which was probably a good thing because your heart was beating a thousand beats a minute, so at least one of you had this situation under control.

Mat had told you to dress comfortably as he didn’t plan on leaving the apartment, and he was dressed in a similar fashion as you: gray sweatpants with a dark blue t-shirt. You had thrown on a pair of leggings and a shirt from your college before leaving, making sure to wear at least a nice bralette and pair of panties underneath.

He drank down the rest of his wine before adjusting himself on the couch, moving into a position where he was laying down. Grabbing the blanket folded on the back cushion, he spread it out over his body before patting the spot in front of him. Normally, you would’ve been intimidated by a bold move like this, but the wide smile on his face indicated that he was perfectly comfortable right now, and his ease surrounded you in waves.

Slamming back the rest of your wine, you lay down in front of him, tucking your body against his while his arms pulled your chest closer.

“Anything specific you want to watch?” He asked, using his free hand to grab the remote. You muttered a quiet ‘no,’ allowing him to go ahead and choose. Mat scrolled through the Netflix options before settling on a new action movie.

“So, how much experience do you have exactly?” Mat asked once the introduction credits had finished. It was a good thing he wasn’t looking at you because your face heated up in embarrassment.

“I’ve only ever got as far as making out,” you muttered.

“No one’s ever touched you then?” He prodded.

“No,” you replied, your cheeks on fire. You couldn’t see him, but Mat nodded in response against the back of your head, letting out a quiet ‘okay.’

It wasn’t the first time Mat had been with a virgin, but that hadn’t been since high school and when he also wasn’t that experienced himself. Mat decided to let the movie play for a little bit longer before making his first move.

That time came when there was a particularly slow scene on. Slowly, he lifted up the hem of your t-shirt and slid his hand underneath, tracing small circles on the skin of your stomach. You clenched your thighs together as a warm feeling started to spread throughout your body.

It was happening.

Mat kept his hands there for a few minutes, inching up so slowly you almost couldn’t tell he’d moved at all. When the initial shock of his touch settled, you tried to refocus your attention to the movie.

Another ten minutes passed before Mat made his next move. Almost imperceptibly, he used his elbow to push his torso up before he brushed the hair covering your neck to the side. You felt his fingertips brush your ear, a shiver running up your spine. He brought his lips to your neck a split second later, placing a soft kiss against it.

Your eyes briefly shut for a second, reveling in the fact that Mat’s lips were on your neck. He kissed around your jaw a couple times before the hand on his stomach was shifting you to rest on your back. Your body followed his lead and your eyes met his hazel ones before he was leaning in to kiss your lips.

A heat unfurled in your body the second your lips connected and you eagerly moved yours against his. One of Mat’s hands had moved to the back of your neck to tilt your head at a better angle, the other hand moving further up under your shirt to rest just below your bra clasp. Your body involuntarily arched up into his hands as his tongue slipped out to part your lips. You opened your mouth and his tongue entered immediately, tangling with yours. You and Mat lay on the couch for a good while, making out heavily before you eventually had to break it for air.

“At least you don’t have to worry about kissing. You’re a natural,” Mat commended with an airy chuckle, and you couldn’t help but laugh at his compliment.

Mat’s smile brightened at your laugh before he leaned back in, the heat building in your body at double speed. You knew you were attracted to him, but you didn’t think he would be able to wind you up this fast. Or maybe it was just because you’ve never had a man touch you like this before.

Breaking the kiss, Mat began to trail more kisses down your body, pausing near your collarbone when he heard a particular breathy gasp leave your mouth. Mat continued his path over your shirt until he reached your belly button.

“Can I take this off?” He asked, looking up at you.

“You can take mine off if you take yours off,” you replied with a seductive smirk. Mat pulled back from your body, matching your smirk with one of his own as he tore off his shirt. Less than a second later, he was tugging at the hem of yours, urging you to sit up so he could take it off.

Mat’s hands were back on your body right after he tossed your shirt on the floor. This time, he retraced his path down your torso with his mouth and tongue, leaving no patch of skin untouched. His fingers danced around the edge of your leggings, teasing you until you were lifting up your hips into his face.

“Please take them off, Mat,” you said through gasps, wanting nothing more than to be rid of your clothing. He chuckled lightly against your waistband, his nose tickling your abdomen before he began shimmying off your leggings.

Tilting your hips up, you helped him slide the pants down your legs along with your underwear. Though your cheeks flamed up at the thought of being exposed before Mat, you felt oddly calm (well, as calm as you can be given the circumstances) with him.

“Holy shit, baby. You’re soaked,” Mat noted with a deep groan. He shuffled his body further down the couch into a comfortable position, lifting one leg to hook over his shoulder.

You breathed in shaky breaths as Mat placed gentle kisses on your thighs, working upwards slowly until he reached your core. And when he used his tongue to lick a strip across your pussy, your back arched into the air as you let out a loud moan.

“You gotta stay still, Y/N,” Mat chuckled darkly, wrapping one hand to steady your middle.

“Sorry, never done this before,” you replied in gasps.

Now immobilized, Mat resumed his place between your legs, repeating the same series of licks before he closed his lips around your clit. He flicked his tongue across the sensitive area. God, you would have done this a long time ago if you knew it would feel this good. You weren’t sure if it was too early to feel the heat inside you build up this quickly or if Mat was just too good at this. You hoped it was the latter.

His tongue lapped at your folds, and your hands flew down to grasp his hair in need. You didn’t think you could moan any louder, but then he brought his thumb to your clit to rub in tight circles as his tongue teased your entrance.

“Holy fuck,” you whined out, canting your hips up as much as you could. You could feel his smirk against your pussy at your exclamation, bringing his hand down to slowly enter a finger into you.

You let out a surprised gasp as you felt the first finger penetrate you. Mat kept his attention on your clit, lips sucking harshly at it. You let yourself get lost in the pleasure, focusing on how good he was making you feel.

After a few thrusts of one finger, giving you plenty of time to adjust, he added a second, feeling your walls tighten around them. He moved both fingers in and out of you, alternating the pressure between your entrance and clit. Just when he hit the right spot inside you, your hand tugged on his hair tightly, and he took the hint to curl his fingers against that spot.

“I’m so close, Mat,” you moaned, tossing your head back into the pillow.

“What do you need, baby?” He asked, pulling back for a quick breath. You glanced down to meet his gaze, taking in the way his chin glistened from your pussy. The view made you moan lowly, and his eyes darkened at the sound.

“Your tongue, please,” you begged quietly.

Mat heard the words leave your mouth and nestled his face back between your legs, tongue sliding up your slit in response. In rhythm with stroking your g-spot, he sucked at your clit, and it was mere seconds before your body coiled tightly inside. He kept the same pace and before long, you felt yourself crest the peak and then fall.

Mat removed his fingers slowly from your entrance, his tongue licking softly at your folds until he felt your breathing return to normal. It took you a few seconds to regain your sense of self, stars still whirling in the corners of your vision. When you finally felt yourself grounded on Earth again, you opened your eyes to see a self-satisfied smirk on Mat’s face.

“You’re so hot when you come,” he said when you met his gaze, and had you not been riding high on cloud nine when he said this, you might have blushed in embarrassment. But you weren’t embarrassed right now. The only thing you felt was giddy. Giddy because you were one step closer to your end goal.

And while you were blissed out, you dropped your gaze to notice the extremely visible bulge tenting in his sweatpants. Focused on a new task, you sat up quickly before leaning over Mat’s body so you could return the favor. Your lips crashed against his in a frenzy, your hands clumsily reaching down to grasp his length. However, you only got to feel it for a second before Mat’s hand was tugging it away.

“Not tonight, babe. Tonight was about you,” Mat said with a strained voice, breaking the kiss to look at you.

“What do you mean? We’re not having sex tonight?” You asked in confusion, your head still a little hazy from the orgasm.

“No, we’re not,” he laughed, noticing the wantonness in your voice, “You said I’m in charge, right? This was already a lot for one night, so we’ll put off the sex until next time.”

You nodded your head, though you weren’t really understanding. It made sense. Tonight was a very big step for you, and he didn’t want to give you too much at once. But despite that, your pussy was begging for a repeat performance and you were so far gone you were willing to do just about anything Mat would say.

“What about you, though?” You asked, glancing down to the noticeable tent.

“I’ll be fine, I promise. We still have two more lessons. There’s plenty of time for that later,” he replied, though the bulge between you seemed to say otherwise.

“Promise you’re okay?” You insisted.

“I swear, Y/N,” he said with a chuckle.

A comfortable silence fell between you after that, and you couldn’t help the wide smile that spread across your face. Your eyes sparkled with renewed purpose, and you felt satisfied for the first time in a long time. A smile of Mat’s own slowly appeared on his face as he watched you light up before him. Before you could stop yourself, you threw yourself into him, wrapping your arms tightly around his neck.

“Thank you, Mat. Thank you, thank you, thank you,” You said happily, punctuating each ‘thank you’ with a loud smacking kiss on his cheek.

When you pulled back to give him that award-winning smile again, Mat had one thought.

He was totally fucked.

#mat barzal #nhl imagines #hockey imagines #nhl smut #mat barzal imagine #my writing #isles13

[sidigtal-anim]

The Owl House, Season 2 Speculation

New Year, New Speculations! In the middle of the season, Owl House Season 2 is still over the horizon, and many fans (myself included) are clamouring for even the slightest bit of info. Whether its episode titles, how many episodes, a release date, etc. Many are excited for the prospect of Season 2, confirmed two months ahead of the series’ premiere!

Season 1 left many things unresolved, yet still found itself to be satisfying in some aspects. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does leave excitement for more episodes. This post will talk abou three main areas: character development and their anticipated arcs, the main plot introduced, and smaller side plots incorporated in Season 1.

I’m more of a casual Owl House fan, but I enjoy speculating about what is to come. So if I missed anything, let me know!

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR SEASON ONE OF “THE OWL HOUSE”

Let’s begin, shall we?

Character Development and Anticipated Arcs

Luz and Amity – Obviously one of the most exciting and anticipated arcs in a very long time, since all main character queer relationships canonically happen towards the end of the series, either as a result of censorship or queerbaiting. One good and the other not as much.) From their rough first meeting at Hexside all the way to playing on the same Grudgby team, we’ve seen their relationship naturally bloom in the first season. There’s definitely gonna be tensions with the Blight family, but that falls more under plot.

Eda and Lilith – Nothing says interpersonal drama more than a complicated sibling relationship. At the end of Season 1, Lilith shares the curse with Eda after helping them escape Belos’ imprisonment. I don’t believe that they will have a happy go-lucky relationship from the start of Season 2, but I do believe that they are on the path to bettering themselves and each other. Possibly an introduction of their parents (as introduced at the end of “Covention”) but perhaps not.

Willow & Gus – Perhaps one of the more frustrating parts of The Owl House personally. Willow and Gus have very little character development for themselves in Season 1. Other episodes that focus on them were mainly narrative devices to further develop other characters. e.g. 115 - “Understanding Willow” although being about Willow, was mainly a means to develop Amity, Luz and introduce the Blight Family drama, therefore developing Amity’s arc further rather than develop Willow herself. I think it is fine for a first season to prioritise which characters to show, and which to set up for later on. My hopes for Season 2 is that they will have their own development outside of being used to further other forefront characters. 

Main Plots Introduced

Emperor Belos

The Magic of Belos

The Refueling – In 118 - “Agony of a Witch”, when Lilith enters Belos’ chambers for the first time, we see him ragged and tiredly hunched over his throne gasping for air. To rejuvenate himself, he takes what seems to be a Palisman broken from their staff and cuts it open, revealing a green goo-like energy. He drips it into his eyes, supposedly giving him power.

Witch’s Wool Cape – The Witch’s Wool Cape is the cape that Eda made for Luz in 118 - “Agony of a Witch” and Luz is seen wearing it in 119 - “Young Blood, Old Souls”. What remains interesting about this is what Eda specifically says about it (”It repels powerful spells. Every Witch worth their salt has a cloak like this!”) and how Belos is able to use powerful magic against Luz to slam her into the wall during their fight sequence. Does this mean Belos is using a different type of magic? Or is his magic far more powerful than the Witch’s Wool can withstand?

The Titan of the Boiling Isles & Belos’ Propaganda – The Titan is technically canon and true. In Belos’ throne room, we see his throne just under a very large beating heart. However, it’s not clear if Belos in actuality is able to speak to the Titan, or if he’s trying to maintain order and rule.

The Spy of Belos – This is more of a minor plot introduced at the very end of 119 - “Young Blood, Old Souls”, but Belos speaks to Kikimora and shows a spy wearing a Palace guard uniform and a mask that somewhat resembles Hooty.

The Portal to the Human World – This remains one of the greater mysteries of Belos, as the finale shows him to want access to the human world, yet the show does not say why. Perhaps his goal is to somehow liberate the world by the actual word of the Titan, or he wants to take over the human world under the disguise of being able to speak to the Titan. Either way, it leads to the Human World being taken over by Belos.

Hexside Academy & The Mono-Coven System – The addition of Luz is interesting, as she and the other previous members of the Detention track all have multi-coven learning. Previous to that, Eda was the only real exception who was not a part of a coven and using “Wild Magic”. It leaves the question if Belos’ tolerance for a blatant disregard for his system in Hexside will be brought to light, and how he may try to enforce his rule.

Luz Noceda

The Portal & Returning Home – The only real way for Luz to return home is through Belos’ makeshift portal, since she destroyed Eda’s original portal to protect the human world from Belos.

Letters to Luz’s Mom – A big mystery is who is sending Luz’s mom the letters pretending to be her from Boring Camp in “Enchanting Grom Fright”? Theories have been swirling around of it being Eda, Emperor Belos or even a new representative in the human world with the ability to carry out Belos’ plans. The question now is if the sender is actually from the Boiling Isles, how did they send the messages? If using the portal, only Eda has the ability. Belos has lost actual access to the portal, so he isn’t a contender. The mystery looms over us.

Learning Magic & Connecting to the Boiling Isles – As of now, Luz knows four spells: Light, Ice, Plant, and Fire. She has been able to connect with the Island to use magic in her paper method, and the finale showed it was the connection to and magic of the Boiling Isles which allowed her to use the magic. There are a number of Covens and spells she has yet to learn, which also leads with her own journey to self-confidence and found family. 

Eda, Lilith & The Curse

The Curse – By the end, the curse is worsened. If not for Lilith sharing the curse with Eda, the curse would have taken over Eda and she would have been lost forever. But now with the elixir no longer working halfway through the season, they must find another way to undo the magic binding them to this transformation. 

Luz’s Paper Method of Magic – Eda and Lilith are unable to do any more typical magic using their biological functions, but Luz offers to teach them her Paper technique of using magic. Eda tries and it shows that she is able to use the Light spell at the least.

Hooty - I stan Hooty! There I said it! But this is more than just me irrationally stanning the best biord house, there’s actual interesting potential in the mythology behind Hooty. First of al,l as the titular character of “The Owl House” we know nothing about how he came into existence. We don’t know his past with Eda, nor how Eda, King and him came together. Potentially after Eda was cast as an outsider, but nothing specific yet.

The Blight Family

Amity (Personal Journey) – Amity has shown to have struggled with her family, more specifically limitation by her parents and an extent of harassment by her siblings. This would also factor in several plots, such as: Belos and the mono-Coven system, Luz and her relationship with Amity, Willow and Amity, Basha, and several other related threads. I believe that the Blight Family will appear more plot related than just simply being character focused for Amity alone.

Side Plots

These are the mini plots introduced and have yet to be touched upon again.

King’s Species of the Demons –  In 104 “The Intruder” where we first learn of Eda’s curse, King speaks of his species: a group of which we haven’t seen yet. He says their weaknesses are purified water and passive-aggressive comments. We haven’t seen any other characters quite like King, so that’s something to look forward to.

The Magical Capabilities of Luz, Willow and Gus – In 106 “Hooty’s Moving Hassle” where Luz, Willow and Gus animate the Owl House with chicken legs, Eda says at the end “...[to animate a whole house.] That would take some powerful magic.” Meanwhile showing Amity and Basha’s five-person friend group unable to conjure a doll. If Amity is shown to be an exceptionally powerful witch unable to do a conjuring spell, it leaves a question of how powerful the trio actually is...

Azura Book Club – Lumity fans know the Azura book club, a.k.a Gen-Z’s way of figuring out if people are gay. (I’m half joking here.) But the Azura Book Club was mentioned last in 112 “Adventures in the Elements” and not touched upon again. 

Mattholomule, Gus and the Human Appreciation Society (H.A.S) - This isn’t that important, but Gus has been known for being very into human mythology and lore. Mattholomule is the Leader of H.A.S, but it still remains the question if Gus is still a part of it and trying to combat Mattholomule’s ridiculous human mythos to be liked.

The Palisman – There’s quite a bit surrounding this one so it forms into two topics.

The Bat Queen – A very interesting character appearing only twice (”Lost in Language”, and “Escape of the Palisman”) before never being mentioned again for the whole season. The Bat Queen has her children, as well as the protection of the abandoned Palisman by irresponsible Witches. Luz also leaves an open-ended offer to help the Bat Queen search for her original Owner. Perhaps the Titan was the Bat Queen’s original owner, or possibly a giant before the reign of Emperor Belos since she did mention it had been far too long to remember.

Palisman of the Main Cast – With the introduction of the Palisman, it leaves the question of when Luz, Willow, Amity, and Gus will get their own Palisman and which animal they would have. Luz has been shown to have the ability to use non-paper magic when in possession of a Palisman (”Young Blood, Old Souls”), so it could prove an interesting loophole for Luz to be flexible with the methods of magic she uses.

That concludes the speculation! As these are my own thoughts and opinions, I’d love to hear your speculations! Thank you for reading!

#the owl house #hooty #luz #luz noceda #amity #amity blight #lumity #willow #gus #The Owl House season 2 #eda clawthorne #king #disney

[the-endless-storm]

Crown Tundra review after about 5 hours of playing.

SPOILERS obviously

I don’t know if I can get a keep reading insert to work as Tumblr seems to have removed the option to add one, so you might just have to scroll down.

[[MORE]]

SPOILERS START

Cut scene, cut scene, cut scene, cut scene, cut scene. No surprise as Pokemon games have had more and more as they go on, but you literally get off the train into a cut scene that requires you to take a few steps forward straight into a new cut scene. They don’t stop.

Peony is annoying as hell.

The Raid Den is ok I guess (you have no choice but to do one first before you can continue with the game). But like any other max raid, it is going to be more fun with friends taking part rather than trying to do it all on your own with rubbish NPCs.

Calyrex' storyline isn’t anything special, is too predictable and to be perfectly honest the design of Calyrex and the horses (I've only seen the one I picked but I assume) is really poor and looks rushed.

Crown Tundra was reported to be bigger than Isle of Armour, but I’m really not feeling it. Every area only has one access point, whereas IoA you could get to a different place from various directions. It feels quite compact.

Don’t get me started on the invisible barrier in the sea.

Still no level progression if you're playing far post game. I’m level 90+, legendaries are still only level 70.

Cosmog given as a gift for no reason.

If a legendary faints, you can try again as many times as you want. In my day if a legendary fainted that was it, game over, you lost your chance. Making them reset each time takes away any challenge in catching them.

They should have put Braille puzzles in for the regi's, instead there is a single clue on the temple door that is pretty damn obvious what you need to do. No need for a super rare Relicanth and Wailord (not that either is rare in Crown Tundra).

If you're not interested in Legendary Pokemon, there's really very little of interest here.

On the plus side: The roaming encounters for the Bird trio is pretty fun. I’ve only encountered Zapdos so far, and chasing it was actually a challenge. They look great too, the little cut scene where they fight was more entertaining than any other battle in the game.

I love seeing all the fossil Pokemon roaming around.

I have missed seeing Zubats in a cave.

SPOILERS END

#pokemon #crown tundra

[marvelslut16]

Immortal

Pairing: Hades x reader 

Synopsis: During the curse that turned the Beast into, well a beast, his sister was sent to the Underworld to fall in love with Hades. But after he’s cruelly ripped away from her and banished to the Isle, will they be able to pick back up where they left off?

Word count: 1706 (it’s a short one today)

Warnings: Descendants 3 spoilers, obviously. There might be a swear word in there, I’m too lazy to reread the entire thing. 

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young prince lived in a shining castle. Although he had everything his heart desired, the prince was spoiled, selfish, and unkind. He had a twin sister who was not as easily persuaded by her surroundings. She became a bit cynical yes, but she was never cruel. She spent her days with the servants and the evenings partying with her brother and his guests. 

But then, one winter's night, an old beggar woman came to the castle and offered the prince a single rose in return for shelter from the bitter cold. Repulsed by her haggard appearance, the prince sneered at the gift and turned the old woman away, but she warned him not to be deceived by appearances, for beauty is found within. The princess tried to convince her brother to let the poor old woman stay, but he refused to listen. And when he dismissed her again, the old woman's ugliness melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress.  

The prince tried to apologize, but it was too late, for she had seen that there was no love in his heart, and as punishment, she transformed him into a hideous beast, and placed a powerful spell on the castle, and all who lived there. Ashamed of his monstrous form, the beast concealed himself inside his castle, with a magic mirror as his only window to the outside world.  The rose she had offered was truly an enchanted rose, which would bloom until his twenty-first year.  If he could learn to love another, and earn her love in  return by the time the last petal fell, then the spell would be broken.  If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast for all time.  As the years passed, he fell into despair, and lost all hope, for who could ever learn to love a beast?

The princess received a different fate. She was sent to the Underworld and forced to spend time with Hades. If the Prince couldn’t find love he was cursed to be a beast forever, but if the Princess found love she would gain immortality and stay with Hades forever. If they did not fall in love by the time of her twenty-first birthday, she would be sent back to live out her days with her beast of a brother in an empty castle. Who could ever love the God of the Underworld?

--

As the years pass, Hades starts to grow on the Princess, somewhere in their late night chats and him playing rock songs on the guitar for her, she fell in love. Believe it or night, it was a lot easier for the God to fall in love, which he did within the first few months. The Princess was never cruel to him, unlike the others, and she never judged him. She didn’t approve of some of his actions, which she would make known, but that never changed her view of him or how she acted with him. 

The day they finally spoke their feelings was, ironically, the day before the last petal fell above ground. As soon as the words were spoken, the Princess felt lighter, and she had a glow to her. She was immortal, the Goddess of the Underworld, meant to stand by Hades side for all eternity. But that didn’t happen. 

When her brother was finally turned back into a man, the Princess and Hades were magically transported to the castle to take part in the celebration. The Princess was happy for her brother, happy that he had matured and finally learned to love. However, the Prince was not at all happy with the God his sister had fallen in love with, and he vowed to find a way to separate them. He knew that his sister deserved better. 

But all of this was years ago, so it’s water under the bridge, right? Wrong. 

--

Ben had the commons sense and decency to start bringing the villain's kids over to Auradon. But that did nothing to heal your heart from the betrayal you felt from your brother. Nothing could stop the pain you felt in your chest when you looked in the mirror everyday and saw your ageless face.

But today was a day for celebration, Ben and Mal were having their engagement party. While others saw their proposal as rushed and too quick, you didn’t. You knew how strong a love could, and should be, and how fast that love could be ripped away from you. Mal was in the midst of a speech advocating for taking better care of those on the Isle, because being on a certain side doesn’t automatically make you good or bad. Go her. 

“Without the help from Hades, my father,” whatever followed Mal’s confession, you never heard. You stumbled backwards and grabbed onto the railing of the balcony, the remaining pieces of your heart crumbling. 

You look over at Beast and Belle, who were looking at you with sad expressions. There is no shock on their faces, they knew. They knew and they kept it from you! The love of your life, who they shipped off with little care for your feelings, had moved on. He moved on with, and had a kid with, Maleficent. You just weren’t evil enough for him, apparently. 

Everything goes by so quickly when you don’t pay attention, because before you knew what was happening, that barrier was being taken down. I can’t do this, you think to yourself. I can’t see him happy with someone else. 

But when he finally walked across the bridge, in all of his leather clad glory, the broken pieces of your heart started to race. He looked better than you remember, a little dirtier, but even more handsome.

You’re at war with yourself, your heart is telling you to go see him while your mind is telling you to run far away. You’re heart ultimately wins over, and your legs take you over to where Ben, Mal, and Hades are standing. You walk behind Ben, and Hades’s glare he was sending Ben instantly soften when he sees you.

 “Hades,” you give him a small nod. 

“Hades, this is my aunt (Y/N),” Ben introduces. 

“Believe me,” Hades smirks. “I know. You haven’t aged a day sweetheart.”

“Well that’s what happens when your immortal,” you shrug like it’s nothing.

“What?” Ben and Mal ask in unison. 

“I see you moved on,” you ignore the kids. “Mal is a lovely girl.”

“There’s a big difference between moving on and having things to do,” Hades defends.

“What are you two talking about?” Ben looks between you two. 

“There’s a lot you don’t know about son,” you tense as Beast walks up behind you. “You know about my half of the curse, but you don’t know about your Aunt’s.”

“I was sent to the Underworld,” you turn and look at your nephew. “Your father was the monster someone had to fall in love with, and I had to fall in love with a monster. If we fell in love I would become immortal and get to spend the rest of eternity with Hades. We were enjoying our time in the Underworld until he was sent off to the Isle, and I was brought here.”

“We tricked them,” Beast admits..

“Who tricked them?”  Belle frowns. 

“I tricked them,” Beast corrects. “I told (Y/N) to bring Hades to a family dinner to catch up. When we were sitting down to eat, I had my guards handcuff him and drag him off to the Isle. He was the first one over there.”

“You didn’t even let me say goodbye,” you glare at your brother. “I would have never done that to you and Belle, you were still as heartless as when you got cursed.” 

“Love,” Hades frowns. “You don’t really mean that.”

“I do!” you glare harder at your brother. “It’s all your fault Beast, I wanted a happy life. I wanted children! I wanted my own daughter, one that could have come up from the underworld and been good friends with Ben.”

“You still could have had children,” Beast defends, although he looks taken aback by your anger.

“How could I have done that?” you laugh. “The love of my life was shipped off to the Isle because of you. If I wanted to have a child with someone else, which I didn’t, the child would then be part mortal. There’s a strong chance that I would have outlived them, I would be forced to watch my child die because of their mortality.”

“You really wanted kids?” Hades slips his arm around your waist, pulling you into his side.

“Yes,” you look up at him through your eyelashes. 

“With me?” he tightens his hold.

“Of course I wanted them with you, you big idiot.” 

“We still could,” he has a dreamy look in his eyes, a look that you wouldn’t expect from him if you hadn’t spent years by his side. 

“Maleficent-” he cuts you off.

“And I were never in love. Nobody could replace you (Y/N). They’d be stupid to even try.”

“I love you,” you admit softly, forgetting that there’s an audience. 

“I love you too. And I’ll keep loving you until the day after forever,” you laugh, before grabbing his leather jacket and pulling him in for a kiss. The rush of feelings that swept through you, almost knocked you off your feet. Or maybe it was the fact that Hades always made your knees weak, either way his arms tightened around you and kept you close. Your hands ventured into the hair at the base of his neck, the flames tickled you fingers.  

“Marry me?” Hades asks as he pulled back for air.

“You always said it was just a stupid piece of paper, that we didn’t need it,” you play along with his joke.

“Well I want it,” he admits truthfully, causing your eyebrows to furrow in confusion. “I’m yours and your mine, and I want it on that stupid piece of paper.” 

“Yes,” you whisper through the tears you didn’t know were sitting just below the surface. Hades picks you up and twirls you around, everything was back to normal. Better even.

#descendants hades #hades #hades x reader #descendants #Descendants 2 #descendants imagine #descendants 3 #Hades imagine

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I thought about every episode of The Owl House Season 1 (Part 1/2)

Salutations random people on the internet who probably won't read this. I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

Hey, do you miss Gravity Falls?

...

Yeah, I know, dumb question. Which is why I have good news! Not only is there a new series that is just as good as Gravity Falls, but in some ways, it's even better. That new series would be none other than Disney Channel's latest hit: The Owl House.

The Owl House, slowly but surely, became my new obsession since Eda reacted to decapitation with an unconcerned, "I hate when that happens." I wrote fan-fiction, made fan-art, and even began to separately review new episodes. Unfortunately, I got in a little late in the reviewing game and only managed to analyze the last four episodes of season one. And like an idiot, I promised that I'll review the rest when they came out on Disney+. Seeing that all of the first season has finally come on a legal streaming service (which means WATCH IT RIGHT NOW!), it's time I finally saw through to that promise. However, I'm not going to over-analyze each episode because that would be insane. So instead, we're going to lightning round these suckers. Because it's my Tumblr, and I get to decide what I review and how the hell I review it...hooah.

Which means this is your last chance to avoid spoilers if you haven't seen The Owl House yet. Seriously, it's a great show, and you can catch up right now on Disney+. A week-long trial is more than enough time to watch the series, so DO IT! With that out of the way, let's get started with:

“A Lying Witch and a Warden”: This episode gets a lot of flack for having poor pacing and being too preachy with its message. And to that, I say...you're not wrong. Yeah, I wish I could be that person who can defend this episode against criticism like that, but these are understandable problems that just left this icky feeling in my tum-tum when watching. But that's only when looking at it as a regular old episode when in reality, people need to see it as a first episode. The first episode in any show needs to get viewers interested enough to continue watching by answering these five essential questions: What's the plot of the show? What's the tone? Who are the main characters? What's the world they live in? And what are the rules of the same world? "A Lying Witch and a Warden" does a great job of answering all of these questions. And if you stuck around until the season finale, then that means it did a great job of keeping you interested in sticking around as well. So seeing how it got its job done, albeit, with mixed results, I give this episode a B-.

“Witches Before Wizards”: Don't mind me. Just reveling in the fact that Luz escaped to a fantasy world to avoid Reality Check Camp, only to get a reality check anyway. Because that's what this episode is in a nutshell. Through the "quest" that Luz goes on, she learns two important lessons: One, don't trust strangers who offer you something nice and shiny (bonus points for Eda warning Luz to avoid men with sandals and then have Ategast wear sandals). And two, there is no such thing as having a predetermined destiny. I love the idea that Luz coming to the Isles was just a twist of fate, and everything that happens afterward is pure dumb luck. And that moment when Eda gave a speech about making your own path instead of waiting to become something special? That was the moment when I went from thinking this was going to be a fun show to thinking it's going to be a great show. So consider this episode a solid A in my book.

“I Was a Teenage Abomination”: How is it possible for an episode to get better and worse with time? Because here's the thing: This episode does a great job of showing how perfect Amity's development is. After one single season, it already feels jarring, seeing the way she acts in certain scenes. However, in that same respect, it's the same reason why this episode got worse. I didn't mind that Willow practically got away with cheating and vandalizing the school with her magic because she and Luz were basically trying to show up a two-dimensional bully. But knowing what we know in the future, it does seem unfair that Amity gets punished for their bad behavior and Willow got little consequences for it. Sure, Luz got banned and had to work at gaining Amity's trust, but what about Willow? Although, despite this complaint, I don't really hate this episode. It builds a believable connection between Luz and her friends, and the B-plot King and Eda show off their budding friendship. So while this episode is a C-, it's a somewhat enjoyable C-.

“The Intruder”: Is it weird for anyone else that King gets most of the blame in this episode? Yes, he took the potion, but Luz was the one who kept pushing him. This is why it never sat right with me seeing how everyone, including himself, blames King for this episode's incident. That being said, "The Intruder" is fantastic. Eda, as the Owl Beast, is legitimately threatening, and the way the episode treats Eda's curse like a chronic illness is actually kind of sweet. It teaches kids how this is something that just happens to people, and they're not any weaker because of it, as long as they take the right steps. Which is cool, and it's why this is another solid A episode for me. Sure King getting the blame bothers me, but it pales in comparison to everything else “The Intruder” does right.

“Covention”: If you want my personal opinion (obviously, seeing how you're reading this), "Covention" is the perfect episode to show a friend to get them into watching the The Owl House. Everything there is to love about the show is seen in just these twenty-two minutes. Eda being a chaotic good, Luz being a sweet and understanding character, some incredible/natural world-building, an actually decent B-plot, an epic fight scene, great comedy, and, my personal favorite, the building of Luz and Amity's relationship. In fact, this episode has the most quintessential moment between these two, that Dana Terrace herself took charge of making the animatic for it. A scene that is so perfect that you can do an analysis of these few minutes alone...which is what I did. Click here to read it! "Covention" gets an A+ in my book and might possibly be the best episode of the season. Maybe even the series!

“Hooty’s Moving Hassle”: There's not really a lot I can say about this episode. I don't hate it, but I'm not exactly in love with it. The interactions between Luz and her friends are adorable, and there are a few good jokes that kept me laughing. But the story is kind of bland, and I just find Eda's sudden obsession with Hexes Hold'em kind of odd. Especially since a card game is what nearly defeated the "undefeatable" Owl Lady. If it wasn't for the nice reveal of Willow's and Amity's friendship (which comes into play in a far better episode), I'd say that you could skip this one on future rewatches. Because this is a C grade episode that just doesn't grab me as well as others.

“Lost in Language”: Ah, yes. The episode that made dozens of fans jump aboard the Lumity ship...unless you're like me, and you've been shipping these two since the show's theme song (And I don't know why, either. It's just the second I saw Amity my first thought was, "Oh, honey. You're gonna fall in love with the main character, aren't you?" AND I WAS F**KING RIGHT!). But jokes about shipping aside, "Lost in Language" is a fantastic episode. It has a great lesson about how people are more complex than their first impressions (Or to not judge a book by its cover, if you wanna stay on theme). Edric and Emira seem like a chaotic duo who cause mischief all for good fun. But Luz, as well as the audience, learns that Ed and Em are kinda the worst (they get better in future episodes, but still). Then there's Amity, who hasn't had the best first impressions in the last few episodes. We got glimpses of a good person here and there, but for the most part, that's all they were. Glimpses. Then there's this episode, which gives us more than a small look, but some actual insight into who Amity really is. Better yet, who she wants to be. It's something that I appreciate about The Owl House in that it wastes no time in developing Amity's character. So much so that I can forgive this episode for shoehorning a "Two idiots and a baby" plotline that does nothing but add maybe two minutes of padding. So yeah, it's an A+ for sure.

“Once Upon a Swap”: "Ugh! It's the body swap episode! How cliche and-" SHUT UP! Shut your mouth, and listen: Something being cliche does not always make it bad. Only when the cliche fails to tell an entertaining story does it have the right to work as a complaint. "Once Upon a Swap" may have a cliche premise, but it's still an enjoyable story (or stories) with great laughs and even some ok lessons. I can understand if you hate the episode because its premise is something you've seen a dozen times to the point where your sick of it. My most hated story idea is the "Character A saves Character B, and Character B becomes a life slave." If you have seen this story once, you've seen it a thousand times, and it's the same case with a "body swap" episode. But guess what: The Owl House is a kids' show. Kids'. Show. You can complain all you want about predictability, but kids are the type of viewers who will be new to this experience, despite if it's one that is done to death. Which is why this is solid B of an episode if you ask me.

“Something Ventured, Someone Framed”: Can people please stop shipping Gus with Mattholomule? Because that slimy, greasy, weaselly little son of A BASTARD BITCH WEASEL DOES NOT DESERVE LOVE IN WAY POSSIBLE!

...

But enough about how Mattholomule is the worst character ever, because "Something Ventured, Someone Framed" is a B+ in my opinion. Sure it shows the worst side of Gus and lets Satan's little herpe win in the end, but there is still quality to be had. We get insight into who Gus is as a character, on top of Eda swallowing her pride and cleaning the school so Luz can get into Hexide. Also, Eda's permanent record was the first time this show brought me to tears due to laughing so hard. So while I have to take points off for the inclusion of Mattholomule (I don't make the rules. I just live by them), this is still an episode I wouldn't mind revisiting.

“Escape of the Palisman”: I subscribe to this theory that Luz will one day have Eda's staff as her own. And episodes like this that strengthen the bond between Luz and Owlbert help confirm that theory. Luz's dedication to trying to make things right could just be part of her kind nature, but I like to believe that this is Dana and the crew trying to set up this possible outcome. As for what I think about the episode itself...it's ok. Again, Luz's dedication is nice to see, and King's adventure with Owl Beast Eda is somehow insanely adorable, but there's not really much to say other than that. So it's another B episode for me.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And that’s the end of part one! Part two has probably already been posted by the time you finish this, so you can go ahead and find that if you’re interested.

#the owl house #the owl house review #what i thought about

[jacks4eva]

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS :

a mini rant

tahereh mafi if you ever see this i’m so sorry and i love your books

I really hate to do this and I’ve been putting it off but I’m honestly disappointed in imagine me. It had it’s good moments don’t get me wrong but the progression and the end didn’t feel like the end? I mean they’ve built up the reestablishment so much, and the ending was just a disappointment. I had this whole theory that the reestablishment had planned on putting Emmaline into Warner’s body, I mean why else would Anderson at the end of Defy me talk to Warner about how he was strong enough for something? Instead, Anderson laughs off the idea when warner wants to sacrifice himself, steals Ella, takes away her memories and makes her into his lil slave that is creepy because Juliette is attracted to him.

If I had written the last book, Emmaline wouldn’t have messed with Ella’s mind because Ella is Emmaline’s only hope and her sister and instead they take a small group to go steal Emmaline away or kill her. They go back to oceania but find out the reestablishment took Emmaline to a different continent, and during their failed attempt at rescuing her, Warner gets taken because he had separated from the group to do something. Ella was the one to start going quiet, and it scares Kenji.

Warner and Emmaline are in Nazeera’s city, and Nazeera knows this because of how closely her father was working on this. She, Ella, Kenji, Stephan, and Haider go. Haider can’t stop going on about he’s saving his best friend, and Stephan can’t stop telling them all how dangerously stupid the plan is considering there is none. A day after they make it to the same city and hide out, Ella abandons them all to go find Warner. Kenji was with Nazeera and she showed him around the city and good places to disappear at (her favorite places) and when they get back she’s gone and he’s not surprised but pissed.

This whole time they’ve been wearing Emmaline down to get her brain level down to make the transfer and they’ve been preparing Warner’s body for it too. While he’s been going through surgeries, he sees Adam and they’re thrown in the same cell because together their powers are utterly useless, and they get some brotherly development. Adam starts to finally understand Warner, and when Anderson goes to take Warner away to have his body switched, Adam turns Anderson’s power off. Warner realizes he can feel this because his energy is turned off, and Warner kills Anderson in some interesting way idk. Warner and Adam start to run but Ibrahim kills Adam, shoots him right beside Warner. Warner tries to kill Ibrahim but Ella’s dad sedates him with a tranq.

Warner is unconscious, and they’re trying to make the transfer because Ella is killing her way through the facility thanks to Emmaline and her powers obviously. Kenji and Nazeera hear about it because the city goes on lockdown, and they bring the four of them to go help Ella. Ella finds Warner, but she thinks no one is with him and Emmaline, and Emmaline warns her to stay back. Her father comes out of hiding, holds a gun at her but he’s shaking cause he knows it won’t work and he’s scared of her. Emmaline warns her that someone is behind her, Ella mortally injures Ibrahim by like choking him and tossing him across the room. Warner starts to wake up as the transfer is starting to happen and he’s in a lot of pain, and Ella threatens her father to make it stop. He refuses at first, believing someone would carry on his work and if Ella wanted it to stop she would have to kill him so it would be fair that she’d have to without him as he had to live without her mother. Ella asks what if she killed Emmaline, and he goes quiet before he starts trying to guilt her into not killing Emmaline but Emmaline is begging her to.

Ella tosses her father away and puts him unconscious. She turns on her touch killing power and kills Emmaline while showing her every one of her favorite memories with her, and she cries but Emmaline thanks her. When Emmaline dies, Warner goes quiet and Ella thinks for a second maybe they were connected in some way and she killed them both but he is okay. He stands up and kinda weakly goes over to her and they kiss and fussy reunion, but boom Ella’s dad says sike I’m still alive and claims he’s not letting them walk out of there alive because he hates Ella for killing his wife. He shows them he has a button that will send the city to the ground, because it turns Ella basically into that atom bomb and as he’s about to press it Nazeera while flying plucks it out of his hand, and Kenji punches him over and over again because Ella told him what he had done to her.

Nazeera and Haider see their father, and go quiet but they know it was what had to happen, and they give him words of peace as he dies. The four were all hurt because they had been keeping soldiers from interfering with Ella and Warner, and they all sorta just limped out of the building. They see the normal sky for the first time and Haider and Kenji cry, even though Kenji hides it very well.

Ella and Warner establish a base where they and the people they trust work to destroy what’s left of the reestablishment. They work slowly as they tear away leaders and help the people recuperate so they can establish their own, it doesn’t show this much but the epilogue shows them coming back from one of these missions almost late for their own wedding. (You can’t tell me they wouldn’t be.) It ends on Ella seeing Warner at the end of the isle and flashes back and forth to a time when they had played wedding as children and to their own real wedding, ending on I do.

Anyway yeah, that’s how I would’ve written it and I’m not Tahereh so maybe it’s uncalled for for me to try to claim that’s not how it should have went. But the whole time it felt like some bizarre fanfiction, with the andersette thing and warner moving back in his character development and the warner fanclub (though that I am very glad exists) but the little girl being killed and Juliette sees Adam, and then he never gets brought up again? I hate the guy trust me I do but how you gonna bring up his sacrifice for his brother like that and not use him but once to test Juliette’s memory? He was stupid doing it but it’s like Tahereh set up so many plot twists and lost inspiration and the book was too big so she cut out half of it.

#warnette #aaron warner #aaron and ella #tahereh mafi #juliette ferrars #imagine me spoilers #imagine me

[olympianfever]

sinnoh confirmed?

You cannot tell me otherwise so let’s have a chat

**If you have not played Isle of Armor yet and care about spoilers maybe don’t read...**

I was watching this video last night and it definitely brought up some very, very, VERY intriguing points. 

To sum it up: We’ve got the Japanese influence in a UK inspired region, we’ve got the discussion about a far out region, the sticky honey, and the vespiquen. All signs point to Sinnoh.

I would like to add a little bit more of my thoughts. Now obviously I can’t predict the future, but this seems like a bit much for this to all be coincidental and I’m just making connections because I think it’s fun hehe.

Maybe I just suck at paying attention, or maybe I’m reading too close, but that conversation about the sticky honey SOUNDED different. Don’t know what I mean? Please listen to this. 

That’s right--the music in that conversation sounds an awful lot like Sunyshore...

Now let’s talk about the contents of that conversation. Urshifu originated from mountains in a far off region. Last I checked, Sinnoh does indeed have a few fighting types located on Mt. Coronet. 

When I think of Mt. Coronet and the pokemon on it, the first ones I think of are Meditite and Medicham (ok and zubat but,,,not the time). Fighting type pokemon. Now for a slight stretch: the cave in Mt. Coronet has two main elements to it. Darkness and Water. Those are what the towers in isle of armor are based upon. Yeah, yeah, what about rocks? Irrelevant in my opinion oops sorry.

**Side note: THE EVIDENCE IS DAMNING. Sorry. I am indeed playing Isle of Armor as I type. Picked something up and guess what it was. OLD GATEAU. For those of you who haven’t been playing pokemon for very long, that is an item that comes from a prominent lore location called the Old Chateau in Eterna Forest. Located in, guess where...~*Sinnoh*~ Also, I found the old gateau located in the Forest of Focus, which is a spot you are going to be spending a lot of time in, so it’s very accessible and I think it’s that way for a reason. + the forest parallel. nice.**

You could say “well, what about the apricorns. Doesn’t that hint at Let’s Go Johto?” Sure, I suppose. But I think it might be there to throw us off. Or, alternatively, it’s an attempt at appeasement because of all the things we’ve lost with each new generation. I think if it were a real Johto hint, Kurt would be back. Connecting that with Azalea Town and slowpokes I guess you could make a slightly stronger argument, I just think that it would’ve been more prominent if it were a real Johto hint. (Note: I am in love with Johto. My first region, my home. I would leap to conclusions if I really truly saw any hints for it. I genuinely feel like I haven’t. [But seriously, imagine the sheer power an updated Johto game would have]). 

So that’s it I suppose. I’ve finished Isle of Armor and I genuinely do believe Sinnoh is next. We’ll just have to wait til Wednesday to find out.

#sinnoh #swsh #swsh dlc #gloria #hop #bede #leon #pokemon #pokespe #diamond #pearl #platinum #dppt #pokemon dppt #dawn #hikari #barry #victor #isle of armor #johto #kanto #hoenn #alola #galar #kalos #unova #grookey #rillaboom #cinderace #inteleon

[aion-rsa]

House of Dark Shadows: The Craziest Vampire Movie You’ve Never Seen

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This article contains House of Dark Shadows spoilers.

In 1970 House of Dark Shadows flipped the vampire subgenre on its head. While certainly a B-horror in the Hammer mold, this chiller wasn’t satisfied with one bloodsucker, or even two. Instead Dark Shadows would turn nearly its whole cast into the ravenous undead, indiscriminately slaughtering beloved heroes and heroines, not caring for a second that they were also the stars of a daytime soap opera—one that was appointment TV for millions of kids across America.

Clearly it was a different time. And therein lies its charm.

When the television series Dark Shadows premiered in 1966, it wasn’t an instant pop culture phenomenon. Creator Dan Curtis was savvy enough to see the appeal in a daytime melodrama draped in a Gothic aesthetic, but he didn’t yet have the necessary hook for his central character as she stepped off a train in New England. Sure, mysterious Victoria Winters (Alexandria Isles) would meet the Collins family, who more or less ruled over the town of Collinsport from their ancestral home of Collinwood, but the reason to stick around only came about a year into the series’ original run.

That eureka moment turned out to be the dapper and effortlessly suave Jonathan Frid. Cast as Barnabas Collins, the Canadian theater actor was initially hired for a single storyline (a set number of episodes) as the heavy: Barnabas was an ancient and forgotten vampire, who’d been buried alive like the family’s dirty little secret after a curse condemned him to drink blood in 1795. Now he was out and wreaking havoc by feasting on the locals and obsessing over Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott), whom he was convinced was the reincarnation of his lost love Josette—a fiancée who threw herself off a cliff in the 18th century rather than become Barnabas’ corpse bride.

It was morbid, obviously, but also romantic at a time when vampires were defined by the coldness of Christopher Lee or the goofiness of Scooby-Doo. Instead here was the most pitiable of creatures, one who doesn’t wish to be a vampire, and through impeccable manners and courtesies revealed a soft love for the Collins family, even when he preyed on them. Rather than create a great villain, Curtis inadvertently invented a tragic hero who audiences flocked to, both the typical daytime target demographic and also, surprisingly, kids and teenagers, who’d rush home from school to be lost in a melancholy land of eternal loves, ancient curses, and of course fangs.

Thus Dark Shadows became a blender for all things Gothic. Following in the success of Barnabas’ introduction, the series would go on to add ghosts, werewolves, séances, multiple stints of time travel, and one particularly devilish 18th century witch named Angelique (Lara Parker). It also appropriated every classic horror trope from Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, the Brontë sisters, and Edgar Allan Poe, and synthesized them for an audience that was now consuming it along with kid-friendly board games and trading cards.

So why not a movie, too? As early as 1968, Curtis began pursuing the idea of making a Dark Shadows movie, even while the series was still going. Eventually, House of Dark Shadows was the result. Released 50 years ago this week, this toothy amusement was the chance to do everything Curtis wanted with the series, but was prohibited from by Broadcast Standards and Practices censorship, budget constraints… and maybe even audiences’ good taste.

“Blood flows,” actor Roger Davis observed in The Dark Shadows Companion: The 25th Anniversary, which was edited by Scott. “It’s not like the serial. You have a few dabs of blood and the network brass have apoplexy. TV does a mock-up on life. This is in living color. And the vampires really bite.” 

Whereas Dark Shadows, the television show, was appointment TV for those still in middle school, House of Dark Shadows was aimed directly at the drive-in crowd with its emphasis on blood gushing from neck wounds and stakes violently going into almost every character’s heart. As Scott’s book surmised, the film was “entirely the child of its creator,” who would at last have his evil Barnabas. And at a glance, it is an American riff on what had already become kitsch by 1970 thanks to Hammer Film Productions’ seemingly endless line of Dracula movies, plus the knockoffs.

And to be sure, House of Dark Shadows is in many ways a Dracula movie. It’s also insight into how Curtis originally viewed the Barnabas character before Frid went on a charm offensive. Playing almost like a CliffNotes version of Barnabas’ first several storylines on the show, the vampire is awakened during the film’s opening moments because of the foolishness of groundskeeper Willie Loomis (John Karlen). Barnabas then forces poor old Willie to become his living slave and creates a fictitious narrative about being a distant cousin descended from the original Barnabas Collins, whom family lore claims sailed away to London in 1795, never to be heard from again.

Bringing back the “original” Barnabas’ family jewels to ingratiate himself, the Barnabas of 1970 is free to attend family gatherings, fix up an old ruined house on the estate, and even feed on cousin Carolyn (Nancy Barrett), a dear relative who becomes a dead ringer for Lucy Westenra in Bram Stoker’s famed novel. Even so, Carolyn cannot displace Maggie (still Scott) in Barnabas’ eyes, who he is sure is the reincarnation of Josette.

It very much has the narrative beats of a traditional vampire movie, but the charm that lingers a half-century later comes in part from seeing these actors, who are intimately familiar with their characters, going through the paces with better production values. That quality also manifests in Curtis’ sense of atmosphere, now liberated from the stage-bound quality of daytime drawing room drama. I would even argue House of Dark Shadows is one of the more satisfyingly atmospheric vampire movies to come out of the 1970s.

Curtis filmed in the upstate New York’s Tarrytown area, mostly on the actual Gothic Lyndhurst Estate, built in the 1830s, and shot much of the exteriors in the legendary Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Whereas Hammer films tended to rely increasingly on sets during this period, and most B horror movies had no budget for evocative locations, House of Dark Shadows was filming its sequences in between tours of the Lyndhurst Mansion and in the same atmospheric cemetery that helped birth the myth of a Headless Horseman.

Regarding the filming location, screenwriter Sam Hall remarked, “It’s a wild house. I’d hate like hell to live in it.” 

This is only accentuated by the fact Curtis knows how to drain a spooky location dry. Images like vampire Carolyn standing in a window, draped in white, beckoning her lover to become one of the damned is a better use of Lucy iconography than any Dracula movie made before House of Dark Shadows. And the film’s ending sequence reaches an operatic opulence rarely seen, even in vampire cheapies. Barnabas, bathed in a blue light and shrouded in inexplicable fog in the interior of his decrepit home, beckons Maggie, now in a wedding dress, toward him as the famous melody of Josette’s music box twinkles, only now in a weeping minor key.

The corruption of that wistful melody is intriguing. An original part of the Dark Shadows television series, Josette’s music box, and Frid’s soliloquies about it, is what first gave Barnabas his soul, distinguishing him from the general depravity of other pop culture vampires. One could even say Barnabas is the first significantly sympathetic male vampire in fiction. In House of Dark Shadows, he has a more sinister mean streak, but the pathos remains.

Hence why the film plays at times like a gonzo delight. It may feature the original, more wicked Barnabas, but it is still derived from the genteel series, and many of those elements carry over. Take Dr. Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall) spending half the movie trying to cure Barnabas, a subplot that eventually ends happily for the pair on the show, but less so here. It’s soapy pulp, yet it’s given as much stone-faced gravity as the Collinsport Police Department unquestioningly agreeing to patrol around town with standard issue police crucifixes. One might ask if they keep silver bullets in every squad car too?

The overall effect is bizarre, but endearingly so. It’s also fairly influential, as confirmed by what happened after Dan Curtis dropped Barnabas in favor of another vampire.

Read more

TV

Dark Shadows’ Witch Was As Influential As Its Vampire

By Tony Sokol

Movies

Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the Seduction of Old School Movie Magic

By David Crow

In 1974, following Dark Shadows’ cancellation, Curtis wrote and directed a Dracula TV movie for CBS that within its opening titles billed itself as “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” Far removed from Stoker’s novel, the little remembered television film nonetheless starred Jack Palance as the vampire, and introduced several significant elements to the story by overtly making Dracula an undead version of historical figure Vlad the Impaler (which he is not in the novel) and turning Lucy into the reincarnation of his great lost love.

Curtis was in essence trying to recast Dracula as Barnabas Collins. Like House of Dark Shadows, Curtis even sought to build a Gothic atmosphere by filming in real locations, albeit now Eastern Europe. The result was effective in those scenes, even if the rest of the movie failed in no small part because Palance could never wear the tragic cloak so well as Frid.

In spite of its shortcomings, many have fairly speculated on whether Curtis’ Dracula influenced James V. Hart, the screenwriter of Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Hart was certainly more successful at turning Dracula into a lovelorn prince, and Coppola made that idea permanent in the pop culture imagination. Yet, at the end of the day, they were still remaking the pop culture image of Dracula so as to be closer in line with Barnabas Collins, instead of the other way around.

I would even argue that Coppola’s film is closer in tone with Dark Shadows, at least in its romantic moments, than Tim Burton’s big budget Dark Shadows movie was in 2012. Burton of course attempted to avoid some of the mistakes of House of Dark Shadows, namely by keeping Barnabas as the good guy who is trying to save his family instead of ultimately destroying them, as well as retaining the other fan favorite character, the witchy Angelique (who like all other non-vampire elements was omitted from House of Dark Shadows). But Burton also played her and the whole concept as pure camp, making the Collins’ a subject of ridicule, and their problems a punchline.

Admittedly, there is something faintly camp about the 1960s daytime series and its ‘70s drive-in remake; plots turn on ludicrous developments like Julia falling in love with Barnabas, and then intentionally sabotaging his vampire cure when she realizes he loves a younger woman. But they were sold with absolute sincerity, and in the case of Frid, a palatable conviction.

House of Dark Shadows continues that conviction, no matter how batshit things become. Thus the ending where, accepting he’ll never be cured, Barnabas transforms family patriarch Roger Collins (Louis Edmonds) and even the film’s version of Van Helsing (Thayer David) into vampires. And we get to a finale so madcap that it turns “Renfield” into the last remaining hero. Madness, indeed.

Ironically, House of Dark Shadows was blamed by some for the eventual death of the series. Every character in the film, including Barnabas, had to be written out of the show, for some weeks at a time, so the actors could go shoot a movie upstate (another reason Angelique and other significant characters were left out). This correlated with some of the series’ weaker storylines that lost audiences’ attention.

Additionally, it’s believed parents who went with their children to see the movie in October 1970 were appalled by the amount of blood and sensual subtext in the film. As a result, some may have forbidden their kids from watching the series further… with the show getting cancelled in April 1971.

“The TV ratings fell after the movie,” Scott’s The Dark Shadows Companion revealed. “It has been suggested by some that House of Dark Shadows led to the series’ eventual demise. Perhaps it was the audience’s reaction to seeing their hero Barnabas in an evil light. Perhaps it was because parents attended House of Dark Shadows with their children and, seeing the amount of blood spilled across the screen, discouraged their children’s choice of television viewing material.”

Star Frid was even more unsparing in his final analysis.

“[The film] lacked the charm and naivete of the soap opera,” Frid said. “Every once in a while the show coalesced into a Brigadoonish never-never-land. It wasn’t necessary to bring the rest of the world into Dark Shadows, which is what the film did.”

Nevertheless, both the series and movie left a few marks on the throat of pop culture. The series certainly paved the way for more multidimensional portraits of vampires to be explored, opening the door for, yes, the Coppola Dracula movie, but also Anne Rice and True Blood. In fact, even if House of Dark Shadows might’ve been considered too brutal by parents in 1970, decades of pop culture refinement would find a way to make the sympathetic vampire archetype much more tolerable when instead of drinking from his cousin, he sparkled in the daylight and told his prey they needed to wait until marriage.

Without Barnabas, his series, and his slice of bananas role is House of Dark Shadows, we may never have gotten Lestat, Edward Cullen, or Gary Oldman’s Dracula. At least not as how we know them. Fifty years on, that’s a bloody good legacy for a daytime drama and a B-movie you’ve never seen.

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