#I don't think Luz would want MORE clones of her dead friends

[luminoushane]

Luz: my friends and girlfriend are dead, so I’m going to clone them back to life and everything will be fine! Now please Vee stay still, I need to harvest some organs from you.

Actually, the story is that Luz, desperate to get her friends back, practically begs the Collector to help them. Collector doesn't QUITE grasp the concept of mortality just yet, so he "fixes" them the way he saw Belos "fix" his broken Golden Guards.

So y'know! With a snap of his fingers, they just poofed into existence! Luz was horrified at the realization though.

That's actually why the grimsquad has more non-human traits! Collector doesn't really know how to perfectly "balance" the ingredients. Because of this, Mica and Iniko have more stonesleeper traits, and Hazel and Gareth have more selkidomus traits.

Of course, Collector regrets this after, y'know, having found out just what death means. Nobody in this AU gets to escape trauma.

[possessed-pack]

As a fictive of a temporary fusion of two characters, my identity is a little bit more complicated than most others in my system. This post will be me explaining my identity as a possessed Hunter fictive in a little more depth than I've done in the past.

Warnings: Spoilers for The Owl House up until and including season 3 episode 1, very brief mentions of abuse, very brief mentions of death.

In my memories, everything was canon compliant for the most part, up until a certain point. For needed context for those unfamiliar with the source, Belos is the main villain of the series and he had made Hunter as essentially a clone of his dead brother. Hunter was raised on the Boiling Isles--an alternate dimension to the human realm--by Belos as his "nephew". Hunter was mistreated and lied to about his origins, but he managed to get out and made friends with Luz and the rest of her group.

Eventually, the main group ended up stuck in the human realm, along with Belos, who then possessed Hunter and tried to hurt his friends. In my memories, we died in the fight immediately following the possession, and we ended up here in our system, still fused together--except it's not just Belos in control anymore, it's a weird amalgamation of both of us.

We're not a subsystem, because we're not separate at all, though in the beginning it was much closer to something along those lines. We'd only have one stream of thought at a time, but it'd be both of us thinking at the same time, though it didn't blend seamlessly together into a new person. Considering both of our different views on... Pretty much anything, I'd be arguing with my own thoughts in my brain a lot of the time and trying to figure out what I actually wanted. Responding to what people asked me took time, and it was overall unpleasant.

It was hard, especially because I couldn't separate into my two parts. I didn't know how and it just made things worse because it felt like my brain was constantly tearing itself apart, but nothing I could ever do would actually separate us. It hurt a lot, knowing that I was my own abuser and my own victim at the same time. And knowing that some people were going to be scared of me regardless of me still being part Hunter, because I was also the villain of the series and I did do terrible things also hurt a lot. I felt my existence itself was a contradiction and I was fighting with myself every waking moment to properly function.

Recently though, I've discovered that as time went on, I've become more separate from Hunter and Belos. I'm not either of them anymore, I'm Mal. I'm a new person, my own person separate from them, regardless of the fact that they made me who I am. I don't argue with myself, I have a new name, I didn't do all the horrible things that Belos did even though he's a part of me, I'm less stressed overall and I have separate interests to the both of them, even if some of those interests do overlap. Over time, things became much easier for me. It felt more like we were three people rather than two people stuck together, and it felt so much better to actually function that way.

We've been able to separate since. It happened during a particularly stressful period of time, but we separated, and my components changed their names to be Horizon (Hunter) and Bait (Belos). They were unstable being separate at first, finding it hard to exist as their own people after so long. In the beginning they were both scared of each other as well. Horizon was worried that Bait would want nothing to do with him anymore and that I would stop existing forever and my partners would be upset with him, and Bait was worried the same way. They did speak though, and they'd even consider each other friends now, despite their history.

Now we fuse and unfuse whenever we'd like, and all parts of who I am are stable. When they combine to make me, I still don't argue in my own thoughts, and when they separate, they're able to be their own people. I still feel as if people who know my source and are from it see my icon on Discord and avoid me, and as much as that does hurt, I know that I'm not my source and none of us--not even Bait--have done anything bad here.

Overall, we've really improved as a whole, despite our struggles. Our identity is still very complicated, but it at least isn't causing us any harm anymore.

[candyskiez]

for the toh ask game- 2, 12, 20?

2. Already put my first favorite, so let's do second! It's...honestly a tie. I know, I know, cop out. But I can't decide which I like more. The two I'm tied between are Willow and Hunter. They're just SOOO. God. I love them. Okay. I know Hunter is. Basic favorites wise, but I like him okay. He's such realistic abuse rep, realistic religious trauma rep, it's,,, man. Man. It's. God. He's just a guy who's trying so hard to be good and do the right thing that has the odds stacked against him. He's a little unhinged and not like, a perfect victim. He's mean, he drops uncomfortable details about himself not realizing he isn't supposed to, they show the messy parts of depression which is a fucking REFRESHER. Also I just. Have a thing for clones that find themselves. I have a thing for characters that grow beyond their programming. I like how they go "Actually, growing up believing you're the chosen one would, realistically, SUCK." He's also really fucking funny. He's a sad wet cat, he's an extremely complicated character, he's also a basic bitch. I love him. I want to put him in a washing machine. Fucking loser.

Tied with Willow! She's. Man. I didn't like her much at first, I just couldn't get into her. But I love her SO MUCH now. Seeing the "bullied girl gets stronger" trope except it acknowledges being bullied sticks with you for life, actually is so nice. I love how so much of her development and healing is from learning to stop repress her anger and her sadness. In her mind, people start liking her again when she's strong, so if she stops being strong NOBODY will like her. She equates half a witch Willow, being weak or sad or in anyway lacking, with losing Amity. If she isn't cool and confident, people don't want to be around her. If she slips up for a second, everyone hates her (in her mind.) She views her emotions as the remnants of "who she used to be" that ruined everything. Hell, she views Amity treating her like she's weak as treating her as who she used to be. Like half a witch Willow. Like someone who would deserve that treatment. She needs time to get used to her not being that pathetic anymore. It's INTERESTING. She's so interesting. Chews on her like a squeaky toy. She's everything to me. I love her.

12. Honestly? Difficult question. First one that pops into my mind is the "do not underestimate me" azura quoting, because god it is SUCH a Luz thing to quote her special interest as she kills the guy who wants her friends dead, love her. But what else hm. I think also Luz realizing her greatest want. It's so...man. Man. Because it explains so much about her. Why the camp hurt her so badly, why she immediately latched onto someone who seemed similar to her, why she wanted to have some set in stone path made specifically for her. It's also just such a beautiful scene. Camilia apologizing was SO FUCKING cathartic for me. Healed my inner child a little and I'm not joking. Having a parental figure apologize for trying to make their kid normal just. Healed something in me, man. It healed something in me. The egg hatching was animated so beautifully, the color scheme, Luz crying, it's so BEAUTIFUL. It's such a. Good fucking scene. Man. The neurodivergent generational trauma is so real and then breaking that....wah. Man. Hm what else. Honestly? The duet. It genuinely made me realize "oh hey if I'd die it'd probably affect people", and I know that sounds dumb but. In my defense I was really depressed when I saw that scene for the first time. It's so gorgeous visual wise, fantastic visual representation of what's going on, SO well done, the music is beautiful and always gets stuck in my head, it's just. Very memorable for me.

20. Hmmm, difficult. I think probably Willow and Amity and Hunter. Bullied kids, disabled kids, repressed rage and constant anxiety of being in an abusive household. The abandonment issues of losing a friend. It's just. A lot man. It's a lot. Yes I know this is also a cop out shh.

[friend0f0wlsandtitans]

I want to talk about this promo art a little bit

First, Luz. Right away I can sense her keeping to herself, pushing everyone out. Holding herself close as if she feels too scared to open up to anyone in the fear that they will abandon her. I've noticed that the way Luz deals with traumatic events is by first blaming herself, getting emotional, and then she gets angry and very protective, and then (from what I've seen from promo shots and art) she seems to be numb. She's bottled up her feelings for so long that she can't feel them correctly anymore. She always brushes off her own feelings to help other people and all that is catching up to her. Almost like when you grab a hose and block the water from coming out. It starts building up but you keep on squeezing it because you don't want to let go and let all those emotions out, but eventually they all start building up and it gets to be so much that it just bursts. I think that is exactly what has happened to Luz. She has shoved aside her feelings so many times that it just built up for months, maybe even years. And now she is having to deal with all of them. And it seems like her way of dealing with them is by isolation, pushing everyone away. What she needs is just someone to be there for her (also a lot of therapy). I speak from experience when I say that if she has someone that doesn't let her push them away, someone that will stick by her side even when she may get angry at them or just angry at the world in general, she will eventually be able to let them in. It takes time, a lot of time. But Luz has so many people around her who love her and are willing to listen, she just has to have the realization that these people won't hate her, that she can be her true self around them, that she doesn't have to push them all away. Now for Hunter To me it seems like he's scared, like he's in denial of his entire existence. And this definitely has to do with the fact he is a grimwalker, a clone. He feels like he's not his own person, he's having a full on identity crisis. It doesn't help that he is cloned after his abusers dead brother, though he doesn't know that yet. From the Season Three intro we now know that Hunter has now seen Celeb, the person he was cloned after. After seeing that he immediately cut his hair to look less like him. He wants to be his own person but i think he is really struggling with that. I have a feeling he might see even more visions of Celeb, maybe even have flashbacks or nightmares. By him covering his ears in this art, it's saying as if he doesn't want to hear anymore things about being a grimwalker, a clone. He is overwhelmed by all this information he's almost trying to shield himself from it. I think that all this shit that the both of them are going through is almost bringing them together. Because Hunter is the only one that knows about Luz helping Phillip, and Luz is the only one that knows Hunter is a grimwalker (besides Belos of course) So in a way, they feel as if they can talk to each other about it, which i think will be very helpful for both parties. One way or another though, the gang will find out. I definitely don't think they will be in any way mad at Luz or Hunter like they both think they will be. They will be accepting and kind and understanding because that's just who they are. If anything they will just be disappointed that Luz and Hunter felt like they couldn't tell them and that if they did they would hate them. I want to see Luz just sob in her mom and friends arms, she deserves it. And same goes to Hunter. They need a really big long hug and to be told that it's okay and that they will always be loved. (and again, lots of therapy)