#I still love labyrinth runners as an episode though

[random-dragon-exe]

OK hot take, (probably) but I think that Adrian Graye is actually a powerful witch just like the rest of the covenheads.

I say this because there's a lot of people who think that Adrian is a lot weaker than the rest of the Covenheads because of Gus beating him in Labyrinth Runners.

I will say that granted, his magic is illusions and yeah illusions have no physical aspect to them, but there's two things I'd like to add here:

Even though illusions aren't a physical magic, they're more about deceptive measures and at most psychological in nature.

Adrian finds a way around the lack of the physical aspect by hiding the scouts he has under his illusions to have them interact with people. (So when you think about it, he's quite clever for doing that since he could focus on keeping up the illusion and keeping himself safe)

Technically a third but when you think about it, if Gus can make it look like a witch's powers aren't working, as shown in Through the Looking Glass Ruins:

Then, Adrian could do that too however, with way more ease than Gus as he said it took him a lot of concentration to maintain it.

Of course, since Gus has the ability to force people to see their worst memories, so can Adrian.

If we want to go further with it, Adrian can totally make an entire illusion labyrinth just like Gus too but it'd be more controlled since he's more experienced than Gus.

Yes there's the scene where he asks Gus "how" is he making the labyrinth, but this could just be him being surprised that an illusion that powerful is coming from a 12 year old as younger witches shouldn't be able to make complicated spells. (Gus is an extreme outlier in this)

(Not only that but Gus’s labyrinth was induced by his emotions getting out of hand and was therefore accidental)

Also real fast, I'm pretty sure being forced to see your worst/darkest memories would render anyone in the state that we see Adrian in last. So I don't think it's just "a him" thing.

Moving on and going further with this, Adrian could go full on Mysterio on his enemies asses. Anyone seen Spider-Man: Far From Home?

From tricking the target to using the real (unillusioned) environment against them:

To using psychological horror and using their emotions against them about a beloved person's death:

To faking his own death:

To making it look like someone close to the target is in danger:

To altering the entire perception of the playing field at a massive scale:

The person won't be able to figure out what's an illusion and what's reality until it's too late:

This is also not to mention the other post I have about the extensions of illusion magic and its effects (which I think both Gus and Adrian can do to varying extents based on their experience with illusions).

What I'm getting at is that Adrian is definitely powerful in his own right at illusion magic (and can very well do these things).

It's just that we don't get to see the full potential because of how the writing favored Gus's powers over Adrian's in Labyrinth Runners due to the shortening.

I'm not trying to diminish Gus’s abilities as an illusionist, I'm just saying both of them are powerful in their own ways (Gus having raw power for his age, yet needs to refine and control his powers and Adrian having experience and control with his magic yet his ego gets the best of him and he underestimates his opponents)

Not to mention his vague feedback to the scouts often works against him unknowingly.

Like honestly, if the show wasn't shortened there'd be more time allowed for him to be a more terrifying threat in Labyrinth Runners or other episodes with him.

TLDR: Ya'll are sleeping on what could've been an even more epic version of Labyrinth Runners and Adrian's powers. Like yes, we can still make fun of him being beaten by Gus, but let's just acknowledge that it would've been really cool to see two skilled illusionists fighting 1v1.

[mdhwrites]

What Were the Palismens' Point and Did They Succeed?

I got a really long ask that started with asking me how I would have handled the Palisman. For a question like that, I believe there are two core tenants that need to answer. The TL:DR though for this is that despite the Palisman having presence since S1, their point in the story is only made clear in S2 and then their point is useless except for Luz, weakly, because of how TOH defies normal genre convention, in a way that is very counterproductive, when it comes to character climaxes.

Anyways: The questions.

What is the narrative concept of the element we're talking about?

What is the point of the narrative element?

For the Palisman, this isn't clear until Hunting Palisman. Before then, they are glorified broomsticks with one episode acknowledging their agency but at the end of the day in S1: They're just glorified broomsticks. Hunting Palisman very clearly and bluntly states what their point is.

They are a physical manifestation of the witch's will and desires. You can only obtain one with a clarity of purpose and conviction. This is also the point of them: They are essentially character statements. The grand thesis of whoever that palisman is connected to. Honestly, as far as creative uses of magical items to present the culmination of a character, the palisman are...

Exceptionally stock standard. Like painfully so. Anyone watched a season of Power Rangers? Yeah, the Palisman are just the battlizer. If you watched Winx Club like... AT ALL past the first season, maybe even requiring that long, it is ANY of their power ups because they always come with a big character growth moment that defines who they are as a person. It is maybe one of the basic fantasy tropes out there to have self actualization be a power up.

And this isn't just me being hyperbolic. Even from their first introduction, it is presented as a part of a witch growing up. That the school grants witches their palisman but that Luz will have to earn hers. Once she does, she has a loyal companion and the ability to fly. Even at Hexside, you still have to reach certain age to get a Palisman. They're not just giving them to kindergartners. The show itself, by all accounts, says this is explicitly what they are. It's even why Hunter can have Flapjack like he does because the two are their most at sync the closer Hunter is to being Cale- Being the good person he always was. -_- Before then, during moments like Eclipse Lake, they are out of sync, just like he says.

There's just a small, tiny, MINISCULE problem with this concept. Barely noticeable so I'm probably making a big deal out of no- HOW DO YOU HAVE TWO CHARACTER CLIMAXES LIKE THIS IN THE SAME MINUTE AND THEN ONE OFF SCREEN!?

TOH has this weird aversion to character climaxes, at least traditionally paced ones. This is any episode focused on the ending of an era for a character. When a hero falls to the darkside, with the entire episode, or episode after the fall happens at the end of one episode, being about his fall to the darkness. When the scoundrel decides that there are indeed things worth more than gold and has to grapple with that. The end of Book 2 of Avatar spends a lot of time in its last couple episodes grappling with what is a character built up over the entire season: Which side of Zuko wins out for his future? This is balanced with Aang's character climax with the guru with asking questions about how much Aang is willing to give up to the job of the Avatar instead of being the free spirited, loving kid he's always been. A LOT of time is given to this.

TOH hates giving time to ANYONE who isn't Luz. Very few people get real character climaxes of this sort of variety. Willow essentially never gets one and Gus never gets one. You could Watching and Dreaming and Labyrinth Runners specifically but those episodes aren't about self actualization. A VERY common thread with character climaxes is a choice the core character has to make in order to make things right. Meanwhile, in both episodes, HUNTER is the one to make the choice and actions to fix the problem. It is not about self actualization that then prompts a better, more refined character... It's honestly just one problem of the character amongst many like most kid's show episodic issues. This is ESPECIALLY true for these two because Gus' having this level of confidence issues has never been a thing. The closest to ever come to it is the Human Society episode and, well... That happened like a season before Labyrinth Runners with MAYBE one more hint at the S1 penultimate episode from the orb giving him a pep talk. Otherwise, he has confidence. Willow's is worse because she's NEVER taken on others burdens like they talk about. The stories they tell do not sound like Willow at all and Gus, her best friend, has NEVER called her 'Dependable Willow' before now. It has all the hallmark fingerprints of a long running kids show retconning elements to have a plotline this episode. You know, during the season that was SHORTENED.

And this is without recognizing that their palismans have NOTHING to do with either episode, at any time. They are absent from being a part of their self actualization and why shouldn't they be? They already bonded and obtained their power up back in Hunting Palisman. Both made declarations and received a palisman for it because... What the fuck?

This is the core of why when I saw the initial question, I kind of went "I can't do them better because they're pointless besides giving the fandom Patronus stand ins for OC creation." They don't do jack shit.

Amity gets this THE WORST. She makes her palisman off screen, before the shortening took effect, and we only get told what it was... As a part of comforting Luz. Her character thesis, the embodiment of who she is, her will made manifest and it's used narratively to try and comfort her girlfriend. The words actually don't matter because a character climax should not just be words. It should include action alongside it. A showing of their character alongside them telling you, if they tell you at all.

This is also why Luz's character climax blows on this front. Not only is it not well built up to (I despise Luz's character climax) but it also doesn't have action behind it. It's a big statement before she... Just shows off Stringbean to her friends and then gets ready to go fight the Collector? What does that have to do with Luz? What does that have to do with 'wanting to be understood'? It's not even like her goal is to show the Collector understanding now that she's figured this part of herself out. As far as we can tell, her goal was to kick the Collector's ass right up until the Collector tried to show he was an uwu baby, please ignore the murder stars and the fact that I actually know the consequences of my actions (he KNEW King would hate him for the dreams and so is shown to have understanding of his actions upsetting people) and yet did them anyways. Obtaining Stringbean is meaningless besides the meta context of "She just like me fo real" for the people who identify with her.

All of this because TOH won't commit an episode to just finishing a character's arc, or even part of it. I have LONG been complaining about how Escaping Expulsion IS a character climax for Amity but she's in like a collective four minutes of the episode. It is the complete refusal to continue to be who she was. To be willing to throw away even her family in the pursuit of her own happiness and desire to choose her own future. For her to be such a small part of it centers her motivation on Luz because she hasn't had enough time to explain or put focus on why she doesn't want to be who she has been. It's always just on "I wanna be with my friends." or "I want to protect Luz." or "Luz and her friends make me happy." As such, the motivating factor being Luz's life being in danger doesn't make it feel like Amity self actualizing, it makes it feel like a young lesbian throwing away everything for someone she has known for like two months. That what matters is not her character but just that this is another step towards Lumity for her. That's not exactly great, is it? Especially not with how much they want Odalia to shoulder the burden of the fact that Amity CHOSE to be pure evil to Willow for YEARS. For her to be cast off so easily... Well, it just doesn't hit right. Not like it should for a climax like this.

Almost every character climax in the show suffers from stuff like this. Eda's big farewell in Agony of a Witch? She's in like four minutes of it and barely spends time with Luz so we never get that deliberation before Eda chooses to lose her life. It can't even be said that the season built up to it because Luz and Eda haven't had a plotline together since Adventure in the Elements. At best? Grom. And Grom doesn't exactly help build up how deep their connection is, does it?

And so how would I do the Palisman better? I'd just remove them. They are not used for the purpose they were built for and the show doesn't do the elements they're connected to in a way that would ever work for them. They have no point besides being cute and marketable but otherwise? They're entirely superfluous.

Which is a pretty shitty thing to say about something that's meant to represent the best your character can ever be. See you next tale.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

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[nostalgic-bee]

I think that S3 Amity might have to be my favorite version of her

Partially because she has the most iconic outfits in s3 and tbh her hairstyle was really pretty even though it was just her purple hair fading

But it’s mostly because I feel like S3 Amity is the most real and authentic version of her

S1 Amity was iconic, and even though she was becoming a better person she was still held back a bit because of the control her mother had over her, and in S2 she’s still working on finding herself and we still have episodes where she’s working on herself in a way (Eclipse Lake, Follies, Reaching Out, Labyrinth Runners)

But in S3 she’s so real and authentic, she’s cut her mother from her life and she’s finally able to be herself and we see that. She’s surrounded by people who love her unconditionally and she’s finally able to create her own path and be in control of her own life.

The real Amity Blight is loyal, determined, caring, loves books, is a nerd, loves her girlfriend and is just overall the best character ever.

It makes me even more sad that S3 was cut short, I’d love a full season where we could see her be her most authentic and real self.

[astrolavas]

Hey Astrolavas, Idk if you still answers Ask. But I wanted to know what to expect or do you want to happen with Hunter in the last ep of How do you want his arc to end?

cracks my knuckles OKAY, SO...

when it comes to just watching and dreaming, i feel like he probably isn't going to have too much focus on him plot/character-arc-wise so there isn't going to be any main subplot for him, but i would love to see some particular scenes or things still.

we know he's going to go against belos again (not on his own but. he WILL confront him again) so that....... that's a scene that i feel like has so much potential to be so good and so satisfying.

belos creating hunter as caleb's next disposable copy, seeing him as only another number vs belos being defeated by his own "creation"... having that moment of realization and fear as he's going down, knowing that none of his plans succeeded and that hunter is going to outlive him. the sweet, sweet karma and irony of it all...

belos already losing it, seeing "ghosts" of caleb and the grimwalkers, just getting worse and worse in his obsession and pursuit for revenge. and now, with hunter having brown eyes... with belos not having seen "caleb's" eyes in almost 400 years............ this is just very interesting to me. see, i still miss his magenta eyes a lot sometimes </3 especially since they were his only "visible" grimwalker trait, but i feel like THIS might be why they changed hunter's eye color. belos seeing "caleb's" eyes on hunter, belos seeing eda with evelyn's haircut too, him just completely........ freaking out. AGH.

and all of this, the eye color change, along with the fact that belos keeps calling hunter "caleb", how no one- not even luz- has called him out on it as of yet... how when he sees hunter again, next episode, sporting the brown eye color at that, he's definitely gonna call him caleb again....... i'd rly love to see a throwback to either hunter's "my name... is hunter" scene with luz or his "my name isn't caleb, it's hunter" scene with emerald entrails. said in a different, more serious tone; in like a dramatic finale moment of confronting belos.... AGHGHHHH YEAH???? yeah..... that'd be neat.

besides that, i'd love to see more of his grief for flapjack.

we've seen him being very clearly affected by it in ftf, and the arc was semi-resolved for a moment with the "flapjack will always be with you" metaphor thing, but it was also... more about the problem of him pushing down his feelings. in ftf, he was trying to mask his grief and sadness with anger and coldness (a similar defense mechanism and behaviour that we've seen from him in s2a, or labyrinth runners, or like any instance when he's not feeling well. that's how he always reacts to traumatic events, negative feelings or hard moments in his life. it's what he had to do in order to survive in the coven). so he kept pushing people away, distancing himself from others, acting irritable, focusing solely on the mission at hand, just wanting to find belos immediately; thinking about literally anything but flapjack or what happened just a few hours prior, cuz it hurts too much to think about it. but just like willow had her arc of repression and finally realized she can rely on other people too and allowed herself to show feelings and vulnerability instead of letting it all consume her from the inside out, hunter similarly let himself show some of that vulnerability to his friends, he let himself think of flapjack for a moment, to truly miss him, and he realized a part of him is always going to be with him. (hunter and willow both actually struggle with vulnerability and repression but in totally different ways and it's also so interesting, but. that's an essay for another day so kxjsjsk)

but yeah, even though the initial stage of grief has been slightly resolved, and he can go on without as strong feelings of anger and without repressing what he feels, this is still only a start. because we see he misses flapjack, he's still gonna mourn flapjack for a long long time; he hasn't even had the time to truly go through it, and he probably will once belos is dealt with and everything kinda settles down, and he gets a true moment to breathe, goes back to a daily routine... and flapjack is not with him. like, that grief and hurt is still there, and it's not going anywhere, just moving forward.

so... i'd like to see one more scene dedicated to flapjack in the next episode. sth that'll be private, sth just between hunter and flapjack, sth quiet maybe. it can even be hunter talking to himself as if he was talking "to" flapjack (like in the "i wish you were here" scene kinda) or saying sth abt flapjack to belos, i'd just love to see more to feel fully satisfied, cuz it doesn't really feel "concluded" at the moment. (and on one side, sure! it's not going to be for a long while, but also.... sth more.. would be so nice) not sure if we're actually going to get a scene like that, however, cuz there's gonna be little time so h.......... but i would like it.

another thing i'd love to see is a hunter and darius reunion, and possibly even a talk.

there's!? so much they can talk about??!? their complicated past in the coven, darius' mentor, the previous golden guards, sewing, hunter's grief and how darius has experience with it too...... yeah. like, their arc doesn't feel complete, they haven't interacted since asias (the only episode they directly interacted with each other, in fact) and have only been mentioned by one another a few times and it's been merely hinted that their relationship has progressed positively behind the scenes. so, there should be a conclusion here. a reunion, a talk, possibly a future mentorship of sorts. that'd be cool.

now, as we're moving towards the end.......

i'd really love hunter to be adopted by camila. there are ofc other options but this one just feels so, so, SO good, and it fits the narrative so well, it fits the story so well, it's perfect for both him and the nocedas. UGHHH... so that'd be cool.

i know sth like this likely won't happen (cuz time restraints and all that), but imagining... the quiet after the Last Big Battle; after belos is defeated and everything starts settling down. everyone else reuniting with their families and hunter just... standing there; cuz he's not sure what he's meant to do now or where to go, now that everything is over. now that he can breathe, now that the world can go on. camila approaching him and inviting him to stay with them for good, because ofc there's NO way she's just going to make him move out or leave him be when he has nowhere to go, yet she still gives him a choice to decline if it's not sth he wants. but it IS what he wants... hunter just feeling happy but also being in such disbelief because whoa??!?...... aughhh you know??!? hunter noceda... camila, get hunter and vee those official adoption certificates ASAP.

as for the possible epilogue/timeskip/credits/future:

we know hunter wants to learn how to carve palismen. the clawthornes are palisman carvers, eda has that palistrom seed... a clawthorne woodcarving mentorship sounds too perfect, i'd LOVE to see it. i feel like hunter would love to be able to make palismen, whether it be for himself or others or just for the sake of creating and bringing new creatures to life... it could make him rly happy, imo. also the contrast between hunter peacefully carving palismen, maybe working towards making palistroms non-endangered again or working with the bat queen, just.. caring for these little beings... vs belos destroying, killing, feeding off palismen; to the point where they almost go extinct, trapping them in his mind, treating them like dangerous pests. life vs death... AGHGHHHH

we know he'd like to attend hexside and play flyer derby too! i'd love to see a snippet of him at hexside post-canon, maybe even in a multitrack uniform. and an emerald entrails comeback <3 with hunter borrowing (bird-shaped?) stringbean from luz for the games, or maybe even having his own new (wolf?) palisman, if enough time passes and it's sth he decides he wants.

and just........ some cool slife-of-life post-canon things. there are so, so many things he can do and so many things i'd love to see, agh....... yeah.

[filmfactors]

opinion on hunter from toh

WARNING: I probably won't get all my thoughts across perfectly. Sorry it's honestly taken me awhile to get back to this anon, I did have thought's but couldn't quite catch myself in the mood to write em! Now let's get started:

Hunter is, by all means, a character I personally should've liked. I did at one point! The Golden Guard easily had my attention, he was sassy and I love my masked characters. It's what they started doing with him that made me less of a fan over time, that and I have a personal grievance with the fandom. Being the rare Belos fan I couldn't go into his tag without seeing it mostly about Hunter all the time.

Obviously I'll state I do not dislike Hunter for having a redemption, rather, it's how Owl House redeems characters that make's him as fascinating as plain white bread. What is this method?

Redemption = Lack of bite, a total lack of genuine flaws... and a reason why their actions can be blamed on someone else.

Let's bring in Amity as another example: Upon her introduction we see her bullying Willow, alone. When Understanding Willow comes around, we see that it's claimed it was her parents, and even later, just her moms fault. Inner Willow says 'you let your friends pick on her for years' but we don't acknowledge Amity did the exact same for no good reason.

Once Amity is redeemed, do we see the attitude? Do we see her hesitations with Willow? Do we even see her trying to make it up to Willow? I am not counting Labyrinth Runners for this because sure we got some closure but it doesn't fix the base issue. Any sort of Amity's actually negative flaws are erased once she is Luz's cool girlfriend.

It happens to Lilith, with her complexes, she never again expresses negative feelings that aren't easy and palpable. She's never superior or with attitude, and she only cursed her sister thinking it'd only be a day. That's a whole other can of worms though.

Point being, Hunter is the exact same. We can blame all his negative attributes on Belos, and once he's good he can no longer have any of those. He's not sassy, or fun, and admittedly is just kind of an angst machine.

I often feel the point of redemption is that it is nice to see someone who did bad things, get help or help themselves. The belief even bad people can change, because in the end they are still human. It's not fun when all your redeemed characters are simply 'misunderstood.' When you can push the blame off of them and instead place it on someone else. Owl House's message is that people are complex, but fails to deliver on this.

An easy comparison to make is Hunter is Zuko, but he's absolutely no Zuko. They both follow a similar principle, it was a family member that led them down the path of ruin. Yet Avatar understood that at some point down the line, your actions are your own. Zuko is conflicted, and hurting but he still does actions that hurt others. He has to apologize, make up for it, etc.

Now I'll say Zuko's redemption is not and has never been the end all be all for redemption. I have a whole slew of thoughts on the matter, point being is that Hunter was this type of redemption. It fails to be anything much other than making Hunter the resident sad but bad boy, and the shows punching bag.

At some point all of his angst was just egregious punching down, as in by Thanks to Them. Flapjack, the possession... it didn't need to happen. In fact it hardly effected anything at all! It just gave Hunter more trauma and powers, but what did it do for the story? Hunter is barely in the finale. I guess let's watch some Boscha and Kikimora hijinks instead?

Moving on from the general issue of Owl House's writing, what else can be said about Hunter? Well he is a screen time leech. Consider, an episode like Labyrinth Runners. Technically a Gus episode, but he once again takes a backseat for other characters. Just like his one other episode! Hunter for some reason knows Willow better than him as well, just for some shipping fuel.

All that to say I don't hate the concept of this episode, I really enjoyed the Gus and Hunter interactions! I find their friendship to probably be Hunter's most compelling relationship outside of Luz. It's only a problem for the fact Gus' whole character is tossed aside by the writers.

He sees Belos' memories, his traumas, etc- what does this lead to? Making Hunter feel better. Gus never actually gets to do anything despite all the set up of his illusion powers, his episodes are overtaken by someone else or a ship. I'll admit this is not just a Hunter problem, but it contributes a lot.

All in all once Hunter was introduced, it left Willow and Gus further on the back burner. No matter what you say, there is an obvious lack of use of these two. Speaking of them, or more specifically Willow:

I'm actually okay with the concept of huntlow! I do not think it's nearly as bad as people in the critical tag claim it to be. It was rushed and not well written, but I felt the writers were on the right track for the idea. However, there have been some pretty bad faith readings of the pairing. Mostly for folks claiming that she 'didn't start liking him until he had powers' which is blatantly untrue.

Willow may not blush at Hunter, the tell tale sign someone in Owl House has a crush. Yet I feel you can pick up on the fact she has an interest in him in Thanks to Them, notably a pre-Hunter powers episode. I won't claim it's extremely compelling, but it's simple and it's cute it just results in some messy things for the sake of ship fuel.

My biggest complaint is that yet again, Hunter steals Gus' role of being a good friend to Willow in For the Future.

I feel there is much more I could say on Hunter, and his character, but I'm bad at writing all my thoughts without specific questions to remind me...

Overall just take it as I dislike Hunter, while also thinking he's one of the better characters of the series. He's got all the right ingredients to make a good cake, but the writers kept adding too much vanilla extract.

[thousand-winters]

For the toh asks, 3, 6, 7, 12!!

Hey there 💕

3. Favorite episode? Why? Ramble as much as you'd like.

Man, this one's really hard because TOH has SUCH good episodes, but I'm going to have to go with what I believe is ultimately the popular answer and say Hollow Mind.

It's just so well done, it's been said again and again but the way they make the reveal of past foreshadowing (Belos being Philip Wittebane, Hunter being a grimwalker) is SO good. Even if you knew or strongly suspected, the way they do it makes it so the impact is perfect, both on the plot going forward and the emotional impact it has on the characters as well (like even if Luz doesn't immediately crumble like Hunter does, you can tell it gets to her and it starts building up overtime until it gets to her being full of guilt and straight up suicidal which... uh oh).

The way they make use of established lore with the mindscape, the foreshadowing and more lore we get for the future (wooo for Wittebanes lore but rip for Flapjack) is just so damn cool. Even while filled with dread while watching, the episode is just so engaging to watch that you can get pretty much focused on it during rewatches as well.

Plus, when it comes to more self-indulgent feelings, Hunter finally getting out from the castle and away from Belos + the papa wold Dadrius moment are just too good for me not to enjoy it. Oh! And on that note, Hunter straight up having a panic attack when they got out of the mindscape also was 10/10 for me, because I'm just not used to media addressing how traumatizing some situations can be for the characters, ngl, I was SO happy to see it and even happier when it continued in Labyrinth Runners, as weird as it sounds.

6. A character you didn't expect to love? What made you start liking them?

Not in a dislike sense at all, but definitely Darius lmao.

I vaguely remember seeing him for the first time and thinking "oh, he's so fun, he has such a cool design as well, and his voice is pretty, it's a shame he's a villain. Anyway-" and just continuing being invested in the Raeda disaster happening right there.

Truly I also found his abomination transformation the coolest thing I've ever seen, but in my mind it was like "we're surely not seeing much of him, oh, well" (which is sadly true, but not in the way I thought), so with such an "unimportant" character, there was no way for me to get invested or love him, right?

WRONG. Dadrius attack.

Listen. Listen. I liked him as a character but not so much as a person, I suppose, though again I never hated him because there was just so little of him for that to happen. But then Any Sport in a Storm happened and watching him doing the Head Chop™️ to Hunter was like "god, I hope this doesn't awaken anything in me".

I think from that moment I started toying with the possibility of him adopting Hunter because I was desperate so it was half joking, half serious and as such, I started thinking more about him as well, which eventually ended up with me and my thousand headcanons and theories about him, his backstory and such. As it happens when you're a Darius fan, it's rough out here.

7. Has the show ever made you cry? What scene(s)?

I cry. so much.

So TOH absolutely got to me. I think the first scene that got to me was the one that gets to everyone, Eda thanking Luz for being in her life and telling her goodbye before transforming into the Owl Beast.

And then you know, Season 2 is life ruining /lh.

So I cried in Separate Tides in the same part Luz wants to cry lmao, I cried in Eda's Requiem, I cried in Reaching Out, I cried in O Titan, I cried in King's Tide.

Shoutout to me crying also at Hunter talking about being unable to trust himself in Labyrinth Runners, and I still can't watch Keeping Up A-fear-ances without crying, that one's hitting a little too close to home for comfort, frankly lmao.

I think the rest is also very predictable, Thanks to Them when Flapjack died, For the Future during Camila and Luz's conversation and Watching and Dreaming when Luz dies and pretty much the whole scene with the Owl Trio fighting together, plus the ending. Like I said, I cry a lot.

12. What do you consider the most memorable scene? Why?

Another hard one.

Objectively speaking, I feel like there are two super memorable scenes: The repetition of Luz's speech about "I'm the good witch!" through the show and the way it gets recontextualized each time, from it being just kinda silly and about her using it as escapism a little bit, to her using it to reclaim her belonging to the two worlds she chose for herself and her identity as part of them with all the people she loves.

I would call that one probably the most memorable one. I think the other that everyone remembers, which is why I would say it's memorable as well, is Eda telling Luz the whole thing about how everyone was to be chosen, but if one just waited for that, they'd die waiting, that you have to choose yourself. Even more memorable since it came back during Watching and Dreaming.

Personally, definitely less sweet and less overall plot important, but a scene that haunts me forever and ever is the palisman souls in Belos' Mind finally reaching Luz and Hunter and the reveal that they're palisman souls in the first place: It's so damn chilling when they start talking with the whole "danger! get away from him! run!". Just... holy shit. Okay, that makes me one to cry too, we have established I'm a crybaby ajsfjsdg

I'm just... the amount of compassion for them to be suffering like that and to go "this happened to us, he killed us, please, get away, we don't want him to kill you too, we don't want you to suffer too", especially considering that Hunter had accidentally contributed in some of those deaths. I'm gonna go cry some more, actually, bye asfhsdg

Thanks for the questions 💗

From this ask meme

[fallen-gravity]

They’ve been killing at this for a long time now, so…. Favorite of the Disney TVA popular girl trope?

Pacifica Northwest, Sasha Waybright, Amity Blight, or Andrea Davenport?

Amity my beloved 🥺

She's such a refreshing take on the trope for me because I feel like she's one of the only few where she actually acknowledges that she did some pretty terrible things, you know? I personally can't speak for Sasha because I never watched Amphibia, but as far as Amity, Andrea, and Pacifica goes, I feel like she's the only one who, you know, actively worked towards bettering herself and her relationship with the people she hurt.

I rewatched Understanding Willow today and I love how messy it is!!! I love how awkward and uncomfortable Amity is and I love how imperfect things are between her and Willow at the end of the episode. It's not perfectly fixed. She's not magically on wonderful terms with Willow just because she helped Luz fix her memories. And that awkwardness carries over to future episodes and scenes where the two of them are alone together! There's some tense energy between them in Follies at the Coven Day Parade, where Amity is hesitant to reach out and afraid of what Willow might ask of her before she lets her talk.

Labyrinth Runners is an even better example!! Amity wants to be a good friend again, but she keeps accidentally falling back into old habits. She's still convinced that Willow is weak, because that's how she was the last time they were close. It felt really authentic, because Amity wasn't intentionally being mean, and I don't even think the show was trying to paint her as being mean, it's just...what she knows. She's behind, because it's been so long since she's had the chance to get to know Willow. It's like walking up to someone you haven't spoken to since elementary school and going "....hey, are you still into turtles??" even though you're both in your twenties, cause it's the only thing you still remember about them. It also reminds me of what it's like to grow up with a learning disability and have all of these well-meaning people try so hard to do everything for you that it just starts to feel demeaning. And once Willow showed her she didn't need her help anymore, she backed off! she accepted her for how she was!!! She finally saw her in the light that Willow wanted to see her in, and that's when she was finally able to move on. If we could've gotten just one more episode about them making up for lost time again, I would've loved that so much. You always hear about tragic friendships with sad endings, but you rarely ever hear about the ones that were once tragic, but aren't anymore. It's why I love them so much.

tldr; Amity Blight my beloved

[welcometogrouchland]

for the character ask, Willow and Amity!!!

Willow!

favorite thing about them: I love a lot of things about her! But for now I'll be a bit general and say her arc of continuing to get back up and prove people wrong. I wanna call it perseverance or strength, but it's more like stubbornness lmao. In the early episodes she's prone to defeatism and that's such a far cry from who she is now. She gained hope and belief in herself and leant into the righteous anger she felt watching people she loves be treated like dirt! AUGH I love her

least favorite thing about them: ooh not sure. Maybe that early episode defeatism? Both in an encouraging way where I want her to get back up but also in the sense of "GIRL THIS ISN'T YOUR FAULT NOR THE END OF THE WORLD. TALK TO SOMEONE ABT THINGS!!!" You can see it a bit in for the future too where she interprets hunters ambiguous response ("I don't know") as negative. It's the warped self perception for me /j

favorite line: GRRR THAT'S HARD!! I'm not in encyclopedia mode rn but rn I'm thinking of some lines from Understanding Willow ("you said I was hurting Willow? I was just finishing what you started!" And "it's...a start"). uhh there's also "not if I never look down!" and "it'll be 52 weeks before Caleb's next day off"

brOTP: JUST ONE??? SHE HAS SO MANY GOOD FRIENDSHIPS MAN!!! But either her and Luz or her and Gus

OTP: sigh. Huntlow (I am predictable)

nOTP: her and Boscha. I wasn't in the fandom much during season 1 but I really never got it even back then. That is not a girl who's mean bc she likes you that is a highschool war criminal

random headcanon: OUGH I'VE HAD SO MANY OVER TIME AND NOW I'M BLANKING! Uhh would like magical girl anime (cardcaptor sakura and sailor moon specifically I think). Likes hyperpop and riot grrrl bc it releases her repressed rage and scratches her brain

Unpopular opinion: OKAY I get it. I also want willow to go apeshit, to have her catharsis and maim and kill. But some people characterize Willow as a lot more bitter than she is to compensate for this and I personally don't care for it, lol. It's Awful or anything it's just Not My Girl. She would not fucking say that

song i associate with them: CRIES. SO MANY!! Mona Lisa my mxmtoon

favorite picture of them:

^ this Dana pic!! There's more but I don't wanna make this any longer

Amity!

favorite thing about them: probably how far she's come from being a lonely, image obsessed girl who lashed out at others to a pretty silly but ultimately very emotionally mature person. She takes care of people more often now, while still having learned her lesson about respect and boundaries from labyrinth runners. Also her design/aesthetic

least favorite thing about them: bit wishy washy but a lot of the early season 1 scenes of her bullying Willow, Luz and Co are like. Hard for me to watch sometimes lol. Same with her and Willow in labyrinth runners. Mean girls just hit too close to home sometimes lol.

favorite line: ECLIPSE LAKE SPEECH HANDS DOWN!!! "There are people out there who won't make you feel worthless" SO PROUD OF HER. CRYING RN

brOTP: probably her and Willow since they have the most developed platonic relationship! But also her moments with Matt in for the future lmao (also Gus and Raine. In my head)

OTP: sigh. Lumity (I am predictable. Again)

nOTP: ooh I'm not sure I really have one! At least one that's based in personal squicks/opinions and not stuff like. Shipping her with men. If that's the case though, Amity/Hunter. Gag

random headcanon: she used to play piano as a kid! Was decent at it too even if she only got to play classical. But when she committed to abominations her mom cut her off of her lessons and pushed her away from it since there was no "practical use" for it anymore, not like Amity was going into the bard track. She gets back into it post-canon though :] would also like to jump off that starting point and play bass

unpopular opinion: hhh okay. While I think they could've made things more explicit/dwelled upon/whatever in order to communicate more clearly to the audience, I'm overall fine with the direction they took in Amity's "redemption arc". Bc like. She's just a highschool bully who's already being punished by her family when the audience can't see her. The solution to this would not be to punish her more. Maybe she should've gotten to talk things out more, somebody once pointed out that, in the main big redemption arcs in TOH, nobody really says sorry (ON SCREEN. Apologies are very much implied), just makes a gesture and does better, which I understand but also I like apologies they give closure. But overall I prefer them just giving her the chance to follow through on her promises.

song i associate with them: Babyface by fresh maybe?

favorite picture of them: I DONT HAVE IT RN BUT THE FACE SHE MAKES WHEN BOSCHA GETS DOWN ON ONE KNEE IN FOR THE FUTURE AND SHE GOES "heh????" IT'S SO FUNNY

[logicalbookthief]

For the ask game:

May I ask 4, 13 and 27 for the owl house?

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?

Alador & Darius. I know it has the ex-childhood friends to enemies to lovers angle, but for me, Alador’s rushed “redemption” didn’t really hit for me, and I still he’s a big too much of a subpar dad / dude to be paired with Darius.

HOWEVER I love to view them as enemies turned reluctantly civil PTA rivals because they still can’t stand each other but their kids are friends so they have to play nice for their sake and they hate every minute of it. It is way funnier to me.

13. Unpopular opinion about XXX character?

Idk how unpopular it is, but I feel with the exception of episodes like Any Sport in a Storm and Labyrinth Runners, Willow was sidelined way too much this season :(

Obviously, they were pressed for time with the cancellation, but I feel as if we never exactly got a satisfactory conclusion to her arc? Her conflict with Amity in the aforementioned episode was fine, I guess, though it never really hit on the emotional beats I wanted it to? The conflict was centered around Amity treating Willow like she wasn’t capable due to her own misguided need to protect her-- the problem is, this was established long already, as early as Willow’s debut in I Was a Teenage Abomination, or at least by Wing It Like Witches.

However, I think the bones of a better conflict were there. When Willow said Amity just needed to get to know the new her and Gus immediately corrected her, “You mean, the real you?” That, I wanted more of that! Because Willow was always capable! Even when she struggled with her spells as a kid, that didn’t make her any less capable than her peers! And Amity’s instinct to compensate and overprotect her, while it was with good intentions, reminds you how witches without magic/struggle with magic/use an “inferior” type of magic aren’t taken seriously, which was the case with Eda & Hunter & Gus at other points in this season.

And I also think back to Follies at the Coven Day Parade, where Amity was braiding Willow’s hair and lamented how they missed this, and Willow looks down, kind of pensive, kind of sad? To me that expression was always hard to read, mostly because we don’t get too much of Willow’s pov to decipher. In this case, I would choose to interpret it as Willow not really missing how their relationship used to be, since although she treasures her memories of Amity when they were kids and super close, she maybe doesn’t miss the dynamic of her being the screw-up who Amity had to bail out and look out for? So if Labyrinth Runners had built on that more, or if we had gotten more of Willow’s pov in general, I’d be happier with her arc this season.

Okay, lol. This got too long, onto the next question!

27. Least shippable character?

Philip Wittebane. Not because he’s the villain, in fact I love him as a villain, his backstory is marinating in my brain at all times. However, he is a Puritan. Who canonically gets no bitches and murdered his brother over getting bitches. I rest my case.

[lampmanliveblogs]

I Love Hunter character arc. In lots of redemption arcs it feels like it only the main character doing the, for lack of a better phrase, pulling that bring them to their side. But in hunter case, he has a one-on-one interaction with all of luz's friends before he "switches sides". It feels like he slowly forms a support system to help him escape from Belos' control. And his friendships reliant on luz. He befriended them by himself. Gus and Willow are his friends.

I can't remember if I ever mentioned that before, but I really like that aspect too.

Luz is very much the catalyst (you could say she's a....... cataluzt) for change, being the one who initially chipped the cold shell of the Golden Guard to reveal the real person inside like we saw in Hunting Palismen. There he began growing his first bonds with someone outside the castle.

Next, we have Eclipse Lake, where he formed another bond with Amity (he also met Eda & King, but I don't think they were really all that important to his journey). Even though that episode did end with them still enemies, Amity did impart an important lesson to Hunter and although he might've ignored it initially, I think her words stuck with him still.

In Any Sport in a Storm, he formed actual bonds of friendship with the Emerald Entrails. And like you say, Hunter made friends with them without Luz. He was completely unaware of their connection to Luz, and they didnät know he was the Golden Gaurd. So those friendships developed naturally.

Which leads us to Labyrinth Runners, wherein those bonds of friendship are fully solidified and made real.

[mdhwrites]

Everyone say that Boscha handled the breakup poorly (which she did, I love her but that girl is bad at emotions) but everyone glosses over how Amity ditched her best friends for several years basically overnight (refused to go to Skara's birthday party) with no explanation, then show up at school the next day talking shit about them for no reason ("I grew up, Boscha, when will you?")

and if she did tell them why, I can't imagine that was all thar graceful either. "Hi I know we've been friends for years but I actually don't like you so I'm not coming to your birthday party"

Amity tossing Skara and Boscha to the side is... Well, the honest response is that it worked. At the time, it did its job dramatically and it felt like it was admittedly rushing Amity's development a little, not a lot, but in return we'd get her with the entire gang, she'd be able to repair this relationship with Willow and honestly that her Hexide drama would be over. Winging it Like Witches effectively did the same job where you get more of Amity claiming to be changing to help people like Willow and burying most any relevance Hexide had in the series to focus on the friend group.

You can already see where this is going. All of this workED. Past tense. There's a few things that in hindsight make what they did with Amity honestly really sloppy and muddle her motivations and what lesson you're supposed to take from it and a lot of it has to do with the focus on Amity's sole motivation, desire, goal, etc. being Luz. But, a curve ball first. Skara. Skara is actually part of the problem here much like how Lilith befriending Hooty changes the fundamental way you have to look at a paired character. Skara was paired with Boscha in S1, especially in Understanding Willow. The two were told to us to be jerks. Irredeemable. People Amity should never want to be with because she was forced to choose them over Willow. Now this is a pretty week argument and the show never actually managed to sell that Amity's friend group was much worse than normal people, especially normal people on the Isles, but if you're just enjoying the show, you can buy in. Then they make Skara join the Emerald Entrails and there's no bad blood between Skara and Willow at all. Does that mean she's a good person? We haven't seen any reason to believe she's changed as a person so was she always a good person? If so, why was she so blatantly thrown away? What did she do to deserve to have her invitation thrown away? Or... Or was the problem that Amity was willing to throw away a friend in the moment she was saying throwing away friends was wrong? That... That couldn't be true! I mean, just look at her and... Willow... Yeah, everyone has commented on this but it is still just a mistake on the writer's part. The fact that they don't share a single line to each other until... Eclipse Lake I think? And no interaction actually as friends until Falls and Follies creates a 'too little too late' problem, an issue TOH has a lot of honestly with its side plots. How many people could take Labyrinth Runners seriously when the main character for that was Gus, who the show has only ever treated seriously like... MAYBE TWICE before that? This creates a problem of asking what Amity's motivations actually were. She's a driven and focused enough girl that if she decided to repair that bridge, she would have. But in Winging it Like Witches, she only is motivated to act... For Luz. In Falls and Follies, she only goes to Willow because Willow is close... To Luz. I would list more examples but Amity interacts with other characters than Luz so rarely, and so rarely in an important way (Eclipse Lake has her and Hunter's interactions still ABOUT FUCKING LUZ), that the pattern is still clear. So when Amity said she just made her social life better, you're supposed to take that as her standing up for her old friend. Even explicitly in that episode, it's false though. It's for Luz. And so what are you supposed to take away from the fact that Amity tossed aside her friend group, those who cared about and supported her, for her girlfriend? Just because she knew Luz would disapprove of the meaner, more elite crowd? Because, uh, isolating your partner is usually something an abuser does and Amity did it to HERSELF which is REALLY AKWARD. And in return, Boscha was deeply hurt, AS SHE SHOULD BE. Losing a best friend, let alone losing them as she did, hurts like fucking hell. Those people matter to someone (usually. Amity can toss them away like burger wrappers apparently) and Boscha picks and chooses who she cares about already. Who she'll be weak with and for. And Amity was perhaps the ONLY person she ever was like that with. Want proof? I don't think Boscha ever actually mocks Amity. No mean jokes like to Skara or the dude with the emover during "Once Upon a Swap." No scolding, no aggressive gestures, nothing. Amity gets respect while just about NO ONE else does. And what did Amity do with that? She threw it away. And what did the show say about that? It told us to cheer. And again, at the time, treating it like a kid's show that was actually going to have Amity start caring about people more in general and repair this friendship of hers like ANY OTHER KIDS SHOW WOULD, it was okay. I cheered with her. But looking back, I find the words choking in my throat.

[mdhwrites]

First I just want to say accurate and I appreciate the fact that the shortening actually makes this more rage inducing for you, much like how anyone who defends The Collector needs to re-evaluate their argument since he did not have to be a part of the show. Not when before S2B, he'd only been a part of a single dream sequence... That doesn't even feel in character to any other part of him.

I wanted to bounce on the last bit though about saying if you'd write something about Lumity and say... You don't really need to. As someone who has written a 300k+ Lumischa story, who has Lumity dynamics in his original works, etc. like that, I should be their greatest defender. I clearly have a deep love for them after all. But... No, especially post S1, and a lot of the points here just transfer over to Lumity. Amity's arc is about getting away from devoting her life to her parent's expectations and then devotes her entire existence to Luz. Their relationship is WAY better when they're not together and once they're together, the only development that happens to it is "What if Luz lied constantly?" We get one episode that's theoretically good but it's still about Amity's devotion to Luz so go back to the first issue. Amity as a character could be cut from the entire series and literally nothing would happen to the plot because the fandom meme of Amity meaning nothing important can happen literally never changed. Luz treats Amity like all of her friends. She even categorically treats Amity worse than Eda or King despite having spent more on screen time with Amity than literally either of the other two. That's not a joke even and it's part of why the Found Family angle of the show blows. Hell, Amity never seems to ever register that they're actually dating since during their first kiss, she literally has the same reaction she does to when she kissed Luz on the cheek because these writers can literally only write one romance. Eda and Raine are even pretty damn close to acting just like the fucking teenagers.

The one thing I want to add to this that I think you missed is one basic question: Why do they get together? Lumity's version of this is why they stay together since S2 Amity just becomes S1 Willow and Luz isn't dating Willow. By that same token though... The argument for Hunter getting with Willow is that Willow connected to him through shared pain and through an act of kindness. A moment of vulnerability he's not used to so now he's interested in her. It's a fine way to write a romance.

The problem is that that's also what happens with Luz in Hunting Palisman to some extent and explicitly the same sort of thing that happens with AMITY. THE LESBIAN. It's one of the worst parts of Hunter's writing. The dude's arc restarts THREE TIMES so that by the logic of the show, he can be shipped with three different girls. Willow isn't even the one that actually matters. Luz is. She's the one who knows his secrets. She's the one who he confides in. She's the one to save his life, multiple times, and be the one there for his character climax during Hollow Mind. Willow barely is even in Labyrinth Runners, especially not with Hunter, which is the closest she could have come to a second appearance that would have affected his arc.

I'm not even a Lunter shipper and I'm DEFINITELY not an Amiter shipper but like... If the moment of Willow opening up about being half a witch (which as someone with a mental disability, I would have smacked her for thinking her being a late bloomer was the same as straight up not having magic) is supposed to be when he starts falling in love, this moment of kindness, what about Amity holding her hand out during Eclipse Lake? Or the bonding moment about wild magic and Luz saying she thought better of him in Escaping Palisman?

Unless you want to say he just likes them thick, which is kind of shallow and shitty for a kid's show romance, there isn't a reason he chose Willow above the other two besides the fact that the other two were taken. That's not compelling, that's just shit.

Then again, none of the romances are compelling. They're all shit once they're together.

Huntl0w isn't good and that's why

A general compilation of all the problems that do not allow me to treat Huntl0w at least neutrally:

1. Distortion of characters. Do you remember Hunter from the beginning of season 2? And that's it, he is no longer with you. Now he is not a soldier who has been training all his life, he is a cute awkward blushing boy who can't do anything without his boss girlfriend. And do you remember Willow, a kind soul who uses her powers only against enemies? Forget, she'll drive a new acquaintance into the ground and won't let him go. They are trying to forcibly fit them into the girlboss x malewife dynamic, and for this they have to change their characters.

2. Lack of chemistry. The same problem as Lumity: all romantic interactions are embarrassments and red cheeks. But if the girls had a Grom dance and more time together, then Huntl0w has nothing.

3. Willow's attitude. She treats him the same way she treats all her other friends right up to the moment when he saved her with the help of the power of the Flapjack. I'm sure the writers didn't do it on purpose, but it turned out that way - Willow fell in love with Hunter only after he stopped being magically disabled. Or in gratitude for the rescue. One is no better than the other.

4. Hunter's awkwardness. The guy has known her for the fourth year, three of which they are clearly together, but still confused as the first time. He's obviously uncomfortable with her. But who is he comfortable with? With Luz and Gus! It is with Luz that he shares secrets, she understands him like no one else. With Gus, Hunter found the best common language, common interests, and in general they are on the same wavelength. Willow and Hunter don't have either. They were able to prescribe normal interaction with everyone except the love interest, and it's so fucked up.

5. The uselessness for the plot. They don't bring anything, even the very parallel with Caleb and Evelyn is ignored. It feels like they got together just to "pair every character" (except for Gus, of course, Gus is our black best friend, he doesn't deserve our attention).

6. Willow is Hunter's authority figure. There is nothing wrong with the fact that a girl can be a leader in a relationship. But when a guy just starts separating from his uncle, whom he considered an authority all his life, and immediately falls in love with a girl who commands him... This is a very bad parallel. Hunter just changed his boss. TOH is not so deep to develop this topic, and it don’t have enough time, so this is definitely a minus for them.

7. Lack of development. Yes, the series was cut. And now you say that this justifies everything. And I will say that it only makes it worse. Already knowing that the series would be shortened, Dana and co pushed a new love line, which "developed" behind the scenes, did nothing for the plot, but spoiled the characters' characters (as if Amity alone was not enough for us).

8. Hunter is the second Caleb. Yes, Hunter's arc has come to the same place where it began. This applies to a lesser extent to Huntlow, it is rather a sin of the plot itself, but in total with the rest of the problems it becomes no less infuriating.

In conclusion, I can say that this ship is definitely not problematic, it's just bad. No one is forbidden to love them, but they should understend why people may not like Huntl0w.

Maybe I'll write the same thing with Lumity, but I'm not sure.

[secretly-of-course]

hi!!!! i need to know your opinion on this but do you think hunter knows he has a crush on willow/what a crush is? and do you think willow has a crush on hunter? i need your huntlow opinions 😌🤌🏼

hi!!! I want you to know I have been looking forward to answering this ask all day 🥰

*slams fists on the table* NOW LET'S DO THIS THING

Now we KNOW that Hunter has a crush on Willow. I mean just look at this boy and tell me he isn't completely smitten. But does HE know? That's a bigger question.

[ID: a screenshot from the episode "Thanks to Them," showing Hunter wearing his Cosmic Frontier cosplay and smiling and blushing at Willow (out of frame).]

For starters, I believe that Hunter does in fact know what a crush is, at least in the text book sense. He reads a lot, so it would be likely that he has encountered romance in some form through that. We know at least he likes Ruler's Reach, which despite King's edits we know still had some of Luz's influence. Also, fans who know Star Trek have pointed out that the character Hunter's blorbo is a parody of is married to a botanist so there's no way he would miss that.

Since it's common for teens to have one-sides crushes on adults in their lives like teachers or friends' older siblings, I used to head canon that when Hunter was younger he could have had baby crush on Steve or someone (bi hunter rights!) but since in "Thanks to Them" Hunter specifies that he wasn't allowed to interact much with the other scouts I now find that to be unlikely. Willow is most likely his first crush.

As for being AWARE of his crush, let's look at the timeline.

In Labyrinth Runners, Hunter is already showing signs of his crush on Willow though I don't think he is aware of what his feelings mean yet at this point. He blushes at her, he tries to make himself somewhat presentable for her, but he doesn't really know why.

[ID: Two screenshots from Labyrinth Runners. In the first, Hunter is blushing while looking straight ahead. The second shows the moment immediately after where Gus confers with who he believes to be Willow while in the background Hunter is seen awkwardly brushing dirt off his cloak.]

But fast forward to Thanks To Them? I think he knows by now. For this reasoning I point to the "Buff Brains" scene.

[ID: Two screenshots from Thanks to Them showing the hexsquad minus Luz in their shack. In the first, everyone is cheering and posing triumphantly all except for Hunter who is standing with his arms limply by his sides as he looks at Willow flexing and blushes from his cheeks to his ears. The second image is nearly the same except now Hunter has raised his arms to cheer with the group.]

Hunter doesn't just get distracted by Willow's muscles here, he catches himself getting distracted, which leads to him snapping himself out of it and adding on his awkward "HA HA YEAH" several seconds after everyone else has gone quiet. Hunter here to me seems like he is trying (and failing, bless him) to keep it cool, as opposed to in LR when he made no such attempts, because at that time he wasn't aware he had to. Whether or not he came to this conclusion on his own or had help from Gus or Amity is a question for fan fiction.

Now the next part of your question, does Willow have a crush on Hunter? Absolutely.

But Secretly, you say, how can you be so sure of this when Willow has never blushed at Hunter? Well I'm here to say she doesn't have to, and why? Because of Raeda.

When just looking at Hunter's side of things, or looking at our canon blushy couple lumity, it can be easy to say that only blushes equal crushes, but this isn't always the case.

Enter Raine. Raine does not typically blush at Eda, even when she blushes at them, but no one in the fandom doubts that they are in love with her.

Raine and Willow are actually a really interesting comparison because for the most part they only blush when they are embarrassed. Raine especially blushes when they are on stage.

[ID: two screenshots, the first of which is from "I Was A Teenage Abomination" and shows Willow with bright red cheeks as Amity mocks her poor abomination skills. The second is from "Eda's Requiem" and shows Raine looking red and embarrassed after Eda mocked them in front of the BATs.]

The only time I could find Raine blushing at Eda was in this flashback, and they only did it AFTER they were caught being flirty not while they were LITERALLY CARESSING EDA'S HAND suggesting they were more embarrassed about being caught than anything else. And even that blush was nothing compared to how red they get on stage.

[ID: Two screenshots from the flashback in "Eda's Requiem," showing young Eda and Raine sitting on their hilltop. In the first, Raine is shown adjusting the position of Eda's hand on her lute, while in the second Raine has pulled away and is looking to the side awkwardly with a slight blush on their face.]

Willow and Raine will literally be holding the object of their affection in their arms and not blush.

[ID: The first is a screenshot from "King's Tide" and shows Willow smiling softly while carrying a Hunter over her shoulder as she has just caught him in midair. Hunter is blushing but Willow is not. The second is a screenshot from "Eda's Requiem" and shows Raine carrying Eda bridal style while she proudly holds up a glyph. Raine is smiling but not blushing.]

Willow and Raine will BLATANTLY flirt without blushing.

[ID: the first is a screenshot from "Thanks to Them" and shows Willow standing in a doorway while winking and pointing at Hunter (out of frame). The second is a screenshot from "Eda's Requiem" and shows Raine reclining while smirking and pointing at Eda (out of frame).]

They also have these fond smiles that are reserved just for the object of their affection.

[ID: the first is a screenshot from "Clouds on the Horizon" the moment after Hunter and Gus have just done their special handshake. Luz looks extremely confused as she looks at them but Willow looks at them with soft eyes and smiles fondly. The second is a screenshot from the flashback of "Eda's Requiem" and shows young Eda and Raine on their hilltop while Eda plays her lute. Raine is leaning their head on their knee and looking at Eda with soft eyes like Willow's and a fond smile on their face.]

Damn, these spot the difference games are getting tough!

And just for fun, let's compare Hunter and Eda.

These two blush early and often.

[ID: The first is a screenshot from "Any Sport in a Storm" from the moment after Willow refers to "Caleb's" next day off. Hunter looks back at her with Flapjack on his shoulder and has a slight blush on his cheeks. The second is from "Them's The Breaks Kids" from the moment after Teen Raine has just done an impressive grudgby move. Teen Eda stands holding the ball with a light blush on her cheeks.]

I mean look at them.

[image ID: the first is a screenshot from "Labyrinth Runners." Willow has pulled Hunter in for a group hug with her and Gus. Hunter is blushing deeply and has a confused and distressed look on his face. The second is a screenshot from "Eda's Requiem" and shows Eda smiles and blushing while Raine extends their hand to her.]

In addition, we know Willow goes completely FERAL when Hunter is in danger.

[ID: two screenshots from "Clouds on the Horizon." The first shows an angry looking Willow, surrounded by vines she has summoned and eyes glowing with green magic and spell circles around her hands. The second shows Willow frantically trying to start the air ship to go after Hunter who she believes has been kidnapped while Amity tries to assist while also telling Willow to slow down.]

Of course, Willow is a protective spirit by nature, but we've never seen her act so rashly to protect her other friends, not even Gus or Luz. Because if you recall, to protect her friends Willow thinks she must be both strong and wise. It would have been wiser to take a minute to come up with a plan to retrieve Hunter before jumping in, it was not so wise to try to commandeer and airship that she has no idea how to fly. This is significant because Willow's emotions are so strong here they are overpowering the part of her that's usually rational and likes to think things through before acting. She cares about Hunter so much.

So in conclusion, Willow definitely likes Hunter back. She at least is more likely to actually be aware of her feelings from early on though, since unlike Hunter she had normal social interactions growing up and is more likely to be familiar with the subject of crushes.

Thanks so much for asking!

[astriiformes]

One thing that keeps getting me about the moment with Hunter comforting Gus in Labyrinth Runners is like. The show has made it clear that Gus has a history of being taken advantage of and lied to by older kids specifically, by virtue of having skipped enough grades that even his school peers and close friends are a couple years older than him. And with Hunter on the older end of the show’s teen characters at 16 and Gus being one of the youngest, at 12, there’s a pretty significant gap between them. 4 years is a huge difference at that point in life. Gus is middle school-aged while Hunter is like a high school junior.

Which. Listen. I know when I was 12, someone Hunter’s age showing me any kind of positive attention was basically the coolest thing in the world, and Gus has clearly been looking for that exact kind of attention and mostly getting burned for it. And obviously it’s happened with people somewhat closer to his age too, but the flashback at the beginning that specifically focused on him falling for fake gestures of friendship from a much older teenager really makes the scene with him and Hunter towards the end of the episode hit extra hard. The echoed promise that he wouldn’t mess with him, the real, genuine heart to heart about having been deceived by Belos that makes it clear gullibility isn’t some flaw unique to Gus -- it’s putting them both on the same level in a way that Gus hasn’t always (or even usually) gotten from kids older than him, and even though I don’t think Hunter fully understood how important that would be to Gus, it absolutely addressed and soothed some of the huge insecurities he has about being surrounded by classmates way older than him.

Anyways I have many feelings about their developing friendship and the pretty significant gap in age between them is a big part of it; the idea that Gus finally gets to have that real, mutual friendship with someone Hunter’s age that he’s clearly been craving for a while and that Hunter, who is still working through so much, is still able to offer real, important validation to someone who needs it is just so good. They have a lot to bond over and a lot in common and I loved every minute of their screentime together this episode so much

[littlemisssquiggles]

...Sooo....About The Owl House...

So I’ve been quietly catching up on The Owl House Season 2 and following today’s episode, I’ve got a couple of comments to make regarding this season as a whole thus:

I know I mentioned in my first commentary-like review of Owl House Season 1 that Willow Park was my favourite character in the whole show.

And while I still love Willow very, very much---she’s still my girl---as of Season 2, the Golden Guard a.k.a Hunter has officially become my favourite.

Not this squiggle meister falling for yet ANOTHER magical golden little prince with a tragic backstory where he is the reincarnation of a character closely connected to the main antagonist of the series. Totally not me, at all.

I think right now Hunter and Willow are both tied for my personal all-time favourite characters as a fan of the Owl House series… which is in turn is also perfect since I’m also starting to ship them as well.

Not this squiggle meister falling for yet another budding relationship between a golden little prince and his OBVIOUS crush on a powerful girl with glowing eyes and a flower/plant themed name and motif.

Not me again shamelessly tossing myself, shipping heart first down this never-ending rabbit hole again. Certainly not again at all. Ahahaaa~ :V

I blame “Any Sport in a Storm” for this. I did not go into Season 2 of The Owl House expecting to walk out a Huntlow shipper…just as how I did not go into Volume 5 of RWBY expecting to walk out a Rosegarden shipper. It just happened and here I am. Don’t come at me please :V

But can you blame me though? Can you really blame me for becoming a Huntlow shipper?

Hunter and Willow are both already terrific characters and what’s better is that their growing bond is just as SO GODDAMN CUTE!.

No episode proved this more to me than today’s new episode---Labyrinth Runners.

Did you see the way golden boy blushed when he saw Willow (while it was a fake Willow—he still blushed when he saw her because he thought it was her)?

Did you see the way golden boy instantly recognized that Willow wasn’t his Captain?

Speaking of, can I take a moment to appreciate how Hunter still addresses Willow as captain despite leaving the Emerald Entrails team? Not only that but can we also take a minute to gush over how much Hunter respects Willow as much as he obviously likes her.

“…That’s not the captain.” “ You’re scaring me, Hunter.” “Have you ever seen her play Flyer Derby? There’s no way she’s be afraid of me.”

Not only does Hunter acknowledge Willow’s strength and courageous nature but…he sadly does so more than Gus and Amity who both have known Willow longer than him. But to be fair, I can’t be too mad at either of them since a) Amity just started being friends with Willow again and you can tell from this episode that she still harboured some guilt over bullying/ failing to defend her as a friend for all those years. And b) Gus has his own diffidence in respect to genuine friendships after his gullibility got the better of him in the past. Like I said, I’m not making this point to denounce Gus and Willow in any kind of way. Not at all. I’m just pointing it out as something I highlighted about Hunter as a character in reference to his connection to Willow.

And this little detail makes me like the prospect of them liking each other even more.

And then, the icing on the cake---Hunter trying to act all coy, playing he walking past Willow and Gus hugging only for Willow to pull him in to join in on the hug. I just…beautiful. Simple perfection.

Seriously, Labyrinth Runners is easily my favourite episode of this season and that’s hard to say since I also deeply enjoyed “Hollow Mind”, “Any Sport in a Storm” and countless other episodes of this season so far. Seriously the Owl House team has been killing with the writing this season thus far. There has yet to be an episode that I haven’t enjoyed in some way and don’t get me started on the character development this season.

I especially love what this season has been doing with Gus. I love how we got more Gus development this season. It's small but still enough to tell you a lot about him which is great. I like how we got to learn more about him. Gus is easily one of the most sociable characters in the main cast but I like how we’ve been seeing a more vulnerable side to him as well. Especially in today’s episode.

I think the core reason why I love the Labyrinth Runner episode so much is what it did for Gus’ friendship with Hunter. I love how this episode genuinely showed Hunter and Gus caring about each other and becoming friends. I loved how in the end, Hunter was the one to technically “save” Gus this episode and vice versa.

It’s great development for both of them since when Gus first met Hunter in "Any Sport in a Storm", he was the most suspicious of him. So to see these two become good friends this episode, it’s just so wholesome and great. I just love it.

Now Gus has another genuine friend in Hunter as he does with Willow and Luz. Speaking of friends, I loved how this episode also highlighted how the whole Flyer Derby team are Hunter’s friends. This isn’t just inclusive of Willow and Gus. Viney and Skara also think so too and it was good great to hear that they vouched for him to be saved when the Coven Scouts tried to take him back to Belos.

There is just so much GREAT in this episode! LOVE IT.

Now to close this post with a theory, somewhat for TOH:

Trinity of Magic

Remember that episode back in season one where the combined magical energies or whatnot between Luz, Gus and Willow caused Hooty to turn into a literal moving house?

Since then I’ve been waiting to see if there will be a story reason for that. And while the show has yet to bring that back, after Labyrinth Runners and seeing just how powerful Gus is with another example of young witch with glowing eyes, I wonder if there will be a story reason for this.

Before, Willow was the only witch confirmed to have their eyes glow whenever unleashing the full might or potential of their magic. Now today, here we have Gus showing the extent of his illusion magic. I wonder if there will be a story reason for this that ties back to “Hooty’s Moving Hassle”.

Are Luz, Gus and Willow part of some kind of magical…trinity or something?

I know Gus and Willow are technically full-born witches whereas Luz is human. But technically, Luz is already proving herself to become some kind of prodigy of wild magic through the use of glyphs.

I dunno. This is just me spitballing here. However, after “Labyrinth Runners”, I’m really starting to get the feeling that there may be something very special to main magical trio than meets the eye. But that’s just my theory.

Anyways, that's enough rambling about TOH for today.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2022)

[chocolatemilksmoothie]

Edge of the World

I knew it was gonna be harsh for King this episode but ouch...

first of all shoutout to Hooty he really did protect these kids!

I do feel the need to mention I'm surprised Hunter wasn't mentioned or shown once (1)? like Eda I know he's not your kid but he did run alone into the woods, panicking, is anyone gonna go check up on him

King wants his demon family to meet his owl family and for them to play catch together :(

hugs <3

anyways poor Luz is having a hard time, understandably, so she must be thankful about the letter so that she feels like there's something she can do

LULU! I love her current design

I liked the little heart to heart with Eda, she is stressed about how serious this all is so it's nice there's anther adult there to talk to

I saw the promo images by the crew with the baseball and glove and I KNEW it was gonna be heartbreaking. I suspected King's dad was dead and I think that is very much the case now huh

getting an army def would've been helpful, but I guess that's out of the question now

thought if you think about it they're kinda losers too, Titan slayers trappers who have never even seen a live Titan

though considering they worship the Collector, and they got King to light up the uh, Round Boi, I am very much expecting to see these guys again

they have this teleporting magic thing, even if it was destroyed it's still interesting. so they're far, but they can travel

I always loved the concept of islands made of a giant carcass, it's fascinating and horrible. seems they can warp from the hand to the finger right? how'd they get the finger so far away

I thought we'd get an Eda+Lily B plot but we really didn't get much from them after leaving, so the cliffhanger makes me think they did something. the house may be empty, or they may have called someone, but who?

I knew there was something creepy or something bad was coming but the moment I realized they were WEARING the SKULLS my jaw dropped, that's dark

"he passed down that skull of yours" they assumed he was in disguise too

it's so sad because he thought he was learning about his family, about his culture, his people! but they were just going to hurt him

how long does a Titan live? how fast do they grow?? if King's dad was still around a few years ago before he hatched then I'm sure he's not the Titan we're living on but is he 100% dead??

is King really the last one...

EDIT because oh my god Titan Blood NO ONE LET BELOS KNOW

this kid's heart has been broken enough times!!! give him a break!!!

Luz and Hooty are actually a comedic duo bless

A couple things:

This dude has wings! I remember back in Eda's requiem I wondered if this meant King would get wings eventually but seeing as other people in the group don't have wings I think it's just him?

and it seems to me he was getting attached to King before realizing who he was, which is kinda sad

"can we play catch?"

look at how tiny he is :'(

"release the grand Huntsman from his prison" it's interesting they have the Round Boi and it's shattered. does Belos know where it is?

I thought the Collector would be freed in the Day of Unity but it seems these guys want to free them too hmmm Bill knew of Belos but doesn't seem to care or be for or against him, so they're not working together...

King lit the flame and his eyes glowed, he was somehow connected to the Collector but the ritual was thankfully left unfinished. but the fact that it started is VERY concerning

"tell Lulu how brave I was" I WILL HUN

this shot is gorgeous

and we end with the house surrounded.

Once again things get tense and the Day of Unity is a week away, so next week should be intense too. this was an Emotions Heavy episode for the main cast, especially King of course, and we finally get the confirmation that he is a Titan. the last one. poor baby

So, speaking of next week

so, ever since Hollow Mind I think it's clear we're on Season Finale Mode so all episodes will be intense. Next week we have Labyrinth Runners (is that a Maze Runner reference lmao) and it's a Gus episode which yesss I love my boy.

but it says the Emperor's Coven is going to Hexside, so I assume they're hunting for Luz and probably anyone who sides with her. Gus will team up with an "unlikely ally" and there's a lot of options there so we gotta wait and see.

Still, I noticed this one shot of the promo is definitely from next week's ep and it's the last shot from the promos we haven't seen as far as I can tell (do correct me if I'm wrong). Which means we're going blind into the last few episodes. ominous