#Would Eda even know that Lilith cursed her?

[cy-cyborg]

How The Owl House did amputee representation right before Eda ever lost her arm - Disability in Media

[ID: A screenshot of Eda from The Owl House, an old woman with pale skin, very large, grey hair and pointed ears in a red dress. Beside the screenshot on a dark pink background is text that reads "Disability in media, How the Owl House got amputee representation right before eda ever lost her arm." /End ID]

Dana Terrace's The Owl House has some of the best disability rep I’ve seen on a Disney channel show in a long time, with Eda, the main character’s mentor, being one of many stand-out examples.

Plenty of people have discussed how Eda’s curse and the loss of her magic can work as an allegory for disability and how refreshing it is to see a story (especially one aimed at a younger audience) who’s focus is not on her “overcoming” it, but learning to accept it as a part of her and go from there. Eda’s story tackles a lot of subjects that are often mishandled in other examples of disability representation, from the subject of parents who refuse to accept, to glass siblings and much, much more, The Owl House handles all these topics beautifully.

But one thing that dawned on me during my most recent re-watch of The Owl House is how well Eda (and later Lilith) worked as amputee representation, long before Eda actually lost her arm.

One of the side effects of Eda and Lilith’s curse is that sometimes their body parts, mainly their limbs, can fall off. It doesn’t hurt them, and Eda is seen removing them intentionally at multiple times in the series, but they can always be reattached.

[ID: an image of Eda holding her sister Lilith's hand. Lilith is a pale woman with long, black hair, wearing grey clothes. She is looking at her other arm suprised, as her hand is missing. Luz, a Latina girl with short brown hair and a purple hoodie is looking on, smiling. /End ID]

While most likely unintentional, the way the show depicts this with Eda in particular is exactly what I wish more people would do with their prosthetic-using amputee characters.

Eda detaches her limbs, especially her legs, when they’re inconvenient or when she’s relaxing.

[ID: an image of Eda laying on the couch in a bathrobe, her hair in a towel. She has taken her legs off, throwing them to the other side of the seat. /End ID]

The fact that this is mostly played for laughs is actually a good thing in my opinion (though obviously, the show’s overall tone is part of that), as it shows the audience who are mostly children and teens, that in a world of weird and downright scary (from the perspective of the characters) things, this isn't one of them. It’s just a thing she and Lilith can do, and it can even be funny.

[ID: An image of Luz and Eda dressed as pirates. Eda is sitting on the ground, her legs detached and off screen somewhere. /End ID]

It does startle Luz and Lilith on a few occasions, but that’s more because they didn’t know the curse could do that, but once they’re introduced to it, it’s never really brought up as a big deal again.

I’d love to see more amputee characters who do this with their prosthetics. So often media is almost afraid to have amputees take their prosthetics off on camera or on the page. For some folks, our prosthetics are like a part of our bodies, but that doesn’t mean we never take them off. Show your leg amputee flop on the couch and throw their legs across the room. Have them go without on occasion, not because they have to, but because they just don’t feel like putting them on.

Likewise, the owl house creators never shy away from showing Eda when her limbs aren’t all attached. A lot of media, and kid’s shows in particular, will avoid having an amputee character’s stump visible if they ever do take their prosthetics off - treating that part of the character’s body the same way they treat gore or nudity. I’ve talked before how this actually does have a real impact on how kids in particular react to amputees - I’ve legitimately had kids I worked with cry when I took my prosthetics off, then immediately calm down when they see there’s nothing "scary" under my socks. As much as I love How To Train Your Dragon, it’s very guilty of this. Hiccup looses his leg at the end of the first movie, and wakes up with his prosthetic already attached. The Netflix series has a few instances where he has his prosthetic off, but the camera almost always avoids showing it until he can cover it up again, or is super zoomed-out so you wouldn’t be able to “see anything”. To their credit, they do get better with this in the last movie (though it's still always covered), but for the majority of the series, they are very reluctant to have any shots where hiccup’s leg is in view without the prosthetic (unless they’re very far away).

[ID: a screenshot of Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon 3, a white man with short brown hair, and one leg missing, wearing armour made of black dragon scales and no prosthetic. He is holding onto toothless's head, a black dragon. /End ID]

Ironically, Eda does (permanently) loose an arm at the end of season 2, but I don’t really have much to say about her as amputee representation on that front, since she’s absent for a lot of Season 3, and when we do see her again, everything is so hectic, the story doesn’t really have any time to focus on her missing limb (which is reasonable). I will say, I do appreciate that they kept the amputation when she's in her owl-beast form in the finale, but there's honestly not much more to say about it. We do see her again in the epilogue after she’s had some time to settle into the amputation, wearing a hook prosthetic, but it’s, once again, too quick to really say anything from a representation standpoint. There's a few little nit-picky things I could bring up, like the fact they seemed to change the type on amputation she had (when she looses it, we see the split was very close to the elbow, but in the epilogue she has most of her forearm again) but those read to me more like animation mistakes or an odd prosthetic/clothing designs rather than a representation issue - and as someone who's worked in animation, given the stress the team was under for the finale, I'm not really worried about it. Like I said, it's more nit-picky than anything.

[ID: A screenshot of Eda, her hair tied back and wearing a red robe and a hook for her right hand. /End ID]

Despite all that though, I still think Eda is still good amputee representation, but mostly because of how they depict her curse’s side effects rather than her actual amputation. She’s honestly one of the only characters that I think you could refer to as “amputee coded” (outside of maybe Teen Titan’s Cyborg), and I genuinely wish more creators would treat their actual amputee characters the same way the Owl House treats Eda in that regard.

[sergeantsporks]

You know, I think you just solved a lingering question that I had about TOH with latest fic.

"Why does Eda bother with buying her Curse Elixir from Morton when she's clearly a talented potioneer herself?"

Clearly, it's because she doesn't want to have to deal with eye-splitter vines every other Tuesday. Lmao

I think "why doesn't Eda just brew her own elixirs" fits under the same category of "why doesn't she just steal them when money gets tight" to which my personal favorite answer is that she wants to support small businesses.

It's probably just a question of convenience, you know? We see it takes Lilith a while to engineer a functional elixir, even KNOWING all the ingredients. So why bother going through all that trouble when you can buy them? I'm CAPABLE of sewing clothes for myself, but I still tend to buy clothes more often than not because it's a LOT of work. Eda's got other things to do. And who knows what kind of constant attention you have to give it while it's cooking? Eda's on the run-- that might not be feasible for her.

Anyway, all that to say, yeah, lol, she DEFINITELY wouldn't want to deal with those on a regular basis. That would be the BIGGEST inconvenience of them all.

[dazeddoodles]

I headcanon that Raine is both awed and grossed out when Eda eats mice and voles. As long as Eda washes her mouth before they make out, Raine doesn't mind what she eats.

I think Eda would be insecure at first to eat mice in front of Raine, or even admit to them she does because it's a reminder of the curse and how "feral" it makes her (even though they already eat weird stuff in the Boiling Isles)

Also because when Eda was younger and ate gross stuff or had bad breath Lilith would tell her "If you keep doing that Raine's not gonna want to kiss you"

And Eda would get mad and say she DOESN'T want to kiss Raine, but she actually does and Lilith knows it 😔

[jess-the-vampire]

What is Eda like as empress of the boiling isles? Does she run things ethically?

so eda kinda hates the job tbh, with Lilith mysteriously gone she had no choice but to be the one in charge (Though everyone wanted her over lilith anyway beforehand, which is what fueled their fight)

she'd much rather go out, have fun, go on adventures

and she kinda does some of that even in charge, but it's still not the same, and now she has so many responsibilities

i don't think she'd know where'd she be without caleb assisting her (And raine of course, caleb just has centuries of experience)

things are run pretty ethically for the most part, you could argue because all magic is free, the laws are MUCH looser, and that comes with it's own set of problems

eda is VERY popular, she's so charismatic that people love her, while people hate philip. On the surface she's seen as the fun popular aunt of the entire isles, but behind doors she's tired and stressed, trying not to let anyone know her secrets, including what happened to Lilith and her curse.

she does have the best of intentions i'd say, even if they don't always come off that way.

even her dislike of philip isn't coming from nowhere, i mean, he stabbed her grandpa and that one event has made the entire clawthorne clan despise him for centuries, not to mention the trouble he causes and the unwillingness to help her.

eda runs things about as ethically as you assume eda would, but tbh it probably helps she has people like caleb to rule her back.

[hikaaa-bi]

can we talk about how useless lilith is to the plot? she's introduced as this really mysterious antagonist with a complicated relationship with one of our heroes. but then, she's shown to be incompetent, impatient and immature in a bunch of episodes where she tries to capture eda. she's portrayed almost as pathetic as kikimora sometimes.

but then she captures luz and we find out the truth about her. how she cursed her sister in order to get into the emperor's coven and how she's trying to fix her mistake by doing the wrong thing. okay, now her character is getting more interesting. maybe we can see how hard she has to work to right her wrongs and get forgiven and— nope. we're just gonna have her share eda's curse and now everyone loves her. she's forgiven instantaneously.

and after that? she's mostly just… there. either as a comic relief or as emotional support for the other characters. “she went back in time and punched belos!” anyone could have done that. there were multiple other characters in the show who knew a lot about the boiling isles and could have helped luz with time traveling. there were multiple other characters in the show who wouldn't have hesitated to deck philip in the face. lilith could have easily been replaced by any other character in the show.

besides, the punch didn't do much other than give belos a bump on his nose bridge and more of a reason to hate witches. it wasn't his driving force, he would have hated witches even if lilith hadn't punched him. he was already knee-deep in villainy at that point.

i just feel like lilith's character had a lot more potential. i feel like toh has a trend of turning all its redeemed characters into the same old "awkward loveable nerd" archetype. and it strips them of their entire personality. oh, amity was this stuck-up bully who was suffering from her mother's abuse? she got a haircut and she's just luz's cute awkward girlfriend now. personality? we don't know her. hunter was a trained soldier who spent years under the influence of his abusive uncle and recently found out that he was a clone made solely to replace his uncle's long-dead brother, and now has to deal with that life-shattering realization? nah, he's just willow's pathetic wet cat male wife now.

i just— i don't know, man. all these characters had potential. especially hunter. he was the most popular character in the show for a reason and it's not only because some viewers found him hot. it's because people could relate to him and also because his snarky and petty personality was a fun addition to the show. by the end of the series, none of these characters are themselves.

i love romantic subplots in shows but if a character has to change entirely in order to fit in a romantic narrative, maybe you're not doing it right. maybe those characters just don't belong together.

[yardsards]

thinking of the Implications of the blight parents signing their 14 year old daughter up for emperor's coven tryouts

because

1: the emperor's coven takes their recruits away from their friends and family

2: they do not wait until you are an adult to do this

(like, even assuming the process from getting accepted into the coven to actually joining it and moving to the castle aren't as fast as hunter makes it sound here it's like.

we do see lilith having dinner at home after eda's been cursed. so it wasn't immediate (at least back then it wasn't)

but they weren't waiting til she was an adult either. cuz eda was 2 years younger than lilith (thus at least 2 years younger than whatever the boiling isles considers an adult, cuz we know lilith was still a student then too) and she and lilith planned on joining at the same time. there wasn't a "well, eda can't actually *join* join for two more years, so she might as well wait for next tryout anyway"

which, tryouts might not be *yearly*, perhaps it's more efficient to not have to run the training camp every year, but i don't imagine they'd be less often than every couple of years)

so this?

the blight parents are 100% willing to send their FOURTEEN YEAR OLD CHILD away *forever*

14 years old. not even done with puberty yet. half a head shorter than her siblings and a whole head shorter than her parents. face still covered in baby fat.

this is a child who is called *mittens* by not only her siblings but by the very parents who were willing to send her away

and they weren't just sending her off to live far-ish away and rarely see them again; they were sending her off to have a Real Grownup Job. even if exactly how bad working for the emperor is isn't a well-known fact, it's still obviously a full-time job.

odalia has wanted amity to join the emperor's coven for a long time. after all, having a daughter in the emperor's coven would bring a lot of prestige to the family, and she could maybe try to leverage amity's position to gain more power

and odalia can be an impatient woman, so it makes sense that she'd want this to happen as soon as possible. not to mention, she's canonically not averse to child labour

(i briefly considered that maybe odalia wanted amity out of her life but i don't think that's the case. odalia doesn't outright hate amity; odalia's cruelty comes from seeing her family as tools (and seeing amity as very useful but flawed) rather than malice)

meanwhile, alador explains his choice by saying he thought it was what amity wanted

and it's addressed that that's not really her dream (at least, it DEFINITELY isn't anymore. they way she used to "want" to join the emperor's coven is worthy of its own post tbh). and that if he paid attention to her, talked to her, listened to her, and made himself a person that she could comfortably admit these kinds of things to, then he'd know that.

but he also ignores her when she says she doesn't want to go to tryouts that night (even if she didn't admit that she never wants to join the emperor's coven at all) and wants to go to the bonesborough brawl instead.

doesn't stop to question why his daughter -who has previously shown herself to be rather studious, responsible, and goal-oriented- would suddenly want to "goof off". he just... assumes she's being irresponsible and thoughtlessly not pursuing "her dream" or "a bright future" for no reason, and just needs to be pushed into doing the supposedly responsible thing

but that doesn't quite explain why he's convinced that she needs to do this at *age fourteen*, why her future can't wait a few more years, why her dream needs to happen as soon as possible before her childhood's even over. (and i'm not gonna take "because odalia said so" as an answer here; he's clearly convinced that what he's doing is right and is not just mindlessly following orders)

well, first possibility: i think maybe, while he's not as bad or blatant about it as his wife, he might also think material success is the key to happiness (and the emperor's coven is considered one of the most successful positions in the world, next to being a covenhead)

and with that kind of mindset, a lot of the things that would bring the children actual happiness just get forgotten. their needs for attention and affection, for friendship and leisure, for the freedom to express themselves, for the chance to just be kids, all get thrown by the wayside -sacrificed in the name of "success"

by that line of thinking: joining the emperor's coven = material success and material success = happiness. and if joining the emperor's coven = happiness, then joining sooner = being happy sooner. and why wouldn't a parent want their child to find happiness as soon as possible? unfortunately her age and specific needs are not in that equation at all, even though they're obviously actually very important factors

(you could also honestly apply this reasoning to odalia herself as well, if you want to be charitable. cuz i've seen good arguments that she does actually care about her family's wellbeing, but in a twisted sort of way, wherein her priorities are extremely skewed AND it gets obscured by her own selfishness. idk, the show's characterization of her is weird, even compared to her husband (i blame the s3 shortening rushing their development, tbh). so i waited to bring this up til after i started talking about alador.)

there's also a second possibility: maybe he realizes that their home environment is bad for amity (which, it is), and thinks getting her out of there early by any means would be good for her (which, not quite the case)

maybe not even by noticing her actual misery, but by projecting his own misery onto her. like, he's in an abusive marriage and severely overworked. when he says amity has a bright future, he's kind of contrasting her with himself, and -consciously or not- implying that his life is not what a bright future looks like (which kind of goes against the first possibility, because he is rather financially successful). and he's very afraid of his children having to take his place: probably especially amity, because she's the abomination witch and would be more likely to have to take on his exact job

(ironically, though he doesn't know it, emperor's coven members are just as overworked and controlled as he is)

except, y'know, leaving a toxic home environment to become fully self sufficient is not the kind of upgrade for a kid that it would be for an adult. it'd just be throwing her from one bad situation to another

and also it's your responsibility as a parent to provide an environment for your child that they don't need to escape from. and while some concessions can be made due to the whole abusive wife situation, that doesn't absolve him of all responsibility.

like, the whole point of his role in reaching out was that the WERE things that he COULD do better. like, he became a better father at the end of that episode than he was at the beginning. and none of that change was due to "my wife changed, so i now have the ability to be a better father"; odalia wasn't involved in that growth at all

[crimeronan]

omg ur lumity fic is AMAZING and it got me thinking wouldn't it be fucked up if amity got into something actually life threatening that she'd normally handle easily with abominations and defaults to trying that but can't and ends up getting srsly hurt? and she'd be like. so irrationally ashamed for lilith to find out cuz it feels like a failure and if she can't even protect herself does she even deserve emperors coven ?? (tbc in a second ask i hope this isn't annoying)

part 2: and like imagine hunter seeing her in the healing coven or wtvr and being like wtf blight ik u could handle that ru trying to die??? (his way of showing he Cares a lot) and like. when lilith finds out she would feel SO fucking guilty even tho she couldn't have anticipated this and was trying to help amity and amity agreed so its. very different from edas curse but would def feel similar to lilith

-

GOD, YEAH. THIS WOULD SUCK A LOT. FOR EVERYONE INVOLVED.

minor upcoming chapter spoilers i suppose, but. for all that i've talked about what a massive dick lord cunter of bitch mountain is going to be (SUCH a massive dick), once he finds out what's going on, he actually Does anticipate something like this immediately. he's like okay i know you're an antisocial loser with a bunch of coven enemies and not all of them are as fucking nice as i am. SOMEONE needs to watch your back.

amity being like well! i can tell you're genuinely worried but you've been nothing but horrible to me all day. so thanks but no thanks. & hunter like "i.... don't know where you got the impression i'm giving you a choice....?"

[luminoushane]

More Amity as Lilith's Child AU questions. (I think about this a normal amount) Sorry for bombarding with so many questions.

What last name is Amity using? I presume Clawthorne instead of Blight given her real parentage is meant to be a secret. If so I can imagine the Belos situation being even worse given who she has superficial similarities to.

Given Amity is over at The Owl House more as a kid what's her view on Hooty like? Does Lilith end up befriending him earlier as well?

At St Epiderm does Amity have any friends there? Does she still end up going there after moving into The Owl House (St Epiderm is expensive and money was pretty right after everything went down)and if not does she end up missing those friends?

You said Amity knew she was adopted, how much does she know about her birth family? How does the reunion with the twins go?

How does Amity react to finding out the truth about Lilith cursing Eda and then sharing the curse?

Of course a Lumity based question now. When does Amity begin to start catching feelings in this AU and how does that end up once she moves into The Owl House for season two? (Much blushing I presume)

Lilith (begrudgingly) tolerates Hooty up until S2. I mean, he DID beat her up multiple times (given it was out of self defense.) So ya know

As for her last name, she is indeed using Clawthorne! Which did piss off Belos quite a bit. He knows about Amity's real parents though, and looms that over Lilith's head whenever he wants something done.

And yes, she eventually does transfer to Hexside:).

Her St. Epiderm life is pretty boring, she has ONE friend. Hexside was much better for her social skills.

Her reunion with the twins happen in Labyrinth runners! She eventually introduces herself as their presumed dead sister and Edric and Emira smile and just go "We know. We we're waiting for you to tell us yourself." Bc, c'mon. They're not stupid enough to not notice how similar she looked to Odalia and Alador. As far as she's concerned, she isn't really sure if she actually wants to KNOW about Alador and Odalia, because she knows Lilith and Darius always talked bad about them.

There was moment, when she was 6, where she met up with Odalia (without Odalia knowing who she was.) And she came back running to Lilith and asking if she would take her back because she doesn't like her real family. Lilith's heart breaks for her.

As for the curse? Well, Lilith and Amity's relationship SEVERELY deteriorated after S1, which only made Amity feel worse bc she already had a fallout with Hunter.

And finally, she catches feelings early on while pretending to be rivals! Luz actually asked her to be her (totally platonic) partner for Grom since she was chosen as Grom Queen, and Amity ends up saving her, which ultimately led to her accepting her feelings. Luz starts to reciprocate soon afterwards, since they started sharing the same space.

[autisticlilith]

Something that always struck me about this 'fight' is that it felt really one-sided. Not because the Raven Beast is bigger, but because she's also way more aggressive. We see throughout the show that Eda in her Owl Beast form acts mostly on instinct (and her inner beast, once she starts talking to it, seems to just be hungry or cranky most of the time). We don't get much insight into how Lilith copes with the curse (like none at all after this), so this is going to be a lot of inference.

Off the top, I would like to reiterate that Hayley Wong has repeatedly asked that nobody repost or edit her art without permission. I'm going to be referring to stuff from the boards in this post, so here's the link if you want to look for yourself.

So, in this episode, Eda and Lilith are both angry—specifically at Gwendolyn, and with good reason. They both end up turning into beasts due to a combination of that anger, stress, and the fact their mom thought she was "helping" by taking away their medication.

But here is where they differ. Eda was angry about the current situation: her mom refusing to respect her choices, and causing unnecessary harm to her all day. And Luz even joined in. As Eda says, she has a right to be upset, though I don't think she meant to lose control over the beast.

That's just what happens when she reaches her limit. And she knows her limits, she's been dealing with this curse for 30 years!

Meanwhile, Lilith has been dealing with the curse for... a few weeks, at most? Unless you count dealing with the guilt of cursing Eda as part of that. We see that she's quite unaware of the effects of the curse, as she experienced some symptoms for the first time this very day. She essentially gets told to take an elixir if she starts feeling stressed, and then is left in the house to stew in her guilt and insecurity all day.

Gwen's lukewarm greeting, and the realization that she's paid consistent visits to Eda over the years, is enough to send Lilith into a downward spiral. She starts stress-eating ice cream, and makes cruel comments about King's dad abandoning him (a clear case of projection, and I don't think he really internalizes it after this episode, but seriously that's no way to talk to your 8-year-old nephew), and unfortunately the only voice of reason around is Hooty. Well, he tried.

I want to note here that she doesn't cry. She mopes, she complains, she gets rude and cynical; these are all things we've seen her do before. But she doesn't allow herself to honestly express her feelings, her wants and needs. What's she gonna say? "Hey Mom, can you please pay attention to me?" You can't just ask for things like that. And she's a grown adult, she's more mature than this. She was the head of the Emperor's Coven, for Titan's sake. Didn't she get enough attention there to last a lifetime? And didn't she learn how to repress all her useless emotions and craft a perfect persona to hide behind until she could no longer tell the mask from her face?

She realizes she's indulged her worst thoughts a little too hard when the feathers start popping up, and goes to take an elixir and calm down...

And there are no elixirs.

And she panics. She has no coping strategies for this. She doesn't even know what's going to happen to her, only that it's going to be really, really bad.

It has to be terrifying, and painful... and maybe, just a little bit deserved? This is the fate she forced upon Eda, after all.

We don't see any signs that she damaged the house after she turned, unlike the havoc Eda caused back in The Intruder. King runs to get help, because Eda or Luz would know what to do better than he does, and Raven Beast Lilith seems to pursue him, but she's not after him. She goes after Eda directly. There is no distraction (King also notes that light glyphs had no effect on her), there is no behaviour that can be explained as animal instinct. There is a violent, visceral anger, and instead of addressing its source, she flies out there to take it out on Eda.

This is why I don't buy the interpretation that Gwen started favouring Eda only after the curse. By that point, Lilith was an older teenager almost out of the house, and it's completely reasonable for the parents to be focusing more on the younger kid with a new mysterious illness. I think Eda was always the favourite, or at least got more attention in ways that made Lilith feel overlooked. Part of it was that Eda got in trouble more, whereas Lilith was usually quiet and well-behaved, so everyone just decided that Eda needed more help (which she didn't necessarily want) and Lilith needed none. Lilith got very good at needing nothing. So good that instead of talking to her sister about their impending duel, she decided to curse her in the dead of night instead. And then to keep it a secret until she found a way to undo it, because she never wants to upset anyone or cause a scene. And then to give 30 years of her life to an evil man's crooked system for nothing—less than nothing, she's only going to realize later.

Lilith's breakdown isn't about the fact Gwen is paying attention to Eda again. That's just the trigger for a lifetime of repressed emotions bursting to the surface all at once, and it's been coming for a while.

The Owl Beast seems to be mostly defending herself. At a few points she tries to flee, but the Raven Beast catches her. The Raven Beast is malicious, with exaggerated expressions of rage and what can only be described as cruel glee when she inflicts pain. This seems to come out of nowhere... but only if you haven't been paying attention to Lilith.

We know what Lilith is like at her worst. It wasn't even that long ago she threatened Luz's life in order to capture Eda. All while convinced that she was doing the right thing. She doesn't even have that shield now. She doesn't have much of anything, really, except her sister who refused to leave her out in the cold even after everything she's done. And this is how she repays that trust...?

We also know that Lilith wasn't in control of her actions as the Raven Beast. But that doesn't mean the beast was just doing beast things. I believe it was acting directly on Lilith's intrusive thoughts. Hurting Eda was her greatest shame, and the idea that she could do it again is a constant fear that she has. Unlike Eda, who has long been seen by others as a monster and had to fight her internalized shame about it, Lilith considers herself a monster while everyone around her is unaware of her inner turmoil. She's afraid of herself; she thinks her feelings are ugly and violent and unmanageable. And so that's what they became.

There was a sequence in the storyboards that was cut from the episode, presumably for time, where Gwendolyn tries to use a beastkeeping spell in order to communicate with her beast-daughters. It proves completely ineffective, so she goes to plan B, which is just trying to talk to them like a normal person (also in the boards, Gwen summons firebees to lift roof tiles for her to walk on, which I'm glad got changed to the tiles themselves being flying creatures. it's less distracting). There was something really affecting about watching her try to do things her own way one last time before finally admitting that she's failed the both of them. It painted the picture of this whole family who never talk about anything that's difficult or painful.

Then the scene plays out the way it does: Gwen's words get through to Eda, and allow her to finally face the beast and have an important revelation about herself.

And Lilith? Well, for all the violence she just showed, she breaks down in tears the second she is shown loving care.

When they've changed back, her anger is gone. There is no sign of the monster; there is only a sad, lonely woman who hasn't allowed herself to cry in so long that she almost forgot how. But she's safe now, and she's seen, and she's allowed this healthy expression of emotion. She collapses in the arms of her mother and sister.

After this, Lilith and Gwen had an off-screen conversation, where Lilith admitted she was the one to curse Eda, and decided that she was going to move back home. I could write a whole other post on that first point, but we've reached the end of the episode. I think a major reason why Lilith wanted to stay with mom and dad instead of with Eda is because she's afraid of hurting Eda again. Any time the curse acts up, she becomes a danger to the people around her, but especially to Eda, because of how much of her energy and guilt and shame has been focused around Eda over the years. She needs some time away while she figures out how to deal with the curse, to recover and build up her own identity. And of course, to build the relationship with her parents that she needed as a kid. Better late than never.

[sepublic]

No Tree Left Behind!

Titan this was such an amazing storyboard pilot episode!!! I love the worldbuilding and how it’s all a backdrop for these characters understanding one another and getting together as a family!!!

Once again, we see Lilith depicted as much more antagonistic without any of the hesitation or awkwardness of the final product; But I do note that she seems to hurt a little on the inside as the Arborgeist tree falls! Her dangling Luz over danger seems like a moment that was translated to Agony of a Witch!

It’s interesting; I think I kinda prefer the final version, mostly because there’s so much more good will and love for Eda made apparent in Lilith’s actions, so when she does use Luz as a hostage and reveal she cursed Eda, it feels less like an obvious twist and more like. A painful betrayal, y’know? Like yeah she loves Eda so much that it hurts to know she still did that, whereas here the hatred is so much more emphasized so it doesn’t hit the same imo.

We get to see the effects of colonization, we see some more conflict between wild witches and the coven! I loved Luz being pretty scared of the whole thing, it makes sense for her to be as a kid! Meanwhile Eda’s hoping for someone who can appreciate the significance of this tradition, and Luz does! So they both make concessions for one another, they both appreciate, and it’s about life surviving, like cultures and tradition, even in the face of seemingly inevitably destruction! It was bittersweet yet ultimately touching. The Arborgeist trees are also the palisman trees of the final show, so there’s that loss as well! But like in the final show, Eda helps a sapling recover from the devastation!

Also; Pilot Gus! So he appears with Willow! I was surprised that Willow didn’t have much of a role here, I thought the title meant this would be the first draft of Luz meeting Willow but it’s already happened by this point! I love King having to trick the others into joining the party and his loneliness over no appreciation for demon culture seems like a precedent for The Intruder. I love the way his B-plot wraps back around to the A-plot’s conclusion!

There was a lot to this episode; It was definitely a simpler one per S1 vibes. But it was touching to have Luz better understand her mentor and engage with the meaning of the world around her. It was about how traditions survive and the core behind them, how we have to adapt to colonization sometimes. Luz and Eda dancing together was so cute! And I love the morbid joke that being ‘naked’ in the isles also entails removing your skin haha! There was so much charm to this episode, and a part of me wants lore like the Arborgeist trees and Allard to be low key canon to the final show!

[piss-pumpkin]

Reflections (Hunter/Golden guard x reader)

Tw- Mild panic attack description (I kept it pretty vague don't worry) Also Lilith is still a villain in this, but like Hunter is in the middle of his redemption arc 

3.2k words

~a world on which one can see their soulmate in the mirror~

You were quite familiar with the mirror in your bathroom. Each morning, you saw the face of a rather cute guy, and this morning was no different. As you brushed your teeth, the red eyes of a boy you didn’t know stared back at you through the glass. Sighing, you indulged in what had become your routine as soon as you saw him. Putting your toothbrush down, you pushed up to sit on the counter, inches from the mirror. You checked every angle, examined every detail, and did your best to memorize every scar and every pore to ensure that if you ever saw him, you’d know.

You carefully traced where his biggest scar was on your own face. His hands were scarred too. You wondered what he could have done to get that, or the bags under his eyes… you traced the shape of those too.

                                                       …

There were no mirrors in the emperors castle. Belos made sure that nobody was distracted, nobody could look and wonder, and his little Golden guard wouldn’t have anyone to hope for.

But his logic was faulty. At night, when he was sure nobody would see, the castle halls devoid of any life, he carefully took off his Golden mask, and stared at the reflection. In the dim moonlight and gold tint of the metal, he saw them. His soulmate. That’s what comforted him whenever his uncle lashed out. His eyes fell of their face again, and he smiled softly. One day he’d meet them. Maybe he’d even get them to join the emperors coven, and work side by side with his soulmate. Things would be better then.

                                                     …

The Golden guard was to accompany Lilith on a quick mission to snatch her sister. Walking together, they always had an air of power and authority, the two highest ranking members of the emperors coven. The citizens of the boiling isles didn’t know how childish the two really were together.

“Just stay behind me, Golden brat,” Lilith whispered as they approached Eda’s market stand. She was walking fast, trying to keep the Golden guard out of her sight line.

“You know I can report you to my uncle for insubordination, right?” Hunter threatened. The lighthearted tone of his voice was meant to be menacing, and Lilith was not immune, despite her status.

She huffed, “let’s just get her and get on with it.” She slowed down her pace so that Hunter walked beside her. “There, over there,” Lilith pointed to the stand. The grey haired owl lady was trying to drum up some business… and she wasn’t alone. While Eda stood on the table yelling at passing witches, a younger witch manned the till, taking money from the poor souls the owl lady was scamming. Hunter squinted through the thin eye holes of his mask, they seemed vaguely familiar. He couldn’t place from where.

”Alright Golden guard, I’ll talk to her while you go behind… only attack if I can’t convince her, okay?” Lilith sighed, ever hopeful. Hunter nodded, and stalked behind the curtain, listening in on the conversation.

He had never assisted Lilith in the missions to recruit her sister, but he’d heard from Steve that it was always the same. They talked, Edalyn refused, and Lilith inevitably failed. It was happening again, and the Golden guard leaned on his staff as he waited, eavesdropping on the argument.

“Edalyn just come with me, we can cure your curse together,” Lilith sounded desperate.

“I’m doing just fine in my own, Lillie,” Edalyn huffed, “if this is all you came to say, then you can leave!”

Another voice spoke from the other side of the curtain, “You aren’t welcome here anyway, coven head.” They sounded cold and quiet.

”You tell her’ Y/n!”

Lilith grumbled. She sighed before speaking, “Then I have no choice but to take you by force, Edalyn.”

That was his signal. Hunter crept out from behind the stand and placed his staff, alight with magic, against the back of the owl lady. With a smirk in his voice, he chirped, “This should be relatively painless if you don’t move.”

Before the owl lady had time to react, her apparent partner in crime did. In a blink the Golden guard felt the ground shake behind him, and before he could look, he was struck behind the head by a whip of vines.

Hunter stumbled forward, and Edalyn lunged at Lilith, owl staff in hand. She swung the staff and released a blast of magic toward Lilith, “You know you can’t beat me, sister!”

Teleporting up to his feet, the Golden guard swung his staff swiftly, barely sparing a glance at his attacker. Though when they blocked with a wall of lush green foliage, Hunter had to look at them proper, to counter their movement. And look he did. As his eyes fell on the face of the wild witch, he stumbled. He didn’t teleport out of the way of their strike, instead letting their vines knock him off balance.

For a split second he thought he saw himself. But no. It wasn’t him, it was them. Them, who he’d seen before, who he felt he knew, in a strange way.

They moved quickly, kicking him to the ground and standing over him as they grew vines to trap him there. His reflection, standing over him. His soulmate. He felt himself blushing despite himself as he looked up at them. Hunter silently hoped Lilith was better at her job then he at his.

                                                         …

As luck would have it for Hunter, his hopes were correct, however unlucky for you.

The prison cell was dark. It was dark, and the air smelled like mold and moss despite how clean everything else was in the castle.  

You patted yourself down as you paced the cell, checking each pocket. No elixir, and Eda’s time was running out. Usually you had a bottle on you, for situation me like these. Today though, nothing. “Oh, Titan, Eda, I’m so sorry,” you said, stepping closer to her and sinking to the ground beside her. “I should have had something.”

”Oh Titan no, this isn’t your problem,” she put a hand on your shoulder, “and I’m sorry you have to deal with it so often.” She sprouted a few feathers from her neck.

You winced, and stretched an arm out toward her, “Eda, try not to move so much, you’ll make it worse.” You weren’t sure what you were reaching for.

”Chill out, Kid,” she reached to take you hand, but stopped when she heard. A creak, and a crack of light began to shine through the room, the basement door was open.

Neither of you could see, but you heard. Somebody was walking down with haste on the damp stairway to the cells. You silently looked to Eda, both of you formulating a plan of escape.

Your eyes had adjusted to the darkness long ago, and you saw the figure approaching clearly. The Golden guard. You once again looked to Eda, but his voice drew your attention.

It was shaky. And quiet. He seemed almost scared. “There’s… been a change of plans. You two are free to go.” His words echoed around the empty dungeon.

Once again, you looked to Eda, who seemed just as confused as you.

“What do you mean,” she asked. “My sisters been hunting me down for ages, and now that you finally got me, you’re letting me go?”

The Golden guard shrunk and clutched his staff. “Yes,” he said, reaching for his pocket. You could hear the keys jingling inside. He fumbled with them a moment before bringing them up to the lock.

Eda whispered beside you, and nudged you with her elbow, “This is weird, right?”

The Golden guard hesitated before he put in the key. Silently and subtly, you pointed at him. Eda’s eyes followed. The Golden guard had stopped, and stared at the lock. Or that’s what it looked like. The mask didn’t give away any emotion, or where his eyes were pointed.

A small sigh could be heard from inside his mask, and he rested his head a moment on the bars of the cell just above the lock.

Despite his… everything. Despite the grievances the Golden guard had caused you, you felt curious. Maybe even compassion. He seemed so… defeated. You moved to the edge of the cell where he stood, only a few inches and the bars separating your. “Golden guard… are you alright?” You asked quietly. He sighed again. The dim light reflected your soulmate in his mask.

“I’m… I’m alright. Thanks for asking,” he muttered. This is not what you expected from the Golden guard, after everything Eda told you.

“Uh, okay, then- I guess…” neither of you moved. You didn’t dare to. “C-can I ask why we’re being released?”

He shuddered. Eda hissed behind you, “How bout we don’t ask questions and just get out of here!” She had more feathers then last you looked.

The Golden guard shook his head, “No, no, it’s… there’s been a change of plans, that’s all.” He turned the key, and the cell door creaked open. The room was strangely silent. Very few witches were held in the castle, most inhabited cells in town. But Eda was special, and you were both placed in the belly of the beast, alone. The creaking echoed throughout the space.

Quickly, you turned back to help Eda, who was using most of her energy to keep the owl beast inside. You scooped her up and swung her arm over a shoulder, helping her walk out with haste as you followed behind the Golden guard. Eda’s hair tickled the side of your cheek as you moved to whisper to her, “Is this really the same Golden guard that we… feared?”

”I don’t know, but I don’t see anything good coming from asking him,” she shuddered a few feathers sprouting from her neck. “Let’s just… take this one. I’m not in the condition to fight our way out, Y/n…”

You glanced back to the Golden figure you were following. His cape flowed with his stride, and stopped with him as he halted in front of the dungeon door. Light crept through the underside of it, and you could hear the echo of a sigh under the boy’s mask.  

He was slow in his motion, unsteady even. You looked at Eda, finding her eyes on yours in similar expression. Silently and telepathically, you recognized the… sketchiness of the situation. He was too scared. It was practically radiating off him, his composure was wrong.

The door opened slowly, and as soon as it was, the Golden guard rushed through. As he entered the hallway, his head was on a swivel checking left and right for… anything. There must have been an understanding between the three of you, because you and Eda stayed in the shadows of the doorway until he gave a nod, a signal for you to follow.

He looked at the two of you as you hobbled out with Eda on your shoulder. His voice didn’t paint an optimistic portrait of your escape plan. “You can’t run like that, can you, Owl Lady?”

“That would not be a good idea, no,” she whispered.

He took a deep breath, and rolled his shoulders. “Okay… let’s just get moving.”

He took off walking at a brisk pace down the corridor, and you linked with the owl witch as quick as you could behind, hallway after hallway.

Then footsteps. The Golden guard didn’t hesitate, he stuck his arm out in front of you, signalling to stop. Neither you nor Eda moved, Titan, you barely breathed. Shallow, quiet breathes as voices grew louder with the coming footsteps. The Golden guard muttered under his breath, “Kikimora… we have to hide.”

Before you could think, he grabbed you by the free arm and teleported in a golden flash to a nearby door. Unlocked. Lucky. It was dark, and empty, and the Golden guard closed it quickly behind you.

He positioned himself directly next to the closed door, ready to jump anyone who might enter. With a silent movement of the neck, he gestured for you and Eda to stand beside him. Where you were easily protected.

The footsteps were just outside. Their walking shadows danced under the door, and you may have heard their words if your heart wasn’t pumping in your ears. It was as if time was frozen, and you were acutely aware of your spine for reason beyond your comprehension. In that moment you were fully aware of the mild back pain sitting in that cell had given you. The curvature of a spine was a strange thought too. You pressed your back against the wall to try and correct your posture. Your breathing grew shallower, barely any air making its way to your lungs. Spinal fluid is strange, how did spine have juice in them, how odd. Your back hurt, and the shadows underneath the door were blurry. In fact, once you looked up you realized most things were blurry, with black encroaching on the edges of your vision.

Eda’s voice was faint in your ear. She was beastly, and nearly too weak to talk. She pointed at the Golden guard.

“Y/n? Are you still with me?” His whispering sounded far away. “Y/n!” He hissed as he came back into focus. “Y/n, it’s okay, breath.” You breathed. Your head had grown heavy, and tilted on its axis slightly as you looked at his mask. Your vision was clearing as your eyes focused.

“I’m… okay,” you muttered. “Slight… panic attack, maybe.”

He nodded, and took your free hand while he watched and listened for the people passing. You thought about that instead of your spine, with your head rested on the wall for support.

”Okay, the coast is very much not clear, I don’t think we can leave that way,” the Golden guard said, pointing at the door. He looked at Eda, who had recoiled into you, more of her weight falling on your shoulder. “Titan, she can’t walk much further can she?”

Eda tried to say something, an effort she quickly gave up. You shook your head, “I don’t think so, no.”

He sighed, and ran his gloved fingers through his hair anxiously. “Okay, uh, new plan then. Can you guys… keep a secret, perhaps?

”Um..” his mask gave nothing of his expression away. “I.. I think so, yes.”

He let go of your hand, and started to pace in a small circle while he fidgeted. “Okay, well, we are close to my room, which has a… method of escape in it.” His fingers tried to itch at his hands as he thought. “Maybe he’ll hear us from here.”

The Golden guard rushed to the window, opening it and leaning half his body out. He lifted his mask to speak. Awkwardly, you turned away still holding Eda, avoiding looking at his face. It felt disrespectful. He whisper yelled something, aiming and enhancing his voice by cupping his hands around his lips. You couldn’t make out his words.

As he crawled back in the window, your back still turned, you had to ask. “Uh, Golden guard, why are you doing this for us?”

His lie didn’t last long in your mind, he knew it was weak. Emperor Belos hadn’t had a change of plans, it was just him. “Well…” You felt a hand on your shoulder, “I… have too.”

You maneuvered Eda around as you turned to face him. What met your eyes was… you’re face? No. No, not your face. His. His unmasked face, which was also, somehow, the face you saw in the mirror every morning. You’d grown to think of it as your own. Your hand moved by pure instinct to trace where his scar is on your own cheek as you looked at him, mouth agape.

”Y/n, uh, I’m sorry…” he muttered. Titan, for what? You wanted to ask, but you mind was swarmed with every emotion, frozen. The thing to break you from your trace was a bird. A small cardinal stopped rested on the windowsill.

The Golden guard looked over, his eyes alight with pride, “Palisman! You came!” He teleported over to pet the bird, and in his hand it turned to a staff. The golden guard whipped his head back to you and Eda, “You can fly down with him, get far away from the castle and get her some help.”

Still overwhelmed, you nodded. You moved with a start as quick as you could with Eda in her condition. He handed you the staff when you stopped in front of him. His eyes were a little different in person. When his face had your expression he looked a lot different.

“Golden guard… what’s your name?”

“Hunter,” he muttered, fist clenched at his side. He looked to the floor. “And… sorry again. For… all this.”

You found it in you to smile, “Thanks for this though,” you say, waving the staff slightly in your hand. “We… really appreciate it, Hunter.” You found yourself avoiding his gaze, looking instead to the wooden bird.

He was still looking down, avoiding your eyes as well, but you could see him blush. His ears gave it away. “Yeah… anytime, Y/n.”

You started to speak, but felt Eda shift on your shoulder. She needed elixir, badly. Lips pursed, you turned back to Hunter, “We have to go, like, now.” You paused before starting for the window. “I’m glad I met you… we’ll see each other again, yeah?” you smiled back at him before shifting the staff between your legs and putting Eda’s weight on it.

Hunter nodded slightly, then eagerly, meeting your eyes again. His face reddened further. “Yeah, I hope so…” he balled his fists at his sides and looked down again. “Also, uh…”

A scream could be heard down the hall. A faint cry for guards from a woman’s voice, Lillith’s, you presumed.

The Golden guard looked at the door, then back at you. He teleported closer to help hold the staff as Eda shifted her weight, the two of you nearly out the window. He looked frantically back at the door again. “Okay, you guys leave, also, Y/n, you’re really pretty and I love seeing your face every night, okay bye.”

He sputtered it his words just as you were pushing off the windowsill, giving you no time to react. You could feel the heat at your cheeks as you sped through the air, flying as fast as you could back to the owl house.

When Eda  inevitably recovered, you’d have to see him again. Maybe commit a crime or two, that would get his attention.

[pizzaboat]

The character thingys that got released for the pilot version of the characters actually shone a more clear light on something I've been wondering about for a while

When the Eda section says that Eda likes to see herself as cunning and manipulative, like all good witches should be, she's actually a softy not so deep down it got me thinking about that "toxic culture" that Belos created on the Isles and I now have two words that describe it

The ideal Boiling Isles Citizen/Witch is cunning and manipulative. Out for themselves and not the type of person who believes in rallying together as communities to let's say... fight injustice? It's an individualistic ideology

Anyway, when talking about Lilith and how she betrays Eda, we all know she's following Belos example. And I think the reason Lilith never considered a resolution with Eda before kneecapping her is because she sees her sisters talent and power and associates it with that ideal

"My sister is an excellent witch, and she'd never let herself be held back by me. I need to take what I need before she takes it from me."

But Lilith never understood Eda. Clearly. Young Eda's greatest fear was being separated from her sister. Eda was and is incredibly sentimental. She puts her loved ones above herself.

Lilith was fully indoctrinated, having not even her mothers love and attention as a kid, being neglected by Gwen. She probably internalised this message that to get ahead you need to put yourself above even your family, and even with Eda showing Lilith the opposite exists by always looking out for her

She probably didn't see it like that, and only felt inferior and competitive under her sister for success. And she probably started resenting Eda a little while before they were even set to graduate

Eda, the same Eda that blocked that Lilith cursed her from her mind as a coping mechanism, wouldn't pick up on the signs her sister was pulling away because it would distress her so greatly

So anyway, the way Eda tried to show herself off in S1 as this out for herself bad girl, is actually just her showing how burned she's been in the past

Because young Eda is arguably very trusting and almost wears her heart on her sleeve, and obviously a 40 year old witch won't be the same person she was decades ago, but I can definitely say her fake attitude was one big "I've been hurt by the system" mask if I've ever seen one

Even if she wears it as a sign of strength and rebellion, the "I'm out for myself" attitude is very much a Belos world influence

[speedystarshine]

Various TOH characters x readers (General HC’s)

Characters: Eda, Lilith (Platonic), Darius, Adrian, and Steve.

Eda

H-Hot...bird woman..

She is so amazing we love her

She will definitely get you anything at the drop of a hat

No, she doesn't pay for it.

Sometimes when she's bored she'll drag you around town to find some mischief to cause or something to do

If her and Lilith ever get into a fight, you are the barrier. Every. Single. Time.

"Y/N, can you tell my darling sister to stop leaving apple blood cartons everywhere?"

"Y/N, can you tell Lilith to mind her damn business?"

Y/N: *eye twitch*

If you know about the curse she'll appreciate any support you give, even if it doesn't look like it.

Will use Harpy form, especially if she knows it flusters you- poor owl beast is so done.

She is very protective of those she cares about, so she'll deffo bail you out if you happen to get in trouble. She'll feel so bad if it's because of her shenanigans 😭

She likes to drag you into her nest randomly. In her mind, pretty things in nest. Y/N = pretty thing, pretty thing = in nest. Don't say anything about it, though, she'll get so embarrassed-

Lilith (Platonic)

Cool history nerd aunt? Hell yeah!

Definitely overloads you with random info at any point of the day. She cant help it, especially if you get her started on a topic thats special to her.

She'll talk for hours then, not that you mind :)

She does really appreciate it if you listen though, and even more if you engage and back up points.

Is definitely the type to cringe you out, especially in front of your friends. She's cool like that, even though you hate it-

If anything happens to you or you get in trouble, she gets so worried about you!!

I feel like she's the type of person where panic makes her do smart stuff quickly, so she'll instantly patch you up with care if you do get hurt.

I feel like because of her, you'd have a love-hate relationship with Hooty?

Like, you would protect each other to the max if needed but they totally team up against you all the time and it's so not fair >:(

Darius

Ah yes, our favourite peacock.

He treats you like royalty, so be aware of that.

Spa days? Spa days. You keep laughing whenever he puts on a face mask and he gets grumpy about it-

He acts like he's above it but let's be honest, he would totally love to gossip with you.

He somehow knows about everyone and everything in the castle so watch your back if your trying to hide anything from him (he tries not to peep if it's like, a surprise for him but he probably already knows)

You two shovel talk Adrian, it drives him mad 😭

You know if you get into an argument and your parents leave a bowl of fruit or something as an apology?

He definitely brings a mini abomination to bring you something.

He will eventually apologize face to face, but who likes confrontation? Not him.

Co parenting Hunter co parenting Hunter CO PARENTING HUNTE-

Is super worried abt you after the day of unity, and immediately seeks you out (and vice versa).

Adrian

I'm just gonna be upfront. He's draining, but that's the fun of it! (Or not.)

He is 100% catboy confirmed.

He doesn't even bother with the whole "I act like I don't care but actually do" thing he's just super clingy and has no shame <3

He's also super p(r)etty, and can get jealous quite easily. Make sure to give him lots of attention!

Surprisingly doesn't shovel talk Darius, he has some semblance of respect for him, but he just hates everyone equally. Apart from you! (And Terra. She absolutely terrifies him, don't leave them in a room together)

Take everything he says with a grain of salt though, he twists his stories a lot.

E.g: Someone accident tripped him up? It was attempted murder. They tried to break his neck and-

He is a dramatic person, but what do you expect?

The type to just flop onto you and go boneless after a long day, no matter what your doing.

Also treats you like royalty! Just... In his own way.

Steve

Steve! Everyone's favourite demon/ex-scout boy!

He is so affectionate, but in an awkward kinda teenage way.

He buys you flowers.

Gives the best advice? Y'know how you can no what something tastes like just by smell and sight even if you've never had it? Like that but with advice.

He talks about you all the time to Mat!! He's super happy if you two get along, since you are the most important people in his life.

(if you don't though, immediate deal breaker. His little brother is so important to him, so sorry..)

This is random, but he has an obsession with candles.

One time you told him all that smoke wasn't good for the environment, so he bought "bio-degradable" ones from a certain pig at the night market..... He's trying I promise 😭

Motorcycle rides? Hell yeah! He won't ever say it (unless it comes up ofc) but his favourite rides are where there's not really any destination in mind, and your just driving around because.

He somehow is friends with everyone on the boiling isles? Don't be surprised if you see someone who you'd never expect to see talking to him.

The goodest boy ever. Treat him right!

[stanlunter]

Idk if it was ever said, but I have a little headcanon/theory that Masha is Russian

Basically, the only thing It's based on is their name, bc Masha (Maria) is a Russian name, yeah, but I like this idea, bc there actually not so many Russian characters in media, and most of them are too stereotypical, so having a non-blonde Russian character is a super rare thing (Ik only Fyodor and Red Star who aren't blonde, so) that I want to have.

She also kinda looks asian, so I think she could be mixed. Since there are many nationalities in Russia, I would guess one of her parents is Slavic and the other one is Tatar

Also I think it makes sense for Eda, Lilith and Kikimora to be slavic, since they're based on Slavic culture characters (Baba Yaga, probably Kashchei the Immortal (she could also be based on Lilith from Jewish culture, but we'll take the slavic part now, bc of Eda, Kiki and some other references) and Kikimora). Name "Eda" exists in many cultures, including such slavic cultures as Russian, Ukrainian and Croatian, so Eda could be either

While name Lilith doesn't exist in slavic countries. It's related to Jewish mythology, but also is Armenien name. Armenia isn't slavic tho, but it was a part of the USSR and partly a part of Russian Empire, but even so the cultures are completely different and Armenia doesn't include slavic mythology anyways, so there is definitely a cunfusion, since we can see that Dana took different things from different cultures for the same family. And mixing different cultures right (if doing it at all) is super hard. So, Lilith was most likely based on a Jewish demon, but plays a role of Kashchei the Immortal, who was Baba Yaga's "evil brother". It's also interesting how Lilith is the only known Clawthorne female family member whose name doesn't end with "lyn" (Edalyn, Gwendolyn, Evelyn). So I could make a crazy theory that Lilith and Eda are half sisters and Gwen is only Eda's biolgical mother, while Lilith has a different biolgical mother who is Jewish (and may be Dell is Jewish too??). It kinda also explains why Lilith and Gwen's hair are so different and why Gwen didn't pay enought attention to Lilith (besides Eda having a curse), which is actually really sad...

Yeah, I know It's just random thoughts/theories and probably have nothing to do with canon, but now this idea seems even more interesting to me. Even tho I didn't plan any of these and just wanted to share my hc about Masha's nationality...

Anyways, have a good day!

[monkeymindscream]

ngl watched the toh ending and thought you would hate this

First of all, kind of honored I take up enough space in your mind for you to see something and think "wow, this person on the internet I know of ain't gonna like this." That's very sweet Anon, thank you for sharing this with me.

Secondly, I didn’t… hate-hate it. I had a fun time watching it! And if I ONLY cared about the protags, I would have been very happy with it!

Unfortunately, I overwhelmingly care about properly telling a good story. Like even if Belos hadn’t been my absolute favorite, I’d be kind of disgusted with how much of their own plot the show left to be inferred.

"It was just Belos's backstory, the plot didn't need to go into detail for him-" Belos is the reason there even WAS a plot. Quite literally everything of importance that happened in the show happened as a direct result of his actions.

He formed the Emperor's Coven → Lilith and Eda have to duel to get in → Lilith curses Eda to win the duel → Eda doesn't join a coven at all and becomes a criminal → while on the run from the EC she finds King → to make a living she hocks human stuff → Owlbert steals Luz's book → the show happens.

Leaving out the backstory/the deeper look into the motives of the guy driving the entire plot (after teasing the fuck out of it, might I add) is comparable to only hinting that Lilith was the one to curse Eda, but never elaborating on it. Because truly, why bother hinting at that stuff if nothing at all was going to be done with it? From a storytelling perspective, it's appalling.

And before anyone tries to use "it's because the show got cancelled!" as reasoning, don't. They had options for how to handle this. They wanted Philly to have the paper-flat character they seemed hellbent on giving him? Cut Caleb out entirely. "A single overzealous puritan stumbles on a world inhabited entirely by witches and demons and conspires to destroy them." There. Clean, simple, doesn't leave any holes. They wanted to keep the whole "good brother/evil brother" angle? (which by the way: still the most boring, bullshit angle I've ever seen) Leave out the Collector. Take the time used on him and put it towards Caleb and the Wittebane history.

And before anyone tries to argue about that, I'll leave you with the fact that Dana decided to add the Collector after she was told the show was being cut short. She KNOWINGLY chose to take the already very limited time she had left to tell her story and dedicate it to a flight of fancy rather than actually tie up the loose ends she set up.

That's what I hated about this last episode. Once the adrenaline of watching it for the first time wore off, there was really nothing left but disappointment and a sense of this could have been BETTER. And there's no real reason I can think of for why it's not better, which is. Infuriating.

[crimeronan]

In titan P!Luz AU, in the scenario that Amity, Hunter, and Lilith do manage to escape to the Owl House (pRolOng ThEiR GriEf yyeeeSS >:)), how would Eda even deal with this? She’d understand how serious the situation is, but let’s say Luz does come back RIGHT in the middle of the Owl House, now looks like a humanoid version of King, and Hunter won’t let go of her while she’s like I need to go kill Belos RIGHT NOW.

i just showered and spent the entire time still thinking about this timeline because i love SO MUCH that it's like. a hunter extended grief spiral to match luz's over in the worst timeline. WHEEEE BE MISERABLE ABOUT EACH OTHER !! YAYYY

so.

antics in the owl house.

lilith is transparently coming apart at the seams, given that she's just lost her status AND any chance to heal eda's curse. amity is responding to this by scrabbling even harder for any bit of control she can get, which typically involves yelling at hunter and/or lashing out at hooty with her abomination magic.

and hunter is.... well. hunter.

so. eda is like well. we're all gonna kill each other eventually!! ah well. the world's gone to hell. this might as well happen . I Fucking Guess

at first hunter responds very similarly to the way he does in ftf -- after amity refuses to let him go martyr himself, he THROWS himself into making plans to attack belos. however even with all his castle knowledge and belos knowledge and wild magic knowledge, it's Pretty Fucking Difficult to assassinate the emperor. particularly when you are Public Enemy Number One.

after frustrating himself about a dozen times in a row, hunter starts digging through all of eda's books on wild magic and deeply illegal dark magic and other bullshit. eda assumes it's for more emperor-killing business, until hunter comes to her all like

hunter: owl lady.

eda: ....yes??

hunter: you know things about curses, don't you??

eda: well. some. obviously. you want to curse the emperor?

hunter: no, not that. it probably wouldn't take. i want you to curse me.

lilith, who was previously pacing around the kitchen, zipping into the room: hello. What.

hunter: there are Apparently curses that can take away a person's emotions. that'll make it easier to work without distractions. let's be practical about this

eda: ....those curses aren't a painkiller, kid. you wouldn't be able to feel anything positive, either. that's not the kind of life you want to give yourself

hunter: i don't Need positive feelings to get this done. i'll be able to remember my pre-curse priorities without any feelings getting in the way. as far as i'm concerned there's nothing but upsides!

lilith: cursing someone isn't something to undertake lightly-

hunter: wow! there is literally no one else on this island whose opinion i care about less than yours. anyway. eda, are you going to help me or not.

eda: ....not when you just lost someone, i'm not.

hunter, voice breaking: no, wait, please. Please. listen to me. i need to stop thinking about her. i'll do anything. i'm open to other solutions, i just - please.

eda: well, i'm not using a cursed solution to your emotional problems. that's a non-starter. i CAN get you really drunk, though. do you want to get Really, Really Drunk??

lilith: EDALYN-

eda: WHAT. it's not like drinking can make him feel WORSE.

hunter: actually. yeah. yeah that sounds great. probably the most useful thing short of a coma right now, so.

amity, muddy and covered in goop, coming in from where she's been outside wrestling hooty for like the tenth time today: if hunter is getting drunk, i would Also like to be drunk. just so everyone knows.

lilith: .....titan help me. fine. Fine. pour me a glass too. it's not as though anything matters anymore!!!! haHA!!!!