#alador loves amity and does genuinely want her to live her own life and be happy

[crimeronan]

i have a message buried somewhere in my inbox from a few weeks ago that was asking how much AU alador knows about The Shit odalia has pulled with amity, which seems.... relevant.... right now.

in my head, alador is mainly just glad that all three kids are out of the house and have stable careers that are not in blight industries. (i dunno what edric and emira are doing, but i know they're, like, fine.)

it is Very Likely that alador knows odalia openly has designs on getting amity on the throne -- it's Also very likely that he's done some "patience, odalia, she'll be a coven head one day either way" manipulation, a la escaping expulsion. this obviously has not worked long-term because 1) odalia is not particularly patient, and 2) coven head is so BORING when you could be a princess/queen consort instead 🙄🙄🙄 DREAM BIGGER!!

alador does Not know how far odalia has pushed things.

but i'm not sure how he would react if he did... like, in an ideal world, that would be his breaking point. You Would Think That Would Be His Breaking Point.

but i don't know.

i think his approach would more likely be further placating "let her make her own mistakes, she'll come to us for help once she needs it" sideways manipulation. of the "of course you're still in complete control of our daughter and holding all the cards" variety, where the actual end goal is to get odalia to back off.

i don't think he's in a place to go epic turbo divorce right now.... mans is Tired and mostly lives in the lab. having lived in the lab for several more years than his canon self. this has had all the social and health effects you would Expect living in the lab for several more years to have.

alador and amity are not close. these days, amity doesn't really speak to him, but he also isn't reaching out. beyond, like, texts on birthdays.

amity has not even Considered the possibility of asking him to help her manage The Odalia Situation, bc the idea that he Would help just..... has not occurred to her.

that's not the kind of parent he is to her right now.

amity doesn't hate alador like she hates odalia, though, and she also isn't afraid of him. she's kind of cut her emotional ties because as far as she's concerned, he's a deadbeat dad who just happened to live in her house. she doesn't know that alador has Ever been in her corner before, because the way he manages odalia is SO "we're definitely a united front 💕" and non-confrontational. so to her, at Best, it looks like he usually agrees with odalia. and on the rare occasions that he doesn't, he compromises and folds and bends over backwards to keep the peace.

so. what would be the point in trying to talk to him??

[mdhwrites]

honestly, Amity's hair color is the perfect metaphor for her character. She's still hiding her true colors, she's just trying to match Luz instead of Odalia.

So even at the time, when I was still deep in the paint of TOH, I had a major problem with it as far as the themes, metaphors and just designs of TOH went. Put both Amity and Luz at that time into their Hexside uniforms. Then silhouette them so you have no colors. Now try to tell me which is which.

It was a genuine problem for me during that time period where I'd see sketch fanart of Lumity and have to look for Amity's ears because otherwise the two are indistinguishable from each other. Like yes, it's a MUCH more boring hairstyle and I'm with others that there's just way too much purple in the show so Amity's green hair helped her actually stand out but this really was a big problem and got worse as I got more critical of Lumity. After all, this moment of making sure she has her own identity, stands out from others and will decide her own fate... And she looks the fucking same as another character now, blending in more easily with them. Then she just goes on to slowly have the rest of her personality and life (which were already doing this, thank you "your grades are slipping" from Escaping Expulsion for that one) consumed by her role of girlfriend.

It makes what should be such a character defining moment anything but that. Hell, it isn't even a complete schism from her family's desires and wishes. She still goes on to effectively helm Blight Industries after all, or so I presume unless she started her own competing abominations factory which still doesn't fix that that's STILL what Odalia would have wanted had Amity failed to get into the EC. It's still living in the shadow of her father's legacy and following in his own footsteps.

It's actually the one major cue from Hunter that Amity takes for her arc which really doesn't help the two feel like they aren't the same character. At least with Hunter, we only have one action that's confirmed as being the same as those he's supposed to be rejecting so as to find his own personhood: Rejecting Belos. There's a lot more we can claim but that's the only one 100% confirmed.

Amity though? Her future includes dedicating herself to a potentially unhealthy degree to her partner while also commercializing her magic into mech-infused abominations. Even if Lumity is healthy post the series, nothing about Amity's behavior doesn't imply she'd drop everything for Luz at a moment's notice and Alador gave the same impression. So... She just became her dad? Why?

Then again, when you are a show that seems to actually struggle to write a diverse cast of characters (I mean personality wise, not ethnicity), this is going to happen. Dana is a good enough artist though that the silhouette problem shouldn't have happened. That should have been caught and stopped immediately, not when it's so antithetical to the point of the moment. I guess you could say it's to show she still needs to make another step to becoming her own person but that never really happens, does it? And we explicitly know they didn't have proper plans for it to happen.

So yeah, it really is just perfect for who Amity became, even right down to being a worse design to go alongside girlfriend Amity being such a worse character.

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

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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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[rappaccini]

one of the Biggest Things By Far that bothers me about the owl house is an amalgamation of a few smaller issues:

amity quickly becomes The Protagonist's Girlfriend and loses the ability to contribute to the plot on her own.

hunter is introduced far too late in the story and as a result his arc is rushed as fuck.

every time hunter wanders onscreen, lumity gets dimmer, because he has the same connection with luz and far greater plot relevance.

and hunter and amity make each other redundant because of how similar they, their relationships to luz and their arcs are.

.... so. the elephant in the room is that amity and hunter are the same character.

(cut for length)

prodigious teen witch with high social status among their peers

who comes from a privileged but abusive background and is under a world of pressure to be the Perfect Child

with one sympathetic caregiver (a male abomination witch) overpowered by another abusive one who's central to running the boiling isles oppression machine and plans to induct said teen into it whether they want it or not

(and sympathetic caregiver goes through the process of becoming disillusioned with abusive caregiver/their worldview and plans to separate from them and take custody of the kid).

(ffs alador and darius are the same character too)

teen witch begins as antagonistic and mean-spirited towards luz and her friends, putting them in harm's way

and through interactions with luz, reveals a hidden soft side, starts to question their worldview, and forms the connections necessary to leave their abusive family environment, loosen up, and live a normal teenage life with friends, family and romantic interests who genuinely love and want the best for them.

so. same arc. they're not even foils or anything. if they were foils, amity would find redemption while hunter would spiral deeper into villainy, or vice versa, and luz would have to learn from her experience relating to one to reach the other with a difference in how she approaches them.

but that doesn't happen. both arcs turn out the same, and luz instantly empathizes with and wants to understand both.

they're just a cut and paste of the same arc on different plot relevance scales with an aesthetic change.

furthermore, controversial opinion: not only are they the same character, they aren't even equal. hunter is better. unquestionably. amity is the first draft of the much more well-conceived, plot-relevant hunter character.

by this i mean: if you remove hunter from the plot, it stops functioning. we lose eyes in the emperor's coven and a connection to our central antagonist, luz's narrative foil, the meter by which we judge whether the story's themes are progressing and the link to the original sin that broke the story's world (caleb and philip, and all that happened with them). the biggest issue with his story's execution is that it blasts through his development far too quickly. it's like the writers desperately wanted their own zuko but failed to understand how important pacing was to zuko's arc succeeding. they skipped all the antagonism, conflict and forgiveness to get the payoff.

if you remove amity, basically nothing changes except luz doesn't get a love interest. everything amity does and represents can be reshuffled to one of luz's friend group, boscha, or to hunter especially. amity begins the story as its most interesting, complex character with the strongest arc.... and then she becomes Luz's Girlfriend. pretty much as soon as amity becomes her love interest, she mostly stops functioning as a character in her own right and moves into the Supportive Love Interest role, with glimpses here and there of the much more intricate character she could have been if she wasn't stuck in that box. it's very post-atla katara in the worst way possible.

add onto that the contrast problem: amity alone would simply have been Not Great, but hunter's presence in the story makes it worse because him individually and his dynamic with luz being this plot-essential keep shining a light on how unessential amity is.

yes, the representation amity brings to the show is groundbreaking and important. i am not disputing that. it's huge that a disney cartoon's main couple is between a bisexual gnc girl and a lesbian (not to mention it being interracial). and that their visual designs aren't 'tomboyish brunette girl in blue/red x girly blonde girl in pink/purple'

but if the writers wanted amity's character to succeed beyond representation importance and wish fulfillment (i can't explain it, but she gives off such strong 'wouldn't it be great if the girl who bullied me in middle school was secretly in love with me, and changed her behavior to be with me' vibes. which, yeah, it would be great. it would also be great if this character had something to do other than be your gf.) they needed to 1) integrate amity and the relationship more thoroughly into the story and 2) not create alternative love interests for them both that satisfy the narrative arcs that lumity doesn't.

we've discussed 1. as for 2: the same narrative arc of amity being a deeply unhappy victim of an unfortunate home life and strict parental expectations taking out her anger on a girl who's different from her, before befriending that girl and using that connection to pull away from her toxic family, embrace being a teen and find her happiness.... could have been satisfied with willow.

not to mention that willow has a long history with amity that luz simply doesn't, wherein her friendship with willow was forcibly ended in order to turn amity into a vessel for her parents' expectations, and as amity becomes her own person again, she also has to reconcile and regain that friendship with her. if anyone was the best fit to help amity work through that arc, it was willow.

(and for the representation-over-all cronies: if amity gets with willow instead of luz, you still get a major wlw interracial romance in a disney cartoon that would even follow the same trajectory as lumity. you're not gonna lose that rep.)

2: i dunno man it's just real fucking interesting that caleb the witchhunting human from bonesborough fell for a wild witch from the clawthorne family and left his toxic brother for her the exact same way hunter the powerless witch serving a witchhunter fell for a wild witch from bonesborough who's basically eda clawthorne's adopted daughter and left his toxic brother because of her influence. like... HELLO?????????

(you can't convince me that willow being hunter's love interest wasn't primarily to make sure they were both occupied romantically and were no longer 'a threat' to lumity.)

(literally the bare minimum would be 'scribble evelyne out of the wittebane bro backstory')

2: it's just wild to me that toh found the four characters best suited to romance arcs, figured out what those arcs needed to be, and then paired up the wrong people.

anyway. the point is: amity and hunter are the same character who undergo the same arc, one far better than the other, and the result is that the show falls into repetition, amity is particularly underserved by having a far more plot-essential character highlight her shortcomings, and the relationships feel awkward because every second we're reminded that the romances could be doing a better job if they just partner swapped.

(... though tbh where i fall in the great toh ship debate is it's not that i'm pro-lunter or anti-lumity, or even that i think that partnerswapping lumity and hunlow would've fixed those issues. yeah, i guess, it's better than what we got, but honestly there's a much bigger change that would've been far better and i'm fully in its camp. i'll write that post someday, i'm sure)

[battlekidx2]

The Owl House - Clouds on the Horizon Thoughts

There was a lot to take in about this episode. Not as much as Hollow Mind but that’s a high benchmark. The Owl House season 2 has been firing on all cylinders just about the entire season but since Hollow Mind it has been an almost non-stop barrage. I am so sad that there is only one more episode left in season 2 and then 3 specials because this show is really something special.

I want to start by talking about the Blight family. Since the first sighting of the Blight parents’ shadows in “Understanding Willow” there was an obvious complex and toxic family dynamic that I was interested in exploring and I like the way it paid off with this episode.

One of the most important things about this dynamic to me is the dichotomy between Alador and Odalia. Neither were good parents in the past but, where Alador wants to be better and get to know his kids, Odalia is stuck in her ways and only ever doubles down. And Amity is allowed to say that she will never talk to her mother again. She has a chance at reconciliation with her father but it’s made clear that the bridge between her and her mother is burned for good.

Amity and the twins don’t want to give up on their parents. Amity wants that connection with her parents. She wants them to love and be proud of her. This has been shown time and time again throughout the series. Even long before her parents were mentioned this was shown in her first appearance. The desperation for good grades, to be top of the class, to uphold her image. All of these were bids to gain the affection she was never given. But ultimately her mother won’t change and upon seeing this Amity makes the decision to cut things off permanently.

“Escaping Expulsion” was where we saw how controlling Odalia was and how “career focused” (This is definitely how she views herself but it’s my nice way of saying greedy and self centered) she is. She tried to back out on her word the second it didn’t benefit her then and in this episode she insists that Blights don’t go back on their word because she thinks she will benefit exponentially from this. It’s all for herself and always has been even if she tries to play it off as being for the family to other people. 

The second she realizes that her family will not work with her no matter what lies she spins or promises of greatness she gives, she abandons them. She doesn’t care for any of them. Not truly.

On the other hand Alador has been faced with his shortcomings and lack of understanding of his own children and wants to try and be better. In “Reaching Out” we see that Amity wants to connect with him but he’s stuck in the idea of what he thinks Amity wants rather than what she really wants. He’s so enraptured in his own work that he doesn’t get to know his kids, their lives, or their individual wants. He is faced with the fact that he doesn’t really know his kids and he doesn’t like that reality. He wants it to be different. 

It doesn’t change that he wasn’t a great parent in the past but it gives them a shot at a new beginning and a chance at a real relationship. And he commits to that. 

The second that he learns about the truth when it comes to the day of unity and what his abomatons will be used for he tries to shut it all down. He stands up to Odalia and her greed and is willing to help them fight the emperor. He destroys his life’s work and the factory. He does this for his kids.

I appreciate this duality in the Blight family. I was on the fence about how to feel about Alador’s arc in “Reaching Out” but I should have learned by then to never doubt the Owl House because as you can tell by the plethora of thought I have I appreciated how it played out moving forward.

Now to move onto Eda. Eda’s arc in this season really hurts. She’s opened herself up to genuine connection and stopped denying the reality of her found family. She’s allowing herself to care once again. In the first season Eda acted very nonchalant and okay with her loner status but as we see much more in depth this season that it’s all a front. Eda has been lonely even before getting the curse. She longs for connection and love but it became a case of Eda having faced so much rejection that she no longer reached out to others herself. She came to tell herself that she was fine with the isolation.

And now that Eda has opened up to connection again and gained so much from it. But while she loves all those around her she still doesn’t love herself.

She keeps putting herself in danger for those she loves. In this episode she commits to getting a sigil and cutting herself off from practicing all types of magic forever to protect everyone and stop the emperor. She even insists on it. She always hides her insecurity behind a facade of confidence which Raine seems to see right through in this episode if the worried glances and pained faces they made while watching Eda get the sigil are any indication.

They wanted so badly to avoid this. To avoid using Eda because they knew Eda would take the chance to sacrifice herself if it meant protecting her kids. But also because Raine knows how little Eda values herself. She was with Eda that day in the forest as they played Eda’s requiem to take out Darius and Ebberwolf. She saw Eda’s willingness to die and how replaceable Eda thinks she is. They are afraid for her because they know Eda has a lack of self preservation and doesn’t love herself.

I’m actually really scared for Eda. This plan was already dangerous for Eda based purely on the fact that she has to personally corrupt the spell which could consume her as well like it did in Eda’s requiem and there’s a whole slew of other reasons that this could go wrong. Now that we know that the emperor knows Eda is there I can’t see her being lucky once again. She barely escaped the emperor in the season 1 finale and she’s in a much more perilous situation now. And this season looks like it’s going to end on the darkest hour for the heroes. I could be wrong. In fact I hope I’m wrong and everyone gets out okay but it doesn’t look likely.

There’s the line that King, Eda, and Luz all day they’ll see each other after the day of unity which makes me almost positive that they won’t this season. (Again I Hope I’m wrong)

That cold open sets up so much stuff moving forward and it makes me sure that King is going to be the most important piece moving forward. He’s a titan and connected to the collector. The collector is getting impatient with Belos. They want out and they’re starting to lose faith that Belos will hold up his end of the bargain they made.

King has titan’s blood which is one of the most rare and powerful resources in all of the boiling isles. If the fact that King is a titan comes out to the wrong person, King's life will be in danger. There are so many factors that have been set up about King being a titan that can come back around in the finale. The titan trappers were going to sacrifice King to free the collector which means he is likely needed to complete Belos’ end of the bargain (not quite sure yet), his blood is the only thing that can open a door to the human realm which Belos and Luz both need, and to the people on the isles he is pretty much a god. All of this can come around in interesting and possibly emotionally devastating ways. 

Last but not least I want to talk about Hunter, Willow, and Gus. Until Labyrinth Runners came out I expected Hunter to be a part of the Eda, King, and Luz trio as another kid that Eda adopts. I still want that but I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I like Hunter’s dynamic with Willow and Gus. 

Willow and Gus have been pushed to the side for a lot of this season for understandable reasons. They had a lot of ground to cover after being unexpectedly cancelled that centered around our main characters and Hunter. But it’s nice to see how they’re doing now that they are in on what’s going on with Belos. And they get to interact with Luz again after a long interim where they were all off doing their own things. 

I can’t wait for next week. This show has really entered its endgame (I’ve used this word way too many times in my last few posts but it’s true) and there is so much going on and so many possibilities for how this can play out that I am on the edge of my seat. Whatever happens I have complete faith in the Owl House crew to put everything they have into it.

Extra thoughts

I just realized that Darius and Alador might have to work together now and I can’t wait to see it.

Luz and Amity kissed. I knew this would happen in season 2b but I wasn’t sure when. I’m glad it happened now and it was as hilariously endearing and awkward as I was expecting.

Odalia keeps Alador in line by threatening to make the kids be more involved in Blight industries and that’s just evil. She threatens Alador with their own kids’ futures. She is just a horrible person.

I love how King is the one who talks to Alador and lets him know about the day of Unity.

It’s really powerful that King saying that he never knew his father is what gets to Alador the most because while Alador isn’t absent in the physical sense he has been in the emotional sense.

Luz making her Palisman an egg so that it can choose its own form is really fitting.

It’s weird that they would send Hunter out to help Luz when he is most likely one of the most wanted people on the boiling isles. Willow and Gus I understand. They are probably still under the emperor’s radar but Hunter is actively in danger if he’s noticed. I liked the way it played out. I just thought it was a bit strange considering that fact.

  I love the animation hints that Luz and Hunter switched places before the reveal.

We didn’t see Eda get the sigil. It cuts away before it could happen and considering there would be no point to cutting away right before she gets it if she did in fact get it. I’m hoping that there’s a chance she didn’t.

[ispridestillasin]

So here’s a continuation of my Alador divorces Odalia early au, which involves an Adrian x Alador x Darius love triangle. It’s pretty long though, so I decided to put it under the cut for those who want to scroll without having to go through a big chuck of text. Have fun!

So Alador divorces Odalia when Amity is around 2 and Emira & Edric are around 4, which means that the Amity-Willow friend break up never happens (thank fuck). Alador ends up taking custody of the kids (I’ll probably explain this in a different post, who knows). It’s been a year and a half since then, and Alador’s tentatively decided to get back into the dating game. He’s not looking for anything serious, just testing the waters and trying to see if he’s open to a future relationship after marrying Odalia straight after Hexside (I personally think that they were arranged but that Alador decided to see where it went and genuinely fell in love with her and vice versa, though in canon we all see how that plays out). Cue Adrian Graye Vernworth.

Honestly, I’m not too sure how they meet. Maybe it’s at an official coven event or maybe it’s on the off hours for them. (For some reason I imagine them meeting when they’re at a market getting groceries??? I’m not sure about that but I’ll workshop it later). All I’m really sure of is that Adrian is the one to be flirty, being the go-getter that he is, in this interaction, though he is put off when Alador mentions his kids. Alador, being the blunt as fuck person he is, just straight up asks Adrian if he’d like to go out, though he is nervous as hell about it since this is technically his first time asking out anyone, right? (No, Alador. Odalia doesn’t count.)

Adrian and Alador agree to go on a few dates, and then a few more dates, and before they know it they’ve been officially dating for at least six months. Alador has even introduced him to Amity, Edric, and Emira by the time they’ve hit the six-month anniversary marker. The kids are pretty wary of this new person in their lives after the divorce. 

Adrian is pretty horrible at interacting with them because he has no frame of reference for interacting with children in a healthy and kind way (Ex: Labyrinth Runners). There’s also the fact that the only other child that Adrian has ever interacted with at that point for longer than the allotted half hour he does when in public is Hunter, and we all know that that kid definitely did not have a normal childhood or even normal interactions with adult figures if canon is an indication to go by.

So for the time being, the twins and Adrian have a neutral relationship, though the twins are absolutely agents of chaos even at almost 5 and make him the butt of their pranks sometimes as a way of warning him that if anything ever happens to their dad they can make his life hell. Adrian lets this go because he knows that if he tries to tell Alador about this the twins will only take their pranks up a notch. The pranks aren’t really anything malicious, they’re more embarrassing than anything, but you all know that Adrian is absolutely fuming inside. Amity likes him well enough, and he prefers her over the twins because she’s a literal toddler and requires less manipulation to get her to like him. Listen, he absolutely sucks at making nice with children on his own without a buffer to copy off of, you can’t convince me otherwise. So for the most part, he indulges her a lot since doing so means that she doesn’t cause him a lot of trouble, though he does hate the messes she makes.

In the end, Alador and Adrian’s relationship isn’t all roses and sunshine though. Alador thinks he’s finally having a healthy romantic relationship, and most of the time that’s true. Adrian doesn’t do any of the whole ‘don’t you want what's best for the family’ thing that Odalia had going on, but he isn’t all soft kisses and cuddles. Sometimes people think they’re finally getting away from a toxic relationship when in reality they’re making the same mistakes all over again, and unfortunately in Alador’s case, this is very much true. He doesn’t realize that he’s shacking up with a man who’s literally willing to harm children if it’ll get him what wants. Adrian’s done pretty well to not show that side since he’s pretty invested in their relationship at that point and he’s never done anything to Alador’s children since he knows doing so would prompt Alador to leave him in a heartbeat. 

I’m going to leave it off here since Darius enters at this point in the small outline I have for this. Part 2 of this might be up soon this week, or maybe not. Who knows? (Me. I know. I’m just bad at keeping promises.)

[sepublic]

          Anyhow, I’d really love to see a fic where Willow and Gus properly thank Luz for getting them back into Hexside, especially Willow since Luz dealed with the parents that had ruined her life since childhood, and were about to do it a SECOND time!

          This isn’t Wing it like Witches, where Luz made a deal on Willow’s behalf, without any prepping nor consent involved whatsoever, and then forced Willow and Gus to go through with it until both were physically strained and even hurt.

          In that episode, Luz taking the onus of the responsibility comes partially from her acknowledging that she’d forced Willow into a dangerous deal, one she could easily lose and suffer the consequences of, without any input whatsoever- So naturally Luz works to absolve Willow of the consequences of something SHE never agreed to, same with Gus to a degree.

          But this is different- Luz wasn’t responsible for anything here! She was as equally targeted as Willow and Gus, and she made the decision to bear all of the physical pain, abuse, and legitimate danger to her life, to sacrifice her dignity as a glorified lab rat for Odalia and Alador, for her friends!

          Without them asking anything of her, Luz fully chooses to do this for their own behalf, and almost dies for it- Amity does end up saving her, and Willow and Gus do at least try to help, but still. Luz suffered some genuine physical harm and indignity that night for her friends, and succeeded in basically fixing their lives, whilst Willow and Gus admittedly hadn’t done anything for her, but not by lack of trying- It’s not their fault the Abominations caught them, just as it isn’t Willow or Luz or anyone’s fault for Odalia and Alador being so terrible.

          Regardless, I’d really love a fic where it sinks in to Willow and Gus that Luz WENT through that harm for them, without anyone asking, purely because she loves them unconditionally, and it paid off in the end- So I want to see them properly appreciate Luz, thank her, let Luz know that she isn’t expected to do this for them. And obviously, Luz also had her personal stake in this as well; She also wanted to go back to Hexside, so it very much is in her right to broker that for herself, and why not throw her friends in while she’s at it?

          But Luz also makes a point to say that Willow and Gus don’t deserve this dilemma, and she concerningly doesn’t bring herself up. It might just be an unstated thing for her, Eda did stress to Luz how much she’s loved and doesn’t need to feel responsible for anything… But to Luz, even if she’s not at all to be blamed for the situation, that won’t exactly fix the situation either, so she still feels obligated to do something about it because she WANTS it changed, not necessarily because she feels responsible for it.

          From the start, Luz sought to fix this parental issue on her own- She didn’t make Gus and especially not Willow bargain with Odalia and Alador. She took this into her own hands, and did it herself, because she learned last time not to involve people without their consent, and obviously Willow and Gus really didn’t want to deal with Amity’s parents whatsoever… 

          But still, Luz deserves all the love and thanks in the world for putting herself through that for them, for taking that onus when she had no obligation to- And she did it in a way that left Willow and Gus completely spared from the trouble!

          I want to see them treat Luz for an entire day, just helping her rest and recover, doing all sorts of nice acts for her- She’s the big caretaker of the group, and I think we can see how it’s exhausting for her in a lot of ways, borderline instilling a martyrdom into Luz. Obviously Willow and Gus’ general friendship proves how much they care, and they DID lead the protest that got Luz and her family pardoned by Belos, which is kind of a big deal!

          Hmm- Actually, maybe Luz remembering that played a role into why she did this all by herself… She felt the need to thank them for that, especially since Willow and Gus risked a lot when they otherwise didn’t need to, they had a lot more to lose from acting than doing nothing, against the most powerful witch in the isles who is VERY willing to murder anyone, even children, to get what he wants…

          Belos is, if the ending of Escaping Expulsion didn’t already clarify that (when it didn’t need to be), infinitely worse than the Blight Parents. And saving the lives of Eda and the rest is definitely a bigger deal than getting back into a school- I’m sure that if Willow and Gus had to choose between their parents’ lives, and getting back into Hexside, the answer wouldn’t need to be said.

          Still, Luz ended up having to initially handle Odalia and Alador, and suffer like that alone, without any help from someone else, so I want Willow and Gus to make it clear how much she means to them! She doesn’t have to pay them back, not even for that time they could’ve made themselves enemies of the state to get Luz and her entire family legally protected!

          Because Luz did legitimately hurt herself in the physical sense, she was harmed, and she didn’t have an entire crowd, many of whom were adults, to back her up- So I want her to be given that same level of support and appreciation, too! I want Willow and Gus to stress that they will and intended this for HER as well, especially since Willow and Gus only knew about Eda being petrified, and then later King and Lilith when they protested.

          They didn’t find out Luz was there and in danger until the last second, so to Luz it’d be easy to not really think of that huge gesture as being for her benefit, not that she’d ever ASK that of Willow and Gus. 

          But I want Willow and Gus to stress that if they’d risk this for Eda, of course they’d risk it for Luz, who means a lot more to them –no offense that’s just how some relationships work and Eda canonically agrees with that type of prioritization- and that in a way, they DID mean to do it for her. I want Luz to know she’s loved by everyone and not just Eda and Camila.

[derpyslurpy-da-derp-master]

soooo that reddit ama am i right

ANYWAYS so I have me some theories and ideas about Alador and Odalia Blight, aka Mr. and Mrs. Blight, I think we all know by now that Odalia is a pretty shitty parent and human person (or witch person? idk) but something stuck out to me, three little factoids and comments;

1. Alador was interesting for Dana to write

2. Odalia forced Amity to dye her hair that’s naturally brown to color coordinate her kids (ew)

3. The Blight parents have more to them than what we think right now

So! This made me get on my thinking cap. It’s pretty clear at this point that Odalia is trying to basically live vicariously through her daughter and trying to make Amity a mini her, from dying her hair to match hers, (it’s way lighter than Ed and Em’s but matches Odalia’s from le flashback perfectly) Amity ending up in the same track as her which isn’t a coincidence, Even down to hairstyle though Amity’s hair ends in a ponytail instead of a bun... Honestly at that point it feels like Odalia is a lot more influential in Amity’s life, considering it’s being molded to look like hers. 

But, this also raises a question, at least in my mind; how does that sit right with Alador? I mean, it’s the one kid who looked like him even a little, having his hair color, and that’s corrected and seen as wrong by Odalia? That just straight up sounds insulting, especially if he’s the head of the household. 

...But something tells me he isn’t. 

Why does that matter?

Well, because, and this might sound a lil crazy and correct me if there’s some glaring facts in show that I haven’t seen; something tells me that Alador isn’t as abusive as Odalia and might actually have some semblance of a relationship with their daughter that isn’t horrible, yeah he didn’t stop Odalia when she told their daughter to dump her best friend and went along with it, but, this is... 

Familiar to me.

Because I had a similar home life with my dad pushing me constantly and trying to mold my brother into a mini him (didn’t work thank god) and generally was controlling and horrible, and my mom, while not being that, still went along with his choices, didn’t refute them, and sometimes chimed in out of worry of invoking his ire, at least she did for awhile. But she still was my mom, and still actually treated me like a person and with love. This could be what’s going on with the Blights, but reversed, which, honestly, would be good to put into the world because I know of plenty of people who had an abusive mom and submissive dad who went along with it.

But the biggest evidence towards this being the dynamic with the Blights outside of Dana outright stating that Alador is interesting to write aka not a cookie cutter abusive dad character is one word; Amity.

Amity, even before she met Luz and the gang, was a good person at heart. She felt guilty over hurting her teammates with the thorn vault and outright quit Grudgby over it, she was friends with Willow when they were little to the point of being best friends... 

It is virtually impossible to have a good heart if you had no positive rolemodels at all when you were a kid, and if you don’t have that many you can have a harsher exterior. Weiss Schnee comes to mind in that regard actually, she and Amity shared being cold academic over achievers who felt pressure to be perfect and eventually came around due to the protagonist helping them find their best selves. 

Weiss was good at heart, she just had a lot of walls guarding it. Amity was good at heart, she just had a lot of walls guarding it. Weiss grew up in a bad environment, but still had a sister who loved her and some of the staff who raised her. Amity... Has no one in her family that treats her with love or kindness, at least from what we’ve seen. 

Ed and Em, even if they are generally okay siblings, were straight up going to post Amity’s diary all over the place for tattling on them, something merciless and genuinely horrible that consistently loving siblings wouldn’t do. Her mother doesn’t let her be her own person, and I feel like if the Blight Manor staff were the ones to raise her, we would’ve gotten some hints considering how much we’ve learned about Amity’s home life.

So that would leave Alador, who definitely isn’t stopping the abuse happening which isn’t okay and goes along with it, but also hasn’t, you know, physically forced his child to dye her hair and join the track he was in in high school and so much more! 

I don’t know, I feel like this makes sense given Dana saying that Alador is interesting to write because a parent who loves their kids but isn’t capable and/or willing to stop their spouse from abusing them is a lot more interesting (and more realistic than you’d think) than both of Amity’s parents being puppykickers. Plus, there’s probably people out there who live in that sort of situation who need to see it happen because media always puts it the other way around, making recognizing that that’s what’s happening a lot harder.

also i just really want amity to not live in a completely loveless void where nobody loved her or showed her kindness excluding willow because A ow and B that makes no sense given her character

TLDR: The Blight parents might be evil and lesser of two evils and i’m here for it

[stupid-stew]

My Obsession With Character Names Pays Off Right Here Right Now

I have literally never posted here but I decided that since I spent today writing about the the name of the characters in The Owl House instead of prepping for finals, someone should see it. Included are Lilith, Eda, Luz, King, Gus, Willow, Amity, Alador, Odalia, Emira, Edric, Belos, Adegast, Kikimora, last names Blight, Noceda, Clawthorne, Park, Porter, and Bump, and briefly Hooty, Owlbert, Hieronymus, and Boscha.

FIRST NAME

LILITH

Ok so because I'm lilith’s bitch we are gonna start with her because her name is so cool and I love her and we should be besties Lilith hmu. Anyways as most people know Lilith is a pre existing mythological character which makes this very much good because that means it’s all outlined. Most people know her as a demonic figure, which I very much dig but similar to our lovely queen of curses out here, that's not all she is. There isn’t going to be a chronological explanation of similarities and conclusions, cope. The basic gist is that Lilith was this chick with fiery red hair (this is important iykyk) who refused to be beneath or below adam, more specifically to subjugate to him, funny because of the tapestry with belos what says subjugation on it, probably a coincidence but I do not believe in coincidence right now. Anyways basically she runs off and becomes this chick who like snatches children and will make them sick if they don’t have an amulet with the names Senoy, Sansenoy, or Semangelof on them, thats a different story but what I find interesting is this one passage,

“(12) Her nobles shall be no more, nor shall kings be proclaimed there; all her princes are gone. (13) Her castles shall be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She shall become an abode for jackals and a haunt for ostriches. (14) Wildcats shall meet with desert beasts, satyrs shall call to one another; There shall the Lilith repose, and find for herself a place to rest. (15) There the hoot owl shall nest and lay eggs, hatch them out and gather them in her shadow; There shall the kites assemble, none shall be missing its mate. (16) Look in the book of the LORD and read: No one of these shall be lacking, For the mouth of the LORD has ordered it, and His spirit shall gather them there. (17) It is He who casts the lot for them, and with His hands He marks off their shares of her; They shall possess her forever, and dwell there from generation to generation.”

And there are separate part of this that I find relevant, especially the description of the location, i’m not all that familiar with symbolism of animals in religious texts, so i’m gonna take it at face value and say that this is more or less a description that could be given to the physical owl house itself, sort of a place for people who don’t fit in, its a little messy and I guess one could say overgrown, but it’s a place for anyone, a place to rest now hopefully for Lilith away from the coven, there shall the Lilith repose. On top of that we see the “the hoot owl…” and you’re probably thinking what that so crazy wacko because like why are they referring to Lilith as the hoot owl isn't Eda the owl lady, yes she is. That’s why the actual meanings of lilith’s name that come from her mythological depiction as a demon lady are so important. We have night monster, night owl, night spectre, vampires, night hag, night creature, nightjar (which is another kind of bird), and night bird, all of these seem to fit lilith’s dark aesthetic very nicely which is very good for her, but there are two other ones, hot owl and screech owl, which draw her closer to Edaand away from the coven and her depiction in the mid-later episodes of the show as a monster for cursing eda, but also the name night monster could come into play if while sharing the curse Lilith acquired some of its traits, similar to Edaas the owl beast. Ultimately, we have this little red head girl who eventually fights back against the men who are attempting to get her to be under them, for the character that is belos, for the other Lilith that is adam, god, and his angels, and now hopefully both of them will find solace and repose among the owls in a place they never thought they’d belong. All this talk of owls and god brings us into the other clawthorne baddie:

EDA

For this I'm going to use her full name edalyn, because you know like that’s just how it be it is her name. There isn’t a wiki page for her name like there is for Lilith which makes this a little bit harder but the general consensus seems to be that it means something along the lines of “gift of god”, which I find very interesting. If you are going to name a child gift of god i’m assuming that you are referring to the child themselves, but I don’t think that really applies to eda. I’m not religious, but its my impression that someone who lies cheats pranks and steals their way to the top and isn’t exactly the most responsible witch on the isles might not be the best gift god could give. I do really love Eda though, her character flaws are still a part of her character, but I think this refers to her powers. Eda considers herself to be the boiling isles gift to magic, which I mean like, have you seen the woman. In agony of a witch we see her at what probably 30% of her power with how much the curse was already tolling on her and how much magic she was probably using to fight it off, and like goddamn. She was almost beating lilith, definitely beating the shit out of her, but she was almost defeating Lilith who was at her full power, and that is just a fraction of what she used to be able to do. Her powers were a gift of god, and I think that the loss of them will greatly affect her. She’s already admitted that she doesn’t know how to do much without her magic, and I think going straight from the second most powerful witch on this isles to having no power at all is going to be incredibly taxing on her, physically and mentally.

Luckily for her the name edalyn also means patience, another thing about her name is that it not only means gift of god, but also similar things like gifted by the gods or even goddess, and this draws a connection to Lilith who is named after a demonic figure, casted out for having defied god, they are quite literally polar opposites on the name spectrum, and we see that a lot in the show, they are completely different people, I mean have you looked at them they don’t even look related, but the funnier thing is that their personalities do the same thing. You’d expect Edain her youth to be a gift from the devil, just ask principal bump, and Lilith seemed to be a goody two shoes who worked her ass off, their names could be switched based off their characters alone.

A random baby name site I found said that :

“Persons with the name edalyn are usually highly flexible and well equipped to making and accepting change throughout their life. They always seek excitement and are sometimes a bit of a risk taker. They are imaginative, and often, through their unconventional way of thinking, are naturally able to solve complex problems with ease. They are quick thinkers and observers who are clever, analytical and versatile”

Which I mean like very much applies to eda, she takes change like a champ, either genuinely or by pretending she’s ok with everything, and is always seeking excitement. Like literally all of the time. Always. I think she takes felonies as a compliment, and one of the biggest changes in her life that she genuinely was able to adapt to and appreciate was

LUZ

Ok I think at this point everyone knows that at this point the name Luz means light, and if you didn't, oopsies now you do. The character Luz was named and designed after a real life person the miss dana terrace knew at the time she was starting to really think about the show, Luz ’s personalty comes more from dana herself and we love that, but the character has really started to grow into her name. This is made most obvious when the first spell Luz learns is the light glyph, not only coming into her own as a witch, but also starting to live up to her name, which along with light also has to do with “Our Lady of Light”, which is the virgin mary, fitting her right in with the other biblical names we got going on here. I really want to stress that I know next to zero about religion, and all of the connections I am making come from wikipedia, so bare with me here. But most of the time mary seems to be this pure, saint like figure, which I think is what a lot of people see Luz as, especially on the isles. I’m going to flat out say that this is in no way meant to pass off Luz as simple minded, pure, or oblivious, because we have seen what that girl is willing to do, she faced death and poked him in the with an ice cicle. In terms of life on the isles, however, she is more or less pure and sheltered, she’s completely new to the world she’s in, but she does quickly adapt, and shows more of her strong side, and remains a good person throughout all of it, taking losses as they come, and not letting them remain losses at the same time.

Back to the whole light thing, we already touched on the whole literal bit of her and the light spell, but can you think of a better way to describe Luz ? She literally brings light everywhere she goes, even Eda admits that she’s changed things for the better, for everyone around her too. Willow got a new friend, probably the first friend she’s had in a long time, and even got to begin repairing her relationship with amity, and got placed in the plant track so she could do the things she loves, all because of Luz . Edagot to grow as a person and a mentor, and finally got someone willing to accept all her eda-ness, unconditionally, someone to really care about that really cares about her back, all because of Luz . Amity got a friend who cares about her, not just her family name and money, someone who supports her and will do anything for her because she is her friend, and a bit of self discovery along the way for amity, all because of Luz . Not a single person on the isles who has had more than 2 minutes of interaction with Luz hasn’t had their lives improved, even belos got his portal, and the thing is that even characters who people might not even consider changed have been, characters such as

KING

The name king itself is obvious, he is royalty, the king of demoNS HIMSELF ASMODEUS hahahaha pulled a sneaky on you now accept my ideas as your own. I am on a mythological name kick, deal with it. The most important thing here is in the bible, asmodeus poses himself as a false god, which I know is something we have all considered with king, that he might be a full on liar, not be a king of anything and is just your ordinary street demon, it’s even come up in the show with him calling himself the king of artists and Luz asking him if he was just making it up at this point. It’s a good theory, I can see it, and this could be used as proof. There is also another legend that paints him as a good natured dude, who eventually banishes the king by literally throwing him, and then he loses his powers and is banished, but this is also the same legend where he marries Lilith and that is not something I am down for. There is another text in which he tells the king (the same one he threw in the other one) that his kingdom will one day be divided and the king does not believe him, and this is the same text where he admits to hating water and birds because they remind him of god. Lets think class, who has the god name and is related to birds here? King’s name by itself holds true to his character, who (regardless of if it is truthful or not) holds himself as if he is a king, and he isn't the only one with a name like that, there is also

WILLOW

Ok I know we all thought it, willow, the plant girl, how fiendishly clever. This also happens to be the only descriptor for her name I could find, which is totally fine because I think it’s a very cute name and willow is also very cute. This means we get to go into the symbolism of the willow tree wwwooooOOOOO aren’t you so very excited I know I am. Its kind of interesting, willow trees seem to match the character, understanding, warm, a safe space really, but most of all the ability to let go of pain and suffering, sometimes outright ignore it, and move on. Willow does always say out of sight out of mind does she not? She is willing to ignore, even excuse people bullying her, be it bosha or even amity, and the moment she got the chance her inner willow decided to try and literally burn the painful memories she had, willing to cause damage just to forget. Willow as a character is very willing to move on like nothing happened most of the time, key word most because another thing about willows is the ability to grow from the pain. Before understanding willow, we never really saw willow stand up for herself until she really had to, but hy the end of the episode she is willing to tell amity that she isn’t willing to fully forgive her, but she’s willing to grow and try. Heck, we see this over the entire first season, we see this little girl who can barely pull it together long enough to stand up for herself grow into this amazing character willing to publicly oppose the emperor and break into his castle for her friend, she tried to full out attack Lilith when 19 episodes earlier she wasn’t able to stand up to amity for bullying her. And I am in no way calling willow weak, she never was, she just needed to find the ability to show everyone that she’s strong, god I love willow so much, you wanna know who else loves willow?

GUS

Gus, my main man, love you but for this we are gonna have to use the full on augustus sorry babes. The name augustus means majestic, or venerable, which while I must say that the illusion of kiki doing the worm was probably one of the most majestic things I have ever seen, I’m going to focus on venerable a bit more here. Venerable is a big word, it means “accorded a great deal of respect, especially because of age, wisdom, or character.”, which for gus the age part might play a smaller part here, but he is good as what he does, Luz and willow both respect him, Eda Respects him, he’s this little dude who is younger than everyone and has to rely on his ability to succeed, not inly with his power but with his personality.Gus seems to be confident in himself, communicating with everyone regardless of who they are or what power they hold, similarly to willow he was willing to do anything to help Luz , leading into the second description of venerable, “heroic in nature”. Now, you might be wondering, bestie where ever did you get that description, it totally wasn’t from a religious page okyesitwas but that's fine because being pronounced venerable guarantees a spot in heaven so get it bestie. Overall, the general meaning for augustus is that they are strong, respectable, and powerful, which takes us right into the

ASSORTED BLIGHTS

The blight first names bring me joy so I am putting amity last because I think its really funny, starting off with alador, the name alador evokes diplomacy, correctness, and confidence. We know zilch about alador, but if the vibes of the blight family have anything to say it’s definitely something along those lines. The name odalia means wealth, which I mean like have you seeeen blight manor? Also back at it again with the fact that it’s a variant of the name odilia, like the saint olilia which I don't have ties for you right now because again, we know nothing about her. Edric also means wealth, fortune, riches, powerful, you get the vibes, same thing with emira which means commander, or prince, princess, leader, or star. So you know like we have all these super powerful names happening, and then, oh boy and then we get to little miss perfect herself, amity blight. It means friendship, or harmony. If I was her I would be so mad at my parents like yall have these mad powerful names and I got stuck with friendship? Hand me the emancipation papers. You know what they say, friendship is the real magic (even if no longer taught in schools due to budget constraints). I hope that this leads more into season 2 with amity working on her friendships and ultimately her relationships in general, which we got a bit of already with her working on repairing her relationship with willow, and making the moves to cut off old toxic friendships and moving into more genuine ones with willow, Luz , and gus. I guess you could say that the only thing ALL the blights have in common with each other is their

LAST NAME

BLIGHT

The word blight by itself means a plant disease which boy oh boy can you believe how nicely that fits into amity bullying willow because I sure can. Outside of just the plant bit it overall just means like something that damages another thing, and this works beautifully for each member of the family. The parents are damaging their children, the twins just causing general damage, and amity and her goddamn relationships, but fortunately that whole plant thing brings us into the next couple of last names

CLAWTHORNE

The last name clawthorne means “cold or exposed thorn tree” which had me kind of like what the heck so I went off and had some fun and got you some presents that I think are funny, so there was this guy right, his name was joseph clawthorne, and he created the term whiffenpoof, which is the name for a wildly fictitious animal, things like a jackalope, or even a griffin with spider breath, though I guess that would be the work of a

NOCEDA

Back again with the trees good lord, it means field of nut trees, so again I went into prominent people an found this guy named jorge noceda sanchez, he was a painter and some of his works are kinda baller actually it seems like something that would fit in on the isles, but also not all of the names have a deeper meanings, names like

PORTER

Ok I am like pretty sure this was just meant to be a play on the fact that gus’ dad’s name is perry and is a reporter, get it, perry porter, perry porter, reporter, but nonetheless I did some digging because why the heck not, it means doorkeeper, or gate keeper, someone who guards something like an important building, which honestly I think this would be a good last name for hooty if he ever gets one, but again not all of these are important names at the moment, or maybe they won't ever be at all, names like

PARK

At first I was kinda like l m a o willow park plant girl hahahahah plants in the park parks have trees willow is a tree but then I remembered that someone pointed out that park is a traditionally korean surname and then like a week later disney posted about it for aisian pacific american heritage month which kind of confirmed it, and I don’t know if the whole intention behind it was to establish willow as representation or not, but the surname park by itself means gourd and willow I am so sorry that is so unfortunate LMAOSIFN

BUMP

To be honest I was not expecting bump to have a last name that meant anything but it means swift walker and I think thats funny so you have to know it now

MISCELLANEOUS

BELOS

BIIIITCH LISTEN UPPPP there is a butt tone of mythology surrounding his name and its mostly a different form of it, belus, that is referenced, but same thing different shape. Most of his depiction is as a great king or ruler, in babylonian mythology being the equivalent of zeus of jupiter, which liiikkkkkeeeoajolnjojnkjakjavnjfvdfkjf but its fine everything is great its all ok most importantly, he is recognized as the god or ruler of war, and in that same mythology he lived in babylon, which “... was originally water, and called a sea. But Belus put an end to this, and assigned a district to each, and surrounded Babylon with a wall; and at the appointed time he disappeared.” and idk about you but the smell of him assigning a divide and disappearing smells sour like funky to me babes

HIERONYMUS AND BOSCHA

I am only putting this here because the fact that it’s totally a play on hieronymus bosch makes me cackle and you all have to know it thank you

ADEGAST

B-but brevyn he was only there for like one episode, yeah ok and? Radegast is the slavic god of hospitality, and there is no host like a host that pretends to take you on a mythical quest and then tries to eat you and your mentor and her deranged cat demon, ok? His name translates to “dear guest” or “welcomed guest” and I mean I think if my host tried to suck me into some fantasy would delusion i’d feel pretty welcomed

HOOTY

He is an owl

OWLBERT

He is also an owl

KIKIMORA

First and foremost, she is a little night gremlin who hates children and I think that really fits her, but she is also a little house demon, who is very difficult to get to leave, have we seen her outside the castle? Will she be a spy along with the mask next season? She also has a name that means nightmare or night demon, similar to a certain other night creature we might have heard of a while ago. She tried to strangle children and I love that for her,and she is described as a little old ugly messy haired lady and I feel like her current character has the personality of one so i’ll take it, but what really gets me is her villain origin story, which is that she "grows up with a magician in the mountains. From dawn to sunset the magician’s cat regales Kikimora with fantastic tales of ancient times and faraway places, as Kikimora rocks in a cradle made of crystal. It takes her seven years to reach maturity, by which time her head is no larger than a thimble and her body no wider than a strand of straw. Kikimora spins flax from dusk and to dawn, with evil intentions for the world.”

[mdhwrites]

My Problem/Disappointment With Amity’s Parents

So what the show has done with them is fine. It's fine. Totally fine. They're high society, capitalist jerks who will abuse one of their children for the sake of them having a proper heir and it works and it's been done before and it's effective. It made them perfectly fine villains of the week. It's a shame that it also means missing out on some potential with Amity's character and her fears and makes no sense in context to Emira and Edric. Let's talk.

So, we'll start with Amity and I want to say that a lot more of this part is subjective. I recognize that what I'm going to talk about would have been much harder to do with the show's format and likely taken more time and that it is in fact effective. Her parents make you feel bad for Amity and you understand why she is under such constant pressure and fear. But... What if that hadn't been then case? What if they were strict, sure, and pushed her to succeed, like any set of parents would, but weren't cruel about it? Especially now that she's older and needs to start figuring out what sort of Blight she'll be and experiment with how she interacts with others of all walks of life and not just the best? Suddenly, Amity seems less reasonable to be afraid because a slip up may come with a talk but not a grounding or worse unless it was genuinely egregious.

Except then we get her obsession with never screwing up. Because she never had before Luz. Because she is a perfectionist who was taught that she needed to strive to be the best no matter what and to never show weakness, lessons she took to her core and never learned the second sides of. This would lead to the same character we see but she's now that really smart kid who only identifies as 'the smart kid' and so the idea of relaxing and being something other than that is terrifying to them. The pressure is as much in their own heads as it is from outside sources. They perceive a threat of consequences for failure that are far beyond what would actually be there.

Instead, we know that the consequences for Amity are exactly what she thinks they are, if not worse. I mean, when it came to hanging out with Luz, she likely foresaw getting grounded, yelled at, or worse, but she likely never saw her mom ruining all of her friends' lives as an option. That sort of extreme just means that she needs to readjust her assumptions so that she's closer to the next time her mom attempts to kill someone over her lapsing in focus. That's not nearly as interesting because it implies that she would be much better off without parents. That she'd be able to be close to as healthy as she is with Luz, who makes her forget about that pressure and fear, if she were instead in an orphanage and entirely having to self motivate.

In short: It puts the trait as being something outside of Amity, rather than inside Amity. It's an element of her past, not her. And that's not as interesting to me nor as unique.

But I also mentioned Emira and Edric earlier, right? Because take everything I just said about Odalia and consequences and just yeet it into the nearest sun. After all, while we see the twins try to take steps while directly helping Amity to avoid getting in trouble, such as just asking Mittens to be quiet about it, they obviously aren't subtle people. Hell, one of the main ways of causing trouble that we know about is them SKIPPING CLASS. That's not something you just get away with. Either they are doing something as a trade off to get those teachers to never report them, and report them to very influential people who have heavy sway with the Isles' version of the PTA, or Odalia and Alador have some idea that they're doing this. Also, skipping class usually makes keeping up in class harder so unless Odalia is okay with Cs and Bs rather than straight As, it'd be reflecting on their report cards too.

So how do you make these two halves work? Well, in the case of everything we know right now, you kind of don't. You can headcanon a lot of stuff to make it work but if we just go by what we know, Amity has a genuine reason to complain because a couple weeks at most of her grades not being constant 100s got her double the workload and her friends ripped from her while Ed and Em get to do as they please without consequence. And, reminder, THEY'RE OLDER THAN AMITY. If you want to include them being high society, of status, that means Ed and EM are the HEIRS. Odalia gives more shit currently to her youngest daughter than she does to her oldest. If it's because Amity chose abominations, why wasn't Emira forced into abominations instead? Or was she just that bad at it? We don't know but it is a gaping hole that we don't have an explanation for and I really think it hurts the entire Blight family dynamic because you have to effectively look at it either as it being a somewhat normal, privileged family with the twins, or completely dysfunctional and cruel with the parents.

BUT! This is all just my opinion and, as I said before, all of this has been effective. I still love the twins, I hate Odalia, and I feel sympathetic for Amity because her life is so rough. This is just stuff that has nagged at my brain for a good while now and I wanted to share, especially since I hope it'll help you all consider what the interconnected relationships between characters means rather than looking at them only one on one because otherwise that's how you get the Odalia/Amity and Odalia/Twins disconnect. What do you all think?

And last note because I need to shill if I ever want to make this writer thing work out, if you liked this, maybe consider taking a look at my original work Little Miss Rich Witch which was heavily inspired by Lumity and my thoughts on the high society elements around Amity. It's being published chapter by chapter on Amazon's new Kindle Vella platform where you can read the first three chapters for free and there is a promotion going on to get 200 free tokens which will take you through at least the first 9 paid chapters of the story. It would mean a lot to me and I hope you have a wonderful day no matter what.

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Luz’s Denial of her Feelings

           You know what? I LOVE the idea of Luz actually low-key being in denial of Amity’s feelings towards her… Because Luz is in denial of her own feelings towards Amity! We know from Dana that Luz hasn’t noticed Amity’s crush yet, because she’s busy with a LOT of things in general (not to mention she’s ADHD-coded so her mind is constantly buzzing with a million thoughts at once no less)…

           But once she DOES have time to start noticing, how would she react? Would Luz get nervous, because she’s never been someone’s crush, ever? The girl has a subtle tendency to undervalue herself, and how much she means to people… This can result in Luz being selfless and not expecting anything in return, and while on her own she’s already that compassionate, this lack of self-love could admittedly jeopardize that. It’s why it means so much to Luz, whenever someone tells her outright –like King did for example- that she means a lot to them…!

           …But a crush? A romantic crush? This is Amity’s first big one. We don’t know what Luz’s love history is, if she’s had one… But either she’s not used to having a crush on an actual person that she personally knows, and/or she’s afraid of rejection. I feel like Luz is someone who probably DID try to be emotionally open with people besides Camila in the past, with fellow kids… Only to get shut down. To be closed off… Maybe someone DID get to know her, and was interested at first- But then they saw the ‘true’ Luz, and got turned off, and it broke her heart!

           Luz is always concerned about what she can do for others, about not judging them… And while she knows to be herself, there is this potential concern that, what if this causes her to deliberately undervalue the opinions of others about her as a result? Luz doesn’t let criticisms from other people get to her, but it also means she’s not sure how to handle when someone is really genuinely interested? Luz is too used to not letting others’ feelings about her affect how SHE feels… And while this has worked in the past because a lot of feelings towards her were negative, how does she handle ones that are positive?

           And I can see Luz just… running from this. Kind of a hilarious and a little angsty parallel to how Amity runs from her feelings for Luz. Kind of like how Luz runs from her fears during Grom, which was ALSO a rather Lumity-centered episode no less…! Luz doesn’t want to admit that Amity has a crush on her, because she really undervalues herself, and doesn’t know how to handle such an intimate opinion? Maybe Luz becomes afraid of letting down Amity, of losing her love and being rejected… So Luz overthinks how to be whatever makes her so lovable to Amity!

           Of course, Luz learns that Luz being herself is exactly what makes Amity love her… That Luz doesn’t need to focus on being this or that in particular, that her own existence as-is is already perfect, whatever she chooses for herself! On another note, I imagine Luz being in denial of Amity’s feelings and thus vice-versa, because aside from rejection; Maybe she thinks she isn’t good enough for the girl? Maybe Luz thinks Amity is too good for her… Luz wants the best for Amity, and sadly, she doesn’t see herself as that? To Luz, it’d be doing a disservice to her friend as well.

           Especially since she knows how harsh Odalia and Alador can be, Luz might not see herself as strong enough to protect Amity, either directly or by earning the Blight parents’ approval! Being in love with Amity would further complicate this dilemma, it’s easy to not care what THEY think… But they’re Amity’s parents, Amity has a lot of emotional stake in Odalia and Alador! Luz can’t just disregard that, so either she DOES acknowledge the feelings, or she doesn’t. Not to mention, Luz might be afraid of jeopardizing the hard work Amity has gone through, by convincing the girl to throw away everything she’s done just for Luz…

           And Luz would HATE to ask that of someone, as well as to make someone feel like they have to do that! She didn’t want Eda to lose her magic for her, so I can see Luz denying her and Amity’s mutual feelings, so she doesn’t encourage Amity to throw away her life’s purpose for a ‘loser’ like Luz, whom Amity may fall out of love with anyway! Because surely Amity doesn’t care THAT much…! Not to mention Luz is probably critical of how she’s hurt Amity in the past, maybe she’s afraid of hurting Amity’s feelings again…

           Perhaps for her AND Amity’s own good, the two shouldn’t be romantically involved- Even if Luz will of course be close friends no matter what! And while I see Amity also being content with that as well, it’s not good if this option is done in blatant denial to both parties’ true feelings. These girls need to be upfront about how they feel.

           Regardless, Luz pretends not to notice how Amity feels… Because taking cues from Ordinary, she’s afraid of having to go back home, and she doesn’t want to ‘let on’ Amity by ‘tricking her’ into thinking that Luz cares back- When in reality Luz really DOES, but she’s afraid of her own ability to provide romantically, of losing everything she’s had with Amity and jeopardizing that, instead of being content with the friendship they already have! She’s afraid of how much more it’ll hurt when she DOES have to go back home, and how much it’ll hurt Amity in turn… So why not deny both of their feelings, help Amity admit that this isn’t a thing?

           Maybe this could lead to something drastic on Luz’s side in a worst-case scenario, where she tries to avoid Amity… But of course, she remembers Grom. Not only did Luz not confront her worst fears, but Amity’s worst fear was Luz rejecting her… And there’s a difference between helping someone confront their fear, and forcing them to live through it. In the end, Luz knows that she’s being crueler to Amity in the long run by not acknowledging how she feels… And she’ll learn to be selfish for herself, and Luz will see how she’s being cruel to herself as well for not acknowledging these feelings!

          Like Eda dismissing the curse so Luz and King wouldn’t get worried about her, this is just putting a bandage and ignoring an issue… The sentiment is sweet, but in the end it’s best to be honest with your loved ones and not hurt them, and address things together. I mean, look at Lilith- SHE was in denial over her own issues with Eda, and didn’t want to openly confront the curse she’d cast… And look how badly THAT messed things up! If there’s one thing Lilith taught her, it was to acknowledge an issue and face it, to be honest with yourself and your own shortcomings, and only THEN can you overcome them…! If you try to hide the truth, even if it’s for the other’s own good… In the end, you’re only hurting every party involved, and being a coward in the process.

           With encouragement from her friends, such as Willow, or Emira and Edric (who are TOTALLY Lumity shippers, the OG ones and know of the crush), Luz can learn to be selfish. To get this thing she wants for herself, that she ISN’T confusing fantasy with reality this time –because that’s how she’ll try to dismiss it as first- and it CAN work out… And even if it doesn’t, there’s no way Luz and Amity can know unless they try, and even if it fails, that shouldn’t keep them from remaining close friends regardless! Regardless, Luz’s friends will remind her how brave and defiant she is, how she’ll always ask for it all both on her own behalf AND others’, just as Luz demanded multi-track learning for not just herself but the Detention Track kids as well!

           If Luz can do that- Well, she can give it a try with Amity, for both girls’ sake, right? She’s not alone in this… She’s not Amity’s sole connection, Luz’s help has ensured that Emira and Edric are there for her, and Amity is likely rekindling things with Willow, or at least both girls are willing to provide solace if not outright friendship. Maybe while dealing with the issue, Luz will try to reflect by getting Amity some other friends… And while that DOES help, there’s also an ulterior motive of trying to distance Amity from her, maybe even get Amity to fall in love with someone else who’s way more worthy! But in the end, Luz is actually being selfish for herself in a different, more harmful way, VS admitting her and Amity’s feelings for one another and acting on it. Don’t try to undervalue yourself, Luz, nor should you try to make Amity reconsider her feelings…

           After all, Luz values Amity’s agency, so if this is Amity’s choice, then it is! Amity HAS been indoctrinated, and I can see Luz being afraid that she lowkey ‘manipulated’ Amity into being in love with her, into being dependent… But in the end, that’s not at all what she did, and she already has other friends with their own input, who can put Luz back to reality- Such as Eda, King, Willow, and Gus! Maybe even Lilith, who ALSO learned to confront reality herself…! It’d be an interesting parallel to have Lilith’s willful ignorance of her issues with Eda, and the corruption of the system, VS Luz’s willful ignorance of her and Amity’s love for one another.

           Nevertheless- This is making me imagine a scenario where Emira and Edric are pursuing Luz to make her date their little sister, and force her to confront the truth, because they’ve got personal stake in this as well amidst wanting the best for Amity… And Luz is just running away from her feelings and in denial! It’s like that meme of a dude being chased down the hallway by a floating T-poser! Except it’s Luz who’s running from Ed and Em, who are emblematic of the truth of Amity’s feelings- And in the end, they’ll make it clear to Luz, that she’s breaking Amity’s heart more THIS way, than if she were to at least attempt a relationship with the girl and then have it fail. Because, at least both parties tried with one another, instead of deciding any attempts weren’t worth it nor had a point!

           And Luz… Well, you know the girl. She’s been learning more and more how much she’s been loved. Romantic love isn’t the same as familial love, nor is it better or worse… But still, if Luz can give familial love a try, having experienced it with Camila and with Eda and the rest; Maybe romantic love isn’t out of the question, either!

           Basically- You know those I won’t say I’m in love animatics for The Owl House? Imagine those, but it’s LUZ who’s singing, while being cheered on by Emira and Edric and/or Willow and Gus! Maybe even Eda, King, AND Lilith, for that matter…! Why not even throw in all of Luz’s other friends, because they’d be supportive of her as someone who’s definitely worth it… And it’d be hilarious if Amity herself joined in as well!

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Gus Porter and Amity Blight

          It’s fascinating, really… Writing about Gus and the Blight Twins interacting, I realized more and appreciated just how similar Gus and Amity are, while still being different- Like two sides of the same coin! Which ties back to another post I made, giving Gus the elemental motif of Water, which led to my speculation on how this might character a relationship with Amity and her Fire (amidst Gus being a counter to Boscha’s Fire).

           Gus and Amity are both precocious kids, sure… There’s this idea that they DO enjoy learning, and have a family lineage they’re ‘proud’ of. These kids are intelligent, and they come across as confident… But admittedly, there’s a bit of loneliness, of not being heard/taken seriously. But despite having more family members, Amity’s loneliness was a lot more damaging and potent, and her issues of not being heard came from her family members dismissing Amity herself! Whilst with Gus, this mostly came from his peers, who were older than him anyway and thus had more ‘reason’ to underestimate the kid.

           Not to mention, Gus and Perry clearly get along, because even if Gus DOES have some insecurity, here or there… He IS a person and so of course he’s going to have ‘flaws’, just like anyone else! Not to downplay them or anything of course. But it’s obvious that ultimately, Gus is happy, confident, and self-assured, and he knows who he is and doesn’t have to hide it, or be different from it despite being an Illusionist… In contrast to Amity, who clearly isn’t happy with who she is, feels like she has to make up for it, and wears a ‘mask’.

           Gus uses his Illusions to bolster, to show off, and to enhance his own identity, while Amity hides who she is, telling herself to shut up and be a quiet and obedient kid who doesn’t stick out amidst the rest of her family, she’s ashamed of herself. Amity dyes her hair because of what Odalia told her, and she actively sees herself as someone to change and ‘improve’ upon, in order to live up to the Blight family standard… But Gus? Gus is happy with himself because the Porter lineage consists of dweebuses… They’re people who are happy with who they are, and they’ve transmitted the same sentiments towards their children!

           Gus looks up to Perry, but it’s a healthy relationship… He genuinely admires his father because of his own choice, because Perry was good and kind to him! But Amity, she looks up to her parents because they made her dependent upon them, they indoctrinated her… They made Amity base her self-worth upon their approval. The Blight name is a curse to Amity, a reminder that she’s never good enough; Whilst the Porter name tells Gus that whoever he is, that’s valid and he should be proud of it!

           How fitting then, is it, that Gus helps lead the rebellion against Belos alongside Willow and his father Perry, who seems intrigued by what his kid has to say; Whilst Odalia and Alador would never listen to what Amity has to tell them! Gus is the one who is reassured of his own self-worth, that he’s perfectly valid as is, by the Oracle Orb… while Amity still has doubts over herself, even if Luz IS helping her overcome this. Amity is of a higher-class, nobler status in life, she comes across as more presitigous as a top student and tries a lot…

           But Gus, who definitely DOES participate, is still a lot more talented, and managed to ascend a few grades when Amity couldn’t, and is still happy with learning at school. Gus’ life comes across as less glamorous, he had less friends with just Willow, and then Luz… But those friends ended up a lot closer and more genuine to him than Boscha and her group were to Amity. And in the end, Gus gained even more friends through Eda and King… And while Amity ‘lost’ Boscha and the others, she alsojoined in on the friend group with Gus! So they have each other in a sense, because actual friendships are reciprocal and two-way.

           They both had a passion for an extra-curricular activity that they were in charge of, too; Amity had the Hexside Banshees, Gus had the Human Appreciation Society! And both willingly ousted themselves from membership entirely from said group, despite their legitimate enjoyment of it. Gus and Amity did so because they ‘paid the price’ for hurting someone else… in Amity’s case, this was herself being too critical of herself for accidentally injuring Boscha and Amelia with the Thorn Vault.

          With Gus, he DID accept the consequences of his genuine mistake, and by doing so, allowed Luz to enroll in Hexside! Amity only hurt herself, but Gus ended up helping Luz and his relationship with her and others in the end. Finally, Amity’s departure was wholly her own decision, while Gus was somewhat forced to leave because of Mattholomule’s antics, and Principal Bump’s punishment. Either way, what Amity did was bad for herself, while what Gus did was a moment of maturity and growth!

          It works with how Water and Fire are polar opposites, but they’re also intertwined with one another… Gus is the ideal to Amity’s life. He’s not as extreme in his differentiation as Luz and her colder Ice, so there’s still plenty of similarities… Just as Luz reflects Amity in one way, so does Gus in the other! He’s an Amity who is happy with himself, who has a family lineage he can actually enjoy and be a part of, etc. The more I think of it, the more fascinating it is to me, how similar yet different the two are; Especially since Gus and his motif of Water provided unconditional friendship to Willow, in the wake of Amity and her Fire damaging the girl’s self-esteem.

          And while Amity and Gus have their academic skill and surprising ‘maturity’ acknowledged… Amity’s maturity is superificial, more blind and quiet obedience than anything else, while Gus’ maturity is real and applies to his self-worth. Not to mention, Amity’s ‘maturity’ causes others to not see her as a kid who still needs emotional support and has insecurities, whilst other people recognize Gus as still being young and needing help; But at the same time, they don’t infantilize him! Gus has needs, sure, but he also has a lot to offer. People generally seem more fixated on what they can do for him, VS Amity’s parents asking so much of her.

           Sadly, the interactions between Gus and Amity have been practically zero. I guess I can’t blame Gus, he’s seen how terrible Amity was towards Willow, so he might be reluctant to know her personally… And similarly, Amity is too shy and reserved to extend friendship readily, already has this with Luz, and might be afraid of disappointing Gus, amidst him having witnessed Willow’s abuse longer than Luz did. To Amity, who was likely afraid of losing Luz’s opinion of her when Willow’s memories came into play; She probably assumes that Gus has a bad opinion of her.

           Whether or not he does, I can’t say for sure… But the kid seems too good-natured and open to bear a grudge. At the very least, Amity has improved a lot, and Gus has been busy in other interactions, such as with Eda, King, and regrettably, Hooty. But if they DID interact in Season 2, I’d love to see Gus and Amity take note of the comparisons and dichotomy of their lives… Perhaps Amity becomes envious of Gus, or at least wishes she had what he does, while deciding to look after the kid- She doesn’t want him to become like her!

           Gus realizes that Amity is unfortunate… He better appreciates his relationship with Perry, as if he doesn’t already, and I can see him offering a lot of confidence to Amity! Maybe helping her relax, listen to what she has to say… We never see it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Gus was someone who listened a lot to what Willow had to say in the past, just as Luz does to Willow AND Amity! Gus becoming friends with Amity could help the girl make new connections and solidify them, to both her and Luz’s delight… And Gus is elated to have another audience member to entertain with his illusions, someone who will listen to him!

          Because like King, while he does have issues with feeling unheard… In the end, he makes a point of letting himself be noticed, hence his enjoyment of Illusions, self-confidence, and one-time stint as MC at Grom! Whilst Amity tries NOT to be noticed, at least not in the individual sense- She’ll draw attention to the façade she has the Blight Child, and as a faceless member of the Emperor’s Coven one day… And that’s another dichotomy; The Blights are covenscouts and support Belos’ reign, while Perry Porter works with the news, reporting on some of the less desirable parts of Belos’ rule, and his own role is used by Gus to help lead an uprising against the Emperor; To show the truth to Belos’ cruelty, which is ironic for a kid who specializes in Illusions!

           As the son of a reporter, Gus has likely heard a LOT of gossip… So it’s possible he’ll be a lot more privy than most to Belos’ corruption, in the event that Perry likely does some investigation, or at least a lot of reporting and inevitably gets assigned to a thing or two. Whilst Amity’s parents keep her shielded from the truth of the Emperor’s Coven, or at least try to justify it… But Gus, he could be someone who helps Amity realize how corrupt Belos is, and how a good relationship with a parent that discusses the family name actually looks like! He can help Amity realize the truth- Again, another ironic contrast to his Illusionist talents. Assuming what happened with Luz, Eda, and Lilith isn’t already enough for Amity…

           Obviously Gus doesn’t HAVE to be friends with Amity and vice-versa. I can understand if he wants to avoid her because of what she did to Willow. But I think if the two WERE to interact, there’s some potential… At the very least, there’s a lot of thematic connections, similarities, and differences that are worth noting and appreciating. I’m just imagining Gus seeing Amity as being all down and in the pits, cheering her up with Illusions… And Amity listens to and understands Gus when he has to vent a bit.

           Amusingly, he’s also a self-proclaimed ‘Human expert’! So I can see Amity looking to GUS of all people on guidance on how to woo Luz, and navigate her human culture… And Gus, despite meaning well, just sets up Amity for failure and antics as he teaches her all of the wrong things! Imagine Amity nervously coming up to Luz, dressed in a rain poncho because it’s apparently a ‘display of romantic affection’ while Gus unblinkingly flashes her a thumbs-up from behind a bush! And then that leads to his disappointment as he realizes he screwed up…

           Or, Luz is such a goober who loves Amity that she takes it all in stride and genuinely enjoys it, leading to Gus being triumphant in his knowledge, while telling Amity ‘I told you so!’ Amity can’t BELIEVE she actually listened to him- But it paid off in the end, didn’t it? And hey, maybe she can use her power as a Blight to nab a human artifact for Gus… Or at least show him of Azura, assuming Luz already hasn’t! But given that book series is about witches and not humans themselves, I can see Gus not being too intrigued.

           To Amity, Gus is this weird, unusual little kid with a lot of ideas, surprisingly precocious… But she appreciates his confidence in himself, and how sweet he can be! While Gus sees Amity as Willow’s former friend who REALLY hurt her, but has since improved… And he knows through Luz and Willow that her parents are outright abusive, maybe he’s even had past interactions with Emira and Edric, as members of the same track! Either way, Gus has a lot of natural curiosity that wasn’t quashed or taken advantage of by his father, but actually supported… Maybe he’ll be interested in interviewing Amity, getting to know the REAL Amity Blight, encouraging her to come forth! And Amity is uncertain, maybe flattered… Maybe she humors him and actually DOES open up a little, maybe not.

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Amity’s ‘role’ in Luz’s fantasy

          So recently I had an epiphany thanks to @lost-gatesofhell, about Luz and her initial interest in Amity. I have to wonder if at first, Luz was partially interested in befriending Amity because it’d be like Azura befriending HER rival... In the sense that she’s trying to live out her fantasies, without considering that Amity is her own person and not a ‘prize’ to be won. I hate to compare Luz like this... but it could’ve been like how Warden Wrath was drawn to the ‘allure’, the IDEA of Eda as someone who was ‘hard to get’, a prize to be won... Of course in Luz’s case, she’s a lot less patronizing and objectifying of Amity, as seen when she respects the girl’s boundaries as soon as they’re set.

         Still, there’s this idea that while Luz is working on it, she hasn’t totally overcome her penchant for applying fantasy to real life and projecting her little adventures over what’s actually happening, for the sake of living them out... Obviously she learned her lesson in Episode 2, but like anyone else she’s not perfect and still liable to making the same mistakes from time to time, even if they’re a lot less frequent. Particularly, Luz learned not to expect the Boiling Isles to specifically cater to her fantasies, and to recognize situations for what they actually were. If Luz wanted a ‘magical destiny’ or adventure or anything like that, she’d have to work for it to happen, as Eda suggested.

         Of course, while Luz learned not to be entitled nor to expect life to just hand over her fantasies to her, there’s still this expectation and willingness to use Amity to fulfill that enemies to lovers friends trope, under the idea that at least Luz is ‘working’ for it. Luz knew then that things wouldn’t automatically be how she wanted them to be, and that she had to recognize this; But she’s still willing to make them fit her idealized fantasy regardless... Again tying back to what Eda said about having to ‘make your own destiny’, but there’s also the issue of boundaries and limits to be set, especially when actual people are involved.

        Sometimes, you just can’t live out your fantasy, period… Nor can you expect reality to change into it, even if you DO put in the work to alter it accordingly. Even if it is possible, is it ethical and worth the effort to steamroll over the autonomy of others, and see them only as tropes and roles to fulfill in your story? Not as people with their own stories? Maybe it’s pointless to try to make up for this by occasionally ‘fulfilling your part’ in another person’s story, because nobody should have to deal with that sort of expectation at all, period! Even if it’s consensual on behalf of both parties, it’s still pretty sus... And it ties into the ideas of the Coven System, of Witches having to fulfill a certain role, be it as the Bard, or the Oracle, or the Illusionist... That you have to stick to a particular trope, that there’s no mixing parts or being creative with this!

       Everybody has to be quickly and readily defined by a specific role they can neatly fit into, as ordained by Belos; There’s no room for growing beyond that, save for special people like those who fit into the Emperor’s Coven, the kind who are worthy of being ‘main characters’ in a sense, and thus allowed to be fleshed-out and ‘unique’! Everybody else, though- They’re a side-character, an NPC. It’s like those jokes of friend groups consisting of ‘the smart one’, the ‘funny one’, ‘the jock’, etc., but taken to a dark and far too literal extreme. There’s no room for someone to be the funny one AND a jock, that guy’s already a jock, don’t encroach on other people’s roles, you’ll get distracted from the specific function you have to fulfill!

        (There isn’t anything wrong with doing this in writing of course, especially since one is handling fictional characters and not real people; But from an in-universe perspective, these characters ARE actual people to one another. After all, in real life one wouldn’t define someone as JUST a chef, they also have other aspects and interests to their life that aren’t solely related to food! It’s like the revelation that teachers have lives outside of school, or how that person you know on the internet probably has a job unrelated to whatever interest they’re talking about. People aren’t JUST the jobs they do, and it’s unreasonable to expect them to dedicate their entire existence to fulfilling that role. People should have breaks and be allowed to pursue different interests, maybe even leave their ‘job’ if it’s no longer for them. So YES Karen, this person’s job IS to help customers, but that doesn’t mean their entire worth and meaning as a person solely revolves around this, nor should this person be expected to help customers 24/7 when their shift has already ended anyway.)

          But back to the subject... Luckily, Luz’s issue with molding reality into her fantasy is confronted and further resolved by Wing it like Witches. And even if Luz was projecting her stories onto Amity a bit in order to live out a ‘rivals to friends’ fantasy... It’s worth noting that Luz was also legit interested in Amity as a friend, too! Not to mention Luz is VERY concerned about earning Amity’s approval in Adventures in the Elements... Maybe part of Luz’s motive is not wanting to mess up with an ‘elusive’ friendship, or that’s what Luz tells herself... But more than likely, it’s indicative of a crush that Luz isn’t aware of. Sadly, this girl hasn’t had enough social interaction to differentiate between plantonic friendship desires and being romantically attracted to an actual peer VS a fictional character!

         Which is yet another reason why I love Lost in Language, it’s that Luz was interested in the idea of befriending Amity, of a rival turned friend, rather than just Amity herself... And maybe Amity overheard this when Luz mentioned “First I befriend the siblings, then Amity!” and that contributed to her tomato face of anger- Having the painful barriers she’d erected as a trauma response and the loneliness that came from that being trivialized isn’t great. Amity didn’t appreciate being objectified like that, solely for the emotional barriers she’d set up for a reason. It’s one thing to want to be Amity’s friend the way Boscha and others did- But is Luz really interested in Amity, or just in the idea of her? Is this love conditional on Amity’s social status, which Amity is told is both inherent to her as a Blight, and yet something she has to constantly earn and maintain? Especially the idea of ‘winning’ Amity, that’d be particularly patronizing… But very quickly, Luz remembers that Amity is her own separate individual, who doesn’t exist to fulfill her fantasies.

        Luz appreciates Amity as she really is (perhaps not coincidentally after getting insight into the girl’s true personality through her diary entries), which leads to Luz working to protect Amity’s boundaries by keeping her diary from Emira and Edric! There’s the idea of getting to know and appreciate Amity for who she really is, and Luz working to let the girl embrace that part of herself both internally and externally as well... Which again ties back into the idea of projecting the idea/image of fantasies onto someone/something, VS accepting what/who they actually are, and thus appreciating them even more as a result!

         Amity, of course, realizes that Luz is genuine and actually wants to know about the person she really is... And she’s baffled. While she was no doubt offended by Luz possibly seeing her more as a trope to fulfill than an actual person, it probably wouldn’t have been anything new to Amity; The idea of others seeing her as a means to an end, given how her own parents and Lilith did the same! Disappointing, but not surprising...

        But now it IS surprising, because Luz wants to know about Amity- And she’s not used to good things in life, alas? And how to respond? She’s well familiar with the process of rejecting people, but when it comes to accepting someone- What does she do then? And this plays into Amity’s insecurities and confusion about Luz and how she feels, not wanting to lose a friend, not wanting to hurt them, not wanting to ruin things if Luz wants her only as a friend... Not sure if Luz really means it or not because she’s still insecure, and OF COURSE the idea of a crush, and wondering what Luz could see in someone like her?!

        Amity at least better understood Luz’s motives back when she assumed it was just to fulfill her Azura fantasies, because Amity was familiar with those and her own desire for them. But now that Luz has given up on that... Why does she continue to be so interested in Amity, of all people? And even if Luz was still living out her fantasies, what more could Amity accomplish anyway, now that she’s a friend to Luz; Why does Luz continue to express interest in Amity, and be willing to do so much for the girl? Luz already got her Rivals-to-Friends trope in Amity, but she continues to hang out with the girl of her own volition and unconditionally help her; And Amity is possibly freaking out on what Luz’s motives are, even though she at least knows the girl isn’t a bully and means well!

        Mostly, I think Amity KNOWS that Luz is interested in being a genuine friend... But she’s still overwhelmed by the idea of someone being romantically interested in her, or at least more interested in Amity as a friend compared to others; Because the girl underestimates her own worth too much, she doesn’t see herself as worth getting to know if she doesn’t specifically accomplish a purpose! Odalia and Alador conditioned Amity to evaluate others based on their usefulness, or else be useful to others... So Amity is wondering what about her is so specifically appealing to Luz, especially when Luz has disregarded all of Amity’s other traits that make her ‘worthwhile’, such as her intelligence, social status, knowledge on magic, etc. The only thing left about Amity, to appreciate... Are the things that define her as individual, not as a Blight or a Top Student! And it’s unimaginable, or at least surreal to the girl, for Luz to be interested in that...

       Amity only knows friendship in terms of being ‘useful’ to someone else... Emira and Edric were genuinely interested in Amity as a person, but she’s probably dismissed this as a given since they’re family members, not to mention Ed and Em have admittedly done their part in making Amity doubt how much she means to them. So what does Amity do, when Luz expects nothing of her? No doubt Amity feels like she’s a ‘parasite’, that she’s leeching off of Luz’s good nature and not giving back enough... Maybe she’ll feel like she has compensate for their friendship and justify it, only for Luz to make it clear to Amity that just being with the girl, and seeing her be happy, is all she’ll ever need! And it’ll amaze Amity, and mean so much to her, to realize that she’s inherently worthwhile, and that she doesn’t need to ‘prove’ herself to others in order to be lovable...

         TL;DR Luz was initially trying to live out a ‘rivals to friends’ story, but learned not to objectify Amity like this... And when confronted with a growing crush on the Blight girl, Luz possibly assumed she was just relapsing into old habits. But inevitably, Luz is becoming more and more aware of how much she just genuinely likes Amity as a person, no strings attached, that the girl is irreplaceable to her. And when Amity recognizes that there’s no big secret to why she means so much to Luz, other than just being herself, that Luz’s love isn’t dependent on superficial traits that could easily be replicated by someone else, that Amity is irreplaceable to Luz... It’ll do wonders for her crippled self-esteem, as she learns that she doesn’t need to impress people in order to be loved. Amity, as she already is, without having to make any efforts to improve herself, is already worth loving both in the platonic and romantic sense!

      As for Luz, well- She didn’t get the fantasy she expected... But she still got to live out a different one. Amity really IS this girl’s fantasy, and this time, I mean it in the best way possible!