#and how much different it was from hunter and willow's dynamic or amity and luz's

[kraviolis]

you ever think about how luz is a human who for her whole life has wanted more than anything to learn how to be magic

but then vee is magic, it's literally her life force, but she has wanted more than anything to just be a normal human girl

and hunter, caught in between the two of them because he is not magic and he is not human but he wants more than anything to learn how to be both

[sepublic]

My hot take is that Pilot Gus has been a thing since the pitch bible, it’s just that he’s the character who’s gone through the most revisions in terms of aesthetic;

He’s Tibbles. Or Tibbles was him. They’re small nerdy friends of Luz who stand out as having an interest in human realm stuff. One of the pitched episode concepts was Tibbles and Eda attempting to throw Luz a human party only for their misunderstanding of human culture to lead to chaos, which is perfectly in line with canon Gus clearly not knowing what he’s talking about but meaning it in full earnest. Tibbles and Paulina AKA Pilot Willow are even on the same page together, and Willow and Gus are a classic duo.

After all, look at Hunter! William is a very different character, with a different name and appearance, different personality/vibes, and a different backstory. Yet there are a lot of recurring elements between both versions of the character that you can’t deny Hunter is William after having gone through multiple revisions.

In the end, it’s clear that the writers took the character of Tibbles and just made him a “human” kid, and then expanded on his character from there. It’s possible they just came to this conclusion on their own. It could be a result of Disney pushing the Hexside angle, so the writers converted Tibbles into another peer for Luz, rather than making a new character. Him being a witch student also allowed the writers to expand on one of the nine coven magics as well! And I wouldn’t be surprised if executives pushed for the revised Tibbles to look human for relatability.

But the writers were obviously attached to the concept of a porcine demon named Tibbles, so they retained him but with a radically different personality to fulfill a separate niche of minor antagonist they’d drafted for some other episodes. Even in canon, Tibbles still retains a connection to human artifacts, albeit much more incidental to his character and out of utilitarian, economic interests; He scavenged human trash and briefly sold The Good Witch Azura books, only to give up once Amity proved to be the only buyer. Which hilariously makes Tibbles a contributor towards Lumity.

Dang I want to imagine a plot where Gus and Tibbles interact directly (amidst a salty exchange acknowledging Tibbles’ attempted revenge on Gus in Really Small Problems) and the show gets really meta about how they’re two halves of the same character, albeit with Gus clearly being the more “whole” of the two. It’s a story that works without the BTS knowledge but with it, it makes the whole bit feel enriched.

Obviously it’d be a plot about the Gus and Tibbles having similarities in their shared connection to human garbage, and maybe their respective dynamics with Eda. Possibly discussing/exploring the motives for their interest, which could get into Gus’ motives and how he fell in love with human culture. In fact if Eda wasn’t necessarily the source of Gus’ first exposure, it could’ve damn well been Tibbles!

And since it’s Tibbles, Gus doesn’t really bond with him (esp if like Amity, Gus got it from Tibbles indirectly) and that’s why he’s fairly lonely by the time S1 rolls around, and he’s more impressed by Eda instead. It explains how Gus knows about human stuff, but doesn’t have a particular connection to Eda until they interact through Luz. Tibbles and Eda have a minor rivalry going along as black market potions sellers who have human garbage as a side gig, so it feels appropriate.

As does Tibbles also having a connection with Mattholomule over this human garbage they’re intentionally misrepresenting, which… Jeez, does this provide a backdrop to Mattholomule usurping the HAS with fake human artifacts???? Huh. I guess Tibbles is a contributor to Gustholomule as well. He’s surprisingly connected but I guess that makes sense when this guy was supposed to be a lot more involved before Gus took his place, or rather Tibbles became Gus. It’s weird.

What’d really sell the connection is Gus having a pig palisman, but a chameleon is more relevant when it comes to the final canon. And what’d make things insane is if Gus and Tibbles look at their family trees and realize they stem from a common ancestor, the implicit Tibbles the First, as Tibbles being the Third indicates. Tibblet-Tibblie Grimm Hammer I looks just like the pitch bible… All of this could be the basis for Tibbles to turn around and explain why he was invited to Luz’s Quincenera years later.

[astrolavas]

what's your favourite toh ship?

i'm genuinely not sure, i love all of the "main" ones 😭😭

lumity is obviously iconic and (since it features the protagonist) we see every little way in which their relationship develops throughout the show; it has most on-screen content/development out of all the ships. we see how they start out as sort of "rivals", how they grow closer, we see them pine for each other, we see them confess, become girlfriends, we see them during their established relationship, etc. we see how luz helps amity become her own person away from her parents' hurtful influence, we see how amity supports luz when she needs it. you know, they're silly, they're so cute, they try to communicate best to their abilities, they dress up and travel together. they're so good, love them sm.

huntlow is the ship i probably think abt most since 90% of my thoughts ever as well as conversations are related to hunter, my #1 blorbo, thus: also to hunter's relationships with people + to hunter's closest friends. since neither hunter nor willow are the main protagonist, obviously there's not as much content/attention on them (+ shorter time too but y'know) but they're still so good and well-written. they value and respect each other so much, they fit together so well and their relationship is built on being equals, they're so silly, they're losers (affectionate), they started off as friends, they're always there for each other, and ugh! love them sm.

raeda has that small sprinkle of Tragicness in itself, like they're just so cool. starting off as childhood friends, then being together only to have to break up and drift apart for decades, until time finds them again and this time they make it work. ughhghhh again, love them sm.

they're all just... very different dynamics with such complex, three-dimensional characters, it's just! they're all unique. i love them all.

[numericalbridge]

What annoys me is that there is a very clear potential for well developed, multi-faceted interactions between Luz and Willow and Gus, from just what we know about the characters: Gus is the one with the experience of getting tricked, so why not use it for some scenes with Luz in s3? but on the other hand his experience with school is very different from Luz's and Willow's, so that is also something worthy to explore in earlier seasons. Luz and Willow had instantly clicked upon their meeting, but they changed during the course of the show - how does that affects their relationship? Maybe dig deeper into how Willow feels about lumity. They all also feel very responsible for things going wrong, so why not develop that bond?

Instead the show feels outright dismissive of their dynamic by season 2, and then the fandom treats that as an excuse to be like 'oh, their relationship is just cute friendship, so the show could not do anything interesting with it and had to focus on their 'complicated' relationships with white characters' (but curious how even Gus&Willow's relationship with Eda that was present through s1 was never developed even after they were trying to save her, while she got to mentor the Blight twins).

And others had noted how the show needs to involve a white person into most of the romantic relationships, but it feels like the same is true with most of the deeper platonic relationships as well. And, ok, i think another part of the problem is just the writing style and that at times toh seems to really weasel out of the conflict between the core characters, but Amity and Hunter have so much more serious interactions with Luz. And problems with sidelining Gus and then Willow started long before the shortening.

But the show also downplays even the friendship between Willow and Gus: Gus has no real involvement in Understanding Willow - as i've already complained about, and in Glass Ruins Willow's injury is just mentioned in the opening and is never brought up again.

It is so frustrating because this drags the whole show down for me. Obviously the clear prioritizing of the white characters over Willow and Gus, but also just from the technical writing stand point the arcs end up very unbalanced and sometimes the writing choices to remove Gus and Willow out of the picture are just plainly lazy. If Gus and Willow and their friendship with Luz were treated with the same importance - even if after the shortening it was just a moment here or there - it would remove like half of my complaints about the show.

[sleepingdeath-light]

first time dating a guy hcs ; hunter

requested by ; anonymous (11/04/23)

fandom(s) ; the owl house

fandom masterlist(s) ; main | hunter only

character(s) ; hunter wittebane

outline ; “Hi, How are Doing? The Owl House Finale has got me MESS UP, to say the least. I was wondering if you could do a Hunter x Reader, where its Hunters first time dating a guy. It Can be SFW, NSFW or both, I am completely fine with whatever you choose. I'm new to tumblr so if I did anything wrong then I'm incredibly sorry. Have a Wonderful day!!”

warning(s) ; none, just fluff!

hunter in general has basically no experience with relationships, which goes tenfold when it comes to relationships with men because he gets a bit too flustered to properly flirt with them

uses ‘partner’ and ‘boyfriend’ interchangeably in private but turns red if anyone calls you his boyfriend first — not in a bad way he’s just very easy to fluster when it comes to romance

enjoys casual pda like handholding and kissing the back of your hand whilst holding it — but if you kiss his cheek or cuddle against him then he’s going to turn pink and lose his ability to speak

his main pet names for you are ‘handsome’, ‘pretty boy’ and ‘babe’ — used interchangeably depending on his mood

he ends up spending a lot of time around willow’s house to seek guidance/advice from her, as his friend, and her dads, as an older and very much so in love gay couple

makes a point to tell you he loves you when you wake up and before you go to sleep — whether that’s in person or over text

loves it when you visit the workshop and you’re 100% waffle’s favourite person

del and darius call you ‘son’ for different reasons but it’s the same vibe — del because you’re always around and that’s just what he calls young lads, and darius because you’re basically his son in law in all but name

hunter loses the capacity to speak if you smile at him because he thinks you look so very handsome and it makes him forget whatever he was trying to say

very protective of you and won’t tolerate any negative treatment or judgement from others

his friends lovingly rib him about how whipped he is and amity and luz in particular will make jokes about you being his ‘awesome boyfriend’ to parallel their own dynamic

but don’t misunderstand they all love you to bits, they just also love making fun of your boyfriend

[found-family-tournament]

Found Family Tournament Round 1 Part 8 Group 39

Propaganda and further pictures under the cut

Shazamily: Billy Batson, Freddy Freeman, Mary Bromfield, Darla Dudley, Pedro Peña, Eugene Choi, Rosa & Victor Vasquez

Clawthorne-Nocedas: Luz Noceda, Hunter Noceda, Camila Noceda, Eda Clawthorne, Lilith Clawthorne, Raine Whispers, Gus, Amity, WIllow, Vee, King Clawthorne, Hooty, Owlbert & Stringbean

Mods note: Jesus christ. I got at least 6 different versions for the owl house fam. I've just choosen the one that includes the most people now. If you disagree, feel free to tell me.

Submissions are still open!

Shazamily:

They're a big foster family who all love each other SO so much, and Billy's arc from "you are not my family" to embracing them as his siblings and parents is THE best arc ever in a superhero movie

Clawthorne-Nocedas:

Camila has one daughter. Daughter wanders into Demon Realm and is immediately replaced by a shapeshifter who wants a safe haven. Shapeshifter is revealed and Camila loves her and lets her be herself. Daughter returns from the Demon Realm with four traumatized teenagers. This single mother tries to understand their culture, and keeps them under her roof and never asks anything of them except to pitch in around the house. Embraces them and loves them, despite the strain on her wallet. And helps her OG daughter embrace her deepest desire and become a witch.

So freaking adorable

I fucking love Luz and hunters sibling dynamic, they’re all so silly and precious and they make me want to cry, Eda and Camila are both such mother figures for Luz and I just BCHSJSHSIDHDUOSNDHD

unapologetically weird

one of them is literally a living house and he's possibly the funniest being alive

gay af, neurodivergent af, and as culturally diverse as it gets

character styles are adorable

actual exploration and resolution for daddy issues, alcoholism, etc

illegal activity encouraged, they're one step from being communist revolutionaries and literally would/do commit arson for each other

fantastic character development in learning how to take care of each other

perfect balance of "cool parent" vs "unfit parent" slippery slope (there may be gambling

exploration of found family within bio family and how those relationships evolve

ALEX HIRSCH DOES ALEX HIRSCH THINGS

massive extended family not fully listed here

THEY HAVE MERCH (both in universe and irl)

they don't try to do too much or be too perfect. They're all traumatized people with wild experiences but they're what each other needed at the time -did I mention they're super cute

THEYRE MISFITS. WEIRDOS. WHO HAVE TO STICK TOGETHER.

They are super cute and have all gone through enough trauma and deserve to just live their lives in peace.

saved the world with the found familyness

[crimeronan]

Would AU Amity who i’m guessing actually does care (a lil) about Hunter be worried about Willow telling both Luz and Hunter the truthTM? Being a jackass is standard procedure at the castle, Luz is too nice and would find a way to understand why Amity bullied Willow, while Hunter would use it endlessly against Amity in their typical I hate you but not fashion. I’m reallllyyyy interested in Amity’s feelings though. As much as she’s like idc this is solo business she’d probably feel *something* and maybe a tad afraid Luz and Hunter might see her differently? Idk, what do you think?

oh, i think amity is going to be TERRIFIED having willow in the castle. she's not afraid Of willow, but she's definitely afraid of what willow being here will mean for her reputation. especially since both hunter and luz seem to like her so much.

the part of amity that's still sorting everything into rankings and power dynamics is like "wow, how awful and ironic would it be if willow ends up outranking me just because of our petty rivalry from high school??"

and the part of her that feels like shit all the time is like "oh wow, i'm about to lose hunter AND luz forever when they were barely even my friends in the first place."

[edalynn]

Idk if I've already said this before, but H/L is like- if you look at just the surface-level concept of it, it seems fine and like it could possibly be good rep.

Interracial bi x pan couple with a plus size girl, where she's powerful and her bf is magicless, and he's genuinely amazed by her power and doesn't feel emasculated by it? That sounds cute.

But the second you actually zoom in and look at their *canon* personalities and dynamic, it doesn't work.

There's no chemistry between them, and their dynamic hadn't gotten any development since the episode where they met (half a season ago) until FtF decided to be bad fanfiction made canon and pretended like their relationship is developed enough to justify giving nods to the ship (which led to a lot of fans considering it canon), despite it getting no focus at all until then.

Plus neither of their orientations are actually shown in the writing the way Luz and Eda's are, defeating that representation point. With Hunter there's at least that one blink-and-you'll-miss-it flag (which is not good rep, sorry, at least have him wear it for a good chunk of the episode like Luz did), but with Willow there's literally nothing indicating orientation.

And the ship took away screen time from more important things that could've been focused on, like showing more of Hunter's dynamic with Luz and Camila, or having Amity be the one to reassure Willow during her breakdown, since she started the "half a witch" nickname, and it would've been much more fitting and meaningful for *her* to be the one to end it. Or it could've been Gus! He's been Willow's friend for years, much longer than the others, and I just don't buy that Hunter developed a more deep and meaningful relationship with her over a couple months than Gus had over years. (Or it could've been both Amity *and* Gus)

Plus there's everything you've talked about with how the foundation of this relationship isn't healthy, particularly in the common interpretation of it as something that happened during seasons 2 & 3 and not during the timeskip.

[I mention the surface-level ideas (interracial bi x pan ship with a plus size girl, magicless x powerful, etc) in part because I realized I have a pair in my original stuff that fits the surface-level descriptors, but their personalities are different, and I'm aiming to have them actually have chemistry. It works better at least in part because it's *my* idea and not something other people shoved into my world that I had no intention of writing. The pair is even technically "straight passing", though the girl is a transfem enby (they/she). They're also both in their late 20s/early 30s, so they're not teens]

It really does sound great barebones until you realize Willow has barely spoken to Hunter more than a few times, Hunter has been out of character flustered around her for no reason in really weird and out of place scenes, and Willow hasn’t showed any interest in a relationship with anyone the entire season, always making a point to focus on her own self-growth rather than looking for outside affirmation. For hunt//low to be even worthy of being considered a well-written and developed ship, the characters’ relationship to each other would have had to been actually developed lmao. There’s no background to the entire plot of FtF between the two of them other than being sort of friends for the last few episodes. They barely know each other, and with how badly Hunter is still shown to have PTSD and trauma from his very recent past it makes it very OOC for any of FtF to happen the way it did.

And unfortunately, you’re right about the lack of representation from them. Okay, you can say as much as you want that Hunter is bi rep and Willow is pan rep, but unless it’s actually shown in the show it doesn’t mean fuck all. Okay, Hunter has a patch. That’s it. Willow doesn’t even show interest in a romantic relationship the entire length of the series, so I’d even be more inclined to call that an implication of her being aroace if I really wanted to be a stickler about it. Our two canon relationships, lumity and raeda, have both Luz showing interest in guy and girls as well as Eda showing interest in guys while having been in a relationship with a nonbinary person in the past (and currently, now). That’s what representation is- it being shown in the actual piece of media rather than tacked on as trivia after the fact. Plus, Dana literally said that everything she said after the show ended was her headcanon and should only be taken as headcanon and not canon as the media technically doesn’t even belong to her anymore 🙃 She said that unless it is explicitly stated in the show, it is not actually canon, and unless I’m losing my mind hunt//low was never canonized in the show before, during, or even after the series :-) If you want to believe their orientations are canon, then fine. But that imo shows poorly on TOH for not actually showing them as representation and barely sneaking in one patch for Hunter in a half a second scene.

And the fact that their bullshit scenes in FtF take up time where we could’ve gotten more plot related content will never stop pissing me off. I hadn’t thought about the concept of Amity helping Willow, but now that you’ve brought it up I actually think that would’ve made the conclusions to Willow’s arc far more satisfying and meaningful. Amity and Willow rebuilding their friendship has always had way more of an impact on the story than Hunter and Willow’s “friendship” “developing”. In fact, I’d consider it a MAJOR point in her arc, something that colors her character’s place in the story and what helps her to overcome part of her struggles even. There was no reason to waste that space on Hunter, and would’ve got rid of the dumb, uncomfortably written Boscha mess with Amity. And in doing that, they could’ve used that time to wrap up Hunter’s arc in any sense, rather than tabling his entire storyline to be Willow’s savior. They should’ve scrapped any Hunter and Willow storyline out of the third season all together, being as they clearly didn’t have the proper time to develop it in any way other than coming off as bad fanfiction written by a 12 year old.

The concept for the relationship really is a good and interesting one, but the story of TOH clearly wasn’t built for that to work and any nods to it came off as a toddler trying to shove a square block into a round hole. Your original work already sounds far more developed and well rounded just from a few sentences in comparison to an entire ask-long essay about hunt//low’s actual scenes/interactions in the show. And the worst part is, they’d have to tweak Willow’s entire personality to get it to work.

[milkywaydrinker]

(Again, don't hesitate to tell me to stop if it's annoying you; I can always make my own sideblog to rant if I really need to.)

Your point on OK KO compared to Amphibia reminds me... I've never liked the claim that if TOH season 3 had more episodes, people would complain about the earth segment as much as they did Amphibia's. Because there's a very clear difference between the two.

For starters, despite its shortening TOH actually made room to acknowledge the emotional fallout of season 2. We got to see Luz struggle and cope, we saw how the other kids missed their families, there was still moments of legitimate seriousness and acknowledgement for what happened. Luz's repression was treated as an actual problem, and not a convenient excuse for the writers.

I think people would be way less critical of Amphibia 3A's slice of life aspects if it managed to at least acknowledge the darker parts. Before 3A, I absolutely expected the show to go back to some goofy antics because that's just how Amphibia works, and the season 3 intro made that clear; But I expected for the writers to at least transition us into that tonal shift, by giving us an episode for the characters to cope and reflect before they have fun fillers as a much-needed break.

The problem with Amphibia is that there is no transition; 3A picks up mere seconds after True Colors, and the tone has notably been shifted to something jarringly casual without any explanation for that change. There's a joke where Anne shows more emotion towards wi-fi than her closest childhood friend getting stabbed. And in spite of everyone insisting 3B would deliver on the much-needed angst and acknowledgement, Anne magically forgives Sasha for no reason, and continues to show no lack of concern for Marcy (in addition to 3B continuing the goofy antics until the last minute... We did NOT need Sprivy, nor for the lore episode about the prophecy to be taken up by a gross-out sequence).

If TOH's earth segment wasn't compressed, it's clear that we still would've gotten acknowledgement for the characters' trauma and some slice of life. Amphibia has a full third season and can only do the latter. Plus, your point on Ronaldo from SU brings up another difference;

People actually like Luz's friends. People are actually interested in seeing them interact, seeing them adjust to and explore the human world. The human world was a formative experience for Luz and essentially her backstory, whereas with Anne, it's mostly Sasha and Marcy, who are back in Amphibia. Luz's friends are side characters and yet are treated with so much more emotional depth, consistency, and weight than the Plantars; They're much more dynamic.

After the successive trauma of 2B, seeing these kids decompress actually feels earned; People wanted to explore their interactions with each other, various storylines! Luz and Vee being sisters, Hunter getting to be an actual kid after having been a child soldier all his life... Gus' reaction to the human world, given it's such a big deal to his character, or Amity and Willow rebuilding their friendship! The writers would've given us Vee and Hunter acknowledging their tense connection over the Emperor's Coven, that much was confirmed!

We actually wanted and needed to see these kids explore this new situation. But with the Plantars, we've already had two whole seasons of them doing the same old goofy antics, nobody really cared or was hyped up to see their reaction to the human world. At best there was their interactions with Anne's parents, but that part is brief compared to the rest of 3A. We didn't need to see the Plantars go back to being silly, we needed to see them be treated seriously too! And Anne, for that matter. Coming from someone who actually put in the effort to try and analyze and engage with the Plantars and appreciate them, it feels like the writers neglect fleshing them out as well.

TOH's slice-of-life feels earned and with characters people actually want to explore in different situations and interactions. With Amphibia, we finally began to delve into something more serious, only to immediately back out without any narrative nor in-universe transition to this casual tone. The fallacy that "People would also complain about filler if TOH's season 3 wasn't shortened" is always from Amphibia fans who are trying to defend 3A, and are disgruntled seeing their show compared to TOH, acting like it's a mystery TOH is preferred.

I do have some thoughts on this.

I pretty much agree with what you said. Allow me to go on a little tangent:

With how plot-focused most stories need to be right now due to the shifting format of distribution (the binge model and the generally shortened attention span of an average fandom) many people began treating SoL episodes as filler.

Now, what is filler really? I'm an old-school weeb, so that word always had only one meaning. A non-canon arc, something straying from the source material because the adaptation caught up.

In the context of something like Amphibia, Steven Universe, or TOH, it would mean an episode that has no bearing on the plot, something you can skip with no consequences to your understanding of the main storyline. By that logic not all SoL episodes are filler, in fact, if they lead to persistent character development, they can be more important to the story than anything else in the show.

The difference between TOH and Amphibia is mostly the quality of character writing. I joked with my friends that if TOH had a full s3 I would gladly watch a Hooty lore episode. I hard agree with the sentiment that TOH SoL episodes would land. They would allow for better pacing, we would get a proper set up for hard hitting emotional moments, a whole episode of lead up to Hunter getting a haircut, loaded with symbolism and his identity crisis. There's a lot to dig into with those characters because they have enough dimension to them to allow every single one to carry an episode if so desired.

With Anne and the Plantars, there's a very limited amount of things you can reasonably do before it gets old. To prevent it, they would actually have to make character development stick. They would have to build upon the lessons learned from previous episodes, they would have to write characters that Think and Grow. There are moments that show some of that, a genuine flash of something really good. There aren't many of them in s3 though. Static characters can work, many sitcoms have a cast of completely static characters that never really substantially grow or change. At some point you need to bite the bullet though, either you have a plot that hinges on substantial character development of your main cast, or you have a silly goofy "put the guys in a situation" show.

I've heard that Disney in fact meddled with the writing of s3. They had to lighten the tone, which is ridiculous when stuff like The Core still happened with a literal electric chair scene. The tonal whiplash is so severe many people expressed feeling as if they were watching two completely different shows. It's a fatal flaw that left neither side of the fandom satisfied.

Some shows feel like you could watch 10 more seasons of the same thing. I would watch endless spinoffs of TOH. I would watch more Adventure Time and I will watch Fiona and Cake spinoff.

I've had quite enough of Amphibia.

[aroacemisha]

I hate how the show metaphorically "defanged" Hunter and Amity once they got redeemed or started on the redemption path

Like you could argue that maybe it was a front but I feel like a lot of their humour and wit was gone in favour of them being clumsy/incompetent and lovesick

N I feel like the fandom ran with this especially with hunter being reduced to an incompetent malewife in fanwork

I don't have much of an issue with Amity tbh, and I think in the show the clumsy and lovesick stuff was mostly in season 2, not so much in season 3, she got used to dating Luz by that point. Maybe the fandom exaggerates it, but I haven't noticed it. She also does keep some of her wit in the show.

But Hunter feels like he's just a completely different person now. He was so fun as the GG in early season 2, and then he was gradually turned into an uwu softie with no edge and that sucks.

And even though so much of his story was about becoming his own person and finding his own identity, he looks a lot like Caleb in the epilogue, and it seems Caleb was into carving as well, he may have even started the Clawthorne family palisman carving tradition- Hunter is more like Caleb now than he was at the start. That's a bad ending.

The clumsy/incompetent and lovesick stuff is really annoying with Hunter- All of the "shippy" stuff with him honestly is, it's forced and unnecessary.

Huntl0w was a thing a few crew members shoved in and were repeatedly told to tone down, the two barely interact, and the entire "buildup" to the "romance" is a bunch of small, barely noticeable blushes from Hunter. I'd call it poorly written, but it isn't even actually written. A bunch of small blushes and other forced "Huntl0w moments" are superficially added on top of a story that doesn't actually build a relationship between them.

(Side note, the ship wasn't even actually confirmed in the show? It gave just enough fan service to shippers, while keeping it ambiguous enough that you don't have to read it as romantic)

Both characters (especially Willow) often get reduced to just the ship and are not allowed to exist outside of it by the fandom, and they tend to be flanderized and/or out of character, probably in part because their actual personalities don't mesh that well together.

A mutual of mine also pointed out that the girlboss/malewife dynamic people try to shove them into is actually kinda icky, given that Hunter just escaped an abuser who he worshiped and submitted to as an authority figure. It just feels like he's replacing one authority figure with another, replicating the dynamic that he's used to and that feels familiar to him.

[nothums-from-tj]

Tag Masterlist (to keep myself organized)

If you’re seeing this when I post it feel free to ignore this is for my pinned post lol

Anything in parentheses is not part of the tag, that’s just to provide context. I will try to regularly update as I remember/make/add more of them (and some I’m putting in bc I plan on adding them soon lol)

CATEGORIES IN ORDER: fandoms, ships, characters/dynamics, other, block

Fandoms

tmnt 1987

tmnt 2003

tmnt 2007

tmnt 2012

rottmnt

tmnt (general; contains all iterations and AUs/designs along with multiple ships or no ships, bounds under this are pretty loose)

animaniacs (‘90s and comics for the most part)

animaniacs 2020 (reboot)

patb (Pinky and The Brain)

sbsp (SpongeBob SquarePants)

pokémon (games and anime)

pokémon bdsp (Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl)

pokémon sword

pokémon sv (Pokémon Scarlet/Violet)

sailor moon

ohshc (Ouran Highschool Host Club)

looney tunes

space jam (original and sequel I think)

space jam 2 (sequel)

tlts (The Looney Tunes Show (2010))

looney tunes cartoons (HBO Max original)

amphibia

toh (The Owl House)

sdway (Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969))

tsds (The Scooby-Doo Show (1976))

the new scooby doo movies

apnsd (A Pup Named Scooby-Doo (1988))

scooby doo zombie island

wnsd (What’s New, Scooby-Doo? (2002))

sdmi (Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated (2010))

bcsd (Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! (2015))

mystery inc (Mystery Incorporated (2021, YouTube live action))

scooby doo (same loose rules under the TMNT tag)

tawog (The Amazing World of Gumball)

barbie 2023 (live action Barbie movie)

opal (Jack Stauber short film)

stranger things (sometimes shortened to ST)

gaobam (The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy)

eene (Ed, Edd, n Eddy)

milo murphy’s law (might be shortened to mml)

moral orel

death note

ppg (Powerpuff Girls)

regular show

Ships (I try not to include most ship content under fandom tags)

rasey (Raph x Casey from TMNT, mostly 2012 and ROTTMNT)

rasey shit (just feels right sometimes)

apritello (Donnie x April from TMNT, I think only 2012 and some ROTTMNT)

leosagi (Leo x Usagi from TMNT, varying different iterations)

brinky (Pinky x Brain from PATB, all media)

da brinky???? (feels right sometimes)

squidbob (Squidward x SpongeBob from SBSP)

squillward (Squilliam x Squidward from SBSP, I think I only have this pairing as exes)

makoami (Ami x Makoto (Mercury x Jupiter) from Sailor Moon, any and all iterations I could find lol)

tamakyo (Tamaki x Kyoya from OHSHC, particular from the anime and live action)

baffy (Bugs x Daffy from Looney Tunes, many different variations)

marcanne (Anne x Marcy from Amphibia)

raeda (Raine x Eda from TOH)

lumity (Luz x Amity from TOH)

huntlow (Hunter x Willow from TOH)

blinkley (Daphne Blake x Velma Dinkley from Scooby-Doo, many different iterations)

velmarcie (Velma x Marcie from SDMI)

fraggy (Fred x Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, many different iterations)

shed (same ship as prior, I try to use both)

fraphne (Fred x Daphne from Scooby-Doo, there isn’t and won’t be much of this admittedly)

poly doo (Velma, Daphne, Fred, and Shaggy all dating or included in the polycule, will have varying different looks/ideas)

robball (Rob x Gumball from TAWOG)

byler (Mike x Will from ST)

ronance (Robin x Nancy from ST)

steddie (Steve x Eddie from ST)

elmax (Max x Eleven/Jane from ST)

lumax (Max x Lucas from ST)

jopper (Joyce x Hopper from ST)

jargyle (Argyle x Jonathan from ST)

jancy (Jonathan x Nancy from ST)

billy x mandy (from GAOBAM)

kevedd (Kevin x Edd “Double D” from EEnE)

t4t kevedd (same ship as prior, except they’re both trans)

dakavendish (Vinnie Dakota x Balthazar Cavendish from Milo Murphy’s Law)

puppingframe (Clay Puppington x Danielle Stopframe from Moral Orel)

lawlight (L x Light from Death Note—yes I understand how morally grey the relationship is, I try to be very critical of them)

💥🌼 (Boomer x Buttercup from PPG)

🔪🌱 (Butch x Blossom from PPG)

🧱🫧 (Brick x Bubbles from PPG)

(Separately, you can still find “Boomercup”, “Blossutch”, and “Brickubbles” tags on my blog just know it’ll mostly be stuff I make rather than reblogged stuff to cross tag)

mordeson (Benson x Mordecai from Regular Show—please don’t come at me I have multiple ideas that balance them out)

Characters/Dynamics (have posts about them individually)

tmnt raphael

2012 raph

2012 raphael (I interchange them, I’ll switch it up soon)

rottmnt raphael

trans fem raphael

tmnt leo

2012 leo

rottmnt leo

trans fem leo

tmnt donatello

2012 donnie

rottmnt donatello

trans fem donnie

tmnt mikey

april o’neil

casey jones

rottmnt casey jr

yakko warner

wakko warner

dot warner

warner sibs

brain patb

pinky patb

squidward

spongebob

ami mizuno

tamaki suoh

kyoya ootori

bugs bunny

daffy duck

anne boonchuy

marcy wu

sasha waybright

sprig plantar

hop pop plantar

grime

eda the owl lady

raine whispers

king clawthorne

lilith clawthorne

luz noceda

noceda siblings

blight twins

amity blight

velma dinkley

daphne blake

fred jones

marcie fleach

gumball watterson

darwin watterson

watterson sibs

opal

will byers

el hopper

steve harrington

robin buckley

scoops troop (Robin and Steve, sometimes with Dustin and Erica)

double d eene

trans girl double d

kevin eene

trans kevin

clay puppington

orel puppington

blossom utonium

bubbles utonium

buttercup utonium

brick jojo

boomer jojo

butch jojo

benson dunwoody

Other

tj talks (my own text posts or responding to them in a reblog)

tj shares (my own fandom related posts)

tj writes (writing projects and plans)

tj draws (my own art)

texts (all non-fandom related reblogs that I didn’t add to, save for the tags)

reblog (specifically for posts I’ve already reblogged or made that I or others have edited or bumped)

prompts (writing and drawing prompts I want to use at some point in time

fanfic wingmen (a TMNT multi-chapter work I wrote, you can find updates and all those parts there)

sd celeb au (a Scooby-Doo AU I have in the making right now, all prompts and ideas and the eventual fic will be under this tag feel free to ask me abt it)

tbmg (multi-chapter Boomercup fic, any prompts/ideas/chapter updates for it are under this tag)

fppg au (fostered Powerpuff Girls/foster care AU—no powers, not bio siblings)

palestine (resources, information, donations, and other things related to helping out Palestine during the attacks!)

polls (any polls I make and most I find bc I love that feature sm)

asks (answering any asks I receive WHICH are always open feel free to talk to me <3)

ask meme (please ask me questions from these posts)

writing help (pleaaase please give me feedback whatever’s tagged as such as long as you’re polite abt it)

writing (more just discussing plans than actually putting them out, or other people’s fandom-less written works)

art (other people’s general art work)

playlists (typically for characters or moods, I doubt I’ll share many of them)

discord server (advertising any servers I make though unfortunately I’m not the best at interacting in them)

crush (my yearning for a boy, if/when I get over it I’ll go back in and delete the posts)

info (learning from people with experiences or for me to fact check later)

art fight (Art Fight attacks and team intro cards)

what a fucking ride (absolutely insane posts, usually with many twists and turns)

trans resources (lists of articles and videos for myself and my trans siblings early/pre-transition!)

tag meme (games I’ve been tagged in to join that you’re also free to participate in!!)

nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month—participating for the first time in 2023; these are tips I may need and potentially any writing projects during that time :])

trans (transgender tingz)

itt (reblogs specifically from user inthetags where questions they post are answered, well, in the tags; it’s basically a little trivia of me if anyone’s interested at all)

Block (trigger/content warnings and spoilers)

drug cw

tw eating issues

sdmi spoilers (please block this tag if you’re interested in seeing the series, yes there is a plot and it gets so dark and so heavy dude don’t spoil it for yourself)

toh spoilers

amphibia spoilers

sa mention

suggestive cw

nsfw warning

blood

f slur tw

tw sex mention

tw abuse mention

tw sui ideation

slight gore warning

mml spoilers

regular show spoilers

[mdhwrites]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Huntl0w isn't good and that's why

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[sepublic]

The vocals at this part, and the music in general, really just hammer into me this sense of melancholy. That bittersweet nostalgia for the past, the pain and grief of change, everything you’ve lost and the hurt that is even more permanent... But also the bright hope for the future, that feeling of belonging that creates this homesickness. Seeing Luz grown up, part of it does feel like a return to form for her, a recovery from her trauma and the attempts to bury who she was.

But then seeing Willow start off our montage of how the Boiling Isles changed, seeing her and Hunter together and be so radically different and apart when they started... It really hits me then that it’s been years and my kids have all grown up. It’s been so much longer than the actual events of the show prior to the timeskip, multiple ‘Owl House’ stories just as dynamic could’ve happened since, several times over. And with Willow especially, she’s such a drastic step up from the meek wallflower and nerd she started as, it... It’s making me miss the old her, while also being so proud at who she’s become. Her, Hunter, Lilith, Amity, Gus... All of them.

And it all begins again with Owlbert, like we’re going through the show all over again, but reborn anew with another potential adventure ahead of us! God, Owlbert really ties it together and seeing him soar freely alongside Willow, while the light lullaby creates a sense of hopeful wonder and flight, creates an indescribable feeling...! The direction, the soundtrack, the cinematography and animation flow so well together, kudos to the team for that. It really does feel magical.

[numericalbridge]

TOH rewatch semi-liveblog. Season 1 part 2

episodes 6-10

Episode 6

- Why is the opening theme such an earworm.

- 'dangerous nomads' ugh

- curious about the special moon powers and how they fit with the rest of the lore.

- Willow is yet again so good!

- Wh... what? Here is Eda, carelessly saying how she would never trust Luz again if Luz messes up and causing Luz stress, even after what happened in episode 2?

And then Eda even 'threatens' Luz - who even closes her eyes in the end - and Willow and Gus have to intervene, but it turns out Eda just wanted them to clean up the house? But, sure, Darius is the evil/stupid/irresponsible one.

And I am sure everyone in the fandom was obsessed with making Eda disproportionally guilty over this behaviour and twisted her whole character to be about it... right? Like, everyone was screaming how Camila would find out about Eda's behavior and hate her? And everyone was writing out their 'funny' fantasies about slapping and beating Eda up? What, no? Everyone declared Eda the best mom and thought she was better than Camila? And jokes about her irresponcibility and mistakes were good-natured and sympathetic? Weird...

(Sorry, i don't want to rag on Eda too much, but the racist double standarts are so, so obvious. Both in how Darius is treated vs Eda, but also how Luz is treated vs Hunter)

Episode 7

- The Bat Queen is the richest demon on the isles? Another thing i've forgotten completely. I kinda assumed she was a weird half-legendary hermit.

- Yeah, to be honest i don't care about Amity's siblings. Actually i think the Blight family should've been just Amity and one of her parents.

- I do dislike the switch in regards of Amity from previous episodes to this one. My problem is not that we see a different side of her or that Luz wants to befriend her after the Convention, but that Willow just doesn't seem to factor in any of this episode's events, and the episode is pushing this 'Amity just doesn't know how to interact with others without being cold because she can't show weakness' - which might be true in general and in regards of Luz, but doesn't work with how she treated Willow in previous episodes especially from Luz's point of view.

And so the switch between Luz calling Amity out in the previous episodes to simply declaring Amity her rival in this one, as if that's the only problem with Amity's behavior, is odd. If any of that was actually intentional and was adressed and there was an equal focus on Luz and Willow's relationship, then this could've been interesting to explore, but if not then they should've changed that first interaction between Amity and Willow. Or, idk, just put some mentions of Amity and Luz's relationships with Willow in the episode.

Because no, i don't think the audience has to be spoonfed and Amity being multifaceted is not the problem, but the show is not that subtle most of the times and this shift seems more unfocused than deliberate; and Luz wanting to make Willow and Amity friends again is also not a problem and makes sense for her character (more about it in Understanding Willow liveblog), but the pacing of the character arcs seem weird and inconsistent/unfocused, and Luz constantly ends up having less meaningful interactions with Willow and Gus compared to the white characters.

-Oh, but you might ask, why do you, numericalbridge, say you excuse Eda and Darius, but not Amity's writing? Well, first i don't think you can ignore the racial dynamics here. Second, Eda is one of the main characters, and we see her in various situations and so we can conclude that, for example, the moment from episode 4 where she 'threatens' King is more of unthoughtful writing choice than anything meant to be revealing about her character. And with Darius it's the opposite - he is not a main character, so his and Hunter's development happening off-screen is much more acceptable, and if you ignore the things that the fandom straight up invents about Darius the storyline is actually pretty streamlined. But Amity and Willow end up somewhere in between, where they are supposed to be core characters, and yet the storyline is neither here nor there, neither simple nor fully developed, and Willow is the one who gets the short end of the stick.

- And the thing is Amity has so much more focus in the first season but then gets less and less and then her arc ends up completed by the end of season 2 earlier than arcs of other main characters (except Gus who just barely has anything😠), and in season 3 Amity doesn't have much to do, but if her and Willow's relationship and the rekindling of their friendship got more even development from early on, then Amity could've been more deeply connected to Willow's arc in season 3 and it would've benefitted them both.

- And the easiest solution to my problem with Amity's arc would be to make the expulsion episode in season 2 about all of the hexsquad rather than only about lumity, and have Amity call out her parents - or just Alador if she isn't ready to call out Odalia - in regards of their treatment of Willow.

- Amity calling Luz a bully is sure a thing

- The rabbit thing serving as a parallel to Amity would've been great if the show was better about Willow and more consistent about Amity.

- I think it might've been better if Understanding Willow was an earlier episode and then this episode happened after, with prior glimpses of Amity trying to befriend Willow and Gus and being awkward about it.

- I think this is the moment where the show starts to drag, and introduces more unfortunate designs as well.

Episode 8

- This episode is so stupid, but the hints at Eda and Lilith's relationship and backstory are good.

- Luz is again very inventive with the idea to light the sign up! She just doesn't think through the more pragmatic parts because she is an excitable teenager.

- Eda is so silly with the body swap idea and the decision is also soooo abrupt, it's almost like something out of season 2b when they were running out of time. I still wouldn't call it the worst episode.

Episode 9

- The first Gus episode! Luz and Gus are so funny together, and it's such a shame how they are barely allowed to interact with each other afterwards. Because Gus is the one with the experience of feeling tricked! He probably was traumatized by what he saw in Belos's mind too! Ahhh😠

- Again, love that Eda is allowed to be angry about school.

- Matt is so manipulative and funny, lol.

- Interesting that Willow is the responsible one in this episode, but overall at this point in the show she doesn't tend to assume the group leader position yet.

- "No one gets left behind" - except all the other students in the detention pit?

Episode 10

-Missed opportunity to have some deeper interactions between Luz, Willow and Gus.

- The Bat Queen's plot would've been so good if not the design choice. Can't believe Hunter's fandom manages to demonize even her in the AUs

- "Yeah, results of Eda's great parental skill" says my note, but i can't remember what this refers too.

----

Conclusion:

This is where the show kinda starts to drag down, and the inability to balance the cast and character arcs becomes obvious. Shame, because Eda and Lilith, Luz and King, and Luz and Willow and Gus - when they are not just there for comedic scenes - are all excellent character dynamics.

[rocksandmirrors]

When people say luz is a lesbian

SHE IS A BISEXUAL ICON AND LITERALLY WEARS A BI PIN IN THANKS TO THEM

SHE HAS SHOWN INTERESTS IN MEN AND WOMEN

PEOPLE STOP ERASING HER ATTRACTION TO MEN JUST BECAUSE SHES DATING A GIRL

SHES STILL BISEXUAL

(This is NOT lumity salt. I love them.)

Also when people say huntlow was rushed and forced as if Hunter didn’t blush in the first episode they met and they don’t have lumity parallels and as if the show wasn’t cut short

oh yeah that shit's infuriating. the crew didn't include a coming-out scene (albeit short) for ppl to claim Luz is a lesbian like 😬 have some respect for bisexual folks (i've never seen anyone do this yet tho, guess i'm lucky lol)

btw this is not to say lesbian hcs are bad, i love my lesbians and bi pals equally. but not only do we already have a canon lesbian (Amity) there are plenty of characters you can headcanon as well (Viney, Emira, Skara, Boscha, etc. hell i even saw ppl giving this hc to Raine)

as for Huntlow, i can kiiiind of see why ppl would be upset, but for the bad reasons imo. first of all you're right, the show has been shortened and Huntlow, despite being in the works since day one, suffered from this, so it's not the crew's fault who did an amazing job at making it canon (btw remember that post i made like 'uuuh i hope Huntlow will stay open for interpretation blabla'?? yeah fuck that, it was stupid)

second of all, i've seen complaints about how they didn't get as much screentime as Lumity, and that's dumb for 2 reasons. not only did Hunter meet Willow during season 2B (you know, when the show suddenly got shortened) and Lumity had time to develop throughout season 1 and season 2A, but Luz is the main character. like it or not, it makes sense for her romance to be more developed and have more screentime than Willow's

you can dislike Huntlow ofc, but at least be coherent, or just be honest and say you just don't seen them together/prefer different dynamics for them

sorry for the sudden rant lol but i get your grips bestie </3

[lollytea]

(I loved your ask so much I promise I'll get to it soon so please have this in return)

Darius approves of Willow because she reminds him of himself when he was that age, meanwhile Hunter is so offended on Willow's behalf that Darius thinks that because he's only ever known Darius as a rude adult

Like Darius hears some Willow story and thinks about how he used to be similar as a 15-16yo, and in that embarrassing dad supportive way says something like "That means she's a catch, don't fuck it up kid"

To which Hunter is like "excuse you, WILLOW doesn't skip meetings or sass everything everyone suggests, and she likes my fashion style!"

No but I've been thinking SO HARD about the potential ways that Darius could see his younger self in Willow. Obviously they're both very ✨️❗️💪👑 but I wonder if all that is coming from a similar place.

Like Willow has all this radiant self confidence and bravado, which we know is something that she built for herself rather than something she was born with. What if Darius went through a few similar sequences in his youth that made him into the person that he is today.

What if he was a shy insecure kid at one point? What if there were others who made him feel small? He's known to have been friends with the likes of Odalia, who can't have been the most uplifting presence.

There's also the possibility that Willow's bond with Luz has a link to Darius and the friendship he apparently struck up with the likes of Eda, Raine, Perry and Lilith after the events of TTBK. With both being the driving force of their character development. They've always been very strong powerhouse witches but here are friendships that are a turning point. Luz and Eda & co. are the people who made Willow and Darius truly start to believe in themselves.

And then of course, there's both of their respective bonds with a Golden Guard, which I WILL opt to claim as a parallel. Because, at the point they met their GGs, Darius and Willow were already thriving. They were strong, tough, flashy, they were doing GREAT. But then Some Guy came along and still managed to change everything for the better. And though both of the dynamics were extremely different, (Willow's being romantic and Darius's being a mentor and mentee/possibly on the familial side) they both led these kids in the same general direction. They were doing good but these nerdy blondies helped them become the best possible version of themselves.

That's the version of them I think we're seeing in the Dana art. They're both at similar points in their lives. They have their friends, they have their grimwalker, they've got all this new stuff started and they're excited to see where it all goes. They have everything they could possibly want.

The irony here is that at this point, the worst is behind Willow. But for Darius, the worst is on the horizon.

Also, though the timelines don't perfectly parallel as Willow was only little and Darius was likely in his late teens, they both severed a tie with a Blight kid that stuck with them for years afterwards.

Though Darius's circumstances were probably WAY different than Willow's, (Darius had no problem expressing his resentment to Alador's face, while Willow didn't have the guts to say the same things to Amity) I can't help but wonder if that might have something to do with Dana's parallel. Maybe, like the Willow and Amity situation, the split between himself and Alador impacted how Darius developed.

(Although, Willow and Amity were a duo and when they broke up, it was just between the two of them. But when it came to the other situation, it's implied in Reaching Out that Alador did not just abandon Darius. He abandoned all of his friends. But Darius obviously took it the most personally.)

But as an interesting contrast, the split made Willow, who was already insecure, more vulnerable and shaky than ever. Her character development hadn't really started at this point. Meanwhile Darius had already built himself up to the level of confidence Willow possessed in ASIAS. He had grown a lot at this point. But after the falling out with Alador, he just got colder and far less tolerant for dealing with other people.

And let's not even get INTO how the death of his mentor probably turned his already hard exterior into something impenetrable.

Anyway it's interesting. Willow and Darius are both SO confident but the difference between the confidence is obvious. Willow's is so full of exuberance and warmth and encouragement and it inspires others to feel good about themselves. She's been hurt before and now she wants to make sure nobody ever feels like that again.

Meanwhile Darius's confidence has a completely different vibe. He's distant, he's dismissive, he acts superior to everyone around him. Darius is an absolute fortress. He's been hurt before and now he wants to make sure nobody can ever hurt him again.

But in spite of these differences, they're both so good, y'know? Why are these two involved in the Day of Unity in the first place? Obviously I'm not calling other characters selfish (They're absolutely not.) But their motivations definitely have an effect on why they're involved. Luz has to stop the Day of Unity because she believes its her fault. Everything Raine does has led to this because they want to protect Eda, which is a direct result of Eda and the Emperor being linked.

Willow is just a teenage girl who loves her friends. Darius is just a man who wants to keep everyone alive. They have no direct ties to what is going down but they've planted themselves into prominent roles because they believe it's what's right.

There's definitely other characters involved who do this for a similar reason. I'm just mentioning it in regards to these two cuz Darius and Willow's inherent goodness have always stood out as some of their most defining characteristics.

But God yeah it's so funny to think that Darius could clock the similarities between himself and Willow almost immediately. But no matter what angle he looks at it from, it's something Hunter would never possibly be able to understand. And it's like. Look man you just had to be there.

Like Darius recognizes it in Willow's demeanour. The way she holds herself. How she tips her head up so high so she never looks small. These defensive mannerisms that Darius could spot a mile away.

He does learn her story eventually but even before anyone told him, he saw her. Without hearing a word about how Willow got to the point, he knew she had been hurt before.

"Be kind to that girl, Hunter." He'd say after Willow kissed her boyfriend goodbye and departed. Because he knew her feelings to be just as fragile as Hunter's own.

And Hunter, having no fucking idea where THIS was coming from, is like "bitch YOU be kind to her." Because Darius called Willow a menace to society like five minutes ago.

I like to think about their silly antagonistic little relationship and how Darius seems like he's being so insensitive to Willow's feelings but it's like. He knows exactly how to cleverly quip back-and-forth without ever broaching a topic that would actually hurt her. Willow prides herself on being an annoying little shit so Darius assures her that she is just that. It makes her swell with pride. It makes her giggle delightedly. Darius plays along.

But he's been in her shoes. He knows the kind of comments that would actually make her feel small and he expertly tailors their relationship in a way that she knows she's never in danger of being seriously patronized. Not with Darius. I think he's become a lot more mindful of that kind of thing once he realizes just how shitty he used to make Hunter feel. Like he's still a bitch but a more self aware bitch. And he probably still hurts people's feelings every day of his life (some people's feelings simply do not matter. Its fine.) But never Willow's. Willow's feelings are something he understands very well.

But lmao Hunter gets SO MAD about it. Darius will be like "I hope you intend to hold on to that girl."

"I'm trying."

"Wonderul. I know exactly the kind of girl she is. One of the finest witches this Isles will ever know. Trust me on this, she's just like me when I was young."

And Hunter "That's not the Captain" Lastname is like "Don't even joke about that."

"Who's joking?"

"She is NOTHING like you and you can' just go around SAYING she is. She's sweet and cool and pretty--"

"Are you saying I'm not sweet and cool and pretty?"

"You'll never be as pretty as Willow, Darius. Let's be serious."

"I'll have you know I was the bell of Hexside when I was her age."

"You're trying to convince me you were the Willow Park of your day?"

"Hardly. Willow Park is the Me of her day."