#how old are collectors and titans anyway???

[marvelousmagicalaura]

For the Future is bad. Not a bad episode, but bad relative to what it could’ve been. This episode felt like they didn’t know what to omit, so they haphazardly inserted characters and arcs that were supposed to be in the original plot.

I’m baffled as to why they kept romance between Willow or Hunter, or Willow feeling like she must be “the strong one,” or the New Hexside crap. And I definitely didn’t need a conclusion to fucking Kikimora or Boscha! They’re mid! Hexside has always been mid!

I looked at the Collector’s portraits and they’re interesting. It seems like there were multiple Collectors that descended upon the Demon Realm, each one representing different astronomical bodies. Then they warred with the Titans millions of years ago, annihilating the race. Their goal reminds me of Preservation from Mistborn - preserving life through extreme methods such as genocide.

Its interesting lore but it’s a bad idea to include it at this point. After they defeat Belos there are more powerful beings than the Boiling Isles Collector out there.

Camilla is the best part of this episode. Cartoon mother of the century. I’m really disappointed that screentime wasn’t used to develop Belos. I feel like if it was, Dana and her team could’ve delved into the religious implications behind Belos’ character. Plus, he clearly loved Caleb at some point. I like to think he felt SOME guilt over killing Caleb. Which brings us to the Grimwalkers because wow… There were so many Grimwalkers. Such a shame we barely know anything about the Golden Guards.

My fears came true. The Collector is being portrayed as a lonely kid. Which makes some sense, but he lacks the teeth presented in Season 2. Season 2 portrayed him as lonely and gullible, but he reveled in death and understand the consequences of Belos’ actions. Then again… he was inconsistent even in S2. He was an extremely smart magic user, but acted stupid the moment he learned King is a Titan.

[sepublic]

TL;DR at the bottom... Even before the decision to include the Collector, I have to wonder if the writers always intended the backstory of a great war between the Titans and a group of celestial beings that descended from above, who smote each other and left only King behind as the survivor. The Season 1 finale alludes to other Titan corpses, with the Boiling Isles being the only fully intact one discovered; So there’s already that implicit question of What killed the Titans?

Likewise, there’s the angelic imagery surrounding Belos, that we also see introduced in S1. And while this could just be a reference to actual Christianity in-universe, I do recall speculating there having been a war between the Titans and divine beings from above during that time in response to this... Not to mention!

The Elsewhere and Elsewhen storyboards have Philip seeking a Song of Stars instead of the Collector, and we know there originally would’ve been three figures that cornered the Owl Beast in Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door’s storyboards. Sounds like...

I’ve speculated on these three as a motif since S1, with their first appearance being in Young Blood, Old Souls, where we first learned of the other Titans and their butchered state. Obviously, we must keep in mind that the crew changed the story after writing Eda’s Requiem, in response to the show’s shortening (this was told to them the week after Agony of a Witch aired, production takes a while), so K3oHD and EE’s storyboards may not mean much in regards to the pre-shortening plans.

But storyboards could’ve been written concurrently; They may have always intended an Angels vs Demons war between the Titans and visitors from the stars, that resulted in a mutual extinction. And the Collector and their backstory wasn’t totally made up in response to the shortening, either; Dana said they were a character concept the writers always wanted to explore.

So it could be that the shortening convinced the writers to make the Collector the face/representative of that extinct species, rather than a more conventional Archivist. And/or the Collectors would’ve remained purely posthumous characters in the backstory, the way Caleb and Evelyn are. The Collector was suggested as a kid of this celestial species to flesh them out, only to be truncated into just the trio; But with the shortening, the crew chose to actualize them as the lens through which we learn of their people’s genocide against the Titans, since they had so much fun with their concept.

Even before the show was shortened and the story changed, the writers might’ve always intended for the Titans to have been wiped out in a war against some celestial beings from space. They entertained the idea of a kid of that species, just as King is for the Titans; And when the shortening was announced in Summer 2020, Dana went F it and decided to elevate this cosmic child from the backstory and into the main story for our protagonists to actually deal with. Instead of an adult trio being this species’ representatives, the writers settled for the Collector.

Even if we didn’t get the Collector, that trio may have taken their place anyway. The background of their species’ genocide against the Titans would’ve remained; Philip’s plan would’ve been to use a leftover spell from that war, the Song of Stars, to enact a genocide upon witches as it was used for Titans (he may have mistaken the Collectors for literal angels whose mission he was finishing; Not unlike how he gets people to project divinity onto the Titan).

And since S1, he was always intended to be aware of and inspired by these celestial beings, who may have come in the form of a trio; Hence the Petrification statue, with the Owl Beast scroll as another hint. The curse is also red magic, which I compared to Belos’, and since he learned from the Collector...!

TL;DR I don’t think the Collector’s inclusion in the story changed it that much, since they’re just an extension of lore that was always planned, possibly filling a role originally intended for others of their kind anyhow; And it sounds as if Dana always considered the Collector, and thus might’ve gone through with them even if TOH hadn’t been shortened. Not that it really matters, because I find the Collector a legitimately compelling character in their own right, who in addition to their contributions to the themes, story, and other characters’ arcs, has justified their inclusion.

[void-dude]

Sometines its nice to be silly

Titan Hooty AU

I'm hearing you " that's so silly " well yeah it is! It's me just noticing similarities to the owl beast (which is probably a titan) and making things up along the way! His design will probably change along the way if I got time to even draw more of this. I do have plenty of ideas!

Now if you're wondering how I puzzled this together:

We don't know what he is, how old or even how powerful Hooty is?

His body does not work on normal mortal rules (he takes off his skin?)

I went with the idea that he's cursed and semi trapped by the Collectors/Archivists, so his memory isn't the best and he doesn't really know who he is either

Like here his first reaction to the titan trapper wasn't positive or neutral but kind of unhappy? So I went 'there's just this tiny feeling that makes him feel bad about this guy, because his subconsciousness is still one of a titan' He also had no problem with eating the letter being eaten

There's plenty more but I think I'll share that another time or with drawings, anyways enjoy this mess

[strawberryshortcake1495]

I just realized I like- never introduced my TOH Folklore OC to you guys? Idk why I forgot, but here you go.

This little goober here is Eden. She was the very first human to arrive in the Demon Realm. She lived in an orphanage for the majority of her life until she was 12 years old. The owners of the orphanage were very cruel and unfair, they made the children work while they lounged and drank all day long. One day, Eden grew tired of the abuse and went to a lake to drown herself. She jumped in and assumed this was the end of her life. But the lake she jumped in happened to be a portal to the Demon Realm. She woke up in a cave and was pretty confused on why she wasn’t dead yet. The Collector, who was exploring the Demon Realm, found her and was amazed by her strange features. He carried her up into the air and took her to the Titans, who welcomed her with open arms. From then now, Eden’s life was paradise. She made so many new friends and grew closer to the Collector, becoming their best friend. During this time, she created a mask which replicated a titan’s skull. Eden occasionally wore this mask when she was goofing off with the other baby titans.

But of course, nothing ever lasts forever. The Archivists have learned about the titans and had decided that they needed to be killed immediately. The Titan Trappers began to lure the baby titans to private locations where they’d brutally murder them and steal their skulls, one by one. Unfortunately, Eden was mistaken as one of these baby titans since she was wearing her mask. She followed a Titan Trapper to an empty room where they grabbed her by her hair and began bashing her head against the wall. She took off her mask and was screaming that she wasn’t one of them, but the Titan Trapper killed her anyway because she had already seen too much. This was what began the Archivist and Titan War. The Collector didn’t know what happened to his best friend and tried to bring her back repeatedly, but to no avail.

Papa Titan’s anger and grief then stirred to the Collector, he blamed them of being involved in the murder of his children. Of course, we all know what happened next. Eden was a buried memory in the Collector’s mind, but they never truly forgot her. When they were venting to Luz in Watching and Dreaming, he brought her up for a second, which caused Luz to ask who she was. He then proceeded to explain his history with the titans and how Eden was his only real friend because she never lied to him once in her life. In the In-Between Realm, Luz hesitantly asked about Eden. Papa Titan told her that she was like a daughter to him, and that he loved her so much.

But what happened to Eden? Nobody knows. Maybe she’s out there somewhere. Watching. Waiting. For what? We’ll never know. No matter if she’s a ghost or was just simply erased from existence, she will always haunt the Collector wherever they go.

Also she can say 🚬.

[keithbutgay]

i have so so many questions about hollow mind :OOO

wait so the original intention of the sigils was to straight up just kill them? that seems. unnecessarily elaborate considering the golden guard destroyed their city just fine ;—;

i mean. he needs the palismans right but when he broke one off its staff none of the green stuff came out?

also im guessing at least one of the old golden guards was darius considering luz made a comment about him being sad and i guess hes working with raine now?? maybe???

im guessing the evil belos is the green stuff like. corrupting him or something?? like how the curse is a separate entity in edas head??? it is like. blue tho which is interesting cus the palisman magic is green and his glyph magic is yellow and his general designs are yellow and brown

wait also also we still dont know who made the door if belos didnt like. go back through it?? idk i assume thats like actually a thing thats gonna be answered

is the collector the titan? because they seem to like the coven idea? and theyre kinda the one leading belos i think? at least in this memory

sorry i dont like. have a brain :PP

(this feels kinda hollow knight to me but idk why :P)

so there's a lot i want to say but unfortunately a lot of the answers to your questions are spoilers--- i will try to answer as much as i can though :PP

the intention of the sigils was never to kill them! it was for a different reason that probably would have ended in their death, however. but like. all of those people did die anyway. they just. froze to death. instead of being killed by the sigils.

there's no good explanation for that one unfortunately... i have no idea why the palisman soul didn't come out when he broke it off. my guess is that it's either just like an oversight or that since the soul was already manifested in the palisman soul creature in his mind, it didn't show up in his memories

darius was never a golden guard, however one of the previous golden guards was his mentor. i can talk more about the golden guards once you've finished the episode and i have a lot to say about that so if you want to hear um i guess just let me know there's a lot lot lot of secrets and little things hidden in hollow mind that are so interesting and it's so good to pick apart and all of the pictures are like foreshadowing and interesting little things and just. it's such a good episode---

so the green stuff is actually never explained, but in my mind it's palistrom wood. because he took the souls of so many palismen to keep himself alive, he is slowly being corrupted by the false magic and the inhumanity of it all, and the scar on his face looks like rotten palistrom wood. but the entity overall is made up of all the souls of the palismen he's killed to keep himself alive, cause they're like trapped inside of him since he just kinda like snorted their souls

so i actually don't remember if that's a thing that's explained that well later in the show because like the series got cut short and also i don't remember as much of the later episodes as i'd like but i can talk more about that once you finish the show i'm so sorry--- but no belos did not make the portal

the collector is not the titan! he's just such a silly little guy and i love them so so so so much and i feel bad cause i literally never draw them--- (also he canonically uses he/they pronouns!!! which is amazing i love them so much um don't look them up though because spoilers)

[polyhexian]

hey when you have a sec can you explain some of your logic to me? I admittedly do not think deeply on TOH worldbuilding so maybe I missed something.

you've established Jasper can do 0 magic with Hawk Hunter, which, fair, tho it kinda surprised me cuz I thought Hunter could do some magic with Flapjack? tho now that I've been thinking about it I think it's only his teleport trick and some energy blasts. huh. I mean I guess you could argue that Hunter is just not used to using palisman magic vs artificial magic and thus just hasn't gotten the chance to do much with Flapjack, but...hm. canon really doesn't give us much information on how someone without a bile sac can use magic via palisman and what kinds of magic a palisman would let them use. Stringbean isn't much help here either, we didn't get to see Luz do much with her aside from, again, energy blasts. and the standard flying magical staff ability.

but I don't think Jasper's even flown on Hawk Hunter at all? he uses Hawk Hunter's staff as a melee weapon but otherwise he always seems to run off on foot. what's going on there? is Hawk Hunter okay? is his 300-year-old wound preventing him from doing basic palisman magic? is Jasper just still really disapproving of wild magic?

you've also mentioned Hawk Hunter can't talk - is that connected? he didn't talk to Miles until the very end but I figured that was cuz he and Miles hadn't properly bonded or something. is the poor guy just unable to talk at all at this point?

Yeah, Hawk Hunter can't talk. He's broken. He couldn't fly much back then either and he burned the last bit of magic in him to block that last strike from directly hitting Miles. Ive dropped some staff lore in one of the lament sequels. Palismen staffs channel magic from the witch's bile sac. The artificial staff generates it's own magic. And Grimwalkers are essentially palismen, so a Grimwalker can channel magic directly through the staff. He basically is the staff. Hunter has spent his whole life being taught to use a certain amount of magic for a certain spell. He's been taught to obey a physical limit other people have, but if he kept drawing he COULD get magic indefinitely. He would probably explode or something. Jasper also does not realize this, but he DOES know he can use more magic than regular people- he just thinks he's special. Anyway in addition to the lore in my head, jasper landed in the pit near miles and in contact hawk hunter who is still cracked wood. But then. Like. He's not dead so magic is just passing through like an electrical circuit which kick-starts hawk hunter back up. And hawk hunter doesn't quit. Not again. He lost his first witch and his second witch and last time he just succumbed to his grief. But now there's this guy right here and he can damn well help him. So he does and he forces jasper awake so that he can help himself. They're in the skull itself and that's where the Titans magic is strongest. That's always why the collector is hidden there! Strong Titan magic.

[lampmanliveblogs]

Watching and Dreaming

Seven minutes and seven seconds into the episode we get out title. It feels fitting.

I think I mentioned this in one of the previous season three liveblogs, but I already knew what the secret message hidden in the episode titles was.

Thanks to Them For the Future Watching and Dreaming.

Thanks For Watching

It’s… bittersweet, in a way. I suppose we’re lucky to actually get a finale for the show, and these episodes may be great. But damn it, how much greater could it have been? How much greater could things have been with twenty more adventures? We could have gotten to see the witch kids go on adventures in the Human Realm. We could expand on lore and characters. We could have gotten a solo episode dedicated to Vee in the Human Realm after the others left where she could go on a date with Masha and maybe even telling them the truth goddammit! And who knows, maybe Vee would even end up on an adventure of her own as there was something strange going on in Gravesfield…

Alas, that’s not how things worked out in the end. But for what it’s worth, since the team behind The Owl House thought it appropriate to thank everyone for watching, I want to give my sincere thanks to them for making this wonderful show. Thank you.

Atop the giant Rubik’s cube, Luz finds King still trapped in a nightmare of his own, haunted by the visages of Bill and… um… what was his name, the guy who was like a kindly uncle to King… Turok?Tarak! Tarak, that was his name!

So the real important question we have to ask for episode: are we finally going to get that backstory for the Bat-Queen?

The second most important question we must ask for this episode is this: Is that the real Bill and Tarak, or just fake puppets The Collector conjured up based on some memory they pulled out of King’s mind? Even if The Collector knew about the Titan Trappers, who they were and where they lived (and that’s not a certainty if my theory about the Titan Trappers worshipping not THE Collector, but some other Collector/Collectors is true), I’m not sure he would care to go get them for his collection. It is possible that he read King’s mind, saw Bill & Tarak, zoomed over to Titan Trapper Island, picked them up, and then zoomed back… or that he just created some dolls that look like them.

On her other side, Luz finds Eda, she too trapped in the bad dream, haunted by what I’m gonna assume are the real versions of Gwendolynn, Dell, and Lilith. And in hindsight, the slight weirdness of Lilith having her hair colored black like her old hairstyle, but still cut short like her new one in Eda’s nightmare can be explained by The Collector (or Eda’s mind) just putting a thin layer of illusion on the puppet.

D’aaaaaawwwwwwwww… told y’all the reunion would be a tearjerker.

”…the dog?”

Pfffffft! Not gonna lie, this made me burst out laughing, You can just hear the utter confusion and bewilderment in Philip’s voice (well, I guess it’s actually Raine’s voice, but Philip’s in the driver’s seat… you guys know what I mean).

Anyways, back in the bed space, The Collector’s talking with Philip-posing-as-Raine (or RayRay, as I’m henceforth going to call Possessed!Raine). Rather than immediately trying to convince The Collector to destroy everyone, RayRay convinced them to put everyone in those twisted nightmares to ”make them see the error of their ways.”

(Were I a more learned man, I might be be able to make some connection with religion here. Like, The Collector as God, and these nightmares are like… a warning of hell or something? I dunno.)

However, now that they’ve broken free, The Collector realizes that maybe this wasn’t they’ve best way to go about it if he wanted to be friends with them. Should’ve just made some friendship bracelets, shaking my head. Nah, instead he warped them into a world of hate and war where they were assaulted by everyone they’ve known and loved before.

(Future Lampman here: something I noticed during a rewatch of this scene is RayRay grabbing Francois, and The Collector quickly taking it and putting it back on the little drawer; because King doesn’t like anyone else holding Francois)

[nella16]

His Partner In Eternity | Collector x OC

Ch30: There Now

" Hmm-mmm .. mmm " inside that dark place, there Filos was hanging around himself, his injuries .. kinda left, remaking his lost parts

Although it's a tricky usefulness for his kind

He remembered stuff, those times when the girl's brows wrinkled, in that word, yeah, confusion, that's it, whenever he wasn't in pain from any harm he got in, accidentally or not

He couldn't care, it was that simple, at least for him, telling Chalent to not be in the road, it's just his nature, not hers

Maybe a hole would take time, but it would be worth it

He always told those two to not worry their tiny heads ( ironically ) about him, this old Filos isn't an ant, and even though, repeatedly like this, those worried looks never left him ...

... He's never meant to be anyways, he looked down at his chest, to the core, or what mortals by their understanding would call " a heart "

He tsked, grinning, as he began to move back and forth

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" ... How are you now? " Mullet asked, in an unusual, gentle tone, as he sat on his knees, letting his arms lay on the bed, " I'm fine, really " Estoile raised his eyebrows, smiling at his brother, using that reassuring expression again, putting his hands together like those dead mortals, " I don't even feel it anymore "

Mullet looked down for a bit, coldly frustrated, before his eye got back to the eldest, " hey, Est? "

" Yes? "

He was hesitant for a moment, but eventually spoke up, " before we do anything, don't you think that we .... you, should deal with, this? "

" ..... "

His eyebrows furrowed, strongly wanting to hide his nervousness, as he raised his hands, " what I mean is just, how long can this go on? we do know and understand that you managed to keep it up all this time, but seriously, when will it end? look what that red ant did to you! " that loud tone slipped in " we can just- "

" Shhhhh .. " unnoticed from earlier, Estoile's claw silenced his mouth, with a tone he greatly recognizes, that hard press in the teeth by his tongue before a moment of silent stabbed him

" Don't make me repeat myself, Mullet " he said calmly, calmly ... as he let his hand go away from his brother's face, " we still have Filos, you know that right? or did you forget the council's allegations about him? "

" ... No "

" Furthermore, to enter his home, with us already reached into the rights, an alibi must be there "

" Which we have ... " Mullet looked down, resisting the urge to put a hand on his arm, clinching it

" Good " he smiled, patting Mullet's shoulder, while he sat, then put his hand on his head, " now, please be a dear and get yourself in one, you'll need this in the later days "

Mullet just nodded, saying goodbye then getting out of the room

Estoile looked at the door for awhile, before laying on his back again

He would surely wear something else with sleeves to cover that damaged skin when they go ..

He surely admits, what Chalent did was bold, but unfortunately for her, not enough, it would take much more to cause him a supernova

And not like the little one had enough guts to " reduce " him anyway .. or maybe she wasn't allowed to go that far

Wherever they go, wherever harm that titan can do to him .. something he doesn't want to imagine ..

Collector will always be connected with him soully, all of his siblings are, he can never escape him

Funny thing is, he just said that just to feel better about being away from him, from them

But no matter what he feels, thinks, Collector will always be a part of him, all of them will

He sighed, putting a hand on his head, his fingers going through his hair, closing his eyes

Now ... who else? oh yeah ..

Camael

That winged creature of his, whome the council entrusted him with, an escaper from home with an infant

The same infant he's sure that she would resent him about, but he still did it either way, and the result wasn't surprising, the hurt was already done to him the first time Camael left him

He's not proud of it, it wasn't something he meant to happen

With all sincerity inside him, he'd love to hold her, pull her towards him, her embrace against his, he could just imagine the desire to never let go, to not let that warmth leave him

If only she could've understood ....

Oh, well, everyone has their actions to deal with, and she of course has her own, he doesn't mean to be harsh with her, he doesn't mean to hurt anyone of them, if only they knew who much they mean to him ..

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At another place, at night, Chalent was standing besides a tree, the wind blowing on her hair, her eyes caught on that rose on the ground, just as the same color as her hair

With a chuckle, she remembered back when she went to Filos for advise about how to confess, he suggested a bouget of roses, at the start it seemed, but got a little worried with the bouget's size, and seeing Filos's face, he did it on purpose

Now thinking of it, when she got reformed, Collector said that he thought that color looked pretty on her, then there was a question bumping in her head, like, they were close friends but the feelings wasn't told ye ... oh

She turned around to the Owl House, where everyone was asleep

They were staying for tonight, before leaving tomorrow, and if an alert start, they would be on their side

She hummed to herself, putting a slight smile on her face, pushing her back towards the tree, letting herself going down, until she was laying on the grass, closing her eyes, relaxing under the night's light

It went on like this for awhile, until she fell asleep, peacefully at this night

Spending few minutes in the dark, her mind leaving the place for the unconsciousness

" You can relax, sister "

She opened her eyes, not knowing if the way she opened them was fast or slow, only knowing the golden light of the small entity in front of her

Her hands went down to check the place, she felt something soft, cold and crispy, like mud but cleaner

She was in a dark place, only the ground and that entity revealed to her vision

She looked down at the smaller entity, that form, that voice ... could it be?

Her face let her surprise clear despite the silence, " Alenka ...? "

It moved it's hand to her face, singing, like how she used to be, " with all what we've been through, with all the things we've done, give yourself a chance to go, and I promise you'll success to get through it "

A sad laugh got out of her mouth, letting her eyes back to be closed, as she grabbed that hand

" This life is amazing when you greet it with open arms " it stood up, opening its arms to Chalent, as the letter sighed with a smile, the way she sways her voice, to somehow make it really good to listen to, Alenka told her that it's called " singing "

" I still love you, Chalent " it said, softly, sitting next to her, " we all do, you're one of us "

Wordlessly, she nodded, letting few tears go down, it felt hard to cry about this, she didn't know why, it just felt numbing besides the sadness

" I love you all too .. " she murmured under her breath, wrapping an arm around it, letting her head lean on that horn of its shape, patting its head in between those horns, " ... although some of us didn't get along that much " she thought to herself, the younger ones didn't last that long, and the ones who did were just like shadows, always silent, obedient ... never willing to not prey, always ready for it

Not telling her younger sister was her way to hide the truth about the void that was between the siblings, even if she wanted more than just to exist

Alenka, in Filos's words, is just too bright to exist in that family, to even be near them, which confused her for amount of time, how could she leave with him knowing? maybe he forgot her? didn't know that Alenka was even there? Was he even bothered to? or even there when she was born?

It leaned closer, hugging it was like hugging a teddy bear, comforting, honestly, her siblings didn't last that long .. it was just more than enough to have someone who she can spend time with, even when Filos said Alenka was " limited " for some reason .. she didn't care

" Will you remember me? "

" I would never forget you " saying this, it wrapped its arms around her tightly, which she returned as much

Minutes went away, then, Chalent felt it vanishing, " can I stay with you? "

" Anytime ... "

Opening her eyes, coming back to reality, just to find herself inside the Owl House, laying on bed with a blanket, looking at her side, she found Collector, he was asleep, already having a good sleep she guessed

She looked at him for awhile, her gaze softening

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" So that's it? "

" What do you mean...? "

" I thought you were stronger than that, Chalent ... "

" ..... "

" He didn't even pursue you, he was just there, waiting to catch his prey's attention "

" That's not true-! "

" I'm not reeducating you, sister, choose, go to father, or go up there, you're free to go but, no one expects you coming back alive, or to be shocked from it "

Even with their claimed carelessness, those eyes weren't letting her go, urging to take the " right choice "

In the end, giving them her back, running away, fast, even faster when she heard their steps directed behind her

There was that shouting about how she chose what the stars could offer her over them

At the beginning, upon hearing it, it did hurt, like .. a lot, then later them saying she abandoned them just for Collector, that she hated them, when it was anything but that

" It is what it is, kiddo " Filos used to say " it would hurt, yeah, it's understandable to feel this way, but in the end, being saved is just an option "

Being inside her head for too long, that she didn't notice Collector already have opened his eyes, his expression unreadable

" Oh " a slight moving made her eyes wider for a brief moment, " did ... did you hear all that? "

" Well .. yes " he answered, then silent for a moment, looking at his hands, then at her, his eyebrows moving in a downward and inward direction, " .. I wouldn't have hurt you if you didn't want to be my friend " he surely was upset at that repeated assumption, but didn't want to say it

" It wasn't because of you " she said, her eyebrows did the same " I chose you, but it wasn't like I didn't want them, I loved you, and I loved them, it's just ... " she looked aside, silent for a moment, unaware, their hands rubbed against each other on fingers, " they thought about something wrong .. and none of us could convince them otherwise .. and I couldn't risk .. him hurting you "

Eventually, they were hand in hand, laying there

Now, thinking about it, at the beginning, Collector simply thought they were jerks, but after what happened with Estoile, then his failed attempt with Belos, it kinda made sense to him

Perhaps, they did love Chalent, just like how Estoile was to him, and they couldn't see anything other than what they believed in

Although it's just a possibility, he wouldn't be that sure of it, seeing how they treated her, and how their presence was like that shadow in the bedroom when he sleeps, he couldn't trust them

" Hey " then, he gave her a smile, now whispering while she looked at him curiously, " Let's sleep now, cuz tomorrow, a surprise is waiting for you! "

" ..Okay! " After a brief silence, she whispered back, with the smile of a comfy bird excited to fly soon, " I'll prepare mine too "

And with this, they closed their eyes, and in dreams, they would play games, dance in circles ( the first time they did that centuries ago, she got dizzy ), making up places that Collector would make the place around them turn into, fly together, and the list gets repeated

Include apocalyptical messes on a place then another, as they were feeling chaotic

Aknowledging that warmth even more, and happy they're back together to continue it, since the start was short itself

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The end ( at least for them )

Author's Note:

Well, fellas, guess the book came to an end, at least not for the story, as I plan to do another book to continue the remained events with Filos, Camael and the Archivist siblings, as far as it can go if it happened, we'll have to see

[bicsbec]

Natural Melodies

Chapter 1: don't tell me not to worry (ao3 link)

Eda had promises to keep. Hell was over and once the terror dissipated, all Eda could do was bundle up her kids in a tight hug. She didn't let them go for a long while.

The Isles progressively stopped being the hollow carcass of the Collector's playground. Witches and demons resettled into the Titan's familiar bones, everyone where they should be—or in some cases, used to be.

Raine drifting back to their cottage in the Knee made Eda restless. She wanted to march up and knock down their door, drag them back down, hold them close. But she also knew Raine needed time. Time to settle into reality, come to terms with what they went through, what they didn't do, what was out of their hands.

Eda didn't hold any of it against them, but she was sure it weighed on them anyway. But Eda could wait. What was a little more time?

And life was busy enough as it was.

Eda settled into her bones, too, arm missing, curse ever persistent. 

Sure would've been handy if it could regrow limbs.

Eda snorted at her own joke as she juggled through the set up of her stand. The economy in Bonesborough was slowly picking up, which meant suckers to swindle. It was a comfortable routine, familiar. It brought a sense of normalcy to the market floor, almost making business boom.

She'd sort through garbage, keep the shinnies for herself, and bag the rest over to the market.

The waves of customers were the predictable ebbs of the old days. Fussy mornings, slow noons, and bustling afternoons. As busy as they were, the afternoons were Eda’s favorite part of the day. Her kids and company got out of school to hover around the stand, bringing wandering eyes with their presence (and being free child labor). But most of all, Eda got to hear Luz talk, it never really mattered what it was about, Luz would talk and Eda had stopped taking that for granted a long time ago. 

"We still don't have class class," Luz was saying this time. She'd arrived with only Bossy Boots, Hunter and his posse having Flyer Derby practice. Boots was mesmerized by the spinning star pinched between Luz's fingers, a fidget whatever; Luz was mesmerized by Boots as she talked.

They were sickly sweet to watch. But she supposed she'd been that way once, too.

"The preschoolers are still hunting in packs—like, they go home and everything, they just come to school feral," Luz continued. "And Willow is still trying to figure out how to humanely kill her orchids, but—"

"No class," Eda finished.

"Yeah. Mostly clean up. I don't think the cafeteria will ever smell the same, though."

Eda laughed. "And how's the fella?"

Luz brightened. "Still stubborn," she giggled, pulling out the egg out of her bag. "I'll get through to ya, buddy."

Boots smiled at that. "You are something else," she said, endeared. Luz's determination was more than admirable. It was truly a wonder why her palisman hadn't hatched yet.

Luz blushed at her tone. "Y'know, when I said I wanted to earn my staff the hard way, I never thought it'd be this hard."

"Maybe they're testing if you meant it," Eda nudged her encouragingly. "Now let's pack up and head home. I want to be in my slippers and have a glass of apple blood in my hand."

"Yes, ma'am," Luz and Boots chorused; Luz, playfully and Boots more seriously. Boots elbowed Luz then.

"Oh, and I forgot to ask," Luz said with a start. "Ami— we wanted to know if I could go over to Amity's for a study date later tonight."

"And study what? You just told me you didn't have class."

Boots got bright pink.

"My palisman?"

Eda snorted. "Sure, yeah. Alright, fine, go be in love and all that mess," Eda ruffled her hair, curls longer than they used to be.

It was a relief to hear Luz sound more like herself. The first few weeks there was a lingering sadness in her eyes. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Luz had run herself into the ground trying to find a way back to the Boiling Isles. That she dove in head first the moment she could. That a sense of guilt hung around her, clung to her even as she got her friends back home. Some of that sadness still lingered, but it was easily overshadowed by her tenacity and sunny disposition. Settling back into familiar bones.

The door to the Owl House swung open as Eda and her two shadows hauled in the market goods. The house was mostly back to its normal self, only a few furnishings having been replaced.

"Luz!" King rushed to hug her leg and crawl up her shoulder. "I missed you! I'm going insane in this house, and not in the good way."

"What am I? Stale bread?" Eda protested, stuffing the goods in their rightful closet.

"You're the one who left me here in the first place. Hooty and Aunt Lilith are insufferable. It's diabolical."

"You balance them out," Eda said, scooping him up and tickling his belly. He started rolling in her arms, laughing and pushing her hand away. It was difficult to not drop him with all his squirming and her inability to hold him properly.

"Weh! Wait, s-stop. PLEASE." King squirmed too hard and dropped to the floor.

"Oops. Sorry, kiddo."

He crawled back up Luz's shoulder, this time hiding from Eda. She smiled.

Truth was, she didn't want King out on the market floor. People were weird about him being a Titan. They either wanted to kiss his feet or chop them off. She'd rather have her son alive for the time being.

The house rumbled and from upstairs Hooty's voice came screeching down. "HUNTER'S HOME, HOOT." 

"Hooty! Inside voice!"

"TOWER ROOM."

"LILY, MAKE HIM LISTEN!" Eda called. She heard a faint voice and something similar to Hootsifer, which was good enough for her. "Alright, I'll go check on him. You kids start dinner."

"But we have the study date," Luz reminded her.

"And I'm left with your aunt and two growing boys. Help and you can head out."

"Okay…" Luz grumbled, but it was mostly for show. They mostly bickered for the novelty of it, how mundane it was; there was an unspoken satisfaction that came from that familiarity. 

The study in the tower had never been tidy, but the corner that Hunter had taken up was neater than most of the house in general. Eda supposed it was some remnants of his scout training.

"Hey, kid," Eda knocked on the door frame, stepping inside. "Watcha working on?"

From her spot in the room, Eda could see little blocks of wood scattered on the surface of the otherwise neat desk, clippings and sawdust littering the perimeter. Perched on his shoulder was a patched up Flapjack, Hunter's handiwork having sealed his fractured wood. The little red cardinal was supervising its witch's work, chirping in soft approval. Leather gloves on, Hunter was making crude little figures with the old chisel she'd given him, sharp thunks heard softly from across the room.

"Just practicing, Miss Eda."

She made her way across the room and inspected the rough figures.

"Want a crack at the real deal?"

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah. All you gotta do is put bevel to bark, like my old man used to say."

Hunter's eyes lit up, excitement creeping its way into his eyes.

"Yeah, okay."

"Just put bevel to bark, pumpkin," her father said soothingly. "The rest will follow."

"As long as I follow the grain," Eda finished.

Her dad smiled, eyes bright. "Precisely."

He took a block of palistrom wood and placed it in one of her hands and a gouge in the other. "Go ahead."

She'd practiced on red pine wood for days, she could almost carve the shape in her sleep. Eda could feel the difference between grains immediately, adjusting the angle of the bevel accordingly. She guided the gouge over the surface, creating the initial contours of the palisman.

Dell mostly gave her pointers or gentle reminders. This was her project, his hand would only point, not steer.

The form of an owl slowly made itself clearer, becoming smoother and more defined the more she worked on it. Sandpaper smoothed out the remaining irregularities over the palisman's surface.

The dad took it to give it a final wash, turning it over in his hands appreciatively. 

"That's a proper owl."

Eda beamed, something soft fluttering in her chest. Her father toweled off the wood and handed it back to her. "You know what to do."

Hunter's hands were steady, meticulous. Eda smirked at his extremely proper posture, bevel away from his body, keeping the gouge aligned with the grain of the wood, fingers tucked away from the gouge's path.

Chips slowly peeled away to reveal a creature Hunter called a wolf. Eda thought it bore some resemblance to King. She took it from his hands for a final wash, which proved harder now that it had a more detailed surface. 

As Hunter toweled it off, she said, "That's a proper palisman, kid."

Eda watched him cradle the wolf in his hands, watched him turn it over in his hands in silent awe.

Flapjack walked down his arm, inspecting the petrified figure in his hand. He made a faint chirp and Hunter smiled.

"Thanks, Flap."

The cardinal didn't chirp as much as he used to, but Eda had a sneaking suspicion that the pair still understood each other.

Eda's eyes stung, her heart warm at the sight of a brand new palisman, at the sight of the Clawthorne legacy taking flight right in front of her eyes. The Clawthornes had always been wild witches, learned in the natural ways of magic, wielding a wonderfully loud melange of power. 

Eda was immensely proud of Hunter, of his natural curiosity, of his determination to learn wild magic, to bring new magic into the Isles. 

"You give wild witches a good name, kiddo," Eda said earnestly.

Hunter beamed, like he'd just received the highest praise in the world. "Thank you, Miss Eda."

Eda gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, almost a side hug. She was getting better at the whole motherly-displays-of-affection thing. Hunter sat upright, like he'd suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, Titan," he said excitedly. "I have to show Luz!"

"She might be on her way to Amity's."

"Got it!" He stood and grabbed his staff, Flapjack already anticipating his needs. In a glitching yellow flash, Hunter was off, racing after his sister.

Life was good at the Owl House. Her kids were safe, happy, alive . She couldn't ask for more.

Okay, she could ask for one more thing.

It was curled up in her nest that the thought trickled in most persistently, scrolling through Penstagram. Blight and his newest monstrosity, Gilbert and his home projects, Bossy Boots and Luz, and Raine. Their posts hardly ever contained them, but Eda knew from the scenery of the sunset or the assortment of neatly placed instruments that it was their post.

Eda hardly resisted clicking on their profile every time they crossed her screen. Her heart stuttered stupidly in her chest when she saw their picture. Their lively smile, eyes bright and focused, the age lines on their face served as proof of how much they tended to laugh. Her Raine. Her Raine that hadn't been hers in over twenty years. That had reignited something in her heart a couple of years ago. That kept slipping away when they were just within reach. 

Eda cycled through these thoughts most nights, as infuriating as it was becoming. Nauseating, really. She tossed her scroll out of her nest and curled herself comfortably among the soft twigs and thin branches. Sleep came slowly and densely. 

Mornings were once a circus; now, Eda didn't really have a word for the proper disaster mornings were, especially on days when Lily stayed over.

King was loud and animated if he'd woken up before Eda, which was usually the case; he was too bright for her grouchy state after just waking up. Lily had her obnoxious morning rituals which she'd tragically kept well into adulthood; Eda hadn't missed them. Luz and Hunter had picked up a nasty habit in the Human Realm of arguing throughout the whole morning. 

Mornings were loud, far too loud for Eda to be any kind of polite.

That was why she entered her kitchen with extreme aversion. Her children were scattered around the space, each suspicious of interrupting the eerie quiet of this morning. King was walking on the table and launching himself out through the window. Luz and Hunter seemed half asleep still, their clumsy movements making their dishes clatter as they gathered their breakfast, glowering; if Eda was careful enough, she could get her coffee and avoid their impending fight. 

The floor vibrated slightly, the short peace in the house about to be destroyed. Eda braced, already irritated. 

"RAINE’S HOME," Hooty squawked, the loudest sound on the Isles as far as Eda was concerned. 

Eda marched to the living room, temper hardly contained.

"Hooty! How many times have I told you—"

The door swung open and the rest died in her throat. Hooty's words sunk in. Raine was standing at the entrance, fist raised, like they'd been knocking. 

"Raine. You're h—" home "here."

They gave her a half smile. "Apparently, I hated the cold on the Knee, too."

Eda felt herself smile. Apparently my parents always hated the cold on the Knee.

"Come on in."

Raine stepped through the threshold and all Eda could think was that a piece had fallen into place, something calm and ecstatic washing over her. It was a perfect morning.

"It's literature , Hunter!" Luz shouted from the kitchen.

"It's degeneracy!" Hunter shouted back, something clattering like he'd pounded the table.

"Is everything okay in there?" Raine asked with a smirk, looking past over to the kitchen.

Eda shrugged. "I dunno. Kids, y'know?"

"Yes, I can hear."

"It's a disservice to O'Bailey's character!"

" It's not that deep. "

"I'm calling Gus."

"I'll just call Mamá."

"Mamá would agree with me!"

"I was gonna get myself some coffee. You want some?"

"Only if you can survive going in there."

Eda winked and waved them into the kitchen.

"Alright, ya weirdos, that's enough. We've got company. Behave."

"Hey, Raine," Luz switched easily to a more civil tone.

Hunter straightened in his chair comically. "Coven Head Whispers." The tips of his ears were pink. 

"Not anymore," Raine smiled kindly.

"Right. Sorry."

"Don't you have school or something?" Eda asked as she pulled out two mugs.

"Grudgby semi finals," Luz said. "The season started up again almost immediately. Bump is flying us over to Glandus to watch."

"I've got practice with the team," Hunter piped in. "Professor Hermonculus booked up our competition schedule."

"Hexside always did drop everything for its athletes," Raine said with a lilt of humor in their voice.

"Came with its perks," Eda shrugged.

"I'll say."

Eda shook her head with a smirk, pouring the hot liquid into the mugs.

"You need help over there?"

Raine was asking, but they were already picking up the mugs. Eda felt her face warm at the sudden proximity.

Owlbert peaked his head out of Eda’s hair and hooted at the sight of Raine. He took off, flying circles around their head. Raine chuckled, making Eda’s heart squeeze.

"Hello, Owlbert. Long time no see."

Eda tore herself away from the scene for a moment, turning to Luz.

"Luz, why don't you take King to the game. Sneak him in your bag or something. He's starting to climb the walls and it's tearing the wallpaper."

"Sure, no problem," she said easily. "Why haven't you been taking him to the market, though?"

"Yeah!" King's voice came, his head popping up from the kitchen window.

Eda huffed. Raine gave her a curious glance.

"It's filled with crooks."

"You're a crook," King countered.

"Fair. There's a new dress-code?"

"Ha! I'm not falling for your tricks! The market square would never make people wear clothes."

" Fine , I don't know how people will react to you. Last time, they almost ran over the stand to get to ya."

"I thought you were just more popular now."

"They were trying to cook you."

"Oh. Well, that's unsettling."

"Well, I think that settles it," Luz said, standing from the table. "Come on, we'd better head out if Hunter doesn’t want to be late for practice."

King jumped through the window, climbing into Luz's bag, his little feet kicking until he settled inside. Hunter cleared the table and Luz and him shifted into the part of the day where they got along just fine. Time in the Human Realm made them weirder than they already were.

"Have a good day," Eda called after them.

"Bye, Eda. Bye, Raine," Luz waved.

"Weh!"

"You, too," Hunter called as he opened the door for Luz.

And they were off.

"Empty nest," Raine commented.

"Yeah," Eda chuckled, looking over to them. Raine stood with a half smile, their glasses steamed over from the mugs in their hands and Owlbert was perched on their shoulder happily. It would've been the perfect sight if that snapshot of domesticity were real and not just painfully circumstantial.

Even so, Eda smiled back.

"Wanna talk?"

"I'd love to," Raine said easily.

Eda could've talked with Raine for hours. It was easy. They talked about schemes and the last RATS concert they'd caught, about their parents' pestering and living together, about what felt good during sex and what could've been better, about the steeping times of teas and ' No, Eda, you can't just boil the shit out of it. ' 

There were some things they didn't talk about, like Eda’s curse, a lingering shadow that hung over them whenever Eda got squirmy, being clever with her words, twisting and weaving until the subject was almost naturally dropped.

But talking was something they could do, usually. They could laugh and it was easy, mostly.

Until it wasn't.

Eda’s stomach was a nervous pit. She felt the few sips of coffee she'd had swirling around her insides, threatening to come up. She hadn't felt that kind of anxiety in years . It felt silly to be sitting at her dining table with the nervous energy of a teenager that didn't know how to act around their crush. It was ridiculous. She should've felt like an adult that didn't know how to act around their crush. 

Talking used to be easy. So why did it feel like she couldn't get her mouth to work properly?

Raine seemed at ease at the table, amused by Owlbert as he sat up and down on their shoulder, playing with the weight of their earring on his little head. 

"Some things never change," they chuckled. Their hands played with the mug, shifting the handle from one side to another. Idle fidgeting. Eda felt like sprinting out the window.

"So, um," Eda worked her mouth around actual words, "cold up there, huh?"

Raine snorted. "Yes, very. The stiff joints in the mornings were getting harder to ignore."

"And how are you doing?" Eda would've honest to Titan twiddled her thumbs; instead, she rapped her fingers against the table. She wanted to smack herself.

"Better, I think. A change of scenery will definitely do me some good. Stiff joints are a little too close to, well, that , for comfort," they cleared their throat. "Being down here will help. Familiar faces and all that. Check in on the kids, y'know." They waved a hand, like it explained everything away.

"Well, it's good that you're taking care of yourself," Eda said rather lamely. It was taking all of her self control not to blurt out something even stupider like, 'Move in with me.'

Raine was looking out the window, enjoying how the sunbeam cast on the table warmed their hands. They seemed to be indulging in the moment, like they weren't sure the next time they'd be next to Eda in her kitchen. Something quiet and desperate in Eda wanted that next time to be every day that followed for as long as Raine would tolerate her.

Raine smiled. "Yes, no need to worry."

"Raine Whispers, don’t tell me not to worry," the words left Eda without permission. But they were true. Eda lost sleep worrying about Raine, about how they were coping after they'd been the Collector's plaything.

Eda had stood by helplessly, watching Raine suspended in a stiff posture, blank eyes and permanent smile plastered on their face. She'd talk to them endlessly, easy enough when she knew she didn't have to hear their answers, their rejection. She'd visit them constantly, hoping naively that that alone would've been enough to free them, that every confession that she'd uttered was a step closer to having her Raine back, that her love would be enough . 

It hadn't mattered that she'd only received silence, it hadn't mattered that Hooty could talk back to Lilith, it hadn't mattered that it had destroyed Eda’s heart in contorted and painful ways. She'd still visit. Still worried. Until their eyes cleared and they took their first real breath in nearly a year, Eda worried.

Raine’s hand reached out, covering her fidgeting fingers. It was warm and rough, the fingertips hardened by years of playing their violin. It was suffocatingly familiar. It felt like drowning in honey.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean—" Their thumb circled gently over the back of her hand. "I mean I'm here now. For good. I don’t want to go back."

"To the Knee?"

"To the Knee. To being alone. To being cold," they looked up, searching her face. "I'm tired of—"

"Chasing?" Eda would never admit how desperately hopeful she sounded.

" Yes. " Raine took Eda hand in both of theirs, their palms fitting together and tugging at Eda’s heartstrings. "I'm tired of being silent, too. Of pretending I didn’t hear your every plea, of wishing it had been a nightmare." Eda's stomach sank . Their grip tightened on her hand. "It was torture, Eda. I wanted to scream, to fight you, to tell you you were wrong, reassure you that it was impossible for me to not love you. Because of course I love you. I've never stopped loving you, Eda."

"Raine…"

"Yes, Eda?"

"Move in with me."

< prologue | chapter 2 >

[acaciapines]

Your nanowrimo pieces are soooo goooood they hit so hard fr fr. I’m especially LOVING today’s one with the owl & the collector even tho I don’t rlly know that much abt toh bc I haven’t watched it but I can tell that u LOVE IT & I can’t wait to learn more thru osmosis once the fic is poooosteeeed✨ (i WILL read it i PROMISE i SWEAR)

Anyways give us the thoughts, the tea, tell us how you make the words do that✨ anything u wanna give in regards to today’s bit!! We’re not picky!

Hope y’all are doing okay! Gal says hi :) Remember to eat and drink something, take breaks, and look after yourselves and each other! We love you! This has been a Daily Interaction Ask <3

he he :3 im glad youre enjoying!! its been really fun to pick out my favorite bits even when usually those are the ones w/out context lol. look at my owl and weep boy. firefly <3

YOU WILL LEARN SO MUCH VIA OSMOSIS....literally now that im also doing something for s1 its like. why watch owl house we have owl house at home (the owl house at home is a 1 million word daemon au) (<- 1 mil is not a joke btw idk if it'll hit it but itll at least come very close. no idk why i did this.)

as for today! hmmm...

its truly so fun to write the collector. like im not joking about him being my favorite owl house character despite his maybe twenty total minutes of screentime, so its been such a JOY to expand his role in this series!!

bc like. god. actually i think i wrote a whole like. bit of flash fiction/prose poetry type thing for them a while ago. probably in my files somewhere. but just. youre an immortal eight year old. you are in these years where you need to interact with other people for your own mental stability and health. to figure out the whole Being A Person thing. and you are trapped for like, centuries. trapped away from everyone and everything and DUST, which, in universe, in literally connection personified. you're cut off from all of this.

and you are, let me say again, eight years old.

truly the collector is just. hes had everyone he ever cares about leave him--his siblings the other archivists left him behind not out of any sense of cruelty, really, but because caring about people just isnt really a thing they do. quite frankly they live so long they didnt even notice. theyre far-away stars. not far because they're mean. just because thats what stars do.

and then king's dad (who um. doesnt have a name <3 this is why the collector calls him 'the big bully' its literally bc i never gave him a name--) was an adult the collector actually trusted and looked up to (he meshed REALLY WELL into titan society until the archivists started Doing A Murder since titans are the only beings that match them in power and they have very very different ideas about dust). like ive said before the collector is owlbeastkin but before that they never had a super stable sense of identity--in another world where they stayed w/ the titans they wouldve ended up a titan.

and then king's dad just. trapped him in a tablet forever.

and like, to be fair to king's dad he was reacting out of fear and the best knowledge he had (he assumed the collector led the archivists to the titans, and like, he did, but its not like he knew he was doing that, and, you know, poor guy had seen a huge chuck of his fellow titans killed including babies and eggs of which he had an egg to consider), but it still TRAPPED THEM. and then he died and so did all the rest of the titans so nobody could free the collector even if they wanted to.

and then BELOS, who manipulated and lied to the collector for so long and was also literally his only friend after being alone forever, so like, of course the collector just blindly went along with whatever he said. he was gonna free them!! he listened to them when they talked about stardust which nobody else ever did! he had no idea what the fuck a witch was! he just liked being able to see the stardust sometimes, and belos brought him to places with a lot of stardust. to destroy it, but like--you know. it was THERE.

but all these people were just USING them, and they never really understand that until king comes around. and king's also a scared eight year old!! but like. king's also not wrong. the collector did aid belos in destroying the entire isles. like no joke belos SUCCEEDS here. like not long-term obvi this has a happy ending but at the point we're in at for the future? it doesnt matter that the draining spell failed. all the palistrom trees are dead. witch society Cannot come back from that even if they did end up beating the collector. theyre doomed.

anyways what was i saying. collector. right.

so like, then they meet firefly/grr-click-growl/wings-across-night/the owl beast (king of having so many names i love her <3) and shes like, the first person who cares for them and ISNT using them. even king is using them!! but firefly has seen Some Shit. she sees the collector as a hatchling who was kicked out of his nest and is doing her best to be some sort of stable figure for him, but she doesnt Not see the stuff he's done.

the collector took over the world bc he's scared--all he's ever known is being used and trapped so he doesnt exactly trust most people easily. firefly would Love to not be in this world anymore. shes also got a loyalty to eda and king and luzmari. and, like, cool motive, still trapping an entire society of people.

but like. shes the one who is here right now and nobody else is trying to help this kid.

but the collector just. hes just an eight year old. a very, very old eight year old. but he doesnt understand things like "you can make the wrong choices and still choose to do better later" and "im mad at what you did but that doesnt mean i dont care about you."

he just sees someone upset with him. just sees another person who used him and doesnt care and is going to leave bc everyone leaves him and in a world where EVERY SINGLE PERSON comes in pairs, hes the only one who stands alone.

basically tl;dr: collector my beloved <3

[ditzyclown]

Planning on making another comic/thingy with Vist and the bebe but meanwhile have these other doodles I don't think I posted but first have this thing I did on ibis when I was bored lol

Anyway old doodles bellow

These were when I was still finding how to draw them and where I wanted to go, eventually it went with vist visiting the place, finding titans and being more like the collector as in "gasp! Friends!!" But originally he was gonna be another one of collector siblings that participated only by standing behind everybody, then i decided there's no way he would tolerate being alone if he had them for such a portion of his life before this and that he would suck at hiding a Titan's egg from them let alone a BABY TITAN so I went with him being raised mostly alone (with the exception of some passing mortal families)

Also found this thing and I panicked for a sec wondering if the me from last February planned angst I forgot about for vist until I remembered this is him reacting to a drawing of the bebe of him calling him dad

[101flavoursofweird]

Emerald Trio Week: Day 5 - Nature

Spoilers: Some for For the Future, and for Watching and Dreaming

Set: After Watching and Dreaming

Warnings: Odalia gets a mention… and Willow’s sentient orchids causing chaos, trying to eat people (though not in great detail)

Note: I’m not saying Willow’s family’s house was destroyed during the final battle, but for this premise, let’s say their house was destroyed.

Description: Willow plants her sentient orchids in her new garden… Poor Hunter tries to help.

If there was any upside to Willow’s family’s home being destroyed during Titan-Belos’ rampage, it was that their new house had a garden.

Their old house had been located right on the edge of a steep cliff. They hadn’t had room for a garden out back or out front. 

At most, they’d had some shrubs out by their fence and some pine trees overlooking the house.

Inside, Willow had kept some potted plants in her bedroom, on her windowsill, and down in the kitchen.

The lack of a garden had never really bothered Willow; any plants she left outside would have withered in the boiling rain, anyway!

Besides, there had been plenty of space for Willow to grow things in the Plant Homeroom at Hexside…

That was,  until her classmates started hiding from the Collector’s star-spies at school.

They had cleared out the flower beds in the Plant Homeroom to grow vegetables— Mattholomule’sidea— but Willow’s orchids hadn’t taken kindly to that.

Willow was shocked to hear her plants had gained sentience while she was away in the Human Realm, but she wondered if this might have had anything to do with how much she’d missed her dads.

Maybe all that pain she’d kept buried for months had manifested in her orchids, causing them to run amuck…

As soon as she had a free moment— and  some free space— Willow came up with a plan to deal with her monster plants.

“Here you go!” Willow brought the orchids to their new home, on the edge of Blight Manor.

It had been Amity’s idea; she’d wanted to give Willow’s family part of their land, near the forest. The rest of the Blights (barring Odalia) had readily agreed.

Willow’s parents had refused to take the offer for free, though. After some discussion with Alador, they had decided to pay for the (rewired) Abomatrons that helped build their new house.

Dad had grumbled that he didn’t need the help— He was a Construction witch!— but his limbs still felt stiff after being a puppet, so he’d caved in.

Between the Parks, the Blights, the Abomatrons, and Mattholomule (who might have felt guilty about uprooting Willow’s orchids), they managed to build the new house within a week. 

It practically looked identical to their old house, as Willow’s family had hoped it would.

They had filled it with possessions salvaged from their old home, along with some replacements from the Blights. (“ We don’t need this anymore!”  Emira had said, cheerfully handing them a pink tea set that had once belonged to Odalia.)

In all her wildest dreams, Willow had never imagined her family would become neighbours to the Blights. 

She had shared a bedroom with Amity for months in the Human Realm, so it was nice that Amity was still close by— about thirty steps away.

Luz often visited Amity, so that made it even better!

Gus needed no incentive to invite himself over to Willow’s house. Though, during the construction stage, Gus had claimed he wanted to ‘check on Mattholomule’ all the time.

And then there was Hunter. Willow had worried he would distance himself from them (from her) after everything that had happened��� but he still wanted to be with them (with Willow!). 

Some days he would drop by with Darius, who was ‘making amends’ with Alador. Today was one such day. Hunter— along with Gus— would get to witness the rehabilitation of Willow’s sentient orchids.

The three orchids scuttled after Willow on their spider-like roots as she led them out to the garden. 

(Her new garden— oooh! She was going to make it even sprucier than the Nocedas’ garden!) 

Hunter was waiting for them on the overgrown red grass. 

His face lit up at the sight of Willow, but his smile became a little strained as the orchids followed her. 

“H-heeey, Captain!”

“Hey, Hunter!” Willow waved at him. One of the orchids copied her, waving a root at Hunter. Hunter gave the plant an awkward wave in return.

“Where’s Gus?” Willow asked, checking the waist-length grass in case she’d missed him.

Clover buzzed disapprovingly from Willow’s shoulder.

“He went to talk to… Mattholomule?” Hunter said, confusion and suspicion in his voice. “I swear, that kid is stalking me! First with Steve when we were training for the Emperor’s Coven, then at school, now here…”

Willow chuckled. “Matt’s making some ‘finishing touches’ to our house… and he likes having a reason to see Gus.

Hunter muttered, “Does he really need a reason…?” but he suddenly closed his mouth. Hunter went pinker that the petals on Willow’s orchids.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Willow told him softly, taking his hand.

One orchid stretched out a leaf catch Hunter’s other hand. 

Willow slapped the leaf away. “ No.”

Clover buzzed around the orchid’s flower head, scolding it. 

“I guess we should, uh, show these guys their new home?” Hunter stammered.

The orchids nodded eagerly.

Willow guided them down to the end of the garden— as far as they could get from the house— where the pine trees began.

At least if her orchids did escape, it would most likely be into the forest, away from civilisation…

And, if Odalia tried to sneak back in through the forest, the orchids would make a meal out of her. Win-win!

Willow pointed to a patch of ground, where she had outlined a rectangle and cut the grass. 

“While I keep these three distracted, can you dig the flower bed?” Willow asked Hunter.

“Sure!” Hunter’s response was so quick that Willow knew he would take any job over watching the orchids.

Clover went to grab one of Dad’s homemade shovels from the house and passed it to Hunter when she returned.

Hunter glanced down at the spade, then back up at Willow. He smiled wryly. 

“This is…” His smile vanished, along with whatever he’d been about to say. “N- never mind!” 

He dug out the grass and the soil, lightning-fast, while Willow chatted to the orchids.

Within minutes, Hunter was standing next to a mound of soil and an empty flower bed.

“How’s that?”

“Perfect!” Willow chirped. She directed the orchids towards the flower bed. “In you go, babes!”

The orchids looked at each other. The largest one snapped its jaws.

Willow frowned. “Don’t make me tell you twice…” Clover droned angrily and stung the largest orchid in the head.

“You can either stay in my garden, or I’ll let Eda the Owl Lady turn you into mulch,” Willow threatened.

Much to Willow’s relief, the orchids complied and crawled into the flower bed.

(Really, she hadn’t wanted to see them turned into mulch!)

With Hunter’s help, Willow pushed the soil back into the flower bed, covering the orchids’ roots. They gently patting the soil down around the plants’ stems.

“See, that wasn’t so bad!” Willow cooed to them.

The orchids grumbled to each other. The largest one was in the middle, with its smaller companions on either side. 

“At least they’re safe now,” Hunter murmured. Hefelt safe enough to stand next to the orchids since they were confined to the soil. “And so’s everyone in the Boiling Isles…”

“Right!” Willow agreed. “I’m just going to get them some water—“ She turned her back for a second to grab the watering can. 

Behind her, Hunter shrieked. Willow whirled around. 

The largest orchid had scooped Hunter off the ground with its jaws. Hunter’s long legs were flailing in the air. 

Clover buzzed with rage. Before Clover could launch herself at the orchid, Willow said, “W-wait!Attacking them isn’t going to help Hunter. We need—“

“Willow, what’s going on? We heard screaming!” Gus ran out to the garden. 

Better late than never, Willow thought. She explained, “It’s my orchids from school— one of them got Hunter—“

“I can SEE that!” Gus yelled, yanking out his staff.

Matt was right on Gus’ heels, but he froze when he saw the monstrous flowers. He pointed a shaking finger at them. “They’re… they’re BACK! And they’re EATING PEOPLE—“

“Not on my watch!” Gus leapt onto his staff and flew up to the lead orchid. “Hold on, Hunter! I’ll get you ou— AAAH!”

One of the smaller orchids took a snap at Gus.

“GUS—!” Matt fell to his knees and wailed, “NOOOO…!”

Gus narrowly dodged the orchid’s jaws, but he almost fell off his staff.

From inside the flower head, Hunter let out a muffled scream.

Willow winced; she was going to rescue Hunter, but they needed to stay calm. 

“Get back, Gus!” Willow ordered. 

Gus retreated, landing next to Matt. Matt grabbed him.

Slowly, Willow crept towards the orchids. She said to them, “I’m sorry you got uprooted from Hexside—“

“I’m sorry too!” Matt yelped. Gus shushed him.

Willow continued trying to pacify her rouge plants. “It was a mistake, but those were crazy, desperate times…”

The smaller orchids snapped at Willow— as if they were giving her a warning— but Willow didn’t react. 

She placed her hand on the lead orchid’s thrashing stem. “I lost my home too,” Willow whispered, “and my parents, for a while— but we’re back together now and we have a new home.”

She turned her head to her family’s rebuilt house, smiled, and looked back at the orchid. It had stopped thrashing beneath her hand.

“You can all stay with us, if you want… but no more biting people, okay? Can you let my friend go?”

The lead orchid made a sound like a sigh.  It lowered its head and spat out Hunter. Willow caught him. He clung to her like a cleaver, shivering. 

Clover brushed her head against Hunter’s cheek in an attempt to comfort him.

“Thank you!” Willow said to the orchids. To Hunter, she breathed, “Sorry about that, Hunter… Let’s get you a warm drink.”

“S-sounds good!” Hunter said.

She turned and carried Hunter towards the house.

“You too, Gus and Matt,” Willow called over her shoulder. “…Unless you want to keep hugging out here with the orchids—?”

“Coming, Willow!” Gus shoved Matt away from him. Matt shoved him back as they made their way into the Parks’ house.

[dooodle-bug]

The owl house For the Future stuff i noticed and want to say before the episode comes out

king is wearing fancy collector themed robes but we know he hates clothes.......

also he has a little bandaid thing for his skull crack <3

this old ass book has some additions. not gonna analyze it rn but i think the writing (maybe by the collector himself?) presumably says something like "but playing is more fun. make......."?

the visuals were JUST as i imagined! very beautiful but sorta twisted in a way. also he titan skeleton's eye has been shattered. and directly above is the collector's castle. maybe bc hes the literal "Head" of the isles... or as sort of a snarky symbol of triumph... or maybe bc that was just where they were freed from the start

The coven heads are here, donned in very celestial-type outfits! Raine my beloved is the main focus, of course, but where tf is terra?? (also king simply watching them get eda while also holding hooty's limp body is so fucking up :o[ )

in that last scene of the first trailer those guys in the background were actually just puppet things.....

collector here shown further as this sorta divine being who understands nothing about mortals (and maybe kinda doesnt care too either?)

I like that little bitch tho and how they know what pizza bagels are <3

maybe this is why he is the "collector"... he collects the bodies of mortals and reshapes them into what he wants and does whatever...

so mad about this bc as someone who lives in the east this episode is gonna premire at like 1 in the morning <///3

anyways thats all byyeeee!

[insaneillusionist]

Here’s my uncut, unedited live reaction to the episode.

“Papa Titan”

WHAT THE SHIT

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCKING SHIT

WAIT HE HAS FUCKING STATUES OF HIMSELF IN HIS CASTLE?

HOW VAIN IS HE?

WAIT SHIT IS THIS AN AU?

LOOK AT THE WINDOW!

OH ALSO TRAUMA CAUSE SHE NEARLY DIED DOWN THERE

OH MY GOSH SHE CALLS FOR LILITH FIRST! AND THEN HOOTY! HE REALLY IS PART OF THE FAMILY.

SHE’S WEARING HER OLD OUTFIT!

AND SHE DYED HER HAIR BACK!

I HAVE MISSED HER AS AN ANTAGONIST!

ALSO WOW HER BODY LANGUAGE AND TONE CHANGED A LOT! LOVE THIS SUBTLE SHIT!

Love how none of them have lights in their eyes.

(It’s because Luz isn’t there.)

OH SHIT RETURN OF THE DADDY ISSUES!

(I wonder if Luz doesn’t have Eda and King because of magic, because she knows they wouldn’t fight her, or because she thinks she already hurt them.)

OH SHIT VILLAIN!WILLOW

Oh okay good. I thought they were retconning stuff

(Luz reading OOC fanfic)

OH MY GOD LOVE THE HEXSQUAD

ALSO THAT GIANT FUCKING NERD ALREADY SOLVED THE RUBIK’S CUBE

YES! GLOMP HER!

THEY’RE A FAMILY!!!

RAYRAY?

OH SHIT WE’RE GETTING INTO THE PURITAN STUFF!

COLLECTOR IS JUST A BABY BOY!

OKAY LOOK DAMN THE MANIPULATION IS FINE THAT SHIT WOULD WORK ON ME TOO.

ALSO COLLECTOR LOVES TITANS!

AND BELOS THOUGHT KING WAS A DOG LMFAO!

ALSO YES THE I CAN’T SAVE THEM SO I’L PURGE THEM!

FAMILY BONDING OVER TRAUMA TIME!

GROUP THERAPY? NO! CUT PUT THE MIDDLE MAN AND JUST CRY WITH EACH OTHER!

OWLBERT IS ALIVE!

Sad. Collector’s just trying their best, but it isn’t working. I mean l get it, but I hope people instill some morals in him. They must learn right from wrong.

HE BEHEADED HIMSELF LMFAO.

Also, that explains it. He views everyone else as lesser beings, except for King.

LOVE THE SMILE!

RAINE WE WILL GET YOU SOME HOT CHOCOLATE! COME JOIN THE TRAUMA CIRCLE!

Oh hey Collector took King’s words to heart!

Crying “why are you hitting yourself”

God I want a you’re trapped in here with me thing

OH THAT PERSON WAS AMITY!

Also, I retract my previous statement.

RETURN OF HIS THEME SONG!

KING THE HAMSTER!

Poor Collector, getting bullied.

OH MY GOD THEY HAVE A TRAGIC BACKSTORY

COLLECTOR’S JUST A KID.

ALSO LMAO BELOS GET WRECKED YOU AIN’T SLICK CAN’T FUCKING SKATEBOARD YOUR CLOAK WOULD GET CAUGHT IN THE WHEELS ANYWAY.

CRYING. RAINE THE LANDLORD!

BELOS GOT EVICTED!

GOING FROM AN APARTMENT TO A PENTHOUSE SUITE.

BELOS STILL HAS SIBLING TRAITS. FUCKING BIT RAINE.

RAINE BABY IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT

WHAT THE SHIT IS THAT

This looks like Elsa freezing the castle.

AMITY FINALLY INTERACTS WITH LILITH!

THE BIRD HOUSE LMAO

WAIT WHAT? I NEED TO SEE THE CLAWTHORNES TRY DIFFERENT SPORTS NOW!

NO BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL!

Aww he remembers Lilith’s name!

THAT’S WHAT YOU GET, TINY NOSE! KARMA FOR EPISODE 4!

Wait did they just stay in the fucking caves?

BELOS YOU ARE DESTROYING AN ECOSYSTEM. MULTIPLE, ACTUALLY.

ANGEL/DRAGON FORM!

Belos you already tried.

WAIT. IF BELOS THINKS THIS PLACE IS PERDITION, HE WAS SENT TO PERDITION HIMSELF. GET FUCKED.

Oh shit he got Pokémon powers.

I’M CRYING THE BABY IS DOING HIS BEST.

I’M SORRY THEIR REACTION IS AN ABSOLUTE MEME.

OH SHIT OH SHIT

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?

SHE HAS TO BE FINE BUT WHAT THE HELL?

YOU CAN SEE THE FUCKING GLYPHS ON THE SHIELD! TITAN MAGIC INDEED!

ALSO OUCH THAT SHOT OF CAMILA! (Gonna have to draw more so I can work on my art skills.)

Speaking of my art skills, WHERE IS HOOTY?

IT’S THE IN-BETWEEN!

When you come up with a perfect response five minutes later (but you’re also dead)

GROM CALLBACK!

Eda’s going to brag about how the literal Titan joined her coven

SO MANY CALLBACKS!

(I need to see the Titan reacting to shit now. Entire spin-off. Let’s do it. Replace the owls and let him react.)

HE’S SUCH AN ABSENT PRESENT FATHER HE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO BESIDES WATCH

ALSO EDA JUST SELLS STUFF AND SAYS THAT IT’S TITAN-ENDORSED (or well, endorsed by two Titans.)

BILE DRAIN IS REAL?

HE’S A BABY!

Princess Ivy-core shit right there.

HOLY SHIT I HAVE SO MUCH GENDER ENVY RIGHT NOW!

Eda looks so fucking derpy

OH MY GOD LOOK AT THAT

MAKES ME SO FUCKING EMOTIONAL

THEY’RE A FAMILY AND I LOVE THEM AND I WOULD PROTECT THEM WITH MY LIFE (not that they need protection at this point)

AYO THEY SOLVED THE PROBLEM OF MAKING A CIRCLE BIG ENOUGH TO END BELOS’ REIGN

OKAY THAT IS A SICK BACKGROUND

SO MANY CALLBACKS

Okay that’s so funny

Admit it she’s hot

Also RIP THE ANIMATION BUDGET THIS IS GOLD!

OH SHIT SHE LOVES HERSELF LET’S GO!

IT’S THE THEME SONG!

HE’S STILL A MANIPULATOR!

RETURN OF THE BEARD!

I’M SORRY THIS IS HILARIOUS HOW HE’S HUMAN NOW.

RIP BLONDELOS.

THE FUCKING BOILING RAIN.

GET FUCKED - SINCERELY, THE TITAN

AYO WE SAW HIS NON-FUCKED UP SHOULDER

CATHARSIS!

NO HER HAIR! (Just saying since she wanted to grow it out and she suddenly lost it.)

AWW! THAT’S SO SWEET!

YES THE SPIN HUG!

Odalia just in the corner.

THE KISS THEY KISSED!

DARIUS AND EBERWOLF!

BUMP, WITH HIS MAGNIFICENT HAIR!

VITIMIR TOO?

THE GREEN UNIFORM!

(I bet the pants have pockets and that’s why Steve still wears them)

How did a Collector and Lilith interaction go? (Also is her hood acting as a blindfold?)

More kisses! (Camila looking at the camera trying to keep it private.)

MORE SPIN HUGS!

HOOTY! (Oh damn he has nice eyelashes.)

Oh. The Collector’s leaving. (I don’t think the Archivists will help him grow up, but whatever.)

WHAT NO LUZ I’M SORRY

OH BUT SHE’S FOUND HWR PLACE NOW

(DANA AWARDED LUZ HER FUCKING SCHOLARSHIP?)

YES YES THANK GOD BABY!

KNEW IT!

ALSO AYO VEE!

AWW THEY REALLY DID FIX IT UP!

BRAXAS IS MULTITRACKING!

FLAPJACK GOT A GRAVESTONE!

HUNTER HAS A BLUE JAY NOW?

OKAY LILITH HAS THE DRIP! (AND SHE HAS EARRINGS NOW!)

(Okay I did not expect them to be cool with each other.)

SHE HAS A HARPY FORM!

RAINE WITH SCARS!

ALSO THEY FIGURED OUT HOW TO REMOVE SIGILS!

RAINE HAS A PALISMAN!

WAIT EDA’S A PRINCIPAL?

(Captain Hook drip.)

THEY SWAPPED EARRINGS! (Choosing to believe that’s how they got married.)

AWW!

OH MY GOSH THEY’RE SO CUTE!

(For the record, I did not cry.)

[the-boiling-bisles]

NEW PROMO LETS GOOOOOO

And because I am completely normal about this show, I'll dive in and give my thoughts and predictions for the finale based of this

First off I find it interesting how most of clips seem to be in what will probably be the first half of the finale, we see a shot or two of an impending fight, but we haven't gotten to that point yet. It's understandable that they wouldn't want to show too much beforehand, so I'm glad we're not getting spoiled for the whole plot.

The storyline I'm getting from this is that after the team teleports and Stringbean is revealed, the collector separates Luz from the others (probably turning them into puppets), which makes sense considering they do NOT like Luz. He threatens her or puts her in danger in some way, and then Eda+King end up intervening or are possibly summoned by the collector since they know of their supposed betrayal. We see their reunion in the end bit, but how they end up there is a little unclear.

Then we get to the games bit. It's self explanatory, the collector is very upset, and decides to put the original trio through all sorts of torturous games and challenges as a means to take out his anger and frustration over their belief that King isn't his friend anymore, and that Eda and Luz took that away from them. We go through the games, and after being fed up or being given an idea from Belos-Raine, he decides to trap them in their minds. That's what I think those orbs are.

I personally think that grom could be weaponized here in some way, or maybe it's the state of mind all the puppets experience, being trapped in their own insecurities and fears. Or maybe it's just an illusion idk lmao. Anyways this takes us to the bits with Luz as Belos, as well as Harpy Eda in front of the Conformatorium and King in front of some ornate door (I would use pictures if I could but I'm posting this on my PC and it's six years old and ready to die). Each of these characters will go through mental hurdles and face old memories, insecurities, and fears, just for the chance to "Wake up".

While Eda and King's mindscapes are still unclear, Luz' has been shown quite a bit in this promo so I'll mainly be focusing on that. The obvious first thing to notice here is that Luz is dressed as Belos, most likely reflecting how she feels about having helped him reach the collector (even though that insecurity was mostly resolved in ttt, I doubt she's fully gotten over it yet). Although I could also see it as a form of parallel between the two humans who got lost in the boiling isles with big dreams, or both honesty. When they show the petrified civilians she'll most likely believe that it was all her fault, and fall deeper into the hole of blaming herself for everything. When her friends show up though, part of me wonders what role they will play in her nightmare. Everyone is dressed in different outfits ranging from S1-S2, but there doesn't seem to be any true correlation between them. They could be the manifestations of their voices from the outside trying the encourage Luz to triumph past the spell thing she's under, which would explain why they're turned into puppets (as seen by amity's hand in the first frame).

I don't think any of the other clips related to Luz go past her nightmare sequence, so now let's talk about some random tidbits in this promo that are intriguing.

Belos seems to have left the collector after they began their challenges, and from the clip with Raine it seems like he wants to get back to the heart in his throne room. Some people think that Raine is trying to stop Belos, but I believe Belos is trying to smother them so that they can't fight back. Call me crazy but I feel like he's going to try and possess the whole titan. That scene with Eda and King with a background of goop and blue eyes seems to be their reaction to it. I don't think he'll be successful in his attempt, but man who even knows anymore with this show.

Glyphs are really important, especially in this episode. With the exception of palisman there is almost no usage of staff magic/spell circles in this trailer, it's all glyphs. Which probably means that those capable of producing their own magic naturally will be affected by some event in some way, probably some more collector magic stuff. What I especially like though is how much we see the light glyph emphasized in this trailer, it's the original and also very special to Luz, so seeing it as her "light in the dark" to wake herself up is really cool and I hope we get to see more like that. I'm also really excited to see the hexsquad using glyphs, those fight sequences are going to be sick I can already tell.

The Eda and King transformation part really caught me off guard. I can only assume that after dealing with their mindscapes like Luz, they were able to become better versions of themselves, King especially. I believe their transformation could also tie in in some way to that guy in the in-between we saw at the beginning of ftf. Oh my god I forgor about that guy.

HEAR ME OUT but if Belos is actually trying to possess the entire titan and that guy is the soul/spirit of said titan, could we see an intervene with Luz where she is able to communicate with him and therefore save the isles, this definitely does not make sense rn but I'll cook that a little more I promise.

Questions, little thoughts, and more

-Who will the final battle be between? (Or will there be a final battle at all?)

-I NEED A WITTEBANE BROTHERS FLASHBACK PLEASEEEEEE

-Someone pointed out that there was a flapjack statue/mountain thing in the background of Luz nightmare scene with the hexsquad and I'm not okay

-Since Amity was capable of moving her hand while in puppet form, does that mean it's possible to break the spell?

-Luz is finally getting the spotlight she deserves, I liked that we gave other characters attention in these past two episodes but Luz needs her time to shine for this finale

If you somehow managed to get to the end of this, thank you! These take a little while but I love getting to write my thoughts on this stuff down for people to see

[theprinceandthewitch]

Uh, so this is the second part to this post. I just wanted to talk about the suspicious Golden Guard pit from King's Tide:

I counted 42 Golden Guard Masks in the pit from King's Tide, I'm not counting the skulls simply because I don't want to count every single one of them lol. There's also three Golden Guard masks that aren't colored in that I've added to the count. To be honest I'm assuming every single body in that pit is a GG and not some random witch or demon. Because this "burial ground" is directly in the center of the head, which is considered sacred ground by witches and demons. They don't treat it as a place you can just walk into to have some fun and the only thing there that's of interest is the mirror The Collector's trapped in. Which is hidden behind a door you need to open by solving a puzzle.

If we were to average out the age of the 42 GG's I've counted to 16 at the time of death this means 672 YEARS have passed in total. This number is even greater if we add the skulls to the count. The amount of bodies in the pit doesnt make sense IF Belos was actually operating in a linear timeline, since he came to TBI's in the 1600's.

Especially when we take into account that Belos PROBABLY can't grow the Grimwalkers to a certain age. They PROBABLY have to come out of the ground as infants:

We also need to factor in that there are GG's who have died from other circumstances and not directly by Belos' hand. Like the dangerous training he puts all of them through to weed out the "bad" clones. We can assume he starts this training when they are around 13 years old.

And there could be GG's who didn't "come out right" when they're "birthed" or just straight up died before they were even "born" when Belos was figuring out how to create them. I'm not sure how long the Grimwalker "gestation period" is. I don't know if it's 9 months or if it's shorter because magic is involved, but Belos still needs to wait a certain amount of time for each Grimwalker to be "born".

A reminder: One of the ingredients to make a Grimwalker is a bone from the "original" person. From the phrasing "bone of ortet" I'm assuming that the Grimwalker doesn't need a piece of bone but rather an entire bone of the original. Like a whole leg bone or one of the bone segments of a finger. There are 206 bones in the human body, so If we operate under this assumption then that means Belos has 206 chances to make the "perfect" version of his brother. This is why the number of bodies in the pit isn't shocking to me, especially when we take time magic into account.

Anyways, we do know GG's have lived past the age of 16. Hunter's comment about him being the youngest scout to become GG isn't entirely false. He's the youngest scout to become the Golden Guard during Belos' 50 year reign. This means that his predecessor was older than him and most likely a 20+ year old adult, since Darius refers to the previous GG as his mentor.

Belos thinking Hunter was going to last longer than the other GG's was because Hunter is the only clone who was entirely obedient to him:

Belos [from Hollow Mind]: I say, "The Titan has big plans for you" and he does what he's told. Unlike the previous attempts.

So like... it's entirely possible that some of those Grimwalkers in the pit are adults. Which skews the numbers even more.

But yeah, Belos is min-maxing time travel to acquire resources for the Day of Unity and Grimwalker resources he might not be able to get in his time period.

Here's how time pools work: Their location is completely random and the time period they connect to is also completely random. And they never reconnect to the same moment in space-time once they close. For example: The particular window of time when Luz and Lilith met Philip will never reopen again, so Luz can't stop herself from giving Philip the Light Spell. And as we can see from Elsewhere and Elsewhen, Luz is never presented with a chance to stop herself from even going back in time to begin with. The randomness of the time pools didn't work in Luz's favor. They also operate a a doorway between time periods, so someone from the past can go to the future and vice versa.

But it's entirely possible that the randomness of these time pools worked in Belos' favor. The inherent randomness of these time pools isn't going to be much of a problem for Belos because he has a way of extending his life if he needs to wait awhile for a particular congregation of time pools to appear. He doesn't need to worry about being trapped forever in a particular time period because he's going to know where the next congregation will be from future versions of himself. He wouldn't need to waste time inventing technology needed for tracking them down or to actually track them down because his future self will give him the exact location of the next batch of time pools. So all he really needs to do is wait.

Because of his longevity advantage he has the opportunity to collaborate with past versions of himself to make his plan come to fruition faster, to tell past versions of himself where to find time pools in the future and to acquire resources for the Day of Unity and Grimwalker parts.

He would also take the resources he needs to make a Grimwalker when traveling to the past if he needs to stay in a particular time period for awhile. He might have even taken a few GG's with him to the past or the future. Again, he wouldn't need to worry about getting back to his "correct time" before the time pools disappear because he would know where the next congregation is going to be. And he has the means of extending his lifespan if he needs to wait awhile for the next congregation to appear.

He'd have the means of extending his lifespan without relying only on palistrom wood. In Hunting Palismen it is implied that people made palismen by harnessing wild magic. The reason why palistrom wood is over-harvested in the current time period is because Belos outlawed the use of wild magic. So he needed to rely on palismen made from palistrom wood to keep his condition manageable. He wasn't going to take a risk and use wild magic to make palismen. If word got out that the emperor was using wild magic, despite outlawing it and even enacting the death penalty for those who practice it, the people of TBI would have turned against him before he had the chance to initiate the draining spell.

So...

It's interesting that there are alot of GG bodies in the center of the Titan Skull, just outside the door where The Collector was kept. That's really weird. It makes you wonder why they're all there and how could there possibly be so many of them.

We know Belos has a teleportation spell that can lead him directly to the center of the Titans Skull, just outside the doors of The Collectors chamber. But why would he waste time luring them to the center of the skull just to kill them? Why would Belos care about being this discreet when it comes to killing and disposing of GG's? I really don't see him wasting time like that. And how can there possibly be so many GG's if we operate under the assumption all of them come out of the ground as infants and they age similarly to humans and witches?

The number of GG's in the pit doesn't make sense if we assume Belos is operating in a linear timeframe. The amount of GG's in that pit only make sense if time magic is involved.

I do think the GG's are smart enough to form the same theory Lilith and Eda had about time pools and how they're created. They would have had access to the resources needed to create the technology to find them by virtue of being Belos' body guard. Some of them could have even found out about time travel from accompanying Belos through a time pool. These Golden Guards in the pit from King's Tide seem like they're there because they attempted to go to the past to take The Collector before Philip has the chance to get him. Or to even kill him before he get's the chance to take the mirror, since we know Philip took multiple trips to The Skull before meeting Luz and Lilith. But as you can see, they were never successful.

Because they are up against Belos, a man who can live pretty much indefinitely because of palismen souls. And he has time travel completely locked down because his future self is supplying information to him. So he'll know exactly where they're going to be and what day they'll arrive on - so he's going to intercept them somewhere inside the skull. It doesn't matter how long he needs to wait for them to show up because he has longevity on his side. He'll wait for them like a cat waits for a mouse to come out of it's den.

So yeah, Belos could be ALOT older than we think he is because he's been utilizing time magic to carry out his plan. The amount of bodies in the pit are a hint to this, because the number of bodies don't add up with the amount of years Belos has been on TBI's.