#i just wish they didnt have to entirely change amity's personality in order to fit in with luz

[hikaaa-bi]

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

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

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 lilith could have easily been replaced by any other character in the show.

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

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

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

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