#so like that’s why I don’t do many belos drawings

[tomat0esofalltomat0e]

Ok here’s a rare type of post but let me tell you something that ANNOYS me about Belos.

It’s not his character…but it’s just that whenever I have a cool drawing idea for him I’m smacked in the face with “this won’t work”..and you may be wondering..”whys that?” It’s because..HES SO LIMITED he’s not but when it comes to things he’d actually do my ideas are discarded. This morning I was thinking “oh imagine belos played the organ! I could draw that!” So I searched up if puritan churches had organs…they were banned. So that’s one drawing idea gone 💔 I think there’s been multiple times this has happened to me idk if anyone else has this struggle with him tho.

I GET IT DOESNT RLLY MATTER BUT ALSO IT DOES I WANNA POTRAY HIM CANONICALLY (When it’s out of my aus I suppose)

[omaano]

SW Hades AU May Status Update

I wanted to make a dedicated post about what I’m currently working on for the Star Wars meets Hades AU that looks more consistent than just sharing bits and pieces whenever I’m tagged in a Last Line Challenge. Because what else do I have but the poly sketch requests and this AU for my weekends? (If nothing else I know that the Hades AU has got me XD)

Other updates: June - July - August

For now Obi-Wan and Maul are stuck at the same stage: they are both lined, have their base colours down as well as the two adjustment layers of coloured lighting.

I suspect if I were ever to get through the agonozing few hours of shading Obi-wan’s face it would be mostly smooth sailing from there. The problem is that there are at least 2 - if not 3 - separate stages where the shaded face looks like I have no idea what I’m doing, and you need to get through the whole thing before it really comes together 😅 on the other hand Hades 2 has a lot of the directional shading I might need for his character art so that might help to get me there.

It also needs to be said that Obi-Wan comes with the extra disadvantage that is the entire background behind him. I’m really hyped to line it finally, it is quite a challenge, but at the same time I’m slowly coming to the realization that I have no idea how I will colour it. Hades backgrounds are so so pretty and full of details and gorgeous colours, and while I’m not delusional enough to think I could match that on first try… I still wish I could, you know? At the same time I will have to erase or recolour a lot of my lines, which will hurt quite a bit, I imagine. I’m so bad at killing my darlings 😅 also I hate laying down flat colours. I just find it very difficult to immerse myself in that process, while lining and shading can have their flow.

I had covered up so many lines and details in Maul’s spider parts it’s a miracle I didn’t cry XD However, tips on grouping my shadows and allowing the shape to speak for itself and the details in them are very helpful and on point.

Worrying over writing dialogue for them is also not as far down my to-do list as I wish it were. I have a good enough idea for a quip for Obi-wan, but Maul? He’d need a whole melodramatic rant of his own XD

Aphra has gotten some new lines and I had fixed the satchel I had forgotten the last time I shared the rough sketch for her, thanks to the new character art for Hades 2! Seeing Odysseus and Hermès’s updated looks were great helps here, so I might as well move on to lining her, and finally adding another female character to the roster on top of Ahsoka!

And then there is the biggest update on these little guys below! I will need to clean up the ones I had drawn for Cobb and Boba (and Din) well over a year ago, but with these my version of chtonic companions are done, and thanks to @lesquatrechevrons I have a full list of keepsakes for each character as well. I’m not very good at drawing these little tchotchkes (I say with Rex’s blaster right there LOL) but I hadn’t been very good at lineart or cell shading when I started this project either, so through forced practice I’m determined to change that :D

(It’s not a screwdriver under Boga, it’s one of Cody’s antennas. “It will grow back, don’t worry,” he says as he snaps it off his pauldron and hands it over to Din. Rex backs him up on that one without question. They can't lie for shit but trolling the shiny is their thing.)

Additional fun fact: the reason why I’d picked up the chtonic companions concepts was because I’d been poking at minor details in the background behind Maul (aside from the Chaos doors), and I started adding credits and recoloured nectar to the corner (before I realized that they wouldn’t be visible once the character interaction comes up oops), and I tried to figure out to whose keepsakes Maul would react favorably. I also mixed up companion dolls and keepsakes, so that’s why the Ahsoka doll came to being (I also forgot that that one belongs to Rex, and not Ahsoka herself but uh… they are close enough that they should count by proxy anyway. It’s not Obi-wan’s cup of tea and that should be enough!). Also bless @mapleowl18 for suggesting Lil Soka as companion for Rex ❤️

So this is the current state of this AU project right now. I have my lists and notes, a few scribbled pose ideas in my sketchbook for Sabine (she might be next, unless Bo and her Nite Owls make a comeback), Satine and Omega (with Batcher), as well as some angry scribbles and question marks for Quinlan (who has apparently made his way back into this AU even though he didn’t get a little icon of his own originally orz), and Obi-wan The Second that would stand with Cody post reunion, but I cannot make that one work for now 😅

[sepublic]

Palismen as Mutualism

For Hunter, abandoning his magitech staff in favor of Flapjack isn’t just about finding agency outside of Belos, and it’s not just about having an actual friend. Likewise, training wands do exist, but for Luz in Adventures in the Elements it’s emphasized that she needs to figure out the glyphs anyway, and eventually she can get her staff.

There’s practical Ups and Downs to the glyphs, such as being able to draw them even if you’re missing a staff, likewise staffs can cast magic with far less prep time. But I think the emphasis on Palismen is about cultivating a relationship with the land and people around you; Luz and Hunter can’t have magic without maintaining a relationship with someone else.

Magic is a gift from the Titan, that’s what Luz understands in Adventures in the Elements when she figures out glyphs, it’s what Eda’s trying to understand by shoving moss up her nose, because of what wild witches wrote. Even when Glyphs can be learned from others, witches still commune at the Knee to understand this. And with Palismen, we see that they’re highly intelligent beings, smarter than any animal in real life, if not sapient beings themselves; Owlbert can hold a conversation with Eda, lie on the spot to cover for Luz, gamble with her, etc. Then we have the Bat Queen as further evidence.

Palismen have autonomy, they choose whether to stay or not; Escape of the Palisman goes into these and the aforementioned details, many Palismen leave their witches if they feel mistreated. In Really Small Problems Owlbert is able to go off and have fun for himself, and is allowed to be distracted even when Eda needs him; There is no punishment towards Owlbert for exercising autonomy, and what Eda does should be the standard based on the Bat Queen’s trust.

Perhaps more ‘modern’ witches don’t lend the same freedom, but this is undoubtedly influenced by the culture of the coven regime and its insistence on ‘taming’ wildness. Palismen also don’t respond or awaken, even if carved, until a witch can perform some level of self-examination for them.

Glyphs come from understanding the Titan, and being able to do everything a witch can involves having a Palisman, and those come from the Titan via Palistrom trees that naturally grow. There are Animistic ideas about aspects of the environment having a life of their own, thus they deserve a respect of their own. For Luz, she’s a human coming after Belos, who’s committed colonization and genocide on this world; Hunter is his nephew and human-adjacent enough, struggling with a colonial heritage.

So to truly idealize as witches, they need to cultivate a mutual relationship with the Boiling Isles and its life, that’s why glyphs and Palismen are relevant, that’s why Eda doesn’t settle with a training wand for Luz; She wants Luz to really understand and appreciate the wild nature of magic, or else she could become like Lilith or many who joined the coven, esp in contrast to Belos.

Belos’ magitech staffs demonstrate his industrialism and refusal to cultivate a sustainable relationship with the land, as does his Palismen consumption. Him devouring Palismen is horrific because they’re sapient innocents, and because they’re all taken from loving witches who were either murdered or assimilated, it’s systemic genocide.

And we learn how Palistrom trees are being depleted, and when Hunter suggests a sustainable way to grow Palistrom wood, Belos is furious at the idea. He has no respect for this world and wants it dead, while wanting it to serve him in his entitlement and colonial fantasy.

In particular, Belos’ Palismen consumption leads directly to his curse, which worsens to a point that he needs to possess hosts and devour them from the inside to survive. His parasitic relationship with a natural resource causes him to become a literal parasite. He chooses to devour wantonly and after centuries is finally doomed to only being able to do that, centuries after he should’ve been dead and lacking any choices anyway.

Why must other lives be cut short to extend his life beyond reason, a life that continues to only be destructive? The protagonists could never keep Belos alive if it meant sacrificing innocents, and he gets to a point where he still deteriorates even while using hosts, emerging from Raine in a worse state than he started off in.

Likewise, we don’t know much of the training wand, but it is wielded by Amity, who is the daughter of Blight Industries and its arms manufacturing; It ends up siding with Belos and playing a factor into his genocide, esp during the Day of Unity. Odalia is CEO and her capitalist tendencies are not a coincidence, given the criticism of capitalism as being unsustainable in its pursuit of infinite growth, without questioning where all that growth will somehow keep coming from when the laws of equivalent exchange still exist.

This ‘independent’ form of magic via machines is flawed, because it doesn’t hearken back to the literal and figurative roots of magic itself, or the natural resources it inevitably still pulls from. It’s not anymore ‘advanced’ if not beholden to working with the culture or the land so every party can thrive. It’s not beholden to the people and animals, it’s just destructive in the long run without respect.

But technology isn’t inherently bad or unsustainable either; Alador is the true inventor of Blight Industries and uses his machines to help undo the damage of the coven bindings, and heal the isles alongside his fellow wild witches as a newly-anointed one. He decides he cares about the harm being done by Blight Industries and can still practice his inventions.

Caleb started off as a settler, but his story shows how white people are just as capable —and thus responsible— as the locals in coexisting with a new place, after learning from said local and choosing her over colonial teachings; Celtic pagans exist and seem to be an inspiration for TOH, and the Celts were often white because you guessed it!

White people have also been indigenous, at least at one point in time, they can also have the same relationship with land that PoC do, and it’s not some innate trait exclusive to brown people (which is a racist trope). It’s learned, not “in the DNA.” There’s no excuse not to, you just have to want to learn and open your mind.

Caleb and Evelyn have a mutual relationship that results in a child, who results in the Clawthornes and their own relationship with the isles, esp Dell and Eda. Caleb dies in the pose of the Titan, indicating he understood; At worst he’d only be a little confused, but still have the spirit, because Caleb clearly came from a place of good faith and would always keep improving because of that.

Hunter is a settler’s child and didn’t choose to come here or serve his uncle, but he decides when he’s free and with agency that he wants to continue engaging with this world; So Hunter can choose to give back to this world what his forebearer took. And he works with Dell to do this, who is Caleb’s descendant. Caleb’s woodcarving may have contributed to the Clawthorne tradition of Palisman carving after Flapjack liberated both him and Hunter, they gave back to this world and it comes full circle.

Hunter works with Dell and the Bat Queen to regrow Palistrom and then carve Palismen; He loves a witch who can help grow Palistrom, make the land itself teem with life; Perhaps not coincidentally, Willow’s magic is deemed worthless by the aforementioned Odalia, and the coven system finds Abominations more profitable, likely in the service of how Blight Industries (and later Belos) uses them; By contrast, Amity and Darius wield a more fluid technique and reject this, with Amity having thrived around Willow more and making amends.

For Luz, it’s not enough whether she can practically perform magic via the wand, she needs to understand and respect her host culture. When Eda says Luz needs to earn her staff, it’s less about work for its sake, and more about proving she can respect the rituals and ways of a culture that Luz wants to become a part of, by doing what the locals also do.

Luz needs to prove she can be accepted by her hosts as one of their own, like how she proves to the Titan she is someone he can trust to wield his magic. Luz has to be her own kind of witch against what the coven deems, and because there are some parts of the process she simply can’t do; But she also has to be true to the spirit of the practice… And this culminated in literally embodying the spirit of the Titan.

Palismen as a practice require reflection, and then constantly maintaining that respect and relationship to another being in order to keep using magic. It’s a way of accountability to the Boiling Isles they’re born from and represent, a way to continue repaying the gift of magic that one keeps using. It’s a mutual relationship, it’s sustainability, it’s remembering to give back to the environment so it can keep growing.

Hence, Luz learning to respect Palismen via Owlbert, learning to speak to the Titan like the witches before her. Glyphs are learned from the Titan, and witches can then pass down that magic to others themselves if they choose to, after being convinced to. Some may be insincere and abuse that trust, but this is outweighed by the many friends of Luz’s who benefit and use it for good; Luz still has the right to distribute this knowledge and it’s why the Titan gave it to her then, and affirms it later with his spirit. And even after the Titan’s death and the loss of glyphs, they’re continued anyway via his son King, who shows them to Luz and Eda, witches that learned to respect him and his father.

The fascination in a world goes both ways; The Demon Realm does not exist for human consumption, its people are also very interested in humanity themselves. Eda’s business, Gus founding the HAS, Vee finding her home; Witches and demons have a lot to learn from us, just as we have a lot to learn from them. Luz got her time in the isles, so Thanks to Them was about her friends getting the same with her home after hosting Luz. Camila repays their hospitality to her daughter with her own, and Gus leaves deeply satisfied from the experience.

There’s now a Boiling Isles exchange program, so humans visit the demon realm but vice-versa occurs. So it’s not so simple as humans being settlers again, they give something back to the natives who get to enjoy their world too. Maybe even take each other’s places, as Vee and Luz inadvertently did! With Vee becoming a Noceda.

Sustainability is a theme in The Owl House, with the endangerment of species such as the Selkidomus, the Galdorstones becoming rare artifacts, the depletion of Palistrom, and the extinction of Glyph magic are all things that are combatted; Luz and Eda save the Selkidomus that thrives in the epilogue, Gus and Mattholomule work with the guardian of the Looking Glass Ruins, Dell helps plant more Palistrom with the Bat Queen, and King gifts a new generation of glyphs.

The Archivists and Titan Trappers committed genocide, with the Archivists having the gall to claim to want to keep mortals alive, yet it’s a faux-sustainability where they destroy those who refuse, and their archived existence is hardly a life in and of itself; Instead, it’s a passive existence where mortals exist for the Archivists’ purpose with nothing real in return. King remains as the last of his kind to bring back his people one Titan at a time, and it’s a wild witch like Eda, with her fondness for learning from nature and respecting Palismen, who is entrusted to raise him.

All of this ties into the themes of indigeneity, of sustainability, of appreciating the nature and world around you, of getting your head out of the clouds of fantasy to appreciate the people around you and their practical needs, and work with them too. Working with people, working with the environment, it’s the same idea of mutualism, supporting each other, etc. Be yourself AND be kind to others, they’re mutual not mutually exclusive.

Magic is life, magic is given and shared, it comes from the world around you to pay attention to, and give back to. It’s life and goes on even after death, like relationships and their impact on you. This is what TOH’s magic is, it represents the themes of its story.

[asherisawkward]

I found Luz not caring about the demon realms history annoying. I get it. Some of it was made up, but most of it wasn't, just why the crusade was started. It seems a lot of the history she got was through word of mouth.

You figure a fan of fantasy would be excited to learn the history and culture of a magical realm, not just magic. I'm surprise a lot more demons and witches didn't get fed up with her. The only thing who seemed to have anything against it was Hunter, but I could be remembering it all wrong. Sorry if this comes off as a rant.

I absolutely get what you mean!! Luz, from what I remember of TOH, spent a lot of time trying to fit the Boiling Isles into her opinion of what a fantasy world should be. She doesn’t really listen to the laws or the cultural norms. I suppose that it makes sense to ignore the laws to a certain extent, considering they’re made by a witch hunter pretending to be a benevolent ruler, but she doesn’t even try to think about things critically. Especially in this day and age, you are supposed to research and analyze before you draw a conclusion, not just take the word of some criminal who doesn’t even off you any proof. I love Eda. She’s badass and creative, and I adore how she grows to care about others through the series. But she is a biased character to introduce a world through, and Luz doesn’t even question it. She hears Eda’s “oh, he just wants to control magic” and runs with it.

The biggest example of her complete dismissal of the Boiling Isles culture, laws, and norms would be when she continued to push to be in all classes. Not only does she lack the necessary knowledge to cast precise spells, but she is asking the principal, the teachers, and all the students to risk themselves for her fantasy. This isn’t some petty pickpocketing that she’s asking a few people to ignore. She asks to be allowed to violate one of the most important laws in the whole country—it has the death penalty, for fuck’s sake! Principal Bump could have been executed for allowing this; the teachers could have gone to prison! And the students who don’t turn her in, while unlikely to suffer so severely, are likely to be punished as well! How many people could have been hurt or killed by her thoughtless violation of the laws if Belos had been shown to be a bit more how Dana claims he was? (Because, all things considered, he’s not shown to be the harshest ruler ever.)

Additionally, it bothers me that she never bothers to explore any real cultures or traditions on the Isles. She “wants to be a witch,” but doesn’t focus on anything other than the magic of it. If it were Harry Potter world, where witches are exclusively humans with human culture but magic, I’d get that, but it isn’t. It is a whole other world where everything from childhood to the system of government is different. Her refusal to let go of her preconceived notions and just explore what the BIs is like comes off a little bit like a weeb in their mother’s basement saying “I want to be Japanese,” going to Japan, and then never exploring it beyond their notions of what Japan is like from anime. I love Luz, and it was incredibly impactful for me to see a fellow neurodivergent fantasy nerd on screen, but she has a tendency of treating the Boiling Isles like her escapist fantasies. It bothers me that it’s not really addressed.

Finally, this lack of exploration leads to limited knowledge on what the actual inhabitants of the Boiling Isles are like aside from a select handful. What beliefs aside from the Titan do people have? What rituals do they perform, holidays do they celebrate? What are the people of the Boiling Isles like? Part of what I love about Amphibia is the time it takes to world-build, to show us all the different ways that the world works, and how there are varied, diverse, and unique cultures that are a part of it. It makes Amphibia dynamic and alive. The Owl House doesn’t do that with the Boiling Isles, and I’m bummed about that.

I hope this is close enough to what you’re talking about, because this got me on a tangent.

[jess-the-vampire]

Wanna add more insight as to why people are as bothered by not revealing the wittebane story more from a fan perspective, i’ve already talked about why it bothers people in regards to belos’s character, but here’s partially why i think fans feel the sense of lacking they do:

I think what especially bothers people about not getting the complete answers on the caleb/evelyn/philip story is compared to other stories within the series, this one not being explained is a big outlier, because the show is actually decent at setting up stuff that they’ll answer afterwards.

Hollow Mind works as well as it does because all of the reveals in it are stuff you could of figured out beforehand due to all the clues being thrown around, there are hints to the grimwalkers, to caleb and evelyn, to flapjack being caleb’s, it rewards the viewers for paying attention to the stuff they were showing us.

Like “Here’s an open grimwalker page” and “Here’s the statues, doesn’t the faces on them look familiar?”

But then they still dangle some key elements, leaving some for later after hollow mind. No full answers to the door, what exactly happened between caleb and philip during the fight, ect ect

Which is fine, because you expect answers later.

And this continues with a lot of the other mysteries too, collector’s backstory gets foreshadowing before it’s reveal, lilith cursing eda has foreshadowing before it’s reveal, even manny having passed away is something you might pick up on before we’re told.

The show is actively showing you evidence and then rewarding you for paying attention by giving answers to the setups without many loose threads.

the show loves to show you the audience “Hey look at this thing, this will be important later”, and then have to come back with the answers it promised.

Though the show was cut, so not everything it wanted to resolve was, the story of evelyn, caleb and philip kept going post cut and kept ramping up, most of s2b involves caleb hints in every single episode.

And when you are making him sound important and then then continuing to make him and evelyn both relevant in s3, the audience is waiting for the promised reward for putting all the pieces together, and then...nothing happens.

the show asks you to pay attention to the door eda finds with a scratch on it, to the tale of the brothers, to the ghost of caleb, to flapjack knowing caleb and knowing about the blood, and there’s no answers to most of it.

You can’t even say most of the stuff missing were small either, like we don’t need the holes in collector’s story answered too much, but there’s almost too much in the wittebane story to really breeze over.

When jacob shows you a picture of a burning building and says “Tragedy struck” before explaining the brothers were lost, you think “Oh, i can't wait to understand what this means”....and to this day we don’t have any idea what that tragedy was.

Why was evelyn on earth? no clue. Was caleb even planning to see philip again? no idea. Why didn’t the door work for luz who used philip’s notes correctly and completely? who knows.

Like there are things brought up, that not even small details in the show can answer,

There could be something really neat about having this whole story in the bg that fans figure out mind you, the problem is there’s too many large gaps that can’t really be filled in by what we get.

So while you can pick up on a lot and put a lot together from what we get, there’s still not enough, heck, people who have looked into this lore still have very different ideas on a lot of stuff because the gaps are so wide.

And while the show was cut, it also put most of this out there, after the cut, we know this because the cut happened during ER and collector was added post cut, so KKKOHD was a point where we can confirm everything was being written with the cut in mind.

So a lot of this stuff about the wittebanes being implied, was written to fans to notice and draw their attention to, while not planning to fully answer it seems.

The ghost haunting the narrative is a neat idea, but it feels less like ghosts and more like half finished set ups.

I think manny works better as a ghost in the narrative because there’s no gaps with him, you get everything you need to understand what he means to the characters and story and there’s no lingering mysteries about him, At best you can just pick out stuff about him from the bg which are more like bonus stuff then anything. There’s no expectations that we’ll meet him or see him, or that we need more then we get.

They set him him up, and they pay him off in the story, we get what we need and we don’t need more.

While with evelyn and caleb, while they do haunt the story and everything ties back to them, not only does the show leave so much about them in the dark that the only reason people figure this out is through theories and going online for the information, but even the show won’t acknowledge how important they are to the main story, they’re almost treated as if their story doesn’t matter to the main one even tho the main story wouldn’t have happened without theirs.

When philip’s reasons for his actions are explained, we aren’t even told caleb had anything to do with it, or even evelyn for that matter. You almost don’t even need caleb or evelyn in the story at all for most of the plot to happen given the show ends almost acting like they meant nothing in regards to what happens.

it’s even more unusual because the main characters never mention them either, gus knows the story more because he saw philip’s memories but he never mentions anything about what he saw outside of the grimwalker thing.

You would kinda think seeing the memories would imply gus could tell hunter who caleb was, which given hunter was worried about that would kinda be important, but it never comes up.

The kids are told about caleb, told about evelyn, but they never talk about it or bring it up. Hunter sees his own palisman be recognized by philip, that it was aware of the rebus, which he finds out later was caleb and evelyn’s, but again....has nothing much to say about his own ortet knowing flap at all.

it is as if the show is going out of it’s way to have the main cast ignore them, even tho there’s no reason why they should, especially not hunter or gus.

again, there is a lot to wrap up, and tbh even i doubted they would explain everything about this, but given they gave it the time they did, even despite the cut, it’s more baffling the show ended almost making it out to be irrelevant.

even if they couldn’t explain everything, we still needed something 

because as is, it almost feels like a waste of time to even focus on that story at all.

and even if we do get a spinoff for this, this was written with the idea the show would not get one, so it ended expecting what we were given to be good enough for fans.

And for some, it was.

But in a show where it went out of it’s way to set up a lot of stuff it paid off, to keep setting up stuff for this particular plot and leave with very little actually answered is something people are gonna find frustrating.

They clearly wanted people to care, to want answers, and then didn’t even give them anything and then kinda told them it wasn’t even relevant to the main story or to the cast at all.

it sorta leaves people wondering why they were told to be invested in the first place.

[eldritch-spouse]

That inebriated-Krulu ask got me thinking, what would Belo, Admin, Adrul, and Adelo ask Krulu while he was intoxicated? Drunk enough where EVERYONE knows that the Siadar won’t remember anything once he sobers up the next morning.

Krulu would be unable to lie, give a cryptic answer, or dodge the question.

Belo could finally get an answer as to why the Siadar abandoned them. Admin could ask Krulu if he could verbalize his love for them. I honestly don’t know what Adrul or Adelo would want to know; maybe stuff about Krulu’s master plan involving the two.

So what deep dark secret/honest truth do they want to know? What tiny bit of uncertainty is eating them all up from the inside that they’re willing to risk knowing the truth about?

Whatever you ask, he's likely to answer it.

Belo isn't getting an answer as to why the siadar left. Krulu was banished before said event occured, he can only theorize and draw from what he knew up until a certain point. He also had his own skewed perceptios of just how involved the siadar were with Earth, up until Miara had a long conversation with him. Krulu is more likely to comb over the topic in this state, or be totally honest and just say he doesn't know all that much.

Adelo and Adrul probably indirectly are more concerned with their Father's pride on them. Even if one of them, Adrul, is a lot more willing to just ask outright- Are you proud of me? And he is. He loves his offspring more than he ever loved anything with his charred heart. Adelo will skirt around the issue and try to be more playful with Krulu, seeing as it's a rarity to have their much too serious Father cracking jokes.

Krulu is unendingly affectionate in this state, which doesn't make him the most reliable to answer deep, dark questions. He's much more concerned with gathering his loyal followers in his many arms and cooing over them, making the same tricks he sometimes would to impress humans way back when, and generally can't seem to get upset.

This affection may or may not become horny, but thankfully, his offspring will not be around to witness such moments.

[slightecho]

It’s been a week and I haven’t seen anyone talking yet about how the finale directly ties back to s1e4: “The Intruder” and how Luz’s true power came from her having to learn from both witches AND demons (best of both things!!)

Like, obviously we get to FINALLY see Eda showing Luz how to do a spell circle, but they’re drawing our attention back to this ep for more than just THAT moment as a parallel. Through the finale, we can now understand that that entire episode truly did ride on whether Luz was willing to learn from ALL creatures of the BI, witch and demon alike. It’s not until King reveals his desire to teach Luz, too, and she has an open moment with him about this, that the first glyph reveals itself to Luz, allowing her to save them and help Eda from her curse.

Likewise, we have to come back to this lesson in the finale; She is the Good Witch Luz, but that and her palisman alone (a witch’s tool, mind you) isn’t enough against Belos in the end. She needs to become the best of the Boiling Isles. The best of both things, if you will. Witch AND Demon.

Yeah, it brought me to tears getting to see Eda hold Luz’s hand and FINALLY teach her to do a spell circle, but it wasn’t until afterwards, also getting to see King sit on her shoulder after and teach her his roar, too, that I truly felt the impact of the follow-through from that episode. She has to learn both. This is why her palisman being a snakeshifter makes so much sense; Luz has always desired to be and learn all things, and in the Boiling Isles, that means she has to become and learn both, too.

That’s why she’s the only one who can. King outright says in The Intruder that “I don’t have many friends… nobody even pays that much attention to me. I thought maybe if I taught you, finally someone would care about creatures like me.” And Luz’s response?

She just smiles and asks him to finish his lesson.

And then Papa Titan shows her the first glyph; the most important one, in the end. Because she cares, and she’s willing to learn.

She’s not just learning from Eda in the finale; she’s learning from King, too. Without any hesitation, he jumps in after the spell circle moment to teach her to roar like a Titan.

It’s not enough to want to learn one aspect of a culture, like that of Witches and Demons in the Boiling Isles, and leave aside the rest. Only by Luz’s desire and understanding of both, can she actually save the Demon Realm from Belos.

(Belos, who, btw, only ever cared enough to see the witches he hated, and their “god,” who just so happens to be a titan. Only able to see the culture of the Boiling Isles through the human lens he understands, the only reason he even SEES the Titan is because he views it as their “god.” Even when the Collector reveals to him that King is a Titan, Belos STILL overlooks him for the one he perceives as important. But that’s a rant for another day.)

Anyways in conclusion TLDR yada yada:

Luz’s story and the real callback to The Intruder here is not just about the witch’s spell circle and Eda teaching her; it’s about both. King is her teacher too. And that’s every bit as important teaching as Eda’s.

[lollytea]

Okay I wanna write down a few thoughts on that part of the climax in Thanks to Them that has garnered some mixed opinions. Specifically Hunter’s possession and the subsequent death of Flapjack. 

I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m defending this scene, as people are perfectly within their rights to be uncomfortable with it and criticize everything from its execution to its inclusion at all. Whether this whole thing was objectively a terrible writing decision for Hunter’s character, his arc, and the overall message it sends is....a discussion starter to say the least. Rather, what I wanna do is maybe try and dissect the reasons why these scenes might exist in the first place. From a writing perspective. 

I’ve been thinking about it a lot, trying to figure out just what angle the crew was going for and I think I might have some vague idea. And I’ll admit, I think there’s something poignant in here somewhere. Maybe they fumbled the bag a bit and didn’t consider just how troubling some of these implications could be. Writing gets clunky sometimes. But that’s up to every individual viewer to draw their own conclusions. But personally, I don’t believe that these scenes were intended to be gratuitous. I don’t believe that they were added solely because the crew are sadists who enjoy wringing Hunter dry like an angsty dish cloth. As flawed as they may be, I think I can understand why they were written. Possibly. 

So, I’m gonna try to give an objective look at the themes, storytelling and symbolism at play here and how all of that relates to Hunter’s overall character and the big climax of his story.

We’ll start with the very understandable hurt viewers felt when Hunter’s road to recovery was abruptly relapsed by Belos. The thing many people are vocalizing their feelings about is how the episode made sure to demonstrate just how happy Hunter was. That’s what devastated them the most. Hunter was in the process of healing, which hits close to home for many, making what Belos did to him all the more disturbing on a personal level. 

However, every single one of us knew that Belos was alive before we watched the episode. Hunter did not. Hunter believed that Belos was dead and this was the only reason that he felt safe enough to make such progress in his recovery. So now matter what way you twist it, we all knew Hunter was set up to relapse the moment he realized Belos was in the Human Realm. 

So what was the point of showing this sixteen year old abuse victim experiencing safety, warmth, happiness, confidence and self exploration just to cruelly rip it all away from him? 

Put simply, to establish just how much Hunter now has to live for. Just how much Hunter has to fight for. His motivations for living and for fighting are sprinkled all throughout the episode. This boy has such a hopeful future laid out before him and he knows it. So when he finally gets his moment to tell Belos exactly what he wants for himself, you understand exactly where this passion and determination is coming from. It means something. 

And then there’s the possession itself, which everything comes down to. We saw the leaks, we hated them, some of us talked ourselves into believing they were fake but we all kinda knew deep down. It was a very fun very terrible week. ANYWAY. 

I think that Hunter’s arc would have felt incomplete if he didn’t get a final confrontation with Belos. That’s the popular opinion. However, many are also in the opinion that Hunter getting possessed was very unnecessary and violating and it should not have been done in the first place. And I’m not gonna argue with this view. It’s legit. But again, here’s what I believe the crew might have been going for with this.

The possession of Hunter’s body is a symbolic manifestation of everything Belos has always represented in his life. It’s a final culmination of all sixteen years under that man’s thumb and all the damage he’s done to Hunter’s body and psyche. 

Ever since Separate Tides, Hunter has been Belos’ puppet. And honestly, though the specifics of the arrangement have shifted, this was still the case throughout Thanks To Them. Between Separate Tides and Hollow Mind, it’s pretty simple. Perfectly obedient Golden Guard who does everything his uncle tells him to do, without much say in the trajectory of his own life. 

However, after Hollow Mind, Hunter was no longer that. But that didn’t mean the puppetry stopped entirely. He was a nervous wreck for the rest of the season. The mention of the Emperor’s name paralyzed him with fear. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t done directly. Belos still had an alarming amount of control over Hunter. 

So long as he was alive, Hunter knew he wasn’t safe. And once Hunter starts to realize that he’s still out there, it becomes obvious that he will never fully recover until he’s certain Belos is dead. 

Everything about the possession is an encapsulation of what Belos’ years of abuse and manipulation have been like to Hunter. How powerless he’s always felt. But this time, it isn’t done through words or threats of violence. It’s worse than that. It’s physically invasive. It’s desecration. It’s having his very self taken away from him and nothing is more sacred than a person’s autonomy. The weight of what’s happening to him is palpable. 

This is the worst thing Belos has ever done to him. 

But what does Hunter, the boy who spent his entire life petrified of this man, do about it? 

He finds it in himself to rebel against it.

Because, though Belos’ abuse and the negative effects of his upbringing have always been such a crucial aspect of Hunter’s sense of personhood, it’s not all that defines him. 

A long time ago Hunter was given orders from the Emperor to slay a selkidomus. Instead he passed the job off to somebody else because he didn’t want to do it. 

Hunter self-sabotaged his own mission and allowed Luz to escape with the palismen he was ordered to recover. 

Hunter studied wild magic against his uncle’s wishes. 

Hunter went to Eclipse Lake even when he was told not to. 

Hunter had a secret palismen named Flapjack. 

Hunter assigned himself to the Hexside mission without getting Belos’ approval. 

Hunter owned a secret scroll. 

Hunter refused to roll over and die in the mindscape even when Belos decided that he was no longer useful. 

Hunter has a rebellious heart. Had one from the very beginning. He was definitely in denial about it back then (Happily declaring just how much he loves “Authority! And rules!”) but it was there, clear as day.

But this is the moment where Hunter embraces that rebellious heart. And in doing so, he finds the willpower to regain control of his body. To Hunter, this moment is a reflection of everything he’s always wanted to do. To break free of Belos’ power. To speak his mind. To choose his own future. To choose himself. 

And all that genuine joy we saw him experiencing earlier in the episode is what strengthens his resolve to grit out his final words to Belos.

Hunter releases years of pent up frustration that he was too brainwashed to ever let himself think about. 

Hunter openly expresses desire after desire, fully aware that every single one of them will boil Belos’ blood. 

Hunter outrights demands that he be allowed happiness. 

He’s proving, not only to Belos, but to himself that you can hurt him, you can scare him, you can manipulate him, you can even possess him, but you will never own him. Nobody will ever own him. 

So, yes, absolutely. There are valid criticisms to be had of the concept of Hunter being possessed. And it’s likely the writers didn’t really think a lot of the ramifications through. 

But I believe the idea it’s trying to portray was how the intensity of that moment and how violating it was to Hunter further emphasized just how powerful Hunter’s final act of defiance was. It wasn’t just one last fight between the two of them, it was a visceral way of having Hunter confront everything Belos has ever put him through, allow his resentment to bubble over and finally understand that he has the right to reject who he was “supposed” to be, whether Belos likes it or not. 

One thing that came from the possession scene that I believe is genuinely a good and healthy thing is that Hunter’s perspective of Belos has changed for the better.

This was the worst thing Belos could have possibly done to him. And Hunter did not only survive it but he was capable of resisting it. Something he’s never been able to do before. He has officially endured the worst Belos can inflict on him. So, with that in mind, Hunter has no reason left to be afraid of this man anymore. With this, all remaining control Belos had over him has been shattered. 

I have to acknowledge that, though this experience was truly godawful, it did provide Hunter with the closure he needed. It was necessary to how he proceeds forward. With all that fear out of the picture, Hunter’s current feelings towards Belos consist of righteous fury and contempt. Which is cathartic to say the least, as Hunter’s hate can finally be directed at the person who hurt him, rather than himself. In the case of a victim struggling with their trauma, allowing themselves to be angry at their abuser can be a very therapeutic thing. 

This is huge for Hunter. While many have expressed the opinion that the after effects of this moment will be detrimental to Hunter’s overall arc, I honestly think it’s a massive step in the journey to recovery. It’s not the nice peaceful part he experienced while in Camila’s house but not everything about an abuse victim’s healing process is pleasant. Sometimes it’s ugly. But progress is progress. 

And then there’s the matter of Flapjack’s sacrifice which is a doozy of a subject. 

Anyone who follows me is aware that I was very vocal in my belief that Flapjack would survive, because surely they wouldn’t take something so precious to Hunter away from him. Surely. 

(Well I’m Stan and I was wrong, I’m singing the Stan Wrong Song, okay fuck you.)

But once that episode was over and the credits were rolling, I started to think about Flapjack as far back as his introduction in Hunting Palismen. And honestly, I feel like his death was planned from the start. The kind of friend who comes into your life, changes you for the better before inevitably having to say goodbye. But even if it’s temporary, that doesn’t make their presence in your life any less impactful. 

While Flapjack had plenty of personality, he wasn’t so much a character with his own arc, as he was a tool in progressing Hunter’s. His role in the story was to guide a lost and lonely boy into the light and show him that he’s worthy of being loved. 

And with Flapjack’s influence, Hunter let himself meet people who don’t make him feel worthless. He has never felt more loved in his life. 

Flapjack officially imprinted on Hunter when the boy expressed a longing to figure out his own future. Flapjack decided that he would try to lead him in the right direction. 

And in his final moments, Flapjack watched the boy he had been guiding adamantly proclaim everything he wanted his future to be. It was safe to assume he had figured it out. 

Flapjack’s existence in Hunter’s life also represents the link to Caleb along with Hunter’s complicated “relationship” with this ghost of a man that he’ll never know. Caleb is not Hunter and Hunter will never be Caleb. However, they’ll always be connected by the strings of terrible, terrible destiny that Belos tied together. And though Hunter didn’t know it, Caleb lingered in his life in the form of the bird he left behind.

And in all that time where Hunter figuring out his own identity, Caleb’s bird was helping him along. It was when Hunter was finally certain exactly who he was (Not a witch hunting accomplice of Belos) that Caleb’s bird was ready to move on.

With all these ends tied up, Hunter did not need Flapjack anymore. 

But Flapjack still had one more job left to do. And that was to make sure Hunter got to stay with the people who loved him and Hunter got his chance to experience the future he had decided for himself. Figuring it out is useless if it’s all a hopeless fantasy. Flapjack wanted it to be a reality. 

It must have been a relief to the little bird’s heart that his witch had grown so much and he could leave knowing Hunter would be okay without him.

(There’s also the interpretation that Flapjack is an analogy for a service animal/disability aid. But that line about learning to carve could not set it up the future any clearer. Hunter will not be without a palisman forever.

Obviously, it might take him some time before he’s ready to begin again. But he will make a new palismen. As a boy who’s spent his entire arc learning how to let new loved ones into his life, it would make absolutely no sense whatsoever if he didn’t.)

Anyway, my biggest fear when I saw the leaks which showed Flapjack sacrificing himself for Hunter’s sake, was how much something like that could completely destroy all of Hunter’s healing progress. Because why wouldn’t it? He not only lost his best friend but Flapjack died to keep him alive. How could he possibly live with himself after something like that? 

I think this is one of the main talking points over why people are upset about Flapjack’s death. How it’s going to effect Hunter. I’ve seen the belief that this devastating loss was detrimental to his recovery journey and it’s rendered all of the lighthearted scenes of enthusiasm and confidence from earlier in the special obsolete. But I honestly feel like it’s the exact opposite. 

Hunter’s reaction to Flapjack’s death was different than I imagined it would be. And not in an objectively bad way. It’s quite telling of how far he’s come. Compare it to Hollow Mind where Hunter also experiences a traumatic loss which results in him having a complete meltdown. He cries, he hyperventilates, he runs blindly into the woods. It was borderline apocalyptic. And it’s completely understandable. At this point in life, Hunter lost what he believed to be his entire world. 

After Flapjack’s sacrifice, the first thing Hunter did when he regained consciousness was smile, softly greet his remaining loved ones and ask if they were alright. It’s revealed seconds later that he already knew Flapjack was gone. But he still had it in him to smile. Because even in the devastating aftermath of losing the creature who changed his life and introduced him to real happiness, he’s relieved to know his friends and family are safe. He knows he’s not alone. 

Flapjack was deeply important to Hunter. It’s impossible to even articulate just how much he adored that little bird. When he lost his former life, Flapjack was all he had.

However, by this point, Hunter’s life is flourishing with hobbies and interests and ambitions and friends and family and love. Flapjack was no longer everything Hunter had. And being surrounded by so many people who cared about him in his moment of grief is a powerful thing. 

Hunter is quiet about Flapjack’s death. He’s weak, he’s exhausted, he’s utterly gutted. But there’s nothing that implies he blames himself. Judging by how he was aware of the sacrifice despite just waking up, I believe they did get one last goodbye via their mental link. 

And I think this is why Hunter seems so accepting of what had just happened. Whatever Flapjack said to him, he had successfully made Hunter understand that this was just how it had to be and that it was not his fault. And with all the love and optimism Flapjack has instilled in him since they met, Hunter decided that what he needs to do now is try and lead the most fulfilling life he possibly can. He has to. This life had been a gift from Flapjack after all.

But as mentioned way up above, Hunter can never have the life he wants until Belos is permanently out of the picture. I think this is where his new lease of life comes from in the final moments of the special. 

Hunter has changed significantly throughout this episode. While in his opening scene, he was completely clueless on how to comfort Luz properly because he equates the guilt she feels to his own and that link between their similar feelings sabotages any attempt at clarity on his part. His words of comfort were basically “If it helps, they’ll hate me more.” 

But before he steps through the portal, Hunter has a new perspective on the self-loathing that has been corrupting both himself and the girl he now calls family. It was never them. It was Belos. It was always Belos. Hunter is able to tell Luz that it was never her fault because he finally understands that it was never his fault. And he’s telling her all of this because she’s important to him and she always will be. 

Hunter still has Luz.

He then expresses his new motivation. To fight back. To regain control of his life. To get some justice for all the damage his abuser has done to him and so many others. To protect the world that he cares about. 

Hunter still has Willow and Gus and Amity. 

Hunter still has Camila and Vee. 

Losing Flapjack did not kill Hunter’s fire. It did not render all of his prior growth in the Human Realm null and void. Hunter has experienced a loss and his grief is palpable but he still has so much left.

In fact, I think if Hunter hadn’t had these experiences, hadn’t built these relationships, hadn’t realized just how much life has to offer to him, he wouldn’t be taking such a defiant stance. He wouldn’t be the first one to march into the portal, taking Flapjack home, determined to end Belos once and for all. And he’s standing on a strong foundation of mourning, experience, wisdom, love and support. 

I keep thinking about that very infamous line by Dana that was misinterpreted to Hell and back. 

“Dana doesn’t like happy endings.” 

That line never bothered me much, even when I didn’t know what the exact context actually was (Dana doesn’t like happily ever after.) Like, I watched the Owl House, I know the kind of stories Dana liked to tell. So, the way I always interpreted that opinion was the simple message that we can never have it all. 

Life is tumultuous. There are ups. There are downs. There are gains. There are losses. And I feel like that’s an accurate summary of Hunter’s development throughout the special. 

Hunter had been mistreated. He now has far more scars than he started out with. He lost Flapjack. These are all devastating blows to him physically and emotionally. 

But please, don’t allow the suffering Hunter went through distract from all of his positive growth in this episode. Hunter spent months making happy memories. He strengthened his bonds with his friends. He now has somebody who genuinely loves him that he can call family. He’s discovered all these brand new hobbies and interests. 

He likes who he is now.

That hasn’t changed. I promise you that it hasn’t changed. 

And most importantly of all, Hunter is no longer ruled by fear of the man who hurt him. He is no longer under Belos’ control. 

Hunter is grieving right now but he is not in ruins. 

This is not rock bottom for him. 

I feel that Hunter’s gains and losses were pretty evenly distributed throughout the episode. However, because of the attachment people have towards him, as a teenage abuse victim who’s steadily recovering, it’s easy to only see his losses. Because it hurts to see, it really does. 

But I promise you all of those happy Hunter memories meant something too. Those are what’s him pushing forward right now. 

Anyway, those are my two cents on that whole thing. Again, I don’t think these scenes are immune to criticism. However, I did want to take a moment to examine them a bit because I truly believe that there was a team of passionate writers attempting to create something profound with this.

I like to write myself and I understand that a lot of the time I miss the mark and don’t always execute the point I’m trying to make. So, at the very least, even if things aren’t handled perfectly, I’d like to try and dissect the message that they were attempting to send. 

It’s absolutely fine if you don’t agree with a word of this. I understand that these scenes have hurt quite a lot of people. But thank you for reading. I appreciate it. 💕

[twimbs]

dont take me out for this pls god pls

Okay so. I’ve been thinking a lot about Belos and the grimwalkers.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Belos is like a narcissistic parent.

I personally think the grimwalkers would either develop as small children or babies, based on the drawings and some lines from Hunter and Belos. “I’m the youngest scout to become golden guard.” > heavily implies that the grimwalkers are raised as normal scouts first, and Belos chooses what age to make them golden guard and whatnot. Yes it’s possible this is wrong but the rest of the headcanon save like one piece still fits regardless of how you see it.

Before the grimwalkers become golden guard, I believe Belos would treat them ~kind of~ well. He would still be abusive, don’t get me wrong, but some of the things I’ve seen people theorize are. hmmmgh

I definitely think in moments of defiance and anger, Belos would lash out - we’ve seen him do this to Hunter and Collector, so that’s most likely his response to any anger.

However, we also know Belos is a master of manipulation and a liar. He literally told Hunter their family was killed by wild witches. Hunter never questioned this - he never had a reason to.

It’s possible he lied to every golden guard before this the same way. Although less effectively - since some of them were helping him trick and lie and murder the witches sooo... yeah, not a lot of “our family was killed by wild magic and I’m such a saint”.

I definitely think Belos raised Hunter. It’s 16 years of lies, and manipulation, and emotional abuse. But I can see him having a genuine love for Hunter.

HEAR ME OUT.

Belos is a flaming narcissist. Part of narcissistic parents, and abuse from narcissistic parents, is them being incredibly delusional.

Imagine for a moment, that Belos has a perfect little world. Where Hunter is either Caleb and Belos’ second chance to control his brother - or that Hunter is actually his nephew, and all of his lies about their family are true.

With narcissists, and compulsive liars, there’s a certain level of tricking themselves. There’s delusions, and their perfect image of things - Belos’ is Hunter being obedient, and perfect, and following him without question. Everything Caleb wasn’t.

So when Hunter acts this way - as we see him do, look at Hollow Mind where this kid literally says invading his FAMILY’S mind is sacrilege - Belos loves him. He truly loves him as a family member, he cares for him, and they could have a “normal” relationship.

But the minute Hunter shows any disobedience, or any sliver of dissent - that love is gone. And Hunter knows this, he has experienced it so many times before - which is why he reacts that way in Eclipse Lake. He knows that not being perfect results in losing the little bit of love and affection he gets from Belos. The only love he gets from anyone - being so isolated. It’s also probably why he latches onto Darius, Gus and Willow so quickly. He needs that affection, because Belos’ affection is temporary and conditional. Boy is so love starved.

So, if Belos really cares for the grimwalkers as long as they behave, how does he kill them? You have to be incredibly emotionally removed to kill someone you love, which I mean. Belos probably is let’s be honest.

But whenever his “perfect world” is shattered or threatened (again like narcissistic parents), he withdraws. He shuts himself off. Any bit of emotion, or memory of love, is immediately filed away. Belos has incredible control over his mind - he can take 16 years of love and throw it away in an instant.

Look at this moment from Hollow Mind when Hunter questions him. The instant shift.

This is also probably a trauma response to feeling betrayed and abandoned by Caleb - at the slightest hint of abandonment, he shuts those feelings off - because he can’t afford to feel hurt. And so, the moment a grimwalker disobeys him, and does the same things as Caleb - he has no issue killing them. They’re no longer a family member or grimwalker to him. It wouldn’t surprise me if his mind actually removes the two identities. To cope, he doesn’t see it as killing Caleb - he sees it as killing a faceless, nameless traitor. He doesn’t see Hunter, he sees a faceless, nameless traitor. And of course, he’s doing the right thing killing them, because he has billions of humans relying on him to save them.

It’s so many layers of delusions and lies for Belos to do this, that breaking them might actually be dangerous or impossible. He’s so swept up in these lies, of wild magic, and saving humanity, and avenging his brother, and proving that he was right to his brother - that he’s probably not even Philip anymore.

Imagine Luz is the first human he’s seen in centuries. The first genuine tie to his home, his humanity, his identity as Philip Wittebane - he latches onto her. Because in all of the lies, he’s forgetting who he used to be. He’s losing his identity and he’s losing his mind. And Luz is the one thing that he thinks can bring that piece of himself (the most sacred piece, mind you) back. She’s also the first human to witness his accomplishments, and the first human he gets to save from the savage witches and demons - except she doesn’t want his help. She doesn’t need his saving. And that gets in his head, and it starts to break the delusions.

And how does he rationalize this? “Can’t reason with crazy.”

But then you add on another delusion - he is still Philip Wittebane - even though I can guarantee that name is just a name to him now. He acts how he thinks Philip would act according to his own morals, not how Philip actually used to act. There’s probably discrepancies in the two if you look close enough.

He is truly unhinged, and truly so lost in his mind. A true narcissist and he's most likely too far gone.

This spiraled a bit anyway here’s my take on Belos and his actions and his motivations and just a breakdown of how he rationalizes it

~note im not trying to make light of the abuse or actions of belos - just analyzing his motivations and providing real world examples of how his mind works while he’s doing his genocide~

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Loved About "King's Tide" from The Owl House

Salutations, random people on the internet who certainly won't read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

Here it is, ladies, gentlemen, and those of other genders! The Season Two finale of The Owl House! And holy s**t, what a season this has been! Season One wasn't bad by any means, but everything in Season Two is taken up a notch.

The characters, for one, are impressively well-written. After a season of getting to know our cast of misfits and weirdos, Dana Terrace and her crew finally get a chance to play around with them, introducing new layers and motivations that make almost every character multidimensional. Not only that, but we get introduced to new fan favorites, like Vee, Raine, and especially Hunter, with each of them instantly winning us over.

But the characters aren't the only things that are improved this season. The overarching story and the little narratives threaded within it are perfectly tied together. The writers managed to juggle so many plotlines in a way where they all flowed together well, giving each one its own time to develop while others moved forward. One complaint I had with Season One was how the B-plots always felt like filler, where the time they took away should have been used to better further the main plot. In Season Two, the B-plots are used appropriately, as they continue one plotline or develop characters while the main story focuses on others...Except for "Any Sport in a Storm," which had a whole section of an episode dedicated to Luz and Amity finding out how The Good Witch Azura exists in both the Boiling Isles and the Human Realm. Still have no idea why they wasted so much time on that when Amity simply saying, "Oh, I got them from a box that washed onto shore," would have taken no time. Still, everything else is so tightly written, and I was all there for it.

And the animation is where the improvements this season are more noticeable. Season One had fine animation, but in Season Two, there's more emphasis on shading, colors, expressions, and movements that make it a spectacle to see at times. You can tell Disney pumped more money into the series this time...which makes their inevitable betrayal to Dana and her crew all the more frustrating, but that's neither here nor there.

Season Two is damn near perfect. It does feel like there's little time to breathe with how much every episode throws in, but if I'm seriously going to complain about getting a lot of high-level quality we got each week with little room for filler, I might just consider myself insane.

Now, let's just hope "King's Tide" can do its job at ending this season on a high note. I'm sure there will be a lot of awesome action and heartbreaking emotions ahead of us, so let's dive into it, shall we?

Also…taking out the “Disliked” section…I won’t need it.

Spoilers ahead.

WHAT I LIKED

The Collector’s Getting Impatient: Once again, an episode starts things off ominously. Hearing The Collector spout off about how he wants to be free but Belos won’t let them shows us how childlike The Collector really is. Not only are they still naive to believe that Belos will hold his end of the bargain, but the way he’s whining about not being free yet is very childlike. Trust me, kids whine when you don’t give them what they want exactly when they ask for it. Granted, The Collector has more of a valid reason for why they’re whining. If I was trapped in that pokeball, I’d be screaming “Let me out” over and over again too. Regardless, with all the childishness in this scene, it tells us that The Collector is more of a unique type of godlike character. We’ll see more of that later, but for now, let’s appreciate this little taste of what this crazy kid could be like.

The Rest of the Opening Scene: Speaking of crazy kids, seeing what the others are up to after Luz let herself get taken away is just about what I expected. There’s a sense of panic and frustration between them all, escalating further with each second. It’s not until Willow gets the palismans to step in. What follows are a few nice moments of everyone sorting out their differences and even an adorable revelation for why Amity’s nickname is “Mittens.” When I first watched this scene, I didn’t think anything of it. I just thought it was cute, and that’s about it…and then the rest of the episode happened. From then on, it became clear that this scene was just the calm before the storm, easing us into the darkness that soon followed closely behind. And BOY did things get dark!

“There’s always a way to help. You just have to look for the right opportunity.”: Oh, Willow…Willow, Willow, Willow…

What you said was sweet and is very much true…but you pretty much doomed the planet by saying it. Because King was right. He WILL remember what you’ve said. For better and worse…

Eda DID Get the Brand: Well, there went that theory from the last episode.

I still stuck by what I said last time. Eda getting this brand is a betrayal of everything she stands for, so to go through with it proves how committed to the cause she is. If she’s willing to lose the one thing that makes Eda, well, Eda, it means that she’d do anything for the Isles. Such an action makes her far more than the con-artist we got introduced to in “A Lying Witch and a Warden.” Still, it leaves this sick feeling in my stomach to see her branded like that.

But don’t worry. That sickness gets replaced by sadness real quick.

Eda’s Talk With Raine, Lilith, and Hooty: Yup. That’s the good stuff…

This scene is everything. Eda already had a final moment with her kids, so to give her time with the other most important people in her life really hits hard. Raine and Lilith tell Eda to be careful, in which she reasures them both that everything will be fine. She even kisses Hooty on the head! That’s not only sweet as all forms of hell, but it says alot about how Eda sees her relationship with Hooty. He certainly got on her nerves a couple of times, but she cares about him enough to reassure Hooty that she’ll make it out alright. Granted, Eda doesn’t know that, but what’s she going to say? That things are as scary as they seem and that there’s a good chance things will go wrong? No. We know Eda, and we’ve seen that if given the chance, she’ll put a positive spin on things even though they’re dire. She did it with Luz in “Agony of a Witch,” and she’ll do it again here. I wouldn’t call it overconfidence, but rather Eda just caring about her loved ones so much that she’s willing to hide her own fears from them. Not the best thing to do, but it does further emphasize the nobility within her that the coven brand already revealed. And it’s incredible.

Belos Preparing to Leave: But if there’s anybody who’s best described as overconfident, it’s this son of a witch! You can tell how sure Belos is about his victory with how he quickly drops his act the second he begins the draining spell. He discards his old witch robes, makes himself look human, explicitly admits that he lied to The Collector, and just tells Kikimora to go die in a hole. Even when Luz shows up, Belos doesn’t look surprised or worried. If anything, it’s like he expected this to happen and was readily prepared for it. It’s not like he’ll be scared. Why would he? The draining spell has started and there’s very little that anyone can do to stop it. All he has left is to take care of this one “pest,” and he’s good to go in leaving everything behind. It’s a testament to just how confident Belos is in his schemes, to the point where he doesn’t consider that there’s the tiniest possibility that something could go wrong. Even though the people he disregarded ended up being what lead to his downfall.

But we’ll get into that. For now, we’ve got some action to go through!

The Kids (and Alador) Fighting the Other Airships: This is a pretty fun set-piece. The little ways that everyone works together to stop the airships attacking is extraordinary. They all contribute in a unique way with Gus covering them with an illusion, Hunter going for a full frontal assault, Willow saving Hunter’s dumbass, and Amity shutting down the abomitons while Alador drives their airship. It’s teamwork to the extreme, being a blast to see for every second. My only complaint is that I wish it could have gone on longer. I’m not saying I’m disappointed that we didn’t get an extended action scene. I just would have loved to see MORE. Still, I can live with how little we got.

Darius and Eberwolf Fighting Covenheads: This is another fight scene I wish was longer. Seeing Darius and Eberwolf fight through the covenheads to the best of their ability was awesome, not only in the ways that Darius and Eberwolf hold out on their own, but also for the chance to see what the other covenheads can do. Still makes me wish that we got an entire episode with them like we did with Terra and Adrian, but…eh. There’s literally nothing I or the writers can do to change that, so complaining that a series doesn’t give me more of something awesome is pretty petty at this point. Believe me.

So, I’ll take the little awesomeness for what it’s worth. Especially for the short character moments it gives us, like Darius stopping the second it looked like Eberwolf was in danger. I found that weirdly wholesome for some reason. I don’t know why.

Eda Telling Terra She’s Making a Mistake: Unfortunately, the wholesomeness doesn’t last.

The fear in Eda’s voice as she pleads with Terra to understand is something we rarely hear in her. There have been times when it’s evident how scared or worried Eda is for the people she loves, whether it’s Luz breaking into the Conformitorium or the Emperor’s Coven looking for Luz. This time, though, I feel like it’s the most afraid Eda’s ever been, and I can’t blame her. Literally the fate of EVERYONE is based on the draining spell failing, so of course, she’ll be scared out of her wits when it looks like everyone is going to die and there’s nothing she can do to stop it. It’s a moment that leaves them helpless, and some of HER fear bleeds into me.

But if you think Eda’s worried about everyone dying, just imagine how’d she react to what Luz is up to.

Luz Trying to “Make A Deal” with Belos: Don’t mind me. Just watching one of my favorite characters in all of fiction being turned to stone and can’t do anything to stop it. Carry on.

Real talk, though, this is the closest Luz has ever come to death…and I think she knows it. You see it in the way that she flounders to get Belos to agree in having Luz as a guide, as well as in how she begins to cry as the stone reaches her face. And what’s great (I can’t believe I just described this as great) is that Luz doesn’t appeal to Belos with kind words like she usually does with people. Instead, Luz uses logic, explaining to Belos that letting her live is the smartest thing to do. The reason that works is because reaching out to Belos’ humanity would be pointless. There’s nothing human left inside him anymore, so the only thing she has left is to use the one thing he understands: Logic. Still, it was an evidential shot in the dark that he’d take this deal, and you can all but see the relief in Luz when he does. And it’s a good thing he did…because it gave Luz the one thing she needed.

Luz Branding Belos: I feel like a show is doing something right when it makes me want to get up and cheer over a character doing something brilliant.

Seriously, moments like this are why Luz is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction. She doesn’t overpower her enemies, but instead outsmarts them. She is more or less a crafty strategist who uses her wits and environment to get a leg up on someone else, doing tricks like this that would make her adoptive owl mom proud. And it was a solid plan too…considering that–

The Draining Spell Begins to Take Effect: This…left me sick to my stomach.

Everyone realizing what the spell is doing and trying to just…run? Only to then realize that they’re trapped and can’t escape their fate? It was…horrifying. It was the most horrifying thing that I’ve seen in a kids’ show, and that’s saying something given all the s**t this series pulled in just this season alone.

Hell, even this episode seems pretty grim. Especially with what happens to Belos.

Belos’ Final Form: And people questioned my logic when I announced that Belos would be the Venom-stand-in for my Spider-Luz AU.

“Oh, I wOuLd HaVe MaDe HiM gReEn GoBlIn–”

Honey, look at this thing:

Does THIS scream Green Goblin to you?! COME ON, NOW! Come ON, now…also, spoilers for my Spider-Luz AU, I guess.

My bad.

Alright, now that I got my silliness out of the way, I really DIG his final form. I mean, it kind of sucks that his powerful magic is now restricted to evil rage demon, but at the same time…look at him! He's a horrifying looking creature, and I adore it. Plus, with all the ways that he attacks like a wild animal, forming weapons with…whatever the hell he’s made of, it results in a pretty cool final boss…even though our characters could hardly fight him.

The Kids Fighting Belos: What’s interesting about this is that nothing that the kids could do actually hurts Belos. Maybe trap or distract him for a couple of seconds, but never really leave a dent to him. Gus is the one to do the most damage by bringing up stuff that Belos hid away, and even then, that didn’t really hurt Belos. If anything, it pissed him off. And I’m weirdly ok with this. It shows that while Belos isn’t the same witch who can perform spells that Luz can barely keep up with, he’s still very much unstoppable. It’d really take a force of nature to put an end to Belos…Or, a godlike child.

And we’re CLOSE to getting to that. Trust me. There’s just one thing I want to talk about first. Or, rather, one gremlin

Kikimora: It’s always the ones you least expect.

Who would have guessed it would be Kikimora, Belos’ most loyal stooge, would be the one to help lead to his downfall? Turns out all it took was seeing his true colors and witnessing the end of the world.

Now, normally I’d prefer a villain’s redemption to be handled a little more…well paced, but I wouldn’t call this a redemption, per se. More like a character getting pissed off at another to the point of murder. Sure, she probably didn’t expect what The Collector would EXACTLY do to Belos, but I doubt she’d leave murder off the table after how he treated her. It truly shows that Belos’ own confidence in being unbeatable is what led to his defeat.

As for where Kikimora leads King…

The Gold Guard Graveyard: ANOTHER thing that leaves me sick to my stomach.

We all assumed that the Golden Guards in Belos’ mind was all he killed…but apparently that was REALLY stupid of us. Turns out, Belos is WAY more of a twisted f**k than we thought, as he’s killed dozens of “failures” to the point that he’s all but made a graveyard for them. It’s…awful. But it’s supposed to BE awful, so…you know. Job well-done. I guess.

But, hey, don’t worry…things get worse.

King Meets the Collector: I don’t know what interests me more in this interaction, the fact that the Collector couldn’t see King or that they originally wanted to play with him.

To be fair, both are pretty fascinating. The symbols in King’s “castle” being something to help him hide from The Collector proves that The Collector himself is worthy of being someone to hide from. All they want to do is play, but we’ll soon learn just the extent of why that’s a bad idea. But there’s still the fact that he knew King specifically, meaning that it’s possible that King’s father is the one who trapped The Collector in the first place. Because while hiding King is one thing, getting rid of the monster looking for him is another.

Through just one meeting of two characters who have never heard of each other until that day, we get so much lore and backstory behind both of them. But that’s not even the best(?) part.

King Makes a Deal With The Collector: This plan. THIS. PLAN.

This plan…is going to lead to some debate.

Because it’s a stupid plan. But at the same time, it’s the only thing that saves EVERYONE. Yet, it also led to people being in MORE danger. Meaning that while they’re still alive, would it have been better if they were dead? So as not to suffer the wrath of someone who could potentially be WORSE than Belos?

It is an interesting scenario where everyone wins, but everyone loses at the same time. And let me tell you: No other series, kids’ show or not, has ever made me question whether something was the right call. Because I can see why King did this, but I also imagine the destruction it could lead to. And for that…we’ll just have to wait and see where it could lead. For now, there’s one last thing I want to talk about before.

Raine Rips Off Eda’s Arm: I’m well aware that this sounds horrible out of context…but, I don’t know. How do you WANT me to say it?

This really is a brilliant solution that I’m surprised none of us thought of…Well, MoringMark thought of it. Technically.

But, yeah, ripping off Eda’s arm so that the spell would stop affecting her is pretty clever. The mix of the draining spell and the curse causes it to decay into nothing, leaving Eda free from the magic and maybe even the coven brand itself. So, that’s the good news…the bad news is the position it leaves her in.

Right now, Eda is missing an arm, holding the person she loves most as they die in her embrace, and has NO IDEA of the danger her kids are in. And THAT is where we leave her this season. In a very bad predicament that we have no idea how she’ll recover from it. Or IF she’ll recover from it, that is. It’s crazy to think about how this is the last time we’ll see Eda for MONTHS, all because a certain someone decided to steal the show. And steal it they did.

The Collector in His Physical Form: You know, I was already on board with this character when they were basically just a shadow. But seeing him in their physical form and finally getting a chance to shine, I am more invested in this character than ever.

In the last few minutes they were on screen, The Collector turns Belos into paste, moves the moon, and forms the Isles into his own personal playpen. In other words, The Collector is certainly going to be a terrifying antagonist. Yet, the crazy thing about them is that I wouldn’t say they’re evil.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, he’s beyond nuts…but they’re also just a kid. Kids are nuts, yo! My nephew the other day said he’d rip Spider-Man’s butt off and then laughed like the little psycho that he is. The reason why I wasn’t worried about it was because I knew he was a kid who just didn’t understand how the world works and why some things are a bit messed up. It’s the same with The Collector. What he’s doing is messed up, but they don’t know that. He thinks that they’re playing a game and are unaware of how…fragile the players are. And THAT is what makes The Collector a unique antagonist. He’s a child with the powers of a god. They’re terrifying and insane, but in an almost innocent way. I’m not saying that because The Collector is a kid that excuses their actions, but I AM saying that after everything he’s done, they should expect a severe grounding when this series is over.

Unfortunately, this season has yet to end.

We’ve still got some more pain to go through…

Luz Trying to Stay and Keep Everything Together: Because, of course, she did.

Another great thing about Luz is her nobility. She doesn’t want to just run as everything is tearing down around her while there are people in danger. Instead, Luz will try to sacrifice herself at the first chance if it means someone she loves is safe. It’s what makes her Luz…but in trying to protect her loved ones, she ends up hurting them. Amity was literally begging Luz to come into the human realm, both because Amity doesn’t want to be apart again AND because she doesn’t want to lose someone else she loves. Alador ran off to distract the abomitons so the kids could be safe, and the twins are…Titan knows where, so if Amity lost Luz, she might just crack. And think of her friends? Do you think Gus, Willow, and maybe even Hunter would want to leave Luz behind so easily? But worst of all is Camila. How would she react to learning that her daughter is still trapped in another dimension while these four random kids aren’t? Something tells me she wouldn’t take the news well.

I get why Luz does this, but she needs to think more about the people she’s saving. For her greatest character trait is also her greatest weakness.

Just like how my greatest weakness is angst.

King Forcing Luz and Her Friends into the Human Realm: Yup…that hurt.

At the beginning of the season, King screamed how he would never let Luz go, caring so much about her that he doesn’t want to be apart. So to have King be the one to push Luz out the portal door says so much. Because while King values being with Luz forever, he cares more about her being safe above everything else. So, he does the one thing Luz could have done if the roles were reversed. And, just like Luz, he wasn’t aware of the pain this would cause.

Also, I didn’t want to be right when I said that Eda, Luz, and King’s scene together in “Clouds on the Horizon” would be their last scene together for a while. I really didn’t. But, yeah, that looks like where this is heading. And to tell you the truth, that might be more tragic than the Season Two finale of “Amphibia.” At least there, Anne may have been separated from Sasha and Marcy, but she wasn’t torn apart from her “family.” The Plantars still came with her to Earth, keeping Anne with the people she cares about the most. Here…it’s sort of different for Luz. She’s still with her friends, but her family is torn apart in all sorts of ways. Eda is stuck with Raine and a handful of dying witches, King is forced as The Collector’s playmate, and Luz is separated from both of them with no conceivable way of returning. A series is as strong as the bond between its main characters, so to have them separate like this leaves the series in a position where I don’t even know how the characters will resolve this.

So to end the season like THAT…earns so much of my respect

IN CONCLUSION

Is “King’s Tide” a satisfying conclusion? Is a hummingbird’s heart rate 1,260 beats per minute?

…Yes. The answer is yes–THIS FINALE WAS AWESOME!

There was great action and heartbreaking drama that still gave us some solid character building moments that led to a finale of epic proportions. I’m sure there are some nitpicks to be had, but I don’t care. Everything is done so well that why should I bother complaining about a few small problems that I might have.

An A+ all around, and I can’t wait for Season Three…whenever the hell that decides to come out.

[multifandom-but]

My thoughts on what happened to Darius, Alador and Odalia

Spoilers if you’re not caught up with at least 2x16 of TOH

I am on a roll with my TOH posts lately and brainrot so as a gift, have this draft I wrote a couple days ago

My personal headcanon until proven otherwise for why Darius is no longer friends with Alador and Odalia is that one, or possibly both of them, said something cruel about the previous Golden Guard’s passing despite knowing Darius was close to him.

A young Darius knows there’s something incredibly off about his mentor’s disappearance. It just doesn’t make any sense. Why would he leave without even telling him? Without saying goodbye to him? He’s in his final year at Hexside, ready to join the abomination coven. Why would he abandon him now?

Emperor Belos’ explanation isn’t of satisfactory to Darius. There’s too many holes in the story, he asks around and there’s no definitive conclusion, Belos is avoiding further questions, and the cherry on top of this crap cake is how unbothered Belos is about losing his right hand man. It’s fabricated grief. Darius knows bad acting when he sees it.

He brings his concerns up to Alador and Odalia. The only people who he thought would understand.

His friends. His best friends.

The three of them could be mean sometimes, he’ll admit that. They would tease other people, and even each other at times.

But he truly didn’t expect Odalia to laugh in his face while Alador stands off to the side silently. It pisses Darius off more than he can state.

So they argue. Verbally at first. Until Darius and Odalia are practically screaming at each other at the end of it and Alador is barely doing anything about it. Until finally, Alador sides with Odalia over Darius and he’s never felt more betrayed and alone. Only because Alador has a stupid fucking crush.

“Your attachment to your mentor is clouding your judgment. Belos has no reason to lie about that sort of thing. You have no proof in order to question him.” Oh Titan, how he hated Odalia in this moment.

He still hears Odalia’s tone in his head when he relives this memory. He remembers the way she sneered at him.

“He killed him, I know he did. He killed my mentor. His own family! I’ll prove Belos got rid of him, I swear on the Titan.”

“Even if Belos did kill him, he probably had a good reason. You out of everyone should know the Golden Guard can’t even do *real* magic, right? Who would want a little half-witch on their counsel anyways? The Golden Guard is better off dead, I say good riddance.”

If there’s one thing Darius hated more than dirt and hideous fashion, it was blind obedience. His mentor taught him that he has the right to question authority. He has the right to question all the adults in his life and the things he’s been told.

So that does it. Like the trigger of a gun that’s been pulled, he acts without thinking. A tiny part of him regrets it, now that he’s older. Only a tiny part. But if you were to ask Darius if it felt good, he’d say yes in a heartbeat.

In a flash, Darius was striking with abomination daggers. Alador is quick to retaliate before he and Odalia could get hit though.

The fight is short and ultimately ends in a draw. Neither of them win. Physically, everyone was fine. Darius was too tired; Alador is huffing and puffing as he stands in front of Odalia, and Darius can’t bring himself to attack anymore.

Darius walks away, hands clenched in tight fists at his side. He only turns back once to see Odalia and Alador glaring at him before he continues walking.

He hears Alador call out to him. One last time.

“You don’t deserve to be the Golden Guard’s protege.”

He never hangs out with them again after that.

[sairenharia]

The Titan’s Body

Some thoughts on Glyphs, the Titan’s Body, and Hunter.

I don’t have a full theory, but I know some people have already pointed out while Glyphs don’t FULLY work in the human world, they do work enough to at least make the paper they’re on crumble.

The thing is, at the time, there was a tiny bit of the Titan’s Body in the human world at the time: Lilith’s Palismen. (Mike Socks, I believe?)

Palismen are made of the trees of the Titan. Their magic is strong enough to make a full creature out of the wishes of a person. The Will of a person Commands part of the Titan and Creates A Life from him. Much like the Glyphs work by responding to what a person wants to happen instead of just solely making the drawing.

The thing is, Luz has seen a teleportation glyph, and while complicated, she knows how to go to try and make it. But where would the power come from? Even if everyone had their Palismen...

Well, they have a lot more then just Palismen.

Hunter.

Hunter has the Palismen wood, but more then that, he has a galderstone as his heart.

And here’s the thing, Hunter was affected by the Draining Spell, but notably, he wasn’t hit as hard as many others. While it could be argued the Heads were being drained faster, Kikimora wasn’t. Kiki was in a far, far worse way then Hunter was. Which says one of two things.

Hunter’s inability to use magic protected him.

Or, and honestly makes more sense, he had so much more magic to drain before it hit hard. Can’t be low in the tank if the tank is super big compared to most.

Not that I’m saying Hunter is secretly super magically powerful. His magic is just tied up in, you know, his existence and making it a copy of someone who existed and also making him not be wood some of the time. A Grimwalker is meant to seem like a person, so it has to put in more magic to make him appear right.

He can’t cast spells. Just like Palismen don’t cast spells, they just act as a conduit for their witch’s spells. But they have their own magic still, so its possible if Hunter tried to do magic in a DIFFERENT way, he could do them. Heck, maybe that’s why Darius’ mentor was a powerful witch. HE figured out the way to cast magic, it was just wild and Belos wasn’t for that.

But mostly it seems very interesting that Glyph’s need the Titan’s body to work, Hunter has a chunk of very powerful Titan related items, and how it’ll probably result in Hunter doing some very stupid things in his efforts to help his friends they’ll have to shake him about later.

[thetombedspirit]

New OWL HOUSE Theory!

Now, the newest episode reveals a bit more lore to the series. It gave us Vee and the backstory of the Basilisks, it gave us the “In-Between” and an insight to the portal. It gave us Luz’s hometown, Gravesfield, and it gave us a little more backstory about Phillip Whittbane, more so about how he had a brother and that they both ended up stuck in the Demon Realm.

Now, these brothers are important. Not just to the story, but to Luz’s hometown, Gravesfield. According to the wiki, Gravesfield was a ‘peaceful’ colony in the 1600s, until the brothers ‘mysteriously disappeared’. I mean, they have a statue of themselves standing in town.

Now, I probably won’t be the first to tell you this, but the statue on the right looks like he could be Phillip Whittbane, the man who looked for a way out of the Demon Realm and documented it in his diary. 

The statue on the left, is his brother, who has yet to be named or touched upon (though I have a theory of what his name is;))

Now, the Phillip statue doesn’t just look like, well, Phillip. But he also looks eerily like someone else. Someone we already now a good bit.

Belos.

I bet if someone were to edit most of his hair and his boils out of the way, he would look a lot like the Phillip Statue.

And in terms of the brother, he also looks like someone we already know.

I mean, the statue basically looks like a Hunter in his early 30s at least. And that’s not all I want to talk about.

Now, theories have been blowing up about who Belos was and who the brothers are to the Demon Realm. And I’m not the first to speculate who Belos and Hunter are.

But in order to touch onto that, I need to draw back and dive into another theory I believe to be canon.

Ever since Eclipse Lake, everyone has been speculating that Hunter could be a Grimwalker.

Now, no-one is particularity sure what a Grimwalker is, but the common theory is that a Grimwalker is a sort of artificial clone that requires a few ingredients that we’ve already seen in season 2.

The Galdorstone = heart and power, Palistrom wood = keratin, Stonesleeper lungs = ?, Selkidomus scales = ?, Bone of ortet = ?

And not only that, but one key detail that the page shows is that the Grimwalker has pinkish-red eyes. Kinda like...

Yeah, like Hunter. And despite looking like a witch (pointed ears) he doesn’t have any magic, and needs a staff in order to perform magic. He struggled teleporting the first few tries when he started using Rascal as his staff, but soon got into the grove of it once his mind was on the fight. Who else can’t do magic without a staff?

Luz needed to use a staff (Owlbert) in order to activate the glyphs on the door without doing it manually like she usually does (tapping the glyph to activate)

Is it coincidence, or is there a reason Hunter can’t perform magic normally like Willow or Amity can?

So here’s the theory.

Belos is Phillip and Hunter is a Grimwalker clone of Phillip’s brother, who I suspect was also named Hunter.

When I first watched ‘Eclipse Lake’, I genuinely felt, through Belos’ gestures and expressions towards Hunter, that he genuinely cared about him and his safety. I was since disabused of this notion and reminded that Belos is an abusive man, through and through, but I do think he cares about Hunter.

But I think he cares more about controlling Hunter and his interests.

Let’s look back at the photo of the picture.

In possession of one brother, the one on the right, you can see that in his left hand he’s holding a piece of paper with a circle drawn in, much like glyphs and in another we can faintly see that he’s holding a weird looking staff. It doesn’t seem to have an animal on it like the typical witch’s staff.

Kinda like Belos and Hunter’s 1st staff.

Now, in ‘Yesterday’s Lie’, we learned that Belos is the experimentive type. I mean, he made the staffs in the first place, right? Claiming them to be pure magic. And he brought the Basilisks back from extinction in order to perform experiments. Mostly, how they draw out and consume magic.

Not only does this show that Belos is capable of creating artificial life, but that he’s also planning something that includes drawing out ones magic and consuming it.

Tell me, when Belos needs a recharge, what does he do?

He draws out and consumes the magic of the Palismen. Just like how Basilisks consume magic from witches.

While his methods are much to be desired, he appears to be a kind of inventor or scientist. I mean, just look at how he’s repairing the door.

Now, Phillip seems to be a philosopher. His writings and diary entries imply he’s a educated man, a thinker.

And now to his brother, who, from now on, I’m calling Hunter Sr.

Hunter Sr. is depicted shaking hands with someone who bares a faint likeness to Principle Bump (possibly a wild witch). This could indicate that he’s rather friendly with the natives of the Demon Realm.

But that’s not the interesting part for me. It’s what’s perched on his shoulder.

A bird. And that bird looks awful familiar.

Yep, Hunter’s Cardinal, Rascal. And remember, Rascal originally belonged to someone else, as he was once one of the many abandoned Palismen in the Bat Queen’s care, and it is implied that he has been with her for a long time.

Now, Hunter Sr is certainly older then the Hunter we know, and based on the body language of the statues, Hunter Sr seems to be more assertive, poised confidently and looking ready to lead, while Phillip seems to be more of a follower then a leader.

From what we’ve gathered here, Grimwalkers seem to be raised from infancy, and if Hunter is 16 like it has been said, then that could tie into why Palismen wood is so hard to come by. And it would make a bit of sense that Hunter couldn’t do magic without a staff if he was a copy of a human man. Human’s don’t have bile sacks like witches and most demons do. Hunter may look like a witch, but he’s not a witch. He’s a human that just looks witch-like.

And Belos hates wild magic with a passion. He won’t even let Hunter mention, despite what an advantage it would be to study Wild Magic would be (know thy enemy, ya know?)

Anyway, here is what I think happened to the brothers and how Phillip became Belos.

So they end up in the demon realm. Not sure how, not sure why. And they try to find a way back home, and as they do, they learn a lot about the demon realm and it’s diverse culture and methods, with Hunter Sr even making a Palismen with the help of a Wild Witch, whilst Phillip makes his own form of magic by studying the glyphs. This may cause the brothers to quarrel as Hunter Sr appears absolutely taken by this world while all Phillip wants to do is return home.

Eventually, they try to find Eclipse Lake, and something happens. Something involving Wild Magic, or maybe not involving it at all, but none the less, Hunter Sr looses his life as a result and maybe leaves Belos cursed. Belos blames wild magic (perhaps the witch betrayed them, perhaps not and Belos is just looking for someone to blame)

Eventually, Phillip rises to power and becomes Emperor Belos. He hasn’t given up his goal of returning to earth, but now he also plans his revenge by outlawing all wild magic and planning to eradicate it once and for all. He plans the Day of Unity, he creates the coven system and silences anyone who calls out his abusive rule.

Eventually, he successfully creates a Grimwalker of his deceased brother. And not only that, but now he has Hunter under his control, has him thinking that Wild Magic is dangerous and savage and can not be trusted. Not only does he have his brother back, so to speak, but he also has him coming around to his way of thinking.

Though that cycle may break, thanks to a return of an old friend, Hunter’s Palismen.

Anyway that’s all I got so far. Belos is Phillip, Hunter is a Grimwalker fashioned to look like Phillip’s deceased brother and Rascal is Hunter Sr’s old palismen. Anyway, let me know what you think.

[lampmanliveblogs]

Looks like Luz is gonna have to break in/out of the Conformitorium a third time. 

More importantly though is the fact that Darius & Eberwolf (and presumably some of the other head witches) know there is a traitor in their midst. They don’t suspect Raine specifically though, just that one of the BAtTs is the turncoat. I wonder then how many of the other Head Witches know? Obviously Raine doesn’t know, but they’re new. It’s been what, three days? since they were promoted to the Head of the Bard Coven. Raine also doesn’t know what the Day of Unity means.

I’d also like to bring up that D’Arias can can teleport people through his abomination goop. Exactly how the goop works isn’t entirely clear; witches apparently have to make it, but they can also summon it out of nowhere. We’ve seen witches summon things into their hands before, Raine did so with Eda’s lute and their own violin before. But I can’t recall if we’ve ever seen anyone actually teleport entire people. Regardless of how this ability actually works and if it’s something any old witch can learn to do if they’re skilled or strong enough doesn't matter too much though, it is still very effective in establishing that Darius is a powerful witch who means business.

Even if he doesn’t like the woods too much. Hey dude, at least you didn’t have to crawl through dripping wet overgrown bushes and trees trying to pull decades old fence posts out of the ground.

Oh, now that’s an interesting ability. Some kind of tracking magic. I suppose that’s useful for a beast keeper, to be able to actually track the beasts they need to keep… or some witches in this case. 

…that’s not how the faraway model of the invisibility glyph spell was drawn bef—you know what Lampman, forget it.

They’ve managed to avoid detection for a little while though, so that’s good. I notice Eda isn’t wearing her shoes here. Did Raine enchant them to keep running to throw off EmberWülf? That’s pretty clever, though I fear it will only last for so long.

Okay, so Raine knows Emperor Belos is planning something. Some big spell. They don’t seem to know exactly what it is, but that it is something big and probably very bad. Notably, it will also require the aid of all the Coven Head Witches to work, so if they can murd- I mean, take out Darius and Eberwolf, that will seriously halt his plans.

We’re not told exactly what it is he needs the Head Witches for, but it’s obvious it doesn't have to be those specific individuals, just the Head witches of each Coven. Since, you know, that Scooter guy was able to step down and let Raine take over. So taking Eberwolf and Darius out of the picture would probably only delay Belos’ plans until he could find some replacements, but hey, that gives Raine and the Owl House crew more time to find out what’s going on and how to stop it.

For now, I’m gonna assume that the Head Witches are needed to drain or draw upon the magic from the witches in their Covens to fuel the spell and that’s why they are needed.

Also, Raine has a plan involving Eda’s Requiem. They’re gonna use to to trap Darius and Eberwolf in an endless cycle of infinite deaths! Either that, or use the song to spread the effects of Eda’s curse so that it messes up their magic, that might work too.

So after we were shown that Eda & Raine did exactly the thing I said they did with Eda’s boots, Darius gets mad because he got mud in his face and transforms into this thing. This isn’t a great (or even good) screenshot, but I think it looks vaguely like a genie. You know, with how the legs are melded together into a sorta tail? Or maybe he’s supposed to be a mermaid.

[sergeantsporks]

'The titan is basically a kindly old grandpa who loves everything on the isles' AU where Hunter grows up seeing the ghost of his 'grandpa' - actually the Titan - who shows him magic he CAN do, aka wild magic. Things do NOT go as Belos had planned. (aka Hunter is the Titan's chosen mouthpiece)

CW: Child abuse, emotional manipulation/gaslighting

Hunter swung his legs over the edge of the keep walls, his grandpa floating beside him, just like he almost always was. “Did you ask Uncle Belos to adopt me?”

“Hm?”

“Uncle Belos says you talk to him all the time. Did you find him and tell him to adopt me?”

The titan smiled gently at him. “No, Hunter. I didn’t.”

“Oh.” Hunter hummed. “Why not?”

“Because I don’t talk to your uncle.”

“Then why’d he say you do?”

“He’s lying, Hunter. People wish I talked to them, told them what to do, so Belos pretends that I tell him to tell them what to do.”

“But… you do talk to me. Can’t I just tell him what you say so he can tell everyone else? Or I can tell everyone else what you say!”

“No!” Hunter’s grandpa took a deep breath. “Hunter, I… I want you to keep me our little secret. If you tell everyone, it might… be… dangerous… for you. You know how your uncle has all of those guards?”

“Mhm.”

“It’s because… people want to hurt him.”

“Uncle says maybe someday I can be a guard.”

“Yes. People want to hurt him because sometimes he says things that he says I said and… people don’t like those things. I want you to say safe from people that might not like what I say. Through you.”

“Okay, but Uncle Belos says things that maybe you don’t want, and… that’s why people get mad, right? So—”

“I’m worried that your Uncle Belos might not like what I have to say.”

“B-but—”

“We’ll tell him someday, Hunter. When the time is right. Just… not today.”

“Tomorrow?”

“No.”

“Day after tomorrow?”

“Not for a while, Hunter. Not until you’re big enough to protect yourself.”

Hunter scrunched his face up, trying to think of a long enough time. “Liiiiiiiiiiike… next season?”

His grandpa chuckled. “We’ll see how much you grow by then. Have you been practicing your circles?”

Hunter nodded, digging around in his little bag and pulling out his sketchbook. The lined circles were a little wobbly, but he was getting better at them. The titan smiled at them. “Very good. Now, see that really good one? Your best one?”

Hunter nodded. “I spent a really long time on it.”

“I can tell, you did it so well! Now, just tap it gently with your hand.”

Hunter tapped the circle, and the paper crumpled, turning into a little ball of light. He gasped, watching it float and glow in front of him. “Wh-whoa! Hey, that’s—that’s magic! But I—I can’t do magic!”

“Yes, you can. All of the circles I showed you, that you’ve been practicing drawing? They can do magic. So you can do magic, as long as you can draw them. On paper, in the dirt, traced in the condensation on a window—there’s no limit to what you can do, Hunter.”

“No limit?”

“None.”

Xxx

“You—well, the titan has big plans for you, Hunter.”

“No, he doesn’t.” The words slipped out before Hunter could stop them, and Belos halted in his tracks, his grip on Hunter’s shoulder tightening.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing. Sir. I didn’t mean—”

“Do you know the titan’s will, Hunter? Does he speak to you like he does to me?”

Hunter shook his head. “No. I’m sorry.”

“Your destiny, the destiny the titan has ordained for you—it’s a gift. The titan favors you despite your lack of magic—just as he favors me.”

Liar.

“I’m sorry?”

Had he said that out loud? “I—uh—”

“Hunter, do you have something you need to tell me?”

Hunter looked around for his grandpa, but titan was nowhere to be seen—he’d said he’d keep an eye on the human, that must be…

“N-nothing, I didn’t mean—”

“You can tell me, Hunter. Our enemies have many tricks—if they have told you some falsehood, it’s no doubt I can’t put to rest. What is troubling you? Perhaps the wild glyphs you have been using? I can forgive that, Hunter, if you promise to come back to me. Those books were a bad influence on you.”

“The titan talks to me,” Hunter said in a rush, pulling away from Belos’ grip. “He talks to me, and he taught me the wild glyphs, and he—he said he doesn’t talk to you.”

Belos paused, but only for a moment. “Oh, Hunter. I know the appeal of wanting to be something more, something special. I’ve seen how you strive to be better than Kikimora, how you used to strive to be better than Lilith—and now, it seems, you strive to be better than I.”

“Of course not, I—”

“The titan has plans for you, Hunter, never doubt that. But his plans for you are not the same as the role I play—as his word, his prophet. You don’t need to fulfill my role, Hunter, you have your own. You don’t need to be the voice of the titan as well.”

“I’m not trying to be—I don’t—”

Belos smiled a soft, understanding smile. “What’s the titan saying to you now, Hunter? Hm?”

Hunter glanced around, but the titan still wasn’t here. “I—he’s not here now, b-but—”

“But the titan is always here, Hunter. I can hear him, even now. He’s not angry, Hunter, just… a little bit disappointed. That you feel the need to lie, that you feel like your role in his plans aren’t enough—that you feel that his judgement of where you are needed is wrong.”

Hunter blinked, his head whirling. “I—I’m sorry,” he whispered, “I—I shouldn’t have bothered you. I’ll…”

Belos steered him towards the door. “Just stay here in the keep, Hunter, where you’ll be safe.”

“Y-yes sir.”

Belos smiled, and started to close the door. “Good night, Hunter.”

Xxx

“Hunter? Is something wrong?”

“Y-you said you don’t talk to Uncle Belos. Right?”

“I don’t, Hunter. You’re the only one I speak to, the only one who’s been able to see or hear me for years. What happened?”

Hunter curled his knees to his chest, thumping his forehead against his knees. “I just—Uncle Belos says things—and I get all twisted up—and I don’t know if I’m right or wrong or lying, or…”

“Hunter. He’s the liar. I promise you. You aren’t a liar, you aren’t crazy, or whatever else he said to you. He just doesn’t want you to know the truth. I don’t approve of forcing the coven system. I don’t approve the caging of wild magic. And whatever his Day of Unity plans are, I want nothing to do with them.”

Hunter felt like he’d just been punched in the gut. “Wh-what?” he managed, “Why—why wouldn’t you tell me this sooner?!”

“Because you weren’t ready. That’s it. The titan has spoken, Hunter. What you do with the knowledge—that’s up to you. You can stay with Belos, with his safe plan. You won’t get hurt that way, and Hunter, I do not want you to get hurt. Or you can try to tell people what my real word is. I can’t say it’ll work, I don’t know if anyone will believe you. Or if you’ll even survive long enough to tell anyone. It’s your choice what you do with this. I’ve given you wild magic—I wish I could do more, Hunter, but… I just hope it’ll be enough.”

Hunter got up in a half-daze, wandering through the hallways. The titan followed behind him as he went right back to the room with the portal door. Instead of skulking in the shadows, spying, he threw the doors open with a bang. Belos turned to face him, eyes glowing blue.

“Hunter. Is there something you need to say?”

Hunter shrank back for a moment, then squared his shoulders and pushed forward. “You lied. My whole life, you lied to me, you lied to all of the people on the isles.”

“Hunter, this is ridiculous! Just—”

“No, you listen to me for once. You lied, and you lied, but the truth is, I’m the voice of the titan. I know his message. And soon, everyone else will, too.”

Hunter whirled around to go, then felt a sudden blow to the shoulder that erupted into spirals of pain. He fell to his knees, gasping as his vision went spotty. “Hrgh—”

Belos’ shadow loomed over him. “I didn’t ever want to replace you, Hunter. But you’re not giving me much of a choice.”

“Get up,” the titan whispered, “Hunter, you have to move!”

Hunter touched his shoulder, his fingers coming away with red blood. Slowly, so his uncle wouldn’t notice, he traced a circle on the tile.

“Good night, golden guard.”

Hunter smacked the glyph, rolling to the side. A spike of ice shot out, forcing Belos back. Hunter stumbled towards the door, gritting his teeth as his shoulder screamed in pain. Belos glided forward and then Hunter’s grandpa shot between them. He glowed bright, so bright that Belos shrank back, his eyes widening.

“Stay—Away—from him!” the titan howled, his voice loud, louder than Hunter had ever heard—and it seemed like Belos could hear him, too.

“Hunter! Run!”

Hunter didn’t need to be told twice. He ran for it, and the palisman that had followed him home fluttered out of his pocket, transforming into a staff. Hunter didn’t stop to think, just grabbed it and instinctively warped. He came out in front of the keep, and he stopped, gasping for breath and leaning on the staff for support as his legs wobbled.

“Okay—right—” Hunter tugged his cape off, wincing and hissing as he wrapped it around his wounded shoulder, putting pressure on the wound. “Fine—this is fine—I need to get away from here.”

He stumbled forward, forcing himself to move forward. The titan appeared, looking somehow paler and more ghostly than usual.

“You saved me,” Hunter gasped.

“Hm—yes—I’m sorry, I’m just—a bit weak at the moment. That… took a lot out of me. What’s the plan now?”

Hunter hissed as he jostled his shoulder. “I need to—I need to get patched up.”

“You can’t go to a coven, they’ll have a warrant out for your arrest!”

“Well—” Hunter managed through gritted teeth, “I can think of at least one person who will be open to your message. I think… maybe we should take a little trip to Bonesborough. And the Owl House.”

[fermented-writers-block]

PART 1 of 6 of the Owl Deity Hooty Theory

[NEXT PART]

[OWL DEITY HOOTY THEORY MASTERPOST] (in development)

(TLDR at bottom of post)

Over several long months of research and analysis since March of 2020, I have been following an utterly fascinating thread of potential misdirection and subtle details throughout The Owl House, and today, I would like to start weaving together of what I believe could become one of the biggest and most cleverly disguised twists in the entire show.

To begin, let’s take a look at the B plot of Understanding Willow:

On first glance, it’s an ultimately inconsequential sidestory with the sole purpose of justifying an excuse to keep Luz and Amity in Willow’s mind, as well as providing some well-needed room to breathe and release tension after the veryemotionally charged confrontation with Inner Willow. After half an episode of Eda and King outdoing the other in ridiculous ways to win Gus’ vote and Gus running off in frustration at the end of the episode from Hooty’s inane rambling, it’s easy to laugh off Gus’ pick and assume that nothing/of value was said when he closed the door for the interview.

However, if one pays close attention to that very scene, Hooty actually canstill be heard (if faintly) underneath Eda and King’s grumbling, interestingly talking about how “It all started with a hunt. Blood red skies. That’s right, I was created-.”

Now, while it may seem silly to focus on dialogue from Hooty of all characters, this A) tells us that there was an event in the past involving blood red skies and a hunt of some kind, B) that Hooty had been created close to said event, and C) implies that what he knows but can’t tell as a story worth a damn is EXTREMELY important to be included and be hidden in such a manner.

For comparison, the only other instance of dialogue being tucked away in the background in the entire show is in Wing It Like Witches:

During the lecture at the beginning of the episode, the history teacher openswith lore on Belos appointing a head witch to each coven over 50 years ago, immediately cluing in the audience to try and decipher the rest of the lecture as it moves to the background. Adding to this is how the musical sting when Luz shows off her movie obscures what he says even further, making it even more of a intriguing puzzle that the creators clearly intended for viewers to pick up on and attempt to solve.

In contrast, the hidden dialogue of Hooty’s interview is much shorter and not as hard to decipher as the teacher’s history lesson, but at the same time, there are few to no indicators whatsoever in that scene to clue in the audience to even check for something like that. It comes at the end of an episode where most viewers would have been paradoxically tired out and driven abuzz by the revelations of Amity and Willow’s relationship, doesn’t attempt to draw much attention to itself, and frames itself as a comedic subversion of audience expectations with neither the “greatest witch who ever lived” or the self-proclaimed king of demons being picked by Gus.

Instead, he picks someone that the show portrays constantly as an oblivious and gullible idiot after being described as a “state of the art defense system” at the very beginning of the series. Someone who, despite it being played for laughs, is scarily capable of casually subduing Lilith offscreen one episode and then beating her and an entire squad of Emperor’s Coven members without even the slightest change in personality or temperament.

Someone who, due to being the Owl House itself, could be considered the titular character of the entire show, yet is taken for granted by those who inhabit him and barely gets any respect from even the cutely patronized King - including when Hooty could be interpreted as having potentially been full on DEAD for a time given the use of extremely cartoony X eyes and a lack of vital signs in The Intruder.

And someone who Eda at best tolerates and at worst abandons in personal interactions and only occasionally acknowledges him when he’s actually doing his job. Yet at the same time is so implicitly trusted beyondprotecting her home to the point where - when up against the closest person Eda has to an equal outside of likely Belos - the only actually recognizable spells Eda used in combat were 1) stereotypical energy blasts, 2) a single shield spell in Covention, and 3) a noticeably large reliance on imitations of Hooty above any other spells she could have decided to use instead.

In short, the show repeatedly tells us he is just an idiotic gag character through and through, but at the same time demonstrates he has immense power through both onscreen and offscreen demonstrations, implicitly tells us his importance ahead of time through Eda’s imitations in actually serious situations, and treats his interview and origin story as - if not even more- important to keep secret than a long lore dump about how Belos’ reign works.

After all, there being only two instances of hidden background dialogue in the entire season is already intriguing on its own, but for one to get plenty of clues to draw in people’s attention and for the other to be treated as just another gag about a “mere comic relief character” - aka a good way to draw away attention and lower one’s guard - heavily suggests a far deeper significance buried under layers of misdirection, comedy, and conditioned audience expectations.

I mean, when Eda bragged about being “a bad girl living in a secret fortress,” Hooty followed with a remark about how “I’m the secret.” While that line may sound like Hooty simply being confused as part of a one-off on the surface, it’s an odd dialogue choice for the writers to pick when you think about all the other reminders of his nature as the house itself throughout the season. With the precedent these moments set, it would have been much more appropriate for him to latch onto the “fortress” side of “secret fortress” AND it would have been just as equally funny of a joke about his awareness skills, but instead, Hooty broke away from the established trend to say something that would make people suspicious were it to come from anyone else.

In a way, this reminds me much of the many subtle bits of foreshadowing strewn across the show, like Luz unknowingly describing Amity in Witches Before Wizards and Eda burning a hole through Luz’s coven type quiz that coincidentally selected the same track she had taken at Hexside as “a punky potionist.” At the time of airing, these initially seemed like one-off jokes, but eventually came back in full force several episodes later with Amity’s hidden sensitive feelings and love for the Azura books becoming clear in Lost in Language, and the reveal of Eda’s school track in Something Ventured, Someone Framed with her school misdemeanor pictures.

That said, compared to these individual bits of minor foreshadowing, the jokes about Hooty in Understanding Willow appear to simply be the most obvious pieces in a giant puzzle, implicitly and outright telling attentive viewers that there’s a major mystery to be uncovered here.

In fact, I feel bold enough to say that we could be looking at a twist on a similar scale to that of the Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz and Stanford Pines twists in Steven Universe and Gravity Falls respectively, what with this particular puzzle piece coming from how Gus wanted to make THE greatest interview of all time, and how he was looking for someone who was “interesting, accomplished, AND noteworthy:”

Note the emphasis on the ‘and’ here, as Gus had made a big deal that “people aren’t meantto be all those things” at the beginning of the episode, so as a result, stripping away all the comedic framing of his subplot leaves the intriguing implication that whoever - and, perhaps, what- Hooty is, they really are the most interesting, accomplished, AND noteworthy person out of everyone.

I could go further and talk about why I suspect the mystery surrounding King’s origins, whether true or not, is partially meant to misdirect us from paying attention to Hooty, or how the TOH crew’s could be disguising legitimate clues to his nature among made up and highly meme-able joke answers in order to proliferate said concepts throughout the fandom - thus letting us do all the dirty work of getting ourselves used to the ideas and used to dismissing them at the same time - but to bring things to a close for now, I’d like to leave you all with a question that I’ll start answering next time:

What does it mean when both the most powerful and notorious witch on the Boiling Isles and the possible actual king of demons/the Titan itself/something don’t match up to a house? And what do you think it is that makes him so special to warrant such misdirection?

TLDR: Between Eda’s golem spells, the show stressing his nature as the titular house, his implicit strength, and the odd dialogue and structure of Understanding Willow‘s subplot in relation to him, I believe I have good reason to suspect the show has been giving us many hints towards Hooty being much, much more important than it would like us to currently believe or even joke about. Particularly, through clever uses of comedy to establish and enforce a strong audience bias against looking closely at him or unironically taking him seriously, and to potentially plant the seeds for something I will start exploring in Part 2.