#very unfortunately without luz

[mistandbluemoon]

oh that's why scarlet lips felt so familiar of course it's cherry hunt

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

au where the day of unity isn't until decades later and luz never comes to the boiling isles. willow somehow still gets transferred to the plant track and gets really good at her craft. amity never learns that bullying is bad, actually and they never reconciled in school.

and years later, blight industries is the most affluent company on the isles. odalia continues to be allergic to letting amity, who is her only child at this point to not run away from home the moment they turned 18 and cut all contact, associate with witches of "lower social standing."

so eventually when odalia tells amity that she's going to find her a nice respectable spouse amity just rolls her eyes and goes with it. maybe its some other heir to a big company. maybe it's a captain from the emperor's coven. maybe it's even the golden guard, if hunter managed to survive that long.

and then eventually she finds out that her mother has been trying to get her a date with PLANT COVEN HEAD WILLOW PARK

you've seen the countless amity x hunter miserable arranged marriage aus get ready for the amillow friends to enemies to arranged marriage to friends again to lovers 50k slowburn

[sokkas-first-fangirl]

If you’re still taking prompts, how about Eda taking bets with the other Owl House parents on which kids will be proposing first?

"Willow," Darius said, like it should have been obvious. "Of course it'll be Willow."

"You're betting against our son?" Camila demanded, eyebrows raised.

"Yes," Darius said.

Alador nodded. "Yeah, my money's on Willow," he said.

Camila threw her hands up. "Am I the only one who has any faith in him!?" Camila vs Hunter's sort-of-dad and sort-of-step-dad; it wasn't a battle of wills that Eda expected, but it was one she enjoyed watching.

"I agree," Perry said. "I'd say Willow."

Raine looked contemplative. They hummed, tapping a rhythm on the table, but didn't offer a side yet.

"Actually, I side with Camila," Lilith said slowly. She looked like she was thinking hard. Weighing the pros and cons would be Eda's bet. "Hunter is shyer than Willow, but he loves her dearly and he's brave. He can be very determined. I can see him proposing."

Darius and Alador exchanged dubious glances. Camila smiled smugly.

"Well, what about Luz and Amity?" Raine asked, tapping their chin.

"Luz," Camila and Eda said.

"Amity," Lilith said.

"Honestly, considering their track record, I expect them both to propose on the same day," Alador said with a shrug. "Or they'll try to anyway. Hopefully without Hooty's involvement this time."

"Is something wrong with Hootsifer?" Lilith demanded.

"You don't want me to answer that."

"Okay," Darius cut in quickly. "What about Gus and Matt?"

Perry snorted. "They'll need to actually date first," he said. "And my hair will be entirely grey by the time those boys sort themselves out. They're both painfully oblivious."

"Are they still calling it a rivalry?" Camila asked sympathetically.

"Unfortunately," Perry sighed.

Alador snorted into his apple blood. Eda gave him and Darius her most shit-eating grin.

"Yeah," Darius sighed. "We'll all be waiting a while on those two."

[awsumsas]

Did someone ask for the overused outdated trend? Aw fuckit, it's fun and it's always goofy to overlap hyperfixations :P

Explanations for each:

Luz (Normal/Fairy): She's a human with magical powers. Normal fits the human bill, and considering how affiliated she is with the light glyph in particular, the fairy type felt the most fitting.

Amity (Poison): Abominations are very clearly sludge-like. They're probably not raw poison but the type in the games usually has various sludgey tropes. Just look at Grimer and Muk.

Willow (Grass/Fighting): Grass was inevitable, she's practically the poster child for the plant coven. Fighting was a bold choice to add on, but given her fondness for sports, I figured it was a good pick.

Gus (Psychic): This was harder to pinpoint. I tried to not just slap "the magic type" onto each character but I struggled to find anything else that worked for Gus. I'd say illusions make most sense with it though.

Hunter (Normal/Ghost): Caleb was originally a human, so I decided to apply Normal here again. The Ghost part is probably controversial but considering the whole Grimwalker thing, I think it makes sense.

Edalyn (Flying/Fighting): The Clawthorne sisters each have a very strong bird motif, so Flying was inevitable. I decided to give Fighting to Eda specifically because of her rough and tumble attitude.

King (Dragon): He's a titan! What better of an explanation could you need? He'll eventually grow up into a gigantic monsterous creature with incredible strength. He's basically a fluffy dragon!

Lilith (Flying): See Eda's explanation. Lilith has the same bird motif that her sister has going on, but the lack of a Fighting type is due to the lesser emphasis on her beast form.

Hooty (???):

Vee (Dragon/Psychic): This one was the hardest to pinpoint. In the end I figured she's a serpentine creature who has the ability to absorb magic, so Dragon and Psychic made the most sense.

Camila (Normal): She's just a lady.

Belos (Dark/Poison): The Dark type should hopefully go without explanation but also his monster form with the green sludge is probably his best design so I had to reference it somehow.

No Raine unfortunately cause I RAINE out of room on the canvas but maybe if this blows up I might do the coven heads and maybe some more too.

[wyldeking]

I've rewatched the Owl House dozens of times now and my favorite scene (excluding season 3 because that shit is magical, pun intended,) is Hunter and Amity's fight at Eclipse Lake.

Earlier in the episode, Amity and Hunter have a chat where Hunter proclaims that they both have a lot at stake, unlike Eda and King. She attempts to argue but is interrupted by the sound of her Tamagotchi-Text thing, as Luz sends a text that Amity misinterprets as Luz threatening her with leaving if she doesn't return with the Titan Blood. Hunter almost directly after takes off and gets a massive head start to Eclipse Lake.

While Eda deals with the scouts and Kikimora, Amity chases after Hunter with King by her side. She enters the room to have this exchange with Hunter.

"Don't worry. I won't pick a fight. There's no Titan Blood."

"Then why are you digging?"

"Oh, it's simple really. Belos needs Titan Blood to make a new portal key. Can't get to the human realm without it."

"There's blood in the key?"

*Amity tightens her grip around the portal key.*

"Since I failed my last mission, I thought, 'Hey, a chance to make up for it.' But I can't go back empty-handed. Not again."

Hunter is noticeably hysterical, laughing between almost every sentence he speaks.

"Long story short, this is my grave. Want me to make you one too?"

"This is really bumming me out." King says simply.

"That's just life, rat. Everyone has a use, and if you don't pbtpbt bye-bye! Your friend gets it."

With the help of King, Amity finally learns how to interpret the text. Luz had never even thought of leaving her awesome girlfriend. Almost immediately after realizing, she becomes almost as bright and sunny as Luz is. With a burst of inspiration, she decides to give Hunter the best message she could think of.

"I grew up thinking that everything was an opportunity to justify existing, but there are people out there make you feel worthless. You just have to let yourself meet them."

She offers her hand, but unfortunately, Hunter notices the key sticking out of her coat, and a battle ensues. Hunter is sweating and incredibly anxious, which shows with the way he fights. Hunter keeps dashing around, making magical sparks fly everywhere. Meanwhile Amity is holding a poker face as she almost effortlessly dodges and blocks every one of his attacks. Every attack that she throws out has a very obviously calculated plan attached.

Hunter eventually tears the key away from Amity and they end up cornering each other. Despite that, Amity still very clearly has the upper hand, with a blade pointed at the neck of the battered Hunter that is caked in abomination goo. Hunter desperately thinking of a way out to give the blood to his uncle, tells Amity, quote;

"Listen, you're strong, and I'm tired. if this continues, you'll probably escape, but here's the thing: We know where to find you and your human. So just hand over the key."

Hunter's threat to kill Amity is completely empty, as they just displayed, Amity clearly has the upper hand. But Luz? The last time she saw her she was sick out of her mind and incredibly delirious. So Amity finally slips, the key cracks as her grip tightens, spilling half the blood. Hunter wins and slips away with the key.

This scene is so damn great because the emotions of the characters make perfect sense and intertwine with everything, we've known about them up until this point. Not to mention the music in this scene absolutely slaps ass and the animation is top-notch.

[lollytea]

Unfortunately due to TOH being cut short by Disney a lot of character arcs and more storyline could not be fully fleshed out and finished as Dana had to wrap up everybody’s story in just a few episodes

I'm fully aware that Disney's intervention is responsible for a lot of the plotlines getting suffocated. Which is why I don't think it's fair to go harassing crew members with "why didn't THIS happen??" and all that, because nobody really knows what they endured working on those final episodes and how much they had to cut and rewrite. But from things Dana has said, it was likely a very stressful and exhausting experience. So I don't like to make assumptions about the crew being incompetent. Nobody knows how the season WOULD have turned out if they had been granted full creative freedom and breathing room to develop it to their hearts content.

However, me not directing personal ire towards the crew doesn't mean that I think that the show is immune to criticism. Its flawed. It might not be entirely the crew's fault but that doesn't mean we can't talk about how it's flawed. If anything, I think acknowledging and dissecting its weaknesses is a good learning opportunity for what we should consider when creating our own stories.

Season 3 is a bit of a mess. There's good stuff. There's some less than good stuff. I think ultimately, as a story about Luz, King and Eda, it knocks it out of the park. When they were left with no other option, they decided to prioritize the writing of their three protagonists and I think that was the correct choice.

But I've been thinking about the three specials and how they stand on their own, quality wise, and honestly, there's valid criticism to be said that is completely unrelated to the shortening.

Bear in mind that the crew has known since Follies that the show was getting cut short and they needed to start wrapping up loose ends. So it's not like they started writing Thanks to Them believing it was the first of 20+ more episodes. They knew that they were going to be writing a 40 minute special. So the execution had to be tight, concise and satisfying, right?

Well...it was....weird. Definitely fun. Good for fan service. The main hook was the witch kids navigating the human world in their dorky witchy way. And initially, that was enough. But once the novelty of that wears off and we focus on the plot of the special, what do we have left?

Thanks to Them is very guilty of lore baiting. Dropping in stuff that they know damn well that they're never going to elaborate on, leaving the audience with a feeling of intrigue that is never going to be satiated.

I personally think that is just bad writing. They knew they didn't have a full season 3 and rather than rewrite the means of which the hexsquads finds answers, they still made the choice to drop in what are most likely vague ideas from the initial draft.

I think, if they had no intention of developing it in future specials, there was no point to that scene of Masha telling the Wittebane story. It was just...filler. To stretch out the running time. Which is....kind of precious. Only 40 minutes. If you're obsessive enough about lore, you already knew the story from the Hollow Mind paintings. That scene was for casual viewers. Which is useless, because there's no point in casual viewers learning about Evelyn and Caleb because it never went anywhere.

Also. I personally think that if there was any value to learning the Wittebane lore without making it plot relevant, it would be for the sake of character development. We wanted to know how the kids would react to this knowledge.

Well how did they react?

*Shrug* They seemed a little unnerved but they kinda forgot about it the second they got off the hayride.

So what was the point of all that? What was the point?

Is it because we wanted "Goodbye, Evelyn," to be more of gut punch?

Was it worth it? Was "Goodbye, Evelyn" worth it? We know fucking nothing about Evelyn.

I think the rebus was a stupid and lazy means for the kids to discover Titan's blood. You introduce this mysterious object that was hidden under the floorboards and then you just use it as a plot device.

When the kids uncover the rebus and find the secret code inside, the viewer is not thinking about how it can be used as a means to an end (finding blood) The viewer is thinking "what the fuck is that thing and how did it get there and how did Flapjack know it was there?"

Questions that will not be answered <333

ALL IM SAYING is that I'm sure the crew could have come up with another way for the kids to have a Titan's blood treasure hunt. Maybe they could have dug a little more into the history of Gravesfield and follow leads on weird things happening on this one spot in the graveyard (which turns out to be because there's magical energy there, revealed when Luz realizes she can use glyphs)

I just think that if you're gonna leave the mystery box a mystery, you shouldn't have included it.

And I know. Its subtle storytelling. There's elements of what could have been a far more complex story and they're leaving hints of it here and there.

Well the thing about that is I think the hints are very unsatisfying and weaken the episode's plot significantly.

Also I don't think they should get to just pick and choose what parts of the lore are subtle and what parts are ham-fisted.

YES we are going to be reminded like three times that Flapjack is being secretive and hiding things from Hunter.

NO we are never going to get a payoff for that because he gets shanked and dies first.

BUT!! BUT!! If you squint, its IMPLIED that Flapjack belonged to Evelyn and blah blah blah

You don't get to rub things in the audience face and then choose to be all subtle about it at the last minute. Pick one or the other.

Anyway....I think they could have written Thanks to Them as more of an intriguing and suspenseful horror mystery where they spend forty minutes gathering clues and everything finally clicks together at the very end. That's not what we got.

We got a very weak attempt on the Hexsquad's part to be little detectives, but like a minute of screen time was devoted to them dicking around in a library, a costume shop, and a zoo.

I don't think we can blame the shortening for this.

[thisbarbiereallylikesbirds]

Why Tang Shen is soo interesting to me

Okay with all the Nameless Trio content I’ve been posting I feel the need to let you guys know why I find Shen so interesting. This may be a long one but I have LOTS of thoughts so please hang tight.

“If we interfere Splinter will never move to New York and buy four baby turtles”

Donnie in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) S3 E19

First of all Shen is literally the reason the story happens in most iterations. If it weren’t for her death, Hamato Yoshi likely never would’ve moved to New York, never bought the turtles, and they never would’ve gotten mutated. Without her there’d be no story. And yet she’s barely ever mentioned in canon.

Now I could talk for ages about fridging women and why it’s a stupid out-dated, over-used, misogynistic trope. And I’m not even going to pretend that’s not what happened to her. But one of the main problems with fridging is the fact that after the woman’s death sets the plot into motion (usually for some sort of love interest) she’s eventually forgotten by the plot. Women in fiction deserve better treatment than that. Real women deserve better representation than that.

However there’s another way that characters who die before the story starts can be utilized. One that I’m absolutely OBSESSED with. And that is the idea of haunting the narrative. Two of the best examples that I can think of are Mara from She-Ra and Caleb Wittenbane from the Owl House. Both characters are dead before the series begins. For a while the only way that we know about them is through what the other characters tell us. And, of course, this is a very biased view of the person. Sometimes it’s very one dimensional. 

But even though we know almost nothing about them, they linger. They are everywhere in the story. So many things only happen because of them. Memories of Caleb are everywhere in Phillip’s mindscape. Hunter’s entire life is dictated by the memory of a man who died hundreds of years ago. And even the door, the things that brings Luz the the Boiling Isles and sets the whole story into motion only is opened for her because Caleb stole it from Belos and buried it in the backyard of his family home. We don’t know much about Mara but we know that Adora is in a way doomed to follow in her footsteps. 

“In every other universe Gwen Stacy falls for Spider-Man. And in every other universe…it doesn’t end well.”

Spider-Gwen in Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

So we’ve talked about out-of-universe stuff. But what about what’s in the actual story? Due to the crossovers we know that all the iterations of TMNT sort of exist in the same way all the universes exist in the Spider-Verse world. They all have their own dimension. I can’t help but think of the parallels not only between the worlds but the characters who live within them. Gwen Stacy dies in every universe but one. She knows this. Unfortunately, the universe where she survives isn’t exactly kind to her. She loses her best friend. She loses Miles. She loses her father. She loses any chance at having a normal life. 

In 2012 the turtles have a conversation with Shen where she is trying to pick between Oroku Saki and Hamato Yoshi. Of course they don’t know this at the time, but one of the choices will lead to her death. However, it will also lead to the world being saved from a variety of threats. But what if she did know? What if Shen knew that she would be sacrificing herself? What if she knew that in every other universe she was doomed to die? In every universe but one, that is.

Tang Shen is never said to be dead in ROTTMNT. But we only see her once in a movie poster. We know she exists but she has no relevance. As far as we know, she’s out there living her best life. So what is she like? What would a person be like in the one universe where she gets to live?

I really hope this wasn’t too long but thank you so much for reading this whole thing! If you want some content about Rise!Shen then visit the Nameless Trio tag on my blog, she’s one of the three main characters in that au.

[mdhwrites]

Belos' Empire Was Perfect

In theory. For a kid's show dictatorship, I don't know how much better you could do with your concept, especially with the themes that TOH was going for.

I want to emphasize this because it's going to sound like this is praise for a bit: IN. CONCEPT.

Belos' dictatorship has a very easy methodology to it as presented by literally the only three elements of oppression we ever see. The Conformatorium in episode one and the prejudice of wild witches which... Wait on that one. And finally the last one is of course the coven system. This forms the backbone what is frankly one of the most basic elements of any dictatorship: The loss of self. Without individuality, you do not have self worth and thus do not consider whether the treatment you are being given is what you should be getting.

This is coupled by the Wild Witches being the enemy of all. You do not question the state because they are the only thing protecting you from that boogeyman under your bed that will destroy all that you know if not for them. Adding theology to that is honestly barely a change. It just means you worship the government approved god rather than the government itself. It really cannot be understated how that BARELY changes the actual mechanics of a dictatorship besides them likely implementing prayer more.

But none of this is violent besides the wild witch stuff and even TOH tried to be clever in showing that the enemy never existed (in the dumbest possible ways that I have discussed before but I couldn't find my blog about it). So... No violence but all the oppression of a dictatorship! That's literally perfect for a kid's show about rebelling against a system that wants to push you down and put you in a box.

Partially because it allows for some of the best parts of being a kid to be the driving method for success: Friendship and Creativity. Your open heart and open mind. In a world that is stagnant, you will bust it open with your ideas and your unique personality, especially while mixing with others and giving them back their own individuality. This isn't complicated but it works EXTREMELY well.

And TOH executed on none of this concept.

That isn't even an understatement. Wild Witches DO exist, we see them being round up in Eda's Requiem, but that's also the ONLY time we see them. So the main enemy is only humanized through Eda who is a genuine piece of shit before Luz so Belos is kind of right about her unfortunately. So the boogeyman is real and indeed the only people who give a shit about them is the EC so yeah, the populace is just correct to fear them.

And why wouldn't they when they have complete freedom under the government? We see PLENTY of weird people during the time of TOH and none of them go to the Conformatorium. The prison may as well exist just for the pilot for how much it actually matters or does its job. The idea that being different and unique will get you jailed just straight up does not exist after the first episode except for a VERY discordant moment of Luz and King being jailed for walking on grass. Otherwise, NOTHING.

(To drive this home briefly: Someone in my Discord pointed out while I wrote this that Gus' interest in humans is seen as weird and discordant from the rest of the populace. It is why he isn't more popular despite his skills. So... Why is he able to be loud and proud about that interest if your unique interests get you jailed?)

And in return for submitting to the coven system, the citizens of the Isles enjoy protections they don't appear to have had before, have a level of technology that COULD NOT have been a thing during Belos' rise or else he literally couldn't have done it because his rise to power is genuinely terrible, and they have freedoms that anyone in America shares. As far as we know they don't even censor which is dictatorship 101. They don't even enforce their own rules because so long as Eda, the most wanted criminal on the Isles, doesn't literally point herself out and scream at the top of her lungs who she is, no one, not even the guards, will bother coming for her. The Isles is genuinely idealic in this way.

And it comes back to a problem that TOH has of well... Yeah. It had to be appealing and easy because Luz is a genuinely terrible person. If the Isles had been awful, a place truly hostile to her like Amphibia was to Anne, then she would have just gone home. The only way she decides to stay in the Isles is because she's cosplaying. Not because she actually has a sense of justice or duty against corruption, otherwise Luz might not have taken until HOLLOW MIND to actually for once speak against Belos or do literally anything against the EC (and only once she doesn't get to have her witch cloak because of it because these writers have no idea how to write a genuine hero or honestly a properly good person. Just nice ones.) but because she can pretend to be Azura. We even somewhat got confirmation because she literally ends the series just admitting she sees Azura as her. She quotes the god damn book and what is supposed to be cyclical is actually INCREDIBLY toxic because it's just a fulfillment of her fantasies rather than any acknowledgement of reality or growth besides "I only can exist in a fantasy world," which is GREAT messaging to your LGBTQIA+ and Nuerodivergent fans. Thanks show.

So this concept they have for their themes essentially REQUIRES that there be a dictatorship, and allows for one you can do in kid's shows (reminder: there is somehow a stock trope of a villain getting ultimate power and immediately going Nazi with it in kids' shows. They ABSOLUTELY could have shown more than what TOH did.). They just also couldn't because the protagonist they wrote and the wish fulfillment they wanted to play into, as well its 'subversive' elements, literally couldn't function with it actually existing. With the show actually being about taking down that hates you just for being you.

And I REALLY want to emphasize that that's not new. POKEMON has their main villains, including Team Rocket, not care about the individuality of their Pokemon, and thus be willing to brutalize them, because all they care about are results. The main villain for Slugterra's whole thing is robbing slugs of who they are, turning them nasty and violent, just to make them 'more powerful' and that WAS a Disney show. TOH could have done this...

They just didn't and I cannot tell you why besides them not actually being interested in telling their own story or themes because otherwise, why did you include this?

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

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[crimeronan]

Bruh, what would happen if Hunter were to show up and find Luz without any memories of him? If Amity, Lilith, or Raine, or any functional adult are with him and Belos didn’t remove them, then Luz wouldn’t think she’s really gone crazy.

i'm imagining that things in this timeline progress the same way they do normally, which means that after luz has been living with camila for a couple months, hunter knocks at the door. and when camila opens it, he very politely very non-anxiously very normally asks to speak with luz.

in the OG timeline, luz hears his voice and immediately has a Full Meltdown and comes running over to tackle him. in This One, i think luz would hear his voice and immediately get a splitting headache. and she's like. i should know that voice.... i think.... or should i.....?

you know when you recognize an actor in something but you can't quite place their face?? it's like that. but significantly more intense and confusing

luz goes to see who's at the door and peers over camila's shoulder autism creature style. hunter calls her name and tries to push past camila to get to her. luz flinches back with surprise. camila goes NOPE. ABSOLUTELY NOT. I'VE HAD ENOUGH REPORTERS WHO CAN'T MIND THEIR BUSINESS HERE FOR A LIFETIME. OUT.

and kicks hunter out. and threatens to call the cops when he won't leave the porch.

hunter goes back to the demon realm like "hiiiii amity and/or raine and/or darius. the humans did something nefarious to luz. pls come halp."

PROBABLY amity is the one he'd bring, since she's the least involved in running the empire. which is unfortunate for them because amity is Absolutely not equipped for this. great for me, though!!

so hunter comes back to the house with amity. and THIS time when luz sees them, her face Lights Up. and she's like "oh!! amity!! hi!! :DDD" like. she's just So Fucking Relieved to have someone here that she 100% recognizes in a way that does NOT give her a headache. nothing fuzzy or confusing about amity!! maybe she can help luz sort out which of her memories are real!!

and then she turns to hunter and is like "you should have just TOLD me you know amity!! i would have let you in before!!"

and he's like.

hello.

What.

[autisticlilith]

Something that always struck me about this 'fight' is that it felt really one-sided. Not because the Raven Beast is bigger, but because she's also way more aggressive. We see throughout the show that Eda in her Owl Beast form acts mostly on instinct (and her inner beast, once she starts talking to it, seems to just be hungry or cranky most of the time). We don't get much insight into how Lilith copes with the curse (like none at all after this), so this is going to be a lot of inference.

Off the top, I would like to reiterate that Hayley Wong has repeatedly asked that nobody repost or edit her art without permission. I'm going to be referring to stuff from the boards in this post, so here's the link if you want to look for yourself.

So, in this episode, Eda and Lilith are both angry—specifically at Gwendolyn, and with good reason. They both end up turning into beasts due to a combination of that anger, stress, and the fact their mom thought she was "helping" by taking away their medication.

But here is where they differ. Eda was angry about the current situation: her mom refusing to respect her choices, and causing unnecessary harm to her all day. And Luz even joined in. As Eda says, she has a right to be upset, though I don't think she meant to lose control over the beast.

That's just what happens when she reaches her limit. And she knows her limits, she's been dealing with this curse for 30 years!

Meanwhile, Lilith has been dealing with the curse for... a few weeks, at most? Unless you count dealing with the guilt of cursing Eda as part of that. We see that she's quite unaware of the effects of the curse, as she experienced some symptoms for the first time this very day. She essentially gets told to take an elixir if she starts feeling stressed, and then is left in the house to stew in her guilt and insecurity all day.

Gwen's lukewarm greeting, and the realization that she's paid consistent visits to Eda over the years, is enough to send Lilith into a downward spiral. She starts stress-eating ice cream, and makes cruel comments about King's dad abandoning him (a clear case of projection, and I don't think he really internalizes it after this episode, but seriously that's no way to talk to your 8-year-old nephew), and unfortunately the only voice of reason around is Hooty. Well, he tried.

I want to note here that she doesn't cry. She mopes, she complains, she gets rude and cynical; these are all things we've seen her do before. But she doesn't allow herself to honestly express her feelings, her wants and needs. What's she gonna say? "Hey Mom, can you please pay attention to me?" You can't just ask for things like that. And she's a grown adult, she's more mature than this. She was the head of the Emperor's Coven, for Titan's sake. Didn't she get enough attention there to last a lifetime? And didn't she learn how to repress all her useless emotions and craft a perfect persona to hide behind until she could no longer tell the mask from her face?

She realizes she's indulged her worst thoughts a little too hard when the feathers start popping up, and goes to take an elixir and calm down...

And there are no elixirs.

And she panics. She has no coping strategies for this. She doesn't even know what's going to happen to her, only that it's going to be really, really bad.

It has to be terrifying, and painful... and maybe, just a little bit deserved? This is the fate she forced upon Eda, after all.

We don't see any signs that she damaged the house after she turned, unlike the havoc Eda caused back in The Intruder. King runs to get help, because Eda or Luz would know what to do better than he does, and Raven Beast Lilith seems to pursue him, but she's not after him. She goes after Eda directly. There is no distraction (King also notes that light glyphs had no effect on her), there is no behaviour that can be explained as animal instinct. There is a violent, visceral anger, and instead of addressing its source, she flies out there to take it out on Eda.

This is why I don't buy the interpretation that Gwen started favouring Eda only after the curse. By that point, Lilith was an older teenager almost out of the house, and it's completely reasonable for the parents to be focusing more on the younger kid with a new mysterious illness. I think Eda was always the favourite, or at least got more attention in ways that made Lilith feel overlooked. Part of it was that Eda got in trouble more, whereas Lilith was usually quiet and well-behaved, so everyone just decided that Eda needed more help (which she didn't necessarily want) and Lilith needed none. Lilith got very good at needing nothing. So good that instead of talking to her sister about their impending duel, she decided to curse her in the dead of night instead. And then to keep it a secret until she found a way to undo it, because she never wants to upset anyone or cause a scene. And then to give 30 years of her life to an evil man's crooked system for nothing—less than nothing, she's only going to realize later.

Lilith's breakdown isn't about the fact Gwen is paying attention to Eda again. That's just the trigger for a lifetime of repressed emotions bursting to the surface all at once, and it's been coming for a while.

The Owl Beast seems to be mostly defending herself. At a few points she tries to flee, but the Raven Beast catches her. The Raven Beast is malicious, with exaggerated expressions of rage and what can only be described as cruel glee when she inflicts pain. This seems to come out of nowhere... but only if you haven't been paying attention to Lilith.

We know what Lilith is like at her worst. It wasn't even that long ago she threatened Luz's life in order to capture Eda. All while convinced that she was doing the right thing. She doesn't even have that shield now. She doesn't have much of anything, really, except her sister who refused to leave her out in the cold even after everything she's done. And this is how she repays that trust...?

We also know that Lilith wasn't in control of her actions as the Raven Beast. But that doesn't mean the beast was just doing beast things. I believe it was acting directly on Lilith's intrusive thoughts. Hurting Eda was her greatest shame, and the idea that she could do it again is a constant fear that she has. Unlike Eda, who has long been seen by others as a monster and had to fight her internalized shame about it, Lilith considers herself a monster while everyone around her is unaware of her inner turmoil. She's afraid of herself; she thinks her feelings are ugly and violent and unmanageable. And so that's what they became.

There was a sequence in the storyboards that was cut from the episode, presumably for time, where Gwendolyn tries to use a beastkeeping spell in order to communicate with her beast-daughters. It proves completely ineffective, so she goes to plan B, which is just trying to talk to them like a normal person (also in the boards, Gwen summons firebees to lift roof tiles for her to walk on, which I'm glad got changed to the tiles themselves being flying creatures. it's less distracting). There was something really affecting about watching her try to do things her own way one last time before finally admitting that she's failed the both of them. It painted the picture of this whole family who never talk about anything that's difficult or painful.

Then the scene plays out the way it does: Gwen's words get through to Eda, and allow her to finally face the beast and have an important revelation about herself.

And Lilith? Well, for all the violence she just showed, she breaks down in tears the second she is shown loving care.

When they've changed back, her anger is gone. There is no sign of the monster; there is only a sad, lonely woman who hasn't allowed herself to cry in so long that she almost forgot how. But she's safe now, and she's seen, and she's allowed this healthy expression of emotion. She collapses in the arms of her mother and sister.

After this, Lilith and Gwen had an off-screen conversation, where Lilith admitted she was the one to curse Eda, and decided that she was going to move back home. I could write a whole other post on that first point, but we've reached the end of the episode. I think a major reason why Lilith wanted to stay with mom and dad instead of with Eda is because she's afraid of hurting Eda again. Any time the curse acts up, she becomes a danger to the people around her, but especially to Eda, because of how much of her energy and guilt and shame has been focused around Eda over the years. She needs some time away while she figures out how to deal with the curse, to recover and build up her own identity. And of course, to build the relationship with her parents that she needed as a kid. Better late than never.

[ronsenthal]

Ron Speirs x Reader

Summary: The war is almost over now, everybody seems much more relaxed and in a good mood, then some music starts playing and things take a different turn

A/N: I had this idea while listening to one of my fav songs, this masterpiece by Frank Sinatra and Antônio Carlos Jobim which was also quite a popular song during the late 30's and 40's so I hope y'all enjoy it! Friendly reminder that english is not my first language so I apologise for any mistakes you may find

No more training, no more frozen feet, no more drenched clothes, explosions, no more blood, no more hours waiting for a cold shower or for crappy food. No, this time everything has changed. It was quite a shock for everybody at the beginning as the general feeling was the "what now?" or a "then what?" but as the saying goes, the good things are easier to get used to.

The germans had surrendered just a week or so ago, it was still way too recent but at the same time it was so long ago that all the fancy bottles of fine wine, champagne and booze that Nix could get his hands on and all the rest he could give to the other guys we're all long gone. Still, the hangover feeling could be felt in the air.

The Bavarian Alps were quite a nice view after so many horrors, such a reminder of how beautiful the world could be. During the day you always caught yourself enjoying the landscape, what a view! And at night the cold breeze coming from the mountains and the smell of the trees would get blended with tobacco and bavarian booze.

In one of those nights and after days of hard work a much needed (and deserved) weekend pass was awarded to the company. Every chance and tiny bit of happiness was celebrated, not only for the ones who survived way too many horrors, but also was a celebration for those who couldn't make it, for their memories and their efforts so the world could be full of life, joy and hope once again.

Since the invasion was concluded it was so much easier to get things from back home, some would say you could even "find" one thing or two from the scraps of what once was the place of the most powerful and rich people in Germany.

At some point there was even music, american music.

It didn't take so long until someone had the brilliant idea to arrange a party involving obscene amounts of alcohol and some fun. Of course you being so close to the guys would get some special treatment as you always took care of them during the bad times, so you were always the first to get invited for social adventures.

In one of those parties Luz, Tab and Perconte would invite some nurses back from the hospital in the city nearby so it really felt like one of those summer parties you had back home.

Unfortunately being one of the few women in the army also had its cons, you couldn't keep your eyes away from the pretty dresses the other girls were wearing while you felt like wearing old bandage scraps. Sensing that you were uncomfortable Luz stepped forward and invited you to dance with him.

What would you do without George Luz? You two always clicked from the very beginning after you were assigned to Easy Company as a Commanding Officer from intelligence to work alongside Nixon. George being the radio man was always in contact with you and Nix so both could get information to decide the next steps. He helped you so much on getting along with the other guys, always with a joke and a smile here and there.

You danced with him until your feet hurt a little and your head was spinning from all the moves, and of course, the booze. From time to time you two would get a couple of whistles from the other guys, jokingly, because they knew between the two of you there was only friendship, the one siblings would often share.

After what seemed like hours you decided to take a break to catch some air, he wouldn't complain as he took a theatrical bow before heading to the closest toilet he could find.

You decided to go outside to smoke a cigarette and enjoy some silence, but your soul almost jumped out of your body as you saw a silhouette in front of your eyes.

It was him, the personification of the devil himself, the reason for so many sleepless nights and daydreams. Everybody knew the legends of Captain Speirs, yet one could count in a single hand the people who knew a little bit about the guy and of course you were one of the few who could poke the beast.

- Jesus Christ Speirs, didn't you killed enough people by now? you snapped as soon as your eyes adjusted to the bad light outside

- I'm.. uh.. so sorry Y/L/N. He said in such a soft tone, sounding almost like a real apology, you could sense even embarrassment in his tone.

Suddenly the sound of the crickets were louder than the faint familiar music still playing, but you two stood still once again sharing the silence between the smoke coming from the cigarettes in your hands.

As you started to slowly move to head back inside you could hear him taking a big breath.

- Please Y/N wait! w-would you give me the privilege to dance the next one with me? he said as he gently grabbed your left arm.

You stood there a little shocked and amazed by what had just happened because 1. he was nervous, 2. he just asked you to dance with him and 3. he was so nervous that he was stuttering and the hand on your arm was so cold.

If you told nobody would believe that the so stern and scary Sparky could be so nervous around a girl. It took you a few seconds to realize that he was looking at you, waiting for your response, he was blinking more quickly than normal, craving for an answer. Even in the dark you could see his long eyelashes moving and how his pupils were dilated as if he was some cat.

- Yes, I would like that. You said slowly enjoying every single letter of the words that came out of your mouth and enjoying the view of every little piece of his body relaxing.

- Good. Was the only response he gave you before tossing his cigarette on the ground and then reaching his hand for you to take.

This time it wasn't so cold, it was warmer, it even felt safe!

As you two entered the house together holding hands suddenly and slowly the voices and laughter took another tone, giving room for some whispers, gasps and shocked looks.

Nix, who was just sitting in a corner torn between some dumb discussion with Harry and fighting to open another bottle of whisky, suddenly stopped and slapped Dick across his chest. Even the so composed Major Winters dropped his jaw as he saw what Lewis was trying to put into words, but couldn't.

The music kept playing and after a few seconds everything was going back to normal and the laughs and voices came back once Luz told some joke to the guys.

You were really surprised because never in your entire life could you picture yourself dancing with Speirs. You did imagine a thing or two involving the captain, but it never crossed your mind that he could enjoy dancing, and even worse, that he could be a really good dancer.

He was holding your hand so gently, never averting his gaze, no words were needed as your eyes were speaking. But suddenly he once again bravery took the next step.He said letting out a cute and small laugh.

He looked so good while smiling, you wondered why he didn't show that very often.

- You know, I thought that I would have to wait the entire night to have the chance to dance with you. I was plotting on how to get rid of Luz.

- You could have just asked earlier or you could have scared him as everybody is afraid of Captain Ronald Speirs. You said with a smirk on your face.

- No, because I'm a nice guy and I wouldn't want to scare your little friend. He sounded exasperated, almost jealous as he said the last two words, then he took your other hand for you to take a spin.

Your world was certainly spinning really fast at this point, was he really jealous? of you? of you and George of all people.

The music stopped and the singer was making some announcements but you stood still for a few seconds before letting go of his hand. Suddenly there was no air inside and you had to compose yourself after your realization.

You couldn't find him for the rest of the night, in fact nobody could. It was a bittersweet end for such a nice day and you knew that it would certainly take some time before you could sleep at night.

The next day at the breakfast table nobody said a word and you were the last one to finish your meal. As you were preparing to get up your seat you were met with a pair of kind eyes, as if waiting for you to speak out.

Dick always had this aura around him, always prepared to be a good listener and then would offer his piece of advice. But as you took quite some time he finally said.

- He likes you, really.

- I beg your pardon? you said squinting your eyes.

- Y/N Your poker face is as bad as mine, and I mean it. He, Ron.really.likes.you

- Shut up Winters!

- It's true, if looks could kill, poor Luz would be receiving his requiem mass by now.

You rolled your eyes at him, even though something in your heart made you believe in his words, one of Dick's superpowers you thought to yourself, but still it made sense.

You spend the rest of your day trying to avoid other people. But then decided to end your misery and joined the guys for some more music and beers.

Only this time there was a certain someone waiting for you. He almost jumped out on his feet as he saw you walking through the doors. He was looking so different, he was the so confident and dangerous captain everybody was afraid of.

And took your advice and was ferociously glancing at the boys as if you were more valuable than one of his silver candelabras. But you could see his beauty as his clenched jaw was moving from side to side, he looked like one of those warriors from stories, from marble sculptures of famous heroes. As he took his cap off you could admire his dark hair moving while his hands were putting a few strands of hair back in place.

The same hands that suddenly were holding yours so gentle, he didn't have to ask you out.

You knew that Dick was right, and this time you also knew deep in your heart that you would never want to change partners again.

Taglist: @mads-weasley, @footprintsinthesxnd, @sweetxvanixlla, @xxluckystrike, @malarkgirlypop, @lostloveletters Let me know if you want to be added!!

also a special shout out to @ewipandora, thanks for the little push, I really needed that and HEY I'VE DONE IT!!!!!

[mewpathy]

FINALLY. THE REASON WHY I MADE THIS SIDE BLOG. HER.

Been having a TON of brainrot from TOH again and my old mlp next gen habits kicked in sooooo... yeag

More ab her under the cut bc WOOOO BOY i have SO MANY THOUGHTS ON HER

So! I think I should begin with just the fact that she is, for lack of a better term, a anomaly. Grimwalkers have never been recorded to reproduce- on top of her being a weird mixture of not really human and not really witch... Uncanny valley for both species yk?

Hunter and Luz were in their mid-20s when Luz got pregnant with Lunala,, which was a shock for both. More Hunter than Luz lmao she was cruising. At the time the two had just started up a cultural exchange of sorts with the human realm so on top of the stress of new baby... yeah it was a time.. Doesn't help that halfway through Luz's body was like- smth,, smth aint right and so while not on bedrest, she did have to tone down her activities and now, with medicine advancing, many theorize that the left over Titan magic in her is the only reason she survived.

Then out popped Lunala! Lil freak of a girl. Hunter cussed out the fact hes a clone bc bby girl gots her wack goofy ahh cousin(?)s blue eyes- Phillips last F u lol- the yellow from Mama only started coming out when she turned 4-ish. On top of that, she got the staple four digits with pawpads all Grimwalkers have and EXTREMELY horrible equilibrium and thermoregulating ability. She is bundled up 24/7 and cant walk without her cane. Messed up gal.

Due to the irregularities of magic during her formation her bile sac cannot filter magic properly- some days she'll be equal to a fully grown witch and others she'll be bedbound due to her own bile sac essentially leaking the excess out of her when a usual one would get rid of the "used up" magic via normal ways- another reason why she uses her cane. On top of this, the excess magic (if she hasn't used any in a while) starts to drip out of her mouth, being almost acidic. A fine line she has to walk between literally spewing acid and being poisoned by her own body. She survives tho! Also her teeth too big for her gotdamn mouth,, queen of braces

BUT OH HO HO. THIS DOES NOT STOP HER FROM BEING A LIL CREECHER. A GOOFBALL. A MENACE. She looks /TERRIFYING/ when happy/scheming but genuinely means well- taking her Mama's words to heart- "It becomes bullying when no one but yourself is having fun" and essentially tries to make others laugh/be in a good mood,, unfortunately a lot of people find her to be unnerving- only really finding a few good friends in Ophelia- Willow and Amity's adopted daughter-, King, Collector, and a school friend Ricardo- a human on the Boiling Isles via the cultural exchange program.

Outside of other's around her age, she gets along with her parents and family wonderfully! Lunala can be very quiet when she wants too and has found a particular gift for essentially reading people and being able to help them- magical therapist if you will. On top of exploring the human realm with her Auntie Vee (Who has become a cross country explorer and nature conservationist), she has a hell of a time helping her Dad practice for his games or his most recent pailsman carving, or helping her Mama document the entirety of the Boiling Isles or be a proof reader for her Mama's books. Fun stuff!

Her pailsman- Manny- is named after Luz's dad, after seeing pictures her Abuela left out. Manny and Lunala are two peas in a pod- with both being seen as unnerving. On top of that, Manny being a King Cobra gives a slight hint to Lunala's... less than spectacular anger. She doesn't get angry often but when she does her bile sac works overtime with the amount of adrenaline she gets from her anger, which, of course, leads to the acidic overspill and very... unsightly view.

As she gets older, and learns to control her anger more, she'll become a terrifying politician both in the Boiling Isles and in the human realm and hobbyist child psychologist.

ANYWAY ITS MIDNIGHT AND I GOTS SCHOOL BYE HOPW YALL ENJOY THIS RANT

[punkeropercyjackson]

Jason Todd and Hunter Noceda-Deamonne have the same fandom problem in the sense that they have excellent writing and genuine redemption arcs but unfortunately they're surrounded by poc and women and especially woc who're important to them with pretty much bo revelant white characters that aren't their antagonists and that gives their hardcore stans media blindness thanks to seeing them as edgy white boys and nothing else so to them their casts may as well not exist and they just can't help but feel like they'd work better with other white boys and plainer white girls and for the woc to not exist outside of them-And mind you,'Noceda-Deammone' as a last name for Hunter isn't even an actual tag despite Camila and Darius being his only parental figures.This is pretty bad for Jason and Hunter themselves because it erases them as good examples for how white people should behave around and treat minorities who're constants in their lives and also just generally makes them not as interesting due to it being used to turn them into power fantasies and packaged tropes and nothing but quirks and this is exactly what white DC and Toh fans want for them since they refuse to grow up and get angry at woc and kids of color in the fandom in particularly for not caring for their behavior because they're used to us taking it lying down

Very happy to have to be the one to tell you this but Hunter never even looking in any white boys direction in favor of Gus' mutual found brotherly love with him,only ever loving Willow,being adopted into Camila and Luz's family,Darius becoming dad who never hurt him unlike Belos and never rivaling Amity over Luz because a boy and a girl looking at eachother once isn't a love triangle and Jason not giving two shits about Tim because he's too busy being bros with Duke and Damian,rejecting any white girl who tries to throw herself at him because he wants Rose,Artemis and Dana and choosing Talia and Stephanie as his mother and Batgirl without ever considering anyone else isn't 'wasted potential'.Us-meaning the people who their stories are actually about,the poc and girls and girls of color you refuse to let exist-telling you stop being bigots for your dogshit fics isn't 'harrasment'.You just don't get what you want this time so SUCK IT UP like you always tell us to after coming into OUR spaces

[gryficowa]

I get annoyed with people who argue that I should like Marinette because, like me, she is neurodivergent and traumatized by being a scapegoat.

But it's clear that Marinette can get away with everything, and so does Thomas, who wrote it so shitty because it's his imaginary daughter with his ex

And there's also a ridiculous argument that we don't like Marinette because of her flaws. Well, stalking is an innocent flaw, right, fandom?

It annoys me that many people use the argument about ADHD and her trauma of being a scapegoat as an argument, it's clear that the episode where they trashed Chloe and Kim completely took away your ability to think

Look what characters I have on my profile, so in this context you can see how I'm laughing at this argument defending Thomas' bad writing

Luz Noceda is also a neurodivergent character and has a similar trauma to Marinette (And the further away, the more serious this trauma), seriously, Luz also has flaws (And unfortunately, she was attacked in the fandom because she brought snakes to school, I FUCKING BROUGHT SPIDERS TO SCHOOL , MAYBE NOT VENIOUS, BUT I BROUGHT FUCKING SPIDERS, but remember, Marinette must be loved, because she's so poor, isn't she?)

Hell, I even like Beetlejuice from the musical (Even though my conscious is telling me: What the fuck are you doing? Do you like creep? YOU ARE AROACE), so the argument about Marinette's flaws is ridiculous and fandom, seriously, not every neurodivergent and scapegoated person will love Marinette like you because writing it downright insults neurodivergent and traumatized people, damn it, do you seriously like shit with glitter?

I have the impression that people are seriously crazy in these fandoms, they hated Luz Noceda, but they defend Marinette without a second thought (Because she's probably half white and Luz is Latino)

I am a national minority in my country (I am Kashubian) and from my own perspective I know that even smaller ones than me are treated worse by fandoms (Unfortunately, they are often called "Gypsies", even people from the USA call them that, and the word itself means "Thief", so yes, it has bad connotations) As seen in the case of Luz Noceda), seriously, because if Kashubians are relatively open, then in other areas of Poland not very, in the sense, Roma ( or other groups are often attacked (This can be seen from Facebook and comments on them, which is why I left it and ended up on tumblr)

A famous Roma woman is Viki Gabor (who unfortunately received a lot of hateful comments due to her ethnicity)

I don't know what it's like in the US with Latinos, but I have the impression that Luz Noceda had a bigger attack because of her origins (while Marinette had a smaller attack because of being half white)

So yes, you defend the stalker and explain it as neurodiversity/trauma, and you bash another character for the same thing

So stop telling us that we have to like Marinette just because of trauma and her being neurodivergent, because that's disgusting and you're negating other people that you prefer to trash because they don't fit into these groups that you can feel sorry for

[thisbelongsto-nohbodys]

(The reason Luz coming out as Bi to her mom was the first thing in the montage)

On the first night back, Luz is working on her laptop late into the night. Amity wakes up to the light and the typing.

Amity: Luz? Why are you still up?

Luz: I’ll get some sleep soon, I just need to finish this PowerPoint for my mom.

Amity: A what? Why?

Luz: It’s a presentation thing and I’m going to use it to tell my mom that I’m bi.

Amity: Oh, that’s nice. Your mom seems nice, I’m sure she’ll be happy with that…um, is that an issue in the human realm?

Luz: Unfortunately things are different here than in the Demon Realm, talk about irony. But I know mami will be okay with it. I just need to tell her for 2 reasons.

Luz: 1st is so that she knows and I can show her my awesome girlfriend.

Amity: Awwww, and the 2nd reason?

Luz: so I can give you as many cuddles and kisses whenever without having to worry about any awkward situations like when Azura and Hecate were secretly dating at first and tried to keep it from Azura’s mentor but they couldn’t hide it very well, like giant neon sign obvious.

Amity: Oh yeah, good point.

[lollytea]

Delighted myself thinking about the witch kids again, specifically their various attempts to build a replacement portal during the Summer. I'm picturing lots of brainstorm sessions that stretch late into the night and when they get tired enough, they devolve into arguing over who gets the last piece of pizza or playing truth or dare or whatever.

Hunter is feeling really proud of himself for having helped Belos rebuild a portal before. He has experience! He can make himself super useful! And then Amity 'Woman in STEM' Blight is also aiming for the same thing. She's an inventor's daughter. Her Dad's main area of expertise is using magic to power technology. She has plenty of opinions on the mechanical side of things.

Hunter and Amity either click extremely well and are plotting away at a prototype immediately or they disagree on every trivial detail and cannot go five minutes without arguing about it. There's no real resentment here. They're both just used to doing everything themselves and struggle to work as a team.

I don't think the project would get off the ground without Luz. She keeps everybody from wasting time with dud ideas because she's already spent tons of time in the Boiling Isles attempting to build a portal home. She knows exactly what WONT work cuz she's already tried it. She's also got a knack for thinking outside of the box and knows that even though glyphs are rendered useless in this realm, they can still be utilized. If she draws just the right glyph combo and finds a bit of magic for the glyphs to soak up, she's pretty sure they can light this portal's engine up.

Vee reminds them that she's still got a supply of Hexes Holdem cards, which have been working pretty well for keeping her human form. Luz, who had forgotten those things existed, nearly hits the roof in excitement.

Vee doesn't contribute much to the whole construction process, but while she does supervise. She did a health and safety course while at Summer Camp and is diligently making sure nobody is getting their asses blown up.

Portal Building is not Willow's strong suit. She does not have Luz and Hunter's experience, Amity's engineering knowledge or Gus' enthusiasm for tinkering with human technology. So she does what she does best and offers support. She hypes her smart friends up. And when they start doubting that they're actually making any progress, Willow swoops in to encourage them that if ANYBODY can build a portal, her best friends can!! Once the team realizes that they're gonna need something super strong to hold the portal upright, Willow beams. Her vines!! Her vines are tough as hell!! She can do that!!

Gus falls behind a little at first. He might be a prodigy but his skills are quite dependent on the existence of actual magic, so he struggles a bit to find his purpose here. He's very eager to work with human technology but Luz knows more about them than he does. He's smart enough to offer ideas but Hunter and Amity always come up with them before he does because they're both annoyingly STEM brained and have gotten a bit competitive about it. Gus is given the task of gathering equipment for the portal with Vee and he tries not to pout about it. After they managed to track down a half busted TV at a lawn sale, Vee takes him to a petstore to cheer him up. Gus gloomily stares at the hamsters running in their little wheels. He idly thinks about an article he read in one of his human magazines. About how hamsters in wheels can create energy. Unfortunately, hamsters aren't magic.

Cut to 2 days later when the team realizes that the Hexes Holdem cards just aren't gonna cut it. They don't possess nearly enough magic to power up a portal. It's not gonna work. All the time they've spent on this, and it's not even gonna work. They need something else. Anything else.

Luz looks like she's gonna burst into tears. Amity is pacing back and forth. Hunter is like this close 🤏 to slamming his head against the wall in an effort to rattle a genius idea out of his brain. Willow is making a valiant effort to keep everybody from having a full blown meltdown.

Gus is staring intently at Flapjack who is pecking away at the floorboards again. Then he's like "Hey....hear me out....what if-?"