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I wasn't in the fandom in s1, but i wonder whether Eda x Perry was a ship after season 1 finale? Like, fandoms start ships from less.

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There were bits of Gus's and King's friendship in the show, i just wish they were explored more from Gus's perspective and were centered on Gus since King got a lot of development in other episodes.

But i think it would have been interesting if in s1 or s2a, after King accepts Luz's friendship with Willow and Gus, King got to hang out at Gus's place and saw how Gus interacts with Perry. Maybe while preparing for the Grom's performance or in s2a after the island. Maybe it would happen while King is still learning to let go of his s1 attitude and initially Gus's interactions with Perry (too soft and goofy for s1 King) don't really fit into what ideal of relationship King had imagined one should have with their parent, or King feels a sort of jealousy over their relationship. And then it could lead to exploration of Gus and Perry and what their home life is like, maybe contrasting Perry and Eda as single parents.

There can be interesting possiblities to connect Gus with both King and Luz depending on the situation with his other parent. Is the other parent dead? Then there is the connection and parallels to explore both with Luz, whether it is recent or happened when Gus was very young (as a contrast. Maybe Gus doesn't remember his other parent but sometimes longs to know them), and with King after King starts looking for his dad, as long as Gus doesn't become everyone's therapist and his feelings are equally explored. Or if Perry was always a happily single dad it can also lead to interesting contrasts and exploration of how Gus would feel about King and Eda.

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random Eber musings:

- I headcanon that Eber, too, was overlooked and looked down on because they don't talk or only speak a different language, is a less humanoid-looking demon, small of stature and behave in a 'beast'-like way, and can't fit with the rest of the Coven Heads (and possibly bigger society). I headcanon that that's why Terra and others didn't even mention him being a rebel because they didn't think he is worthy of mentioning. Perhaps they thought that he isn't smart enough to rebel on his own so they just saw them as a follower and didn't question his involvement much. Or the other CHs had always assumed that Eber would want random chaos because he is 'too feral' so the other CHs weren't even surprised that he was a rebel, but they had never considered the possibility that his rebellion might have ideological reasons.

- I kinda also wonder whether, while King isn't a demon, the plot line about demons being overlooked still could've been touched through other characters like Eber and Kikimora if the show wasn't shortened (with Kikimora acting as someone who would do anything to compensate for the social disatvantages but ultimately only looks out for herself, while Eber is trying to help others).

- Eber seemed so happy with the Catts. So i think they had been lonely. They had Darius, but not many other friends. And maybe they had difficulty connecting with other (humanoid) demons, and instead it was much easier for them to connect with their beasts, maybe they even had thought that they prefer it that way until they met other rebels. Maybe Eber also had to learn to open up. And maybe after the finale they would also get to mentor other demons/witches. Also interestingly the ratworms, per Hooty's episode, are demons and not 'ordinary' animals, so i wonder whether Eber thinks the classifications and distinctions are artificial and really feels connection with all demons. Especially if he was indeed literaly raised by dire wolves.

- But what i have been wondering is how Eber reacts to being overlooked and looked down on. Is their beast-like behavior 100% just how they are, or do they exaggerate it as a form of small protest /rebellion and/or a form of spite because if the others look down on them anyway, why not spite them? If someone acted towards them the way people had acted towards King as if he is cute and harmless, would they take offense, try to scare the person in question away or take it with humor and play along? I feel like they have a perfect poker face and would play along, but the way they would feel about it on the inside is a question.

- If Eber is meant to be a younger sibling figure to Darius, does this dynamic clash a little with the way they feel overlooked (if they feel that way). Like, do they feel bitter sometimes when Darius is trying to protect them when they can do things on their own and (usually) protect themselves? When others assume that they just follow Darius while they have their own motivation?

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I actually headcanon, perhaps against the canon lore, that most inhabitants of the Boiling Isles have some sort of tolerance or protection against the Boiling Rain compared to humans. Like, in s1 Willow was ouching, but it didn't look like she was hurt to the point of burns (because it was a comedic 2 seconds moment but, you know, headcanons). I headcanon that while the Boiling Rain can be dangerous, depending on conditions or maybe depending on whether it is the beginning of the rain or not (maybe it gets hoter but starts not as hot), for the witches it is more like a reaction to a too hot tap water or overturning a hot - but not burning hot - cup of tea on yourself rather than being burned by boiling water. And if there is no protection and it is as burning to the witches as to the humans then shouldn't the vapor/steam that would accompany it also be dangerous, and then just putting up a plant like an umbrella woudn't really protect you?

Because if you want to expand the world building the somewhat regular deluge of burning hot rain would affect pretty much everything else on the Isles too. The soil/ground/probably air pressure (?). Also not sure how rare the rain is.

(also i am not sure about the science and whether it's the influence of the pressure or temperature, but in situations like the joints aching before rain - would it be different on the Boiling Isles and would the rain bring relief instead?)

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it's a running gag when characters call King a rat or a dog, but it certainly has weird implications if taken seriously. Like. He clearly talks and can reason. Why is the first reaction from the Boiling Isles characters is to assume he is a pet animal and not a demon child???? Raine realizes he is a child immediately from the photo. Considering demons are looked down at, is it meant as an insult? Maybe in a kinder interpretation no one else can believe Eda would have a child.

(i headcanon Eber is also overlooked because he is a less humanoid demon and small and behaves in a 'beast'-like way, and he advocates not only for beasts but for demons too. So it is funny to imagine if someone calls King 'the Owl Lady's dog' when that is clearly a child, and in the background Eber is shown, like, loading a gun)

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I also think that fandom's reaction to Darius' and Camila's relationship (of any kind) also really shows fandoms biases.

And, just to be clear, i am writing this under the assumption that there is no canon info about Darius's sexuality because all info i've seen was based on fanmade wikis - which are not, as far as i know, made with the participation of toh creators and all the wikis might be edited by the same fans or use each other as sources (and one of the people who was agressively pushing the opinion that wikis are canon had several absolutely disgusting posts about Darius on their blog and had said outright biphobic things so i wonder whether there were other motives in claiming wikis as canon). If i am wrong and there is at least word of god info - please tell me! And i am sure most darimila shippers would've stopped shipping it romantically if the new canon info was dropped. But the important thing is that the dislike of darimila had started long before the finale when there was nothing even in the wikis, and it extends to platonic relationship as well.

And incompatible orientation would be the only legit reason to dislike romantic darimila, because all the other reasons are just bad faith:

"Oh, fans only want them together because of Hunter. Why should it be about Hunter?" Everything in the fandom is already about Hunter. Strange how it isn't a problem when Darius and Camila are reduced to Hunter's caretakers separately or when they are constantly pitted against each other because of Hunter. And while there might be fans who want them to be together because of Hunter, most people who talked about darimila had noticed similarities and contrasts between their stories and wanted to explore them.

They are both people who were deeply affected by the death of someone close to them and after that person's death ended up stuck in a place where they couldn't fully be themselves and had to confirm and act strong, etc Both seem to have creative hobbies that they can't fully engage in anymore, but a more science/biology (magic kind in Darius' case) related profession. Both seem to be embarassed to be engaged in something that can be seen as too silly (Camila about the Cosmic Frontier, Darius with the Catts name). As others had said, even Camila being a vet and Darius being best friends/sibling with Eber is a funny connection to explore. None of these involve Hunter at all.

And especially ironic when it's fans who ship Darius with Alador or even Graye(🤢) act like darimila is bad when there is a more widespread problem with those shippers treating Darius terribly, as an one-dimensional comfort provider if not a walking sex toy. (I am not that familiar with Camila's ships, except ramila, of course) Even with Raine, as much as i love Darius's and Raine's interactions, there is a problem when most fanworks only focus on them when they give each other relationship advice rather than on their actual friendship, and Darius still often ends up as only a comfort provider. Meanwhile from what i've seen most fans who liked darimila or wanted to see them as good friends seemed to understand and care about both characters.

And twice ironic when fans of Darius x prev GG as a romantic relationship call darimila disgusting. Like, sure, there is a possibility that a word of god might make romantic darimila an insensitive ship, but... there is even a bigger possiblity that new lore info would make the ship with the prev GG just outright creepy. Yet only darimila gets an intense preemtive backlash.

And this extends to the platonic relationship because fans are really intense on making them into rivals because of Hunter (this time it's of course ok to make everything about Hunter/sarcasm) while this doesn't really happen with other relationships. And i dont have a problem when characters who are good people dislike each other and don't understand each other, but it's clear when there are double standarts in the fandom. The fans say that their personality would clash? But Camila's and Eda's personalities only clash when fandom uses this to hate on Camila and paint her as less progressive. Camila "doesn't know whether she would be able to forgive Darius for how he had treated Hunter"? But she won't be horrified by how Eda had been raising and treating King?

Ultimately it's not about shipping it's about the way characters of color and their relationships of all kinds are treated compared to white characters.

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i truly don't care about the ships between kid characters outside of, like, having opinions on the technical quality of the writing in the source material. But the way often adult fans behave around huntlow is just so unpleasant.

And there are definitely good-faith, genuine criticisms of the huntlow both regarding the writing and the fandom, like the way it is overly popular to the point of overshadowing more prominent canon ships or even Luz's story, or the way many fans only see Willow as a proxy and mischaracterize her (or the way it is clear that for some fans Willow is acceptable as a love interest for the white favourite because she is light skinned and not actually drawn as fat).

But there is usually a diference between the way, for example, Luz's fans who are rightfully upset over her being constantly overshadowed in her own story, or Willow's fans who had different headcanons or don't like her being reduced to a ship, or just people who don't like the writing choices, talk about huntlow vs the way primarly Hunter's fans who are upset over their fave dating a 'wrong' person or the show going against their self-projecting headcanons talk about huntlow. You can tell when Willow is demeaned and her character and arc are completely misinterpreted, even when these fans misuse valid criticisms while completely missing the point.

Like when certain fans say huntlow should have been platonic, yet they remove Willow from Hunter's and Luz's friend groups and laugh about not including her in fanworks. Or they invent nonsense things about Willow - like she would be a bad love interest for Hunter because she 'forces her friends to do things'. And this makes it very clear that in these cases the whole 'would have loved for them to be platonic friends' is fake, because wouldn't 'pushing her friends to do things' also be bad in a friendship situation? (also a very ironic thing to blame Willow for, considering Hunter's actions in ASIAS or even his behavior towards Luz later on)

And while straight up demonization of Willow is rare, fake concerns about her character that completely miss the point of her arc and often misinterpret valid criticisms of her writing are very common:

- "The show made a strong character like Willow weak when it made Hunter reach out to her during her breakdown in s3 and it had diminished his trauma." What a way to completely miss the point of Willow's arc alltogether. Just makes it so clear that these fans didn't pay any attention to her character when it was obvious form early on that trying to always be strong was bad for her. It was such a good arc too, despite the pacing problems. More complex than just straighforward 'a shy person gaining confidence' (and very reliable, imo). And if Willow's arc was just about being 'strong' like Hunter's fans want, that would mean that her arc would've ended in s1 or s2a, and she would have became a static character for a good portion of the show too. And why caring about someone else was diminishing of Hunter's trauma? Like, yes, there was no time to properly address what happened in ep1 of s3, but that's another problem that was caused by the decisions in ep1 that didn't have anything to do with the ship.

- "Oh, Willow had become a completely different character in s2b to serve Huntlow." No? She had started to gain confidence in s1, and her making up with Amity and helping Eda at the petrification ceremony clearly helped. And we see her mischievous side and her anger literally in the first episode she is introduced. The pacing of her arc, especially in s2a is not great, but her character is consistent, unless you only see her as either a shy nerd or an always strong leader with no weaknesses.

- "Oh, but the show didn't have enough time for Willow's development, why was her screentime wasted on romance instead of her own development?" Only, the worst sidelining of Willow happened in s2a. Her trauma because of the Blights and the schooling is literally not brought up in the second episode when the Blight parents are introduced in person and she gets expelled. In the same episode she and Gus are taken out by normal abominations. Her actions in s1 finale are never brought up. In s2b and s3 she actually got something, and what we got of her arc was barely focused on Huntlow.

- "Why didn't they focus on other relationships?" Again, her friendship with Luz was abandoned in s1 already, her friendship with Gus was rarely explored, including in s1 (like in the Understanding Willow). Her helping Eda is not addressed at all. Her arc with Amity was weird, and i actually think Amity should have been involved in talking to Willow in s3, but it got some focus; but lets be honest, huntlow is barely there, compared to other things that got too much time it is nothing, it's just in a background. And funny how s3 has a little bit of Camila helping Willow and giving her the camera, and we see how much Willow worries about her dads - but these parts are ignored by the very same fans.

- "Instead of romance they should have adressed how Willow had to just brush off her past bullying" Well, also a legit criticism, only that also started in s1 when her bullying and her trauma were just shrugged off with 'well she gained confidence after making up with Amity so now she is popular'. But it wasn't a problem then? Just like the sidelining of her friendship with Gus and Luz wasn't a problem until she 'threatened' Hunter's fans.

And that's actually the usual problem with Hunter's fandom - they only care about fandom being too Hunter-centric when it's a ship or a character they dislike, yet they never admit that Hunter and his disproportional screentime, as well as his fandom are the problem. I really doubt these fans would've been ok with Hunter getting less screentime if it meant for Willow and Gus to have more development.

And it is very clear when these, usually white fans, either straight up have a problem with the white fave dating Willow specifically because she doesn't fit in the acceptable - white and thin - love interest mold (especially telling when the same people are super into ships like Cale*b/Evelyn or jay*vik arcane); or they are so caught up in their self-projection and headcanons - that are that, just headcanons, not canon - that they just refuse to understand why seeing a (sigh)'fat' asian girl like Willow being loved by the resident sad boy fan favourite character can be important for younger fans who see themselves in Willow. And this second group get so absorbed into fighting for their headcanons and self-projection that they can't even see that their arguments and behavior become indistinguishable from the first group.

Meanwhile if you are an adult fan of a kid show you can just, like, admit that you don't care about the ship and you prefer a different headcanon without resorting to having a beef with a 15 years old cartoon girl or completely misinterpreting a cartoon and being unpleasant about it.

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The thing with the fandom is that you can write whole essays, pick up the show frame by frame, consider all the other possibilities and what those would mean from the writing perspective to prove that Darius isn't as bad as he is seen by the fandom while trying to be objective, and it would never be enough because "it wasn't explicitly stated blah blah blah". But the popular worst case interpretations were also not explicitly stated, yet they are just accepted without questioning and if you push back, even in the most polite way, you are at fault because "it isn't serious" and there is no need to back up those claims, sometimes literally something borrowed from outright racist fanfic is enough to bash Darius as if it is canon.

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those fans who clearly dislike Willow because of huntlow are so...

i am not talking about fans who have actual grounded criticisms of the writing&design decisions, or who are critical of the way Luz and her ships are overshadowed by a less prominent ship. But those - very obviously primarly Hunter's - fans who just invent things about Willow like her ''forcing her friends to do things" and pettily erase her from being Hunter's and even Luz's friend in fanworks and loudly miss the point of her arc and her character.

like, it's so pathetic that there are fans who are 20-something years old and are having beef with a 15 years old cartoon girl because she held hands with the fandom's darling for a second in a couple of easily ignorable scenes.

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Don't skip 🚨Emergency

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My name is Mahmoud Al-Halaq, from Palestine - Gaza - I am 29 years old. This message is addressed to every person who carries compassion, kindness, and love in their heart. After 470 days of war on Gaza, the destruction that has occurred, the displacement we have faced, moving from one place to another, and the loss and death of loved ones and friends, I found myself alone without a home or place, and even the prices of food are astronomical. The world has changed so much that life has become gloomy and boring. Therefore, I ask for your help in rebuilding myself, my life, and my family's life anew. You are our remaining hope in life. If there were an opportunity to work, I would not waste a minute nor ask for help from anyone, but I urgently need assistance for my family, my children, and the women to rebuild what has been destroyed and crushed in this devastating and painful war. Thank you for your time and support; we draw our strength and resilience from your support. 🍉

Please donate

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with Darius being a scientist in my headcanon world, i also want to think that he would be able to contribute to figuring out the Draining Spell after seeing the way the sigil was used on Raine in ER.

I mean, because it's a cartoon the actual Draining Spell diagram and the connections that the characters had to make were super simple, but in a more 'realistic' setting, i would like to think that it wasn't just spy work, but Darius's skills in research and the knowledge of the witch anatomy / magic that he had acquired while working on his transformation would have helped with figuring out what exactly the Draining Spell was and how it would work. And Eber would contribute too - working with different beasts and ecosystems could also lead to them starting to think about different magical connections.

And then it's more poetic narratively if later Darius and Alador fully worked together to develop the sigil removal after years of rivalry. Alador might be the one to develop the gadgets for the removal, but Darius might be able to contribute with the magical 'bio/biochemistry' research.

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i also love how Darius isn't even drawn smiling or happy when he is 'relaxing' in ASIAS:

I absolutely headcanon that he could never even enjoy all the 'me time' while he was in the Coven, and the only times when he could actually relax and feel happy were the times when Eber was bothering him and dragging him into some shenanigans.

(and also in this particular episode - oh, maybe he wasn't as gleeful and happy about the previous interaction with Hunter as the fanon depicts him to be)

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I like that when you look at the old Hexsquad and Camila as adults, at the moment when they are introduced in the series:

Eda and Lilith don't seem to have any close friends when the series starts. Eda obviously has King and Hooty, but King is a child and with Hooty she is, well, like that in the begining. And it's the point that when she meets Luz she is isolated. Lilith is also very isolated, and although there is Steve, it seems like their friendship is at its starting point when they are introduced, and at first she is primarly his boss, and the friendship really develops as the series progresses and they unlearn the Coven mentality.

Camila also doesn't seem to have close friends in the Gravesfield after Manny's death.

It really doesn't seem like Odalia and Alador would have real friends as adults.

Perry probably has friends, it would make sense if he had befriended the Parks, and he is shown to have his demon friend in the flashback. But he, almost certainly, has been living in a less toxic or less isolated environment compared to the rest of his former friendgroup.

Raine is interesting. They have the Batts, but, while i don't see the Batts as their children, they are definitely much younger, so it seems like the dynamic would be closer to a teacher/mentor and students. It seems like they have more emotional awareness than the Clawthorne sisters or Darius, so I would think it's likely that they would have had friends other than Eda. But at the same time i could see them distancing themselves from those who were closer to them prior to starting their Coven Head/Rebel path. At least we don't see any of their other friends during the show.

But Darius, despite his attitude, despite the role he has to play, despite being in the centre of the toxic Coven environment, just has Eber as his bestie from the start.

(I especially like this together with the headcanon that Darius was much more open and social when he was younger, and then he tried to kill that part of himself really hard, but still he couldn't, even when he was at his lowest)

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From Under the Rubble... I Write My Story 🌿

I never thought I would write these words… 😔

I never imagined waking up to endless screams,

Running barefoot through smoke and fire,

Searching for my mother among the rubble,

Only to find nothing but silence… a heavy silence telling me that no one will answer me anymore. 💔

In one moment, everything changed.

Our home became a memory, my mother’s embrace became the past,

And my father's face, now absent, is the last thing I hold in my memory.

They’re gone… and left my heart burdened with unspoken grief. 😢

But despite everything, we are still here… trying.

I survived with my younger siblings.

Yes, we survived… but who are we after survival?

Children without warmth, without a roof, with no place to return to.

We were displaced to an unknown place, carrying a bag empty of everything… except pain. 🥀

We slept in the open, waking every morning to a life that holds nothing for us,

But despite everything… we keep trying. 💪

I write to you today not to cry, but to ask for hope. 🌱

I ask you to be a small light in this vast darkness,

To extend a hand that can mend what the war has broken in us.

Your donation will give my siblings a chance to sleep safely,

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✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #586 )✅️

Any amount, no matter how small, is big for us

It’s a prayer, it’s love, it’s life. 🌟

In conclusion...

From my heart, and from the hearts of my little siblings,

Thank you to everyone who has donated,

Thank you to everyone who has read,

Thank you to everyone who has shared.

You are the proof that goodness does not die, and that humanity has no boundaries. 💚

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Nothing new, but it being called the Day of Unity when Belos was the one who had strictly separated the magic into, possibly very arbitrary, tracks and had reinforced various divisions in the society, is one of the smart and poignant details in the show.

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Do you think this is a sculpture or a weird plant like moss or an abominated-plant:

It looks more like a sculpture, but it is in the vase/bowl and not on a pedestal like a sculpture would be.

The way it is coiled up kinda might resemble a very, very, very stylized molecule helix if you are really into a headcanon that Darius is a scientist.

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Random musings about magic in TOH, because i was writing a post overanalyzing Darius's room, and he has several plants in his room (there is 3,5 - one purple, one 'normal', one that might be a plant and might be a sculpture, and some sort of a grapevine canopy above). Not sure how wise this is in-universe with Terra around, but i think it's an interesting detail to add, although probably not actually significant in any real way.

But then my thoughts just went in the direction of headcanons/musings about the magic lore. And considering how Bump is also shown taking to gardening in the epilogue, and Darius's room is decorated primarly with plants vs the abominations, while Amity's abominations looks more plant-like and similar to Willow's vines in the human world (post) i like to think that there is a connection between the Abomination and Plant magic. And in the beggining of the show you can get the impression that the Abomination magic is positioned as the opposite of the Plant magic because of the Willow vs Amity story, and because the Blights' abominations look more mechanical-like. But that's not how the magic really works in the show. The separation of magic tracks is something artificial forced by Belos.

In the time travel episode it seems like the witches before Belos still separated the different types of magic, they just could used multiple at once, but if you think about it, the powers could still be connected and separation could be something done out of tradition or convinience.

And abomination powers seem to be connected to mud and decaying remains (with the abominations really resembling bio-robots more than mechanical robots), so it would make sense if abomination magic is connected with plant life. Plants and abominations needing the same type of substances to grow, the decay necessary for life, and so on. And then you can add other tracks as well like the 'Construction' powers connecting via using the earth, the Beast keeping obviously connected to Plant keeping, and so on, all being connected.

And in the show it's very obviously a good thing that Willow got to chose the track she loves and afterwards primarly uses plant magic. And because she has terrible experience with the abomination track it makes perfect sense that she wouldn't want to deal with it ever again. But for something like an AU where Darius gets to be her mentor, for example, it is interesting to consider how much would change regarding her ability to use the abomination magic if the approach to it by her teachers was different, and the teaching was adapted to Willow's needs and it was taught, for example, via similarities to the Plant magic. Or, if Amity indeed couldn't create abominations in the human world because of different resources, and it lead to her and Willow learning from each other and about similarities of their magic.

+ The plants in Darius's room:

One is abomination purple, but the other one seems to be 'ordinary'

And then there is a sculpture - that might be a plant? But the most interesting is the grapevine-like canopy on the top of the frame.