#THE FUCKING COVEN SIGILS

[sansxfuckyou]

yeah i'll be normal about this show now that its over

[childlikegoblinqueen]

SCOM Micro Writing Notes: Guilt.

There's a lot of guilt explored in SCOM. Obviously, Hunter has his own guilt of his past under Belos -- but he also experiences the guilt of those around him.

With the Sigil Sickness becoming more of a concern, Hunter has to accept the fact that he branded witches under Belos -- and this led to families losing their loved ones.

Hettie is problematic in so many ways -- and even though she has a loving family, including a nephew who adores her -- Bettie implies that sometimes even those you love choose paths that make it VERY difficult for you to love them.

It's fair to assume that while Bettie (and likely her siblings) LOVE Hettie, they struggle with liking her.

In general, she has been one of the most fun background characters to write and I kind of love her family. That's about as close to OC's as I am going to get attached to.

In an earlier chapter, Hettie mentioned that not only did she have a hand in the beginnings of the Basilisk Experiments, but the "perfection" of the Sigil. She admits that there shouldn't BE a Sigil Sickness -- but her research is the reason that Bettie lost her husband (Bennie's Dad), and why the Cutburn Matriarch (The siblings mother) passed.

She may lack tact and a TON of self awareness, but it's safe to say that Hettie -- who in spite of turning her back on Hunter as an abused child soldier -- LOVES her nephew. It's safe to say she holds guilt to what she's done if even only as to how it directly affected her own kin.

And then there's Darius.

[acaciapines]

nano day nineteen

words today: 3047

words total: 42967

more good progress today! realized how hard it is to write a conversation between two people who do not speak the other's language! usually whenever i write firefly talking to people its either in her pov (she tends to understand others better than they understand her) or its like, eda, king, or luzmari. eda who is soul-bound to firefly. king who can See Dust and thus lowkey read minds to an extent. and luzmari who is. well she doesnt have any special power shes just lived w firefly for long enough to understand.

needless to say the collector is Not good at owlspeak. they will be one day! but that day is not today.

its always so fun when the characters sort of run away from you. king and the collector weren't going to start fighting until the last chapter--but they certainly disagreed! so now the fight's started sooner, which is good overall, i think--i've still got the big whammy saved up for that last chapter, and they've spent the entire story drifting apart. its a good way to kick off the final third of this fic.

my favorite part of what i wrote today:

“Quite frankly,” King says, and he shrugs them off, “I don’t even think you understand that you’ve doomed the entire Isles.” He recoils, and his head stings as though King clawed him, but there’s no wounds he can see. Still he doesn’t remember how to breathe. The world is blurry at the edges. King’s stardust is so far away and thundering. “I—” Their words catch in their throat. “What did I do?” “You aided Belos!” He looks so much like his dad. With the snarl ‘n the anger ‘n the way he towers over them, ‘n they cower back further, wanna bare their teeth but it’s all blunt so what good would that do? “Without you, Belos’s would’ve never been able to start the coven system! To cut down all the palistrom trees! You talk a whole lot about missing how things were when you’re the reason they aren’t like that anymore!” “He said he would free me!” “Oh,” King snaps, and his eyes cut right to the center of them, piercing, “and you believed him?” “I don’t.” Everything is going fuzzy. They keep blinking to keep how many Kings there are straight. “I was trapped. I didn’t wanna be trapped! I didn’t do anything to be trapped! I just—I just, I was good good good and your stupid dad trapped me! So it’s his fault!” “Somehow,” King says, “I really doubt you did nothing.”

[crocodile-picture-day]

THE WAY HIS FLAPJACK TATTOO IS WHERE HIS OLD COVEN SIGIL WAS ARE YOU KIDDING ME IM FUCKING SCREAMING

[penny-anna]

always felt to me that there was a slight Contradiction here given that at this point it's what a week? till the Day of Unity and uhhh

general consensus seems to be that Belos wasn't planning on Hunter surviving the Day of Unity but i think it's hmm. possible that he was, actually?

various possibilities here:

given that we later learn that sigils 100% are removeable and given that Belos seems to have basically invented sigil magic strikes me as plausible that he was planning on removing Hunter's sigil on the Day of Unity.*

given that Belos was seemingly planning on leaving for the Human Realm pretty much immediately on starting the draining spell it's possible that he was intending to take Hunter with him and i think fair to say that being in a totally different universe would be sufficient to shield Hunter from the spell

Hunter does seem to have some degree of resistance to the draining spell? Even taking into account the fact that the Coven Heads were hit first & maybe strongest** he's on his feet and fighting well past the point where other people are uhh:

possible that his being a Grimwalker and/or lacking a bile sack means that the draining spell was never going to be fatal for him

& would Belos know that for sure. well he's had a long time to tinker with both Grimwalkers AND the sigils so fully plausible that he could have u know. Experimented.

*I don't see any contradiction between this & Belos's reaction to getting branded with a sigil himself. If he didn't have the tools to remove it immediately at hand then he was fucked regardless.

**Alador is still kicking ass a good while after we see the Coven Heads all collapsing and in the above cap you can hear people screaming in the background which suggests most of the crowd is still conscious.

[sepublic]

            I’ve already brought up how the loss of glyphs is deeply tragic for Luz on an interpersonal level, given her relationship with the Titan as being kinda found family in a spiritual successor to Manny sorta way…

            But on a larger, cultural level? It’s straight-up genocide. Because glyphs were an ancient practice; They were a tradition at one point, as Eda explains. The earliest witches used to learn glyphs from the Titan on her knee, and eventually stopped when that became redundant with the more convenient source of their bile sacs.

            But it was still an important part of their history; It was how witches and demons first communicated and interacted with the land and nature, and their ‘god’ in a mutualistic way. It was how they respected their world.

            So even if glyphs were evidently forgotten by the Deadwardian Era, they were still available for those who needed them… And in comes fucking Philip, the racist colonizer, and because of his possession of the Titan’s heart, she finally dies and glyphs can no longer work. They’re obsolete now.

            They still happened, but now that part of magic, of history and this world, is gone forever. It’s cultural erasure, it’s what Luz alludes to when she mentions how scars from Belos’ reign still remain, like the left arm being permanently shifted upwards; Who knows how many were displaced, how much the local flora and fauna and ecosystems were devastated, with the desert of Palm Stings now colder than even the knee itself?!?

            It’s just so deeply painful because Luz really helped to bring back an ancient, lost tradition and unlike Philip, breathed new life into it; Glyphs could be used to help people without bile sacs, who didn’t utilize spell circles as well. We actually saw Luz experiment with using individual glyphs, and figure out the combos; Things she did on her own. She shared knowledge of glyphs with her loved ones, like Eda, King, Lilith, Gus, Amity, etc.

            There really was going to be a return of something lost, but now it’s gone forever because of a bigoted old white man who was too bitter about things that are different and needed to feel big and important by standing on the shoulders of others. It’s cultural genocide. That memory where Belos' destructive lies about wild magic drive witches away from the knee that they still had the potential to learn from, leaving behind only ruins in the present-day? With some murdered via the coven sigils that cut them even further off from their own magic they forgot glyphs for? It's truly symbolic of the final nails in the coffin.

            And it’s also desecration of the dead, too; Caleb is not the only one to have had his corpse bastardized by Belos, misused against everything he stood for. Belos also misused that corpse, first by stealing the Titan’s name, then misusing her magic, her resources such as Palistrom wood… And finally possessing that body literally, which is what murders the Titan. It’s like colonizers bastardizing and salting the land that locals carefully maintained a proper relationship with, and keep in mind this fucker is a literal Puritan colonist. There’s no respect, not for the dead and/or past. Compare that to Luz, who lives on in Manny’s memory and makes him proud.

            I’m just imagining Caleb and the Titan watching, in agony, as their bodies are used to create a vicious mockery towards their actual kin, who remain totally unaware, and in the case of the Grimwalkers, it’s another lineage that is also abused. Meanwhile the Clawthornes remain unknowing of their past because colonialism erases history, hence Belos hiring Flora, and hell even getting Lilith to participate in her own historical erasure, as both Clawthorne and witch!

            Meanwhile, King remains oblivious and unconnected to his own heritage. And most of that can also be attributed to the Titan Trappers and Archivists, themselves perpretrators of genocide. So King and Eda go without knowing their heritage for so long, in Eda’s case she may never find out entirely, because it’s part of the many voices who are lost and silenced due to genocide, buried in the past to be forgotten.

            And you know one thing more that fucks me up? It’s that I genuinely suspect that Philip initially had it easier with glyphs than Luz, and that he made them more difficult for her. Because based on his dialogue by finding the Ice glyph in a snowflake, and his diary and memory portraits showing him arriving in the isles via Eclipse Lake, at the Knee…

            Philip was probably shown his first spell on his first day in the Demon Realm. And it makes sense; The first human, the precedent that the Titan would’ve known by this point, was Caleb; Himself Philip’s brother, who was also raised to be a witch hunter, yet learned better. We know people can view both worlds from that in-between realm, but the Titan still isn’t omnipotent and can only watch through a limited number of cubes at a time, while having to know what and who to look for.

            But even so; With Caleb’s precedent, there could’ve been hope that Philip would follow in his footsteps, that he would learn and be more, and actually choose to be better instead of defaulting to Puritan predestination and the like as an excuse to stay the same and absolve him of responsiability. But we know what happened; Philip started off easy, but then made things difficult by rejecting the Titan’s compassion, by misusing her magic for evil and murder and genocide. The Titan showed Philip compassion first and this was how he responded.

            I really feel as if there’s an implicit reluctance with how Luz is taught glyphs, one at a time, in separate scenarios, usually as a result of character development and/or engaging with the world around her, which are things the Titan would really need to see to start trusting another human again (and if he knew Luz gave Philip the last glyph, that would also add to the wariness that Belos caused by manipulating her). Luz didn’t learn her first spell until a few days into her journey, and Luz had already had a few perilous encounters by that point! But she continued to brave her way through everything, continued to accept the isles and its messier side.

            And so the Titan showed Luz her first spell, and only that, in response to Luz needing it, wanting to learn magic, and most of all humbling herself to be kind to the Titan’s own son, and listen to him; Because neglecting King was what low-key led to Eda’s transformation placing everyone in danger, since he only told Luz about the elixir and agreed to steal it for the sake of getting her attention.

            So that makes Luz listening to the Titan for the first time, intentionally, with her second spell –Ice, Philip’s first- so much more hard-hitting. The way she wanted to live out her dream so she went for the wand behind people’s backs, but then recognized and owned up to her mistakes. And she really was just a lonely kid in need of guidance, and not a stubborn adult committed to his cruelty; Luz always had an open mind! She always wanted to learn!

            And she got to! She learned each glyph at a time… And that’s all the Titan could do for her, something the Titan had already done for so many others, long ago, before they realized they had bile sacs and didn’t need to rely on the land around them as much. Luz still experimented even when she just had one glyph; She understood how intent mattered. She and Lilith built off of each other’s knowledge to collaborate and create combos. Meanwhile Belos, he agonized because he made things pointlessly difficult by refusing to adapt to the ways of another land, and only got his first and last glyphs by taking the compassion of someone who knew them and betraying it.

            Plus there’s what I said about Lilith, her whole thing as Caleb’s descendant, directly abused by Belos and belittled by him, made to participate in her own erasure loss of past, separated from that… Really, one could argue the Clawthornes are like the Boiling Isles equivalent to the Irish; Yeah they're white but that doesn't mean they aren't victims of British colonialism that sought to 'conquer the land' and all that.

The Clawthornes are generally known for big orange hair, with Lilith's curly hair being straightened and dyed dark-blue in an attempt to assimilate within the Emperor's Coven's (AKA Philip's) standards of conformity. They worked with the land via the Palistrom carving and began to lose that because of the trees being endangered by Belos' gluttony, as well as the curse disabling Dell; The very curse created by the Archivists, who also invaded this world, the very curse cast by Lilith because the coven system influenced her to feel shame over wild magic and embrace hierarchy instead.

The curse leads to Eda's loss of bile magic, something very important to her and witches in general, and Lilith loses her own trying to mitigate her own mistakes. So not just glyphs are taken from witches, but even their own bile magic they initially replaced them with, and the other resources of the land. And Lilith is cut off from her family, her real family, as she's taken in by an ancestor who has deliberately distanced himself and loathes her on multiple levels as something to be 'fixed'.

But Lilith gets her hair back and re-embraces it, she gets her family back. She still manages to somewhat retain her past; After all, Lilith gets to go to the Deadwardian Era herself! And she meets, as much as it loathes anyone to acknowledge it, an ancestor, and influences history in a subtle yet personally meaningful way. And Lilith helps re-establish contact with the lost practice of glyphs by figuring out how to combine them, which goes hand in hand with her passion of being a historian, and her additional function as both parallel and especially foil to Philip.

             Just… Luz and the Titan. And Caleb. And Lilith. There’s dead people and there’s history and there’s land, there’s bodies and respect. There’s compassion and actually working with people and finding no shame in that, instead of stealing and taking credit. And in the end, even though they manage to regain some things, a lot was still inevitably lost to genocide, and possibly gone forever.

            But the effects and legacy still linger, Luz still remembers and holds dear what the glyphs did; And she honors not just Manny’s legacy, but Caleb’s, by bridging the gap between humanity and witches, and showing both can co-exist in harmony. She helped his descendants, and even the last Grimwalker, find happiness and reconnect with their heritage, even if they don’t know just how close it is to them in particular. Luz honored the Titan by clearing his name, finding his son, and ensuring the last of the Titans is no longer alone and in understanding of his heritage. Luz even made amends with the Titan’s other greatest regret, harming the Collector, by making peace; And she proved glyphs were still useful, they were still kind, and that compassion wasn’t wasted.

            So even if the Titan’s glyphs are gone now, Luz still honored their memory by sharing them freely and helping, teaching, cultivating. The Clawthornes are rebuilding the Palistrom forests, among them is Hunter who as a Grimwalker was one of the purposes for which Belos devastated those natural resources for. And King… King is beginning to develop his own glyphs! And Luz is learning her first one, Light, from a Titan all over again, because she showed King kindness.

            That honors the Titan’s memory by keeping it alive through her son; Who keeps the memory of glyphs alive through the ones he’ll sustain and share with everyone else, and those glyphs will spread to those without and even with bile sacs. And a lost art is brought back, irreversibly different but still intact in the important ways. People are relearning old practices to apply to a new world, because the past is gone but it still lingers and is simply… reborn. Despite the scars and changes it survives and is still itself.

            And with how all of this loops back to Luz’s relationship with her father Manny, who passed away, and how all that was based on Dana’s own relationship with her deceased father, who left her a final gift in Pokemon Red that she chose to cherish to this day, and embrace her own creativity and keep it alive. It’s a story about things dying but still managing to live anyway.

[apocalypseornaw]

Don't Blame Me (Pt 3/5)

Dean Winchester x Reader

Dean confronts Crowley who recounts exactly what did happen to you, sparing no details to Dean's horror. You look for a way to ward yourself from Dean finding you.

Dean was half in shock when you blinked out. You were alive? When he looked at Crowley he knew the anger he felt showed in his eyes because the demon took a step back even before Dean grabbed him, slamming him back into a wall. "BRING HER BACK"

Crowley shook his head slowly "I didn't send her a way and I try not to summon her. She gets upset, it causes a mess. She killed ten demons the first time I summoned her and let's just say I like keeping her as calm as possible"

Dean shook his head before pulling the demon blade up to hold the point against Crowleys neck "Last time I saw her she was getting on a plane. What the fuck did you do to her?" Crowley laughed sharply "What did I do? Squirrel you should really ask what did you do?"

Dean's grip loosened at Crowleys words "What do you mean what Dean did?" Sam asked as Crowley untangled himself from Dean's grasp. Crowleys eyes were on Dean when he said "She made a deal. I didn't go after her soul. It was already in hell"

Dean shook his head "She wouldn't. Y/N knows the risks" Crowley shrugged "and yet she did for you" "for me?" Dean asked and Crowley sighed "This is dramatic. Her soul already went to hell so contract fulfilled. She's gonna try to kill me but.." before Dean or Sam could ask Crowley touched two fingers to Dean's forehead. Flashes of an Okami, pain of claws ripping into his chest and the heartbreaking sound of your sobs tore through Dean's head.

"She couldn't face losing you so she made a deal. Be glad I took over when I did. Lucifer and his flunkies were having fun with your girl" "She wouldn't agree to be a demon" Sam argued but Crowley shrugged "A little over four hundred years of torture. A hundred of those were under Lucifer and Zachariah. She's stronger than most of the souls in hell but the things they did to her.." he trailed off and Dean could feel his jaw clench with anger even before Crowley met his eyes "No angelic interference for her, guess she wasn't important enough. I needed an attack dog. Someone who if they were spotted working at my side the threats were taken seriously"

"So you've been using her?" Sam asked. Crowley scoffed "I gave her freedom from the racks. I put her body back together so she'd have it. I made sure to keep her off the angels radar. I've gotten her to kill a few dozen demons but nothing she wouldn't have done in life. How the hell have I been using her? Would you two prefer me to have left her to an eternity of whatever being decided to plunge a blade or other things into her?"

Dean swallowed down the bile in his throat at Crowleys words and the images that accompanied them to ask "Why didn't she let me know?"  and Crowley laughed again "Did you not see that little performance? She was afraid you'd hate her so she stayed off the beaten path" "Then why did you bring her here tonight?" Sam demanded.

"She's wrong for lack of better terms. She shouldn't care like she still does, shouldn't have so much left of her human personality. Her soul was stronger than I gave it credit for. If she stays a demon she's gonna e a threat to my throne" Dean swung without thinking and connected a hard punch to Crowleys jaw "You've kept her from me for years, YEARS. and now you're only telling me so she can't dethrone you? The only reason I'm not killing you is so you can help me find her"

Ireland, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand and South America. It was hard to find a coven that would play well with a demon, let alone one marked by the king of hell as his right hand woman but you finally did. 

You sat in the middle of the circle, watching the woman paint sigils onto your skin. Once she was done she rejoined the circle. You sat silently as they chanted, the sigil glowing then absorbing into your skin. You looked at the head witch "No one can summon me now?" She nodded "Your boss can probably still get a feed on where you are but no one can summon you" you paid her the fee and thanked the rest of the coven before blinking out. You were back in Washington state, almost at the Canadian line. 

-------------

You had a cabin there, somewhere you stayed when Crowley didn't need you at his side. Somewhere you were able to ignore everything that had happened. You weren't right as a demon. They weren't supposed to feel, weren't supposed to care yet here you were. 

------------

You washed your face then looked at yourself in the mirror letting your eyes slip to black. Even as a demon you were held together by paperclips and rubber bands. The memory of the look on Dean's face flashed through your head and you smashed the mirror. What the hell were you supposed to do now?

@lacilou @suckitands33 @lyarr24 @decadentstrangernacho @nix-rose @irgendwas122 @deans-baby-momma @deans-spinster-witch @tas898 @starkleila

[cainhart]

Thinking about how Sparda was a nomad for so long, traveling the world, closing and sealing rifts and demon portals, and probably sealing demonic relics with his abyssal sigils or outright destroying them. Okay I get it he saved humanity and separated the two worlds, yadayadayada—BUT from a witch’s perspective, I’d be fucking FURIOUS at Sparda because why would you destroy the Ark of the Covenant or the Dagger of Brutus, or Selene’s Light dude I was going to use them my man… please put that tome down, I beg you.

No wonder demons and witches/magicians had a beef with Sparda—he nearly wiped out the magic on Earth, and as if that wasn’t enough he destroyed their tools dhsjdjsdnsm

Then his elder son travels the world just like him (except this time he has the Prince of Hell and his mutts on his tail), seeking knowledge and trying to find more ways to gain power. He gets frustrated and questions why the relics mentioned in ancient tomes aren’t where they should be or have been sealed away. I DUNNO DEVIL BOY maybe ask your dad?!

[mmikmmik2]

More miscellaneous The Owl House headcanons:

The other magical schools did not have a Gus or a Hunter watching out for them and almost all of their students did get branded and/or proceed to the Day of Unity celebrations with their families. Ruh roh!

Bard magic becomes incredibly popular among witches who just got their coven sigils removed and are starting to experiment with other forms of magic. Rhythm and melody are as natural and fun and mnemonically useful for witches as they are for humans.

Kikimora eventually writes a gossipy memoir about life in the Emperor's Coven that, unfortunately, is just so deliciously juicy and scandalous that it overpowers many people's common sense "what the fuck is wrong with you that you knew all this and still were a hardcore Belos loyalist" reaction... and she's still holding back. Lilith hates her so much it gives her headaches. Hunter has exerted great willpower to stop giving a fuck about her.

Hooty permanently moves out of the Owl House a year or two after Belos is defeated, and everyone is actually weirdly glad about it! Not just because the residents have never appreciated him as much as Lilith does, but because they're safe. Eda isn't a fugitive anymore. There's no forces against Eda or Raine or King or Luz that some normal-strength security measures + their personal capacities for self-defense can't handle.

King eventually does start sometimes jumping on Lilith or riding on her shoulder like he does with Eda and Luz, and even though she's psyched at Getting A Good Grade In Aunt she successfully forces herself to be cool about it :) except for Lilith being "cool" is still pretty dorky.

Gus eventually figures out a way to transfer images between human devices and witch scrolls/crystal balls (possibly with the assistance of other people he's roped in; Perry could probably help here) largely so he and Vee can exchange memes between dimensions.

Hunter dramatically lowers the intensity of his exercise routine and does little or no combat training. See above re: there are way fewer threats, and those remaining are much lower caliber. And he's almost constantly accompanied by at least one other powerful witch that would protect him with their life. And being constantly ready to fight isn't part of the life he wanted for himself.

[polyhexian]

Can you elaborate on previous Darius post?

Darius is mean. He's fucking mean. Darius isn't like Raine, who always knew fascism is bad and has been intentionally working their way up the ladder with the intention to stop it, knowing they will have to make hard decisions that hurt others on the way. Darius got that job because he wanted it. He didn't think anything was wrong UNTIL Raine turned out to be a rebel, and he decided he trusted raine's judgement above his orders. Like. He heel turned at the last minute. He's not like. A perfect dude.

And moreso like. Darius was just. Not good??? To hunter??? In the emperor's coven??? You can absolutely write or draw Darius coming to his fucking senses earlier than he does in canon, but. In canon he does not care about Hunter. He is not nice to him. The very first thing Darius ever says to him is a deep annoyed sigh and ugh, we rescheduled the meeting, so, "run along and do your arts and crafts, or, whatever it is you do" with a little mocking wave. Then he yanks off his patched up cape and laughs at him mockingly before he realizes it's his mentors sigil and he stops laughing and suddenly he's like legitimately mad at this teenage boy about this. He takes his cape and gets INTO it and calls him the emperor's nephew and implies he's a nepo baby and he's weak and useless and that his predecessor was one of the greatest witches to ever live, but Hunter being canonically disabled makes him pathetic and that he will never ever live up to the shoes he's trying to fill. The man knows everything. He knows hunter is supposedly belos's nephew. We know that he knows hunter is sixteen because HE is the one that tells US he's sixteen. He knows EXACTLY what the golden guard role entails because his mentor was one. He knows that hunter is a disabled teenage soldier and he has an overwhelming amount of evidence to make the assumption that he is also an orphan. And yet he stands there and mocks him and laughs at him and rubs his face in the fact he thinks he's useless and should be ashamed of himself for- you know. Being disabled.

Not to mention that like. The scene where Darius gives hunter a scroll is cute. Or like. It would be. If he hadn't just threatened to hit him?? Like it wasnt even that he was willing to FIGHT him. Hunter was standing still and Darius thought it would be funny to raise his hand like he was about to hit him, he let him flinch and squeeze his eyes shut and brace to be hit and to take it and he thought it was funny to be like psyche haha dink! I tapped your head. Psyche! You really thought I was gonna hit you lol huh? Thats not funny. That's not funny????? Why did you even do that? You didn't change your mind or something. He'd already decided not to hit him. Why did you pretend like you were going to hit him????

Like I am THE Darius guy, I've written an OBSCENE amount of Darius, I've written an OBSCENE amount of Dadrius myself, and "au where Darius decided to be nice to hunter earlier" is great and all but. That is not canon. He would not do that. Not in canon. In canon Darius is cool with mocking disabled and (probably) orphaned teenage soldiers and that doesn't change until hunter does something that makes him think he DESERVES to be treated with respect. He's a kid. That's insane. Darius thats a whole ass child. The fuck are you doing

He's just fuckin mean lol

[mdhwrites]

The Point of Asking How Bad a Parent Odalia is

My last blog was asking this question. However, with many of the responses I got, I feel like I failed to articulate the why for that question. The importance of it and I answered and then deleted an ask that gave me a chance to answer that because it ended up muddying the point by being a response. So, here it is:

If you cannot understand cultural perspective in fiction, how do you ever write a convincing world that is anything other than our own?

Most of Odalia's actions are deplorable... By our standards and sensibilities. When taken out of context. The problem is that unless a work is ENTIRELY allegorical, and incredibly smart with those allegories, that approach never works. In fact, the most effective speculative fiction takes the context of the world they've made and uses it to AMPLIFY the point they're making. To further reinforce the concepts they're going for. As such, questioning if someone who is framed as evil within a text whether they would be actually evil by the merits of their society is kind of important because that contrast can say a lot.

In TOH's case, this never coalesces into anything. Odalia being a good parent from the perspective of not wanting her child to be a criminal and so not wanting her to interact with rulebreakers or literal criminals... It doesn't say anything. After all, it's not like the rules dictate you must let someone else die or must be cruel. No, the rules they're breaking are things like "You need to be registered with the state," and "Don't skip class." I'm sorry but that isn't extreme in any way? Not unless we're supposed to just coddle people who don't want to participate in society and ignore them ignoring their social obligations? Like the coven system is the Isle's ONE real law and the covens aren't even jobs. You are beholden to no one getting a coven sigil because you still have to go get a job. It's like saying requiring citizenship in ANY country is bad because it holds you accountable to anyone. Because someone is placing any sort of restriction on you. That... That's a pretty shitty theme.

And it IS a theme. It's why the show essentially claims Camila to be a bad parent until For the Future. She renounces her ONE time that she ever held Luz back from being full force her and the audience, and Luz, are meant to cheer for this. That this is taking away some cardinal sin when, and this is in our context because it's supposedly Earth, the reason Luz was sent to Summer Camp, to make friends, was:

She brought a BOMB to school in the form of fireworks, which is against the rules, if not law, in any school, especially without advance permission.

She assaulted people with wild animals she could not control which is a crime literally anywhere.

She brought live, WILD. ANIMALS. into a school without permission, nor without a way to control them and keep others safe which is again, in most circumstances, a crime. And she does this one TWICE. Explicitly.

She is not sent to Juvy, or military camp or ANY sort of real correctional facility. She is sent to a life skills camp instead. Not a conversion camp of any sort, just one meant to teach her basic necessities of being an adult someday, something a lot of people actually argue should be a regular part of school curriculum for good reason. And this, THIS, was her going too far as a parent.

All Odalia being the worst parent ever is further reinforcement of a theme that claims being a parent is a bad thing. Flatly. If you are doing more than strictly keeping your child alive, you are a bad parent. I'm sorry but that feels really bad and like a pretty shitty theme if you ask me. It honest to god, more so proponents that neglect is good. Give them a room, give them access to food, then fuck off. That's... That's not what 99% of kids want from a parent. They want an actual parent. I mean, it even understands this with Reaching Out but even then, the final agreement is "I won't tell you what to do ever and when you want me, I will be available." Parents are more than just toys for their kids. I'm sorry to anyone who's finding this out now somehow. They are meant to teach you morals, how to interact with society, to prepare you for your future, etc. like that. They are also there to take care of you but they are not strictly your friends because they're there to help you improve to be a better person, much like how a therapist isn't your friend. This is a LARGE part of why parenting is so difficult.

To simplify it in the way so many lazy analysts do by going "X person was mean so they're abusive," is... Dumb. And bad. And helps no one. It also breaks your fantasy worlds so maybe try a little harder? Or just keep using buzzwords. It is the easier way to do it.

See you next tale.

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

The ask that brought this about mentioned Mother Gothel like Odalia and Gothel are even comparable in their writing which... No. Mother Gothel is praised for good reason because she 1000%, in universe and out, is abusive. Period. In every possible way, including Rapunzel's reactions about her.

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.

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

[lizard-dumbass]

Alright so the TOH brainrot has come back in full force after the finale came out so now i too am making one of them lists of things that i liked/stuck out to me. Also sorry if this ends up just being a bunch of incoherent nonsense

HOLY SHIT TITAN!LUZ. the design is so cool what more can i say. Furthermore,

HOLY FUCK LUZ DIED????? i was so not expecting that and good lord was it heartbreaking. Eda and King's reaction to Luz's death were also heartbreaking, and so was the Collector finally realizing what death really is. And oh my god puppet!Camila crying as the balls of light pass by her, showing us that she has had the realization that her daughter died. After the grief and trauma of losing Manny, Camila and Luz had a heart to heart which made their bond stronger than ever, only for Camila to lose Luz aswell.

LUZ SAID THE THING! NOW EAT THIS SUCKAAAAAA!!!!!

THE BOILING ISLES IS BIGENDER BABY! i honestly love the titan so much now. His bad girl coven t-shirt and glyph pants and dad-bod are absolutely everything. (Also what's with the little hooty worm sticking out of her eye socket??)

The goddamn bread pun 😭 that warms my heart so much

The raeda in this episode was IMMACULATE. I was really hoping for a kiss but i'm still happy with what WAD gave us. The loving stares, Raine's absolute joy when Eda and Titan!Luz came to their rescue in the throne room, the hugs and nuzzles, the cuddling in their new nest, etc. They seem so relaxed and happy at the end. The world has been saved and now they can finally live their lives together and rekindle their relationship. Oh and how could i forget the EARRING SWAP!! they're wearing eachother's earrings!!! I've seen quite a few ppl interpreting the exchanging of earrings/jewelry as a marriage custom in the demon realm, implying that Eda and Raine are married in the timeskip. I never cared much for the idea of raeda getting married but you know what? I like this headcanon.

Raine whistling raine's rhapsody/eda's reqiuem.

Hunter is a palisman carver! And he has a new palisman! Apparently the little blue jay's name is Waffles and that's just adorable.

Raine also has a palisman now and it's a little fox! I wonder what their name is though.

The entire hexsquad has matching Flapjack tattoos! Also Flapjack's grave, that gave me so many feels. But im so happy to see how Hunter has healed!

Harpy Lilith!

Eda is the principal of a school now?

Eda's hook arm! Also just everyone's new outfits/appearances in general. I love Raine's fully white hair and their scars and their outfit just oozes gender. I love Luz's outfit and punk eyeliner. I love Amity's hairstyle. I love how Lilith kept her short ginger hairstyle. I love Gus's new hair and his little beard. I love Willow's shorter hair and sporty outfit. Mattholomule has a real mustache now!

Fuck yeah they figured out how to remove sigils so now the BI residents can do magic like the Titan really intended!

Aladarius canon??

Everyone reuniting with their dads. Amity running to Alador whilst Odalia just stands at the side with an annoyed face. Fucking priceless. Willow's dads kissed on screen! Hunter thinking no one would be there for him only for Darius and Eberwolf to show up and accept him into their family. my heart 😭❤️

Eda and Camila finally got to meet!

Luz reuniting with King and Eda made me sob so unbelievably hard.

Luz and Vee graduated together!

Luz goes to college in the demon realm!

I thought she was giving all her Azura stuff away at first but i think she's actually bringing it all with her to college.

I love everything about Luz's quinceañera (or should i say KING-ceañera)

I love the very last part where every character we've come to know and love over these 3 wonderful years (except Odalia lmfao) say "Byeee!" to the audience. What a perfect way to end this series.

I think that's it lol i have so many thoughts

[lollytea]

Who was seriously getting sigil-ed for the Potion Coven? Did they just lose everything? What the fuck is potion magic?

[numericalbridge]

This is more of a first draft for a serious meta post i am planning to write, but since it would take me a few weeks (and the proper post will have screenshots, etc) i just wanted to address the popular fanon that Hunter had to prove himself for Darius to start to care about him/that Darius' care was conditional and he was just same as Belos.

And i feel like that notion just completely ignores the scene just after Darius collects the Emerald Entrails to his Blimp. And, yes, i will never shut up about that scene because that's my favourite Darius scene and - completely regardless of Darius and Hunter's relationship - showed that Darius had his own morals independent of the Coven expansionism and propaganda, and in this way that scene was clearly very intentional. There was no point for Darius to lie to manipulate Hunter, as some people had thought, since that wasn't what Hunter would want to hear/be asked about, so we can assume Darius was sincere.

And... Darius looked stern and strict and disappointed, not mean-spirited, not gloating about being proven right about Hunter - and if the fanon verison of Darius and Hunter's relationship was correct then in this, very intentional scene there was the perfect opportunity for that kind of reaction. And it was the first time we saw Darius as completely serious, without playing, and serious and stern in a very quite way. Same with the scene when they talk on the crow phone where Darius is complaining but, again, is not meanspirited or agressive, but since that scene is more comedic it might not have been that intentional. Back to the Blimp scene - as other people had said, if Darius truly didn't care or hated Hunter there would be no point for him to look disappointed.

And i don't mean he would care about Hunter in a very personal manner at this point, but as i see it he probably realized he had fucked up after the crow call (my headcanon-y interpretation of Darius' way of thinking in ASIAS here) and at the Blimp scene he saw that even if Hunter was a spoiled prince the kid clearly had problems. And thus Darius even nudged him in the direction of thinking for himself by just asking back whether this was something Hunter should be proud off. Yes, it might not be super gentle, but it is a far cry from what fandom usually sees in Darius' reactions. So with all this in mind, it seems like even if Hunter didn't change his mind, Darius still would have some notion of care to be disappointed and sad over this, and, imo, it would have set him towards more compassion or at least understanding towards Hunter even if Hunter didn't help his friends.

(and btw, nothing points towards Darius seeing Hunter as anything but the spoiled royality since there is a huge difference between a child soldier and a relative of the emperor assuming an important position at a young-ish age; and the Coven Heads are not even some inner court to be privy to the Emperor's life since he wouldn't allow witches to be this close. And even in their first scene while Darius was mean initially - especially with the cloak - it wasn't anything that s1 Eda wouldn't say, and we didn't even get to see how the cloak scene would've ended if Darius wasn't set off by his mentor's sigil).

And the thing is, sure there might be unfortunate implications with the way ASIAS ends, just as there are unfortunate implications with how 8 years old King was the one reaching out towards Eda with 'no more lies' while she barely had to apologize. And in the same way as King's development and choices are prioritized because the target audience is meant to relate to him and understand him more, i think the same happens with ASIAS. Yes, it is important to show that the adults shouldn't mistreat Hunter, but for a 10 years old watching it it is also important to show that, no matter how sympathetic the backstory, a 16 years old shouldn't push you to do something you don't want. So Hunter makes mistakes, learns from them and then gets rewarded by a nearest adult figure. It is a standart cartoon structure, and sure, it also shouldn't be free of criticism, but just not via demonizing and bad faith interpretations of Darius and only Darius.

And even in that scene, i feel like it is notable that Darius says 'make your predecessorS proud'. If Darius' care about Hunter was truly just conditional or if there was no intention to that scene, it would've been easy to say 'predecessor' or 'the previous golden guard' since that's who Darius cared about and in the beginning unfairly compared Hunter to, that's what the audience remembers, but Darius doesn't seem to have any connection to other golden guards, it is Hunter who cares about them and their legacy, so this, if intentional, also points towards Darius already realizing his mistakes and trying to just genuinely encourage Hunter.

And i feel like you need to look at the episode and Darius' character as a whole rather than focusing on only 2 scenes to decide whether there was the intention to paint him the way fanon sees him or not. And even if it is how the show intended us to see Darius - then maybe the fandom should examine this writing choice in the context of how the show prioritizes white and light skinned characters and their development, and how the show treats black characters, and why Darius is the one who wouldn't get a proper resolution or a way to verbalise his thoughts and opinions while Alador or Gwen or even Steve are allowed to do it.

[calciumcryptid]

I'm going to be real, it is really funny for me to see people talk about the trauma the player experiences in Wizard101 and Pirate101 because to me the story played through with one character doesn't exist.

Wizard City is three of the four who are going to beat Malistaire doing independent work. Each street is one of them soloing it before turmoil on their home worlds drags them back home.

Krokotopia is my sorcerer returning to one of her home worlds to find her culture fucked with by the fucking British and as a result the people who raised her are being enslaved at a ridiculous rate. Stopping the increase of slavery is her motivation and when she realizes the person who paved the way for this wanted a book she books it to Dragonborne to beat his teeth in.

Marleybone is my pyromancer continuing her work as a thief, and sets on returning the artifact her government stole. She detours to beat the government's teeth in for setting the police on immigrants. When she realizes the people who are seeking asylum are seeking asylum because of this one guy, she sets out to beat his teeth in.

Grizzlieheim is my theurgist returning to her home world because Ambrose thinks her resident status would help diplomacy but she has yet to earn a name for herself so she goes to do that. Along the way, she learns Ravenscar has been taken over by the Coven who want to freeze over her world. (This next part isn't canon, but ssshhh) Upon learning the Coven learned to summon Gurtok Barrier Demon from Malistaire in exchange for... something, she goes after him to beat his teeth.

Mooshu is my necromancer heading to her home country because she needs to save her emperor who was poisoned by the professor who was supposed to mentor her. After saving her leader, she goes to Dragonborne to beat his teeth in because he nearly sent her home world into political turmoil.

When they all arrive at Dragonborne, they work together to take down Malistaire because in his quest to revive his lost love he nearly destroyed the people and worlds they loved. He made it personal, and they are going to kill him.

The same goes with Pirate101, which is just my five characters of the five classes being pirates/navy commanders and forced to work together despite having fought each other to take down the Armada because they're bitches.

I know canonically it is one wizard and one pirate, but to me it is multiple wizards and multiple pirates with their own motivations who are funneled into beating the main enemy to death because the main enemy made the mistake of fucking with these particular wizards and these particular pirates.

This is a long winded way of me saying there are four sigils, and I think the community should consider it more when creating ocs.

[cherrymoonvol6]

ok nvm i'll elaborate right now

i think one of the many weird choices in the finale was to make belos possess raine out of all people. one, because it really comes out of the blue. when has belos ever shown any interest of raine? like, i'm sure he must be aware of raine's record of plotting against the establishment, but he never deals with them himself. instead he sends a plethora of other people to do it for him (darius, eberwolf, kikimora, terra). if anything, it is terra that has a bone to pick with them. and in a parallel work where raine got more to do, i believe terra and raine's dynamic would've been something really interesting to explore. kinda like the relationship between atreus and odin in GOW ragnarok, like this "okay i know you hate me and all that i stand for, but i see potential in you so i'll take you under my wing and prove to you that i am worth of your time and loyalty" kinda thing, which is a banger dynamic btw.

but the second part is that there are two way more attractive options. the first one, immediately on demand, is darius. ofc it would take some canon time of developing that dynamic between belos and darius (it pains me that it doesn't exist), but it would make sense that belos would keep a close eye on darius. after all, he was mentored and was a good friend of the previous golden guard, and it's implied in various scenes (mostly ASIAS) that he knows enough about hunter's "ancestors" to praise him when he doesn't follow orders, and ultimately play the long-con to betray belos. he may even be aware in some sense of belos killing the previous golden guard, or even the existence of the grimwalkers. in that case, it would make sense that belos would have built some resentment towards him that ultimately shows in the choice to possess, corrupt and kill his puppeteer-ed body. but then, there's an even better option here, and a character that belos has hide a long-time resentment against: lilith.

look, if belos remembers luz from all those years ago, then he abso-fucking-lutely remembers lilith as well. and in a sense you can interpret the actions in canon as him trying to exert his personal vendetta against her: keep her close in the emperor's coven, trying to get her sister to join and get branded with a sigil with the promise that he'll cure her from her curse, all this while knowing that she would eventually betray him and join luz's side. we know belos kept her close for a reason and he knows the extent of her abilities, her history and relationship with eda, and her weaknesses as well. belos possessing lilith, then, would not only be the definitive "fuck you" to her, but could've also been an effective way to provoke eda emotionally and lead her to abandon her hideout to confront him. and honestly, from the way belos acts in that scene in FTF, his reaction to finding the best candidate to possess would make so much more sense if it was lilith and not raine.

but like, aren't lilith and raine just... insanely similar characters in the show's narrative? both are figures of eda's past, who loved each other sincerely back in simpler times, and through plot-related actions (raine's reason is much better narratively though, IMO) abandoned eda and joined the opposing side, climbing the ranks through their powerful abilities until becoming important figures in the coven circle. trying to think about the things i'd change in canon to make raeda a better couple involve making them go through similar plot beats that eda and lilith have gone through: an emotional, powerful moment where raine has to choose between their position of power and eda's wellbeing, actual tension between them (resentment and guilt from eda's side, frustration and confusion from raine's side), situations where they are forced to colaborate and their chemistry can still come through but still their dynamic is permeated by those lingering wounds... like, all of those things are stuff that already happened in canon, between eda and lilith. there's even that moment in king's tide where eda has the same somber moment with raine and lilith before executing their sabotage:

to me, it event seems like lilith got a lot of attention and development with eda in S1 and early S2 and then her character got sidelined when raine started to appear, and simultaneously: how raine's backstory and conflict of interest with eda are pretty much an afterthought but they still get to be a key player in the plot through late S2 and S3. i'm really sorry that economic character construction has to work this way, but that's how it is: you don't get to give eda a sister and a significant other and then make those two characters the same one. you have to commit to just one and integrate all aspects onto them.