#but luz getting friends who understand her and care for her was a major part of her arc

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

Luzs main problem is that she puts everything on herself. Every problem that pops up is something she has to solve on her own bc she doesnt want to be a burden on her loved ones. She does a book report with live snakes bc she thinks itll take the stress off her mother worrying about her grades. She nearly gets blasted to bits by the blights to get gus and willow unexpelled. She brushes off her grief over her father so Amity can focus on her own problems.

It's kind of like how hunter thought in s2 and early s3, but luz isnt so jaded that she consciously recognizes this. "This is tangentially caused by me so its all my fault" and "Im just as bad as belos because im doing similar things to him" are her ways of explaining this mindset to herwelf because deep down, even luz doesnt know what the root of her problem is. These are logical fallacies that are easily broken, but luzs actual problem is her fear of burdening those she loves. Unless she addresses this, she will just come up with a new fallacy to keep with this mindset.

Luz told eda that it was her fault her magic was gone, so shes been a burden and needs to put herself in danger to make money for the family. Eda does talk about how luz should depend on her, but she mostly focuses on telling luz she isnt a burden. And its true! Eda views luz as a net good in her life! But luz still views herself as a burden.

Luz says that her grief over her dad is no big deal because she wants to help amity. Amity says that no, it is a big deal and shell help luz grieve. And amitys right. It is a big deal. Luz thinks so too. Its just that she doesnt want anyone else to be brought down by her personal isues.

Luz thinks because she helped phillip find the collector, that its her responsibility to atone for everything. Her friends and mother assure her that it wasnt her fault, and even if it was, its okay to make mistakes. But even if luz knows all that, she still thinks of herself responsible for defeating belos. Her friends who want to help are just tagalongs that she needs to do all this for.

Finally, luz questions if killing belos would make her as bad as him. The titan assures her thats not the case. Luz is nothing like belos because her intentions are good. Luz knows this. She says this in kings tide and says something similar every other time she gets to banter with belos. Maybe she doesnt believe what she says in some of the more stressful scenes but at least in the finale, luz understands this.

And then the titan grants luz their power. He gives her their hope of defeating belos and makes her responsible for the fate of everyone on the boiling isles. Luz gets help from king and eda in mastering her power, but otherwise she is the gamechanger in the fight, the one who deals the most damage. She accepts that she needs to be the one to defeat belos, and most of her friends dont get the opportunity to share in her burden by helping.

When belos spews his nonsense about how luz is evil for not helping him, she doesnt respond because shes known its not true for a long time. The titan just confirmed it for her. But luz is still shouldering the burden of saving the isles. With help from barely any of her loved ones.

The solution to luzs fear of burdening the people she loves is for her loved ones to show that its okay. To be loved is to be someone elses burden and share someone elses burden in turn. If luz cant do something, someone who cares about her can help her do it. Or do it for her.

In thanks to them, luz puts herself in danger to save hunter from belos, but hunter and flapjack were ultimately the ones who defeated him. In for the future, luz couldnt stave off kikimora on her own, so the students at hexside do it for her. In watching and dreaming, luz was killed by belos. In return, she was rewarded with the power to defeat him with almost none of her friends to help. She is still bearing most of the burden on her own, same as the start of the show.

[mdhwrites]

do you think odalia should of had more depth?

So weirdly enough, I think this is an incorrect question because it implies Odalia by herself is important. A story needs to understand the usefulness of its characters after all, what their purpose is, etc. like that. For a lot of essentially one off characters, say Viney or Vee for example, a hint of depth but not exploring it is smart because you allow your fans to imagine what they could be like but they don't get in the way of the story you're telling. One off villains especially fall into this because their point much more often than anything else is simply to instigate a conflict. That's it.

I do not deride the vast majority of S1 villains for being one note. In fact, a lot of them are more fun for their simplicity. As Odalia is essentially a one off villain just meant for Amity's growth, because she's her daughter, she shouldn't need depth because she is just an obstacle to be conquered.

...That whole part 'Amity's her daughter' is a bit of a problem though, isn't it?

See, the minute you tie a villain to a main character, that starts complicating things. The more their relationship has effected either side, their narrative role starts to warp. They are suddenly a large figure within this person's life and so not only is defeating them a much bigger, more complicated affair but also that the villain's character is going to make or break critical elements of a main character's influences and backstory. They can no longer be one note unless their role was one note.

So instead of 'Should Odalia have had more depth' the better question is 'Is more depth for Odalia necessary for her place in the narrative related to Amity?' That requires us to define what her role in Amity's life is. What in theory her actions as told by Amity set her up as.

Odalia before S2 is a parent who has enforced onto Amity the need for social standing, power and exceptionalism. She also has so much power over Amity's life as to dictate who she can and can't be friends with and we can assume by the cruelty that Amity and the twins enact upon others, even within their own family, that this competition is inherent to the Blight family as a whole.

HOWEVER.

Also before S2, we see cracks of kindness within all of this. Odalia still caring enough to make sure Amity gets her lunch. Odalia overlooking the twins' bad behavior, despite Hexside seeming like the sort of school that would have called Odalia over them skipping class. Amity does not appear to fear repercussions from her mother anymore when it comes to her friend group as she befriends Luz and Willow without seemingly any fear of retribution (especially Luz) and discards Boscha and her entire old friend group without any real effort. This implies that Odalia isn't as controlling as Understanding Willow implies because her children actually have an incredible amount of freedom and free will. They do not live in the constant shadow of their parent, even if Odalia has had a large impact on them.

I focus on pre-S2 like this for a reason. You can retcon all you want BUT Odalia had to stand on what was setup before her arrival. Anything afterwards is damage control for fuck ups they made. Even then, many of their retcons actually make elements of this worse as Odalia was able to internalize her dream of Amity being in the EC so severely that just the idea of ANY threat to that was able to drive Amity to madness (Teenage Abomination) or close to the brink of tears (Covention). This further implies a great deal of influence over Amity and that her lessons left deep scars on her, to the point where Amity stopped distinguishing between her mother's desires and her own.

That doesn't FUNCTION with S2.

Odalia in S2 leans in ENTIRELY into the idea that she'd straight up murder one of her own children if they stepped out of line too far. She literally was willing to show how efficiently her HOME DEFENSE robot, which you would think would be used to protect YOUR KIDS, can murder a child in order to hurt Amity and prove her dominance. The twins, who are unrepentant in their schemes outside of Amity almost getting killed, do fear repercussions from Odalia. Odalia hates literally anything that makes them step out of line with the image she desires for her family, thus trying to dye Amity's hair. She is a monster, through and through.

A monster that Amity tells to go fuck herself and suffer ZERO ramifications from. If the show were as brave as people claim, that would have led to Amity being DISOWNED because why would Odalia continue to accept what is clearly an abject failure of ideals at this point? Yes, Alador theoretically pushes the idea of how Amity might be getting stronger based on this but why would she actually believe that? And even then, is a potential coven head worth it if it gives her no power back because they won't listen to her? Because they aren't profitable and loyal to her anymore? Even without the retcons to Alador, there's a real case that just in her first appearance, it's a cop out. Post Alador's retcons where Odalia doesn't care about him and doesn't listen to him, where she takes a single act of betrayal as a reason to accuse him of wanting to break off their partnership, all of this only becomes worse.

And all of this comes back around to crack Amity's character. That arc everyone praises from S1? Now it makes no sense because Amity's influences make no sense. What she rebels against is made trivial but also incomprehensible because there SHOULD have been consequences and she should have MUCH more scared of those consequences. Instead, it comes incredibly easy and naturally to her to break her bonds and be a good person with the 'right' friends now. This is compounded by how little anyone ever calls out her behavior or how almost all of the time she may spend being introspective is off screen. We don't get to see the ideals she holds be properly challenged besides... Luz existing and Understanding Willow. Meanwhile, HER MOTHER is like THIS. Where those ideals would be constantly reinforced and the consequences for breaking those ideals would be SEVERE.

So, to loop back around: Did Odalia need more depth? Yes. Or she had to have mattered much, MUCH less to Amity.

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

As a note, this is one of those big examples to me for how TOH fans struggle to actually bring the show together for their analysis rather than cherry picking examples or using single episodes. Anyone who tries to claim Odalia and Amity's relationship makes sense is ignoring a LOT of elements that intrinsically tied to one another and how those elements cascade upon each other. Complex storytelling is like this where one creative choice creates a knock on effect. Making characters all be tied between each other somehow is one of the best examples of this but I feel like a lot of fans, for the sake of praising Amity's arc, only focus on Odalia and Amity like they are in a closed circuit and only for the specific parts they want to use in that circuit. That's not how this works.

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.

[yunomagic]

Every single way Luz Noceda and Movie Sonic are similar (and why i think they should be besties)

These two are genuinely my moods, my kins, and my children and i actually do think they would be besties and its all gonna make sense in a minute i swear. Do be warned that this may be incoherent cuz I am like that, and that some things might’ve been said wrong. The elaborations are in no particular order and some explanations may be longer than others. ALSO this contains spoilers for both The Owl House and the Sonic Movies so if you haven’t watched one or both of em please do so when you can and come back to this. anyways Here we go:

Both resemble the archetype of a bubbly and kindhearted goofball of a protagonist that can be naive and/or impulsive at times during the time they first debuted

^^^ As they get older and as their stories progress, they start to mature and learn from what they experienced on their adventures

Both have dealt with a form of parental loss during an early part of their childhood ( Manny Noceda for Luz, and Longclaw for Sonic )

Both use escapism methods as coping mechanisms to compensate for their traumatizing childhood

( Luz indulges in TGWA books or fiction in general, and it’s implied she also does amvs and art, which can be interpreted as both hobbies and stress relievers. As for Sonic, he indulges in comic books like The Flash and pretends to be a part of Tom and Maddie’s family so he doesn’t feel so alone )

Both children were alone for a majority of their life and didn’t have any real friends until they found them in different worlds ( In the Boiling Isles, Luz ends up finding Eda, King, Gus, Willow and eventually, Amity. On Earth, Sonic ends up finding Tom and Maddie Wachowski, b4 meeting Tails and Knuckles later down the line )

Both strive to feel appreciated and accepted, and they execute it in similar ways

( Luz making grand gestures and extreme antics [like the snakes and the spiders in ep 1] to try and impress her classmates and Sonic trying to be a hero to make Longclaw proud, and to possibly gain acceptance from other humans )

^^^ As a result, both of their methods are seen as reckless and dangerous

Note: At this point in the ramble, the mobile version of tumblr won’t allow me to add more images cuz of a 10 image limit and I can’t figure out how to add more on desktop. So any evidence I provide is gonna be in quotes, parenthesis or paragraphs of elaboration. I’m so sorry there’s gonna be no visual flavor, if anyone can help me find a loophole that’d be great. Anyways back to the show:

Both pin the blame on themselves for things that weren’t their fault, and push themsleves to right what they believe they did wrong… by rushing into immediate danger ( can also be seen as some form of people pleasing behavior )

Both of them also refuse to accept any sort of help from the people who care about them

^^^ When Eda got captured trying to save Luz near the end of season 1, Luz’s plan was to straight up rescue her while being fully aware of the risks. This repeats again in season 2, episode 1 with the entire premise of the episode being that luz feels like a burden and is the cause of Eda losing her magic and everyone in the owl house financially struggling. Going all out to fight a selkiedomus in order to free Eda and king.

While Eda talks to Luz about it, the behavior doesn’t stop. Carrying over to Hollow Mind, and the episodes after that. If you know what happened in Hollow Mind, we’d know that Luz is now adamant on stopping Belos and the Day of Unity. While still being aware of the risks, she believes that she’s the sole reason for the Day of Unity happening, therefore she continued to risk her life in order to save others

“Please try to understand, Eda was in the situation because of me. Because of my stupid choice, I have to make up for it.” - Young Blood, Old Souls

“Because you stuck with me you lost your magic, you almost got turned to stone, and now you can’t even afford your apple blood because you’re worried about what I need to eat.” - Separate Tides

“I am NOT hiding, I’m going to stop Belos from completing the draining spell.” - O Titan, Where Art Thou

In the second act of sonic movie 2, Tails gets knocked unconscious by Robotnik and Sonic narrowly saves him in the nick of time b4 an avalanche could envelope them. Near the beginning of the movie, during the boat scene, the blue blur had a talk with Tom about how being a hero meant to take responsibility for other people. As Sonic accidentally caused chaos in Seattle for trying to stop a robbery and be a hero. It’s also implied that this has been happening more than once. One of the things Tom said to Sonic was, “You put people in danger and that’s not what a hero does.”

^^^ This statement indirectly affected Sonic’s way of thinking. While said with good intentions, as a result of what happened to Tails, Sonic believes that he needs to make up for what he did wrong by pursuing Knuckles and Robotnik for the master emerald. Thus, he thinks he’s automatically no longer a hero once a new friend of his almost died

( It should be worth mentioning that there was some visible regret in Tom’s face when he realized that he made sonic think that way. It’s also possible that Sonic blames himself for Longclaw’s death, the first movie also explicitly states that Sonic’s number one fear is hurting people because of being himself. Making the boat scene, what Tom said, AND what Sonic says next, extremely deep and depressing )

“You see that little fox over there? He came all the way across the universe to meet his hero, and what did his hero do? I practically got him killed! You were right, my moment came, and I blew it. I’m no hero.”

Key takeaways of these moments is that this is the kind of mindset both these kids have is somewhere along the lines of, “I accidentally made a mistake = Everything is my fault and I should take the blame and all responsibility for it no matter what other people tell me.”

^^^ This kind of thinking is reminiscent to people pleasing behavior and is v self-destructive. While Luz is undoubtedly a people pleaser, Sonic seems to be more of a subtle kind of people pleaser

Both kids may be afraid of rejection and/or abandonment due to past trauma

Both kids were forced to be sent away at some point in their childhood. The reasons and the circumstances differ, but the incidents were similar. In the end, it resulted in both Sonic and Luz not liking the idea of being sent away, even if it’s for their own safety

Both kids feel the need to become something or someone else in order to feel accepted by other people ( Luz wanting to become a witch in season 1 and Sonic wanting to become a hero in sonic movie 2 )

Both kids were forced into thinking that they are the problem or that they are a burden and danger to everybody around them. Just because they are being themselves.

^^^ Thus, they think that the solution is for them to either leave permanently or to never exist at all ( Luz initially planned to stay in the human realm and was vocal about her possible suicidal thoughts. Sonic planned on leaving Earth because that’s what Longclaw told him to do and he believed he would cause harm the longer he stays )

^^^ Luz says, “Who cares, about the RIPPLE effects? He was just a pawn in someone else’s game! A-And he was NEVER smart enough to realize it! If his friends and family knew about his existence… they’d know that their lives wouldn’t be in danger if it weren’t for HIM! They should hate his guts! And it would be better— if he literally, never EXISTED!” - Season 3, Thanks To Them

^^^ Sonic says, “I don’t wanna go, but I can’t stay. As long as I’m here, I put everyone in danger… I can’t do that.” - Sonic The Hedgehog 1

They’re both ridiculously selfless to the point where they won’t hesitate to sacrifice themselves under any sorr of circumstances

In the season 2 finale, King’s Tide, as the Boiling Isles is torn apart by the Collector, Luz intended to leave herself behind to keep the portal open with plant glyphs so Amity, Gus, Willow and Hunter can go through to the human realm. Luz also wanted to go find Eda, instead of heading for safety

On the other hand, during the final battle with Robotnik, Sonic wanted Tom and Maddie to get away from him in exchange for THEIR safety because he knows what Robotnik wants. It’s also possible that Sonic wants the Wachowski’s to get away from him because he can’t handle the idea of them dying because of him. The same way Longclaw did all those years ago

What both of these scenes have in common is that there’s this whole thing with families trying to stick together and the kids trying to participate in altruistic sacrifice. Which is very dark imo

Ultimately, the core of both of their stories and characters is that they both long to be understood and accepted by the people around them

OKAY— so i believe im done here, but there’s definitely more and i just forgor about it, and that there are some parts that are missing or i havent explained thoroughly. And it is getting late and this thing has been sitting in my drafts and i wanted to get this posted. But i do believe that these characters would get along super well, as they both have the similar demeanors and similar stories. (Insert that one barbie song /jjj) If these two met, they would either ramble, read each others comics, or commit crimes together /hj. I gave no doubt that ever met, their friendship would be instantaneous and strong. Anyways, imma head to bed, you guys can do whatever you want with rhe info i provided. Nighty night

[kinghijinx22]

The Owl House Watching and Dreaming review/analysis part 2

Part 2 The Collector's Origins, Amity and Raine breaking free

While I'm still don't really like the Collector a lot as a character and I think that a lot of people are way too forgiving of them considering how much damaged he caused, I do think the way this episode handles the obvious direction they were taking their character to be really well executed. They work well as the chaotic but ultimately forgivable antagonist compared to Belos's calculated pure evil and I think they play a good role in this episode. Him being a younger god like being who is incapable of understanding death and the harm that they cause on other's is really interesting and plays into a major plot point later on in a powerful way.

I think now is a good moment to mention that I really appreciate how this episode really focuses on the other biggest emotional core of this series which is the adopted Owl family. The found family dynamic between the human Luz, Eda and King has always been really strong and is where the everything started. Three outcasts who didn't fit in because of their differences were able to come together and not fit in together, becoming a found family and showing that the people that matter most are those who love and accept you for who you are. And I love that after they break free from their nightmares and surviving the Collector's games, the Owl family and especially Luz are able to use their immense empathy to relate their own experiences to the Collector's experiences. It's here that we get a proper explanation of the Collector's origins of originally being from a family of Collectors, and that their older siblings are known as the Archivists. According to the Collector, the Archivists had sent them down to the Boiling Isles to get him out of their business and while they were actually able to make friends with the baby Titans, the Archivists were not happy after discovering the Titans themselves and the fact that their powers can cancel out their own. Because they saw the Titans as a threat, they wiped them out but not before King's dad had hid King away and sealed away the Collector, believing them to be the main threat. The whole thing was clearly very messy with some misunderstandings, but what we learn for certain is that the Archivists are the true villains of this situation.

Raine playing a big role in this finale was pretty cool. They've been such a great character throughout the series and are some of best nonbinary representation in any story with how well they've been written. They finally get to start breaking free from Belos's control while Belos was on his way to the Titan's heart and while it was always obvious, it was pretty cool to see even Belos recognising their strength. They tried their hardest, even making one last desperate attempt by banging the violin on ground but was just unlucky and Belos was able to slip through a small hole in the magic barrier.

Speaking of strong witches, Amity being strong enough to regain her autonomy enough to draw the light glyph while she was a puppet was an awesome moment and what makes this moment even more special is that I think this is the first time she has drawn a glyph successfully. And just like it was Luz's love for Amity that allowed her to break free from her nightmare, I like to think that it was Amity's love for Luz that gave her the strength to draw the glyph. She uses what her girlfriend had taught her to help her break herself and her friends free from being Collector puppets. Amity, Willow, Gus and Hunter end up having to save everybody who was turned into puppets and being kept in the archives. I suppose it's now that I'll mention Hunter because I won't otherwise because I still really don't care about him and I never will but I am so happy that they kept him out of the big final battle. As perfect as most of this show is and with how important it has been for it's representation, my one problem is the fact that they decided to introduce this generic cishet white edgeboy and suddenly started pushing him as one of the most important characters to the detriment of the much more interesting queer and poc main characters and sometimes even Luz, the character who is supposed to be the main character. I'm just so relieved that they knew to stop pushing Hunter so hard as a white saviour and to actually let their queer afro Latina protagonist get to be the hero in the end.

So the Owl family is able to relate to the Collector, but to really connect with him Luz decided to take them the places where she was able to connect with other people while sharing her stories. The first place being the Owl House itself, or "the bird house" as the Collector calls it. It's where she properly got to know her now found family of Eda the Witch, King the Titan, Owlbert the Palisman and Hooty the Door. The weirdos that came together and accepted each other when they needed it, just like they were doing with the Collector. The next place they go is the Grudby court which also feels like it could be a stand in for Hexside in general because it represents Luz finding her friends and the love of her life. Where she met other outcasts Willow and Gus and they became close friends, and also where she met and was able to break down the rough exterior of former bully but now loving girlfriend Amity Blight.

The final place they go to is the Knee, the Titan's knee where Eda had taught Luz how to connect with the Boiling Isles or rather the Titan itself, where she was able to learn the Ice glyph with the help of the Titan is great foreshadowing for when we get to meet the Titan in person. The Collector themself even mentions in this moment that he's jealous that the Titan had showed Luz the glyphs and not them. Even though you could have made the assumption, this is our confirmation that the Titan really has been helping Luz to find the glyphs this whole time. The way this comes up, and the way this episode is able to brilliantly wrap up all these mysteries and plot points was very satisfying. This show has always been great at bringing back small plot details and paying them off in a big way. After hearing about all of Luz's adventures and about all the family and friends she's made along the way, the Collector makes the assumption that she must have somehow forced people like her own girlfriend Amity and her cool aunt Lilith who had started off as adversaries into liking her. But as is explained by Luz, people are complicated and sometimes they just need some kindness and forgiveness. There is more to people then what we see on the surface, and sometimes if you are able to see past someone's hard exterior you can reach the kind person on the inside and maybe even bring them to the surface. Throughout the series Luz with her kindness and sincerity has been able to do this for a lot of people, and now she's showing this kindness and sincerity to the Collector.

[samcat0925]

For that Human x Monster au, do the others ever invite Matt over to their houses so he doesn't have to keep living in the woods?

Yes, though it does take some time as Matt was cautious(scared) about their parents seeing him and calling someone to take him away(either to be locked up or studied).

Matt would stay with Amity the majority of the time as her parents are always away on business trips and also Edric and Emira are cool with him staying there too(they were originally told that he was a cosplayer whose parents had kicked him out until Matt trusted them enough to come clean to them about him being a monster to which they swore that they wouldn’t tell anyone). 

He’d also stay with others from time to time under the excuse that he’s a cosplayer if their parents see him.

That is until Luz and Camila find out that Vee, Luz’s adopted sister, was a shapeshifting monster the whole time to which Luz and Camila tells her that despite her unique appearance, they still love her and see her as a part of their family. 

After that, Luz tells Matt that he is welcome to come stay at her place whenever he wants which causes Matt to question why she so sure that he’s safe there since he knows that her mom is always there as she’s an only parent. Luz, not wanting to out Vee without her permission, just tells him that he’ll understand once he gets there. Matt nervously agrees to with the exception that Gus goes with him which Luz agrees to.

Once they get there, Vee and Camila see Matt and his unique features. Before Gus or Matt could even come up with an excuse for why he looks the way that he does, Vee asks Luz if he’s like her which Luz nods before Vee shows her true form(which is similar to how she looks in the show). 

After a bit of explaining about Vee being a shapeshifter and telling Luz’s mom about Matt’s situation, Camila agrees to let Matt stay with them(while secretly planning to find Matt’s parents to give a long talk with her chancla about how they could leave their child in the middle of the woods alone). Matt would stay in the spare bedroom that is across from Luz and Vee’s room.

And once Steve comes back from college, Matt will run into him while on a date with Gus at a cafe and immediately recognizes him. Steve would be a little surprised by Matt being out in the open but will be happy that Matt is safe and found some friends who care about him as well as a boyfriend who loves him while he was away.

He will tell Matt that he just got an apartment close by and if he wants to, he can stay with him but if he just wants to stay with Luz and visit Steve from time to time, that’s fine too. Matt will think about it but will eventually start to live with Steve who works as the town’s police officer and, with Camila’s advice, sets Matt up for online school.

[sepublic]

The Importance of ‘Girlfriend’ in Eclipse Lake

           I know people joke about how Amity keeps dropping the word “Girlfriend”, but she only ever really says it three times… Then there’s one more time by Luz herself, of course!

           And I think the reason why people act like the characters said ‘girlfriend’ so many times is because… Well on the one hand, there’s that minority of homophobic people, who think that any reference to queer people is one too many. But I think that mostly, it comes from the vast majority of supportive fans, who are just so unused to hearing the word ‘girlfriend’ used by a female character, that even just one mention of it is a lot- Much less four!

           There’s also the fact that in-universe, Amity calls deliberate attention to the word ‘girlfriend’, placing a lot of emphasis on the title, and basically flaunting it around as an achievement- The word clearly means a lot to her, so it means a lot to the audience. Add in how the other characters react to Amity, indicating that she’s mentioned this a lot… And again, the audience also begins to pay attention and view Amity’s mention of ‘girlfriend’ as a very frequent thing.

           In fact, Amity being Luz’s ‘girlfriend’ is something that’s a big deal to her arc in Eclipse Lake- It’s what her development revolves around, as Amity figures out what being Luz’s girlfriend actually entails for her, and what kinds of expectations she initially anticipates to come attached. So with how Amity treats the term, basically repeating it to herself as a reassuring mantra, and clearly treating it as such… And even though she doesn’t say it that many times on-screen, the audience gets the distinct sense that Amity has said ‘girlfriend’ a bunch regardless. 

           And this IS treated as a big deal by the characters, so naturally, so too do the viewers treat it as something to take particular notice of, each time- So when you add that onto the surprise at hearing the world ‘girlfriend’ dropped at all, in any queer context… And yeah, after subsisting on crumbs, a moderately-sized meal feels like an entire buffet to queer viewers! The word ‘girlfriend’ is not treated naturally within the show, because for Amity, she’s still getting used to it- It’s a driving motive and source of internal conflict for her… 

           And from a representative standpoint, it’s kind of ingenious how the writers have so tightly interwoven this ‘forbidden word’ into Amity’s arc and the narrative, as a core and foundational element- You can’t really remove the word without removing so much of the context and basis for Amity’s struggle and storyline here… Especially with that pivotal scene that calls specific attention to how important it is to even say that word, in-universe; With Hunter questioning Amity if Luz has actually, verbally called her an awesome “girlfriend”, and how that contributes to her insecurities and doubt.

           So naturally, Amity and the audience immediately think back and pay attention to every time the word ‘girlfriend’ has been dropped, so when Luz DOES bring it up, naturally, with no idea of how Amity felt? It just feels that much more of a huge moment, it’s a pivotal term that’s distinctly interwoven into Amity’s storyline this episode, so you can’t really take it out without confusing the flow of the episode as a whole. Because again, the specific language that Luz uses, the way loved ones communicate with one another- That IS a huge part of this episode!

           With how Amity is initially confused by the unique ways that Luz communicates, and defaults towards interpreting them in the worst way… How Belos ‘communicates’ with Hunter but not really, not truly responding to Hunter’s concerns, and using loaded words such as ‘replacement’ that clearly traumatize and unsettle the poor kid. Communication, and by extension the specific language and terms used for that, is a HUGE part of Eclipse Lake’s narrative and emotional storyline- So yes, the audience is also encouraged to treat specific words as a big deal, the same way characters do. 

           And like Amity, we feel so starved and in anticipation of that kind of love language, of the word ‘girlfriend’, that each mention has all the more weight for it. There’s Luz having her own brief conflict in trying to communicate with her friends, to warn them about the Fool’s Blood; And then there’s Hunter not quite understanding Rascal’s speech as a palisman… 

           But by the end of the episode, he’s able to understand Rascal’s speech, able to properly communicate with someone who DOES love him, and tells Hunter their name! Someone who DOES try to reach out to him by initiating conversation- With Rascal encouraging Hunter to talk with others by dragging him into Eda, King, and Amity’s path… Not to mention Amity’s own verbal words of reassurance and guidance, which Hunter actually does take to heart, by applying them towards his newfound appreciation for Rascal’s support at the end.

           THAT fits with Eclipse Lake’s themes of communication and love languages, with Hunter able to understand and transparently talk to someone who DOES love and care for him, whereas with Belos, Belos never quite responds to Hunter, it’s usually Hunter who has to listen to HIS ramblings and orders… And even then, his uncle obviously isn’t straightforward, speaking in veiled language, and possibly employing reverse psychology, mind games, and gaslighting to get into his nephew’s head and mess with him.

           TL;DR The word ‘girlfriend’ means a lot to the viewer both on a meta and queer representation level; But also from a narrative standpoint, from the in-universe perspective of Amity, being a HUGE factor of the episode’s themes of communication- And how it IS vital to openly communicate and reaffirm how you feel with words, too!

[originalwinnercheesecake]

First Impressions and predictions based on the coven Leaders

After a full first season their fame adorning the banners and walls, who they are being hailed, yet they themselves being kept in the shadows we now get first looks (and throughout 2a will meet) the emperors top dogs: The coven leaders. I will not lie as a group... these guys dissappoint me. Making the majority of them very human in appearance for me is a big no. Compare this group to the many colorful and fantastical creatures that are shown teaching at hexside and the hexside teachers are far more creative, unique, and fun. Maybe the artists decided to make the coven leaders look more like normal people so the audience would have an easier time understanding their expressions and body language. Maybe the more humanoid whitches are a higher class and have a easier time climbing higher than the more beast and demon like residence.? We will have to wait and see. 

Seperate this group into individuals (like how we will hopefully meet them) and most of them become far more interesting, So below lets take a look at each coven leader individually, where the artists may have taken inspriation, and what  What kind of characters they could maybe turn out to be.

The Beast keeping coven Leader: One of the only two that are not humanoids. What type of animal is he? At first I was sure he was a hedgehog, but maybe he could also be like a chipmunk or a squirrel. I get the feeling he might be partially inspired by Sonic from Sega. I was really into Sonic back in middle school. I liked the cartoons and read through the archie’s old comic series. But I kinda out grew him since then. I know from helping to take care of kids though that he is still popular with the younger generation. That’s kinda how I thin the Beast Keeping Coven leader will be: less interesting for older viewers, but a real fun charcter for kids.

The Healing coven leader: Now this guy looks like fun villain all around. Is some kind of witch docotor? a Dark Priest? The size the purple Grin, he looks like the phantom boss from those horror films where you get trapped in nightmares. Tell me he has scary theme song music and talks in a very high pitched voice. I’ve heard some people wonder if he could be Selena (oracle girl from hexside)’s dad. I don’t thinks so, the macaroni crescent shape n his head looks more like a fancy cowl than part of his actual head. Also him having a daughter in Luz’s class could be used as a reason for him to change sides, I want this guy to stay as a villian/antagonist. We all know that with this size group some will stay with the emperor and some will defect to Luz’s side (possibility a couple will die, we haven’t seen yet just how dark Dana is willing to go). Personally my view with redemption arcs and if a character “deserves them” is it depends on what it will do for the story/character afterwards? IF redeeming them opens more doors for the characters and directions the story can take, do it. IF it closes doors leave them as they are. I absolutely hate when clever and well written bad guys get “redeemed” in to boring, plot useless, weebs. The only reason I could see having this guy change sides is for him to “cure” Eda and Lilith’s curse, and I would much rather see the two of them gain control over their forms than be “cured” of them.

The Illusion coven leader: Another fun looking antagonist. My third favorite of these nine. If the healer guy is horror movie based. This guy is Disney based all around. Looks like one of those Vegas suave showmen styled character. Love it. I guarantee you he does not actually look that young or slicked back, but is using illusion magic to make himself more pretty. Not sure if he will stay with the emperor or not. Illusion is Gus’s track and I could see Dana having the leaders of Luz’s friends tracks be the ones to stand by them. If so I am fine with that (in the case of the abomination leader I will beg for it). Gaining the respect of someone as high up as a coven leader could be really great for Gus’s character. Just as long as I get plenty of laughs from Gus and this guy both along the way.

The Potion coven leader: My second favorite and in my opinion the most creative idea of the whole bunch. A mosquito that works in potions! Does he suck them up with his nose and carry them in.. whatever it is mosquitos store blood in. Also he looks angry. Like everyone else is either amused or board. This guy is fed up and ready to do something about it. Not sure if it is the Emperor, the other leaders, or the owl gang he is mad at, but it should be a worthwhile show down.

The Abomination coven leader: Yes this is my favorite design. Yes it is because he is such a beautiful man. Would never have expected someone who creates mucks (the pokemon) with legs would be so fine. Its more than that though. He looks the most kind. Their is no malice or guise in his smile and his green eyes are bright and relaxed. I wondered what the purpose of the Abomination track was and why it had “more opportunity” all last season. Well slight spoilers if you haven’t seen episode 2x02 it is the industrialist field. When you learn about Industrialization usually the idea is that it is done to help the human race reach its full potential, and it is up to each individual to decide what to do with that potential. Whether you call that the passion of a creative mind or the carelessness of a fool would also be up to you. But I really don’t want this guy to be all bad. If for no other reason that more spoilers for episode 2 * with the interest/caution the emperor is showing the blights I expect this guy to show up to their house, probably meet Amity, and we really do not need another not so nice adult in her life. She has had enough.

The Oracle coven leader: What is this? He’s got nails/caws at the ends of dread thingys like Kikimore, so is this her father? Does he have anything to do with her being in the Emporor’s coven? But this is my least favorite. Like what was the inspiration behind this guy? With so many legendary oracles in mythology and we get this guy who mostly looks saggy, washed out, tierd, and just Blah. Hope thier is more to him, but here is one who I am not holding my breath for an episode on.

The Plant coven leader: based on her banner I was expecting something like the Swamp Giant from ALTA. Instead they went in the direction of a very traditional witch desgine: An old women with a wrinkled face and really messy hair, who probably lives alone in the woods, with maybe the exception of a cat, and dances around a fire at night. Okay. She is definitely going to become an ally of the owl gang. This is the only female of the group,and it is neither in Dana’s message nor would it be popular with her target audience to make a villain or even an antagonist out of a women who managed to climb the later into a male dominated success level. I am actually looking forward to seeing her, because it will probably be in a Willow based episode, and after 2x02 (which I personally feel should not have been a luminaty episode but rather a Willow and Amity one finishing up their reconciliation arc), Willow deserves an episode with potential centered around her. An episode where she goes against the Plant track Leader would be that. This witches Grin isn’t exactly friendly, but its more mischievous than wicked. She gives off vibes as one of those people who like to test the mains, and if you pass her tests than you earn her respect. I have no doubt Willow could win at her little games, and doing so would be a huge boost the confidence she has spent the show building.

The Construction coven leader: Oh joy here’s the other one I am unimpressed with. Unlike with the Oracle guy I know where they got his design. To everyone saying that we first saw him at the convention, your not backing far enough up. If you have ever seen any cartoon ever where the main character wanders past or onto a construction sight you have seen this man. Every trio of workers sitting on a iron frame eating from a lunchbox. Every pig that makes a catcall at a disgusted women. Every exhausted worker who watches as your slapstick mains chase each other past at quitting time... they all looked EXACTLY like this guy. This is really the character leading the track Dana herself has said she would pick to join? They could have done a Golem made of brick an stone that resembles a palace. They could have done some kind of humanoid ant with super strength. They could have done a wizard with shapes and mathematics on his robe who carried a scroll everywhere that he compulsively scribbled blueprints onto. But instead we get Mr. Generic here.

The Bard coven Leader: This is R, Eda’s old friend from her hexside days. Did I save R for last because of this connection? Partially. I am also unsure what R’s pronouns are. To me R looks physically male. I have seen other posters use “she” when posting about R. One person posted that Dana had confirmed R uses “they” and if so awesome, I would really like to see that tweet. What ever R’s pronouns though their appearance in the show will be tied with Eda, er past, and what she had to give up in order to live free. I look forward to this new insight onto her character

[citadelspires]

since I’m more or less back in business I feel it’s past time I ramble about another au I will (probably) never write. I’ll start off simple with an amphibia owl house au I was thinking up last night at work. (slight disclaimer that I have not seen any of season 2 yet so this is with exclusively information through the end of season 1). Concept below the cut cause it’s a pretty extensive one.

The concept starts at the same point the owl house does, more or less. Camila is concerned, Luz is getting sent to summer camp etc. etc. This time she gets distracted by an unusually pink frog hopping into the woods, and decides she probably has time to go chase after it. So she follows it into the woods until she suddenly trips over something and falls to the ground, turning around she sees it to be a music box sticking out of the forest floor. Curious, she digs it up and starts examining it. She thinks it’s really pretty and she’s about to open it when she hears voices coming from nearby and goes to check it out.

She finds Willow and Amity in a small clearing, think essentially the scene in the actual owl house where she sees them for the first time, except here they’re both human, though Luz doesn’t know them because they both go to some pretentious private school, Amity because she’s a Blight so she had to, and Willow because she got a scholarship for it and didn’t have the heart to tell her dads she didn’t really want to go. The scene plays out in a similar fashion to how it does in the actual show, with the exception that this time without the magic element Luz doesn’t feel the need to keep hiding and instead marches up from her hiding place to chew out Amity for being a jerk. Unfortunately she stumbles on a tree root as she approaches and, still holding the music box, accidentally pops the lid open.

So that’s how the three of them get transported to Amphibia. I like the idea of taking the setup and world of Amphibia, which we’ve seen through the lens of the characters that got transported all being close “friends”, and coming at it from a different perspective, i.e. one of them is a complete stranger to the other two and the two that do know eachother are already not on very good terms going in. (Amity and Willow have essentially the same history in the au that they do in toh).

Luz is dropped right in the middle of Newtopia, and while she’s very excited about the prospect of a fantasy adventure, she’s also pretty worried that she has no idea how to get back home, and she doesn’t take to the city as well as Marcy did. Part of this is due to her having her doubts about the ruler of Amphibia, who in this case is not Andrias, but Lilith(I understand Belos is probably a more fitting character for the role but I just don’t know enough of his character or really care about him enough to implement him, so Lilith it is! She’s more interesting for the setup anyway, depending on what Andrias’ weird master thing ends up being, maybe that would be a belos type deal but honestly I’d probably just not implement that part into this. If you can’t tell this is much less a “amphibia but with the owl house cast” and more of a actual approach to writing something new with the old setting and characters).

This is mostly due to the fact that, while wondering around the city attracting suspicious stares from newts that have never seen someone like her before, she ends up bumping into a newt who appears to be running from the majority of the city guards. They both fall down and Luz helps her stand up, a showing that is enough to convince the guards that, whatever the weird creature is, it’s in league with the felon, so they begin chasing her too. The criminal newt, who is of course Eda, takes pity on her and brings her along to her hideout, where she meets a weird little robot that insists she refer to him as King. He begins to declare that his full title is “King of...” and then kinda falters off as he seems to realize he actually isn’t quite sure what he is. Luz gives Eda a concerned Look but she just kinda shrugs it off and says he always does that.

Luz finds out that Eda deals in the trade of questionable artifacts and considers herself pretty lucky to find someone like that as soon as she did, and she asks if Eda knows anything about a music box, describing it as best as she can, because she didn’t really think to take any pictures. For her part, Eda is pretty sure what it is, and that’s the moment where she resolves to watch over Luz, at first just because she’s Concerned the box is back in Amphibia, though it eventually ends up that she gets a soft spot for the kid.

Though Luz doesn’t find out a good deal of this until later, and it’s gradually, Eda is still Lilith’s sister here, meaning that yes, she had equal claim to the newtopian crown, but the history of the crown never sat well with her (i.e. she finds out newtopia was built on the foundation of bloody conquest, along with the fact that it’s encouraged they want to get back to that point and nopes out of there). While she’s on her way out she starts off her new life of stealing shiny things by grabbing a weird little statue that had always seemed kinda off to her. She figures she could sell it at least, but while looking over it after escaping she realizes that it isn’t a statue at all, but what she decides must have been a defective robot from newtopia’s past, being much smaller and more... expressive? Than it should have been. For some reason she decided to try fixing it, and though it took a good deal of time she eventually got it to work again, which is how she came to be friends with King.

Luz’ story is largely slice of life relationship building with her, Luz, and King, until the point where the path to the valley opens, and the three of them go on what Luz finds out is an annual trip Eda takes around the valley to see if she can find anything interesting to add to her stand, as well as find new customers in the valley. Luz figures if she has a shot at finding either of the two girls she came with, and hopefully the box too, it would be on that trip.

Willow gets thrown into Toad Tower before she even realizes what’s happening to her. She has no idea where she is, didn’t even get a good look at Luz before the teleportation happened back on earth, and is overall not having a great time. She’s not convinced she’s not dreaming until she’s literally tossed into her cell and the impact hurts enough that she’s sure she’s really there. At first she believes she’s alone in her cell until she hears an awe-filled voice ask what she is and why she’s there. She isn’t able to figure out where the voice is coming from until a tiny blue frog jumps up on her hand. She introduces herself as a human, which gets him very excited, and he introduces himself as Gus, explaining that he was thrown in prison for “almost kind of knowing things he shouldn’t” as he put it.

It turns out Gus is something of a scholar, though he admits that most frogs are more inclined to call him a crazed conspiracy theorist. All of his studies have to do with mysterious other worlds and their inhabitants, which he has always been stubbornly insistent do exist. He’s overjoyed that he finally has “a real life specimen!!” and Willow is excited enough at the idea that there might be someone who actually knows what happened to her that she lets that comment slide. She quickly finds out what the meaning behind his weird prison sentence is, as she brings up getting sent to this world from another, and he attempts for a wise nod as he goes “ah yes, you must have experience an encounter with the calamity bucket.” Still he’s kind of helpful and he and Willow get along pretty well, so they end up hanging out together for the rest of the story, he basically tags along everywhere with her Jiminy Cricket style.

Amity has arguably the hardest time adjusting to the world she suddenly finds herself in, as she ends up in the forest on the outskirts of Wartwood, and promptly determines that this is the worst thing that’s ever happened to her. Despite having the box that “weird girl” used to send them here, opening it and closing it over again provided no help at all, and trying to go into Wartwood provided even less. Still being in Full Blight mindset she is really haughty and superior and the townspeople do not take it well. Even deducing Toadstool as the only persons superficial enough to potentially care about her status, she can’t get anything out of him cause he views her as a massive publicity risk, which he’s already not doing super well at.

The only frogs in the village that seem to not turn away from her immediately are a mischievous pair of frog twins that joke around and mess with her, and though it’s all lighthearted she’s stubborn enough at first that when they do offer to help her out she flat out refuses them. Eventually between living in a cave and their hanging around her whenever she’s in town anyway she’s worn down enough that she begrudgingly accepts their offer of help.

Not being Blights in this au has done a good deal in the way of making Edric and Emira happier. While they’re just as much of tricksters as they always are, and they occasionally overstep a little in their jests, they’re quick to apologize, and lack any of the actual malice behind their knack for causing trouble. The two of them run one of the stands in the marketplace, something they get Amity to help out with eventually as the town warms up to her. The two of them find it easier to grow closer to Amity than the rest of the town does, maybe it’s cause they’re the only ones who have really tried, or maybe it’s cause they’ve got a reputation for being trouble in the town already anyway. Whatever it is Amity gets begrudgingly closer to them until she eventually refers to them as her siblings once, and though they refuse to let her hear the end of it for a few days, they’d been calling her their little sister since the beginning, and while Amity had been certain for a long time they were just doing it to mess with her she starts to like it eventually.

Like in Amphibia, the three girls all represent one aspect of the Heart, Strength, Mind trio. Figuring out what those all are takes a lot more for these girls than it does for the amphibia trio though. The focus of this story is less on the relationships the characters have, though that is definitely a part of it, and more on the attributes their assigned to and the personal growth they have. Each of them holds the attribute that is both their strongest and most repressed. The three all hold themselves at very little value in the areas they’re actually the strongest in, and through their journey in Amphibia they start to learn.

Willow had always believed that strength was an inherently negative thing. Strength equated to power, and people who had power used it to hurt others, without fail. People like, well, Amity. She prefers gentleness and peace, and to her that and strength is mutually exclusive. She reacts to the concept that she could be charging the box with the attribute of strength very negatively.

Through her time in Amphibia she gets to learn that her strength can come in different forms, and while she is undeniably strong physically, her physical strength is nothing compared to her emotional resolve and capacity to extend that emotional resolve in the strength of heart to pick up the people around her when they need it. She does, though, get to learn that power isn’t something that is inherently evil, and even that if she uses the strength she has to protect the things that are important to her, that doesn’t mean she’s forsaken any of the things believes.

aka she gets to punch a heron in the face. Boscha (captain of toad tower) is very impressed, though she pretends she isn’t. Speaking of Boscha, she gets to experience a similar development to Willow, but more on the reverse side of the coin. Having always been powerful, and that having always been enough to make her more important than everyone else, Willow strikes her as weak at first, given her lack of aggression. The longer she stays stuck with Willow though, the more she comes to realize some important things, foremost among them being that Willow could totally kick her ass, and just chooses not to, which isn’t something Boscha understands at all, and Willow ends up teaching her how to be more of a person than a weapon, even just leading by example.

Much to Willow’s complete disbelief, (she swears to Luz the box is broken and they’re doomed), Amity is the heart. Amity doesn’t really believe it either. Strength would’ve been Okay, but personally she would’ve picked the attribute of intelligence for her. It was like the box went through all the effort of looking into their souls and didn’t even bother to check her report card. Ludicrous. It doesn’t help her that her time in wartwood is miserable for a good deal of the start. For the first time in her life Amity isn’t perfect, and it’s all because there’s nothing to be perfect at in this stupid little town. She should have all the frogs praising her superiority, but literally None Of Them are impressed by her in the slightest. They didn’t even have a school!

The only thing Amity took to quickly in Wartwood was the town motto, resolving that she would be even slower to respect the citizens of Wartwood than they would her. This started off a bit of a rivalry between her and the town, but the longer she had the horrible influence of her parents replaced by the well meaning nagging from her frog siblings, and the more time she spent not being perfect because for once in her life she literally couldn’t be, she started to think it wasn’t so bad after all, and the little rivalry between her and the town became much less of a real one, and a lot more of the friendly banter type, though she couldn’t recall ever making a concious choice to do so it just sorta... happened.

Eventually she starts to think about the school she was initially so annoyed didn’t exist, and begins to wonder if really no one is gonna do anything about it being in ruins. Eventually, she starts going over to the ruined building and reading to whatever kids in wartwood were in the mood to listen. before she knew it she had built up the closest thing to a school Wartwood had in a while, and where she once would have felt a smug pride, she only felt a casual happiness that was new to her, but not entirely unpleasant.

Luz never would have considered herself good at any of the three options. She knows she’s not strong so that’s out. All the kids at school think she’s weird and she has no friends so she really doesn’t think the whole “heart” thing works in any capacity. But the only thing left besides that would be intelligence, and she’s had enough students and teachers alike call her out for being an idiot that she’s absolutely confident that isn’t it. It doesn’t help that since she’s with Eda, who actually knows what the box is, she ends up worrying over what she’s supposed to be from the very start. She spends a lot of the time before the valley opens up thinking the box made a mistake, and since she didn’t have any of the attributes it wanted it wouldn’t work again at all.

In the end she only finds out what she’s supposed to be through process of elimination. Knowing Willow is strength and Amity is heart she finally comes to the realization that she’s supposed to be intelligence, and her confidence crumbles. Of all the options that’s the one she’d been hoping it wouldn’t be the most. How could so many people be wrong after all? It was pretty unanimous back home that she didn’t really have much going on upstairs, and after hearing it enough time she had gotten around to believing it. Her path in the story  largely focuses on coming to terms with her own worth, despite her insecurities and the weight of everything she’s ever heard to the contrary constantly on her mind.

[criminalmutantsins]

My Top 10 Favorite Ducktales Characters

…………………………………………………….

NO. 10 Hewey Duck

At number 10 is Huey!

Hewey has been my least favorite triplet for most of the series; it by no means he’s a bad character or any of the sorts, Huey is more down to earth compared to other characters. It’s hard to say much about Hewey other than how he’s a sweet, fun character I’m glad is around.

His development in season three was good, though the weakest of the three. Kinda half-baked and rushed, as if the creators thought, “we have to add some Huey development since this is his season.” With Dewey and Louie’s, it felt like their respective seasons revolved around them instead of the other way around. The only episode I really think perfectly gave Huey development and at the same time move the main plot forward fluidly was the “Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!” with the whole Huey vs. Violet rivalry. Y’know what also sucks. Huey wasn’t even that integral to the finale. That annoys me to no end.

Now, I’m going to end this with positive notes.

What got Huey into the list was his sweet nature and how integral he is to the team’s balance. Every team needs someone who represents order and Huey is just that. Plus, his innocent love for romance is so cute. I love the episode where him and Webby were setting a date up for Fenton and Gandra.

NO. 9 Scrooge McDuck

Scrooge is probably the most interesting protagonist I’ve ever watched. Unlike most of them, he’s more of an anti-hero than a pure hero like Steven Universe or Luz from Owl House.

I don’t really have much to say about him because I don’t love him as much as the characters above him. He probably has the best development- Lena’s rivaling his really well. In the beginning, Scrooge was a grumpy miser but now, thanks to the kids, his heart is softer and more open. His cheapness is annoying, but the good qualities overthrow the bad.

Scrooge most likely would’ve been higher in the list if “The Life & Crimes of Scrooge McDuck” didn’t happen- or at least occurred in season two instead since humility and hard work was the main theme. The writers went overboard showing the audience how bad of a person Scrooge was in the past, especially with him taking advantage of the poor villagers and leaving them in their states-without even helping them. This episode downgraded Scrooge pretty badly.

NO. 8 Donald Duck

Although on the lower half of the list, I still hold so much love and respect for this version of Donald. He’s such a massive improvement from his previous iteration. The creators made him kind and strong-willed but kept his anger issues. Though, they turned that flaw into a more comedic and positive aspect of Donald since he uses that intense anger to protect his family. Speaking of that, his relationship with the triplets is absolutely adorable. He loves and protects them like a great father, and I’m still a bit peeved that characters didn’t acknowledge that more. Instead, their relationship was sidelined and pretty much haphazardly... replaced-I don’t know if that’s the right word- with May and June.

Another thing that annoyed me was Donald’s voice treatment. The creators pretty much portrayed his speaking problem as a joke, which is terrible. I hope to goodness that children with speaking troubles don’t take those “jokes” to heart because there is nothing wrong with having a different voice. It’s also surprising how much characters mostly don’t understand him when I can seventy percent of the time. This complaint is more towards season one since that was the season where most of the jokes happened.

Anyways, I hope this Donald will start a new beginning for the next iterations of him. A nice guy who has anger issues but means well. Same with him and Daisy’s relationship-another massive improvement the writers did. They are such a great couple from the episodes we got with them and this dynamic should continue.

NO. 7 Webby Vanderquack

Another character who was massively improved was the great Webby Vanderquack!

In the original series, she was a boring damsel-in-distress with no personality-pretty much like the earliest Disney princesses. The ‘17 creators did such a great job molding reboot Webby into a character who can kill you with kindness or impressive fighting skills. This pink-loving queen is probably the sweetest character I’ve ever met; I just want to hug her.

I love her optimism and caring personality. She was able to change Lena for the better and not give up on her when almost everyone did. Webby is the best friend you can have.

While I’m not fully on board with the Webby finale twist, I really liked how her interest in the McDucks played some big part of the finale. Do I wish it was in different circumstances? Yes, but I’m still glad Webby got an important moment for herself. That interrogation scene was very emotional; seeing Beakley fully breakdown like she did was shocking and really set the mood of how pivotal that moment. I literally almost cried seeing Webby so heartbroken by her grandmother’s lies- this pink baby deserves all the love in the world. At least she found out the truth and gained a parental figure in her life.

NO. 6 Louie Duck

I’ve gotta admit; I did not like Louie that much at the start of the show. Greedy and selfish characters usually don’t get my love, but season two changed. A lot more depth was added to him such as his insecurities and anxieties. I struggle with these issues and it was nice to see a character show that as well. One of my favorite arcs was Louie’s trouble connecting with Della; it was realistic and not rushed. While watching this season, I was often having trouble connecting with people, even old friends. Sort of having someone experiencing them alongside me made me feel less insecure and lonely.

His development was really good too, from beginning to end. At first, Louie was someone who was willing to execute every angle no matter how much it could hurt his loved ones. Yet, he grew to be a humbler person who now knows the consequences of his angles. A favorite episode of mine is “The Richest Duck in the World” because of this development. Seeing Louie clean the Bombei’s shoes with Scrooge made my heart melt.

What lowered him down to number eight was season three. There were a few episodes that backtracked Louie’s development like “The Trickening” and “The Fight for Castle McDuck” episodes. He was a real jerk towards Huey for no reason. It frustrated me enough to affect this list. And I also prefer other characters more.

NO. 5 Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera

You can’t expect me to not put this quirky and adorable dork in the top five! He’s one of the best boys in the show. Him being voiced by the great Lin-Manuel Miranda does add some bonus points- you can tell I’m a big Hamilton fan.

Like Webby, Fenton was drastically improved. He became this sweet, scatterbrained scientist who only wants to help people. I instantly fell in love with him. And it got even better when Fenton became Gizmoduck- my second favorite DT hero. He deserved so much more screen time, especially in season 3; “Beaks in the Shell” was not a good enough episode for Fenton and his relationship with Gandra. There should’ve been more. The finale moments he had was not satisfying enough, particularly him and DW sort of team up. It was rushed.

If a Darkwing Duck reboot takes place in the ’17 universe then Fenton must be a major character- at least show up in ten episodes a season. A Gizmoduck and Darkwing crossover is essential, and I will riot if it that doesn’t happen. And more Fandra, my fifth -maybe fourth- favorite ship.

I also had a big crush on Fenton back in season one. You can’t help but love him this sweety pie. This pretty much influenced thirty percent of his placement.

NO. 4 Launchpad McQuack

This muscular dummy is amazing! He brings a sense of comedy and light to every episode he is in. It’s infectious as h*ll!

I liked Launchpad instantly. He’s kind and wants the best for people. Optimistic characters are almost the best characters. They are great reminders of how there are still many good people in the world. Whenever I’m down and watch Ducktales, LP makes me feel a lot better with his dumb yet endearing moments. My favorite jokes are literally LP sending Beakley an invitation saying not to come and when he tried to make small talk with Gosalyn at the window; I can never stop laughing at those moments.

There are times when Launchpad’s dumbness irks me, but his good qualities overthrow that. Though, I wish he wasn’t used too much as comedy relief; LP had the potential to gain more development than what he got. I’ll give an example. Learning about his family would’ve been great to know- an appearance wouldn’t have hurt either. It could’ve opened a reason to why LP cares about Scrooge’s opinion and cares about him like a dad. Maybe there’s some bitterness in LP’s relationship with his dad and that’s why he doesn’t talk about his parents. Loopey not being introduced was a missed opportunity. Big brother Launchpad is all I need.

I also have a small crush on Launchpad, though mostly for his personality and voice. He’s still cute *wink.*

NO. 3 Drake Mallard

We made it to the top three! With the dashing caped crusader Darkwing Duck starting us off!

It’s funny how much I love a character who’s only appeared in like five-maybe six- episodes enough to put him in the top three. I had some trouble defining many reasons why I love him; it’s this weird connection I have with DW. He’s this dorky dummy who loved a big part of his childhood enough to make it his reality, yet I love him so much.

I think what made me fall in love with him was how similar we are. Like him, I was a meek person who got pushed a few times- either physically or mentally. Those times also inspired me to grow stronger and be an inspiration for the next generation. I can be pretty clumsy too(lol). Characters I see myself in are usually really high in my love list and it shouldn’t be surprising that Drake is one of them.

His kind and genuine nature was also what drew me in. And, I just made this realization, this is the first time I don’t prefer the original iteration over the latest one. I still love ‘91 Drake but he’s too arrogant.

Unlike the original DW, Drake became a hero to help others- though a wish for glory played a bit of a part too. This clumsy, stuttering actor took a step to become his hero and a future one for children like him. That’s admirable. His lovable personality also being so cute enough for me to want to give a big hug is a good addition.

NO. 2 Lena Sabrewing

Hands down Lena had the best development!

She started off as this distant loner who followed the gray area of morality. Now, Lena is a part of this loving family and her own person. A few of her episodes are my favorites, such as “Friendship Hates Magic!” and “A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill.” They are well-written episodes and hit me in the feels.

Like Louie and Drake, I see myself in Lena. There are times I’ve been afraid I’ll take on my family’s bad habits or turn like them. That’s why I love “A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!” Watching Lena try to be good enough and feeling insecure reminded me of the dark times I usually think about. There are even times I have dreams of these issues. The creators must have been inspired by me (lol). Though, I am kind of jealous of Lena because of how great her friends are. I want friends like Webby and Violet.

Even so, I do have some issues with Lena. Her magic arc was not written as well as her previous arcs. This might be more of a personal opinion than anything, but I’m still going to say it. Lena learned to control her magic too quickly, and it was treated as more like a plot device. And a shaking one at that. For example, in “The Split Sword of Swanstantine” Lena was able to stop time and send her and Huey into his mindscape. But, somehow, she couldn’t conjure a burst of energy to attack Steelbeak; granted, Huey mentioned that, yet Lena’s reasoning was dumb. Attacking someone with magic is way easier than doing what she did. I’m a little lenient on this since that idea lead to more Huey development, though I’m still going to critique it.

A great thing about Lena learning was her temporary outfit change. She looks absolutely amazing in light colors, which I didn’t expect, and her hair design is what I saw she would look good in. The eye shape is kind of weird.

Lena’s magic mode is in my list of cosplays.

NO. 1 Dewey Duck

Finally, number one is Dewey Duck!

Dewey has stolen my heart since the beginning. His positivity and fun nature always make me smile, even during the toughest times.

In my opinion, Dewey has the best arc/development of the triplets. His arc trying to find out what happened to his mother was what kept me watching Ducktales and helped me see why this show is so special. Many of my favorite moments are in season one, specifically ones involving Dewey. For instance, the scene in “The Last Crash of the Sunchaser!” where Dewey was willing to risk his life to get the last piece of paper and possibly solve what happened to Della was emotional. Hearing the desperation in his voice while pleading with Scrooge to tell him what happened hit me hard. I can’t imagine how much pain HDL have gone through not knowing what happened and thinking they aren’t allowed to ask. It would be terrible to experience.

Another moment I loved was in “The Spear of Selene.” It was when Dewey was hesitant to know what happened as the possibility that Della was a bad person grew more prominent. He looked so defeated admitting that realization and it reminded me of myself. There were moments when I realized that my parents were not as good as I thought. It hurt me a lot. At least sweet Dewey didn’t have to go through that. The scene when Dewey started tearing up seeing his mom in the sphere was also heartwarming. I wanted to give him the biggest hug.

Dewey’s insecurities of not being good enough and to be loved is what I struggle with too. Its kind of different because I have trouble believing anyone loves me while he wants everybody to like him. Confidence is not my forte.

……………………………………………………………

[prinxlyart]

just any individual toh character hc would SLAP. mebbe ur thoughts on the twins idk this is vague

Nah it’s cool, I can dig it let’s do this

I only put this under a line break cuz it got so long oops lol

Emira:

Defo has a stutter that she went through a lot of intensive and grueling speech therapy sessions for (when she was about 7 years old) that she hated. Amity and Edric both know this and know it’s a sensitive topic for her. They’ll tease her lightly about it, but never in front of anyone else and they know where to draw the line. In my last Vinera post, I mentioned how much Viney adores her stutter. She absolutely loves getting Emira flustered enough to start stuttering. She’s incredibly patient and understanding when it comes to Emira’s stutter and Em’s feelings about her stutter, and she helps Emira learn to be okay with it again. It’s nothing to be ashamed of (and it’s cute).

My girl likes carrots. Like, really likes carrots. As in she’ll eat them straight out of the ground if she’s given a chance to wash it first. She really loves carrots. This is only an issue later on after she and Viney start taking care of beasts together and Emira’s been caught eating their entire stock of carrots that’s meant for the beasts. Viney has to keep the carrots in a secret box away from Emira after that point.

Emira actually really loves beasts/animals but has never been good at handling them. Any time she’d try to approach an animal to pet it, it would try to bite her. She’d get extremely pouty whenever this happens because beasts/animals love Edric. It’s not until after she and Viney start dating that Viney actually starts teaching her how to approach different creatures and her love for creatures reignites.

Emira’s a giant pushover for Amity. Only Edric knows this because he’s also a pushover for her. If Amity ever found out what power she actually holds over them, they’d be in so much trouble. They mask their love for their sister with constant teasing. Yes of course they get annoyed by her, that’s how siblings are, especially when Amity tattles on them, but at the end of the day, they’d help Amity hide the body if she asked. (The few times they witnessed her crying by someone other than their parents, they had gone on a warpath. Nobody hurts Mittens.)

Defo had a brief infatuation with Luz for like 5 minutes before she realized how head-over-heels Amity was. As long as they’re both happy, that’s what matters. She’ll take that secret to her grave though.

L O V E S having her hair played with, but like, only with people she’s super comfortable with. She has so much hair (mostly due to her mother’s wishes) and any time they all have attend some fancy gathering, Emira has to be seen by a stylist in order to get all her hair into whatever wild fancy shape her mom wants for the event. That she hates more than life itself, but whenever she’s upset, Edric or Amity grabs her hair brush and just gently brushes her hair out until she’s chill again. (She absolutely melts when Viney starts playing with her hair). In an act of defiance and because she needed this Change, the moment she and her siblings leave the Blight Manor permanently, she cuts off all of her hair. It’s very reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. Viney loves it. Everyone loves it actually, but the biggest reactions come from Viney and Luz (they both love running their fingers through the newly cut hair because it’s so soft).

She likes to sing to herself when she’s alone. It’s rare that it ever happens because if she knows there’s other people in the same building as her, she won’t chance it. But when she knows she’s alone and no one will notice if she casts a silence bubble around herself so she can sing at the top of her lungs? You better believe she closes any doors or curtains in the area, locks everything, casts that spell and goes nuts. Her voice isn’t all that great, but it’s lovely when she’s singing quietly to herself while she does homework or something. On especially bad nights, Amity will ask her to sing to her. Emira sang to her once when they were like, 3 and 5 respectively, and it’s been their secret thing ever since for especially rough nights/nightmares.

Edric:

Yknow how James from Pokémon is just super good with Pokémon ?? Like, he knows how to treat them, he knows what they like, he asks them gently if they’d like to join them, etc. That’s exactly how Edric approaches creatures. He’s a natural with them, but he and his sister’s natural affinity for illusion magic kept him from pursuing that track of magic.

He’s always wanted a pet, but every time he brings it up to his parents, he’s met with the same firm No as always. He’s definitely gotten in trouble for trying to sneak wild creatures into the house to keep in his room. Thank Titan for Em’s cool new girlfriend who’s not only a multi-track student, but studying the exact subject he wants to study and is super eager to teach him everything she knows. He learns vicariously through her and helps her study for her tests. At first, Emira is suspicious of them, but she knows her brother wouldn’t be so cruel as to try to steal her girlfriend away from her. He’s just a dork.

My boy’s got a sweet tooth. He loves desserts and sweets and fluffy baked goods and often tries to sneak candies when he thinks no one is looking. Chocolate is a big weakness for him. When Luz introduces him to Human Sweets, he’s practically bouncing off the walls. Cotton candy??????? Flan?????? Dulce de Leche en Tabla??? He nearly passes out when Luz busts out what she calls a “chocolate fountain” and turns it on. Y’all remember that one image of a bird bathing in a chocolate fountain from a million years ago? That’s Edric.

Edric Blight LIVES to see his sisters laugh. He would pull all sorts of silly faces and dumb tricks to make Amity laugh when they were little. He still tries to make her laugh, but usually those have grown from giggles to disgruntled mumbling. He’ll never admit how much it breaks his heart and it’s not until he sees her laughing at something Luz has done that he has hope he may still be able to get her to laugh again (it’s also the first time he’s heard her laugh in years and it makes his heart soar in relief. He was almost certain their parents had stamped any concept of laughter out of her).

My boy Edric is so full of love and passion; actually quite similarly to Luz. What makes them different though is that Edric is Aromantic. He’s never had a crush in his life. He’s happy with his sisters and all of their friends and their family as it grows in the future. He has some best friends that he lives with for a while (after his sisters move in with their respective partners), but for the most part he’s chill. He loves his family, he loves spoiling his sisters’ kids, and he’s content with himself. It takes him a super long time to be content with himself, but he gets there. I will literally never get over the fact that his biggest fear is “being alone forever”. He’s never alone. He will always have his friends and family. And, thanks in large part to Luz, he has his parents back. His parents that actually were excited when he cast his first spell and tucked him in at night when he was a toddler, giving him kisses goodnight and pleasant dreams. Not the parents he’d run away from; those were the cold, uncaring, obsessed with fake concepts of popularity and status people he ran away from with his sisters. It took years, but Luz helped bring his real parents back. He loves getting to know them for who they are now that he’s an adult too.

He and Gus become best friends. Like, dumb buddy cop movie levels of best friends. They get into so much trouble when it’s just the two of them and they have the time of their lives. At first, he and Em just sort of took Gus under their wing because he was a little bit of an outcast in their homeroom for being so much younger than everyone else. But he’s a friend of Luz’s and a friend of Amity’s after a while, which automatically makes him cool in their book. They soon find themselves actually enjoying his company, rather than just protecting him from stray bullies, and they find his ability with illusion magic exciting. They themselves are considered prodigies so having another prodigy to show off practice with is super stimulating for all of them. As the years go on (and Emira spends more time with Viney) Edric starts calling more and more often for “Bro Time” where they go do stupid teenage stuff or test the limits of their magic or even just hang out and talk for hours. It’s actually all this time hanging out with just Gus that Edric discovers he’s aro; somehow it comes out that Gus has developed a crush on Edric and (major age differences aside) Edric realizes he’s never had a crush on anyone before. It’s a conversation that sucks a lot, but they’re besties and they manage to get through it. Gus maybe needs to take a day with his original gal pals to just cry about it, but he gets over it just fine. He also helps Edric understand what it means to be aromantic. Well, with the help of Luz and Willow as well; Luz is a walking dictionary for lgbt terminology and Willow’s super good at helping dissect feelings (when they’re not her own cough’outofsightoutofmind’cough).

I genuinely don’t know what he might pursue for a career. Part of me wants him to be independent and do his own thing, but a much stronger part of me wants him to just be part of Viney as Emira’s business. He loves creatures so much and he loves taking care of them, but I don’t want him to feel like a third wheel around his twin sister either. Maybe he becomes a dual track teacher at Hexside specifically for healing and beast keeping so more students can learn about Service Creatures. He can substitute for the Illusion track homeroom when needed, but he’s super passionate about the Service Creature sub-track he and Viney pitch to Principal Bump.

[stillbandofbrothersthirsty]

How Do You Feel

PART 5 (heads up, this part is pretty angsty compared to the other parts)

Julia never knew the pain of time before that week. The boys had left for Upottery Airfield at the end of the month, leaving her behind with a scattering of staff - mostly females - in Aldbourne. In one fell swoop, Julia had been separated from her boss, best friend, and their family of Easy Company men. She felt purposeless. Each minute of the day was spent either trying to gather any tidbit of information she could or trying to get the time to pass faster.

There was work to be done but there was no urgency to it as all of Aldbourne held their breath waiting for the paratroopers to make their first jump into Europe. Finally, on June 6th, the news of the invasion arrived. The news must have reached them after the men had already landed, Julia thought. All of Julia willed George to be among the paratroopers who made it to the ground. They were separated by roughly 376 miles but it might as well have been another universe. The things he would face were beyond her imagination, but the notion that he hadn’t even made it to the fight was even more unthinkable. Across the channel George’s training was kicking in. As a radioman, he carried more weight than the average rifleman. This responsibility had once been a joke; of course, George Luz was a radioman, he had the largest mouthpiece in the company. In training, it had been a piece of cake. George picked up the shorthand and coded language like it was nothing. But no one had prepared him for what it meant to be the vessel of all communication - or lack there off. No one had prepared him for how helpless it felt listening to officers with thinly veiled panic in their voices shouting for support. No one had prepared him for the desperate feeling of being the one on the radio hoping and praying that the person on the other end understood your request, and would show up for you. Only in the quiet moments at night when it was dark would George allow himself to think of Julia. He didn’t want to associate her face with a bloodied corpse he would inevitably pass. He couldn’t bear to imagine her laugh among the gunfire. In the states, in England, they had shared a paradise and now he was in hell; there was no reconciling the two worlds. The near month in France took everything out of George. It was one thing to be physically exhausted, but his soul was worn down. He was more than aware of how he was seen in the company. He couldn’t let his guard down for the Germans or for his comrades. If the clown stopped smiling how would anyone else know when to smile? Julia anxiously received the few letters George managed to write. By the time they reached her, they were worn from water and the exchange of hands but she was grateful to have them anyways. Each letter she received meant he was still alive. All around her, the staff and ladies of Aldbourne received letters, each one affirmed George’s survival. His death would have been mentioned by someone because everyone knew George Luz, Julia’s George. Leading up to D-Day, George and Julia’s antics had grown beyond subtle. Their intimacy had become an unspoken, accepted fact of life in Aldbourne. Julia’s romance with Chuck was an often forgotten memory. But no one knew what the true nature of their relationship was, including George and Julia. While the troops were in France, Julia’s colleagues awkwardly stumbled across polite inquiries regarding George’s wellbeing. Was he a friend or a romantic partner? Perhaps something more considering their intimate relations. Julia didn’t know, nor really cared how they defined it because in her mind she was simply waiting for her best friend. Her patience was rewarded at the end of the month when a bedraggled Easy Company made their way back to Aldbourne. George trundled along the rain-worn roads of the English countryside in a lorry, Frank Perconte to his left and Buck Compton to his right. He was cracking jokes; though the men were exhausted the adrenaline of relief coursed through them. They had survived D-Day plus some and were back in England to tell their tales. Men chattered excitedly about hot meals, pretty women, and where they would take their leave. It sounded like a coalition was forming in favor of London. That sounded pretty good to George. All he wanted was to get blindingly drunk and cause a lot of mischief with his best friends - excluding Julia. The places and things the soldiers had in mind for London were not appropriate for a lady, even George’s easy-going, tough-as-nails Julia. George spotted Julia immediately as his lorry rolled onto the base. She was dressed in civilian clothes, a bright yellow dress that had to be new. He had never seen her in it before and he would have remembered if he had because she shone like a ray of sunshine. George swung his body out of the truck, throwing his rucksack on his back. Julia stood at the center of a group of women, half in uniforms, half in civilian clothes. She searched the crowd of incoming soldiers for George. As soon as she spotted him she rushed towards him, flinging her body into his arms when they met. “You’re back,” Julia sighed a deep sigh of relief. George gripped her tightly, “thanks for waiting.” Julia stepped back from him with a wide smile, the beginning of tears formed in her eyes. 

“Hey, hey,” George said lightly, “none of that. Don’t go soft on me now!” Julia laughed, a sound that caused George’s heart to soar. She wiped the tears away with a smile, “I’m just so glad you’re back! Now I’ll save some money on postage.” “Pretty sure you get the same military allowance I do,” George said, “by the way, I love the dress!” “Yeah?” Julia twirled on the spot, “your favorite color.” George tried to keep his smile cool. Yeah, she was his best friend, of course, she knew his favorite color. But something warmed his heart to think she took his preference into consideration when she purchased it. “Great for summer,” he said. The first days of his return were spent in bliss. George thanked all of his lucky stars each day for returning him to his paradise. Winters wasn’t about to let the men slip; he had training exercises and calisthenics planned for each day. But George found himself with more free time than before D-Day and he easily slipped back into his routine of visiting Julia both during the day and at night. The men were granted one week off and the majority of Easy Company decided to go to London. Winters warned them that they were still paratroopers, they needed to maintain the dignity of their uniforms. His words were of no consequence because a new energy had grown in each surviving man. There was a new wildness about them, a vivaciousness that could only be satisfied by debauchery. It was only in George’s nature to lead the charge, along with Bill Guarnere, John Martin, Floyd Talbert, Don Malarkey, Joe Toye, and the other gambling-fan, oversexed paratroopers. To say the least, the week in London was wild. Gambling and drinking ran rampant as relieved soldiers from across England filtered into the city. Money, alcohol, and women kept the men busy and got them into trouble. Headlines in the paper joked that the American’s had done more damage to the city than the blitz. One evening when George was particularly drunk he followed Bill and Joe into a particularly seedy bar near Piccadilly Circus. Bill introduced him and Joe to a few women he had met the previous night. George felt reckless with the alcohol coursing through his veins so when the thought of Julia crept into his mind he had no regard to how their relationship had evolved over the last few months. More importantly, he disregarded rule number five. George didn’t wear a condom that night, a realization he had when he woke up in a panic at 7 am the next day in a stranger's bed. George didn’t say anything about the week to Julia when he returned. He brushed off her questions with short answers about how it was fun and a great time with the guys. Rumors swirled around Aldbourne about how raucous of a time the men had had. The non-specific gossip only made Julia smile and shake her head. The boys deserved a fun time, she thought. It was perfectly understandable that they had wanted to blow off some steam. But the energy changed between her and George when he returned from London. The honeymoon period that had experienced upon his arrival was over and George suddenly felt like a foreigner to her. He was himself, but different. There was an edge to him that hadn’t been there before. It was faint, just a whisper in his eyes when he told a joke, but Julia could sense it. He was still quick to laugh but there was an occasional bitterness to it. As a couple, they grew more reckless. Not in their playful disregard for subtly but in their intimacy. They had been diligently safe before D-Day but since George’s return, there were more and more instances of not using protection. Whenever paranoia crept into George’s mind the reckless monster that had latched onto him since coming back reared its ugly head. Fuck it. He thought. He didn’t care. In turn, Julia found herself lacking the energy to remind him. In the moments they shared she was so desperate to connect with him that she ached for the closeness of his raw body. “George?” Julia whispered. There was no answer. Maybe he was asleep, she thought. They had only finished having sex a few moments ago but when Julia returned from cleaning up George was turned away from her. She gently placed a palm on his back. The smallest connection. On the other side of the bed, George was awake, starring into the darkness. He wanted nothing more than to roll over into her arms but he couldn’t bring himself to move. Any clear thought refused to form in his brain. He barely noticed the heavy wetness forming in his eyes as he searched the wall for the strength to return to his former self. In France, the nights had offered the greatest respite. But in Aldbourne, it was the days that George preferred. The days meant comfortable routine, people to laugh and joke with, and sunshine without shrapnel raining down. At night George couldn’t see anything except for scenes of destruction painted on the back of his eyelids. “How did you feel about your competition?” Floyd Talbert teased Julia one day at lunch. “What?” Julia asked innocently biting into an apple. George squirmed down on the bench beside her. “What’re we talkin’ about?” he asked.



“Apparently I’ve got some competition,” Julia smiled playfully at George but there was a hesitance in her eyes. George’s stomach clenched. It wasn’t as if he was forbidden to be with other women. For all intents and purposes, nothing had changed regarding their agreement and Julia understood that. George’s guilt came from the uncertainty of whether or not he had contracted anything from his lustful night in London. It was a thought he had had a few times since reuniting with Julia but his reckless monster always tamped down the guilt. “Is that so?” George deflected as he pushed the food around on his tray. “Don’t worry Jules,” Floyd reassured her, “you’ve got his heart. He had to pay for it!” “Actually, we covered it,” Joe Toye grumbled from down the table. “Ol' George couldn’t locate his wallet,” Bill chortled from beside Joe, “it’s alright, we told him he gets to cover us next time we go.” Julia chuckled along with the men’s laughs but George didn’t miss the flint-like look in her eyes. “Paid for it, George?” Julia didn’t wait long to ask. She cornered him soon as they exited the mess hall. “Look, it was just a bit of fun,” George said calmly. “George, sleeping with women in town is one thing but a prostitute,” Julia hissed. “I didn’t know they were prostitutes!” George held his hands up in defense. Julia narrowed her eyes at him, “I have a hard time believing that.” “It doesn’t matter anyway, it’s my business. That was our agreement.” Julia’s mouth tightened into a thin line, “did you at least use protection?”



“What kind of question is that?”



“I have to ask, I’m sorry. I know it’s your business but with how irresponsible we’ve been lately I want to make sure - with a prostitute… they’re at much higher risk for disease.” “That’s not only my fault we haven’t been using protection, you could also remind-,” “George, you’re not answering my question.” Julia had her arms crossed across her chest, a desperate look was growing in her eyes. “I don’t have anything. No lumps, no bumps, nothing,” George said. “So you didn’t use a condom?” Julia raised her eyebrows. “No. I-I don’t know!” George said quickly. Julia’s face filled with thunder, “how do you not remember?” “I was drunk.” “I’ve seen you drunk. Even when you’re drunk off your ass you're coherent enough to remember if you used a condom or not!” “Jules-,”



“Answer the question, George!” Julia was nearly shouting now. “No.” Julia wanted to cry, from anger or from the hurt she didn’t know. George hung his head in shame. “Okay,” Julia did her best to keep her voice level, “thank you for being honest. But this,” she gestured between them, “is done.” Julia walked down the road towards her office. “Julia!” George stumbled after her, “Julia, no, I didn’t do anything wrong!” “George you broke rule number five! No bringing anything back!” “I didn’t bring anything back! I told you I don’t have-,”


Julia whirled on him, “even if there are no lumps, bumps, or whatever who knows what you could be carrying! And that doesn’t even matter because we were together as soon as you got back from London before you would have known if your dick was all bumpy!” she gestured angrily at him. “You betrayed my trust, George! This makes me feel unsafe.”


A knot formed in George’s throat at her words. “Jules, I-,” “Just,” Julia sighed and held her hands up in exasperation, “leave me alone. Give me some space.” George watched helplessly as Julia walked back to headquarters. He wanted to be angry with her, she was over-reacting, he thought. Just wait until he told Perco about how irrational she was being, Frank would take his side. But really, George felt terrible. His rational brain realized how much he had messed up. By the grace of God, he had been returned to his paradise only to burn it down with his own stupidity.

[polar534]

Hockey Injury Pt. 1

So Hockey AU was... surprisingly more popular then I thought. Which is good, because I still have ALOT written down about it, and I intend to add more. (It's become a bit of a coping mechanism to write about.) So, in the set-up post I warned that I had a bunch of notes regarding Amity's hockey injury. Well, welcome to a 3-parter folks! That's right. I've got that much written.

Anyways, this first part will be a general text-dump summary of events, the second will be a Luz centered more detailed 'story' about what happened on the ice. And the third will be focused on both girl's healing after the fact.

So vague explanations and warnings aside. Have part 1. Under the cut cause I have ~problems~

In essence. Amity gets like... really injured. It's bad. Like she is laid up in a hospital bad. They don't even have time to get her to the demon dimension where they usually take her when she gets injured (because different biologies and hiding her witchiness), so she gets taken specifically in Camilla's hospital.

They were only barely able to sneak her away from the emt's on duty at the game.

The team becomes immediately suspicious and HIGHLY concerned but they can't do anything because Amity is hurriedly rushed out of the place and to the hospital. Camilla is completely freaked but she also knows this could be much more serious then anyone realizes, because if they take Amity to get the help she needs right now, they'll find out she is a witch. She barges into the hospital first and pulls aside the doctor she works for and explains, completely deadpanned, that the other girl who lives with them is a witch from a different dimension but there's no other place to take her.

Luz is in the hallway with Amity, and is completely shutting down. She is barely holding it together. She knows it's bad because she's only ever seen her mom like this once. And that was when Luz got deathly ill with the flu one year. Amity is barely conscious so there's no need for Luz to be brave.

Luz is alone and terrified. She's spiraling.

The doctor, having worked with and been taken care of by Camilla for years agrees in a heartbeat to not only treat Amity but to make sure the entire treatment is confidential. They get the xray's back and its serious. The broken bone has cut a major vein inside Amity's shoulder. She's bleeding out. They don't have time to worry about the different make up. They rush her into surgery and Camilla needs to be a part of it.

Luz is alone. Waiting.

She knows there's a chance Amity... is just not coming back.

She knows there's a chance of losing her.

And Luz completely shuts down.

During this time, the team secretly tracks down where the family went. As soon as someone pulls it up on their phone, they ditch all of their equipment and leave immediately, mid-match, much to the other's teams confusion.

They crash into the hospital, rushing past the nurses and security trying to stop them. They find Luz out in the hallway from the surgery room, and she's fully awake, but she's unresponsive. They can't get an answer out of her. So they sit there with her. Completely silent. Waiting.

The staff eventually catches up with the teens, but where they expect to find a bunch of rowdy teenagers, instead they find deathly quiet kids, all quiet in fear, they know there was warning put out to all the staff about privacy regarding this emergency surgery. So they buzz off and leave the teens be.

Nobody speaks a word, nobody moves a muscle until Camilla pokes her head out of the room, a couple of hours later. The team all become responsive and alert but Luz doesn't budge.

Camilla understands immediately. Knowing too many people will be overwhelming for Amity while she recovers she beckons Luz in first.

Luz, moves slowly, like a zombie. The team being extremely concerned about both girls but they have each other.

Amity is awake when Luz comes in.

Luz stiffly walks over to her and Amity knows something's wrong. Something broke her girlfriend.

"So. This is where your mother works right? It's so much more clean then the hospitals in the Isles." Amity points out, completely seriously.

Luz cracks. She is so incredibly relieved that she sobs, with a massive smile on her face.

"That's... that's not good Amity!"

It breaks both of the girls and they both laugh and cry as they have a soft moment. Luz updates her on everything that happened after she fell unconscious.

Camilla on the other hand is informing Eda and Lilith what has happened. Some members of the team leave the hallways to find some food and overhear their conversation. Specifically the frequent use of the word: Witch.

***

The next couple of days are spent with Amity being laid up in bed at home, with Luz absolutely spoiling her and fussing over her to the point of annoyance.

King, Eda and Lilith all go to the human realm to check up on their Blight child the night of the injury, Eda and Lilith are concerned but they also know Camilla has an absolute handle on the situation. They trust her to take care of Amity and promise to visit daily until she's better, warning the poor witch that they'll be telling the twins and Willow and Gus first thing in the morning. (Which was a whole thing) King... dallies at the portal to go home that night. Luz picks up on the little guy's worry immediately and knows he won't just admit to wanting to stay with the girls.

So she insists on stealing him for the night, for therapy of course and King takes the hint and runs with it. Insisting that his subjects NEED him.

This makes Luz feel much better because Camilla insists that Luz cannot miss classes despite her girlfriend being bedridden. So she entrusts King to take care of Amity. Which is a relief to King and Amity, because Amity is kinda tired of being babied and King isn't one to baby. He'll take care of her, but they mostly just chill out together and complain. King curling up on Amity's stomach while they both rest.

Meanwhile the team is concerned as well. They discuss the idea of Luz at first being the witch the mother was talking about, because it just kinda fits with her being quirky and an outsider to most everyone else.

So they confront her on it one day when they go to check on Amity, as she's walking them out.

Luz. Finds. This. Hilarious.

She loves it and is so incredibly excited because 1. They know now. And 2. They aren't afraid!! They aren't mad, just worried as to why the girls would keep it a secret.

However they got something wrong. And that's who the biological witch is. Luz points out the teeth and the ears and it suddenly clicks.

Amity is a witch.

Cue that night, Luz getting chewed out by Amity for telling them, but the girls both really giddy that they now have another place they don't have to hide in. They make a plan to have a serious discussion with the team about the need for secrecy.

But more angst. Back to the days immediately following the injury, Camilla comes in one night while Luz is visiting Eda and Amity is alone.

She has a serious talk with Amity about the danger she was in, and just how hurt she had gotten. Camilla wants to be honest and straightforward with her. Amity could've died that night. She brings up the idea that maybe the witch may want to reconsider her decision to continue next year. Just that Camilla will never stop worrying about her. Its soft and gentle and Camilla really is just concerned about her.  

Amity is quiet that night when Luz comes home. (She can't spend the night anywhere without her girlfriend, no matter how much she loves Eda) Quieter then Luz has seen her in a long time.

It worries Luz, but she just holds her girlfriend extra tight, knowing that Amity will talk to her when she's ready. That's their agreement.

The next day, Amity tells Luz she is quitting Hockey.

The witch is in tears and its incredibly obvious that she doesn't actually want to quit the sport. Luz begs her to explain and Amity breaks down and tells her that its her fault, and that she's been so selfish to worry Camilla like this. That she needs to quit. She fucked up. She got hurt and it made Camilla, Luz and everyone so incredibly worried.

Her toxic upbringing is coming back, the damage her parents did on her not quite leaving, Amity truly believes that she has deeply upset and offended Camilla and then that worry stetches into her team and Luz. That she needs to correct the problem that she made for other people.

Luz takes her by the shoulders, very seriously and tells her that Camilla loves her. Unconditionally. That worry comes not from a place of inconvenience, but out of care. That her mother would be 100x more upset if Amity sacrificed something she cared about, just to make Camilla feel more comfortable.

Luz admits to worrying about losing her, but she also gushes about just how HAPPY hockey has made Amity and how she loves seeing that happiness on Amity.

How incredible it looks on her.

Luz then proceeds to get Willow and Gus to come crashing through the portal to which they explain, Gus methodically and scientifically, and Willow from the heart, that Amity is doing wonderful and its clear that she is enjoying herself.

They original squad all have a night of support for Amity. Because that's just what a family does. Camilla overhears most of what Amity fears and let's her daughter and her friends handle it. Though she feels awful about how she made the girl feel like that worry was because Amity did something wrong. She takes a field trip to the demon dimension to talk with Lilith and Eda who explain that she's doing wonderfully. That not every parent is perfect or can be. They tell her everything that night about Amity's parents. Most of which Camilla has pieced together from the time Amity had been living with her, but alot of it is still shocking. Horrifying.

Its a night of healing and learning all around.

[mdhwrites]

If you really don't like Amity having bad parents being a reason why she became antagonistic initially, what do you think would've been a better reason for why she acted the way she did initially? After all, no one is born mean.

So first: Sometimes kids are just mean. Not everyone comes from a broken family or has some sort of trauma that caused them to be an asshole. My twin brother is a narcissistic, abusive dick while my sister is incredibly selfless and caring and SHE is the one who has gone through real abuse and a failed marriage while my brother's biggest whine to make is... Honestly not much. Hell, I don't have some big trauma to explain why I have depression. I just hit adulthood and my brain's reaction to the stresses and changes was to shatter like glass. Humans are complicated like that

BUT to be fair, in a narrative no one needs to be evil just for the sake of evil. It's part of why Belos is boring. Even with Sasha, she's made more interesting by the fact that she doesn't think she's in the wrong for two entire seasons. So what could have been a better reason for Amity to be antagonistic?

Easy: The reason they gave in Covention and then expanded on in Lost in Language. It's actually the Willow stuff, the stuff that is more tied into her parents, that sucks way harder for Amity's character. Amity, early on, is an overachiever who deeply cares about her craft and takes things very seriously. That is just generally opposed to who Luz is in general. The fact that Luz wants to be a witch when there should be no way for that to be possible, made worse by how Luz treats it like something that should be fun. The fact that Luz is constantly messing around while she's working herself into an aneurysm. These are very natural conflicts that could have been explored more by the show but they made a severe mistake.

They made Amity an over the top, practically OOC, villain when she first shows and they show this by having her bully Willow and say this is what she normally does. The problem for Amity is that now she NEEDS an explanation to be such a bitch. It's not something a little understanding can deal with because it's not friction that causes her to be mean or standoffish, it's that she just straight up enjoys torturing this one girl. And mind you: It was still her choice because she only had to stop being friends with Willow. She didn't have to target her for extra bullying as we see is the present status quote.

It's also bad for Luz. Part of why I don't buy that she's some tortured outcast who has been mistreated is because she doesn't blink when it comes to Amity. One moment of cuteness and Luz is immediately going "Let's live out my fantasy and befriend her!" despite Amity being the absolute epitome of the sort of girl who supposedly would have made Luz's life hell back home. By the end of Lost in Language though, their third major episode together, they're effectively friends.

Honestly, with how little of characters Gus and Willow are, mostly serving to let Luz into Hexide and closer to Amity, alongside the fact that Dana herself said she wanted a queer romance as fast as possible... I just wouldn't have given them an antagonistic relationship. Bare minimum, not enemies to lovers (not that the show really tries that hard). Their personalities are enough to make an interesting, classic dynamic without making them hate each other at first.

Honestly, if I were to try to suggest a rewrite: Make it so that Covention is the third episode, Luz forces Eda to take her there because she sees a sign and tortures Eda like in the episode, Gus and Willow don't do anything besides exposition and introduce the concept anyways and then have the episode go the way it was originally but instead of it being because she's comically evil that she steps on King's cupcake, have it be for King's actual personality. She doesn't like the freeloader who she sees as mooching off of things and so stomps his cupcake. Gets across her serious attitude and that she is a pretty severe person. Luz makes her challenge, they have their duel where Luz finds out about Eda's sister and Amity being Lilith's pupil and after their heart to heart (because Luz in S1 had no reason to chase Amity in Covention anyways besides empathy for a crying girl), Luz gets an idea: She's going to befriend Amity and in the process, mend the rift between Lilith and Eda. This gives an actual plot purpose to getting closer to Amity.

Then you don't have the episodes wasted on Gus and Willow, nor the episodes wasted apologizing for Amity's behavior but instead can focus on Luz breaking into Hexide to say Amity. While Amity doesn't like the methods, she appreciates hard and dedication and doing it so as to be nice to her? That... That touches her and she's willing to see what the human does, especially if maybe she can learn some of that glyph magic to supplement her own? Make her a better witch too achieve her own goals?

And as they grow closer, it becomes less transactional. Grom can still happen like it did with Amity expecting Luz to want something for helping but nope! It's just because Luz is nice. And then for the finale, Luz doesn't have to be alone in her heist because while it puts her future in jeopardy, Luz has taught Amity enough about being a good person and doing the right thing that while she'll still want a disguise, she'll come with to try and save Eda's life. An act of early rebellion against what she believed in, the morals taught to her, so as to be able to properly show she's changing to not just blindly accept the EC as the best option. This also allows for the betrayal of Lilith to mean more to Amity if their mentor and student relationship has meant more to the series. Suddenly, her dance with anarchy becomes more fervent because her teacher, the one she saw as the best proof of how great the EC is, was lied to and tricked by the Emperor and now against the coven.

And for S2, if her parents aren't the main pressures on her, if it's just because she's a kid who cares about success, you don't need Escaping Expulsion and can spend half of that episode and the entirety of Looking Glass Ruins exploring Amity trying to figure out rebellion, potentially not wanting to put Luz at risk after she almost died in the S1 finale, but justifying it as her always doing things on her own. They have a big adventure climax against Belos that's also exploring rebel Luz and afterwards, Amity gives Luz a peck on the cheek for always being there. Always helping her figure things out when she'd be too stubborn to see clearly herself. Then go into Knock Knock Knocking with little changed if you want to keep that moment of them getting together the same.

It's not a perfect outline but it's what I came up with while writing this. And if you're thinking this is too much time spent on Amity, you need to remember that she already consumes a third of Luz's time during episodes in S1 and 2. Sure, TOH claims to not be a romance but then the original way it's written is unjustified because Amity already has more time dedicated to her as a pure romance without ANYTHING to do with the plot and barely anything to do with the themes at best.

But I will also admit that this is with hindsight and a more indulgent rewrite than I normally allow myself to. After all, I removed two entire characters for this. Characters that hardly matter to TOH anyways but if I was really trying to keep to it, I wouldn't get rid of them. The deck is stacked in my deck regardless to make it 'better' and that's not fair to the show.

But I hope that my point stands clear that Amity didn't need to be a real villain, even if only for an episode. She could have been a light antagonist, if she even needed to be that. Nothing is really gained by it in the grand scheme of TOH besides the Twitter posts who make shallow claims on her arc by using the angry face in episode 3 versus her smiling with purple hair and going "Can you believe this is the same person?"

And my response every time because of how shallow her villainy is, which makes her arc shallow, is why should I care? Because blaming her parents doesn't make me care.

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

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.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[rohad93]

Moonlit Masquerade: Read all about it! Pt 1

Part 10 of the Moonlit Masquerade Series

Enjoy

It's a normal Monday after school following the fall break, and Luz is still sitting in the potions classroom after the bell.

The rest of the class had already left, but her teacher wanted to speak to her.

So Luz sits, long after the bell has screamed, waiting for her potions professor to come back, she had to run a quick errand, but she wanted to speak to Luz before she left for the day.

She's nervous. She can only assume this is about the test they had today. Luz had been pretty confident in her performance, she thought she did really well, nothing exploded and all her potions came out perfect, or at least she thought so, so she can't imagine what the professor wants to speak to her about.

She taps her foot nervously on the floor as the seconds' tick by. She knows Amity is waiting for her, but considering what a fanatic her girlfriend is when it comes to grades she would probably excuse her delay to talk to the teacher.

She waits about twenty minutes before her professor finally returns.

"Forgive the delay, Miss. Noceda, I had something urgent to take care of. Now, I'm sure you're wondering why I wished to speak with you, yes?"

"Yes, ma'am." Luz nods and gulps. The professor seems to catch on to her worry and smiles.

"No need to look so grim," she laughs. "I wanted to tell you that you scored perfectly on our test today," she says, and Luz blinks for a second before brightening.

"Really?" She holds her hands up to her mouth, but they can't hide the bright grin that splits her face.

"Really, your potions were exemplary, the highest quality I've seen in some time." The older witch holds her hands behind her back and nods.

Luz can't help but squeal at that. She tries to give her all to her many tracks, but some come more easily than others. She still struggles with abominations due to the nature of their summoning, illusions, and plants can be tricky too, but the rest of her courses go fairly well the majority of the time, but she seems to excel at beast keeping and potions. So, while most of her classmates abhor Mondays, they're one of Luz's favorite days of the week, a close second only to Tuesday, because while she may not be great at abomination magic, it's still the one day of the week she has class with Amity, which edges out the accomplished feeling she has at the end of her Monday classes.

"Yes!" she cheers, jumping up, and her teacher chuckles.

"Yes, indeed. Actually, what I really wished to tell you was that your performance over the last few months has been a steady upward climb since the explosion you caused during your first week in my classes," she goes on and Luz chuckles awkwardly at that.

No one was going to forget that little incident with the rash potion gone wrong it seemed.  

"In fact, in past weeks, you have worked yourself up to being the top student in the track, despite you only having potions one day a week." She lifts a hand making a spell circle appear, and a small gold star poof's its way to the front of Luz’s uniform. The words 'top student' spelled out across it.

Luz is stunned by that. For once in a handful of times in her life, she's stunned speechless. She always did fairly well in school back in the human world, but she was never exactly going to be the valedictorian. She knows at the magic schools, it's a coveted thing, to be at the top of your track. She never thought too much about it, she just wanted to study magic, she certainly hadn't been aspiring to reach the top of any of her classes; she never even considered it possible. A lot of her friends were at the top of their tracks, Amity was the top student of the abominations track and Willow in plants, and the twins in illusions.

Now she was the top student in potions?

"I… I'm the top student in potions, me?" She points at herself disbelievingly.

Her teacher nods.

"Yes, you, Miss Noceda. I have few students who work as diligently in my class as you. You should be very proud." She smiles.

"I… I am! Thank you." Luz beams proudly, vibrating with energy. Some days it feels like she'll never be a real witch, but today? Today she knows she is.

She's the top student in the potions track, Luz Noceda, human witch!

She doesn't think she's ever felt so accomplished. Now she somewhat understands why Amity went bananas about her top student star the day they met.

Her teacher nods.

"Yes, in fact, I was hoping I might be able to convince you to switch solely into the potions track. You would learn so much more if you were in my class all week as opposed to just Mondays," she says.

"Oh…," Luz says, frowning. Her teacher is right of course, if she focused on one track she would probably do even better. She really likes all her other classes too though. If she switched into potions from multitrack, she wouldn't have plants with Willow, illusions with Gus, or abominations with Amity anymore.

She chews her lips.

Her professor seems to catch on to her reluctance.

"It's not a decision you would need to make now, or anytime soon, of course. I'd just like you to know that the offer is always open, you would excel even more if you exclusively studied potions, but so long as you remain diligent in class, one day a week seems to be sufficient," she says and Luz is smiling again.

"Of course, thank you." She nods.

"Have a good day, Miss. Noceda," she dismisses and Luz grabs her bag and runs out of the classroom, dashing down the halls with a wide grin.

She has to tell Amity!

She hurries down the front steps and finds her girlfriend's waiting just to the side of them, out in the open. School has been over for about half an hour, so the courtyard is deserted.

"Luz, what took you so long?" she asks, blinking, she can practically see the roiling energy coming off her.

"My potions teacher wanted to talk to me! I'm the top student in the potions track!" She gushes proudly, pointing at her star badge, and Amity gasps.

"Luz, that's great!" She smiles, jumping to hug her. Luz is grinning hard and wraps her arms around Amity's waist, lifting her off the ground, they both laugh as she spins them around in dizzying, gleeful circles.

Luz finally sets her down and they're both still grinning madly.

Amity knows better than anyone how Luz struggles with feeling like she belongs, like her struggles are worth it, like she's a real witch making progress, and she can tell how happy she is.

She can't help herself and grabs Luz’s cheeks, pressing a heartfelt kiss to her girlfriend's lips.

"I'm so proud of you, Luz," she says, pressing her forehead against hers. She can see the surprise in those bright, chocolate-colored eyes.

As though she hadn't been happy before, those words make Luz's heart swell, and then she leans in to kiss Amity again, making the green-haired girl giggle against her mouth. She's just so excited and the energy rubs off on the other girl easily. If Luz is happy, so is she.

"Thanks… I can't wait to tell Willow and Gus! You guys are at the top of your tracks, now I am too! I'm a witch too!" She bounced excitedly on her toes and Amity smiled at her.

"You were already a witch, querida," she says and Luz just grins, and no one's sure who leans in again first, but then they’re kissing again before finally heading around the building to the portal glyph, giggling.

~

"Mom!" Luz shouts as she practically kicks the door open to the owl house.

Lilith and Eda are sitting on the couch with King when she bursts through the door. They all jump up when it slams open.

"What, what is it? What's on fire? Who died, do I need to hide a body?!" Eda shouts, but then Luz is in front of her, jumping up and down excitedly and grabbing hold of the front of her dress.

"I did it, me!" she shouts.

Eda blinks at her, trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

"What, what did you do?" She puts her hands on Luz's shoulders to stop the bouncing, the kid is making her dizzy.

"I'm the top student in the potions track!" She grins brightly up at her, and Eda's eyes zero in on the little gold star pinned to her kid's chest.

"Congratulations, Luz!" Lilith is the first to catch on and smiles at the girl.

Luz beams at her before turning back to Eda.

Eda still has mixed feelings about school as a whole, but the fact that it's her kid, her inherently magicless kid, who is top of one of the tracks, beating out all the other kids, born with magic, makes her chest swell with pride.

"Hey, that's great, Luz!" she says and Luz's grin doubles as she throws herself at Eda in a hug, who squeezes her back. King wraps himself around one of her legs too.

"We should celebrate!" Eda declares. "It's not every day you beat out all those other little snot-nosed brats," she says. Lilith rolls her eyes at that but agrees to the first half of the sentiment.

"I believe we have some gorgon fruit in the kitchen…," she trails off and Luz gasps.

"Amity's Tostones?" She looks up at them, starry-eyed and Eda chuckles. She'd had to nearly bribe the youngest Blight to get her recipe for Luz. She had been very reluctant to part with it, but even Amity Blight had her price.

"Tostones!" She says.

"Tostones!" King shouts, and he and Luz race into the kitchen.

~ Luz couldn't be happier as she walks to school Tuesday morning.

She is the top student in the potions track and she has class with Amity today. Could it be a better day?

She happily kicks at the crunchy, wilted leaves on her path to school. It's cold today and her cheeks feel numb, but no measly cold weather can bring her down today!

When she gets to school Gus and Willow are waiting out front, but her girlfriend is nowhere in sight. It's still quite early, and few students have arrived yet, but it's weird Amity isn't there yet.

"Hey, guys." She grins and waves as she runs up to them. "Notice anything different about me today?" She asks with a grin, puffing out her chest where her top student badge is displayed.

Gus hums, tapping a finger to his chin as he looks at her with squinted eyes.

"Did you get a haircut?" he asks.

"Uh, no…," she says, Willow notices the little badge immediately though and gasps.

"You got a top student badge!" She shouts and Gus sees it and gasps, slapping both his hands to his cheeks and Luz grins brightly.

"In which track?!" he asks.

"Potions," she says.

"Congratulations!" Her friends grab her and squeeze, and Luz laughs, hugging them back.

"What's with all the hugging, should we be hugging you too?" A voice startles them apart and they turn to see the Blight twins walking up to them.

"Oh, hey Ed, Em," Luz greets the twins.

"We were just congratulating Luz on making top student in the potions track," Willow tells them.

"Hey, congrats!" Ed high fives her.

"Yeah, nice!" Emira smiles.

"Thanks, what are you guys doing here? You're not usually here this early."

"We are mere emissaries, come bearing a message for our fair sisters' lady love." Edric bows dramatically and Emira rolls her eyes.

"Amity is at home, she has a cold, she wanted us to let you know so you wouldn't worry," Emira says and Edric pouts.

"You're no fun," he mumbles.

"Aw, it's Tuesday too… well, I'll call her later," Luz says. The twins' smile and nod.

"Guess we might as well head in then," Gus says and she nods they head inside with the twins.

They don't get more than a few feet into the main hall when they see all the posters posted up on the walls.

"Something going on?" Luz blinks, these weren't here yesterday after school.

Ed walks to the nearest one and pulls it off the wall and looks at it. His eyes blow wide and his mouth drops open in absolute horror.

"What, are they auctioning off another teacher?" Emira asks, looking at it over his shoulder, and any words she was about to say die in her throat, both twins have gone pale and they look up at Luz. The three underclassmen are worried now.

"What, what is it?" Luz grabs the paper from Ed's limp grip. Willow and Gus crowd in to look over her shoulder.

Luz thinks her heart has stopped, and her blood is like ice in her veins, chilling her to the core.

Plastered front and center on the poster is a picture of her.

Her and Amity, kissing next to the stairs yesterday after school.

The letters, in big, bold, black calligraphy letters read simply: 'HUMAN KISSER'

Her hand is shaking and her head whips up to really look at the posters on the walls, and the same poster is pasted everywhere, on the lockers and every wall.

Willow and Gus stare at the paper for a long time before turning to Luz who looks like a ghost, and they're not even sure she's breathing, except her whole body is trembling.

"They're everywhere!" Edric is the first to speak, eyes darting wildly across the hall at the papers.

"Luz…," Willow says, shocking her out of her stupor. It takes a moment to make her tongue form words.

"Pull them down…," she croaks.

"What?" Gus asks.

"Pull them down, pull them all down!" she screams, taking off at a run and ripping down any poster in her reach as she goes.

The twins jerk and look at each other, nodding before twirling their fingers and several clones pop into existence, and they take off running, ripping down the posters as quickly as they can.

Gus and Willow follow, running up and down the halls of the building. There are literally hundreds of the things pasted to every surface. Vines and clones of the younger illusion student rip down the halls, grabbing them as quickly as they can.

Emira rips several posters down from the stables near the beast keeping track and runs right by her girlfriend and her other two multitrack friends.

"Em?" Viney blinks as her girlfriend runs by with a look of panic etched into her face, but Emira doesn't have the time and tosses one of the posters to Viney as she runs by.

"Take them down!" she shouts as she shoots down another hall.

Viney looks at the poster, Jerbo, and Barkus lean in to look and their eyes go wide. Viney looks up, panicked.

"Guys, run, pull down any of these you see!" She yells as she takes off down another hall and starts ripping the posters down as she goes. The other two multitrackers nod and take off in opposite directions.

"They're fucking everywhere!" Edric shouts as he runs past his sister.

They are, the posters are pasted to every surface from the main halls to the beast keeping stables all the way to the greenhouse and the grudgby field.

They all dash madly across campus, pulling down as many as they can.

Eventually, more students start to come in and see the posters, they just can't get to them all in time.

The whispering starts quickly, and it won't take long before the whole school knows about Luz and Amity.

They meet back out in front of the school where they find the human sitting on the front steps, a pile of crumpled posters at her feet, and her head buried in her hands, her shoulders are shaking.

Gus and Willow don't know what to say as they look down at their friend sadly, and the twins only frown, clutching the posters in their hands. Viney clenches a shaking fist. Jerbo and Barkus are trustworthy, and she had already told them about her girlfriend and their friends' secret girlfriend. They feel for their younger fellow multitrack student, they know from Viney's relationship with Emira just what this means. They stand around looking awkwardly at each other, hoping someone will say something.

No one knows what to say to Luz.

"Morning, losers."

All of them except Luz look up at Boscha, standing in front of the steps and smiling at them.

"Go away, Boscha." Willow spits, none of them are in the mood for the school's resident bully.

"And miss out on this? In your dreams. Where's Amity, she already run home crying?" She asks looking around. "Guess she didn't like my surprise." She grins.

Luz's head snaps up at that, tears are running silently down her cheeks.

"You did this?" Her voice is barely above a whisper.

"Why?!" Gus shouts. Boscha rolled her eyes.

"Pfft, Amity thinks she's all that, well it was time to teach her a lesson, bring her down a peg or two," she flips a lock of hair over her shoulder.

Edric and Emira both snarl at the younger girl, lips pulled back over fangs. Willow and Gus shake with rage.

"So when I saw that sickening display in the courtyard after school yesterday, I figured this was perfect. I mean, her and the human?” She laughs, pointing at Luz. “Her reputation will never recover from this," she huffs with a smirk, and the bell chooses that moment to scream it's first warning. "Well, later losers."

She struts past them up and stairs toward the door.

Luz's heart is pounding in her ears and her breathing is quick and shallow.

Boscha did this…

Because of her, Amity's parents were going to know.

They're going to make it so she can never see her again.

The one person she loves more than anything...

She shoots to her feet and with a strangled scream, bolts up the stairs toward Boscha, who turns around to look with wide, fearful eyes at the human about to pounce on her.

Before Luz can reach her and start pummeling her face in, Gus and Willow tackle her.

"No, Luz, you can't fight at school!" Willow shouts.

"You just made top student, you'll lose it if you bash in her stupid face!" Gus yells.

Luz hears them, but she doesn't care, all she can see is red, and all she feels is the intense desire to make Boscha hurt as much as she is right now.

"I don't care, let me go!" she snarls, thrashing against their hold and almost breaks free until Viney and the other multi trackers grab hold of her.

Boscha sneers at her but quickly retreats into the school when the twins take a menacing step forward.

When she's gone, all the anger seems to drain out of Luz, and she slumps to her knees on the stairs, feeling lifeless as tears drip from the corners of her eyes. Gus and Willow hold her tightly.

Her friends huddle around her, not saying anything for a long while till she's quieted. The bell has long since started class.

"I have to tell Amity…," she finally sniffles. "Before she sees it on penstagram or something stupid like that," she bites.

The twins glanced at each other before turning to her.

"We'll take you to the house, right now," Emira says and Edric nods

Luz nods, wiping at her eyes with the back of her arm.

"Do you want us to go with you?" Willow asks quietly. Luz shakes her head and reaches down to pick up one of the scattered posters.

"I need to do this alone… and I don't know how Amity is going to react." That's a bald-faced lie and she knows it, they all do.  She knows exactly how her girlfriend is going to react to this, and all their friends don't need to be there to see it.

"We'll burn these." Viney gestures to the piles of posters they've collected.

Luz nods before pulling away and runs down the steps without another word with the twins on her heels. She zips around the side of the school to her portal glyph and holds her hands to it, thinking intently of the front yard of Blight manner and it blazes to life.

When they step through, they're standing on the front steps of Blight Manor and the twins let her in.

The house is quiet and empty, with their parents at work and Amity upstairs in her room in bed.

They walk up the stairs to her room and stop outside the closed door. Luz swallows thickly. She feels heavy, every step feels harder than the last.

She lets out a shuddering sigh and reaches up to knock, but stops.

This feels like a death sentence… she wants so badly to just turn and run, hoping that if she never tells her that Amity won't know, but she knows that the whole school probably knows by now, that Boscha has made sure of it and her parents will know soon after. She can’t let her be blindsided by it, nor let her find out from someone tagging her on their penstagram. No, Luz has to be the one to tell her, and maybe, just maybe, she can mitigate some of the damage.

The twins stand behind her saying nothing. They’re in no rush to go in there and break this news to their sister. They dread it as much as Luz. So, if she needs a minute or two they're not going to say anything. They hear a sneeze from behind the door that makes Luz jolt back into the present.

"Just… let me be the one to talk to her, okay?" she asks, voice thick and low, still staring at the unopened door.

"Yeah,"

"Okay," the twins say quietly.

Luz takes a breath and does her best to pull herself together. She has to be strong for Amity, no matter how much she wants to break down herself; one of them has to hold it together right now.

She knocks and there's a pause before a voice answers back.

"Yes?" comes the uncertain call.

"It's us, Mittens…," Emira says.

"Come in." Luz opens the door and sees Amity sitting in her bed with a box of tissues.

She sees the three of them and looks surprised.

"Luz! What are you doing here?" She moves to get up but Luz holds up a hand, halting her as she walks into the room. The twins stay outside the door, in the hall. They want to give them their privacy but want to be nearby if they need them.

"I… something happened at school this morning…," she says quietly and then Amity really looks at her, she looks worried and her eyes are red like she's been crying.

"What happened, are you okay?!" She sits up straighter.

"I… no… not really…," she admits, walking over and sitting gently on the bed next to her, clutching the poster in one of her hands, the way she’s looking at her, so solemn and serious is very unlike her and it makes a pit of worry yawn open in Amity’s gut.

"You're scaring me…" Amity frowns, for Luz to skip school and come here of all places is very worrying. She glances between her sullen girlfriend and the twins lingering in the doorway, both frowning and looking somber too. "What is it?" she asks quietly, reaching out to lay a hand over one of Luz’s. She turns her hand over and laces their fingers together.

Luz sighs silently and straightens up, looking at her, brown locking onto worried gold. She has to rip off the bandaid, nothing she could say will soften this.

"Boscha saw us yesterday, in the courtyard after school…," she finally says, and Amity's eyes blow wide, she knows exactly what Luz means and panic immediately starts to boil inside her.

"What?" Her voice is barely above a whisper and Luz bites her lip, but nods.

"W-who did she tell?!" She finally finds her voice and Luz winces and licks her dry lips, looking at the paper in her hand.

"....everyone." She holds the paper out to Amity, who takes it in trembling hands. Gold eyes grow wider as she reads it and stares at the large, full-color photo of the two of them, kissing by the stairs in front of the school. "These were posted all over the school this morning…"

They all wait on bated breath as Amity stares at it, they're not really sure what kind of reaction they're waiting for, but the waiting is killing Luz, her body tense and on edge.

Amity feels numb, her mind is racing, still trying to process this. Boscha knows, she told the whole school…

Her parents were going to know…

They would force them apart just like with Willow… she was going to lose Luz.

That thought hits her like a swift kick in the gut.

Amity's breathing is shallow and her hands are shaking as it comes out in quicker and quicker breaths, and her vision starts to blur, Luz can feel her quaking and watches the tears quickly welling up in her eyes.

Suddenly she can't breathe fast enough to actually take in air and cry at the same time. She clutches the paper tightly and her grip on Luz is vice-like, while her heart beats a hundred miles a minute. All she can hear is the blood pounding in her ears as the paper crunches in her fist and her breath sticks to her throat.

"Amity? Amity!" Luz calls, but she doesn't seem to hear over her shuddering cries and choking breaths.

"Shit…," Edric hisses and moves to go into the room, but Emira pulls him back by the arm.

"Don’t… not yet…," his sister whispers, and Edric grits his teeth but waits.

Luz pulls her hand free and scrambles into the bed behind Amity and wraps her arms loosely around her shaking form as she struggles for breath.

"Hey, hey, It's okay," she says quietly as Amity chokes on a sob. Between crying and her already clogged sinuses from her cold, there's just not enough air. Luz figures out quickly what’s going on, she’d been tested for ADD and anxiety before, and she’s long known that her girlfriend definitely has the later and is now hyperventilating.

“Can you hear me?” she asks, and Amity nods shakingly and her tears only seem to intensify. Could she breathe, Luz is sure she’d be wailing.

Somewhere in the back of her mind Luz remembers a medical lecture she’d been forced to attend with her mom once as a kid, and one thing they had talked about was hyperventilating, she hadn’t even really been paying attention, but for some reason, she remembers the parts about how to help it.

Luz grabs her hands and forces them up to cup over her mouth, Amity’s whole body is a coiled muscle, tense, as she tries to breathe and cry all at once and accomplishing neither except short, gasping sobs. The twins are twitching with anxiety in the doorway, they want to run in and do something, but they don’t even know what.

“Breathe, Amity, slowly, please,” she says quietly against her neck. Amity manages to suck in half a breath before another cry cuts it short. “Again, slowly.” Luz prods her gently. The warm breath against her neck and the arms wrapped around her help ground her and she tries to take another breath, even though all she wants to do is sob.

It takes twenty long minutes before Amity can regulate her breathing again, the sobs and gasping quiet, but tears continue to fall as she lays, exhausted against Luz, clutching her hands tightly in hers and sniffling. Once it looks like Luz has everything handled the twins quietly wander away.

“Call if you need anything…,” Edric tells them quietly before they head elsewhere in the house, shutting the door behind them.

“It’s going to be okay, mi amor.” Luz squeezes the smaller hand in her tightly, face buried in her neck, and Amity hiccups.

“How?” she chokes, voice scratchy. “Everyone knows…my parents are going to find out...” she clenches her eyes shut and more tears stream down her cheeks. Luz just holds her tightly, nuzzling her face against her and Amity leans into the touch, trying to get as close as possible.

“We’ll figure it out… we always do…,” she says quietly.

They don’t speak much, just stay like they are, wrapped up in each other for hours, Luz occasionally handing her tissues, for her tears and her snotty nose; what a miserable day to have a cold. What a miserable day in general.

Emira pops her head in around lunchtime to ask if they’re hungry and they both shake their heads and she just nods and leaves them.

Luz doesn’t leave until Amity mumbles that her parents will be home soon and she really needs to go, even as she clings to her tightly. She’s right, the last thing they need is for her parents to catch her here.

She slowly extracts herself from Amity, who finally, reluctantly, lets her go. Her limbs are stiff from laying in one place for so long. Luz lingers at the bedside for a minute and Amity wants so badly to kiss her, because who knows what tomorrow will bring and when she may ever have the chance again, but she has a cold.

Luz seems to know what she wants by the way she’s clenching and unclenching her hands into the blankets and looking up at her from beneath her lashes. She kneels halfway on the bed and leans in close, but Amity turns her head, albeit, reluctantly.

“I have a cold,” she reminds, frowning. Normally, Luz would agree with her, but today, she could not care less, if she catches it then so be it; she is not leaving until she kisses her girlfriend.

“I don’t care,” is the resolute reply.

Amity needs no further prompting than that to wrap her hands around the back of Luz’s head, fingers digging into her hair, and kiss her, this one is unlike the many that have come before. This one feels desperate in its intensity, because it is, and has a distinct saltiness to it that only tears can bring. Luz wraps her fingers around the back of Amity’s neck, holding her close and tight, neither wants to let go, but eventually, they have to. They don’t go far, foreheads pressed together gently and Luz can see tears again starting to well up in those golden irises she adores.

“We’ll figure it, I promise,” she says, pressing another, quicker kiss, against her lips. Amity looks unsure, so Luz goes on. “Even if I have to sneak in through that window every night,” she says, and for the first time that day, a smile cracks across Amity’s face.

“You would…,” she mumbles and Luz grinned.

“You know I would,” she agrees. “I’ll see you tomorrow?” If nothing else, Amity will still be at school. She nods, and Luz finally stands and goes to the door, she tells herself not to, but she can’t help but look back at Amity over her shoulder, and the absolutely heartbroken look that’s directed at her causes a stab of pain in her chest that is so visceral she barely stays standing, but she manages and pulls what little of herself is left together, for Amity, and smiles, waving, before she walks out, closing the door behind her.

The twins are in the living room when she walks down the stairs.

“Thanks for everything, guys. I’ll see you later,” she says and waves as she walks to the door.

“Luz” Edric’s voice stops her and both twins walk over. “If you need anything, let us know, okay?” he asks. Luz nods.

“Yeah, actually, if you could… keep an eye on her for me?” Luz asks.

“Of course.” Emira nods

“We always do.” Edric nods and they both smile sadly at her as she leaves. “What a mess…,” he grumbles bitterly once she’s gone, shoulders slumping.

Emira nods, crossing her arms, and glares at nothing, fingers digging into her arms.

“If that three-eyed bitch thinks we’re just going to let her walk away from this, she has another thing coming,” she sneers, lips pulling back over her fangs as she turns to him and Ed’s face darkens, mirroring the look.

“Oh, you got that right…,” he grits out.

~

The walk home is long and cold as Luz meanders along at a snail's pace. She feels heavy and exhausted, feet dragging as she heads home.

She almost lost it a few times today, but managed to pull herself together at the last second. Amity needed her to be strong, and by the grace of whatever power was out there, she managed, but now the events of the morning are catching up to her, coupled with the aftermath of her girlfriend's breakdown and that look; the one she'd seen over her shoulder.

She runs her tongue over her lip and swears she can still taste the salty sorrow of Amity’s kiss. She tries not to think of it as such, but it had felt so final, like a goodbye kiss.

Her eyes burn with unshed tears and her chest is tight, but not here, not in the middle of the dirt road that leads home.

She holds her cracked pieces together though, letting the cold mid-autumn air bite at her face, she barely feels it anyway.

Eventually, the owl house comes into view.

"Luz, you're home!" Hooty greets her brightly and it's grating in her ears.

"Hi Hooty…," she mumbles, pushing open the door. She closes it quietly behind her and stands there in the entryway. The house is warm and brightly lit. She can hear someone rummaging around in the kitchen.

"Hey, Luz!" King calls from the couch, sitting next to Lilith who smiles at her. "You're late!" He points an accusatory paw at her. "Where have you been, smooching your girlfriend?" He makes a disgusted face. Lilith seems to notice the tight look on her face and frowns.

"Are you all right, Luz?" she asks.

The pieces fall apart at last.

Her lip trembled and her vision swims with quickly pooling tears as her breath hitches in her chest. She chokes on it as they start to drip down her cheeks.

Her legs are weak and she drops to her knees inhaling a shaky breath that exhales as a loud, wailing cry. The damn breaks, and then she can't stop the loud, ugly sobs that wrack her body.

King stares wide-eyed and Lilith shoots to her feet, she doesn't even need to call out. There's a loud crash of shattering glass being dropped on the floor and then Eda is dashing out of the kitchen.

"Luz!" She hurries over, dropping to her knees in front of the sobbing girl. "What happened?!" Eda asks, panicked.

Luz can't even begin to form words, she only weeps harder, her whole body shuddering with every one of the heaving sobs that rips out of her throat. King and Lilith hurry over to kneel on the floor.

Eda finally just wraps her arms around her and sits on the floor, tugging the girl in close, arms curled tightly around her, and Luz buries her face in her chest and cries.

She cries for a long time.

[ordinaryschmuck]

Why I (Want To) Love Amphibia

Salutations random people on the internet who probably won't read this. I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons. If you've been paying attention to my posts, you would have known that I made a top twenty list of the best-animated series of the 2010s. And if you read my Honorable Mentions list, you would have known that I consider Amphibia one of those shows that, while I like it, I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's one of the best. Don't get me wrong. It's good. But there are issues that I have with Amphibia, and I can't recommend it without being hesitant. I still like it fine, but I doubt some people will be as forgiving as me. So I'm going to explain the quality and faults that the show has, while still being considerate to those who do love it. Because unlike some people who would make a two-hour-long video essay about how much they hate something, I can at least acknowledge that while something doesn't entirely work for me, that doesn't mean it won't work for everyone else. Because there is a reason why this show has such a following...I don't think it's earned, but I won't knock people down when they love something I find passable. And I hope that respect goes both ways as I explain why I (want to) love Amphibia.

Also, this review is going to contain spoilers for the entire series. So if you haven't checked it out yet, I recommend you do it to form your own opinion. Season one is on Disney+, and you're on your own for season two. And I suggest you find a legal way to watch it if you can, because I'm not going to leave a link to a pirating website filled with every animated series and movie you can find. And I'm definitely not going to insert that link into a random letter in this review with the thought that if you have to pirate something, then you might as well work for it. Because that would be crazy.

...

Stop being crazy.

....

Anywho, let's start with:

WHAT I LIKE

The Comedy: Let it be known that this show is funny. Like, really funny. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's funnier than Gravity Falls, which got me chuckling with every episode, but Amphibia definitely hits more than it misses. There are occasions when the jokes aren't really character-oriented and could be said by anybody in the Plantar Family, but if they're still funny, then who am I to complain. Although there is one issue that I have with the comedy. But I'll save that for when I talk about what I don't like. For now, I can assure you that if you're hoping for some laughs, Amphibia has plenty to offer.

Warnings Against Toxic Relationships: But even the best comedies know when to offer some substance. Because I won't lie, when Anne described what is clearly a toxic friendship in the second episode, I was hooked. I love it when kids shows breach topics that can be important for children down the line. And for the most part, I think Amphibia does it well. There are so many instances that the writers' point out the several red flags that a person should avoid when it comes to a friendship and when it's time to either cut that person from your life and stand up for yourself. One of my favorite episodes is "Prison Break," where Sasha explains how she manipulates people and shows zero remorse for it. Then there's the episode "The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers" that shows how a person's influence can affect others and how much it changes perception as Anne and Marcy still believe they need someone like Sasha in their lives...At least I hope that's what the intention is. Because if the writers are trying to say that Anne and Marcy really need someone like Sasha...Well, I'll save that for my dislikes. Because even though it could use a little polishing, warning kids about toxic relationships is what keeps me hooked into seeing what happens next in this series.

It’s Not Afraid to go Dark: On top of breaking borders with morals intended for kids, I just gotta respect a show for playing around with what's considered "too dark." Especially if that show is on the Disney Channel!

The writers are not afraid to imply that death happens in the world of Amphibia, primarily because it is like a swamp ecosystem filled with predators and food chains. And I feel like because the characters are mostly amphibians, the writers can get away with an entire cave filled with the bones of victims as long as they're not humans. But frogs? No one gives a crap about them. There's a reason they're the ones who get dissected in schools.

Plus, a good majority of the monsters that Anne and the Plantars face are pretty horrifying at times. The crew who work on the show do a great job balancing the line of making these creatures look scary, but never go too far that they'll scar kids for life. Except in the Halloween special...How the f**k did they get away with the monsters in the Halloween special? And while they don't ever show what these monsters do, the implications honestly make things much worse, which again, I kind of respect. It's good to have shows like Amphibia that can scare kids a little bit. Getting through something fictitiously dark helps make kids feel braver and prepare them for the real horrors in the world. Especially since most of these creatures are just exaggerated versions of real-life predators...google them.

The Season One Finale: It was "Reunion" that made me realize that Amphibia has the potential to be amazing...it's also the last episode of season one, so let that sink in.

Joking aside, I honestly do love this episode. It's funny, it brings in elements from other episodes, nearly everybody does something useful, and it all ends with a satisfying and equally gut-wrenching climax. A climax, by the way, that is so perfect that I'm going to do a scene breakdown for why it's so good...so, you know, add that to the to-do list (I have so much s**t to make -_-). "Reunion" has so many elements about what makes a season finale so good that I feel like future writers should take notes for their own series that they plan to make. While I wish every episode of Amphibia had this level of quality, the writers know that the last impression is one of the most important. Because I will defend this show if this is the episode people use to trash it.

Marcy: I will also defend this show if someone trashes Marcy. Trust me, the best way to tell that someone is just hating on Amphibia for little to no reason is if they utter the word, "Marcy is a bad character." That is not true. Marcy is a great character, and I'd go so far as to say she's the best character in the series. She's sweet, adorable, and has a story ten times more interesting than Anne's. Anne learns what a sincere relationship is like through the Plantars, where Marcy falls victim to another manipulative relationship through King Andreas. It's her co-dependency that has the chance to get fleshed out more, and I can't wait to see if she has a moment to break out and form her own path.

Also, in the mass expanse of the multiverse, there exists a world where Amphibia is about the adventures that Marcy had in Newtopia as she uses Dungeons and Dragons logic to get by. And I want to see that universe! Because this clumsy nerd is already a blast to watch with the briefest of cameos. Imagine how much fun she would be if she had her own series!

Sprig: I don't know how much love Sprig gets within the fandom, but I got a feeling that it's not enough. He's funny without being annoying (most of the time), there's a whole lot of heart and sincerity to his actions, and above all else, he's the best friend that Anne needed. When Anne explained her very flawed views about friendship in "Best Fronds," it is clear how essential someone like Sprig is as he teaches Anne what friendship really means. It means caring for each other, supporting each other, making equal sacrifices for one another, and just being on the same page as each other. It is genuinely sweet seeing their friendship bloom, and I honestly hope the Amphibia fandom gives Sprig the amount of appreciation he deserves. Sure, he can be annoying sometimes, but for the most part, he's easily up there as one of my favorite characters.

Wally: Same with Wally! Who would have guessed that a character who appears as an dumb source of comic relief has a level of depth and lovability to him? "Wally and Anne" shows that while he is a nonsensical goofball, he doesn't really care what the frogs of Wartwood think of him. What matters is what he thinks of him. And that is just an incredible lesson to teach kids that just makes me love Wally more. 

(It also helps that he's probably the funniest character in the show. I know I said that he's dumb, but when he works, he works.)

Kermit the Frog Cameo: ...It's Kermit the Frog, y'all. I physically can't hate him. Especially since this is the perfect show for him to make a cameo in!

WHAT I DON’T LIKE

Anne’s Character: I don't have a problem with Anne. I think she's a serviceable protagonist, and I love the fact that she's Thai, offering a form of Asian representation other than Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. But here's the problem with Anne: After a season and a half, I still don't know what her character is. If you were to ask me to describe a Disney show protagonist within one sentence, I could do it effortlessly. Watch:

Star Butterfly: An adrenaline junky of a warrior princess who slowly learns to be responsible with each passing season.

Luz Noceda: A generous nerd that obsesses about fantasy and fiction, who still understands when to take a step in reality when the moment calls for it.

Scrooge McDuck: An old Scottish miser who has the heart of adventure and is a duck that almost loves his family as he loves his money.

For Anne, I don't know where to start because her personality is so inconsistent. Sometimes she makes friends with others without even trying, and other times, she gets on others' nerves easily. Sometimes she's a thrillseeker with the heart of adventure, and other times, she's a person who prefers to hang back and avoid doing work. And sometimes she's the only sane character with logical advice, and other times she's the most insane character who needs advice. Now, you could argue that these are all character traits that make Anne multidimensional. But if you ask me, it seems like her personality is dependent on what the writers want her to be for the episode. Someone like Luz going back and forth between two traits only works if there is a dominant personality trait that takes over the other. If Luz spends an entire episode being angry and serious, it proves that there's more to her than just a character that's nerdy and optimistic. But it's clear she is still that lovable nerd by having her say a corny line like, "Talk to the glyphs, Witch!" But because Anne has so many personality traits, it's hard to tell which is the norm and what is out of character. Case in point: Having Anne obsess over hang-gliding in one episode and doing a puzzle in the next is off as neither correlates with each other. Nor do they tell me who Anne is, other than the fact that she's clearly a character lacking a singular identity. And seeing how she's the main character, the one audiences are supposed to root for and identify with, it's probably not a good thing.

The Story: For the record, I have no problems with the story itself...the way it's written, however...

First off, there's too much filler. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as filler episodes have the potential to be fun when written well. The problem is that relying on filler instead of telling your story can leave some people (me) uninterested and angry. And the thing is, there is a perfect way to avoid filler that doesn't involve telling the overarching narrative: Introduce personal plotlines. Look at The Owl House, for example. There are several character-oriented narrative threads that get introduced within the first few episodes. Such as Luz learning magic, Eda's curse, her relationship with Lilith, and Amity's redemption. Therefore, The Owl House avoids any filler episodes just as long as it focuses on any of these plotlines and even introduces new ones. Amphibia has the plotlines, but it rarely focuses on them. Especially since the story takes way too long to develop. 

Every time I think the show is finally going to start moving forward and we can continue the story, there are like ten more filler episodes where everything comes to a screeching halt. Now, to be fair, there is an explanation why we're forced to wait for the story to move forward, and it's because the characters are forced to wait as well. But, even then, there could have been better ways to pad out that waiting than just adding filler. For example, I may not have been forced into an alternate universe where nearly everything wants to kill me, but if I was, I WOULD SPEND EVERY WAKING MINUTE I HAVE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT A WAY BACK! In the first season, how many episodes does Anne spend trying to figure out the mystery of how she got there and how to go home? Two. There are two whole episodes, out of thirty-nine, where Anne tries to figure things out...That is insane to me. But to be fair, season two is doing a much better job at moving things along...but it doesn't change the fact that the writers are kind of bad at telling their own story.

There are two episodes, "Anne Vs. Wild" and "Lost in Newtopia," where the story continues, but it's only in the last few minutes. The problem is that if you take those endings out, the episodes themselves do not change a bit. BUT because those are significant and essential moments for the plot, you can't take them out. Resulting in scenes that, while intriguing, come across as awkward in the long run. So now, my question is why. Why is the story handled so poorly? And I have one theory.

It Feels Like the Writers Can’t Decide What they Want the Show to be: Sometimes it seems like Amphibia is written as a pure slice of life series like Big City Greens. However, there are times when the show seems like it's intended to mix slice of life with fantasy like Gravity Falls. Now here's the problem: Big City Greens and Gravity Falls are two very different shows in terms of storytelling, tone, and character work. Big City Greens is an episodic comedy series where character development is unimportant, and the adventures rarely go beyond just being wacky. As for Gravity Falls, it is a show that is semi-serialized where the character development is constant, and the fantasy-adventures are always prevalent in every episode. And there are several episodes of Amphibia that could be a part of either show. Episodes like "Stakeout," "Lily Pad Thai," and "Little Frog Town" have plots that I can see being in Big City Greens. Then there are episodes like "The Domino Effect," "Toad Tax," and "Marcy at the Gates" that I could see being in Gravity Falls. These two groups of episodes are vastly different from one another that it causes Amphibia to feel disjointed in the process. Usually, I'm a fan when a series mixes different genres together, but do you want to know why something like Gravity Falls does such a great job at mixing slice of life with fantasy-adventure? Because, as I said, fantasy-adventures are always present in every episode. "Dipper vs. Manliness," "Boss Mabel," and "Roadside Attraction" each have the most basic slice of life plots of the show, but there is always a fantasy element or a monster to fight. There are entire episodes of Amphibia where there is no monster, and even when there is, it doesn't have the same amount of tension and weight that the creatures in Gravity Falls have weekly. A show like Big City Greens doesn't have to worry about monsters or evil villains every week because it doesn't need to. It's a show about the wacky adventures of a family of farmers adjusting to city life. Why would they have to worry about a monster every week when they just have to worry about each other. If Amphibia was the same way then there would be no issue. But because if it wants to be a mix of slice of life with fantasy, then it does need to worry about a monster every week. I usually try to defend shows that try to play both sides, but this show has to be the one occasion where I have to say pick one or the other. Because the writers tried hard to be both, and personally, I don't think they did a good job.

Characters Don’t. Stop. SCREAMING!: It's here we move on from what's objectively wrong with Amphibia to the things that just bother me personally...and this is one of those things. I get it. An over-the-top reaction to something minimal can be funny on occasion...but it's never "on occasion" with this show. Nearly every episode has characters screaming to get a laugh, and most of the time, it's more annoying than it is funny. It's Hop Pop who does this the most, and I just feel so bad for Bill Farmer. That voice already seems like it's hard to do, so being forced to scream and yell with it for the sake of comedy can't do him any favors. Other shows, especially ones on the Disney Channel, have characters overreact for the sake of humor, but it's Amphibia that I feel like it relies on this the most. I'm sure some people aren't bothered by this, but I am, and this is my review, so I'm mentioning it.

Poly: Speaking of things that probably don't bother other people...I feel like I'm making some enemies with this one. Because, boy, do I not like Polly. Her voice is annoying, she mostly causes problems for the family, and to me, her entire character seems pointless. No, really. Think about it. Anne is the main character, Sprigs acts as her emotional support, and Hop Pop acts as the voice of reason. What's Polly's purpose? Because all she adds are unnecessary jokes, character traits that could have gone to anybody, and acting more as a plot device than an actual character. The only justification for her that I can think of is that she adds gender balance to the main cast. Which would be more than acceptable if there was a point to her existence. But I think it's pretty evident with her exclusion from the original pilot pitch for the program that Polly's personality is practically pointless...that is most likely the only alliteration I'll ever do for a review, so you have better appreciated it.

If you like Polly, then more power to you. For me, I just don't enjoy her.

Sasha: Oh, nelly. I can already see the hateful messages I'm gonna get from this.

Now, as a character, I actually do like Sasha. I think her personality is interesting enough to dissect, and I think she acts as a perfect antagonist to Anne, the Plantars, and even Marcy if you want to get into it. My problem relies on how much the fanbase is already jumping on the "Forgive Sasha" train. Because, "Aw, she's just like Catra and Amity! So sweet, tortured, shippable with the main character, and--" STOP IT! Stop it right now...and think. With Catra and Amity, you see the environment they grew up in, you feel the abuse they deal with, you understand the reasoning of their actions, and you come to forgive them for who they are...At least for Amity, you can. For Catra, it requires more of an argument. But Sasha? Did we see the same cruel mistreatment to her friends? Did we hear the same coldness in her voice as she describes how to manipulate people? Did we witness the same damage she's done to Anne and Marcy in how they perceive healthy relationships? Apparently not! Because while everyone else is already on the same page that Sasha deserves redemption, I'm sitting here thinking that maybe it's for the best to be a little more hesitant. So far, we have yet to see any way to understand her reasoning and have yet to see how she deserves forgiveness. Sure, Sasha was willing to sacrifice herself for Anne, but did Sasha really earn that? It works as a sudden realization that Anne deserves better, but Sasha has yet to do anything that proves she can be better. Especially since the next time we see her, she's trying to help a fascist ruler get back up on his feet...THINK ABOUT THAT!

But, sure, she's meant to be forgiven. That can work. Because while Sasha shows kids the type of people they should avoid, she can also work as a warning for what kids should avoid becoming. That is a great thing to teach...but it can also be potentially dangerous. Because if incorrectly interpreted, Sasha can show kids that every person who seems toxic just needs a chance to change. And that is the last thing you want to teach, given how very few toxic people actually change. You want to know why The Owl House gets away with an equally dangerous lesson about how not every bully is awful? It's because it shows two sides of the spectrum by proving why someone like Amity did the things she's done while also saying that characters like Boscha and Mattholomule are just a-holes for the sake of being a-holes. Sasha has no one to compare to. Sure, there's King Andreas, but he's a government figure. They're built to be manipulative. Sasha needs someone that's on her level of cruelty to prove that while some people can change and have reason to do so, others don't. And seeing how I don't think she deserves to change, at least not yet, that is an issue. It's the biggest issue out of all the issues I have with this show.

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So, yeah, I think it's pretty evident how I feel about Amphibia when I can write paragraphs about the stuff I don't like while barely being able to talk about the things I do like. Because I do enjoy this show. It's funny, most of the characters are enjoyable, and its discussion on toxic relationships still has me hooked to see what happens next. My issue lies with inconsistency. The main protagonist, storytelling, genre, and thematic purposes are all inconsistent. I'm interested enough to watch more, and who knows, maybe I'll make a final verdict review once the series comes to an end. For now, if you had to ask me what I’m excited to make a return, I don't know if I'll be willing to hop to it by saying Amphibia.

(Also, if you're still looking for that link for that pirating website I mentioned, now would probably be a good time to tell you that I really never did put one in. I told you, that would be crazy...That should teach you to try to break the law.)

[k7l4d4]

Midnight Striga: Owl House/Fairy Tail Crossover Episode 1 Part 2

Hello everybody, time for another part of my Fairy Tail/Owl House Crossover, Midnight Striga!! Hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!

“So, since when can humans do magic?” Eda asked with a sniff, shooting a wry grin towards her passenger.

Luz arched an eyebrow, visibly impressed. “Since always. I’ve kind of gathered by now that you aren’t human, and that very few, if any, of the people here are human either. But I’m getting off topic already, why are you asking?” She leaned forward, expecting an answer.

“HA!” Eda barked in humor at Luz’s boldness. “Kid, it’s been an accepted fact since forever that humans can’t do magic. I think that warrants a little curiosity, doesn’t it?”

Luz huffed, tilting her head back and forth in thought. “Eh, fair enough. I have no idea where you got your info that humans can’t do magic, but since I’m guessing this place is pretty closed off from human contact, info from outside of it falls through the cracks. I can give you a more informed answer when we land, but the long and skinny of it is that every living being has some potential for magic, but not everything has the power needed to actually do anything with that potential. I’m one of those that can.”

Eda blinked, glancing up in thought. That… was more than what she thought she was gonna get. In the short term, this kid basically more or less flat out confirmed that what witches know about humans is about as accurate as a portrait made by a blind man with no sense of touch. Purely guesswork based off of extremely limited input, in other words. Still, while this may upset some of her plans, this girl had some serious moves back there. She still had no clue what exactly she did, but it was impressive! And- what was that thumping she felt on the back of her head?

“-da, Eda, Eda, Eda,” With each repetition of the Witch’s name, Luz lightly thumped her knuckles against the back of her head. What could she say, when Luz got bored, she tended to get a little mischievous.

“GAH!” With a yelp at the small but incessant pain, Eda shot Luz a quick glance of annoyance. “Titans, kid, I’ve only got the one head! What do you want?”

Luz shot Eda a Cheshire grin, before subtly pointing down. “I think we’re here, if the fact your staff stopped and has been hovering over this place on its own is anything to go by.”

As Eda glanced down, she flushed in embarrassment as, yes, they were hovering over her house. Man, she really got sucked into her own head there, didn’t she? Eda, ignoring Luz’s snickering, guided Owlbert down for a landing, hopping off as they touched ground.

As Luz finally got her laughter under control, she noticed something Eda had left behind on the staff: her hand. While admittedly curious about how it was still moving while visibly detached, and with no apparent magical connection to Eda’s body, Luz decided discretion was the better idea. Lightly snatching the hand off the staff, she sauntered up to Eda, and very much deliberately tapped on her shoulder. When the older woman turned back towards her in question, Luz cheerfully grinned and held up the missing appendage.

Flushing once again at having missed the fact that she had lost a limb again, Eda gratefully took her hand back, snapping it back in place upon her wrist. Deciding now was the best point to start saving face, Eda pulled up a smirk, gesturing to the door. “I was wondering where that went. Anyways kid, I’d like to welcome you to my place. It may not seem like much, but I’ve got a killer security system!”

Luz was skeptical. Not surprising, when you’ve been running as much as she has, it’s practically second nature after a while. But still, she couldn’t detect anything overtly magical with this house, as amazingly weird and bewilderingly breathtaking it may be, in a creepy shack in the woods sort of way, aside from that odd Door Knocker in the shape of an Owl’s face. A face that had just blinked.

“PASSWORD PLEASE!” It shrieked in what Luz could honestly say was the most annoying voice she had EVER heard in her life. Also, when did she raise her hand to punch?

Before she could attack the strange creature, Eda beat her to the point, jabbing her fingers into the Face’s eyes. “We don’t have time for your games, Hooty! Open up!”

“Fine! Jeez! You never let me have any fun, hoot.” The Face, Hooty apparently, complied in a much softer, but still irritating, voice, swinging the door open on its hinges without Eda touching it.

Stifling a snicker at the odd by-play between the two, Luz followed Eda into her home. The first thing she noticed was the massive piles of junk scattered about, an odd mix of toys, books, tools, clothing, anything you could possibly find legally in either a sleepy town in the countryside or a bustling major city. The second thing she noticed was how prominent the Owl Aesthetic of the place was, with Owl themed decorations covering pretty much everything that wasn’t cluttered by Eda’s junk. Yet, in spite of the messy, dysfunctional feel of it all… Luz could honestly say that she found the place almost like a home, just from the energy of it all.

Smirking, Eda preened under Luz’s silent awe of her house. “Yeah, this place is great. A nice spot to hide away from the pressures of life.” She plopped down onto her couch with a content sigh. “Also the cops. Hmm, and also exes. Ha!”

Luz cracked a smile at the joke. Okay, it probably wasn’t really a joke, but it was still funny! “I can’t say I’ve had issues with the third one, but I’m very familiar with the first two. So, you’ve got questions for me?” She settled against the counter, relaxed, but ready to spring if things went ugly. She didn’t really expect them to, but you could never be too careful sometimes, especially with a near-total stranger, battle bond or not.

Eda leaned forward, eyes sharp. Now they were in familiar territory. “Questions, and a small proposal, if you’re up to it. Firstly, just what kind of magic were you using back there?”

“Huh, getting right in it, eh?” Luz grinned, pleased at the opportunity to brag- she meant inform! Inform someone about her skills. “At the start, that was what we in the bizz call Molding Magic. In my case specifically, Light-Make Magic.”

Eda blinked, not understanding. “Okay, gonna need a little more than that kid.” She grinned. “But I will say this, I think I like where this is going.”

Luz snorted, agreeing with the woman privately, and started complying. “Well, to simplify it, Molding Magic is a form of Magic that can be applied both for combat and utility.” Luz made the same gesture Eda had seen earlier, pressing her closed fist against an open palm, soft light building at the point of contact. “Molding Magic allows one to gather magical energy, and shape it into different forms based on the element or material used. In my case, I use light.” With that said, she pulled her closed fist away, revealing a miniature sculpture of Eda, seemingly made entirely of light held into a still image. Luz smirked at Eda’s look of amazement. “Anything I can visualize, I can make, and the better I can visualize it, the more powerful and stable it turns out.”

Eda was stunned. This? This was a form of magic she had never even heard or dreamed of. And, if she was reading between the lines right, while it may not be common for humans who can use magic, and wasn’t that still a strange thought, it wasn’t truly rare by any means. The ability to make ANYTHING you can think of, so long as you can spare the energy? Eda could already think of all the ways she could’ve used something like that over the years.

“Okay, since when have humans been able to do something like that!?” Eda seriously wanted to know. If she could figure out how to replicate a spell like that, it would make some of her escapes far easier later on.

Luz shrugged. “I don’t know. A few hundred years maybe? I mean, the base form, Molding Magic itself, is pretty ancient, but most modern variants have only been around for a few centuries at most. Like, it’s older, but not ancient.” What else could she say? Luz may have a serious interest in magical history and theory, but she wasn’t an actual scholar.

Eda slumped. That wasn’t the best news, but it wasn’t really the worst either. Still, if humans have had proper magic for centuries, then the info the Boiling Isles had about humanity was even more off than she had thought. “Damn. I won’t ask you about those other spells and stuff you were slinging back there. They didn’t look similar to what you started with, but they seemed closer to magic that I know of at least.” Her gaze brightened, lips curving up into an excited grin. “But hot dog, what you were doing back there was impressive, kid. So, you want to know more about what’s going on?”

Luz nodded, serious. “Absolutely. For starters, where am I?”

Eda smirked, glad she had anticipated that initial question, though her own made it so she should probably adjust her prepared answer a little. “You, my new friend, are in the scenic Demon Realms, specifically, the Boiling Isles! A colossal collection of Islands joined by the corpse of a long-dead magical being known only as the Titan. For centuries, it’s been accepted among Witches that we alone had magic, and humans who we knew of, but knew nothing real about beyond our own assumptions, did not. Another common belief was that the Demon Realm was the source of all human myths and legends from our world seeping into yours, but if you guys have actually got magic, that’s probably false. Or, at least, it’s less true than what we had believed for so long.” Eda slumped, suddenly drained. It made sense, in her mind, to feel tired. Sure, she was excited, but having your entire understanding of how the world actually works going under a sudden shift wasn’t easy.

Luz nodded, processing the information. “Okay, so I’m in another dimension primarily populated by demons and magical beings that refer to themselves as Witches. Got it. Do you have any questions about my world?”

Eda quirked an eyebrow. “Honestly, kid? No, not really. While having my whole world view undergo a massive shift was fun, I’m not really a scholar, so this doesn’t affect me all that much.” She bolted up, suddenly brimming with energy. “What does affect me, though, is what you and I can do for each other!”

Luz smirked, slightly confused, but mostly excited about where this could go. “Oh?”

“Yup. But first, you’ll probably want to meet my roommate.” Eda grinned. She just knew she was gonna love the kid’s reaction. Turning towards the stairs, she shouted. “Hey King! Get your keister down here!!” Out of view from the kid’s eyes, Eda subtly twirled up a spell, distorting the sounds of King’s voice and footsteps as he descended.

“WHO DARES DISTURB I?” Eda smirked at the human’s reaction, seeing her shift into a battle stance at King’s admittedly intimidating (at the moment) voice, and the perception-shifting shadows adding to the illusion, she just knew this was gonna be funny. “The king of Demons!?” As King finally stomped into view, clad in his bath gear and clutching a Rubber Ducky, the spells having worn out and revealing his true size and voice, she was not disappointed.

“QUE LINDO!!” At the adorable sight of the little doggy demon, all of Luz’s hard-earned self-control decided that surrendering to her adoration of cuteness was preferable to keeping her tough girl image. Abandoning her attack stance, she rushed to the skull-headed cutie-pie of a demon, smothering him in cuddles. “Who’s a good boy? Is it you? Is it you!?”

“N-No, NO!! I Don’t know who your good boy is!?” Squirming in the strange individual’s grasp, King turned to his friend, roommate, and (even if he didn’t like to admit it) foster mother. “Eda! Who is this monster!?”

Eda laughed, genuinely enjoying the sight of the small demon struggling in the human’s grasp. “Okay kid, you can drop him. He’s not really fond of the whole cuddling thing.” As Luz grudgingly released King, Eda continued. “This, King, is Luz. She’s going to help with our little Warden problem, if you know what I mean.”

As King finished dusting himself off, he finished processing Eda’s words. “Oh. Hooray!”

Luz was far less enthused. “Whoa whoa wait, since when did I agree to anything?”

Eda chuckled. “Well, kid, if you ever wanna get back to the Human Realm again, I’m the only one you can do it through, as I’ve got the only known portal there.”

Luz grumbled, but didn’t challenge the claim. Smart girl.

Ed decided that it was time to get into the nitty gritty.

“King, here,” She began, motioning to the demon in question, conjuring up the story of his “fall from grace” as she talked. “Was once the mighty and powerful King of Demons. Feared and admired by all. Until, one day, the Evil Warden Wrath stole his crown of power, reducing him to… this.” She finished, motioning to the sight of King chasing his own tail.

Luz’s love of cuteness took over. “You mean this little guy?” She cooed, scooping King up into her arms. He tolerated it for a second, then flailed enough to break free.

Eda grunted, leaning against her wall. “Yup. We need you to help us break into the vault the Crown’s being stored in, and in exchange, we’ll get you home.”

“We’re your only option!” King piped up.

Eda sent a fond smirk at the little demon, before continuing. “And besides.” Eda pulled King up to Luz’s face. “Can you really say no to this face?” Eda cooed in a slightly babying tone.

As King’s eyes widened as he realized what was happening, he yelled, “No! Don’t encourage her!!”

Fighting her impulse to agree immediately in the face of cuteness, Luz mulled it all over. She was stuck here for the moment, and she honestly didn’t have anything better to do. Plus, if anything went rotten with this, she could always defend herself…

Luz beamed. “When do we start, and where do we go?”

Eda grinned, happy that Luz was onboard. “Now, and somewhere super fun!” She promised, giving Luz a double thumbs up.