#hunter ptsd

[weirdlynotspecific]

Studying Hunter from TOH as a person with PTSD

So as you probably gathered this post is going to be a bit heavy. Tw for: narcissists, PTSD, abuse, Belos being Belos, trauma and it's after effects

Also bare in mind that this is just my opinion. I have PTSD caused by someone similar to Belos and noticed a lot of similarities between Hunter and I. However, I am by no means an authority on this topic and this is just my take on the character.

I will probably come back to this and edit it to add more if I think of anything else.

Also spoilers for The Owl House up until Season 3 Episode 1, Thanks to Them.

Hunter's unwillingness to believe Belos is a bad person

This is something many people with PTSD (especially if the person/people causing the trauma is a narcissist) go through when other people realize something is off.

It can look like denial, grief, anger, and the person being abused can be furious with the person who realized something was wrong.

It's really confusing like in Hunter's case when Belos has been put on a pedestal (literally) his entire life

Belos gave Hunter a purpose. This is love bombing. This can appear as: "Wow you're so special" "I love you so so much". Belos straight up tells Hunter: "You're destined for something" (Hunter brings it up in Hollow Mind I think) and makes him the golden guard. It's a common tactic with manipulators so that their victim has a reason to stay with them.

Belos also isolated him. Hunter never knew what a good caregiver looked like. He wouldn't know what abuse looks like because all of this has been normalized. He wasn't even allowed to leave the castle except on missions on the weekends (I believe that's in season 3 episode 1).

Hunter's signs

Hunter's shaking hands seen in Hollow Mind. This can be an underlying physical disorder but in Hunter's case it's most likely because he is in fight or flight and processing a lot of information at once. The mind can take stress out physically on the body and this is one way this can appear.

Hunter's hypervigilance. Hunter is very easily spooked (once again Hollow Mind this episode is just full of Hunter and Belos making it my best point of reference) and is constantly on edge. Even in the newest episode (S3 E1) he is on edge, although in this case he was right.

Hunter's eyebags. So I think this could be one of 2 things; stress appearing physically on the body again, or more likely a lack of sleep. many with PTSD sleep less, have trouble staying asleep, avoid sleep, and are more prone to nightmares.

Cutting his hair when he thought he looked too much like Belos. This scene hit hard for me because I also changed my hair because of my trauma. It's an example of taking control of what you can, which many abuse victims do when they have a space to. It's also avoidance, Hunter doing what he can to be the furthest thing from Belos. it's a scene that even if it's a little detail, it's extremely important to his character.

Not telling his friends he's a grimwalker. Abuse victims don't want to feel alone. In this case when Hunter is in Fight or Flight he chooses another option, Fawn. It's a people-pleasing method to make sure the victim doesn't get hurt again. It can also result in codependency. Hunter is very careful of what he says to his friends because he doesn't want to be left alone and feel that again.

Causes

Physical injury. Hunter has a scar (now several) on his face. Unwanted permanent change to the body ESPECIALLY through force is never healthy and can be extremely traumatic.

Psychological abuse. Belos is a known liar, it's stated over and over again in the series. Living in a relationship like that is breeding grounds for trauma because you can never be sure if what you are hearing is the truth or not. When Hunter finds out he's a grimwalker that is his entire life flipped over. His life, his identity, was made up by Belos. He is now forced to figure out what is actually his and what was made up.

Sources

https://www.dailyom.com/journal/is-it-love-or-is-it-love-bombing-5-red-flags-to-help-you-spot-the-difference/?aff=91&ad=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PerformanceMax&acct=9358138875&campaign_id=16896613381&gclid=CjwKCAiA5Y6eBhAbEiwA_2ZWIdNpOVzzurt7m4MaXkLRwaaejex6WBv4MaCcMSXZMJrbiVJRj7VVHRoCijQQAvD_BwE

https://atlanticcoastrehab.blog/why-your-hands-tremble

https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/related/sleep_problems.asp#:~:text=Loss%20of%20sleep%20time.,loss%20can%20affect%20daily%20life.

https://www.modernintimacy.com/fawn-response-trauma-response-reason-for-people-pleasing-behavior/#:~:text=Fawning%20is%20also%20sometimes%20associated,they%20think%20they%20need%20you.

[spinosacha]

Hunter feelings agdudjejejejedhdjdbekfnxædæskfofkejdkfnrkee

[whisperwillyou]

I still haven’t watched the last two episodes lol

Have a Noceda siblings sketch that I never finished

Luz really cartwheeled into the boiling isle and swiped the brother Belos has spent the last 400 years fine tuning and I have nothing but respect for her. 😌

[decaytime]

Hunter head canon #2

I feel like we need to remember that Hunter was treated like an adult and was around adults his whole life. Not just any adults but adults in the emperors coven and coven heads themselves. Who are shown to be, to put it nicely, catty. In result, Hunter himself can be very catty even if he doesn’t mean to be. The lack of knowledge to certain social cues and his overall sass can make him seem pretty mean even if he doesn’t mean to be.

I also imagine him being a young emperor coven head (for goodness sake he’s 16 and already the golden guard when we meet him) he was frequently the butt of the joke among other coven heads. So of course he needed to be just as harsh back to not let himself put down like that.

Like the hexsquad will be messing with each other for fun as friends do and he will just insult them and their whole existence and when the others tell him like bro that enough he’s like “oh no, did I do something wrong. Im sorry :(“ and the other have show him a difference between a joke and insult and the limits to a joke. He quickly learns and is understanding of course cause he does genuinely love his friends.

However with that being said, when he does start attending Hexside like he said he was he runs into some issues. For starters, I imagine him being ex golden guard and being a bit different (obvious scarring, weird personality, etc) many aren’t very kind to him. But what makes him hard to bully is that he can easily rebuttal back and do it meaner. He was surrounded by rude, powerful adults, he can handle some measly rude teens easily. Of course he still does get emotionally effected, he’s not a robot obviously. But he can defend himself and has others to help him

I also imagine he knows how to “professionally” insult people. Making his insults sound polite or be very passive aggressive. Like. “Just a friendly reminder…” or “we can’t all have winning ideas, we need people like you to help fill the roster” or “There’s no reason to be so humble, it’s quite indifferent” and other things.

Idk theses are just my thoughts as I feel alot of people make him seem idk… weaker I guess or a ‘pure soft boy’. He can be both soft n sweet but still a sassy lil shit. Their must be balance people

[probablyhuntersmom]

Remember how he thought the whole Belos Is Evil thing was a joke? Yeah. Furthest thing from funny to him now

[captainmera]

The moon... <(🌕-🌕)>

The new chapter is out! (finally)

And a little extra sneaky peaky heheh.. ;'D

[doodlingfoolishness]

After the point of no return.

[starph]

hunter hootles because i need my boy to be happy

[cartoonsofthecosmos]

I am so appreciative of For the Future showing Hunter’s trauma manifesting itself as anger. I feel like the most common way to show a character reacting to a traumatic event is by having them act shocked, withdrawn, depressed, etc., but PTSD can manifest itself in so many other emotions besides those. Anger, not just at those who wronged you but everything and everyone around you, is a post-traumatic emotion that is real and is experienced by lots of people but isn’t one I really ever see represented. Once again, The Owl House has succeeded in properly portraying a complex emotion in a way that makes me feel seen and validated.

[rolling-harbinger]

I hate how sometimes he just has this thousand yard stare and just stares off in the distance.

(And considering that the time he was staring off in the distance in ASIAS he was having ptsd flashbacks, I wouldn’t be surprised if all of the other times he was also having other traumatic memories flood to the surface, but we as the audience just didn’t get to see those memories those times)

[alwayshere195]

One thing I don't see people talking about but has been looping on my mind since Saturday is Hunter's deep deep fear/ptsd attack.

So we all know the part. "Ugh! Just put him-" "Out of his misery?!" (Hunter gasps)

But have you noticed from here until he falls asleep, he's just GONE? Hunter's GONE. Mentally checked out. He's in DEEP.

He does not blink when the guard on the right says "To sleep dude! To sleep!"

He does not (noticeably) breathe when the guard on the left realizes what the one on the right meant.

He does not take the opportunity to fight his way out of the grasp as the one on the left goes "Oh yeah, right, right" and stops the spell

He continues to NOT BLINK when the one on the left starts a new spell to summon the flute. This is a perfect time to get out of the grasp!

And yet, he remains absolutely still

He does not struggle. He does not blink. He doesnt even look away! He's frozen. Absolutely in too deep.

It's not till the spell starts kicking in do we see him move again. He EXHALES. Most likely holding his breathe the whole time. He looks over at Gus as he falls asleep to the spell.

This whole scene is 16 seconds long and yet, it screams how he's so afraid to die. A 16 year old having a personal self discovery while camping out at a school is just SO afriad of dying that this- this entire scene! Caused him to freeze up that badly.

[dindjarindiaries]

Idk man, maybe I'm just sensitive about Hunter because I love him, but people cheering on Crosshair for saying that Omega's capture was all his fault when Crosshair only said that to intentionally hurt Hunter in an argument just... isn't it

[jellyfishinajamjar]

That one post that said germaphobe Hunter post-Thanks To Them is so right. I’d also like to add hypervigilance to that list. One tiny paper cut and his world was torn apart. One tiny little cut and he lost his best friend, nearly killed his sister, nearly had his life taken from him again by that monster. All it took was a tiny cut for him to get in and it nearly cost him everything, and he will never be that negligent again.

So what if his hands are a little too red cause he keeps scrubbing them, or people give him looks cause he flinches just a bit too hard when someone sneezes, or he goes hungry a night or too cause he just can’t eat, not when it could be infected, not when it might happen again. So what if he’s paranoid, if he’s hurting himself so no one else will get hurt because of him? He’s only paranoid if he’s wrong.

[probablyhuntersmom]

PTSD signs and other symptoms of poor mental health, wrapped in a single package i.e. this heavily damaged lad in Labyrinth Runners.

Avoiding and denying.

Hypervigilance and flashbacks.

Sweating.

And eventually shaking after trying to hold it off.

Panic attacks.

Flinching.

Intellectualising when Gus promises not to mess with him.

Freezing up.

You know what else? He's taking longer than we'd like to really open up because he has no accurate reference from his childhood of a secure, loving bond in any relationship.

[nerves-nebula]

Vent comic courtesy of my traumatic visit home!!! augahguhsg!!

[themo-themo]

Narrator voice: But he was in fact NOT "a-okay".