#obviously she was aiding a corrupt system but still. if anything that's just another parallel between her and belos lol

[welcometogrouchland]

We all assign Lilith as the Philip parallel when analyzing the similarities between the clawthorne sisters and the wittebane brothers. But have we stopped to consider for a moment that Belos saw Lilith as the Caleb in her situation? An older sibling who makes a selfish decision (in Philip's eyes) and betrays their younger sibling, leaving them a monster outcast from society??

We as the audience know just how different those situations were, but from Belos' pov...

I'm not saying Lilith was seen as so disposable and worthless by Belos, not just bc she was a witch, but because she was a Clawthorne whom Belos saw as a mirror of Caleb...but that's exactly what I'm saying and I'm realizing that Belos must've hated Lilith's guts more than we thought

[sepublic]

Eda and Lilith as Teachers

           One thing this show really likes to discuss is the idea of mentorship, of teaching others… And that naturally ties well into the show’s themes of education and systems that are meant to implement learning, but don’t do it so well. It’s about passing knowledge on to new generations, instilling a new passion into people, and/or feeding into the natural curiosity of others!

           So I think Eda and Lilith’s roles as teachers is definitely worth analyzing, comparing, and contrasting, especially given their narrative ties and parallels to one another as sisters! The thing about Lilith is… She very much comes across as the ‘proper’ image of a teacher; She’s well-educated and has a prestigious position in the Emperor’s Coven, graduated from high school… She teaches multiple students –not just Amity- and she has access to a lot of educational texts on the matter. She’s transmitted plenty of knowledge on magic to Amity, which has contributed to Amity being a conventional Top Student!

           In contrast, Eda is a dropout (by choice, she clearly loved learning otherwise). She’s not exactly rich and doesn’t have access to the materials that a member of the Emperor’s Coven would. She only has ONE student, a human who can’t even do regular magic… So what knowledge Eda DOES have is almost useless because she’s forced to learn from scratch a forgotten form of magic, Glyphs, to help Luz learn! For a while, Luz isn’t even enrolled at an actual school, she’s home-schooled by Eda… And Eda, admittedly, is not the ideal teacher. Unlike Lilith and her professionalism, Eda is far more crass and casual about her relationship with Luz.

           And, obviously Lilith is the better teacher in the conventional sense. But, and as corny as it may sound… Eda is arguably the superior teacher in that her strengths come in teaching Luz things that matter and build her up not for a specific role in society, but just as a functioning individual in general; Actual life lessons, wisdom, street-smarts, etc., that apply directly to any and all situations Luz finds herself in, how she interacts with others and herself, and how she maintains relationships!

          Even if the specific subject of magic isn’t taught very well by Eda –again, partly because of Luz’s unique needs and their non-ideal situation- she’s definitely been able to help Luz mature a lot… It’s with Eda’s help that Luz overcomes her issue of projecting fantasy onto reality, and recognizes that she isn’t entitled to greatness anymore than anyone else! It’s with Eda’s help that Luz learns to be patient, and to take the time to listen to what others have to say… etc.!

           Eda teaches Luz to value her individuality and be critical of authority, but at the same time shows Luz how to admit when one has made mistakes to a person they’re supposed to be ‘smarter’, as seen when Eda swallows her pride to enroll Luz at Hexside! And, this fits a lot with what we’ve seen between Eda and Lilith… Eda is definitely the wiser of the two by a long shot (as befitting her Owl motif), and is easily able to recognize a corrupt Coven System, while Lilith happily chugs the kool-aid!

           By contrast, even if Lilith DOES teach Amity great magical skill… In terms of maturity, neither of them really progressed much, if at all, up until Luz showed up. Amity in particular was excelling as Top Student, but remained just as miserable as ever… Sure, Lilith taught her how to do magic well, but in general, she didn’t really teach Amity anything meaningful, no life lessons or wisdom that could help the girl mature!

          All Amity was taught was how to fulfill her function and role in society as a member of the Emperor’s Coven, but again, this focuses on what Amity does for others and not on building up Amity herself as a person with her own separate identity from the whole! It teaches Amity to prioritize her ‘purpose’ over building a sense of personhood and individuality, and as we can see… This ends up rather destructive for Amity’s part.

          And Lilith herself was pretty immature and foolish, buying into Belos’ promises and propaganda, refusing to acknowledge there was more to her and Eda’s distance than just the curse, and only finally made a stance when her own sister was about to be petrified- And even then, Lilith initially tried to sneak her way back into the Emperor’s Coven like nothing happened!

           And to be fair, I don’t think anybody would want to openly challenge Emperor Belos… But the idea is still there that for all of her ‘academic’ achievement, Lilith herself has matured and grown very little, with the majority of her learning have come by the Season Finale! She’s booksmart at least, but as we also see with Amity… This knowledge in academics doesn’t mean much if both characters are rather miserable, emotionally-stunted people! Lilith and Amity were taught to emphasize their roles as tools/parts in a larger machine, instead of as their own separate people who are simply allowed to live on their own and don’t have to justify their existence by contributing to some grander purpose!

           This is further reflected in the contrast between the relationships of Eda and Luz, VS Lilith and Amity… Lilith and Amity are cold and professional, maintaining an air of distance and a sense of hierarchy with Lilith specifically above Amity! Amity can only defer to Lilith, and all she does is learn from her, without contributing any of her own knowledge to Lilith!

           Whereas Eda and Luz teach one another in their own ways, help each other learn and grow… Their mentorship is far more mutualistic, and it’s reflected in how the two have a far more familial, casual relationship! There is no sense of hierarchy that must be maintained, that Eda automatically knows more than Luz and is thus better than her and clearly superior as a result, that she can do no wrong… No, Eda is also flawed and has a lot to learn from Luz, too! They’re in some ways equals, which reflects their rejection of educational status as a means and justification for academic elitism, which the Emperor’s Coven embodies!

           All of this also ties into the show’s discussion of learning things and skills that are ‘practical’, for the sake of attaining more power, wealth, status, etc…. Versus simply doing things for the sake of prioritizing one’s happiness and enjoyment! As Dana herself said, Lilith and Amity saw one another more as tools to achieve their goals with. Their pursuit of magical knowledge was less out of a passion (at least it’s not anymore) and more for the pursuit of something else frivolous that neither of them really wanted, and neither of them benefitted from… But they needed it from a pragmatic scenario, so they had to put up with this!

           In contrast, while Eda and Luz’s lessons don’t exactly focus on the more ‘pragmatic’ magic that would garner a good career, they DO focus on improving and maintaining the emotional wellbeing and growth of one another! And so even if they don’t have magical skills, power, status, etc., Eda and Luz still end up as far more fulfilled, happier, and mature individuals than Lilith and Amity! They may be at the bottom of society and wanted criminals, but Luz and Eda’s lives are clearly the more preferable ones to the powerful yet stifling positions that Amity and Lilith have respectively.

           Now, obviously I have to be a bit fair to Lilith here; Eda had mostly willingly taken the role of Luz’s sole surrogate parental figure on the Boiling Isles… Whereas with Lilith, her relationship with Amity is just a professional one and not familial, and she’s busy handling other students too! As far as Lilith knows, Amity already has loving parents back home… and, well. Amity definitely has PARENTS. But in the end, Lilith herself isn’t necessarily performing some moral failing just because she hasn’t immediately signed herself up as Amity’s moral guardian and surrogate parent…

           But because Eda’s strength lies in teaching emotional, personal lessons that prioritize the personal growth of individuals regardless of any ‘role/purpose’ they should serve, she’s arguably the superior teacher! Her lessons aren’t as fixated on magic and increasing one’s power and skill at it, which in turn reflects the idea of becoming a ‘powerful witch’ purely for reasons such as status, wealth, power, etc., that ultimately contribute little to one’s happiness as they do not necessarily prioritize personal satisfaction, but instead a mechanical purpose.

          Eda and Luz are casual, they don’t try to maintain a divide or gap between one another, nor do they enforce a hierarchy where Luz is an empty receptacle that can only learn from Eda… They are on equal ground and thus benefit more as mutualistic partners, teaching one another as both grow, and respecting the contributions and individuality of the other! By contrast, Lilith and Amity focus on maintaining a certain hierarchy and divide between the two that believes Amity can only learn from Lilith.

          As a result, what Amity has to give and say is silenced as she herself is taught that what she has to offer isn’t meaningful, and Lilith merely passes on pragmatic information about magic but doesn’t really gain anything from the interactions. It’s a paradoxical idea of uplifting the new generation as the one who will succeed the previous one and do so much better, but at the same time these young kids clearly know nothing and are inferior to the infallible wisdom of their predecessors! And if they question anything about the system, then again, they’re just dumb and silly kids and what do you know?!

          There’s a power imbalance here, an assumption of total superiority based on academic merit, which again… Ties into the idea of educational elitism with the Emperor’s Coven! It’s only by working together on equal ground that a mentorship can propel both parties from their initial place in the world, be it within their own hearts or literally! And THAT goes along with this show’s ideas of how being your own individual and acknowledging others as such, actually leads to more powerful, meaningful bonds of family and community as people are allowed to self-actualize with themselves and one another, thus reaching their full ‘potential’!

           To put it simply; Eda isn’t exactly the conventional teacher, but in all honesty… The ‘conventional teacher’ to the Boiling Isles is one that prioritizes distance and hierarchy, and the idea of transmitting practical knowledge for the sake of getting more power/status/wealth with little regard to one’s personal happiness… Whereas Eda and Luz’s mentorship emphasizes no gaps and encourages all participants to learn and offer things towards one another, and to focus on prioritizing their own personal happiness and emotional wellbeing first!

          This in turn expands on the dilemma that Willow had once been faced with; Doing the more pragmatic, opportunistic Abomination Track, or self-actualizing with Plants! In the end, it’s the desire to prioritize doing things that simply make one happy, without regard to whether or not it can contribute to their material gain! And THAT relates to the Coven System’s flawed ideas of amassing power for the sake of being above others, which in itself is a pointless rat race.

           In the end, Eda may not be the best at teaching magic… But as corny as it sounds, I think she’s better at teaching Luz about the things that really matter in life, lessons that actually bring you happiness and satisfactory relationships; Which the most skilled and powerful magic in the world can’t necessarily guarantee! Whilst Lilith taught Amity how to be ‘successful’, but by the specific standard/merit set by people like Belos… In reality, Amity’s success is paper-thin as she ends up a blindly obedient slave to authority figures that overtly-blames herself for her own mistakes and things she didn’t even cause, and is genuinely miserable!

           While on the other hand, Eda taught Luz how to be ‘successful’ in the truly deep and emotional sense, in that she helps Luz focus more on maturing as an individual and coming off more well-rounded for it. Luz may not know everything there is to know about magic, and she’s no Top Student… But she’s actually enjoying herself, kindling her natural curiosity, and creating meaningful social connections! Luz is still allowed to learn things simply because she wants to, to engage with magical education on her own terms instead of by how others dictate it for the purpose of fulfilling a role!

          And given what this show has to say about prioritizing one’s personal happiness over the practical option that will net them material gain (which in itself is a pointless goal that many families only pursue due to a lack of money)… It all points towards Eda and Luz having learned more, from one another or otherwise! Whereas Lilith and Amity remained stagnant and only seemed more educated, but in the end were fools for the Coven System to varying degrees.

          Like the gilded appearance or masks of the Emperor’s Coven, their supposed status and glory above others is thin at best, and when subject to scrutiny gives way to a much harsher reality of personal weakness and lack of growth. From Eda, Luz gained life-skills that are far more applicable and flexible in their use to all of her experiences, rather than simple knowledge on how to cast a specific spell.

          Luz’s lessons are more widely-applicable across every situation of life, while Amity’s lessons on magic, while important, ultimately do nothing to prepare her for self-love, being her own person, finding enjoyment in oneself again, etc. It’s all for a specific purpose within a specific machine-system set by Belos, but who is she without it?

          And if one is miserable working for their role in the system, then what is even the point of fighting for material gain just to survive, if one is unable to truly live as an individual? And many poorer families only focus on material gain because their circumstances are skewed against their favor… They live in a system that forces them to need material gain just to survive, and it’s why they have to prioritize it when otherwise they would rather be their own people!

          It’s no doubt intentional by Belos, to force people to remold themselves to fit into the very specific slots of his Coven Machine. Similarly, the values the Coven System uplifts prioritizes teaching kids to focus more on learning magical skills related to their function that ultimately characterizes them more as interchangeable parts rather than unique people with their own lives and desires!

          TL;DR Eda actually has a LOT of value as a teacher, and so does Lilith! But Eda in particular doesn’t have that worth recognized, because the Boiling Isles society has reached a point where it only cares about learning stuff if it’s directly related towards getting a prestigious job/role in the Coven System… And most people are forcedto make that sort of prioritization over personal fulfillment, because a lot of them are trapped in a horrible situation otherwise!

          It’s a nasty loop and cycle where people really would prefer to be brave like Eda and pursue who they are, but the brutal reality of the circumstances –set by Belos- dictates that they focus on pragmatic things and opportunities simply to do well in life! It encourages people to care more for survival and fitting in over being actual, well, people. This kind of mindset is of course more obedient and easier to control with Belos, who has access and control over wealth, power, and social prestige, which people are then taught to value above all else, thereby making them dependent upon his rule!

         In general, the show poses the very important question; What does it mean to be a teacher? And what REALLY makes a good teacher? Luz no doubt expected Eda to be a more conventional, Fantasy-Magic teacher similar to what she’s seen in her books; But Eda’s more mundane lessons, once Luz learns to appreciate them (as seen in Episode 3), replace her idealized fantasies with a more mundane yet ultimately fulfilling reality. Of course, Lilith ALSO has value as a teacher in her own way too, hence why Eda learns in Episode 9 to both provide her usual form of instruction, AND the conventional, pragmatic kind we see in an institution like Hexside! Eda at least tries to fulfill both kinds of needs and roles as a mentor, which Lilith sadly never made the effort to do so, albeit with her own in-universe justifications of course.

[daughterofthechaos]

The Blue Fairy vs. The Black Fairy

It’s very interesting that the sword that can kill Emma and was already shown to also be capable of killing Evil Doppelgangers was forged by the Blue Fairy, isn’t it? So this got me thinking… If the Black Fairy really is her other half, then it is possible that the Blue Fairy created the sword with the purpose to vanquish her evil self once and for all? But obviously something happened and she failed miserably at doing so?

(Emma’s face here never ceases to amaze me XD What a worried wife).

That being said, I’m not a big fan of the Blue Fairy and her hideous dress. I never trusted her and I’m always in the waiting for her to reveal herself as the big villain of the story. I still believe she manipulated Rumple into thinking the only possible way to travel to the world without magic was casting the Dark Curse. 

I mean, she was being deliberately obtuse in that conversation. She’s the one to plant the seed in his head and in the second season it was confirmed that you could still find magical beans, they were just really rare (you can’t say to me that a bunch of pirates got their hands… or hooks on a magical bean and a FAIRY didn’t have access to more. No, I don’t buy it). We are always led to believe Rumplestiltskin is/was the master manipulator behind everything, but for me, the Blue Fairy was always the one actually pulling everyone’s strings. She’s weirdly connected with all the important events that caused the curse (I’m pretty sure there’s a theory somewhere talking about this specific shadiness of the Blue Fairy).

OK, but what she possibly would win with all this? Why would she want the curse to be cast?

Let’s go back in time a little (a lot) and give our imagination a pair of wings, shall we? So take a seat, drink some water because it’s story time!

Once Upon a Time (HA, see what I did there? Not funny? Okay…), the fairies had a kingdom of their own and the only way to provide to this kingdom, to keep it alive, was through the humans’ belief in the fairies. The more they helped people, the more their kingdom would grow. However, the fairies were extremely biased with whom they choose to help and more than once they would ignore someone really in need, a desperate soul if you may, just because they didn’t meet their criteria of good or were already stained with the first drops of darkness.

Someday, a fairy tried to defy the system, maybe save one of those souls to show the other ones that redemption was possible and such things as absolute evil and absolute goodness didn’t exist. Obviously, the fairies’ council was not pleased with her rebellion. How could one of them dare to think like that!? Perhaps, the fairies were spending too much time in the human world if they were beginning to think like them. So it was decided to reduce their participation in humans’ affairs, just a fairy godmother to a family here, a fairy godmother to another family there. No more, no less. 

The problem wasn’t completely solved, though… What would they do to the fairy that had already been corrupted? Banish her? Punish her? Well, they’re not savages (who, the good old fairies!? Of course they aren’t! Why would you think that?) thus they simply settled to rip off the part of her that was responsible for the bad behavior. Her good half was kept and her evil half was banished to another realm, a ‘Phantom Zone’? Yep.

Time passed and the fairy was trying really hard to follow the rules imposed on her, in fact, she was becoming quite respected amongst the others and she even would push for order in an attempt to save her sisters from the same fate she had endured. 

However, there was a feeling she couldn’t shake, something that lured her to once again take a leap into the world, into the darkness, and… she couldn’t have that, could she? No, she simply couldn’t. She knew that if she went against her superiors one more time, she would pay dearly for it and they wouldn’t be so benevolent and merciful again.

What she was going to do, then? Why she still felt compelled to do bad things even without her worse self? Maybe it was because she was still alive in another realm? She would not be really free if her other half was still out there, tempting her at every turn? She had to finish this somehow.

The evil half, on the other hand, had created a kingdom of her own. She took her misery and turned it into an empire, powered by all the bad in the world. Where the fairies brought hope, she would bring desperation. She took children from their homes and filled their hearts with hopelessness, made them believe more in her capacity to bring them pain than in the possibility of fairies coming to their aid because she knew the human world was weak. They needed the fairies’ magic as much as the fairies needed their belief to survive and she would make all of them perish. They would all suffer for what was done to her.

And that way, the two halves went to battle.

In the end, though, none of them claimed victory. They were both too strong, too determined and… they couldn’t really hurt each other. Yet, the Blue Fairy still managed to get the upper hand by taking away the wand of the Black Fairy. If she couldn’t defeat her completely, she at least would make her weaker. She believed that this would be enough to stop The Black Fairy and she kept believing it for a long time…

Despite the pull of her other half still been felt, it was slowly fading day by day. It was finally over, wasn’t it? She could finally mind her own business and grow as the Blue Fairy, the most powerful of the good fairies?

Not so fast. The Black Fairy liked to play the long game. In the ‘Phantom Zone’, she had all the means to plan her next move, after all, that place was timeless, she could wait and not wait at all. Nevertheless, there was a pressing matter bothering her, something that she had to solve in order to move forward: her invisible connection to her good half that no matter how hard she had tried to vanquish it, continued to be there, mocking her. She had to cut loose all her ties with the Blue Fairy, disentangle their fates. (Are you seeing where I’m going with this? Exactly, if those lovely golden Shears of Fate came to your mind, then you are absolutely right).

Not feeling her counterpart was not exactly as pleasant as the Blue Fairy thought it would be. She didn’t know what was going on, what the other would do next. It was terrifying. Worse. Fairies’ magic was weakening… The fairies were increasingly more dependent of fairy dust and these were becoming a rare item the more they used it. Their magic was dying and she was powerless to do anything about it now that she couldn’t face the Black Fairy anymore. They were forever apart. 

The entire magical world would forever remain out of balance. 

You are probably wondering where I got the idea that magic in FTL was fading, at least, the ‘good’ one. Well, I always thought that the fairies were kind of limited in what they could and couldn’t do… The wardrobe is only able to transport two. I’ll give you freedom, but do you mind being a cricket? Among other things, like the Blue Fairy being really strict about fairy dust, maybe that’s one of the reasons why she was so protective of it. 

So a weapon was needed. Something that could kill the Black Fairy without killing herself in the process. A sword, embedded in the magic within the Blue Fairy, powerful stuff. That would do the work, but… she still couldn’t use it against the Black Fairy, not when their fates were magically cut apart. How would she solve this tiny little problem?

What if the only way to save their world was to transport it elsewhere? To another world where the rules were fairer, a perfect even ground for their final battle? To the only world where it’s actually possible to beat fate?  What if, in order to save magic they needed to gave it up first? This is beginning to sound like a plan…

But the Blue Fairy wasn’t powerful enough to do such great feat and given the circumstances, dark magic would be required and who better than the Dark One to do the dirty work?

He would not listen to her, though… Not her of all people, so she did what her other half was better at doing. She manipulated the Dark One’s son and the man himself and made sure that everyone was set in their right places.

And the Black Fairy? She likes to play the long game and now? Now, in 6B, we are going to watch her plan unfold. I’m really excited to see what she has in store.

I would love to know how Peter Pan ended up in this mess and why she abandoned Rumple for real too… Perhaps the Blue Fairy’s rogue days were when she met Pan, then I imagine her story would parallel the one of Nova and Dreamy a.k.a. Grumpy and that would explain why she reacted so badly to their relationship. She once was forced into giving up love too and as a consequence of that, she had to abandon her son as well. This and the fact that magic was fading and she couldn’t really afford to lose two important pieces, a fairy and a dwarf, in the manufacture of fairy dust, but this is just me being extra.

Also, I am still thinking about Gideon’s role in all this. One part of me believes he’s really trying to save everyone trapped in the ‘Phantom Zone’, be their hero, but the other part of me believes he’s working with the Black Fairy (Oh my, am I being divided into two halves now?). And there’s the possibility he’s doing both things. He could be working for her just to betray her and they are using each other for their own goals…

Anyway, this got out of hand XD Feel free to add your own thoughts! I would love to know what you all think.