#thank you for giving me the opportunity to ramble extensively about huntlow i'm very pleased

[edoro]

Huntlow for the ship bingo.

i really like Huntlow! i have in fact written a whole 3 (soon to be 4) fic series about it so yeah you could say i'm invested.

(extensive rambling about my personal Huntlow appreciation journey + my feelings about their dynamic under the cut)

i've had an interesting journey here, because prior to the back half of s2 dropping, it was really one of my least favorite Hunter ships! it felt very 'pair the spare' to me and a lot of the content i saw for it was just... i don't know, kind of relentlessly blandly Babies Ever After-ly heterosexual in a way that did not really feel in keeping with either of their characters, and just Did Not Appeal To Me At All. it was not my thing at all, and i was just a lot more interested in exploring Hunter's relationships with other people.

and even when it started getting teased after s2e13, i was still pretty reluctant... honestly, i spent quite a while in s2 being really anxious that anytime the two of them showed up on-screen, we were going to get some kind of ship tease or confirmation that would be Awkward Forced And Rushed And Then I Would Hate It.

however, i actually now really like both the ship and the way it's being handled in the show. i mean, they definitely could still totally beef it in s3, and i think that if they do go anywhere with it other than just kind of background teasing Hunter having a crush, it's probably going to be a little rushed just because of their severely compressed runtime, but right now at least i basically have faith that whatever they do, i'm not going to hate it.

i really like the way TOH handles romance - Lumity imo was really well done and drawn out and built up way more than i would have ever expected from a cartoon like this, and it's continuing to change and develop as a relationship and also with the two of them as characters, so it feels organic and natural.

Raeda is absolutely delicious and i really appreciate the way we've been shown there are still feelings there, but there hasn't been any kind of rush to get back together or reconcile, because they have bigger things to worry about now. basically, the show tends to handle romance in a way that feels organic and realistic and doesn't feel like it's just shoe-horned in there for the sake of Having A Romance Plot,

and therefore i have no reason to suspect that Huntlow (whether it's confirmed, sunk, or just continually teased in the background) will be any different.

(i know some people feel like it's rushed, and i've seen criticisms to the effect of either "it's way too soon for Hunter to have a crush, they barely know each other" or, like, even worse, "Hunter is too traumatized to be in a relationship so it shouldn't happen" - for the first all i can really say is that i must have had a very different experience of being a teenager, because 'getting crushes on people basically just bc you think they're cool after one interaction or even just bc you Like How They Look' sure was normal for me and my friends.

tbh it feels a little bit like a weird ripple effect of the way people treat fictional adolescent sexuality like it's radioactive and even alluding to it means you should be put on some kind of list, so, like, we can't go "maybe he just thinks she's really pretty and is interested in her that way, and his attraction is only increasing as he gets to know and admire her"

as far as the second one goes, i mean, 1) the specific ways he's traumatized really imo make him more likely to get very attached very quickly and 2) the fact that he's traumatized in ways that mean he's likely to have some really unhealthy thought patterns and behaviors around intimate relationships of any sort is in fact part of why i like the ship - i think there's a lot of potential there for, you know, a recovery narrative/Hunter learning about healthy relationships first-hand, or alternately just A Really Entertaining Trainwreck)

but yeah like... there really is a lot of potential! they have a lot in common! they can relate to being treated as 'half a witch', outcasts due to the way their powers (or lack thereof) manifested/work, they both have this kind of self-sacrificing tendency, i think Willow would certainly have some feelings about the high-school Mean Girls shit Hunter endured at the hands of the other coven heads in the castle

and Hunter is just like, so eager to find someone to dedicate himself to, which could and probably will go some unhealthy places but is also very fun. does Willow not deserve to go mad with the power of having an incredibly loyal boytoy who also has elite military training? i submit that she absolutely does.

they could be really good for each other - having someone who believes in her so wholly and has confidence in her leadership skills would really help Willow's self-esteem, because she's still at the point where if anything goes wrong, she just immediately crumples into a wadded up ball of self-loathing. but Hunter's used to things going wrong, and while, yeah, it seems like he does also internalize that a lot, he does also seem to have the ability to just pick himself up and keep trying.

if a mission goes sideways and you're in charge, you can't have a breakdown in the field, you have to rally your troops and do what salvage you can and then figure out what went wrong and how to keep it from going wrong again next time. for all that his constant attempts to Be Better And Fix Things come from this place of really frantically seeking approval from like, literally anyone who will give it to him (and in Belos's case, a person who he can never actually earn it from), that's genuinely a very valuable skill to have, and i think it's something that he could teach Willow.

he can offer a sense of perspective about a lot of things, and in a way i think it'd be easier for her to believe it coming from him, because - well he's her friend (and/or boyfriend) but also he was a professional soldier, a coven head, and he's sort of a latecomer/outsider to the friend group, and he is decidedly uninvolved in the whole little drama knot with Amity and etc, and didn't know her as a kid - his perspective on her is just really different compared to Gus or Luz (or Amity), and i think she could really benefit from that perspective.

and then on her end, well, mostly she can teach him how to be a normal, well-adjusted person. she can treat him like a person, rather than a tool or a weapon or a reflection or extension of the Emperor, which is something he desperately needs. one thing i like about the idea of him basically just shifting from living his life for Belos and being Belos's tool to living his life for Willow and being Willow's tool is that she wouldn't actually like or want that - they'd end up having to talk about it and boundaries would be negotiated and it would be a good experience for Hunter.

just in general it seems like Willow is pretty good about boundaries in some ways. she's learned not to take crap from people, even if she still gives it to herself and her confidence is still shaky. she's a pretty calm and level-headed person, esp in interpersonal situations, which is absolutely not the case for Hunter - he can keep calm in a high-stress combat situation, but he just falls to pieces when it comes to interpersonal stuff.

just! ah! they go together in so many interesting ways! their respective strengths and weaknesses and traumas intersect in so many fun ways! also there's so much potential for shenanigans oh my god!!

it's just actually very good although i am tbh still incredibly picky about what fic i want to read for it. i have certain very specific opinions about the ship. but i've really come around from my initial feelings about it.