You know what really kills me about this storyboard in particular?
It’s not the fact that his ears are pinned back. It’s not the fact that Caleb wasn’t supposed to be in the mirror in the original version of this scene…
It’s the fact that in this image, with his hair grown out and looking like this…
Look at the pizzazz, the joy, the whimsy. They are all on track to die in roughly 48 hours, yet Raine is hamming up this rebellion name reveal just to (presumably) cheer up Luz after she thought she and Eda had been captured. Raine is thinking ‘I gotta make a good impression on my ex’s kids’ and their idea is to do jazz hands.
Raine may be a massive dork, but they’re my our massive dork. And that’s why I love them <3
Don't think about the fact that, in this version, Raine and Darius would've seen Hunter panicking and running. That they would've heard Luz's slow change from soft sobs to gut wrenching cries to where she could hardly breath. They would see her fall, unable to hold it in any longer. The heavy guilt begin to rest on their shoulders and creep its way to their heart and stomach. And without any idea of what happened they could only ask, "what have we done to these kids?"
the alt. thanks to them opening boards are going to emotionally scar me for life. look at his face. luz is terrified but desperate with a hope she feels is unfounded, needing that optimism to imagine a way out of this that doesn't hurt; that doesn't end in more tragedy?
she thinks they're on the same level of bad but sad. that she did as much as hunter in the name of helping belos, without knowing the whole truth of who belos was, who he is. she's traumatized by it.
she needs to not be alone in it.
the i'll keep your secret if you keep mine is a knife to the heart. we are in this together, she is saying. whether we like it or not, at least we have each other. at least i'm not alone.
but what do you say to that? how do you make a witch's oath without magic? you take it to heart. you hold it closer to anything. there aren't words for a devotion like that, the kind of devotion hunter has led with his entire life, and now, here, it's for luz. it's for everyone, for protecting them, to be able for them to get home again.
it's reminiscent of that good old golden guard loyalty, but remade in the light of this new world, new life. it's a cause to live by, a goal, a dream; and as the story goes, we can see - there isn't much he isn't willing to sacrifice for it, especially if the cost is only himself.
(he has nothing to return for, after all. he has a graveyard, filled to the brim with bones and masks and a future he only narrowly escaped.)
sacrifice - that is something he's been waiting for his whole life. so of course he's willing to risk everything for them. what better ending is there, where at the very least, his friends can go home to where they are loved? where no one has to be afraid, anymore?