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#this is my main problem with the finale i dont think they truly tackled luzs deepest issue
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.
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