#toh rewatch numericalbridge

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i think it is especially hilarious that the fandom made such a big deal out of Darius' "only the small ones will get eaten" moment, considering:

how many times characters try to eat someone; not to mention many gags where the core characters are comicaly callous in inappropriate moments. And that Darius' line was framed similary as a comedic moment in canon!

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Oh, but what always gets me about this moment:

Is the specific word choice of 'protecting'. Because it doesn't seem like the most obvious word choice. The writers could have written it as 'helping' or something like 'actually turned out we were on the same side'. There were probably ways to describe Darius's actions that would have been more straight forward and would have explained better whatever happened with Raine and the rebels.

Instead the focus is on Darius trying to protect them, and Raine wasn't even close to him at that point in time!

And, in-universe, do you think Darius himself would've put it like that when explaining his actions to Raine, or was the 'protecting you' part something they've figured out themselves😭

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This is actually something i've only just noticed, but you can already see Darius looking serious and upset when he collects the Emerald Entrails even before he starts talking to Hunter:

He is not pleased, but it doesn't look like the expression of an annoyed villain who hates to be bothered; nor is it angry, but instead it's more quite and serious, concerned. He also seems to be looking slightly down and maybe to the side, rather than directly at the children or the viewer which adds to the upset impression:

(Super shitty enlarged version, but it's more clear here that he is not smiling)

Like, to me this doesn't look like an expression they would draw for a man who is supposed to be - according to the fandom - hatefully gloating because Hunter's behavior proved him right or who doesn't care what would happen to the children.

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Interesting how Amity's abomination looks different during the fight with Belos in the human realm:

It is very plant-like and completely different color (with green parts kinda reminding of Belos's curse). And it makes sense since it is made out of human realm material aka flooded graveyard's muck, but still interesting to speculate and consider the world-building implications since this seems intentional.

And they could've just made Amity use her normal abominations and hand-wave it with 'it's magic'/her just having some abomination matter with her when she crossed the portal.

At first I thought she used normal abomination in the beginning of the episode when 'fighting' the alarm clock, but it's only Willow who used her powers. Maybe i am mistaken, but i think Amity doesn't use her abominations elsewhere in the episode? So i wonder whether this would've been a plot-point if there was a full season 3, of Amity not being able to use her abomination powers in the Human Realm because she couldn't find the proper material. Would've been cool if Willow helped her to suppliment abomination with plant-matter since in the screenshot it really looks plant-like, including small leaf-like protrusions, and resembles Willow's powers; and this could've solidified their friendship narratively (Would've been also cool to see whether Willow's powers were affected by different flora in the human world)

And another thing - i think i've read somewhere that abominations in initial concepts were more corpse-like, and here Amity is making it from the flooded graveyard's material. So i wonder whether the abominations in general require some kind of decaying remains (human/oid? or animal and plant matter would work too?) to animate?

Or is it perhaps the presence of the Titan's blood nearby that helps Amity work with her abomination in the graveyard, and perhaps on the Boiling Isles it is Titan's remaining decaying essense that is important for animating the abominations? Wacky idea: I've noted before that abominations seem to have varied levels of awareness, so i wonder whether it also might depend on the ammount of, idk, remains of Titan's nervous system that get into them during their creation, or whether the magic user can re-animate the system properly.

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Also, while i think it is rather pointless to seriously examine this part because of how stylized and comedic the show's storytelling is, but i do wonder whether the rebel's disguises are meant to be so obvious in-universe, or it is solely a visual short-cut for the viewers.

Because Hunter doesn't recognise them. Hooty doesn't detect them even when they are close, and he had discovered Lilith and her scouts from a distance in season 1. So maybe there is meant to be some kind of magic disguise in addition to their cloaks.

And if they drew some more subtle disguises it would've confused the viewers and distracted from the more important parts of the episode. And even as obvious as the disguises were, people still argued this couldn't be Darius and should be Alador instead:

But ultimately this is the show where a middle aged woman puts a mop on her hand and pretends to be her sister, and the story relies on the rule of cool and rule of funny a lot.

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i like how other palismen looked as if they were thinking 'oh, this time grandpa is really losing it' about Flapjack:

(and not to victim blame a bird but Flapjack made some very bad decisions in the episode😭)

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i know fandom has a strong reaction to calling Amity 'bland', but to me she does seem bland for the bigger part of season 2, and it has nothing to do with her 'not being mean anymore'. I think for me at least, it is the mix of two things:

First, she gets a lot of time dedicated to her and her development in season 1, and she is very clearly presented as a major character, so the expectations for her character are pretty high. But then in season 2 she gets less and less time dedicated just to her own development as the show introduces new characters and focuses on the bigger plot. And while Amity is still treated better by the narrative compared to Gus and Willow, especially in s2b it seems like the focus is often shifted from her own character to her reactions to other characters. And that is understandible when it is her relationship with Luz, who is the main character, but then s2b episodes seem to focus heavily on what kind of people the Blight parents are, rather than on Amity herself. So, although there is still some focus on her own development there is a difference between s2 and s1. And in the end it feels like her arc is finished really early on compared to other characters.

And the second, bigger problem, is that she just doesn't have strong dynamics with characters other than Luz and her own family. She has a dynamic with Willow, but i think i am not the only one who finds the writing weird and unsatisfying - Willow is barely there for the duration of s2a, she doesn't factor in Amity's conflict with her parents, and the conflict between Amity and Willow in s2b is inconsistent and quickly resolved. With Gus Amity has no dynamic at all. Even if it was an intentional choice for the two to be distant through out the series - why not include a little comment here and there about the way they feel about each other? Funny how Gus is protective of Willow when it suits Hunter's arc, but there is never even a tiny scene about the way he feels about Willow's and Amity's friendship except a bit of advice in LR. And Amity never shows open interest in befriending him. With Hunter Amity only properly interacted for one episode, and even if it is understandible that there was no time to develop their dynamic more deeply, there was a missed opportunity to examine how their fight had affected Amity that would have been interesting to explore, but is never brought up instead. With Lilith her arc is non existent. Even Amity's dynamic with Bosha and her clique is at best in the background through out season 2.

But ok, some of these are because of the shortening, and some stem from the bigger problem of the toh's tendecy to sideline Gus and Willow. But Amity doesn't even have strong dynamics with Eda and King, who are the show's main characters alongside Luz. There was a perfect opportunity to develop their dynamics in Eclipse Lake, but nothing new was done with them. In s1 King was so jealous of Willow and Gus, then after character development in s2 he wanted Luz to mention him to her mom, but there is no particular personal interactions or dynamic between him and Amity?

So in the end, Amity's development feels restricted to the bubble of her family and Luz, but as she is a part of the main friend group and clearly a major character, there is just not enough of interesting dynamics and often it feels she is kinda just there when the relationships with Luz and the Blights are not the focus. And even in her relationship with Luz it seems that except for Reaching Out there is more focus on just lumity with some very quikly resolved problems - and, no, it doesnt mean i would want it to be an angst fest, but added to everything else it doesnt help Amity's character.

And that's why i like s3 Amity more, because she is at least shown to actively interact with other kids and Camila, even if in montages or in the background. And, yes, that's a general flaw of the show with its inability to balance the cast and the character arcs, but i feel that even if there was no way to develop various dynamics then at least they could've done something interesting and fresh Amity's development in s2.

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Everyone's faces in the Eber vs Mason scene are so funny:

Especially Eda and Graye in the third screenshot. But also Darius:

i am not even sure what is this expression? He doesn't look happy but his eyebrow seems to be slightly raised?

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I know this is kinda an obvious thing that the rebels would need to use their magic together and also some sort of a potion for the mindscape spell:

but my self-indulgent headcanon is that they had also figured out by themselves how they can 'combine'/'mix' their magic types in a unique way to make more complicated 'wild magic' spells work. Like, there was some innovative thinking involved.

Also it seems that Eber is the one drawing the big circle (possibly related to how they summoned their ratworm in ER?). Then Raine's magic makes the smaller circles appear/glow (finishes/activates them?):

And then Darius uses abomination to activate/change the potion they have:

This is kinda funny compared to how easy Eda's spell in Understanding Willow seemed to be for her:

But also you can see that Eda directs the spell right into Willow's head - and Willow is right there - while the rebels had to do it from far away.

I've also had wondered before, whether the 4 small circles meant there might have been a 4th person involved pre-shortening, but now i think the central circle would've send the rebels into the mindscape, while the small circles might have been powering it up.

(another question is how the rebels would've returned. i guess the Batts might have pulled them out from the distance, and i like to headcanon that Eber would have stayed behind since Eda said that no more than two should go into the mindscape, although if it is for the mindscape-owner's safety, the rebels might not have cared)

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Now, this moment was always weird to me:

It directly follows Raine's and Darius's interaction that explains that they were working together and shows a bit of Darius' motives, and it is followed by Eda asking Raine why Raine didn't let her know about stuff like not being brainwashed and still being a rebel. But non of 'this stuff' happened while Lilith was in charge?

Maaybe Steve is actually asking about the DoU draining spell and Belos's evil plans in general, but it doesn't really fit the way the interaction is framed and Lilith's response being about not being good at her job.

It might make sense in universe if Steve is asking about the CATTs and just doesn't know the time frame, but from the writing perspective it still looks like a weird choice to me because Lilith's response reads like "Wow, Lilith had missed a lot of what was happening under her nose", and this wouldn't happen under her nose.

Maybe it is meant to be about Raine and the Batts, but their activity seemed rather recent in ER - Katya had even noted in the episode that with Eda they actually helped someone (implied - for the first time), so that also wouldn't happen while Lilith was in charge, unless it was retconned between s2a and s2b.

It's probably just an awkward writing moment, maybe there was a bigger conversation that they couldn't fit, but i wonder whether this might be a remnant of pre-shortening plans for the rebels, and that this is a hint that there was a rebellion that was going on for a longer time and/or maybe that Darius (and Eber) were meant to be doing/planning rebellion against Belos for a longer time too🥺. But probably not.

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It doesn't really mean anything, but why is the episode where Terra is introduced is also the episode where Eda prominently uses plant glyphs?

Maybe i am wrong, but i think this is the first time and maybe the only time she does it?

This is not going anywhere, it just really caught my eye on the rewatch.

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I like the detail that Raine's and Darius' cloaks are normal, but Eber's is more worn and torn/ragged:

Or more like, Eber's cloak is normal and well-worn, but Raine and Darius are city slickers who had to buy their cloaks for this.

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i just think this is a neat screenshot:

I like how Puddles just allows Skara to lie on her back.

(i definitely feel like a Skara-centric episode/subplot is missing which is such a shame.)

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Re Willow and Darius parallels, i headcanon that Willow and Darius have a similar type of humour that is often not comprehensible/obvious for others. Like, you see several times in s2 Willow acting 'scary' for something mundane, and even in s1 there are some instances of her being morbid as an (in-universe) joke too. Obviously, as an adult Darius should learn to be more considerate of when it's appropriate to apply his humour, but i headcanon that his dark humour is at large the same type as Willow's (and it's less obvious and more dead pun than Eda's for example).

Although regarding Willow - she also loves dumb jokes, as she said herself in the first season, i feel the fandom kinda misses on that.

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I believe some rebel activity, gathering intel and snooping around was going on in these scenes:

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I like how the Draining Spell diagramm here is beautifully hand-drawn and neatly written, but then a part of the text is just scribbles that were not really necessary for the viewer:

My 'theories':

the difference is between Darius's official hand writing and his quick cursive

Eberwolf wanted to participate

~secret code~

But, um, i always found it interesting that it was specified that the Door was being moved. I wonder what were the rebels thinking about its importance? Was this something that was abandoned after the shortening? Afterall, before s2b there seemed to be some importance to the Human Realm in Belos's promises to the Coven Heads, and while he lies, it seemed weirdly specific.

I also always wondered whether the rebels - if they had no idea that Belos was a human - thought the Draining Spell would depower all the witches with sigils except for the Emperor's Coven, making the EC rule the rest of the Isles. Because i imagine that if they think Belos is a witch then him killing everyone wouldn't make immediate sense, but him draining everyone's magic possibly to power up his elite chosen ones maybe would make more sense in-universe.