#i sorta wish that king and eda had more time in the episode to go completely apeshit and attack belos | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

desmondkane-of-ao3-fame · 1 year

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you think hunter got off to easy but not lilith?

NOTE: This is a long, rambly, very unedited post. A post I made that I've completely rewriten three times. At this point, I just want to finish this. It starts off simple enough, then dovetails into a rant about Any Sport, then sorta gets back on track. I'm tired, and just want to put this question to rest. TLDR, yes I do. Want more? Please read on.

I have gotten three variations of this qustion since I wrote the post about my thoughts on Hunter, which you can read here if you haven't. In short, I don't care for Hunter or Huntlow, and the line this specific bit is reffering to is this: His redemption arc, despite supposedly taking up about 5 episodes, is the biggest mess the show’s ever had, filled with Hunter doing actions that would make Agony of a Witch Lilith call overkill and yet facing 0 pushback. And, to be honest, I stand by this position.

For starters, Hunter is presented as much more of a genuine threat from the very start. Lilith is more of a nuisance to Eda throughout the first season, trying to bring Eda to the EC so she can both be healed of her curse and prove herself the superior sister in the most petty ways possible. As a high-ranking member of the EC, it's likely she's commited more blatently evil acts off-screen, and I do wish the show explored that, but from all we see on-screen, Lilith isn't really 'evil' so much as 'pathetic'.

But what about Agony, when Lilith DOES do evil stuff?

Well, in Lilith's fifth apperance, she kidnaps Luz, almost gets her killed by dangling Luz over dangerous terrain, and, in the next episode is indirectly the reason Luz loses the portal when she blows it up to keep it out of Belos's hands.

The thing is... Hunter does all of that.

In his first voiced appearance, he threatens Luz, Eda, and King by dangling the first two over dangerous terrain. In his third appearance, he captures Luz. And in his fourth appearance, he is directly responsible for Luz being unable to go home when he takes the portal key from Amity. He also attacks Amity when she offers him help, uses Luz's life as a bargaining chip thus betraying any friendship they may have gained in 'Hunting,' and later kidnaps four children that he plans to take rip away from their families so that he brand them (his words) and force into becoming peons for a fascistic cult, which, ya know, bit dicey, not very PC I'd argue.

But what about cursing Eda?

Here's where I talk about the part where Lilith doesn't actually get off as easy as people like to make out. Because here, things happen to Lilith that never happen to Hunter: characters acknowledge her shit, and Lilith directly accepts a fitting punishment for her crime.

During her rescue mission to the Emperor's Castle, Luz is more then happy to try and at least incredibly hurt Lilith during their fight. It isn't until Lilith not only admits she deserves Eda's fate, not only explains what happened, but also reveals she saved Owlbert, that Luz is willing to side with Lilith. And later, when Lilith is about to be petrified alongside Eda, the latter would have gladly torn her to shreds without even asking why she's there if King hadn't stopped her. And when the group escapes, Lilith decides to take on half the curse herself so that she can save Eda, suffering the same fate as her sister. It's not going to make Dante Basco jelous he couldn't play such a deep and complex redemption, but honestly, I think it works for a single episode arc, and does satisfy my need to see Lulu face justice.

Hunter, meanwhile, doesn't really have that.

After 'Eclipse' you'd think 'Oh, Hunter's really in for it now!' Like, the Hexside crew would treat him as an 'Attack on Sight' threat. Especially Luz, given he betrayed her trust, threatened her girlfriend, and stole her best chance of getting home. 'Eclipse' should have served as Hunter's 'Agony,' the episode Hunter has to redeem himself from before anyone in the Hexsquad is willing to trust him.

Instead, we get 'Any Sport,' the episode where he, again, kidnaps a team of kids he's known only for an afternoon to force them into the EC. And in fairness, both Skara and Gus are at least a little peeved off about the whole afair. Except then Hunter turns to Willow to see her explain the other Entrails should be cool with this and...*

A brief reminder that Willow got Clover from saying she wanted to defend her friends, is arguably the most powerful of the Hexkids in terms of raw magical strength, knows about what Hunter's done to her friends, and has been shown as deeply hurt and angry when it comes to sudden betrayal by 'friends' before, to the point it becomes a magic power amplifier. Willow should by all accounts be so livid about all of this that she at least tells Hunter 'Actually, you're a prick and I don't really get why you think I would be down for any of this.'

Instead, she just crawls into corner and blames herself. Literally. Saying that Hunter kidnapping them all is her fault because she 'made a bad call.'

Which... is a thing that could, potentially, maybe, make some form of sense from both a character and story perspective. If I, ya know, bash my head into the concrete a little and squint until I go blind.

That tangent aside, Hunter then decides to let them go because Steve mentions their Palismen will be used for medecine for Belos*, and once he helps the Entrails not die at the hands of Darius,** Willow is so cool with him that she later proudly shows off the fact she's now friends with Hunter despite knowing that both Amity and Luz are clearly mortified by this.

And then... nothing.

No on-screen discussion about how Luz or Amity feels about Hunter, or scene where the show acknowledges maybe he did some bad stuff in the past unless it's just there to make you feel bad for him. Luz is now just completely cool with the guy who threatened Amity because he kidnapped Willow but also let her go later so-

See, that's what I mean. The show takes it that Hunter's redemption should just be a given to the audiance by now to the point Luz doesn't seem to care about the fact he's the same dude who stole her one way home. Instead, she want's to redeem him. No internal conflict about how to feel or justified anger about anything Hunter did to her or Amity, just the show deciding that letting a few kids go after kidnapping them is enough justification for Luz to not be upset by that.

Lilith actually faced consequences in losing her magic and taking on half the curse to save the one she cursed, and had the extra help of major characters actually being upset about what she did to them. Hunter, meanwhile, doesn't face anything after 'Eclipse' aside from Gus and Skara's condemnation for 2 seconds, and never has to even apologize for the whole 'assaulting Amity' or 'stealing the key' bit on screen.

And that, THAT, is why I say that Hunter did, in fact, get off lighter then Lilith.

*Also, if Hunter knew enough about friendship in 'Hunting' to know taking Luz in would be not friendly, why does he now believe that backstabbing people is the highest sign of friendship? Because Coven Heads do it? That doesn't ever actually get shown on screen, and the one time the Coven Heads DO betray each other is when Raine tries to kill Darius and Ebberwolf in 'Requiem,' which did not seem to be taken by Kikimora as a friendly jesture.

**Also also, this never made sense to me: Why doesn't Darius just... let them escape on the ship? Pretend he's so invested in Pensta that he doesn't notice Skara stealing the Palismen, letting them fly away, and just acting like it's not worth tracking them down? And when they later escape, was he just... gonna kill a bunch of children? You can say he wasn't but he seems pretty intent on doing so, and there's literally no reason to not just pretend you were too injured to fight? Why make a giant Abomination and cut down massive vines, seeming to be pretty invested in the idea of gutting Willow alive?

#maybe not my best work #idc #it's done #i can put this to rest #later

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lampmanliveblogs · 4 years

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Is this when Luz learns that spell from the intro? I figured that ball of light would be her first spell. You know, since that intro has her falling into the new magical world, and it ends with her casting a spell, showing that she has a place within this world.

Interesting. But also very gross. Like most things in nature, really. Interesting, but gross.

Alright, so magic comes from a sack in the heart… and in order to cast spells you need to draw a circle. I figured that second part already.

Pictured, me Wednesday last week after spending the entire day in the potato fields.

i guess Eda wasn’t exaggerating when she said that big forcefield spell took a lot out of her. Or… is there something else at play here?

Turns out Eda was literal when she said she had nest. I… don’t know why I thought anything else. Anyways, it looked like she had a bunch of coins and other precious shiny things in her nest. So she’s like a dragon then? An owl lady that’s like a dragon that also steals trash? A trash owl dragon lady?

Trash Owl Dragon Lady is the name of my indie rock band that will never exist.

There is text on that bottle of very brightly colored yellow stuff and I can’t read it and it’s driving me just a wee bit crazy.

Hm… are we maybe gonna get some King character development? Luz asked him if he knew what it was like to have no one take you seriously, and his expression told me that he does. Which makes sense. I mean, look at him. He supposed to be this terrifying demon king, but he’s the most adorable little guy ever. Of course no one would ever take him seriously… just like Luz isn’t doing right now.

King was very excited to tell her about something he knows a lot about; demons. Yet she is so enamored by the prospect of learning magic that she completely ignores him in favor of Eda, who also doesn’t take King all that serious all the time… aside from that time she risked her life to retrieve a paper crown just to make him happy.

The B-plot of King raising that trash slug to prove he’s a better teacher than Eda last episode might’ve been played mostly for laughs, but I’m wondering if it could’ve been a bit deeper than that. After all, he’s doing something similar here. He promised to teach Luz the light spell that Eda failed to do in the hopes that she’ll take him serious and listen to his lessons about demons. It’s not quite the same thing, I don’t think he really wants to show up Eda in that way here, I think it’s more focused on gaining Luz’ respect and attention in the same way Eda has.

It’s kinda interesting, because in episode 2, Luz was sorta going through something similar. At the start of that episode, she felt like Eda wasn’t taking her wish to learn magic very seriously, which spiraled into the full-blown identity crisis later on in the episode. Heck, this was also sorta what happened in the beginning of episode 3 as well.

Still not sure where The Intruder comes into this.

Um… King, I’m sure you mean well, but I don’t think raiding Eda’s liquor cabinet and getting Luz drunk is going to help her learn any magic.

#the owl house #liveblog #the owl house liveblog #toh s1e4 #the intruder

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