inky?

Never getting over how Hunter only mentioned Darius once in the entire special and it was to be like "his stitches suck ass compared to this hunk of metal."

This should've been Hunter's Halloween costume, if only for the fact that it'd have made the whole scene infinitely funnier. Here have extra panels too, I'm feeling generous:

Hunter has been through so much, but it was written beautifully. The poor boy made so much progress, he finally started liking who he was, and then Belos took it all away from him once again, so you'd think. But just looking at him post-possession. He's hurt, he's angry, but his mentality has changed. He's sad, and by god he's allowed to be, he just lost his best friend... and most definitely went through an INCREDIBLY triggering experience. But if this had happened in season 2, he would be hyperventilating right now; he would go straight into a panic attack. But he has a support system now, hobbies/coping mechanisms, and he has the love of his best friend INSIDE his heart. He's taking the next step to -truly- finding his purpose and loving himself once again and finding ways to cope with his anxiety. And I just think it's beautiful how much progress he has made in the human world.

All wearing a hand-sewn wolf t-shirt, and an off-brand star trek cosplay. I seriously Love this show so so much.

This, I think, is an underrated Hunter moment, which I get, considering everything that happened with him in this episode. But this is huge. 

Belos tricks people. 

It’s such a simple line, but it means so much for Luz to hear it, and it means so fucking much for Hunter to be saying it. Belos tricks people, so it’s not Luz’s fault. Belos tricks people, so it’s not his fault. There’ll be guilt, sure, but this line tells me that Hunter won’t blame himself wholly for Flapjack. Belos tricks people. It’s Belos’ fault that Flapjack is gone. 

Hunter’s going to avenge his friend. 

*inhales*

LUZ ISN’T BEING STOIC OR UNCARING IN THIS SCENE, SHE’S JUST TRYING NOT TO OVERWHELM AND SHAME HIM FOR CRYING BECAUSE IN THE PAST HE’S NOT WANTED TO BE TOUCHED DURING AN EMOTIONAL MOMENT 

*TOH SEASON 3 SPOILERS*

So fandom… how are we doing…

You know what absolutely blows my fucking mind? How little of the Wittebane’s backstory has been explicitly revealed in the show. Like, it wasn’t until very, very recently that we got a fully ascribed account of what happened to the brothers that mentioned them by name, and even then, it’s seen through the lens of a small town’s personal folklore. The paintings in Belos’ mindscape are never looked at or observed by characters in canon, any and all extrapolation about them must be done by the viewer. The closest we have come to seeing Caleb in the show’s reality is in Hunter’s mildly hallucinatory reflection, and his name that has been said by Philip only twice. It’s insane. This man is a ghost in so many ways. Caleb Wittebane is arguably the most important character in this entire fucking series and we haven’t seen him actually appear yet. Holy shit.

Anyway the fact that Hunters new scar is so big it’s erased and overwritten his old scar, which was already a noticeable defining feature of his abusive upbringing, dfghhcgjdjlmv there’s gotta be some kind of metaphor here but I’m tired so I’ll come back to this thought later.

Ya know I think Hunter maybe didn’t entirely want to go back to the Boiling Isles until his confrontation with Belos. As Gus pointed out he was happy in the human realm. No one to fight, safe with his friends/new family. Getting to act like a normal person his age. But I think him finally being able to stand up to Belos he decided to fight for the things he could never have in the Boilng Isles. Despite all the trauma, it’s still his home and he wants to finally live. I love that speech he had.

Flapjack too obviously helped him get here. He also gave Hunter the strength to fight off Belos. Hunter truly starting fighting Belos the day they met. He helped grant Hunter the freedom to chose his own path, it’s why he chose Hunter. And now his sacrifice continues to push Hunter forward.

There is still a bit of hesitation from Hunter as he steps towards the portal. That rattling gasp and that last line from Hunter that gets me right in the feels.” Time to go home Flap” Way to tug at my heartstrings Owl Crew. That is like the most devastating line in the whole show.

this love is alive back from the dead, these hands had to let it go free, and this love came back to me

(this love, taylor swift)

I feel like a lot of people misread Willow as being the mentally stable friend. 

She’s not, she just puts up a good front. Her goals aren’t about her. She doesn’t consider her own emotions. Everything’s about others. 

Willow is someone who tries her best to appear put together and stable on the outside. She won’t let you see her crack. Because to her her friends are 1000x more important. Many witches state a goal that involves their career or deepest wish for themselves when they chose a palisman or make one. Willow doesn’t, and she’s one of the few we’ve seen who makes this choice. She doesn’t want to be strong to help herself gain power, she wants power to protect those close to her. 

Willow isn’t one to let her emotions get the better of her. But when they do she breaks. She can’t put up with all the pressure, she has a breaking point. And this breaking point usually stems from this insecurity of her not being good enough. She needs to be good enough for others. And she is. But she’s not good enough for herself. 

Willows an amazing friend but she’s in no way less mentally ill then anyone else. She is unsure of herself and always needs to prove herself to others. It’s not quite as obvious as it is with Hunter; he’s always running around trying to prove his worth and having panic attacks because of it. But it’s still there, she just does a good job of keeping it all inside. 

With Hunter we see this aspect of him a lot. It’s a huge plot point in Eclipse Lake. He’s scared of rejection from Belos. He’s scared of being replaced. He’s scared of not having a place in the world. He puts the needs of others over his own constantly. But Hunter can’t put up a front like Willow can. The only time we get to really explore Willows insecurity’s properly is when we literally are seeing inside her head. The episodes literally called Understanding Willow for crying out loud:

As someone who was bullied mercilessly for years when I was the age Willow is in this memory I really understand this whole episode on a very personal level. The things people said to Willow got to her. Her inner self says she’s just “finishing what (Amity) started.” Even when she heals her relationship with Amity she still has moments of insecurity. She calls herself, “half-a-witch.” She gets mad when Amity trys to protect her. She gets upset when she is captured by someone she trusted. All these things resurface old familiar emotions for her. 

Willow has been trying her whole life to help people and for so long it didn’t work out. Amity calls her a “weakling.” She vows to be a powerful witch. Amity tells her she causes problems. Willow says she is going to protect everyone she loves. Amity rejects Willows friendship and picks on her. 

Willow is scared of rejection. 

Scared of disappointing people. 

She is upset when Amity replaces her with new friends and lets them pick on her. 

She can’t deal with any of these emotions - similarly to Hunter - so she combats it by constantly comforting and prioritizing others.  

Willows incredibly powerful and strong. And amazing friend and a force not to be taken lightly. 

But in no way is she over these deep rooted anxiety’s of losing her friends, not being able to protect people, or being a nuisance and a problem. 

I really want this to be an aspect of her that is focused on sometime in the future, because its a problem she has that is never really solved. 

She’s not completely indestructible. 

I'm still kinda fucked up by the line "and never set foot in that throne room again."

That's where Belos almost struck him in Hunting Palismen and is heavily implied to be the place where almost all of the mistreatment took place. All of that happened behind closed doors. Nobody knew. Just the fact that Hunter has such a strong aversion to that room in particular that he makes a point to say they he will never go there again.

All of these scenes happened in the Throne Room. Threats of physical abuse, open emotional abuse, manipulation, and traumatizing outbursts that get blamed onto Hunter & wild magic (which we know is a lie)

The only character stated to know exactly what was happening in there was Kikimora, who we also know delighted in Hunter's suffering & felt nothing for the previous grimwalkers' horrific fates, all because she wanted his position

I think it's likely others had some kinda idea that things were bad for Hunter (such as the Coven Heads) but the show made a point to explain that Kikimora alone knew everything, from the DOU to the grimwalkers to the Collector, stuff we know no one else knew about. However I think that anyone else who knew/had an idea, came to that conclusion not so much thanks to Hunter's behavior as much as because the Throne Room seemed to be where Belos did all of his punishments, as we saw with Lilith in AOAW (not pictured but he makes the Titan heart start beating faster which echoes around the room & absolutely adds to the threat. I'm sure he did that trick often)

So yeah, Hunter explicitly stating he never wants to step foot in there again following what we've seen Belos do to him & others in that room, it's absolutely where the majority of his abuse took place, and it's as heartbreaking as it is powerful that in his moment of telling Belos off he included that he never wanted to be there again.

Hunter said he wants to make sure Belos never hurts anyone ever again, and by mentioning the Throne Room, he's explicitly including himself in that list

so that episode huh?

Hunter and Luz relationship in S3 - Original dialogue from this post

I was just thinking about how Hunter tells Gus "the weekends [in the Emperor's Coven] were nice" because he "got to leave the castle for missions." Hm. Really recontextualizes how cheerful and excited he was as the Golden Guard in Separate Tides and Hunting Palismen... because it was the only time he got to do stuff and see other people outside the castle :(

Thank you to everyone who made my original post even more painful! I want to stab Belos so much more now :)