After moving, Marcy thought she would live the rest of her life alone and miserable, now that she lost the two most important people in her entire life. That is until the first day at her new school, where while eating lunch alone, a girl going by the name of Luz Noceda asks if she can sit next to her, and a beautiful friendship is formed.
Don't Look Back is a crossover fanfiction between Amphibia and The Owl House by Polychroma_Izu
. It can be read on Archive of Our Own here.
The 29th chapter was co-written by Marzek note , author of fellow Amphibia/Owl House crossover A Lost Owl.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
- Marcy goes through a bit starting with moving away and her initial struggle to make friends at her new school. Not long after, she panics from developing her first crush (who happens to be a girl) and ends up stranded on the Boiling Isles with said crush/first friend.
- Amity is really put through a greater hell than canon; being branded a wanted criminal at the age of 14, disowned by her parents, nearly getting petrified and killed by a type of extinct beast engineered to be more deadly.
- Vee suffers even more too, not just with Belos' experimenting but getting hunted down by Lilith and a party of coven scouts like a mindless animal.
- Adaptational Badass:
- Luz becomes one when it's revealed that she's become linked to a Calamity Gem of her own, serving as the Warrior of the yellow Gem of Protection. Fighting the Quantum Basilisk leads to her discovering glyphs for teleportation/phasing and laser blasts.
- Because of Belos' experimenting, the Greater Basilisk gains the ability to phase in and out of reality, making it a more dangerous foe. This extends to all the other basilisks including Vee, who can now teleport.
- Adaptational Explanation:
- The Basilisk race went extinct thanks to Belos, one of his first declarations as emperor being their forced eradication.
- Ghost is one of the Palisman under the Bat Queen's care and they're placed under Amity's care on Palisman Adoption Day.
- Adaptational Jerkass:
- Principal Hal shows himself to be biased towards head cheerleader Clara Haycee, refusing to believe Luz and Marcy's claims that she was bullying them and made vulgar remarks towards them which earned him Camila's wrath when he tries punishing Luz and Marcy instead.
- Alador is much more disconnected from his family and makes no effort to stop Odalia from kicking Amity out of their home, in fact agreeing with her.
- Boscha's a much more active bully not just to Luz (saying a human doesn't deserve to attend her school) but also Amity, who's just been disowned by her parents and had been declared a wanted criminal.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- Odalia's actually a more ruthless bitch, as she not only comes close to killing Marcy for accidentally intruding in Blight Manor, but she disowns Amity for helping her escape and turns her in to the Emperor's Coven for ending up a wanted criminal just for defending herself.
- Lilith doesn't defect from the Emperor's Coven since Eda isn't put at risk of petrification, so she remains an enemy to the Owl House residents, including Amity and Vee (the latter of whom she attempts to capture alongside Eda).
- Adaptation Expansion: Marcy's parents appear and her home life is shown more.
- Adaptation Name Change: The story changes the names of the Coven Heads who weren't named before it started; Mason is named "Arduin", Hettie Cutburn becomes "Hereatis", Vitimir is dubbed "Poliothys" and Osran is called "Ferolsekh".
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
- Luz isn't best friends with Willow and Gus despite remaining on friendly terms with them, instead spending all her time in the Boiling Isles with Marcy and Amity.
- Amity and Lilith had a distant relationship before the latter's actions at the Covention ruined it, but here it's practically non-existent as Lilith doesn't lift a finger to help Amity when she's slated to be petrified and doesn't hesitate to threaten her alongside the rest of Eda's charges.
- Ascended Extra: Marcy takes on the role of dual-protagonist of the story alongside Luz.
- Mr. and Mrs. Wu, Marcy's parents, play a more supporting role unlike canon where they spoke but never appeared onscreen.
- Amity starts getting a lot of attention once she makes her debut, being taken in by Eda after her parents disown her and Emperor Belos brands her a criminal.
- Becoming the Mask: Hunter comes to genuinely enjoy his time at Hexside and see Luz, Marcy and Amity as his friends despite spying on them for Belos.
- The Bet: Chapter 24 has Amity challenge Boscha to a witch's duel; if Amity won, Boscha had to leave her, Luz, and Marcy alone but if Boscha won, Amity would turn herself in to the Emperor's Coven. Despite Boscha attempting to cheat, Amity wins.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Emperor Belos and King Andrias share the role as the biggest threats to their worlds and even Earth. Belos is enacting total genocide on witchkind while King Andrias attempts to claim the Calamity Box in order to invade other worlds. However, Belos seems to be the bigger threat as he's turning the basilisks into mindless killing machines to aid in his plans.
- Birthday Episode: Chapter 8 focuses on, and is appropriately titled, "Luz's Birthday". The birthday girl doesn't want to celebrate it and settles for a girls' night but Marcy, with Camila's assistance, gives her a low-key gesture with an Azura-themed cake and card. Said gesture is what causes Luz to realize she's crushing on Marcy.
- Bittersweet Ending:
- "Chapter 25: Opposite Sides of the Same Coin" ends with Hunter (as the Golden Guard) stealing the Calamity Box Luz, Marcy and Amity have for Belos. However, Marcy pulls out the gem before he does, so the girls still have a chance to get home while Belos chastises Hunter and refuses to heal the injuries he got from fighting them.
- "Chapter 29: Friend or Foe" has Luz, Marcy and Amity escape Lilith's grasp with Vee, but Eda gets captured so this could happen.
- Chapter 30, titled "Home At Last", ends with Luz freeing Hunter from Belos' control, tapping into her Calamity powers, destroyng Belos's body and getting back to the Human Realm. However, it comes at a steep price; the Collector is freed and possesses Marcy to gain a full body, Amity, Hunter and Vee get trapped in the Human World getting Luz (who had a Power-Strain Blackout) back home, the Collector rearranges the castle which destroys the portal door and Belos returns to the Human Realm as a small blob of goo. All the while Eda's left helplessly chained in the throne room while the Boiling Isles are left at the Collector's mercy.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Chapter 30 reveals that Belos is controlling Hunter with a new kind of mask, and Luz helps him break free of it with Flapjack's help. Later, Belos allows the Collector to use one of the kids as a vessel, and they pick Marcy.
- Break Them by Talking: In "The Palisman Escapade: Part 1", Odalia invades Amity's mind while she's asleep to enforce that she'll always have control over her and that she can easily ruin Luz and Marcy's lives, Amity has none of it and tells Odalia that she'll never let her hurt her friends before kicking her out, resulting in a Catapult Nightmare.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Boscha made powerful explosive potions to use against Amity in their witch's duel for an easy win, and to get out of her promise to stop messing with Amity, Luz, and Marcy if she loses, Boscha uses a special kind of flower to cancel out the everlasting oath's effects on her. Regardless, Amity wins the duel by steaing Boscha's explosive potion and getting her to forfeit.
- Coming-Out Story: While Luz seems comfortable in her bisexuality, Chapter 8 has Marcy discover that she's attracted to Luz, and it's also revealed that Marcy's never had a crush on anyone before this point. She briefly panics until Luz manages to calm her down.
- Commonality Connection: Luz and Marcy get along fast because they discover they're both Good Witch Azura fans. It becomes much stronger when they learn Marcy had just finished reading Luz's recent fanfiction on the series.
- Crush Blush: Luz and Marcy sport these around each other not long after becoming friends; once they fall for each other, they spend more time together and grow closer which makes these more frequent. Amity soon starts showing these when Luz and Marcy show compassion towards her.
- Deal with the Devil:
- To get the yellow Calamity Gem from Luz and Marcy, Emperor Belos releases the Greater Quantum Basilisk to claim it from them at Hexside in exchange for its freedom. It fails, but Belos decides against killing it.
- Subverted when Eda makes one with Lilith; Eda offers to turn herself in so long as her sister lets her kids (including Vee) go free. Lilith refuses as bringing Vee back to the Emperor is her top priority and taking Eda would be a bonus.
- Declaration of Protection: Luz and Marcy make these often, refusing to let one another be harmed by anything. They do one together towards Amity when protecting her from the Greater Basilisk. Amity also does this when she stands up to Odalia, telling her ex-mother that she won't let her hurt any of them again. In fact, Marcy and Amity receive their palismen because they want to protect each other and Luz from any danger.
- Demoted to Extra: Anne and Eda have downplayed roles as main characters, as they receive ample focus but otherwise play no major roles as of late. More of the same can be said of Willow, as she doesn't interact with Luz as often as canon.
- Played straight with the Plantars, King and Gus who've hardly gotten any focus at all.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Intentionally invoked. Emperor Belos has a bounty for 1 million snails placed on Amity's head for fighting back against coven guards. However, Amity only acted in self-defense as the guards were threatening to arrest her, Luz and Marcy just for talking to Eda.
- Downer Ending: "Chapter 21: He Knows" ends with Andrias' Elite Four soldiers successfully stealing the Calamity Box from Anne, thus taking away her only way home.
- Everyone Can See It: With how well Luz and Marcy get along and how much the latter talks about the former, Marcy's parents immediately pick up on how close the girls are. As a result of how affectionate the girls are in public, everyone at their school assumes they're dating. It doesn't change when they enter the Boiling Isles as Eda and the troublemakers pick up on it a few minutes after meeting the two. Eda later begins to suspect that Amity likes both of them.
- Failed a Spot Check: Gus goes almost a month before realizing there's two humans attending his school.
- Familiar: Aside from Amity, Willow and Gus, Marcy also receives her own Palisman, a black and green dragon named Athena.
- Fate Worse than Death:
- Emperor Belos tells the Greater Basilisk killing it would be better than what he's got planned for it.
- Fittingly, Belos is crushed into sludge by Luz's Calamity-strengthened plant magic.
- Foreshadowing: While Marcy looks through "Dr. P's Secrets to the Universe (And Beyond)", she notes a page titled "Human Turned Witch? Do not trust!"
- For Want Of A Nail: The story starts with Marcy not running away after being told she was moving, instead being comforted by her parents, leading to her never finding the music box. However, Anne and Sasha find it anyway after Marcy moves and end up in Amphibia without her. This results in them being unable to recharge the Calamity Gem of Wit if they visited the temples.
- Through the In Between Realm, Anne is able to inform Sasha and her parents of her whereabouts rather than meeting up with the former or waiting to return to Earth for the latter two.
- Due to an attack by a strange tentacle creature during a camping trip, Luz and Marcy end up in the Boiling Isles when they go through a pool of Titan's Blood.
- Luz enters the In Between Realm and meets the Collector early, and they teach her the ice glyph (the first glyph she learns here) so she can save Marcy from being killed by Odalia using an Abomaton. This also leads to her meeting Amity much sooner.
- Instead of Eda, it's Amity who's threatened to be petrified not a day after Luz comes to the Boiling Isles. This was a result of Odalia and Alador disowning and turning her in to the Emperor's Coven for helping Luz and Marcy escape their clutches, which led to Belos finding out and putting a bounty on her head along with her standing up to them faster.
- Eda fights Lilith when she, Luz and Marcy storm the castle to rescue Amity and wins, while Luz and Marcy take on Belos in his throne room and destroy the portal door with ice and plant glyphs to keep it out of his reach. Afterwards, Eda decides to let all three girls stay at the Owl House.
- Willow somehow got switched to the Plant track around a month before Luz even started attending Hexside. This gives her the confidence to stand up to Boscha, with help from Skara.
- King Andrias sends his royal guards to Wartwood to steal the Calamity Box from Anne, which they successfully do.
- Hunter infiltrates Hexside earlier as he was ordered by Belos to keep an eye on Luz, Marcy and Amity.
- Amity takes part in defeating the Greater Basilisk and upon being given the option, decides to multi-track in all the tracks. Meanwhile, the Greater Basilisk returns to Emperor Belos so he can continue improving it.
- Luz doesn't meet Gus until Palisman Adoption Day, almost a month after she starts attending Hexside. Amity attends the event and bonds with Ghost and in a case of Swapped Roles, Kikimora is tasked with stealing the Palisman nest while Hunter sabotages her mission to take the credit and obtain Belos' respect.
- Unable to escape to the Human Realm, Vee hides out in an abandoned factory after escaping Belos. She's soon hunted down by Lilith and her scouts, ends up at the Owl House (where she meets Eda and Amity sooner) and when everyone works to protect her, Eda gets captured by Lilith after making a mistake during their rematch.
- Belos actually frees the Collector using the yellow gem, and they possesses someone to have a body. Vee participates in the Hexsquad's first fight against Belos in place of Willow and Gus, who don't go to the Human Realm so they're stuck dealing with the Collector.
- Instead of King, Eda ends up becoming the Collector's "playmate".
- The Gadfly: A few characters make a few jabs at how close and affectionate Luz and Marcy are, including Anne (who only knows about Marcy's crush) and Eda.
- Grew a Spine:
- Amity stands up to Odalia and Alador much faster; refusing to let them hurt Marcy, Amity goes against them to help her escape Blight Manor with Luz. When Odalia later threatens Luz and Marcy, Amity fights back against her and declares she'll defend them.
- After being placed in the Plant track, Willow gains enough confidence to stop Boscha from bullying Luz and Marcy. Inspired by her, Skara encourages everyone else who witnessed Boscha's bullying to speak up and puts her in her place.
- Despite her hesitance, Vee joins in on raiding the Emperor's castle with Luz, Marcy and Amity to rescue Eda and fighting Belos alongside them and Hunter.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite Marcy never finding the music box, Anne ends up finding it after Marcy moves, leading to her and Sasha still being sent to Amphibia.
- After stopping a giant praying mantis with Sprig's help, Anne's taken in by the Plantars. Several of Anne's exploits in Amphibia remain the same, including Sprig getting together with Ivy Sundew and her friendship with Sasha falling apart.
- Emperor Belos still claims Eda's portal to the human realm after threatening one of Luz's friends with petrification; even though she destroys it, he puts it back together.
- Eda takes in Luz when she needs a place to stay after she's stranded in the Demon Realm.
- Luz starts off in the Potions track when she's enrolled at Hexside despite her persistence in studying everything.
- Willow still ends up in the Plant track and befriends Luz.
- Luz still gets thrown in the Detention track for using a crystal ball. Defeating the Greater Basilisk is what makes Principal Bump grant Luz and the troublemakers the opportunity to study in multiple tracks.
- Eda babysat the Bat Queen's babies sometime before meeting Luz. This leads to Palisman Adoption Day, where Willow and Gus receive their palismen and Amity bonds with Ghost. Luz discovers Hunter's the Golden Guard and they save the Palisman from Kikimora. In the end, Hunter bonds with Flapjack and Luz is given Palistrom Wood to carve her own Palisman.
- The Collector is freed, Marcy is possessed by a higher being who needs a body, Hunter turns on Belos who is reduced to goop, the Collector starts rearranging the Isles, Luz, Amity, Hunter and Vee end up in the Human Realm and take shelter with Camila, unaware that Belos made it through with them.
- Internal Reveal:
- In "Chapter 9: A Consciousness In-Between Realms", Anne manages to tells Sasha, her parents and Marcy where she's been for the past month through the cubes in the In Between Realm. Talking with Marcy leads to them learning about the Calamity Box and the In Between Realm through "Dr. P's" book and Marcy gets Anne up to speed about her relationship with Luz.
- Both parts of "The Palisman Escapade" have Luz learn that Hunter's the Golden Guard and had been ordered by Belos to spy on her and her friends. He tells her the portal's been rebuilt and that Belos needs the yellow gem to power it because the key has been lost.
- "Chapter 31: Separated By the Stars" has Camila be filled in about Luz and Marcy's time on the Boiling Isles by Luz, Amity, Hunter, and Vee. Hinter later begins telling Vee about his friendship with Luz.
- It's All My Fault:
- Amity blames herself for Luz and Marcy sacrificing the portal to the human realm, as Belos used her as leverage to draw them in knowing they'd come rescue her.
- Marcy blames herself for the Golden Guard taking the second Calamity Box, shattering her belief that she was becoming less clumsy and less foolish.
- Luz falls into angry depression for getting Marcy and herself thrown into the Detention track when she tries to cheer her up about the previous incident. Marcy on the other hand refuses to blame or be angry with her.
- Karma Houdini:
- King Andrias successfully steals the Calamity Box from Anne so he can use its power for his conquest of Earth.
- Lilith gets away with capturing Eda without ever being exposed for cursing her as a child.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Zigzagged regarding Belos. He nearly has Amity petrified, steals the portal and second Calamity Box, brainwashes and possesses Hunter and threatens to kill Eda should Luz not hand over the yellow gem. His allowing the Collector to possess Marcy's body leads to Luz unlocking a Super Mode that leads to his body's destruction, but he is still able to escape to the Human Realm with everyone on the Isles ignorant of his plans, yet at least the Day of Unity is halted for the most part.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Until Amity, Vee, and Hunter jog her memory, Luz doesn't remember (supposedly) killing Belos.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- For insulting Luz and Marcy and her obscene comments towards them, Clara gets kicked off the cheerleading squad and is barred from any form of participation for the foreseeable future. Her class schedule is also changed so she doesn't share classes with Luz and Marcy while being heavily monitored to prevent such situations from happening again.
- Thanks to Willow and Skara, Boscha's punished for bullying Luz and Marcy and trying to get them to leave Hexside.
- Love Epiphany: Luz and Marcy both have one in chapter 8, realizing they have a crush on the other.
- MacGuffin: The Calamity Box is the only way Anne can get herself and Sasha home, and it ends up being stolen by King Andrias. As it turns out, Eda had another box with a single gem in the basement of the Owl House, giving Luz and Marcy hope that they can use it to get home themselves. Unfortunately, Belos has Hunter steal it to charge the portal indefinitely, but Marcy takes the gem so they can't use its power.
- Meaningful Name: Marcy's Palisman is named Athena, after the Greek Goddess of wisdom, battle strategy, mathematics and courage. Rather fitting for the Calamity Warrior of Wit.
- The Mole: Hunter serves as one, attending Hexside as a Potion track student in order to get close to Luz, Marcy and Amity and monitor them for Belos.
- Named by the Adaptation:
- Marcy's parents were unnamed in Amphibia, but here they're called Beryl and Dace.
- The human doppleganger of Amity who appeared in "A Lying Witch and a Warden" is named Clara Haycee.
- Pet the Dog: Willow donates the piece of palistrom wood Eda, Marcy and Amity tried to steal from the Bonesborough Garden Club because she also wants to cheer up Luz after she fails to receive a palisman.
- Polyamory: After updating the tags, the author's confirmed that the main pairing for the story will be Amity/Luz/Marcy.
- The Red Mage: True to canon, Luz, Viney, Jerbo and Barcus all get to study multiple tracks. In addition, Marcy takes up potions, plants and abominations while Amity decides to study everything like Luz.
- Reality Warper: The Greater Basilisk can phase in and out of reality and change everything around it. It's so powerful, it becomes considered to be a threat to the entire universe.
- The Reveal: After finding a Calamity Box in the Owl House's basement and remembering Luz had glowing yellow eyes in Blight Manor, Marcy, Anne, and Amity realize that Luz is connected to the Calamity Gem of that box.
- Running Gag:
- Marcy has a habit of waking up at 4:32 AM early on.
- Someone comparing a person they hate to a specific human food, causing Amity to question what said human food is.
- Shed the Family Name: After being disowned by her parents, Amity stops using "Blight" as her last name.
- She's Not My Girlfriend: Luz and Marcy have to say they're not dating many times throughout the story.
- Slept Through the Apocalypse: King sleeps through the entirety of Chapter 29 and doesn't wake up until the last scene where he finds the girls moping with Vee over Eda being taken prisoner by Lilith.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Since Principal Hal wouldn't believe her and Marcy about Clara being a jerk to them, Luz tells him to just pull up the footage from the security cameras. Sure enough, he realizes he screwed up especially when Camila sees it.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Camila chews out Principal Hal when she sees video evidence of Clara bullying Luz and Marcy and tries to turn a blind eye to it because he believed Clara's a "model student".
- Would Hurt a Child: Emperor Belos carries this trait over from canon, as he was more than willing to petrify Amity in order to claim Eda's portal and injured Marcy to get Luz to give it up.
- Before then, Odalia nearly kills Marcy with an Abomiton when she ends up in her home by accident. And when Amity stands up for herself against her parents, Odalia slaps her with a phantom hand although she herself was surprised that she did it.
- The Elite Four of the Newtopian Royal Army were willing to hurt, even kill a kid who stands up to them.
- Lilith still shows herself to be not above using Luz as leverage against Eda, but now that extends to Marcy, Amity (her former student) and Vee.
- You Remind Me of X: Eda sees herself as a teenager in Amity: they were both forced to hide the people they were to meet their parents' expectations. Since Eda started being herself after leaving home, she tells Amity to not be afraid to do so herself.
