Fanfic / Moonshadow

art by A_E_Redacted

Between picking up the pieces in the wake of the Day Of Unity and its aftermath, reconnecting with Raine, helping King come to terms with his newfound identity and being there for Luz as she navigates a life split between the Boiling Isles and Connecticut, Eda Clawthorne has a lot on her plate.

Taking on another, seemingly-impossible project at this point, especially one that seems particularly ill-advised, is probably not the wisest decision. But then, Eda has never been one to take the easy path in life.

And she made a promise.

AKA - The one where Eda takes it upon herself to give The Collector a second chance, and faces the challenges that go along with it.

Canon-divergent after King's Tide.

Moonshadow is a The Owl House fanfic by A_E_Redacted.

The fic can be read on Archive of Our Own here.

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This fanfic provides examples of:

• Bait-and-Switch:
  • Chapter 45 seems to start with a flashback before its revealed to be a nightmare The Collector was having.
  • At the end of Chapter 46 the scene switches between a past conversation and Belos/Philip’s present day musings. The dialog makes it seem like it’s another conversation between Philip and The Collector before the last line reveals its actually Philip and Caleb.
• Beach Episode: Chapter 35 takes place entirely at two separate beaches.
• Big Damn Reunion:
  • Eda and King in chapter 7.
  • Luz, Amity, Willow, Gus and Hunter with Eda and the Survivor Group in chapter 9.
• Born as an Adult: Downplayed and Justified, in chapter 31 Hunter reveals that he doesn’t have any childhood memories and doesn’t understand unruly kid behavior, implying he was created as a teenager.
• Brought Down to Normal: As part of the plan to deal with The Collector, in chapter 10 Vee manages to consume enough of The Collector’s magic to render them temporally powerless.
• Catapult Nightmare:
  • In chapter 1 Eda wakes up from the nightmare she has like this.
  • In chapter 6 The Collector wakes up from a nightmare this way.
• Chekhov's Army: The Titan Trappers after last being seen in chapter 4 come back in chapter 10 to serve as the final conflict of arc 1.
• Chekhov's Gun: Eda is noted to be reading a book on glassmaking in chapter 2, this is how Luz figures out what Eda’s plan is in chapter 5.
• Contemplate Our Navels:
  • Eda does this infrequently throughout arc 1.
  • The Collector and Belos/Philip take time to reflect on their present situation in chapter 46.
• Didn't See That Coming: Eda’s “plan” to face and destroy The Collector are quickly derailed when she physically meets them in chapter 7.
• Disney Death: King is presumedly killed by Bill of the Titan Trappers in chapter 10 with The Collector unable to use their reversal spell to heal him due to having their magic drained. In chapter 11 Camila examination of King reveals that The Collector had enough magic in them to heal King internally and Camila can save the rest of him.
• Distant Reaction Shot: While emptying the human vault at the Conformatorium in chapter 26, Gus accidentally activates one of Belos/Philip’s prototype staffs which fires a blast that causes an explosion that is heard from the Owl House and the streets of Bonesborough.
• Downer Ending: The last flashback of chapter 11 ends with The Collector recaptured despite Eda’s attempts to prevent it and everyone else present, except for Adrian, shaken by what they just did.
  They had won.
  It didn’t feel like winning.
• Driving Question: Arc 1 has a few of these.
  • How did we get from the Day of Unity to the present.
  • What is Eda’s plan. To recreate The Collector’s reversal spell to fix their mirror disc.
  • What promise did Eda make and to whom did she make it too. Eda promised The Collector that she would protect them and wouldn’t leave them alone.
  • What is so important about the jar of sand. It contains the remains of The Collector’s mirror
• Entertainingly Wrong: In chapter 36 when The Collector uses Luz’s portal door to visit Camila’s workplace in the human realm, two vet workers believe their skin and clothes to be part of a costume.
• Everyone Meets Everyone: Downplayed as it is not the first chapter, but it is relatively early in the fic. In chapter 9 Camila and Vee meet Eda and Luz’s friends in the Survival Group.
• Fell Asleep Crying: The Collector cries themselves to sleep at the end of chapter 20. The other characters notice the next chapter.
• Feral Villain: Belos’s current state has been hinted at throughout the story but Chapter 41 starts with a POV from him, confirming he’s operating on hunting instinct.
• Flashback B-Plot: Starting with the first chapter, the first arc is told in this style.
• Flashback Nightmare: Chapter 1 starts with Eda having one of these.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In chapter 2 and 5, attention is brought to some scars on Eda’s hand. They turn out to be from The Collector holding on to Eda while they get sucked back into their prison in chapter 10.
  • In chapter 5 when King makes a suggestion to The Collector to get some rest they physically shudder and respond flatly that they don’t sleep. They fall asleep later in the chapter showing they can sleep but prefer not to. Chapter 6 reveals why, they suffer from nightmares.
• Framing Device: Chapter 32 is framed as Luz comparing The Collector to the deities of The Good Witch Azura books with each comparison bringing up a scene/memory.
• Freak Out: The Collector suffers from a major one in chapter 45 when it finally hits them that Phillip never intended to free them despite all there time together. They start off loudly wailing before switching to laughing. They also suffer from a bout of power incontinence during this, creating a storm that almost takes the house down. Thankfully, The Collector gets through it with their sanity intact thanks to Eda and Raine and a newfound acceptance of Philip’s betrayal.
• Group Hug: Chapter 31 ends with the Owl House residents hugging each other on the floor.
• Gullible Lemmings: In chapter 6 we are introduced to a faction of witches that still support Belos despite his actions on the Day of Unity and his backstory being public knowledge.
• Heist Episode: Chapter 25, 26, and 27.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • After mistakenly getting confirmation that her kids are dead, Eda spends some time in this state.
  • Eda spends some more time in this state after failing to protect The Collector and prevent their recapture.
  • Eda again spends time in this state after failing to retrieve The Collector’s tablet after Adrian throws it into the boiling sea.
• I Choose to Stay: The Collector returns to the stars in chapter 44 to burn off their pent up magic. At first, they liken it to returning home after spending eons trapped in the Demon Realm, with Eda lamenting they’re free to return to wherever they came from. However, they quickly grow lonely and anxious. After contemplating on what they want, The Collector returns to the Owl House, stating that Eda and Raine are theirs, invoking ownership while everyone can see they really mean this trope. Lampshaded afterwards by Eda and Raine with the discussion they have in the kitchen.
• Infraction Distraction: In chapter 29 Adrian, having succeed in his plan, attempts to get Raine in trouble for having the Collector’s disc. Raine manages to turn the accusation around by saying that Adrian fell for his and Eda’s plan but that’s just a fabrication to hide the fact that Adrian’s actions forced them to free The Collector which is what Adrian was trying to prevent.
• Internal Reveal:
  • In chapter 2 Eda learns from Alador what happened to Luz and King after she left with the CATs.
  • In chapter 3 Eda tells the survival group what she knows about The Collector.
  • In chapter 5 Kikimora tells the survival group that King is the child of the Boiling Isles Titan and that he’s alive and with The Collector.
  • In chapter 7 Eda learns from King that Luz, Amity, Willow, Gus, and Hunter are alive in the human realm, that he freed The Collector, and The Collector stopped the draining spell. Eda tells the rest of the survival group later in the chapter.
  • In chapter 8 King tells Eda and the survival group about the special sigil on his collar that makes things invisible to The Collector.
• Loophole Abuse: In chapter 38 The Collector makes use of one to teach King about titan magic stating Eda said they couldn’t use their magic to fix others’ problems but here they’re helping King with his own magic.
• Mayfly–December Friendship: Comes up in several chapters due to King and The Collector being immortal children in the care of mortals.
• Meaningful Rename: At the end of chapter 45, The Collector adopts the name Moon.
• Mistaken Death Confirmation: Due to lack of information Luz, King, Amity, Willow, Gus, and Hunter are presumed dead by Eda and the rest of the survival group when they learn they were in the titan’s skull when it collapsed due to The Collector.
• My Greatest Failure: Eda believes leaving The Collector behind in chapter 7 and not speaking up in chapter 9 is this.
• Pent-Up Power Peril: In chapter 39 The Collector tells King they suffer from this if they don’t let their magic out regularly.
• Precision F-Strike: Usually when a character drops a swear it’s a sign that things are going to get tense.
  • Raine drops an f-bomb at Adrian in chapter 11.
  • Darius drops an f-bomb in chapter 16.
  • Adrian drops an f-bomb in chapter 26.
• Pure Magic Being: The Collector reveals themselves to be one of these to King in chapter 38
• Shock-and-Switch Ending: Chapter 26’s ending is quite the roller-coaster. Adrian successfully steals The Collectors tablet, taking off on a griffin over the boiling sea with Eda giving chase. After some back and forth Adrian eventually throws it, casting illusions of the disc so Eda can’t retrieve the real one. The narrative builds up that the last one she attempts to catch must be the real one only for it not to be and for the real disc to sink into the boiling sea, rendering it unobtainable. Eda becomes extremely distraught believing she once again failed them and lost someone she loved. Upon returning to the Owl House, she notices Luz, King, and Raine holding colorful blankets looking quite happy. After a delayed reaction to the blankets being The Collector’s physical form the chapter ends happily with Eda comforting a sleeping Collector while asking how [did they do it?].
• Shoot the Dog: Discussed and Played Straight. The plan the group comes up with to deal with The Collector in chapter 9 is to send them back to their prison with the mirror disc Luz, Amity, Willow, Gus, and Hunter found in the human realm and then destroy it leaving them permanently stuck there. King and Eda voice their concern over the morality of this with Luz eventually coming to the realization that they’ll be sentencing a child into eternal solitary confinement. Darius in chapter 10 admits to not liking it but not seeing any other solution and having to make these kinds of decisions before.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Luz and Amity act this way towards each other in chapter 34, much to the annoyance of the pet store worker.
• Spy Speak: Downplayed and Played for Laughs. Darius, Raine, and Eda engage in this while Darius hands Raine and Eda the jar of sand in chapter 4.
• Switching P.O.V.: The story frequently does this to get everyone’s perspective.
• Tempting Fate: In chapter 23 Raine expresses concern that The Collector and their tablet are vulnerable if someone attempted to take it. Eda brushes off their concern saying if Hooty is guarding the house they’re safe. Sure enough, the day Hooty isn’t guarding the house Adrian steals the tablet.
• The Caper: In chapter 25 Luz, King, Hooty, Amity, Willow, and Gus enact their plan to infiltrate the Conformatorium to raid Belos/Philip’s human vault while at the same time Adrian and a team he assembled enact their plan to raid the Owl House to find the remains of The Collectors tablet.
• The Gloves Come Off: In chapter 11, Luz, whose hands are covered in Titans blood from attempting to take King’s vitals after he is seemingly killed, realizes it supercharges her glyphs. She shifts priorities to end the battle with her supercharged glyphs, creating a castle sized tree from plant, a large glacier from ice and a wall of fire from fire.
  “OKAY TITAN TRAPPERS!” Luz shouted, picking up the weapon that Bill had hit King with in one hand and a stack of glyphs in her other. “YOU’RE NO LONGER WELCOME HERE! YOU’VE MURDERED ONE OF OUR OWN UNPROVOKED, AND THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING! I WON’T HOLD BACK!”
• Too Desperate to Be Picky: The Collector only agrees to trust Eda at the end of chapter 10 out of desperation not to be captured.
• Trauma Conga Line: The Collector gets betrayed by King and Eda, Kikimora, Odalia, and the coven heads in quick succession from chapter 7 to 9. At the end of it they go from trusting everyone to trusting no one.
• Unintentionally Notorious Crime: As far as Flora D’splora knows in chapter 26 she is just attempting to steal a jar of sand from the Owl House, confused why Eda keeps saying she’s threatening her family in doing so. Said artifact is the remains of the (unknown to them, fixed) tablet containing The Collector who Eda sees as one of her own. By wanting to steal it she is unknowingly threatening to kidnap them.
  Eda: I did. And unless you want a personal demonstration of what happens when you threaten my kids, I suggest you retreat. I’m giving you one last chance.
  Flora: What does some ancient artifact have to do with your Titandamned kids?
• Unperson: Chapter 26 and 30 discuss that Belos/Philip was hiding evidence of The Collector’s existence to keep them a secret.
• Whole Episode Flashback: Chapter 10, 11, and 27 are mostly flashback before cutting back to the present.

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