Poster for the first story
Click here for the poster of the second story.
Rekindling Love serves as the alternative to Season 2 of The Owl House by AusWriter36. The series focuses on people Luz has influenced following the events of "Young Blood, Old Souls".
One Witch's Secrets follows Amity returning to school now that her leg has healed. After she reveals her crush on Luz to her siblings Edric and Emira, they encourage her to work up the nerve to ask the human out. At the same time, Luz begins to question if she sees Amity as more than a friend while Boscha catches on to Amity's feelings and becomes determined to humilate her former friend for leaving her behind, culminating in the girls having to overcome several odds which will decide the fate of their relationship.
Losing Yourself takes place a few days after the events of the previous story, and details how Boscha's actions against Luz and Amity have turned her into a pariah. Now if she wants to regain her former friends, she'll have to prove she wants to change for the better.
Both stories are now complete.
The series can be found on Archive Of Our Own
and Fanfiction.net. It's also on DeviantArt, but just the first story.
Rekindling Love features the following tropes:
- Adaptational Villainy: Since the series started before the second season aired, Alador is much more focused and ruthless here.
- Bait-and-Switch: Edric and Emira give Amity genuine support in confessing her feelings to Luz that she appreciates since they rarely do so. Then they pull a Mrs. Hypothetical that leaves her flustered enough to make her consider taking it back.
- Berserk Button: Downplayed, but still Eda really doesn't like it when Lilith calls her a mother.
- Big Bad Triumvirate: Boscha and Odalia & Alador Blight in One Witch's Secrets.
- Big Brother Instinct: As part of their supporting Amity, the twins are also quick to try and comfort her when she needs it.
- Big Damn Heroes: Just as Odalia throws Luz down into the Boiling Sea to be eaten by some creature, Boscha catches her and flies her back to solid ground.
- Bookends: One Witch's Secrets began with Boscha and Skara rebuilding the Treasure Shack, the former looking for the nails. Losing Yourself ends the same way but now the shack has been completed and Boscha, Skara, Amelia and Cat all start hanging out there again.
- The Bus Came Back: Viney, Jerbo and Barcus reappear at different points in Losing Yourself.
- Call-Back: Grom is constantly mentioned and plays an important role as Luz admits the reason she asked to go with Amity that night was because she had developed her own feelings for her at some point.
- The Azura book club from "Adventures in the Elements" is officially instated as a way for Amity to spend more time with Luz.
- Emira brings up the library incident in "Lost in Language", apologizing to Luz for her and Edric letting her take the blame for stealing Amity's diary.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Boscha and Skara have been friends since childhood, with Skara developing a crush on Boscha that she felt would remain unrequited until they got together as teens.
- Coming-Out Story: One Witch's Secrets focuses on Amity admitting to Edric and Emira she has feelings for Luz and they support her trying to find a way to confess them.
- Losing Yourself has two: it focuses on Boscha's own attempt at admitting how she feels towards her own crush; Skara, who's recently broken up with her boyfriend and is revealed to have mutual feeling for Boscha, making her bisexual. When Boscha tells Luz who she likes, she admits she likes all kinds of people regardless of gender, and Luz identifies her as pansexual.
- Continuity Nod:
- The series begins with Boscha and Skara rebuilding the Treasure Shack after King (in Luz's body) destroyed it. King admits his role in that to Skara when he realizes she only saw him once in his own body that day.
- The first meeting of the Azura book club is in Amity's secret study in the library, first seen in "Lost in Language".
- Luz calls King a little goober again. She also brings up his actions at the carnival.
- Crush Blush: As always, Amity does this around Luz, who soon sports them as well. Boscha starts doing this when she talks about her own crush.
- Cuddle Bug: Luz makes it a habit to hug people, especially Amity, for several reasons be it for expressing admiration or needing/giving comfort.
- Dark and Troubled Past: A year ago, Luz had a crush on a popular boy in her school. When she told him how she felt, he laughed in her face and everyone he knew picked on her since. As such, she doesn't tolerate any kind of mockery about love and wants to be with someone who reciprocates her feelings for them.
- A Day in the Limelight: Amity acts as the star of One Witch's Secrets while Boscha takes the lead in Losing Yourself.
- Demoted to Extra: After being the stars of OWS, Luz and the Blight siblings are dropped as the main characters in the third chapter of LY, "An Explosion of Emotions", so Boscha can be completely focused on.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Boscha serves as the only antagonist in One Witch's Secrets until the final chapter, in which she's replaced by Odalia and Alador.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The second story (and thus, the series) ends with Luz and Amity ready to face anything that comes their way together with the Blight siblings feeling at home in the Owl House while Boscha, now in a relationship with Skara, has reclaimed all of her friends and has changed for the better.
- Easily Forgiven: Subverted in regards to Boscha outing Amity and cruelly ending her friendship with Amelia, as no one at Hexside wants to forgive her except Luz, and even she still had yet to fully do so. Played straight with Cat, who based her opinion on the matter on Skara's words and who was the only friend Boscha didn't have to apologize to.
- Embarrassing Nickname: After what happened with the boy, everyone at Luz's school began calling her "Luz-er".
- Everyone Can See It: The series begins because people see how obvious Amity's crush on Luz is: Boscha pieces together her personality change being a result of Luz's influence, as does Emira. Willow later admits she saw how obvious Amity had been.
- When the Clawthornes see Luz getting lost in thought remembering her dance with Amity at Grom, they easily piece together how the human really feels.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Wanting to shed her mother's influence off her, Amity stops dying her hair green in the second story and goes by her natural brown color.
- Fan Art: The author created the series posters and made an image from OWS Chapter 5: "Spark from the Enemy". LY Chapter 4: "Start of a New Life" ends with the shot of Boscha and Skara kissing to signify the start of their relationship, created by eagc7.
- Forced Out of the Closet: To humiliate Amity for discarding their friendship, Boscha steals her Blooming Tree fruit and seeing Luz's name on it, announces to the crowd surrounding them that Luz is Amity's true love. And since Luz was in the crowd, Amity runs away from her.
- Friendly Tickle Torture: Luz does this to Boscha upon learning she's ticklish, getting them a scolding from Eda for "being adorable" while Boscha's spending the night at the Owl House.
- The Friends Who Never Hang: Boscha's anger towards Willow in the story intensifies because Amelia starts hanging out with her more often to get better at using her magic.
- Glomp: As part of her Cuddle Bug tendencies, Luz can take someone by surprise when she hugs them. For example, when she tries to give Amity one for a compliment she ends up knocking the chair Amity's sitting on over, sending them to the floor.
- Heartfelt Apology: While inspiring Luz to save Amity, Emira says sorry for her and Edric letting her take the fall for stealing Amity's diary and not apologizing for it sooner.
- Held Gaze: Luz and Amity share one in OWS "Chapter 5: Spark from the Enemy" before entering the library.
- I Can't Believe A Girl Like You Would Notice Me: Luz initially has a hard time believing Amity's into her, especially given all the trouble she caused her. It isn't until she's reminded of the good that came out of it that she no longer has any doubts.
- I Have No Son!: Odalia and Alador disown their children in the second story, so Eda and Lilith don't hesitate to steal their belongings from Blight Manor to make Amity, Edric, and Emira feel at home in the Owl House.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Boscha tries to earn Skara's forgiveness by getting her and Darvyn back together, even though she has feelings for Skara. It backfires when Darvyn finds an excuse to avoid it, but it does get Skara to forgive her.
- Lampshade Hanging: Luz and Amity briefly question how the "Good Witch Azura" series exists on both Earth and the Boiling Isles. They chalk it up to the author having a portal.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Odalia and Alador were away on business during the events of "Young Blood, Old Souls". As such, they have no idea Lilith has been stripped of her rank and is now a criminal when she confronts them for child abuse.
- Love Confession: At Emira's suggestion, Amity tries to figure out when the appropriate time to confess her feelings to Luz would be. She decides to do so at the Blooming Festival by sharing the special fruit with her: when Boscha ruins that plan, Amity goes for giving Luz a gift. After some stuff happens, the girls manage to admit their feelings and get together.
- Love Redeems: Luz comes to realize that it's because of her determination to become friends with Amity that she developed feelings for the human and was able to start being herself again.
- Mrs. Hypothetical: After the twins show Amity their support for her crush, they note that in a few year's time, Luz might just become known as "Luz Blight". This enacts a full face blush from Amity, who slams her head onto the table.
- Must Make Amends: The entire point of Losing Yourself is for Boscha to figure out how to do this to Skara, Amelia and Cat. She successfully does so by the end of the story, and even makes peace with Amity.
- Mythology Gag: The series began before the second season, so things that were featured in said season are planted within the second story, such as Hooty and Lilith's friendship, the Clawthornes learning glyph magic, and Eda calling Gus "Goops".
- Named by the Adaptation: The bat-like Beastkeeping student Skara went to Grom with is named Darvyn here.
- Noodle Incident: Amity previously had a crush on a girl in her track who got expelled for pranking their teacher.
- Odd Friendship: Skara befriends King at the Blooming Festival when he questions why she's friends with Boscha and encourages her to branch out and find other people like Luz to hang out with.
- Offscreen Breakup: Skara and Darvyn broke up at some point due to Darvyn not wanting to be influenced from hanging out with Boscha.
- Oh, Crap!: Luz has this upon being confronted by the Blight parents. Also the reaction of her friends (especially Amity) when they realize Luz is in trouble.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Eda is so used to Luz being happy and full of energy that seeing her quiet and despondent bothers her greatly. Seeing her upset is also painful for Eda.
- Point of Divergence: The series is set a few days after "Young Blood, Old Souls". Additionally, Luz discovers her feelings for Amity, kisses and enters a relationship with her much faster than in Season 2.
- Queer Colors: Gus picks up blue, purple and pink flags to use when Amity properly confesses her feelings to Luz, who's bisexual.
- Retcon: Dana Terrace previously confirmed that Luz is Amity's First Love. Here, however, Amity had a crush on another girl years before Luz came to the Boiling Isles.
- Running Gag:
- Skara rewording any compliments she gives into insults when Boscha hears them.
- Lilith calling Eda a mother figure.
- Sadistic Choice: When the Blight parents choose to crush Luz in a shrinking cube for all the trouble she caused Amity, the youngest child offers another option to save her: erase all her memories of Luz.
- Second Love: Unlike canon, Luz is this for Amity here.
- Shipper on Deck: Along with the twins, other people who support Luz and Amity are the Clawthorne sisters, King, Willow, Gus, Hooty and Skara. Boscha eventually comes around to supporting them as well.
- Later on, Luz returns the favor for Boscha by supporting her crush on Skara.
- Shout-Out: During the confrontation at the festival, Boscha refers to Amity as "Little Miss Perfect". Later, Luz refers to herself as being "ordinary".
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Emira apologizes to a broken-hearted Luz for the twins roping her into the diary drama.
- Time Skip: The first story continues from a few days after the events of "Young Blood, Old Souls".
- Verbal Backspace: As part of a Running Gag, Skara often has to rephrase any positive things she says into negative ones just to please Boscha.
- We Used to Be Friends: Midway through the first story, Boscha ends her friendship with Amelia because she wants to hang out with Willow. Skara breaks off from Boscha for outing Amity in front of Luz, and Cat does the same because Skara tells her what happened. It's subverted at the end of the sequel when Boscha makes amends with everyone.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: After watching Amity's parents take her away to erase her memories of Luz, Luz breaks down crying believing she made everything worse for Amity. Edric and Emira (mostly Em) remind her of the good she's done for Amity that only Luz could do, bringing out the better side of her just by being her ordinary self. This reignites Luz's determination to break out of her trap and help the twins save their sister.
- You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Emira always calls Amity "Mittens", so using her real name means she's talking about something serious.
