Chapter 28: Regretful Decisions
Art by Crash X Fusion: Not one of your better plans, King.
As Luz and friends enjoy a day at the carnival, those closest to her begin feeling guilt over previous experiences. Meanwhile, Eda is taken by surprise when Hooty captures someone she didn't expect at all.
Tropes that appear in this Chapter:
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Coven Head Darius debuts during the events of "Really Small Problems" instead of "Hunting Palisman" one season later.
- Adaptation Expansion: How the pixie infestation happened is shown.
- Affectionate Nickname:
- Cat and Gus, or rather "Catty and Gussy", for each other.
- Puck calls Luz "Luzifer" when she and Amity approach him after the show at the Tent of Tiny Terrors.
- Berserk Button: Boscha really doesn't like it when someone brings up her brother.
- Call-Back:
- Luz's Big Sister Instinct towards Dipper is mentioned again, accompanied by a flashback.
- Luz and Amity bring up each of their last two encounters with Puck; Luz meeting him in the trickster club and being saved from Piniet by him, Amity when he helped her save the twins and escorted her to the séance.
- Cassandra Truth: Luz openly mentions how for once something chaotic happened and she had nothing to do with it. The rest of the students don't believe her, especially Boscha; it takes Skara vouching for Luz and Ms. Traveler stopping Boscha from escalating further to cool things down.
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Luz when King brings up their "dead pet" scheme.
- Character Development: Luz begrudgingly accepts that she can't keep Gus from dating or experiencing heartbreak for himself, as it'll hurt both of them in the long run.
- Characterization Marches On: This marks the last time Luz ever calls Amity "Little Miss Perfect" since their relationship has improved so much.
- Cliffhanger: Amity ends up in the cursed Hall of Mirrors where she's taken into one by an alternate version of her.
- Conflicting Loyalty: After the seancé, Amity admits to Lilith she has doubts in the Emperor's Coven and their treatment of wild witches after they did nothing to help Luz at the exams. To reassure her, Lilith brings her to meet Emperor Belos.
- Continuity Nod: Luz brings up Cat's party from "Doctor's Visits and Party Incidents".
- Death Glare:
- Amity shoots daggers at Ed & Em for bringing up a moment they saw between her and Luz the previous night.
- Luz shot one at Wendy when she first met her and started keeping Dipper away from her.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Worrying Luz doesn't need him anymore, King downs three orders of soda and fired newt.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Coven Head Darius appears in a flashback, meeting Amity after Lilith brings her to the Emperor's castle.
- Even Evil Has Standards: There's a sauna and rec room at the Emperor's castle for the coven heads to relax in to alleviate the stress of their jobs.
- Foreshadowing:
- Ms. Travelers tells Luz to come to her office if she ever wants to see her.
- King brings up a time where he and Luz attempted to scam a coven guard and instead scammed a rich kid out of their allowance.
- Luz worries that Gus will be led down a stray path.
- Hunter mentions that he's dating someone.
- Flashback B-Plot: The flashbacks show how Lilith tried to keep Amity from losing faith in the Emperor's Coven...by bringing her to meet Emperor Belos.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Gus wins Cat a frog doll with goggles at the ring toss.
- Given Name Reveal: Ms. Traveler's parakeet palisman is revealed to be named Tiki.
- Hall of Mirrors: The one from canon appears to be out of order because one of them's been cursed. Amity enters it at the end of the chapter and is pulled into the cursed mirror by a doppelganger of herself.
- Heartbreak and Ice Cream: While King explains his problems to Willow and Skara, the former hands him some ice scream.
- Heroic BSoD: King has a breakdown when he remembers what happened to Luz after he gave her Eda's elixir thinking it could give her magic powers.
- Humiliation Conga: Tibbles doesn't get off easy for sending the demon hunters to capture the slitherbeast as he's shrunken by Puck, attacked by the creatures in his attraction and stuck in a bottle with Puck taking him away.
- Innocently Insensitive: Skara accidentally makes King have a Heroic BSoD by saying Luz spending time with Amity is due to him hurting her in the past, not knowing he actually did.
- In Spite of a Nail: The kids still attend the carnival and King shows concern over Luz not spending time with him anymore. Tibbles is also attacked by the creatures he shrunk for his Tent of Tiny Terrors.
- Internal Reveal:
- Edric, Emira and Lilith have already learned about Luz and Amity dating in private. Skara learns about it from King and Willow.
- Amity and Cat are given a proper introduction to Hunter.
- Luz and Amity discover they both know Puck with Hunter learning there really is a fae in the Boiling Isles.
- Lilith is revealed to have introduced Amity to Emperor Belos and has discovered that he knows about Luz's condition.
- Luminescent Blush:
- Luz and Amity's reactions to the twins bringing up their Noodle Incident.
- Dipper has one while staring at Wendy.
- The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: The cliffhanger ending depicts one of Amity's reflections in the Hall of Mirrors calling her name and glaring at her before reaching out and covering her mouth.
- The Matchmaker: Luz attempts to set Cat up with Hunter to keep her away from Gus. This ends up failing as Cat isn't interested and Hunter claims he's already seeing someone, making her a Matchmaker Failure.
- Multi-Part Episode: This kicks off the start of a three-part arc surrounding the events of "Really Small Problems" and "Understanding Willow".
- Mythology Gag: Luz learning guitar due to being in the Bard track comes from the Moringmark comic, "The Power of Human Music
". - Noodle Incident:
- King brings up how he and Luz used to con rich people and coven guards out of their money by pretending they ran him over. When he remembers how they also conned some rich kid with the same scam, Luz quickly changes the subject.
- The twins caught Luz and Amity being a little too affectionate with each other.
- Not Me This Time: Boscha and the majority of the student body accuse Luz of instigating the pixie infestation due to her past behavior, despite her admitting she had nothing to do with it. She's lucky Skara and Ms. Traveler vouch for her with the former having been with her the whole time and the latter knowing the true culprit was Puck.
- Out of Focus: None of the original three troublemakers show up at the carnival.
- Point of Divergence: Hardly anything from "Really Small Problems" remains beside the beginning: Puck's the one who sends Luz and her friends (plus Amity, Skara, Amelia and Cat) invites to the carnival instead of Tibbles who's put through hell by Puck and Eda stays home instead of going with the kids and reunites with Raine much earlier.
- The Reveal:
- Lilith has sworn Amity to secrecy in regards to her spy status with the Everlasting Oath.
- Tibbles was the one who sent the demon hunters to capture the slitherbeast for his attraction.
- A month after the slayground incident, King gave Luz one of Eda's elixers thinking it was a magic juice. Luz fell unconsious and had to be taken to Dr. Bride to get her stomach pumped.
- Boscha's confirmed to have a brother, who realized their mothers' view of the world doesn't have to be his.
- Hunter states offscreen that he's in a relationship.
- Say My Name: Boscha shouts Luz's as she prepares to attack her.
- Secret-Keeper: Amity can't tell Luz about her deal with Lilith because of an Everlasting Oath. If she tries, she violently throws up.
- Shipping Torpedo: Luz strongly invokes this by trying to sabotage whatever's going on between Gus and Cat.
- Shout-Out: King mentions that Luz has been singing "Uptown Witch" every night in her room since she started dating Amity.
- Tempting Fate: At the beginning, Willow and Gus discuss how Luz and Skara's project performance could go wrong. The pixie infestation happens before the two bards even start playing.
- In an implied case during this same moment, Amity believed the music wouldn't be loud only for Willow to point out the bards would be performing heavy metal and guess that she's never heard it before.
- Un-Confession: Amity tries to tell Luz about her deal with Lilith, but the Everlasting Oath prevents her from doing so.
- The Un-Reveal: It's not given out who Hunter's dating. At least not yet...
- Vomit Discretion Shot: When Amity tries to tell Luz about her agreement with Lilith, she gets sick and runs off to throw up, doing so offscreen.
- Wham Shot: Amity being dragged into a cursed mirror...by herself.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Eda had this reaction when she discovered King told Luz to drink an elixir.
- Upon learning Puck caused the pixie infestation, Luz chews him out because despite trying to do something nice for the kids, he made everyone think Luz was responsible when she's trying to move on from her juvenile reputation.
- You're Not My Type: Cat states that even if Hunter wasn't taken, gap teeth aren't attractive to her.
