Recap / Luz Clawthorne Two Worlds One Family Chapter 21

Chapter 61: Prelude to War, Part 2

Art by Crash X Fusion: You are beneath me. I'll always be better than you and nothing I've seen today will ever change that!

New leaders are chosen for certain positions; Luz tries to face her most painful memory.

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Tropes that appear in this Chapter:

• Adaptational Early Appearance: Scab the All-Knowing, who in canon first appeared during "Reaching Out", appears much earlier, before the events of "Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door".
• Adaptational Name Change: The four remaining Coven Heads who weren't named prior to the confirmations have additional names;
  • Hettie Cutburn, Head of the Healing Coven, now has the middle name Killington.
  • Vitimir, Head of the Potions Coven is named Weevil Breathton, with his canon name being his middle name.
  • Osran, Head of the Oracle Coven is given the surname Pawculus.
  • And Mason, Head of the Construction Coven, is known as Ulrich M. Hammers.
• Affectionate Nickname: Like Addy used to do, Geist calls Alador "Aladorable".
• Always Someone Better: Emily proves herself to be far more combat-capable in human fighting techniques than Luz had ever been, having trained herself in Chinese Martial Arts and spending their whole duel mopping the floor with Luz who only lands a single hit.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Nina thinks that her parents are this, especially when her mom asks her if she wants a tongue bath. The fact that they interrupt the war meeting between the juniors, Emily and Stella makes her say the next meeting should be somewhere else.
• An Aesop:
  • You can't just run headfirst into an obstacle. You need to think things through and come up with a plan.
  • It's not smart to do anything alone. It's better to have people by your side to help you through it.
  • Traumatic events can't be erased, but you can learn to live with them. While Luz seems to consider this, Emily on the other hand refuses to.
• A Place Holds Memories: The slayground is where Luz and Emily both had their Start of Darkness, and both of them face each other in a preliminary duel before the Glandus War to test each other's strengths and skills.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Swan saved Amity's life when a high fever nearly killed her as a kid.
  • Boscha narrowly saves Luz's life right before Emily goes too far.
• Blackmail: Osran Pawculus announces this to be the reason Calypso accepted the coven head position because Skara's still in trouble for the incident she caused in her wolf form. Taking the job means Calypso might have a chance to get the EC off her family's backs.
• Blatant Lies: Hunter tells Boscha that Flapjack is his service Palisman. Boscha doesn't buy it for a second, but she decides not to push the subject.
• Boring, but Practical: Luz finally comes around to the conclusion that taking Belos head-on is never going to work and that she and her family need a plan to beat him.
• The Bus Came Back: Gwendolyn returns after a 10-chapter departure to help King and Lilith build a proper living space for Levi's sister.
• Call-Back:
  • Skara's rampage in her wolf form in "I Was a Teenage Adult Witch" serves as the reason Calypso becomes the head of Beast-Keeping.
  • Boscha helps Ukla (who's got a broken arm and dropped her books) the same way Luz helped Levi in "Heart to Heart".
  • For the first time since "Everything's Gone Wrong", Luz uses the technique for panic attacks that Amity taught her. Unlike last time, it works and she calms down before she could use her cambion form during the duel against Emily.
• The Cameo:
  • Scabrina and Slasher appear having breakfast with Calypso and Skara.
  • Odalia is shown reacting to Alador being appointed to the new Head of the Abominations Coven and Felicity questioning him about the status of his marriage.
  • Gwendolyn visits the Owl House to help King and Viney set up an aquarium for Levi's sister.
  • Scab the All-Knowing is one of the oracles hired by Nicole to look into Julia Traveler.
  • Speaking of which, Ms. Traveler gets a vocal cameo when Boscha calls her for advice.
• Cerebus Call-Back: In "Doctor's Visit and Party Incidents", it's mentioned that Hunter bought Martial Arts books from Eda's human junk stand. As it turns out, Emily also bought such books and trained herself in its techniques for years so she could mercilessly attack Luz.
• Character Development: Luz finally begins to shed her lone wolf and Leeroy Jenkins tendencies as ways to solve problems, opening up to the idea of planning out how to take on Emperor Belos and doing it together with her family.
• Commonality Connection:
  • Ulrich, being a father, understood how much Darius sacrificed putting his job before his family and knows what Alador and Calypso are in for.
  • Boscha and Hunter bond over having lost their friends because of something they did.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Luz mentions going jogging, which she did in "Heart to Heart".
  • During her Rousing Speech, Willow mentions the Greater Basilisk, Grom and Pleasure Island incidents.
  • King brings up Eda's overprotective maternal nature seen in the flashbacks of "King and Lil' Luz's Day Out", when she baby-proofed the whole house.
  • The Running Gag of people being surprised that a girl likes Gus returns. Boscha even uses the "You think you know a guy" line Hunter and Eda used in "Regretful Decisions" and "Grom: The Musical, Part 2", respectively.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: As Luz and Emily's duel goes on, it becomes clear that Emily could've been the clear winner: having trained herself in martial arts and against several opponents for years, she savagely injures Luz once she stops holding back. As a result, Emily accomplishes something no one, including Boscha, managed to do: she beat Luz in a straight-up fight, no magic, no tricks, no exploited loopholes, no strings attached.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Despite the outcome of the above, Luz at least managed to give one punch in the face to Emily before things get worse.
• Deadpan Snarker: Weevil Vitimir shows himself to be one, specializing in making jabs at Terra's expense.
• Death Glare: Emily shoots a very intense one at Boscha for stopping her finishing blow on Luz. Boscha knows she's gonna die for doing that. She also exchanges one with Eda when she declares an end to the duel.
• Designated Girl Fight: Luz Vs. Emily. Emily wins.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Subverted with Emira, who doesn't forgive her father for his years of neglect and enabling their mother's emotional abuse.
  • Also subverted with Emily, who shoots down Eda's apology for giving her the boiling zit curse before Eda can even finish the apology.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Belos still sees Flapjack as an old friend, being able to resist his hunger and keep himself from killing the Palisman. Belos also straight-up tells Abel that he loves Hunter and is afraid of hurting his nephew's self-image or losing him.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Emily is not going to force Gavin to fight in his school's war against Hexside while he is still mourning the death of his father.
• Extremely Protective Child: Amity's motherly doting over Levi's sister becomes more intense as time passes, as she feels like she has to be there for her.
• Eye Scream: One of Luz's many injuries is a black eye from Emily slamming her head on her knee.
• Face Palm: Luz does this after Eve accidentally starts a fire at the pep rally.
• Felony Misdemeanor
• Fair-Play Villain: Emily has just enough decency to give Luz a chance to forfeit the duel after she transforms back, but charges in when she refuses.
• Forgiveness: Amity and Emira forgive each other for not being better sisters to one another.
• Freudian Slip: Amity accidentally calls Eda "mom" for the second time.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: None of the coven heads hide their disdain for Kikimora and are happy that she was demoted.
• Given Name Reveal:
  • Gavin's mother is named Shelia Anidod.
  • Bria's last name is mentioned to be Carpenter.
  • Skara's palisman is named Jimmy.
• The Gloves Come Off: Once Luz declares she'll keep fighting, Emily tells her she'll no longer hold back. Cue the beginning of Luz getting her butt kicked.
• Group Hug: The last scene shown in the Owl House is everyone hugging Luz to comfort her.
• Heroic Resolve: Willow convinces the students of Hexside to stay and fight against Glandus instead of running away. Later, Luz shows hers in the form of a...
• Heroic Second Wind: which Luz has when she refuses to back out of her duel with Emily.
• Hidden Depths: Emira has a lot more stress than she lets people think and worries she'll end up all alone, a fear that resurfaced when Amity left the Blight family.
• Honor Before Reason: Luz refused to use her cambion form when she transformed in the duel because she wanted to fight honorably, so she could call herself a true witch afterwards.
• I Gave My Word: And sure, Luz could've used her cambion form when she was forced to transform in the duel but aside from her honor, that would've violated the everlasting oath she made with Emily.
• I Hate Past Me:
  • Boscha makes it clear that she's disgusted with how she acted back in Book 1. Seeing Emily hurt Luz the same way she did in "Exams to Survive" causes her to blast Emily away from Luz before she kills her.
  • Emira feels guilty for how much of a terrible sister she was to Amity and for how she hated her.
• Immediate Sequel: The chapter occurs the day after the previous one.
• Implied Death Threat:
  • Calypso threatens to skin Felicity and hang her pelt over her fireplace if she insults her family again.
  • Boscha feels she's confirmed one for blasting Emily with a spell.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Luz informs Eda about the message she got from Witch Rick.
  • Alador learns that Edric broke up with his boyfriend and that said boyfriend was the Golden Guard.
  • Boscha meets Hunter and Gavin for the first time and learns what happened to Boris and Levi from Amity, who also tells her about Amelia's crush on Gus.
    • Amity also learns about Boscha's connection to Tom.
  • Emperor Belos discovers that Hunter has bonded with Flapjack.
• Ironic Name: The Head Witch of the Healing Coven is named Hettie Killington Cutburn.
• Irrational Hatred: Emily's hatred towards wild witches is proven to border on anything associated to them, as she turned down Lilith's mentorship just because she never arrested Eda.
• Karma Houdini: Emily gets to beat the living crap out of Luz without any sort of comeuppance.
• Lap Pillow: Amity positions Luz laying down on her lap as she's healing from the injuries she received in the duel at home.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The kid that threw a rock at Luz during the duel gets thrown into trash cans and scared off by Eda.
• The Leader: At Gus' suggestion, Willow is named the General of Hexside's students for the war because she best embodies strength, wisdom and heart.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: While the rest of her family haven't given into their primal instincts, Nina prefers the primal ways of her ancestors.
• Luminescent Blush: Matt blushes when Sandra asks him if part of his reason for wanting to stay at Hexside involves a girl. Later, Bo blushes when Matt says they have to stick together.
• Mama Bear / Papa Wolf: As Ulrich best describes it, the whole reason Alador and Calypso agree to become the new coven heads for their respective covens is because they're protecting their daughters, both of whom have gotten in trouble with the Emperor's Coven recently.
  • Camila is quick to react towards seeing Luz return home covered in bruises and blood.
• Mistaken for Gay: Implied by Graye, as he always thought Darius had feelings for Alador back when they were close.
• The Mole: Hardy Boils asks Boscha to act as his and find proof that Glandus has been involved with criminal activity. She agrees as long as he looks into Boris' disappearance but when Boscha learns what happened from Amity, she chooses to renege on the deal.
• Multi-Part Episode: This is the second part of the "Prelude to War" three-part arc.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Boscha's statement after blasting Emily sums up how deep the shit she's just put herself into is.
  Boscha: (shocked) I can't believe I just did that. (sees Emily glaring) And I'm dead.
• Mysterious Past:
  • Besides Terra, none of the other Coven Heads have heard of or seen Abel Reisender before. Pawculus, the Head Witch of the Oracle Track, even performed a background check and found nothing. According to Terra, Abel has disappeared and reappeared several times over the decades. He is also at least several centuries old.
  • Ms. Traveler's finally confirmed to have one in universe, as Nicole has several oracles do background checks on her and find that they can't dig up a single fact about her before she became Hexside's counselor.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Mattholomule and Steve, who are confirmed half-brothers, interact for the first time. Their relationship being explored here is meant to make up for not getting any interactions in the shortened Season 3.
  • Luz, Willow and Gus have the same conversation about Willow being more powerful than she believes she is that took place in the canon version of "Hooty's Moving Hassle".
  • At Glandus, Boscha ends up in a recreation of the scene where she picks on Willow from "Wing It Like Witches", with Boscha in Willow's place and Ruth in hers.
• Named by the Adaptation: The Head Witches for the Construction, Healing, Oracle, and Potions Covens are given names. Or rather, additional names. Skara's palisman also gets a proper name.
• Nasal Trauma: Luz gets her nose broken, another injury Emily gives her in their duel.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • When the Blight siblings were younger, Emira took her siblings to play at the park while Amity had a fever, which got worse and nearly took her life. It's Emira's biggest regret.
  • As Luz and Eda learn during the witch's duel, Emily knows how to fight...in Chinese Martial Arts because she bought stuff on the subject from Eda's human junk stand.
    Eda: What? I don't remember every customer!
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Once Emily stops holding back, she viciously beats Luz to a near pulp. If Boscha hadn't shot her with a spell, odds are she would've crossed the line.
• Not What It Looks Like: When Amity meets up with Boscha, she's buying supplies for Levi's sister. She accidentally words it in a way that causes Boscha to think Amity's pregnant before she gives the triclops a proper rundown.
• Older Than They Look: Abel Reisender is at least centuries old, since he first sought out Philip and his brother while their adoptive parents were still alive.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Nicole hasn't forgotten about Ms. Traveler getting her kicked off the PCA and is trying to find dirt on her so she'll be arrested by the Emperor's Coven.
• Parents as People: Gavin admits that Darius wasn't the best father, but he still cared about his son and enjoyed talking to him when he got the chance to, since he kept all the letters Gavin sent him, showed an interest in Gavin's personal life, and Gavin could tell he was always listening.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Emily allows Gavin to be exempt from the war since he's still in mourning over his father.
  • Seeing the injured Ukla struggling, Boscha helps her and invites her to sit with her and Angmar at lunch.
  • Amity and Boscha speak to each other for the first time since the latter exposed the former's deal with Lilith. While Amity doesn't forgive Boscha, she voices her appreciation for helping get her and her friends back into Hexside plus her apology while vowing to return the favor and telling her about Boris getting arrested.
  • When Belos finds out that Hunter has Flapjack, he spares the Palisman and lets Hunter keep him.
  • With how injured Luz got thanks to Emily, Eda decides to forgo the restriction on keeping her and Amity apart for the night so Amity can comfort Luz as she recovers.
• Point of Divergence:
  • Edric has started learning beast-keeping magic while Emira starts learning healing magic earlier that they were revealed to be doing so.
  • Emperor Belos finds out Hunter has obtained Flapjack as his palisman before the events of "Knock, Knock, Knocking on Hooty's Door" instead of in the season 2 finale, "King's Tide".
• Private Detective: Hardy Boils, an investigator for the oracle coven, was hired by the Carpenters (Bria's parents) to look into her disappearance. He believes it's connected to supposed criminal activity from Glandus.
• Promotion to Parent
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Emira lashes out at Alador when he visits his children at Geist's bar, telling him off for how he and Odalia neglected them to run their business and practically leaving her to raise her siblings.
• Refusal of the Call: Emily shot down Lilith's offer to be mentored by her due to her hatred towards her sister.
• Rejected Apology:
  • Emira refuses to forgive Alador for hardly being in his children's lives and not doing anything about Odalia controlling them.
  • Eda attempts to apologize to Emily for giving her the boiling zit curse, but Emily's hatred towards Eda is too deep to let her finish offering it.
• The Resenter: Amity feels that Emira hates her because she always had to look out for her because their parents didn't, which robbed her of part of her childhood along with leaving their family. Em admits a part of her does, but she also regrets how she bullied Amity and has been thinking about the person she wants to be now.
• The Reveal:
  • Eberwolf graduated from Glandus, while Graye graduated from Hexside.
  • Nina and Donna were Childhood Friends before they started going to different schools.
  • Nina's family, the Fang Tribe, is made of werecat witches. Since her ancestors learned to control their primal instincts, Belos allowed them to live in peace.
  • Emira had a smoking habit two years ago and got into trouble when Amity stole her cigarette pack and accidentally set her bed covers on fire.
  • Tyler is the leader of Hexside's cheer squad, explaining why he sometimes hangs out with Boscha's group.
  • Calypso was once known as the "Red Hood Huntress", a bounty hunter.
  • Terra has been the Plant head for more than 50 years, the (supposedly) entire timeframe of Belos' reign and has seen Abel several times in the past. She was also once married.
  • It's been a week since "No Dancing Around" and the Gland Prix occured on Sunday, so the events of "The Ballad of Eda (Part 2)" happened 2 days ago.
  • The reason Boris left home was because Nicole refused to let him follow his dream of becoming a tattoo artist.
  • Belos can hear the same voice that Luz did when she killed Maya.
  • Abel is implied to be the same kind of being as Ms. Traveler, since he's known Belos since he was Philip 3 centuries ago. He's also helping Belos with his plans for the Day of Unity.
  • Lilith met Emily one year ago during coven tryouts at Glandus' school fair. Lilith offered to be her mentor after seeing her beat 30 juniors in a battle royale, but Emily rejected it. Lilith has no idea what magic Emily used or even what track she's in.
  • Angmar has his witch's staff, which is topped with a butterfly palisman.
• Retired Badass: Calypso was once know as the "Red Hood Huntress", a cutthroat Beast Keeper who worked as a bounty hunter. Eventually, she put that behind her and decided to start a family.
• Ring-Ring-CRUNCH!: Nina smashes her alarm clock with a fist.
• Rousing Speech: Willow gives one during the pep rally to get everyone behind following her, and it works.
  Willow: I know the past few weeks have been hectic for all of us. The Greater Basilisk, Grom, Pleasure Island, and now Glandus has decided to start a turf war with us. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not having it! If Glandus wants a war with us, it would be their mistake, cause we at Hexside are not going to take it, are we?
  Bo, Eileen & Mattholomule: No we won't!
  Willow: I know some of you have your doubts and some of you are scared, so I won't hold it against you if you decide to not partake in the war. Principal Bump is letting anyone who wants to sit out do so. But if you choose that, if you're not willing to fight Glandus, are you really prepared to move to a different school if Hexside does fall? Are you prepared to get separated from your friends and become a stranger in a completely new environment? Do you really want to lose the community that we have here?
  Students: No/Forget that/I want to stay here!
  Willow: Then what are you going to do about it? Point fingers and try to find someone to blame for this besides Glandus? That won't do any good. I am not a fan of violence, but Glandus has left us with no choice and I refuse to do nothing as Hexside falls! Because I love this school and I love the friendships that I have made because of Hexside, so I believe that it is worth fighting for! (spreads war paint on her face) So are you going to help me fight back like a true witch or are you going to pussy out in the corner like a bitch?
• Sadistic Choice: Emily offers one to Luz: if she can beat Emily in a hand-to-hand duel, she'll call off the school war. Emily losing control hints she just wanted to hurt Luz as revenge against Eda.
• Scars Are Forever
• Secret-Keeper: Abel knows the truth about Belos's past, William's fate, and Hunter's origins.
• Ship Tease: Mattholomule blushes when Sandra figures out that there's a girl (Bo) at Hexside that her son likes and is willing to stay in school to protect. Bo later blushes after Matt says they have to stick together.
• Shout-Out:
  • Skara's cricket palisman is named Jimmy. Awfully close to the already established Jiminy Cricket, wouldn't you agree?
  • Two are made towards Marvel:
    • Upon seeing Emily's body and outfit for the duel, Luz asks if she's going for the "She-Hulk" look.
    • What's Luz's answer when Emily asks if she's forfeiting the duel? "I could do this all day," the iconic line of Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She even mimics Cap's habit of taking a fighting stance!
• Spit Take: Eda's reaction to hearing that Luz knows about Belos' plans for her.
• Stopping the Blame Game: When Willow begins her speech, she tells her fellow students to stop blaming Luz or anyone else among them for what's happening with Glandus since that's not helping.
• Tempting Fate: At a family breakfast between the Brookes, Slasher tempts fate by saying things can only go up for them. Scabrina lampshades it and is quickly proven right.
• That Came Out Wrong: When Amity talks to Boscha while shopping for supplies for Levi's sister, she says they're for when the baby comes making Boscha think something else until she corrects her.
• This Is Something She's Got to Do Herself: The base reason Luz refuses to back out of her duel with Emily; if there's a chance she can stop the war, she won't quit or use her cambion form.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Emira used to hang out with people who convinced her to take up smoking. Her actions ended up affecting Amity, who tried it for herself to be cool like Em.
• Villainous Friendship: Abel and Belos have one that goes back centuries to when Belos was still Philip.
• Wham Episode: Emira briefly relapses into her old smoking habit and starts learning healing magic, Alador succeeds Darius as the new head of the Abomination Coven, Calypso become the temporary head for Beast-Keeping, Scooter Crane is brought out of retirement until Raine is found, Willow becomes general of Hexside's students for the war, Emily beats Luz in a witch's duel, Belos allows Hunter to keep Flapjack and is revealed to hear the same voice Luz heard, and the voice seems to be after Darius wherever his soul is.
• Wham Shot: Emily gets blasted by a spell on her side and looks around to see who fired it. It wasn't Amity, it was Boscha.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Odalia laid into Emira for taking Amity outside while she was sick, saying if it wasn't for Swan, Amity could've died.
  • Camila has a justified reason to lay into Eda for letting Luz get savagely beaten. In Eda's defense, she hadn't expected things to go so far.
• Wilhelm Scream: Shiela's doorbell actually is this.
• Wizard Duel: Luz fights Emily in the slayground in a witch's duel where if Luz wins, Emily will call off the war so long as they don't use magic and Luz doesn't transform, only fighting in hand to hand combat. Thanks to outside interference, the duel is called off and it's a good thing, too: between how strong and how angry Emily got, she probably would've killed Luz.

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