Chapter 139: Get Ready
Art by Crash X Fusion: They're as ready as they'll ever be.
Everyone prepares and gets ready to strike before the Day of Unity, but not after some more issues to be resolved.Tropes that appear in this Chapter:
- All for Nothing: The CAT's plans go up in smoke and fire as Belos had been ready for them and is either killing them, framing them for attacks he set up, or capturing them. Meanwhile, Felicia finds herself cornered in the Media Coven by Felicity, the Alchemist, and the Ninja Supreme, who re-capture the Teenage Demon Ninja Reptiles, after she had hoped to broadcast the truth about the Draining Spell.
- Ambiguous Situation: If Felicity was able to get into contact with the Alchemist and the Ninja Supreme, does this mean she had connections to the Tarot Guild?
- Ax-Crazy: Jason seems to get this vibe from Drayden and Beverly over how eager they are to kick Belos' ass in vengeance for what he's done to their family.
- Bait-and-Switch: As a way to tell Lilith the truth about Hunter's origins, Luz, King, and Amity hastily set up what could be classified as a baby shower. Lilith is initially left speechless as if in shock, only to embrace Hunter in joy.
- Big Damn Reunion: Matt and Steve reunite for the first time since before Steve went on the run, and Gavin has a proper reunion with Darius where they talk things out over what happened during the Heartless invasion.
- Big "WHAT?!": Not that big, but Cross is shocked enough about Luz's admission to marrying Amity to convey it in such a way.
- Blatant Lies: When Luz asks Maya if she's looked through any of Luz's embarrassing memories, the crab hesitates to answer. When she does, she tries to sound innocent but Luz sees right through it.
- Brick Joke: In the previous chapter, Gus and Camila assumed Luz was safe in the Demon Realm while Weirdmageddon is going on. Not only do we start to see how wrong that is, but Willow assumes the Porters are safe on Earth while everyone on the Isles deals with the Day of Unity.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Lupe pops back up since disappearing in "Brooken Home", with Silas and his Snake Men returning since "Starcrossed".
- Venoma returns since "What Now?", Belos having made good on his deal with Draco to free her.
- Flora D'splora also returns since "Let's Dip into the Time Pool Again!", being the one to tie up Bindell before Leonte, B.I.G., and their backup surround Cross, Steve, and Le'Belle.
- The Ninja Supreme and the Alchemist make an unexpected comeback since disappearing in "The Alchemist's Mutant Mayhem".
- Most shocking return of all goes to Mr. Bloosky, who has finally returned since being sent away by Jack after the events of "Witch's Duel... or Don't".
- But Now I Must Go: Levi and Goonla decide to take Kay, leave the Boiling Isles, and go to another titan until the Day of Unity passed since they're escaped criminals, asking Hook to take them while the rebels are distracting the emperor's forces.
- Call-Back:
- Luz remembers the first time she saw Ulrich, which was at the Covention when Tiny Nose threw him like a sack of potatoes.
- Ulrich denies being one of the good "head witches" as Luz says he is, given how he participated in the raid against the Bards Against the Throne.
- Nina brings up being saved by a shadow resembling Dusty twice during Graye's assault on Hexside and confronts Dusty about it.
- Ulrich saving the CAT's in the Night Market turns out to have been orchestrated by Belos as a way for Ulrich to gain their trust and infiltrate the rebellion.
- Cliffhanger: The chapter ends with all the rebel groups becoming victims of surprise attacks and St. Epiderm being invaded by the Snake Men.
- Continuity Cameo: To disguise himself and Steve so Le'Belle can escort them into the castle, Cross uses the image of Blazer's hellhound form for himself and D-Josh for Steve.
- Continuity Nod:
- The other founding members of L.O.W.T.H. and Kyle return from the Torso Villa after staying behind to tend to the wounded.
- Lilith's humiliation during the Blight family trial and Zee's arrest are listed by Eartha among the crimes Belos allowed that go against what the Clawthornes stand for.
- Eda is reminded of how little she knows about Morton, this time finding out that he has family she already met.
- Skara brings up Boscha forgiving Nina for impaling her as being part of the reason why she forgives Boscha for her past actions now.
- Matt remembers seeing Sunny at the Coven Day parade.
- Luz tells Cross and Beocrow about her and Amity having a fake marriage/promise ceremony, but doesn't get far before remembering Gus and his dad are stuck on Earth.
- Crushing Handshake: When Kyle is introduced to Thumbstone, he quickly finds that the man has one hell of a handshake.
- Dead Hat Shot: When Luz, Eda, and Lilith regroup after the warehouse is blown to smithereens, they find Larry's mask next to it, showing that he didn't make it.
- Deal with the Devil: It turns out that Ulrich sold out the rebellion to Belos after he offered his sons' safety on the Day of Unity, which is clearly a sucker's bet.
- Didn't See That Coming:
- Eda is thrown for a loop when she sees that Thumbstone, the Big Man of Palm Stings, a stone-cold businessman, racketeer, and one-time Bonesborough Brawl champ, as the Graux sisters' loving father.
- Matt is left in open-mouth shock when King and Amity explain King's origins.
- None of the rebels expected Belos to know of their plans, so they're caught off guard when the places they were going to hit were either rigged with bombs or had reinforcements that have them surrounded.
- Downer Ending: The CAT's have been outsmarted by Belos all because Ulrich ultimately sided with him. Now Luz, Eda, and Lilith are trapped in the warehouse of Coven Precinct 128; Amity is facing Venoma and Arthur with only Sam to back her up; Wolffe storms the CAT's base eager to capture King, Willow, Hunter, and Ludo; Cross, Steve, and Le'Belle are surrounded by Leonte and his forces; Draco kills Beocrow when his army storms St. Epiderm to capture Donna; Felicia and the Ninja Reptiles are trapped in the Media Coven with Felicity, the Alchemist, and the Ninja Supreme; and Eclipsa has been detained by Belos, having failed to talk him out of going through with his plans.
- Easily Forgiven:
- The members of L.O.W.T.H. that Gavin gathered to explain himself to about his recent actions don't hold anything against him, saying he's as much of a friend as he is their teammate and they aren't kicking him off the team.
- All of Lindsay's friends, especially Tabrella, hold no ill will towards Felicia for Tabrella being outed as a teen mom since they know the truth now.
- Everyone Can See It: Hikari hides a smile when Steve gets flustered from Matt asking how he and Sunny met.
- Exotic Extended Marriage: Played With. After learning from Luz that Cross is dating Donna and Lindsay, Beocrow remarks that he didn't think Cross was into polygamy. Cross takes this as Beocrow taking to teasing him about his girlfriends.
- Expy: Thumbstone, the Graux sisters' father, is one to Tombstone, even being known as the "Big Man". Thumbstone's carnies are based on White Rabbit (Bunny-Ears), Rhino (Horndust), Scorpion (Scorpuski), and The Beetle (Ringo Beets).
- False Flag Operation: Having knowledge on the Covens Against the Throne's plans, Belos has all of the coven precincts and the Healing Coven blown up while each group is there so people will believe they're responsible.
- Foreshadowing: When Luz says Ulrich's one of the good coven heads, he responds that he wouldn't call himself good since he helped take down Raine's first rebellion. Later that day, he ends up betraying the rebellion when Belos makes him an offer he couldn't refuse.
- Forgiveness: After finally having a moment to talk for the first time since after the Glandus War, Skara forgives Boscha for her past actions and they become friends again.
- The Friends Who Never Hang: Forced to bunk together for the night, King and Hunter quickly realize that they never spent time with each other even when Hunter was friends with Luz, Willow, and Gus. King acknowledges this since he had his own friends and decides to change this by talking with Hunter now before things get crazy.
- From Bad to Worse: The moment Aries learns that Felicia has disappeared and is about to search for her with Donna is when Draco and his forces blow their way into St. Epiderm looking for the silver-haired girl.
- The Ghost:
- Vee is mentioned by Star, who'd feel as worried as Amity had been while Luz was in a Forced Sleep if Vee had been in the same position as Luz.
- The coven heads beside Mason, including Emily, are brought up but never seen since Belos had moved them before the CAT's could find any of them.
- Glamour: Cross manages to disguise himself and Steve as Blazer and D-Josh, implying that he's got some skill with illusion magic.
- History Repeats: Once again, Belos manages to get information on Raine's rebellion by spying on them and creates a plan to tear it apart before they can do some real damage against him.
- I Have Many Names: Besides Orange, Dusty used "Onyx", "Grey", "Flint", and even "Alexandrite" as alternate identities over the years to cover up his immortality.
- I Regret Nothing:
- Upon seeing Grimhilde again, Sunny talks with her about what she did to Luz and while the evil queen regrets that, she doesn't regret destroying the Clawthorne's portal door to bring Bloody Mary back. Sunny walks off saying it must've been worth everyone's scorn to have done it, and Grimhilde says it was.
- As Eclipsa discovers for herself, Belos has no qualms about resorting to dirty tactics and murder to achieve his endgame.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: To break Donna's spirit, Draco stabs Beocrow through the heart and kills him.
- In Spite of a Nail: Luz and Eda still infiltrate the Bonesborough precinct warehouse to recover some of the items the coven scouts confiscated when they raided the Owl House.
- Internal Reveal:
- Hunter learns about Laura and tells King about his being Lilith's son before telling Lilith herself. Eda and Steve also learn this themselves.
- King learns that Hunter met Artemis and has confirmation that he's a grimwalker.
- Gavin informs Donna, Lindsay, Sarah, Riley, Andrew, Minerva, and Roxy about his being influenced by the Inner Demon.
- Nina, Lindsay, and her friends meet the Teenage Demon Ninja Reptiles for the first time.
- Eda tells the entire Clawthorne clan about Belos' past and his plans for Luz and the Day of Unity.
- The Clawthornes, Amity, and Hunter learn that Ulrich's allied with the CAT's. Thanks to him, they all learn that Emily has succeeded Adrian as the illusion head witch.
- Matt meets Hikari for the first time and meets Sunny properly.
- Luz reveals Cross' relationships with Lindsay and Donna to Beocrow, then stuns the boys by telling them about her and Amity's faux wedding and unintentionally tells them that the Porters are in the Human Realm.
- Mattholomule learns King's a titan when he mentions the issue of needing Titan's Blood for another portal door.
- Nina learns about the Collector from Dusty and how they were responsible for the Lost Generation, not the Pied Piper.
- Felicia tells the TDNR about Todd being her father and Felicity nearly killing her.
- Lindsay, Tabrella, Tracy, and Jackie have been told the truth about Felicity spilling the beans on Tabrella and Katie from Andrea.
- Donna tells her friends about her meeting Conner and going to Titan Trapper Island.
- Luz and Hunter meet Hail Whispers for the first time, and Luz officially meets Ludo and Webstor.
- Beocrow, Tina, Veronica, and Tyrone encounter Draco, Lupe, the snake men, and the Septarian army for the first time.
- Killed Off for Real: During the surprise attacks, Larry gets killed when the bombs in the precinct warehouse blow up and Beocrow gets shanked through the heart by Draco. Due to Belos' False Flag Operations, all the coven scouts guarding the precincts and the witches in the Healing Coven die via fiery explosion as well.
- The Mole: Ulrich turns out to be one for the Emperor's Coven, spying on them for Belos in exchange for his sons' safety.
- Noodle Incident: Pam knew Dusty in the past as "Onyx" back when she was Nina's age. At one point, he seemed to have disguised himself as a girl named Alexandrite.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: Skara comes to see that the reason it took her so long to forgive Boscha is because she feared Boscha hadn't changed and she would relapse back into her Beta Bitch ways due to her toxic influence. But now, she knows Boscha's changed for the better and that she's stronger now thanks to her own growth.
- Not So Stoic: Even though Beocrow kept a straight face the whole time, he's still as shocked as Cross is when Luz casually tells them she 'married' Amity.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Eda's eye widens in fear when she hears Thumbstone's voice.
- Luz slowly realizes that the Porters have no way back home now that her portal door is kaput.
- Poor Communication Kills: Played for Laughs. Luz and King never told Eda that Morton was Jerbo's cousin, so she has to lie to Morton and claim that she knew that all along.
- Related in the Adaptation: Jerbo and Morton turn out to be cousins.
- The Reveal:
- Dusty is the Collector's Living Shadow and split from them before they got imprisoned.
- Raine asked Hail to join their rebellion as their official healer.
- Kitsuni used to be Yen Sid's apprentice and trained in wielding a keyblade until an incident at a place called the Graveyard.
- Ulrich was actually spying on the rebels for the Emperor's Coven under the belief that Belos will spare his family from the Draining Spell.
- Cross is implied to know illusion magic, as he was able to create convincing glamour disguises.
- At some point, Belos imprisoned Eclipsa with Abominable flesh arms.
- Revenge Before Reason: Averted. Raine assigns Boris to the team causing chaos at Coven Precinct 540 instead of the one raiding the Healing Coven to kidnap the coven heads because they know he'd kill Osran on sight and their mission was to take hostages, not revenge.
- Sequel Hook: As a result of everything that's happened, Tina is considering resigning from L.O.W.T.H. for good or at least taking a long break from heroics.
- Ship Tease:
- Sioux informs Donna that her friends have returned, only mentioning Veronica by name, before she and the faun share a hug upon the latter's return.
- Acorn snuck back to St. Epiderm with Donna to see Tyrone and is automatically concerned for him when she sees how down he is over what happened at Torso Villa.
- Shout-Out:
- One of Dusty's past aliases is Flint, which was the name of Brock's father. Another Pokémon reference is the recurring crossdressing gag, alluded to by Dusty's tenure as "Alexandrite". He also used to go by the name of "Onyx".
- Kitsunit's past includes being the sorcerer's (Yen Sid) apprentice, and taking part in an incident at the Graveyard ten years ago.
- The new outfit Venoma's donned is based on the one the Baroness wears in G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.
- Arthur's new appearance is based off of Blight, and Scare-Glow.
- Sixth Ranger: The main Clawthorne family, Willow, Hunter, Cross, and the Blight twins join the Covens Against the Throne in order to help carry out their missions, each of them being given their own assignments to undergo.
- Sleep Cute:
- Luz and Amity crash on Star's bed after not being able to sleep much in the last two days.
- Nina and Lambi end up cuddling together while Lambi counts woolducks to help Nina rest, with Nina curling her tail around Lambi.
- Smug Smiler: Even if Wolffe was wearing a mask and it couldn't be seen, she smiles in satisfaction after Ulrich leads her to the CAT's base so she could detain everyone inside.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Gary Graux, AKA Thumbstone, has the same distinctive ash-blue skin that his daughters bear.
- Sympathy for the Devil: When Le'Belle learns that Emily was made the Illusion Coven Head on her 18th birthday, the same day she discovered her true parentage and had to help save her former best friend's family as their home was burned down, she shows empathy toward the illusionist.
- Team Member in the Adaptation: Amity, Edric, and Emira didn't join the CAT's in canon, and Willow and Hunter weren't confirmed to be members; the latter was simply acting on Darius'orders to protect Luz. Here, they officially join the group to prevent the Day of Unity.
- Tempting Fate: Twice for Amity; sending her off to rescue her father alone was one thing, but saying goodbye to the Clawthornes out of fear that it may be the last time she sees them spells out that things weren't going to be as easy as everyone believes.
- That Came Out Wrong: Lambi suggests she sleep together with Nina, who tells her to rephrase it. Lambi quickly catches on and both girls are left blushing from the implications.
- Troll: Luz had no reason whatsoever to remind Ulrich of when Tiny Nose threw him while charged by a power glyph and still did. Ulrich makes it clear that he doesn't talk about that.
- The Un-Reveal:
- How did Felicity, the Alchemist, and the Ninja Supreme find each other?
- Belos knew ahead of time that the CAT's would go after the coven heads to prevent the Day of Unity and moves them all. Where are they, and is Emily with them?
- Why did Belos restrain Eclipsa: because she failed to reason with him and he caught on to her motives, or because he knew she was trying to stop him from the start?
- Unseen No More: Beverly Thorngood, Gwendolyn's oldest sister who Lilith mentioned in "The Clawthorne Family Reunion", is shown among the family members who Eda informs of Belos' plans.
- Wham Episode: The Covens Against the Throne begin their counterattack, only for Belos to take them by surprise by blowing up the locations they were going to invade after he persuaded Ulrich into siding with him. Belos appears to have learned that Eclipsa was sent to talk him out of going through with his plans and has made her his latest prisoner.
- Worth It:
- Grimhilde has no regrets with destroying the Clawthornes' portal door to free Bloody Mary and regain her beauty.
- Ulrich may consider giving up the CAT's this if it means his family is safe, but that look of guilt and Belos seeing it as him being weak say otherwise.
- You're Not My Father: It's really "disowned ancestor who's lived far too long". Once the Clawthorne clan has been given the whole story about Belos and his depravity, they declare that he is not, nor has he ever been, a member of their family after all that he's done.
