"There must be a reason for that, right? Why am I here? What if I, Luz Noceda, average teen, actually had [gasps] a predetermined path of greatness?"
— Luz
Original air date: 1/17/2020 (produced in 2019)
Production code: 102
An ancient wizard gives Luz a map for a mystical quest, but it's not what it seems.
Full Recap
TBA...
Tropes:
- Affectionate Parody: Luz's journey to find the crystal staff is a send-up of standard Summon Everyman Hero stories...until it takes a turn for the dark when Eda and King realize what's really going on.
- An Aesop:
- Everybody wants to believe they're "the chosen one", but if we sit around waiting to be told we're special then we would never get anything done.
- If something seems too good to be true, it's probably false.
- And Your Little Dog, Too!: Adegast grabs King and warns Luz not to do anything or "your little dog gets it." King is annoyed at being called a dog. (He's the one wearing a collar.)
- Bait the Dog: Luz is more than pleased when a wizard sends her on an important quest and gives her a map to find a special MacGuffin. It's all a trap to lure Eda in and get rid of her.
- Bloody Hilarious: Eda drinks Apple Blood in place of coffee and it gives her a blood-mustache.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The people Luz runs into on her quest keep "awarding" her things to wear (a ring, a pair of bracelets, and a cape) for completely trivial reasons and accomplishments. When Adegast reveals his deception, the items then turn into magical restraints.
- Eda's toy sword ends up surprisingly useful against Adegast.
- The Chosen One: Deconstructed. A wizard offers Luz an opportunity to be the Chosen One and go on a magical quest, handing her a map to a magic staff. It's actually a trap created by a demon in order to get to Eda and judging by the fake maps Eda finds, Adegast has been doing this trick for a long time. Luz is disappointed to find that it was all fake and that she's not really The Chosen One. Eda consoles her by saying she doesn't have to wait for anyone else to make her "special".
- Dreaming of Times Gone By: The episode starts with Luz dreaming of her first day in the Boiling Isles in the previous episode.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Eda and King make a pointed distinction about Adegast being a "wizard" rather a "witch" (whether or not Adegast really was one). Later episodes show witches as the species the magic-using humanoids of the Boiling Isles belong to, and never refer to any magic users as "wizards" again.
- Eda explains that witches get their magic staffs through school. This was later retconned, with teenage witches instead carving or adopting their own Palismen as a coming-of-age ritual. While Luz's classmates do get their Palismen through school, "Hunting Palismen" makes it clear that this is not common practice.
- Eating the Enemy: After the tentacled demon is depowered, Eda casually swallows him.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Luz spends much of her quest ogling Nevareth.
- Exactly What I Meant to Say: When Eda says she drinks apple blood, Luz asks if she meant apple juice. She did not, and we see it's not just a fantasy name for apple juice either.
- Eye Awaken: Luz does it in the opening scene when she wakes up from her dream from the previous episode.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: Eda calling her Magic Staff to her hand takes longer than she expects, audibly smashes several things offscreen, and ends with her catching it awkwardly.
- Fake Town: Adegast uses his illusory powers to make abandoned sites seem well-maintained and inhabited.
- Foreshadowing:
- Eda tells Luz to never befriend a man in sandals, which is what the Wizard is wearing when he invites her to tea.
- Luz, upon arriving at Adegast's castle, notices that there are potions, which Adegast states he sells himself, which raises the question of why he would need to buy potions from Eda if he can make them himself. In addition, he states that he is surprised Eda didn't deliver her potions herself. We find out it's because he wants to eliminate the competition.
- As Luz sets off on her quest, a strange grey fog suddenly rolls in. This turns out to be how Adegast casts his illusions, as shown when he tries to trap Luz in a Lotus-Eater Machine during the climax.
- It starts getting weird when all the companions on the quest refer to Luz as "Chosen One" even after knowing her name. Adegast was stroking her ego and didn't bother to remember her name.
- When Luz discusses what type of Chosen One she should be, she chooses between being like Azura or a "bad girl with black nail polish and mysterious, withdrawn attitude. I act like I don't care, but I secretly do". The latter is actually a pretty good description of Amity Blight, whom she'll meet in the next episode.
- Funny Background Event: As Luz and Eda discuss apprenticeship and quests, King is seen trying to eat an omelette full of moving eyeballs.
- Has Two Thumbs and...: Luz approaches a centaur to sell him potions with a variation on this joke.Luz: Who has four hooves and wants to buy some potions?
- I Am Not Weasel: King objects to Adegast calling him a dog.
- Immediate Sequel: This episode takes place the morning after "A Lying Witch and a Warden", where Luz is ready to start her witch training with Eda.
- Innocently Insensitive: King and Eda laugh when they hear about the Chosen One quest, and Eda bluntly tells Luz that the wizard was messing with her. They were right that he was a conman, but their laughter makes Luz take it more as dig at her worthiness, which spurs her to sneak out the window and start the quest after the map glows with a secret path.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Luz tells Adegast that Eda isn't dumb enough to walk into his obvious trap approximately one second before Eda arrives.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Adegast explicitly traps Luz in one at the episode's climax, using some kind of grey mist, and tries to lure her into staying in his fantasy world forever. Luz sees straight through it and busts out in a matter of seconds.
- Made from Real Girl Scouts: Inverted; Eda's bag full of elixirs includes literal "snake oil", which turns out to be oil for snakes.Eda: No one wants an un-oiled snake.
- Master of Illusion: Adegast turns out to be a "Puppeteer", a demon that uses illusions to manipulate and trap people. The quest he sent Luz on turns out to be an elaborate ploy to bait Eda, one of his main rivals in the potion-selling business, into an ambush. Fortunately for Luz, once you get past his illusions he's not very physically formidable.
- Mr. Fanservice: Nevareth is a handsome, muscular, dark and mysterious young man. Luz reacts to him like a typical teenage girl would.
- My Eyes Are Up Here: Inverted. Luz approaches a centaur and offers to sell him a potion. The centaur then reveals that his face is on his chest, saying "My face is down here."
- My Little Panzer: The toy sword Eda found is surprisingly effective as an actual weapon.
- Must Have Caffeine: Eda needs her "apple blood" to function in the morning.
- Nobody Poops: Luz attempts to start her morning in the bathroom, and gets rudely greeted by Hooty.
- Not a Morning Person: Eda does not like mornings, as Luz discovers.
- Oh, Crap!: Eda has this reaction when she realizes that Luz sneaked out to do the quest.
- Properly Paranoid: Eda warns Luz that wizards are not to be trusted, even if they are flattering.
- Robe and Wizard Hat: Parodied when Luz opens Eda's closet and finds what appears to be Witch Classic attire. She puts on a robe and hat, but then Eda tells her she's actually wearing an old bathrobe and a very dirty traffic cone.
- Sapient Eat Sapient: After Adegast's defeat, he is severely reduced in size, enough that Eda can swallow him whole. Afterward, she apologizes to Luz for not sharing.
- Second Episode Morning: This episode takes place the day after "A Lying Witch and a Warden", where Luz is waking up in her room after dreaming of the previous day.
- Sexy Surfacing Shot: Invoked. Nevareth is introduced rising out of a fountain before dramatically slicking his hair back as part of Adegast's attempts to feed into her fantasy.
- Shout-Out:
- Luz's toy sword looks similar to He-Man's sword. Its recorded voice also recites "By the power of Skullgar", which is a play off He-Man's transformation catchphrase, "By the power of Greyskull".
- Nevareth asks Luz if she believes that love can bloom on a battlefield.
- Sleepy Head: King spends most of the episode trying to get a nap. Eda keeps interrupting him.
- Snake Oil Salesman: Eda is apparently a literal one, since one of the products she sells is actual snake oil (though, in a variation, it's an oil to use on snakes rather than being made of snakes).
- Tentacled Terror: The true appearance of Adegast is an octopus-like monster with puppets on its tentacles.
- That Was Not a Dream: Luz thinks the events of the past episode was a dream until she wakes up the following morning and realizes they weren't.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Adegast restrains Luz with magical items that turn into rope around her arms, manacles around her wrists, and ropes with a padlock for her fingers.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Luz manages to defeat Adegast by kicking her (prop) sword at him, where it stabs him in the face.
- Trap Is the Only Option: Eda can tell Luz's quest isn't just a trap, but one that's specifically meant to lure Eda in. To King's annoyance, she can't think of anything but going straight into it.
- Treacherous Quest Giver: The quest Adegast gave Luz was a trap to take her hostage and lead Eda in after her.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Nevareth gives Luz his shirt to wear as a cape, and goes barechested for the rest of the episode.
- The World Is Just Awesome: Eda decides to show Luz the Boiling Isles aren't totally devoid of wonder, and so flies her up high to show a full view of the Bones of the Isles.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Unlike the previous episode, Luz gets suckered into being bait when she confesses that she wants a magic quest similar to the one Azura gets. She falls for it due to being tired from delivering packages and Adegast flattering her.
- You, Get Me Coffee: Eda gives Luz her first assignment: deliver packages and sell potions in the nearby town. Luz enters the town excited, only to get bitten by local fairies and doorknobs, and not really doing anything magic-related.
"Look, kid, everyone wants to believe they're "chosen". But if we all waited around for a prophecy to make us special, we'd die waiting. And that's why you need to choose yourself."
— Eda
