S1 - Ep 7: Search and Steal - Part 1
As Luz contemplates the nature of her powers, Julia's backstory is explored. She then makes a request from her team leader.
This chapter contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Julia Wittebane's Parents, being the Christian extremists that they were, were NOT very accepting of their daughter being a lesbian, as well as someone who liked to do things outside of their religion, so they ostracized her, locking her to one specific part of the house that she wasn't allowed to leave. When her superpowers came in, they kicked her out of the house and sent her away to Reality Check Summer Camp just to get rid of her.
- All for Nothing: Julia acknowledges that this could happen if the governor finds out she's been De Powered and could pull a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on her or her parents still wouldn't take her back for being gay.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Julia Wittebane's whole community abandoned her to the streets all because she awakened a superpower.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Julia's father looks down on and laughs at the poor calling them beneath him and his family.
- Bad Powers, Good People: The crux of the issue with Luz's Quirk is that she didn’t want to take anyone’s power, be they an enemy, ally, or random civilian, seeing it as wrong.Luz: All For One. A power of The Chosen One… yeah, if they’re a villain…
- Book Burning: Being an religious extremist, Julia's father burned her Harry Potter and The Dresden Files because they were about magic.
- Brought Down to Normal: Invoked at Julia's request, Luz takes her "Vine" Quirk for a chance for her parents to take her back.
- Corrupt Church: Implied. Julia's local church refused to let her in and refused to give her any food or clothing because she was outed as a lesbian and had superpowers.
- The Corrupter: There's hints that Luz's Quirk (or even All For One's spirit itself) is slowly corrupting her. Especially this part:And while she didn’t realize it, a smirk came across her face. A small, toothy grin, as only one poisonous thought, filled her mind.Luz: Once this is over… The Governor is going to pay for this with his life.
- Cure Your Gays: Julia's father tried to do this by making her read bible verses over and over again about how sex with the same sex was wrong. It didn’t change the fact that she liked girls.
- Ditzy Genius: Most people she knew didn’t want to acknowledge the fact that Luz was smart. Sure, she's aware she's had her dumb moments, but most of the time, she's wicked sharp when it came to problem solving. She just happened to focus too much of it on her creativity. But with no creative outlet in the Death Camp to hone that one, all she had to focus that intellect on was the situation at hand.
- Fantastic Racism: All of her life Julia's family had been taught that those who had magical powers were to be seen as monsters and should be killed. Fitting, seeing as their family were witch hunters back in the 1700s.
- A Fate Worse Than Death: Luz believes being rendered brain dead by her Power Parasite Quirk counts as this.
- Forced Out of the Closet: Julia's parents found out was that was a lesbian. How? Well, they caught her kissing a girl, and that sent them over the moon with anger.
- From Bad to Worse: Julia's parents became verbally and emotionally abusively towards when they found out she was a lesbians, then they out right disowned her and kicked her out of their house when she gained a Quirk from the Mass Super-Empowering Event.
- The Fundamentalist: The Wittebane Clan is an Ultra-Conservative Christian family that holds a strong conviction that the existence of LGBT, witches, demons, and super-humans are an unholy abomination against God. The family also banned television within the household, and any mention of witches, often preventing Julia's friends from coming over because they would "taint her mind with devil worship."
- Genre Savvy: Luz demonstrates she's not a case of Good Is Dumb by realising the Antagonistic Governor doesn’t plan to give any money away to the winner. The moment they finish this Deadly Game, he’s either going to forcibly recruit them into the military as Super Soldiers or pull a Leave No Survivors on them.
- Government Conspiracy: Luz ponders if the U.S. government is backing the whole Death Camp thing, if news wasn't all over that 33 kids got kidnapped by the governor of Connecticut for some twisted experiment.
- Greed: Luz believes that the All For One Quirk is the symbol of Greed. She also doubts that she could sue for peace with the other teams to pull an Enemy Mine because the prize money promised by the Governor would make them cave in and kill one another for his sick amusement.Narrator: Greed. That was the root of their problem. The root of her problem. All For One was a symbol of Greed. Greed for other people’s powers, which was a direct parallel to what the Governor was hoping for. The Governor was banking on everyone’s Greed to push this whole thing along. So that kids would cave in and kill one another for his sick amusement.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: The beginning of the chapter reveals Luz having doubts on her ability to be The Leader of her team due to her having No Social Skills and a Friendless Background.
- Heteronormative Crusader: Mr. and Mrs. Wittebane are this to a T, being sick at the very thought of same-sex relationships. Not even their own daughter is exempt from his homophobia.
- Honor Before Reason: She gives her Quirk up to Luz, seeing them as thing that ruined her life, despite the fact she's in the middle of a Death Game and needs protection.
- I Have No Son!: Julia notes she's not the only case of this. Hundreds of kids from around her town were being kicked out of their homes by their parents because of their “demonic powers” and “unholy appearances".
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Luz, at Julia's request, takes her Quirk so that the latter can have a chance of her parents taking her back, seeing her powers as a curse.
- Incompatible Orientation: No matter how many male suitors Julia was given by her parents to marry for the rich clout, she refused them all. She didn’t like men, and that was final.
- The Insomniac: Luz is becoming this. Its not like she can't sleep but more like she doesn't want to sleep, due to the fact that if she falls asleep again she’d risk having to talk to All For One again in her dreams.
- Knocking on Heathens' Door: When asked to Julia Wittebane knocked on doors to spread the word of her God and Jesus Christ.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Julia Wittebane is revealed to be gay and has a girly personality.
- Messianic Archetype: Julia compares Luz to this after she takes away her unwanted Quirk, with her Power Palms feeding into this, as they give her the appearance of a stigmata and believes it was God's will that allowed them to meet each other.Narrator: It was like an angel and a lost mortal meeting on the mortal’s brink of collapsing into sin, only to then be swooped out of that wicked fate by said angel, said angel, in this case, Luz. And, as for Luz, much like the Christly figure of Jesus, she had holes in her hands, though not because she had been crucified, but rather because of her godly power to take away powers from those who could be deemed as “unworthy”. And with the way the moonlight had shone on her like she was some sort of deity, Luz became something more to her than a friend. She became her saviour.
- Mythology Gag: Julia's Quirk has the same name and is similar to Ibara Shiozaki's Quirk from Class 1-B, except she can't grow it from her hair, but instead her hands. They're also both devout Christian girls.
- Parents as People: Its implied that many of the parents of the superhuman teens sent them to the camp because of the power outbreak, because they didn't know how to handle it.
- Princess Classic: Luz quips that Julia talks like one of these.
- Psychotic Smirk:
- Luz does this when she thinks about wanting to kill the governor.
- The governor himself has this when he witnesses Luz's Power Parasite Quirk work on her friend Julia, from his security camera.
- Rebellious Spirit: Julia had a rebellious phase towards her fundamentalist parents and it was because of that she was sent to Reality Check Summer Camp.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Subverted. Black and red lightning sparks from Luz's hands when she steals a Quirk but she's still a Nice Girl.
- The Reveal: Julia's parents didn't send her to Reality Check Camp for her protection, but instead to get rid of her because she developed superpowers, seeing her as a devil spawn. Now she wants Luz to take them away.
- The Scream: Julia does this as Luz takes her Quirk away at her request, due how excruciating the process is. She compares it to being shocked by an electric chair at maximum voltage.
- Shout-Out:
- Luz compares All For One squatting in her Mental World to like a A Nightmare on Elm Street situation, just without the threat of dying.
- Julia once bought copies the of first books of Harry Potter and The Dresden Files but unfortunately her fundamentalist father quickly burned them once he discovered them.
- Shown Their Work: Many Christian extremists today and in the past had Book Burnings that infamously included Harry Potter because it was about the supernatural.
- Sinister Surveillance: Governor Maxwell witnesses Luz's Quirk in action via this.
- Slowly Slipping Into Evil: When she has a dark thought about wanting to to kill the Governor with a Psychotic Smirk, Luz fears that her power is going to corrupt her into some evil tyrant.
- Super-Empowering: Luz chastises herself for forgetting to mention she could do this to her teammates. But then she remembers she doesn't have any powers to give as she was “empty” at the moment.
- Token Religious Teammate: She is a devout Christian girl, despite all the bad things happening to her after the Mass Super-Empowering Event occurred.
- Wham Episode: Luz takes Julia's Quirk at her request... unfortunately this is witnessed by the governor that kidnapped them.
- White Sheep: Julia was this in the Wittebane family, sans a remark or two for those who believed in witchcraft and magic, before they disowned her.
- With Friends Like These...: All of Julia's friends, who had been made at the church and several meetings as well as at Sunday School abandoned her after she gained superpowers and was disowned by her parents.
- Worth It: Julia considers having her Quirk taken away to be this, despite how painful and dangerous the process is for her.
