Chapter 45: Stranger Danger
Art by Crash X Fusion: They never come back...as KIDS.
Luz and her friends go to a free amusement park opening where not everything is free, especially since the guy running the park has a vendetta against all children...Tropes that appear in this Chapter:
- Adaptational Karma: See Laser-Guided Karma below for the details regarding the Coachman.
- Adaptational Explanation: The Coachman is able to turn children into donkeys by lacing the food he serves them with fae dust.
- Adaptation Species Change: The Coachman isn't Ambiguously Human but a Long-Lived Fae here.
- An Aesop: Nothing free comes without a price.
- Armor-Piercing Question: To put Nicole in her place for complaining about the girls being pardoned not mattering, Ms. Potts asks if her opinion matters more than that of the Titan's turning all the parents against her.
- Aura Vision: Kitsuni tracks the kidnapped kids by sensing Willow's aura through her glasses. In his wyvern state, the Coachman is able to see a pink aura surrounding Amity.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
- Because of her crush on Skara, Boscha (after being encouraged by Tom) rescues her and only her from the Coachman's forces.
- Edric and Emira rush to check on Amity due to her injuries and tell her she was pretty kickass fighting the Coachman. It means a lot more coming from Emira given how she teased her little sister earlier.
- Bait-and-Switch: On Amity's third attempt to make an abomination, nothing happens at first. Just as Jerbo and Professor Snope relax, it blows up like Amity's previous attempts.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: After Harlan calls Nicole a heffer, Mary seems to be about ready to reprimand her husband for telling her off in such a way...only to tell him to call Nicole a hippo, since it's much worse.
- Berserk Button:
- Gus won't let anything slide if someone mocks his mother.
- Whatever happened on Mewni is a topic that greatly angers Tom.
- Big Damn Heroes: Kitsuni aids Luz, Amity and Skara in freeing the witchlings and stopping the Coachman. Tom later steps in to help the girls while Boscha frees Skara after she's captured and saves Amity from being strangled to death by handicapping the Coachman with a blinding potion, allowing Luz and Amity to take care of him.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Tom tells the Coachman to "shut the hell up" when he mocks him about Mewni's destruction. Amity also tells him to shut it.
- Blunt "No": Luz gives one to Hooty when he asks if he can join the girls and King on the trip to Pleasure Island.
- Body Horror: The transformation into a donkey isn't pleasant as usual, as shown by Amelia and Cat's transformations. It's more disturbing for demons as they retain attributes of their actual bodies, such as King with his skull.
- Breather Episode: Zig-zagged. While the kids don't face any of the Big Bad Ensemble, they still face another villain. Amity in particular had hoped to use the day out to get her mind off her mental block and her parents.
- Buried Alive: This is the Coachman's fate, his spirit dragged to the Underworld by his victims as the Baron buries his body.
- Call-Back:
- Phil being petrified in "The Rescue" is brought up as the last time Amity made a full abomination.
- Amity brings up when she fell victim to a cursed mirror in "Regretful Decisions".
- Hearing the meaning behind the bloody knife card has Luz think back to the deal Belos made to show her the cause of her birth mother's death in "The Reveal".
- Boscha uses the rainbow smoke potion she used on Luz in "Exams to Survive" on the Coachman to help give Luz and Amity a chance to defeat him.
- Barcus' prediction from "Have a Little Hex with my Friends" about Amity becoming a new person is restated by the Baron.
- In the alternate reality "Krampmus Shenanigans" was set in, Luz learned that one's actions define the kind of person they are, the same lesson Boscha learns here.
- The Cameo:
- Professor Snope appears in Amity's flashbacks of trying to create an abomination.
- Prof. Blanc appears during the song as a cardboard standee. Rocky is pulled out by Luz for a guitar solo.
- Mrs. Potts, Viney's mother, makes her debut when all the parents arrive on Pleasure Island and she starts telling off Nicole.
- Lampwick is one of the spirits that appear to take revenge on the Coachman.
- Casting a Shadow: Not only does the Coachman have a Living Shadow, he's got dozens of shadow assistants serving as his work force.
- Child Hater: The Coachman has taken it up to eleven. After only targeting disobedient boys for ages, he came to the conclusion that all children were horrible brats and worked even harder to punish them.
- Composite Character: The Coachman is based off his alias from the original Pinocchio book, Barker the Little Man, and its writer Carlo Collodi.
- Continuity Nod:
- Newt Burger is brought up for the first time since "The Conjuring Conflict".
- Nicole and Athena have been arguing over whether Boscha should be punished for her recent actions.
- Eda and Puck's warnings about Barker and the Little Man in "Domino Effect" turn out to be refering to the same amoral fae.
- Amity lets her hair down and uses Brucy in a fight for a respective second and third time.
- To get Eda to remember him, Tibbles mentions how Luz hit him with a golf club years ago and how Puck shrunk and almost fed him to his tiny beasts.
- Cooldown Hug: Tom has to hug Boscha to get her to calm down after she chews herself out for driving her friends away.
- Crush Blush:
- Willow and Skara share one when Skara asks Willow to come to the carnival on the island, then another when they ask each other out and get together.
- Luz and Amity react with these when Viney says they're on a date and later when Luz accidentally tackles Amity while trying to pin the Coachman. This is what hints that they do still have feelings for each other.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: At first the Coachman appears to be unstoppable as Luz and Amity can't land a single hit on him and neither can Tom while Kitsuni struggles to keep up with him. The moment Boscha gives him a handicap, the girls are able to finish him off via hand-to-hand combat.
- Deal with the Devil: How the Coachman ended up in the Boiling Isles; desperate to evade the Order, he makes a deal with the Baron who tells him to go to the Boiling Isles since the Order has no jurisdiction there. Barker later discovers that the Baron set him up, knowing he'd die.
- Distant Prologue: The chapter opens on a flashback to when the Coachman asked the Baron if he knew of a place where he can accomplish his goals without getting caught by the Order.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Boscha points out how risqué a place called "Pleasure Island" sounds.
- The Dog Bites Back:
- Gus stands up to Horace after he tries to pick on him again, taking him down with a knifehand strike to the throat and flipping him off.
- Having finally seen how they've been treating their daughters because they listened to Nicole, Zebra, Swan, Harlan and Mary tell Nicole to never come near their families again.
- The Coachman's victims waste no time taking their revenge on him for what he did to them.
- Double Standard: The Coachman sees Oberon discarding his services while allowing the Enchantress to commit similar acts as such.
- Dragged Off to Hell: The Coachman's ultimate fate is having his soul torn apart before being sent to the Spirit World.
- Earn Your Happy Ending:
- Once the Coachman is finally killed, the sprits of all his victims including Lampwick can finally move on to the "better place".
- Not only do Luz and Amity win over the parents of everyone they save (minus Nicole of course), they also get back together after admitting they want the other back so they can stay in each other's lives, sealing that promise with a kiss.
- Exact Eavesdropping: Amelia and Cat drag Luz and Amity into hiding behind a stand to witness Willow and Skara asking each other out. Unfortunately for Boscha, she and Tom also see it.
- Filler Villain: The Coachman only appears as a short-lived Monster of the Week.
- Flashback Cut: To showcase Amity's abomination problem, a flashback shows what happens when she tried to make one three times.
- Flipping the Bird: Gus does it to Horace after he puts him in his place.
- Foreshadowing: The lilac butterfly, a representation of Amity's growth into the person she wants to be.
- The Gadfly: Viney teases Luz and Amity like the twins do by asking if they came to Pleasure Island on a date, with Emira following up on it. What's amazing is that they pay for it faster than the twins ever had before.
- The Ghost: Oberon & the Enchantress are mentioned by Barker, Ms. Traveler, Odalia and Alador are mentioned a few times by several characters, Athena is indirectly mentioned by her daughter, Luz brings up Gideon and Slasher & Calypso are mentioned to be the ones bringing Ed & Em home.
- Glowing Eyes: Amity's eyes flash pink as she creates her abomination tornado.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Boscha's reason for trying to control Skara and who she was friends with was because of her feelings for her, seeing Bo as a potential romantic rival for the bard's affection.
- Grew a Spine: Thanks to their talk with Ms. Traveler, the Harwitches and the Regals (notably Zebra and Mary) finally stand up to Nicole and tell her to stay away from their families.
- Groin Attack: Amity hits the Coachman where the sun don't shine.
- Have We Met?: The Clawthorne sisters ask Tibbles who he is when he meets them face to face in the Hexes Hold'em tournament finals, much to his exasperation.
- Heal It With Fire: Since Luz's Healing Factor isn't healing the wound in her shoulder, she cauterizes it with a fire glyph.
- Hearing Voices: Amity hears someone telling her not to drink what she got from the concessions. This saves her from turning into a donkey.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Right as the Coachman shows up behind Amity raising a pair of spiked knuckles, Luz pushes her out of the way and takes the blow.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Boscha's only just started to act heroic, but she still counts. She tells Tom that she believes that she's too much of a coward like Nicole, not being brave enough to face threats and take risks the same way Luz and Amity have.
- Holding Hands: Willow and Skara start doing this to signify their becoming an Official Couple. They admit it feels weird but look forward to getting used to it.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The Coachman attempts to stab Amity using spiked knuckles only for Luz to take the hit in her shoulder. This is ultimately how the girls kill him, by punching him so he falls back onto a set of sharp iron bars.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: This is the reason Barker's known as the "Little Man", because he can shrink down and become an actual Pint-Sized Powerhouse.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: Amelia is drawn to a stand that allows disorganization, leaving it with intentionally mismatching colors.
- Internal Reveal:
- Luz informs Amity about the Sadistic Choice Odalia gave her in the last chapter.
- Amity catches on to Willow and Skara's mutual attraction.
- The girls also see Tom for the first time.
- Tibbles learned that Puck was friends with Luz.
- In the Hood: Boscha and Tom spend the whole night wearing cloaks so no one recognizes Boscha or questions who Tom is.
- Just Friends: After taking Viney and Emira's teasing, Luz asks Amity for reconfirmation if they're hanging out as friends, not on a date. Amity sadly agrees with her, but it's revoked once they get back together.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Overlapping with Karmic Death and Killed Off for Real. After centuries of punishing children with Disproportionate Retribution, the Coachman is finally killed himself and torn apart by his victims before being sent to the spirit world.
- Lampshade Hanging:
- Amity isn't sure what to make of Phil achieving sentience and wonders if he had a soul.
- Aside from Luz, nobody questions why Skara's transformation into a donkey is so slow. The ending gives the readers a few ideas.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Doubles as Adaptational Karma. The Coachman is impaled on iron bars after being severely beaten by Luz and Amity, is Buried Alive by the Baron, then gets dragged off to the afterlife by the spirits of the children he punished after centuries of getting away with his crimes.
- Gus knocks Horace down a peg by hitting his neck with a knifehand strike that leaves him on the ground gasping for air.
- Emira and Viney turning into donkeys can be treated as cosmic payback for teasing Luz and Amity about the current state of their relationship.
- Living Shadow: The Coachman's got a whole army of them which he uses to capture the kids after they transform into donkeys and as an army to fight off Kitsuni and the girls.
- Logical Weakness: Shadow assistants are weak to any kind of light (kinda obvious), but with the army the Coachman has it needs to be powerful.
- Me's a Crowd: Kitsuni summons a dozen clones of herself to fight back against the shadow assistants.
- Missed Him by That Much: Skara manages to catch a glimpse of Boscha as she sneaks away with Tom. By the time Nicole arrives on the island to find her daughter, she's long gone.
- Monster of the Week: The Coachman, who does what he does best: trick kids into visiting his amusement park on Pleasure Island so they'll turn into donkeys and he can sell them off.
- Mood Whiplash: At the end of the chapter, Skara is happily getting ready for bed while remembering she's in a relationship now... only to gasp in shock after spotting fur growing on her neck.
- Named by the Adaptation: The Coachman is given the additional alias of Barker the Little Man.
- Neck Lift: Barker performs this on Amity before he starts strangling her to death and drops her after Boscha hits him with the blinding potion.
- No Body Left Behind: The Coachman's body turns into ash upon his death like Puck's body did.
- Not So Above It All: Viney's picked up the twins' habit of teasing Amity about her relationship with Luz from Emira.
- "Not So Different" Remark: The Coachman accuses Oberon of having a Double Standard for turning his back on him for his Disproportionate Retribution while giving the Enchantress a free pass for doing nearly the same thing.
- One-Winged Angel: The Coachman, like Puck before him in his fight against Belos, uses a dragon form against Luz and Amity.
- Our Wyverns Are Different: The Coachman's dragon form is a two-legged wyvern with his arms becoming wings.
- Pet the Dog:
- Boscha invites Tom to Pleasure Island with her so he can have some fun.
- Boscha saves Skara from the Coachman's forces and blinds Barker so Luz and Amity can take him, then helps Tom escape afterwards.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Barker can shrink to the size of a fly and land a punch that sends Luz flying.
- Playing with Fire: Both Kitsuni and Barker show themselves to be specialists in fire manipulation. As per his canon, Tom's also a master of this.
- Please Get Off Me: In trying to tackle the Coachman, Luz misses him and lands on top of Amity sending them to the ground. Both girls blush and Luz apologizes before getting up.
- Pleasure Island: The Trope Namer appears in the Boiling Isles in this chapter as the main location of conflict, courtesy of the Coachman.
- Precision F-Strike: Gus' one-liner after he takes down Horace and gives him the bird? "Up yours, f**kface".
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Amity tells the Coachman he deserves his fate right before she and Luz kill him.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: The Coachman's dragon form.
- Reduced to Dust: Just like Puck, the Coachman's body dissolves into dust after he's impaled to death on the iron bars.
- Reincarnation: Implied as a case of Luz being reborn from a past life that she'll learn about later on.
- Relationship-Salvaging Disaster: Fighting the Coachman and nearly dying at his hands convinces Luz that she can't keep denying her feelings for Amity still exist nor her desire to get back together with her. Once she talks to Amity, Luz learns the feeling's mutual which leads to them renewing their relationship.
- Relationship Upgrade: After asking each other out, Willow and Skara finally start dating.
- Retcon: Tibbles no longer bears his full name from canon which he kept in Book 1. Now he is known as "Tibbles Trembly Grimmhammer III".
- The Reveal:
- Amity hasn't been able to create a single proper abomination since the petrification ceremony out of lingering guilt over Phil.
- While they were students, Gilbert was in the Construction track while Sully was a Plant tracker. This was also when they got together.
- Boscha has feelings for Skara, and she had the Bard end her friendship with Bo out of jealousy.
- The Coachman is a fae who was forced to cease his business when Oberon saw no use for him anymore. He transforms children into donkeys by lacing the food on Pleasure Island with fae dust.
- The Coachman mentions that the Enchantress is also a fae.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: As the Coachman's begging on his knees:Barker: P-P-Please, have mercy… you wouldn't hurt a cheery old man, would you?Luz: Yeah, we would.
- Rule of Three: In the flashback, Amity tries to create an abomination three times and each time, they blew up and cover the entire abomination track homeroom in sludge.
- Sequel Hook: The details regarding Luz's past life, whatever Barker meant by Puck's "stench" lingering on Amity, and Skara's condition coming to light.
- Series Continuity Error: It was well established that the Boiling Sea causes burns but Luz and Amity end up in the water and get out with no damage at all.
- Ship Tease: Tom giving Boscha a Cooldown Hug along with building up her self-worth can raise a few eyebrows.
- Shout-Out:
- During the Distant Prologue, the Coachman references the Enchantress from Beauty and the Beast.
- The song this week is The Runaways' "Cherry Bomb".
- Gus calls Horace "Curly", a nod to The Three Stooges.
- The Baron makes several references to his current body's previous life as Dr. Facilier in this chapter:
- When he first proposes the Coachman moving his current operations to the Boiling Islands in the Distant Prologue, he mentions the Coachman being "willing to cut a deal."
- The fortune telling ceremony he does with Luz and Amity on Pleasure Island has elements of the scene with Naveen and Lawrence, right down to him using the same lines from his Villain Song.
- Before the Coachman is Dragged Off to Hell, the Baron makes another reference to Facilier's Villain Song, saying that he's "brought some old Friends of (the Coachman's)note to help (him) on (his) one-way trip to the Other Side."
- Hexes Hold'Em is treated rather similarly to Duel Monsters, with a kid claiming the cards in the game could end the world and one participant in the tournament being dressed in Egyptian-style clothing.
- Kitsuni's techniques bear resemblance to Naruto Uzumaki; her fox form has multiple tails like Kuruma, she uses hand signs to summon an army of clones and she can use a substitution jutsu.
- Kitsuni also has control over blue fire, like Azula.
- Speaking of Avatar, Amity lifts herself into the air using a tornado of abomination goo, much like Katara's water spout technique, which is also used by Amon in the season 1 finale of The Legend of Korra.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Amity tells the Coachman to just shut up as she punches him with a large abomination fist.
- Slow Transformation: Thanks to her cambion abilities, Luz only sports donkey ears despite eating the food at the carnival. The same goes for whatever condition Skara has, as she only has her left hand turn into a hoof.
- Snake Whip: Barker uses a whip against Luz as his first attack, which he turns into a snake that she takes and throws away.
- Story Arc: This chapter officially starts Gus' arc of standing his own ground, coinciding with his personality shift.
- Stranger Danger: There's a reason it's the chapter's title.
- Super Drowning Skills: The Coachman knocks Luz off the pier and as she and Amity discover, Luz's cambion wings are too heavy which nearly causes her to drown.
- Take My Hand!: Tom offers his hand for Boscha to take so she can help him save everyone. She takes it.
- Take That!: After the Clawthorne sisters defeat the overly-dramatic Egyptian-styled witch, Eda tells Lilith that Hexes Hold'em tournaments tend to attract a lot of weirdos who take the game too seriously, a jab at Yu-Gi-Oh!'s villains.
- Talk to the Fist:
- Gus knocks Horace flat on his back with a knifehand strike for talking smack about his mother.
- Amity conjures up an huge abomination fist to punch the Coachman Dragon through a wall.
- This is Luz and Amity's finishing move on the Coachman, punching him together so he falls back on the iron bars.
- Tarot Troubles: Under the guise of a fortune teller, the Baron gives Luz and Amity a free reading.
- Luz's cards consist of a bloody knife (representing Camila's death and someone knowing more about it: possibly the Five of Swords reversed, representing conflict), the Priestess (representing her search for self-knowledge and closure; connected to a past life) and a flying bat (meant to depict a growing inner darkness that will consume her but complete something for her.)
- Amity's cards consist of a silver spoon (representing her upbringing where she thought she knew what she wanted for her future), a pair of scissors (showing how she cut herself off from that fate and started carving her own path), and a lilac butterfly (metamorphosis into a new person; a form of rebirth.)
- Throw the Dog a Bone:
- Seeing that Boscha needs some time away from her arguing parents, Tom shows her the flyer to Pleasure Island so she can get out of the house for the night.
- Although Eda and Lilith reach the finals of the Hexes Hold'em tournament, they forfeit to go check on the kids after learning what happened on Pleasure Island, letting Tibbles win by default.
- As thanks for saving Cat, Zebra and Swan heal Luz and Amity's injuries. All the parents proceed to stand up for the girls against Nicole before thanking them for saving their children.
- Title Drop: Said by Barker in the Distant Prologue, who says everyone gets on a high horse about it.
- Took a Level in Kindness: After their talk with Ms. Traveler and hearing from their daughters what happened on Pleasure Island, Zebra, Swan, Harlan and Mary thank Luz and Amity for saving their kids, and have decided to cut Nicole out of their lives.
- Unknown Rival: Tibbles discovers he's one to Eda since she doesn't remember who he is.
- Villain Opening Scene: The Distant Prologue occurs between Barker and the Ambiguously Evil Baron making a deal.
- Villains Want Mercy: The Coachman is reduced to begging for Luz and Amity to spare him, but they don't fall for it.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Kitsuni can take the form of a large quadroped fox with six tails while the Coachman turns into a black and red dragon.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Luz's cambion wings turn out to be a hindrance in water as she can't swim with them, which nearly causes her to drown.
- We Meet Again: Name-dropped by Tibbles when he faces the Clawthorne sisters in the tournament, only for them to ask if they've met.
- Wham Episode: Willow and Skara ask each other out, Boscha reveals she has a crush on Skara, the Coachman is Killed Off for Real, Luz and Amity get back together, and Skara shows signs of transforming into something.
- Wham Line:
- As Tom tries to comfort Boscha after she sees Willow and Skara ask each other out:
Boscha: It should've been...
Tom: I'm sorry, what?
Boscha: [yells as she cries] It should've been me! I... I have feelings for Skara.- During Luz and Amity's talk near the end, they admit they still have feelings for each other and get back together.
- Wham Shot: The chapter ends with Skara preparing to go to bed, only to find a patch of white fur on her neck.
- Writer's Block: Artist's Block according to Luz. She suggests this is why Amity can't make abominations anymore, but Amity has already considered this and shot it down after a talk with Ms. Traveler.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: To get Boscha to help save all the kids captured by the Coachman, Tom tells her she can be better than Nicole and see what she can do alongside him.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Oberon stopped letting the Coachman punish children and cast him aside so the Order wouldn't come after him.
