A Little Hint Of Blue is a The Owl House fan comic created by Tumblr user MoringMark (best known for their Star vs. the Forces of Evil webcomics Echo Creek: A Tale of Two Butterflies, Ship War AU, SVTFOE Metaverse and their Owl House comics such as Witches Among Humans).
After a little misunderstanding involving a kraken-summoning water balloon, Skara and Viney become friends, with the hint of there being more than just a little spark between the two.
The comic can be found on Mark's Tumblr, Twitter, and Reddit. It can also be read here due to being uploaded on Archive of Our Own with permission from MoringMark.
A Little Hint Of Blue provides examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Skara taunts Viney in their duel by asking if she will "heal her to death", making Jerbo struggle to contain a chuckle.
- Adaptation Expansion: It's never actually stated what Skara's father does for a living in canon other than him being a business associate of the Blights. Here, Skara mentions that he runs a company that makes musical instruments.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Skara and Viney never had any sort of meaningful relationship in the show beyond the fact that they were both members of the Emerald Entrails. Here, they form a friendship as early as the events of "Understanding Willow" and later become romantically involved.
- Adaptational Badass: While Raine already showed that Bard magic is incredibly powerful in the show proper, Barcus mentions while watching Viney and Skara's Witch's Duel that the fact that Bard spells are nothing but vibrations means that they're effectively unblockable. The same fight also shows that Healing magic (which had been limited to mending wounds, shielding and curse removal in the show) is capable of body modification spells like muscle enhancement or twisting ears closed to cancel out sonic attacks.
- Adaptational Sexuality: While both Skara and Viney did have some hints towards being LGBTQ+ in the series proper (being Ambiguously Bi and Ambiguously Gay respectively), neither of them ever showed overt interest in girls. Here, they're slowly developing not just a friendship, but feelings for each other.
- Almost Kiss: A rather extreme example, as Skara and Viney's first kiss is interrupted by Belos possessing the Titan's heart.
- Amazon Chaser: One of the reasons Skara initially developed feelings for Viney is because she was able to fight off a kraken with her bare hands.
- Armor-Piercing Attack: Skara uses a charged flechette to destroy Viney's shield in their witch duel.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Following Kikimora's defeat, Skara tries to comfort Boscha after she's been forced to step down as Student Council President. When Boscha accuses Skara of just pretending to be her friend given her behavior over the past several months, Skara hit her with a line that clearly shakes her to her core.Skara: I want to make this friendship work. The real question is, do you want a friend? Or do you just want a puppet who never gets in your way? No one wants to be the Collector's puppet. What makes you think anyone would want to be yours?
- At the Crossroads: While not a literal crossroads, the Secret Room of Shortcuts serves the same purpose for Skara as it serves as the site for two major relationship changes in her life. First, it's where she and Viney first become friends, and then several months later it's where she and Fled break up.
- Bait-and-Switch: When Skara finally goes to confess to Viney, the latter is in the process of helping a girl with an arrow through their head with a medical emergency. But then it turns out that the emergency was actually helping to clear up her acne while the arrow is left without comment.
- Big Damn Heroes: Just as Boscha is about to defeat Viney, Skara comes in and erases the multi-coven room from her memory.
- Cassandra Truth: Fled ends up discovering that Hunter isn't a real student and tries to warn Skara, but his warning falls on deaf ears since she just assumes that he must be a talent scout.
- Description Cut: When Amelia wonders where Amity is after seeing Viney challenge Skara to a Witch's Duel, Boscha comments that she's probably off somwhere "being high and mighty". Cut to Amity in the midst of a blushing panic after having spotting Gus sneaking Luz into the school.
- Didn't Think This Through: Skara's plan to have Viney keep Boscha away from the gym during Grom so she could have a romantic evening with Fled relied on her knowledge that Boscha is never interested in the Grom fight. Unfortunately, she failed to take into consideration that Boscha would want to watch Luz be emotionally tortured as this year's Grom royalty.
- A Dog Named "Perro": Skara's boyfriend is a bat-eared demon named Fledermaus, which is German for "bat".
- Doomed by Canon: Skara is shown to be dating Fled here, but given the fact that she ends up married to Viney (at least in MoringMark's other comics) it means that the relationship is doomed one way or the other.
- Dramatic Irony: Fled panics when the Emerald Entrails are taken by the Emperor's Coven and teams up with Puddles to rescue them, but readers already known that they aren't in any danger as shown in the show proper.
- Ear Ache: To protect herself from Skara's whistle attack, Viney twists her ears into a knot.
- Everyone Can See It: Most of Hexside is aware of Skara's crush on Viney by the time of the Hexsquad's return to the Boiling Isles, though she doesn't want to tell her when they're currently trying to survive in an apocalypse.
- Eyes Out of Sight: Played for Laughs. A caption is included when Fled narrows his eyes at Hunter, because it'd be impossible to tell otherwise.
- Fantastic Measurement System: The Boiling Isles measures distances in a metricesque system called steps, with one step being equal to 30 inches.
- Foregone Conclusion: As MoringMark's other comics depict Skara and Viney being Married in the Future, it's inevitable that the two will end up together at some point. This is even referenced in a recap comic that points out Milan exists.
- Hidden Depths: While watching Viney and Skara's duel with Jerbo, Barcus shows he is very insightful about different kinds of magic, being able to analyze the tricks to tracks he isn't even a part of, like Bard and Healing. Unfortunately, the only thing anyone who isn't Jerbo hears is endless barking.
- How Dad Met Mom: By virtue of "Grom Factor" confirming that Milan is their daughter, "A Little Hint of Blue" is retroactively this for Skara and Viney.
- Improvised Bandage: Subverted when Skara needs to get a bandage for Fled after he's injured trying to take on Darius and offers to use her handkerchief. Viney shoots down the idea, pointing out that something designed to blow your nose would be absolutely covered in germs and shouldn't be anywhere near an open wound.
- Interrupted Declaration of Love: Exaggerated. Skara tries to confess to Viney, only for four completely unrelated distractions to get in her way in quick succession, eventually leader her to yell it out in frustration in front of everyone.
- Jealous Pet: Played with. Puddles hates Fled because of his relationship with Skara rather than Viney, as she ships the latter two together and views him as a threat to that.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Fled attempt to stop the Coven scouts from taking the Emerald Entrails, but wisely steps down when the one he punched reveals himself to be incredibly buff.
- Let's Dance: After Skara recovers from being crushed by Puddles during the witch duel.Skara: You wanna dance? Then dance to this! (fires flechettes at Viney)
- Lets Fight Like Ladies: After Viney and Boscha complain about the other abilities during their fight for the multi coven room, Boscha suggests to fight hand-to-hand, the result is rather silly until Boscha cheats and hits Viney with a fiery hand.
- Love Hurts: Fled breaks up with Skara because he knows that their relationship isn't what's best for her. And while he does keep up a strong front while she's watching, as soon as she leaves he curls into a Troubled Fetal Position.
- Major Injury Underreaction: After defeating Kikimora, Viney goes to heal Skara (who is fine save for some tinnitus from one of her own sonic attacks). When Skara points out that her hand has glass shards embedded in it from punching the Abomatron's dome, she casually shakes them out while commenting that it's nothing.
- Mistaken for Romance: Matt hears Skara talking about how she can't start crushing on someone right after breaking up with Fled and comes to the conclusion that it's him since she's saying it while facing him. He proceeds to try and turn her down, saying his heart already belongs to someone else (Gus, though he doesn't specify at the time).
- Moment Killer: Just after Viney finally reciprocates Skara's feelings and the two are about to have their First Kiss, they're interrupted when Belos possesses the Titan's heart and causes the Boiling Isles to stir. Skara is not amused.
- The Music Meister: Skara knows a Bard spell that can create musical numbers on demand, much to Viney's annoyance.
- Musical Number Annoyance: Viney strongly dislikes musical numbers and is clearly annoyed by Skara using her bard magic to make them. She even cuts her off the second time around, though she does begrudgingly allow her to explain what the rest of the song would have been about.
- Musicalis Interruptus: When Skara tries to convince Viney to not erase her memory in song form, the latter covers the former's mouth.Viney: One more of these [and] I'm gonna lose it.
- My New Gift Is Lame: Inverted. After learning that it's Skara's 15th birthday, Viney leaves a new pen at her locker with an attached note apologizing for the gift being so lame since it was on such short notice, but Skara clearly finds it sweet none the less.
- Named by the Adaptation: While Mark avoided giving names to characters during the run of the show, he started assigning some to minor characters here.
- The boy Skara went to Grom with is named Fledermaus (or "Fled" for short)
- Skara's palisman is named Cayenne.
- The spike headed abomination student is named Sibley.
- No-Sell: As a bat demon, Fled is capable of using echolocation to be aware of his surroundings. As a result, he's the only one capable of navigating Hexside without issue when Gus covers it in his giant illusion spell.
- Obliviously Evil: Skara is horrified when Viney calls her a bully, claiming that just because her and Boscha "run over whoever gets in [their] way" doesn't make them bullies.
- On the Rebound: Discussed. Skara scolds herself for blushing at Viney mere minutes after she and Fled broke up.
- Pass the Popcorn: Jerbo is shown munching on popcorn while watching Skara finally stand up to Boscha on Grom night.
- Positive Friend Influence: Both Skara and Fled point out that the former's friendship with Viney has been nothing but good for her, with Fled admitting that she's done more helping Skara in the few weeks they've been friends than he's managed to do in three years.
- Previously on…: Parodied in a recap comic summarizing the events of the last six chapters in comedic ways, like Viney casually snapping Boscha's neck so Skara can get some Character Development, Fled explaining that the reason why he can't be with Skara is because he's only a background character, and Skara showing Viney a picture of their future daughter as she confesses to her.
- Promoted to Love Interest: Well, promoted to Romantic False Lead. Skara and Fled are shown attending Grom together in canon, but they never interact again for the remainder of the show. Here, they're shown to actually be dating afterwards, and are still together by the events of "Any Sport in a Storm" several months later.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Skara is the energetic Red Oni and Viney is the more laid-back Blue Oni. Their respective Bard and Healing track uniforms even match this.
- Relationship Upgrade: Skara and Viney finally get together right when it looks like things are going to soon be back to normal thanks to Luz speaking with the Collector. Unfortunately, their first kiss is then interrupted by Belos possessing the Titan.
- Romantic False Lead: While Fled is by all accounts a good boyfriend to Skara, he has the misfortune of being in a story where the audience already knows that she'll eventually end up married to Viney instead. He even seems to be at least partially aware of the fact that a long term relationship isn't in the cards for him.
- Run or Die: In the face of Belos' Meat Moss spreading across the isles, all the Resistance can do is run for their lives. It gets a Mood Whiplash when Puddles humorously gets stuck in the door of the panic room and they have trouble getting her through.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Two Coven Scouts come across Skara and Fled hiding in the Secret Room of Shortcuts, but they decide to leave them be because they find them right as they're breaking up and want to avoid further awkwardness.
- Shipping Torpedo: Puddles does not like Skara/Fled due to shipping the former with Viney.
- Shout-Out:
- Skara engages in "aggressive barding" during her duel with Viney in a manner very similar to Miguel.
- After being shocked repeteadly by Skara, Viney lays on the ground in a familiar pose. And then there's Jerbo's reaction to it.
- Viney activates her muscle growing spell by blowing into her thumb a la Gear Third.
- When Skara shows Viney a picture of Milan in the recap episode, the two of them channel Yugi using Exodia against Kaiba.
- Viney disables the Abomatron by clambering onto its back and pulling out wires with a glib "This looks important!"
- Simultaneous Arcs: Each chapter is set during an episode of the actual series.
- Chapter 1 takes place during the events of "Something Ventured, Someone Framed", as shown by Amity spotting Gus sneak Luz into Hexside.
- Chapter 2 takes place during "Understanding Willow", with Skara preparing her birthday speech at the beginning.
- Chapter 3 takes place during "Enchanting Grom Fright", with Skara planning to go to Grom with Fled.
- Chapter 4 takes place during "Any Sport In A Storm", with Skara and Viney looking to sign up for Flyer Derby.
- Chapter 5 takes place during "Labyrinth Runners", with all the students dealing with the Emperor's Coven invading Hexside.
- Chapter 6 is stretched out across both "For the Future" and "Watching and Dreaming", with the Hexsquad having just gotten back to the Demon Realm.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The Hexsquad is busy with the plot of the show, and thus barely show up in the comic (most of the times that their paths did cross Viney and/or Skara are skipped over due to the reader already being aware what happened). Despite this, a few of them do visible affect the on-screen story
- The entire plot is set in motion because Willow happened to turn down a hallway right as Skara was throwing a kraken-summoning water balloon at her, causing it to hit Viney instead.
- Luz running away from Grom causes Boscha to discover the fact that Viney was disguised as Skara (due to the real one being in the crowd chasing after Luz), which directly leads to Skara growing a spine and standing up for herself for the first time when called out about it.
- Spam Attack: Skara defeats Viney on their witch duel by repeteadly casting her Thunder Wave spell on her.
- Taking the Bullet: Fled takes a stunning spell for Skara during the Emperor's Coven's attack on Hexside, leading the two of them to seek shelter in the Secret Room of Shortcuts.
- This Is Gonna Suck: This is Viney's reaction after she realizes that Skara tricked her into lowering her guard on their witch duel.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Skara is the Girly Girl and Viney is the Tomboy. It gets in the way of Skara's plan to have Viney use a concealment stone and pretend to be her at Grom.Skara: What do you say when you excuse yourself to go to the bathroom?Viney: "Imma go take a dump, be right back."Skara: NOOO!!!
- Toxic Friend Influence: Boscha is shown to have been a terrible influence towards Skara in their younger years, encouraging her worst behavior and intervening whenever she expressed any sign of remorse to others on the grounds that it made her look weak.
- Truce Trickery: After Viney gets the upper hand during a witches' duel, Skara pretends to want to be friends with her, only so she can distract her long enough to get her harp back.
- Underestimating Badassery:
- Skara thinks that she will easily defeat Viney to the point of posting a selfie in her Pentagram with the subtitle "kicking butts", then after being intimidated by Viney's description of offensive medical magic, she claims she still win easily by using ranged attacks, Viney then summons Puddles to body slam her.
- Viney herself does this after snatching Skara's harp, thinking she's defenseless without it, Skara proves her wrong by using the whistle attack.
- Weaponized Teleportation: Viney uses her knowledge of the Secret Room of Shortcuts during her fight with Boscha, by tricking her into throwing a potion out of a specific door, allowing Viney to redirect it right back at her through another entrance.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Skara says this word-for-word when she sees the Titan starting to rise thanks to Belos.