Thinking of the old Hexside group. Did they all know each other, or was it simply that Eda knew all of them? If the former…
How did Lilith think to teach her friends’ child, to have Alador and Odalia’s daughter look up to her? Was it a bit of triumph, esp knowing Odalia wanted to be in the Emperor’s Coven, or at least wished it for her children; Did she settle for Blight Industries because she wasn’t good enough, while Darius met the Golden Guard as he advanced in the Abomination Coven?
Lilith is petty, so I can see her enjoying it a little; And then afterwards, she betrays Amity’s trust but it doesn’t matter too much to her, not anymore. And that was brief compared to her sister being right there.
Darius was mentored by the Golden Guard, the previous head of the Emperor’s Coven; Now he sees his classmate become the same, and even mentor another Abomination witch. He feels strongly about his mentor’s legacy, so was he critical of Lilith failing that mentor-mentee bond, in someone he could’ve seen himself in?
Did he feel pity for Amity, make an exception for her despite how unpleasant Alador and Odalia became, or even because of that suspected parental abuse? Did he never notice any of it, did he think, Good for her when Amity developed a proper friendship with Lilith later on? And was Darius critical and slow to consider Alador because of his abuse towards his own kin?
Eda would’ve seen her friends’ daughter with Lilith, but to her that had also faded long ago, perhaps she didn’t think much of it as a result. But seeing Amity’s baggage through Luz and interacting with the twins, you have to wonder if she was surprised or not, that Alador and Odalia’s kids would turn out that way.
Similarly, Perry could’ve heard about Amity’s bullying of Gus’ first friend through his son. He saw Eda being executed and remained impartial and true to his job… Until his son took over, and he very conveniently stood by and nodded along, doing next to nothing to stop Gus and his friend’s call for a protest. Did he feel happiness when Eda and Lilith escaped together that night? Did he and Eda consider reconnecting through their kids, only to decide maybe that’s awkward, it’s been too long, it would look bad for Perry’s high-profile job if he did…
Did Raine and Darius, when they watched from afar? Agonizing that they couldn’t do anything at the moment, it’s not yet ready. They can’t jeopardize it now and maybe they couldn’t even do it even if they wanted to, they were too far away. I would not put it past Belos to suspect their sentimentality, and send those two far away when he called for Lilith to deliver Eda by the end of the day.
How much disappointment did Raine have in Lilith and Darius? They’ve only been coven head recently, and they figured it out the corruption well before them; Or at least Lilith. What relief was there when Darius turned out to be their side, and what disappointment did they and Darius have over Alador and Odalia selling dangerous weapons to the coven, making their plans more difficult and contributing to their failed sabotage?
For Eda, of course she lost Lilith. Then Darius. Then Raine. All three became coven heads, cop supreme. Alador and Odalia became arms manufacturers, only Perry was chill. The first time Eda talks to Gus, he proudly owns up to being from a long line of dweebuses, after she calls him that; Was she thinking, I know better than you about that kid, was exactly why I said it.
Did Odalia lowkey cope and seethe over her friends becoming coven heads while she didn’t, while Alador became apathetic to everything? Did she decide it didn’t matter, when she had strength and independence from the coven, and a family? Only for Belos to assimilate her work, and for her family to leave her because of Odalia’s obsession?
Was there any particular reason she chose Raine’s puppet to help her with the Collector’s task; Out of all of the coven heads, some of whom are stronger or have more/longer arms, she chose someone she grew up with. The only other one was Darius, but that bridge was clearly burnt in a personal, direct way, and not just them gradually drifting apart. Did Odalia find some comfort in having Raine around, and/or did she just feel good to lord over another classmate in Alador’s place?
Alador is tired to the point of apathy; He never expected his childhood friend turned wife to do this to him, but it was gradual enough he didn’t even realize what was going on until he talked to a child about it. If Darius made it as a Coven Head, did it matter to him when he was the architect behind Blight Industries, whose products phased out Darius’ own technique? If he agreed with Odalia on Willow not being good for Amity, maybe he too dismissed Eda as a delinquent; Even so, he didn’t feel personal about it, wasn’t bothered really by their kids hanging out with hers.
And to Bump? It may have been pride to see three coven heads be his former students, and for another two to start a successful corporation. Maybe he had some reservations about the coven system, being born before it… It felt good to repair relations with Eda, but being at the mercy of two of his students? Between this and Lilith being so dismissive of him, it must’ve been striking to realize how age inevitably means children who depended on you, now having power over you.
“Us weirdoes have to stick together” says Eda, and when we see Luz struggle to keep the family together when reciting this mantra in a season finale… Man did Eda relate, is it why she even came up with the saying? And when she did stick together with other weirdoes, it led to King and Luz, it led to a long chain of events that resulted in almost the whole Hexside gang, and her family, coming back together. Maybe they’d grown mostly apathetic, it was just “Goofing off” as Alador put it, but then they started interacting properly and they realized how much they’d missed it.
A thing for Fump/Baust(??) when Faust tried flirting, Bump thought he was trying to be nice for once and it took him way too long to figure out what he was really doing.
I accept it. It's too real - Bump is a sweet summer child, so naive.
ok i know we’re all happy bc Raine was actually Not Brainwashed the whole time but like!!! Principal Bump actually being a cool guy from the start! he saw Eda’s potential even while he was vice principal, didn’t reprimand her even though his job was on the line, he even gave her a squeaky toy to help her try and manage her urges rather than making her feel bad for them... God I would give anything to get taught by that guy in school
Bump: *staring after you from his hiding place* You... really think they're the one for me?
Young Eda: *leans around the corner with her usual mischievous smile* Oh, totally. They're tons of fun and you're no fun at all! They... *makes a heart with her fingers* complete you 83
Bump: *sighs* Why did I bother asking two for help again?
Young Raine: *leans into view* Because you're a hopeless cause and the Titan has better chances of coming back to life than you asking them out without help. B3
Alright, let's talk about some details from the TOH pitch bible;
A lot of the stuff is what we've already seen and/or in line with the show. What's interesting is that King WAS a former King of Demons at one point, and we would've had an episode where he runs into his old gang and chooses Luz and Eda over them. It makes me wonder if he even had a connection to the Titan in earlier drafts, if he wasn't recognized as one back in the day because he just wasn't big enough, etc. Eda makes a deal to help remove the collar, which IS the source of King's woes, placed by a 'mysterious wizard', I wouldn't be surprised if it was Obron AKA Proto-Belos.
What gets me is that Tibbles originally started off as a friend to the protagonists, while Bump was an antagonist! Coupled with Tibbles being re-elected as mayor after Bump is deposed for corruption. I like the detail of Bump being a parasite controlling a body from the head, because it carried over into his final design with Frewin, and before we got confirmation Frewin was a separate entity, I loved the joke theory that the imp on Bump's head was the REAL Bump!!! Seems that was always the implied story of the design, I love it. Tibbles being the demon fan of human stuff would eventually become Gus instead, so this is technically Proto-Gus too…?
Interesting how Bump and Tibbles' alignments switch completely with one another, and it makes sense that with Lilith no longer the principal in the final draft, it goes to Bump, who ends up being really chill and a subversion in his own right! Interesting, but I do prefer the final Bump we got, and that's fine by me, because when the concepts aren't as interesting as the final product, it means we got the best possible version.
I've already discussed Obron and William in a separate post, and Pupa is someone we've been told about in a previous livestream. Lilith would've been both head of all covens (and not just the Emperor's Coven) AND principal at the same time, and she seems much more of a jerk to Eda in general; She has no qualms with cursing Eda because of a direct order from Obron.
Apparently the curse would've been an AGING spell, which settles my questions on how it would've been portrayed in earlier drafts! This goes along with Eda's older look. Likewise, there would've been a subplot of Eda considering Luz's sacrifice as a way to restore her youth, which likely goes hand in hand with Obron's orders to bring Luz to her, etc. The 'Bloom of Eternal Youth' quest, which Eda and Lilith go through together as their sisterly relationship is explored, feels like a carryover from this past idea.
I think I prefer the final draft; I like that the curse isn't just aging Eda, but also takes away her magic, makes her turn into a beast, etc. I like Lilith being a lot more complicated in her relationship with Eda, instead of just hating her and cursing her without hesitation. The redefining of the curse makes it less about age, and more a chronic illness metaphor, and I like how Eda in the final draft is upfront about having to learn to live with it, deal with it, on her own terms. She isn't trying to find a cure (although Lilith being promised one by Obron feels like a carryover of Eda's moral dilemma with Luz), and that adds another nice dimension to her conflict with Lilith, as well as Gwen. It's pretty frank in its own right about normalizing disability, and those who play an antagonistic role (however brief) are the real weirdoes for making such a fuss about it.
The Bat Queen would've had more of a recurring role based on the description, which saddens me; I always got the vibe she was planned for more, but between all of the other stuff the show had to juggle, plus the shortening, she ended up getting shafted despite being one of the earlier characters. Sashley, Pasha, and Bruno are also interesting, with Pasha in particular giving me freaking Philip Wittebane vibes with his grossness, beard, and anti-demon attitude; He even starts off as a potential friend to Luz because fellow human, only for his true bigotry to show. Makes me wonder if Philip ended up incorporating Pasha, we also have bodily transformation because of consuming magical stuff... P-names.
(Also, I like how in the drawing of typical Demon Realm denizens, I can see an eye demon who resembles a past drawing of Dana's!!!)
Eda was actually a late bloomer, which creates a parallel with Luz in one way, and their relationship is referred to as sisterly (in the final draft it’s explicitly maternal). So Eda wouldn't have been the talented youth, in fact things may have switched between her and Lilith; Lilith's disdain may have partially come from Eda not being as innately talented as her.
Luz and Amity's dynamic seems like it would've had Amity retain a lot of her more stand-offish, pragmatic personality even as a friend with Luz, and this would've come up more; So basically, she'd remain more like S1 Amity. That, or this part of their relationship would've lasted longer, and then we would've seen character development as Amity unlearns a lot of the issues her parents passed on. I also wonder if the Willow who cameos in the pilot was originally supposed to just be an extra separate from ‘Paulina’, but then they combined the two together.
The themes are exactly as I expected, glad to see they're still there, nothing changed! Luz becoming a witch and defying all odds to do so, putting in real work and passion. Celebrating individuality amidst conformity, plus Luz trying to impose her own fictional tropes onto the world, only to have to put that aside... Just like Wing it like Witches. It seems Amity would've had more involvement with Luz's journey to become a witch, though we still do have a carryover of that disconnect with her rant near the end of Covention.
I love the Demon Realm being situated BELOW the Human Realm, way to be subtle about being Hell you guys lol... Apparently portals to the human world are a lot rarer to find and use, which makes me wonder if the pilot's 'dimension port' doesn't have access to the human world; Meaning Amity is Luz's only way back, so her improved relationship with her is linked to getting back home. There's a gag about the Knee having service with the human world, but I can see how that didn't make the cut, for dramatic purposes; It seems like the premise for a S1 episode or at least a B-plot. Would Luz have struggled to communicate with Camila through this, or would her search for wi-fi be for mundane reasons?
Apparently Luz's magic would've required a lot more steps to complete, and I see why the show simplified things down to just glyphs. I wonder if there was always going to be the connection of glyphs as a gift from the Titan, or if the Titan and her story was going to be less intertwined in the overall narrative. There also don't seem to be nine main covens, just the many, many covens, some of which are pretty ridiculous, and Covention's sub-covens seem a callback to that.
Luz's first spell would've been levitation, and THEN she would've infiltrated Hexside, with Amity being a lot subtler about exposing Luz, though in the final draft she does figure that out as the way to go in I was a Teenage Abomination. Yeah, I prefer Light being her original spell, feels so much more symbolic and personal, etc. I wonder if the Titan is even as much of a character in early drafts, and if there's still the whole connection/relationship with the land and learning to respect it aspect. Some of these hypothetical episodes push the idea of Amity as a more episodic, typical popular kid antagonist, though in the final draft, the show goes through her character development and explores Amity's romantic relationship with Luz and its complications.
It seems the idea of the Mirror Ghost was split into Adegast and Vee, with Adegast being the one who offers the easier narrative for Luz to believe in about becoming a witch (only to be a fraud who uses uncanny puppets), and Vee being a doppelganger whom Luz communicates through with mirrors. Interesting how Yesterday's Lie was born from this. We saw the test animation from Spencer Wan for TOH, so I guess we know what Luz's puppet-doppelganger is called! And we can safely call her Proto-Vee. I wonder if she also would've been a sympathetic character, I always thought she reminded me of Lake from Infinity Train (and speculated her to be as such since Enchanting Grom Fright), and now the similarities are even MORE apparent!
Alas, The Good Witch Azura, or 'The Unassuming Princess' seems like it'd have been a lot less dear to Luz's heart, as the pilot also reflects; In the end, it turns out the author is just Eda's ex using her adventures as basis, and including private information. I remember when I once speculated that Raine, before we saw their face, would've been just like this as the author of Azura... Again, I think I prefer Azura as being a lot less mean-spirited in the final draft, and instead a celebration of who Luz is as a person, her relationship with fantasy and fiction, etc. We also would've had a Luz birthday party, the Quincenera we've been hoping for since S1...! In the final draft (and episode) we still get that Human-Demon Realm disconnect, though by that point, Luz is much more attuned and chill with the isles.
There’s definitely more of an episodic, sitcom feel to this pitch bible, especially when you compare Proto-Yesterday’s Lie to its final version. Makes sense, Dana is pitching this to Disney executives, though her statement on Understanding Willow feeling truly like her show makes me wonder if she always intended to push TOH in that more serious, emotional route we got.
