he'll definitely get picked up by the carriage around the end-ish or the middle of 5th year,, just before he goes to the shrieking shack where the prank happens
when he gets to NRC he'll be a little standoff-ish and go a little crazy but he's not afraid to call out Crowley on his bullshit so everytime they meet he has to threaten remind him about his study on getting him back home
if he meets up with ace (like the game) i just KNOW they'll turn into a frenemies moment bc ace literally insults yuu for being magicless at the start (ace wouldn't insult his appearance though... at least that's something!)
when severus is in TWST he actually doesn't have his magic or magic wand, but is still issued a pen with a standard/default magestone (that i assume is white/gray but a little different than octavinelle's)
he's incredibly weak(er) at magic now because different worlds mean different laws and rules and origins of magic so he's fucked with his hogwarts magic bc it clashes with TWST
since he DOES have magic but it's weak, i don't think it was enough for him to actually be considered a student there (because according to the wiki they had to be considered if they had potential to be a great magician) and severus's magic was definitely way too weak
if he would try to improve it, he accumulates blot way too quickly (and he only learned about that after riddle's OB in crowley's office)
ALTERNATIVELY
(aligning with the yuu is dead theory)
he DID go to the shack that night, he DID see lupin, but the carriage got to him first before he can feel anything
he died in the shack, but he doesn't know, that's why he's in TWST
he would have lost his magic from the moment he stepped inside TWST, and was completely magic-less with no way of getting it back (he tries but it's futile)
Meanwhile at Hogwarts:
the marauders genuinely get so confused bc they were so sure it wasn't their doing when he went missing
lily blames them for it (they didn't end their friendship yet and his disappearance was too sudden)
everyone in hogwarts either remains clueless, doesn't care, or is making up random theories of their own abt why and how
sirius would've been incredibly affected by it knowing he tried sending him to see lupin snd was SO convinced he died in the shack but is also confused why no one even recalls seeing severus there at the shack with them
lucius and narcissa would have torn the wizarding world upside down looking for him
no they wouldn't have given up— they'd go quiet yeah but they're still looking
oh lucius and narcissa wouldn't know about the 7 (probably now 8 (still wondering if crowley OBs)) overblots he's been through and how he probably almost dies
I know Ozai is canonically stupid, like really fucking dumb, but I fully believe that Azulon wasn't. He was definitely the smarter ruler out of the two of them.
Obviously I can't be related to the royal family bcs Zuko is my s/o, but let's say that Azulon was self aware enough to not self proclaim that the royal family is automatically the strongest firebenders in the nation. I still want to be involved with the royal family bcs I don't want to just be that random firebender who happens to be stronger than Azula, bcs that's not likely. (+ very very boring, blah)
Let's say that Azulon or even before Azulon, maybe Sozin even made this claim due to the fact he knew he was beginning a war. He needed a guarantee that the royal family would remain safe. So he found a family who's bending is beyond what a regular bender should be able to possess, and he makes that family the "protectors" of the royal family.
Now this is gonna get a little dark. This family (aka, mine) are portrayed as worthy and as strong as all the royals, very few know of the actual power they possess, but every firelord and member of the royal family are sure to engrain into this family that they are less than them. Power does not make them better or more worthy, if anything, this family is lesser than regular commoners themselves, the royals simply keep them around because of the power they hold, and they cannot afford to loose that.
Now let's make this family of power a little... twisted. (I love fucked up things and yes this is going to bite me in the ass later but I have no regrets) Think of it like a jester (lowkey where I got this inspo from) they play dumb. They're just the royal families protectors, entertainers and they make sure everyone believes that. But deep down, they resent the royal family, and play whatever little fuck ups to screw with them and they never notice it is them because they are sworn to the royals. They would never betray them... right?
Let me make this even worse now hehe. Every generation or so, one member of this family of power has a firebender who's abilities are beyond that of even their own family. Many of these powers are kept hidden, a secret because the Firelord never wants the chance of being overpowered. My abilities extend beyond this, but not because I am of the family of power no. I'm a bastard, which makes my families position (drum roll) even fucking worse. They hate me, which is strange because usually this family work together in conspiring against the royals, simply because I hold power they could never best. I'm not even the strongest in the family because of my parents, I am the strongest in the family because I am half water tribe. My mother was blessed by the ocean spirit la, which extended my abilities beyond a regular firebender, even being able to draw my power from the moon like a waterbender and create cold fire.
Everyone hates me hehehhe. I also disappeared at 14 and lived with Toph in an earth Kingdom town living my own happy dandy life. Probably Ozai's biggest mistake HAHAHA
This also sets up a whole enemies to lovers angle with Zuko and I which I also love 😋 yum
I just can't have a regular backstory in my drs, can I?
A3 Analysis #1: Buckle Up, Buttercups + the Rio of it All
The Kathryn Hahn mimicry of the Kate McKinnon parody of the Kate Winslet performance that robbed Lizzie Olsen was insane. Well played Jac Schaeffer.
Oh come on, you knew I wasn't going to stop.
So I'm not going to recap every moment of each episode; if you're reading this, you watched it. Instead I'll be plucking out the threads of the broader conspiracies and mysteries, the easter eggs, and little background things that intrigued me, as well as copping to what I was both right and wrong about in my previous posts.
Follow me down the Witches' Road under this cut for some analysis, thoughts, and a new Rio theory that I shudder to even mention, but unfortunately, I've constructed a solid case for.
Shall we?
So, I've said before that everything that happens in episode one is going to tell us the overall plot of this thing, so I might get a lil bit more granular in this one than in ep 2, but it's all important, k?
We return to Westview in a glorious revenge parody of the show that stole their Emmys, and instantly start ripping on Multiverse of Madness. Shots fired, and I was cackling for the petty- almost every line about the obvious Wanda corpse was a crack about how stupid her "death" was/is, and the obvious delight they took in it was quite funny. Beautiful, doomed Wanda is haunting the narrative from the jump, and that's important for a number of reasons, so keep that in mind. I've also talked a lot about the Wanda "body" a lot in other places, so I'll not waste our time more on it here, we've got ground to cover on other newer things.
Agatha, why are you crying over the body of your "dead" "nemesis"?
Agatha finds her own brooch in a puddle near the body- and immediately pockets it. Not very professional, detective. We, the audience, of course know what it is and who it belongs to, but in the rules of the fictional world, that's a major red flag. It's also another crack in her identity trying to push through the spell.
Moving along, the library thing was very funny, shoutout to my girlfriend's favorite Westviewian Dottie (mine's John/Herb, for the record).
And now we come to the swaggering, smirking, Rio of it all. Rio rolls in, a new face to Westview, a superceding authority figure, who Agnes as a small town cop is immediately hostile to- but one who's also pretty condescending and deeply amused by all this; even as reality starts to subtly warp around her.
Shout out to twitter user narliebirds for pointing this gem out:
The photo of the kid, the planet, and the rabbit- the kid flickers in for a few seconds and then flickers out.
Also, make a note of this dialogue, we're circling back to it when I get to my point here at the end:
Agnes: What are you doing here?
Rio: My job.
(Speaking of the dialogue, congrats to Kathryn Hahn for being the first person to say eat my ass on a disney plus show, we're so proud)
Okay, this nugget was interesting.
Agnes: If there's one thing we can agree on, it's that these cases are always about the place, the specific small town, the history of it, the people in it, the secrets buried beneath it. That's where the answers lie.
Agatha, what, exactly, happened, the first time you walked the witches' road?
Anyway, Rio's obviously new to the recurring Westview cast of characters, and is very clearly just barely phoning it into to the genre conceits, pushing and tugging at the Agnes construct to see where it bends and where it breaks. She gets out when Agnes starts to crack- that pseudo accent drops completely when Agnes tells her to get out, and Rio hits her with the I'll be seeing you in Spanish before she scoots.
Next scene, welcome back Norm/Abil, I see we're just ignoring that the broach is now the triple goddess instead of the three graces; fine, fine its not a hill I'm dying on.
The immediate reveal of the lock of hair had me yelling, the thing with the Darkhold title had me gasping, but the next bit had me like:
I was deadass not expecting them to just... tweet it out in episode one. Nicholas Scratch, you elusive little bunny rabbit. Nick, the missing son.
So, I'm not sure what the crossover is between my readers, and mare of easton viewers, but y'all, mare of easttown is about a lady cop who is getting over the tragic death of her son... specifically that she found the body, and while she feels responsible for his death... (she wasn't).
Even as this Agnes O'Connor, the corrupted version of Agatha in the Agnes spell... this is what she sees? Does this look like she enjoyed doing it?
So, let's take that with a grain of salt, shall we?
Rio remains genre savvy but this isn't pride and prejudice (which she's mocking), we are in fact veerly sharply into an entirely different genre pretty quickly now.
Guys, before I really lock in here, let me just say- I'm as much as toxic yuri enjoyer as the next person, I'm just genuinely trying to just get to the bottom of what's going on here. However, this entire episode has a sequence of startling red flags re: Rio that I'm now going to present in rapid order. ("Teen" is more of an episode two issue, though he's related to the Rio problem.)
Rio continues to be a jackass. She's enjoying Agnes' confusion, in a rather petty way, and continues to pick at Agnes' mind; I became completely suspect of her when one of her the questions wasn't "Do you remember why I hate you?"
The question rather was: "Do you remember why you hate me?"
The intial theory behind this character was that she's after Agatha to avenge their son who Agatha killed. That's not the question of a mother who's after the murderer of their child. I think it was about here I did a 180 on her, and started to cook.
Anyway, Teen breaks into Agatha's house, takes him for questioning, Rio continues to pretend to have a basic understanding of law enforcement rules, and it's very funny to know that this is the scene Joe and Kathryn did for Joe's audition.
What's weird is that- Teen can't see Rio. And even as the delusion starts to break up; she's not there. Which means, she wasn't there as Agnes took Teen to the station. Or she was never physically there at all. Teen also can't see the photos of the body.
Agnes is shaken- she knows on some level that there was a body, and goes to the morgue. She wills a body into existence, remembering green eyes (tell us more about how green her eyes are Agatha lol), and scarlet hair.
Like every other scene she's in, Rio just... appears.
The framing of this shot is not an accident.
Hey Rio, quick question: why do you know that Wanda destroyed every copy of the Darkhold in existence?
How do you know that Wanda destroyed every copy of the Darkhold in existence?
How *could* you know that Wanda destoryed every copy of the Darkhold in existence?
I was amused/delighted by the handwriting contrast/insistence on signature colors, but another flag- the only thing, of all things, Agatha found on Wanda's body in the middle of her delusion, was a reminant of the Darkhold. Let's remember that for later.
That's better. Shoutout to Agnes for maintaining her hair/skincare routine.
Wanda, you better be looking real cute when she catches your ass so that of the two wolves that are constantly warring within Agatha (horniness and vengance), horniness wins.
Some fun trivia points- one, they did this on like day one of shooting, two, this was kathryn's idea (of course it was, she is the number one agatha understander, and agatha wouldn't give a shit), three, some idiot interviewer asked her if she used a body double, and if she gave me the look that she gave him, I'd promptly die from the shame. (she very did not.)
Agatha goes to look for the most important things in life: her shit, magic, and her highly questionable familiar. The bad news- the magic is gone, and her shit is gone. The good news- the "rabbit" is fine. (The rabbit and his name remain: highly suspicious). Wanda mugged her.
Oddly enough, she's not very upset about the Darkhold being gone.
Cannot tell you the number of times I have monologued to my own vaguely sinister pet in this exact position in times of crisis #relatable
Agatha has a quick realization that she's done a extrajudicial kidnapping (probably not the first time), but that revelation means that-
Rio was also real.
Again, we all saw the scenes (probably multiple times) so I won't go over the blow by blow. Poor Billy saw it in real life, tied up in the closet (you're gonna need to get used to it kid, this is gonna be the rest of your immortal life, with these two jackasses plus your mother, for reasons I'm about to explain in a minute.)
Okay so, highlights from this insane conversation:
Rio: I've missed you.
Agatha: I hate you.
Rio: Since you acquired the Darkhold? You hid behind all that Dark magic?
Rio: You can't kill me. (Confident, as though she's just unkillable)
Agatha: You can't kill me. It's not allowed. (as though there are rules they have to stick to.)
Rio is a *clear* sadist. (I mean Agatha is too, but that's not who I'm making a point about lol)
I'm not transcribing the entire section, but the part where Agatha clearly decides she's had enough, turns on the bedroom eyes, and starts to bargain.
Not beg, or reason, or argue. Bargain. Like she's done this before. And Rio listens, and counter offers, like she's used to people bargaining with her. Rio's not going to torture her- she's going to send vengeful minions to do it for her.
Hey Rio, why do you have minions and not a coven?
Agatha can't absorb Rio's powers with them killing her. And Agatha ate the chaos magic of the Scarlet Witch.
And the last, most damning thing.
Agatha: You don't have a heart.
Rio: Yes I do. It's black, and it beats for you.
Rio hits her with the I'll be seeing you, and departs, and Agatha realizes that Billy witnessed that entire catatrophe from the closet.
Here's where I tie this up and go out on a limb- I am aware that I am assuming the risk of Mephistoing myself.
She's not Mephisto.
But I'd like to present the case that she's someone else.
In order, that's Rio, that's Rio on the death tarot card, that's pretty clearly Rio as she's presented on the tarot card standing behind that probable Salem coven survivor, and that's one of the statues from Mount Wundagore.
One of the statues of the First Demon. The author of the Darkhold. Master of Dark Magic. One of the Elder Gods, and a powerful earth magic user. An immortal who cannot appear on the regular mortal plane without a vessel or a conduit.
In the comics, he creates Wanda as a future vessel, but in turn, Wanda defeats him, and absorbs him; but Agatha doesn't trust her to keep him contained, and steals his heart back from her, in order to form a new copy of the Darkhold. Because every Agatha Harkness is obsessed with posessing the Darkhold, just like every Agatha is obsessed with every Wanda. The three of them have an insanely complex and intertwined relationship, and guess what, Wiccan's in there too, in his role as the Demiurge. (And he's way, way more involved in their storylines than Mephisto *ever* was)
MCU Agatha has not been particularly explicit about how she's getting her power back. And doesn't seem particularly pressed about the loss of the Darkhold- presumably the thing she lost her son over.
What if that's because she's already got what she needs to reform it?
Aubrey Plaza has said there's going to be a major reveal about her character that's going to make fans go nuts. She's also hinted that the character she's playing here is similar to her character from Legion, the Nightmare King. There's news today that Aubrey is coming back for a "future marvel project" and this tees her up to be *the* villain for a switch movie.
A few days ago I said "Rio has major Reaper vibes, which is really interesting, re: the intersection between agricultural goddesses, the harvest, and mystery/death cults."
Another word for those cults: Chthonic, "The word chthonic (/ˈθɒnɪk/), or chthonian, is derived from the Ancient Greek word χθών, "khthon", meaning earth or soil. It translates more directly from χθόνιος or "in, under, or beneath the earth""
I strongly suspect that Rio is Chthon.
Heading off questions now-
What about Gaea? She's his sister, so same neighborhood, and Gaea is almost universally a good guy. Is anyone getting good guy vibes here? They might be doing a fusion of the characters, which okay, sure.
What about the emerald warlock? I think they're moving away from the rainbow color magic users, to avoid the conflation with the dc lantern corp- my reasoning here is the crumb we've gotten about alice's backstory, changing her mom into a rock star, as well as the number they did on wanda's.
What about mephisto? With all due respect, everyone needs to shut up about mephisto.
Phew okay, that was a lot, and I'm not 100% on it. But I think it makes sense? Rio hits a lot of the check boxes for this character, and making a deal with a demon (*the* demon) is pretty much the witchiest thing one could possibly do. So, Agatha coded.
I have obviously more thoughts on what this might mean for their relationship dynamic (insane! one of them is a serial killer witch and the other one is a demon lord she made a pact with!), but this post is already out of control, so stay tuned!
