Amity and Luz’s fears are a lot deeper than we thought.
An analysis of Grom (sort of).
When I was watching Enchanting Grom Fright for the first time, I was skeptical when I heard that Grom shape-shifts into your worst fear. I think I can speak for most of us when I say we have fears that are NOT Disney channel friendly. I was afraid that some simple, superficial fears would be presented as Amity and Luz’s worst nightmares. Although we do see some of this in the episode—for example, Willow’s worst fear is bugs, which seems odd because she spends so much time with plants—I was pleased to see that Amity and Luz’s fears did not fall in this category. After all, being rejected and disappointing/angering your parents are really scary things that a lot of people experience. I’ve been afraid of both of those things at certain points in my life, and I could easily see how they could be someone’s worst nightmare. However, the more I think about it, the more I realize that Amity and Luz’s fears go WAY deeper than I initially thought.
Let’s start with Amity. Amity’s fear, as presented in Enchanting Grom Fright, is being rejected by Luz romantically. However, Luz is way, WAY more to Amity than a love interest. Think about Amity’s life before Luz came along. It consisted of dealing with abusive parents, friends she didn’t like, constantly studying, and always trying to be the best. I think it’s fair to say that her life was basically joyless.
And then this human girl shows up.
For some reason that Amity can’t quite comprehend, this girl is actually nice to her. She wants to be friends, even when Amity pushes her away again, and again, and again. That time Luz hugged Amity in Understanding Willow? That was probably the first time Amity had gotten a hug in years. Luz is genuinely kind to Amity, in a way no one has been for a long, long time. And as a result, Amity’s life begins to change.
Amity is no longer trying to be the best 24/7. She begins to reject some of her “friends” and starts to rekindle her relationship with Willow. Granted, not a lot has changed yet. But the seeds are planted for Amity to grow as a person, and more importantly, she’s happy for the first time in years. She still lives a pretty miserable life, but there are moments of happiness in it, which is still not an ideal situation, but is infinitely better than what Amity had before.
And while all of this is happening, she develops a crush on Luz. As was confirmed in Dana Terrace’s AMA, it is Amity’s first major crush. She’s head over heels for her and would love to ask her to Grom. But she’s also afraid of what will happen if Luz says no. Will Luz stop being her friend? Does that mean Willow and Gus will stop talking to her? Will she lose this newfound happiness she’s experiencing? I don’t think Luz would ever leave Amity as a friend, even if she rejected Amity as a love interest. But Amity doesn’t necessarily know that, and even if she did know that, anxiety might still give her doubt.
Amity isn’t just afraid of being rejected by Luz. Her real fear is that her life will revert back to the way it was before Luz came along. If Luz rejects Amity, Amity could lose the one person who’s kind to her, the one person who cares about her, the one person that provides some joy to her otherwise miserable life. When Grom (impersonating Luz) pulls the note from Amity’s pocket, she doesn’t just rip it up. She fades away afterward, showing that part of Amity’s fear is Luz leaving her life entirely. And this could result in absolute hell for Amity.
Okay, let’s move on to Luz. This one won’t be quite as long. As different as Luz and Amity’s lives are, their fears are actually quite similar. Luz was an outsider on Earth. She had no friends, had unrealistic ambitions (at least, unrealistic on Earth), and her mom and her teachers viewed her as a failure. Even her mom, who loved her, thought she needed to change herself and her personality.
But one day, she finds a portal, and suddenly she has friends, reasonable goals, and is having the time of her life. I don’t think Luz used to be miserable the way Amity was, but she was certainly kind of lonely and sad. Living in the Boiling Isles, she doesn’t feel like that anymore.
If Luz’s mom finds out where she is, this will all come to an end. Luz’s mom would almost certainly demand she came home, and she would probably never let her go back, at least not for a while. Luz loves her mom, but she also doesn’t want to leave her life here. She belongs here, in a way she never felt she did on Earth. Although Luz is afraid of disappointing/angering her mother, she’s also just as afraid that she’ll lose everything she has in the Boiling Isles.
I applaud the writers of The Owl House for coming up with such deep, personal, and realistic fears for Amity and Luz. I feel like I learned a lot about them just from analyzing their fears. I know these fears, even if they’re never discussed in the series again, will continue to influence Amity and Luz’s actions and decisions.
Wow, that was longer than I thought it would be. Please consider following this blog for more content like this, it would make my day. Thanks for reading!
