My thoughts on what happened to Darius, Alador and Odalia
Spoilers if you’re not caught up with at least 2x16 of TOH
I am on a roll with my TOH posts lately and brainrot so as a gift, have this draft I wrote a couple days ago
My personal headcanon until proven otherwise for why Darius is no longer friends with Alador and Odalia is that one, or possibly both of them, said something cruel about the previous Golden Guard’s passing despite knowing Darius was close to him.
A young Darius knows there’s something incredibly off about his mentor’s disappearance. It just doesn’t make any sense. Why would he leave without even telling him? Without saying goodbye to him? He’s in his final year at Hexside, ready to join the abomination coven. Why would he abandon him now?
Emperor Belos’ explanation isn’t of satisfactory to Darius. There’s too many holes in the story, he asks around and there’s no definitive conclusion, Belos is avoiding further questions, and the cherry on top of this crap cake is how unbothered Belos is about losing his right hand man. It’s fabricated grief. Darius knows bad acting when he sees it.
He brings his concerns up to Alador and Odalia. The only people who he thought would understand.
His friends. His best friends.
The three of them could be mean sometimes, he’ll admit that. They would tease other people, and even each other at times.
But he truly didn’t expect Odalia to laugh in his face while Alador stands off to the side silently. It pisses Darius off more than he can state.
So they argue. Verbally at first. Until Darius and Odalia are practically screaming at each other at the end of it and Alador is barely doing anything about it. Until finally, Alador sides with Odalia over Darius and he’s never felt more betrayed and alone. Only because Alador has a stupid fucking crush.
“Your attachment to your mentor is clouding your judgment. Belos has no reason to lie about that sort of thing. You have no proof in order to question him.” Oh Titan, how he hated Odalia in this moment.
He still hears Odalia’s tone in his head when he relives this memory. He remembers the way she sneered at him.
“He killed him, I know he did. He killed my mentor. His own family! I’ll prove Belos got rid of him, I swear on the Titan.”
“Even if Belos did kill him, he probably had a good reason. You out of everyone should know the Golden Guard can’t even do *real* magic, right? Who would want a little half-witch on their counsel anyways? The Golden Guard is better off dead, I say good riddance.”
If there’s one thing Darius hated more than dirt and hideous fashion, it was blind obedience. His mentor taught him that he has the right to question authority. He has the right to question all the adults in his life and the things he’s been told.
So that does it. Like the trigger of a gun that’s been pulled, he acts without thinking. A tiny part of him regrets it, now that he’s older. Only a tiny part. But if you were to ask Darius if it felt good, he’d say yes in a heartbeat.
In a flash, Darius was striking with abomination daggers. Alador is quick to retaliate before he and Odalia could get hit though.
The fight is short and ultimately ends in a draw. Neither of them win. Physically, everyone was fine. Darius was too tired; Alador is huffing and puffing as he stands in front of Odalia, and Darius can’t bring himself to attack anymore.
Darius walks away, hands clenched in tight fists at his side. He only turns back once to see Odalia and Alador glaring at him before he continues walking.
He hears Alador call out to him. One last time.
“You don’t deserve to be the Golden Guard’s protege.”
The way everyone guessed Raine and Darius’ teasing dynamic accurately in fanfics (specifically the fics where Darius adopts Hunter) and now it’s canon.
Who is likely to take Hunter in + How is drives the story:
Chances are I’m going to edit this post along the way but these are my thought so far just after 2x17 events.
Starting with The Owl House:
Considering we already have 2x17, they seem less likely as of now. I would’ve assumed they chased Hunter down but with all of them wanted and so close to being arrested, it’s probably not the safest for Hunter to be there. But what about after the events of the story?
After, it definitely seems possible. They’re clearly making a sibling dynamic between Luz and Hunter (as if they don’t have that already). And it would be good for him to branch out and learn the ways of wild magic, especially away from Belos. This family, especially Luz, are so good at making others see another point of view and keeping an open mind. It would be nice to see them try to help Hunter and make him feel comfortable. Showing that just because he wasn’t born like other witches or even humans, he still gets to be his own person. And we all know Eda loves adding more people to the family. But at the same time, Hunter and Eda need time to build a connection. At the moment, it seems more like a “I’ll take him on weekends and holidays” kind of deal rather than a permanent situation but I definitely see them becoming family whether they live together or not.
In terms of where we are this the story right now, it would be a lot to focus on. With Luz going back home, King’s new identity, and everyone clearly keeping it hidden that they’re upset Luz will head home soon, the story would be pretty thick if Hunter were added on though I wouldn’t mind much. That being said, I’m sure they’ll meet again either planning a rebellion or somewhere within the rebellion.
Willow:
Chances are Hunter is in a group chat with the Emerald Entrails after the events of 2x13 ASIAS. Out of everyone on the team, Hunter would most likely ask for Willow’s help as he clearly respects her as captain. It would be a nice place for him to stay away from Castle grounds and have somewhere cozy. Plus Willow seems to have no ill will towards Hunter as she’s awaiting “Caleb’s next day off.”
These two are clearly made to be parallels of each other via being “half witches.” I’d even make the argument that they’re foils of one another.
When we first meet Willow in S1, she’s bullied, has one friend, and is lacking self-confidence. It isn’t until she’s thrown into the plant track where we see her blossoming (hehe). With Hunter, we saw him at the top of his game as the Golden Guard and Emperor’s right hand man. Now he’s lost all of that and is disgusted at the thought of being the G.G successor. If Hunter is with Willow, we would get more Willow and Gus (I’m assuming) content. Willow would help Hunter the same way Luz and Gus helped her. She would help him find his confidence and sense of meaning in this world.
Now the problems: 1. Did Hunter have his scroll with him when he chased down Team RED (Raine, Eber, Darius) into the Night Market or did he leave it at the castle? I guess Flapjack (DAMN YOU PANCAKES) would be able to get it by flying up to his window but something tells me he wouldn’t leave Hunter alone like that even for a couple minutes in case something happens.
2. How would Willow’s dads react to having a 16 year old boy who’s literally the G.G and on the run in their house? But that could be easily fixed by having them be chill with it or making up a cover story and lying to them. Which would lead to conflict later but oh well chaotic route for the win.
Even if Hunter isn’t with Willow, I definitely think they’ll have room to grow together in the future and I’m excited to see how that happens.
Darius (Raine and Eber?):
I shall admit my bias here. I want Darius to take Hunter in. But I also think that’s the route we’re heading towards and he’s the most plausible guardian for Hunter.
Let’s start by saying Darius isn’t the kindest. He’s definitely not perfect taking into consideration “you don’t deserve to wear that patch,” and “Darius ignored me as per usual” in Hunter’s palisman observations (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s on YouTube. Dana did a stream).
That being said, it’s clearly depicted that Darius is not what he seems. He’s actively rebelling against Belos and was kind enough to give Hunter a scroll to contact his friends outside of the castle and pat him on the head. Bare minimum, I know, but that kindness has been foreign to Hunter for the past 16 years. Not only that but he shows genuine concern and panic over Hunter being trapped in Belos’ mind. I like the idea that they can make and grow their own family together. It would be nice to see them mourn and heal together.
It seems set up perfectly anyways. The fact that Hunter starts acting on his own accord the same time we find out that Darius was the previous G.G’s protege? Darius didn’t like that Hunter was Belos’ little lap dog. And that we know all of the previous G.G’s rebelled against Belos at some point and now Darius is as well and Hunter is on his way to doing so? He could help Hunter stand his ground. They could learn about Grimwalkers together as Darius knows Hunter’s predecessor, he knows the most about the previous G.G and he definitely knows something isn’t right over the fact that his mentor disappeared and this kid looks so similar. Darius has something to fight for with his connection to the G.G but now it has purpose and meaning cause he’s looking after Hunter.
Their stories align so perfectly.
Not only would we be able to focus on Hunter’s story cleanly about finding his own sense of dignity and self-worth, we get to see Darius humbled and step up, ready to fill in the role of a mentor and even a positive father figure in Hunter’s life. He gets to give back to his mentor by taking care of Hunter. It’s also worth noting, it would push Team RED’s objective and tie it to the main plot too. We’d get to see more of their story and how they started working together after Eda’s Requiem. It would be the smartest writing move with what we have so far.
Not to mention, chances are they found him already. You can’t tell me after such a strong reaction from Darius, plus Raine clearly wanting to help Eda get her kid (and their future stepdaughter) back, they just gave Eda the teleportation potion and dipped. I figured they would’ve stayed hidden to ensure Luz and Hunter made it out safely which means they could’ve seen the direction Hunter ran and followed him.
Only problem is: Would Hunter trust the three coven heads? After everything he went through, it would most likely take him a while to trust an adult in power, especially ones so close to Belos. And I feel like the only safe place they would hide him in where he can have access to basic needs are either if they have their own individual homes away from the castle, or maybe the BATS hideout that we saw in Eda’s Requiem.
Honestly, knowing this show and it’s creator, I wouldn’t be surprised if they went with none of those and surprise us somehow.
Regardless, I feel like all three of these are good choices and it’s nice to realize how many people care for Hunter and at the end of this hopefully he’ll have the biggest found family that ever found familied. Fingers crossed he isn’t just camping in the woods alone and cold.
TOH Spoiler for 2x21 King’s Tide. An angsty Dad Darius and Son Hunter imagine.
The vice grip these two have on me.
Hunter shaking a weak and dying Darius, begging him to wake up while he himself has a sigil and was also in the process of dying had me aching.
But then I imagined if the group wasn’t with him. If he just… gave up then and there.
He doesn’t know how long he was shaking Darius for, calling his name and silently pleading in his head. But it’s useless. Darius isn’t going to wake up, and Hunter can feel himself getting weaker. He thinks about all the things he would tell Darius. How grateful he was that someone knew he was a good kid. Someone who recognizes he is a kid and that he shouldn’t have to deal with any of this.
A tear leaves his eye. He’s tired. So very tired.
He and Darius haven’t ever even hugged. But in that moment, Hunter lifts Darius’ arm and crawls under, places it over his chest as he lies down beside Darius and surrenders himself. He can hear Darius’ shallow breaths, as his own grow weaker.
He sleeps. Like a child abandoning his worries and entrusting himself to someone who will protect him.
Darius feels cold. It would be different had they hugged sooner. It would’ve been a warm embrace, had it happened sooner.
Maybe their hugs would be warm in the next life. In the next life, they would hug again and again.
have some nice heart drawings for your traumatized souls, I haven’t seen the new episode I’m not prepared for so much trauma, I already saw how he left them.
I’ll wait a little while, I’ll get courage and I’ll look at it.
it’s funny. out of gus, willow, amity, and hunter, they all had dads they cared about, but not really any moms. and now they’re probably terrified that their dads are all dead (even tho that’s likely not actually the case).
…well, good thing camila has plenty of experience comforting a kid whose dad died
Goes well with how Luz lost her dad a long time ago and only had her mom, and then got another through Eda
Me, internally: Ok but the way the narrative used part of its v e r y limited time left to include
Hunter & Darius having an amicable rapport that was both a clear progression from how they previously acted towards each other and ended as positive character growth for both of them
Darius being the one to give Hunter a scroll, his only means to finally communicate with others outside the coven with the important point of it being another high-ranking member of Belos’ inner court to do so, and furthered it by having Darius actively encouragesuch behavior
building off the ultimately failed first attempts of reaching out by Luz & Amity but done in a way that doesn’t leave Hunter feeling worse, instead it’s a small step encouraged by someone that actually knows what it’s like being around & “loyal” to Belos, not by someone that openly opposes Belos
making that moment be such a positive experience for Hunter it gave him renewed confidence (even if only temporarily) AND having it happen back when Darius still appeared to be a full fledged antagonist
throwing in brief details that Darius was the student of the previous Golden Guard, how important he was to him, and that he now thinks Hunter is a worthy successor, and Hunter noticing in the “memory” of his promotion that Darius looked sad – all important details given the overarching themes in TOH of found family, student-mentor relationships, and adults overcoming their own toxic/solitary habits to be better role models for the younger generations
and then finally paralleling Darius’ frantic concern for Hunter to Raine’s composed-but-just-as-deep-concern for Eda & her kids, a relationship that is set up to be the narrative conclusion for one of the main characters (Raeda will be married by the end without a doubt )
Given all of this, I can’t see how Darius won’t end up as Hunter’s main guardian, if not one of them. Every one of the moments between Darius & Hunter happened in S2-B after the crew knew the show got cancelled and they had to rewrite a bunch of stuff, if they wanted to write Darius as “actually he’s cool lol” all they needed to do was reveal he was secretly a rebel too, they didn’t need to throw in any backstory details or build a connection between him and Hunter (who has already had like 5+ other major connections built for him since his introduction), but they actively chose to keep those details.
So yeah, manifesting canon Dadrius lol.
Darius and Hunter text each often enough it wasn’t weird for Hunter to hear from him
Darius wasn’t able to house Hunter himself but knows that he’s safe if they’re texting, and must know about the Hexside incident if Luz heard about it too
Darius sent Hunter on (what was supposed to be) a lower stakes rescue mission under the insistence it was vital he protect Luz, both as a means to keep Hunter away from the main conflict and as a means to keep him & Luz safe (probably also as a reassurance to all of Eda & Raine & Lilith, making it even nicer of a gesture)
The other CATTs were in on Darius’ plan to keep the kids as far away and as safe as possible, evident by Katya saying “Darius insisted” as she flew off without further explanation
Darius is outwardly a bit of bastard but actually is compassionate if not only cuz he’s a rebel, but cuz he put all that effort into getting the kids away from the main conflict when the rebellion is under heavy surveillance and probably don’t have a lot of time to spare on other details. For all his effort in acting like he doesn’t care he definitely does, so yeah, manifesting canon Dadrius lol.
I know we’ve had to work with crumbs with Darius and Hunter since ASiAS but, to me, those crumbs say so much.
1) Darius flipping out over Hunter being in Belos’s mind and Hunter being the only reason Darius went along with Raine helping Eda
2) They apparently reunited and talked things out after Hollow Mind, and whatever happened ended up with Hunter trusting Darius enough to follow orders. At that point in canon, Hunter would not have followed his orders unless he trusted him. Darius, what did you say to get him to trust you like that?
3) Darius sending Hunter off with the others kids and that “mission” conveniently being away from the head.
4) Hunter immediately running to Darius’s side, falling to his knees, and desperately trying to wake Darius up once he’s began to succumb to the draining spell.
I appreciate how good the writing is on this show that they are able to say so much with so little screen time.
I know we would have gotten so much more if the show had not been cut, and those two still have a long way to go, but there is no denying the undercurrent of their relationship is there.
I’m still thinking about Hunter having the realization that he cares for Darius as if he were his dad because he misses him in the same way the others are missing their parents and I ended up writing this in a frenzy.
.
.
.
“I want to see my dad,” Gus murmurs, brokenly, before bursting into tears once more and, judging by the sharp intake of breath coming from Willow, he’s not the only one who wants to. Hunter doesn’t speak, but he tightens his hold on both of them.
For the second time in a week -in only a week! That must be a record somewhere, he thinks, only slightly hysterical- the only thing he wants to do is go home. But he couldn’t go home before and he sure can’t now. Not that there’s a home for him anymore though, there hasn’t been in a while. Did he ever have a home to begin with?
The castle was his place of residence his whole life, but he’s slowly coming to understand that it takes more than that to make a place a home. A home shouldn’t make you feel so lonely and afraid all the time. Right now he couldn’t feel less alone, with his friends -and isn’t that strange too? To be able to call someone else a friend?- all pressed against him on a human couch, in a human house, scratched and tired, alive and breathing, but it does little to soothe the gigantic feeling of defeat sitting on his chest.
“Do you think they’re okay?” Amity asks quietly and Hunter knows she’s thinking of her father kissing her forehead before they left him just like all the others. Like the Owl Lady and Raine and Eberwolf and…
And Darius.
And suddenly he’s feeling every bit the child the Coven Heads always said he was. He remembers the man, silent and unmoving on the floor. Wrong. Wrong. Because Darius is not one to keep quiet, he states his opinions loudly and proudly. He is not one to remain still, he gesticulates energetically, and yet not one movement of his ever seems wasted. He tried so, so hard to wake him, desperate to see if he was gonna be alright because he couldn’t imagine life without Darius, but there was only so much time they could spare before going to rescue Luz and… and…
And his eyes sting and suddenly his cheeks are wet.
“I want Darius” he whispers, his voice trembling with tears. He’s certain the others hear him, but there’s nothing to say to that, nothing that will help anyway, in the same way that there was not a good answer to Amity’s question nor a soft comfort to Gus’s plea, because none of them know what is happening on the Boiling Isles and they went through hell and back together, there’s no point in lying. Moreover, they won’t lie to each other.
But Hunter remembers a kind hand on his head, he remembers a scroll, the first gift he was freely given without having to earn it or deserve it in some way, he remembers sewing lessons with gentle scoldings that left him feeling warmer than any time his unc-Belos grabbed his shoulder in faked concern, he remembers bickering and the surprise at the certainty that one wrong word wouldn’t get him hurt this time, and he thinks that maybe that’s what a home would feel like.
He knows he starts shaking because Willow’s hand feels a little bit firmer on his back, Gus rearranges himself to be a little bit closer to him and Luz grabs his right hand with her free one. It doesn’t matter to them that he’s crying because they all are. Only the sound of the rain accompanies the soft sniffles of kids who lost everything. And despite it all, Hunter is grateful that for once he is not alone.
