I've Been Thinking About What Would Have Happened If Luz Had Been Found First By Belos Before Eda And

I've been thinking about what would have happened if Luz had been found first by Belos before Eda and I couldn't help but remember Sonia and Griffith from Berserk.

Luz and Sonia were born with a condition that made them different from other normal people which makes them both think and see things differently from others (Luz has ADHD since birth and Sonia is a birth medium) to the point that they felt they didn't fit in anywhere and that neither did their parents nor did anyone understand them or take what they said seriously:

Luz felt her mother Camila does not understand her because of her strangeness and her way of seeing things due to her ADHD and that the only person who supported her tastes in fantasy, her father Manny who gave her the Good Witch Azura books as a way to support her tastes, is no longer there. It is implied that her classmates bullied her for her love for fantasy and for her ADHD and it is even implied that Luz confessed to someone but that person rejected her for being weird and corny.

Sonia lost her parents due to the Kushan invasion but that gives to understand with some dialogues that she has with Schierke and Irvine, Sonia felt lonely to the point that it can be interpreted that she thought that her parents didn't understand her and saw her as a freak and from the way in which we were introduced to Sonia where other women dismiss her visions as the product of madness from seeing their parents burned to death, it is implied that because of her powers as a medium the other people in her home village believed that she was insane.

This is even seen by the fact that they both feel more comfortable being and talking with monsters or strange beings (Luz with Eda, King and hexsquad and Sonia with Griffith, Irvine, Schierke and the new Band of the Hawk in general) than with normal people:

Sonia is always agressive towards Mule and Charlotte and the human soldiers as if she was hurt in the past by other normal humans so she always has distrust towards other humans and would rather hurt them than let them hurt her first.

Luz was terrified that Vee would talk to other humans and even gave her advice on how to run away from them to avoid being humiliated, as if Luz herself had bad experiences with other humans and would rather run away from other humans than be hurt by them.

Luz and Sonia had to take the conditions with which they were born as something that makes them special as if they were the chosen one as a defense mechanism to face their loneliness and their fear of being seen as freaks and being rejected because of that, and they can even become stubborn and hurtful with others.

Luz and Sonia know what it's like to be alone that they even become friends with two witches (Willow and Schierke) who share similar problems to them:

Willow is a witch who is not good with abominations which causes other classmates to bully her just as it happened to Luz in the Human Realm.

Schierke is a witch that have magic powers what cause her to have conflicts with humans because of it just as it happened to Sonia with the other inhabitants of her home village.

Luz and Sonia were naive and had a great feeling of loneliness to the point that they cling to the first people who treat them well or with respect (Eda and Griffith) because they don't downplay or demonize them as girls with delusions of grandeur or as insane girls but they accept them for who they are, take them and their feelings seriously, and give them a place of belonging.

Luz and Sonia have a strong desire to be understood by others that leads them to believe that they understand those that they accepted them due to the fact that they are special and/or weird like them.

However, the key difference is that Eda doesn't respect Luz at the beginning but when Luz is in danger she doesn't hesitate to go to help her but the most important thing is that Eda teaches her that she cannot wait for others to give her value through a special destiny of chosen one but that she has to give her value to herself.

Eda: "Look, kid, everyone wants to believe they're "chosen". But if we all waited around for a prophecy to make us special, we'd die waiting. And that's why you need to choose yourself".

Furthermore, when Luz hurts others to fulfill her fantasies of being the chosen one, as happened with Willow and Amity, both of them call out Luz for hurting them, to which Luz listens and recognizes that she was wrong to project her fantasies on Amity and Willow and begin to understand them better and treat them and their feelings with respect.

But Sonia doesn't have an Eda nor does she have a Willow or an Amity, she instead has Griffith who instead of giving her the firm but caring reality check that Eda does with Luz or call her out and make her see that her projection as the chosen one is hurting others and that she has to learn to understand them and treat them with respect like Willow and Amity told Luz, Griffith really plays into and encourages her main character syndrome and makes her believe that she totally does have a destiny, this is fate, Hawk of the Light himself brought her to him at this time, so on and so forth.

And I'm pretty sure Belos would do to Luz what Griffith did to Sonia if he had the chance. I'm sure he'd love that opportunity, and he could easily play into her chosen one ideas and main character syndrome: Luz would be an honored guest of the Emperor, Belos would give her a nice suite of rooms in the castle, fed regular meals - no finicky experimenting with what cuisine makes her sick, here, the Emperor is well aware of the dietary needs of humans and his larders are stocked with all manner of things she can consume, she has access to his libraries, to all of the information she could ever want and the best tutors on magic, Belos would let Luz learn to use glyphs, he would manipulate her by telling her about the Savage Ages and how dangerous wild magic is and how he brought order to the witchkind. He'd want to form a very close and personal relationship with Luz and for her to trust him completely and for that he would allow her to do things that he would not allow anyone else like have her attending him in his workshop, spending time with him in his personal office, taking dinner with him in his chambers, listening to his stories, he would tell her that he is a human like her.

Luz and Sonia are unshakably happy, caring and naive girls who feel alone because they don't fit in anywhere and nobody wants to understand them. Luz found people who teach her that she cannot run away from reality to feel that they take her seriously because she would be more isolated but those same people understand her and love her for whom she is and they show it to her but Sonia doesn't have the same luck and she is with a monster that despite showing that he enjoys her company is also using her. It's quite scary to think that if Belos had found Luz first than Eda, Luz's situation would be the same as Sonia's and even Luz could behave in the same aggressive way as Sonia.

Jaune Arc: The Knight in Rusty Armor

Have you ever read the book the Knight in Rusty Armor? It is a book that I highly recommend because its story is about how self-discovery, self-acceptance, self-reflection and love are important to live happily with ourselves and with others. The protagonist is a knight who put his duty as a knight before his family to the point that he remains attached to his armor and at the request of his wife he sets out on a trip to remove his rusty armor and he travels to a forest and three castles where he learns to accept his mistakes, accept his fears but not let them dominate them and self-discover himself and in the end he manages to free himself from the rusty armor.

As I watched Jaune and with today's episode I couldn't help noticing similarities and/or allusions to the Knight in Rusty Armor because Jaune, like the knight in the story, is trapped in his rusty armor (and who knows if he is even trapped in a role like the inhabitants of Ever After) so it may be that for Jaune to return to normal and shed his rusty armor (both physical and mental armor) he has to accept his actions and mistakes in order to self-discover and accept himself and love and to be loved not for his role as a knight but for who he is as a person, just as the Knight in Rusty Armor did.

Do you remember this post where I mentioned how Belos has a feeling of solidarity with Luz for being the first human he has seen for decades, besides that she reinforced this solidarity for him by helping him without realizing it? This plus what we have been shown in the series regarding the fact that he became a witch hunter out of admiration for Caleb and the witch hunters seeing them as heroes and to fit in in Gravesfield plus the fact that Luz wanted others to understand her led me to think that Belos wanted and believed that Luz understood him for being human like him and ironically Luz's wish to be understood was granted in the worst possible way because Belos is the first human who does not see her as a freak but rather he recognizes her as someone smart, as a person and sees her as his equal (a treatment that he does not give to anyone else, not even Hunter) to the point of wanting to have her on his side, to see himself as her savior and protective and being so obsessed with her in general.

Belos somehow sees not only Caleb reflected in Luz but he also sees himself reflected in her as a person who seeks to be understood and to feel that he belongs somewhere so he wants to be understood by her and at the same time in a twisted way, he wants to give Luz that feeling of belonging and be the special person with whom Luz feels understood, protected and loved.

Business partners

money lover

LEAVE

THEM

ALONE

One of the things I love about Gear 5th is that it is a power up designed to completely destroy the opponent like other power ups seen in other series but what makes Gear 5th stand out is that it destroys the opponent in a different way. A standard power up destroys the opponent physically but the Gear 5th destroys the opponent not only physically but also destroys the opponent's pride by being defeated by a visually ridiculous power up.

Just imagine for example AFO from My Hero Academia being defeated by Luffy Gear 5th, simply AFO's pride would be completely destroyed since he wanted to be an all-powerful villain like in the comics and believed that only OFA users can defeat him and he wants to defeat said users in the most epic way possible only to Luffy Gear 5th (a character who isn't even from the same universe as him) deny him that fantasy by forcing him to operate under Tom and Jerry or Loney Toons physics to the point to force AFO to look ridiculous while being attacked by Luffy Gear 5th, AFO would be VERY frustrated because he never expected in his life that he would be defeated by a power that is not even flashy like OFA but is a power that is visually funny and ridiculous to the point that the heroes and civilians who were scared of AFO before now laugh at him seeing him being defeated with such ridiculous and funny power, with this AFO would never want to be a villain again for suffering the greatest humiliation of his life.