- Daughter Dooley: “Ha! So let’s see what you can do without your ‘sponsors’ backing you up. Your power versus mine, beast. Winner takes home that baby. What say you?”Narration: The Black Stag paused a moment, eyes screaming poisonous hate and charged as Daughter Dooley laughed and leapt to meet him, eyes filling with green light and her grin fierce and full.
Old Gods of Appalachia is a Cosmic Horror Story, yes, but this doesn't stop the people of Appalachia from putting up a good fight every now and again, proving that maybe some of us humans are powerful in our own ways. This is without getting into the Witches of the Green. Hell, even some of the h'aints and specters have their own moments.
Disclaimer: Beware of unmarked spoilers, family.
- Sarah Avery managing to summon the Bear of the Green, Bartholomew himself. It's a true testament to her strength as a witch, and hearing the Bear absolutely mulch the Thing That Wasn't Uncle Eddie is the first moment in this series that lets us know for all the eldritch horrors we will be dealing with in this story, there are ways our Family can fight back.
- Daughter Dooley's overall defiance of the Black Stag, having been tricked into a Deal with the Devil with the h'aint but refusing to be cowed, making it clear that she does so to be a caretaker of the land and not his pawn. Even before this, the effortless way she sees through Horned Head's illusions, thoroughly dismantling him as he tries to pull A Form You Are Comfortable With.
- Daughter Dooley, finally having had enough of Horned Head's manipulations, sheds all pretenses of service to the Dark and proceeds to cut off Horned Head from the power of his masters. This is enough to catch the Black Stag off guard, before he begins to rear on her in outrage. She then challenges him to battle for the soul of the baby he's been trying to corrupt, and the season ends as they charge on each other.
- The final chapter of The Holiest Days of Bone and Shadow actually shows the battle between the Witch Queen and the Black Stag, and it's just as epic as the aforementioned cliffhanger made it out to be, showing the two, equal in power, throwing spells and counter-spells at each other in rapid succession. Its peak, of course, comes at the end, when Horned Head, desperate to get a leg up on Daughter Dooley, casts an illusion of her beloved mothers burning at the stake. For a moment it seems like it'll work until his own magic turns against him and the illusory Dooley mothers begin cheering on their daughter, giving her the strength to banish him at last.
- It's made clear that even Horned Head himself is impressed by how thoroughly Daughter Dooley defeated him. Upon his resurrection, over 140 years after his defeat, he states that he has no plans to seek revenge, and that Daughter Dooley earned her victory over him.
- Cowboy Absher. After being revived by the Dead Queen and cursed, he enjoys a quiet life with his adopted family, until his friends encounter a haint in the woods. And, in a first for the series, a little boy looks at it without any fear. He sees right through the creature, calling it pathetic in a very innocent way. You'd think this turns straight to NightmareFuel after the beast kills the boy in turn, but a manifestation of the Green itself rips the thing to shreds, just like it did with Sarah Avery. What's more is that Cowboy simply pops back up a few hours later, none the worse for wear.
