Chapter 141: Storming the Castle
The rebels storm through the Emperor's Castle to put a stop to Belos' plans.
Tropes that appear in this Chapter:
- Accidental Murder: Leonte accidentally kills Hikari when she moves between him and Steve to protect the latter, throwing her into a wall where she takes severe head trauma and dies soon after.
- Adaptation Deviation:
- Eda turns into her enraged, six-winged Owl Beast form long before "Watching and Dreaming" takes place.
- Likewise, Lilith assumes a similar form when in canon, she never turned into the Raven Beast again after doing so in "Keeping Up A-fear-ances".
- Adaptational Badass: As said before, Lilith never turned into the Raven Beast again after the only time she succumbed to her curse. Here, she does so and grows into a larger, six-winged version of herself complete with her mouth glowing green. It's a downplayed case for Eda (who hasn't lost her right arm), so she has both her clawed front hands.
- Adaptational Karma: Since Flora was canonically a one-shot character, she's only referenced twice after her sole appearance and her fate following the Day of Unity is undisclosed. Here, Lilith gets the honor of kicking her ex-mentor's ass for her loyalty to Belos and knowledge of the Draining Spell.
- Amazon Chaser: Meg is left in awe from seeing Le'Belle fighting against the loyalist scouts before switching sides and getting into the fight.
- Bad Future: Lampshaded. When Abel mocks Lilith for not killing Belos in the past, Lilith counters by saying that doing so would have led to the Gates siblings burning the Isles down.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Despite the rebels plowing through his forces to reach him, Belos ultimately gets what he wants in the end: Willow and Hunter remain his prisoners, Bloody Mary is defeated, he kills King and Amity to eliminate who he considers the biggest threats remaining to his plans, and he's finally taken control of Luz and has some Titan Blood to activate Eda's stolen portal. He doesn't even bother chasing after the rebels when they escape as he takes satisfaction at breaking Eda's spirit.
- Batman Gambit: This is how Belos won. Kidnapping King and killing him in front of his family while bragging about it triggers Maya's Berserk Button and leads to her coming out to kick his ass. From there, all Belos had to do was stall for time while his inner self breached Luz's mind and began the transfer process, so even though the rebels destroy his old body, he successfully gets a new one and hits them where it hurts in more ways than one.
- Beyond Redemption:
- Flora is one of the loyalists and knew the truth about the Day of Unity all along, so Lilith doesn't hold back against her.
- Leonte is officially declared as such for killing Hikari, so Steve stops trying to convince him to switch sides and quits pulling his punches against him.
- Big Damn Heroes: Lupe comes close to tearing off Donna's hero costume and do unspeakable things to her when Nina makes her Dynamic Entry, ready to save her.
- Big Damn Reunion: After Lupe is put down, Skara, Slasher, and Nina embrace Calypso now that she's up and about once more.
- Big "WHAT?!": Barbara and Gidget use these when Scarmeron reveals that he thought Barb had died in the Healing Coven's destruction.
- Bloodless Carnage: Heavily averted. Belos makes a point of spilling as much blood as possible when he kills King as he needs it for his portal, despite only requiring a few drops worth: this emphasizes how King means nothing to him and he can't risk him surviving and being a threat to the Horned King.
- Body Horror:
- Belos uses his corrupted Titan form against the Clawthornes but when his body is destroyed and he commanders Luz's body, he proceeds to mutate it into a mix of both her body and his former Titan form.
- Beforehand when Maya comes out, Luz grows Titan horns out of her scalp and black cracks form on her cheeks to resemble running eyeliner.
- Bottle Episode: The entire chapter is set within the interior of Emperor Belos' castle, seeing as the Covens Against the Throne have infiltrated it.
- Break the Cutie: During their bout, Abel tells Eda that she doomed her kids by bringing them to the castle. Eda doesn't believe him, but seeing Belos kill two of her kids while successfully possessing the third destroys her, and Raine has to drag her away as she hopelessly reaches out to Luz once Belos' possession is complete.
- The Bus Came Back: O'Darby pops up out of nowhere to make her return since "The Alchemist's Mutant Mayhem".
- Call-Back:
- Abel showing up in the past and telling Lilith to kill Belos to prevent his actions is brought up.
- As Inner Luz did before, Amity tells Belos that Adam would be disappointed in him for what he's done all these years.
- Beluz sitting upon the emperor's throne in triumph at the end of the chapter throws back to when Maleficent did the same after defeating Oberon.
- Continuity Nod:
- Steve, Le'Belle, and the rest of BIG bring up Osran using scouts as fodder, Leonte's lack of concern over Torsa Villa, and children getting branded in the discussion that leads to BIG defecting.
- While fighting Lumity, Gibson announces that he knows Luz was the one who exposed his company for creating the Grim Goblin tech.
- Gibson also recalls the red demons who gave him the idea for his company's guns.
- Nina uses her porcupine quills for the first time since her duel with Luz.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Donna uses her keyblade to shoot an ice blast down Lupe's throat, which she expands into numerous spikes that impale his body from the inside.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- All the scouts O'Darby rallies to overthrow Belos are brutally splattered all over the throne room in an instant.
- The Clawthorne sisters, the rebel coven heads, and Star face off against Abel together, and none of them even land a hit on him, while he talks down on them. When Kitsuni steps in to give the rebels a chance to escape, she doesn't do any better.
- Deal with the Devil: Vanz Ator has joined forces with Belos, wanting to help him for something that will benefit Katya. The way he says it, it seems like he's hoping to have her parents brought back to life.
- Death by Adaptation: Amity and King may have gone through a lot in The Owl House, but at least the both of them lived through everything in canon. Here, they're murdered by Belos on the eve of the Day of Unity.
- Defector from Decadence: After being reminded of how Leonte has been acting recently, the rest of BIG decide to join the rebels.
- Demonic Possession: Belos finally succeeds in taking control of Luz, as Maya left Luz's mindscape unprotected to help her take revenge on Belos for killing King in front of everybody.
- Dissonant Serenity: The entire time Abel is shown fighting against the heroes, he taunts them about their flaws all while maintaining an eerie smile on his face. He even maintains it while bragging about killing Ms. Traveler to Kitsuni.
- Dramatic Unmask: Not so dramatic since most of the coven scouts who do it are already recognizable, but Meg throws off her mask and rallies the rest of B.I.G. and her friends into doing the same before fighting alongside the rebels.
- Everybody Knew Already: It turns out that Belos was informed of Bloody Mary being alive, likely by Vanz Ator when he freed him from his mirror prison.
- Everyone Has Standards: As much as Luz and Amity hate Gibson for what he allowed to happened to Teri and what he did to Amity's family, they refuse to let him bleed out from his self-inflicted injuries and tend to his wounds before moving on.
- Eye Scream:
- Hitting his last nerve due to all the chaos going on and the scouts going rouge, Leonte's throbbing vein bursts leaving his eye blood red.
- Unable to fend off Shawm while he's in his buff form, Eda slashes at his eyes and renders him blind, giving her the win.
- Face–Heel Turn: Vanz Ator sides with Belos, hoping to gain something for Katya to make up for his past failures with her.
- Family of Choice: Subverted. Lilith tries to appeal to Belos on sparing King as that he's a member of the Clawthorne family like them. Belos, however, tells the rebels that King is not family to him but an obstacle to his goals, and goes through with killing him.
- Foreshadowing: Amity gets stabbed through the heart by Beluz; this was hinted at back in "Grom: The Musical, Part 2", when Grom-Belos nearly struck her heart before Luz saved her. This time it happens and to throw salt all over the wound, Luz can't save Amity because she's the one who commits the murder.
- Fusion Dance: Upon their assimilation, Beluz gains Belos' horns and nose scar, another green scar across Luz's left eye, stretched arms covered in green scales with black stripes, crooked and deformed wings, and Belos' extended hindlegs, all topped off with Luz's now whitened hair.
- The Ghost:
- Willow and Hunter are repeatedly brought up, but they're never actually seen since nobody is able to find them.
- Blitzo and Moxxie are indirectly brought up by Gibson, who credits them for the inspiration of his abomi-shooters.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: In-Universe. Draco tries to keep himself alive by telling Donna why he was committing his atrocities (albeit in a tone that implies he wasn't seriously going to do it). By then, Donna no longer gives a damn and ends her uncle's miserable life, letting Draco go to Hell likely with the knowledge he had of her parents, who they are, and what she is, go with him.
- Heel–Face Turn: Meg, Grip, Bowen, Carter, Dale, Hugh, Clé, the rest of the Boiling Isles Guardians, and several other scouts join Le'Belle, Barbara, and Gidget in assisting the rebels against the loyalists and their leaders.
- The Hero Dies: Luz and Amity both get taken down when Belos' possession appears to destroy Luz's personality and leads to Amity dying by Belos' new hands. King is also slain by Belos before those happened.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: Luz and Maya's tempers have always been their biggest flaws, which is why Belos exploits them to his advantage. He knew that getting them mad enough would lead to Maya showing up so she can help Luz destroy the quasi-immortal fucker, which leaves Luz's mindscape vulnerable and buys him just enough time to take over Luz's body.
- Hope Spot: The Clawthornes and Amity fight off Belos and weaken him to the point that he rots away until they can splatter him across the throne room's walls, and Amity goes to hug Luz relieved that the fight against the emperor is over...and then Luz stabs Amity with an iron blade, showing that Belos is in control of her now.
- Idiot Ball: The key to Belos' Batman Gambit was Maya picking this up. She was the only thing protecting Luz's mindscape; without her, Luz's inner self failed to stop Belos' own from invading and taking over the real Luz.
- Immediate Sequel: Things start up again right after Rains says "CAT's, let's storm the castle!"
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- Gibson tries to impale Amity with his glider from behind, but Luz warns her and she teleports away, so it stabs Gibson in his knees.
- Donna kills Lupe by impaling him from the inside of his body with ice spikes.
- Once Belos is in control of Luz, the first thing he does is stab Amity in the heart with an iron blade, telling the half-Fae to die.
- Internal Reveal:
- Barb and Gidget reveal to B.I.G., Clé, Meg, Grip, Carter, Bowen, Dale, and Hugh that Osran and Leonte had them locked up. The two then learn about the Healing Coven having been blown up.
- Thr Emperor's Coven sees that Darius and Eberwolf are alive and working with the rebellion.
- The rebels discover from Flora that Belos knows what King truly is.
- Belos learns of the Titan Trappers from King, that that the Clawthornes no longer have the portal key, and that Amity has the Sword of Adam.
- Luz and Amity learn that Gibson created the abomi-shooters and got the idea from Blitz and Moxxie's guns.
- Abel tells Kitsuni that he managed to kill Ms. Traveler.
- Irony:
- The only reason Gibson's working the the Emperor's Coven is so the people of the Isles will rely on his company post-Day of Unity instead of Blight Industries or Hieron Labs. However, the former was shut down, the latter took damage from when Luz, Lilith, and Tres liberated Megan.
- Once he takes his Titan form, Belos declares that he will show the rebels why he deserves to be a god. He pretty much quotes both the Inner Demon (a human-turned-mind parasite) and Mel (a half-fae hybrid), both of whom made the same declarations and are of species that Belos hates with a passion.
- It Amused Me: Abel didn't kill Ms. Traveler because she was a threat to his and Belos' plans: he did it because he wanted to. Even if it wasn't the "real version of her", he's glad to have gotten any kind of victory over her.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Flora, feeling a hit to her pride over Eda having found the last titan when she had written a book about it, wants to rectify it by dissecting King, not seeing him as a person but as a guinea pig. This just makes Lilith hate her even more than she already had.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Draco and Lupe have been a persistent blight on Donna her whole life for murdering her parents and leaving her brother with the Titan Trappers, adding on to the fact of the latter having been killing people for centuries. Now, Donna takes the chance at killing them both herself to ensure they can never hurt her or anyone else ever again.
- Killed Off for Real: Hikari, Lupe, Draco, King, and Amity get killed off in this chapter, in that order.
- Hikari is thrown into a wall by Leonte, the blunt force causing her severe internal damage.
- Lupe is held down and wounded by the Brookes before Donna freezes him from the inside out.
- Draco has his skull shattered when Donna brings her keyblade down on him.
- King has his throat slit by Belos, who gathers his blood in a vial.
- And last but never least, Amity is stabbed through the heart by Belos when he takes control of Luz.
- Kick the Dog: Belos didn't stop himself from going farther past the line when he slit King's throat, or when he impales Amity. No, it was the fact that he tells the main Clawthorne family that he doesn't see King as his family and took control of Luz before stabbing Amity in the heart that shows his lack of respect for other people's bonds with their loved ones.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Flora boasts that she plans to dissect King in front of Lilith like an idiot, along with admitting she knows about the Draining Spell. That's what leads to Lilith electrocuting her in the face, knocking her out.
- Killing Hikari was the last straw for Steve hoping that Leonte could listen to reason, as that earns the captain a one-way ticket to a savage pummeling by his former protégé's fists.
- Gibson put his pride and control over Alador over his son's well-being, which allowed the Goblin to take over Teri's mind. When Gibson dons the Goblin suit for himself and tries to kill Amity, he gets stabbed and his legs are severely wounded.
- Vanz sold out to Belos and helped him defeat the only being who came closest to ending his miserable life before the Day of Unity, not to mention blaming Raine for Katya ending up in prison. Raine fights Vanz while the Clawthornes take on Belos, and wins by knocking Vanz out with their violin.
- Before the fight against the loyalists, Darius sticks Kikimora to a wall, paying her out for her role in kidnapping Hunter in the last chapter.
- Last Disrespects: During the battle between Belos and the rebels when the mad emperor says that Amity doesn't deserve to use the Sword of Adam, she reminds him that the sword chooses its wielder and hints that it would never have chosen Belos since he doesn't understand Adam's dream of protecting the Isles from outside threats, as the way Belos is doing so comes at the citizens' expense.
- Literally Shattered Lives:
- When Donna ends Draco's miserable life once and for all, she slams her keyblade down on his skull, crushing it to pieces.
- When Belos defeats Bloody Mary, he destroys her glass body; however, neither he nor Vanz can tell if it means Mary's finally dead.
- Locked into Strangeness: A perfectly symbolic case. Once Belos possesses Luz and alters her body to his liking, Luz's hair turns white as part of the transformation.
- Mind Rape: In the last moments seen of Kitsuni and Abel's fight, the latter shows the yokai what he truly is via mental images, which causes her to scream in horror.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Leonte shows regret upon seeing that he killed Hikari and goes to apologize, but Steve decides he's not worth redeeming anymore and shuts him up.
- Mythology Gag: Lilith telling Flora about the Draining Spell only to see she knew of it all along is a mirror image of Alador discovered Odalia was in on it.
- Nasal Trauma: Alburno gets his nose broken by Leonte using an abomination fist.Alburno: I...regret not keeping my mask on.
- Never My Fault: Due to his stance on never apologizing, Gibson rebukes responsibility for not helping his son and blames Lumity for failing to do so and ruining his business.
- Next Tier Power-Up: Before, Nina's enhancements limited her alternate transformations to her limbs and slight changes to her usual body. Now, when Donna needed her most, she turns into a whole freaking slitherbeast in order to subdue Draco long enough for Donna to freeze him.
- Offscreen Teleportation: O'Darby shows up out of nowhere to rally the scouts into a frenzy, and takes a hike as soon as she sends them to their doom by pitting them against Belos.
- Oh, Crap!: Everyone who catches sight of Luz having stabbed Amity in her heart and notice her eyes are now glowing blue.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Face it: Luz would never hurt Amity again *, so when she rammed an iron blade through her girlfriend's chest while she was comforting her over King...two words: Demonic Possession.
- Please Spare Him, My Liege!: As a desperate last resort to save King, Lilith pleads with Belos to let him live since he's family. It fails, since Belos doesn't want a titan around to defeat the Horned King.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: As Luzaya pounds Belos into the floor of the throne room, they scream "YOU! DO! NOT! KILL! FAMILY!" in response to his killing King, whom he dismissed as family.
- The Reveal:
- Wrath joined the CAT's as a favor to Amity for babysitting his son.
- Flora knew about the Draining Spell ever since she was promoted to the position of head historian.
- Belos had already known Mary Gates was still alive and was expecting her to confront him.
- Belos freed Vanz from the Magic Mirror and struck a deal with him: while the details are unspecified, context implies that Vanz wants to bring Katya's parents Back from the Dead.
- Luz was in the Healing track for only a week before she attacked Ms. Torigore and got placed in the Detention track.
- Rockers Smash Guitars: Subverted. While Raine does whack Vanz over the head with their violin in order to defeat him, it doesn't break from the impact.
- Rump Roast: When Gibson decides to bail after seeing the CAT's plow through his special scouts, Luz shoots a fire spell right at his derriere.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- After seeing the rebels decimate his special scouts, Gibson is taunted by Odalia into making a move. Since he's a businessman, he turns tail to run and gets his butt cooked by Luz.
- O'Darby inspires the scouts to attack Belos in an act of revolution, but when she lets them storm the throne room and sees them all die by the emperor's hands, she bails.
- At first, things go poorly for Belos when Bloody Mary and Grimhilde fight and overpower him. When Vanz shows up and overpowers them, the evil queen escapes in a puff of smoke leaving Mary all alone.
- Ship Tease: As Le'Belle fights the loyalist scouts, Meg stares at her with her heart skipping a beat from the sight of her rebelling and turns on the Emperor's Coven immediately.
- Shout-Out:
- Gibson attempting to kill Luz and Amity with his glider ends with his knees impaled, just like how the Green Goblin/Norman Osborn met his end.
- In yet another Masters of the Universe reference regarding Donna, Draco's face is revealed to be merely a skull much like Skeletor's. The way it's revealed is also similar to how it's done in the 2002 cartoon.
- Abel takes the forms of Aqua, Terra, Ventus, Vanitas, Master Xehanort, and Eraqus while fighting Kitsuni.
- The item Vanz received from Belos is confirmed to be the Eye of Dashi.
- Skewed Priorities: Played for Laughs when Eda complains about Lilith's alternate forms having lightning powers while she's still magicless.
- Smug Smiler: After the rebels are forced to leave the castle, Beluz smirks as a way to convince everyone that Belos has beaten them in taking Luz for himself and hurting them greatly.
- Spanner in the Works: Vanz—Titan's crack, Vanz—once again serves as an unforseen variable in making Luz's life a complete crapsack. His return and double-cross leads to Bloody Mary's failure to finish off Belos and his inaction to save King results in his death and the extinction of the Titans. His helping Belos in general is what ultimately allows the Emperor to succeed in getting Luz under his control, officially making her his new vessel.
- Sympathy for the Devil: As much as they have every right to just leave Gibson to bleed out from his injuries seeing as he tried to kill them, Luz and Amity choose to be the bigger witches and patch him up.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: While fighting Flora, Lilith shouts "Talk to the glyph, bitch!" after disarming her of her whip.
- Throat Light: When the Owl and Raven Beasts emerge while Eda and Lilith are in grief over King, they have monstrous forms with glowing mouths—Eda's having a red light, and Lilith's being green.
- Throne Room Throwdown:
- Bloody Mary and Grimhilde enter the throne room to take on Belos and for a while, they give him some trouble. As soon as Vanz appears, things go bad, and Grimhilde leaves Mary to be shattered.
- Not long after, the Clawthornes, Amity, and Raine storm the throne room to free King. After Belos kills King, Maya emerges and she/Luz lead everyone in fighting off Belos causing mass damage in order to put Belos down once and for all, even knocking down the Titan's heart and toppling his throne.
- The Un-Reveal:
- Everyone stormed the castle hoping to find Willow and Hunter, but couldn't. So where the hell are they?
- Adding to the above statement, while Emily was shown in the castle last chapter, were the other coven heads there or in a different secure location? And where was Eclipsa, for that matter?
- Not caring about Draco's motivations any longer, Donna just kills him without waiting to hear him out. Whether or not we, the audience, will ever learn what caused him to be what he became is up in the air...at least, until next season. Probably.
- Abel mentions that Julia Traveler was just an "aspect of you-know-who" rather than the real thing. What does he mean by that?
- Since Belos has succeeded in possessing Luz, does this mean Maya has been consumed by the Horned King?
- Villains Want Mercy: In the midst of his ranting, Draco sees Donna raising her keyblade over his head and panics, telling her to wait. Unfortunately for Draco, Donna's reached the end of her patience with his existence and kills him once and for all.
- Wham Episode: Belos has successfully gathered everything he needs for the Day of Unity, including complete control over Luz, and murders Amity and King in cold blood to break everyone's spirits. All of this wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for Abel running interference and Vanz Ator falling to the dark side. At the same time, Donna is saved from Draco and Lupe by Nina, Skara, Slasher, and Calypso, before she herself kills both sadistic pricks to end their traumatic grasp over her.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Abel kidnaps Tres, Katya, Amber, and Derwin before fighting the rest of Raine's party, and where he's keeping them isn't revealed.
- What the Hell Are You?: People keep asking Abel what the fuck he is and why he helped Belos: he doesn't give anyone a straight answer except for Kitsuni, and the results of it don't seem to be something we wish to learn.
- Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Eda, Lilith, and Raine react with these when they see "Luz" just stabbed Amity through the heart, instantly figuring out that the fight against Belos hasn't ended at all.
