Chapter Text
While Amity seems to have the toughest time under Odalia, I think her control of them was a different subtle kind.
The kind where she would turn them against Amity, encouraging the competition so they'd rat each other out and stay ontop. You could see how well that worked in Lost in Language with that cruel prank and the implication that Amity throws them under the bus by tattling to Alador and Odalia.
So even though Ed and Emira would never rat each other out and they wouldn't rat out their sister, they still resented her because she was the one who could abominations (not that they liked abominations), guarenteeing a bulk of their parents' attention. That they'd have to attend abomination conventions for their father/Amity's work. But nothing related to their own track.
That's partially because of the stigma around illusions. Odalia was okay with it as she saw them occupying her role as a salesperson and she could appreciate the more underhanded nature of illusions but I could see Alador being dismissive of it. Sorta like if it's not as hard as abominations, they're being lazy/superficial choosing the illusion track.
Still they were expected to get good grades. They got good grades but never the praise. They were just met with warnings not to let their grades slip, ruining the Blight standards. Not to be so proud of getting an A, it's expected. That sort of talk.
Of course, Odalia saved all the praise for the grades to Amity who always had to hear how the twins maintained their work without training wands.
Still Odalia would sometimes nudge the twins into turning on each other. Nothing overt but little comments of you don't want to the burdensome one, stop holding your twin back etc.
Which was completely at odds with how she always treated them as a unit. Like she wanted them to be competitive enough to outperform the other but also be each other's matching keeper.
I also think Odalia gave them more leeway because they do seem the most like her, green-haired, confident, extroverted, and with their illusions they do seem to maintain the Blight image while Amity was constantly messing up in their eyes. So yes, favoritism is a factor in the family.
These comments primarily got to Edric as we saw in Reaching Out, feeling like the useless Blight sibling. He's very smart, he's just more creative which wasn't encouraged in the household. He's an out of the box thinker, a wild witch!
But before his pep talk with Eda, he was insecure about this. I feel like under his confident facade, Edric had anxiety over constantly maintaining the cool guy image and how he'll eventually mess it up. This led him to depending on Emira a lot as she's the only one he could tell his feelings too without being told to suck it up like a Blight (thanks parents).
So even though Alador and Odalia weren't the best, Edric was eager in his own way to keep their attention. Sorta like that scrapped episode where he was jealous of an abomination Odalia entered into a competition instead of him. As the only boy he had some "specialness" if you want to use terms like that but also felt like he had to prove himself compared to his sisters. Had to deal with a lot of comments that he wasn't focusing enough, too dependent on Emira, just feeling not smart.
That bled to personal relationships where he felt like he had to be extra attentive, most amazing boyfriend ever. Like sending poems to his date before the actual date. Very extra. But that extraness could spiral to clinginess if he thought they were getting bored which for someone who was trying to be the cool kid all the time, makes him anxious and so he spirals more to make them stay. Yeah, I feel like he wears his emotions more on his sleeve. He gets attached easily and then feels the heartbreak.
It's a bit of a codependent cycle where he's scared to lose someone and clings harder which makes them distant and he clings even harder because he feels he has to earn their worth.
It also hurts in the few times he struck out of the illusion track with potions or beast-keeping, even making his own illusion-potion gun and his parents automatically dismissed it as not their brand. Maybe if he could do one with abominations if he worked harder. It crushed him that he was still told he wasn't working hard enough just because he didn't do abominations.
He got into illusions because his imagination could sour. You could create anything with illusions. You could be anything if you're good enough like an abomination master (the abominations are all illusions but still) or construction or anything. Partially fueled by a subconscious desire to be the person other people want him to be, to belong. He specialized in illusions of grand scope similar to Gus's labriynth that it can coast over miles, one can get lost in his illusions. After he becomes a multi-track witch, he experiments more not with weapon-making but fireworks, and other special effects.
Emira's speciality is realistic illusions. It's why she got into it because she liked the idea of immersing the five senses, making the illusions so real, one can forget where they are, who they are. She liked the spectacle that made you enjoy the fantasy of it for a little while. Maybe it's part of her secret desire to be somewhere else from all the responsbilities she has and the reputation attached to the Blight name, being a twin etc. She was actually interested in visual merchendising but that interest was quickly squashed because it was too unambitious for a Blight to be persuing.
Emira was the one who most often stood up for him, reminding him that he was smart, incredibly creative, just as good a witch as anyone else. But that sort of emotional support did take a toll on Emira. With his anxiety attacks and empathy, she didn't feel comfortable sharing her feelings because then his anxiety might be triggered thinking about her. She sorta internalized the idea that "He can't handle it" and won't give him the chance. And there was a little fear that he would make it about him, and how bad he felt that he didn't notice and she didn't want to know he could be selfish.
So there were complicated feelings of resentment and affection there. Like she loves him but she didn't want to be stuck shouldering all the emotional burden for the family. She knows he can be great but he's scared and she's not going to push him but will that day ever come?
But I don't think she would share her feelings easily in general. As the oldest, she is so used to being considered the adult, the mature one that she takes a sort of pride in that. Pride dampened by the fact that Odalia still controls their every move. All their rebellion is in the limited box that their parents can never find out so it's not even rebellion.
And Odalia does treat them like kids. She may not verbally abuse them like Amity but she expects them to wear matching outfits, follow her plans, anything out of the deviation is met with "You're children. You don't really know." Their pranks or instances of trying to burn the factory. Them playing around. She won't treat them like actual people with autonomy.
Which infruriates Emira who wants to be her own person. Who knows she shoulders a lot caring for Edric and Amity, physically and emotionally. And the few times she's angry enough to put a voice to those feelings, Odalia dismisses her again. She's not really being a parent, Odalia is the parent and Emira is being overdramatic about the few times she gave them soup during bone flu or whatever.
So Emira is the adult in a household where no one else parents, and though she has her own moments where she wants to let everything go, let someone else take over, she knows she can't because no else is there.
So when she dates, it is extremely casually because there is a fear that if its a serious relationship, she'll end up dealing with her partner's emotional health too and she doesn't want to have take care of another person and end up resenting them. So her dates are very superficial, maybe it's only physical and its fine because she doesn't have to care for them like she does for her siblings and titan, doesn't she deserve to just have some fun with no strings attached.
It still means she has no emotional support. She doesn't know how to make boundaries for this sort of thing. It's either the caretaker or nothing.
And even if the other person was there, I think Emira would have a hard time accepting it. There's a fear that people say they want you to open up but they'll run away when its too much/too clingy. Plus so much of what being an adult is percieved as being in control, keeping things together and handling it. If she starts to break down and cry, it would be childish. Like she doesn't have enough will power to handle it.
That's not what adulthood is, but she's a teenager who's adultified yet has no autonomy from her parent so overcompensates by acting what she thinks is an adult.
Also bit leftover favoritism that she was praised as the only one who never caused a scene like her siblings did and subconsciously she still holds herself to it.
A soft hc that she does have moments of depression. At least burn-out with the awful idea of the abyss that nothing is ever going to change. Her mom is going to always act like this, they're always going to have arrange their lives and rebellions around her, she's always going to be stuck with Edric, she's always going to be the emotionally support, nothing will change and if nothing's going to change, why should she try anymore. It leads to nothing but the same.
A happier hc is that I always imagined her as a good singer (bc of her VA) and she loves karoke night as a result as it's one of the few times she can solo. Though she never persued a bard track because it's too unlucretive/bohemian for a Blight, she did briefly had opera lessons as it was classy/rich thing.
She quickly quit because she found it sucked the fun out of singing having to practice and focus on technique.
Kinda dovetails my other hc that Bard and Illusion have a slight rivalry with each other as Illusionists focus on the razzle dazzle of performing while Bards care more about their craft and technique.
But Emira finds she doesn't have the interest in Bard in a serious way as Edric does with his potion/beastkeeping. Nor does she find any interest in healing beyond the practical bits that keep her siblings safe. She did try Oracle once or twice simply so she'd have the upper hand over Odalia if the time came but no interest. She just finds freedom in dabbling a bit of everything just to express herself. Maybe get into visual merchendising again.
I think they'd both have their own moments before the show when they realized their parents just aren't going to change or be better and so they should stop trying to gain their approval. Edric, idk but it would be some situation where he literally does check off all the boxes they'd want in a kid but is still met with criticism where he realizes the endpoint is an ever-moving goal. Emira, not sure either, but at some point she just sees she's never going to earn the autonomy she wants from her parents and that she'll be reduced to a mini-version of Odalia and she just refuses.
And I think they do have illusions to thank for that surprisingly. Illusions are all about making a fantasy/deception to fool others. Necessitating that the illusionists are more grounded in reality cuz how foolish would it be to be tricked by your own illusion or someone else's when they knock the tricks of the track. So, they're able to get past the desperate hope that their parents will get better and see the reality of the situation. Still hurts like hell but they see it.
And where's Alador in all of this? Again, I just feel he is so hyperfixated on abominations that he ignores them. Illusions are beneath him, and holds the same view that they don't have much to contribute since they're intangible. So the twins have come to ignore their father whose advice to them is be less lazy, more ambitious (so opposite everything that their choice in illusions represents to him).
Okay, they do resent him a little because they see his disinterest and yet he still has the nerve to agree with Odalia when she makes decisions about their behavior like he's been paying attention/knows them when he doesn't.
Yet I think in a weird way that it makes them tiny bit closer to Odalia. I say TINY cuz they still know she's a controlling, narcissistic of a mother. But at least she shows some appreciation for their illusions as a track and their more sociable personalities.
They're a bit more like her in not only socialibility, but they can be persuasive, charming, mean at times like if you fall for a trick or a lie, you deserve it for being so dumb. They also share "the ends justify the means" mindset like their cruel prank to Amity. Humiliating will be worth it if it gets her to be less mean and cold. Tough love and all that. They also have less interest in their tracks for knowledge sake. Emira might have inherited her more controlling nature a tad but that might stem more from being the adult of the trio and that if she can prevent problems/accidents from happening, then there's less clean-up for her afterwards.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just a random thing that comes from rereading too many of @sepublic’s analyses on the blight family dynamics.
But Amity is put under immense pressure. Like totally soul crushing should not be put on a child pressure. No one should expect their child to be so perfect and Amity is clearly feeling the effects of this as she never thinks she's good enough and needs external validation by people like the system that would never care for her as an individual.
But I was thinking of the twins and the pressure they may be under too. Like we are told in Adventures in the Elements that they are naturally gifted. They can skip class and still get the top scores so they probably don't have to study too hard. And of course, Alador and Odalia would like that because it's representative of how powerful the Blights are, and so it would make them the golden kids to Amity's "screw up."
Besides, we know Edric and Emira aren't exactly ideal Blight children. They dislike authority, they're troublemakers yet their natural talent probably allows them to keep golden child status. But I imagine, a bit angstily, that they know that. That without their natural talent, their parents wouldn't love them. Well maybe it wouldn't be that bad. But the Blights strike me as people that act love as conditional and that mistakes would make someone unworthy of being loved or some sort of horrible crap like that.
Imagine what would happen if they weren't able to do something so naturally. Like after the third try, they still can't get the spell right. It ruins the one thing they pride themselves for, natural talents. Have to study? Have to work and practice their skills.. why that makes them normal, makes them like Amity. And we know how their parents treat Amity.
So the twins live knowing that if they lose their natural talent in things or temporarily lapse, that praise would disappear since unlike Amity, they aren't obedient and pliant enough to make up for their loss of talent. They have to compensate for that.
I imagine that's also why they were so unnecessarily harsh with Amity for telling on them. They mostly get away with their "golden children" image because their parents don't know about their pranks. Then Amity tells on them, reminding their parents of how their personalities clash with Odalia's control freak tendencies. That thin line that only their natural talent protects them from being cast aside.
Another sort of angsty thing is that I think the twins also want validation. They're golden children to be sure. But Alador and Odalia have high expectations, they probably always set the finish line farther, that even if one completes one accomplishment, now you have to go after the bigger, better goal. It's never enough.
So while I think Odalia and Alador encourage maladaptive and unhealthy competitiveness between the siblings with Amity comparing herself to them and wanting to beat their high scores, and them...I'm not sure how they'd be jealous of her. Maybe dislike how Odalia and Alador praise Amity for being so good and obedient.
But that while Odalia and Alador may mention the twin's achievements to Amity to rile her up. I don't think they actually praise the twins when they do achieve something significant to them. That it would be met with a "It's to be expected. You better continue to get As, their parents take their talent for granted.
There's no pride. There's no celebration. Just expectations for them to continue their streak. Thus continuing the pressure to remain naturally gifted.
And they're jealous that when Amity gets something like top student at least there's some surprise, praise for her to keep going. They don't get the same praise. At least not from their parents.
Because honestly I think as much as they pretend not to care, they do. If they really didn't care why not be obvious about their troublemaking. Why bother with their grades and retaliating on Amity for ruining their golden child image. Why not embrace all the way and disgrace the Blight name because screw the rules and their parents.
But they don't go that far. They show off their natural talent, they keep the golden child image, because they're still kids. They don't want to be cast out of their parents' favor entirely. They still want their love. Or at least the closest they can get to it.
the Blight parents suck if they’re just using ones accomplishments to tear Amity down. And Amity probably doesn’t see how it sucks for them because she gets so much disapproval that being “consistently satisfactory” would be amazing to her. And they’re being disobedient and ungrateful because she can’t yet see how her parents are wrong for expecting the best at all times.
And I kinda wonder what would happen if the twins did lose their natural edge.
Unlike Amity or Luz or even Eda, I don’t think they practice. I mean Eda was also a natural talent, but she wanted to learn more, and she practiced with wild magic. The twins have no interest in that, or school they just rely on their skill and privilege. They even deride Amity for using a practice wand. But at least she’s trying her best.
Just imagine the panic when they can’t succeed at something the first time. Like “I’ve tried two times, and I’m not getting this automatically! What do I do? I’m a failure.” They haven’t gone through the process of failure and getting up and working hard so when things don’t come naturally, they’ll be left with “nothing.” At least in their parents eyes. This is such an angsty route to go, but I kinda want to see it because Amity can show her inner strength. They can see her in a new light for how strong she is in trying again after failing the first time.
it also can serve as a nice parallel to Lilith and Eda's relationship with Amity being somewhat like Lilith, working harder and smarter. But like her, she'll never really be satisfied because there will always be someone better and there will probably always be a superior telling her what she could do better and how far she still needs to go. Even though in reality, her trying should be enough. But at least she's unlearning that unhealthy mindset by spending more time with Luz so she'll see how wrong it is.
The twins are a bit like Eda because while Eda does have a passion for learning, she's still kinda lazy. Like the infamous, "Quitting, it's like trying but easier." And the twins I think are the same in that if something doesn't come easily the first time, why bother. Unlike Amity they haven't been encouraged to keep going until they're perfect, just to be the naturals they are. So they lack the passion to try anything new if they're not the best. So they have to find the passion for things other than troublemaking even if it takes planning and preparation and dare I say, practice.
Also if they lost their edge, not only will they have to face their parents disappointment and punishment for failing and giving into such “weakness“ as being tired, but then what do they have? They're only known for their troublemaking, their talent and being twins. The latter would probably play into Emira’s fears of being stuck with Edric forever if she has nothing else to back her up.
But outside of the Clawthorns, they also parallel each other. They all try to be strong and not show weakness in their own ways.
As already covered, Amity proves her power being the scrappy underdog with lack of natural talent, but she works hard and is able to get great honors like being mentored by Lilith, getting top student, being chosen to fight Grom, even though these things went awry. The twins are powerful simply because they're naturally gifted and don't have to work twice as hard as others. They're just "born with it" as they say.
And they all try not to show weakness. Amity is the most obvious with how she is cold to others, can act snobby and superior, pulling her Blight name when someone is doing something she doesn't like etc. She's been conditioned by her parents to be that way, that she's better than everyone else. even though she's simultaneously told that she isn't a good enough Blight with her brown hair and having to work harder to get top scores. But that's an act because we know Amity cares deeply. Not just school to satisfy her parents but because she likes learning. She cares deeply for her friends even when she was forced to cut Willow after her life. She's apologetic and empathetic but doesn;'t like to show it. She's stuck in a state of superiority-inferiority loop, but again I can see Luz slowly helping out of such toxicity.
The twins are the opposite, they hide weakness by being so charming and sociable. They think Amity's way is harsh and mean to others, but if she acted like them. She'd also be powerful, because what's says power and privilege than going through life like it's a game, knowing you have the power and talent to get what you want. But even that may be a mask given the one moment that was serious and could go down an angsty line if they faced their fears. They hide behind their troublemaking and pretend to not care about the rules because hey, its better than Amity who cares so much that she's their parents obedient model student and that doesn’t look fun. So even though they don’t want to be obedient, they still want the praise Amity gets. But again, they pretend they don’t care and tease her for it.
Which another angsty aside, what if that’s part of the reason why the twins don’t have many friends. That besides Odalia’s high standards forcing them to befriend fellow rich witches even if they have nothing in common as well as their own stunted emotional growth. What if they see friendship as something else that supposed to come easily? That if someone doesn’t accept their friendhsip overtures immediately like Luz did, why bother. Why bother with the things like getting to know each other better and have a deep emotional connection... that involves work. Friendship should come naturally and be fun like with their magic.
Not to mention they probably mimic their parents. From the little little we’ve seen. Amity is somewhat like Alador. Distant to others, cold, and of course, the brown hair. While the twins take after Odalia, being pushy, trying to persuade Luz to see their ways as fun in LiL, and exercising “tough love” because they’re family. And then add your speculation that Alador worked his way up, becoming worthy of joining the Blight family much like Amity working to get into the Emperor’s Coven despite the low expectations for her. While Odalia is like the twins born into a high esteem family with the talent to back it up.
It's a greater trend to the problem of the Coven system that everything is innate in you and you shouldn't explore or consider other talents. Rather than as you said, you should try it because you like doing it even if you are not going to be number one.
And I don't know why, but it also reminds me of the age old saying of don't judge a person by first impressions because looking at them in Lost in Language, I wouldn't have initially speculated any of this. But now speculating it so much, it seems so likely that they are the type to give up when things aren't easy. Or in the case of school, when things aren't fun.
While Amity, I had initially thought she was the class suck up and she is honestly so much more than that. She is so much more nuanced and kind and stronger than I had. She is certainly stronger than she gives herself credit for. She and Luz are alike in that they don't give up when it comes to people or things that they love, and they'd be such a power couple together.
But now on the angsty side again, I do wonder how they would react if they lost their edge because we saw Amity's meltdown in I was a Teenage Abomination. She was fierce, ruthless and a bit terrifying in proving that Willow cheated. Amity's main response when upset is anger, usually lashing out at others as we also saw in Covention and toward poor young Willow in Understanding Willow.
At least from the bat thing, I see Edric as the more sensitive one, and his panic would be.. well panicky. Probably lean on Em and spill out all his fears and worries at once.
Maybe he would also be dramatic. Idky but I keep imagining an animatiac of him reenacting Bet on it from HSM2. Complete with the gestures and expressions. Emira, no idea really. Maybe numb and withdraw into herself? More denial.