Chapter Text
Intro
Augustus “Gus” Porter is a foil for Luz Noceda. Both are extroverted nerds with a flair for the dramatic; but where Luz is a human obsessed with witches and fantasy, Gus is a witch obsessed with humans and Earth. Gus’s enthusiasm towards yet ignorance about the human world, and the excitement he shows towards things that seem commonplace to us; reflects how Luz looks to natives of the Boiling Isles. One more parallel between Luz and Gus is they were both raised by single parents: Gus by his dad and Luz by her mom.
It's implied that being a "human appreciator" is considered eccentric on the Boiling Isles. His chosen field of magic, Illusions, is similarly looked down upon. Gus is a confirmed prodigy who skipped ahead two grades but this only added to his alienation.
Fantasy vs. Reality (or Illusions vs. Reality) is a central theme of Gus's character. Much like Luz back on Earth; Gus’s fantasies cause problems for himself and those around him. He was delusional about his role as President of the Human Appreciation Society, and later got too caught up in his role as a journalist. We saw Gus anthropomorphize both the H.A.S rules in S1E9 and the Grudgby flags in S1E15. In season 1, he had was a warped view of both the human world and the Coven System (though in fairness almost everyone on the Boiling Isles, is delusional about those two things). He’s also delusional about his own abilities; there are several times during Season 1 we see him overestimating himself. Gus also has a history of being taken advantage of for his intelligence by people pretending to be his friend. This theme goes right down to Gus's magical specialty. Gus has a warped view of reality; and his magic revolves around warping the perceptions of those around him.
The theme of Identity and Belonging is another important theme of his character. Gus is a confirmed prodigy who skipped ahead two grades but his youth alienated him, his innocence and loneliness made it easy for other students to take advantage of him. Gus is insecure about his naivety, as to him it contradicts the idea that he's smart. It's also worth noting that the field of magic Gus excels at and takes pride in is looked down upon and made fun of. His interest in humans is implied to be considered eccentric on the Boiling Isles.
One of the problems with analyzing Gus's character is that despite appearing in 12 of it's 19 episodes he doesn't have a character arc in Season 1.
Human Appreciation
The very first thing we learn about Gus is his interest in the human world and human culture. It’s implied that this interest is considered eccentric on the Boiling Isles. Gus’s obsessive interest in the Human Realm mirrors Luz’s obsessive interest in fantasy. In the same way that Luz’s knowledge of fantasy tropes hasn’t made her savvy or prepared her for life on the Boiling Isles; Gus is just as ignorant of the Human Realm.
Gus: Willow, you would not believe humans.
Willow: Humans? Psh. I haven't seen any. What?
Gus: [showing her the magazine] Did you know that humans nail barbed wire to their kids' teeth? But why? Maybe to make them magnetic.
Gus’s inaccurate information or assumptions about humans and the Human Realm is a running joke. In I was a Teenage Abomination Gus asks Luz “where are your gills” and in Escape of the Palisman he says “man, humans can run. Must be their dorsal fins.” Did Gus think that humans were some sort of amphibious species? When I first wrote my character analysis of Gus I wrote "For as strange as Gus’s misconceptions might be, his ignorance is not willful. Gus is curious about the Human Realm; hence why he was reading that “Tween Bo$$” magazine in the first place, and why he collects human artifacts." I've since reevaluated that perspective.
When we first meet Gus his ignorance is in no way willful. He'd never been to the Human Realm nor spoken with a human, everything he knew about the Human Realm came from collecting and studying artifacts that slipped through the dimensional barrier, so of course he was gonna be wrong about a lot of stuff. What's strange is that we even after meeting and befriending a real life human, we never see Gus asking Luz any questions about the Human Realm. Later on I'll talk about why I think that is.
When Luz first gives Augustus the nickname Gus, he basks in it “Gus? Nickname? Human nickname? Gus? Call me it. Wow. Gus. This is the best day of my life.” Gus’s enthusiasm regarding the human world, and the excitement he shows towards things that seem commonplace to us; reflects how Luz looks to natives of the Boiling Isles. Gus initially treats Luz almost like an almighty being but that fades away fast.
The teaser to Something Ventured, Someone Framed does a lot to emphasize how little Gus, and the rest of the Human Appreciation Society, know about the Human Realm.
We open in the Human Appreciation Society and we see Gus has a collection of human artifacts, but has no idea what they are and has mislabeled all of them.
He’s labeled a cheesegrader as “nail clippers”, a bag of potato chips as “whoopie curshion” and is using a flip phone as a bag clip, an upside down umbrella with a missing shaft as “food bowl” and a Rubik’s cube as “weapon?” The only one Gus gets sort of right is the paperclip or “pay-per-clorp” as he labels it. Gus seems to roughly understand what a paperclip is used for, though in addition to misnaming it he also overestimates it’s cultural significance and mistakenly thinks it imitates the sound of “the human ocean”.
It seems as though a new human artifact is introduced every week and next week will be an umbrella or “umbrelloom”. There is also a debate on Friday about whether a spork is a spoon or a fork
Owl House Analysis, Chapter 9: Something Ventured, Someone Framed
In I was a Teenage Abomination, Willow refers to Gus as an expert on humans. This seems like just a joke until we get to meet the other members of the Human Appreciation Society. Gus was the only member to realize that Matholomule’s artifacts were fakes.
Petty Tyrant
Gus is the president (and is implied to be the founder) of the Human Appreciation Society. He's found and surrounded himself with a group of people who share his eccentric nerdy interest. This represents a realistic goal Luz could have had back on Earth. Unfortunately this accomplishment slips through Gus's fingers due to his own personality defects. In Something Ventured, Someone Framed we see that Gus has set himself up as a petty tyrant, symbolized by him walking around with a crown. His rules are overly strict and nobody else at the club is having fun anymore. This (combined with their gullibility) is why Matholomule is able to so easily get the other club members on his side.
In Something Ventured, Someone Framed, Matholomule invites the club members to touch his fake artifacts “Go ahead. In my club, we didn't have any dumb rules.” Gus gasps and turns to the list of rules “Shh. He didn't mean that.” In The Owl House, ego and delusion are closely linked. In this case, Gus’s arrogance as leader causes him to anthropomorphize the rules he’s created.
Gus: Being younger than everyone is hard. [ makes his way over to Luz] You're overlooked. Ignored. But at the H. A. S. I mattered. I could make sure no one would ever get left behind. I didn't wanna lose that. I'm sorry.
When I did my analysis chapter on this episode, I pointed out how the detail about ‘wanting to make sure nobody gets left behind’ comes out of nowhere. I speculated it might just be another lie from Gus. CapMorgan55 left a comment sharing their theory on this. I’ve come to agree with their interpretation. Rather than paraphrase, I decided to just quote them.
I think the never let anyone get left behind thing was a sort of personal projection on Gus's part. He is a confirmed prodigy, insofar that he was allowed to skip grades, but that also makes him an outcast, someone who is left to their own devices because no one wants to associate someone who is "so much smarter" than they are, leaving him left behind. His human obsession, which the other members of his club have, only exacerbates this, as humans are not regarded well by the majority of the islands. He thinks of the other members of his club as being like him, isolated and expected to handle everything on their own, even if can't actually keep up, so he tried to set himself up as a respectable leader only for the power he wielded, limited as it was, to go to his head.
Excerpt from comment by CapMorgan55 on Owl House Analysis, Chapter 9
By the time the episode began, Gus cares more about the rules he’s created then he does about the other club members. Gus’s good intentions were hijacked by his own ego. We see the same thing happen to a few other characters throughout the series. It happens to Luz, to Lilith, to Gwen Clawthorne, and it’s potentially also what happened to Odalia Blight.
The episode's antagonist Matholomule is a mirror of Gus. Both are power hungry liars who don't come clean until it's impossible to deny the truth anymore, and both have the same fear of alienation.
“I'm new here at Hexside. M‐Making friends has been hard so I lied. They're all fakes. I thought if I was important enough people would like me. But I've caused enough drama. So, I'll go. I'm sorry.”
Despite Matt's later claim to only want power and drama, I think he was actually telling the truth about his motives the first time. The difference between Matt and Gus is that Gus knows he's afraid of being alone but is in denial about being power-hungry while Matt is self-aware of being hungry but is in denial about his fear of alienation.
At the end of Something Ventured, Someone Framed, Principle Bump has kicked Gus out of the Human Appreciation Society; and Matholomule has become the clubs new president. On paper this sounds like a huge status quo change. After all, Gus being the “President of the Human Appreciation Society”, is one of the very first facts we learn about him. This status quo change ends up feeling unimportant after the fact; since Season 1 never follows up on it. We don’t get (for example) a subplot of Gus trying out for different clubs or activities, trying to find something to replace H.A.S We are not shown how this status quo change affects Gus, or even that it affects Gus. This makes it seem like the club was a lot less important to Gus than we were originally led to believe. Even if we couldn’t get any extra Gus subplots; maybe we could have at least had a throwaway line here or there related to the topic.
Fear of Failure
"Gus's fear of making mistakes is fully fleshed out in season 2 but the way it presents itself in the earlier episodes is kind of brilliant. I'd argue that in Season 1, Gus's defining trait was his hyper fixation with humans. He's the president of the Human Appreciation Society, owning a human bucket is on his bucket list, and when he meets Luz he immediately adopts a human nickname. [...] He is a self-proclaimed human expert and the word 'expert' should be considered noteworthy because people on the Boiling Isles know very little about humans so there's no one to challenge his expertise. Gus's hyper fixation with humans isn't really about humans, it's about being right and knowledgeable about something no one can correct him on. It's a field of study where he can't easily make a mistake."
Existentialism and Identity in The Owl House, Jenny Cook
If Jenny Cook is right about why Gus fixates on humans then why he never asks Luz any questions about the Human Realm. Luz is the only one who can correct him. Gus doesn't want to think about the fact that she's the real expert, not him. To be fair to Gus it's not as though Luz is volunteering information and he's refusing to listen to her.
The series first shines a light on Gus's fear of screwing up in Understanding Willow, the only other episode in Season 1 with a Gus centered plot (admittedly it's a B plot this time). “My interview for journalism class is due tomorrow! I'm supposed to choose someone ‘interesting, accomplished, and noteworthy.’ People aren't meant to be all those things! Curse your need for perfection, Gus!” That last sentence implies that Gus doesn’t actually need to pick someone who meets all three criteria, he just wants to so that he can get a perfect grade. By holding himself to unrealistic standards, he’s making the assignment more difficult than it has to be and preventing himself from getting it finished at all. The Petty dictator aspect of his personality also returns in this episode. Eda and King both want to be interviewed by Gus; so he makes them compete for the privilege of being interviewed by him. “This will be the single greatest interview of all time. So if you want it, you'll have to dazzle me!”
When he, Luz, and Willow burst in the photo class Gus says "Hexside Free Press! What's going on here?" showing how invested he's gotten in his role as a journalist.
Gus stressing himself out and screwing himself over because anything less than perfection is unacceptable is meant to parallel Amity. The difference is that Amity had those standards enforced on her, Gus on the other hand is a prisoner of his own ego and insecurity.
Gus and King
There's one more episode in Season 1 that you could consider as having a Gus subplot and that's Really Small Problems. This is the episode where Gus and King interact for the first time, and Gus spends the early part of the episode being condescending and obnoxious and making King's time worse. When Luz explains her quest to win King a special prize he coos and waves his finger at King "Aw. Does the little guy wanna win a prize? Uh, does he? Uh, does he?" Then during the montage Luz and Willow each eat a quarter of the fried orb but Gus eats the remaining half so King gets nothing. When King grabs Luz's hand and says "Let's go back to the games and win those bracelets." Gus grabs Luz's other hand and says "But we haven't gone on any rides and there's no line for the bumper carcasses." The worst example of Gus being a dick to King, happens right before he and Willow get sprayed and shrunken. Gus and Willow come up with a list of activities, each of which can only be done by three people, King protests "But today was me and Luz's day." Gus picks King up "Aw. Does the little baby boo miss his buddy Luz? Uh, Does he, Uh does he?"
After getting shrunk, Gus goes from being condescending to King to being angry at him. Even when Gus believes he’s about to die, he takes the time to reaffirm his dislike of King. "Well, if I have to go, at least I'm with my best friends. And King." I’m not counting this as Gus being a dick because Gus is right that King isn’t his friend (at least not yet). Gus doesn’t know King, and Gus believes they are all about to die because of King. At the end of the episode, after King saves the day and redeems himself, King gives a piece of the friendship bracelet to Gus and Willow. Gus is snarky “Yeah. I've always wanted to own a jagged piece of cheap metal." but he still smiles as he accepts the piece and the offer of friendship it symbolizes.
This friendship come into play a couple episodes later in Enchanting Grom Fright, when Gus invites King to Co-MC the fight. Then we see Gus being supportive of King, when King gets stage fright. First telling him he has to face his fears, then advising him to pander in order to get a positive response.
Weaker Loyalty
Something Ventured, Someone Framed is the first time it becomes clear that Gus’s loyalty to Luz is weaker than Willows. In the episode, Gus lies to Luz and recklessly endangers her life all so he can keep his title as President of the Human Appreciation Society. This comes up again during Escape of the Palisman , when Gus admits that unlike Willow he was willing to leave Luz behind. It comes up a third time with Gus not playing Grudgby during Wing it Like Witches. In narrative terms, the purpose of Gus sitting this one out is to allow Amity to take his place; Amity and Willow being on the same team during that episode is meaningful to Willow’s arc. In-universe however, this moment still adds to Gus’s characterization.
That's not to say Gus never helps out or shows loyalty to Luz. In I was a Teenage Abomination, we see Gus rescuing Luz (or at least giving her a chance to escape) by knocking over Abomination goop. That was when he barely knew her. In Something Ventured, Someone Framed; Gus saves Luz and Matholomule, and getting them out of detention. Then (the thing that in my mind truly redeems Gus) he takes all the blame for detention being destroyed, causing himself to be kicked out of H.A.S and allowing Luz to attend Hexside. During Escape of the Palisman Gus, tries to hold off the Bat Babies with his flags. This is predictably ineffective. Gus even tries to stand up to Lilith Clawthorne in Agony of a Witch, which this is similarly ineffective but still demonstrates loyalty.