I Was a Teenage Abomination
For all of the creative lore and focus on plot in this show, the diverse cast of characters is the heart of everything. That’s why a big thing about this episode is that it introduces a number of key players who keep the experience fresh and enhance the main plot in their unique ways.
It starts
when Luz questions the nature of Eda’s teachings as one of her tasks brings her
major discomfort. She soon hears of special
school that specializes in magic called Hexside. Being a natural nonconformist and free
spirit, it’s no surprise that Eda disapproves of the school’s way of teaching,
but Luz couldn’t be more intrigued.
While she’s off on her own, she gets her chance to explore such a magic
school, and her experience introduces her to the casts’ new main players.
First, there’s the character Luz gets along with the best, a very sweet and soft-spoken witch named Willow. Her story is that she tries hard to get through class, but always has shortcomings to bear. The thing about Hexside is that students are separated into different tracks which cover certain types of magic and are marked by different uniform colors. Willow is in a track covering magical creatures made of mush that follow orders called abominations, and her abominations never amount to anything substantial. The problem is that she’s much better versed in plant-based magic as deep frustrations buried beneath her friendliness reveals. As long as she’s stuck in the abomination track, she can’t share these skills.
It’s only lucky that Luz sees her struggles
and offers to help her get a passing grade by covering herself in abomination
mush and posing as a full-fledged one. This
plan is set to work both ways with Luz getting to experience a real magic
school and Willow on her way to pass her class for once. More importantly, several moments show Luz
make good progress in life by making a true friend in Willow, and being a good
one herself by always believing in her.
Another
character introduced in this episode is Gus, Willow’s apparently only friend at
Hexside. His gimmick is having a strong
fascination with humans, frequently reading up on their customs and even
running a club all about them. This
makes sense considering how rare humans are on the Boiling Isles, as is how
intrigued he is by Willow having an actual human, Luz, as her abomination. Now Gus’s excitement over humans is mildly
enjoyable, but it’s overall not much to make him come off as very interesting. Not to mention, he honestly doesn’t add much
to this specific plot.
Last but not least is someone who does add a lot to the plot, Amity Blight, who actually turns out to be one of the most fascinating characters in the series. A large part of that is exactly how she’s introduced here.
Her first
moments feature her looking down upon Willow’s failed attempt at an abomination
and showing pride in her own status as Hexside’s top student. Said status is marked by how she’s the only
student able to produce a perfectly constructed abomination. All throughout, Amity comes off as majorly
smug and condescending, rubbing in her own accomplishments and making Willow feel
bad for her shortcomings. It’s basically
the traits one would expect from a relentless mean character, and one you could
easily be inclined to dislike whenever she appears. However, the show is quick to reveal there’s
more to Amity than general meanness, and future episodes can really get you to
rethink her apparent mean moments here.
We’ll get to those episodes in time, but even in this episode, Amity’s
high and mighty image is shown to be far more than it seems.
After Luz agrees to pose as Willow’s abomination, her convincing acting leaves everyone impressed. Even Amity is left dumbfounded, and these feelings get personal when the abomination professor removes her top student badge and gives it to Willow. Afterwards, Amity’s perfect image starts crumbling with major disdain and aggression as she approaches Willow on her sudden success suspiciously. All throughout, it’s clear that for all her unlikable moments, Amity actually has a point, and her aggression is very understandable. It’s not just about being upstaged by Willow, but it’s also unfair that something she values, her top student status, was just taken away from her. Never mind that Willow didn’t earn it fairly, but the professor is just as much to blame. Willow’s work may have seemed to be the best that day, but how does it make sense that she be named top student with one shining moment compared to Amity’s several?
It isn’t long before a major crack in Amity’s perfect image is revealed.
When she catches Luz doing something alien to the nature of abominations, she
storms towards her, making a scene in front of everyone. It’s certainly a stark contrast from her
first moments, and yet it all makes sense after how what she values so much was unfairly taken away and exactly how Willow 'earned' it.
Now understandable as Amity has been, she still features a noticeable
lack of sympathy as she informs the principal of
Hexside of her findings. He investigates
Willow’s abomination, which involves dissecting Luz, and Amity is noticeably ok
with this, presenting her overall demeanor as very dark. There’s still relatability
from being in the name of doing whatever it takes to get back her top student
status that means a lot to her, but you can’t ignore the morbid
implications. At least her desires get
more depth later on, including a very good reason for why she's so desperate to get that top student badge. Also, for now, as a
way to work in moments at the start of the episode, something Luz kept in her
pocket is beneficial in solving the problem.
It unlocks a great display of Willow’s plant magic which in turn buys
Luz plenty of time to escape back to her true teacher.
Speaking of which, while all this is going on, the episode also provides a good story for Eda and King. It may seem like a random side adventure, but it’s an interesting way of tying into their character development and bringing their ultimate goals to the forefront. With Luz having shown discomfort at Eda’s teachings, King feels that he could be a better teacher when he finds a little creature called a trash slug. He intends to take it under his wing and have it serve as his minion, and thinks he can be a better mentor to it than Eda is to Luz. When you look at King and see him as a pretentious creature others can’t take seriously, him wanting that slug to see him as a great mentor has a lot of weight to it. Though Eda is initially confident that it won’t work out, which is usually the case with King, she soon gets the idea that she could very well be upstaged. She finds Luz attending Hexside, which as previously mentioned, is a place that goes against her free spirited philosophies. It’s moments like these where even though Eda may seem nonchalant in everything, as well as irresponsible, there’s a lot more depth to her. She’s very caring and does take her assigned role as a mentor seriously, wanting Luz to have the best learning conditions possible. When it seems like her student would rather attend school, Eda is saddened to consider that she hasn’t been a good mentor.
That said, it’s also shown that
King has a lot to learn about being a leader too. It turns out the trash slug only cared about
the dog treats he kept giving it, and it’s only with Eda’s help that he’s able
to beat it. In the end, this subplot is
a nice way of showing the dynamic between these two characters, as well as their
individual strengths and weaknesses.
Also helping matters is how Luz reappears much more appreciative of what
she’s picked up from Eda, and Willow ends up in a track better suited for her
plant magic and herself. All the
episode’s events mean Luz is banned from Hexside, but for its own sake, things
were thankfully gained when it comes to character development.
It’s
great enough that this episode further develops the creative side of the
series, but it does much more than that.
From its introduction of appealing new characters and fitting
development of established ones, there’s a good sense of heart shown throughout
everything.
A
The Ranking
1. I Was a Teenage Abomination
2. Witches Before Wizards
3. A Lying Witch and a Warden
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