A Deep Dive into Hunter from The Owl House
Most fans of The Owl House will agree with me when I say this: Hunter is a sweet cinnamon bun and must be protected at all costs!
Joking aside, Hunter might be one of the absolute best characters on The Owl House. Played to masterful levels by Zeno Robinson, Hunter started the show as this younger, goofier version of Darth Vader. He was the Emperor’s enforcer, his right-hand man, this man of mystery. However, it took a little while for us to get a look behind the mask to find he was anything but a Vader. Instead, he had more in common with Prince Zuko from the Avatar franchise. He’s this young, inherently compassionate person who devoted his life to trying to please this toxic authority figure he looked up to. Hunter began to learn more about the outside world by meeting Luz and, later, her friends. Thanks to them, he realized that the man he looked up to was, in truth, an abusive monster. So, he ran and would’ve kept running had he not found people who cared about him for who he was.
Hunter’s story in The Owl House is about someone who’s been the victim of domestic abuse his entire life. It’s a journey that helps him to slowly realize how horrible his life truly is and seeks to escape it with the help of the people that truly love him. More importantly, it’s about said victim finding the strength to overcome said abuse, stand up to the person responsible for it, and come out on the other side a better person than their abuser ever was. This is the story of Hunter, this generation’s Zuko.
Our First Impressions: Like Vader, but Goofier
Introduced in the final moments of the season one finale, the Golden Guard was subject to rampant theories and fan speculation during the seasonal interim. Who was he? What was he like underneath the mask? Was he going to take Lillith’s place as Emperor Belos’ chief enforcer? Would he become Luz’s main rival in the second season?
Eventually, the season two premiere of The Owl House, “Separate Tides,” rolled around, and we got our first look at the Golden Guard. From Lillith’s own experiences, he was this hotshot young Witch that got special treatment from the Emperor, much to her and many others’ jealousy. Once he gets involved in the plot, serving as the primary threat of the episode, we see his reputation isn’t unwarranted. He’s authoritative, confident, and willing to use underhanded tactics to get his way. Case in point, he blackmails Luz and Eda into doing his dirty work by using King as a hostage. That’s a very Vader move!
At the same time, though, the Golden Guard is quite unlike Vader. He acts like a typical teenager, finding enjoyment in messing with King. He even undercuts how threatening he is with his goofy farewell to the trio.
I knew right away that I would enjoy having the Golden Guard around. However, I didn’t realize how much we’d grow to love him.
Getting a Look Underneath the Mask at the Real Hunter
Besides a brief appearance at the end of “Escaping Expulsion,” Hunter’s next appearance would be in “Hunting Palismen.” That episode would give fans our first glimpse underneath the mask and see who the boy underneath really was.
It starts in the episode’s cold opening as the Golden Guard sees Belos away when his health catches up to him. He looks away from the silhouette of what Belos transforms into, but otherwise, he stays by his side. His concern for Belos, who we learn is his “Uncle,” is genuine. Yet Belos threatens to skewer him when he suggests using wild magic to cure him before ordering him to bring him a new Palismen.
Thankfully, his mission doesn’t succeed, thanks to the wild card that is Luz Noceda and the jealous rival that is Kikimora, the latter of whom tries to kill him. Thankfully, Luz’s compassionate nature prompts her to save him, much to his anger. The remainder of the episode amounts to Hunter going through a conga line of humiliation. He gets slapped by Luz, brushed off by the Emperor’s Coven, forced to reveal his lack of magic to the Human, and then outsmarted by the girl as she escapes with the Palismen. By the end of it, most of the mystique he had as the Golden Guard’s non-existent.
In exchange, though, we got something better: we got to see a little bit of what Hunter’s like underneath the mask, literally and metaphorically. For starters, he’s not just a teen; he’s young enough to pass for a Hexside student and a very skinny one. In addition, without the mask to hide his face, Hunter’s emotions are free for all to see, and we see someone whos very insecure about being a magicless Witch. Thus, he must constantly prove himself to Belos, his father figure. However, despite obediently following Belos’ commands, Hunter’s curiosity about wild magic shines through, even as he spouts the Emperor’s rhetoric that such things are dangerous. This desire proves strong enough that one of the Palismen, a cardinal named Flapjack, stays with Hunter, much to his confusion.
Forming the First Positive Relationship in His Life
The next time we see Hunter is in the episode “Eclipse Lake.” Following his failure to capture the Palismen, the young man finds himself on thin ice with Emperor Belos. Desperate to retain his Uncle’s approval, he sneaks out behind the Emperor’s back to travel to Eclipse Lake. His goal is to sneak past Kikimora and the Emperor’s Coven, retrieve the vial of Titan’s Blood Belos needs to activate the Clawthorne family’s portal to Earth and win his favor again. It’s a poorly thought-out idea, but Hunter is desperate to prove himself useful. Too bad for him, his plan goes sideways when he’s captured by Amity, Eda, and King, who are there for the same reason he is.
Continuing from his previous outing, this episode takes every chance to humiliate Hunter, forced to follow the Owl House gang as their prisoner, with Eda and King taking the opportunity to dunk on him. Or, in King’s case, bite his head. He and Amity do briefly connect due to their shared beliefs that they have to earn the approval from the ones they care about to matter to them, but unlike Amity, Hunter doesn’t grow out of this.
Then we have the big moment when we see Hunter at one of his lowest points. Eclipse Lake’s dried up, the Titan’s blood is gone, and Hunter knows he can’t return to Belos empty-handed again. So, he starts digging his own grave! At the time, it seemed like an example of black comedy. However, later, we learn how justified Hunter’s fears are, and the joke…isn’t as funny as before.
In the end, Hunter manages to get his hands on the portal key, meaning his quest isn’t a waste. More importantly, though, throughout this experience, Flapjack stuck beside him, supporting him no matter what. The experience helps the two bond, and by the end, Hunter’s formed the first positive relationship in his life.
More will soon follow.
Finding Real Friends (and Love) in the Emerald Entrails
In his next appearance, we see more of just how toxic the environment Hunter’s grown up in can be. When Belos puts him in charge while he’s busy, the Coven Heads walk out on him. Darius, in particular, goes out of his way to belittle Hunter for being an errand boy trying too hard to please his superiors, saying he isn’t worthy of fulfilling the role of the Golden Guard. Desperate to prove him wrong, Hunter takes Darius’ half-hearted suggestion of finding the best and brightest Witches to join the Emperor’s Coven seriously, leading him to sneak into Hexside to do just that.
This marks Hunter’s first true foray into the lives of normal teenagers, and he does hilariously bad! He has no clue how to interact with people his age, and it isn’t until Willow, not knowing who he is, tries to recruit him for her burgeoning Flyer Derby team. Hunter’s first instinct is a hard no, but he gets convinced when he hears it will have the best and brightest Witches of Hexside. Even then, he doesn’t have that much faith.
Joining the Flyer Derby team is the best decision for Hunter on several levels. Firstly, it provides him a sympathetic ear to vent his frustrations about not having magic in the form of Willow. Having spent much of her life mocked for her stunted magic, Willow empathizes with Hunter, even if she lacks the full context. Secondly, playing with the Emerald Entrails (a name he came up with) gives Hunter a taste of genuine camaraderie. It goes without saying but living amongst the Coven Heads is very toxic, with them constantly fighting to gain the favor of Belos. Lastly, it also forms the beginnings of the HuntLow ship, something I’m a big supporter of.
The Effect of Willow and Darius on Hunter
More than anyone, Willow might be the best thing to ever happen to Hunter. When he meets her, she’s this strong, confident, self-assured young woman who positively influences his life. Furthermore, he also emphasizes with her when he discovers she suffers from a lot of the insecurities he does. This serves to help both of them further down the line and adds fuel to a lot of fan-related content.
Ultimately, his growing bond with the Hexside students leads him to cover for them and prevent them from joining the Emperor’s Coven against their will. Instead of becoming furious with him and his defiance, though, as Belos would, Darius does the opposite. He praises Hunter for standing up for himself and finally acting like most teens would, reassuring him that he’s doing the right thing and encouraging him to continue to do so. Not only does Darius repair his Golden Guard cape, but he also promises not to tell Belos about Flapjack.
In this one episode, Hunter gains two positive influences on his life. In Willow, he finds a peer and friend he can open up to (and even love). In Darius, he finds a worthwhile father figure. There’s a reason why so much fan arts depict the two’s importance in Hunter’s life, giving him the love that Belos never could.
Too bad his entire world is about to fall apart.
The Trauma of “Hollow Mind.”
Now we have one of the most important episodes in the series, “Hollow Mind.” If you read my episode review, you know how I sang its praises, so I won’t recap them here. Instead, I want to dive into how this marked the big turning in Hunter’s character arc and turning his back on being the Golden Guard for good.
Journeying into the Emperor’s mind, Hunter is forced to confront the truth he’s tried so hard to deny: that Emperor Belos is an absolute monster. He’s got the blood of countless Witches and Palismen on his hands, and if he got his way, the rest of the Boiling Isles would follow suit. Watching this episode, I felt my heart go out to Hunter. You could hear how desperately he wanted to cling to the lies he’d been fed. It was painful.
What made things worse, though, was Hunter and Luz’s bone-chilling revelation regarding Hunter’s identity as a Grimwalker. Learning that he’s not only a clone of someone long dead but merely the latest in a long line of clones Belos repeatedly murdered when they stood against him destroys Hunter. He realizes the man he’s looked up to all this time is the monster everyone says he is, and even though he and Luz escape his mind, Hunter’s on the verge of a mental breakdown.
I felt my heart breaking when I saw Hunter go into full panic mode as he ran into the woods, not knowing where he was going. He just knew he had to get away from Belos.
Climbing Out of the Darkness
When we next see Hunter hiding out at Hexside, he’s nothing like the enigmatic and mysterious figure we knew as the Golden Guard. He tries to act intimidating in front of Gus, but seeing him in rags and surviving on food from trashcans makes for a pretty sad display. As much as he wants to get as far away from Belos as possible, Hunter can’t help but intervene when the Emperor’s Coven tries to draft the students into the Covens as part of Belos’ genocidal plans.
I didn’t think Hunter could get any more likable as a character, but this episode and the rapport he builds with Gus did just that. I enjoyed the brotherly dynamic the two quickly developed, and much to my amusement, it’s only gotten stronger the next time we see the pair. Furthermore, the Hexsidians help Hunter send the Emperor’s Coven packing, accepting him as one of them. This is good since he says Belos plans to kill everyone on the Boiling Isles.
Confronting Belos Again
When next we see Hunter, he’s actively helping Luz’s friends and allies to stop Belos’ mad plans, though he’s still terrified of facing his “Uncle” again. His worst fears nearly come to pass when Kikimora attempts to capture Hunter and personally bring him before Emperor Belos, only for Luz to switch places with him. As a result, the gang has no choice but to follow her, culminating in an epic showdown inside the skull of the Titan.
Despite how monstrous Belos has become, Hunter fights to protect his newfound friends, showing how far he’s come in the short period of the show. However, when Belos directly confronts and attempts to manipulate him again, Hunter still cowers in fear. It’s a textbook example of a child having to face an adult who has mentally or physically abused them, and it’s heartbreaking. No one deserves to be treated like that.
Ultimately, everything becomes a moot point as Luz and the gang are forced to flee to Earth as the Collector unleashes chaos on the Boiling Isles. Hunter also takes the big brother role seriously, as he becomes very protective of Gus when he starts crying.
Finding the Strength to Stand Up to Belos
During the montage opening to the Season Three special “Thanks to Them,” we see the Hexside Gang adjust to life on Earth (and lament the lost adventures we may never see.) And in doing so, we see Hunter embracing his true self, turning into an absolutely sweet dork who loves wolves and is a fan of the Star-Trek expy Cosmic Frontier. I felt like my heart would explode from seeing how happy Hunter was, and his obvious crush on Willow was so adorable.
Hunter finally seemed happier than he’d ever been in his life. He had Flapjack, a mother figure in Camila, and surrogate siblings in the form of Gus and Luz. However, underneath it all, Hunter was still worried about one thing: Belos. Despite seeing him seemingly die, Hunter becomes paranoid that his abuser is alive and will return. Seeing how terrified he becomes seems like a realistic portrayal of how abuse survivors can act. The one who hurt them might be gone, but they still have a hold on their minds.
As we learn, Hunter’s fears are well-founded. Not only does Belos return, but he possesses his body to kill his friends. Even more tragic, Belos, by use of Hunter’s own hands, mortally wounds Flapjack, the first friend he ever made. That proves to be a mistake, though, as all the fear Hunter had of Belos is quickly replaced by a new emotion: anger.
I cheered when I saw Hunter do what he should’ve done a long time ago and stand up to his abusive Uncle. I don’t know if many people who are abused have the strength to do that, but the moment they do is cathartic to watch. Doing so almost costs the boy his life, though. While he ultimately manages to survive, it comes at the cost of Flapjack giving his own life.
Now, Hunter is out for blood.
From Needing Help to Helping Others
When Hunter returns to the Boiling Isles with the others, there’s only one thing on his mind: finding Belos and making him pay for his crimes. It’s clear, though, that this single-minded devotion to finding the former Emperor is so he won’t have to process the fact that Flapjack’s gone. Not helping matters is the fact that Luz and Willow are going through their problems. Things eventually come to a head when Willow’s suppression of her emotions gets to the point where she loses control of her powers.
As I’ve said before, Hunter looks up to and admires Willow for her strength; it’s why HuntLow exists! Seeing her trapped in the same emotional hell he went through proves to be the catalyst for Hunter’s final transformation from the former Golden Guard into a true Witch. Seeing him help one of the people who helped him when he needed it the most shows how his journey has come full circle. In addition, despite Flapjack being dead, he lives on in Hunter, giving him access to his Palismen powers and real magic. Our boy’s growing up!
Please Don’t Let Anything Bad Happen to Hunter
From being a goofier expy of Darth Vader to essentially the next generation’s Prince Zuko, the journey of Hunter might not have been long, but it has still been worth watching. We’ve seen him grow from a typical villain and rival to the hero into a lovable character that fans would throw down their lives to protect. You’d hardly recognize him if you compared him to who he was when we first met him to who he is going into the finale, which is one of the best things about The Owl House. The cast has grown and changed so much since the show started. And I pray to heaven that nothing bad happens to Hunter in the grand finale. That boy deserves all the love in the world!
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