What do you think it would look like if Amity, Lilith, and Hunter were trapped in their worst nightmares like Luz, Eda, and King at the beginning of Watching and Dreaming? I thought that that was a very well-done scene in that episode, so I think that it’s interesting to wonder as to what that type of scenario could look like with the show’s main three reformed antagonists.
Obviously, this can’t take place within W&D itself, so I mainly thought of it while coming up with ideas for my own fan fiction. Since my fic has these three as the main characters, and a lot of its story begins to revolve around the Collectors by the second half, I thought that it could interesting to have a scene similar to W&D’s beginning, where they have to face their own worst nightmares, and I just wanted to briefly share some of my ideas. (For some quick context, the story mainly focuses on them exploring a distant island and eventually searching for an artefact related to the Archivists. At the climax, the main villain - a new character - manages to claim the artefact for themselves and gains powers similar to the Archivists, which they then use to trap the main characters withins nightmares based on their worst insecurities).
As for the scenarios themselves, since all three characters are reformed antagonists, one insecurity that they could share is their guilt for their past transgressions. Perhaps, all three could be forced to relive the moments that they’re most ashamed of (Amity bullying Willow, Lilith cursing Eda, and Hunter blindly following Belos) while being taunted with illusions of other characters telling them that they’ll never truly be forgiven. To take it a step further, all three could even have their appearances reverted back to how they were introduced (Amity having her green hair and mother’s amulet, Hunter having his Golden Guard uniform and magenta eyes, and Lilith having her navy hair and Emperor’s Coven attire). However, the three of them would still have their own unique conflicts represented within their nightmares too, both from previously in the show and from within this story itself.
In Amity’s case, it would be her insecurity concerning her own future and identity, so her nightmare could show her joining the Emperor’s Coven as she was originally conditioned to aspire to by her mother. Her relationships with her parents could be shown to be unchanged, with her mother still emotionally manipulating her and her father still being dismissive of her even after accomplishing what they wanted for her. Meanwhile, other characters (Edric and Emira, Willow, and Luz) could disappointedly accuse her of being nothing more than a carbon copy of her mother and/or having only changed for Luz, all of which could also play into her fear of rejection.
In Hunter’s case, it would be his lingering trauma and struggles to move on from his past, so his nightmare could show him never breaking away from Belos and continuing to follow him, possibly up until the Day of Unity. It could even play into his grief for Flapjack by having him appear as an illusion to further taunt him (I’m imaging that all of the other characters here would just be illusions this time, but that would be especially true for Belos and Flapjack, due to both characters being deceased). There could even be a moment of him falling into the pit containing the remains of the previous grimwalkers, to convince him that he’s nothing more than just another of Belos’ tools. As for other characters, there could also be a moment of Willow and Gus abandoning him for being a clone of a witch hunter, as he initially feared.
In Lilith’s case, her nightmare would still mostly be related to her guilt for cursing Eda, but it could also play into her constant need for validation. It could possibly show the two of them turning into their Owl and Raven Beast forms, but their parents only focusing on Eda, with everyone (possibly including Luz, King, and maybe even Hooty) shunning Lilith for cursing her.
As for they could break free from their nightmares, since the Titan’s glyphs would no longer work by this point, they could do so by eventually no longer engaging with the illusions, causing them to fade away. This could partially be justified by the artefact simply not being as powerful as the Archivists or even the Collector, so its illusions would be easier to overcome. However, this would also be due to the characters having previously developed past their insecurities and, while they may initially get sucked into the nightmares, they would soon grow wise to them (since King will also be a major character in this story, and I think it would be fairly redundant to give him another nightmare sequence, I originally considered having him discover his own light glyph to help free the others, but that could potentially contradict the epilogue of W&D, so it might be best to leave that out).
Sorry for the rambling. I just thought that this would be a cool idea for my story and wanted to quickly share it. But what do you think? Would it be interesting if Amity, Hunter, and Lilith got their own W&D-esque nightmares at some point or would it be a bit unnecessary?