"Willow's New Garden" An Owl House AU Pitch
This is a pitch for a story I may not get around to writing, considering all the stories I'm working on and my other responsibilities in life. Anyway, I came up with this idea after seeing a lot of Owl House role-swap AU arts and fanfics. I've seen ones with Human Amity taking Luz's place to be mentored by Lilith taking Eda's. There are ones with Human Hunter being mentored by Raine. Heck, there's even one with Human Gus being mentored by Lilith. But I have yet to find one with a Human Willow.
(Here is my pitch for the first episode/chapter):
Willow Park is a meek fourteen-year-old girl who has been a victim of bullying for years but has never told her dads, Harvey and Gilbert, or a teacher. One night, she overhears her dads discussing an upcoming move to a town called Gravesfield in Connecticut. Her parents became aware of the bullying when they saw the school's football team openly harassing her and telling the principal, but the school refused to do anything. So, they pulled her out, adding to Willow's self-blame, especially when she learns that her fathers had quit their jobs to support her education.
On the day of the move, Willow is tending to her beloved garden for the last time when a hawk takes a bunch of rare flowers, forcing her to run after it. Willow follows it to an abandoned cabin in the woods, only to find herself in the center of a new forest that should not be there. Following the hawk eventually leads her to a sixteen-year-old blonde boy and an older woman who could be his grandmother. The woman is about to grind up the flowers, but Willow stops her and tries to flee with them, but the teenage boy captures her as the woman closes the portal.
She confronts Willow, revealing herself to be a witch, making her believe they are planning to kill her, begging for her life as she explains that the hawk stole the flowers. The woman introduces herself as Gwendolyn Clawthorne, her palisman, Hawksley, and her helper, Hunter Whispers, assuring they have no malicious intent. Willow asks Gwen about their whereabouts, why she stole the flowers from her garden, and how she can return home, learning about the Boiling Isles, Demon Realm, and magic.
Willow is amazed by the prospect of visiting a place that is the basis of human mythology, and Gwen explains she had Hawksley steal the flowers to make a potion. Her daughter, Edalyn, suffers from a curse, tearing apart her family, and she has spent years looking for a cure. Hunter is helping her because Eda and his parent, Raine, were close friends in their youth. Willow sympathizes with Gwen and Hunter and decides to use her plant knowledge to help them develop a cure and learn about new species of flora, which they accept.
Willow learns more about them and the Boiling Isles and the fact that Hunter was born without magic in a society where your inherent power decides your worth. She also expresses her dissatisfaction with the move, still blaming herself for it and feeling like a burden to her parents. However, Gwen reassures her that her dads love her and do all this for her best interests.
Arriving in Bonesborough, the capital of the Isles, for a quick bite, they split up with Willow going with Gwen to investigate a stand with a crowd, meeting a demon merchant. He claims to have a "miracle cure" for any ailment, and Gwen falls for it as she tries to haggle a price, but the merchant will not take anything… except Willow. He notes the rarity of humans on the Isles and maliciously plays on Gwen's yearning for a cure. Unfortunately, she caves into the merchant's offer, watching his grunts kidnap Willow.
Willow looks at Gwen with betrayal as the woman gets what she wants; when she meets up with Hunter, asking where Willow is; Gwen lies about sending her back home. Hunter does not believe her and demands to know what she did, to which Gwen admits her crime while trying to justify her actions. However, Hunter refuses to listen to her excuses and nearly lets something slip before biting his tongue. He breaks off their partnership before running off to rescue Willow on his own, even if he does not have magic. Gwen regrets her choice; she knows she must make things right.
A tied-up and wallowing Willow sits in a cart with the merchant's goons; the merchant intends to steal her youth to fulfill his insatiable hunger and mocks Gwen's gullibility. The cart comes to a halt due to a roadblock, requiring the henchmen to move it, where Hunter gets aboard the coach and tries to free Willow with the hired muscle preoccupied. He apologizes, not realizing Gwen would sell her and cuts her bindings with a knife. However, the henchmen kidnap Hunter before he can finish, and the merchant intends to eat him, too, when Fire Bees arrive. They attack the crooks, and Gwen reveals herself and her abilities, freeing Willow and Hunter, and fights with them to defeat the kidnappers. She tells the pitiful merchant that she overheard him claim the cure was a hoax and threatens to send every beast on the Isles after the merchant if he continues to deceive people.
After safely fleeing with Hunter and Willow, Gwen apologizes to the girl, saying nothing could excuse what she did, and pleads for forgiveness. While Willow may not forgive Gwen completely, she understands her plight, as does Hunter, still wary of her, and Gwen vows to work hard to regain his trust. With Willow's encouragement, he agrees to bury the hatchet and work together again, seeing she does not want to lose his friendship. Looking up at the sky, Willow realizes how late it is and that her dads are worried sick about her. Gwen offers to escort Willow home, acknowledging she will miss the Boiling Isles as she enters the portal. Hunter joins them to make sure she gets home safely but arrives at Willow's house to find it deserted.
With a "For Sale" sign up, Willow believes her fathers abandoned her and breaks down in tears. Gwen and Hunter try to console her, and the elderly witch offers her a home and training as an apprentice. Willow accepts, and the three of them travel back through the portal to the Clawthorne residence, a sprawling family estate, with Gwen saying that her husband, Dell, is out. She gives Willow Edalyn's old room as Hunter says he is going home, wishing them both a good night and promising to return the next day. Willow wonders if her dads are happy now that she is no longer in their lives, no longer a burden.
Meanwhile, in the back seat of the Park's family car is Willow; her dads unaware that her basilisk counterpart, Number VI, Vi, has replaced her.
(The characters and other notes):
With Willow taking Luz's role as the main protagonist, Hunter will fill Amity's role as the love interest, which means Amity will take Hunter's role as Belos's right hand.
Hunter here is the adopted son of Raine and Eda, who took Whispers as her surname, making him King's older brother. That revelation will be revealed when Gwen sees Eda again, learning that her youngest daughter has been married to Raine for almost a decade and raised two grandsons. One she already befriended and never realized. This will also be when Willow encounters the Owl Beast for the first time because this will undoubtedly cause Eda stress.
Adding to this, I thought that both Hunter and Skara would take Amity's role as love interests. Skara will be the "bully" side of Amity that Willow redeems, and Hunter will be the "closed-off" side of Amity that Willow helps open up. Also, it'll be an OT3 with Willow dating Hunter and Skara simultaneously, which the two of them are okay with. Hey, I ship Huntlow and Skarlow, and it'll be a pain in the butt to choose one over the other.
Luz in the AU is like her canon counterpart, except a witch here. She is best friends with Gus and a member of the Human Appreciation Society. Camila raised her on her own with a deceased father. She's in the Detention Track, along with Viney, Jerbo, Barcus, and Hunter. And like Hunter, she was born without magic, making her an easy target for Boscha's bullying.
Future episodes/chapters will play out as they did in canon, with changes here and there; elements from the first two seasons will be combined. For example, the second episode/chapter mixes "Witches Before Wizards" and "Separate Tides." Gwen, like Eda, will also send Willow off into town to do the occasional "odd job." You can't search for a cure if you're broke and hungry. But she always has either Hawksley or Hunter accompanying her—and Dell, when he's available—to avoid another kidnapping. I also believe Gwen would get Willow a training wand for self-defense, like what Amity used in "Adventures in the Elements," but with other branches of magic though she prefers plant magic. While Dell thinks wands are cheap substitutes for staves, he does agree with the self-defense part. I thought it'd be interesting if the "powerless" characters developed their unique way of casting magic: Willow with her wand, Luz with her glyphs, and Hunter with Flapjack (who he'll get later). Of course, Willow will get Clover (around the same time as Hunter gets Flapjack), but she'll keep the wand as a backup.
I've thought about having Gwen and Dell be the grandparents Willow never had because she never got to know her actual grandparents. Either because they died or just chose not to be involved in the Park family's lives. And yes, Willow will accidentally call Gwen "Grandma," much to the former's embarrassment but to the latter's joy.
As far as antagonists go, we have Emperor Belos, Amity Blight | The Amethyst Armorer, Edric and Emira Blight | The Emerald Enforcers, Odalia and Alador Blight, Lilith Clawthorne, Kikimora, Boscha, and Terra Snapdragon, to name a few. Also, Terra will be Gwen's nemesis here the same way Lilith was Eda's in Season 1.
Willow's and Amity's relationship in the AU will be similar to how Luz saw Hunter as the Golden Guard. Willow's view of her, along with Ed and Em, is that she became the "Amethyst Armorer" due to social status and is nothing more than what she appears. Just a glorified bully. But she'll eventually see there's more to her than meets the eye. While Amity will be a dead-serious threat to Willow and her friends, Ed and Em will pretty much be Team Rocket.
Let me know what you all think and if you have any ideas for improvements. And if anyone is interested in making this AU a reality, please, feel free to use it; send me the link to any arts or fanfics because I would love to see/read them. I'll add more chapters explaining character relationships and histories and answering questions you may have.
Take care, everyone, and have a wonderful day or night.