Man I Really Do Wish We Had An Episode About Hunter And King Bonding Over Being The Last Of Their Kind

Man I really do wish we had an episode about Hunter and King bonding over being the last of their kind and realizing their belief over being a special guy was a lie, as was their entire life; It’s fitting for King of all people to remind Luz that people will continue to believe lies because they don’t want to believe their whole life is a lie, in the same episode as Hunter having this revelation.

Plus there’s the dynamic in King being an actual Titan and Hunter being told the Titan had plans for him, and King deciding he’s just some guy and Hunter breaking away from this worship mentality of the Titan. Bonus points if we get Lilith therapy as the B-plot. Like, King shouldn’t have to have an episode showing how he’s like Hunter for fans to appreciate the same traits in another character who’s more important, but still.

That gets me to how Hunter’s storylines in S2 are about his similarities with other characters, interestingly enough; The exceptions are Hollow Mind except maybe you could say something about the Grimwalker revelation haha, more on that in a bit… And some other appearances. But in terms of personal storylines and not just tagging along? Hunter’s got parallels with everyone, I always found him most interesting in these episodes because it also shed further light and appreciation on the characters Hunter bounces off of.

And it’s ironic? He’s made to be a clone, to be like someone else, and his storylines in S2 are about how he’s like other people. But the difference is Hunter choosing to notice and acknowledge these similarities in strangers not connected to him and/or vice-versa, to relate to the out-group rather than be a witch hunter as was the intention.

(I also think it’s worth noting that because of the shortening, the show had to be really efficient with its time, and prioritize wrapping up what it already had; Intertwining Hunter’s storylines with a pre-established character is a clever way to develop both in a single A-plot, and also leads to this meta of course. And if Eda’s Requiem was the cut-off point, then I’ve noticed there’s a difference in how Hunter’s plot with Luz takes up the whole episode, but his storylines with characters past that threshold also have to co-exist with a B-plot, interesting!)

Plus in S3, we do see Hunter acknowledge the clone baggage with a storyline about being himself no matter what similarities there are, and his final storyline seems anti-Belos? In that he’s not going to let the death of a loved one (perceived in Belos’ case) be an excuse to be bitter to others offering help, hell he’ll even make it about those friends too; He truly shows he is very much NOT his uncle no matter what circumstances they may share, even the most unpleasant ones that could be an ‘excuse’.

So S2 for Hunter is about how he’s like others (while still having agency on his end), and S3 is how he isn’t, how he’s his own person. And between these it’s no wonder his takeaway from Caleb is being ambivalent about what similarities they have or not because he’s no longer insecure about his own identity or status as a clone, he is who he is and that’s all that matters.

The parallels are familial and not in a clone sense, and ultimately just symbolic and on a meta level, not in-universe. I think Hunter wouldn’t mind having good things in common with someone else, because it means he has them; It’s what led Hunter to his friends after all. He didn’t even seem to care about the revelation that Caleb was actually open to witches, he’d already resolved that.

And the irony is that for all his cloning, Belos was really trying to make Hunter unlike Caleb, because he didn’t really want Caleb either he wanted an idea of his brother. So Hunter being like Caleb but still his own person with his own palisman is great, as is the resemblances being largely unconscious; Because Hunter was never expected to know Caleb beyond the bare minimum, he doesn’t know he was also a woodcarver and so that fact can never bother Hunter as a Palisman carver, especially with his normalness about the subject. The clone status is treated like any other blood relation. Maybe that’s the narrative reason why Hunter never learns much.

(Reminds me of that Steven Universe episode where Steven worries about liberated gems still playing into their designated roles when they should be free of that, only to understand that it doesn’t matter if they’re like those things or not, the point is that they have the agency and free will to be otherwise if they choose to, plus some need space and time to acclimate to experimenting.)