Amity Blight

Amity Blight is the deuteragonist in the 2020 Disney Channel series The Owl House. She is voiced by Mae Whitman. She was confirmed to be a lesbian by show creator Dana Terrace, making Amity the first lesbian character in a Disney cartoon.
She has been well-received by both critics and fans of the show, who praised her character and Whitman's performance.
== Character ==
Amity Blight is a 14-year-old inhabitant of the Boiling Isles, a Realm apart from the Human Realm, which can be accessed through the means of portals, or as shown in the series, a magical door. She has very pale, white skin, short hair (which she has dyed both light green and lilac throughout the series), yellow eyes, and usually wears black, long-sleeved blouse, red wine-colored pants, and black slip-on shoes while she is out of school. While at Hexside, she wears her chosen Track clothes, which include long, pink sleeves and socks, and a black uniform. She has a fighting style some have called "unorthodox". Terrace also said she considered Amity "more of a jock" than having a "punk aesthetic".
Amity undergoes a major character arc|character development through the course of the series. She originally starts out as a bratty, entitled, and rude student in her first appearance, who belittles her peers (like Willow), due to her superior control and overall performance in Abomination magic. Her grades, coupled with the influence her family has over the school, meant she could be hardly touched by anyone and was beloved by her teachers. However, after slowly becoming friends with Luz despite some reluctance at first, she becomes caring, welcoming, and friendly towards that dear to her, while condemning the mistreatment and bullying she once used against others. Amity has two siblings, Eldric and Emira, who despite their constant teasing, trust them and allow her to vent her feelings. Her overall change becomes such, that she eventually falls in love with Luz, and becomes close friends with Gus, Willow, and eventually Hunter.
Because of the stranglehold, her powerful mother Odalia had over her life, Amity is initially scared of her, usually wanting her approval. However, after becoming closer to Luz, she learns to stand up for herself, manage to create opposition to her mother, and appropriate ideals for herself.
Whitman, Amity's voice actor, described Amity as complex, complicated, with issues, and "dealing with some stuff." She also noted that when Amity was with Luz, Amity tapped into her softer, "more vulnerable side."
===Creation===
On September 3, 2020, during a Reddit r/IAmA#Concept|AMA, Terrace stated that during the show's development, Amity had a different hairstyle, and that the look changed after the unaired, unanimated pilot, when she decided that the style used in the show would look "better for the character."
=== LGBTQ+ representation ===
On July 7, 2020, when responding to a fan who posted a still of Amity putting her hands on Luz's shoulder, from a promotion for the upcoming episode "Enchanting Grom Fright" on Twitter, Terrace said that there is no heterosexual explanation for the moment. On September 2, during a Reddit r/IAmA#Concept|AMA, Dana Terrace confirmed that Amity is intended to be a lesbian and that Luz is bisexual. Original Reddit thread here She also stated that the relationship between Amity and Luz would be explored in Season 2 and that Luz is "oblivious to some things in front of her," including Amity's crush on her. In the same AMA, Terrace stated that Luz was Amity's first crush and that she was thrilled to see people connect to the show's characters, like Luz and Amity. In October 2022, Amity's voice actor, Mae Whitman, said that voicing Amity gave her the bravery to come out as pansexual.
== Fictional character biography ==
=== Season 1 ===
Amity, a top student at Hexside Academy, in Bonesborough, a city in the Demon Realm, meets Luz Noceda, and grows a grudge against her. Sometime later, she runs into Luz at the annual Covention. Amity belittles her for trying to be a witch, and they eventually agree to a witches' duel. Later on in the season, Amity has Luz and her own siblings, Eldric and Emira, thrown out of the library for messing around. However, both Amity and Luz are forced to work together to save themselves from a magical character spawned from a book by the Wailing Star. After Luz has been accepted into Hexside, Amity tells her she must master two spells in order to assist classes with her. Amity notes her previous friendship with Willow, and later begins amending her relationship with Willow. For Grom night, Amity is chosen as the Grom Queen, meaning she must enter the school's dungeon and fight Grometheus, a shape-shifting demon that can manifest into the greatest fear of the person fighting it. Luz steps in to replace her in the fight, but Amity has to jump in to save her. At one point, Amity tosses aside the other half of the ripped letter, revealing Luz was the person she intended to ask out for the dance, and her greatest fear was being rejected by her. After Willow and Gus are forced to quit Luz's grudgby team due to her harsh training, Amity reveals to her that she experienced something similar. However, while they narrowly lose a grudgy game, they all gain sympathy and respect of Boscha's teammates. However, Amity hurts her leg in the match, and is taken care of in the Owl House by Luz, further deepening their bond.
=== Season 2 ===
Amity's parents, Odalia and Alador, have her friends expelled from Hexside, as they deem them as bad influences on her. Amity later saves Luz from the Abomatons created by the family company, and finally defies her mother, staying by Luz's side despite Odalia's warnings. As she works at the Bonesborough Library, Amity lends Luz her library card, so that she can access Philip Wittebane's diary, stored in the forbidden section of the library. They enter together, eventually find the diary, but its pages have been eaten by a mouse. As punishment, Malphas, the librarian, fires Amity and confiscates her card. She later reveals to her siblings that she is troubled due to her feelings for Luz, who is stunned by Amity's new look. As a reward, Amity kisses Luz on the cheek, but immediately leaves the scene embarrassed, not knowing Luz is flattered.Storz, "How Love Ought to Be", 54-55. Later in the season, Amity is suddenly kidnapped by Hooty and enters a tunnel of love with Luz. She realizes that Luz is interested in her, and wants her to be a part of her future, and they become a couple. When Luz is sick, Amity goes with Eda and King to retrieve Titan's Blood from Eclipse Lake and duels against Hunter for the Blood, and manages to get some of it in her glove. In the same season, she and Luz establish a writing club, Amity enters the Bonesborough Brawl to prove herself to Alador, is grounded by Odalia but is saved by Luz who suddenly appears in her balcony and Amity kisses her for the first time.Storz, "How Love Ought to Be", 56-57. Alongside her friends, Amity comfronts her parents to get them to stop producing Abomatons for the Emperor and learns that Odalia is sticking with Belos, but she opposes her, and destroys the favorite with help from Aldor. After the Day of Unity begins, Amity helps Luz and her friends fight a transformed Belos. She and her friends are sent through by King, who did so to save them, and finds herself in the Human Realm, meeting Luz's mother, Camila, for the first time.
=== Season 3 ===
Months later, Amity grows accustomed to life in Gravesfield, but she, and her friends, are continuously looking for ways to get back to the Demon Realm. After Flapjack, Hunter's palismen finds a hidden scroll that appears to lead to a supply of Titan's Blood, but the scroll is taken from her by a Belos' possessed Hunter, who activates a portal to the Demon Realm in a cemetery after Hunter expelled him from his body. After a guilt-stricken Luz reveals she accidentally introduced Belos to magic when she traveled back in time, Amity tells her she won't leave her, while they cross the portal into the Demon Realm, with Luz and Camila soon following.
== Reception ==
Amity's character was received positively. She was described by Jade King of The Gamer as engaging in a "necessary queer rebellion" whose lesbian identity plays into her character arc. King also described Amity as a "deep, a bully turned rebel" like Luz. King also compared Amity's character to Katara (Avatar: The Last Airbender)|Katara in Avatar: The Last Airbender, since Whitman is the voice actress of both characters, and argued there are similarities between these two characters. Joshua Fox of ScreenRant praised the storyline around "Amity being lesbian and having a crush on Luz". and Tegan Hall of the same publication praised Amity's character for being ambitious, caring, nerdy, and protective. James Troughton of The Gamer argued that the "unashamed queerness on screen" in the series is displayed by Amity and her friend, Luz. However, Kevin Johnson of The A.V. Club was critical of the series, stating that he wasn't "buying the developments between Amity and Luz" and said that trying to find depth in Amity's characters while "ignoring her earlier treatments towards Luz...is disingenuous." 
Others praised Amity's character evolving outside her "relationship with Luz" and the growing romantic relationship between Amity and Luz. This included the season 1 episode "Enchanting Grom Fright," when Amity and Luz dance together for the first time and the season 2 episode "Trough the Looking Glass Ruins". The latter episode received significant attention and press over Luz and Amity's growing relationship and its ending, in which Amity kisses Luz on the cheek. Amity's relationship with Luz, known as "Lumity", was chosen by fans as a top Shipping (fandom)|ship on Tumblr in 2021, and otherwise garnered attention from fans and critics.
Category:Deuteragonists
Category:2020s television series
Category:Disney Channel original programming