Clawthorne family

The **Clawthorne family** is a family of witches and a titan living in the Boiling Isles who are palisman carving experts. It consists of the parents, Dell and Gwendolyn Clawthorne, their two children, Lilith and Eda Clawthorne, and Eda's adoptive son, King Clawthorne. The youngest daughter, Eda, is the deuteragonist of the show while her adoptive son, King, is the tritagonist of the show. The oldest daughter, Lilith, is a recurring character in the series.

## Background

Not much is known about the background of the Clawthorne parents. Their daughters, Lilith and Eda, were very close during their childhood, to the point that when Eda accidentally injured herself, Lilith would share the pain with her using a pain sharing spell. In their teenage years, both of them wanted to join the Emperor's Coven, and signed up for the tryout. Unfortunately, there was only one spot left, and they were told to have a duel with each other the next day. In order to win this, Lilith visited the Night Market and found a mysterious scroll at a stall. Once she reached home, she walked into Eda's room, and cursed her using the spell inside the scroll while she was sleeping, thinking it would only affect her for a day. The next day, right after the duel began, Eda declared that she refused to challenge her sister, thus ending the match. Right as Eda walked away, the curse began to take effect, transforming her into the Owl Beast in front of everyone. Shocked, people began throwing stuff at her and calling her names, causing her to run away.

Right after Eda was cursed, Gwendolyn joined the Beast Keeping Coven in hopes of finding a cure for Eda. Unfortunately, she was told that the curse could not be tamed. Some time after that, one night, as Gwendolyn was preparing dinner, Dell came back to the house after being gone for an hour. On that fateful night, Dell was going to leave for the Mandible, and in order to leave "in style", he decided to set off some fireworks inside the house. However, the fireworks triggered the Owl Beast inside Eda, causing her to transform and attack Dell. During the struggle, she clawed off his left eye, leaving it permanently blind. Dell's left hand is also injured in the process. Shocked at this, Gwendolyn instructed Lilith to call the Healing Coven. It is unclear what happened right after that.

Sometime later, Gwendolyn brought a healer from the Healing Coven home in hopes that he could help cure Eda. Inside Eda's room, after listening to her description about her own curse, the healer gave Eda a gem, which can show her when the curse is getting worse. Annoyed by this, Gwendolyn ushered the healer outside and confronted him about his action. The healer admitted that he had never seen such a curse before and suggested that Gwendolyn could try consulting the Potions Coven, where they might have a way to keep the curse at bay. Upon hearing that, Gwendolyn became even angrier, as she wanted Eda to be cured of the curse, and suggested using extreme measures to achieve that. Unbeknownst to her, Eda was eavesdropping behind the door, and terrified, she escaped from her room using an opened window. Moments later, Gwendolyn noticed Eda missing from her room and went outside to find her. After running for a while, Eda stopped to catch her breath and started walking, looking around, when she accidentally tripped on something and fell. She dug out the object, which turned out to be a portal to the Human Realm. As Eda was wondering what the object might be, she heard her mother calling out for her, and after hesitating for a bit, she rushed into the portal, which then folded up and disappeared. Failing to find Eda, Gwendolyn became sad, but immediately became determined to find a way to cure her, no matter what it takes.

For the next thirty years, Gwendolyn proceeded to find various different ways to cure Eda, all without success. Throughout the time period, Eda became a wild, covenless, powerful witch who frequently gets into trouble with the law. She kept the portal to herself and has been using Owlbert to bring random human stuff back to the Demon Realm for her to sell at her stall. At some point of time, she found out that drinking elixirs can help keep the curse at bay and make it more manageable, and has been drinking them ever since. At an unknown point of time, she fixed up an old tower which belonged to Dell, then built the Owl House in front of it and started living inside with Hooty. Twenty-two years after the event of running away from home, she found King on an island and brought him back home. Eight years after that, when a human called Luz Noceda accidentally stumbles through her portal, she brings her back home and asks her to retrieve King's crown from the Conformatorium in exchange for letting her go back to the Human Realm. After experiencing a daring adventure at the Conformatorium, Luz decides to stay with Eda instead, as she likes it here, and does not want to return home or go to camp. Eda found Luz's idea of wanting to become a witch crazy, but eventually agrees, with the condition that Luz must work for her before she will teach her any spells.

As for Lilith, she joined the Emperor's Coven, climbed up ranks, and eventually became the leader of the coven. Since Eda is the most wanted criminal on the Boiling Isles, she is tasked with the mission of capturing her sister. She and Eda met each other again during the Covention, and after a heated exchange with Eda, Lilith challenges Eda to let her human "student", Luz, have a Witches' Duel with her strongest protégé, Amity Blight. Amity eventually catches Luz cheating during the match, but as it turns out, Lilith had secretly put a Construction Coven glyph on Amity's neck, which caught Eda's attention. She proceeds to tear off the glyph, showing everyone that Lilith cheated during the match as well. Eda then starts taunting her sister to the point where she eventually snaps and start attacking her. The sisters start having a Witches' Duel with each other, with Lilith almost defeating Eda at the end, but Eda tricks her into thinking that her curse is getting worse, and she's actually there to see her for possibly the last time. Lilith is touched by that, but Eda then throws a bag of Hex Mix in her face and escapes from the scene.

After the covention, the sisters still occasionally run into each other, with Lilith begging Eda to join the Emperor's Coven, believing Emperor Belos can heal her curse, but Eda always refuses. The first time Lilith tries to arrest Eda at her house, Hooty subdues her and brings her back to the Owl House. Eda eventually agrees to go with Lilith, but only if she beats her in a grudgby match. At the end, she defeats her, and after seeing her getting upset, she gives Lilith her ring, asking her to tell Emperor Belos that she put up a real fight. Lilith leaves, and comes back a few days later with an army of Coven Scouts from the Emperor's Coven, only to be defeated easily by Hooty.

Eventually, as the Day of Unity is fast approaching, Emperor Belos gives Lilith an ultimatum: Bring Eda to him by twilight, or Lilith will be stripped of her rank and banished from the Emperor's Coven. This makes Lilith anxious, as she had gave most of her life to the coven and she can't afford to lose her position. While thinking about Eda's weakness, she hears a loud noise coming from beside her. Coincidentally, on the very same day, Luz decided to join a school trip to the Emperor's Castle with Willow and Gus in order to steal the Healing Hat to cure Eda's curse. Willow and Gus were initially oblivious to Luz's plan, but agree to help her after they learned about it. The trio eventually made it to the Relic Room, but were locked inside, prompting Willow to break down the door using the Green Thumb Gauntlet, which makes a loud noise. Lilith comes to check and notices the trio, and after seeing Luz, Lilith realizes that she can use Eda's close relationship with her to as a trap. She holds Luz hostage, and sends Willow and Gus back to the Owl House on her Raven Staff in order to tell Eda what happened. An enraged Eda immediately comes to the Emperor's Castle and starts fighting Lilith. During the fight, she accidentally reveals that it is her who cursed Eda. Upon hearing that, Eda becomes even more angry and starts attacking her fiercely. Lilith soon realizes that the more Eda uses her power, the faster the curse emerges. Therefore, she throws Luz down a pit, forcing Eda to use up the last of her powers to save her, eventually turning herself into the Owl Beast. Lilith then captures Eda, and brings her into the castle.

However, Emperor Belos soon reveals to Lilith that he won't be healing Eda, as she is a wild witch, and all wild witches must be dealt with before the Day of Unity according to the Titan's will. Lilith is surprised to hear that, but does not dare to disobey Belos. Belos then asks her to destroy Eda's Owl Staff, but she has secretly decided to not follow Belos' orders. She finds Luz inside the room where Eda was held, and in her rage, she starts attacking Lilith. During the fight, the duo struggle with each other and accidentally stumble through the portal into the Human Realm, where Lilith eventually gets Luz to calm down and starts telling her why she cursed Eda in the first place. Feeling betrayed by Belos, Lilith wants to rescue Eda, but she can't do it alone. At first, Luz does not trust her, but eventually agrees to help Lilith after receiving Owlbert from her. They return to the room, only to find Belos already waiting for them. Belos throws Lilith and King into the cage, along with Eda, and Eda, thinking Lilith has hurt Luz, intends to tear her apart before being petrified, but King stops her in time and tells her what really happened. Soon, Luz manages to stop the petrification ceremony in time and forces Kikimora to release the trio from the cage. Eda then flies off with Luz, King, and Lilith on her back and arrives at the Owl House. Lilith realizes that no amount of elixirs can revert Eda back to her normal state, so she decides to share the curse with Eda using the pain sharing spell, which successfully transforms Eda back to her normal witch appearance. However, as a side effect, Eda can no longer use magic, and Lilith's magic powers are also weakened.

A week and a half later, the sisters are trying to make ends meet by capturing bounties. Lilith feels regretful about her actions and tries to think of ways to make it up to Eda. Eventually, she decides to make Eda a scrying potion and takes on a journey to find the necessary ingredients. When trying to gather the last ingredient - fire bee honey - she realizes that she can't simply attack the bees, as her magic has weakened. Hooty then appears and offers to help her, but Lilith angrily tells him to leave her alone. She tries to take on the fire bees again, but is easily overpowered and surrounded by them. Realizing she can't do this alone, Lilith cries out for help. Hooty barges out from the ground and starts attacking the fire bees, enabling Lilith to finally get the honey. After the event, Lilith and Hooty become best friends, giving each other nicknames like "Lulu" and "Hootsifer".

Due to their weakened powers, the sisters start learning how to use glyph magic, with Luz acting as their teacher. Lilith is more intent on learning by following the rules, but Eda is more experimental, and always think of ways to be more innovative. As it turns out, Lilith's method works better, as she is able to make various ice sculptures using combined ice glyphs, while Eda's combination of different glyphs always end up failing. After an experiment gone wrong which traps King inside an ice blob, Eda finally admits defeat and decides to follow the rules. After rescuing King, Eda starts studying the glyphs together with Lilith.

One day, without warning, Lilith's curse begin to appear, but Eda arrives just in time to give her a bottle of elixir, returning her back to normal. Eda reveals that she had stashed elixirs all over the house, and Lilith just had to take one whenever the curse starts appearing. Not long after, Gwendolyn comes to the house to visit Eda, only to be treated coldly by her. Lilith attempts to chat with her mother, but after a few exchanges, Gwendolyn asks her to step aside, as she has come here for Eda. She declares that she has finally found a cure for her curse, only to be refused and sent away by Eda, frustrating Lilith and Luz. Eda comments that Gwendolyn comes by the house annually, each time toting a new way to cure her, but since they never work, she is done getting her hopes up. Lilith is surprised at her mother's yearly visit to Eda and becomes upset, as Gwendolyn wasn't even at her coven initiation before.

Luz takes pity on Gwendolyn and runs up to her to introduce herself. She mentioned that she cannot go back to the Human Realm as she's trapped here. After thinking for a bit, Gwendolyn appears to remember somemthing that could help Luz, but she wants Luz to help her cure Eda before giving her that information. They soon visit Master Wortlop, a traveling curse expert who had promised her a cure. After presenting the sacred items she had gathered throughout the last year to Master Wortlop, he gives her a tome which contains the cure, but also reminds her to keep it away from others as they might be blinded by the power it holds. Luz and Gwendolyn soon start setting up signs promising apple blood to lure Eda deeper into the woods, which she falls for. Along the way, they tried using different traps and methods to drive the Owl Beast out of Eda, but all failed. Luz soon suspects that something is not right, and notices Gwendolyn making a call to someone. Gwendolyn then explains that the tome is only the first of a series, and she is giving away her paltry family heirlooms to get the rest. Luz becomes suspicious and asks to see the tome, and although Gwendolyn tries to stop her, she manages to grab it using vines from a plant glyph. After reading the tome, Luz realizes that Gwendolyn had been scammed and tries to warn her, but Gwendolyn refuses to listen. Luz decides to call off her plan with Gwendolyn, but she reveals that her palisman has already grabbed all elixirs from the house. Gwendolyn tries to throw one away, but Luz suddenly pounces on her, causing both of them to fall off the tree branch, which then grabs Eda attention. After learning that the traps are set up by both her mother and Luz, Eda becomes angry, and soon turns into the Owl Beast in front of the duo.

Meanwhile, back at the Owl House, Lilith binge eats ice cream with King. Eventually, she declares that she is sick of being ignored, and that from that moment on, she has no mother, which she will say that to Gwendolyn's face. King challenges her to do so, informing her that Gwendolyn is right outside with Luz trying to cure Eda. Upon hearing that her mother is paying more attention to her sister again, Lilith becomes stressed, causing her curse to emerge. She tries to find the elixirs, only to find out that they are all gone. Soon, Lilith turns into the Raven Beast, frightening King and Hooty. King tries to knock out Lilith using a light glyph, but it doesn't work, so he escapes outside, with Lilith following him from behind. King eventually finds Luz and Gwendolyn together with Owl Beast Eda, but before he can finish, Raven Beast Lilith lands in front of them, then snatches up Eda and flies away. Gwendolyn is shocked to see Lilith in her beast form, which causes King to yell at her, accusing her of not paying attention to Lilith. Gwendolyn soon realizes that Master Wortlop is really a fake, and decides to make things right.

She finds the sisters fighting each other in Bonesborough, and comes up with a plan, with Luz and King to help them back to normal. She walks up to her daughters, and apologizes to Eda for not listening to her, and that even though the curse is now part of Eda, she loves every part of her. This gives Eda the strength to fight back against the Owl Beast, eventually getting her consciousness back. Gwendolyn then apologizes to Lilith for never giving her the attention she deserved, as she is always so self-sufficient. Upon hearing that, Lilith starts sobbing. While both sisters are distracted, King jumps down from above and pins them down by their ears, while Luz dumps bottles of elixirs into their mouths, successfully reverting them back to normal. Gwendolyn finally reconciles with both her daughters, as Luz watches on gladly with King. Later at night, Lilith announces her decision to move back with Gwendolyn to make up for lost time and reconnect with Dell, surprising everyone at the Owl House, especially Hooty. Gwendolyn apologizes to both her daughters for not knowing about the truth of Lilith cursing Eda sooner, and then tells Luz the information she had: Another human had once lived in Bonesborough, and rumor has it that he left something in the library. This gives Luz hope to find out how he got here so that she can figure out how to go back.

Some time later, Luz and King take part in the Gland Prix, in hopes of winning so that King can get a live interview on camera and send a message to his dad. However, the duo lost, and a disappointed King wants to throw away his pre-written speech, but Eda convinces him otherwise. She asks King to read out his message and livestreams it using Penstagram. During the livestream, King reveals that he is legally changing his name to King Clawthorne, and it would take effect after Eda signs the legal papers. Eda is touched by this, and immediately starts sobbing, causing Luz to cry along with her.

Around a month after that, Dell decides to come visit Eda at her house along with Gwendolyn. After learning that Dell is outside, Eda becomes panicked and runs to hide inside her room. There, she stuffs some elixirs into a bag and prepares to flee, but Hawksley and Hooty block her path. Right then, King finds Lilith's old dress from a cupboard, and this gives Eda an idea to dress up as Lilith, pretending to be her. Eda proceeds to do just that and walks past Gwendolyn who is waiting outside her room. Once she escapes outside from the back door, she attempts to flee on her Owl staff, but finds Dell waiting nearby, with his back facing her. Dell mistakenly thinks he missed Eda again and prepares to leave. After hesitating for a bit, Eda decides to greet him and walk up to him.

Eda and Dell then sit by the cliff and have a heart-to-heart talk with each other. Eda apologizes to her father for not catching up, as there has been a lot going on in her life. Dell reveals that years before, she disappeared from Bonesborough. Then, he found out that Eda had fixed up his old tower. Following that, he saw Eda on a wanted poster, and was later told about her petrification ceremony by Gwendolyn. Dell wished that Eda would have at least let him and Gwendolyn help her out, and proceeds to ask her about his new grandson. Eda tells him about King, and admits that he can be a handful. Before she can continue, Dell sighs and says that he can't keep on chasing her, as it's been over twenty years. Eda becomes emotional and blames herself for injuring him, which ruined his life and made him unable to craft palismen anymore. She tells Dell to not forgive her and she doesn't deserve it, attempting to walk away, but he walks up to her and places a hand on her shoulder, assuring her that he won't try that again, and shows her a Palistrom seed on his palm. Dell reveals that he had been helping the Bat Queen to replenish her forest, and he wants Eda to learn the tricks of the trade. He then encourages Eda to let the past stay in the past, and that it's okay to move on from it. Before leaving, he tells her to send Owlbert his regards, as he remembers carving him with Eda, and it's one of his dearest memories. Dell then walks into the Owl House, and Eda, touched by Dell's words, smiles with tears forming in her eyes.

## Known members

* Evelyn (distant ancestor)
* Caleb Wittebane (distant ancestor)
* Gwendolyn's great-grandmother
* Dell Clawthorne
* Gwendolyn Clawthorne
* Lilith Clawthorne
* Eda Clawthorne
* King Clawthorne

## Gallery

An exploratory drawing of the Clawthorne family by Dana Terrace.
## Trivia

* The Clawthornes seem to share a bird theme. For instance, Eda and Lilith are associated with owls and ravens, respectively, while Gwendolyn has a hawk palisman and Dell has a yellow cardinal palisman. All the family's palismen are all based on bird species.
	+ Their surname seems to be a portmanteau of "claw" and the surname "Hawthorne". The claw part may be in reference to a bird's talons.
* In a post-finale livestream, is was indirectly confirmed by Dana Terrace that Evelyn and Caleb Wittebane are ancestors of the Clawthorne family. However, neither Hunter nor the current members of the Clawthorne family are aware of this fact.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Cissy Jones (April 28, 2023). "The "watching and dreaming" PostHoot with the one and only Dana Terrace! (29:29)". *Instagram*.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Dana Terrace, Rachel Vine (writers) and Stephen Sandoval (director) (August 29, 2020). "Young Blood, Old Souls". *The Owl House*. Season 1. Episode 19. Disney Channel.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 John Bailey Owen (writer) and Aminder Dhaliwal (director) (August 22, 2020). "Agony of a Witch". *The Owl House*. Season 1. Episode 18. Disney Channel.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Zach Marcus (writer) and Amelia Lorenz (director) (July 3, 2021). "Keeping up A-fear-ances". *The Owl House*. Season 2. Episode 4. Disney Channel.
5. ↑ Dana Terrace, John Bailey Owen, Zach Marcus (writers) and Amelia Lorenz (director) (July 31, 2021). "Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door". *The Owl House*. Season 2. Episode 8. Disney Channel.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Dana Terrace, Rachel Vine (writers) and Stephen Sandoval (director) (January 10, 2020). "A Lying Witch and a Warden". *The Owl House*. Season 1. Episode 1. Disney Channel.
7. ↑ Mikki Crisostomo (writer) and Bridget Underwood (director) (June 26, 2021). "Echoes of the Past". *The Owl House*. Season 2. Episode 3. Disney Channel.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Dana Terrace, Rachel Vine, Charley Feldman (writers) and Stu Livingston, Aminder Dhaliwal (directors) (February 7, 2020). "Covention". *The Owl House*. Season 1. Episode 5. Disney Channel.
9. ↑ Zach Marcus (writer) and Stu Livingston (director) (July 11, 2020). "Sense and Insensitivity". *The Owl House*. Season 1. Episode 11. Disney Channel.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Rachel Vine, Molly Ostertag (writers) and Sage Cotugno (director) (August 15, 2020). "Wing It Like Witches". *The Owl House*. Season 1. Episode 17. Disney Channel.
11. ↑ Zach Marcus (writer) and Amelia Lorenz (director) (June 12, 2021). "Separate Tides". *The Owl House*. Season 2. Episode 1. Disney Channel.
12. ↑ Dana Terrace, Molly Ostertag (writers) and Bo Coburn (director) (June 19, 2021). "Escaping Expulsion". *The Owl House*. Season 2. Episode 2. Disney Channel.
13. ↑ Dana Terrace (writer) and Amelia Lorenz (director) (July 24, 2021). "Eda's Requiem". *The Owl House*. Season 2. Episode 7. Disney Channel.