Mourning those who never existed

It has currently been around a week since The Owl House premiered one of its three final specials, to wrap up the series: Thanks To Them. And I still can't think, even vaguely, about the end of that special without my head starting to pound.
 

Hunter from The Owl House is one of my "the big four" fictotypes who I simply am, in the most literal sense of the word. I am these four characters "in the flesh," as the kids say. "In the real," even. I find it incredibly difficult to separate myself from these characters at all.

And it has always been difficult, being Hunter. I mean, the crew behind the show themselves love to joke about how much they use my character as a 'trauma punching bag', per say. (Ha ha ha, guys. Extremely funny and normal thing to say about a child character who is canonically an abuse victim.) But everything from before now, I could cope with. I could handle.
 

 

( Spoilers for 'Thanks To Them' and themes of mourning under the cut )