philip wittebane is simultaneously the smartest and dumbest character in the owl house , he can build interdimensional portals, extend his lifespan, revive the dead, build apparently an artificial type of magic, do a number of things a man from the 1600s would not be expected to know how to do.
but he also is the same guy who despite having plans to destroy all witches, left out basically all the children from being included, decides to posses raine of all people while admitting raine has strong enough willpower to remove him, and also apparently thinks all the witches on this planet live on this one island (which EOTW proves for sure is not true) and so on and so forth.
how he gets as far as he does is anyone's guess, he has high intelligence and charisma but low wisdom.
Here's this stupid animatic video that's been sitting in my gallery for almost a year because I never finished it. I thought it would be better to just share it even if the second half is sketchy
Belos being imprisoned, not because of all the murdering or child abusing that he's done over the course of his life, but because of an act of animal cruelty that he committed at the eleventh hour is an absolutely hysterical premise!
Fight pauses mid-dramatic speech because Camila says "Killing cardinals is illegal" and Fish & Wildlife services pop out of the bushes immediately to grab him. Belos is yelling "no, it's not a real cardinal, it's a magical monstrosity made of wood, I'm innoceeeeeent!" as he's being dragged off to jail. They completely ignore the fact that he's a weird mud deer creature.