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twimbs · 2 years

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dont take me out for this pls god pls

Okay so. I’ve been thinking a lot about Belos and the grimwalkers.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Belos is like a narcissistic parent.

I personally think the grimwalkers would either develop as small children or babies, based on the drawings and some lines from Hunter and Belos. “I’m the youngest scout to become golden guard.” > heavily implies that the grimwalkers are raised as normal scouts first, and Belos chooses what age to make them golden guard and whatnot. Yes it’s possible this is wrong but the rest of the headcanon save like one piece still fits regardless of how you see it.

Before the grimwalkers become golden guard, I believe Belos would treat them ~kind of~ well. He would still be abusive, don’t get me wrong, but some of the things I’ve seen people theorize are. hmmmgh

I definitely think in moments of defiance and anger, Belos would lash out - we’ve seen him do this to Hunter and Collector, so that’s most likely his response to any anger.

However, we also know Belos is a master of manipulation and a liar. He literally told Hunter their family was killed by wild witches. Hunter never questioned this - he never had a reason to.

It’s possible he lied to every golden guard before this the same way. Although less effectively - since some of them were helping him trick and lie and murder the witches sooo... yeah, not a lot of “our family was killed by wild magic and I’m such a saint”.

I definitely think Belos raised Hunter. It’s 16 years of lies, and manipulation, and emotional abuse. But I can see him having a genuine love for Hunter.

HEAR ME OUT.

Belos is a flaming narcissist. Part of narcissistic parents, and abuse from narcissistic parents, is them being incredibly delusional.

Imagine for a moment, that Belos has a perfect little world. Where Hunter is either Caleb and Belos’ second chance to control his brother - or that Hunter is actually his nephew, and all of his lies about their family are true.

With narcissists, and compulsive liars, there’s a certain level of tricking themselves. There’s delusions, and their perfect image of things - Belos’ is Hunter being obedient, and perfect, and following him without question. Everything Caleb wasn’t.

So when Hunter acts this way - as we see him do, look at Hollow Mind where this kid literally says invading his FAMILY’S mind is sacrilege - Belos loves him. He truly loves him as a family member, he cares for him, and they could have a “normal” relationship.

But the minute Hunter shows any disobedience, or any sliver of dissent - that love is gone. And Hunter knows this, he has experienced it so many times before - which is why he reacts that way in Eclipse Lake. He knows that not being perfect results in losing the little bit of love and affection he gets from Belos. The only love he gets from anyone - being so isolated. It’s also probably why he latches onto Darius, Gus and Willow so quickly. He needs that affection, because Belos’ affection is temporary and conditional. Boy is so love starved.

So, if Belos really cares for the grimwalkers as long as they behave, how does he kill them? You have to be incredibly emotionally removed to kill someone you love, which I mean. Belos probably is let’s be honest.

But whenever his “perfect world” is shattered or threatened (again like narcissistic parents), he withdraws. He shuts himself off. Any bit of emotion, or memory of love, is immediately filed away. Belos has incredible control over his mind - he can take 16 years of love and throw it away in an instant.

Look at this moment from Hollow Mind when Hunter questions him. The instant shift.

This is also probably a trauma response to feeling betrayed and abandoned by Caleb - at the slightest hint of abandonment, he shuts those feelings off - because he can’t afford to feel hurt. And so, the moment a grimwalker disobeys him, and does the same things as Caleb - he has no issue killing them. They’re no longer a family member or grimwalker to him. It wouldn’t surprise me if his mind actually removes the two identities. To cope, he doesn’t see it as killing Caleb - he sees it as killing a faceless, nameless traitor. He doesn’t see Hunter, he sees a faceless, nameless traitor. And of course, he’s doing the right thing killing them, because he has billions of humans relying on him to save them.

It’s so many layers of delusions and lies for Belos to do this, that breaking them might actually be dangerous or impossible. He’s so swept up in these lies, of wild magic, and saving humanity, and avenging his brother, and proving that he was right to his brother - that he’s probably not even Philip anymore.

Imagine Luz is the first human he’s seen in centuries. The first genuine tie to his home, his humanity, his identity as Philip Wittebane - he latches onto her. Because in all of the lies, he’s forgetting who he used to be. He’s losing his identity and he’s losing his mind. And Luz is the one thing that he thinks can bring that piece of himself (the most sacred piece, mind you) back. She’s also the first human to witness his accomplishments, and the first human he gets to save from the savage witches and demons - except she doesn’t want his help. She doesn’t need his saving. And that gets in his head, and it starts to break the delusions.

And how does he rationalize this? “Can’t reason with crazy.”

But then you add on another delusion - he is still Philip Wittebane - even though I can guarantee that name is just a name to him now. He acts how he thinks Philip would act according to his own morals, not how Philip actually used to act. There’s probably discrepancies in the two if you look close enough.

He is truly unhinged, and truly so lost in his mind. A true narcissist and he's most likely too far gone.

This spiraled a bit anyway here’s my take on Belos and his actions and his motivations and just a breakdown of how he rationalizes it

~note im not trying to make light of the abuse or actions of belos - just analyzing his motivations and providing real world examples of how his mind works while he’s doing his genocide~

#toh #the owl house #emperor belos #toh belos #belos headcanons #toh hunter #toh philip wittebane #toh luz #belos analysis

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probablyhuntersmom · 1 year

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Endless things to say about these two...

Luz means "light", while Hunter was named by Belos in accordance with witch hunters:

Their encounters with one another in Hunting Palismen and Hollow Mind would set future events in motion:

and also led up to Luz telling him "You're family now":

What happened in Thanks to Them reflects the Hollow Mind paintings shown below:

Belos took both of their lives, and we hear a contrast between Luz saying "I feel like I should be used to this by now, but...I still don't know what to say" and Hunter expressing the desires which he never dared to express in Belos's throne room, since the Titan had yet to pass the wisdom of choosing oneself to Luz:

They were pulled out of the water in which they were sinking, by the parent of their adoptive sibling (who also cared about them deeply):

The loved ones who revived them, passed them the last of their strength in order for these kids to have new life:

And King's dad asked Luz to choose whether she'd receive his life force which he offered, while Belos coercively violated Hunter to use his body like he would a puppet.

The things that Luz and Hunter went through, in parallel, underscore the clash between Belos who told endless lies about the Titan's will, and the Titan himself - King's father - who had very different plans for the Isles. Caught in between:

They were put through so much.

(The big comparison post I made before thinking of this analysis - it's just a picset and not a meta/analysis - is here: link)

#toh spoilers #luz noceda #toh hunter #the owl house #king's dad #camila noceda #toh flapjack #wittebane brothers #emperor belos #titan luz #possessed hunter #luz and hunter are siblings #toh analysis #loz writes a meta

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vyvilha · 11 months

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on the one hand, sometimes i wish that belos wasn't a character in a children's cartoon, so his story could've been explored deeper without getting censored or toned down. on the other hand, I think perhaps part of the fun that I get from his character comes EXACTLY from the fact that THIS absolute horror of a man is somehow a character in a cartoon for KIDS.

like. you have this pretty basic fantasy show formula. girl gets stuck in the magical world, gets powers, a found family, a girlfriend, there's school shenanigans and sports episodes, and all of these you know typical disney cartoon stuff. and then they're like. so there's THIS GUY. he murdered his brother in cold blood over the fact that he dared to have a life beyond their relationships, desecrated his grave, stole his body and then proceeded to, for 300 years straight, casually dissect and dismember him to create children out of his bones, the children that he delusionally believes to be the same person as his brother, but not like the real brother — this one he doesn't want — but the idealized version of his brother that won't have any life beyond him, the version that only ever existed in his head, and so when these children grow up and develop a life of their own, he, again, sees it as a betrayal, and so he murders them and tries again and again and again in hope that someday he will succeed and his ideal nonexistent brother will return and they will go home together and everything will be exactly how it was and how it's supposed to be, all the while the numbers of dead children in his basement grows. and it's like. girl what the FUCK

#the owl house #emperor belos #philip wittebane #belosposting #character analysis

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anthurak · 1 year

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So Luz’s meeting with Dad-Titan in the finale actually really nicely explained WHY there needed to be the whole time-loop with Luz being the one to teach Phillip/Belos how to use glyphs.

It affirms/reinforces the idea that Belos was always nothing but a fraud who never had any true understanding of the power he was using. Because it’s clear he COULDN’T figure out glyphs on his own and never would have without help. At the end of the day, ALL the knowledge and power Belos had was either given by others or stolen from them.

Instead, it was ALWAYS Luz who figured out how glyphs worked. SHE was the one who actually connected with the Titan. Luz was always the one to understand the magic she was using.

#toh #the owl house #toh analysis #Luz Noceda #belos #random bit of toh rambling among the deluge of rwby and g-witch posts i'm working on

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sepublic · 1 year

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Thinking about how Watching and Dreaming is a story about Choices, their relation to Change, and the Responsibility that comes with that.

It’s about Luz choosing to be a hero, choosing herself, choosing happiness in a world where she’s made any friends; The Titan herself tells Luz that he can’t decide anything for her, it’s Luz’s decision to accept his power and return to the isles to stop Belos. It’s Luz’s choice to be a Good Witch.

Choosing just one magic course? Luz has always been unique about choices in her own way, she can’t decide on just one thing if she can have them all; Hence why she studies all magic tracks. Why Luz maintains connections to the human and demon realms. Even her bisexuality could be seen as a meta refusal to settle for one; So it all culminates in her palisman String Bean, who represents Luz not so much being indecisive, but rather choosing it all. Choosing all of the choices, with an intent that really does make a difference to her nervousness from before.

It’s the Collector’s choice to become better, to let go of their anger and loneliness. It’s about choosing to change, something Belos never does; What makes him ‘irredeemable’ is not all of the heinous crimes he’s committed, it’s the fact that no matter how many times he is offered the opportunity to change, even be forgiven, Belos chooses not to take it. He refuses to change.

But the Collector does. And they’re rewarded when King chooses to give them Francois; And it was always about King’s choice, his decision that the Collector respected. It was never about having Francois, hence why they didn’t cuddle with Francois behind King’s back, rescued him from Belos’ grasp and returned him to where he belonged.

By contrast, the Collector’s control defies the ability to choose, because they decide everything for everyone. But he can’t force people to be his friends, it’s up to them, especially on whether to forgive. The students at Hexside are understandably scared of the Collector, and in the end, the kid can’t choose for them to be his friends; That’s something they decide for themselves, even if it’s the choice he wouldn’t have liked.

THAT was the Collector’s mistake with Belos; It was not compassion’s folly. It was that they assumed by giving Belos a chance to change, he would automatically choose to do so; In a sense, the Collector expected that choice to be made for Belos just by offering him the opportunity to take it. But it’s just a change, a possibility, there is no certainty. The Collector can’t make Belos change as a person, they can’t control him either; They can only hope, but never assume on his behalf.

Belos also chose things for people; Made them decide on just one magic track, and/or servitude to him. Insisted to Luz she ‘choose better’ by settling for humanity, took away agency through direct possession of Raine and the Titan. Both of whom fight back and regain some semblance of change and control but for themselves. In his final moments, Belos pretends he was a victim like them; Absolves himself of responsibility by claiming he didn’t have a choice, that he was forced to by his nebulous ‘curse’, and deep down he must believe God’s Destiny also spares him accountability.

But by placing himself at Luz’s mercy, it gives Luz the power to decide Belos’ fate; And she doesn’t choose ‘peace’ like Belos hopes, because like with the Collector, merely offering a choice does not make someone take it. Raine and the Titan still managed to fight back and decide things for themselves, as did Hunter, and so many under his coven. Caleb was under the same indoctrination growing up but changed anyway; Philip has nobody but to blame but himself, for being passive.

People choose to get better, or don’t; There are covenscouts like Tom and his group, confronted by Steve who chose to change and improve. And when offered the compassion and opportunity to do the same, they accepted; They chose improvement. Meanwhile, Coven Heads like Terra, Adrian, and Vitimir choose to stay the same. They don’t want to change, and it’s up to people like Darius and Eberwolf to prevent any more harm from them.

Alador chooses to change for his kids, because he misses them. He wants to be a dad they can look up to, and love. This is contrasted by Odalia, who bitterly stands off to the side; She could’ve chosen this moment to change, because it’s not like there were any other opportunities to pursue. But she doesn’t want to change.

And that’s part of theme of Choice, it’s that you have to choose to change, proactively and make it happen, or accept that change has happened regardless of your participation. When you have the ability, you have the responsibility, both in what to choose and the consequences that come. Philip didn’t want to face the consequences of his actions, denied responsibility. But people like Luz and the Collector and so many took responsibility; They saw they were hurting others and/or themselves, stopped and fixed the damage, and grew up. There is a responsibility to always offer compassion, even if you accept that people might reject it anyway.

Belos didn’t want to change, nor did he accept that times have changed; His brother is dead, there’s no bringing Caleb back. The human world has changed, he saw as such through Hunter’s eyes when the Gravesfield that indoctrinated him ultimately looked back on its witch hunting prejudice and decided that was wrong, admitted it changed.

Things can’t last forever, the Collector is convinced by Luz to accept change, not just in letting go, but also in learning about and acknowledging death. Just as Luz accepted her father Manny’s death; Belos being a cancerous growth that envelops the Titan, who is a father figure to King and low key Luz herself, is a metaphor for whatever illness killed Manny. By helping the Collector, a child who doesn’t understand death, Luz basically helps her childhood self; And by stopping Belos, she comes to terms with Manny’s death, and conquers her grief to move on and find a new future and a new family.

Because Luz and the Collector accept change, that means they don’t need to maintain an unnatural stasis; They’re able to wake up from their fantasy dreams by coming to terms with the loss of loved ones, for Luz her dad, for the Collector their previous Titan friends, and their fear of losing King. Belos, he clings to his dream of being a hero, and never wakes up, even insisting in his final words that it’s the witches who are evil, not actually him. Belos clung to the past of Gravesfield and his trauma, and was forced to face the now, the consequences that came afterwards with his sins, in the form of people actually alive and very angry.

But even with Belos’ death, the isles changed because of him, alas; The left arm has permanently risen, the geography of that area is drastically different and people must adapt. The Titan has finally, truly died, after he moved on, no thanks to Belos; No more of HIS glyphs, but there are King’s. So things change, and Luz accepts that; Even before King’s glyphs develop, the fact that she changed enough to earn String Bean allows her to survive this period of no glyph magic to rely on just fine, and build and plan a future around that.

There are still scars, like the literal ones of Luz, King, Eda, Hunter, and Raine; Or the emotional scars like the death of Flapjack, the trauma that everyone has suffered and is healing from. But because so many characters chose to change, and to accept change, they themselves became people so radically different, and so much happier for it. So when they all appear before Luz to thank her, to express gratitude for the compassion that enabled them to decide to change, and become new people for it…

It’s all about Choices. It’s about Freedom. It’s about Change, how you must facilitate and/or accept it. Control is antithetical to this, at least in application to others; But when you can control yourself and exercise autonomy, that’s wonderful. People like Amity, Lilith, Bump, Alador, and so many others chose to change and become better people, to create change in themselves and the world around them. Eda and King took responsibility for their actions, Eda accepting her curse was no excuse to push aside Raine, King becoming responsible with the implications of his divinity by rejecting them to be humble.

Luz changed people, and she never forced them to. She simply gave them the same choice that she chose for herself, and that’s beautiful. There is no Destiny that’s decided ahead of time for you, no God who decides your role in the world. There is no ‘Chosen One’, one for whom a decision has been made by someone else and thrust upon them, there is only One who Chooses. It’s all about deciding for yourself, and that’s part of the uncertainty but also freedom of growing up.

Luz chose to enter a foreboding shack. She chose to go back for her father’s book, to remain a weirdo, for herself and for Manny. And she chose to stay in the isles rather than go back. She’s been making choices all this time, deciding her own fate and as Eda advised her, what kind of witch Luz wants to be; A Good Witch.

#the owl house #luz noceda #the owl house collector #emperor belos #philip wittebane #meta #themes #analysis

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greenteaandtattoos · 2 years

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Mmmm this parallel though. Luz using Hunter’s teleport magic to try and save Hunter from Belos, just like when Hunter used Luz’s glyph magic to save her from Belos.

#the owl house #toh #the owl house spoilers #toh spoilers #the owl house season 3 #toh s3 #luz noceda #hunter toh #hunter wittebane #philip wittebane #emperor belos #the owl house analysis

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the-collector-blog · 1 year

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today on Top 10 Most Painful Anime Parallels,

(ps: watching the video would help support me! there are even more parallels in it, it's 32 sec long.)

#videos #the owl house #toh spoilers #watching and dreaming spoilers #watching and dreaming #caleb wittebane #philip wittebane #titan belos #the collector #toh the collector #luz noceda #emperor belos #wittebane brothers #toh #owl house #toh analysis #hollow mind #toh finale #toh angst

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amoritasart · 4 days

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ALSO I just … NEED to mention this creature. LOOK AT HIM. WHAT IS HE. WHO IS HEEE? So this is what is supposed to be Beta Hunter or whatever. Interesting, but even more so that apart from his familial connection to Obron and his eventual bond with Luz (that starts off a bit antagonistic) he is SO different to what ended up in comparison to the other characters. But you know who he does remind me of though?

Red overalls. Blue eyes. JAGGED KNIFE SWORD. Avid witch HATER. ENGLISH?? ANYWAY-

This kiiiind of convinces me that Belos and Philip were originally different characters because ?? What is this. BECAUSE HE JUST STRAIGHT UP SOUNDS LIKE HOW I’D IMAGINE TWEEN PHILIP TO BE LOL a bratty witch hater who is too proud to ask for help, but will happily accept it. Except he would have gotten to actually interact and bond (EEEEP🥹!) with Luz as humans out of place. What a tragedy !!

He sounds like such a little shit. But he’s cute! I ADORE HIM. All this time I thought William was the original Hunter… but this sounds more like he was the original Philip 😆 but contained in a time capsule instead of allowed to grow into a menace.

Alas, poor William went from witch lunatic, to knight prince, to being eradicated from existence. Such is fate. But parts of him live in Hunter and Philip. But just like the non existent Wittebane story… Won’t stop me from wondering what if !

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eternalera · 4 months

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i just noticed this really cool thing in the s2 intro of the owl house.

it shows lilith in this almost power like stance as if she's threatening someone it shows her as this basically enraged undefeatable foe and it shows her like shes a threat. she gives you the impression that she would never ask for mercy of any sort.

with hunter is shows him as the golden guard with his staff in hand and with his mask it demands power and respect it. it feels like your stereotypical warden who does a shit tone of bad stuff

then with kikimora she looks innocent and playful holding her cloth up to cover her mouth almost like a child would.

then with lilith when it turns it shows that what we saw before was basically just a facade. her hands are switched and shes looking down as if she's begging for either forgiveness or mercy. its almost like she's doing the action that's switched between frames

then with hunter his staff is gone and he's taking off the mask. both of which belos gave him to reassemble his power and his importance. yet its not here showing us that whatever we thought of this impenetrable warden that we saw before isn't true. once again it seems like he's doing this motion just like lilith

then with kikimora we see her crazed which honestly is just her whole buildup in the show which is pretty cool but she also looks angry. once again this seems to be done in one motion showing us that yknow 'theres more to them than we think'. as we get more of kikomoras insane devotion throughout the show (up until the part where she helps king) and i think this is supposed to show us that.

then we get belos scooping them up in his hand as if showing that he has power over them and that theyre his. he has control over them into doing basically whatever he wants

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tharrb · 11 months

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Hey friendly reminder that this was an accurate depiction of the fandom for a time and I will not shut up about it.

#the owl house #emperor belos #camilla noceda #bad fan analysis is bad

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rulersre4chf4n · 1 year

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When your brother is the only family you have and he abandons you and you spend years searching for him in what you think to be hell itself only to find him with a new family thriving without you and in your rage you lash out at him and kill him so you have to delude yourself into thinking that he was led astray by the devil (because which is less painful to believe--that your brother was under a spell or that he willingly chose hell itself over you and abandoned you for it?) and that you were putting him out of his misery but you know that his soul will be damned if that's true and more than anything you can't bear to live without him so you bring him back from the dead to try again and you convince yourself that you can 'save' him and make him not commit this sin (read: love someone other than you) but it happens again so you kill him and recreate him again and again but he never once changes because the idealized brother you're trying to bring back never existed in the first place but you can't stop because then you'd have to acknowledge that everything you've done has been for nothing and all you've accomplished over centuries and centuries is murdering your own brother countless times over

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chocochipjewel · 22 days

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Yapping about Belos and his ending excessively while also analysing him to the best of my ability under the cut

So given how much art of him I've reblogged by now, it really shouldn't come as a surprise that Belos is my favourite character from the Owl House.

I could talk about him for HOURSS but I just want to talk about 2 of my favourite moments of him to highlight the parts of him I love the most.

This moment in Hollow Mind, when he gets the key in his hand and you can see the light in his eyes. It's the only time his eyes have the distinct shine in them like every other character has all the time, and it's cause of the key he's holding. The key to the human realm is the only thing that gives him that shine cause it's the only thing he genuinely cares about. Everything he's doing is to go back home and revel in glory, which, while selfish, adds so much to his character. He's not doing this JUST for power, he became an Emperor just to tear his own creations down. I just find something extremely poetic about that.

And the second moment -

THIS MOMENT. THIS MOMENT IN KING'S TIDE AJDHSJSHSJS

I'm still mad these flashbacks were never brought up in any big way cause THEY REALLY SHOULD HAVE BUT AHSKSJS I'M GETTING AHEAD OF MYSELF.

Belos reliving his worst memories was always a concept that was going to be interesting because it's an insight into what really gets into the head of our main antagonist. What does the guy who is everyone else's worst fear have to fear. And the answer is himself.

The 3 memories he sees are him approaching Caleb with the knife, the actual murder as pictured above, and the creation of the grimwalkers.

What really gets me is that his eyes are wide when he recalls the first memory, but they look smaller in the second memory (in the screenshot). Maybe it's just the angle but I always interpreted it as his expression shifting to be one of genuine sadness for this particular memory. Because the mere fact that his most personal crime is also his worst memory is such an interesting concept. How does he live with that sort of guilt and worse, keep doing those same crimes but WORSE?

All of Hollow Mind could just be here really and I wouldn't complain. It's THE episode for Belos fans that really allowed us to dig into him, and the mere fact that he's consciously scratched off Caleb from all the happy memories as if to justify his own fratricide is a level of desperate coping that I just find so very interesting ajdjhsjjs

Not to mention that his inner self is a child, which, while a pretence by him, could still say something about how in his head, he still has not grown up and is still playing pretend, still playing witch hunter with every version of Caleb he creates, still playing god to finally achieve a fantasy so very childish and so frankly basic that it makes anyone watching from the outside think "wait, that's it? That's all this is for?" AND THAT'S THE POINT

Cause none of this needed to happen. None of this has a greater value than Philip trying to chase after lost dreams. All the plans he made, all his great power and his great empire amounts to nothing because he himself plans to destroy all of it to chase that childhood dream. Just like Luz, he entered the Boiling Isles to find a home, only his home was Caleb and he was never willing to love new things in the Isles, while Luz loved so much she literally changed the lives of everyone she met by loving them. And unlike Luz, Philip never grew out of that mindset, only burying it in layers and layers of lies and half truths.

In general, his relationship with Caleb is for sure the most interesting part of his character to me. The fact that he both repeatedly murders and repeatedly creates new grimwalkers in an endless cycle and then hallucinates Caleb looking at him with disdain implies so much about his dependancy on Caleb and the deepest parts of himself that know what he's doing is wrong. The parts that have broken free from the layers and layers of cognitive dissonance and have accepted that he was wrong, without any more justifications.

And now, to 'briefly' rant about him in season 3

Thanks to Them was juicy for character exploration, but I wish we actually got to see him react to the human realm properly. It's everything he's wanted, it's the one thing that still brings light into his life but the world he returned to would absolutely hate him. He's done all this for nothing. I wanted so badly to see how he copes with his guilt then, but they were short on time so I get it.

For the Future's hallucination scene makes this even more interesting cause of the depiction of him actually seriously suffering from something like hallucinations. It was dark as hell, and it was really interesting.

And then... WaD. All in all, a great finale. The only real big problem I had with it was Belos' ending.

After so much buildup to his depth and his motivations and his guilt and all his lies slowly collapsing around him, after everything he did to so many people, he deserved a better death. I don't think he didn't deserve death, I just think it happened too quick. Where was the final cathartsis from all his victims shunning him (Luz staring was perfect don't get me wrong, but the whole Hexsquad deserved to be there). Where was the moment he would finally no longer be able to lie to himself and he would be forced to accept that he did EVERYTHING he did, made all those great sacrifices, tortured so many people, just to fail and be at his victims' mercy after accomplishing nothing?

I understand the finale was juggling many MANY characters and plotpoints, but that's not stopping me from wishing for a better ending.

I wish I had had the motivation to draw something for this like I'd hoped, but a brief description about what kind of ending I'd have wanted will have to do.

I wish Luz saw his memories in the place in between with Papa Titan. It would reinforce her arc of feeling like they come from the same place too, if she saw Caleb leaving Philip and Philip's original goal of just wanting to get his brother back. I wish Luz saw all his "sad" memories and really started to question herself.

And then I would have wanted Papa Titan to shoot that down regardless, and then explain that while Belos may have started out a victim of his circumstances as an orphaned child in a cult, the Isles gave him chances to change. Memories of Philip in the Isles seeing Caleb happy, being given chances by witches, being given so many chances to change, and rejecting them accompanying this scene would be ideal. Really hammer in that he aas responsible for his own suffering and that he has absolutely no excuse for what he did to all his victims.

And then, in the final death scene, as he claims that as humans they are better than witches one last time, I wish the ghosts of all his victims showed up to prove him wrong. Every witch and grimwalker who choose to be better than him before they fell. Every member of the Hexsquad who believed in him and his regime at one point. Every single one of them a reminder of how his lies can't even convince himself anymore.

And finally, his own brother, a fellow human, who appears before him. I imagine Caleb looking at him with pity, almost sympathy, before a quiet acceptance comes onto his face and he turns away from him. He walks towards the crowd and chooses their side, next to Evelyn. Neither Caleb nor Luz say a single word. There is nothing left to be said to him anymore. Every single person on the Isles, human or witch, has turned against him now.

If anything could break his will, I think this would be it. I imagine him phasing through his different forms, trying to find a way to justify himself in each one, gradually desolving into desparate screams, before the boiling rain melts him away like in canon (except without the stomping please).

Aaaand that's it, no more notes. Thanks so much to all the Wittebane fans in the community who have kept his fanbase fed when the show didn't meet our standards and who prompted the line of thought that led to this post.

There are so many of you all who inspired and made my fandom experience fun and created so much out of just Philip, Caleb, and Evelyn (and all your OCs of course!!) so I'm just going to shoutout the ones I remember off the top of my head -

@talisman975

@jess-the-vampire

@calebsrottingcorpse

@owlyhouse

@anona1-mous

@captainmera

@moonmeg

@azure-blaze92

@a-magpie-in-the-bi

@a-magpie-in-gravesfield

This is no particular order and I'm surely missing more so this is by no means exhaustive, but this is just a shoutout for those who kept this fandom going. Y'all are the real troopers for sure.

That's all I got, but I'm posting some old Belos art soon! Cheers all, and may the terrible awful no good goo babygirl keep inspiring us for all the great art <3

#toh #the owl house #belosfanstakeover #emperor belos #philip wittebane #jewel talks about stuff #character analysis #watching and dreaming

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tempoaryblogformightyjensblog · 1 year

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....Did they make Boscha a Philip parralel?

Oh god they made Boscha a Philip parralel

Boscha misses Amity. But more specifically her version of Amity. They did bad things as school bullies, they hurt people. Boshca enjoyed it and Amity pretended to but didn't really. Amity found someone, she left Boscha's group and it made Boscha feel alone. Wich her dialogue makes explicit

"Amity: Let us go, Boscha.

Boscha: Oh, Amity. I already let you go. Many times. When you stop hanging out with the group, when you left the grudgby team, when you disappeared for months!"

"Boscha: I won’t let you leave again!

Amity: Boscha, you’re hurting me!"

And of course, it all comes down to the fact that Boscha didn't just care about Amity. She cared about a specific version of Amity. As Amity says "I can't be who you want me to be".

So...on to Philip and Caleb.

Philip and Caleb probably did some horrible things as witch-hunters'. From what we can tell with their personalities, Philip enjoyed doing those things while Caleb, deep down, didn't. Caleb changed for the better and left the town. But Philip felt left behind, and became obsessed with finding Caleb again. He wanted things to go back to how they were, when they were Witch-Hunters. But the version of Caleb that Philip loved...just wasn't real. Unlike Boscha, Philip could not accept that. So he killed the original for not being like how he wanted to be. And dedicated a part of his life to trying to make his preffered 'version' real.

To summarize:Boscha is the good ending version of Philip. She was able to accept that Amity was not happy as who she used to be and that she can't force Amity to be the person she wants. And it'll take time but she's on the path to being a better person herself.

#the owl house #Amity blight #boscha #Emperor Belos #philip wittebane #caleb wittebane #character analysis #Parralels #TOH spoilers #For the future

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vyvilha · 7 months

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my least favorite (and unfortunately the most common) mischaracterization of belos is when he's depicted as this like. Grumpy Old Man. come on guys belos is not grumpy. he is literally the opposite. he is calm and uncannily sweet, his voice is soft and he chooses his words very carefully. he looks at you like you're a lost animal, with eyes full of pity and kindness so unnatural, you just can't shake off the feeling of something deeply Wrong. and even when he's not playing his character of a Nice Grandpa to get people do what he wants, he's still not grumpy. he is a passive-agressive bitch. he tells kikimora to kill herself with the same soft voice and sweet smile he used to tell hunter that titan has big plans for him. he's like if a mean girl was an old man do you get me

#the owl house #emperor belos #belosposting #philip wittebane #character analysis

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rex-shadao · 1 year

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The Lonely End of Belos

Or why Hunter, Caleb, Evelyn, Lilith, Collector, or anyone that Belos personally wronged didn't get to be the witness to his demise.

I admit, I was a bit unsatisfied with Belos' demise. After all the build up with Caleb hallucinations and Grimwalker bones, I thought he would fall into the graveyard pit, see the ghosts, and realizing all too late it's his fault before he melts into a pile of bones.

Prior to that, before Thanks to Them, I speculated on Belos' fate would be him being hunted down by an angry mob of humans led by Jacob Hopkins believing him to be some kind of cryptid monster either threatening the town... or offer a rare opportunity to get rich on the news. And then he falls apart like an animal.

And when Watching and Dreaming trailer hinted at Belos possessing the Titan, I wondered how they were going to defeat Belos without resorting to revenge or poetic irony (since Belos is this big final boss that the heroes would blow up like with the core). I thought perhaps they would turn Belos into a Palisman tree and make him give back all the Palisman he devoured in a twisted form of redemption. Perhaps they'll remind him of his past and start a mental collapse that causes him to lose control of the Titan as he sees images of Caleb. I was pretty sure Caleb would show up just before Belos dies, giving him the realization that he's damned.

But his actual demise... feels empty. He did fall apart as I expected and there's sense of loneliness in his demise, but... no Caleb. No Evelyn. Nothing hinting to his past. Heck, I don't think the name Philip is even brought up once. It feels like we've been cheated out of a cathartic demise, and I spent the hours since the special aired trying to make sense of this choice and why. Why is there no Wittebane lore.

And ultimately, I make this conclusion:

Belos refused to open up about his past. It's quite telling the Collector spilled everything of his Freudian Excuse from being bullied by the Archivists to being wrongfully imprisoned by King's Dad to his desire for friends and being accepted. Him opening up communications of his insecurities allowed Luz, Eda, and King to empathize and help him. To teach him kindness and forgiveness. To teach him the value of life through death. And through their teachings does the Collector become better and ultimately redeemed.

But Belos? We know he had a traumatic past and a lot of insecurities with his brother. We know he's a lot like Luz and the Collector when he was a child. But unlike them, he never opened up about his insecurities. He forcibly molds them into abstract ideas and rules. For the greater good of humanity. For the good of your souls. He always tries to make it non personal, thinking it makes him selfless and pure.

But what he ends up creating is a caricature of himself. A shallow representation of his former human life. The Hollow Mind portraits released this week on Twitter shows tragedy with the happy memories being free of scratches and burns. Those were the original looks. But in the actual episodes, even the happy memories were scarred and burned. As Understanding Willow reveals, if you burn the memory pictures, you essentially erase them from existence. This means that Belos barely remembers his past. Now that I think about it, Belos never actually used the word brother at any point. Just an old friend. At first, I thought he was trying to avoid triggering trauma memories regarding Caleb's murder, but now I wonder... did he actually forget Caleb was his brother?

Because if he did, then it explains why he never seem to make the connection that Eda and Lilith may in fact be the descendants of Evelyn and Caleb. He only remembers Evelyn's first name but can't remember her face or anything that would link her to the Clawthrones.

And then it hits me. Despite being the big main antagonist of the series... Belos has only one personal connection to our main trio: Luz the Human. Eda, he dismisses her as an Owl Lady outlaw who isn't important in the grand scheme of thing. And King, he thinks it's a weird dog demon, not a baby Titan. But Luz, he's obsessed with because A) she would help him learn the Light Glyph and find the Collector and B) she's the first human he has seen in centuries.

Thus, it is Luz that Belos focuses on the most. It's Luz that Belos wants to form an actual connection since Caleb's death. And when you think about those witnessed Belos' demise... Luz is the only one that Belos has any genuine interactions with. Eda, King, and Raine... they were all background pawns or obstacles, not even worth specializing personal grudges towards like he would with Lilith, Hunter, Evelyn, or even Caleb.

So in spirit, Luz is the last lifeline for redemption and forgiveness. And Belos blew it. He was so obessed with Luz due to her human status but he never gave anything about his past to her (Luz only got Belos' backstory from Masha). He assumes that being human alone is sufficient enough for speaking terms. And he choose the best looking human look for her: A non-broken nose Philip Wittebane. Just as how she saw him in Elsewhere and Elsewhen. The ideal adventurer and hero of the 17th century. He evidently forgot that this bearded Phillip destroyed Luz's respect for him. This Philip lied to her and betrayed her and Lilith. This Philip was not the hero Luz envisioned. After all, the Philip she idolized in the diaries was clean shaven. He could have chosen that form... if he actually remembers that.

And then he sloppily try to make himself sound like he's freed from a curse, sloppily using the term dark magic instead of wild magic, and taking great pains to even say that he did horrible things, even under the excuse of a curse. He has no idea on how to make himself relatable when it's all there within him deep down. He just uses the surface-deep level of relatability and Luz doesn't buy it. And the boiling rain melts away that skin deep humanity, revealing a rotting ghoul barely clinging onto life, screaming of how witches are evil and unforgivable as he crawls to Luz. Notably, he still doesn't give a reason as to why he thinks they're all evil. We all know what it likely is, but Belos never confirms it to Luz.

Belos is virtually on autopilot, repeating the mantra of humans are superior and witches are evil. He never speaks about how Caleb was "stolen" from him by a witch. He never speaks about how Gravesfield taught that witches are evil. His memories almost completely erased by his self-inflicted denial, all he can think of is wiping out witches and saving humanity. A caricature of his former self.

And by failing to swayed Luz, he's completely alone. There is no Caleb now. No Evelyn. No Hunter. No Lilith. No Grimwalkers. No Flapjack. Just Luz whose connection he tries to forge is now a shallow parody because of how much he doesn't understand her at all. But she wouldn't kill him since that would give him a known company at his last moment. Instead he meets his end by those that he doesn't even see as personally important beyond pawns. Though they have a lot of personal grudges against the former Emperor and tyrant, Belos only sees strangers at the end of in his long life.

Philip Wittebane is nothing more than a faded memory of a bygone era. He died with his brother Caleb, regulated to just folklore ghost stories told in Halloween of Gravesfield. To some, they may never really exist in the first place since 1613 is a very long time.

The creature that resembles Philip is just Belos and he is little more but a parody of a man, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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