#and to that point: luz's exposure to titan magic through the will of the titan enables her to do magic

[assblastergaster]

the finale was absolutely fantastic :') was an excellent and intelligent way to end the series in a way that honored what they could do and gave respect to what they couldn't.

personally, i think they did the absolute best work they could do.

i will mourn for the loss of some obvious content—clawthorne/belos connection, collector development, backstory on titans/archivists, more information on magic—but the team did such an amazing job that it feels satisfying enough without all of that.

[sepublic]

I wonder if Emperor Belos was a human in the past, this withered and lowkey dying form of him is a result of being in the Boiling Isles for 50 years. We already know that Witch biology and Human biology are legit different and that Luz has a different connection to the Isles because shes human but I wonder if a human happened to become stuck in this realm, would their body change. Are human bodies incapable of properly adapting and overtime become something else, something rotten?

While I don’t think being human in the Boiling Isles would cause such damage… There IS something to the idea that Belos has had exposure to something, and maybe that’s why he’s so, well… not gucci.

Like regardless of whether or not he was a human (he clearly isn’t anymore), or whether or not the original witches were humans… I have to wonder if, given Belos’ implied age and access to the Titan’s heart… Did he find its Bile Sac? We know witches used to rely on glyphs… Did they naturally evolve the bile sac over time? Or did SOMEONE introduce it to them… The very raw essence of magic, allegedly, taken from the gracious Titan who provided its gift… Magic Bile, which Belos gave to himself and his followers, and maybe even shared with the rest of society in genuine good faith!

Perhaps Belos drank the Magic Bile and it developed a Bile Sac… Or more morbidly, he cut up the Titan’s Bile Sac and then sewed it up into smaller, individual organs before grafting them to others’ hearts. Maybe the first generation of bile-users had some issues down the line as it was technically a foreign substance… But those born of them were born with bile as a natural body-part since the very beginning, and were thus truly meshed with it and formed an ideal symbiosis!

Maybe Belos is a hold-over from that original generation of witches whose bodies partially rejected bile, hence his… interesting relationship with magic, to say the least. Maybe witches always had bile sacs and didn’t learn to use them until later, or it was something they developed… And Belos is of the ancient, primordial generations that didn’t have access to the bile sac, and could only rely on glyphs.

So, like Luz, who can also listen to the Titan like him… Belos can’t cast bile magic the conventional way. But instead of just making do with glyphs, he improvised and adapted, and decided to artificially attach it to him… Perhaps through the Titan’s Heart?

Honestly, the Human Belos theory by this point feels less a discussion of “What is he?” and more “What WAS he…?” That whatever Belos started off as, he’s been twisted and changed so much that his body is beyond recognition… That coupled with his ideas of making individuals conform and become ‘different’ people, and Belos’ own mask that he wears for potentially more than just functional purposes…

Maybe to Belos, he’s changed so much that what he once was no longer matters; That it was an old identity that he killed off years ago, and that the person he is now is entirely different and may as well be an unrelated, disconnected entity, altogether! Now, why he did this, if it was simply a recognition of what Belos feels has happened to him, and/or an active attempt to stamp out the past, is a question for another day…

…After all, amidst the show’s discussions and themes of identity, there IS the idea aired of changing someone until they’re no longer who they are; That this could’ve happened to Luz at the summer camp, and that what we would’ve gotten wouldn’t be Luz, not the one Camilia or the audience got to know and love.

Perhaps this is an acknowledgement and discussion of that fact, and what it means for someone like Belos, if he’s too far-gone or not. That if a person is changed so much to the point that they’re practically a different person entirely, then what if they’re treated and acknowledged as a wholly-separate individual because of this? Could one reconcile a past and current identity? Maybe Belos sees himself more as the spawn of a past, deceased identity; Rather than a continuation of it! Born of it, but not LITERALLY it... Which when you consider that one book title alluding to the ‘Titan’s spawn’ is interesting, to say the least...

[sepublic]

Magic Bile Questions

To help pass the time, let’s speculate on stuff that isn’t necessarily plot relevant, but could be a lot of fun for world-building and maybe a fanfic or two;

Specifically, the subject of Magic Bile. In Episode 4, we learn from Eda that Witches have a magic bile sac attached to their hearts, and this bile provides the fuel source for witches to perform magic.

And that makes me wonder- Could one transplant a bile sac to their heart? If Luz had magic surgery to attach a bile sac to her heart, would she be able to perform magic without a circle? Or is that just like attaching a leaf to a person and then expecting them to be able to perform photosynthesis?

Can bile be toxic? Anything in excess usually is, but... what if a regular witch were to drink bile? Could it replenish used-up stores of bile? What if Luz drank magic bile? Would her body have a negative reaction to it, or would she just get indigestion and then nothing else happens? What if a witch tried to attach multiple sacs of magic bile to their heart? Could they suffer from an overdose... Would their body and organs shut down? Would they require a second heart just to be able to pump all that bile through their body?

For that matter... DOES bile circulate throughout the whole body, or is it connected to just the hands? We see Willow perform plant magic without casting a circle, through sheer force of will alone as her eyes glow. Likewise, as @anistarrose pointed out, it appears that female witches have gems on their chests that are probably connected to their magic bile sacs. What exactly is the connection, and is the gem purely aesthetical? Nobody has ever mentioned female witches being stronger than male witches.

Can you run out of bile? Is it a replenishing sort of thing... Eda casts a lot of magic in the beginning of Episode 4, and this exhausts her, so presumably this is a self-replicating substance. If you removed a witch’s bile sac, would that kill them? Could they grow it back? Would they simply lose any and all magic ability, and could a bile sac transplant return their abilities?

Also... what DOES magic bile look like? For a while, for some reason, I assumed it was a golden color (probably because of Eda’s spell circles), but we see other spell circles that are blue, green, etc. Does bile have different colors for different witches, and does it change with personality, affinity, and/or coven binding? Or are the spell circles just the energy produced by the bile, and not indicative of the bile’s actual physical appearance?

What if one was to store bile? Could you have extra containers of bile stored elsewhere, and then just drink up/inject some if you’re running low? Are there issues with transplanting bile, like are there bile types the way blood comes in types A, AB, O, etc.? Just what are the properties of magic bile? Are there Bile Banks, the same way there are Blood Banks? Could one make potions with magic bile as an ingredient?

Could exposing a non-witch to it through controlled doses lead to the development of a bile sac? We know witches relied on the sigil-system, which possibly implies that they didn’t always have bile sacs. So where did they come from? I’ve speculated before that perhaps the Boiling Isles Titan had its own magic bile sac, and it was a group of witches who came into contact with that sac (and possibly drank its contents) that led to the development of witches having magic bile sacs. Maybe they developed bile sacs from gradual, generational exposure to the titan’s bile.

It’s a lot of fun to consider, especially regarding the nature of what exactly Witches are, and what differentiates them from Demons. I’ll do another post on that later, but for now, I’m mostly considering these questions for potential fanfic purposes.