#emperor belos

[1verre2trop-official]

ooooof this is incredible and beautiful

Breathing Underwater by Hot Milk

[electraslight]

dryad

[jess-the-vampire]

Imagine moving to a new country and their equivalent of Jesus is just walking around and everyone is very casual about it actually

[a-magpie-in-gravesfield]

I was looking for horse gif references for a friend and I couldn't help myself ebskendnwekndkewdw

[1verre2trop-official]

aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh this is soooo great !

[wittebanged]

me when im sleepy

[cursedwithcaution]

Finding Palismen || Chapter 57: Remember Us

[Image description in alt and at end of post]

I moved on, unable to keep myself from looking at other memories. Not all the images were as clear as that one. Seeing myself in that expressionless mask, I knew it was me. I did those things. I did anything for him. Freaked out as I was to be alone, I was relieved Amity and Luz weren’t there to see this. The rotten stench lingered in the air. I tried the walkie a few more times as if I could find better signal under the right tree. Maybe they weren’t even in here any more. Maybe I was entirely alone—me and my delightful little mind. I doubted that, though. They wouldn’t just leave me here, right? Not without searching for a little while. They’ll find a way down here, I told myself. “You hear that, mind? You better give my friends a way to get down here! Actually, you should give me a way to—” A bone crunched under my foot. My ears started ringing even before I looked down at the field of bones, skulls, and masks. There were only a few trees poking through, all in a line. I walked to the nearest one, pretending not to hear the sickening crunch made with each step. As I expected, the image was of finding the Golden Guard dumping ground a few months ago. It was the most recent memory I’d seen down here and it took me off guard—the hair, the clothes, but mostly how sick I looked. My skin was so gray. It really did look like it was about to rot off my face. I shuddered and kept moving. "Flapjack?" I called. Then I tried the walkie. I glanced at a memory as I passed the next tree. Mindscape within a mindscape. The moment I saw the truth, Luz behind me as I stared slack-jawed at the gallery of death. My hands started hurting. My back tensed. “Don’t get scared,” I said. “It’s just a photo. Keep moving.” I wasn’t even sure what I was supposed to be moving towards at that point. I didn’t think I would find a way out, I had no way of knowing if my friends were even on the same plane of existence as me. All I had was a baseball bat and a useless walkie-talkie. I didn’t want to find him.  Not here, not by myself.

[ID: In a polaroid photo-style frame, a younger version of Hunter but with the scars, brown eyes, and longer hair he has when he's older stands clinging to the leg of Belos, who is resting his hand on Hunter’s head. Outside the frame, Belos is distorted and staring at the viewer with a glowing blue eye. Top right text reads “Remember Me” and the text writing on the polaroid frame reads “Finding Palismen #57” /End ID]

[dragonkingz159]

Well, I was wrong on this one…oh well haha!

A theory that not a lot of people are going to like but.

I don’t think Belos is going to die.

Defeated? Absolutely. Dead and gone? I don’t think so.

I honestly think he is going to be trapped in the mirror realm that the Collector was trapped in and Luz accidentally went to in Yesterday’s Lie.

Trapped unable to escape less someone lets him out again. He becomes a myth, watching and waiting, trying to manipulate someone desperate into opening the door for him. Hell maybe when the door slams shut behind him he can do nothing but watch. Glaring out at both the Witches who trapped him and Humans who moved on without him.

He becomes some creature remembered only as Belos the "Mirror Monster" or the "Witch Hunter", not Philip Humanity's Savior or Witch Finder General. But importantly...He is a Monster that can come back.

Because Philip is a creation of humanity. He embodies the worst of us and we are constantly Dealing with Philips, whether in our personal lives or as a society when they become a Belos, someone with power and influence and uses that for their own gain and goals instead of the betterment of us all. People who want to see others gone, who won't stop until they eradicate or crush what they see as unnatural or weird. And you can't reason with them because they do not see you as a Person but as a enemy. They have to be Drowned out by Others. Others who are capable of love and reason, who when they see suffering have compassion and can be appealed for help.

So that the Philips in the world are outnumbered and afraid because they know that people KNOW that they are wrong. That they have their power taken away and made to be seen as fools, incapable of love or kindness, and when they appear only met with looks of disdain for every word out of their mouth is laced with poison and hatred.

I think its paramount that we make our Philips into Jacob Hopkins essentially. And if that fails, we lock them away.

And so the evils of humanity are defeated, for a time, we learn and grow better but we stumble and fail. Fall back on our baser instincts and forget kindness and compassion and allow the Evil Back Out.

And I am rambling. What was I saying...Oh yeah

I think it would also be ironic if the puritan witch hunter basically became Satan locked away forever for all of his crimes. Unable to self reflect and recognize that he has become the "ultimate" evil, trapped in a hell of his own making.

Anyway byeeee

[nova-streyart]

March 2025 | Through the Castle Window

(This will be the first of, hopefully, many monthly art pieces!)

[sepublic]

            I also wanted to discuss this as its own post because it’s the only question from the Gallery Nucleus Q&A I can find an actual video source on, but in regards to whether there would’ve been a Wittebane flashback in the show, had there been no shortening? None whatsoever, according to Dana herself; On account of A) Not wanting the audience to think Belos is in any way sympathetic, and B) Wanting to preserve the mystery of what exactly happened, because she thinks it plays into the horror vibes better. There definitely would’ve been more than what we got in canon, but not a full backstory.

            Can I say, what a relief to have actual confirmation, in one way or the other? With that in mind, I get Dana; That’s a pretty fair takeaway! Considering who Belos represents, it’s fine to not want viewers trying to think of him as understandable in any way, when we have sycophants in the media playing devil’s advocate for the current men in office; Sometimes ya gotta be firm, and if this is the writers’ way of conveying their point, so be it!

            Dana obviously didn’t want to portray Belos as evil since birth just from the memory portraits, and the overall themes of the story; But she didn’t want viewers to think Belos is sympathetic just because he wasn’t born evil, which is what you can say about every person in history, good and bad. And while I do consider that the writers made a mistake by including Hunter in the show at all, it seems Dana was at least wary about fans bending over backwards for those other white guys Belos and Caleb, which I’m really grateful for in hindsight.

            To go on a tangent, the second reason also makes me think of how the Star Wars films, which stand on their own, never really explained why Palpatine was like that, and they didn’t need to when the mechanics of the world and reality provided enough; And with Belos, we know a lot more about his background, AND he’s more humanized! The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise was all the story needed, and the mystery does add a layer of horror.

            Of course, certain people are freaking out over this revelation, so let me bring up this one popular Tumblr post going around, about how it’s important to humanize villains so the viewer can reflect on the capacity for evil of anyone, including themselves; With a very popular addition to that post being that humanizing a villain isn’t necessarily the same as sympathizing with them. The former is all Dana and the writers did, and frankly it’s all they needed to do.

            We’ve seen Luz and Lilith’s ability to fall for a cult under the promise of belonging, King feeling tough from destroying his enemies, the Collector’s possessive love. There’s plenty of good faith examples of hurting people because characters thought it was for the better, and Belos provides an example of bad faith, in addition to the show emphasizing character beats exclusive to him; The colonial white supremacist. The so-called critics aren’t really asking for what they say they are, because really, the complaints boil down not to the fact that Belos wasn’t humanized, it’s that the narrative didn’t sympathize with… a genocidal white supremacist?????

            I remember seeing Belos fans claim that the crew wrote him “differently” in S3, that they made him less sympathetic, which is silly to me not just because S3 Belos is the same guy as S2, but mask-off and in the midst of his villainous breakdown.

            But S3 was where the writers established that he was an orphan, that he wears his brother’s coat, that contrary to S2’s presentation, he DOES somehow feel guilt over the brother and Grimwalkers he murdered, and it’s an interesting contrast to his apparent apathy at the end of Hollow Mind!

            But it’s also not mutually exclusive from his prior-established enjoyment of hurting the Grimwalkers, because abusers can have mixed feelings about their abuse but still do it anyway because they ultimately still thrive on it. It doesn’t make Belos a good or tragic person, it just makes him human. The show doesn’t invite you to find him sympathetic for this, just condemn him more because of how pathetic it all is, it’s a realistic reaction based on how anyone would react to him IRL. There’s nothing different about Belos in the finale, it’s just a reminder of who he still is at his core, and being human doesn’t retroactively make committing genocide ‘complex’ because we’re all human, why does he get special credit for that?

            Again, I’ve seen some salty Belos stans claim that giving him a flashback was necessary to show how people can fall down that path, but again the show already did that. And amidst the discussion of good faith, the point with Belos specifically is that some people are just acting out of bad faith, and it’s why you can’t fix everyone, and that’s why we had the Collector’s hug fail. Because if you orchestrate genocide, then you’ve given up any claims of acting in good faith. Everyone has the capacity for evil, but realistically, it comes to some people a lot more easily than others; Even so, Boscha was a bully with no reason for it, but she still matured! And I see nothing wrong in this day and age of showing that a PoC has every right to kill a white supremacist who’d already murdered her. I swear it feels like people think belittling or hating on victims makes them subversive and not just stupid.

[strawberyaurabya]

HAIIIIIIIIII I LOVE YOUR ORTHODOXIA WIP ABOUT BELOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was wondering if you had individual frames of all the commandments because aGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH they're so absolutely well written and wicked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why, thank you! ^^

The commandments - as well as the PMV - were inspired off of this video, right here:

If you are interested, I also have separate frames of the commandments here.

[owlslover]

[hamletunfortunately]

Belos doodle

[a-magpie-in-gravesfield]

He needs some good sleep (and so do I x'D)

[jess-the-vampire]

OHhh!? See, about Caleb and Philip's immortality, I was under the impression Philip had simply made a deal for the Collector to "save him" and didn't care to negotiate how since, at the time, Caleb was actively dying. I didn't know​ the Collector gave Philip a spell to do it! Did Philip realize the full effect of what he was doing, or did he think he was just healing Caleb? Oh! Is that why he cast it on himself, too!?

well the reality was he made this deal well AFTER caleb had been healed

the reason he did his was because the near loss of caleb had such a drastic effect on him he wanted to prevent it from ever happening again, while also preserving himself (Because he thought he was still gonna kill all the witches you see)

but as it probably has been made obvious, he didn't think through all the consequences, the pain it would inflict on caleb, being unable to get out of this deal, the reality of him slowly withering away but unable to truly die, ect ect

it was an emotional choice at the end of the day, and he did end up paying dearly for it when he realized how much of a mess he had made

on one hand, it allowed him and caleb to reconcile and gain family and do things they may not of, on another hand, there was a a lot of pain they also went through due to what he did