lu5tbug-blog

[kaadaart]

Into the fiery pit that is the Wittebane fandom you go-

**throws fanart at you**

Idk I just think he is neat

[hecateisalesbian]

Something about how Luz and Hunter parallel Caleb and Phillip just….

[kiwibirb1]

I CAN'T

I'm reading TOH storyboards and Belo's face in this I can't

[horrastorie]

Look at this motherfucker, I need to punch him and smooch him. I want to put him in the Salad Spinner™️ Kick like the football

[cannibal-crxw]

Yeah dude, I just think he's a cool guy (I'm super obsessed with him)

[traggalicious]

Boy ain’t vibin. As my label says, this is Lazarus! He gets GOOPED. My working reason for it is that Belos tried to make him w/ magic by carving glyphs into the palistrom wood. And uh. It did kinda work? But it fucked him UP. So Laz gets to live in eternal suffering /j. He becomes somewhat of a… story in bonesborough and surrounding areas bc he’s a goop monster roamin’ the woods (sometimes). He’s not a fan of palisman consumption either so that’s not helpful. He and the Bat Queen have an odd relationship in which she’s wary of him but also,,, poor dude. So she helps him out on occasion. Yea anyway sorry for the Long Ramble abt my OC lmaoo.

[aberrant-winter]

[clanofjones]

Man, remember when the fan favorite got possessed by a creature with an irregular/unusual number/quality of eyes?

So we have Bipper for Bill possessing Dipper, Darcy for The Core possessing Marcy, and Bunter/Witch Hunter (according to Reddit) for Belos possessing Hunter, what do we call Belos possessing Raine and the Krang possessing Raph?

[non-normal-nate]

putting this bastard in several mason jars and boiling them

[meltingchaos]

Parallels.

That same look. Disbelief, disgust, betrayal. Both human residents of the boiling isles ultimately couldn't forgive Belos, and with good reason. His efforts to 'save' humanity only resulted in his fellow humans hating him.

His responses to both of them are the same. Deflecting blame, twisting it to be on the witches, still ever evading the consequences of his own actions. He acts like both a victim and a hero, contradicting himself and desperately grasping at any excuse to believe that he's the good guy in this story. "I tried to save your soul, it's your fault this all happened" and "We're human, we're better than this". Masterful manipulation that's now easy for these two to spot. His facade is broken. 👏

Belos is a phenomenal villain and seeing the people he's hurt not say anything to him but instead give him this look is so powerful.

They didn't need to say anything. The glare was enough to make him squirm, panic and frantically scramble to defend himself. He doesn't have power over them anymore, nor can he hide from his actions. He's faced with a look that acknowledges his wrongdoings, forcing him to come face to face with them despite doing all he could to avoid them. Despite destroying the fonder memories of his brother, burning out his face to justify killing him. ('Hollowing' out his mind, if you will.) Despite every instance of him running from his past. All that comes back with this look.

He can't control his fellow humans anymore, he can't convince them and he certainly cant be seen positively or loved by them. In one look, he's lost.

[jadeazora]

Watching The Owl House for the first time, just made it to S3, and I love that Belos got run over by a car.

Just kinda imagine him, confused, like, wondering what kinda strange metal carriage it is and why it's making this unholy "BEEEEEEEEE--" racket, when he's smacked at a good 35mph.

[toh-aus-coven]

Philip's Story is an Adoption Story... Here's Why That Matters

A few disclaimers before we dive in...

Binary thinking is discouraged here; adoption and its themes are complicated and nuanced. Multiple truths can exist.

This is one perspective and this analysis comes from being in community with adopted/orphan people, research, and misc experience

"Adoption adjacent" includes adoptees/orphans/foster kids (these three groups often overlap in various ways that will be elaborated on)

Please engage with this post in good faith. I know non-adoptees can experience things listed in this post however, there is a different context that underlies the experience of those adopted/adjacent. And of course, I'm not trying to make generalizations either... It's just that the narrative is more complicated than a lot of people want to admit.

Sound good? Let's proceed. THIS POST IS GOING TO BE A BIT LONG!

At the core of Belos/Philip's story is an 'adoption' story. And it's all because of this particular line:

I know what you're thinking "But isn't being an orphan different from being adopted?" Yes, and within the media in particular, adoptee and orphan stories overlap heavily-- in fact, it's almost a circle (although due to his background and his time-period, he'd probably be taken in by someone given the boys' age of their arrival). It’s about the experience of parental separation which is what connects adoptee and adjacent people. So while Philip is not adopted, he is adoptee adjacent and that still matters. Concerning media and the way adopted/orphaned characters are portrayed, it's often presented in a very binary manner. Most people's knowledge of the subject comes from other people's perception of it rather than adopted/orphaned people themselves. And to a degree that makes sense... These stories are often ABOUT [adoptees/adjacent people ] without INCLUDING them. Adoption themes are incredibly pervasive throughout literature, TV/movies, video games, and other media. It's not inherently wrong to have an adoption-related storyline, plot, or character but most people don't do it in a way that is humanizing and avoids common pitfalls within the storytelling.

There's a quick impulse to call Philip 'evil' and 'irredeemable' without actually understanding his character... and when you view him through an 'adoptee-centered' lens his behavior makes a lot of sense. The fact the show treats this specific fact about the character as a plot device rather than something that could be explored is a tiny bit insulting. They only mention it in the exposition which kind of implies that this detail is meant to explain Philip's deep attachment to his brother. Which yes, it does and TOH leaves us hanging -- or actually they just tell us that this man is evil and call it a day.

Which leads me into one of the biggest pitfalls that the show uses for Philip-- he's framed as just evil. The trope of good/bad adoptee/adjacent character is a pretty common see -- even within the same piece of media. If we're going to use TOH we can look at King's character -- King, a young main protagonist who is the last living son of a god. King is young, cute, 'exceptional', has special abilities, etc (there are issues with King's portrayal as well but this post isn't about him). This is an issue because adoptees/adjacent people are more than a reductive good/bad label. Same with concepts such as 'gratitude' -- being grateful or not grateful when the real answer can be a lot more complex than that. It's a binary question that can be a complicated answer. We're the picture-perfect heroes or the irredeemable villains-- nothing in-between.

Taking this into consideration, when we look at Philip you start to see someone who's not 'evil'; you begin to see a man who is coping with separation trauma and abandonment issues. This is unfortunate to hear but research tells us that adoptees are 4x more at risk to 'self-exit', 2x at risk to have substance abuse issues, and generally more likely to be diagnosed with mental health disorders (obviously every individual is different but when talking about adoption many people tend to ignore these types of statistics in favor of more 'positive' ones). 'Negative' aspects that many adoptees/adjacent people experience or try to talk about are often dismissed or worse, they are gaslighted. When you look at Philip and his characterization you see these behaviors in a different light such as:

His attachment/abandonment issues (Caleb, this one doesn't need any elaboration; EDIT- gonna elaborate anyways lol). To be honest Philip shows a lot of symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder. The hallmark of the disorder is a fear of abandonment — and BPD often stems from childhood trauma. Interestingly enough it’s not uncommon for adoptees (in particular women; there is a misogynistic component to this but i digress) to get a BPD diagnosis. And given that the show portrays Philip in a very stigmatizing way… you can see why this isn’t great…

Difficulty regulating his emotions ('the curse' seems to come out when he's emotionally escalated)

'Substance' use (the palismen; he seems physically reliant on them and they don't benefit him in any way besides sustaining his life. also, he looks like he's huffing something when he consumes one Side note: Some people think that Philip deserved to 'be cursed' (which is a side effect[?] of the consumption) since he “cursed himself”... super not great for adoptees/adjacent people we’re already a misunderstood group of people and it's not uncommon to get insulted or blamed when trying to have a nuanced discussion or share experiences.

His sense of self seems unstable... Most of his identity hinges on his brother, not himself (ex. being a witch hunter, the use of the gravesfield coat of arms for the emperor's sigil, the coat he wears, his name-- Philip Wittebane, etc)

There's a bunch of emotional stuff I would have to guess would be true but they'd more fall under theory or headcanon

It's not that he is 'evil' he is in pain and he is blamed for that. Obviously, he doesn't make productive choices and he does bear responsibility for the harm he caused and he is a creation of his environment. He had to hate to survive. This is where 'this and' can come into play... For many adoptees, we have feelings of not belonging -- even more so for transracial adoptees (those adopted/fostered into homes of a different race than their own). Many transracial adoptees are raised in environments that are racially / ethnically homogeneous (from their own race) so it can be harder to 'fit in' and it can also cause someone to have a complex relationship with their racial/ethnic background when one is essentially assimilated into a community that they stick out of.

edit: In mainstream society being adopted or 'orphans' is deemed to be a shameful thing, used as a comedy device, or through very rosed colored glasses... and there's a problem to highlight here: because adoptee/adjacent are often seen as source material for STORIES we often view their experiences through the lens of A STORY rather than someone's lived experience. It is easier to view a particular thing as a story for entertainment when for someone else it is reality. While Philip is a fictional character many aspects of his behavior are very real and deserve understanding and empathy for real adoptees/adjacent people. We deserve to be more than stories with black-and-white roles and deserve to be seen in color. As full complex people.

Here are some resources if you're interested in learning more about adoptee-centered adoption perspectives:

https://adoptionmosaic.com/resources

https://sidebysideproject.com/11-short-films

http://adopteereading.com/overview/

https://harlows-monkey.com/

https://adopteeconsciousness.com/

this tedtalk is good too: https://youtu.be/jL4lnvQ1wVU?si=HpYASjvvOXnY2faX

Edit: https://youtu.be/Rz3ME8K_zW4?si=CpEQarRbe8VAUqAR (this documentary just came out and you may hear a certain basilisk/gem featured!)

[amoritasart]

Ok I don’t know how to explain this but I think Philip might have initially carved the glyph symbols on his skin as a form of punishment?? Puritans had like, severe punishments , and they were very creative with their methods too. Whipping, public humiliation, branding… These people hanged real people for witchcraft .. I don’t think it’s a stretch to think Philip internalized these things as a kid and he grew up thinking if people do bad things they deserve to be hurt. Because like, I think of how he didn’t need to physically harm himself to do magic, he also didn’t have to literally cut off his ears (he wears a mask all the time anyway, has long hair, and concealment stones exist? ).

Like I’ve seen people say that he didn’t think it through and was kinda stupid (could very well be the case, or just impulsive), but knowing him I feel like suffering was the point? You want to learn and do magic like a witch, you will suffer like one too sort of thing. He didn’t spare Caleb for being in love with one. I don’t think he’d spare himself for becoming one.

[solifelessblog]

Reunion. Its finally here! The comic i promised, this take place around OTWAT when Luz and company discovered that Darius is alive, she and King offers going for Hunter (he's staying with Gus after LR) so they can finally reunite

Please reblog, don’t repost :)

[hecateisalesbian]

“We’re human. We’re better than this!”

I feel that this scene is so symbolic of the show because in that moment, neither of them were human. They were both products of the isles. They had come to the isles unintentionally, unknowing of what lay ahead. They both lived there for a long period of time. But the thing is, one received a curse and one received a gift. Belos had rejected the Isles and in turn was made into the worst version of the isles. Luz had accepted the isles and in turn was made into the best version of the isles. Neither of them were human. They had become new forms of themselves. So him saying that really symbolized how both of them had different reactions and relationships with the isles. And overall covered Luz’s journey through the isles. From being the outcast to being the Isles herself.

[crimeronan]

i finally seem to have achieved the appropriate amount of being weird about belos on main: ALL my recommended blogs right now are belos x OC and belos x camila bloggers.

this is a slightly off-kilter recommendation for me for obvious reasons, but i DO believe in their beliefs. i'm so glad the belos fuckers are still this impassioned in august 2024. keep redeeming and/or being villainous with that evil old man forever i love you 💕