#i blame philip and caleb for this

[rulersre4chf4n]

My personal biggest pet peeve regarding analyses of Belos (obviously aside from “he’s just evil and analyzing him at all means you support his actions” and “he deserves redemption actually”) is that so many people take his hatred of witches completely at face value--as simply being the result of his indoctrination into witch-hunting as a child in Gravesfield, that these are just the beliefs he was raised with and that he never grew to see past his prejudice like Caleb did. But that is such an oversimplification of his character, and it also ignores what is in my opinion the main driving force behind all of his actions: Caleb himself.

Belos doesn’t think all witches are evil because he was raised to be a witch-hunter. He HAS to keep himself convinced that they are, because if the witches are not evil, then he has two realities to face: 

Caleb left him of his own free will, not because he was under a spell or led astray by the devil.

Belos murdered his own brother, the only person he ever loved, for nothing.

And these CANNOT be true.

Belos’s need to be the hero who saves humanity from witches is not the reason he killed his brother, it’s the result of it.

[maskednerd]

[try02line]

Random headshot of lil Philip Wittebane while I work on a lil animation

Say what you want, but Philip was an absolutely adorable child with those big blue eyes staring into your soul and I am willing to die on that hill IMAO that is how he got away with being such a menace at such tender age.

Enjoy 🦊

[boygirlctommy]

ALSO i was a lawyer in a trial (it was specifically called a mock-trial, nothing about this was legal but it was important to us) and I have no fucking clue what I was supposed to be proving. There wasn’t even another lawyer it was just me out there.

[sepublic]

This reminds me of when I suggested Philip’s statue in Gravesfield should be destroyed, and the Yandere Belos x Reader fic writer performed mental gymnastics trying to tell me the protagonists couldn’t pull it off and were ‘playing with fire’ against human cops. In the magic fantasy show where witches successfully overthrow a dictatorship.

Who Said You Can’t Like Villains?

I didn’t want to make this post but it’s gotten to the point where the Fandom Drama (or Wank, as we should call it) has been pushed to point of harassment so it’s time to talk about this.

Backstory: There’s currently ongoing drama between The Owl House fans and Belos stans. On one side, there’s the Owl House fans who are upset about the behavior of a sect of fanatics who are making Eda, Luz, Caleb, Camila, Darius, and other characters out to be the bad guys while Belos is being apologized and for lack of a better word, woobified. On the other side there’s the Belos stans who believe they are the victims of Dana Terrace secretly hating Belos and the onslaught of people who say “You can’t like villains”, and are claiming that they are on the receiving end of harassment. Both sides of the argument are receiving harassment, and I will not doubt be getting harassment due to talking about this. There are claims of death threats, and if those are true please REPORT them.  Real humans are being brought into this: One of the talking points from the Belos stans is that Dana and her crew secretly hates Belos and there’s some kind of conspiracy that she changed the show just to spite them/because she’s a Belos hater. This isn’t true. She WROTE the character, has made fanart of him, and he was never meant to be a tragic hero. She wrote him to be a bad person. He tries to murder Luz, Eda, King, and Lilith in his second episode. And that’s okay! There’s nothing wrong with writing a villain who is bad! Who Said You Can’t Like Villains? Nobody. Well, somebody did but that’s not what most of TOH Fans are mad about. The reason the Belos stans are getting criticism is not because Belos is a villain but rather because people feel that he’s being justified and that these people are putting other characters down, as well as feeling harassed when they speak their opinions. A lot of the anger from TOH fans has been due to justification that makes Luz, Caleb, etc out to be terrible people who hurt Belos, and that Belos is an innocent character who was justified. There have been people on twitter on the side of the Belos stans using eugenics speak and “he didn’t know better” or “Belos was justified because Caleb left him” as arguments which is why people are mad. Ultimately, if you enjoy Belos as a villain, that’s okay and cool. I personally am a Belos fan and have been for a while. Villains are cool. But that’s not why people are upset right now. Stop making Luz/Caleb/Camila out to be the bad guy and stop making excuses for Belos. Enjoy him as who he is, a flawed human who made a bunch of bad choices of HIS OWN FREE WILL, rather than a sad baby who needs to be rescued from the evil showrunner.

[levshany]

Tandem, this is an AU in which the Collector possesses Philip, and there are a lot of things happening afterwards. but now we’ll just retell how it basically started

@angstyhikka drew a couple of arts and helped me with coloring

This is an alternative development of events after the ending of the fanfic “At The Dawn of The Light” (it's not finished yet, but there is already an AU from the ending, yes). The idea belongs to @lasymit, and I (Lev) picked it up :3

Before King's Tide, all events take place according to canon. And then the following changes occur: the witches capture Philip and lock him in a cave in the Titan's skull. The draining spell is stopped without the help of the Collector, but he himself is not found. His mirror remains lying at the bottom of the pit.

For 10 years, Philip was under a sleeping spell. Everything would be fine, but when the Hexside squad wakes up Philip to make him help them with one super important problem, not only does he become mischievous but he also has problems in his head now. Luz and the team think that Philip is manipulating them (you can't blame them for this, Philip is Philip, even with a leaky memory and a leaking roof, he manages to be such an asshole), and therefore they torture him to force him to cooperate with them.

While Philip was sleeping, a cozy corner appeared in his head, in which there was nothing but a green hill, a small house and an apple tree. There, Philip, in his child form, lives with Caleb, who is a figment of his sick mind. During his 10 years in this mindscape, Philip convinced himself that this was reality. And the Boiling Isles, the cave and the witches who torture him are an endless nightmare. Because, on the Boiling Isles, he sometimes remembers that he killed his brother. But this simply cannot be reality.

At some point, Luz and Hunter realize that Philip is not pretending that he is seriously ill and no matter how much he denies it, he needs help, and they soften towards him somewhat. Although both have rather mixed feelings towards their dementia grandpa.

Even in the moments when Philip remembers himself fully enough, his attitude towards the Boiling Isles, Luz, Hunter and even his own mission has changed greatly in any case. He no longer cares about the destruction of witches and revenge for his brother. Philip is tired. Deadly tired. All he wants to do is sleep. He slept for ten years, and this was perhaps the first time in decades of his life that he felt peace and happiness.

While he is in this state, it happens that he encounter the Collector. This is a difficult meeting for both of them, but it all ends with the forgiveness of all grievances. They both don't want to lose each other now. The collector is still locked in the disk, but Philip has the opportunity to let his friend into his subconscious. Seeing the deplorable state of Philip's mind, he decides that he must help - after all, Philip is still his only friend. Collie asks Philip not to go to "sleep" forever, but Philip replies that he has no joy in waking up here. All he dreams of is never returning to the world of the Boiling Islands. The collector, frightened that his only friend is about to leave him, possesses Philip and promises him that he will get them both out of this nightmare.

This is how Tandem's story begins

a huge amount of detail has been omitted to avoid spoilers for "The Dawn". if you wanna learn more go check the fanfic *wink wink*

[captainmera]

My God I love your depiction of the Wittebane brother ❤️

Do you think there might have been a chance that your Pip wouldn't kill his brother when Calec goes to Demon Realm? He seems way more tolerable of weirdness and is actually curious about the taboo things. That it makes me wonder if other steps were taken by people around him, maybe he would make different choices and not turned into a brother-killing genocide goop man. Obviously, the blame is still his for what he did, but I can't stop wondering what if.

And him getting along with Evelyn instead of hating her right of the bat is really cute.

Thank you! :D <333

He grew up with this theatrical bisexual of a brother. Pretty sure the reason Belos didn't give a hoot on the Boiling Isles about queer stuff is because he kinda knew, and accepted, that Caleb was kinda queer. In some cases, people can ignore or bend certain rules for people they love. Even disregard them or pretend they don't apply or exist.

(long rant about writing and narrative foils and blah blah under the cut)

Unlike Caleb, I think Philip is the sort that only picks-and-chooses whatever rules he feels will supports his personal wants/thoughts and tosses the rest.

Caleb was not hiding it as well as he thought he did. lol.

I think that, sure, there was probably a turning point for Philip.

And absolutely, people around him influenced him. He's just a kid, a vulnerable one at that, in a protestant Christian cult.

I kinda like to think of it as a corruption arc. Mostly because it seems (to me) that the whole reason Luz was meant to have a depression-arc and Philip getting all "YoUrE JuSt LiKe Me!" thing was because.. There was supposed, I think, to be similar beginnings for them.

But Luz, in season 3, got depressed and felt a lot of guilt, so her arc is going from this happy-go-lucky kid interested in different things, to a depression arc where she questions herself. While Philip has a corruption arc, where he gradually goes from a well-meaning kid interested in different things, to evil and delusional.

I am also combining Luz, King, and the Collector into Kid-Philip's themes.

King is fascinating as a pre-narrative foil for kid-Philip. I think. As King was very clingy to Luz and didn't want her to leave, he too had a delusion about his own importance (disregard that it was kinda true in the end there). King tried to dictate (in that book episode) about what his and Luz' book should be about, how it should go, and it really hurt Luz' feelings. In the end, they solved it. But as a narrative foil, I think for the Wittebanes, they probably had a similar struggle on a larger scale, and it didn't get resolved.

The Collector, too! They're desperate to be close with someone, anyone, who gets them and wants to play on their terms. Kinda like Belos wanting him and Caleb to be witch hunters. Not accounting that Caleb is his own person outside of him-- Which, if you think about it, Caleb made his whole life (in my version anyway) about taking care of Philip. So I'm sure Philip felt like he really was Caleb's entire world. And then suddenly he wasn't. Because of a witch. The Collector, despite having this incredible power (just like Pip having his brilliant brain) is still a child and using their power in selfish ways. Not intentionally, I think, just out of a fear of abandonment or isolation.

I personally am in favour of nobody-is-born-evil-but-anyone-can-become-evil kinda thing.

I would like to explore how Philip gets corrupted.

I am slowly influencing Philip in my fanfic with little things that will, eventually, boil down to not so great moments.

The thing about delusions is that the person truly believes in it. Philip believing he's a hero has to make sense and feel believable.

Belos is a jerk. Philip isn't, yet. He becomes that jerk. But I don't want to write a sociopath. I also don't like using less-favourable mental illnesses as an "easy way out" to write why Philip became Belos and a genocidal maniac.

I have strong feelings about de-stigmatizing mental illnesses in writing, without romanticizing them or leaving out the really awful and less discussed sides of it. This includes diagnoses within all the clusters of the DSM5. I will not sit here and say I only support a diagnosis like Autism or GAD, and not things like Histrionic or Borderline.

And including people with MH issues and personality disorders is important, too, as well as not trying to downplay them.

People throw around Belos with things like Narcissism and Psychopath, without actually understanding what those means or what the different types there are. For example, is he a grandiose, oblivious or a fragile narcissist?

Yes, these disorders are looked down upon. A lot of people who have them aren't very nice people. But that doesn't mean they're evil or have no heart.

Lots of children can display early signs of these, and in a rough time like the colonial 1630s of America, it is not unthinkable that those rough times bred some dysfunctional people. I'm sure Philip has his own slices of pie as far as mental health goes, just like Caleb and many other struggling people.

But, I will not write from an angle that implies Philip just has darkness from the start in him.

There's a reason why I had Caleb go on a rant about being born evil in chapter 5. Because puritans, and Christians alike, at the time - truly did believe bastards were just... Half people. Did you know that if an orphanage found out a baby was a bastard, they wouldn't let it suckle the nursery goat's udders. Because they were afraid it would soil the milk and, in turn, might give the non-bastard babies bad influence. Somehow.

With that kind of logic in your culture, it's no rocket science that people would put nonsense together and think it made sense.

I'm much more interested in how puritanism and witch hunting culture influenced and corrupted Philip into becoming who he became, and why he refuses to budge on his beliefs to the point of murder.

As the owl house, the show, has commentary on systems influencing cultures in a bad and positive way. But in particular, the one Belos tries to influence the Demon Realm with; being a not-so-great way. So! With that as a clue: what made Philip turn bad, most likely, was partially the puritanism and its extremist ways. I think TOH is also a bit of a nudge at the HAYS-code of Hollywood and how it has trickled into most all the American culture-core. As it's both trickled into schools, morality, politics and other things outside cinema.

Just pointing at him and going "He's a sociopath because he became a genocidal tyrant" is, to me, cheap. Not only does it further stigmatising mental illnesses by implying only a disorder can make someone do such evil things. But it also disregards the most horrific truth of all; that the true monsters are people not at all unlike yourself. And that they, too, were children once.

[prisi]

I feel TOH fails a lot with the treatment that Belos and his lore receive towards the end. I think his arc will feel so much more complete if the show was allowed to show us that he suffered in the past and wasn't like "nah he is just pure evil and he has always been like that". I don't like how the show wants you to believe that Caleb did nothing wrong or reprehensible when there's obvious implications that he abandoned Philip to go with Evelyn, it will be so much more interesting that the show recognized that Caleb was naive and selfish in abandoning his brother (who only have him as family and support figure) to his own in the puritan era, and how that action of Caleb deeply damaged Philip emotionally and mentally (kinda like Luz abandoning Camila to live her fantasy in the Boiling Isles without thinking in the consequences (I'm still pissed that she didn't apologize to her mom for running away at the end) but we are not talking about that right now, I love Luz btw don't get mad at me). And Philip, who probably entered the Isles with the sole intention to "save" his brother who at his eyes was bewitched and seduced by an evil witch to go with her, when he finally found his brother after many years and found out that Caleb actually loved Evelyn and DECIDED to leave him behind he totally lost his mind.

A confrontation escene between Philip and Caleb (it could be a flashback or something showed in Hollow Mind even) will be so interesting to watch, something like in the third season of Infinity Train when Simon confronts The Cat for abandoning him as a child, Caleb will try to justify himself at first saying that he is sorry, that he thought Philip was going to be okay on his own, that he didn't thought that he was going to miss him or something, making Philip more angry, sad and confused.

The situation will scale to the point that Philip, (who's original goal was to kill Evelyn to bring back Caleb in the Human Realm) now that he is angry, sad and out of his senses he tries to attack Caleb with the dagger he had in his hand which triggers the knife fight in which Caleb dies.

Philip, after realizing that he killed the only person he had in the world, he tries to justify himself in an internal monologue like: "oh well, I murdered you, but in doing so I freed your soul from the union with that sinful witch. That's what the witch hunting taught me, right? That's what YOU taught me, RIGHT?". Trying to shift the blame for what just happened onto Caleb but also letting us know and acknowledging that it was Caleb who introduced and instructed Philip in the witch hunt and did nothing to reverse it.

Coming to the end, when the fight ends and Belos and Luz are face to face, the scene would play out more or less as we see it in canon but at the moment in which the first drop of boiling rain falls on his hand and begins to see his body dissolve, he enters a mental breakdown in which he realizes that he wasted his entire life on a goal that made no sense, the witches weren't evil or a threat and he knew it, but he clung to his goal because he did not want to face the reality, he did not want to accept that he had killed his brother in vain nor did he want to accept that he had decided to abandon him, and he did not want to die knowing that he wasted 400 years suffering for something that was not worth it. At the end of his collapse he would crawl a little and see Hunter in the distance (because yes, Hunter should have been present in the end even a little), he would try to extend his hand in his direction but Hunter, noticing this, would close his eyes, look away and take a step back behind Eda and Raine. Philip experienced his brother's abandonment again but with the difference that this time it is merely his fault, because even if Caleb damaged Philip deeply with his abandonment, he is not responsable of the path Philip choosed to take.

Seeing and realizing all of this Belos would stop crawling and give up, lying on the ground, breathing hard as the boiling rain finally dissolves him and dies.

Or at least that is how I liked it to happen, let me know what you think.

[jess-the-vampire]

In the au where Evelyn is also alive, would Philip and Evelyn at some point start to get along or at least put their differences aside or would they continue to hate eachother forever?

personally i want to think they eventually would put their differences aside, even if it takes a long time

the way i've interpreted caleb and evelyn as characters, is caleb is far more empathetic then evelyn is, he's prone to being understanding of others and it's how he comes to understand witches to begin with

despite how much he bottles up his own emotions, and is constantly putting on a facade because he's grown up having to do so, he really does try to see good in others where he can

so despite how angry he is at his brother and hurt, and how much he torments and blames himself for what happened with philip, he still wants to forgive philip, especially after coming to terms with the abusive situation they grew up under and how bad it was

because for him, his brother is someone in need of guidance, and he feels entirely responsible for how he turned out

evelyn on the other hand, while also being empathetic, is characterized by me as being much more stubborn and far less forgiving

as far as she's concerned, caleb shouldn't be putting so much on himself and he's wasting his life trying to fix his brother, especially after what philip tried to do

she gets it, she really does, she doesn't want to dismiss how much caleb loves his brother, so she doesn't try and fight it, she just heavily disagrees that philip is worth their time and that caleb should be trying to help him

for her, philip betrayed him, no matter the circumstances, and caleb should care about the family they've built together and focus solely on that

neither of these stances are entirely invalid, evelyn and caleb both entirely get where the other is coming from even if they disagree

[let-us-cultivate-our-garden]

Do you think TOH made people care and then ripped them apart for it?

I was still in high school when I started watching the series and I loved it. I didn't have good grades, I am neurodivergent and bisexual and was thought of as a weirdo and bullied and condescended for crying at school or acting like I was younger than I was and things along those lines. I related to Luz SO HARD. I wanted to be in the Boiling Isles. I imagined myself finding a way there. I had little 'imagine spots' and loved the mystery and the wild and unconventional aesthetics and I even got into some of the stuff you see on r/WitchesVsPatriarchy because of it. I couldn't wait for more story. I was sure everything would be resolved by the end.

Somewhere along the lines, the characters were no longer characters to me. They were real, and had real feelings and struggles and experiences. And somewhere else along the line, the Collector came, and Hollow Mind happened.

I was terrified. I kept watching, though. I wanted to know what would happen to everyone I loved. Hollow Mind was a great episode though, and I thought it and the rest of Season 3 were building up to something big.

They were not. They were building up to something extremely poorly explained that was erased in the last episode. No flashbacks. No face reveals. Caleb and Evelyn do not speak. We still have no idea what happened. How old were he and Philip? What made him trust Evelyn? Why was Evelyn in the human realm? What were the circumstances of the knife fight? WHY did Philip kill Caleb? How long was he looking for him? So many unanswered questions hand-waved in the finale, and anytime someone complains the response is 'but thuh shortuhning.' Boo fucking hoo. They had the time to explain things and they did not. If you weren't knee-deep in fandom and didn't read social media, you may not even know Hunter was a Grimwalker. You'd be left extremely confused about what Belos is and what the hell he wanted. And yet people use 'blame the big bad Disney' as an excuse. Less wasting time in Hexside tormenting students, more on what we give a damn about.

Speaking of Hexside.

I know all that shit with the puppets was supposedly 'necessary', but imagine if you'd been hiding from a potential genocide and suddenly everyone you love has been turned into nonsentient dolls by some unknown god and you're forced to hide and your remaining loved ones are missing and you're barely surviving, your life has been flipped, everything you knew is a lie and you don't know when or if it'll end. That's what it was like for them, and it is not treated like the traumatic and horrifying event that it was. It is joked about and used as a punchline and at best is unneeded filler that creates problems. And then there's Boscha - a girl treated horribly by the fandom and show both. Her friends have been turned into puppets and she is being used by Kikimora, she doesn't know what's happening, it's the apocalypse, she's sad and scared and confused and doesn't know what to do. She lashes out at people because of it. Perhaps she was so clingy towards Amity because her friend had vanished for ages and she finally knew she wasn't a puppet or dead. She is laughed at. Treated as an obstacle for Amity to overcome. Abandoned at Hexside. Given no real redemption. Just left to cry alone. And outside the show, fans will treat her like garbage. I have known people who wanted to tear her head off, or wanted her expelled from Hexside after becoming the least popular girl in school and losing all her friends. This is a teenager going through an unspeakably horrible event that will leave her with PTSD. She deserves exploration. She deserves more from the show and more from fans. Even Dana was asked once if she'd be redeemed - she said 'I think some people don't deserve redemption'. Or something along the lines. Bravo, Dana. Bravo, everyone.

And then the aesthetic switch. I praised the unique aesthetic. All reds and dusty colours and widespread. It made me really think of something abandoned. Someplace really wild. The Collector took over and turned it all star-themed and pastel, and it stayed that way. The Archive House stayed up. They call it the 'king's crown'. It remains a bland galaxy aesthetic with no trace of what they had in Season 1. They might as well reward the Collector for destroying the Isles.

And finally, Luz having to go back to human high school where she was bullied and had bad grades and didn't fit in. I used the Isles as an escape. I wanted to attend Hexside *so bad* and it was clear the show wanted the viewers to want it. So to have Luz go back and spend three years rebuilding the Isles whenever she went there - it broke me. It felt like my guts being torn to pieces. Everyone having to rebuild the Isles. Bland construction. Luz missing three birthdays. If I wanted child labour and bland construction and a horrible high school experience, I'd look at the world today. Luz was forced away from her home and into the place she deserved to escape from. High school is hell. And to top it off, what with current events, I truly do not want Luz abandoned here, among the rise of the far-right and schools doing jack-all for their students and some days when it seems everyone wants to kill each other. Luz does not deserve to be abandoned here, going to human high school and spending all her time in the Isles rebuilding it. No more fun. No more fantasy. No more adventures. Just construction. Everyday construction and a bland pastel star aesthetic replacing what I love. It's not weird anymore. I have lost the Boiling Isles. I feel this is reflected in the door redesign. The wooden Titan Eye design was all wooden, rough, mysterious and possibly alive. The new design is just a blah plastic pastel star design. It's boring.

Maybe I'm being a bit extreme, but I have held onto this for ages and no one shares my sentiments and it hurts like hell. If you could respond, that would be wonderful.

But yeah. TL;DR: This show made me care and then killed my escape and broke me and every character I love.

The Isles is dead, and this show has hurt me in the worst possible way.

I'm sorry that the show has had such a negative effect on you; it absolutely sucks to become so emotionally attached to something only for it to all fall apart in the end. It can feel like all that time and energy was wasted and that you were foolish to like it at all. But no, you did not waste anything. I think it's helpful if you reframe your thoughts because I am concerned about how much this show has affected your mindset.

The show did not break you. Its ending did not meet your expectations and you were disappointed by it. That's ok. A lot of people felt the final season was lacking, even when taking the cancellation into account. The joy and connection you felt in the early seasons still matter. They still helped you in a time when you needed it. Hold onto the happiness you felt and use that as a source of strength instead of blowing your disappointment out of proportion.

It also seems like you're connecting your experiences with Luz. Luz is fictional. She can't be affected by the real world. Within the context of the show, rebuilding the isles is necessary because the Boiling Isles is her home, too. It signifies a new age in which wild magic can flourish. She's choosing to be there as part of the community to rebuild a place that was nearly destroyed. Luz achieved her dream of becoming a witch. She can study and live in the Boiling Isles and visit her mom whenever she wants in the human realm. There is still fun. There is still fantasy.

Going back to the idea of reframing your thoughts: if something has upset you in a story, take a step back and look at it from the author's perspective. What were they trying to achieve? Does this fit in with the established world building and characterization? Did it upset you for narrative reasons or personal ones? So much discourse in fandom can be traced to the fact that fans have their own ideas of how characters should act instead of what is established in the story and what makes sense for that world. You need to look at a story from a narrative point of view instead of a personal one, that way any potential disappointment is not so emotionally-loaded.

Finally, to answer your question, no I do not believe that TOH was made to disappoint fans. Quite the opposite, actually. In the Post-Hoots and on social media, the crew talk about how much the show means to them and how touched they are about all the fan support they have received. Toh is a show made with love and a desire to please its audience--much to its detriment.

I really think the crux of your issue is that the show deeply disappointed you while everyone else loved it. That can feel incredibly isolating and as a Belos fan, I can relate. My advice is to find like-minded individuals so you all can healthily vent together while coming up with goofy head canons of your favorite characters. That's what I do (and endlessly complain about the lost potential. There is catharsis in it). Finally, move onto other shows and other communities, you will find better stories that will enrich you.

Stories can have a profound effect on people but not to the point that they make you feel "broken." My old mentor once said to "take the meat and throw out the bone." Basically, take whatever is useful for you and ignore the rest. You can do this with TOH, take whatever "meat" you found valuable and don't let the "bones" get you down.

I hope you take whatever meat you can from my advice. Please take care of yourself and surround yourself with people and things you love. Explore new stories, meet new people, and continue to grow.

The fantasy is not dead.

[aroacemisha]

Okay, so, I usually see people depicting/thinking of this interaction where Caleb hugs Philip -

- and this one where Philip approaches him and Evelyn with a knife -

- as two separate ones, and that Philip reunited with Caleb first and then later met Evelyn.

However, I started thinking they might actually be the same event, and as I was editing the images for this post, I realized they definitely are!

It’s hard to see, because the image is very blurry, but Evelyn is actually in that memory where Philip, as a silhouette with glowing blue eyes, approaches Caleb:

I missed this before, probably assuming her head was just part of Philip’s shadow.

So here’s the order of the memories, and my interpretation of them:

After months, possibly even years of searching, Philip finally found Caleb. He saw Caleb walking around holding hands with Evelyn, which he would see as his brother being dragged around by the evil witch who took him away.

Philip is so infuriated that his palisman monster form partially comes out, and he tries to attack Evelyn. But he’s interrupted by Caleb, who doesn’t realize what Philip was doing, and embraces him, genuinely happy to see him again. He then starts introducing Evelyn, still not realizing what Philip’s intentions are, while Philip stealthily pulls out a knife.

He tries to attack Evelyn again, completely tunnel visioned on her. He uses a fire glyph to separate Caleb from her and keep him away from the fight. Caleb still steps in to protect his wife, and in the heat (hah) of the moment, Philip stabs him through the chest, killing him. Evelyn then chases Philip away.

And I think it’s possible that only after this, when Philip is some distance away, and the adrenaline eases off, he finally realizes what he had just done. That he killed Caleb instead of Evelyn. Though, of course, he blames her, and also Caleb, rather than himself.

The way Philip is looking at the knife in the middle image makes me think he was so focused on it, he didn’t realize whose body was lying before him, until after Evelyn attacked him.

This being one event makes a lot of sense. It would explain how Philip messed up this much and killed Caleb instead of Evelyn. He didn’t have time to plan it out, he had no strategy, he just saw red and tunnel visioned on Evelyn.

It also makes more sense for it to be one event since it would’ve been odd for Philip to leave Caleb’s side after finding him, and do so for long enough to then randomly stumble upon Caleb and Evelyn walking around holding hands.

--

Side note, about Evelyn’s cloak, which is something I found a bit weird in these memories, since it’s only there in one or two of them and appears out of nowhere: I think it might’ve been a witch’s wool cloak. When she saw partially transformed Philip approaching, she summoned it and put it on just in case, since she wasn’t sure what he was and how dangerous he was, but then took it off for whatever reason.

Or I’m overthinking and it’s just a stylistic choice so we don’t see much of her from up close, while letting us see more from further away, either from behind or as a silhouette, so we can identify the similarities between her and the Clawthornes, particularly Eda.

[sleraly]

so what did Clarence and Fergus do that was so bad that the other grimwalkers despised them?

And why do they hate Caleb? He didn't do anything (at least in the Demon Realm).

Oh, I really need to talk more about this! Toh Esquizo AU is such an extensive story that it’s sometimes hard to keep track of everything.

Let’s see:

Fergus and Clarence have very curious nicknames that more or less explain the situation. The Grimwalkers call Fergus "The Exterminator" and Clarence "The Genocidal." Whether by mistake or by their own will, both ended the lives of a certain kind of people that the Grimwalkers absolutely ADORED.

As for Caleb: He is blamed for all the misfortunes that happen to them now. The Grimwalkers blame him for arriving at the Boiling Isles and bringing the "monster" with him. They hold him responsible for the extinction of a species, the crappy lives they’ve had because of him, etc. Basically, everything bad that Philip/Belos did is a consequence of Caleb's decisions (according to the Grimwalkers).

I don't think they are bad people... They've just spent many years trapped with pain and remorse, and sometimes those feelings lead you to point fingers or do immoral things. Even so, it’s undeniable that the Grimwalkers are not going to make the best decisions. Possessing Hunter is going to be a bad move, but they are already willing to do anything to put an end to Belos and get their revenge.

They all need a lot of therapy ._.

[aloii]

Haven Evermore: Scene concepts

A few concept scenes in Havens story, ill explain them down below

Slide 1) First meeting with the Emperor —

Thats kinda basically it. I would like to think that Belos probably took an interest to Havens “condition “ regarding his magic,as it is kind of similar to his in a way. And well since witches magic are biologically a part of them, Havens condition affects the color of his blood, which The emperor, upon their first meeting , finds curious.

Slide 2) Hostage —

Haven gets taken hostage by the owl lady , king and Luz ( Edas idea) upon trying to sneak in one of the emperors facilities. Haven ends up breaking down , ranting about his job and how the other scouts dont really like him. You get the idea .

Slide 3 + 4) Eclipse Lake confrontation —

Haven helps Hunter sneak out to Eclipse lake, letting him borrow one of his uniforms. Haven is there basically to protect Hunter because the Emperor would have his head off if he ever knew he helped him out. Hes there during the eclipse lake fight but mostly he fights against king, and then threatens Amity not to touch Hunter. This is TECHNICALLY Amitys and Havens first meeting but not really official i suppose. ( Fun fact the “ my prince “ was a slip of the tongue from Havens part, Later on Hunter asks him about it and Haven doesnt know how to respond )

Slide 5) Halloween night —

Belos ( possesing Hunger) blames that one of the reasons that Hunter was “ led astray “ was because of Haven. Kind of a small parallel to how Caleb was led “ astray” by Evelyn in philips eyes. So he sees this situation the same as if its history repeating itself, and ofc doesnt take it lightly. ( another fun fact, this is how Haven gets that nasty scar on the left side of his face ). Afterwards Hunter feels so bad that Belos did this to Haven but he assures Hunted that it wasn’t his fault.

[waywardsunlight]

I was thinking about Philip's religiousity about Caleb and how Luz mirrors Caleb, especially in the scene where she's finally wearing her witch hat and staring him down as he's on the ground in front of her. And the intentional choice that we saw Caleb in a witch hat too. Kind of about... how gods or echoes are created through obsession, how Philip created the concept of Caleb and made him a god completely against what Caleb wanted, and how Caleb appears as an omen of his death with Philip's other murder victims before he sees Luz with the same expression as the rain begins to fall.

It's interesting to me that Philip argues with Caleb and tells him that it's "all his fault". He's trying to put the blame on this outside figure that acts of it's own accord rather than facing that Caleb's been dead for centuries and while Philip has used Caleb and Luz and Hunter and Evelyn and Darius and Lilith and Eda- to justify himself, in the end the decisions that put him there are not from any outside force but rather by his own hand.

[qcoded]

Small Analysis on Belos/Philip, and the many chances at Redemption he missed.

I think the reason why I loved the scene in Watching and Dreaming were The Collector hugged Belos while saying "I get it! You just need kindness and forgiveness, huh?" was because it encapsulated perfectly how many chances Belos didn't take to fucking redeem himself.

I think we all kinda know that if he was just self aware, and reflected on the shit he did for ONE damn second, maybe, just maybe he could have turned out way better than what ended up happening.

Analyzing his backstory and what we can decide actually happened with Caleb (mostly based on all the pictures that were released from Hollow Mind with additional ones), it's not like he was ever exempt from sympathy, don't get me wrong.

Can't really go into the reality that Caleb, being Philip's sole guardian, most likely abandoned him to go with Evelyn into the Boiling Isles (not with bad intentions but still) since THAT'S a whole 'nother can of worms, but like hey! It's fucking understandable, who wouldn't be hurt by that?

But at the same time, what Belos decided to do, it was all on his own accord.

It was all his own decisions tha he could have actually thought on but no! He was too stuck in his delusional beliefs.

Could have stopped anywhere. After he killed Caleb. After he was tricking and offing witches and demons. After the whole encounter with Luzura/Luz and Gertrude/Lilith. After the making of the Grimwalkers began. After instilling glyphs on witches.

There are probably more examples, but basically, Belos had so many damn chances.

But nope! Never took them.

And again, The Collector was so willing to forgive him, even after manipulating and using this kid for centuries on end. After all the horrific shit that Belos has done, there was still a sliver of hope for him to actually just think, 'What am I doing? '

Of course, that didn't happen. It was a 'Friendship is Magic, but gone wrong' and he attempted to kill The Collector once again.

You know what's the best part of this? That there's a scene that just adds onto what I'm saying perfectly.

Later on when Luz revived into the super cool form that is Titan!Luz, she ripped out Belos from the titan's curse. And when he reformed again, he turned into his Philip Wittebane look.

And he had the fucking audacity to blame that dark magic (presumably his curse) was the one who made him commit all those horrendous acts.

This would make pretty much be his very first, and only attempt towards redemption.

But the thing is, it's too late.

Belos threw out his very last chance at redemption with The Collector.

And now? He has nothing more but than to deal with the ultimate consequences that have been building up.

This is also why I'm not that mad that Belos wasn't shown to finally realize the severity of what he has done, or to feel all that built up guilt flow it.

It's because it shows amazingly how far up his ass he was in his beliefs that even when he was DYING, he was just too fucking stubborn.

The more ironic part, like I mentioned earlier, that 'dark magic' was pretty much just his curse. That I want to mention, is fucking SELF AFFLICTED. Belos was literally the one eating all those Palismen, which are the cause of the curse. He's quite literally blaming himself!

And even though he tried to claim that Luz somehow cured him, got quickly called out on his bullshit when the boiling rain revealed him to still be purely goop.

Till the last minute, he was trying to keep a facade that quite literally, crumbled.

TLDR; Belos ultimately gave up every chance to be a better person, and he pretty much got what was coming for him.

[captainmera]

ok but Caleb saying " I do not want to rob my son of his life" is heartbreaking.

It so bittersweet that he sees him like a son especially since he never got to meet his own child. I really love the scene where he gives hunter his cloak when he puts him to sleep, I think he would've been a good dad...

The way I've written Caleb's fatherhood-ness is this:

He was a parental-figure brother to Philip, but he was a child himself when he started doing that. I am sure Caleb grew painfully aware that he wasn't equipped to take care of Philip; 'nor in maturity or ability, but what's the alternative? There isn't one. You do what you gotta do with the knowledge and power you have.

Which means he probably didn't raise Philip exemplarily. You can blame the adult-Caleb for not adjusting to it; but then you're asking him to control his brother with a whole new set of rules and reshape their set and working dynamic, which is easier said than done with a teenage little brother. And you cant really blame child-Caleb for not knowing better.

Caleb acts quickly on his fears or intuitions out of terror that things can escalate for the worse. He thinks he knows best because that's who he had to be, regardless of if he actually does knows best. He never had anyone to turn to, he just had to figure it out on the fly.

I think his worst bully is hindsight, and although he acts out of love (embraced by fear) he, too, can see retroactively that his actions are at best clumsy and at worst consequential.

Nobody's perfect, I don't think he would've been a perfect dad (just as there are no ideal person or people, people are just.. people! trying their best) But I do think he'd be a very loving one. And for someone like Hunter, I think that's pretty much all Hunter wished for.

But yes, I think Caleb, with the person he discovered himself to be in the BI, is someone who would do a good job as a dad. He does care, he does love. Even if it kind of comes out like a hiccup and a slap on the back that's a little too rough.

centuries of watching his doppelganger (sons) live their lives I'm sure he also picked up on a few things to advise them on. He's better on giving advise as an observer than being the one to interfere. (clearly)

But all in all, I think he is very proud of Hunter and already considers himself a father to him. Hunter is, technically, his flesh and blood.

My version of Caleb is a very flawed person. His fatherhood and continues attempt to be a martyr or take on all the load is.. also.. Reflective on the Noceda family trauma of losing Manny.

Luz and Camila both try to shoulder the burdens in the family. Wanting to be the one who makes life easier for the other.

Caleb sees and recognises this, especially in Camila. That's why he seemingly hold no qualms in laying out the hard cold cards for Luz the way he did in chapter Modern Times.

Anyway, I like Caleb. At least the way I write him. He's a little scatter-brained and wheezing, but dangit he's pulling the plot onwards. :'D