#i'm thinking maybe... king's motif? the collector's motif?

[anistarrose]

The "Thanks to Them" intro remixed the show's main theme. Then, the "For the Future" intro remixed Eda's Requiem.

What's the finale's intro going to remix?

[lampmanliveblogs]

Ah, that’s not a terrifying image or anything.

After Gus is on edge and Hunter is sad for a bit, Hunter notices plant tendrils beginning to grab him. In the distance, he hears Gus yelping, and he runs over to find… this.

Willow stands here, surrounded by and tangled in her own plants, having snared Gus when he startled her.

Between this and the previous batch of posts, I got an ask that mentioned how Willow beginning to lose control over her magic is similar to how we saw Belos in season two lose control over his body and lash out violently. And you know what? With this image here, I can totally see the similarities. The glowing eyes and the vines acting similar to the tentacles Philip’s arms would morph into… perhaps not the greatest imagery for Hunter to encounter.

Even though she keeps telling herself ”I can do this! I can do this!” Willow quickly gives up on using her magic to gain control over her plants, instead ripping them apart with her bare hands. A subtle indication that she doesn’t believe her own words.

Before she knows it, she finds herself alone in the caverns, her friends consumed by the very same plants she would use to protect them. In some ways, that would be the ultimate failure for someone like Willow, who has very much been a protector of the group.

(maybe Willow’s magic is trying to protect Gus & Hunter by enclosing them in these cocoons? just a thought)

Meanwhile, back at Tiara Halls, The Collector is not taking ”Raine’s” warnings very seriously. An expected reaction, the baddest dude around before The Collector showed up got smeared on a  wall by The Collector. Good thing too, that guy was a jerk, I’m glad he’s gone. Isn’t that right, Raine?

(i swear, getting a screenshot where the collector didn’t look awkward never needed to be this difficult. as you can see, i gave up)

(i watched a few seconds further than this screenshot implies, I just wanted one where everyone was in frame)

Lore!

As it turns out, Titan magic can cancel out Collector magic, which is probably why our own Lord of the Fireflies was never able to get out of the divine time-out on his own. Secondly, it’s confirmed that The Collector’s ”predecessors” wiped out the Titans, just like I theorized earlier.

The Collectors have a very prominent space motif, with stars and moons and planets and whatnot. They’re from space (and remember, anything can happen in space!). They have this sort of… what’s the word I’m looking for… detached vibe, I guess. I mean, The Collector floats around because gravity doesn’t bother them, they seem unaware how their actions affect others, they don’t even understand the concept of food and what mortals can and cannot eat.

Titans on the other hand, appear as these massive, primordial life forms, whose corpses become islands. While The Collectors become upset when the mortals interfere with their work and will go as far as to wipe them out for it, King’s Dad’s body provides a home and magic power for countless mortal creatures. The Titans appear to be part of the bizarre ecology of the Boiling Seas planet. They put the ”mega” in ”megafauna.”

Even looking at their designs, the Collectors are humanoid (kinda) with these smooth, sleek designs. Meanwhile, the Titans are big, monstrous beasts, covered in fur and bone, with sharp teeth and horns. Collectors wander space, while the Titans are bound to this one planet (even if their blood does pierce dimensions).

I’m not sure how well I’m communicating my thoughts here, but the thing I’m trying to say is that if you look at the imagery and motifs surrounding the Titans vs. The Collectors, it makes sense they would cancel each other out. They’re basically each other’s opposites.

You know, when I first heard the expression "talk through one's hat" I didn't think it'd be quite so literal.

Oh well, I'm glad we cleared up that misunderstanding. King’s not gonna seal The Collector away again, they’re best buds!

…cue things going horribly wrong in three, two, one…

[rileyclaw]

What do you think of the Collector? I think they're extremely scrungly. Maybe even scrimblo

You are VERY correct, this little thing??? this is THE character design . they have so much gender tucked into those eclipse motifs, I think they should share with the class (i'm the class , hand it over .)

BUT!! I think he's super interesting and im really fearing looking forward to see what happens - i have my own suspicions on what his connection with king will mean and the significance of what they've been saying in most recent episodes,, but that's just a Theory . a g-

[abelle25125]

Id love to hear your collector theory!

ok there might be a few holes in this because i haven't re-watched all the episodes about the collector recently - but my main theory is that the collector was an entity around at the same time as the titans, who either worked with them or with someone associated with them - and at some point there was a conflict that resulted in the Boiling isles titan sacrificing themselves to keep them trapped.

(evidence and ramblings under the cut)

first things first:

Who / what is the collector?

Based on KKKOHD we can assume theyre not a witch, given both his appearance (there are no other witches that tall) and also the appearance of his magic, which is black unlike the glowing coloured version we see used by most people and also seems to be,,,,,made up of them?

I cant show it in just screenshots but the shadow of the net stretches back and the collector seemingly comes from it

They also seem to have a serious sun and moon motif, and the moon on the Boiling Isles literally has a face on it - and is shown to have magical properties (thinking back to the moonlight conjuring that can bring life to inanimate objects?)

I'm thinking that the collector is some sort of moon elemental or spirit of some sort - an ancient magic thats different from that of witches that has been around for a long long time.

next up:

Whats his motivation?

In Hollow mind he mentions being betrayed and wanting revenge on someone

"Betrayed, beguiled, alone, deceived! We'll have our revenge on... Ugh, "unity" is so hard to rhyme."

Given the fact that it does rhyme and they don't use it - i'm going to assume they don't want revenge on humanity, especially since that motivation dramatically differs from what belos wants.

So they want revenge on someone! who is it? im guessing the titans, and maybe by extension - the witches that live on it.

They know about the draining spell and don't seem to have much of a problem with killing off all witches

And based on the scraped concept for the vision in hunting palisman we can assume the Day of Unity is going to awaken the titan in some way - presumably killing off all the remaining witches who weren't in a coven for the draining spell.

Why does the collector want to wake the titan? i think its because they're trapped underneath it.

We've gotten a good look at where the collector is trapped - a blue ball shaped prison in the space between worlds.

the closest thing we've seen to that ball is Kings temple

which bares a resemblance to the door to the round boy in Elsewhere and elsewhen

So, we have someone stuck in a prison made up of titan technology trapped in a place you can only get to with Titan's blood, underneath the body of a dead titan. i really feel like the titan either died trying to capture the collector and their blood pooling into the ocean trapped him in the space between - or someone with access to titan stuff found a dying titan and chose to stick their captured moon spirit in there.

So what now?

The collector, now trapped in the space between swears vengeance on those who trapped him and does the only thing it can do from their prison. Watches people through the cubes, gathers information and manipulates people who can see them. He does this with the titan trappers - which results in them killing off all the remaining titans and then he does this with Belos, another lost child with abandonment issues and a distaste towards life on the boiling isles. He teaches him about the draining spell, a way to source power into a spell for when the moon covers the sun and the tide is lowest - thousands of witches pouring their power into one huge moonlight conjuring. Reanimating the Titan

The theory gets a little bit muddy after this point, mostly because i have no clue as to how the day of unity is going to go, like,,,,all balls are in the air right now

ive seen some people talking about how Belos wants to wipe out all magic - and the collector is magic, so if they are freed there will probably be some back stabbing - but i dont think the collectors going to replace Belos as the big bad in Season 3. It would be really unsatisfying from a storytelling standpoint - it would take away the colonial and real life counterparts from Belos and replace them with a magical clown child who if they where a person would be obsessed with collecting pokemon cards, and that would just feel bad thematically. It would be a lot more fun if there are these two antagonists trying to manipulate each other into doing what the other wants.

if you look at it from various sides the collector doesnt really seem all too evil. They have the mentality of a child who's been around for thousands of years and can trap living things in paper, of course they're not going to have any regard for human (or witch?) life, its the equivalent of a kid stepping on ants or chasing birds to scare them away. It would make a good extreme parallel to Luz - who literally ran away to the Demon Realm to escape her personal prison and who at the start of the show, was also very curious but naive.

there are obviously some holes in this theory - with the largest one being the timeline. The only time we see the collector not trapped in the space between is in KKKOHD - which not only had a lot of dream spookiness going on, but also looks pretty much the same from when we see the same location in Edge of the world

(there also where already a bunch of dead titans in the KKKOHD flashback so who knows how they died.)

The validity of this theory is completely dependant on the owl beasts scroll having had to float around the ocean for literally thousands of years before being picked up (which could honestly explain why there are no other owl beasts but idk) and there's honestly just so much we dont know about the collector, its fairly hard to speculate anything concrete

so yeah! thats what ive been thinking. i hope i explained it alright, but there are definitely some holes here and there.

[acatthatmakeseclairs]

MAJOR OWL HOUSE SPOILERS FOR 'HOLLOW MIND' AND 'THE EDGE OF THE WORLD' UNDER THE CUT

Now the theory of Hunter being a grimwalker didn't come to be a big surprise for me, seeing as I, and many others, guessed it correctly.

But woof... the true reasoning behind Hunter's existence- his freaking name- gives me chills.

It's even worse than being a vessel, instead Hunter and the previous Golden Guards were clones of a brother, who was killed in cold blood supposedly for falling in love, which were then also brutally killed at the whims of a truly deranged and diabolical man.

We have yet to explore anything related to Stonekeepers and Ortets, though I believe that may come in the following episodes.

ALSO- I can't believe I was right about King's species being extinct! I for sure disregarded it after 'Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door'! I guess logic does work!

I had no idea that they were being hunted for sport for The Collector though...

As I said were probably going to look into Stonekeepers and the Ortet in the coming episodes so here are my thoughts on those:

I still believe that the Stonekeepers are the formal name for King's species rather than just 'titans', as King's power most likely comes from his chest, i.e his lungs.

I believe after The Collector was summoned by Belos, he helped him make the Grim-walkers, such as using the Titan trappers to get the lungs of a Stonekeeper.

The Ortet is probably the name of the Titan that the Boiling Isles is situated on.

Here's another theory and it's kinda crack but whatever:

The Collector doesn't belong to the dimension of the Boiling Isles.

I have no evidence for this, but it's more of a hypothetical situation.

When I think of a collector, I think of a character who travels and well collects things! It's obvious from the episode 'Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door' and 'The Edge of the World' that the collector is someone who traps, collects and kills varying monsters and beasts, transforming them into curses and curios, mainly for their own sick pleasure. I'm pretty sure from the emphasis on different dimensions in this season, it could be assumed that The Collector has traveled through dimensions, probably to find different beasts.

They definitely came before the Titan of the Boiling Isles passed that's for sure, they just seem so old from the way that they were hidden. Their clothing is also something that is just so out of place when it comes to the Boiling Isles, and that's something. From their celestial motifs, they remind me of Aaravos from The Dragon Prince.

Speaking of other cartoon villains...

From the way Phillip, or should I say Belos, summoned the Collector, it gave me mad Bill Cipher vibes, specifically when Gideon summoned him to get revenge on the Pines family.

We can all infer that the Collector is a similar villain to that of Bill, as they are both mysterious, all-knowing figures who are both charming and childish in their mannerisms and have a twisted sense of humor.

Like Bill, it seems that the Collector wants some sort of subjugation on the Boiling Isles, as seen in the quote from the Collector "Betrayed, beguiled, alone, deceived! We'll have our revenge on...".

I'm assuming it's not because of chaos and madness on the collector's part when it comes to their motives, although they do seem to have a few screws loose, but rather vengeance for the fact that they were sealed away by an unknown perpetrator, which is probably one of the Titans, seeing as they're plate thing was found in the Titan's head.

If I'm right about the Titan's being the Stonekeepers, than I believe that the Collector was sealed away because they were close to stealing these elusive 'stones' and were deemed a threat because of it. I'm also guessing that these stones might be the actual source of all the magic in the Boiling Isles, maybe even traveling dimensions!

(What if these stones are like the Calamity Stones... nah that's too nuts even for me)

ok so i have an owl house crack theory:

Belos is orochimaru

Alright in the opening shots of 'Eclipse Lake' we see this still:

If you look at the open book at the bottom right of the still, you see 'plans' or may 'notes' on the pages.

Another fan commented on how the pages contain information on red eyes

Now who do we know has red eyes?

Belos always repeats to Hunter "The Titan has big plans for you." Which we all know is just preface for what Belos has in the works. We also all know that Belos' health isn't at it's peak...

Soo... it would make sense to create a body artificially, which belos isn't exactly inept at doing, and possess it using magic, similar to what Orochimaru intended to with Sasuke in Naruto, with his curse mark.

This makes sense because the open book also contains a fetus, and through inference, it could mean the creation of life- but with Galdorstones, Palistrom wood, Selkidomus scales, Stoneskeeper lungs(?) and the bone of Ortet? (what even is that???)

Smells suspiciously of a test tube baby.

Also some other things to think about:

No else we've currently seen on the show has eyes like Hunter

It has been said on the show that Palistrom wood is overharvested and Selkidomuses are near extinction

Galdorstones are powerful and kept very hidden, mainly because they are highly sought for, but what if something happened in the past?

Side theory:

What if Ortet is King's demon species? Or it's the name of his father?

It would explain why King's father was most likely attacked, since the bone was needed to create Hunter. It would also explain why the island is hidden and why there are no other demons like King in the Boiling Isles, as they've been driven to extinction by Belos because of his test tube baby experiments and the species needed to stay hidden in order to survive.

However I'm not exactly sold on this theory myself...

Mainly because the notes contain the heading "Grimwalker", which could be some sort of artificial demon that Belos plans on using in the future.

I also believe 'Stoneskeeper Lungs' will come up in a future episode.