Eregyrn Falls

every ending has a beginning

[Image description: digital art of Caleb and Philip, contrasted with Luz and Hunter from The Owl House. Caleb and Philip are shown as children, with Caleb smiling calmly, and leading the way forward with a pitchfork in his hand. Philip looks nervous as he follows, holding his horned mask.

Walking in the opposite direction, Hunter cautiously leads the way, wearing an owl Halloween mask and carrying a rake. Luz follows behind him, with an intense expression underneath her King mask. She holds a baseball bat. The background is black, with text reading: "every ending has a beginning." End ID.]

Big bro genes is strong in this one boys

IT’S FINALLY HERE AFTER AN ENTIRE WEEK OF WORK !!!

I’m super proud of this, I hope you guys enjoy !! :D

THIS IS FREAKING AMAZING

You know what absolutely blows my fucking mind? How little of the Wittebane’s backstory has been explicitly revealed in the show. Like, it wasn’t until very, very recently that we got a fully ascribed account of what happened to the brothers that mentioned them by name, and even then, it’s seen through the lens of a small town’s personal folklore. The paintings in Belos’ mindscape are never looked at or observed by characters in canon, any and all extrapolation about them must be done by the viewer. The closest we have come to seeing Caleb in the show’s reality is in Hunter’s mildly hallucinatory reflection, and his name that has been said by Philip only twice. It’s insane. This man is a ghost in so many ways. Caleb Wittebane is arguably the most important character in this entire fucking series and we haven’t seen him actually appear yet. Holy shit.

I keep thinking about how Dana described them like dog walkers who bond over their dogs. 

Image description: digital art of Philip, Caleb, and Evelyn from The Owl House, seen as children. Philip’s wearing his wooden mask and hiding behind Caleb, while Evelyn has her ears covered with a hood.

She’s holding out her wrist, which Flapjack is perched upon, and she and Caleb are smiling at each other. End description.

and there were two

on the one hand, sometimes i wish that belos wasn't a character in a children's cartoon, so his story could've been explored deeper without getting censored or toned down. on the other hand, I think perhaps part of the fun that I get from his character comes EXACTLY from the fact that THIS absolute horror of a man is somehow a character in a cartoon for KIDS.

like. you have this pretty basic fantasy show formula. girl gets stuck in the magical world, gets powers, a found family, a girlfriend, there's school shenanigans and sports episodes, and all of these you know typical disney cartoon stuff. and then they're like. so there's THIS GUY. he murdered his brother in cold blood over the fact that he dared to have a life beyond their relationships, desecrated his grave, stole his body and then proceeded to, for 300 years straight, casually dissect and dismember him to create children out of his bones, the children that he delusionally believes to be the same person as his brother, but not like the real brother — this one he doesn't want — but the idealized version of his brother that won't have any life beyond him, the version that only ever existed in his head, and so when these children grow up and develop a life of their own, he, again, sees it as a betrayal, and so he murders them and tries again and again and again in hope that someday he will succeed and his ideal nonexistent brother will return and they will go home together and everything will be exactly how it was and how it's supposed to be, all the while the numbers of dead children in his basement grows. and it's like. girl what the FUCK

Him and only him ✨

Belos's use of fake personas is an interesting part of his character and I want to talk about it for a second. Belos as a persona is the feared but benevolent dictator grandpa who's religious but ultimately caring, and he takes Hunter under his wing after their family dies. This is his Boiling Isles persona, it's not who he really is. He makes deliberate choices to portray himself in this way, specifically giving Hunter the company line about how he would be dead without Belos, etc. The Curse is an extension of Belos he uses to explain why he abuses Hunter. He mainly uses The Curse to get away with harmful actions, ei trying to convince Luz that the Curse made him hurt people.

And then there's Philip as a persona, closer to the real personality of this guy but Philip is trying his best to be a wet cat. He pulls this one out when he needs to be a poor little meow meow about things and has his fake limp that goes along with this one. An extension of Philip is Kid Belos, which is pretty much the same but he's appearing as an innocent kid to try to get Luz to feel bad for him. which is. horrific.

Then there's actual Philip/Belos, who is behind all of these actions and doesn't feel bad about it. He feels like he has a greater purpose and he wants to wipe out an entire island of people because he's a religious extremist, and he attempted to kill his brother's partner, and killed his brother, because he hates people who are different from him. Hunter has always known the Belos persona, and is fully aware of how Belos uses fake personas to get away with shit with The Curse, so the use of names via Hunter and Luz is interesting. Luz struggles with what name she's going to call him because Belos specifically asks her to call him Philip, but Hunter reaffirms calling him Belos because it's mostly a power play and an attempt at separating himself from his actions to call himself Philip.

“You looked the most like him”

I am calling this done.

Follow my art account for more :3 tumblr.com/caswasshere

TOH x OTGW

Ayye it’s Halloween season! I’d like to draw a lot for Halloween this year so I’ll kick it off with a crossover drawing of OTGW and the Wittebane brothers! This AU idea has been plaguing me ever since it crossed my mind dgdgdgg

it’s finally october YAY

hey i totally didnt forget about this blog (forgot)

[Image description: screenshot from The Owl House of King saying: "No one wants to think they've wasted their life following the wrong person." End description.]

The thing about rewatching Hollow Mind, after the finale, is realizing this sentiment isn't just about Belos's followers, or about Luz initially looking up to Philip. In fact, it's just as much about Belos himself.

No one wants to admit you spent years chasing a brother who didn't want to go home. Who wasn't the witch hunter he once claimed to be. Who, in every reincarnation, still won't become the person you wanted him to be.

No one wants to admit that — for the centuries you saw yourself as following your God, doing what He required of you to save humanity's souls, and wipe out the Devil's witchcraft — that you were the only one doing evil. That your devout faith and countless sacrifices were misplaced, and that your former home has moved on from witch hunts anyway.

No one would want to admit any of that, and in combination with Belos's personal obsession with being a hero, it becomes clear he was never going to admit it. Not even on his deathbed. Because that would be nearly four hundred wasted years on his conscience, four hundred years of following the wrong people, and how could he possibly let himself believe that?

Something about Luz and Belos being foils because Luz gives everyone a chance to change, and Belos doesn't. Something about Luz trying to sympathize with Philip even after he betrays her in the past ("I know you want to go home, but..."), versus something about Belos not even wanting to "redeem" the Isles, but eradicate them.

Something about how there's no way to change that will make you "acceptable" to fascists, no way to change enough to be happy in the Emperor's Coven, because it's a system built on wiping you out. Something about how it is possible to better yourself and find a place of belonging among the outcasts, something about spurning the covens and finding happiness in the home of a criminal.

Something about Amity, especially Lilith, and especially Hunter rejecting the system they once perpetuated because it wanted them dead anyway, something about them giving up on trying not to be "wild" or "savage." Finding a community by accepting forgiveness from Luz. By putting their heart into being better people and stopping the harmful cycles they once perpetuated.

Something about Belos — the root of all the bigotry and fascism in the Boiling Isles, albeit not the root in the human realm — never once taking an opportunity to change. Not the one given by Caleb, and surely not the one given by Luz in Elsewhere and Elsewhen, because of course he wouldn't — as a fascist, he doesn't believe in redemption. Of course he always stood for retribution, not restoration. He'll offer chances to Luz and Luz alone, every so often, but in the same breath, he'll also call her crazy and too far gone.

(Something about how Luz is always willing to entertain the possibility of people changing for the better, from Amity to Kikimora to the Collector. How by the end of the series, she gets almost a little too good at recognizing where she's hurt people, and driven to despair because of it; a little too dedicated to making up for her mistakes. How she's really nothing like Belos; how in fact, before she begins to heal, she's unlike him almost to a fault.)

We have something about how claiming that certain people with certain beliefs can never change, and in fact don't "deserve" to change, is equivalent to absolving them of any responsibility to change and be better. How that just isn't a good way to look at the world. How that thinking, at its extremes, can even seal your own fate, shutting down your own capacity to grow as a person.

Something about Puritan concepts of predestination, maybe even about seeing the timeloop Belos became obsessed with as a metaphor for his belief in predestination, standing for the cycle that lead to him needing to die. He wouldn't accept anything less than all witches dying, and in doing so, left the witches with no choice besides letting the rain melt him alive.