phillip

belos does not really view people as their own beings, but rather as 'extensions' of himself, and important because they factor into his self-image. that is the root of how he treats hunter.

in canon, i think belos views hunter at once as both brother and thus protector, and nephew and thus possession. hunter isn't afforded the capacity to be his own person. to me, this is a pretty clear case of emotional incest (in simple terms, this is when a child is relied on unhealthily by a parent/guardian for emotional support).

empgold for me is taking that emotional incest, born from hunter being caleb's replacement, and extending it to be physical by making hunter belos' lover and thus possession once again. it's the logical extreme to their dynamic, and i love dealing in those.

also, im so extremely normal about belos possessing hunter. so normal. i mean to me possession is a metaphor for rape in any kind of fiction whether intended to be or not, because it's quite literally taking someone's bodily control away from them and violating them, taking over them, etc. once again this ties back to belos seeing hunter as just a possession and object for him to use however he sees fit.

also, i dont think belos is like, attracted to hunter. drawing this line is important to me because i dont like conflating the idea of attraction with abuse. abuse isn't because of attraction, it's because of power. i'd wager that most child abusers are not attracted to children at all, but abuse them because they view children as objects/possessions. to these people, making others miserable in general is what gets them off. children are targeted because they aren't protected by society. going back to empgold, the reason belos incestuously abuses hunter (for me) is because of this. it's not an attraction thing at all, just a way for belos to feel in control and powerful. because i think what belos is most afraid of is being vulnerable--he cared so deeply for one person, and then he was abandoned and likely treated pretty badly by those he was left with (i digress, but i can expand on that if anyone wants)

as for hunter, i just want to shout out this fic for being the absolute best. as well as the dog left behind by shiba_liba. i hate seeing "perfect victims", primarily of course because it's detrimental to survivors of abuse who don't conform to those standards (which i think is most victims) but secondly because it makes for a really boring story.

hunter was so isolated his entire life up to the events of season 2 that there is simply no way he would not have complicated feelings about his abuser. belos would have been the only person to have shown a shred of love and care towards hunter, even if it was fake, and i think hunter would have absolutely cherished those moments. a child needs care and validation, and hunter would have been raised to believe that he needed to please belos (not necessarily sexually, but just in general) in order to be loved. i think there would be moments post-canon where hunter might find himself missing belos, because it's hard to admit that you have problems, that something bad happened to you, that someone you loved treated you in ways absolutely no one should, especially not when they were the one responsible for your care and safety. hunter is a deeply deeply traumatized teenager, and he's going to carry that. and sometimes, you really don't want to admit you're traumatized and that you're gonna carry that weight your whole life. which is what i think might happen with hunter. he was so deep in denial for so long that it's going to take years to unlearn his instinctual reaction to defend belos.

another reason he might not want to "let go" of the idea that belos cared, that belos loved him, is because his entire identity was centered around being the golden guard. he was belos' right hand and protector, and what is he without that? he wasn't allowed to have hobbies, he wasn't allowed to have friends. he needs to build an entire life for himself after not having lived one for 16 years. he's going to be so incredibly maladjusted, and he's going to have a skewed understanding of how relationships are supposed to work, especially between guardians and their dependents.

this kind of got away from the question, sorry! i just can't resist textwalling when someone asks me about these two lol. again, i'm not sure if this all counts as headcanon, but i hope this was still an enjoyable read!

and here's a bonus golden guard!hunter doodle just for you, anon ( ˘ ³˘(◡‿◡˶)