so uh, remember when I asked myself twice in other posts whether the collector knew of caleb (and doubted so)
i think i have some evidence that...he does??
(also hi, yes, i'm back, tomodachi life took over MY entire life)
so here I was on the owl house wiki as always (trying to gather some points for a post I wanted to make before this one) which led me to rewatching hollow-mind AGAIN for said post, then I sat down and listened to The collector's words to belos. Like, really listened
(transcript of hollow mind episode from the wiki, here https://theowlhouse.fandom.com/wiki/Hollow_Mind/Transcript)
and like, okay, so belos told him that he ended up in the boiling isles somehow. makes sense.
when these words finally registered in my brain i shot up the couch like ?!?!?!?!?
you could theoretically, maybe, possibly, argue he's only referring to himself (no you can't, not with "We'll have our revenge")
this does not fit ANY of the collector's past, in the slightest. It is clearly referring to caleb-- well, what phillip believed to have happened to him anyway with evelyn.
also, betrayed huh? i never interpreted collector's reaction to the archivists tossing them away as betrayal (the decieved and alone fits much better)
but remember who does feel like they've been betrayed? who references it with that exact word in the same scene?
so how I see it, the words refer to both of them like this; betrayed (phillip), beguiled (caleb, so phillip), alone (phillip & collector), decieved (collector)
I've already screamed twice about the collector referring to belos by his real name and i'll do it again because what!! hello!!!!!!!!! it's even more insane to me while looking at this!!!
belos doesn't react at all to their sing-songy poem so he must've told them a long time ago? or doesn't mind them knowing?
i made this post because like, it's so interesting to me 'cos a: i freaking love thinking about the collector and belos, and b: why?
what could POSSIBLY be the motive?
manipulation? for what? the draining spell? there's no suitable reason to tell the collector about caleb. He could've just said "oh i got lost here and the witches treated me HORRIBLY so help me kill them all and you'll be free" and thats enough! the collector (pre s3 at the very least) didn't seem to gaf about the whole wiping out the witches thing. hell it coulda' been a "hey if you give me a spell that wipes out all witches I'll free you"
so what possible reason could there be for belos to reveal his (arguably, well no definitely) closely guarded secret to the collector?
once again they spent CENTURIES together. There's so much we don't know and I'm curious about the littlest of glimpses we get. in this case the glimpses are just short convos BUT STILL
(didn't know how to smoothly squeeze this in so, can I just say they're is fun to watch? there's one scene i completely forgot that takes place S2x18 Clouds on the Horizon and despite being such a short scene once again it reminds me of how different s2 and s3 is. the dynamic really is more equal!! not manipulative guy and dumb kid!! I'm not going crazy!! the collector ragebaits belos who strikes at him and they don't care!!)
also also, headcanon the collector bullied/made fun of belos enough to cut his beard)
like, it's so obvious the collector attached themselves to phillip due to him being, well, their biggest chance at escaping, but ALSO (how i see it anyway) the fact that they share the burden of being abandoned/left behind by people they loved most.
and, not once did belos feel that same sense of kinship? really? not once? again i know he's mr bad man, but, cmon, reaaaaallly?