That one stan

the depressing implications of Phillip being ambidextrous

for one, we all know he's left handed, but he also seems to have ease switching to his right (defs prefer using his left though)#

https://phaylen.medium.com/the-children-who-were-beat-by-religious-leaders-for-being-left-handed-82e98a8048fe

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/31fd/2c3c45fa32ef99f6d4eb8e56eb8628f61cf3.pdf

this is just detailing between the 18th and 20th centuries. Imagine what it was like during 17th century purity america

maybe you could argue he's one of the one percent (not exaggerating) of the globe thats naturally born ambidextrous, but seeing as he uses his left hand a lot more in the series, I doubt it

His characterisation can only be gleaned through the small pockets of memory we have in Belos' mind. Like, if there were no portraits of the two of them in hollow mind, we wouldn't even know belos had a brother! Him screaming caleb's name in king's tide, hallucinating him in for the future and calling hunter a better version of an old friend doesn't clue in at all in the sibling thing. Hell they look so different i doubt most would even think in that direction!

perhaps this is why when writing the two of them I have this preference of writing caleb from Phillip's view. Because that is the only way we know caleb

and yk a character who only exists through a messed up person's memories is SUCH a delicious concept

like, everyone gives caleb all these noble traits (kind, generous, patient bla bla bla) because it's the version of him phillip has grown an insane attachment towards (also personality can be inferred a bit from some adult portraits i.e how hesitant he looked at the thought of fighting philip, how receptive he was to meeting him again), but there had to have been something else, right? like they're siblings without parents. They had to have fought, they had to have clashed, there had to have been things young phillip greatly disliked about caleb and the same vice versa.

Him being THE perfect brother is something i'm not really a fan of. Also something I sorta disagree with, because our only point of reference is belos and, well, *gestures vaguely* look at him! You can't get more unreliable than him in all his delusional mess of a mental state

(not to say that caleb was a bad brother, absolutely not I genuinely believe he was wonderful , especially since his "betrayal" sent Phillip on a 4-century-long crashout. I just think there's more to it that we don't know/belos intentionally hides)

The philip that Luz and Lillith had met had already killed his brother

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.

but then-

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")

alsooOoooo

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.

Seriously, what's up with that?

Once again going through his memory portraits, I couldn't help but quickly notice how obsessed he was with masks ever since caleb made it for him. Hell, he never takes it off in his childhood memories after it was made (asids that one picture, but he's wearing it in the next one so. Shrug)

It doesn't stop at masks either. I also noticed that his face tends to be hidden/obscured in all of his memory portraits after caleb left

Like, here's before

And after

(A memory portrait with a mirror and they intentionally hide his face. Could've given him those intimidating glowy eyes ahain but nope! Intentionally hide it)

(I doubt it's to hide the fact he's philip wittebane as well, since a bunch of these came out post-canon iirc. Forgive me if i am wrong)

Now of course i started thinking "ay chief you might be reaching here" then decided to go through understanding willow for her portraits

Her face, clear as day. I bet all my pencils (weird I know) that if we had any portraits of her as a teenager her face wouldn't be hidden at all

Still, this isn't really stable evidence to support why i think it's intentional, so I bring you: The emperor's coven.

LOOM AT EMMMM

Masks here

And here and here

Hell even hunter is mandated to wear one!

Cant forget that Belos himseld never unmasked in public throughout his fifty(?) Year rule until the day of unity was rapidly approaching

Now, is it possible that I'm not reading into anything and the emperor's coven wears masks because evil antagonist faction looks cool as hell and intimidating with masks?

Yes. I'd go as far to say not only is it possible, it's exactly what it is and I'm trying to overanalyse the rule of cool XD

STILL, i choose to believe it could represent some messed up part of Belos' psyche stemming from his childhood

The only thing i have left to tie this hastily put together thought bubble is this interesting tidbit on his personal wiki under "likes"

First of all-

(Being,,,,protected,,,EUGHK--)

Second, imo, i feel it ties back to the whole covering his face thing. Maybe he feels safest when hidden behind a mask, because caleb made his first one? Because, beneath that mask, he's the best witch hunter ever who will always slay the beast and protect his brother?