Xeron

i do think he must feel some level of contempt towards Hunter for how easy he is to manipulate, how readily he swallows whatever Belos gives him. but that scene in s2e9 did feel like it involved genuine affection at some points. i got the impression that Belos enjoyed having someone to look up to him, having someone who he could tell stories about himself to, regale with tales of his exploits, someone who he could teach and lead.

before s2e12, i got the impression from Belos that he's someone who wants to leave a legacy of some sort, and therefore that he would enjoy being a mentor of sorts, and that it pleased and satisfied him to take that role with Hunter. i don't really think that anymore tho. perhaps we can extrapolate that from the diary - that he wanted to craft a narrative with himself as the hero at the center of it, then leave it for the public to read - or from the particular persona he adopts for his manipulation - the kindly old grandpa, the warmly paternal leader - or even from Philip's particular way of seeming to see and present himself as the cruelly downtrodden heroic victim - but i'm not so sure!

because with that line about how "i only need to live long enough to see this through", it seems that Philip was (and Belos, presumably, still is) laser-focused on some kind of goal to the exclusion of all else. he doesn't care about his health, his reputation, his appearance, his own comfort, even his own life. he doesn't intend or expect to live past the completion of this plan. we don't know exactly what it is, although we have a lot of pieces and we can certainly make some guesses. to me, though, that's not the behavior or attitude of a man concerned with his legacy.

(then, we could argue that he simply wants his accomplishments to live on after he is dead. could work! i don't know, though.)

maybe he does enjoy that! it's certainly a very common type of love and affection for an abuser to hold for their victim - not the acceptance and love towards a whole person and what they bring into one's life, but instead the indulgent enjoyment of a captive audience. the ability to mold and control someone else. a type of love that's mirrored by and rooted in that sense of contempt: the love a puppetmaster has for a particularly well-crafted, familiar puppet.

so he might enjoy having Hunter around to make him feel important and valuable. he might enjoy receiving that sort of unconditional awe Hunter regards him with. he might enjoy having Hunter around as an outlet for his anger, or as someone who he can entrust his vulnerabilities to, safe in the knowledge that he controls Hunter so utterly, the prospect of Hunter rejecting or hurting him is simply impossible.

i also definitely think that whatever feelings he has for Hunter are very much shaped by his relationship with his brother. i'm so curious about it. the brother's absence from the diary is incredibly notable, as is that doodle we saw in s2e12. i've seen people suggest that the brother might have drawn it, because no way would someone as self-aggrandizing as Philip portray himself being overshadowed that way, but honestly to me, that's a misinterpretation of Philip's character (and this is just me basing this on my personal familiarity with the Type Of Guy he comes across as.)

to me, though, the sad clown aspect is crucial. putting himself across as this slightly pathetic person who needs help, the killdeer fluttering its broken wing, downtrodden and rejected by the very world, held in contempt and let down by all who cross his path, it's a manipulation tactic, but it's not just purely manipulation. he genuinely sees himself as the heroic victim, and the 'hero' and 'victim' parts are both equally important there.

he feels as though everyone else considers themselves better than him, that they mistreat and try to take advantage of him, that nobody truly understands him - and he's angry about this, because he thinks he's better than them, and he's going to prove them all wrong. the fact that he's so unfairly treated justifies his behavior towards others, in his mind. he is better, so he deserves to be at the top of the hierarchy and be the one using and discarding others. he's the one who's really entitled to it. he deserves it, they just don't know it yet, and so he's going to turn their own sense of superiority back around on them.

that's my take - that his entitlement and sense of superiority aren't just straightforward, and his oh-woe-is-me act isn't just an act. they're all wound up in these many layers of aggrieved entitlement, a sense that he's the only person who has feelings and that therefore any wound to his feelings is the worst thing ever, and because no one else is supposed to be a person but they all keep stubbornly acting like they are, he keeps constantly getting his overblown ego hurt and lashing out furiously, because he has no other way of soothing or dealing with that.

all of which is to say, i think Philip drew that doodle, and i think it represents his feelings about his relationship to his brother - that his brother was the leader between the two of them and that Philip existed in his shadow. maybe he really relied on his brother. maybe he loved him. maybe he felt resentful. probably kind of all of the above.

anyway, although we don't quite know just what a grimwalker is or what the process for creating one is, whether Philip/Belos has already done it or whether Hunter is going to be the final ingredient for one or whether Hunter is one and is therefore the culmination of several hundred years of effort and experimentation, i think it's extremely clear that 1) Philip's brother was significant and 2) there is some sort of connection between him and Hunter, which leads to -

3) Hunter's entire life with Belos has been shaped by Belos's relationship with a man who Hunter doesn't even know existed. Hunter lives in the shadow of that relationship, and it's like a fish not knowing what water is. he has no context for the shape of the thing he exists within. he has no context for the idea that there's anything outside of it.

and that's a piece of the puzzle we just don't have yet. i can extrapolate and assume, but we don't know what Philip's brother was like or what Philip's relationship with him was like. therefore, we don't quite know all of the baggage that Belos brings to his relationship with Hunter, and we also don't know what purpose Hunter is meant to serve.