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The Collector: Another Victim of Belos' Abuse

We know that Belos is a abuser in every sense of the word and that although he has abused all of the Boiling Islands as a whole, his favorite targets are children, he focuses on children because they are much easier to manipulate and isolate.

Belos has abused children before: we saw it with Hunter and the other grimwalkers,

he wanted to do it with Luz

but what many forget is the fact that Collector is a child and was also abused by Belos.

While Belos may not directly physically abuse Collector, there are many ways to groom, manipulate, and abuse a child that do not involve physical contact at all.

In this post, I mentioned how abandonment and isolation had affected Collector and he was desperate for any kind of company and to be free and Phillip took advantage of that, promising to free him if he taught him magic and the draining spell in return. This made Collector easy prey for Belos as even though he finally had company, Collector was still isolated as the only one he could see and interact with was Belos.

Belos controls everything in his life: who he sees, who he talks to, when he can talk, when he can even experience something about the world.

Also, from the way we saw their interactions, Collector genuinely believed that Belos was his friend, he taught Belos powerful magic and draining spell without hesitation because he believed that Belos wanted to be his friend even when he started to doubt him at the end. Collector still considers Belos his friend and decided to trust him and was willing to keep his promise to help him first while Belos only manipulated him and isolated him, he could barely stand it as he was about to hit him when he told him that the human world had changed or that when Collector complains to Belos for not fulfilling his part and he only covers him with a blanket and throws him off the bridge.

Collector's trust towards Belos is bolstered by the fact that he is the only one Collector has interacted with for 400 YEARS since his imprisonment as Belos keeps him hidden and has not interacted with anyone else to the point that no one knows about his existence, Kikimora only knew that Collector existed because she was eavesdropping on Belos and Luz and Hunter only found out about Collector's existence by seeing Belos' memories but if it hadn't been for those facts neither Kikimora nor Luz nor Hunter would know that Collector exists. This is an abuse tactic in which the abuser keeps the victim isolated so that the latter completely depends and trusts only the former, this isolation tactic was also used by Belos with Hunter and the other grimwalkers.

Many comment on how Collector dismisses grimwalkers as objects that Belos creates to destroy them and how Collector sees the hunting of Titans, the lives of others and the destruction as a game making him look cruel but contrary to what everyone believes, Collector is not cruel out of malice but for this:

What Sundowner means by this is that children do cruel things not out of malice but because they simply have no morality in the beginning so they don't know right from wrong until someone teaches them and if no one teaches a kid that what is right and what is wrong, the kid will simply do horrible things because they believe that it is normal or that they are right and if a kid is surrounded by adults who do bad things and/or teach them to do horrible things as a good thing, the kid will simply imitate them because it's all they know. Basically kids do bad things because in their own innocence they don't know they are doing something bad in the first place.

The Collector is a kid and kids mimic the adults around them. We know that the other collectors preserve life by force and kill anyone who opposes them

and Collector isn't interested in doing the same as the other collectors and he just wanted to play and have friends

but he imitated the other collectors way of acting because they were the only adults he had and therefore they were the only thing he knew. After the war between his kind and the Titans, and by extension his imprisonment which was for an incredibly long time, the only adult in the Collector's life has been Belos, who is a person who has done a LOT of horrible things, so even putting aside the fact that they have unbelievable cosmic powers over reality itself, of COURSE he have no concept of the value or life or the suffering of others, of COURSE he sees people as toys, that's what's been modeled for him by the literal los only adults in his life at all for hundreds of years!

Collector is literally a kid with a lot of power in his hands who was surrounded by adults but all of them did horrible things and none of them bothered to show him that what he was doing was wrong because they didn't care about Collector as a person but only about his power and/or get some benefit out of it, this is clearly isolation, exploitation and neglect and all of these are forms of abuse.

This is even seen with King because despite the fact that, unlike the other collectors, titan trappers and Belos, he only wanted Collector to use his powers to save his friends but that doesn't take away from the fact that he used him and that he didn't care about Collector as person and only released him by his power. All these cases make Collector probably believe that it is normal to hurt others, lie and that friendships are utilitarian and friends always betray each other when in fact friendships aren't forged by the use that people have nor are they something that is forced on others but are forged for the love, respect and trust that exists between people. However, unlike the other collectors, titan trappers and Belos, King recognizes that Collector is still a child and that he is afraid of being alone and wishes to talk to him.

Little by little with the help of King and other people and healthy relationships that Collector builds, Collector will learn to distinguish between good and evil and that not everyone wants him for his power, but rather for who he is, Collector will gradually learn what a true friendship and/or healthy relationship is like, and with this Collector will grow as a person, learning to have a moral and emotional maturity by having people who love him for who he is and not for what he can do.

I love Willow's character development. She tries so hard to keep it together, because she's gained the reputation as the strong one of the group after all her training and support from her friends from her in the previous seasons. But the more she bottles up her emotions, the more she loses control of her powers and starts to doubt herself. Only by admitting her fears of her and letting her emotions out of her, does she regain control, and is able to pull through, and be a strong member of the team again.

I love the lesson this teaches, it's okay not to be strong all the time, it's okay to let people know if it's too much, and it's okay to show your emotions. There will always be someone to give you the support you need.

Something quite curious and that goes very unnoticed is the fact that Kikimora manipulated Boscha because in some way she is reflected in her but by doing that, Kikimora makes Boscha become more toxic, she is hurting Boscha, and therefore, she is hurting the younger version of herself.

It's no coincidence that Kikimora manipulates Boscha because in a certain sense Kikimora IS Boscha: both are terrified that others see them vulnerable and they end up mistreating others as a way to hide their vulnerability so as not to be hurt by anyone and both also have the tendency to idealize to the extreme a person they love, admire or respect (Belos for Kikimora and Amity for Boscha) but they get angry with them for not fitting in with the idealized versions they had and even when they see them again before getting angry with them for not being what they thought, Kikimora and Boscha ask Belos and Amity to give them a chance to prove themselves. The difference is that Boscha realizes her flaws and tries to improve as a person while Kikimora becomes more toxic to the point that she hurts others without realizing that she is hurting herself and isolating herself from any positive relationship with others.

Kikimora is what Boscha would have been if she didn't realize her tendency to hide her vulnerability through mistreatment of others and her tendency to idealize others are quite toxic to herself and others.

Remember when I said in a post that The Owl House is Disney's Bloodborne?

In the posters of each season they remind important places in Bloodborne.

The S1 poster resembles the normal night skies of Yharnam, presenting us with a story that seems simple and normal at first glance.

The S2 poster resembles Yharnam when the moon turns red and the One Reborn is summoned as a result. This shows us a darker picture where there is a greater threat and how both stories turn out to be darker, more complex and deeper than they seemed before.

The S3 poster resembles Hunter's Dream, a place where hunters can rest and recuperate before continuing their hunt, functioning as a place of temporary refuge where the protagonists will face their enemies for the last time. In both places there are trees (representing life, the feeling of refuge and tranquility that these places provide) and tombs (representing death and how the tranquility of these places is temporary since the protagonists will have to face monsters that could put in danger their lives) and most importantly, the greatest threats that have been in the shadows that the protagonists must face for the last time appear in both places (Belos and Moon Presence).

When Belos said: “YOU did do something good. I thought this one (referring to Hunter) was another lost cause. Because of you (referring to Luz), WE can finish OUR work as witch hunters, starting with them! (referring to Amity, Gus and Willow)” clearly the WE is referring to himself and Caleb but I can't help but think that Belos was also referring to Luz because even though he tried to kill her, at the same time he wants her to be on his side and support him (something we have seen quite a few times and that he has also done to Caleb) because Belos already believed that she was a witch hunter like him because of the fact that she was human and believed that he could help her free herself from the "mental corruption" of the Boiling Islands and the fact that she wants to be useful, help others and always ends up helping him (even though she clearly never knew she was helping him, nor did she want to) only reinforces that belief because Belos understands her since, like Luz, he also wants to help, protect and save others, especially Luz, in his twisted way. He thanks her for always help him and even wants and tries to force her to help her to accept "her destiny" as a witch hunter as a twisted way of thanks and support. And the fact that before he goes to the Boiling Islands tells Luz that whatever he's planning is for the sake of her soul (and probably Camila's soul too) shows how reinforced Belos has this belief.

I've been thinking about what would have happened if Luz had been found first by Belos before Eda and I couldn't help but remember Sonia and Griffith from Berserk.

Luz and Sonia were born with a condition that made them different from other normal people which makes them both think and see things differently from others (Luz has ADHD since birth and Sonia is a birth medium) to the point that they felt they didn't fit in anywhere and that neither did their parents nor did anyone understand them or take what they said seriously:

Luz felt her mother Camila does not understand her because of her strangeness and her way of seeing things due to her ADHD and that the only person who supported her tastes in fantasy, her father Manny who gave her the Good Witch Azura books as a way to support her tastes, is no longer there. It is implied that her classmates bullied her for her love for fantasy and for her ADHD and it is even implied that Luz confessed to someone but that person rejected her for being weird and corny.

Sonia lost her parents due to the Kushan invasion but that gives to understand with some dialogues that she has with Schierke and Irvine, Sonia felt lonely to the point that it can be interpreted that she thought that her parents didn't understand her and saw her as a freak and from the way in which we were introduced to Sonia where other women dismiss her visions as the product of madness from seeing their parents burned to death, it is implied that because of her powers as a medium the other people in her home village believed that she was insane.

This is even seen by the fact that they both feel more comfortable being and talking with monsters or strange beings (Luz with Eda, King and hexsquad and Sonia with Griffith, Irvine, Schierke and the new Band of the Hawk in general) than with normal people:

Sonia is always agressive towards Mule and Charlotte and the human soldiers as if she was hurt in the past by other normal humans so she always has distrust towards other humans and would rather hurt them than let them hurt her first.

Luz was terrified that Vee would talk to other humans and even gave her advice on how to run away from them to avoid being humiliated, as if Luz herself had bad experiences with other humans and would rather run away from other humans than be hurt by them.

Luz and Sonia had to take the conditions with which they were born as something that makes them special as if they were the chosen one as a defense mechanism to face their loneliness and their fear of being seen as freaks and being rejected because of that, and they can even become stubborn and hurtful with others.

Luz and Sonia know what it's like to be alone that they even become friends with two witches (Willow and Schierke) who share similar problems to them:

Willow is a witch who is not good with abominations which causes other classmates to bully her just as it happened to Luz in the Human Realm.

Schierke is a witch that have magic powers what cause her to have conflicts with humans because of it just as it happened to Sonia with the other inhabitants of her home village.

Luz and Sonia were naive and had a great feeling of loneliness to the point that they cling to the first people who treat them well or with respect (Eda and Griffith) because they don't downplay or demonize them as girls with delusions of grandeur or as insane girls but they accept them for who they are, take them and their feelings seriously, and give them a place of belonging.

Luz and Sonia have a strong desire to be understood by others that leads them to believe that they understand those that they accepted them due to the fact that they are special and/or weird like them.

However, the key difference is that Eda doesn't respect Luz at the beginning but when Luz is in danger she doesn't hesitate to go to help her but the most important thing is that Eda teaches her that she cannot wait for others to give her value through a special destiny of chosen one but that she has to give her value to herself.

Eda: "Look, kid, everyone wants to believe they're "chosen". But if we all waited around for a prophecy to make us special, we'd die waiting. And that's why you need to choose yourself".

Furthermore, when Luz hurts others to fulfill her fantasies of being the chosen one, as happened with Willow and Amity, both of them call out Luz for hurting them, to which Luz listens and recognizes that she was wrong to project her fantasies on Amity and Willow and begin to understand them better and treat them and their feelings with respect.

But Sonia doesn't have an Eda nor does she have a Willow or an Amity, she instead has Griffith who instead of giving her the firm but caring reality check that Eda does with Luz or call her out and make her see that her projection as the chosen one is hurting others and that she has to learn to understand them and treat them with respect like Willow and Amity told Luz, Griffith really plays into and encourages her main character syndrome and makes her believe that she totally does have a destiny, this is fate, Hawk of the Light himself brought her to him at this time, so on and so forth.

And I'm pretty sure Belos would do to Luz what Griffith did to Sonia if he had the chance. I'm sure he'd love that opportunity, and he could easily play into her chosen one ideas and main character syndrome: Luz would be an honored guest of the Emperor, Belos would give her a nice suite of rooms in the castle, fed regular meals - no finicky experimenting with what cuisine makes her sick, here, the Emperor is well aware of the dietary needs of humans and his larders are stocked with all manner of things she can consume, she has access to his libraries, to all of the information she could ever want and the best tutors on magic, Belos would let Luz learn to use glyphs, he would manipulate her by telling her about the Savage Ages and how dangerous wild magic is and how he brought order to the witchkind. He'd want to form a very close and personal relationship with Luz and for her to trust him completely and for that he would allow her to do things that he would not allow anyone else like have her attending him in his workshop, spending time with him in his personal office, taking dinner with him in his chambers, listening to his stories, he would tell her that he is a human like her.

Luz and Sonia are unshakably happy, caring and naive girls who feel alone because they don't fit in anywhere and nobody wants to understand them. Luz found people who teach her that she cannot run away from reality to feel that they take her seriously because she would be more isolated but those same people understand her and love her for whom she is and they show it to her but Sonia doesn't have the same luck and she is with a monster that despite showing that he enjoys her company is also using her. It's quite scary to think that if Belos had found Luz first than Eda, Luz's situation would be the same as Sonia's and even Luz could behave in the same aggressive way as Sonia.

Do you remember this post where I mentioned how Belos has a feeling of solidarity with Luz for being the first human he has seen for decades, besides that she reinforced this solidarity for him by helping him without realizing it? This plus what we have been shown in the series regarding the fact that he became a witch hunter out of admiration for Caleb and the witch hunters seeing them as heroes and to fit in in Gravesfield plus the fact that Luz wanted others to understand her led me to think that Belos wanted and believed that Luz understood him for being human like him and ironically Luz's wish to be understood was granted in the worst possible way because Belos is the first human who does not see her as a freak but rather he recognizes her as someone smart, as a person and sees her as his equal (a treatment that he does not give to anyone else, not even Hunter) to the point of wanting to have her on his side, to see himself as her savior and protective and being so obsessed with her in general.

Belos somehow sees not only Caleb reflected in Luz but he also sees himself reflected in her as a person who seeks to be understood and to feel that he belongs somewhere so he wants to be understood by her and at the same time in a twisted way, he wants to give Luz that feeling of belonging and be the special person with whom Luz feels understood, protected and loved.

Something I realized about Belos is how his appearance reflects his personality. His human appearance symbolizes how he sees himself and how he wants others to see him (as someone good, heroic and well-intentioned) and he has tricked everyone into seeing him that way (he even fooled us the audience in season 1 making us believe that he was just a well-intentioned extremist who suffered from "wild magic" and just wanted to return to the Human Realm because he missed his home) while his true appearance symbolizes who he really is (someone evil, manipulative, selfish and sadistic) and how he possesses living beings to later discard when they're no longer useful (representing how he manipulates others to later discard them when they are no longer needed or useful).

So much so that Belos believes that his human appearance is his true appearance when actually his monstrous appearance is his true appearance. He basically transformed himself into a magical monster that simply assumes the appearance of a human because he carved glyphs on his skin and consumed so many palismen, turning him into the kind of monstrous and evil creature that he believes the rest of the inhabitants of the Boiling Islands are.

This shows how even though Belos believed that witches were monsters, actually he was always the monster.

Luffy and Collector: Gods of Joy, Children of Heart

I don't know about you but Collector reminds me of Luffy from One Piece in the sense that Collector is what Luffy would have been if he didn't have good adult figures in his life and didn't have healthy relationships with other people.

Both are characters who highly value freedom, and they have a playful nature and just want to have fun, so much so that they even play children's games like tag. Luffy wants to be Pirate King because he wants to be free to do whatever he wants and Collector just wanted to be free from his confinement. But Luffy has emotional intelligence and moral maturity so he doesn't take away the freedom of others while Collector simply doesn't have these things and doesn't realize that his actions are wrong. Their desire for freedom is evident in their family history. Luffy was the grandson of Monkey D. Garp, a Navy vice admiral who is recognized as the hero of the marines for finishing off Rocks D. Xebec, and Garp wanted Luffy to be a marine but Luffy doesn't want to be. On the other hand, Collector comes from a race that preserved the lives of other beings by force and destroyed those who opposed them like the titans

while Collector didn't like the extermination that his species did with the titans

and it even seems that he is afraid that King will judge him for this.

If there is something that Luffy has that makes him stand out from other shonen protagonists, it is that he is selfish. We know this from his meat speech in which he says that he doesn't want to be a hero because he would have to share his meat and he doesn't wants to share his, he wants to be the Pirate King because he wants to be free and fulfill his secret dream, which until now we don't know what it is and the only thing that is known is that Gol D. Roger also wanted the same thing, he destroyed governments and caused wars with the sole purpose of does what he wants or simply saving someone because he finds it interesting or funny, and Collector also does this. This selfishness is seen even in his friendships as Luffy drags his crew to any place that is dangerous and always chooses to go to those places the hard way because he wants to have adventures and have fun just like Collector just wants to play and have fun with those he considers them his friends.

But Luffy has a balance between his egoism and disinterest because Luffy does what he wants and what he wants is for him and his friends to be happy and free but collector doesn't have that balance, which makes him more dangerous.

The reason why Luffy has kindness, morality, emotional intelligence and doesn't take his selfishness to the extreme is because he has healthy adult figures who have helped him establish his moral values and Collector doesn't.

To begin with, Luffy meets Shanks and his crew and seeing how free and carefree Shanks was, he wishes to be a pirate like him. After eating the Gomu Gomu no mi and he is involved in an incident with some bandits who disrespected Shanks and Luffy tries to take revenge but they kidnap him and Shanks saves him but not before losing an arm protecting him from a sea king and before Shanks gives his straw hat to Luffy, telling him to give it back to him when he is a big name pirate.

This whole incident makes Luffy admire Shanks and molds his way around him.

Later his grandfather Garp, as I said before, wants Luffy to be a marine so he trains him to the extreme to be strong since he was a child and when he found out about Luffy wanting to be a pirate leaves him with Dadan and the mountain bandits.

While Collector has never had a positive interaction with adults throughout his life. The other Collectors just wanted to preserve things and destroy anyone who got in the way and Belos has been manipulating him for 400 years.

And while Luffy already has a strong moral, it's his relationship with his friends that helps him mature. Vivi teaches him that he cannot solve everything with violence, Zoro teaches him that being the captain of his crew he must take his role seriously so that others respect him, Ace's death teaches him that he must strengthen himself and even before everything Luffy himself admits that there are things he cannot do alone, such as lying, navigating or using swords, and he needs other people to do what he cannot and this is something that Collector needs to learn but he hasn't had the chance until he meets King.

But despite the fact that I mentioned earlier how Luffy and Collector are both selfish and how Luffy has a balance between selfishness and selflessness and Collector doesn't, at the same time they both respect their friends, trust them and are extremely protective of them. Luffy would never trample on the dreams of his family and crew and he'll get mad at anyone who tries to hurt them and Collector, despite taking King with him, doesn't take François by force and never violates his privacy and only does so because Belos told him to and he got mad at Terra for insulting King and turned her into a doll for it.

One thing that Luffy and Collector have in common is their hatred of loneliness. Luffy meets Ace and Sabo after living with Dandan and Ace acts mean towards him but Luffy doesn't react meanly towards him but seeks to talk to him. Then he finds out that Ace and Sabo hid a treasure that they got from some pirates and they wanted to use said treasure to create their own pirate crew and they tied it up, then the enemy pirates look for the treasure and seeing that Luffy knew Ace these pirates left, they take him and hit him to make him say where the treasure is but Luffy doesn't say anything and when Ace and Sabo saw this they decided to help Luffy. Then Ace asks him why he helped them and didn't tell the enemy pirates where his treasure was even though he and Sabo treated him badly, Luffy replies saying that he didn't say anything because he wanted to be friend with them because he didn't want to be alone.

Collector on the other hand helps Belos and later helps King because he wants to be free but above all because he doesn't want to be alone anymore. He considered Belos his friend before he betrayed him by trying to kill him by throwing his disc into the void and he considers King his best friend and loves hanging out with him, Collector is so desperate not to be alone that he agrees to befriend anyone who treats him good.

Another thing that Luffy and Collector share is the nature of their powers as their powers are dangerously destructive, they can even modify reality and the only limit they have is their imagination but they both use it in a funny way. Basically, they are both gods who spread joy and fun through their powers but can be dangerous if left out of control.

Luffy possesses the Gomu Gomu no mi (whose real name is Hito Hito no mi, model: Nika) which gives him the freedom to shape and stretch his body however he wants, he is quite creative with his power and he doesn't care if he or his techniques looks ridiculous. We see this with some improvised techniques and we even see it with his Gears and Gear 5 is the maximum expression of all the above mentioned.

In his Gear 5 form, Luffy can turn everything he touches into rubber, from objects to people, thing that he takes advantage of to do techniques like this.

or this

even in his fight against Lucci he creates goggles with his hair before attacking him.

Collector has cosmic powers. He taught Belos the draining spell and he was able to move the moon with his finger but we see that he has a preference for using his powers in a fun way and he doesn't care if his magic looks childish while using it: uses his powers to turn others into dolls,

creates a castle with a part of the Titan's skull,

and even uses a star to travel.

Interestingly Luffy and Collector share certain physical traits: they both have markings under their left eyes (Luffy's signature scar and Collector's star-shaped freckles) and when Luffy is in his Gear 5 form he takes on an appearance that makes him more similar to Collector (white hair, red eyes, white clothes with purple).

Another curious fact is that both relate to each other since Luffy is linked to the sun and collector is linked to the moon and stars and in the culture the sun and the moon always intertwine making them complementary in addition to the fact that the moon has no light own and reflects that of the sun. This could be interpreted as Collector and Luffy are the same but Collector doesn't have maturity and emotional intelligence (the moon lacks its own light) that Luffy has (the sunlight) but is trying to learn that maturity and emotional intelligence (moon reflects the sunlight).

Going back to the comparisons between The Owl House and Bloodborne, the way Belos turns into a monster by basically consumes palismen's blood is quite similar to how the inhabitants of Yharnam become beasts by consuming old blood.

In Bloodborne the more old blood a person consumes, the more powerful their beast form becomes becoming cleric beasts, beasts stronger than common beasts and Belos consumed palismen blood besides carving glyphs on his body and the magic that the Collector taught him, making him quite powerful.

The difference is that while the beasts in Bloodborne cannot return to their human form, Belos can, but he needs to have enough magic to maintain that form.

SAME

ENERGY

Not to mention that I made a post where I mention how Luffy and Collector are similar, except that Luffy has mental and emotional maturity and Collector doesn't.

It would be quite interesting if Dana based on Luffy (and especially his Gear 5th form) to create Collector or just she at least knew about Luffy and his Gear 5th form.

If this is Belos using the Collector's power of reality manipulation to gain possession of the titans heart,

while Collector seems to only use his powers to put Luz, Eda and King in dangerous games

does that mean that Luz being dressed as Belos was his own idea? Because it seems very weird to me that while hexsquad are dressed in clothes from the past, Luz is the only one who, instead of having a past appearance, is dressed as Belos.

There are two options for this to be possible:

1) Collector decides to do this on his own before Belos steals his powers.

2) Belos convinces Collector to make Luz and Hexsquad revert to their past outfits while Luz is dressed as Belos, telling him it's an appropriate way to punish Luz for taking King away from him.

3) Belos, after getting Collector's reality manipulation power to possess the titan's body through his heart, decides to make hexsquad have their past appearances but Luz is dressed as him.

If options 2 and 3 turn out to be true, this would prove that Belos is so obsessed with Luz that he dresses her as him because he wants to turn her into his successor, his heir and protege, or he simply wants to force Luz to see things his way, to be like him.

In this post I mentioned how similar Luz and Mikey are and recently I found another similarity that they have and that is that they both created a video mentioning how they wanted to fix what they think is their fault and how Luz and Mikey decide isolate themselves from their loved ones and asking them not to look for them.

and the saddest and most terrifying thing about all this is that both videos have suicidal connotations.

I've already written about how Belos feels a twisted solidarity towards Luz and this can be seen in King's Tide. He tells Luz that he wants to save her and tries to convince her to go with him to the Human Realm but when she rejects him, Belos decides to petrify her, seeing this as an act of solidarity and mercy because he believes that Luz was corrupted by witches and he wants to save her soul.

Later in Watching and Dreaming after being defeated by Luz, Belos tries to manipulate her by pretending to have a curse like Eda but after seeing that Luz doesn't believe him and that the boiling rain is melting him, Belos tells Luz that she should save him because If she doesn't, this act would make her just as evil as the witches and later Belos tell her they are human and humans must help each other and they are better than witches but Luz doesn't move and she lets Eda, King and Raine step on him.

One of the main messages of The Owl House is weirds stick together, that is, that no matter if you are weird you can always find a place to belong and Belos believes that this ideology is only for him and humans in general and that others that they aren't human don't deserve that solidarity. After all for Belos humans have to stick together.

Emperor Belos and Funny Valentine: The Lie and Toxicity of White Savior Complex

It may seem strange what I'm going to comment but Belos shares some similarities with Funny Valentine from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run in the sense that both are a satire of radicalized white supremacists, genocidal colonizers.

Even if we look at it from a historical point of view, Valentine's ideal (Americans superior to other cultures) is clearly the evolution of Belos's ideals for modern times (pure humans superior to native savages and heretics).

Both were heavily influenced by their upbringing, young Phillip being in an environment of anti-witch frenzy, while young Valentine was told from early on that above all else stands patriotism, that the only pure righteous action one can take is born from the love of one's country and they follow these ideals because a loved one inspired them (Caleb and Valentine's father) to the point that Belos and Valentine see it as a way to bond with said loved one as well as that they both feel that they should live by the ideals or values of their respective loved ones but as time goes by they genuinely believe in these values regardless of what Caleb or Valentine's father genuinely believed in those values so Belos and Valentine never question these values to the point of wanting and seeing themselves as heroes or marthyrs for what they think is a noble cause.

Beneath what appears to be a feeling of wanting to do good for their people lies a distorted feeling of love that they both have and firmly believe is normal and/or good:

Valentine sees his patriotism as an extension of love for family and friends and he becomes a soldier and later the president to protect the United States.

Belos became a witch hunter to fit in in Gravesfield and protect his family and town from witches and aspires to be Witch Hunter General.

This is because Belos and Valentine don't love Caleb and Valentine's father but love the idealized versions of them that they both had in their heads. Belos saw that Caleb left with Evelyn and believed that she manipulated him into abandoning him when clearly Caleb left of his own free will and was happy with her and Valentine never got to know his father, he only knew what others had said about him.

What I'm getting at with this is that at first they both followed their ideals because they believed they were doing something good, but as time went by those ideals were flawed (and most likely Caleb and Valentine's father knew it or at least they suspected it) but Belos and Valentine continued to cling to those ideals to a toxic degree because it gave them power, control, benefits and justification of their nefarious actions to the point of developing a desire for personal satisfaction of being remembered as heroes by showing that they are better than others for being the chosen ones (Valentine wanting to become the best and greatest president of the United States of America and Belos by wanting to become the best and greatest Witch Hunter General). This can be seen by the simple fact that they saw themselves as the chosen ones because they believe that they are the only ones that can save their people (Valentine sees himself as the only one who can take the corpse and bring prosperity and security to his country and Belos is seen as the only one who can protect humans from witches).

Later they both become politicians in order to achieve their goals:

Valentine wanted to use the saint corpse to bring good fortune to the United States at the cost of ruining other countries and total chaos and killing innocents and Belos wanted to protect humanity by committing genocide to the inhabitants of the Boiling Islands, except that Valentine became the president of the country he loved the most and Belos became the Emperor of the place he hated the most.

Belos and Valentine hurt their own citizens or fellow (fellow humans for Belos, fellow americans for Valentine) they claimed to protect and they manipulated everyone in the process thanks to their charisma, everyone admired and respected them to such an extent that they manipulated the protagonist at one point in the story and even manipulated the audience into believing that they are selfless heroes.

Valentine and Belos say they want to make things better for their respective nations but they follow an ideology that hurts the marginalized and don't seek to improve their situation (in Valentine's system black people are still treated as slaves and the natives continue to be massacred and their lands are stolen. The system Belos supports excludes all those who don't fit his impossible standards of virtue like Luz or Caleb).

An important aspect that Belos and Valentine have is that they both support colonialism:

At the time Valentine is president the native american population was being exterminated and Valentine does nothing to stop that. That it's so true that there are some natives like Sandman, who learns the culture of the Americans and signs up for the Steel Ball Run in hopes of winning the prize money to buy his people's land for the white men to leave them in peace.

Before Belos came, the people of the Boiling Islands were more connected with nature, they could use magic freely and they were kinder but when Belos comes and establishes his system, those who did things before Belos came are branded as wild witches and are imprisoned at best or petrified at worst, in addition to the fact that the inhabitants are more discriminatory and unsympathetic than before.

All of the above regarding the idealization of their flawed ideals is that Belos and Valentine refuse to change or at least have a reflection on these ideals because as I said before that gives them power and they justify it by saying that they are doing something good for their people and being the choosen ones to do that. The Owl House and Steel Ball Run waste no time in showing that all this makes Belos and Valentine had a feeling of colonialist white supremacist superiority.

It is most likely that Belos was taught as a young man that the Native Americans are savages and that the only ones who could "fix" said natives were colonists like him. At the time of Steel Ball Run, the Native American population is still being eradicated and their lands stolen, and it is most likely that Valentine has been taught the same thing as Belos regarding the "savage" natives. And even their plans consist of expanding this genocide with other cultures that don't adhere to their ideals of what a human/American should be like.

The aspect of colonialism reaches the point that Belos and Valentine use the corpse of a long-dead person praised by the land they rule (Jesus Christ and the Titan respectively) as part of their plans regarding their nation. They claim that they're chose them to carry out their actions.

When actually that's not true:

Luz and Johnny are selfish, immature and have a lot of traumas, contrary to how Belos and Valentine paint themselves but even so Jesus Christ and the Titan choose to help Luz and Johnny throughout their stories for the simple fact that Luz and Johnny choose to mature and improve as people which makes Luz and Johnny choose to accept the help while Belos and Valentine appropriate the bodies of the Titan and Jesus Christ as if they were their possessions and take the choosen one role by force and at the end of their stories they take literal possession of the Titan and Jesus Christ's bodies.

Also, Valentine and Belos have a disturbing fixation on two 14-year-old girls with similar names who ended up helping them without wanting it (Lucy Steel and Luz Noceda) and the fact that both girls have helped them makes Belos and Valentine see this as a sign that their actions are just and right. The way Belos and Valentine see Luz and Lucy is almost, if not completely, misogynistic as they relegate both girls to roles and treat them as objects that only serve to help Belos and Valentine and feed their delusions of white saviors,even both girls have powers from the aforementioned deities (Ticket to Ride/Love Train and the glyphs) that Valentine and Belos waste no time in appropriating and using them for their nefarious goals (again seeing the factor of forced appropriation by white colonialism).

Another thing that Valentine and Belos share is tha both use clones to achieve their goals (Valentine brings copies of himself and other people from other universes thanks to his stand D4C and Belos creates grimwalkers to help him) but they also use their knowledge/powers in an attempt to find a loved one who inspired them and who they miss dearly (Valentine tried to find an alternate version of his father from another universes but failed and Belos created grimwalkers because he misses Caleb and longs for human contact).

Although Belos and Valentine had presumptions of superiority, in the end they are defeated by Luz and Johnny who obtain greater power (Johnny gaining Tusk Act 4 after Gyro's death, and Luz gaining the Titan's power after her own death) and what they do is beg them to don't kill them.

Belos tries to appeal to the fact that he and Luz are human but she ignores him and let Eda, King and Raine from trampling on him.

Valentine tells his story to Johnny and he wants to believe in Valentine but still suspects the president and when his suspicions turned out to be correct, Johnny kills Valentine.

The failure to accept their deaths with dignity to the point of trying to manipulate the protagonists only shows how hypocritical and cowardly Belos and Valentine are because both believe that sacrifices are necessary and sacrifice others but are unable to admit that their ideals reached toxicity or that their plans are nefarious and that beyond doing it for their people, they did it for the pure personal satisfaction of being the heroes of their stories. Belos could at least try to understand the witches like Caleb and Luz did and could even accept Collector's kindness but he refused, Valentine could make America prosperous in other ways and improve the situation or quality of life of minorities who did need his help such as women, afroamericans or native americans, but Valentine refused.

All this shows that they don't want to help anyone and they just want to be the heroes of their story regardless of who they have to harm to do so. Just as the Titan said:

I want to add something else and it is the fact that Belos not only manipulated and abused but planned to kill Hunter and Collector from the beginning but even though he also manipulated and abused Luz he didn't plan to kill her and even wanted her to agree her side due to the fact that she is human. Hunter had coven sigil so regardless of whether he were loyal to Belos or not he would have died on Day of Unity from the draining spell anyway and Belos throws Collector off the bridge once he is no longer useful, giving to understand that he had planned to kill Collector by making his disk will be destroyed by the impact but with Luz it is a rather peculiar case because unlike what he does with Hunter and Collector, Belos didn't plan to kill Luz because he could kill her before but he didn't and only tries to kill her when he realizes that Luz does not agree with him, this contradiction can be seen after he tried to kill her in "Hollow Mind" for not supporting him but in "King's Tide" he tries to convince her that he wants to help her and offers to take her with him to the Human Realm.

Basically Belos has no qualms when it comes to manipulating, abusing and even killing children once they no longer serve him or rebel against him but he gives Luz several opportunities to join him by implying that he wants human contact so Belos wants to have Luz as if she were his prized possession while Hunter and Collector are disposable items for him, that means, Luz's feelings do not matter to him, nor those of Hunter or those of Collector, but only his own feelings matter to him.

TW Child abuse/manipulation general Belos shenanigans. No spoilers past 3x01, please don’t add spoilers for 3x02 to this post.

Sometimes I think about how Belos targets kids and why, because he knows that kids are still developing and don’t always understand right from wrong, and also it seems like he just likes being around kids more because he feels like he can control them. He’s very aware of what’ll upset Luz, what’ll make her mad, and what to say to her to get what he wants. He’s even more in tune with Hunter, he kind of trains Hunter on certain words like “replacement” that set him off. Hunter’s backstory that he gives in Hunting Palismen is probably almost word for word what Belos taught him to say (he always highlights how Belos gives him the staff which would be important to him as a half-witch but Belos also highlights that himself which feels… interesting, as well as the fact that it sounds rehearsed a bit, because Hunter trails off and then he remembers where to go next with “And then Belos found me”), and Belos definitely taught Hunter to respond to physical violence specifically from him with the freeze reaction which is fucking awful (ex. Eclipse Lake, Hunting Palismen- Belos makes a sudden movement and in both of these Hunter goes silent and still, and then in King’s Tide, Hunter freezes up and goes silent when Belos addresses him). Finally, the Collector he has less control over but it kind of seems like the Collector looks up to him and Belos uses that against him. The Collector gave Belos secret magic, and helped him create the Grimwalkers, in exchange in a lot of ways for Belos’ friendship. Belos and the Collector even pinky swore that Belos would let him out, and Belos abuses that and uses his position of having something the Collector wants to force him to help him. 

I don’t have anything to say about Darius because we haven’t seen them interact directly or alone and we don’t know much about their relationship other than their vague past when Darius was likely a minor so. Yeah. Probably won’t get elaboration on that at this point but this is a History.

And the worst thing is that Belos was always obsessed with Luz and wanted to force her to be on his side, acting like a groomer which made it even more creepy so it's satisfying to see how Luz is supported by all those she helped before, showing to Belos that he no longer has control over her.

            It genuinely discomforts me how many times Luz is forced to be alone with Belos… It genuinely adds to the isolating, horrific nature of their meetings, and Belos himself. He’s a horror movie villain in a kids’ show, quite frankly; Like being trapped in the house with the murderer (Belos is a canonical serial killer who stabbed his brother to death), and at best you have the fading static of your friends trying to contact you as you explain what’s going on, which DOES happen in Hollow Mind, fittingly. 

        Luz has nobody to back her up, no support, nothing. The power imbalance just lends to the tenseness and uncertainty, that sense of Luz just barely surviving, even when Belos doesn’t WANT to kill her… But he totally can. He’s personally killed many people, and even does kill Luz. Belos’ introduction, the first time Luz sees him devouring a palisman, really does color how he (literally!) scars and haunts and changes her life. Belos is just straight up Luz’s abuser and gleefully knows it, and tbh I feel like people overlook this when discussing Hunter’s abuse (both are valid, discuss both please).

         Now there are a few exceptions to the isolation in Luz and Belos’ encounters, such as Lilith or Hunter, the Hexsquad in Thanks to Them; But when these two talk and interact, any friends Luz may have are usually absent or even put out of the picture by Belos. Like when Lilith is attacked by the Stonesleeper, and for a brief bit it’s just Luz having to confront the real Philip, not the kindly façade he’s put up. Or Belos drowning Hunter in his mind.

         Again, the isolating nature of these conversations makes the trauma and gaslighting by Belos so much more potent; There isn’t someone there to see what he’s saying and immediately refute it, to stand by Luz’s side. So try as she might to call Belos out, there’s always that little part of Luz that asks, What if I’m wrong? What if he’s right? And she doesn’t have any support in that moment, when she really needs it, to reassure her; Only afterwards, and that’s assuming if she explains it to the others.

Seguir leyendo

Remember when I said in a post that when Flapjack sacrificed himself by fusing with Hunter to save them is similar to the moment when Pochita sacrificed himself by fusing with Denji to save him?

It turned out to be true and now Hunter has the teleportation powers that Flapjack had in the same way that Denji inherited Pochita's chainsaw demon powers.

Now that I think about it, Hunter and Denji are similars because they have a smug and rude face but that's just a facade to hide how lonely and traumatized they are and suffered terrible abuse by people they loved (Belos and Makima) and wanted to please because they felt indebted to them for giving them love and a better life only for said people to reveal that they never cared about Denji and Hunter as people but are with them because they remind them of someone they really love and/or idealize (Caleb and chainsaw demon).

During the scene in Watching and Dreaming where Belos begs Luz to help him I couldn't help but remember the scene in King's Tide where Belos tries to petrify Luz as an act of mercy only for Luz to beg him to let her live and he agrees. That happens because she called him by his name and also because she is a human like him, and this from the point of view of Belos is like solidarity between humans.

That is why when he pleads with Luz by reminding him that they are both human, it is because Belos expects Luz to help him in an act of solidarity between humans due to the fact that he is human like her just as he did with her in King's Tide.

The Collector: Another Victim of Belos' Abuse

We know that Belos is a abuser in every sense of the word and that although he has abused all of the Boiling Islands as a whole, his favorite targets are children, he focuses on children because they are much easier to manipulate and isolate.

Belos has abused children before: we saw it with Hunter and the other grimwalkers,

he wanted to do it with Luz

but what many forget is the fact that Collector is a child and was also abused by Belos.

While Belos may not directly physically abuse Collector, there are many ways to groom, manipulate, and abuse a child that do not involve physical contact at all.

In this post, I mentioned how abandonment and isolation had affected Collector and he was desperate for any kind of company and to be free and Phillip took advantage of that, promising to free him if he taught him magic and the draining spell in return. This made Collector easy prey for Belos as even though he finally had company, Collector was still isolated as the only one he could see and interact with was Belos.

Belos controls everything in his life: who he sees, who he talks to, when he can talk, when he can even experience something about the world.

Also, from the way we saw their interactions, Collector genuinely believed that Belos was his friend, he taught Belos powerful magic and draining spell without hesitation because he believed that Belos wanted to be his friend even when he started to doubt him at the end. Collector still considers Belos his friend and decided to trust him and was willing to keep his promise to help him first while Belos only manipulated him and isolated him, he could barely stand it as he was about to hit him when he told him that the human world had changed or that when Collector complains to Belos for not fulfilling his part and he only covers him with a blanket and throws him off the bridge.

Collector's trust towards Belos is bolstered by the fact that he is the only one Collector has interacted with for 400 YEARS since his imprisonment as Belos keeps him hidden and has not interacted with anyone else to the point that no one knows about his existence, Kikimora only knew that Collector existed because she was eavesdropping on Belos and Luz and Hunter only found out about Collector's existence by seeing Belos' memories but if it hadn't been for those facts neither Kikimora nor Luz nor Hunter would know that Collector exists. This is an abuse tactic in which the abuser keeps the victim isolated so that the latter completely depends and trusts only the former, this isolation tactic was also used by Belos with Hunter and the other grimwalkers.

Many comment on how Collector dismisses grimwalkers as objects that Belos creates to destroy them and how Collector sees the hunting of Titans, the lives of others and the destruction as a game making him look cruel but contrary to what everyone believes, Collector is not cruel out of malice but for this:

What Sundowner means by this is that children do cruel things not out of malice but because they simply have no morality in the beginning so they don't know right from wrong until someone teaches them and if no one teaches a kid that what is right and what is wrong, the kid will simply do horrible things because they believe that it is normal or that they are right and if a kid is surrounded by adults who do bad things and/or teach them to do horrible things as a good thing, the kid will simply imitate them because it's all they know. Basically kids do bad things because in their own innocence they don't know they are doing something bad in the first place.

The Collector is a kid and kids mimic the adults around them. We know that the other collectors preserve life by force and kill anyone who opposes them

and Collector isn't interested in doing the same as the other collectors and he just wanted to play and have friends

but he imitated the other collectors way of acting because they were the only adults he had and therefore they were the only thing he knew. After the war between his kind and the Titans, and by extension his imprisonment which was for an incredibly long time, the only adult in the Collector's life has been Belos, who is a person who has done a LOT of horrible things, so even putting aside the fact that they have unbelievable cosmic powers over reality itself, of COURSE he have no concept of the value or life or the suffering of others, of COURSE he sees people as toys, that's what's been modeled for him by the literal los only adults in his life at all for hundreds of years!

Collector is literally a kid with a lot of power in his hands who was surrounded by adults but all of them did horrible things and none of them bothered to show him that what he was doing was wrong because they didn't care about Collector as a person but only about his power and/or get some benefit out of it, this is clearly isolation, exploitation and neglect and all of these are forms of abuse.

This is even seen with King because despite the fact that, unlike the other collectors, titan trappers and Belos, he only wanted Collector to use his powers to save his friends but that doesn't take away from the fact that he used him and that he didn't care about Collector as person and only released him by his power. All these cases make Collector probably believe that it is normal to hurt others, lie and that friendships are utilitarian and friends always betray each other when in fact friendships aren't forged by the use that people have nor are they something that is forced on others but are forged for the love, respect and trust that exists between people. However, unlike the other collectors, titan trappers and Belos, King recognizes that Collector is still a child and that he is afraid of being alone and wishes to talk to him.

Little by little with the help of King and other people and healthy relationships that Collector builds, Collector will learn to distinguish between good and evil and that not everyone wants him for his power, but rather for who he is, Collector will gradually learn what a true friendship and/or healthy relationship is like, and with this Collector will grow as a person, learning to have a moral and emotional maturity by having people who love him for who he is and not for what he can do.