I still think that this is a description of King’s predecessor fighting Belos’s cursed form, not Titan.
And I think King’s father/family are dead. Belos came after them because they are the evolved Stone Sleepers and he needed their lungs. Good thing he didn’t know there was an egg.
Wow, the blue in Philip’s eyes when he’s inhaling the palisman almost like it’s glowing! I wonder why that seems familiar-
Oh. Oh right.
Also remembering Belos’ very sudden shift in demeanour in the image above, starting from when his eyes glow blue makes this even more interesting to me. Maybe I’m grasping at something that isn’t there again but I just thought it was possibly something to note down for theories, although I’m sure Hollow Mind will provide answers on that front.
This is definitely a small and probably irrelevant detail but if we are to assume Philip did somehow draw those glyphs on himself, then it would have been with his left hand. The glyphs are on his right arm after all.
So I’m not sure how much of the original person remains into a Grimwalker, if just appearances or something more, but judging by the fact that all Golden Guards apparently turned their back to Belos and I want to believe Wittebro is a good dude, I like to think at least something stays. Maybe little bits of something
With that being said… what if Hunter had dreams about Wittebro’s past but always thought were dreams of himself since there was always someone looking like him although as an older version?
Maybe being in a world of magic and feeling fascinated by it? Almost like seeing it for the very first time?
Maybe exploring and taking everything in like he never did before?
Maybe living, laughing, wanting a future?
Maybe… maybe dark figure facing him, so very angry and hateful. Maybe someone painfully familiar killing him, making him wake up in a cold sweat? Again and again?
This is not really my typical post. So the thing about me is I’m actually secretly a huge nerd who does poetry, but I never feel confident enough to actually share any of it, let alone the ones I write based on fictional characters.
But, being as it’s late at night and therefore all my impulse control is gone, I guess I’m posting this poem I did based on the Wittebros backstory and what we learned about it in Hollow Mind, specifically written from Philip’s POV! Anxiety’ll probably get the better of me in the morning and I’ll delete this in the morning but who knows.
Anyway, here’s my messy little thing I guess?
—————
We were boys - young boys - when the forest first sung
By our cabin, by the trees, by the flowers
And the leaves, and it was in that forest
We first played our games
With masks of wood and the sticks that were our pyres
Where witches burned
Feet dangling over and
There was rope around their necks,
We hung them up high: fuel for the fire.
And glowing with deceit that fire was, on the palms of their hands,
And so tempted you were by the sparks of desire that you left me
Poor me
To follow, so dire
In my attempt to stop you,
Save you from liars,
But in the end it was me - I was the liar
Because as you smiled
And held the hanged ones hand,
I hid behind me a dagger, sharp and light
And we were men - grown men - when the forest was on fire
As the blaze rose high and your voice even higher as the
Fire, oh the fire
You shall burn on that pyre
Where I’ll stand over,
My mission: complete
while the hanged one she weeps and curses my name.
You’ll pay.
You’ll suffer.
You’ll wither.
You hear!
You’ll regret the day you added,
My dear husband to your pyre.
AMAZING!
This verse especially: “and we were men - grown men - when the forest was on fire” really stuck with me!
Listen, I just wanted to try drawing Wittebro. I don’t know how this would work — maybe this is an AU where Phillip hasn’t yet re-enacted Cain And Abel with his brother when “Aunt Dirtrude” and “Luzura” (and Hunter for some reason) found the time pool to the past. (Feat. heavy implications that Wittebro married a Clawthorne)
Plus I can’t imagine he’d be too impressed by his brother’s “parenting”
I do want to talk about some theories I have to do with King and The Collector, but I need to gather those thoughts into something cohesive first. So, for now, it’s Belos analysis hours! Where I look at Belos and completely miss the point as I overanalyse everything! Woo!
But really, there is something so interesting about the way he acts this episode. It’s so different from how inner Belos acts, and how he’s acted in the past, especially around The Collector.
His expressions here are, as pointed out by the collector, nervous ones. He doesn’t look eager or completed, rather empty and somewhat hesitant. This is everything he’s worked for, everything he’s dedicated his life to for centuries, and yet he can’t even muster up a smile. He’s tired. He’s nervous. And that can also be seen in the way he grabs onto the key.
He clutches it tightly to his chest. In the end, he’s still Philip Wittebane, he made this key years ago, and it’s the key home. I pointed out in Hollow Mind how for a brief second Belos’ eyes light up at the sight of the key, and again we see how much it means to him. Clutching things like that is also usually a sign of protectiveness, fear or nerves, and Belos’ emotions tend to be given to us through music cues and also subtle gestures, so that adds up well. Returning home has never seemed so real before, and there are those lingering anxieties that come with it. He doesn’t know what it’s like now. He hasn’t seen green trees in so long. Will he even be able to recognise it?
After that, we see that The Collector is right on another one of his observations. Belos is struggling to keep his human form. This is just a still image but in the scene you can see his hand shake as he tries to pull it back together. It’s also interesting how the attack is so sudden, so impulsive, almost as if he doesn’t think first, sort of like how he was with Hunter.
The reason that’s odd is because while we’ve only seen Belos interact with The Collector once, we see he has a lot of patience with them and their comments, and he smiles at their company too, seemingly fond. Of course, that could just be an occasional thing for all we know, but I feel like they’d establish that side of their relationship if it was.
As well as this, Belos is generally acting different around them all together. Whether as in the Hollow Mind memory, we see him smile, see him be amused even at The Collector’s suggestion he enjoys killing the Grimwalkers, here he’s visibly annoyed with The Collector - losing his patience.
Belos waved his hand dismissively at him, and his expressions in general depict annoyance or blankness. It reminds me a lot of how blank Philip’s expressions would become sometimes, but even then Philip would carry on pretending. Here, Belos doesn’t do that. He doesn’t care to.
The Collector’s Grimwalker suggestion is foolish to him which contrasts with how casual Inner Belos is about it. In fact, all this behaviour contrasts with inner Belos even though they’re what? Six days apart. Where Inner Belos is completely devoid of feeling and callous about everything, Belos is wary in his approach and honesty, paired with how his musical theme has changed (it appears to be played with a different instrument but I’m not sure what - not a musician so don’t take my word on this) Belos really does just seem more tired and sad than anything. Hm, I don’t know if sad is necessarily the word actually but my brain is unfortunately scrambled at the moment so no fitting word comes to mind.
Altogether, this really does add up with what he said years ago: “I just need to live long enough to see this through.”
So at first, I thought Belos’ interaction with Luz didn’t impact him much beyond losing Hunter, something he already expected. But in this episode, it looks like Luz’s reaction after his speech on his goal actually marked him. Not in a good way.
This is his first time interacting with a human since he killed his brother for loving a witch, something he believed was a sin. And here is another human, someone who should agree with him, who even unknowingly helped him back when he was Philip, calling him evil. After his first reaction in Hollow Mind -which was to attack Luz and deem her crazy- he had time to think.
Belos met two humans -one being his own brother- who disagreed with him, and no matter how in denial he seems to be, this doesn’t bode well for him and his delusions of saving humanity. What if things in the Human Realm really changed, like the Collector said? What if they didn’t agree with him, even though he was saving them from evil? His conversation with Luz seems to have disturbed him more than he wants to admit.
This could also be why he wants Luz to be brought directly to him. He has doubts, not about his goal but about what humanity will think of him. And he wants to ask her how humanity is now.
So THAT’s what this portrait was meant to symbolize! I remember speculating but I never could’ve guessed this… You’ve even got the sun, which represents the Collector/Grand Huntsman!
