I’ve been reading everyone saying that Flapjack was the pallisman of Caleb(Belos/Philip’s brother), but I don’t think so. I think Flapjack is the pallisman of the woman Caleb fell in love with.
While we’re at it, despite the few images we have of that woman (a darkened profile and another with her back turned), to me she looks a bit like the Clawthorne family, plus the Clawthorne’s are the only ones with bird pallismans.
Is the heart in Belos’ throne room, really the heart of the Titan? No, I don’t think so
Something that’s been bugging me for awhile is the size of the Titan’s heart, that’s pumping in Belos throne room. There’s far too many inconsistencies which leads me to believe that this ain’t the real heart of the titan.
1. First of all, and most obvious, the heart is far too small for the BI titan. He is supposed to be the size of Vermont according to Dana which is around 24,905 km². A creature with that size, would have a heart that’s kilometers long, since humanoid hearts are usually as big as their fist. And the one in the throne room? Looks barely 20-30 meters.
2. Second of all, the titan has been a skeleton for a long time, before Philip arrived on the isles. His heart would have decayed along with his muscles and other tissue during the Hecktaceous period. So again, it doesn’t make sense that by Belos’ time the heart would still be intact while the rest of the Titan is just bones.
So now, if that isn’t the Titan’s heart, then what is it? Well after “Clouds on the Horizon”, a new piece of info popped up that may answer that question.
In the episode we see Amity trying to fix her tamagochi communicator. We not only get a confirmation that said tamagochis are BI technology but that they use organic parts- namely a heart and what seems to be veins connected to the circuitry. While it’s a bit of mystery what the purpose of the heart is, we can conclude that artificial hearts can just be created.
So why would Belos bother with creating an artificial heart?
Well he uses said heart as an intimidation tactic and propaganda. He says that it is the Titan’s heart and demonstrates that it beats in sync with him during the scene with Lilith. So to his coven and to the people, this lends even more credibility to his connection to the Titan, which we know now to be false. As he demonstrated in “Hollow Mind”, Belos uses all sorts of tricks and illusions to fool people. So for one who is already skilled in flesh magic, aka being able to create Grimwalkers, creating a false “Titan’s heart” with the purpose of intimidation, isn’t a stretch.
Kikimora knowing what happens to Golden Guards who are deemed failures by Belos, puts all her interactions with Hunter in a new light. Cause she was straight up rooting for Hunter to fail, knowing that he’ll be brutally murdered and disposed of…
You know what is delicious irony? That Belos in his last act of backstabbing the Collector, throws him down to the pit with the Golden Guard bodies, the other victims of his lies. Only for the plate, in the unlikeliest of chances, to be “caught” by them. The GGs symbolically doing one last bit of defiance against Belos, one that ultimately ruins him.
Can we talk about how there are more Golden Guards than we expected but also that Belos really threw all of them in some mass bone pit filled with hundreds of his other victims… My hatred for this man is unimaginable.
TL;DR:Grimwalkers grow rapidly from baby to teen while still in the soil and emerge as teens, with starting age of around 13-14. Then with some calculating, we get an average life span of 21-25 years for the Golden Guards, before they are killed.
For the longest time we couldn’t be sure what this memory painting was depicting. It was either Philip killing a Grim or a Grim being born from the soil.
But after the latest episode, we kinda got a confirmation from the Collector that Grimalkers emerge not as babies, but as at least teens.
Which would mean that the diagram in the Grimwalker book was depicting how they grow in the soil itself, from babies to adolescents. As suggested by the little tick over the last stage of growth, this is when they would emerge.
The implications of this revelation are huge since it means that Hunter and the rest of the Golden Guards never really had a childhood. And Belos was not waiting for them to grow up normally every time (unless they spend over a decade in that soil which I doubt). So we can place a starting age anywhere between 14 and 18+) since Hunter went through training and is a skilled combatant which would take time.
Now if I can finally calculate a more more accurate, albeit still approximate, prediction of the average life span of the Golden Guards (not natural one but at what age most of them were killed).
If we assume that Philip was born during or a little bit before the Connecticut Witch Trials, 1647 to 1663, and he arrived on the BI as an adult at least in his early 30s, we can place his age at around 370+. And as evident from “Elsewhere and Elsewhen” by the time he started looking for the Collector, he was already working on a Grimwalker which means the knife fight with his brother has already happened.
So we are looking at around 340 years worth of Grimwalkers.Next we divide by 17, the number of Golden Guard masks we saw in “Hollow Mind”, and we get 20 years. Add those years to their starting age of 14, and we have approximate life span of 32, before they are killed.Ofc that would vary cause some would be killed earlier, some later, depending on when they found out the truth.
Edit: With the release of the finale, we get the horrifying revelation, that there are more GGs than we suspected. While I can’t count them all with certainty, I think there’s around 48 masks in total in the corpse pit, if we look at it from different angles. So that changes the calculations a bit. If we divide the 340 years worth of Grims by 48, we get 7. Adding that to their starting age of 14-18, as I established before, we have an average life span of 21-25 years before they are killed.
And as a final note to support this, them dying as adults would also align with the fact that one of them was Darius’ mentor, a position usually occupied by an adult.
Hunter being afraid and insecure about the others finding out he is a grimwalker and Belos taunting him with it in front of his friends during their inevitable confrontation, therefore taking away this last shred of agency? My villain origin story, if that happens during the finale
Theory 1 (personal favorite): Spying powers demonstrated in S1
In “Agony of a Witch”, in the castle while the kids are trying out the artifacts, suddenly Belos announces that he has observed them. This would imply that he can see everywhere in the castle, which spells trouble for the rebellion.
As we saw from “Them’s the Breaks, Kid”, Darius, Raine and Eber have been creating their plan and exchanging information while in said castle which would provide ample opportunity for Belos to observe them.
Plus there’s another aspect to this as well. As we know from “Yesterday’s Lie”, being in the in-between where the Collector is currently imprisoned, gives one the ability to spy using any reflective surface.
So there’s a very real possibility that Belos’ arrangement with the Collector also includes espionage using said reflective surfaces, which would mean that nowhere is safe, he has eyes everywhere. Including the artifact room, one full with reflective surfaces like mirrors and where we first saw example of Belos’ spying non-corporeally.
And curious as well, are Hunter’s words in “Hollow Mind”,
I heard whispers of an attempt to invade the Emperor’s mind with wild magic. I decided to take the villains out myself.
Whether Belos passed down that information or the plan leaked in another way, it’s obvious that the castle, or any place for that matter, aren’t safe places to plan a rebellion.
Theory 2: A mole amongst the CATs
While I’m not the biggest fan of this one, for posterity let’s point out some things.
While some people were wondering between Eber, Darius, Steve and even Lilith, Raine is the one that’s been pointed to the most due to their history with being brainwashed and how active they were at devising the plan.
Despite being confirmed that the brainwashing was thwarted by Raine themselves, we do not know to what extent. Terra’s drugs might not have made Raine loose their memory, but still done something to their mind. And the presence of what looks like a snapdragon flower hanging over the rebellion, may suggest not only the connection between Raine and Eda, but also Terra’s presence.
Next we have the fact that Raine was the one to reject Darius’ plan, and propose the one that would actually be implemented aka Eda switching places with them and being branded. If Raine is indeed, still under the influence of the brainwashing that would open the possibility for Belos to know of said plan.
And finally, the scene with the most ways it could be interpreted. Is Raine showing regret over the plan? Realizing that last time Eda used the cursed requiem, she almost killed herself for the cause. If Raine has indeed made a deal to keep Eda safe or sth similar, are they realizing what they are actually about to do? Regardless, the show never showing Eda being branded, has the implication that they never went through with it and another plan may be set in motion.
Theory 3: Kings connection to the Collector
Ever since “Edge of the World”, King has had some sort of a connection with the Collector. First in “O, Titan Where Art Thou” where he saw a glimpse of the Collector’s prison and they felt his presence. Now in “Clouds on the Horizon”, King once again established involuntarily a connection with the Collector, hearing some of their thoughts. While in both instances, the Collector seemed to not be fully aware of King’s presence, there still might be the possibility that the Collector overhears King’s thoughts and surroundings as well. This includes overhearing details about the plan.
Out of all his memories, the memory he hates most is that of killing his brother and failing to bring him back. I know Belos is evil, but his regret is a bit sad.
I don’t think Belos will be redeemed. But I wouldn’t be surprised if his last moment was him thinking fondly of his brother one last time.
