Love that in the most recent episode when Hunter first shows up you can still hear his little “Golden Guard” leitmotif (honestly more of a brief musical sting, but it’s still a recognizable soundtrack element) because it sounds so much more incongruous when he’s out of uniform, looking like a Normal Teen. Assigned ominous instrumental riff at first appearance and now he’s stuck with it.
incredible that i’ve been keeping up with Owl House through Tumblr all this time and only now that I catch up do I realize fandom consistently left out the fact that Hunter’s a proper little nerd.
History enthusiast. Can’t help but fact-dump even on his “enemies.” The way he physically lights up when a subject he’s “read about” comes up?? That boy’s a nerd and it’s such an adorable —and persistent— side of his characterization!!!
Philip Wittebane’s brother is the Owl Beast theory
So I was trying to sleep at night, and suddenly something occured to me. Somehow, I wanted to put all my thoughts that I had in a post. So what if the owl beast, Eda’s curse — is actually Philip Wittebane’s brother? I’ll call him William, because that’s how this fandom calls him.
A might delete this later? I also apologize for possible grammar mistakes, I’m not a native English speaker.
Do you guys remember the code message from season 1?
“Two Witches Torn Apart
Now Alone
Two Hearts Of Stone
A Curse Of Feathers And Mud
A Betrayal Of Blood”
“A Curse Of Feathers And Mud”! “A Betrayal Of Blood” Okay, at first I thought it was about the Clawthorne sisters. With Eda having the curse of feathers — and blood is her having a kinsman, a sister who betrayed her by cursing her. But then in “Hunting Palisman”, we saw that Emperor Belos, like Eda — is also cursed. His curse is extremely similar to that of mud.
Not only that, he has a kinsman too, a brother. Why else would Hunter call Belos uncle? What if it isn’t about the Clawthorne sisters, but about the Wittebane brothers? With Belos being Philip, having de curse of mud — and William having the curse of feathers?
We don’t really know very much about the owl beast. All we know is that the owl beast was once a living being who roamed free in the demon realm — for God knows how long, before it was captured by the collector — and turned into a curse. It ended up at the night market after being lost at sea for a long time, until Lilith found it.
Although the backstory of the owl beast is pretty sad, it’s strange that it first had a normal life before it was turned into a curse. It’s just weird that it even has a backstory in the first place! Somehow, It feels like the owl beast is important besides just being Eda’s curse — and that we were going to learn more about its previous life.
William Wittebane being the owl beast sounds pretty important to me. It could also explain the backstory of the collector — and to who she is as a whole. We’re definitely not done with the backstory of the owl beast — and the collecter, there is more to it.
What’s interesting to me is that William’s palisman was Lil’ Rascal. And yes, Lil’ Rascal was William’s palisman, not Philip’s! If you look at the picture of the Wittebane brothers from Hopkins’ book, Philip’s coat is unbuttoned up — and he’s wearing a belt, just like his statue! William however, you can see that Rascal is on his shoulder. Which means Rascal was his palisman. William’s coat is always buttoned up — and he does not wear a belt, just like his statue! Etc…
William’s Palisman represents the desire for freedom! The desire to be outside, exploring the world and the desire for knowledge. But also the desire to escape control — and to be free of any responsibilities! That’s why Rascal is Hunter’s palisman in the first place, but also because he and William looked identical — not just personality wise!
So what makes it so interesting that Lil’ Rascal is William’s Palisman? Why am I mentioning all this? Well, If the owl beast is indeed William, it’s pretty sad for such a free spirited person like him to be imprisoned for centuries — while he has always longed for freedom. I’m sure it must be terrible for him to be imprisoned like that. I don’t know, I felt like it was something I should mention. Dana also said that birds are a Clawthorne thing. Could Rascal symbolize William’s connection to Eda as her curse?
But why didn’t Belos recognized his brother when he met Eda in the finale of season 1? I don’t really know, perhaps there is a logical explanation for this.
The only counter argument is that William could not be the owl beast — is if Hunter is a grimwalker, cloned after William. You need a bone of ortet to clone someone, so William must be dead for that. Maybe you just need a piece of dna — like a strand of hair for example? Perhaps there is a logical explanation for this too?
We don’t really know much about the Wittebane brothers and their past, nor about grimwalkers. So this theory about William being the owl beast is still on the table, for now at least.
If this theory is true, I can’t help but wonder, how did these two brothers got cursed? Only time will tell.
Conclusion: William somehow transformed into the owl beast, got later transformed into a curse by the collector — and now lives inside Eda.
Obviously it makes so much sense from a character perspective, but I continue to be extremely messed-up about the fact that over the course of the fight with Belos, we see almost all the kids make direct attacks on his monstrous form (Willow’s restraining vines, Amity’s abominations, Luz’s glyph magic, Gus’ memory onslaught) – except for Hunter, who never actually attacks Belos, just defends his friends, trying to keep them all safe from the man who hurt him and so many others but who he still can’t help but see as family.
Which also makes Belos’ attempted mind games with him during the exact same fight a particularly low blow. “Why are you hurting me, Hunter?” – actually, he is very specifically the only one who isn’t!!
Something something parallel between Caleb (dead and haunting the narrative, corpse is a plot point which creates more life in its destruction) and the Titan (dead and haunting the narrative, corpse is a plot point which creates more life in its destruction)
I guess we now know why they both died in the same pose…
Both important father figures from the human and demon realms with a lone, last-of-his kind son, a Clawthorne who is learning about and discovering the heritage he never even knew about; While confronting the respective murderer who still holds a grudge even after all this time, both from the same respective realm as the victim!
