#but i DO think that philip is consciously aware that caleb was unhappy back at home at some point & purposely pretends otherwise

[drbtinglecannon]

How Belos remembers Caleb back in the human realm:

How Caleb actually was back in the human realm:

This is such a good addition to the ways the story has shown us over and over that Philip is an intentionally unreliable narrator.

Now, Luz is also an unreliable narrator as we've seen a few times, but with Luz it's clearly unintentional and a side effect of RSD, where she takes on more guilt than is warranted. Philip on the other hand, rewrites the story to make himself look better and be absolved of all guilt each time.

First we see it in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen", when Philip is exposed for purposely fabricating the entries in his journal, which we were following since Luz discovered it back in "Through The Looking Glass Ruins". It was deliberate on his part to doctor his own personal journal that he later personally delivers to a library, all centuries before he ever became Belos. And it worked! Philip appeared much kinder and genuinely curious of the Boiling Isles, so much so both the audience and Luz had sympathy for him, yet it was all a lie on his journey of genocide. He set about fabricating sympathy for himself long before he had any power or chance of destroying the Isles, relaying how deeply manipulative he is.

Then we see it again in "Hollow Mind", with Belos having a fake mindscape full of fabricated propaganda of his reign that hid his real memories of his life and actions. His own subconscious greeted them in a purposely innocent persona to lower their guard, then revealed himself after he got what he wanted. The layers of manipulation and dishonesty it takes to create such cognitive dissonance just on the off change his mind is ever explored is something that cannot be understated. Even further than purposely fabricating his journal, he stripped away parts of his own memory and presented his Inner Belos as a child all to garner, again, more sympathy.

Now we see it again here, in "Thanks To Them", where the first time the show directly shows us Caleb in the human realm outside of Belos' memory of him, he looks miserable. He has heavy bags under his eyes, sunken in cheeks, and a truly despondent expression.

It's entirely possible Caleb hid his misery from Philip, being the older child and having to take on responsibility to protect his younger brother, and it's also possible Caleb did enjoy his childhood and was genuinely happy in those earlier memories. But as this new shot shows us, Caleb eventually stops appearing that way and grows depressed being in the human realm, yet conveniently there's no memory Philip has that shows this stage of Caleb.

We can even dig a little further into some of the mindscape memories to see more of the framework for this final reveal.

Here we have the last memory of Caleb before the Boiling Isles memories start:

This is also the first memory where Philip isn't smiling. Caleb is smiling though, and this is the most in the light Caleb has appeared in a memory since the one of him carving that mask. Caleb slowly turned further away from the lighting throughout Belos' early memories, being shrouded in more and more darkness in each one, but this memory when Philip looks unhappy for the first time is when Caleb's finally turning back towards the light, and it's most likely the memory of when Caleb left the human realm.

Then here we have the first memory Caleb's eyes become visible:

The moment they reunited is when Philip finally remembers Caleb's eyes. And boy does he look drastically different from the man in the mirror. He doesn't have eyebags, his cheeks are no longer sunken in, and he looks happy.

This moment is also when Philip decides to kill him.

Because he looked too happy here in this world Philip thinks is hell.

And he looked far happier there than he did back home.

So Philip wipes away those details from his memory. Like he does every other detail that makes him appear to be in the wrong.

And we finally have the proof of it. When Belos said "Out of all the grimwalkers, you looked the most like him" he meant it, even after he willingly rewrote his own memories of Caleb to reflect differently.

#toh #toh spoilers #toh meta #toh analysis #caleb wittebane #philip wittebane #emperor belos #hollow mind #thanks to them #elsewhere and elsewhen #through the looking glass ruins #i dont subscribe to the idea that someone was evil from birth. like philip was a child who grew up in a DEEPLY traumatizing environment #like the puritans were beyond fucked. however at this point (& at the point when he killed caleb) philip is an adult. hes ~400yrs old #hes caused immeasurable suffering & death to innocents over CENTURIES & gleefully manipulated & traumatized countless others #but i DO think that philip is consciously aware that caleb was unhappy back at home at some point & purposely pretends otherwise #bc if he acknowledges the truth openly then thats admitting he knows he was wrong. same w when gus played his memories to him #anyway i just think the fact that both the hero (luz) & the villain (belos) are unreliable narrators & tied together is fascinating #tc posts