#grimwalker truth?

[purplerose244]

#backstory bit? #wittebro? #grimwalker truth? #i'm so scared and excited #the owl house #toh #spoilers #toh clouds on the horizon #clouds on the horizon #toh hunter #hunter #toh flapjack #flapjack #emperor belos #philip wittebane #toh spoilers #the owl house spoilers #all children better be safe #and flapjack #i'm scared for flapjack

[captainmera]

I am still writing this thing. I'm so off the deep end. Idk what I'm doing I'm inventing as I go.

But Hunter and Willow are cute and I like making Jacob Hopkins life miserable. And also grimwalker stuff and adorable palismen and Gus is the best boy and Vee has an arc and the palismen just wanna ride the microwave.

#toh #the own house #toh fanfiction #the owl house fanfiction #my friend @Fuocogo drew me doing the conspiracy board meme on tangled the series #because I always go off into unhinged local theorist guy territory #cartoons has me wearing tinfoiled hats and ghost gadgets in graveyards I'll FIND THE TRUTH #huntlow #lumity #emerald trio #grimwalker

[icedmochasi]

Lilith, after finding out Hunter is a Grimwalker: I can’t believe there is a real life, living, breathing Grimwalker in front of me! They were thought to be extinct. I wonder if he will let me study-

Darius: No

Lilith: But, I-

Darius: Did I stutter? No. 

#toh #toh spoilers #the owl house #toh darius #darius toh #lilith clawthorne #toh hunter #hunter toh #Disclaimer: this is no shade on lilith #but given how much she loves history #and grimwalkers are very rare #as implied by canon #i can see her initial reaction to finding out the truth about him being a grimwalker being this way #dadrius

[guthrie-odonto]

Wait… if I’m not mistaken, Hunter still hasn’t told everyone yet by the time they got weh’d to the human realm…

We were all expecting some big drama moment, likely with Belos, but what if Hunter actually spills the beans to everyone when he can’t take the awkwardness of seeing the statue of Caleb? Bonus points if Vee is the straw that breaks the grimwalker’s back, looking at the statue, then looking at Hunter, and then going “Hey, bit of a stretch, but you’re not one of those grimwalker things, are you? I heard rumors that there was one living in the castle, but I was never able to check for obvious reasons.”

#Hunter’s been through enough already #just let the truth about him being a grimwalker come out comedically at the very least #toh spoilers #the owl house #toh #toh hunter #hunter wittebane #vee noceda #amber's post

[c0pper0tter]

Pride month art with the grimwalkers

The red head Pandora is @thegreatclover oc

All hail stabby or get stabbed

Puck and Remus are mine

#art #traditional art #oc's #the owl house #toh #golden guard #golden guard oc #golden guard toh #grimwalker #grimwalker oc #pride art #lgbtq #genderfluid pride #nonbinary pride #trans pride #trans rights #stabby is a legend as always and this legend speaks the truth #pandora <3 #remus #puck

[tsubasaclones]

Darius ough

#having the previous golden guard as a mentor and knowing that one was killed and replaced by hunter #and having to watch hunter follow belos's every command and believe in him. and have no idea he was a disposable clone #oh god how do you think he felt about belos making hunter collect the ingredients for the next grimwalker holy shit #and then accidentally becoming hunters father figure and helping him realize the truth #i need them to get to reunite so bad #em.txt

[penny-anna]

The owl house AU where Hunter & Luz don't get stuck in Belos's mind so Darius and Raine get to go through with their original plan, find out the whole truth about Belos and the Grimwalkers, and are like Welp I guess now we have to kidnap the Golden Guard. Has anyone done this.

#the owl house

[chocochipjewel]

Yapping about Belos and his ending excessively while also analysing him to the best of my ability under the cut

So given how much art of him I've reblogged by now, it really shouldn't come as a surprise that Belos is my favourite character from the Owl House.

I could talk about him for HOURSS but I just want to talk about 2 of my favourite moments of him to highlight the parts of him I love the most.

This moment in Hollow Mind, when he gets the key in his hand and you can see the light in his eyes. It's the only time his eyes have the distinct shine in them like every other character has all the time, and it's cause of the key he's holding. The key to the human realm is the only thing that gives him that shine cause it's the only thing he genuinely cares about. Everything he's doing is to go back home and revel in glory, which, while selfish, adds so much to his character. He's not doing this JUST for power, he became an Emperor just to tear his own creations down. I just find something extremely poetic about that.

And the second moment -

THIS MOMENT. THIS MOMENT IN KING'S TIDE AJDHSJSHSJS

I'm still mad these flashbacks were never brought up in any big way cause THEY REALLY SHOULD HAVE BUT AHSKSJS I'M GETTING AHEAD OF MYSELF.

Belos reliving his worst memories was always a concept that was going to be interesting because it's an insight into what really gets into the head of our main antagonist. What does the guy who is everyone else's worst fear have to fear. And the answer is himself.

The 3 memories he sees are him approaching Caleb with the knife, the actual murder as pictured above, and the creation of the grimwalkers.

What really gets me is that his eyes are wide when he recalls the first memory, but they look smaller in the second memory (in the screenshot). Maybe it's just the angle but I always interpreted it as his expression shifting to be one of genuine sadness for this particular memory. Because the mere fact that his most personal crime is also his worst memory is such an interesting concept. How does he live with that sort of guilt and worse, keep doing those same crimes but WORSE?

All of Hollow Mind could just be here really and I wouldn't complain. It's THE episode for Belos fans that really allowed us to dig into him, and the mere fact that he's consciously scratched off Caleb from all the happy memories as if to justify his own fratricide is a level of desperate coping that I just find so very interesting ajdjhsjjs

Not to mention that his inner self is a child, which, while a pretence by him, could still say something about how in his head, he still has not grown up and is still playing pretend, still playing witch hunter with every version of Caleb he creates, still playing god to finally achieve a fantasy so very childish and so frankly basic that it makes anyone watching from the outside think "wait, that's it? That's all this is for?" AND THAT'S THE POINT

Cause none of this needed to happen. None of this has a greater value than Philip trying to chase after lost dreams. All the plans he made, all his great power and his great empire amounts to nothing because he himself plans to destroy all of it to chase that childhood dream. Just like Luz, he entered the Boiling Isles to find a home, only his home was Caleb and he was never willing to love new things in the Isles, while Luz loved so much she literally changed the lives of everyone she met by loving them. And unlike Luz, Philip never grew out of that mindset, only burying it in layers and layers of lies and half truths.

In general, his relationship with Caleb is for sure the most interesting part of his character to me. The fact that he both repeatedly murders and repeatedly creates new grimwalkers in an endless cycle and then hallucinates Caleb looking at him with disdain implies so much about his dependancy on Caleb and the deepest parts of himself that know what he's doing is wrong. The parts that have broken free from the layers and layers of cognitive dissonance and have accepted that he was wrong, without any more justifications.

And now, to 'briefly' rant about him in season 3

Thanks to Them was juicy for character exploration, but I wish we actually got to see him react to the human realm properly. It's everything he's wanted, it's the one thing that still brings light into his life but the world he returned to would absolutely hate him. He's done all this for nothing. I wanted so badly to see how he copes with his guilt then, but they were short on time so I get it.

For the Future's hallucination scene makes this even more interesting cause of the depiction of him actually seriously suffering from something like hallucinations. It was dark as hell, and it was really interesting.

And then... WaD. All in all, a great finale. The only real big problem I had with it was Belos' ending.

After so much buildup to his depth and his motivations and his guilt and all his lies slowly collapsing around him, after everything he did to so many people, he deserved a better death. I don't think he didn't deserve death, I just think it happened too quick. Where was the final cathartsis from all his victims shunning him (Luz staring was perfect don't get me wrong, but the whole Hexsquad deserved to be there). Where was the moment he would finally no longer be able to lie to himself and he would be forced to accept that he did EVERYTHING he did, made all those great sacrifices, tortured so many people, just to fail and be at his victims' mercy after accomplishing nothing?

I understand the finale was juggling many MANY characters and plotpoints, but that's not stopping me from wishing for a better ending.

I wish I had had the motivation to draw something for this like I'd hoped, but a brief description about what kind of ending I'd have wanted will have to do.

I wish Luz saw his memories in the place in between with Papa Titan. It would reinforce her arc of feeling like they come from the same place too, if she saw Caleb leaving Philip and Philip's original goal of just wanting to get his brother back. I wish Luz saw all his "sad" memories and really started to question herself.

And then I would have wanted Papa Titan to shoot that down regardless, and then explain that while Belos may have started out a victim of his circumstances as an orphaned child in a cult, the Isles gave him chances to change. Memories of Philip in the Isles seeing Caleb happy, being given chances by witches, being given so many chances to change, and rejecting them accompanying this scene would be ideal. Really hammer in that he aas responsible for his own suffering and that he has absolutely no excuse for what he did to all his victims.

And then, in the final death scene, as he claims that as humans they are better than witches one last time, I wish the ghosts of all his victims showed up to prove him wrong. Every witch and grimwalker who choose to be better than him before they fell. Every member of the Hexsquad who believed in him and his regime at one point. Every single one of them a reminder of how his lies can't even convince himself anymore.

And finally, his own brother, a fellow human, who appears before him. I imagine Caleb looking at him with pity, almost sympathy, before a quiet acceptance comes onto his face and he turns away from him. He walks towards the crowd and chooses their side, next to Evelyn. Neither Caleb nor Luz say a single word. There is nothing left to be said to him anymore. Every single person on the Isles, human or witch, has turned against him now.

If anything could break his will, I think this would be it. I imagine him phasing through his different forms, trying to find a way to justify himself in each one, gradually desolving into desparate screams, before the boiling rain melts him away like in canon (except without the stomping please).

Aaaand that's it, no more notes. Thanks so much to all the Wittebane fans in the community who have kept his fanbase fed when the show didn't meet our standards and who prompted the line of thought that led to this post.

There are so many of you all who inspired and made my fandom experience fun and created so much out of just Philip, Caleb, and Evelyn (and all your OCs of course!!) so I'm just going to shoutout the ones I remember off the top of my head -

@talisman975

@jess-the-vampire

@calebsrottingcorpse

@owlyhouse

@anona1-mous

@captainmera

@moonmeg

@azure-blaze92

@a-magpie-in-the-bi

@a-magpie-in-gravesfield

This is no particular order and I'm surely missing more so this is by no means exhaustive, but this is just a shoutout for those who kept this fandom going. Y'all are the real troopers for sure.

That's all I got, but I'm posting some old Belos art soon! Cheers all, and may the terrible awful no good goo babygirl keep inspiring us for all the great art <3

#toh #the owl house #belosfanstakeover #emperor belos #philip wittebane #jewel talks about stuff #character analysis #watching and dreaming

[catboymoments]

Before Hyacinth learns about being a Grimwalker does he think that they were adopted? Like how Mittens was but at a younger age? Or do they think they’re Hunter and Willow’s biological child? Or something else? And if they were told to be adopted did they wonder about their origins, whether in an analytical curious way or a “I wonder if my bio parents loved me” way? Sorry a lot of questions haha

I think they would do what any good parent would and give him the age appropriate truth- since he’s pretty observant he’d probably ask like… “why don’t I look like mama at all? Bronnie looks like both her mom and her renny, but I just kinda look like dad…” (Mittens wouldn’t have been in the picture yet if Hyacinth is pretty young here.)

n Willow and Hunter would be like. Nervous glance. Ok let’s do this. We prepared for this a little.

Cont. Under the cut to save space lol

“Well, you know how most witches and demons look a little like their parents, right? Like how Bronnie has green hair like Mx Raine, or how your mama looks a little like both grandpa and pop?”

“mhm!”

“Well, that’s because- um. Usually-“

“Most witchlings and demon kits are made by different… parts of their parents! Like how a seed can grow into a tree or a Biting Nettle after it’s pollinated, yeah?“

“Right! like- remember how when Aunt Luz had Azura in her tummy because she still had to grow?”

“Uh huh…”

“It’s sort of like that. But… you didn’t grow in my tummy. And your dad-“

“I uh- my body is… different.”

“Like mine?”

“Yes!! Exactly! That’s because you and I share a lot of things, bud. Like how I had eyes like yours in that picture, the one from before Flapjack helped me? A-And we have the same big ears and that one lock of hair that never stays straight no matter how we style it?” (He softly flicks Hyacinth’s hair noodle with a smile, and Hyacinth giggles, so unlike the past.)

“You and I are related by our biology, what makes our bodies up as… witches. You’re not related that way to your mom, but you are still, absolutely, without a doubt her child, and she is still your mama. The love is there and she’s known you since the day you were born, so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I love your mom, and we both love you, which makes us family.”

“Exactly. You’re our baby- my baby, even if I didn’t help to bring you here. Okay?”

“Oh… okay! So it’s like how Uncle Gus is my uncle but you guys and him don’t have the same dads?”

“…”

“Y-yeah that’s a much simpler way to put it!”

#this got away from me OOPS!!!! but it’s very sweet #I might clean it up and export it to ao3 later… enjoy gamers #toh nextgen

[jess-the-vampire]

ok i’ve seen people talk about toh having a complimentary book, something like the Enchiridion for Adventure Time, Marcy’s Journal for Amphibia, The Spell Book for Star vs, something to sell alongside the series that has lore and plot beats for the fans.

And Honestly, would be cool if we got a replica of philip’s journal as that book.

Would it be full of lies? oh yeah.

But it could contain lots of great lore, about the collectors, the titans, magic, how he found the grimwalker spell, anything philip found on the isles, we may be able to pick out a lot of fact and truth from his lies within the book and get so much great worldbuilding.

and on top of that, you could always do something fun, like say the book is a reconstruction eda or luz made of the old journal, and they have added their own notes to his pages, which could also make it more fun.

#the owl house #toh #philip wittebane #emperor belos #eda the owl witch #eda clawthorne #luz noceda #the collector

[cookiesaddict]

I feel like Belos never intended to murder his brother. His body position shows that he is not walking towards Caleb with the knife. His head, chest etc is not directly facing Caleb but facing the other direction. I believe Philip is walking towards Evelyn with the knife, and that he intended to kill her, not Caleb. And Caleb is just trying to defuse the situation. Masha did say Belos wanted to safe his brother and bring the witch that took him to justice.

Which left us with three options that I can think of happened:

1) Belos accidentally killed Caleb. He wanted to kill Evelyn, but Caleb got in between to protect Evelyn and unintentionally got the blow.

2) Belos wanted to kill Evelyn, but got himself lost in anger and he ended up accidentally killing Caleb instead.

3) Belos wanted to kill Evelyn at first, but then he realized that Caleb won’t be able to be saved because he was too far gone. So Belos decided it was better to kill them both.

Lots of people here on tumblr pointed out that Belos kept Caleb’s jacket. But may I add that not only did Belos kept Caleb’s jacket, but Caleb also carved him a mask during their childhoods, and decades later he used the same design for his mask as emperor.

Not only that, but he also kept the doodle of him and Caleb after the murder. Yes, it was after the murder because Philip’s beard is longer. He already had the titans blood, no need to keep it but he did. It doesn’t matter if Caleb drew it or Belos himself, he still kept if after the murder. He even made countless Grimwalkers to have some version of his brother with him, knowing full well they will all eventually betray them when they find out the truth.

This man is dealing with unresolved grief and guilt in an unhealthy way, desperate to cling to anything that links to his brother and his past. “Because of you, we can finish our work as witch hunters together”. Belos says, while possessing Hunter, which is a Grimwalker of his brother. In his mind, he’s in Caleb’s body now. He is now together with his brother. This line shows that Belos desires for normalcy and that he can’t let go of the past, he wants things to be how they where when he and Caleb were still witch hunters. Before Evelyn, before the boiling isles, when it was just him and Caleb and no one else. Which is why I think he created grimwalkers of Caleb, it’s the desire for normalcy and return to the past but also the grief and guilt he is experiencing.

According to Belos, he committed genocide because he wants to safe humanity. It looks like that he has a god complex? But I think Caleb might have played a role in it as well as to why he did it? “Our family is gone because of wild magic”. I won’t be surprised that if Belos blamed the witches for Caleb’s murder rather than taking full accountability. I think he has that if these witches didn’t brainwashed Caleb, I wouldn’t have killed him mindset. And what better way of revenge is to destroy the world and everything in it that took his brother away from him?

I’ve seen fans wondering why spending decades around witches, Belos still sees them as evil rather than good. Well, he feels guilty for murdering his brother and is hiding behind his beliefs as an excuse I think? Like I said, he is blaming his death on witches. Admitting that witches are good, is admitting you’re brother was right and that it is your fault he is death. I think deep down he knows witches are good and that he’s in the wrong for murdering Caleb, he is just being a hypocrite?

Belos has complicated feelings towards Caleb. He is angry with Caleb for abandoning him for witches (in his eyes he did), but at the same time I think he loves him. He has good memories of them together which he is unanable to let go off. Like I said, he is grieving him. Remember, Belos and Caleb are orphans. Belos lost his parents, his brother was the only thing he still had. The one who raised him. The one who didn’t abandoned him. Caleb wanting to stay the boiling isles must have hard for him.

All of this what I just described. The guilt, grief, clinging to anything that links to his brother and past, such as his coat. The grimwalkers, the desire for normalcy, I think option 1 and 2 is more likely rather than option 3. Especially if Evelyn is pregnant, which she seems she is. Caleb was about to have child with a witch. Most likely in his mind, he wanted to kill Evelyn and it’s offspring, take his brother home, and unbrainwash him so they can be witch hunters once again. So yeah, I believe Caleb’s death is more of an accident rather than intended.

Take what a wrote about Belos with a grain of salt. So please be nice! This is how I view Belos, and I’m aware that I could be wrong. Season 3 is still going on, and everything that I have written can still be disproved. Belos is a complex character, which makes it difficult to analyse him. Which is why I love Belos, because of how complex, interesting and well written he is. I always feel I should add this whenever I write about Belos: even though I like Belos, I do not condone his actions. And I’m not excusing his behavior in any way. What he has done is by all means not okay, and plain out disgusting.

#the owl house #toh s3 #the owl house season 3 #the owl house spoilers #toh spoilers #toh emperor belos #the owl house emperor belos #emperor belos #philip wittebane #toh philip #the owl house phillip wittebane #the owl house philip #caleb wittebane #toh caleb #the owl house caleb #toh analysis #the owl house theory #toh theory #toh #the wittebane brothers #toh wittebanes #wittebane brothers #toh s3 spoilers #toh season 3 spoilers #the owl house s3 spoilers #the owl house speculation #toh speculation

[captainmera]

i never realised just how much tgb had changed how i thought about the characters (mostly vee) until yesterday when i was re-looking over my toh fan-art. You wrote them so well that i forgot that it wasnt all in the show. like how vee and gus weren't shown to being best friends, vee never got to be angry/shocked by hunter or just willow still holding a little grudge against amity. They are just cool details and im so clad they were added! ps your great

Thank you! Wow that's very flattering! I'm glad you are enjoying it!

I really like Vee, and the more I think about the gang's time in the human-realm, the more I sit back in my chair and think "Ah man, these arcs are really necessary and interesting though.."

Vee also holds a lot of plot, as a basilisk. We can speculate what the reason is that they were extinct, for example (grimwalkers were extinct too).

Wat I really enjoy about TOH's characters are how easily and smoothly they weave into each other's themes and arcs. Their personalities and histories makes them all perfect friends to both build them up and break them down. It's a chefs kiss.

Vee is no different! The set-up for her character was perfectly slotted in to what the other characters needed for their time in the human-realm. And the theme I think the human-realm was supposed to embody.

The demon-realm arc for Luz was a hero's journey, but because of the foil of the trope, and that the point was that: there is no hero/chosen one actually, and the rebels didn't make it in time like in the books, and just because it's a different realm it didn't mean Luz could escape - escapism is temporary.

Dana has said grief and hope are core elements of the story, and she chose to tell it through a foiled trope of being chosen/hero's journey, layered with a religious trauma lens.

To me, looking at Luz as the main character, means looking at her as a nerdy girl in need of escapism, wanting to find purpose, and avoiding her emotions about her dad's passing.

The return to human-realm would be, for Luz, a turning point where TOH turns from being about a hero's journey and a journey about the steps of grief and healing - at the end of it, she will find the light.

Vee, to me, is kind of like a new take on the guide character. She is not a guide, in the sense that she has all the answers, but rather all the truths.

She was right when she told Luz she had everything and still chose to run away. They're not the same. Vee is also a lot better than Luz at being normal and fitting in, something Luz has been playing off and avoiding facing. Luz sees herself as being different as a bad thing, she tried to run away to a place where "weird" was normal and that didn't work out. Now she's back home and feels that it's all her fault bad things happened, because she is herself. And the person she is is different. And different didn't mean special, just different. Of course she's depressed.

The same is true for all the other characters. Vee gets to reflect their truths too, simply by being crafted, narratively, into being the guide.

Hunter gets to face his actions as the GG, come to terms with the nuances of his bad actions, whatever reason he committed what he did. Find forgiveness not just from Vee but himself too. He gets to start over, just like her. She shows him it's possible.

Gus gets someone to share his dream with, his love and enthusiasm for the human realm. A place that Vee feels is more home than where she came from. Gus gets to grow as a person, both morally and intelligently. As does Vee, she gets somebody who shows her that she doesn't just have to be a refugee, she can have a purpose here. She can be an ambassador.

Willow was set up to have an arc where she mistook her newfound magical and physical strengths (she is working out a lot in canon after she changed track), for inner strengths. Willow is a sensitive girl, and a bit of a berserk (I mean she was willing to burn her own mind just to hurt Amity). Willow having to face Vee, who isn't physically stronger than her but is significantly further down the road of being internally strong, is something Willow can learn from. Perhaps even have conflict with! (but more so a conflict with herself than with Vee, really.)

With Amity, Vee has a simpler role. I think to Amity it's more so showing that it's possible to live in the human realm, and giving her hope that going back and forth is a future for everyone who wishes to do so. Creatively speaking, I think Amity and Vee more so to bounce off one another for the plot, rather than character growth or decline.

Camila, I think, is the most interesting. Because she has now spent approximately a year with Vee, half of it thinking she was Luz and having feelings about her daughter having changed so much, the line "I'm glad youre still creative" comes to mind. As well as the terror of losing Luz again. But also, because she has had her own unseen arc and development with Vee, and them having bonded into a foster family that we never got to see glimpses of, it goes without saying that Camila has already done the internal work to take on more kids if that's necessary. I think she saw these kids by her door and thought "yep. They're mine now too." Vee, I think, is interesting to toss into the family dynamic between Luz and Camila, who seemingly are misunderstanding one another significantly. Vee sees them both, and can be a voice of reason when it comes to it. Or if it would come to it.

ANYWAY MY RANTS ARE LONG. IM DONE. THANKS FOR READING.

#TOH #the owl house #toh vee #vee noceda

[astrolavas]

Ok ok, but now is turn for the grimwalker HCs!! Give us the creature👀

!!!!! BET

once a grimwalker is "formed" they simply turn mostly organic, just like how palismen are live animals instead of wood (when activated). so even though the ingredients are still THERE technically, they appear as just like... normal stuff, so grimwalkers are mostly biologically the species that their ortet was, almost indistinguishable (hair is hair, skin is skin, there's blood flow despite there not initially being a heart, the galdorstone is there but it functions very similarly to a heart, etc etc) and yet sometimes the original ingredients' features somehow still "show up" in unique-to-grimwalkers ways. ㅤ

i imagine grimwalkers used to be like a more popular/frequent occurence in ancient demon realm. the process of creating a grimwalker was like a sacred magic ritual, only allowed in special cases (like maybe if a witch lost a child early and wasn't able to have another one, sth of the sort) so it was still very rare even back then and would have to be approved of by most of the community. however, then the tradition died off as ingredients started becoming more scarce, and most of knowledge about it was eventually lost to time. nowadays, grimwalkers are considered to be an extinct species as well as an urban legend/myth by boiling isles habitants, like a "supposedly extinct but there's no certainty if they ever even actually existed" situation (without taking hunter and his possibly-openly-a-grimwalker-in-the-future thing into account just yet). the books we saw hunter read in labyrinth runners have some right information but also lots of misinformation in them, since they're far removed from the direct source, based on only tidbits of actual info, and have been written by witches/demons, with no grimwalkers consulted (obviously); lots of it is speculation, and lots of it is wrong. (i imagine the only actual, entirely truthful info is in those scrolls and books we saw in belos' grimwalker lab, but even that isn't fully complete; and belos wouldn't have wanted to share it with the public anyway, for obvious reasons) additionally, i feel like grimwalkers have a sort of cryptid-like reputation in the boiling isles' pop culture. there are stories made up about them. there are teens making pink-eyed grimwalker ocs on the demon realm equivalent of deviantart and making up things like "grimwalkers can shoot lasers out of their eyes" or "they can raise the dead with their thoughts" LMAO. hunter gets a headache when he discovers all that. ㅤ

grimwalkers are semi-immune to boiling water. the selkidomus scales give them a lot of immunity so boiling water is not actually lethal to them but still, being exposed to boiling rain for a long while or full-on diving into the boiling sea may hurt a bit and prolonged contact with boiling water may leave them with blisters/burns. ㅤ

when grimwalkers' skin is wet for a long time, it gets somewhat scaley ??? scales-resembling texture ?? instead of just being pruney/wrinkled. when dry, their fingertips have a sort of wood-rings-y look. ㅤ

grimwalkers' hair naturally grows incredibly fast, but especially when they spend lots of time in the sun. plant magic may also affect its growth positively. ㅤ

grimwalkers' eyes are reflective and can glow/shine in the dark. ㅤ

when it comes to human-based grimwalkers (the golden guards), sometimes their ears would turn out rounder and human-looking, sometimes they'd look pointier but still not fully witch-like. belos preferred them to be round cuz obviously he preferred "caleb" to be human-looking, but with time he started modifying some grimwalkers' naturally round ears to be pointier just so that they could blend in easier and so they'd believe that they're witches too. he'd "mold" their ears during early creation or sometimes modify/cut them after, like he did his. (hunter's ears are naturally pointy and generally look like a witch's ears but, upon closer inspection, the details of his ears differ from a normal witch's ears juuuust slightly) (ears of the grimwalker that we saw in ftf were fully round because belos was counting on this one to be the golden guard post-day of unity, seemingly brought up as human and in the human realm) ㅤ

just like stonesleepers, grimwalkers often have a slightly sensitive spot behind their ears. ㅤㅤㅤ

palismen can somewhat sense that grimwalkers are also made of palistrom wood so they naturally cling to them more (big win for mr palisman enthusiast/carver hunter owlhouse!) ㅤㅤ

again, when it comes to specifically caleb-based/the golden guard grimwalkers, i can imagine that belos' first attempts were....... FAR from perfect. since i imagine he got all the information from different incomplete ancient scrolls, there were many things he had to come up with and re-discover himself. the very first grimwalkers he made probably didn't even survive for longer than a few minutes/hours. and when they did survive, i feel like the ingredients used were much more distinguishable at first too, not fully transformed into their organic counterparts; like for example some grimwalkers had more selkidomus-like or stonesleeper-like features, or were visibly wooden in some places, etc etc. i feel like belos didn't succeed in making a fully functional, stable and human/witch-looking grimwalker until he met the collector, and then did so thanks to their help. ㅤ

grimwalkers are already "harvestable" at early infancy and that's when you're "supposed" to unbury them, but they can technically emerge at any age (they just have to stay underground and age for the amount of time). i feel like there were also times when belos tried to speed up the process and age his grimwalkers up faster so that they'd be of use to him quicker, but that would also often result in the grimwalkers being unstable; so not really a good idea. (i envision that hunter was probably one of the youngest- if not the youngest- grimwalker belos had ever made, and that's also why he had high hopes for him lasting longer than the others; because he manipulated him since early childhood, starting in his most pivotal developmental years) ㅤ

i like to believe that the reason why flapjack was able to save hunter in thanks to them was because hunter's a grimwalker. if hunter had been a normal witch or a human, i don't think flapjack could do anything to help. (something abt the thing that hunter was ashamed of and hated abt himself ending up being the exact thing that makes saving him possible... you know?) ㅤ

for specifically caleb-based grimwalkers, i imagine that since they're mostly human in biology, they might also have issues with eating some particular demon realm food. not as much as luz of course, since they're not completely human + after years of living in the demon realm and basically eating ONLY demon realm food i can imagine your stomach would get mostly used to it, acclimated and all, but it probably still could result in some problems and discomfort. ㅤ

because of their stonesleeper lungs, grimwalkers are usually pretty still and motionless sleepers. they breathe very slowly when sleeping. ㅤ

you can't make a grimwalker out of a grimwalker. you can try, but the magic simply won't work correctly.

#i'm normal abt grimwalker lore...... GRHRGRRR i feel like i have so many more hcs that i'm forgetting rn #my toh talk #hunter toh #grimwalker #hunter #nicole answers #Anonymous

[let-us-cultivate-our-garden]

The Owl House Series Finale Thoughts, part 1

So, now that I’ve had time to vent and gather my thoughts I can say that The Owl House series finale, was a letdown. 

There were strong elements: the animation, the voice acting, the music, all incredible. I do deeply appreciate the hard work and talent the crew brought in making this show and how many people have felt represented and seen by the show’s inclusivity and themes. I feel that this show will be beloved and remembered for a long time.

However, I feel like the show made critical errors that actually undermined what it set out to do. Before I get into my thoughts, let me explain how I got into this show:

I happened to stumble upon the show because it looked neat and heard that the show creator also worked on Gravity Falls, another show I enjoyed. The first season was fun; bright, clever, and you could tell it wanted to tell a larger story with deep and meaningful themes. Season 2A was also fun and it had begun to depict a darker, more mature world. I didn’t think too much of the show, it was just fun, a typical kids’ cartoon show with good storytelling and memorable characters. Nothing really grabbed me about the show.

Until Hollow Mind.

Long-term fans will remember people being disappointed by the episode because they became attached to Fanon Philip that had appeared during the hiatus and we got something completely different in canon. How did this seemingly sweet young man turn into Emperor Belos? Turns out, he’s just a dick. A huge, murderous dick with a hero complex. 

I wasn’t there for Fanon Philip but what drew me to Belos was that in HM, his apparent backstory was in the literal background of the episode and it sparked my imagination. I joined the fandom because, like many, I wanted to know what Belos’ deal was. Many talented and creative people came up with long and compelling theories about the Wittebane brothers, speculation that was further fueled by the grimwalker reveal and Caleb appearing in Belos’ memories in King’s Tide. That speculation grew and people wrote whole fan fics and drew art depicting the trials and troubles of the Wittebanes. 

I became invested in the Wittebanes because their story was so tragic: two orphan boys who grew up in a cult, essentially forced to participate in witch hunts in an adapt-or-be-hanged situation, only for the elder to actually see the error of his ways and leave his younger brother behind, making him think he had been bewitched and that it was his duty to save him. 

We got more scraps of information in Thanks to Them, the most important being how the brothers only had each other and became witch-hunters to fit in. In For the Future, Caleb’s apparition appears--whether a ghost or hallucination is unknown---above his specter is a bloody knife, Caleb stares accusingly at the wretched, shambling remains of his younger brother. Philip lashes out angrily accusing him that it was his fault and that he “tried to save his soul.” This is a highly interpretive scene, and many thought it implied Belos’ deeply buried guilt and how he always lies to himself to justify his actions. All the while, deep down knowing the truth.

With all that in mind, what did we learn in Watching and Dreaming? What made this young man who ventured out to what he thought was literal hell to rescue his brother? His only family? Only to kill him in a fit of madness and spend literal centuries trying to recreate the brother of his childhood, to erase his original sin, all the while descending into madness and depravity?

Turns out he’s a dick. A huge, murderous dick with a hero complex.

“You assume Belos’ goal comes from a genuine place,” the Titan tells Luz. And seemingly the audience because fans wanted to see this story, this foundation to all of the horror and trauma. To understand how a man becomes evil. 

Well, according to the show, he’s just like that. Luz attempts to reconcile Belos’ goal of saving humanity with her own and wonders if their morality is really so different. Silly human, the Titan says. Your goals and motives are genuine, he’s just delusional and evil. So you can take comfort in the fact that your enemies’ goals are just self-serving, but yours are the real deal. 

Sorry but this is lazy.

You can’t say people are complicated and then turn around and say actually, no some people are just delusional and power-hungry and we’ll leave it at that. It seems that, in the universe of The Owl House, only good people are complicated; Lilith cursed Eda because she was desperate to get into the Emperor’s Coven but then she spends the rest of the time trying to cure her sister. Amity bullied Willow, but only because her parents forced them to no longer be friends, Hunter was the emperor’s right hand man, but only because he’s an abused teenager. Meanwhile, the villains of the show don’t have their motives given such depth, they just act in selfish and petty ways because they just are. 

I wouldn’t be bothered by Philip’s flat characterization if the show did not waste so much time giving us hints and clues that there’s actually more to him. What a twist! The villain you thought had greater complexity is just a Standard Villain, how genius! Such clever writing!

If he’s going to be simply a metaphor and not a real character then don’t tease us with a story that suggests otherwise. Keep your story clean and concise. Don’t dangle a potentially amazing storyline that aligns perfectly with the protagonist’s only to yank it away.

This is a waste of the audience’s time and squashes what could have been a wonderfully twisted and dynamic villain. But the show wasn’t interested. It's much easier and more comforting to just say bad people are just bad and never explore why. You could never become the villain because you’re good; don’t bother worrying that you and the villain have the same goals because his aren’t genuine!

 Remember kids, people are complicated. Unless you’re a villain. 

#the owl house #toh critical #toh criticism #emperor belos #philip wittebane #luz noceda #long post #the owl house spoilers #watching and dreaming spoilers

[sepublic]

I think there's a lot of potential for a dynamic between Vee, Hunter, and the Collector; All three are children abused and hidden away from society by Belos, who eventually escaped him, and are among the last of their kind in a sense; There's only a few other Basilisks in Vee's case, and the Archivists are so far apart that for all intents and purposes, the Collector is the only one.

So I'm just imagining an AU where these three somehow meet despite Belos' efforts, and they ultimately band together and maybe even escape! Vee showing Hunter firsthand just how corrupt the Emperor's Coven can truly be, while the Collector reveals the whole cycle of the Grimwalkers; Vee and Hunter explaining to the Collector what death is, with Vee helping her friends understand that what they're going through IS wrong. Plus some added potential dynamics with Vee's siblings, and how this might make the Collector reflect on their relationship with the Archivists. Meanwhile Hunter's family never got the chance to know one another...

The Collector can teach all sorts of interesting magic to Hunter, given his interests, while helping Vee understand why she was cloned and experimented on, though there'd obviously be a lot of dread with that realization. And then we can have Hunter being a protective older brother to Vee, who's genuinely scared in a way the others aren't, and giving her support she might need/miss in the absence of her other basilisk siblings. This could lead to Vee and Hunter developing the courage to take a more direct stand against Belos by using the Collector as a witness to reveal the truth of the coven sigils; Possibly running into Raine and/or Darius' separate rebellions, and finding comfort in adults who DO care.

All three bring different things to the table; What with the Collector knowing the whole story, Hunter having access to the outside world, and Vee fully recognizing how abusive their situation is. They have things in common, sometimes with only one other person to confide in, sometimes with all at once. There's just a lot of interplay one could do with his trio and how the parallels and foils overlap. In essence, one could do a three-way venn diagram with these kids; They’re like Luz, Eda, and King. Or Lilith, Amity, and Hunter. Gus, Willow, and Amity… You get the idea. I love a good trio dynamic.

#the owl house #vee noceda #the owl house hunter #the owl house collector #au

[anitachristinita]

Alright so I was watching hunting palismem again for the millionth time lol, but noticed something in this scene.

“Our family is gone because of wild magic, I can’t let the same happen to you”

I find this scene very interesting due to what we now know the real reason why Belos says this.

We now know that this is a reference to Caleb leaving Philip to be with Evelyn. And that eventually Philip ended up killing Caleb due to his hatred for wild witches and because Caleb was in a relationship with one.

In this line Belos is telling his point of view of the situation. He sees Caleb leaving him and his death as their family being “destroyed”.

And it’s clear he blames Evelyn (a wild witch) for everything as he sees her being the reason why Caleb abandoned him and his death by using wild magic (the type of magic Evelyn practiced) as the thing that killed his and Hunter’s family.

Belos also says he can’t let the same thing happen to Hunter, and I interrupt this line in two ways.

1. After hollow mind this line now seems as Belos warning Hunter to not betray him like the other grimwalkers (by discovering the truth of wild magic and/or finding out Belos’ true intentions) because he’s been trying for years to make a perfect new version of his brother and doesn’t want to kill another grimwalker and start over again. Especially since Hunter was the one who looked most like Caleb and Belos considered it a shame to kill him because of that.

2. Belos sees Hunter as Caleb and doesn’t want history to repeat and for Hunter to “destroy” their family by having him run off with wild witch again.

But ironically enough in Belos efforts in trying not to repeat the past, he accidentally forces Hunter in the same position that Caleb was in.

Both were guys who grew up in a environment filled with indoctrination that is strongly against and Villainizes witchcraft/ a specific type of witchcraft, and were given a job to hunt witches-

… and then they end up meeting a wild witch and discover that wild magic isn’t evil through the very same red cardinal. And all of this happens within the same episode where flapjack (a symbol for Caleb and Evelyn’s love btw, more on that another day) is introduced.

#toh analysis #lunter #caleb x evelyn #luz x hunter #huntceda #belos toh #philip wittebane #caleb wittebane #hunter toh #hunter wittebane #evelyn clawthorne #luz noceda #flapjack toh