#but yeah....the comparions are warranted

[jess-the-vampire]

I think not enough people talk about how a lot of the conflict between Philip and Caleb comes from a ton of misunderstanding and lack of communication between the two brothers.

Because while yes. Philip and what he did was utterly terrible, this entire situation was also not putting him in a great position to improve or come out of his delusions either.

Having grown up in a community where he was fear mongered into hating witches, philip wasn’t given a lot of opportunities to consider otherwise or think of witches as anything but monsters. These kinda towns were very black and white about the topic and men who tried to defend those accused of witchcraft were put to death as witches pretty much instantly. So it makes a lot of sense Caleb and Philip conformed, it’s more then just fitting in, it’s also survival. 

Maybe caleb fully believed in witches being evil before, maybe he didn’t, but as philip’s only family and guardian, it makes a lot of sense he’d push for philip to dive further and further into these ideals so his brother would be safe.

This however, runs into further issues, one being, philip has no one to really pull him out of these ideals when caleb leaves.

Caleb, for one reason or another, chose not to tell philip about evelyn, nor did he seem to tell him he was leaving for assumebly forever. So caleb did have a change of heart about witches, but didn’t choose to do anything on his part to change philip’s mind, deciding rather to not involve himself in that at all.

Now, there could be many reasons for this, maybe he was worried about telling philip that everything he told him for years was no longer true, maybe he was worried philip would get the village and it would put him at risk, maybe he was worried about evelyn being exposed (Tho with her being an actual witch, who could wipe the floor with them, i’m not sure on that one)....

tho judging by how much both brothers care for each other and put the others safety how they did, the idea philip would put caleb at risk from their own town seems unlikely.

And when caleb reunites with philip in his memories, he doesn’t see him as a threat, so he probably didn’t do it cause he feared philip.

No, it seems more likely to be of two options, either caleb was worried about putting philip in danger by having him be involved in magic and thought it was safer for him to leave then put his own brother at risk, or....caleb saw the isles as a place that would make him happier and live out the rest of his life and thought philip would be better off without him on earth, under the impression philip was happier there and he was holding him back.

A choice he made for philip, without telling him.

Caleb, no matter what reason he had, sure underestimated how much philip needed him though, and how far he was willing to go for him.

And the thing is, as much as so many people say it’s philip’s fault for not accepting the real caleb, this situation kinda makes it clear philip never really got to meet “The real caleb”, because caleb chose to hide that part from him.

And there is a memory where philip seems to figure out caleb has been meeting her in secret at least by his teens, given he’s older then baby philip but not as old as young adult philip.

He may be around luz’s age at this time.

 Whether he confronted caleb about it remains to be seen but we also have no timeline of when caleb left philip and how much time it took for philip to get to the isles to rescue him. So we don’t know if caleb had left philip when philip was an adult, or when he was still in his teens.

Just that by the time he DOES arrive there, he’s a young adult at least.

All philip knows is the caleb he grew up with, he was never eased into this new caleb who loved witches and the isles because caleb made the choice to not do that.

So when philip finds out about caleb is gone, of course his natural reaction is to think caleb got tricked and was kidnapped. Caleb was part of the crowd who promoted the idea of witches being evil and tricking people, not to mention that for him, why would caleb ever leave him willingly? He HAD to be tricked and kidnapped!

And the he spends months, maybe almost a year, judging by beard growth, trying to find caleb and the dude is completely a different person then he knew him when he finally finds him.

He’s chilling with the witches, starting a family, and he doesn’t seem upset at all about leaving his brother at all? For someone grown up on these stories, it’s not odd at all philip most likely assumed caleb’s mind had been warped.

He doesn’t think this is how caleb naturally is and was hiding from him, he most likely saw the witches as having done something to him, because he never got to naturally get to know caleb going though these changes on earth, so it looks like something it wasn’t to him.

And we’re missing a lot of details regarding the knife fight, such as a timeline, where flapjack is, where evelyn is, what philip’s thought process was (Did he think he was saving caleb, did he go for evelyn and caleb stepped in, did he actually attack caleb in anger because he realized caleb lied and left him on purpose? ect ect) but this was bound to result in some fight between the brothers given the context of the situation.

Caleb probably had NO real harm meant to Philip at all, he’s had to be an adult while still being a child and now he’s finally getting to discover who he is and that magic and witches actually make him feel happy and free. It’s just because he chose to handle things the way he did, philip ended up misinterpreting the situation and feeling thrown away and betrayed by him and it’s easy to see why.

And why philip is so angry and upset by it.

Philip did still have opportunities on the isles to maybe realize things were not what he thought, but given he seems to truly think all witches are trying to trick him it seems like his stubbornness to not look at things from a new angle continued to make him worse.

And had caleb maybe handled things better with him, maybe philip could of come to terms like he did about witches, caleb was the character who was most likely to reason with him and because of the memories philip was still a CHILD when caleb was already changing his ways. It’s not as if he was already an adult by the time caleb was meeting evelyn apparently, he was still pretty young.

Maybe it would not of worked, maybe philip would not of listened if caleb had been open about how he felt at first, but we’ll never know.

And caleb is not a bad person, i’m not blaming him for what philip went on to do because he could never have predicted what his brother would do because of all of this. Just that it didn’t help and probably unintentionally caused philip to have issues he never could of expected. 

Philip had some opportunities to improve on his own when he got to the isles and he didn’t and that’s on him, but i can’t say i blame him for not automatically being happy for his brother given caleb’s own choices and how it makes everything look to him.

Their conflict is driven by a lot of unfortunate circumstances that are out of their control and lack of communication, more then you would think the more you look at it.

Philip’s not forgiven for how he chose to respond to this whole thing and how much were hurt from it, but he also wasn’t set up on the best course to improve either when the one person he cared the most for and had the best chances to help him chose to leave him behind without thinking everything through.

The comparisons to Luz and Camilla are warranted, luz and caleb are not malicious people out to hurt their loved ones, they were just thinking about what made them happy.

They just didn’t consider the consequences of running away from their problems and how it would affect their loved one.

It makes the relationship far more of a tragedy when you consider it all.