#the fact that philip’s statue is looking at hers

[princessanneftw]

King Charles III and Queen Camilla unveiled the statues of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at The Royal Albert Hall in London on 11 November 2023

[moonmeg]

The basket she carried in the crook of her arm dropped to the grass. She stood there. Paralyzed by the sight.

All the soil surrounding a hole in the earth where an empty coffin, marked by its years under the earth, faced her. The glass vase with a candle inside she had put up was nothing but shambles and crumbs. The flowers that had grown over the time destroyed.

The tombstone was tilted. Everything was ruined. And she couldn't do or say anything. Time had frozen.

Her body began to shiver. Every breath became heavier the longer she stared at what once was her husband's grave. Not even Robyn's worried "Mama?" could bring her to move her eyes from the chaos.

It did snap her back to the moment and she knew she couldn't keep Robyn here.

"Go back with Opal, sprout. I'll be right behind you.", she said, her voice just above a whisper.

"Mama-"

"GO. BACK.", Catherine snapped.

Robyn flinched upon the tone his mother used. He was only a child but he was not blind. His father's dug up grave and empty coffin horrified him just as much as he could see it horrified his mother. He stared at her, hoping she'd turn her face to look at him but Catherine was like a lifeless statue. The only sign of movement was her shoulders and hands tensing and the the tears pricking at her eyes.

Opal began pulling at Robyn's loose strand of hair to get him to move away from this view of horror.

He obliged but only hesitantly. He didn't want to leave his mother's side. Not in a moment like this. He hated seeing Mama sad and in pain. Not that Catherine let Robyn see her vulnerable side often. She puts on smiles for him and hopes he will not notice how broken she actually is. But Robyn knew. He knew Mama was just playing a game of pretend but he didn't want her to continue it. He didn't want her to bury her emotions in front of him, yet he couldn't let her know that.

"Opal, wait!", he called out for the dove, "we can't go too far ahead."

Robyn turns to look at his mother, who still stood at the same place in front of the grave.

"We should wait for Mama."

Catherine's legs couldn't hold her any longer at this point. She broke down to the soil and let her emotions flow. She yelped in the agony of having lost Caleb a second time. Tears streamed down her face as her thoughts raced. She had finally learned to live with her beloved gone and she had finally moved on. The stinging pain she used to feel when thinking of Caleb and the imagery of his final moments had been something she healed from. Now that healing progress was crumbled into nothing. The terrible pain and heartache, the pictures.... everything was back.

Catherine clenched the grass beneath her in anger as she realized just who is responsible for her misery.

There was no other person who possibly would have a motive. No other person would ruin and take away a place so sacred to her AND to Robyn...

Robyn...

This place was the only place he felt close to his father. It was the only place where he felt a connection to Caleb.

The fact that it was taken from him, for most probably selfish reasons, only made her angrier.

She wasn't one to curse people...

She gazed up at the tilted tombstone with her husband's name on it...

She wasn't one to curse people but this was the last straw.

Philip would pay for this. Whether he could or not. He will.

[probablyhuntersmom]

*going bonkers about this*

Ok, my two faves (and by extension, also the grimwalkers because this is to do with Evelyn and Caleb). Look at how in the second and final specials, Eda and Hunter's hairstyles resemble Evelyn and Caleb's more than ever before.

But Dana said Eda doesn't find out she's related to Evelyn. While Hunter knows he's a copy of "an old friend" of Belos, who accompanied Belos to hunt witches, he doesn't know about the individual called Caleb. However! Remember that Gus showed Hunter a photo of the Caleb statue in For the Future:

and it was up to Hunter to decide whether or not he wanted to investigate any further or not. After Watching and Dreaming, I really wondered what his decision was.

Gus hadn't seen images of Evelyn when he caught glimpses of Belos's mind in King's Tide, as far as I can tell. The most info would've been what the kids heard during the Halloween hayride ("Her name...was Evelyn!") but that was a tale, not concrete evidence.

And the mystery in all this: the fact that they were so close yet so far because Belos knew and didn't tell anyone...and we in the audience can't let them know...is spooky af and I'm totally on board with it.

It's also remarkably interesting that a major turning point in Eda and Hunter's arcs was self-forgiveness, after accepting help and forgiveness from others, and Dell and palismen are connected to this.

They started out on opposite sides:

with Hunter eventually running away from the Emperor's Coven.

Eda rebelled and was ostracized by society for being a wild witch, till she was allowed to set up a structure for the new Wild Magic University as its Headmaster. Hunter conformed to the structure of Belos's regime until he rebelled and found freedom to create and become a palisman carver.

They had really minimal interactions with one another but the way in which they are tied to Philip, Caleb and Evelyn...just wow.

[sepublic]

            Looking back, a lot of us assumed the statues in Gravesfield depicting Caleb and Philip as adults was an example of in-universe historical inaccuracy, kind of like how Pocahontas is portrayed as an adult, when she was actually a child when everything happened. But in hindsight, I have to wonder if this adult depiction is even a discrepancy to begin with, and not a point of clarification for the timeline of events for these brothers?

         I think what contributed to the belief that Caleb and Philip were children when the former entered the isles forever is because of Belos’ memory portraits. But we know they don’t depict everything, such as how Philip arrived in the Boiling Isles; From a Doylist perspective, the writers want to leave in some ambiguity, some mystery, and there’s only room for so many memories in the background.

         But as we learn in Thanks to Them, Caleb and Evelyn communicated through hidden rebuses to meet up multiple times; So their interactions in the human world took place over time, and it wasn’t just an instant, one-off meeting and then Caleb disappeared, his brother in hot pursuit. Dana even clarified in a Post-Hoot that Evelyn initially presented herself as human to Caleb and the rest of Gravesfield, and revealed herself after Caleb earned her trust.

         Maybe this happened across one meeting, one day; But the likelihood is that Caleb and Evelyn interacted as ‘fellow humans’ a few times before the truth was revealed. And they continued to meet up, discreetly contacting one another with hidden rebuses for the other to find and decode.

         So if all this happened over an unspecified period of time, who’s to say it wasn’t across years? And that by the time Caleb made the decision to move to the Boiling Isles, it was when he and Philip were adults; In fact, he might’ve even waited until Philip was an adult who could take care of himself, before leaving him to live his own life!

         Likewise, there is a valid interpretation that Caleb hid the truth of Evelyn from Philip, and wasn’t aware he was watching when he went off to explore the Demon Realm a few times, before eventually making the permanent move. But I think the other interpretation works, too; That Caleb DOES know Philip is there and watching. And he never made Philip enter the Demon Realm with him, out of a misguided desire to not make his baby brother uncomfortable, force him out of his comfort zone, etc.

         Caleb might’ve told Philip to wait for him back home, if he didn’t want to enter the magical portal with him; He’d be back! And Caleb did return, multiple times. And Philip didn’t rat him and Evelyn out because he was still a child, and not as dead set into his hatred yet… But I’ve compared Philip to King, as little kids with delusions of grandeur involving their enemies being crushed beneath them.

         And remember Really Small Problems, when King initially tolerated Luz going off to be with Willow and Gus, due to her promise to come back for him? But after enough time of feeling neglected, King’s resentment began to build up? Within the span of just one night, King wasn’t yet ready to intentionally make Willow and Gus ‘temporarily disappear’, but when it happened, he took advantage of the situation anyway instead of bringing them back ASAP, and eventually owned up to this mistake.

         So imagine how Philip felt across years; He may have disliked Evelyn, but not enough to want her dead… But after enough time of feeling resentful over Caleb dedicating time to Evelyn instead of just him, Philip became selfish and entitled over the fact that his brother dared to have a life that didn’t revolve around Philip. Until he became angry enough at Evelyn to want her dead, and retroactively fell back on the belief of witches as inherently evil in order to morally justify these desires, instead of admitting he was just possessive of his older brother. Plus, exposing Evelyn could make him a hero in the eyes of the townsfolk!

         We know there was a big fire, and we know Evelyn was declared a witch by Gravesfield. This could’ve been in response to her, Caleb, and Philip all disappearing; But it’s also possible that realization occurred while they were still there. And that it in fact may have driven Evelyn out of the human world, with Caleb following because he potentially ousted himself by openly defending her. Seeing his brother commit a moral wrong he couldn’t stand by could’ve influenced Caleb to leave when the two of them were adults; As was the ‘reassurance’ that Philip was now accepted by the town as a witch hunter who exposed Evelyn and spearheaded her exile, whereas Caleb was even more of an outcast for his collaboration.

         Of course, the idea that Caleb was an adult when he moved out does raise the question? Why do we not see this progression of age in the memory portraits? And again, there’s what I said about ambiguity and whatnot, but there’s also the conventions of the time skip. Just as TOH ends on a time skip where we don’t see the gradual progression of the characters’ aging outside of some photos, for the Wittebanes, whose story is only told through photos, the framing skips over the years Caleb and Evelyn interacted. The turning point in which the two met and the latter revealed herself was enough…

         After all, the portraits already skip past Philip’s aging to bring us to his arrival in the Demon Realm as an adult; Who’s to say they didn’t skip past years of Caleb growing up in Gravesfield with Evelyn? Caleb entering the Boiling Isles with Evelyn as a child wasn’t the last Philip saw of his brother, until he himself entered years later; But it was the beginning of ‘the end’ in his eyes, the beginning of when he felt he lost Caleb.

         In the end, a lot of this is speculative. It’s possible Caleb was only portrayed as an adult in-universe because the townspeople correctly remembered Philip being an adult when they last saw him, so generations afterwards made the mistake of applying this to his older brother. History isn’t as well-documented as people would like to believe, even the famous stories are forgotten and picked up after a while; Major details people should’ve easily remembered fall through the holes of time. Entire cities have been lost and rediscovered.

        But ultimately, the fact that Belos’ memories DO portray a ‘timeskip’ based on what we see of them anyway, in addition to the confirmation that Caleb and Evelyn met up over time before the former moved… I think that solidifies my belief that yes, Caleb was an adult when he left Gravesfield, as was Philip. The statues in Yesterday’s Lie are among the very first indicators of Caleb’s existence, as is the episode itself acting as a ‘debut’ of sorts for him in the lore. So maybe Gravesfield’s depiction isn’t so inaccurate, after all…

[iwonderwh0]

Emma: "This is Daniel, the coolest android in the world! Say hi, Daniel!"

Daniel: "Hello!"

Emma: "You're my bestie! We'll always be together!"

The thing is, Emma probably didn't even know anything about her father's plans to replace Daniel, and it is really possible that if she had a chance to get to know about it before Daniel, she'd be the one throwing a tantrum, potentially preventing anything that happened instead. Aside from just Emma, it was repeatedly mentioned throughout the game that kids actually love androids. For example there's this dialogue at the station that Markus can overhear:

Little girl, visibly upset, hugging herself: "Are we really going to get rid of Mandy?"

(Probably mother): "Grandma says it leaves her nothing to do, sweetie."

Little girl: "But she's so cool!"

Mother: "I know, honey."

Not only kids think they're cool, android-only band Here4You is even hitting the charts as one of the most popular among youngsters, whereas adults find them really creepy and soulless. Another overhead dialogue from the same chapter:

"I heard that android boyband is going to win sone music prize"

"You mean Here4You? God, they're so creepy.

"My kids don't listen to anything else."

From adult's POV this attachment is interpreted as just another form of phone/internet/social-media/[insert anything else young people are accused of liking too much]-addiction, because most of them are too angry at CyberLife to comprehend that their kids may actually like androids for who they are as people in their lives, for being their safe space of a kind, and not because they're just addicted to that fancy toys to play with (although there probably are some kids who'd see them exactly this way. There always are.)

It was truly a misfortune that Daniel got so overwhelmed by the news that he instantly became fatalistic instead of pausing to really think about it first, to maybe consider that this decision may not have been a collective one, and there's still a chance -- maybe a small one, but still the one worth looking into -- to cancel it by talking, asking Emma about if she knows (because she probably didn't) instead of instantly going for the gun to take revenge on everyone as equally guilty. Instead of asking, he instantly assumed the worst – that Emma's opinion in the matter will be the same as her father's, and that was his main mistake. Daniel must have had really good relationships with the whole family including the father who as it turned out didn't think of him as a person, but rather a replaceable object – something Daniel never expected or even considered before, which, by the way, only further implies just how much he was actually loved for this information to be this unexpected and this world-shattering. He never saw it coming AT ALL (and in a generally anti-android society it really is telling) so this unexpected truth basically overwritten everything he ever knew about his life and world as a whole, making him feel like a fool for not seeing it earlier.

In this sense he's really similar to Connor when he realised that CyberLife never loved him, that he in fact is NOT special, not an exception from the rule, and was only used as an expendable object. There really is a parallel here. Except for Connor this knowledge didn't came with an anger, but with guilt for his previous actions (and, you know, Connor was actually right about it while Daniel could have potentially made a mistake in interpreting it the way he did)

So "Daniel never saw it coming because he was only surrounded by love" is one theory, but now I wanna consider a different one, being –

He was never going to be replaced on the first place,

Philips family is just insanely rich and John decided that he can afford to buy one more android, because why not? The one they have is great, and their enormous apartment with giant gold statues of Buddha and big-ass pool area would benefit from another pair of hands. It's possible that this decision wasn't even planned, but just an impulsive purchase done by someone who's so rich that spending nearly 10K is not a big deal.

And in this case, maybe Daniel's suspicion accumulated over a period time of him hearing how other androids are talked about outside of Philip's family and always thinking "For me it's different – they actually love me for who I am and will never replace like that. They're not like those other people, they're different, I'm different." And then him seeing that purchase was just...the last straw that was needed for him to apply all those previous already existing suspicions to his own situation and finally consider that they might actually apply to him, resulting in him drawing those depressing conclusions that if true would mean that his whole life has been a lie that he was just too stupid to be able to see through.

So there's at least a small chance that it was all a result of just a big misjudgement and/or could be avoided if dialogue was Daniel's first choice of action instead of him getting blinded by his anger and urge to take revenge on those who -- at least from his immediate understanding of the situation -- betrayed him.

[katrinasis]

thinking so hard about caleb wittebane.

caleb is the most important character in the show. caleb died 400 years before the first episode. caleb is the reason philip came to the boiling isles, and caleb is the reason belos wants to destroy it. you cannot tell me that “saving humanity” is the only motivation for the man so obsessed with the brother he murdered. it’s his moral excuse to take revenge on the people he sees as having taken his brother away, a justification to himself that what he did was acceptable. he knows it wasn’t.

caleb haunts hunter, who is walking around with a dead man’s face. hunter’s entire life has been dictated by what belos wanted caleb to be, and dozens of grimwalkers have lived and died in an attempt to fulfill philip’s fantasy. belos is incapable to letting go of what he’s done, and so he keeps hoping for a fix-it that will never happen. belos calls hunter by his brother’s name because he can only see caleb in him. hunter was never supposed to have an identity outside caleb.

caleb haunts the clawthorne clan, a line of palisman carvers that may very well have started with him. caleb haunts hunter, who is supposed to be him but never will be. caleb haunts belos, still breathing and talking and walking in the form of grimwalkers. caleb haunts philip, who is constantly trying to repress and deny and rationalize his own immobilizing guilt away. caleb haunts gravesfield, as a statue and as an urban legend. he is just a symbol, cold and stone and so unsimilar to the caleb we see in hollow mind.

caleb haunts luz, who started to parallel his design towards the end of s2. i am certain that belos wanted luz to take caleb’s place as his dedicated companion, returning triumphantly to the human world, before falling back on the same justification he used for his brother to kill luz. the grimwalkers were a bust and he needed someone to give him the unconditional validation he wanted so badly. luz would have to do.

caleb loved the boiling isles. caleb loved a witch. caleb loved his brother unconditionally. caleb was murdered by him. i wonder what he was thinking at that moment. was he thinking of the wife and child he was leaving behind? was he wondering if he would be remembered? was he thinking of why his brother, his dear little brother, would do this? did caleb hate him? did caleb forgive him?

could he have of had any idea how much of him would remain? how much death and destruction would be committed in his name? could he of have had any idea of the family he would start? the children that would look so like him? the children that belos wanted to be him? being immortalized in the town he grew up in? the young girl unknowingly following in his footsteps, falling in love with a witch and carving her own palisman? the fact that he still exists in so many ways, centuries later?

probably not. if i had to guess, i would say that he was cold, and it hurt, and he was lonely, and he was very, very tired.

[goodqueenaly]

Hello! I hope you are well. I'm back with another weirdly specific question/topic I'd love to read your thoughts on. I was looking at the Frey family tree (as one does) and a detail that I hadn't really paid attention to before- there seem to be a few instances of sisters from the same house marrying into the Freys? Sallei and Sylwa Paege, possibly Sarya and Wynafrei Wheat? And--sorry this is going to be weird!--I thought Corenna and Cyrenna Swann might be sisters and I think Walder is (continue

(continued) I think Walder Frey is a person who...would not have hesitation to marry his son's sister-in-law (if Cyrenna and Corenna were sisters). Do you think that's possible at all? And do you think that--if these examples were actually all sisters--there would be a political or dynastic explanation for it, that there would be this kind of pattern? Sorry for the long question. I love your analysis of this kind of marriage/family tree in ASOIAF and would love to hear your thoughts.

While it's certainly not guaranteed that any two female characters are sisters as opposed to cousins or other relations (a point I mentioned with Betha and Melantha Blackwood), I think it is entirely possible that these pairs of Frey brides were in fact sisters in each case. I also think it is entirely possible that Walder would have married the sister of his son's own bride (which, to be sure, was not entirely unheard of in history: Catherine de' Medici schemed to wed her younger daughter Margaret to Carlos, son of Philip II of Spain, after her older daughter Elisabeth), given Walder's own focus on expanding his personal dynasty. Indeed, this was a point I made when I created a speculative family tree for House Whent: since it appears Sarya and Wynafrei married their Frey husbands at roughly the same time, it’s possible that Walder tried to arrange for an advantageous betrothal with the proud Whents (as had Hoster Tully or his father) by offering himself, as a lord in his own right, as well as his eighth son.

As for the Swanns, while it certainly appears that Corenna and Cyrenna married Stevron and Lord Walder, respectively, in roughly the same period of time (given that Stevron’s son by Corenna, Ryman, and Walder’s elder son by Cyrenna, Jared, were both born somewhere in the late 240s), we cannot even begin to guess why father and son married women who might have been sisters, still less why the Swanns agreed to to the double marriage. Did the Swanns, Baptista Minola-like, refuse a marriage for Corenna unless Cyrenna was found a suitor too? Did Walder offer himself, with all the status and advantage of a lordly marriage not perhaps otherwise guaranteed to Cyrenna Swann, if he could secure a match with the proud and ancient Swanns for his heir? Did Walder secure an otherwise unattainable double match with House Swann because, perhaps, the Swanns may have been out of favor with the crown in the aftermath of Lyonel Baratheon’s rebellion? Any or none of these might have explained the double Frey-Swann marriage.

This lack of explanation holds even more true for Sallei and Sylwa Paege, married to the full brothers Jammos and Whalen Frey. Again, while their children are roughly of an age (with Sylwa's son and daughter being four and three years old, respectively, than Sallei's eldest child), there is no evidence whatsoever as to whether these (possible) sisters married their Frey husbands at the same time, still less why they might have done so (or married these brothers at all). These daughters/nieces/cousins of a mere landed knight may have simply married the sons of a lordly neighbor House for lack of better dynastic options, and Walder Frey in turn may have seen these two sufficiently aristocratic sisters/relatives as being an easy means of getting rid of two of his own extraneous sons. But again, until and unless GRRM decides to provide more detail, we're left with the most vague level of speculation.

[soldatrose]

today in "what the fuck did i just read", the triumvirate, or the death of cicero! :

basic plotline: the proscriptions have begun but cicero's name is not on the lists yet. cicero refuses to leave rome despite the pleas of tullia (not dead!) and sextus ("disguised as clodomir, chief of the gauls" and hidden by cicero). he wants to either make octavian uphold the republican system or die in the process. he does in fact die in the process.

play is called "the triumvirate". mark antony is not a character in it

(the way he's mentioned throughout the play makes it look like he's standing outside rome with a knife in both hands though)

fulvia, not a character either, is the ultimate bogeyman (woman?)

tullia and sextus are both very into saving cicero and the republic. they're also in love! and constantly want to die!

the statues of caesar and pompey (this one toppled and broken*) are present on the stage and the characters regularly address them

*which is echoed textually by characters calling pompey the "miserable ruins of human greatness" and a "mutilated marble"(!!!)

octavian is also in love with tullia and seeks to marry her btw. a fair amount of blackmail ensues.

around the beginning of the play tullia goes "forget me clodomir we can never be together you're a gaul and a king and i have to marry pompey's son 😔🤚🏻" and clodomir is just. standing there. being sextus.

lepidus is also there! his only role is to be absolutely pathetic in act 1 and to get his shit wrecked by both tullia and cicero

octavian is uh. still octavian. but in love. and very annoyed about the fact that his Feelings are getting in the way of his getting autocratic shit done. "let's just kill everyone" is one of the solutions he briefly contemplates

twice in the play someone says brutus did a better job at honoring caesar by killing him than octavian by carrying on his legacy

sextus tries to convince cicero to come with them to sicily and goes "when you return you'll be the one with the power to proscribe people!". babygirl no

much like a&c octavian marrying octavia to antony, cicero calls tullia "this other me" which makes it sound like sextus is marrying cicero

clodomir-sextus actually gets very worked up against octavian on behalf of the gauls. and later goes "are you mad that i, a gaul, am more roman than you will ever be??"

philip (pompey's freedman) is sent by octavian to assassinate clodomir-sextus and first mistakes him for pompey's ghost

one scene has cicero giggling and kicking his feet while showing tullia and sextus his name on the proscription lists

it gets extremely unclear who proscribed cicero?? i think octavian proscribes him to scare him off into leaving the city but fulvia gets to octavian's soldiers first

at one point cicero goes off against octavian like "i'm sure you don't love tullia and just want to marry her so you can marry ME". same speech includes the sentence "i have penetrated you more than you'd like to" bc french is like that

forgot to mention maecenas is also there and keeps miserably going back and forth between cicero and octavian. has a breakdown after cicero's death and starts calling octavian a blood-sucking leech

sextus wants to make a suicide attack on octavian. philip and sextus's troops aren't so keen on the idea, so they just kinda kidnap him and leave rome

tullia discovers cicero on the rostra and kills herself in front of octavian to change his life's trajectory forever

it doesn't

[saintmeghanmarkle]

The collective health status of the royal family has taken a serious nosedive since Markle showed up by u/so_fkn_dn

The collective health status of the royal family has taken a serious nosedive since Markle showed up That is not a subjective or snarky take on things. That is fact. Seriously, apart from the odd case (King George VI, Princess Margaret - who died decades apart and didn't take care of their health), can anyone else think of a time in the last century when the royal family has experienced such a crisis of health? Yes, the Queen and Prince Philip were in their late 90s when they passed, but it's undeniable that the timing of their declines coincided with Megxit and all the ridiculous drama concocted by the Harkles.Now, we have King Charles, who by all accounts has looked after his health over the years and whose parents both lived well into old age, and Princess Catherine, who is incredibly active and still relatively young, afflicted by cancer. Whether there are family histories of their conditions or genetic predispositions, I'm not sure. And of course, cancer very often strikes at random. But many of us here have pointed out the roles that stress and emotional trauma play in the development or expression of these diseases, and it's well documented just how much trauma Meghan and Harry have caused to the royals. Catherine in particular is a sensitive empath and for a long time would have been absorbing the heightened emotions of those around her, as well as her own. Narcissistic abuse is destructive and devastating, and I honestly believe we're seeing this with our own eyes right now. With three young kids, I really hope Catherine pulls through. post link: https://ift.tt/mhirqXL author: so_fkn_dn submitted: March 23, 2024 at 12:43AM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[lampmanliveblogs]

Lore! Lore! Lore!

So the tale of the two brothers began in 1613 when they arrived in Gravesfield, orphans. 

A witch named Evelynn, huh!? I wonder who that reminds me off!!

Häxan Hia Hia from the comics and cartoons about Bamse, the world’s strongest bear, of course. She has a magic laugh and a mini-dragon as a pet.

We even have Flapjack held in this distinctive-looking hand… and also on fire?

And hey, what’s that about a secret code used to travel between worlds? Does it have anything to do with the rebus-map thing? I did wonder how exactly Evelynn,Caleb, and later on Philip traveled between the realms before Philip built the portal door. This could imply that there existed an earlier portal door that required a code to use and which might’ve been destroyed or lost.

Oh, and also, I gotta say that the production on this hay ride story is super impressive, especially considering that, if the establishing shot earlier was anything to go by, there’s like… at most fifty people here.

What I love about this summation is not just that it’s funny AND correct (seriously, between this and the reading they did in Yesterday’s Lie, maybe Masha really got some psychic powers after all), but it’s also a plausible explanation.

Think about it from an in-universe perspective: listen to the story, and remove the knowledge of magic and other dimensions. Add onto it the fact that historical tales are often exaggerated, misinterpreted, or has vital context missing, and what do you get? Two brothers, both raised in a paranoid, puritan environment. The older brother falls in love with a woman who is maybe out of town, maybe lives on her own, is maybe something of a mystic. The younger brother believes her to be a witch and things get ugly.

In other words: Big bro got a hot witch girlfriend and lil bro got upset. Perfectly plausible and most certainly far more possible as an explanation of an old story.

Oh, they know, don’t they? Or… I dunno, but Gus at the very least knows something from the memories he got from Philip. He and Willow shared a knowing look with each other when they saw the statues of the brothers Wittebane earlier. And now this moment with Amity. Maybe Amity saw that Gus got upset at the story and wants to comfort him… or he (and maybe Willow) talked with her without Luz & Hunter knowing, trying to piece together a puzzle they suspect Luz & Hunter already have the pieces for.

Anyways, aside from some clarification on the timeline, and the long-awaited namedrop of Wittebro’s Wittewife, there wasn’t a whole lot of information that I hadn’t already figured out on my own. But it was a nice summary for the kids in the back who are not listening as closely as I am, and again, I really liked the visuals. Good job, Masha and, uh... those two guys. Well done.

[smokestarrules]

Titan Trappers & Witch Hunters

something something cycle of abuse indoctrination and manipulation

(full post under the cut because it gets lengthy)

--

So let’s talk about the parallels between Bill - and the Titan Trappers’ mentalities as a whole - and Philip Wittebane, Witch Hunter extraordinaire. 

They’re both secretive communities (you can call Philip a community of one), a close-knit status quo in which glory is given to the members - in stages, of course, and only when the individual has done something worthy of that glory. 

Thankfully, Bill and Philip could never end up working together, at least not in the long run - simply because Bill and the Titan Trappers themselves are in fact Witches, and therefore working with them is fundamentally against Philip’s morals. Funnily enough however, while they could never assimilate into each other, their indoctrination tactics are almost exactly the same, though shifted a bit for their differing circumstances. 

The Titan Trappers wear the skulls and coats of her enemy - “you gotta look like a Titan to trap one” - both to lure in potential prey (a tactic that which, considering that Titans are seemingly all-but extinct, seems to have worked well) and also to recognize each other, pick each other out from the crowd. Tarak saw King, and he immediately assumed King was one of them, simply because of his skull. 

Additionally, there is another reason for the skulls that goes beyond simply a way for estranged members of the group to recognize each other, and that is this - trophies. These people are hunters. Trappers. They are proud of their history and of the culture they've created, and so they wear the spoils on their own bodies like any hunters do. 

They’re wearing the skulls of children, but they don’t mind it, because it’s simply a fact of life; more than that, it’s a thing of pride for their lives. 

On the other hand, Belos does somewhat the same thing himself. He mutilates himself for the prospect of blending into the crowd, of looking like a Witch himself, despite his abhorrent hatred for the species. And he does this for one reason and one reason alone: it’s convenient for him. He’s been around for a very long time, and he’s learned that being a Human attracts attention. Due to his less-than Witch-friendly goals, he eventually decided that it would cause him less suspicion if he were a Witch instead, and so he’d taken on the appearance of his mortal enemy. 

And why? It’s because to Philip, the end justify the means. He says, “I just need to live long enough to see this through,” because that is all he cares about - the extinction of Witches (sound familiar?). He doesn’t care about looking like a Human because he isn’t really a factor - though of course he’s still clearly selfish; the man is a walking contradiction - and all that matters to him is that his plans work in the end. 

Theres also the Coven Sigils as a whole - while also imperative to Philip’s final plan, represent how strict the Boiling Isles have become under Philip’s rule. Coven Sigils represent two narratives; the one Philip tells the world, and the one that Hunter and Luz learned while in the depths of Philip’s mind. The first is this, and the reason known to society: they are so that Witches may only ever use one type of magic and cannot hurt those around them with Wild Magic. Simple. The second reason, the one that only Philip knew, is this: the Coven Sigils will be used during the Day of Unity to assist in draining the Witches with them on. 

It is the second reason that Philip likely finds most important, but that doesn’t negate the first; in fact, it only strengthens the idea. Coven Sigils exist for the Day of Unity, yes, but they’re also a rather convenient tool that allows Philip’s one-magic law to be upheld, rather than undermining his authority. 

Both Philip and Bill use the same strategies to uphold their ideologies; their mindsets can’t be questioned because they’re infallible, obviously, and therefore they - and subsequently their actions - are always in the right. They do what they do for the greater good... except it’s not, it’s for their own good; they just refuse to acknowledge that facet of themselves. 

And then there’s their dealings with the Collector. 

Many have already pointed out the similarities between Philip and Bill in many of their (potential and literal) interactions with the Collector, even to the point where Philip’s very palace is able to be compared against the Trappers’ residence as well, which raises a few concerning questions - of who really is in charge here. 

Something that I want to focus on, however, is the fact that both these strong powers - Titan Trappers and Philip alike - believe entirely that the Collector is/is going to be helping them. 

For Philip, it’s all about the Day of Unity, of which it is implied that the Collector is the one who even showed him that it existed in the first place. The Day of Unity is going to be Philip’s day of reckoning; his final revenge on all the hateful, damning Witches that he’s had the displeasure of living alongside for 400+ years. That is his final goal. 

On the other hand, for the Trappers, it’s “glory,” it’s being seen and acknowledged by someone that they’ve been risen to believe is their god, at least a god-like being (rather than the Titans themselves, which is another meta altogether). They seek the last Titan not only for themselves, but to release the Collector from their “prison” of sorts. They’re clearly more emotionally involved with him than Philip is, and yet Philip seems to talk to the Collector one-on-one more often. 

Somehow, in the 400+ years between Elsewhere & Elsewhen and Edge of the World, two things have happened to... “Round Boy.” One: the Trappers have managed to have it in their possession, despite Philip having had it last we saw. Two: it is now broken in half. 

Now, barring the concept that this is simply a second Round Boy (which is possible), something that should also be noted that this was the artifact that may have shown Philip when and what exactly the Day of Unity is, and this artifact is clearly also able to be used as a way to contact the Collector. Now, though, it’s been cracked. Whether that crack was caused by external means or Philip himself, who knows, but what is clear is this: both Philip and the Titan Trappers highly regard the Collector as both a force to reckoned with and a potential companion.  

They're both actively working towards making the Collector’s dreams a reality. The Titan Trappers with “free[ing] him from his prison,” and Philip’s with “revenge,” a revenge that is one the Collector implies they and Philip will share. Either way, both Bill and Philip are both working with the Collector - and for the Collector, though those vary between the two. 

Interestingly enough, they seem to be going about it in different ways. Bill and his Trappers search for the last one remaining - King - and they plan to “sacrifice” him (sound familiar?) to ensure the release of their idol, the Collector. Philip, on the other hand, seeks to “reunite Bonesborough with the [Boiling Isles’] Titan.” We know that on some level, some part of the Titan is still alive. Either its heart or bile sac is still pumping - that which Philip has in his possession - and its consciousness still has an impact on the Isles themselves, such as Philip taking years to find the elemental Glyphs, but Luz being able to find them all in mere weeks. 

Their goals are different, their tactics near-identical, and they’re both likely being duped by the Collector. Such is the way of those who refuse to consider broader ideas, I suppose.  

[argentvive]

"The Collectors"

While we're impatiently waiting for Book 3 of The Book of Dust, Philip Pullman is releasing minibooks in the HDM universe. I just got the latest one, "The Collectors." So of course I was curious to see if there's any literary alchemy in it.

The book is set in Oxford but seemingly not in either Lyra's world or ours (Will's). It features two unfamiliar characters, Oxford don Horley and his friend Grinstead. The HDM universe gets tied in when Grinstead tells about his encounter with Mrs. Coulter, who seems to have travelled to his world as a young woman. (More on this below.) Actually present in "The Collectors" is not Marisa herself but a painting of her.

This is a real 1932 painting by the artist Balthus, "Portrait de la jeune fille en costume d'amazone". Balthus was influenced by Chirico and other surrealists, and as @ssmhhh has pointed out, surrealism drew heavily on alchemical symbolism. You can see the basic colors of alchemy in the painting: black, white, red, and gold. But there's an even more intriguing connection between Balthus and alchemy: his son, Stanislaus Klossowski de Rola, is the author of two important collections of alchemical images and a frequent contributor to Adam McLean's alchemywebsite.com.

So my question is did Pullman have this painting in mind when he created Mrs. Coulter in the first book? Blond hair is often a marker for the White character, so Nicole Kidman was a better choice, lookswise, than Ruth Wilson. Or did Pullman just come across the painting recently and say hey--that looks like my idea of a young Marisa?

The book is profusely illustrated with line drawings by Tom Duxbury. Here you see Horley and Grinstead looking at the painting--and the statue of a monkey that strangely always ends up coming into the possession of whoever owns the painting. (This is an obvious reference to Mrs. Coulter's nameless golden monkey daemon.)

Grinstead immediately recognizes the woman in the painting as his long ago lover, whom he knew as Marisa van Zee. "Van Zee" is basically the Dutch translation of her French maiden name, "Delamare," so even as Marisa traveled to this other world, she kept her marking as water. Her role in HDM is Argentvive/mercury, white, water and earth, and her destiny is to join with Asriel (sulphur, red, fire and air) in a Chemical Wedding that produces the Philosophical Child, Lyra.

Grinstead's other revelation is that Marisa was able to manipulate time, or at least that time in her world progressed at a different pace than in his and Horsley's. "Time passes differently in different worlds," Grimstead explains (p. 42). This may be a stretch but consider: What alchemists do is speed up time. They believed metals were living things, growing inexorably to perfection, to becoming gold. The alchemist creates the Philosopher's Stone to vastly accelerate that process, to turn base metals into gold.

The fact that time passes differently in different worlds may have important ramifications in the final book.

So yes, Pullman is still writing literary alchemy.

[sukunasbabygirl]

So I know you said Hunter got bullied for his appearance at school, but was Belos aware of this? Was he also aware that Luz also got bullied, because she was considered weird?

(Also I can see Belos getting a tiny bit emotional if he ever sees or hears about them defending each other from bullies, it probably brings back some old childhood memories)

He became aware after witnessing it himself. He was walking home from work, this time deciding to take the park route, despite knowing of the accursed statues, when he hears Luz’s voice. He looks to the side to see two people holding her Azura book up high from her reach, and Hunter trying to grab it back.

He and Camila were very aware of the fact the two struggled to make friends, and though Camila tried to intervene and help with that, she was never really sure what she could do. They had no idea the kids were actively being bullied because both Luz and Hunter were very good at hiding it, and neither wanted to be a burden.

During this incident, he decides to step in… in his own way. As in. Threatening the other kids calmly while smiling, hands behind his back. Then immediately switches to caring uncle mode as he checks his own kids for injuries or anything of the sort, both trying to resist, insistent they can handle theirselves and it happens all the time. It’s a very familiar situation to him. He was always seen as strange when he was younger, given weird looks with only his brother to defend him. They were alone for that reason. And Luz and Hunter were having that experience to.

His threats seemed to have helped cease the more active bullying, everyone now being afraid of Hunger and Luz’s weird uncle, but it doesn’t stop the odd looks, or whispers behind their backs. Camila and Philip try to get involved and speak with the school about it, but in the end they feel helpless. They try to talk to the kids but they always insist they’re fine or don’t listen which only feeds Camila’s growing concerns. She was considering the camp for a while, with Hunter and Luz’s best interests in mind - a chance to make friends and meet people just like them!

Communication issues really are the bane of this family. The wittebane you might say.

It certainly makes Philip feel more emotions than he’d preferably like to, and it’s just one more reason for him to be protective of these kids. When they first make friends on the isles with Gus and Willow and what not, he’s obviously irritated it’s witches, but there’s a part of him that’s thinking ‘they’re making friends Camila, finally’ and he’s, dare he admit it, proud of them.

He would probably threaten Boscha at least once though. Yeah he’d definitely do that.

[gotmilk5101520]

The Owl House Season 3 Intro Analysis and Headcanons

We all know the intro. And we all can assume that they were episodes for season 3 but Dickney decided to be their usual homophobic selves and canceled it.

But honestly the more I watch the intro, the more I begin to get an idea on what they could've been about if they were episodes. And that's how this post came to be.

Note: These are just my headcanons don't take them as facts. If you like them and want to expand them, then by all means do it.

Let's start with the beginning. We see Luz and everyone return to the shack but they're still in their season 2 finale clothes and still injured from Belos.

Before the intro we got a continuation of the end of King's Tide with Luz reuniting with her mom, Luz and Hunter's talk, Camila giving them a place to rest and everyone settling down.

If this was a full season 3 then all of this would've been the first episode. We see later that they cleaned up the shack. Maybe the rest of the episode would be cleaning up the shack and begin to think on how to get back.

Note: There will be mentions of homophobia, fatphobia, racism, and sexism.

Here we see Luz revealing herself as bi to her mom and she's happy about it.

Here's what I think the episode could've been about. Luz realize she hasn't told her mom that Amity is her girlfriend or that she's bi. The bi part confuses everyone so Luz explains sexuality to them. After the explanation everyone begins to wonder why these titles don't exist in the Boiling Isles, and going as far as saying they sound cool.

Everyone goes out to help Luz figure out a way to tell Camila about her. They even find pins and other stuff about sexuality while helping Luz. But along the way they meet someone spouting bigotry at them. They're being homophobic to Amity, fatphobic to Willow, racist to Gus, and tries to tell Hunter sexist things like how he shouldn't be taking orders from a woman. This gets them angry and do they get back at them or not? I'll leave that to you.

Luz explains bigotry to them and its cruelty. This shocks them cause none of this exists in the Boiling Isles. This is why Luz is afraid to tell her mom about her and Amity thinking she won't accept it. But I can see Vee being the one to tell Luz that Camila will accept her and that if she didn't, then Vee wouldn't be here today.

The next day is when the scene happens. They make it a slideshow, Camila is very proud of her daughter, and Hunter thinks what Gus is doing is a bit much, but it's a happy ending.

I can see this be a serious episode that deals with bigotry and coming out.

Here I can see this episode being about them making a door to the Demon Realm.

I can also see this being in the episode as well. Is this before or after Hunter gets his hair cut is up to you. Honestly this is all I can think about for this section.

Here we have everyone getting new outfits and Vee changing her appearance.

I can see this being episode 2 in season 3 and the main focus is just exploring Gravesfield, shopping for new clothes, trying new food and all that.

Here is Hunter's haircut. Rip the worm.

Hunter wakes up and finds his hair getting longer. Everyone sees Hunter's long hair and ask him if he wants it cut. But Hunter turns them down saying it's fine. Luz, however asks Hunter if his long hair is a Grimwalker thing. I have an idea for a subplot for the episode. Luz and Amity go on that mundane, slice of life date.

Everyone are board so Vee convinces them to go out into town. During their walk Hunter sees the statue of Caleb and Philip and stays there for a while (Willow Gus and Vee go to get something to eat) Hunter meets someone who explains who the two are, and how they founded the town. Hunter learns who he is a clone of. And he even recognizes the name Caleb.

There's also this thing going on where every time Hunter's reflection is shown it changes to either Caleb or Belos. Hunter doesn't see them, but he always stops to look at his reflection. When they go to a store Hunter's reflection changes to his Golden Guard persona. Hunter stares at his reflection for while, when a hand reaches towards him. However the reflection makes it look like it's Belos hand. When the hand touches his shoulder, Hunter begins to panics. He looks and sees it was Willow. She asks if he's feeling ok, and Hunter lies to her saying he's fine and she startled him.

Hunter finds The Witch Hunters of Gravesfield and buys it. He buys another book to trick everyone. Later that night Hunter takes out the book, looks at the mirror, sees his reflection change from Caleb to Belos, panics and begins to cut his hair. Then Willow walks in and cuts it for him and they have a heartfelt, yet bittersweet moment.

But at the end of the episode we see Belos goo.

Here I can see this being a cooking episode.

Really grateful to Luz and Camila, Amity Willow Gus and Hunter decides to bake a cake for them. But neither of them know anything about human ingredients that it fails. Vee tries it, and pretends to like it.

Hence Vee warning them about it. They do be honest and tells them it's not good, but Camila is more then happy to teach them how to cook.

And the episode ends with everyone learning how to cook.

The rain scene is an interesting one.

What happens in this one is that I think this would've served as a recap episode. Just Luz and everyone looking back on everything that happened in all 3 seasons.

Then they noticed it's raining outside and they begin to play. But as it's raining, Belos is watching.

This can be the last episode before the hiatus begins and the events of Thanks to Them can serve as the first two episodes in the second half.

Going by this, it makes 7 episodes. The hiatus seems to start after the tenth episode, so what could the other three episodes have been about?

Beats me. But I can see an episode focused on the Boiling Isles, similar to what Amphibia did with showing Sasha and Marcy after True Colors, showing Eda and everyone after the Day of Unity and what they will do to survive and we can also see what King's up to and hint on what The Owl House is.

Okay now I'm done with the speculation let me know what you think. Do you think this is what could've happened if Dana and the crew were allowed a full third season? Do you have a different interpretation on the intro, and what could've happened? Let me know.

Reblog and leave a comment (Cause Likes are useless)

[ciel3000]

Poster time :D

- palisman! So happy that they’re confirmed to be there!! (Can’t wait to see more of Egg)

- Luz 🤝 Gus beanie buddies

-Luz looks a lot like her beta version with that outfit in fact

-Hunter got a haircut? Good for him (but rip the hair noodle)

-in fact everyone hair’s seems to be longer except for him (and maybe Gus but it’s hard to tell with the hat)

- Can’t wait to see Camila beat someone’s ass with that bat 😌

-i don’t like the background of eyes on the right. I know this is probably about belos but I’m also getting labyrinth runners flashback

-I really like Luz having a flashlight to compensate for her glyphs. It’s not much for sure but she is still associated with light

- the graveyard is really but like… what are they doing here. Philip and Caleb have a statue but I doubt they have gravestone so it’s not like the hexsquad is going to learn a lot there

-UNLESS THE WILD PORTAL IS HERE?? a cemetery is a great place for a portal to (not quite) hell

[welcometogrouchland]

I think owl house's nature as a portal fantasy show has somewhat skewed our perception of how trips into the demon realm work, i.e we assume they're more often than not one-way affairs, because that's how it is for Luz post-ybos and for the hexsquad after S2.

Thus we assume when the wittebane brothers crossed over to the demon realm, it was a one-way trip for them.

We assume that the portrait in hollow mind of Caleb walking towards the witch hand was the last time Caleb was seen in gravesfield, and that the portrait of older Philip stepping out onto the knee is the first time he entered the demon realm, and that there was a period where the brothers were separated across dimensions...

(theory under the cut cause it's long lmao)

BUT in yesterday's lie, Jacob Hopkins says that, after a mysterious fire, both brothers vanished. This is also the episode where we see an illustration that depicts adult Philip and Caleb already in possession of both flapjack and glyphs- things they couldn't have if only one of them came to the demon realm as a kid/teen.

[ID: a screencap of Yesterday's Lie from the owl house, showing a book with an illustration of two colonial era men and a witch. One man has a cardinal on his shoulder and is shaking hands with the witch, the other holds a glyph and a torch. End ID]

Ergo, briefly ignoring the possibility of continuity errors (which r valid but hard to factor into theories)- the brothers must've met a witch (possibly wittewife) as children/teenagers, gone to the demon realm with her and came back with their newfound magical knowledge.

This would also explain the statues of them as adults, since they wouldn't have gone missing as teens. Until eventually something happened to the brothers (something involving a fire, which I'm willing to bet had to do with burning witches) as adults, and then they disappeared to the demon realm forever.

And I'd like to propose an idea! I don't think that there's a yet unmentioned period of time where both brothers were missing from the town as teens, before reappearing as adults and then disappearing a second and final time (since that'd be a tad repetitive from a story standpoint)-

I think they were secretly hopping back and forth between realms, adventuring in the demon realm and then coming home each day/week/etc. Sort of like if toh was a different flavour of portal fantasy to what it is now.

Points in favour (less from an evidence aspect more from a narrative one):

It would be an organic way for Caleb to develop from wanting to be a witch hunter to wanting to be a witch, if he had lots of time to contrast life in gravesfield vs life in the demon realm

it'd make Caleb a parallel to Eda! She used the portal similarly as a teen/adult (and if Philip visited the demon realm less frequently, then it'd make him a parallel to Lilith who doesn't understand what her sister does and thinks it needs to be stopped or controlled)

AND it'd show how both brothers were massive hypocrites; cavorting with witches one day and going to church the next. Except Caleb noticed this divide and changed accordingly, and Philip never did cause he always justifies his own hypocrisy and escapes self reflection.

consider the fact that eclipse lake wasn't always dry! In fact the drying up was so recent that in the episode eclipse lake, belos didn't know about it (as he presumably wouldn't have wasted time sending Kiki there to look for blood otherwise). In the 10-ish years the brothers flitted between realms, it was probably easy to go back and forth via the lake.

Now, does this theory have the most basis? Not really, it mostly comes from me trying to smooth over the inconsistencies between yesterday's lie and hollow mind. Do I know what would happen to the brothers to separate them after the gravesfield fire? No! Do I know what caused the fire? Probably brother drama but other than that idk.

This theory wouldn't change Everything but i think it'd be a neat solution that does a lot of work characterising the wittebane brothers, AND if toh does go with the "Luz immigrates to the demon realm but builds a portal to keep in touch with/visit her mom frequently", this might establish recent precedent. Do what Philip and Caleb did but without the dishonesty. The theme of taking what the old generation did and learning from it's mistakes, which is so far a big theme in toh.

TL;DR: I don't think the brothers got separated as children before uniting again in the demon realm as adults, I think the brothers had secret adventures in the demon realm throughout their childhood before something happened and they both got stuck in the demon realm as adults where they were separated until the fratricide happened