How THE OWL HOUSE Wrote A Perfect Villain || The Owl House Video Essay
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- Опубликовано: 17 дек 2022
- The Owl House is a really remarkable animation and Hollow Mind is one of the best episodes because it allows the viewers to better understand the motivations of the Big Bad of the series - Belos a.k.a. Philip Wittebane.
In fact, Belos is possibly one of the best villains Disney gave us in the last few years, in many aspects very similar to some of the most iconic villains such as Frollo or Maleficent.
In this video essay, I'm reviewing this episode and also doing a deep dive into what makes it so compelling and what makes Belos such a great villain.
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What do you think? Is Belos one of the best villains Disney gave us in recent years or do you consider him forgettable and tame?
One of the best (and darkest) villains that Disney created for us!
Best
Right up there with Judge Frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dame for pure malevolence.
He is the best written villain I had ever seen and he genuinely scares me
Belos is like Shakespearian Tragic Character. Like Macbeth. You can trace exactly when he fell and why. I believe that his murder of Caleb likely accidental. He was trying to kill Evelyn but ended up killing Caleb who tried to save her. Since Caleb was the only family he ever had... and he killed him, there was no going back. To even function, he had to blame Caleb's death on the witches. He had to prove that Caleb was brainwashed and didn't choose to live on the Boiling Isles. That he had to make up for his deed by killing all the witches himself and no one else.
All because he refuses to let himself feel the guilt inside. And what Luz said to him in Thanks to Them? "You did it to him first."
Belos has no answer to that because he knows it's the truth. And like a child, he runs away to avoid judgement.
When Belos Screeches "this is for the good of your souls!" at the end of TTT, it also implies that his initially hostile reaction to the isles was predominantly influenced by a puritan/ religious fanatic train of thought. I also love hollow mind! Neat analysis.
That's a good catch, agreed! He's a good example of how extreme and prejudiced beliefs can corrupt you and blind you to the reality. I think the worst part is that we know people like that in our lives and we know that this kind of extermism is still very much present in our world.
The moral of the story is: Society is to blame.
Not only they turned Philip into a delusional, genocidal maniac who takes pleasure in killing people (even his own brother and his clones),
but they also ostracized both Luz and Camilla for being different and unapologetically weird, without even bothering themselves to comfort them or give them support when tragedy stroke them in the form of Manny’s death
I just noticed that Phillips nose is straight and Belos has a crooked nose, showing that it never healed correctly after Lilith broke it. I think I'm obsessed with this show that is such a good detail.
It's worth noting that he only began his full plan and tried to off Luz when he was positive she had already gone back in time. He spared her in season 1 and spared Lilith despite all her transgressions for this very reason. He needed them together.
A very good point, yes!
not only that, he had no way of knowing that up until he was already emperor and lilith joined his coven, it was probably then that everything clicked into place in his mind and the reason why he said that "this had gone on for longer than he'd liked", because, well, he literally had to wait around until everything happened.
Which brings a point, we know from when Luz went into Willow's mind that these memories are considered important memories, so why was that particular chat with the collector important? well, Belos knows from back in the past that Luz was trying to build a portal door too, and when Hunter came running with the portal door key, claiming it has titan blood, and clearly coming from a fight, he was then certain that Luz was already well on her way to building a portal door, and not only that, that she would very soon if not already going back to the past to question him on how to build the door, it was kinda the final step he needed to go full throttle on his plans, we kinda know this thanks to the fact that he explicitly wrote that the titan's blood was the last key to the portal, thus Luz searching for it meant that she was at the end of that quest
The scratched out depictions of Caleb are reminiscent of how Inner Willow tried to burn out all of Willow's memories of Amity.
True! It’s interesting to think about, because the reason why Willow was so hurt is at least to some extent related to some lingering fondness. It doesn’t feel like that’s the case for Philip though, the scratched out eyes give off the impression that it was done in anger and seem to further prove that Philip convinced himself that Caleb backstabbed him because he no longer believed in this whole witches = bad thing.
I love him as a villain so much because he is just a human and humans are the most terrifying villains.
In a lot of Disney shows now there are characters that have a Palatine and Darth Vader dynamic. The main villain capitalizing on things that the other is passionate about in order to get them to do what they want. What I like what this show does is that it constantly switches the Darth Vader roles. It started out with Lilith who Belos tricked into thinking he would cure Eda of her curse but he was really gonna kill her and this caused Lilith to defect. The next Vader was Hunter, his “nephew” who he manipulated with promises of paradise some fear and having a certain pretend sense of love for him, since he is a clone of his dead brother. Once Hunter found out about “wild magic” not being evil or dangerous, the other grimwalkers and the truth about Belos being a witch hunter he defected. And now the new Vader is the Collector, all he wants is to be a kid, even though he has little care about other people or does not know what can and cannot harm them, and he gets mad at those who are mean or betray him. When Belos told him that King, who the Collector wanted to be his friend was planning to betray him and in his mind kill him and that Luz is back on the Isles the Collector snapped into war mode and was going to attack Luz and the others.
Belos is pretty much Palpatine with extra high IQ, a forked tongue of pure silver, and doing steroids.
Hell when Eda was a kid she wanted to join his coven, for a while he fooled Eda into following his ways until she chose not to join.
As a side note with hunter, rather than him creating hunter to endlessly torture him. He seems to be creating tons of hunters cuz despite fully believing caleb betrayed him by dating a witch, in all those hundreds of years he never got over his death, never got over killing the one person that loved him
He even says to the collector "it hurts every time to kill him" and its why he is super controlling of hunter and hostile if he disobeys, he wants hunter to be obedient to his cause unlike caleb. When ever he looked at hunter with any kind of fondness, he only saw caleb (evident when he straight up called hunter caleb in TTT) he's only abusive to hunter cuz he never saw hunter as his own person but rather a better version of his brother and lashes out when he doesn't "behave like him"
He did love caleb, but that's the most disturbing thing, how far he's willing to go to keep the rose tinted image of him alive
Wow, that's a good point I had never considered. He "loves" Caleb, but only the version he looked up to as a kid. His idealized version who would praise and support him for being such a devoted witchhunter. I understand better now why he's so casual about killing the grimwalkers.
The reveal of the grimwalkers really changed my view on Belos; I followed the grimwalker theory from that freeze frame bonus in Eclipse Lake and I was fully onboard with the idea that Belos was going to body swap into him or that he was trying to use Hunter to bring his brothers soul back.
The reveal that he's done this at least dozens of times and, in my view, that he's made these kids to be versions of his brother that he just kills when he's done with them, really sold him as one of disney's most awful villains.
Like...He's pretty similar to Frollo in a lot of ways, but at least if Frollo had killed Quasimodo he wouldn't have made clones of him to use and discard as he wanted.
Yeah, this is an incredibly sick thing to do just once, but to keep doing it, over and over again, for decades? That takes a special kind of evil.
The difference between Belos and Frollo is that Frollo simply wanted power, he wanted to be in control and he used religious beliefs as means to achieve it. It's debatable whether he even believed in the things he was preaching. The only scene when he truly appears to be scared that he might get what he deserves is when he accepts to take Quasimodo in and raise him. Even his prejudice and hatred towards Romani people was more of a tool than anything else, he saw everyone as beneath him and it was easy to paint those who opposed him and were already considered to be dishonest as the bad guys.
Belos though? Belos fully and genuinely believed every word he said and that what he's doing is right, he would stop at nothing to achieve it and like I said in the video, he turned himself into the very thing he hated most in order to get what he wanted. And at least with Frollo we know from the start that he's the bad guy, while it takes us almost two full season to fully understand Philip's plans and just how dangerous he is.
I like it.
Belos is a very dangerous villain. He was an old man that lived too long. He was the polar opposite of Luz. At the end, Luz has friends and family while Belos didn't.
Even if Belos did succeeded in his plans and goes back to the human world, the world has changed and the witch hunting was long gone. He would never be recognized as a hero and he'll never be a witch hunter general. Today's world, everyone would see him as a crazy old man. Belos would have realize that everything he did was for nothing and probably snapped.
Also, in 'Thanks to Them', he was trying to recover and didn't have the time to observe what the human world is like, assuming it's the witch hunting 1600s era, he was unaware of science and technology advancements. The humans no longer see witches as evil. Belos would have seen that everything he did was for nothing. The reason he return to the Boiling Isles was because he wanted to finish what he started.
Belos's day of unity plan failed because he was unaware of King being Titan and Kikimora telling King about the Collector when Belos betrayed her. Belos's betrayal and his poor choices finally caught up to him.
Lets hope in these last episodes, Luz and her friends can finally put a stop to this monster.
Belos really became one of my favorite villains by a landslide. I honeslty love the incredibly brutal villains whose ability to manipulate rivals the abilities of the heroes. It's Why I really love villains like Bill, Dio, Light, and Slade so much. Their cunning, skill, intelligence, and how they can quite literally manipulate the actions of the story.
Yeah Belos is definitely one of the best if not the best Disney villain in a long time. He's manipulative, cunning is usually the one who holds all the cards or at least can read the game so well he's not even caught off guard by cards other players have on hand plus he's got a complex backstory and twisted motivations that even the sight of the modern human realm cant snapped him out of he's kinda like Keith Ledger's Joker he can't be reasoned with, payed off or bullied into submission.
True that! It's been a while since we got a Disney villain like that, someone who's an actual threat and has people wrapped around his finger. It's really satisfying to see, especially since Disney focused on creating twist villains or producing films and cartoons with no villains at all, so it actually feels strangely refreshing to have a villain as compelling and dangerous as Belos.
One thing i also love is that his backstory isn't necessarily "tragic", sure, you could consider the point where he murdered his brother a little tragic, but his backstory overall is more about him being thaught the wrong things, and clinging on the these things more and more to the point where, if he could, he would be willing to change reality in order to make these things he was thaught be true.
The us versus them aspect is done really well in this show.
I'm glad someone else is as passionate about this episode as I am. I find it interesting that the pictures in Belos's mind are basically the same story Masha told on the Halloween ride.
Couldn't agree more! Emperor Belos/Philip Wittebane is probably in my opinion, one of the best villains ever in animated media, and possibly one of Disney's darkest villains too!
I think he easily can be compared to Frollo as a villain who’s not only really dark but also painfully realistic in a sense that we all know people blinded by prejudice and self-righteousness in real life.
Thank you for watching!
Not sure you agree but what helps is Matthew Rhys performance and voice. Makes him scary don’t you agree
@@millerkarageanes1562 Definitely agreed! Voice actors can have so much influence on the character and in case of Belos it really shows. It was a perfect casting.
@@golden-prism he is literally Frollo with immortality and magic minus the rapeyness
Manipulative, cunning,and freaking somewhat insane plus the British accent😂
This was such a great video covering Belos, he truly is one the most intimidating antagonists we've seen in a while. As you perfectly stated, "Belos knows how to take advantages of peoples weaknesses and fears to do his bidding," and as I like to up to put it, "it doesn't matter if it was a truth or a lie, or even a mix of both, he knew what people wanted to hear," and that's how he grew in power, because he forge a way that the people would *give* it to him.
Such an underappreciated analysis you have here, keep it up!
Definitely! He knew what people wanted and he promised them just that. What I also find interesting is that he didn't even try to hide his true nature all that hard? We know pretty early on that there's something shady going on and based on his interactions with characters like Lilith or Kikimora it's clear that he's not some kind of understanding leader and that he uses manipulation and intimidation in order to get what he wants. Once he established his position in the Demon Realm and made the deal with the Collector all he had to do was basically bid his time until the Day of Unity.
And thank you, it's very kind and it really means the world to me!
Y'know kind of like Mark Zuckerberg Elon Musk or the FTX guy.
One thing i believe makes Belos a more effective villain is his goal:to wipe out witchkind for good.But it's not just that he wants to wipe them out but i believe it's the motive behind it which is technically normal considering which era he came from and that's something that people really used to do back in the 1600's
An interesting twist to his character is that he kind of has a point. We see that the inhabitants of the Burning Isles have a chaotic culture that encourages apathetic to the suffering of each other(no doubt a result of equally chaotic environment as of their home). I think that Belos would have been a better character if when he first came to rescue his brother he was amazed by the this new world (like Luz), bedazzled by magic(like Luz), befriends the natives(like Luz), and gather their support to rally their society (just. like. Luz.). This could show just how alike they are with Belos being a dark reflection of what Luz could be.
I think if he had been raised in a society that wasn't obsessed with witch hunts, he would have thrived in the Boiling Isles along with his brother. He had everything that makes him a great hero, but was taught that witches are inherently evil from a very young age (Caleb was significantly older and more mature to realize the errors of his people's beliefs) and thus couldn't see that his dream was right there before him.
Actually when the brothers first crossed the portal they found the Boiling Isles had a very decent and helpful society, we see this in the time pools episodes. Belos instigated the violent culture as it fit his plans. Which is to say, he never had a valid point for what he's doing other than puritan beliefs and delusions of grandeur
@@danybernal8918 yes I get that, but it’s kind of boring that way. If it started with the Boiling Isles inhabitants were originally chaotic and barbaric people, then with the arrival of Belos making them overly orderly and rigid. Luz’s hero journey could have been about finding balance between order and chaos. Think back to the beginning of the show when Luz was locked up and encountered with the three prisoners. Show each prisoner with a chaotic quirk(chaos) and Luz making a plan to work together (order), and escaping the facility. Luz’s introduced to the audience as a creative and imaginative but chaotic girl, her character arch should have been learning to discipline herself while still retaining her creative spark.
Bellos didn't create a cult he created a civilization he made up a culture and a religion around the titan, also. Belos is a political religious figure not a cult líder, he leads an island with much people not just a few ones.
I was surprised how good this show was as i stumbeled on it from nowhere, even more surprised that it was connected to Disney.
Personally I love hollow mind because of the angst.
Understandable!
Even the name hollow mind just shows how shallow belos is. If you know the meaning hollow, it would explain a lot.
Woah youre underrated for sure! The video looks pretty high quality and heavy agreed Belos is a super compelling villain!
Thank you! Belos is that one villain that really just… works. And it’s amazing to see.
this is such a great video essay! it's the in depth analysis of belos we all need, you're so underrated!
Ahh, thank you! I’m very happy you think so ♥️
I'm always glad to see people making videos about this incredible character. Emperor Belos is one of, if not my single favorite villain to come out in recent years. He's certainly my favorite Disney villain. And he's written so well, even in scenes he isn't in. His influence on other characters, namely Lilith, Hunter, Eda and Luz characterizes him even when he isn't present. It's very similar to Fire Lord Ozai in that regard, but Belos has a much deeper backstory and drive.
Oh, that's a really good point about Ozai! And you're right, he affected the arcs of so many other characters, if not for him the entire Demon Realm would be a VERY different place. It shows just how dangerous people like him can be and how much damage they can cause.
@@golden-prism True. They have similar traits. Abuse, gaslighting for example. The whole,"It's for the will of Titan," and,"To share our greatness of the Fire Nation," are very similar. Both have cult-like followings.
Although technically the Fire Nation was more political and war-oriented, and the Emperor's Coven was the way more cult-like one.
Also, if you've seen Dead End: Paranormal Park on Netflix, the character Norma goes through something similar with the character Pauline, a movie star.
They're all similar:
Hunter with Belos
Luz with Philip (To extent until she finds out he's Belos)
Zuko with Ozai
And Norma with Pauline
@@HazbinCovenWitch Mm, I also think both the Fire Nation and Belos's rule relied very heavily on this promise of a better future, so it was in people's best interest to support them.
Also, I haven't seen it, but I'll check it out! Thank you for the recommendation :)
@@golden-prism Alex Brightman is in it also. Aka, Beetlejuice from the musical.
We seriously need more Disney Villains like Belos!
Definitely!
Scar was close to an extent. But he relied to much on the hyenas for the dirty work. He was the brains, they were the muscle. He should've killed Simba himself logic-wise.
Philip/Belos was both the brawn (in a magic sense) _AND_ the brains.
@@HazbinCovenWitch Oh, that's a good point, I didn't think of Scar! I think part of the reason why Philip relied only on himself is because he doesn't really allow himself to trust others, not even if they have similar motivations or are properly brainwashed by him (like Hunter for example). There's also this element of disgust as he resents the witches and demons too much to see them as his equals. Scar didn't particularly like or respect the hyenas but they were useful and kind of like his replacement pack.
@@golden-prism And also, like Belos, Scar betrayed/discarded them by trying to use the hyenas as scapegoat when Simba cornered him.
Kinda like how Belos/Philip betrayed/discarded Kikimora in the end. Except not for scapegoat purposes. More like a final 'fuck you.' And in turn Kikimora gave an Uno Reverse card to Belos by helping King get to The Collector as revenge.
The hyenas also were essential to taking down Scar as revenge for his betrayal. They didn't outright help anyone to get back at him though, they did it themselves.
That's difference between Kikimora and the hyenas. (Although to be fair, Kikimora was in pain from the sigil.)
Hopefully now that the executives realized that the show IS popular (too little too late mind you), they also realize WHY, and greenlight more projects that have villains just as amazing as Belos in the future. Disney needs to have the reputation of being able to have great villains if they wanted to, imo. It would help with the stigma of cartoons just being for kids.
I love belos because he really is just the embodiment of the colonialism still present in the world today. His ideals, his actions, everything he does is in support of the colonialist ideals that he was raised in, and I think that's a large piece of why he's such a good villain. In existentialist thought there is the concept of the "serious man" who is someone who is devoted to the perpetuation of an idea and refuses to listen to any other ideas and is often willing to cause harm towards others in the pursuit of that perpetuation, and I think it's fair to say Belos fits this role. In contrast the main cast of The Owl House (Luz, Eda, King and friends) they act not in perpetuating some ideal or concept but rather in opposition to injustice, and they act to try to find their place in the world. Also I mentioned earlier that Belos represents the still present colonialism, which is fitting cause he is a literal colonist from the 17th century, but also he is representative of real world colonialism today as he has very clearly forced his religious ideals into the boiling isles with the current worship of the titan being very reminiscent of various aspects and forms of christianity, as well as his constant disgust with wild magic being his looking down on the local culture prior to his takeover as well as his looking down on those who don't conform to his idea of what is moral or normal. He also constantly works to separate and limit the citizens of the isles, which was a common practice that colonists would do with the indigenous populations that were being conquered in attempts to prevent them from fighting back, and this still remains today (things like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be argued to have come into existence precisely due to the intervention and division caused by the europeans who occupied Palestine after the second world war when trying to create Israel, all of which happened less than a century ago and people are still suffering today as a result)
so many good observations, thank you for making this :D
What an excellently crafted essay! You touch on everything that makes Belos such a terrifying villain, perfect for the story he's in and the protagonist he's pitted against. Definitely looking forward to seeing more Owl House stuff.
Thank you, that's very kind!
And you're actually in luck : D I'll be releasing a video essay about Luz by the end of this week!
Belos > The Collector
This is amazing, you explained it all in a amazing way
Thank you
First video of yours and that voice is so cute! Love the analysis too :>
aww ♥️ thank you!
Great analysis aside: what's your accent from? It sounds cool. English isn't my first language and I'm not sure if it's british or something else. I rarely recognize english speakers accents, not even my own until a nice british lady told me I sound american.
Haha, thank you!
I’m from Poland and English is my second language, so it’s a weird combo of my Polish accent mixed with American and British :D I prefer American accent over British, so this is what I usually go for, but since most of my books when learning English as a kid followed British English rules of pronunciation and spelling I sometimes mix them up!
Belos reminds me of Amon from The Legend Of Korra both people loved by everyone both hate and want to get rid of people with powers and have equality both clame to comuntcat with a entity and both of them turn out to be compleat frauds and both of them changed there names and both of them have a brother and both of them have a scar across his face and both of them ware a mask
I THOUGHT THIS WAS FROM A YT CHANNEL WITH AT LEADT 100,000 SUBS WHAAATTT
Haha, hopefully one day!
But seriously, thank you, that's very kind!
great video!
thank you!
Was Philip born incapable of genuine love, guilt, kindness, generosity, morals, compassion, and loyalty and enjoyed torturing his brother and others around him even as a child or was he once a flawed and naive boy who did do bad things but genuinely loved and cared about his brother, his dead parents, and those who were close to him?
I suppose there's a chance we might never know, but I am definitely leaning more towards the latter. Based on his memory paintings, it looks like he was a heavily indoctrinated child who accepted everything he was told without any questions and internalized it to the point where it clouded his judgement and he never questioned whether these beliefs were actually valid once confronted with the reality.
Philip was a product of his time that was given a longer amount of time to fester. If I’m gonna be honest, being a good person back then was a rarity but he was especially nasty
@@jrax1713 well do you believe as a child he loved Caleb and looked up to him and wasn’t involved in his parents deaths and wanted to meet them or that he was always manipulative and abusive towards Caleb and killed his parents on purpose?
@@jrax1713 also what do you believe Philip acted towards domestic animals like dogs and cats? Would have coddle and care for them? Would he torture them for enjoyment? Or was he afraid of them?
@@samaravasiloff6381 Philip is scary when he's exactly like Luz. As in, there is nothing wrong with Kid Philip by modern standards. The only thing that's different is where he's being raised.
To treat him like some monster born evil is to say that Philip's philosophy is correct. That there are those born evil and must be destroyed without hesistation and with extreme prejudice. That everything is black and white.
To prove Belos wrong, you must not do what he would have done.
belos looks like the austria guy
Might you also compare the recent Disney movie villains with the recent Disney animated TV villains? Or analyze the recent "Prestige TV" era of Disney animated shows from Gravity Falls onward (in addition to the "Prestige TV" eras or Nick and Cartoon Network as well), and what their chosen themes say about today's generation of viewers and creators?
Oh, that sounds interesting! Did you have any specific characters or themes in mind? :)
I’m definitely planning to cover similar topics in my future videos, I’m currently working on a video about Luz and how her mental health issues are presented, especially in the latest episode.
@@golden-prism I suppose the range I'd give this era (the transition from each one's first to second season/half in terms of serialization and upped stakes) would be from Wander over Yonder, Gravity Falls, Star vs the Forces of Evil, Amphibia, to the Owl House. Sometimes the change in scope could be symbolized by villains such as Lord Dominator or Toffee. Some trends I noticed across networks would be the influence of anime (mostly shallow trappings), female protagonists of color ("Star vs" being the exception), the same "spunky, go-getter female lead over and over," going to another world, melodrama, overwritten and underutilized lore, twist villains, revisionist history, attempts at tackling politics, genocidal villains, fear of the status quo being broken, etc. It's not as if there weren't "Prestige TV" cartoons before in the USA, like we used to have Batman and Gargoyles in the '90s, for example. But this recent crop tries to be as interesting and ground-breaking as those were, sometimes resonating with audiences and sometimes failing spectacularly.
Thank you for such a detailed response!
I’m planning to tackle a lot of these topics, either in their own videos or in relation to other aspects of the shows/movies that I want to discuss. I would especially love to talk in more detail about how many modern cartoons tackle political issues and I’m currently in the process of working on a video about Hans from Frozen, so the topic of twist villains is certainly going to come up as many people consider him to be the most notable example of this trope and the one who started this era of usually poorly written twist villains with barely any buildup.
@@golden-prism I do look forward to that. Reminds me of the work of "Ice Giraffes," another great cartoon and Disney analyst.
AMAZING AMAZING VIDEO!!
I love your channel!
What do you mean ALMOST feel the tension? You CAN feel the tension!
GREAT GOLDEN PRISM 👍 VIDEO ❤
He'd 100% see through Bill Cipher though buy I do wonder how they'd talk to eachother
No spoilers but for the future cements bellos being a true villian
Lore of How THE OWL HOUSE Wrote A Perfect Villain momentum 100
I'm showing my parents this one next let's hope they agree
Belos was a very good villain, very manipulative, but I would've liked to see him played smarter and perhaps even more manipulative.
great video is it ok if I ask you a question?
Thank you! And sure, what is it? :)
@@golden-prism ok first have you heard of a game series called fire emblem?
@@sueflewelling3657 I am familiar with the title, but haven't played it myself and don't know too much about it.
@@golden-prism have you heard of three houses?
Not really, no?
What’s your accent? It’s so cute!
It’s Polish :)
I kind of wish belos had been lynched by a group of humans being led by the museum curator (I'm blanking on his name how ironic would that have been the witch Hunter is mistaken for a monster(which he is)is killed by humans people he thought he was "protecting"
Voldemort is better
Lmao
Nah, Belos is better IMO.