| “ | Those barbarians! Those, those... WITCHES! It doesn't matter. I just need to live long enough to see this through. And you're going to help me, Collector. | „ |
| ~ Philip Wittebane's true feelings on the witches - including his true intentions 400 years ago. |
| “ | Luz: But, why? Why go through all this? Belos: I'll do anything to save humanity from evil. Luz: No... Eda: Luz! We're gonna start the countdown! Are you ready? Luz: You're evil! Belos: Can't reason with crazy. |
„ |
| ~ Belos on his motives to Luz, before attempting to kill her. |
| “ | Don't just stand there- ARRGH! You'll be just as bad.. just as conniving... just as evil.. and just as unforgivable as those witches! We're human... We're better than this! | „ |
| ~ Belos demanding Luz to help him and spare his life, also his last words. |
Philip Wittebane, later known as Emperor Belos, is the main antagonist of Disney Channel's fantasy animated series The Owl House.
He is a human witch-hunter from 17th century New England who traveled to the Demon Realm from Gravesfield, Connecticut during the Deadwardian Era (Which would be the mid 1600s in the human realm/world) in search of his older brother Caleb. While studying the Isles and its nature, he ended up discovering that Caleb fell in love with a witch named Evelyn and impregnated her, resulting in Philip killing him for this, and deciding to destroy all life in the Demon Realm in order to be hailed as a hero back in the Human Realm.
With help from the Collector, Philip would acquire a new identity of Belos and become Emperor of the Isles, claiming he can speak to the Titan and thus knows how to cast magic properly, but is secretly planning to use his Coven System to kill everyone.
He was voiced by Matthew Rhys, and by Alex Lawther as his younger self from the 1600s. As a child, he was voiced by Fryda Wolff.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- While he did have some comedic moments in his youth, they were incredibly brief and part of his façade, with him and his actions being played seriously most of the time. In the rare instances when he does get comedic moments, it’s always him insulting people.
- Despite his claims of protecting humanity from "evil" witches, even the Titan himself called out Belos for only caring about his delusional need to be the hero, which is just fueled by his narcissism and willingness to kill any humans who disagree with his views and beliefs or goes against them, such as Luz or even his own brother.
- It's also worth noting that Caleb, a fellow witch-hunter, was able to realize that humans were wrong in their prejudice against magic and put those beliefs behind him, while Philip never grew out of these prejudiced views, even after centuries of extended existence and after witnessing proof that 21st century humans no longer believe in magic, but some humans like Luz now adore witches and magic and view witch-hunting as something wrong during his return to the Human Realm.
- Though one could argue that his hatred of witches is a product of his time, as he was born in the 17th century, it doesn't justify his actions of fratricide, unethical experimentation, and other things Puritan society considered just as sinful as witchcraft. Furthermore, as a human who used magic, Philip would ironically be considered a witch himself by the society he grew up in.
- Every potential redeeming quality Belos might have had, like being an orphan in the Human Realm who got raised by the Puritan society of the 17th century, regretting having to kill his brother and offering Luz help, is subverted, and in the end, he is nothing more than a deranged and deluded individual and a massive pathological liar who would use all of witchkind as pawns in his plots and cast them aside for his own benefit, not caring for anyone but himself.
- Overall, he's the sole reason why there were so many selfish, egotistical and downright evil people in the present Boiling Isles, as it was shown that it had a peaceful and harmonious society during the Deadwardian Era before he arrived, with it being implied that he only did this because he needed to prove to himself that witches are evil and thus have to die.
Past[]
- After discovering that Caleb fell in love with a witch named Evelyn and impregnated her, he attacked his brother when he confronted him and the two would then get into a fight which led to Philip killing Caleb out of anger and frustration over siding with a Witch.
- While there were strong implications he regretted having to do this, like his worst memory being his murder of Caleb, he ultimately refused to take any responsibility nor felt any guilt, like telling the hallucination/ghost of Caleb that what happened was his fault and that he was trying to 'save' him, showing any love Belos had for Caleb is gone and is now more of a toxic obsession.
- During his expeditions in the Demon Realm, he deliberately and remorselessly tricked various witches and demons he befriended to help aid him with dangerous expeditions to get him stuff that he required and when they had unwittingly perished due to the untold dangers that were on their journey that he had neglected to tell them about, he then wrote in his journal that their deaths were tragic to paint himself in a more positive and sympathetic light.
- In another such attempt, he attempted to sacrifice "Luzura" and "Dirtrude", in truth a time-travelling Luz Noceda and Lilith Clawthorne, to obtain the Collector's mirror.
- After finally meeting the Collector and discovering that he's just a lonely child with a poor understanding of mortal life, he manipulated him into helping him in his quest while also making a false promise to free him.
- He created many clones of Caleb called Grimwalkers to serve as more obedient replacements, but destroyed all of them either because they turned against him or because they didn't turn out like he wanted them to, killing so many that his old lair in the Titan’s skull was filled with their bones.
- He also eventually stopped being creative with their names and began naming all of them "Hunter" as a sick joke about his profession, lying that he’s their uncle who took care of them after their family got wiped out from wild magic and that the Titan has big plans for them, with this all just highlighting the fact his “love” for his brother has become a toxic obsession, wanting a Caleb that would blindly serve him instead of being his own person.
- It is also shown that to create Grimwalkers, one needs a bone of the original person, an ortet, heavily implying that Belos had to desecrate his own brother's body to create Hunter and his predecessors, which is supported by the fact his hideout has a ribcage in the same room as where the Grimwalkers were bred.
- He branded the Grimwalkers with Coven sigils, showing that despite viewing Grimwalkers as Caleb’s reincarnations, he would still cast them aside to die on the Day of Unity regardless of their loyalty.
- The reason he continues to use Caleb as the model is due to an obsession with "remaking" his brother as someone who would share his world view and loyally follow him. The sheer number of times he has failed in this regard only proves he is pursuing a lost cause, something that, in his madness, he refuses to acknowledge.
- He absorbed the essence of innumerable palismen to help sustain his body and stay alive for centuries after his failed attempt to control glyphs by carving them on his skin, leading to his own painful and deformed transformation into a horrifying and grotesque mutated monster.
- This also subjected them to fates worse than death, as palismen are shown to be sapient and in agony during the procedure, something he is aware of but couldn't care less about.
- He orchestrated several attacks on villages across the Boiling Isles to trick citizens into believing that mixing magic is dangerous and joining his Coven System to drain their magic through the Coven sigils and limiting them to only one type of magic in preparation for an event he called the Day of Unity, which he claimed would create an utopia by uniting the Demon and Human Realms, intending to just kill all witches on the Isles with the Draining Spell, which was shown to be a slow and painful death.
- He later twisted history to brand these attacks as part of the so-called "Savage Ages" and blamed them on "wild witches", when really it was him the whole time.
- He once tested the prototype of his Draining Spell on nine witches on the Knee, and while it only immobilized them, he would simply take their palismen and abandon them to freeze to death.
- As the Emperor, he also had all covenless witches be branded as criminals and had some of them jailed or even petrified as a high capital punishment.
- While he willingly revived the Basilisks from extinction, it was out of pragmatism so he could unethically experiment on them to learn how they extract magic.
- One of them, Vee/Number Five, was outright traumatized from this, leading to her escaping to the human realm while impersonating Luz, which also resulted in another basilisk posing as an inspector for the Emperor's Coven and sneaking into magic schools across the Isles to drain the magic of both the students and facility, leaving them in a weakened state.
- After Lilith was finally recruited to the Emperor's Coven, he falsely promised her that he will cure Eda if she managed to capture her at all costs.
Season 1[]
- He threatened Lilith with banishment from the Emperor's Coven if she failed to capture Eda one more time.
- During the conversation between them, it was also heavily implied that he kills people that fail him, judging by screams heard during the display of the mural of him giving light to witches, with Lilith also being worried and disturbed when Belos mentions "what happens to covenless witches".
- Once Lilith finally brought Eda to him, Belos dishonorably goes back on his word and sentenced her to the capital punishment of petrification instead, which nearly everyone in Bonesborough found unfair.
- While Eda's petrification was announced as the first one in 30 years, it was shown that he has actually been petrifying some witches secretly, as three unnamed witches from "Agony of a Witch" ended up petrified with their bodies being displayed in "Young Blood, Old Souls".
Season 2[]
- He had purchased the entire Abomaton line from the Blight Family to bolster his ranks and to prevent anyone else from using them, in order to further his plans.
- According to Hunter and Steve, Belos had members of the Emperor's Coven give him some of their palismen to consume them, put them through series of difficult challenges such as witches' duels, labyrinths with traps and having to spend a night on the Knee alone, and only allowed them to have one day off in an entire year, which shows how much he mistreats his own henchmen.
- While he didn't take Lilith's palisman, it's clear that he did such to maintain the loop in which she was involved.
- When Hunter and Luz accidentally got trapped in his mind, he, through his inner self, used them as pawns to help him take down the monster made up of various palismen soul Essence inside his mindscape.
- He revealed to Luz his true identity of Philip Wittebane and took pleasure in psychologically tearing her down with the fact that she played an unwitting role in his genocidal intentions, leaving her deeply shocked, traumatized, and remorseful to the point she outright believed it would have been better for everyone had she didn't exist.
- He nonchalantly attempted to dispose of Hunter as just another "failure" when he discovered the truth about his origins and the fates of his predecessors.
- He sent his Coven Scouts to ransack the Owl House and take the inhabitants prisoner now that he no longer needed them to complete his plan, though Eda and Lilith luckily managed to escape to the Titan's Knee while Luz, King and Hooty were off trying to discover more about King's past.
- It is Implied that he presumably sent Adrian Graye Vernworth to forcibly brand all Hexside students with Coven sigils for the Day of Unity.
- When Odalia Blight somehow found out about the Draining Spell, he took advantage of her greediness and obsession over status by lying that he'll give her and her family a lesser royal status and more abundant wealth to secure the Abomaton supply, tricking her into thinking she'll be spared. While it's true Odalia was just as horrible as Belos was, and wasn't even truly loyal to him, it still doesn't justify Belos lying to her, ultimately seeing her as just another tool in his plan.
- He had successfully activated the Draining Spell and subjected thousands, if not millions of witches and demons, to a painful extraction of their magic which would have ultimately killed them if the Collector had not stopped the spell before it was completed.
- This also resulted in Eda losing her right arm permanently, as Raine had to amputate it to save her from the effects of the spell combined with her curse.
- He broke his promise with the Collector by using the last of the Titan's Blood to activate the portal instead of freeing him from the In Between Realm, before dropping the Collector off a bridge to prevent anyone else from learning the same magic he taught him, and to dispose of him since he had outlived his usefulness to him.
- When Kikimora brought him Luz, whom she mistook for Hunter, he coldly told her to just die instead of showing gratitude, showing he has no qualms about her. While she was a horrible person, it was still needlessly cruel.
- Him offering Luz a chance to return home was purely pragmatic in order to help boost his own beliefs, and he even proceeded to petrify Luz once she called him out for his hypocrisy, only relenting after Luz offered to be his modern-day guide and called him by his real name.
- Furthermore, he made it clear to Luz that once he returned to the Human Realm, he wanted the title of Witch Hunter General, demonstrating that despite claiming everything he’s doing was to save humanity from the evil of the boiling Isles, what he is also after is the glory that came from the mindset of the people back then during his childhood, not believing (or caring) when Luz told him that isn’t the way Earth is anymore.
- After Luz branded him with a coven sigil, which caused the draining spell to painfully affect him as well, he transformed into his monster form and attacked Luz, Amity, Gus, Willow, and Hunter in rage.
- He attempted to get Hunter to stop attacking him via manipulation, and then attempted to attack the boy in fury after learning about his palisman, as it looked similar to Evelyn's.
- When the Collector confronted Belos after being freed by King, he tried to talk his way out by claiming he kept his promise, only for the Collector to gruesomely splatter him against the wall by blasting him through tagging him, although he somehow managed to survive and escape to the Human Realm with the heroes without them noticing.
Season 3[]
- He spent a few months possessing some various wild animals, consuming their essence within them from the inside and leaving behind their bare skeletons to reform himself.
- While possessing a deer, he got in the way of a car containing a mother and daughter, causing the mother to swerve out of the way and crash. After he left said deer, he didn't show any remorse to the humans he nearly hurt.
- He revealed to Luz's friends and mother that she helped him meet the Collector as a part of helping him.
- He possessed Hunter, expressing delight that he and "Caleb" can finally be united as witch-hunters.
- It's also shown that being possessed by Belos hurts and slowly consumes the victim, yet Belos perversely treats his possession of Hunter/"Caleb" as something glorious.
- He fatally crushed Flapjack out of spite against the long-dead Evelyn for "luring away" Caleb and "tricking" him, all while possessing Hunter, who was his owner and best friend.
- This resulted in Flapjack's death, as he sacrificed his life to heal Hunter after his fatal possession from Belos.
- When seeing Caleb and the rest of the Grimwalkers' ghosts, Belos refused to acknowledge his own fault and take responsibility for killing his brother, instead vehemently insisting it was his own fault that he had to die and that Belos was trying to "save his soul", proving that Belos still refused to show any remorse for his actions.
- He possessed Raine in their puppet form, which made some marks over their face afterwards, before trying to possess the Collector.
- When he failed to possess the Collector, he once again took advantage of the Collector's insecurities and loneliness by tricking him into thinking King wants to destroy him, and once the Collector saw proof of Belos' words, the latter told the former to trap Luz, Eda and King in their worst fears to "make them see the error of their ways".
- He possessed the Titan's corpse via its heart in a final attempt to destroy all life on the Isles for good by consuming it in a mold-like spread of growth all over the Isles, while also taking control over the Titan's body.
- When the Collector naively tried to follow Luz's advice on kindness and redeem Belos, he was temporarily confused but otherwise unaffected by his act and immediately tried to kill him once he let his guard down.
- He temporarily killed Luz in front of Eda and King when she shielded the Collector from his blast, and while this was unintentional, he didn't feel remorse for it.
- He nearly crushed Eda, King and the Collector to death after the former two tried to avenge Luz and the latter was having a breakdown.
- After being ripped from the Titan's heart, he reverted into Philip Wittebane in a final attempt to manipulate Luz by stating that he was suffering from a terrible curse caused by dark magic that forced him to do all of his horrible misdeeds, which Luz doesn't buy.
- Once the boiling rain started and had begun to slowly dissolve and melt every bit of Belos in an agonizing way, he dropped the act and ranted that she'll be just as "bad, conniving, evil and unforgivable" as witchkind if she lets him die, saying that they are both 'human' and are better than this, showing that, even in his dying breath, he still viewed witches as monsters out of spite and tried to guilt trip Luz into helping him despite killing her just shortly before and taunting her when she was removing him from the Titan's heart, which is right before he is finished off for good by Eda, Raine, and King once they stomp on what remains of him as the acid rain dissolves what is left of him completely.
- His death is played for pure satisfaction, with Raine even commenting how satisfying it was to finally end him.
Trivia[]
- Despite Emperor Belos/Philip Wittebane being Pure Evil, his voice actor Matthew Rhys opined back in 2020 that he doesn't consider Belos a villain, but rather, a misunderstood person. However, Belos demonstrates over time how far from misunderstood he is and Rhys' statement may have been just a sarcastic joke, not to mention that he said this three years before the show's conclusion, so maybe he assumed Belos wouldn't become as evil as he did, plus it's unknown if Rhys still holds this opinion. Even then, it is merely Rhys' opinion as opposed to confirmation.
- It's also possible that the "misunderstanding" Matthew was referring to was Belos's motivations. Before "Hollow Mind", much of the fandom believed Belos was just a power-hungry tyrant attempting to control magic and that his ultimate goal was to merge the Human and Demon Realms together to "purify" wild magic, and that he was actually a well-intentioned extremist. His true motivation, to commit genocide on witchkind by any means necessary, was much worse than the fandom had been led to believe. As such, it could be said that Belos was misunderstood in the sense that he was assumed to be a controlling dictator rather than the genocidal zealot he was revealed to be, which makes him far more monstrous than he was assumed to be in Season 1.
- In an interview, Dana Terrace has stated that Belos' backstory would potentially have been expanded on more if not for the show's shortening, but a full episode dedicated to showing it was never planned, purely so audiences would not see him as sympathetic in any way.
- He is the icon of the Plagiarism template.
External Links[]
- Emperor Belos on the Villains Wiki
- Emperor Belos on the Ultimate Evil Wiki
- Emperor Belos on the Disney Wiki
- Emperor Belos on the The Owl House Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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