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lampmanliveblogs · 1 year

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We finally got the origin of the Belos name! He made it up because people caught on to Philip’s BS. Which makes sense. Still not sure if Belos is supposed to mean anything or if he just picked it because he thought it sounded cool.

”He’s a better version of an old friend.”

Yeah, your brother. That you killed.

And he just says he’ll make another one. It’s not even a big deal, like oh, you dropped the cake I made? It’s no big deal, I’ll just make another one. Hold on, lemme go make another child/clone(?) of my brother to replace the old one. Do you have any Stonesleeper lungs? They’re getting so hard to come by these days.

”I’ll do anything to save humanity from evil.”

Thank you, that really did nothing to explain anything. I suppose it does confirm that whatever it is he’s doing, it is supposed to benefit humanity in some way. How though? Is he really trying to wipe out every living thing in the Demon Realm? How’s that supposed to protect humanity? The only way to the Human Realm is through your portal, or Titan’s Blood, which is incredibly rare.

Hmm… we saw a painting earlier… of the Wittebane brothers meeting a witch (with Brother Wittebane looking a lot more excited than Philip). According to Jacob Hopkins, the two brothers were lured into the Demon Realm by an evil witch. Jury’s still out on whether that witch they met was really evil, but if they did bring them to the Demon Realm…

I’m thinking that maybe Brother Wittebane had an outlook more like Luz and that he was excited by this new world, whereas Philip was frightened (his fears spurred on by the news of the witch trials back home, no doubt). Perhaps there was some jealousy over the witches’ powers sprinkled in too, that wouldn’t surprise me. At some point, Philip began experimenting with magic and turned into his monstrous form. His brother still loved him… but something drove Philip over the edge and made him take his brother’s life. The conclusion he drew from all of this was that magic and the Demon Realm were evil and needed to be destroyed. Rather than realizing that maybe he was the asshole.

Hunter’s okay!

Well, I don’t know if he’s okay per se, but he’s at least able to move and act to save Luz. I’m guessing he used the glyphs in Luz’ jacket pocket to free himself.

Hunter’s not okay.

Stars, this is heartbreaking to see.

On top of all the other shit Hunter’s been through in his life, in this episode he has

•Found out his ”uncle” is evil •Almost been killed by said ”uncle.” •And, oh, that’s right, he found out that he’s not even a real boy, but a grimwalker, the latest in a long line of puppets Belos has created and killed.

This is all to say that I do not blame Hunter one bit for freaking out and running off. The poor boy.

And so episode sixteen comes to an end. Appropriately enough, this is the 61:st screenshot.

I’d do my usual rewatch and look for details I missed, but I think I did a pretty good job at catching most of them already. This episode had me pausing and squinting at the screen like no others before it and hopefully like no other ever will, because that can not have been good for my eyes.

My brain is feeling a bit mushy, so I’ll keep this relatively brief. If there’s anything important I missed I’m sure you guys will let me know.

I loved this episode. The lore… all the lore! This might be the most lore dense episode of the show thus far with a lot of tiny hints on Philip’s backstory, various snippets from his life. I don’t think there were any major hints in the paintings that I missed, I think I caught most of them. I’m still not sure how all the puzzle pieces fit together, but I’m working on it.

Oh, and we got to see the early days of Belos cult, his methods and how long he’s been doing this for, something I’ve wondered about for a long time. So that was neat.

There’s still a lot of unanswered questions and mysteries surrounding Philip that I’m looking forward to finding out about. Like what his brother’s name is, how they ended up in the Demon Realm, and what caused Philip to kill his own brother.

It was at least confirmed that hunter is a grimwalker! Which, ahem… I called it! Remember back after Eclipse Lake when I threw out that theory only to immediately be like ”Nah, that can’t be!”? Well, I was right! I should’ve trusted my gut feeling on that one.

Speaking of Hunter, this episode saw him go through even more trauma and finally arriving at the conclusion I’ve been waiting for him to arrive at since episode six. That being, Belos is evil and he needs to get as far away from that man as possible. He ran away at the end of the episode, so the next one might see the Owl House gang going looking for him, unless he decides to join them himself after he’s had some time to think things through. Either way, he can finally join the gang so we can get some Luz & Hunter sibling energy going, and then some more Hunter/Willow shipping fuel.

We got to see a bit of the elusive Collector and got a taste of his personality. I’m still not sure how he will play into Belos plan and what their deal is. Especially if Luz idea that Belos plans on killing everything in the Demon Realm is true. There’s not gonna be much for The Collector to collect in a dead world, is it? Unless he’s really into taxidermy.

We also got confirmation that Belos knew who Luz was this entire time.

Speaking of Luz, she finally learned of Belos true identity as Philip Wittebane. And this revelation is likely going to haunt her in future episode to come, seeing as she did end up helping him on the way to become the tyrannical dictator with the blood of hundreds upon hundreds on is hands. So that should be fun.

”Relatively brief” I said.

In conclusion, great episode, loved it, feel bad for my babies Luz &Hunter though. The animation and visuals were good too. Oh, and the voice acting, let’s not forget that. Good stuff.

Wait! I nearly forgot! Remember that joke I made about how we have never seen Prim before this episode? As someone pointed out to me, we actually have seen her before! Back in Hooty’s Moving Hassle, she was part of the Demon Hunters! Which means she stood by and did nothing as Luz, Willow & Gus were nearly killed.

I’m not sure when I’m going to get to the next episode. These are busy times, so it might take a while. Until next time though, take care of the planet Earth and remember that anything can happen in space!

<--Previous Episode: Them's the Breaks, Kid

Masterlist

Next Episode: TBD-->

#the owl house #liveblog #the owl house liveblog #toh s2e16 #hollow mind

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guthrie-odonto · 2 years

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Luz: Hunter! Oh, thank goodness you’re here! Alright, I have a pl-

Hunter: Actually, I’ve done some thinking on the way here, and it’s “Bloodwilliams” now

Luz: Oh! You decided to change your name, huh? And I think that was part of the name Willow said you made up when you joined her flyer derby team, even; is that part of the decision, associating yourself more with the team than Emperor Belos?

Hunter: That, and… Like I said, Luz, I heard everything when we were in Belos’ mindscape, not just the part about you helping Philip.

Luz: Yeah? Like how Belos was Philip Wittebane the whole time and you’re apparently “a better version of an old friend” and Belos is actually a wi-… wait…

Luz: witch… hunter…

Luz: …WITCH H U N T E R?! IS THAT WHY BELOS GAVE YOU THAT NAME?!?!?!

#as funny as it would be to see him make the connection it’d be funnier to see Luz not put two and two together before he does #also Hunter really needs to change his name once everything’s over for his own sake to distance himself from his ‘uncle’s’ profession #if King can change his last name than the grimwalker can change his whole name #the owl house #toh #toh hunter #hunter wittebane #luz noceda #amber's post

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lonewolfel · 2 years

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Fictober 2022 Day 14

Prompt: 27 - "That's not why we're doing this."

Fandom: The Owl House

Rating: Teen (Panic attack and flashbacks)

Relationships: None(do not tag as a ship)

Characters: Hunter, Gus, Willow, Perry Porter, Belos, Luz

Note: Takes place between Labrinth Runners and Clouds against the Horizen.

Willow, Gus, and Hunter were in Mr. Porter's back yard which was fairly close to the coast. Hunter was sitting against the house reading a book on illusions that Gus had been so kind to let him borrow. Gus and Willow were talking a little ways away.

Suddenly the ground began to swallow him whole.

"You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. Just... hang on! Just..." Luz's voice rang out. There was a jacket in his hands. He saw Belos's mind scape...no he was at Gus's house. But then why...

All too suddenly Hunter was surrounded by complete darkness. This time felt different than when he was in Belos's mind yet Hunter's brain didn't care.

"I was really expecting him to last longer than the others," Belos said from above him.

Hunter couldn't breathe. No matter how hard his stolen lungs worked they couldn't seem to be able to draw any air. He was going to suffocate down here in Belos's mind.

"I'm gonna tell everyone about the Day of Unity, that you've been lying about the Titan for years!" Luz exclaimed.

" Hunter, buddy are you ok."

"Yes, this has gone on longer than I'd have liked. But... no one ever said being a witch hunter was easy." Belos partially agreed with the human...teen human.

"Willow, what did you do?"

"Witch... hunter? So all this time, people have been mindlessly helping a witch hunter? How could they be tricked so easily?" Luz exclaimed in horror.

"I just brought him over here. I've done this with him before and he had no problems."

"I wouldn't be so judgmental, if I were you," Belos said. A moment of silence passed between the two as they viewed a memory that Hunter couldn't hear...no wait there was talking. Hunter couldn't make out what they were saying.

"No. No, no, no." Luz denied.

"Hunter, buddy, I need you to breathe with me."

"No, no, no! You're Belos! You're just Belos!" Luz further denied it.

"Come on. I know you can do it."

"Please, do me a kindness, and call me by my real name," Belos said.

"He can't hear us."

"Please, do me a kindness, and call me by my real name," Belos said. Luz muttered something that Hunter couldn't make out.

"How are we supposed to break him out of this?"

"You're Philip Wittebane aren't you?" Memory Luz provided.

"It does feel good to hear another human say that name. I had to change it when Philip was run out of too many towns." Belos said. Wait he is a human. Hunter already knew that. How did he already know that?

"Touch always worked for me."

"I told you once before, Luzura. Perhaps..." Belos started

"...we were destined to meet." Philip continued.

"Do you really think that it would work on Hunter?"

"And what about Hunter? What's a Grimwalker?" Luz asked.

"It's worth a shot."

Suddenly from the darkness, a hand reached out and grabbed Hunter. It began to claw at him and try to drag him down deeper into Belos's mind. He began to fight against the touch.

"HUNTER! It just made it worse!"

He fought and fought. The hand seemed to dislodge but he could not risk it returning. He had to get out of Belos's mind somehow.

"Maybe my dad knows something."

"He's... a better version of an old friend. But, thanks to you, I'll have to make another one." Belos finally answered. Hunter was just a replacement. A replacement for whoever Belos killed. And now he was going to be replaced.

Suddenly he smelled something extremely strong. It shocked Hunter. He opened his eyes and saw the concerned looks of Willow, Gus, and Mr. Porter. Hunter blushed in embarrassment. Hunter let out a wheezy breath.

Hunter noticed that he was covered in dirt and plants. He had curled up into a fetal position. He had to look like a baby to them. He began to silently bring his breathing under control.

"I..." Hunter croaked. He tried to say more but it felt as if his tongue was metal.

"Are ok?" Mr. Porter asked.

Hunter opened his mouth to speak, but decided against it. Instead, he nodded his head. This earned him a frown from both Willow and Gus.

"I'll get you some water." Mr. Porter said. Before Hunter had time to protest the man was gone. This left him alone with Willow and Gus.

"I'mm s...sorry." Hunter finally croaked out.

"Why?" Willow asked

"Th....t yo... ha....d to dea...l with my isssss...u..." Hunter said. It hurt his throat but he needs to apologize for what happened.

"No, dude," Gus said

"You don't have to apologize," Willow said. Hunter frowned at that. Of course, he has to apologize he was behaving like a child. That is unless... Hunter cleared his throat to speak.

"You don't owe me anything. You can tell me what you really think." Hunter said hoarsely.

"Owe?" Willow asked. Gus had more experience dealing with Hunter.

"No, dude, that's not why we're doing this," Gus said. Willow nodded her head.

"Then why?" Hunter asked.

"Cause your our friend Hunter. I pretty much think of you as my brother at this point." Gus said.

"Exactly, and friends help each other no matter what is going on. Especially when they are having an episode." Willow said. Hunter felt as if he was going to cry. Though he didn't understand why.

"Permission to hug?" Gus asked. Hunter with a lump in his throat just nodded. Gus lunged forward and hugged him. Willow joined the hug next. It was weird but also nice. He wouldn't admit it but he rather enjoyed the hugs.

Hunter was going to have to tell them the reason for his meltdown. Then he will have to endure Willow's guilt despite the fact that she couldn't have known. He'll have to deal with the sad looks that both Gus and Mr. Porter will give him.

But for now, he enjoyed the embrace with his two friends.

#owl house #the owl house #toh hunter #gus porter #willow park #perry porter #toh belos #luz noceda #philip wittebane #fictober22 #toh #fanfic #fan fiction

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fannishcodex · 2 years

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started to realize earlier this week that in-universe hunter and luz probably still don’t fully realize that hunter’s a clone/grimwalker of belos/philip’s brother

like i think out of many traumatizing bombshells, they start getting the inkling of what a grimwalker is and how they’re being repeatedly made and killed and heard “a better version of an old friend,” but I don’t think even they know that It’s Even Worse with hunter being a clone of belos/philip’s brother and what belos/philip truly did to his brother. like they just heard “old friend,” they don’t know brother. like hunter very understandably is not only horrified but also confused and overwhelmed, he still doesn’t have all the info behind his traumatic origins, he questions in horror and belos/philip is just cruelly cryptic and carrying on his own conversation without a thought for even fully explaining everything to hunter so that he can even grasp the conversation that’s going over his head

i think along with better family/friends and a better life, hunter also deserves/needs more answers about what’s been done to him and his grimwalker kin and their original blood progentior/genetic template/ortet, hunter deserves and needs more answers

#toh hunter #emperor belos #toh #the owl house #wittebro

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sepublic · 2 years

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Hollow Mind.

Oh god oh fuck.

HUNTER WASN’T THE FIRST. The Collector outright mentioned predecessors, and Belos mentioned he killed them. He called them GRIMWALKERS, which means Hunter already IS one. And he said it… A ‘better’ version of an old friend. We can see glimpses of his brother in the memories, his nose slashed, BUT WE KNOW…!

Did the previous Golden Guard have a bile sac? And Belos made Hunter WITHOUT one, so he couldn’t rebel as easily? Is that why Darius remembers him as having magic, or did the previous Golden Guard have no magic, he just did a better job at hiding it?! Belos… Belos KILLED them. And the Collector, he called out Belos on it; Did he ENJOY it??? And even to the Collector, Belos claims it hurts every time… But he could still be lying to him and himself.

And I was right! The Collector is some kind of demented, immature, godly child that wants to play games all day, and he’s looking forward to the Day of Unity! Is the Collector manipulating Belos, or are they mutual allies? Luz suggests the spell is going to commit mass genocide on all life in the Demon Realm… Or does the Collector plan on collecting it? He mentions he’s ‘in the bones’, what if he really IS the Titan??? Or a spawn of the Titan… The Titan’s Spawn, remember that book title from Understanding Willow???

(Do appreciate the recognition of Willow have two inner selves due to strong emotions... Boy did she have those.)

Oh my god… The ‘curse monster’ isn’t a beast that Belos got trapped in his body, at least I don’t think… IT’S THE AMALGAMATION OF ALL THE PALISMEN SOULS BELOS ABSORBED, TRYING TO DESPERATELY BREAK OUT!!! Oh fuck… Oh god, and Belos ABSORBED THEM TOTALLY. And he said he couldn’t do it without having people in his mindscape to distract the Palisman beast…

Oh god, DID BELOS LET THE REBELS ENTER HIS MIND?!? So his inner self could use them to distract the Palisman beast, but then it ended up being Luz and Hunter… And Belos adapted??? DOES BELOS KNOW WHO THE REBELS ARE!??! And he’s just letting them get away with it, because he needs them, doesn’t want to alert them that HE knows, so they stay close by? Hunter mentions Flapjack’s name while inside Belos’ mind, Belos def knows by now if he didn’t before!

Philip was a witch hunter. Is Jacob Hopkins his descendant?! Was his brother a witch hunter too, but he renounced this?! And so by ‘better’ version, ‘Hunter’ is a version of his brother that actually fulfills the role they were given?! The witch who brought them to the isles… Were they trying to KILL that witch, and fell in after them!?

Oh fuck… Still, that theory is looking more likely; That maybe Belos might die with all of the palismen within him bursting forth, as a NEW palistrom tree grows from his body, consuming him this time… Or not. Is Belos no longer plagued by the palisman monster? Did he truly, totally digest what was left of the palismen’s souls, fragments merged into one Frankenstein soul, and they’re ALL dead??! It’s like Fullmetal Alchemist… Father having the souls of those he absorbed fighting within him, lashing out; Only for Father to absorb and crush their consciousness regardless!

HE KILLED THOSE WITCHES. They were ‘alive’, but disabled, without staffs, stranded at the knee and their city in ruins. Oh god… Those ruins weren’t OLD, they were RECENT! The Knee ruins were recent! The bodies… OH GOD THE SKULLS! Did the Slitherbeast’s skulls come from its own victims, and/or those witches?! Did it EAT those vulnerable witches?!? And there’s confirmation that Belos wasn’t applying sigils back in Eda’s childhood, because he hadn’t perfected them yet; They immediately paralyze witches and JUST that, which is a hard sell.

And that’s why he cloned the basilisks, to study… So he could actually DRAIN their magic, instead of causing paralysis; And withhold that draining. While still restricting the bile sac…

And PRIM! Seeing her join a coven out of fear was heartbreaking… And Raine! AND DARIUS, we saw how he MOVED forward when Hunter was mentioned! Were the rebels still in the woods when Hunter ran out, will they find and take him in!? DAMMIT HOOTY, you should’ve caught Hunter! And does Hooty recognize Raine, given he calls them a secret admirer, or was it just a play on the flowers as an ingredient?! Uncle Darius confirmed but at what cost…

Raine clearly wants to help Eda is probably starting to realize that their secrecy, meant to protect her kids, is actually backfiring after all; So hopefully we get that revelation soon! Eda’s gonna be mad… AND THE TITAN’S BLOOD! No more; Which as King pointed out, Luz was gonna die without it. And Belos… GOD, the way he plays his own memories as Philip to make Luz say his name again, that was so DARK and clever! And I was right; Belos can manifest in his own memories because of how powerful he is!

Which makes me think/wonder if he deliberately set this all up to catch the rebels AND the palisman monster… Or he doesn’t bother shielding his mind too well, because in his mind, he’s invincible. Belos can absorb people as he pleases; So if anything he WANTS people trapped in his mind, where Belos has full control and power! Raine, Darius, Eberwolf… GET OUT NOW! And damn… Hunter even notices that Darius is sad at his knighting, because he’s just bitterly reminded of his mentor. Hunter doesn’t know what happened but Belos KILLED them! He killed them all!

Right now there’s still room for the time travel theory for Belos by the way; We only see him introduce himself as ‘Belos’, so unless he erased records of a dude named Belos from centuries ago… He only started that recently. And he says he used the name because EVERYONE knew Philip was a messed-up dude and had heard of him… Was he wandering for centuries as Philip?! And his brother, the childhood photos…!

And Hunter. Hunter’s freakout. But he still does the right thing and saves Luz with HER glyphs… And Luz! Does she have proof, she doesn’t; And while her friends will trust her, while Raine and the rebels will obviously believe, what proof does she have? A recording on her phone, what?! And the hypocrisy of Belos dismissing Luz as ‘can’t reason with CRAZY’ like bitch look at yourself!

A lot of theories confirmed, but still more unseen, or at least obscured; It’s confirmed for the audience, but Hunter and Luz don’t quite know he’s a clone of Wittebro. Just that he’s yet another clone of SOMEONE dear to Belos… Which, Luz might remember the drawing of Wittebro she saw in Philip’s journal and make that connection. My poor girl has so much to process… And just UGH that rancid ‘solidarity’ Belos tries to invoke with Luz, being glad to have a human say his name, as if it really matters that much!

But we still haven’t seen Wittebro, nor do we get a full confirmation on how Belos survived so long, aside from palisman essence perhaps… But I think we know his motives now, and it’s that he was ALWAYS like that. He always wanted to kill witches because he was raised that way; No tragedy besides ‘upbringing’ I suppose. Only his brother realized the truth… And for this ‘betrayal’, Belos killed him.

Oh god. Oh fuck.

#the owl house #philip wittebane #emperor belos #the owl house hunter #luz noceda #raine whispers #the owl house darius #eda clawthorne #edalyn clawthorne #palismen #analysis #the owl house collector

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huntersgrave · 2 years

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TOH HOLLOW MIND SPOILERS;

(those are just my reactions from the beggining of an episode till the very end)

— poor hunter doesn't know what the bananas are and has to pretend that he doesn't care

— oo luz teaches king spanish!!

— teenage rebellion

— run hunter run or otherwise you'd have to face your trauma soon

— the way she just yelled "hunter!" and he already knew what's going on. he looks so disappointed and as always tired

— went well

— *laughs* "you want to prove that my uncle is evil" damn could he be even more traumatized?

— of course he read alot about this subject. from "ugh how could you" he kinda quickly switched to "ooooo" nerdy

— he looks so happy

— he never found out what happend to the previous one you say? HMM I GUESS HE PROBABLY JUST RETIRED AND LIVED HAPPILY FOR SUREE

— "darius looks so sad here" is there a chance that he knows what happend to previous golden guard and this is why he's part of the rebellion?

— BELOS OH NO

— smol belos hwh

— he actually felt something after he touched that palisman

— oh NO eyEbAllS

— so easy to scare indeed

— omg i love how much he cares about flapjack

— "ⁱ ᵗᵒˡᵈ ʸᵒᵘ ⁱ ʳᵉᵃᵈ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ᵗʰᵒˢᵉ ˢᵗᵘᶠᶠ" he said softly while behind him we have a pic from he's childhood where he haves obvious human ears CAN SOMEONE TURN BACK AND LOOK AT IT GOODAMIT

— "i love you" hvdjsvxsbhdjdhshsbsjxhd hunter said that he loves flapjack hunter said that he loves flapjack

— kid belos is so cute

— never done anything worthy appearing guilt sure

— lil nod

— flapjack in an owl house

— hooty the protection system

— DARIUS THATS DARIUS DARIUS AND RAINE AND EVERWOLF GODDAMIT I LOVE THIS EPISODE

— darius actually cares about hunter omg

— another golden guard oh man that's getting harsh

— greater good sure

— he's so classic british evil (don't get me wrong all you british people out there i'm just taking about *kind* of evil like all of those colonizers

— hunter is not fun of dying

— show for kids

— hunter is in denial

— creepy belos

— COLLECTOR OMG FINALLY

— hunter in the memory

— "not as long as he stays on the right path" pls hunter don't die

— well how can you be in denial now huh?

— hunter grimwalker confirmed? HUNTER GRIMWALKER COMFIRED

— "it hurts every time he chooses to betray me" now it's just sad

— found family trope? it's kinda bit to soon for that luz

— oh fuck dead golden guard gallery

— the inner belos is a child. there's living monster made out of the dead palismans in the emperor's mind. that's.. interesting.

— yay my youtube just lagged, waiting for the rest in that important moment cool

— okay, back again

— ⁿO DON'T

— why-

— he's killing those palismans again

— did they changed the actor to philip now? can't tell

— i feel so bad for hunter this is just painful now

— "it wasn't wild magic, wasn't it?" he sounds like he's gonna cry and i want belos dead

— yes he's a grimwalker ladies, gentlemen and all of the other genders we were right

— "you looked the most like him" is he talking about he's brother

— witch hunting did he named hunter cause of witch hunting if so hunter should legally change his name to caleb

— haha philip wittabane goes wild

— "no no no no no" actually yes

— HE ALWAYS KNEW

— his not just belos he's philip lmaoo

— king is worried

— RAINE BRINGED FLOWERS DID THEM

— belos needs more human friends in this world huh

— he changed his form to philip HE DID

— "better version of an old friend" does he mean his brother or not i don't need sleep i need answers!!

— he's evil lmao

— hunter yesss

— i mean.. at least flapjack is alive

— that's called panic attack sweetheart

— pain

— that's awful i really do feel bad for him i really do

— we the hell are they standing outside we need darius to help hunter

— and that's it?

— why isn't there more

— we need more

— pls hunter come back he's going to catch you there

— okay so that's it? that's it. and there wouldn't be more episodes for another month. they just left us with a cliffhanger. cool.

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kateandthediamonds · 2 years

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How the Duchess of Cambridge is preparing to be Queen

On her 40th birthday, the inside account of how a girl from the Shires has coped with the relentless demands of royal life. By Roya Nikkhah, royal editor

Who would marry into the monarchy? Graveyard of broken marriages, hotbed of family friction, the world’s eyes scrutinising your every move.

From Diana to Fergie to Meghan, royal brides’ discontent with the institution is renowned. But more than ten years after marrying in, the Duchess of Cambridge celebrates her 40th birthday today with a high level of the personal and professional happiness that has eluded some royal wives.

That is no mean feat for a young woman who has been so exposed for so long. “The reality is she has been in public life for more than a decade, hugely visible, constantly photographed and has never put a foot wrong,” says a longstanding royal aide. “She has carved out her role on her terms.”

The past two years have been, to say the least, turbulent for Kate and her family. The Sussexes quit royal life for America, firing missiles at the monarchy and some personally at Kate; the Cambridges scrambled to lead the royal family’s response on the ground to the pandemic; the Queen’s health recently prompted a national wobble and Kate has watched her husband mourn the loss of his grandfather, not to mention his close relationship with his brother.

Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, one of the Cambridges’ closest friends and advisers, their former principal private secretary who is godfather to Prince George, assesses Kate’s coping mechanism: “She has that almost old-fashioned, Queen Mother attitude to drama — she just doesn’t do it.”

An image of the duchess arriving at the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral in April last year is telling. Taken a few weeks after Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, which included accusations of racism in the royal family, Kate appears composed but defiant. During that interview Meghan said that in the lead-up to her wedding in May 2018 Kate “made me cry and it really hurt my feelings”, the opposite version of what had been reported previously about a fracas at a bridesmaid dress fitting. “Some recollections may vary,” said Buckingham Palace on behalf of the Queen. William, 39, was “reeling”, with “his head all over the place”, furious that his brother and sister-in-law had taken aim at his wife and his family, forcing him to state publicly: “We are very much not a racist family.”

Kate reacted differently. Instead of stamping her feet and demanding her right to reply, her focus turned to her husband. “In the days after the interview her priority was William, not how she felt about what Harry and Meghan had done,” says a source close to the Cambridges. “She has focused on personal support for William in what has been a really sad time in his life. She never predicted the degree of falling out between them.”

Of the “who made who cry” incident, a palace source says: “I’ve had hundreds of hours of conversations with her [Kate] and it never came up. I only ever heard from Meghan about that — a very different story from what she said to Oprah.”

A close friend says: “Kate has a way of calming William down and knows how to be really affectionate and gentle. But she is 100 per cent loyal to him and has a shaft of steel running up her back when she needs to deal with stuff that’s unpalatable.” One of William’s closest friends puts it bluntly: “He has had a year from hell and she has been fantastic supporting him.”

William is the first to acknowledge his wife’s diplomacy. “Catherine is a peacemaker,” he told a friend. “She’s much better than me, she wants everyone to be aligned.” When the royal party emerged from St George’s Chapel in Windsor after Prince Philip’s funeral, Kate broke the ice chatting to Harry, leading William to follow suit. In July, when the brothers were briefly reunited again at Kensington Palace to unveil a statue of Diana, Kate did not join them publicly but worked her magic out of sight before the brothers emerged into the glare of the world’s media.

William was still furious,” says a close friend. “He had taken the view that he’d only give so much. He just didn’t want to go there [with Harry].” An aide says: “[Catherine] was amazing behind the scenes when Harry came.” The event went off without a hitch.

’Twas ever thus, says a former courtier, who points to the royal trio’s Heads Together campaign launched in 2016 to raise awareness around mental health: “It was completely her idea. She was very keen for the three of them to do something powerful together equally. She cared a lot about William’s relationship with his brother.”

William and Kate met at the University of St Andrews in 2001, where they were initially in the same halls of residence and reading the same degree, although William switched from art history to geography. Kate briefly dated law student Rupert Finch in her first year. She and William became a couple in 2003, managing to stay under the radar until April 2004 when The Sun broke their cover, publishing photographs of them skiing. Kate’s world changed for ever. Yet she did not. “She was always the same, from when she didn’t know she was going to be William’s wife to after the engagement,” says a close friend of the couple. “She never changed her manner with anybody.”

The eldest child of Michael and Carole Middleton, she was raised in the small, idyllic village of Bucklebury in Berkshire. Her parents’ successful party-planning business enabled them to send her and her two younger siblings, Pippa and James, to Marlborough College, a private school in Wiltshire. There she moved in upper-class circles that made the transition into royal life a relatively smooth one.

Another friend who has known her and William since the early days of their relationship when Kate was still the “unknown girlfriend” recalls how “totally herself” she was from the start. “When I first met her with William, she was completely at ease with him. There was no ‘Ooh, look at me with the prince’. She was charming, clearly bright but not showy, just totally natural.”

That ease came from a solid friendship before romance blossomed. As William said in their engagement interview in 2010: “We ended up being friends for a while and that was a good foundation. Because I do generally believe now that being friends with one another is a massive advantage.”

One of their closest friends says a spark was there from the start. “He found her really attractive and they’re the couple that still really fancy each other, there’s still a strong attraction. She finds him hilarious, they’re very into each other.”

Meghan has often complained bitterly about her treatment at the hands of some in the media, and it is easy to forget that Kate had a rough ride from the start. After their relationship became public she was hounded by the paparazzi, who camped outside her Chelsea home, chasing her down the street. When it emerged she was working as an accessories buyer for the fashion label Jigsaw, photographers followed her as she went to buy her lunch. A friend tells me Kate was even chased late at night by several men in a car, which she found “terrifying”.

William’s team did all they could to help, but until he put Diana’s ring on her finger Kate was on her own without police protection. “It was constant. She coped with it admirably, given how intrusive it was,” says a former royal aide. The onslaught continued for years. After her job at Jigsaw became too difficult with the paparazzi, she went to work for her parents’ party-planning business and was attacked for being a “Waity Katie” who was biding her time until William made an honest woman of her. Reports that some in William’s circle nicknamed her “Doors to Manual”, in a reference to her mother Carole’s former career as a flight attendant, are said to be an “urban myth” by those close to the prince, but the future queen did not have it easy.

“It was never water off a duck’s back, but she has extraordinary strength of character and resilience,” says the aide. “I’ve never once seen or heard of her losing her temper. She went into it with her eyes wide open and her brain engaged. She is a sound, grounded person who knows herself well.”

Kate astonished everyone in royal circles with how she handled their wedding in April 2011, watched by an estimated global audience of two billion. A close friend says: “She must have the ability to switch on a tap and ice runs through the veins, because she was so calm throughout.”

The nerves kicked in soon afterwards, when the newlyweds set off that summer on their first overseas tour to Canada, where they will one day be king and queen. Lowther-Pinkerton says: “She was nervous when she went to Canada. It was her first big foray into that world and we had to get it right in terms of how she could project herself, but not overproject, now that she was married to William. We were determined that Canada should be fun, because at the end of it we didn’t want her thinking, ‘Christ, I’ve got another 70 years of this.’ There was some dead serious stuff too — Quebec was pretty momentous.” A small group of anti-monarchy separatists protested when they visited the city, but the couple were undeterred and met well-wishers on an unscheduled walkabout.

Back in Anglesey, where the Cambridges spent their first years of marriage while William worked as an RAF search and rescue helicopter pilot, Kate carefully planned her approach to learning how to become a future queen. “She was absolutely daunted by it and it was overwhelming at times,” says one of her closest friends. “Everyone wanted her to be the next Diana — people had this Diana hole they wanted to put her into. There was constant ‘what are her [campaigning] issues going to be?’ William was protective in making sure she had time and space to acclimatise to public life and not feel pressured.”

With charities clamouring for her attention, Rebecca Priestley, a confidante and adviser from 2011 and her private secretary from 2012 to 2017, helped Kate shape her new role. “Catherine knows every decision is for the rest of her life, everything is for the long game,” Priestley says. “She was aware she wasn’t an expert in any one field and she wanted to educate herself first, then shine a spotlight where needed. It was a ‘listen and learn’ approach rather than immediately becoming patron of a charity. We did a lot of under-the-radar visits before the public engagements.”

In late 2011 Sandy Nairne, then director of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), received a surprise call requesting a visit. Kate, an art history graduate and accomplished photographer, “clearly knew what she was talking about”. It was agreed the NPG was a good fit, but there was a snag. “We had some toing and froing about what she would be called,” Nairne says. “The gallery had never had a royal patron or any patron, the ethos was it was a gallery for the nation, so the feeling was the idea of a “royal patron” didn’t sit right. I hesitantly rang her office and said we’d love to have her but would she mind just being patron, not royal patron? She completely got it.”

In February 2012 Kate made her first solo engagement, visiting the Lucian Freud Portraits exhibition at the gallery. Nairne says her patronage noticeably “connected the Portrait Gallery with much wider and younger audiences”.

Nairne recalls only one controversy, when Kate’s portrait was painted by Paul Emsley, an artist she hand-picked to capture her in 2012, aged 30. “We asked her what she wanted it to look like and she said, ‘Just me.’ She didn’t want any finery or elaborate royal setting.” The resulting photographic-style portrait was striking in its simplicity. Before its unveiling in January 2013 she viewed the painting privately and “it was a bit of a shock”, Nairne says. “It was a bit like anyone seeing a finished portrait for the first time, ‘Woah, that’s me,’ and it was larger than she expected. I was nervous but she was very positive about it.”

On the morning of the official unveiling she was heard saying: “It’s just amazing, I thought it was brilliant.” But the critics were savage. Waldemar Januszczak, art critic of The Sunday Times, said Kate had been “let down”, that her eyes “don’t sparkle” and there was “something rather dour about the face”. Robin Simon, editor of the British Art Journal, said it was “a rotten portrait”. Nairne says the critics got it wrong because “they were looking for an ‘image’ of her. Instead what they found was just her, just as she’d wanted.”

She took a similar approach for a Vogue photoshoot in 2016, marking the fashion magazine’s centenary. Kate eschewed haute couture for a country casuals look of T-shirts, trousers, a cosy brown coat and fedora for the photographs, taken on the Queen’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk, where the Cambridges have their country home, Anmer Hall.

A source close to the duchess explains her decision behind the pictures: “It was meant to be a portrait of her at that time in her life, when she was based in Norfolk, not yet a full-time working member of the royal family and not doing the princess thing, so it didn’t feel natural for her to go for ballgowns and tiaras. Alexandra [Shulman, then Vogue editor] was very understanding, but they did have a few gowns on the day ready to go in case they could convince her. [Kate] looked at them with a smile and said, ‘No, we’re going with plan A.’ ”

Some of the media’s obsession with her style over the substance of her work is a source of frustration, one that cut deep when she was starting her public life. A close friend says: “When she goes to the Bond premiere or is at Trooping the Colour, of course she puts on the ‘uniform’ of the role. But what was enormously frustrating and difficult for her, especially in the early days, was she was going out and doing the work she was interested in and was hugely important to her, and people just talked about what she was wearing.”

When Kate made her first public speech in March 2012, at the Treehouse hospice in Suffolk, she wore a high-street dress that her mother, Carole, had previously worn to Royal Ascot. “There she was meeting with hugely vulnerable children and families, and the dress was the story,” says the friend. “She said she found it ‘a bit demoralising’.”

Her closest aides say the duchess is “allergic to advice on a PR basis” and will “never do something because she thinks the media will like it”. An aide says: “We’re never allowed to formulate advice along the lines of ‘it would look good if you did this’ or ‘a quick photo op with the kids would be easy for this’ — that is the quickest way to lose her. It’s not stubbornness, but unlike other public figures she just won’t do it if it’s not done for the right reasons.”

Another close adviser says: “How she operates is not reactive. She has stuck to the path that she knows is right for her and her family. It’s not about the quick win.”

It was the same when the Sussex show was going well for a time, with Meghan described as “a breath of fresh air” for the monarchy, bringing a modern, diverse feel to the institution. Before things spiralled the Cambridges looked a little too steady to some. But there was “no risk of Kate being blown off course or changing direction”, a close aide says. “Things need to feel relevant, but fundamentally it’s about a long-term set of values and there are benefits to tradition that the duchess has always had real clarity about. She is not flashy, that’s not what people want the institution for, and she has always had a very clear understanding of that.”

That refusal to be bounced into reactions has stood her in good stead through only a handful of crises in her royal career. The first came in September 2012, during a tour of southeast Asia and the South Pacific to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The French version of the magazine Closer published paparazzi photographs of Kate sunbathing topless while she was on holiday with William in France that summer. She was devastated but carried on with the tour as if nothing had happened. William, who finds it harder to hide his emotions and for whom the episode evoked his mother’s suffering at the hands of paparazzi, looked like thunder.

“For any normal person, when those photos are in circulation, you’d be within your rights to go to pieces,” says Priestley, who was with them when the story broke. “But there was no sense of ‘poor me, this is horrendous for me’. She knew it wasn’t going to be helpful to have a meltdown.”

The global frenzy over the story threatened to derail an important diplomatic trip. Lowther-Pinkerton was also with them: “How she reacted brought that whole tour back on course. It would have been blown off course with any histrionics. She was very much ‘the show must go on’.” The Cambridges successfully sued the magazine for the “grotesque” breach of privacy.

In 2013, while the duchess was suffering from severe morning sickness during her pregnancy with Prince George, she came under heavy fire from the author Hilary Mantel, who described her as a “shop-window mannequin, with no personality of her own, entirely defined by what she wore”, whose “only point and purpose” was “to give birth” and who “seems to have been selected for her role of princess because she was irreproachable … without quirks, without oddities, without the risk of the emergence of character”. Kate, said Mantel, appeared “machine-made”.

A close friend explains why the duchess maintained a dignified silence as debate raged around the comments: “She met William so young, there has been constant commenting on her and her family for so long that she has developed the good sense not to pay attention to everything because there’s always going to be someone saying something about her. I’m not pretending that things don’t hurt, but ignoring most of it is the only way for her to be.”

But royal hackles were raised last summer when Tatler magazine published a profile entitled “Catherine the Great”, alleging she felt “exhausted and trapped” by her workload after the Sussexes quit royal duties, describing her as “perilously thin”, her mother as a “terrible snob”, sister Pippa as “too regal” and claiming Kate had a poster of William on her wall when she was younger. Kensington Palace said the story contained a “swathe of inaccuracies and false misrepresentations” and the Cambridges instructed lawyers. Tatler removed the above unsubstantiated claims from the online version. A longstanding aide says: “I can count on one hand the number of times a story has upset her, but anything about her family or her parents is a touchpoint.”

Family is everything to Kate and she remains close to her parents and siblings. “I had a very happy childhood,” she has said. “It was great fun — I’m very lucky, I’ve come from a very strong family — my parents were hugely dedicated to us.” That stable family unit was a big draw for William when they met, and continues to be his compass. William has told a friend: “Catherine has made me realise the importance of family. As you know, family hasn’t always been an easy thing for me.”

The Middletons are the picture of respectability, maintaining a low-key presence in royal life at fun official engagements such as the Royal Variety Performance and the recent televised carol service at Westminster Abbey, hosted by Kate for community heroes of the pandemic, for which she also recorded a Christmas message and surprised viewers with her first public piano performance. Even occasional blips by Kate’s uncle Gary Goldsmith, who is Carole’s younger brother, have not dented their credentials. Goldsmith, an outspoken, self-made millionaire entrepreneur, was arrested in 2017 after an altercation with his fourth wife, and in 2009 he was caught in a tabloid sting chopping up cocaine at his Ibizan villa, Maison de Bang Bang. But he remained in the fold, attending the Cambridges’ wedding two years later.

William and Kate’s first years of married life, based mostly in Anglesey and Norfolk, were crucial. “It was really clear they needed to establish a solid family life, because there was always a sense that it wouldn’t last for ever,” says a friend. “That time was hugely important, because their working life has become more pressured the further away from that time they’ve got.”

Kate has always presented the unflappable demeanour of a mother who seamlessly balances the demands of a very public role with the challenges of raising George, eight, Charlotte, six, and Louis, three. But in February 2020 she let the mask slip a little, in a frank admission of wrestling with “mum guilt” and how parenthood had “pulled” her to the “toughest and most unknown places”. On the Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast she admitted struggling with “the juggle” of being “such a hands-on mum”, being riddled with “doubts and questions about the guilty element of being away for work” and always “questioning your own decisions and judgments”. It took her time to shed the guilt of having a nanny and housekeeper to share the load: “It was a real weight off my shoulders [to realise] that actually it’s not totally my responsibility to do everything because, you know, we all have good days and bad days.

It was rare to hear Kate nattering away unscripted, and an unusually candid insight into what matters to her: “Is it that I’m sitting down trying to do their maths and spelling homework over the weekend? Or is it the fact we’ve gone out and lit a bonfire and sat around trying to cook sausages that hasn’t worked because it’s too wet?” Kate revealed she adopted hypnobirthing techniques and had “really quite liked labour”, but found the prospect of emerging on to the steps of the Lindo Wing for a photo call hours after giving birth a “slightly terrifying” but necessary part of the job. “We’re hugely grateful for the support the public had shown us, and for us to be able to share that joy and appreciation with the public I felt was really important,” she said.

A close friend gives the unvarnished take on how Kate really feels about sharing the most personal moments of her life with the nation. “She accepts and understands that in their position this stuff needs to happen. But it’s not easy for her, particularly with the babies. Standing there after just having a baby, feeling exhausted, those moments take a huge amount out of her. It’s hard work because she’s a normal woman with all the vulnerabilities and realities all women have. It is part of their life, she doesn’t resent it but it takes a lot of effort.”

Many in royal circles describe Kate as “a perfectionist”, but what is she really like behind closed doors? “She is shy,” says a friend. “Very private, quite steady, she is not going to be the one who lets loose, and won’t pull the pin and get lashed,” although she sometimes enjoys a gin and tonic at the end of the day. The couple are expected to host a joint party this summer at Anmer Hall when William also enters his forties. Friends say Kate loves dressing up for cocktails and dinner, and enjoys after-dinner games.

A close friend says: “She’s brilliant at dressing up and acting silly for the children, going into different characters.” Fancy dress is a Middleton tradition, with her father, Michael, wearing joke costumes each year at Christmas. “She adores her children, playing football and rounders and feeding the chickens and gardening with them,” says the friend. “If she wasn’t who she was, she’d be a gardener or a photographer.”

“She has a great sense of humour,” Priestley says. “On a trip back from an engagement, she will giggle if something went wrong and sees the funny side of things and will often take the mick out of herself and William. People mainly see her professional side, but it doesn’t mean the fun’s not there.”

In his close circle William is frank about what is on his mind, including family woes. But Kate doesn’t go there. A friend says she is “150 per cent more reserved than William”, and the most they’ve ever seen of her views on Meghan was when she jokingly rolled her eyes at the mention of Suits, the legal drama Meghan starred in before she met Harry.

And what of the great “Kate” debate? An old friend scoffs at reports that she requested a regal rebrand from Kate to Catherine upon her engagement: “I call her Catherine, her family and her old Marlborough crew call her Catherine. At uni she became more of a Kate, among friends of William’s she’s Kate.” William calls her by both names.

The duchess’s legacy project is the early-years work that she has been developing for a decade, culminating in the launch last year of the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, which convenes academics, charities and other bodies to “collaborate on new solutions” for early intervention. Royal aides say she believes the issues are “the social equivalent to climate change”. Announcing the centre, Kate said: “My own journey into understanding the importance of early childhood actually started with adults … I wanted to understand what more we could do to help prevent some of today’s toughest social challenges, and what more we could do to help with the rising rates of poor mental health. My hope is that we can change the way we think about early childhood and transform lives for generations to come.”

The idea was not manufactured by courtiers, says Jason Knauf, chief executive of the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge until last month, and former communications secretary to the Cambridges and the Sussexes: “She came up with the full structured plan of how the centre would work. The duchess understands that she is going to have a public role in her own right. She is charting her own course on that and trying to make a long-term relevant contribution.”

Professor Peter Fonagy, chief executive of children’s mental health charity the Anna Freud Centre, of which Kate is patron, says: “She has a clinical understanding of the issues, and the skills with parents and children in very challenging situations, that are better than some people who have been working in the area for a long time. She’s an implementer — if we’re going to make an impact in this area, it will be in large part because of her.”

In private, William speaks with pride about his wife’s work, and that is another part of their double-act success. Unlike his parents’ marriage, where Diana’s popularity eclipsed Charles, much to his frustration, William is happy that the future Princess of Wales has found her groove and popularity with the public. There is only occasionally a twinge of frustration when they do joint engagements and he is cropped out of the photographs.

A royal source close to the Cambridges says: “She has been a hugely important factor in him coming to terms with his destiny, how comfortable he has become with his role in the royal family as future monarch and the demands of that.”

In 2019 the Queen promoted Kate to Dame Grand Cross, the highest female rank in the Royal Victorian Order, awarded personally by the monarch for services to the sovereign — a sign of her gratitude to the woman on whose shoulders so much expectation rests. A royal source who has known Kate from the start believes she has quietly observed Her Majesty’s game plan and successfully adopted many of her tactics: “She will be queen for a long time, and knowing her, she will have thought, ‘Who is my role model here, who has done this really well? Who do I learn from to lay down and build the foundations for the long game, to stay solid, strong, calm and confident, without giving up too much of myself?’ I think she has taken a lot from the Queen.”

Since the Duke of York stepped back from royal life in 2019 over his links with Jeffrey Epstein, and the Sussexes left in 2020, the load on the Cambridges’ shoulders has become heavier, and according to a close friend “they do feel more exposed”. Another Cambridge confidante says: “The UK looks to them for the future of the monarchy. It’s a tough role.” But the future Queen Catherine has proven she is up to the challenge, says Lowther-Pinkerton: “She paced herself, she took her fences slowly but faultlessly.” Knauf believes “she will be a huge asset to the institution and the country”. An impeccably placed, longstanding royal insider who has watched Kate’s evolution says of the future king and queen: “William will be respected. Catherine will be loved.”

🖊: Roya Nikkah

📸: Paolo Roversi

#I finally copy pasted it #catherine at 40 #catherine #duchess of cambridge #kate middleton #catherine middleton #british royal family #kate at 40

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tardytothepardy · 2 years

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so like what the fuck is going on with hunter (speculation and spoilers from "Hollow Mind")

like I rewatched "Hollow Mind" for funsies and I came away with no funsie.

But like,,, what is up with the Golden Guards? What is up with Hunter? Is he like,,, a clone?? Or something? Cause like, with lines like:

Collector: "I thought you were gonna go all [shape shifts into a vague form of Belos with multiple writhing tenacles] on him."

Belos: "Not as long as he stays on the right path. I say, 'The Titan has big plans for you,' and he does what he's told. Unlike the previous attempts."

Collector: I'm starting to think you make those things just to destroy them."

Fucking what? "Previous attempts??" "Make those things"?? I do not like that at all, what the fuck

And after Luz and Hunter exit that memory, Hunter sees this, which is honestly very freaky no matter how you look at it

And he asks Belos what happened to his family, saying it wasn't actually wild magic, and Belos responds with "What a shame. Out of all the Grimwalkers, you look the most like him." (Sir what do you mean by that 😀) And then he proceeds to pull Hunter into,,, his mind? I would never want to be in Belos's mind, and honestly I'm of the opinion that that is what happened to the previous Golden Guard whose disappearance Hunter stated he knew nothing about. Or some other kind of "tragic accident".

After Hunter is taken away, Belos says, "I was really expecting him to last longer than the others." which honestly this whole got freakier to me as the episode went along because if felt like Belos was almost owning up to it, like Luz would accuse him of something relating to this and he'd shrug and say something like, "I was wondering when you would figure it out" or some shit and I,,,, do not like that at all that is so unnerving.

When Luz asked Belos what he meant by a "Grimwalker", Belos says, "He's a better version of an old friend. But thanks to you, I'll have to make another one."

Idk, seeing as how heavy-handed it was in this episode, I think that's the intended message, so this is probably something that is painfully obvious to some, but it just popped into my head as I was watching, then rewatching the episode.

If Hunter is some kind of clone (I was also considering the idea of him being some kind of sacrificial thing, seeing as he mentions his family, which doesn't really align with what I consider a clone situation), I suppose that could lend a reason as to why he doesn't have magic: it was diluted over time. Alternatively, he could just not have magic, and maybe that's a thing in the Boiling Isles, but seeing as I can remember only hearing it be brought up about Hunter, I don't feel like that is his specific situation.

I'm just thinking that maybe, when Belos (Philip, whatever) came to the Boiling Isles, maybe he came across someone, potentially with the name or title of "Grimwalker", that decided to help him with his endeavors. Maybe Belos got close with this person, and they either died or left him(or tried to leave him) and he couldn't stand it, so he started creating more of that people, derivatives of that person, and calling them "Grimwalkers", and Hunter comes from that?

I suppose that could be part of the reason for his connection to Flapjack, that the original owner (the theorized "Grimwalker", in this case) made or owned Flapjack. Why would Flapjack have not noticed the previous generations/versions? I don't know, but if Hunter resembles the original as much as Belos says he does, that could be why. I would hope that the reason Flapjack was with the Bat Queen is because his owner died rather than him being hurt or rejected. Like, obviously the pain of the death would be miserable, but maybe less so than the rejection? The scar over one of his eyes concerns me, nonetheless.

If anything like that is the case, I wonder how much Darius knows about it. Because in my previous post about Hollow Mind, I went along with the idea that Darius doesn't particularly care about Hunter, but seeing his reaction early in the episode when he (along with Raine and Eberwolf) overheard Hooty talking to Flapjack about Hunter ("the angry blond kid"), he tenses, and almost starts to walk to the house despite the fact that he was keeping Raine from doing the same (presumably so they could talk to Eda). Also, in "Any Sport in a Storm", Darius does a few things that kinda indicate that he cares about Hunter, one of which being when he abducts the Emperor's Entrails team (great naming on Hunter's part, I wonder what the mascot would be?) and Hunter takes down the ship to save them, Darius admits he wasn't even going to do anything beyond taking them back to Hexside. Furthermore, he says that there wasn't even a need for more recruits, and coupled with a previous line earlier in the episode, I think he just wanted Hunter out of the castle and around other people his age, which is nice.

At this point, any even remotely positive influence on Hunter would be nice.

Like I said, I feel like this episode really was trying to push for this idea, especially by sprinkling in pictures like these

which uh, yeah, that one guy with the ponytail does resemble Hunter a lot, like the eyebrows, the nose, the hair color. So this probably isn't a super crazy "whoa I never would have thought of that :o " kind of thing, but it occurred to me and I just wanted to put down the idea for sure rather than it floating around in my head for a few somethings. That's what tumblr is for, right?

#the owl house #toh #toh spoilers #toh s2 #toh s2 spoilers #hollow mind #toh emperor belos #toh hunter #toh speculation #speculation #now i'm wondering about those pictures #is the brown haired kid belos?#but that wouldn't make sense bc belos came to the Boiling Isles as a grown up #unless this is like willow's memories (which is probably is)#but then i'm just wondering like.... who is that guy? why did belos decide to make at least one person to resemble him so much?#what did that guy do to make belos do that?#i guess we'll find out but it's still weird to me

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takerfoxx · 2 years

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The Owl House, Season 2, Episode 16, "Hollow Mind," First Impressions!

It was all going to come crashing down sooner or later.

This episode has been built up to for months. We all had it circled as a major game-changer that would devastate the characters and fans alike with what it revealed, and it certainly lived up to those expectations.

But what I find interesting on a meta-level is that (almost) everything that did get revealed was already figured out by pretty much everyone back in 2A. We knew that Belos was Philip even before Elsewhere and Elsewhen. We knew that Hunter was a Grimwalker (though after discussing and theorizing what a Grimwalker actually is for so long, it was certainly strange to hear Belos say the word out loud, as previously we only knew it from that one page from his book), that Grimwalkers were magical clones, and Hunter and possibly the previous Golden Guards were all duplicates of Philip Wittebane’s brother (friend? Companion? Conspiracy theorist guy called them brothers, while Belos just said that he was a friend. I suppose this will get cleared up in time) Caleb. These were not surprises.

But see, this episode wasn’t intended to be a big shock to the viewers. The crew left those hints on purpose knowing we would figure them out. This was intended to shock the characters, and man, poor Hunter took it the worst by far.

I mean, it’s like King said. No one wants to find out they’ve been following the wrong guy. Hunter was created and basically groomed to look up to Belos and follow him without question He’s been Belos’s stalwart right hand, psychologically dependent on him. Slowly through this season we’ve seen that devotion waver, be it from forming new friends with Willow and the rest of the team or his relationship with Flapjack (and hey, how about that adorable phone call), but he still remained loyal, desperate to prove his worth.

That has been utterly shattered. He has been forced to confront what Belos is and what he’s all about, and that is a monster. Philip was a witch hunter, an old-school religious bigot who came to the Boiling Isles with Caleb (I’m going to keep referring to his companion as Caleb until this name is proven otherwise) and could not accept the magic as anything other than evil. But the devil is in the details, and like previous episodes the real reveals for the audience are in the background, and in this case the paintings found in Belos’s memories.

Caleb set aside his hatred. Caleb made a life for himself in the Boiling Isles. Caleb fell in love with a witch and even sired a child, but Philip just sank further and further into his hatred, hypocritically seeking out dark powers in order to “fight” wild magic. But when he confronted Caleb, Caleb didn’t turn away from him, but instead reached out to and tried to help him.

And Belos killed him for it. First he went after Caleb's lover, but when Caleb stepped in the way, Philip killed him instead. And he never stopped killing him. Every Grimwalker since has been an attempt to recreate Caleb, but as a “better” version that would go along with his dogmatic madness. But each and every one still had Caleb’s kind heart, and eventually turned against him. Each time he killed them. Each time he made a new one.

(note: I've since been informed of an alternate theory, in that all of this actually takes place in the human realm, that Philip disguised himself as a monster in a [failed] attempt to scare his brother rather than sought out dark powers, and that Caleb's lover banished Philip to the Boiling Isles out of revenge for killing Caleb, further explaining Philip's utter hatred for magic. This makes a lot of sense, though if the theory about the Clawthornes that I discuss below is true, it doesn't explain how they themselves got to the Boiling Isles, or how Philip got the bones of Caleb to make the Grimwalkers)

As for how Belos took power, he turned into a con man, using tricks to try to bring people to his side, destroying their homes and blaming it on wild magic. And those coven glyphs? Yeah, they basically killed the first few test subjects. I know the first Grimwalker said that they were still alive, but Belos pretty much just left them to die. And now those marks are perfected, a kill switch on nearly every subject of the Boiling Isles. The so-called Day of Unity will be a genocidal massacre.

You know, for kids!

But what I find absolutely chilling (you know, in addition to everything else) is Belos’s reaction to it all. He wasn’t at all surprised to se Luz and Hunter there. In fact, he so easily used them. You know, one would have thought that this show would have taught me to sympathize with the thing presented as a monster and suspect the thing presented as an innocent, especially somewhere in Belos’s mind. He used them to basically just clean house on all the souls of the Palismans that he absorbed like the monster he is.

But even more to the point, he recognized Luz. He probably figured out what Luzara and her aunt’s deal was and was waiting for them. He probably knew what would eventually happen with Lilith when he made her head of his coven. He’s ten steps ahead of everybody!

Belos is honestly terrifying, as he merges two classic villain archetypes. For one, he’s the fantastical type, the evil overlord, the supervillain, the wicked sorcerer, the mad scientist, the one with the intimidating appearance and scary powers and massive fortress and fanatical armies and grand designs. If this was a musical, then he’d get a killer villain song, probably something with a pipe organ. We all love these kinds, because as evil as they are, they are very much not someone any of us will ever meet.

But he is also the much more believable kind. The bigot. The religious fanatic. The manipulator. The abuser. People that are very much real, that have ruined actual lives, that have convinced themselves that they are the ones in the right. We see people like this all of the time, these days even moreso. This sort of villain really hits close to home.

And now Hunter has finally seen all of this, has been finally had the truth laid bare…and it utterly broke him. That poor, poor kid. Everything he’s ever believed has turned out to be a terrible lie, the good guys are actually the bad guys, and the bad guys are the victims. Kind of have to admit, I went through something similar myself a few years back. It wasn’t nearly so traumatic or dramatic, but there are parallels.

But at least Hunter will have people ready to help him. I mean, Willow and the rest of his team are already his friends, Flapjack will forever have his back, Luz is there, Eda is there, and then there are the rebellious coven heads.

Well, well, well. We already knew that Raine and Darius were working together to bring down Belos, but Eberwolf is with them as well! That’s interesting. Given how fond Darius has become of the kid, I have no doubt he’ll play a big part of being that support system that Hunter needs.

…

Please don’t kill Darius.

Also, lol. Even these massively powerful witches have no idea what Hooty is. But they did know how to get past him. Oh, Raine. Just tell her!

But there is another background detail I’d like to talk about, and that is Caleb’s pregnant lover, who drove off Philip after he killed Caleb.

A lot of people have pointed this out, but that kid lived. And there are a lot of physical similarities with the Wittebanes and the Clawthornes. Plus, there’s the whole bird affinity. Which would mean that the thing between Belos and the Clawthornes is deeply personal, and also that Hunter might have an actual family waiting for him.

And finally, the Collector. Huh, what’s his deal? He’s like an even more childish Bill Cipher. Apparently he and Belos have been working together for a while, and he will be instrumental in the Day of Unity. I still think that there’s some kind of connection between him and the Blights, and that little bit of art Dana drew of him as a human looked an awful lot like Luz. Something to chew on.

If I had one complaint about this episode, it really could have stood to be longer or a two-parter. Yes, I know those were both impossible, but man, did something like this really need space to breathe. Imagine how much more impactful it could have been had it been allowed to slow it down between each revelation.

Well, the switch has been flipped, the battle lines are drawn, and now things will really start moving toward the end.

Prepare for trauma!

#the owl house #toh #hunter #golden guard #philip wittebane #caleb wittebane #emperor belos #luz noceda #eda clawthorne #hollow mind #review

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dread-on-arrival · 4 years

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Richard Ramirez - The Night Stalker: Family Background

Serial Killer Masterlist

Childhood Part 1

Word Count: 3505

Richard Ramirez, the man who left at least thirteen dead, paralysing the city of Los Angeles throughout the summer of 1985. His name alone makes people prickle with fear as they remember the acts of horror he committed on children and adults alike. Yet he still fascinates people; the Night Stalker Case was what got me interested in true crime and how the human brain can be so drastically changed by mental and physical events. I have spent countless hours reading up on his crimes, trial, personality, drifter lifestyle and the tragic childhood that played a huge role in creating the monster we all know and fear. I collect this information I have read many articles on Richard Ramirez and watched videos discussing his life. My main source of information was ‘The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez The Night Stalker’ by Philip Carlo, I highly recommend. Georgia Marie’s video also gave a slightly summarised version of Ramirez’s life so watch that here if you are interested.

Compared to the other detailed multiple part series I am doing for the Serial Killers, this one is going to be exceptionally long simply because I have copious amounts of information about Richard. The other Serial Killers I cover will be very detailed as well don’t worry I just simply have so much I want to share about him. We will start with the background of his family, the next part will cover his childhood however I cannot confirm when it will be out but I am writing it from now. Anyway, lets get into the background of the Ramirez family.

With three older brothers and an older sister, Richard Ramirez - Richie as the family fondly remembers him - was the youngest of five to Julian Tapia Ramirez and Mercedes Ramirez.

Julian Ramirez was born in the rough city of Camargo in Mexico, February 16th 1927. He was the second oldest of eight children who were raised on a poor farm. He was large, with the power to match it, high well-defined cheekbones and jet-black hair making him a considerably attractive man. His features were often characteristics of the Ramirez men.

Jose Ramirez, his father, was a stern man who rarely showed any signs of joy. Jose had inherited his dark eyes and tight, firm lips from his father, Inacia, but also had inherited his Father’s horrible temper. Julian’s mother, Roberta, had died when he was only 12 leaving a lot of the responsibility to raise the large family on him since he was the oldest boy.

Corporal punishment was something Jose and Inacia firmly believed in, if any of the eight children did not keep up with expectations they were quick to receive a severe beating. It was a normal occurrence for fathers to beat their children in Mexico - to teach them respect and discipline - however the beatings from Julian’s father and grandfather often blurred the line between discipline and abuse. Inacia would beat Julian the most, tying him to a tree and whipping him with a rope causing Julian to became very withdrawn. He wouldn’t cry when he was beaten and would just wait until the older men’s anger was vented, he was beaten the most since he was the oldest.

At 14 Julian stood up for himself. He tore the belt from his father’s hands and said sternly, “You are not beating me anymore.” In Camargo a child could be executed for disobeying their father but nothing was done and from then on Julian was never beaten again. He never should have been beaten anyway, he was a good child and always did what he could to benefit his family. Julian never swore, smoked and rarely drank. He went to church every Sunday with his family and firmly believed in Jesus and the powers of Satan. He never got past the first grade in school as he was needed to work on the farm 24/7.

The city itself was small with no available electricity, railroad or even a phone so everyone knew of each other. Julian met his future wife, Mercedes, when they were 14.

Mercedes Muñoz was part of another big family, one of seven children - four boys, three girls and was born in Rocky Ford, Colorado. They were another poor family but made the most of what they could. When America joined World War II Guadalupe, Mercedes mother, decided it would be best to leave the US for Camargo. She believed her sons should not be drafted for the war because their blood should not be spilt because of the fights between politicians. It was well known the government were corrupt (some to this day still are). From the moment she arrived in Camargo she became friends with Julian’s sisters and that was how they were introduced. Mercedes was pretty, she was tall and thin, large doe-eyes, a broad forehead and her hands and fingers were long and finely tapered, ‘beautiful enough to have modelled’ - The Life and Crime of Richard Ramirez The NightStalker - Philip Carlo.

Julian and Mercedes didn’t truly start to date until 19 when they would go for walks around Camargo’s only park and watch movies at Camargo’s only cinema.

Once the war was over 1946, Nacho - Mercedes’ brother - had moved to the town of Juarez to work in a post office, Juarez was the border town beside El Paso, Texas. There was little work in Camargo due to its size so to get work you would have to move. Luckily the Muñoz children were American citizens since they were born in the United States and they could legally travel to El Paso for work so Guadalupe made the decision to move which meant Mercedes herself would have to go too. Her relationship with Julian would have to be put behind her for the time being.

After moving to Juarez in the August of 1947, any body old enough to get a job was put to work. Juarez was a very violent place and anything could be bought for not much money at all: drugs, stolen American goods, prostitutes, even sex with minors. These horrific things are common in many border towns. Mercedes found the place disgusting and horrifying, she was horrified and scared of the crimes committed all around her.

But something she looked forward to was writing to Julian, although he struggled with writing he got his sister to teach him how. The letters may have been short but they were full of love; telling her how much he missed her and how lonely it had become without her. She shared the same sentiment.

Not long after Mercedes left Julian got drafted, he was taught to shoot and use all kind of weapons. He was never deployed because he contracted scarlet fever. He was discharged and sent back to Camarge - thin and sick his sister had to help him get back to good health. He was determined to get to Mercedes in Juarez and wrote to her, asking to marry her. She was full of joy and said yes but her mother did not want the marriage to take place, going as far to forbade it. As much as Julian was hardworking she judged him on the fact that he had no education nor skills, she felt her Mercedes deserved far better. She wasn’t the only one to dislike this marriage, the Ramirez’s thought Mercedes’ family acted as though they were more important then everyone else.

Yet the couple were determined, both rarely defied their own families however the love they shared for one another was too strong and with the little possessions he had, Julian arrived in Juarez on the 3rd of August 1948 and they married on the 9th six days later in the Juarez City Hall in front of a few friends. They had no honeymoon due to lack of money. They were only 19.

They agreed that they would make sure their own children would have everything that they didn’t as children, a happy life with financial security and in Julian’s case, no beatings.

Mercedes continued her work as a housekeeper in El Paso, they could live in the States since she had been born there. She wanted to move there because the crime in Juarez was too much for her. Julian was content in Mexico but he knew how much his wife disliked the city so he applied for US citizenship. They had both heard of the ‘American Dream’ and she wanted her children to be born in the US so they could live out this dream. Finally Julian reluctantly accepted and they moved into a small one bedroom, one bathroom apartment in El Paso in Fourth and Canal.

Also during this time Guadalupe began to warm to Julian, she realised how hardworking he was and how much he loved her daughter. They started going for meals at Guadalupe - they didn’t live far from her in Juarez.

Within months Mercedes was pregnant with their first son, Ruben. At the time - unknown to the people of El Paso - the U.S government had been testing nuclear weapons in the nearby city of Los Alamos, New Mexico. It wasn’t known about the effects of Nuclear fallout and the wind more often then not carried the fallout over Juarez and El Paso, polluting the water, milk and Cattle. Between 1950 and 1954 the testing was most frequent, correlating with the high rate of birth defects in babies, causing physical issues and mental issues alike. It became known what was causing this but people were hesitant to speak out about it to the government - after all the Nuclear bomb had won them the war.

Ruben was born without much difficultly however he was born with large lumps up his back, neck and head and he was incredibly sick. At the time the doctor didn’t understand but he thought the bomb tests definitely had something to do with it. Ruben got very ill and it was believed he wouldn’t make it yet after a few weeks the lumps began to disappear and got better. The family owed this to a divine intervention. Ruben was allowed to go home and Julian would often take him for long walks down the roads of El Paso, telling him stories and smiling joyously constantly.

Just two months later, Mercedes was pregnant again. She wanted a girl but most of all she wanted a healthy baby and for the atomic bomb tests to stop, for all the evil to go away from her little family. This pregnancy was also easy, Joseph was born (named after Mercedes’ favourite brother). He was healthy, both Julian and Mercedes’ thanked God. Two sons in a row was a good omen according to Guadalupe and Julian considered himself a very lucky man.

At six months old Joseph started to cry much more frequently. As though he was in serious pain. His parents tried everything to calm the baby but nothing would work. He was taken to the El Paso clinic, neither could they find the problem so they sent him back home. The crying only became more extreme as each day passed. The second time he was taken to a clinic he was nearly 1 year old. After an examination the doctor announced that poor Joseph’s bones were not growing correctly and they never would. He didn’t quite understand why and sent them to a specialist who told them that Joseph had a disease called Collier which caused the bones to curve as they grew. This was also a direct result of the nuclear testing nearby - still nobody wanted to shame to war winning bomb though. Dr. Perry Rogers told the Ramirezes that he would cut away at the curved part of the bone and would construct a metal heal that would allow Joseph to somewhat walk right. But he warned them that he would require many more operations because the bones would continue to grow incorrectly. There was no proper cure. Any money they could spare was handed over to Dr. Rogers to pay for the operations, they never asked any other families for help so they simply worked longer and harder. Joseph had his first surgery at 17 months old and it helped briefly but he began crying in pain again not long after. The family often went to the Sacred Heart Church on Oregon street to pray for Joseph’s pain and disease to go away.

A while later Julian became a construction worker in El Paso even though he didn’t have the proper papers. He needed the money though, this job payed far better then the factory job he previously worked in.

In the year of 1952 immigration border guards payed Julian a visit at the construction site to ask for his papers. He told them he didn’t have them but that his wife was an American citizen so he could stay but they told him that he needed papers and was to be deported immediately. After some persuasion he was allowed to go and tell his wife what was going to happen however once at the apartment the guards said that whole family was going to be deported. Their landlord came to their defence, he agreed that they were American citizens and that they should stay. No protests worked, at 3pm the little family and all their belongings were dumped on a corner on the Mexican side of the Sante Fe bridge.

Julain told Mercedes to take herself and the children to her mother’s house a mile away, he would stay and fight off any thieves who attempted to take their belongings. On a good weekend in Juarez there was twenty murders. Mercedes began the short but treacherous walk to her mother’s, holding Ruben by the hand and a crying Joseph in her arms.

She reached Guadalupe’s without an incident and her two brothers - Joseph and Manuel - took a neighbours truck to move the family’s possessions to the house. It took two trips.

Once settled, Julian went out looking for work. He met a friend who was working as a policeman. His friend took him to the Commandante of the Juarez police. Julian said he didn’t know much about being a policeman but the Commandante didn’t mind and thought he looked right to be a policeman. Since he was experienced with guns due to his time in the military, he was put in charge of teaching the Juarez police to maintain and shoot firearms properly. But Mercedes wasn’t overly happily. Mexico was like South America, police officers were often killed if they got in the way.

Julian Ramirez in 1951 after becoming a police officer - From Philip Carlo’s personal collection of photos.

Mercedes had their third son Robert, he presented no problems.

Finally Julian’s American Citizenship papers were approved and with the good of his sons in mind he quit his job and the family moved back to El Paso in early 1954. They got a small apartment in the second ward at Seventh and Canal. Julian got a job at the Santa Fe railroad, laying track. It was hard work and he was often out of town for days but the wages were good. He knew he had made the right decision for his wife and children.

The Ramirez apartment - From Philip Carlo’s personal collection of photos.

Mercedes got a job at a famous boot-maker in Texas called Tony Lama. Her wages were also much better and she had managed to find a Mexican women who could care for her sons while she was out working, she wanted someone good to look after them since she was nervous to leave them for too long.

She would mix pigments and chemicals for the boots colours to paint the boots and treat them with fixatives so the colour would last. Similar to the Nuclear tests, these chemicals were often toxic and required ventilation when being used but the people working with them were unaware at the time. She spent seven hours a day, five days a week exposed to these toxic chemicals and quickly developed dizzy spells meaning she would have to sit down for periods of time to recover.

Six months after being employed she was pregnant again, Julian was overjoyed as this was the fourth pregnancy in fours year and he felt like the luckiest man alive.

Finally one of Mercedes’ dreams became true. She had a healthy little girl who she named Ruth, a little girl to help her out in a house full of boys. Julian was happy as well, he knew Ruth would always have three older brothers to keep her out of harms way.

Every weekend Julian would dress up and go and visit his police friends in Juarez, occasionally bringing along his sons and talk to them in Spanish. He wanted them to learn English and do well in American but he also did not want them to forget about their heritage. His sister moved to El Paso the same year, bring her son Miguel who was the same age as Ruben, the two became close friends the moment they met.

Mercedes’ sister had also moved to El Paso and got employed at Tony Lama, she developed the same dizzy spells and they both began to feel unwell on weekends. After a discussion they began to question whether maybe they were addicted to the chemicals they worked with and were experiencing some form of withdrawal yet they didn’t seek any medical attention.

When Ruben started school he was put into a class designed to help teach English. Before long he could say sentences in English and Julian encourage him to speak English with his friends and grandmother Guadalupe. Joseph started school not long after and was wearing the special shoes he had been given in Juarez and they needed to be adjusted often as he grew but he never complained. He always walked with his brother to school but had to break often as the shoes weighed quite a lot. His parents were worried about how the other kids would treat him but his brothers were always there to defend him.

Robert started school and he learned English as well. The first time Julian heard his sons speaking English to each other he was happy but he couldn’t help feeling a little down as he struggled to learn the language and couldn’t speak with them. He never was required to learn English because most of the men he worked with spoke Spanish anyway.

At school Joseph had started being taunted about his disadvantages, he took the insults to heart and became very shy and fearful. Ruben however, had inherited the fierce Ramirez temperament and would chase off the children who teased Joseph. Their father did not often lose his temper, he was a very easygoing and friendly man but when he did he would start beating any object near him and throwing things. Another trait of the Ramirez family was that they had very large feet and hands, a punch from one of the Ramirez men would cause a lot of damage.

Mercedes - much to her dismay - realised that all of her children had the explosively violent temper of the Ramirezes. Ruth herself would break and throw things if her anger got the better of her. ‘”I’d just black out when I got mad,” she’d say years later. “I couldn’t control the anger. There would just, like, be an explosion inside of me, and I’d go off.” Her older brothers gave her a wide berth when she “went of”.’ - The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez The NightStalker - Philip Carlo.

Mercedes’ fifth and final pregnancy was the most painful and difficult. She even had to go to a specialist to help with the discomfort who told her the chemicals she had been breathing in at her job was going to cause a miscarriage so she needed a range of injections to keep the baby. She finally quit her job during her fifth month of pregnancy. This final pregnancy surprised Julian as it had been four years since the birth of their daughter. Guadalupe recalled praying a lot for her daughter and the unborn baby during the pregnancy, she could see this child was sapping the life-force from her daughter.

At 2:07am on February 29th 1960, Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramírez was born. His father and all his siblings arrived at the hospital to see the new baby. Ruth was ecstatic to have a baby brother and from the first day he came home she was all over him.

He was her little precious, dark-eyed, dark-haired doll come to life. Ruben, Joseph and Robert didn’t pay one-tenth the attention to Richie that Ruth did. - The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez The NightStalker - Philip Carlo.

If you think I have any facts wrong be sure to message me and I’ll correct what I can. The next part I am covering will be his childhood.

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firefield · 3 years

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David Bowie - Reality (2003)

“The thing, probably, that keeps me writing is this awful feeling that there are no absolutes. That there is no truth. That we are, as I’ve been thinking for so many years now, fully in the swirl of chaos theory.” DB, 2003

I always learn new things about David Bowie whenever I listen through his complete discography chronologically, and this run through is no different. As I get close to the end here, I’m reminded how much less I know about these later works, due simply to the fact that they have existed for a much shorter time, and my experience with them is more limited. “Reality” rocks more than I realized on release day, especially coming off the heels of “Heathen” with all its layers and mystery and subtleties. An empty house afforded the opportunity to really crank this one up, a vinyl pass, and CD pass, and finally the 5.1 surround sound edition - and yeah - DB said he wanted a simpler sound, and wanted a record that could be translated into a live show easily and effectively and he got that in spades.

As with all his post-80’s work, and especially his post-heart attack material, “Reality” embraces the darker and more cynical side of DB’s many characters - from the irony of the album title with album art portraying a very cartoony space-man Bowie looking about as unreal and non-Reality as possible and still be recognizable - to DB’s insistence that he made a “positive!” record despite themes of aging and death, loneliness and anonymity, geopolitical strife, day-in-day-out mundanity and the creeping threat of urbanization to nature. Regarding the subject matter of Reality he told Interview Magazine, “This is probably a period when, more than any other time, the idea that our absolutes are disintegrating is manifest in real terms. Truths that we always thought we could stand by are crumbling before our eyes. It really is quite traumatic.”

I read quotes like that and I think, for a guy that is largely known for (and criticized for) his ability to synthesize the past and his surroundings into something entirely David-Bowieingly unique, he certainly shows skill at synthesizing the future as well. Beyond things like financial chicanery like Bowie Bonds and the impact of the internet on the creation and distribution of music, Bowie often hit at the very essence of what unites as well as divides.

The seeds of this malleablity of truth that DB describes had been planted in my country during the civil rights movement and the tragedy of the Vietnam War, but began to flower and bloom after the 9/11 event - affecting Bowie’s home turf and his family profoundly. Heathen is prescient, Reality is a little angry about things. DB took time to specifically say what Reality was not: it was not an angry album, it was not a response to 9/11, it was not his “New York Album” - but then he’d spend just as much time gently walking back those claims, almost wondering aloud if it was, in fact, all of those things and more. He speaks around this time about how naturally writing music came to him. Unforced, calmly. I think this “flow” is why you can glean so many little contradictions about Reality and it’s intentions and meaning. He’s letting it happen, not dictating the plot; the tensions of that city and that moment in time allowed to mold and shape the work. Polar opposite to the Heathen recording environment at Allaire Studios in the Catskill Mountains, Reality was recorded in the cramped Studio B of Philip Glass’s Looking Glass Studios in NYC and both those disparate studio choices impact their respective products acutely.

Reality is Bowie’s most “hands-on” record since Diamond Dogs, employing all his multi-instrumentalist abilities, and it’s also one of his most thoroughly demoed. Most all of Reality was demoed out in Studio B by DB and Tony Visconti playing all the instruments, with Mario McNulty (the same engineer DB would later trust with the posthumous reimagining/re-recording of Never Let Me Down) as studio assistant. According to Tony, he had a feeling that many of these “demo tracks” would not ever actually be re-recorded, so they were laid down at a useable fidelity. Consequently, much of the demo material survived on the final album. The band brought in for final overdubs was chosen with the live show in mind specifically. This was a smaller, tighter unit of BowieLive veterans and by all accounts recording was smooth and productive.

New Killer Star opens the record, and is also Reality’s debut single (that contained one of his more surprising B-sides, Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s ‘Love Missle F1-11’) and is a spectacular Earl Slick led hazy, woozy guitar statement.

This is followed by The Modern Lovers - Pablo Picasso - recorded in 1972 but delayed until their 1976 debut. This track mimics the space occupied by the Pixies cover Cactus - the second track on Heathen - DB pulling tracks from his past that he enjoys and placing them where they give the record momentum. Quite a different interpretation if you have heard the original - DB took liberties with both the lyric and the arrangement and it’s a cool little track.

Never Get Old follows and addresses the common theme of time and aging in DB compositions…. (Cygnet Committee, Time, Hearts Filthy Lesson, Changes, Fantastic Voyage, and many more) and the composition itself references much of his past in Space Oddities countdown, the elongated guitar strands of Heroes, bits of melody from Crack City, the four-walls-closing-in sense of Low and some of Hunky Dory’s ominous moments. A pounding live favorite.

…and seamlessly right into The Loneliest Guy. Anyone who saw the Reality Tour knows the captivating power of this piece, and it’s honesty and fragility was one of a few reasons why I thought this would be DB’s final album.

Looking For Water. Man, I *love* this song. It’s one of my favorite vocal performances on Reality and would certainly end up on my list of “underrated DB songs” were I compelled to make one. I like repetition in music, and it’s hypnotic and mantra-esque qualities - and this is one that always gets a significant volume boost.

She’ll Drive The Big Car - a supercool stab of Bowie sash and swagger, and a killer vocal performance, masking some seriously sad lyrics. Bowie manages to sound defiant, tired, funky, deferential, sexy and soulful all in the course of a single song. He’s such an effortlessly great singer, that’s it’s easy to become so accustomed to it that you almost miss it. It’s just “him.”

The exceedingly sweet “Days” fits nicely with all of Realities reflections, and has for me become a song I pay much more attention to since we lost the man to cancer.

Fall Dog Bombs The Moon is one of DB’s most overtly political songs, and was apparently written very quickly - under a half and hour - and directly addresses the Iraq War and the profiteering involved. Relatively bleak with murky lyrics, it’s a interesting and unique DB composition.

Try Some, Buy Some is just beautiful and I think one of Bowie’s most interesting and genuinely heart-felt covers (along with Waterloo Sunset, also from these sessions.) The inspiration to do this song comes directly from the 1971 Ronnie Spector version and the impact it had on him personally. DB seems to be absolutely sincere when he claimed that he had completely forgotten that it was a George Harrison composition until he sat down to work on the album credits.

Next up is the sizzling rocker Reality that has one foot in Tin Machine and one foot in The Next Day. Love Earl’s guitar sound here. Like New Killer Star, the guitar layers in this one sound amazing on the 5.1 surround mix.

Ahh yeah. Another in an amazing number of fantastic Bowie album closers. I’ve made it a point in my life to quit ranking art into “good/better/best/sucks categories and hierarchies and see art as an experience, not a competition. My friends know this about me, and consequently tease me and attempt to prod me into breaking this creed. Under unrelenting pressure to name a “favorite David Bowie track” I named Bring Me The Disco King.

I could give many reasons why this would be the one…. The repetition I mentioned earlier, here found in Matt Chamberlain’s drum loop (interestingly snagged from ‘When The Boys Come Marching Home,’) the overwhelming sense I had when I first heard it that this was DB’s final record, the sense that the threat of jazz that had always pounded on David’s door in his chord structures and harmonies had finally broken down the door… the very tangible sense that this was a composition that had already had a long life but stayed tucked into the shadows by its unsatisfied creator, only to be given life and light on this great album after it had been stripped down to almost nothing - simplicity being the sought after key to its finally being allowed to soar. If it’s not already obvious, I think this song is magnificent. Literally. The fact that David knew it was deep inside there, he just had to mine it out over the course of a decade or so is extraordinary.

Couple of thoughts about a track that didn’t fit well on Reality but made it to bonus/B-sides…

How cool is his cover of The Kinks Waterloo Sunset? In the years after his death, when I feel that loss in my heart, it’s Waterloo Sunset I turn up to 11 and allow it to yank me back out of that murk.

“People so busy

makes me feel dizzy

but I don’t feel afraid

as long as I gaze on Waterloo Sunset

I am in paradise.”

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abloomntime · 3 years

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A Bloom In Time Ch6 A Tale Of A Prince,Queen,And Princess Of Flowers

(Warning: Death scene in this chapter. I do not know Snatcher's or The Florist's real names so Im making my own headcannon names for the two. Also mentioning of Death near the end of the chapter.)

You may have heard this story but not in the correct version you might've thought. Gather around children and I'll tell you the story of a Prince of Shadows, A Queen of Golden Hair, and an honorary Princess of Flowers. And it all took place one thousand years ago. Way before you or I was born.

Once upon a time there was a planet called Subconia and there are many different cultures and people who live on this world, but the two kingdoms we shall explore was two kingdoms that don't exist anymore. A thousand years ago there lived two kingdoms who lived side by side. The MUCH larger Kingdom Of Subcon, and the tinier Kingdom of Subconette. Though these two kingdoms shared similar names and people, they were worlds apart. A lone Queen ruled over Subconette while a kind King and Queen ruled over Subcon. Years passed as the kingdoms continued to stand, until one fateful day three children were born. A beautiful little princess with hair of the sun was born to the lone queen and a handsome baby boy of equal beauty was born to the Subcon kingdom. Their names? Princess Vanessa and Prince Philip of the Subcon Kingdoms.

Did you all remember me mentioning a third child born? Ah! Good. You're paying attention to my old tale.

Yes. A third child was born, but not of royal blood. A young girl, with hair of rose red and eyes of ocean blue was born to a small farming family just on the outskirts of the kingdom of Subcon, but it was fate that decided her role in the future. Her name? Poppy Rose Bloomington...But I'm getting a little ahead of myself aren't I? Let us proceed with the two lives of the royals before the three intertwined.

As months went by, the Prince and Princess's parents deemed it so that the two would be betrothed in holy matrimony, a union to bring the two kingdoms together at last and bring peace to them all. As the amount of years grew, so did the beauty of the princess. Her skin, was very fair and her hair a beautiful yellow rivalling any gold treasure, with a voice as tender and soft as velvet. Not a woman in the kingdoms could rival her own beauty....Or so she thought. Ever since she was small her mother always made sure Vanessa could have anything a young lady wanted. Servants, good food, exotic jewelry, expensive dresses, anything was hers at a moment's demand and she relished in the fact of being a perfect princess like in those fairytales her mother always read her, always fantasizing about her perfect fairytale like with her Prince Charming and having that perfect white wedding. And that spoiled thinking would ultimately lead this girl to doom. Her mother building her up so and giving in to every request only made her want what was truly a fantasy. An actual fairytale perfect life, whether anybody liked it or not. She fell hard for the handsome young prince of brown hair and handsome features. From the time she could understand to speak, her mother always told her Prince Philip was her betrothed, and were to her married when they grew. Her betrothed.....Her Prince. ALL HERS AND NO ONE ELSE'S!!! She would always be the kind Princess her Prince deserved and he WOULD be the Prince she knew he could be.

Prince Philip was more clear minded than given credit for. The young prince was a kind hearted young boy who cared for his people greatly and wanted to better himself and his country. Therefore it would only make sense for him to want to study the laws governing his kingdom so he may better them. And so his studies began. From a young age the boy studied laws enough to make his parents proud he was taking his studies seriously and at the same time was often taken on visits to meet his future beloved. It was love at first sight....at least at first it was. She was so beautiful and kind and wanted to spend time with him all the time. It was a kinda god send for someone who had no siblings or other children to play with. Having someone your age around you could play and talk to with was exciting. And her beauty only grew over time as well as his love for her, how couldn't he love someone as beautiful and kind as Vanessa? She was perfect.....Too perfect. Things couldn't last forever unfortunately. Vanessa's poor mother had started coming down with an illness that slowly started to make her waste away as her daughter grew and so he tried to be there of course and help console his future beloved, which is where fate intertwined these fated lovers. You see, if there was one thing that Vanessa loved more than anything was attention. Whether it be from her servants telling her how beautiful she was, or compliments....She LOVED attention from her Prince and ...'lightly suggested' it would be nice to receive things. And things she received, flowers mostly.

Did you notice how I pointed out flowers? Good eye.

You see, Poppy was always born with a green thumb, being from a long line of farmers of course helped. She could grow anything from potatoes to peach trees, but ever since she was small, she had always had one love. Flowers! Didn't matter what kind, she always loved growing them just as much as Vanessa loved receiving beautiful flowers from her prince. Which lead us to the fated meeting of the Florist. Poppy worked her whole life to build up her own flower stand and by the age of fifteen she had achieved it. A small flower stand within the Subcon Village, filled with lots of Merry children and near the famous vacation home of the famous Princess Vanessa. Sometimes she'd be lucky enough to see the beautiful princess walking around the village talking to the children but one fateful day to Poppy's surprise a young handsome man with brown hair and a golden crown on his head came to visit the small stand of flowers. Buying the most beautiful roses Poppy had before leaving. And this young ones is how a friendship began. Almost everyday of the week the prince would stop by the Florist's stands and pick out a new bundle of pretty flowers for his mourning and beautiful princess and everyday she would smile and talk to the prince. Business sales went up and she was giddy a well known man had taken interest in her flowers. Then he started asking what she'd recommend he'd get a lady since she was one, she proudly pointed to daises, and tulips, and tigerlillies. So many to choose from, so many to give. Gradually their conversations turned more business like and an unlikely bond began to weave with them. A friendship he had never had beyond any personal life or otherwise. He learnt her name too. Poppy. Named after those cute red poppy flowers she loved so much, with a spark and feisty temper to match. Made him laugh a couple times when she pointed out something snarky he liked. Slowly melting his heart with her passion and tales of hard work she had to do to get where she was know. And he admired her for that.

Unfortunately fairytales don't last beyond pages, and the Prince learnt that the hard way when Vanessa convinced her still ill mother to make a new law. Telling him he's become fat and shouldn't eat bacon anymore to watch his health. Poppy was confused at such a ridiculous law and her friend was obviously upset about it, but he passed it off as Vanessa wanting to make sure he was healthy as her mother was still dying slowly. Then slowly by surely things only began to get worse. Vanessa wanting attention was fine and he vowed to give her all the attention she deserved, but now she demanded ALL his attention ever and always began scrutinizing him for not being Princely enough now that he began his advanced studies and would go back home within a few months time to finish his more difficult studies under one of the kingdom's best tutors. His only escape was when Vanessa was discussing her future duties with her mother and also taking her Princess classes with her tutors. He was then free to walk around and do as he pleased if only for a few hours a day, those were spent reading or walking around the village, but he learnt pretty quickly to bring some kind of gift or trinket back for her as an excuse for why he'd been out. Vanessa's jealousy could rival that of a child. He never intended for it to happen of course but the strain of the relationship getting to him and the way he looked so tired all the time. Barely smiling when he came in to get Vanessa more flowers. Against her better judgement, Poppy asked why he wasn't smiling anymore and let him rant about his day. Which was a daily thing for them after that. Him coming in, Poppy letting him rant, then he'd buy flowers and leave. Rinse and repeat for the next two years to a few weeks before their twentieth birthdays with Poppy cracking jokes and trying to be helpful and the prince slowly growing more and more fond over her unlady-like snorts and giggles, to her bold statements, to her bright smile always trying to cheer up her friend. All the while Vanessa continued to go down this rabbithole of perfection. He still made excuses for her. Her mother was dying, she was going to be Queen soon, she wasn't ready-.....Well for being Queen that is. Vanessa had already planned out their lives together and even built a BLOODY nursery for their future child that wasn't even born yet. One in her castle and one in the mansion he was staying at, but Vanessa would visit very often. Even stay a few days.

But what really concerned his friend was the hair incident. When he came in with his usual shoulder length brown hair was chopped up and a bad bleached blonde color, with brown patches here and there. He claimed he was alright. Vanessa just wanted to surprise him by doing his hair while he slept. He could tell his friend was concerned and told him as much. He smiled knowing at least someone cared about his well being. Then came the last month he stayed and then off he went back home he went. To spend his final year of tutoring under the wonderful Lady Winchester. She was a kind old lady who taught his father before him and knew the laws better than anyone. He bid his last day there to his beloved Vanessa who cried and begged him not too, and once he fled her clutches......uh Hugged her good bye, he couldn't help but feel very releived he'd get to spend a whole year away from her as hash as it may be. But he did make sure to bid his friend good bye as well. Having one last conversation and sharing a couple jokes before he finally left.

That year would be the hardest for our ill fated lovers and the florist friend. While the Prince was able to breath and see his loved ones again, he couldn't help but miss her. Not Vanessa surprisingly but with all the serious laws and classes he missed their little visits when she always cheered him up and her beautiful smile and that passion she always had for anything she set her mind too.....It wasn't very long before he came to the sudden realization. The prince had slowly but surely fallen in love with the young red headed gal. So many emotions hit him at once. Happiness and guilt being the biggest two. For one, he was engaged to Vanessa, betrothed to be married a few months after all his studies are over. He couldn't go against his parents or break Vanessa's heart after so many years of being together, and she needed him. They had been exchanging letters and learnt her mother had sadly passed during an accident. While he couldn't attend her coronation or her mother's funeral, he still sent her many letters. There was still a piece of him that loved and cared about the young kind girl he grew up with, but not the lady she had become....But his heart was tugging towards the Princess of Flowers as he nicknamed her. The sweet scent always following her around. He often found himself happily thinking about his friend....But that's all they could ever be....Just friends. Vanessa was still his priority as glum as that made him and he had a duty to be there for his future wife. Besides. He was only delaying the inevitable by studying, soon they'd be wed and he would be together with her always.......Though that thought did NOT put him at ease at all. Vanessa in the mean time only drove further into her perfect fairytale madness. WIth her mother passing and her Prince not being able to call her his princess anymore, she was determined to then make her prince her King Instead and keep him all to herself. Jealousy spiking whenever he mentioned this Lady Winchester teaching him, he spoke so fondly and highly of his teacher. What did SHE have Vanessa didn't?! Vanessa was perfect. She made sure every INCH of her was, he just didn't put in enough effort on his part. All he needed was her back so he could know where his true place lied.

When the prince ultimately returned to spend just a holiday week at the summer house before their wedding within a few months time.....It was worse than ever. Vanessa demanded more attention of him. Accused him of liking the lady in the letters he had sent her. Said she would be staying in the summer house with him until their wedding to make sure he wasn't getting cold feet. Still despite all this and him trying to calm her down, he still made poor excuses for her and justified his betrothes's behavior towards him. Falling deeper and deeper into his now rare visits to his friend and falling more and more in love with her as the drew on. Knowing he could never really tell her how he really felt about her. Until one fateful day, the end of that week was the royals anniversary, the prince wanted to appease his beloved by getting her a beautiful bracelet and flowers for their anniversary as a gift to her. She deserved something special for the occasion before he went back, and soon his lonely self went on to that same little stand to but some flowers for his beautiful bride to be. Unfortunately he had used all his remaining pons to pay the jeweler for the bracelet .....but it-....He-......He gave the florist the bracelet as payment. One last gift from him he'd ever get to give her sadly.

For you see, the princess's jealousy had reached a boiling point. Delusionly thinking that her prince was courting another woman. In her range when he returned to the castle, a grim fate awaited him in the form of a curse and becoming locked within the cellar death did they part. Their kingdoms both in ruins from the curse. Anyone who didn't fall ill to the curse, fled the country never to return again. Vanessa now trapped within her own home, and the prince becoming a spirit of malice no one dares to challenge.

But what of the Florist you ask? Was she frozen by the Jealous Queen, or escaped with many other people? Well, we're about to find out.

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Cold. Darkness. All of it came rushed over so suddenly. Just like the two heavily armored guards carrying her kicking and screaming self towards the dreaded summer house that housed the royals deep in the snowed up world. That winter suddenly came that year unexpectedly with the freezing winds suddenly whipping around her when she just closed up her stand for the day, pocketing the expensive bracelet she was given as payment and what coins she received as payment, ready to go home. She didn't make much from her flower stand she always wanted, but that was always fine and dandy. She loved the smiles on the children's faces when they'd buy single flowers for their parents, or if she'd sell them flowers in exchange for small things like food. It was one way to get to eat around here. But the chills filling the air that after noon followed by the loud thumping sounds coming towards her were new. Especially when all of a sudden two giant armored men stood over her and seized her without warning. So naturally she resisted and fought against her captors as they took her away.

"LET THE PECK GO OF ME!! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!!"

The farther down the path they went the more horrified she became. There was ...snow. IN THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER!! Harsh white and cold wind glared all around her as she gawked around wildly....and then shrieked at the sight of a frozen person as they passed. Their feared expression forever frozen on their face. The poor girl went silent from the numb cold as those blue eyes widened in horror at all the suurounding frozen people as they walked past, never easing up on her grip, or giving any emotion to anything around them as the horrified woman went limp in their arms from shock as they approached the black gates and beyond that was the manor. Her blue eyes flicked up to it. It looked more menacing than it usually did as the entire house loomed over them the closer they got and a sudden feeling of dread filled her up to the very core of her soul as they were swallowed by the shadows and even more coldness bearing down on her. The guards didn't stop until they were going up the stairs and into the home. It was as dark and cold as the outside. Even more so if that was possible. She was still frozen and scared in the grip of the guards when the doors opened and they forced her inside. The inside of the manor was colder than the outside is that was even possible, and if she wasn't already in shock, she would've shrieked at what was awaiting them just a few feet away from the door.

In the darkness of cold and shadows, a hunched over monster made it's way over to them but dared not come further than five feet giving a hiss. Like she was a skunk and this red eyed thing was afraid of her. How strange, but that didn't stop her stop pointing a hand at her, and in possibly the most scariest, raspy voice Poppy had ever heard. Said:

"Take her to the room and lock her away. ...I can't to look at her for as my prince had done. Perhaps locking away her forever will teach her a lesson about gazing into another man's eyes who belong TO ME!!"

"...WAIT!! WHAT?!" She attempted to struggle again but their strength was too much.

Sadly be the fate of the innocent florist wasn't a pleasant one. As she was marched up the stairs to the very third floor of the manor, the coldness and shadows started to become too much to the point of her screaming and struggling body starting to be overcome by them all. the long hallway they were taking her down ended in a single pair of double doors, the doors suurounded by locks that haven't been locked yet. As her weakly numbing body was pushed into the empty room, she looked up just in time to see the two heavily armored guards slam the doors behind her. She struggled to stand with the cold seeping through all her body but wobbled to the door, vision blurring with nothing but darkness. Even as all the clicks and locks of the locks were put into place and the floor jostling with the heavy footsteps of the guards stopping away, she fell to her knees against the door and banged her fist against it. Screaming to be let out as the coldness and blackness seeped more into the room and still overtook her form.

Until it completely consumed her and upon the floor she laid. Beautiful red hair and blue eyes preserved by frost. Until a thousand years later. .....when a miracle happened...

And she once again got to take a breath.

#flowercrown #A Hat In Time #a hat in time snatcher #a hat in time florist #The Florist #Florist #snatcher x florist #Snatcher

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