Belonter

Belonter is the family ship between Emperor Belos and Hunter from The Owl House fandom.

Canon
According to what Hunter has told Luz in "Hunting Palismen", years before the start of the series Hunter had lost his family when he was young and Belos took him in after he fond his powerless nephew on his own. This helped Hunter feel that he can have a place in the Demon realm, even though his future has been picked for him rather than allowing Hunter to pick his own future. Due to Belos telling Hunter that the Titan has big plans for him, along with the Emperor reminding Hunter that is was wild magic that made the two last surviving members of their family. Despite being told this over and over again, Hunter can't help but being interested in wild magic and tries to look for ways that it could be used to help his uncle, who needs palismen to sustain his body. Belos's hatred of wild magic, however, has him wanting Hunter to not mention it in front of him and for him to not use it. Because Hunter is a powerless witch, Belos gives him a staff that wield artificial magic and looks similar to his own staff, along with having Hunter learn the skills he'll need to be his protégé and right hand man; that is given the title of the Golden Guard. Like Belos, Hunter wears a golden mask when he is present by his uncle's side. He spends the first part of season one in his Emperor's shadow that made him a mysterious figure who is loyal to Belos, while Lilith Clawthorne views the Golden Guard as a brat who think that he is better than everyone from being the Emperor's most loyal guard. Along with Lilith's departure with the Emperor's Coven allowing Belos to make the Golden Guard his new Coven leader in her place.

At the beginning of "Hunting Palismen", Hunter takes it upon himself to helps his uncle when his body begins to act out and didn't flinch when Belos turned into a type of creature, before handing him a palisman to help Belos with his mysterious condition. Belos needed another one but the Golden Guard explains that the one he just gave him was the last of the palismen they have on hand and that they have over harvested the palisman wood that it needed to make more. Wanting to help the man who took him in, Hunter begins to share a fact he learned about wild magic, but Belos didn't want to hear it and reminds his nephew the main reason why they can't turn to wild magic. Along with asking Hunter to be careful as he couldn't afford to loss him as well, as he gives Hunter his permission and faith to find more palisman without the help of wild magic. The acts of Kikimora and Luz leads to Hunter failing his mission, and gets a scolding from Belos as asks Hunter if his failure is the thanks he gets for taking him in. Hunter explains that he does want to help his uncle and that led to him making the mistake of asking Belos how wild magic got him hurt in the first place so they could hopefully find a solution to curse him, but Belos got mad at the mention of wild magic and lashes out by turning his arm into a spear and ends up cutting some small strands of Hunter's hair. Knowing that he upset him, Hunter apologies for speaking out of term and will not speak of wild magic again. Belos then explains that his lash out and watching Hunter fail is causing him pain, as he knows that Hunter is cable of doing better. Even though Hunter promised to not touch wild magic, he still believes that it may hold the answers he needs to help his uncle with his condition.

His loyalty to Belos is why Hunter betrayed both Luz and Amity, but when a carinal palisman appeared by his window and can easily hand it over to Belos to make up for his failure, he ends up wanting to keep the palisman safe from his uncle's grasps. That's why he keeps it hidden, even though secretly keeping make his uncle needs will most likely anger Belos when he finds out Hunter's secret. Since the Golden Guard's statement to the main Owl House trio in "Separate Tides" has him knowing that Emperor Belos isn't a merciful man, and that is why he doesn't want to fail him; but is brave enough to keep secrets from his uncle.

Hunter's failed actions in "Hunting Palismen" has him wanting to make up for it in "Eclipse Lake." He he learned that Belos had chosen Kikimora to get the Titan's blood instead of trusting the mission to him, Hunter goes to see Belos when he was in the middle of testing the portal gate. Belos hears Hunter in the room and asks him if he would to see how the portal works. After hiding the palisman in his robe, Hunter explains that he didn't mean to hide from him the way he did. Hunter had heard tales about the human realm and how different it is to the demon realm, and asks Belos if what he heard about it is true. Belos confirms Hunter's questions as he tells him that he had visited the human realm before, while acting as a caring person to Hunter rather than the abusive-like person he acted as in "Hunting Palismen". After Belos tells Hunter a few other things about Earth before asking him if those stories were the reason why Hunter was larking in the shadows, his nephew begins to ask his uncle why he decided to pass him over for Kikimora in their most resent mission. Belos begins to explains that everyone has a role to fill and the Titan's plans for Hunter is very important that he needs to be kept safe in the castle, along with it him not wanting to go through the hassle of finding a replacement for Hunter. Those words got him and begins to believe that him being locked in the castle is punishment for failing in his last mission. Determent to redeem himself in Belos's eyes, Hunter decides to get the Titan's blood before Kikimora does by disguising himself as a low ranking member of the coven. Only to learn that what he came for has dried up and not wanting to face his uncle in failure again, along with remembering Belos's earlier words about him replacing Hunter, he begins to dig his own grave while having a breakdown as he explains his reason to Amity and King. When he saw the key around Amity's neck, however, Hunter sees it as his chance to not return empty handed before Belos again. Even though the key ends up getting damaged by Amity, the Titan's blood leaking from it still provides Hunter with hope of pleasing his uncle; while Amity's earlier words has him questioning the way he obtained the key.

In “Hollow Mind”, Luz and Hunter end up in Belos’s mindscape. Hunter wanted to leave as he was told to not mess with mindscapes, while Luz uses the advantage they were in as a means to convince Hunter that Belos is evil, but he only laugh replying there’s no way he would help her. As Hunter always believed that his uncle is a good person from how he has helped many witch over the years. When he comes across the painting that shows the moment when Hunter inherited his mechanical staff, he proudly informs Luz that he is the youngest scout to become the Golden Guard. The moment Hunter encountered what appeared to be the inner Belos, he asks him for forgiveness for entering his mind and for him to escape escape from it. Until the Belos Hunter bowed down to was revealed to be a type of monster that looks like Belos in his cursed state, as it begin to go after him and Luz. Through Luz Hunter meets "Kid Belos" that Luz wondered if Kid Belos could be is Belos' sense of guilt. Hunter, however, denies this as he claimed that Kid Belos is more likely to be his sense of innocence. As Hunter joins Luz in wandering through Belos's mindscape, Hunter discovers the real side of Belos and his true purpose with the palismen, along with coming across two of the previous Golden Guards. Hunter didn't want to believe the dark truths he saw, until he heard of the way Belos spoke of Hunter with the Collector and how he had destroyed the many Golden Guards before him. After Hunter left that memory he discovers many paintings that are of the Golden Guards dying above their broken masks. The moment Hunter and Luz realise that "monster Belos" was never the Inner Belos, and was Kid Belos all along it was too late. The young Golden Guard could only watch as kid Belos transformed into the real inner Belos. Hunter then confronts Inner Belos about what he did to his predecessors and their family, realizing that their destruction by wild magic was a lie all along. Upon hearing that, Inner Belos' face turns cold, and he expresses disappointment that Hunter is starting to turn against him. He cryptically remarks that he, out of all the Grimwalkers, (Hunter) looked the most like "him", much to Hunter's confusion. Just then, Hunter gets dragged down into the ground, but escaped thanks to Luz’s glyphs and got out of his mind thanks to Eda and King. After being transported to the Owl House, Hunter panics and recognizes that Belos knows he was in there, admitting with shock he can’t go back. He takes off his cloak and runs out of the house in panic.

In fear of what might happen once Belos gets in hands on him, Hunter goes into hiding within the abandoned theatre room at Hexside. Among the items in Hunter's makeshift sleeping quarters there is a book about grimwalkers, subjecting that Hunter is studying them to gain better understand of the things that the Inner Belos had told him in "Hollow Mind." During the events of "Labyrinth Runners" Hunter learns from the Coven Scouts that Belos has been looking for Hunter, and is worried. Hunter knows that Belos's claim of being worried about him is a lie and doesn't want to go back to him, as the information from the scouts causes Hunter to panic. Luckily Gus Porter helps Hunter to calm down from his panic attack. When Hunter and Gus trued to escape from din and the scouts again, an illusion of a fake Belos causes Hunter t fear in fear, and once he was captured Adrien ordered the restrain him; so they can later being him back to Belos in one piece. Hunter was lucky to be saved from the scouts and later helps Hexside to take their school back. Hunter had admitted that a part of him still wanted to believe in the lies Belos had told him, until he met Gus who helped him with the traumas that Belos and his actions had inflicted on him. At the end of "Labyrinth Runners" Hunter tells everyone the dark truths about Belos and his true plans of the Day of Unity.

Because of Hunter's departure from the Emperor's Coven, the Collector asks Belos why he hasn't made a new Grimwalker to take Hunter's place. This has Belos stating that he won't make another one until he gets his hands on Hunter. Revealing that Belos plans to destroy Hunter as he had done to the other Golden Guards who have turned their backs on him. Belos wanting to get rid of Hunter before he begins to create his next Golden Guard subjects that he doesn't want Hunter corrupting his replacement. As before Hunter went into Belos's mind, he has no idea of what became of the Golden Guards before him.

In the episode "King’s Tide" Hunter is greeted with a cursed form of Belos, Hunter appears to be in state of fear at the sight of Belos and then Belos says “Hunter why are you hurting me? I only wanted to help,” then Hunter exclaims in fear, “your lying!” That was when Belos then spots Hunter’s palisman “Flapjack” and then proceeds to say “kill him” or “Caleb” which Caleb is theorized to be the name of Philip's dead brother.

Fanon
Even though The two were revealed to be uncle and nephew, as well as guardian and ward, a large group of fans have trouble believing that Belos would take someone in out of the goodness of his heart. Along with fans paralleling Hunter with Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender has inspired them to parallel Belos with Ozai, due to the theory that Belos might have been the one who gave Hunter his scars or is responsible for them and the dark lines under his eyes; and the fact that the Golden Guard himself has revealed about his Emperor not being a merciful man. Those thoughts have sparked questions about Belos's true reasons for taking Hunter under his wing, along with wondering if the two might turn out to not be related at all; along with the first part of season two leaving fans with new questions rather than the answers to them.

The first version of this theory had fans wondering if Hunter is a half witch-human descendant of Philip Wittebane and Belos might need someone of both realms for his plan tat might involve sacrificing Hunter; as many known big spells have required some type of sacrifice. While a brief scene in "Eclipse Lake" revealing the exitance of Grimwalkers got many to wonder if Hunter is a clone of either Philip Wittebane, the mysterious brother that was mentioned in "Yesterday's Lies" or of Belos himself. As it sparks another theory of Belos possibly being the said human (or his brother) and uses the Grimwalkers he creates to cheat death; which would have Hunter as his next vessel through a body swap spell. Some of the items shown in season two this far were key items needed to create a Grimwalker and it adds fuel to the fire, but another group of fans began to wonder if the sighs of Hunter being a Grimwalker were a misdirect from the truth and Hunter could in fact be somehow connected to Belos's plans of making a Grimwalker. These theorise have fans becoming worried of Belos harming Hunter or his new paliman friend in the future. This is why they are hoping that Luz and her friends will be able to free Hunter from Belos's grasp and make him a member of the Owl House Family. As they don't believe that Belos cares about Hunter at all and only wishes to gain something from him.

Despite these conspiracy theories of what the Titan's suppose plans for Hunter are, there are a few rare fans do believe that Belos does care about Hunter in his own way, and has yet to show it in the series. As the Grimwalker clone theory and the reveal of Philip Witttebane's brother got them to wonder if Belos, as the said human, had created Hunter as his way to bring his brother back was revealed to be true after the episode “Hollow Mind”, many fans got shocked and let them thinking if either Hunter is going to betray Belos or will stay at the Emperor’s coven.

The events of "Any Sport in a Storm" and "Hollow Mind", and those who aren't happy with the way Belos has treated Hunter, however, got people to think that Darius would be a better parent figure to Hunter. As he has hinted sighs of him caring about Hunter. Similar to how some fans want Eda to take Hunter in and keep him safe from Belos.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Belos/Hunter on FanFiction.Net
 * Belos/Hunter on FanFiction.Net

WIKI
 * on the