Wittebane Brothers

Wittebane Brothers is the family ship between Philip Wittebane and Caleb Wittebane from The Owl House fandom.

Canon
The two were very close when they were younger. Caleb crafted his brother a wooden mask and they would practice witch hunting together. At some point, the two lost their parents and became orphans, leading Caleb to take care of Philip when they arrived in a town called Gravesfield, which was known for witch hunting. Philip looked up to him as the work to fit in Gravesfield and its shady practices. This had them wanting to become witch hunters and join riots. When they were a bit older, they started to go to these riots together. With the brothers only having each other, Philip wanted things to stay that way, while not considering what Caleb wants outside of witch hunting.

One day, a witch named Evelyn attracts Caleb and starts to spend less time with his brother, which makes Philip feel jealous and annoyed. Philip remaining true to what they were told about witches made him feel that the witch wanted to capture his brother and set off to look for him, before Caleb could lose his soul and get corrupted. Philip becomes enraged once he found out that Caleb and Evelyn were in a relationship and views it as a betrayal to him and what they both believed in as kids. His anger got him to scare his brother, but Caleb still cares for Philip and proves this to his brother by hugging him. Caleb introduces Philip to Evelyn, while Philip pretends to listen with a knife behind his back. The two get into an argument and Philip attempts to murder his own brother, while Caleb tries to reason with his brother from not wanting this and tries to get him to stop. He successfully manages to kill his brother, and is shown to feel no remorse. From believing that the only way to save Caleb was through death, and viewing himself as the hero of his own fantasy kept him from seeing the villain he became. That is why Philip believes that witches were the reason he lost Caleb, while seeing himself as blameless for what he did.

At some point during his time being trapped in the Demon Realm, Philip learned about grimwalkers and how to make them. Resulting in him creating one that is based off his brother, in an attempt to bring his brother back and to have Caleb's clone serve as his right hand man. As he becomes Emperor Belos for his plan to kill all witches through a draining spell, while the "better version" of his brother acts as his faithful Golden Guard. Once the grimwalker starts to show the traits that got him to kill Caleb in the first, like caring for witches, or tries to turn against him, Philip kills them and makes another grimwalker to replace the one he loses. Belos having his final grimwalker call him uncle subjects that he may have saw them as Caleb's sons.

In "For the Future", Philip starts to have hallucinations of his dead brother. Who appears to be upset and sad of the monster Philip's insecurity and pride turned him into. Still refusing to acknowledge his wrongful actions, Philip didn't know why Caleb's ghost was haunting him, from believing that he was only trying to save Caleb's soul.

Moments
King's Tide
 * Once Belos saw Hunter's palismen he screams his brothers name, "Caleb".

Fanon
After the brothers were first revealed in the series people had suspected that Belos was somehow connected to them, before it was revealed that he was Philip Wittebane and that Hunter is one of the many clones of Caleb Wittebane. One of the things that people hate about the series being cut short was that they didn't get the chance to reveal the whole story of the brothers. Leaving fans to wonder and being left with the bits and pieces that were secretly shown in the background of "Hollow Mind." Before "Thanks to Them" revealed how a pair of human brothers ended up in the demon realm in the first place. That is why TOH fans are hoping for future spinoffs or an novel on the untold parts of their story that will finally put many of their questions to rest.

One of the most earlier theories was of Belos planning to use one of their descendants (Hunter) for some kind of sacrifice that the Day of Unity might have required. Or that Belos himself was related to Philip or his brother.

King's father revealing that Belos sees himself as a hero in his own illusion, while failing to see himself as the true villain, relates to a theory of the brothers playing witch hunters as children, as that was what they were able to gleam from one of the memory portraits of his childhood in "Hollow Mind." Child Belos's mask being similar to his emperor subjected that he might have played the role of the hunter than the witch. It also has people see that a small part of Belos was still the scared little orphan boy, just as him going after Caleb when he left his brother for a witch revealed that Philip was very dependent on his big brother and didn't want to lose him. While him creating a number of clones of his brother, after they show signs of turning against him as well, was his way of bringing Caleb back and saving him from the witches. His many terrible actions, like what he did to his own brother, makes it hard for people to feel sorry for him.

Fandom
FAN FICTION