Is Belos a Wendigo? - TOH Essay
Last night I came across a drawing of a wendigo and was struck by how similar it looked to Belosās goop form. With a little more research, I found out that wendigos are usually depicted as extremely skinny and tall humanoid monsters with glowing eyes. Many also have deer-like antlers and skulls. These are all traits that Belos has in his goop form.Ā
Left: RyanStanleyArtwork; Right: JamJamTheArtMan
I decided to look deeper into the lore of the wendigo. These beasts are mainly known for their insatiable cannibalistic hunger, but I found the story of their creation especially interesting. Legend says a human becomes a wendigo either as a cumulation of extreme greed and selfishness or when a person becomes a cannibal.Ā
Belos has historically been a greed-driven character, a trait which only intensified when he started drawing glyphs on himself in an attempt to gain power. He doesnāt eat other humans, but I think he could still be classified as a cannibal in another way. After he made a habit of putting glyphs on himself, he started visibly becoming something inhuman. Now some strange mesh of human and magic, the only way he could fight off the side effects of his mistake was to consume palismen. And since heās partly made of magic, eating palismen is, in a way, cannibalism.Ā
He did appear more or less human up until the finale of season 2, but the monstrous appearance beneath the surface would show itself whenever he went too long without a palisman meal. Consuming palismen didnāt fight the monster within him, it just helped him hide it.Ā
In Kingās Tide, the Collector ākilledā Belos by sending him flying into a wall, leaving behind a green splat. Ever since then, Belos has been unable to keep a human appearance. My theory is that while he didnāt die, his human body did. Eating palismen was enough to keep his flesh together, but with it gone he canāt hide his true appearance. Heās been a wendigo for a long time.Ā
And then in Thanks to Them, Belos possessed Hunter. There are lots of reasons he might have picked Hunter over anyone else. One Iād like to point out is that grimwalkers contain palistrom wood. At this point in the show, Belos is quite literally starving to death. Palistrom wood doesnāt exist in the realm heās trapped in. And if itās true that palismen are the only thing with the ability to subside his hunger, Hunter must have looked especially enticing. And thatās not even considering the power dynamics of finally inhabiting a human body again, especially one with so much significance to his enemies. Now, according to wendigo lore, there isnāt really a way to separate a wendigo from the human itās possessing while keeping the host alive. I believe the current speculation among other fans is that Hunter only temporarily died because he drowned. Either way, Flapjack was able to sacrifice himself to resuscitate Hunter.Ā
Side note: The new scars Hunter had after being possessed are (per my theory) Belos eating away at the palistrom wood in his skin. For this reason, I donāt think Raine will have scars after being possessed by Belos.Ā
After making all these connections, there was one last question I had. How does one kill a wendigo? I found two different answers from a variety of sources. One is that you need to remove the heart of the wendigo, where the source of their evil lies. The other method (which came up slightly more often) was to burn it with fire.Ā
In the recent promo for Watching and Dreaming, the light glyph was referenced a lot. If Belos is a wendigo-inspired villain, maybe he will be affected by light glyphs the same way wendigos are affected by fire. My standing prediction based on all of this is that the light glyph itself will be what destroys Belos for good.Ā
Whether or not my predictions come true, I am enamored by Belosās character design. The comparison Iāve detailed in this post is just another fascinating parallel I wanted to share with you all. I have no idea if his design was really inspired by the wendigo, but the theorizing is most of the fun anyway!Ā
Also if I incorrectly credited either of the artworks or if you are the owner and want me to remove it, please let me know!
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