“ To you, who strayed so far from home, to me, who's trapped beneath these bones! We'll play forever, me and you, when you paint the land in nine bright hues! ” The Collector is an antagonistic character of The Owl House. The Collector is a mysterious being who helped Emperor Belos with the "Day of Unity". Once the event proceeded as planned, Belos went back on his word and abandoned the Collector, only for the Collector to be freed from his prison by King. Upon his release, the Collector took over the Boiling Isles with King as his bound companion.
Appearance
Body
The Collector is a short, humanoid being with childlike features. He has tan yellow skin, bushy lavender hair and eyebrows, an upward-pointing nose, and a large pale blue blotch that eclipses the left side of his face, giving the right side a crescent moon shape. The Collector's eyes are yellow with scarlet irises. His left leg also appears to be pale blue.
In a flashback, the Collector was extremely tall, and had a glowing cresent moon on his face.
Clothing
The Collector wears full-body clothing resembling pajamas with oversized sleeves and collar. His clothes are split between dark blue on the right and lavender on the left. The sleeves have these colors switched, with the right sleeve being lavender with blue suns and the left sleeve being blue with lavender crescent moons, as well as a magenta border on the rims of the cuffs. His head has a nightcap with a magenta border and light spots, and wears gray shoes with poms on them.
In a flashback, the Collector wore a robe with a split color of gray and black, the black side having white stars and gray crescent moons on one side, while the gray side has black suns present on the other side. He also wore a pearl with two small golden moons holding the pearl with a string.
Additional features
The Collector wears a jewel pendant with a crescent around his neck, the pink jewel bearing a smiling crescent moon within. The left cheek of the Collector's face has star-shaped freckles under his eye.
Personality
The Collector is depicted as a childish and mischievous entity. He is motivated by simple desires, wanting to have fun and play games with others, which he shows in his interactions with Belos, but much like a child, gets quite emotional and impatient when his wants are not met. He partakes in theatrics often, speaking riddles and rhymes, although he will quickly give up on harder words. Despite his childlike attitude, the Collector has proven to be cruel and heartless, as shown during Eda's dream when he hunted down the Owl Beast in an effort to capture it, showing no mercy whatsoever and even laughing at his victim's fate. He is nonchalant about the world around him, as he uses his powers freely to manipulate the reality in suiting his needs. This casual indifference causes him to see others as toys for his amusement, such as viewing the catastrophic events the Day of Unity would unfold as a fun activity or casually killing Belos by likening his payback for Belos's double-cross as a game of tag. However, he is quite naive to the point he will take someone's word that they are telling the truth, a trait that has been exploited by others in getting the Collector to help them.
Background
The Collector is an ancient figure with vague, obscure roots in the history of the Demon Realm, as he is not known in the modern era of the Boiling Isles.
At an unmarked point in time, the Collector relentlessly pursued a fearsome creature named the Owl Beast, and managed to capture it. Despite the Owl Beast's efforts to escape the Collector, it was bound to a scroll that fell into the sea.
Somehow, the Collector was imprisoned inside the In Between Realm supposedly by a Titan, seemingly to keep the Collector from getting to the Titan's son, King. An ancient tribe of witches known as Titan Trappers would come to worship the Collector as the "Grand Huntsman". Their leader, Bill, claimed to be working with for the Collector, and further proclaimed the Collector wants them to find the last of the Titans, as only it has the power to free the Collector from his prison.
During the 1660s, a human named Philip Wittebane sought the Collector, as he was said to have the information he needed to construct a portal back to the Human Realm following his incidental transfer to the Demon Realm. To do this, he needed to acquire the Collector's tablet found in the ruins of the Titan's skull, except that it was guarded by a Stonesleeper. After a couple of times, including attempting to make Luz Noceda and Lilith Clawthorne sacrifice to the beast, Philip retrieves the mirror, although he is wounded after by the infuriated duo. Philip later activates the mirror, which emits an animated symbol of the Collector, granting Philip communication to the Collector. Philip made a bargain with the Collector: in exchange for Philip freeing the Collector from his prison, the Collector will help Philip with his goal of eradicating the Demon Realm. The Collector would appear to Philip in the form of a shadow so long as the tablet was intact, and taught Philip all he knew about magic, which Philip would eventually master. As time goes on, Philip adopts the image of Emperor Belos, and together with the Collector, they concocted their complex plot of draining all life on the Boiling Isles on the Day of Unity.
In present day, the Collector pays a visit to Belos to check on his progress with the Draining Spell. Belos assures the Collector the Day of Unity will come, right before Hunter arrives to deliver Belos the Portal Key after his solo mission at Eclipse Lake. Belos coldly dismisses the boy, but takes the key. After Hunter leaves, the Collector comes out from hiding and jokes with Belos about his doubts of Hunter's loyalty, eventually questioning Belos if the false purpose he gives Hunter is another way of tormenting the boy like he has with previous Grimwalkers. Belos disagrees with the Collector, and states that it hurts him every time the clones turn against him.
Powers and abilities
- Magic: The Collector has demonstrated incredible magic potency. His aptitude for magic allows him to perform various feats, among the most notable was forming the powerful Draining Spell and stopping it by moving the moon itself. He holds arcane knowledge of magic, the same knowledge he mentored Philip on and thus allowed him to become the most powerful practitioner on the Boiling Isles, highlighting the Collector's level of skill.
- Flash bangs: The Collector can use flash bangs to blind an opponent.
- Shadow control: The Collector is shown to be able to manipulate shadows. He used this to trap anyone he wishes to capture, or project himself through living shadows from his tablet.
- Binding: He can bind living beings to curses, transforming them into scrolls, as shown by what he did to the Owl Beast.
- Levitation: The Collector can float around and fly as he pleases. He can also levitate other objects, lift and rearrange them into new structures, or move them at a high velocity that the object makes a powerful impact upon collision, as he did with Belos.
- Superhuman strength: The Collector is deceptively strong, able to hold back heavy weights and objects much larger than him, which he demonstrated when he stopped Belos's transformed blade arm mid-strike by catching it between his fingers.
Behind the scenes
Name and basis
The Collector's design was inspired by the works of Remedios Varo, a surrealist painter known for her astrological imagery.
Voice
The Collector is voiced by Fryda Wolff.
Debut
The Collector debuted in "Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door" as a figment in the Owl Beast's memories. He was properly introduced in a flashback during "Hollow Mind".
Trivia
The Collector's bust in the charity stream
- He was first teased in the "Be Gay, Do Witchcraft" charity Twitch stream hosted by Dana Terrace as part of a request to draw half of a Season 2 character.
- The Collector was listed in the credits for "Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door", but went unnamed in the episode itself. It was not until "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" that this name was mentioned.
- At the beginning of the scene where he catches the Owl Beast, a different titan skull shape can be seen in the background, which may mean he at least caught the Owl Beast on another Titan corpse archipelago. This skull resembles the titan found at Titan Trapper Island.
- In "Separate Tides", it is revealed that Eda has been cursed for about thirty years, meaning that the Collector turned the Owl Beast into the scroll more than or about thirty years ago. However, given the Collector was free during this time, it is likely that he turned the Owl Beast into the scroll more than three hundred and fifty years ago.
- According to the Collector, he was imprisoned by King's father, and presumably the Titan that made up the Boiling Isles.
- According to Dana Terrace, the Collector uses he/him and they/them pronouns. This is shown when Philip first referred to the Collector with masculine pronouns
- If you wish to use The Collector for any project please ask an admin, due to their importance to the story. For any roleplays, contact an admin to avoid godmodding.