On The S.I.D.E.

Unrelated: Little Talk About The Villains In The Owl House

Okay, so this isn't related to S.I.D.E—hell, this isn't even Sanders Sides related—but Wattpad's the only place where I can do fandom rants, at least until I cave and get Tumblr. So you have an Owl House rant instead. If you haven't watched that show, don't read this. If you have, but aren't caught up with the second season, don't read this. And if you've watched the show and are all caught up with every episode that's been released so far... read on.

So. Belos's face reveal.

First things first—between my aesthetic appreciation for guys with long hair and the fact that, as a Janus stan, I apparently like cool facial markings, I think that he's quite easy on the eyes. Like, seriously, am I the only one who sees this? Or is the majority of the fandom too hung up on the mud scar to acknowledge it?

Guess there's another parallel Belos has with Eda. They both prove that even if you're getting on in years, you can still absolutely slay. I'm really hoping that the final battle is one where he's not wearing the mask.

Anyways...

So, his design with the mask on is incredibly villainous. He looks perfectly sinister, from the gauntlet gloves to the deer mask to the glowing eyes. Even his weird tech eye staff gives off evil vibes—and don't even get me started on his frigging voice. (He's definitely one of my favorite villains, in case you couldn't tell.)

But without the mask? He... he doesn't look evil at all.

If you showed a picture of Belos without the mask to someone who hadn't seen the show, I can guarantee you that their first thought wouldn't be "evil dictator with shadowy motives, twisted ideals, and severely toxic behaviors." He looks like a mentor figure, maybe a teacher or a grandfather of some sort. Someone you could sit down and have a nice chat with. Someone kind, someone thoughtful. Someone... human.

(Also those ears are WAY too small so he's absolutely got human blood in him, just saying)

And really? That just makes him even more terrifying.

This elderly, wise-looking, gentle-looking man is wicked. And I don't just mean that he's "suspicious" or "kind of a jerk," I mean that he's capable of serious evil. He took over an entire island that probably had numerous kingdoms beforehand, and he definitely did it by force. He forces witches into covens and seals away their magic. He turns anyone who crosses him to stone. And he treats Hunter, the only family he has—whether he's his actual nephew or a clone—like garbage.

See, in a lot of cartoons, there's a lot of emphasis in making the bad guy look like a bad guy. Take She-Ra, for instance. Shadow Weaver and Hordak took the villain aesthetic and they owned it, Catra leaned heavily into it during the fourth season (where she was at her lowest) and even "I am the light, blah-blah-blah" Horde Prime looked extra evil. Even Double Trouble went hard with that goth aesthetic, and they're one of the most morally ambiguous characters in the show. And while not all of the villains in Steven Universe look particularly evil (Pink Diamond looks like an absolute sweetheart in both of her forms and she is AWFUL), White Diamond looks exactly like the evil queen she is. And Spinel's whole Harely-Quinn-40's-animation-style design looks quite menacing when she's in full-tilt revenge-bunny mode.

But Belos without the mask looks harmless, which is actually akin to real life. Not every bad guy looks explicitly evil (and, as Sanders Sides proves, not everyone who looks explicitly evil is actually that bad). Sometimes, the worst people can also be the most unassuming. But he's also got the potential to look seriously scary when he's in evil mode, since we've only seen him without his mask when he's in pretending-to-be-a-caring-uncle mode. Also, I want to see his mud form in actual action.