Pip in Time is an AU fancomic of The Owl House by celestialscribber
. It focuses on the Wittebane brothers, Philip and Caleb, and how their upbringings in Gravesfield made them into persons they are now, but with a time-traveling twist that may alter the grim future that awaits them.
Young Philip "Pip" Wittebane has grown suspicious of Caleb's activities lately; always being conspicuous absent, writing strange letters in codes, and having a red cardinal named Flapjack flying around him. Pip believes his brother's strange behavior is due to a witch named Evelyn, whom he suspects has placed a spell upon him. Determined to save Caleb from Evelyn, Pip follows his brother to a shallow pool enchanted by Titan's blood, which takes him to the fantastical Boiling Isles... only to then fall into a Time Pool that flings him 400 years into the future, specifically in Season 2 of The Owl House. note
After being found and rescued by Luz and taken to the Owl House, Pip is more than convinced that Caleb is not safe and reluctantly accepts aid from Luz, Eda, and King to find his brother, while also secretly planning a way to destroy the evil he perceives in the Boiling Isles, namely all the witches and their ruler, Emperor Belos. Little does he know, Caleb is looking for him elsewhen, and Emperor Belos knows Pip more than anyone else on the Isles.
The comic is currently ongoing, and can be found here.
As this is a fan work, all spoilers for The Owl House will be unmarked.
Pip in Time provides examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: Downplayed. Pip Wittebane still has the same mindset as his adult self, including a desire to kill all the witches, but thanks to him being a child and being stuck in an era where there's a genuinely evil witch regime under Belos, he's more open to outside opinions and is able to recognize the evils of his future self's actions in a roundabout way, something that Belos is incapable of in canon.
- Adaptational Sympathy: The webcomic explores more of the Caleb and Philip's upbringing in 17th-century Gravesfield that was only hinted at in the episodes "Hollow Mind" and "Thanks to Them" through the first two chapters plus various flashbacks, highlighting how hard and awful life was back in Gravesfield for the brothers contrary to Pip's nostalgia filter.
- In the flashback dreams that Pip has, it's revealed that he was abused by his teacher for writing with his left hand, and was seen as a weirdo at best by his peers, with several hints suggesting they're waiting for the chance to accuse him as a witch. Pip remains oblivious to this even though everyone could see his trauma.
- Caleb's side of the story reveals just how exhausted and fearful he was underneath his cheerful, big brother mask he puts on for Pip. He's witnessed several of his human neighbors being wrongfully accused and traumatized by the witch hunts, has taken many jobs just to support his brother and himself, and is deeply worried that his brother's oblivious, reckless behavior would lead the townspeople to accuse either of them of being a witch.
- Armor-Piercing Response: After Pip rants that he didn't ask Luz to follow him into the Titan's blood mine, Luz replies that Caleb didn't ask Pip to follow him either. Pip has no response to that, which causes him to eventually apologize and even open up to reveal his actual favorite book that isn't the Bible.
- Bait the Dog: When Caleb is mistaken for Hunter and taken to Emperor Belos, Belos does what he does best. He feigns worry for "Hunter", saying that "Hunter" went somewhere he didn't belong and became very confused. Belos then states he's forgoing the usual method of retiring the Golden Guard in favor of a new, alternative method: Terra's tea mixed with his goop.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Pip's character in a nutshell. He's an egotistical and immature brat who often gets into trouble with his attempts of being the hero of his story, and has trouble accepting responsibility for his actions. He also has a lot of attachment issues with Caleb, getting extremely jealous when his big brother's attention is drawn towards Evelyn instead of him. All of this is to show how Belos' character is really that of a child that never grew out of these traits.
- Butt-Monkey: Nothing ever goes right for Pip. The witch hunt he participates in ends up pissing off the neighbor family, forcing him and others to rebuild the house as punishment. His attempts to catch Caleb in the act with Evelyn ends in failure, culminating in Pip getting lost in the present-day Boiling Isles. And he has to be bailed out by Luz, Eda, or King whenever he gets into trouble. Considering that his future self is Emperor Belos, this almost feels like preemptive karma.
- Decoy Protagonist: The first two chapters are dedicated to Caleb and Evelyn's budding relationship that would soon blossom into a doomed romance, with Philip being more or less a jealous Satellite Character to Caleb. But halfway into Chapter 2, the narrative switches to Philip's perspective when he falls into a Time Pool that leads him into Season 2 of The Owl House, which is the actual premise of the story.
- Didn't Think This Through: Pip's recurring flaw is that he rarely thinks his plans through or any drawbacks to them. When he shows his traps off to Caleb, Caleb asks how he can be sure if he caught witches and not humans, to which Pip is stunned by this oversight only to reassure Caleb that God will protect humans from his trap. Likewise, he tries to track Caleb down with his ink-stained footprint method, but never accounts for the fact that witches fly on their staffs and thus ends up getting lost in the Boiling Isles when Caleb's tracks vanished.
- Dramatic Irony: The entire premise of the webcomic hinges on Pip not knowing the truth about Emperor Belos and Hunter, and The Owl House main cast not recognizing Pip as either Philip Wittebane or Belos.
- In Chapter 3, Pip believes Hunter to be a brainwashed Caleb, and is utterly horrified by the scars on Hunter, thinking that the witches hurt his brother and erased his memories. He doesn't realize that Hunter is actually a Grimwalker clone of Caleb, genuinely doesn't know Pip, and all of Hunter's scars were caused by Pip's future self, Belos, rather than the witches. Additionally, when Caleb does end up in the present day, he is brainwashed by Belos himself for real.
- Luz believes Pip to be another human from the present day who somehow landed in the Boiling Isles through an unknown means, giving her hope that there is another way back to the Human Realm. Meanwhile, King distrusts Pip after he calls himself a witch hunter and suspects that the human may be Belos' spy. Luz assures King that Pip is simply British and religious, which is common in the Human Realm, yet doesn't realizes that Pip shares a lot in common with Philip Wittebane and to a lesser extent, Emperor Belos himself.
- When Belos greets Caleb with the words "Hello Hunter", Caleb believes that the Emperor of the witches had somehow found out about his occupation as a witch hunter. Little does he know, Belos is actually referring to his mistaken identity as Hunter, the Golden Guard and Grimwalker clone of Caleb. Caleb also expresses his optimism that Belos will help him find his younger brother, unaware that Belos is his younger brother as a 400-year old tyrant.
- Hidden Depths: After spending most of Chapter 4 presenting himself as an uptight, religious Puritan who only reads the Bible, Pip finally admits to Luz that his favorite book is actually Macbeth, a story of a nobleman who murdered his king and is haunted by his guilt in the form of ghosts and vengeful subjects.
- Historical Domain Character: The Witch Hunter General who visited Gravesfield and inspired Pip to be a witch hunter himself is John Stearne, an associate of Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins himself. According to celestialscribber, they chose the lesser known Stearne because Hopkins was already referenced in the show through Jacob Hopkins.
- Ignored Epiphany: Being the child version of Emperor Belos, the personification of Never My Fault, Pip struggles to retain any epiphany he made.
- As demonstrated in this ask post here, Pip is aware that he's been orphaned, had lied, used his left hand, and caused harm to people. But because his Puritan upbringing taught him that justice requires punishment, and Caleb had refused to discipline him with anything that could drive a permanent wedge between the brothers, Pip simply assumes all his shortcomings are just trials set by God and not because his soul may be tainted by evil.
- Chapter 4 has Pip realizing he has more in common with Luz, namely having only one family member left that they desperately cling on for comfort, and that his actions might have been more selfish than he would like it to admit. But he soon falls back to his old, self-righteous habits once he finds a difference between their experiences.
- As demonstrated in this ask post here
- Innocently Insensitive:
- Pip is so focused on achieving his goals first and foremost that he doesn't realize some of his actions are actually hurting people. He doesn't mean to, but when he's called out for his insensitive behavior, he becomes defensive and deflects blame onto others because he doesn't want to believe that his good intentions could bring harm.
- In Chapter 4, Luz tries to talk Pip out of exploring the dangerous Titan's blood mine, saying that his parents would want both brothers to be back home safely. She doesn't realize that Pip is an orphan and her comment causes Pip to angrily ask Luz about her parents' concerns.
- Ironic Echo: "Hello Hunter." It's first said by Evelyn as a way expressing her initial distrust towards Caleb for being a witch hunter. When Caleb is brought before Emperor Belos in Chapter 4, Belos repeats those exactly same words but this time, context is Caleb being mistaken for a witch clone actually named Hunter.
- Kill It with Fire: When Luz is teaching Pip of the different kinds of glyphs, Pip is instantly drawn to the Fire Glyph as he believes it to be the most effective means of wiping out the witches. As he travels through the forest, he places Fire Glyph on several trees in secret, hoping to start to forest fire when the time is right.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The story starts with a witch hunting mob burning down the Smiths' house after hearing rumors that the Smiths turn into cats at night and therefore are witches. It's later revealed that the Smiths were away visiting their kin in Boston and the cats were their pets roaming free. They were pissed that their house was burned down, and forced the mob to rebuild it as penance for their actions.
- Miles Gloriosus: Pip loves to see himself as the bravest and most cunning witch hunter, but he's often scared shitless whenever he encounters real demons and monsters, leading him to beg for help from Caleb, Luz or even Evelyn. It's implied that the reason why he has this attitude is because Caleb always lets him win in their pretend witch hunting games, fueling Pip's ego despite being just a kid.
- Mistaken for Afterlife: After Pip accidentally falls through the shallow pool of Titan's blood and finds himself in the Boiling Isles, he wonders if he had drowned and is now in Hell. Being Philip of course, he wonders why he would be in Hell in the first place.
- Politically Correct Villain: Downplayed since Pip here is a witch-bigoted brat at worst (and not at the same level as Belos). But his reaction to seeing Luz being in a romantic relationship with Amity is asking if Amity is the reason why Luz is in love with magic rather than calling their lesbian relationship a sin. According to celestialscribber, this is justified as while Pip is raised as a Puritan, he's still too young to fully comprehend romantic relationships and modern LGBTQ words have non-romantic meanings in the 1600s. Thus, he would easily mistaken Luz's talk about a romantic date with Amity to be them reading "trashy" chivalrous novels together in private (which isn't that far from the truth considering both Luz and Amity are huge fans of the Good Witch Azura novels).
- A Sinister Clue: A recurring motif of the story is Pip's left-handedness. Pip is naturally left-handed and he's shown to be deeply afraid of using it because he was told that using his left hand means he was touched by the devil. But rather being a straightforward sign that he's destined to become Belos, it is shown as a sign that Pip could avert his dark future if he can break free from Puritan indoctrination.
- Stepford Smiler: Caleb's cheerful persona he puts on for Pip is revealed to be a mask to hide how stressed and worried he is about the brothers' well-being. While Pip enjoys his time at school, Caleb is shown being overwhelmed with many jobs for the townsfolk. The first time he ever felt genuinely happy was meeting Evelyn and experiencing the wonders of magic without the Puritan fear-mongering.
- Sue Donym: Due to young Philip's fear that giving his real name would put him at risk of witch mind control, he identifies himself as Prince Pip of the Witch Hunters to King. This pseudonym is subtle enough for the Owl House residents to not connect the dots that Pip and Philip Wittebane are one and the same, helped by the fact Luz wouldn't realize that Philip was actually a Witch Hunter until "Hollow Mind".
- Taught to Hate: A crucial difference between Caleb and Pip is that Pip is the only one going to Puritan school while Caleb has to take several community jobs to provide support himself and his little brother. The different environments cause them to have different impressions of Evelyn and the Boiling Isles. Caleb is more open-minded, having experienced first-hand that adults in Gravesfield may not be right all the time, while Pip is more distrustful since he rarely, if ever, questions that what he learned in school may be morally wrong.
- Torches and Pitchforks: In Gravefield, a witch hunt consists of a mob of angry neighbors, encouraged to bring torches and pitchforks as weapons. Children are considered to be too young to join the hunt until they're at least ten years old.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Part of the story's drama revolves around Pip's personality traits that would define him as Emperor Belos. Already, he is adopting a Never My Fault attitude whenever he did something wrong in Gravesfield, and his desire to win has given him a tendency to backstab his allies, as exemplified by King's "Reclaim My Throne" game. While Luz, Eda, and King have done their best to temper his worst attributes, it remains to be seen if Pip will truly change since he's only going along with their lessons to remain on their good sides.
