Characters / The Owl House - The Collector

The Owl House Main Character Index
The Boiling Isles (Palismen) | The Owl House (Luz Noceda) | The Hexsquad (Amity Blight) | The Emperor's Coven (Emperor Belos | The Golden Guard) | Hexside | Other (The Collector)

This character is a Walking Spoiler. Therefore, all spoilers will be unmarked on this page. You Have Been Warned.

The Collector

Voiced by: Fryda Wolff

"You look fun. Wanna play?"

^{Click here to see The Collector's shadow form} "I won't be alone, I won't be alone anymore!"

"You caught me! To you, who stray 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!"

A mysterious entity who was responsible for trapping the Owl Beast in a curse scroll. When he was introduced, he was trapped beneath the Boiling Isles, awaiting the Day of Unity so he can be freed from his prison via the Draining Spell. He's also worshiped by the Titan Trappers, who want to free him by searching for and killing the last Titan. Despite being sealed away, he is able to communicate with those living outside the In Between Realm (particularly Belos) by turning into a Living Shadow bound to a magic mirror that Belos obtained in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen".

The Collector was freed by King in "King's Tide", as they are the only one able to stop the Draining Spell and save the residents of the Boiling Isles. However, while they do end the Draining Spell, they quickly prove themself to be a bigger threat than Belos could ever dream of being, turning the Boiling Isles into their own personal playground.

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A-D

• Adorable Abomination: An ancient entity "from the stars" who wields magic beyond anything else in the Demon Realm, able to move a moon with no effort and splatter Belos into a pile of goo with a poke of their finger... and their true form looks like a kindergartener wearing a onesie.
• Affably Evil: Though the Collectors as a species are responsible for the annihilation of most other titans, the Collector is completely unironically friendly with King. Their destruction of the Boiling Isles is for the sole purpose of playing what they understand to be a game of "Owl House" with not only King, but every single witch and demon on the island. Overall, they don't come off as evil as much as they do as a child with immense, god-like power, which isn't a far-off description of them.
• Always a Bigger Fish: As powerful as Belos is, once the Collector is released, they waste no time reminding Emperor Belos about the pecking order; not only easily catching his scythe with their fingers, but completely obliterating him with a finger poke. As if that wasn't enough, he then pulls the moon back with a finger and begins reshaping the Boiling Isles itself, showcasing how they're not only stronger physically, but magically.
• All for Nothing: They gave Emperor Belos a huge help in letting him achieve the Day of Unity in the hopes that they would eventually be released by him. Alas, the emperor reveals he never had the intention to do so once he has what he wants, and he literally throws The Collector off the bridge in order to ensure his knowledge can't be obtained by anybody else.
• All There in the Script: Their name, or at least what they're known as, first appeared in the credits of "Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Hooty's Door", four episodes before they were mentioned by name in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen".
• Ambiguous Gender: They are referred to with masculine pronouns by Philip, who has yet to meet them at the time, and has an androgynous voice. Though "Hollow Mind" implies they're (at least physically and a bit mentally) a child so the voice makes sense. Dana later revealed in a tweet that the Collector uses he/him and they/them pronouns.
• Ambiguously Evil: While they've shown little concern for Belos' Final Solution, he's not actually interested in the genocide part and simply gave him the information to do so in exchange for him freeing them. "King's Tide" has him take over the Boiling Isles to play "Owl House", but they gladly stop the Draining spell once King reminds him that they need a whole island's worth of players. It's eventually revealed the Collector doesn't understand the concept of death or that their actions are actually hurting people; they're not really evil so much as they are dangerously naive.
• Ambiguous Innocence:
  • While the Collector is a centuries-old, god-like being who is helping Belos in his plan to wipe out all life on the Boiling Isles, their childlike nature makes it hard to know if the Collector even knows what they're doing is evil or if they even care. When King overhears the Collector's private thoughts, they're expressing excitement at being free, no longer being alone and playing. They also truly consider Belos a friend and "playmate" and they consider the Final Solution nature of the Day of Unity to be nothing more than a "chore" Belos tricked them into doing. Contrastingly, they seem ecstatic to play with King, and their suggestion is an actual game of hide-and-seek. Especially so with their The Dog Bites Back moment, as while they frame splattering Belos across the wall as a game of tag, the tone in which they say "I'm it" implies they not only know what's going to happen when they tag Belos but only decided to "play" just to obliterate him which shows that they do understand the value of life...Although they immediately assume Luz and her friends want to play tag as well and offers them a headstart.
  • Showrunner Dana Terrace even describes them in a Posthoot as an example of a "chaotic little character", and particularly one that is a "morally grey, neutral chaotic kind of motherf[ucker]." "For the Future" emphasizes this more, as they've scrawled over a passage in a book that says that Collectors should Final Solution any world that resists being "preserved" with one about how playing is more fun.
  • "Watching and Dreaming" goes into this in detail. Being an incredibly powerful reality warper, the Collector never really had to learn the concept of consequences. He genuinely doesn't see any problem with hurting or even killing people given he can simply use his powers to reverse his actions any time he likes. When they face the first problem they can't simply wish away, in this case Luz's death, they realize how awful their actions must have been for mortals and undergo a near-immediate Heel–Face Turn.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Is he simply a Psychopathic Manchild, or is his childish behavior because he's literally a child, both physically and mentally? Kikimora's statement that he's a "child from the stars" seems to suggest it's the latter, which is confirmed in the third season.
  • When he's first freed, he blasts Belos into goop playing "tag". It's unknown whether he knew what he was doing and was using a form of Unusual Euphemism as per his Blue-and-Orange Morality or if he genuinely believes that's how tag works. Though given how his tone drops when he says "I'm it", the former seems far more likely.
  • Given that we learn in "For the Future" that the Collector is merely one of a species of Collectors, many of the actions we don't definitively know they did could have been done by others of their species, though some are still unclear. For one, the Collector called "the Grand Huntsman" may have been another member of the species, one of those he calls the Archivists. "Watching and Dreaming" confirms the Titan genocide was done by the Collector's siblings, with the Collector being wrongly accused by King's father and imprisoned. It's also unclear if he was the one who sealed the Owl Beast in the scroll or whether that was one of his siblings, as he doesn't seem to recognize it when it takes over Eda in a fit of rage upon seeing him.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: The Collector has primarily yellow-orange skin, with their face being both orange and blue.
• Anonymous Benefactor: They helped Emperor Belos with his plan to achieve the Day of Unity in exchange for their freedom, although only a few knew of their existence – Belos, for one, and Kikimora, via overhearing their conversations.
• Anti-Villain: At the end of the day, his actions were borne from a sense of loneliness, and the reason he forces people to play his games is because he wants companions to play with.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: The Collector is very easily distracted. Upon being freed from their prison by King on the condition of saving everyone from the Draining Spell to play "Owl House", they are immediately sidetracked by Belos trying to kill Luz and her friends. He then suggests they play tag - splattering Belos against the wall - and offers Luz and the others a head start. It's only when King reminds them they're supposed to be playing "Owl House" that the Collector goes back on track and stops the Draining Spell.
• Backstab Backfire: They're rather dismayed at Belos's betrayal, and even more upset at having their sole point of contact with the outside world tossed into a pit. Upon release, they almost immediately launch Belos into a cave wall, reducing his bestial form into little more than goop.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Season 2 ends with a decisive victory for the Collector, turning the Boiling Isles into his own playground, and has taken King prisoner.
• Badass Fingersnap: Just to show off how much power he has, he can break the laws of reality at just the snap of his fingers.
• Bare-Handed Blade Block: Just as Belos is about to kill Luz, Amity, Willow, Gus, and Hunter with a sharpened, transformed arm, the Collector, now freed from their prison, catches the blade between two fingers and asks what everyone's playing. Apparently, that's his lowest level of power.
• Battle Aura: They briefly gain a bright blue one while charging down Belos in "Watching and Dreaming", which grows into a blue and purple comet trail surrounded by sparkling stars. Unfortunately, it turns out they have another idea than fighting Belos at that point.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: King actually keeping his end of their deal and freeing The Collector makes him one of the only people the almighty childlike being is willing to listen to; not only destroying Belos and saving his friends, but casually foiling the Day of Unity by pulling the moon away to undo the eclipse.
• Befriending the Enemy: The Collector hears about how Luz befriended Amity and Lilith even though they initially started out as her enemies, and asks her if she "forced" them to be her friends like the Collector was doing to King. Luz tells him they became friends naturally through kindness and forgiveness. Unfortunately, soon after this, the Collector attempts to do this with Belos. Luz tells him he didn't do anything wrong but hadn't been able to go into the nuance of some people being unable to understand or appreciate such things. Fortunately, while the Collector does decide to return to the stars, King tells him he hopes to see him again and the Distant Epilogue reveals the Collector does pass by the Boiling Isles and even puts on a display of shooting stars for Luz's belated Quinceanera.
• Berserk Button:
  • Breaking promises to him. He straight-up splatters Belos against the wall for not freeing him and gets angry at King when he thinks he's not going to keep his promise of games.
  • Whatever you do, do not mock or insult his best friend King. Terra learned this the hard way.
• Beware the Honest Ones: One of the reasons Belos didn’t want to take any chances with him is because he’s a powerful being whom you would peg as untrustworthy. Scary as it may be, he is true to his word, considering a pinky promise nothing short of a sacred contract. The fact that he actually first agreed to fulfill King's request to stop the draining spell before the latter having to reluctantly pay up shows he certainly wouldn't have thrown Belos under the bus if he had just fulfilled his end of the deal by freeing him. Belos was only lucky the Collector decides to grant him a swift death rather than a torturous, painful one.
• Birds of a Feather: King notes that the Collector is just like him in that they're both lonely children wanting to have friends and they're the Last of Their Kind for their respective races.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: The Collector is assisting Belos in orchestrating the Day of Unity, but their motivations were simply to escape their prison and have someone to play with. In any case, the alliance quickly ends in "King's Tide" once Belos betrays them.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Subverted; once Belos betrays them in "King's Tide", the Collector decides that they no longer wants to "play" with him and, after being freed by King, splatters Belos into goo to become an entirely separate threat. Season 3 sees them wreaking havoc in the Boiling Isles while Belos schemes to return and complete his genocide, but it soon becomes clear that the Collector isn't all that malevolent, simply childish and unable to comprehend the harm they're causing. They're eventually convinced to stop the chaos their "playtime" is causing, right on time for Belos to seize power over the Titan and become the Final Boss.
• Big Bad Wannabe: After a whole season of being teased as the final villain, intent on turning the whole isles into their own personal playground and forcing everyone to be a part of their games, they end up a manipulated pawn of Belos once again, and have a Heel–Face Turn midway into the finale after accidentally giving the witch hunter the knowledge he needs to reclaim his role as the true main threat.
• Big Brother Bully: The Collector's siblings, the Archivists, tricked him into being an unknowing scout for the Titan genocide by telling him to see if the Titans wanted to "play." Once all the Titans except for King's father were picked off, the Collector ended up getting blamed for their crimes and imprisoned by the last Titan. If his siblings knew of his capture, they did absolutely nothing to help.
• Blatant Lies: They claim not to be mad that Belos betrayed them...shortly before they "play tag" with him, splattering him against a wall. To emphasize this, while he thinks Luz and the others might be playmates, they offer to let them get a head start for the game, indicating that Belos was the focus of some understandable ire. On the other hand, he just didn’t consider pettiness towards Belos worth spoiling his own fun.
• Blinded by the Light: He uses some form of flashbang to stun the Owl Beast so he can ensnare it without a fight, and when Eda flies up to attack him in the start of "For the Future", the Collector creates some sort of massive burst of light that incapacitates her and serves as the transition to the title.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Collector's primary focus is his childlike enjoyment and desire to play games, even if they harm innocent people. He is not malicious, even when King offers him a better game with the caveat of saving everyone on the Boiling Isles. In "For the Future", the Collector acts more like a child, allowing people to stay their normal selves as long as they play. This contrasts with the careless and serious nature of Collectors, who are more serious about collecting and preserving creatures.
• Broken Record: Once Belos goes back on his promise to them, The Collector, furious about the betrayal, is reduced to calling him a liar over and over until he gets thrown away.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: The Collector has hurt and killed a lot of beings, but he sees it as some kind of game, as it so happens this is because it was less the Collector himself that caused a lot of the suffering, as much as the rest of his people. This Collector is genuinely a child and as such possesses the innocence of one and only harms mortals out of genuinely not understanding what they are doing is harmful.
• But Now I Must Go: At the end of "Watching and Dreaming", he leaves for the stars once more, hoping to grow as a person, but he does visit the Boiling Isles every now and then, even deciding to do a flyby for Luz's late Quincenera.
• Casting a Shadow: He traps the Owl Beast in a net seemingly made of shadow and is able to appear out of shadow himself.
• Character Development: As Luz, King, and Eda tell him about their adventures in "Watching and Dreaming", he starts to develop greater empathy, even stopping the Archives from falling despite being impaired by Belos's Meat Moss.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • The Collector seen through flashback in "Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door" seems much more sinister, malicious and deliberate than the child with godlike powers who just wants to have fun playing games depicted in subsequent appearances, possibly due to the Owl Beast's trauma distorting the memory. Notably, they are depicted as being unnaturally tall and thin, with a crescent moon for a face, rather than the short child form they actually have, with a facial coloration that merely evokes a crescent moon. However, "For the Future" implies this may have been a different Collector, although their voice is the same.
  • Additionally, during their partnership with Belos the Collector appeared to have fun thinking about how many would die from the Day of Unity or about the numerous times Belos killed his Grimwalkers. By contrast, in "For the Future" the Collector is implied to have rejected his species' proclivity towards genocide, preferring to play with his "toys" and takes care to assure King he's not harming anybody, though he has very questionable definitions of what he considers harm. It's implied that this attitude shift was the Collector desperately trying to appeal to and get along with Belos, in order to ensure he wouldn't abandon them, going along with what he wanted to 'play' rather than what they did, because the Emperor made certain he was the only link the Collector had to the outside world. Upon being freed by King, their demeanour takes an instant and noticeable shift into a calmer, yet more childish personality, as they're now able to act how they really feel like.
    • This particular bit of characterization is explained further in "Watching and Dreaming", which shows that the Collector genuinely had no grasp of the concepts of mortality or death. As far as he was aware, the draining spell would've just been the end of Belos' game, and everyone would've been "fixed" in time to join his next one. Even his comments on the Grimwalkers are implied to be through the lens of seeing them as Belos' toys that he keeps breaking and remaking like how the Collector treats his own playthings.
• Cheerful Child: After being freed, the Collector is a perpetually smiling and jovial entity who enjoys essentially turning the Boiling Isles into his personal playpen. Interestingly, they genuinely don't mean any sort of harm in it as to them, all of this is just a game and they are now finally free to play and have fun to their hearts content.
• Child Prodigy: While he is both naive and mischievous, the Collector has shown time and time again that he has a great understanding of how magic works. This is best shown when he teaches Philip about creating a spell that can drain the life force of all of its inhabitants simply by reverse engineering the feeding methods of the Basilisks.
• The Collector: It’s not just his name, but the name of his species, their role being to collect mortal species to preserve them, and if the mortals prove to not like that, then the Collectors promptly annihilate their world. However, due to being a mere child, this Collector does it more to have playmates and in his own truly bizarre manner seems to care about some of the mortals that they are playing with, as they listen to King's pleas to stop being so harsh with the inhabitants of the Isles.
• Collector of the Strange: Much like the rest of their species, the Collector collects actual living people and animals and stores them in his Archive as mystic puppets with which to play with.
• Color Motif: Has two, with imagery relating to them often being either black and grey or yellow and blue.
• Cosmic Entity: Kikimora describes them as "a child from the stars" in "King's Tide", saying that they're neither Witch nor Demon. "For the Future" reveals that they are in fact a member of an entire race of Collectors... Or rather they, much like their friend King are the sole surviving member of said race, with the species as a whole being described as "beings who live long and collect things to ensure they do not fade".
• Cosmic Motifs: They wear a cloak covered in patterns of crescent moons, stars, and heraldic suns, and their face with their hood drawn is disguised with what initially appears to be a crescent moon, but is really a sliver of the sun being blocked by a moon during an eclipse. The barrier he creates to contain the Owl Beast is even covered in twinkling stars. His followers, the Titan Trappers, share this motif and have suns, moons, and stars tattooed on their bodies. Belos's vision of the Day of Unity he shows to the nine coven heads in "Hunting Palismen" shows the eclipse that matches the symbol in their hooded form over the Titan's Skull where they're imprisoned. Belos later confirms in "Follies at the Coven Day Parade" that the Day of Unity which will free them will start with an eclipse.
• Crapsaccharine World: This is what they turn the Boiling Isles into after they take over. A whimsical setting that wouldn't look out of place on Planet Popstar or Shooting Star Summit. The only problem is that this also involves turning all of the inhabitants into lifeless, zombie-like puppets with which to play their games. When Luz, Camila and the rest of the Hexsquad see what the Collector has done to the Boiling Isles, they are clearly extremely visibly disturbed.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Much like his "best friend" King, the Collector is a platonic example, ironically towards King himself. They constantly want to play and hang out with King and get extremely angry whenever someone puts their time together in jeopardy. In a particularly ironic twist, the person that the Collector is most jealous of is Luz due to her closeness with King, which Belos uses to manipulate the Collector by claiming that Luz has come back to the Boiling Isles to take King away from him.
• Cute and Psycho: He may be cute as a button, but he has no qualms about trapping or killing creatures as part of his "games". As it turns out, this Collector is positively tame when compared to the rest of his people who would happily kickstart Armageddon on a planet if anyone ever even attempts to interrupt their "collecting".
• Cuteness Proximity: Implied. He seems to truly be fond of King and even cuddles him in Dana's artwork.
• Cutting the Knot: After being convinced of stopping the draining spell, the Collector simply opts for removing the conditions that keep the spell active, which means that he literally pulls the moon out of the way, ending the eclipse that sustains the spell.
• Dark and Troubled Past: The Collector was originally just a lonely child who wanted to play and make friends who was sent to the Demon Realm by his siblings, the Archivists, to keep him out of the way so they could continue "collecting". He made friends with the Titans, but his siblings hunted his playmates to extinction after discovering that Titan magic can cancel out theirs, and the Collector was sealed away by the vengeful last Titan who mistook the Collector for one of his siblings.
• Dark Is Evil: They're a living shadow with lunar motifs who likes death and suffering, though he also has more subtle sun motifs too. When they are unleashed to end the Draining Spell, they have a litany of dark purple magics, and part of his outfit features dark navy blue coloration, not unlike a night sky. Subverted, however, in that his evil is of the oblivious kind.
• Defector from Decadence: We discover in "For the Future" that they're actually one of the more benign Collectors, choosing to play with mortals while the rest of their kind will "clean the planet and scorch the air" if angered. However, they're not any less dangerous for it, simply less malicious.
• Dehumanization: The Collector sees living, sentient beings as nothing but toys, and doesn't care whether they live or die. Even worse is his opinion on artificial creatures, as he outright refers to Hunter and the other Grimwalkers as "things". Played with, as his lack of concern for living beings is not due to not being concerned, but rather to not fundamentally understanding what death is in the first place.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: By the time of "Cloud on the Horizon" the Collector begins to worry that Belos won't fulfill his end of the deal and free them. King overhears their thoughts as they try to reassure themself that Belos is their friend and won't betray them. Once the Collector is freed by King, however, he shows Belos exactly why it's a bad idea to try and backstab an all-powerful being.
  Collector: He's my friend, right? He wouldn't lie? He wouldn't. He wouldn't! We spent hundreds of years playing his game. I want to play a new game.
• Disc-One Final Boss: The Collector initially seems set to be a powerful threat whose destructive "games" would be on par with Belos' genocide. However, as Season 3 goes on, his childish, less malicious motives allow him to be talked into a Heel–Face Turn, right as Belos reclaims his spot as the main villain.
• A Dog Named "Dog": "For the Future" reveals that "Collector" is the name of his species, and it's unclear if he has a name otherwise. He refers to his siblings as "the Archivists."
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Saying that he delivers a Curb-Stomp Battle to Belos after he betrays the Collector implies that Belos actually had a chance to fight back. All it takes is for him to poke Belos and the Humanoid Abomination that's been tearing through the main cast is instantly reduced to a smear on the wall.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": He reacts with disgust when King calls him "Mr. Collector".
  Collector: "Mister"!? Ugh! You're so boring.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: In "Watching And Dreaming", it's revealed that they see mortals as "toys that can be fixed whenever they break", which makes Luz realize that the Collector doesn't understand the concept of death. They do eventually learn about death in the hard way after Luz's Heroic Sacrifice, and their desperate attempt to "fix" her to no avail, leaving them distraught.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Titan magic's ability to cancel out Collector magic limits the Collector's ability to fight Belos after he fuses with the Titan's heart, depriving the heroes of what would otherwise be their strongest ally by far. Furthermore, it also causes the Collector's powers to weaken when he's afflicted by Belos's Meat Moss growths, making it more of a struggle when they try to hold up the crumbling Archive House and save everyone inside.
• Duality Motif: Their appearance when trapping the Owl Beast shows them wearing a cloak with stars that is grey on one side and dark grey on the other. And going by their appearance in the present day, their face, at least, is also half-and-half, with one side being blue and the other orange. Same with the Collector's older siblings.

E-M

• Early-Installment Weirdness: His released body in "King's Tide" is noted to have his limbs be the proportion of the Hexsquad, giving him a body of an adolescent. From "For the Future" onward, his limbs are noticeably shorter and his head is a bit bigger, making him look a few years younger.
  • Personality-wise, it's hard to imagine the Obliviously Evil Collector of season three sadistically taunting a struggling animal or cackling over serial murder as he does in his first few brief appearances.
• Enfant Terrible: They gleefully improvise a poem about committing genocide on the Day of Unity and express disappointment that Belos did not attack Hunter because they wanted to watch the carnage. Luz even refers to them as 'that Collector kid' at one point. When King overhears the Collector's thoughts he hears that the Collector considers Belos' scheme to wipe out life on the Boiling Isles to just be a game and considers Belos to be his friend and "playmate." Upon release, they obliterate Belos in a "game" of tag, and they only stop the Draining Spell because King told them about a game called "Owl House" that required everybody on the Isles alive in order to be played.
• Establishing Character Moment: When we see them in their true form for the first time, they ask Luz, her friends, and Belos what "game" they are playing, all while blocking Belos’s scythe arm with just two fingers. The mere sight of the freed Collector makes Belos terrified, to the point of claiming he freed them as he promised in a futile attempt to save his own skin. And he had good reasons to be afraid of them, as they get their revenge by smashing Belos against the wall in a pile of goo with a single poke. It also demonstrates The Collector as a childlike being whose only morals revolve around games.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Invoked by Belos in "For the Future", where they are led to believe that King is planning on a betrayal with Luz.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • The Collector is repulsed by broken promises and angrily castigates Belos for betraying him. He does keep his end of the bargain with King to stop the Draining Spell after he's freed.
  • Furthermore, "For the Future" also implies that the Collector is disgusted by his race's habit of destroying other planets if they meet resistance, and his method of dealing with resistance is far more altruistic in comparison.
  • The Collector's games are potentially lethal and they were fully willing to kill everyone in a Draining Spell to gain their freedom, but that's only because the Collector had no concept of death as permanent. He believed he could use his powers to fix anyone he broke as easily as repairing a busted toy, but when he realizes he can't bring people back from the dead, he's horrified about it happening to anyone else and apologizes for everything he did.
• Eviler than Thou: Zigzagged. Between himself and Belos, it's blatantly clear the Collector is the biggest threat overall, as his sheer amount of power and irresponsibility indicates he could destroy the Boiling Isles if he wanted to. That said, Belos is way more morally repugnant than the Collector, crosses lines the Collector never has, and instigates the Collector's ultimate return to power by (foolishly) attempting to betray him.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Whether it's the death of the Titans, the fate of the Grimwalkers, or the Day of Unity, The Collector sees everything as a humorous game that makes him laugh out loud constantly. That said, the death of the Titans was the result of the actions of other members of his species, and the Day of Unity was meant to free the Collector according to Belos' deal with them. When Belos reneges on his end of the deal, the Collector is most definitely not laughing. Additionally, Season 3 makes it clear that the reason they see devastating events as fun... is because he is a child who simply doesn't know better.
• Evil Counterpart: Is one to King; both are deceptively powerful beings who are described/implied to be the youngest of their races since King is baby Titan and the Collector is specifically a "Child from the Stars". Both also have close relationships with powerful magic users, Eda and Belos, but the latter proved that the Collector was nothing but a stepping stone, whilst Eda loves King like her own child. And whilst King slowly begins to mature and does so even after discovering he's essentially a demigod, the Collector seems dead-set in his sociopathically childish ways, even after it likely got him centuries of imprisonment.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: When King sets them free in "King's Tide", they quickly demolish Belos for his betrayal.
• Evil Laugh: He lets one loose when ensnaring the Owl Beast, though "For the Future" reveals that this wasn't actually him. They also do this at least once per appearance.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: As what is effectively a small child who is Obliviously Evil and has way too much power for anyone's good, they're the "Evil" to Belos' Genocidal Oblivion.
• Evil Virtues: Surprisingly enough, apparently Honesty. Befitting their childish nature, they hold the Pinky Swear sacred; they sound genuinely indignant and offended when Belos questions whether they would fulfill their end of the bargain, and when Belos ultimately doesn't uphold his, they seem equally as upset that he broke his promise as for not being set free.
  Collector: But you said we were friends! W-we pinky-swore! You lied! Liar! Liar! Liar liar liar liar liar!!!
  • "For the Future" also shows that he respects the wishes of people he trusts, even when it upsets him: as dismayed as he is when King won't let him sleep with Francois, he abides by it and leaves the stuffed bunny where it is even after King leaves the room.
• Fantasy Aliens: He's a "child from the stars" with magical abilities that make him godlike compared to the witches and demons in the Boiling Isles, acting as a sort of Fantasy-twist on Clarke's Third Law applied to most Science Fiction aliens.
• Fight Off the Kryptonite: The only thing that can cancel out a Collector's power is a Titan's. When Belos takes over the corpse of King's father, the Collector is infected with the same rot Belos is trying to use to kill everyone, but manages to resist it long enough to save everyone in the Archives until Belos is defeated.
• Finger Poke of Doom: To immediately demonstrate his incredible power, the first thing the Collector does upon being freed is poke Belos' forehead, which blasts him away with enough force to turn him into a splatter on the wall. He follows this up by just as casually poking at the Moon and dragging it across the sky like he was using a touchpad!
• Foil:
  • The Collector and Belos, as the show's most prominent villains, share many scenes together, giving them ample time to highlight their differing personalities. The Collector is an immature, godlike entity who is perpetually energetic and amicable, while Belos is a dignified, ordinary human being with a calm, mockingly polite exterior. Where the Collector is gullible and believes in keeping promises, Belos is a backstabber who isn't easily fooled. Finally, they both have skewed moral compasses, but while the Collector simply operates on a different wavelength from everybody else, Belos is a megalomaniac with delusions of righteousness.
  • King also contrasts with the Collector. They're both very childish and love to lord over others, but King develops over the series into a more mature character capable of self sacrifice in the name of others, while the Collector is completely incapable of seeing the harm of their actions. They're both the last of their kind, but the Collector wears their species' name as their own, while King doesn't know until later that he's an infant Titan. King likes plushies, while the Collector turns people into puppets.
• Freudian Excuse: It's implied the Collector was originally fairly benign in their games and they were content to simply play with the baby Titans, but witnessing the Archivists kill off the Titans and being imprisoned alone for hundreds of years has left them so lonely and desperate to be loved that they're willing to force people to be their friends. The fact that their only company was Belos likely didn't help matters.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Both of the Collector's forms sport these, signifying how otherworldly and powerful he is compared to other characters in the setting:
  • His sclerae glow white in his shadow form, demonstrated by his introduction in "Hollow Mind" where his eyes appear out of the darkness before he's fully revealed.
  • In their true form, the Collector's irises frequently glow red when they're angered or heavily exerting their power. Notably, the glow visibly fades when they see King in "King's Tide", reflecting their genuine friendliness towards him.
• A God I Am Not: Despite being worshipped as a god by the Titan Trappers the Collector never identifies themself or their kin that way and seems to find the concept equal parts boring and weird.
• Godzilla Threshold: King releasing him in "King's Tide" is this, as since they're the one who taught Belos the Draining Spell, they're the only one with a chance of stopping it.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: After being shown forgiveness and kindness from Luz, Eda, and King, the Collector assumes that these methods can defeat any evil, including Belos, and so tries to do the same to him. What he fails to realize is that while forgiveness and kindness are powerful, they only work if the receipt is willing to open up and listen. Belos refuses to open up about his own insecurities, believing himself to be always good, and simply responds to the Collector's offer with an attack. Luz insists to the Collector that even an attempt to redeem someone as evil as Belos is a noble act on his part, but he has to understand that redemption is a lot more complicated than he thinks.
• Goo-Goo-Godlike: While they are a Time Abyss, the Collector is mentally and physically a young child that interrupts the protagonists' battle with the Big Bad to "play tag" upon release. This reduces Belos to little more than a splotch of Alien Blood. They proceed to up this by casually moving the moon with but a swipe of his finger. Their clothes also bear a similarity to a onesie just to reinforce their childishness.
  • It's later revealed that they literally are a child of a seemingly extinct and far more powerful species- not unlike King.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Prior to his release, the Collector taught Belos everything he needed in order to become Emperor Belos and plot the Day of Unity.
• Green-Eyed Monster: During "Watching and Dreaming", he asks King at one point why he cares about the "spiders" (Eda and Luz) so much in a rather jealous sounding tone, hinting that he's annoyed that the person he believed to be his friend has other people he clearly cares about more.
• Had to Come to Prison to Be a Crook: It's implied the Collector was originally benevolent and that their idea of play was entirely benign, but being trapped for millions of years alone in the In-Between Realm warped them into being much more dangerous. The fact they only had Belos for company likely didn't help.
• Hates Being Alone: Implied. In King's dream, he hears them laughing about what is presumably the Day of Unity, cackling that "soon [they] won't be alone". The Collector also becomes somewhat panicked upon noticing King leaving the dream. When seeing King desperately hold on to Luz at the end of "King's Tide", they protest that King promised to play together. This makes Belos' intended fate for them, dropping their disk into the darkness of the Titan's skull to be left behind on what would soon be a desolate land, where no lone survivors could possibly find it, even more cruel and petty.
  • Confirmed later in season 3, as when King has to leave him alone one night but doesn't let him sleep with Francois, since he only lets Luz touch it, The Collector still asks him to just let it sitting in the night table next to him, so he won't feel alone. This serves to establish that, despite all his powers and penchant for dangerous "games", he's still a child with insecurities.
• The Heavy: The Collector acts as the central antagonist for most of Season 3; while Belos is inarguably the true Big Bad, getting back to the Boiling Isles to stop the Collector's "game" is the main conflict for the first and second episodes, while talking them down takes up a chunk of the third before Belos is able to properly become the Final Boss.
• The Hedonist: The only thing The Collector cares about is having fun and playing games, regardless of whether he breaks a few players along the way.
• Heel–Face Turn: In the Grand Finale, Luz convinces The Collector to at least think about the harm he's causing, because he doesn't understand it, and gives him a talk about friendship. After this, the Collector joins the heroes against Belos and changes his ways.
• He Knows Too Much: Invoked by Belos upon betraying them; since the Collector taught him the Draining Spell and other powerful magic, Belos wants to make sure that he can't teach said magic to anyone else.
• Hellish Pupils: It's subtle, but the Collector's pupils are actually slightly elongated rather than circular. As no one else in the cast has eyes like this, it adds to just how alien they are as an otherworldly god.
• Heroic BSoD: When it finally dawns on him what death means to mortals, he doesn't take it well, trying to get Eda and King to run away so they won't die either, while begging them to forgive him for what he did, trying to understand why his eyes won't stop leaking and failing at keeping Belos' moss from covering Eda.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: They participate in the Day of Unity plot solely because Belos promised to free them and (lacking any understanding of death) see the entire debacle as a weird game Belos wants to play, one that they're rather bored of.
• Horrible Judge of Character: He was wrong about Belos twice. First he thought Belos was his friend. Justified as Belos was the first person he had talked to in centuries and The Collector is mentally, emotionally and physically a child and is therefore rather easy to fool. And then after his Heel–Face Turn, he thought Belos was probably just like him—lonely inside and needing kindness and forgiveness. Belos rejects his gestures, simply not wanting to take the chance of being reduced to a stain yet again.
• Horrifying the Horror: Belos is a religious extremist who seeks the genocide of witches and demons on the Boiling Isles, used and murdered countless denizens over the many long years, killed every Grimwalker before Hunter under the delusion that they "betrayed him", and has turned himself into a Transhuman Abomination by consuming so many Palisman souls that he turns into a horrifying monster made of Ominous Obsidian Ooze whenever he loses control of his power. And yet he is terrified of the Collector because he's the only being more powerful than him. When he sees the Collector freed from his prison after he already double-crossed him, he is visibly aghast as he tries to save himself with a weak lie, only to be reduced to a smear on the wall.
• Humanoid Abomination: To wit, he's a being completely outside the witch-demon classification, behaving like a shadow and assuming monstrous shapes. In "King's Tide", once released his physical form turns out to be a small child with a facial mark that looks like an eclipsing sun, but his full power is revealed to be the kind of thing that instantly annihilates Belos and stops the Draining Spell by casually moving the moon out of eclipse.
• Hunter of Monsters: Implied. They're first seen hunting down and capturing the Owl Beast, they hunted down the Titans in the past to the point that only one is left and their followers, the Titan Trappers, refer to them as the "Grand Huntsman" and carry on their tradition. However, the "monsters" they've hunted so far are a Non-Malicious Monster in the case of the Owl Beast, and sapient in the case of the Titans. It's unknown why the Collector does this as their motives are a mystery, and given how they have the personality of a godlike child, it's unlikely to be an actual hatred of monsters. As it turns out, this Collector may well not have hunted anyone due to being a mere child. The rest of his species however, were gathering various species to preserve them and promptly wiped out anyone who resisted, with the extermination of the Titans beind a result of the latter's ability to cancel out Collector Magic.
• Immortal Immaturity: They've been alive for at least a few centuries, long enough to have a cult devoted to them, and being even older than Emperor Belos, yet acts like an over-excited child. Given the fact that The Collector knew the Titan in life, the number of years they've lived is likely somewhere in the millions or more. "For the Future" states that the Collector's race is more seriously devoted to collecting and preserving species, implying that it's the Collector's age in comparison to their kin (and the possibility that they had no parental figures) that makes them so childish.
• I Gave My Word: If nothing else, the Collector does uphold deals they make, as they gave Belos everything he needed to complete the Draining Spell and is furious when he reneges on his end of the deal. Amusingly enough, they believe pinky swears are the same as this trope.
  Collector: Just free me already! You promised!
  Belos: The Draining Spell must work first, like you promised.
  Collector: You need to have more faith in pinky swears.
• I Have Many Names: He (or another member of his species) is called "The Grand Huntsman" by the Titan Trappers that worship him, and "The Collector" or just "Collector" by Belos.
• I Just Want to Be Free: He's desperate to escape from the In Between Realm as soon as possible, with his freedom being part of the reason he's willing to work with Belos to achieve the Day of Unity. In "King's Tide" once King frees him, the Collector views him as his new friend and telekinetically stops him from escaping with Luz, Amity, Willow, Gus, and Hunter so they can play together as promised.
• I Just Want to Be You: Heavily implied to be the case with Luz in "For the Future". Due to King's admiration for his older sister, the Collector deliberately models his "Owl House" game after Luz and King's adventures, and shows clear and significant jealousy over how close she was with King. When the Collector asks King to read them a bedtime story, they also ask to let him snuggle with Francois to which King points out that the only person other than himself he allows to do that is in fact Luz. When Belos starts to manipulate him, the witch hunter specifically brings up both King's plan to stop him... as well as the fact that Luz has now arrived on the Boiling Isles. The episode ends with Belos smugly showing the Collector her presence as the Collector rises into the air before snapping his fingers...
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Implied by the Collector's rants in "O Titan, Where Art Thou" and "Clouds on the Horizon". In the former episode, they privately rejoice that they finally won't be alone anymore, and in the latter episode, they anxiously ask themself if Belos is really their friend before flying into a rage at the thought of him reneging on their alliance. They even say they've been looking for King since he was a baby so they could play together. In "Watching and Dreaming" it's confirmed the only thing they've ever wanted is to have friends, even ignoring Belos's advice to kill Luz, Eda and King because the Collector wants to convince them to be friends instead.
• Immortals Fear Death: Rare nonvillainous example after his Heel–Face Turn. The Collector does not initially understand death and sees it as something he can undo until Luz seemingly dies, saving him from Belos. He is devastated by the realization of what it truly means to watch someone die, but realizing how fragile life is, he risks his own life to ensure nobody else dies.
• In the Hood: Their first appearance in a memory has them wearing a large hood obscuring their face. Their second appearance shows them as an abstract being sporting what could be a hood, though it's unclear. Their freed form averts this, instead wearing a cap.
• Invincible Villain: Outside of an adult Titan, the Collector is out of the league of anything in the Demon Realm. The primary thing keeping him from killing the heroes is that he doesn't want to kill them. Even with that handicap, they still cannot defeat the Collector, just convince him to give up.
• It Amused Me: Unlike Belos, who at the absolute bare minimum believes he's doing humanity a favor, the Collector views wiping out everyone on the Boiling Isles with a Draining Spell as just a fun "game". The Collector's only complaint is that Belos won't free him until they complete Belos's "game," and that that they're bored after spending centuries only playing Belos's game, wanting to play something new as soon as they're freed. As soon as King frees them, the Collector turns the Boiling Isles into their own personal playground, turning everyone into puppets and King spends his time trying to convince the Collector not to do more extreme and lethal games instead. It was also implied the Collector exterminated the Titans as another game in the past. However, it's actually subverted. The Titans were killed by every other Collector besides this one, whose only goal is to play. The only reason the Collector's amoral is because they're literally a child with no understanding of the consequences of their actions for mortals. The Collector believed they could've easily brought everyone back after the Draining Spell like a fixing a broken toy, and when they finally witness death firsthand and realize resurrection is outside the scope of their abilities, they perform an immediate Heel–Face Turn and do everything in their powers to prevent anyone else from "disappearing."
• Kids Are Cruel: They're implied to be extremely old, but Luz refers to them as a 'kid' and they're a playful, childish entity who gets excited at the prospect of watching Hunter get maimed or killed. In their true form, they turn out to be, physically speaking, a young child whose Lack of Empathy stems from being too immature to understand consequences.
• Last of His Kind: In "For the Future," it's revealed that he is actually part of a species of people collectively called the Collectors, but his people were mutually killed by Titans, who were killed by the other collectors as Titans had the power to nullify their magic.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • "Edge of the World" reveals that they were the one who hunted the Titans to the brink of extinction, only to be sealed away by one of them before it died. Except, "For the Future" reveals that it was likely older members of their species that did so, and the Collector's imprisonment may have been a means of protecting them from the mutually destructive conflict "Watching and Dreaming" confirms that it was actually the Collector's siblings, the Archivists, who wiped out the Titans, but the Boiling Isles Titan sealed him away thinking he was responsible.
  • They then did this to Belos, obliterating and almost killing him after being betrayed by him.
• Lack of Empathy: While not actively malicious the Collector's childlike mentality means that they don't really grasp the concept that other people have feelings or wellbeing that matter. He's not interested in harming people for its own sake, but he's perfectly willing to force them to act as his playmates or audience up to turning them into People Puppets so they can't resist. They're also unconcerned with the physical danger their games can pose since they don't understand permanent harm or death.
  Eda: Everyone nearly died from the draining spell.
  Collector: So? Toys break all the time. You just fix 'em.
• Laughably Evil: Speaks mainly in Rhymes on a Dime until they can't think of a rhyme for "unity", and are effectively an overly excitable elementary schooler. They are by no means less of a villain for it though.
• Leitmotif: "Whatcha Playin?", a piece of Freaky Electronic Music that emphasizes the strange juxtaposition between his childish personality and godly powers.
• Lesser of Two Evils: Why King ultimately helps to free him. While the Collector is an insane god-like entity, Belos is planning a full-blown genocide on the Boiling Isles while the Collector is the only one who can stop the Draining Spell. The Grand Finale reveals the Collector doesn't even understand the concept of death, and when they do, they immediately change their ways, while Belos remains a genocidal monster until the end.
  • He is also this to his older siblings, The Archivists: while they see completely justified to genocide any species that refuses to be collected, he thinks it's much better to just play with them, albeit, not really caring how much damage he can cause in the process.
• Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: He captured the Owl Beast first by using the light of a flashbang before ensnaring it in a net made of shadows. Once freed, he turns out to be physically themed after a lunar eclipse.
• Light Is Good: Post Heel–Face Turn. He has a light motif with his outfit and will risk his life to help others.
• Light Is Not Good: Asides from the dark motif, there are also themes of the light and half their outfit is white, but the Collector is not someone to be called good and proves to be as dangerous as Belos.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: While the Collector is incredibly powerful and dangerous, unlike Belos, he is willing to keep the people of the Boiling Isles alive, if only because he wants playmates. He's not truly malicious so much as having Blue-and-Orange Morality.
  • He is also this to The Archivists. Despite them also dealing in Blue-and-Orange Morality (making him a Lighter Shade of Orange?), they would completely wipe out any species that refused to be collected, while the younger sibling just wanted to play his rather dangerous and destructive games instead- both of them were potentially mortal danger, The Collector would only accidentally hurt other beings because he sees them as toys.
• Living Shadow: In "Hollow Mind", they appear in the form of a shadowy figure with simplistic features, communicating with Belos about their plans. When King finds himself in the In Between Realm during his dream, they become even more shadow-like, being completely pitch black with none of the features they had before.
• Mad God: It's unknown how powerful the Collector is exactly, but they are worshipped as a deity by the Titan Trappers and have at least a dozen screws loose. When they're let loose in "King's Tide", they begin casually reshaping the Isles so they can play "Owl House".
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: The Collector is completely devoid of any malevolence in their intent at all. It just so happens that due to his obscene strength, whenever he does much of anything, that action will have universe-spanning consequences. What's worse, how those actions can harm others doesn't even register on his radar. All the Collector is interested in is having fun wherever and however they can. Even when they were providing Belos the materials and magic he needed to wipe out all life on the Boiling Isles, he was only doing so under the impression that Belos would actually uphold his end of the bargain and free them from the In Between Realm, and holds no actively malicious will towards the other denizens of the Demon Realm.
• Mirror Character:
  • To Luz Noceda. Specifically, The Collector has a lot of Luz's traits, taken to the logical extreme. Luz prefers fantasy over reality as a coping mechanism, The Collector outright ignores reality (mentally and literally) thanks to their powers. Luz always recognizes when she goes too far, and tries to make amends, The Collector never realises the damage they're doing (at least at first). The worst thing Luz ever did was bring live snakes and fireworks to school, while The Collector's actions reshaped the entire Boiling Isles and trapped many of its citizens as puppets. Despite this, they share plenty of traits; feeling isolated and misunderstood by everyone else (Luz due to her neurodivergence, The Collector due to being an immortal being), and so desperate for friendship they become protective of, and loyal to the ones they make. It’s these common experiences that allow Luz to bond with The Collector, and bring them to her side. These similarities even extend to their appearances^note of note, the similarities caused the fandom to suspect the Collector would bodyjack Luz much like the Core did to Marcy Wu. In their physical form, the Collector has the same round face and short hair as Luz, the only difference being a slightly pointier nose and angular eyes.
  • To Caleb Wittebane. There are many parallels between the two. Both were members of a larger group (collectors for The Collector, witch hunters for Caleb) who abandoned their practices after entering the demon realm and befriending members of the species they were supposed to hurt (Titans for the Collector, Evelyn to Caleb). Unfortunately they were both followed by their siblings (The Archivists and Belos/Philip) who went on genocidal crusades against their friends out of fear and hatred (respectively), despite hiding it with claims of good intentions (The Archivists "preserving life so it never fades", Belos "saving humanity from evil"). The differences are;
    • Caleb was the older of the Wittebane brothers and Philip's caretaker who willing went to the demon realm being invited by Eveyn, while the Collector was younger than the Archivists, who sent him to the demon realm and abandoned him.
    • Caleb was murdered by Philip as revenge for his "betrayal" (falling in love with the witch Evelyn), while The Collector was imprisoned by King's father to avenge his titan brethren (as well as out of the noble attempt to protect his son), despite being innocent in the titans genocide, lived and managed to atone for his siblings misdeeds.
    • Their siblings genocide attempts are also opposite. The Archivists were mostly successful in exterminating the titans (King is the last of his kind, like his father was before him), while Belos was ultimately (and thankfully) unsuccessful in wiping out all life in the demon realm.
• Misplaced Retribution: A victim of this. The Collector himself actually got along very well with the other Titans and their children. It was their siblings, the Archivists, who made them all "disappear". The last Titan, King's father, unfortunately ended up thinking the Collector was to blame, leading to him trapping them in the In-Between Realm and hiding King away.
• Monster Clown: Has a vaguely jester-like quality to his appearance, and not only willingly aids Belos in performing a Final Solution of the Boiling Isles, but he also does so with sadistic excitement. When free from their prison their outfit resembles a jester's even more, being purple and white with sun and moon patterns.
• My Eyes Are Leaking: After seeing Belos kill Luz right in front of him and finally realizing that death is permanent for mortals, the Collector breaks into tears because he's so terrified of anyone else dying. Only as he begs King and Eda to run away so they don't "disappear" does he realize he's crying and is confused by what his tears are.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When the Collector sees Luz die due to protecting him from Belos's attack, and then finds out he can't bring people back from the dead after trying and failing to do so, he breaks down in tears, apologizes for everything he did and pleads with Eda and King, who are both in the middle of an Unstoppable Rage, to run away because he doesn't want anyone else to die.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: It's revealed in "For the Future" that he's actually better than the rest of his species, who enacted a Final Solution on worlds that resisted their efforts to 'preserve' them. Though it's Played With, since he isn't driven by any sort of moral objections.
• Mysterious Past: Not much is known about his past, with only a few facts given. He was trapped in the In Between Realm, but it's a mystery how this happened beyond the Boiling Isles' Titan (referred to by the Collector as "that bully") being the one responsible. Kikimora further describes the Collector as a "child from the stars", but it's unclear what this entails. In "Watching and Dreaming" the Collector reveals a bit more of their past, that their abusive siblings, the Archivists, sent the Collector as a scout to the Boiling Isles to find out if anyone "wanted to play." The Archivists wiped out the Titans when they realized the latter's magic cancelled out their own, and the Collector ended up being blamed for the whole thing and imprisoned by King's dad.
• Mystical White Hair: When he gains a physical form, his hair is white and he's revealed to be an immensely powerful Reality Warper.

N-Y

• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: They're known as the 'Grand Huntsman', a term that's pretty frightening given that most of the Demon Realm's animals tend to be terrifying monsters. Or at least one of his kind is known by that, anyway.
• Narrative Shapeshifting: The Collector enjoys altering his shadow form's appearance to illustrate his points, going so far as to turn himself into a picture of a hand bursting from the ground when suggesting Belos make a new Grimwalker for them to play with.
• Never My Fault:
  • In keeping with their childlike mentality, they're not big on owning up to their mistakes, or even recognizing when the bad things that happen to them are the consequences of their own actions. They call King's dad "dumb" for hiding King from them when all the Collector wanted to do was play with him, and also call King's dad a "bully" for sealing him away in the In Between Realm. It doesn't seem to cross the Collector's mind that King's dad hid his son because the Collector's games are lethal or that the Collector was sealed away because they had driven the Titans to extinction. It took Luz's death and the revelation that his kind can't bring back the dead for him to finally realize who was in the wrong during their games.
  • In "Watching and Dreaming" it turns out the extinction of the Titans which led to their imprisonment really wasn't the Collector's fault. Their siblings, the Archivists, were the ones who actually wiped out the Titans with the Collector being left to take the blame. King's dad admits he made a mistake in imprisoning the wrong person.
• No-Sell: Titan magic completely cancels out the Collector's magic, with means once Belos succeeds in possessing the remains of King's father, the Collector is completely unable to fight back or stop his corruption.
• Non-Human Non-Binary: It's not clear what the Collector is exactly, beyond their description as "a child from the stars." Both their shadow form and true form are androgynous, however, and according to Word of God, they use both he/him and they/them pronouns.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Owing to it being his shadow form, they appear as a two-dimensional entity whose appearance warps constantly, coming across as weird and alien, even by Boiling Isles standards. Once they're actually released, their form is somewhat similar to most other residents, but he's given ruby-red, almost lizard-like eyes to give off a feeling of uneasiness.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: To mortals, the Collector is the most powerful being in existence, his power being second only to the Titan makes him larger-than life. But this wasn't always the case. As it turns out, this Collector is a child, and was actually the youngest member of his race. In fact, he was the baby sibling of a quartet of more powerful and older members known as the Archivists, and they often picked on him.
• Obliviously Evil:
  • Despite being quite possibly the oldest and most powerful being in the setting, the Collector really is only a child who sees absolutely nothing wrong with their actions. Even after helping Belos plot his genocide against witches and demons, the Collector is only interested in making friends and playing games. He considers Belos' Final Solution to simply be "a chore" akin to washing the dishes. Their friendliness with King is absolutely genuine, seeing him as a playmate even as their powers literally begin to rip apart the Boiling Isles, and this friendliness extended to Belos prior to his betrayal.
  • This is made clear in "Watching and Dreaming", as they truly don't understand that they're hurting people by playing their games, or how death works. The second they do witness death first-hand and realize they can't just bring a person back to life like fixing a toy, the Collector becomes horrified at the idea of anyone else dying.
• Older Than They Look: The Collector doesn't really look like they're any particular age, given they appear as an abstract Living Shadow, but one would be hard-pressed to say with confidence that he looks anything like he's been around for centuries. This becomes more pronounced once he's freed, and it turns out he looks like an actual child.
• The Omnipotent: The Collector has no apparent limit upon their powers after he is released in "King's Tide". From instantly annihilating Belos, to moving the Moon with their finger, and reshaping the entire Boiling Isles in their own image, they can do essentially anything. The only time the Collector was unable to use their incredible reality warping to do whatever they wanted was when the Boiling Isles Titan, (Titans themselves being implied to be multiversal entities due to their blood being able to open portals to other dimensions) put the Collector in a bubble within the In-Between Realm where the presence of the Titan's magic canceled out the Collector's own magic. Additionally, "For the Future" shows that they apparently made an entire pocket universe connected to the Archives in the Demon Realm and implies that he simply willed it into existence. "Watching and Dreaming" reveals that there are just about two things that he definitely can't do, counter Titan magic or bring people Back from the Dead (the latter of which he didn't realize until then, having simply assumed that he could bring anyone who died from his games back like fixing a broken toy, and may have been because the person was killed by Titan magic).
• Orange/Blue Contrast: Their face has this: one side is blue, while the other is orange.
• Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: A Humanoid Abomination that looks like an androgynous child, and is referred to by masculine and gender-neutral terms.
• Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: Belos makes him eavesdrop on King's plan to take him down and becomes convinced to put a stop to him, inconveniently leaving before King says that he understands where the Collector is coming from and wishes to talk to him first for a better peaceful resolution.
• Outside-Context Problem: The Collector originates from beyond the Boiling Isles and is not a witch, demon, or human, but something else entirely. Kikimora even calls them a "child from the stars". Prior to learning of the Collector, Luz and her friends were competing against a murderous witch hunter and Evil Overlord. The Collector, once freed, is essentially a god, and has no known motives aside from "having fun".
• Perspective Magic: Played With. In "King's Tide", they stop the Draining Spell by moving the moon as casually as a normal person would drag something on a touchscreen, though it's unclear if that's genuinely one of his powers or if he was simply having fun and pretending to do it that way.
• Physical God: "Edge of the World" reveals they're worshipped as a god called the Grand Huntsman on a different Titan corpse. In "King's Tide" once freed he proceeds to demonstrate his capabilities as this when he moves the moon by simply dragging it like a touchscreen, flicking it away from the sun to stop the Draining Spell, then proceeds to level Belos' lair by lifting his arms while levitating and summoning King back to him. They're so powerful that the only thing capable of defeating and imprisoning them was a fully grown Titan, a being the size of an island with immense magical power and even then, it's heavily implied that the Titan died in the process.
• Pinky Swear: They use this as the main way to seal a deal. Given that King releases him via linking their pinkies, it seems to indicate the action genuinely abets some form of cosmic power beyond its literal gesture.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: They're the size of a kid, yet they hold an extraordinary power beyond any reason, being able to obliterate anyone with a poke of their finger or end an eclipse by moving the moon away from the sun like a magnet on a fridge.
• Pitiful Worms: The Collector refers to the mortal Luz and Eda as "itty, bitty spiders" when asking why King would prefer to play with them over a fellow god-like immortal like himself. It's a rare case where the speaker isn't trying to be insulting, since he wants to be friends with all of them.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: In "O Titan, Where Art Thou" they're seen excitedly talking to themself about how once they're free they finally "won't be alone anymore." When they realize King is there with them and can hear them, they beg for him not to leave.
• Pointy Ears: Averted. The Collector has round ears like a human, making it clear that -whatever he is- he definitely isn't a witch.
• Powerful and Helpless:
  • The Collector is an almighty being completely above anything else the Boiling Isles has, but they can do next to nothing while sealed, forcing him to depend on Belos to be freed.
  • Fully played for drama in "Watching and Dreaming". As a godlike Reality Warper the Collector has little to no experience with consequences of any kind, being used to being able to undo any mess without having to grow or learn. When he's finally confronted with problems that he can't immediately fix with a snap of their fingers it comes in the form of Luz (temporarily) dying and the Belos infected Titan threatening to harm his newfound friends. It's clear that for a being so powerful to be left completely powerless nearly breaks him. It also serves as a stark reminder of just how young the Collector is, completely unequipped to deal with the horrible stress of the situation without their near omnipotent powers to fall back on.
• Practically Joker: They appear as a jester-like entity who only cares about their own personal amusement (even if it has a body count) and seems to have no ambitions outside of "It Amused Me" after they're freed.
• Proportional Aging: "For the Future" mentions that "Collectors live long", implying that the Collector is as old by his own species' standards as he physically appears to be.
• Psychic Link: Following the Titan Trappers' attempted sacrifice of King after he touched one of the Collector's mirrors, the two seem to have formed a psychic bond. So far King has been able to see the Collector in his dreams where he travels to the In Between Realm and when King dozes he can hear the Collector's thoughts. The Collector appears to be unaware of this because the glyph on King's collar renders him invisible to the Collector's sight, only realizing someone else can hear them when King made a dismissive snort.
• Puny Humans: Much like the rest of his race, The Collector initially was dismissive of other mortals' sufferings because they're just toys who he can make and break at will. But as time goes on, he yearns for friends to play with, and starts to see how irreversible death is to mortals when he can't use his own power to revive Luz, finally understanding how much pain he causes to mortals.
• Puppet Permutation: The Collector's takeover of the Boiling Isles involves turning every witch and demon into a puppet which remains inanimate until he gives them consciousness to participate in his and King's games. In that state, the victims are practically zombies.
• Rainbow Motif: The draining spell involves "nine bright hues" corresponding to the nine covens, Belos having implicitly devised the system this way after learning from the Collector.
• Reality Warper: The laws of physics seem to be little more than guidelines to him. The Collector can move the moon just by pointing at it and deconstruct the Titan's skull with very little effort. He can even reshape his environment in any way he deems fit, and it’s implied his whole race forged the cosmos as we know it.
• Really 700 Years Old: In "King's Tide" they're revealed to have been alive since the Titan whose corpse comprises the Boiling Isles was alive. However, Luz still calls them a kid. Played straight when their true form is revealed and they have the appearance of a young child. While he is a few hundred years old, he's a child by his people's standards.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: He has a pair of red eyes, and it's probably best not to mess around with someone who can reduce Belos to a pile of goo with a poke.
• Red Herring: He is initially implied to have been the one who imprisoned the Owl Beast. Gradually it is implied and eventually confirmed that one of the Archivists was responsible.
• Revenge:
  • While freedom and amusement seem like the Collector's primary motivators, the rhyme they improvise mentions seeking revenge as well. They stop before they can say who they want revenge on because they were having trouble thinking of a rhyme for "Unity". Presumably, they meant King's dad for locking them away.
  • When King frees them, the first thing they do is reduce Belos to a puddle of goo as payback for betraying him.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Played With – his initial appearance had him speaking that way, but after he stumbles on a rhyme for "Unity" he drops the entire thing, indicating it was just that day's fun du jour.
• Satanic Archetype: They're an incredibly powerful entity, who originally hailed from a race of similar celestial entities "from the stars" but has turned away from their kind's stated purpose in order to pursue their own wants, relating to Lucifer's backstory as a Fallen Angel. They're the enemy of the Titan (who the inhabitants of the Boiling Isles worship as a god, having been spawned from him), and they were banished by him to a realm described as "below" where they've remained imprisoned for an eternity. There they manifest as a Living Shadow, making Faustian pacts and espousing rare, incredibly dangerous knowledge to characters with low morals and Ax-Crazy dispositions (Belos). They're also worshipped by a cult with a penchant for child sacrifices in exchange for power (the Titan Trappers). Even their Cosmic Motif has allusions to the Archangel Lucifer, who was described as being the "Morning Star". Subverted, however, as the viewer learns more about their tragic background and they ultimately pull a Heel–Face Turn in the Grand Finale.
• The Scapegoat: "Watching and Dreaming" reveals that the Collector wasn't responsible for the extinction of the Titans after all. It was actually the doing of his siblings, the Archivists, who sent him to the Demon Realm effectively as a scout to "see if the Titans wanna play"; then, when the Collector befriended the Titans, the Archivists had them all wiped out in fear of their power. The last Titan left, the Boiling Isles Titan, thought that the Collector was responsible for the genocide and sealed them away in retaliation.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Is apparently trapped beneath the Titan, with the Day of Unity being, at least in part, a way to gain their freedom. Somehow, they are confined inside a spherical bubble within the In Between Realm. It's also deconstructed to a degree, as their being trapped means that, whilst they are likely more powerful, they need to put their total faith in Belos to uphold his end of the deal. The problem grows worse for the Collector as they begin doubting that Belos will set them free in the end, but ultimately can't do a thing about it due to their predicament; his concerns are also proven valid as ultimately Belos betrays him and he ends up being released by King.
• Sealed Evil in Another World: The Collector was banished to the Void Between the Worlds and a spherical cage by the Titan that would become The Boiling Isles, only able to interact with people in the form of a shadow while his body remained imprisoned.
• Serious Business: Pinky swears as it turns out which is fitting considering how childish he is. The Collector considers pinky swears to be just as powerful as a binding contract and as such he gives Belos everything he needs for the Draining Spell with no catches because he naively assumed that Belos would uphold his end of their deal. He's aghast when Belos reveals that he never intended to free him and can only call Belos a liar as his mirror is thrown off a bridge.
• Sigil Spam: Everything associated with the Collector is marked with heraldic sun and/or moon imagery.
• Spell My Name with a "The":
  • Eda lampshades it, asking what kind of jerk puts a "The" in front of their name.
  • Despite their name being officially 'The Collector', most characters just call them 'Collector'.
• Stepford Smiler: The Collector is an immortal child with god-like powers who doesn't understand the moral ramifications of his "games." However, despite always acting cheerful and fun-loving, he's very aware his friendship with King isn't real, but he craves companionship so much that he claims he's fine with just pretending. Fortunately, Luz helps him understand how to actually make friends.
  Collector: I know it's just pretend! I don't care! I'll pretend as long as I want!
  Luz: But it's not what you want, is it?
• Stop Worshipping Me: The Collector has a very low opinion on the Titan Trappers who worship him like a god, referring to them all as a bunch of jerks who act weird.
• Story-Breaker Power: He created various spells that are so powerful that only his own cosmic power can override them. He (or rather, maybe one of his siblings) created the Owl Beast curse by binding the poor creature to a magic scroll, and he also created the Draining Spell, which cannot be halted until the eclipse that activates it ends, or he stops it himself.
• Sore Loser: Downplayed. As shown by his increasing frustration as Luz, Eda, and King keep beating him in "Watching and Dreaming", the Collector really doesn't enjoy having his play turned around on him - he doesn't escalate beyond getting upset and retreating to a Corner of Woe however, and it puts him in the right mood to talk about his siblings and feelings of abandonment when Luz reaches out to him.
• Super Gullible: For someone who is practically a god, the Collector is still very much just a child and thus very easy to manipulate. They expect Belos to hold up his end of their deal and free them despite knowing he's a Manipulative Bastard, and are shocked and upset when he reveals he was lying. King is also able to trick them into saving everyone by telling them he needs a lot of players to play 'Owl House', and somehow buys the kids' Bad "Bad Acting" when they try to back up King's story.
• To Create a Playground for Evil: The Collector's idea of a game is turning landmasses and worlds inside out, which also involves the destruction of established societal order. Unless you like twisted fun and games, you won't enjoy this.
• Token Good Teammate: For the Archivists. While the Collector is genuinely dangerous because they’re Blue-and-Orange Morality and how disconnected they are from normal people due to their godlike power, they aren't inherently malicious and genuinely don't think they're hurting anybody. The Archivists, meanwhile, are willing to commit genocide at the first sign of interference and are fully aware that they're killing people; they just don't care.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • Once he's been freed, he remains calm and even playful as he gets his revenge on Belos. The only indication we get as to his anger is how his tone changes when he declares "I'm it", and the sheer power he puts behind "tagging" Belos.
  • The last line in "For the Future" is when, looking down at the Hexsquad and having been gaslit by Belos into believing King is working with them to betray him, the Collector declares he wants to play a new game, with an absolutely chilling expression.
• Two-Faced: One side of their face is a bright orange, representing the sun, while the other side is dark blue, representing the moon.
• Unwitting Pawn: Belos takes advantage of his desperation to be released to use the Collector's massive power to further the Day of Unity. By the time The Collector catches on, Belos literally throws him off the bridge.
  • It happens again in "For the Future", as Belos possesses the Raine puppet to manipulate the Collector against Luz and the other heroes.
• Vague Age: We don't know exactly how old they are; their demeanor is generally that of a child, but they've been alive for centuries, at least long enough to predate Belos himself. "King's Tide" confirms that they're older than the Isles themselves, having fought the Boiling Isles Titan, who hid his unborn son King away from the Mad God, before being imprisoned. Kikimora describes them as a "Child from the Stars" so the Collector may literally be a child for his species.
• Villainous Breakdown: When Luz, King and Eda keep beating him in his games, he goes off to sulk alone. Luz tries to talk with him, which leads him to talk about how he only wanted friends who wouldn't betray him, but that everyone seems to do so. He proceeds to tell his backstory, while gradually becoming more and more upset.
  The Collector: I showed all of them! Even when those trapper jerks started acting weird. Even when Belos lied to me! I found King! I found the last titan and he's my friend now!
  King: Collector...
  The Collector: (sounding on the verge of tears) I know it's just pretend! I don't care! I'll pretend as long as I want!
• Villainous Rescue: He shows up in his physical form just in time to save Luz and her friends from Belos's strike and kills him in one effortless poke of his finger. He then proceeds to almost kill them as well, acting as if they're also playing his "game" of tag. At King's behest, they then save the entirety of the Boiling Isles from the Draining Spell by moving the moon out of the way of the sun.
• Virtuous Character Copy: Just as Philip is a Corrupted Character Copy for Ford Pines, The Collector plays a similar role to Bill Cipher. A Sealed Evil in a Can who allies with a man who travels dimensions and offers knowledge in exchange for their freedom, is a Practically Joker villain, and it's implied that most of their actions are driven solely to satisfy their own sick amusement. To top it off, they both have cults worshipping him. The key difference is that while Bill is a Card-Carrying Villain, the Collector is more a Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds, and as a result, unlike Ford and Bill, the Collector and Belos' relationship is more amicable. To make matters closer and ironic as well, it's the human, Belos, the one who deceives and betrays the stronger entity, Collector, having been using him like everyone else the Emperor manipulated; with the Collector even being the least evil of the two in terms of morality and intent.
• Void Between the Worlds: He was apparently trapped somewhere in the In Between Realm, confined to some sort of bubble.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: In "Hollow Mind", they appear to be trapped as a Living Shadow and can freely transform themself, mockingly assuming Belos's monstrous form when gleefully saying that they thought he was going to kill Hunter for damaging the key.
• Villainous Friendship: They hold Belos in positive regard, though it seems that it's mostly because Belos promised he'd free him and they'd get to play. Unsurprisingly, this is broken once Belos betrays him, which the Collector responds to by splattering Belos all over the wall once released by King.
• Villain Protagonist: Much of Season 3 sees him as a Villain Deuteragonist, since his screentime is dedicated towards his development.
• Walking Spoiler: There's no marked spoilers for a reason.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Titan magic can neutralize his. The effect is so potent that even a single light glyph can neutralize his spells.
• We Used to Be Friends: At least, that's what he thought. They legitimately saw Belos as a friend and were more than ready to help him with his Day of Unity as long as they were freed, but once Belos goes back on his promise to them, The Collector stops seeing him as anything but a jerk. Though, he did later think Belos could be reasoned with and just needed to be shown kindness, and tries to give him a second chance. That doesn't work either.
• White Sheep: His people don't care about mortal life, who to them are just specimen to be collected, studied, or discarded if they don't cooperate, and they use their reality warping powers to torment lesser beings. After his Heel–Face Turn, he starts to appreciate mortals and forms genuine friendships with them, and decides to use his powers for good.
• Wild Card: They don't seem to have any real agenda outside of ensuring they have as much fun as possible. As such, The Collector is liable to ally with anyone who promises to play with them, being perfectly willing to save or destroy the world so long as they get to amuse themself. They end the Draining Spell early after King tells them they need everyone alive to play Owl House, despite having worked with Belos for centuries to set it up and displaying no remorse for having done so.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • While they're not the one doing the hurting, he's still worryingly joyful about the idea of Belos physically abusing or even killing Hunter, if not for the sole reason of It Amused Me. Upon release, they forcefully inundate everybody on the Boiling Isles at the time, with the exception of those who managed to get to the Human Realm, into their game of "Owl House."
  • Arguably comes up again when he meets King, whom he recognizes as the Boiling Isles Titan's baby. The Collector is positively giddy when he says he always wanted to play with King, at which point his shadow depicts himself chasing what looks suspiciously like an egg. Given what we've seen of Collector's "games", it's very likely King's Dad knew King wouldn't have survived playing with the Collector.
  • After they obliterate Belos with a finger poke under the pretense of playing tag, they attempt to continue their twisted game with Luz and her friends, with no indication that they would tone down the "tag".
• Yin-Yang Bomb: His motif and powers are of both dark and light complete with the sun and moon.
• Youthful Freckles: The Collector's true form is shown to have freckles on their left cheek. Not only does this fit their youthful appearance, but being on the "eclipse" side of their face invokes stars in the night sky.

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