the thing about tartah that you must remember is that he is a child. he is a child coming to the realization that the entire world he knew is a lie. he is a child that has learned that the tree he’s lived around his entire life could consume and basically kill not just him but has already taken root in one of his best friends. he is a child that is tired of the lies of the witches, a child who already experienced deep shame at the fact that his disability kept him from full access to their world, and then saw the exact same thing repeat with custas.
it’s just deeply troubling to me that every time children have sincerely complicated emotions in stories as induced by trauma people immediately talk about disappointment, or anger, or disgust at their actions. tartah has no mechanism for the truth other than burning a brand into his skin; when he forces the truth out of coco, he is also committing to his own thoughts never again being private. he doesn’t think anyone has the right to lie—especially because these lies are based on exploitation of the vulnerable. anything he would do to coco he is fine happening to himself (their early mirror imagery is extremely relevant). when custas physically assaults tartah after learning tartah has also been keeping secrets, tartah is the one that apologizes. tartah is the one that says he is in the wrong. that is the extent to which he sees the secret of magic as unjustifiable.
when you can’t trust any of the adults in your life, and the girl who you thought truly understood you is demonstrating loyalty to them after you’ve shared very delicate information with her, but then you’re given the opportunity to extract the truth by any means necessary, there’s not really another option. tartah’s anger at the witching world had been telegraphed since practically the beginning of his arc and personally i was relieved he finally expressed it. i’m not necessarily saying who is in the right between coco and tartah, but we should understand why he was so frustrated with her optimism towards the goodness of witches—an optimism that has routinely been misguided. even coco herself has come to understand that.
tartah is by no means the only character who, crushed under the weight of the world they live in, makes uncomfortable choices. agott throws coco into a deadly trial the second she meets her. custas attacks tartah after realizing the truth about magic (and this reaction is exactly how tartah learns how to respond to lies, basically, because loyalty to custas has become his driving motivation). but agott and custas are also traumatized—these things that they are doing are not in isolation. they’re not evil, they’re not even particularly cruel, they’re just children who are lost and have been given no proper guidance by the adults around them. the same goes for tartah. traumatized children are allowed to be complicated!!
