Agott and Coco, The Star and the SIlverwood
I am sure you know of the tale of the Star Messenger and the Silverwood Maiden. For reference, here is the page with the tale,
Coco and Agott both have many connections to this tale, with Agott being quite frequently connected to the Star Messenger and Coco being connected to the Silverwood Maiden. Their characters and progression as characters align with the tale incredibly well, because just as the Star gave the Silverwood magic, Agott gave Coco reminders of the joys of magic, lighting up the cold harsh realm of the dark realities of magic with the bright hope of joys magic can provide.
Even this panel is set up almost identical to the part of the tale where the Star gives the Silverwood magic.
Beyond that, Coco has had many drawings where she is associated with trees, usually surrounded or hanging off their branches:
The third one is quite interesting because she is not only surrounded by trees but also stars. I think that is because, in a way, Coco is also the Star Messenger. Just as Agott gave Coco hope, Coco was the one who helped Agott progress in her emotions and feelings enough to even see that hope in the first place.
And Agott of course has many connections to the Star:
In the first image Agott is wearing her jacket that she wears in chapter 58 and 94 that has stars on the hood and sleeves, and in the second image, Agott has many star symbolisms on her cloak, she also notably is the only girl with a star tattoo on her arm, something the Star is shown to have on his arm.
Despite this, Agott is shown to be holding her hands in the same position as the Silverwood when she receives the gift of magic.* Again, this is because the role of Silverwood and Star goes both ways with Agott and Coco.
*Although I could also see it being that she is facing the same direction as the star so she is giving the magic instead of receiving but it could really go either way.
Interestingly enough, adding onto my previous mentions of Agott and Coco being shown to be both the Silverwood and the Star, there is one panel where their roles are blatantly flipped,
Here, Coco takes the place of the Star and Agott the role of the Silverwood. You can even see trees at the bottom of the panel with Agott and stars at the top of the panel with Coco.
Both of them have given each other a path forward. They have both gifted each other a gift that lit up their worlds. When Agott was stuck in her own selfishness, expectations, and ambitions, Coco brought her out of herself and convinced her to drop her walls down simply by being there and being willing to constantly push to be closer. This made Agott realize just how alone she was and was setting herself up to be while also getting her to desire for a deeper connection with the people around her. She stopped shutting others out. As for Coco, she was weighed down by the world. Everything seemed to be closing in on her and the people she loved and because of her bleeding heart she felt that it was up to her to fix it. Magic became a collection of horrors rather than the wonder she first thought it was. But Agott drew her out of that mindset. She showed that she doesn’t have to keep bleeding for others. She could focus on herself. Agott brought back that whimsy and wonder that had been lost to the world. Lighting up the night with those sparkling animal spells, the child that was so abruptly cut out of Coco was able to be and breath. This time, without the expectations of the world closing in.
In the words of the tale, Both Agott and Coco descended to the world (Agott from the window when they first meet and Coco from the unknowing’s world instead of the heavens), where they grew smitten with each other (platonically best-friend/sister way or romantically is up to you, doesn’t really matter), and blessed each other with the gift of magic, that the other might be free from suffering in their respective cold, harsh realms.
Of course, that is not the end of the tale. “But the Maiden’s love was split, she cared not only for the Star, but for all life with whom she shared her home. She took the gift meant only for her, and passed it on to the meekest, most hapless of creatures in all the land.” In this case, I think we are dealing with future content we have not yet seen in the manga. We have covered the first part of the tale, they have met and gifted each other magic, but now we are facing something curious. While I did say that both Coco and Agott are both the Star and the Silverwood, I do think Agott still leans closer to the Star and Coco closer to the Silverwood. However I will go over what this part of the tale means for both sides of the coin.
The tale in context of the Star being Agott and Coco being the Silverwood:
If Coco’s love is split, then I could see it as her still having a bleeding heart and wanting to help as many as she can, the opposite of what Agott encouraged her to do. In this case, she might want to share the secret of magic, passing on magic onto the unknowings. We don’t know the rest of the tale so we don’t know what comes of this other than “Thus began the age of man.” With the way the tale is worded I could see the Star being angry at the shared gift, and I could see Agott maybe being angry that Coco shared the secret of magic because of the problems it might cause but with how characters have been developing it feels like when the secret of magic is revealed Agott might be on board. Of course, maybe the Star wasn’t angry that the Silverwood shared the gift. Maybe he was pleased, content to follow along or at least not fighting back against her decision. In that case, Coco shares the secret with the unknowings and Agott is behind her and supporting every step of the way or at least not fighting her on it.
The tale in context of the Silverwood being Agott and Coco being the Star:
WIth Agott, we have already seen her sharing the gift of magic with “the meekest, most hapless” in chapter 70.
But I wouldn’t really say that Agott’s love was split, the whole lesson Coco taught Agott was that sharing magic was important and following through on what she was taught wouldn’t “split” Agott’s love. So maybe her love is split between herself and what she learned from Coco, but that still doesn’t fit with the tale because the Silverwood wasn’t stuck between love for herself and the magic the Star gave her. If there is some specific parallel for Agott and the Silverwood then it is going to be some future event that I don’t have any context for. Maybe she will be torn between a brimhat Coco’s ideals and past Coco’s ideals and she passes on the past Coco’s ideals that brimhat Coco doesn’t support anymore. That is my best guess.
Chances are, it will be a mix of the two. That is how it has always gone with these two. Whether they intend for it or not they share everything, their problems, their solutions, their sorrows, their joys, even their parallels. These two are in it together.
We see that there are more pages after that and I cannot help but wonder what parts of the tale we are missing and what they might reveal for the future of Coco and Agott.
Either way, I am excited to see how the story unfolds from here. Thank you for reading!
