The reason Qifrey is so awesome and relatable is because he wants to live. Man in his twenties being ominous as hell and breaking laws left and right and messing with forces beyond comprehension and lying to the cops and doing horrible things to the people who love him most and constantly destroying his own mental health and you peel back the layers and the motivation is "God I want to grow old someday."
God and the way in which he transforms from ‘I have to live because Olly wants me to live’ to ‘I want to live’ is so incredibly important to me. He was ready to give up, to let the Silverwood take him but Olly stops him. Olruggio traps him in a hellish pact because he wants his friend to live and he knows his friend wants to as well, Qifrey just has to come to that realisation.
It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.
[ID: Digital painting, a recreation of one of Leyendecker's Interwoven Socks ads, of a gentleman sitting in a wooden chair before a wooden desk, clutching some envelopes in hand. Instead, it's Dr Watson as played by David Burke, and there's an assortment of chemistry vials on the desk as well as a microscope.
Watson's in a light suit and has a yellow flower pinned to his lapel. The chair he sits in is a swivel one. He sits before a solid coral background. /end ID]
(details and some rambling under the cut!)
While I mostly find that quote up there like a big backhanded compliment, there's a part of me that finds it really endearing.
I think, the question is, can pure sunshine be a conductor of light? Because that's what Watson, especially David Burke's, is to me.
I started this study on the day Mr Burke's passing was shared publicly without knowing if I'd finish it, but I ended up chipping away at it light by little these past few days. I hope I have managed to do him even the slightest bit of justice 💛
Anyway, deets!
[ID: An assortment of details of the above illustration, each focusing on a different part of the image. In order:
Olruggio, violence, and the dualistic nature of fire (and all magic)
After reading the latest chapter, I am quite certain that we will see fire magic used in a truly devastating way sometime in the story's future, either in a traumatic flashback or an equally traumatic current event (or both), and Olruggio will be at the center of it. Witnessing a character known for their gentleness resort to violence is probably one of my favorite concepts in storytelling. I am deeply fascinated by the push and pull of violence in narrative, and fire is able to give itself to the theme SO well. That which can be used for light and warmth, can also be used to burn.
Disclaimer: I'm not sure how visually explicit Shirahama will get with fire-related violence, if at all, but I will say that we have already witnessed many instances of body horror in the manga; the origin of the leech monster... Euini's transformation... the people of Romonon turned to gold, and then melted of their own volition... Custas and Qifrey. Shirahama does not shy away from magic turned violent when coming into contact with human bodies. What magic-induced violence she has presented to the reader thus far have been genuine hand-over-mouth horror. Anyway, back to Olly!
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We've already seen the power of his spells when Coco goes to the Tower of Tomes. He takes out a giant sea serpent with a single seal etched onto a skipping stone:
and he uses destructive fire magic many more times against the valance leech:
and he's good at it. He's really good at using magic for violence, when it's necessary. He has no love for it, but he will use fire to cause harm if he has no other choice. In ch82, he was fully prepared to go scorched earth on the leech monster for his kids:
It's brought up again and again throughout the narrative that the witches of old once waged wars using magic.
The chaos and violence wrought by that magic was how The Pact came into being—a select few witches ushered in an era peace by subjugating an entire populace with mass memory wipe, and decreed that magic would never be turned on people again, for good OR evil.
This decision has been at the root (haha) (sorry) of the greater conflict and questioning within the world of Witch Hat Atelier; could the withholding of magic to save lives be considered a violence unto itself? Who is allowed to use magic, and for what purpose? To whose benefit? To what end? The Brimmed Caps would have these questions brought to light and engaged with, however imperfectly.
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There is a moment in the battle against the valance leech where Olruggio freezes at the "encouraging" words of violence that some non-witches are shouting at him. It incapacitates him to the point that he cannot bring himself to cast, and the leech punishes him for his hesitation:
What exactly was he thinking about? What was he remembering?
Olruggio grew up in Ghodrey, a city in the far north and known for its harsh and unforgiving winters. We know that something terrible happened during a job while helping the non-witch village of Nauz, as shown in Utowin's backstory (who also grew up Ghodrey). A blizzard left people stranded in the cold, an unspecified monster attacked them, and people died. Olruggio, an inexperienced child at the time, blamed himself for their deaths, but we don't know for certain how exactly they died, or what became of the monster that attacked the village.
I believe we will be getting a better glimpse into Olruggio's backstory, and the psychological consequences of it, in the new arc; the theme of death in the last two chapters is pervasive—this arc is set in winter, when conditions for survival are most difficult, for all living things.
Like. Hey prince. Why would you say that. What did you mean by that. What d—
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In ch96, Olruggio goes with the girls to help one of the neighboring villages prepare for winter, and in classic Shirahama style, the funny silly heehee panel
is tonally altered by the next ones
"guess he's speaking from experience" and regrettio into "btw seeing a living thing burn alive fucking sucks, would not recommend it, kids" while looking at the very hand that casts fire magic is so crazy, and knowing Shirahama's unwavering attention and dedication to detail, it is very deliberate. In this chapter, Olruggio and the girls come across a dead dragon.
He is no stranger to death, and has seen death by flame; he has grieved and been shaped by the unpredictable nature of fire, an element that can give itself as easily to life as it does to death.
His "failure" to save everyone in the blizzard flashback led him to create magic whose purpose is warm and gentle.
Does Olruggio know that his gentlest form of magic killed every last "living" Romonon? Did anyone tell him it was an amplified snugstone, originally created for warmth and comfort, that finally put them to rest?
At what point does cruelty become a kindness, and kindness, cruel? How does magic, the prohibition of certain kinds of magic, and the controlling of who gets to use magic, position itself in this question?
My guess is that Olruggio first saw the devastating nature of fire without restraint in Nauz, during the blizzard. Maybe it was a question of kill, or be killed. I imagine gentle magic would not easily abate an opportunistic or territorial monster in a winter storm, nor will it mean anything to a Brimmed Hat witch who would see the social order upended, for better or for worse.
He is known as Olruggio of the Torch. The Star of Ghodrey. The sky's kindest, most radiant star. He is a source of warmth and comfort, both in presence and in everything he has ever invented for the better of the world. He has a gentle soul, and the narrative will have him suffer for it.
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Not to worryyy! This is ultimately a story about hope, and hope prevailing in spite of the horrors! The suffering is not forever.
He uses the image of a dragon in his most aggressive spellcasting, which is thematically interesting to me, especially given the sheer amount of dragons we are likely to witness in this arc. With the snowy setting now upon us, I hope we will see more of Olruggio's past come up, whether in flashback, emotional impact, or in similarity to what the girls will be up against.
I love dragons and I'm excited to see the direction this arc takes!
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Other things I would have liked to go further into depth with but decided against it, so as to narrow the focus of this post: the parallels between Tetia and Prince Eoleo and the warring witches of old, and the use of magic for healing vs violent magic used to prevent further harm.
Would love to hear other people's thoughts on the topics I've presented here!
