wild speculation about olruggio's dad + olly parallels with utowin.
a lot of this is just letting my mind wander, we don't really have enough context to say for certain, so it's just for fun. i do think olruggio's dad was a dick to him for sure, but who knows about the rest.
okay starting with olruggio/utowin parallels.
i think we're going to see utowin and olruggio are very similar. i think they both had shit dads. both olly and utowin had a problem with authority.
"i mean, i'm pretty sure i wasn't the only kid around who couldn't follow a bunch of stuffy grown-ups instructions." who is the other notable kid in this backstory? olruggio.
as utowin continues his monologue we see him with his own dad.
and then the next pair we see is olruggio with his dad. a direct parallel.
and the olruggio we meet in the great hall does not give af about what the adults tell him to do. he's going to lie to them to do/get what he wants.
so utowin sees olruggio after noz. what if him watching olruggio from afar has happened before. what if him having different thoughts to the rest of the kids is based on what he knows rather than what he speculates. like maybe he's seen olly's dad be a dick to him before and that's why he isn't fully against olly like the other kids. (also think the purpose of this could just be showing us utowin's personality too tho.)
but to keep running with this. i've thought it was interesting that utowin wants to comfort olruggio instead of something more dramatic, like being the hero and saving olly. maybe he wants to comfort olly because he knows he can relate to olly about shitty dads. they have something in common there.
except noz doesn't really have much to do with olly's dad, it has to do with death and disaster. so utowin can't really step in and comfort him. not for that. noz is way bigger than what he had in mind. utowin is hard on himself anyways.
i also think it's entirely possibly utowin doesn't know olly's dad is also a dick to olly and utowin's surprised when he learns that fact later, but i think utowin and olly being very similar in their relationships with their dads is a really fun parallel.
and speculation about olruggio + his dad. i talk more about why i think olly's childhood was bad here.
if olly had all his emotional needs met as a child idk if he'd end up being described as crafty at the age of like 7 lmao. great hall olly shows us a kid that a strict father would not have a lot of patience for imo. of course his dad is the reason he's Like That, but his dad would never recognize that and just place the blame on olly for being difficult. olly is too smart for his own good.
i'm convinced the smile olly has here is fake. it's a mask because he has to keep up appearances when with his dad in public. it isn't real.
i keep wondering about olruggio's relationship with his dad and how much to blame that man is for why olruggio is Like That. olruggio is confident when he's using his magic for his own purposes, when there's an obstacle in front of him. he's not good at accepting praise for his magic after the fact. see coco and the glowstone path, all of hiehart's fussing, how shy he gets when the girls are watching him and amazed at how perfect his lines are.
was his dad always dismissive or hard on olruggio when it came to his spells? instead of taking the time to praise olly for what he's achieved, he'd move on to the next thing and push olly harder. so olly doesn't grow up knowing how to accept praise. he's used to criticism.
there was something about this panel that's been bugging me and i think i finally figured out what it is. olruggio's dad isn't helping. olly's a kid and he's doing all the work while his dad just stands there behind him watching closely, making sure he does it right. you're a grown ass man, help the small kid in front of you.
my interpretation of his dad so far is he's like a disney channel dad. living vicariously through his more talented son, basking in the limelight that comes from olruggio being the town's savior. pushing olruggio as hard as possible and being hard on him when he fails. he instills the mentality that olly is a talented witch and that means his talents must be used for what is needed, not what olly wants.
and if the whole town needed olruggio, then that would have been a big deal to let him go to the great hall.
and how much is the town leaning on olruggio if this is how he reacts when he can't save everyone in what sounds like an impossible situation. how much is this breakdown is informed by his dad constantly drilling into olly that yes, everything is his responsibility. his dad wants that limelight. use my son! of course my son can help you! olly's sense of worth is quickly associated with his ability to help people around him. so when he fails, that's a disaster.
so olruggio was very important to the town because of his skills. ghodrey giving him away would have affected the town because of that. and that led me to think what if olruggio's dad expected him to come back? finish his education and return to ghodrey.
but olruggio meets qifrey. imagine olruggio's dad, who has always been trying to control olly, seeing his son start to chose qifrey over his original responsibilities to him, to ghodrey. olruggio's dad in this scenario would hate qifrey and i swear that would only make olly did his heels in further. seeing his son choose qifrey over his potential would drive a dad like that insane. the angst potential here.... olruggio doesn't have the nickname olly until qifrey. his dad never called him a cute nickname, they didn't have time for that. olruggio loves that qifrey gave him a nickname. qifrey is such a fan of olly's magic. qifrey is everything his father isn't. supportive, caring, fun.
so olruggio doesn't come back to ghodrey, he chooses to live with qifrey in their backwoods atelier. olly's extremely well known, he's famous amongst the witching world and he's living this small life out in the country. why would he go back to ghodrey where his dad is? he wants to stay as far away from that man as possible. his dad never forgives him for never coming back. utowin never goes back to ghodrey either.
imagine qifrey and the girls coming across olruggio's dad in the great hall or something. the man looks exactly like olly. qifrey can't stand him because he knows what that man has done to his olly. the girls can't understand how olruggio's dad could be so nasty when olly is the way he is.
and if olruggio's dad sucks it makes the conversation around who his master was that much more interesting. what if his dad had a hand in choosing his master for him? who was olly's master and how would they deal with a prodigy who doesn't trust adults and is too smart for his own good.
sometimes i wonder if this convo is informed by him not liking his master in the past. he's not fully trusting qifrey's reasons for taking coco in but maybe there's something else there too.
shirahama pls give us the olly backstory 🙏
theartofmadeline
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