Just this one panel is so heart warming to me. It's a gentleness I didn't (as I'm sure a lot of kids didn't) experience growing up.
Qifrey lets the girls help cut the vegetables because it allows them a say in what/how they eat, that is pure love and care. It's not "you have to help because I'm working hard for you and you should be grateful and earn your place," it's "you can help because I care about the way you experience life and I want you to have autonomy." And you see it on their faces, they're all so happy for this small task. They created a space so safe in that atelier, I'm normal...
I'm Re-reading witch hat atelier and I really wasn't appreciative enough of how great Qifrey, Coco and Beldaruit's dynamic is on my first read through, especially during the Silver Eve arc.
Beldaruit is the well-meaning but overbearing strict parent turned chill grandpa who lets his grandkids get away with things Qifrey would only be able to do over his dead body. It's so funny seeing Qifrey desperately trying to be firm and force Coco to rest (knowing damn well he's the biggest hypocrite the world has ever seen) and Bel is very much not helping lol.
You know how every organization has some generic positive mission statement like "We value community and diversity and want to help everyone achieve fulfillment". But, by default, whether it's an ice cream company or a nonprofit charity, it will still be run like a business with all the regular pitfalls and prejudice and exploitation they can get away with?
Olruggio is the only one who really understands the pointed caps mission statement of "magic is meant to help people".
Other characters (like Qifrey and the apprentices) absolutely believe it and work hard at it, but still get hung up on their personal issues, or have trouble enacting it. The Knights Moralis are meant to enforce the principles, but (like all cops) have calcified into violent rules enforcement rather than actual fulfillment of the ideal. Most witches, I'm sure, try their best, but (as with the recurrent ableism theme) are often disconnected from what the most vulnerable people in their society actually need. Or fall into the same classism and prejudice as the rest of the world.
Olruggio? He's on the fucking ball. He heard "magic is for helping people" and locked the fuck in. I've made jokes about his fulfillment (or lack thereof) of a Watchful Eye's duties. But really, what happened is Olruggio took the spirit of "ensure the well being of apprentices" rather than the letter of the law or the expected norms. All of his spells from the snugstone to the phantasmal fireball are about comfort. He takes the safety design elements incredibly seriously. He's the one to warn Agott at the river that she should be willing to do mundane, non-glorious tasks if that's what people need. When Qifrey and Easthies are facing off, it's Olruggio yelling at both of them to knock it off and maybe focus on the civilians they are here to help. He says he can't be a master because a master must always prioritize the apprentices, but he's the one in Romonon stopping Qifrey in his tracks to remind him to get back to the kids. During Silver Eve, he thought he accidentally got caught casting. What he actually got caught doing was sneaking away from his commissioned work to do pro bono charity work for the local villagers. He tells Tetia her sense of empathy is the most important part of her magic. He doesn't even want to kill bugs.
I have so many thoughts about Olly representing magic at its best. He is warmth and dedication and comfort and help. He’s exactly what fire is when it’s kept at the right temperature. Also, because he is the star from the story, who gives its magic to its love and the people to save them.
Hey hypothetically would anyone be interesting in a longer and more emotionally serious version of this insane mimic monster concept I came up with where Olruggio and Qifrey have to stop a Qifrey-mimic?
spoilers and brief scene under the cut:
“What?” Qifrey stops and stares, blinking, at himself. His notebook is out but he’s just stalled. He gets hit with his own water dragon spell and lays on the ground, wet. “What?”
“Get up,” Olly says, tense and standing next to him. “What would stop you?”
“What would stop me?” This must be a head trauma or a nightmare, surely.
“Yes, Qifrey. We are apparently going to have to fight a version of you. So, what are you most worried about having to face?”
Qifrey hesitates. The answer is, of course, anything good. Happiness. Comfort. Whatever would make that infernal seed start sprouting.
They get hit with another water dragon, although Olly’s own fire spell manages to block most of it.
“Qifrey, some copy of you is between us and our way out and the girls are waiting outside this damn cave. Give me anything to try!”
This is embarrassing.
“Hug me. Or, rather, the not-me.”
“What?”
“Hug the not-me and tell me you think I’ve done a good job taking care of the girls. Don’t let go.”
Olly looks at him like he’s suddenly sprouted into a tree, ha, and then curses.
“If this is a joke-“
“It’s not. That will stop me.”
As not-Qifrey comes close again Olly reaches out and snags his fingers. He pulls at just the right moment. Not-Qifrey is off balance and falls into his waiting arms. They hug. It's odd, watching his body do what he’s wanted for so long and yet not feeling any of the touch. This clawing jealous churning will probably keep his own tree at bay, at least.
Olly whispers something, and all of a sudden not-Qifrey is not-Qifrey as a silverwood.
“What?” Olly asks, again, and Qifrey sighs. This has to be the weirdest one yet.
“Olruggio can you come help me up?” He unpins his hat as he waits on the ground.
i know that a lot of the "will coco stay a pointed hat or go brim" discussion is mostly speculation and discourse on the morality of either side, but is it just me or are a lot of people missing the very obvious hints that coco won't necessarily stick to either side?
Like I've seen so many discussions where it's as if those are the only two options, and that coco will inevitably become a brimhat because it aligns with her morals of wanting magic to help people but like
Wasn't the entire point of chapter 38 to symbolize Coco's choice when it comes to pointed or brimmed hat society being not to go towards either (flying to Olruggio symbolizing sticking with the pointed hat ideology, and flying to the tower symbolizing resorting to forbidden magic to save her mom) but to carve a third path for herself, where she doesn't necessarily pick a side and finds a way to take things case-by-case (or as Qifrey puts it, to save the person directly in front of her).
Basically a way that allows her to account for the nuances of both societies' arguments on magic and it's restriction, addressing the problems shirahama brings up that are evident in both views
(id also like to bring up that a key part of Coco's "third path" was rescuing qifrey, which...hopecore??? I'll let myself be a little hopepilled and take this as tentative confirmation that whatever path coco makes for herself will involve her finding a way to save Qifrey as well, as sort of a stepping stone towards figuring out how to save her mom)
Idk maybe I just missed a lot of the discourse and everyone already gets this but I've just been a little confused since most of what I've been seeing has been pretty much "coco will have to accept that she can't save her mom and remain a witch" or "coco will reject pointed cap society and become a brimhat" with little to no middle ground lol
I love reading orufrey fics but even some of my fave orufrey fics have “qifrey’s eyes met-” no “Olruggio looked into his eyes” incorrect “qifrey’s eyes widened” my man has one eye just the one
One of my favorite bits in all of wha is when coco runs off to the tower of tomes by herself and qifrey goes after her... The trigger for it all of course being beldaruit pretty much trying to snatch coco right out from under qifrey lol. When beldy is basically trying to let coco down easy on the prospects of being able to bring her mother back from the dead it almost reads to me as what he wished he could have got through to qifrey when he was his apprentice. Cuz on paper what coco and qifrey are going through seems very similar, they seek to restore something that may only be possible through forbidden magic (at least if our reading is that qifrey is just trying to restore his eye and his memories). And this is coherent because from beldaruits pov qifrey is a troubled child who grew into an equally troubled adult, whom beldy cant even be sure he can trust to be a teacher in favor of his personal missions. (A biased and skewed perspective, but one partially shaped by qifreys own secret keeping) This of course upsets tf out of coco the same way it probably would have for qifrey at her age. What really perfects this moment for me is when qifrey finds coco trying to get to the tower and hes talking her down from her state of desperation, he's thinking internally "i wish someone had said this to me" which is so heartbreaking and it just really shows the disconnect between qifrey and beldaruit. The gap between the things beldaruit wished he could have got through to qifrey and the things qifrey wished hed been told is so big, and coco ends up right in the middle of it. And what qifrey says really is what gets through to coco! Beldaruit has to learn that their similarities is what makes them such a good pair, rather than the opposite
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