tartah and coco’s relationship is fascinating and i really adore tarco but i feel like the most recent chapters make it very clear they’ve chosen custas and agott over each other which just further substantiates their respective queer coding. tarco begin their relationship developing a bond of mutual ignorance, bliss, and “normalcy” [read: heteronormativity], but as the story progresses tartah’s world is completely expanded by custas, and he sacrifices coco’s trust in him to chase after custas in parallel to oluruggio/qifrey (who are also very queer). coco chooses to stay with agott rather than follow him.
it’s also interesting bc custas and coco are deliberate parallels and sort of an “andrew in drag” situation for tartah who clearly has a crush on coco and also had his relationship with custas open with a classic “do you like me or something?” at the same time you have agott who is pretty clearly meant to be a lesbian—even just from basic narrative coding, coco, tetia, and richeh all have young boys they’re positioned opposite of to explore what young crushes look like, whereas agott only has that with coco.
i feel like tarco were so necessary for advancing each other’s character arcs, but i do think shirahama sort of deliberately pulled off a bait and switch with them. tartah has a crush on coco, and maybe coco reciprocates, but it’s that sort of “first love” that comes with a lot of idolization and isn’t necessarily realistic. as both characters begin to understand the reality of the witching world, they drift further apart. as they realize the falsehood of “normalcy” they’re pushed further towards custas and agott. i still love them a lot bc they’re the first they know to ever really understand each other. and yet, it’s through understanding each other they come to understand their respective selves and this ironically develops them beyond the other.
