Silver Eve @silverwoodlinings - Tumblr Blog

lucian ☆ they/he ☆ 24

my witch hat atelier sideblog for @swantamer. just a place to keep my ramblings and theories all in one place!

i'm all caught up with the manga as of now, so i'll mark spoilers by chapter. my favorites are agott, qifrey, coco, and custas! (but i love em all truly) and of course: arkco and orufrey ^^

#inkcantations

vaguely-concerned

I’ve been thinking a lot about Olruggio and masks. Especially after Shirahama helpfully gave us the image of him quite literally putting on a mask to go to work and perform his public self, in case we were having trouble picking up what she was putting down lol, BUT I think to a certain extent and with no malicious intent, even the Olly of the atelier — Qifrey's Olly as he functions day to day in the now — is a little bit of a mask as well. Behind even that there's a watchful eye (if you'll pardon me the word choice) that's looking out and taking care not to be watched too closely in return. After reading the whole manga, I think this Olruggio might be closest to the core of who he is of all we’ve gotten to see so far:

The kindness, the warmth, the goofiness, the flash and brilliance, the bursts of perhaps worrying intensity bordering on desperation ala ‘y’know I know what I said but I think it’s time to just burn this whole fucking forest down’ or ‘you’re okay I’m okay (I can still be a witch I can save people I have to save everyone)’; those are all also true. But I think this is at the heart, and it shines through to where we can see so rarely. He’s been at this for a long time: he had hiding it down to an art already at the tender age of like eleven. If you’re anything like me, he’ll have you as a reader bought into it for the longest time, even when you’re really paying attention and love this kind of character. I don’t think it’s coincidental that the chapter 77 cover is for a part of the story where his ability to present himself, play a certain role (the one of a witch, of a competent adult, the person who can come in and help and not need help themselves) is compromised by a broken, traumatized part of his mind getting triggered and roaring to the surface on him, and it makes him stare into nothing, lose focus. Something frozen and watchful lives under the surface.

A thing about Olruggio is that he knows who he is, I think -- indeed, his whole plan for keeping Qifrey TreeFree TM is predicated on self-knowledge, his understanding of how he himself will think and feel and behave. (See also that one cover that’s Olruggio in the middle of changing frames while staying completely constant himself etc.) And as a child he chose a very different path to get to keep his self than Richeh did, for example: where she stubbornly, bravely, held on to herself in the face of everything that wanted to dismantle her, in active defiant opposition, Olruggio hid his real self where no one could find it or suspect it even existed, that what they were getting from him wasn’t it. It’s somewhere in there behind the smile. He will slip away like so much smoke if you try to get too close. But there is one person in the world he wants to be seen by and to see completely.

That's a layer of tragedy with the whole Olufrey situation that gets me so badly — not only Qifrey, who wanted so badly to never have to lie again to Olly specifically, but also that Olruggio can never be completely honest even with the person he loves the most because Qifrey can't receive it or reciprocate as things stand right now. (because. of the fucking tree. we always return. to the fucking tree. the tree is the metaphor for trauma and how it can put down roots and linger in us lest we forget but also. a fucking tree.) He is who he is these days partially because it’s who Qifrey needs him to be, it’s what (it seems like) Qifrey can handle from him. Olruggio of the Torch is his public persona, Olly is his private persona... and there *is* something else and more under that too. Something which I don't think anyone but maybe Qifrey at the end of it all would be allowed to see or know, but that nevertheless aches to be Beheld and safe in that beholding.

which is not to say that I think Atelier Olly is like a fake thing he puts on or anything -- it's certainly much closer to the truth than Mr. of the Torch haha. Far nearer the heart of the onion as it were. But. There's a little bit of a lie only a friend would tell to it. Which like… not even a bad, manipulative, always undesirable or entirely unhealthy thing necessarily! There are parts of yourself that have no place in your relationship with your children for example. You don't want to expose them to the rawness of your trauma — that's not their responsibility or within their capacity to hold. As he himself says, there are lessons he’s in no hurry to teach them. It's not inherently an act of deception or sign of ill health in itself to exist in many layers; that’s just being a person. (hey. guess who olly is the main foil for btw. lmao. mr frames within frames of himself logging on to the containing multitudes contest and finding only one credible opponent: his best friend and other half of his soul. Unstoppable force marries immovable object and make a perpetual motion machine of misery out of it to use as life support news at 11.)

But I do think the longing to be known fully and wholly by someone and know them in return, and the grief of not finding a way there is so fundamental to the Qifrey and Olruggio relationship, and to what grieves them individually and together. Cue that trusty old The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo quote about intimacy, right. ‘People think that intimacy is about sex. But intimacy is about truth. When you realize you can tell someone your truth, when you can show yourself to them, when you stand in front of them bare and their response is 'you're safe with me'- that's intimacy.’ And Olruggio knows this! At like twelve years old, he already knew this completely!!!! He knew to want to be that to someone, to have that with someone, he already knew that’s what he wanted to be with Qifrey. And Qifrey wants that back, so much that it’s driving him slightly mad, and yet. And still. The Tree. and necessary masks over skinless truths.

#aghhhhhhh #delightful analysis #it hurts so bad #olruggio

ahhh the readalong is so cute but im at vol 8 in my own personal reread, hm...

#inkcantations

k-defenestrates

#yess !!#thought this exact thing #qifrey #meme

y'know, we make a lot of jokes that qifrey's nepo baby status is why olruggio got to be his watchful eye, but given how popular olly is...maybe he's the one who requested it and how could they say no?

#olruggio #reading kitchen and it's funny that back at the great hall the pastry vendor saw him and just. gave him a bunch of pointed cap pastries #simply bc he's a beloved regular #olly is soooo loved #inkcantations

doodlebloom

happy birthday to the agott ever

#agott #my baby butch

i don't see it a lot, thank god, but i do hope people understand that drawing beldaruit with his sealchair is not optional... just the fact that i've seen any art of it all shouldn't really be happening in the first place! he's a disabled man who absolutely needs the sealchair for mobility and shirahama has never drawn him otherwise.

#inkcantations #not putting in main tags because i don't want to stir anything #but not censoring his name either

justjill72

interesting how the times Adina sees Agott is when she is helping someone and having fun doing it. Agott isnt worrying about expectation or her lineage in those moments, she is being what a witch is supposed to be, a helping hand for the outsiders

#it makes me sooooo #agott

glamaphonic

WHA SEASON TWO TEASER

#brimhat coco design And beldy?! how wonderful

samglyph

Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama // Wisdom to Heal the Earth by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

#aghhhhhhhg #this is soooooo gooddd #i need to find a proper tagging system for this blog...#coco #wha spoilers

sosoqifrey

╭──────── ⋆⋅✦⋅⋆ ────────╮

After searching for a while, I finally managed to find all the WHA anniversary comics that Shirahama Kamome had drawn, So I thought it would be nice to share it with you all!!(She only made these, but they're really cute)

˖ 𓂃𓏵

🩵

╰──────── ⋆⋅✦⋅⋆ ────────╯

#this is sooooo cute #olly literally the funniest man alive #official art

samglyph

This is true of the manga, but I love how the anime accentuates the absolute physical trust the apprentices have with Qifrey. Specifically with Agott, the way she is so ready when Qifrey says “hang on tight, I need my hands free” to cling to him a mile into the sky, and then in the latest episode, how, as soon as she impacts Qifrey while flying to him, she makes no move to save herself, she just curls into him and trusts that he will keep them from falling.

And I think it works as a signal to the audience, to subtly go “hey, I know we don’t trust Qifrey right now, he’s being shady, but we can always trust him to protect the physical wellbeing of his kids. Remember that.” Idk man maybe I’m getting too attached to a teeny detail but aaaaaaghhhh that’s her dad.

thelightfluxtastic

stealing your tags

#anyways i think it's particularly notable that fiercely independent always-has-something-to-prove Agott is like this with him#and that none of the apprentices really hide how they're feeling around him even when that feeling is negative#Agott and Richeh make it known when they're unhappy with Qifrey#and they (two abused kids) just flat out wouldn't do this if he wasn't a safe person to be unhappy at