I love this part so much -- the way this chapter parallels qifrey with coco's mother in multiple ways, including visually here in them both draping fabric over her protectively. the way he doesn't presume to step into her mother's place, but takes on the duty of shielding coco from the cold in her absence. visually we're also placed under the safety of his wing, as it were, to witness coco's most vulnerable state, feeling with her how big and steady and safe he is in her eyes despite as readers having just seen him as a confused hurting child himself for several chapters and knowing all his foibles and missteps well after almost 100 chapters. among all the other things shirahama is a master of, these subtleties of character perspectives is one of the most devastating ones to me.
(for all of the everything going on I think qifrey is actually consistently good at making sure he maintains the role of the adult in this relationship. he recognizes coco's reflexive smile as something akin to his own masking, but he doesn't bleed his own emotions into that, he's there to support her and actually manages to do it. and he apologizes when he slips up, which is probably just as important.)
the sky's kindest, most radiant star strikes again :') again shirahama laying her thematic groundwork perfectly, though; the realization qifrey has at the end of the chapter is set up and shown off perfectly here. he's using the warmth given to him by olruggio and giving it on to someone else (it is, crucially, not a finite resource, it multiplies with the more people it touches on)
I suppose you would know, qifrey :') I also find it very metaphorically interesting that coco's mum is frozen while holding out a lantern, considering the importance of light and warmth in keeping qifrey in this world in the same situation. she carries her own light with her, she's the light for coco, what she's always headed towards. no matter how she goes astray along the way, it's the light she's following. (presumably knowing, however she is capable of knowing right now, that her daughter is out there somewhere makes for a hell of a light to hold on for.) also the fact that the way to coco's home and her mother is guarded by a plant haha looking back at it it's like 'wow wonder where qifrey got that idea from who's to say'
look at the conspicious absence of himself in the supportive lineup lmao. self-esteem of a gnat under there. 'well obviously not me tho I am mostly a Problem'. (still thinking about 'I'm just an empty... mess' thanks for asking.) and then it's thinking about olruggio that makes him sort of wake up to 'wait. I am a person who can have value to other people and meaningfully impact their life posititvely fuck!!!!'. cool and fine and good I'm not sad and touched at all!
also not feeling completely unhinged by how this echoes olly's sentiment way back in the extra chapter that made me cry like a little baby. (presumably he did not actually speak all that aloud, but something clearly resonates between him and qifrey wordlessly here)
shirahama playing the long con always and I am her most gleeful and willing mark
So the evidence implying Qifrey and Olruggio are romantically interested in each other is pretty well documented (myths, tassels, the entirety of witchen) but, I haven't seen as much about the scene that really seals for me that Qifrey wants to fuck Olruggio.
What happens literally is that we cut from baby Qifrey reaching for Olruggio and transforming, to adult Qifrey with his hand fisted in his lap, determinedly not reaching for Olruggio. And then he gets up and goes to stand in a lake and trigger his own PTSD to get the silverwood under control.
What happens symbolically is a guy thinks really hard about another guy, gets wood experiences an uncontrollable throbbing growth which fills him with horror and shame, and then he goes and stands in cold water until he can get it under control.
Completely insane scene construction. Yes, I know how the silverwood's growth is literally triggered, but sometimes a train going into a tunnel is the public transport system working as intended, and sometimes it's self-conscious Freudian symbolism.
Sometimes an evil parasite is an evil parasite, but sometimes it's also getting rock hard for your best friend.
Qifrey's Silverwood curse being an allagory for internalized homophobia while actively being in love/lusting after his male best friend is fucking genius. I am actually going a little bonkers over it!
What a beautiful show of symbolisim, in all of its uncomfortable horror. I love Witch Hat Atelier so much.
We all know we call Orufrey the Star and the Tree from this Legend Of Magic tale. The gays that they are.
Chapter 47
And from that I had wondered who the Human was, probably the girls, right?
Chapter 94
THE MAGIC ISNT MAGIC. ITS LOVE AND COMPASSION AND HOPE AND TRUST AND COMFORT AND ITS ABOUT PATTERNS OF PASSING THESE POSITIVE THINGS AND GIVING TO OTHERS WHAT YOU WERE ONCE GIVEN AND ITS CONNECTION the magic was unconditional care and lending a helping hand and just being there for others and learning how to do that from others who gave to you
I want to emphasize once again that Olly is in a dramatic slice of life where the person he loves most won’t seem to let down their walls for him- sad and easy to empathize with-while Qifrey exists in a torment nexus that not only encourages him to hurt himself, but also is maintained by forcing Qifrey to violate the person he loves most in a manner reflective of how he was once violated. Everytime he erases Olly’s memories- he’s both retraumatizing himself and is also being made to put himself on the same level as the people who caused him all of this in the first place
I look at Olly and go “aw oh poor Olly”. I look at Qifrey and I legitimately start sobbing.
