Sofie > Recent Status Updates

qifrey’s dead in the eyes smile when coco says that it feels like something wonderful is about to begin ajsmsmskskk yeah babes he just did something unforgivable to the love of his life, the only person who has stuck by him for so many years, bc he’s obsessed with maintaining the peaceful life he’s managed to create with said love of his life and their adoptive children everything is DOOMED but yay pretty stars

anyway. that was brutal
in terms of actual plot stuff, i still feel pretty in the dark about what the brimmed caps would be doing with qifrey’s eye and memories (and future???) but i did notice more tree imagery!!!!! full panels of roots and branches just before qifrey wipes olruggio, and that big illustration of the eye inside the trunk……WHAT DOES IT MEAN

(cont.)
despite olruggio having this whole arc about trusting qifrey’s intentions and coming to a compromise and realizing that the most important that is being there for him and supporting him through whatever darkness he’s facing. all of that just for qifrey to be the one to spit in the face of that goodwill and love and to force olruggio away from him again in the name of protection (unasked for!!) what a mess

seeing qifrey wipe nolnoa was child’s play compared to THIS, after the past two volumes had endeared us even more to olruggio and how kind he really is. and that’s apparently exactly why qifrey feels the need to keep him “safe” by keeping him ignorant of the knowledge about the brimmed caps’ master plan. he’s too gentle and good to shoulder such ugliness, so qifrey will carry it instead (cont.)

i don’t even know what to think my jaw is just on the floor and my heart aches for both of them they really are doomed huh
i saw someone say that orufrey is more like jayvik than satosugu and. yeah. *yeah* the betrayal of trust and forced removal of autonomy for the more vulnerable person’s “greater good” (at least i assume that’s why qifrey wiped him, to keep olruggio safe) is SO jayvik it hurts

so. okay. okay uh. hm
my brain is rebooting i think i know nothing and understand even less besides the fact that that sequence was so well plotted and paced that i could feel my own heartbeat rising to meet the sense of foreboding and doom and despair that both qifrey and olruggio felt too

THE CALLBACK TO THEIR PAST AND THE PACT THEY MADE AS KIDS MY HEART
so we’re definitely gonna see that flashback scene in full at some point right? i mean we can infer that it was something about staying by each other’s sides but i wonder WHY. i know olruggio is head over heels for qifrey now but how did that start? what was it that about him that made him willing to make such a promise back then?

“why are you willing to go so far for me?” OUCH????? qifrey really doesn’t have a great sense of self-worth does he. i wonder if it all stems from his lack of personal identity or a feeling that he’s never been a “complete” individual or the guilt of going so far to achieve his goals and feeling like he’s dragged olruggio down too
also olruggio i see the deflection with humor but we all know the answer

oh they’re so in love, the way that they both rush to make sure the other knows it’s not their fault???? and olruggio potentially regretting becoming a watchful eye and throwing himself into work bc it might’ve pushed qifrey away without meaning to??????? so now he just wants qifrey to know that he’s there for him no matter what oh ouch “as a friend” uh huh yup no for sure

OH MY GOD I WAS RIGHT LETS GOOOOOO yeah he really was most bothered by qifrey lying to him and keeping him at arms’ length when he’s clearly been struggling. they made some kind of pact (either metaphorically or literally) when they swapped hat tips, and i imagine that qifrey refusing to let olruggio in now is in violation of that pact, which is way more important than any law or witch principles

god this manga knows how to throw in a starkly unsettling panel in the middle of a heartwarming scene holy shit
the paranoia in hiehart’s expression???? witches are terrified of the knights moralis huh
also of course i’m reading orufrey into this. if olruggio “takes qifrey’s hand” and tries to help him, he’ll be an accomplice, even more so than he already is by lying by omission about euini

this chapter is also giving us the clearest view of olruggio’s approach to magic and how passionately he feels about helping commoners. he has a very strong sense of duty and tries his absolute best to help those who have been dealt less fortunate hands in life

this little olruggio side quest must have some narrative connection to the main story so i’m choosing to read into the theme of compromise and how it relates back to olruggio’s struggle with qifrey. with the bride, he figured out a way to make sure neither one was outshining the other (red and blue, fire and water), and i think he’s coming to see that he must take a similar grey area approach with qifrey too

a third perspective has entered the chat. maybe qifrey doesn’t have to choose between being a good teacher and searching for the brimmed caps. maybe the way forward is just making sure that, whatever he does, he’s not doing it alone anymore. those responsible for the care of others need to be cared for in turn, and olruggio can be that shoulder to lean on (if qifrey lets him, which is a whole other question)

olruggio the next time you try to feign apathy and like you’re just making your contraptions for a profit, i will not be forgetting that you help people for free (while actively procrastinating your work for the paying customers)

……is qifrey somehow part of the silverwood or am i completely reaching…….i mean he WAS buried under a tree right?? and now beldaruit very clearly implying that the silverwood is a person (plus the snippet of the myth we previously heard from nolnoa) and then immediately shifting to contemplate qifrey and how he’s made a home of his own i just !!!!!!!!! i’m keeping that one in the back pocket

okay see and it’s in these moments where it seems crystal clear that coco is the parallel for qifrey and agott is the parallel for olruggio. but much like itafushi/satosugu, i don’t think the paralleling is so clear cut, it’s supposed to read as more of a mix

of course they have a pre-discussed spell for emergencies that mixes both of their magic affinities uh huh uh huh for sure

also with all the themes of “healing the inner child” and “breaking the cycle” that have flooded this volume so far, it’s especially beautiful to see coco save qifrey and assert that his life and his presence is just as worthy as her own. redemption does not have to mean complete rejection of one’s past self, there is more growth to be had for both of them. qifrey is allowed to heal without being a martyr

(cont.)
so coco proving that she NEEDS him might be the reality check necessary for him to stop being so fucking reckless, even if it’s mostly for noble causes. sometimes selflessness swings all the way back around to selfishness, and i think that’s what’s been going on here with qifrey and why olruggio is so rightfully suspicious and pissed about it

coco choosing to save qifrey after he potentially sacrificed himself to let her choose her own path is SO beautiful, especially after olruggio and beldaruit’s comments from before. qifrey DOES see coco as an apprentice, not as a means to an end, but he still doesn’t care about his own well-being enough to be the best teacher he can be (cont.)

(cont.)
he wants to break the cycle of fear and mistreatment and emptiness, and coco is the epitome of all of that for him

(cont.)
bc HE had to carve a new path for himself when HE thought all hope was lost (and wished that someone had reassured him), and it seems like he really did find fulfillment in that new solution to his problem. and now that it’s in danger of being taken away from him, he’s slipped back into bad habits, but he’s still hellbent on making sure that the kids don’t make the same mistakes he has (cont.)

i had been so focused on the agott/qifrey parallels that i failed to see the coco/qifrey ones until this volume punched me in the gut with them. the panel of qifrey reaching a hand down to coco in an offer of hope, which is identical to the panel of beldaruit reaching down and offering that same hope to qifrey??? of COURSE qifrey cares about coco and wants to guide her to the correct path and keep her safe (cont.)

so maybe he’s so desperate to heal his eye bc he’s finally found a new purpose in life, something to fill the hole he’s always felt in his heart, but he wouldn’t be able to teach without his sight? still a bit roundabout though bc he fully abandoned the kids before and if he DIES due to his own recklessness then he can’t be a fucking teacher either then can he

(cont.)
and GOD the fact that olruggio is pissed at him for being negligent and reckless but also for lying to him??????? that personal angle is extra angsty ouch

see i KNEW olruggio was gonna fix his glasses but i did not imagine the scene would be so angsty oh god this is definitely grounds for divorce
so i guess qifrey really did abandon the search after the tower of tomes but then at some point his vision started failing and that got him desperate again? i wonder when he realized and what the decision was like to hide it from olruggio..….(cont.)

(cont.)
it must’ve been devastating to see magic, his one true love, not be enough to soothe qifrey’s restless soul. and now he’s seeing coco potentially walk the same path, so of course he can’t help but deem qifrey as a lost cause and coco as a potential chance for redemption

(cont.)
he lost one apprentice bc he wasn’t able to quell the desperation and emptiness within him, and now he’s faced with the same situation in coco, and you can feel the grief in every word. we really haven’t seen much of what their relationship was like but considering how gentle beldaruit was with him and taking him on as an apprentice (his first!!!), i believe that he really cared about qifrey (cont.)

damn i was really expecting to dislike beldaruit but this scene and the parallel it’s making between qifrey and coco through his mentorship is so poignant and DEEPLY sad. you can tell that he’s had this exact conversation before, and he doesn’t delight in it, there’s no condescension or air of superiority. he loves magic and its vast capabilities, but he also truly believes in its limits (cont.)