u/Background_Air365

As grateful as I am that the WHA community is big as it's ever been due to the anime, I feel like the massive influx of shippers has been an unfortunate detriment to the OruFrey space, and most of all, to who Olly is as a character.

I've seen people characterizing him as a playboy, a stereotypical toxic yaoi boyfriend, hypermasculine and aloof, and just about everything in order to fit him the standard BL manga box (right down to people on TikTok saying it's weird and wrong that he is shorter than Qifrey!). I've also seen Qifrey suffer in the opposite way, but not nearly as bad as Olruggio.

It all just feels very out of touch and... fetishy. Now, I am not a man, but I am queer and can't help but feel a little disappointed when I see projecting "roles" onto queer relationships. It's fine to have headcanons, but when I see people headcanon Qifrey as gay and Olruggio as bi purely because it fits them better into the boxes people have assigned them in their head, it feels damaging to the characters and I feel adds to the stigmatizion of LGBTQ+ people. Even in the JP side of the fandom, where more popularly Qifrey "takes the lead", his personality isn't butchered nearly as bad as Olly's is in the west

I'm sorry if this feels preachy and gatekeepy, I love sharing WHA and am so happy the anime has caught the eye of so many people, but I hate to see some of my favorite characters suffer from it. New fans and new OruFrey shippers hello I'm crazy ecstatic you're here 🥹, please take care of Olruggio, he is our kindest star.

Edit: I'm sorry for the negative tone and dicey topics in this post, i just wanted to say my thoughts. And whoops posted this on my sneaky alt

After years of begging my boyfriend to finally read WHA, the anime intrigued him enough to start reading. After he blasted through all my physical volumes he caught up Qifrey's flashback arc online last week and I got home to him crying. He's a big empath, so I knew the story would tug on his heart strings, but even i didn't expect that! I can't bring myself to feel bad about it though because misery loves company and now he can suffer monthly with me.

Boyfriend is a comic book fan and doesn't watch/read a lot of manga or anime besides the basics so this series has definitely been something unusual for him but I've gotten some of his thoughts out of him as he's read:

-He immediately found all the girls very endearing, even Agott.

-He was very excited that Olruggio had a beard. He asked me why I swoon over Qifrey when Olruggio is right there lol.

-"Alaira is the best"

-He fears that the witches in the Great Hall may start to become inbred one day

-He was excited over the idea that the one with the revenge plot isn't the protagonist or antagonist but instead the mentor figure.

-"Dagda is the best"

-He binge read all of the Silver Eve and Leech arc in one sitting

-Said that the consequence of the truth of magic being exposed keeps him up at night.

-Was disappointed that Qifrey wasn't as selfish as he thought

-"Man now I can't even shit on Qifrey for doing that to Olruggio".

He hasn't said it but his favorite character is definitely Olly, he immediately clocked that he was probably the most soft-hearted person in the series even before the Silver Eve arc, and given the type of selfless characters he likes in comics, Olruggio fits that bill to a T lol.

I've converted an unlikely ally guys! He has a lot of thoughts and theories that I hope I can convince him to rant about here, so just in case he does I've posted this on my alt so hopefully he doesn't find it immediately...