Yesterday it was Coco bravely protecting us from brushbuddy's wrath, today it's Qifrey realizing he should have waited until he actually met his new apprentice before filling his entire house with stuffed animals!
I had originally made like 15 of these just to send to my sister, but then I figured it'd be fun to share them with the community as well! I'll be posting once a day, so stay tuned!
- - - INSANE AMOUNT OF SPOILERS, ANIME FANS RUN FOR THE MOUNTAINS!! ALSO PLEASE GO READ THE MANGA, I PROMISE YOU'LL LOVE IT! - - -
Okay, so I'm going to get right into it: >!Qifrey's fucking dying in the end, isn't he?!<
>!It's all but confirmed that Qifrey's fate is... not looking too good. Especially now that he's starting to realize how happy his new life makes him, even the way he reluctantly calls the Atelier his "home"...it's like looking at a trainwreck in slow motion, but with branches instead!<
>!Killing Qifrey off would be devastating, and I'm sure Shirahama would do the concept justice, but I want to focus on the meta parts of such a decision. I wouldn't necessarily dislike it, but I personally think it's better for the narrative if he lives! Let me explain!!<
*(((And I'm definitely not saying that cause >!I don't want to cry over his death!<, of course not.)))
Personally, I'm a fan of the theory that towards the end of the story >!Qifrey *will* somehow *manage* to get rid of the Silverwood Tree inside him, but at the cost of his remaining eye (since it's also a prosthetic from the tree), therefore his vision.!<
>!I can't think of anything more fitting for the conclusion of his character arc, for one simple reason:!< >!Coco!<
>!She, as the protagonist, represents the story's heart, her drive guides the story forward. Each time she has to make a choice, she chooses her own thing, to do what SHE feels is right. The chaos she's brought to the witches' world is in part because of that refusal to choose what's presented in front of her, and instead create a new path for herself and others!<
>!So, I think it'd be fitting that the story is presenting Qifrey with two options: Choose happiness and Die, or Choose constant discomfort and Live!<
>!And suddenly, there's a new option. A bittersweet trade-off, but Life. Medically possible, only because Coco was there in the story to ask the right questions time and time again, and offer a fresh perspective to a static, stagnating society afraid to engage with the hard, taboo topics. By the end, maybe she tilts the scales just enough for it to be possible for doctors and witches to somewhat cooperate. She's just a child, and she's not powerful by any means, but perhaps the choices she made in the course of the series could by the end even save a person that never imagined he COULD be!<
What's more fitting than the *story itself* following Coco's example, and offering a new path?
>!It could also be interesting to explore how the ableist witch society would normally treat a witch with a 'catastrophic disability' like blindness in the past, and how that is now slowly changing for the better after years of denying even colorblind people like Tartah the right to be apprentices. I think it'd be very sweet if Coco's series of radical decisions ultimately made the world a more accepting and safe place for her teacher, enough to give him the option to finally, freely live!<
What do you think? Am I making sense, or is it copium in its purest, unadulterated form?