robin

from the first acknowledgement of qifreys stolen eye, we are told that his decision to accept his disability wasnt made because he personally felt no drive to seek aid, but because the kind of aid he needed would require him to leave witch society permanently. his memory would be wiped (again) and he would even forget the reason for his missing eye in the first place. the first introduction of his disability serves to teach us about his intentions with coco and the attitude he has dealt with since he was first found. its essential character motivation and world-building. and its given to us by his disabled mentor (arguably adoptive father) who is one of the most-honored witches alive.

despite being raised by a man with a visible disability who needs mobility aids, qifrey has felt the need to keep his worsening disability a secret from everyone in his life. and its explicitly because of the nature of his disability, not just the existence of the silverwood. witch society doesnt accommodate for blindness because it cannot fathom a blind witch to begin with. and if qifreys blindness were to be made public knowledge, he most likely assumes hed be under threat of another memory wipe.

the silverwood is a persistent danger to qifrey, but his oncoming blindness is the clock on his goals. qifrey was likely blind from birth, with the silverwood gifting him vision for the first time (thus his blindness is essential to understanding how the silverwood functions and what likely happened to him as a child)

qifrey refers to his eyes in plural here, meaning he either theorizes or knows that he was blind at birth and the silverwood returning his vision is why the brimhats took his eye to begin with. the silverwood isnt a fantasy angst that allows you to write around the deuteragonist of this story going blind, its a function of how his disability works in this fantasy world and what this characters experience of disability is like.

tl;dr - qifrey is disabled. and its through his disability that we come to understand his experience and how he views himself (changing cocos language of "who are you" to "what i am"). and how the world around him views his disability (note: this olruggio scene happens while he is aware of qifreys oncoming blindness.)

hc that when qifrey was being experimented on by the brimmed caps they were also experimenting on a baby dragon, and they were like really really close, they burried both of them and just qifrey was rescued, and the baby dragon excaped on its one -> the dragon is also a silverwood tree host btw

thats where qifreys love for dragons comes from, but he don't remember it

now there are 2 rotes

one where they meet in the future and they become bffs again or

SPOILERS ⚠️⚠️

this is before qifrey was rescued by bel, and b4 he lost his memories. this dragon also has a silverwood seed, and later on has his full arm replaced by wood till its shoulder

they met again when qifrey came back to thristas once when he was way older

i like the idea of him being a ash-mottled dragon more, but i have no refs for them, but the next ones will be an ash-mottled dragon

Olly names his contraptions very literally [see: Snugstone, Glowstone Path, Makeover Mask, etc etc] and Qifrey wanted to name the Brushbuddy 'Puffpuff' -> they're perfect for each other but also should never be trusted w/ nomenclature. They'd name their daughters after their hair color like the teenage mutant ninja turtles

the silverwood grows when the host feels safe and comfortable. the main way to revert the process and prevent the host from dying is to either take away that source of safety, or wipe the mind of the host.

qifrey, somehow, knows that his mind has been wiped more than once. he says it explicitly here

"over and over again" how would he possibly know that??? knowing it happened once makes sense, but multiple times?

but that's besides the point. my actual point, is that qifrey felt safe and comfortable several times before he was discovered by the pointed caps. safe and comfortable enough that he had to have his mind wiped several times. this really makes me wonder how his early childhood actually was, because you would think a child being cruelly experimented on would never feel content enough for the silverwood to grow to the point of nearly killing him.

this only adds credence to my thought that the original intent of the silverwood in his eye was intended to save his vision, likely from people who actually cared about him. but what bothers me is that if people did care about him... why did they never come looking?

because they thought he was dead. they buried him.

Raised by Qifrey, next question.

Why is Qifrey like th-

Raised by Beldaruit, next question.

Why is Beldaruit like th-