Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Tarco angst

they are heading towards a future where they can come together not just at 25:00 but in the morning light too. and that's a good thing.

I was like: Okay there's no way that Coco will join Brimmed Caps after all she had witnessed

Hell Iguin even calls himself the eye of the world and he is notorious for just being fully confident that Coco will use forbidden magic. There is no “is coco becomes a brim cap” it’s a “when” the same way the narrative loves to foreshadow things. It’s so bad to the point that in the first picture, Coco’s face isn’t just cut off from frame like Coustas’s, they literally edited it out like a bad ex. She’s already dead

Even Coustas has accidentally foreshadowed this with his whole “we’re all links by fate” 2/3 of the party or now brim caps -.-

It means everything

passage

I’ve seen a lot of people across different platforms make the assumption that he does, seeing as the two canonically spent a lot of time together back in Kalhan studying apothecary, but after rereading a lot of their scenes together across the Silver Eve arc, I don’t think Custas knows about Tartah’s condition, or at the very least he doesn’t know how it’s impacted Tartah’s life and his place in witch society.

For most of the time we know him, Custas has the “witches can have/do anything because they have magic” mentality that most outsiders seem to possess, which shapes his relationships with both Coco and Tartah from as early as chapter 43. He believes that their lives must be easy because they have magic, and that they don’t need to struggle to have a place in society like he does. Ironically, the two witches he displays this sentiment towards are probably the two who fit this idea the least within the current story.

For Coco, we know she wasn’t born with the privileged life of a witch like Custas assumes. We can see her struggle with this throughout the early Silve Eve arc. She cannot tell him the truth about her being born an outsider without exposing the secret of magic, but she cannot keep her past a secret without feeling hypocritical.

With Tartah, this juxtaposition between how he’s perceived as a witch by Custas and his actual relationship with witch society is perhaps a bit more subtle, as these moments rarely cut to Tartah looking horrified the same way Coco does. Unlike Coco, Tartah was born into the privileged life of a witch as Custas says, yet he’s also someone who distinctly sits outside of both witch society at large and the outsiders. His silverwash means that most adult witches will never view him as a “real” witch due to his inabilities, but his status of being from a witch family means he’ll never be an outsider to the world of magic. He’s in a limbo, too much of a witch to be an outsider, not enough of a witch to be “normal”

You’d think, if Custas was aware of this distinction between Tartah and “normal” witches to some degree, it would have some up at some point between his claim in chapter 43 and his apology in chapter 45—but it doesn’t. Custas remains as unaware of Tartah’s social outsiderness as he does Coco’s literal outsiderness.

While this could all just be interpreted as Custas knowing about Tartah’s disability but not the effects it has on a witch, I’d like to bring up his reunion with Tartah and Coco in chapter 51. After becoming a brimmed cap and realizing that there were solutions for fixing his legs with magic, Custas is angry at how his supposed friends were “keeping” the fact that they could have healed his legs from him. It stuck out to me even on my first reading of this scene that Custas never once mentioned that Tartah ALSO has a disability that could have potentially been fixed with magic, because this fact would contradict his argument.

If Custas were to acknowledge the fact that Tartah explicitly pushed the narrative that magic cannot heal people while also being disabled and having access to magic, his argument that Coco and Tartah were keeping this magic away from him solely because he’s an outsider would fall apart. If Tartah is both a witch and someone who suffers from a disability, why wouldn’t they use magic to fix it? Custas can’t maintain his argument without acknowledging Tartah’s silverwash, but since he doesn’t, it’s more likely that he just doesn’t know about it at all.

I also don’t think that silverwash in general is common among outsiders, or at least not to the level it is in witch societies. Coco needed Qifrey to explain it to her, and Tartah’s first mention of it towards the end of chapter 13 is very offhanded, like he assumed that Coco already knew what it was. This would line up with him not realizing she was originally an outsider until later in chapter 16.

Olruggio and Tetia: Two witches who are keen to help people whenever they can. Olruggio is a well-known witch and inventor who specialises in fire magic. His magical inventions are there to make life easier for others as well as allow access to basic necessities such as warmth and light. On the other hand, Tetia is a young apprentice witch who had only recently made her debut with magical inventions. Her inventions utilise and specialise in earth magic. Her instent staff and serpent's bed of sand are both things that utilise earth (sand and dirt). Tetia's invention also exists to make life easier for the common folk by allowing them access to shelter and comfort.

Both Tetia and Olruggio's inventions are distributed to those who need them as they help civillians using their inventions. Their inventions are also found to be incredibly useful during the Silver Eve festival: olruggio's invention is used to defeat the curtain leech, and Tetia's invention is used as temporary shelter for those escaping the chaos.

Olruggio and Tetia are two kind and compassionate characters. It is their desire to help people to the best of their abilities, which makes them critical of the witches code. Olruggio and Tetia consider breaking the witches code in some way, shape, or form to be able to better help people. This is mainly focused on helping people by allowing them access to knowledge. Why should people be prohibited from life changing knowledge that can benefit them? Is a question that both of these characters ask and can't find it in themselves to justify such a thing.

What further connects these two as strong parallels is their relationship with monarchs as witches. Witches are taught to be secretive and keep their distance from monarchs. Monarchs and witches are unable to stand side by side as it is against the witches' code to function in the times of the old prior to the formation of the pact. This is due to the tragedy that is associated with many witch and monarch stories, with the monarchs ending up dead and wars being created. Olruggio and Tetia are both put in positions where the monarchs propose a cooperation deal, a chance to go back to the old ways. Both experess wariness at this proposition with Olruggio successfully declining the offer while Tetia seems to be interwoven in a complicated relationship with Eoleo. Olruggio's beliefs about witches and monarchs are made clear that he disagrees with the alliance due to its historical consequences. However, Tetia finds herself questioning and critiquing this rule. Why can't witches be friends with monarchs? There surely isn't anything wrong with such a thing, is there? Tetia is still naive to the diplomatic workings of witches and monarchs, unlike olruggio.

It's also interesting to notice that Olruggio and Tetia both catch the eyes of a monarch in Ezrest. We see King Ezrest watching Olruggio's silver Eve performance in chapter 61. We see Tetia catch the eye of Prince Eoleo, who she chooses to hide from the Palace guards during the Silver Eve festival.

Tetia and Olruggio's characters also focus on the concept of transformation. It's ironic that the importance of appearance and clothing is brought up in reference to their characters and specifically when it comes to the Silver Eve arc as a way to differentiate themselves from outsiders and other witches. Olruggio and Tetia believe and use items like masks and clothes as a way to 'transform' into different people and to be viewed differently as a result. Olruggio utilises the cosmetics mask to make himself look presentable to his clients who would like to meet him and require some of his magic while Tetia switches cloaks with Eoleo and is deemed to look like royalty.

Both of these characters are shown to aid both monarchs and civillains. Their work and training (in Tetia's case) is built up to complete their duties as witches, which is to make everyone happy at the end of the day. Tetia loves hearing people thank her and wants to be a witch who is able to see and hear people's content at her work while Olruggio is a witch who has managed to achieve such a thing. Tetia would like to be known internationally while Olruggio has built a strong, seemingly international reputation about himself as the light witch.

Tetia's current optimistic and outgoing demeanour can be said to be very similar to young Olruggio. Both characters hear the gossip surrounding Coco and Qifrey and are ironically the first peer to approach them in the great hall and the atelier.