fflam

my orufrey playlist so far, they all scream them so hard imo

in particular, I recommend I'm Your Man, Stay // Honestly, At The Beach, In Every Life, Sun, Faster, and They Shoot Horses but I like them all

both of them have this sort of "division" symbol in association with an "eye" (sasaran's actual eye, and iguin's mask). i dont know if this particular sign/sigil has been revealed elsewhere, but i thought it was interesting. perhaps iguin's eye mask is more than just decoration. (also im just now realizing the eye mask uses a bunch of circles in the design. perhaps that is also a seal of some kind? i think its possible there could also be a circle that functions as a sigil rather than an actual circle. meaning their mask could be a contraption of sorts)

anyway no clue what this means, but i thought it was an interesting detail wait hold on i just thought of smth as i typed this out.

one of sasaran's eyes is most likely the one on his hat. perhaps that seal on his face moves the location of the object it touches, thereby allowing sasaran to see from his cloak puppet.

on top of that, iguin refers to themself as the "eye of the world" and "the lidless one". perhaps their own eye (and im thinking it might be just be One for clone theory reasons) isn't actually contained within their body? not only would that allow them to view "the world" far beyond their body, an eye plucked from a face is, by its very nature, lidless.

EDIT: HOLY SHIT I FOUND SOMETHING ELSE LITERALLY RIGHT AFTER. LOOK AT EUINI'S ANTI-SCALEWOLF MEDALLION

COMPUTER. ENHANCE THAT BITCH

ITS ALMOST THE SAME FUCKING DESIGN, WITH A RING MISSING. WHAT THE FUCK DOES ANY OF THIS MEAN

the manga is a little unclear but the anime makes a point to have qifrey using the normal pyreball spell right before showing the "forbidden" one

(Please do not read this if you have not finished reading the Witch Hat Atelier manga — you should experience the plot's surprises for yourself!) For the context look at official atelier new merchandise featuring each character's image flower. Qifrey is holding Campanula Incurva.

Now go ask Google about this flower and how to care for it :) From my research, this plant has heart-shaped leaves covered in fine silvery hairs. It is monocarpic, meaning it dies after its flowering season. It begins as a compact rosette, but as it matures, its stems elongate and trail beautifully over rocks or containers. It prefers a sunny location, but not harsh, scorching direct sunlight. Some light shade is beneficial. Good airflow is also important to keep its leaves dry. When handling the plant, it’s best to wear gloves, as the tiny hairs may cause mild irritation to sensitive skin, though it isn’t poisonous.

What if the reason Qifrey is going blind isn't because he was blind before - it's because the silverwood tree literally bleaches him of pigment.

Walk with me here. Lack of pigment in the eye can cause photophobia (sensitivity to light, glares) and iris transillumination (excess light entering the eye). Both cause significant discomfort and severe vision issues even in normally lit conditions.

Both also have long-term adverse effects, as the retina is damaged by long-term exposure to light (source)(yes it's wikipedia, who are you, my highschool english teacher? sue me)

Qifrey's vision issues have to do with specifically light senstivity, after all.

And we can see that one of the adverse effects of the silverwood tree is leaching pigment - it's the first thing Qifrey notices about Custas.

We also know that these effects are made vastly worse by coming back from partial tree-ification: Custas' hair goes white after he nearly fully trees out and is brought back, and we know for a fact Qifrey has been pushed to the point of tree'ing several times and had his mind wiped several times before he is found in the coffin.

I thought I was being paranoid at first, but look at the covers Qifrey features on as well:

His eye IS getting paler. They're more silver than they are blue in the volume cover of 12 vs the volume cover of 3.

All this was started because it makes no sense to me why the silverwood wouldn't "fix" the eyesight the way it fixed his shoulder or Custas' legs if that was truly the reason why he was given the seed in the first place:

Now you could say "well he doesn't remember, that COULD have been the reason", but I genuinely don't think it is. After all, he has it to thank for both of his eyes.

By living with the parasite for so long, it's leaching everything from him - but it's also forcing him to slow down. Taking his eyesight is in the parasite's best interest in the way that it forces a person to settle. That's just side-faff though.

Another thing pointing to loss of pigmentation causing all this:

When the branches are healthy, they're silver white.