more theories/evidence about memory wipes + silver trees + qifrey + olruggio + coco + tower of tomes
me and @ladysdork have been chatting about the olly knows theory tonight and i think we came across something super interesting.
MORE EVIDENCE THAT OLLY KNOWS AND NEVER LOST HIS MEMORIES OF THE SILVERTREE AND COCO WILL BE THE ONE TO GET HIS SILVERTREE CURE OVER THE LINE. i think olly's lying to qifrey's face the whole time about losing his memories. he promises qifrey he'll never have to lie to him again. and what's a lie only a friend would tell? one that saves his life. that keeps him safe. i have a more in depth post about that here if you're interested.
there's a scene i hadn't even considered as relevant until now. the scene when coco runs away to the tower of tomes in chapter 37.
first of all, who ends up being there. just coco, qifrey, and olruggio. cause olly blows beldaruit away lmao. qifrey collects coco, coco "saves" qifrey, and olly protects the window way. and throws that explodey rock at the sea serpent.
the tower of tomes is where qifrey first turns into the silvertree, where olly ~gives up his memories.
so basically the theory is this. when olruggio first goes into the tower of tomes, he IS searching for a silverwood tree cure, not a memory spell, but all the documents he could use for that are missing. qifrey says this. that the documents about the forest have somehow been destroyed that could easily include silverwood info. and olly's running out of time, so instead he comes up with the memory wipe idea as a stop gap because he's going to have to start a silverwood tree cure from scratch. how many times do we see olly invent something for qifrey. a lot the glow rings, the snugstone. so olly has an almighty task of finding a cure.
we see olly's reactions to coco's creative ideas a few times in the story, and despite being a creative and talented witch himself, he's always floored by her ideas.
when coco runs away to the tower in ch 38, what does she do? she doesn't choose the tower, she doesn't choose the great hall, she chooses qifrey. she's going to get to the tower of tomes and choose qifrey again later in the story. i think she goes there with olruggio.
the tower didn't provide an answer for olruggio, but there is hope. the child of hope. coco. just like iguin calls her.
and here we have olly talking about hope too. that we can still change qifrey back, that there's a better way.
and the thing that really stopped me in my tracks was this parallel.
coco running to the tower in ch 37.
olly running to the tower in chapter 92
these panels are so incredible similar. same pose, wind blowing their robes, the tower in the distance. who are the two people we see qifrey treeing out from? olruggio and coco.
and what if this is the glowstone path connection between olruggio and coco. what if olruggio originally created the path for qifrey and then in turn that path leads coco to olruggio. that path is the reason coco falls in love with magic. if coco doesn't fall in love with magic, olly never saves qifrey. olruggio needs coco's creativity and her perspective having come to magic as an outsider.
and olruggio's not just a beacon of light for qifrey, he's a beacon of light for magic, for coco. his glowstone path is a beacon of light. a light in the dark, a guiding torch.
and this part is more speculation but i think it plays out like this. olruggio finds out coco knows about the tree. he trusts her and fills her in on what he did all those years ago outside the tower of tomes. he fills her in on all his research he's been doing for decades. he's been building a cure from scratch and this is where he's at. he's stuck and has been for years. it's why he doesn't take care of himself. it's why his cloak is so heavy. so he doesn't forget the weight of the secret he's carrying.
olruggio's specialty is fire. he's going to default to using fire to fix qifrey. so him and coco start working together. in the dead of night to hide this from qifrey. if qifrey learns olly knows, it's all over. however, qifrey does pick up on those two spending more time together and eventually grows suspicious.
olruggio is the one to take coco to the tower of tomes. however, qifrey follows them. finds them before they go in, learns of their plans, and promptly turns into a silvertree. olly and coco are in a time crunch again. coco goes into the tower, chooses qifrey in whatever way. (i don't think she'd choose qifrey over her mom i think she finds a way for both things) comes back out and has the missing piece olly needs for his spell.
we see him create a fireball that doesn't burn humans. he's the master of fire, the cure is going to be burning that tree out of qifrey. it'll burn the tree, but not the human. and what wand do we specifically see olruggio use in the story? a wand that sears seals into wood.
olruggio burns the seal into the wood and they get rid of the silvertree for good and they got there because of coco. because olruggio created the glowstone path for qifrey that made coco love magic, the path led coco to olruggio, and coco is why olruggio can save qifrey.
