I actually adore the movie on its own merits, but I think it absolutely did a disservice to Sophie as a character. When I was doing a reread last month, what hit me was that Sophie is every bit as much of a volatile emotional disaster as Howl is, and thatâs pretty heckinâ great.Â
Howl is a pissy, dramatic asshole even when heâs at his best. He dissolves into green slime when his hair looks wrong. He deals with his problems by getting falling-over drunk and makes the walls shake every time he sneezes just so everyone will take pity on him. Heâs a self-proclaimed coward who has to trick himself into taking responsibility for anything.
Movie Sophie deals with this as well as she can. She learns to look past his drama and sees his tender heart and noble intentions. She becomes the mature one in the castle, fixing everyoneâs problems, essentially taking up a motherly role to all the other characters.
Book Sophie does the same⌠but she does it while dealing out as good as she takes. Howl is chasing after every woman except Sophie? Sophie meticulously cuts up his suit into triangles. Howl floods the room with green slime? Sophie hate-magics weed killer strong enough to melt concrete, and chucks it at Howlâs head. Howl canât stop avoiding his problems? Meet the queen of avoidance, who clung to her curse to avoid confronting her feelings for Howl. Howl has to basically trick himself into taking action? I would like you to meet Sophie, who was too scared to leave her home her whole life, but the moment sheâs under a curse is like âWELP, GUESS IâD BETTER LEAVE HOME RIGHT THIS MOMENT AND NEVER COME BACK.â
The moment of Howl and Sophie getting together in the book isnât âSophie fixes everything through her inherent goodness.â Itâs âSophie realizes that Howl has been secretly scheming to fix all her problems exactly the same way that she has been secretly scheming to fix all his problems because neither of them is a normal functioning adult, and they both look forward to yelling at each other for the rest of their wonderful lives.â And losing that, losing all of Sophieâs flaws and ridiculous moments as well as Howlâs efforts to fix her life as much as sheâs trying to fix his, means that weâre left with a typical romance trope of a woman having to fix all of a manâs problems and be the perfect, mature one in the relationship, while he can coast purely on charm. The revelation that half of Howlâs antics were actually schemes to break Sophieâs curse or even just make her happy is important because for once it goes both ways. Not just âwoman fixes man with her love,â but âpeople fix each other with their love, sort of, except for all the parts that will never change and thatâs okay because flaws can be just as attractive as virtues, and if he laughs when you throw weed killer at him then he might be the one.â
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