Witch Hat Atelier spoilers

Reminder that I do not read the manga past what the anime has adapted. None of the posts here include manga spoilers, and I would ask of you to not tell me any such spoilers if you reblog them!

Posts are listed newest to oldest. You're welcome to reblog this post, but I will update it with new posts as I make them.

Tag for fanart (by other people) Tag for meta (by me and other people) Fanfic

The blog where I count each character's separate screentime per episode

Reactions/analyses of season 2 episodes | Season 3

Crack recaps by me

My thoughts on the Spy x Anya game My thoughts on the film Spy x Family Code: White

Small Things I Spot, Headcanons & Theories (on different posts because tumblr won't allow more links)

Meta / Analysis

An analysis of leitmotifs in the anime soundtrack

Overanalyzing Spy x Family

The Twilight Eyes Project: How Twilight's eyes change from scene to scene and what that says about his character

New perspective of the meeting between Twilight and the Desmonds

Spy x Family Character Alignments

Twilight receiving comfort from his family

Jeeves discreetly telling Damian about Melinda

Twilight's worries about Anya after the bus hijacking

Yor's experience in raising Yuri

Spy x Family and Indoctrination

The audience doesn't need to know why the war started

The terrorist students as a reflection of Twilight's past

Twilight telling Yor she deserves friends

Similarities between Twilight and Yuri

Twilight's cover job as a psychiatrist awakening his humanity

(somewhat headcanon) Twilight suppressing his need to be recognized

Roland's expression when his fellow soldiers called him "lucky"

Twilight and cooking

(way more under the cut)

Olruggio passes the First Test right as he settles in the Great Hall, and though he does so with flying colours he feels bitter that there's no-one to feel good about him. He doesn't even have an official master at this point.

But then he's there when Qifrey passes his. And Qifrey emerges with the Diadem Herb, welcomed by the wide smiles of Beldaruit and Olruggio too, who slaps him in the back so hard in congratulations he nearly sends him face-first to the ground (works to keep Qifrey from treeing out asgsdhgsd).

Olruggio, having had a longer time practicing spells, passes the Second Test pretty quickly. And this time, Qifrey is there at the end, to congratulate him. Of course Olruggio isn't crying at the genuine pride in his friend's eye!

Since the Second Test only takes place once a year, Qifrey spends that next year preparing about everything for it with Olruggio's help, and subverting the expectations of everyone but Beldaruit and Olly, he passes it on the first try.

Olruggio, the Star of Ghodrey, the Witch Prodigy, is all but pressured on passing the Third Test earlier than most witches do, so they can officially start sending him off on errands and acts of service. Still the people pleaser, he takes it on and almost fails (which would have been emotionally devastating for him) but he makes it. What piques my interest is that in chapter 40 Olruggio says that when they challenged the Tower of Tomes, only Qifrey made it in. It makes it sound like he didn't get in before (I mean, he doesn't remember getting in...). So did he tell himself he was not interested to go in? Or is he referring to that day in specific?

In any case, Qifrey passes the Third Test a little later and all but rushes to get to the Tower. Tree emerges, yaoi gets officially doomed, tassels are exchanged, torment nexus begins and all that.

Going by Luluci's flashback, it looks like after passing the third test, apprentice witches can leave their ateliers to assist Outsiders. So, while Qifrey refers to the yaoi-dooming day as their "last adventure as kids", it wouldn't surprise me if once they were both clear, they would go outside together to offer their services like that.

Then it's the Fourth Test. Perhaps due to his advanced stage, Olruggio is the first to pass, and hear me out: he gets his own single-room atelier in the Great Hall, and while Qifrey prepares for his test, he actually visits him pretty much every day when he has free time. Imagine late nights in his single room, talking about any kind of nonsense they can think of, falling asleep on the floor, with Qifrey returning to Beldaruit's atelier in the next morning with a bleary eye and a yawn every minute, until he ends up falling asleep on his spell papers. Or late nights where Olruggio helps him with studying.

And when Qifrey passes the Fourth Test, he all but panics. He realizes he's free to leave the Great Hall, move to Naakiwan Downs with Olruggio as he had once dreamed, build his dream home under the stars... and he feels at a complete loss on what to do. Because the stress of preparing for the test and the general uneasiness of living in the Great Hall will be gone, so how will he battle the silverwood? So when he meets the others, Olruggio waits with anticipation to hear the results, only to see Qifrey run away in tears. And then the proctor or whatever joins them, telling them in utter confusion that Qifrey actually passed.

I wish we knew more about the other tests in general so that I could go into more detail about that stuff. And then how did Qifrey prepare for the Fifth Test? Was he already living in Naakiwan Downs? Had he already agreed with Olruggio that he would be his Watchful Eye?