I never noticed this before but the horses have horns! And not even just your standard unicorn-placement horns, they've got a triceratops situation going on there! How neat!
Qifrey's trying so hard to protect Agott from getting hurt here... Of course he'd be reluctant to let her help - this is a situation where people are in legitimately life-threatening danger, and Agott is exactly the kind of kid who would see it as her own personal failure to do more (and to do better) if something went wrong, and her treatment of herself is already so harsh. Qifrey has seen exactly what dragging a young, passionate witch along to a natural disaster with human lives at stake can do when that goes sideways. It breaks their confidence, gives them a savior complex the size of the entire fucking peninsula, and leaves them with the sort of trauma that wakes them up in a cold sweat twenty-some years later.
And the fact that Agott thinks of herself as grown-up enough for this is part of the problem, because if someone died during this, she would not think, "I'm a child, this was not my responsibility or my fault, I deserve kindness and caring in the wake of this traumatic event". She would be thinking, "I'm a witch who could have saved them if I'd just tried a little harder, I'm a failure, this is my fault". It's the same mentality that's got her pushing so hard to take that second test.
But of course, the flipside to Qifrey's concern here is that, as reasonable as it is, there is no way to explain that to Agott that won't make her feel condescended to. She's intelligent enough to know when she's being coddled and restricted. Olly bringing her along here is kind of undermining Qifrey's authority as their teacher (and given their argument JUST happened, Olly and Qifrey's relationship is not doing hot right now, which probably plays a role), but it's not a bad move in theory - let her come along, but give her a clearly defined task that doesn't put her at any risk. It doesn't play out that way, but he's trying.
We see Agott specifically in a state of falling or almost falling a lot. She falls off the tower in the dragon maze, she nearly falls once in Romonon before Sasaran shows up when her little stone-extension spell starts to fizzle, then she falls again when Richeh saves her, and even with the platform at Silver Eve, she falls off. I'm kind of just gesturing at this in combination with Coco's dreams of flight and going Isn't That Neat here because I don't have any particularly intelligent analysis to do, since we haven't seen the falls actually hurt Agott yet, but... I wouldn't be surprised if there's a time when she falls and Coco is the one to catch her.
Anyway, detail I forgot to snag last time - Dagda refers to Custas as his son! But from the conversation they have (much, much) later, it doesn't seem like Custas is fully aware this is how Dagda sees him. :(
This is a lesson Olly tries to impart to Agott a few times before it seems to really click for her. He's been what Agott could be, a brilliant young witch who gets used and burnt out by the demands of performance and that need to prove oneself. He's trying to teach her that the smaller problems with simple solutions matter just as much as the big, dramatic ones. But he's not great at saying that, and Agott doesn't yet want to listen. She gets better by the end of this arc, because she's forced to live through a thankfully less traumatizing hands-on lesson, but it's not until Silver Eve and her moment with Coco that she truly processes it, I think. And of course, Olly's very grounded and kind philosophy on the purpose of magic will come back again when he's lecturing the Knights (and Qifrey) a little later.
Ohhh Agott :( Qifrey's right to be worried about her
Even when things are tense, these two can lock in and work together very efficiently <3
Custas..... my baby........ Fun little parallel in this to Agott, though. She wants to do More and Better, and everyone else is just concerned about her wellbeing.
Qifrey mentions the girls have healing supplies as well, which. Not particularly legal there, buddy. But it's fine, surely no Knights Moralis will show up or anything. And the girls are too busy admiring the cool sword (Agott trying to be aloof about it when she's clearly a big fan is adorable)
Come onnn Qifrey you should let them swing it once each at a safe distance. Kids go nuts for swords.
It's been a while since I mentioned how much I love Coco. Have I mentioned I love her? She's perfect.
It will not, in fact, be fine.
Hey Agott that's not actually the sort of response you should be having to someone begging for your help, kiddo. Just like when she made Coco take the first test, I don't think Agott's fully processed this as a Real Disaster with Real Consequences. She had a moment of it there when Coco vanished, but the urge to prove herself is still stronger than the knowledge that these are real people who could die if she messes up. And that's partially because Qifrey does such a good job at sheltering the girls from the sorts of horrible, traumatizing Nauz-situations where they'd have to learn that the hard way, but also because she is twelve and locked in her own head about things. Her own ambitions are the most important thing in the world to her right now.
But there's a reason Qifrey's tried to keep them safe from this kind of pressure. There's a reason he's concerned about Agott specifically in these situations. She's been put under the microscope by people who cared more about her skill than her health and safety, and it has hurt her very badly. She needs to prove herself because she has been told she isn't enough, and that is the kind of thing that mixes very, very poorly with high-stress situations where you need to be level-headed and clear-eyed to manage them. Which we know Agott can do - we saw her do it with the dragon! That was about escaping and helping her friends classmates, and proving herself didn't enter into the equation. But now she's already decided she's doing this to Prove Herself, and she has an audience, and suddenly her confidence begins to waver because when Proving Herself is the top priority, it has not gone well for her.
I also really love that much of this criticism is about talent. It's so common for people to think about a skill as something that is either born or simply doesn't exist; you're either just naturally good at a thing, or you'll never be truly skilled at it. And that's not true! Natural aptitude might give you an easier time starting to learn, but you can't achieve mastery without putting in the legwork, and anyone can do that.
I learned to knit when I was a kid and I was absolutely shit at it, but because I kept up with it for 10+ years, I can make things I would have instantly dismissed as "too hard" back then - or even a few years ago. I'm make a fucking colorworked sweater right now! Meanwhile I started playing piano a little younger than that, and I was naturally good at it, but I stopped taking lessons and I stopped regularly practicing the foundational skills, and so these days I can play, I can sight-read reasonably well, but I don't consider myself to be a pianist or a musician the same way I consider myself a fiber artist. If I ever decided that I wanted to put the time and effort into rebuilding that skillset and continuing my practice, I know I could get to that point, but it's not a priority for me these days. Which is all to say: talent isn't real, effort matters more, and Agott has put in so much effort to be a good witch, yet she can't see that it matters because she was judged as lacking talent from an early age by people who should have been supporting her.
Luckily there's Coco to draw her out of that darkness, very literally. (And the tail of Coco's speech bubble dragging the eye downward to her panel? Brilliant.)
Once she remembers what the real goal here is, she snaps back to the Agott we saw in the dragon maze - effectively assessing the problem, starting to figure out a plan, even if she doesn't have anything yet. And man, I love this page. These two make such a great team, even scared and uncertain.
Ugh hello you motherfucker I hate you.
