One thing I like about Witch Hat Atelier is how it puts an emphasis on the difference in the learning capabilities of children.
Often children in particular, are forced to go through this uniform system of education with no particular regards for accomodating the differences in their learning styles.
This is depicted in WHA through Euini, Agott, and Richeh ( as far as I've seen ). The connection they all share is that they have been equated to not be up to the standards of the pointed hat society.
Agott who was called average, a failure of a witch compared to her mother. She rebels against this label because she wants to be better. She is similar to a child who works to impress the System by working to become good enough.
Richeh, the individualist, who was told that her ideas were not worth much and to do things a particular way because that's how they had been done before. But the thing with Richeh is ( as far as I can extrapolate from reading Vol. 4) is that her brother loved her ideas and innovations and he represented a warm and friendly environment to her. And then she's dropped in this new environment where she's told to discard them. Mould herself in their way. Which was painful for her. Thus she responded by rejecting the System itself. A System which treated her ideas as worthless was not worth much to Richeh either.
Euini. When we meet him, we see his master Kukrow comparing him to Agott in the first meeting itself. And Euini doesn't say much to defend himself. This means the comparisions to other apprentices are common enough and Euini has internalised Kukrow's standards to believe whatever he says. He is the one who has internalised the system's labels so thoroughly that he had begun to adopt a system of rigidity and uniformity of spells instead of innovating. Because they were reliable. And he didn't want to fail again. Innovating meant taking a risk. And risk meant a risk of failure. Which Euini hated.
Another irony is that Kukrow compared Euini to Agott, saying he'd give anything to have an apprentice like her. When Agott was once called average herself. By people like Kukrow. What helped Agott was Qifrey and her own merits. Words of affirmation. Belief in herself. Things which Kukrow refuses to give Euini.
WHA seems to send out the message that every child is different and one cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree.
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Here, under Flawseer's attic, we like to see Starflight happy, whatever it may take.
Way, waaay back when, I used to feel pretty ambivalent about these two as an item. I didn't hate it, but I vaguely remember thinking it was boring. Over time though, they have really grown on me. They might actually be among my favorites now. They seem pretty good for each other. Especially in Fatespeaker's case.
I picture Fatespeaker as a very curious person. She comes across as a bit "weird" and thus people assume she is dim-witted, but she is actually fairly intelligent. It's just that she grew up with the Talons of Peace and had no parents, and I can't really imagine the likes of Nautilus sharing much fatherly guidance other than "don't wander off and get us discovered by enemy patrols" and "don't die and get Morrowseer mad at us". So with no one willing to give her their time of day and explain things, her little knowledge-hungry mind was forced to make up its own explanations for how the world works. As she was a child with no reference material whatsoever, what she came up with was complete nonsense.
So like, with Starflight, she has someone who is willing to sit down with her and explain those things properly. He doesn't tell her to go away and bother someone else, or get mad at her for asking a lot of questions. He loves answering questions, and he could sit and talk about academical matters for hours. And because she is very emotionally intelligent, he has someone to help him through his patches of self-doubt and sadness. All in all, they seem like a remarkably stable couple.
This is a bit of a tangent, but... before I knew who Cricket was, I've had her described to me as "kind of Starflight-like". Now that I've seen her myself, I have to say I disagree with that assessment. The only thing those two have in common is that they both like to read and learn; they have completely opposite temperaments otherwise. I actually think Cricket is much closer to Fatespeaker. In fact, if I had to describe her succinctly, I would say she is "much like Fatespeaker, if Fatespeaker had had access to a formal and thorough education instead of being made to grow up camping with Nautilus."
Anyway, more happy Starflight moments are needed. Even if I have to wring them from the story with my bare, callused hands!
The Thoughts I Had On Heiter's Manipulation Of Frieren in Frieren: Beyond Journey's End -
Okay just began Frieren S1 and Heiter's manipulation of Frieren is very fascinating from an ethical perspective ( warning - Spoilers Below )-
Heiter manipulated Frieren at the beginning and handed Fern to her and shows how good intentioned actions can also be highly manipulative.
It was a ruthless decision since Heiter cared for Fern and knew his own time was short, and he wanted the best possible guardian for her. Frieren was one, and Heiter manipulated her into doing it, since Frieren was extremely skilled at magic ( 1000 year old elf ), but also gave Frieren something to look after, so she wouldn't be alone or be drifting again after his death ( Heiter was highly perceptive for someone who hid it behind jokes. )
Now here's the thing, Heiter knew the impact of Himmel's death on Frieren which was one of the few things that actually shattered a sort of glass wall she'd built around herself, always wandering. Time passes differently for elves so Frieren spends a longer time mourning someone, or avoiding the grief by burying herself in little tasks, like tracking down Flamme's grimoires and going from village to village, helping people.
Frieren is not apathetic. She processes slowly because again immortality means plenty of time, which leads to more hesitance to go out of a comfort zone and confront the grief and actually move on, that can be seen as apathy to beings with shorter lives. Let's remember that Frieren also delayed fighting the Demon King until Himmel's Party found her ( and various other reasons ). So my point is, deep in his core, he didn't want Frieren to be hit by his death, and wanted her to remember him as the person she made good memories with, rather than a person she'd lost. Again, Frieren felt guilty for not visiting Himmel soon enough, and being oblivious to his affections until he died. So she visited Heiter, time to time. Heiter leveraged this exact guilt and guilt tripped her into staying.
I'm saying that Frieren had some idea that the immortality spell wasn't going to be possible in a short period of time, but she was going to try for him even if it would be futile, because of this exact guilt. So perhaps she thought, even if it wasn't going to be possible, atleast she should stay with Heiter, and give him and Fern company over his last years in a way she didn't do with Himmel.
So I guess both had their reasons and that's why it makes this type of manipulation interesting. Frieren stayed for those years out of her own free will. And Heiter technically did tell her that he would like her to take care of Fern as a favour to which Frieren denied because she wanted to avoid, even subconsciously, attachments ( see my points about elves and their comfort zones.)
Heiter then created a scenario ( immortality ) that compelled Frieren to stay due to her internal reasons of guilt which Heiter knew, which again would lead to formation of attachments towards Fern ( because Frieren is famously oblivious until suddenly, she's attached ).
Even if that didn't work, Fern would have learnt enough magic to survive on her own from Frieren in that interval. And another thing, being around Heiter again, would remind her of the Heroes Party's days together strengthening her attachments to both Heiter and Eisen.
Or even if Frieren didn't get attached, on his Death Bed Heiter could have again made the same request he made when Frieren first visited, and whether it would have worked or not, the probability of it working in Heiter's favour is very high, since death gives the request more finality.
Now again, I want to come to Fern, to whom Heiter was very attached too ( could be also read as more attached to than Frieren, since father - daughter bonds can be strong), he also didn't want her to be alone because he's seen what losing her actual parents had done to Fern ( that scenario would be painful), and I think it was this scenario that prompted the way Heiter acted the way he did, inducing his manipulations ( whether they can be called direct manipulation or not is again questionable to me. )I think it was more like, Heiter closed all paths Frieren had or made those other paths look unviable, and nudged her towards the path that would lead her to taking care of Fern by her own choice ( or was it her own choice? ).
But he did it in a way that benefitted both Fern and Frieren simultaneously and the way it is framed makes it feel almost right ?
Symbiotic manipulation ( the audience can see that it clearly benefitted all the parties in a way so that the manipulation aspect of the thing doesn't get talked about enough).
And now I would like to add another interesting example I take from a different fandom -In Harry Potter, People often call Dumbledore evil for doing what he did, ( engineering situations that made Harry's fight with Voldemort inevitable ). His logic was for the greater good of the system ( Wizarding World as a whole ).
Now I'm not defending those choices, Dumbledore could have gone other ways but again interesting parallel between Dumbledore and Heiter there, they both acted believing they were right ( the scales differed ), and for the good of people. Dumbledore was thinking more towards systems while Heiter was thinking towards people and on a smaller scale .
So why are people not offended ( even on a smaller scale ) by Heiter ? ( Is he more relatable to people, and that judging him would require judging and questioning ourselves and that's uncomfortable ?)
Also note : I'm not saying their manipulation styles are similar. Dumbledore manipulated children and took a more active role than Heiter in nudging people. But he did do it for the greater good and to, prevent a worse future.
They can be called structurally similar as in they both, use the environment and close people's paths until only a few remain and people choose among those few paths, for themselves.
So again, was Heiter justified in doing what he did ? Maybe. So can Heiter be called morally ambigous? Is my question. Or is he simply a very complex human making complicated choices like all of us do ( neither good or evil, just complicated?)
I just wondered like would y'all be comfortable finding out someone manipulated you without your knowledge and then it still benefitted you ? Would you hate or appreciate the person ?
I did! Thanks for recommending it to me! It gave me a clearer perspective on these things.
I also acknowledge the value of time, and that Heiter also had good intentions in getting Frieren to stay, and make good memories with her.
I just wanted to highlight the manipulations he did, and while these are often trivial or have the best of intentions behind them, I still think they are fascinating to analyse and spot in various media.
I had a lot of fun painting this one~ That classic celestial gold and blue combo just can't be beat. I love Agott's character growth though the story, like the phases of the moon, ever changing đđđđđđđđ
Of all the main characters, I think there's only Olly left to be brimmed haha.
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if i've been stupid and unread for most of my life and i'm far beyond the free time of youth (about to clear 30), do you think it's too late to fix my shit, or can i "catch up", so to speak? i guess i'm asking how one goes about reading habitually and attaining a baseline level of intellectual and aesthetic cultivation when most of one's time is consumed by work and attempts to stay biologically alive, which seems to be all i can really get myself to do these days.
I don't know your circumstances which does limit how much practical advice I can give. I work a 9-5 office job and I definitely struggle to make time for the things that I care about - namely creative and learning pursuits. Ideally I would be devoting all of my free time to the many things I care about, whether important or just personally meaningful - but that is not my reality for reasons both fair (I work a job that is very emotionally demanding/traumatizing) and unflattering (I am addicted to looking at this microblogging website you may have heard of even though it is mostly quite boring). But that also means I have regular weekends, evenings off, do not deal with sudden "call-ins" or things like that, which is not universally the case.
I do think there's a couple assumptions you're making that might make this more difficult on you. I don't really know what a "baseline level of intellectual and aesthetic cultivation" is, and I think "stupid" is not a term I would apply to anyone that is actually interested in learning. Starting from a position of harsh reflection on yourself is just going to make it harder to cultivate the habits you want. In particular the framing of needing to "fix your shit" or "catch up" assumes that you are behind in some way, it creates a sense of pressure and external invalidation that I think is not just wrong and unfair to yourself but self-defeating. The fact that you experience curiosity and desire to learn things you don't know is already putting you a few steps ahead of the average person and miles ahead of the average American. What's important is that this be something that emerges from you as a *desire* - not as an arbitrary standard you see yourself as already failing to meet.
So with that in mind here are some of the things that I do to try and stay engaged:
1 - I personally try to arrange my time so that every week, even if it won't be every day, I am spending a little time on something that matters to me. That might be practicing a song on guitar, or watching an artsy movie, or reading an article I've been meaning to get around to, or working my way through a shorter book on a free afternoon. Is it "enough"? Well, nothing ever feels like enough, but it is at least something, and it isn't Phone (source of all evil). I have a weekly schedule I use for these purposes, but I think just figuring out where your free time lies, how you can realistically fill it given your time and energy constraints, and setting some goals (I like a mix of "realistic" and "aspirational" goals) can jumpstart you.
2 - I think that doing things with others is frequently really useful. Book clubs, movie nights, museum outings if there's anything interesting in your area, these are all ways of getting intellectual/aesthetic stimulation that are not Phone and that are also fun because you're with people you like or have rapport and a common interest with. For nearly the past two years a few friends and I have been using a group setting to work through various things that we're interested in: Capital Volume I, Frantz Fanon, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and in the fall we're watching Kubrick's filmography. Some other friends and I do a Japanese cinema club (which sometimes dabbles in other non-Anglo cinema). I also personally benefit a little bit from the external pressure of being obligated to others. Plus a diversity of perspective is often more rewarding than solitary monastic reflection.
3 - If finding the motivation is difficult, combining it with something else that you *have* to do in some way can sometimes be helpful. A few examples:
I have been paying for voice training lessons, and I would like to get my money's worth, so I practice. One way I practice is reading works of theory I've been meaning to get around to, or entries in various internet encyclopedias, out loud.
I like to listen to my history podcasts while cooking or doing laundry, stopping to take notes on my laptop along the way. (The tradeoff here is that multitasking divides your attention, though I think the note-taking helps keep me grounded - I think YMMV on striking that balance.)
I am trying to make the habit of not using my phone on the bus and instead reading. I have a few books that are specifically better suited to reading on public transit (books of aphorisms like Beyond Good and Evil or Minima Moralia, or novellas or graphic novels if that's your bag) on rotation.
4 - I think you're putting a lot of emphasis on reading, and while I'm a big fan and defender of reading, it's not the only path towards intellectual stimulation. It might take a little investigating and due diligence, but there are lots of great history and philosophy podcasts, tons of free lecture series on YouTube, documentaries of all stripes. Video essays get a lot of flak for good reason, and like all social media based material I think they have inherent limits to their educational value, but there are some that I think are either interesting in themselves (a lot of Dan Olson's work on high-control groups and tech nonsense) or will at least point you in the direction of more interesting things (e.g. PhilosophyTube, who makes passable edutainment with really excellent bibliographies). Things like that can sometimes be more easily incorporated into a daily or weekly routine. Alternatively, if there's a big tome you want to read, you could pick one for the year or a six-month period (this is what I'm doing with The Second Sex - which I desperately need to start reading again), and maybe explore shorter articles along the way when questions come up, or as preparation ahead of time.
5 - You could always look for a syllabus on a subject you're interested in and basically follow it or tweak it as needed - I've done this before.
6 - If there's someone that I think is intellectually insightful, then when they mention something I don't know, I like to look it up and get a gloss on how it might relate to what they're talking about. I also have tried to work on being less afraid of looking like I don't know something - because there's nothing to be afraid of! We are often more afraid of looking foolish than actually being foolish, but these days I would much rather say "oh I'm not familiar, tell me more" and ask follow-up questions when someone mentions a writer they like or a physics concept or history topic they've been reading up on.
7 - This ties back into what I said first, but don't torture yourself. Slogging through books while feeling totally disengaged, reading stuff because you feel like you're "supposed to," trying to impress other people with how well-read you are, that's not what cultivating these habits is for. That doesn't mean "don't do hard stuff" nor does it mean that secondary sources are substitutes for reading the primary source. But I think part of the process of learning is cultivating a sense of judgment about your own values, tastes, limits, and styles of learning. If there have been times that you felt like you were learning a subject and it went well, maybe you can try and adapt that model or structure in some way to the topic you're taking an interest in.
For instance, I know that I simply don't enjoy reading huge history overviews (stuff that's called like "The Reformation: A History"), it overwhelms my brain and I feel like I am not absorbing the information adequately. So I try to find things to read that are shorter and/or more focused (like, for example, a biography of Luther, or a book on the Peasants' War, or about propaganda and the printing press), and just look for a good podcast or lecture series if I want to learn about that subject in a more "overview" format. That was how I liked learning history in an academic setting: listening to and taking notes on overview lectures in conjunction with reading a focused book.
And, if it helps, I feel you! It is hard to stay engaged and curious when you're worn out or burnt out. It is hard to juggle a lot of different things you want to learn. I've read, watched, and listened to a lot in my life and yet I still think I've barely scratched the surface of all the things I want to know about, let alone all the things there are to know and experience. I think it is always admirable to try and improve one's skills and grow one's capabilities.
some people read an awful lot, but don't read very well. deep reading is itself a skill. being able to untangle the threads of theme, subtext, characterization, narrative style, and more are all things that it takes time and intentional engagement to learn.
if you've ever watched a movie with your film buff friend and chatted about it afterwards, that friend might have pulled hours more of conversation out of the same 90 minutes of screentime, and wondered how the fuck they did that - it's not raw intelligence, it's a skill that's been honed. And I learned a lot about film from talking to friends who knew about film, and reading critique by film scholars
literature works exactly the same. so if you want to get more out of your reading, there are things you can do to train that.
Find a book or short story you think you've got a pretty good grasp on, preferably from a widely read & respected author like Ursula K Le Guin or Ray Bradbury (if you're new at this don't swing for the Toni Morrison or the Samuel Beckett yet unless you feel very comfortable with the complexity of the text - the point is to develop a complicated new skill on good foundations). Then go to JSTOR, create a free account, and look up criticism on the story you've chosen. Find something that looks readable to you and at least somewhat interesting. Read that article, and look at what that writer got out of the same story you've read that you didn't get. Do you see the critic's points? Did they teach you something about the text? Go reread that story and see if the criticism has changed how you read it. Are you seeing more? Are you thinking about the implications of a line that you hadn't noticed before? Does the story feel richer now?
there are other more involved ways of finding criticism. Learning to use academic databases, going to your local library to do interlibrary loans, finding critical voices you appreciate; these are all useful subskills. Literacy isn't just being able to read words, it's being able to read words in context and think about what they tell you about the text, the author, or the time and culture in which the text was produced. Literacy is the skill of being able to look at the world with open eyes and think clearly about how its parts are connected. It'll change your life
this keeps getting shared around and ive seen some different tags responding differently so i just want to make some important clarifications and distillations
you don't have to read more deeply if you don't want to (but i'd recommend it, i genuinely think it makes you a better person)
if you want to learn to read more deeply, the resources are out there. try to find critical literature (that is, academic writing that analyzes the text) on works your familiar with so you can get a sense for how to do that analysis too
learning to deep read literature can help you deep read many areas of your life
writers tend to put a lot of work into their stories. if you learn to read that work you'll (probably) appreciate the stories you love even more. And if not, then you'll have developed your taste. This too is worth doing
There can be so much more to reading than just the literal words on the page. The most annoying thing that happened repeatedly in college was people who were in one of the STEM programs where they didnât think at all for themselves and just memorized facts and thought that made them better than everyone else (this is not a criticism of all STEM; this is about arrogant and obnoxious undergrads I knew who had never done any scientific research in their lives and never planned to) declaring, always with a sneer and eye roll, âEnglish isnât even a ârealâ degree. There isnât âworkâ to it. All you do is read books and write book reports,â while not recognizing there is a difference between a grade school book report and a college essay analyzing a text. Those same people had so much trouble in English 101 that they came to ask me for help on their essays and yet maintained the attitude that writing academically is not a skill. Self-awareness: 0.
The broader point and problem is, I feel, is the narrow way intelligence is defined. It is often conflated with jobs that have so much current demand that it dwarfs current supply in the current market. It makes it highly sought after and thus a person who does it receives an inflated sense of value from the society ( and other external metrics). This sense of value inflates their ego and they mistakenly equate being intelligent with being valuable ( their knowledge of STEM etc, when it is data just like any other subject. )
Intelligence as a term tells us as much as the term stupidity. The word shouldn't exist at all is what I feel. It is very contextual and subjective to be properly defined. If it is wholly genetic, then say a gifted brain ( that can process data and analyse it rapidly ) with poorly derived data will lead to poor conclusions. Do we define that brain as less intelligent to the one, that has say, not gifted, but has been fed the superior dataset, more experience and has reached conclusions that are aligned with cutting edge research ?
Another thing is, say a person who is very very good in Mathematics, is seen as very logical by the society, can be entirely not up to the task at distinguishing propaganda from facts. Intelligent brains ( as defined by the majority ) are not immune to biases. Or having wrong or illogical opinions as a result. Does that make them stupid after all?
Biases ( unconscious ) are looked in an unfavorable light in logical and self aware thinking. One must be able to pick them apart and present counter ways of thinking in order to be trusted in say, debates or academia. This leads to a certain openness in one's thinking. This is a good practice. One people could certainly benefit from learning. Harmful biases need to be called out.
However it is due to certain biases that we are not paralysed by indecisive loops. The brain must compress and be biased on order to make certain decisions.
If intelligence is defined as the ability to adapt to one's environments ( too broad ), then nearly everyone would possess a certain degree of intelligence. Everyone is a product of their environment ( both micro and macro. )
So my point is that there isn't much use defining intelligence, because we haven't yet stuck the balance between broad and narrow and perhaps never will. It is a harmful term like stupidity. This term should be discouraged from being used in schools. It deters one from a growth mindset. Motivation to learn is more important than static labels.
I feel that certain people would benefit from learning that there is not much use in comparing fields as much of their syllabus and historical discoveries that they build upon have been pioneered by philosophy and literature too. And that all subjects feed into each other and are linked.
My first post! WHA Fan-Statue & a Fairy Realm AU Theory đ§â¨
So, this is my very first post here!
Itâs an unfinished statue, but I really wanted to share this stage of the process, along with a few interesting ideas! You could probably call this an AU (Alternate Universe)... or just my wild imagination running free with the world of Witch Hat Atelier.
Iâll keep it brief at first just to give you the general idea, but Iâd love to develop it further here if anyone is interested!
One day, I started thinking about the Three Wise Gifted, and the fact that stories about fairies and other magical creatures exist in this world. Why do ordinary people believe that witches actually cast "magic spells"? That belief couldn't have just come out of nowhere, right?
So, in my head, I pictured a Fairy Realm that closed its gates to humans on the day of the Conspiracy. After all, wouldn't humans get angry that they can't use magic while magical creatures can? In mythology and various fandoms, the Fairy Realm is often described as either a more magical or a completely inverted version of the human world. And what if they have their own Three Wise Gifted there? Maybe their Wise One of Teachings is actually a fairyâthe very same airy illusion Beldaruit was planning to create for himself? (Honestly, it all started because I wanted to see how my OCs would look in the Witch Hat world, but my boyfriend's character turned out to look so much like Beld, and it just evolved into this, hehe).
And then there's Qifrey! I can't stop thinking about what kind of experiment the Brimmed Caps were actually running on him. They couldn't have just thought, "Hey, let's see what's inside this seed," right? What if they were trying to bring fairiesâor rather, dryadsâback to life, and the seed of a magical tree was the perfect tool for it? Were they trying to turn a human child into a dryad?
As for the Silver Tree, I thought about Tolkien's lore: what if Golden Trees grow in the Fairy Realm?If you guys are interested, I could share more pieces of this lore for all the amazing writers out there.
And, of course, I can't wait to finally finish my drawings and this statue! It's going to go through a silver-plating process later.
This is a pretty interesting theory! If you don't mind me developing this further ( my knowledge of WHA is up to vol. 4 but I've been spoilered pretty heavily on this app ), what if all the human lands ( before magic ) were sort of under the imperial control of this Fairy realm, and after a certain time of subjugation under magic, human resentment grew and grew until there were certain rebels who tried to replicate the magic the fairies did to eliminate this superiority and defeat the regime.
But since this Fairy regime was very strict about who entered in their lands, these rebels couldn't do much against this magic. But these fairies had a habit of taking certain chosen humans as their slaves/ apprentices/ entertainment ( rare) etc.
So certain rebels spent years training in order to get chosen, and when they did get entry, tried to learn the very secrets of magic itself. Of course they didn't learn the actual magic that the fairies could do, since they were a different species but they noticed and learnt that everything in the fairy realm ( trees, vegetables etc ) were infused with magic itself.
So they snuggled back vegetables and seeds in hope that eating them would make them magical too. Of course when nothing happened, they threw these seeds away. Many seeds didn't sprout to plants. But one species did. The Silverwood. Certain humans noticed and after years of experimentation, they figured that the ink was magic itself and they could use its powers by using the ink. They figured a way to get the Silverwood tree to grow more and more until they spread all over the human lands. They also became very protected. Each human had its own Silverwood.
After that it was an all out war between fairies and humans. Long story short, they were forced to be trade partners after 100 years of hostility and magic prospered during this era. Dark spells and harmless spells were both invented. Until the day of the pact, on which the three wise elders and fairies decided to stop the misuse of magic and the fairy realm closed its doors to humans as the majority got their memories erased.
My thoughts on the lore didn't go quite that far before, but the concept of the Silver and Golden Trees is honestly so fascinating to explore. Iâve been developing this AU based heavily on Celtic mythology, where fairies are deeply intertwined with nature, meaning they likely wouldn't appreciate how human witches treat the "blood" of the magical treeâthe magic ink. In traditional folklore, fairies cannot touch iron, and I think this can be brilliantly tied into the Witch Hat Atelier magic system: since humans use metal pen nibs, they are essentially using iron to subjugate and force the tree's blood to do their bidding. Humans didnât stop at just using the ink, eitherâthey even started sacrificing themselves for magic, like Iguin using his own blood, which to the fairies would be a total abomination.While this specific conflict applies to the fairies, other magical races could exist in a broader world, almost like a D&D-inspired multiverse, and they might have successfully harnessed the magic of the Silver Tree without destroying their bond with nature. However, the Fairy Realm was always separated from the human world; the only entry points were "thin places" where the barrier between worlds was weak, and today, those passages are completely hidden from humans and fairies alike.At its core, this is a clash of philosophies regarding nature: the human world is driven by control, hierarchy, and dominance, bending nature to its will through animal husbandry and social classes, whereas the Fairy Realm is rooted in total acceptance and balance. Their philosophy is simple: accept whatever nature provides, work only with the amount of magic you were born with, do not greedily desire more, and if nature didn't gift it to you, do not steal it from others.
Also, fairies themselves are far from innocent: they could easily devour wrongdoers (and others too), or force people into twisted contracts for their souls, which is definitely not a pleasant experience either.
How intriguing! Considering that all of this was before pact ( that's what I'm assuming), the fairy realm philosophy seems remarkably similar to that of the pointed hats that came afterwards. That ties into the theory of the fairy elders signing or enforcing some sort of a contract with the wise humans that ensured that the majority of the humans should not be able to perform magic except for a certain few ( I'm sure the wise human witches added this as some sort of a safety clause, should the fairy realm try to abuse their powers over humans once again.)
The iron nib point that you brought up also intrigues me all the more, since I think that has become some sort of a leverage the humans have over the fairies.
I feel that the fairy realm clashes culturally with the humans ( as you say) but also there might be some superiority dynamics at play. What if the fairies belive that magic belongs to them, by virtue since they were born in the land of magic and nature showed them the pathaway first. So I could imagine that the fall from being the only creatures who could wield magic so effectively to being the second species along with humans, must hit quite hard for them.
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My first post! WHA Fan-Statue & a Fairy Realm AU Theory đ§â¨
So, this is my very first post here!
Itâs an unfinished statue, but I really wanted to share this stage of the process, along with a few interesting ideas! You could probably call this an AU (Alternate Universe)... or just my wild imagination running free with the world of Witch Hat Atelier.
Iâll keep it brief at first just to give you the general idea, but Iâd love to develop it further here if anyone is interested!
One day, I started thinking about the Three Wise Gifted, and the fact that stories about fairies and other magical creatures exist in this world. Why do ordinary people believe that witches actually cast "magic spells"? That belief couldn't have just come out of nowhere, right?
So, in my head, I pictured a Fairy Realm that closed its gates to humans on the day of the Conspiracy. After all, wouldn't humans get angry that they can't use magic while magical creatures can? In mythology and various fandoms, the Fairy Realm is often described as either a more magical or a completely inverted version of the human world. And what if they have their own Three Wise Gifted there? Maybe their Wise One of Teachings is actually a fairyâthe very same airy illusion Beldaruit was planning to create for himself? (Honestly, it all started because I wanted to see how my OCs would look in the Witch Hat world, but my boyfriend's character turned out to look so much like Beld, and it just evolved into this, hehe).
And then there's Qifrey! I can't stop thinking about what kind of experiment the Brimmed Caps were actually running on him. They couldn't have just thought, "Hey, let's see what's inside this seed," right? What if they were trying to bring fairiesâor rather, dryadsâback to life, and the seed of a magical tree was the perfect tool for it? Were they trying to turn a human child into a dryad?
As for the Silver Tree, I thought about Tolkien's lore: what if Golden Trees grow in the Fairy Realm?If you guys are interested, I could share more pieces of this lore for all the amazing writers out there.
And, of course, I can't wait to finally finish my drawings and this statue! It's going to go through a silver-plating process later.
This is a pretty interesting theory! If you don't mind me developing this further ( my knowledge of WHA is up to vol. 4 but I've been spoilered pretty heavily on this app ), what if all the human lands ( before magic ) were sort of under the imperial control of this Fairy realm, and after a certain time of subjugation under magic, human resentment grew and grew until there were certain rebels who tried to replicate the magic the fairies did to eliminate this superiority and defeat the regime.
But since this Fairy regime was very strict about who entered in their lands, these rebels couldn't do much against this magic. But these fairies had a habit of taking certain chosen humans as their slaves/ apprentices/ entertainment ( rare) etc.
So certain rebels spent years training in order to get chosen, and when they did get entry, tried to learn the very secrets of magic itself. Of course they didn't learn the actual magic that the fairies could do, since they were a different species but they noticed and learnt that everything in the fairy realm ( trees, vegetables etc ) were infused with magic itself.
So they snuggled back vegetables and seeds in hope that eating them would make them magical too. Of course when nothing happened, they threw these seeds away. Many seeds didn't sprout to plants. But one species did. The Silverwood. Certain humans noticed and after years of experimentation, they figured that the ink was magic itself and they could use its powers by using the ink. They figured a way to get the Silverwood tree to grow more and more until they spread all over the human lands. They also became very protected. Each human had its own Silverwood.
After that it was an all out war between fairies and humans. Long story short, they were forced to be trade partners after 100 years of hostility and magic prospered during this era. Dark spells and harmless spells were both invented. Until the day of the pact, on which the three wise elders and fairies decided to stop the misuse of magic and the fairy realm closed its doors to humans as the majority got their memories erased.
I always think of the description I saw years ago: Self-imposed deadlines don't help me, because I know the person who set them, and they're full of shit.
Give yourself the treat before you start. I'm serious. And ideally during the task and afterwards too.
Executive dysfunction comes from a lack of available dopamine. Common advice is wrong. You need to provide your own dopamine before you can start. Otherwise you're trying to run your car on empty.
"But what if I still don't do it" well you already weren't getting it done anyway. Now you have a little treat. Try again later.
You deserve kindness and care even when you aren't being productive.
(Also read How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis)
I give my students a LOT of techniques for starting writing when it feels overwhelming or daunting, but one of them is exactly this: dopamine load BEFOREHAND. It may sound weird to people on tumblr dot com, but a lot of people seriously struggle with executive dysfunction when it comes to writing literally anything, to the extent that it can cause such symptoms as panic, depression, and AI chatbot use.
I usually suggest this technique as a "Reverse Pomodoro." In the original Pomodoro, you work for 25 minutes and then take a break for 5 minutes (the times vary, but that's the essential ratio). People with executive dysfunction often find this insurmountable, and they get even more frustrated, and then the task seems even more difficult. So instead, flip those times.
FIRST, spend 25 minutes doing something energizing and engaging that you like to do. Not scrolling social media passively, not watching tv, not napping. Try something like colouring, doing yoga, running/walking around the block, talking about your favourite tv show with someone in real time, playing with the dog or cat, making and eating a lovely sandwich, hula hooping, something active. Having a little treat absolutely falls in this category!
(on the subject of little treats: refusing yourself food until you do work is for fucking Puritans and you can be kinder to yourself)
Then, after 25 minutes (or however long it takes to eat the sandwich or finish the yoga routine, it doesn't have to be exact), spend 5 minutes writing (or doing whatever you're struggling to start). Most people can coax themselves into doing something they find difficult for five minutes, if they have already filled up the joy/energy/engagement bucket. You can put a timer on for the 5 minutes if you want, or if you find that annoying, just work for as long as you like.
The other key is: don't push yourself to keep going when you're frustrated or tiredâthat will just reinforce the negative belief that you already have, which tells you that this task is painful to do, and needs to be avoided. If you've commonly had to force yourself to do this kind of task, that's likely part of why you think of it as painful and have trouble starting it now. Also, you should just, at a basic level, try not to put yourself in pain for the sake of productivity. So just do it till the good feelings run out. Then start hula hooping or colouring again for another 25 minutes. When the tank's refilled, try another 5 minutes of work, if you can. Adjust times to taste.
Not every technique works for everyone, but I've seen this one work for many students who are genuinely and seriously disabled by executive dysfunction. And many people find themselves getting more and more excited and engaged in the "difficult" taskâbecause the good feelings from the hula hooping carry over, and because they're suddenly able to do the task without feeling pain, and feel accomplishment without feeling pain.
While this song makes me merry,
Tyrian purple dyes many a hue
From magenta to berry
And a true purple too.
But fun as it is to watch this poetic race
The answer is staring you right in the face:
Roses are red and violets are blue
Because nothing fucking rhymes with purple.
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Coco, the Brim Hat Witch
Spoiler tagged since it does show some stuff from the manga..but her brimmed cap outfit is so awesome, I thought it'd be a great contrast to my other illustration of Coco surrounded by her loved onesđĽş
