#endarno

Later, to comfort her, Himerish tells her

Those "deepest fears" that Will faced were that the other Guardians lose trust in her and shun her, and that Matt breaks up with her cause he cant stand the burden of knowing about her calling. What strikes me is that these images of something that Will fears the most of all, the lost trust and friendship within the team and being left completely alone, are literally what happened to Himerish in the 4th arc.

Maybe the sight of his destinny just plainly gave Will these ideas also in the first plan, but I believe it shows that the banishment was not just loss of power, but something quite personal to Himerish (as added to the fact of losing every certainty and being left alone with amnesia). But, you know, I even think the two parts of Will's painful imagery find different parallels in his life.

So, firstly:

The Guardians seem to be mirroring the council

They are Will's friends, but they are related to her calling, and no matter what, she has to stand a little above them and lead them - similarly to Himoracle, who calls people in the council his friends, but he is clearly divided from their folk, as the boss always is. But you know, remember the evil creature always lies to you.

Cornelia really appears like the leader of the shunning in the visions (the portrayal is quite hardcore, Cornelia might take offence tbh), but in reality it is her who first speaks out her worry for Will to Himerish in this issue, in a lovely moment, where the Guardians also happen to express that they do trust Will - and that is clearly an intention, an opposite mirror to the visions, denying anything that Phobos claimed

(I admit I'm still with Cornelia and her unconvinced face in the last panel about Hime being like just let Will be tortured she'll make it)

I even believe that Cornelia mirrors Endarno - there are quite open hints to that! Will possibly fears that Cornelia wishes to be the leader instead of her, like fake Endarno did in Kandrakar (although it's mostly Irma who says that). Consider! The conflict is deliberately reinforced by Phobos/fake Endarno by giving Cornelia that time-stopping pendant, so the two fake impressions of lost trust and friendship are created by the same person. It is a lovely detail that Hime's last sentence is a direct reference to what Endarno told Hime in their first meeting, expressing a great deal of faith in him.

Council of Kandrakar always tends to appear kinda clueless and opinionless, but I believe this parallel means that those guys did not abandon Himerish truly - and like, we are sure that Endarno didn't (and Yan Lin and Tibor of course). Cornelia explicitly states she doesn't wish to be the leader in issue 42 when she and Will have an important talk. This, however, also includes her telling Will what the problem is - and Will actually accepts this constructive criticism. It is a really nice scene between all the arguments.

Parallelly, it is just a fact that a lot of what Hime was kicked out for was not so untrue - he had a great deal of flaws that the council was frustrated with. Cornelia's speech totally sounds like she was listing Himerish's flaws, and possibly the flaws in the whole system of Oracleship. It is only when Hime realises his mistakes that he can be accepted back by the council - but, of course, also when the council kind of thinks things through and realises their big ass fail. It goes both ways in both cases.

In the end, there was always a problem, but it was the evil entity, who tried to persuade you that it was a dead end, that it was hate and not solvable frustration among friends. Life lesson, really.

Now you know what. The part of the visions where Matt breaks up with Will. You know who I think Matt mirrors? I guess my mutuals already have a suspicion, but I really think it is so - yeah, I mean Matt mirrors Yarr.

If you believe in Hime/Yarr or not, it seems clear that Yarr represents Hime's human existence, living in relation with a world and as a part of it. Similarly, Matt embodies this to Will, someone she loves in her ordinary life - someone she keeps her secret from. It is a secret up until this very arc, when Cedric attacks them on their date in issue 40 and Will has to reveal her powers (let's ignore the later retcon of Matt coming from Kandrakar ok). Before this, she tries to keep a life with Matt as if untouched by her task, but it is not possible in the end. Thereafter, she fears that he will not be able to deal with it and will abandon her, as the visions show.

And behold. Himerish also avoids telling Yarr about his Kandrakarian past (issue 43), he even seems to fear opening up -

...but to keep the secret is not possible in the end. And when it is revealed without his intention, he looks quite unhappy

I think Will's and Hime's reasons are different, simply put, fear of being a burden and shame, respectively, but the structure is same. (And Will fears her failure also in other contexts.)

Btw I really don't know if Cedrube was already planned by this point, but it is kind of funny that it is Orube who brings the revelation here, and Cedric does so with Will and Matt.

But Matt doesn't abandon Will, of course, he even stands up to Cedric and saves her in a moment of emergency - well, because -

ok sorry. But truth is that despite whatever Himerish may have feared, as he felt like a piece of crap, Yarr also reacts in shock, but without judgement. And he actually also immediately helps, as he gives Himerish advice, which allows him to correct his mistakes and help the Guardians to defeat Phobos.

Matt also, like Cornelia and the Guardians, gets a scene where his actions mirror and oppose his fake self in Will's tragic visions.

Immediately after this ugly vision and Will's short discussion with Phobos, the story switches to "meanwhile in Heatherfield", to a Matt, who worries about Will being inexplicably absent. He meets Susan Vandom, and as aware of the possible reason, he makes up an excuse to help Will, again.

Now I really really need to point out some visual stuff. And textual. Look at the fake Matt vs. the real Matt.

Isn't it nice how Matt explicitly states that he is always happy to help her out? And not feeling like it is a burden, as opposed to Will's fears? We all know comics WillMatt have very many problems, but this is a nice answer to Will's anxiety.

Like the comics literally did the meme pattern lol, see like

Fake Matt: I can't do this anymore...

Meanwhile, in Heatherfield: I'm always happy to help her out!

But now, pls look again at those two Matts, and then pls pls look at Phobendarno in the Will torturing scene, and, yes, at Yarr in 42nd issue, where he helps Hime by the lake

can you see it? I mean can you see it????

There is a damn colour parallelism!!!! The fake Matt has a cool-coloured clothes with a red shawl, just like Phobos in the moment - implying that this is not reality, this is only Phobos and his deception. The real, good Matt is wearing a red sweatshirt, with a sort of lighter strip over his chest. I don't even have to say who that reminds me of, eh. Like Yarr, the real Matt is there to help out in a crisis.

In other words, I can't.

Lastly, I must say that the fake Matt's beard kind of reminds of Yarr's (especially of young Yarr in his memories).

That kind of breaks the opposition, I guess, but I think it is just difficult to do anything with real Matt's famous teenage goatee (and fake Matt and young Yarr may have been closer in age).

We could also note that Phobos tries to force Will to give up a great part of herself, while Yarr encourages Himerish to gradually rediscover both parts of his life.

We could also ask why Yarr parallels Will's boyfriend. Right..? :) :) :)

But what is undoubtable is that both Will and Himerish/Oracle were greatly touched by their tasks and feared that those tasks would isolate them and break their bonds, through their own failure or through the burden that comes with the role. In reality, though, they were not alone, they had close people, who not only did not abandon them, but sought to support them in their deal.

In the final scenes, when Will is still with Phobos, Hime is with the real Endarno, and, unwittingly, they both use their magic at the same time and so cooperate to put the real and fake in their place. They have to stand up to their fears - represented by Phobos convincing Will there's no hope and she'll end up alone, and Endarno being really depressed and hopeless like Hime was before Yarr helped out - and they have to make the change themselves, to overcome the fear and believe in their friends again.

Nice, eh :)

1. Hay Lin: she's the easiest.. Guardian of Air, second generation. Her Grandma, Yan Lin was destined to be guardian from a young age too. And in the comics, Yan Lin became the newest Oracle by the end of arc 7, New Power. So for her, I will just quote TV Show Luba in 2x22 U is for Undivided when she said Hay Lin was indeed chosen to provide a continuity of spirit. And I'm guessing that idea of Hay Lin continuing Yan Lin's legacy works in the comics. Hay Lin gets a lot of advice and words of wisdom from Yan Lin. Parts of it are wisdom from ancient chinese provers but it still counts as Yan Lin me toring Hay Lin as she grows into her guardianship, a warm idea of the secrecy of magic passing on through the Lin generations. One thing that stands out to me, is in the New Power Arc where the girls are given their magic in its purest form and the girls have to find the roots of their magic in order to gain mastery. It's literally a self mastery quest that delves into the parts of each girl where they're challenged to their core. For Hay Lin, she was sucked into a typhoon where the only way out was to pick an object. She picks one seemingly randomly but turns out it was based on a proverb Yan Lin once told her; when a such a wind arrives, you have to decide quickly wha you want to save. She chose to open a box that was falling and saving the dragonfly inside. It flew against the wind who meets setbacks and survives them. The point is her connection to grandmother becomes more apparent that this is why she was chosen. But like the dragonfly she saved, paired with the difficult move she was going through at the time, she was also making her guardianship her own. In the middle of a storm Hay Lin found herself and the root of her power, partly thanks to her grandmother.

2. Will is the second clearest as the Keeper of the Heart of Kandrakar. The most powerful guardian of the team and the leader, Will is who I think had the second clearest and most pressing reason to be chosen, and why as keeper of the Heart specifically. If you look at her origin story and how she was brand new to Heatherfield upon both issue one and the first episode of the tv show, it'd be weird why Hay Lin would invite her over to tea where Yan Lin would make the big reveal about their shared destiny, right? For Will, you have to look at what happens even before she was born. Years before Will, was a generation of guardians who had three keepers of the heart; Nerissa, then Cassidy and finally Yan Lin. Nerissa was corrupted by the power of the heart and deemed unfit by the Oracle. Cassidy was the new keeper until Nerissa destroyed her and the heart was passed to Yan Lin. The important part here is Cassidy. After she died, she somehow became a star that shined every fourteen years or so. Will was born under the Star of Cassidy. What does this mean? I think Will was always meant to face Nerissa along with Hay Lin and finish Yan Lin's story and the Oracle had to have seen this coming so Will was chosen tas a guardian. And with an ironic nod to Cassidy, the Oracle made Will the Keeper. Will also kind of works as the uncorrupted, pure foil to Nerissa and her dark heart. So for Will, I think she was chosen as a guardian to finish the battle against Nerissa as she was born with the blessing of Cassidy, Nerissa's most important victim. I also want to tie in her New Power arc but I don't know if it makes sense. Will was the last out the team to find her power, which kinda of went in order of elements from most material to aether btw, and her quest was about realizing that the love and the bonds she has with the most important people in her heart who have affected her is the root of her power. Mind you this is her post-heart of Kandrakar era so Cassidy doesn't make sense here. But I still think it's important to recognize that brief but charged moment between guardians. Cassidy helped her find light in a moment when everything looked so dark and gave Will the metaphoric and literal heart to fight Nerissa again. Will's relationship to people literally is her power since she also used to unite and transform the Guardians. And from New Power onwards, she's still the heart of the team by making the four elements complete with her presence to unite them. It may sound like I'm rambling but it's cause I love this stubborn redhead and this story so much. But yeah, TLDR; Will was chosen because she was born under Cassidy's star, and from New Power onwards, she's the metaphorical heart of the team and she unites them.

3. I'm doing Cornelia third because she has two reasons; one is outlined on the show and the other is more insinuated in the comics. Let's go with the TV Show first. I am gonna go back to 2x21, U is for Undivided because that's where this discussion about where some (not all the girls) were chosen. 2x21 is a Cornelia-centric episode about her relationship with her little sister, Lillian is explored and tested against the backdrop of Nerissa's threat because Lillian is revealed to be the Heart of Earth. Luba verbally surmises that Cornelia's selection as Guardian may have been to ensure that she'd have the power and wisdom to guide and protect her sister, the Heart of Earth. Yeah... First of all, Cornelia is fourteen and she definitely doesn't have that wisdom, her words not mine. Also, it's a shame that this isn't expanded upon because the show was canceled after season 2 so we don't get to see Corny growing up to be the mentor Lillian needs. Also I wanna take that with a grain of salt because the Oracle never confirms it. Hell Luba's language in that scene makes it sound like she is guessing at the reason too. For Hay Lin, Luba's language was clear that it was to continue Yan Lin's legacy, but for Cornelia it is grasping at the evidence presented. But oh well, we are going to take this as bible because there is no official continuation of the show. Right now we are going to keep grasping at straws but switching to the comic because there too it's not made fully clear. At least I am only 98% sure of this. Back to my favorite arc of the comic because it's so much fun, New Power. Like I said, the girls were given their powers in it's purest forms and have to find the roots of theirs in order to gain full mastery of it. I said earlier it's a journey of self mastery for each and it goes in the order of most tangible to least tangible element. Obviously Cornelia went first. Now, this one was particularly emotional for me because Cornelia was the girl of the group who didn't jump in gung ho into being a guardian. Since issue one, she met her destiny as a magical girl with skepticism and reluctance and I totally get her. So imagine her in arc 7; their original powers were stripped, she wakes for the first time in ages without magic and she feels like she can breathe and just be a teenage girl again only for the magic to come back a few days later, a hundred times stronger with an even bigger bad. She was furious and lashed out. But then she went on her quest and found a piece of her she had forgotten; a memory of her at the age of four being lost in a forest and magical pebbles keeping her safe and then guiding her back to her parents. Okay, the fact that her tune changed the second she held the memory of her past self in the forest and felt complete after the experience is just so heartwarming. I mean by the final arc 100% WITCH she still wants a normal life, but her love for her girls overpowers that desire every time. So what I'm getting at with Cornelia is that I think she was chosen to be a guardian because the earth itself helped her out as a little girl. They didn't give a reason as to why it happened. I'm just making guesses out of the information I have. I mean even their elemental powers are actually technically given in the first issue. Issue 50 Forever Magic proved that when Yan Lin pulled the elements back when Will rejected the heart of Kandrakar. I also offer one more reason for Cornelia; she was Elyon's best friend and destiny thought she could use a best friend to help her ascend to the throne of Meridian and fight Phobos. This went longer I expected. TLDR: Cornelia was chosen because 1) in the tv show it might be because Lillian is the Heart of Earth and the Oracle thought Corny would have the power and wisdom to guide her, 2) the earth itself helped Cornelia find her way home, her first touch of magic as a child and 3) since Elyon was to be the Light of Meridian, destiny thought it might be nice to give Elyon a best friend to help her achieve this destiny.

4. Taranee is next and for her, it's clearer to me. It follows the same vein as Cornelia during New Power. For her, she finds out she's adopted in New Power and naturally her quest to find the root of her magic is about finding out what happened to her birth parents. Turns out, homegirl was born in Heatherfield. But then one the night of a meteor shower when Taranee was still a baby, their house caught on fire. Distraught, Taranee's parents felt they couldn't take care of their baby so they gave her up to be adopted. But here's where her destiny cones in, it turns out the flames were there to protect Taranee from evil. This gave Taranee a sense of peace knowing she was always meant to have the power of fire and to me that's a clear indication of why she was chosen. It's like Cornelia's tale but Taranee's feels more like it was meant to be. For Taranee; she was marked with the power of fire since birth on the night of an asteroid shower. With Taranee there's only this one piece of information so with her out of the way, I can move on to the final girl.

5. Irma... she's the wild card. I can't exactly pinpoint a particular reason for why she's chosen. Taranee was saved by the power of fire, Cornelia was protected by the earth, Hay Lin is a legacy pick and Will was born to fight Nerissa. For the others, it looks like destiny somehow intervened. Irma kinda doesn't have that going for her. I mean, now I'm just headcanoning. The best I can come up with she was the last one to be picked and the Oracle just needed someone in the orbit of Hay Lin, Cornelia and Elyon since whoever was going to be guardian next would need to know Elyon and care enough to help since Will and Taranee would be brand new to Heatherfield and won't care as much about Elyon. Irma has probably known the other three for a while. It's never specified if her family ever moved so I'm just thinking it's cause she was around. I'm racking my brain thinking of any possible cosmic reasoning Kandrakar had... and I think I'm gonna have to go back to New Power. If each girl's quest was a journey of self discovery and mastery of their magic and character, then Irma's journey has to be like that too, right? So for homegirl, it's Issue 79, the big bad in New Power attacked Irma while she was asleep, prompting her to go on her quest immediately. As she walked to the answer her quest was leading to, Irma was getting weaker and weaker and becoming unable to defend herself. Then she got to the end of her road; a single choice between staying strong and keeping her magic or choosing love she was developing for a boy, Stephen. She picked love and her powers returned like a flood only this time she controlled it. Like her guide said; only the one who not prey for powers, deserves to keep them. Only the one who can put her sword down, truly deserves to carry it. So based on that, I'm guessing Kandrakar chose her because they trusted Irma's character. Irma's a teenage girl who's mouth runs before her mind catches up. She's boy crazy but overall has a big heart who wants to help and make her friends smile. Which I'm guessing is the kind of energy Kandrakar wants in their guardians. I guess not everyone needs to have a cosmic reason. Irma's heart is as deep as the ocean and i guess Kandrakar said "good enough, make her the guardian of our last element."