T.T why all these men gotta be so mean to their wives?!? I was about to give Howl a pass for last installment cuz i thought Sophie might've accidentally stitched "I hate this" "This sucks" and "I wish this weren't happening" into the veil but even when she's not actively wearing the veil he made her sleep on the floor and is being mean???
well! he is stupid
his perspective: forced to marry by the king or either fight in his war for reasons we don't yet know and this woman be doesn't want to marry has been chosen by the king he doesn't want to serve and so he has no reason to trust her intentions, but also she's a young hatter's daughter so it's likely she's just as much of a pawn as he is
THEN she shows up with a cursed veil that makes him hate her and tries to get him to reject the marriage he already agreed to, which would either mean he joins the war or makes even more of an enemy of his king, so absolutely disastrous either way. but he doesn't realize until he wakes up the next morning and she's no longer wearing the veil (why's she on the floor?? does not occur to him that she wouldn't just go wandering in his castle and find a place to sleep, does not occur to him that his home is a fucking disaster area with no available flat surfaces, calcifer is right there why wouldn't she just ask him where to go).
so he watches and waits and in the meanwhile he's turning over this incredibly powerful object over in his hands, wondering who did this and also how complacent she is in it. and clalcifer eats it and reacts like he just swallowed a bomb and confirms it's NO ONE they've encountered before, so someone he doesn't know is trying to fuck him and also the realm over
and he looks down at his wife who he doesn't know and doesn't understand and he is, you know, heartless. and he can't be glib and charming with her because she already has so much more of him than any of the girls he flirts with and he, again, can't trust her and doesn't know her and isn't looking at this from her perspective at all because why would he. he was under her curse before that and now that he's out of it he's not thinking of what she brought or didn't bring or has or doesn't have
so he goes off to investigate who cursed his wife and therefore him and leaves her in calcifer's care (literally one positive: she seems to like his fire demon) because he can do pretty anything she needs, he figures, and also since the bastard ate his heart surely dealing with howl's wife should be his problem anyway
he is literally heartless and stupid but he's not actually trying to be mean
