There’s like, zero fandom for Qifco right now, and I saw a post that was like “Qifco shippers will be dead by summer” so now I’m slightly tempted to make a bunch of Qifco content out of spite, or just to have something to throw into the void

Ngl, I find witch hat atelier rather boring but the tidbits I've seen of qifrey and coco's relationship development is very interesting. Not only is there so much tenderness, but once coco becomes disillusioned with her mentor she's the only one who seem to get through him, and who's opinion he seems to value. And despite the fractured respect, despite qifrey's manipulation, it's so obvious that they still care for each other and are deeply interwined. I know the story was going for "children are smarter than you give them credit for" but the way the power dynamic change and equalize as coco mature, despite the large age gap is very interesting. I wouldn't sexually ship them as they are but there's definitely some... tension to develop and explore.

qifrey picking up his students, namely coco and agott, whenever he gets a chance is certainly not helping