will o’ wisp

gurl it's probably an illusion, you probably need some High Level Magic Shit to get over there.

You think the sea-monsters in the deep would be easier to deal with when they're flailing around on dry seabed? Plus you'd feel bad for all the fish.

Called it.

I mean, it WAS incredibly relevant to her interests.

Thank you for your wisdom, Lord Shoulderuit

That's quite the---HMMMM.

Nevermind. Not gonna say anything.

omg Qifrey, are you distracting them with a hotter lake monster? Are you AI-girlfriend scamming them?

I hate to summon some rain on the parade, but I feel like Qifrey WOULD be that idiot to risk his hand for his eye. He's got another hand. The eye, on the other hand........he's fresh out.

¿por qué no los dos?

Something something, Coco hiding in the roots of a tree as a child who was buried underneath one reaches out to her--

Maybe we bury ourselves sometimes.

I firmly believe that there are a lot of things in this manga that draw direct parallels between magic and illustration/arts but I wonder if this one is as easy to untangle from its magic counterpart.

But to try - what if the art we create DOESN'T matter, or make any difference? What if we have to abandon drawing and creating for our own sake, and it fails to save us? Or make any difference in the lives of those we love?

I do wonder, if, in the end, Coco is truly drawing for herself? Or for her mom...?

Qifrey is a good teacher. He saw her problem and gave her a way to solve it instead of trying to solve it for her!

I do wonder if he's partially talking to himself here as well. He also has a problem to solve...

I believe in them.

I will also take this as an aside and say that while many people have issue with how physical Qifrey is with showing his students affection - I personally think it's perfectly appropriate. First of all, not all cultures are as physically distant with children as others.

And also... as an abandoned child himself, Qifrey probably mirrors the things he wishes he had as a child. That might involve some level of physical reassurance from his only safe adult. I doubt Beldaruit was a distant teacher, either.

I hope you believe your own words.

It's okay, it just wants a hug.

Is it because it's just a projection/smoke illusion? I'm assuming he's too far to do any actual magic...

I am LOOKING at that seal of expansion.

Still curious about the sigils in the spells which don't necessarily include an element. Kind of like a noun in a sentence, I suppose they must be a sort of pronoun, or self-referral sigil? Like, whatever you are making larger? Presumably it's a sigil of 'whatever this is written on'.

This makes me think about how reading seals is kinda like decoding a language...

The Coco Special: YEET

more and more, he and Coco feel like narrative parallels

I keep on forgetting, but despite Qifrey explicitly saying he'd get her a new pen that matches her style, she is STILL using the normal one, it looks like? I only mention this because I spied a pen in the anime that seems to be Coco's actual pen, but she still hasn't gotten it yet: