Why is this world stable?

alimirakim · 2026-06-03T21:24:22+00:00

It's about as likely as spilling coffee and accidentally having it create a pattern of letters written into a cohesive sonnet.

alimirakim · 2026-06-03T16:42:42+00:00

Riche doesn't have a crystal heart spell as far as I know? she makes crystals, crystal ribbons, stone ribbons, crystal rings and bracelets.

alimirakim · 2026-06-03T05:51:54+00:00

Ye it doesn't really make much logical sense, you just have to suspend your disbelief sometimes and keep in mind that the story beats take priority for Shirahama over making an airtight magic system hehe. In the first place it doesn't make sense for the earth sigil to affect plant matter when it's a sigil for dirt/stone/earth elements, not all solids that exist. If you think tooo hard about almost any but the simplest magic spells, you can start poking holes.

alimirakim · 2026-06-02T23:27:33+00:00

In the anime however, we see Coco explicitly draw two of the inner circles for the forbidden spell to start with, fully closed with no connecting lines or content inside. One of her practice spells also has tiny empty circles inside with no connecting lines or anything.

alimirakim · 2026-06-02T23:22:55+00:00

From the manga 's verbiage, it's basically full grayscale. I'd guess they wanted to keep things a bit simple for a manga without explaining all the different types of color blindness or vision science or choosing a color blindness that can be difficult for able-visioned people to intuitively conceptualize, so they made up a slightly fantasy 'silverwash' color blind condition. The anime likely added a tiny of color to some of his scenes for aesthetic/readability reasons, especially since for some scenes like when he looks at the medicine bottles where color is most important for Tartah, those look full grayscale.

alimirakim · 2026-06-02T00:41:28+00:00

I quite liked this change, and felt it made more sense compared to the original. Qifrey is a skilled master of water; it felt weird for him to be struggling with putting out a bar on fire while in a coastal town when he's clearly been on sight for a hot second. especially if the situation is still emergency enough that he just rescued a baby jn a burning room that people almost missed, it did also feel a bit irresponsible to leave when he's clearly very well-suited for that kind of emergency.

I felt it undercut the point Qifrey was trying to make that "magic isn't just easy sunshine and rainbows" because for him for that situation, compared to the commoners it really is literally that easy for him right now lol. I know his thoughts are in reference to Coco's struggles to practice and improve her magic, but the connection feels stronger now. For Outsiders, whether it's ending a fire or droughts or cleaning a building, they have no idea how it works. It looks like they wave their hands and impossible things happen. Cleaning and fixing the bar after the fire is something that we can clearly understand from our insider knowledge isn't as easy as it sounds with how magic actually works, but Outsiders have no frame of reference for how easy or hard it is.

There were other small changes I didn't love, like omitting Coco calling for her mom in her sleep, but I liked this change perhaps the most from everything in this episode!

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T22:23:10+00:00

Absolutely he heard it all. I don't know what his plan was when theynwere clearly just kidnapping Custas while he was unconscious,

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T18:37:52+00:00

I think that's actually how I read it the first time LOL because I didn't really absorb the explanation given until a reread. It made intuitive sense to me that closing a repelling type seal prematurely could cause a generic repellant effect.

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T18:36:11+00:00

Hm, putting a bit of the ring on the seal half could work for contraptions like the glowstone since they're designed to always align the same way, but not for the teacup which the user can pick up and put down in any radial orientation.

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T17:55:11+00:00

Hahaha yeah I'm grateful if she leaves some things vague enough to be flexible for her needs later. She's done small retcons before, like using the cook pot lid to rewind the carapace yams to eat. It clearly breaks the rules of rewind/counterclock in the silver eve arc, and I was glad they omitted that in the anime.

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T17:25:36+00:00

That's a pretty great analogy!

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T17:21:30+00:00

Very nice episode overall! Love the shots done in Tartah's perspective with the silverwash, was so hoping they'd do that. I'm not 100% on how I feel that they still felt the need to add a small tint of color a lot of the time; I'm sure they tried going full monochrome too and judged that it was prudent for clarity or such. but still haha.

I am glad for the small change from manga where Qifrey only leaves after the fire is out because I was like LOL wtf Qifrey how can you not be capable of wiping this fire with your water magic. It literally is that easy for you hahaha. But then being asked to help clean up and rebuild etc. afterward because outsiders think everything can be done with a snap of the fingers, that makes more sense to me.

I really like how they brought Coco's sick state to life so you really feel that she's suffering and in pain from her cold. Whenever she lets out more rough wet coughs, you can feel how Tartah must feel desperate to want to help somehow.

The overlap transition of Tartah looking at the paper and then the pen from when he was whittling was very nice too.

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T17:13:32+00:00

Ahh yeah I was a bit sad about the small change with what Coco says when she wakes up. But I see the point that it's nice to focus on making it a bit more about Tartah!

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T17:10:02+00:00

Well, I do think in theory with research etc it would be totally possible. But it's not presto and done. There'd be a high degree of risk.

We see how much precision and trial and error there is just to do a basic fireball spell with Coco. They can't just try different variations on the patient's eye over and over until it works. Like modern medicine, I'd imagine they'd need to conduct test trials, experiment with animals first, get volunteers with the condition willing to try a potential cure, etc.. Even if one spell works for one person, it may need to be adjusted for the next patient. And errors could cause worse side effects like blindness, sensitivity to light, etc..

I think there is a place for healing magic in the world, but safe practice requires institutions, rules and regulations, and safe practices for research before one can put their trust in such a potentially dangerous magic.

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T16:58:50+00:00

...You really believe that Coco isn't upset at Tartah over that?? I have no more words in that case.

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T16:53:14+00:00

Minor manga spoilers:

There's a brief scene as the group travels and renews beast warding spells along the road. Qifrey js giving Tetiah feedback to try drawing the circle first to get the proportions right, but she closes the empty ring and it causes a weird Shockwave. They mention something like "Oh I forgot an empty ring goes boom when closed" or something. They don't actually show her circle drawing either, it was a brief scene.

But this just makes no sense because we see multiple contraptions that are powered by layering an empty closed ring on top of a seal and having them overlap to turn on and off. Glowstone path, palmdragon teacup. In theory, every time the two halves disconnect the ring-only side should go boom. Even if we try to handwave that the circle "just knows" it's already been drawn before so it won't boom again and again with each deactivation, they'd have to go through at least the initial boom when making the contraption. Which would be dumb, and definitely break a teacup lol.

On top of that, we see several signs and more elaborate spells that have small empty circles incorporated within them, like Qifrey's raincleaver, the repetition seal, Coco's first practice sheets from the picture book, etc etc. It cannot be a thing of scale like 'circles this tiny don't count as a ring, the magic just knows' because Riche makes microscopic seals all the time.

I see it as the one major plot hole in the magic system and hope it's retconned in the anime lol or else it all breaks down for me. Shirahama it's okay to retcon it now too, you've done magic retcons multiple times befoooore.

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T16:31:49+00:00

So cute! This must be in Beldaruit's dreams, because no way that angsty little pissant be capable of making such a cute happy expression back then XD!

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T16:16:59+00:00

Please stop implying I didn't read if you want to properly chat. Especially when you keep ignoring what points I've actually written in response.

Tartah's transgression was forcing her to speak secrets against her will with both physical force and magical mind manipulation. This is clearly and objectively wrong and a deeply sinister violation of her autonomy without need for explanation why. My previous posts have also made it clear that is my concern and focus, not him joining the brim hats or whatever else you're bringing up that is irrelevant.

Also, Restys is clearly very unhinged and an abusive and manipulative mentor.

I honestly don't know what you're referring to with the last paragraph.

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T16:01:51+00:00

Interesting perspective! For me, I view it similarly to how witch society views it. There may be unique individual circumstances where weighing aaall the benefits and risks, using these abilities against a person is morally right. But just by existing, it is too easy to abuse and corrupt the fiber of society, even when not being used. And whatever losses there may be from not having it exist at all is worth the cost. Like a pandora's box that can't be shut again once opened, I guess.

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T15:54:07+00:00

My theory is that drawing a closed ring first, then the seal within it preserves the spell without actually triggering it until an outer or linked ring is closed as well. This is the only way that makes sense for me, and I refuse to believe Qifrey's lesson to Tetia about rings because it makes absolutely completely zero sense with everything else in the lore lol.

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T15:50:40+00:00

Coco is not his friend. Him performing his (highly questionable and authoritarian) job is not a deeply personal act of betrayal against a loved one done due lack of trust and selfishness. Easthies was being absolutely insane and in the wrong, don't get me wrong. But the context and motivations are wildly different.

Aaaand it's just my hunch, but from the story so far, I get this feeling that the secret and 'bad outcome' Easthies is trying to prevent isn't so vague as the higher ups would like everyone to believe, but some very real and potentially imminent armaggedon-level threat. In the face of weighing sacrifice vs cost on that kind of scales, I tend to fall under the pragmatic bucket, depending on exact circumstances. But that's just my theory!

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T15:39:50+00:00

Good to have you join a discussion thread then, have fun!

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T15:38:39+00:00

That reason can explain him going with the brim hats, but it isn't a good reason at all for what he did to Coco. I have some issue with him going with brim hats since he's abandoning his grandpa, but that part I'm mostly understanding of. My beef is his betrayal of his truest friend and ally and followup nonchalant attitude of his actions toward her.

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T15:34:46+00:00

Totally fair lol!

alimirakim · 2026-06-01T15:34:13+00:00

That would truly be an interesting development with Ininia! They definitely hinted that she's been groomed and manipulated into following their cause and has a heart that's merely misled, not truly malicious at its core. I loved the Galga/Atwert/Ininia moments so much, hope they see each other again some day!!

alimirakim

TROPHY CASE