Joyce Byers is the best mom
howls moving castle: howls vain obsession with beauty is his fatal flaw. this is made extremely clear in numerous circumstances. this is supposed to be the thing you dont like about him
all of us including me: hhgfgh howl … pretty ………
Yeah, he’s sure pretty alright.
But his vanity wasn’t actually his fatal flaw, at least in the movie. It was just a minor charming comic-relief flaw.
His real flaw was refusal to shoulder his responsibility. The beauty of the resolution of HMC, is that by loving each other, the characters all teach each other courage.
in the book, if we’re running up comparisons, howl’s vanity definitely wasn’t his fatal flaw, it was…more of a defense mechanism.
it covers for a number of insecurities, ranging from the childhood self-worth kind to the ‘my ability to feel normal emotions is compromised by having given away my actual physical heart in a magical pact i can’t get out of without killing my asshole friend if at all, and this causes me major identity problems.’
(according to Calcifer he also isn’t actually particularly good-looking under all the cosmetics and hair-care, but Sophie never actually evaluates that so idk.
the first impression he makes, at May Day before she knows he’s Wizard Howl, is ‘dashing’ with a ‘bony, sophisticated face’ and ‘well into his twenties.’ no further details ever come up. his attractiveness is definitely dealt with more as a matter of presentation than of his specific features, tho–like his ability to produce a gorgeous romantic tableau through posture and positioning when courting Actual Lettie–and there’s every indication Sophie wouldn’t be all that interested if she wasn’t attached.)
i didn’t realize the avoidance of responsibility thing made it into the movie! the way he’s half-killing himself…turning into a harpy and…overflying the war…kind of overshadowed it for me i guess. huh, cool.
being a slitherer-outer, as Sophie puts it, is…sort of his flaw, in the book? like, it absolutely is. but it’s also one of his chiefest strengths; it’s how he kept ahead of the Witch’s curse for so long. she had to manipulate Sophie and Michael and threaten Howl’s family in Wales as a distraction to finally catch him up.
(as sophie says in the sequel, “Vices? I’m just describing Howl.”)
this is how flaws often work in dwj’s work, come to think of it. the only fatal traits are the ones the villain relies on to advance their agenda, right up until they push it and/or the people bearing the consequences of it so far they experience overwhelming backlash, and those tend to be of the ‘exploiting/manipulating’ type.
…most notable is that incredibly awful guy who entered the effective field of a poetic-narrative-based reality warping computer he’d imprisoned thousands of years ago, and turned into a dragon.
is this what growing up is like
me at 14: wow, protagonists in media my age! how relateable!
me at 28: WHY ARE THERE SO MANY CHILD SOLDIERS? WHERE ARE ALL THE ADULTS? WHO LET THIS HAPPEN AND WHY ARE THEY NOT BEING PROSECUTED BY LAW WITHIN THESE FICTIONAL UNIVERSES
In the same vein:
Me at 14: oh protagonists that are 17-20-ish, they’re basically adults, right?
Me at 28: Oh my Gods you’re babies who left you in charge?!
Ariel: Daddy, I love him!
Me at 14: Yeah, girl, you tell him!
Me at 30:
Marnie in Halloweentown: I’m thirteen, okay? I’m practically grown up! I’m certainly old enough to make my own choices – right?
Me at 7: Right!
Me at 13: Right! …Well, okay, maybe not practically grown up, but still, right!
Me at 28:
You either die young or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
possible new meme template I found on pinterest while looking at pics of Edward Gorey’s stage design
——
oh this is a Vibe
Oh my god,
i know tumblr is a mess but apparently twitter book nerds are starting discourse about marie kondo acting like shes telling them to burn their books on her cute cleaning show on netflix and i swear for a bunch of ppl who love books their reading comprehension is ass
it’s 2019 and book nerds think cleaning their room is oppression
Please don’t tell another chronically ill person “oh I wish my symptoms were like yours.” or “your symptoms aren’t as bad compared to mine.” because you have no idea what other conditions or symptoms they may have. Yes, they may have a symptom that is less severe than you but they may have another that is more severe. Don’t turn chronic illness into a suffering contest. It’s just so insensitive.
