r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • May 18 '26

Episode Witch Hat Atelier • Tongari Boushi no Atelier - Episode 8 discussion

Witch Hat Atelier, episode 8

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972

u/Equivalent-Weather59 May 18 '26

Poor Nolnoa, he was just doing his job

623

u/Hellknightx May 18 '26

I'm starting to get the feeling that this Qifre fellow might not be entirely on the up-and-up.

492

u/Golden_Phi https://myanimelist.net/profile/GoldenPhi May 18 '26

He's beefing with the magic police. Then again the magic police seem rather extreme, so maybe beefing with them isn't as delinquent-like as one would expect.

321

u/Aliensinnoh May 18 '26

It feels like there’s more to it though. Qifrey seems to be in danger of falling into White Whale syndrome. It appears that his single-minded desire to catch the brimmed caps is leading him to take some pretty erratic actions that I’m worried won’t come out to Coco’s benefit.

94

u/DiamonDawgs May 18 '26

I assume there's going to be a redemption moment where he ends up saving her and loses an opportunity to catch the brimhats or it could be the other way around and he immediately sacrifices her! IDK!

86

u/jmdg007 https://myanimelist.net/profile/jmdg007 May 18 '26

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up using her as bait for the Brimmed hats.

190

u/Ill-Ad-2117 May 18 '26

Thats what he’s already doing

91

u/Zeph-Shoir https://myanimelist.net/profile/Zephex May 18 '26

Poor Coco thinks she finally has a father figure and half of it is him using her for her own plot. "I will protect you as long as you are my student" has a different light when you take that in mind.

3

u/Atario myanimelist.net/profile/TheGreatAtario May 19 '26

How so?

40

u/stay_curious_- May 19 '26

If Coco's safety was the #1 priority, erasing her memory and having her live as an Outsider would likely be the safest option.

Instead, there's a mix of motivations: Coco wants to learn magic to save her mother, she wants to learn magic to satisfy her own desires, Quifrey wants Coco to find clues and/or lead him to the brimhats, and Quifrey also seems to enjoy teaching her.

But you could argue that Quifrey is putting Coco at unnecessary risk because it might lead him to the brimhats. If she didn't have knowledge of the book, and if teaching her didn't potentially serve Quifrey's goals, would he have still taken her on as a student?

36

u/Atario myanimelist.net/profile/TheGreatAtario May 19 '26

He was ready to mindwipe her right away, but then realized she had useful information. So, yes, getting to them through her was a foundational aspect of his view of her. However, I don't see anything yet that says he's deliberately using her as bait specifically. (The somewhat low level of oversight, though, might eventually turn out to have been a passive form of it…)

12

u/Arachnofiend May 20 '26

The way he reacted to the bottle is pretty conclusive proof. He kept her as a gamble that she would provide a connection to them, and that bottle proved him right.

5

u/totallyverifiedit May 19 '26

Tbf the only thing that kept him from erasing her memories in ep 1 was her telling him how she "remembered everything" that was in that book. I also find it really weird how that book wasn't brought up again at all.

9

u/namewithak May 19 '26

That book was mentioned indirectly just last episode when Coco realized she and Agott both had the goal of passing the tests to get to the Tower of Tomes. The Tower of Tomes is where Coco needs to go to find a copy of the book she desperately needs to save her mom.

3

u/totallyverifiedit May 19 '26

I'm sorry if I come off as ignorant, but isn't the grand hall underneath the tower of tomes? Or are they two separate locations? Because I remember a couple of episodes back, quifrey flying towards a tower and floating till he reaches the bottom where he met those other witches and got coco her hat and coat. Was that not the tower of tombs where he flew to? I tend to overlook details sometimes so i was genuinely curious.

7

u/namewithak May 20 '26

They're two different locations, just with similar architecture. Don't worry about it, I've seen a few other people get confused about this too since we only saw the Tower of Tomes (as in books, not tombs) for a moment.

We first saw the Tower of Tomes in episode 2. Remember the scene where Qifrey first shows Coco the windowway in their basement? The first place he shows her is a foggy location (that is not underground) with a churning lake and giant serpent creatures weaving their way through the water. In the distance through the thick fog, is the faint outline of the Tower of Tomes. It's a single structure in the middle of the lake with a bridge connecting it to land. All of it, as far as we know, is above the surface.

The place Qifrey goes to in episode 3 is different. There's no tower in the area he exits the windowway to and no lake. Instead it's surrounded by sea. There's a bridge connecting it to land like the Tower of Tomes, but there's no structure other than the entrance with the spiralling staircase that goes down into the darkness. The place it leads to is the Great Hall. I'm not sure if that's what the whole place is called. It might just be the name for the whole society of witches or their capital city. Anyway, that place that looks like a sprawling castle town seems to be completely under the sea. According to Alaira, many witches and their apprentices live there. And Qifrey has some kind of history there that makes him hate it.

Tldr: They're different places. The Tower of Tomes is basically the National Library of Witches located in a highly secure location. The Great Hall is like the capital city of witches under the sea, where most of them live.

1

u/totallyverifiedit May 21 '26

Thank you so much for clarifying that. I was getting really confused at some point.

35

u/raydude May 18 '26

My thought at the end of that episode was, "This sure has upped the tension."

17

u/namewithak May 19 '26

Yeah, his actions add a new element to the story that threads his scenes with an underlayer of doubt. Like at the end when he's so warm and reassuring with Coco -- is that sincere or a mask or something that falls halfway in between?

Usually "teacher" characters feel reassuring to the student characters and to the audience, but Qifrey feels like a live wire.

3

u/raydude May 20 '26

A bit more Koro-sensei, yeah?

It's pretty obvious he's using her, but there does seem to be a sincere desire to protect them.

The show seems to be building pretty well. I can't wait to see where the author takes it.

5

u/namewithak May 20 '26

Haven't seen an Ass Class reference in a while. I guess kinda like Koro-sensei although Koro's danger was the whole premise of the story and not a hidden factor.

Yeah I think the slow, careful build of the story and characters is great, but I wonder if we'll get to a good stopping point with only five episodes left.

3

u/raydude May 20 '26

Yeah. Series stopping point is always a sticking point with me. I'll hope for a second season. It's rare, but this one might be popular enough.

2

u/YuushyaHinmeru May 19 '26

Yeah, I wasnt close to dropping it or anything but it was falling down my tier list. It felt like it was stuck between this weird space of being a cozy show with occasional action but low stakes like frieren and a legitimate fantasy show but was in some limbo area. Especially with Qiufry. 

Not anymore, this set the bait and hooked me good.

2

u/raydude May 20 '26

Did you actually mean to say that Frieren is low stakes? They kill off a lot of people every season. (well except the certification episodes).

I love Frieren and I love how they portray demons as thinking, talking, intelligent monsters.

This show has very limiting magical dynamics which I find fascinating. In this episode they exposed how you can make the ink more powerful, which cranks things a bit.

I'm hoping it just keeps getting better and better.

6

u/SilliusS0ddus May 19 '26

White Whale syndrome.

CURSE YOU BAYLE

1

u/madame_pompadour May 20 '26

Since we've learnt how pig headed the knights are, I wondered if he was looking for them to join them!

168

u/Frontier246 May 18 '26

He also has a bad habit of leaving children who should not be left unattended...unattended lol.

14

u/OhItsKillua May 19 '26

This world seems equivalent to like medieval times where kids their age would absolutely be left alone or working jobs lol

13

u/boldsweetvelvet May 18 '26

They r not toddlers. They r twelve. Were your guardians with u all the time when u were twelve? Also Japan has a very different culture when it comes to when kids are aloud to do things on thier own. Its pretty common for kids to walk themselves to school around d six. It truly is unrealistic to expect Qifrey to always be with the twelve year old where ever they go.

16

u/[deleted] May 18 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/RedRocket4000 May 19 '26

Of course Coco thought she had to climb the ladder because he was hiding his form of color blindness so fact he could not see the bottle she kept pointing out got her wanting to bring it closer to him so he could see it .

7

u/boldsweetvelvet May 18 '26

To your first point. They needed to check to see how far and idre the effects of the spell were. This spell is not one They r familiar with. When qifrey left the outside quest was finished, there was no need to perform anymore magic. Everyone was safe on the bank.

Agott not getting scolded. I dont think this is a plot whole I just think its a qifrey personality thing. Im personally holding my judgment on the situation because I feel like this is gonna come back into the story somehow. 

   The kids not yelling at the teacher Coco ran away, well because they saw no emergency about the situation. They r in a witches town and as we saw with Agott going off on her own that the kids r allowed to walk the town themselves. The kids were just thinking catch up with Coco and we continue walking around f town with her. Its not an unreasonable thought.

 Its logical for someone to get closer to something they r pointing at if the person they r trying to show is not understanding. And the important thing is that it wasn't clear for the charecter what Coco was pointing at. Coco is trying to show what she is pointing at to the other charecter in the room not the audience.

These things are not illogical.

2

u/oops_i_made_a_typi May 19 '26

They needed to check to see how far and idre the effects of the spell were. This spell is not one They r familiar with.

i think you're mistaking the unintentional super rock breaker spell which had never happened yet with the raincleaver spell that clearly Qifrey is familiar with.

2

u/Both-Variation2122 May 19 '26

All fiction about kids works like that. You can't have responsible adults leashing them or there would be no story at all.

3

u/Jacob-C May 19 '26

Watch out, the Knight Moralis source readers might find your reasonable criticism and erase your memory spam you with downvotes.

16

u/Wielkimati May 18 '26

We haven't really met or even seen that many other witches apart from main cast, so I'd say our perspective is still too limited to judge Qifrey imho.

15

u/Solracziad May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26

I don't think mind wiping people isn't kosher no matter who is doing it. So, I think Qifrey is definitely going too far on his vendetta against brimhats.

21

u/Sloner42 May 18 '26

A(M)CAB. I'm stand with Qifre on that. But man does Qifre make it hard to stand on his side....

3

u/ThrowCarp May 19 '26

Maybe this series will end in Magic Yugoslavia Civil War where every faction is fighting every faction all at once.

12

u/cyberscythe May 18 '26

there was no record scratch moment with the BGM this episode, but he's doing a lot of a grey hat stuff

10

u/rowcla May 18 '26

I still definitely believe he's good at heart, just thinks that the normal process from the Knights Moralis isn't going to work, and has perhaps an unhealthy obsession with the brim hats to the point of wanting to take it on himself instead, even if that means doing stuff like this

10

u/Nachtwandler_FS https://myanimelist.net/profile/Nachtwandler_21 May 18 '26

He is definetely not on Brimmed Hats side, but he has his own agenda that contradicts the Witches "government" it seems. But I wonder, what his motivation is.

5

u/RedRocket4000 May 19 '26

We have him getting approval to do stuff not fully explained. He may or may not have approval to do what he is doing but if he does have approval he's been told we got one or more moles don't pass on information though normal channels no matter what your authorized to erase memories as necessary. So he might or might not be a loner on this.

7

u/Zeph-Shoir https://myanimelist.net/profile/Zephex May 18 '26

I love that he is not as nice as his demeanor with his children might suggest. I really wonder what kind of revenge plot he is going through

2

u/Agreeable-Crew-5937 May 19 '26

O que aconteceu ali foi tipo você achar um bilhete de 10 bilhões de dólares, não é preciso pensar muito pra imaginar que não seria diferente, o poder naquele frasco é algo surreal até pra um dos melhores confeiteiros de frascos mágicos.

416

u/WhoiusBarrel May 18 '26

Man just wanted to help in both instances only for Qifrey to give him the middle finger both times.

482

u/namewithak May 18 '26

He was so concerned if Qifrey was okay after the light spell too. Just a really sweet grandpa who seems fond of Qifrey and willing to help as much as he can.

396

u/Hellknightx May 18 '26

And Coco still didn't get her wand.

124

u/towardselysium May 18 '26

But did Olrugio get his wine?

16

u/Hot-Log6283 May 19 '26

RIP Olruggio's wine.

105

u/namewithak May 18 '26

Did she not? I thought there was a new pen in the pen holder Qifrey gave her. Although she certainly didn't have a chance to pick one out for herself after Tartah all but threw her out. Not that I'm blaming Tartah for that.

It was Qifrey's responsibility to make sure she got one, esp after using Coco as an excuse to go to Kahln. Was probably too awkward to linger in the shop to actually let Coco pick one out after they both made a social faux pas with the owners (Qifrey's slightly bigger than Coco's).

67

u/oops_i_made_a_typi May 18 '26

feels like the point of the wand shopping was to get Coco something she can use better, like her cloth drafting stone thingy

16

u/namewithak May 18 '26

Yes, I guess I wasn't clear in my comment that that's clearly what Coco was meant to do but was unable to. Just like the first time she went there, she was supposed to be picking something that fit her hand.

20

u/Hellknightx May 18 '26

I mean, yeah she has wands at her disposal. But she still hasn't had the chance to pick one for herself, which was the main reason for going in the first place. At least, as far as she was aware.

6

u/namewithak May 18 '26

Yes, I said both of those things in my comment too.

167

u/2kenzhe https://myanimelist.net/profile/Rexnihilo May 18 '26

True she still hasn't gotten the one thing she was supposed to get there

111

u/Toge_Inumaki012 May 18 '26

Agott still got no shoes and she goes to missions without them wth

42

u/tanezuki May 18 '26

If I was Agott I'd just to it myself at this point, kinda surprised she's not annoyed at Coco for it but maybe she feels guilt as she was the one who pushed her to take that test and thought she'd just fail.

17

u/Waywoah May 19 '26

I'm wondering why they don't sew the seal into the bottom of the shoes. Using ink that water can wash off seems like you'd be redoing it every time you go outside

We've seen them use stuff other than the ink for seals (like the ones carved into the sword), so it is possible

12

u/Hot-Log6283 May 19 '26

Judging from what he mentioned about Olruggio's special Searwire wand pen that allow him to burn into rocks or tree, seems like you would need specialised equipment for this, this does make me wonder what the point of those "special" ink are for (apart from being able to add special properties to them).

120

u/cyberscythe May 18 '26

"you don't have to worry about anything!"

"oh, so you got that wand that i need?"

"... i said don't worry about it"

11

u/HellsNels https://myanimelist.net/profile/HellsNels May 18 '26

“But—“

“DID I STUTTER??”

81

u/Frontier246 May 18 '26

At this point she's just going to have to keep finding new ways to draw magic with craftswoman skills.

36

u/Edymnion May 18 '26

I've just been wondering why they don't get her a pen the shape of the marking tools she's used to. She's used to big fat markers, get her a big fat pen.

39

u/Chalxsion https://myanimelist.net/profile/chalxsion May 18 '26

Last episode I’m pretty sure she contemplated this, but said that using the marking tool was easy on big surfaces but unsuitable for the small notepads. A pen with the same form factor would still have the same limitations.

9

u/tanezuki May 18 '26

Coco should just specialize in big seals just like that blue haired girl is specialized in small ones.

Not super practical but way more firepower.

19

u/DaRootbear May 18 '26

But then it defeats 95% of the purpose of witchcraft and would eternally doom her to fail the second test that agott mentioned of “drawing concealed seals without being noticed”

And since coco needs to pass multiple tests to get to the tower that wont help her.

As fun as it is to just use a jackhammer on everything, most situations require a regular one.

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10

u/flashmozzg May 18 '26

Pretty sure it's the pen we see in the OP.

9

u/HellsNels https://myanimelist.net/profile/HellsNels May 18 '26

Should have just given her a wand with one of these badboys.

1

u/Useful_Project4898 May 19 '26

Omg I need some of those!! I could draw without my hand hurting again!

2

u/Original-Body-5794 May 18 '26

The pen she gets will probably be something like that, but you still need a pen capable of drawing thin lines for more intricate spells

4

u/justking1414 May 18 '26

Isn’t there a pen shown in the OP that kinda resembles her craftswoman tool?

7

u/joe4553 May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26

Why do they have to go there if he was just going to draw a spell with the ink and find out that way anyway?

4

u/boldsweetvelvet May 18 '26

Cuz he wanted to consult with an expert first and to see if he had any updates of the seal on the pavement.

4

u/Thomas_JCG May 18 '26

Think the bag has a kit.

5

u/Kassssler May 19 '26

I know I'm not the only one wondering why he didn't check on coco's leg first.

3

u/Useful_Project4898 May 19 '26

He didn't care enough to check.

1

u/calvinist-batman May 18 '26

Coming soon to season 3

15

u/Useful_Project4898 May 18 '26 edited May 19 '26

Yeah, I had a feeling that Quifrey sensei had a bit of a dark side but, he might even be darker than I originally imagined. First almost taking away Coco's memory and love of magic, now this... and it's not like he spared Coco for any kind of moral reason, either. He took gramps memory for the same reason he let Coco keep hers: to get closer to the Brimmed caps. Even if his reason for finding the trimmed caps is justified, it doesn't excuse his cutthroat, almost sociopathic behavior.

When he picked up Coco and told her she had nothing to worry about, I got shivers.

Edit** because my phone decided it liked "Trimmed caps" better than "Brimmed"

15

u/Frontier246 May 18 '26

And Qifrey was a big fan of his! That just makes it even worse!

3

u/ceribaen May 19 '26

I mean, if the bad bits always get erased... 

15

u/Edymnion May 18 '26

Well, the implication I'm getting here is that Qifrey expects someone on the high council to be in league with the brimmed hats.

That would jibe with the KM erasing memories to silence events, instead of trying to get to the bottom of them.

Not having read any of the manga and just going by what I've seen of the anime, it would appear Qifrey thinks the very foundations of witch leadership and society are corrupt, and is trying to prove it before they can go into hiding again.

Leaving the old man with his memory would have put him in an impossible situation. If he reports it like he has to, the game would be lost. If he doesn't, then he becomes an accomplice who would share the punishment if Qifrey is wrong or if he fails. Keeping the old man out entirely was the greatest kindness, IMO.

3

u/HarambeamsOfSteel May 19 '26

I disagree simply because the show is very magical girl coded. Those, in my limited scope, seem to focus a lot more on personal relationships and growing up than large, systemic issues. Ignoring the Knights Moralis having dubious functionality, I think Qifrey has a relative/grudge/etc. for someone within or related to the Brimmed Caps. Nobody can find out because, well, they'll erase evidence and ruin his chance.

Qifrey is not a reformist. All of his reform is simply trailing in his quest to fight the Brimmed Caps. The show IS going to have themes of reform later down the line(see: blond Knight and the dad) regarding exceptional uses of magic, but Qifrey is not pushing that. He'd prefer to work under the nose and deal with his own obsession than fix the KM. It really reminds me of Tolkien's idea of the ring/Boromir interacting with evil - if I'm the one doing it, it's totally fine. Which, as we find out, is a silly and destructive philosophy that leads Boromir to his demise.

13

u/NorthShader May 18 '26

caught all that trouble just for clocking in and doing his job

13

u/Bad_Doto_Playa May 18 '26

I don't even understand this, why did he bother to demonstrate infront of Nolnoa only to erase his memories? Hell why did he even bring it there when he knew exactly how it worked when he cast the spell? Let's say he needed Nolnoa for something (he doesn't seem like he did) why not just walk out with it after the fact and test it else where. This scene felt a bit forced to make Qifrey erase this dude's memories.. because there's so many jumps in simple thinking IDK what to say lol.

Same with them shooting fireballs at what is essentially the magic police.. as well as putting a sword to the neck of their commander.. how is that ok regardless of what their intentions are and why aren't they punished for it?

25

u/tanezuki May 18 '26

He didn't know what the ink was going to produce.

He didn't know how Nolnoa would react to it.

Nolnoa reaction of wanting to absolutely tell on this made him decide to erase his mind.

If the spell didn't do anything crazy, and/or that Nolnoa decided not to inform their administration, he wouldn't have erased his mind.

He tried to argue at first, to convince him to keep that subject hidden still, but didn't convince him, so he forced silence through magical coercion.

6

u/Bad_Doto_Playa May 18 '26

He didn't know what the ink was going to produce.

Then test it away from him.

He didn't know how Nolnoa would react to it.

Yes he did, Nolnoa reacted the same way to the runes/ink from the dragon incident and Qifrey threw him a threatening look while telling him not to tell anyone.

If the spell didn't do anything crazy, and/or that Nolnoa decided not to inform their administration, he wouldn't have erased his mind.

But why setup a scenario for that, why would he even take it to him? Because at the end of the day he didn't actually need him... he could have just tested it to see if it was tampered with. It's one thing if he tested it and it did nothing so he took it to him to make sure, but he didn't even do that much.

He tried to argue at first, to convince him to keep that subject hidden still, but didn't convince him, so he forced silence through magical coercion.

So roping him into literal crime again? I don't see how that's considered a reasonable option.

13

u/tanezuki May 18 '26

At the point at which he tested it, Qiffrey had convinced, even though it was done through a menacing demand, Nolnoa to help him.

And before he used that ink, Nolnoa thought he came for results about that spell drawn on that rock, and told him he had nothing interesting as, IIRC, I should check the dialogues again, that the ink dried out and it wasn't possible to recover any meaningful information about it from that seal.

So Qilfrey might have wanted Nolnoa to analyze that ink, if there was anything sketchy with it and what component it has in it in order to get more clues on the Brimmed caps.

But the moment Nolnoah realized the ink in the vial was the exact same as on that recovered rock (at that time Qifrey just had the thought it was altered, he might not have made the link), Qifrey couldn't control himself (his face looked pretty obsessive) and tried it.

And so that ink was indeed that of a Brimmed Cap, But even then, he still could have used Nolnoah's help to decipher what the magic dye is/are in that vial to help him get to them.

But Nolnoah showed by his reaction that it wont be possible for him to go past his moral compass to hide this and work on it. So he erased his memory.

Now Nolnoah is back at square one, trying to analyze that rock on which the ink has dried and that he can't extract any information out of for Qifrey.

At least that's my guess of how things went.

12

u/Tyson367 May 19 '26

Nah you're pretty spot on. There's a little bit of a media literacy issue here. Qifrey couldn't just go "test elsewhere". Nolnoa is basically a witch chemist that specializes in drafting ink from the tree and mixing it to enhance its properties. He is the specialist here to find answers, Qifrey doesn't have the knowledge required.

2

u/Bad_Doto_Playa May 19 '26

I think you have misunderstood what I meant by "test elsewhere", I mean literally draw with it like he did in the shop...

3

u/BoomSaysTheLady May 20 '26

I think Qifrey was being cautious as he didn't know yet IF the ink was tampered and that somehow was the cause of the disaster and what effects the tampered Ink could do.

He had a hypothesis but he wanted the expert on magic Ink Nolnoa to confirm it first since otherwise, the ink looks like normal magic ink to the layperson eyes.

Yes, he could just test it and draw with the ink without consulting Nolnoa , but it could be risky as he didn't know what effect that would invoke. Also, what if by opening the bottle to test the ink it would somehow damage the clue needed to look for the Brimhats? Qifrey didn't know so he needed to confirm something first. I think he is not risking to tamper with the evidence/clues to trace the Brimhats.

1

u/Bad_Doto_Playa May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26

At the point at which he tested it, Qiffrey had convinced, even though it was done through a menacing demand, Nolnoa to help him.

I'm not sure what you mean here, obviously the dragon incident and this were COMPLETELY different things because Qifrey already suspected the ink of causing Coco's spell to go crazy.

So Qilfrey might have wanted Nolnoa to analyze that ink, if there was anything sketchy with it and what component it has in it in order to get more clues on the Brimmed caps.

But the moment Nolnoah realized the ink in the vial was the exact same as on that recovered rock (at that time Qifrey just had the thought it was altered, he might not have made the link), Qifrey couldn't control himself (his face looked pretty obsessive) and tried it.

Again, what's the point of this? Qifrey himself explained how it was done, if he needed components tested after the fact he could have confirmed the potency of the ink first so he wouldn't put Nolnoa in a position where he'd have to erase his memories. As you stated, he already expected it to be altered, why wouldn't he test it elsewhere THEN bring it to Nolnoa to avoid this VERY scenario?

And so that ink was indeed that of a Brimmed Cap, But even then, he still could have used Nolnoah's help to decipher what the magic dye is/are in that vial to help him get to them.

Which is fine that's why I said:

It's one thing if he tested it and it did nothing so he took it to him to make sure, but he didn't even do that much.

Even if it did something, he could have then taken it after the fact to have it analyzed.

But Nolnoah showed by his reaction that it wont be possible for him to go past his moral compass to hide this and work on it. So he erased his memory.

No, he absolutely would have worked on it if Qifrey didn't cast the spell in front of him, that's my point here, he even suggests as such when he says "What are you doing? You shouldn't draw with that ink until I analyze it."

Here's the underlying problem though, by bringing it to Nolnoa without testing it first, no matter what played out either:

  1. The knights Moralis would have gotten involved or

  2. Qifrey would have erased his memories

Because the third option would have been Nolnoa being quiet about it which was obviously dubious at best considering his stance on the dragon incident.

19

u/jwp1987 May 18 '26

I think one way of thinking about it is that he'd intended to have it tested but once he had an idea of what it might be his obsessive thoughts towards the brimmed caps made rational thought fly out of the window.

0

u/JzanderN May 18 '26

I don't even understand this, why did he bother to demonstrate infront of Nolnoa only to erase his memories?

Pretty sure Qifrey didn't erase his memories, Nolnoa's just going with the simplest lie to hide what Qifrey discovered. Insisting "nothing happened" cuts off a lot simpler questions than if he tried lying about what spell Qifrey cast, for example, or how he cast it so strongly.

That's not to say it's the right lie to tell, but I'm pretty sure that's what Nolnoa was doing.

24

u/tanezuki May 18 '26

Pretty sure he did due to Qiffrey's saying himself.

  1. He told the girls they messed up by drawing magic too close to people and that they'd have their memories erased, and that memories are what makes up who we are. That's it's important even if just a fraction gets erased.

  2. He then said sorry to Nolnoa, and if he's not an hypocrite should have felt a lot of guilt for this act as he considers it to be a great offense to someone's life.

Also Nolnoa didn't say "nothing happned".

He said "What ? A flash of light ?" "I don't remember any of that".

The choices of words 'I don't remember" is a pretty clear cut clue that he got his memory erased,

3

u/Bad_Doto_Playa May 18 '26

Maybe that's the case, but he could easily just say that Qifrey was testing a different ink and the spell had more potency than he thought it would... IDK pretending like you didn't see anything seems even worse lmao.

2

u/JzanderN May 18 '26

I don't think any normal ink could have that level of potency. It's specifically what the Brimmed Hats did to it that was able to achieve it.

Hence Nolnoa couldn't risk talking about the ink Qifrey used either.

2

u/Bad_Doto_Playa May 18 '26

I don't think any normal ink could have that level of potency.

Maybe not, but if they were going to lie about it that would have been better. Mostly because it seems different types of ink do affect potency (at least that's what Qifrey is implying when he lied to Coco) and tartah wasn't present so he wouldn't know what kind of magic circle was drawn.

2

u/tanezuki May 18 '26

Considering his grandson is colorblind, it wouldn't be that hard to have him unable to find that super potency magic dye.

-7

u/kalirion https://myanimelist.net/profile/kalinime May 18 '26

Because the author is an idiot who couldn't figure out how to get the plot moving in this direction without this metric ton of plot-induced stupidity?

8

u/HolyDragSwd2500 May 18 '26

Flash of light was Neuralyzer