shout out to howl because he found out there was a prophesy curse thing out to get him and he did NOT frantically try to stop it. like he was like "gee I'd better stay away from mermaids and not touch any mandrakes ig" but did he move to the center of a landlocked country to keep away from mermaids? NO. did he obsessively dye his hair non-white colors? NO he dyed it the normal amount. did he eliminate every mandrake root ever? NO.
my man said "maybe if I ignore the curse it will just go away. no point in stressing over what I can't control man. just gotta. chilllllll. [visibly shaking with anxiety]" and that worked pretty damn well for him. I mean yeah the curse did still fulfill itself and it did end with him going into cardiac arrest for a few minutes but his girlfriend got hot and beat the shit out of the chick who cursed him and they lived crazily ever after so who's winning? this is howl pendragon's guide to not letting a prophecy control your life
(I think the best part is they would have this conversation but at the end of the day still absolutely be there for each other… albeit with a lot of bickering)
i love the difference of sophie’s inner struggle between the book and the movie. how in the movie she believes herself plain and ordinary, not beautiful in the slightest. yet howl genuinely consoles her:
how in the book she battles with feelings of inadequacy, of being worthless, and yet howl encourages her:
in both adaptions, howl acts as the voice of love and support. every bad thing sophie tells herself are the values which howl cherishes. it’s about the love. i’m so sick i might throw up
Sometimes I'm reminded of how someone told Diana Wynne Jones that she wanted to marry Howl and DWJ was just like, "good for you, but I would rather not deal with neither the green slime over a bad hair day nor the perpetually occupied bathroom by a drama queen for the rest of my life, good day" ssgandjj
- howl telling michael to get behind him when sophie comes charging in with the weedkiller
- when sophie and michael are leaving to catch stars and calcifer blazes up real loud and yells for them not to go [he does not want either of them to get pulled into a life ruining situation like his and howl's]
- sophie and mrs fairfax chasing the dog man around the yard while michael chases sophie yelling "STOP YOU'LL MAKE HERSELF ILL"
- sophie realized she was expected to admire it, so she managed not to say anything
- howl yelling at calcifer for not telling him about the dog man and saying "this is twice you've let me down" HE GOT SO ANGRY AT CALCIFER FOR NOT TELLING HIM ABOUT SOPHIE'S CURSE idk I'm obsessed with the lot of them
- speaking of
- "this dog is a bespelled human," said calcifer unnecessarily.
- also sophie just. assumes that calcifer won't tell anyone about her curse. making assumptions about what you think calcifer will do is a losing game because he plays by his own rules and they're constantly changing
- michael ended up in the castle because everyone else was scared stiff of it bc they thought it had demons in it (true) and he was like well it may be haunted over here but at least it's dry. I ain't afraid of no ghosts. and fell in the door when howl opened it [michael fisher ghostbuster extraordinaire]
im sorry but HOW did I not hear how absolutely insane 'howl's moving castle' (the book) is, like everyone is like omg the ghibli movie is so wack and meanwhile og howl is welsh and has a fucking phd what the fuck what the absolute fuck