#wizards suliman

[nadiajustbe]

Shipping rarepairs is hard BUT also imagine equally loving both a rarepair AND the most popular pairing in the small fandom.

Like I love them both absolutely there's no winner between them but

One has a hundred plus fics, an unconditional love and the world domination and they absolutely deserve that.

The other one has two fics (both are mine) a tumblr tag (invited by me where all posts are mine) and absolutely none, zero (0) arts

What If I want to read a fic with both my fandom OTPs what If I don't want to be the only one WRITING IT-

[manga-and-stuff]

So I am reading Howl's moving Castle right now and I gotta say... the movie isn't really based on it, more loosely inspired by it.

The movie doesn't even mention that Howl's real name is "Howell Jenkins"... oh, and he's Welsh...

[peregrin-tookish]

Obsessed with the fact that Howl's Moving Castle suggests that a real university is giving out PhD's in magic

[violecov]

Drafts of Ben Sullivan and Prince Justin from Howl's Moving Castle. Such perf characters.

((There you go, @nadiajustbe ))

[callonpeevesie]

justiman enjoyers please accept my humble offering. inspired by @nadiajustbe's post about ben's guitar

putting this under the cut because i don't want the caption to get too long.

i Do Not know why justin looks like oscar wilde, i swear it was an accident. i Did draw the green carnation on purpose, and only later realised that green carnations being a symbol of homosexuality is a thing of our world and wouldn't be known in ingary. ....which means ben grew the flowers and gave that to justin Knowing the symbolism. dork.

most of the descriptions in the book are super vague so i just made up the designs. while ben canonically has ginger hair, i don't remember if justin's hair colour was ever mentioned in the books (his blue eyes Were mentioned in cita) but the strangian soldier had grey hair so i was going for dark grey. but the markers i used make everything too dark so it looks black now. not that i'm complaining.

justin's uniform is my design with some inspiration from these. all that was mentioned in hmc were green uniform and long shiny boots, and the green uniform was his disguise according to lettie so ??? i have no idea what he wears when he's not in disguise so have this i guess.

the guitar is mostly based on this. for ben's outfit i went for a cloak-ish thing to make him look wizardly but kept the shirt and pants casual since ben seems to me like the type to wear practical clothes in contrast with howl's flamboyance.

[jutenium]

Hello justiman nation, how are we feeling today

Cause i have a LOT for you

First of all. Justiman but it's WOMEN

Justin would be Jeanne (as a reference to Jeanne d'Arc, genius idea by @your-queen-shuri )

Ben would be... Ummm.... Bennie?? We're still thinking, offer your options

Oldwomen yuri....

[rowan-r-ridley]

i can't stop thinking about that howl's moving castle au but like "hazel's moving castle"¿¿?? idk i wanna draw it so badly but it is final exams season at college, so-

the characters (pjo/hoo) won't have the same personalities as the hmc characters i know, i just love the concept.

[spoondrifts]

role reversal hmc au where sophie gets isekai'd into modern day wales after her sisters leave for their apprenticeships and she accidentally speaks a portal into existence with NO idea how she did it. after a lot of shenanigans she eventually lands a job at a local university library, where she realizes "hey, i'm actually more capable and respected in this world than my own, where the Laws of Nature mean i will never succeed. the rules are different here, why go back?" cue sophie actually thriving in wales to the point where she starts to be like "oh, so it wasn't me. it was the actual universe that didn't want me to succeed. good to know that i just need to stay here if i want to be valued and successful." (← lying to herself; self esteem lower than dirt)

and then one day she's shelving books when she overhears patented loserfailure grad students howell and ben arguing over magic at a table and interrupts them to be like "you guys are idiots. that's not how magic portals work." and neither of them have ever opened a portal before despite their theoretical prowess, so they're fascinated by her, because they can CLEARLY tell she's a witch by her story but she refuses to believe them, because obviously she was just the hapless victim of a random magical accident. so now ben and howl are trying to drill information out of her about how exactly she created a portal, while also cracking open the chest of deep-seated inadequacy issues inside her that stem from the whole magical world thing in the first place (that directly play into her inability to admit she might have magic after all). she flourished in wales without magic just fine, she doesn't need it and she doesn't have it!! shut up about the magic SHUT UP!!!

meanwhile howell is enchanted by this peculiar witch woman who accepts approximately none of his bullshit + ben is deeply impressed with her practical spirit and her obvious gifts, and sophie eventually grows to love them both—howell for his callous habits and cowardly personality and good heart underneath it all, ben for his dogged loyalty and biting wit and kind soul shining through.

and herself, too, learning the lesson she'd always needed to learn: that it was never about ingary, or wales, or anywhere else. it was always just about her, and what she's capable of when she's willing to trust herself enough to try.

the three of them build a door. ben enchants the doorbell with a beautiful song, strummed from his guitar; howell paints the dial with a colorful, slapdash scour of four equal quarters; for the first time in many months, sophie asks the door to take them home, and means it.

and it does.

[thasallweare]

Howl's Moving Castle - 2004

Studio Ghibli

by Hayao Miyazaki

[greencheekconure27]

Oh and Howl makes videogames for his nephew based on his Isekai experience.

And gets nagged by his sister for having all that education and doing nothing with it.

Okay no I need to talk about the book version of Howl's Moving Castle. I love the movie but the book has such a different vibe and you, yes you, should read it.

Movie Howl is a soulful and quiet. Book Howl is a drama queen and Causing Problems and has a long string of jilted exes and couldn't shut up if you paid him.

Sophie and Howl drive each other up the wall at the beginning and it's really funny. Sophie and Howl are (despite themselves) very much in love by the end and they still drive each other up the wall and it's even funnier.

In the movie, Howl has been ordered by the king to participate in The War, and Howl is avoiding it because he is a brave conscientious objector. In the book, Howl has been ordered by the king to rescue his lost brother from the Witch of the Wastes, and Howl is avoiding it by any means necessary because he is a cowardly weasel who wants to stay as far from the Witch as possible.

In the movie, the Witch cursed Sophie because she was jealous about Howl speaking to Sophie for five minutes. In the book, the Witch cursed Sophie because Sophie had been doing surprisingly powerful magic for years without knowing it and it was actually starting to cut into the Witch's plans. (Sophie does not discover any of this until nearly the end of the book, but the reader can start to pick it up much earlier and the way Sophie's magic works is pretty darn cool.)

In the movie, there's a rumor that Howl eats the hearts of maidens, but this is implied to be nothing but nasty fearmongering. In the book, there's a rumor that Howl eats the hearts of maidens because Howl started the rumor so people would stop asking him to do wizard junk all the time.

The book lightly parodies a couple of tropes from Western fairy tales. In particular Sophie has internalized that, as the eldest of three sisters, her "destiny" is to fail so that her younger sisters will look cooler when they succeed, which is why she's so resigned to the hat shop at the beginning. (Sidebar: Sophie's sisters come up much more in the book and they're great.) There's also a really funny bit where Sophie attempts to operate a pair of seven-league boots.

In the movie, the fourth and final location that the magic door connects to is some sort of black void / mindscape / time portal dealy. In the book the fourth location is Wales, in the UK, on Earth, so that Howl can visit his family, because from Howl's perspective this is an isekai story.

[nadiajustbe]

One of my favorite parts about the writing of Howl's Moving Castle is how easy it is to write off all the things from our world at first as him just being a weird wizard™ (also thanks to bestie @jutenium for spotting this I wouldn't put it like that without you!!/pos). Sure, Sophie uses weird descriptions, but readers have every reason to believe them because of the way Howl is presented as a character. When Sophie says he wrote with a quill that doesn't need an ink, you wouldn't think it was actually a ballpoint pen, you would think Howl had just enchanted his quill so that it wouldn't need ink! When she adds that she can't make out a single word, you think he has matchingly terrible handwriting, but in fact Sophie has simply never seen a pen writing. When she sees the mysterious labels on his books, you think he's keeping a lot of obscure magical literature, but it's really just an encyclopedia and a guide like "Top 10 Rugby Tips." When Sophie notices the bottles in Howl's bathtub, you think they're some kind of magical jars where he keeps girl's hearts, but I'm almost certain that they're just 'Dove' and 'Head and Shoulders' that he's enhanced with his spells and put silly labels on. When you read Calicifer singing a song in a language Sophie doesn't understand, you think it's some kind of ancient cipher or code, but it's actually just a rugby song in Welsh that Howl sings when he's drunk. And finally, when you see the terrifying black door, which is completely shrouded in darkness, you imagine a passage to an eerie, mythical place, similar to what Miyazaki showed us - but it's just fucking Wales.

[shebsart]

Ok I don't wanna be a joykill but I've been seeing a lot of posts about how Sophie made Howl and the Witch get together but that is not true. So I made a rough timeline.

First of all, in order for Sophie's magic hat to work, the Witch or Howl would have to wear it but the first and most likely the only time The Witch visits Sophie's shop is AFTER Howl already jilted her, because she is looking for information about him at this point. She puts a spell on Sophie thinking she is Lettie, whom Suliman-Justin mix(the dog man) cares about. Because he witholds information about Howl from her. (plus the witch has heard sophie works powerful magic so thats two birds one stone)

Second, Howl met the Witch a year before the main events but it doesn't add up with the time Sophie speaks this to the hat:

This is during Sophie is alone at the hat shop after Martha and Lettie left.

Howl later says this(which is hardly a month after May Day):

she says this on May Day:

Sophie has been working at the shop by herself for a few months before May Day, and around a week later she meets the Witch.(she says at least 3 days to around a week has passed after speaking to Martha on May Day)

Anyway here is the rough timeline of the main events:

1. The Witch threatens Princess Valeria, The King sends Suliman to her and he's caught by the Witch (a year prior the main events)

2. A few months later, Howl is possibly looking for Suliman and he meets the Witch in the process:

that's around the same time Howl settles his moving castle on Market Chipping Hills (this is a little while before Sophie's dad dies and the sisters go their seperate ways):

We actually don't knoew when exactly he made the moving castle or why, but if Michael is correct it's after Howl jilts the Witch:

buut Howl doesn't say anything about that so I assume he made it for convenience and to escape the responsibilities of being a good wizard lol but let me know if i'm missing something (to me, the castle phsically moving is only for the appearances, it doesn't actually do any good for running away from anyone. the real trick is the multiple portals and settlements of the castle)

3. around this time Prince Justin goes after Suliman

ok so when justin and count are looking for suliman, sophie is working at the hat shop because count meets jane when she was wearing sophie's hat

4. May Day comes, Sophie meets Howl without knowing it's him.

5. around 7-10 days later, The Witch visits Sophie's shop and puts a spell on her. She leaves the shop and enters Howl's castle on the hills.

6. Her stay at the Castle is around 1,5 months

she enters the castle on lets say 8-9th of May, until Howl's curse comes true on Midsummer's Day (which is mid july)

-Oh and, speaking of a common misconception, Howl didn't buy the guitar to impress girls, he thought it was related to Suliman somehow because it also came from Wales (so did the skull and Suliman). According to Calcifer, he uses it to impress girls but im not sure if that's true entirely:

So when he takes his guitar with him, he is probably looking for Justin and Suliman, maybe he thinks the guitar would help finding them. But probably it also works with the ladies so it doesn't hurt kfdls

-The Witch did curse Howl for jilting her, but she wasn't looking for him only because of that. She wanted his head (the second most powerful wizard next to her most likely) for her frankenstein's monster to rule with her dksl. Same with Suliman. She probably didn't want Mrs. Pentstemmon because she was also old and wasn't much use to her anymore. Or maybe Mrs Pentstemmon wasn't showing any weaknesses to the Witch which made it hard to capture her. not sure

[tossawary]

In the "Howl's Moving Castle" movie, I was always kind of taken aback by Madame Suliman's identical blond boy servants and how closely Howl resembles them. Strict uniforms are definitely a thing, that blond hair could be dyed or could just be wigs or it could all be an illusion to disguise what they really look like, and it would fit the extravagance that we see of the palace to have such an absurd dress code for apprentices / servants.

But yeah, my first thought was clones or magical creations of some kind.

If not for the scene showing Howl as a boy meeting Calcifer, and I think a mention of having a wizard uncle when he and Sophie visit the flower field... (And also if not for having actually read the book and knowing Howl's backstory in that universe, but if the book didn't exist and the secret backstory there wasn't so funny...) then I would wonder about Howl having actually been created by Madame Suliman in some fashion. I mean, you could still do Secret Magical Clone Backstory as an AU for the movie 'verse: Howl could totally be lying about having a wizard uncle and the dark hair in the flashback could be a childhood rebellion thing.

It adds a whole extra layer of "what the fuck, this was never going to work" to Sophie briefly pretending to be Howl's mother to get him out of having to fight in the war, which is funny to me. I always got the vibe that Madame Suliman knew the "Mrs. Pendragon" bit was 100% fake from the beginning. And I think it would be funny to have Sophie yell at Howl for making her a distraction.

Anyway, I feel like movie 'verse Sophie could immediately cure Howl's upset over not being blond anymore by asking him if he also used to have to dress up like those boys when he was Madame Suliman's apprentice, and if he'd been trying to look like that still. (It's possible that the blond servant outfit of Suliman's servants and Howl's early outfits were just both of them separately trying to keep up with the latest fashions. The uniform may have looked entirely different when Howl was an apprentice.) "Is that the look you were going for?" Sophie asks dubiously, and Howl spends at least the next three days having a fashion crisis.

[nadiajustbe]

THANK YOU FOR TAGGING ME LMAO THIS POST IS *GOLD*. I always found it funny that two main factors of Justin running away and being cursed in all two books he's in is the following:

1) To literally lay his head for his best and closest friend, who were also assumed to be dead for weeks, while everyone INCLUDING his brother asked him not to do it, because the country needed him in a face of a war.

2) Because he didn't want to marry a random woman even though it was an only way to maintain peace between the counties. He couldn't give a single damn about world piece, BEING A GENERAL, because he didn't want to marry.

This is just. Outwardly hilarious.

honestly prince justin had to be like. a little bit gay bc he left the safety of the palace and royal life to go on a suicide mission to the wastes to go find his bestie everyone (basically correctly) assumed was dead. like he knew he had like no means of going up against the witch of the waste or anything and he just. did it anyways,,, all for his bestie ben suliman.

[hyperpotamianarch]

Well, I can hardly believe I chose this to be my fourth original post, but meh, who cares. Anyway, random note about Howell Jenkins!

Firstly, I'm talking about book Howl, which is why I spelled it Howell - this is his original name, he changed it in Ingary to sound more impressive. He's actually from Wales, which honestly means little to me as someone who never set foot in Britain, but I think I get the general gist of it.

Many things can be said of Howl. He's not really a noble and gentle, if slightly narcissistic, person as you might think after watching the movie. He's mostly a selfish coward, likes to woo ladies but seemingly afraid of commitment, is very bad with money, and... Umm... Yeah, there are other posts that do a better job than I am in characterizing Howl. That's not what I'm here to talk about. Suffice it to say that he's somehow likable in spite of all these flaws.

What I am here to talk about, however, is two common misconceptions about Howl that are somewhat related to the flaws listed above: one is that Howl is running away from student debt and didn't finish his doctorate, and the other is that he invented the titular Moving Castle to evade taxes. While those actions are indeed in character for Howl, they are both contradicted by the book itself (to a degree).

To start with the first one: Howell only talks about his thesis once in the book - when explaining to miss Angorian, an English teacher, why he has a magic spell. Book readers likely know who I'm talking about, and for non book readers, I'm afraid I'll leave the rest of the context to your imagination. Either way, Howell tells miss Angorian that she may have heard that he wrote his doctoral thesis on charms and spells. Notice, "wrote". As in past tense.

To be fair, that doesn't necessarily mean he finished his doctorate. As a matter of fact, it could be a rumor he started in order to explain away why he had spell books. It certainly won't be the first rumor Howl started for his own convenience. But if it tells us anything about him having a doctorate, it tells us he finished it. I don't know much about student loans in UK during the 80's, so that isn't a point I can say anything about, but I am given to understand it was less of a problem.

So, did Howl run away from his doctorate to the magical land if Ingary? No, he didn't. He actually kind of fulfilled every nerd's dream of both doing what he likes most and using it to write his doctoral thesis, killing two birds with one stone. To be honest, what I still don't get is why he kept contact with his old world. I mean, Suliman seems to have cut ties - we never hear of him going back. But Howl, even if we didn't see him use the black door as much at first, seems to keep some contact with his sister and her family, keep a car etc. He might only visit rarely, but he still does.

Anyway, for the second misconception I decided to bring in the big guns: a direct book quote about why the moving castle. Not all quotes on the topic, though, because I'm lazy. Anyway, look here:

This is in chapter four of HMC. It's revealed later in the book that the "someone very powerful" is actually the Witch of the Waste. So, the Moving Castle is there to show everyone what a Horrible and Powerful Wizard Howl is. Also, to avoid attention from the Witch of the Waste.

Sophie herself, in the next paragraph, questions the usefulness of such a tactic. I think it might actually be an explanation of why Howl decided the Castle had to be moving - maybe it's harder to magically detect that way, I don't know. Either way, it's not to avoid taxes - especially considering the fact Howl has an address in Kingsbury, the capital of Ingary, and that this address is known to the local authorities.

I would also like to prematurely dispell an almost plausible headcanon: Sophie's hat-sewing causes so much of the plot, after all. So you might be tempted, when reading that she told a hat that someone should set Howl and the Witch up together, to think that she's responsible for that as well. However, considering the quote presented above, it appears that Howl and the Witch dated before Howl created the Moving Castle, which was the inciting incident for Sophie hearing about him. Thus, Sophie is not guilty whatsoever of getting Howl and the Witch together - just of being oddly on point.

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

[jutenium]

I FORGOT TO POST IT OMGKZKXKX