Champignon Witch

Episode 12

There is a contradiction in this story. According to the lore, black witches cannot feel love, or it will rob them of their powers, or at least hamper them. But we've seen Luna feel love, romantic, familial, and platonic. She fell in love with Henri. She loves Lize and her familiars as family. And she loved Dorothy as a friend. And despite all of this, she's still the most powerful black witch, the one everyone comes to for help with their poison. Even the very concept of black magic users seems to contradict the common knowledge that love will harm them, because they use their poison-filtering magic to help the world – and would they (or could they) do that without feeling love in general? If they felt nothing, why bother?

It's an interesting distinction between the black and white witches, too. Gus, the Wind Magician, describes white magicians as “selfish,” and with the repeated statements about how love is a power source for them, that suggests that love itself is selfish. But what the black mages do is also done out of love, just not necessarily romantic love. When Gus snipes at Lize about how people sometimes say that those who don't feel romantic love don't know anything, he may be more generally talking about attitudes towards white versus black witches. If we take it out of that context, it's alloromantic people telling aromantic people that they're somehow missing out or are damaged because they don't feel romantic love. And I hope we all know that that's not an acceptable way to treat others. So why is it okay to discount an entire branch of magicians who do a lot of good for the world?

Obviously, it's not, and that feels like the crux of this episode and perhaps the series as a whole. Everyone in the story has very set ideas about what makes someone good, bad, or worthy, and almost none of it has anything to do with who the people in question truly are. Luna embodies the platonic ideal of the black witch: she cares so very deeply. Remember back when she created a medicine to regrow missing limbs? She didn't do that because she was drunk on power; she did it to help someone she didn't even know. She took Lize in and kept him safe, not because she knew him, but because he deserved a chance. And yet at every turn, she's shamed or reviled for her kindness, because no one except Dorothy and Lize can see who she really is as a person. Oh, Gus and Claude try, but ultimately they can't quite pull it off. She'll always be the Champignon Witch to them.

Lize may be only a child (even in his real form, he's in his teens), but he sees her more clearly, much like Henri did back when he was a teenager. While neither can fully see the many pieces that come together to create Luna the person, they both see beyond her magic. Lize sees her care, her kindness, and her desire to help, and at the end, he recognizes that he needs to keep that to himself for now. His journal, which is clearly the frame of this story, is his way of holding on to what's dear to him without hurting Luna. The Bird Magician shows that it is possible to be a grey witch, although he doesn't describe himself as such, and Lize, as he grows up, will be able to recognize that as a viable path forward; he may already see it. There's no one “right way” to live, whether you're a witch or a human or a shape-shifting bull, and Lize and Luna are already challenging the notion that there is.

And so our fairy tale comes to an end for now. Despite the title, it's hard to say if it's Luna's or Lize's story. I like to think that they share it between them; as the opening and ending themes show, it's all a matter of perspective and life experience. The lack of a complete romantic subplot doesn't detract from this fairy tale's qualities, either, as several tale types, like The Robber Bridegroom (ATU955), end with the protagonist able to live their life without it after preventing their own death. Luna and Lize fit that bill: they've defied so-called common wisdom and will continue to move forward. I think that's a good kind of happily ever after, and certainly the right one here.

Life goes on, whether you're a white witch, a black one, or something else entirely. The important thing is to keep trying and keep moving forward. That's what Lize is going to do and what Luna has always done. May they keep doing it ever after.

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