Champignon Witch

Episode 5

Do you remember how it was mentioned that Luna purified the mushrooms growing in the town square, marking the spot where a black witch was executed? That witch was the Cat Witch, and she was Luna's friend. It's not entirely clear how long ago it happened, given that time doesn't have much meaning for witches, but the actual length of time and the way it feels in Luna's heart are two completely different things, and for Luna, it seems to feel like it wasn't so far removed from the present. And Dorothy's death, while tragic no matter how you look at it, also carries the clearest message we've gotten about how black witches are treated, even when their biggest perceived crime is nothing more than “feeding stray cats.”

It's been said several times now that black witches function as purifiers for the world. All of them use their magic to remove the poisons in the environment to allow for human (and presumably animal) life. They are doing not just essential work, but a kindness. Without them, human life wouldn't be possible. So then how did they come to be so reviled? The answer to that, I think, comes in the mysterious boy's story. He's a Cursed Youngling, but he comes from the royal family – and we know that white witches are magic users who work for the royal family, or are members of the nobility. That indicates a few things, but the most significant right now is that the key difference between the “good” witches and the “bad” ones is whether or not they work specifically for the people in power. If you do, you're “good.” If you don't? Not so good.

That's a pretty grim (and horribly real in this political moment) statement. The world literally would not survive if not for the black witches, but because they won't tie themselves to the ruling party, they're damned as evil. And when the boy – whose name is revealed to be Lizel in the final moments of the episode – is deemed insufficiently “white” for his family, they try to kill him. This takes on an even more interesting tone when you consider that it sounds like he was the crown prince, but until we know more about that, I'll hold off on analyzing that piece of the puzzle.

The circumstances of Dorothy's death paint the black witches as members of a resistance movement, as well. She's killed because one of her cats was discovered in the palace, with the strong implication that the tabby was spying on the white witches. Given that the black witches are invested in human safety, that would seem to indicate that the white witches are only interested in their own power and maintaining it, something borne out by Lizel's treatment. There are distinct parallels between his memories and the Snow White fairy tale. In stories classified as ATU709, someone, typically a mother figure, tries to have the beautiful princess killed as a way to hold onto her own power. While some feminist criticism of the text points to the father as the actual motivation as he pits the women in his life against each other as they vie for his attention, the key detail is that the lust for power drives a parent to murder their own child. (In many early versions, it's Snow White's biological mother rather than her stepmother who tries to have her killed.) In Lizel's case, it's his aunt, and if we look at black and white witches as being part of the same magic-using family, Dorothy's death is once again an interfamily squabble where power becomes more important than anything else. She is the other side of the coin – what could have happened to Lizel if Luna hadn't found him and stood up for him.

The episode takes its title and plot from a side story included in volume three of the manga, and I think it was smart of the anime adaptation to reorder things to put it here and blend it with the chapters of the main story. It allows us to see the parallels more clearly and to understand more fully what the situation between the white and black witches is. Just as Dorothy was a threat to the white witches, the other black witches see Lizel as a threat because harboring him risks upending the relationship between the two groups. But the use of Snow White elements should serve as a reminder that there's still hope: the dead princess always comes back to life. Nothing should be taken as certain or for granted in a fairy tale world where even the executed can find the life they dream of in the Cat Forest.

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