Knock Loud, I’m Home - Lee Madgwick

letting go

Krobus is enjoying the new waterfalls...

Best friends

Fondly remembering the time that a cat owner casually entered their calico Maine Coon in a cat fancier’s competition and the judges lost their minds because the cat was 1) male and 2) able to bear children

dont...dont do this to me man

Sophie’s silver hair

While I was looking for a screenshot of Howl’s Moving Castle, I stumbled across the same question spread over the internet: “Why is Sophie’s hair still silver at the end?”

I was surprised that the answer most readily given was, “because she still has the curse.”

This prompted me to write a mini blog about my own belief regarding Sophie’s silver hair at the end of Howl’s Moving Castle. 

So here it be.

The curse is never fully explained in the movie version of Howl’s Moving Castle (classic Miyazaki storytelling) but throughout the film, Sophie temporarily changes back to her normal age in moments of confidence, advocacy, and when she feels loved/loves others, like Howl. 

There’s A LOT going on in terms of how “old” Sophie looks and feels in different parts of the film. She has a much harder time walking, for instance, at the beginning of Howl’s than she does when she goes to the palace. 

In the palace scene, Sophie reverts to her normal appearance with her brown hair when she is advocating for Howl. As soon as Madam Sullivan points out that she’s in love with Howl, Sophie immediately changes back into an old woman. 

For Sophie, the old woman persona is both a comforting mask and a confidence booster. She continually makes comments throughout the film which cast being old in a positive light . For Sophie, she doesn’t have to worry about being “pretty” when she’s old, so it frees her to be her true, sassy, confident self.

Sometimes, as humans, we put on other identities so we can find out who we really are.

I fully believe that when Sophie changes back to her younger self for the last time with her silver hair, it’s because she wants to look that way, not because she’s cursed. She has the confidence of her old woman persona but she is the age she’s supposed to be. 

This is important: Sophie learned to love both herself and Howl when she was an old woman.

When Calcifer asks Sophie for something of hers he can consume to move the castle, Sophie gives him her hair. The cutting of hair is often symbolic of coming of age in Japanese media. It’s a final representation that Sophie is never going back to the person she was, and that she’s moving forward. 

At the end of the film Howl says, “Wow! Sophie! Your hair looks like starlight, it’s beautiful.”

And Sophie says, “you think so? So do I!”

Sophie loves her silver hair. What she learned as an old woman is never going away. 

It’s not a curse. 

It’s a metaphor, and a beautiful one at that. 

there isn't a barber in prison

John used all his simussy in that line

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