#whereas EYE experience her the CORRECT way (as a fully fleshed out character who i 90% made up)

[berternies]

Character opinion bingo: Alicia wotf :)

:D

[arduennas]

Every Witch (or Wish) Way: A Half-Baked TWOO Theory

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE WIZARDS OF ONCE. DO NOT READ BELOW THE BREAK IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED.

DISCLAIMER: I only finished the book yesterday, which means I have not had a lot of time to think this theory over. It came to me while I was reading, and may or may not actually make sense once I write it out. So here goes.

The theory starts with Wish.

Wish is one of the most mysterious characters in the book. Her mystery stems from her multitude of Magical powers—the Magic Eye, the Magic-that-works-on-iron, and the whole ‘being a Great Enchanter’ thing—all powers that should be impossible for a Warrior to possess.

So we have to wonder where exactly Wish’s Magic comes from. There are two possible sources of her Magic—either her Magic was given to her by a Wizard or Witch, or she has Magical heritage.

There’s no evidence for Wish being granted Magic by a Wizard or Witch. The only Wizards she had met before Xar had either already been stripped of their Magic, or were under heavy guard and unable to enchant anything without being caught. And she had never even seen a Witch before the events of the book, let alone been enchanted by one.

So the only other option is for Wish to have Magical heritage, which lines up perfectly with the fact that her father has not (yet) made an appearance, or has even been mentioned.

The first theory that we’ll get out of the way quickly is that Wish is not Sychorax’s daughter at all. She was found floating down the river in a lobster pot or whatever, and it turns out she’s actually a Wizard princess.

The second, better theory to come from this is that Wish’s father is a Wizard (possibly Encanzo, but I’ll get to that later). It’s possible that Sychorax has been sneaking into the Badwoods not just to learn Magic, but to meet a Wizard lover. This would be a nice, sort of predictable resolution to the mystery, as it would explain why Wish has Magic-that-works-on-iron—she is a combination of Warrior and Wizard, and therefore has a combination of their powers. This theory would also tie in with the ‘history repeating itself’ theme that Cressida Cowell loves, just with a romance between Sychorax and her lover instead of the friendship between Wish and Xar. (Unless the two of them fall in love in the later books, in which case we all shall mourn.)

I also have a third theory, however, that’s much more interesting (to me, at least) than the first or second. What if Wish’s father is not a Wizard, but a Witch?

This would mean that Wish is a Witch (try saying that five times fast), or part Witch I suppose. Which means that this line in Chapter 4 holds a lot of foreshadowing:

‘I’m not trying to trick you,’ said the voice, less shaky now and more indignant. ‘My name is Wish, not Witch...’ (64-65)

See? Even her name could be a hint that Wish is a Witch.

But let’s get back to the three original causes of Wish’s strangeness—the Magic Eye, the Magic-that-works-on-iron, and being a Great Enchanter. The Magic-that-works-on-iron would be explained by her father being a Wizard. But being a Great Enchanter and having a Magic Eye, both of which go hand in hand, are more difficult to explain. I’m going to try anyway.

Only two Great Enchanters have been confirmed thus far: Wish and the Kingwitch. Because there are so few Great Enchanters, it wouldn’t make sense to say that just because the Kingwitch is both a Great Enchanter and a Witch, Wish must be both as well. But I believe that is the case, and I’m going to use a third character to prove my point: Caliburn.

It’s time to take a little detour into another theory of mine, and that theory is that Caliburn is both a Great Enchanter and a Witch, proving that one must be a Witch to be a Great Enchanter, and vice versa.

First off, look at the way Caliburn describes Great Enchanters’ multiple lives to Wish:

‘Even Great Enchanters are made of flesh and blood, and that wears out after a while. So you have to be careful of your lives, Wish. For you do not know how many you will have.’ (322)

It sounds like Caliburn knows this from experience, which would mean that he is, or once was, a Great Enchanter. It’s possible he turned into a raven after his lives ran out, or he was somehow tranformed into a raven through Magic. You could draw any number of conclusions from the ‘Caliburn is a Great Enchanter’ theory.

As for Caliburn being a Witch? Well, the Kingwitch has black feathers. Caliburn also has black feathers. Yes, ravens normally have black feathers. Just go with it for a moment. I warned you this theory wasn’t very well-planned.

So if both the Kingwitch and Caliburn are Great Enchanters and Witches, this probably means one is required to have the other, so Wish is a Witch. Which brings up the Very Important Question of who her father is and what on earth Sychorax was thinking.

The problem is that if Wish is a Witch, we don’t currently have very many candidates for Wish’s father. We actually only have one. I do like to think her father was the Kingwitch. However, I also think that the Kingwitch was more of a Green Death sort of figure, aka a smaller villain that shows up in the first book to sort of prep you for the Major Villain who will arrive later in the series. So he’s probably not Witch’s father.

To sum up, my theory is that Wish’s father was a Witch (and possibly a Great Enchanter), and his Magical genes mixed with her mother’s Warrior genes made Wish a Great Enchanter with Magic-that-works-on-iron.

Side note: I promised I would talk about Encanzo possibly being Wish’s father, but since it doesn’t have much to do with my theory because Encanzo is obviously not a Witch, I’m just adding it as a side note.

The only evidence that Encanzo could be Wish’s father comes from what we already know about Cressida Cowell and the HTTYD books. Basically, the moment I started questioning Wish’s parentage was the moment I started drawing parallels between her and Fishlegs. The most intriguing parallel I found is that both of them wear an eyepatch. Something some people might not have noticed is that at the end of HTTYD Book 12, Fishlegs is drawn wearing Alvin’s eyepatch. Interpret that as you will.

So now we’re saying that Fishlegs and Wish have near-parallel stories. This means, of course, that for Encanzo to be Wish’s father, he has to be similar to Alvin the Treacherous. There are a few parallels between those two characters as well:

They both look similar in physical appearance. Both Alvin and Encanzo are bald and thin, and have a sort of malevolent air about them.

They’re both royalty. Alvin is descended from Grimbeard the Ghastly, whereas Encanzo is the leader of the Wizards. (I can’t remember what his title is exactly. King? Chief Wizard?)

Both of them are kind of terrible parents. I know Encanzo was supposed to get redeemed at the end, but he did emotionally abuse Xar and knock Looter to the ground by blasting him with Magic. So I’m still on Team Encanzo Is Not The Best Dad Out There.

Looking at the evidence, it would make sense for Encanzo to be TWOO’s Alvin equivalent and therefore Wish’s father. This would also conveniently make a Xar-Wish romance impossible, so I fully support this theory.

And that’s about it! Lastly, I just want to remind you that this is all just speculation, and I’m aware that my theory has a ton of holes in it. It’s probably not correct, and that’s fine. Doing the theorizing was fun anyway. :)

—books-are-like-dragons