The Ghibli Lesson About Love

Of all the Studio Ghibli films, Howl's Moving Castle is surely one of the most romantic, telling the love story between the humble hatter Sophie and the wizard Howl. But rewatching the film, what I found really interesting was the relationship between love and lies, because almost everyone in this film is duplicitous. I don't mean that in a negative way, it's not that they're malicious schemers or trying to manipulate people, it's just that everyone is living some sort of double life, whether it's hiding their name, their appearance, or even lying to themselves about who they are. And what's really beautiful about the film is that love is the thing that seems to pierce through all the lies and pretense, and it is love that ultimately brings everything together. So I'd like to talk to you about how it's okay for us all to be lying and pretending sometimes, because the message of Howl's Moving Castle is that that's what society makes us do. It's what we need to do to survive, sometimes literally. But what the film also tells us is that love is the beautiful, powerful force that allows us to make sense of all these contradictions within ourselves, and how we all need a little more love in our lives. Now I'm going to talk about Sophie's love in this video, because obviously it's not only the most prominent part of the film, but her love is also the most powerful force in the movie. Sophie's love is her form of magic. But we'll do that at the end, because I first want to describe the various other kinds of love that we see throughout the film. When I say love, I don't just mean romantic love, because within Howl's Moving Castle we have lots of different kinds of love. We have protective love, possessive love, familial love, the love between master and pupil, and even patriotic love. All of these come with their own nuances and their own form of lies. But as is maybe apt for a video about Howl's Moving Castle, we'll start with Howl and end with Sophie. Howl is fascinating as a character, not just because he's so obviously dreamy and desirable, but because he's also the most duplicitous, meaning he's the one who lies the most in the film. The very way in which Howl lives his life is a lie. He has multiple names for starters, the wizard Pendragon in some places, Jenkins in another, and of course his real name of Howl. In one town he's basically a local shaman, providing powders and remedies for various problems that the townspeople have, and in another town, Sophie's hometown for example, he's known as a wicked man who devours the hearts of beautiful young girls. In the capital of Kingsbury meanwhile, he's got a reputation as a renowned wizard. His hair color is fake too, and he's incredibly vain in regards to it, and even his very humanity is in doubt. Is he a talented wizard or is he a monster destined to be a threat to society? The thing about the film is that actually none of this is a bad thing. Howl's multiple personalities and identities are actually just a means for him to have the one thing that he desires most at the start of the film, freedom. At one point Sophie asks him how many names he has and Howl simply replies, as many as I need to be free. I think this is an incredibly understandable instinct, one that we can all relate to. All Howl wants is the freedom to live his life in his own way as he desires, because while he's described as a coward, what we learn over the course of the film is that a lot of people want something from Howl. Yes, he creates this elaborate moving castle and these fake names to hide away from society and his responsibilities, but it's either that or become someone else's pawn. Madam Silliman wants him to be her successor and become the king's wizard. The king himself wants Howl's powers to help him win his war, and the witch of the wastes wants to basically take and own Howl, something we'll talk about later. And all of these people are not exactly nice about being told no. Without his lies, Howl might actually be dead. And so that's what I mean about the message of the film, not being critical of the various lies and multiple personalities he has to maintain. Because it's the same for all of us in a way. We all have to be different people sometimes just to get by. Who we are at work, who we are with our friends, who we are with strangers, we have to don various faces to navigate society's different challenges. What's also really fascinating about the film though is that there's a theme throughout of people being after Howl's heart, literally. Sophie is tucking the witch of the wastes into bed and asks her if she's ever been in love, to which she replies that she actually currently is, and through little dialogue cues we can understand that what she's saying is that she's in love with Howl. She has a romantic desire for him but also literally wants his heart, as we see during the climax when she grabs it and refuses to let go. We can see both these things in evidence when she sends the note to Howl early on in the film, which simply reads, he who catches a falling star, your heart shall be mine. The falling star is calcifer and so the witch is declaring her desire to take Howl's heart, both metaphorically and literally. When Sophie goes to the royal palace, she's told by Madame Suleiman that the witch of the waste gave her own heart away to a demon and lost her soul, and in the original book that the film is based on, that demon is also after Howl's heart because it wants to possess him as a new body. Calcifer meanwhile is also someone who wants Howl's physical heart, having struck a bargain to take it from him in exchange for lending him his power, and yet paradoxically, despite all of this, Howl is also accused of not having a heart. In that same palace visit, Madame Suleiman tells Sophie that while Howl is a wonderful wizard, he's far too powerful for one with no heart. She believes that a demon, who we know as Calcifer, is making Howl use his magic for purely selfish purposes and that she needs to stop him before he completely turns into a monster. This is one of the central recurring themes in the film and what I think is so brilliant about Howl's moving castle. I'll call it the paradoxes of personhood. The idea that people are two or more contradictory things at the same time is actually just taken as a fact of reality in the film. Much like the castle he calls a home, Howl is everything, everywhere, all at once. That's why the castle is also the central metaphor of the film. The castle is simultaneously in Port Haven, in Kingsbury, and marching through the waste and yet also it's in none of these places when it chooses to be. It is a castle and yet also a humble home to a bunch of unruly boys. It's a magical, powerful force and it's also a pile of junk that's barely being held together. It is at once sophisticated enough to keep its owner protected from the most powerful wizard in the land and yet easily found and entered by a feeble old lady. These various facets of the castle are not contradictions, they are all a part of the whole. All of these things are the castle and the same applies to Howl. He is at once a monster with no heart but also a beautiful, charming wizard who every woman wants to love. I think this is the film's message to and for all of us, that we all live like this. We all have within us multiple selves and we often struggle to accept what we really are. All of these can be very different but that doesn't mean that they're contradictory. We are all of these things and none of these things. We don't need to define ourselves as only being one way. Where the film goes one step further is in how true love ties in with all of this. As I said earlier there are forms of love that aren't romantic and the witch's love for Howl for example is what I'd call possessive love. She's not particularly interested in who Howl actually is. She's after some rather superficial things, namely his charming appearance and just the literal taking control of his heart. We see the end of the film that the witch quickly moves on to the turnip turned prince when she sees how handsome he is. Her love for Howl is not genuine and so she's only able to see him how she wants to see him. Similarly Madame Suliman's accusations are rather ironic because while she accuses Howl of being selfish, she herself only wants to use Howl. She wants him to replace her but not just that, it's clear that she too wants to own and possess him. Throughout the palace she's made a bunch of imitation Howls, little boys who look exactly like him and at one point when she forces Sophie's mother to be a spy for her, even the secret agent driver she sent looks like Howl too, this time more like a teenage version. So Madame Suliman too is only able to see Howl as a weapon, as something to be used for its power and she keeps trying to create versions of him in the hopes of having this one thing that she craves. We can see this as another more toxic form of love, the relationship between a master and student gone wrong that contrasts sharply with the same relationship Howl has with Michael. We'll talk about that later in this video. Now compare all of this with the love that Howl shares with Sophie. Sophie doesn't try to see Howl as one thing and she very easily could, after all her impression of him is initially based on his reputation that he's an evil wizard who steals the hearts of beautiful women but when she actually spends time with him she learns to accept him for all his quirks and personality traits. In the monologue she gives back to Madame Suliman she tells her that yes Howl is selfish and cowardly and unpredictable but he's straight as an arrow and all he wants is to be free. She believes that he won't turn into a monster and even when later in the film she sees that that's a possibility that could come true she simply tells Howl I don't care if you're a monster I love you I just want to help you. Sophie unlike basically every other woman in Howl's life accepts him for who he is. The monster, the wizard, the coward, the hero, the beautiful man, the petulant man-child and that's a funny part of this too because Howl is at once an adult and a child. This contradiction exists in two ways physically and metaphorically. Let's first talk about the metaphorical which is how Howl behaves like both a child and an adult. He seems to shy away from responsibility like a child might but is also so powerful that he's able to hinder the war effort basically single-handedly. We meet him in the film as a hero who's in control and literally sweeps Sophie off of her feet but then he's also hiding from his own problems and has Sophie fight his battle with the king for him and tellingly while pretending to be his mother. Sometimes he's incredibly calm and in control but then sometimes he'll throw an absolute tantrum over something small like when his hair is dyed the wrong color. That's because like everything else Howl's heart is a paradox too. When Sophie is returning Howl's heart to him she says to Calcifer that it feels all fluttery and warm like a little bird to which Calcifer replies that it is still a child's heart. This is the physical contradiction. What we learn from the little time traveling that Sophie does in the film is that Calcifer was a shooting star that Howl caught when he was still a child and from that point on they've been together and so if we look at that literally we're to understand that Howl's heart has been caught in a sort of limbo or stasis never getting the chance to actually mature leaving him with the body of an adult and the heart of a child. But I don't think the message of the film is that Howl is literally a kid. The way I interpret this is a lot more poetically. Whether it's literally a child's heart or not Howl is just a person who wants to live freely as we discussed earlier and that's something that the world doesn't allow. The world is constantly putting burdens and expectations on all of us crushing our hopes and our optimism till we become worn down and jaded. This is basically the process we all inevitably go through in changing from optimistic bright-eyed children to world-weary adults. But Howl resists all of that in an attempt to live how he wants to live and so Howl's desires are in some way childish in that they don't want to be shackled by society's responsibilities. But again paradoxically the film ends with Howl accepting that he does have certain responsibilities. He can't run away forever and once again it's love that allows him to unify his childish desires with his adult responsibilities. It is his feelings for Sophie that give him the courage he needs and we see that when he's able to confront Madame Suleiman and he tells Sophie your presence gave me the to face her. He even goes further and tells her that you saved me. I was in big trouble back there because Madame Suleiman tries to expose the monster within Howl. She tells Sophie she's going to show her who Howl really is and forces the monster out from within him. But Sophie calls out to Howl and reminds him that he doesn't have to be this creature Madame Suleiman maintains he is. But that's how she's able to save and unify Howl. Later it is for Sophie that Howl goes out to fight and he says flat out I finally found someone I want to protect you Sophie. His love for and the love he gets from Sophie is what saves Howl from falling into the trap of viewing himself as just one thing. He's not just a child or an adult. He's not just a coward or a hero. He's not just a monster or a wizard. He is all these things and Sophie is the only one who understands and accepts all of this. Which is what allows Howl to learn to accept and love all of himself. Now isn't that a beautiful message? Let's talk next about the Witch of the Waste who also shares these literal and metaphorical contradictions. Most obviously there's her age. When we first encounter her she's a relatively young and vain woman who tries to keep an air of mystery and arrogance about her. But after her encounter in the royal palace she's forcibly turned into her real age and becomes a feeble senile old woman. Age is actually a really fascinating theme in because the film has such a fluid relationship with it. Firstly I can't think of another animated film with so many cool powerful old women in Madam Suleiman, the Witch and of course Sophie. But with the latter two their age shifts a lot throughout the film both literally and metaphorically. Like we just discussed the Witch's age is forcibly changed but her behavior changes a lot too. For large chunks of the film she's helpless and barely in control of her senses. When Sophie takes her in she's like this sweet old grandma that can't do anything for herself. But then in this scene when Sophie's mother arrives the Witch of the Waste suddenly kicks into action. Not only does she instantly sense the threat from Madam Suleiman's bug and takes care of it but look at how physically nimble she is all of a sudden. She not only deals with this threat but then she pulls out a goddamn cigar and starts puffing it up like a mafia boss. She suddenly becomes really sassy and demanding too. A couple scenes later she shows off her powers of premonition again when she warns Markle that if he opens the door Madam Suleiman will find them and that's exactly what happens. And yet after all of this she goes back to being kind of feeble and senile clutching on to Howl's heart like a moth to a flame even at the risk of ruining everything for everyone else. Once again I think love is the unifying factor here and we'll talk a lot more about this when we get to talking about Sophie but I think the Witch is at her most lucid when she's motivated by love. After catching the worm spy thing that Madam Suleiman sent the Witch proudly declares I won't let Madam Suleiman have Howl. Again this is these two older women wrestling for a rather selfish, possessive love and control for Howl. But it is nonetheless love that springs the Witch into action and when Howl returns she's still lucid because she wants Howl to promise him that they'll have a little heart-to-heart conversation later to which he agrees. But once that's over she goes back to being kind of helpless. At the end of the film when she's feeble and senile again it's actually Sophie's love that gets through to her. We see that Howl is dying and Sophie needs to get his heart back from the Witch but she's holding on to it stubbornly. This is what happens when love becomes destructive. It will literally kill the object of her affection and yet the Witch won't stop holding on. But it's the perfect chance to contrast this with Sophie's love who is warm, kind and gentle. She softly walks over and asks politely and when the Witch refuses she doesn't react with anger or try to force the heart away from her. She just shows her more love, hugging and asking again to please give her the heart back. And you can see the message of the film come through clearly here because all of a sudden the Witch looks lucid once more as she says you really want this huh and then quietly she returns the heart back to Sophie. Where her toxic possessive love is keeping her senile and threatening to ruin everything, Sophie's warm and compassionate love is able to get through to her and save the day. And indeed it's Sophie's love that reconciles the Witch's character as well. Because at the start of the film the Witch is basically the main villain of the piece. She's the one chasing Howl, she's the one who curses Sophie and she's the one that sends that ominous note to Howl that burns itself into his table. So we as the audience might be inclined to hate her and think of her as the bad guy to be defeated. But I've spoken in previous videos at length about how Studio Ghibli avoids portraying good and evil and painting any character as an unambiguous villain. So you can go watch those if you want to know how and why this happens. Also while you're here, since you've watched this video this far please do consider subscribing to the channel and supporting me directly via Patreon. I try to keep all my videos ad-free but if you want to help me keep this channel as purely a place for honest heartfelt video analysis then please consider signing up. The link to my Patreon is in the video description. Patrons also get lots of benefits like early access to videos so please do consider supporting. Now going back to the Witch, we once more see a demonstration of duality here. She starts as the villain but ends as part of the family, thanks to Sophie. She's old and young, senile and lucid, protective and a threat, selfish and giving. Like pretty much everything else in the film she defies easy categorization because human beings are not like that. We are very rarely just one thing, we're always many parts of a whole. Next let's round out the family by talking about Marco. Marco of course also has a duality to him but despite being an actual kid he also has a really interesting relationship with age. While normally Marco looks like well a kid, when he faces customers he puts on this appearance, that of an old man. He even speaks in this voice that he obviously thinks makes him sound old and wise but it's just kind of super cute for us watching. He doesn't explicitly explain why in the film but in the book Marco or Michael as he's named originally talks about needing to use this older appearance so that he'll be taken seriously. Even though in the book he's a teenager he worries if people see such a young looking wizard's apprentice they won't think much of him. This is a really interesting contrast to how a lot of characters feel about old age in the film. For example the witch, she's desperately trying to look younger so that she can feel glamorous and beautiful. Similarly Sophie is initially of the opinion that looking old makes her undesirable though she never felt that beautiful in the first place. I think this is a really poignant illustration of basically how the grass is always greener. When you're a kid you can't wait to grow up and be older and it always feels like it's adults who get to have all the fun and freedom to do whatever they want. We've already spoken about how that's not quite true in the film or in reality and on the opposite end of things adults always look back fondly at their youth thinking about all the things that they've lost rather than all the things that they've gained. In Marco's case it's quite sad that he basically thinks people won't treat him well unless he changes who he is. What's interesting though is that literally from the first moment we meet him he doesn't keep up his pretense with Sophie. In this his first appearance he rushes downstairs to answer the door, sees Sophie sleeping and dons his disguise and once he's answered the guess he takes off his disguise to talk to Sophie. By contrast look at this cute little girl who he answers the door for right after. With her he still keeps his fake persona up even though he seems to have dealt with her several times before and feels comfortable enough to let her into the Sophie meanwhile is a stranger. Again I think this is just a nod to the idea of love and family. It's like Marco knows somehow that he can trust the loving Sophie and we'll elaborate on this later when we talk about her in the last section. But what's clear is that Sophie is once again the one person who's able to unify these dualities within other characters. In this scene towards the end of the film Sophie and Marco are stood outside the castle now that it's been relocated to Sophie's old home and again Marco is keeping up his disguise. Not only is he wearing the appearance of an old man but he also keeps talking in his old man voice even though it's no one but them with an earshot. This I think is not only Marco's fear and self-doubt that no one will take him seriously if he's not in this form but I also think it's his attempt to seem mature and nonchalant to Sophie because of what he's discussing with her. The two of them are talking about how so many people are evacuating their homes and this comes right after Sophie was just reunited with her mother so Marco asked Sophie if she will run too. When she looks confused he continues that he heard Sophie's mother say that she wants Sophie to come live with her in her new home with her new husband. Sophie obviously not intending to leave doesn't directly respond to his question and instead just says right I'm glad I made up with her at which point Marco can't contain his real emotions anymore. He drops the disguise and flings himself at Sophie pleading with her not to go. I love you please stay is his request and notably he drops his old man voice to say this. Sophie tells him that she loves him too and isn't going anywhere to which he asks really are we a family and Sophie replies yes we're a family. Again I think it's just another beautiful illustration of the theme we've been speaking about at length now about how we all need love support and a family whether that's people actually related to you or people you choose to make a family. Sophie makes Marco feel safe feel loved and feel like he has a place he belongs and that's what allows him to literally drop the mask and stop pretending to be someone he's not. For Marco what he needed to learn was to accept himself for who he is so that then others can learn to do the same. Now let's quickly run through the other significant characters in the film before we finally talk about Sophie. Firstly there is Calcifer who's so full of duality as well. He's a shooting star a demon but also just regular fire. He is Howl but he's also a separate life of his own. He is the one who gave Howl a contract but he's the one who wants to be freed from it. He's incredibly powerful controls the castle and who's allowed in and yet he's also powerless to stop himself from being used by Sophie to cook breakfast on. He's described as a tricky selfish demon yet spends most of the film trying help out his family. He complains about wanting to be free for the entire movie but ends up coming right back immediately after being freed. I don't want to keep making the same point over and over and over so I'll just succinctly say that Sophie is of course the person who's able to unite these dualities within him. Near the end of the film she asks Calcifer if I give Howl's heart back will it kill you? And he simply replies probably not if you do it Sophie. She's not just the only person who's able to unify Howl but also ironically Sophie is the only person capable of separating him from Calcifer. It just speaks to the artistry and complexity of Howl's Moving Castle that as I've just illustrated Sophie spends most of the film unifying everyone else but she's also the only person capable of separating these two beings that were one. In doing so she allows them to be more realized versions of themselves. Calcifer choosing to stay as a free being and Howl being allowed to be whole again with his heart back to being his own. Speaking of there's one line from the film that I want to highlight here because well I just really like it. After Sophie and Howl both make it back home from the little adventure in the royal palace Howl is looking at the new people in the room namely the witch, the dog Heen and the turnip scarecrow. He turns to Calcifer and asks Calcifer why did you let them in? I love love love this line because this is Howl literally asking his heart why he let more people in. Questioning your own heart like this is something we might all do because we all know that love can be painful. The duality of love is that it's the most amazing feeling in the world but it also holds the power to hurt you more than anything else can and so Howl is essentially asking his heart why did you let in all this love again? Why did you accept more people into your family knowing that it could hurt you? And you know what Calcifer's response is? Don't look at me they blew in with Sophie. Of course the answer is Sophie. Howl loves Sophie more than anything he's ever loved before and she gives him not just love but a family along with it and we'll discuss soon in her section how she fills his home in a way he's never known before. So Howl in turn then responds to Calcifer by just laughing out loud looking at the turnip and saying it seems everyone in our family is a little complicated and that as we've hopefully done a good job illustrating so far is exactly what the message of the film is. Everyone in all our families is a little complicated. Again in the interest of time let's quickly tick off the duality in the remaining two family members. Heen the dog is Madam Suleiman's pet and yet he actually sides with Sophie. He runs away with her and despite being tasked with spying on her he doesn't report back to Madam Suleiman until after she saved Howl and ended the war by finding the lost prince turnip. But another really fascinating part of the character is that in the original book he's actually not a real dog but a man transformed into a dog. The film takes a lot of characters that were two or more people in the book and makes them one person which should be of no surprise to you considering we spent this entire video talking about duality and how something can be many things at once. For example in the book the king's wizard Suleiman is a man who's gone missing and who the king wants Howl to find. That's the reason the king calls Howl to the palace and why Howl doesn't want to go see him. Howl's teacher meanwhile is a woman named Mrs. Pentstemon who Sophie goes to meet before she goes to the royal palace to speak with the king on Howl's behalf. The film combines these two characters into Madam Suleiman who becomes an antagonistic force for Howl. She becomes both his teacher and someone he's hiding from. Similarly Heen is based off of a character called Percival who starts off as a minion of the witch of the waste. He's a man who she turns into a dog but who can sometimes transform back and speak a few stilted words and he joins Sophie as a companion. As cute as Heen is this is why I think he has that uncanny appearance where his face has quite a human look to it. I think this is the film maintaining that he is still a man turned into a dog probably done by Madam Suleiman but it's quite fun that the film leaves this in as a sort of hidden easter egg. Now back to the film and the family, Turnip meanwhile is actually a man who was transformed into a scarecrow. I find his last words in the movie to be really fascinating when it comes to our theme of love and duality. In this scene he's just been saved by Sophie because he's given a kiss from his beloved. When he transforms back he reveals that he's a prince from the nearby kingdom but Sophie meanwhile is too busy celebrating her love with So the witch then tells Turnip that he should go end the war and he replies that he will but he's going to return after that because as he says a fickle heart is the only constant in this world. That's really interesting to me because that line applies really well to the person he's speaking to the witch of the waste who is immediately taken by him and now quickly in love with Turnip rather than Howl but the person who this definitely doesn't apply to is Sophie or now Howl who maybe previously could have been accused of having a fickle heart but now definitely doesn't. So I always find this a fascinating line in again how both true and untrue it is. I think that segues us nicely actually to finally talk about the most important character in the movie Sophie. Now Sophie also has within her lots of duality and as much as we've talked about the love she brings to others the real journey of the film is of Sophie learning to love herself. When we meet Sophie at the start of the film it's clear that she's not particularly enjoying life. She is in many ways an old soul trapped in a young person's body. She doesn't enjoy going out, she doesn't enjoy the company of people her age and she doesn't at all see the beauty within herself. When the other girls ask her to go out with them she prefers to just work on her hats instead. She's surrounded by people and yet she's lonely. Full of paradoxes like everyone else we've discussed it's clear that Ironically it is being transformed into an old woman that actually liberates Sophie and allows her to better enjoy life. Very quickly Sophie accepts her new fate talking about how her clothes finally suit her and referring to herself as grandma Sophie almost immediately. Like I said she felt like an old soul in a young body but the irony is that now she's completely reversed the dynamic. She becomes a young woman trapped in an old body but at least now she doesn't have worry about all the things that she isn't. Sophie is able to be a more realized version of herself. When she's not worrying about how beautiful she isn't we see she becomes more confident. After barging into the castle we see she becomes very bold and mischievous. When the young girl I mentioned before comes to buy some remedies from Markle she asks Sophie if she's a witch and Sophie replies that she's the scariest witch in all the land in this really cheeky and playful tone. This is a side that we don't see of her at all when she's this shy reclusive little mouse at the start of the film. Not long afterwards she starts taking charge of things around the castle declaring herself the housekeeper and bullying Calcifer into allowing breakfast to be made on it. Again what I think is going on is that Sophie is now free from the burden of self-judgment that comes when we're younger. Especially at the kind of age Sophie is at the start of the film when beauty and love are at the forefront of your mind it's hard not to constantly worry about how others see you. All the women around her are talking about boys and marriage and trying their best to look beautiful so those expectations shackle and paralyze Sophie. But when she becomes old she's finally free to just exist without worrying about these things and ironically it makes her more full of life and love for herself. Early on when Howl is away Sophie takes the castle to a nearby lake and she just enjoys the scenery with Markle and she says I've never felt such peace. A few scenes later they're in Port Haven and Sophie tells Markle isn't the sea beautiful and he simply replies it's the same as always. As a young person Markle is taking life and all of its beauty for granted but now that she's become old Sophie's actually learning to stop and smell the roses and appreciate the metaphorical beauty of the little things in life. But the problem of literal beauty crops up again when she has her first argument with Howl. After Howl's hair gets dyed the wrong color he throws a tantrum and in the heated exchange he says to Sophie what's the point of living if you're not beautiful. This in turn makes Sophie cry and run out the house as she says I've had it with you Howl, I've never once been beautiful. This little piece of dialogue here is so key and central to understanding both Sophie and Howl. At the start of the film Howl is vain and selfish he only lives life for his external beauty. In the book he's a serial womanizer and Markle kind of refers to this in the film too. Sophie meanwhile is the opposite hating her external self but she's someone who's full of love and consideration for others. That's why she reacts so strongly to Howl's words because to her what Howl is saying is essentially since you're not beautiful Sophie your life has no value. Of course he doesn't feel that way about Sophie who he insists is beautiful even though she doesn't see it but by the end of the film they will both meet in the He learns to care for others, to protect the things precious to him and that outward appearances aren't everything. That's why he leaves his hair its natural color rather than dyeing it blonde again. Sophie by contrast learns to feel beautiful because of Howl's affirmation that she is and she learns to love and accept herself. That's why she ends the film with her hair being grey which Howl describes as looking like starlight. This is Sophie accepting the two parts of herself the old soul and the young woman. She stops trying to make one or the other her entire self. She realizes that she is both and of course after storming out the house crying the thing that brings Sophie back is love. It's Markle who rushes out to find her and implores her to come back not just for him but because Howl's tantrum is getting out of control and out of love and concern Sophie comes back to fix everything. Like a lot of the characters we mentioned previously love also has a really dynamic relationship with how it affects Sophie's age. There are several moments in the film when Sophie's age visibly changes and in fact it's probably more accurate to say that her age is almost never fixed in the film. There are moments when she is clearly younger for example when Howl looks at her in this scene he sees a young Sophie. We'll talk more about this and other examples in a second. Then when Sophie is gushing to Madame Suleiman about Howl she again looks younger and of course during the climax of the film her appearance seems to be that of a young Sophie just with silver hair. But there's also lots of moments where Sophie's appearance seems to change right in front of our eyes like here when she's crying in the rain and loses her old woman hunch and even her wrinkles or here when they've just relocated the castle to Sophie's former home and Howl is showing her all the cool things he's added as well as her new room. Like most Ghibli films these things are complex and defy an obvious interpretation and I'd love to hear yours in the comments below. But to me the thing that unifies all these moments is love. Love again has this power to ignore the outward appearances and just see someone for the totality of their self. When Howl looks at a sleeping Sophie in that early scene I don't think Sophie has literally gotten younger I think we're seeing what Howl sees. This is how he perceives Sophie as this beautiful peaceful young woman not the crotchety old house cleaner from before. When Sophie's in the royal palace giving her monologue about Howl it is Madame Suleiman that replies oh you're in love with Howl and it's the first time that thought is put out into the film. It's obvious to everyone both in and out the film that Sophie is brimming with love when she's saying all this. And then there's this which I'm pretty sure is a dream sequence. When Sophie wakes up and sees Howl returning back home then tries to help him only to be rejected. Even though this is a dream this is the first time Sophie declares her love out loud for Howl and so that's why I think we see her in this form. Later when Howl has moved the castle Sophie's initially so happy and full of love for what he's done. That's why she looks like her younger self. She's moved by Howl's gesture and she feels affection for him but then when she feels more self-conscious again she regresses back to her old self. That's why when her initial emotional reaction fades and she becomes more downbeat again she changes back to her older self and she says this room is perfect for a housekeeper because she's worried that that's all she is to Howl. The reality of all this is that when Sophie loves Howl she feels and looks more youthful because love is the force that gives her life and energy. But she fundamentally doesn't love herself and that's always this tension that threatens to pull her appearance back to that of an old woman. When she feels doubt, when she feels unattractive, when she doesn't think that she's good enough, she feels old. A form that she thinks is fitting for someone who is unlovable. That's again why the resolution of the film of how Sophie ends with this young appearance and old hair is so important because again it unifies her love for Howl with a love for herself. Now let's talk more about the love that Sophie gives to others because it is quite gender normative. Sophie's a homemaker in its literal sense. She takes this shabby castle that's more of a dump or a frat house and turns it into a warm cozy home for a big family. She's assigned charge of three unruly boys and she essentially takes care of them like a mother would. She makes sure they eat properly like at the start when Michael's about to content himself with just some dodgy looking bread and cheese before Sophie cooks a proper breakfast for him. She cleans the house as the literal cleaning lady and she gives the boys direction and purpose in their lives, telling them what to do and how to live. Out of all of Miyazaki's heroines, Sophie is perhaps the most traditional in fulfilling the role of a woman in the home. But I think that's totally okay. It's great in fact. As much as we applaud and appreciate the badass female protagonists of Miyazaki's other films, the whole point of representation is that it should be diverse. It should encapsulate the wide range that we as human beings represent. Women should be free to be fierce autonomous heroes but they should also be free to be loving homemakers. The important thing is for there to not just be one way for anyone to be forced to be. And what's great about Howl's Moving Castle is the power and value it gives Sophie's In fact, as I mentioned at the start of this video, Sophie's love is the strongest form of magic in the entire film. It ends a war, it saves multiple lives, it breaks a contract between a demon and a powerful wizard that no one else could break, it makes a rumbling walking castle fly, and it has the power to redeem even the greatest villains. In the original book by Diana Wynne-Jones, Sophie is actually literally a witch. She just doesn't realize it. By the end of the book, Sophie realizes that she too has magic power, namely in the ability to breathe life into inanimate objects. The reason she's shown to be a talented hat maker is that when she talks to the hat she makes, which she does in the film too, she actually utters a charm into them by accident. So if she tells a hat, I think you'd be worn by someone who'd marry a prince. That literally comes true and the woman wearing it gets courted by a prince. She accidentally turns her walking stick into a magic wand in the book and the turnip scarecrow is re-given life by Sophie's words who had otherwise nearly lost it. But the film doesn't do any of this and I much prefer that. In the Studio Ghibli movie, Sophie has no literal magic. She's simply a loving, nurturing person and that is enough to change the entire world around her and I find this to be a lot more powerful of a message. It's not fate or superpowers that make Sophie the significant character she is, it's just that she's someone so full of love that she makes everyone's lives around her better. And to me, that's the lesson of Howl's Moving Castle and why I've spent all this time talking about the relationship between love and duality in the film. Because I think it's a beautiful message. We are all dynamic, ever-evolving, sometimes regressing creatures. Sometimes we are the best version of ourselves, sometimes we are the worst version of ourselves. But neither of those are our true selves. Our true self is in fact all of that. It is a combination of our many personalities and emotional swings and feelings. It's something I reflect on a lot myself. Like every person on earth does, I'm sure. Who am I? Am I desirable or repulsive? Am I smart or stupid? Am I creative or am I useless? When I sat down to make this video, I felt paralyzed by the success of some of my previous work. Could I really make another video that people would enjoy? Maybe that was luck. Maybe it was a fluke. But these are natural human feelings. And just like with the example of the film, I had to realize that I am all of me. The same me that made something great can also make something bad. This is true. But that wouldn't change who I am fundamentally. Within me would still be the same person with the capacity to make something great again. And so to me, love is the only answer to these ups and downs of life. To love yourself, perhaps first and foremost. To accept yourself for who you are, even as you seek to better yourself every day. But also to give love to others. To help them through these struggles. To show them that they are not their worst tendencies. And to help them accept the totality of their selves. And to receive love from those who care about us. And accept that together, we can build a home, whether literally or metaphorically, that can soar through the sky with the power of love. So if you'd like to see more content like this, and preserve its authenticity, then you'll find the link in the video description. I'd love to know in the comments as well what you'd like to see me cover next. I'm definitely enjoying covering the Studio Ghibli work, but I'd also love to hear any other suggestions you may have. And I'm always on the lookout for great pieces of media that have a positive, uplifting message to share with the world. But that's it for now. Make sure you subscribe to the channel with notifications on so that you don't miss another upload. And I'll be back soon enough, and I hope I'll see you there. Have a great day.