I feel betrayed someone literally told me that howl is a red flag in the book not in the movie, in the book he went to a lot of places to meet women and left Sophie with a flower shop so she wouldn't be too lonely until he comes back, i saw this on tiktok what the fuck
i'm conflicted about this statement because on one hand, it's kind of true but on the other, it feels like a very one-dimensional characterisation of howl when the reason for his actions are all more nuanced than that. first of all, if you read the book without reading between the lines, you get a very biased viewpoint of the things that are happening, since sophie is not a very reliable narrator and the entire book is from her pov.
howl set up the flower shop as a way to earn money for the household since he had to give up his original job as a wizard to hide from the Witch of the Waste. AND he made the shop a flower shop only because sophie suggested it and he valued her opinion and wanted her to be happy.
and sophie only assumed he was meeting a particular woman due to her unconscious jealousy towards her. howl was never interested in that woman, and he tells sophie he tried to woo her hoping that sophie would realise her feelings for him through jealousy but unfortunately sophie is pretty dense. howl was actually keeping an eye on that woman because he figured out who she really was
And also yes he did meet a lot of women before he fell in love with sophie, but there's nothing wrong with that?? sophie didn't even know that she was in love with howl until near the end of the book and they weren't "together" until the last few paragraphs
book howl does have some issues, but it's harsh to mischaracterise him as a person who is that cruel. book howl definitely isn't some prince charming like in the movie, but he doesn't have to be. he's written to be a person with problems and that makes him more human-like
Stop fucking calling hyunho's name leave him tf alone this weird ass mfs both of them are sick