wait it’s only just now fully hit me that howl’s moving castle takes place over two months
after two months of knowing each other howl and sophie were IN LOVE and COMMITTED
at the beginning of the book howl theoretically had TWO MONTHS TO LIVE before the witch got him! and his plan was like, FUCK ALL. he didn’t know what he was doing, he didn’t even know the terms of the curse.
howl didn’t have a plan to get out of his contract either. sophie waltzed into the castle and calcifer took one look at her and was like “oh man thank goodness this woman showed up and can CONVENIENTLY talk life into things, she’s gonna get us out of this contract”
this made me laugh so hard bc you’re RIGHT, Howl’s only demonstrable plan re: his impending doom is getting really drunk with the rugby club and then going BACK TO INGARY and letting the curse hit him.
I do think it’s really interesting that he invites all of Sophie’s family over the day the curse is supposed to hit. He saysit’s to keep her out of trouble, which is probably part of it, but Howl seems like one for multi-layered plans (see: taking Sophie to Mrs. Pentstemmon’s to prep her for her visit to the king but also to see if Mrs. Pentstemmon could unspell her).
Who ends up at the moving castle due to Howl’s invitations? Sophie and Michael, Martha, Lettie, Fanny and Mrs. Fairfax. This includes every living magic user that we know of in Ingary. (Fanny and Martha don’t do magic, but they’re also the two that Howl wouldn’t have met, and for all he knew they were powerful sorceresses too, or at the very least hardheaded like Sophie.) So Howl may not have had much of a plan for evadingthe curse, but he arranged things so that once the witch got him, his loved ones would be at the castle, surrounded by every magician he could gather, and incidentally in the best possible position to launch a rescue operation.
i would also like to add that if things had gone askew for Howl, Sophie’s entire contention network would have been there for her, if she was to mourn for him
i’m DYING over the idea of howl, possibly doomed, probably enamored, and definitely wallowing in self-pity, being like “at least now she’ll have GUESTS for the PARTY that she’s going to throw when i’m DEAD” because howl loves imagining himself as a unappreciated martyr
