Lady Macbeth wrote:Not to start an argument or anything, but can I ask why the "Ewww"? I find him a perfectly all right hero at 30-something or even 40-something if he were to be that old.
Then again, that could be because I am closing in on 30-something myself.
Because he's a wizard - shapeshifting is a staple of witch/wizard lore, particularly in countries where shamanic magic or magic influenced by shamanic history is common, including Wales (where Howl is from) and Japan (where the anime was made). Howl tried to hide his bird shape from Sophie originally because he didn't want to frighten her off, and at the same time he didn't want her to come to know him like that.
His thoughts on his bird shape are also reflected in his commentary on the other wizards who were fighting the war and stayed as monsters for extended periods of time - they were in danger of losing themselves as humans, because like the monsters they had shifted in to they had lost focus of the humanity underneath the war. When a wizard loses sight of their humanity, they remain a monster forever. Had Sophie been frightened off by Howl's bird form he could have lost a reason to return to being human, and he knew it - and had she accepted him fully as a monster and not cared if he returned to human form he would have likewise been lost. It was through her love for him as a person - as a human - that she was able to recover his heart and pull him back into the human world.
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