The long-awaited film adaptation of Soman Chainani’s The School for Good and Evil series aired on Netflix on October 19, 2022, and it was at the top of the streaming service’s movie rankings by the next day. At its heart, the book series and its film adaptation ask where the lines are between good and evil and if friendship can survive being cast on opposite sides of a war.
Agatha and Sophie’s relationship isn’t as simple as classical fairytale friendships, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t powerful in its own right. In fact, its complexity is what makes it so enduring, as both girls learn what they would give up for each other. In a world of black and white, good and evil, Agatha and Sophie’s relationship can only be understood in their own words.
“You Already Did Do Something That Matters.”
Agatha
While this line might just seem like a way for Agatha to comfort Sophie by saying that their friendship was important, it actually says a lot about how both girls understood power. Sophie believed that significance came down to how others saw a person. She wanted to be stared at, admired, and held above all others.
But Agatha saw power and importance as a matter of helping others. She had power when she saved the girl who had been transformed into a school of wish fish, and Sophie had power when she made a lonely little girl happy. This foreshadows Agatha’s own behaviors because she used her magic and proximity to help Sophie, even when it was opposed to her own interests.
“Now You’re Trying To Steal My Prince!”
Sophie
One of Sophie’s greatest weaknesses is how quickly she submits to jealousy. She was very entitled when it came to her fairytale future because she believed it was something she earned by being beautiful and having a difficult childhood. In her mind, Agatha’s happiness was directly responsible for her unhappiness.
Instead of wishing for them both to be in the School for Good or helping Agatha find reasons to want to stay in the fairytale, magical school, Sophie expected Agatha to give up everything for her sake or else be a bad friend, a belief that she thankfully seemed to outgrow by the end of the film.
“This Is Everything I’ve Ever Wanted!” “This Is Not What I Wanted!”
Sophie and Agatha
While Agatha found her escape from Gavaldon in Sophie, Sophie needed something different out of her life. This caused her to wish for the School for Good and Evil and to plan to run away if they didn’t show up. Because of that, when they get dragged away, she feels pure joy.
However, Agatha views it all in a negative light. She doesn’t want to leave her mother, and she doesn’t want Sophie to leave her. Their conflicting desires set up the idea that they will be each other’s antagonists long before Rafal and the teacher try to pit them against each other.
“The Girl Who Defended Me With A Frying Pan Wasn’t Pathetic.”
Agatha
Though Sophie often seemed self-centered, much of it came from insecurity. Her mother told her she would one day change the world, but her family and the town never seemed to value her. She thought the School for Good and Evil would finally recognize her worth, but it didn’t.
Agatha, on the other hand, saw Sophie as amazing from the beginning. She loved Sophie to her core and seemed insulted by the idea that the person who protected her wasn’t good enough. Agatha held Sophie up as the best Gavaldon had to offer, and she wouldn’t tolerate anybody who felt otherwise, including Sophie herself.
“Our Story Can’t End Until One Of Us Is Destroyed.”
Sophie
When The School for Good and Evil was translated into a film about magic ever made, it had to drop some of Sophie’s character development, including the lessons she took discussing nemeses and her repeated symptoms of having one. Because of that, this line might have fallen a little flat for non-readers.
Essentially, only the top students in each school got a true nemesis, whose desires fundamentally opposed their own. Sophie wanted to become a princess, and Agatha wanted her to go home. Sophie wanted Tedros, but Tedros wanted Agatha. Following the logic of the stories Sophie spent her life obsessed with, the person blocking the hero must die. Rather than looking for another way, Sophie attempted to live by those rules, which made her turn on her former best friend.
“God I Hate This Town.”
Agatha and Sophie
From the beginning of the film, viewers are told that Agatha and Sophie are polar opposite best friends and kindred souls, despite their drastically different interests and aesthetic. However, this quote is where the audience actually starts to believe it is true.
Agatha is widely-hated in the village for being a witch, while Sophie is hated for being so obsessed with beauty and fairytales. In their outcast status, they were able to tolerate the village. When both girls express their hatred of the single-minded values in Gavaldon, audiences see how much they appreciate each others’ uniqueness.
“I Can Reach Her. I Know It.”
Agatha
The rules of Good and Evil were touched on in the film, but one from the books defined precisely why Agatha was taken to the Good School: “The Evil punish. The Good forgive.” Agatha wouldn’t accept the unwritten rules that Good defeats Evil, instead forgiving Sophie at every turn, no matter how much she hurt her.
She didn’t believe it was possible for a person to be irredeemable, and that made her determined to pull Sophie back from the edge. Agatha didn’t believe in Pure Good or Pure Evil, but she did believe that her friendship with Sophie could break through anything.
“No! Not Aggie!”
Sophie
While Sophie seemed to go through many changes over the course of The School for Good and Evil, she had the same goal the whole time. Sophie wanted to be looked up to, she wanted to be loved, and she wanted Agatha to be safe. The labels of Good and Evil were flexible to her, and even the lives of others didn’t matter. But Agatha did, and this line captures her most important belief.
Sophie jumped in front of the Storian to make sure it didn’t hurt Agatha because that was an unacceptable path forward. When she thought Agatha would jump off the bridge, she tried to stop her. When she inverted Good and Evil, Agatha stayed exactly the same. Even if everything else changed, Sophie would not let anything bad happen to Agatha.
“She Blames You For Everything… Yet All You Do Is Help Her.”
Tedros
Tedros was intrigued by Agatha from the start, but Sophie was a sticking point. He had believed in Sophie enough to stand against the teachers, and he had been hurt in the process. Because of that, he struggled to understand how Agatha could continue to believe in her after she had been betrayed as well.
As he said, Agatha would help Sophie, no matter what she did to her. But that was precisely why their relationship mattered so much. As a way to overcome typical fantasy tropes, Agatha’s love of Sophie wasn’t conditional on Sophie being perfect or even kind. That kind of love is exceptionally rare, which is what made it so much more believable as “true love” than a romance developed over a few days.
“I Don’t Want To Be Evil.” “No, You Are Not Evil. You’re Just Human.”
Sophie and Agatha
Sophie bought into the idea of good and evil being fixed things, and that moral rigidity made it difficult for her to find her place. She was certain she was meant to be Good, but if she didn’t fit there, then she must be Evil. When she saw what Evil did, though, she primarily just wanted to fix it.
Agatha, on the other hand, sees everything in shades of gray, which was critical to defeating Rafal. By refusing to accept that one girl must win, and the other must lose, Agatha was able to create a better world where Sophie didn’t have to try to achieve some perfect standard of morality.
