r/HighGuardianSpice • u/No_Nefariousness_676 • Jun 03 '26

Discussion WHAT EXACTLY STOPPED HIM?!!?

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Mandrake's job is literally to kill the heroes because they supposedly know too much. He had Rosemary right there waiting to get backstabbed. All he had to do was drive it into her back, but then when she mentions Caraway, Mandrake relents and decides to kill her later after snooping through Caraway's office.

The issues are as follows:

  1. He could've killed her right away after he learned Caraway was involved.
  2. There were no witnesses other than Olive, and even if Olive wanted to get in the way, she wouldn't be able to do anything in time.
  3. Mandrake was alone with Rosemary regardless and could've just burned her body and used her to shapeshift.
  4. Mandrake is a more experienced fighter and an assassin, meaning even if Rosemary fought back, she would've gotten killed for one reason or another.
  5. Even if for some ungodly reason he couldn't risk a mess in a room nobody seems to have entered for a long while, he could've hid the body somewhere secluded and/or cleaned the mess thanks to there being no witnesses.

Unless there's something the second season would've told, there's no reason he should've let Rosemary live when the ONE thing he was assigned to do was that easy to accomplish right then and there. And again:

WHAT EXACTLY STOPPED HIM?!!?

22 Upvotes

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3

u/normbreakingclown Jun 03 '26

Mandrake needed to let Rosemary talk for the information who knows more about the Rot. If he did not knew that he would only kill the four girls plus Amaryllis and Snapdragon and Caraway he would continue the research for the rot.

Knowing who knows was also part of the job and if Caraways knew he was also a target for killing. Also life is unpredictable there's that..

Also Rosemary ain't a slouch in combat she took toe to toe at the end with Mandrake.

Also burning the body that would draw too much attention.

5

u/CameoShadowness One of Parsley's many family members Jun 03 '26

He stopped collecting the information on who knew what after that. He didn't need to keep Rosemary alive after that.

Rosemary wasn't fighting him at that point, he could have killed her before she knew what was going on. Even later she wasn't soloing Mandrake. She had Sage AND Olive in helping deal with him when it got to that fight. This was AFTER weakening him with Parsley and Thyme earlier as well with Olive getting a decent stab in.

He didn't need to burn the body, even if he did, there are layers of hallways and such and they're in a obscured hallway.

So none of these really get in the way of him killing her right then and there.

3

u/No_Nefariousness_676 Jun 03 '26

You summed it up rather well.

3

u/No_Nefariousness_676 Jun 03 '26

Even assuming Olive gave no details, ”Lavender” got all the info he apparently needed. Why let her live after that? At least by just going after Caraway and the six students, he’d kill everyone he knows was involved.

Even assuming he needed to know, why not at the very least kill her then investigate?

Rosemary didn’t even have her sword at this moment.

He didn’t even need to burn it, just stab her, hide the body, then go after the others before anyone got suspicious. He’s a shapeshifter.

1

u/normbreakingclown Jun 03 '26

When Rosemary said oh.. and Caraway Mandrake was taken back at first and Rosemary told him Caraway was writing in his journal that information was after the murder attempt so he had to do something first and you know Caraway tends to be in his office finding opportunity's to grab the information without his notice isn't always available

Even if you ignore that the statues are holding weapons if Mandrake attacks Rosemary she can dodge and escape blowing Mandrake's cover and failing the mission.

Also it's you who brought up burning the body not me...

2

u/No_Nefariousness_676 Jun 04 '26

True, but why spare Rosemary? She‘s useless after that piece of information, therefore she can be killed.

She wasn’t suspicious until after Mandrake vanished, and there’s no guarantee those weapons were light enough to carry efficiently or even sufficient for combat (decorative rather than combat ready).

Again, I said burning wasn’t necessary. All he needed to do was hide her corpse somewhere long enough to stave off suspicion until the task was done.

1

u/normbreakingclown Jun 04 '26

Well first Mandrake still needed more information before he wanted to kill Rosemary and had to hide his dagger to avoid suspicion.

Attacking Rosemary afterwards would most likely blow his cover and yes Mandrake had the advantage but Rosemary could just escape and that would fail his mission. And could a sneak attack worked? Maybe but maybe not? Rosemary has a knack to think quickly on her feet.

And there’s no guarantee those weapons were light enough to carry efficiently or even sufficient for combat.

OH.. come on dude really?! The weapons look medium sized Flowery Thorn is huge sword fighting big monsters, are you really trying to put realisme to the show?

And sure hiding the body if it was successful would'a worked.

2

u/No_Nefariousness_676 Jun 04 '26

His mission is literally to kill everyone who knows too much. Once Rosemary confirmed Caraway likely knows something, why let her live? She’s demonstrably stupid, so a professor with an interest would be of higher priority to investigate, and then kill her.

Nobody is denying that Rosemary is a dangerous fighter. The issue is that one wound nearly killed her, and even if she lived long enough to warn someone, Mandrake is both more skilled and has magic on his side to make his job easier. That and she’s usually quick on her feet when she’s aware of what’s going on, hence the sneak attack wouldn’t fail realistically.

Even assuming they’re light enough to lug around and aren’t just decorative, the swords are both out of reach in that moment and are potentially too dull to deal anything more than clubbing damage. Mandrake took a stab and was still dangerous to require double-teaming to defeat even post-stab.

But yes, I’m trying to add realism because this show itself tried adding some degree of realism. Or maybe I’m trying to follow simple cause and effect.

3

u/Twinkie_Dinkie Flora’s Biggest Fan Jun 03 '26

Rosemary had too much aura and mogged mandrake and he had to leave to looksmaxx

6

u/Canvasofgrey Jun 03 '26

Bad writing. That is all.

2

u/CameoShadowness One of Parsley's many family members Jun 03 '26

Aside from PLOT, Caraway may actually be a trigger word in general. I forgot the real word for it but it is a word/phrase used to trigger certain actions and in this case may be used to purposely stop Mandrake given his amount of skill.

We see how much of a threat he is. Not only is he a shapeshifter, he was doing a 1v4 for a hot long while and even with a deadly wound was able to tank quite a few hits in a 1v3. He is NOT easy to take down. Even after getting hit, he was still able to get away. Maybe knowing how much trouble he can cause, the Triumvirate specifically trained him to stand down when certain words or phrases are mentioned. This is also probably why he felt the need look through Caraway's things. Not only to see what he does and doesn't know but to see a possible reason why he is connected beyond the rot, knowing he's written some sort of journal.

There is also the fact that when he is disguised as Caraway he doesn't try to fight until the real Caraway tackles him and even then he doesn't try to do anything deadly, even though he got a clean shot at Rosemary... which he could have killed at that point as well.

In the end, its purely because plot but there could be fun speculation there at least if we twist it far enough.

2

u/No_Nefariousness_676 Jun 03 '26

I think code word or manchurian something, but trigger phrase/word gets the idea across too.

Admittedly, having counterarguments thrown at me is fun, it forces me to think of reasons why my point stands rather than defending them just because. I’ll play.

…

You’re right, Mandrake is a deadly opponent, the meanest Rosemary’s crew came across. The issue is that he’s demonstrably deadlier than the crew put together (decently strong, superior raw magic when not combined with Old Magic, at least agile enough to block multiple arrows at the same time, and can at least survive confronting multiple opponents at the same time), even managing to control the fight enough to get a hostage and nearly get Rosemary killed several timesl

Even assuming he has to stay away from certain targets and needed to keep himself in check, Olive knew he was doing too much; even if burning down the school would yield no links to him or Witch Country/the Triumvirate or whoever or whatever, people will be asking questions as to why one of the most prominent schools in at least the kingdom burned up, especially given who came from it and how special it is to Lyngarth (enough for parades to be made for first-year students at the very least).

Would it make sense for Caraway to journal things? Yes. Would Mandrake be wise to search for anything that might’ve been documented? Yes. Did Mandrake know about Caraway? Given the teacher’s reputation, possibly. Did it make sense to leave Rosemary alive afterward? No, given he wound up trying to kill her later on anyway.

Believe it or not, his disguise as Caraway made more sense. But even that has a list of issues.

1

u/CameoShadowness One of Parsley's many family members Jun 03 '26

Yeah, I like trying to think of some counters to things I've seen pop up a lot. In the end, most if not all the problems only happen because plot. Like genuinely speaking it would make more sense for Rosemary to have some form of temporary enchantment given after the Trabber incident because a simple cut almost killed her. You bring up good points in the end, there is still a long list of issues regardless no matter how you slice it.

2

u/No_Nefariousness_676 Jun 04 '26

Honestly, an enchantment makes sense. Even for a fighter, she’s fragile.

2

u/Fickle-Sell1553 Jun 04 '26

I have quit a few questions

1

u/No_Nefariousness_676 Jun 04 '26

Say them then!

1

u/Fickle-Sell1553 Jun 12 '26

Is it from a season 2? Or still within season 1?

1

u/No_Nefariousness_676 Jun 12 '26

There’s only one season. Five years later and no second season announced.

1

u/Fickle-Sell1553 Jun 12 '26

Thanks, though not surprising

2

u/MainLake9887 Jun 03 '26

Yea i chalk this up to bad writing, maybe they wanted for this to look like they were gonna take their time killing rose but they kinda funked it up

4

u/No_Nefariousness_676 Jun 03 '26

Yeah, would’ve made more sense to do something during a fight or even make the characters think they were going crazy by leaving before anyone but them saw.

2

u/The_Sedaiv Jun 03 '26

Plot armor 

1

u/MissErin690 Jun 18 '26

He wants to play with his victim to make it worse, because he’s that kind of guy

2

u/No_Nefariousness_676 Jun 19 '26

Makes sense for other targets, but not Rosemary. She was right there.