I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion, but I don't actually care much for Riddle's dad. I havent seen him mentioned a lot, but when I do, people are likelier to think he is a better parent or wonder why he doesn't divorce his wife. Thing is, at best, he is neglectful enough that the distortion in his son's dream is that he'd be present. At worst, he doesn't care or even agrees with how his wife is raising their son. I just think he gets too much grace, not hearing about him as much doesn't mean he is better. And now, I am not saying it is sexism in every case, but sometimes people are too quick to call Riddle's mom a specific rude word, not aknowledge her as a doctor, and make headcanons where she is worse than what we know, while the father gets to be potentially better. Am I defending her? No, she definitely abused her son. But I don't see why she's painted as the only bad parent.
I mostly think this about the Rosehearts, but this uneven headcanon thing applies to other characters too I think. For example we don't know much about Cater's sisters, but at worst they were pushy older sisters who he has said are getting better at asking him what he wants these days, and then I see abuser headcanons for them for no reason. People aren't that intersted in maybe seeing them form a better relationship. On the other hand Ace's brother, while I understand that he doesn't say he has negative experiences with him and he sees him as cool, isn't really the gentlest with him and from what we know is a troublemaker, we also don't know much about him, but many are interested in seeing him rather than making headcanons where maybe he was a bit of a bully to his younger brother who never saw it like that. (It is an example of what could he HCd, I don't actually headcanon bad things for any of these siblings)
Sorry for the long ask, I don't mean to be disrespectful with this or start a fight, but I do think its an interesting conversation that can be had about fandom perception.
I’m not afraid to talk about these subjects, so I don’t mind 😂 I’ll just put it under the cut but the TLDR is that I think fans relate too much to the characters, and then that bias greatly informs how they react to family members mistreating said character.
I don’t know if I would say Mr. Rosehearts gets “too much grace”? Early on in the fandom, he definitely got the benefit of the doubt because fans assumed he, too, was being abused by his wife (since Riddle alludes to their marriage being unhappy) or that he was too shy or meek (like the King of Hearts is) to argue with her. With the clues we’d get later on, particularly from Riddle’s book 7 dream, that favorability has soured. In fact, I feel like my most recent asks about Mr. Rosehearts all paint him as a neglectful father. Now the opinions are far more split. (I personally don’t lean into either side, as I don’t think we have enough evidence one or the other, and it’s unwise to just make baseless assumptions.)
I don’t really blame fans who think Mr. Rosehearts is the comparatively “better” parent or sympathize with him though. Firstly, inaction is generally harder to identify as abuse than action is, so fans may not be able to clock neglect as abuse. Secondly, not all Twst fans keep up with every single little bit of lore, so it’s easy to overlook the scarce Mr. Rosehearts lore and instead rely mostly on knowledge of the more present parent. Mrs. Rosehearts, to shape opinions. It’s extremely easy for fans to paint Mrs. Rosehearts as unredeemably evil because she has such a large presence in the main story and influence over a major character, while also feeling bad for those who are forced to interact with this evil on a daily basis (family included). She is portrayed to be the primary caregiver, the one actively inflicting harm onto Riddle through her very visible helicopter parenting. Next to that, anything’s going to look better to some fans.
I do think there’s an element of misogny in some of the comments directed at Riddle’s mom. While I understand that many Twsties may have disdain for her due to their own unpleasant experiences with controlling mothers, this bias can feed into misogynistic behaviors. For example, I frequently see Mrs. Rosehearts being called derogatory phrases aimed at women, like “hag” and “bitch”. Fans talk down her skills as an actual medical doctor all the time, assuming her bedside manners are shit or that she’s “not a real medical doctor”, but an essential oil shill or a holistic/alt med “doctor”. They are extremely quick to accuse her of abusive acts she NEVER committed in canon as well, or saying things like “I could see her doing X (way more extreme thing) because Y (canon thing she did to Riddle).”
Women, who have historically done the child raising, get so much crap for being imperfect mothers. And granted, Mrs. Rosehearts IS an imperfect mother who has harmed her child time and time again—but we should be criticizing that, not shadowboxing an exaggerated version of her that doesn’t exist or making arguments that have nothing to do with how she treats her son. At some point, it stops being about worrying for Riddle and more about denying the fact that abusers can be successful, professional women. Both things can be true. People like to build that profile of what the “abuser” looks like: a sad and vindictive loser with nothing going on in their lives—but that’s a dangerous way of thinking, because, in reality, that stereotypical profile of an abuser is so much more complex and difficult to spot.
I’ve actually discussed the complexities of the Rosehearts family at length before; a lot of the things I’ve said in this post were already shared in these, so I’d recommend these supplemental readings if the discussion interests you:
Why doesn’t Riddle resent his mom?
Why Riddle expresses gratitude for his mom
Physical abuse? (pt I)
Physical abuse? (pt II)
Nutrition and Height
Calorie Counting?
“Correcting” Left-Handedness
Mr. Rosehearts
Modeling poor emotional regulation and coping mechanisms
The role of Mr. Rosehearts
Mrs. Rosehearts as a medical mage
We have so little information to go off of when it comes to certain family members, so it’s only expected that fans try to fill in the gaps with their own interpretations. Oftentimes these interpretations draw on the fans’ own knowledge and experiences—and this can cause bias to seep into the resulting interpretations. For example, Twst fans with older siblings who’ve bullied them or bossed them around may sympathize with Cater or view his sisters as far worse than they actually are because of that personalized vendetta. Relatability can be a huge influence in how a fan interacts with fiction and determines the characters they like, which even the results of my own research suggest. There could be a plethora of other reasons too: the belief that this somehow “fleshes out” the family we know so little about, cramming in another Disney reference (evil stepsisters and Cater/Cinderella), a general lack of nuance due to the average Twst EN fan being on the younger side and lacking life experience, wanting to artificially create drama and conflict, fandom taking on extremes for ease of understanding, etc.
It partly comes down to presentation, too. The game feeds us lore under different framing, and that framing informs how we, the audience, are encouraged to view certain characters. Riddle’s mom is the cause for his trauma and Cater credits his sisters for why he hates various things in present day, such as sweets. These are all framed as negative experiences or strained relationships (though Cater does mention his sisters letting up a little more as of late).
Ace’s brother gets a pass because Ace shares the stories in a joking or fun manner and constantly talks about how he looks up to his older brother + the advice his brother gave him. These are all largely positive things, and read as no different than a typical older sibling, younger sibling dynamic. Ace himself acts very similar to his brother, and if we can find Ace to be a lovable goofball, then surely we’d react similarly to his brother. Fans want to see what is basically an “older, hotter (according to fan arts/j) Ace”. And, on top of it all, we know a LOT more about Ace’s brother than we do Mr. Rosehearts or Cater’s sisters—so again, there’s an uneven amount of lore to go off of when interpreting the family members.
Like I said at the start of this ask, I think the majority of the least gracious takes arise from fans who’ve been on the receiving end of know someone who has gone though something similar, so their tolerance is low and/or hatred is high. They may project their own negative experiences onto fictional characters as a coping mechanism or as escapism from that kind of abuse, to write a better scenario where the abused is able to be protected or rescued. Now, there isn’t anything inherently wrong with this method; I would just caution keeping emotions in check, as this method can quickly spiral into bigotry (like the misogyny surrounding Riddle’s mom).
We can separate out the gracious takes by referencing the Twst text and how it tries to push us to either liking or disliking certain parties. For example, I’m pretty sure the Magicam Monsters are purposefully made despicable (they disregard rules and engage in property damane!!) and the devs want us to not like them. There’s intention behind those canon portrayals, and that should be considered in evaluating the characters.
Twst should release hometown events sooner so we can check off the family members from our “To Meet” lists 😭
I love how TWST writes siblings, namely with the Shrouds and the Leeches.
You got the loving Shrouds, granted Idia has his problems but he tries to muscle through it because he does love Ortho. Then there's the Leeches where it's nearly on site with them.
Love the two sides of the sibling dynamics.
[ Might be referencing this post? ]
I think Twst’s strongest suit has always been writing character dynamics, whether that’s family, rivals, friends, or whatever else you can think of. The brothers in particular actually feel like they might be real siblings who give each other grief and yet, at the end of the day, still care for one another.
I wouldn’t say Jade and Floyd fight all too much, but they definitely feel like brothers who value their independence and have their own lives. Idia and Ortho are more codependent (or I guess closely tied to one another), in part because they’re tied up in the tragedy of several years ago and are working to overcome that. They don’t really exist on a spectrum to me, there’s just all kinds of sibling dynamics around and I like that Twst is able to portray these.
I also think that, even if the characters aren’t technically family, Twst does a great job writing the bonds such that they feel like family. For example, Silver and Sebek’s dynamic reminds me a lot of a stoic older brother and an eager-to-please younger brother. I don’t necessarily see them as actual brothers, but that kind of close, tight-knit relationship is reminiscent of the platonic ideal of brotherhood.
Child Silver and his big brother Malleus are at it again
Headcanon that Silver would pass out at the sight of blood and it would give Malleus a heart attack.
Once Silver realized that it would worry Malleus so much he started building up an immunity to looking at blood, which in turn now has him normalizing it too much. bro can't win.
Yes this is all a refrence to Aurora pricking her finger on the spindle.
Also shop update!!!! Orders will be getting shipped out on Monday! Annnddd we have a restock on all the keychains yipeeee
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