This Little Corner

Mostly Twisted Wonderland stuffs

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Thoughts on the reveal of the night fae stealing the glow and land from day fae in book 8?

[ My general book 8 chapter 3 thoughts here. ]

I already talked about some of my thoughts in the post linked above, but I can go into more detail here.

Below the cut due to length and some sensitive subject matter.

The way my jaw was AGAPE when Malleus said he wouldn’t be asking RSA to reclaim the Princess Glow (the RSA boys would probably happily fork it over) 😭 and that it should “go to the victor”? SIR, that is an incredibly powerful magestone that once belonged to your mother?? Your DECEASED mother who laid her life on the line so you could escape and be born??? Passed down to her from your grandmother and presumably would be passed onto you when you come into power???? A magestone which has miraculous properties and can heal otherwise incurable illnesses????? Why are we speaking about “earning” it as if it’s no more important than an actual trophy…

My brain ran through possible justifications or explanations, ranging from “he’s holding back his true feelings; he has emotionally matured since book 7” and “his mom didn’t own it for that long, given their long lifespans + differences in temporal processing” to “he’s so confident NRC will win this year” and “he’s cooking up a plan”. But in the end, I knew that none of these made sense and were just whipped up to cope with the confusion this scene had unleashed upon me. I get that maybe Malleus isn’t super attached to his mom since he never knew her personally, but he had the chance to meet her and observe her in Lilia’s dream back in book 7. He’s aware of the sacrifices she made for him and their country, of how much she meant to Lilia and Maleficia. And yet… Malleus has such a blunted reaction to discovering that a piece of her legacy is within reach.

Malleus isn’t the only one guilty of this, either. Lilia also had a weirdly… mellow reaction. Sure, maybe he had chilled since his general days—but this is a belonging of his dead friend, a symbol of power for your land. I’d think he would try to treat it more seriously?? Instead, Lilia provides a bunch of platitudes about how evil and good can get mixed up, how there’s many stories to explain the same thing, how time can warp tales… And yeah, that’s all fair. What I don’t vibe with is all the Extra Fae Lore he and Malleus drop on us.

It is so, so, SO strange to me to listen to Malleus say what is essentially “well, the Princess Glow’s doesn’t actually belong to us because my grandmother won it in a battle against diurnal fae”. In fact, it turns out Briarland was occupied by primarily diurnal fae and nocturnal fae were seemingly their invaders??? Castle Wildrose was also seized from diurnal fae. UM, SINCE WHEN????? I knew that there was beef between them, but this was like never brought up in the main story. If you didn’t read Fairy Gala (where this lore was dropped), you’d be super lost, especially coming off the heels of book 7, where the smaller pixies (which can be classified as diurnal) could be allies on Battle Maps 💀 It was told to us way too late; the beef between nocturnal and diurnal fae should have been set up earlier in the main story. If we got foreshadowing about the rocky relationship between fae and other races (particularly humans, especially because of Sebek discriminating against them), then why not the same treatment for nocturnal vs diurnal factions??? This just feels like the devs pulled lore from a one-off event (which was initially just used as an excuse as to why Malleus couldn’t walk in and retrieve the magestone right away diplomatically) to suddenly make a big deal of in the main story.

I guess this sordid history would explain why the guardian fae sided with the Silver Owls later on, because I’d imagine they’d want their land and resources back?? But then wouldn’t they just be sharing with other foreign people…? I also feel like this sort of paints the nocturnal fae as being no better than the Silver Owls who colonized them, since they ultimately did the same things, just with their fae brethren so the conflict is more local vs foreign forces. What happened to the diurnal fae the nocturnal fae drove out? How many died, were displaced, etc. because of the nocturnal fae? Victims suddenly become oppressors and everyone is seen as “equally bad” because they all picked fights and tried to take from one another, to the point where no one remembers if nocturnal or diurnal fae started it. Then even if we disregard all of this, it still doesn’t change the fact that the Princess Glow is not in possession by any fae??? 😭 So whether it rightfully belongs to the nocturnal or diurnal faction, neither currently holds it. Two wrongs do not make a right here.

Lilia chimes in at one point to offer other tellings of the Princess Glow’s origin. In one, the nocturnal fae dug it up. In another, the diurnal fae stole it from nocturnal fae 3000 years ago. I totally get wanting to try and write a complex narrative, but this does not read to me like that. I feel that all these stories do is further obfuscate the truth and make it really dubious who should be held responsible for the things that occurred on Briarland soil. Not saying that things should be cut-and-dry, black-and-white (since Twst did attempt nuance with the Dawn Knight fighting for a cause he didn’t believe in + seems to be pushing the theme of history being vague and able to be altered), but this is such a huge case of “Twst tries to be ambitious and grey with its writing but accidentally digs a hole and is now desperately trying to backtrack”.

What was the intended message here if everything serves to downplay how important it is to reclaim the Princess Glow—not because NRC wants to beat RSA, but because it belongs with the fae? You’ve got Malleus and Lilia pointing fingers and rejecting the idea of just taking the magestone, all these confusing ass-pull stories (which, by the way, reek of book 7’s noncommittal writing and explanations for the dream logic), the downgrading of the stakes from “let’s reclaim this powerful item” to “whoever wins the trophy wins lmao”… It’s so clumsily done and tone-deaf. Why introduce the Princess Glow and set it up as your goal to obtain if you’re not going to keep that energy going????? If Twst didn’t want to make it this deep then why have the Princess Glow back at all?? What was the point of all of this??? Why should we care if none of the characters really care????

Now look, I’m not saying I want or expect explosive rage from any of the involved parties. Just… a little more realistic emotion??? I would expect maybe a mix of surprise, confusion, hurt, and upset at the very least. Maybe they even need to take some time to step back and think about how to proceed, since it could lead to international backlash (considering Malleus is hot off the heels of a very public overblot; this could be bad optics even if it feels morally correct for the nocturnal fae). I can see Malleus not wanting to ask for the Princess Glow back due to something like… fae pride, which Maleanor also had in spades (to the point where she + her troops it’s honorable to die protecting others and to abandon the group if you’re holding them back), Maybe it bruises his ego if he doesn’t take things by his own power or proving himself worthy. Throw in something about wanting to live up to the Thorn Fairy’s spirit of nobility if you want. But again, the issue is that the narrative doesn’t suggest this is the case; Malleus acts way too blasé and like he doesn’t care at all, he could care LESS.

Sadly, it looks as if some of my suspicions were confirmed. I had previously expressed that the NRC students would unfortunately not care that much about getting the Princess Glow back for righteous reasons, and I was proven right here. It’s been minimized to a mere self-serving rumor among the mob students. Sebek—the most outspoken and patriotic of Diasomnia—doesn’t loudly complain about the injustice of it all. And now even the crown prince + son of the previous owner of Princess Glow and a close friend to the previous owner + an ex-war veteran, are so nonchalant about not asking for it back… This is all making me very concerned that book 8’s ending will be a huuuge cop-out 💀

What’s next??? How could this possibly get even messier??? What, is Maleficia going to make a book 8 appearance and even SHE doesn’t care about reclaiming the Princess Glow she passed down to her (now deceased) daughter??? Ffs, PLEASE don’t do that 💔

[twst-hottest-takes]

I've seen plenty of hot takes, both on here and in the fandom at large, wishing that that they wish that Yuu wasn't there in the game and whatnot. I think the real issue that people actually are taking umbrage with is a lack of control and the player character's amount of presence in the story.

Yuu in the game is a player avatar that is supposed to represent you or your oc. They are also my go to example of how not to write a player insert character. They have almost no personality. Your dialogue options are super limited. Characters routinely ignore your input and pretend like you never said anything.

Worst of all, they have no impact in the plot. Sure, they get the characters to work together, but I feel like some of that would happen even if Yuu wasn't there thanks to people tending to work together in life and death circumstances. The only real instances where they were truly a main character was just in the Prologue, Book 3 and somewhat Book 4. Every other arc, you could take them out and it wouldn't make any difference.

There are even cases where Yuu is about to make a choice, but then other characters swoop in to steal their thunder. In Book 5, Yuu was about to stop Neige from drinking the poisoned apple juice, but then Rook and Kalim swooped in to do the same. It's just annoying.

Yes, a lot of this is due to it being a mobile title, but that's not an excuse. Plenty of other otomes like Obey Me are mobile games, too. None of them suffer from these issues, at least to this extent. It's simply bad writing to me.

TWST would've been a lot better if it was a role playing console game like Baldur's Gate 3. I honestly wish that was the case. Sure, there would be events that are set in stone like the Overblots, but you would be able to craft your own character and play in your own sandbox a lot better. Wanna kick Ace and Deuce to the curb after the prologue? You can do that. Wanna befriend some of the other characters or spend more time with ones like Malleus? You can do that, too. Wanna get a job at one of the locations across campus instead of being stuck as a janitor? You can do that. The possibilities are endless!

Instead you are locked into certain choices whether you like it or not. That's frustrating for a lot of players, myself included. I would make a lot of different choices than Yuu does in the game if given the opportunity like not befriending Ace and Deuce.

Someone mentioned this in a Reddit comment of all things that the game is just okay for what it is and suffers from a lot of writing issues, but it serves better as a sandbox to take the parts and come up with something more fleshed out and better yourself in fics. That sums up my thoughts on the game in general.

I think the lack of control and agency as the player character is why I tend to enjoy things like the light novel for official media and fanfic "retellings" more than the actual game itself. Those have actual main characters with a personality, agency, motivation and push the plot along like how a main character should.

^^^This right here.^^^

I love this animatic and find is fairly appropriate for this topic.

I have a draft in here somewhere talking about this exact subject, and maybe it'll get published one of these days but for now just know that the gist of it is exactly what you've said here: Yuu does nothing. Yuu can't make decisions. Yuu doesn't actually need to be there.

"Yuu" is (are) set up as a character that is supposed to be making waves at NRC by just being a normal decent person dragged into magic shenanigans. But after a certain point, you're right, the story doesn't bother to even give the MC anything to do. At best the MC is a victim of other people's plots, and the lack of agency makes it come across as less of a player insert than Yuu just being a camera that gives us a glimpse into the world of Twisted Wonderland instead of actually being there. You can see it reflected in the way events turn out too. There's about a one in three chance that you're going to get Yuu doing something relevant, but I swear the attempts are getting less and less common.

And, yes, it's one of the things that makes every other version of Twisted Wonderland so much more compelling than the main game (even the fan-made ones). A main character that actually has agency and makes the decisions that lead towards the ends of the story is way more interesting to follow than a supposed self-insert that goes anywhere the wind takes them.

Thank you for your take.

I also apologize in advance, because now you've inspired me to finish that essay and I know it's going to repeat a lot of these talking points, so similarities are inevitable. I will link back to this ask when it is posted!

[pitchgloom]

The Yuu Entitlement

FYI for this I'll mostly talk about the game Yuu and not the novel and manga version since that's another story and the Yuu's are different in each iteration.

I don't know it's just me, but one thing remains clear in the Twisted Wonderland fandom is that — in most cases — they truly love Yuu. But at the same time, it sometimes gets to a point where they'll bend the events in the canon storyline; preferring their own headcanon over what truly happened there. It's a different case if you're writing fanfics with your own Yuusonas, but saying that what happened in the story you created is canon in the games, is just wrong.

Like let's look at the basic statement that's been popular for the fandom "Yuu is an unpaid therapist". Alright, give me an example — other than Book 3 and Book 5 (the part with Kalim) — where Yuu listens to or has a heart-to-heart conversation with a character, I'll wait.... None right. Yuu didn't even speak a word, especially after the events of each overblot. Do you know who confronted them, after the overblotters' fight? Their dormmates, friends, or even colleagues. During the aftermath, there are no dialogue options that have Yuu talk about the events that happened. There's no Yuu even asking "Are you okay?" or "Do you want to talk about it?". Hell, there's barely any attempt from Yuu themselves to reach out to them. Plus if we're talking about therapy, doesn't it involve a couple or even several meetings and sessions so that the therapists can get a full scope of their patients' mentality? It's not like a single conversation could change each of the overblotters way of doing things. They'll still have some bad habits here and there; subtly they will be more understanding and aware after what just happened to them respectively.

The game itself barely shows Yuu doing anything other than stopping Grimm most of the time. Like even in a fight, what does Yuu actually do? Do they seek shelter, or are they just hiding? Or do they also bark commands here and there, helping the group, while seeking shelter? Do they throw rocks or even potions? Does Yuu make a pipe bomb to throw at the enemy? Do they carry Grim as a flamethrower — blasting them with spells that the grey cat himself conjures up? There's none of an explanation on what Yuu does in a fight. Also using the gameplay as something that Yuu could do doesn't count since it doesn't make any sense and the game itself doesn't address the actions they do. Honestly, this should be something that could be fixed if Twst allowed the Yuu to have a stand-in avatar — that could be customized by the players — to showcase what they would be doing in a fight. But the reality is the game doesn't even have that.

The fandom also thinks that just because Yuu is isekai'd into another world, they need to be more recognized or even praised. Yes, being transported to another world would be a shock for everyone, but Yuu themselves barely have any internal thoughts about being transported to another world. There's no monologue of things or even moments where Yuu is talking about they're not sure what to do — their anger, fear, or hell even happiness since it's a trope especially in Japanese media where the MC is glad to be sent to another world. None of that is explored or mentioned in-game, so as someone who reads the story, why should I care about Yuu? Why should I care that they got transported to another world? Why should I care they're unpaid and live in Ramshackle? Why should I care that they have to both study and work at the same time? Yes, I sympathize with their situation but I couldn't really care less since the game itself doesn't even explore their hardships and difficulties.

Does it mean I hate Yuu? No, but I'm saying all of this to criticize the players' thoughts of them. There are so many statements around the fandom that are just blatantly headcanon. It also doesn't help that Twst doesn't even try to build up Yuu as a character. We don't even know what their life was like before going to Twisted Wonderland. Yes, I know it's so that players could self-insert themselves in the game, but it also proves as a point that the game itself won't even explore more of who Yuu is as a character. It also doesn't helped that Yuu so passive in the main story of the game and barely has any actions that could make them warranted to be lauded or cheer for; respected or even acknowledge more by other characters and not only Grim and the other first years.

Would I like the game and story to explore Yuu more? Yes definitely. Knowing their thoughts suddenly transported to a whole new world. Are they happy? Sad? Angry or frustrated? Knowing how Yuu stabilize themselves; adapting to a whole different environment, while babysitting Grim. This would require extensive monologues for our main POV themselves. I would also love for Yuu to be more proactive in doing stuff and not just because of the plot convenience sake. Them practicing to tag-team more with Grim since between the two he's the one who could use magic. Or them study ancient languages and the history of Twisted Wonderland that could also serve as a way to explore the lore of the world more. Them finding another way to contribute or help during the fight like for example throwing potions that'll create an explosions similar to Honey Lemon from Big Hero 6. Yuu could also helped make healing potions — with the help of Grim since some of it requires spell — to help heal and assists the team.

At the end of the day, main selling point of Twisted Wonderland is always the boys plus men characters and their actions. Not Yuu whose from another world—serving only as a main POV for us the players to read the story. Maybe in book 8 Twst would delve into Yuu more, but honestly it's a tad bit too late. The writers has soo many options to explore them more— building their character from each book — but they didn't even do that. So I'm not expecting much from that.

[lunara-rina]

I don’t know how well I can choose my words, as I’m really fed up, but I’ll try to choose my words.

In the game itself, we (that is, Yuu) defeat overblots, practically work as a psychologist for free, communicate quite familiarly with the princes (Leon and Malleus), and we even call the dragon by his nickname. We tolerate and sometimes stop jokes and attacks from students (Yes, Ace, hi. And say hi to Savanaklo and Octavinel). I prefer to watch a walkthrough of the game, but as far as I remember, we even fix our own dorm ourselves (as much as possible). Yuu is a smart character, he can be caustic and stand up for himself (the same goes for the manga, since in the game I don’t really see any character development where the character would show his personality. God willing, one phrase for several chapters.. The only thing we don't get along with is magic. We simply don't have it.

Why am I writing all this? In the game, we are quite strong individuals, hardened by difficulties and other people's problems (overblots, and even those problems we are forced to solve, since we don't really have much of a choice). But in short fanfics, that is, the same drabbles, with the participation of a character from the royal family (that is, Leon, Malleus, and now Minajael, Riel, thank God, is still bypassed) or with the same elite of society (Kalim, Vil and others) we behave in society like weaklings who can’t do anything at all. Everything the reader does, sits/stands, eyes downcast, neither here nor there, tongue in the ass, brain turns off, we all endure with the face of great martyrs. Take, for example, those situations where some aristocrat or ordinary person is pestering us.

Am I missing something? Why are all drabbles with similar pairings like this? 🫩🤧 Seriously, give me one decent drabble or fanfic where Yuu acts like a canon character and not like a brat who just escaped from kindergarten.

I'm not saying that all drabbles are like this, but when someone from the "elite" (I'm putting them all in one word, yes) is involved, we behave exactly as I described and allow ourselves to be treated like dirt.

Yes, I don't know anything about politics, if that even matters in a game like this. I only know the base.

Answer as you wish, I will accept any words addressed to me.

I forgot to add: I know that people have different personalities. Some will stand up for themselves and others, while others will cower in a corner and cry. But damn... As I already said, in almost all such works, Yuu/the reader is a weak-willed jerk, who studiously avoids conflict. For what purpose? To show what a worthless person you are next to your chosen one, who is constantly forced to defend you even from simple attacks? Come on.

От русских тоже бы хотелось услышать по этому поводу. Мало ли.

[blessingofthestars]

Yuu in the game is not someone who beats the overblots actively. Its the other characters. Yuu watches and observes. They do feel helpless. It comes up many times. Manga yuu is different from game yuu because they need an active mc.

Yuu is more a observers and moves when possible but not an active role.

But they are empathetic and kind. Theres nothing wrong with that. Them not actively speaking up does not make them weak willed and bad. Avoiding conflict isnt terrible it can be strategic to survive. Survival is not weak willed or laying low.

Yuu is living life they can and with friends to the ability they have. Yuu says it themselves they cant do anything without magic during obs.

Its like saying quiet people cant be strong. That people with loud voices are stronger. This is not true at all.

As for political situations, theres different ways to solve it not always with loud voiced and open actions. Politics are through hidden actions too. Being defended by your favorite isnt something to be ashamed of either.

Besides, writers can write what and who they want. If you dont like it, write your own instead of complaining in main tags.

If you want strong yuus and character development, read stories with ocs or make your own. Writers shouldnt have to see complaints in the tags when they write for free for the fandoms.

Complaining on work written with passion and free that is shared? When people dont comment or even reblog these days? What demanding and spoilt behavior. No creator deserves that.

[pitchgloom]

I honestly agree more with this. To be fair, I understand what OP is saying but Yuu not having magic doesn't mean that they're not strong. Also there are fanfics I see where—even though Yuu doesn't have magic—they still contribute in some sorts of way. I honestly see more fanfics where they make the canon characters (students or teachers) look or act more weak and pathetic than their respective Yuu or OCs.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

nrc dorms - traditions, culture, amenities

We recently learned a lot more about what each dorm offers its students in terms of amenities and house culture!! I did my best to compile those details here, as well as add other bits of lore we previously knew from other parts of Twst.

Heartslabyul

The second oldest dorm at NRC.

The rose maze changes shape according to the commands of the dorm leader. The flowers are always in eternal bloom.

Their rose trees attack people if they try to climb the hedges or use flight.

They raise flamingos and hedgehogs.

There is a courtroom in which they hold trials and important ceremonies like singing for the hedgehogs when they sneeze.

All the flora are carefully cultivated magical plants. They can walk if ordered to.

Unbirthday parties are held in the rose garden when no student has a birthday on a particular date.

The current students did not plant the flowers and trees; they were inherited from previous generations. In this way, they can be considered historic items, and thus Riddle becomes furious when the roses are not treated well.

The dormitory’s interior has a tendency to undergo sudden updates and layout changes. Staircases can "move around" or vanish, and the doors and rooms can rearrange at random.

Heartslabyul seems to set a different watchman every day to stand at the front of the dorm.

Riddle expects even visitors to adhere to the rules and to not cause a disturbance.

There are upside down chairs and floating picture frames in the hall, as well as rooms where directions are flipped and places where the floor is so warped you cannot tell how to walk on it.

The stairs are enchanted; on Thursdays, they gain 60 more steps.

There is no flying allowed inside the dorm.

The kitchen has a heart-shaped door. Its cupboards are all wobbly.

The fridge is often packed with baked goods due to unbirthday party planning.

The washroom resembles a flower field. The sinks resemble bottles underneath; the water inside circulates via magic.

You must fold your sleeves three times for washing your face. This is regardless of if you have short sleeves or a tank top, to ensure a clean shared space.

The lounge had a clear view of the rose gardens from inside. Flowers decorate the lounge; they are picked by Riddle and then arranged by Trey (who initially wasn’t very good at it).

At the end of the day, dorm members gather and like up by their suit. Then the dorm leader leads a recitation of the rules. (Visitors must join in too.) This was a tradition started by the first dorm leader and then revived by Riddle. If someone messes up, they are scolded in front of everyone.

Savanaclaw

Its students are usually athletes. They also tend to be hot-headed.

The walkway area opens to a big glass wall so there is light all year round. The ceilings are high and the halls have an open atrium.

The dorm leader’s room is on the topmost floor. When he steps outside and looks down, he can see everything. This is meant to emulate the time when the King of Beasts inspired the hyenas to follow him by the light of the moon.

Savanaclaw has a magift/spelldrive field and what is basically a gym with the latest training machines next to that. It used to be a storage place for sports equipment.

Leona describes his students as rough troublemakers. They are also very competitive.

Their lounge has a waterfall that actually flows continuously. It keeps the area cool and is meant to represent the beautiful savanna environment.

The lounge chairs are very comfortable. Apparently the students have staked their claim on the chairs, calling it their “territory”.

In territorial disputes, you’re meant to settle matters with your fists (well, arm wrestling). Prior to Leona being dorm leader, violent brawls were a constant occurrence to resolve problems.

Leona explains arm wrestling is a superior way for conflict resolution, since no one gets hurt physically and it’s a good way to relieve stress. Plus, the students can fix their issues without having to call for him.

In Savanaclaw, “survival of the fittest” mentality runs deep and physical strength is prized.

Octavinelle

Octavinelle’s hallways have glass corridors so you can gaze out into the sea, fish, coral, and underwater plants at all times. It was made this way so you can always see the sea and has always been a part of Octavinelle’s design.

The glass is reinforced with magic so it can withstand the strong water pressure. It didn’t break even when Floyd hit it when he was in a bad mood.

The dorm is unique because it is the only one located in a sea.

The Mostro Lounge is a student-run café in Octavinelle. It was started over a year ago when Azul and Crowley made a deal: return the magic of several contracted students in return for permission to run the café. 10% of its proceeds go back to NRC.

There is one drink purchase minimum if you want to be seated in the Mostro Lounge.

No fighting is allowed inside the lounge, as it is considered a “gentlemanly” place. If you make a fuss, Jade and/or Floyd will escort you out (by force, if necessary).

Azul studied interior design intently to design a place where gentlemen could socialize. Floyd was asked to rearrange the furniture a lot, and Jade provided input since he used to frequent cafés and restaurants.

Azul wanted to make a dimly lit place with calm vibes. It’s an “adult” or “grown-up” feeling space for students.

Mostro Lounge has comfortable seats and luxurious decorations. Azul was very particular about the expensive jellyfish chandeliers.

The VIP Room is even more fancy and more heavily furnished than the Mostro Lounge. It is for special clientele.

The VIP Room is completely soundproof. No matter how loud you screen or cry, you won’t be heard.

Octavinelle’s lounge has a big sofa. Apparently it was refurnished when Azul became dorm leader. The furniture used to be so old that they broke when larger students sat down on it.

They regularly have debate tournaments. They started because a student was previously framed by another student and was forced to admit fault for the something he wasn’t actually guilty of (the failure of a magical pharmaceuticals assignment).

If even one of their students makes a mistake, the entire dorm looks bad. Thus, debate tournaments exist to help students practice arguing themselves out of difficult situations.

If there are leftover ingredients at the Mostro Lounge when they close for the day, they are used to prepare dishes for the dorm’s students to eat together. Azul claims it helps eliminate food waste and helps build a sense of community in Octavinelle.

Their students are known for their intelligence.

Scarabia

Scarabia was renovated with funds donated from the Asims once Kalim enrolled. Before this, the interior was more dark red and subdued. The dorm has a lot of gold now.

The shape of their roofs emulates the roofs of the Scalding Sands.

Scarabia live under the motto "plan with deep anticipation".

Students are resourceful and often excel in astrology and ancient incantations. They often rival Octavinelle in terms of grades.

There are pots with traditional Scalding Sands designs everywhere for decoration. They are worth 4 million madol each.

The storeroom is currently used to hold a bunch of gold, jewels, and other treasures Kalim’s dad sent to school.

Kalim has a diorama corner in the storeroom, which has a miniature version of the dorm. (He also has one back home, but of his house.) It has a functioning mini fountain. There are also lights, moving parts, and animal toys. He likes to play a game where you try to stack the animals as high as you can without letting them topple over.

Jamil or some other Scarabia member runs pat-downs on those who enter the storeroom. They’ve had incidents in the past where people stole valuables.

The storeroom is guarded by anti-theft magic. Those who try to leave with items will be zapped by a strong electrical current.

The carpets and cushions in the lounge are highly detailed. They’re made for lying in and relaxing.

They have a lantern that resembles a face hanging in the lounge. It was there before the renovations.

Scarabia students tend to be carefree, lazy, and even spoiled. Lots of them eat while lying on the floor.

Kalim has a magic carpet which he keeps in the storeroom. He borrowed it from his dad.

Scarabia’s sky is beautiful at night.

Pomefiore

Pomefiore is the oldest and most historic dorm.

Anyone that does not keep up their appearance won’t be allowed inside.

They have a ballroom where students can practice dancing.

Its students excel in potionology and curses.

Pomefiore’s interior is styled to resemble a castle, with plenty of fine detail, luxury, and glamour. The floor is meant to resemble a red carpet.

Students often discuss their looks and have stereotypically feminine hobbies + interests. As Rook describes it, everyone is pursuing their own beauty. Many students also seem to come from well-off families, as they already arrive speaking in very refined ways and with knowledge of luxury items.

The washroom is usually very crowded. Students frequently check their makeup and skin condition in the mirrors, so the wait for your turn to go is very long.

The washroom mirrors have lighting like the ones in actors’ dressing rooms and high-definition mirrors that accurately show makeup colors.

There are other specialized mirrors like ones that recreate different lighting and climate so you can always see how you look in different conditions and inverting mirrors, so you can see how you appear in others’ eyes.

The basement/crypt houses a potions lab. Normally, outsiders would not be allowed in. It has a reputation for being scary.

Their lab has a strong smell, is quiet, and the air conditioning does not work well. Many dorm leaders have conducted experiments in the lab.

The lab is set up so that is it very easy to grab things and start concocting as soon as an idea strikes you.

The lounge has a peacock throne that is inspired by the seat the Fairest Queen sat in. The furnishings and chandeliers are also inspired by her elegance.

The lounge apparently took a long time to design. The goal is to help students appreciate the diligence and aesthetics of the lounge.

Relaxing music plays in the lounge around nighttime. It is supposed to help improve your quality of sleep. This was introduced by past dorm members.

Another system emits a flowery smell late in the day. It is also supposed to support sleep. The current aroma dispersed is made by Rook.

There is a special drink (hot water) every student has before bed. It is served from a special vase.

Pomefiore grows many poisonous plants and flowers.

Students magically cultivate apple trees in the garden for use in a special spell.

Ignihyde

The newest dorm.

Ignihyde has gone through transitions since it was first built. Originally, the interior was more old-fashioned and solemn to resemble a stone temple.

There are pillars with arial displays; the pillars are a remnant of its original design.

As technology advanced, more students who were good with engineering joined Ignihyde. This led to them pursuing greater convenience when they gathered, but modded the dorm so heavily that Crowley scolded them for it.

Ignihyde is rigged with facial recognition software at its entrance which prevents non-Ignihyde residents from entering.

There servers and network systems are in the deepest part of Ignihyde, so the security there is much more strict, requiring fingerprint authentication, a retinal scan, and a password.

If you fail facial recognition three times, an infrared beam will fire at the outsider. It won’t kill you, but it will scorch you.

Some students blend in with normies, rather than looking like the typical otaku who don’t care about their appearances.

The students used their own money to buy and install communal washroom appliances to increase efficiency. (Crowley refuses to buy luxury items for them.)

These communal appliances include a salon-style standing hairdryer (which allows you to multitask while your hair dries), a steaming iron that fixes even the most stubborn wrinkles and cleans lint, and a massage chair with a foot bath function and a hot eye mask.

Student researchers suffer from back pain and stiff backs because of how sedentary they are.

The Ignihyde boys’ muscle flexibility is 40% lower than that of the average teenage boy.

The lounge is shaped like a colosseum.

The lounge has high spec computers which can run powerful simulations.

A robot vacuum cleans the dorm every few hours. It has been modified to be quiet and work fast with a strong suction.

Ignihyde students tend to be shy/quiet, serious, and/or not very outgoing, sometimes confined to their own rooms.

Ignihyde students often get inspiration from listening to their peers mutter. They tend to look down and mumble instead of making direct eye contact and speaking directly.

However, the students are capable of chatting about their interests, like manga and academic papers. Sometimes the discussions become extremely heated because everyone has their own research specialties and refuse to compromise on their preferences.

Even when it’s lights out, debates can continue over group messages until the morning.

Students rarely interact with other dorms. Even very sociable students like Cater say they don't have a single friend from Ignihyde.

Its students excel in tech-related fields.

Diasomnia

Third oldest dorm at NRC.

Sunlight is scarce.

Diasomnia’s briar acts as a magical defense system, behaving similarly to Heartslabyul's roses and obeying the commands of the dorm leader.

Since Malleus came into power, the briar have become basically obsolete since he’s able to provide the same defenses (or better) using his own magic

The drawbridge to the castle is enchanted to raise to deny intruders entry. You must have authorization of the dorm leader to be allowed in. This is to emulate the same drawbridge the Thorn Witch had in her castle.

Diasomnia is built from stone. It has very few changes made to it.

The ceiling has black briar-like ornaments to create a solemn atmosphere.

There is a room that Lilia uses as his spare storage room for items he obtained on his worldly travels. In fact, Diasomnia has a lot of spare rooms.

Sebek wants to make a library, Silver wants to make a broom first-aid room stocked with healing potions + bandages, and Lilia wants to decorate a room to help visitors feel at ease. However, Malleus says they should not decorate spare rooms without permission.

Candles with green flames are all over the dorm.

They used to have a TV in the lounge, but Malleus “silenced” it forever with magic by accident. (He was trying to adjust the TV’s volume and went overboard.)

Their closing assembly is a long-time tradition. It started with the intent of raising awareness and promoting community. The dorm leader basically recounts their day at school.

Diasomnia students are highly disciplined and move in a very militaristic in-sync manner.

They generally look up to their leader Malleus, praise him, and seek to emulate his behaviors.

Diasomnia students in particular are hostile to outsiders and dent entry even to those with permits.

[pitchgloom]

Seriously though, I don't understand Dire Crowley hate

Is he annoying and useless? In some cases yes. Does he sometimes deserves slander? Yeah. But that doesn't mean he deserved the vitriol hate that I've seen this far. Here are some statements that I've seen this far for the hate. I'll try to explain and reason that those statements aren't all right and there's a reason why:

He leaves all the work to Yuu and not taking care of them

Oh boy this would be long.... Like what, does Crowley let Yuu—whose someone from another world mind you—deal with the college's finances? Or does Crowley also forces Yuu too manage the payment of each of the staffs? Or does Crowley order Yuu to create a school curriculum for the upcoming semester? To answer those questions, no right. Since Yuu themselves are also (in a way) one of NRC staffs. Yes, sometimes Crowley forgot to pay Yuu their wages and needed to be chased down and that's deserved. But other than that, Yuu should work to earn their keep. Mind you that NRC is still one of the top Colleges in Twisted Wonderland and getting there is no easy feat.

This is a little scenario so imagine that you're a student who worked hard to have the opportunity at entering one of the world's top mage schools. You study your ass off and even work on your magic plus body to get to be where you're now. All of a sudden you heard that someone that comes out of nowhere started to attend. This person who doesn't even have magic—even identity—started to attend classes with their weird creature just because the headmage says so. I don't know about you but I would be pissed off.

So, Yuu has to work to balance it off or otherwise it'll just lead to speculations that the headmaster himself favors this magicless person. Would it be hard for Yuu at balancing work and studies? Yes, definitely. But currently, what other choices do they have? They don't have any identity in this world or even income. Also, it's not like Crowley is giving work that is too complicated for Yuu. Most would be labour like cleaning and sweeping in certain areas or putting back books in the library. It isn't like Crowley only has Yuu doing all the labour work, he definitely has other staffs (mostly ghosts we've seen so far) to help with that. One example is during book 4, Crowley telling Yuu to tend the fire fairy so that NRC won't freeze. It's honestly a fairly simple task and the only reason you could messed this up is either you forget stuffs easily or you're a menace who wants all NRC to be frozen.

People also forget that Crowley has had given them tools like the ghost camera and magitool hammer. Basically, one of Yuu's other work is as photographer and if there are any items that's broken they'll just use the hammer. But for the hammer part I don't know if it's only works in Ramshackle. It doesn't helped that it's not even mention once in the main story.

Forces Yuu to be a therapist for the overblotters

This one annoys me so much because like stated previously no and it's stated that Crowley hired therapists for each of the overblotters. So why would he hired someone whose from another world to be their therapists? I understand if it's your Yuusonas or even OCs who took this role in your respective fics or scenarios, but in-game Yuu does none of that.

The only heart-to-heart talk attempt that Yuu in-game managed to do is in book 3 in the museum after Azul overblot and book 5 but it's more with Kalim and Jamil coincidentally hears their convo, so in a way it's still counts? There could be more since I could be misremembering stuffs. But after that there are no scenes where Yuu confront or have a heart-to-heart talk to the overblotters about what just happened. I mean why would Yuu do that and why would the overblotters let Yuu do that. Even if they did a heart-to heart convo it'll be a surface level exchange since they're practically strangers to one another. Yuu doesn't know the full-scope of their stories and vice versa. The ones who confront the overblotters are mostly their dorm mates and colleagues they've known for long while.

It doesn't mean that if Yuu isn't a therapists they don't matter at all. Yuu, in a way, helps face off the overblots. The game didn't really show us how they helped but I guess it would be helping Grim to fire off his spells by holding and guiding him. Even though not much of a heavy hitter, the fact that Yuu still stands their ground and does not run away like a wimp facing off this Bendy and the Ink Machine like monster, is a feat itself. The overblotters, also appreciate Yuu's efforts even though most of them showcase their thanks or appreciation in subtle ways (*cough* Leona *cough*).

Dire Crowley is annoying, useless, selfish, ignorant, uncaring and irresponsible

I've stated that in a way yes he could be annoying and useless but at the same time Dire Crowley in a way is.... responsible *Gasp*. Shocker, it's like he's doing his darn best at doing his job and keeping the school afloat. It's stated by Trein himself that Dire Crowley, working as head mage, is reliable himself. There's a reason why Trein could work in NRC till now when there are more options for him to go.

True he's selfish at fault, but isn't everyone in NRC kind of selfish? Why is Crowley the only one being accused of being selfish? Did he help and contribute to foster NRC's competitive nature? Yes. But so does the other teachers like Vargas, Crewel, Trein, and even Sam with his all "In Stock!" sales tactic. Like funnily enough those characters have a better reputation than that of Crowley and even some (audience/readers/players) would thought they would care for Yuu better. In-game the only one I could see treat Yuu a bit better is Trein but that's because of the NBC Rollo event but outside of that he's pretty neutral with everyone. Crewel of course give praises to diligent students like Azul or Vil but he's still shouting "Stay! Puppies!" and would even wack them if they don't pay attention. Vargas would still force you—whether you have magic or not—to build some muscles. Sam is the typical salesman that'll promote discounts here and there. Those staffs and teachers could at any time tell Crowley to change their curriculum or environment a bit to temper down their competitive behaviours, but they didn't and instead they encourage it to their students. I mean isn't it like how many schools, colleges, and universities work in real life? Even the most generous or nice schools would have a bit of competitiveness. There's a reason why if there are students with the highest scores or many achievements, their faces would get splattered around the school. NRC is like that too just with the addition of magic.

There are some that say he is ignorant and does not care for his students' well-being due to the many overblots. Is it suspicious? Yes. But whether it's suspicious or not, it's not like Crowley knows what's going on in each of the overblotters' heads. Mind you they (overblotters) each had their own problems even before going to NRC. So sooner or later all of them would've crashed out the way they did even if they didn't go to NRC. It's just that NRC managed to amplify thus fasten the process and the reason for that is something that we would be finding out in book 8. Also do you think that the headmage would have the time to have a heart-to-heart sessions with each students one at a time? No right. It's the equivalent of your school's principal trying to check each students during their working hours which is just them neglecting their work as the principal and them wasting their time. Just like in real life, Crowley only involves himself during the aftermath and trying to not fan out the conflict. Him not being involved in the students everyday life doesn't mean he be full on neglecting them and the school. Some of them are royalties, billionaires, genius, prodigies and have a great potential for success, so they're basically his investments, why would he be ignoring those?

Yes him yapping about "how kind and gracious" he is could be annoying since he is anything but that. We don't really know why he always says this stuff but if we put on meta perspective, it's basically a unique anime-esque quirk. It's the equivalent of those haughty characters in anime that'll laugh out load "Ho! Ho! Ho!" or those characters that are sporty and always fired up that says "Youth!" (similar to Vargas but he always says muscle). So it's just a way to make Crowley memorable.

His Obsession with the School Image

I mean what kind of headmaster wouldn't be obsessed with their school's image. That's basically his job at making sure to promote people (especially those in power) to try and enroll in this school. Of course the overblots amplify this obsession more, but with a school that has a lot of cases for mischievous people that has done a lot of property damage and trespassing another person's privacy, I feel like cases other than the likes of overblots are already bound to happen.

There's also in-lore reason that I think Lilia once stated, about mages in the past being hunted down and persecuted by non-mages, similar to the Salem witch trials. So of course logically if you have a school that's highly specific for mages, isn't this a great chance to show the world that magic and mages aren't all that bad? It'll also help showcase that people with magic could help increase the quality of life in each of their respective kingdoms. There's a reason why Crowley is obsessed with Spelldrive competitions, whether interdorm and interscholastic, and SDC. Sure it's because of competitiveness with RSA (for interscholastic and SDC) but it's also to showcase the world that "Hey! These younglings have potential so they could be a good option to hire!👍🏼" to companies or organizations and such. This also helps with the 3rd year students getting some sponsorship and easily getting internships for when they get to the 4th year.

Dire Crowley is the Villain behind all of this. Overblots and Yuu not getting home.

Ok this one sure is understandable, especially if you're really into theories that'll have him as the main instigator for these events. But like I mentioned previously, the students already faced many of their own problems even before NRC. Whether their downward spiral happens or not it depends on the individual. For Yuu's case, currently it's still unknown but it's highly expected to be Crowley who summons them.

But if him being the main antagonist is one of the reason that someone truly hates Crowley to that extent... then that just lost on me? Shouldn't you be more interested rather than hate? Asking why he did this? Why did he need to do all of this? What's his end goal? Also, there are other antagonists that whether the stories explain their motivations and pasts or not, people still like them and even if some did dislike those antagonists they won't explain them in such a black and white manner.

——————————————————————

Funny thing is that this old crow is hated so much that even in many of the fanfics that I've read so far, Crowley is seen as much like a bumbling buffoon. It won't be a problem if it happens sometimes in one or two fanfics, but it happened over and over again. There's no effort at even trying to portray some depth to him compared to other characters. To be fair I have to blame the game since they've done a bad job at showcasing that this whimsical, funny and sometimes irresponsible crow have some depth to him. You truly need to read the lines and observe his interaction, design, and dialogue with a keen eye.

Also I don't know if it's just me but Dire Crowley's hate agenda is amplified much more after the English release of the game. Like pre-english release there are some dislike, but it's not all black and white. The hate I've seen so far only intensifies to not a funny degree and especially after book 7-7.5 is finished. Crowley then boils down to be "deadbeat dad" or "he for some reason got a baddie" it's kind of tiring and feels disingenuous with what we know of Crowley so far (even though there is so little).

In conclusion, learn to like the crow a bit more and maybe try explore more depth to his character. Other than that thank you for reading this far if you have thoughts, opinions, or stuff that I've missed please tell, it's been a while since I typed something this long especially on Tumblr.

PS—Also Yana please don't make Crowley into Malleus' dad. Plus recommend me some good Dire Crowley fics if you know some.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

With the reveal of the new character silhouettes, I’ve been seeing people joke that the reason NRC keeps losing is because they’re not cunty enough / NRC is getting outmogged, not just by the RSA silhouettes but by a lot of new event character designs too. More details, better rendering, etc. Some have even suggested the NRC boys should get updated designs, but I remember you’ve mentioned how consistency is a key in marketing, so I really don’t think we could have that? As good of an idea it is. At most we could have the poses altered to be more flamboyant and “out there,” but I feel even that would be a bit of a stretch?

[ Referencing this news! ]

WDYM "NOT CUNTY ENOUGH" AND "GETTING OUTMOGGED" 💀 NRC has the handsome lad that is Sebek Zigvolt <- my inner Zigvolt oneesan coming out again, Leona Kingscholar's cunty ass lashes, and Jade Leech’s lush lips… How did they already lose to characters whose full designs we haven’t even seen yet?? 😭

I’ve definitely noticed that the official artwork is rendered better for newer cards and characters. It’s just a natural consequence of the artists getting more skilled in their craft with practice and becoming more comfortable recreating the Twst style. The live 2D models, which we see most of the time, are largely still the same quality.

I don’t think Twst’s key design philosophy has changed much; I think we just perceive the newer characters as being more complex in looks because we see them less (and they’re going to stand out more anyway since they have less screen time). Meanwhile, we see the NRC boys in their plain school uniforms most of the time. Of course that’s going to pale in comparison to the other guys—who, being one-offs, don’t have other outfits and NEED to have instantly memorable designs. If we had the NRC boys in their fancy dorm uniforms all the time instead of school uniforms, then we wouldn’t perceive this as an issue at all. Part of it is also that we've been exposed to the NRC boys for like 6+ years now. They won't feel as novel because we see their darn faces every day. This isn't the case for RSA, who we know far less about and have far fewer characters for. Same goes for Halloween characters, family members, etc.

I don’t think updating the NRC boys’ designs makes any sense right now. So much of the merch production + adaptations and general marketing are reliant on the iconic and original designs. In-universe, it’s been less than a year since the start of the main story, and people don’t tend to drastically change their appearance in that span of time.

I think the poses are fine as-is and don’t need a do-over. The body language and facial expressions already convey each student’s personality super well. Why give them more flamboyant poses when that’s not really true to their characters??? I feel like it doesn’t achieve anything and could actually give the wrong impression of the characters’ personalities if they’re all given a similar flair.

We also have to consider how the NRC boys and the RSA boys were introduced to the public. The NRC boys were NOT first shown to the world via silhouette only. Their full designs dropped one dorm at a time, if I recall correctly. That means the marketing and art teams did NOT have to focus on making the NRC boys’s silhouettes as interesting. Meanwhile, the RSA boys ARE being marketed by first showing their silhouettes. We won’t get their full designs until later. In order to build hype for those reveals, the marketing and art teams probably coordinated to intentionally give the RSA boys more interesting silhouettes with more baubles, big accessories, and swooshy fabric. Just look at twisted!Ariel (who is doing the same pose Arie has done for TLM materials before), no one naturally holds a pose like that 😭

At best, the Twst artists could redo the official artworks for the NRC boys in the same poses and expressions to make the rendering better, but I feel like it isn’t needed because the average fan wouldn’t notice these things. It’s not like the old and new art is as drastic as how, say, Granblue Fantasy’s art has changed over the years. The devs would be putting in so much effort for very little gain.

I think people are probably conflating design with art style? Because the Twst art style has for sure been more polished over the years--but keep in mind that style (choices + techniques resulting in a consistent look across multiple artworks) doesn't mean the same thing as the physical appearance of clothes, hair, accessories, etc.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Would you change the order of the dorms and how they are presented in the story? That would drastically change the story but I think it could be interesting. From an outside of the narrative point the later books get longer stories that something like Book 2 needs.

I would arrange the books so they tackle individual issues at first and then transition to addressing more systemic and/or inevitable issues. For example, I find it really odd that Pomefiore comes so late in the main story when I feel like it's not that relevant to the rising stakes. It feels like a very personal problem for Vil, and even though it's valid I think it just does not fit this late in the story, when we should be starting to pivot to the global scale. For example, book 6 introduces Styx, an organization responsible for blot research, and book 7 involves a potentially world-ending crisis. Book 5 with its school idol competition seriously feels out of place.

I would consider Heartslabyul, Octavinelle, and Pomefiore the "early book" arcs. They all talk about circumstances which are VERY specific to a character. Riddle has to deal with a helicopter mom, Azul has to accept a past self he's ashamed of, and Vil has to learn how to derive satisfaction from within himself rather than from external validation. The settings for these three books are also pretty contained within NRC campus, save for Pomefiore with its cultural festival. It can easily be tweaked to be more of a club showcase thing limited to NRC, especially since we never get to see exhibits from the other schools in attendance in the canon book 5.

Savanaclaw, Ignihyde, and Diasomnia would be the "late book" arcs, as they deal with things I consider to be more universally experienced or societal. For Leona, that's feeling as if he isn't enough due to circumstances out of his control. For Idia, it's the loss of a loved one. For Malleus, it's the pain of change and wanting to cling onto a pleasant present than face an uncertain future. I also want to add that Ignihyde and Diasomnia all open the world up by talking more about other countries and governmental organizations beyond Sage’s Island. Savanaclaw could be tweaked to better fit the other two books. In this case, the interdorm tournament could be more of a general sporting event with competitors from all different arcane academies. Or the interdorm tournament could be a part of the training regiment for the larger interschool tournament.

I also think having Savanaclaw late fits WAY better in building hype for book 6, since Leona has knowledge of Styx. Plus, Leona is known to have beef with Malleus, the Big Bad for book 7. He could easily foreshadow this by dropping lines about how Yuu doesn’t know jack shit about what “the lizard” is actually like.

Scarabia is a good way to "bridge the gap" between individual and larger scale problems. The immediate conflict involves a deeply personal issue (ie Jamil not being able to free himself from his social status) but it is ultimately tied to things far greater than himself (legacy, social expectations, etc.).

Personally, I would revoke the weird Twst pattern where each main story book (besides 7.5) gets progressively longer. That's such a weird stipulation and I believe it would make for a better story if we avoided arbitrary things like this and just gave each book the breathing space they need to fully tell their tale.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

i’m kind of confused by the presence of dragons in twst lore. i know Malleus is inspired by Maleficent, who was a fairy that could turn into a dragon, but how is he both fae and dragon? gosh it feels kind of silly to ask because he’s so obviously draconian but like… i genuinely don’t understand the duality.

are dragons just a type of fae, or a separate species that are to fae how eel are to merfolk and lions to beastmen (or to put it even more broadly, what merfolk/beastmen are to ordinary humans, since unless i’m mistaken you’ve likened both to subcategories of humans rather than a distinct race of its own?). Diasomnia had those dragon costumes for Halloween, so i would assume dragons have their own place in the world.

i think it’s mainly unintuitive for me because (according to genre expectations) fae and dragons are usually distinguished as separate classes of fantasy creatures. i went so long just taking for granted that Malleus happens to be fae prince with some draconian qualities before it hit me that wait, he hatched from a literal egg.

would love some clarification on this, thank you 🙏

To quickly correct something: merfolk and beastmen are not subcategories of humans like how you’re probably thinking they are. They all count as their own separate races. However, merfolk, beastmen, and humans can also all be collectively grouped under the larger umbrella term “humans” (confusing, I know), which is more akin to a “non-fae” grouping. Fae are a separate thing. This difference seems to be defined by a difference in lifespan. “Humans” (merfolk, beastmen, humans) have normal life expectancies, whereas fae live for hundreds to thousands of years.

Second correction (I’m going to sound as pedantic as Malleus for a second here): Diasomnia’s Halloween costumes were not dragons. They are meant to be ghosts of long. Their horns, tails, and skin are similar, but long are essentially eastern dragons, nothing like the dragons we think of in the west. Western dragons have wings, breathe fire, and are typically depicted as greedy. Eastern long are serpant-like, lack wings, are closely associated with water (not fire), and are seen as symbols of wisdom and good luck.

In the Twst world, long seem to be characterized by different wings (or perhaps lack thereof; the wording is vague here). According to Malleus, the skeletal structure is also quite different. (I assume the Mushu-like decoration in the background is one such depiction of a long.)

What I find most interesting in this conversation, however, is what Malleus says next: “[…] longs wouldn’t be categorized as fae—” Since long are being compared with dragons in this instance, this implies dragons ARE categorized as fae.

In Malleus’s official in-game profile, he is described as “descended from fae” too. (Although this wording is definitely unclear.)

There’s an instance in which Maleanor “ruined engagement talks with a dragon who’d traveled here from halfway across the world”, implying that actual dragons live somewhere in Twisted Wonderland. However, if dragons are classified as fae, then it is possible that “dragon” is simply shorthand for “dragon fae”. For example, Malleus uses “dragon(s)” to refer to himself rather than “dragon fae.”

I think it’s still possible that dragons and fae exist as separate entities if we go by the logic of other races and fae species. Leona, for example, says beastfolk are descended from animals, meaning actual lions were in his bloodline at some point. This doesn’t mean actual lions do not exist irl; they must since they’re in works of art (like how Scar is definitely depicted as a lion).

We don’t exactly know how merpeople came to be, but normal sealife still coexists with octopus and moray eel merpeople too.

Among fae, a similar pattern holds. For example, Lilia appears to be a bat fae, but bats also exist as a thing on their own. He is shown with a whole crowd of bats in his animations, and even explicitly nurses one back to full health in his Dorm Uniform vignettes. The Zigvolts are very crocodile-like, and crocodiles still exist as an irl animal. They are referred to in poems (book 7) and such.

However, dragons are mythological beings and not a normal animal or an everyday part of nature (like the flora, light, thistle, and fauna fae Malleus mentions). He and the other dragons may not follow the same rules as everyone else.

Perhaps the most telling difference is how dragons seem to be born (well, hatched from a literal egg)… as dragons. This implies the dragon body is Malleus’s “true form”, which is much more animalistic than, say, merpeople’s “true forms”. (Dragon fae have to learn how to shift into more humanoid forms as they age.)

He even has a line in his Halloween Dress card where he reveals the tail is his real one. (It is usually not showing.) “This tail? Oh, no, it's very much real, I assure you. I understand your interest, but please don't get too close. It could easily send you flying.”

To summarize, based on the game canon we’ve seen:

Humans, merfolk, and beastmen are “human/non-fae. Fae are a separate category. This is a distinction drawn based on differences in lifespan.

Dragons =/= Longs

Longs aren’t fae

Dragons are hinted to be fae

There is overlap between actual animals and concepts in nature + one of Twst’s main races, but these things can exist separately; lions and lion beastmen, bats and bat fae, octopuses and octopus merfolk, etc.

Dragons may be exempt from the previous rule, because they are not ordinary animals or concepts in nature

Malleus was born as a dragon, implying dragons are the “true form”/the default

So??? It seems like dragon fae straight up are dragons and that dragons aren’t entities isolated from being fae.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hey Raven! I hope you’re well! ^_^

I recently convinced my friend to get into twst, so I’ve been rewatching the entire main story alongside her. We’re at Book 4 right now and it’s SOOOO much fun to see all the bits of foreshadowing and stuff I never noticed before now knowing what happens at the end of each book since I only watched/played through the main storyline once.

My fav little hint probably happened in Book 2 when Jamil stops Kalim from telling the investigation gang what Jamil’s UM is after Jamil talks about recognizing the symptoms of being controlled by someone’s UM. HIDING SOMETHING LIKE THAT IN A SCENE THAT (for me) WAS SO EASY TO BRUSH OFF!! Absolutely devious…

Anyway! My questions…! All of that got me wondering if you know how much of the story was out upon release of the game? I think it’s interesting to see which parts of the plot were thoroughly planned ahead and alluded to vs… well, however much the story is planned in advance now.

ALSO! When you were first playing the game, did any of the plot twists work for you? What parts were predictable to you and what weren’t? Rewatching with my friend giving her own perspective has completely changed my own. A LOT of things I thought were subtle weren’t actually nearly as subtle as I thought… like there literally being sparkles on screen when Ruggie “trades” with Grim for the sandwich </3 it was so obvious I don’t know why I remember that scene so differently. But it was years ago now, so who knows!

Hope you have a nice day/evening/night/whatever!

Another poor, unfortunate soul for the Twst rabbit hole…

Twst JP originally dropped in March 2020 (more specifically, on the 18th) with the full prologue, book 1, and book 2. Books 3 and 4 were released in a series of updates taking place over the next few months; these rollouts were relatively quick. Books 5 through 7 were when we started to go several weeks to months without a proper main story update.

I’ve experienced the main story several times over (via the adaptations and frequently revisiting the main story to collect information or to answer questions)!! But I feel like even on my first read-throughs, it was very easy for me to pick up on Twst’s foreshadowing. It was super obvious Jamil would have a mind control UM considering what Jafar’s staff does to the Sultan. It was super obvious that Ruggie was the one behind the accidents in book 2 the instant he had Grim switch breads with him. It was obvious that Ortho was dead the entire time. Twst isn’t exactly subtle with a lot of its writing conventions.

Sometimes I feel like Twst’s foreshadowing is too vague or it’s the result of fans retroactively projecting onto older books once newer books present something. For example, Idia implies in book 6 that Leona seems like the type of guy to know he’s dreaming. What actually happens in Leona’s book 7 dream is a LOT more subtle than him already being awake. In fact, this awareness seems to manifest not in himself, but in NPC!Kifaji. There are also instances when I think Twst just wrote a reasonable extension of a character, but this is still somehow perceived as foreshadowing. For example, Silver has always been forgiving and wishing for peace between all races, so I don’t necessarily believe his speech in Fairy Gala: If foreshadows the ending to book 7, where he refuses to slay Malleus.

The only times when Twst manages to surprise me is when they do something completely nonsensical (ie not foreshadowed well at all or it leads to plot holes or misaligned details). An example of the former would be the (what I think is asinine) decision to dedicate most of book 7 to visiting every student’s dream and waking them. This was never in the books until Idia literally explains the plan to us a few parts before the dreamventure begins. Another example would be the dance party at the end of book 7. Yeah, it’s nice for the happy ending—but think about it for a second longer and some things don’t make sense. The party is a MIDNIGHT, and Malleus is hosting it. What happened to Jack always sleeping at 10 pm? What happened to studious students like Riddle not incentivizing partying over academics? What happened to Leona Malleus’s haters? Book 7.5 even has to retroactively fix some of book 7’s issues and filling in for what happened in the time skips.

There’s probably a lot more examples of what was predictable and what wasn’t I could come up with if I thought long and hard enough about it 💦 I’ll leave it at this for now though!!

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hi Miss Raven! I hope it’s okay to ask this, but I’ve been wondering about how language works in Night Raven College. Since the school has a more Western-style education system and students from all over the world, I think it was implied they primarily learn in English (though I’m not sure).

In the novel, it’s mentioned that students speak their native languages and use a translating spell, but I also read that a lot of nuance between characters gets lost in the Japanese-to-English translation especially around word forms, cultural references, and honorifics. That makes me wonder: what language are the characters actually speaking in-universe?

In the game, are they supposed to be speaking English but with Japanese honorifics left in, or are they speaking Japanese while the school just looks “Western”? Or are they speaking their own native languages, with the translation spell handling intent and nuance? And if so, how does that work when English itself doesn’t really have formality or honorifics?

If we go by speaking their native languages, I don’t even think the other implied languages (like German) have honorifics such as -san, -chan, -kun, or -senpai. Though German does have polite forms, just maybe not to the degree Japanese does. And as far as I know, the only canonical character who actively uses another language is Rook, who speaks Fr*nch, which somehow seems to bypass the translation spell (headcanon: it’s a language that doesn’t exist in TWST, he made it up.)

For writing fan content, do you think it’s more accurate (or respectful) to use honorifics, or better to avoid them since I don’t know much about Japanese language or culture. I’d love your perspective as an expert who knows both JP side and TWST. Thank you!

Special thanks to @yuurei20 for helping me cross reference something ^^

I’ve discussed what language(s) is/are being spoken in Twisted Wonderland several times before. Here’s a short masterlist of relevant posts you can read in more detail:

NRC’s translation spell

Why do the characters seemingly speak Japanese?

Why do the characters seemingly write in English?

Twisted Wonderland’s common language

Does English/Japanese even exist in Twisted Wonderland?

A quick correction though: NRC having a translation spell over it is actually NOT canon, nor confirmed.

We only get a brief passage in the first light novel which describes the mouth movements of the Twisted Wonderland residents not matching with what they’re saying. Some unknown force is translating whatever Yuuya is saying and hearing for him into Japanese, a language he does understand. Nothing states this is universal or cast over the school; it is highly likely that this is a Yuu-only phenomenon.

A lot of the text we see in Twst’s world seems to appear as English to us. I’m not sure if the same force that translates what Yuuya speaks and heard is also responsible for the reading (since he’s able to read just fine). If so, is Yuuya reading what is originally text that resembles English in Japanese???

As for how this translating happens… well, it’s (I assume) magic. I guess it just knows how to perfectly translate all the nuances from Twst tongue over to whatever Yuu’s native language is.

On a meta level, the characters are communicating in Japanese/English for the sake of the audience’s understanding. Because Twisted Wonderland is an entirely different world, it’s possible that the languages they speak are unique to it and don’t actually have irl equivalents. We only perceive their language as “English” or “Japanese” because we wouldn’t actually be able to understand them if they used a their own languages, even if that was more accurate to how they communicate in-universe.

It is said that Twisted Wonderland has a “common tongue” (which we don’t know the properties of), so this is probably what is spoken by most Twisted Wonderland residents. This is similar to how English is sort of the universal language irl, or at least is commonly taught in other countries. Any other languages we see being spoken (like Rook’s “French”) can be treated as a separate language in Twisted Wonderland’s reality. So when Rook speaks “French”, it’s actually him swapping from the common tongue to a different language altogether.

Rook isn’t the only multilingual character. Ruggie is proficient in Animal Linguistics and knows greetings + thank you + hello in 10 languages due to his part-time jobs, Azul seems to do well with speaking Cat, Epel’s got his Harveston dialect, Leona deciphers ancient languages, Sebek and Lilia know the nocturnal fae language, etc.

Rook’s “French” is not a made up language. The City of Flowers/Fleur City and Fairest City/Maquillaville have residents who speak the language and have local specialties with “French”-sounding names.

I don’t think there are hard rules to writing fan content. You definitely don’t need to know a ton about Japanese culture or language to make fanfiction 😭 You’re here to have fun, not to force yourself into a box or to fret about whether you’re doing it “right” or not. Just write whatever you’re most comfortable and/or familiar with.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

twst lodging + roommates lore

Now that we have all the Relax in Room cards, I can finally release this into the wild!!

General

First year students are four to a room.

Second year students are two to a room.

Third year students get their own rooms.

Fourth year students go off-campus for internships, and therefore do not require rooms on NRC campus.

Dorm leaders (but NOT vice dorm leaders) get their own rooms, regardless of what year they are.

All students use a communal washroom; not even the dorm leaders have a private one.

Savanaclaw and Scarabia are noted to have empty rooms; it is not known if this is true for other dorms. Yuu and Grim stay in an “empty private room” in book 4.

Heartslabyul has no open rooms. This is why Yuu cannot sleep over in book 3.

Riddle, Trey, Cater, Leona, Azul, Kalim, Vil, Rook, Idia, Malleus, and Lilia have NO roommates because they are a dorm leader, third year, or both a dorm leader and a third year.

It is stated in the light novel that Riddle determines the room assignments for students in Heartslabyul. It has yet to be confirmed if this is the process for other dorms as well.

Ace and Deuce

Ace says he can hear Deuce grinding this teeth in his sleep.

Ace thinks his roommates have it easy and don’t have upperclassmen who cause problems or nag them.

They swap dorm duties and help each other remember the Queen of Hearts’ rules.

Their stuff always mixes with their roommates’ stuff.

No one bothers waking Ace up if he oversleeps.

They play darts or card games (the latter of which have been particularly popular). Deuce says this disrupts his studying.

Ace says a loud-mouthed and stubborn idiot always gets in the way of these games. He doesn’t name anyone, but I assume he means Deuce.

They share comics, taking turns reading every week.

They sometimes share food, as one roommate gives Deuce cookies as a birthday gift the night before.

Deuce is frequently bothered by his roommates when he tries to study. This makes his roommates laugh and intentionally act in ways that distract him.

Ruggie

Ruggie says he gets along pretty well with his roommate. It’s a very “you scratch my back, I scratch yours” relationship.

His roommate is good at ancient incantations.

Ruggie offers his animal linguistics expertise in exchange for his roommate’s help with ancient incantations homework.

Ruggie says he can count on his roomie.

Jack

Jack cannot do stretches in his room because his roommates’ stuff is scattered everywhere.

His roommates ask to copy his homework, which Jack refuses. He tells them to take personal responsibility for their work.

Jack says his roommates stay up late and/or are too loud. For him, who always sleeps at 10 pm every day, this is not optimal.

He doubts his roommates will listen to him.

He complains that his roommates leave their dirty clothes in his personal space. Jack considers throwing the clothes away.

Jade and Floyd

Floyd tends to pile up snacks in their room since he loses interest after he already buys them.

Jade plans on getting more logbooks, encyclopedias, and terrariums for the room.

Jade tends to ramble about the mountains. Whenever Floyd is wide awake, this helps to immediately put him to sleep.

Jade keeps his side neat and tidy, whereas Floyd’s side is messy and unkempt.

Floyd occasionally borrows Jade’s clothes.

Jamil

He says his roommate is “not a pain”.

Jamil describes his roommate as “the kind of guy that doesn’t care at all” if Jamil decides to do stretches in the middle of the night.

His roommate greets him when he returns.

Jamil implies his roommates doesn’t regularly study. However, he does appear to study when he knows he will be busy tomorrow and this won’t have time to do it then.

Epel

Epel sprays fragrances he is gifted to cover the smell of him snacking.

His roommates often ask him what products he uses and what he eats. They then proceed to try and copy him, hoping to attain Epel’s looks.

His roommates compliment his appearance and his cardigan.

They do not know about Epel’s true nature.

They go to bed early in order to get their beauty sleep.

Epel waits for his roomies to fall asleep so he can watch his favorite shows on his phone while snacking.

Ortho

Idia scared Ortho with stories about how awful it was to room with three other students and to have zero privacy.

Ortho chats with his roommates all the time. He finds each or their specialized fields of interest fascinating.

His roommates are excited whenever Ortho debuts a new gear. Ortho answers all their questions.

His roommates usually stay up late, at least past midnight.

He plays video games with his roomies.

Ortho used to “sleep” while standing motionlessly and giving off a faint light. His roomies found this frightening and asked for the school to do something about it.

Silver

His roommate finds Trein’s class boring and falls asleep during it.

The roomie helps wake Silver up when he starts to fall asleep and in the mornings too.

The roommate has to deal with Silver’s alarms every morning. He begs Silver to not buy more.

Once Silver startled his roommates on a rainy day. He had decided to practice with his sword in their room. Silver now warns the roommate before he practices with his sword.

Sebek

Please note: Sebek DOES have three roommates, but we only ever see two in his vignettes.

Sebek seems cold towards his roommates, as he does not find it necessary to get to know them.

He says his roomies are too noisy (when there is a question on an assignment they cannot figure out). Sebek helps them, but is arrogant about it.

His roommates tell Sebek he is full of himself, even if they are grateful for his assistance.

He joins in conversations where they extol Malleus’s greatness.

Miscellaneous

Trey and Cater confirm that they were roommates as first and second year students.

When Leona was a first year, one of his roommate’s alarms went off and it was so loud that he smashed it to smithereens.

Lilia and Malleus’s rooms are currently located next to each other.

[twst-hottest-takes]

How about Overblot *design* ranking now?

*Gasps!* Well, since you asked. . .

RANKING TWISTED WONDERLAND'S OVERBLOT CHARACTER DESIGNS BASED ON MY PERSONAL TASTES!

WARNING: As the title suggests this is completely subjective and there's no real criteria across the board. You will see my biases shine through almost immediately and as such, no one is required to agree with this ranking.

MOVING FORWARD GOING FROM "WORST" TO "BEST"

7. AZUL--While really fun in concept and a novelty when you first see it, the "WOW" factor of this one completely disappears when it turns out that this is just Azul's normal mer-form with a few extra barnacles glued onto it. It doesn't emulate Ursula any more than his standard mer-form and it's just disappointing. (If the circumstance were different he'd be at least three spots higher.)

6. JAMIL--I love the design of his head--snake hair for the win! The rest is trash. After that there are too many layers though. This just isn't a good look for Jamil with the various degrees of coverage on the upper body and arms, and none of it reads as Jafar from the shoulders down. It's definitely a dress as opposed to a robe, and it's not one he can pull off. They should have given him an inky snake body to go along with his name instead of whatever disaster they decided on for his main outfit. It would have contrasted well with the genie Phantom behind him. The gold on the top half ov his body and the legs as a whole are atrocious and overall the design is barely coherent. It's only not lower than Azul because I'll take a disaster design over a lazy one any day. Visually, my least favorite of the bunch. (Sad because Jamil's Phantom is one of my favorites.)

5. VIL--We could go for the Evil Queen from Snow White, or we could just do Mother Miranda from Resident Evil 8. Only above Jamil because how busy and ugly it is reflects on Vil's character. Like what the actual hellsing is going on here? It's gaudy, and the halo is WAY TOO MUCH. In its defense, it's supposed to be because "trying too hard" is the name of the game. In that sense this design accomplishes what it sets out to do, it's just awful to look at, and is again lacking in "Evil Queen" elements. The spikes at the waist actively make me say "Eeewwwwww."

4. MALLEUS--Wish I could place him higher because I actually really like the design but I don't think it incorporates the green well enough. The look harkens back to Maleficent very well, but the need to make things in TWST more complicated than their original inspiration leaves a lot to be desired. A lot of the cool details are lost in all the black accessories, and even though I think the green on the horns and tail is pretty nifty, it just doesn't do justice to the design. I do like what it does for Malleus as one of the first looks at the scales on his forehead but Yana seems to have a thing for this "barely covered chest and corset" look because it bears a lot of resemblance to Vil and as such loses more points.

3. RIDDLE--A bold move by me because I just really like the color scheme. Playing card/casino aesthetic is one of my weaknesses so my bias begins to really show through here. Under enough scrutiny it reads well enough as the Queen of Hearts and overall I think even someone unfamiliar with Twisted Wonderland would be able to establish at least a connection to Alice in Wonderland at a glance. It's a great modification/corruption of his existing Housewarden uniform and overall I think it should have been used to set more of a standard for how the Overblot designs should have stayed.

2. LEONA--THEY MADE HIM LOOK MORE LIKE A LION! WIN! WIN! WIN! *Clears throat* So, yeah, they couldn't really turn Leona into Scar without dabbling into furry territory, but I really like what they came up with. The black ruff to look like a mane, the necklace looks like fangs, and I think Leona should have sharp nails all the time in all honesty. I maintain that Leona will always look best with an eyepatch and the marking on his face resembles one greatly. The only bit I have an issue with is whatever legging armor thing he's got going on. It blends in with that piece on his body and kind of gives off the impression of it being a jumpsuit from the chest down which is very strange to me--that piece on his torso is just strange to me as well. The wild hair is great and this one follows well in Riddle's footsteps in maintaining a lot of the elements of Leona's dorm uniform while also being "corrupted." (Also, no, him being barefoot is not weird.)

1. IDIA--Technopunk Hades. 10/10 No notes. It's just literally Disney Hades in a different fictional genre. I love it. Looks really cool, I don't care how impractical it is in reality. Just the right amount of detail and keeps up with the established Ignihyde look. Extra points for the chibi model having a connecting point between him and Phantom Ortho. Wish the rest of them were this on point, because Idia is slaying here. I 100% believe he designed this one himself. Great job, my guy.

And there you have it. My personal opinion on how the main Overblot designs stack up against each other. Yes, Grim has been left out because he's a bit of a different case and honestly I just didn't want to put him in here (though he's got a pretty good design all things considered). Don't agree? That's fine, I was asked to give my two cents and here they are. I can only hope that my logic in these pretty short summaries shines through to some extent.

Thank you for asking.