#stellaris.txt

[stellari-s]

30 day twst challenge: day 17

favorite original card art?

that would probably be jade halloween ssr for me! i love the way the fabric on his waist are sort of swooshed to give more "movement" to an otherwise still position. plus that expression... 👀✨ and also the way he's holding the bandages too. there's not a single doubt in my mind that there are only evil thoughts in his head, eheh. ☁️

[stellari-s]

30 day twst challenge: day 14

what nrc class would you actually want to take?

if i had to choose, probably poison refining, which was mentioned in cater's labwear vignette. it sounds pretty interesting, to be honest. and i'd love to take a class with cater, vil, and lilia too, heh.

history isn't my best subject anyway, and i don't have the magical capacity to fly on brooms (unfortunately) nor do i have the energy to go through intensive physical workouts or fight "monsters" and the like. sorry professor trein and coach vargas /lh ☁️

[stellari-s]

30 day twst challenge: day 19

are you good at twisttunes?

well... i'd say it depends on which type of twisttune. generally speaking i don't think i'm bad at them, as in i can manage getting great combos. some may require practice, but i think given enough, i can get good enough. that's what i like to think.

that said.

those ones where the all the notes go horizontally and also hit the left side for blue notes and the right side for red notes? atrocious and cursed /lh they are like the biggest broccoli for the brain...

like this twisttune was low key like a nightmare for me. ☁️

[stellari-s]

30 day twst challenge: day 16

favorite book?

// main story spoilers, but tl;dr book 6

i think all the books have their charm (but personal ranking, without much explanation, is below the cut), but if i'm forced to pick one, i'd have to say book 6. there are many things i like about this book, such as:

idia and ortho are featured heavily! to start their relationship has been endearing to me but i do like how there's this theme of "rebirth" going on. from what i've seen in books 6, 7, it seems almost like it's idia's fate to lose ortho. first he lost the real ortho, then he lost the humanoid ortho (once), and then in the dream world in book 7, the fact he broke out of the dream, seemingly, speaks to the fact he lost ortho there as well.

parallelism is chef's kiss - i dunno if this is because this book plays into "rebirth," but i love how we sort of get like "leave it to your big bro" twice (said in different tones because of the context), and like how idia makes a comparison between like heaven and the underworld at first, and then later it changes to heaven and a local park. the distance is getting a little smaller, even in baby steps!

we get a whole lore dump on like blot and grim?? excuse me but like what is up with him??

the dynamic between the characters is actually really well done. we get to see a lot of sides we don't normally see from them, especially when they split into smaller teams. for example, we'll probably never get to see jamil and leona interact again after this book. but i'm surprised they managed to work as well as they did, and dare i say, i think jamil especially needed this sort of interaction to help him understand himself. we even see him in the end of book 6 finally bossing kalim around a bit out of something other than him or his family getting threatened (if kalim gets hurt). that probably never would have happened if not for leona and his "counseling session."

and it was just nice to get to know the pomefiore group more and see vil, rook, and epel all acting more like brothers than an overbearing coach, his right-hand man and an apple like the first halfish of book 5. plus riddle and azul's bickering was like peak frenemy content who work very well together. i know they did work together in the prologue a little bit to catch grim, but seeing them struggle through the towers together in book 6 allows us to see them in a whole new light, and we even see them be vulnerable with each other. while reading them i feel even more they are fit to duo together in their dorm uniform cards. they are more close than they normally let on, i think.

yeah, you get the gist, ahah. ☁️

my personal ranking (though i like every book too):

book 6: the watchman of the underworld

book 1: the rose-red tyrant

book 3: the merchant from the depths & book 7: the lord of malevolence (a tie, i think)

book 5: a beautiful tyrant

book 2: the usurper from the wilds

book 4: schemer of the scalding sands

[stellari-s]

twst 30 day challenge: day 30

what's your hottest twst take?

final one! so i've got two hot takes, and the first one is this: i'm completely fine with twst not having any romance or not being more "otome-like" (...than it may already be on some level lmao well yuu is genderless, but still). i'm perfectly content with yuu being everyone's therapist friend, or just enjoy characters' dynamics with each other as they are or as they could be.

and second hot take is...

i guess when it comes to the "frying pan sizzling" hot take, talking about my take on kalim and jamil dynamic. but first of all, to be completely frank, i don't think it's fair to just coin them as "master and servant" and be done with it. i mean, yes, they are that, but that statement also needs an asterisk, especially looking through events of books 5, 6 and events (like beanfest).

to put it simply, their relationship is an absolute mess and ten, maybe twenty, can of worms with an ocean of emotional baggage and a sea of trauma.

kalim and jamil are very much like master and servant within the realm of book 4; this is explicitly stated in the japanese version. and if you told me book 4 was the end of the main story period, their relationship probably wouldn't have been as messy. but at the same time even within book 4, we see kalim clumsily trying to make jamil happy as a friend, finding ways to reduce his workload. he clearly very deeply cares for jamil.

that, and... he's also kind of overly dependent on jamil. like, to a concerning degree, almost. but this may partly be because of jamil and his efforts to protect kalim, effectively making it so kalim can't do a lot of things on his own. so, like, jamil's motivations, while they are valid, had shaped a lot of kalim's character to the way he is. and this can be said conversely, too. kalim had dragged jamil along to many of his whims, but i believe it's been shown that jamil had gained an interest in dancing and parrots from none other than kalim. who knows if he would have gained an interest otherwise; he probably wouldn't have found much free time to delve into it himself.

and also, another thing is that jamil held himself back so kalim could appear to be above him. then we see in book 5 that he has never experienced the frustration before. like, whether he deserved it or not, he has always been given the top place because jamil placed himself lower than kalim. so overall, i think it's important kalim has a chance to feel that frustration, which is also proof that jamil no longer holds himself back. that is a big and needed step up from book 4.

and to top it off, bro even uses kalim shamelessly to his advantage in the beanfest event, and in book 6, we see that he (1) says something along the lines of "i never thought i'd be relieved to see your face" and (2) has kalim help him with stuff, which was like unheard of before. like, i know this seems small, and jamil just gave him one task, but that's still a huge step!

at the end of the day, when they all graduate, their dynamic may revert back to the way it was before as if their time at school never existed. since they are on school grounds, a lot of things can escape the eyes of both families, and so jamil and kalim are able to treat each other more as equals. fundamentally speaking, it would not be wrong to say they are master and servant. however, i think even though he probably wants to hate kalim and still holds some annoyance that he has to cover so many bases, jamil still holds some level of affection?? toward him. it's just... a lot more subtle. jamil likely understands that it's not really kalim's fault that jamil is in the situation he is in and that kalim wants to help jamil. but he also knows the problem is so deep-rooted that kalim wouldn't be able to solve it himself in any short amount of time, unfortunately. ☁️

[stellari-s]

twst 30 day challenge: day 28

favorite vignette?

i got a three-way tie here, i think. well, i like all the vignettes, to be honest. but if i were forced to narrow it down, then maybe...

what a load of garbage halloween ♦️

i think a big one is cater's halloween ssr vignette, mainly because of how it really kind of showcases a side he doesn't show to others. of course, other vignettes had shown hints of this side, but not as straightforwardly.

his interaction with lilia was generally pretty interesting. i believe what lilia was saying came from his heart and experiences, especially reading what is out so far in book 7, but cater sort of can't bring himself to trust?? lilia completely because of how, in his eyes, lilia's words seem ironic as he seems to have a close-knit found family. and he seems to push kalim away to some extent too. the pop music club is very silly; i want cater to accept his found family status! /lh

it's honestly a little tragic to read as it is more eye-opening, in a sense. i think he wants others to understand him, but he also can't bring himself to open up about himself either.

(also, when it comes to halloween vignettes, jade's was also fun to read, as it's fun getting to know the various halloween traditions across different regions and upbringing.)

my beloved suitor suit ♥️

putting aside the fact that this is basically a silly epilogue featuring all the freshmen being silly together and talking about love lives, how could i not put in ace's suitor suit ssr vignette?

reading about ace's previous romantic experience though... i gotta say, i kinda feel bad for his ex lmao but at the same time, i kind of always pegged him as sort of someone who wouldn't go out of his way to pursue someone romantically. he said so himself, and i can easily imagine it, that he would rather hang with his friends.

overall i don't think this game needs to have any romance anyway. i generally love seeing the characters' dynamics with each other in platonic, familial, or for whatever they are, and if they were to become romantic, i think i wouldn't be as interested 😅 maybe i'll lose interest as quickly as ace lost his interest in his ex...

can't make a fool of myself suitor suit 🌹

riddle was so, so cool in his suitor suit sr vignette! like, for one it's kind of nice seeing him doing something like pruning the roses, considering he's the heartslabyul housewarden and doesn't normally do that kind of thing while preparing for unbirthday parties. plus his interaction with malleus and how he gives riddle a rose brooch? i love it when twst puts characters that probably don't interact much (or are hard to imagine interacting) together.

but the way at the end when riddle and malleus sort of have two separate scenes that come together at the very end with the illustration where they both say "the king of heartslabyul" (or something to that nature)... that scene was so intense and i loved it, hehe. ☁️

[stellari-s]

twst 30 day challenge: day 26

which dorm would you actually be in?

uh, so i forgot to post yesterday, oops... i had to prep for a presentation and that filled my mind 😅 so don't mind me here posting a day late this time. that said! i think i would probably actually be in ignihyde.

they mentioned the dorm tending to have students who are technologically inclined or interested in technomantic engineering. maybe or maybe not at the expense of my mental health, i am a cs major.

and i'm an introvert. haha. i don't like leaving outside all that much unless like friends invite me to do something with them. but if i got no plans i just like to vibe in my room, play games, read, etc.

(maybe octavinelle would be another option though.) ☁️

[stellari-s]

30 day twst challenge: day 11

favorite 1st year?

for me it would be ace, probably! i think a big part of it is his voice actor and how much character he really gives him. it's got kind of this seishun tone to it, though this concept is difficult to explain in english. i guess it's kinda the way his tone is dramatized without being overbearing?? that is to say... if he wasn't voiced the way he is voiced now, i probably would not have liked him to the extent i do now. if that makes sense.

like i get the impression he's very much a high school student who likes to slacks off or take the easy route (even though i think he is smart! like he could do academically well if he didn't slack off, y'know) lmao but when push comes to shove, he shows a very level headed, down to earth, and serious side of himself too. and i find this kind of gap charming, hehe. ☁️