I'm going to try and open up the ask box again now that we've started a new year and I miss talking about Twisted Wonderland as much. I want to lay down some base rules that I expect people to follow to make this less stressful to me, and hopefully other people.
To be completely honest, I would like to be able to write more blog posts myself and not spend all of my energy trying to respond and post the flood of entries in the ask box. Henceforth we'll see if these rules weed out a bit of the spam. Shall we try it?
PLEASE FOLLOW THE RULES BELOW BEFORE ENTERING THE ASK-BOX!
The ask box is no longer open to anonymous entrants. The point of allowing anons initially was in case someone who did not have an account on tumblr wanted to use the box. However, since most of the posts have been cut down via the "read more" tab to keep things clean and those without tumblrs can't read past those points in any case, it seemed like a moot point.
Do NOT use the ask box to respond to previous posts. With the box being scrubbed of anons, everyone will be able to see who posts and who they can respond to and reblog themselves so they can stop using this blog as a middle-man for arguments. Active discussions are encouraged in the replies and reblogs. TALK TO EACH OTHER!
READ THE LIST OF PREVIOUS POSTS BEFORE ADDING A HOT TAKE. Repeat asks on certain topics are tiring. Here is the master list of previous posts to double check if something you want to say has already been said.
Please do not put hot takes related to JP exclusive content or recent updates--unless it's just to talk about new cards or event announcements. The person who runs this blog does not follow the JP updates very closely at all. It has come to my attention that there have been times in the past where someone has entered a hot take and I have not been able to comment in an informed way because I don't know exactly what the person was talking about and lacked all context--or worse, a misreading of a fan-translation. This can make things very confusing for people reading the posts and I would like to be able to do better than that. I want to talk about things in the most knowledgeable way possible, and unfortunately that means sticking to commenting on things that are fully translated/localized.
Yes, you are allowed to cuss in your takes. But just know that the more you swear or use crass language the less likely I am to take you seriously and as a result give a thoughtful answer.
Mature topics are allowed, but please avoid NSFW content. I don't want to know what kinds of fan-fiction you read. I know some people really can't seem to help themselves, but I prefer to keep this blog PG-13 where possible.
DO NOT SPAM THE INBOX! If you put an entry into the ask box, please refrain from doing another until if and when your first has been answered. Now that anons are off you should know when that happens. One at a time will make things much more managable. I might not work quickly all the time, but I DO make sure to get through all of the asks . . . eventually.
Treat this like a regular ask blog. Hot takes still welcome, but as I said above, I really would like to be able to make original blog posts more. Ask me what I think about stuff.
~May we rue the day we have to add more rules to this list.~
General notes about the blog runner 'cuz I don't wanna' make a second post about this stuff:
Loves Jack Howl. Simpery is everywhere. Apologies in advance, but fellow simps are always welcome here.
Hates Vil Schoenheit. Trying to only talk about him when other people bring up the character but even that's getting annoying at this point. I don't apologize for that. I don't hate people who like the character, I just don't understand why.
Tries to keep things even keel but is also not afraid of getting a little mean.
Plays the EN version of the game so not up to date on anything other than new cards as they come out and what new events themes are. Complaining about localization is for chumps by the by.
Is up to date on pretty much everything that comes out in English (give or take a week to read new events or story updates) which includes the anime, manga, and light novels.
Will complain about the writing of the game and the treatment of the characters a lot.
Actually does love TWST despite making a blog to talk about how flawed it is.
~Thank you for taking the time to read this. The Askbox is ready and open to you!
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!
I'm pretty sure this isn't a hot take, but I'm really hoping that twst doesn't make Nala a full grown adult. I'm hoping that the Nala statue is a subversion of expectations, and that Zira is the one who's actually at RSA.
I think this would work, since Silver (a princess) is at NRC, why not have a villain character at RSA? And I know there's Megara, but her evilness is questionable. While Zira was literally so evil she chose death instead of becoming good!
But I think if they wanted to do another lion character who's not all bad, they could have done Kovu. He's a redeemable villain like Megara, but I think for the twst version this would be difficult to do. Here me out though, since Kovu isn't related to Scar in anyway, why not just make Twst Kovu like an adopted noble or something. And he's talked down to because he's seen as even worse than the second born prince ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Overdone trope in this game I know, but maybe Leona genuinely wants to help Twst Kovu, but Twst Kovu wants nothing to do with Leona.
I have no idea if this take is making sense (ᵕ—ᴗ—), but I just think it would be weird to make Nala go to RSA. Not just because Simba in this universe is a child, but also because Nala and Scar barely interact in the movie. I don't even think they talk to each other in the movie! Every other Radiant 7 Statue has in some way talked with their corresponding villain except for Nala, and Nala wasn't as badly affected by Scar as Simba was. An example of this: in the Lion King 2 she's willing to let Kovu (a random cub Scar chose to be his heir) into the Pride Lands!
Anyone but Nala. Anyone but Nala. ANYONE BUT NALA!
Half-joking aside, I really would love the idea of this character being someone out of left field like Zira or Kovu. Heck at this point I'll take Vitani or Nuka (least likely in a million years that last one he's definitely an NRC kid). Someone with some connection to Scar and not just. . .fitting the theme of the rest of the Radiant 7 series. Also, adding characters from The Lion King 2 isn't super weird when you consider how much of Leona's culture draws from The Lion Guard show. It would be much more interesting and I would love to see how they build up the dynamics between Leona and this new lion.
. . .
I know TWST is gonna twist, but the idea is so lame that they would go that route. Please don't be Nala. I am begging on my knees.
Thank you for your take!
Like, what do you mean TWST Nala isn't a precocious child that hangs out with Cheka and raises Leona's blood pressure even more?
Am I the only one that thinks that Minhaj (not calling him by his stupid, ill-thought out canon name) is a self-centred ass?
He is introduced by randomly walking up to Jamil. When Jamil, understandably so, addressed him a forced manner, he keeps on insisting that Jamil must address him normally, even after Jamil says that he's concerned about being arrested for that. He then proceeds to whine about his problems to someone he damn well knows is a servant till he dies. In that whole conversation, he never brings up how these things affect others beneath him. There are plenty of others in that country in similar situations as Jamil, if not far worse.
It's obvious to me that he only cares about these unfair laws only when they affect him specifically. He just wants to run away and wash his hands of any responsibilities and duties.
Honestly, Minhaj comes across like a TWST Adult Simba and Naveen in Jasmine clothing. At least Jasmine has the benefit of the doubt. She didn't know about her people suffering outside of the palace. After Jafar lies to her about Aladdin being executed for kidnapping her, she is devastated and vows to change things. He is one of the smartest characters in the Scalding Sands and is attending school in another country, living in a time when he has access to the internet. He clearly does, which points to the only reason why he does is that he just doesn't give a shit.
Don't get it twisted. There is nothing wrong with this. This is a great thing. Hell, it makes him by far the best RSA character, because he's flawed and an actual character compared to the rest of them.
But, man, I wish Jamil calls him out for this. He desperately needs it.
You're probably not the only person who thinks this.
Though, again I don't have much comment to add because I have to wait 'til this all comes out in the EN version.
A lot of people might still be in the initial starstruck stage of the new characters and not analyzing them very deeply yet. But like I said, I'm sure you're not alone.
Thank you for your take.
Also, I have seen a couple of people mention this character's name being distasteful/poorly thought out. Can someone explain it to me? Is it that offensive? Please educate me. In the comments please. Not the askbox.
Okay, I'll lay this one out too while I'm thinking about it:
I really don't like the "Oops! All Princesses!" Thing they're doing with RSA.
Don't get me wrong, Twisted Princesses are all fine and dandy but this rubs me the wrong way in a few places specifically.
Let's go down the line here: Using the Radiant 7 statues to help illustrate the point.
The first silhouette looks obviously like a TWST version of Alice. In my book that makes sense as a direct contrast/rival to Riddle at least as far as the Disney movie goes. I actually find it funny that Alice is also really short. This should be a fun character reveal.
The second silhouette appears to be another lion beastman. Thanks, I hate it. Like I really hate it. I really hope there's a chance that the Leona rival character is in fact NOT based entirely on Nala and they throw a curve ball at us. What do you mean TWST Simba is a child and has an endearingly annoying relationship with his uncle while TWST Nala is Leona's rival in high school/college. I really, really, really, really, REALLY, detest the idea as presented here, and the worst part is I can offer no alternatives. Simba and Mufasa already exist, which implies TWST Sarabi is there too. Rafiki, Timon, and Pumbaa were probably too much work to make into conventionally attractive bishies or something, and we already have Zazu as well. Yeah, no, I just hate this character already.
The third silhouette is Rielle whom we've already seen. I have no qualms with this one. Rielle was name dropped as early as book three and we've pretty much just been waiting for him to show up for years. Ariel is the protagonist of The Little Mermaid, and it makes sense that her TWST version would play opposite of Azul. No notes on the narrative choice, only a few complaints about his design.
The fourth silhouette we now know is Minajael or TWST Jasmine--which you could also guess fairly easily from the teaser picture. My gripe with this (aside from his gaudy outfit design) is that the movie Jafar is from is not called Jasmine it's called ALADDIN. From a story standpoint, you can't convince me that Jasmine was a better choice to mirror Jamil than Aladdin would have been, especially considering Jamil already has an established foil with Kalim. How much fun would it have been to have TWST Aladdin in Royal Sword Academy pulling a "fake it 'til you make it" routine and managed to become housewarden? I don't have a problem with TWST Jasmine existing genderbent or otherwise, but this was a missed opportunity. And for what? My disappointment is immeasurable.
The fifth silhouette is probably Neige in his dorm's uniform/housewarden uniform. I only second guess because the teaser outfit is very different from his usual attire, and there are clearly elements of Prince Florian incorporated into it. Does that mean anything? Probably not. Characters in Twisted Wonderland can and have been built off of multiple inspirations, so for Neige to be both Snow White and Prince Florian wouldn't surprise me or be unprecidented. That being said, Neige was established a long time ago and the idea of him continuing to be Vil's rival in the story--actively or passively--continues to make sense. Though Snow White never fights the Evil Queen she is still the protagonist and title character of her story, and furthermore the story is built on comparing the two. In short. I have no qualms with this one. Never have. Probably never will. I look forward to seeing Neige in this new outfit. . .I predict it will be ugly as sin though.
If the pattern follows and this statue is any indicator the sixth silhouette is almost certainly TWST Megara. My feelings about this are about the same as they were for Minajael. The movie is called Hercules not Megara, and you know what else? From what I can recall, Hercules as a character hasn't been lowkey slandered by the lore and history of Twisted Wonderland like how Aladdin has, so what's the excuse here? What kind of relationship are they planning between Idia and this character to justify not just using the hero from the movie? I want TWST Meg as much as the next person, but why is she being treated like some legendary heroic figure among the lawful goods when she was aligned with Hades for 3/4 of the movie? There's always the chance that they double up here and make the character a mix of Meg and Herc, and I would be fine with that too, but if they are just making TWST Meg as the mirror/rival to Idia, then he'd better at least have dark-colored magic.
And finally, the seventh silhouette is the one I'm the most excited for. Between the floating pose, the big pointy hat, and the shape of the wand, this guy is a dead ringer for the three good fairies from Sleeping Beauty. Which makes perfect sense because TWST Aurora (Silver) is going to Night Raven College. When you think about it, the good fairies were the true rivals to Maleficent anyway. I am in love with this concept and I think the only way they could botch it (and they probably will) would be to make him an amalgamation of all three of them. In my own, personal, humble, opinion, the character should be Flora, the apparent leader of the three, and Fauna and Merriweather should be other dorm members with one or the other being the vice-housewarden. It's such a fun choice and interesting alternative to the princess character from the story because he's already been established elsewhere. I wish I got these vibes from the rest of the teaser but I'm really not hopeful about some of them.
Overall, like I said at the top, the idea of using "Princesses" as the premise for ROYAL SWORD ACADEMY instead of putting in some of the actual heroes from their repsective movies leaves a sour taste in my mouth. It makes me think that's supposed to be more franchise aligned as Disney Princesses collectively are referred to. It's the same way Twisted Wonderland sets its premise first in a school of Disney Villain inspired characters (another established brand), but it feels a lot more narrow and forces certain characters to be chosen based on the already established characters and canon of the game. For all I know these could be the best characters yet and I'm just letting initial disappointment color my expectations of what's to come, but we'll have to wait and see. Based off of the two and a half designs we've gotten so far, I feel like I'm not as impressed as I should be.
Hot take: I kind of don't like the designs of the new rsa students...(ᵕ—ᴗ—)
I like Minajeal's face, and his hair, it's genuinely creative! I just don't like his outfit because my brain genuinely can't focus on it. Which is a me problem. I also know that other twst characters have more complicated outfits, but their outfits are subtle in their complexity.
Here's Minajeal and Jamil together:
Both of their outfits have things going on, but Minajeal's has so many different patterns it's hard to take his design in as a whole for me. Honestly I think if the sleeves were taken off of the outfit, I would like the design more.
Rielle's outfit is even worse in my opinion. I think the design could have worked if they kept the teal and pink, but then they added light green and purple making it not the best design. I think if he just had a white undershirt it would have worked better. Especially since if he had a white undershirt with the belts, it would have looked like sail Ariel used as a dress when she first became human.
Also I don't really like his hair.
Picture of Rielle:
It's not about the length, it's mainly about how many edges there are. Already the color clashes with his outfit, but it also looks like he cut his hair himself. I get why he has this hair, to show he's adventurous. But his outfit already gives off that vibe, also the fact he has tanner skin than other characters. The hair feels like it's now just shoving him being adventurous in my face ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I think his bangs would look nice if they were only two. As well I wish they just gave his hair more volume instead of being spikey. I don't have too much of a problem with his accessories, I think they're fun (^▽^)
I'm sure these designs just take some time to get used to, and I may have just had too high of expectations when it came to RSA (ᵕ—ᴗ—)
The designs are so busy!
I one-hundred percent understand what you mean when you say that previous designs have been more subtle in their complexity. I didn't notice how detailed most NRC dorm uniforms are until I wanted to draw them and was looking intensely at references (glares at Savanaclaw zippers).
These boys. . .these boys are assaulting my eyes. I agree that Minajeal has too many patterns, and I have no idea what they were trying to accomplish with the sash around his waist. Even taking the gold decorations off of the sleeves and maybe removing a necklace or three would give it room to breathe. Is there an importance to some of these design choices that I am missing? Because at face value there just needs to be less. I don't get a lot of references to Jasmine as a character based of of his design and makes ir hard to justify why it's such a cluster. Which is weird considering the other guy. . .
Rielle is super cute, but good gracious is he a mess. Is that important to the character? Probably. He is based off of Ariel after all. But he also has too much going on. Now, I can make sense of all of his design elements, they just don't all need to be there. It's very much a hodgepodge of WE NEED TO THROW EVERYTHING ABOUT ARIEL ONTO THIS CHARACTER ALL AT ONCE! Gotta have her colors, her tail, her hair, her trinket collecting, THE DINGLEHOPPER, her seashell bra has to be there in some capacity, the pink dress, and it has to also look kind of like a sailing out fit. Add extra belts! It has too many colors and lacks cohesion. This poor boy. I really can only call it a mess, and it makes me sad because the idea of the game needing to throw everything possible relating to Ariel on this character at once implies that they don't plan to explore him more in depth so they have to put it all out there now.
Maybe I'm reading too far into it. . . I will disagree with you on his hair and the trinkets though. I really really like his hair (haha) and don't like the way the trinkets are included for the reasons listed above. I really hope the rest of the RSA characters aren't this messy. We love new characters here, but what actually happened?
Thank you for your take!
Also everyone else should thank you for pushing those other ask box entries out of draft hell. They finally got finished because I wanted to answer this one that badly. Motivation is a hell of a drug.
Heya! I'd love to know your headcanons on why Ruggie isn't the official vice to Savanaclaw??? Not just your opinion, but what you'd think is the most interesting explanation??? I dont know if we have n official reason, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.
And your headcanons on what will happen once Leona becomes a fourth year. I've always hc'd that Ruggie will see the house warden position like how Kakashi (and arguably any nin with sense) saw the hokage position, good on someone else's head across the table.
(Also, I hope your new system helps cut down some of the spam!)
I have the answer for this one actually.
Leona thinks having an official second in command would be a chore, so he never appointed anyone.
Now if you want an additional headcanon, I think that it has to do with Leona's sense of authority and giving even partial authority to another member of his dorm might invite challenge and that's a hassle too. Though, Leona really doesn't have a problem putting someone in their place, the less likely it is to happen the better. What's more, Leona does not want to have to deal with someone else having the ability to boss his underlings around and having to keep tabs on what they're doing. Savanaclaw is full of selfish opportunists and you could never really trust them not to try something shady (laws of the jungle [savana] and all that). Plus Ruggie is fairly reliable and seems to be just fine in the position he's in, so there's even less need to designate him vice-housewarden. (I hope that makes sense.)
That leads into your second question; I do believe that Ruggie has said as much about being in charge but I can't for the life of me remember where it was in the text of ths game. Ruggie prefers to be right next to the head honcho so he can reap the benefits of the elites without the actual responsibility of making the decisions. So I think when Leona becomes a fourth year (Seven forbid he get held back *again*!) Ruggie won't be vying for the open housewarden position. He'll do what he's doing now and cozy up to whoever is in charge with the idea that it'll continue to work out in his favor and still have the freedom to abandon ship if it doesn't.
Thank you for asking!
And I will apologize to you as well for how long this was sitting unfinished in the inbox. There has been no spam since I made the rules and I'm still being neglectful! So sorry.
Something I never get about this fandom? Why the hell are some fans so hellbent from defending Kalim's parents from all criticism, especially JP players?
Kalim I kinda get. He's one of the main characters in Book 4. Some people might get overly attached to him and see any criticism of his actions as an attack on them personally, like what happens to any major characters within fandom.
But his parents? We know nothing about them! We don't even know what they look like. From the little we do know about them, they aren't as nice as Kalim paints them out to be and Kalim comes off as an unreliable narrator about his family. Things like forcing Jamil to be a poison tester as a minor, using child labour, the frequent assassination and kidnappings among many other dark shit aren't normal. All of those things are signs of abuse and neglect on his father's part.
The system failed both of those boys. Both of sets of parents upheld that toxic system, harming them and shaping them into what they are in the present. Neither sets of parents are good people. The fact that some JP players fail to see that, painting out Kalim's father to be just like the Sultan annoys the shit outta me.
There could be a few reasons.
This has been discussed a bit before, so forgive me if this doesn't seem particularly insightful.
Thank you for your take.
The reason people dig their heels in could be as simple as getting an idea they like in their heads and not wanting to let go of it (a lot of headcanons go like that). I think there's something about the idea of Kalim being so naive and having such a kind disposition that he has to get it from somewhere. There isn't a lot of acknowledgement that those traits are just as likely a coping mechanism as they are inherited. Without confirmation as such a lot people just don't want to budge on what they think.
There is probably some deeper thinking or psychology to it, but I couldn't tell you personally what it might be.
Would you believe me if I told you that the reason it took me so long to answer this was because I couldn't think of what illustration to put with it? Forgive me for using a slightly altered version of one I used on a similar ask.
Edit: That note is from months ago. I'm sorry I kept you waiting so long.
No, there is no proof that I have mentioned this particular headcanon before this very moment and now I hate myself for never sharing it.
But I guess I'll post my logic about while the thought is fresh for anyone who wants it.
So I liked to say that the one thing that Leona is diligent about is shaving. Like he could grow very nice facial hair if he wanted to, but it might make him look like his brother so he shaves it every day whether or not anyone notices. I don't know if NRC has a dress code rule about facial hair like some schools, but in case they don't that's my headcanon. If they do. . .then I guess Leona got pestered into keeping a clean face.
Okay, folks. Riddle me this: What are the biggest differences between working food service and retail?
I ask because I--per the norm--feel like this New Year's event is possibly mischaracterizing Jack. However, in the spirit of the New Year I figured I'd get some feedback before jumping to any conclusions.
Between Book 3 and Jack's Labwear vignette it's made pretty clear that he's a competent worker in the Mostro Lounge and the Octavinelle guys even commented about how quickly he picked up on how to do everything.
But in the New Year's event they really paint it like Jack is completely out of his element and struggling with helping out around Sam's shop. It felt like a retcon at first to fit Jack into his "gym rat" box better and give another excuse to act awkward and get poked fun at, but I suppose there could be reasons as to why he'd be good in one set of circumstances and not the other. Maybe the shop is that much busier. Maybe having Floyd as a business partner is a factor (unlikely as they worked together at the Lounge). Maybe retail is just that different than food service.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's out of character for Jack to say it's not a job he would typically do and have a bit of a learning curve to adjust to, but there's a distinct lack of competence that he showed in earlier, similar, incidents.
So what do we think?
Is Jack being inconsistently characterized between these two incidents or am I going crazy?
It makes sense because the situation is different enough.
It's inconsistent to have him stuggling so much in this later event.
More of a positive hot take, but massive kudos to Natsuki Hanae and Paul Castro Jr. They both did an excellent job with Riddle's overblot in the latest episode. You can really sense Riddle's pain and anguish in both of their performances. In the JP version especially, you can hear Riddle gasping for breath when he's trying to breath in all of the ink, which is something I never thought of before.
I've seen Riddle's overblot many times in various different forms over the past few years. Seeing it all animated for the first time outside of a quick mobile clip made that scene Madoka Magica levels of terrifying. It really sinks in the fact that Yuu had to put up with that eight fucking times so far when you include the mine shit.
It was a pretty great performance wasn't it?
The guys really sold the role and it was fantastically executed! I was very happy myself to see that they animated a whole new sequence instead of recycling the ones that they added to the game last year. It's almost weird experiencing the story again in the anime, but they made the most of it where it counted.
Happy 2026! (˶ˆᗜˆ˵), I was wondering what you thought about the anime having only 8 episodes for season 1, instead of the usual 20 episodes animes get? I felt like it could have benefited from a few more episodes
I think that the episode number was fine for what we got.
Now, eight episode season orders are definitely a problem for some series. Netflix's half-season model has been bugging me for years. However, we have known since before the anime started coming out that the show would be made into "seasons" based off of the various Books the game is split into--season one including the prologue material of course. Assuming Books two and three get at least six episodes each, we would hit a total episode count of around twenty by the end of it. So really it depends on how you would define a season. Based off of the initial order of Books One through Three getting animated for sure, I think that we basically got one whole standard anime season coming. It's just broken up into three parts--and quite frankly that's probably a good thing for quality control considering the Savanaclaw manga is still technically not complete.
As far as what we got, I think the anime was a fine adaptation of the manga with a few things that annoyed me here and there. I actually feel like the pacing was too slow a lot of the time and they could have told a tighter story with even fewer episodes if they wanted to. For the most part though, it did what it needed to do and covered all the necessary material.
Would I have liked maybe some more anime-original material to help expand on the TWST we know and love? Sure, new stuff is fun. But if the new material would be anything like the bit we got in episode one, I personally think we're fine as things played out. Now the question becomes how they're going to handle Book Two. . .
TWST-HOTTEST-TAKES MASTER POST LIST GUIDE: "Experimental"
Otherwise known as "hyperlink hell"
It's exactly what it says. Below is series of links leading eventually to every post that has put on this blog from big to entirely mundane. I said that I would do it and I have finally managed to after many many hiccups in the process. I hope this makes it easier to find things and for people to double check how exhaustively certain things have been talked about on this blog so we aren't constantly repeating topics or having conversations via the askbox. We'll see how that helps after I get the askbox system reorganized and set up. With some luck this will help things get moving along here more frequently and more smoothly, but only time will tell.
Topics are organized subjectively and the links are numerous, but there are hundreds of posts on this blog, so what do you expect? All of the main pages will have this color-coded key at the top of them so that you have a bit of an idea of what you're getting into:
PINK: Unprompted material from the blog owner.
(Things I just write because I want to or are asking for input on).
BLUES: Reblogged from another source.
(Sometimes I find things from other people I want to share or comment on.)
RED: NSFW or NSFW adjacent.
(Sometimes weird stuff shows up in the inbox. I haven't posted anything I think is heinous, but if I think it could fall into 18+ topics or lead to 18+ discussions, I color code them like this just as a literal red flag. This is tenuous, so there may be some mislabels at this point and I apologize for that.) ORANGE: Hypes and interest checks.
(These links are just to establish that pretty much everything has been archived, but some are really just precursors to the actual material. You probably won't find anything very interesting under the orange links.)
The following links will lead to bigger more generalized posts with more specific links to individual asks and such:
Heartslabyul
Savanaclaw and Beastmen
Octavinelle and Merfolk
Scarabia
Pomefiore
Ignihyde and the Shroud Family
Diasomnia
Yuu/MC, Grim, and Multiple Main Characters
Other Unsorted Characters
Main Story and Events
Fandom, Fanfics, and Shipping
General Other TWST Topics
The Blog Owner Does Things and Other Miscellaneous Posts
~Good Luck.
Note: I am not sure if I am using the private links properly. Please tell me if any of the links are broken so I can try and fix them or otherwise just post the lists normally. (It'll be so messy. Good gravy, I hope I don't have to do that.)
Roughly Organized Posts on This Blog: PINK=Unprompted material from the blog owner BLUE=Reblogged from another source
RED=NSFW or NSFW adjacent
ORANGE=Hypes and Interest checks
GAME UPDATES: 2.5 EN Update,
A demand for Wolf Jack,
Body pillow birthday cards,
Nightmare before Christmas Halloween Hype (Interest check),
TWST AS A GAME: Glad TWST doesn’t have PVP
I wish TWST was more of a typical visual novel,
Would like a TWST RSA spinoff game,
Mixed feelings about the memory shop,
I see the appeal of a completed visual novel format for TWST,
I only collect cards for the pictures,
The overblot designs are underwhelming,
I wish the Tartarus/Styx music was in the game store,
I like the lore more than the characters,
MANGA: I hate that they change mangakas between story parts,
I hope to see the manga Yuus more in TWST media,
The manga Yuus are foils for each chapter’s overblotter,
Happy that the manga has many Yuus, (Agreement)
ANIME: I wish people would stop being so negative about the anime expectations,
I understand why people want to gatekeep TWST when the anime comes out,
I don’t think the anime is going to change much of the state of the TWST fandom,
WORLD BUILDING: No female mage school?,
The world-building sucks,
The world of Twisted Wonderland is too ordinary,
Briar Valley lore makes no sense,
TWST should talk about familiars more,
LUCIUS IS A FAMILIAR!?
NIGHT RAVEN COLLEGE: Reblog discussion about womens’ restrooms on campus,
NRC should be a University,
ROYAL SWORD ACADEMY: Tired of RSA winning all the time,
Would love to see an “Evil” (dark magic) RSA student,
WRITING: The main story should have characters interacting outside of their own dorms,
Characters other than overblotters should get more focus,
The morally grey nature of the characters is appealing,
The character names aren’t good,
Beauty standards in TWST are poorly defined,
TWST has poor execution to conflict resolutions,
TWST doesn't do much setup for its world-building payoffs,
The Unique magics aren’t great,
The main story could use a more down to earth change of pace from time to time,
PLANET-SIZED PLOT HOLES,
The dragon egg hatching doesn't make sense to me,
CROSSOVER STUFF: TWST/Wicked crossover,
TWST/Demon Slayer Crossover,
TWST/Nezha crossover,
UNSORTED GENERAL: Art-style variation discussion,
It is a DISNEY anime game,
It’s okay to just enjoy the game—flaws and all,
The TWST Dorm songs are a mess,
Something about the time loop theory, (Addition)
TWST VS General Fantasy,
ASKBOX SPAM CLEANUP: A lesson hopefully learned
Knight of Dawn was wasted
Anon wants to see more of the war or Malleus' development
Fem!Yuu wearing a skirt makes no sense
We should have seen Malleus reacting to Silver's true parentage
Silver and Malleus dancing with their parents' ghosts was corny
BONUS SPAM
TWST-HOTTEST-TAKES MASTER POST LIST: Story and Event Stories
Roughly Organized Posts on This Blog:
PINK=Unprompted material from the blog owner
BLUE=Reblogged from another source
RED=NSFW or NSFW adjacent
ORANGE=Hypes and Interest checks
STORY:
CHAPTER 1: Getting ANOTHER version of chapter 1 in anime,
CHAPTER 2: WTF was Leona’s Plan?,
Book 2 feels incomplete,
CHAPTER 3: What was Azul’s plan post Book 3?
CHAPTER 4:
CHAPTER 5: NRC losing the SDC sucks,
The training camp arc is awfully paced,
Book 5’s problems stem from its source material,
CHAPTER 6: Vil doesn’t transition well into book 6 (Addition),
CHAPTER 7: I hate the dream-jumping,
Chapter 7 is going on too long,
Book 7 was a slog,
The dreams and dreamers in part 7 are confused,
Lilia dying be Malleus' motivation is "meh."
EVENTS:
CULLINARY CRUCIBLE: Guessing the recipes is fun
PORT FEST: Port Fest 2 pipe dream
STITCH EVENT: Riddle and Jack’s STITCH event cards should be reversed,
TANGLED EVENT: It was a let down,
Riddle was out of character,
Playful Land: It’s weird that everyone trusts Ernesto,
Response to why everyone trusts Ernesto,
The implications of Playful Land are insane,
Characters acting out of character,
NIGHTARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS: Not a fan of the Twistune,
The Twistune sounds uncanny,
GLORIOUS MASQUERADE: Masquerade outfits > Playful Land Outfits,
The Ending is anti-climactic,
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