Any TWST hot takes? As in popular headcanons you disagree with?
There’s a lot of them, but here’s a list of some notable ones! I’ve written extensive posts on most of these, so I’ll link them where relevant. For the ones I don’t have separate super duper long posts on, I’ll explain them briefly here.
Please note: these are just my opinions and are not meant to pressure anyone into agreeing with me or to invalidate other opinions.
“Yuu should gain magic and/or fight with the NRC boys!”
“Everyone likes and/or is friends with Yuu!” / “Malleus and Yuu are super close besties!” — part 1 / part 2
“Yuu is the unpaid therapist.” — Yuu is not actually shown touching bases with or really supporting the OB boys after each incident. The boys do, however, get professional help and medical aid provided through the school.
Definitive diagnoses for any character — part 1 (Leona) / part 2 (Floyd + Idia) / part 3
Diasomnia found family — part 1 / part 2; I want to clarify, I am NOT denying that Malleus, Lilia, Sebek, and Silver love and care for each other. It’s just that I believe there are professional limitations in place (ie Silver and Sebek do not address Malleus casually; he is their master) which keep them from fully embracing.
“Mrs. Rosehearts is literally the worst person ever!!” — Why doesn’t Riddle resent his mom? / Why Riddle expresses gratitude for his mom / Physical abuse? (pt I) / Physical abuse? (pt II) / Nutrition and Height / Calorie Counting? / “Correcting” Left-Handedness / Mr. Rosehearts / Modeling poor emotional regulation and coping mechanisms / The role of Mr. Rosehearts / More on Mr. Rosehearts / Mrs. Rosehearts as a medical mage
“The Briar Valley senators are literally the worst people ever!!” — part 1 / part 2
“Leona would be a better ruler than Falena.”
"Twst's writing is so good!" — Personally, I think the writing is bad to mediocre in most of the main story + story events; Twst’s most consistent and strongest writing comes through in slice-of-life vignettes. I generally think a lot of characters’ development is choppy or sudden, or has unaddressed points that would be great to explore. Here’s how I would personally rewrite some of the growth we see in the main story.
“I love Malleus/Skully!” — Personally, I dislike Malleus (the most popular character in the EN fandom) and Skully (who ranked second most yume’d character of 2024 in a JP survey, despite only having existed for a few months). It would be too long to explain why, so please consult this post for Skully and these posts for Malleus: The basics (pre-book 7; pre-EN release) / More things (pre-book 7; post-EN release) / Continued issues (book 7) / Idia vs Malleus OBing (book 6 + 7) / The contradictions of his loneliness / Arrogance and abusing his power + social status / Consequences to his actions / A lack of leadership and policy positions / Temporal perception / Top 5 mages
"I'm so glad Lilia didn't die!" — Lilia should have died and stayed dead. Impacted gacha revenue + Diasomnia fans’ devastation aside, I feel this would have been more narratively meaningful and would force Malleus to face reality like all the other OBs did (instead of being rewarded for OBing, since he essentially gets what he OB’d over; ie Lilia not leaving and his magic being restored).
“X (location in Twst) is basically Y (real world location) but with magic!” — I don’t see locations in Twst as fantasy equivalents to real world locations. Twst has heavy inspiration from real world cultures, but blends ideas from multiple cultures and has ideas which are unique to Twst’s cultures.
