Twst Analysis - Blog Posts

Something we don’t really talk about enough, and I’ll probably write about more later, is Malleus’ kindness and how, even though at times it’s taken wrongly by others, it persists despite his past and what he went through. He is still kind in his own way and he tries to be.

Can you imagine being a little one and being “cursed” from such a young age? Can you imagine? Watching others receive the love and care you always wanted, and despite it all?? You still try to be kind?

Imagine having to hold your emotions in, practically numbing yourself from everything? Because to feel any emotions would harm others? Do you realize the strength it would take to do that? And still be kind?

To still have the…openness to try and get along with humans even when they tend to see you in an unfavorable light? To hope that someone treats you normally?

By all means, if you think of some of the experiences that he went through since he was a child, someone weaker would not be able to handle what he has.

He’s cursed with powers that he can’t handle by the senate who only want to use him and show their importance. The senate who probably have cursed generations of draconias most likely.

Malleus who had to be careful with the way he laughed or talked in fear of hurting someone accidentally.

He was able to see Lilia who came to visit him and at times sneak in to see him. The one person he can be himself with and even then he accidentally hurt him.

The Malleus, who people said was boring and arrogant, but we know now why he was don’t we? Because he had to be to control his powers.

But also Malleus, who snuck away to see Lilia, who took care of silver because it would make Lilia happy. But also, someone who grows to care for that little babe.

But can we also add on this? Malleus, who was “blessed” with these curses having to see Silver, who was “blessed” out of love. (The silver hair not the sleeping curse) and despite it all, he didn’t resent silver, he loved him. (He still loved him despite knowing the truth about who killed his mother)

Can you imagine the strength it takes to be this kind?? To continue to be this kind? And not let it foster to hate and anger?

In a way, Malleus reminds me of Lilia. His parallels with Lilia is never ending. Lilia, for everything he went through, had all the reason to grow to hate humanity but he changed through his journey.

Malleus, in a way, is also like this. He has all the reason to hate and have anger, but he doesn’t. He shows kindness repeatedly. Sometimes that kindness isn’t translated well, but despite it all, he is kind. He’s not someone who grew to hate and have anger in him. When he had all the more reason too than anyone else.

TWST Rant Atlantis

Okay so in the middle of writing the pirate fairy fic I was watching Atlantis the lost empire. And I was like since Atlantic sank what if like the lore of it is that Poseidon had a son named Triton (this is actual canon mythology lore) and created Triton to make life in Atlantis. I also read a book recently which is a twisted tale of the little mermaid where Ariel never defeated Ursula and it had some lore in it. Since Triton is technically a demigod doesn't that also make his daughters like quarter god? Meaning Ariel had god blood in her (That's lowkey crazy to think about) So what if there are still some people from Atlantis that are still living. Because in the movie Kida was like 8,000 something years old and her father started croaking and died when she was that old so Atlantean's could technically still be existing since they clearly have long life spans. And if the current Atlantis (Transformed Atlantica) what if they snatched a colonizer situation and they are using a newer language of Atlantean meaning Merfolk are actually on Atlantis indigenous land.

Imagine a Kida!Yuu meeting Azul and Azul speaks in a new Atlantean and Yuu is like excuse me did you just call my mother a frog??

We need more TWST lore because I am interested in how their civilization started where humans turned into half beasts and humans became dragons like I wanna know the lore.

I sha'll create my own then :sob:

Melleus🥲

reposting this texty picture since i lost the older post. it's a summary of how most of the tropes i like coincidentally fit into malleus perfectly, and the ones not being included in canons are his common headcanons.

i'm going mental rn

One thing I wish was understood a bit better about Twisted Wonderland.

Everyone in this game has trauma or personal struggles and it's NOT a competition of who has it worse. Honestly, sometimes I wish everyone's traumas were discussed more in depth in the game like we get with each person who Overblots, but we don't have time for it. With the Overblot boys, their trauma is shoved directly into the spotlight and we hear exactly how their situations make them feel. But the rest of the cast, ALL of them, have personal struggles and/or trauma. This is just a small list of some of the issues each non Overblot student has.

Ace masks the fear he feels in a lot of situations, and he's got an inferiority complex on some level. Notice how he bullied the player and Grim in our first interaction? That is a sign of someone who is looking to feel better by pushing someone else down because they don't feel good about themselves.

Deuce grew up with a single mother who had to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, which causes him to worry about her, and he was a delinquent in middle school, which made his mom, the one person he worries over, cry. He lives with those regrets, but he's still got those old habits and he agonizes over the fact he's not academically where he'd like to be and his behavior regresses when in heated situations.

Trey has severe trauma at being screamed at for FIVE HOURS over giving Riddle ONE slice of tart, so much that his vitals are severely affected at the thought of Mrs. Rosehearts and he's heavily conflict avoidant.

Cater has had to move all the time and as a defense mechanism, refuses to be honest or get close to people because he doesn't want to get attached only to be ripped away from them.

Ruggie lives in EXTREME poverty when not at school. He struggles to make ends meet and he has to work so hard in a system that is DESIGNED to keep him in poverty, because many beastmen still prefer segregation in the Sunset Savannah.

Jack has one of the healthier mindsets, but he still struggles with being open and honest about his feelings, which makes it hard to have friends, and he struggled with watching Leona, someone he's idolized, fall short of what he believed of Leona.

Jade and Floyd are implied to have grown up in some form of crime family and both seem to have handled the fact their lives could be in constant danger differently. Both like things being interesting, but Jade seems to prefer seclusion and control, while Floyd enjoys scaring people off and having as much fun as he can before he goes.

Kalim is someone who has had multiple assassination attempts on his life, even from his own family. He masks behind a smile, but he's afraid to trust people, and when he DOES TRY to talk about it, it gets brushed off because he has money. Also, he has to deal with the fact Jamil has been undermining his ability to progress by not treating him as if he's capable at all.

Epel has been teased and bullied on how he looked to the point where he started instigating fights to ensure he wouldn't be teased. He also has to fall in line with what Vil wants because he made the error of picking a fight with Vil and getting his butt HANDED to him. To further add, Vil is NOT NICE about it when Epel resists, with one example being Vil grabbing him by the ear and pulling hard as a form of punishment.

Rook has deal with the fact that for being someone who is super perceptive and can notice details, he didn't realize Vil's feelings around Neige, likely because he was blinded by his own admiration for both of them and that's a bitter pill to swallow.

Ortho has to deal with being basically created as a replacement for dead Ortho Shroud, trying to figure out if he's just really a robot made by Idia with really good AI or more than that, and dealing with the fact he loves his brother so much, but his brother doesn't take care of himself and it's disheartening to watch Idia's self-destruction.

Lilia has so much war trauma, losing his loved ones, having been exiled, and so much other crap. Even so, he forced himself to put the war and his trauma about it in the past, where it belonged for the sake of his two sons who both lost so much to war, which is something Baur/Baul could NOT do which was to Sebek's detriment.

Silver has had to live with the idea that his adoptive father would likely outlive him, then is faced with the fact that his father is basically abandoning everything about their life in Briar Valley before he learns that his biological parents were the enemies of the person he serves and cares about, Malleus, and the only father he's ever known.

Sebek has grown up with internalized racism/speciesism against humans thanks to his upbringing and he basically rejects half of his heritage with how he treats his father. He does not even realize how hurtful his comments are until he's faced with those remarks being directed at him by a younger version of his grandfather.

And this isn't everything each student has to face. This is just broad strokes. Yana Toboso wrote a story about flawed people who all have gone through really hard and difficult things because that's the point. As Toboso said in a 2023 interview:

“Happy endings in Disney works come from righteous actions and love, but I believe that the villains are characters who do not get saved during the story. That is why, through this game, I want to portray the message that even if you get beat up all the way to a bad ending, you can grow from it and live your life without feeling discouraged.

Acting lame, obstinate, without hesitation, being open and honest—it’s not as bad as it sounds. 

I would like to paint a positive picture of living honestly with yourself and not worrying about others.

In today’s society there are so many people who live in fear of failure and are always walking on eggshells, but nobody’s flawless. It is exhausting to try to live your life so that no one will hate you.”

Everyone, even people you don't know or do not like, have gone through things that shaped who they are. Sometimes, how we've adapted to handle the bad things that happen will force us to hit rock bottom. But you don't have to die when you hit rock bottom.

You can have terrible things happen to you and have maladaptive strategies to handle your experiences, but you aren't stuck that way forever. You can learn how to change your habits, learn to be okay with yourself, and work at being better than you were the day before.

Human growth is not linear. It's a bunch of taking steps forward and backsliding and learning and making mistakes over and over again and accepting failure, not as a testament to your character, but as part of the process of growth... and that's something all the students have to learn, not just the Overblot boys. Because all of them, every single one, are handling their own personal issues, even if it isn't shoved right in our faces.

im so mentally ill BUT I PROMISE I WONT RANT ONLY ABOUT THE SCARABIA DUO'S TRAUMA IN HERE..

... that being said... (god i'm awful)

Seeing that we see Jamil's childhood and all his memories of being told to be subordinate, it's safe to say that Jamil is less affected by dissociative amnesia, aka traumatic-memory-repressing.

However, does this mean that even though he probably has some repressed memories about his childhood and traumatic experiences, he also remembers some of them?

What if he's the only one who really knows what Kalim has been through? But because of their tragic relationship, he's unable to admit that he feels sorry for Kalim, because in some sense (THAT HE'S TECHNICALLY RIGHT ABOUT), Kalim is the reason for his trauma too.

Both him and Kalim were never able to have normal childhoods, but beyond normalizing this idea, they both struggle to accept the fact that they didn't have it worse than the other.

Kalim deals with this struggle more easily, as you see him developing these realizations through out the main story line, like in book 5 - 30. In fact, he almost immediately forgoes this idea after Jamil stops overblotting, offering Jamil a choice that takes his traumatic past into consideration, while allowing them to still continue a relationship of some sorts. Meanwhile, Jamil has had less/little development on this. He did have a really nice moment in book 5-10 talking to Azul, but other than that, I really haven't seen more moments of his development, which I find rather disappointing on twst's part. I'd really like a nice moment, whether between Jamil and someone else (like the MC), or maybe even between him and Kalim, where he does atleast acknowledge this idea (Kalim having trauma) without compromising the truth that he has also been wronged.

In the end, I doubt this will ever happen, but a girl can dream.. I atleast wish that the fans wouldn't make their relationship in the fandom competitive in regards to "who's-more-traumatized". This isn't a debate, there doesn't need to be a right answer.

✧ Weekly TWST Reblog Replies! - #1 ✧

idk if i'll make this a consistent thing, mainly because i'm inconsistent- but I do like replying to other people's opinions on my posts, so yeah! expect these every week for the most part, unless there's no reblogs..

credits : @cafekitsune for the dividers

reply to @usurper-of-heavens - No, you're absolutely not underestimating them. I wholly believe that that the characters in-game mischaracterize Kalim just as much as the fandom does. I will argue that for the characters, it's actually reasonable, since not all of them know him all that well. Even so, the fact that a ton of them don't think about what it means to be an heir to a throne, minus the pampering and luxurious life, is kinda crazy to me..

I'm more so disappointed that the princes don't recognize this, and although Malleus was probably fine his whole life, why does Leona not acknowledge this idea? If I had to guess, it's mainly because some of Leona's trauma stems from his being born second and being outcast from the throne. Maybe seeing Kalim so oblivious and happy makes him forget the idea that Kalim could also go through anything similar to the rejection he faced during childhood.

reply to @magimerlyn - This is a wonderful statement that I totally agree with, Kalim is mindful enough to continue working with Jamil even after discovering Jamil's feelings about him, opting to try and become less dependent on him while not throwing him to the side, considering that he has the power to get rid of Jamil. Yes, some of his emotional stability relies on Jamil being around, but that's exactly why he's trying to grow more as a person, and be more mindful of the choices he makes involving Jamil. Chances are, Jamil wouldn't magically outgrow his habits of taking care of Kalim even if Kalim did immediately grant his freedom and close off their relationship. Either way, Kalim would probably be granted some reprieve from his grievances if someone as helpful and dedicated as Jamil came along that he could trust trust. Now whether this would affect Kalim and Jamil's relationship?.. we'll leave that to the fanfic writers..

reply to @flying-mochis - Yeah, Kalim has several moments where he openly shows his innovation in attempts to develop more personally by not relying on Jamil all the time. Book 5 - Chapter 10 is a great example of Jamil's development, because he's willing to continue aiding Kalim despite probably being able to prove himself as better than him. Of course, this is partially because of his ruined reputation, but you can't deny that he isn't being super spiteful despite the fact that his plan to overthrow Kalim didn't work.

reply to @tinisprout - Exactly, like my poor boy!!! We'll listen!! 😭😭😭 In reality, I don't think Kalim would ever willingly vent if it wasn't in private like that moment, because of his fear of ruining his reputation as the happy go-lucky housewarden who's always oblivious and naive yet kind. It's a standard he needs to uphold, and maybe Kalim is afraid of getting help from others because he might be a burden to them, in the same way he limited Jamil from ever showing his full potential. This is more of a theory, but still.. Our sweet boy doesn't deserve this.. 😭😭

reply to @twsted-canvas - Yeah, I can't blame you... Twst's put 0 development into Grim's character in regards to caring for others, which is so lame- Give us student Grim who secretly cares for his first year friends and Yuu, but denies it!! In all aspects, if he didn't have a bad personality, he would be a very cute lil kitty. (still don't forgive you for changing the topic while kalim was venting you asshat)