Twst Spoilers - Blog Posts

rollo trying to explain to the police why he wanted to wipe out magic and get a bunch of people hurt in the process

What do you mean "You'll be in my heart" was not written with Lilia and Silver in mind?? It is literally a song about them!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN-?!!!

Ok, since you really liked my meme I decided to share this trivia with you.

In Poland the woman who voiced Maleficent, named Zofia Mrozowska was an actress and educationalist. In 1948 she played a role in a war movie called "Ostatni etap" (eng. "Last stage").

Why am I telling you this? Because she was casted ... as a ✨gypsy✨

And with recent Glorious Masquerade event I hope you find this fact as funny as I do.

Bonus, (Zofia Mrozowska while playing the role):

I sent that ask about Malleus's treatment being unfair and now that it's over I'm going to make my point more clear, since it seems it wasn't last time.

Malleus's crimes:

-Putting people to sleep on a wide scale

-Less injuries that a *sports* tournament (according to Epel)

The other overblots' crimes:

-Attempted murder, including targeted murder and wiping out *all life* (aka murder on a wide scale)

Malleus's consequences:

-Accidentally killed his own father

-Physically maimed

-Magically disabled

-Losing the entire foundation of who he is and having to rebuild his identity from scratch

-The trauma of his actions

The other overblots' consequences:

-Riddle was socially shunned for a while (and even this is shown mostly in other media, not the game)

-The trauma of their actions

Meanwhile the other overblots say that Malleus deserves further punishment (to which Crowley thankfully points out they have no right to speak) as does a fair chunk of the fanbase. How does this make any sense? Might I also add that the only ones who ever apologized for their actions are Riddle, Vil, and *Malleus.* So why is it that Malleus is seen as being so much worse than the others? Why is Malleus called a monster, a living disaster, and the enemy of mankind (all things said in canon) and nobody else has anything similar said about them? I'm not arguing that there shouldn't be consequences, I'm arguing that the scale of it does not align with twst's previous messaging and themes. Whether or not Malleus's consequences are fair in general is one thing, but in comparison with our previous standards it's wildly unfair. And yet people are still calling for more, and fans are being rude to Diasomnia fans about it. It simply doesn't add up.

As for Silver, nowhere did I say Silver should pay for his father's crimes. I said that his *father* never earned the right for his image to be restored because he stood idly by against what he thought was wrong. Silver shouldn't have to be used to restore his *father's* image, when that image doesn't align with who Silver is.

Dear Anon,

I was writing a well thought out and sincere response essay to your initial take, but since you're back and doubling down I'm just going to tell you why you're wrong.

WARNING: The following response is pretty rude. Malleus gets everything he had coming to him and here's why. . .

No, really.

This is going to sound "mean."

You didn't even bother to address the questions I presented in my previous response.

You aren't going to like this.

Stop scrolling. . .

WHAT PART OF, "MALLEUS DRACONIA IS CAUSING A WORLD-ENDING MAGICAL CATASTROPHY," DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?????

The story established that PEOPLE WOULD DIE if the spell wasn't broken. Malleus had absolutely no intention of stopping what he was doing. He didn't stop at just Lilia, or the party, or the school, or even stop at Sage's Island. He was going to curse the whole of Twisted Wonderland. If he wasn't stopped by force EVERYONE WOULD HAVE DIED, and you're trying to tell me that it's not as bad as Riddle (whose overblot never affected anyone outside of the unbirthday party), Leona, and Vil (who's rampages were contained to a sports stadium) because he "Wasn't trying to hurt anyone"? Because "No one actually ended up getting hurt"?No. I'm not going to feel bad about the sentient manifestation of a mass extinction event being referred to as, "The enemy of humanity." If something or someone is threatening the entire population of the world (including beastmen, merfolk, and other fae) then he is in fact an enemy of everyone under threat, REGARDLESS OF WHAT HIS INTENTIONS ARE. You ever hear "The road to hell is paved with good intentions"? Yeah. That. Malleus didn't want to kill people, but that's effectively what he was doing and ignoring that fact is blatantly irresponsible. On a better day? Everyone's fear of Malleus is largely misplaced and of course calling him an enemy of humanity would be inherently prejudiced and way out of line. BUT THAT WAS NOT THE SITUATION AT THE TIME AND YOU ARE IGNORING THE THREAT HE VERY MUCH POSED IN FAVOR OF BABYING HIM OVER HIS INTENTIONS!

Let's recap here: MULTIPLE PEOPLE TRIED TO TALK MALLEUS DOWN AND GET HIM TO STOP OF HIS OWN ACCORD. Pray tell, dear Anon, what should they have done after that? You want to compare overblots? Let's compare overblots.

Every prior overblot in this story has been resolved by every nearby available person beating the ever loving snot out of the guilty party until it was over. As a result, five out of six previous overblots were ended within an hour of them occurring. Idia at the time was an exception and had been overblotted for several hours by the time he was knocked back to his senses. In the case of the Tartarus crisis, they even used STYX most powerful anti-blot weapons (the thunder spears) to attack the Shroud brothers because it was necessary to use potentially lethal force to stop the phantoms from breaking out of the facility and effectively save the world. THEY DID WHAT THEY HAD TO DO AND THEY DID NOT HOLD BACK! THEY DID NOT KNOW IF THEY COULD SAVE IDIA! In this way, Malleus is being treated EXACTLY like the other overblotters. When Malleus Draconia overblots, they tried the usual tactics. They tried to collectively overpower him at the farewell party and no one could touch him. Everyone was helpless to stop him. They all fell to his magic quick as winking. Malleus Draconia has TERRIFYING AMOUNTS OF MAGIC. So when he won't listen to reason, WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS ARE THEY SUPPOSE TO DO TO STOP HIM FROM ENDING LIFE ON THE PLANET AS THEY KNOW IT?

. . .

I know.

How about something they've been doing since the start of the story?

TAKE AWAY HIS MAGIC!

You know, what Riddle's signature spell does? What he did to Grim in the prologue? What he did to Leona when confronting him about the sports sabotage? Remember how in order to STOP RIDDLE FROM KILLING PEOPLE Trey overwrote his signature spell so that they would stand a fighting chance? Remember when the previous overblotters (and Grim) were immediately dressed in anti-magic collars to avoid issues when they were brought to STYX to be vetted? It's almost like we established that this is a thing people do in Twisted Wonderland do to handle magical emergencies.

Truly and honestly, what are you supposed to do when one of the five most powerful mages in the world poses a threat to your very existence and those you love? Try talking him down AGAIN? It makes complete and total sense to try and make Malleus weaker. How are they supposed to fight and beat him to stop the world as they know it from ending when he has access to the UNHOLY AMOUNTS OF MAGIC that they have repeatedly established he has? That they have been bested by repeatedly. NO ONE IN ON OR OFF OF SAGE'S ISLAND HAD BEEN ABLE TO TOUCH HIM OR DO ANYTHING AGAINST HIS POWER FOR DAYS! HE HAS BEEN OVERBLOTTING FOR DAYS WITHOUT A STOP TO HIS EXPANDING SPHERE OF INFLUENCE ENVELOPING THE WORLD! Cutting off his horns was a perfectly valid step to take because THEY QUITE LITERALLY HAD NO OTHER OPTIONS!

As for leaving him dismembered and disabled. . .

First off, let's remember that I just pointed out that the fate of the world was resting on that decision, and they had no other choice.

Secondly. . .

You have got to be kidding me.

Are you really comparing Malleus losing a PIECE of ONE of his horns to someone losing a limb? It's not even like losing your pinky finger! It's maybe sorta kinda like getting a nail torn out. HIS HORN WILL GROW BACK.

"But magic is second nature to fae so it IS like losing a__"

Shut up. No it's not.

He can still use magic. HE IS NOT DISABLED!

Oh no! One of the top five most powerful mages on the planet can't casually use magic to deal with every element of his daily life and fix every minor inconvenience he's presented with anymore. He might have to struggle to do things now. WHAT EVER WILL POOR MALLEUS DO NOW THAT HE'S NOT EXPONENTIALLY MORE POWERFUL THAN ALL HIS PEERS AND TEACHERS!? I GUESS HE'LL JUST HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL LIKE EVERYONE ELSE! HOW DARE HE BE HUMANIZED! HOW DARE THIS PRECIOUS TRAUMATIZED MAGESTIC PRINCELY OVERPOWERED DRAGON IN HUMAN FORM BE FORCED TO LIVE LIKE THE COMMON FOLK!

I guess he'll just have to learn to see things through the eyes of his peers and have a new perspective on life he wasn't privvy to previously now that magic isn't something he can fling around casually. Seriously. How dare Malleus be given character development potential when none of the other overblotters were treated like this. IT'S SSOOOOOO UNFAAAAAAIIIRRRRRRR!!!1!1!1!1!!

Oh yeah, do you want to keep comparing him to the other overblotters? Because with how much of his horn he lost, he's about as disfigured as Leona. You know. The guy with the scar? Malleus has a scar now, however, unlike Leona's, Malleus' scar will disappear.

Have I mentioned how Riddle was in the same boat of abusing his power because he thought he was doing "the right thing" because he was also traumatized as a child? Riddle is so weak by comparison and caused so little a comparative fuss that a punch to the face and getting hassled by his dormmates is justice by TWST standards (we all know this is a writng problem for this game in general, right?). And you REALLY don't want me to mention how every other person who overblotted acted out of their minds with rage and pent up emotions as they did violent things that they ordinarily wouldn't consider while Malleus was oddly lucid and could actually consider being talked to while he cursed the world. Malleus was destroying the world and in enough of his right mind to consider stopping. But no, Malleus is the one being treated unfairly.

Dear Anon, Malleus Draconia has always been an extreme character. He's always been extremely powerful and used his magic flippantly with little regard for how others feel about it. His overblot caused an extreme situation that the rest of the cast was forced to take extreme measures to deal with. Him being treated "differently" from all of the other overblotters is DIRCTLY PROPORTIONAL TO THE DANGER HE POSED. On the extreme scale Malleus is working on, he is certainly not worse off than any other previous chapters' final bosses. So, no, I don't care that people called him mean names when he was slowly destroying the world. I don't care that his magic was "nerfed" and now he has to come down off his high horse and live a little like everyone else now. And I really don't care that fans are asking for more justice to be done JUST LIKE THEY DO WITH EVERY OTHER OVERBLOTTER WHO GOT OFF WITH A SLAP ON THE WRIST! WE DEMAND MORE FROM ALL OF THEM! Malleus is NOT an exception.

"Thank you for your take."

And yes, saying that Silver should not have his heroic moment as a knight in shining armor because that armor was worn when committing war crimes IS devaluing Silver based on his father's sins. Being a knight in shining armor is completely in character for Silver (AS A FREAKING DISNEY PRINCESS), and the fact that he is doing a good thing is meant to CONTRAST with his father who did bad things, NOT absolve said father of wrongdoing. The same tool that was once used for evil is now being used for good. IT'S POETIC!

When reading the newest chapter. I can't help but thinking that edit of Junji Ito manga panel. I don't know if anyone already draw this before.

Original edit.

I miss his horn 😔

The thing that gets me about book 7 is that what pushed Malleus over the edge wasn't just "Losing Lilia." Of course, that was a lot of it. Losing the person who raised him, who's been in pretty much all of his memories– that would affect anyone, really.

But that wasn't the final nail in the coffin. What was the last thing that happened before he overblotted?

Silver broke down. It was the moment he saw Silver cry that he made the choice to cast that spell. It wasn't just about Malleus losing his parent guardian, but Silver losing his father, and anyone else losing the people they love. That's what got him.

one day i will make a comparative analysis of oz-arthur father-son dynamic and lilia-silver father-son dynamic. i love it when a hundred/a thousand year old wizards unintentionally adopt a kid who has royal blood ❤️

there's an interesting historical reference to a poem (that is somewhat similar to the original sleeping beauty fairy tales) in diasomnia chapter 4 main story that i wanted to yap about

spoilers under the cut

I translated the Main Story Book 7 Chapter 4 Ep 63 (which is posted on my tl account over here) when it was first released, and looking back on it now, i realized that there's this part that hasn't been talked about(?) (or maybe i'm just out of the loop now LOL).

But basically there's this part where baul and lilia explains that they were going to 野ばら城 (which i translated as Wild Rose Castle) to deliver a message to Queen Maleanor, Malleus' mother.

If we break down the meaning of each character:

• "野" ("の/no") means "wild,"

• ばら ("bara") means "rose,"

• while "城" ("shiro") is just the word for "castle";

Thus, I translated 野ばら城 to 'Wild Rose Castle.'

HOWEVER. 野ばら on its own is also the Japanese translation of Goethe's poem, "Heidenröslein," which is a story about a young man who decides to pluck a small rose on the heath despite the rose's warning that she will stick him with her thorn. Here is a screenshot of a summary of the poem's text from its wiki page.

I think it's an extremely interesting choice on the Twst writers' end to choose this specific word as the name for Maleanor's castle since if you just wanted to search up an actual wild rose, you would have to type 野バラ instead (using the katakana バラ as it's the more common way to type the word 'rose' in Japanese).

Plus, taking into account the message behind Heidenröslein, I can't help but recall the actual Sleeping Beauty fairy tale AND the Maleficent (2014) movie. (Angelina Jolie herself said that Henry betraying Maleficent's trust and love just to take away her wings is like an allegory to rape).

What does it mean for Twst lore?

Well, nothing much, really. Since they never touched on this topic again after Silver and the guys left Lilia's dream 😔. We'll have to wait until Heartslabyul dreams are over until we get new lore drops related to Diasomnia, but I just found this as an interesting etymology that I wanted to share! It also just shows the detail that the writers put into writing the main story as they reference content somewhat related to the stories where the characters are twisted from.

(I like to yap about twst lore so follow me if you want to see more of that + i'm in dire need of friends </3)

I like to imagine that in an au where Meleanor lives and Lilia somehow still gets custody of Silver, like Malleus she is also initially disgusted by Silver before growing extremely attached to him because the "you love me, so you'll love my child" thing goes both ways.

A few hcs that I had while I brainrotted about this in Discord dms:

-Meleanor, like her son, is very fascinated by Silver's fast development.

-She is an easily impressed aunt/godmother and would heap SO MUCH praise on Silver for the littlest things. (and immediately turn around and strike Lilia with lightning for interrupting her)

-Lilia, on the phone(?): "Silver just said his first words!"

Meleanor, appearing in a burst of fire: "HOLY SHIT!!!"

-Sort of reflecting fae in folklore, she loves to kidnap take Silver back to the castle with her for "play dates" with Malleus, who will complain about it as he so very gently plays with the fragile infant his mother had trusted him with (he is a tsundere big brother)

-Revan always sighs every time he catches Silver in the castle because he KNOWS his wife didn't tell Lilia she took him, but he isn't unhappy to see him. Will include Silver in Malleus's tutoring sessions even though Malleus's curriculum is much too advanced for the average human, let alone a baby.

-Growing up, Silver calls Meleanor "Mother" because he hears Malleus call her that all the time. When he grows out of it and starts calling her "Lady Meleanor/Meleanor-sama", she sulks about it a bit.

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.