#I could ramble about Cater or any other TWST character for AGES

[crheativity]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you! Get to know your mutuals, followers and all the wonderful people on here! 💖

Hmm, good question!!

1. Making people smile or laugh, and just hanging out with people

2. Creating things (like drawing, writing, etc.)

3. Video games! Particularly otome games at the moment haha

4. Fandom! There are parts of it that make me uncomfy, but fangirling out with other people about my favourite things makes me so so happy

5. Just existing honestly. The world can be a dark and scary place, but I’m honestly glad to be here and that everything that makes me happy is here too. Sorry if that’s a little silly 😅

Hehe thank you guys! That was fun :D

[hanbereviews]

Heartslaybul Main Story Review

We will be taking a short break from the otome review to tap into the joseimuke side of this blog and start by reviewing a new popular mobage named Twisted Wonderland. I shall be using looser criteria than my otome review, as this can be a bit rambly due to it being my sole opinion. Thus we will simply be reviewing each character in regards to the plot. I will also be reviewing with the idea that one has already read the story, or at least tangentially knows of the struggles presented here. 

Heartslaybul suffers from incredibly poor characterization for some, whilst reaching the narrative end of an arc for others. In particular, the big winner of this story is of course Riddle, the main antagonist. The biggest loser? Cater Diamond. 

But before we address either of those characters, let's take a look at the first years! So the twst writers made a decision to primarily include the first years Ace and Deuce as main characters not only in this story, but in each main story beyond. However with their native dorms being Heartslaybul, you are treated to respective backstories. 

Ace Trappola

Ace’s brother used to be a heartslaybul student several years ago, and Ace has a bit of an inferiority complex because of it. Naturally, the main inner conflict with him is the idea of living up to his brother whilst also still remaining himself. It is more than a bit barebones, the only other thing we learn about him being that he had a girlfriend in middle school. However throughout the story he serves as the main combatant to Riddle’s antagonism. A popular suggestion is that he takes the place of Alice’s role when she disputed the Queen’s ridiculous rules. Ace does the same here, being the main source of question when it comes to Riddle’s nonsensical rulebook and the abuse of power he wroughts upon Heartslaybul students. 

Deuce Spade

Deuce in contrast, does not get as much of a shining character moment as his dorm mate ace does. However he makes up for it with a rich backstory that while ultimately simple, gives a pretty fair view of his personality. Being a former delinquent, he cleaned up his act and tried hard to get into Nightraven College for his mother’s sake, and even now he attempts to be a good student. Sometimes this doesn’t end up working out, but it certainly makes for an endearing character trait. He displays that trait a lot throughout the narrative, to some’s annoyance, and other’s glee. 

He’s naturally competitive with Ace, being his rival and bickering with him constantly. However the narrative does not position them as hating each other, and instead makes their exchanges more into playful banter. Deuce and Ace are showcased in Heartslaybul and onward to have an extremely strong bond with each other. 

Now, with that out of the way let’s take a look at the third years, and the Heartslaybul dorm head. 

Riddle Rosehearts

Riddle is once again, the main antagonist of the narrative. As it progresses we learn that his abuse of power and commitment to the rules results from serious parental trauma, raised by a helicopter parent of a mother who refused to let him engage in any childish things. Riddle reacted to this by maturing at a younger age than most of his classmates, but it also severely hurt his ability to simply act like a teenager. 

You see these two opposing ideas come into play here, and I will make the bold suggestion that Ace represents the childish side of him that he so terribly fears coming into contact with once again. Ace frequently shows very little care for the rules, only attempting to follow them when he is forced to. And as the story progresses, you see Riddle go into overblot not only due to Ace turning the dorm against him, but because he resents that Ace and his friends can so brazenly defy authority while Riddle was subject to it all of his life. Even as his overblot is calmed down and the narrative ends, Riddle still shows that he is more than a little uncomfortable indulging in the normalcy of his teenage years. However, the fact that he is even able to shows major character growth and sets him up for future exploration.

Trey Clover 

Next we move to Trey Clover, vice dorm head. Trey is Riddle’s childhood friend, and as such their backstories are intimately connected. Inparticular, Trey feels partly responsible for Riddle’s state due to Riddle frequently sneaking out of his house to play with him and their friend Che’nya. Riddle’s mother caught onto these playdates, and thus Riddle was treated much more harshly as a result. Trey has “corrected” this behavior by essentially letting riddle become a tyrant to his dorm. This aspect of his is heavily criticized within the narrative by others, and presents Trey’s major character flaw. 

Trey does not care about other people. The story is bluntly phrased, Riddle is objectively the bad guy in this situation. Yet as Vice Dorm Head, Trey supposedly cannot do anything to stop his reign of terror. This is blatantly not true, considering the fact a few first years are able to help completely restructure the dorm into a much more tolerable place to be. So with this point in mind, the only way to reconcile Trey’s behavior with what happens in the narrative is that he prioritizes Riddle’s feelings over everyone else’s. 

Trey positions himself as “helping” when Ace’s magic is sealed by Riddle’s unique magic by making more tarts. However this is all he really does, when Riddle expresses annoyance at bringing the “wrong” tarts to the party, Trey throws up his hands and says there’s nothing else he can do. This is due to the fact that to get out of the situation, Trey must challenge Riddle and go against his ideals. This is something he just blatantly does not want to do, Trey has evidently had an easier time adjusting to Riddle’s ideas more than others and thus these issues do not get in the way of his guilt in regards to Riddle’s trauma. Even as the narrative ends, Trey doesn’t exactly learn anything from this whole fiasco. Why is that? Because it worked out without him having to be the one to lead the charge in opposing Riddle!

Cater Diamond

For our last character and one of my personal favorites we take a look at Cater Diamond. Cater actually seems to be a victim of the fact that Heartslaybul is the first dorm to be introduced in the narrative. One can’t help but feel like one character had to be picked to be shafted and he was the natural choice. We learn little about Cater besides small hints here and there. Uniquely despite being a third year, he doesn’t seem to have a particularly strong connection to Riddle. In contrast to Trey’s fake powerlessness, Cater is actually powerless to do anything about Heartslaybul’s situation. Whilst he tries to help as much as he can, the situation quickly slips out of his hands. Cater is thus forced to rely on other people to truly fix the deplorable state Heartslaybul is in. 

Though beyond that, we actually don’t know much about him. We know that he loves social media, that you could perhaps characterize him as a gyaruo type or something similar. But his relationship to his dorm mates and even other characters isn’t exactly anywhere in the vein of complex. And that is not necessarily his fault, because it isn’t like Cater can’t be an interesting character. But once again, with Heartslaybul being the first dorm introduced it’s not like he can interact with others outside of it. And Trey is so wrapped up in Riddle that Cater can’t exactly worm his way into that dynamic until the end of the story. 

Final Thoughts

Overall while being very strong plotwise, Heartslaybul needs to be backed up by character events to really solidify their characters and give themselves a place in the world of Twisted Wonderland outside of the dorm. This makes it a bit of a weak story in terms of characterization, but due to the wonderful nature of mobile games that characterization has tons of potential to be fleshed out in other avenues besides the main story itself!

[zenlesszonezero]

Join Zenless Zone Zero with Tsukishiro Yanagi, the deputy leader of Hollow Special Operations Section 6! Beneath her ordinary office lady exterior lies a meticulous, emotionally intelligent big sister to the team.