#malleus broomquet vignette spoilers

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

who were the other characters that brought up ace's potential that you mentioned in the recent post? im not sure if my memory is failing me but did any character ever discuss ace's potential of becoming housewarden or something like that too? i thought i heard it floating around online before

[Referencing this post!]

There’s actually lots of other characters, though I didn’t really include them in the original post because most of these examples are more like general praise for Ace’s skillset rather than his potential to grow even more. Here’s instances I was able to locate (although please keep in mind that this list isn’t exhaustive);

Jamil says Ace is “a deft hand at basketball.” Even as a first year, Ace is trying hard to prove his mettle and earn a proper spot on the team for actual games.

In Endless Halloween Night, Leona clocks Ace's cunning (he knew that Floyd wanted to use someone as a decoy and so stuck close to Leona so that Floyd would default to Epel). "Both your mercilessness and the calculating way you drew close to my strength without hesitation wasn't half bad. I see that the good little boys over at Heartslabyul have more crafty students like you mixed in."

In Malleus's Bloom Broom vignettes, Malleus states, "I must say, for a child of man you do have some redeeming qualities. Though you're "just a freshman", you were more than happy to share your views to get a proper response out of me for the first question. Heh heh, and meanwhile many of my own classmates struggle to even say hello to me."

In Idia's Suitor Suit vignettes, Idia rambles about how Ace looks and acts so cool, like some action hero.

Rook is the one who points out Ace and the others' potential to be polished in book 5; it is based on his advice that Vil decides on the NRC VDC/SDC Tribe that he does. Rook also notices that Ace is very quickly able to mimic the language of moles (in Ace's Dorm Uniform vignettes). "Merveilleux! Such skillful mimicry! You truly did memorize it in one go [...] Mm, yes. The Roi des Roses has fine vassals indeed."

Vil praises Ace in Fairy Gala: What If for being able to perform a passable runway walk. Other characters that are present during this scene (Lilia, Silver, Jack, etc.) are shocked as well and ask how he was able to do it.

Fellow Honest praises the NRC students (including Ace) and tells them that they have potential to be "stars" on Playful Land's stage. However, it's not clear if he was being sincere here, as he was most likely lovebombing them in order to lure them to the park.

In book 7, Cater calls Ace super cool for standing up to OB Riddle; it gave Cater some courage to fight too! Not many people are capable of doing that.

To my knowledge, there’s no canonical discussion of Ace as a potential dorm leader (unless you want to count his stint in book 1, but he only wanted the crown to knock Riddle down a peg, not because he was the most suitable for the role). That’s purely from the world of fanon, as there’s lots of fan art and theory crafting about whether he or Deuce will succeed Riddle.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Birthday Bash Masterlist

***Please note: there are spoilers for initial artwork and groovy artworks! There may also be spoilers for the related vignettes.***

2020-2021: Birthday Boy Suit interactions

For reference, these are the rules for the interactions here.

The links in this section will take you to the "welcome story" for each boy; to read all of the interactions associated with that character, follow the appropriate tag. For example, Riddle's is #Riddle birthday takeover. Some boys may have as many as 40+ interactions which would take up several masterlists by themselves.

Heartslabyul: Riddle / Trey / Cater / Ace / Deuce

Savanaclaw: Leona / Ruggie / Jack

Octavinelle: Azul / Jade and Floyd

Scarabia: Kalim / Jamil

Pomefiore: Vil / Rook / Epel

Ignihyde: Idia / Ortho

Diasomnia: Malleus / Lilia / Silver / Sebek

Other: Raven / Rollo

2021-2022: Union Birthday Jacket ficlets These pieces focus on the bond between, and the influence of, the birthday boy and his interviewer.

Heartslabyul: Riddle / Trey / Cater / Ace / Deuce

Savanaclaw: Leona / Ruggie / Jack

Octavinelle: Azul / Jade / Floyd

Scarabia: Kalim / Jamil

Pomefiore: Vil / Rook / Epel

Ignihyde: Idia / Ortho

Diasomnia: Malleus / Lilia / Silver / Sebek

Other: Raven

2022-2023: Birthday Broomquet ficlets

These pieces focus on the respective boy's goals for the future.

Heartslabyul: Riddle / Trey / Cater / Ace / Deuce

Savanaclaw: Leona / Ruggie / Jack

Octavinelle: Azul / Jade / Floyd

Scarabia: Kalim / Jamil

Pomefiore: Vil / Rook / Epel

Ignihyde: Idia / Ortho

Diasomnia: Malleus / Lilia / Silver / Sebek

Other: Raven

2023-2024: Platinum Jacket ficlets These pieces focus on the respective boy's thoughts and feelings about the Disney figures they see in their vignettes, and how they relate to those figures.

Heartslabyul: Riddle / Trey / Cater / Ace / Deuce

Savanaclaw: Leona / Ruggie / Jack

Octavinelle: Azul / Jade / Floyd

Scarabia: Kalim / Jamil

Pomefiore: Vil / Rook / Epel

Ignihyde: Idia / Ortho

Diasomnia: Malleus / Lilia / Silver / Sebek

Other: Raven

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

HiI was looking at Maellus broomquet, Ace was asking where would he like to visit and Maellus said a castle. I just realized the castle he wanted to see could it be Meleanor’s castle! That’s pretty sad that he cant freely goto that castle.

Oooh, that’s a pretty interesting (and plausible) theory 🤔 I took a look back at Malleus’s Broomquet vignettes to double check, and some of the details happen to line up with what we know (or is implied) about Wild Rose Castle…

***Book 7 main story spoilers below the cut!!***

Firstly, Malleus mentions that not a lot of people have lived in the castle for a long time now. It implies they are ruins, and for some reason no one goes near it or even bothers making a tourist attraction of it. This is also true of Wild Rose Castle, which Lilia suspects has had an enchantment placed on it by diurnal fae to keep humans from disturbing it.

Malleus then adds that there are history books which would feature this castle at the height of the country's prosperity, meaning it must be of significant historical importance and that this country would not retain that prosperity (alluding to maybe losing the coming war). We know from book 7 that Wild Rose Castle is specifically where Briar Country's crown princess resides, and she is someone of great political importance. It is important that Malleus specifies the textbooks would depict the castle "at the height of the country's prosperity", as we also learn in book 7 that both the textbooks and Lilia himself don't elaborate on what befell their country and Malleus's mother during the human-fae war. The war, then, must occur after this period of prosperity, as Wild Rose Castle would fall into ruin after it. (The image we see of Wild Rose Castle later on also does, in fact, confirm that it is in ruins and abandoned:)

This all makes sense chronologically speaking, especially if we consider that Briar Country (ie the entire continent) may have been divided up and claimed by human victors following the war. This would explain the dotted lines (drawn over in red) carving up the landmass in the Twisted Wonderland world map, and how Briar Valley itself only makes up a tiny portion of the continent. Malleus is constantly referred to as the heir of Briar Valley, not the continent, which implies his kingdom fell from grace after losing his mother and the conflict with humans. (By the way, I have a separate post elaborating on this “Briar Country -> Briar Valley” theory; it’s here if you want to read it!)

If you look at where Wild Rose Castle falls on a map and then compare it to the modern day Twisted Wonderland map, it seems that the Wild Rose Castle (green X) would fall into an area outside of Briar Valley. It's possible, then, that that territory now belongs to some other nation. That would mean Malleus cannot enter that other nation's land without jumping through legal hoops. It's not "his" land anymore, so he doesn't have a right to visit it whenever he so chooses to. Seeing as he easily waves off any spell or curse thrown at him, I don't think Malleus not being able to visit certain castles is due to inability to overcome magic or other enchantments, but because as crown prince, he has to respect the territorial rights of other countries.

It feels sad hearing Malleus talk about visiting ruins. He wonders about the life that once resided there, the balls and ceremonies in them... and now there's only lonely vestiges of those glory days. A mother he never had the chance to know, a great and bloody conflict waged before he was even born... His interests end up being ironically tragic, really 😔