#this was prompted by me seeing a twst artist say they hadn't seen the little mermaid

[riddlerosehearts]

ngl i think every twisted wonderland fan should like... watch classic disney movies. both because they're really good movies and because i just think being familiar with them genuinely enriches the experience since you get to understand all the different references and inspirations and fun little twists the game puts on the original stories. i was so overjoyed when i realized that lilia is likely inspired at least partially by the three fairies from sleeping beauty despite not being a light magic user--not just because he took in a human child as a fae but because of several other references to them in his character--and that the story of aladdin and jasmine is a legend in the scalding sands, and that silver looks up to mulan as a heroic figure. that ruggie used to work at a restaurant inspired by the story of lady and the tramp. that the story of snow white is a legend in epel's hometown and so many of their traditions are inspired by her. that the minigames in book 6 were filled with hercules references and that child idia quotes hades when he recreates ortho. that when we hear about people like ursula and ariel or aladdin and jafar it's not "oh well in this world the great sea witch was actually good and the mermaid princess was evil", it's always that they were both good. iirc the ursula of this world is said to have started out a villain and turned over a new leaf in the end, while ariel founded the very charity that allows the octatrio to attend NRC, and that's fascinating to me. it's also fascinating to me thinking about the contrast between ursula and azul's backstories, and how idia seems to be a little bit inspired by not just hades but hercules himself as well, and how ortho has a bit of baymax and pinocchio in him. how rook is a light magic user based on a redeemed villain and attends NRC, and chenya (is he a dark magic user? do we have any way of knowing?) is an RSA student based on such a morally gray character as the cheshire cat. how jamil is obviously jafar but seems to take a bit of inspiration from the genie as well, and kalim from both the sultan and aladdin. like i just love twisted wonderland so so so much for things like these and i don't think i'd love it half as much if i weren't also a fan of disney itself. to be honest i highly doubt i would've ever even touched a game about high school boys based on disney villains if i weren't already a disney fan, but i'm so glad i did end up getting into it!