#twiner goc

[freak-like-meemy]

A moodboard of Mr. Qwerty and Twiner (Wormwood)

For RotG Halloween 2023

Day Two: Wormwood

@rotg-halloween

[mxthergoose]

Guardians of Childhood - The Great Time Travel Adventure (A GoC fanfic)

(Spoilers from previous books ahead!)

Summary:

A new Golden Age had arrived. Pitch was gone for good and Kozmotis had returned. The Guardians could finally live in peace now. Jack had returned to the little hut in the middle of nowhere that belonged to his adoptive brother together with Katherine, his girlfriend, and Jacklovichs children; only leaving when duty was due. North, Bunnymund, Toothiana, and Sandy had returned to their domains. But the peace finds an end when all of sudden events from the past seemed to change. Where is Father Time? Why wasn't he preventing events from being changed? The Guardians once again stand in front of a mystery that needed to be solved. A most uncommon adventure through time itself begins to find and save Father Time from the Dark Forces that try to keep him from doing his duties...

Chapter 2: Between laughter and regret

Emily Jane helped her father get up on his still wonky feet again, and not much sooner the Guardians could face the former Lord High General Kozmotis Pitchiner in all his glory once again. Kozmotis, seemingly in awe, began to stare at his cloak… robe… dress… whatever it was called over time and raised an eyebrow. Then all of sudden he started laughing in a most blissful manner. The Guardians stared at him in obvious confusion and broke out in quiet mutter.

Kozmotis then stopped laughing and pursed his lips to not release another snicker. "What in the name of the moon am I wearing?!" thought the former Nightmare King out loud and tugged on his entirely black coloured cloak that was so long that it was almost dragged across the ground like a dress. The muddled mutters around him suddenly stopped. Each Guardian began to look at each other. Katherine at Jack, Jack at Sandy, Sandy at Bunnymund, Bunnymund at Toothiana, and Toothiana at North. Then every single one of them started to laugh in great unison as well.

Now it was the General who appeared rather perplexed. Even his daughter began joining the cluster of amused laughter all around him. Kozmotis scratched his head, struggling as to what he'd do wrong that made everybody burst out in laughter like that. "What?" was the only word the man managed to get out of his mouth. "Nothing" replied Emily Jane as she released one last giggle.

"Apparently this is what Pitch Black liked. Because it is... well... Pitch Black!" stated Jack, chuckling, while leaning with his legs crossed against Twiner who had transformed back into a staff earlier. Kozmotis frowned at the mention of 'Pitch Black'. He had to admit that his alter ego caused too much trouble over the past centuries. "Please,” the former General insisted, "Refrain from mentioning that horrible name ever again. Pitch is history. He was a horrible being and caused way too much pain during his reign. Now Kozmotis has returned. And I want to apologize for all this has happened in the first place".

Bunnymund's nose began twitching again. Then he headed a step forward, facing Kozmotis face to face, frowning.

"Then why didn't you stop it from happening in the first place?" snorted the Pooka, his twiching nose just a few small inches away from General Kozmotis' nose.

Bunnymund confronts Kozmotis (Illustration by me)

"I had no choice!" answered Kozmotis filled with sorrow in his voice, then backed off as he turned to his daughter who'd been floating on a small with fog surrounded cloud next to Sandman. The little golden-yellow man was so quiet the whole time. In fact, Sandy never spoke anyway. "You better be serious. After all, it is your fault that I am the last remaining Pooka of the Pookan Brotherhood!".

That statement made the tall man startle and go quiet real quick because he knew the Pooka wasn't wrong. North sighed, Toothiana gapsed, and Katherine hid behind Mr. Querty's pages. No laughter could be heard anymore, the atmosphere around the environment went silent and it almost was like time stood still. For a moment, none of the Guardians dared saying a word.

[ Previous ] [ Next | TBA ]

[bunnimew]

What do you think about the GOC books? Personally I enjoy them, but separate to the film. It’s very hard to connect the two worlds in my head especially when Joyce keeps rewriting the lore every couple years (no hate, love him as a person but it can get frustrating). With the added lore from his insta and stuff it just doesn’t feel like the same story

Hello Anon!!

I try pretty hard not to yuck somebody else's yum when it comes to the GoC books. I know people like them and I don't want to dampen their happiness.

But man. Do I not like those books. I didn't even finish Toothiana's, technically, because I got so bored that skimming wasn't even good enough and I took pictures of the pages before I had to send it back to the library, telling myself I'd read them later. I never went back and read them. And at this point, I likely never will.

I have a laundry list of problems with the books. And if you really want to know the full extent, you'll have to ask in a private message somewhere because I don't want to make random strangers on the internet upset. But my dislike goes beyond the movie and book canons not lining up. Honestly, Joyce should have just embraced them being different canons, and the fifth book would have been better for it.

The tidbits from his insta don't even make sense half the time 😂 I appreciate his love of imagination and I respect that he just wants kids to feel a sense of wonder, but my personal journey with imagination and wonder do not work with his modus operandi.

I love hard science. I always have. To me, the weird things that are real will always be more fantastic than the weird things someone made up. I love the whole magic is science we don't understand yet concept, and given what the leading edge of science is doing right now? It feels real to me. Scifi is my home genre, and when scifi meets fantasy? My heart sings.

Joyce threw science so hard out the window it left orbit.

So there was really never a chance that I was going to seriously like these books. And his continued dismissal of continuity, while his right as a creator, feels like sandpaper to my physicist soul.

I do enjoy seeing what people pick from book canon to apply to movie canon when writing/drawing AUs. That can get very creative and interesting, especially since some of the characters from the books are solid and would have been cool to have in the movie. Kam and I, ourselves, have used book characters in our fics, because they do add something to the whole. Twiner and Jamie teaming up on Jack has become one of my favorite things.

So I'm glad the books exist. You just won't be finding them in my personal collection.

Thank you, Anon!!

[zuzuhe]

1. Jack’s Sister’s name is “Mary Overland”. 

The fandom came up with the fake name “Emma” from either the marvel character named “Emma Frost”, or Emma was just a common name back then. (There have been other nicknames, like Jill as in “Jack and Jill” too.)

Originally when asked, William Joyce said her nickname was “Flee”, but later contradicted himself in saying “Flee” was Tooth’s sister’s name. Either way, “Flee” was merely a nickname. It was later revealed her name in the movie would have been “Mary Overland”. This seems to be the most plausible name because William has a knack for naming characters after his family. His son is named "Jackson”, and his daughter’s name is “Mary Katherine”. I think its safe to say Mary Overland is indeed her true name. 

2. Tooth’s Human Form 

Tooth was drawn as a human child in the books, but in the “Creating an Epic” (behind the scenes content in the ROTG christmas edition) we see a movie version and an older version of human Tooth animated in 2D at the end of the credits. There have been many conceptual forms of Toothiana, but this is the first human design pushed enough to make it featured near the end of special content. I’d like to consider this human design canon. 

3. Tooth’s sister: “Vanish” 

Vanish has had a lot of controversy behind her character. William Joyce had stated Tooth has a younger sister named “Vanish”, yet not such character has ever been alluded to in the book series or movie at all. “Flee” was a nickname mistakenly given to Jack’s sister, but William later noted “Flee” was supposed to be associated with Tooth’s sister “Vanish”, which would seem more plausible since ‘Flee’ and ‘Vanish’ have the same meaning. 

However, her name “Vanish”, and her existence as a whole is questionable. There have been several other images/contexts in concept arts where this image of ‘Vanish’ is merely a book design of Tooth’s mini fairies; this has also claimed to be merely a concept design of Tooth herself, and there’s also been an odd framed picture of this image with a name plate that reads something along the lines of “Tippy” (?) the Tooth Fairy. 

Vanish is by far the strangest case in this fact list. Its unknown whether she truly is canon or not even within the books. Its unknown whether this situation will ever be cleared up. 

(also I added a picture I drew of Vanish myself with colors just because I think she’s cute regardless of her controversy) 

4. Jamie Bennett’s Parents 

Jamie’s mother has a straight up model in the concept art book. However, unbeknownst to many, a concept art image of his father and mother(without glasses) can be found in the ROTG Jamie’s Room Previs Reel here. (scroll down for it) I found this intriguing, for the movie typically keeps the parent’s faces out of view. Also, its worth noting that in that picture, we see another character’s head out of frame to the right next to Jamie, whom I assume is Sophie, but her hair isn’t a light blonde. Also, its interesting to note that Jamie’s mother is considered a single working mom in the official movie. So at some point the ROTG writers must have taken Jamie’s father out of the picture, and I’ve always wondered why. 

5. Pitch’s Uniform 

In the books, Kozmotis Pitchiner is known as a general. I’ve seen many fan designs of what his armor could possibly look like, but there’s been two concept images of William Joyce’s for Pitch, one of early possession where he still wears his uniform, and one of late possession. These two designs are akin to heavy machinery, and the left one (his golden age uniform supposedly still upon him) looks similar to a pirate with that eyepatch. I wish we see a true untainted golden age Kozmotis drawn by William someday. 

6. Jack’s Staff: “Twiner” 

It was mentioned a few years ago by William that Jack’s staff was actually alive, and went by the name “Twinetender”, however in his most recent post on instagram, he has now toned down the name to simply: “Twiner”. He is said to be a branch broken from an ancient willow that resides upon an indigenous native american burial ground. Twiner is supposedly a spirit that possesses great strength fueled from the deceased warriors he shared the land with when he was still part of the great willow. In the movie, its clear Jack’s staff is just a piece of wood that amplified his power, like a wizard’s wand, useless without its wielder. 

7. Beardless North 

(or rather hairless North) is just something I threw in there, since many people, (such as myself) have difficulty figuring out the shape of North’s head when I draw him. Knowing his exact ear and chin shape will help, and it could help people whom wish to draw North younger too, as he were so in the books. 

8. Mother Nature’s name

This is actually quite common knowledge, but “Seraphina Pitchiner” is a widely used name for Pitch’s daughter in the books. The ROTG wiki page had proclaimed the name came from William Joyce in one of his interviews, but I, and many others like the wiki admins, have done thorough research and have found no such evidence. “Seraphina” was such an adopted name and very space-like, when her true name came out in the books as simple english ‘Emily-Jane’ many fans became upset and confused. I am unsure if William has been confronted about the ‘Seraphina’ controversy, but in all honesty with his name mishaps that have happened with Jack and Tooth’s sisters so often, I would actually not be surprised if there was indeed a time William claimed her name to be ‘Seraphina’ and later changed his mind. I will edit this post if William comments about this situation. I hope we get clarity sometime for this. 

9. Unappreciated Settings

In the “Creating an Epic” and in many concept artist portfolio pages, there’s heavy background concept art that involves Sandman’s original ship/island/cloud, and Bunnymund’s original unnatural tunnel system. There’s even been clearer designs of Pitch’s layer, and Jack’s home town. There was a concept artist hired who even did work for the Nightmare Galleon and golden age space ships for the movie’s early concepts. There’s so many more out there, I hope people appreciate this extensive and intensive world building as much as I do. 

10. Unreleased 

Its been nearly four and a half years since ROTG was released, and in many behind the scenes videos, I spotted tons of blurry unreleased concept arts that look intriguing and fantastic. Surely there’s other story boards and scenes that have been unreleased out there. Take a look here, this is a bad gif, but its a scene where Pitch appears to be talking in the light: 

This is from the “Creating an Epic” , but notice how this wasn’t in the movie, and yet its fully rendered and even as lighting. William Joyce had mentioned a long while ago that Dreamworks actually had shorts in the making of ROTG. One was about Pitch, and the other was about an egg that escaped the Easter Massacre. These shorts were discontinued despite William claiming they were 50 to 70% done, and Dreamworks has refused any further attention to be placed upon their ROTG works. (one of these shorts he claims to be about Man in the Moon, but that was done by HIS studio, not Dreamworks. So its questionable if the Pitch short was really done by Dreamworks or not, but there’s no doubt the egg was by Dreamworks since it was directed by the art director and not William) but now I can say there’s no doubt there IS alternative unreleased material for ROTG out there: shorts, deleted scenes, or otherwise. Its been kept from the fandom for years, which is sad to me. Especially since Dreamworks has made it clear they don’t ever want to come back to this. So all this data and art is just lying around rotting in their studio at this point, when there’s plenty of fans out there who would pay money to just get their hands on one unfinished short released digitally. Hell, I would.  

This post is brought to you by the same person who did the GOC / ROTG distinction a long time ago. I meant to make this post forever now, and I’m actually procrastinating from school just to do this haha.... but even though the fandom is kinda dead, ROTG still has a place in my heart, and I feel like many people have just left because there’s no new materials. But the Jack Frost book will soon come out within the next year, and I hope this post sparks some interest and spreads information, since I’ve known many that are confused by William Joyce’s claims lately. But thank you all for reading! <3 

[fanarchoslashivist]

All these fics with TwineTender, even before the last GOC book came out, have Twiner being all cool and magical and his humanoid form is like a handsome scarecrow looking dude and I’m over here in every single fic making him either a tree snake or the stick bug from A Bug’s Life.

The image in my head every time I write Twiner with any kind of sentience or agency.