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[vega-lyrae]

I have been wondering what was your thoughts on seeing Malleus overblot animation.

Ahem, ahem.

*deep breaths*

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

*COUGHS*

Well. Now that THAT’S out of my system…

HE’S SO TIRED. This man is DRAINED. The thin fraying thread he was clinging onto so desperately for nearly two hundred years has FINALLY snapped and he is LOSING it. He’s so desperate for a happy ending, to keep Lilia alive, even if it means killing himself by willingly Overblotting knowing he may never get to see the happy ending himself and knowing he’ll never get to see Lilia or Silver or Sebek awake ever again.

Like. Okay. Okay okay okay.

The dragon’s cry at the beginning. That is the cry of a dragon who has LOST something. Something so vitally important that they would BURN DOWN CITIES to avenge it. Something so vitally important they are GRIEVING its loss.

Malleus is dragging one hand down his face, chuckling. That is not a mad with power chuckle. That is a DEFEATED chuckle. One from someone who has completely given up trying and is now accepting the worst and willing to do the worst because to him it is the only option he has left.

He is NOT happy here. That smile is BITTER.

And the way the OB happens??? Malleus being CAGED in thorns?

Literally a representation of his entire life, caged in a castle where everyone fears him and isolates him because of his cursed blessings, and where he can never truly reach out to the one person he cares about most- Lilia- because of those cursed blessings and because of the exile put upon the bat fae. Malleus is trapped and there is no escape, and at this point Malleus is ACCEPTING his fate of being forever caged and dying alone in that cage if it means Lilia will live and everyone can be happy. Because there is no resistance.

The closest we get to resistance is more of a realization of sorts-

-knowing that there is no coming back from this and that he shall be putting everyone to sleep forever.

He has a goal. That goal is to keep everyone he cares about alive and happy. But he does not have to survive for that to happen.

Malleus has long since accepted the fact that he would forever be alone. Because from the moment he was hatched he WAS alone, cruelly ripped away from the one person who loved him, and was cursed, isolated, and feared. He firmly believes he’ll remain alone until the day he dies.

But if his death involves ensuring the people important to him live happily forever?

So be it.

Malleus will take that risk.

This man has always been on the border of snapping but managed to keep himself from doing so JUST BARELY. But now? What’s the point? What has he been LIVING for if the one person in his life that matters is DYING? If he can’t SEE him anymore?

Lilia is the closest thing Malleus has to a father and he can not lose him. But if he loses himself in the process… well, it doesn’t matter. Not anymore.

All that matters is Lilia, and Silver’s happiness, and everyone being happy and alive forever.

[vega-lyrae]

[vega-lyrae]

Malleus Draconia - Overblot Animation

[vega-lyrae]

Unnecessary analysis of this frame

Malleus is standing above everyone, in the center - the lonely king. The empty space around him only makes it more... dramatic.

He stands still, hands visible, no threatening posture, as if silently showing he's not a danger. And yet, the space around him remains empty.

Sebek and Silver, of course, stand at the sides, the bodyguards they are.

Sebek on the left - his dominant hand.

Silver on the right - his dominant hand.

Both ready to strike, to protect at any moment.

And yet, both have their hands folded behind their backs. (Even though only Sebek takes this pose in his base art.)

Obedience? Holding an unseen weapon? A classic guard stance, in any case.

But here's what's interesting:

Sebek stands beside the steps that lead up, and Silver beside those that lead down.

Sebek, though a half, but still of fae blood, stands near the steps that leap upward...

Fae - the higher, the superior race, as seen through the lens of Briar Valley's dwellers.

Malleus, a dragon fae, stands fully on those steps - high and regal. He has the right.

But Sebek merely stands close. He does not step onto those "superior" steps. He can only admire, remaining just beside them. Half-fae. Never quite allowed to ascend.

On the other side, where Silver stands, the steps leading downward, the "human steps" of course.

Humans. "The lesser race, the downfall, the lowly ones."

And Silver humbly stands near them, accepting his position.

But next to him is Lilia.

They are the closest pair in the entire frame.

As for those so-called "superior fae" steps - Lilia places only one foot on a step. The other stays on the ground that connects with the "human" steps.

He who dreamed of peace between the two races - he represents that unity even here, physically embodying both worlds in the way he stands.

And of course, he's beside his beloved son. So close, almost leaning toward him.

What a deeply thought-out frame.

[vega-lyrae]

Do you hear Malleus’s rasping voice in the song and then realize how much he’s been crying?

From the time he was an egg, to the time he was taken away, and from the time he cried out for Lilia when he died.

Malleus has been holding it in and crying for a long long time 😭😭💔💔

At the center of it all is Lilia Vanrouge 😔😔

[Kazuki Kato and Hikaru Midorikawa had a recording session together once where Kazuki Kato couldn’t hold in his emotions anymore and broke down crying. I think about it all the time.]

[vega-lyrae]

Blessing 祝福

(Malleus' Character Song)

This pristine little garden hums with countless crying voices. What plays is the hymn of prayer that you wrote. 傷もない箱庭のなか 無数の声が鳴く 奏でるはお前が描た祈の歌

Is time merely something that passes? A vanishing breath? I only wish to play a little longer. 時よ過ぎゆくもの? 消えゆくもの? もう少し遊んでいたいだけ

You, who know nothing of a beautiful future or of divine grace. In this fleeting life, even dreams, even memories... Take as much as you want. Only, may you find happiness. お前に美しい未来を 加護を知らね 儚い命に 幻想だって 追想だって さあ好きなだけ ただ幸いあれ

Even the sting of a single wound carved behind those eyelids will be no more. No matter how much you struggle, you will never wake. Witness the foolishness of your resistance. **Note: there is no pronoun in this. He may be referring to others, or himself, or both 一欠の痛みさえ 刻まれるぬ瞼の裏 どうしたって醒めないまま 抗う愚かさを その目に見よ

Everything is a meaningless echo of a never-ending dream. In this night that never ends, there is no dawn, no conclusion. Don’t be afraid. Take my hand. Come, and dream forevermore. Only, may you find happiness. Under my reign. すべては意味のない過ち 巡り巡る夢のつづき 明けぬ夜に 結末などない 恐れないでこの手を取って さあ永遠に終わらない夢を ただ幸いあれ Under my reign.

Personal thoughts:

The biggest conclusion from this is he's severely projecting. The unclear pronouns deliberately hints that he can't accept that time is fleeting. Just a fading breath-- like Lilia's life is. His time with Lilia was far too short and far too sparse.

But when he recognizes this, he realizes that his life was meaningless. A repeating echo of having nothing experienced and having nothing rejoiced. A night that never ends, a dawn that never breaks, a problem with no conclusion.

He himself is close to believing the futility of his life that he cannot fight, and that he could only mend it through a never ending dream.

[vega-lyrae]

a maleficia theory

It’s rare that I make Draconia-related theories so 🧍‍♂️ cherish this once-in-a-blue-moon event…

The other day, I was thinking about the circumstances surrounding Malleus’s birth (because it related to another post I was working on the response for). Of course, this meant that the hatching complications also came up. I started to wonder “Huh, why DID Malleus reject his grandma’s magic anyway??” No clear reason is stated in the narrative, though I think we’re meant to believe it’s because Malleus was always finicky and prone to tantrums, even as an embryo. Well, here’s a theory for ya: what if the reason why Malleus was struggling to hatch… is because Maleficia, who was giving him her magic, didn’t love him?

✋ STICK WitH ME HERE, I PROmiSE THIS’LL mAkE SENsE…

We learn from Lilia that dragon eggs need BOTH magical energy and love in order to hatch.

In terms of magic, Maleficia, being from the Draconia lineage, is blessed with an abundance of it. She’s said to be getting up there in age, so channeling the immense amounts of magic that she is causes strain. However, the fact is that she is still many magnitudes more powerful than Lilia can ever hope to be. Maleficia trumps Lilia in terms of magical might. So… if it’s not magic that’s the determining factor that puts Lilia ahead of Maleficia, then it must be love that is.

In hindsight, love being more powerful than magic makes sense both in a meta and in-universe context. Disney, the company whose IPs are borrowed for the world of Twst, is well-known for promoting virtues like love, friendship, and wishing upon stars. “Love conquers all” is a sentiment that Disney unironically runs with in several of its films, perhaps with the most overt example being Frozen, where love allows Elsa to finally control her ice powers. Within the Twst universe, Lilia is set up for this whole arc of coming to terms with the idea that he is capable of loving others and, in turn, is worthy of being loved himself. With this in mind, what could this potentially mean for Maleficia? If Lilia is the source of love for Malleus, why is Maleficia—Malleus’s own grandmother—deficient in love for him?

It’s Maleanor—and, more specifically, the loss of Maleanor.

Maleanor is Maleficia’s one and only child, and Maleanor’s life was very recently claimed in their conflict with the Silver Owls. And why? Because Maleanor decided to stand her ground to buy time for Lilia and his men to ferry her unborn child to Dragonopolis. She died so that Malleus could live, and that is a thought that Maleficia has to contend with.

I don’t believe that Maleficia outright loathed Malleus or hated him. She was probably happy that some piece of her daughter was left with her. However, I think it may have been difficult for Maleficia regardless. Her hands were full with governing and rebuilding her country in the wake of the war. Maleficia was being pulled in several directions at once, and she may have not been given the time to properly grieve or to process Maleanor’s death. This could have led to feelings of bitterness developing towards her grandson, try as she might to love him with all her heart. And?? Dragon fae are said to be exceptionally long-lived compared to other fae, meaning that the grief may have stuck with Maleficia for longer than it would have for the average human being. Grief already has a way of clinging to you and impacting how you go about your daily life as it is, and, again, it could have been further exasperated by her work circumstances.

I don’t doubt that Maleficia does care for Malleus—but there’s some part of her, however small, that holds her back. Some part of her that blames Malleus for surviving while her daughter had to die. Maybe this “taints” the magic that she tries giving to Malleus, and he rejects it because Maleficia isn’t able to unconditionally love him. This could even feed into a cycle where she becomes increasingly frustrated with his behavior (and we all know how furious a Draconia’s temperament can be 🧍‍♂️).

Another possibility is that, after losing her one and only child, Maleficia feared experiencing it again. She could have intentionally distanced herself from Malleus, not letting herself become too attached in an effort to save herself the trauma of losing another loved one. These feelings could have formed some kind of a mental block that prevented her love from reaching Malleus, because Maleficia wasn’t allowing herself to achieve the full extent of it.

The reason why Lilia was able to hatch Malleus is because he is the one to form a true emotional bond with him. Maleficia is always busy with her work and, as I proposed earlier, may have reservations about her grandson. It’s Lilia who visits Malleus and keeps him company. It’s Lilia who tells him about his travels and the world he wants Malleus to someday experience for himself. It’s Lilia who fully opens his heart to Malleus.

If we look at Malleus’s and Maleficia’s relationship post-hatching, well… It’s not much better? Maleficia and Malleus have a relationship, but it still feels detached and emotionally distant. We never really hear stories or get flashback scenes of Malleus interacting with his grandmother. Maleficia sends him cards on special occasions, so Malleus is definitely someone who stays on her mind—but we don’t see her engaging with her grandson more intimately than via these pieces of cardstock. Malleus’s happiest and/or most detailed memories are always featuring Lilia. Servants (be it nameless NPCs or Lilia himself) raised and taught Malleus. Maleficia continued with her work, on various occasions missing meals she promised to have with her grandson to prioritize her royal duties. I understand the importance of these tasks, but part of me also wonders if she threw herself into work as a means of coping with her grief or as an excuse to avoid seeing Malleus. After all, he has a STRONG physical resemblance to the daughter she lost…

I DON’T KNOW, maybe I’m talking out of my ass here 🤷‍♀️

[vega-lyrae]

Lilia dissing Maleanor every chance he gets

🦇: "Oh your mother was insane. Your father would pretend to cough to ask for a day off and your mother would say 'Oh you poor little thing! Take an entire vacation! Wait for me to finish this and I shall provide you with a nutritious feast.' Mind you, your father was just making excuses to lock himself in his room to read those new books he procured."

🦇: "But if I come limping in with an arm half-severed? She would pop it right back together and say 'You've already used up your three service incentive leaves this year. Get back to work.' Can you believe her? What an awful employer she was!"

🐉: "Mother sounds like a horrible person..."

🦇: "No she was NOT. Malleus, how dare you talk about your mother like that. She was brilliant."

🐉: "But you were just saying--"

🦇: "She was wonderful. She even raised my leaves from three to five days a year after that. If that wasn't compassion, then I don't know what is."

🐉: "Most of the country's regular workers are entitled to fifteen leaves..."

🦇: "Malleus, I will not have you slandering your mother's name any more than that. And this was a different era. Even one paid leave was a privilege."

Lilia was the only one allowed to slander the princess. Anyone else got the kick to the ass by the rabid bat for simply looking at her wrong. Just as it always had been, all those years ago.

[vega-lyrae]

Okay, I have a question that’s been driving me crazy for a few days now: how would Aventurine fare in a rigged game of chance? Like, rigged for him to lose? Would some super unlikely series of events happen that would cause him to win the game, Rube Goldberg style? Actually, honestly, if we back up a tick…I’ve been kind of confused about his luck forever. 😅 what does it actually mean? I truly feel like I’m missing a lot of layers of important details wrt his luck + faith + religion + fatalism (? maybe?) just! I feel like I’m missing pieces and I want to understand himmmmm and you were the first person I thought of to pose this question to! ❤️ a real Aventurine connoisseur 👏

Ohhhhhhh you've activated the Ultimate yap card, okay. (Also can I just say that Aventurine connoisseur is 100% what I'm going for, thank you for that!)

KEEPING IN MIND that anything I may have to say on this (or any other topic re: characterization, for anybody) is purely my own subjective view, so your mileage may vary. I never claim myself an expert on anything because I'm just not, but Aventurine as a character is extremely dear to me and a definite hyperfixation.

Now that that's out of the way, to answer your first question, a game that was rigged for him to lose -- in other words, not luck-based in the least and completely unreliant on odds -- would still play out as expected. He would lose. However, particularly depending on what the stakes are, I think he would absolutely do something incredibly smart and sophisticated to slip himself out of danger, and that might rely on a bit of luck to pull off. Keep in mind, this is a man who Dr. Veritas Ratio, Mr. I-can't-stand-to-look-at-idiots, never wears his bust around. A man who I have no doubt could have made it into the Genius Society had his circumstances been drastically different. Aventurine is scary smart, even if he didn't figure out that the game was rigged, he's enough of a pessimist I think he'd expect it and have a backup plan in place.

Which I think is a good point to transition to your other question: What is his luck? And I'll start by pointing out, he doesn't rely on his luck if he can help it. He doesn't trust it. He hates it when it seems to come through for him and prove once again that it's still there. And the reason for that is, it's not just blind luck, it's not some cosmic "I always win" factor. It's a survival mechanic.

(I'm putting a cut in here because holy shit this is getting long LMAO)

It's simplifying it quite a bit, I think, to just call it "luck" tbh. In reality, Kakavasha was "blessed by Gaiathra Triclops". Which naturally begs the question: What does that mean? Well, Gaiathra Triclops was the Avgin goddess of prosperity, travel, fertility, and fortune. Kakavasha was so named because he was born not only during a rare rainfall (a sign of prosperity and fortune for a desert-dwelling tribe) but also on the day that their tribe celebrated their goddess' renewal and rebirth, as well as the renewal of the land itself. On top of that, he was born with multi-color eyes, which the tribe considered an auspicious sign of good fortune (I know most people headcanon that Avgin all have the same eye color, but from this which we hear mentioned a couple times in game, I take it to mean that it actually doesn't happen terribly often and that his eye color is rather rare but still pretty much only ever seen in Avgin people).

So he's got the triple dip of his birth being what the Avgin would consider an incredibly good omen. Per their religious views, he is of course seen as being blessed by their goddess, that She will watch over him and grant him protection and blessing for his entire life. This is why he was given this name, why his people saw him as a savior and a source of prosperity and fortune. He might as well have been an embodiment of the goddess' will and blessing, given as a gift to her beloved people.

The problem is, of course, that he's... not actually that lucky? Think about it: He's lost everyone and everything he's ever cared about. His father died before he was even born. His mother died when he was very young. His sister -- his last remaining blood family, as far as we know -- and his entire tribe were all murdered when he was still very young. THEN he was sold into slavery, abused, treated as property, like an object that had no worth. He wasn't even a person for a long time, as far as anyone else was concerned, and this was so prevalent in his formative years that he internalized it. None of this sounds like good luck to me.

But he did survive where no one else from his tribe did, as far as what we know. And he survived in an environment where few if anyone else did as well, if the implications of the murder maze are what they seem. The circumstances of that in almost every instance were probably highly unlikely, and in some cases should have been outright impossible if not for an extremely rare stroke of excellent luck. In this way, I think the blessing of the goddess is probably more closely tied to "prosperity" and "protection" than just outright luck, which is why he's so inclined to gamble with his life than anything else: on top of not viewing his life as all that valuable, it's the one thing he knows he can gamble on and somehow trigger this strange phenomenon that will inevitably keep him out of danger in the end if his intelligence and his plans fail.

And again, he is incredibly, incredibly intelligent. The Egyhazo case, I fully believe, was nothing more than his own smarts, bravado, charisma, and some very skillful bluffing. The luck, the actual gamble, was in whether or not he would be executed for it. The Penacony job he performed an intensely captivating sleight-of-hand act, accurately gauging Sunday's proclivities and personality, expertly maneuvering Ratio's disposition and reputation, and managing to read the other factions and properly antagonizing the most likely group to give him the outcome he was looking for. The luck was in stumbling across an Emanator that was capable of doing the job, in the protection of the Harmony being genuine (although that wasn't as much luck as him just not bothering to follow the logic through to conclusion as Ratio already had), and in being rescued from the Nihility by a circumstantially lost Knight of Beauty.

In other words, Protection and Prosperity, not Luck.

We see a little glimpse of this in his professional life, too, if you do the hotel check-out quest from 2.3(?) because Topaz makes a comment about him giving out stock market tips that absolutely bombed and lost a lot of people a lot of money because they assumed that if he was giving out information that it was divinely fortunate and they would get to profit from it. Now, could this have been intentional? Maybe. Possibly even very likely. But I still feel like this is more evidence that it's not just pure, blind luck because if it was, wouldn't that mean it would have interfered in this case? Giving him incredibly excellent and irrefutable luck entirely out of his control no matter the circumstances?

No, the blessing of Gaiathra is to "Keep you blood eternally pulsing, the journey forever peaceful, and schemes forever concealed." Protection, prosperity, and good fortune. In every one of his bad circumstances, he absolutely could have had it worse. He could have not survived. But he did, and his way was smoothed by luck and by his own determination and intelligence.

(Honestly, this kinda feels like it could be the basis for another bit of Avgin proverb mistranslation, so I will need to chew on this some more I think...)

This touches a bit on why I feel like Ratio is such a good match for him tbh, because he sees all the smarts and intelligence and resilience that it took for Aven to actually get where he is now. When all Aven can see is the so-called luck that his people touted as their deliverance. Where Ratio sees effort and accomplishment, Aven sees a trail of blood and misfortune.

Now, what do I think this would have translated to, had the genocide not occurred? The ability to locate various valuable resources like water, food, and shelter with relative ease and astounding reliability. An uncanny knack for avoiding disasters and predators. Probably a large family to swell the numbers of the tribe. I fully believe that the intention was to groom him for some kind of significant leadership role within the clan once he was old enough, considering all the talk about "leading the clan to happiness" (which obviously never happened since right until the very end he's still asking what any of this means and why everyone is doing this to him).

Instead, what his blessing looks like in reality is a man with a death wish, more wealth than he has any use or desire for, and a flimsy facade that everyone believes him to be the luckiest man alive when in reality he has possibly the worst luck in the universe, objectively speaking.

And he just wants it all to end. The curse specifically. Because he absolutely views his luck as a curse and not a blessing at all. In his eyes, it has continually and reliably cost him every time he has benefited from it, actively consuming the lives of those dear to him in order to power his ridiculous good fortune. This is, of course, inaccurate, but it's how he sees it. It's why he continues to throw his life into all of these ridiculous gambles while all the while being extremely careful never to involve anyone else and never to get close to anyone, hoping that the luck will eventually run out and the curse will break.

That's the nature of the death wish as well. It's not that he's actively suicidal, I truly don't believe that. Because if he was, he easily could have before now. He could have just given up. But he hasn't, he's a survivor, and his own sister made him swear to preserve his own life. So it's not that he wants to die, it's not that simple. He just wants proof that the curse is gone, and because it has preserved him so far, the only proof he could possibly accept is that it failed to protect him.

It's a truly complicated motivation.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on Aventurine's blessing of luck. It's been made clear throughout the game, in the side events and all, that it's not all-encompassing. He can and does still lose in games of chance, but only when the stakes are low or when losing would net him a better gain in the end. That was also what made the Penacony bet so appealing to him personally. If he won, he did his job for the IPC. If he lost, he got his wish and that meant the curse of luck was broken. And he specifically rigged it that way. It would have been so easy to go a different route to get the same results, especially because, as we find out later, his life was never in any actual danger until he specifically put it there (challenging an Emanator of Nihility) to make the biggest spectacle possible.

"If you could do it all again, would you still want to be the child who was blessed by Gaiathra?"

We never get an answer to this question, and I think that's pretty telling tbh. He doesn't know. I think after the events of Penacony, he has a lot more appreciation for his position and circumstances. His self-worth certainly seems to have improved a bit. But he still has a ways to go in reconciling this gift that he has been struggling with his entire life. I think his life experience and worldview are still incredibly narrow in this respect, but he's been given the opportunity to try to broaden it now. To put his luck in a new perspective and move past the fear and the guilt that has plagued him, honestly, since birth.

All because somebody told him to stay alive. Not because they were benefiting from his blessing, but because they wanted him as a person to survive and continue living. Because he has value to someone beyond the material, and beyond the sixty goddamn coins he was sold for.

Romantic subtext or not, Ratio's impact on this man cannot be denied...

[vega-lyrae]

The way Toboso-sensei's feature of the latest Octavinelle chapter is Malleus instead of... Idk. Someone from Octavinelle. She's such a mood though lol nobody in their right mind could resist Malleus' snatched waistline

[vega-lyrae]

ratio would be clingy when both him and aventurine are alone. he would take any opportunity he has to wrap his arms around aventurine's waist and leave soft kisses on aventurine's nape, which makes aventurine laugh and playfully shove him away but ratio doesn't want to let go and buries his face in aventurine's neck instead... he turns into a soggy wet cat when aventurine has to gently pull him away so he can go to work and his students have to suffer because he didn't get his dedicated 30 minutes of wife-cuddling in the morning </3

[vega-lyrae]

Ratio and Aventurine practicing their wedding kiss and dance.

Ratio brings up them needing to practice, he totally doesn't want an excuse to kiss Aventurine over and over again and hold him close as they dance to music in their living room.

Aventurine agrees, the music starts and they start slow dancing with each other, they kinda get lost in each other's eyes and all that romance stuff.

Then they were figuring out how they were going to kiss, Ratio was simply going to grab Aventurine buy the waist and pull him in with his other arm holding his cheek. But Aventurine insisted that he wanted to be dipped, so they practiced the dip, Aventurine squealed each time bc the movement gave him butterflies.

On their wedding day, their kiss was not perfect like they practiced, but obviously still full of love. Their dance was obviously full of love as well.

[vega-lyrae]

I genuinely felt that Book 7 had a strong start. I didn’t know it could go down hill so quickly once the dreams started dragging out. Its pacing issues really destroyed any hype it established during the earlier parts. I think Book 7 was the strongest up until Silver confronted his inner turmoil. Idia’s dreams were also reasonable as well. Hopefully Malleus and Lilia get more screen time to compensate for their absence during the middle bulk of book 7.

[Referencing this post!]

IT’S SUCH A SHAME 😭 The first third of book 7 (parts 1/the start to 100ish/the end of Lilia’s dream) was SO good… and then as soon as hit the dreamventure portion, we crashed and burned OTL

Sometimes I’m generous enough to extend the part of book 7 I thought was good from parts 1-100 to parts 1-115 (the end of Idia’s flashback explaining how he had been woken up). I basically only think Idia’s dream was “meh, acceptable enough” because when experiencing it for the first time, I thought Idia’s dream was the ONLY one we were seeing in this capacity. I believed that Idia’s dream was getting this “special” treatment since we had also witnessed Ortho “waking” in a unique way. Both of them are the main “villains” from the previous book, so I thought this was book 7’s way of bringing them back to take down Malleus. It… technically was that, but I wasn’t expecting Idia to announce his “recruit everyone!!!1!” plan 2 parts later 💀 I expected, now that we had reunited with both Shroud brothers, there would only be like maybe 2-3 updates left for book 7 to account for strategizing, finding a way to truly wake up in the real world, and then kicking Malleus’s tail. BOY, WAS I WRONG ON THAT FRONT 🫩 (<- deeply traumatized, this is my OB origin story/j)

The pacing problems were but one of the many factors bogging book 7 down; I also dislike the inconsistent tone between dreams, lack of stakes/urgency, lack of learning anything new and meaningful, over-explanations, focus on fanservice and contrivances, lack of focus on relevant characters, frequent in-your-face declarations of character development, and the very obvious patterns set for every dream (meaning they were mostly predictable). It sucks specially for the OB boys because their segments are the longest, involve the “I have/will become a better person”/“my past self was pathetic” speeches, and have the most contrived scenes I have ever witnessed (such as everyone in their dorm having to use their UM at least once, even if it makes little sense to). And because everything drags on for SO long, they try to make the build-up super emotional to compensate. But it gets to the point where it feels insincere or unearned by the time we finally get to the “shouting as they wake up” part because the dreams are held together with painter’s tape… 🙂‍↕️

I’m only left feeling like I’m a rag doll that was tossed onto a roller coaster and jerked everywhere. It’s fun and makes my emotions run high in the moment, sure. But once I’m off that ride (I’ve consumed the content) and sat with the experience for a while, I reflect on it and realize I did not actually enjoy it and the roller coaster was shaky (from meh writing + plot holes) and about to collapse the entire time I was on it.

Malleus really got shafted hard in his own book too??? Like this man hardly shows up 😭 and Lilia is gone for 2/3 of a book where he should be relevant?? They honestly NEED a book 8 so they both have a Mouse Mandated excuse to come back and actually do something more. Malleus especially needs that because book 7 also did us the disservice of TWO time skips after his OB (one X days, another X weeks) and completely glosses over any complicated feelings or struggles he may face in the aftermath. We immediately jump to him when Malleus is at a point where he claims he understands what he did was wrong???? When that feels inconsistent with how he has previously struggled to understand these things? Some OB boys recognized the error of their ways automatically, but I find it a little hard to believe that Malleus (who failed to learn anything about humans in the 2-3 years he has spent at NRC in his Dorm Uniform vignettes) suddenly “gets it”. It feels like an easy cop-out for Twst to write themselves out of the hole they dug with Malleus’s character and now it’s on book 8 to follow up on that and patch up all the new holes 7’s writing creates.

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Crude joke warning ⚠️ (and a 🐉🌸♀️ family premise)

Malleus, currently King of Briar Valley, is flawless in his duties; both as a ruler, and as a father.

However, even the mightiest get tired sometimes. His main go-to for venting is his wife, for she has the heart of a goddess and always knows what to do to make things right. Sometimes though, he feels guilt for using her as an emotional toilet. And so he dumps all his worries to his family instead.

That's what their group chat is for. For him to rant his stress away and for Sebek to greet his usual good mornings and good nights.

🐉: Sometimes I wish I could go back to the days when everything was peaceful. When I didn't have to worry about every problem you could possibly fathom. When I didn't have to think so much.

He is talking about before becoming king.

🦇: ✨ Suddenly you 🫵 turn back into a sperm ✨

🦇: Oh no Raverne don't flush that! That's going to be your son, the Progressive King of Briar Valley, Conqueror of What Was Once Lost, Father of the Nation, and Savior of the Dragon Race! Don't worry Malleus, I'll make sure your mother catches you!

🐉: Lilia, what is wrong with you?

⚔️: Father what is wrong with you

🦇: @/Malleus You're alive today because your father decided during that one night not to flush it in the toilet. But maybe you should have flushed it sometimes instead of popping an odd number of 5 kids. Remember when you asked me to look after them because you were going to get tacos really quickly? And then you come back 6 months later with a 'We are having our fifth child. 😁' You didn't even bring me tacos.

🐉: This is not about my children. And that was a vacation with my wife where we happened to wish to try out tacos-- not a jaunt to a restaurant.

🦇: You act as if you don't spam this group chat with 'Why do babies poop so much? My son just peed in my face why does he hate me so?' and then dumping them in my shabby cottage for every minor inconvenience.

🐉: Other than our vacations, I only specifically deposited them to your house one time because we were doing pest control at the castle. Most of the time you voluntarily fight with grandmother over who gets to take care of them today.

🦇: And you let your grandmother win because my cottage is so shabby.

🐉: So that's what you're angry about? Because grandmother calls your house shabby?

🦇: No. It's because she usually gets three of the kids while I get two. It's not fair.

🐉: I always offer to renovate your residence whenever you wish.

🦇: No way. I teach your kids to live humbly. How will I do that if they live in a mansion with a hundred servants at their paws 24/7?

🐉: Fine. Grandmother will get two of them starting tomorrow.

🦇: No! She'll smite me with lightning!

🐉: I can't possibly cut a child in half!

🦇: But you can make one more child to make it even.

🐉: Were you not just reprimanding me for having five children just a few minutes earlier?

🦇: I said that's because you have an odd number of children. You should always have an even number of children.

🐉 turns off his phone and goes back to his wife to vent his renewed frustrations.

[vega-lyrae]

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Is anyone else curious where Malleus' grandparents are from his father's side? He does say he has no other living relatives aside from Maleficia, so that must mean they're dead. But didn't he have any cousins from their side? Aunts and uncles?

The way the story puts zero importance on his lineage outside of Raverne himself, I'm thinking it's possible Raverne came from a very minor noble house that got wiped out during the colonization conquest. Maybe he only became a Duke because he married Maleanor. Remember that Maleanor had to elope to be with him, so maybe the Senate disliked Raverne not only for his radical ideas, but because he's not actually from a prestigious name.

It would also make sense for a fae to think so differently from the other nobles if he came from a more disadvantaged background. 🤔 It would also make Maleanor more in-character, because aside from stubbornly wanting only him no matter what, that would also mean she really didn't gaf about hierarchy and fought tooth and nail for him.

Why would she, a fae princess who hated humans to her very veins, put up with and have a child with a man who spouted nonsense about fae and human utopia everyday? She probably had hundreds of men to choose from. If she wanted to adhere to her duties as a princess, she could have picked some duke who wasn't insane. But she picked that one bird who disagreed with her hatred, and I think that says a lot about her.

She really was just a woman who loved unconditionally. And Raverne really was a man who loved her so much that he had faith she would come to see his vision one day.