winterspellsfrozenkit

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

So I got Ortho's Platinum Birthday and it has a reference to the Aeneid and Cupid/Eros and Psyche, but mainly Eros and Psyche's myth!!!

So in the Aeneid, Aeneas's guide Sybil used honeyed herbs so that Aeneas could get into the Underworld!

However, the reason this is more a reference to the Eros and Psyche myth is because when bribing Cerberus to see Persephone, Psyche used honeyed barley cakes to get past him.

I LOVE THE REFERENCES TO OTHER GREEK MYTHS THAT THE IGNIHYDE CARDS HAVE!!!

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

Dearest brother…

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

Oh my sweet child… I just wanna remind everyone… Idia is the one who makes his clothes. Like my sweet boy looks like he’s on his way to the moon. He looks adorable anyway 😭🩵

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

I have been summoned! Okay! So, let's address what you have said!!!

"Everyone was completely OOC and extremely stupid. Instead of doing the logical thing by trying to fiddle with the lantern to turn it off or destroy it since it's the root cause of all this"

Well, they're in the LIBRARY. Please, inform me, what are they going to do to destroy it? Riddle explains there's magic in the library to protect the books. At the start, they don't know why the library locked them in and they want to risk the library magic alerting because the lantern might be a display piece or something? Yeah, no. That's not wise. Plus, what if the magic means it won't rip? Well, they could set it ON FIRE, in the LIBRARY, where there is a TON of OLD, FLAMMABLE BOOKS. And what if destroying the lantern makes the spell PERMANENT? There's too many variables here to screw around with breaking the lantern.

Riddle goes, "I know! Let's play pretend princess! That would surely break us out!" Like...what? That's completely nonsensical and a huge leap in logic. Honestly, I would expect a suggestion like that from Kalim, not Riddle! Even then, Kalim normally isn’t that dumb. Why do they fully dedicate themselves to that, even when it's clearly not working?

Riddle DID NOT suggest this out of nowhere. He suggested it because Jamil had gotten food to them THROUGH the window, which lined up with the books and stories had said about Rapunzel getting items delivered to her through the window in her tower. Before that, NOTHING HAD WORKED. By logical reasoning, if following the story was the only way something got IN the library, then maybe it could get them OUT.

Wouldn’t they regroup and try another option to break out?

THEY DID TRY. They tried magic, they tried force. There is an INVISIBLE WALL. The door WAS NOT EVEN LOCKED and NO ONE COULD OPEN IT. What would you have them do? Set the building on FIRE? Nothing worked to get out before. Likely the inside would burn away and we'd have four dead students, but an intact building.

Why did none of them know what a paper lantern is, including Kalim who comes from a family of fucking merchants? Come on! They’re all smarter than this!

Okay, let's discuss. These types of lanterns are originally CHINESE in origin. They didn't originally come from Europe, but from China. As such, they'd likely come from the Land of Red Dragons in TWST, which as far as we know none of these characters have visited.

Why doesn't Kalim know what this is? Now if this was CATER, I could understand this argument. Cater would likely have recognized them. He's TRAVELED. But we don't have proof Kalim has traveled. In fact, I'd argue we have more proof he's stayed at home for safety rather than traveling...

According to Leona in Book 6, Kalim is just learning how to use money as charisma and work in the business. He's been pretty isolated beforehand because people kept trying to KILL HIM. That's why Jamil doubles as a bodyguard. Kalim mentions he was homeschooled before NRC and if he went anywhere like an amusement park, it was always bought out. More than likely, it's just his dad that goes to the Land of Red Dragons, and his dad just never brought one home.

Riddle and Deuce, who canonically come from the Queendom of Roses (TWST ENGLAND) probably don't have a lot of experience with these as paper lanterns weren't really part of the Orientalism fever that took over the West, give paper lanterns are thin and could risk breaking on the long trip back to the West.

As for Jack who's from the Land of Pyroxene/Shaftlands, he likely does NOT live where there's a lot of talk about the Princess in the Tower. Corona is a harbor kingdom and we KNOW Jack doesn't live in a harbor town that could correspond to Corona in the Land of Pyroxene/Shaftlands. He lives somewhere closer to the mountains I think, given how he mentions he goes in winter for winter sports stuff.

To give you an idea of my point about Jack, if you are living in the US, some states don't know specific localized things about other states. I had a friend who came to where I live for school from Ohio. I never had heard of a Buckeye candy until she explained what it was. I had never even heard of a Buckeye TREE which is what the candy is based on. They don't grow in the part of the US where I live. Likewise, she hadn't heard some of the food stuffs here where I live until I introduced them to her. She was floored at all the mountains around, while when I went to visit her, I was shocked at the HILLS and the fact there weren't mountains as far as I could see. And this is the SAME COUNTRY, mind you.

And for my last point, Tangled made those lanterns POPULAR. I REMEMBER when the movie came out and BEFORE it came out. Floating lanterns were not well known or much of thing in the US until Disney made Tangled in 2010. So given they don't have Tangled, they would NOT know what those are, because before Tangled's release, not many people actually DID.

So yeah, it's not them being stupid, it's just not what the audience thought would be how it played out. And that's okay. It means we learned something NEW about them.

I'm shocked you like the Tangled event. I've seen a fair amount of people in the fandom commenting about how much they hate it, saying that it's a let down and that makes no sense. I tend to side with them.

Everyone was completely OOC and extremely stupid. Instead of doing the logical thing by trying to fiddle with the lantern to turn it off or destroy it since it's the root cause of all this, Riddle goes, "I know! Let's play pretend princess! That would surely break us out!" Like...what? That's completely nonsensical and a huge leap in logic. Honestly, I would expect a suggestion like that from Kalim, not Riddle! Even then, Kalim normally isn’t that dumb. Why do they fully dedicate themselves to that, even when it's clearly not working? Wouldn’t they regroup and try another option to break out? Why did none of them know what a paper lantern is, including Kalim who comes from a family of fucking merchants? Come on! They’re all smarter than this!

I wish that it was another hometown event. Sure, I don't love those either. At least that way there is much more of excuse for Riddle and the others to naturally interact with that story in a much more natural way than being cooped up in a library.

Idk, good for you if you like it and you have the right to your opinion. I wish you luck with that part of the fic. Write that part however you want to. To each is their own.

You… realize these are TEENAGERS, right??? 16 and 17 years old??? They aren’t stupid, they’re being CHILDREN. Which is the point. Because they ARE children.

Plus, the lantern wasn’t even turned on??? They don’t add the candle until way later.

And while I could go into it, @winterspellsfrozenkit is far more elegant than I am in explaining things, thus! I pass the torch to them. 👀

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

Twst Anime Main Visual

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

12, 14, and 16 of the ask game featuring Kora? 👀

OK! Here we go!

12. Pet peeves: What are your twst OC's pet peeves and which one in the cast accidentally (or not) commit the "crimes"? How will your twst OC deal with that person?

So, Kora's most common pet peeves are being interrupted during her solo activities such as reading/gaming, having jobs fobbed on her, and she hates when people touch her stuff without asking. While she in more extroverted than an obvious introvert like Idia, she is still an introvert by nature, so interrupting her recharge time is not ideal. Grim is usually the most common offender on interrupting her recharge time, but she usually gives him a look to express her displeasure.

Crowley is the one who fobs work onto her and she does it begrudgingly because she doesn't want to end up on the street, but she does sometimes put up minor resistances or give minor snark.

As for the last one, either Ace or Ruggie actually. I know Ruggie is the one who gets a more visceral reaction because he took her hairpins off her head, but when Ace touches her stuff without asking, she just moves it closer to her while glowering.

14. Talent: What is your twst OC's talent(s) and who can properly appreciate that?

So Kora has several, like gaming, gardening, being able to break things down to be understood easier, but one of her lesser known ones is cooking. She can cook and Ignihyde Dorm actually later really benefits from it and so Kalim. The Ignihyde Dorm appreciates it because Kora makes easy to eat food that can be eaten with one hand so they don't starve while focused on work and Kalim benefits from it because Kora ends up teaching him later how to cook to try and help him learn simple tasks so that he's not so dependent on Jamil.

16. Quote: Give me something your twst OC will say. Either something they always say or something iconic they said. Something that helps solve the problems or something that is a catalyst to even more issues.

"DEATH DOESN’T GET TO HAVE YOU YET!! IT CAN HAVE YOU WHEN IT EARNS YOU!!”

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

…I realize now that you HAVE made posts for everyone except Malleus - who you have simply commented on someone else’s post, but have said you’ll make your own. You just made the posts based on asks. MY BAD! 😅😂

The compliment still stands though!

No worries. I did link the analysis for Leona, Jamil, Vil and Idia in my response to your previous ask in case anyone else wanted to know where they are. And thank you for the compliment! I really appreciate it! Again, once I get the Malleus essay done, I'll make that master list post for easy findings.

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

Are you going to make full posts like you did for Riddle and Azul for each of the Overblot animations? Because that was SO interesting to read!

*sits here, waiting patiently for your amazingly well thought out analyses*

So you should be happy to know that I actually did Leona, Jamil, Vil and Idia BEFORE RIddle and Azul as responses to asks because I got asked my thoughts on them. Leona and Jamil are here. Vil and Idia are here. Riddle and Azul didn't get an ask, but I figured, "What the heck? I'll just get them done." As for Malleus, @avionvadion made a good post on his animation and I added a reblog with some more info on it here.

However, that said, just because Avion got a lot of the ideas of the animation down, it doesn't mean I am gonna ignore Malleus. Per Avion's request, I'm gonna be working on an essay on Malleus and the psychological effects of his life, particularly how his isolation has affected him mentally, and how this dragon man has a freaking will of iron and heart of steel to maintain his emotional state for as long as he did before he overblotted...

So, now that I finished Riddle and Azul, I'm gonna be working on that, but I'm breaking out my college psychology books and texts for that, so it's gonna take a bit because I have to reread my college texts and double check all my psychology analysis on top of rereading all the Malleus content in TWST. But yeah, Malleus's post is gonna be a MONSTER of text. It will take me a bit to do just because of the amount of research and stuff I'm going to be undertaking (I don't have all the Malleus content memorized as Idia is my favorite) and I do have a life that I have to maintain because I cannot pull an Idia and shut myself away in my room for days on end. But yeah... Be prepared for that!

Once Malleus essay is done, I'll make a master list of the analyses so that the posts will be easier to find.

(Keep in mind that while I am working on this Malleus essay, I will be answering asks still. I do love to hyperfixate when analyzing, but I do have to take breaks to allow my brain to recalibrate every few hours. So! If I get sent asks in my ask box, I will answer them just to take breathers from the Malleus essay.)

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

19 for Kora for the ask game?

19 for Kora for the ask game. Let's see... "Pick only one: Let your twst OC pick only one and explain the reasons: only one favorite from each dorm, only one favorite housewarden/vice housewarden, only one favorite first/second/third year etc."

Just from the way it's phrased, I'm just gonna answer one of these. So... let's go with the favorite first year. So, Deuce is Kora's favorite of the first years. Yes, she gets along with others great including Ortho, but Deuce is like her bestie. When she first sees his punk side come out, she recognizes the way he talks because she's watched a lot of anime and played a lot of games with bosozoku characters in them, and she understands he's trying to reform and be better.

She also vibes with him because both were raised by a single mom, Deuce by Dylla and Kora by Chloe, and while Deuce may tease her sometimes, he doesn't hit sore spots like Ace does. They also are study buddies since Deuce struggles to understand material and Kora doesn't know ANY of the material, so they spend time studying together when both have time to do it. Deuce looks out for Kora quite a bit since, while she is older than him, she's smaller than both him and Ace. So yeah, Deuce is her favorite of the first years.

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

Analysis of Riddle and Azul's Overblot Animations

In case the Riddle and Azul fans thought I forgot about breaking down their overblot animations... Nope! Life just likes to come for me at random points. But I didn't forget, so here's a breakdown of Riddle and Azul's overblot animations. TW: There is talk of abuse in Riddle's bit! Just so you know. Now, let's start with Riddle.

So right before the animation, Riddle has lost all control and tried to attack Ace. Trey has stopped him because Trey's been trying to protect both sides, Riddle and the rest of the dorm during all of Book 1, but Riddle took it so badly.

Trey is Riddle's only friend. Too many people are scared of Riddle's extreme strictness to try and really know or understand him and Riddle isn't oblivious to it. He knows his dorm is scared of him. But Trey is the one who would brave the gap and try to calm Riddle in his fits and bridge that gap between Riddle and the dorm.

Trey knows his homelife, knows exactly what Riddle went through, watched Riddle sob and plead to his mother for those five hours Mrs. Rosehearts yelled at the whole Clover family, and knows how gentle Riddle really is when Riddle is being himself, not what Mrs. Rosehearts forces him to be. But Riddle views Trey stopping him as Trey pulling away from him and the loss of that friendship, that one lifeline to other people, makes him freak out.

Because if Trey is RIGHT and what he's doing is wrong, why did he have to live like that for SEVENTEEN YEARS? And if he's wrong, that makes him BAD. And if he's bad, he'll be shut away and isolated again like he was when his mom found out he was sneaking off to go play with Trey and Chen'ya. So he can't be wrong. He has to be right to be "good". Because if this isn't right and good, then his life, his whole way of living, and his proof that he's a good kid, will come crashing down like a house of playing cards.

Let's get into the animation!

Starting off, we see how isolated and heartbroken Riddle looks. The only things around him are the perfectly painted red roses to show how isolating his life has really been. He's been fighting to keep his small bit of freedom he's gained from attending a private boarding school like NRC. But Riddle's trauma from his childhood has made him afraid his mother could yank him out of NRC and stick him to homeschooling or another stricter school where she could monitor him. He's maintained that strict adherence to the rules, so she won't have a reason to do that. But while he's tried to live perfectly adhering to the rules to keep his mother from pulling him back into being micromanaged, Riddle has inadvertently pushed everyone away from him in the process. Riddle longs to make friends and, with Trey turning on him, he feels he has no one.

The second part of this, where we see his shadow become the Phantom of the Queen of Hearts, drives this home. Riddle, by trying to keep his mother away from him, is slowly morphing into someone just like her. He's becoming just like the person he so desperately wants to escape from, even if he cannot verbalize that want to not have to live perfectly with no mistakes. Following rules is right and being right is being "good", so he has to follow those rules and enforce them so they don't break them again. That way everyone in Heartslabyul can be protected from the bad things that will definitely happen to them when they aren't "good". Thus, Riddle cannot see the "fat, pompous, bad tempered, old tyrant" he's turning into.

RIddle removes his hands and you can see how his face is turning red in rage and how livid he looks. There are two big psychological reasons for this. 1. Riddle is very emotionally stunted because he's had to manage his mother's reactions to his behavior since childhood, meaning he hasn't had time to really explore or express his own negative emotions in a healthy way and 2. Riddle's whole worldview right now is being challenged.

When someone is presented with new data that challenges their worldview/belief system, there are two ways they can go about it. They either accept the data and work to change their beliefs they cling to their worldview harder, trying to make the data either fit their beliefs or ignore it completely. When someone can't accept a new perspective and it's being shoved in their face, anger is a common response. Riddle can't accept a paradigm shift in his beliefs right now, plus he's emotionally stunted from not being allowed to express his own negative emotions healthily, so he's about to fly off the handle in rage.

The Phantom slowly manifests, drifting up behind Riddle, like a mother coming to check on her child, before she grabs him by the chin to tilt his head to look up at her. This is something parents do to check over their child if their child has been injured (Riddle did just recently get hit the head by an egg) or to make sure their child is looking at them when they are speaking. Oftentimes, when a kid is trying look away to escape being disciplined.

As the blot comes towards his face, Riddle looks so frightened. He looks like a little kid who wants comfort but instead of getting the comfort he needs, he is about to get punished. Ink drops heavily from the Phantom Queen's face and it feels like a visual representation of when parents use "I'm only doing this for your own good" or "This hurts me more than it hurts you" when disciplining their kids. Those words are supposed to explain the motive or that they don't actually want to do this method of discipline to their kid, but it doesn't get rid of the fact that they are still doing the discipline they say they don't want to do, even if it is harmful to their child. Actions speak louder than words.

While the blot runs down his face, Riddle clenches his fist. A sign of anger and determination. I view this as having multiple meanings rather than Riddle is mad and about to extract vengeance. Not only is he angry at his dorm and about to punish them all, Riddle is determined not to be dragged home by his mother, determined to keep the small bit of freedom he has, and angry that no one in Heartslabyul gets that he's been trying to help them and instead turned on him because they couldn't handle being disciplined.

The blot morphs into bindings the wrap around Riddle almost like a straitjacket while he screams. This is pretty layered imagery.

Someone in a straitjacket is a common symbol of when that person has lost their sanity a.k.a. "gone mad" and straitjackets are often associated with insane asylums. As the Cheshire Cat says to Alice when she says she doesn't want to go amongst mad people, "Oh, you can't help that. Most everyone's mad here." Wonderland is a country of madness and nonsense, so it would make sense that trying to bring strict and tyrannical order to country of disorder and nonsense could be interpreted, in and of itself, as a sign of that person's own insanity.

Straitjackets also restrain and confine a person from moving freely so that they cannot destroy things around them, harm themselves, or another person. This is how rules have been used on Riddle. He adheres so strictly to them, they dictate every moment of his life and have restricted him from being able to do things like make friends and confined him to emotional isolation. They're also painful for him to follow which is why he screams, but he can't get loose because he's so restricted by them and he doesn't know how to break free from them.

Thirdly, the straitjacket isn't only the rules, but the parental love Riddle's received from his mother. To put it bluntly, Riddle's mother abused him. Just to name a few of the things she did, she restricted his caloric intake to the point his growth has been stunted, she made him do way too much work to be considered healthy for a child, she's forced the burden of her emotional state onto her son, and she's isolated him from kids his age. She is an abusive parent, and her love is just like a straitjacket. Straitjackets were often overused and used as a means of torture and punishment, likewise, Mrs. Rosehearts used her "love" for her son as justification for the mistreatment and physical, mental and emotional abuse she put him through.

The Phantom's fingers close over Riddle as if she's protecting him from the outside world, something Riddle's mother claimed she was doing for Riddle as he was growing up. However, she's not protecting him. She's molding him into a miniature copy of herself. Riddle is still screaming as he's being forcibly formed into a miniature copy of the Phantom as if he's made of clay, rather than being allowed to grow and become his own person. His eyes look blankly ahead, like he's unable to even see past the torturous pain he's experiencing.

The Phantom removes her hands as if showing off her perfect creation. A mini copy of herself that will be her puppet to enforce her will and ideals onto others. I've discussed how Riddle takes on a dressing pose like a queen here before he slumps over, so I'm not going to rehash the queen side of that, but I will point out by taking on that pose, it could also be viewed as Riddle being more of a doll than a person to his mother and that's manifesting in the Phantom's behavior because of how much Mrs. Rosehearts has influenced her son.

What's so sad is Riddle has lost a ton of his identity with this transformation. Riddle's eyes aren't even GRAY anymore. They've become a bloody rose red to imitate the Queen's temper ruling her and likely coming from the phrase "seeing red". Riddle's lost his gentler, sweet side that genuinely wants to make friends and get along and, in this transformation, has been molded into someone who revels and finds enjoyment in causing pain and terror. An abuse victim who's continued the cycle and become the abuser, rather than learning to free himself of it and not perpetuate what's been done to him.

Moving onto Azul!

Azul's is probably the most innocent looking of the overblot animations, but if you know octopuses and what they do, it's so terrifying. We'll start off with what sets Azul into overblotting and then we'll get into why this simple animation is so freaking scary.

Azul's whole trauma stems from the extreme bullying he experienced as a child. As a result, he's built a massive collection of contracts to fortify himself, but those got destroyed by Leona. Afraid to go back to being his old self that got bullied, Azul starts forcibly stealing powers from other students nearby to try and amass a new collection. However, because he's not using a contract, the students are going unconscious like husks sucked dry of everything.

Without his contracts, Azul has no sense of moderation. When Floyd and Jade try to warn him against what he's doing, Azul perceives this as them bullying him, gets upset at being perceived as his old self, and keeps taking more and more, sackling as he starts to go on a power high.

Let's get into one of the more deceptive animations in the whole set of all seven Overblot animations.

First, we start off with Azul is hunched over and you actually can't see much of him. His clothing appears to drown him a bit, showing that Azul hides behind so many different layers like his clothing, his attitude, and his contracts to keep himself from ever feeling as small as he did when bullied. He's wrapped himself up in layers upon layers to protect himself.

We then see the Phantom of Ursula looming behind him. An interesting thing to note with the animations? All the overblotters look tiny when compared to their Phantom, but Azul looks the SMALLEST. Phantom Ursula towers over him so much more than the other Phantoms do to their respective victims. I interpret this as the Phantom representing the attitude and facade Azul has tried to maintain for years to make himself seemingly untouchable. Now that the facade is cracking, Azul feels so small because he's no longer able to be this unflappable, untouchable force at school. Also, Ursula is looming over him for a much more sinister reason that I'll get into in a moment.

Azul's laughing here, but the way he's pulled the blot down, it looks like tears. Azul is so, so desperate to not be bullied, to escape being picked on, to not be a target, that the fact he is now vulnerable has cracked his sanity. He is so sad and frightened of his old life that he's lost all composure and can't think clearly, laughing in despair. He has to quickly make himself untouchable or he's going to be a target. But he already is, because the Phantom is approaching him.

Now this isn't so scary right? All she's doing is swimming above Azul, similar to how Ursula poses when she's discussing payment with Ariel. It's just getting close to splash him with blot, but it's not that threatening. Just a nod to Ursula's pose right? WRONG. She's HUNTING. She's going head/eyes first towards Azul, like an octopus does when it's mealtime and they're going down to the ocean floor to find food. Secondly, the backdrop behind Azul has turned black and the Phantom is very hidden amongst the black backdrop, camouflaged as she comes towards him. Octopi use camouflage as part of their strategy when they hunt so it's easier to sneak up on their prey. She's sneaking up on Azul to EAT HIM. The reason she was looming over Azul earlier and he was so small comparatively? He was her PREY.

What's even more chilling it's a reference to how Azul uses his contracts. In his OB song, Abyss, he says "Awarena kokoro itadakimashou." Now, I translated it in my fan translation as "Your pathetic heart, let’s have it then" and I know mysteryshoptls translated it as "Just give your poor, unfortunate soul over to me." But a more accurate meaning/usage of "itadakimashou" is "Let's eat". The powers Azul takes is like food to him. He sneakily preys upon people and then sucks out their talents from them to feed himself. When he is taking powers from people without a contract, consuming everything and leaving nothing but a husk? He’s basically fallen back into his childhood habit of stress eating.

Azul gets splattered with ink, knocking him out of his manic despair laugh like someone throwing dirty water on him. It's reminiscent of the way people get bullied by having dingy, mop water or trash thrown on them like that. He flinches away, shaken by the shock of being splattered and looks at the blot horrified. In a sense, he's realized he's been marked as a target. The one thing Azul never ever wanted to be again. And then the tentacles DESCEND ON HIM.

Now how octopi kill their food? They wrap their tentacles around the prey in a super strong grip the prey can't escape and YANK them to the super sharp venomous beak hidden in the middle of all those tenacles. If it's eating a crab, that beak can SHRED through the hard shell that's supposed to protect the crab, or it can use the venom to immobilize more agile prey like fish. This is why Azul panics and looks so scared. HE JUST GOT GRABBED BY A MASSIVE OCTOPUS FOR ALL HE KNOWS. He didn't see anything but the tentacles. The minute an octopus's prey is grabbed by those tentacles? They are pretty much dead. All he knows is he got targeted and turned into prey by something with tentacles and when you get preyed on by a much bigger cephalopod, the tentacles are a death grip. You are not getting out alive.

The Phantom forces Azul to show his true form. Not the bossman facade he's been using at school to hide the past he's ashamed of, but what he looks like as himself. What he looks like when he's not using potions to be human or dressing well to show off how he can afford those things and knows how to present himself. He's down to the core of who he is. The person Azul has been so desperately trying to hide. The real Azul who was picked on relentlessly underneath it all. Worse, since he's bound to her, once he's consumed, he's going to go back to an overweight form, a form that he was horribly bullied for as a kid. Which only happened because he wasn't able to stop becoming a target. Except, the thing targeting him wasn't a bully. It was the personification of his own inability to stop himself from glutting on other people's talents and weaknesses. So in a way, he'd targeted himself.

And that's my take on Riddle and Azul! Even though @avionvadion did run through Malleus's OB and I did add on that, I am planning a thing on Malleus, so Malleus fans, you may want to prepare! But yeah, thank you for reading!!

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

I know I have an ask list early, but hey, figure this might be fun. List of the TWST OCs I've shared so far is here. Feel free to ask!

GET TO KNOW YOUR TWST OCs (and their relationships)

(Or how I make up excuses to blabber about my OC lol. Most of the "who" questions are aimed at the twst cast, but feel free to include other twst OCs as well!)

Name: What does your twst OC's name mean? Why does Rook/Floyd call them [insert nickname]?

Inspiration: Is your twst OC inspired by any villains? Concepts? Anything Disney-related?

Age/Birthday: How old is your twst OC? When is their birthday? Whose birthday (among the cast) is closest to your twst OC's? Does the horoscope lie or do they get along well?

Dorm: Which dorm is your twst OC in? Why? Which qualities they have make them suitable for said dorm? Do they have a roommate and how is their relationship?

Class: Who is your twst OC's classmate(s)? How would you describe their relationship? Did they have different classmates in previous year and did they get along?

Height: How tall is your twst OC? Are they conscious about their height? Are they close to someone with similar leg length?

Hair/Eye color: What are your twst OC's hair and eye colors? Who got the closest/opposite palette to them?

Homeland: Where is your twst OC from? Do they know anyone from the same hometown prior to NRC?

Club: Which club does your twst OC join and why? Is there anything memorable about the club fair day/their first day at the club? Which clubmate is their favorite?

Subject: What is your twst OC's best subject? Worst? Do they study with another whom excels at the same subject? Do they ask anyone for help with the subject they are bad at?

Hobby: What are your twst OC's hobbies? Who among the cast will they possibly ask to join in their pastime?

Pet peeves: What are your twst OC's pet peeves and which one in the cast accidentally (or not) commit the "crimes"? How will your twst OC deal with that person?

Food: What is your twst OC's favorite and least favorite food? Why (optional)? Is there anyone they can share their favorite food? Is there anyone they can count on to take over the food they dislike?

Talent: What is your twst OC's talent(s) and who can properly appreciate that?

Unique Magic/Signature spell: What is your twst OC's UM (if applicable)? What can they do? What is the incantation? Is there any weaknesses/loopholes and who can exploit those?

Quote: Give me something your twst OC will say. Either something they always say or something iconic they said. Something that helps solve the problems or something that is a catalyst to even more issues.

(Ok I'm kinda running out of ideas here) Personality: Give me 3 adjectives to describe your twst OC. Or an essay. Whichever works. Whose personality among the cast is closest to your twst OC and do they get along?

Backstory: Tell me anything about your twst OC's backstory. Their childhood, their parents, their siblings etc. Does their backstory affect how they are as a character now and how they interact with the cast?

Pick only one: Let your twst OC pick only one and explain the reasons: only one favorite from each dorm, only one favorite housewarden/vice housewarden, only one favorite first/second/third year etc.

(For my beloved yume shippers) Partner: Who do you ship your twst OC with? Are they in a relationship? If yes, how did it start/end? If no, why?

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

THE EMOTIONAL GUTPUNCH THIS SCENE STILL HITS ME WITH. 🥲JUST OOOOOOOOOOOW.

Idia Shroud - Overblot Animation

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

Another observation for Jamil is that in the moment before his arms do the marionette drop, he reminds me of a king holding out his arms so his servants can dress him, and his head doesn't fall forward like the others. Which is fitting because of well...his whole character.

So, quick notes about this. Riddle and Vil have very close if not identical arm angles and position as Jamil in their transformations, which would fit given they are Twisted from queens, and women of high stature, particularly royalty, were usually helped to dress given the extra help some parts of an outfit would need (think corset lacing, intricate hair designs that servants would have to be specifically trained for, etc.), plus the pose is a nod to posing in magical girl transformations.

But I do want to clarify why Jamil's head doesn't seem to fall forward, because it actually does fall forward, like when a person starts to fall asleep while sitting up. However, he's refusing to bend his back. That's why it looks like he's not falling forward. His head is dropping a little, but his back is NOT. And there is reason for that.

A head bow can be read a show of deference, but a bending of the back or waist, is a stronger sign of deference or respect depending how low you go. The deeper the bow, the more respect is being shown. Jamil, who's probably been doing back based bows his whole life, is refusing to let his back relax forward into any semblance of bowing at all.

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

I'm curious. Any thoughts on Jamil and Leona's animations? (BTW, love your post about Idia and Vil's. It was very insightful.)

Oh thank you! Do I have thoughts on Leona and Jamil? Yep. I most definitely do.

Let's start with Leona. Because of how the English translation fumbled on Leona's depression and given it's the buildup of years of depression that lead to his overblot, I'm gonna discuss that before getting into the animation.

So before his overblot even happens, by his behavior (constant fatigue and oversleeping) and attitude (constantly in a low mood, hopeless, listless, and a disinterest in anything around him), it's pretty obvious that Leona's been severely depressed for years, due to being compared to and often scolded by Falena, and it got worse after Cheka was born. The constant comparison to Falena from others destroyed his sense of place in his kingdom because it felt like no one wanted him. Concerning Falena's scoldings, while Falena meant well by trying to guide Leona, Leona took it not as coming from a place of concern, but as if Falena was talking down to him, mostly likely because Falena's approach was scold first, rather than ask Leona if he was okay. As a result, Leona's really had one thing that's really been where he gets his sense of worth and value from and that's Magift/Spelldrive.

In his first year at NRC, Leona got to enjoy being recognized for his talents, especially in Magift/Spelldrive, and then Malleus comes along the year Leona becomes dorm leader and sweeps through the tournament not only that year, but also the year after, causing Leona's very new experience of people looking at him positively and his very fragile positive sense of self to come crashing down. His dormmates are depending on him to let them show off their skills, but because of Malleus's raw ability to overpower a whole team on his own, Leona has been struggling for two years to find a way to be a good leader to Savanaclaw and meet his dorm members' needs. Leona's been reviled in his home life and when they lose to Malleus the second time, Leona starts getting the treatment he got at home from others happening to him again in his one safe haven from that, NRC.

So when his plans to incapacitate Malleus fails, Leona falls back into his old habits at home to retreat and act like he doesn't care. His dorm mates don't accept that and keep pushing him to figure out a new plan on the fly, so Leona lashes out and ends up getting collared by Riddle. While Leona is in a state of agitation, Lilia, who is letting his own negative feelings towards Leona come out -given Leona just targeted not only Malleus, his eldest son, but Silver and Sebek too- while attempting to get through to Leona, instead of helping, straight up just pushes Leona off the emotional cliff he's teetering on and Leona loses it.

Let's get into the animation.

In the first image, with Leona hunched over and covering his face as he is, he looks so much like a little kid, which reflects how his mentality has been formed by the sheer awful and disrespectful way he's been treated by the citizens of Sunset Savanna from his young childhood. Another thing to note, the stands behind him are empty, further driving home the fact Leona feels that no one has really stood behind or honestly thought well of him. While we know that Ruggie, Jack, and probably most of the members of Savanaclaw do really support and think well of Leona, Leona has just alienated himself from the dorm, attacked Ruggie and tried to kill him, and Jack turned on him to stop him. Leona, in his warped perception of people, believes a lot of his own dormmates didn't back him because they actually liked him, thought he was amazing, or had talents worth uplifting; he thinks they backed him for self-serving means.

The second image is when his shadow forms the shape of the Phantom of Scar. The lighting here is actually very reminiscent of when Scar is promising the hyenas they will never go hungry again. A promise Scar ultimately failed to keep and as a result, he got eaten alive by the hyenas in the end.

Like Scar, Leona has failed to keep his one big promise to his followers: the promise of success against Malleus. But unlike Scar, he's not going to be consumed by the people who surround him, he's going to be consumed by his own depression that will eat at him until he wastes away, much like how King's Roar can cause surroundings and people to waste away.

Leona looks up and his face is twisted into frustration and anger. Depression, while often thought of just having this constant feeling of sadness or hopelessness, can manifest in people as anger and frustration and Leona's struggled with that too, but the anger and frustration side of his depression are coming to a head here. He's so angry because he feels trapped.

No matter what he does, no matter how hard he works, no one sees him. He's always going to be considered a failure or hated. And why? Because he was born ten years after Falena? Because he had the bad luck of being at school the same time as Malleus Draconia? That's not his fault! He didn't ask to be born second! He didn't ASK to have Malleus at NRC! He didn't have anything to do with that so why is everyone treating him like it's a personal failing of his for things he could never control?!

The Phantom of Scar manifests raining down blot on Leona's head, as if giving a form to the nasty, tainting thoughts that have covered and stained Leona's way of thinking. The blot comes from Scar's mouth, the way the subjects of the Sunset Savanna have hated and spurned Leona behind his back his whole life when they thought he couldn't hear them, like how Falena has scolded him without thinking to even ask first if Leona is okay, and how Scar spat such hateful thoughts like the idea the Simba was the reason Mufasa died, leading Simba to struggle with his own sense of depression and survivor's guilt as a young adult.

As the blot hits Leona's head, he goes from angry to lost and sad and scared. He looks so young in this moment. Sure, he's an adult on the outside, but on the inside, there's a small child who's been hurt and hated and he never understood what he even did that was wrong or why he deserved to be treated that way. Leona's been hated for things he couldn't understand. Sure, his magic is frightening, but he seems to have been despised even before it manifested.

We don't know why the people of Sunset Savanna treats Leona the way they do, but Sunset Savanna is mired in tradition. It's made me wonder if the hatred of second princes like Leona is a passed down version of the hatred of Scar that pervaded the Pride Lands and continued even after he died. We see how toxic this continued hatred of Scar was in the Lion King 2 when Simba and the other Pride Landers treated Kovu so poorly. As Kovu said to Simba when he asked to join the Pride Lands:

"Judge me now for who I am... or am I to be blamed for a crime I didn't commit?"

Like Kovu, Leona seems to have been blamed and hated for crimes he didn't even do.

The blot transforms into sand as it climbs up Leona's body, a nod to his Unique Magic of King's Roar and the drought and famine that ravaged the Pride Lands during Scar's reign, while Scar's head covers him. This is likely a nod to the fact Scar died by being eaten alive and the Phantom will consume Leona if he's not freed, but also probably a nod to the fact that what Scar said to Simba as a cub hung over Simba's head even into his adult life.

"Simba... What have you done? ... ... Of course, of course you didn't. No one ever means for these things to happen. But the king is dead. And if it weren't for you, he'd still be alive. What will your mother think?"

"You said you'd always be there for me! But you're not. And it's because of me. It's my fault. It's my fault..."

Leona gives a frightened gasp/grunt as the blot overtakes him. Everything that has been slung at him over the years. All the perceived failure, all the hatred, all the pain he's suffered is drowning him and he's scared of being consumed in those thoughts.

He comes loose, in that unstrung puppet pose all the Overblot characters have before the Phantom hooks into them. Like Scar, he's consumed by depression and a loss of motivation here, but when the Phantom of Scar clicks into him, Leona becomes more like Simba. Like how Simba was bound to, trapped, and controlled by the hateful words Scar threw at him that were specifically designed to weaken Simba mentally so it would be easier for the hyenas to hunt him down and kill him, Leona is now being bound to, trapped, and controlled by the hateful words his subjects have thrown at him for the course of his entire life. And since that's the case, fine. He'll disappear just like they've wanted, but he'll make CERTAIN that even though he was overlooked and scorned his whole life in favor of Falena, NO ONE WILL OVERLOOK HIM IN DEATH.

ON TO JAMIL!

So, I don't remember if I've said this, but the Scalding Sands seems to have some form of a caste system in place. I know other people have compared it to the Kafala/Kefala system that is in some Arabic nations, but I've viewed it as akin to a caste system because like Agrabah, Scalding Sands seems to have some Indian influence as well, with Kalim's home taking visual inspiration from the Taj Mahal and Yana Toboso does a lot of nods to the UK in her works, such as NRC being based on the British private school house systems. The UK and India have a long history together, so I think with Jamil and Kalim, Yana is using the Indian caste system as a basis because I'm pretty sure that is something that more people are aware of. Example, I learned about Indian caste system in compulsory school, I just can't remember if it was late elementary, middle, or high school, but I was not aware until recently about the Kafala/Kefala system at all. But who knows, maybe Yana found out about it while doing research to build the country of the Scalding Sands.

Anyways, whatever system it is, Jamil's family has been subservient to Kalim's for generations. Jamil's resented being stuck as a servant to Kalim to the point its festered to the point it's made Jamil a bit blind. Yes, I say it's made him blind, and I STAND by that statement.

Jamil blames Kalim for a system they are both victims of, but because Kalim is in a place of higher privilege in the system and is a professional at hiding the darker parts of the golden, gilded cage he is in by suppressing it and laughing it off, Jamil cannot or flat out refuses to see how their places in the system has harmed both of them. It's kind ironic, really, especially given Jamil's in the dorm of mindfulness and sees himself as smarter and better than Kalim, but he's just as blind to Kalim's suffering as Kalim is to his. All Jamil can see is his own "itty bitty living space" and has decided to direct all the frustration at Kalim and make him the manifestation of everything Jamil resents in his life. When that doesn't work out, he starts blaming anyone who tries to give him orders or stop him.

Jade right before this did not order him to stop because he wanted to maintain control. He told Jamil to stop because Jamil was close to overblotting which is known to be fatal. Sometimes people give us well-meaning commands like "Don't touch the hot oven" or "Don't put a fork in an electric socket", not because they want to limit us, but because they know better and know what will happen if we do the thing we're setting out to do. Jade recognized that if Jamil overblots, Jamil's in BIG TROUBLE. Azul is the only other dorm leader there and he's YOUNGER than Jamil as Jamil is the oldest of the second year students and neither Azul's UM, nor Jade or Floyd's for that matter, will do them much good in freeing an overblotted Jamil from his Phantom. There are no more experienced/older mages strong enough to get help. Any dorm leaders or teachers who would be able to act to get Jamil out of an overblotted state have left for Winter Break.

But Jamil is too emotionally riled that he can't listen and realize why Jade told him to stop. Not only that, he's also becoming drunk on a power trip and is losing his grip on himself, his rationality and mindfulness he prides himself on, and has fully succumbed to the idea that he is the most intelligent, most talented, and most skilled person in the school. He's going to fight anyone who tries to order him or stop him from doing what he wants to anymore because HE IS GOING TO BE FREE.

On to the animation!

Right off the first thing we hear is Jamil laughing maniacally in a manner that's very close to Jafar's laugh when Jafar finishes the Prince Ali reprise. It's a laugh Jafar does as he's starting to go on a power trip, so it's a representation that Jamil is succumbing to the idea of being "the most powerful sorcerer in the world". In the first image, you can see how unhinged Jamil's expression has become as he cackles. Jamil is losing all sense of rational and losing his senses to the mania of his power trip overtaking him. To showcase how Jamil's viewing himself, his shadow becomes Jafar's genie form, a being with phenomenal cosmic powers, but this Phantom being Jafar's genie form and not his sorcerer form is also serving as a dire warning. Jamil will try to free himself, but this path he's taking will only to a permanent loss of freedom. As a genie, Jafar was never freed from his lamp, he died when his lamp was melted down, still bound to it and trapped by it. Genie made that clear: If you destroy a genie's lamp, you destroy the genie who is bound to it.

Jamil keeps cackling and then he stops and gives the screen an insane smile. While he looked unhinged before, Jamil looks totally gone here. The side of Jamil that is so aware of situations and careful, always precise in his actions and movements, has been consumed by his pure mania and delusions that this will free him. If Jamil can't be stopped, he will never be truly free. If he stays overblotted, this is going to end up killing him. A moment's freedom paid for with his life. But, as his face shows, Jamil either is not considering that aspect OR if he is, he's considering those short moments of freedom worth the rest of his life. He doesn't believe he could get the freedom he craves any other way.

The Phantom of Jafar fully manifests behind Jamil and Jamil pulls his hood back. For all of Book 4 before this, Jamil has been sneakily manipulating the scenes in order to expel Kalim without it reflecting onto him, but that's over now. By removing the hood, he's taking off the thing that could be used to hide his face and is revealing himself. He's allowing his true face to finally be revealed to all after hiding if for so long as a means of protection. A snake finally baring its fangs.

Blot pours down from Phantom Genie-form Jafar down on Jamil's head, as if bestowing his power on him. While we can't see the pose the Phantom is making, I viewed this as a dark mirror to when Genie turned Jafar into an all-powerful genie. Genie imbued Jafar with the same magic as himself, but also the same limitations. Jamil's getting amazing power here from Phantom Jafar, but Jamil's about to lose his freedom and possibly his free will once he becomes the Phantom's puppet.

As Jamil gets surrounded by blot snakes and consumed by blot, he makes a noise of surprise. Like this wasn't what he thought it was going to be. And when he is freed from his transformation, you hear the jangling of the shackles that are NOW ON HIS WRISTS. He thought he was getting amazing power to do whatever he wanted, but nope. Like Jafar, Jamil's left being a servant and now has made himself a slave, permanently bound to a master who will never let him be free at all. If no one acts to save him, Jamil is going die bound and enslaved to a master who only cares about using and consuming everything about Jamil until there is nothing left for him to use. Jamil's basically become a genie of the lamp, unable to be his own master, unless Octavinelle, us, and Kalim, his former master, gets him out of it. Just like how Genie and Jafar could only get out of their eternal servitude if their masters wished for their freedom.

And that's my take on the Leona and Jamil animations! Thank you for asking!

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

I have been wondering what are your thoughts on Idia and Vil's overblot animation?

Both were a suckerpunch, but Idia's REALLY HURT. It hit me in an emotional sore spot from my childhood that rarely gets punched anymore since I've gone to therapy and done the work to heal that sore spot on my heart, but Idia's overblot animation was a DIRECT HIT to it. When I first saw it, I took a couple of hours to process.

Anyways, buckle up, I got notes and I am gonna break down how these both are horrific and so heartwrenchingly tragic. A WARNING: I am going to be talking about suicide, suicidal ideation, etc., particularly around Idia, so if you aren't good with that, please, move on or come back when you are in a place to handle it.

Let's start with Vil.

So right before this, Vil has a had a mental break. The stress of realizing he's stooped to underhanded methods to fight Neige, the one thing he never wanted to do, caused him to snap and fall into this idea that he's ugly and because he can never forgive himself.

Now for the animation.

While this still doesn't show it, we see Vil covering his face and shaking, somewhere in-between what I assume is a laugh and a sob, because he's so mentally BROKEN. He's losing himself to a mix of horror, grief, and a sort of manic hysteria. Behind him, his shadow has become the Phantom of the Hag, a depiction to show that Vil's perception of himself has become so warped, simply because of his emotionally driven choice to try and kill Neige with cursed apple juice and having Rook, Kalim, and us in shock by his choice. He cannot bear to have anyone see him right now.

Vil lifts his head and laughs as the manic side of this breakdown has won out in the fight of his emotions and the Hag manifests. She touches her face as one would when looking at themselves in the mirror before her fingers land on where, if she was in her Queen form, her painted red mouth would be. A lot of lip colorant is transferrable, like lipstick often smears and like red lipstick, the blot sticks to her fingers, which she applies to Vil's face while also appearing to claw at his face and rip off his SKIN, in a haphazard imitation of both applying makeup and removing his beautiful face to show the true ugliness hidden underneath.

Look at how much of Vil's skin looks GONE. As if the Hag has removed most of it, leaving only small patches behind she couldn't fully claw off while she worked to show the ugly, inky monster hidden that Vil's physical beauty was hiding.

Then she manifests the poison apple and it is covering Vil's face for most of the scene. While this is a nod to how poisonous Vil's mindset has become right now and the fact that he will be able to make a heavy cloud of miasmic poison around him in a little bit, it is also a visual reminder, Vil is GOING TO DIE. Overblotting is fatal if the overblotter is not freed quickly and given what Vil's overblot form can do once he's fully overblotted? Freeing him in time is going to be VERY HARD.

As the blot splashes, black peacock feathers rise up and surround Vil. This is nod to the Evil Queen's symbol of the peacock on her throne, but I want to focus on the sound that happens as they tighten around him. It sounds like bones or skin being stretched to the point of getting close to breaking. Over the centuries, the pursuit of beauty, particularly in women has lead to poisioning (lead makeup being a common one), disfigurement, breaking a person's own body, or even death, all in the sake of a fleeting moment of beauty. As we see Vil's eye, we hear him gasp, a gasp I recognize as similar to what I have often heard in scenes when a woman is tightening her corset to the point she cannot breathe so her waist will fit a man's handspan.

And then Vil is loosed from his cocoon, limp and seemingly unconscious. No more than a puppet unable to do much until hooked to its puppeteer, the Phantom of the Hag. All this to show how seriously Vil has taken his pursuit of beauty. That he would be willing to break his body, his stringent and steadfast morality in his pursuit, and even die to be the Fairest in the World for even a fleeting moment. And should we not be able to free him, the Hag, a manifestation of age and what is perceived by the world as ugliness, will consume him and he will die. Nothing left, but a manifestation of the ugliness he now believes to be forever stained with.

ON TO IDIA! AGAIN. WARNING!!! THERE WILL BE TALK OF SUICIDE AND OTHER THINGS RELATED TO IT LIKE SUICIDE IDEATION AND REGRET THAT CAN HAPPEN AFTER AN ATTEMPTER FATALLY HURTS THEMSELF.

Idia has been consumed by grief from a sudden loss and survivor's guilt for at least eight years. He blames himself for what happened to Ortho.

Speaking from personal experience, losing a sibling when you are a child around the same age as Idia was... that hurts and that pain really never truly goes away. (Note: Please do not ask me what happened, I will not discuss it. I am mentioning this only to discuss the emotions I've dealt with since I was around Idia's age when I experienced my loss of a sibling). When you are a child, death isn't really a concept you fully understand yet. You get things die, you might've lost pets before, or lost older family members you didn't really know too well, but you don't expect death to come and take a sibling, especially if they're not near the end of their natural life and the sudden shock of something you didn't expect compiled with the grief can take a long time to process and cope. And the grief and pain can and often does come back with a vengeance at random points in your life, even if it's been years because they should still be here with you.

Now take all that and add the survivor's guilt from living through an encounter that killed someone else? There's a massive monster made up of grief, pain, and extreme guilt haunting Idia's thoughts. He believes his life is worth nothing because he couldn't save his little brother from being killed. And that's not even mentioning that the Phantom that killed Ortho got loose because the security was down because Idia hacked it so he and Ortho could go on an adventure. Is that Idia's fault? No. It was purely an accident. But on some level, even though he's likely been told it wasn't his fault, it's lead Idia to subconsciously believe Ortho's death was his fault. So, Idia has let it eat at him so hard that his life has massively deteriorated over the years.

Then Phantom Ortho reaches out to him, tells Idia he's still here, that he's missed Idia, they can be together again and complete their dream to travel the world and be heroes, but he needs Idia's help to do so. And Idia, who's been living in a maelstrom of pain, anguish, and guilt, decides to overblot for Ortho.

Let's get into the animation.

Idia stands at the gate, what is essentially Ortho's grave, as it opens. It's so haunting that Idia has basically decided to start the process of his own death at the gravesite of the brother he feels he killed.

We then see Idia's face as he softly, almost listlessly, giggles. He's smiling, yes, but he looks so BROKEN and LOST. Notice that he's not even looking down to see if Ortho is rising out of the gate, he's staring straight ahead as if even checking to see if Ortho is really there is not worth it. Even if Ortho isn't really there, if it's just an auditory hallucination brought on by Idia finally cracking mentally due the years of his own personal hell, it doesn't matter to him. He's choosing to end his life now and after he's dead, he'll be with Ortho again. He can finally apologize for failing his little brother all those years ago and dooming him to death.

Idia extends his arms forward, welcoming his oncoming death as blot spurts forth from the Underworld and washes over him like a tidal wave of ink and destruction. He makes no attempt to run or flee. He is going to die, the same way Ortho did, and he embraces his incoming death, his smile still present.

We then see Idia's eye, lifeless and sad, before he gasps and his eye becomes panicked. A lot of people who have managed to survive suicide attempts have discussed having an immediate change of heart or regret hit them the minute they realize what they have just done. We don't know what caused him to become panicked -maybe it was the realization his parents would come home to both sons now dead, maybe it was the thought that this would cause thousands of more innocents to die at his hands- but something caused him to immediately regret his choice to accept death and he seems to try and attempt to reverse it.

As Ortho is pulling himself out of the gate, the orb of blot around Idia bursts into the blue flames of the Shroud family curse. While this could be his transformation, I read it as Idia actually trying to burn the blot off, to stop his death because something is causing him to not want to die anymore. He's 19 by this point and his curse is far stronger than 8-year-old Ortho's was. As an adult, he has a much higher chance of actually surviving this by burning away the blot consuming him, but Ortho intervenes.

Ortho has outstretched a hand towards Idia, reaching for him. While it's not animated in Idia's flashback, I'd bet money this was the last thing Idia saw before he went unconscious right before Ortho died. His terrified little brother, extending his hand to him, trying to reach him and grab him. And last time, Idia wasn't able to grab Ortho's hand and save him. But this is likely what pushes Idia to complete his transformation as the fire dissipates while Idia gives a tired sigh that feels like an agreement to stop fighting this transformation. Then, Idia is shown in his Overblot form, still and limp, again, like a puppet not yet connected to its puppeteer.

Cords connect from Ortho into Idia's back and neck and the lowest one seems to connect to a piece of Idia's suit that is in the vague shape of a human heart. It's also very symbolic. Idia was not able to shield Ortho from the Phantom that killed him, but now, connected in the way that they are, Idia is in front of Ortho, protecting his little brother with his own body, even though Ortho is now much bigger than him. But the cords mean something else too. Idia has been metaphorically bound to the ghost of Ortho through his own grief and guilt about what happened and let it control his life and choices. Now, the Phantom that hold Ortho's spirit locked inside has made that binding connection physical. Idia is now actually bound to the will of Phantom Ortho, like puppet to the whims of puppeteer, controlled by the little brother he was not able to save. Two brothers who were so close in life, now completely connected together in their death.

And that's my take on it. Sorry this took so long, I got the ask while out socializing and didn't get back until late and writing all my stuff down took a while. But yeah... when I said these animations were horrific and sad in other tags, I MEANT IT.

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

Adding to this because I also have notes about Malleus and this has a lot of stuff I wanted to discuss, but also stuff that wasn't mentioned. I view the smile as tired and just straight up done, but I can see how it's interpreted as bitter.

But I gotta talk about how this animation is MANIFESTING Malleus's thinking. Look at this image again.

The thorns here do not seem to be aimed at outsiders, keeping them away. They look like they are aimed INWARDS, at MALLEUS. Now why is that?

By this point, Malleus has become ENTHRALLED with this idea of being a benevolent and good king. And he has likely been informed of one such person before him over the course of his 178-179 years of life: HIs mother, who died letting her army flee and escape from the human attack and died to ensure her son, Malleus, lived.

The base of Malleus's core thought here is being shown. He will die so that everyone else can live long and happy lives with no more sorrow and suffering. Even when the blot is overtaking him, he doesn't gasp, he doesn't scream. He just sighs. A sigh that sounds like a death rattle.

Malleus knows with this choice he is going to die and he's accepted it. Because he's going to be a good king. And in his mind, good rulers serve their people, even if it kills them in the end.

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.

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

For that one ask, I was referring to your version

Oooh okay. Was just making sure, lol.

In Once Upon A Dream, Alt Kora doesn't show up until Book Seven. She gets tugged into Twisted Wonderland just in time for Malleus to Overblot. She has zero time to process this new world before it's suddenly on the verge of ending, and is stuck in STYX watching the dreams, hoping everything gets solved and everyone is saved.

For sake of avoiding spoilers, since I don't know how much @winterspellsfrozenkit is okay with me revealing about Kora's backstory (and I also just don't... remember how much they themselves have revealed on their blog; I just woke up, my brain is scrambled still, lol) Eleanora had already promised Idia to go with him to STYX before Malleus Overblotted- as his parents had called to inform him of Alt Kora's sudden appearance.

Idia refuses to speak with her alone, and after the Book Seven chaos tells Eleanora that she already promised so don't you dare back out and abandon him now on the most important lore quest of all time, oh Great Seven he's terrified. It was her scary dragon boyfriend who Overblotted and delayed this, so no backing out now!

He's so mad at Malleus- for various reasons, lol.

But anyways, when Idia returns to STYX to keep an eye on Malleus and Lilia, he takes Eleanora with him- specifically to talk to Alt Kora, who is... going through it, to say the least.

Eleanora, being a fellow isekai'd person, is able to talk her through her thoughts and tries to calm her down, but Alt Kora is greatly shaken up. She kind of just ends up being a big sister to Alt Kora, being for her in this new world what Eleanora never had when she first showed up, and trying to help her adjust.