#there is desperation and violence in Savanaclaw's chapter and it went untouched and brushed over

[pinkpruneclodwolf]

As always, you have the best character and story analysis. I agree about every word you said about Jack. I remember the first time I found out about twst, I read only Heartslabyul's story and I thought "What a childish story" and then months later when I read Savannaclaw for the first time my opinion remained the same. It was only in Octavinelle when I started to have more respect for the story telling. And Scarabia of course was the peak to me. Because it felt so realistic in the sense that now we know there is an issue with Kalim and Jamil's relationship and we know what the issue is but it just can't be solved that easily. They're both still searching for healthy ways to cope with an incredibly unfair situation. To express something so complicated. That's good writing. Which takes me back to how weak Savannaclaw and Heartslabyul's stories are in comparison. I even went as far as think that they were weak by design to make it seem like NRC itself is luring Yuu in....first by getting them involved in seemingly shallow issues and then the issues get deeper as Yuu begins to be more involved. You're right that Jack's character feels like wasted potential when it comes to Savannaclaw. Honestly, not just him. Almost every heartslabyul character had their potential wasted in Heartslabyul's story. Trey's incredible capacity for evil hidden behind the kind senpai facade. Cater's desire and ability to make someone do his work for him and his complicated feelings of loneliness beyond the cheerful facade. Deuce got a full on redemption arc in Book 5 when he finally hit puberty (Discovered His Unique Magic) and Ace got his own moment in the Phantom Bride event. If Heartslabyul's story didn't highlight it enough. Phantom Bride showed exactly how highly Ace thinks of himself and how he dares to do a lot of things others won't because it's okay for the main character to reprimand the villain and act all high and mighty with them (like he did with both Riddle and Eliza). I don't know yet what happens in Vargas Camp, but Ruggie was, as you've already pointed out, the Savannaclaw star of the show so I think we already got enough Ruggie to understand his character. I wish we'd also got a proper explanation why Jack's strong sense of justice was deactivated in Savannaclaw's story. He already said he idolized Leona. But maybe there was more to that than simple idolization. Also, maybe there's a trick to Jack's character that deactivates his sense of justice. Like, I have a strong sense of justice unless....

Last, i want to point out that even though he's one of the most popular characters and despite getting one of the best Overblot designs, Leona is one of the characters that weren't really done justice in the story. Savannaclaw's story was overall weak (Exactly like Lion King's story, not much creativity involved) and his supposed redemption arc in Fairy Gala wasn't that satisfying. The only thing I found out about Leona is that he's much more of an attention whore than he comes off as. But I wish we would go deeper into Leona's feelings of inferiority. Leona has a very good base for a very interesting and complicated character. He feels inferior, yet he loves to act superior. He always trash talks his nephew but in a "blink and you'll miss it" moment, he showed concerns for his safety. He made it look like he only helped Yuu in Octavinelle's story because he was scared of them making noise outside his bedroom and because he had issues with Azul of course. But this is Leona, he could scare Yuu and Grim off amd not have them make noise if he wanted to. Azul may have held something against him, but Azul was a brilliant strategist, he wouldn't risk Leona's wrath. Leona helped Yuu because he wanted to help Yuu. Finishing his troubles with Azul was only a bonus. Or that's how I saw it. Anyways, I think Leona is a very fascinating character who's yet to get his moment to shine. I started out TWST all over Vil, but now that Book 5 is over. I think Leona grew on me more. And I wonder if what Azul held over him was the potion Ruggie drank at the Magift Tournament or was it something else. It actually felt that Leona's contract held a shameful secret that he wouldn't want revealed. But it could be me reading too much into it. After all he could have just been concerned about word getting out, he hurt some of his colleaugues and intended to hurt others as well. He's a prince after all. One thing I've been interested in as well, was relationship dynamics in Sunset Savannah and how women are more dominant and physically stronger. Imagine this but Leona is maybe concerned about being a useless prince consort to a woman he doesn't care for. Adding more to his tragedy of never being king, yet not free from royal obligations.

Sorry for the long rant. It's just there's not many people in the twst fandom I feel like I can share my thoughts with easily. But I love your thought process and I like sharing my thoughts with you and your followers.

The whole time I was reading this i though I'd posted the entirety of my take on Savanaclaw and how to fix it...

Like, near word for word, bar for bar from how I felt about Jack and Leona, using Scarabia, Heartslabyul, and the other dorm characters compared to the Savanaclaw trio. Especially the useless conort who gets washed away by the sands of time, barely remembered. Because second heirs are never free from Royal obligations, hell, they even have to overpreform in place of their sibling so Leona was right to say "you shouldn't give this rug to me, give it to a neighboring kingdom as a symbol of friendship" bc second heirs end up prone to more public scrutiny.

And you're right! Ruggie does get more characterization than Leona and Jack do, Leona is someone you have to read in between to get him which makes sense because he's spent the past 20 years of his life playing second fiddle and spare heir to his brother and he can't even be a spare heir because he has a nephew (who loves him very much)

Heartslabyul is a solid chapter especially when you have the Prologue leading into it makes it better. But I do think it focused on the first years rather than Riddle, Trey, and Cater, two of which have more characterization in Savanaclaw (later chapters too) and one of which you have to read personal stories and events to understand..

The thing is, Savanaclaw is based off of one of the most iconic movies ever, with a broadway show grossing 9 billion and making 1.6 mil a week, a. Week. Not to mention the Lion King topped Jurassic Park in 1994 and was the highest grossing film of that time, people think of iconic Disney movies and you best believe Lion King is up there no doubt.

Which is why I'm still trying to figure out how that bag was fumbled. There are so many directions you could've went with Leona in terms of being a "what if" Scar, especially if they played up the love Cheka has for his Uncle, how bout Cheka visiting the Dorm because he's one of the vip guests who are vetting out Magift players (bc Leona does say that Magift is the biggest sport in Twst and that winning means career options, scholarships, internships)

Bc in one of his Vignettes/ Personal Story the students do come to him when they need a problem solves bc he's well liked, why not use that as a way for him to infiltrate dorms? Especially if he's trying to pin the blame on Diasomnia. I'm sure they have friends, albeit a small group of them, and I'm sure there are Beastmen/Human/Mermen in Diasomnia.

Not to mention, bc he oversees Magift Practice, he should've definitely got into the "why" of his players getting harmed considering this could throw the Investigation squad off his tail.

Leona is literally stated to play chess by himself and is a top student at NRC, who, despite wanting to not be bothered with anything, is charismatic and pragmatic enough to have students rely on him (kinda like Trey) and you're gonna tell me he couldn't've pulled the wool over the Investigation Squad at least 10x over? At least?

This is SCAR we're talking about. Ursula swindled one girl, The Queen of Hearts got bullied by one girl and chased her back awake, Jafar is the only one I can see competing with Scar because he snatched up a genie, manipulated the Sultan had Jasmine and Aladdin on their knees so yeah... The Evil Queen is barely memorable (to me) it's the poison apple and Snow Whute that beat her out her own movie. Maleficent goes crazy, so a pass.

Jack, what Yana did to Jack is one thing I cannot forgive. Because he's the one character that's not apart of the Disney ensemble making him a whole clean slate, an Original Character, an OC if you will. White Fang starts off with sled dogs getting picked off, one by one, and a man fearing for his life because it's the Wild that runs the show, he's just living in it.

The thing about White Fang is that he was abused by his previous owner and through patience and compassion he became domesticated, protecting the protagonist's father when a criminal ran up, vowing to protect the protagonist's bloodline with his life. Idk how you get justice out of that entire book, but Jack protecting the weak does fall in line with White Fang's character arc.

Jack's justice and subsequent boldness that I mentioned in another post being turned off in the face of Leona's might and Overblot could've made sense, here's why:

Jack admires Leona, he grew up watching his Tournaments (implying Leona's been doing Magift on the side for a couple years, NRC just scooped him up) being assigned the same dorm as his idol was probably the greatest moment of his life (Vil and Leona are two sides of the same coin actually) so I can get behind him believing he knows his Dorm Leader as much as he does, enough to reprimand him in an effort to show him the right path.

Thing is, Jack doesn't know Leona like he thinks he does, and Farena doesn't know Leona as much as he thinks he does (I'd even argue that he was separated from Leona because of how dangerous his UM was, doesn't help that they're born a decade apart)

So they both come off tone deaf even when they're trying to be well meaning, Jack more so since he's a first year who beefed with his dorm because they were doing something that didn't align with his values.

I wanna reiterate that Jack is a bold person when he believes he's in the right.

Liek he walks right up to the tweels, demands they show him the contents of their suitcase and doesn't even wait for them to do that (they weren't, they were going to fight him) and still snatches the suitcase out of their hands. Leona and Jack's entire dynamic was formed through him beefing with his seniors, Jack fought Deuce because he though Yuu was a coward.

But I can get behind Jack not wanting to truly fight his Dorm Leader because 1: he admires him. 2: he knows the power Leona holds.

Idk if yall know but Leona's UM, King's Roar can turn anything into sand, people, objects, and PLACES fucking PLACES INTO SAND ARE U FUCKING KIDDING ME??????

And it isn't like he needed to learn how use this ability like Riddle (who holds the record for developing a UM at 10) or Azul (whose UM is literally a forbidden art that needed to be honed) no. No. This man was just born with it. BORN WITH IT. Evicted straight out the womb with violence on the brain.

Jack wouldn't touch Leona with a ten foot pole bc the pole would be a clump of sand by then. Because before he's bold, before Justice, there's still the basic instinct to live after watching someone you believe is your vice dorm leader get strangled and the skin of his neck turn to sand to a point where you have to fight Leona off.

So I can get behind being afraid, since I'd like to reiterate that Jack was alone when he spoke up against Leona and Ruggie, you really think he could take them?

Absolutely not.

I cannot thank you enough @ano-kata for putting most of my thoughts into wordsss, I'm so glad we can brain all brain rot together about the wasted potential of characters and make them better as a result!!!