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Dramatic-ass coming out picture. He can’t be normal about anything.

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Votes pouring in every single minute for just Idia-- And then an hour later, just Silver.

If you want to sway a poll, but in the effort and make proper propaganda so that people will WANT to vote for your character instead of ruining the fun.

It's one of those places in TWST that gives me such a headache because how parliament and the economy work don't make any sense.

Like, how does SunSav survive as a country?

Is SunSav is supposed to parallel corrupt kingdoms in places like (apartheid) South Africa? Or the Congo? Because even corrupt parliaments have a modicum of order in how they're run. The government of SunSav just looks like a whole mess.

The WHOLE reason places on the Afrikan Continent stay corrupt and "3rd World" (which isn't even a real category mind you) is because their leaders are being paid off by 1st World countries like America, the UK, Germany, etc., etc. So like.

HOW do taxes work if all your people don't have jobs? How are you wealthy? How do you get things built if you hate modernity so much? Where is the money coming from? Where isit going? Is tourism the only thing keeping your country afloat if you don't allow factory extraction? If so, where's the commentary on gentrification? With there being such a horrid wealth gap, there HAS to be some level of extortion and slave labor. There HAS to be. You cannot have such a gap between Leona and Ruggie's realities without one abusing the other. It doesn't work like that.

Like.

A really, REALLY easy fix to this, because all the materials for all these cities has to come from somewhere, is:

You can have inside corruption with the Kingscolars being fat and happy figureheads of SunSav while there's another ring of politicians that ACTUALLY make the policy and sell out a specific area of SunSav to places like Pyroxene, the Queendom, and even fucking Scalding Sands. Places like Ruggie's hometown can then be Like That™ because they've been abandoned by the Royal Family because their neighborhood have literally been sold out as slave laborers that get paid pennies.

I would argue Falena, and this fuck-ass family, can justify building a modern-city for the birth of Cheka while refusing to develop other, densely, populated villages in SunSav:

because this project was approved by their inner political buddies.

Because it's a frivolous use of funds, used in a way that doesn't actually benefit anyone except for the, already, insanely rich. If anything, this project, to develop the capital, was put on the fast-lane because it made them look good to the outside world.

"We want to preserve nature and water, which is why we developed this big city and golden, water fountain right outside the royal palace. Don't look past this area where all the tourists and colorful vendors live. You're not allowed to do that, What do you mean 'why'?"

"Why does this water never evaporate? Magic silly! 'Why can't we do this for the rest of the country?' Well......"

Briar Valley is explained away by being cut off from the world, It doesn't need outside intervention because it's already self-sustaining due to Fae magic being different from normal magic AND having an in-grown economy. It doesn't NEED the outside world to survive. Sure, some modernity would be nice, but certain modern amenities would not mesh well with the supernatural shit going on over there (read: phones, the Internet, some electric devices, etc.,). And, with B7 explaining the Human-Fae War and how the country is still, do a degree, recovering, it makes sense as to why they'd be hesitant in letting people, and new age inventions, in.

So what about SunSav.

Was there a war? Is there corruption? Is there economic trade with outside countries? Is there mass immigration out of the country because of the shit working conditions? Similar to the border crossings from Mexico to America?

Does Yana realize having more than one place with a fucked-up way of life is more realistic and accurate to real-life? Having the Scalding Sands and SunSav, hell even Pyroxene and the Coral Sea, have some kind of corrupted underbelly is INTERESTING. Having them all being corrupted in different ways is INTERESTING.

I’d like to add on:

You can have Ursula, in the Coral Sea, be the example of what a “good” deep-sea merfolk looks like. With Ursula being the Coral Sea ideal, with how she helped the Royal Family, you can have the Coral Sea government have higher expectations for deep-sea mers. These higher expectations and standards, because they’re so high and demanding, is what causes a large portion of them to be excluded, pushed out, and forced to stay in the deeper waters.

Azul, and his family, were able to be respected because they run a restaurant; a catering and service business. Azul was able to climb up in his school, mostly due to his hard work, but also because of his Unique Magic: a spell that forces him to (to a degree) serve others. Sure, he takes something from others, but that only works if he gives something the other wants.

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

( ⸝⸝´꒳`⸝⸝)

I have no interest in a character without conflict, without dilemmas or an interesting worldview. No, being a tsundere is not complexity, that's just a trope.

If your only argument for Jack to win is that he's a "good boy" then you don't want to think why it angers you so much that questionable characters might win over boring ass purity.

Rook's love for the world, trying to find and pursue beauty in everything, is much more pure. Even if it makes you uncomfortable.

Fiction doesn't owe you good values. It has to make you think. No one is going to clap at you if you only vote for what you think won't be punished.

Compared to other characters, whom have big moments in their narrative to show more of their personality and development, Jack is a character that gets sidelined often and the meat-and-potatoes of his characters is hidden behind vignettes, mangas, and novels not everyone is going to read or wants to read.

"I have no interest in a character without conflict, without dilemmas or an interesting worldview," except Jack does have conflicts and dilemmas because he's just as much a hypocrite as others. He wants greatness and wants to be on the Savanaclaw SpellDrive team, but he hates teamwork, which is why he's in the Track Club instead of in the SpellDrive Club. He thinks there's only a "right" way to do things, but has difficulty computing the "right" way to do something might have a questionable methodology. He's a straight-edge, which means he has difficulty being flexible in his ideals.

His goodness, his "good boy" status, comes from being raised in a completely different environment compared to Leona and Ruggie and the difference is what makes him interesting. He's an incredible narrative foil to Leona and Ruggie who are hopeless and underhanded vs. Jack's hope and wanting to make things fair. It's interesting.

Rook is an incredible character and his love for the world is pure. That purity, that genuine love for the world, doesn't erase the fact people are uncomfortable by him because of the things he does and says despite being told those things make them uncomfortable. It's hard to want to understand someone who, seemingly, does not care if they cross boundaries. Emphasis on seemingly because WE know it comes from a good place, but not everyone in NRC does. And, even if WE know where it comes from, people have a right to still feel uncomfortable by Rook and his character because of the things he does, not because of who he is.

If we're going to talk about the mischaracterization of characters in TWST, we have to address the different ways these characters are treated.

Typically, Rook is mischaracterized to be creepier than he actually is vs. Jack being mischaracterized as an aggressive, "alpha wolf" character based on outdated, (were)wolf stereotypes that get extra suspicious when you see he's one of 5 characters that have darker skin.

I have no interest in a character without conflict, without dilemmas or an interesting worldview. No, being a tsundere is not complexity, that's just a trope.

If your only argument for Jack to win is that he's a "good boy" then you don't want to think why it angers you so much that questionable characters might win over boring ass purity.

Rook's love for the world, trying to find and pursue beauty in everything, is much more pure. Even if it makes you uncomfortable.

Fiction doesn't owe you good values. It has to make you think. No one is going to clap at you if you only vote for what you think won't be punished.

Compared to other characters, whom have big moments in their narrative to show more of their personality and development, Jack is a character that gets sidelined often and the meat-and-potatoes of his characters is hidden behind vignettes, mangas, and novels not everyone is going to read or wants to read.

"I have no interest in a character without conflict, without dilemmas or an interesting worldview," except Jack does have conflicts and dilemmas because he's just as much a hypocrite as others. He wants greatness and wants to be on the Savanaclaw SpellDrive team, but he hates teamwork, which is why he's in the Track Club instead of in the SpellDrive Club. He thinks there's only a "right" way to do things, but has difficulty computing the "right" way to do something might have a questionable methodology. He's a straight-edge, which means he has difficulty being flexible in his ideals.

His goodness, his "good boy" status, comes from being raised in a completely different environment compared to Leona and Ruggie and the difference is what makes him interesting. He's an incredible narrative foil to Leona and Ruggie who are hopeless and underhanded vs. Jack's hope and wanting to make things fair. It's interesting.

Rook is an incredible character and his love for the world is pure. That purity, that genuine love for the world, doesn't erase the fact people are uncomfortable by him because of the things he does and says despite being told those things make them uncomfortable. It's hard to want to understand someone who, seemingly, does not care if they cross boundaries. Emphasis on seemingly because WE know it comes from a good place, but not everyone in NRC does. And, even if WE know where it comes from, people have a right to still feel uncomfortable by Rook and his character because of the things he does, not because of who he is.