wakasama!

The way my jaw was AGAPE when Malleus said he wouldn’t be asking RSA to reclaim the Princess Glow 😭 and that it should “go to the victor”? SIR, that is an incredibly powerful magestone that once belonged to your mother?? Your DECEASED mother who laid her life on the line so you could escape and be born??? Passed down to her from your grandmother and presumably would be passed onto you when you come into power???? A magestone which has miraculous properties and can heal otherwise incurable illnesses????? Why are we speaking about “earning” it as if it’s no more important than an actual trophy…

My brain ran through possible justifications or explanations, ranging from “he’s holding back his true feelings; he has emotionally matured since book 7” and “his mom didn’t own it for that long, given their long lifespans + differences in temporal processing” to “he’s so confident NRC will win this year” and “he’s cooking up a plan”. But in the end, I knew that none of these made sense and were just whipped up to cope with the confusion this scene had unleashed upon me. I get that maybe Malleus isn’t super attached to his mom since he never knew her personally, but he had the chance to meet her and observe her in Lilia’s dream back in book 7. He’s aware of the sacrifices she made for him and their country, of how much she meant to Lilia and Maleficia. And yet… Malleus has such a blunted reaction to discovering that a piece of her legacy is within reach.

Malleus isn’t the only one guilty of this, either. Lilia also had a weirdly… mellow reaction. Sure, maybe he had chilled since his general days—but this is a belonging of his dead friend, a symbol of power for your land. I’d think he would try to treat it more seriously?? Instead, Lilia provides a bunch of platitudes about how evil and good can get mixed up, how there’s many stories to explain the same thing, how time can warp tales… And yeah, that’s all fair. What I don’t vibe with is all the Extra Fae Lore he and Malleus drop on us.

It is so, so, SO strange to me to listen to Malleus say what is essentially “well, the Princess Glow’s doesn’t actually belong to us because my grandmother won it in a battle against diurnal fae”. In fact, it turns out Briarland was occupied by primarily diurnal fae and nocturnal fae were seemingly their invaders??? Castle Wildrose was also seized from diurnal fae. UM, SINCE WHEN????? I knew that there was beef between them, but this was like never brought up in the main story. If you didn’t read Fairy Gala (where this lore was dropped), you’d be super lost, especially coming off the heels of book 7, where the smaller pixies (which can be classified as diurnal) could be allies on Battle Maps 💀 It was told to us way too late; the beef between nocturnal and diurnal fae should have been set up earlier in the main story. If we got foreshadowing about the rocky relationship between fae and other races (particularly humans, especially because of Sebek discriminating against them), then why not the same treatment for nocturnal vs diurnal factions??? This just feels like the devs pulled lore from a one-off event (which was initially just used as an excuse as to why Malleus couldn’t walk in and retrieve the magestone right away diplomatically) to suddenly make a big deal of in the main story.

I guess this sordid history would explain why the guardian fae sided with the Silver Owls later on, because I’d imagine they’d want their land and resources back?? But then wouldn’t they just be sharing with other foreign people…? I also feel like this sort of paints the nocturnal fae as being no better than the Silver Owls who colonized them, since they ultimately did the same things, just with their fae brethren so the conflict is more local vs foreign forces. What happened to the diurnal fae the nocturnal fae drove out? How many died, were displaced, etc. because of the nocturnal far? Victims suddenly become oppressors and everyone is seen as “equally bad” because they all picked fights and tried to take from one another, to the point where no one remembers if nocturnal or diurnal fae started it. Then even if we disregard all of this, it still doesn’t change the fact that the Princess Glow is not in possession by any fae??? 😭 So whether it rightfully belongs to the nocturnal or diurnal faction, neither currently holds it. Two wrongs do not make a right here.

Lilia chimes in at one point to offer other tellings of the Princess Glow’s origin. In one, the nocturnal fae dug it up. In another, the diurnal fae stole it from nocturnal fae 3000 years ago. I totally get wanting to try and write a complex narrative, but this does not read to me like that. I feel that all these stories do is further obfuscate the truth and make it really dubious who should be held responsible for the things that occurred on Briarland soil. Not saying that things should be cut-and-dry, black-and-white (since Twst did attempt nuance with the Dawn Knight fighting for a cause he didn’t believe in), but this is such a huge case of “Twst tries to be ambitious and grey with its writing but accidentally digs a hole and is now desperately trying to backtrack”.

What was the intended message here if everything serves to downplay how important it is to reclaim the Princess Glow—not because NRC wants to be RSA, but because it belongs with the fae? You’ve got Malleus and Lilia pointing fingers and rejecting the idea of just taking the magestone, all these confusing ass-pull stories (which, by the way, reek of book 7’s noncommittal writing and explanations for the dream logic), the downgrading of the stakes from “let’s reclaim this powerful item” to “whoever wins the trophy wins lmao”… It’s so clumsily done and tone-deaf. Why introduce the Princess Glow and set it up as your goal to obtain if you’re not going to keep that energy going????? If Twst didn’t want to make it this deep then why have the Princess Glow back at all?? What was the point of all of this???

Now look, I’m not saying I want or expect explosive rage from any of the involved parties. Just… a little more realistic emotion??? I would expect maybe a mix of surprise, confusion, hurt, and upset at the very least. Maybe they even need to take some time to step back and think about how to proceed, since it could lead to international backlash (considering Malleus is hot off the heels of a very public overblot; this could be bad optics even if it feels morally correct for the nocturnal fae). I can see Malleus not wanting to ask for the Princess Glow back due to something like… fae pride, which Maleanor also had in spades (to the point where she + her troops it’s honorable to die protecting others and to abandon the group if you’re holding them back), Maybe it bruises his ego if he doesn’t take things by his own power or proving himself worthy. But again, the issue is that the narrative doesn’t suggest this is the case; Malleus acts way too blasé and like he doesn’t care at all, he could care LESS.

Sadly, it looks as if some of my suspicions were confirmed. I had previously expressed that the NRC students would unfortunately not care that much about getting the Princess Glow back for righteous reasons, and I was proven right here. It’s been minimized to a mere self-serving rumor among the mob students. Sebek—the most outspoken and patriotic of Diasomnia—doesn’t loudly complain about the injustice of it all. And now even the crown prince + son of the previous owner of Princess Glow and a close friend to the previous owner + an ex-war veteran, are so nonchalant about not asking for it back… This is all making me very concerned that book 8’s ending will be a huuuge cop-out 💀