Pomefiore's dreams are my favorite example of this: Epel's montage ended on a moment when Vil was grateful for and proud of him. Rook's ended on a moment in which he considered Vil to be at his most beautiful. Vil's ended on a moment of joy with his two closest friends, after he became the hero, sacrificed what was precious to him, and came out the other side more beautiful than ever. And of course, each of these moments feature the three of them together, because everyone's montage ends with the character beside their friends.

Everyone except for Cater.

Cater is the only one whose montage ends with him on his own. No friends by his side, no heartwarming reunion. Just him.

This was a scene from the end of book 1. Even Trey's montage ended with an image of him, Cater, and Riddle. Cater's could have ended similarly, but it didn't.

It is, of course, a testament to the depths of his loneliness and the fleetingness that marks his perception of his relationships. Everyone else was able to siphon some strength from their friendships in order to wake up, at least in part. Even Leona's ended in that way. Cater was the only one that did it on his own—not only because he could, but because he felt like he had to.

After VDC

Selfies! ✨

NB: this will be out of order, because I kind of just wrote down all my thoughts as I went through it, then tried to rearrange them before posting.

also I'm going to be making a part 2 because I have sooo much to say about the azul/riddle pairup in this.

(I'll start by saying that vil and azul are looking absolutely beautiful in these chokers, and I lowkey need this in an outfit later)

actually I'll start by saying that the image of riddle being so banged up in the fight and sleeping on leona's lap is messing with my brain chemistry... that poor child.

I feel like a proud mother when ortho and idia talk about how cool and powerful vil is. like yes, vil is the most special boy and I love him and I'm very happy for him

jamil and azul being similar in their fighting styles? well yes. they're mirrors, your honor. foils. soulmates. thoughh I will say I'm surprised they've been in cramped quarters for so long and azul hasn't made his usual advances. sigh.

also, I've been livingggg for the *people who mostly hate each other have to band together against a common enemy and may even catch morals along the way* trope (who am I kidding, the only ones with morals are vil and riddle. and riddle only has morals because they happen to align with the law). but it genuinely feels like I'm shooting straight serotonin when I watch them interact as a group.

wow, I have been so obsessed with vilkei and leorook that I forgot about my first love (frenemies-with-benefits leovil).

leovil aside, this book definitely has my favorite characterization of leona so far. I absolutely love how smart and competent he is.

also, jamil was getting on my nerves at first in his and leona's scenes. I never once thought I'd side with leona over jamil but somehow... I just know that if I was in leona's spot, I would be so annoyed. we've seen firsthand how competent leona actually is in this book, and being treated like he can't do anything for himself... ouch. and it's interesting how similarly he's acting to riddle. makes me wonder whether azul would react the same way if it was jamil patronizing him.

anyways after finishing ch 67, I really appreciate jamil's growth here!

I also do think it's great that we're seeing exactly why leona actually makes a great spelldrive captain. I love seeing him genuinely complimenting the others' strengths too (never to their faces, ofc ofc).

pomefiore. what can I say about them. what can't I say about them. they're everything to me, your honor. I've never smiled harder in my life. ao3 doesn't have fluff as tooth-rotting as this. my hunter. my poison apple.

the way they're LITERALLY JUST EPEL'S PARENTS. HELP. "mom how did you and dad meet?" this is literally just giving romcom plots, where the kid is trying to find out how their parents met for the entire movie. and this isn't even in a rookvil way; they're just co-parenting epel and I love it. and the spelldrive conversation is so parent-teacher meeting core I love it.

anyway why are they lowkey vilkei crumbing me with this one... rook is talking about cater diamond, that is a fact, thank you.

also leona and azul separately saying they they would prefer even each other over their current partners is so funny to me.

I always pictured Epel being Vil's natural successor. I feel like Vil taking Epel under his wing for the whole year has been, in part, to train him to be the next housewarden. Epel doesn't know this, of course, but I think Vil saw something in him that was really cemented in book 6. Epel has this image of his ideal self (stronger, mostly) that he really does work to achieve, and that definitely exemplifies the spirit of tenacity. Plus, he has learned so much from Vil over the year that I think he could make an excellent housewarden. His UM could also be incredibly OP with more training and precision. It would be even stronger than Riddle's, honestly; it competely immobilizes his opponent so they can't even fight him back physically (see: ace punching riddle after being collared). He can also use it on more than one person at once.

And here's how I think Epel becoming housewarden would go down.

Epel lowkey would expect Vil to recommend him, after all, whom else has Vil spent so long with/training? But he doesn't, for two main reasons. 1) Epel is still fairly young as a second year, and it wouldn't quite do for Vil to show favoritism. 2) Vil would only really consider Epel "worthy" of being housewarden if Epel was more powerful than whomever Vil selected. This also somewhat ties back to Vil's challenge to Epel, where Epel had to be able to beat Vil in a fight.

Does Vil communicate this to Epel? No, no of course not. So instead, Epel is both hurt and angry that Vil chose some random guy over his poison apple. It just made everything they had been through together seem like a lie, especially when Epel had thought that Vil had really grown to see him as powerful and capable. So out of hurt, Epel freezes Vil out for a bit. He ignores Vil's attempts to keep in touch, and eventually, Vil stops trying because he isn't going to put in energy that isn't reciprocated. When the messages stop coming, it really just hurts Epel more. But this time, he's more angry than saddened.

So, out of pure spite and a will to prove Vil wrong, Epel challenges the new housewarden. He wins easily, because he spent a year being cultivated and trained by Vil himself. And Vil is so proud of him.

I really like the idea of Vil leaving something for Epel to find; perhaps a letter that he left with a now-third year. I'm picturing Riddle, but anyone, really. He told them to only give Epel the letter when he became Pomefiore's housewarden. The letter essentially says something along the lines of "I knew you had it in you. it’s your turn to be the fairest of them all, my poison apple.”

(pomefiore don't make me cry challenge)

Anyways, as for the other dorms:

I can't see Diasomnia as anything other than The Malleus Dorm lmao, so it's so hard for me to picture the draconians looking up to anyone who isn't him. My first thought is Silver ofc, but Silver's UM isn't combative at all, and his narcolepsy would be...not great for a housewarden. I don't think it would be Sebek yet; he still has a long way to go before he's really powerful enough to be one. So I think it would be a new character, or they would just have it be Silver and ignore the issues with that. Actually yeah, that seems like the most likely option.

Savanaclaw, I don't think it would be Jack yet (and I can't imagine it being Ruggie). While Ruggie's UM would be powerful for a housewarden, I don't think he's a strong enough fighter to really beat the others in Savanaclaw. He does make sense, as someone who was all but vice, but the others would realistically beat him in most fights. And Jack, I think, will be housewarden in his third year but not yet.

I can definitely see Ortho being housewarden for Ignihyde. Idia would ofc recommend him, he's a genius and a Shroud, etc. The other students wouldn't stand a chance of beating him intellectually.