#twst negative

(Quick side note, I can expand on any of these if you send me an ask with your question. I'm also trying not to repeat myself too much here.)

Fandoms across the board have a huge issue of glazing both the actual creators of the thing and bigger name fandom content creators. That'll always lead to disappointment on both ends.

The way the ATLA fandom behaves, especially towards Zutara shippers, is due to the decline of media literacy, the rampant misogyny amongst young Gen Z/Alpha boys in general, the rise of Conservativism in the West over the past decade, the show being marketed towards cishet white boys and the creator's blatant disdain for the rest of the fanbase. It gives Lord of the Flies, if you know what I mean.

Yana is a mediocre writer at best, but is a fantastic character designer. I think Yana should've became a lead character designer for anime and videogames rather than a mangaka due the latter being where her strengths actually lie.

The vitriol towards romantasy readers is partly due to the target audience being made up of women and those people's unconscious misogyny.

Idia's a shitty interpretation of the Disney version of Hades, but is a fantastic one of the mythological version.

Vil should've been a half fae rather than a human. That change would've fixed a lot of problems with him and Neige as characters.

KA is a male centric pairing while Zutara is a female centric one.

Jasmine and Aladdin should've been childhood friends who were separated when they were kids. That would fix all of the issues I have with their romance.

ATLA has a big problem of immediately giving A/ang an off ramp for every hard moral dilemma or situation he gets himself in. The ending with the Lion Turtle is a giant example of this. This stagnates A/ang a lot as a character.

On a similar note, TWST has a big problem of not giving any of its cast any real consequences for their actions, including ones like Rollo, Idia and Malleus would absolutely warrant them for how wide reaching their actions are. This makes the character writing flat all around. The only version that doesn't is the light novels.

Fellow Honest should've been put in jail for his actions.

Rollo should've been expelled for what he did at the very least. The bell thing is a lazy cop out and completely nonsensical if you have more than a surface level understanding of the source material or even just Christianity.

The Playful Land event would've been improved if the Coachman was the main villain and Fellow was just his lacky, who was being held in place by the former using Gidel to keep him in line.

The way A/ang is written is partly due to lazy writing and Bryke making him a self insert/wish fulfillment, power fantasy character for the white boys in the target audience. If he was written like characters like Dipper Pines or Finn the Human, he would be a lot different. All of this does a disservice to his character. (Don't get me wrong. I love A/ang, just that there are some poor writing decisions surrounding him, if that makes sense.)

Branching off of the above, that's why I think some toxic male KA shippers are so protective of him, they projected onto him a lot as children and they unconsciously take any criticism of him or his actions as a personal attack.

ATLA should've ended with no pairings becoming canon. If they wanted to explore A/ang or the other character's love lives, they could've done so in the comics, LOK or the Aa/ng movie.

The Lion King remake should've used human actors.

Kingdom of the Sun might've made for an okay mini series, but not a good movie. While what happened sucks, I can see why the movie took a change of direction.

Disney made the right call by putting Gigantic on the self for the time being. What they were planning was far too weird to really work for general audiences. They needed to retool the idea, taking it in a different direction.

All he human characters in the Disney Parks should be normal humans rather than some of them being people wearing masks. Characters like Jafar who get that treatment look uncanny valley.

An underrated aspect of Ruggie's character is how intelligent he is.

Leona is the most overall intelligent character in TWST, being highly bright in multiple areas.

The English voice cast is a good representation of what TWST could've been like if the developers actually made a conserted effort to add diversity beyond the bare minimum, minus the fact that I imagine Malleus and Lilia to be Chinese along with Jamil being a darker skinned South Asian guy and Ace to be half Filipino if they were real.

The Hellaverse should've made half demons canon.

Not all of the problems in TWST are due to Disney's meddling, some of them are just due to Yana's own poor writing decisions. That happens more often than what some of you guys want to admit.

Jamil has ADHD a lot of coding as well. He just has a more feminine presentation compared to someone like Kalim or Floyd who's symptoms present in a more stereotypical and masculine way.

On a similar note, Vil and Leona have possible neurodivergent coding as well. (This on top of the game heavily implying that Leona has clinical depression.)

The adult versions of the ATLA cast are horribly misrepresented in Korra and the comics. Aa/ng would never put the Air Temple nonsense on his own kids after hating it himself. They would've honoured Katara by giving her a statue as well.

Leona and Malleus share a fair bit in common. A lot of people in the fandom don't recognize it because of unconscious colourism, ableism and racism.

If Katara hadn't outlawed blood bending, then the world would've trained in ways to resist/combat it, and Amon would have barely been a threat.

Piper should've just joined the The Hunters of Artemis at the end.

The problem with Drew Tanaka is that she's too basic of character in a setting that is too complex, harsh, and dangerous for it to be that simple. Her trauma and baggage is hardly touched upon. She deserved a lot better.

A problem I've always had with the Percy Jackson franchise is the way that the Aphrodite Cabin is presented. All of its residents are treated like shallow bimbos or stereotypical mean girls with a couple of exceptions. There should've been more girly characters from that cabin in the books, who aren't put down by the narrative.

While I can't determine if Leona would be a better king than his brother, since we hardly know the guy, Leona would be an excellent king if given the chance. There is a great tragedy in that.

I don't think Neige's an awful person. He seems like a good one, and I don't think his public persona is an act to hide a twisted side. However, he's an inconsiderate, oblivious, clueless and thoughtless one.

For example, Neige chose a simple children’s song for VDC. It tugged on people’s nostalgia and leaned on his and the dwarves’ cute, child-like appeal. That alone sailed RSA into an easy win. People feel guilty when kids lose, so they give them more leeway than teens or adults. That logic extends to his friends thanks to them looking like actual children. Using that song is slimy and manipulative, even if Neige didn’t mean it that way. It completely spits in the face of what the competition is supposed to be. It’s like a primary school choir winning Britain’s Got Talent. It’s just bullshit.

Without that little tacked on bit, Neige's just like Kalim. While both have struggles and problems in their lives, that fact is undeniable at least on Kalim's end, they are quite privileged in their own ways and had any obstacles cleared for them for different reasons. (Yes, this still holds true, even though Neige grew up poor. That doesn't erase the fact that he still benefits quite heavily from Pretty Privilege. He is used to having movie roles handed to him on a silver platter without actually doing anything to earn them, all thanks to his cute appearance. He has an edge on Vil in that regard in universe.) This leads them to become entitled and makes them hurt others they are supposedly close to without meaning to. In Neige's case, he makes some manipulative and slimy choices, despite that clearly not being his intention.

Neige is a victim of Vil's jealousy, and he didn't deserve to be almost murdered over any of his flaws. However, like with Jamil wanting to get back at Kalim, I don't blame Vil for being angry and upset at him if what I described was the intention going in. Neige's cluelessness has harmed Vil for years, so it would've been a matter of time before he blew up at Neige for his actions. Vil just did so in the worst possible way. To be fair to Vil, he owned up to it and apologized for his actions.

None of this is a bad thing from a writing perspective. Actually, it's a great thing. All characters need flaws. Those, along with the gullibility he exhibits, make sense to be Neige's. Those also make him a fantastic foil to Vil without resorting to make Neige the second coming of Maurice Cole. Vil is the opposite of Neige. Not just in appearance, but personality wise as well. Vil's pragmatic, astute, thoughtful, considerate, hardworking, adaptable and even kind hearted beyond a superficial sense like Neige. Those things align Vil more with Snow White, and makes his good traits shine brighter while still having him be incredibly flawed, making him a more well rounded character. Plus, it makes him a foil to Kalim, showing how much Kalim has grown since Book 4.

And then, Rook's little speech about Neige happens in Book 6. That's almost all undone.

Like I said earlier, I don't think what I mentioned earlier was intentional. One of the biggest problems with Neige, by extent Book 5 as a whole, is that his character suffers from a "show don't tell" issue. We are TOLD via Rook's last second infodump that Neige is compassionate, caring, hardworking, generous and kind, going into the industry to help he and his friends out of poverty...despite his backstory making no sense due to the fact they're all minors, but we're never SHOWN that. At all. If anything, Neige's actions prove that he's the complete opposite of how Rook described him, showing him to be only a himbo coasting through life on his own Pretty Privilege and never working hard for anything. This creates two conflicting views on Neige, making it difficult to know what the truth is, especially if Vil didn't back Rook up. I think they tried to make Neige just like Snow White, failed completely at getting that across to the audience.

Take Minhaj (Minajael). He has a reputation for sneaking out and getting into places he shouldn't be. If that's the case, why didn't he appear during the Fireworks Festival event or Glorious Masquerade? Those are both perfectly logical opportunities to introduce him to the audience, yet the game never takes advantage of it.

For that matter, why didn't he ever sneak out to NRC and run into Yuu out in the wild? It's not like the game has never done this before. Chenya does exactly that all the way back in Book 1. The precedent already exists. If Minhaj is supposed to be known for wandering off and showing up where he isn't expected, then the fact that he never does feels out of character.

Rielle has the same problem. He also has a reputation for sneaking out, yet he doesn't properly appear until Book 8. Before that, he's little more than a name drop in Book 3. We are told these things about him, but we never actually get to see them.

Hell, even Neige has this problem to a lesser extent. He was never mentioned before Book 5. Which strikes me as really odd. If he's a celebrity, shouldn't other characters like Cater bring him up beforehand?

This is part of a larger issue with how RSA is handled. The game spends years telling us that RSA is NRC's biggest rival. Yet for seven books, RSA barely exists outside of occasional mentions and name drops. It ends up making the world feel much smaller than it should. A brief appearance during an event, a chance encounter with Yuu, or a small cameo would have gone a long way towards making the setting feel more alive and interconnected.

One of the easiest ways to improve the writing in a rewrite fic is to incorporate these characters much earlier. Have Minhaj show up during the Fireworks Festival, Book 2, or some other event where his habit of sneaking out would naturally come into play. Do the same with Rielle and the rest of the RSA cast. Let them exist in the story before Book 8.

But then, if that's the case... why was he still allowed to attend?? Rielle was a minor when he enrolled, so his parents would still have to approve whatever school he would be going to, sign the forms or whatever. And if his dad is super overprotective of his youngest, then wouldn't his son pulling a stunt causing kingdom-wide chaos like that cement all his worst fears about Rielle getting into trouble?

What was stopping the king of Atlantica from just sending some royal guards to escort Rielle back to the palace just like Kifaji was all set to do with Leona in Cloudcalling?

Rielle really doesn't seem at all remorseful for the stress he put his family and kingdom through, just mentioning it in passing. Which admittedly does make sense for his character ( I also like to think it's another reason Azul doesn't like him, because Azul is very close with his family and would never want to make them worry like that).

Come to think of it, you're absolutely right. Honestly, it just chalk it up to being a plot hole thanks to the game bending itself into pretzels to justify the setting. You see that sort of thing often throughout the game once you look out for it.

Take Azul's contracts, for example. Over half the students at NRC are minors. If that's the case, then Azul's entire business model makes no sense because most of his clients legally couldn't enter into binding contracts on their own. Minors can't sign legal documents without a parent or guardian's consent, so the majority of those contracts should've been automatically void and never worked. The game never even acknowledges that. Instead, it just makes Azul look like a complete dumbass. His stepfather is a lawyer, who taught him everything he knew. He should absolutely know better.

Another one is how Minhaj (Minajael) is attending high school twice. Just, why? That sounds like hell on earth. I get that he wants to avoid his family and his royal duties, but he's a prince. He has access to other options like going straight to university. At least that way he would be away from his family for several years instead of three and a half. Yet he never considers that and just opts to do the stupidest option for no reason, despite supposedly being the smartest person in his country.

That unironically reminds me of how the Cullens from Twilight would continually graduate and enroll in a new high school when they could've just as easily attended university night classes or did online schooling. When the game is unironically reminding me of that dumpster fire, that's really bad.

The same thing applies to Rielle. He was a minor at the time. Based on how his father is portrayed, he should've been able to stop Rielle from attending RSA in the first place and would've had every legal right to do so. Instead, Rielle just… goes without any consequence, and the story never bothers explaining why.

Once you start seeing things from the lens of the story justifying the setting, these things start making a lot more sense. When it comes to shit like this, if you ask, "Why did this character make such a bizarre decision?", the answer just ends up, "Because the plot said so."

The game wants a cast of high school students...for some reason. At the same time, it wants those students to have the freedom and independence of university students. Those two ideas don't fit together. Whenever they clash, the story just ignores it and creates another plothole in the process.

That's one of the biggest reasons I think NRC and RSA should've been universities from the beginning. If everyone was an adult by default, most of these issues would've disappeared. Azul's contracts would've actually made sense. Minhaj choosing to attend university abroad upon graduating high school instead of redoing it would've been completely believable. In the example you brought up, Rielle could've simply gone no contact with his family, and his father wouldn't have been able to stop him.

It's such a small change on paper, but it would've fixed a surprising number of plot holes. That's why @stormkitty97 and I made both schools universities in our writing. It smooths out so many little inconsistencies that the canon never really addresses.

For one, Leona drinks his "Respect Women Juice," and he immediately shows respect to Sally after she poisons Dr. Finkelstein. Characters like Jasmine and Ariel have their badass moments like saving their love interests and kissing the villain as a distraction. Most of the other characters aside from Epel are pretty respectful when it comes to women, too. Them all automatically turning their noses up at female historical figures, who have similar traits they admire is bizarre.

One could argue that maybe they are scoffing at feminine traits like kindness, but even that doesn't make much sense. They represent things like cleverness and passion, which aren't scoffed at anywhere else in the story.

There are multiple versions of these stories in universe. (Even if that along with the historical figures only going by moniker instead of their actual names makes no sense due to how recent a lot of these are and many SWANA cultures tracking things back for thousands of years, but whatever.) Point is, there should be at least some level of familiarity or nuance in how these figures are viewed. It feels weird that the reaction is so flat and dismissive.

And honestly, even if some of them personally don’t vibe with those traits, you’d expect more variety in their responses. This is a cast with pretty distinct personalities and values. Not everyone should be landing on the exact same dismissive take.

Said this before, and I'll say it again now. Shit like Vil primping himself in front of the Dark Mirror and being only concerned about his looks in the first episode of the anime is part of the reason why people get the wrong idea about him at first.

For those of you who are new here, trust me. This is a remnant of a draft version of Vil before Yana figured him out. That's understandable. Even as an aspiring writing myself, I can say that happens to the best of us. But, that's what this is.

In the latest update, Jamil mentions that Minhaj (Minajael) is a prodigy who skipped grades and took a special exam at 14 before enrolling at RSA. The way it read to me is that he graduated high school in the Scalding Sands before going to RSA. At first I thought it had to be a mistranslation, and they meant "middle school" due to needing to take an entrance exam to enter Japanese high schools or that they meant "Lower College/Sixth Form" like in the UK system. But, nope. Raven and fan translators have confirmed that Minhaj is in fact attending high school twice.

Just, why? That sounds like hell on earth. I get that he wants to avoid his family and his royal duties, but it wouldn't be far better for him to go straight to university rather than going through the same lessons twice? At least that way he would be away from his family for several years instead of three and a half.

Sure, I've seen fics where adult Yuus had to attend NRC as a student again. The difference is that those characters are in a position where they would be on a streets otherwise while Minhaj is a prince with plenty of other options. It just makes him come across as unintentionally stupid instead of smart like the developers are trying to push.

Minhaj reminds me of how the Cullens from Twilight continually graduated high school and started over in another place, despite it being far easier for them to be attending night school or taking online classes. When the game is unironically reminding me of that dumpster fire, that's really bad.

Villains, by design, are meant to disrupt the status quo, sometimes for good, often for worse. Heroes in stories exist to uphold it. Cops, by design, uphold the status quo. RSA is exactly where I would expect a system oriented, rule-following character like Deuce to belong. RSA houses characters are inspired by heroes, while NRC is for those based on villains. There are exceptions, sure, but that is clearly the intended norm.

Personality-wise, Deuce is like a more upbeat Jim Hawkins from Treasure Planet. And Jim Hawkins was the HERO of that movie, not the villain.

This could be intentional, but the fact that Deuce is not considered part of the Light Trio makes it feel unintentional. The story never really addresses this. The main story also fails to explore how Deuce struggles with or challenges NRC’s norms beyond that brief moment in Book One. Thematically, he does not mesh with most of the cast outside of the Light Trio and a few others.