Happy Birthday To My Ex Boyfriend Lol (The Funniest Thing Is That His Birthday Is On The 11th And Mine

Hi Raven! I just saw your new masterlist (the one with the analysises) and I noticed the whole section about how canon characters would realistically handle romance which I though was funny considering how much fan content revolves around having perfect romances XD I think a lot of people also thought twst was an otome game when it was first being marketed and someone's even working on a twst otome fan game right now. Wondering if you have any thoughts on that?

[Referencing this masterlist!]

Before I comment on the concept of TWST as an otome game, I want to preface this post with the disclaimer that, in sharing my thoughts, I do NOT mean to invalidate anyone that enjoys otome games, anyone that likes the idea of TWST as an otome game, or anyone that likes making and/or consuming romantic TWST content.

This response is meant to be a critical analysis of the otome genre and how well or not well it fits with the lore and the characters presented to us in TWST.

As someone who has admittedly played a number of otome games and dating sims in their lifetime, I think TWST would function poorly as one. This ultimately comes down to two major concerns: the story and the characters.

Now, I don’t mean to imply that the writing for all otome games is bad, but it’s certainly difficult to find a well-written one, even in today’s highly saturated market. I think the issue with otomes is that, by virtue of being a genre that focuses on developing an explicitly romantic relationship with a character of your choosing, it limits what the story can do and where the story can end. You can anticipate some bumps here and there, but you also expect the guy to be head-over-heels for you and you expect a happy ending where you kiss and live happily ever after with him by the end of it. There are only so many times you can follow this formula without it getting stale.

There are also a lot of tropes (as well as subversions) commonly associated with otome games, and it is extremely difficult to avoid them or to put a fresh spin on them when writing. This can make routes entirely predictable so long as you know the basic archetype that a certain character falls into. For example, how many celebrity characters have storylines which involve obsessive fans bullying the poor main character out of jealousy, or the paparazzi getting involved and blasting a secret relationship all over the news? I can almost guarantee you that this would also happen if someone like Vil got an otome game route. In fact, I could sit here and rattle off tropes I can expect to be in every TWST boy’s route, simply by virtue of how ingrained some of them are in otome culture. (It’s not even that I’ve played a lot of otome games, but I’ve certainly seen enough to notice the patterns with little to no changes across various titles.)

The other big problem is that otomes tend to focus on the protagonist--on making them feel loved and important. What usually ends up happening in order to achieve this is that all character development for the potential love interests hinges on their involvement and interactions with the protagonist. Not only does it create this unrealistic expectation for romantic love (ie your S/O will come into your life and fix all your problems), but it creates the weirdly codependent implication that you cannot improve or be a better person without romantic love. It also downplays the significance of platonic relationships with family and friends in favor of propping up romance. It’s not uncommon in otome games where literally no one but the main guys and the protagonist get unique artwork, signifying that the only important people are the ones involved in the romance. No one else matters. Sometimes the parents are just written out entirely, or the friends are jealous, or the family and friends exist SOLELY just to push the romance (“when do I get to see you marry”/“wow, why are you still single, do you need my help?”) Nothing else matters but figuring out how these faceless blobs can be stepping stones for the route. What would become of companion characters like Grim? He would lose his importance in the story. What about Ortho, who is considered too young to date? He’d be made nothing more than a wingman for Idia.

Speaking of the characters, it’s not just the side characters and NPCs that would be watered down; I feel that the TWST boys themselves would also be done a disservice. Since the nature of otome games is to endear you to a character and have them fall in love with the player/protagonist by the end, it would force a lot of the boys (most notably the “nastier” ones) to forego their wrongdoings by the end to shower the player/protagonist with love. Like... you can’t really write the TWST boys being assholes the entire time through because it would harm the player’s enjoyment of the story even if it would be true to the boy’s character. For example, let’s look at Ace. He is the only boy to have canonically been romantically involved with someone. He ghosted his ex-girlfriend. It’s possible he may do the same again--but even if that’s something Ace could very well do, a TWST otome game would probably avoid it altogether because being ghosted in a game doesn’t make the player feel good. In TWST as it is now, the characters are allowed to freely be assholes because their personalities aren’t constrained to being nice to the protagonist all the time or by the end of a chapter. The boys still maintain a lot of their rough edges in spite of gaining some new epiphany, and other boys won’t have changed at all. But in an otome, a lot of the less savory aspects of the boys’ personalities would have to be significantly sanded down to entertain the player’s fantasies. Alternatively, those unsavory aspects could still be included, but it’s more likely that they would be written in such a way that they would be completely gone or not even an issue by the end of a route, OR they would be written such that the nastiness is ONLY directed at anyone that ISN’T their love interest. It’s just kind of odd, and it hampers the boys’ characters, as well as limits how they are able to change throughout their routes.

I believe that character development that relies on being in love with the protagonist fundamentally clashes with what TWST is. In Twisted Wonderland, characters don’t grow only because of Yuu, they grow because of the intervention of many other characters, as well as them coming to realize the faults of their own actions, learning to take responsibility, and making a conscious, active decision to better themselves. What’s more, characters take ample time to recover and learn from their errors, and even 6 episodes into the main story, we still don’t have concise or clear conclusions to anyone’s character arcs--because the characters are continuously changing, and there technically is no end to their development. They help each other out. They feel organic, they feel real--but it wouldn’t hold true for an otome game.

As an example, in episode 1, it was Ace and Deuce that challenged Riddle to a duel because they couldn’t stand his tyranny, then it was Ace that decked Riddle and called him out, and Trey who negated Riddle’s magic with his own when the dorm leader was on a rampage. Riddle eventually realizes that he was being unreasonable and breaks down post-OB, confessing to all the normal things he wants to do instead of so strictly following the rules. Yuu didn’t do much of anything. Even late in the main story, characters are helping each other develop, and some scenes exclude Yuu entirely. Deuce got his unique magic after a compelling conversation with Epel on the beach--and Yuu wasn’t even there to overhear that talk. In episode 6, Riddle-Azul and Leona-Jamil had major moments of growth through their clashing characters AFTER they had split up from MC and Pomefiore.

If TWST were an otome, Overblot battles would be resolved with the power of the protagonist hugging the boy and confessing their love, or the OB boy snapping back to their senses when he realizes he had hurt his S/O. Deuce’s character development and even his unique magic development would be walled off until the protagonist meets all of the requirements to get to the proper happy ending. The same would go for Azul, Riddle, Leona, Jamil, Vil, Idia, and Malleus’s growth. Other characters would not be given as much spotlight or screen time, because the focus would be squarely on the protagonist and their developing relationship with the boy of their choice. The flexibility of the story would be greatly hindered, inorganically railroading all progression and locking it behind one fact and one factor only: the protagonist’s presence, their love. In an otome, all the growth that a character goes through only happens because they found a S/O.

For characters who have particularly sad backstories, it can be difficult to write their route in such a way as to not come off as... insensitive? There’s really no other way for me to put it. Like... especially for the OB boys, a lot of the issues they have cannot be solved with a smooch and positive affirmation. You cannot just tell Riddle’s mom she’s awful, tell Leona it’s okay that he’ll never be king because at least he’ll always be “king of your heart”, tell Azul that you think his octopus form is cute and he should have more confidence in it, free Jamil from his service to the Asims, tell Vil that he’s fairest of all to you, bring back Ortho for Idia, etc. That will not solve their issues. A lot of these traumas are deep-seated (to the point where it has obviously had a major impact on their current personality), or extend to systems a single person cannot influence, or even society itself. The characters would have to realistically work through their issues over a large span of time, and with the proper therapy and other professional resources. People don’t just change overnight or the instant they get a romantic partner, they need time to process and to heal, sometimes by themselves if necessary. To think that “true love can conquer all” can easily oversimplify very complex issues and can do a great disservice to the characters going through these problems. Sometimes it can feel like the main issue is tossed aside in favor of addressing the more “important” thing: the romance--and that can honestly hurt.

Of course, it’s great to have a positive and loyal support system there to help you! But at the same time, it is NEVER someone’s responsibility to be a therapist for their partner, and nor are they responsible for the wellbeing of their partner. This then circles back to the concerns I expressed earlier about the implications that otome games tend to perpetuate (that a S/O can come in and fix all of the problems).

One last thing I want to make note of is that by nature of “otome” games being directed at “maidens”/females (usually straight and cis females; the word “otome” literally MEANS “maiden”), it... alienates a lot of their potential audience pool. Males, nonbinaries, non-straight people, etc.--none of them would be able to enjoy TWST if it were an otome, because most otome already assign and assume a sexuality and gender before you’ve even booted up the game. They cannot readily identify as the protagonist, and they cannot easily self-insert because of that. It’s not fair, and it’s not as inclusive as the TWST we currently have, know, and love. We also need to consider that a lot of TWST’s current fans aren’t into the game to romance the boys; a lot of people also find value in friendships with them, or being able to relate to them on a platonic level. If TWST were an otome, they would be shoehorned into intimacy they didn’t ask for, and it might make them feel uncomfortable or not able to enjoy the game at all. Otome games appeal to a certain audience, and the opposite also holds true: it repels a different audience, thus dividing the current TWST fanbase.

At the end of the day, otome is often set up for that immediate payoff, that happily ever after, because otome is generally not concerned with telling a deep, complex, or thought-provoking story. Its primary goal is to satisfy and to indulge the player, even if it means sacrificing other things, like character complexity or plot, in order to achieve that. The structure of otome is best for guilty pleasure, wish fulfillment, and escapism, which, again, I don’t think that vibes well with the friendship and character growth driven nature of TWST. TWST is allowed to explore mature themes and it is allowed to have all of its characters be equally as important because it is not restricted by the expectations imposed by the otome genre. There’s definitely still some bones thrown at the players in terms of a few main story and home screen lines, but that’s where the fanservice stops. TWST’s aim isn’t fanservice, it’s telling compelling stories with its wonderful cast of characters.

It would have to take an extremely skillful team of writers to pull off a TWST otome game that avoids all the pitfalls I previously mentioned (if the goal is to preserve the charming characters and their development despite the genre shift). You can’t just copy paste TWST’s current main story plot and add dialogue choices that increase affection with various boys and call it a day; you’d seriously need to reconstruct and rewrite literally everything to make it cohesive.

Before I got to the hospital, I was going to draw Yani a half-octopus (based on the spoilers that are in the developer’s answers), but I didn’t have time. Now, as a practice, I tried to draw…this(*ﾉωﾉ)

Yani belongs to @minevn

I found out about the novel relatively recently and immediately fell in love with this adorably huge cinnamon roll! Happy Birthday Marcelo~ (Marcelo belongs to @crimsonhydrangeavn)

I LOVE THIS LIFE ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶

OH YAAAAAA YAPPIIIIII ｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆٩(๑･ิᴗ･ิ)۶

It originally looked like Chae Yul from "Secret Alliance", but it ended up like this…(*μ_μ) (I know what his tattoos look like, but I don't know if they can be used on art, so I left the "censorship")

(Ren/[REDACTED] owned by @14dayswithyou)

Hey hey hey, guess who was put in a psychiatric clinic≧∇≦?! …I forgot how to use the phone, I missed a ton of news, I'm still in the hospital, but in a freer room(￣へ￣) … …take care of your mental well-being and Happy Pride Month everyone!ノ(・ω・)ノ

Is it just me or does it remind me of something?

(I actually noticed it just now)

In one of the questions it was mentioned that Haruto would take MC away from her relationship with another person if he found out that MC was in love with Haruto. Since then, the thought has not left me that if MC was with Kei and the thought of drawing… this.

And also, while listening to the song "Necro Eater" for some reason I imagined to Kei what ultimately led…to this (Characters belong to @minevn)

This is just my state during the drawing of each drawing with Kei, lol.

anybody else going through life feeling like a dog that wasn't socialized enough as a puppy

Nothing special, just a scribble of MC shrimp