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I don’t think there’s anyone in the TWST fandom who doesn’t know of the most infamous moment of Chapter 5/Book 5, also known as the Pomefiore arc. You already know what I’m talking about here. It was when Rook became branded as a traitor in the fandom’s eyes, Neige and the dwarves first started the train of RSA hatred and it eclipsed practically everything else that happened in that arc with sheer notoriety.
For newbies who joined a while after Pomefiore was fully released and somehow still remain clueless of that particular mess, I will now go into more detail. I’m sure we all know – otherwise what are you even doing here? – the finale of chapter 5 of TWST, with the NRC group going against RSA in the Vocal and Dance Championship (localised as the SDC, but I won’t be calling it that here). NRC performed “Absolutely Beautiful” and RSA performed a nursery rhyme called “Yahoo”, an obvious reference to the Snow White movie. RSA’s number was cut from EN, but you can find it easily on YouTube and give a listen. Go on, try it and compare the two. Which is better?
If you believe the outcome of the VDC, the answer would be “Yahoo”, as that is the number that wins. Ignoring, of course, the fact that Neige and the dwarves are very clearly stated to be performing badly and shown to win over the audience on the sheer power of cuteness and the nostalgia factor. They brought a nursery rhyme to a serious competition, didn’t even perform it well and yet managed to win anyway. And not by a wide margin – RSA won by one single vote. Rook’s. Rook, who was meant to be on Vil’s side, NRC’s side! Rook, who spoke all those pretty words about being true to his heart and Vil focusing too much on the opinions of others, yet was revealed to be a huge Neige fanboy immediately after! Neige doesn’t deserve to win, he was barely trying. Vil and the NRC tribe worked so hard and did so well, only to lose because RSA are the “heroes” and thus have the benefit of plot armour? Doesn’t that piss you off? Doesn’t that make you angry?
If so, then you would be entirely on Vil’s side. You get him and his frustration on a personal level, you’re right there with him hating on Neige and his dwarves, you want him to win. And isn’t that a rather odd sentiment to have for someone who is supposed to be the villain of the chapter? Someone who, may I remind you, has only just to tried to murder an innocent person who did absolutely nothing to him, over a single competition?
And I’m not saying I’m above this either. I get it, really I do! I’ve been a fan of TWST since practically the beginning, I was there when Pomefiore was only just releasing, I was part of that indignant crowd as well for a long, long time. Up until very recently, when the release of new RSA characters Minajael and Rielle, and the sheer contrast of how they were written versus how Neige and the dwarves were, started to put things into perspective for me. Then I had a rather enlightening exchange with one of my readers in the comments of my most popular fic and it got me to really think about this whole thing. Why exactly was the response to Vil’s loss so different to how we view the losses of the other Arc Villains of TWST – AKA the overblotters? I never heard anyone lamenting that Riddle was right all along, that Leona or Jamil should’ve succeeded in their plans. Nobody was crucifying Kalim, Farena or Ace, not the way Neige and the dwarves – and, in extension, the whole of RSA – are hated by the fandom. No overblot got this extreme response. Only Vil, only the VDC. Why is that?
For this analysis essay, I’ve decided to take a step back and examine the entire arc from a fully meta perspective, pick it apart and see why it was received the way it was. Let me explain to you exactly why I think the Pomefiore arc had the worst writing of all. (Yes, including Savanaclaw.)
The Villain
In every arc so far – excluding the most recent one in JP it’s too early to tell what’s happening with that – TWST has had an obvious villain. He causes the bulk of the problems the cast face in each dorm-focused arc and is the main and biggest source of the character drama. This character receives heavy focus in the story; he makes his personal problems everyone’s problems, one way or another. Each one follows a specific pattern. 1)They kick off the main conflict of the arc by doing something horrible. 2)Their behaviour continues to get worse as they cause problems for the rest of the cast. 3)Someone stops their plan or calls them out. 4)They overblot and their ass is forcefully kicked back to sanity. 5)We finally get to see what exactly is going in their heads and why they did what they did, not to excuse but to humanise and help us see the world from their perspective.
Sometimes, these steps are swapped around, as with Idia and Malleus, who spend a significant chunk of their screen time in their chapters overblotted. But overall, the pattern holds.
Now let’s try and apply this pattern to Vil, who is the main villain and the overblot of Pomefiore arc.
Immediately, there is a problem. “They kick off the main conflict of the arc by doing something horrible.” Does Vil do that? No. He does not.
Sure, Vil is harsh in his words and he curses the food. Yes, he pushes Epel to be something he doesn’t want to be. He’s obviously way too obsessed with Neige and beating him. But aside from being kind of mean at times, which is common to NRC, and the one time he cursed the food, what did Vil do for most of the arc? He pushed everyone to work hard – not a bad thing and understandable, given most of the NRC tribe save him and the Scarabia duo are amateurs when it comes to dance and song. He clashed with Epel for a bit – also understandable given Epel’s toxic masculinity and solved VERY quickly when he promotes the Felmier apple juice. He obsessed over asking Mira who was more popular between him and Neige in private, by himself, not taking that out on anyone. He was in the right! Which is another way the pattern breaks. “Their behaviour continues to get worse as they cause problems for the rest of the cast.” And Vil’s behaviour doesn’t get worse, it gets better.
Buuuut then he tries to murder Neige, immediately going from zero all the way to a hundred.
Now, that by itself wouldn’t be a bad thing. Idia and Malleus also do that! The thing with them is that they spend way more time overblotted than anyone else and their actions are on another stratosphere of “extreme”. For them, zero to a hundred is a feature, not a bug.
Vil however, spends the majority of his screentime doing kind of dickish things while never crossing a line into full asshole territory, until he very suddenly does and is brought back to sanity just as quickly as those before him were. He does one big, awful thing, trying to kill Neige, and then that big awful thing isn’t really addressed afterwards. Epel doesn’t have a problem with Vil using his family’s juice as a murder weapon, it isn’t a source of tension between him and Rook. It’s glossed over as quickly as the overblots usually are because TWST likes to have a happy finale where everyone’s okay with each other.
Except with all the other overblots, this happened after a tension-filled arc where the villain kept doing bad shit that wasn’t glossed over and was thoroughly called out. Vil did ONE THING that wasn’t properly addressed in the aftermath and that was also immediately followed up with one of the most controversial moments in all of TWST, which pretty definitely eclipsed Vil’s singular moment of insanity. Given that he is supposed to be the arc villain of Pomefiore and he also happens to be the best written character of his dorm as a consequence, this is just a symptom of the larger problem this arc has.
Just to really drive the point home, let's line up all overblotters’ arcs and see how they compare shall we?
Riddle: is a bad tempered tyrant who terrorises his entire dorm to the point they're constantly walking on eggshells around him, follows a set of ridiculous rules to the letter and expects everyone else to do the same without complaint. On a complete powertrip the entire arc - the moment somebody stands up to him, he loses it. He thoroughly damages his relationships with his dormmates and has a LOT of ground to cover in making things up to them. Covers the "parental trauma" and "abused becomes the abuser".
Leona: is a schemer who injures a lot of people over a game, strings along his dormmates until he's foiled and then drops them just as quickly. He turns on Ruggie and uses his UM on him to prove a point, refuses to commit to his own plan. Tries to have Diasomnia trampled, once again over *one game*. Covers "depression" and "gifted kid burnout".
Azul: is corporate greed personified, insecure and making it everyone's problem, puts on an act of sleazy conman, makes Yuu literally homeless and forces Ace, Deuce and Grim to work under terrible conditions. Is entirely unfair in his deals and cheats like nobody's business. His downfall is highly satisfying to watch and shows just how fragile his self-esteem is. Covers "bullying" and "self-hatred".
Jamil: is schemer 2.0, resentful servant edition. Spends the arc being a gaslighting liar, manipulating his entire dorm into turning on Kalim. Violates Kalim's autonomy in every possible way, then once he's revealed to be a traitor mind controls his entire dorm. Has the third longest overblot of all, commits the worst deeds of the 1-5 arc villains, yet still manages to have compelling and deep reasons for it. Covers "oppression", “lack of freedom” and "unwilling servitude” (cough, slavery, cough).
Idia: is grief and guilt dialled up to the max, deals with loss in a wildly unhealthy manner and nearly destroys the ENTIRE WORLD because of it. Oversees the kidnapping of the overblotters, joins his dead brother in his awful world domination plan, opens the gates to hell... do I need to go on? Covers "survivor's complex" and "PTSD but make it everyone else's problem".
Malleus: is the most emotionally repressed of the overblotters, which is a very impressive achievement considering who is in the running. Mister "incapable of dealing with loss in a healthy manner" 2.0, violates the autonomy of everyone on Sage's island by forcing them into a Lotus-eater machine sleep, plans on doing the same to EVERY OTHER PERSON IN THE WORLD. Inflicts his "blessing" on everyone and is unable to take anyone's perspective into account but his own. Murders his own father figure on accident, tries to kill his brother figure and the subordinate who quite literally worships him ON PURPOSE. Covers "the most extreme example of spoiled brat" and "emotional suppression".
Whereas with Vil... well. He remains the black sheep among the overblotters in terms of how far he actually goes. He's extreme in his perfectionism, but nowhere near as bad as Riddle was and makes up for his actions during the training camp easily by paying everyone for their wasted time out of his own pocket. He doesn't cheat, unlike Leona, and his attempted murder is clearly committed on emotion because he was understandably driven to the edge by Neige's undeserved foregone victory. He’s supposed to be the villain causing the conflict but he doesn’t! The VDC is the conflict and Vil’s deteriorating mental state is the consequence, while with literally every other overblot, it’s the other way around! You could claim this is fitting because Vil’s whole problem is being typecasted as the villain and how that harmed his view of himself, but though you can see it that way, it doesn’t actually resolve the issue that Vil is supposed to be the driving force of the main conflict for the cast in Pomefiore’s arc and he isn’t.
Now, for an example of someone’s issues with being perceived as “the bad one” to someone more successful that actually do drive the plot… Let’s take a moment to talk about Savanaclaw.
Pomefiore VS Savanaclaw
The Savanaclaw arc gets a lot of flack for its bad writing. I’m going to express an unpopular opinion and defend it because personally, I think this arc doesn’t get nearly enough credit for one aspect in particular: the character writing.
I doubt it will be a controversial statement to say that character writing, more specifically character drama, is what TWST does best. These boys and all their many, many issues are the central focus and biggest draw of the game. From Trey’s guilt complex and trauma induced enablement of Riddle’s worst tendencies, to Idia’s grief-filled decision to replace his dead brother with a robot and his and Ortho’s resulting unhealthy dependency on each other, to Jamil and Kalim’s… everything. The character drama between the villain and the supporting cast takes up a large amount of space within each dorm arc.
With Pomefiore this aspect falls rather flat. As a result of Vil NOT being the source of the conflict and thus not committing nearly the amount of bad decisions every other villain does, he doesn’t clash with his dormmates and create friction, doesn’t burn any bridges he has to then painstakingly rebuild. Rook doesn’t clash with Vil over his terrible actions, because there aren’t any. He doesn’t gleefully help Vil commit horrible actions, because again: there aren’t any. His and Vil’s backstory isn’t even revealed until way later, during Ignihyde’s arc! There’s no conflict between them, because the conflict is the VDC and not Vil, his mental state is a side effect and not the problem. When Vil does his attempted murder, that is brushed off as soon as he stops overblotting, which is a much bigger problem here than with the other dorms, because this IS the extent of the drama.
Epel, meanwhile, is made entirely irrelevant to the plot very quickly. I struggle to find things to say about him because his conflict with Vil is short and simple and also mostly HIS fault, not Vil's. Unlike all the other first years, Epel doesn't have anything to do in his own dorm's arc. His arguments with Vil become plot-irrelevant, are resolved too fast and don't serve to highlight Vil's flaws, because Vil isn't doing anything TOO extreme here, he’s only trying to correct Epel’s toxic masculinity. Epel doesn't idolise Vil and then get his view ruined by him doing something unforgivable in his eyes, he doesn't suffer unjustified mistreatment at his hands, doesn't call him out for extreme tyranny and prompt the overblot, has no valid reasons to hate him, isn't a living symbol to Vil's personal deep-seated trauma... There is nothing here.
It's funny because Epel running off crying while Vil ominously tells Rook to drag him back by force is the hook to Pomefiore's arc and yet, does it deliver on this promising start to the character drama? Nope. Vil drags it all on his back. And his trauma with acting industry and jealousy of Neige, while compelling, just isn't enough to carry the whole story arc entirely on its own.
Now with Savanaclaw on the other hand!
In chapter two, Leona, the OB and the arc's main villain, has been doing objectively horrible things the entire way through - his whole plan is to injure other students so Savanaclaw has no competition. Then, his plan is foiled, he overblots and still has to compete afterwards. The other dorms are pissed off and so Savanaclaw gets destroyed many times over because the other players are deliberately aiming at them as payback. It makes sense and is narratively satisfying, unlike what happens with the VDC. (Don’t worry, I’m getting to that.)
The supporting characters of the dorm are internally consistent and each have their own conflicts that are relevant to the main plot of the Savanaclaw arc. Jack is honourable, so helps ruin Leona's plans. He idealised Leona and had that rosy view shattered by the scheme and that’s why he turns on the rest of his dorm and helps Heartslabyul+Ramshackle ruin it. His feelings about Leona are vital to the plot, without him the scheme wouldn’t have unravelled. Ruggie is self-centred but values Leona, so when he gets betrayed he helps kick his ass back to sanity. He clearly trusts Leona as a leader greatly, so when we see that trust also get shattered by Leona’s actions? That hurts. It makes us want to see Leona’s ass take a beating even more.
Leona's brother is shown as a sensible man who cares for him, but doesn't understand Leona's problems - flawed, good but not cartoonishly saccharine. The other source of Leona's instability, his nephew, is a young child who adores him and thus doesn't need to have sophisticated writing, because it makes sense he's clueless and innocent. Malleus keeps winning at magift/spelldrive because of his magical strength, because he’s better at it, which makes us sympathise with Leona without hating Malleus. Leona loses because he tried to cheat and his attempted murder is narratively punished by loss and failure. It doesn’t feel like he got cheated. We are never on Leona’s side. His actions have consequences, the consequences are more than fair, everyone's behaviour is consistent to what has been established early on in the arc, even if their plan itself is more than a bit ridiculous and Leona really should’ve gotten more screentime and a longer flashback.
Just imagine if Leona had spent his chapter honestly trying to work hard and get the Savanaclaw team up to standard, if we had followed his hard work the entire way and seen that, though he was harsh, he cares a lot about winning and never goes too far. Neither Jack nor Ruggie get to do anything the entire time, Jack just clashes with Leona a couple of times but gets over it quickly. Then, we see Leona try to kill Malleus last minute on pure emotion because he knew all that work still wouldn't be enough to win. Leona overblotted, after which he played well despite his post-overblot injuries and STILL lost to Malleus who was objectively terrible at the game and only won through pure dumb luck and all of Diasomnia remained entirely oblivious to how much Leona hated them. After this Leona had to hear Ruggie say that he was secretly rooting for Diasomnia because Leona got too fixated on winning. THEN we saw Ruggie revealed to actually be a huge Malleus fanboy, despite previously being Leona’s fervent supporter?
Yeah, no, say what you want but the Savanaclaw character drama is immaculate. Their problem is the plan is just too full of holes and they got majorly screwed by the short length of the chapter and terrible spotlight distribution. Pomefiore doesn’t give either Rook or Epel nearly enough to do to justify their characters even being there, so the drama here is entirely tied up with Vil winning the VDC… and on Neige.
Neige, the dwarves and the VDC
I’ll just come right out and say it: Neige and the dwarves are not written as characters, they are written as obstacles for Vil and NRC. They do not have any depth whatsoever – they’re twisted off Snow White and the seven dwarves, so the dwarves are one big reference and meld together in my mind as a single mass, and I’m willing to bet I’m far from alone in this. Like, there’s the grumpy one who’s the least irritating, the one with glasses who talks a lot, one who sneezes… Depth? Individuality? Who’s she? So yeah, these dwarves are definitely not characters, they’re here to annoy the hell out of the NRC boys – and us as a consequence – by winning things they have no personal investment in and coasting on RSA Hero Plot Armour. And this isn’t even just about the VDC, it also happens in the Harveston hometown event, so this is a consistent problem.
Neige is slightly more interesting; he has the benefit of being Vil’s main rival in acting and beauty. Unfortunately, he also suffers from being placed in direct opposition to Vil, whose glamorous beauty is not only more appealing to a Western audience than the original Eastern one with its more Neige-friendly beauty standards, but also makes him the main culprit of Vil’s mental deterioration, in a way. The big problem with Neige is that both he and the dwarves – who essentially act as an extension of him – do not have any flaws at all. They suffer from the same strain of bad writing that birthed both the damsel in distress and the more recent Strong Female Character That Is Actually A Mary Sue. They’re sweet and nice and they irritate us, the audience, because that is it. They’re just sweet. Neige doesn’t get mad or upset at the dwarves for performing badly, they don’t get upset at him for becoming distant from them, they’re all simply and blissfully happy. What’s worse is, they’re also oblivious to just how much NRC doesn’t like them, which is even more infuriating to witness, because now we feel like RSA is handed everything on a silver platter for existing, while NRC has to struggle every time and are basically told “fuck you” by the universe when it comes to RSA.
Which finally brings me back to the topic I started this analysis essay off with: the VDC.
Oh dear god, the VDC.
Where do I even begin when it comes to that damn competition? Oh I know, how about with the fact that it’s structured badly from the ground up? One of the first things we learn about it when competition day comes is that performers are allowed to vote for themselves. My problem with that is this: what the HELL kind of serious competition, one with that much prize money on the line, that’s being shown on live tv, allows something as fucking ridiculous as that? Do I even have to explain how fundamentally stupid it is? This is meant to be a competition, where the winners get a ton of prize money, they’re supposed to put on a song and dance number for the audience to decide between. Why are the performers themselves ALSO getting to skew the voter results? It makes absolutely no sense. This terrible writing decision is given an extremely flimsy justification of "oh but when you see a really good performance you can't deny the truth". OK, then that means RSA's performance should be so damn good that NRC would be lying to themselves if they voted otherwise, right?
WRONG! RSA sucks! Their number is a goddamn nursery rhyme, like they're children at a preschool talent show and not teenagers at a serious competition with actual, legit prize money on the line. As if that's not bad enough, they don’t even do that much well! The dwarves are tripping and falling, they clearly haven't practised enough, Neige is carrying all by himself. And everyone loves it because nostalgia bait and "aww cute kids" EXCEPT THEY AREN'T KIDS! They're supposed to be the same age as the NRC group!
Oh, have you perhaps forgotten that the dwarves are the same age as Neige and everyone else? That they also go the same school and are in the same age range as everyone in the NRC tribe? I wouldn’t blame you for forgetting that, because they’re all written the same way Cheka is: as cute and innocent, entirely oblivious to the animosity of the person they’re being so friendly with. Except in Cheka’s case, it’s more than justified. He’s what, four, five, years old? Of course he’s sweet and innocent and naïve, with no problems and no negativity! He’s a child, being raised in a loving home! Neige and the dwarves are supposed to be the same age as everyone going to RSA, but they don’t feel like real teenagers at all.
Them being in RSA made it easy to just wave it off by saying “oh they’re based on the heroes, they’re supposed to be saccharine sweet to contrast with the bad guys”, or create theories about all RSA students, Neige in particular, being secretly super evil because villainising the heroes is totally what TWST is all about, right? I understand it, because it’s easier to look at what we’ve been given and try to find some reason to justify our hatred, than admit there’s nothing there. Literally nothing – Neige and the dwarves are shallow.
Just to give an example of actually good character writing, let’s take a brief look at Minajael and Rielle in chapter 8. During the tournament between RSA and NRC, we get to see RSA students other than Chenya, Neige and the dwarves for the first time… and oh joy! They get frustrated, they clash with each other, they are NOT perfect friendship machines, but regular teens with regular teen problems. They act like people, basically, while Neige and the dwarves only ever act as obstacles. There’s a brief attempt to make them more interesting in the beginning of chapter 6, but that’s entirely from the mouths of Vil and Rook. Neige and the dwarves aren’t actually written with this given backstory in mind. This move is what one might call “tell, not show”.
Can you see it now? The point I’m trying to make?
NRC’s Loss
The reason why so many people get so heated about NRC losing in VDC, to the point where there’s been so many interpretations of RSA as being “secretly evil assholes”, is because their loss is narratively unjustified. And that’s bad.
NRC works with blood, blot, sweat and tears to give their damn best with “Absolutely Beautiful”. They don’t cheat at all – remember, they’re allowed to vote for themselves! No, NRC does nothing wrong, Vil is by far the least problematic of all the overblotters despite the very fresh murder attempt… and yet they still lose. They lose to a bunch of blank slates with nothing to them beyond bland, generic niceness, who gave an unpolished performance that felt like they were barely trying and won by one single goddamn vote. A vote made by Rook, an NRC student, and Vil’s supposed biggest fan and greatest supporter.
Obviously people got upset. Of course it felt like a personal betrayal that Rook voted for RSA. Who cares that Vil just tried to murder a guy who did nothing to him? Every single overblotter does attempted murder, Vil didn’t do anything else wrong did he? He doesn’t deserve this! Neige is boring and he didn’t work nearly as hard as NRC did! Vil is right, Vil is justified, anybody would’ve crashed out in Vil’s position…!
But we’re not supposed to feel that way. We’re never supposed to be rooting for the guy who just overblotted. The guy overblotting does so because of their own mistakes, their own terrible decisions that all led them up to this point. But, as we’ve already discovered, that doesn’t apply to Vil. Every other time, the guy whose title is in the name of the chapter loses because of their own actions and nothing else. That’s why nobody is upset about it. There’s no reason to feel it was unfair to them – they fucked up, made their bed and now have to lie in it. It’s fair and reasonable, plus it helps the overblotter see things from a different perspective, it helps them to stop punishing everyone around them for their pain and start healing from it. But with Vil, he lost because he was designated by the Hand of the Author to be a villain, rather than because he truly acted like one. We’re left with the same sense of bitter loss and unfairness as he is. We feel for him and this puts us entirely on his side when we really shouldn’t be.
The problem has never been Rook, or Neige, or the dwarves. It was always the fact that Pomefiore’s writing was truly awful and the entire story suffered for it.
TLDR: Vil is too sympathetic, Rook was used as a vessel of the writers who needed Vil to lose and be narratively punished for overblotting, Epel is almost entirely superfluous to his own dorm’s main plot and Neige and the dwarves are plot devices.