Tear Jerker / Twisted Wonderland

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

A good portion of characters had their own Dark and Troubled Past in varying ways that is bound to bring some tears.

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Main Story

The Rose-Red Tyrant

• Dear lord, Riddle. Growing up having every little thing micro-managed by his own mother and his own wishes fallen to deaf ears. His reprieve from that was getting to know his childhood friends until one day, he returned back home late and was severely punished just for hanging out with his friends and savoring the strawberry tart that his friend's family made. He becomes obsessed with following the rules to a T since because that way, he would not have the things he enjoyed be taken away.

  Riddle: But... hey, Mama? I wonder why, why does my heart hurt so much? Just for my birthday is fine, I want to eat lots of tarts. I want to play outside for hours. I want to make more and more friends. So tell me, Mama, what rules must I obey so that all this pain can go away?

  • Aside from punishments, Riddle's mother would force him to eat at maximum 600 calories a day at only 8 years old, and the way she mentions it sounds like she was feeding him less than that beforehand. Meaning that Riddle was probably starved throughout a good majority of his childhood, made worse in that his mother is supposed to be a doctor.
  • While "The Reason You Suck" Speech was well justified and he had all rights to be angry at Riddle for the situation (especially since Riddle tried to kill him), seeing Ace continue to cut into Riddle while he was breaking down and demand a party out of him was still disheartening.
• Earlier in Chapter 1, Riddle orders that the chestnut tarts made by Trey, Ace, Deuce, Grim, and Yuu be thrown out and disregards all the hard work they put into them so Ace could have his powers back, all because there was a rule forbidding chestnut tarts at unbirthday parties and Trey hadn't memorized enough rules to know that. Riddle then forces Trey and Cater to kick Ace and his friends out of the dorm, escalating both the tension between himself and Ace and pushing himself more into his eventual overblot.
  • The stress of the situation as well as his unwavering adherence to following all 810 rules leads to Riddle becoming a genuine tyrant and beheading every student that breaks a rule no matter how nonsensical and not caring whether or not the student had even learned the rule yet. However, at one point Riddle himself admits that he doesn't enjoy doing this but feels that he has no choice if he wants to be an effective dorm head, no doubt a hint that if it wasn't for his upbringing he probably wouldn't be like this.
    • Heck, during his freak out Riddle, before she even gets mentioned, screams out how his mother's teachings and raising of him is the only correct path and thus he must continue to abide by it. Really shows the effects that this woman had on her son's psyche.
  • After he comes out of overblot Riddle admits that he truly did wanted to accept the chestnut tarts as well as do many other things that the rules wouldn't allow, including spending time with his dorm mates and making new friends.

The Rebel Of The Wilderness

• Leona grew up as The Unfavorite by people around him, and always compare him to his more bright brother, along with fearing his unique magic. No matter how hard he worked to prove his own diligence and intellect, the people around him only see's him as second best and The Unfavorite among the two due to being younger and for the destructive potential of his unique magic, leaving him embittered and dispassionate about his future.
  • Earlier in the chapter Leona shows signs that he can easily turn the tides in his favor when he gets the dorm leaders to change their stance when Crowley suggests removing Malleus from the tournament, not to mention he's a very strong magician in his own right. But as Lilia says once he sees things not going his way he gives up so easily...
  • Jack also attests to how he watched Leona lead the Savanaclaw team to victory years ago and became totally awestruck by him because of it, further fueling Jack's anger when Leona refuses to stop his underhanded tactics instead of using his true talents. Ace and Deuce even picked up on how much of a Broken Pedestal Leona is to Jack.
• Mixing with Nightmare Fuel is Leona repaying Ruggie's cooperation during their scheme by trying to turn Ruggie into dust when said scheme falls through, berating both Ruggie and himself for being a lowly hyena-beastman and second-born prince thinking they could break out of their places in life.

The Merchant from the Depths

• Azul grew up bullied by his peers simply because he was a chubby and slow octopus studying in a school where majority of the students are plain merfolk. He then started to learn magic and create his Unique Magic just to spite and show them that he can be something despite what they thought of him. He is bullied badly enough that Jade and Floyd were the only ones who bothered to approach and befriend him, and it eventually warps him into the shady dealmaker that we've come to know. Among the Overblotted victims so far, he had the most relatable backstory to many players and his bullying hits close to home.
  • The bullying that Azul endured already motivated him to use his magic to spite his former assailants, but it wasn't until becoming involved with the Leech twins that he became way more greedy and even malicious to anyone that he could get his hands on. If the theory about the Leech twins being involved in organized crime is true, or at the very least considering how ruthlessly the twins act, it sounds too much like a broken individual falling into the influence of the wrong crowd even if they seem to get along.
  • Even worse? In the next chapter the trio reveal that they are not really True Companions and that the twins would ditch Azul if they ever lose interest in him. That's just... dang.
• Azul's reaction to his contracts getting destroyed. Yes, he had it coming for all his swindling and for what he put the contracted students through, but once he realized all his hard work just literally turned to dust the boy completely breaks down, screaming out how he doesn't want to go back to being viewed as the weak, dumb octopus that he used to be. Even in the present self-loathing (even if of a past self) still lurks in Azul along with all the greed, and similar to Riddle above, this happens when no one mentions his past and towards people who aren't even aware of it.

The Strategist of Hot Sands

• Jamil reveals that, because he is a servant assigned to Kalim, he must never upstage him and essentially give up his entire life to Kalim. His parents and all of the adults around him acknowledge that he is smart, but tells him to just deal with Kalim being more important than him, because that's 'just how it is.' Frustrated with no one caring to understand him and feeling trapped in a world of servitude he cannot escape, Jamil reaches his breaking point and plots to overthrow Kalim's position as housewarden by hypnotizing him to treat their dorm mates cruelly.
  • Kalim shelters some of the blame for the incident, saying that he had no idea how miserable Jamil was and he wants to truly be friends. But Jamil is still stuck in servitude and the two have a long way to go before they can even consider being equal friends.
• Kalim's side of the story isn't exactly pleasant either. While he grew up pampered and privileged he was still the target of countless kidnapping and assassination attempts committed by his own family members and legitimately came to view Jamil as the one person he could trust fully. Then thanks to circumstances that were completely out of his control said person not only hates him but tries in an incredibly invasive and brutal manner to destroy him.
• In Chapter 5 it's revealed that Kalim entered Night Raven two months after Jamil did on grounds that the Asims provide financial backing for the school. It can be deduced that Jamil had gone to NRC to be free of servitude and finally be himself and either Kalim followed him there out of loneliness and wanting to be close to his friend or the Asims found out and sent him there to reestablish status quo.
• Yet another one for the Scarabia duo that mixes with Nightmare Fuel is a young Jamil being severely poisoned when he had to test a curry dish before Kalim ate it. Not only does this show how Kalim's life is valued over Jamil's, it made curry a legit Trauma Button for Kalim, it hints that the Asim family has quite a dark side if they are okay with a child getting hurt or killed instead of their own blood.

The Beautiful Oppressor

• When Yuu finds that Ace and Deuce have been cursed with paralysis for going against their diet plans, Vil promptly orders Yuu to bed and further threatens to harm them if they interfere in any way with Vil's training regiment. Having no means of doing otherwise, Yuu complies and laments on how they were unable to help their friends from Vil's oppressive tactics.
• Seeing Epel breaking down multiple times during the VDC training thanks to Vil's antics until he finally snaps and Rage Quits.
  • Vil's treatment of Epel doesn't stem from a malicious place but instead from his pursuit of genuinely wanting others (especially those in his dorm) to be the very best they can be as well as his own upbringing of grueling training regiments that he freely chose to endure. Unfortunately, it appears that Vil developed a strong case of Cruel to Be Kind to the point that even when it's not particularly working he won't ease up or tweak his methods. Mix in with the fact that Vil, deal or none, dragged Epel into a competition he had no desire to be in and has been making the boy from day one take on a persona completely different from his own (including forbidding Epel from talking in his native dialect and openly taking on interests related to his hometown, even if for image's sake and not because of prejudice), a fallout was guaranteed to happen. However, like the Scarabia duo before them things do ultimately get better.
  • It gets worst when one remembers Vil's heart really wasn't in the right place during the training camp since his main motivation for winning was to upstage his rival, meaning he was mostly looking to boost his ego and resorted to using Epel and any other students he saw fit to do it.
• Epel mentions to Deuce that part of the reason he hates his cute looks is that where he comes from a boy is much more respected if he is more traditionally masculine, and Epel does say that he was a target of bullying since he doesn't fit the bill. While Epel does make it clear he never took the bullying lying down, it does explain why he's so obsessed with never being viewed as "girly" until he learns to embrace his cuteness.
• Vil grew up a child actor before he branched out to become an influencer but no matter how hard he tried, he's always, always type-casted into the role of a villain in many acting offers he is given, a role where he can never stand in the same stage as others till the very end. His obsession of wanting to be the best and fairest one of all? It all stemmed from how he was never able to get away from being type-casted as a villain, regardless of how much he wished to branch out and be versatile. All so he can stand in the stage longer than to be shunted off as a footnote.

  Vil: I'll do anything to be the fairest one of all. Be it the harsh training and regiment, annoying treatment from others... if it shall lead me to the path of becoming the fairest, then I don't mind. Even so... why? I was never chosen even once! I just ― I just want to stand in the stage until the very end...

  • Even before this, a young Vil once asked his father if he has the look of a bully, and wondered if this is why he got type-casted to be a villain no matter what he does.
• When Vil is on the verge of snapping and potentially overblotting, Kalim attempted to talk things out and hopefully calm him down before anything bad happens. Unfortunately, Vil overblotted anyway. Jamil overblotting during the Scarabia chapter horrified and traumatized him and he wants to try and stop that from happening to anyone he knows in the future. At the end of the day, Kalim is a teen boy and all he could do at the moment of time was to bring Vil back to his senses when he finally overblotted.
• While it was for an incredibly prideful reason (being caught trying to poison a rival and fearing how others will see him for it), Vil uses his unique magic to essentially attempt suicide via poisoning. Even worse (and horrifying) that he also intended to kill his bandmates as well as Yuu and Grim.
• The very ending of the chapter where Grim, driven into insanity thanks to all the dark stones he's been eating, attacking Yuu and leaving them injured and unconscious. Thankfully the next chapter opens with Yuu having been healed and brought back to Ramshackle, but considering the two had been partners up until this point...

The Guard of the Underworld

• Grim's state in the start of chapter 6. When captured by Idia and Ortho, he managed to be free of his blot induced mania, but does not seem to recalling anything before that. Such as the fact that he hurt Yuu, who had been with him since the beginning. By the time Ace, Deuce and Yuu saw him again when the Charon Op force are sent after the Overblot victims, Grim tries to escape and screamed Yuu's name, begging to be saved. As far as he is concerned, he is captured for no reason, over something that he doesn't remember doing.
  • Later, when stuck in S.T.Y.X., Grim eventually remembers what he did when he lost himself to the blot and is seen crying, affected by how he hurt Yuu.
    Grim: Am I unable to return to Ramshackle Dorm anymore?
• When the Charon Op force attacked and captured Vil and Jamil by force, they destroyed the Ramshackle dorm to do so. The Ramshackle dorm has become all but a home to Yuu and Grim, and as players we get to see how much the dorm was slowly becoming fully functional and looking less like the originally rackety dorm that it was. Now a good chunk of it has been reduced to rubble, rendering all the effort to fix it back to zero. The bright side is that Yuu just got some of the money that Vil had given to compensate for what happened in Chapter 5, with a majority of the Night Raven band also giving Yuu their shares to fix the dorm, but it still stands.
• Rook and Kalim's respective reactions to Vil and Jamil's abductions.
  • Rook tries to calm himself down, because as much as he wanted to get Vil & Jamil back, he knew that at that moment, the safety of the first years took priority, and he had to conform to his duties as their senior.
  • Kalim is utterly distraught over Jamil being taken away, to the point that he doesn't notice that Ace, Deuce, and Epel were all injured and passed out. And considering how he's usually the first one to take action whenever others needed help, it really makes you wonder just how panicked he must've been...
    • Doesn't help given that Kalim was a victim of countless attempts to either kidnap or kill him, and now Jamil (and Vil) has been successfully captured and mercilessly at that.
  • Rook talking some sense into Kalim, saying that now that Jamil isn't around, he has to perform his duties as a dorm leader all on his own.
• During the meeting at the headmaster's office, Lilia notices that everyone seemed shaky because of what happened. Trey replies that he was going about his day as usual—baking—when he received a call that Riddle was kidnapped. And then, he was informed that Ace & Deuce were badly injured and were currently at the infirmary...

  Trey: How could I possibly be calm?

• Ruggie is also aggravated by what happened, especially with how Leona left Savanaclaw in his care until he came back—and Leona himself being unsure if he could come back.
• Idia's past. He was praised as a young genius but he hated being stuck in place as the next head of the Shroud family and leader of S.T.Y.X. and wanted the freedom to be something more. One day, he went snooping around S.T.Y.X. headquarters together with Ortho for an adventure but accidentally set a phantom loose while hacking the security system, and Ortho was killed when he ran into it. He blamed himself for putting Ortho in danger and for causing his death that he went out to create an android version of his dead little brother to cope, but even that does little to aid Idia in his grief and by the present, he is left with a defeatist mindset that he can't escape his fate of being the heir of the Shroud family and never will get the freedom to be able to do things that people his age do like hanging out with friends and talk about their futures, along with having 8 years worth of grief, despair and longing for his dead brother that he secretly wished he could die and be Together in Death with the original Ortho.

  Idia: Where did I go wrong? If I didn't go on an adventure that day... If I didn't admire heroes before then, or rather... if I weren't born in the Shroud family...? If we were born to a normal family, we could play games with friends, have adventures together, and talk about our dreams together, we could have become heroes one day. How did things turn out like this? I... We... We just want to be like everyone else.

  • The sheer despair and denial that a young Idia went through when he learnt that his little brother died and that it may all be his own fault that the original Ortho died, and eventually dedicating his following years to "revive" Ortho will pull heartstrings. And given that Idia was 10 when it happened, the original Ortho would have died at 8 years old.
    Child Idia: It's my fault. All because, I said that I wanted to go on an adventure. What's the point of being a genius if I can't protect my little brother... What kind of hero am I!? Give him back... Give Ortho back... Everything about Ortho... his body, his personality, his memories, all of them, give them all back!
• When Lilia and Malleus are having their conversation in what was left of Ramshackle they notice a star constellation that only appears very rarely. Lilia says that he has seen and made wishes on this constellation many times, but then he says that this might be the last time he'll see this constellation...
  • Crosses into Heartwarming, Malleus admitting that while he was disappointed that someone had occupied one of his favorite ruins he has grown to view Yuu with enough significance that their absence is really affecting him.
    Malleus: With Yuu gone, this place has lost its vitality. It's an unpleasant feeling like thorns are going against your skin.
  • The two also discuss a bit about mortality and how much more fragile humans are compared to fairies, possibly why humans strive to live life to the fullest. Lilia ends this part of the conversation by telling Malleus to never forget the pain that he's feeling at the moment.
  • Gets followed up at The Stinger at the end of the chapter to highlight what themes the Diasomnia chapter might focus on. While Lilia, Silver, and Sebek are having a more lively chat Malleus loses himself in thought of his and Lilia's time at Ramshackle. And when his dorm mates notice and question him about it Malleus denies that there's anything bothering him...

The Ruler of the Abyss

• Lilia reveals that for a while his ability to cast magic has been slowly slipping away, leading to him deciding to not only drop out of Night Raven College but to move to a country far away from Briar Valley and, by extension, his boys. Not helped by the implication that this is a sign that Lilia might be nearing the end of his life.
  • Malleus in particular caused it to rain shortly after Lilia left with Sebek and Silver in tow to help him unpack, and when he meets with Yuu at Ramshackle he causes snow even though it is already spring.
• As a toddler, Malleus once got so upset that his grandmother (the queen regent) wasn't able to have dinner with him that he froze the entirety of the castle and everyone within it, and even though Lilia was able to smooth things over, it caused everyone to become so afraid of Malleus that they wouldn't dare approach him. Not helping is that this incident happened while Malleus was already severely limited in who would interact with him.
• While studying during their attempt to contact Mickey, the first years lament that once Yuu finds a way home they won't be able to hang out anymore until Ace snaps them back to focus. Grim also ponders if he'll even be able to stay at Night Raven without Yuu given Crowley doesn't make him feel so sure about that, and even if Grim can stay, he'll be stuck as the sole Ramshackle student and not even the resident Ghosts can fulfil the gap that Yuu's eventual departure will leave behind to him.
  • In their thoughts Yuu makes it clear that going home is still their main priority, but they do admit that it makes them sad that they'll be leaving everyone behind.
• Yuu asks Malleus if he could help them go home by figuring out what is going on with the mirror in Yuu's room. Keep in mind, Malleus has just found out that his father figure is not only leaving NRC but might never have contact with him again, and now someone that he has began to grow close to is also going to disappear from his life seemingly for good.
  • Yuu has an option to say that they miss what they left behind when they were whisked away. Even if there is no information on it, Yuu had a life (family, friends, etc.) that they have been away from for so long and are not willing to give up even at the cost of saying goodbye to Twisted Wonderland forever.
  • Malleus asks Yuu that if they had a chance to live life without losing loved ones would they take it, and Yuu answers that they can't imagine most people saying no to that. Malleus bids them goodnight then proceeds to brood over how, even with all his power, he has and will continue to lose people.
• For those who have made friends online then had those friendships end abruptly, Crimson Muscle (actually Lilia) cutting ties with Idia and Idia going into a depression over it can hit pretty hard. Especially since that was the only person outside of Ortho that Idia considered a friend.
• After finding Malleus who hadn't arrived to the Lilia's farewell party yet, Silver breaks down at the thought of not being able to properly repay the person who had single-handedly raised him when he had no obligation to. Even after growing into someone that Lilia himself stated he was proud of, Silver still thinks that he isn't enough.
  • Mixes with Heartwarming is how Silver admitted he would have stayed by Lilia's side even if Lilia grew senile and forgot who he was. And now Lilia is moving to a far away land without him.
  • Malleus plays off not being at the party yet as simply deciding on what gift to give Lilia, but the blizzard he unwittingly summons once again shows he's bottling up his true feelings. Mixes as Nightmare Fuel considering what's to come...
• Once Malleus announces his intentions Lilia tries to stop him before it's too late, but he's completely powerless and instead falls to the ground. Not helped by Malleus taunting Lilia for becoming so pitiful compared to how strong he used to be.
  • Before that, Malleus outright yells that part of the reason why he's doing this is because he doesn't want to lose Lilia.
• As nightmarish and ultimately despicable as it is, Malleus's plan in general is this and the fact that he wholeheartedly believes he's doing something good. After centuries of isolation, he's become desperate to never lose anyone and wants to ensure that those around him are kept happy just as he was taught to do, thus the creation of a seemingly perfect dream world where no one knows of sorrow and the very worse of memories are erased. Made worse in how he does this by forcing his will onto everyone regardless of their disapproval and resistance, notably Lilia's, as well as seeming ignorant of the massive consequences his plan can have on those affected and for Twisted Wonderland as a whole...
• We get a glimpse into some of the dreams that Malleus made for some of the students and it's... quite somber:
  • Idia's dream is a world where the real Ortho never died and even attends Royal Sword Academy. However, there's still gaps in the dream for him, such as the nagging feeling that he's not remembering something — the robot Ortho.
  • Sebek's dream is a re-enactment of the farewell party where Lilia never lost the ability to use his magic and is able to go for his fourth year internship with Malleus.
    • The dream Lilia tells Silver that once his internship is done, they can return to the cottage in the woods together and live happily there. This, of course, upsets Silver, who breaks down over the fact that it isn't the real Lilia. His sorrow makes Malleus realize that someone is awake, who tells the group that everyone is meant to be happy here and they shouldn't ruin it.
• Silver's confrontation with Malleus while in Sebek's dream. Silver desperately pleads with Malleus to end this nightmare, even claiming that this is the last thing that Lilia would ever want, but of course, Malleus has none of it and outright threatens Silver into submitting to his "perfect world". Seeing he has no other choice Silver draws his weapon to defend himself and the others, and he and the others come a hairline away from being thrown into unending darkness for their troubles.
  • Special mention should go to how this group comprises someone whom Malleus helped raise, someone who despite his faults would dedicate and even risk his life for Malleus without question, and someone who has become significant enough to Malleus that they can have even the tiniest effect on him despite their short time together. For all he cares now they are traitors, and he's willing to toss them all away into what can be described as a dark and barren hell for getting in the way of his plan.
• True to what he passed down to Sebek, Baul is shown to be extremely hateful towards humanity to the point that he disregards Sebek for his human heritage and refuses to eat any of the food that Sebek and Silver made. While Baul eventually relents after seeing Grim eating his share, the slight still hits Sebek deeply and serves to fuel Sebek's resentment towards humanity and the Silver Owls as he views them as robbing him of bonding with his beloved grandfather.
• The conflict between the fairies and the humans is explored a bit, and it's not pretty. The Silver Owls were once a small group of humans that quickly grew in numbers and eventually outnumbered the fae. Either out of greed or survival, this led to the humans invading fae territory to steal resources such as magical gems and mystium to the point of entire mountain ranges becoming barren and magical creatures such as pixies getting hurt in their wake, leading to t Briar Valley troops to attack and ambush the humans without mercy and Briar Valley Princess Mellenoar to threaten complete extermination if the Silver Owls persisted. And before said final warning could be delivered, the Silver Owls tricked General Lilia into going off course so they could siege the castle where Mellenoar and her unborn child were.
• Dragon Duke Leverne, Mellenoar's husband and Malleus's father, disappears during a diplomatic mission that may or may not had him crossing paths with the dreaded Dawn Knight. No one could find clues of his whereabouts, and Lilia had to take on the role of protecting the family he left behind.
  • Silver and Sebek admit that they never really heard of the Draconia family history so they take this as quite a shock. Sebek even becomes so sad for Malleus that he begins to reconsider if they should wake up from the dream until Silver snaps him out of it.
• When the army finally returns to the castle, Mellenoar declares that she will fight and orders the army to bring the unborn Malleus to safety. Lilia, Baul and the NRC group all told her to not head into a fight that would spell doom but Mellenoar retorts that it's because she's a mother, that she has to fight to protect her child. Considering how she's presently dead...
  • Lilia outright begs for her to not head towards her death, even claiming that he has no idea how to love so there's no way that he could even be able to hatch Malleus's egg. The image clashes with what we currently know of the present Lilia and shows that he has deep issues despite looking calm and put together.
• When the Dawn Knight is unmasked, Silver connects the dots of what Lilia said to him about his biological parents and realizes, with horrifying clarity, who his biological parents were. That he's the child of Lilia's enemy. After escaping out of the castle, Silver cries out in despair at the Awful Truth he learned and ends up being pulled into the darkness of the dream.
  Silver: That can't be true... THAT CAN'T BE TRUE!!!
• Falling into the darkness of Lilia's dream, Silver came onto a glimpse of Lilia's memories of how he found Silver and how Lilia had come to love him as a son. However, this happening shortly after he learned the Awful Truth of his origins means Silver instead believed that he doesn't deserve Lilia or Malleus's familial love for him. He even shouted at his baby self that he doesn't deserve to cry because he's the child of someone responsible for Lilia and Malleus's suffering.
  Silver: Please stop, father... I'm, I'm not an existence that is worthy of your love!
  (Baby Silver cries in the memory)
  Silver: STOP IT! STOP CRYING! YOU DON'T HAVE ANY RIGHT TO CRY!
• A vision seen through Lilia's Unique Magic reveals that even though the Silver Owls won and took the castle after slaying Mellenoar, they eventually are killed and annexed out of history by a far stronger country. The Dawn Knight is also stated to have perished in the battle field, leaving their child orphaned and Leah was forced to escape and leave her baby in the castle to protect him and keep him alive. Henrique deserved the karma for letting his greed consume him and eventually lost to a bigger fish, but hearing that the Dawn Knight perished is sobering. In another life, he and his wife could have been Good Parents to Silver.
  • The fairies who enchanted Silver to stasis to protect and keep him alive have the fairies state that Silver will awaken should one person who would truly love the baby with all their heart appear to him. It took four centuries for Silver to wake up at all until Lilia found him is another sobering factor. His mother never came back for him and probably also perished in the conflict, leaving the baby sleeping for centuries completely alone and no family to return to in the present time.
• We later learn that the rotted acorn bracelet that was found early in the chapter in Lilia's dorm room was Silver's gift to Lilia when he was younger, a young Silver gifted that to Lilia in hopes that Lilia would live a long life. Silver's response to seeing this memory?
  Silver: A rotten acorn has no meaning or value at all. Even still, why did you tell me such a lie?
• At one point, Silver had come across a hallucination of Lilia in his general uniform declaring that he will take revenge on Silver, who is now copying after the Dawn Knight in appearance, for orphaning Malleus and killing Mellenoar and Leverne. Silver's Heroic BSoD over the Awful Truth of his origins is bad enough that the dream's darkness manifested an illusion of Lilia, who had been Silver's father for as long as he remembered, trying to kill him.
• When Sebek, Yuu, and Grim finally reached where Silver is and Sebek uses his unique magic to wake Silver up from being consumed by the darkness, Silver is still deep in his despair as he told Sebek the truth of his origins and said this to him before Sebek punched him to get him back to his senses.
  Silver:I don't know how I'm going to face the two of them...What did father feel when he raised me to see me grow to be similar to his enemy...!!
  (...)
  Silver: There's no way that you could love the child of your enemy! There's no way that you could never hate them! Isn't that the truth!?
• Lilia's emotional reaction to Malleus hatching. Dear God. It gets even worse after baby Malleus squeaks, causing the general to fully break down into tears.
• Initially it seems that the dream ended happy... until the surroundings distorted due to Lilia starting to realize that it's a dream. Silver, Sebek, Grim and Yuu then hear hateful vitriol and realize what actually occurred in reality of the day Malleus was born. Instead of being congratulated for essentially saving the Royal Family, the Royal Senate instead chose to be petty, UngratefulBastards by claiming that Lilia is "dirtying the Draconia blood with the magic of a Bat Fae and tainted the Prince", all because that they are so offended that Lilia's love for Malleus is what ultimately got Malleus to hatch. All the suffering and grief Lilia suffered was instead paid with scorn and hatred because the old bastards just couldn't let go of their prejudice and elitism against Lilia. No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, indeed...

Personal Stories

• In Kalim's Birthday Suit Up Story he admits that he considers the magic carpet to be his best friend. Sure, things might be going much better with Kalim and Jamil than they could have been, but considering Kalim once considered Jamil to be his best friend it's clear what happened above really took a tole on him. This also implies not only how lonely Kalim must be in life but how Kalim also considers the carpet to be closer to him than his own family members...some of which having been involved in the many assassination attempts.
• In Sebek's Birthday Card story he goes into the history of his powerful fairy mother and magicless human father. While he speaks of his mother with only the highest of regards, he shows contempt for his father despite him being a kind man who always encouraged Sebek and his siblings during their magic training. Given what has been said about human/fairy relationships in the game and by both Lilia and Malleus, as well as Sebek's overall attitude towards humans aside from Silver, it comes off quite a bit like a child of mixed ancestry who favors one side over the other thanks to circumstances that gave rise to racism. The fact that Briar Valley was originally not pleased with the union of Sebek's parents does not help.
• While mostly a source of Heartwarming, Malleus' first Birthday Suit Up card hints that he has been quite lonely as he wasn't allowed to leave his castle for a good portion of his life, at one point trying to eat an entire birthday cake alone because no one else was there and giving himself heartburn. Doesn't help that throughout the game Malleus shows signs of being a Sheltered Aristocrat and wanting to have friends despite his fearsome reputation.
  • The story also implies that Malleus' parents are dead, given that he admits his grandmother is his only surviving relative. We later get to see how they (or at least Malleus's mother) died in chapter 7, not to mention we also find out that the council who brought up Malleus were less than stellar characters to say the least.

Events

• Another regarding Riddle's home life is that it's implied his Abusive Parents don't seem to even get along with each other and that the overall atmosphere is miserable. In one of his voice lines for his Ghost Marriage event card Riddle laments on how the Queen of Hearts had a happy marriage with her husband and wishes she could give his parents some advice.
• Minor one in Ace's Ghost Marriage SSR story where he admits in middle school that he had a girlfriend but became bored of her because her interests were different from his (preferring more "cutesy" things like merry-go-rounds and romance films). Instead of breaking things off properly Ace ghosted the girl which broke her heart and brought on a scolding from her friends, and instead of taking any responsibility Ace put all the blame on the girl, developed a Bros Before Hoes mentality, and wrote romantic love off as nothing but a pain. On the bright side, Ace did learn from the experience that love is not something that happens at first sight and should instead be between people who genuinely enjoy being with each other, even if he doesn't want to admit it.
• "Glorious Masquerade" has one in the form of Rollo's Freudian Excuse for why he wants to eradicate magic: when he was a child he watched as his little brother accidentally kill himself (quite possibly by Self-Immolation) and became embittered that no one ever offered to try training them properly. While it doesn't excuse his actions and self-righteousness, it's easy to see how that would mess someone up royally.

Comic

Chapter 14 Reckless Duel!

• In the comic, it plays much worse, instead of one of the Heartslabyul members staying silent after they throw an egg at Riddle, they took out their anger and frustration by throwing random objects at him. It shows how much they have suffered and are tired of following their dorm leader’s tyrant behavior. When Yuuken tries to stand up to Riddle against the dorm members he wronged, his words do not reach Riddle as he gets even angrier and loses his temper.