I Feel Like Sometimes Certain TWST Fans Categorize Azul's Trauma As Less Than Because They Boil It Down

I feel like sometimes certain TWST fans categorize Azul's trauma as less than because they boil it down to "He was bullied." And that is where they stop, but I feel like they don't see the layers as to why he was bullied.

Facts from the game are that Azul was bullied for being slow, his appearance, and being a crybaby. We also know his peers did not respect him until he held power over them(this, of course, transfered to how he behaves at NRC). Azul grew up around kids who hated him for his natural appearance, something he couldn't control, making him think he didn't look pretty and to have a negative self-image. They also accidentally taught him that if he doesn't have anything over people, he can not be their equal.

I think everyone is aware that Azul's bullies were racist. That is quite clear in the story. Azul's species is considered to not be common in the Coral Sea, implying that they are either not native to there or have a low birth rate. Maybe even a combination of both. This can also lead to the idea that Azul was possibly the only octomer at their school, making his alienation from his peers more evident. Another thing you have to remember is that children are not born racist. They have to learn that behavior from someone, so Azul's bullies had to have a source. Whether it be an educator or their parents, this racist prejudice against Azul came from someone else. This was also high society. The Coral Sea prince went to their school, high class mers were here, meaning this wasn't just a small opinion in a little town, but an opinion high class society has against octomers that could possibly trickle down to lower spaces in mer society.

Do I know anything about him? No! But he seems like a dorky nerd and is of similar age to me. He is my very tall son now

My brain juices are letting me draw!

Vil as Sabrina Carpenter <3

Pic:

GOTH CATER

I love how this turned out! I think I did the style correctly, but idk, correct me if you want

Hi YuuRei! I was revisiting some of your past videos, and when I was watching your video on how Trey was changed in the English version, I was reminded of something that I saw a fan point out once upon time. In the Japanese version, during Riddle’s Overblot fight, Cater’s character model has red colored eyes rather than green. I was curious if you knew more about that? Thank you!

Hello hello! ^^ Thank you for this question!

Yes yes, it seems that this is very true!

While looking around for possible information I discovered a twstsoku thread on this very topic, full of people reminiscing about the little visual changes that the game experienced in its early days, and this was one of them! ^^

Someone points out that there are actually illustrations of Cater with red eyes in the Magical Archives Game Guide, and I can confirm that that is true as well!

There are two drawings--one of Cater in his labwear and one in his gym uniform--where his eyes are red instead of green. So it seems that his character design may have had originally red eyes, and the change to green was made fairly late in the development process!

(His eye color has since been corrected to green.)

For a personal theory, Yana has mentioned something about early-Cater before: he wasn't supposed to be human!

"Cater was a beastman, there was a character based on a white rabbit motif, and so on…" - Toboso Yana (Magical Archives Game Guide (2020))

She does not say that Cater was going to be the white rabbit character, just that a white rabbit character existed and Cater was also a beast-person, but I wonder: that unnamed white rabbit character, was it originally Cater? 👀 Is that why is eyes were red in early stages of development?

But then I discovered another theory:

Back in 2020, two weeks after the game was released, user kozue_pixiv writes:

"Are you all familiar with a gemstone called Alexandrite? It's a stone that changes color depending on light wavelengths, and it's known as 'the emerald by day' and 'the ruby by night.' Is there a connection? Are his eyes changing from green to red inspired by Alexandrite? Are his eyes gemstones? After thinking about it so much I realized, Cater-senpai is from the Land of Pyroxene. It's perfect… Come to think of it, he is from the Land of Pyroxene and his family name is Diamond--that’s really well thought out. Among the four suits in a deck of cards, only diamonds are gemstones, so maybe it was intentional… Hmm, I wonder… Since he’s the only one in Heartslabyul from a different country, I might be overthinking it, but isn’t it interesting that everyone from the Land of Pyroxene are in different dorms?"

And another point in favor of "the character named 'diamond' has eyes that change in the light' theory? In Cater's ceremonial robes groovy, he originally had gold-colored eyes!

Interesting!! 👀📝

I feel like sometimes certain TWST fans categorize Azul's trauma as less than because they boil it down to "He was bullied." And that is where they stop, but I feel like they don't see the layers as to why he was bullied.

Facts from the game are that Azul was bullied for being slow, his appearance, and being a crybaby. We also know his peers did not respect him until he held power over them(this, of course, transfered to how he behaves at NRC). Azul grew up around kids who hated him for his natural appearance, something he couldn't control, making him think he didn't look pretty and to have a negative self-image. They also accidentally taught him that if he doesn't have anything over people, he can not be their equal.

I think everyone is aware that Azul's bullies were racist. That is quite clear in the story. Azul's species is considered to not be common in the Coral Sea, implying that they are either not native to there or have a low birth rate. Maybe even a combination of both. This can also lead to the idea that Azul was possibly the only octomer at their school, making his alienation from his peers more evident. Another thing you have to remember is that children are not born racist. They have to learn that behavior from someone, so Azul's bullies had to have a source. Whether it be an educator or their parents, this racist prejudice against Azul came from someone else. This was also high society. The Coral Sea prince went to their school, high class mers were here, meaning this wasn't just a small opinion in a little town, but an opinion high class society has against octomers that could possibly trickle down to lower spaces in mer society.