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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 3 months

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Hii, I hope your day/night is going well! I don’t think you’ve ever been asked this from what I’ve seen; but do you have any idea how the NRC school system works? my pea brain I cannot figure it out for the life of me 😭 I know that they have magical subjects ofc (magical history, alchemy, etc.), and they also have the more practical ones like math (unfortunately), but they also mention having electives. I know Azul and Ace have mentioned sharing elective(s) with others, which just leaves me to wonder how many periods they have or if they rotate classes around each day if that makes sense? And on top of that, the lesson chat things of the characters (including upperclassman/people not in 1A with ADeuce?) saying they’ll go along with the schedule we [Yuu] have in mind for the day.

Sorry this got to be so long and you don’t even have to answer at all, just a question that’s been in my mind! :)

As far as I'm aware, we are not told much about how class schedules work at Night Raven College. We don't know how many classes there are in a day, or if the students take the same classes every day or have them on rotation (for example, Magic History on Tuesdays and Thursdays only). We can, however, do our best to extrapolate from what we have!

We have a partial schedule shown in the Episode of Heartslabyul manga (volume 2, chapter 8). In it, we follow Adeuce, Yuuken, and Grim through the school day and right up until lunchtime. They seem to have 3 classes (Alchemy/Potionology, Magic History/History of Magic, and P.E.) and then a lunch break. In book 7 of the game, Ace is having lunch and mentions his "next class" being in the lab, though it's not said what course that is. That line (assuming the "lab class" is Alchemy/Potionology) could imply the schedule is shuffled around depending on the day, but it's at best an assumption.

We also have an idea about a decent chunk of Azul's class schedule, if you can believe that. In 3-7, we get to see his first three periods (Music, Animal Linguistics, and Potionology/Alchemy, in that order). He then goes to lunch. This would seem to imply that all students have three periods and then a lunch break. We don't know how many periods follow after lunch, but I think a safe guess would at least another 3.

In Jamil's Lab Wear vignettes, we learn that class 2-C (Azul and Jamil) take Alchemy/Potionology after Riddle's class, 2-E, does. This means Riddle and Jade take Alchemy/Potionology or some other labwork for second period. We additionally learn in Jade's P.E. vignette that he and Riddle have P.E. for fourth period, which must be after lunch. This implies that required courses are likely taken with students in one's grade level and maybe homeroom, as this is true of Jamil/Azul and Riddle/Jade combos. This doesn't appear to hold true for electives like Master Chef/Culinary Crucibles and Poison Making/Poison Refining, which receives a mix of students.

I would be hesitant about treating Lessons as 100% canonical, as the gameplay elements of TWST sometimes contradicts the lore we are given in the story and voice lines. For example, you as the player are able to put first years, second years, and third years in the same Lessons when, in reality, this would not be feasible. Some courses would require prerequisites that the first years have yet to complete, and not everyone would realistically be choosing to take the exact same electives. Additionally, second years and third years would have to be taking different sections for some subjects which cover entirely different content than what is given to first years. (For example, students don't learn about the Righteous Judge until Magic History II, which you take in your second year. This is why the first years don't know who the figure is when asked about him in Glorious Masquerade.) I'm sure that some of the information dropped in Lessons are true (ie lines from the characters' Chats and the lines they drop during the actual Lessons/when they're gaining stars). However, the things directed at Yuu are dubiously true in my eyes since the pre-Lesson lines are directed as much at the player as they are to Yuu. They're lines meant to make the player themselves feel like they're forming friendships with the boys and participating in learning with them even though this (again) wouldn't make complete sense in-universe. Yuu can't use magic, so they wouldn't be able to participate in upper-level classes which require the use of magic. They wouldn't be following second and third years to those classes. It's also nonsensical to think that the school would allow for any student to just make up whatever schedule they feel like doing on the spot for the entire year. I believe the wording is like this ("Oh, I'll do whatever you want to do, Yuu!") for Lessons to, again, give the player a sense of freedom, and feel like they're taking initiative to bond with their favorite characters.

That being said, here's what else I could find regarding NRC's curriculum:

Crewel heads the Science department, Trein the Humanities, and Vargas Physical Education.

Students are not allowed to use UMs/signature spells during class. They are, however, allowed to use general magic if directed to by the instructors.

First year students focus more on concepts and theories. The older students have classes which involve more use of magic than theory.

There are sometimes joint lessons, or classes running concurrently with one another with students of different year levels involved.

History of Magic/Magic History seems to be a required course; its materials are divided up into different sections and taught based on your year in schooling. The Righteous Judge, for example, is covered in year 2.

Flight/Flying is described as an elective class; not many Pomefiore students take it.

Alchemy/Potionology is another required course; it seems to provide the base knowledge for potion making before students qualify for other more complex science electives. For example, Crewel berates the first years for touching equipment in the manga and instead has them identify plants.

All students must take Physical Education.

Some students remark on sharing electives with others. For example, Ace and Sebek are in Enigmics/Magic Analysis together, Deuce and Epel are in the same Flight class, Vil and Cater and Lilia take Poison Making/Poison Refining, Silver and Kalim share Astrology and Practical Magic, Jamil and Azul have Alchemy/Potionology, etc.)

Though all 22 NRC students have/will have an Apprentice Chef card, we don't have confirmation that they all took the elective in the main story canon. The exception is Sebek, who has a line in book 7 stating that he's glad he took the Master Chef course.

NRC offers electives like (Visual) Art and Music/Musicology, which encourages and expands one's imagination. This is important because spellcasting is enhanced by having a strong imagination.

The TWST 4koma shows us that third years are able to infuse their artworks with magic, thus bringing them to life. It seems that first and second years do not attempt this magic yet.

There is an elective called Animal Languages/Animal Linguistics, but the name is broad and doesn't specify which animals you're learning to communicate with. This appears to be similar to a real-life foreign language course.

Practical Magic involves using spell formulas in order to achieve a practical goal, such as autocleaning. This is a required subject; failure to pass means you are held back one year.

Enchanting objects is described to be a "basic, rudimentary magic" that even first years are capable of performing.

Physical Training and Swimming seem to be P.E. electives.

Electives we don't have much information about: Protection/Defense Magic, Summoning/Conjuration, Biology,

Master Chef/Culinary Crucibles is an elective designed to give the students the practical skills to provide nutritious meals for themselves. This and P.E. are meant to help keep the mages healthy and in good shape to perform their magic.

Enigmics/Magic Analysis is a mathematics-based course. Ace describes it as solving logic questions using formulas.

Ancient Magic involves reading old texts and deciphering their meaning.

Astrology involves reading the stars and using them to make predictions.

Third years must choose between Poison Making/Refining and Changes & Comparisons of Abbreviated Spells in Ancient and Modern Magic History as an elective. The latter is a lot of writing and making chronological tables.

To graduate NRC, students must complete mandatory off-campus internships in their fourth and final year. Third years attend an orientation meeting in the springtime to prepare them for the application process.

Internships begin in September, around the same time classes start. There are three periods for the internship; students can choose to remain at the same site or take up to three different internships, each lasting 3 months.

A student's internship site options will vary depending on the individual's electives, class credits, and grades.

Some internships require special technical exams and/or interviews. It is also possible that some internship sites will scout desired students in advance. This was the case for Idia, who was given several internship offers after his presentation at a cultural fair.

Each quarter, fourth years must receive an evaluation of B or higher, as well as submit a written report about their experience. A student must receive credit in at least 2 out of 3 internships in order to qualify for graduation.

There is a final exam you need to pass for graduation.

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 2 years

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the episode of heartslabyul — the contradiction of cater diamond

The Episode of Heartslabyul chapter 21 scanlations is credited to Octopotscans!

The comparison shot comes from turtlesoupscans!

Maybe it’s just me, but the manga adaptation does a great job of demonstrating how alone Cater is without explicitly drawing attention to it. A lot of the lines characters speak are directly carried over from the game, but the use of space and framing in various panels helps to convey a sense of emptiness. It’s purely visual storytelling, done and implying more without spelling it out with words.

Chapter 21 covers the period following Riddle’s Overblot; there’s lots of emphasis on reconciliation between the dorm leader and other characters: Riddle and Trey; Riddle and Yuuken, Riddle and Ace, etc. Then you also have interactions between Ace, Deuce, Yuuken, and Grim—just some good ol’ bickering between the main group of idiots 😂

For context, Cater suggests that Trey and the headmaster see Riddle to the infirmary (which explains their absence in the pages below). Then Cater says to himself that he’s thankful that Yuuken and co. stepped in to save their dorm leader, but is quick to deny that he said anything at all when asked about it. This also happens in the game, BUT LOOK AT HOW THAT SAME SCENE IS CONVEYED IN THE MANGA 😭

The “camera” pulls out to show the distance between Cater and the gang, which is actually a lot more than I thought it was when I saw the scene in the game. This distance shows us that he doesn’t feel like a part of their “group”, and neither does he feel like a part of the group that took Riddle to the infirmary earlier.

Trey and Riddle have the connection of being childhood friends, and Yuu is closer with Grim and Adeuce than they are to Cater. And yet, curiously, it was Cater himself who told Trey to go with Riddle rather than stay behind and help him clean up the aftermath of the OB attack. But despite staying behind with Yuuken and co., Cater doesn’t seem to make an effort to join in their banter when Grim eats the OB stone. Cater makes one passing comment, but for the most part he just… watches. He doesn’t get actively involved with the group, unlike Ace and Deuce who continue to loudly freak out over Grim putting things in his mouth.

Not only that, but look at how we, the audience, are seeing Cater—from the back, his face away from us, not unlike this pose from chapter 7 (after Cater throws Yuuken and co. out using his clones):

Cater’s dispersed of all his clones, turning them into a storm of playing cards. He stands alone in a garden of roses, having sent the freshmen out of Heartslabyul. Here, Cater is literally pushing people away for the purposes of the plot, but it still lines up thematically with metaphorically distancing himself from others, just as he mimics this pose in chapter 21.

Interestingly, Cater apologizes to Yuuken and co. before ejecting them. It’s nothing personal, it’s just the rules set by the dorm. Extrapolating this to chapter 21, Cater pushing everyone away from him isn’t personal or specifically discriminatory to Yuuken/Ace/Deuce/Grim either—it is Cater that is having trouble accepting others into his life, because he has yet to come to terms with himself.

What’s a little different between Cater in 7 vs 21 is that though we, the readers, are viewing Cater from the back both times, the other characters actually see him differently in 7 vs 21. In the former, the “camera” seems to imply that Cater’s back it TO Yuuken, Ace, and Deuce. He is dismissing them, telling them “bye-bye”. Cater is acting much colder towards them, even though he wears a smile as he’s banishing them from his sight. However, in chapter 21, Cater is FACING the freshmen. It’s a small but subtle difference in framing—and it indicates that, no matter how little of an improvement it may be, Cater is slowly warming up to them.

This is the contradiction of Cater Diamond, a tale told to us via visual storytelling: he wants to have deep and meaningful friendships, but stops short of putting forth the effort to obtain them. Cater mentions wishing he had a childhood friend like Trey on a few occasions. Cater implies how lonely he was as a child, never staying in one place for long enough to make any real connections. Yet Cater is seemingly ashamed of his loneliness, hiding it under a sparkly guise and clever acting. He denies his true self to his peers (Labwear vignettes) and letting embarrassment peek through when people are able to pick up on his lies (ie Trey pointing out Cater doesn’t like sweets). He won’t let himself be vulnerable to others, and he’s too scared to reach out to them himself—but surely he is capable of changing, of finally facing others.

It’s amazing that things like this are capable of being conveyed without words 😭

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