About Twist Villains & how good ones work

I've probably driven the fact that I don't agree with Cozy Glow being made a twist villain; and just a villain in general; into the ground so many darn times at this point, that I could probably mention that I don't agree with Cozy Glow being a villain that longtime fans of mine would instantly know what it is I'm referring to without me needing to state the why behind it for the like the nine thousandth time. I highly doubt I've mentioned my argument & reasoning behind it nine thousand times at this point, but then again, considering how many times I keep having to say, "I don't think Cozy Glow should have been a villain" and then have to explain why, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if at this point, I HAVE somehow mentioned it over nine thousand times. The only upside there, is that it's become part of an overused internet meme.

Maybe if there was a season where there could've been more of a noticible shift for Cozy Glow to be a twist villain instead of this out of nowhere sudden shift in character in the season 8 finale THEN I wouldn't be saying these things to begin with. But when I look at what we did get, I can't help but get upset because how Cozy Glow was handled is NOT how one does a good twist villain. A good twist villain is built up, doing things that would seem as good things at first, before suddenly starting to do more devious underhanded things without anyone catching onto said behavior until AFTER the big reveal. And that's just the first way of how to do a good twist villain. Another way is something akin to Junko Enoshima from the Danganronpa series where in the first game, it seems she gets killed off early being the second person who gets killed, though its for breaking the rules and not anything else, but later you find out that it was really her twin sister posing as her, and that the real Junko Enoshima has been the mastermind behind the killing game all along. As such, Junko Enoshima being a Twist Villain actually makes sense, as the player base expects her to have outlived her usefulness to the plot as a whole only to find out later that she's been more relevent to the plot itself all along as it works for the kind of game Danganronpa presents itself as. And then after someone plays through the first game, and then the second game, they might be interested in hearing more about what exactly happened that made the world inside the game become like this. And for those people, there exists the Anime of Danganronpa 3 which has three arcs to it, though the third one only has the one episode and is more like an ending of the story arc that was built up with the first two games and the connected game of "Ultra Despair Girls" which is more of a third person shooter/puzzle game. In one of the Arcs of this anime Danganronpa 3 known as the Despair Arc, one can witness the EXACT methods Junko Enoshima used to create the biggest most despair inducing event in human history for their own eyes and the essential characters related all of this. Connected to the greater lore are two stories, one featuring a moment within the Despair Arc that ties up more loose ends, and another featuring characters related to Mukaro Ikusabi, Junko's Fraturnal Twin sister as they are related to something she did for Junko before they arrived to Hopes Peak itself.

In the other main arc, the Future Arc, it's an arc that takes place after the events of the second game, and is considered the final part of the story arc that ends in the climatic one-episode arc of the Hope Arc which is the official ending of this specific universe. FYI here, Danganronpa V3 takes place in an AU version of Danganronpa where everything I've mentioned is considered just a story, and has been running for fifty two seasons prior to V3 without fail. But all this is beside my point here. My point is that in the context of the Danganronpa universe; being the stuff I've mentioned outside of V3; having Junko seemingly getting killed off early only for said character to end up being the major figurehead behind everything later on in the story arc works for Danganronpa because it's a murder mystery style of game. So Junko using this form of a Twist Villain where a character who gets killed off early ends up being the leading cause of the entire in-universe story in the context of Danganronpa works because they set it up properly: Waiting until the last possible moments to reveal be like "oh yeah, this character who got killed off early on is really alive and is the mastermind behind everything" is another type of Twist Villain and Junko pulls this type of Twist Villain off.

There's also the Twist Villain who is more patient and plays the long game. This is a different type of twist villain then one I'll talk about later. This type of twist villain does more on the ground work then another I'll mention later on in this post. While the two will blend together sometimes, here I'm more referring to twist villains along the lines of Quercus Alba, someone plays the long game, keeping a facade not unlike another type of twist villain, but unlike that one, someone like Quercus Alba hides more in the shadows but stills commits acts of villainry. The whole overarching plot of Miles Edgworth Investigations 1 is the fact that every case ties into an international smuggling ring, even Case 4 which takes place in the past ties back into this international smuggling ring. And the one in charge of said smuggling ring is none other then Quercus Alba, who unfortunately when you first manage to confront and prove that he is the ringmaster behind the smuggling ring itself, has diplomatic immunity. Yet he is very patient, even after his diplomatic immunity is stripped from him, he still is very patient and is very hard to make fold. Like I said though, this type of twist villain; the Patient Twist Villain; and another one do blend together, but unlike the other type of twist villain, Patient Twist Villains do more grunt work then the final type of twist villain. Even going so far as to help out someone that works for them which is something that type of villain will never do.

So far, I've talked about the Patient Twist Villain; the one who sits and waits to reveal themselves; and the Fake-Out Kill Twist Villain, the one who is a character who seemingly gets killed early only to end up really alive and being the real mastermind. The last type of Twist Villain is the hardest to pull off, but if done right, can be one of the most memorable because of it, and I believe this is the type that the writers were going for with Cozy Glow. This type of Twist Villain I like to call the Puppeteer Twist Villain. The Puppeteer Twist Villain is a villain who hides their vile deeds behind some kind of mask, always appearing early on in a story as a meek and timid person; think along the same kind of meek and timidness as early Fluttershy where they are someone who is either very shy, or is someone who stutters constantly. However, like I mentioned before, this is a mask the villain is using as a ruse to gain the trust of the in-universe characters and while the player might see them coming yet still be surprised by the how and why of it, when that mask is shattered, their personality tends to do a complete one-eighty and suddenly show themselves to be very crafty, let alone intelligent enough to go toe to toe with the greatest minds out there. For me, there are two Twist Villians that fit this catagory, being Matt Engaurd and Simon Keyes. With Matt Enguard, for the first half of Case 4 of "Justice For All", he acts super goofy and seems like a pretty nice guy overall. However, in the second half of this case, once you as Pheonix show him all the evidence that proves Matt Enguard had hired Shelly Dekiller to kill the victim of that case Juan Corrida, this facade breaks and what you are met with is someone whose very obviously evil and is very intelligent, making him good at how he presents himself.

But it's Simon Keyes; the other person I mentioned; who takes the concept of a Puppeteer Twist Villain and cranks that definition up to an eleven. When you first meet Simon Keyes in Investigations 2 during Case 2 of that game, Edgeworth becomes Raymond Shield's assitant for the case and works to clear Simon Keyes of being the one who murdered Horace Knightly; the culprit from the first case of the game. While you are able to proove that Simon Keyes was not the one who had actually committeed the murder itself, you find out later during the fifth case when Simon reveals his true nature, that he had simply given Horace Knightly something that would've triggere the case 2 culprit; Patricia Roland; into killing off Horace Knightly and trying to frame Sirhan Dogen for the crime. Simon Keyes also did some manipulating to get Key Faraday framed for murder of Jill Crane, so Edgeworth would take down Blase Debaste; the head of the P.I.C. and formally a head prosecutor; for that same murder because of actions from a long time ago.

Simon Keyes proves to be intelligent as well, seemingly having an answer for just about everything it seems like at first, and even after he explains things, because of the way he did things for these things, the most he can be charged with is kidnapping and forgery, and even that wouldn't get him if at all. This is because of a loophole he happily expliots as he only manipulated actions that lead to murder, and outside of hiring Shelly Dekiller to assassinate a fake president; which even that falls flat because Shelly Dekiller then seeks to try and kill Simon Keyes after the assassin discovers the truth about the Zheng Fa president; there is nothing from these cases that he can be charged on. The whole "Murder by proxy" only really works if someone literally says to someone else to kill someone, and becaue Shelly Dekiller refuses to say who his client is, that card is off the table at the moment of the final confrontation with Simon Keyes. However, it's his murder of the fake president mentioned earlier and the evidence that proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt that finally gets him cornered. This guy is THAT good and he managed to hide his tracks very well at that. He just didn't cover absolutely all of his bases and was ultimatly caught. As stated earlier, Simon Keyes takes the concept of being a Puppeteer Type of Twist Villain and cranks it up to eleven and hopefully I've managed to explain exactly HOW he had managed this well enough.

All of this is to showcase how GOOD Twist Villains can be when the writers actually give a rat's ass about making a good twist villain. Because as of late, twist villains just haven't been written well. Hans the Prince is just one example of a terribly written twist villain. Hans the Prince tries to take the same approach as the Patient Twist Villain and fails horribly. And Cozy Glow I believe was meant to take the same approuch as Simond Keyes where she's the Puppeteer Twist Villain but again, the way it was written and produced FAILS ON THAT FRONT as well. She's most certainly not trying to be the same kind of twist villain as Junk Enoshima which is the Fake Out Kill Twist Villain and the way she is presented reminds me more of a Puppeteer Twist Villain where she tries to manipulate others into doing what she wants, and this is proven fact when she gets the entire school of friendship to chain Chancellor Neighsay up. She's not one to do dirty work herself unless it's subtle like with the magic drain, and instead, she manages to manipulate others into doing her dirty work for her. That is the kind of thing Simon Keyes managed to do with Shelly Dekiller, Patricia Roland, and even Blaise Debeste to a Degree. He even managed to manipulate Miles Edgeworth for the longest time too, just to make sure it was Patricia Roland who got what was coming to her so that his overall plans wouldn't come to a screeching halt.

So Cozy Glow is very obviously meant to be a Puppeteer Twist Villain, as she manipulates others into doing things for her. There's just one problem with this: THIS STILL GOES AGAINST EVERYTHING FROM THE EPISODE I'VE BROUGHT UP A LOT IN REGARDS TO THE COUNTERARGUEMENT FOR COZY GLOW BEING A VILLAIN IN THE FIRST PLACE! If Cozy Glow was a true Puppeteer Twist Villain like she was meant to be the whole time, then why in "Marks for Effort" would she ever apologize for what she did? A real Puppeteer Twist Villain in that situtation where the CMC got banned from interacting with the school and it's students would've been like "well that didn't work, now I need to try and find different allies to have in my back-pocket". If Cozy Glow was a True Puppeteer, she would've just stopped right then and there. But she didn't. Instead, she came clean with what she did, and apologized for it. A true Puppeteer Twist Villain would've tried to manipulate somepony or someceature else into being her allies rather then stick with trying to get the CMC into the School of Friendship. A true Puppeteer Twist villain wouldn't have given a damn about the outcome. But with how Cozy Glow reacted, she obviously cared enough for the Cutie Mark Crusaders to come clean with what she had done wrong. And you cannnot convince me that it was to her benefit to do this as a Puppeteer Twist Villain because it isn't. If anything, it goes against EVERYTHING A VILLAIN IS SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE FIRST PLACE PERIOD.

Again, maybe if there was an additional season where we saw more of Cozy Glow with the CMC and the rest of the cast, where it would become more obvious as to why she SPECIFICALLY wanted the CMC on her side more than anypony or anycreature else, and also things going wrong around the school in her presence but no one bothering to pay any attention to it, then maybe in the season finale when the mask comes off, THEN I wouldn't be using "Marks for Effort" as a counterargument. As I've stated several times: We got what we got, and what we got made zero sense. Everything that happens in "Marks for Effort" runs against everything a villain should be about in general. I get this is supposed to be a kids show, but they don't even bother to give Cozy Glow proper back-story or motivation. The writers were like "let's make an anti-Twilight out of Cozy Glow at the last fucking possible minute" just so they could have a villain in Season 8 when Season 9 was going to be their final aired season. And if there was a season 10, then I doubt Season 8 would've even had a villain to begin with. School Raze feels very rushed no matter how many times I rewatch it, and Season 9 just feels like the writers through everything they could against the wall to see what stuck, and considering how even now I DON'T appreciate the last minute addition of Scootaloo suddenly having family, and try to do something to have her be related to Rainbow Dash, you can understand that I am VERY frustrated with Season 9 as a whole.

Everything I've mentioned here could've been rectified easily with a tenth aired season. So, at the end of the day, I just do not agree with many of the last-minute decisions that were taken just because season nine was the final aired season. Pinkie Pie getting together with Cheese Sandwich however, is not one of those decisions I will argue against making; Cheese Sandwich seems like the only person who would even be able to keep up with Pinkie Pie as it is. And then Fluttershy getting together with Discord is another understandable decision I can get behind, though I am not a full backer of Fluttercord and would much prefer Fluttershy getting together with a different male character, because the cast is so limited without introducing some last-minute stallion for Fluttershy to fall in love with (which would've not sat well with me and then I would've actually become more of a Fluttercord shipper), at least I can tolerate Fluttercord because it's a Beauty and the Beast type of thing and that I can support. It's why the ship is even in my supported ships in the first place, though only in the strange case of a tolerable ship I write about for plot purposes only.

That's beside the point. The point is that Cozy Glow is a failed Twist Villain is every which way, no matter what you try to say to me. Like I said, MAYBE if more time went into her being a twist villain, then I wouldn't argue about it so much. But with what was given to us, there is no way I can accept Cozy Glow as a villain. And nothing anyone tries to say to me will change my mind on that. The main reason though; and I have to make this clear; as to why I think Cozy Glow was meant to be a Puppeteer Twist Villain and not a Patient Twist Villain, is because she doesn't do any actual grunt work. Even when she's together with the Legion of Doom, the most she does is grab the bell, and that's after she has Tirek and Chrysalis enable her to get it. Again, she only does things if she has to, such as grabbing the bell or attacking Twilight head-on so she and the Legion of Doom can hope to capture the main six. Outside of these instances, she doesn't do grunt work, and often times, is comfortable taking a back-set with everything as she tries to play a much bigger mind-game then the other two villains of Chrysalis and Tirek. Speaking of those two, it's almost funny how the youngest member is more of the manipulating and pupeteer verity, Tirek is more of the hand-on, all out type, and Chrysalis completes things with being the patient one. The trio seems to bounce off each other very well if you ask me. My point here is, Chrysalis falls more into being patient and doing grunt work as her first plan is all about her doing the heavy lifting alone with no changeling drones supporting her. When she hatches her next plan, it's a lot more subtle, but no less long-term.

That's why Chrysalis is actually a good twist believe it or not: She was being patient with her first plan, and she even did all the grunt work herself. In a way, what she does with her first plan is more of a Patient Twist Villain archtype like I was saying earlier. That's the kind of thing I was trying to say with Alba, where she will do grunt work more often than not, if her first plan is to be believed. It's why her second plan still works, as she knows she can't pull the same trick twice and get away with it, so she has to be more covert the second go around, and why she doesn't do grunt work the second time around as the ponies would EXPECT her to do grunt work, not any changeling drones.