i know i look insane right now i KNOW i do and none of this looks like it makes sense but. please listen to me yap a little bit.
first off, cater surprisingly has a line that is the EXACT statement from Through the Looking Glass about the White King, which is “nothing to be done about” as a phrase. in the official this is simply translated as “helpless” or “meaningless and worthless” but i still beleive it applies. this is also what made me go down the rabbit hole to begin with lol
second, and much more concrete evidence, cater is represented by the four of diamonds card. we have ace (ace of hearts, one) deuce (two of spades) trey (three of clovers) cater and riddle (queen of hearts, or the red queen in this theory) but the thing is, trey’s card doesn’t aline with the ascending order of roles trend. it should be the two freshmen (ace and deuce, one and two) and then a junior upperclassman (three) and THEN the vice and head housewarden (four and five) except trey is vice and he’s three. until you take this piece of lore into account— that two years ago, when the third-years were first-years, heartsabyul wasn’t governed by riddle nor trey. riddle as a second-year wouldn’t have been enrolled yet. moreover, it makes sense riddle’s still the highest in the ranks, since he’s the CURRENT picture card, with no competition. so trey’s number in his card makes sense— he wasn’t supposed to be vice, but he is currently. but that leads into my next point, being that by his card, CATER should be the vice housewarden. he was present during heartsabyul’s “century of chaos”, as a first year, and it would only take another year until riddle overthrew the previous head.
not just this, though— kings and queens also appear in alice’s game of wonderland chess.
as a queen, it only makes sense that they’re the strongest on the board. the previous housewarden was known for their proficency in fire magic, and riddle is known for his general skill and expertise in magic beyond his years. trey being his “king of hearts” figure stood much more to the side at first as well, much like how the king of hearts is not as relevant for most of alice’s journey until the end point. despite this, i’d like to note something elss— riddle is not the queen of hearts anymore, but the RED QUEEN.
there is a difference between the two, that being the queen of hearts is an ungovernable and all-consuming fury, and the red queen is an anger that is controlled and cold and used to rule. riddle is not just an ungovernable rage anymore, but also a genuinely better ruler than before, even if just as strict with heartsabyul’s 810 rules
also THANK YOU FOR 85 SUBS I LOVE YOU GUYS ❤❤❤
i made this entire theory in the span of an hour i am so sorry if any of this js incoherent
also i swear i have more than twst content but. god the characters have me in a chokehold im so sorry LOL
#2 but how i prove that cater is the white king? easy. first off, he literally has a neon flashing sign that calls him “DIAMOND KING” in the bg. hello are ppl blind /j
but ACTUALLY getting to it as well, the white king is stated to try and assist his spouse, but never be able to as he can “never catch up with her”, the same way a queen always moves faster than a king on the board. cater would try to fix the collateral damage unintentionally caused by the white queen/previous head, to no avail as only the head can choose when to hold trials or enforce rules within heartsabyul, making it difficult to be able to assist people as the vice in more ways than simply being able to sort it out without using the grand court of the dorm. as the cinderella figure, he wouldn’t have much autonomy in the matters of the dorm because he was only vice housewarden, not head housewarden, and this would mean he’d need to clean up their messes without being able to prevent them. if we go by the caterella theory, then this also alines with what we already have of his preestablished backstory, so this theory doesn’t conflict with any info we have of him so far.
two, his dream in book 7. many were confused about it because it didn’t give much personal insight on cater— with the 5th anni video out, i say that was intentional on their parts. he is the only character whose face is shown from side profile, and has his full back facing us. we’ve only seen on side of him, and not just that— we’re only seeing the back of his card. we haven’t seen his true role within heartsabyul. why else would we not know why he’d elect himself the head housewarden if we had seen him? i propose that he isn’t dissatisfied with *Riddle’s* rule in Heartsabyul, but that he believes none of this would’ve happened if he had been the one in control. if he had been the head housewarden from the get-go. he’s dissatisfied with the *White Queen’s* previous rule and how it warranted riddle to need to step in when he shouldn’t have. Tl:dr, cater’s dream was a literal power fantasy bc his power fantasy is to help people and he needs power for it
continuing, i mean to say that there has to be SOME reason we only got this lore of heartsabyul in cater’s dream and nobody else’s. not even riddle’s brings it up at all? which makes sense but i needed to rationalise why cater only had it, in which means he HAD to have been involved. this ties back into leona’s theory of cater and trey; wanting to “overthrow the regime and start a revolution”. except i don’t think trey nor riddle were ever involved in cater’s plan. see, cater’s ssr platinum card features alice, whom he mocks as “a poor thing” who “only had herself to blame, for opening his mouth and being nosy where she shouldn’t have been”. people have mentioned on several occasions that ace not only is another card soldier, but also has alice inspo. you know what ace is known for? lies, deceit, and general disloyalty. it’s possible cater’s dream presents the way it does because it’s the outcome of his initial plan— to duel the previous head and take their place, fixing the dorm and gaining all the power he ever wanted in the process. a coup de tat, an overthrowing of the regime, a revolution— a betrayal in the form of checkmate. except… riddle was the one who ended up duelling and winning against the previous head instead. in fact, their overthrowing could’ve resulted in them fleeing— the white queen is stated to flee after alice’s promotion of pawn to queen goes awry. i need to add, though— where the red king and queen are the rulers of heartsbyul here because they won, the original story has the white king and queen rule in victory. this is another layer i need to unpack— yet again, twisted wonderland has twisted another story.
firstly, alice initially starts on the white chess team. however, our alice here is ace, and being under the red queen himself— would be a RED pawn, not a white one. this means that we need to inverse the previous roles of the story— this time, the WHITE QUEEN is the one who is captured (by the red queen/riddle, not alice/ace anymore) and the WHITE KING is put into checkmate, which roughly translates to both of them are dethroned. the current ruling party then ends up being the red, not white. another thing i noticed about cater is this— he states himself that white/light colours are his thing, but is shown to be wearing mainly black in his dream. (yes designs are relevant now i mean it) this could be because of two reasons: one, it’s a design to contrast riddle’s pristine white uniform and the ways they rule, and two— he subconsciously affiliates it with a chessboard. usually, chess is played with a team of black and white, and the white queen in his eyes is not fit to rule. he gravitates towards the opposite, but the thing is. he presents in black, not red. this could be a nod to his previous intent to deceive and betray the white queen, since white is most easy to see stains on while black can be used to cover up stains (intent). HOWEVER, this could also be the way it manifests because he’s not playing cards like the others, but chess (cards with red and black colours, chess with a white and black board). since the dreams make the person unaware they’re in a dream, all of this was subconscious on cater’s end, hence why it presents as black instead of red. as cards are segmented into cards of black and red, cater being dressed in black would represent his current role within heartsabyul. it’s not only that anymore though, but also keep in mind— alice also ends up checkmating the red king. here, that would be (ace) checkmating (cater) as the red pawn and white king. as deuce and trey are black while riddle and ace are red, cater being dressed in black in his dream could ALSO foreshadow riddle and ace potentially opposing him, causing his reveal as vice housewarden, where trey and deuce may take a more passive role. but that’s just a theory, A GAME THEORY—
i know i look insane right now i KNOW i do and none of this looks like it makes sense but. please listen to me yap a little bit.
#1 first off, cater surprisingly has a line that is the EXACT statement from Through the Looking Glass about the White King, which is “nothing to be done about” as a phrase. in the official ssr halloween card (nothing but lies/what a load of garbage) this is simply translated as “helpless” or “meaningless and worthless” but i still believe it applies. this is also what made me go down the rabbit hole to begin with lol
second, and much more concrete evidence, cater is represented by the four of diamonds card. we have ace (ace of hearts, one) deuce (two of spades) trey (three of clovers) cater and riddle (queen of hearts, or the red queen in this theory) but the thing is, trey’s card doesn’t aline with the ascending order of roles trend. it should be the two freshmen (ace and deuce, one and two) and then a junior upperclassman (three) and THEN the vice and head housewarden (four and five) except trey is vice and he’s three. until you take this piece of lore into account— that two years ago, when the third-years were first-years, heartsabyul wasn’t governed by riddle nor trey. riddle as a second-year wouldn’t have been enrolled yet. moreover, it makes sense riddle’s still the highest in the ranks, since he’s the CURRENT picture card, with no competition. so trey’s number in his card makes sense— he wasn’t supposed to be vice, but he is currently. but that leads into my next point, being that by his card, CATER should be the vice housewarden. he was present during heartsabyul’s “century of chaos”, as a first year, and it would only take another year until riddle overthrew the previous head.
does the king and queen talk remind you of something? i’ll get to the point— it’s also in alice’s game of wonderland chess.
as a queen, it only makes sense that they’re the strongest on the board. the previous housewarden was known for their proficency in fire magic, and riddle is known for his general skill and expertise in magic beyond his years. trey being his “king of hearts” figure stood much more to the side at first as well, much like how the king of hearts is not as relevant for most of alice’s journey until the end point. despite this, i’d like to note something elss— riddle is not the queen of hearts anymore, but the RED QUEEN.
there is a specified different between the two, that being the queen of hearts is an ungovernable and all-consuming fury, and the red queen is an anger that is controlled and cold and used to rule. riddle is not just an ungovernable rage, not anymore at least, but also a genuinely better ruler than before, even if just as strict with heartsabyul’s 810 rules, because he’s not nearly as much of a nitpick and control freak. the red king is mostly inanimate for most of alice’s game as well, which i see as a representation of trey’s conflict aversion and guilt complex leading to his lack of action for riddle’s previous tyranny now developing into a more managable governing nature.
where riddle’s rule was tyrannical and terrifying, the previous heartsabyul is stated to be the exact opposite— chaotic, messy, unmanaged and neglected, all things considered. people would fight in the halls, the place was barely maintained, the garden wasn’t well tended to and the walls were covered in grafitti. in idia’s words, the previous housewarden of heartsabyul was something along the lines of “rules? ethics? what’s that? is it tasty?” as if they’re ignorant, or a fool. and you know who else is stated to be a fool in character? the WHITE QUEEN.
in “through the looking glass” the teams are divided as if chess, yes, but not by black and white— by RED and white. red being heartsabyul’s signature colour, white being its secondary. the white queen is stated to be “characteristically stupid”, making pointless moves at pivotal points in the game that alice needs to make new moves for on her behalf to actually have a chance of winning. like the white queen was an idiot and i do not say this as a loaded insult. she was genuinely a fool LOL,, what i’m getting at is that it’s possible (i say possible none of fhis is confirmed) that the previous housewarden was the white queen, who was ignorant of his choices having collateral to the dorm and not knowing how to properly rule, resulting in the dorm’s chaos and havoc ensuing due to neglect. this is where cater comes in— remember, he’s implied to be twisted off of cinderella. so it only makes sense that as cinderella was her sisters’ and mother’s personal servant, cater would be both his sisters’ and his housewarden’s errand boy. though i don’t mean in the sense that the head housewarden FORCED him to clean up after their messes like his sisters expected of him, but he did so out of a concern for the dorm. we know he cares about these people, even if he’s prone to shirking work and not being all that personal with them.