Deuce, Intelligence (pt1)

Deuce says “going to class is a fun new experience. In middle school, I was, um…absent a lot. For various reasons,” and in Book 5 we learn why.

Deuce explains, “For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a slow learner. I’d study hard, but my grades always stayed below average. I wanted an excuse for why I did so poorly in school…so over time, I started taking the easy way out. “I’m not even trying Of course my grades are bad.”

Deuce says he didn’t see the point in school back in those days and seems aware of his limitations, saying, “I’m neither book smart or a clever thinker,” and explaining that he found classes “boring and stifling” because he couldn’t understand the material: “And how could I? I was always cutting classes.” 

Deuce has voice lines of, “I know I’m not completely useless, but when people try to throw a lot of information at me all at once, I can’t handle it” and “I’m not very good at studying, so if it were up to me, I wouldn’t. But I can’t run away from it, either. I need to tough it out as best I can.”

(Trey: “Deuce was begging me to help him study. I’m glad he’s committed, at least.”)

We often hear of Deuce struggling with his classes at NRC, with Riddle saying he had to take a remedial test in flight class after falling off his broom.

Deuce says his written exam grades “aren’t great” and we see him struggle in class with Crewel, with Grim saying that both he and Deuce had to take an extra class with Crewel because an answer Deuce gave on his homework was so wrong that “Crewel nearly yelled (their) ears off.” 

Crewel cautions Deuce about failing a final exam, which will bar him from track meet competitions.

This worries Deuce, who says he has been so focused on track that he has barely been studying. It is possible that he did not fail the exam, however, receiving an award in another vignette for his achievements at a track meet.

Deuce also seems to get poor grades in art, saying that class with Vargas is a subject that he is good at.

Ace says that Deuce is “barely staying above a failing grade,” but with Azul’s study guide of Book 3 he earns an 88 on a test, saying, “I never thought l’d see the day I scored over 80.”

Regretting his contract with Azul Deuce says he will never do it again, even if it means failing. Jack responds, “You’re supposed to say you’ll work hard to ensure you stop failin’ altogether.”

Deuce will sometimes reference homework he should be doing, and he fails to formulate a potion during the Latern event despite Crewel’s explicit instructions, saying, “I’m pretty bad at following multi-step processes. I always get the steps mixed up in the middle.” (Jack and Kalim also fail to craft the potion.)

We see Deuce struggle with basic math, taking two hours to solve two problems within thirty pages’ worth of questions.

When Cater asks if he didn’t learn the formulas in middle school, Deuce responds with “I…guess I learned it…at some point”, leading to Ace teasing him for not even knowing what it was that he learned.

Deuce is often teased by the other students for being less academically inclined, such as during Phantom Bride when Ace says that he wants to “buckle down and take my studies seriously. I can’t let romance distract me.”

Deuce agrees, and Jack follows up with “When even a student as bad as Deuce is saying it, you know we’re on to something.”

Deuce struggles with color-changing magic in Book one and Cater observes, “You’re even less competent than I thought,” and Jack repeatedly calls him a dunce.

In a vignette Deuce attempts to resurrect beansprouts by speaking to them, only to be teased by Ruggie and Vil both. Deuce wonders aloud, “Am I really as dense as all that, though…? Ace gets on my case like that a lot, too…”

It seems these comments bother Deuce, as we learn in Book 5 when takes Epel to scream at the ocean and exclaims, “I’m not a smart guy and I constantly miss basic cues! All my old delinquent habits are still there! I’ve got a hair-trigger temper! But I’m trying my best, okay?! You all think you can make fun of me, Ace?! Well, think again! I’m gonna change! You can count on that!”

Deuce says that in the next year he wants to “study hard and be in the top 50–no, top 25 scorers on the next exam!,” with the specific goal of becoming top of the class in defensive magic.

We have multiple examples of Deuce struggling even outside of class: it seems that he was under the impression that eggs used in cooking can become chicks, and he repeatedly fails to follow conversations during Halloween.

Deuce says that he got lost in Heartslabyul’s rose maze a lot when he first enrolled, but as of Book 7 he gets lost only sometimes (Leona: “That ‘sometimes’ is concerning”)

When forced to improvise a an explanation as to why he is in the company of Leona and Diasomnia students in Cater’s dream, Deuce says that they decided to get together for tea (Leona: “Couldn’t that idiot have come up with literally any other cover story?”)

Riddle seems offended that non-NRC students would not know even 100 of the Queen of Hearts’ rules, and Deuce admits he doesn’t, either. 

Grim says that Deuce once hung up the letters to a “Happy Anniversary” banner in the wrong order.

A shop owner in Deuce’s hometown denies him entry to his workshop, suspecting that he intends to cause trouble. Ortho goes to Deuce’s defense with, “Do you really think Deuce is just acting polite in order to make you drop your guard? I promise, Deuce is not smart enough to think of a plan like that, let alone pull it off!”

Azul explains their battle against the firelotuses of Glorious Masquerade as “essentially a chess game…And who would risk their king to take a pawn in the first few turns?”

Deuce apologizes for failing to understand the analogy, and Riddle apologizes for Deuce.

Deuce might struggle with books in particular: all the books within the library of his dream world are blank, to his surprise, because he has not read any of them.

Sebek asks if he has never read a single book from start to finish in his entire life and Deuce has nothing to say in his own defense.

Ortho, however, manages to find a book that seems full of information: “Card Soldier Stories,” a collection of tales about the card soldiers who served the Queen of Hearts.

Deuce explains, “I made my mom read me those stories almost every night at bedtime when I was a kid.Once I learned to read, I kept going back to that book again and again.”

Deuce declares, “These books might all be blank now, but one day they’ll all be filled. That’s how much reading I’ll do!”

When Kalim talks about books without illustrations being hard to read, Deuce agrees. During the lantern event Jack comments on how they may be trapped in the school library for months and Deuce responds, “I can’t stay in here that long! Spending months surrounded by this many books would end up overloading my brain!”

Riddle asks, “How much of an aversion to books do you have?!”

Deuce attempts to read while they are there but falls asleep, saying, “I read some of it, but I didn’t get very far…”

Deuce says that acting without thinking things through is his biggest weakness, which we see on display in the prologue when he throws Ace at a chandelier to catch Grim only to later reflect, “I probably should have come up with a way to soften your landing after you caught him…”

The example that Deuce gives is when, after hearing that Trey was intending to go out and buy cheese, he volunteered to go instead and went to the school store without asking what kind of cheese Trey actually wanted. He returned to the dorm with bite-sized cheese only to learn that Trey actually wanted cream cheese.

It is for this reason that Deuce selects Scarabia as the dorm he would go to if he had to transfer out of Heartslabyul, saying, “if I could get a handle on Scarabia’s spirit of mindfulness, it might help me screw up less…at least, that’s what I imagine would happen!

Despite this appreciation for Scarabia’s spirit of mindfulness when Jamil encourages Deuce to pack certain things for their trip to Fleur City, just to be safe, Deuce calls him paranoid.

Deuce does not bring anything that Jamil recommends with him to Fleur City (except for an extra bag, which breaks).

Ultimately Jamil uses the same scarf, soap and cotton swabs that he recommended that Deuce bring along with him in order to get a chocolate stain out of Deuce’s shirt during the trip.

Deuce says he wishes he were able to think ahead during White Rabbit Fes.

In another example, Deuce gets Floyd a “Blastcycle Passenger Ride Ticket” for his birthday, failing to specify how many times the ticket can be redeemed or that it was only meant for Floyd to use: loopholes that Floyd seems to intend to take advantage of.

Even during the White Rabbit Fes event Deuce’s bully observes, “You don’t think through decisions much, do ya…”

Azul also cautions Deuce about needing to think before he acts, or he is “going to make a terrible mistake one day.”

In Book 5 Deuce decides that his “hard head” might actually be his strength, though it is also what frustrates him about himself: “I’m not smart enough to think about a lot of things at the same time. But that also means that once I put my mind to something, I can make a beeline for the goal without stopping…my weakness can be my strength.”