We get most of our information about Neige from Vil, who explains that he had assumed that Neige was “coasting” on his natural talent as he would never stay for rehearsals for a movie they were co-starring in together, but he later learned that Neige has lived with the students of his VDC performance group for years: “They’ve all been supporting each other without any help since long before he and I met.”
While it is never explicitly said that Neige is an orphan, Vil says, “He would do his chores, attend rehearsal, then go home and do more chores. He’d practice in what spare time he could find. And yet he’d always greet me with a cheerful, singsongy ‘good morning.’ I can’t imagine how hard he’s had it. After all, my life’s been quite different.”
(On EN Vil refers to the members of Neige’s group as “kids,” but in Book 5 it is specified that they aren’t children, but dwarves, which may be one of the various kinds of fae in the Twst universe.)
Vil says that Neige has never divulged his personal history to the press. He also donates most of his pay to charity, which he also does with the prize money that he wins from the VDC.
We first hear of Neige when Vil does a search for “Who, at this moment, is the most beautiful of all?”, which results in “Neige LeBlanche”.
During Book 5 Vil’s manager calls to offer him a role as the villain in the sequel to “mega-hit title with box office revenue topping 200 million thaumarks”, the musical “Legendary Sword”.
It is revealed that the hero of the story is to be played by Neige and Vil refuses outright, saying, “You cannot buy my feelings with money…all I want…is to stay on stage until the end of the show”.
We learn child-Neige was also the lead in the musical “King’s Road” in a role that Rook said was the first time he’d been moved to tears.
In a flashback it is revealed that 12-year-old-Vil was cast as a villain opposite Neige in a “movie adaptation of a children’s novel.”
Neige appears for the first time during Book 5 and Rook says, “His smile is entirely unlike Vil’s. It is unaffected, like a tiny flower blooming in an open field.”
One of the first things Neige says to Vil is that he’s missed him, since they haven’t worked together much since their last movie. Neige describes Vil’s voice as “incredible”, saying that he is just happy to get to hear him sing.
Neige says that the first thing they ever co-starred in was a musical drama set in a school, where Neige was the star and Vil was a student who bullied him.
When a television crew posts a promo video of NRC’s VDC group’s rehearsal dance to Magicam, Vil confirms that he is finally trending as “the most beautiful of all,” declaring, “Our flawless performance will crush you, completely and utterly.”
After seeing the comparatively low-quality performance by Neige’s group, however, Vil says, “We’ve been outplayed”.
After confirming that Neige has dethroned him through mentions of the word “beautiful” online, Vil visits Neige to offer him Epel’s apple juice, but the plan is derailed by Rook.
When asked why he would do such a thing, Vil announces it is because he realized that he can never win and he will be handling Neige on his own.
The spilled juice is transformed into a cursed mist that will immobilize all who breathe it in, according to Rook, but then he reflects, “would one glass of juice truly have such a drastic transformation, Ah…you didn’t!”.
Vil responds with “Don’t look at me with those eyes”, but it is not specified what exactly it is that Vil did (he may, however, have used his unique magic to curse the juice to kill instead of paralyze).
Jamil evacuates the coliseum by pretending to be a fan of Neige’s looking for an autograph, then using his unique magic to order Neige to entertain fans outside.
The NRC group loses first place spot to Neige by a single vote, but Vil insists they “stand tall” and “don’t forget to give our rivals a sporting round of applause”.
When Jamil reacts with surprises and asks Vil if he is simply used to losing to Neige by this point, he responds, “OF. COURSE. I’M. NOT,” saying how he wants to “walk over and kick all those Royal Sword boys right off the stage”, insisting, “someone knock me out before I unleash a tirade of verbal abuse that will mince them to shreds.”
After the NRC team loses to Neige, Vil says, “I’m always second to you”, but Neige assures him, “Maybe that’s what the numbers said. But you guys gave an amazing performance that nobody else could have pulled off. Sure, I took first at the competition…but your group is number one in the hearts of everybody who voted for you.”
(After it has been revealed that Rook voted for Neige.)
Neige takes Vil onto the stage for an encore performance of the two groups together, and Vil does not handle it well.
In Vi’s dream he is a popular film actor with Neige struggling to work as his assistant.
It is revealed that, in the world of the dream, it is Vil who has been cast as the lead in plays and films since he was a child—not as the antagonist—rather than Neige, and he is set to win a “Diamond Movie Award” for Best Actor at the age of 18, an award that Neige received in the real world at the age of 14.
Epel wonders why Neige, a source of such stress for Vil, exists in a world that exists to make him happy, and Ortho guesses that Vil’s determination and pursuit of beauty hinges heavily on the existence of his rival, Neige.
Rook says, “So the presence of someone he feels the need to beat is what motivates Vil to strive as hard as he does” and Ortho follows with, “Neige LeBlanche is too much a part of who Vil is to completely remove from the picture.”
Instead, the dream redefines Neige as someone who cannot possibly be a rival to Vil, so that Vil might easily win the Best Actor award that Neige did in reality.
Rook, however, says that “Vil would despise such a scenario more than anyone else,” as happiness without having to experience setbacks or jealousy comes at the cost of what he holds most dear: his spirit of tenacity.
After being announced as the winner of the best actor award Vil is awoken from his dream by Rook reminding him of his past roles as villains, his founding of the Film Research Club, his performance at the VDC and his role as Housewarden of Pomefiore.
The dream-Neige convinces Vil to stay asleep by tempting him with his best-actor award, saying, “You won’t have to do any rigorous training or follow any tedious skincare routines to maintain your beauty. You won’t have to ever feel upset or frustrated.”
In the deeper level of the dream world the characters discover what seems to be an alternate timeline to the VDC where Vil succeeded in poisoning Neige before he had the chance to perform. Vil dreams of winning the VDC, but Epel reminds him that they actually lost to Neige.
Rook reminds Vil of how he cried out that he could never forgive himself and of what happened on the Island of Woe, successfully awaking Vil.
The dream is swallowed into an abyss, taking Vil with it, who discovers himself in his overblotted form blaming Neige for how his hard work is never rewarded.
Vil confronts himself, saying, “My overblot was no one’s fault but my own,” but the dream-overblot insists, “You utterly loathe him and you know it! You hate that charming, beautiful, universally beloved boy, don’t you?!”
Vil reflects, “I’m so steeped in envy and resentment, there isn’t a trace of beauty to be found,” but says that he will not turn away from it any longer, and will instead accept the “nauseatingly ugly” part of himself.
The dream-overblot turns into a wrinkled old woman who says he is better of crushed beneath a boulder, together with her. Vil responds, “Then I’ll crawl my way higher from there…together with my ugly desires!,” voluntarily adopting his overblot form and defeating himself in the abyss.
Vil’s best-actor award dream resets but now Vil is awake, telling the dream-Neige that he is “nowhere near as charming, endearing…or loathsome as the real Neige.”
Vil curses the apple juice that he had been sharing with the characters populating his dream so that “Whoever tastes the cursed apple will have their blood run cold, and they will never wake again!” resulting in is possibly our first on-screen death.
Vil declares, “I shall be the one to decide who, at this exact moment, is the fairest in the land.”
Twisted Wonderland Reference Note 