k but something that fucks me up so much is that while each major boss is textually representative of their respective member of the Great Seven, Riddle distinctly is the only one not to have a little coffin icon reflective of that

Literally each other major boss has a coffin icon directly representing some physical component of the Great Seven – Leona has Scar's face, Azul has one of Ursula's tentacles, Jamil has Jafar's staff, Vil has Queen Grimhilde's crown, Idia has the lil clasp on Hades' robes, and Malleus has Maleficent's dragon form. But Riddle? Riddle has a rose.

The Queen of Hearts does not have a rose featured anywhere in her design.

This would be easy to brush off as a stylistic choice if it weren't for one major issue: Riddle very consistently wears his little crown pin in every school uniform he has, with the sole exception of his ceremonial robes. Making his icon a rose doesn't make sense when he already has an element of the Queen of Hearts' design directly worked into his everyday outfits. Sure, maybe they didn't want to double up by giving both Riddle and Vil crown icons…but that's not a very strong argument tbh.

In Alice in Wonderland, the Queen's roses are treated in a very specific way—that is, like fancy garden plants. They are objects to be carefully maintained and shown off to make the owner look better. The owner's wishes are paramount, even if it's to the detriment of the plants (such as painting them red). Riddle's mom does not seem to view her child as a person, let alone a person with basic emotional needs. He's simply a trophy meant to make her look better. He is, effectively, a walking trophy garden. And he maintains this trait even as he plays out the role of the Queen of Hearts.

ik people complained a lot about Trey's Doodle Suit being localized as Paint The Roses, but it really does fit his situation a lot better. In the song, the card soldiers acknowledge that painting the roses red, while it appeases the queen's demands, has sealed the roses' doom in the process. Likewise, though Trey routinely busts ass to placate Riddle, he knows that coddling the guy like this is not actually helping him; all he's accomplishing is allowing his friend to further ostracize himself from their peers.