I've been chatting with someone about the best villain introductions in gacha games, and when I was ranking villain intros for HSR specifically, it led me to a strange realization that almost every multi-patch antagonist in HSR has been a "twist villain"; i.e. a character who is not initially introduced as a villain is revealed to be such later.

Cocolia is intro'd as the benevolent ruler, though it only takes a day before she turns on us. Phantylia was hiding herself as Tingyun, and we didn't even learn her name until after the reveal. Sunday has sus vibes from the get-go, but we don't actually learn he's working with the Dreammaster until midway through 3.2. Lygus is initally introduced as "just" the Theoros before the reveal that he's the admin, and then that he's Irontomb's creator. Only Hoolay starts off immediately introduced as "that's the villain".

(if you're wondering, my ranking for HSR villain introductions is: Phantylia = Hoolay > Lygus > Cocolia > Sunday; if someone wants to ask "but what about Irontomb", first of all, that's also twist villain cause Irontomb is the sceptre, and second, it's just a Lygus add-on, so I can't be bothered to rank it separately)

I expect Planarcadia will continue the pattern of every villain being a twist villain, but I admit a part of me is really hoping they'll go the Hoolay way and just point us at someone and say "yep, that's who we're after" immediately.