chara16

[chara16]

Noelle but she’s praying to be forgiven for what happened during snowgrave

Originally Kris was supposed to be in the drawing but I hated it

[chara16]

they're everything to me btw

[chara16]

in your post about susie (which i absolutely adore) you mention ralsei's mischaracterisation as a sweetheart and how hes awkward and stomps all over everyones feelings and boundaries and how he doesnt want to... ive actually never noticed that part about him (stomping on feelings) and id love to know more about your perception of him :D

oh! hm...

ralsei is an interesting character, because calling him a sweetheart isn't an entirely incorrect statement, y'know? he's a good kid. he wants to be kind and he wants to do the right thing. buuuuuut... he also tries to be so unobtrusive, so demure, and ever-so-agreeable because he wants to be liked. he wants friends. he masks a huge portion of his true feelings and personality so that he is more... appealing. likeable. there are a lot of things he'll do—a lot of morals that he'll set aside—to make a friend.

and just to clarify, he is absolutely not a bad person for being this way. he's a kid. and he's been alone for his whole life :( i don't know if castle town really has a library full of fairytales and other stories that he read to pass the time, but i like to think that there is (because thinking about him with nothing to do for years on end is depressing), and that would have been his only exposure to like... anything. of course he's going to walk out into the world with some very strange expectations. i think it's remarkable, actually, that he's already exercising the maturity and open-mindedness required to start unlearning this warped mindset.

but. while he's not a bad person for it, i do think it makes him disingenuous. and he tends to take his pacifism a little bit too far, like "i think killing people and throwing your child off the roof of a castle is wrong, but, oh... this person thinks it's okay... um... well, that's alright! maybe we can talk and be friends anyway? let's not let a difference in opinion get in the way of friendship ^^'' ...?" rather than standing firmly by his ideals and defending them. but he's learning. he'll get there.

he has a mischievous and a (mostly) playfully rude streak. he takes to susie's sarcasm lessons like a fish to water. as he continues to grow and he sees more of the world, i think he'll start to show the less "savory" aspects of personality more often. i think he has a bit of a temper. i think he's judgmental and not half as patient as you might think. i think... he is a teenager who has been entrusted with the fate of the world.

(continued under the cut ^^)

more likely than not, ralsei is kris's old horn headband. (my friend mich made a very good post explaining this whole idea; you should take a look >:]) so... he's the person that baby kris wished they could be, the child they believe their family deserves, but the headband also represents a little bit more than that. the headband is a representation of kris's identity issues, and their inability to force themself to be the picture perfect dreemurr child—the discomfort they felt at the idea, even though they were so sure that it was the right thing to do.

i think it stands to reason that ralsei inherited all that mess as well, and he isn't any more fond of being a golden poster child than kris is. but up until now, he thought that he had no choice. spending that afternoon alone with susie was integral to his character development, because susie is an amazing person, friend, and hero. but she doesn't have to suppress her personality and opinions and emotions to be any of those things; she's just. susie. and that's wonderful. ralsei is starting to realize that he can just be... ralsei. once he figures out who that really is.

speaking of susie, that's who i was referring to when i said he stomps all over other people's feelings. it didn't hit me until i replayed chapter 1 after chapter 2's release, but ralsei is. surprisingly harsh towards her. he goes about it in a very ralsei-like way, yes, BUT...

[ID: four of ralsei's textboxes. they read: "Ummm, Susie...? Not to downplay your contributions, but... You... didn't actually help at all. You only made everything WORSE by attacking it." end ID.]

in this scene, susie is really proud of herself. which is rare. unheard of, even. and ralsei immediately cuts her down. he's not, like, wrong. susie could have done a better job of listening, and attacking the k.round DID make things worse. but she's not wrong either. the k.round really was violent. susie wasn't fighting back for funsies. she felt threatened.

the same goes for the troops ralsei accuses her of "terrorizing." the entire card army is extremely disinterested in fighting, but they follow their orders all the same. at this point in time, all susie wants to do is go home. she's stressed out and scared. and when a scared kid who has been given a magical ax sees an army of weird creatures march towards her with violent intent, how do you expect her to respond .

look at it from susie's perspective: she is absolutely ecstatic to have beaten such a formidable enemy, together with her new teammates, and notice that when lancer calls her a hero in this scene, she doesn't immediately protest. but then one of her teammates jumps in and tells her she made everything worse and didn't help at all...

i think ralsei really, really hurt her right here. i don't know how he could have phrased this in a way that wouldn't have hurt, but. like. ralsei attempts to show her how to ACT exactly one time. and then he gives up on her. (it's worth noting that he'll give up on teaching kris very quickly as well; he is not patient.) if he hadn't given up immediately, maybe this conversation wouldn't have had to occur at all.

so susie's already pretty fucking hurt. but then ralsei drops this bombshell:

[ID: four of ralsei's textboxes. they read: "Susie... Whether you like it or not... You're a hero. One with the power to bring peace to the future. Could you please start... acting like one?" end ID.]

ouch. and this is a responsibility that susie doesn't even want. she wants to go home. and—you know what? she doesn't have to put up with this. she doesn't have to put up with being insulted and dragged through the mud the way she's so used to in the real world. especially when there's another person right there that appreciates her contributions and thinks that she's cool.

like no duh this is what causes her to switch to lancer's team. the good guys haven't been very Good to her. and of course ralsei didn't do this intentionally. he would Never. but i don't think he's aware of how much he hurt her. (in my brain, this is something they talked about and worked out while exploring cyber city. it's water under the bridge now.)

ralsei isn't a bad person. none of the kiddos are bad people. and he's not secretly evil and is just manipulating everyone or whatever either i am so sick of catching glimpses of that kind of theory he's like 15. but he has a lot to learn. he's not perfect. he's awkward and he's going to make more mistakes and he's going to hurt his friends' feelings sometimes as he tries to figure all of this out. and that's okay. that's just what growing up is.

the end. take a silly doodle 💞

[ID: susie approaching ralsei, who is in the middle of reading a book titled "How 2 be Ur Own Person In 10 Easy Steps." she says, "Yo, Ralsei. Can I ask you about something?" ralsei looks up from his book and says, "Yeah? Fuck?" susie then exclaims, "RALSEI?!" with a surprised, but delighted, expression. ralsei lifts one hand up to his face, blushing and smiling cutely. he says, "I'm rude now!" end ID.]

[chara16]

if susie found out ralsei doesn't have a SOUL she'd be like "haha fuckin loser. doesnt have a SOUL and still manages to be the biggest softie alive. lmao. fuckin dweeb."

[chara16]

Not “Only my reading of canon is correct” or “Interpretations are subjective and all valid” but a secret third thing, “More than one interpretation can be valid but there’s a reason your English teacher had you cite quotes and examples in your papers, you have to have a strong argument that your interpretation is actually supported by the text or it is just wrong and I’m fine with telling you it’s wrong, actually.”

[chara16]

the lightners talk about ice-e at qc's

(this is not a commentary on anything i just had a funny idea.) (i feel like the flow of dialogue could have been better with this one but i have expended enough effort on this ok. you will take my subpar writing and you will like it.)

[chara16]

[chara16]

Greatest Living Show

[chara16]

THOSE COLOURS I LOVE THEM

[chara16]

chara after you do a no mercy run multiple times ina row

[chara16]

One last heart-to-heart.

So I don't know if this is technically a mini, or a full part (hence the different layout). This was originally not written as part of the script. But I felt it was way too important to not bring up. Especially considering Susie's run-in with that emotional parasite and that whole (not) throwaway line from Lesslo about Kris having been literally discarded and abandoned as a child.

Let's just call it part 91-1.

FIRST - PREVIOUS - NEXT

MASTERPOST (for the full series / FAQ / reference sheets)

[chara16]

castle town

[chara16]

I imagine monster products (made by specifically skinless monsters) would NOT work on human skin‼️‼️

Also sorry I haven’t posted in like a million years I got lazy X)

Bonus:

[chara16]

"You're just like him."

"You're just like them."

kris goes to a alternate universe (UT) and meets someone who also misses their sibling

[chara16]

[chara16]

rebirth

[chara16]

No clue what to caption,, yaaayy snowgrave art