rustedleopard

[rustedleopard]

Alright, it's Miss Martlet time!

Martlet's relationship with Clover is supposed to be the most important relationship Clover develops with any of the characters, in my opinion. In Pacifist, Martlet vows to stay by Clover's side and protect them after uncovering Ceroba's intentions to murder Clover (and in Flawed Pacifist, defends Clover's actions and remains with them even when Ceroba dies and Starlo abandons Clover out of anger/grief). Clover also chooses to trust Martlet's judgement and confront Ceroba at her word. In Neutral, Martlet is the only one of Clover's friends who is willing to take them in, despite her biases and uncertainties (if the following characters are alive then: Dalv and Axis never intended to take in Clover, Starlo turns Clover out on their way, and Ceroba doesn't want anything to do with Clover and asks them to leave her alone). In No Mercy, Clover and Martlet confront each other again and again until she serves as the final boss that Clover must (reluctantly) defeat.

Martlet develops over the course of the game as well: from a young adult uncertain about what the best action to take before she takes it, who leans on Royal Guard protocol like a crutch, to a person who is willing to commit treason and look after a human, despite her reservations, because a person with some innocence in them doesn't deserve to die (Neutral)/is willing to stand by Clover's side through everything and vows to protect them (Pacifist)/realizes that her only chance at redemption for her negligence in handling the vicious human is to enact her duties as a Royal Guard and kill Clover (No Mercy). She learns what the "right action" to take is, depending on Clover's actions.

Martlet is consistently present for Clover across all three routes, their relationship with each other is foundational to Undertale Yellow. And, in her respective area, it doesn't really show...

When we are first introduced to Martlet, she just barely misses spotting them as she takes off after doing repairs on her molten rock puzzle. Then, east of Honeydew Resort, she hammers a sign into place before, once again, just barely missing spotting Clover as she flies away. It's only at the end of the area that you confront Martlet, asleep at the job, before she perks up upon (finally) spotting Clover and challenging them to a fight a la Royal Guard protocol. Which, I understand that it's supposed to convey the idea of Martlet being a clumsy and inept Royal Guard (what guard barely misses spotting a human???). But it doesn't do much to establish a relationship between Clover and Martlet.

Instead, I would make her immediately notice Clover after doing repairs to the first molten rock puzzle. She gets excited because she found a human, she needs to know what to do next and reaches for her manual....... only to realize that she left it at her post at the end of Snowdin. Darn. Well, not like she should just abandon Clover to go fetch it and she has most of the protocol memorized anyways; she knows that she's supposed to use puzzles to confound humans so she shows off her puzzle to Clover and asks them to complete it. And after you complete it, she agrees to meet you at her next puzzle, before flying away (and after she's gone, there are encounters with other monsters in combat which you can either spare or kill (Pacifist/Neutral)).

And with each interaction with Martlet, you can tell that she's not a very good Royal Guard. Her conduct is unprofessional, she's getting too friendly with Clover, she talks a lot (and this is a chance to spread out some of her dialogue as well, her talk about the "human" she apprehended last week and her survey are some examples), she's desperate for approval from Clover. One of her puzzles breaks while she's trying to show it off and she can't fix it so she opens the gate to let Clover progress further instead. At Honeydew Resort, Clover catches her on her legally mandated 15 minute break and she asks Clover to give her some time to enjoy it, and this opens up an opportunity for a Martlet date where Clover and Martlet chat over pancakes/coffee ("Aww, are you worried about the potential treason of a human hanging out with a Royal Guard? Don't be, for the next 15 minutes, I'm not a Royal Guard. I'm just Martlet 😉").

And at the end, when Clover and Martlet both arrive at her post, she picks up the Manual and flips through it and her expression goes grim. She turns to Clover, apologetic, and says that the Royal Guard protocol demands that she try to apprehend them (how could she have forgotten this part?), would they mind if they let her try? And the battle starts from there. Martlet is reluctant to attack Clover but does so anyway because it's what she's supposed to do (remember that Martlet says that she doesn't always know what the best course of action is until after she's done it).

If you defeat Martlet by fighting, she only lets herself get down to somewhere between half to three-fourths HP before calling off the fight. She empathizes with Clover for responding violently because she initiated the battle but she also feels like violent confrontation between the two of them isn't conducive to a good resolution. She then opts to try to find a supervisor or some authority figure that can steer her in the right direction and flies away (and since every authority figure would tell her to fight, the next time you meet her in the Dunes, she's decided to disregard all the advice she's been given to try to do what she thinks is right: bring Clover to Asgore to plead their case to him instead).

You would also be able to defeat Martlet by ACTing. By repeatedly reminding her of the good times that she had with Clover, she grows more and more uncertain about what she's doing until her battle ends early and she surrenders. How could she try to hurt the human kid she had befriended? What's wrong with her? (And as a fun bonus, if you eat/drink a pancake/gingerbread bear/coffee in her fight, it reminds her of the date that she shared with Clover and her attack power drops and she grows very uncertain, similar to Asgore if you consume a butterscotch pie in his fight.) She admits that she's been on probation for a while now, (hence her desperation for approval from Clover about her puzzles/abilities as a Royal Guard) and that her actions here mean that she will likely lose her job. She then chooses to take Clover to Asgore via Ava, like she does in game, to plead Clover's case to him directly and to avoid getting fired.

(I think Martlet would be one of the few bosses that could be defeated by continually SPARing her, but by doing so instead of ACTing, the battle takes significantly longer. She eventually throws in the towel because Clover isn't trying to fight her and it feels wrong to fight a kid who doesn't attack back.)

On the No Mercy Route, instead of Martlet noticing Clover from the start, she behaves like she does in-game: just barely missing Clover at the first molten rock puzzle. After all, Martlet shows that she cannot recognize Clover as a human at the start of her first fight; why would a "hatted monster" register on her radar when she's got her Royal Guard duties to complete. I don't know how her ACTs would change on the No Mercy Route, besides the Apology ACT disappearing after Clover attacks her enough times to truly initiate the fight (yes, the Apology ACT is still there and is still usable throughout the whole fight, though it does nothing after Martlet starts attacking back and seems to have placeholder text like the devs forgot to do something with it). I doubt that there would be any ACTs that would be able to debuff Martlet in her fight because she and Clover never developed enough of a relationship for ACTs to really be useful here, but it's not like the No Mercy Route is about ACTing in the first place.

I feel like by introducing Martlet to Clover sooner in Snowdin, it REALLY lays down that their relationship is crucial to Undertale Yellow as a whole. But, also, it gives Snowdin the opportunity to be spaced out better and to breathe. From the dilapidated cabin room to Honeydew Resort, you can FEEL the area enter a pattern of "introduction to some new important thing that becomes repeatedly relevant" and "funny gag" in a way that makes passing through the area feel like wadding through a quagmire. By reworking the area and having Martlet appear to try to push Clover forward, things would be spaced out better, there may be more rooms, and Lower Snowdin feels less congested overall.

At least, these are my suggestions.

One thing I really wish UTY did was make the ACTs in the boss fights actually do something instead of having to stall until the end of the battle.

[rustedleopard]

The way that Clover and Martlet are on the same mental wavelength of calling this building dilapidated <3

[rustedleopard]

I like the way you draw the main characters, especially Martlet.

But I want to share my vision.

Dalv- appears to be a very thin character (possibly dystrophic) due to constant stress and a diet of only one corn for a long time.

Martlet - I totally agree with you on how she looks! I'll just add that she always wears her shoes because she scratches the floor with her claws.

Ceroba - I have two ideas.

1)She has a more animal physique and everything is connected with it. She is slender and has rather narrow shoulders, and has strongly developed fingers on her front paws that allow her to replace her hands. She can also use Quadropedalism, but she doesn't do it because she considers it beneath her dignity.

2)She has a more humanoid build, broad shoulders, and a well-developed physique. But recent events (the death of Chujin and the fall of Kanako), as well as depression, alcoholism of the second stage, and insomnia, have battered her physically very much. I do not know if her puffy face and bags under her eyes are visible behind her fur, but I think they are there.

Starlo - I think he's pretty well developed physically and he's also a little overweight. Because he was born a farmer and used to hard work.

This is my hedkanon. But I still like how you draw and describe the main characters in a realistic way! It's just my opinion.

Hey, that's fine! We're all allowed to have similar and different interpretations of how the characters look. As I always say, I am just one guy on the internet with my own opinion/interpretation.

For me, personally, a lot of the Dalv fanart I saw made him fat, which sorta influenced the way that I see him. I also just think that there's a lack of body diversity in general among the main cast of UTY (almost everyone in canon is pretty thin and has the same body-build 🫤), so I wanted to play with it more. I've actually been considering tweaking Dalv's design and posting it at some point? Maybe?

It's the same reason why I also make Martlet fat too, for more body type diversity among the cast. Also because birds like bluebirds get rounder silhouettes in the winter and she lives in Snowdin. I also like making her arms longer too, to give her a more defined wingspan. Also because playing with her proportions can lend itself to a more "monstrous" feeling monster (humans don't have arms that can nearly reach the ground like the ones that I draw her with. And if they did, they'd look like gibbons). And, yes, Martlet still wears her boots. (I'm honored to hear that you agree with the way that I draw her though! ^^)

I give Starlo pretty human-like proportions but I don't really see him as all that physically fit. He may have grown up on a farm but he's been skipping out on his duties for quite a while now to hang out with his buddies and eat burgers in the Saloon. I also think he has some pudge to his belly. The crate of corn that he carries at the end of True Pacifist is smaller than Orion's, and Orion is pretty lanky himself, so like. There is some evidence to back up that idea (though, I do think that with him getting back into helping out his family again, he builds his muscles back up and becomes more fit. But yeah, he's never gonna have a six-pack in my mind 😅).

As for Ceroba, I make her bony and lanky. She used to work out at the gym, at least until she quit a year ago (and with how busy her life got, who knows how frequently she got to work out?). But as you pointed out, her recent bout of insomnia and depression and (likely) poor eating habits wouldn't be conductive to her health and I can see her losing weight over it (a more defined collarbone/ribs?). I also think that she has stretch marks leftover from when she was pregnant with Kanako.

As for her body type, despite the amount of fanart that gives her digitigrade legs, I actually give her plantigrade legs like a human. Kitsunes in mythology are said to take the shape of humans (think Kuzunoha or Tamamo-no-Mae). And even though I don't think Ceroba is capable of shapeshifting like those kitsunes, the impression of a more human-like build for a kitsune stuck in my mind, hence why I make her body more human-like than animalistic. I still play with her proportions a bit though, like making her chest/torso longer and her legs a bit shorter in what I lovingly dub "TOTK non-human character" style.

(Chujin in the art book was said to not be intended to be a fox/kitsune so I make his body more animal-like i.e. digitigrade legs. Don't look at that old art I did of him though, I have improved and tweaked his design!! And as for Kanako, I'm still working on it but I want something that represents both of her parents well.)

But yeah. I don't think there is a wrong way to go about drawing the main cast as long as they still look like/feel like themselves. You wanna give Martlet prosthetic bird legs? Go for it, that's awesome! You wanna make Starlo taller than Ceroba? Sure, that's fine! You don't see Dalv as fat like I do? Hey, that's totally fine, different strokes for different folks! These are just my own personal touches/tweaks to the characters' designs; whether you agree or disagree with my takes on them, is completely fine. I like how many unique and awesome ways that artists can come up with interpreting the cast of UTY. The more art, the merrier! 👍

[rustedleopard]

Decibat's ACTs are fine, albeit a bit redundant with both the "Shoo" and the "Talk" ACTs irritating him. I like how you can end his fight peacefully in two different ways though: on good terms with him where he declares you a Sentinel of Silence, or on more negative terms where you just irritate him into leaving (El Bailador's comment on Clover being a Sentinel of Silence should change depending on how they finished the fight though. That'd be a cool touch).

Dalv though? It's unfortunately a nothingburger of a fight. Clover is expected to just stand there and continually SPARE him as he monologues at them until he realizes that Clover isn't Integrity and that he's made a mistake by confronting them.... which just.... makes Clover a completely passive actor in this fight which is just. Really lame. I suppose that it's supposed to mirror how Toriel can only be beat by being continually SPAREd, but Dalv and Toriel have two different circumstances behind why they initiated their battles: Dalv is suffering a delusion and is defending himself against what he believes is Integrity threatening him again, while Toriel is trying to stop yet another child from leaving her and is pushing Frisk to get aggressive to prove that they can either defend themself or to stop trying to progress forward. I don't think that their battles should be solved the same way.

I haven't talked about it here, but I have thought up ways to improve both the Dark Ruins and Lower Snowdin by introducing more interactions between Clover and Dalv/Martlet respectively (or at least make their interactions more meaningful and punchy). Because compared to the amount of interactions you get with them vs with Starlo and Ceroba (in Pacifist), it is very lacking.

For Dalv, I really wish that instead of retreating from Clover after he notices them watching him, he responds with aggression. Here he is, living in isolation in the Ruins for who knows how long, because he was driven into hiding out of sheer terror of his fight with Integrity. And after being traumatized by that day, here's yet another human. He's not sure if it's Integrity back to hurt him again or some nightmare made manifest or what, but they seem more real to him than the rest of his visions. And so he demands that they stay away. Lashes out with lightning bolts (that also intentionally miss Clover). Instead of the bridge to his house already being broken, he breaks it himself to put some distance between him and the human. He seems genuinely terrified and is a threat. And, in the end, it all comes together in a fight where Clover either kills him or Clover deescalates the fight with ACTs until he realizes that they aren't Integrity and they aren't trying to hurt him and the fight ends peacefully.

I also think this would have been more thematically fitting for one of the main messages of Undertale Yellow which is that "People do bad things for reasons that they believe are right," and it's up to you (Clover) to judge what their fate should be and whether or not they have room to grow. Clover jumped into Mt Ebott to seek justice for the five children before them. Dalv seems to have a history with one of those humans. Toriel warned Clover that monsters aren't friendly towards humans. Throughout the Dark Ruins, monsters have done nothing BUT attack them. So, here they are confronting an aggressive monster that, with everything they've learned about monsters up to that point, they are well within their rights to kill. And yet, the way that Dalv is lashing out at them seems more like it's coming from a place of fear rather than anger/hate. Is Dalv someone too dangerous to let live? Should someone who's been so blatantly aggressive to them be given the chance to move past it? Is Dalv someone who can be redeemed, if given a chance?

(And while we, The Player, would already know the answer, this moment is about Clover's judgement of someone's character, especially someone who was blatantly targeting them for who they are.)

Long aside aside, I would have given Dalv ACTs that are mandatory to progress the fight if you're looking for a peaceful conclusion instead of him monologuing at Clover until he realizes he's made a mistake in attacking them. Maybe some of these ACTs can have different responses from him, depending on the order you do them in. Maybe there's a "Raise Hands" ACT where, if Clover tries to raise their hands in surrender at the start of the battle, Dalv mistakes it for aggression and his bullets come faster or hit harder for a turn. But if you "Talk" to him or do something else first, then he's settled enough that the "Raise Hands" ACT doesn't elicit an aggressive response. Make Clover (and The Player) more involved instead of passive actors that do nothing but stand there until the final "Handshake" ACT that finishes the fight.

One thing I really wish UTY did was make the ACTs in the boss fights actually do something instead of having to stall until the end of the battle.

[rustedleopard]

One thing I really wish UTY did was make the ACTs in the boss fights actually do something instead of having to stall until the end of the battle.

[rustedleopard]

haunted (alts under read more)

[rustedleopard]

[rustedleopard]

clover i drew to destress during amongus emergency meeting when i was fukcing up being imposter

[rustedleopard]

[rustedleopard]

Took a stab at some of the Undertale Yella characters

[rustedleopard]

Chujin knows where Integrity died, so why do you think he put a blue question mark on his office map?

One of the devs seems to suggest that this was a bit of a mistake and that they should have moved his map into his secret basement study, but I suppose you can justify it as a red herring. If Chujin is keeping track of where the humans in the Underground have died, and Integrity is supposed to have "gone missing" in Waterfall according to every other monster out there, it would make sense that he would pretend that he knows just as much information as everybody else. Especially since his study is in a semi-public location and Ceroba/Kanako/any potential visitors who have come into his study would have seen that map. It'd be mighty suspicious if Chujin knows where Integrity's SOUL is located and has that spot marked out on his map riiiiiiiight on top of his house in the Dunes.

Chujin can afford to play a bit dumb, especially since he knows EXACTLY where Integrity's SOUL is located.

[rustedleopard]

I finished playing Deltarune and noticed one thing...

Kris don't want the player to know about their family. They didn't let us know more about Asriel, and if you try to look at his room in the Queen's mansion, they'll look at it with their eyes closed (meaning they'll do the action, but not in the way the player wants). If you start reading about how Asgore used to be a police officer, they'll end the story by saying, "There's no point in reading any further." There are many more examples like this.

Oh yeah, one of the big things about Deltarune is that Kris and The Player are separate entities from each other (which is a massive part of the overarching theme of autonomy and choices in the game). Kris has their own established life in Hometown that you, The Player, are suddenly and forcefully involved in. You don't know anything about this kid besides what you can infer from context and the people around them and the environment, and of course Kris doesn't want to just... give away all the information about themself/their home life to the body snatching entity that's puppeting their body around. So they act as disobedient as they can under their limited circumstances:

Opening Asriel's room but not looking in. Not reading up on Asgore's history as a police officer (a popular fan theory is that Asgore was involved in the investigation of Dess's disappearance and when he couldn't find her/get good results, he was terminated from his position.... which, considering that Kris has some deal with The Knight (who is most likely Dess), it makes sense that they're trying to obscure that information from you). On the Weird Route in Chapter 4, they try to hide that they removed the Thorn Ring from Noelle by visiting her while SOULless in the night, removing the thorn in her finger, and telling her to not to talk about it again, even to them (which The Player can swiftly "correct" by repossessing Kris and forcing the Thorn Ring back on Noelle). Kris does not like The Player and doesn't want them butting their nose into their business!

What's especially interesting is that despite how Kris doesn't want The Player to know information about themself (and especially their family), they still help you on the quizzes in Chapter 3 by coughing and shifting the option selection icon over to the correct answer for questions that you, The Player, would not know (the video doesn't show it but if you shift off "Sword Magician" for the question about Asriel's favorite character in Smashing Fighters, Kris will cough and move the icon back to that option). It's not because Kris had a sudden change of heart and likes The Player enough to clue them in to the correct answer. Nor is it because Kris has a competitive spirit and wants to be right (because otherwise they'd be helping you with all the questions). It's because they're expected to know this stuff about themself. And if they screw up their answers, it makes them look suspicious; how could they not know such obvious answers about themself/their family? Unless... they aren't themself? And since Ralsei already knows about The Player's existence, and it can be inferred that maybe Tenna knows about The Player (maybe??? But whether or not Tenna knows doesn't matter much in the long run), then the reason why they're hiding The Player's existence is because they don't want Susie to know about us.

[rustedleopard]

This idea kind base form a suggestions that was then draw by feeblephrog on Twitter but the just of it is

How would UTY story played out if after Kanako Fall down, Ceroba brought her to the lab with Alphys for help in a panic, and later as Kanako started to melt she decided to not leave her alone and scared, and stay with her as they amalgamated.

Essentially like the Sixbone.

Ummm, I would not have much of an answer to that one because I do not keep up with other people's UTY fan content. I am exclusively on Tumblr so I don't know anything about what's happening on Twitter nor on Reddit. I also think that the only reason why the Amalgamates fused with each other is because their bodies were unstable from the excess Determination and they latched onto each other; Ceroba wouldn't have a reason to inject herself with Determination so she'd stay intact as Kanako melted in her arms (I also don't know how much Alphys would let Ceroba get involved in the DT experiments; it's on a need to know basis and Ceroba, despite having some knowledge of SOUL stuff from Chujin, doesn't need to know).

But I'll throw all that reasoning out for a split second.

There's no way this can go except Not Well. I imagine that Ceroba would desperately try to save her daughter as she starts melting in her arms instead of immediately accepting it, because it looks like Alphys delivered a miracle cure and like hell Ceroba is gonna let it go to waste! Kanako defied the odds, was saved from her mistake, it's her duty to make sure that it STAYS fixed. And as Ceroba is trying to hold her daughter together and in shape, she finds that her body is starting to fuse with her daughter's and no no no no nononononono!!!! This isn't what she wanted!! And then she gets pulled in.

The Ceroba and Kanako Amalgamate would probably be more mentally stable than other Amalgamates because they grew up under the same house, they're similar types of monsters, they have a lot of the same memories/experiences. But more stable does not mean stable. They're still two different people with their own sets of memories and experiences and thoughts and feelings and those can come into conflict with each other. I know Ceroba would be infuriated with Alphys because she blames her for screwing up the cure, but would Kanako feel angry with Alphys? Would Kanako get caught up in her mother's anger and feel infuriated as well or would Kanako feel trepidation about being angry and that manages to keep Ceroba's anger in check (because like hell would Ceroba wanna force her daughter to feel something she isn't comfortable with)? Would some bits of Integrity's SOUL extract affect both of them in some way, and if so, is it permanent? I'd be thinking about stuff like that.

I imagine that when they're alone together, they focus a lot on self-soothing behavior and talking to each other. "I'm sorry I Fell Down. I was supposed to be a hero." "No, no, it's not your fault. I shouldn't have injected you. I was supposed to be your mother." "...Love you lots." "...Love you more."

There's also how the outside world would perceive Kanako's and Ceroba's disappearance, which when combined with Chujin having recently died, looks like the Ketsukane family had a mass Falling Down event. I think pretty much everybody would have assumed them dead after several months, despite no Ceroba and Kanako dust piles having been found, because it's more likely that they all died from grief over losing Chujin rather than "they disappeared somewhere into the Underground without having told anybody and they're somewhere where nobody can find them." Everybody would have given up on finding them. Except for Starlo.

[rustedleopard]

i can’t remember when i followed you but you’re pretty cool so i GUESS i’ll fight the devil for you

Oh, you will? In that case, go ahead!

[rustedleopard]

Clearing out some asks from my inbox. Mostly the ones I think I can answer without replaying UTY (I wanna do a replay of all the routes to refresh myself on the characters and events that happen and such).

[rustedleopard]

I have no reason to cry over her, but I do it anyway

[rustedleopard]

I tried to draw them attacking together