#Kris trying to go with it but she doesn't know where it's going

[lavendertrash39]

I am. moderately afraid that I'm going to get hate on this but. here we go.

Barry is fucking perfect autism representation. I don't know if there's anything confirming that he is autistic but like. Oh my gosh.

He doesn't feel like certain characters where it's just stereotypes and that's the whole character. There's not a single stereotype about him. He doesn't scream "autism" just because he's not that type of character. He's not like extremely smart, or stupid-- he's intelligent, but he's not like. that kind of trope certain shows do where people with autism are just really smart. The way he emotes is perfect. I wish I had my specific examples but like... man.

It's so good. It makes me so happy. It also hurts me because Kris treats him poorly and tries to get him to be different because of his autistic traits. It's just. man...

like that one scene where they're talking about the cargo-- lemme just put in the dialogue and insert images

Kris: This is it. Do you know what this means?

Barry: Yeah. You've told me.

Kris: then why do you still seem not to get it? We did this together, for once you should be proud-- I'm letting you be proud!

Barry: I'm... proud.

[Kris ruffles Barry's hair]

Kris is imposing what she wants Barry to feel on him. She's letting him be proud. She doesn't get why he "doesn't understand". Barry seems to just want to get the conversation over with/he doesn't know why he doesn't understand either (why he doesn't feel the things Kris wants him to feel-- what he "should" feel. Why he doesn't feel the "normal" things). The way he forces himself to say that he's proud is just... perfect voice acting. They got such a perfect voice actor for Barry. But back to this scene-- she ruffles his hair, something that to her means something good, but Barry CLEARLY doesn't like it. He tenses and rubs his head afterwards. She's trying to make him what she wants. Make him feel what she wants him to feel and praise him the way she thinks praise should be received. The only way she considers Barry being different both feelings wise and how he wants praise is her wanting to change those things to what she wants.

there was also this one scene, the scene where Kris and Barry are interacting for the last time, and the shot it relatively simple. just a shot of his face. Zoomed in. In a show like scavengers reign that has so many interesting shots that are so clearly intentional you know that has to be intentional. And what I loved about it is that sometimes autistic people have difficulty emoting or when they do emote it's subtle. And that scene picks on the subtle changes in his expression while he's talking to really show how he's feeling in the moment. That's so cool. Idk how to make a gif and i don't have a link to a video of it but it's in the beginning of episode 12 if anyone wants to see what I'm talking about :)

anyways,, yeah. I hope that this is taken well? I have other thoughts on him as well but this was just something that was right at the front of my mind after finishing

[ohcorny]

i need to be a hater on main about scavenger's reign or i will explode. i cannot be alone in this.

now that it's being moved to netflix and people are talking about it again, all i'm seeing is glowing praise and absolutely no criticism of the writing. i will gladly agree with anyone that it's visually stunning. like, a+ in that regard no argument. great looking show, and the worldbuilding of the planet vesta is super cool and clearly considered. i like those parts! but that seems to be all anybody is responding to when they praise it.

the character writing is fucking ridiculous. i could point at any of them individually and go "what the fuck is this" but it's been months since i watched it and i don't like arguing a point i can't clearly remember. but it was the most egregious around ursula so i'm going to focus on her. her character seems to exist just to cause problems for no reason, to the point where she's also the only character we get no backstory on. we never see her in flashbacks on the ship, never learn what she did for it or why she was there, nothing about her at all. she is the only one.

and she is the #1 source of shattering my suspension of disbelief. you cannot tell me that she and sam were surviving together for a month on this incredibly hostile planet, working together every day to call the ship down, to figure out how the world worked and what was dangerous and what they could use.... and then tell me she would turn around and treat him the way she does.

spoilers below the cut

she is so hostile toward him all the time for no reason. she wanders off to go look at a weird plant in the middle of a bramble that crushes you if you don't get out the right way, leaving sam alone on the outside with no idea what she's doing or where she is or if she's alive. and when she comes out and he is VERY REASONABLY upset that she did that and isn't interested in hearing about the thing she saw, SHE gets mad at him and says she doesn't need him.

YOU DONT NEED HIM? THE GUY WHO HELPED YOU SURVIVE THIS ENTIRE TIME? THE ONLY OTHER LIVING HUMAN ON THE PLANET AS FAR AS YOU KNOW, WHO IS THE ONE WHO KNOWS WHERE YOU ARE GOING, AND HAS THE CREDENTIALS TO GET YOU INTO THE SHIP? you have been alone with him for a MONTH, he is your ONLY HUMAN COMPANION, and you think you DON'T NEED HIM?? BECAUSE HE WAS WORRIED ABOUT YOU IN A LOUD WAY?

this could be explainable if there was any real tension between them, or if we're given any reason to believe she actually could survive without him, but there isn't! she fucks up with the spores in the very first episode and would absolutely die if she was alone. sam is never anything but a good leader to her and keeps trying to look out for her, and any time he's "wrong" it's because he showed reasonable caution about the fuckplanet. he gets hurt by the egg parasite because he didn't want to climb into a giant animal's egg sac. reasonable thing to not want to do! when he and ursula get into that argument about her disappearing on him, he gets hauled off by the weird emu for the dramatic irony. because he was upset his only companion in the world disappeared. he never does anything wrong. it's never his actual character flaws that he gets punished for, it's only ursula's ~trusting your instincts~ shit that ever gets him hurt. she is ultimately responsible for his death but the show never acts like it.

so much of the show seemed to be drama for drama's sake. do not get me fucking started on kamen's creature. what was that thing's fucking problem. what was kris' fucking problem?

if i have to ask 'what is their PROBLEM' at every other character's choices, your writing is not good.

[ultrabean]

here's a funny idea. Do a recreation of Queen's "hiding with the person you're trying to find" scene:

after saving Kris, Poncho continues to run into a back alley.

Kris, now realizing Poncho is in fact not evil starts chasing Poncho cuz they want to apologize or something.

Susie starts chasing Kris cuz she just wants to know what the frick is going on, but Kris doesn't want Susie to know that the Kris she's been talking to isn't the real Kris so Kris is also running away from Susie.

Poncho enters the scene and finds a crevice in the wall to hide in (similar to that one scene with Queen)

Ralsei and Kris enter

Kris: DID YOU SEE WHERE THEY WENT

Ralsei: (sees Poncho) N-no I don't think so.

Susie: (off-screen) Kris!

Kris sees the crevice, and decides to hide in there as well to avoid Susie, Not realizing Poncho is there.

Susie: Ralsei! did you see where they went?

Kris makes some kind of noise, and Susie hears, and starts to turn around.

Poncho gets an idea: "honk honk just the sounds of traffic"

Susie: oh ok

Kris: (silently, to Poncho) thank you!

Kris gets out and continues to look for Poncho

Poncho: (to Ralsei) What just-

Ralsei: I have no idea!

Kris pauses, realizing what just happened

Kris: WAIT A MINUTE

the chase continues

OH MY GODDD THATS GENIUS!! ahhh if only i could find a way to fit this into the comic… I might include it as a non-canon scene but who knows. Anyways thanks for the great suggestion 👍

[saucyjothoughts]

I don’t know if this has been asked already but the virgin!boo things have made me think how did the guys lose their virginities, like where, when and who with

This has been asked before but unfortunately has been sat in my "to be answered" pile for way too long. Today is the day!

(nsfw under the cut)

Bojan: if you only count losing virginity as penis-in-vagina sex (like Bojan does) his first time was with a Spanish girl in Greece. They didn't know each other very well and she didn't know he was a virgin - until they started getting down to it, at which point it became glaringly obvious. They both had a nice time but never saw each other again.

If you count other types of sex (which Bojan does not), then his first time was with Kris.

Nace: was a late bloomer. His first experiences were with a trusted friend who became a lover and began with him exploring and satisfying her without wanting to be touched himself. Even when he was finally ready to let her pleasure him and - eventually - to be inside her, he wasn't able to come until a few months into the relationship. Despite the awkwardness, he considers himself lucky to have had such a gentle, gradual loss of his virginity. He's much more forward now.

Jan: his first kiss was with the person who later also became his first "real girlfriend". As a result, he was relatively young, it was a pretty emotional experience, and he was under a lot of pressure. Too much pressure. It was going to be after a dance (like all their friends expected) - he was dressed up, there were flowers and chocolates and he'd rehearsed lines. But it all felt fake and she was uncomfortable and they didn't get very far and didn't try again for a while afterwards. In the end, it happened naturally. After a climate protest, breaking into the high school and smoking cigarettes on the roof under the moon. She was in black boots and her grandmother's dress (altered herself) and he had held onto her bare thighs as she had ridden the virginity out of him.

Jure: was young - arguably too young. It was with an older girl and was purely about physical exploration, no emotions involved. A neighbour, his old babysitter. She was only back from uni for summer and had a boyfriend her own age. He had a great time and learned a lot and bragged about it afterwards and didn't care that it had been, technically, illegal. But looking back, he sometimes wishes things had been different.

Kris: would tell you that his first time was with a Dutch girl - the daughter of a family friend - in her room, as quietly as possible in case her parents came home early. (It was never a relationship but they were physical together a few more times over the coming years. Until he found out that she'd also spent a night with Maks which somewhat soured his feelings towards her.)

It's a lie.

His heart knows that his real first time - the first time he wanted someone carnally and tasted someone intimately and shared the bliss of orgasm with another person - was a year earlier, with Bojan. But he knows Bojan thinks it doesn't count, so he keeps it to himself.

[chaos-chloe]

A helping Southern Hand

Summary: Kris Statlander isn't available? Don't worry AEW's Southern Belle is always available to help.

OC: Dixie Fae/ Scarlette Price

TW: Descriptions of wrestling, country drawl, possible cursing (I don't remember) hook x oc {if I'm missing anything lmk}

I’m rushing, running my way to the curtain after Kris texted me that she got stuck in traffic, and needs a cover in the match. She definitely owes me a good dinner for working my night off. I catch my breath as I signal the sound guy to play my music to cut off Anna.

“Aw, did Orange and Hook not find a pretty enough partner?” Anna Jay teases while Angelo and Matt laughed.

“I guess it a handi-” Anna jay gets caught off by music

“I’m a Buckle Bunny

Drive my own truck, got my own money

Bangin' with the chaw, so I talk funny

Rhinestone hat says, "Kentucky"

I'm a buckle bunny.”

"AND THEIR TAG TEAM PARTNER, WEIGHING IN AT 126 LBS FROM FORT KNOX KENTUCKY, THE SOUTHERN BELLE DIXIE FAE!" Justin announces my name.

I come out around the corner with my hands holding my big buckle that is a floral background with a ribbon in pink text saying “COWGIRL UP”. I stopped at the top of the ramp, to tip my hat to the crowd while they were cheering. I sauntered my way down the ramp, slapping some fans' hands, to the ring. I started to climb the steel stairs, but Hook stuck out his hand to help me up the stairs gracefully, I grabbed his hand winking at him.

“Thank ya, Darlin’.” I greeted him and Orange with a small nod, Orange nodded back

“Well, Well, looky there Taz, your boy has some manners with our Southern Belle Beauty here.” Excalibur claims

“He knows how to treat the women roster.” Taz agrees.

I got behind the ropes, taking off my show buckle as Hook wanted to start the match with Matt. As they are circling around the ring Matt decides to scream in Hook's face.

“LOOK AT THIS IDIOT, HUH!? WHAT YOU GOT HUH?! WHAT YOU GOT? YOU WANT A SHOT? I DON'T THINK SO!” Matt has his arms raised taunting Hook, but he looks confused about where this little speech is coming from. Matt backs up to let Angelo tag himself in the match.  Angelo hops in to start circling around Hook, like a hunter scaring its prey. 

“He’s got this, doesn't he?” I inquired about Orange, he just nodded with a little smile.

“Alrighty darlin’, let's get this match started then.” I commented a little cockily.

Then, Angelo steps back to his corner and reaches his arm back towards Matt to tag in. Anna just stands there clapping to the crowd as Angelo tries to mess with Hook, but he turns things around with a hip toss to get Angelo off of him. Hook looks up to see Matt in the corner waiting to charge at him. Matt rushes him but Hook turns it to a drop sayanagi. Matt ends up with his back turned to Hook, redrum is in place but it's too weak to hold Matt up. Matt scrambles to his corner to tag in Anna, Hook backs off of Matt as Anna enters the ring. Hook starts walking backwards as Anna starts walking towards me. I sat on the second rope with my hand held out to Hook with a smile, he slapped my hand and now it’s time for some Cowgirl Chaos.

“Oh here comes our Southern Belle, entering the ring with Anna Jay.” Tony describes.

“Look at the wicked smile on her face, she is ready for something.” Excalibur wearily says.

As I got into the ring, Anna and I started circling each other waiting for something to happen.

“So you’re the pretty belle in the back, who's gonna get her ass kicked by me.” Anna taunted with a sneer.

“Oh, really now hun?” I questioned her.

Anna then kicks me in the stomach with her left leg, I bent down to play as that kick hurt. She grabs my right arm to try to launch me to the corner, I countered it by slamming my feet to the ground in a squatting position. I shake my head with a smile and then toss her in the corner behind me away from her corner accompanied by a yell of “NO!”. 

I show off my non-show buckle with my hip popped out to the side taunting Anna, I try to go for an elbow strike to her face but she moves out of the way. The funny bone part of my elbow ends up hitting the top turnbuckle, with that static fuzzy feeling going up and down my arm. Anna rushes at me hitting me with a spinning high heel kick to the chest over my breast. I winced and tried to leave that corner, from further damage happening. Anna grabs my right arm again looking for her Jay kick, but I grab her leg to reverse the move. I slightly panicked, reversed into a suplex, but without a struggle I held Anna for 6 seconds then let us drop hitting the mat in the middle of the ring. I got back up to my feet, looking out to the crowd waving my invisible lasso; I darted my eyes over to our corner seeing Hook and Orange clapping for me. The referee runs in front of me to the other corner, realizing that Angelo was getting in the ring, causing a distraction letting Jack Hager come out of nowhere and hit Orange in the face. 

I rush over to see if Orange is okay, grabbing the top rope and observing Orange on the floor holding his head. I turned around to Anna superkicking me to the face, I rolled over to our side trying to gain back awareness. I see that Orange is still down and Hook is walking threateningly over to Jack, who is walking backwards around the ring and Anna ends up getting a tag to Angelo. 

Matt jumps off the apron running towards Hook hitting him with a mean clothesline. I slump down off and out of the ring by steel steps. I watch in pain as Matt picks up Hook and throws him into the barricade. Hooks falls down to the ground only to get picked back up and thrown into the ring to Angelo. Angelo grabs his hair forcing Hook to get up, Angelo pulls Hook into a suplex. He tries to cover Hook, thankfully Hook kicks out at 2. 

I finally collected myself and had my arms on the apron watching Hook getting beat by Angelo with some forearms to the head. Parker then hits another suplex on a dazed Hook, holding his back in pain moving away from danger. Parker follows Hook and grabs his hair again with his right hand, dragging him over to their corner, slapping his left hand with Matt. Matt jumps in and hits a back breaker to Hook, letting Angelo rebound off the ropes running drive by to Hooks head with a god awful sound. 

Orange and I jump up on the apron watching this all go down wincing in sympathy for Hook. Matt goes for the cover, Orange preemptively getting in the ring, but Hook kicks out at 2 again. I cheer and whoop that Hook is still alive with us in this match. I see that Hook looked over to us, I reached my hand out to give him a little bit of encouragement to tag one of us in to save him from this onslaught. Matt slaps the back of Hooks head/ neck, he stumbles over to the ropes to gather himself. Matt then grabs Hook, but Hook is fired up now, he delivers a big knife chop to Matt's chest three times. Matt is tumbling backwards but he kicks Hook in the abdomen to throw him to the turnbuckles. Hook’s back smacks the middle turnbuckle so hard that he falls to the ground. 

“Come on Hook darlin! Let's go!” I yelled over Matt's “Yeah!”

Hook hears me and starts crawling over to Orange and I with help of the bottom rope, yet Matt kicks him down. Hook keeps crawling, but Matt decides to hit Orange with an elbow. 

“YOU ARE DEFINITELY GETTING THE PIG FARM NOW, HUN!” I threatened Matt 

Matt continues his annoying onslaught to Hook, keeping him away from me. I turned half of my attention to Orange to get a good look at him.  I turned my full attention to Anna Jay, and the ring.

“You ain't nothin’ darlin’, bless your heart!” I yelled over the ring to her with my full southern drawl. 

“STOP!” Anna banshees a response to me as Hook gets whiplashed into their corner.

“We are getting a whole new view of our Southern Belle tonight guys.” Tony Comments on my scream.

“I think we are just seeing her natural response to her new friends getting beat down.” Excalibur responds

Hook falls back down to the mat, as Menard slaps his left hand to Parker's right hand. Matt places his foot on Hook's neck and grabs his left wrist to keep him still , as Angelo gets in the ring. Angelo enters and kicks his left hip hard, I walk over to the left side of the ring trying to rally Hook to give him energy to get to our corner. I walk back to our corner and see that Orange is back, I give him a nod to greet him back. We watch as Hook holds on the bottom rope trying to gather some energy. Angelo then copies Orange’s kicks with his hands in his pockets. 

Orange and I try to start rallying the crowd with slaps to the turnbuckle and claps, most definitely out of beat. I tune back into the match as Hook gets thrown into the ropes, rebounding into a dropkick. We wince and cover our face in slight shock. Parker goes for the cover, I stand on the bottom rope looking over the referees shoulder as Hook kicks out for a count of 2. 

“GET DOWN!” I look up to Anna Jay giving me a look.

“Honey, I think you need to fix your face!” I clapped back and Anna made a noise of frustration. 

I step down off the ropes seeing Hook is in some type of trouble, he ends up doing a back body drop on Angelo Parker. It sends Hook to the ground holding his back in pain. Parker grabs his ankle dragging his whole body to their corner and tagging Matt back in, again. Matt starts delivering kicks to Hooks head, Hook is covering his head trying not to get injured from their vicious attack. Matt again throws into a corner and falls to the ground in pain after trying to get away. 

“COME ON DARLIN’! BRING IT ON HOME!” I try to scream encouragement to Hook. 

I start slapping my right hand to the top turnbuckle, rallying energy from the crowd for Hook to make his escape. Matt has a different idea and keeps his nasty attack going on Hook with Jack Hagers watching proudly from the floor. Hook delivers a surprise left hook to Matt's jaw, giving him some breathing room. Hook starts hitting Matt with out-of-nowhere forearms. Matt found a brief pause in Hook's attack to strike back with his own forearm, sending Hook back to the corner.

Hook ends up finding energy as Matt and Angelo are tag-teaming him in the ring, he takes both of them down with a lariat after rebounding off the ropes. Hook uses his last bit of energy tagging Orange in the match, while falling to the mat away from the match. I crouch down with a hand on his back, checking up on his well being after that awful onslaught. I caress his back till he is out of the ring, either on the apron or on the floor. 

“You gonna be okay, darlin’?” I check on his health 

“Yeah, I'll be okay in a few” Hook groans in pain.

I am slightly shocked that he spoke to me, knowing he has a reputation of being silent, not caring, and eating chips. I smile down at him letting him recover in peace while Orange is in the match. 

Orange takes control real easily of Angelo grabbing his arm then moving his hand to his neck and slamming his head to the top turnbuckle causing him to become slightly dazed. Matt tries to attack Orange as Angelo stumbles away but ends up with the same fate. Just like clockwork, they kept coming back for more and more like they were stuck in a loop. Orange climbs to the top rope ready to deliver a dropkick, but Angelo and Matt cowered away. Orange jumped down and the boys turned around to watch him put his hands up and stuff them in his pockets. Matt and Angelo rush him with a double clothesline but Orange dodges them with a ninja roll. 

Orange turns around to meet them both with a dropkick, to the upper body. I stand back up in our corner just as a caution or escape route for Orange. I see that Hook is struggling to get back up, using the ropes for leverage, I came over and grabbed his free arm to walk him over to post to lean on. 

“Thanks Belle.” I heard Hook whisper, I nodded back to him with a smile and an innocent wink. 

As Orange gets back up to his feet, Angelo rolls out of the ring, Matt is struggling to get back up to his feet; Orange makes a decision to rebound off the ropes and run to hit Suicide dive on Jack Hager. Orange, rushed back into the ring meets with Matt, tries for a tornado ddt but gets blocked by Matt as Angelo rushes back in and attacks Orange's left shoulder. Angelo and Matt go for a double suplex but Hook rushes in and pushes Orange's feet back down to the mat. Hook attacks both Matt and Angelos shoulders, to weaken them for a double suplex of their own. Anna tried to be smart and block Hook’s and Orange’s suplex. I rushed in with a hand on both Orange and Hook to find Anna, I wrapped my arm around her and counted to 3, delivering a suplex to all three of them. 

Hook and I hurried out of the ring with each other, I noticed that his hand was on his abc again. My mom-like instincts came over me and I wrapped my arm around his back, letting him lean on me until we got back to our corner. As I helped Hook back to our corner, I watched Orange take off his sleeve going for an Orange Punch. Angelo sidestepped and snaked his arm around Orange's abdomen letting Matt come over and take him down with a leg sweep. Angelo ran from the corner, stepped up on Matt's back delivering an elbow to Orange's back. 

Orange rolls out of the ring, as Hook runs in and carries through a T-bone suplex to Angelo, catching him off guard. Hook turns and launches Matt through a T-bone suplex as well. He then sees Angelo holding on the top rope in our corner, he inflicts another t-bone suplex, but he throws Angelo onto Matt. They both roll out of the way, out of the ring, just as Anna gets in the ring yelling nonsense towards Hook. 

This causes the referee to get distracted again, so Jack Hager hits Hook with a running clothesline over the top rope. Orange pops back up to hit Jack with his famous Orange punch, knocking him down to the ground with a nasty fall. I clap and holler “yee-haw” to my boys for taking control of the ring again.

“Now you know, think of your actions, hun.” I said menacingly to Jack.

Anna then jumps on Orange Cassidys back trying to lock in the queen slayer, but I come in behind Orange to get her legs behind my head and I hold onto her arms to keep her from hitting me. Matt tries to rush at orange but he side steps sending him to Hook, locking him in redrum. I planted Anna down with a new move called “Muck em”, Matt started fading in Hooks redrum. I pushed Anna and myself out of the ring as Angelo rushed in but was hit with the Orange Punch. Orange rushes to cover Parker and counts 3 as the bell rung.

“THE WINNERS OF THIS MATCH; FTW CHAMPION HOOK, FRESHLY SQUEEZED ORANGE CASSIDY, AND THE SOUTHERN BELLE DIXIE FAE!” Justin announced over the speaker system 

Orange, Hook, and I all gathered ourselves in the middle of the ring, Hook getting his title. Orange reaches for my hand, I let him grab my hand, bring it to his mouth, kissing the back of my hand and pulling me into a hug. 

“Thank you Southern Belle, for coming to our aid.” Orange thanked me as if I was a princess. I laughed and shrugged my shoulders stating that it was no problem. Hook walked over and grabbed my other hand doing the same gesture as Orange but kissing my hand twice. The crowd is going absolutely wild for both vacant emotion wrestlers thanking me in a very emotion based way. Hook pulls me in a hug that lasts way longer than Orange’s hug did.

“Thank you so much for covering Kris and coming to help us. Meet me in the back, in 30 minutes?” Hook asked as we were pulling apart looking into each other's eyes while I was smiling brightly at him. 

“Of course Darlin’, just come by my locker room then.” i invited hook with a wink

Hook and I pull apart so we can raise our hands together with Orange Cassidy, to celebrate our win.

“Look at what a celebration from a very surprising team that came together very easily.” Tony stating the obvious.

“The boys are just showing our Southern Belle the proper amount of gratitude and respect for her to come out and help them.” Taz explains to the world

“Will we see more romance in the future from them? Is the question, look at how Hook looks at her.” Excalibur points out too

“We don't know, but we will see how this builds in front of us.” Taz commented back. 

Would y'all like a Part 2? Y'all have idea? Let me know!! <3

I don't own AEW, the wrestlers, the music nor the pictures.

I own Dixie/Scarlette and my work of writing.

Re-blog, like. comment and etc.! No Hate please!

Do Not copy my work and repost it as your own.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

I’d love to hear your analysis behind MM schmoozing with the Kardashians. I know you’ve touched base on it before, but I’d love to know more. It seemed like, back in 2020 when Meghan first “returned” to California, she felt she was above that scene. Now, she’s doing what she can to attach herself to them…but I feel the timing is way, way off. She deigned to lower her standards enough to latch on to the K-train as it’s going off the rails. The eldest is basically cutting her ties from the fam. Kim lost a ton of credibility throughout her marriage to Kanye and she’s on the losing side of a feud against one of the biggest stars on the planet (and she was booed last night at the roast of Tom Brady!). The entire family doesn’t mind coming across as messy, or dumb, or promiscuous which seems to be the opposite of the look Meghan tries to achieve (they do, however, work very hard, and for the most part are very family oriented). Is this another backfire on Meghan’s behalf or do you think she has sound networking reasons behind this connection?

Old ask from May 6th

I think Meghan likes the Kardashians because who they are today is what she wants for herself; they're accepted by society, they have huge businesses and companies, they're cultural icons. But what Meghan doesn't understand is that the Kardashians have authenticity and American culture places a really high value on authenticity. You could be the worst person in the world, but as long as you're authentic in who you are, what you believe, and the things you do, we'd generally accept it and support you.

(Authenticity, by the way, is Kim's issue. Something happened and people don't see her as authentic anymore, and that's why she's getting booed and may not be as well-liked as her sisters are. Maybe it was the feud with Taylor. Maybe it was Kanye. Maybe it was something else altogether.)

After all, Meghan has been trying to network her way into being momagered by Kris. Love her or hate her, Kris is one of the more effective talent managers right now. Look at everything her family has now - brand deals, marketing deals, multimillion dollar companies, a general respectability, acceptance - and remember, all of this came from a sex tape. Somehow, Kris lassoed the wind from that storm and brought her family into Emerald City.

That's what Meghan wanted; she wanted to leverage the controversy of marrying into the BRF to roar into Hollywood with multimillion-dollar brands, sponsorships, celebrity friends, acceptance, and relevance.

Except her marrying into the BRF wasn't controversial. Yes, there were a couple of racist articles (which were handled immediately) but by and large, the press accepted her, the public accepted her, and the BRF accepted her. So Meghan had to create the controversy she wanted, and that's where everything fell apart. It fell apart for her the same way it's falling apart for Kim - the lack of authenticity and death by a thousand cuts exposing how she manipulated everything to be seen as the victim.

Anyway. I'm not sure it matters anymore. The Kardashians seem to have successfully pushed Meghan away because Meghan is back to hanging out with Oprah and Oprah's '90s crowd.

Also, I think trying to get in with the Kardashians and their crowd was Meghan's way of trying to upgrade her fame strategy. Hear me out:

1980s - 1997: Fame was best represented by Diana and the paparazzi stalking

1995 - 1999: JFK Jr brought the Kennedy name back into global fame

1998 - 2011: Mid-1990s, Oprah changed her talk show from tabloid trash to what it's now best known as; motivational, inspirational, celebrity interviews. From that time through her last show in 2011, Oprah and The Oprah Winfrey Show were considered the top "get" for celebrity PR. If you made it onto the Oprah Show, you were famous. Oprah's successor was Ellen DeGeneres and The Ellen Show (which began in 2003) and like Oprah, if you were on Ellen, you were famous, you were popular, and you were cool.

2003ish - 2007ish: Paris, Britney, Nicole, Lindsay/Perez Hilton/TMZ era. Fame was cute young twenty-something girls partying in LA.

2007 - 2016: Kardashians on the rise. The Kardashians peaked in 2016/2017 in terms of their press coverage, and they've been steadily (albeit gently) declining since.

2010 - 2016: William and Kate get engaged and the BRF enters a new "golden phase", becoming globally popular again.

2016 - 2022: (I have no idea. It was such a weird time. See the * note below.)

2022 - today: peak Taylor Swift

So if we look at Meghan and her fame "trajectory," she's emulated the lives and PR of the most famous pop culture icons of the last 40 years, trying to catch some of their stardust.

She married Diana's son, tried to get the paparazzi to chase after her the same way, and copied Diana's outfits.

She cozied up to the Kennedy family and connected their surname with hers.

She got the Oprah celebrity interview and inserted herself into Oprah's circle. Then she got the Ellen celebrity interview and inserted herself into Ellen's circle.

She cozied up to the Kardashians, copied their outfits, makeup, and hairstyles.

She cozied up to William and Kate, tried to be their besties, and tried to out-duchess Kate at game Kate herself created and owned the copyrights/trademarks to.

So was Meghan buddying up to the Kardashians so Kris could be her momager and get her the riches of the world as she desires? Or was Meghan buddying up to the Kardashians to collect them for her gauntlet of infinity stones so she could one day snap her fingers and be the most famous person in literally all of history and culture combined?

*I feel like politics dominated much of the conversation 2016 - 2020 with Trump, Brexit, and the rise of the far right and so much so that it consumed much of pop culture in a way we hadn't seen before and I'm not sure if there was anyone famous-famous or tabloid-famous that rose above it to dominate the way Diana, JFK Jr, Young Millennial Hollywood, the Kardashians, and Golden Era of Cambridges did. Then obviously 2020-2022 was COVID, with The Queen's death in 2022 being, in my opinion, the door that slammed the door shut on the 2016-2022 era of chaos, which - in a weird way - let pop culture as a whole kind of shift and regroup. I could probably write a much longer essay on this but I'll spare y'all since my stomach's rumbling and it's lunch time.

[robotnik-mun]

Once again, it is time for that rare moment where I talk about Deltarune instead of Sonic stuff. And today, I've decided to talk about one of the many mysteries of the setting.

Namely... what did Asgore DO?

One of the constants kept over from Undertale in Deltarune was the sad reality that Asgore is still divorced from Toriel, and their post-divorce relationship is... less than ideal, with Asgore desperately trying to get back into Toriel's good graces and Toriel being none-too-thrilled about it. And its pretty clear that whatever happened in the divorce, it's taken a pretty bad toll on Asgore. It's implied he doesn't have visitation rights, and no longer lives in the same house as Tori, instead living in his flower shop. And his present state of living is just... almost too depressing for words.

So yeah, things are not looking great for ol' Asgore. But that does beg the question- what happened THIS time? Recall that in Undertale, Toriel's hostility to Asgore was predicated on both him murdering six children as well as basically getting everyone's hopes up for who-knows-how-long rather than taking one soul and going straight to business after escaping the Underground. How justified she is is going to be the subject of endless debate, now and forever, but at the core of things in Undertale its pretty clear that this hostility comes from some VERY grim circumstances.

Given the more comparatively mundane nature of Hometown and the Light World, its pretty clear that whatever circumstances led to Toriel and Asgore divorcing couldn't be anywhere near as horrible as what happened in Undertale. There's no fantastic circumstance here- Monsters live on the surface as humans do (that we know of), and while Asgore is not exactly held in high regard by Hometown these days, he none the less leads a free, if somewhat depressing life.

So again, what happened here? Why is it that Asgore is still divorced?

As it stands, with everything else, we only got two chapters to go by, and as such we need to work with a LOT of contextual clues to try and piece together even a vague idea of how things reached this point.

And believe it or not, one the key bits of insight we have? Is none other than Rudy Holiday.

Rudy is established as having been friends with Toriel and Asgore in college, and is all but stated to have been Asgore's best man at their wedding, and even in the present is still close to the both of them even though they are no longer together. Out of all the people we talk to in Hometown, Rudy is the one with the most positive stuff to say about Asgore, and Asgore recipricates this by visiting Rudy in the hospital daily, with new flowers for each visit. And while we don't witness it for ourselves, it is revealed that Toriel ALSO visits Rudy and is implicitly close to him as well, with Rudy even suspecting that Kris' visit was done at Toriel's prompting (and sadly probably WOULD be if we weren't using them as a meat-puppet).

This might not seem like such a big deal, but I feel it reveals something very crucial about what might have happened, if only in the abstract. It tells me that whatever happened? While it was serious enough to prompt the divorce and cause Toriel to no longer love Asgore, it WASN'T bad enough that Rudy doesn't think ill of Asgore, or enough to cause Toriel to no longer wish to associate with Asgore or Rudy with her. He bears no malice to anyone in the Dreemurr family, and this is an important detail, because it would seem extremely improbable that things between the three of them would be this hunky-dory if Asgore really did do something legitimately terrible.

Which, admittedly, isn't impossible... but it does feel unlikely, under the circumstances we presently see.

Given the way Dark Worlds reflect something of Lightners, some have suggested that maybe the Card Kingdom just as easily reflects something of Kris as it does Susie. While King mirrors Susie's earlier statements, one cannot help but notice that King is an enormous, pseudo-mammalian king with a hefty build, almost like a warped mirror of Asgore. And that comparison becomes all the more concerning when you consider how, as we go on, its revealed that Kris was once a very mischievous little kid... one can imagine that, perhaps, Kris was very much like Lancer, once upon a time. And if that's the case, then maybe it’s not a coincidence that King threatened both Lancer AND Kris directly.

It's a tempting thought... and oh, the warped implications it would carry, given that in Chapter Two its revealed that King wasn't going to go through with his threat and actually CARES about Lancer, despite earlier evidence to the contrary? Now THAT would imply some ugly-ass things about Kris' thoughts and feelings about their father. Or Susie's, if you believe the Card Kingdom is primarily 'meant' for her. It does make an eerie amount of sense, does it not?

Only... not quite. It’s tempting to think Asgore might have done something to Kris in a moment of weakness, but honestly? I really, really doubt it. Because let's face it, if Asgore had hurt or done something out line with Kris? It's incredibly doubtful that Toriel would ever allow Kris to get anywhere NEAR Asgore, and Rudy likewise would probably have little to do with Asgore over something like that. Oh, sure, friends will stick with friends, but that feels like something not even Rudy could overlook. And then there's the whole 'Eggs-Husband' incident...

... God that was painful. Like, kudos to Toby Fox, I don't think I've EVER felt that kind of secondhand embarrassment from a piece of media ever. It really was just a masterpiece of utter and complete failure. Still, it's important in helping to frame where everyone stands in this divorce, because while Toriel does try to get away from Asgore as fast as possible after his disastrous attempt at punnery (and who could blame her?), she none the less is willing to hear him out when he wants to talk about Asriel's return (possibly about the divorce itself).

It's important to note that, again, context is key here. Earlier in Chapter 1 its established that Asgore keeps sending Toriel flowers, which inevitably wind up in the trash, and likewise she rebuffs his deeply ill-conceived attempt to re-connect with her at Sans' store. But from what we see so far, it may not necessarily be that Toriel hates Asgore, so much that he refuses to get a clue about where they stand and persists in these self-sabotaging attempts to curry her favor. While the problem might be rooted in whatever happened in the past, it’s pretty clear that a BIG part of that is due to Asgore's present behavior. How do we know this? Because she still hears him out when he ISN'T trying to get into her good graces.

I feel that if Asgore had done something to Kris, or done something REALLY bad? Then he wouldn't even get that much. As it stands we don't know enough to say for sure, and all we can do is look at how people act and try and come up with some idea of things, but I'm willing to bet that while Asgore made some kind of serious misstep? He didn't do something unforgivable... just something severe enough that it would justify Toriel leaving him, with his refusal to let go simply making things that much worse over time given that its clear Tori CAN be civil with him. He just makes it difficult due to his overbearing and embarassing behavior... again, we can only infer things, but I do feel like a large part of Toriel's hostility stems from Asgore's inability to back off more than anything else, even the events that caused the divorce.

I can of course, be wrong, about all of this. We have only two chapters and nothing else to go by. But there is one last piece of this puzzle that I think offers an even better insight into why things happened as they happened- the reveal that Asgore used to be the chief of Homedown's police department, and that he was made to step down under unknown circumstances, hence why Undyne, a rookie, is now Hometown's police chief. We don't know what happened yet, but whatever did happen? Kris doesn't like to read about it, keeping Us from seeing what happened. It could be because they don't want us prying into their family's business just in general, but there's also a really good chance that it may be simple guilt that keeps them from reading the rest of that article.

And from here, we can paint a pretty compelling picture of what may have happened. As we know, Dess Holiday, Rudy's oldest daughter and Asriel's childhood best friend, went missing under mysterious circumstances. Dess' mother is mayor of Hometown, and its strongly hinted that whatever happened, DEss is now trapped somewhere in the Dark World (or worse), and other hints seem to indicate that Kris might in fact be aware of this, and its hinted that this event may have occurred near the mysterious bunker in the forest that Kris is explicitly afraid of. More interestingly, schoolmates Snowy and Monster Kid seem to be aware of this fact as well, which brings some interesting implications of itself.

Either way, with these details we can imagine a very probable chain of events for how things went down- Kris and Dess did something or the other at the Bunker, which led to Dess possibly being whisked away to the Dark World. Asgore, as police chief, is tasked with finding Dess. His inability to find Dess leads to him being fired by her mother, the mayor, and this would probably lead to the personal troubles at home that would lead to him eventually being divorced from Toriel and living on his own. This seems to be the general consensus among fan-interpretations, and  honestly? It seems pretty probable that this, or something like this, is how the divorce went down... and maybe why Kris is the way Kris is, in the present.

There is however an interesting little wrinkle in this formula, though out of everything I mentioned, this one is possibly the longest shot. Earlier in the game when we explore Asgore's store, we find a very terse note from his landlord telling him point blank that he has a month to pay the rent, even suggesting he start selling the flowers rather than giving them away. All that we know about this landlord is that their first initial is "C". So, where does the long shot come in? There is a possibility that "C" is none other than Mayor Holiday, Rudy's wife and Dess' mother, and previously Asgore's boss. What evidence do we have to suggest this? Mayor Holiday is described as being very good at her job while also not being great with people, and is evidently very driven and intimidating, so much so that Noelle is actively afraid of her. The way the note is written is not very formal, nor is it very sociable either... and there are more than a few Christmas related terms that start with "C". A lot of the fandom seems to have settled on "Carol".

Again, this could be a long shot, one built entirely by conjecture. But if this "C" is indeed mayor holiday? That's where the wrinkle comes in. Because if Mayor Holiday is willing to give Asgore a business and overlook past failures to pay the rent, then it may be that his leaving the force wasn't JUST because of his failing to find Dess... or rather, if Mayor Holiday had any part of it, it actually wasn't out of personal anger at him failing to find her daughter. If "C" is Mayor Holiday, then in this context it means that whatever (probably negative) feelings she has towards Asgore, they're not enough to stop her from trying to help him get back on his feet. You might argue that if she IS involved in his flower shop venture it might be more due to Rudy than her, but then if Rudy has this much sway over her, she wouldn't have fired Asgore for not being able to find Dess.

Granted, there's always the 'Dying Wish' factor, though we don't know how long Rudy's been sick...

But still- firing someone for a personal reason would be a VERY bad breach of ethics, and from what we've seen (or haven't) of the mayor so far is that whatever her personality flaws, she isn't actually corrupt or anything. Hometown is so peaceful and orderly that the police force isn't really regarded as necessary! Quite the accomplishment... and firing Asgore for personally failing her would be the kind of conflict of interest that could jeopardize those accomplishments, understandable as it might be in this instance.

So, what would this imply for Asgore and his leaving the force? I believe that while Dess vanishing was the catalyst for everything, it wasn't the direct cause of Asgore losing everything. I imagine that failing to find Dess for an undetermined amount of time weighed heavily on Asgore, given that this is his best friend's daughter, a daughter who is the best friend of Asriel at that.

My hypothesis, as such? Is that Asgore's failing to find Dess slowly ate away at him, and that this caused things at home to get tense, before his eventual desperation led him to do something he shouldn't have, thus leading to him being removed from the force, and leading to further troubles at home, culminating in him saying or doing SOMETHING that led Toriel to divorce him.

I don't have any authority to definitively suggest what it might have been. But I DO feel confident that if Dess' disappearance had anything to do with Asgore's dismissal from the force? It wasn't as simple as the mayor being angry with him and removing him due to that anger, but because of something Asgore himself did in reaction to his own failure at finding Dess, and that this in turn led to whatever would happen to cause his divorce from Toriel. I believe this, because while Asgore has fallen on very hard times, the worst of what he's going through is due to his own poor choices that we can see, and however pitiful his current state, he isn't alienated/exiled from the people in his life. And if he had done something REALLY bad? I don't think that would be the case.

Of course, I can be wrong. Heck, I probably am. We only got two games to go by, and as such virtually everything I say is ultimately just conjecture, some a bit more supported by game text, and some less. But whatever the reality is? I'm VERY confident that Asgore didn't do anything evil... but it was still enough to cost him everything. Given the themes going on in the light world, it'd make sense that rather than anything big or dramatic, the truth just turned out to be something simple, unglamorous, and quietly sad.

Just like in real life, a lot of the time.

[lynxgriffin]

Do you have a theory about what happened to Dess? And what do think she looks/looked like?

I had a different design for her in Paper Trail before we knew she was actually missing, but I decided to update it since I actually do like the common fanon that she's got dark hair like Rudy. And that she maybe looks more spunky!

And I've talked about this a little bit back on my longer theory post about Ralsei, but I'm basically still along the lines of the most common theories for her. I think she, Noelle, Kris and Asriel were all out exploring by the bunker one day, Kris and Dess decided to go deeper into the bunker where their siblings did not, something big happened where Dess basically fell into a crack in reality (not necessarily the Dark World itself, but perhaps an empty space between worlds) and Kris feels directly responsible, whether through a mistake on their part or inaction on their part. I do think that she's still alive and is trying to reach out to people but doesn't know how, particularly with those extra hidden lines in the code and the one line from Spamton. The Spamton Sweepstakes ARG brought up Dess a surprising number of times, so I think actually finding her and rescuing her will be an important subject that both resolves Kris and Noelle's backstories, and perhaps ties in with some bigger plot things!

[estellardreams]

I JUST HAD A HUGE THEORY!

So, y'know how Deltarune shares a lot of similarities to Undertale? With the monsters on the surface and having the main human able to be controlled by the player?

Well, I kept considering the theory that Deltarune is an alternate timeline of Undertale. But I kept trying to figure out how this could work.

According to Deltatraveler (I know it's not canon just stay with me here) there is a younger Noelle and Susie, and Frisk was commented by Dess to be a "Younger Kris".

However, I immediately ran into a road-block over Kris and Frisk. The idea of Frisk being Kris from the past came to mind but then I remembered that Frisk is their true name and not whatever you entered in. The name you entered in is the first child's name.

(Fwi: It's NOT Chara. Yes, Chara is called "The true name" but Chara is just short for Character so it doesn't count. Regardless, whatever you name the human doesn't matter in this situation. The human we play as is named Frisk, end of question)

And now we're left with either two options: Kris and Frisk are seperate entities or Frisk died/changed name and Kris took their place in the Dreemurr family.

Now, let's go with the former thought: Frisk and Kris are seperate. That means we need to at least confirm that the pacifist ending where we split off and go our seperate ways is canon. Frisk becomes the monster ambassador and Toriel later adopts Kris.

Okay, now what? Seems seamless, right- WRONG! We're missing someone...

Asriel. He's in college in deltarune, but a flower in Undertale. Yes, he's back to normal in the pacifist ending but does revert back into a flower later on so this doesn't make any sense.

So either A. Asriel never died at all in this timeline which I doubt (until later) OR B. Flowey got a soul and became Asriel again. Also no, I doubt this.

But as I got to thinking, I came to a realization... Don't Toriel and Asgore look older than their counterparts in Undertale? Boss monsters don't age unless they have children who are alive.

AND THEN I HIT AN EPIPHANY! The only way Deltarune and Undertale could differentiate in the timeline is when Asriel was BORN.

That explains why he's still alive and in college! But then we might be asking about Frisk, and I have an explanation for that!

Frisk... Still exists. It's just that they chose not to stay with the monsters and became the main ambassador for them on the surface.

The story goes that Asgore and Toriel used to live together. Then the first human fell and they took them in. Unfortunately they died due to buttercup poisoning and with Asgore realizing he could use their soul to break the barrier and placing this plan in motion, Toriel divorced him.

Then the next five humans came down until we finally encountered Frisk, who, through sheer determination, used their soul to help shatter the barrier. Monsters reached the surface and they agreed to become their ambassador before splitting off.

After monsters integrated back into society, they took up normal human jobs and roles. But Toriel slowly began to miss having a child around. Asgore eventually made amends with her and the two finally decided to have a child together; Asriel. Things kept going smoothly until Toriel, while visiting a human town, came across Kris in an orphanage and decided to adopt them.

The two Dreemurrs seemingly got into a feud over money due to having another child and got divorced yet again, this time for real. With Asgore scraping by and Toriel with a stable job, she continued to raise both kids with Asgore not having much custody besides visitation rights.

Soon enough Asriel went off to college and Kris got into school. And the rest is soon-to-be history.

Magic did slowly fade out since rarely anyone ever used it, seeing as being in the underground was now millenia ago. It's such a distant memory that no one acknowledges this dark part of their past.

And that's it! Thank you for hearing me out.

[kaukont-ramblings]

i mentioned my theory on deltarune being a metaphor for trauma/DID so i’m dumping some of my thoughts on that concept in this post. thought it might be fun to consider so here’s an entire post about kris probably having some kind of dissociative disorder.

okay so like all the other clinically insanely autistic people i’ve met in the general deltarune community, i’ve watched an absurd amount of theory videos talking about what deltarune really means, what its story is trying to convey, and the larger narratives of its characters.

now. i have my own thoughts and feelings on the story and its characters which ill try not to let cloud my judgment or division of canon versus fanon. but even with those things in mind, i have never watched a deltarune theory that i fully agreed with whenever it came to the essay’s conclusion. i think there’s been a lot of discussion and debate surrounding what neurological or mental disorders kris might have dealt with or currently be dealing with, but i think it's likely tied to something in their past that’s haunting them, and i wouldn’t be surprised if it had something to do with december holiday’s disappearance.

i think the events of deltarune are going to serve kris and noelle as a way to come to terms with the events that happened so they can finally move on. truthfully, i don't know if we're going to be able to save dess. it's possible that regardless of what ending you go for, it's a story about how you approach moving on from trauma, not fixing the event entirely. i think we're going to meet something akin to her in the dark world, how we react upon finding her is ultimately going to determine how kris and noelle move on from their shared trauma. toby fox has stated that there is only one ending, but it's going to be shaped by what you've done up to that point.

of course, snowgrave would be absolutely devastating if this were the case. we meet december holiday, and noelle is going to be too far dissociated from the fact that she's been taught to act hostile towards any and all entities. when the time comes to save her sister, we might not be given a choice. the damage we've caused is too much, and noelle kills her without a second thought. noelle will have "moved on" from the trauma of dess's disappearance, but in a way that's caused her to be destructive to those around her.

my current deltarune theory surrounding kris is that they have a dissociative disorder (likely DID), and that ralsei is an alter in their system. hence why he knows everything about the light and dark world, but doesn’t have any access to interacting with that world beyond kris’s existing prior knowledge. this is why he knows the outside world’s layout, how he travels between worlds and simply meets up with susie and kris in the cyber world. you, the player are a third alter in that system- possibly tying to the goner maker at the start of chapter one. but kris’s soul has been split in some way, and i think ralsei is the direct result of that.

i think that in the weird route, there is going to be a segment after dess is killed (however that may play out) and kris is forced to watch the results of your actions that they truly retaliate for the last time. i know i'm not the first to envision a vessel versus kris fight in some regards, but i have a hunch that toby fox will be able to pull something similar off in a way that doesn't feel cliche or overdone.

the dark world is a physical manifestation of kris’s headspace. ralsei knows that kris and the player are two different alters within their system, so he uses segments of the game where the player is away from them to tell kris… something. this might be information on how to create dark worlds hence them opening one at the end of chapter two but it’s unclear. we don’t really have much info on what ralsei says in these segments, but we know that he and kris have some sort of relationship they don’t want the player interfering with.

i think ralsei being an alter of kris’s would make the most sense- both from the perspective of the characters and their relationships with one another. ralsei is everything kris wishes they were- both in appearance and personality. kris wanted to look like their adoptive family and to be like their older brother, so they made up a persona named ralsei to fit that precise role. it’s possible that ralsei is even a prominent personality within kris’s system, given the fact that kris is known to be able to bake, play the piano, among other things that they refuse to do in front of the player and that ralsei seems to share. things that only they can do on their own accord, the player can’t interact with these particular hobbies because those skills are specific to kris (or possibly ralsei) in particular. i think this is honestly where a lot of the third entity theories come from. you and kris share a body, and there’s a chance that there is some third entity pulling the strings that we don’t know about. i think it’s interesting to think about the possibility of that third entity being ralsei.

this is yet another reason i don't think ralsei being evil would make sense. he very clearly has good intentions for kris and susie, but his character's main point of conflict seems very inward. i think we’re going to explore ralsei’s psyche and mental state more in depth, in a way that we get to understand where he’s coming from as kris’s protector. ralsei is unapologetically kind and understanding, to the extent that he becomes a walking doormat to those around him. it’s an unhealthy perspective and coping mechanism, one very contrasted to kris’s stoic, more silent protagonist persona.

anyways. tl;dr i think the roaring is a metaphor for kris (and possibly noelle’s) ptsd, and by extension kris’s plurality. i think that kris is very afraid of what confronting their trauma will look like, and so they use the dark world as a way to hide from the reality they’re living in- one where dess and asriel are both gone for one reason or another.

[kooki914]

How do you think would Noelle and Ralsei interact with each other if they got the chance? What would their relationship bring out of the other?

This is something I've given a lot of thought to, and something I'm still salty wasn't explored at all in Chapter 2. So this post is both going to answer your question as well as be my excuse to write an essay about these two.

The thing is, Noelle and Ralsei are narrative foils to each other. That probably sounds weird on account of the fact that they never interact, but both mechanically and through dialogue, we see parallels form between them. They're both enigmatic, mysterious, while keeping up friendly appearances, while also being literal or figurative royalty in their respective worlds (Noelle is from a rich family and is adored, Ralsei is a prince with no subjects). They're both love interests to the leads (yes, to Kris and Susie BOTH, the snowgrave route is essentially an exploration of a toxic friends-to-lovers but I'm not getting into that here), and they're both rife with religious symbolism, as well as the fact they're both prey animals (in a world where boss monsters like Toriel and Asgore can look more lion-esque, Ralsei's decidedly goat-ish appearance is kind of striking to me). They have the same heal spell (a pray to light) and they're both "passive" in that kind of way a mage usually is in RPGs.

Noelle's arc mainly centers around agency, while Ralsei's arc mainly centers around identity. For all the struggles she faces, Noelle doesn't really have that... crisis of character that Susie and Ralsei are prone to. Even in the snowgrave route, she doesn't question herself, she questions Kris. And, while Ralsei IS an obedient doormat, it's not out of a lack of agency (he shows us as much when he puts his foot down right before the kids open a fountain), it's an active choice he KNOWS he can simply... Not Do (as evidenced by how upset he is with Susie's behaviour in chapter 1 and his epiphany about it in chapter 2, he essentially equates mean behaviour to Purposefully making people around you suffer, instead of a personality quirk or showing of emotion).

It's interesting to think about how they'd complement one another. Not even strictly in a character arc sense (I'll get to that), but just in a... character interaction sense. Noelle has this pattern of putting the spotlight on other people. Even when she talks about herself it's always framed as a way to lift up those around her, while Ralsei has this sneaky way of getting to know you without you even realising (if the rooms he made for Kris and Susie are anything to go by). I think this would result in a dynamics where Noelle (passively, almost accidentally) allows Ralsei to open up in a more genuine way, while Ralsei still tends to Noelle's needs like he does for everyone else.

It's also interesting from a worldbuilding sense. We've seen Ralsei not give a flying fuck about Anyone that isn't directly connected to the prophecy, both for humour reasons and for horror reasons (as seen in the snowgrave route), so giving him a friend that's 1) a lightner, 2) not part of the prophecy, and 3) trying to actually know him on a personal level - it'd probably cause him to actually rethink his worldview. If someone like Noelle, someone who's got nothing to do with the prophecy, can be an important person to him and a good friend to people she doesn't *need* to care about, then why can't he? Can he be someone outside the prophecy? Is his identity and purpose not confined to this, and what does that mean for him in the long run?

And, on Noelle's side of things, Ralsei would probably be a healthier outlet for that feeling of nostalgia she's so addicted to. With him around, she's allowed to just be a kid again. No appearances to keep up, no expectations to fulfill, he's a fresh start and a new friend that she's allowed to be her authentic self around because his existence is essentially rooted in tending to the inner child of all the lightners he comes across. And maybe then she'll be able to let go of the past. Maybe, though viewing her childhood through an outsider's eager point of view, she can see how far away it is, and how she doesn't NEED it to be happy. Things can't be the same, and maybe that's a good thing. Maybe they can be better.

Overall, there's also a... vague "burden of femininity" they both have. They take on emotional labour even when they don't have to, just because that's what's expected of them. I so badly want a Dark Fun Gang-esque arc with these two where they defect from the team and just decide to be bad guys on their own terms for a while. Just because they can, just to see what it brings out of them. And, they'd be complete dorks about it of course, but it'd be nice to see them breaking their moulds with people they don't feel judged by, with friends they don't feel the need to impress because they're already so similar to.

There's this one bit of dialogue I wrote for them for one of my AUs, specifically in the above scenario where they decide to be bad guys for a bit, and I feel I need to share it here because it puts into words something I can't without taking away from the feels of it:

[sweatertheman]

to me, a really emotionally effective suselle denial is worth more than 10 suselles, because itd do wonders for noelle's arc, pull the themes of rejecting fate into focus, and illustrate a great point about how we play matchmaker with these characters, and how everyone else does too.

literally everyone seems to be gunning for susie and noelle to end up together, but the one person whose feelings about this pairing we've been ignoring, and the one person whose feelings actually matter, is susie! no one gave her a choice here! noelle didn't give susie a choice, she's incredibly possessive of susie and feels like she is owed information about susie, which she can then use to get susie to like her. noelle won't stop until susie is hers. ralsei never asked susie if she enjoyed her ferris wheel ride, or how she felt about noelle, he just watched from a distance and assumed how she felt, because it suits his deterministic worldview. rudy never asked susie if she wanted to go out with noelle, iirc, he just assumed she would say yes, because he loves noelle, and wants noelle to be happy. everyone else is just imposing roles onto susie, the same as they always have!

and while in the real world, having a gay lover is an act of defiance against oppressive social norms, in the world of deltarune, its the opposite! no one is telling her she can't, and everyone wants her to (with the exception of catti, and the couple asshole classmates). even if susie DOES have feelings for noelle, those feelings are sullied by the fact that everyone is still removing her agency, STILL telling her who she is and isn't allowed to be! would you still like your partner if you learned they had done everything in their power to make sure you would end up with them? obsessively collecting information on you in order to seem more appealing, constructing situations for you to meet up in a way where it seems organic, trying to get closer to you by any means necessary? i don't think susie would.

the thing susie seems to value most out of anything is her own agency in choosing what she gets to do, and how she gets to do it. no societal norm, social convention, narrative trope or gameplay mechanic stands in her way of choosing what she wants to do. she won't let you take her armor off unless you give her something else. when you give her a more powerful weapon, she won't accept a weaker one. she's too good for that. susie can dance on her own if she wants, she isn't stupid. it's not fair that kris gets to make all the choices, so its her turn now. heal prayer is boring, so she makes up her own spell. she challenges the idea that darkners are a slave race because she wouldn't want to be complicit in such a system. she believes they should be free to make their own choices. in what world would a person who values freedom above all be happy knowing that their partner wasn't going to let them make their own choice? this isn't even a question of whether or not susie likes noelle, its a question of if susie would be okay knowing that noelle feels, however unconsciously, as if susie belongs to her in some way. and i believe the answer is no.

and this rejection would hurt regardless of if susie liked noelle back, because we do like noelle, flawed as she is. and that rejection forces noelle to change in some way. either she accepts that susie's freedom to choose means the freedom not to be with her, or she doubles down and tries to win her over. she doesn't get what she wants, so she has to choose to get better and start seeing susie as a person, and not merely an idol, or a fantasy, or she has to choose to get worse, and cling onto susie harder.

my rejection of suselle is only somewhat about susie's feelings towards noelle, and is mostly about susie's freedom to not have those feelings, a freedom which is being violated by the "narrative" she exists in, the "Legend of DELTA RUNE"

she deserves a choice, and when the person in question, noelle, doesn't seem to care about how she feels, and only wants susie to be hers, i think she'll choose no, even if she did really like noelle. maybe even especially if she really liked noelle. people talk about how betrayed susie will feel learning kris is possessed and darkners are objects, but what about when she learns noelle was willing to change herself to be whatever susie wants, was willing to treat friends poorly, to almost stalk her, just to make her hers? would she be able to trust her feelings for noelle learning that it was all out of her control, that she hadn't been given a choice?

this isn't even to say they won't end up together in the end. its just to say it can't be like this. it cant be with a noelle who doesn't really respect susie's personhood and sees her more as an object whose affection must be won, and it can't be by the will of a divine entity that orchestrated everything for susie to end up with her. it has to be susie's choice.

this is kind of why i like ralsusie. what better way to make a display of your agency than to reject literally everything others have coaxed you into? rejecting the prophecy, rejecting noelle's advances, rejecting the player's agency, rejecting the concept of darkners not being real people.

its not like she can only choose to be the bully no one likes or the hero protector who ends up with noelle. its a false dichotomy, where fate locks her up and offers an escape, but the "escape" is only another cell. true escape is carving your own path, playing by your own rules.

[thebelugawhalefriend]

Connection: Kris x Reader

CW: Y/N insert, Gender Neutral reader, Slow burn (?)

Part Two

Please Note: This will be a spin off starting from Chapter 2's ending! While new tidbits from future chapters will affect new aspects, this will be a fanfiction based on my own thoughts and story direction. Please take this as an "alternate universe/ending" piece rather than pure canon material. Thank you!

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Connection [TERMINATED]

All I can feel are my muffled breaths as I struggle between couch cushions.

"Kris... Stop struggling! I'm trying to sleep!" A black boot shoves my face further into the coarse fabric prison I'm in. "Wait a minute- That's not Kris' kickable face!"

Just as suddenly as I had woken up in peril, a tight grip on my head pulled me from the cushions. Yellow eyes peer through me in suspicion.

"Just who the HELL are you?!"

"Wait- I can-!"

"Why am I waking up in the Dark world, huh?!"

"Just listen!"

"AND WHERE THE HELL IS KRIS?!"

...

"...Susie?"

A soft yet familiar voice interrupts the barrage of demanding questions before I can even process what's going on. The pause gives me just a moment to look around to what just might be happening. My head? Currently being held by Susie, an armor clad purple monster whose bite would most likely end me. My surroundings? None like I've seen in the game before. Card castle isn't anywhere near that I can see... And yet the friendly green dressed goat, Ralsei, is here to greet us.

"Just who is that you're holding...?" Ralsei tilts his head.

"I don't know WHO they are, but they better explain why we're here..."

"Maybe instead of gripping them like that, you could let them down? Maybe they'll tell us on their own!"

It takes Susie a long moment to get used to this idea. A few glances shared between Ralsei and myself too. But, it isn't long until she releases her claws and lets me back down onto the couch. "Fine, but they have FIVE seconds to explain themselves..."

I stand right up from the couch and dust myself off, shivering and shaking from the encounter. Unlike the others, I'm still in the plain clothing I typically wear. It WOULD feel unfair if it weren't for the fact that... Well, where am I? More importantly- HOW am I? How could this happen?

"I'm (Y/N), but... You've known me as Kris for the past few days-"

"YOU'RE KRIS?!" Susie sounds exasperated, but a nudge from Ralsei quiets her down.

"Kind of? It's hard to explain but I've kind of... Been like a guide for Kris. Telling them what to do to stay on the right path. Their Soul, if you will. I know you two very well... But, Kris... They pulled me right out of their own chest and stuffed me into the couch cushions! I don't know how, I don't even know why, but all I know is that I'm somehow here...?"

"...And you expect us to believe that?" Susie raises an eyebrow.

"I know it sounds ridiculous! I don't even believe that I'm here! Shit, I'm still dressed in what I wore yesterday and I'm not even FROM your worlds!"

While Susie was giving me the most menacing glare, Ralsei was scratching his chin in thought. "It does make some sense... I don't see anything that would make you a lightener, but you can't be a darkener either. Though, can you remember how you got here?"

"No... All I know is that after finishing this chapter, I-"

"Chapter? CHAPTER?!" Susie interrupts again, yet Ralsei doesn't stop her this time

"Look, I don't think I have time to explain all of this! We have to find Kris- If they pulled me into this mess, they're going to get me right back out of it!"

While the tall purple monster was hesitant to agree, she crossed her arms and nodded, "We will have to find them, regardless of you. I doubt you're telling the truth..."

Ralsei stops her thoughts, "But! (Y/N) very much could be! And if they are Kris' SOUL, we need to find them and fast. Who knows what could happen to Kris if them and (Y/N) are separate too long...

[themadzarka]

DELTARUNE SELF-INSERT MOD

Deltarune Self-Insert Mod (DR-SIM) is a Deltarune AU in-development with its main major change being that the player and the vessel are the same person, instead of Kris being controlled by their own SOUL.

⬇️ QNA BELOW ⬇️

Comics:

Reddit mini-Ask Series / RedSoul Introduction (discontinued/non-canon)

Party Bad Omen (in-progress)

Q&A:

Is this actually a fangame/Deltarune mod?

How long has DR-SIM been in development?

Despite the title of the AU, this isn't a fangame nor a mod. It's a YouTube animated series in development. Currently there isn't any way to follow the main story.

A full year (post updated in 03/2024). The concept, theme and story took me a long time to properly flesh out. Hallucinating a Deltarune AU to the same J-pop songs over and over demands a lot of energy, you know?

Who is Pinkle?

Is Pinkle YOUR self-insert?

Pinkle(OC) is the main character of DR-SIM. She steals Kris' role in this AU, being taken into the Dreemurr family instead and leading both Susie and Ralsei as the main trio.

No.

Where is Kris in this AU?

Who's Kris?

Why does Pinkle look like [insert character here]?

It's intentional.

What is the main story of the AU?

Pretty much Deltarune's story but with a valley emo girl as the protagonist.

That's it...?

Obviously I wouldn't leave it like that, the storyline also features a sub-plot happening a few years into the past, which is why there's a lot of young Asriel and Pinkle art on this blog.

Are Pinkle and Asriel siblings?

As much as Pinkle likes to refer to Toriel and Asgore as mom and dad, she doesn't like the idea of Asriel being her brother, to his dismay. He learned to accept that (she's gonna be creepy either way).

What are the headcanons featured in this AU?

I try to be close to the original Deltarune as possible, leaving its mysteries unsolved unless the plot calls for an answer, although anything added from me will be discussed and be considered exclusive to DR-SIM.

Do existing characters get redesigns?

Most of them only get tweaks, but a lucky few need more attention for the sake of storytelling. (ie: Ralsei)

Aside from Pinkle, are there going to be other original characters?

If there are, they need to wait for their turn, we already have a very colorful cast of characters from the original game.

Any ships?

Although this AU was born from a very restless hyperfixation on a ship, romance is not a focus.

[manofthepipis]

Hoooiii!!!! Do you have any deltarune hc? Like for the Fun Gang, Addison’s, Chaos Duo? Just wondering 🙃

For me, Jevil has a soft spot for kids (ex, Lancer)

aaaa i have so many, though not much for the fun gang as we approach more dr chapters, but i've mainly thrown headcanons onto the darkners here

for the addisons, i feel like all of them are night owls/never getting much sleep. They work a lot, but the transition to castle town has given them a bit of a break. Spamton, out of all of them, never/barely sleeps, being kept up by his own plan-making and next attempt at getting his sales to skyrocket, though always to fail. This only got worse in his post-big-shot years where constant attempts on the mansion kept him endlessly busy. He doesn't rest, and so he'll work himself until he crashes.

jevil is the opposite, at least to me! i'd like to imagine his time in the card kingdom (prior to his imprisonment) he would sleep often, since the joker card isn't used in many games (if at all). He'd sleep in the scarlet forest mainly, where i headcanon he got approached by the same being that helped spamton out. Seam set him up a little hammock near the ceiling so that he could sleep while they worked on mage-type stuff. Post-imprisonment, it was entertaining himself with solo-led games, perfecting his fighting patterns, and sleeping a lot. It would be kind of cool if, in contrast to spamton meeting their shared benefactor over the phone, jevil met him in a dream, until waking up and finding the dream was real.

Though i do like that headcanon that jevil has a soft spot for kids, i feel it's incredibly rare nowadays as he doesn't care much for anything anymore, rather than pure fun and chaos (he did try to kill three of them after all, and not out of desperation like spamton had but just because of the game). Like, his mind has cracked since his imprisonment, but he sees the potential for others to see past their own imprisonment and stir up some trouble for the nature of things. I feel he'd really like Susie especially, and Noelle for her ability to disrupt the narrative (like her objecting the player's snowgrave command at first). Though i do like the idea prior-imprisonment him trying to play games with Lancer, and Seam joining in. Though Jevil does not care for rouxls whatsoever and pities his existence above anyone else's. Something about being tied to "Rules" just doesn't sit well with him.

I definitely side on jevil knowing about the roaring, and the knight, but telling us would spoil the fun of the player finding out before the real fun has began. On the other hand, spamton desperately wants to tell Kris, to help them get an upper hand on us controlling them, but can't. I feel he's been conditioned in his time being puppeted to short out mentally whenever bringing such a topic up as seen in-game.

speaking of jevil, i headcanon he took a liking to spamton immediately, seeing how different he was from the other addisons and wanted to see what route his fate would start to go down as they both discovered more and more about what was really going on in their universe. Spamton was too focused on everything else to bother to care what jevil was or what his purpose was, but Jevil would return home to excitedly tell Seam everything about the puppeted salesman from the digital world.

onto darkners from the digital world, i feel like swatch took the brunt of the work preventing spamton from getting too close to neo, so when they physically couldn't take his wacky antics anymore, they reached out to Tasque manager, who helped them set up all the traps in the basement. She's dealt with spamton a handful of times, and one time had him captured so Swatch could try and talk to him and make one final attempt to reason with him, but he was too far gone at that point, deadset on neo.

that's all i got so far! just a few that have been swirling around in my brain for awhile lol, ! it keeps this 2+ year time without a new chapter just a little more fun :D

[trg-deltarune-quotes]

All the Lightners are smart in their own way: Noelle and Berdly

Noelle is the smartest among the group by a long shot. While her emotional intelligence is a bit low, mostly because she's not all that open about her honest feelings which leads to her being a yes man half the time.

Or sugarcoating her feelings to not come off as rude to other people.

Even when doing either of those things would help out in not miscommunicating anything.

She makes up for it with her quick wits.

She’s so smart that she comes up with a solution that quickens the pace of one of the puzzles. 

So yeah, Noelle is the smartest out of all of them. Even Berdly admits it.

Speaking of the bluebird, he’s not as dumb as he paints himself as. Yes his emotional intelligence is the lowest among the group but he does get some stuff right.

His assessment on Noelle, while a bit rude, is not unfounded.

This is what happens at the very first mouse puzzle.

He even notices that she has romantic feelings.

But the problem lies with what he says next.

By itself it’s not so bad, in fact it's really sweet of him, but he’s not talking about Susie.

He’s talking about himself.

Berdly’s not that great at identifying why they have those feelings or whos those feelings are towards. 

He thinks Noelle is shy and reserved because she has stage fright and not because of the month they had to spell at the spelling bee.

And he thinks Susie has a crush on him because she was nice to him when he opened up to her and because she's TRUE gamer as well.

Granted he has his feelings of friendship confused for love.

This is mostly stemming from his low self-esteem.

Believing himself to be worthless unless he could prove himself.

And while he might not be as emotionally intelligent as Susie or as smart as Noelle he is a great organizer and planner.

When Berdly works with the team to save Noelle, he comes up with a plan that accounts for the strength of all the team members of the fun gang. 

Kris is unpredictable, you never know how or what they're gonna do, having them distract Queen makes sense. Susie is the muscle of the group able to dish out pain like it’s nothin so having her escort Noelle also makes sense. And finally Berdly’s memory of the palace makes him a reliable source for where to go.

That’s another thing about him; he has a really good memory.

He doesn’t just remember big words, he remembers the people who created his statue and gets their help to build the giant robot.

So yeah, Berdly is a smart kid as well.

The biggest question now is why do they do dumb stuff when the situation is less goofy and a bit more serious? The answer is simple. They are EXTREMELY poor communicators. Kris doesn't want to have a serious talk, Noelle is too afraid to speak her mind, Susie was quite a nasty bully before her adventure in the dark world, and Berdly jumps to conclusions a lot. And all these issues stem from their deep rooted insecurities so of course they’re gonna make dumb decisions. They don’t want to hurt their feelings, or act like they don’t care about them, hell they even might pretend they don’t care when they really really do just to protect not only themselves but those they care about. They’re just a bunch of teenagers trying to navigate the complex web that is relationships.

Communication is a really prevalent theme in this game. One in which I feel will get explored more in the light world rather than the dark world. Because what better place to talk about your issues than in your own world? Might not be as fun as a dark world adventure but that doesn’t mean they can’t create their own fun with friends. They can use the dark world as a foundation to forge stronger bonds and help each other out. After all, just because they dreamed of it doesn't mean they can’t learn from it.

It’s just like what Susie said at the end of the ferris wheel ride.