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under-lore · 1 year ago

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Toby Fox once made a post saying that he didn't want to sell merch of Chara because it would trivialize what they meant in game and the message they carry, do you have any idea what he could have meant by this?

Well, obviously this topic is inherently speculative so take it with a grain of salt, but there still exists some room to try and analyse it nonetheless.

Here is the post in question :

First, he uses "i" in the first sentence, and then "Because".

This immediately tells us that Toby Fox personally is the one that is opposing merchandise of Chara being made, and that all the things which will come afterwards are about what he was intending to do with them as a character in Undertale and why that makes the idea of Chara merch bothersome to him.

This isn't the only time Toby has shown to be picky about Chara-related content. For example, he has only openly promoted fan content containing Chara once since the game was released (and they were not the main focus of it) whilst the rest of the cast is seen quite often.

In general, Toby is quite dodgy when it comes to the first fallen human as a character. Sometimes even acting as if they didn't exist.

But as the mail also repeats, that isn't because Toby doesn't care about Chara, but rather because he does care about their character. Like how Toby actually went ahead and personally intervened to change Chara's Tarot card (Along with removing the Gaster one entirely), even if those weren't even official merch anyways. He does care about how they're being portrayed at least.

Okay, so next is our main puzzle piece.

The reason why he doesn't want Chara merch is because Toby considers that merchandise of Chara would have to portray them in a way that does not allow to properly represent what Chara stands for in-game, and thus fail to convey the message that they were intended to carry.

To rephrase this, he considers that if he were to make Chara merch, then "merch Chara" would be incapable of portraying correctly what he actually intended "in-game Chara" to be, and thus miss out on a significant portion of their character & what could be taken from it.

So he would rather not have merch at all rather than to have merch that misses the point of who "in-game" Chara was intended to be.

Since the only direct hint we have about this is that what Toby meant couldn't have been portrayed with merch properly, then the only way to obtain more insight into what he meant exactly is to go about it the other way and to ask which pieces of Chara's character merch could have portrayed and work backwards.

A prime example of what could have been done for Chara merch would be content similar to the Tarot card mentioned earlier.

As that card shows, it is far from difficult to make designs that capture most of the concepts and themes that are explicit-genocide-route-dialogue-specific & are said by or associated to the character.

To cite only a few that can be seen from this card, life & death & killing, power, demonic parallels, the number 9, the absolute, statistics, consequences, souls, knives, nothingness,...

(Side note : The person who made the Tarot card actually did not even know about the name "Chara" at the time, they weren't really a fan of the game and mostly went along with their first impression of the genocide route & the fanon of the time.)

Aside from perhaps their relationship with the player, there is frankly nothing about the direct Chara appearance at the end of genocide & the heavily Chara influenced flavor text of the end of the route that cannot be easily shown through merch. (Just look at all the fan content over the years)

And considering the way Toby acts merch-wise with Frisk and with Kris respectively, we can be pretty confident that their relationship with the player is not the reason that Chara merch is being blocked either.

So with that, we can be pretty much sure that what he meant wasn't about the explicit-genocide-route-only parts of in-game Chara.

Aside from the genocide route, the only other direct appearances of Chara are that of pre-death Chara. Between their fall into the underground and their death after the failure of the plan.

While we don't have clear cut examples like the Tarot card here, we do still run into the same problems.

The game implies a lot of things about pre-death Chara in many different ways. But all of those details or personality traits are either not much of a problem to portray or are also shared with other characters who do have merch made of them, meaning they can't be it either. (Its usually Undyne)

Not to mention that, when it comes to pre-death Chara, the game itself does show us some sepia artworks of Chara & The Dreemurrs. Like this one for example :

If properly representing those character traits of pre-death Chara was truly what this was all about, then why not simply make merch out of a colored version of that image if nothing else ?

It's in the game, right ? So surely it can't possibly be misrepresenting the game...

A trivialisation means to downplay something or to reduce it to something simpler.

If both pre-death Chara and genocide route-Chara & what the game shows about them could be represented with merch like any other character, but that Toby considers that doing so would still be missing out on an important part of Chara's character & their message, then the only conclusion would seem to be that Toby is not refering to any of the direct appearances of Chara in the game at all, but rather to another seemingly very important side of Chara that isn't shown directly in-game, and couldn't be through merch either.

While those could still be accurate in theory by themselves, making merch of Chara like this sepia art or the Tarot card would still be trivializing them in Toby's mind in the sense that it would be limiting Chara to only those things, and thus exclude that core part of their character from "merch Chara". Something that Toby refuses to do.

So our situation would seem to be : There is more to Chara than just what we are told about pre-death Chara and genocide route Chara. However, this part of Chara's character cannot be properly shown with merch yet is too important to ignore in Toby's mind.

There is one last thing we can say about what this part might be, though.

Toby seems quite insistant on the fact that this particular part of them was absolutely key to understanding what was Chara's role as a character in the game, and to understanding the message that he was trying to convey through this character.

A character's role & message can be conveyed through their story, through their actions, and through their mentality.

As we've seen earlier that this part of Chara was not an explicit appearance, the "actions" part is either minor enough to miss, or absent.

So it would seem we can be somewhat confident that this piece of Chara's character that Toby is worried about also either adds more implicit parts to Chara's story or gives important insight on their mentality (or both).

That would make Toby's core reason for not wanting to make merch of Chara be less about Chara's character itself and more about what the player is to understand from the way he constructed their character, which would match up with his words about it being "something that cannot be bought in a store", too.

Anddd... As far as purely impartial analysis goes, i think that's pretty much all that you can deduce, unless i've forgotten about something.

If you want my personal opinion on it, though, i would have to say that using NarraChara theory would be a really elegant way to fill up all those blanks.

Considering that the theory, if true, would constitute 90% of Chara's character & be absolutely crucial to understanding the character's mentality and the way they think or behave in different situations or routes, that would certainly make it key to understanding Toby's intent with the character relative to their message or what they would stand for.

I can also hardly see plausible alternatives. Considering that pre-fall Chara and post-game Chara are pretty dry wells in that regard and genocide Chara's words about when they were "brought back to life", the only moments left timeline-wise for this key part of Chara's character to happen would be during neutral/pacifist routes or during the part of the genocide route that weren't already brought up earlier. That would make it seem like a pretty natural answer.

But more importantly, anything to do with the NarraChara part of their character (if the theory was intended) literally couldn't be properly represented through merch.

Because, unlike the common fanon portrayal of it which exists for that same reason, NarraChara according to in-game flavor text wouldn't be a ghostly figure floating around Frisk, but rather a foreign entity sharing their body and their mind. Which is a crucial part to both how NarraChara would work in-world and to the morality-wise implications of it.

Of course, that didn't prevent some fans from sweeping that under the rug anyways, even though it misses one of the most important points of the character they're trying to represent.

That might just be why Toby would rather just not.

How would you make merch of that ? You would just be making merch of Frisk instead... Let alone portraying correctly such a complex character. It just wouldn't work. This is a pretty common problem for media with bodysharing characters, those mechanics and all the implications that follow genuinely just cannot be "sold in stores."

They are a purely psychological experience.

#undertale #chara #chara undertale #undertale chara #toby fox #narrachara #Also toby has already shown to like bodysharing dynamics in the past too

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taralen · 10 months ago

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Why I draw Spamton the way I do and in defense of the "Tumblr sexyman" Spamton G. Spamton. An ESSAY.

EDIT 2/3/24 - Fixed some grammatical errors, changed font colors to make them easier to read against a white background, and reframed some of my arguments, especially regarding the "Yaoi style" portion, as it came across as ignorant and spiteful.

I follow the #spamton tag here, and I hate to say it, but it's full of artists jabbing at other artists who so happen to draw Spamton handsome. I see comments like, "No, he's a middle-aged sleazeball who is grungy and dirty." Often, these depictions show him with graying hair, ratty clothes, and covered in filth and grime. While there is nothing inherently wrong about drawing him this way, I find it disingenuous that the same people who draw him this way criticize people who draw him more handsome and or clean-cut because this depiction is even less based on his canon appearance than someone simply drawing him more realistically proportioned and with a pleasing visage (the definition of what this is varies by artist, but they're all often reduced to just "tumblr sexyman.") I see similar comments by people who draw him in what they may describe as "disgusting" or a "dirty scammer."

If Toby intended for Spamton to look dirty and gross, he would have simply gone with a similar design route to this character as an NPC in Undertale.

Toby or other official arts never depict him with the following, even though I see it in fan art all the time:

Ball-jointed hands. Some artists draw them properly and make them look super cool. Simple lines aren't how they look in reality, but I get why people do that. Either way, it's not canon.

Dirty with tattered clothes. Spamton is only ever shown with a black blazer. It's debatable if he wears pants, but Toby has also drawn him with a collared shirt and tie.

Graying hair. Should be obvious. He's only ever seen with jet-black hair.

Overweight/Fat. While some fan depictions of this are cute, it's not canon. Spamton is always drawn thin but not necessarily in shape.

Buff. Same as the above. It looks really good in some fanart but is also not canon.

Tail. It can look really, really cute, but not canon for him or any of the Addisons.

Feathers. Only Swatch and the Swatchlings are depicted with feathers in Cyber World.

"40+ years old" - There is zero evidence of this in-game or in official merchandise or media. This assumption apparently comes from people assuming that his birthday would be the same as the first "spam email," which (at the time of this writing) was 46 years ago. This is a false equivalency since there is no indication that Spamton has any associations with our real-world history of spam emails. It should also be noted that this was not a true spam email. The only thing closest to Spamton in association with real spam email history may be his favorite year, 1997, in which spam marketing emails became frequent nuisances. However, actions to stop spam mail started in 1996, and it was by the 2000s that they became a serious concern because technology had since advanced. If he were truly born in 1978, he would only be 19 by 1997. While not impossible, it's not how most people see him in his Big Shot years of barely just entering adulthood. Also, as someone who has lived through most of the 90s, I can attest to a lot of this. Spam stuff existed, but news reports only heavily got into it by the 2000s.

100% Inorganic or Robot. While a cool idea, there is more evidence against this, like his ability to eat, sleep, and genuinely feel pain.

Boobs. I get most people who do this are doing it for fun, but it's not canon to his design, lol.

Tall. The most obvious one. Spamton is below average height, as made evident by his nearly 1:1 scale with Kris, a teenager.

Toddler-sized. Same as above. I won't lie that it can be drawn super cute, though. Haha!

With all that being said, why is it such a contention among his fans to depict him as handsome?

There is evidence to support that Spamton is at least, to some degree, good-looking but unconventionally attractive based on several sources. It should be noted that people often use his shop sprite as the best representation of his head, but this isn't accurate, either. In Undertale and Deltarune, because of its cartoonish sprites, it shouldn't surprise anyone that Spamton's are the most inaccurate and change frequently. Another user posted an entire comparison of all his sprites and how drastically inconsistent they are. I tried searching through my likes for this, but I can't find it. If anyone finds this, please link or reblog it to this post. Anyway, the intent of the post was to show artists that there are numerous different ways you can interpret Spamton's design with what's provided in the game, alone.

Stuff people often miss that is canon:

Lips. Believe it or not, this bastard's got kissable lips. Toby's recent art and his Neo attack are proof of this.

Eyes under the glasses. Seen in his sprite of going "BIG SHOT" the first time with Kris. It also hints at heterochromia because they contrast in color with yellow pupils under the pink and pink under the yellow.

NEO has no visible jaw hinge line. Only puppet Spamton does. Big Shot Spamton doesn't have one, either.

NEO's glasses' colors are reversed, and they are pince-nez style.

Androgynous sense of fashion. This is the least missed one, but it's worth mentioning. Spamton has no issues wearing pink, a color nowadays associated with women, and the NEO body has fabulous heels in addition to mostly being a magenta pink. The dress on the mannequin that greatly resembles him (and may hint at him being a white Addison before) shows a pretty dress that mirrors the one Mettaton wore in Undertale.

So then, WHY is he being depicted as handsome or unconventionally good-looking a BAD thing?

There really shouldn't be an issue with it at all. It's less offensive and technically more canon than many of the supposed depictions of him being a sleazebag who looks like he hasn't showered in a century and is hooked up on drugs or booze. You don't become a media darling without a charming personality. Mettaton only got successful in Undertale before he got his EX body because there was literally nothing else the people could watch. Spamton, on the other hand, was competing against many, so he had to stand out and look good even with the help of Mike (and possibly Tenna).

I often see people make this very reductive argument that it's a "yaoi style." This is by far one of the stupidest arguments I've ever seen. Drawing good-looking men is NOT equivalent to liking Yaoi. There are plenty of other genres of Asian-origin or Anime-styled media that feature pretty boys that have nothing to do with Boy's Love. Even Shounen anime has some bishies. Drawing bishounen-style male characters is a design choice and does not indicate someone's interest in Yaoi media. I swear, I have never seen this problem with Eastern fans. It's rude to lump people with similar art styles under something most people who make this claim don't even understand. I've seen people make upset comments about other people calling their style stuff like "Cal-Arts" even if they never went to Cal-Arts or like the media produced by them. It's the same principle. Stop lumping entire artists under one umbrella.

I draw him handsome because it's simply the way I see him. I love many other depictions of him, undoubtedly, and I even have a sticker set that depicts him with the graying hair, but it looks really good anyway. My point is, the fact that people who draw him dark and handsome shouldn't be scrutinized any more than people who draw him way more off base.

My personal contentions with the assumption he is a "dirty sleazebag old man."

I find this absolutely hilarious because this is a genuine stereotype and stock character of people similar to him. The douchebag salesman is a trope that's been around for a long time, but people don't seem to realize that this is a caricature and not representative of real salespeople.

Go to any @$%^ing department store or even an electronics one. Do you ever see anyone selling you stuff looking like they crawled out of the trash? Most are lower-class people who can't find any other job, meaning they are stuck with sales. It takes skill to be a good salesman, and I hate to brag, but I can probably sell you a #@$%ing soap bar and convince you that the extra $10 you're spending on it over a drugstore brand is better for your hands by deeply moisturizing them through herbal extracts and only "naturally" derived cleansing agents. Your hands are dry from the cold, drawing moisture out of them, so the investment would be worth it for the health of your skin during this harsh winter season. Why risk a drugstore brand that will only make your hands feel even rougher, flakier, and cracked? Stuff like this requires you to look someone in the eyes and observe who they are—their body language, way of carrying themselves, and the cadence of how they respond to your words. Does it always work? No. However, do you think anyone would $%^&ing buy ANY LEGAL PRODUCT if a salesperson looked like they were a shady crack dealer who was suspicious as %^&( to deal with? NO. It's a stereotype caricature for a REASON. It's meant to demean the reality of the salesperson who is forced to peddle a stupid product for a living. It's hard, and if anything, GET MAD at the people who are the ones making the crappy product! Yeah, some salesmen are bad at their jobs, but do you really believe that Cyber City's #1 RATED SALESMAN got there from being mediocre?! He may have gotten outside help for something that Toby never made clear, but he definitely does NOT lack the personality to make a great salesman. And believe it or not, there is plenty of evidence to prove he WASN'T bad at it! The other NPCs sell stuff that was once his goods but with his labels removed, and based on his statement of wanting to "make his own deals," this heavily implies he was NOT selling products he wanted to sell before he became a Big Shot. He has a strong sense of pride in the way he sees and presents himself, and I think this may be overlooked by people who make him look as ratty as possible.

I will also CLEARLY state this but this depiction overall does several of the following, which I KNOW many people will say is bad:

Ageism. Why do so many people, mostly Zoomers, assume that a man in his 40s is washed-up, gross, or even considered old? I've seen hotter men in their 40s than some young men in their early 20s.

Downplays his mental health struggles. One of the best things about Spamton is how he DOESN'T play into just the "sleazebag" stereotype. Once we go into his shop, we see that he is truly just a very broken man. His theme song is a FARCE to try and convince you that he's tougher than he really is.

Classist/Poor-Shaming. The assumption that a homeless person has to have no sense of cleanliness. Please, for the love of all that is good, meet actual homeless people. Not all of them are like this. Spamton clearly keeps himself rather clean for someone who dumpster dives. He is trying to stay true to himself, and his sense of self is one of pride. There is no dialogue or description to imply he smells or lacks proper hygiene.

Again, while there is nothing inherently wrong with drawing him this way, I just want people to be more aware of why they draw him this way. Think of it like a thought experiment to reflect on why you see him the way you do. How I draw Spamton comes from a place of deep empathy, love, and life experiences I've had in sales in addition to ALWAYS being customer-facing, meaning I know what works and what doesn't for over a DECADE. It's rather bizarre to me that people who claim to be big fans of him draw him in such a demeaning way that goes beyond the canon depiction and lowers him to absolute dirt, almost like beating this character with the ugly stick just because it's "funny." Is he a tragic character to you? Or is he simply a clown to laugh at for his failures and hardships? How we depict and see people is utterly fascinating because it reflects in real life, too.

You can take the exact same person and show them to different groups of people, and they will all see the same person differently. They don't have to be artists, but they tend to vary if you ask their opinions. For example, I think the actor Mads Mikkelsen is very attractive, but I know many who wouldn't understand why. A guy I've had a crush on for years is one of the hottest men ever to me, but a friend of mine called him "just a guy."

I fully understand that some people find the way I draw him stupid. It is what it is. I can't force you to like it.

I'm simply trying to point out my reasonings for why I draw him this way, and I would like others to think about their methods, too, and NOT to bash other people outright or go "ewww Yaoi tumblr sexyman" just because someone doesn't depict him with stereotypical traits or as "100% canon style" (which is mostly just copying the game's sprite style.)

#musings #character analysis #character design analysis #spamton #essay #spamton g spamton #deltarune #big shot spamton #spamton neo #sneo #cw long post #long post #art style study #art style

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caliquill · 2 months ago

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every two years the chara fans crawl out of hiding like cicadas because we were given 1 morsel of official content.

anyways listen to my unhinged ranting. below the cut

i was thinking about the "we don't have chara merchandise" thing and then i hit a realisation of sorts

we've... technically gotten more explicit information about chara outside of undertale proper than we have in it, so to speak. legends of localization, the newsletters, the alarm clock stuff...

of course, there's their theming of the absolute and consequence and whatever.

but it also seems like... their story hasn't been told in full yet?

this might be a completely batshit theory and im aware of that but like.

we're getting information about them. their narrative. through other utdr content. ofc it's wishful thinking to say we'll get anything complete. but it feels like we're getting a story told. however slowly.

and thus that brings us back to the merch thing.

i think. having chara merch would distort the hypothetical narrative that's being told. we get information about them through outside sources. merch would be an outside source.

and thus it could be taken as information.

and thus could be interpreted as something, possibly distorting the narrative we're getting.

which lines up with the "eventually we'll stop getting merch of some deltarune characters" thing. for similar reasons. it would go against the narrative being told.

i just. i have a lot of thoughts.

#chara undertale #utdr newsletter #//#catch me beating around the bush of the actual content #because if i analyse THAT #i will start sobbing

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gaster-fanon-experiment · 11 months ago

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Why do you think Gaster keeps getting removed from official merch? Coincidence, or to save the plot or an Easter egg?

before the poll, I didn't even know about that that is super interesting

*I didn't know how to phrase it within the confines of a poll, but like how Toby doesn't want official plush made of lighteners and the humans in undertale to keep those characters all serious and stuff

#undertale #utdr #gaster #wd gaster #poll

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bonetrousled · 1 month ago

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MAYHEM #1 PAPYRUS EXPERT IM FREAKING THE FUCK OUT!!!!!!!!

HIS GLOVES. HIS GLOVES ARE OUT. AND THIS IS OFFICIAL ART. i am currently short circuiting banging my head against the wall using 100% of my brain power trying 2 understand why and how temmie could have ever drawn this. DO U HAVE ANY IDEA????? IF U DO PLS TELL ME IM ACTUALLY GOING INSANE.

IMO IN MY ONION this Does Not count as official since it wasn't made by toby himself or wasnt made for official merchandise/a newsletter/Official Undertale Business and was just drawn by temmie for fun as far as i can tell

if it was though i would be crawling around on the ground like an insect coughing and wailing. + the fact that he has socks on but no gloves is very odd. papyrus number one appendage coverer

#ask #p4wpyrus

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simhuman · 8 months ago

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Fangamer Japan and GiGO Shibuya launched a second set of indie game-themed drinks on March 1, 2024, available through August 31, 2024. The set includes:

Omori's Mari; peach juice with strawberry jelly.

VA-11 Hall-A's Rad Shiba; orange juice with strawberry jelly.

Deltarune's Spamton; Calpis juice with lemon jelly and peach jelly.

Yume Nikki's Poniko and Madotsuki; cola with lemon jelly.

Undertale's Grillby; iced coffee with milk jelly.

Hollow Knight's "wanderers" (The Knight and Quirrel); Calpis juice with Ramune jelly.

(Source. I covered this coaster set here, and the previous drink set here.)

#official undertale merchandise #undertale #deltarune #grillby #spamton #hollow knight #omori #mari omori #va 11 hall a #rad shiba #yume nikki #poniko #madotsuki #quirrel #my utdr content #gigo shibuya

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smellslikefeathers · 2 months ago

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I AM ABSOLUTELY GOING TO BUY THIS ENTIRE SET

INCLUDING THE PIE DISH

WHICH WILL BE PERFECT FOR SERVING SNAIL PIE IN

#undertale #official merchandise #undertale kitchen collection #toriel #sans the skeleton #papyrus the skeleton #annoying dog

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galzydraw · 8 months ago

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Promised!Temmie 💛 🩵

The small but essential Temmie is present in this Au!!!

After graduating from college, she earned her graphic design degree. After that she invested her money in a store in Warterfall where she would get her official merchandise... none other than her favorite hero Tamara and her team of Revenants protecting the island. Yes... I know what everyone thinks (fangirl)

Despite almost having a nervous breakdown, Temmie obtained consent and permission from Tamara and her team to display her special merchandise since it was themed about them. Although they only did it to avoid further harassment from her since it was very uncomfortable for them that she appeared out of nowhere all over the Tree House where they lived.

Although it doesn't bother Tamara, she actually enjoys her company every time Temmie comes to see her, or she herself goes to Temmie'Shop to see how her business is going. Since during that harassment she couldn't resist opening the door and inviting her to eat cookies. something that for Temmie was a dream come true to be with her Hero. Thus creating a friendship.

(How sweet Tamara. She never denies the affection of her fans).

Curiosities:

1- She created a Tamara fan club where her members are only P | Bob and Toby (Who is P's pet! _____)

2- she has heterochromia

3- Her Cap with her flowers refers to the Cap of Tuyoki (Temmie) Chang's avatar.

4- In her store you will mainly see t-shirts, keychains, Mini action figures of Tamara and her team.

5- It is known that she is making her own fan comic based on the Adventures of Tamara since she has published things on her blog.

6- Temmie has Tamara x Dereck comics mini fanship on UnderWeb. Although she is embarrassed to read it, she enjoys it. since she sees Temmie as having a creative and somewhat peculiar mind when it comes to writing these things.

7- her fanaticism for them occurred. One day Tamara saved her life and her final university project that she did for 2 weeks without a break. In memory of that day she took a photo all nervous being carried by Tamara minutes after almost being destroyed by Eliz the fifth Revenant.

8- After becoming Tamara's number 1 fan. she celebrates the international day of determination "She invented it xd". where she herself holds a mini convention in Tamara's name. (In fact, Tamara participated in the first convention since she promised him days before where she saw a cute Temmie with a letter asking her to go)

9- After so many years she received a gift from Tamara on her 24th birthday. Nothing more nor less than the stick (from Tamara) with which she hit P! Emperor Gaster in the ribs xd the first time . something that seems simple and ordinary (But for Temmie it was the best, so much so that that day she hugged Tamara through tears and promised to take care of her with her life).

He is my favorite character of all undertale x//d

Art By: GanzDraw!

Temmie By: TobyFox and Tuyoki (Temmie) Chang.

#promisedtale #undertale au #undertale fanart #undertale fandom #temmie #promisedtemmie #undertale oc #undertale temmie

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big-wicke-energy · 2 years ago

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I am home now so here is my real review of the Requiem Cafe thing

I only decided to finally go because I had to go up to LA for a couple days to dog-sit anyway, and it didn't really make sense not to at least check it out on the way back. This place is in a center with a bunch of regular restaurants, but across the street there's an ornate church. Yep, from the church you could literally see a bunch of kids dressed in black with horns on their heads outside the cafe. Probably one of the funniest images from the whole experience

In order to wait in line to order, you have to wait in line to enter. This might have been less of a problem earlier in the month or on a weekday, but I have no way of knowing. Any body odor in the establishment I blame more-so on the fact that people dressed in black clothes and body paint were standing in the sun for almost an hour just to enter. Am I being too generous? You decide!

Anyway it's clearly just a vaguely nerd-themed cafe. All the stuff outside makes it look like it's Final Fantasy themed, but I don't know how I describe the interior... There's like a forest-themed "section" (Corner of the room) with tree-like tables and like a jagged-looking medieval table with a scary throne I'm sure lots of people take pictures in. I don’t know why, but it reminded me of a fantasy-themed escape room I went to once.

There's a vending machine that has a bunch of items like blind-bagged socks & "Tamagotchis" I have no idea if they're official Bandai-branded Tamagotchis the cards they were on looked almost handmade... Weird thing to dwell on I know, but this is a weird little cafe.

The reviews online mentioned that you could read or do homework in there like a regular cafe... But even without the huge crowds of Homestucks coming and going and demanding tables I still wouldn't recommend it. It's too dark in there unless you have a well-lit screen or something

Hows the Homestuck stuff? Well there's some cut-outs of the characters in the cafe itself, but most of the Homestuck theming is just the animations put up on screens. I can understand how they were able do an Undertale and Homestuck themed thing so close together if that's all it takes... That's not a dig or anything, I just think that's clever business

It was a bit cool to see Homestuck flashes playing on the biggest screen they've got, but I doubt I would have been that impressed if I had been driving 45 minutes out of the way to see it. But since I was driving in that direction anyway, I will give them credit for the small things

Like I said I got the "Grimsnark" milk tea because it was Rosemary themed and the other drinks looked a bit too sugary. My second pick probably would��ve been one of the regular juice options and that seems underwhelming if that’s all you’re having. The tea was fine, it's really hard to comment on the taste when I've just never had milk tea before. Could've ordered something else I suppose, but I definitely didn't want to wait in line again...

Even with the themed tables, there’s not a lot of places to sit. I probably could have just swooped in an claimed a six-person table like a jerk, but eventually a smaller table opened up and I sat there for like five minutes before I got bored, lol

The gift shop is on the way out and it's got a lot of stuff. It's mostly anime merchandise mind you, but stuff nonetheless. They've got Homestuck totes, shirts, mugs, and stickers of course, but there’s also plenty of Undertale/Deltarune stuff left over too. There might have been more Homestuck stuff earlier in the month, but I have no idea. I didn't buy anything because it also seemed a bit expensive ($60 for a hoodie? No thanks)

The gift shop is also where they've got the vast majority of the character cutouts. There's also a "height chart" in a tiny little room it seemed like people were taking pictures in. I didn’t even go in there

There might have been more to do, but I rushed out of there because I parked on a side street by the church and was convinced they were going to give me a ticket if I took too long. Probably didn't need to do that, since I didn’t get a ticket after all

I feel guilty judging the experience because I had one drink and bolted, but I'd still give give the whole experience a C+ overall. Not amazing, but far from awful. I feel bad for anyone who drove for hours out of their way though...

#tk muses #homestuck tag #requiem cafe #long post//

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