#or maybe he just thinks dark worlds in general are Better and even if darkners all turn to stone in the roaring-

[bonetrousledbones]

i think. i want to focus on the idea of roaring knight papyrus where he knows exactly what the roaring entails

[reallygrossstuff]

since you mentioned it in the diaperstuck discord... Kris equipping the party with increasingly embarrassing and babyish items with weird effects... but the stats are so good! They can't just throw away items that powerful!~

This request spoke to me, I love RPG mechanics and I love getting to describe outfits, so thanks for indulging me! And I'm glad you liked that conversation, it was definitely a fun one.

(Had to cut myself off from describing about three tiers of increasingly embarrassing and humiliating outfits, lmao)

---

“Can I say? I freaking hate all of this crap.”

The chests Kris had been finding as they moved through the Dark World were... unexpected, to say the least. Some of them simply held weird items, friendship bracelets or brooches or average new weapons for their party members, but yet others seemed decidedly out of place.

Unlike the red chests, these boxes were always a pale blue, held shut by a pair of flimsy latches instead of a single clasp. In the beginning, the items these chests contained weren’t as necessary, and generally they didn’t ask anyone to wear them unless truly needed. Sure, a certain wristband might have increased Susie’s defence by a few points, but it wasn’t worth it if she was constantly distracted resisting the urge to chew on it. And what was the use in a pair of shoes that boosted Ralsei’s healing, if they also made him stumble and trip during combat?

As the party moved closer to the king’s castle and its fountain, though, the gap between the ‘normal’ equipment they found and the less usual pieces grew larger, and their bonuses grew more necessary to continue.

The outfit Susie was complaining about at the moment was the latest in a line of clothes she’d been voicing her displeasure at. In a paradox that would have been amusing if it were present in a game instead of real life, the clothing that granted her the most defence and survivability also appeared the daintiest. This one, a peach-coloured baby romper with a subtle zigzag pattern, was certainly the daintiest yet, only made more so by the pink ribbon pulling her hair out of her eyes and into a small ponytail.

“Sorry,” Kris said, trying to convey past their flat affect that they really were, “but you need the extra defence. That last jigsawry nearly knocked you out, and if it had then the rest of us would’ve gone down too. You need to be able to take more hits.”

Susie growled, clenching her fists around the grip of her new hammer - it squeaked when impacting enemies, but made them tired extremely quickly. “How the hell does that even work? My normal clothes are thicker than this, they should give me better defence!”

“But Susie,” Ralsei said soothingly, “if you’re cuter, darkners won’t hit you as hard.”

“You calling me cute, feather-duster?!”

Ralsei squeaked as Susie gnashed her teeth, taking an unconscious step behind Kris to shield himself. “N-no, of course not, w-who’d call you cute, haha! J-just, um, other people might think that, a-and you are taking more hits the cuter your, um, your clothes are, so...”

After a few more seconds of levelling a murderous glare at Ralsei, Susie deflated slightly, turning a slightly less violent look on Kris. “If you tell anyone I wore this crap, they won’t believe you, and I’ll throw you in the dumpster behind Ice-E’s.”

“I’m not going to tell anyone,” Kris sighed, tugging gently on Ralsei’s arm to get him walking with them as they continued forwards. “Who’d believe me about the Dark World in the first place? And besides, we’re all dealing with this.”

Susie snorted, falling into line behind Kris, on the other side to Ralsei. “Some of us way more than others.”

“Susie’s kind of right, it is strange there isn’t really anything for you in these chests, Kris... maybe we should go back and see if we’ve missed any, it’d be bad if your stats fell too far behind.”

Looking backwards at Ralsei as they walked, Kris conceded the point. While Ralsei’s clothing wasn’t as drastically changed as Susie’s, he was in a shorter robe than he’d started the adventure in, one that somehow looked even fluffier than his original one. It, along with the plastic diaper cover made visible by its short hem, was one of the best items for magic power Kris had found so far, while his new duck-patterned scarf sharply boosted his ability to channel tension points. Yes, it also made him poorly balanced in combat, and the matching mittens he wore made him unable to access his inventory quickly, but it was getting harder and harder to put enemies to sleep, so he’d had to get used to it all.

Kris knew in comparison they’d gotten it easier so far. They wore a silicone chew necklace over their armour which improved their ability to act at the cost of a quiet urge to stim with it, but otherwise all of their armour and weaponry had come from red chests. They were certain they would’ve found equipment if they looked, the same way their teammates’ outfits were clearly intended for them, and while they hadn’t ignored any blue chests they’d actually seen, neither were they keen on going back and searching for any.

They wouldn’t rub salt in Susie’s wounds, but the longer they could go without matching her, the better.

“Going back means more time for us to be worn down by other darkners,” They explained, shaking their head. “It’s better if we keep moving forward and try to find new things instead.”

“Man, stop being right, it’s not fair you get to dodge all this crap,” Susie groused, but kept following them regardless. “I swear, it’s like you’ve got some kind of magic shield stopping anything from-”

“-oh, there’s another chest!”

Ralsei’s call came a minute before they actually reached the chest, before they could even determine which kind it would be. But as it came into focus, no longer obscured by trees, all three of them could see that it was another blue chest, guaranteed to be more powerful - but less convenient - than someone’s current loadout.

Kris took responsibility for opening it, like all the other ones, and like the others they crossed their fingers as they levered the lid open, hoping that nothing too bad would be inside.

Unlike those other times, their luck ran dry.

Susie barked a single, sharp note of laughter when the contents were revealed, though whether at the equipment itself or from how the colour drained from Kris’ face was an open question.

“I don’t actually need to wear this,” Kris said quickly, making what they knew was a cowardly exit. “It won’t make my acts any stronger, and the downsides aren’t worth it like yours-”

“-It’ll make you take as many hits as Susie can, and you’ll always move first in fights,” Ralsei interrupted, kindly but without mercy. Fixing him with their flattest look only made them shrug nervously, clumsily tugging on the brim of their hat. “I-it’s true.”

“What was it you told us, Kris?” Susie clapped one hand on Kris’ shoulder, locking them in place in front of the chest. “Downsides don’t matter if they get us through this place faster, right?”

Forced to stare at their new equipment, robbed of any out they could find, Kris could only mumble, “where do I even start with putting that on?”

“I think I can see how it fits. Susie, if you help me take these mittens off, I think we can sort it out together...”

---

Kris was never going to be able to open a chest again.

As Ralsei neatly folded their previous gear to pack into the next dimensional box they found, Susie started laughing at them all over again, watching their clumsy attempts to stand upright. “Oh, god, this makes it all worth it actually. You look like the world’s worst spaceman!”

“We’re absolutely not talking about this,” Kris forced out in a deadpan, taking their movements even slower, insistent on being able to stand on their own.

On the upside, Ralsei was right; Kris felt sturdier wearing their new equipment, and that strange new sense they’d gotten since arriving in the Dark World said they would in fact move first in every fight. On the downside, that came at the cost of wearing a full-body sleeper with sewn-in mittens and booties.

The bulk of the sleeper was the same night-sky blue as their bodysuit, but there were accent stripes up their outer thighs and along their arms in the hot pink of their original cape, and their extremities were swaddled in the same colour. The sleeper had large pads of foam to replicate the armour they could no longer wear, albeit the cuirass was designed to look more like a sewn-on bib, complete with a childish card suits pattern. The zipper keeping them in ran parallel to their spine, which had required Ralsei to help them into and would certainly require Ralsei to get them out of, since they doubted Susie would cooperate with that.

Somehow making it worse, the sleeper was padded out around their waist, the material there baggy enough to accommodate the thick diaper they wore underneath it. Kris had tried to insist there was no reason to wear that too, but Ralsei had innocently commented on the underwear’s all-stats boost, and after that Susie had refused to let them opt out, which they should have expected.

Finally reaching their feet, Kris’ arms windmilled for a second, trying to find their balance with their gait and centre of gravity so altered. They stood at least an inch shorter just from how bow-legged the diaper made them, and every testing step they took was both insultingly slower and accompanied by a loud rustle, not at all muted by the thick sleeper covering their diaper.

“I mean,” Susie started, words interrupted by yet more laughter, “I’m not gonna tell anyone else, that’d be stupid with what you’ve got on me. But oh man, Kris, you are not hearing the end of this from me any time soon.”

Feeling unwanted colour rise in their cheeks, Kris looked away, hoping for some kind of support from Ralsei. But the goat simply hid his face under his hat, now finished packing their supplies and fumbling with his own mittens. As Susie helped him into them, Kris realised that Susie was now the only member of their party with quick inventory access, or available to help with changing equipment.

“Let’s just. Go. Before this manages to get even more awkward.” Setting a much slower pace, Kris walked - or waddled - onward, uncomfortably bare-handed since their mittens wouldn’t close around the hilt of any weapon.

Maybe that was a blessing, they thought. With how their luck had turned, any new weapon probably would’ve just been a giant rattle.

[mar64ds]

Reasons why Papyrus could be the Knight

-Papyrus is the only main character from Undertale that we haven't had any interactions with. Even if we can only talk a little bit with Mettaton we can at least talk to him, with Papyrus we don't even get that and we might not be able to see him in a while

-His absence is acknowledged in the steam page of deltarune in a super vague way

[I.D. : "Meet new and endearing main characters, as well as familiar faces like Toriel, Sans, as more. Huh? Papyrus? No, he's busy. Sorry"]

-Both Sans and Papyrus are most likely related to Gaster, who is an extremely important character in Deltarune. Everyone tends to only focus on Sans's connection to Gaster but we can't ignore the fact that Papyrus is just as important in his backstory as Sans. The thing is we know nothing about them in Undertale, we know more about Sans and Gaster, so the majority of people don't really think about Papyrus when it comes to stuff related to Gaster. Wouldn't it make sense if we got to know more about Papyrus's connection to Gaster in this game?

-Sans and Papyrus in Deltarune are probably the same ones from Undertale. Sans remembers this but to our knowledge Papyrus probably doesn't, and Papyrus is known to be "forgettable". A major event could have happened in his life that made him forget things

-Papyrus has a really strong obsession with being a royal guard, sure, it's because he wants to be popular, but why would he think that? Undyne isn't popular, she says so herself, she is a heroine but she isn't popular or has friends only because she's a royal guard, neither do any of the other members. Yet he still believes this very strongly, and even wears a royal guard costume all the time. Maybe in another place... he used to wear something similar, a knight armor you could say. Maybe he really wants to be like that again but he doesn't remember why

-Being The Knight doesn't necessarily mean being a bad guy, we barely know anything about this mysterious character. Even if the role of The Knight was antagonistic, there is a chance that Papyrus wouldn't fully realize or admit that he was doing something wrong (maybe he isn’t even doing anything wrong at all!), NOT because he's dumb or naive because he isn't, but his heart could be in the right place while someone else could have other intentions (not necessarily evil either, but maybe with their own intentions). Why do I think this? Because something similar to that already happened in Undertale with Papyrus and Flowey

-Papyrus loves puzzles, but I doubt there aren't any in the outside world of deltarune. It feels like he would fit in better in a Dark World

-A common pattern that I have seen in Deltarune is a strong theme of loneliness (I made a whole post about this but I can't find it lol I'm sorry). Kris is the lonely weird kid of town, Susie isolated herself and pushed everyone away, Ralsei has been alone all of his life, Lancer used to be disliked by mostly everyone until he met Susie, Noelle is a shy and insecure girl that misses her sister a lot which makes everything feel scarier to her, Berdly is terrified of being on his own without Noelle, Darkners in general feel abandoned, Dess is lost and all alone, the main undertale characters seem a bit less happy than in undertale because the majority of them aren't friends with each other and their friendships are what helps them grow in undertale, Jevil was locked away from everyone else, Spamton lost his friends and ended up all alone, ... yeah, do you see the pattern? Now, which Undertale character would you say fits this theme the most? Could it be the skeleton that so desperately wants friends? It could be, especially now since all he does is stay home and not talk to anyone else

-Paraphrasing Papyrus in Undertale, 'maybe all you need to make friends is give them puzzles and then battle them'. He could be trying to help others and also help himself make some friends with this whole thing about being the Knight

-Bonetrousle is Papyrus's theme, it's also the theme that plays in many trailers, it used to be the main battle theme for Deltarune. Papyrus's room is absent of music in Undertale. Papyrus's theme song is just full of mystery

-Papyrus only uses majuscules when he speaks, just like Spamton and Jevil, I don't think anyone else does this. Papyrus doesn't start a sentence with an asterisk either unlike everyone else... that's so strange and there is no explanation for it

-We barely know anything about Papyrus, he's incredibly mysterious. If another character was this mysterious everyone would think they could be The Knight, but Papyrus is constantly seen as just a funny character and nothing else so many people don't even consider him as a possible Knight, even if he doesn't end up being the Knight he needs to be brought up way more as a possible candidate

-Papyrus is my favorite character and I want him to be important in Deltarune, that's all

If anyone wants to add more reasons, go ahead! This is all I could think of right now

[spirit-shroud]

what are some roles that have been largely changed for cityrune? since you said queen was an influencer now :]

hi ty for asking me im vibrating. havent gotten to talk about this au now for three years and now that chapter 2 is like real and this time i can like........draw occasionally and i have more understanding of nuance...... [grips table] [screams]

this isnt quite what you asked but heres what's everyone from chapter 1 has been Up To with a little bit of context (and under a read more bc it got LENGTHY):

kris - professional stay at home teen (they live w/ asgore n help run the flower shop sometimes. this decision was entirely bc i dont like toriel). was wrongly diagnosed w Sudden Soul Rejection when they were incredibly young and given an experimental transplanted soul as a replacement. it works for them fine, give or take having to see gaster once a month for checkups. but sometimes the soul makes them skittish n decides they're going to sit in front of the pc and play 30 consecutive hours of a certain simulation game and not even let them drown people in the pool. if it were entirely up to them, they'd be like. passing out on the sofa to documentaries about bigfoot. or practicing cool knife tricks to impress their friends at their next tabletop meetup

- EDITED IN: the soul is kind of their friend. they are wearing a hypothetical get along shirt. most of the time, they agree on actions and things to do. tends to refer to themself + their soul as we/us which originally was just something they did in their head but they kept slipping in speech/text n just became a Thing of how they talk. switches to 'I/Me' whenever smth is wrong.

- also edited in: they believe the soul they have is their original soul bc nobody has told them otherwise. whenever theyre like 'oh yeah we think about our soul n view it as a separate entity to us like. all the time. it likes to hurt if we make too many choices it doesn't seem to like and kind of forces us to be a toned down version of what we want to be but thats just how souls are haha' and everyone is like.... 'Hey Kris That's Really Not How It Is.' theyre like. 'huh. gonna ignore that for now' - this was going to be a plot point

toriel - head of H0MEWOR1D (H01)'s department of education; kind of lost her roots as a simple math teacher as she was pushed into a lot of power she didn't even really seek out. divorced asgore over some miscommunications in their relationship; also loosely as a result of grief from asriel's death

asgore - the same. runs a lil flower/gift shop. people come in more to talk with him than to buy flowers most of the time, though

asriel Flowey - he's back in flower form, thanks to the government an accident. causes a lot of technology glitches wherever he goes, and wants revenge. isn't sure how to go about it. asriel "died" around 8 years before the story takes place and kris still misses him and refuses to even THINK about even the IDEA of calling someone their sibling after what happened, just in case it somehow happens a second time

susie - more of the same really. she spends most of her time either at grillby's (she's sort of become his assistant n helps with opening/closing. it just happened) or getting into low-stakes trouble w/ kris

noelle - she's in the city's equivalent of college and shes so tired. shes So Abysmally Tired n got kinda pushed 2 follow in her mom's footsteps. she's rarely around anymore except through text or on monsters & mages (dnd) night. (however.........she will come back w/ a long break n hang out w everyone again)

berdly - tbh i didnt even consider berdly when i made the au initially. idk what he's doing. probably in a similar situation to noelle??? canonically got kicked out of the M&M group due to clashes w/ other players but lurks in their group chat to posts memes sometimes

didnt rly think of any other of kris' classmates (+ their families) after ch1 and probably will continue to not, until chs 3-5 come out and i gotta whip up roles and histories for like. a lotta guys all of a sudden. i also forgot about noelle's parents

sans - runs a convenience store that everyone kind of thinks is a front, but also it has really cheap snacks and the local teens make a point of stopping there after school. so essentially, more of the same papyrus - similar to ut. is a very polite and sweet boy but you'll know when he's coming

grillby - he's back. he runs a bar like back in ut but the cozy vibes and weird-for-a-bar hours keep attracting kids who need parents, so half of his menu is comprised of overly sweet mocktails. usually only frequented by monsters

QC - same as usual. has a "rivalry" with grillbz but, theyre besties and have a book club

mettaton - he's real and he's back. he's similar to how he is back in ut w/ his EX body. likes to hang out at grillby's and talk to unsuspecting fans. has a show for everything

napstablook - similar to how they are in ut. helps mtt with making music sometimes. doesn't leave the house too often, but spends a lot of time posting on undernet

undyne - unfortunately. more of the same. she is a cop in the monster district. i am also upset by this but couldn't think of anything better for her

alphys - a doctor studying under dr. gaster in the hopes she'll one day take over his research. she spends most of her time as a nurse with a bigger title, though, and blocks out the weirdness of her job with anime.

gaster - weird guy. H01's top soul researcher and resident House wannabe. trying to manufacture the ultimate soul that can be controlled with simple internal switches, but so far he's only had 1 (very limited) success with a certain human. monsters just melt, and darkners just sorta......get weird... he's onto Something, though.

ralsei - lonely boy with some very strange hobbies. popular on UnderNet for poetry, baking videos, and general cryptid vibe. is the DM for the monsters & mages group (also seems to think everything is actually very fine in H01 when it is very much not)

lancer - about the same. professional Round Boy. lives w/ rouxls full time. follows susie around like a lost puppy and calls himself her "underling."

rouxls - runs a hotel/casino kind of deal where the objective Bad Guys hang out, and usually ends up doing any of the spade king's paperwork.

spade king - mafia godfather. kind of a dick. don't play cards with him

seam - works with the spade king as his right hand cat more or less because they have for a lot of years and are in that 'sunk cost fallacy' zone. thinks of retiring to a quiet life in the monster section of town like, daily

jevil - used to work with the spade king, but got imprisoned for Crimes. got weird after The Accident (separate from asriel's accident)

temmies (all) - dont really get mentioned except offhandedly but they run the monster space station. so far, are the only monsters who have ever been to space.

as far as chapter 2 goes:

yeah i dont have much so far for characters. in the original version of the au i accidentally made darkners as a whole just kinda..... not great? like all sorts of weird organized crime ties n sort of going out of their way to be A Problem to the city (not even in like. a revolution way. in a working against them but with the same goals kinda way). with the whole context it worked At The Time, bc i just had the spade king to look to as a villain, and also in this au the darkners are just trying to survive a world that ultimately was not built for them (that humans think they own, and monsters sort of... seeing this and wondering what it'll mean for them whichever one wins), but w/ new info abt how the dark world works n more guys to work with i want to kind of. edit the vibe a bit. like yea darkners will ultimately do whatever it takes to take over H01, but maybe in a better way than like. idk. all this. it doesnt have to be peaceful or anything it just has to be more adaptable as we meet more kinds of darkners

however yeah i thought up 'queen as some sort of childless mommy blogger/influencer' and that completely revived all memory i had of this au. she should be on mtt's talkshow. also she sells collectible wine glasses w/ her likeness

spamton is another one of gaster's failed soul experiments, but he hasn't melted yet, and seems............fine? sort of. so he hasn't gotten decommissioned yet. he does want to give you malware tho. hot monster singles in your area n all that

im blanking on the rest of the guys but i hope any of this was comprehensible

[fini-mun]

Deltarune thought-bomb. Spoilers abound if you haven’t played it.

Thinking about: Ralsei and his fountain. The King’s madness (and Lancer). Seam. Being a hero and choice.

(sorry if this is all ramble-y, I haven’t really proof read it. It’s more stream of thought.)

To start it off, Ralsei. Maybe you’ve seen the theory before (I don’t have it on hand to link to here on tumblr), but it’s about how the facts don’t add up in regard to Ralsei’s fountain of darkness. I’ll reiterate it here: according to the game, the world of the Darkners has a Fountain of Darkness that gives them life/etc. But recently a second fountain opened up and threw off the balance. The two fountains are Ralsei’s, and the Card Castle’s. The game/Ralsei push you to go close off the Card Castle’s* (Ralsei’s fountain is barely acknowledged/is glossed over), and without outwardly stating it, seems to indicate that the Card Castle’s fountain is the new ‘usurper’ fountain. ... But... Ralsei’s kingdom literally has no people besides Ralsei in it. He even states himself that he’s a ‘prince with no subjects’. Meanwhile, the Card Castle is an enormous kingdom with a long history. Unless they’re suggesting that the Card Castle existed and had all these things without a fountain, it seems to strongly suggest that it’s Ralsei’s fountain that is actually the new one. It’s with that theory that I’ve been thinking on. It could explain Ralsei’s behavior- he doesn’t want anyone to die, he wants things to be as peaceful as possible. Does he feel guilt? He wants his own kingdom to flourish and grow, but he doesn’t want to hurt other people to do it. He just wants the other fountain shut down so that his can become the primary and things become re-balanced. What is it he tells Kris when we’re not watching? The sentence that ends with “and that’s why, Kris”. The danger of things like that- where the audience doesn’t know the whole statement, means it can be used to bolster just about any theory. But that’s mine- that he’s informing Kris why they need to close the Card Castle’s fountain and not his own, or perhaps why he doesn’t want anyone to die.

And then this comes to Spade King. According to Ralsei (if he can be trusted on this), Darkners have some sort of natural inclination to want to serve/help Lightners (which is very odd imho). Darkners in general seem to have a strong tie to Lightners- they’re supposed to be allied to create a balance. But when you fight Spade King (”Chaos King”), he’s angry and resentful to you, that you (Lightners) have abandoned the Darkners (locked them ‘away’). When Ralsei tries to reason with him, he calls Ralsei naive. And despite all his talk referring to himself the ‘bad guy’, he calls his attack against you the ‘chain of justice’. He talks about the ‘Knight’ who draws forth the fountains, who is helping him create a new world, who he doesn’t want to fail.

Is Spade King really the bad guy? I’m under the inclination that when he says that he is, he says it with the awareness of the role he’s been pushed into- (”To my people, I'm a hero. To you? I'M THE BAD GUY!”).* I think he’s actually doing what he thinks is best under the knowledge he has. The Darkners exist to serve the Lightners. Who says? Ralsei seems to indicate that its a common legend in the Dark World, simply taken as it’s said and not questioned. What happens if you question that? What if someone comes in and tells you that it isn’t true, someone who has the power to give you a better life beyond servitude to a race that seems to have forgotten you? What if you realize that the things you believed in all this time were lies? Would you do what you thought you had to to make things right- even if the three other kings you ruled beside didn’t agree. Even if you had to lock them up? Even if everything you had to do made you into the ‘bad guy’, hated by everyone? You either embrace it or fall to despair*.

I think Lancer helps prove that Spade King isn’t really the ‘bad guy’ too. I know a common idea in the fandom is that King Spade has been abusive or cruel to Lancer, and with how he threatens Lancer at the end, I can’t comfortably say that it isn’t true, as much as I wish I could. I also don’t want to sound like an apologist towards abuse, but I think King Spade’s actions in that battle were more a ruse/an act of frustration with Lancer than something he was actually going to go through with. King Spade isn’t above pretending to move his enemies into a position more favorable to him, and if he knows the Lightners were attached to his son, it isn’t out of the question for him to try and use that against them. While there is evidence in the game that the King has been less than kind to Lancer (like Lancer’s apprehensive behavior towards talking to him), there are other things to indicate otherwise. He doesn’t seem to spend much time with his son (I assume because he’s preoccupied with matters involving the fountain and doing a job that used to be done by four kings instead of one), but he goes out of his way to make sure that Lancer is taken care of and has ‘friends’- even if he has to order other people to do it. The people in the kingdom actually complain about being forced to spend time with/listen to Lancer.

Actually, I think Lancer’s behaviour in general may suggest quite a few things. It’s possible he’s apprehensive about talking to King Spade not because he’s afraid of invoking his father’s wrath, but afraid of his father being disappointed in him. His father already doesn’t spend much time with him, and Lancer seems to want his approval. Lancer seems excited over the idea of being elected ‘son of the month’ if he does the ‘right’ thing (the thing that’d make his dad happy). Lancer also strongly latches onto the ‘bad guy’ idea- perhaps something he’s heard from his father. However, Lancer’s actions seem to heavily indicate that Lancer has no idea what this actually means. Lancer’s idea of what being a ‘bad guy’ entails is very childish. He doesn’t even have a defined plan on how to ‘stop’ the Lightners. He thinks being an appropriate ‘bad guy’ means threatening the Lightners, beating them up, and then... what? They go away? He wasn’t taught to be a ‘bad guy’. No one sat him down and explained this to him. He had to decide what it meant himself. If his dad says that he has to play the part of the bad guy, then he’ll do it too, and he’ll do it well, and his dad will be proud of him for doing so... right? It’s not until later, that he realizes that the Lightners may actually hurt his father (or be hurt by his father) that he panics. He’s not really aware of the depth of all this, or the possible results of his and the Lightner’s actions.

Most of the Darkners don’t seem to be aware of it either, with only a few, notable exceptions. Seam, for example. Seam is very interesting- easy to gloss over at first, he’s just a ‘shopkeeper’. But he actually has quite a bit of history, and his demeanor is... very odd. Seam seems very nihilistic in his outlook- he doesn’t care, and he seems to see everything as doomed- that the end of the world is soon coming. Whenever he refers to you, he refers to you as “Heroes”, with quotation marks. There is nothing good for him to look forward to- especially you being here. He seems to be aware that something is very wrong... he used to be part of the card court himself. The royal magician, in tandem with the royal jester. His friend, Jevil, spoke with a mysterious ‘Knight’- after which his friend started to act very strangely, and began to say very strange things to him. Things that simultaneously made sense and no sense at the same time. Whatever knowledge the Knight shared with Jevil seemed to drive him mad and set him on a rampage, seeming to think that his actions no longer had any meaningful consequence*. It took the four kings and Seam to seal him away. Later, this same ‘Knight’ speaks with the Spade King, and things again take a turn. Seam himself hasn’t spoken with the ‘Knight’, but he knows what he’s seen. And what he’s seen doesn’t give him much hope for the future. When you ask about freeing Jevil, Seam only balks slightly at the idea. It took all his might and the might of the four kings to seal him away, and Seam very well knows how dangerous Jevil can be, but... What does it matter if you did?* At the very least, maybe it’ll be entertaining.

It’s interesting how Seam refers to you as “Heroes” in quotations. It’s interesting how King Spade takes the mantle of “Bad Guy”. Are you really the hero? You’re just doing what Ralsei says is best- and is what Ralsei thinks is best heroic, really? You don’t really get a choice in the matter- and really, isn’t being a hero a choice? If you don’t choose to do the right thing, does it actually have any value? Without the option to be the coward, without the option to turn away, what courage is there in your actions? What makes a hero? Without choice, can you actually be a hero?

The game does give you one choice- you can either solve fights in a pacifistic way or by beating your foes into submission. But this choice isn’t meaningful- the end result is mostly the same, with only a little variation. If you choose to harm or not, you’ll still be the ‘heroes’.

Are you really, though?

I’m not sure we are.

The last thing I have to say is that... the last thing I find interesting is what we teach Ralsei. Ralsei comes into this believing that perhaps he can reach his end goal peacefully. By the time the game ends, he’s learned a lesson- the world doesn’t work like that. That kindness isn’t always the answer. That sometimes, you have to use force to get what you want.

I think whatever the full game will bring us will be very, very interesting with this in mind.

*The game tells us many times that there are no choices, after all. (I didn’t have anywhere else to comfortably insert this but- everyone in the Dark World seems to be based on toys. Ralsei seems to be an exception to this? Unless.. Ralsei is like... A monster version of a barbie doll... the pink, glittery horns...)