#parallelism ch2

[a-star-that-burns-brightly]

guys guys imagine if teruko and mai's relationship ends up paralleling david and xander's guys.

imagine if teruko and mai's relationship ends up paralleling david and xande--

[shadowduel]

We talked about making it I'm sorry that you never made it And it pains me just to hear you have to say it You knew the game and played it It kills to know that you have been defeated I see the wires pulling while you're breathing . . .

[solar-halos]

for this mood board monday, i present yet another ficboard. the board in question is of franka by @ongreenergrasses

[benveydraws]

putting these pages together for no particular reason

[apollotronica]

who else up thinking about how teruko is really bad at being cold and aloof and how its really obvious she wants to see the best in people

[nagirambles]

Rambling about Fairies - Manga Chapter 174 + 2

I think there are still doubts on whether Faust is Makarov’s parallel version or not, but whatever man, I’ll just talk in the idea that he is. Who care if I’m right or wrong, I’m just rambling anyways. 

When we first meet the ‘Master of Fairy Tail’ we’re expecting someone old and wise, someone intimidating, but then we get this: 

It’s on purpose, the dorky old man impression that you can’t take seriously--- because it’s funny, and it’s even funnier when you realize this dorky old man kicks ass. He’s supposed to grow on you fondly, like your weird grandpa, your funny uncle, the kind you still respect with all your heart. We are all his children, in all the most beloved meanings. 

But Faust is different. 

Faust is revered. He’s wise, sagely, intimidating, and authoritative. He is the king, of which people fear and praise his name. His people are his children, in the meaning of ‘loyal subjects’ and ‘citizens’. 

What’s more, Faust wears the symbol of his kingdom right on his head at all times, in a hat and cloak. Makarov only wears his official Wizard Saint coat (not a cloak, but a coat, with sleeves like a long regal jacket,) on one occassion-- to war with Phantom. 

While Makarov is anything but what you would expect a ‘leader, Master’ would look like, Faust is a very staple impression of an evil king. He reminds me of the sages you see in Pokemon Black and White, and it works, because while Makarov speaks meaningfully about our magic with love and charisma, Faust haughtily preaches his ideologies.

It’s ironic how both their introductions are followed by a talk about magic, by the way. 

And I think this is the parallel I love the most about these two.

While Makarov talks about his perspective on magic, he talks calmly, and everyone quiets down to listen. And while he speaks, the scenes pan over all his guild members as they listen intently, because these words are meant for them. 

While Faust speaks, loud and emotional and through either blind cheering or Natsu’s anger--- no one is truly listening to the details of his empty words. The scenes focus on him, him, and himself. This is because Faust does not care for them. His hopeful words are only for himself. 

[felikatze]

seeing how apparently lighthearted agnea and partitio are from memes feels surreal. my current party are an inquisitor, an assassin, and a prison escapee. are there any people having a good and normal time in this game

[moxie-girl]

hey guys I collected all the Xander + David matching/mirrored sprites together bc I'm very very normal about their parallels!

(under the cut just for minor spoilers)

not all of these match perfectly but they're pretty dang close... (and there were also some that I excluded because they only sort of matched)

(no ones with ch2 David sprites bc not all of them are up on the sprite gallery yet, but I'm sure some of them match too...)

[1moreff-creator]

What are some dynamics (in terms of like, foils/parallels) that you enjoy in DRDT?

you’re staring at a forest and asking me for every tree i like. do you want me to write another 28k word post /lh

I jest, of course, but not about the number of interesting foils in this series. It does a fantastic job tying everyone into several key themes in ways that make their dynamics endlessly enriching for my silly little character parallel-loving brain. So, uh, get ready for a long-ish post?

CW: One mention of self-harm, self-loathing

Teruko-David: I mean, you gotta start at the center, yeah? David’s the closest thing to a “main antag” we have, and it’s no wonder; the guy’s built like a standard DR protag, obviously he’s gonna have a cool dynamic with the actual protagonist. 

These two could breathe a bit weird and somehow parallel each other doing it, that’s how much this foil permeates both their characters. From their fatalistic outlooks on the world (“my luck will always be terrible, I’ll always be betrayed” vs “people can’t change, the world sucks”), the ways they hide their feelings (Teruko was more distrustful than she first presented herself as, but cares about people more than she shows during most of CH2; while David has an entire different persona up to 2-11 and then pretends to be worse than he actually is), the self-loathing (Teruko refuses to think she could be a good person, David has the whole “inhuman” thing going on), down to the oddball sibling figure (Terubro “I know nothing about you” Tawaki vs Diana “I’m not even sure you exist” Chiem).

There’s their feelings about Xander and Min, too, which are all over the place. Obviously we all saw in 2-12 how much the British twink fucked both of them up severely, with Teruko rejecting any positive or yearning feelings she may have had about Xander (you can’t hide the cactus scene from us girl) while David vehemently defended him from any criticism. On the other side, Min is less of a narrative poltergeist (for now; XF-Ture exists), but she still comes up with them, with David calling her pathetic eleven episodes after Min hugs Teruko and Teruko’s internal monologue gives away how much she cares about the Student. 

And these parallels play into their weird-ass dynamic very well, because their beefing is founded on their similarities and their differences, out of projecting their self-loathing to someone similar at the same time they hate each other because of their disagreements on things like Xander. Crazy stuff.

Xander-Min: Mentioning these two second because they’re also Eternal Parallels. There’s almost not a single thing about these two that isn’t somehow reflected on the other. If you projected them onto each other’s direction, you would get no perpendicular component. Get it, ‘cuz they’re completely parallel- That is, by far, the nerdiest joke I’ve ever made, I apologize.

But come on. Their attitudes towards fate (the Rebel fighting it and Min resigning herself to the XF-Ture thing), the whole “holding on to the past vs wanting to move on from the past” thing, the similarities between how they actually feel about the education system (they have issues with it) contrasted with the things they actually do in respects to that (Min is still the Ultimate Student, but Xander dislikes that), their already mentioned contrasting connections to Teruko and David… Just, absolutely everything about them is a meaningful contrast. And it comes into play a lot, with their eternal beef being born largely out of these parallels. They’re awesome.

Teruko-Ace: Pretty topical for post-CH2. Ace’s entire arc is sort of a reflection of Teruko’s, yet taken to the extreme because of one particular point of contrast; Ace feared death, Teruko doesn’t think she can die. But he still basically serves as a demonstration of all the flaws in Teruko’s all mindset; the feeling of unchangeable fate, the complete lack of trust, all the good stuff. It basically allows an exploration of Teruko’s mindset from an outside perspective, which makes it easier to see the flaws in it.

Ace-Nico: Also topical, these recap foils go kinda insane. Their motives for murder, their contrasting talents (love for animals on Nico's side and fear of horses on Ace's), the way they relate to the rest of the cast, Ace's persecution complex vs Nico actively disliking how much Hu defends them, etc., it’s all very fun to see play out. 

Ace-Levi: The one who doesn’t care but protects others and tries his best to be a good person so he can be accepted in society without having issues, vs the guy that acts like an asshole because he’s scared of caring too much and he thinks the only way he can get out alive is by being the only one to survive. This leads to a fundamental misunderstanding between them that causes some of the most doomed yaoi of all time, which is the whole “Levi getting frustrated at not understanding Ace.” 

Arei-David: You’ve presumably watched 2-13, so I don’t think I need to explain all the awesome stuff that’s come from their shared themes of “good people” and self-betterment and all that. Not to mention, David’s little breakdown over Arei trusting the letter of the only friend she had being presumably born from the way he saw Xander as the only friend he had. Shit goes crazy.

Arei-Eden: Recap foils… Good people… The choice to be kind… Etc… Woah :O

Teruko-Charles: Ah, Teru’s recap foil. This one’s basically opposite of Ace’s, where Charles used to be sort of like Teruko acted in CH2, but later became a bit friendlier, if still somewhat prickly. Basically, if Ace highlights Teruko’s character traits from CH2, Charles post CH1 serves as more or less the “end goal” in a way. It goes beyond that, too, with the whole memory issues (prosopagnosia vs childhood amnesia) and, again, mysterious siblings (Terubro and Elliot what are your deals), so it’s always neat to rotate these two in the brain.

Veronika-Levi: We really don’t know too much about Vero, which always makes it a bit harder when analyzing these dynamics, but they already got some interesting points of contrast. Neither of them are particularly concerned about the deaths of the others, at least post-CH2 (Levi doesn’t grieve and Vero actively laughs at Ace’s death), but it comes from almost opposite ends of perspective. Levi doesn’t understand others because he doesn’t feel much empathy (if any at all), while Vero seems to treat the others not as people, but almost as characters to be analyzed (that’s the impression I get, at least), which makes her come off as very good at reading people but also occasionally causes her to see them as sources of entertainment first and foremost. Not to mention there’s also the fact they’re both very different people than they were in the past (Levi was some form of delinquent and now is a good person, Vero used to be outdoorsy and then no longer was). Wow that’s… more than I thought there was- How am I finding more interesting foils just by writing more???

Hu-Levi: I kinda talked about this in my CH2 PT2 analysis so read that ig.

J-Rose: A pair of recap foils who haven’t had too much yet, but a lot of their themes, in particular about fate and privilege and stuff, are pretty noticeable with them, so this is always a fun dynamic to consider.

Levi-Arturo: More recap foils, this one’s fun because of the dead family member :) Also things like their talents being related to aesthetics and both doing the things they do for a better life.

Veronika-Hu: This one’s kinda more hypothetical, since Vero in particular hasn’t had as much direct focus as other characters yet, but that’s part of what makes them fun. Past history of self-harm (even if brought on by very different feelings) is just the first of many parallels they could have, and it’s fun to see the contrast between Hu defending Nico to the ends of the Earth and Vero talking about how much she likes Arturo because of how awful he is. They’re really silly.

David-Whit: All the recap foils are fun, but I've always struggled to see this one in particular. Partly because I feel like I know less about Whit than I know about Mai :v Still, certain things like Whit ignoring anything that upsets him which connects to David constantly lying about his real feelings for his fans, which is probably what leads to David's outburst at Whit in the second trial.

Teruko-MonoTV: Because fate. Really this is here plainly because it’s just a funny as hell dynamic to even consider lol.

Teruko-Mai: Have they interacted? Has Mai had enough screen time to truly determine that this parallel truly exists? Do we even know a single theme that Mai’s character touches on for certain? No and it doesn’t matter! Because these two are clearly connected somehow and the whole “someone dearly loved - someone dearly unloved” thing makes me ill. Mai is getting mentioned in this post and you're not stopping it.

Mai-Whit: Fuck it! “We tend to idolize the dead” dynamic!!! It's very speculative, but this one’s just fun to ponder even if we have even less idea of what could be going on between the two than with Mai-Teruko.

Anyways ready for a few themes that run through a lot of characters?

David-Levi-Nico-Rose: The “feeling disconnected from the rest of humanity’s experiences” gang!!!

Min-Rose-Hu-Veronika-Arturo: The “wants to move on from the past” gang!!!

Min-Arei-Teruko-Ace: The “trying to fix mistakes” gang!!!

Teruko-David-Eden-Arei-Levi-Xander: The “what makes a good person?” gang!!!

Teruko-David-Xander-Min-J-Whit-Ace-Rose-MonoTV-Probably everyone else: Fate!!!!

And there’s more than I’m probably forgetting because I can’t possibly check every conceivable connection between these guys. At least I hope I covered most of the major ones. Thanks for the ask, these dynamics are always fun to think about!

[rencatuive]

drdt ch2 ep 16 spoilers re:arturo

get paralleled maybe

[thedrdtpokemoncollector]

OHHHH MY GOD THE NEW EPISODE AAAAAAANDIAHCISIVIDI

(Spoilers for ch2 ep14!)

THE MIN AND EDEN PARALLELS OH MY GOD

they are actually going to make me sob

[arifox15]

Drdt ch2 ep15 spoilers

WHAT DO YOU MEAN ACE IS THE KILLER???

NO ACTUALLY CUS WHAT???

WHAT ABOUT ALL THE EDEN DEVELOPMENT??? WHAT ABOUT THE BETRAYAL THAT WAS BEING SET UP??? THE MIN PARALLELS???

WHAT ABOUT EVERYTHING POINTING TO EDEN???

AND HIS MOTIVE WAS BECAUSE HE SCARED OF DYING???? WHAT??

IM NOT HATING ON THE DRDTDEVS WE LOVE THEM FOR GIVING US THIS SERIES BUT-

WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!?!?!

[anonymouslyangsty]

Unorganized thoughts about a DRDT ch2 murderswap au because I’m still not over episode 16.

Spoilers, obvs.

The toxic doomed yuri trial would go SO HARD. Eden “I’m reaching out to you. I believe we can be friends” Tobisa vs Arei “I’m too far gone, I’m too stuck in my ways. I can’t take back what I’ve done” Nageishi, FIGHT (Eden’s heart loses)

Eden/Teruko parallels where they’re both betrayed by someone they wanted to believe in. But instead of losing her faith and others, Eden decides to continue to be kind despite the risks.

Arei being cruel towards Eden because of how ‘soft’ she is (because it hurts, seeing that someone so kind could care about her. It hurts knowing she threw that away, and if she can’t make it out the least she wants to do is leave Eden without regrets)

In the end, Arei calls Eden strong for being so kind despite everything she’s going through. 

The execution could be freaking cool. Something something “being stuck in your ways, not believing you can recover from what you’ve endured, nor become better” and being similar to a bowling ball going down the lane without any way to turn back. Metaphors and whatnot. 

Would this mean Eden and Levi also swap places, as in Eden gets shot instead? Because if so I will cry (I say as if I’m not the one making this stuff up)

I think giving David two dead redheads to mourn would be a little funny

Instead of having a sad backstory lore dump, Ace straight up has that panic attack he’s been building up to since ch2 started. David helps him through it and Ace starts following him around like a puppy (Ace likes to feel safe. David makes him feel safe.)

Maybe David and Ace bond over both freaking hating their talents, and instead of talking about trying to be less shitty people, Ace talks about refusing to accept their current lot in life and taking the risk to change in hopes of finding something better. 

We’d get a new Ace smiling sprite, thank god. 

Something about David with his speaker persona and Ace as a duo is so funny to me. David is trying to give off this respectable, sociable image while Ace is just cursing people out whenever he pleases. David’s trying SO HARD not to laugh at Ace’s insults. 

Ace gets to say all the things David feels he can’t, and David acts like an understanding, calm presence to keep Ace from panicking.

[a-town-called-hometown]

in regards to deltarune and character agency, i always assumed the darkners' agency being tied to the lightners' will was a direct parallel to the player character's agency (kris) being tied to the *player's* will (us), and that by making this the game's narrative (darkners are on a plane below lightners and are considered, in a way, less 'real', despite several having desires to break away from this hierarchy) the game is trying to call into question our relationship with the game itself, with the world itself. if the relationship between lightners and darkners feels unfair, then our relationship to kris should be in question as well. characters all have roles to play, but isn't that strange? why the prophecy, why the repetition, why do we, ultimately, have so much control? what gives us the right? it's all layers. us, lightners, darkners, imagine your whole world living and dying at the hands of gods that, out of boredom, could easily abandon you one day, or even destroy you? gods you were made to love and serve, and around you everyone says without them you can never be whole. who wouldn't want to rebel? i think if you're an advocate for kris's agency, you have to advocate for the darkners' agency. for ralsei's agency outside of kris or the prophecy or anything he's meant to do. i think kris and ralsei are narrative foils in this regard, one who blindly accepts his fate, and the other who tries to escape it, a character who does whatever he's told and a character who forcefully slips from our grasp. it just feels like set up to me for a lot more than 'escapism.' i'd say the main themes here are fate, agency, choice and control. even the mystery voice at the start of the game has their plans messed with by the other voice choosing to discard our vessel. every character is grasping at something they can't have, even ralsei can't have his narrative go the way he's planned because susie keeps surprising him lol

yes that's true!!! i would also argue that 'identity' is packaged in with these themes - deltarune is written in such a way where characters are not just grappling with fates and choices outside of their control, but also grappling with roles that they seemingly cannot escape.

the darkners are fantastical & metafictional version of this idea, given that they are both objects who need to be useful in order to not be abandoned and also npcs who serve an rpg-genre narrative function. ralsei especially fulfills several rpg archetypes as the friendly healer companion and as the guide npc. every major darkner has some kind of conflict involving the role they were made to play, whether it's lancer as "the bad guy" or spamton as "the spam email." even queen, who is extremely enthusiastic about her role, runs into issues because she is so zealous that she does not grasp what the lightners might actually want and need.

susie and noelle fulfill a more realistic version of this: the labels of bully and nice girl respectively are roles that neither of them exactly chose, but through a mix of environmental & psychosocial factors and a dose of self-fulfilling prophecy, neither of them know how to escape. berdly, while mostly comedic, is also a character who deals a lot with his real-world designation of "smart guy." susie breaks loose somewhat of her role in ch1, and we see noelle start to follow suit by the end of ch2. given that their existence isn't directly tied to their roles the way the darkners' are, it makes sense that they'd start to question and challenge these first.

kris, as befitting of their protagonist role, fulfills both versions of the idea. their role in the light world is an outcast who lives in their brother's shadow, and in the dark world, they're viewed as a prophesized hero. but they don't have full agency in either of these identities at all. they're being controlled by us, and the perceptions of them as an outcast and hero respectively are imposed onto them by other people.

meanwhile, almost all the other lightner npcs are different versions of characters we met in undertale. i would argue that this is another form of imposed identity, albeit one they aren't aware of. WE view them as their identities from undertale. I highly suspect that this will be something played with a lot more as future chapters go on.

the themes of choice & control all interlock with this idea of imposed identity. in a world where nobody can choose who they are, is it possible for people to eventually break out of what they are assumed to be...?

it's a game made to make us heavily question both a lot of rpg conventions and especially how we view characters in games. I'm very excited to see how the game will continue to play with its ideas of agency. it's such a brilliant idea to tell a story about fate by explicitly tying it to the way characters and worlds are written in games, and also by tying it to audience perceptions related to toby fox's last game. it's going to be so interesting to see how the characters deconstruct all those expectations!

[maryfailstowrite]

!! DRDT CH2 EP14 SPOILERS !!

Okay so, I think there are two possible routes the storyline could take regarding Teruko, and as much as I wish one of them was true, I have a bad feeling it’s going to be the other.

1. Eden is actually the culprit and Teruko shatters. We know Teruko actually cared (even if just a bit) about Eden even before the trial, so if she’s actually the culprit, it wouldn’t just be a “oh fuck I was wrong, I shouldn’t have repaid the favor” moment, it’s going to be a “oh fuck, one of the few people I decided to take a bet on backstabbed me AGAIN” moment. Not only her, but Eden killing Arei would mean Eden never intended to be friends with her, so that’s another trust betrayal for Teruko to overthink. Plus, if Eden is the culprit, it means all her tears and her sweet persona were fake, at the very least in the trial, if not for the whole killing game. The realization of that would devastate Teruko, and she’d regress to distrusting everyone even harder. We’d have to go through this whole process of learning how to trust people again, in an environment that is going to become more hostile, because Eden being the culprit would be a slap in the face to everyone, I feel. She’s the beacon of optimism in the group, and the one actively trying to keep people together and entertained, and knowing how much everyone else hates each other, it would be rough to get along with anyone like that. Disaster, basically. A heartbreaking disaster.

Oh, and also, David would be getting what he wants, which is to debilitate Teruko. A lose-lose situation no matter how you see it.

2. Someone else is the culprit and Teruko comes out of this stronger. She realizes that trusting people can actually lead her the right way, and so Teruko finishes her process of learning how to trust people again. She not only acknowledges that she can’t isolate herself from everyone without consequences, she learns that trusting people can lead to good things too, and that not everyone around her is out to get her. Also, Eden is still alive, so not only can her bond with Teruko grow stronger, but she’s still there to keep the group from pouncing at each other at any given time. Of course, there’d still be conflicts and shit (more murders need to happen, after all), but for a while, we could get a more trusting Teruko and a group (or at least a few people) that support her through dealing with everything that’s on her way.

And David wouldn’t get what he wants, which would just be really satisfying (can you tell I don’t like David from this post? Can you?)

Problem here is, as we all know, Teruko’s luck is shit. The world might as well be out to get her. I’m not sure if I would like to go through another chapter of Teruko not interacting with anyone (since she’s our POV, we wouldn’t get much insight on how Eden’s loss breaks the overall group), but the story could be leading to that. The parallels between Min and Eden are paralleling too strong on this one fam. She’s the one that has some connection with Arei and the case, and Ace really doesn’t have much to do with anything. He was bleeding out, and even if we assume he took the tape like that, was he really in a good enough condition to do all that took to kill Arei not so long after he got his throat slit? He’s powered by pure spite and we know it, sure, but I think it’s a bit too far of a stretch.

And the chapter’s theme “not all that glitters” would fit Eden being the culprit, whereas I don’t really think that’d be the case with Ace. Of course, one could argue that the theme was already there with J, Arei and David, so it’s not like you’d need the culprit to fit it too, but it would make the chapter more cohesive, I think. Setting up such a strong chapter theme, using various character’s arcs for it, and then have the culprit not be related to that theme in any way shape or form would be a bit weird, or at least that’s how I see it.

The culprit could be someone else, of course, and that said person could fit the theme… but it’s already episode fourteen. Are we really going back to “everyone could be a suspect” at this point of the trial? It feels like it’s too advanced to put in another plot twist that leaves us at square one again. These two might actually be the only two suspects, and I’m not having any fun with it 😭.

We might get a “Eden was not as sweet and nice as we thought” moment and I’m not here for it. If that’s actually what happens, tears are going to be shred. With all due respect to Ace fans, let him be the culprit PLEAAAAASE (he probably won’t be. I’m just in denial. Let me grieve).

[felikatze]

just did the new damsel ch3!! i am staring at the wall!! i am holding my head in my hands!!

i haven't done all the optinons yet but. Man. The ending where the hero and the princess leave? When all the torches go out, all the fun's been had, and there's nothing left to do?

The way that THIS is the ending where the narrator just... gives up.

Because THIS is what he wanted. A world without change. A world in stasis forever. And he's found out that he... Doesn't like it. That maybe, letting the Princess out is better.

And I think this Narrator knows that the box exists in every world. There will always be a box. And for once, he regrets that he closed it. He hopes that the world ends, now.

The parallel just. Works perfectly. Because what is it you get when you slay the princess like he asked? Right! Your happy ending. And that's what a "Happily Ever After" is. goddddd

Like. Man. There's a reason that stories don't show you the happily ever after. Because the writer knows that's boring. No audience wants to watch the heroes just be happy forever. Because in this chapter, there is no conflict.

Actually like. The Princess. I pity her so bad in this chapter. So like, the Damsel in ch2 is so malleable because that's what the perception of the Hero who swoops in and does not doubt her for even a second is - that she is the perfect fairytale princess who can do no wrong, ever.

But like, the secondary voice for Happily Ever After is The Paranoid. The Hero gets creeped out by how much she just "wants to make him happy", so the Hero and the Paranoid want her to be a person.

But that's not what the Smitten wants! The Smitten wants his fairytale, forever. The Princess is a creature of perception, but two clashing views have left her a person stuck in the role of a doll. She wants to break free, but she's not allowed to, because a perfect fairytale princess wouldn't disagree with the Hero, would she?

And yet, every route is about disagreement. About change and conflict and moving together only to move apart only to move together again. It's conflict that gives the Hero and the Princess dimension.

wruagh.

Thinks abt that post that says the Paranoid is like, one of the most powerful voices because he doesn't trust perception. Thinks about how the Smitten is one of the most powerful voices because he just speaks things into existence without doubting his vision. Clash of titans on this route, truly.

Also fucked how this is like. The first route i can think of where a voice just... leaves? It's... kind of the opposite of what happens in The Princess and the Dragon. But even then, none of the voices just fade away. The only thing that ever makes them leave is the mirror.

The Smitten was so dead set on his happy ending, that breaking it requires flat out extinguishing him. And yet, the Hero still likes the Princess. You can tell her you liked her all along, or that you're not sure, or that you didn't before, but you might now.

The Smitten isn't the be all end all of the Hero's affection for the Princess. He's just one facet of it. One facet that grew wildly out of control that it flattened them both and had to be torn out for an actual genuine relationship to form.

Man. Okay.