#punching out scaffolding. killing other players.

[enpr-ss]

Hermit Permit Challenges are total chaos. Just everyone crowding around Grian begging him to laugh at their jokes.

Honestly I’m more impressed with how much cheating DIDN’T happen.

[redorich]

First of all I really love your Hermit Canyon au and have read throughathe posts multiple times. Secondly I think Tango deserves to open up a bedrock service to trap the unsuspecting dsmp members. And thirdly I'm a bit sad that this au is going to be coming to an end but it's been lovely to read.

There's a problem on the Dream SMP that needs to be addressed. None of them realize that canon lives are gone, because they don't lose them often enough to notice. The Hermits wrack their brains trying to come up with a solution, some way to prove it.

Grian suggests a death game, like Demise. The idea is immediately vetoed. They're trying not to traumatize these people further, thank you. Joe suggests a treatise on the fleeting nature of life and how embracing it in order to reject humanity and become primatial will allow one to achieve a higher state of being which can then be conflated with the concept of immortal life. Just as Joe is really hyping himself up, getting ready to write and mass-distribute a pamphlet like Thomas Paine's Common Sense, Cleo bluntly informs him that that's too many words. Next option.

Some ideas are thrown around of Hermits killing each other in fun games to show the other players that a little bit of death is harmless, a fun treat.

Meanwhile, Scar, who forgot to show up to the meeting, is up on the surface wandering around as he surveys the land for a good spot to put a megabase. This would be much easier with an elytra; however, when he asked Xisuma why they can't go to the end here Scar was bombarded with a slew of confusing admin words. He's sure Xisuma will explain later.

There's a little shop down the road that Scar hasn't seen before. He's certain that it has Hermit written all over it-- not literally, of course, but the structure, size, and blocks used make it obvious. There's a group of native Dream SMP players huddled around the entrance, which grabs his attention.

"Well hello there," he says, channelling his inner Obi Wan Kenobi as he always does when he says that.

The other players, who he recognizes as Foolish, Tubbo, and Ranboo, whisper among themselves and immediately straighten up when he addresses them. It's as though they're attempting to say with their body language, Hello! No shenanigans here, nope, none at all.

"Hello," Foolish says. "Would you happen to know who built this store?"

Scar makes a considering noise in the back of his throat, pacing around the side of the build and back as he tries to guess. "Definitely a Hermit," he says. "and probably one of the redstoners. This doesn't look like Mumbo-- or Etho for that matter... Maybe Doc, or possibly Tango or Impulse? That would be my guess."

The nervous-looking ender-boy (Ranboo, Scar believes) leans down to Tubbo's height to whisper in his ear. Tubbo nods, waits a second, nods again, and Ranboo stands back up.

"Are they trustworthy?" Tubbo says.

Scar's brows draw together slightly at the question, wondering what the group is getting at. "What do you mean?"

"Jack went in that shop half an hour ago, and he still hasn't come out yet," Foolish says plainly.

"I'm sure it's nothing," Scar says with a relaxed smile, opening the door. "I'll go check on him, see? There's nothing dangero--"

The others watch as a piston triggers and Scar immediately plummets into a hole far below. The piston fires again and covers up the scene of the crime as though nothing ever happened. Tubbo snorts a laugh, and Ranboo and Foolish look at each other over Tubbo's head.

------------

Jack bashes his forehead against the bedrock in front of him like he has been doing for the past half-hour. He's absolutely stuck, and the only way out is death.

All of the sudden, another man's voice comes screaming toward the bottom of the hole, and before he knows it the piston has activated and two people are stuck in this bedrock box.

"Hello there," the other man says. "My name's Scar."

"Jack. It's a pleasure. I don't suppose you have any ender pearls?"

Scar considers. "No, but you can punch me to death and I can come back with some."

What? Hello??? Is this man not worried about canon death??? Jack expresses this to the man in vulgar detail, and though the man winces at the language he seems otherwise unperturbed. With a sigh, Jack acquiesces and punches the man to death. Scar apparently had full saturation when he fell into the hole, so it takes quite a while.

Scar explodes into a shower of items and Jack can't help but feel a little bad for killing him, even if it's what he wanted... Until he sees one of the man's items. A trap door. Quickly, he uses it to escape, scooping up all of Scar's items and climbing a tower of scaffolding to the surface. Up top, he's greeted by Foolish, Tubbo, Ranboo, and a red-faced and huffing Scar who must have run the entire way back all the way from the canyon.

"Oh, how did you get out?" Scar says curiously.

"You had trapdoors on you, you dumb shit!"

"Huh. I forgot about those. Aw man, my levels!"

Jack sputters in his anger. "Wh-- Do you-- How are you not bothered by this?! What if that was a canon life?!"

Ranboo watches the conversation go back and forth like a tennis match.

A look of realization comes across Scar's face. "That's right," he says, "I forgot you Dream SMP guys have that whole thing about dying-- Xisuma fixed that."

Everyone goes dead silent. Finally, Jack utters, "...Huh?"

"Yeah, no, dying isn't permanent anymore," Scar says.

Jack, who literally crawled his way out of Hell at one point in time, knows with a sinking feeling in his soul that Scar is telling the truth. Fuck the Hermits, he thinks. What the fuck.

[bestworstcase]

We all know that the Gothel twist was terrible and was only there for the sake of having a twist, but if it absolutely have been done, how should it had happened to make it better narratively?

so. i spent a lot of time kind of mulling over and autopsying s3 and my personal conclusion about what went wrong is that tts hamstrung itself with poor narrative structure. and this is going to be one of those posts where i lead with definitions of the terminology i’m going to use, for the sake of clarity and to avoid any misunderstanding. 

to whit: 

story is the sum total of every element of a narrative: character, plot, setting, theme, and structure.  

character is, of course, the people in the story. it’s “who?”

plot is the events that happen in a story. it’s “what?”

setting is the time and place of the story. it’s “where?” and “when?” 

theme is what the story is *about.* it’s “why?”

and then there’s narrative structure, which i think is a little harder to grasp because it’s much more invisible than the other things. but it’s the framework of the story, or the scaffolding. it’s “how?” — how are the characters rendered? how is the setting created? how are the events of the plot strung together along the throughline? how is the story built? 

now… in my opinion, character is the single most important element of a story; compelling characters can salvage an otherwise mediocre story, and nothing kills a story faster than uninteresting characters. 

but the one thing good characters can’t ultimately compensate for is poor structure. if the construction is shoddy, so to speak, sooner or later, the roof is gonna leak. right? and we can see this happen in tts: s1 and s2 are solid, and then bam! we hit s3 and it’s a mess of bizarre pacing and dropped characters, the feelings and motivations of key players get all wonky, the plot loses focus, and things increasingly feel like they’re happening by authorial fiat. the weak structure of the narrative has failed, and it dragged the entire story down with it. 

and we can look back in retrospect and see that, yeah, all of these problems existed before; tts always had odd pacing, always had an issue with maintenance of the supporting cast, always relied more on convenience than a narrative really should. but these things didn’t hit a critical mass until s3. 

so what does this have to do with gothel? well,

in and of itself, “gothel is cassandra’s mother!” is not a terrible plot twist. the problem with it is a problem of execution, which is to say, the flaw is in the structure, not the plot.

#1: set-up

plot twists are kind of difficult to pull off well, because you don’t want to blindside people, but you also don’t want to tip your hand too soon. you want to surprise, or maybe even shock—but you don’t want your audience to go, “wait, WHAT? that makes no sense!”

do you remember the whole “ricky’s quest” thing that went on in s2? we were told that there was an important piece of foreshadowing somewhere in s1 or s2 that no one had picked up on yet and there was this whole thing of people trying to figure out what it was, and then… rapunzel’s return aired, and ricky revealed that the answer was “cassandra briefly glances into the shattered mirror in rapunzel’s tower.” 

and that, + the fact that we know cass is adopted and doesn’t remember her birth parents, + vague visual similarities, is the entirety of the s1-s2 foreshadowing for cassandra being gothel’s daughter.

which isn’t nothing, i’ll grant you, but for something as major as the gothel twist, for something that profoundly changes the worldview and motivations of one of the main characters to such a degree that she completely changes sides because of it, it might as well be nothing.

gothel is afforded zero narrative importance in s1-s2. rapunzel has one nightmare about her, and some lingering trauma connected to the tower that is explored, and of course tromus briefly uses her image to try to control rapunzel in rapunzeltopia. but gothel herself is a non-entity until she abruptly and without warning becomes the emotional lynchpin of the entire conflict in s3. that’s jarring.

cassandra is a complex character whose apparent motivations for turning against rapunzel are meticulously built up over the course of s2… only for s3 to pull a bait-and-switch, sweep all of that set-up under the rug, and replace it with cassandra’s messed up feelings about gothel’s abandonment. even her ruined hand never gets mentioned again—not by her, not by zhan tiri, not by rapunzel, not by anyone. that’s jarring, too. 

to use my own work as a point of comparison here, the bitter snow equivalent of the gothel reveal is cassandra finding out that sirin is her aunt and her parents were innocent. like the gothel twist, learning that information profoundly changes how cassandra sees herself and the world, and it’s intended to be a big shock… but unlike the gothel twist, i did a lot of setting up for it: 

1: sirin has real narrative importance in the first half of the story, pre-reveal. the fic opens with her, her involvement with the separatists is established early, etc. 

2: pieces of cassandra’s backstory are threaded through the first half of the story. by the time we hit the reveal, it’s been established that cass is saporian, that her parents were executed for treason, that this treason involved selling poisoned crops and causing outbreaks of a deadly sickness. 

3: there are many demonstrations of anti-saporian discrimination and prejudice in the first half of the story: the way cass sees herself and the alienation she feels from the rest of corona, past incidents where she was targeted for being saporian, basically every time gilbert opens his mouth, what happened to caine’s dad. 

4: cassandra discovers evidence of the harsh, unjust nature of the crackdown and realizes that at least some of what she’s been taught about coronan law enforcement and recent history is inaccurate… thus planting the seed, for the readers if not for cass herself, that other things might be false too.

5: caine points out that cass is the reason the separatists don’t let parents join up, and though she doesn’t elaborate on that, it’s because cass is proof that corona will steal saporian children if their parents are accused of treason.

and 6: everything sirin says to cass in chapter 14 is wrapped up in her being painfully, painfully aware that a) cass is her niece and b) probably doesn’t know the whole story—while also trying to stick to the plan. so… while she doesn’t spill the beans there, she knows who cass is, she stops andrew from hurting her, she makes a point of not acknowledging the legitimacy of cassandra’s adoption, and obliquely suggests that sir peter is a murderer… and while she tries to stop cass from interfering with what they’re doing, she doesn’t hurt her, even though she very much could.

so… in chapter 15, when sirin comes out with “actually, the blight was a natural disaster no one anticipated and saporians got sick and died too, your parents were just scapegoats because corona wanted someone to blame, and oh, by the way, you’re my niece,” it’s a shock but not one that comes entirely out of left field. cassandra’s parents being innocent victims of an overzealous and prejudiced justice system is a logical extension of all the stuff that has already been set up, and sirin being cass’s aunt helps to clarify motivations that were previously opaque (such as: why does sirin despise corona so much, why didn’t she just kill cass, etc). 

and because all of this stuff is given so much attention in the first half of the story, the way it snaps cassandra’s worldview in half and causes such a massive reorienting of her goals and loyalties feels natural. because it already mattered a great deal to her, and it related to the doubts she was already experiencing. 

which like, that’s the key. setting up a big plot twist isn’t about establishing one basic fact (“cass is adopted”) and tossing in one instance of symbolic foreshadowing (the mirror thing) and nothing else, over the course of two whole seasons of a tv show. it is about priming the audience to be ready to accept the reveal.

how could tts have done this with the gothel reveal? here’s some ideas: 

1: give gothel a greater presence in the narrative. the simplest way to do this would be to really lean in to how fucked up rapunzel is because of her. more nightmares, more overt moments where we see rapunzel still being haunted by her memory. alternatively, lean more into the fact that gothel was a disciple of zhan tiri.

2: give cassandra’s adoption, and the question of her birth parents, even a teeny tiny glimmer of interest. specifically, let “dad found me after my parents abandoned me” be the only thing cass knows about her adoption, and let that hurt her. she doesn’t even have to be curious about who her birth parents were—just have that pain of abandonment more present in the first two seasons. 

3: imply the captain knows more about cassandra’s origins than he lets on. 

4: you know the parallel in RATGT where rapunzel screams at cass the way gothel screamed at rapunzel? more of that. like, how delicious would it be if there were many little instances in s1-s2 of rapunzel lashing out at cass with behaviors she obviously subconsciously learned from gothel, only for s3 to pull the sucker punch of cassandra being gothel’s daughter? like! imagine how that could so EASILY make cassandra recontextualize her entire relationship with rapunzel by linking rapunzel’s toxic behaviors with gothel’s abuse and abandonment in her mind? and then in s3 you can really dig into rapunzel interrogating her own behaviors and struggling to break the cycle of abuse. 

5: if gothel being a former disciple of zhan tiri is narratively important, it can go hand-in-hand with zhan tiri and the other disciples more overtly targeting cass, specifically. even if we don’t know why until the reveal. 

i’ve seen a couple posts from other folks discussing how to “fix” the gothel twist, and many of them involve cass either knowing from the start or finding out much earlier, but while that could work, i don’t think it’s necessary. it’s all about the set up. it’s all about constructing the story in such a way that the audience goes “OH!” instead of “WHAT?!” when the reveal happens, and the specific timing of the reveal doesn’t really… matter.

#2: execution

surprising absolutely no one, i’m going to talk about zhan tiri now. 

based on what chris has said in various interviews, my understanding is this: originally, cass was originally supposed to be a secret antagonist all along and know about her parentage right out of the gate. her characterization softened early on in the process, her knowing about gothel got dropped, and suddenly the creators needed a way for her to learn that gothel was her mom, and thus zhan tiri entered the narrative.

she is a plot device whose whole purpose is to tell cass “gothel was your mom and abandoned you for rapunzel,” and then fuel her downward spiral. the rest of her character exists in service of that, full stop. 

which… like the gothel reveal, having a character whose primary function is to be a plot device isn’t a problem in and of itself. however. “ancient evil demonic sorceress with deep ties to the magical lore of the setting and an entrenched hatred for team hero, whose MO is manipulating people” is a terrible character archetype to use as this kind of plot device, because that kind of character needs to have an agenda in order to function, and as soon as you give them an agenda they develop a gravitational pull on the rest of the story, especially if they’re directly involved with a main character. 

and if you’re willing to roll with that gravitational pull, it can be fine. but if you’re not… you get tts s3. 

chris has pretty much spelled this out in interviews. he said at one point that they debated multiple potential motives for zhan tiri… but found that anything more complex than “wants the drops and to burn corona to the ground, because reasons” sucked oxygen away from the cass vs raps conflict and eventual reconciliation, which… yeah. so they gave zhan tiri the cardboard motives and didn’t really do anything with her other than trotting her out to give cass a good shove in whatever direction the plot needed cass to fall in every so often. 

that zhan tiri is a compelling character in s3 at all is a testament to the strength of her VA and the sheer potential of her established lore, in combination with the fact that she and cassandra are off screen enough to demand that the audience fill in a lot of gaps. but in, like, the actual text, she has all the complex personality of a piece of damp tissue paper and she is, for all intents and purposes, literally just Cassandra’s Brain. every decision, every single decision cass makes in s3 is because of zhan tiri. why take the moonstone? zhan tiri tells her to. why is she so mad at rapunzel? zhan tiri made her that way. why does she attack rapunzel? zhan tiri convinced her she had to. why does she go to gothel’s cabin in TOTS? zhan tiri tipped her off that rapunzel would be there. why does her fragile truce with rapunzel fall apart at the end of TOTS? zhan tiri interfered. why does she try to reconcile again in OAH? she found out zhan tiri was… zhan tiri. why does that reconciliation fail? zhan tiri. why does cass ultimately redeem herself? because zhan tiri stabs her in the back first. 

*deep breath*

this is what happens when you troubleshoot a broken narrative with plot devices instead of opening it up to fix whatever is wrong with the underlying structure. in this case, cassandra not knowing about gothel from the get go broke her planned villain arc… and the creators applied zhan tiri like a bandaid, molding this new character into someone who could railroad cass down the preexisting plan for her villain arc. 

what needed to happen instead was a wholesale reexamination and reconfiguration of cassandra’s villain arc, her reasons for going down that path, and her reasons for coming back. even if finding out the truth about gothel was still the trigger for it, it’s ultimately not about gothel anymore. gothel is just the last straw. 

and in order to work with the characters as-established in s1-s2, the events of s3 would need to be framed that way. if, after all the shit she goes through in s2, cass met zhan tiri, learned that gothel was her mom and abandoned her for rapunzel, and finally just snapped and went after the moonstone because fuck this, fuck you, and then zhan tiri came in with the compassion and emotional validation and the “your mother treated you as a servant and then discarded you for something she thought was better, and so did rapunzel, didn’t she? but i see you, i believe in you, i am your friend, and we can help each other,” and cass bought that because she’s desperate for emotional support and kindness and fuck it, she’s on team demon now, only for her conscience to eat away at her until she couldn’t take it anymore and broke away from zhan tiri for good… then it works, full stop. 

like, you don’t have to change a single plot event for the gothel twist to work. you just have to string those plot events along an emotional throughline that makes sense and feels connected to what happened in s1-s2. you can’t use zhan tiri to graft the s3 arc of evil-all-along proto-cass onto canon s1-s2 and call it a day because that doesn’t work! you have to write for the characters you have, not their early planning-stages iterations. if you make a decision early on that breaks your original plan, you have to commit to redoing the whole plan. 

and if you do that, if you fix the underlying structure, you don’t need a character whose sole purpose is to railroad another character down a predetermined path that no longer fits her characterization; cass and zhan tiri can instead both be characters, acting according to their motivations and goals, and not puppets pantomiming the ghost of a broken plan. 

(you do still have to accept that zhan tiri will pull focus away from the cass+rapunzel friendship, though. them’s the breaks. don’t use zhan tiris if you’re not willing to let them gobble up the spotlight a bit.)

TL;DR: to fix the gothel twist, set it up better in s1-s2 by making the question of cassandra’s parentage, or abandonment by her parentage, important to the narrative at all, or else by focusing more closely on gothel being a disciple of zhan tiri; then execute the s3 villain arc in a way that makes sense for canon cass and what she experiences in s1-s2, rather than using zhan tiri to railroad her down the path evil-all-along proto-cass was supposed to take. 

the problem is a structural one so at the end of the day the solution is to fix the structure. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

[lefthanded-sans]

One of the things I love (and love to hate) in Deponia is how Rufus and Goal’s romance is repeatedly blocked. It’s not just the end of Goodbye / Doomsday. The entire story thwarts romantic experiences the two might have. 

For every major romantic milestone I might expect in archetypal Western dating - dining out, saying “I love you,” proposing marriage, etc. - Rufus and Goal fail to have that moment. The narrative builds up the possibility for these romantic experiences. Oftentimes, players spend a long time working to achieve these romantic ends. However, something bad happens and spoils the moment - every time.

It’s a brilliant narrative move. We know Rufus and Goal are never at an emotional point where their relationship is secure, steady, and healthy. They never share the romantic milestones that could be good building moments, either. For people who find their relationship toxic, the fact that everything gets thwarted only narratively hammers the idea they won’t be meant for each other. Rufus’ desire to be with Goal would be as ridiculous and disastrous a dream as most of his ill-thought escape plans. 

For people (like me) who ship them, and see potential behind their current issues, the game repeatedly tempts an enticing ideal that never gets actualized. It shows us a hope of what could be good, it shows us enough chemistry to say this could be a great experience for Rufus and Goal, it shows them growing enough with each other to give us hope... but just like Rufus’ dream to reach Elysium....... it’s never fulfilled.

I’ll talk more of how this narrative structure plays directly into Rufus and Goal’s characterization arcs. Check out the end of my post for that. But for now. I want to share. How for EVERY possible romantic moment. It’s subverted.

The Dinner Date

A romantic dinner date is a big deal. Rufus spends a long time preparing for his first one with Goal - hatching platypuses, changing the menu of a restaurant, stealing all a man’s belongings, getting a poet to prompt for him, convincing his foster father to reserve a table, etc. This is one of the three major objectives in the Floating Black Market segment of Chaos. And yet the end result is not the romantic milestone intended. Seagull sabotages Rufus’ date; Rufus and Goal never have that fancy meal with the beautiful backdrop.

First Kisses

Kisses are important! Lots of people talk of their first kiss! And, admittedly, Rufus and Goal do kiss. Once for Spunky Goal:

Once for Lady Goal:

And........ oh wait.......

That was a hug. 

Note: I find that a good choice from another meta standpoint. Given as Baby Goal is treated as... well... childish... it wouldn’t have been a good move to have a kiss with THAT side of her personality.

But anyway.

Rufus and Goal kiss. That’s achieved. That’s better achievement than they get for most romantic expectations in this story. However, when I think about the narrative in Deponia, their kisses feel incomplete to me, too. Rufus and Goal might have kissed twice, but they did not:

Complete the narrative rule of threes.

Have all three divided personalities of Goal kiss Rufus.

Have a kiss between Rufus and Goal when Goal’s consciousness was united.

And that’s critical. There’s never a moment where the complete Goal shares a kiss with Rufus. 

Furthermore, the Deponia trilogy is firmly founded on the idea “good things come in threes.” Everything important is presented in threes: Rufus causing Goal to fall at the start of every game, Rufus falling for Goal at the end of every game, Rufus being cloned into three individuals, Rufus being one of three clone brothers, Goal being separated into three separate personalities, you name it, the narrative cares about the number THREE. When there’s a “three” in Deponia, you’re supposed to pay attention. They even rub in the importance of three in the art book and some of the Huzzah songs. But. Rufus and Goal kissing twice falls short of that perfect three.

This is in contrast to Goal punching Rufus, which does occur three times, once per game: punching Rufus for the coffee (Deponia), punching Rufus when he flirts with her in Gulliver’s Tavern (Chaos on Deponia), and punching Rufus after they dance (Goodbye Deponia).

So it could be argued Rufus and Goal never fulfill the “kiss” expectation, either, that was set up in Deponia’s narrative scaffolding.

“I Love You”

I know fans can freak out when a fictional pairing first utters the words “I love you.” I know fans often speculate about whether or not The L Word will appear in a canon story. I know that, in real life, it might feel special the first time you say that with your romantic partner. “I love you” can be an important relational milestone.

Deponia again tempts this milestone with Rufus and Goal - once again, they get close to success, but it doesn’t happen. 

Goal, thinking Rufus isn’t around, and being dangerously overdosed, admits to Argus, “I love Rufus.” She never says it to Rufus himself.

And Rufus, the bastard, says “I love you” ...to one of his dying clones. Not Goal.

I love that Doomsday keeps the integrity of this, too. Even when Rufus and Goal know they’re saying their final goodbye together, they never say “I love you”. They reminisce of fun adventures they’ve had, and Goal’s most powerful words to him are, “Goodbye Rufus.” 

First Night in Bed

Sex!!! Certainly a defining moment in a relationship. Sure, Goal insists (to Rufus’ deaf ears) they’re just going to sleep in the bed. But not even that happens. Rufus’ hope was to experience one of the most intimate acts of love allosexual couples might have. Instead, Rufus watches Goal sleep in a very... different... way. He thinks he killed her, watches her pass out, and then is throw off the cruiser to his own demise.

The entire objective of this part of the game (to prepare the bed for Goal) is thwarted from the expected results (get in bed with Goal). And what Rufus hopes to be one of his most positive experiences with Goal, an act which in so many ways is an act of life... instead turns into a double death.

Growing Old Together

In Chaos, Rufus asks the guru what their twilight years will be like together. The guru sees nothing in the future for them there. That’s because Rufus and Goal won’t grow old together as a couple.

We see that emphasized all the more in Doomsday. The one time Rufus manages to survive the fall from the highboat, Goal dies instead. Solid Rufus grows old alone without hope. Furthermore, No Future Goal lives as a hermit in Paradox City, also alone without hope. Even in that one timeline where Goal and Grandpa Rufus manage to both survive, I don’t think that exactly... counts... since one of them’s actually young, while the other’s got a full beard of white hair (what his true longevity is after “remembering all” I have no idea).

The Love-o-Mat and the Photographs

In Doomsday, Rufus and Goal need to prove to Pimpy the Clown that they’re a couple in love. They can’t get passage on his boat until they do that. The game sets up the idea for Rufus and Goal to take a photograph together with the set-up in the fairgrounds. However, Rufus photographs himself with a fake Goal, who’s nothing more than a bowling ball for a head. The Love-o-Mat never rates this photograph as true love, it’s never used to get past Pimpy, Goal gets angry at Rufus for this stunt, and what should have been a romantic boat ride with a romantic singer singing a romantic song turns into Rufus and Goal glaring angrily at one another. The entire goal of the fairgrounds section is uprooted... it all turns into... something entirely unromantic.

What’s so frustrating is that later we learn Goal pulled the same ruse. She also used a bowling ball for a fake Rufus, even used the same backdrop. The two of them could have taken the photograph together, operating under the same idea: but instead they created two pictures, both of which faked the other being in their lives.

This is the reason Goal is upset during the college arc. She’s angry because in the photo, she and Rufus are “together”. It’s a lie. It’s faking a happy future that cannot be: Rufus and Goal never will be able to grow a real, long-term, not-cut-off romantic relationship.

Rufus: You got past the Love-o-Mat with that? Goal: Well, someone had to make sure that things could carry on. Rufus: But then why are you so angry? Because we’re not together in the photo? Goal: No. Because we are. An illusion. A snapshot giving the wrong picture. Or do you think that at the end of the day, we’ll be sticking that picture into our photo album? Everything here is going to have to end up being undone and reversed! So that we can save the world. So that there will be no Fewlocks on Elysium. That’s how it has to be, right? Rufus: No, it isn’t. Goal: Then tell me one thing that will still remain of our adventures.

THAT STUPID FUCKING RING 

UUUUAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!

Excuse me a moment while I pull out all my hair, scream into a pillow, and angrily beat up my bed mattress. By this point in the Deponia series, I knew that the moment Rufus tried to get a ring for Goal, that expectations would be subverted. I knew that the ring in the fairgrounds was too good to be true. My shipper heart was screaming “RING!!!! RINGGGG!!!! RING RING RING RING RIIIIINGGG!!! HOLY SHIT A RING!!!!” but of course. Of course. Of fucking course. Deponia once again subverted the romantic expectations on that, too. In all the worst ways possible.

First, the ring isn’t as easy to acquire as one would hope. You don’t just get the coins to get the ring out of the gumball machine. The ring rolls away from Rufus, a wombat steals it, and Rufus has to recruit a fellowship on a quest to retrieve this important ring. It’s arduous acquiring that ring at all.

Next, the ring isn’t given to Goal. It’s used on the fake. Which, as mentioned before, is frustrating in itself - they could have taken a picture together but didn’t. It’s even worse considering that this photograph backdrop is that for a bride and groom getting married - Rufus gives the ring to a fake Goal for a marriage photo that isn’t real. The symbolism keeps getting hit again and again - love, a romantic boat ride, a ring, a picture with a bride and groom. The game doesn’t tempt this idea so much as smack you repeatedly with it on your head. But everything about Rufus and Goal getting married with this ring is a lie that turns into a big fight between the him and his travel companion. It’s ultimately all for nothing, it feels like.

THEN. The ring comes back. The ring still has a chance to make a romantic difference! Rufus grabs the ring to help Rokko and Rita (he thinks) hook up. This is supposed to help a couple with the ultimate vow of love and loyalty: marriage. And yet the very ring that players first find... that ring the game “suggests” should be shared between Rufus and Goal for romance... is the very ring used... for ROKKO and Goal’s wedding.

THE RING THAT WAS “SUPPOSED” TO BE FOR GOAL AND RUFUS ENDS UP GOING TO MARRY GOAL WITH ANOTHER MAN.

Everything down to a proposal and a marriage is teased at heavily in the game, only to crash into something undesirable between Rufus and Goal.

Of course, Rufus being Rufus, he tries to barge in with a Shrek-styled “I object!” moment. That doesn’t go so well. We don’t get the two resuming their romantic relationship now that “the wrong marriage” is prevented. Goal makes it clear she is not “his girl.” Something always blocks their path - up to him disappearing and leaving her life entirely. He’s a mess-up that she shouldn’t wait for. Outraged, Goal storms away from Rufus, jumps into a portal, and leaves him in turn.

Why are *WE* not allowed to be happy?

Rufus: Huh. Now we’re together on Elysium after all. Goal: Well. I guess we are. Rufus: Come on. There should be a lot of other portals here. Goal: Can’t we just... stay here? Rufus: Goal, we talked about this. At first, I also thought that was a good idea, but who will save the world, if not us? Goal: That’s unfair. Why are we not allowed to be happy? Problems, dangers, problems, more dangers. It’s almost like someone is watching us and...!

The ultimate desire for both Goal and Rufus is to reach Elysium together. Even before Goal understands Rufus’ personality, and Rufus appreciates Goal as an individual woman, they want this. This is true of the trilogy. This is true of Doomsday. This is how they will save Deponia from exploding. This is how Rufus will escape the planet he loathes. This is how Future Goal thinks her life could improve for the better. And yet this is the one thing that cannot happen, be it in The Complete Journey, or the many times they attempt to change the timeline in Doomsday. Rufus and Goal, no matter how much they want it, can’t find a happy life together on Elysium.

Ultimately, it comes down to Want versus Need. This is what drives Rufus’ character arc in the trilogy (despite some criticisms I’ve seen, he totally has one), and what also drives Goal’s character arc in Doomsday.

In the trilogy, Rufus has the Want to reach Elysium and hook up with a hot woman. He thinks that’s what he needs. When the story presents conflict, we learn that what Rufus actually Needs to do is save Deponia and the people he cares about from death. At first, Rufus focuses more on his Want, but believes he can accomplish both his Want and his Need. Moments like the first game’s end show that that’s not going to be easy to accomplish, but he keeps pressing forward with the determination to both save Deponia and get that happy Elysian life. As the story continues, Rufus acts increasingly more for the real Need - until at last, at the very end, it’s made clear: Rufus’ Want and his Need are incompatible. He chooses his Need: to save the person he cares about most, Goal, and through his final actions, makes sure the Elysians won’t destroy his planet. Goal’s safety and Deponia’s survival is more important than that Want he dreamed of at the start. Rufus and Goal won’t be able to live together romantically, despite three games of him dreaming about it. It’s a beautiful albeit painful way of learning selflessness and seeing Rufus - finally - emotionally at peace.

In Doomsday, Goal has the Want to change the past for the better and get more time with Rufus. She believes this will give her happiness and hope - after all, there’s no hope in a life with Fewlock Armageddon, or with a good adventure forgotten, or with Elysium crashed. Both the Goal of Doomsday’s main timeline and Future Goal aren’t initially able to see their true Need. The Need is to accept the past and live with hope in the future. Hope will never be about slogging in the past, but about using our past life choices to pave forward to the best future we can. This means that Goal needs to learn how to emotionally - and literally - let go of Rufus. No matter how much she tries or wishes it, Rufus won’t be there in her future. 

And the story makes these characterizations and messages clear... in how it subverts Rufus and Goal’s relationship. Sure, Deponia likes subverting player expectations everywhere. But especially with the romantic “milestones” that never get fulfilled, there’s a lot of narrative depth and structure added. By never giving them moments of uninterrupted relational actualization, it foreshadows and prepares us for the truth of the ending: they won’t be together once this story’s ended, either. The trilogy is about Rufus finally learning to grow, finally making an action that doesn’t harm the people around him, finally taking a choice that’s selfless and sacrificial. Doomsday shows us the complicated nuance that hope might mean letting go so we don’t let the past drag us down, but that everything we’ve done in our struggles will be worth it.

I love the frustration in all this. Storywise I’ve seen the fanfiction slow burn trope everywhere: you frustrate the readers until, at the very end, the romantic couple hooks up. Yet Deponia... never gives that final hook-up. Rufus dies before the two can sort through their feelings and become a solid pair. The story always gives enough to see what Rufus and/or Goal (and we as players, if we ship) might hope for, but consistently subverts what could have been a good pairing moment. In a weird way, this subversion makes the whole story more cohesive. And for me, somehow, an even more enjoyable to experience as a player.

To quote Rufus at the end of Doomsday: “The important thing is that we had a great time together.” And that’s what makes the narrative ring true... through this all... even with a bittersweet end.