#thinking about. deltarune because of the stuff surrounding ralsei

[ev-isms]

hmm. you

[d3f3n3str4t10n]

Undertale 9th Anniversary Newsletter Teasers!

Undertale's 9th anniversary newsletter dropped, and the only part I care about is the Deltarune stuff lol.

We've got more teasers! The one up top is for Chapter 3. I... don't know what to make of it, honestly. It almost looks like something is censored... or just, not brightened up? No clue what those hubby things are, or why they're on a pier, or where Ralsei is... but, it kinda reminds me of the dock scene with the Goner Kid.

To be honest, the nubs kinda remind me of shag carpeting. But... I've got no idea why that'd be an area lol.

Here's Chapter 4's teaser. Noelle looking into a flashlight, surrounded by birthday presents. The scene is pretty small, probably because there's a bunch of other stuff we ain't supposed to see yet. Could she be telling a scary story, or trying to find something in a dark room? Considering one of those presents in the back is very candy-cane shaped, I'd say this is somewhere in her house...

chapter 5's teaser is a balloon. That's it. People think it's gonna be the day of the town festival... which could be true, but iiiiii just don't see it. Seems like an obvious red herring to me.

[junegirl06]

A more literal interpretation of Jevil's "freedom" (also some rambling)

The last post I did on Jevil- I talked about how his "freedom" could be like a sort of "inner freedom." He is trapped physically, but free from the contraints of responsibility, society, morality, etc. Now, I think that mindset is exactly the thing that led him to do whatever he did to get imprisoned, but the freedom he talks about in game might be a different thing entirely.

The thing that got me thinking about that is a video by halfbreadchaos. (I forgot the specific video but check them out- they make great stuff) They led me to notice the fact that Jevils prison is very oddly positioned, and the entire "???" floor area as a whole is really strange as well.

The room itself looks eerily similar to that first area we wake up in on chapter 1. The creepy atmosphere, the color of the floors (kinda), and the torches are literally the same as the ones found in that pre-castle town area. The entire place looks so incredibly different from the rest of the card castle. The walls and surrounding area don't even seem to be like... there. Like it's some sort of abyss. Like the entire room is out of bounds of something.

Jevil's cell/room shares a very similar vibe in that aspect as well. On the outside, the bars just seem to lead into nothing. And even on the inside, It just looks... wrong. The spinning carousel thing is so different from anything else in the game. I mean, toby said it's made out of 2D parts, but it's obviously supposed to look kinda 3D. The characters aren't even standing on the thing properly. Even behind the carousel, it's just more nothingness.

____

Now, let's look at Jevils dialogue directly.

"BUT I'M FAST, FAST, CLEVER, CLEVER." "THEY LOST THE CHASE, AND LOCKED UP THEIR ENTIRE RACE." "BUILDING A PRISON AROUND THE WHOLE WORLD. NOW I'M THE ONLY FREE ONE." Ralsei: "But you're clearly the one behind bars..." "THINGS DON'T SEEM SUCH FROM HERE LIGHTNERS!"

Looking at this completely literally, this is what we can gather: The guards and/or Seam chased him around, but he was too fast and clever for them. They somehow decided to build a prison around the dark world and trapped everyone behind bars, making Jevil the only free one. This is obviously not the case. If we try to fit this interpretation into what we know about the dark world and Jevil's situation... it uh, kinda looks like he's joking about how it looks like everybody is trapped because he's looking at them through bars.

But that answer is pretty boring, isn't it? There is obviously a lot more we can read into the dialogue. Jevil is shown to speak with a certain bit of abstractness. This analysis is supposed to be a more literal interpretation, but it's clear we need to look a little more deeper than that.

____

Let's take what I brought up before the dialogue, along with some other points.

Jevil's prison is very clearly separated from the rest of the dark world. Hell, maybe even the rest of the game with how odd it is.

Jevil talks about how everybody else is trapped, and he is the only "free" one.

This freedom doesn't exactly seem to be "inner freedom," as he directly connects his prison with this "freedom" by inviting us "outside" when we use the key on the door.

They way he doesn't elaborate any further when we do enter his room, and because the characters don't seem to have like, any sudden revelations or something inside of the room, leads me to believe that it's that inherent oddness, that separation from the "normal" part of the game that Jevil is finding freedom in.

Nobody in the world of Deltarune technically has automony over their choices. Every single choice, every event, is because of the plot. All of these people are characters in a video game, able to be manipulated by higher forces on a whim. Gaster/the mysterious entity made Jevil realize this and drove him insane with the knowledge.

Now, Jevil doesn't actively dispise that fact like Spamton does. He might almost relish in it- as he did go on that "NOTHING MATTERS EVERYTHING IS A SIMULATION! UEEHEEHEE!!!" rampage that caused so much chaos.

But then he faced the consequences of his actions. His own coworker/quite possibily a good friend locked him up in this dark, creepy place far, far below where the regular prisoners are supposed to go. And it all felt quite... stupid.

"Look at all those little people, obediently following the rules of this worthless world. They don't realize, don't they? They've simply placed another peice in the great game being set up by the higher beings. They're just walking themselves closer and closer into their eventual end. It's almost as if... they're trapping themselves. Building a prison around all of them, allowing themselves to be puppeteered by the people who control the world.

Hah! I'm quite clever, aren't I? Thanks to what I've done, I've been relagated as even lesser than a side character, sitting in a little haven tucked away from the influences of the outside world... No, I'm the one looking from the outside this time. I'm the only one here who truly understands, aren't I? But it's not my job to enlighten such fools. I'll be content watching from the backseat as the chaos unfolds..."

___

I, uh... didn't mean to write a fanfic- but I'm pretty sure that's Jevil's mindset. He fully accepts this messed up world he's inside, but he defnitely wouldn't mind if he was granted a little more freedom. And somehow... that's what he got. As a secret boss, he's... basically fully separated from the main story, but his presence is still enough to make it clear he exists in the world.

He's "free" in a much more literal sense than I intially thought. After all, isn't being that pedestrian on the streets who (hopefully) doesn't get caught in the crossfire of the MC's the best freedom any story could give?

[oldmen-enjoyer]

[[Sweet horror]] and many more!

(Please click image for HD!!)

My headcanon is just shoving body horror onto it ghghgh

also warning: it may disturbing to some of you!!!

Spamton have eye-mouths! The two eyeballs he have in his pocket (or carry around) is just collection. He have collection of all kind of eyes. He never have his own eyes so he think they're really neat!

He still can "see" just fine. Don't worry!

Pipis are egg-like larvae that will pupae into a mimic of their current caretaker. To identify the caretaker. It need long physical contract with the caretaker. If it left alone for too long, it will not pupae into anything.

Parasites is a creature both exist in lightner and darkner world. They're, well, not hostile. But they're in need of host to move around properly. And to live ( normally they can't speak and function most of the time beside trying to find a nearby host ). They're barely noticeable in normal surrounding (like the town and first dark world) but they're more visible in Cyber City. But they managed to camouflage into wire / robot-like.

There's currently two type of parasites (so far): the orb and the beak.

The orb is more docile parasite, when they choose their host at least. They rather choose dead host like corpse or inanimate object. Current known orb parasites is: Seam and Jevil

(Host for Seam is patched up taxidermy cat. The tendrils mimic wool strings and the orb *tried* to mimic button)

(Host for Jevil is a ceramic doll. The texture on the orb is similar to ceramic even on the clothes. )

The beak is similar to orb beside the fact that they look like beak. They perfer living host. They're still docile but they're extremely harmful to their host. Imagine having your will strip away and only time you can do anything on your on (via screaming) is when they decided to open their mouth little too wide. If the parasite ever leave the host, the host will fall in permanent paralysis until the parasite return. You basically become puppet.

Current known beak parasites is: Swatch, Swatchlings and Tarques Manager.

(Host for Swatch and Swatchlings are partly mutated since the feathers and bird-like features isn't in original unmutate humanoid host)

(Host for Tarques Manager is decapitated humanoid host with robot body part. The tendrils mimic a wired and horns is mimic an ear)

The Queen is aware that Swatch and Swatchlings is parasite but choose to tolerate them since their service is pretty dandy. That goes for Tarques Manager too.

Spamton, who isn't parasite, is also tolerate by The Queen though she would bad-mouth him on occasional because he's not robot and she's also one of people that got weirded out by him.

Swatch and Spamton got along okay though. But Spamton doesn't dig in any deeper terms and just stay as platonic homie who would hear Spamton talking about nonsense. Imagine someone suddenly talking about ancient aliens after one shot of whiskey. That's how Swatch feel about him.

Now changed timeline because I have a bit more clear picture. Spamton decided to turn into garbage man / pre-JHC Spamton because he caught sneaking into mansion + stealing important stuff and Queen basically order Swatchling to take him out and dip him in acid lake like Oreo. Now he's partly unhinged but nothing too bad. Just sorta isolated himself for awhile before he found Jekyll and you know the gick. Become big shot and stay in mansion. And also alienated by almost everyone. All of that happened in span of several years ( the JHC Spamton exist for few months. The reason he can't use his wings because he don't really know how to fly and barely use it).

Gordon is given name by Jekyll after he show Spamton how Jekyll got his name from so I'll pretend these two father n son play Half-Life series and Spamton liked how Gordon sound.

After the ending of Deltarune chapter 2, Spamton actually don't change like other characters since he's full fleshy 250 cm tall dude. So now Spamton either lurk in Dark World own by Ralsei or occasionally roaming the town and become cryptic figure. And he still gonna sell weird shits to those people at 3 am yeah.

Oh and he occasionally hop into realities and visit The Crew. Though he perfer to work from the world he's familiar with :)

Manage to make few friends too! Though tjat s just Spamton from other reality:

[protectchara201x]

(ignoring all the other juicy Deltarune 2 stuff to shove Chara Talks into it lololol)

I haven’t been super active on this blog because frankly I have like, three? looong analysis/theorycrafting posts I’ve been putting off working on and it fills me with shame to log in and see them waiting in my drafts.

But.

With the release of Deltarune Chapter 2, I wanted to talk kinda in general about how I thought it could impact the fandom’s perception of Everybody’s Favorite Demon Baby, and also point out something in specific about the Weird Route that might connect back to Undertale.

Putting it under the cut to avoid spoilers and long-winded ramblings for the unwilling. Includes spoilers for the Weird Route.

(NOTE: may update later if I notice more things for to put in section II. I’d like to make a full list of parallels if I can tidy them up.)

I. Pre- vs Post-Release Thoughts (you can skip down to II if you don’t care, it is genuinely Long and Pointless)

Okay, so first off. I got SO worried like, the day before the new chapter dropped? It hit me that whatever new stuff we got out of this, people would connect back to Undertale, and. Honestly, I really do hate connecting everything back to Chara, because I do think of Kris as their own character and I really like them and don’t want to ignore everything they got going on. But, I am first and foremost a shameless Chara stan and they’re very important to me, so I kinda... did spend a few minutes reeling from all the new DR stuff as its own stuff, and then immediately started thinking about how this would reflect back on Chara in Undertale lol.

But that’s ok for me to do here because this is my All Chara, Only Chara, All The Time blog, so I am gonna only really talk about Deltarune here to talk about them lol.

So yeah, I started getting anxious beforehand worrying about how everyone would take any and all implications and apply it to mean “aha, Chara IS evil!” The fakeout with the pie reveal in the anniversary stream was a big relief, but I still got worried leading up to the release about what could be in it.

Because part of why I’ve always thought that “Chara was genuinely evil from the start” and even “ok maybe not TOTALLY evil, but Chara was still a kinda bad person�� were unlikely was, even if you throw out all the other popular Chara-sympathetic theories. To me, both these takes just seemed too below TF’s talent and the way he wrote all his other characters with depth and love; a Chara like the one these theories propose just doesn’t belong in a world created by TF, and the way the Dreemurrs talk about them overall, the way TF made a point of having Chara say they were guided and repeatedly, correctly blame you the player for the destruction in Kill-All, I was sure that he never intended them to ever be as bad as the fandom sometimes tried to make them out to be.

... Like, mostly sure. Like, 80% sure? Because he never ever talks about them, so it’s impossible say for sure, and it is still theoretically possible that “Chara was and is bad” was the cold-ass take he’d intended all along. So yeah, leading up to the release, I started getting antsy that whatever new lore came out of it, either he’d directly confirm “Chara was a villain?” “*cocks gun* Always has been” or there’d be something that’d at least heavily implicate them, or could be twisted to implicate them, as a negative force. More ammo to be used against them in the Chara Debate Circles would be a drag, and outright confirmation of them as a villain would honestly break my heart and I’d be forced to disown Toby Fox, My Beloved Cool Dad.

And, right now? Tell the truth, I’m SO relieved and I am SO happy. And not just because of how much depth and characterization it seems Kris is getting! (imo, because rn I just headcanon them as an unhappy teen desperately trying to keep their new friends going on adventures with them and trying to fight back against the player’s control)

I love how this chapter seems to be TF doing course-correcting based on fandom interpretations. Because Kris just isn’t evil, even if they are a knife teen, even if they are the Knight, they’re just NOT evil and that’s canon, baybeeee; it’s made clear in this chapter and the previous one that they love their family even outside of the player’s control, they care about their new friends even outside of the player’s control, they’re established as a weird creepy kid but no one sees them as scary or evil, they’re just Kris, and even in the Weird Route, TF made a point of hammering in the differences between Kris and the player in the Weird Route: Susie and Ralsei notice how distressed Kris seemed after you have Noelle ice Berdly, Noelle heard a voice that she said wasn’t Kris telling her to kill, and the FUCKING Spamton fight: “Kris called for help... but nobody came” again and again, and then “You whispered Noelle’s name”... you, not Kris.

I know TF has never commented much on fans’ perceptions of Frisk and Chara, or who exactly is pulling strings in different routes. But after all this, and especially after seeing all the little winks and nods to fandom jokes in this chapter (what comes to mind: pulling everyone’s leg by seeming to have Kris attack Toriel with a knife only to reveal that pie theory was right, Susie not liking Ralsei’s real face as much as his shadowed one, Ralsei with a gun getting referenced with the ad, Kris getting a joke fixation with knives after the fans made Chara and Kris have knife obsessions as a joke), and seeing what looks like him try to correct some things (what stuck out to me was doubling down on showing that Kris is loved and valued in their family: lots of fans came away from Chapter 1 thinking that Kris was not valued as much as Asriel, but here we see that Toriel is supportive of Kris’ friendship with Susie, and it’s stated that Asriel is the one who used the crappy controller, not Kris) -

I think while he hasn’t commented directly, while he admitted to being overwhelmed by Undertale’s success, while he tends to be pretty tight-lipped about the lore (whether that’s because it’ll be addressed by future chapters or because he prefers to let fans sleuth it out), this chapter convinced me that Toby does keep tabs on fan reactions in Deltarune, so he probably does with Undertale too and would know about all The Discourse surrounding Little Mx Pink Cheeks (and in turn, popular theories like Narrator Chara... Toby if you integrate Narrator Chara into Deltarune being a borderline creepypasta and have the narrator start talking directly to the characters or to the player or the characters start talking to the narrator I will lose my damn B E A N S).

(Kris and Chara not being demonized and the narrator interacting directly with the characters were the only two things on my wishlist going in, I was fine with literally anything else happening lmao)

I even kinda think he’s going out of his way to separate Kris and the player because we didn’t get it before with Undertale, we still insisted that Frisk or Chara was the one doing it, and he’s even using Kris to show that even if this kid can be scary, maybe even mean, and maybe they’re even the Knight (with their reasons unknown), they’re still not a bad kid, they’re still funny and likable, and they still genuinely love their family and friends - which falls in line with Undertale’s cast of complex but likable people who can be antagonists and make mistakes but still aren’t truly bad people, and imo is a direct response to some people fixating on the idea that Chara was always evil because they seem scary/complicated.

... Which is a long way to say that I came out of Deltarune with my confidence fully restored about TF’s intentions with Chara and Kris. Even if he never comments on Chara directly, now I really don’t think TF thinks they’re evil or ever intended for them to be. Deltarune convinced me more than ever that Chara is meant to be complex, yes, and able to be influenced to do horrible things, but they were never intended to be as malicious or shallow as some fans insist.

TLDR:

Toby Fox read your mean fanfiction where Chara is a bad abusive serial killer no one likes, and he made Deltarune in revenge.

... Hm? Ah, you’d like me to get to the point! Right this way!

II. Undertale, Deltarune, and The Point

While no doubt some will still take the voice Noelle hears to be Chara influencing her to turn her into a murderer (I haven’t gone looking for it yet, but I’m sure it’s already a thing because I know this fandom), since it’s made too clear by the game that they can’t blame Kris for this one, I think at this point that’s just being too stubborn to consider other ideas.

If you believe in the totally made up idea used in so many fanfics that Chara is an evil spirit trying to whisper in Frisk’s ear to kill everyone, literally (for some reason) the embodiment of raising stats, and gets more control over people who have increased LV to take over their body... sure. Could be them, they did talk about moving on to the next world and all. I mean, that wouldn’t really make sense because it’s literally never implied in the actual game that Chara encourages you to kill outside of the Kill-All Run or even wants you to, certainly not as the narrator and we get no hint of them doing this as an unseen, unheard third-party either.

Not to mention they’re NOT literally possessing you because of increased LV; they don’t control you even with high LV in any Undertale route other than arguably the Kill-All, and if you fail the Kill-All and it turns into a high-body count Neutral, Chara suddenly stops using first-person narration and showing up in mirrors entirely even though they were showing themself before, the LV remains the same or even can get raised as high as LV 19, nor do they suddenly take over in any other Neutral runs. We can speculate on why (personally, I’d place this either on Chara’s mindset, such as them sinking into shock from the trauma or becoming more assertive as the player feeds their megalomania, or as a sign of Frisk’s withdrawal, leaving Chara alone in the body to take the reins and act out the player’s orders), but canonically, no, Chara does not take over due to high stats.

In fact, there’s even more evidence against this. First-person narration also exists for fleeing your battles in Undertale, even on Pacifist runs with base stats, 0 EXP, and an LV of 1. Since Chara is established to use first-person narration to refer to themself, is the only one who canonically does so, and is confirmed to be present even in all runs through their name and memories always showing up, it seems pretty likely that Chara can take control to flee battle. That means an increase in stats is not a sign of their presence or control, in Undertale or Deltarune.

The most damning blow to the idea that Chara is the voice corrupting Noelle are the lines in the fight with Spamton I mentioned. Kris called for help, but nobody came. You whispered Noelle’s name. Well hold on. If that’s Chara, shouldn’t it be “I whispered Noelle’s name”? As soon as you’ve officially started the Kill-All in Undertale, Chara starts up their “It’s me, Chara” schtick right away, right there in Toriel’s home in the first area, and if they weren’t the narrator before, they’re beginning to speak through the narration now. If the voice was Chara, surely Toby Fox knows it’d be a way bigger “oh shit” moment if the creepy scary hidden route once again switched into first-person, scaring us the same way he did before when we first saw “It’s me, Chara” and knew something was wrong; unfairly or not, their reputation as a villain is still well established and hinting to Chara’s presence with a simple “I” would drive the menace even further, if he intended for them to simply be a demon that possesses player characters when you grind enough. But it’s still just you. The player.

The Weird Route does even more to help Chara’s case than that. Not only is it made pretty clear that Kris and the player are separate, and the player is the one responsible for corrupting Noelle and making her kill... consider how similar Noelle and Chara are, in the Weird Route and the Kill-All Route.

This “voice” that “guides” them in growing strong, compelling them to kill everyone in order to fight for them, eventually driving them to murder people they know. Chara calls themself “the demon that comes when people call its name”, and you whisper Noelle’s name to have her appear to kill Spamton. Noelle’s conflicting emotions towards Kris and the voice as she is manipulated, as she becomes more violent and sadistic, as she goes into shock; does that not sound like Chara, who flipflops between holding you dear as their partner and wanting to move on to the next world together, to be together forever, and them being disgusted by your refusal to accept consequences and the perverse enjoyment you get in killing everyone again and again? Chara, who clings to their quirky narration for much of the Kill-All, but keeps slipping up, who becomes terrifyingly cold, aggressive, power-hungry, and even sadistic, yet still calls Undyne “the heroine”, still seems to still care about their locket, still has moments where they seem to falter?

Noelle does put up significantly more resistance to the voice’s commands than Chara does, and at least much more visibly shows distress and trauma. I don’t think this is a black mark on Chara’s chara-cter either, or an indication of them being more violent or cruel.

For one, while Noelle is still herself with her own soul, it is heavily implied by Chara, Flowey, and Undertale’s lore that Chara was reincarnated without their own soul, at best perhaps attached to Frisk’s (or yours): as I speculate in one of my currently unfinished theories, while monster souls are made up of love, compassion, and hope and thus Asriel was reincarnated without these qualities, it could well be that human souls are correspondingly made up of their own multiple traits, namely determination, patience, bravery, integrity, perseverance, kindness, and justice; if true, a soulless Chara would be lacking these qualities, which would make them less equipped to resist the player’s commands or to feel as torn up about it.

Also, the player has a hold on them both as “party members” to the player’s vessels, but it is also possible that the player naming Chara and having them directly attached to Frisk also gives them a stronger connection to Chara they can abuse, similar to how Kris and Frisk (as the player’s direct vessels) have much less autonomy than Kris’ party members.

(Fun observation: We know that when the thing controlling Kris forced Noelle into becoming a killer and using her to kill Berdly, Kris was horrified and shaken-up according to Susie and Ralsei. How do you think Frisk felt watching Chara be used to slaughter the Underground and then erasing the world when they’re totally corrupted?)

And lastly... look, Noelle and Chara are both minors, but Chara is significantly younger - a small child compared to Noelle’s teen. I know it’s fiction and strong wills and determination and anime is real and all, but a traumatized young child who died two violent and awful deaths back-to-back, may have literally experienced being a corpse in their own coffin/grave for who knows how long, and then came back ”confused” only to immediately start hearing a voice relentlessly commanding them to kill everyone?? I can absolutely see a traumatized kid shutting down and just going with it out of fear at first, before the LV sets in.

TLDR:

What you do to Noelle in the Weird Route is the same fucking thing you do to Chara in the Kill-All Route.

[alilaro]

What are your headcanons for Kris and Noelle?

warning for deltarune spoilers!

firstly, I really like all the characters from undertale/deltarune. toby pays so much attention to each one; even background ones; and has a way with making everyone very charming and likable.

kris: I feel bad for every time I play. like on a meta level the game guilts you into playing: you have to play to progress, but playing means you are possessing kris; a young kid, into doing your bidding. even if you make "good" choices, you still are controlling them to do so. kris is your puppet. (it's not a surprise they ripped the veil in the end of chapter two. its not them being evil, it's their only means of feeling in control, and a cry for help)

there are options in the game where you can force kris to hug ralsei, despite other characters stating how much kris hates hugs, and it feels violating and perverse, it feels wrong. i believe kris genuinely would like susie regardless of the players intervening, but ralsei obviously looks like asriel and the idea of trying to push them together into some weird make-believe like you're playing dolls freaks me out.

i deliberately avoid ralsei in-game because of this (also bc they're obviously hiding something lmao), and even though I don't know much about Kris, using tidbits from other characters I try to make choices based on what I think kris would approve of most.

+

noelle: I think is super super cute. i love the ghibli-static hair thing her sprite does whenever she gets embarrassed talking to/about susie. and how she is very warm and friendly, but likes a lot of weird and dark stuff too.

I'm also really interested in the lore surrounding her and her family. her dad is in hospital with an illness that he makes light of despite it seeming pretty serious. also I think him and asgore have some sort of romance between them? her mom is the mayor and apparently a hard-ass, and I'm excited to meet that character in the upcoming chapters.

there's also the fact that noelle has a sister name 'Dess', or december, but its heavily implied they died. there's a bit where berdly and noelle were in a spelling bee, and the only reason berdly won was because the last word was 'December' and it made her freeze up.

the snowgrave end is really eerie too. the idea of manipulating noelle into killing people—killing berdly, while she's under the premise of everything being a dream, and afterwards is so out of it and exhausted she just walks around by herself until she eventually finds a way out. (the way berdly's dead corpse just lies there at the table and no one notices)

[friskibitz]

about player theory

ok i’m gonna get real here.

i just want to talk about my experiences and the unique way i relate to these stories, and why it’s the reason that player theory upsets me. i don’t intend to antagonize or push others around, i just want my voice out there. i just hope that people can relate to this if they feel the same way, or understand even if they don’t. also, i want to make it clear that what i say about the theory in this post are entirely my personal feelings on it.

so if you don’t know me, just know that, well, that “living embodiment of hyperempathy” thing in my bio isn’t that much of a joke. i experience really strong hyperempathy, especially towards fictional characters, which will be the point of this post.

in my experience, hyperempathy doesn’t just mean there’s an increase in the intensity of empathy i feel towards others (although that is true for me), but it’s an increase in the scope as well, like i feel this not only towards irl people but also stuff like toys or even characters. and honestly, for the intensity i feel, it’s pretty hard to get into a lot of new media for a lot of reasons relating to this.

so, Undertale is... pretty much a perfect game for me. i think it kinda inherently appeals to people with hyperempathy, because it inherently allows for a lot of kindness and understanding towards fictional characters, to the point where there really is some sort of positive connection between player and character. in fact, i feel like it even encourages this sort of emotional connection. so yeah this stuff basically makes UT perfect for me. i have the potential to be help and be kind to these characters, i can actually help do things for them, i can help get the best ending for them, and i can it take to the point where i really refuse to replay the game unless i buy a new copy of it. and because this feeling runs so deep, i really feel Real emotions towards these characters, almost like they’re people.

and this feeling... really carries on to the apparent follow-up game, Deltarune. my attachment for the characters really hasn’t dwindled here, if anything it’s grown more, both for Deltarune’s characters and Undertale’s as well.

and so... this is where i need to be honest, and i’m sorry that this may end up being controversial, but it really makes me worried and cautious around a lot of speculation and theorymaking surrounding Deltarune. it’s why i’m worried about the implications of Ralsei being a sort of construct from feelings, because i don’t know if he’ll eventually be handled by the narrative with the same level of respect in terms of how “real” he is compared to other characters. it’s why i even worry about ideas of Deltarune being a sort of “created” universe, an idea i helped create, because i don’t know if it’ll be eventually treated by the narrative as “real” as the Undertale universe is. and it’s especially why i’m averse to Deltarune’s commonly-named player theory.

player theory is the idea that the player is indeed that red SOUL controlling Kris. the problem with that for me starts with the fact that Kris doesn’t look like they like to be possessed. in fact it looks like they really dislike it, given their actions in the ending of Chapter 1. and of course, i don’t blame them, it’s like someone’s taking their place in life. but the problem for me is... what does that make me, then? if player theory comes true in the narrative, what have i done? i started out the game controlling Kris, taking their place in their life without even knowing it, and it’s just like. something like that, i don’t know how to take back.

and  i want to address something else. i have my own theories and such, and this isn’t the place for that, but i believe that alternatively, the red SOUL is Frisk. and i know that there’s a concern there that Frisk and Kris might be at odds, and i understand that, i don’t want that at all either. whether the SOUL is Frisk or any other character, i don’t want whoever they are and Kris to be at odds at all, but the difference is that they’re both characters. whoever the red SOUL is, they were probably placed in this situation beyond their control, and as a character then they and Kris have the opportunity and ability to work things out through the narrative in a way that i can’t with Kris. if player theory is true, and unless Toby somehow figures a way to do this, i can’t talk to them directly, i can’t explain myself the way i need to, i can’t actually resolve this properly, and i’m not gonna lie this guilt is kinda going to haunt me. i don’t want to feel like this, especially for something i didn’t have control over.

so... yeah, i really hope player theory isn’t true. ^^; Deltarune is really a mysterious thing to everyone, and who knows what might happen. but i want to speak out my feelings on this. with player theory being as popular as it is, and with me not knowing very many people who feel this way, i just want to help people either relate to or understand the way i feel.

to be clear again, i also don’t want to push people around, but pleeease tag it, as i intend to completely avoid it. and also... please don’t assume player theory is true? i know it’s prevalent, but that really doesn’t mean it’s true. like just say “the red soul”  or something instead of “the player” if you’re not talking about something related to player theory specifically. like seriously, i ran into it on a post about the utdr kids being nonbinary. i just wanna experience content without being affected.

thank you for reading!

[jaypelt]

Y’know, I may as well start on Ralsei and stuff surrounding that ask earlier. Because, frankly, there’s so much to say about Deltarune that I’m not even sure where to start. So, more under the cut.

Now, what I mean about “I wish there was a bit more to him” is, well, exactly that. I absolutely love him from a design standpoint, he’s so fucking cute and adorable and some of the interactions you have with him are so, so good. Thank god for Toby letting the first thing you do with him, is fuckin’ hug em. That moment immediately caught me, hook, line, and sinker. However. The thing with Ralsei... is that he’s mostly the sweet, accommodating, and innocent type with not much else to him. Not that I can’t love a character like him still, but he doesn’t have almost any times where he really steps outside of that. Nor does he have much of a dynamic with any particular character besides the same sort of thing, not even with the human. Sure you can give him the bow and hug him, but... that’s mostly it. Ralsei talks, you listen. For the most part. In fact, that one who probably fosters the strongest dynamics with both the human and Ralsei, is Susie. Hell, Susie practically has the strongest dynamic with *everyone*. Her times with Lancer are hilarious and endearing, the starting point of her relationship with the human is a bit trepidatious and leaves quite an impression, especially in contrast to her behavior by the end of the game. It’s clear she’s a better person and cares for the human, striking out at the King who repeats the same words she said to them at the beginning of the game. Then the conflict of sorts between her and Ralsei is there too. She’s arguably the one character he steps outside of his usual polite and nice attitude for, just a bit, while still leaning on his accommodating nature. One of my favorite moments of his has to be when he actually confronts her after she just made things more difficult with the Dog Checker boss(I don’t remember its name >.>). Like “Hey uh, you actually didn’t help. Like, at all. In fact, you made things worse and have only been making everything harder to deal with. Like, can you try being nice? Is that word in your vocabulary? Do you understand that concept?” Though, not exactly like that :p, still more with his polite attitude. And you have their exchange in the elevator. It’s genuine, and we really get to see Susie step things up between the group. But it’s also like the human may as well not be there at all, until the end, for how much they’re involved. It’s probably something to do with that whole “you don’t actually have a choice” thing the game enforces, but still. It really is a shame, because it would’ve been perfect to have some kind of exchanges, especially with Ralsei. Because despite him being the character that probably spends the most amount of time with you, there’s not much of an actually personal or strong dynamic between you two. At least, maybe not in comparison to that of the relationship between “Kris” and Susie. It doesn’t even feel right to say that due to the human’s nature, it make sense that that isn’t there, because then you’d have to question the relationship between them and Susie, y’know? There also isn’t much shown of what Ralsei may actually want. Sure he wants to do the whole hero things and save everyone and help people and be nice, but that’s almost all you ever see and we don’t get to learn much about him. Where did he really come from? How is he a prince with no subjects? What’s left for him after the ending? And I know it was coming, but did he really have to be a goat? So much more is told and implied with Susie’s(and Lancer’s) development than anything pertaining to him. Of course, those are probably bound to be answered at a later point. Deltarune had many, many, many loose ends and questions it left over. Not even in the same fashion as Undertale originally did, either. And that’s another thing, while the goat thing was coming, I still personally don’t care much for it. I prefer his design before the reveal and have kind of had enough of a character I like being overshadowed by the fact that they’re a goat. khemFloweykhem. But who knows, we’ll see where it goes. Maybe I’ll change my mind. And even with all that, I still really like Ralsei. Because despite what could be considered his shallow character by this point, I still really enjoyed that and loved playing through the game with em. You do still cooperate with him, have those cute little moments between you two, and I’m a sucker for cuties. And y’know what? I can find enjoyment in the purely nice characters just as well as those who are problematic and irredeemable assholes. ....Honestly, I think some of this could’ve been fixed if there was some option to talk with your party members throughout the adventure. I mean, think about it. You could get more interactions and dialogue and characters bits via actually talking to the people you’re traveling with. Fancy that.