“Dark World food has no nutritional value, she can't eat breakfast there” I have great news about the breakfast situation implied by someone eating classroom supplies the moment they get to school

screenshotting prev tags because it's important. toby's been around the block! he knows how many artists and writers and musicians were inspired by the works of fiction he's created! he's seen the messages everyone sent in for the 10th anniversary of undertale! i would be a ridiculous heel turn for him to be like "actually that's stupid and you need to stop investing yourself in this"

Things for me to notice on the umpteenth watch/play of Deltarune:

The scene where Ralsei finally confronts Susie about how her methods are hindering rather than helping, it comes right after Lancer says they actually are heroes and Susie herself is surprised that they managed to get through that fight and takes the praise, playing it off at first ("I am pretty great huh?")

And then that positive interaction is followed by her being told that actually SHE did not help there, SHE isn't part of this (even if that's not how Ralsei intends for it to come off). In fact, that's what gave me pause, that even though Ralsei says everything so gently, Susie obviously feels singled out and backed into a corner here. Because I didn't notice this before but Kris turns when Ralsei does too and it looks like everyone else is looking at her with no one on HER side no one backing HER up. The framing of it, spatially,really drives that feeling home of always being separated from the group (and ofc at the beginning of ch1 she always walks at the back of the pack). And Lancer stands a little away from them, he isn't part of this "group of heroes" 2 of whom have turned on Susie (again, from her perspective, and probably coming from a place of that triggering similar memories from her past experiences, I do not think either Kris or Ralsei mean to be accusatory and hostile). And Lancer is the only one to say positive things to her while Ralsei starts listing everything she's doing wrong.

It's no wonder she switched sides that quick. It's a small interaction that is supposed to very very overtly show us exactly how she ended up in her "bad guy" role in her life overall - by being made to feel like she's not part of the positives, not part of the group, and having everything bad about her recounted to her while everyone else in the room turns on her (physically in this case to drive home the point)

ive been thinking about hometown after the chapter 5 weird route alot

(spoiler warning + mention/ implication of suicide below)

Snowblind - Rudy's Last Visitor

So Weird

Personally I think the scariest part of the weird route in deltarune is how oddly premeditated it feels. Like more blatantly we have onion-San a friendly monster who lives in the lake in hometown that we’re able to befriend, and is still kind to us even if we don’t, then suddenly during the hometown festival not only are they gone but it’s implied the normal npc made them into takoyaki, and that might not seem like a big deal but in the weird route at the climax, Kris and Noelle walk into the lake together, which is something that Onion-San probably would have noticed and tried to stop if they were still here. Then we have Berdly, now hate him all you’d like but he’s almost one of the only people who notice that something is terribly wrong with Noelle during the weird route and actively tries to stop us only to end up being one of the first few lightener casualty’s directly linked to the weird route and now unable to help. And and I say “one of” here because I think both Rudies illness and Decembers disappearance are both planned to ensure nobody was there for Noelle, they’re the only other two people who would’ve noticed how weird Noelle was acting and probably linked it to Kris and by extension, us. 

Dess and Noelle had a close relationship so if she was here she’d probably be someone Noelle would go to about the events in the weird route and she was willing to hurt Kris if she thought they went too far with their pranks, god knows what’d she would do if she found out what happened. Rudie notices Noelle has changed too just from meeting with her again for a while but is unable to truly know the extent of it because he’s sick and can’t leave the hospital much, which leaves Kris as the only person she has allowing us to boss her around with limited pushback.

here's how berdly relevance can win (this was written with hospital dark world in mind, though i personally prefer holiday house dark world)

[don't tag as b3rd3lle pretty please]

This scene here really captures everything that I find so beautiful and tragic about Kris and Noelle's relationship. The reason this is such a poignant scene for me isn't just that it shows Kris and Noelle's relationship is still as strong as ever; it's also because it shows that it's strong despite the fact that both of them think they don't deserve to be together again! Because they want to be close again, and yet they just can't bring themselves to do so because their low self-esteem and inferiority complexes keep telling them that they're not good enough.

The sad fact is, you'll find plenty of moments where Kris and Noelle don't think that they can be close to each other ever again, whether it be Kris shutting the book when they see pictures of them and Elly, or Noelle doubting that Kris would want to play piano for her after Susie talks about her newfound love for Kris's piano playing.

And yet, despite all of their doubts telling them they can never be together again, both of them not only spend time with each other at the festival, but end up doing things that remind both of them of what they used to have, be it riding the Ferris Wheel or voting for each other as Festival King/Queen.

Because the only thing Kris and Noelle want as much as to build their connection with Susie is to build back up their connection with each other! And I got a good feeling that Susie is gonna play a huge role in helping them do so!

Talk sprites for Deltarune Asriel

the fan depictions of [whatever incident happened between kris + dess] that interpret it as coercive on dess' part are sooooooo interesting. your brother's cool teenage friend takes an interest in you and leads you into Something Bad. deliberately or accidentally. or maybe she's going through Something Bad and leans on you in a way you can't really understand or fulfill but you try anyway. or maybe you're both going through Something Bad and she says we can't ask for help and you believe her. no matter what happened it's the different levels of agency they have that gets me. they're both kids but one of them is smaller. they're both at risk but one of them thinks she has control of it. and so on. the dynamic has teeth is what i'm saying. there's meat here

Random personal Deltarune pairing thoughts (from info up to Chapter 5): Suselle

I’ve decided that I need to vomit out my thoughts about this game while impatiently waiting for Chapter 6 to demolish me in the future because I love the whole cast so much.

General thoughts:

Suselle is a pairing that’s pretty much the most famous since it’s the one that’s received all the attention story-wise. I like it, and support it for what it’s worth. It’s very easy to dismiss since it feels like a default answer type of pairing, but Susie really is the kind of presence that Noelle needed (as I’ve discussed before), since Noelle’s craved that sense of chaos and difference ever since the disappearance of Dess and her having to live under the ever constrictive thumb of her mother. She’s been forced to comply with the image expected of her, so her fascination with Susie, the delinquent, only makes sense. Susie was that rebellious, chaotic person that Noelle wanted to be, and wanted to experience. Of course, if Susie continued being an asshole, or was never a good natured person at her core, I have literally no doubt that Noelle would’ve experienced the Weird Route through Susie, except instead of drowning in the lake, she’d get sucked into drinking and drugs or something equally self-destructive. But since Susie is a good person at heart, she ends up helping Noelle break through her dull cycle to find happiness in her life that isn’t just going through the motions every day. I think that if they survive the impending argument they’re destined to have in Chapter 6, they’re gonna go strong into the end of the story.

Chances of happening (opinion): 9/10

Suselle is very obviously the route we’ve been following thus far and so it’s easy to think that it’s all but guaranteed, but if Toby actually makes them break up in Chapter 6 due to Susie trying to foist the Dark World stuff on Noelle after she’s suffered through her dad ‘falling down’, whether he died or just fell from the ladder, there’s a non-zero chance Suselle doesn’t happen.

Noelle: The Redundant Replacement

I've been stewing on this thought recently wrt Chapter 5's gameplay and the expansion of Susie and Ralsei's spell kits to cover wider ground in terms of utility, and how more and more it feels like Noelle's niche is being crowded out even as she seems primed to gain more story relevance.

being a writer myself has made absolutely 100% certain that the Roaring Knight can only be either December Holiday or Carol Holiday and the people who believe otherwise are thinking of Deltarune as more of a conspiracy to be solved rather than a story being told

and let me tell you why I know this, in excruciating detail:

Ok let's break this down

If Ralsei dies at the end of Deltarune, and ONLY them, and Castletowns darkworld is closed forever and everything just returns back to normal at the end, that means:

Ralsei's arc about learning to live for themself and defy what is expected of them: Meaningless. If everything just goes back to normal that proves their point at the beginning of their arc right, that darkners don't matter.

And if that's true, then none of the characters we meet in the darkworlds don't matter. Aren't real. Lancer's not really Susie's first friend, Tenna being thrown away doesn't matter and isn't something that should be worried about, Spamtons desperation to cut his strings and live for himself is a stupid idea and unimportant, Maddie never truly gets to live in the body that is right for her, and so on and so forth.

And if Spamton's need to be independent doesn't matter, what does that say for Kris, who Spamton is a darker reflection of?

And if Pink never truly gets to be happy with herself, what does that say for Kris? Who she is a lighter reflection of?

If Ralsei's arc about gaining autonomy and living for themself doesn't serve anything, then Susie's wish doesn't matter. Her becoming more then just the school bully- the bad kid everyone sees her as- doesn't matter. If Ralsei being able to act on their own more and more doesn't matter, then Kris will never cut their own strings. They'll never be more then just a vessel, for us. For the Knights plan. Even Noelle wanting more then this boring stagnet life! She should just accept the status quo! Castletown isn't real! Real change doesn't happen in hometown, Dess is gone, and it doesn't change anything. It's frozen in ice. A Susie is a Susie. A Kris is a Kris. A Noelle is a Noelle. They don't change.

If one of the main characters arc of autonomy isn't 'relevent' isn't 'important' isn't 'worth discussing', then then none of them are.

I wish this fandom stopped hyper focusing on the lightner characters as being the only ones with any real importance. They are intertwined. Mixed in a prophesy none of them want to abide by but are forced to walk the path of.

Would it REALLY, be narratively satisfying to you if everything just went back to how it always was after the roaring? If the dark and light world collided, and everyone saw the darkners alive and full of life, dying off, turning into stone one by one because the law of the world just didn't allow them to be more then just an object. If the three heroes made that sacrifice. That everything going back to normal would be at all in line with the games themes? With the characters individual and intertwining arcs?

Was the neutral ending in Undertale satisfying? Leaving behind your friends to a dull, and hopeless life? Each more tragic than the last depending on who you killed?

It's almost like

In Toby Fox games

Every character. Matters. Every connection, every friend you make. Every life you interact with. Matters. Has consequence.

STOP LEAVING RALSEI IN THE DUST WITH YOUR DELTARUNE ENDING THEORIES SO HELP ME

The Jitterbug (Deltarune)

The Jitterbug scene confuses me. I don't understand why people find it funny. It's extremely serious. Yes, I can see why the scene itself is funny to people, but the aftermath and if how you perceive the scene is what makes it so serious. So, why do I say it's a sad scene? It's because Kris opens the door to their house and then watches everything go away. Their mom is with another man. There's no going back. Their father isnt going to marry Toriel again. All hope is lost. Let me explain more.

Kris goes to bed. They can't sleep. They can't sleep because of the sound downstairs. Not only are they keeping Kris up which is stressful as is on a day like that where they are extremely tired and just want sleep, but they're being kept awake by the sound of their hopes falling apart. They're being kept awake by the sound of their family never getting back together. So the sound is all the can think about all night. Even just something as small as this probably took a huge toll on them. I don't know. Maybe I'm just paying too much attention to it. But this is extremely sad for Kris. Kris is such a complex character and this is just one small bit of their story. But I just wanted to rant about this cuz many people just see it as funny and it's more than that.

deltarune shipping doesn't really feel genuine to me, most of the time. like, there are really interesting things you could say about Susie/Noelle and how their relationship might be destined to implode due to their own respective issues, but i feel like nobody actually cares about that. when people talk about shipping, they seem to always think in a "oh, this ship is toxic/problematic/whatever, and thats why my ONE TRUE SACRED ship is the ACTUAL answer."

Feels very egotistical to analyze a story like that. Like, no matter where you fall on the Suselle/Krusie/Kriselle/etc spectrum you have got to realize all these relationships have some top notch character writing and thats why we're all interested in these little critters so much. The ways that these potential relationships bounce off of eachother makes for some extremely compelling love triangle drama (love square if you include Ralsei) and personally, even though im a Suselle enjoyer, im glad that all this conflict exists in the story. Deltarune would be worse off if it made Suselle the explicit perfect relationship, and that remains the same for every other potential ship.

yall just kind of have to get your heads out of your asses a little. it doesn't really matter if your favorite ship becomes canon.

PS: Im taking the word "problematic" away from tumblr. use a more descriptive word next time.