Ok with the new preview images out can I just say that I reaaaally don’t like the fact that Ritsu seemingly wears a maid outfit for a photo shoot?
Like it makes me think of this comment from her stream and I actually wonder if she’s meant to be the “good looking” one of the group. The one meant to appeal to the fans with her physical appearance.
Also hey viola why do you have a camera of your own. That’s not a camera a professional photographer would use at a photo shoot. Hey. Viola. There’s literally a professional camera behind you. What are you doing with that one.
Another thing that is concerning to me and I hope for Ritsu's sake I'm overthinking this because otherwise I can't think of any non-malicious reason Viola would have that on her in the image's context is that the camera from it's design seems to be an instant one
Which is extremely weird to me considering just how obsessed Viola is presented to be about growing and cultivating her fame, image and her particular view of how the streamer group ought to be; not to mention the "camera always rolling" policy that we saw in the last episode. So why would she take and keep an image of Ritsu in an analague mean, far from easily traceable back to Viola or the group, and honestly an inconvenience to share when compared to other easily available means?
Viola is Viola is Viola, it could be """""just"""" her toying and actively trying to fracture Ritsu's mental state further; but I'm afraid it's more than that because if the cameras are always on and rolling on the studio than shouldn't Viola *already* have extremely easy access to minutes at least of footage of Ritsu in this maid outfit? So what I'm concerned about is if she wants to keep a picture of something that's going to happen *after* this, or if Ritsu was somehow coerced into the maid outfit. Honestly what I'm most afraid of is whether the cameras rolling or not as this scene happens, I'm genuinely afraid of the scenario where the cameras aren't and the only narrative of what happens there with """""evidence""""" is the one told by Viola's polaroids.
I'm also extremely concerned because Ritsu is *far* from healthy and present state of mind at the moment after her argument with Arale in the last episode. I think it can already be said to be textual the fact that Viola is abusing and grooming Ritsu, Ritsu is genuinely scared out of her mind of Viola to the point of nightmares and tip-toing their every interaction with either resignation or terror over how Viola is going to use or toy with her next and bending herself in knots trying to negotiate to take the brunt of it herself so Viola won't target the people close to her, and she is so trapped in the public eye in the image Viola crafted and forced on her and also started to grow so dependant on it out of her own personal sense of inferiority and also if Empty Puppet is any indication a very fragile sense of self that definetly wasn't helped by Viola being Viola and being in the public eye since middle school; she decided to join their first group out of a desire to change herself, so to pointedly target that already "disappointing" self that Ritsu wanted to leave behind, which is something we see Viola do in episode 4, is something I don't see taking a lot of effort to turn a "dissapointing" self into a "hated" or "inferior" self. And with the entire Thing that happened between her and Arale last episode I'm scared that it ended up isolating Ritsu even further in this abusive environment, Ritsu doesn't seem to have any friends outside of Arale that are genuinely, earnestly *Ritsu's* friends and not "Clematis' friends", in her flashback in episode 4 Ritsu is shown constantly isolated and alone before recconecting with Arale; so when things go from bad to worse, which I'm fairly certain is about to happen, I'm genuinely scared she doesn't have anybody she feels safe to turn to outside of Arale, and now she probably feels she can't even do that because what right does she have to it after having standing idly by, without contact nor offering to help while Arale's life fell apart and her career was ruined? We as the audience know that Arale never stopped caring deeply about Ritsu, we have the information to know that the way Arale reacted in that interaction was very likely an extremely understandable and fair to have developed trauma response to being reminded of the worst moments in her life and also being told in an extremely easy to miscontrue (specially while already anxious and afraid in the middle of being reminded of the worst episode of her life so far) that her most trusted friend "knew all about it" and did nothing. We also as the audience know and have seen Viola's psychological abuse of Ritsu and manipulation, we know of Ritsu's own trauma around the situation and also how objectively Ritsu is very much not safe right now. We know those things but the characters don't, so I wouldn't be surprised if Ritsu took that interaction extremely to heart and it made her unable to seek out help when she needs the most. And I do hope Yuno happens to be there to step up when that happens.
So I'm concerned that in the state Ritsu is now that she would be more likely to agree to passively agree to do things she otherwise would be more reticent to agree or try to put up an argument before being forced to concede like in the end of episode 3, and I'm also worried that if Viola decided to particularly "outdo" herself this episode that Ritsu won't be in the right state of mind to correctly assign blame (maybe placing a majority of it on herself) and seek out help (in her mind she was probably already deemed unforgivable by Arale, what right does she have to look for help when with her friend she just stood aside and watched it happen)
Napstablook feels like they’re gonna be important at some point
Both of their cousins/housemates are plot-relevant in some way. Nobody/Mettaton can take in Tenna after the events of chapter 3 and Irritable Ghost is Pink.
Both Undyne and Asgore (current and former police chief respectively) have been kidnapped by the knight. The person talking to Kris on the phone mentions a sacrifice involving the police.
Snow King Theory: Gaster’s shattering and what it has to do with Dess’s disappearance
This is a small deltarune theory about Dess’s disappearance, based on Hans Christen Anderson’s story of the Snow Queen. This might be pretty long so I’ll put it under the cut.
Before we get into Snow King Theory itself, I want to talk about the basic idea the theory is adding upon. This theory is based on the idea that Dess became the Roaring Knight after following the “tail of hell”, which is affiliated with Gaster, somewhere. We’ll get to the specifics of this later.
What I am proposing with this theory is the idea that Dess following the tail of hell was not a random incident. The tail CHOSE Dess for a reason. The reason being that Dess has a piece of Gaster within her.
To explain, you’re gonna need to be told the story of the Snow Queen, specifically the first two chapters.
In the first chapter, the Devil takes the form of a troll to create a magical mirror that highlights the worst parts of a person’s appearance. He and several other trolls try to take this mirror to heaven, but they drop it. The mirror shatters, and its shards land all across the world. Bigger pieces become windows and spectacles, but smaller ones worm their way into the eyes and hearts of people, making them cold and bitter. The Devil thinks this is hilarious.
I believe the story of Gaster is a parallel to this story. In this scenario, Gaster is both the troll and the mirror. Gaster is associated with the number 666, which is also associated with the Devil. This strengthens his connection to the tail of hell. Entry number 17, written by Gaster, is clearly about him trying to make a dark fountain, and he’s implied to be the mysterious voice in Deltarune, so he’s seemingly trying to form some connection with our world, the layer above his. Spamton calls the light world, the layer above his own world, heaven. Adding it all up means Gaster, just like the Devil’s mirror, shattered while trying to reach heaven.
In the second chapter, two best friends named Kai and Gerda are told by Gerda’s grandma about the Snow Queen. Later that day, Kai sees the Snow Queen through a window and gets scared. Some time later, the kids are playing together when pieces of the mirror land in Kai’s heart and eye. This causes him to become mean and distant. One winter day, Kai ties his sled to a mysterious sleigh. After the sleigh goes a long distance, the driver is revealed to be the Snow Queen, who wipes Kai’s memories and takes him away.
I think this is similar to what happened to Dess. Having a Christmas-themed character’s story parallel a famous winter fairy tale would fit. I believe when Gaster shattered across time and space, a piece of him lodged itself inside her. This led to the tail of hell tricking her, potentially also wiping her memories to make her more complacent in the role of the knight.
The fact that the knight has holes in its hands like the Mystery Man, who is implied to be Gaster (perhaps a larger shard of him specifically) shows they might have a connection in some way. Also, they both seem to be interested in creating dark fountains. So, if the knight is Dess, she still might be connected to Gaster in some way.
So, in conclusion, Snow King Theory proposes that when Gaster shattered, Dess ended up having a piece of him trapped inside her, which resulted in the tail of hell turning her into the knight. There could be more evidence I could bring up, but I just want to explain the basic idea of the theory.
Warning: This rant contains spoilers for the Yumemita anime, and discussions of grooming and ableism.
VIOLA YOU PIECE OF GARBAGE I HATE YOU I HATE YOU
So Viola is grooming Ritsu right. She literally kicked out the leader of the streaming group because she was trying to protect the middle schoolers. Then removed Arale and A-ko to isolate Ritsu.
Also as an audhd person I hated when she got angry at Arale for talking a lot about her interests. That felt really gross and slightly ableist. AND THEN SHE HAD THE NERVE TO EXPLOIT ARALE’S INSECURITIES TO PUT HER ON BLAST IN FRONT OF THE INTERNET WHILE ARALE WAS STILL IN MIDDLE SCHOOL.
Sensory Deprivation Tank Theory: A theory about Dark Worlds
So I was talking with a friend on Twitter when I realized something about Dark Worlds… THEY’RE SENSORY DEPRIVATION TANKS.
For those who don’t know what that is, here’s the Wikipedia page. They’re basically these pods that let no light or sound in, and they’re filled with water the same temperature as you. So you basically feel like nothing. Typically, they’re used to relax and meditate, but they can also cause hallucinations.
In Deltarune, darkness is compared to water a lot. The main sources of darkness are called dark fountains, and the description of the shadow mantle also makes this comparison.
My theory is that dark fountains are like geysers that turn any area into a sensory deprivation chamber. Depriving anyone who enters of all senses and making them perceive the dark world. Things that happen in the dark world can affect reality (see: Tenna and Flowery’s light world forms becoming damaged when attacked by the knight) but the dark worlds are basically a huge hallucination. I know that’s basically what Ralsei says in chapter 3 but I wanted to share my thoughts on how it works.
I also think that the darkness that dark fountains are made of is its own substance rather than the lack of light. And this substance is liquid. Hence all the comparisons to water.
baratheonpilled
amandla
andulkaphoto
