Sunset from the commie bar I occasionally volunteer at, 2023, taken five minutes before someone tripped down the stairs with a glass bottle in their hand while singing the Internationale
doomed by the narrative but not to death. doomed to survive. doomed to stay alive inside the story. doomed to never escape the narrative, not even through death. you are allowed no exit. there is no way out for you and there never was. you couldn’t die if you wanted to. the narrative has a hold on you and it won’t let go. death is too sweet a doom for you. the story has something much worse in mind. there is no way out.
Ralsei has a heart on their clothing, right where our soul is on Kris
At the beginning of the chapter, Susie says to Kris that "your choices don't matter", as becomes a theme throughout the game, whereas Ralsei reminds us that our choices do matter, and to choose to spare instead of fight
This indicates to me, along with the moment when Ralsei tells us to close our eyes and think of Susie, along with all of his tutorial knowledge, that he speaks to us, while Susie talks to Kris.
I'm still not sure how to interpret Ralsei's dialogue when he describes our soul in the tutorial battle when he says "See that HEART, Kris? That's your SOUL, the culmination of your being! Within, it holds your WILL... your COMPASSION." As the chapters go on, it seems to be implied that Ralsei knows at least a little bit that WE are nor Kris, especially in those scenes where Raslei acts particularly like a helper NPC. "culmination of your being" makes sense in that WE are the soul, but I feel like the wording of WILL and COMPASSION is a bit odd. Idk
They also add right after that "and the FATE of the world", further adding that kris needs us, as was described in ch 4 over the phone in noelle's house. The SOUL is also required for sealing fountains, but I assume theres more to it than that, especially as Kris seems to be in pain without us
Furthered a lil later at the door puzzle when Ralsei says that only Kris can seal the fountain, he was rlly putting that prophecy knowledge to work
When batting Hathy it says their body beats audibly lmao
ALWAYS HUG RALSEI
I actually never thought about it that much, but in dialogue with Seam, he mentions how lightners "locked the darkners away in this prison" which i dont think is ever elaborated upon. We know there cannot be too many fountains, and the fountains give darkners life. I guess i initially assumed that lightners just visited darkners the same way we do, but clearly theres much more to it.
Also, since we know that Jevil was close with Seam, is that the prison he mentions. If so Jevil and Seam represent the two reactions to such a situation, with Seam going Nihilistic and Jevil going Absurdist (not to be confused with Existentialist)
Supported by Seam's dialogue of "'Course I got no attachment to it/Around here, you learn ways to pass the time... or go mad like everyone else"
Also i realized mentally ive been calling him "Shawn" when its actually "Shawm" i misread it the first time
I absolutely ADORE Susie and Lander's relationship, with him being the first person we know of to embrace Susie in her entirety, not despite her violent and abrasive nature, but specifically because of it. In their first encounter after sorta kinda joining the team, he is initially afraid of her and feels hurt by her comments, but quickly interprets Susies cruel comments as her "helping him be a bad guy". I imagine hes the first person to be so open and kind to her, even as shes threatening to bite his face off. Peak sibling duo
Furthered by the scene of "You... Want to be like ME?" probably her first time being a role model. This also makes sense as to why Susie is always so passionate about going into dark worlds and talks about how fun it is up until chapter 4, as its the only place she fits in and is appreciated for who she is. In the light world, the only one she has is Kris, and sorta Toriel but not really. Through dialogue we find out that p much everyone hates her or is afraid of her.
As we find out from the Rudinns, Lancer is very similar to Susie in that nobody really likes him all that much, cause hes so weird, and they only take care of him because the king makes them
Susie's first attempt at sparing because of Lancer and wanting to spare his father. Susie feeling so betrayed by her first real friend.
Ralsei applauds our puzzle skills by saying "Wa-ho". Okay Mario
I love how after every cut scene Kris turns to face us like "okay now what?"
Okay I might be digging too deep into this but with some Rudinn lines of "long live the guy who pays us!" followed by "*Rudinn has no strong opinions one way or the other" depicts the harmfulness of central ideals and how going along with orders harms the betterment of society.
Okay when Lancer says CLOWNS its always in yellow, is this a reference to Jevil?
He also calls us "gentle clowns"
Also i really like how it doesn't actually take that much for Susie to become even a little friendly. Even in the closet, a lot of her dialogue stops being aggressive. I guess being inna foreign place with us as the only familiar thing, being called heros and getting to both beat up lackies and befriend Lancer was easily enough to stop her hackles from getting so raised. Like when she names us the Fun Gang. Even before the elevator scene shes chilled out considerably from the classroom. Who knew putting a person in a comfortable environment could make them stop being aggressive?
Same thing as the Rudinn with Mr. Society, a thinly veiled criticism of people who announce themselves as intellectuals against facism and tyranny, but in the end are just as passive as the "ponmen" who work for said tyrants. He wants all the glory of revolution and none of the work.
Additionally the horse chess piece just "following orders" (flashbacks 2 magneto"
Smth smth, Susie's first response to fear being violence, causing her to lash and out make situations worse as with the checkers piece.
Ralsei's scarf and Kris's... Cape? are the same color. ralsei is kris's monsona confirmed
I never noticed Clover calling Rules Kard a hunk... are we looking at the same guy? hes a twunk at best.
Also just realized... hes rules card... hes the instruction card... thats why on the first puzzle he says he "makes his own rules"... I'll see myself out...
Theres gotta be more to Starwalker, right? after all his dialogue is weird and scattered, and right after his room is the first egg. Thats it thats all i got
no one questions or acknowledges kris saying the answer to the puzzle, despite the fact? yk? kris cant see it.
I also like that Ralsei plays into the "your choices dont matter" occasionally, when he sends us off to watch Susie
both characters being good at flirting in undertale and deltarune implies that WE are good at flirting lock in my friends
I think clovers attack and the ruddins attacks are the only ones that jevil shares
The king's cloak is so cool we need to talk abt it more
I really appreciate Tobias Foxium starting out the game with our attacking the final boss. The king actually shares a ridiculous amount of plot similarities with asgore, which makes me curious for this upcoming chapter.
Kris's first act of their own volition being to jump in front of the bullet aimed at Susie... Could mean nothing...
I love the final parallel between susie and the chaos king tell Kris quiet people piss them off.
I always wonder about Kris's true personality, as we know they must be at least somewhat silent due to the way the others dont comment on their sudden vow of silence and Susie's treatment of them, I imagine Kris suddenly got quieter after Dess disappeared. We hear noelle fondly recounting her fond memories of Kris chasing them with the plush hearts and hiding under their bed, along with toriel, Rudy (oh my god hes rudolph the red nosed reindeer how did i never get that?) and noelle saying Kris would sing cursed when caroling. We also know Susie is new to town, therefore is Kris suddenly got a bit quieter in whatever events lead up to the soul inhabiting them, then that would likely be her full impression of them.
Also thinking about how if Susie grew up with Kris, we can probably assume they were super tight w how crazy they used to act.
already if you use the glass in the light world, you get the note "you can see through your hand" just like in ch 3
okay corn plating i feel there must be some meaning behind there being no green crayon but im dumb. Kris used it all drawing their obvious monsona? kris used it drawing them? drawing flowers? the green soul represents kindness, so a lack of it? idk corn on a plate
Considering no body except noelle and berdly were trapped in the ch 2 fountain, i kinda doubt that kris made it, so lowkey they js put on that whole production for us. Drama monarch Krismas
oh my god i almost forgot to tell you all about how, while my dad was visiting, i had an infestation of every single kind of bug in my house that hasn't been a problem before or since. like i'm not kidding i evicted so many creeping crawlies that week and couldn't for the life of me stop mosquitos from stealing my blood, but as soon as he left they vanished. and i mean, sure, there's a perfectly rational explanation, because two people make more mess than one and he has a habit of leaving the windows wide open enough to fly a jet engine through day and night, but i can't help but think how symbolically on the nose it was. the ancestral rot at the heart of my family so gothic it's got ants and flies buzzing around its decaying corpse.
hey so update but i haven't been harassed by a single freaky little beast since my dad left even after leaving some crumbs on the floor as an experiment to see if they attracted any ants so i think my dad might just be bugs actually
