Tbh on humans and monsters I do think that it's very easy for Fandom to fall into biological essentialism over them when like. One of Undertale's major themes is that all the monsters are Just People. Made of different stuff, with a different culture (in particular regarding magic but humans also used to have magic in UT so), but people like anyone else all the same. Deltarune (especially the original concept where they were all human in the light world and became monsters in the dark world) only doubles down on this. Humans having mages and being on both sides of the war definitely feels like a nod to that theme which isn't like... talked about as much anymore but is still important.
have been trying to word my thoughts on this and Failing, so I'll just say that Yea I Agree
Thinking. Something about creating the barrier stripping humans of magic. Denying themselves of other cultures and people tearing apart something fundamental inside them, something that up till then, might've been something that made people people.
By pushing away diversity and others they hurt themselves.
I think what might help the whole "low engagement in fandom spaces driving creatives out because they don't see the point in sharing anything only to get crickets or critics" is not the shaming tone of "look this is how you get nothing, you entitled shits" that tends to be very pervasive, but rather pointing out how actually rewarding it can be to leave nice comments.
I like to leave very long rambling comments on people's fics and that has actually netted me some very real, genuine friendships and we've become cheerleaders for each other. My friend has a D&D Podcast that she doesn't get ANY sort of engagement out of, so I started listening to it at work and livereacting the things I enjoy about it and showing her my investment and it makes her very happy and it makes me happy that she's happy.
Being nice to people... is actually a good enough reason to do things, shockingly enough. You don't have to do it. No one should shame you for not doing it. But it doesn't actually cost anything to make other people happy, especially if they created something that made you happy.
Not “Only my reading of canon is correct” or “Interpretations are subjective and all valid” but a secret third thing, “More than one interpretation can be valid but there’s a reason your English teacher had you cite quotes and examples in your papers, you have to have a strong argument that your interpretation is actually supported by the text or it is just wrong and I’m fine with telling you it’s wrong, actually.”
If the text says the curtains are blue you can argue about what that means; but if you’re going to claim they’re actually yellow you’d better have a really good argument.
Fandom has such unresolved mommy/daddy issues about authors. If you apply a little reading comprehension skills to my original post you’ll see I didn’t say anything at all about the author. You guys always make “interpretation” about your beef with the author. You’re all obsessed with the author. This post is just about deciphering what is there in canon. Figuring out what is being communicated by the canon itself with all the words and images and basic formal elements that are there in canon. That’s all it’s about. It really doesn’t matter if the author intentionally put all those things there in a pattern that might support the idea that this one character’s queer. That’s not what this is about. What matters is if you can compellingly argue there’s a pattern of evidence there. Or not. Everyone is conspiring together to make me go insane still adding shit about authorial intent on my post.
YESSSS please write a guide on how you do characterization!! Your voices for everyone in the DR cast is SO GOOD and I'd love to know how you do it. :D
If you (and like 6 other people) insist! Here's my guide/process for how I try to make my character voices as true to Deltarune as I can!
Broad, sweeping disclaimer: the purpose of this guide is not to assert any analysis as "correct", but rather to share my recipe with people who like my food and might want to incorporate it into their own cooking
So! With characterization there is the one meme of looking at an interpretation and thinking "he would not fucking say that". Which begs the question: what does he/she/they already fucking say?
Whenever I'm writing a new character, I always have three tabs open: their Deltarune wiki page, their sprites on the spriter's resource, and the big deltarune text dump to catch dialogue that the wiki misses. From there, the process varies a little in accordance with this nifty, non-comprehensive chart
That notably crowded lower-right quadrant is where the most improvising has to happen. How do you take a character meant for a few video game exchanges and bring them into a scene for thousands of words?
Let's get into my semi-organized ADHD ramblings!
Step 1: Who Are You: I'll do a case study with Swatch. He's a shopkeeper, so all of his dialogue is readily available on the Deltarune wiki aside from a few gripes about being a cat cafe. I'm on the lookout for what's consistent to show me this character's neutral, but I'm crucially also looking for contrasts.
On the whole, Swatch is a model butler. This archetype is the basis he's built on. "Enough of the unpleasantries" "You need to relax. Have a drink, and talk softly…" Alright, Swatch does not like disruptions and is quick to change the subject if anyone brings up something serious/not-relaxing. Let's put a pin in that and circle back.
Rouxls? I am afraid I am not familiar with a guest of that moniker...
Ah, wait. Are you perchance referring to that unbearable-
Err, UNIQUE Man who barged in here and demanded to be made "Butler Supremeth"?
I am afraid that person... is now banned from this establishment.
And may have suffered injuries as a result of his, er... rather swift ejection.
Please do not mention him again.
We are still cleaning up the worms he left on the floor.
Swatch's composure breaks! His professionalism slips to reveal a pettier underside, which he corrects with less than his usual grace. If I break his composure later down the line, I've got a model. This is also another sample of Swatch being quick to sweep things under the rug. Gotta keep tidy!
In forming a character, we must also look at their relationships. Tenna isn't complete without his questionable behaviors as an employer and his role (or lack thereof) in the Dreemurr family. How do they treat other people in general? How do they treat specific people?
And {NEO} was left in the basement with the rest of the corrupted data.
...But that crooked salesman! Somehow, he learned about the robot,
And thought he could use its power to fulfill his own twisted dreams.
What a pity. To think he was once a valued customer...
Aside from Rouxls, Spamton is the only character Swatch expresses a negative opinion of, and even then it's pretty tame. NEO has put them at odds– if he were to have a grudge with anyone it should be Spamton– but even then his final conclusion is very resigned.
Spamton's words on Swatch are telling too. "TO THINK HE ONCE PRETNEDED TO [be my f r13nd NOW]! THERE TO [always listen to a] [shoulder to cry on]. BUT IN THE END HE ONLY [always listen to a] [Smoking Hot @$$ NOW]!!!" Swatch defers to Queen always, but there's a clear discrepancy between what Spamton thought this relationship was and how Swatch viewed it. Friend vs customer. Personal vs business (funny how Spamton is the personal side, huh?)
Now that I've got some data/facts, I can bring in my own ideas that aren't necessarily stated in the source text, but can be supported by it. The closer a character is to the bottom right quadrant of the chart, the more of these new thoughts I'll need to introduce to make a version of the character who is suited to my medium.
Swatch holds no ill will towards Spamton and shows some regret for how things turned out, but did not go out of his way to provide some aid + Swatch does everything to keep the peace/status quo = Swatch is conflict avoidant and generally a bystander. More direct action is something he rarely resorts to, and even then he doesn't claim direct intervention with Rouxls.
I tend to fixate on a few standout lines that I think are foundational to the aspects of the character that I want at the forefront. "Unpleasantries" and "what a pity" were key for Swatch. Other non-comprehensive examples I've been drawn to have included:
Tenna: "Hotcha HOTCHA! Don't touch that podium, folks, or TV TIME Season 2 will begin!" <- this feels very Fozzie Bear to me. I've been watching a ton of the Muppet Show, by the way
Queen: "Staring, Tapping, To Receive Joy" "I Just Want To Make Everyone Smile. And If I Become An Evil Villain To Accomplish That, Is That Bad?" <- Both of these are crucial to how she views her purpose as a Darkner "Materialism Evaluation Denied. I Simply Give Myself: The Treatment I Deserve" <- slay
Now we've established a starting point. Depending on what role a character serves, their ways can be challenged or remain as they are. How might the actions of the player/Lightners have impacted this character? How could the events of your own story change their perspective? As long as it's a development from that baseline, the world is your oyster
Step 2: Character Voice: I keep those wiki and text dump tabs open the entire time a character is in the scene (you can imagine my computer exploding during the board meeting chapter). Spamton has five tabs dedicated to dialogue reference alone because of the Sweepstakes Q&A and prizes lovingly provided by the strings attached site, and a document I have where my fiancé transcribed all the miscellaneous ads and Undertale stream cameos (ty! :) )
Spamton's speech quirk could be his own guide, so let's fry some smaller fish. Like laughter! There are some really distinct ones like Spamton's "HAEHAEAHAEAH" (which is sometimes just a HA!!), Lancer's jolly "Ohoho!", and Queen's narrated "(Sort Of Regal Mostly Cruel Laughter)".
Tenna seems like he'd indulge in a little "heehee" with his cute flowers, but he does a LOT of nervous laughter (jot that down lmao) and it's usually a "hahaha" or "ahaha". Special guest stars include the weary "heh". I think his frayed nerves and loud obnoxious nature overrule his cute factor here. There's a place for tee hee, but it isn't the default in the text
Let's look at a speech quirk that is less scary than Spamton's (I say, fearing it far more) and how to avoid overdoing it
* Haha, squirming with Jealousy at my Battle Caravane!?
* 'Tis an Effigie of an Ancient God of Combate,
* I rescuedeth it from The King's Trash Heape,
* And fixedeth it up in this Worldes' Scrap Shoppe!!
We all know who this is. Rouxls generally tacks "-eth" onto verbs, capitalizes random nouns, and adds random "e"s. But it's not every verb and every noun. All in moderation. There's also this one time he just absorbs Queen's speech quirk??
* By Makingeth Me Her Left-Hand-Man!!
Notice that it's "Makingeth" but not "squirmgeth" in the previous quote. From my study of Spamton, I quickly realized the number 1 rule of a Deltarune speech quirk: rules are temporary illusions and everything is subject to what is funny and/or sounds good.
Spamton dropping all brackets and racket to scream "YOU CAN CARRY LIKE 48 ITEMS!!!!" is funny for the same reason as Rouxls Kaard saying "Yeahth". It's that sweet, sweet contrast
Rouxls is actually convenient to locate in the big text dump through his antiquated suffix. Control F on "eth" and you'll find him. I found all of Ramb's dialogue by searching "luv" and "innit", which are the main signs of the accent in his dialogue. It becomes less recognizable as the Ramb we remember from chapter 3 if there's too much of the accent written out
Dialogue is similar to the character analysis, find the patterns and figure out when to break them. Here is a chart that I absolutely do not actually make when I'm writing because that would be insane, but I'm making now just as a visual aid for the thought process
Making this was actually really helpful to editing Ch 20 because I was having some Queen problems. Always refresh as needed! Basically, identifying how your character expresses certain feelings can help translate how they'll express them in your fic/comic/etc. Stuff like anxiety, anger, sadness. If I tried to put it all here I think Tumblr would eat the image alive, but hopefully this gets my point across 😅
If the character is someone you battle, I like to check the flavor text too! Tasque Manager's has some really cute gems
I've got one more silly tool up my arsenal: read it out loud!
I highly recommend playing through the game and doing silly voices with a few friends. It's a fun interactive way to stay fresh on the material, and you can more literally develop character voices. If that sounds hard to schedule, watch a streamer with a flair for voices take a crack at it. I rewatch Snapcube's vods in the background at work, and there are plenty of incredible VAs who've done read throughs of these scenes.
Find the voice you like for the character and try saying the dialogue you're writing out loud in your best recreation of it. If a line doesn't sound at home to you in that voice, then edit until it feels natural. Many a bit has just come from me saying shit as Tenna or Queen; there's a certain authenticity to what just comes off the dome, then you can tweak it however you wish
Step 3: Physicality: When you're playing any game that uses limited portraits/sprites, the introduction of a new sprite to the handful your used to seeing is a big deal. Think Franziska von Karma at the end of Justice For All. I adore sprite language and how it tells us so much in so little, so I swear by those sprite sheets for character body language. The reader's brain already knows those sprites too, so when you describe them the mind fills in something familiar.
I have Tenna twirl all over the place because dance is genuinely his primary mode of transportation in the game. He does not have a walk cycle. Having him only move by spinning would not work for the medium of prose in the way it does for cartoony visual mediums, but peppering it in when appropriate is recognizably Tenna
Here's just some of my favorite Tenna sprites to incorporate into his movement. If I describe any of these poses, you can easily picture him in all his goofy glory, yes?
Spamton's limbs are too few pixels to have such dynamic poses, but if you watch his overworld scenes, that funky little sprite is often vibrating, sliding around, or approaches Kris in a stilted manner. We can add restlessness and jerkiness to Spamton's movement vocabulary, and it'll seem familiar. I like to think he's full of so much AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH that his little puppet body is on the verge of exploding with it, thus why he's shaking with mania/fury/??? all the times
Of what we do have, I quite love the grabby hands and that weirdly cutesy one with his hands together (<- has fallen down face first down the pipeline from liking tenna to finding spamton kinda cute). And the deranged laugh is a MUST! Wretched creature <3
Look at all that personality!
I'm sure there's more I could say, but that's the bulk of my method! I kind of feel like this is a big wall of words, but hopefully there's something helpful in here.
And while my sources are Deltarune specific, this can be applied to anyone in any beloved piece of media. Don't just stop at the backstory; absorb the vocabulary and gestures to get that coveted "he WOULD fucking say that"
And it's done!!! took a little longer than I was hoping but it's finally finished! I really hope you enjoyed it and that it at least brings you a smile while reading!
Thank you all for reading and thank you all for your kind comments on the first part! 😊
One thing Susie does sometimes that feels like her restoring to Chapter 1 Susie, who constantly masks her true feelings, is when she's expressing that she likes something and when she doesn't get the reaction that she wants she internally panics and goes "oh yeah, you're right, this thing is very fucking stupid haha, yeah I hate it too, I was just jocking"
My favorite example is when she asks Ralsei to go to the festival with her and Kris. She's all excited because she likes the idea of going to the festival with her friends, but when Ralsei is hesitant she takes no time in going full "yeah I think the festival is dumb"
And the funniest thing is that festivals are something Ralsei would love and she knows he'd never cause trouble, yet she goes "you're so right bbgirl, the festival is trash and we are too cool for that. Anyways we should definitely go to just kill a random guy or something haha pleasecomewithme"
maybe i’m projecting too hard onto kris with this one but they seem like they carry a lot of guilt and i wonder if that guilt extends to ralsei and susie because of the knight shenanigans i dunno whatever go my crappy fanart
I need a polite and effective way to say "hey your heart is truly in the right place and your anger is often righteous but I think sometimes you’re getting recreationally mad about things that are frankly not worth the amount of energy you’re spending on them, and every time you do this you're driving yourself slightly more insane with nothing to show for it," and then I need a way to broadcast that message through a loudspeaker to roughly 30,000 people at once, and THEN I need a time machine to send that message to my past self lol. and maybe a second time machine in case past me tries to be clever and sabotage the version of me who comes through the first time machine
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