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alicelufenia

I'm seeing a lot of "Cyan SOUL is Kris's original SOUL" popping up again

Everyone. Really. Did we not play the same game?

Did we all not see this during the Jackenstein and Titan Spawn fights? And then the red heart lights up?

And it doesn't stop there, far from it

mrjocrafter

Adding to all of that, of all six specified SOUL traits, Patience is the one I'd least ascribe to Kris' personality.

interestingspecimens

sleepover 🐟

interestingspecimens

i think wendy would try to force them to hangout like a family

mnbvah

not sure how much of a hot take that is but I feel like Kris shouldn't learn fire or any other kind of magic, considering:

how much Kris denies their SOUL powers to be anything sort of special and how they seem to want to, or wanted to learn magic. Given that the game (at least on the normal route) seems to be leading with Kris growing reconnected with their SOUL and accepting it, I expect the game to acknowledge this and display a more positive description of the ACT command, or some other SOUL related command/thing in general.

kmnm1403

me, me and me

kuronekocain

nagito print :thumbsup:

kamukuras-27th-fan

Green 🤤

(Click for better quality)

unsettling people

｡ﾟ(ﾟ´Д｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡

theyre best friends

see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

roachliquid

When it comes to Deltarune and the topic of self-indulgent fantasy, I think it's easy to read the story as being critical on the topic. After all, we're playing in a realistic world where fantastic lands keep popping out of nowhere, and the job of our heroes is to track these lands down and destroy them, because opening too many at once will destroy the world.

At first glance, it does sound like the story is saying "fantasy is dangerous and inherently selfish; you must learn to 'grow up'"' and leave it behind." Especially since this is a common topic in children's fantasy stories, and the plot we've played through so far does at least partly agree with them - most obviously at the end of Chapter 2, where the protagonists' pursuit of escapism would have destroyed the world directly if it weren't for one character's intervention.

But wait. If that's the case, why does the story seem so positive about the idea of fantasy? After all, our characters are literally being guided on a noble quest by a mysterious guide at the behest of an ancient prophecy. And one of the mentors they meet is a fantasy author who encourages people to be creative and take ideas from their dreams. Take another look, and it gets even more complicated: many of the "real world" adults are trapped in fantasies of their own, refusing to let go of a past that's dead and gone, while the characters who denounce fantasy as something that is dead and worthless are consistently lonely and miserable.

So what's the message here? Is fantasy good, or is it bad? Is it good for kids but bad for adults? Is it only good "in moderation"? And the answer is... none of the above.

Fantasy isn't inherently good or bad. In fact, it isn't even the topic on the table. The actual topic, and the problem that the Dark Worlds are working to resolve, is attachment to an idea that is causing more harm than good. And those can be anything at all - from an impossible fantasy to hardline "realism".

The first example we encounter is Susie. A kid who, due to reasons almost completely outside of her control, has earned a reputation as a "troublemaker" and basically given up on being able to do anything to fix it. Not because she hates people or wants to hurt them - but because everything good she does for herself has a way of ending in punishment, so she's learned to avoid caring about herself as much as possible to minimize the inevitable pain.

That might sound practical, but it's actually a form of avoidance - making choices that minimize your immediate problems, but don't actually fix the root that's causing them. And that is the entire point: problems don't go away as long as you keep avoiding them. Susie's life doesn't get better until she takes a chance on friendship.

But she also couldn't really do that, until she had a safe space to try without risking severe consequences. That's where the fantasy world of the Card Kingdom came in: it offered a safe environment where she didn't have the pressures of hunger and expulsion hanging over her head, and could afford to take chances without the fear of major consequences.

The same thing happens in Chapter 2, with Noelle. Her adventure in Cyber City helps her to become braver, overcoming her fear of mice and preparing her to finally give Berdly a proper rejection. And in chapter 3, despite sleeping through the whole thing, it's Toriel's sentimentality - her longing for the comfort of the days when her family was intact, and failure to realize that she can't keep treating Kris like a small child - that informs Tenna's behavior and has to be resolved.

(Doing this precipitates a massive turnaround in her - the very next day, she's getting rid of the old TV, loaning out Asriel's old clothes to Susie, and inviting Sans over for drinks and dancing. Toriel has finally let go of her old life, and is ready to let in new people and new opportunities.)

In other words, none of these Dark Worlds were actually escapist fantasies. They were therapy sessions, and the reason that we close them is because the session is over.

mnbvah

The SOUL is described as the culmination of one's being, their willpower, lifeforce and compassion. In way, one could say the SOUL is an individual's truest self.

And yet, people will insist that the REAL Kris is the Kris that rips their heart out in a violent manner, accompanied by a hurt noise, remove their compassion and truest self to be a lackey in some conspiracy and for some evil knight seemingly hell bent on world destruction, be a puppent on strings made up of promises cast on strands of trauma and guilt, where they are even less free than when the player is "possessing them".. yeah that's the real Kris alright