for day 1 of krusie countdown (as described here), i wanna talk about the lake scenes! we're sacrificing onion-san for this, but that's okay, i'll talk about onion-san a bit too...
so one thing i wanna immediately point out is that the two gay knights have this dialogue about the lake:
which, well.
What Did Toby Mean By This?
but imo what's even more interesting is how the music fades away, leaving just the breeze and the sound of the waves lapping against the stone. not a single word is said between them, yet these two have found a place where they feel comfortable for once.
and it's no mistake, in my opinion, that this place is at the lake shore, a location that serves as the transitional border between lake and land. kris and susie are both what people would call 'others', existences that live in the margins, weirdos who don't fit in, outcasts who wander because their heart cannot seem to find a place to call home.
it's poetic then, that the lake shore becomes something special to them. a liminal space (in the original use of the term, not backrooms) for two teens lost in the liminality called adolescence.
aside from the tranquility, i feel these scenes also intentionally mirror the fountain sealing scenes
i'm sure by now everyone is aware of water's affinity to darkness and vice versa, but yes, i am saying that these two scenes feel like equivalences to each other.
both feature our two lightner heroes at the boundary of water and earth, at the boundary of darkness and light.
and there's something about this liminality that causes kris and susie to become honest with each other.
because isn't it interesting that the first time the two of them choose to sit by the lake all by themselves is in chapter 2? the same chapter where when the two of them are in front of the fountain alone, susie confesses to kris that what the roaring knight is doing might not be a 'bad thing' despite ralsei warning them of the end of the world?
(yes i know susie isn't in our light world party in chapter 1, but toby could've withheld this lake scene until chapter 4 or something!!)
and then in chapter 3's fountain scene (which is what kicks off chapter 4), she confides her worries in kris, saying that they need to do something because it's not all fun and games anymore.
following that, in the first half of chapter 4's light world, we get to witness this:
stoic ass kris finds susie's lake skip attempt so damn ass that they have to face away from us and put their hand over their mouth to contain their laughter.
LAUGHTER!!! KRIS DREEMURR, LAUGHTER!!!!!!!!
it feels like, just as susie is being emotionally honest with kris, so too is kris to her in more ways than one. susie's definitely been the reason for kris' smiles more than once...
and how interesting that at the end of chapter 4, after susie built up a bravado of hope to ralsei in the room before, she becomes completely honest and vulnerable to kris under the glow of the dark fountain?
and then kris in turn delivers possibly one of the most beautiful lines in the game.
(me: haha i hope we get one kris and susie moment in chapter 3/4
the nefarious toby fox readying an automatic machine gun in my general direction: )
it's hard to overstate how absolutely mindblowing this is.
the light of the SOUL had literally JUST banished a titan, a being of pure darkness, and had been the key to surviving everything within the dark sanctum. even if you don't believe the player is the angel, the fact of the matter is that the SOUL emits light that could very well be considered divine
and here is kris, saying that the light of the SOUL paled in comparison to susie's hope and smile, that the divine light of heaven or whatever is nothing compared to the smile of their friend
that nothing had driven away the darkness in their life more than her hope, even if it was momentary.
in following with the emotional vulnerability and honesty that occurs in the liminal space of the dark fountain, the visit to the lake shore is punctuated with roaring waves, a discussion about a song on the other end of the lake, and...
what really gets me interested about this prompt is that it takes around a minute or so for the prompt to appear after susie's comment:
which in my reading of it means that the prompt appeared because kris had asked themself 'should i tell her?' or something of the sort, not because of susie.
regardless of which reading you go with, the fact of the matter is that by the lake shore, at this boundary before the light world's equivalent of darkness, kris wanted to be honest with her (and FULLY honest).
and isn't that insane?
up until now, kris hadn't had the desire to come clean to anyone else for so long. but with a fellow outcast in this place-that's-not-quite-a-place, they feel the urge to be come clean.
the power of susie...
tl;dr, the lake scenes are the light world equivalent of the dark fountain sealing scenes and it's not a coincidence that both of these scenes take place in front of a mass of water (which is analogous to darkness). these scenes are also where our heroes are the most honest, as if recognizing the compatibility of these liminal spaces with their own existences. and, best of all, shows the growth of their trust and bond.
re: onion-san under the cut
speaking of onion-san by the way, it's interesting that they tell kris to come alone and then susie kinda calls the entire thing weird LMAO
in all seriousness, it seems to mirror spamton telling kris to come alone?? and just like post-spamton neo, susie directly questions it, albeit with more suspicion than just concern (maybe)
it's crazy that if you fight tenna during his boss fight he gets confused and scared, and then starts asking if anybody notices or cares, and when it's clear nobody does he starts making it into a joke at his expense. sickening ass character
