sorry to everyone out there who thinks they have the funniest tshirt but i think i can confidently say i just saw the actual funniest tshirt just now. i passed by a beautiful black woman with long multicolor braids blowing majestically in the beach breeze & she was wearing an oversized tshirt that said in gigantic letters "WHITE BOY OF THE YEAR"
Asgore is such a walking bag-of-archetypes of the Unsavoury Masculine kind that it baffles and more than that worries me how easily a big chunk of the audience glosses over it to paint him as a poor sad man victimised by divorce.
This is not to say he isn't a nuanced character with his own interiority and motivations - he very much is (although I have gripes with how the character arc was handled this chapter*). This is to say that when those unsavoury aspects are downplayed in favour of showering him with pity, with humour, with affirmation of his righteousness, it feels at best like missing the point and at worst like actively not caring about patriarchal harms.
And I'm willing to bet a lot of it is the latter, thanks to years of unexamined misogyny mixing with beliefs of being progressive and "it's not that deep".
[Extended thoughts below, quotes may not be exact I'm writing from memory]
We've been noting the uncomfortable way Asgore conducts himself since Ch1, each relating to archetypes of toxic men in media but also, crucially, in our lives that we may all have encountered personally. He is the father that pushes too much and does not respect the boundaries of his children and (ex)wife and covers it up under layers of good cheer and love for his family. ['I can't remember if you liked hugs.' 'Give these flowers to your mother'] He is the well-liked 'nice guy' around town who is respected enough that no one really calls him out on his stalking even though on-lookers can see there's something off about the interaction. ['Weird weird weird family. Your family.' Sans turning away when Asgore enters and trying to deflect when directly asked how to get Toriel back] He is the guy whose heart you broke who won't take no for an answer but keeps pestering you in ostensibly soft and loving and devoted ways that would make you look like the aggressor for pushing him away too harshly. [Toriel always being mild in her responses to him when he backs her into a corner in public, trying to politely escape, lighting candles for him at church, even though she is clearly still angered when you talk to her about the flowers in the safety of her own home]
He is the dark crusader stuck in the past when everyone else has moved forward, who can only define himself against how things were and thinks of returning to that as a universal good. [Obsession with having everything be just like old times, the whole family back together, thinking what HE wants and what's good for him will obviously set things right for everyone else too] He is the authority figure in your life so obsessed with the status quo, he will ignore all signs of distress to not rock the boat [Doing nothing to intervene when Carol is clearly scaring two kids in the room where he is the only other adult. Laughing it off afterwards and telling Kris she's not that bad.]
And chapter 5 adds extremely worrying but very fitting archetypes to that growing list.
Asgore was a cop.
How far your engagement has been with discussions of copaganda and outside of media criticism with politics around policing might affect how that fact is viewed. But it gets swept under the rug easy enough. After all, it's not like Toby is trying to say anything particular and important about cops, right? He even goes out of his way to establish that the police force in hometown is just eyecandy because there's no crime under Mayor Holiday. It's just superficial, right?
I may have thought so before but here, in Ch5, we engage with two particular tropes in cop shows and films that the story does engage with that I want to draw your attention to.
First, the rogue cop. The cop who was right all along, went too far, destroyed his relationships with others over his obsession with a case, and got removed from having any official capacity over the situation. But being rid of those restrictions is incidentally exactly what he needs and the ends justify the means so all the abuses carried out in the process are retroactively justified. His authority is restored to him, and his friends and family guiltily forgive him, because whatever justice he was pursuing was bigger than any personal issues between them and by ignoring him when he was right, they have wronged him too. The rogue cop thus appropriates victimhood while also getting to play the hero who saves the day (and is thus owed the reward of restoration).
In Asgore's case, it's quite obvious he is a cop gone rogue, not working in an official capacity but still chasing the answers, and his theories are correct. And interestingly in the flashbacks it seems that he alienated everyone around him over those theories and he believes everyone and everything he wants and loves will be returned to him once he can prove himself to be right. Nevermind the personal wrongs carried out to his loved ones - they will HAVE to see it and take him back right? They will HAVE to forgive him. He is RIGHT after all. And the most damning part of how self-absorbed this whole approach is, is how Dess, the ACTUAL victim, becomes less than an afterthought in it all, not worthy of mention.
The Second trope, the justifiably violent family protector. This is a male power fantasy that does go beyond just cops. Others have said it better how men (especially right wing USAmerican men but not exclusively by a far shot) will often talk about the lengths they would go to to protect their family - usually to the effect of how they would kill some hypothetical threat to their peaceful idyllic suburban life. (Note how Hometown plays into the idyllic town with something rotten in its core as a setting in general too) But those threats aren't actually waiting. These aren't men who would show up for their loved ones, who would nurture them into feeling safe around them, and often they are men who continue to be raging misogynists and bigots to anyone in their family that steps out of line. The family isn't protected because it's loved, it is protected as property - and the fantasy only uses them as a cudgel to dream up situations where senseless violence would be not only justified, but celebrated a la zombie apocalypse daydreams.
This is the one that's particularly concerning to me with the side of Asgore we see in Ch5, talking not only about finding the culprit responsible for the tragedy he is trying to solve, but actively fantasising about a public execution and desecration of this imagined threat. Couple it with the glimpse of unrestrained anger we see from him when he throws Kris and Susie out of the Dark World. It paints a picture of a man who has been harbouring these violent fantasies of vengeance and seething in them while alienating the very people he is supposedly protecting by enacting that violence. The irony of it all comes together in a neat bow with Kris being, unbeknownst to him and other characters, the very person he is threatening when he says that.
And that IS such a shocking moment, such a tonally jarring piece of dialogue, to you as an audience who knows Asgore is unwittingly threatening his own child in gruesome ways.
Now importantly, this ISN'T copaganda because these ideas aren't presented as correct, which is where Asgore's entire character arc lies. He is made to learn that his behaviours are not justified, that he has been acting in coercive ways and hurting people and he has to grow out of it. *Here is where I feel a little iffy about how it was handled in the chapter, not an ideological gripe necessarily but more on the writing front. Asgore delivers all the varied lessons he is supposed to take away one after the other, listing them out right at the end, and we are expected to understand that he has changed his mind. However, all of this development happens off-screen. It's all quite rushed and handwavy, like the redemption is suddenly dropped onto us unceremoniously before any fallout from it is ripped away too as Asgore gets kidnapped. People have suggested that we are supposed to glean the arc from the flowers instead but honestly, it does not feel satisfying for me at all after everything, to have Asgore TELL us he has now learned his lesson rather than seeing him forced to confront it and struggle towards that redemption. That is my one big issue with the writing this chapter, but this is already quite long so I'll leave with a final thought.
I may have thought Kris has some manner of care and concern for their father that drives them to put the egg in his fridge (although are the egg placements something that Kris has control over? we do not know for sure yet), but they clearly have ambivalent feelings at best, as noted in them looking at Toriel's wallpaper of Kris on Asgore's lap watching cowboy shows - described as "someone", showing a distance there. Not to mention they seem to be in on the kidnapping plans and though Toriel may have been a fakeout to actually get to Undyne,they are on board with Asgore being taken? Keeping that aside though, Kris is still just a kid, and there's easily a residual concern and attachment they would have towards their parent, possibly expressed in the egg. I do not think that should detract from how we view the detrimental effects of Asgore's actions on Kris, and they shouldn't be downplayed, for all the reasons listed above.
It seems that people are in just as much of a hurry to protect Asgore from too serious scrutiny as they are to subject Toriel to undeserved scrutiny. And I will call a spade a spade and say that the impulse straightforwardly comes from misogyny - whether as a result of the faction of people who don't see misogyny as a real and worthy issue to think about, or a result of the faction who thinks they couldn't possibly have unexamined biases working like background processes affecting how they interact with literally everything. I really hope to see people engage more seriously with these very serious themes though, because frankly, the amount of people ready to "joke" about Asgore killing Sans to get Toriel back or how Toriel owes it to him to go back or how she was foolish to leave in the first place, should be extremely concerning to you.
Another thing! Yk that post that said deltarune subverts the Divorced Husband whose wife just exists to give him a sad backstory and doesn't get her own story and agency beyond that?
That is such a big part of those cop stories too! The fridged woman, except we see much more of Toriel than we do of Asgore here. These tropes are being evoked and subverted on purpose, and for a purpose, is my point
asgore is like the biggest asshole in this entire game and he doesn't even overcompensate with aura he just comes across as a temper tantrum mega loser all chapter. honestly ch5 made me think kris really did open that ch1 fountain for a lot of reasons but now i look at King and how much he just. chooses to sit in a cell and make threats and promise revenge on his enemies and dangles lancer over the edge is like aaahh this came from Kris' Brain i see. kris' deep fear over being the target of their father's unknowing ire. kris' father who would rather sit alone in darkness swearing revenge and angsting about all those who have wronged him and operating on totally misguided information. yeah
saw a tweet getting mad that susie heals flowery when you attack him like “this makes no sense, why didnt toby just program the attack to miss” and i got so ragebaited bc it’s like 😭 the point is that you’re supposed to feel like an asshole that nobody agrees with when you do it. like the point is that he wants to make it clear that susie and ralsei have complicated feelings about this fight. if it just missed you would experience LESS guilt but he wants you to experience MORE guilt. it’s awesome because it adds to the horrible vibes. the twitter community truly is foolishmaxxing these past few weeks bc they just SAAAYY THIIINGS. THINK YOU GOTTA THINK!!!!
Insane Lunatic Title - I KNOW - But it has been something on my mind that begun growing after this entire segment in the most recent newsletter in which Toby talks about a very specific thing - The extremely unique and irreplaceable time period and circumstances that lead to said fanworks based on theories being able to exist.
Which is deeply fascinating!
I think this would be a veeery good pointer into what Toby may be thinking about since- What such character remains at this current stage?
Like I am sorry Knight Candidate Theorists, but the struggle literally only existed in the Chapter 2 Era, Ch3 merely showing us the Knight's design Genocided 90% of the popular candidates and Carol was the ONLY serious theory that opposed Dess Knight after that.... And then it got hard deconfirmed in ch4 unless we got the Mayor Money Funded Tunnels.
So I am sorry gang, the most intensely debated "Creative Freedom Before It Gets Confirmed" we got is if Dess' official design has her be blonde or not. She simply cannot be who Toby is referring to.
SOO, who is a character so mysterious and so well hidden and mysterious that is a constant well spring of fanworks and interpe- It's Gaster, I am talking about Gaster. I don't even need an example, He is GASTER. The most well fermented Mystery Man in all of UTDR who canonically has the hots for us (who I need so badly).
So... Is Toby saying that We'll get THE Gaster Reveal in Chapter 6?
Do we dare even hope for something that majestic..?
...
No.
That's just a fantasy, isn't it?
It must be someone else then.. But who else? What other character do we have that it is at the moment a massive nexus of fan interpretations, fan designs and theorizing? We do have FRIEND..!
(I didn't have a better picture, sorry)
And the Fat Cat has infact been a MASSIVE wellspring of theories and interpretations and even possible desgins buut-
That already ended?
Chapter 5 happened and Mew Mew straight up gave us the general gist of WHAT it is, "WHO" it is and WHAT it is doing.
So just like Dess Knight, IMAGE_FRIEND has gotten a rather universally agreed upon interpretation compared to previously where you could argue it was a literal Businessman of a cat, a literal demon king thing, a sentient virus or just- A Person in general.
FRIEND is now a very specific thing that everyone agrees in it being that, resulting in a LOT of pre-ch5 FRIEND interpretations having now become the "Time Capsules" that Toby was specifically talking about.
So if not the Knight, if not Gaster and if not FRIEND then who is left?
. . .
There is one such character.
A character without a confirmed Name
A character without a confirmed Design
A character without a confirmed Role
A character without a confirmed Backstory
Jane/John "ERAM" Shadow Mantle Holder, is a freaking ENIGMA. Too bizarrely sparse in appearance to be confidently acknowledged as a big player but also just connected in stuff far too important to be dismissed in any capacity.
It is the ONE individual in the ENTIRE story that "subtly" encourages towards the Weird Route, no less that if we take into account questions like "Who gave the ThornRing to Spamton?" may actually be the one making it a reality for us to be able to explore. No less being the only possible candidate for the Voice of the "ThankYou" ARG given various oddities in personality that no other character (whose personality we actually know) could ever fit.
Both of these things instantly place ERAM as a being with LUDICROUS amounts of awareness of the inner secrets of the world in order to not only know about the "Forbidden Path" but to actively be able of making it possible just for Us, whose existence It has made clear to be very much aware of and not even making any efforts to hide it unlike characters like Ralsie or Kris.
Like ALL this? This isn't even theorizing in my eyes, that's straight up the baseline data that can be gathered for It that then gets used for actual theorizing in figuring out its Identity, Motives and general place in the story.
If there is ONE character who has yet to get their "True Reveal", the one that invalidates a thousand theories and a thousand fan works that can exist at this current moment It must be It. There exist no other character on its level that... We can concretely say ACTUALLY exists to begin with.
So, why was ERAM comparatively so niche compared to other characters theory-wise? Heck, even compared to other Secret bosses when it first was revealed?
SO- What happened?
Are We illiterate?
Well, not like this, I think what happened kinda was the most natural and realistic follow up to the entire build up of the post-ch2 "Era".
What happened is that FRIEND happened.
We saw this wacky and scary sprite jumpscaring us in ch2 when it first came out, in the already scary and wacky "Digital Roots" Area and... Honestly nothing really happened? IMAGE_FRIEND was still a fresh thing and most still saw it as just a "Spamton-themed jumpscare" given the shared eyes.
Yes, there were the theories of this being "Mike" as well as people realizing that the "Neon Cat Signs" in that specific Save Point were also Pink and Yellow and people GENUIENLY figured out that FRIEND was a cat THAT early (Which is just amazing.), but they were ultimately in the minority for obvious reasons.
But theeeen-
And this is where things became EXCEEDINGLY strange.
Because THIS here is where FRIEND proper was born in the mind of the community, first appearing in the "Chair" Page that if you clicked mutliple times lead to getting what straight up was foreshadowing for FRIEND's on screen appearance in Susie's Room during Ralsei's explanation, in the form of FRIEND's eyes along with a cut sample of its signature laugh.
This is instantly confirming that "It" was a separate being than Spamton. And from there the floodgates of theorizing opened.
Then there was Noelle's blog about Catpetterz, which was the first time we got direct explanation on what "Catpetterz" was beyond just a stereotypical random game, which kinda was the seed to FRIEND's mysterious connection to that game that we have to this day.
No less that the second round of Sweepstakes on the months preceding ch3-4's launch we got even more fuel on this connection by getting even more Catpetterz "lore" in the form of the "Rarecats" page LITERALLY having FRIEND jumpscare appearance in the mini-game.
So let's take note of what we had to work with.
We had a mysterious Cat-Character who was connected to Spamton
It appears literally everywhere as a weird Easter Egg
It's appearances are giving a strong "Creepypasta" seriousness
We have zero clue what any of this meant or what it was FOR.
That forth point may seem like a bad thing, but for The Theorists of The World, this was a GIFT FROM [[HEAVEN]]- aka It is theory bait - That's what FRIEND freaking was for all of these years prior to like a month ago after ch5 came out.
FRIEND was SHEER POTENTIAL of relevance but with NOWHERE for them to go. It was a character whose appearances were just... It appearing, but unlike say Everyman, the Annoying Dog or Starwalker - FRIEND's placement was intentional in evoking an atmosphere that this one was Serious rather than a running Gag.
It had to MEAN something! Why would Toby constantly showcase this goofy cat everywhere if it didn't mean anything...?
Anyways and then in chapter 3's FIRST FREAKING MOMENTS we get a MANDATORY MAIN ROUTE appearance of a full-body design of IMAGE_FRIEND in Ralsei's monologue about Dark Worlds.
It appeared in an explanation! Someone's visualized headspace! Why?! What did that even MEAN?
Do you see what I mean? The FRIEND Hype Train wasn't the result of theorists getting bored and deciding to write fanfiction, there was GENUINELY so much fuel for this bizarre cat... But nowhere for it to go! You simply COULD NOT deny FRIEND's relevancy in the story but at the same time nobody had a clue as to what it even WAS.
And then the SWORD Route happens and it just continues.
Then Chapter 4 happens and it juust continues
And then Gerson's Secret Boss Fight happens and it JUST CONTINUES
And WITH ALL THAT in place..
Do you think you could convince people that FRIEND was just a minion of "ERAM"?
AAALL that hype for effectively the "Elite Goomba Summon" of "ERAM"? Who in comparison, their foreshadowing prior to this chapter literally was a sound effect put over Seam's dialogue?
NOW, make no mistake, this isn't some sort of "FRIEND Apologism", trust me when I say the opposite, I was vehemently against any theories of ERAM just being FRIEND and not actually a character. I was against FRIEND being treated a mastermind type figure as Gaster 2.0 when we literally didn't know anything about it...
And yet, not even I could believe in that FRIEND would "Just" be ERAM's little minion. It all had to be this actual important character, right?
Well apparently not.
FRIEND was infact an "Elite Goomba Summon".
This SHOULD have felt like a grand revelation, right? A massive shocking twist where we all realize we had been misinformed by the game?
But, not really. As I said, the weird thing about FRIEND was that it was fuel for something that... Had nowhere to go. Toby Fox only needed to JUST give us a concretely established place to direct all of this attention and relevance and the entire thing would finally calm down.
FRIEND suddenly became a character with an identity and a role and a personality/motives that could be contradicted and make it impossible to be stuffed into whatever you wanted them to be... So a normal character.
HOW did FRIEND become this?
Like forget about patting ourselves on the back for "calling it before it was revealed", we had YEARS of FRIEND becoming this massive deal in the community, I have like an entire folder of utterly amazing fanworks for the damned cat as proof of that!
And all of this happened because Toby seemingly "fumbled" IMAGE_FRIEND's setup, He created all of this attention and all of this focus on this bizarre cat and gave it its own identity and visual motif and associations with other characters even themes and yet NONE of those ever lead to something that IT did.
FRIEND became a big deal in chapter 2 and it took until 2 weeks AFTER chapter 5 for us to FINALLY figure out what this character actually was setup for? Why do it like this?
Even "supposed" attempts to counterbalance the massive momentum that FRIEND had picked up directly as a result of the Sweepstakes like the Vending Machine dialogue literally calling it a "Servant" seriously failed because it still depicted FRIEND as an intelligent - if not outright graceful entity capable of speech, rather than literally a collective of beasts driven by near primal instincts and orders as Mew Mew presents them.
No less ERAM's mere existence by comparison being the aforementioned bizarre mystery that it is, which just didn't give it enough "stopping power" to absorb FRIEND's momentum into itself
... Which let's finally talk about that!
HOW was ERAM "fumbled"?
If it hasn't become clear by this entire post being more about FRIEND than ERAM at this point.. FRIEND was the most efficient sandbagging attempt of the character. FRIEND was seen as literal secret boss material TWICE, both for ch3 and then again in ch5. It was a black hole of attention to obscure other secrets.
FRIEND was literally being theorized to be what ERAM already was... But FRIEND actually had the "relevance fuel" to backup such claim with faaar greater ease than ERAM.
Which leads us to the second point; What was the issue with ERAM?
Sure, FRIEND was a bomb of pure theorizing potential. But ERAM actually had a personality, goals, motives and relationship with characters like Kris, no less that it ACTUALLY talks.
So it should've still been able to carve out its own part of the story with complete ease, it was after all a secret boss, those always get their own complete sto-
WELL ABOUT THAT...!
Not ONLY does ERAM have to contend with the likes of Ramb being "Secret Boss Bait" and "fake shop lore vendor" type figure that is revealed to in-truth not know CRAP.
Not ONLY does ERAM have to deal with IMAGE_FRIEND being a runaway hype-machine that just reached critical mass after its mandatory reveal in the very same Chapter.
BUT ERAM has to share its "Secret Boss" status with the freaking ROARING KNIGHT - THE MAIN ANTAGONIST OF THE STORY.
And the Knight is the direct opposite of the semi-self-contained stories that the Secret Bosses as it is THE overarching antagonist of the ENTIRE story so far and this was its MAJOR Main-Route Reveal after the setup of both King's, Queen's and Tenna's respective hyping It specifically for this moment.
WHAT THE HELL, TOBY?!
This makes ZERO sense to happen accidentally. It is such an amazingly well constructed attempt to smokescreen EVERY aspect of ERAM both before AND after its reveal.
FRIEND was custom made to be hyped up so high from the Sweepstakes that It'd make us tunnel vision and expect FRIEND to be somewhere and the few bits and pieces of it that DID appear were seen as further confirmation of such expectation... Even if they didn't fully make sense.
Ramb also is the one character that we spent the most time with in relation to the whole "Questline" and in the before the final segment of the SWORD ROUTE you would be forgiven to assume that this was HIS story and his questline leading to him being the secret boss, bait or not.
And then when ERAM finally appears and we finally fight them and we finally defeat them and finally get the Shadow Mantle... We can go finally do the Knight's Fight and get that juicy shadow crystal!
Because in context, you will kinda be doing the entirety of the MANTLE Game FOR the Shadow Mantle. ERAM was straight up not even SUPPOSED to be in this story to begin with! The very chapter is not even trying to position them as a individual of interest, it's like a weird stop-gap to go (try and) kick the ass of the actual individual of interest of the chapter.
It stole the Shadow Mantle from Seam as a way to force us to go through its inserted added Sword Route boards to make sure we would see what it had to offer.
And with that realization, we're beginning to reach the conclusion of this entire maddening rant disguised as an analysis post.
ERAM intentionally was attempting to keep itself hidden every step of the way.
Obviously it can't control stuff like the sweepstakes, that'd be crazy...
But ERAM can use IMAGE_FRIEND as its eyes and ears to spy on us, leading to all the countless sightings from the cat being a smokescreen for ERAM being whose constantly spying on us every step of our journey without ever revealing its own self.
And ERAM stealing the Mantle was especially designed to lead to the entirety of the SWORD ROUTE where it gets to deliver important information to us in such an indirect manner - even its voice in the game is hiding its actual one. Even the Shadow Mantle Enemy is hiding its true form, it is just the Shadow Mantle itself possessed into a shape that loosely resembles it rather than ERAM itself.
The entire purpose of us fighting our way through all of these dungeons is to specifically allow ERAM to deliver their important message to us in a way that doesn't leave a TRACE of their true identity.
No less, that a rather funny realization of mine that even the Forgotten Man is less of a mystery than ERAM. The Man who literally had his identity erased from the world and can only speak to us once, is still more easily comprehensible in his place in the world, his story and even general identity - because he wants to be found and remembered.
ERAM on the other hand, is someone attempting to remain unknown and even be forgotten about beyond what it provides us in a sense.
I mean it's so freaking well hidden that I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out it was also the goofily mysterious entity literally called "Someone", just literally someone.. It is so hilariously and intentionally vague that it'd fit like a glove...
Such fun, but anyways!
To at Last Conclude This!
TOBY FOX IS LYING!! "I had a different expectation about how certain info would be interpreted or combined." MY BUTT!
HE CREATED the ENTIRETY of the IMAGE_FRIEND Theory Industrial Complex to Sandbag MY GOAT for an ENTIRE YEAR until Chapter 5 came out! HE planned this all out!
HE IS A LYING MUTT! "Personally, I really don’t read or watch theories. That’s because I already know what my game is." LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE!! THIS SICKO is SO in deep into the theorizing game He is throwing the MOST DEVIOUSLY ENGINEERED Theory Sinkholes to cover his EVIL MASTERMIND TRACKS.
HE got that CAT in Castletown to lie for ERAM and make up fake Entry 17 Quotes to make us THINK this was Gaster's Doing!
BUT NOT OUR TOBY! COULDN'T BE PRECIOUS TRICKY TONY FOX!
BUT I AM ONTO YOU! The rest of these lore plebeians may have fallen for your petty tricks BUT I'VE GROWN WISE TO YOUR FOUL SCHEMES! MY SOUL SHINES WITH RADIANCE IN THIS SEA OF ILLUSIONARY DARKNESS YOU'VE GROWN!
...so can i please have ERAM for ch6, Mr Fox? :<
i really, really miss them and really, really need them...
so to summarise: she DID overdo it in a very much uncharacteristic one-time-only way, she's not an alcoholic, kris was never locked out of the house (they pretended to be as part of their plan to get susie to the church dark world), toriel DID try to call, she WAS worried, sans told her he saw kris and susie hanging out and not to worry and let them spend time by themselves since they're teenagers and THAT'S when she let herself get loose, she DID realise she made susie uncomfortable and feels bad about it and hopes she didn't push her away and that she'll be back because she likes having her around, she DID notice kris was upset, her air of middle class respectability is a façade and she's probably struggling with her finances just as much as asgore, she's just more careful with her money. also sans stocked up her fridge and took out the trash before he left (my man🤝)
TLDR: never fucking doubt me again. big analysis papy untouchable
If you ever hear the phrase "fascism is aesthetics as politics," that's what this post is talking about.
It's not about being tough on crime, because the absolute toughest most brutal measure you could take against "crime" as a social problem is to alleviate poverty, and increase access to education, healthcare and social mobility.
It's about performing "tough on crime" as an aesthetic by enacting violence against a prop, i.e. minorities and the impoverished, who are fetishized and objectified to represent "crime." They are brutalized as punishment for crime, but never with the purpose of alleviating the problem of crime.
This is why a lot of conservatives and other right wingers can get straight up angry when you suggest things like reform or social measures to reduce crime. They don't want crime to be reduced, they want an eternal war against "crime" because it provides an arena for the righteous to demonstrate virtue by brutalizing their enemies.
in Undertale "the seeds just stick to you and won't let go" was a likely metaphor for Flowey clinging on to Chara, even projecting them on to Frisk and trying to reset everything so they could keep "playing"
so for Deltarune, "the seeds stick to everything and can't be thrown away" could mean...?
(also, does this not imply the packet is already open?)
I assume the packet is open because Flowery grew from one of the seeds in there. Like Asgore, for some reason, planted the whole seed packet instead of taking out the seeds (maybe the packet is made of some kind of paper that is nutritious to flowers???).
we gonna talk about how much more relieved Susie is to hear Kris has gotten a crush on someone before, and asking outright if they're into humans or monsters
vs her resignation if they say they haven't, while seemingly assuming it's because there aren't any other humans like them in town?
what real-world issue does this seem to relate to, I wonder
Historical figure or fictional character? @frausarti1225 - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
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