basically no "theory" or prediction positing that the darkners have to be sealed away or remain objects forever has been able to explain in a satisfying manner why the darkners don't get to exist but the lightners do.
there has always been, in my opinion, a dissonance in this conversation, where players treat kris / susie / noelle / etc as if they are somehow more real when to Me, and everyone else reading this post, they are just as real as ralsei / lancer / tenna / etc because they are all fictional characters coded onto the game Deltarune™ in my nintendo switch. why do WE want to uphold the dichotomy between them so much?
in the context of escapism, it just sort of... feels strange, doesn't it? deltarune doesn't even posit the idea that dark worlds are always good; the main gameplay loop has been entering these fun, fantastical dark worlds in order to close them, which disrupts this idea of the all-consuming fantasy.
more over, ralsei's entire arc has been about accepting personhood!!! ralsei learns to accept all the likes, dislikes, desires, and fears that come with being alive. and stripping that away... would just kind of really suck???? tragic/sad endings are fine and good - i'm not saying things can't ever end sadly - but i simply have never gotten the impression i was playing through a tragedy on deltarune's normal route, even post-chapter four.
hope is so instrumental to this game, so while i'm willing to be surprised, i really can't imagine a satisfying conclusion where the hope is squandered for nothing that doesn't feel like a hypocritical rug-pull.
[tags via @deepfrieddeltarunememes]
THE SUSIE THING. OH BOY.
why is the light world what gets to be "real" in a game that is meta!!! the fact deltarune is a game interested in the meta-narrative, by its nature, calls into question why one gets to be any realer than the other when neither of them are, in fact, real. it's a really strange hang-up to have!!! and i would argue deltarune is trying to criticize this, and has been since chapter one.
ralsei telling lancer that darkners derive all joy from serving lightners is supposed to make you go "?????" because the alternative is frankly irresponsible!!! to uncritically establish that there is a class of people (darkners) who love serving others (lightners) is Bad!!!!! it's also not even true, lancer is proof that the reverence darkners have for lightners is a learned trait, not an innate one.
chapter five also introduces a profoundly blurry variable into the mix: the FLOWERS. where do they fit in the dichotomy? (spoiler alert: they DON'T!!!!) flowery is RIGHT that it's unfair for the fun gang to have final say on which fountains get to exist and which don't. why do they - WE! - get to decide who gets to be alive and who doesn't?
ralsei really is the foundation of why i find the idea that darkners WILL be sealed away forever really upsetting. like, yes, i am a ralseihead, but the entire character arc happening there centers around embracing personhood and individuality!
things that happen in the dark worlds matter. susie's character growth, yes, but - hello!!! weird route!!!!!!! and, not even in WR, but chapter 2's fighting route has berdly fry his arm in the battle versus queen, and that carries over into the light world! the church is fucked UP post-titan fight!!!
i, frankly, don't even think deltarune is About escapism. it's just using it as a means of exploring it's actual themes of nostalgia, autonomy, and change - which dehumanizing the darkners goes firmly against in the main story.
A reason I've been so excited about Deltarune is the way it has been exploring the things in this post, especially that last "nostalgia, autonomy and change" stuff.
So, so, so, SO MANY things from my childhood in the 90s-00s had endings where the protagonist dutifully had to say goodbye and irreversibly cut off their connection to the world where their fantasy friends were. And (subject to opinion) some of 'em made sense. Some of 'em had nuance and kept in mind their target audience of children, making effort to tell them a story that might help them acclimatise to changes in their own lives.
But so many others felt like a cynical, overplayed "coming of age" parable, where protagonists must always turn their backs on their fantasy worlds (and friends inside) because it is just what's expected of them, and what's expected of us all, to be an adult.
Grow up! Put away all the fantastical and imaginary things that gave you solace and joy, yes all of them! No you can't come back to the dream world on weekends, it never existed, remember? Now you're set free to have sensible dreams only, like winning the girl or getting on the sports team. After all, "Anything is possible if you believe!" But only if you believe in very normal things within the expectations set out for you!
I didn't understand all this as a child, I just felt dread and sadness when another episode of a show ended up with sealing the rift between worlds permanently and being told "It's sad, but it's good. We have to do these things, give up these fun ideas like talking animals. You'll understand when you're older. Look, the protagonist doesn't mind. They're happy now. They'll forget."
What in the fresh f%#& no-autonomy existential horror? (I will never forgive The Queen's Nose for the talking ferret.)
No matter what direction Deltarune goes from now, even if it ends up how those shows ended, it's already healed some of that childhood dismay and dread for me by exploring, as the post previously put it, "nostalgia, autonomy and change" as well as escapism.
Collecting some really good points from the notes here:
To me, Deltarune has never been about escapism, at least not as the main theme. Autonomy & agency really seem to be the most important aspect of the game, shown through Kris being controlled by the player, Darkners being objects/playthings for Lightners, Noelle wanting to break free from who she feels she has to be, & all the characters being stuck on a set path because of the prophecy, and this theme of autonomy (or the lack of it) is also reflected in Spamton’s backstory with his benefactor as well as Mad Mew Mew/Pink and the Darkner she’s possessing. There’s a reason so many characters in this game are being puppeted, and why freedom is what so many of them are fighting for.
Hope is also a big theme — Susie inspires it in everyone around her, especially Kris, Ralsei, and Noelle, and “With Hope Crossed On Our Hearts” is what the save file menu music changes to after chapter 4 (this theme is so important to me that I made it my username).
The final prophecy also states that both of the worlds can be saved, and I don’t think sacrificing or permanently separating one of them in order to save the other would be any better than the “tragedy” the prophecy is currently headed towards, if separating them isn’t the tragedy itself. Since Toby Fox clearly understands how meaningful fiction really is to people (and this includes himself), I have hope that he isn’t going to pull the “none of it was real so the ‘fantasy world’ and the people in it never really mattered at all” trope here — especially considering how much we already know he loves subverting common tropes — and the game seems to be leaning in the other direction so far as well through many of the Darkners’ character arcs, especially Ralsei.
I don’t think we’re supposed to agree with Ralsei when they say this. It would make absolutely no sense to give Ralsei a character arc of becoming their own person, developing their own desires & fears, and even having them ask, “Should a Darkner be feeling this way?” — and Kris will physically stop themself from saying “no” if you select that instead of “Please be yourself,” by the way — or having the scene in chapter 1 where Ralsei tells Lancer that Darkners can only be truly fulfilled by serving Lightners, which very pointedly makes both Susie and Lancer uncomfortable, if the ending was just going to be all the Darkners continuing to be objects more than people, serving Lightners and staying in the roles that were chosen for them without their say. We can clearly see that many of the Darkners in Castle Town are experimenting with doing/being things outside their designated roles for the first time, and they’re finding happiness and freedom in that.
I really think “No one can choose who they are in this world” is Deltarune’s version of “In this world, it’s kill or be killed.” No one should get to choose who you are except for you, and the game supports choosing your own path, too. That’s what everyone is fighting for. That’s why we’re fighting to break fate, break the prophecy and make another ending.
