Deltarune theory that I need people to think about for a moment.
Monsters don't bleed.
You can probably figure out where this is going yourself, but if you want to hear my thoughts and evidence, it's all going under the cut.
Monsters don't bleed. We're reminded of this at the start of and throughout Chapter 4, through interaction with the bunny kid when you knock their door, and the funeral book about monsters turning into dust.
Conversely Susie has expressed a lack of understanding about this concept, implying she's bled before and doesn't find it weird. Implying she's used to a culture where blood is normal...
...but not dust? She didn't seem to put the pieces together that the dust in the 'snowglobe' (horrific implications btw) could be Gerson's body until Kris pointed it out to her. After which point she reacted with horror, as if she hadn't expected it, or didn't know that's how it worked?
Let's think about Susie for a moment. What do we know about Susie, now?
We know she bleeds. They made a point of showing it even though Kris bleeds in the same chapter and it's not visibly shown. We know she's considered a brute, more monsterish than those around her. She lays into this fact, playing it up. We know she had a rocky childhood. She's moved houses multiple times in the past. She's given up on trying to make friends.
She doesn't have a tail (or at least, her tail is a nub), and she feels embarrassed about that fact. When equiped with the jevil's tail, she'll say "figured I'd grow one eventually."
Kris used to wear a horn headband in the hopes they'd grow horns like their family, eventually. When Susie sees a picture of them with the headband, she quietens uncomfortably once she realises why.
Susie HATED Kris's guts, even before chapter 1. (From the spamton sweepstakes:)
Whatever they said made her back off and leave. I think she saw herself in them. The outcast. The odd one out in a town full of something else. Something that can't be understood. Is it any wonder she changed her tune when she found out Kris was not her enemy, but understood her? That Kris would leap to defend her, instead? That she thought, surely, this kid hates me for what I am just as much as I hate them for what they are? They don't hate me? They don't think I'm disgusting, a freak of nature, better off abandoned?
Why have we never seen her parents?
Why is it that, when we look away from Kris, we can only imagine "what Susie is up to"? Why no one else? Why can we see her, but not exert enough control to impact what she does? Why is our soul able to fight on her behalf without Kris's involvement? Why does she seem to exert control over the story even when it's clearly trying to be bent in favour of the player's decisions?
Hmmm… The Girl using a Sword rather an Axe seems like a smoking gun (smoking blade?) that she just can’t be Susie, but… I’ve been thinking about the Symbolism of most of the Swords in the Dark World being Writing implements…
A symbolism the game itself just pointed out.
There’s a potentially fun play here with swords already being the Weapon associated with an RPG’s main protagonists/player characters, and also the symbolism of holding a pencil/pen to show you’re the person with the agency to change the story and master your own fate. So it’s like equating being the “Main Hero” to being able to ‘write your own stories”.
Kris, the actual person holding the ‘Sword’ right now and presented on the surface as the ‘Main Character’ actually has a lot of problems with actual narrative agency. Some obvious (like our possession of them), some less so (being the only ‘Dark Hero’ who always ‘carries out fate’ and never 'faces' it.)
Susie is obviously the one most likely to resist the path laid out before her…
So I’m thinking about the concept of Susie deliberately picking up a Pencil/Sword to make herself the Girl from the Prophecy.
Like, she’ll literally declare her intention to re-write the story by arming herself with a ‘Writing Weapon’ while also deliberately writing herself into the Story with the same action. Making herself into the ‘Chosen One’ instead of accepting the ‘fact’ that she was not supposed to be chosen.
… Of course, that would have to be one hell of a Sword, cause it will also need to satisfy Susie’s aesthetic desire for Big Badass Weapons. Like, the literal reason she doesn’t use Swords right now is that she thinks Kris’ are too puny.
But… maybe she figures out how to craft her own Big-Ass Sword (befitting her status as a kinda-student of Gerson, who was also a Blacksmith) or figures out the mechanics of the Dark World enough to go inside with a Giant Novelty Pencil or something?
This is related to the idea that Kris loses the SOUL (or rather gives it up). Susie getting a pencil now seems to represent realizing her competence, resolving her self-doubt. She defers to the direction of the SOUL in the “think about Susie” scenes from the very start. This develops as she acts under the player’s direction. Kris, on the other hand, is increasingly at odds with the player.
The Paradise Board in Chapter 3, where we see Ralsei get a little taste of agency playing as Kris and his subsequent dismay, shows his wish for determination.
I think we will see Susie and Ralsei fight over the SOUL in a future chapter. Ultimately, the girl “finds love”, so she gets it.
Moreover, the girl is the last hero. One interpretation of this is that Kris and Ralsei lose their place as heroes, but not Susie.
I haven't seen anyone do this yet, and these tracks aren't on the OST as far as I'm aware, but here is all the audio files for the piano Kris plays in the Holiday house scene. They sound like real recordings to me, although I don't know who is playing. I've heard it might be Toby based on the style but I can't say for sure
if that prophecy wasn’t 100% confirmed to be talking about you,
if there was something that might indicate you might not be the hero of legend,
something like using completely different equipment?
if there was something that implied the story had been changed,
that you were maybe supposed to be a different character…
ah, well. i wouldn’t worry about it, susie. keep putting that stock into that prophecy! you’re definitely the hero of legend, you can definitely base your newly found self worth around the idea of that. i’m sure nothing will come up that shatters this illusion.
I think at some point the soul will separate from Kris again. There is a part of the prophecy where the figure of Susie has a heart over her, as well as a sword. Susie doesn’t wield swords. Nor does she wear bows. I think this indicates that Susie gets the soul.
I think there may even be a future dispute over the soul between Ralsei and Susie. I find the segment on the Paradise Board in Chapter 3 may be foreshadowing. Ralsei seems to enjoy playing Kris (this is like having the soul). When Susie connects the controllers to their right characters, Ralsei seems to hide how it upset him to lose control of the main character.
if that prophecy wasn’t 100% confirmed to be talking about you,
if there was something that might indicate you might not be the hero of legend,
something like using completely different equipment?
if there was something that implied the story had been changed,
that you were maybe supposed to be a different character…
ah, well. i wouldn’t worry about it, susie. keep putting that stock into that prophecy! you’re definitely the hero of legend, you can definitely base your newly found self worth around the idea of that. i’m sure nothing will come up that shatters this illusion.
I think at some point the soul will separate from Kris again. There is a part of the prophecy where the figure of Susie has a heart over her, as well as a sword. Susie doesn’t wield swords. Nor does she wear bows. I think this indicates that Susie gets the soul.
Toby Fox is apolitical. He's just genuinely a good earnest and loving person, which is why his games are queer as fuck. He's not writing the characters that way as some kind of representation win or to own the chuds or to sign post his allegiance. Crafting worlds with people like that in it just comes naturally to him because it doesn't occur to him that there's anything special or unusual about them. The existence of queer people is treated as matter of factly as the existence of anime is.
I'll always remember a video that came out after SURVEY PROGRAM first released that was something like "secret Ralsei dialog!" and it seemed legit at first because I mean hey this is the Undertale guy yeah there's probably some obscure dialog scene to trigger in here. And I remember the EXACT moment I figured out it was a bullshit troll video, and it was when it goes to a part where Ralsei said "Kris is gay too!?"
And that was when I knew it was a troll because Toby Fox wouldn't write a character saying something like that. He wouldn't use that word. He wouldn't write a character as being surprised over another character having same sex attraction. It's not his style. Despite the eccentric nature of his story telling, the messages therein are always very down to earth and speak to the generalities of the human condition. Undyne reciprocates Alphy's affections because she's attracted to her passion. Not because "I am a lesbian ngahhhh!"
By contrast the kind of people who unfortunately flock to this kind of earnest universal love for humanity story telling are folks who legitimately do not understand it. People who are the opposite of good people, but think that their slavish devotion to political ideology that has been deemed "morally superior" and "the right side of history" makes them righteous. To them these games are just seen in terms of the Representation Checklist, and the fact it ticks off enough boxes to meet their standard of approval means he is upheld as "one of our own." The WHY of these characters and themes doesn't matter to them, they see it only in terms of surface level superficial resemblance to their totalitarian dogma.
Toby Fox was in a really bad place for quite a long time after Undertale. The overnight fame that game enjoyed clearly took a toll on him. Based on his activities lately, it seems like he's gotten over that and is back to his old wacky self. Suggests that he's found a way to cope and move on from the kind of struggles that adulation from cult adhering vipers brought. I'm very glad of that. Toby Fox is a bright and shining spirit and I can only hope his works inspire others with their SUBSTANCE, and not just their style. His pure heart with an overwhelming love for humanity and the medium of video games is there plain as day, for those with eyes to see it.
Third time coming to Tumblr. First was for the UT fangame concept Dreeming of Home. Second was for the Vilous fan comic Bank of the Gold Ring. Now I’m just here to be here.
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