#deltarule chapter 2

[cocokoalatea]

Wanted to doodle him in the pizza shirt

[utoveria]

I like that there's this sort of "environmental storytelling" into Kris's character. We learn more about them through other characters and what they say about them and what their attitude is towards Kris , and to a somewhat lesser extent through their actions (since we control them and all) but there are moments where they act on their own that are telling. Idk I think its neat, that we're basically finding out who they are by having people reminisce or talk.

Also we get information like that even about how they're actually feeling in the moment. It might part of the whole us controlling them or them just not being super outwardly expressive (?) but like other people mentioning their reactions and small behaviors that we can't see, just kind of adds to the whole thing in a way like that we as a player are so removed from the character that we can't actually see or connect to what they're feeling, but that doesn't mean those things don't happen, that Kris is just rolling with the punches all the time.

[utoveria]

I really like that delta rune has the theme of like choices, control, and agency (among others).

I think it plays in several ways. Disregarding the whole player control for a moment, the characters have little control over their circumstances. And like they're still students and teens typically have very little control and freedom. They go to school, there's family problems, peer problems, expectations, etc. Their decisions don't save the world, they have no real impact on the "big things". Its incredibly frustrating. So here we have the dark world where the gang has any real control. They get cool powers, they save the world (twice now), they get friends, they get to express themselves and be accepted. If they could these kids would pick dark world every time. It's no wonder there's no downside for them, until Ralsei told them it'll bring a calamity and well....

We've been told that in this world choices don't matter. But that's not entirely true. The only real thing we have control over is the relationships we build. Whether we fight or spare. That makes a difference, even if the chapter end is essentially the same for either. So our player choices also matter, even if the destination is similar or same. What we make Kris do reflects on the world around them even in small ways.

In a way the player, us, is not even all powerful. We don't wholly control Kris but we can certainly push them far enough if we want to and others through them. We can't control how Kris feels or thinks but we do control their behavior and words. Though there's an interesting distinction of speech like tone and volume and physical sensations like shivers. We can't even stop them from ripping the soul out. We are an observer with a physical restriction on agency. Making choices based on our own perceptions of things, instead of Kris. (And who wouldn't absolutely hate that?..)

The whole thing with spamton is really eerie in this regard. He's a puppet, his strings broke and now he can't move. He's not free. He’s got the will but not control. What is [heaven]? What is true freedom? Can you even have that in this world? 

We've only had 2 chapters but like already there's so much to think about.

[utoveria]

So I;ve been thinking like how the heck did we [the player] wound up with Kris? I ask more than i answer but im just typing out my thoughts. 

Since at the beginning we went through the whole thing of making a soul (or mostly a vessel?) with help of like some being (also like where and who?) before getting discarded which might mean that there is a way to have that vessel but not in this world or reality. Unless it’s like a simulation type of deal.

Since they said that this is a world where your choices don't matter, I think its more like the players choices don't but Kris' choices do. Which makes that statement kind of true and kind of not, since sure we get to the same "end", same converging points at the end of the chapter but how we get there is different, whether we recruit people or not, which I think matters. And sure Kris is sometimes told you don't have a choice but still their choices have weight (outside of us). In some ways its one and the same since we get to decide some of those things. 

So it's like we got "assigned" to Kris, in this world for whatever reason. And in a way we are an observer and a puppeteer. Though as an observer we kind of suck since we have to be told things that are going on (and we can barely know what's going on with Kris themselves) or Kris is in a way an "unreliable narrator" since they have to tell us stuff themselves. 

But like I feel like Kris already had to have had a soul to begin with right ??? Like. They talked about determination a bit in ch2 (plus that book), which relates to souls and such but in this case it seems to mostly relate whether you are a darkner or a lightner (but even then I feel like the fountains could only be made in the dark world??? since Queen supposedly saw the Knight??) and not whether you have a soul (but maybe a soul is needed to seal them). Why are we able to “pair” with this specific soul? 

Did Kris just wake up one day and found they couldn't control themselves or had some "other" being within them? I’ve seen a theory that they are possessed by something else so its like now you got 2 of them. The sus things we see Kris do, is that them or something else? Since we don't see what they do, we don't have a context for their actions. And we certainly don't know what they’re thinking, though we have a little bit based on what we know of their past and character.