hewwo! do you have any thoughts/theories on the not-goner on the libraries second floor? love to hear your feelings on them
normalnpc
hi! thank you for the ask!!! i'm going to try and focus on interpreting and analysing normalnpc, as i don't really have any specific theories or explanations for them.
i'm going to catalogue how they've evolved chapter-by-chapter, analyse their appearance, discuss the books upstairs, and explore how poorly what they're saying fits together.
and yeah, thank you for the ask!! everyone please ask me stuff if you want to :)
normalnpc, chapter by chapter
this section just goes through normalnpc's appearances throughout the game so far. feel free to skip it if you're already familiar!!
normalnpc is introduced in Undertale as the third Gaster Follower.
their filenames are g_follower_3 and gaster_follower_c.
in Undertale, they do not have an equivalent NPC.
I understand why ASGORE waited so long to hire a new Royal Scientist. The previous one... Dr. Gaster. His brilliance was irreplaceable. However, his life... Was cut short. One day his experiments went wrong, and...
Well, I needn't gossip. After all, it's rude to talk about someone who's listening.
in Chapter 1, normalnpc blocks the stairs to the upstairs library. in their dialogue, they encourage us to read the books upstairs.
[Chapter 1] I love reading books. Especially the books upstairs. You should really. Read them!
I love reading books. Especially... The books.
in Chapter 2, normalnpc's dialogue is slightly altered. they tell us how much they enjoy reading books.
[Chapter 2] I love reading books. Especially the books upstairs.
I love reading. Especially books.
they're now blocking the four left bookcases upstairs. i'm going to include what these books say, as i wanna discuss them later on.
How To Care For A Human (It's a book for monsters on how to care for humans.) (According to the card in the back...) (... looks like your mother took it out repeatedly many years ago.) (There are photos of unfamiliar humans inside.)
(It's Book 1 about SOULS. Read it?) The SOUL has long been called many things. The font of our compassion. The source of our will. The container of our "life force." But even now, the true function of it is unknown.
in Chapter 4, normalnpc has moved left by a single bookcase. they have new dialogue again.
[Chapter 4, library] I love reading. Especially... wait. Wait. The books upstairs. The books upstairs. Wait. The books are... ... Wait. Wait, love.
and we can now read one more additional book.
(It's a book about Monster Funerals. Read it?) ... When monsters die, their dust will be spread over what they loved. An object that symbolizes their existence. That object will be buried... And in such a way, their soul be able to rest, within that object, and the earth. Of course, everyone knows that. That's why this is the introduction...
if you've talked to Onion in Chapters 1 and 2, a short scene plays out with Susie by the lake. if you then leave and re-enter this room, normalnpc now stands there.
[Chapter 4, lake] Don't wait, don't wait. Especially, the don't. Wait, don't. Wait... don't!!!
normalnpc's apperance
normalnpc is one of the simplest monsters in the Light World. almost every other monster has more colours, and if not, more sprites. but normalnpc is weirdly low effort. two sprites, three colours.
they're always looking down and smiling. this has a weird, slightly disquieting effect. especially when we see them by the lake in Chapter 4... if they stood upright, they'd be towering and imposing. but instead they nervously hide themselves, like they're trying to appear as small as possible.
when we see them by the lake, or we see them upstairs, they're by themselves- they feel like, out of touch with the rest of reality.
this next part touches on body horror, so feel free to skip it if you're uncomfortable with that.
Gaster Follower 3 comes from altering normalnpc's sprite. specifically, altering normalnpc's speech frame.
all colour is lost,
their eyes narrow,
their open beak becomes a jagged tooth,
their outline becomes thicker,
the gap between their head and neck becomes a grin,
their raised wings become a jagged lower jaw,
their smile extends upwards, folding on itself, into a sharp point,
and their legs melt into the ground.
when GF3 goes to talk, their face just sort of lowers, pulled closer to the rest of their body, while a bone juts out from their forehead. they have to sort of hunch into themselves to talk. their neutral sprite has their mouth hanging open, like closing it is too painful.
as GF3, they lose their ability to interact with the world. they can't move, they're rooted into the ground. they don't have any limbs. they're stuck looking away from whoever talks to them.
GF3 is normalnpc, frozen mid-word, and then contorted and rearranged. the process of them becoming a goner looks sudden, painful, physical. like with Clam Girl, whose face becomes an eye, their path to becoming a goner is... biological.
where the amalgamates seem melted, GF3 looks rigid... this makes a lot of sense if they're from Deltarune, because monsters there aren't made of magic, but made of flesh and blood. remember "Meat Factory", from the Sound Test in Undertale.
it's weird, because in almost every way, normalnpc doesn't feel real. they're just a video game character, they're an abstraction. everything about them makes it feel like they barely exist.
when normalnpc becomes a goner, their bones will start to really matter.
crossed through because this point doesn't make sense in retrospect !!
the library books and growing up
the upstairs library is an absurd, impossible room.
Deltarune does have a lot of non-euclidean architecture; like, try and work out a floor plan for the Dreemurr house. because Undertale, comparatively, has so little, i do think it's an intentional artistic choice.
if you look closely, there are two layers of bookcases, in a way that just doesn't make physical sense.
and even if it did, it wouldn't make sense for monsters to put books there and make them completely accessible.
from the library's outside, while it is ambiguous, i don't think there's an upstairs.
the corridor has too little space. normalnpc shouldn't even be able to turn around.
it's maybe the sparsest and smallest location in the game so far. it's made from like, two textures.
overall, it feels like a non-room, like it somehow isn't real. when we see normalnpc by the lake, it feels off, like Deltarune's reality is starting to collapse.
every new day, normalnpc moves, allowing us to progressively read more books in the library.
in Chapter 1, we can't read any books upstairs
in Chapter 2, we can now also read "How To Care For A Human" and "Book 1 about SOULS"
in Chapter 4, we can now also read "a book about Monster Funerals"
from a game design perspective, i think this makes sense. Toby provides relevant information for each chapter, without overwhelming us.
but every day too, we learn more about Kris's past. we learn about their upbringing, then their soul, then funerals.
in the Dark World, every subsequent chapter is adding more depth to Kris's past. like the "DECEMBER" scene in Chapter 2, the flashbacks in Chapter 3. in the library too, we see Kris's life get, like, coloured in.
when normalnpc tells us to "wait", it reminds me of the Forgotten Man.
WHETHER 11 HOURS OR 11 YEARS, DELTARUNE WILL BE WAITING.
SO TAKE YOUR TIME, WASH YOUR FACE, AND GET DRESSED!
as we wait, we grow up, and new chapters of Deltarune come out. with each chapter, the characters- and the whole world- grow up with us. and normalnpc grows up, becoming more complex and more aware.
The books are... ... Wait. Wait, love.
The books are [...] love.
"The books upstairs" help us colour the world in, give the past details. the books are, in a way, love.
every day we can come back here, and see Deltarune develop form more and more.
Clam Guy
in Chapter 2, if you didn't wait for Onion in Chapter 1, Clam Guy explains how to. then, in Chapter 4, normalnpc tells us not to.
these are both characters with compromised realities, characters whose roles in the game design are conspicuously obvious, with some connections to W. D. Gaster.
but then, at the same time, they're essentially competing with each other. Clam Guy encourages us to wait by the lake, normalnpc prevents us.
even without considering Clam Guy, normalnpc is opaque. upstairs, they're telling us to wait; outside, they're telling us not to.
i think interacting with normalnpc in Chapter 4 shatters our comfort within Deltarune. expected patterns get broken, we see a little past the visage of a Fantasy RPG. even though we can't exactly understand what we're being told, it feels imposing anyway. like, that this entire world is completely out of our hands.
other characters
a lot of other NPCs in Deltarune are becoming progressively distorted. I've covered a lot of them on my blog before:
Jockington
most_improved_1997
Clam Guy
Purple Guy
Donut Guy and snailcar
feel free to check out if you'd like to :) yay