twin-wolves-123

he/him, just another queer asian kid FINALLY OUT OF COLLEGE who is obsessed with pokemon and the like //sometimes i sing or write but i'm not very good

[charmallows]

deltarune is an elaborate excuse for toby and temmie to play dressup with their tuoys

[depsidase]

[phantomrose96]

So I love all of FMA’s “it’s clever when it’s not in English” naming. Riza “The Hawk’s Eye” Hawkeye. The Strong Arm Alchemist, Alexander Louis Armstrong. Ruler of the nation, King Bradley–first name King, last name Bradley.

And you know, that “King Bradley” name is a strong contender for most ridiculous in-your-face naming but that’s not actually the worst of Bradley’s name. What’s worse is that he’s “Fuhrer President King Bradley”, because he’s literally got three titles in his name that all mean “Ruler” literally three of them but even that is not the worst part about Fuhrer President King Bradley’s name.

You see the worst part about this name is that he goes by “Fuhrer”. You know, the German word for “Leader”, pronounced “fyur-ur”, same as “Furor”.

You know, Furor

Or,

you know,

in other words

Wrath.

[brawltogethernow]

Who invited Angry Angry King King King?

[forencetarantellaharry]

Himromu Arakawa writing FMA: I’m dropping hints.

[faeyuh]

how it felt to fight mad mew mew’s body dysphoria while hatsune miku serenades me in the bg

[dufrau]

i dont think straight people should be allowed to do "enemies to lovers" i think if a man is your enemy you need to trust that you were correct the first time and slay him in battle

[thestrangestwatermelonofall]

Why do they sell raspberries in those small little cartons? I absorb those things in a single sitting. I need these to be sold by the bucket

actually they are super expensive where I live, so I guess they are sold in small packages so they are sold at a low price. How much would a bucket of raspberries cost? Hold on I'm going to do some math

[thestrangestwatermelonofall]

So. A standard bucket is about 5 gallons. The little package of raspberries that I bought today was 6 ounces and it cost me 3$. A gallon is equal to 128 fluid ounces. When it comes to raspberries, I'm sure we can just assume that their ounces and a fluid ounce can be the same, because raspberries can be squished to fit into the same amount of area that fluid would take up. So, 128 times 5 is 640. So we have 640 ounces for our bucket. My package cost me 50¢ an ounce so. I have come to the conclusion that a bucket of raspberries would cost me 320$. 320$. Is that worth it? I don't think so. But gosh, a bucket of raspberries...

[valtsv]

arranged political marriage narratives are for me similarly fraught to unplanned pregnancy in that they tend to skew towards a conservative, anti-choice sentiment regardless of the author's intentions or ideology, because the end goal is typically the realisation of an apparently empowering and subversive romantic fantasy where the characters involved experience compellingly turbulent and sexually charged conflict between normative expectations and their own desires, but ultimately find themselves fulfilled in and even healed by the acceptance of undeniably important and worthwhile but conventional (and oppressively gendered) roles like that of the loving husband and wife or parental figures. which is a shame because i Do think that there's some interesting and worthwhile commentary to be explored through these kinds of kinky fantasies that reflect the anxieties surrounding very real and enduring sociopolitical issues regarding autonomy and consent, but when that tension is ultimately resolved by settling into a role that's always been what's expected of you, even if it does allow you to manipulate certain social power dynamics in your favour, it just rings kind of hollow. all of which is a very long-winded way of saying that i wish there were more arranged marriage narratives where the participants never fall in love, but still come to care for and respect one another, and perform the marital duties expected of them out of that affection and desire to both help each other advance their sociopolitical countermoves to subvert the status quo and to survive, using the legal and social trappings that come with their marital status to their advantage to protect each other.

[hillhomed]

what we have no one else does

[amethystblack]

Disclaimer: cis person and certainly an ally. As a trans woman yourself: what do you think constitutes being a certain gender to a trans person? Gender norms and roles are largely made up by society, and differ heavily across them. When people transition, are they reinforcing gender stereotypes? I have read trans people describing it as an innate feeling and knowledge of being trans. Is it unique to every trans person? Apologies if this is insensitive to ask, feel free to ignore if so.

totally okay. esp with the current social/political sitch, there are a lot of very vulnerable and/or sensitive trans people right now. i'm not one of them. i find these discussions interesting and i'm very happy to help bridge understanding or answer genuine questions. in fact, thanks for taking the leap in asking rather than just sitting on the uncertainty.

this will be long, so let's cut.

let's start with these bits.

what do you think constitutes being a certain gender to a trans person? ... Is it unique to every trans person?

you've answered your first question with your last-- yes, I'd say it is unique. we can think of it like art. if you have a hundred people watch the same movie and ask them their experience of it, you'll get a hundred different answers. it's like that, only we're not even all watching the same movie to begin with.

I have read trans people describing it as an innate feeling and knowledge of being trans.

blessed are those who know from a young age or without question. but in my completely anecdotal perspective, they are the lucky few. the mode is adolescent despair, mid and early life crises, and misery oscillating against endless doubts as to if one is really 'trans enough' to warrant doing anything about it.

but i want to focus on this bit:

Gender norms and roles are largely made up by society, and differ heavily across them. When people transition, are they reinforcing gender stereotypes?

i can see why you would ask that, and on a certain perspective, yes. most basic example: feminine "boy" transitions to be feminine woman, ergo the exceptions conform to the rules and the two categories each take a step to homogeneity.

counterpoint A: to what extent does a person just living their genuine life reinforce a stereotype at all? i am reminded here of the discussion about climate impact-- yeah a person can go vegetarian and practice zero waste and take the bus and etcetcetc but the overall climate impact of that is going be a drop in the bucket compared to systemic changes or corporate giants going greener. i posit that 'reinforcing gender stereotypes' is a concern not for people living their own lives, but for media, representation, or those who would police and belittle others for their habits or presentation. the more true to ourselves the rest of us can be, the better. if doing so creates trends, so be it.

but let's set that aside and take 'reinforcing gender stereotypes' in this context as both a given and something that Ought to be Avoided. after all, the stereotype itself is an obstacle to self-truth. are we reinforcing these stereotypes? i still say no.

counterpoint B: nonbinary trans people, of course. but even then, being nonbinary is not necessarily binary. there's a lot of she/theys out there, for instance, you know?

turns out when you open the door to not being one's assigned gender, a lot of people are eager to jump ship, and not necessarily to The Other designated category. if gender is not boxes, is it spectrum? grid? performance art? all models are wrong, and this one stopped being useful. it having been examined for the shadows on the wall it is, new art may be created incorporating those shadows, but that doesn't mean that watching needs be an exercise in ignorance.

but that gets a little too abstract for discussion. so let's reel it back in and focus just on binary trans people. do binary transpeople reinforce their chosen gender's stereotypes?

...definitely sometimes! i think of the concept of babytrans here. i've heard it described like this: when a lot of girls first transition, they want the longest hair and the shortest skirt. but this is reasonable. to use a physical analogy, if you have a bunch of leftward momentum and you suddenly realize you actually want to be going right, you must apply a lot of force to course-correct. for transfems, hyperfemininity is that force. idk what boys do or like tho.

counterpoint C: ...but what about after that? again, speaking fully in-binary, my personal experience and observation is that once someone has been their own correct gender for long enough, years, decades, whatever, and has finally become comfortable with themselves in their chosen gender, that doesn't always mean they want to adhere to it 100%. as with enbies, the door has already been opened. there's nothing to stop one from crossing back through it now and again. in fact, just recently i was observing a group of transfems trading tips for how best to dress butch/masc while still visibly being women.

at the end of the day, the problem with gender stereotypes is only that they are used to limit what one should do. transitioning is already an act rebellion against those limits. can our freedom reinforce those bindings? if so, then whatever small extent it might is vastly outweighed by our example. let's use our joy to show everyone how little those shackles mean.

[zipsunz]

rule breakers

[milkie2]

oughhoughhhhh

Among us show design references for myself

[phantomrose96]

Reddit is not always sending their best

[phantomrose96]

[phantomrose96]

*holds myself back from posting this with the same shaking restraint as a comic book superhero who has sworn off killing*

[prism-forgone]

the girl next door and shards of freedom at the bottom of the lake

ok. i'm back to yapping about metanarrative of deltarune guys strap in

noelle's character trajectory in chapter 5's weird route felt so much like that of a secret boss. let me just start off with that. it felt so much like what we've seen from jevil and spamton especially, where the weight of the nature of their existence drove them to insanity, and to actions that ultimately led to their downfall. but it's just generally a throughline between all the secret bosses that their arcs concern attaining freedom or challenging the narrative in some way.

noelle's breakdown feels like one of a person trapped in a daily tedium that feels limiting, yes. but i find it more interesting and poignant to read it as one of a character slotted into a very specific role, one they've grown aware and tired of. noelle's theme is literally called "girl next door". she's The Neighbor in the play that is deltarune, the one that's centering kris. she's The Healer Mage Girl in the game played out by the prophecy. she sings in the church choir, she lends you pencils and she has a sick dad and a strict mom. as far as archetypes go, she's not "supposed" to be mean, show assertiveness, or like creepy things. and no one knows this about her, that she wants to do all this. well. mostly no one.

considering this piece of dialogue, it is somewhat interesting to me how the weird route centers the two weird kids, ones who don't fit the tale's mold. i don't really mean kris being weird in-character here, by the by. they're just. weird, narratively. they're not the vessel we made. and the player surely didn't expect the character they're controlling to be literally controlled, having their own agenda and actively opposing their actions. they're very atypical in this way. just what does the "weird" in "weird route" imply, exactly?

anyhow. noelle's breakdown is one of the rebellion against the script of the game. much like the secret bosses, and just the concept of the prophecy in general, her arc enters a conversation with the prescriptivism of the game's storyline, of "this is who you are. you're just a construct. you're supposed to be this thing specifically, in order to fulfil your function in the story." and, since kris, acting unlike themselves, is the living proof for noelle that it doesn't have to work this way, she sees the line to break free, by any means necessary. even if those means require using her childhood friend for it by dragging them into a lake to drown, just like the player used her to get onto this route at all.

there is some sort of tangent here i'm struggling to not indulge too much about the connection between glass and water in the game. shadow crystals are glass in the light world, ones you can look through to see different things. much like you can see things through your screen. it is not baseless to consider those pieces of glass, given to characters that break off from the story, as fragments of screens - deltarune is already weird with its diegesis this way. we do find some glass shards beside water. and water also is known to make devices malfunction or break. sort of curious noelle uses the depths of the lake to break away from this fully digital story by literally going out of bounds.

we've already been made aware of noelle's propensity for breaking video games, and that it may come into play considering the fact she herself is also within a video game. i have to say it's very nice, narratively, to see this realized this way. it is, otherwise, obviously horrifying! nonetheless, i'm very very interested what this attempt - successful or not - will mean for noelle and the plot of the weird route, down the line. i'm gonna stop before i start talking about how going through the weird route in chapter 5 permanently impacts all your files, i can't contain everything in one post yo

[zalmonthe]

Kris and the soul are one and the same, and that's why Kris hates it so much

a long-winded diatribe

This is my hill to die on.

Kris is not possessed by an extradimensional heart-shaped ghost, Kris is a lost teenager full of self-hatred, inner conflict and self-control issues.

The body and soul are two parts of Kris. The soul does not take agency away, it is agency. The soul is not Kris's possessor - it is Kris. The soul is not the player - Kris is the player because they have the soul. And that's exactly what Kris hates.

THE PHRASING

First, we choose everything. Our body, our mind, our likes, our name. And then we hear:

This is the statement of theme. Front and center. What this game is about, is choice to be who you want, or lack thereof.

to paraphrase, "You (player) are Kris. You like what you like - whether you like it or not. You want what you want - whether you want it or not. You have many needs that you don't need. You didn't choose your name or species, and most definitely not your fate. You didn't choose yourself, but that's who you are."

Kris is not a blank slate, but they are still you. If you don't like being Kris - how fortunate! You have that much more in common!

Narration repeatedly conflates you and Kris, speaks of your body parts acting on their own. The soul, too, is phrased both as "Kris's SOUL" and "Your SOUL".

Many claim the narration is unreliable, but ignoring verbatim text is an easy way to justify anything. Narration has never provably lied to us thus far.

Ralsei, too, drops these gems right at the beginning of the game:

And this is what we see in a book:

What if they don't lie? Would the game still have sense and thematic weight?

WHEN AND WHO DOES KRIS DISOBEY?

There are few things we actually choose, and most of those we end up doing more or less literally. Most player options are what Kris can conceivably think of and say.

Many options will be mumbled, rephrased or resisted - which is something real people also do. Have you never struggled to say something, even if you mean to? Have you never started saying a sentence, only to realize it's kind of fucked up and corrected yourself?

Have you noticed other characters do it as well? Sometimes they even have a different font for it. Noelle does it a lot.

The more emotional conflict Kris has over an action, the more likely it will fail. Of course Kris would be tempted to look at their brother's love letters, look in his room in Queen's palace, or read a book on humans. Of course they'd also have difficulty doing so.

Why couldn't we read the letters before? Why only now? Because that's not a thing Kris would do. Not then. They didn't feel like it.

VISUAL METAPHOR

In any other piece of media - without the baggage of Undertale's meta commentary, if you saw a character rip their heart out and toss it in a cage, what does that mean?

Would it help the case if they're a traumatized, alienated, mentally ill teenager with a broken family?

They feel like shit, so they lock their heart away and indulge in some pie. When the most powerful adult in town makes them betray their friends, it will at least ease the pain to toss it in a box and get shitfaced on chocolate syrup. If you must obey, it's easier if you can't refuse, if your volition isn't home.

When Susie asks to walk her home, "not now" really sounds more like "we don't wanna end the chapter quite yet" - much like previous chapters. But it still feels bad to say "no", so Kris immediately regrets this choice, gets rid of their agency and complies.

What does it mean to beat your heart up? Does it matter, that Kris does it while Noelle - their old best friend and crush, flirts with Susie - their new best friend and crush? When Noelle calls them weird, says their cherished moments were forced? When they're busy betraying Susie at the same time?

What about after doing something really, really wrong to your friend?

All of this begs the question - why would Kris do any of these horrible things? Why would the player do any of these horrible things? I don't know. I didn't, after all. I walked Susie home and never played snowgrave. But there are people who do, and Kris can be like them, too.

***

Within Undertale's baggage of meta commentary, Kris is the Chara parallel. We know they're capable of (becoming) far, far worse with no player involvement.

None of these are conventional ways for video game protagonists to behave, but Deltarune is hardly conventional. It's also not the first, Disco Elysium's protagonist has at least 27 voices in his head, and the player is one of them.

ASCETISM

Kris will not love themself of their own volition. Why would Kris think they deserve to be happy?

They don't. That's why Kris refuses to play piano. "Concert for you" - a concert for Kris, the only kind of music that they deserve. But they will play on two occasions: 1. The soul is gone - and with it, emotional turmoil 2. They have no other choice - the best excuse under the sun God forbid they enjoy themself.

Of course their room is plain, it's a visual reminder that Asriel is so much better than us. In trying to emulate their angel of a brother, Kris only ends up a horned devil child. Toriel's room is locked to keep the sweets from us. They can't have nice things because they're a sinner - something the town priest does not believe in, but Toriel does, Asriel did, and so Kris probably does too - whether they want to or not.

It takes Susie to get us the first wall star and clean up the bloodstain. Ralsei gives us our fully decked out room.

Susie and Ralsei have similar struggles with their sense of self-worth. Susie's room is even more barren, she hasn't known much love in her life and can only express her needs by force or threat. Ralsei's is just a cell - he has no compassion for himself and must learn that he deserves comfort at all.

Ralsei going splat on the floor is funny and all, but he does it for pretty sad reasons.

Susie and Ralsei don't lock all their niceties away so an extradimensional meta-entity can't spy on them. They don't have niceties to lock away. Neither does Kris.

SPAMTON

Spamton is no counterexample.

Spamton's one real signifier of unfreedom is the strings, which could mean many things. He thought power would make him free, but power comes with strings attached, said almost verbatim right as the fight begins:

Spamton is a puppet. There's no mention of a puppeteer. He didn't choose to be this way, and he does not like it. He thinks, if he becomes big enough of a shot, somehow his Spamtonhood will pass too - but he can't choose that.

No split personalities, no foreign entities talking for him. His new body and even its conspicuous pop-out heart-on-a-string both have the same face, his face, as if to make it more obvious.

He is a chained prisoner inside himself, a cage for his own soul. Spamton can see his strings, but everyone has their own. Agency is a very scarce resource in Deltarune.

So, where now does Spamton want to obtain his agency?

Oh, right. The game does, after all, tell us numerous times that the SOUL is a source of agency.

Something we do actually see, is Spamton addressing the heart as Kris, and still implying they are not free:

Silly strings, garbage can and heart on a chain being obviously himself projecting onto Kris.

PINK

Pink is a lot less ambiguous.

She is composed of a soul and body, but they are the same person most of the time. They split when the soul's fears and body's desires conflict.

Pink has visible strings like Spamton.

There is not even room this time for a spooky off-screen puppet master, no mysterious phonecalls, no ties to Gaster or the Knight. The only puppeteer here is the ghost, who is also Pink herself.

She's repressing her feelings, that's all. And how does she receive closure? Learning to accept her own duality - acknowledge both her body and soul's needs.

Much like Kris, Pink also wants to belong within a group (monsters/flowers) that is not her own kind (human/ghost).

***

In neither of the above cases is the soul a harsh master usurping control. It's always a prisoner. The body is the cage. But the body is also you.

CONCLUSION

The soul is Kris, and it is Kris's agency. Kris has the power to choose, that's why they are the player character.

This reading is the most consistent with the text, relies on the fewest assumptions, and it's the one that underlines its central themes and emotional arcs, rather than get lost in theorizing about extradimensional possession or guilt-tripping the player.

Making the player into a foreign entity, extracts all the most interesting parts of Kris - the internal conflict, self-hatred, emotional back-and-forth - and offloads it onto conflict with an external force.

The notion of agency, choice and freedom in Deltarune is a lot more nuanced than "freedom=choice=agency is when noone tells you what to do and it's good". We are repeatedly shown characters, who are prisoners of their own mind, who become less free by pursuing freedom, who find freedom in constraints, or who refuse to be free, whether it's good for them or not. Agency is not always what you want, and not always what you think.

You may not like seeing it, but still, it's what they call "you".

[digitalmyyth]

What is forcefem question

[moringmark]

[foxes-in-love]