aceantarctic

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Meme redraw of that divorce where they had to separate their Beanie Baby collection in court 😩 V doesn't even want the pens she just wants to annoy J

⬇️ Blank version so you can decide what they're splitting + ref

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Shadow mantle

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Final Boss Designing

The TL;DR here is a man who’s determined to end a race of Magic users called mages, and is using their own artifacts to supercharge him with all Magic types and try to just take them all out with force instead of an army.

A man who’s gone so deep into his hatred that he’s losing his humanity in his hate of anything inhuman.

Hope you like this guy! (And yes, he is a big bad evil CEO).

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I wish that if people are gonna portray Ralsei as evil they would characterize him correctly instead of the cliche ass “muahaha I was just pretending to be cute and friendly I was evil this whole time”. if he was a villain he would still be the most insecure little loser about it and try to sincerely convince Kris that. nevermind I just found the funniest image ever

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This was inspired by the songs "And Now For Today's Sponsors...!" and "MIKE, the BOARD, please!"

They sound SO much like Mario Party music, and when I started thinking about it, ch3 reminded me a lot of Mario Party for the GameCube, which I played a lot of as a kid. Specifically, I drew inspiration from Mario Party 7 since it was such a large part of my childhood. Tenna's design also just screams Mario Party host to me, maybe because he reminds me of MC Ballyhoo. Socials/Contact - Redbubble - Commissions

Sorting tags: #my art | #merch

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erm chapter 5 leak ???

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Really REALLY important to me how almost every darkner we meet seems to instantly love Susie. Lancer immediately looked up to her the second they met, and it was probably the first time in a long time (or her whole LIFE) where someone looked at her without prejudice in their eyes and just genuine curiosity to get to know her better. Not only that, but to admire her for who she is!

Then came Jevil, Queen, Tenna, Jack, Gerson... Not to mention all the other darkners who have not shown an ounce of fear or rejection towards her (excluding the ch1 ones who only knew the scary mask she put up to protect herself). She has tea parties, training sessions, concerts... And when she walks in Castle town, nobody backs away.

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Yo, I've not got a snappy hook for this, uh. Seen people theorizing that the end of the prophecy- the inevitability nobody wants to see happen- the panel Susie destroyed- was that Castle Town's dark fountain would have to be sealed.

I disagree. Lemme tell ya why, and also a little bit more, too.

First off, I may as well get the obvious point outta the way- read carefully. "TO SAVE THE WORLDS, THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY." The worlds. Worlds, plural. If we were sealing away all the dark worlds, wouldn't this be singular? After all, I wouldn't exactly refer to sealing an entire world away into nothing as "saving" it... we'd only really be saving the light world in that case, wouldn't we?

And that's usually the one counterpoint everyone uses to argue against this theory. But I think there's a lot more to it than just that. But we gotta look into the game's themes and metaphors.

So, what is a dark fountain? What are the dark worlds? Of course, in an in-universe sense, dark fountains are, well- fountains of darkness, negative light, created by stabbing into the earth with determination- and dark worlds are a different view of reality. The other side of pitch-black darkness.

But what are they? As in, what do they represent- what is their thematic purpose? Well- I suppose that might already be clear, right? They're metaphors for escapism. After all, every dark world thus far is themed after a different form of escapism-

Card Kingdom is themed around card games and board games- is there an umbrella term for that?

Cyber City is themed around the internet and computers

TV World is themed around television, and to an extent, videogames

Dark Sanctuary (all 3 of them) are themed around religion

(Flower King) is most likely going to be themed around one or several of gardening, anime/manga, and superheroes

Now, with this metaphor in mind, you can take another look at the game's story and lore, and make sense of it in a new light- too much darkness births a Titan. Too many dark fountains bring the roaring. What's the metaphor here? What's the game trying to tell us?

Too much escapism is detrimental.

And this makes sense! Too much of anything can be detrimental, even basic necessities such as food, water, and sleep- it's a good message to send. But now, let's think about what the game would be saying if we had to seal Castle Town's dark fountain- and thus, the dark world as a whole.

To me, that would be the game telling us... "all escapism is bad, and you should never do any of it." Which... well, why did we play the game, then, if it's just going to tell us that playing it at all was bad, and that we shouldn't have done it? It's just not a good or strong message to send, and I don't think it's one Toby would want to put in his game.

After all, escapism itself is not a bad thing. It's healthy to take a moment to engage in something that makes you feel good if life or the world is bringing you stress. Just don't overdo it.

Additionally, let's consider Ralsei for a moment. Ralsei- very obviously- does not hold himself, or the dark worlds in general- in very high regard, seeing them as "less real" than the light world. He tells Kris and Susie to make "real friends". He tells Tenna that Darkners aren't real, that they'll all become obselete, and that that's okay.

...and the game makes a big point that Ralsei is wrong about these things- particularly, through Susie. Susie insists that Ralsei is real- that he's one of her real friends. That he matters. And when Ralsei's words only serve to make Tenna feel worse, Susie steps up and gives a pep talk. Tells him that he doesn't have to take being thrown away. That he matters, and that he just needs to find the right people. And that's what cheers him right back up and gets him on your side.

Now, let's think about what these moments are saying to us, the player. What message is the game trying to convey here? Personally, I think this is the game telling us that these experiences- the stories we love, the characters we grow attached to- these all matter. They might not be "as real" as we are, but they can be real to us. And they can matter.

...don't you think that idea is incongruent with the idea of sealing Castle Town's grand fountain, when you consider the thematic implications? What- the game tells us in one moment that the fiction we love, while not real, still matters- and in the next, it's telling us that escapism is bad? It don't add up, chief.

And, for one last point, I'd like to quote user redactedtimes on Discord, as they made quite the compelling point about this themself that I didn't think of until he mentioned it.

To me the grand fountain kinda embodies everything about these stories that we take with us after we finish them. Our joy, what we learned about ourselves, that kinda thing. To seal it is to say that none of those actually mattered to you.

This is another really good point- and it has merit within the game's actual story, too! After all, you quite literally take everything back with you to Castle Town from all the other dark worlds. You bring back all the friends you made, and in a sense, all the experiences you had.

Thusly, to seal Castle Town's fountain would be to forsake all of this- to forsake everything you did, all the joy you had, all you learned, all the friends you made- all of it. To say that none of it mattered. To say that those friends, those games, those shows, those learning experiences... none of it mattered. None of it was real to you.

...however! redactedtimes did have a bit more to say that I think is quite interesting.

In other words: we 100% seal [the grand fountain] in the weird route

I think this is a really intriguing theory- and honestly, I believe it. After all, you're going far out of your way to do horrible things to these characters- traumatising them, abusing them, forcing them to grievously injure their friends- and for what? Because you can? To see what happens? To see if anything changes?

In a way, I think the weird route is a retake of the ideas behind Undertale's murder route. A commentary on completionism, and how far you're willing to push and tear apart this game's world just to see what'll happen. Just because you can. And because you "can", you "have to". Hope I quoted that line right...

Anyway- TL;DR: I don't think we're gonna seal the Castle Town fountain in the main route, because it'd go against the themes of the game, and when considering the game's themes, it would send a bad message. However, I could see it happening as a weird route exclusive thing.

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idk spamtenna comic

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I haven't slept in two days

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it's easy to get emotionally invested in the main plot and characters of Deltarune, but I think one of those quiet little side stories that have fucked me up the most is what happened to Ramb. or didn't happen, I guess

like ... it's such a major theme of both Deltarune and Undertale that everyone has someone who would miss them if they were gone. no one is expendable, no matter how "unimportant" they seem from your perspective. it's one of the first major genre subversions that Undertale explicitly spells out for you

a major twist at the end of Undertale is that even Flowey has the capacity to miss someone who is gone. everyone is connected in some way, no one is truly alone. Deltarune elaborates on this theme; Susie is ostracized in the beginning, but Noelle always wanted to be closer with her, Toriel divorced Asgore, but she still prays for him, Carol is feared by those closest to her, but the town she runs appreciates her efforts, King is a tyrant, but Lancer still loves his dad despite everything, many people in Cyber World are afraid of Queen, but the Swatchlings are devoted to her, Jevil was close with Seam once. if the player allows it, even Tenna, defined by his loneliness and obsolescence, can go on to be exactly what someone else (Mettaton) needs. Tenna himself seems to miss Spamton on some level, who is otherwise widely hated.

but not one character is shown to care about Ramb, and when he "dies", a random colleague shrugs it off and says no one will miss him. and not because he was uniquely evil or anything, he was just kind of annoying and no one around him found a reason to look past it. Tenna's a shitty boss who actively abuses the power he holds over his world to make others' lives miserable, but he's also tragic and fun and charismatic, so those around him warm up to him despite his problems. when the Knight cuts him up, depending on circumstance, there will be people around him to fix him up again, or at least to mourn him.

this even extends to a meta level. Tenna's character is fully explored and his popularity with fans is through the roof. Ramb is a blip on the fandom's radar by comparison. we just don't get to know him that well, and he's just not that engaging. he's just some guy, friendly enough to us, but with much subtler characterization than most of the quirky personalities in this game. Tenna is loved in part because he has a huge, ugly, violent meltdown; it makes him exciting! relatable! Ramb never seems to directly hurt anybody. no doubt if he actually had been chapter 3's secret boss, as was hinted he might be before that pattern was subverted, he would have been more popular. but he wasn't the secret boss. really, there's no solid evidence he ever wanted anything except to help Kris in the only way he knew how.

I wonder if Kris cared about him. I want to say "of course they did" because he's an old item they used to love playing with come to life, but there are hints that Kris has a complicated relationship to the Darkners in general, so I actually don't want to say for sure. the player is compelled to care about Ramb at least a little because he's friendly to us and ultimately enables us, but we are not Kris, and the path Ramb enables the player to take is clearly emotionally distressing to Kris.

idk. there's just something about someone dying unloved and unmissed. not because they "deserve" it, but mostly out of happenstance. he didn't meet the right people for him. he was kind of aggravating and nothing about him was interesting or charming enough for anyone to want to look past it. after he's gone, the only person who takes note of his passing takes time out of their day to figuratively spit on his grave. in a story that is so warm and so full of love, where everyone is so connected, he just kind of ... slipped through the cracks

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Yummy

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Lil doodles of em

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Fun fact, to calm a person, just do something random.

Thank you Susie.

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Surprise hug!

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brief thought on tenna as armor / natural consequence

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toriel got a bag of power strips from a garage sale, despite being in need of a grand total of zero power strips. while toriel quickly regrets her mistakes, hater pippins suffers her consequences.

later...

plus some favourite rambs of mine I I I V