b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

tenna is weird al

so, do you have any spamton headcanon voices? Or headcanon voices for any of the other deltarune characters?

i swap between Jim Carrey and Max Headroom for Spamton like look at thiss

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

TV WORLD posters

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

cute tenna moment: when they find roulxs in the video game and he turns and asks "who was that guy?" and nobody answers

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

The last time I played the game was when the new chapters released, so my memory might not be the greatest here, but I interpreted the darkners having previous/established lives thing as their "memories" as objects becoming less abstract and more tangible and alive when they become darkners. Maybe that is just last thursdayism with extra steps idk lol.

Slightly unrelated, I do know some people speculate the general idea of darkners are at least partially inspired by Tsukumogami, how to interpret that into the wordbuilding of dark worlds and darkners, I dunno..

anytime I try to figure it out it comes back around to "last thursdayism with extra steps" LOL

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

"Part of you is just... enjoying this, isn't it? The same part of you that enjoyed yesterday. Knowing you could say it wasn't really you."

me when i don't wanna take accountability for genocide/weird route so i blame chara/spamton

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

only thing i hate about deltarune is the last thursdayism dark world shit

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

spamton may have a pattern of idealizing and then feeling betrayed by people who were simply transactional in their relationship

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

all this stuff how tenna loves kris and is protective of them and has always just wanted them to be happy is cute and all but only if you forget how he exploits their family trauma and sense of responsibility to guilt-trip them, bringing up private, sensitive details in front of their friends and framing his own abandonment issues as a failure of the dreemurr family and, by extension, kris.

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

STOP LYING. Tenna is not a soft-hearted boss who can't bring himself fire people; he's a boss who will fire people if he deems them a net loss to his goals without a significant personal cost. FINISH THE GAME.

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

spamton's shop mural suggests his capacity for creative expression is tied to his dreams and aspirations and that makes me happy

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

unpopular opinion: jevil and spamton's conflict isn't about the 4th wall and is entirely contained within the game's world

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

can you.. draw susie and jevil again... i wanna see the evil duo.. sniff

yeh

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

The kingdom of a lonely prince

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

ch1 forest in deltarune..

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

Dream Castle Town

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

[b1g-sh0t-s4lsmn-1997]

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.