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very sorry for the delay this year, but finally, i present to you year 4's (!!!) results! i hope to see you all next year once more ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ♡

full slideshow: [link]

full spreadsheet: [link]

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Okay! So, with the possibility of tr!Bad chasing tr!Lukey down the hallways of his own laboratory to kill him, I thought I would try to analyze whether it would be possible for our local hamster to get out of that scenario alive. And tldr? The odds are slightly more in his favor than what it may seem like at first glance. And here's my reasoning.

So- there's a couple things here to go over, and I'm kiiiinda hyperfixated on Minecraft PVP mechanics atm so I'm expecting this to get kinda long. Will be under a read more for anyone who's interested.

..Also, some of my argument here relies on the assumption of Lukey being locked in and making the best decisions he can in the moment. Which is pretty unlikely if we're being honest? I still wanted to analyze the mechanics that would slow Bad down in killing him, though. And of course the server damage reduction would play a huge role in that too.

Alright. So, the first thing I'm gonna go over is tr!Bad's way of fighting- and how on actuality his preferred PVP kit may end up hindering him.

Although Bad tends to come across as a fighter to people meeting him for the first time, he honestly fits better into the role of support, or that of a strategizer. His strengths lie more in planning than they do in raw skill and knowing how to choose his battles. He very rarely takes on fights with players more skilled than him unless there's something at play giving him a decent advantage (Ie. On the day of orange faction's arrival, Bad got into a fight with Sneeg and Zam due to Bad attacking Zam first. He shot at Zam with a crossbow while her armor was off. If this were any other server, Zam would've been killed instantly)

Speaking of which, I'd like to reference this wonderful post here analyzing the inventories of green faction's most active members and what they seem as important to carry on them in a fight.

Let's take a look at Bad's inventory as seen there.

Hm, okay. So we can see clearly here that Bad heavily prioritizes his ability to get out of dodge over what is convenient to have in a fight. I won't go super into detail beyond that, as the linked post itself does a wonderful job of it already. I'd mainly like to bring it up to contrast with the inventory he held as of logging off the realm today:

..Hm, okay, so there's a few things different here already. For one, his hotbar isn't ready for a fight. At all. He's got 18 gapples total, shield not in offhand, 16 enderpearls, and absolutely zero potions. Of course this can be explained meta-wise with the fact that Lukey isn't even on at this point in time and cc!Bad is prioritizing storytelling over preparation, but if he were to log on in the lab tomorrow with this very inventory to jump Lukey, Lukey would have both an advantage in the amount of enderpearls he has on him and significantly more gapples. It wouldn't be too difficult for Lukey to chug gapples and pearl spam his way to the elevator and with an elytra he'd essentially be home free. Seriously, Bad? No elytra?

But there's a good chance Lukey might not log on tomorrow- but Sunday instead, giving Bad a whole extra day to prepare and get his inventory ready for a potential fight.

So let's say for the sake of argument, that in this scenario Bad does have his ideal fighting kit on him. Would Lukey still be cooked? Honestly? Lukey could still get out even with his current mess of an inventory.

What does that look like, by the way? (Screenshot is from this post here)

..Not ideal, but honestly it could be worse. I'll give him points for having 23 pearls to Bad's 16 though. Elytra could also use repairing but that's been an issue for a while, and I'm not too worried on account of it being an unbreaking 7 legendary one. Those things last for eons compared to vanilla Minecraft. His chest plate is in his hotbar as well for quick swapping.

Lukey's.. interesting inventory aside, the first thing to consider in an actual fight scenario would probably be the element of surprise: Does bad have the advantage of catching Lukey off guard to get some free damage in?

With his ideal fighting kit? He doesn't, actually. And that's due to one simple thing.

Bad doesn't use splash potions.

According to the Minecraft Wiki, it takes approximately 3 full seconds to drink a potion. That may not seem like much, but that would mean giving Lukey 3 full seconds to process the danger he's in before Bad can get any decent damage in with strength. In fights, quick reactions are key to staying alive. The 3 second delay per potion is the exact reason why players like Pangi and Zam who are more experienced with environments where they could get jumped at any moment almost exclusively carry splash potions.

Okay. 3 seconds have passed, and Bad has applied his strength 5. From there Lukeytv needs to haul ass and Enderpearl spam over to the elevator, get his elytra out, and run the fuck away.

I was curious about what type of rockets he had on him, and it's kinda hard to see in this screenshot, but if you squint you can just barely make out the flight duration number on them.

..Flight duration 1. Anyone else thinking of that time Pangi grilled him on using flight duration 3 rockets instead so he can outfly his pursuers? Lukey wasn't, apparently. Well, shit.

That's not the end of the world though.

Because Bad exclusively uses flight duration 1 rockets too.

As long as Lukey can manage to get out of the elevator first and elytra out before Bad does, Bad wouldn't be able to catch up to him on merit of distance alone. Congrats on the escape from death himself, Lukey! Have a gold star.

..Of course, this is also assuming Bad doesn't instantly one-shot him with his crossbow or the bleeding bug, but I'm decently confident in saying that for meta reasons I feel like cc!Bad would shy away from using them. He may threaten to, but during the era where traps were abundant on the server, Bad himself has stated that he prefers making ones that give wiggle room for his victims to escape. And I imagine this mentality carries over to PVP, too, especially considering how after his fight with Sneeg and Zam he stated he wanted to avoid fights until the bug was patched. I don't think he'd intentionally use it to one-shot Lukey.

So uh, yeah! That's the end of this post ig. Conclusion is Lukey isn't as cooked as he might appear to be because Bad needs breaks to chug potions and neither party has taken notes from Pangi on what rockets to use. Yep!

Idk how to end this, ig someone hopefully finds this interesting :P

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yerp

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can someone talk about this

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im high off krusie cocaine

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Want to draw my favorite deltarune post

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Some flowers

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Don't worry he's not lost, remember he's a human GPS. Only without the satellite...

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fun gang style tests except i will probably still change up how i draw them...

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person in fandom: eeeyikes!!! i hope im writing this character in this short little fanfic right >_< eeekkk what if my takes on my meta are all wrong and everyone will Kill me!!

guy in professional comic industry: okay lets mischaracterize every single character that appears in this comic for 50 or so issues

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"Times arrow neither stands still nor reverses. It merely marches forward."

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We all know Ralsei's singing would go triple platinum in the churches choir group

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It's really cool how, after Chapter 2 established the idea of Darkners (who aren't Ralsei) eventually petrifying when in a Dark World they 'don't belong' in, both Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 found a way to use that idea in really weird and creative ways to enhance their themes.

Chapter 3 blurs the seemingly obvious lines of "every Darkner belongs in the Dark World that created them", asks what does it really mean to 'belong'. A Plugboy (Ramb) and plenty of Pippins were brought to life via the Dark Fountain that created everything in TV World… and yet there are characters expressing the idea they don't belong due to their Dark World Backstories that means that they come from other Worlds - even if these obwere still totally in Kris' living room when those those Dark Fountains were opened.

And then it messes with it even further by having all the Pippins be totally fine, while Ramb the Plugboy and even one of the Zappers got petrified. It seems like the idea of belonging or not belonging in a Dark World is a lot more abstract and emotion-based then we previously thought. The Pippin's dialogue about Ramb implies he got petrified simply because he never really made friends, because he never fit in.

And that just… really helps the atmosphere of the endgame of TV World. The way that Tenna's obsession and breakdown is causing his world to crumble all around him, causing his own people to feel alienated. And this idea of feeling like you never really belong in your own home obviously fits in with the undercurrents of Dreemurr Family Drama that run through the entire chapter.

Meanwhile in Chapter 4, the Petrification is used to emphasize the narrative element of Predestination and, well, Prophecy. Because it's not just that the Darkners from the original "Dark Sanctuary" manifest as Petrified when Susie creates her "Second Sanctuary"

The Darkners of the Second Sanctuary already appeared Petrified in the First Sanctuary.

Meaning that basically, as far as the Dark Worlds were concerned, Susie's creation of the Second Sanctuary was preordained. So preordained that the objects that would become the Darkners that populate that Dark World came to life as soon as the First Sanctuary did, but then turned to stone because they actually belonged in that not-yet-created other Sanctuary.

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Taking another look the Chapters 3 + 4 Soundtrack, and I’ve been thinking about the piano plink that usually plays when you try and make Kris play the Piano being included and labeled

As a “Concert for You”.

And I have to wonder, does that mean “You” as in “you, the player”, as in "us", as in…

Before, a lot of people interpreted Kris ‘plinking’ as then being unable to play the Piano properly due to our clumsy control. Like, as long as we're driving their body along neither they or us have the fine motor skills needed for Piano playing, much to their assumed frustration. But after the events of Chapter 4, and then also the name of this "track"… I wonder if it's more of a matter of Kris not wanting to play the Piano when we're controlling them.

Playing the piano is obviously very emotionally important for Kris. When operating freely during the opening of Chapter 4, when they think no one is watching, this is one of the few things they do not because of the Plan or the orders of Ominous Phone Voice Probably Carol, but for themself (that and the Underage Drinking). Noelle has also reminisced about how they'd never let her watch them play.

"a concert just for me" also feels like a deliberate contrast to the "Concert For You". While Kris is too emotionally distant to let Noelle watch them play, as long as she keeps the boundary of staying in the other room, Kris can play beautiful music for her. But we're both the Amoral Time Demon that has taken control of their body and a patsy for Kris and Ominous Phone Voice Probably Carol's scheme. Kris hates us, so they just refuse to play the Piano when they know we're around and are angry we're even trying to make them do it.

That "Plink..." is probably the chronologically-earliest example of Kris' rebelling against our control via Malicious Complaisance. Like when we try and take a look as Asriel's room in Cyber World, for example…

We tell them to peek inside this room and violate their brother's privacy and so they 'peek' with their eyes closed. We tell them to 'play the piano' so they play one singular shitty note on the piano and technically fulfilled our command. The only way we could make them play anything else is with stuff like Chapter 4's Piano Puzzles when we're directing every single note and step.

So that makes that moment in Chapter 4 where they take control and show off their Piano Skills on their own even more powerful.

Because…. I think Kris still hates us, but this is clearly a moment done as a gesture of emotional vulnerability for Susie and Ralsei. This is Kris basically deciding that their hatred of us is not more important than their love for their friends. So they allow Susie and Ralsei to hear them play, even if that means also letting us hear them as well. For their friends, it's worth it.

But make no mistake, this is still the Concert for You.

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The funny thing is that despite the many surface-level similarities between Mettaton Undertale and Tenna Deltarune; both being rectangular, charismatic TV Hosts who subject the Player Characters to many TV-Themed Minigames and a ‘score’ based Sparing Mechanic

And they even have a very similar taste is suits!

On a deeper character/thematic level, they’re actually total opposites.

Mettaton is the Underground’s only celebrity and main source of entertainment, he’s highly watched and highly popular (Well, within the standards of the Underground, it's implied they are just not that many Monsters around). Meanwhile Tenna’s whole thing is that he’s been abandoned and ignored by the whole Dreemurr family. Outcompeted and overshadowed by the many other sources of entertainment in the modern Light World.

And while Tenna is motivated by an obsessive desire to not be abandoned ever again, to keep Toriel and the Fun Gang on his shows forever… One of Mettaton’s biggest flaws is his tendency to abandon those he’s close to. He pretty much cut ties with Shyren and Napstablook when he became a star.

And he’s been growing distant from Alphys as well.

And, actually his whole darn motivation is to abandon the Underground in search of even greater fame on the surface.

His Pacifist Ending is all about him confronting that flaw in himself, understanding how important he is to the Monsters of the Underground and deciding that he should stay so he can keep bringing his brand of entertainment, joy and glamour to the people who needs it.

While Tenna’s Happy Ending is about helping him to get over his obsessive neediness to entertain specifically the Dreemurr family, and realizing he can move on to someone else, to someplace else, who will actually watch him.

On a deeper thematic level... I think you can also talk about how Mettaton is driven by his Dreams, while Tenna seeks Hope.

And also, I always saw Mettaton as representing modernity for the Underground.

Due to his human-fanboyism and fascination with the Surface, Mettaton has ended up creating and/or promoting a lot of aspects of modern human culture in the Underground. Mass media entertainment, merchandise, trademarks, fast-food, minimum-wage retail jobs, unions…

All of these things seem to exist in the Underground primarily or entirely due to Mettaton’s influence.

Every other Boss/Main Character has some kind of ‘official position’ in the Kingdom's traditional power-structure; Sentry, Royal Guard Captain, Royal Scientist, King, Queen, Prince… Mettaton is a creation of the Royal Scientist, but on his own he’s just a rich and famous celebrity. That's kind of a modern concept in it and of itself, since it kinda requires the existence of a mass media culture....

Or hell, just the fact that he’s the one Monster in the game who seems to have no real respect/loyalty for the Monarchy, and is actually working against him…

Both out of his individual sense of morality (he cares for the Humans) but also for the sake of the very modern goal of mass fame.

And of course on the most obvious level he’s a technologically-advanced robot whose ‘zone’ is the most tech-themed part in the game. (Zones? if you wanna count Hotland and the CORE as separate areas. Either way it's true of both when compared to the rest of the Underground.)

And Tenna is obviously the exact opposite of this. He and his Dark World are still kinda tech-themed in the sense that he is a Darkner based on a household electronic device, but he’s still clearly supposed to stand as a vast contrast to the much-more advanced techy-themed Darkners of Cyber City. He’s specifically meant to be themed after outdated and old-fashioned technology

And the concept of Nostalgia.

… In a way, despite Undertale being a very 2010’s game and despite the Underground being established to have 2010's technology such as Social Media… Mettaton's being primarily a TV Star with TV Show theming in most of his encounters is a very 20th century sort of concept. To use the Television as a shorthand for the concept of modernity.

Obviously that works within Undertale because that is a very familiar cultural shorthand and also it does make sense within the Very Particular Technological and Cultural Framework of the Underground… But with Deltarune being both a much newer game and taking place in a world much closer to our own, I guess it makes sense to instead use the TV to symbolize the past, outdated technology and nostalgic yearning.

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never to meet, forever apart

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Why watch cartoons when the logo is better? (My heroes are watching their cocomelon