#chapter 2 rant

[kooki914]

We all know how you feel about chapter 2, so how would you "fix" the issues with the chapter?

This is the kind of ask that would've made me go apeshit in excitement a few years ago. TL;DR, I made an AU specifically addressing all my issues with Chapter 2 (and the future of deltarune as a whole), it's called Kingdomrune and you can find it here.

If you want the in-depth explanation, continue under the cut.

First and foremost, visual overhaul of cyber city. It kills me because the concept art for the city that was released recently looks gorgeous but something is just lost in translation when trying to make the concept art a playable area rather than just a purely visual piece of art that you can take in at your own pace. Limiting the palette and making it a bit more muted is the option I pivoted to for Kingdomrune, but I'm admittedly not very good with colours, so make of the result what you will

(Added bonus - there's a parallax effect in the windows of the buildings that reflect the rest of the city, what would usually be street lights is replaced with wi-fi antennae that visually call back to the cliffs, a lot of the floating ads are, instead, replaced with "bug checkers" and loading icons which are animated but not so fidgety to be distracting, and a lot of the "blocky" looking items (trash cans and balloons) are more just stylized in-universe rather than actually clashing with the rest of the environment.) (Also, I hate "WELCOME TO THE CITY" so just imagine "a cyber's world" being the theme of the city instead)

Additionally, the city shouldn't be 90% of the chapter, it just gets boring after a while. My solution to this is splitting the City into two parts, the iconic Cyber City as the second of the two, with the lead-up to it being a place called Hardware Outskirts. I don't have spritework for it, nor presentable concept art sadly, so just imagine a cross between old soviet brutalist buildings and old yellowed computer hardware, and you've pretty much got the mental visual for it. The music I associate with it is anything by Molchat Doma, but more specifically This Song, which adds a necessary tonal contrast to the City's vibrant feel.

Second of all, SOME KIND of conflict in the wider world outside just the kids' adventure. There's hints scattered throughout the game that Queen is planning something big in the city and that nothing's running on time because of it, but we don't get explicit payoff for that. My way of resolving this, and tying it back to the light world, is that Cyber City is essentially at war with the rest of the library.

The new tech is trying to conquer and replace the books and stories that have been there much longer, and the Bookbound Kingdom (in my version of events, at it's head are the card queens that are missing in chapter 1) is fighting tooth and nail to keep the "Evil" Queen at bay. The Bookbound Kingdom is themed after fairytales and textbooks and stuff, the kinds of things kids would most often check out at the library, and it would provide a very necessary tonal and visual contrast to the Cyber City that actually makes it's GOOD aesthetic and thematic choices pop. Where the Bookbound kingdom is wild and whimsical and outdated, Queen's kingdom is rigid and complex and new.

It also gives Queen a reason to ransack the first area like we (implicitly) see her doing in the game. She's actually, violently trying to take over Bookbound and that's when she found Noelle, and decided to kidnap her. Sweet Cap'n Cakes get a bit of a rewrite as well, originally Queen's scouts and allies until the protagonists befriend them through dancing during their battle, which causes them to turn on Queen because their new friends treat them better than she's treating them at the moment (giving us in-universe characters reacting to Queen's change in character caused by the fountain that, in-game, is just told to us rather than shown).

Thirdly, write out Berdly. Entirely. This is probably a controversial take, but I genuinely think Berdly's arc would benefit from having his OWN chapter dedicated to HIM specifically (one I dubbed chapter 2.5 in my AU), instead of him being at odds with Noelle for screen time. Setting up a context where Berdly's the character very clearly out of his own depth and not thriving with people claiming to be helping him, is a much more compelling way to get (me specifically) invested. Put emphasis on Berdly and Noelle being friends and him overcoming his comphet crush on her, no more weird love triangle shit with him inserting himself into Susie and Noelle's business, and most of all, Ralsei and Kris bonding with him in their own ways. Give Kris a REASON to forgive Berdly for the way he treated them, give the two common ground and let Berdly GROW into someone who WANTS to be nice to Kris, rather than whatever the hell happened at the end of Deltarune's chapter 2.

And lastly, I need to talk about Noelle. Like, a lot.

While she was (and still is) my favourite part of Chapter 2, there's still improvements to be made. For one, going from "freezing up completely at conflict" to "ACTing with kris to spare enemies" after just ONE conversation with Virovirokun that completely breaks the flow of battle is... kind of odd to me. In my rewrite, Noelle's first escape from Queen is with SCC involved, they target Noelle as a lightner they can beat (because they can't beat the heroes) and in doing so essentially open her cage. Queen is furious with them and while Susie tells Noelle to get the hell out of there, Queen is trying to coerce her to stay, and Noelle is frozen in place. She doesn't WANT to stay with Queen, but she's rooted in one spot and can't move. When something loud/startling happens, it FINALLY makes her budge and she's able to run away.

Freeze -> Flight

When Noelle first joins Kris' party in Hardware Outskirts, it's not because Susie and Ralsei ditched Kris out of nowhere with weird traffic cones to block them (??? im still salty about that), rather it's because there's a two-way puzzle (kind of like the December puzzle) that makes Kris' team split up in two, and Susie chooses to go with Ralsei because she trusts Kris'll be fine on their own. For context, in my AU there's also chapter 1.5 where the team more firmly learns how to work together, specifically through Kris learning how to bond with them one at a time, so Kris trying to cling to Ralsei and Susie in chapter 2 is weird from those two's perspective because Kris should know by now that a team of two will be fine, the three of them don't need to stick together like glue all the time. Susie and Ralsei aren't completely out of the picture, for the record, they're still checking in on Kris and Noelle and making sure they're okay, even distracting Queen to give them opportunities to get out of dodge. (again, instead of the weird love triangle stuff, I still don't know why that's there in-game.)

Noelle at first runs from every battle that happens. Kris has to fight every darkner on their own, leaving them at a huge disadvantage, because Noelle is too scared to fight them. As you may have guessed, this makes the snowgrave route not possible the moment Noelle enters your party (I'll get to that). Noelle eventually gets forced into battles with Kris during a car chase minigame, where they compete with Ralsei and Susie to see who can take out more enemies in a semi-enemy rush. The problem is, Noelle still doesn't contribute, and when the teams get separated, Kris ends up encountering WareWarewire, who they can't hope to defeat on their own, and at THIS point Noelle runs away again, which opens up the option for KRIS to flee as well (essentially unlocking a new mechanic). Once they're both safe and enter Cyber City, Noelle starts to feel bad for constantly leaving Kris on their own, and asks them to tell her what to do next battle, because she wants to be stronger.

Freeze -> Flight -> Fight

THIS is where the snowgrave offshoot can happen. Once Noelle is with you during battle willingly, she listens to your every command and that can include freezing/killing enemies if you so choose. You can completely erode the positive aspects of her development and ingrain "fight" as the only valid response to stress to her, which undermines the journey she went on for the sake of making battles more convenient for the player. This entire portion of the game after Noelle joins your party would be specifically curated to not make it feel bloated when seeking out enemies and doing puzzles no matter which route you take.

On a normal route, Noelle's character continues to progress steadily, but the one thing she still refuses to do are spelling puzzles, with a bit of emphasis put on it. Her and Kris bond for the first time in a long time without being interrupted by Berdly or Queen, and in the end, she's able to help you do the December puzzle. Together, Noelle and Kris are able to move past their trauma, at least partly, and become closer friends than they were before.

Before the December puzzle, though, there's a miniboss, and instead of a Berdly, this section would actually feature Rouxls as a miniboss. In my mind, he's using the boat as a way to traverse a minesweeper puzzle and tries to stop Kris and Noelle in order to give them over to Queen. On a normal route beating him always leaves him somewhat injured and fleeing, with Noelle worried about his safety. In a snowgrave route, Rouxls is painfully outmatched and while Noelle isn't particularly invested in his safety as an individual, after being forced to do Snowgrave she's in shock, both because of what she did, but also because Lancer leaves your inventory to check on Rouxls.

Oh yeah Lancer, remember Lancer? He was here the whole time!!! Your actions have consequences.

He's very clearly distraught and doesn't fully understand what happened to Rouxls, and his distress at his "lesser dad" being unwell and dying without him being able to do anything rings a little too close to home for Noelle, who's losing her own dad to illness that she can't really stop. She leaves the scene, feeling responsible and out of place, while Lancer stays by Rouxls and refuses to go back to Kris' pocket. Kris enters the mansion without Queen trapping them and encounters Susie and Ralsei inside, grateful Kris caught up to them but confused at Lancer's absence. The rest of the snowgrave route would play out as expected, Spamton taking over the mansion and Susie trying to help Noelle even if she doesn't really know what's going on. Same with the light world, except Noelle doesn't have an "oh Berdly, you overwork yourself too much" moment, rather she has an imposter syndrome moment with Kris and Susie coming to the library together and, apparently, being there long enough that its late in the day and neither of them bothered to wake her up to hang out with her. She's glad the dream is over, but the waking world isn't much better.

On a normal route, though, Lancer helps get you out of the cages and rooms Queen put everyone in. In my AU, he doesn't turn to stone (lore bending go brrr) and instead lets the team do their own thing and find Noelle and the fountain while he goes and looks for his lesser dad. And then there's the mansion. God the mansion. This is such a nitpick but I hate that in-game it geometry makes no sense, so I literally devised a map in which the progression essentially stays the same but the building kind of actually makes sense.

(Bonus - specifically mapping out how her giant robot body upholds the mansion/where each body part is referenced and is most visible)

Once Noelle is rescued, she briefly joins the rest of the team before deciding to help them in her own way, disabling security that Queen has around the fountain in order to grant them access from the inside (because she's still scared of confronting Queen). There's only one fight against Queen, also, none of the giant mecha stuff. She has her speech about the Knight as the protagonists approach and Noelle is already caught on her hand. Noelle is essentially stuck and forced to watch the whole fight as the gang try and fail to set her free, or beat the shit out of Queen. Either way, when they seem to have the upper hand, Queen pulls out a second giant hand and knocks them all down. Tired and almost defeated, Queen turns to Noelle and releases her from the hand, telling her to make another fountain, just like in the base game, threatening Susie if Noelle doesn't comply. Noelle turns around and stands up to Queen, just like in the base game, and in response Queen rethinks what she did. She tells Noelle to choose the world that makes her happy, and uses the giant hands that kept the kids trapped as a makeshift throne that she sits down on and gets carried out of the scene with.

On their own, the kids slowly recover while Susie and Noelle still muse about how much better the dark world is compared to the light world. When Susie offers they open a fountain on their own terms, Ralsei stops her and explains the roaring. Essentially the same as the base game from here on out, except Noelle comes with Kris and Susie once the fountain is closed, filling in the gap on Kris' right when closing the fountain that Ralsei will (hopefully) one day fill.

The rest of what I'm about to lay out is pure wish fulfillment and is less "fixing" chapter 2 and more just adding things I want to see:

Susie tells Noelle the dark worlds are real after she wakes up on a normal route, and offers to take her to Castletown since that's basically a permanent dark world without any of the immediate danger. Noelle promises to keep it a secret, visits her dad at the hospital, then visits Ralsei with Kris and Susie. While those two eventually leave to explore Hometown, Noelle decides to stay in Castletown with Ralsei for the rest of the day. She has a lot to learn from him when it comes to magic and the dark world, and I just want them to be besties.

There's explicit references to Berdly in Cyber City mostly as an homage to the fact that he was once part of the story line of it. They reinforce that Susie and Kris don't like Berdly (kind of like how some of the Hometown kids talk about not liking Susie, it's framed as kind of childish and closed off), while Noelle kind of defends his intentions as positive at their core. It's entirely setup for ch2.5 where Berdly is slowly redeemed not because Noelle holds his hand through his character development, but rather because Kris and Susie are antagonists that want better for him than his so-called allies of the chapter do.

Ralsei and Noelle also have a brief bonding moment in Cyber City, mostly revolving around Noelle being curious as to who Ralsei even is, and him genuinely not having an answer to that question. It reinforces Ralsei's identity crisis during the chapter as well as shows why Noelle is so well liked by other kids in class (she's perceptive and tries to get everyone involved even if she doesn't know them that well).

All in all I think most of the things that would "fix" the chapter for me could genuinely take a lot of the whimsy out of it for other people. I prefer more sombre and subtle emotional beats, but the original chapter 2 was very clearly not aiming for that, and people enjoy it for its peppiness and hype in a way that I just can't. To me it feels forced and unearned, to other people it feels entirely natural and warranted. There's no one way to appeal to everyone and, outside of the structural problems of the chapter (not idiot-proofing the maps so I got lost and frustrated for a while, no save in front of Berdly's fight for snowgrave reasons and not taking into account that the battle is difficult on a normal playthrough and quick resets would be necessary for people not that great at the game, the general unnecessary fluff around that weird teacup puzzle where Noelle is there in the party as well and it's just a very confusing portion of the chapter that doesn't even lead into anything later on that unironically made me scrap the idea of the teacups for Kingdomrune altogether, etc) that could be fixed with trimming fat or just quality of life small tweaks. There's nothing Fundamentally wrong with chapter 2, it's just not what I wanted out of the game, personally. So, if you don't like my rewrite, more power to you. It's literally meant to appeal to just me and no-one else lmao

[sketchtastrophee]

old art again!! this time a rough animation of sawyer and yarnaby 😎 (looks better if u click to view 😭)

im working on a short ppt animation rn. im thinking i should post it to my youtube channel, though im not sure if people here would see it. i think i can link videos on here?? idk

okay I'm gonna talk abt more chapter 4 stuff.. this time about prototype's previous identity.. ch4 spoilers and also a theory below..

hiding the solo yarnaby under here LOL

people theorized 1006 was elliot, which was recently disproven in the chapter 4 tape where poppy refers to elliot as her dad and wishes he were there. in the same tape she addresses prototype as a completely different person. also recall that elliot died in the 90s, meanwhile prototype met theo in 1989. so yeah, they aren't the same person

I've also seen people say rich is prototype, which cannot be true either. in a ch4 tape he speaks to one of the employees under his supervision. the kid mentions his coworkers joking about him going missing. before the bbi, it would not make sense for this to be a common rumor at the company, which means this tape had to happen after harley was hired in 1990; at a time when the company would have a reason to silence people

prototype existed in 1989 at the minimum, but considering he says "it's always been about you and me" to poppy, he's likely the prototype of HER. she's elliots daughter, she died in the 60s, meaning prototype was probably created around that time as well.

this means that rich can't be the prototype because he was human long after prototype was made

if you want my take on who prototype truly is, i'd say his identity doesn't necessarily matter. i don't mean to say his origins aren't important, just that his name and specific role in the past probably doesn't mean anything in the long run. i've never believed he was elliot or rich, and maybe in the future i'll be proven wrong but for now i'll tell you the theory i've had since june of last year

elliot's daughter dies in the 60s. he divorced his wife in 1930, so his daughter is probably in her 30s when she dies. she gets sick or injured, maybe she's actively dying or already dead by the time elliot begins his research. he looks for ways to bring her back, but it doesn't work on the rats (as he mentioned a note in the 2nd chapter)

so what does he do? he tries it on something bigger as he said he would: a human. of course he's not going to try this experimental method on his own daughter, even if she's already dead, so he finds someone else to use it on. we know that elliot wasn't evil or anything, so it's unlikely he killed anybody to use for the experiment. considering the orphanage isn't open yet (it opened in the 70s, not the 60s), prototype probably wasn't an orphan child either. if i run with my simple version of the theory, elliot may have dug up a body in a graveyard and used that. maybe a fresh one, who knows. he tried it, it worked, then he revived his daughter with the same method.

this is likely what harley wanted to know about in the chapter 3 tape (the "i learn something new about you every day" one), and also what prototype is asking harley to figure out in the ch4 tape they're both in. in that case, sawyer never actually figured out how to revive people with the poppy substance. sure, he can transfer people into the toys, but he can't bring anybody back to life

more reason to believe prototype and poppy are of the same "batch" is because it seems they are the only two who don't need food. it's outright stated about him in the ch1 trailer, and insinuated with her saying the "toys will starve otherwise" when she's talking about how nasty them eating humans is. she refers to them, not herself. her and prototype are probably the only 2 who were ever brought back from the dead, which circles back around to his monologue and gives meaning to the "it's always been about you and me, poppy. what we are". when i heard him say that i felt like my theory was lowk confirmed 😭😭

no guarantee this is right, but it's been my guess for a long time

[overdramaticbaddie]

Boutta rant abt my blorbo sooo spoiler warning for new Deltarune chaptersss

So.

Berdly.

We got almost NOTHING about him from the new chapters, but I think he deserves to be discussed in light of the new information.

First things first, I don't think enough people talk about the obvious parallels between him and Susie.

Both have spent a lot of time antagonizing Kris, Both sided with the "Villian" in the dark world, and used it to fulfill various fantasies of theirs (susie getting to beat up everyone there, berdly trynna build "smarttopia" or whatever) Both experienced significant character development in the dark world (unfortunately, berdly immediately backtracked as soon as he "woke up") Both cope with feelings of inadequacy by lashing out at others and trying to make themselves seem "bigger" and "cooler" than they actually are (Susie through physical intimidation and Berdly through manipulation and self-aggrandizing behavior) Both have strangely protective tendancies???? Both feel like side characters in their own story. Both are unpopular with peers and authority figures Not to mention, their weapons are EXTREMELY SIMILAR WTF

And also, something I find really interesting,

Neither of them are a part of "the three heroes" of the prophecy.

LONG-ASS PROPHECY INTERPRETATION TANGENT THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BERDLY:

The part of the prophecy where the three "heroes" are mentioned, when put in order, reads as follows:

"The first hero. The cage, with human soul and parts.

The second hero, the girl with hope crossed on her heart.

The third hero, the prince, alone in deepest dark.

And last ,was the girl. At last, was the girl."

While it may seem that Susie would be the second hero, especially with how she is associated with hope in chapter 4, the image that goes with that line appears to be a girl in robes, holding a sword (possibly the sword made from the thorn ring) implies noelle may have actually been the one intended to be the second hero.

The way the image of the girl holding the sword is also used with "love finds the girl", with some of these images including a small SOUL in the chest of the girl pictured. This correlates to how, in the weird route, we seem to have implanted a piece of our SOUL, and thus our control, into her. As well as the implications of "love" finding her, suggesting that the second hero will have violence thrust upon her, which happens to Noelle in the weird route.

That, plus the fact that Kris wanted to be partnered with noelle in the group project, that Susie only ended up in the dark world by pure coincidence, further suggests that Noelle was the second hero intended by the prophecy.

Also, the image that goes with the "At last was the girl" line, looks exactly like "Rude Buster", one of Susie's attacks, which she uses to defeat the titan along with Gerson at the end of chapter 4.

LONG-ASS PROPHECY INTERPRETATION TANGENT THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BERDLY IS OVER, NOW I WILL CONTINUE TO TALK ABT THE PROPHECY JUST WITH BERDLY NOW

Now that that's out of the way, I wanna talk about how the prophecy deals with Berdly, which I find FASCINATING.

If you're confused because you don't remember seeing anything at all relating to Berdly in the prophecy in Chapter 4, you're 100% right on the FUCKING MONEY.

He's

NOT

FUCKING

IN THERE

He's never mentioned ONCE, despite the prophecy discussing many characters and events that go beyond the main "three heroes" thing,

whether it's King's defeat, Queen's "chariots", Tenna being sliced up, Lancer saying Toothpaste boy, Asgore in asylum, fuckign JOCKINGTON GROWING A BEARD, the prophecy is littered with references to things that happen all over previous chapters.

But, the thing is, NONE of those things would have been changed if Berdly wasn't in the game.

As far as the prophecy is concerned,

Berdly doesn't exist.

This wouldn't seem too important if it weren't for the fact that he is DIRECTLY INVOLVED in the ONLY game-changing decision SO FAR.

Without him, there is no weird route.

Sure, you can choose to cancel it several times afterward, but the thing is, that's the only time you shift the route of the game. After that, you can only either double down or backtrack, not forge any new paths.

It's strange that someone who functions as the marker between to distinct paths wouldn't be mentioned in the prophecy.

So, here's a little theory of mine:

I think Berdly's the big sleeper character in Deltarune.

Think about it,

out of the main 5, (the lighteners and ralsei,) he's the one we know LEAST about. Sure, they all have mysteries attached to them, but that's part of the reason they're THERE.

Berdly so far has nothing going for him storywise besides him being an annoying fuckwad who gets his shit absolutely wrecked in the weird route.

I genuinely don't believe Toby Fox would make such a unique character who fits the themes of the game perfectly just to eat shit in an alternative route and be forgotten.

I think players are SUPPOSSED to forget him, SUPPOSED to just be like ugh it's that fuckin bird that I hate and move on.

ESPECIALLY since he gets so little screentime in the new chapters, I think Toby is lulling us into a false sense of berdly-less security, letting us think he's served his purpose in the plot.

(and Ik this is probably hard to believe, since if ur reading this ur probably in the corner of the fandom that LOVES berdly, but most Deltarune players do tend to totally dismiss him)

I think Tony Forks is gonna hit us with a berdly-shaped truck in SPECIFICALLY chapter 5, since the weird route only affects ONE THING in the light world outside of Kris and Noelle's sanity.

Berdly being at the festival.

ISTG SOMETHING'S GONNA HAPPEN WITH HIM

but yea, berdly is 100% a sleeper in the plot.

Also kerdly is canon.

[starry-bi-sky]

me every single time

[arthursfuckinghat]

I'm at that part of chapter three my friends, so let me be a reminder that Colm O'Driscoll's plan to lure in Dutch after taking Arthur failed because nobody came looking for him.

He would have died being held captive any longer, he barely escaped.

The gang did not come for Arthur.

[stump-salsa]

Okay deltarune is fantastic and it’s been my favourite game since like 2020 (it’s because I loved lancer so much that chapter 1 catapulted and it will stay my favourite chapter forever)

BUT

I have a serious criticism that at most like 12 people have heard me out on and I need to talk about it and I need people to listen okay so it’s about Lancer and King Spade

There will be minor spoilers for chapter 4 towards the end of this post! I’ll tell you when they come up with RED text.

First I’ll go over what I’ve been saying for years:

KING SPADE IS AN ABUSIVE PARENT

Like, not even just the rooftop scene at the end of the first chapter, but that should be all the proof anyone needs, so I’ll talk about that first.

So everyone saw him grab Lancer by the neck, right? Before chapter 2 everyone hated him for it? Rightly so? Yeah… and you can’t argue he’s grabbing Lancer by the shirt rather than actually closing his hand around his neck, because he turns Lancer around and you can see his fingers gripping his neck.

(But even if he was just grabbing him by the shirt, this is still an abhorrent way to treat your child, let alone a child as young as Lancer…)

King also says he’ll “drop him off the edge and let him splatter”, and forces Lancer to watch him kill his friends right in front of him.

And when he is overthrown, he screams at Lancer and all his subjects that he’s going to kill them. He’s enraged, maybe he means it, maybe he doesn’t. But either way, don’t scream that at your child…

So, there’s more than that scene - things that imply the King doesn’t feed Lancer, or at the very least doesn't make sure he's fed or supervised properly, and puts him in danger.

In the field, Ralsei will comment on Lancer’s unbalanced opposing team, comparing them to “a dinner made out of three glasses of milk.” Lancer then says “and that’s, um… unusual, somehow?”

This kid has nothing but milk and worms for dinner…

Rouxls talks about having to feed Lancer worms when he doesn’t eat like it’s a regular occurrence.

Lancer isn’t allowed to pick the dark candy for himself, either, and comments about how he hadn't eaten anything the day of chapter 1 when you talk to him at the stump. I suppose the dark candy thing COULD be because they're so bad for him ("Like my teeth are disintegrating!"), but the other stuff...? Is NO ONE except Rouxls making sure this kid eats anything? Even then, Lancer yells for it himself...

On top of all of that, the King pawns Lancer off to his subjects, who really couldn’t care less about looking after him, they just half-assedly do it because they’re both too scared to defy the king and also hate him enough to not try hard enough at their jobs, let alone looking after the unruly prince.

Why trust your child with people who don’t care enough? And the comment about how no one really likes Lancer and that no one would be his friend really just gives the feeling of "yeah, no one cares enough to actually watch him properly." Lancer rides around the kingdom on a flaming bike completely unsupervised. Ummm…

He's also scared of his dad, doesn't seem bothered by putting him in prison, is worried about making a mess OUTSIDE (could see this as just him being an obedient child, but like... he's not, really? He's shown to be pretty unruly and chaotic, he just seems scared to defy his father when you factor this in with the dark candy stuff), isn't bothered by Susie beating him up (he brushes off the basement scene super quickly) or threatening him, taking her threat to literally bite his face off as her teaching him (why is he reacting to such violent threats like that?) and has been commanded to kill the Lightners, which is a pretty tall and violent order to give your young son. He has no idea what these Lightners are like, whether they're violent or not. He can't know what they'll do to his son.

But anyway, I’ve been screaming about all that for years. It’s time to get onto my criticism with the writing. I’ve been upset about this since chapter 2…

And it's about how, seemingly, Lancer's abuse is being forgotten.

In chapter 2, when you visit the King in prison, Susie will comment on how he was going to drop Lancer off a cliff, and that she doesn't trust him. He tells the party that he was bluffing, and that even if he DID drop him, Lancer would just bounce.

Umm... okay. What? Where did this come from? He wouldn't get hurt...? What? Surely I'm not the only person who thinks this makes no sense.

Like, I get it, Lancer is a silly bouncy boy and it's supposed to be... funny? I guess? But like, it just doesn't feel like the place for a silly thing, it just feels like the game trying to brush off what happened to him because he's not really important enough in the story outside of being a silly comic relief character, even though chapter 1 shows he can have serious moments. Lancer is a deeply troubled kid... it feels like he was forced to grow up way too fast around the King, and he goes to Rouxls when he wants someone to act his age around since his dad doesn't care. Annoying him with MP3s and stuff like that. I know he doesn't have a canon age or anything, but he can't be any older than like, 10. Personally, I can't see him being older than 8.

I was so upset about the whole scene that I just decided the king was lying about bluffing in order to gain the Lightner's trust so they would let him out of jail, because what reason does he have to change his tune? He has more reason to be infuriated with his son and the Lightners than ever before, why is he saying this now???????????????? He's angry at Lancer for betraying him! When Lancer hit him with a spade so he could escape and find help, the king screamed after him, calling him a traitor. Why care about him now...?

Some people say that the Knight doesn't have control over him anymore, so he's not evil anymore.....? But he didn't have a redemption like Queen, he was just... evil. And if Toby is TRYING to redeem him, then, like... I really hate the way he's going about it. At least show us him apologising to Lancer directly if you're going to take this route? (I would still be angry if he was redeemed in any way, but this would be better than just acting like the abuse never happened). He calls Lancer a bouncy pumpkin and... the fandom just kinda... forgot. About everything he did to his son. Just like that. Annoying and upsetting, but mostly because of the fandom, not hugely about the writing, though it was still a little disappointing to see it handled the way it was. MINOR CHAPTER 4 SPOILERS BELOW

Until chapter 4. You can bring Tenna back to Castle Town and trigger a cutscene in the prison with him, Lancer, and the King. Lancer is INSIDE the cell on his dad's head, and the King is being... pretty nice? And while it would be fantastic for him to be a nice parent for Lancer's sake, it just doesn't sit right with me at all, because that's not the way he was laid out in the beginning of the game. Like I said before, I would rather see an onscreen apology to Lancer if this sort of thing is going to happen. No fault of Lancer's, he's super cute as always and I don't mind when he's friendly to his dad because he's a child and, yeah, he probably does yearn for a normal, loving relationship with his father. I'm just genuinely upset with Toby for never bringing up the abuse again. It's like the game is trying to act like it never happened because it's not relevant to the greater story, and it's really, really disappointing to see. And the way most of the fanbase just brushes it right off with the game as well, like, did we play the same chapter? I don't know. It's just really upsetting to me.

If you read all the way through, I hope you can understand me, and know why I'm upset, even if I may not be the best at articulating. Hopefully people can see this whole post, because this topic is really really important to me. I love Lancer. He's either my first or second favourite character of all time, and I hate seeing his abuse just be swept away in favour of the "more important" characters - like I know Lancer is not a MAIN main character in any way, and the story is about Susie, Noelle, Kris, Ralsei, and the Knight, but like... you know what I mean, right? It feels gross how the abuse was just brushed off and swept away rather than being addressed, ESPECIALLY with Lancer being as young as he is.

(I could rant about how I'm upset he seems to have been demoted to simple comic relief, and about how I'm angry that Susie never apologised to Lancer for beating him within an inch of his life with an axe, but I only have the energy for one of these today).

[cupids-fiction]

shit no wonder he’s so well respected despite doing maybe 3 things the whole game if i was dutch i’d suck him — i mean suck up to him too

[advluv4life]

I know The Sunshine Court hasn't changed since the first time I read it but imagining the Foxes interacting with the Trojans after their game is actually so cool because now, after two books, I know these characters and I love these characters and they're interacting with these other characters that I've known and loved prior and it's so nice ♡

God, I hope they interact in the next book so bad!! I want them together again. The Foxes and the Trojans: Together Again (that can be the book title) on a court or not- I don't even care. I just want them to hang out 🥰

[iamhereinthebg]

I had the slow realization that when we will finally be on the real reveal that "oh yes everything in this manga is only here for the poor Yugi boys uwu. And the mysteries and all plots are just here to make the twins story shine" the manga will have lost me entirely lol

We are so close to a clock keeper's backstory but atp it would be foolish to think that the Yugis won't have something to do with it or its reveal and honestly I am just sad :'))) I know the manga is around Hanako and Tsukasa but doing the biggest fxk you to all your other characters for the main three is insane to me

I am still happy we got tbhk and all the character ofc, just really sad to see in which direction it has been going for some time (it started around chap 96 for me rip)

[dahliaboat]

Kado-pilled Thorne-maxxing I need him to be back in the storyline so bad, it felt like Chapter 6 Season 2 was supposed to be for him instead of Fletcher Kane. All the Eclipse logos in Kane's estate and banks?? Fletcher Kane wanting Midas dead?? IT SHOULD'VE BEEN KADO. I need to make an AU Lawless season so bad. All the thoughts for it are in my mind and I just need to put pen to paper.

[ganondoodle]

so guess what they released more interviews and i think given what a writing shitshow totk was and what they have been saying in all these interviews is actually painting a really bad picture; i dont have the time, nor the energy to go over every detail

but they were commenting on people wanting the more linear format back and aonuma himself basically said that he thinks people who feel like that do so only bc of nostalgia and "Why do you want to go back to a type of game where you're more limited or more restricted in the types of things or ways you can play?"

what .. the fuck, more freedom DOESNT automatically mean better??? like ... restriction can be a GOOD thing just as tooo much freedom can be BAD?? like in totk??? are you fukcing shitting me- what the hell are games even for then, has he had an awakening to the fact that he actually just loves sandbox games without realizing it???? im not playing fucking zelda for a sandbox, especially not when its advertised as a somethign else

its pretty clear that they want to keep this format going with everything they say there, ... maybe it really is over huh

also i hate how they kept talking around answering anything about story/lore; they go asked how ganondorf even connects to ganon since theres nothign about it in game, and all they got out was welllll we dont wanna say anything bc its up to the player; about every question you got the answer of "make somethign up yourself" which is just ... its really clear they dont actually care but dont want to say everything is meaningless actually, so they try to be vague about it and with doing that really just confirm they didnt think about it and they dont care- so no lore actually matters, nothing thats been said or established has any meaning bc they will get rid of it the second it crosses paths with their new -more freedom equals better- philosophy, they say its bc they want you to be "free" to think up anything but apparently dont realize that when there are no rules, no consistent lore or anything that it ROBS it, it stops having meaning, its fun to connect dots only when there are rules you need to work with and dots to connect in the first place, when you have an established world with its restrictions it drives you to think more creatively about things- but when there are no rules?? its fucking boring!! thats what it is!!

when you discard all rules i wont care to get invested into anything bc i know it will not be considered again, be done away with without any reason and wont have influence on coming or previous games ... bc there are no rules, anything is possible and everything can be changed any second, so nothing matters

(they also talked about the many viral videos of those very few dedicated people that make godzilla mechs in totk and how happy they are about that- i get that to some extent, but the way they kept talkign about it really just felt like it confirmed my suspicion that that whole mechanic was mainly implemented to let people do that since that gets shared around en masse making it seem like that is why people enjoy it while neither the game nor the narrative are build around it in any way ..)

it just makes all the time i spend thinking, feeling and theorizing about zelda like a true waste of time, bc nothing matters and there are no rules-

i am someone who greatly enjoys working with and around established lore/rules, its fun to me to recontextulize things by being smart or creative with it all without breaking anything or as little as possible of the established things!

if i wanted to do just do anything i want I COULD HAVE ALREADY DONE THAT bc theres nothing actually stopping anyone to just make up what they want! i DONT need canon to lose all rules for that??!!

maybe ill have to make myself believe the franchise ended with botw on a good note ... ono

[sockisanidot]

i hate the lemoyne raiders. Actually- stratch that i just fucking hate lemoyne. Its a really cool area and chapter location but i have a really bad fear of deep water and so in all the missions where your on a boat or swimming in the water i literally want to throw my controller out the window.

ALSO the night stalkers????? The bounty hunters??? the raiders ???? like can you guys hop off my dick im just trying to go fucking find Dutch and see what his bitchass wants me to do now ☠️

ive lost over 700$ to all of those freaks combined and i am OVER it.

[apileofashandember]

me: *happily trying get through chapter 2 of my new annabeth wayne fic*

me: *remembers its almost may and I wanna start posting it in June*

me:

[willowwee]

Arranged Marriage chapter 5 part 2 rant so theres spoilers. beware😼😼

Castin, what the fuck. Baroness, what the fuck. Intacia soldiers, what the fuck. I am SICK OF THIS😭😭😭 SICK OF CASTIN SICK OF BARONESS SICK OF INTACIA SOLDIER'S RACIST ASSES OMFGGGGG I'm tearing my hair off my scalp this is so stressful I'm not even the baroness I FELT SO OVERHWLEMED AND STRESSED 😭😭

Like idk wtf happened to the baroness ik, but chapter 5 pt 2 baroness AINT MY BARONESS💀 WHY IS SHE MAKING EVERY SINGLE CHOICES WRONG OMFGG Anri don't even have that much of a screen time but I relate to her in every single way when it comes to everyone in that chapter PFFFTTT

Like we went from an imperial baddie that carried the damn peace to some pregnant lady that can't even talk through her own husband's paranoia to get his head out of his ass OMGGGG BARONESS IM ROOTING FOR U PLS DONT DO THIS TO ME I PLANNED SM STUFF FOR U🗣 oh and to add salt to the wound, ITS HER ABUSER THAT WHACKED HER INTO REALITY😭 baroness be testing my patience

Oh if baroness testing my patience, CASTIN TESTING MY WILL TO LIVE💀💀 Oh ur wife is pregnant and she let her guard down once just for her to get jumped? To protect her, LETS GO THROUGH THE DAMN BLIZZARD. CASTIN IK UR DUMB BUT UR BETTER THAN THIS. GOT EVERY SINGLE OF UR WIFE MOVEMENTS MONITORED BY DOZENS OF TRUSTED AND HIGHLY TRAINED SOLDIERS YET U RATHER HAVE HER GOING THROUGH A BLIZZARD??

I need someone COUGHBARONESSCOUGH put his head at the right state pls this cannot be real💀💀 'do u trust me' DO U EVEN TRUST UR WIFE😭😭 U DONT EVEN LET HER STAY AT HER OWN HOME FOR MORE THAN A DAY? 'It's because she almost got jumped while shes pregnant' I rather look over my shoulder and wait for the damn blizzard to die down rather than going through the blizzard blindly, especially with a group of people that's not even used to snows and blizzard

I'm still so fucken pissed at how Castin just disregard of what Baroness wants omfg she said she wants to stay at the castle LET HER STAY AT THE DAMN CASTLE😭 'how did they know we're staying at this shelter??' Bro did not listen a thing Anri said SPIES BRO SPIESSSS U GOT THE BARONESS AT UR CLUTCH WHILE UR TAKING HER, AGAINST HER WILL, AWAY FROM THE EMPIRE IN A MIDDLE OF A BLIZZARD.

Everytime castin speaks or make an order makes me want the baroness to say something ISNT THIS A LITTLE TOO FAR.. I get she's pregnant but ik she's not stupid baroness I don't see u as a stupid helpless damsel you've been better than this pslskdjdydhdh

Oh my god if I don't like castin in this video I HATE HIS DAMN RACISTS OF SOLDIERS. 'I hate the snow!! I hate the blizzard!! I wanna go home!!' OH AND GUESS WHO ELSE WANTS TO GO HOME? THE BARONESS. THE B A R O N E S S. SHES BEEN STAYING AT INTACIA FOR LIKE MORE THAN 2 YEARS WITHOUT EVER VISITING HER OWN HOMELAND. YET U ALL CANT EVEN STAY AT THE EMPIRE FOR A DAY GET GOOD NOOBS.

Anri is like the only sane mfer there istg I respect her sm in such a small amount of time ofmdjsg she better than me I'd teach that one soldier how Castin's old village died PFFTTT THAT WAS MEAN IM SORRY 💀💀💀

Characters' actions so ass that it got u ranting about it in tumblr

[charleemoon]

i know everyone complains about how long deltarune chapters take but i honestly think this fandom functions like homestuck. like the update culture is real

i feel like deltarune's and by extension undertale's fanbase wouldn't nearly have as much fan content, theories, and dedication without years of people taking scraps from trailers, game secrets, and concepts and turning them into whole new creations

i really think the fandom does its best work with time and collaboration. like when watching stuff like the underevent stream, its just SO crazy how much fan content and fanmade deltarune chapter 3 type games there are. made with just the tiniest bit of content we got from the end of chapter 2 and the sweepstakes. people really have the space to be creative and let their ideas run wild and that's just so awesome. im glad that we have had a lot of time between chapters to allow people to explore these concepts and make their own stories and interpretations of tobys work

i also think it's so crazy that like everyone and their mother is making theories and projected fan ideas about future chapters and what deltarune's story is gonna be about and people STILL can't predict what the fuck toby is gonna do. like we all played chapter 1 we all had our crazy theories but not a single one of you expected a bitch like this

AND THERES ALWAYS THAT ONE PERSON WHO DOES GET IT THOUGH AND IT'S SO FUNNY like after chapter 1 everyone was like oh my god kris evil!!! kris is chara!!!!!!!!!!! and then that one mf was like "what if they use the knife to eat the pie" AND THEN IT HAPPENED

[mightbeorphanedidk]

My pen's on fire

Sorry for my inactivity! Exam periods ouch uch ooouughhh owiee oweeieee

I've decided to completely rewrite my big rdr fanfic to stray a LOT from canon cus I didn't wanna do a complete rewrite. Borringgg. Unfortunately that means I'll miss out on a lot of cool scenes I had before, but it doesn't mean I can't blend them in now as much as I can.

I'm gonna post the prologue first as a stand-alone just to get it started, and then add the rest of the chapters once I'm done drafting. I started today...