#kris genocide

[akanemnon]

I hope they also have a plan B.

FIRST - PREVIOUS - NEXT

MASTERPOST (for the full series / FAQ / reference sheets)

[an-alright-scenee]

This lancer bridge came to my brother in a dream. I took some creative liberties.

[kallianthiutdr]

Undertale’s Meta Narrative: Understanding the player's three main narrative “stand-ins.”

For those who came in late or are currently playing deltarune, I'd like to take a moment to revisit Undertale, its parallel story, for the sake of context in themes. In this post I will analyze the meta-narrarive of Undertale as represented through its main characters.

Frisk, Chara and Flowey/Asriel each represent a core aspects of the player while being distinctly separate from the player. Because, unlike the player, they can't be removed from their world. Their context.

In Deltarune, (I haven't yet touched Ch. 4&5 because of exam season,) the questions of control, identity, freedom, escapist sentimentality etc. are central–and the game provides an even more mature exploration of them, through a protagonist that is both completely aware of the player's control and outwardly rejects them. There's a lot more to discuss when it comes to analyzing Kris, but this is an Undertale post first and foremost, to provide some context to the same themes.

1. Frisk:

Playable, but not representative of the player nor a self-insert. Their character is purposefully vague and quiet, so that you ASSUME they are a self-insert, (just as you assume it is them you are naming at the beginning of the game,) while actually having a full personality & agency of their own.

They choose how to deliver the lines you make them say & go out of their way to introduce themself to Asriel by name without you doing anything to prompt that. Also, all by themself, they ask Gerson what would happen if Asgore adopted them–if he'd continue aging. This implies a semblance of free will outside of the player–as well as them having their own desires.

I like to think that frisk is aware of Chara, but isn't aware of the fourth wall or the player as a separate entity. They go on to live their life, having no control over the player's choice to reset. Hence why Flowey tells you to let Frisk live their life. The determination stems from their soul, awakening Chara and having the power of resetting appear. But once they're out of the underground, it is not up to them.

However, when they are in the underground–they provide the player with choices. To me, the dialogue options, the Fight vs Mercy mechanic and everything else, are things that Frisk is considering already. Pondering on, thinking about. They won't actually do anything that goes completely against who they are, hence why they refuse to laugh at the amalgamates, or why they refuse to even consider taking the soda from undyne's house or alphys' fridge. They hate soda! They also don't let you take any more pieces of pie, because they're intimidated by it, even though it'd be very useful. Their personality also shines through by what they are given determination by. The simplest, most mundane things–from pointless garbage, to small mice in holes. They find beauty in everything.

So, we have the characterization down–but what does Frisk represt as a figure? As our playable character?

Frisk is at that vulnerable age when you are first developing your worldview based on your influences.

In the pacifist route, Frisk represents innocence. They follow the strongest influence they've had–assuming they are a parentless child, that being Toriel–and learn to practice the way of mercy.

They represent the player's pure-hearted sentimentality. The player's ability to just love the game and its characters, as they explore the underground. The player's desire to understand what's going on for the first time, make their choices, develop their playstyle all while falling in love with the friends they make along the way and deciding that, maybe I would rather stay.

Their pondering to kill comes from fear, perhaps, at first, in neutral routes. But in genocide? There is no, "despite everything, it's still you" but instead, "it's me, Chara/ {your name}," which means Frisk has entirely lost themself in the process of wiping everyone out and someone else's influence has taken over.

‼️The player sacrifices their connection to the world and characters to the altar of curiosity, (flowey) completion (chara) and the warped sentimentality of not wanting the game to end yet (asriel.) And so, the player has sacrificed Frisk, who represents exactly what made the pacifist route so moving. Connection.

Frisk is part of this world, the player isn't. Immersion broken, the narrative sacrificed, for a deeply unsatisfying process and a conclusion in which you literally sell your soul.

2. Flowey / Asriel:

Flowey is a character who, in order to fully understand, you do in fact have to play the game in each entirety. You have to become him in order to know him. He is everywhere, everything. The villain, the hero, the protagonist, the antagonist, the victim, the perpetrator, the tale of tragedy, the tale of hope, the tutorial for genocide, the key to true pacifist. The most important character in the whole entire game.

He represents the player's curiosity–and it's clear as day.

You know there won't be any real consequences. These characters aren't real, you can take it all back. And as you commit genocide after befriending everyone probably a hundred times over, you tell yourself, "I don't like this, I'm just doing this because I *have* to know what happens–" but do you?

Just because you can, does that mean you should?

Flowey becomes desensitized to violence and even dependent on it–in this world, it's kill or be killed. To challenge that mindset, is to pretend you haven't practiced it, haven't engaged in it–which is why he mocks you when you kill toriel, even accidentally–and then come back to spare her. He considers it inevitable that eventually, you'll play the game by his rules. And eventually, you do. Not because you have to, but because you can. In the friendly rpg where no-one has to die, you're still curious to see what happens *if.*

Flowey is unfeeling and disconnected. Soulless– even though another version of him really loves the people he's hurting now to see what happens. To see how they'll react. If he'll feel anything. If things will suddenly start making more sense and if his actions will start gaining purpose again. If he'll gain more information, maybe, instead of repetitive, predictable dialogue. And isn't that the whole situation of the player? The player, you–another version of whom loves these characters, hurting them to see how they'll react and if you'll gain new data. Curiosity killed the flower–and it chastises the player, too. Leaving them soulless and hollow.

Asriel, meanwhile, has all the love. Actively.

He has too much of it. He can feel everyone's heartbeat at the same time, aching for the same catharsis. He feels endlessly and he doesn't want that to end. He'll keep you there over and over because he doesn't want to let go of these feelings. He loves you, loves this world, this connection to the friends you've made–and doesn't want to return to nothingness.

He's willing to kill you again and again if it means you'll keep playing with him. He's willing to help you get different endings–willing to deprive everyone of their freedom, keeping them in the underground by force just so that the game keep going. And isn't that warped sentimentality entirely representative of the player?

You as the player keep depriving them of their freedom BECAUSE you love them so much and don't want your time with them to be up. The reason you keep re-creating that world, the reason you keep destroying it. Why you keep fluctuating between villain and hero, never letting go. And as you keep doing it, squeezing all the content out of the game, out of Asriel, he always asks–

“Don’t you have anything better to do?”

And no, the game doesn't punish you for loving it. It merely challenges the way you practice that love–because it knows, inevitably, you'll love it most when you're ready to let it go. And it knows, inevitably, that will take a while.

Onto the hottest topic, now.

3. Chara / “Y/N”:

Ohh, boy. We're really in it now. Let's delve into arguably the most misunderstood and controversial aspect of utdr.

The player's scapegoat, (pun intended) for their own terrible actions.

Chara is the closest thing to a self insert. You can name them whatever you want at the start of the game–still, they are their own character that predates the player's influence. They aren't your vessel. You don't design them. You don't shape their personality. Their backstory has occurred way out of your control.

And isn't that interesting? Your supposed self-insert, having control in places where you don't? Even when you're misguided to think the first human died via a mysterious illness, it's later revealed that they were, in fact, the one in control of it. It was planned.

Flowey doesn't seem to know the difference between Chara and the player. When Flowey breaks the fourth wall, something that Frisk never does–he talks to the player and calls them by Chara’s name, whatever that may be. It's what he recognizes to be his sibling’s name regardless of if it's your own.

But Flowey isn't a reliable source of understanding when it comes to Chara, considering a moment ago he also thought Chara was Frisk. He conflates these things, because he has no player behind him–yet held the same resetting power. He assumes there's no third party. He assumes you and Chara are one and the same.

Chara themself, however, MAKES A CLEAR DISTINCTION BETWEEN THEM AND THE PLAYER. "you and I are not the same," and "I do not understand those feelings," when it comes to the warped sentimentality that plagues you to keep replaying the game over and over. They don't get it.

So, Chara is the closest thing TO the player, but they aren't the player. They are the only person, however, aware of the player's presence. Of their influence over the game. And yet they also know something much more important: The player isn't part of this scripted world, so even as they orchestrate its reactions and events–they are never truly the one in control. The game is in control of itself, at the end of the day, so it seizes said control via Chara.

In the pacifist route, narrator Chara, (a headcanon so widely supported it might as well be canon) is light-hearted enough. A faded presence in the background, trying to match Frisk's energy while making the world more easier to navigate for them. They know the steps, the scripts, the names of each random encounter. They provide Frisk with helpful information through “Check” that would otherwise be unattainable to them, even if often times it's just silly commentary or snippets of judgement over tomfoolery.

In the genocide route, the execution points and the levels of violence increase right into Chara's file. The soul they share with Frisk is given their name–Frisk's determination having awakened their sprit. And as Sans explains, the more you hurt, the more you kill, the easier it becomes to keep doing it. Chara's soul–already open to violence, because of the “unhappy” influences of their youth–becomes corrupted. Pushed to the highest level of violence.

Genocide Chara represents the player's desire of completion. Of seeing things all the way through. Of getting stronger and stronger. Getting on top of their game, finishing all there is. Being untouchable.

Chara, the very person who wants to “erase this pointless world” considers the player to be sick, twisted and perverted for doing it again and again. And when, post-genocide, you attempt soulless pacifist, Chara doesn't let you forget what you did. They chastise you, they remind you of your lack of control to protect anyone after the game is over. They don't let you get away with feeling good about yourself–because if you cared about these characters the way you claim you do, you would have never done what you did in the first place.

Chara does not understand the player's warped sentimentality. They only understood completion. And why? Well, as suggested by the poem about the number 9 Toby Fox released, Chara wants to become untouchable because they've been afraid. Hurt, betrayed. Humanity wronged them. Violence was instilled in them by force. Nothing can hurt you when you reach a certain point of completion. A certain point of control.

They climbed the mountain in a suicide attempt–and suddenly, became the hope of all monsters. Think of the pressure, the weight of that on a child–especially a child that has probably internalized by now that love is conditional and violence is possibly the only way. They are loved by monsters as long as they provide hope that one day the underground will be empty. The (literally) fallen angel of the prophecy–the demon that comes when people call its name.

Chara attempted suicide a second time, in sacrifice. The attempt was successful, the sacrifice wasn't. They attempted to get control of the situation to fast-forward the release of monsters. They didn't trust joy, or love, but they valued those who offered it. Monsters.

But Chara never valued their own life, or humans in general. They loved the Dreemurrs, even if they thought indeed that their hopes of equality and acceptance by humans were baseless. They let them hope, because they were loved for it.

But their affections were real. From the sweater they knitted for Asgore, to the childish little details like filling the glass to the brim because “it's the most efficient way,” to the friendship locket they shared with Asriel. To their willingness to die, trusting him to do as instructed.

They, “weren't the greatest person” and Asriel, now, as Flowey, has to redefine that whole entire codependent relationship and its many flaws–Chara's many flaws–but that doesn't make Chara evil. They climbed the mountain, “not for the happiest reason,” but desperately tried to give meaning to their survival. To give back to those who showed them what Mercy means, not matter the cost.

They are part of this world, unlike the player. They do not share the same disconnect. They're cynical–but not uncaring. They laugh to cope with pain, they joke morbidly. Never do they show vulnerability. They're in control when they die, when they kill, when whatever–they have to be. It is but a shield. Weakness is taken advantage of. Weakness, holding back, not seeing things through–that's, in Chara’s mind, what got Asriel killed.

They aren't wasteful like the player nor overly sentimental like Asriel. They are a secret third thing–efficient. Will killing 6 innocent humans free monsterkind? Do it. Will erasing this world at the end of genocide put an end to everyone's suffering? Do it. Will taking control of the soul to mock the player also take away their false sense of control, their false sense they can do whatever they want? That their choices are inconsequential and will be forgotten in the grand scheme of things? Do it.

But if it's never necessary, they'll never do it.

Pacifist Chara responds to the violence of humanity with a plan to empty the underground & free everyone. Asriel goes along with it at first but doesn't follow through. Asriel dies.

Genocide Chara responds to the violence of the player with a plan to empty the underground by “destroying this pointless world,” Flowey goes along with it at first but doesn't follow through. Flowey dies.

They're nothing if not consistent.

At the end of the day, the game is wrapped in a shroud of their tragedy. The tragedy of two siblings, two best friends, two stand-ins for the player, endlessly haunting the narrative–holding each other to impossible standards and coming to realize neither of them are what the other thought. That doesn't mean they don't love each other.

And the player, to whom their tragedy is a spectacle–the player who orchestrates it–isn't even fully in control. Because the main character that represents them does not respect them in the slightest.

Frisk, Chara and Asriel aren't the only instances of meta narrative in the game, nor the only parallels to the player. From Alphys to Sans, the conversation is endless. And the themes of identity and freedom are at the core of every single character in this game.

It is those three children, however, that are most often misrepresented, misunderstood, mischaracterized–and forced into binaries. We try to frame Frisk as the pacifist ending, Chara as the genocide ending–we treat Asriel and Flowey as one and the same, even though the notion of simplifying it that much makes Flowey himself uncomfortable– (he tried to be Asriel but the trauma shaped him into something else. The expectation of having to act as Asriel despite not feeling like it broke him.)

It's no less stiff than arguments of their genders! neither frisk nor chara are JUST stand-ins for the player, they're characters beyond it and their non-binary identities matter. Chara bad, Frisk good is just another pointless gender binary we try to impose on them lmao.

At the end of the day Undertale is a tale, full of allegory, that can only be told through a video game lense, or else it'd lose a whole lot of nuance.

[papyrusdefenselawyer]

ou're genocides 🥹

[velvetvexations]

Honestly the thing that pisses me the fuck off the most about Kris discourse (Kriscourse?) is that the TRFs perpetuating it just straight up lie about what is in the game. Using "Mancountry" being a place within Kris's psyche as proof that they were ever treated like a man (when it's called that because it contains the mysterious man, and has a sign saying "non-men are welcome too.") Saying that because they have unused Manly Man body spray that that was forced on them and they didn't want to use it, when in reality Susie's dialogue when you visit the Dreemurr residence with her confirms that it actually belongs to Asriel.

Headcanons are genuinely fine; I'm of the camp that you can headcanon a gay character as straight if you want to even if I think it's a little déclassé. But when people actively lie about the content of a work in order to perpetuate nonbinary erasure and for no other reason it grinds my fucking gears.

disclaimer: I am a trans woman myself

It sure does me too, anon. That's why I'm going to take this post with over five thousand notes that annoys the shit out of me and dissect why it's incredibly bad and stupid, like literally every single other case of "you're transmisogynistic if you don't agree with me about the lore of children's media."

deltarune begins by discarding the appearance and name you choose, then immediately proceeds to show the protagonist being called the name their mother likely chose for them.

Immediately a fatal misunderstanding of the game's themes that completely ruins everything Tobyfox is trying to do with this aspect of the game. It is in fact literally the opposite of the intent. In this situation, you, the player, are the one imposing your preferred identity onto Kris! Holy fucking shit, we are literally one sentence in and the whole post may as well just consist of "I am misgendering Kris so that I can obliterate their own sense of identity and fill it in with my own because I hate non-binary people and am made violently feral when a work says that's bad."

Jesus fucking Christ.

at school, they encounter susie, an outcast who's treated as a deadly monster (even by her teacher) despite the fact that she never follows through on her violent threats.

Wait, so Susie is a transfem allegory too? While this reading would not be inherently valid, the fact that neither Kris or Ralsei - who are also, apparently, transfem - are treated with anything other than respect would seem to imply that closeted transfems do not deal with things like that and it's only once you come out that you then lose male privilege. FASCINATING. Once again the relentless urge to force one's own sense of self onto the media they consume is incoherent and doesn't gel because they want literally every likable character to be that and it makes the aLlEgOrY wildly inconsistent.

Also - Susie is the own fucking cause of her problems! She could choose to not put up the facade of violence, which is one hundred percent not forced on her at all. If the aLlEgOrY is that she's transfem, there's no other way to read it than saying that trans women make up problems and should just relax. Given how they focus all their attention on things like top scars on plushies and drawings of cowboys, I can maybe kinna see see how they could have gotten that impression, but I happen to think transmisogyny is a real thing that exists.

kris and susie are then forced by their teacher to go into the closet, a dark place whose residents are oppressed by wider society.

Hey, here's an allegory that could possibly work! Too bad it isn't transfem specific!

And by the way? Everyone calls Kris they/them. Kris is trans. Kris is already trans. All this shit about the closet and Kris's name being a sign that they exist in a state of being denied their true trans self only makes fucking sense if you don't consider non-binary people as meaningfully trans ahhh they are literally just saying the loud part quiet. Like they hate non-binary people who don't connect their gender to being any kinna woman and they! Are! Saying it! OUT LOUD!

there, they meet ralsei, who initially covers his entire face and body with a cloak

Yes, Ralsei enters the game wearing a cloak. Which he takes off the second he's asked to. He says "um, alright," in a way that could maybe apply hesitancy, but he then also immediately cheerfully explains how wonderful it is to meet them. He is clearly not so dysphoric that it ever at any point makes him uncomfortable beyond that. Perhaps, I suppose, Tobyfox is saying that dysphoria isn't that bad and pushing oneself past it is unfathomably easy task that takes all of two seconds?

tells them with an air of resignation that he's been waiting his entire life to meet them so he can fulfill the role of the prince of darkness that's been forced upon him.

This is almost as murderous to the narrative as misunderstanding Kris's name.

Picking out the "PRINCE" part of why all this makes him sad is so stupid, so fucking disingenuous and clearly untrue, that I'm enraged that someone would type it out in an attempt to deceive people with an idea that's not just offensive for all the transphobic reasons this ties into but because thinking anyone would accept it is an expression of boiling malevolence for the entire human race. You have to be a dark beacon of complete and utter misanthropy to think this warping of fact would pass the sniff test of anyone with a pulse.

and I struggle to imagine the kind of cognitive dissonance it would require to understand it as anything else

I don't think the OOP knows anything about cognitive anything. Totally alien word to them. Doesn't apply to anything they've ever experienced in life.

BTW, OOP also reblogs caping for genocide. Just, you know, something to think about when it comes to how disgustingly picky they are about what's praxis and what isn't. This is who pulls the headcanon cop shit, actual, literal fascists, people who are fascists, people who support fascism, people who see Neo-Nazi PMCs killing Syrians with sledgehammers and say "ooh, my anti-imperialist senpais!" with cartoon hearts in their eyes like they just met the love of their life.

You may be thinking, oh, velvetvexations, that seems like a stretch! Perhaps it's just this one person! Well, no, it isn't, the vast majority of people who do this really are also the most disgustingly evil people to claim to be progressive, and just because this is so much lower stakes doesn't mean the constant impulse to control and silence others to accept a reality that exclusively glorifies them is not evident across quite a lot of their interests.

[paramasqueradeva]

Twin Runes Epi 86 - 87 [ Deltarune/Undertale Comic Dub ]

Comic By: @akanemnon

[usagifuyusummer]

Berdly sketches 3! (or 6 to 8 lol)

Victims. Accomplices. Complicit to an incomprehensible act with no justifiable reason.

What if we switched classes? Haha! I would be better and prettier than you!

Why are you so cold?

I keep thinking..., what do they think of each other? Do they have a genuine friendship relationship, like do they care for each other, or is Noelle only tolerating Berdly because she has to be nice, (she doesn't know how to say no), or does Kris just like to mess with Berdly?

Of course, some of you will dispute such thoughts lmao, but with Berdly's overall negative reception (i know some of u like and appreciate him, and for those who do, yes i also love him), I can't help but ponder on the negativity around his character in-game and outside... haha, maybe that's just me being sad and depressive as usual, lol.

To mitigate this negativity that I've been seeing, I'll just interact with Berdly fanworks stuff that appreciates him as a character.

Hope everyone who encountered this post is well. Made in ibispaintx.

[emmaderanged]

DELTARUNE Chapter 4 and weird route spoilers

I’ve been thinking about the weird route and how it feels lately. About how it feels very different from Undertale genocide. That doesn’t surprise me per se, since I think Toby is going for something different this time. I think I’m interested that it feels so different because it, superficially, has a lot of the pageantry of geno. It shares many of the same themes, but does different things with them.

It is about getting stronger.

It skips the funnies (no Berdly, why even live 😭).

It leans into the abuse of meta elements. Using the text box to teleport is my favorite example from Deltarune. My favorite example from Undertale is literally pushing the battle box in the sans fight to access the FIGHT button.

What’s interesting to me is that despite sharing these similarities, it feels completely different. A heavy theme of the Undertale Genocide run is dissociation. In order to embark on the genocide run, you have to shatter your suspension of disbelief. The systemic mechanical slaughter of the characters you once had genuine attachment to is symbolic of you discarding any hold the game has on you. In order to do a genocide run, you have to discard the game. It’s why Chara calls you out in the end if you choose to go back. They cannot understand why someone would do what you do if you still felt attachment to the world after all. Why do all this if you still care? You must have a perverse sentimentality.

Undertale Genocide is about what it means to feel attached to characters. It’s about whether it’s worth it to discard that attachment if it means you can see more of them. Is it worth it to mutilate a story into a shape you no longer can love as long as you don’t have to let it go? I had… let’s say, a strong emotional response to Undertale Geno (I called my best friend at the time an evil asshole for playing it, sorry Widget). But, eventually, I played it too. I learned a lot about myself through thinking about my emotional response to Undertale Geno. I realized that I’m actually okay with letting something go while I still love it. It’s helped me process a lot of things.

I’m currently in the throes of feelings about the weird route. Obviously we don’t know exactly what the thematic endpoint of Deltarune is yet, but I’ve seen enough of the weird route already to highlight some throughlines. I think the main difference, and why the weird route makes me viscerally ill, lies in the emotional closeness. Ultimately, Undertale Geno is about the sacrifice of emotional closeness for the sake of remaining in the world. Deltarune, however, is emotionally distant from the get-go.

There is a greater degree of separation between you and Kris than there ever was between you and Frisk. Frisk, while their own person, makes very little attempt to resist your commands. They are wholly on board for murder, as far as we can tell. The only actions they take of their own accord on that run are to further the aims of it. Stepping forward during cutscenes, skipping puzzles. Kris, however, opposes us throughout all of Deltarune. They set (honestly reasonable) boundaries with us, refusing to allow us to take things they deem too important. I feel distanced from the story because of Kris’ clear acknowledgement of our existence and their own preferences. There is a line drawn by their actions that we cannot cross. Kris serves as the eyes, ears, hands and mouth through which we interface with the world, but they use their role as a cage to limit our reach. It’s a testament to Toby Fox’s writing and game design that this still feels immersive. I am still drawn in even as I’m made to feel like an outsider. Hell, I want to be drawn even further in. I want to be friends with Susie and Kris and Noelle and Ralsei. I crave the emotional closeness that I cannot have. This exactly mirrors how Kris feels in hometown: like an outsider that craves attention and connection but is unable to realize those things. The emotional distance is a part of the narrative.

The story seems to already be heading towards tackling this emotional distance in the normal route by heavily discussing the irreality of certain characters (Ralsei mostly, but other Darkners too). Lightners entering dark worlds somewhat heavy-handedly lampshades the real-life interface between two narrative layers that occurs when you interact with a story. The fact that Darkners don’t consider themselves real (and Susie’s firm rejection of that) is a criticism of the notion that just because things don’t have physical form doesn’t mean they can’t affect you like any supposedly more “real” thing can. I think both routes in Deltarune will lead to resolving the emotional distance of the player, but in either a healthy or an unhealthy way depending on the route.

There is a reason the weird route fixates so heavily on Noelle. The relationship she has with Kris is complicated. They’ve been friends for a long time, but Kris has withdrawn into themselves recently. Their connection has floundered and they’ve grown distant. This interpersonal distance is similar to the intrinsic separation we, the player, must feel from the characters in Deltarune. We think we know them, but there’s a disconnect in communication that is mostly bridged through Kris’s creative interpretation of our commands. Could we really consider ourselves friends with Susie without Kris’s silly little goofs? The little flairs of personality they tac onto the membrane of our interaction? It feels… both resonant and saddening to know that Susie doesn’t really like US, they like Kris. We’re just kinda forcing Kris to put themselves out there. We’re forcing Kris to expose themselves to intimacy in a way they never would have on their own.

There’s a selfish part of me that wishes for a blank slate, that wishes I COULD be closer to these characters I love. And… well… Kris CAN be made blank. You can force that emotional closeness if you really want. You can force Noelle to become “friends” with “Kris” again. The weird route is about our refusal to accept a lack of intimacy and our refusal to respect boundaries. Both with us, the player, and with Kris’s friend Noelle. Kris pushes everyone in their life away. They’re traumatized from the disappearance of Dess, they feel dysmorphic due to being the only human in a family and town of monsters, they’re queer and weird and don’t relate to anyone they know (me too thanks), and their parents are so divorced it gave a TV separation anxiety. While the abuse of Noelle does make me feel wretched, it is the erasure of Kris that really gets to me the most. God, the little crumbs we get of their mental state in chapter 4 weird route after Noelle’s house… it’s heartbreaking. Poor kid.

This is why I think the end of the weird route will be us “killing” Kris, or taking absolute control over their body. What greater violation is there than annihilating someone’s personhood? Hell, we’re already doing it. It’s also why I think the end of the normal route will be with Kris and us reconciling our conflict. Coming to a healthy mutual understanding of each others’ boundaries and limits. Or at least arriving at a somewhat less adversarial relationship. Sure we keep making them do stuff they don’t want to do, but they keep ripping us out and shoving us in a cage or beating us with hockey equipment. We’re stuck together, we’re gonna have to figure out how to make this work. I think as we come to understand Kris as their own person, they’ll come around to us too. If chapter 7 ends with Kris playing piano for us in the final rendition of Don’t Forget I’m going to actually sob.

In a similar way that Undertale genocide is about dissociation from the characters, Deltarune as a whole is about the rejection of dissociation, both textually and thematically. It’s about the celebration of attachment. Attachment to friends, to loved ones, and to fiction. Undertale no-mercy was doable for me in an emotional sense because its very structure necessitated detachment. It just got easier and easier as it went on, each step necessarily demanding a little less than the last. The weird route however is the opposite of that. It demands emotional closeness. Indeed, emotional closeness is the entire point. Every stage of the weird route has made me feel worse. It’s making me realize that it might not be worth it. I couldn’t even finish my chapter 4 weird route save, I just stopped after Noelle’s house. If I’m right about where things are heading, I don’t know if I can go there. I don’t think I can do it. I don’t think I want to.

[kenchann]

self indulgent PLAYER and SOUL stuff

[swaggerstudiosnova]

it didn’t turn out like in my head 😞

[ralsei789]

The voices won again

[glistening-gnoodle]

toby release a new chapter please your fandom is going insane

[orangjuic2]

deltatraveler screenshots no context

[iridescent-serpent]

PROCEED

[paramasqueradeva]

Twin Runes Epi 84 - 84.1 - 85 [ Deltarune/Undertale Comic Dub ]

Comic By: @akanemnon