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Y'know what? Fuck you.
*Cheers your Cheers*
#there's no way the episode named CHEERS#on a show that has had it's intro as a relevant thing#has absolutely no mention of cheers in it#adventure Time spoilers#fionna and cake spoilers#adventure Time edit#cheers#is cheers a tag#how old is even that show#anyway im getting sidetracked#fionna and cake edit#fionna campbell#cake the cat#simon petrikov#adventure time tv#marshall lee#gary prince#and all the other ones#im too lazy to write them all down#also fuck lsp
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The Best Friend Showdown
Season four had many, many flaws. One of the big ones was the Rena Rouge vs Chat Noir conflict where Ladybug starts relying on Alya more and more, basically using her to replace Master Fu. We get a sense that Chat Noir feels inferior to Rena Rouge because of this change, but it’s never directly addressed. The most we get is this conversation from Hack-San:
Ladybug: I'm really sorry, Cat Noir. I should've told you. I mean, if I found out that you told someone about your secret identity, I'd... probably be upset, too. I'm really sorry I hurt your feelings. Cat Noir: You didn't hurt my feelings. You did everything right.
Which is actually a really weird bit of dialogue because - as far as I can tell - nothing in the episode revealed that Scarabella knew Ladybug's identity. She hands out miraculous all the time and no one knows who she really is. Why would this time be different? Ladybug could just show up in costume, explain what's up, and then hand off the earrings while using yet another miraculous.
Anyway, the Rena Rouge vs Chat Noir conflict is “resolved” by Rena Rouge being outed again (and I guess that matters this time), leading her to give up her miraculous so that Gabriel can’t steal it away, which of course leads Gabriel to steal it away and fully disempower Ladybug’s larger team, leaving Chat Noir her only teammate.
How satisfying! This is such good, character-driven story telling!
It’s not. This is plot contrivances to the max with no meaningful character beats, but we’re not here to talk about that. We’re here to do one of my favorite things: gush about a relevant Kim Possible episode! Today’s topic is episode 12 of season one: Pain King vs. Cleopatra, the episode that introduces Kim’s female BFF, Monique!
This was a bit of a shocker for me because I didn’t realize that Kim and Monique weren’t pre-series friends. Turns out that, much like Alya, Monique is a new girl, which isn’t a bad call. This was a nice way to delay Monique’s introduction for a few episodes so that the writers could focus on establishing Kim’s relationship with other key members of the cast like her partner, Ron. Spacing out your intros is the way to go whenever you can pull it off as it’s a kindness to your audience that keeps them from feeling overwhelmed, making it more likely that they’ll remember your cast.
The other, more important similarity between Alya and Monique is that, when Kim’s hero partner and life-long friend finds out about Monique, he is less than thrilled:
Kim: I barely got to see them. Right after I hooked up with Monique, the museum was robbed by some glowing-headed animal guy. Ron: Oh, that's nice. Ron: Wait a minute, who's Monique? Kim New friend, really great. Anyway, the thief stole an enchanted ancient talisman. Ron: Whoa, whoa, back up! How can I not know about a new friend? Kim: I met her at Club Banana, then again at the museum before I chased the glowing robber. Ron: So what's she like? Kim: The robber? Ron: The friend, Kim, the "new friend".
Throughout the episode, Kim and Monique continue to bond without Ron, leaving Ron feeling left out:
Ron: Seein' a pattern here, Rufus: Kim does her thing, I do my thing, and pretty soon - we're doing different things.
Which leads him to get a little territorial:
Kim Ron! What are you doing here? Ron: Can I dine with my best friend and her new friend? Kim: Uuh, Ron, Monique, and vice versa. Ron: Bearclaw? Monique: No, thanks, I'm vegetarian. Ron: Uhm, I'm pretty sure it's imitation bear? Kim: She's joking, Ron. Ron: Good one, hahaha, ha, good one. So, did Kim tell you that I'm her sidekick? Cause that role is definitely taken by me. Monique: Riiiight. Well, in... you know I better get to class. Later, Kim. Um, n-nice meeting you, Ron. Ron: Likewise, I'm sure! Kim: What is your problem? You're acting really weird. Ron: Well, let's see. You went to the museum with Monique, not me. Monique was with you this morning, not me. Hmm, pattern? Kim: Yeah. You. Weird. Ron: No, we're drifting apart because you're excluding me. Kim: I am not excluding you. It's just that you and Monique are... different.
Noticing some similarities to Miraculous here?
So how does Kim Possible resolve this conflict?
Well, the plot of this episode resolves around Kim Possible’s version of professional wrestling, the GWA. There’s a competition going on that Kim has no interest in watching (mood), but when Kim mentions the GWA to Monique:
Monique: Why didn't you bring [Ron] along? Kim: Unless someone put a waiter in a headlock, this is definitely not Ron's scene. Besides, he had a date with "Steel Toe". Monique: He scored tickets to Mayhem in Middleton? The GWA rocks! Kim: What?
It turns out that Monique and Ron have a shared interest! Multiple shared interests, in fact! Interests that Kim does not share:
Monique: You know, I still can't believe you met Pain King and Steel Toe. Ron: I can't believe you're into wrestling. Kim: I can't believe I know either one of you.
By the end of the episode, the conflict is resolved not with Kim having to pick a BFF or with Monique somehow being demoted, but by showing that this didn’t need to be a conflict at all. Kim can have multiple close friends that she shares different interests with without any of those friends being lesser. Those friends can, in turn, have their own friendships that don’t always involve her.
It’s a genuinely lovely resolution that makes me love this little friend group because it now has added complexity. Monique and Ron are friends in their own right! Kim is not the center of the universe in spite of her main character status!
I also love that Kim isn’t vilified for having other friends or portrayed as constantly leaving Ron out of things that he'd want to do in favor of Monique. Ron genuinely would not enjoy most of the things that the girls love to do together. At the same time, Ron’s feeling aren’t treated as totally irrational either and Kim even admits to ditching him. It’s a genuine, complex conflict that is super common when someone enters a new relationship be it platonic or romantic.
Obviously Kim Possible’s version of this conflict feels far less complex than Miraculous’ because Kim Possible understood that Ron should be Kim’s one-and-only partner, so his position was really never threatened. Monique does not want to be an action hero and is never given the sort narrative weight that elevates her to Ron’s level or higher, but that doesn't matter. The basic lesson here is still relevant and super important for the intended audience of both of these shows.
There did not need to be a Rena Rouge vs Chat Noir conflict that never got properly resolved. Miraculous could have made these two friends and no, Scarabella doesn't count because Chat Noir has no idea that Scarabella is Rena Rouge/Furtive. Their relationship ended at the end of Hack-San. He didn't even know that Rena Furtive was a thing until she was in the process of being benched and that's the problem.
Kim Possible is not a team show, Miraculous is, and yet Kim Possible has better team dynamics than Miraculous. Monique could have joined Kim's team at the end of Pain King vs. Cleopatra and it would have felt natural because both Kim and Ron had welcomed Monique and formed a genuine bond with her. This is a true friend group that Miraculous can only dream of even though they've been adding new superheroes since season two.
We're going into a season with a full, massive team and yet that team has no established dynamics on the hero side. It's not a functional team! None of these characters have meaningful relationships with each other as heroes save for Alya and Nino since they know each other’s secret identities. The only relationships Miraculous cares about are the various romances and everyone's relationship to Marinette and everyone suffers for it.
The show would not have been harmed by Rena Rouge, Chat Noir, and Ladybug being a team. It was the thing I kept think after watching the Kim Possible episode. Since the team is the end game, why aren't we seeing them? It would have been so nice to have Hack-San end with Ladybug introducing Chat Noir to Rena Furtive instead of a nonsense discussion about an issue the episode didn't even address.
#ml writing critical#ml writing salt#kim possible#marinette deserves better#adrien deserves better#alya deserves better#you said you wanted more KP gushing so here you go!#I was originally going to wait until my ask list died down but who knows when that will happen#And I wanted to do something a little more positive because I like gushing!#I'm critical because miraculous is bad not because I like being critical
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Tech Lives: An Ungodly Long Essay
(AKA: Turns out that my Tech Lives compilation post comment was actually a threat.)
There have been hundreds if not thousands of posts since Plan 99 aired wondering if Tech might have made it after his fall - it's probably been brought up more than any other hanging plot point, even after season 2 scooped up Omega and left us on a massive cliffhanger. Now that season 3 has started, though, Omega and Crosshair are home (for now) but we have received an almost aggressive lack of Tech info. So, I've gathered up some of the stronger Evidence for why Tech might be fashionably late but still on his way back from The Void!
THE LEAD UP
So to start, let's go back to what came before the whole Incident. This will focus mostly on season 2, seeing as that was definitely Tech's season to shine, but with bits about plotlines in season 1. Which brings us to our first bit, that's not really evidence so much as some gentle push-back on a common argument.
Doomed By Character Development?
We've all seen this particular situation before - a character is slated for a tragic death, so just before it happens the writers gives them a little extra relevance to the plot to make sure the audience really feels it when the time comes. The Clone Wars was especially good at this, giving characters like Fives an arc of his own that ended in his tragic death. Season 7 gave us a better look at Jesse, first in the Bad Batch's intro arc and then again through the Siege of Mandalore, all to bring us to the chip activation that led to his ultimate death.
When season 2 started off with one of the two intro episodes spotlighting Tech and our first breather episode of the season also spotlighting him, people started to get worried. So is it fair to say that his spotlight in season 2 was setting him up for a permadeath?
Looking at it, I don't think so, for multiple reasons. For one, Tech didn't just get a spotlight episode, his development dominated a good chunk of the whole damned season, often taking priority over the other characters that wouldn't be dropped into the mists. While giving a little bit of character development to a doomed character can be a good move, giving ALL your development to a doomed character ends up feeling like a good portion of your season was actively pointless.
The Bad Batch is not an open ended show. It seems to have been planned for the three seasons it got, and they would have gone into it knowing they had a set amount of time to work with. Dedicating so much time to developing Tech in preparation for a character death takes away all of their opportunity to develop, well, anything else.
But, along with the amount of time that was dedicated to Tech as a character through season 2, they also didn't develop him in the ways that most often get used for a doomed character. Namely...
That Sure Is A Lot Of Open Plot Lines
And not one of them got tied up. Currently, Tech has two open plot lines to himself, both started in season 2, as well as a key place in the overall show narrative arc. As the overall show narrative arc takes precedence, we'll start with that.
The Bad Batch sets up a few different narrative arcs very early. One is if clones can be more than soldiers - this is the central thing that we see them struggling against from the start, they've been created to be soldiers and don't know much else about how to function in the world. Theoretically this arc can be fulfilled with one or two of them still dying as soldiers, as long as a few of them make it to find a new life for themselves.
The arc that can't be fulfilled without everyone though is the ongoing thread of reuniting the batch. Much of the show is geared towards making the viewer want this specific end result, as soon as they talk about Crosshair, Omega says they'll just have to get him back and complete their family. The end of season 1 teases us with this only to pull it away at the last moment, then season 2 teases us with it again only to yet again pull it away, this time seemingly permanently.
Ending one of your key narrative threads you've been using to draw audiences in only 2/3rds of the way into the show and without ever resolving it... well it would be a choice. If Tech is gone for good then the last time we saw everyone together would be the end of season 1. Rewatches would lack impact because something that was made to seem so vital ended up going nowhere, and the series finale would never quite reach the height that hearing the full batch theme kick in over the team fighting droids together did. It absolutely destroys the central narrative to leave him gone without ever having reunited the family.
And then there's his personal plots.
Let's start with the obvious one. Tech got a whole potential love interest this season and they absolutely did not resolve a damn thing about it.
Again, this takes a trope that we all know - the young army man that's going to go home and finally marry his girl, who has his whole life ahead of him, but dies tragically in his final mission - and seemingly intentionally subverts the beats. Because what makes the trope work is that the plot line is resolved as soon as that young man decides how he's going to move forward. He can't die uncertain of if he's going to marry his girl, he has to make a decision, and the longer we spend on the relationship to his girl the stronger the decision has to be to consider the narrative line resolved and free him up for some tragedy.
Tech/Phee is a tentative little 'will they or won't they' romance. They're flirting, they're feeling each other out, they're seeing if they're compatible. To tie up this narrative line we would have to find out if they are or not, get a yes or a no on the question. Will they or won't they? We simply don't know because the writers didn't put a resolution in.
We do get the traditional pre-mission scene with them, which would normally be when we get the first kiss or perhaps the promise of a date, either of which would have had me digging Tech's grave for him to fall into from the second it happened. Or even a 'we can't do this right now, but maybe some day it will be the right time' which would have been a kind of lukewarm resolution but would have at least represented a decision.
Instead we get a scene that almost aggressively refuses to resolve anything. They have an awkward interaction, but not one that says they won't get together, no promises are made for the future, no decision point is reached, and the plot line is still dangling wide open when Tech falls to his supposed death. If we truly leave it off here, well, what was the Tech/Phee subplot for? Why did we spend precious time on it when it could have been spent on something else, if it was meant to make Tech's death hit harder why did it not go further?
A second subplot with Tech is that he certainly made the most progress on seeing options outside of the Empire - it starts early on in Ruins of War when he meets Romar and gets his eyes opened to the idea of cultures that existed unconnected to the war. Serenno existed before the war and before the separatists, and Romar introduces Tech to that idea of an ongoing culture. He gets a taste of racing in front of a cheering crowd, leans further into his teaching of Omega and gets new insights from her regarding their lives as soldiers, his relationship with Phee picks up right when he finds out that she is interested in the preservation of cultures. It's a quiet little subplot, but Tech was seeing the full scope of what the galaxy contained beyond being a soldier in a war.
But, like the Tech/Phee, it never resolves. He never decides to settle down, he never chooses to stop being a soldier or even openly discusses the idea of what life will look like after. Rescuing Crosshair isn't positioned as a final mission that they have to complete in order to give up their lives as soldiers. Without that decision point being reached, the plot stays open, we never find out what he Would Have Done so we don't get a sense of the future that he would lose by dying, which is what the purpose of these types of plots is for a planned permadeath.
The Kaminoans don't create without purpose and writers working on a three season timeline don't typically write without it either. So if we spent the time on Tech/Phee but Tech is dead before it ever went anywhere, if we spent time on Tech's relationship with being something other than a soldier but he never really pursues it, what is the payoff?
Too Much of a Survivor To Die?
There's also the matter of how they chose to build Tech's character this season. Namely they beefed that man's skills up incredibly high making it intensely unbelievable that he's dead without seeing some sort of concrete proof. Things we know about Tech as of the end of season 2 include:
Incredible pain tolerance - Tech fractures his femur in Ruins of War and seems shockingly unbothered by it. The femur is frequently listed as one of the most painful bones to break. This is not a broken toe the man is hobbling around on, he fractured the strongest bone in the body and kept going through the woods. He physically fought and killed a man with that busted femur.
Lightning fast mental processing - this is of course on display nowhere so much as Faster where he's put up against droids and wins by taking calculated risks that no one else is willing to try.
A cool head in stressful circumstances - this one is hilarious because he outright says it, but Tech does demonstrate time and time again that when it comes down to it, he's able to keep calm no matter the circumstances.
Essentially, we spend the entirety of season 2 setting up why Tech is the perfect person to drop out of the sky and have him survive. He has the ability to keep calm and come up with a plan in seconds and he has the grit to keep moving even if he's grievously injured once he hits the ground. When you set a character up like this, you can still kill them, but you have to work harder to do it convincingly. Leaving Tech not at the moment of death but with probably at least a minute to act in and then not showing us the body is the exact opposite.
We have a moment in The Crossing showing us Tech's precise aim, and it comes up again to brutal effect when he shoots out the connection on the rail car. If moments through the season were used to set up that particular instant of the finale, then we can't discount the numerous scenes demonstrating his survival skills as being irrelevant to his chances.
Plus, looking back at Ruins of War - one of the big moments in the episode is towards the end, where Romar tells Tech, "I'm a survivor. Remember?" The camera then lingers on Tech for a long moment. It's not the kind of action that demonstrates his capabilities as above, but it works to associate the words with Tech in the viewers mind. Romar is a survivor, and Tech is a survivor too. And when you intend to kill someone off, it's kind of an odd choice to spend that whole season setting them up as a survivor.
THE FALL
Which brings us to the scene itself. Plan 99, implied to be one of the last ditch plans that they have. It's absolutely a heartbreaking scene, and one that can be tough to analyze when it's so well done, because it's rough to watch repeatedly. But, it's worth doing, because the scene itself is FULL of questions, some structural others more based in the visual presentation.
What is Plan 99?
Well, that's just it, we don't actually know.
We know what it's implied to be, a self sacrifice plan where one of the batch gives their life for the others to get away. But in show it's never actually defined, leaving the full meaning of Plan 99 up to interpretation. It could be as simple as what it's implied to be, but that brings up questions like 'why not provide any lead up or foreshadowing for it?' and 'does killing yourself actually count as a plan?'
Removing the assumptions from it gives us room to speculate. Is the plan actually that they leave him behind, dead or alive? Hunter ordered them to do so without a plan number in season 1, but he is the sergeant, so plan 99 could easily be something that bypasses his authority - if a batcher calls a plan 99, you go and you don't question his decision. It's certainly closer to a plan if there's something they are supposed to be doing from their end rather than just an announcement of intent.
It's not strictly evidence one way or another, but it is something of note when Tech's entire sacrifice is based around a plan that we're not privy to the details of. TBB has hidden its twists in ambiguity before, so it would not be the first time that it let us assume something only to pull the rug out later. But ambiguity is not the only thing that makes this scene stand out in the raising questions department.
Pacing Goes Out The Window
Generally speaking, a self sacrifice is the climax of an episode. Think Kanan, Hardcase, Gregor, Hevy, etc - Even a minor character sacrificing their life tends to make up the most climactic portion of any given episode, let alone one of the characters from the title squad. It gets to be the big central moment, the big rush of music and feeling, the pinnacle of the viewers attention.
Tech's sacrifice is not. It happens around 5 minutes into the episode, is rapidly moved past with barely a moment to think, and then the actual climax is Omega's capture on Ord Mantell. They even repeat the music when Omega is captured, except much stronger this time, making it clear that this is the emotional crux of the episode, this is the scene that is supposed to stick with you.
The opportunity to make it the climax of an episode was certainly there. The storyline could have been adjusted to put Tech's fall at the end of The Summit, allowing more time in Plan 99 for processing his loss and making it feel final. The pacing choice is one that doesn't allow the viewer to process the loss, only giving us maybe a couple minutes of time with actual emotional reactions before we're barreling off to the next plot point. Why was Tech's death de-emphasized within the episode if it is indeed our last moment with this central character?
Tarkin, Eriadu, & Saw Gerrera
A lot goes into the set-up for Plan 99. We have Tarkin's base on Eriadu as the setting they're working within, going up against Tarkin for the first time since early season 1. This is the big leagues, and something that's come up in multiple interviews is that when going into the den of one of the franchise's big bads we have to have consequences, something to demonstrate that Tarkin is not to be trifled with.
Sounds reasonable enough. Except Tarkin doesn't actually do anything in either of these episodes. The thing that actually threw them off was Saw's planning mixing in with their own.
All Tarkin does upon finding out that the batch is stuck on the rail is order an air strike and ignore that this would kill many of his own men. This is certainly evil, but it's standard Imperial evil. Rampart would have given that order. Hemlock would have given that order. The guy in Tipping Point that we know for 5 minutes before he fried himself would have given that order.
So if the point of this finale was to demonstrate Tarkin's power, then bringing Saw in both complicates the plot and devalues what they're claiming they are trying to show. So is the point to get them to Tantiss? No, because they fail in that. They don't plant the tracker, they're no closer to finding Crosshair than they were before.
By all accounts the point of the whole endeavor is in fact just to drop Tech off a sky rail for reasons unknown and injure Omega to force them to go back to Ord Mantell. These two things could have happened anywhere in any way of course, so why choose Eriadu and why choose to complicate the plot by introducing Saw rather than letting Tarkin handle the job?
They're questions we don't have answers to yet, but they're very hard to get answers to if Tech is dead and completely out of the picture. Having a dead body on Eriadu is fairly useless to the plot, having a living Tech on Eriadu though? That has potential to move them huge leaps forward in a very short amount of time once we bring him back in. Especially given his conversation with Saw prior to everything going downhill - Tech was in favor of gathering intel from the facility rather than destroying it.
And what about Saw, anyway? If he was genuinely there to cause problems and fly away, again, that's a plot wrinkle that isn't needed and took time away from everything else. If he's there because they needed someone to pick Tech up though? There's potential there.
Did Tech's Sacrifice Mean Anything?
In universe, Tech's sacrifice means everything, of course. It's a decision made in the moment to risk everything to save his family. It's a noble deed and one he does without hesitation. But pulling away from that narrow scope of an in universe perspective, what did we accomplish narratively with his fall?
Well... not much actually! They got over the bump in the road that they encountered all of five seconds ago and promptly crashed headfirst into another, different bump in the road. Tech's dramatic sacrifice didn't allow them to escape unharmed, it didn't allow them to find Crosshair, it just allowed them to move a few steps forward, after which Omega is almost killed and then captured, which is a fairly weak reason to sacrifice a whole major character.
But not every character death is exclusively about narrative, sometimes it's about the character arc itself. So does this close out anything for Tech's character development? Again, not really. Tech has always been completely loyal to the squad and would have risked anything for his family. He never had a choice not to fall, it was either just him or the whole team, and he is an endlessly logical actor. The action would have played out the same had it happened in the series premier or the season 1 finale, or any other time in the show. If anything it's a backtrack on his character by putting him solidly back into the soldier box that the show is trying to let the clones grow out of.
Maybe it's not about Tech's character though, maybe it's about everyone else's! Does his death change anyone's trajectory? Again... no, not really. We'll get into season 3's lack of mentioning Tech later, but in the immediate aftermath of his fall, no one's course or actions is majorly changed because of his loss. Hunter wants to go back to Pabu where it's safe, the same thing he wanted to do before they ever left for this mission. Omega puts herself in danger to save her brothers, which has been one of her defining traits since season one. Wrecker is following Hunter's lead, same as he always did. (We get very little of what Echo hopes to do, but the opening of season 3 reveals that they went back to work with Rex, exactly like they were doing before.)
So narratively nothing required him to die, the character's arc isn't completed, and the other characters aren't motivated to change. If Tech dies here, it's the picture of a shock value death. It doesn't complete or inform his character, it doesn't need to narratively happen in order to put Omega on the path to being captured, and thematically it exists just to give the viewer an unnecessary gut-punch when just the failure to rescue Crosshair and the loss of Omega would have been enough.
Framing is Everything
In a death scene there's nothing more powerful than our final shot of a character. The very last we'll ever see of them, the image that will linger in our minds when we think of that character from then on. This is especially important in animation where everything has to go through several iterations before deciding on what that final look will be. You want it to be impactful, you want the audience to have one final connection to the character before they're gone for good.
So why does Tech die with his helmet on?
If there's one thing TBB is good at, it's their expression work, and a death scene is a perfect place to show off their full range, which is why most deaths meant to have a heavy impact occur with faces unobscured. Crosshair loses his helmet and takes Mayday's off so we can see both of their faces as Mayday dies, Slip, Cade, even Clone X and Wilco, all die helmetless. Looking into older series you have Kanan dying without his mask, Fives, Hardcase, Waxer all dying helmetless with one last good look at their faces and expressions.
And while Tech's helmet gives us a good look at his eyes, the rest of his face goes unseen, and Wrecker's face as he watches this happen is completely obscured. We're denied a look at a lot of their expressions as the decision is made and Plan 99 is executed, rendering it less personal than it otherwise could have been. Tech could have lost his helmet in the blast that knocked him from the rail, Wrecker could have had his helmet knocked off at some point to give us a good look at his expression. TBB isn't known for pulling its punches, so why leave our final look at Tech's face back in The Summit and not here?
Then there's the framing choices. We get some absolutely amazing shots of Tech during the fall, from taking the shot to falling backwards towards the cloudy cover - but here's where some interesting choices are made. Rather than letting our last shot of him be a face up shot that keeps eye contact with the camera as he falls, they make the choice to have him flip over, and we hold the shot as the rail car goes down after him, partially obscuring him.
Which means instead of our last glimpse of Tech being something like this.
We end up with something closer to this.
Which, while we all love those Tech crotch shots is somewhat less impactful emotionally. These frames go through multiple departments and get multiple eyes on them before going through final animation, and no one thought that leaving him face up and unobscured until he disappears into the fog would stick more firmly in the viewer's memory?
The Flip Might be Intentional
And I don't just mean out of universe, as every detail of animation is often intentional, but in universe as well. If you look closely at Tech as he falls, he seems to roll his shoulders back in order to begin flipping over. It was a specific enough detail to send me searching for a reason and I found it in instructions on how to survive a long fall - the first thing that you're supposed to do? Get into the arch position like a skydiver to slow and control your fall.
The flip was important enough to not only include but to include the small detail of Tech intentionally flipping himself over into said position. It's not a confirmation but it's an interesting detail, and one that has very few other reasons to exist.
THE AFTERMATH
Image chosen because even thinking he's alive I didn't want to pull from Omega reacting to the fall on Ord Mantell. Looking at her makes me Sad. So the fall has happened, the rail car has rushed forward and crashed, and Omega fades in and out of consciousness until finally waking up on Ord Mantell to the bad news.
"What if he's hurt?"
Omega is our POV character for the show. We may sometimes see things she doesn't, but emotionally she remains the center of the narrative, the character that the target audience will see themselves in. Her ultimate thoughts on a situation are the closest we have to a clear indicator of our intended takeaway.
So it's interesting that the first thing we hear out of her, having heard that Tech 'didn't make it,' is a firm denial. He can't be gone, he might be hurt, he needs them and they need to go back for him. And, despite Hunter continuing to talk with her about it for a bit, we never actually hear Omega explicitly take it back or verbally acknowledge Tech as dead. The closest we get is 'lost' which she also uses for Echo in The Crossing.
Now, here's where the interpretation between the adult and child audience will likely differ. From an adult perspective, this is a reasonable reaction for a child her age. It comes off as very natural that she doesn't want to accept it and that she doesn't have time to really process that it's true before the scene moves on. It makes sense from an in universe perspective.
However, the main audience is still children who actually are Omega's age and who are being presented with her as their window into this world. And their takeaway, seeing that same scene, is likely to be that Omega is correct. They don't know that Tech's dead, just because an adult says it doesn't make it true and just because Hemlock says it DEFINITELY doesn't mean it's true, they have to go back and check.
If they wanted the main audience to think that Tech is dead for sure, they could have had Omega be the one to say that he's gone, with Hunter simply confirming it for her. Alternatively, Omega accepting it when Hunter tells her would also function in the same way - ultimately, as the POV character, if Omega doesn't accept it there's a strong possibility much of the audience won't accept it either, especially without other evidence.
No Body?
And, as we all know, we simply don't have other concrete evidence. Not only are the batch given no time to look for Tech's body or any confirmation that he died, but we get a whole scene with Hemlock and the goggles where he also confirms verbally that he doesn't have a body either. There's very little reason to have him say this outside of putting a bug in the viewer's ear that he might not be gone for good.
Not only do we have that verbal confirmation, but we have multiple places where a body could have been included or implied without adding much to the runtime.
Easiest place would probably be when Omega passes out - there's a trooper's corpse right there in front of her, and it would have been very easy to make that identifiable as Tech. Have one of the boys check his pulse like Crosshair did with Mayday and then be forced to leave after confirming he's dead. Would it require a little bit of fudging the details of how he landed so close to them, sure, but it would have been narratively streamlined and easy.
Have Hemlock bring his helmet rather than his goggles (and damage it in a way clearly incompatible with survival) or confirm that he did find a body but has no use for the goggles.
Put the body in Hemlock's lab when Omega is brought there at the end of the episode. Have a sheet covering him even if you want and just one of his hands hanging out, especially the one with the distinctive light on the back of it. Give us her reaction to that.
These are just the ones that don't involve adding scenes or making major changes - instead, in a franchise known for bringing back everyone and their grandmother especially if there's no body, they chose to leave it extremely vague.
Reused Score
The soundtrack for Tech's sacrifice is fantastic, I don't think anyone can argue that. In fact it's so good that it's used occasionally used as a reason for why he's dead for real. If it's a fakeout, why go so hard on the music?
It almost sounds like a reasonable argument, except that the music isn't even unique to Tech's fall. We get the same motif later in the episode with Omega's capture, and it actually comes in even harder and more impactful there than it did with Tech falling.
Reusing bits of the music has two results. It lessens the impact of hearing it with Tech if it is in fact his Death music, because it makes it clear that he is not the central feeling of the episode but rather, Omega's capture is. As mentioned before, deaths are usually the climax of their own episodes partially to avoid them being upstaged by any other plot points, but here Omega's capture is fully prioritized over the loss of one of our central characters.
The second result is that it changes the meaning of the music. It's no longer meant specifically to underscore a tragic death, but rather a more general one of loss and separation. And if it's simply about that separation, then it no longer requires Tech to be dead to have that same impact. They're apart from each other, and that's painful enough.
SEASON 3 SO FAR
Which of course finally brings us to season 3! We're five episodes in as of the posting of this, so a full 1/3rd of the season down, which gives us a good idea of how they're handling the whole grief aspect of this scenario.
They Aren't!
That's right, we simply have not directly acknowledged or dealt with the whole 'watching your squadmate fall to a presumed horrible death' thing even once in five episodes. Tech has been mentioned by name twice, we've seen his goggles once, and Wrecker makes one sideways reference to him having not made it back.
In universe, there is a several month timeskip and it seems to be implied that the majority of the grief milestones happened in that gap. For example, we don't see Crosshair finding out from Omega, we don't see Omega grieving her brother, we don't see Phee finding out (more on her in a bit) despite her fledgling romance. Months of grieving and processing skipped over and what comes out the other side is single line mentions that go by in seconds.
This is especially apparent after episode 5, where we got something to compare it to. Crosshair has a long, painful moment of grieving with Mayday's helmet when they return to Barton IV. It's deep, personal, and intimate and we take a minute with him gathering up the helmets of Mayday and his men to set them up on the crates the same way that Mayday had honored them.
Mayday is a one episode character that was important to only a single character, Crosshair - Tech is a core member of the team present through two full seasons and shown as close to every member of the squad. Yet the single scene grieving Mayday is longer and more emotionally gripping than every short mention of Tech so far in season 3.
Narrative Grief
Seeing characters grieve their loved ones onscreen is about more than just the characters themselves. It's also part of the viewer experience - through the characters' grief, we're able to process our own grief at the loss. It makes it feel real, it makes it feel personal, and the amount of grieving needs to be proportionate to the character's importance in the story.
This is especially true in a show written for children like The Bad Batch. Kids don't typically have the same experience with death as adults, and a well written main character death within a children's show will need more time and energy spent towards making the loss feel real. We see this with deaths like Kanan's; it wasn't Jedi Night that told the viewer that Kanan was really, truly dead, it was Dume, where the characters mourned him and dealt with the aftermath.
Currently, with Tech, we do see holes in the team that make us miss Tech but they remain completely unaddressed by the characters. We see Tech's goggles, but Hunter isn't looking at them, he's looking at Lula. Omega mentions Tech having taught her all the plans, but without any real sadness on her or Crosshair's part. The closest we get to actually bringing it up are Wrecker saying 'not everyone came back' and Echo mentioning the datapad would be difficult without Tech, and both of those are only seconds long before moving on. They don't serve as any kind of catharsis for the viewer, relying more on gut punch impact and keeping the wound open rather than allowing it to heal. The difference between the treatment of Tech's death and Mayday's just makes it more stark.
How Do You Like Yearning?
Interestingly, though, it strongly resembles the writing team's handling of another situation: Crosshair's departure from the team in season 1 vs Echo's in season 2. The show even drew a lot of flack for the lack of discussion on Crosshair's betrayal, as outside of a couple conversations the matter often went unremarked on. Echo leaving, on the other hand, got a whole episode dedicated to processing the loss immediately after it happened.
So what was the difference? Crosshair's departure is part of a long term plot point. We're supposed to want him back, we're supposed to want the team to talk about him, anything that would ease the tension. The writers on the other hand want that tension to remain until it's time to actually resolve the plot. So we get those slow drips in between bigger encounters, we get opportunities for Crosshair to come home that he doesn't take, and we don't get the catharsis of the team actually talking about any of it. We're left to want and imagine it, using the yearning to keep it on people's minds more than anything.
If Crosshair had been discussed on screen long enough for the characters to actually come to terms with his absence, though, that would have made the plot feel more settled and resolved early on. It might be conversations we want to see, but it doesn't keep the viewer on edge and craving a resolution. Best case scenario we're just not as desperate for Crosshair to come home - worst case scenario we accept that he won't be returning and find the fact that he eventually does to be unrealistic.
Echo on the other hand gets their absence processed immediately, because their absence from the team is not meant to be a huge plot point. It's something the team has to deal with, yes, and the viewer wants to see them again just like Omega does, but Echo returning isn't meant to be a maybe, and it's not supposed to keep the viewer wondering and worrying. It's a when, not an if.
Similarly to Crosshair, Tech has never felt like a resolved plot point. We don't get confirmation on his death, we don't get any long term grieving, and we get drip fed acknowledgements that pry the wound back open. If we actually see the team discuss and come to terms with their grief and loss, the plot point closes, the wound closes and we begin to fully accept a team without Tech in it, which makes it harder to reinsert him into the storyline if he is in fact alive.
If he's truly gone for good, what is the point of denying closure to the audience? We know that they are capable of writing an intense mourning moment that feels completely in character for otherwise emotionally repressed men such as Crosshair, so why not give us that with the team mourning for Tech? A memorial, an intimate moment with the goggles, a short scene of Crosshair finding out about the loss, or anything at all really? Once again it's something that makes sense if he's alive and we're simply not being shown yet, but makes very little sense to not capitalize on if he's dead.
What's to Come
We have ten episodes of season 3 to go, and a lot to cover. Reviews have indicated that Tech is not explicitly brought up in the first eight, so the earliest we could possibly have a survival reveal is in episode 9. Will it actually happen? Maybe, maybe not. Though interestingly episode 9, The Harbinger, is almost exactly one year after Plan 99, just like The Return aired almost one year after The Outpost. Could mean nothing, but they do enjoy their anniversary dates.
One thing we do know for sure is coming up is Phee's inclusion - she's seen in the official trailer, as well as briefly in a recent twitter spot. This is interesting as Phee is, of course, Tech's teased love interest, and her connection to Tech has been emphasized multiple times, including on her Databank entry and the official 'what you need to know about season 3' guide. When she comes onto the scene, it's very likely that more information about Tech will too.
MARKETING, INTERVIEWS, & SOCIAL MEDIA
I wanted to keep this mostly focused on what can be seen within the show itself, but it's impossible to talk about whether or not Tech is alive without pointing to the absolutely bizarre messaging from the cast and crew, as well as the marketing choices surrounding his sacrifice. (Example: the Instagram Mourning Filter they layered over him in the official trailer, as seen above) I won't get quite as detailed here as in the above, but it does have to be mentioned.
Constant Focus
In between the end of season 2 and the posting of the season 3 trailer in late January, there were several posts on various official Star Wars media. The majority of them were about Tech and Plan 99. In fact, I don't think I ever saw anything mentioning the giant 'Omega's been captured' cliffhanger, just Tech. Over and over again.
Once a character is dead, marketing generally stops caring about them. They're forward focused after all, they want you coming back for what's to come not lingering on what won't be relevant again. So why the constant focus on Tech?
And it wasn't just the social media either - a huge portion of the trailers and reels included old footage of him too. For the most part this was from Plan 99 and bringing up his fall again to rip open those old wounds, but in one case they included action footage from The Summit. This was an interesting case, because the majority of people watching wouldn't have recognized it immediately. Fittingly, the entire comment section was full of nothing but 'Was that Tech?' style comments, which they would have known was going to be the case to start with.
So why are we so focused on a man that's supposedly dead? If he's genuinely never going to show up again why keep putting him in? Everything? While not even bringing him up all that often in the show? If he's dead, this is a truly bizarre marketing decision.
Never Say Die
In interviews or in official material. For several months the word 'dead' was never used for Tech anywhere, not in interviews, not in official material, nowhere. It took until January 23rd for all of the databank entries to be updated, and among all of the main cast he's only referred to as 'killed' once, and it's on Hunter's page not even his own. Then, the Friday before the premier, an interview came out referring to him as dead - on the part of the interviewer, not the creators themselves.
Everything else seems to use a variety of euphemisms. His sacrifice, his absence, his loss, he 'plummeted out of sight', he 'fell from a tram car', he did absolutely anything it's possible to do except outright die apparently.
It's an odd choice when there's known controversy over if he's dead or not. The standard operating protocol of course, in a planned comeback, is to refer to them as dead anyway and allow fandom to fuel its own speculation, but with a fandom as devastated as TBB's was, it's quite possible that the odd behavior had to be introduced just to keep speculation going. The only interviews that sound remotely final came out right before the episodes started coming out - if they had done that from the beginning, the chances of people outright refusing to come back to the show likely would have been higher.
Much like the marketing, this is not necessarily proof of anything - but in combination with the multiple odd things in the show itself, it's certainly suspicious. Speaking of suspicious...
What an Odd Thing to Say
The cast and crew themselves have not been skimping on making strange comments when it comes to the Tech situation.
There is of course the well known Joel Aron (lighting director for the series) tweet that came out the day of the Celebrations panel (AKA when the Tech trauma was at an all time high) and in direct reply to a fan that was having a hard time with Tech's death. It's hard to take it as anything but a reference to Tech given the timing, and it was certainly taken as being about Tech in the quote tweets. If it's not about Tech, why tease the fandom with it? And the specification for it being a mid s3 episode as well...
Also from the day of Celebrations, and from the panel itself, we have Michelle Ang saying in front of God and everybody, that Tech "doesn't come back... in this episode, at least." At the time there was a possibility she didn't know and was just leaving it open, but with that only being ten months ago and the extremely long timeframe of animation, it's almost certain that she would have been done with all primary recording by that point. If you know he's not coming back, how do you accidentally imply that he is with no one correcting it?
Dee Bradley Baker, when asked for a farewell message from Tech at a con, came out with "the life of a soldier is fulfilled by fulfilling his mission and supporting his brothers. And this was the end of mine. And that's a good thing." Which was a perfectly serviceable goodbye right up until he said that the end of Tech's (life? soldier's life? mission?) was a good thing.
During an instagram interview we have Deana Kiner, one of the composers, in response to the interviewer talking about the final episode containing a major loss, saying, "It's kind of a loss... It's complicated." The claim on twitter was that this was about Omega, because everyone knows that when someone mentions the major loss in Plan 99 they're definitely talking about Omega.
So is Tech alive? Is Tech dead? We still don't know. But while one or two of the above might be a coincidence, having all of them at once coalesce around this single character death is a lot to chew over. The Bad Batch team has shown willingness to address grief and loss prior, as well as a willingness to show us death onscreen and front and center. So why, with such an important character, sidestep it all in order to keep it vague? Why keep it from sounding final for so long, if the intent the entire time was for him to be dead for good?
We won't know until he either shows back up or the show ends. If Tech's alive, all of the above starts to make sense. If he's dead... well a lot of things will just never quite add up. I feel that this team has shown enough willingness to follow up on their trailing plotlines that they've earned my trust. Fingers crossed for a satisfying resolution for all of us, and for our boy Tech, whatever that resolution may be.
#the bad batch#tbb#tbb tech#the bad batch spoilers#tbb spoilers#the bad batch speculation#this thing is some 7500 words i might have an obsession problem
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Rebirth - Muse - JM
[**This post was written before the release of today's BTB and the little explanation JM gave us about Rebirth and Slow dance. What can I say other than just how much more my words feel relevant now. ]
As promised.
Thought I'd sneak this one in before Are you sure? lands, cause Idk, I just have this feeling that once it does we are up for 1 of two options:
I'm so overwhelmed by the amount of content we are getting that I'll be so dumbfounded and unable to post at all; Or, I will be so busy ruffling through everything running after my own tail trying to post post post post, that I will have zero time or ability to post this.
Long story short, this was the time. Do or die pretty much.
So Intro: Rebirth.
Before I get into the lyrics themselves I do want to go back to what we learnt from the Minimoni album exchange.
I kind of feel like a broken record here, but then again, I do think that obviously watching that exchange and my post on it can be a good starting point into understanding not only what Muse is all about, but also that out of all the songs on the album, Rebirth, in a sense, is just a little more personal than the others.
JM talks how the lyrics for this one were really hard to write. He mentions this a couple of times.
This was also when JM talked it was hard to write about having a crush.
Before moving on and talking about the song itself I do want to clarify something here.
I was really surprised to see how people are interpreting this.
Do people not know what the meaning of the word crush is? Not only the actual term JM used in Korean (that perhaps got lost in translation), but the actual meaning of the word in English.
짝사랑 - this is the term JM used while talking to RM.
Which basically translates as unrequited or one sided love, which is just that if you understand the actual term of the word.
Go to Oxford dictionary and crush is described as: "a brief but intense infatuation for someone, especially someone unattainable." And if you look up "infatuation" well: "an intense but short-lived passion or admiration for someone or something."
Now, when I heard the word crush that is exactly what I understood and it was funny for me to see that there were those that interpret the word as falling in love or being in love or similar to that, when crush means something else all together.
*Side note: JM's love life aside, knowing the concept of JM's album, it's easy to understand why he chose to use the idea of a crush as a metaphor to describe that short lived passion/excitement he was feeling with his work, telling us or showing us, with the development of the songs in the album, that indeed it is short lived and he was yet to find that long lasting feeling of excitement with the things he was doing (work/his art) - still searching for that "who".
Back to the meaning of crush.
As explained, a crush in English means an intense infatuation with another that is mostly unattainable. Two people can crush on each other, but it's a crush only as long as it is yet to be requited. Once it is reciprocated then it's no longer a crush. So, you can crush on someone unknowing that the other person has a crush on you. This crush can fizzle out and end in nothingness. But a crush evolve into a relationship if the two people involved move forward from it. Making that move forward towards each other.
This is what having a crush looks like:
And this is how it looks when you had a crush and are realizing that maybe, just maybe that person is reciprocating.
And this is when you have decided that he really is.
That was back in 2015 btw. August 2015 and December 2015. ALMOST 9 YEARS AGO.
Unattainable.
Short-lived.
Are we surprised JM wouldn't remember the last time he had a crush?
I will repeat this for the rows in the back that might not have heard. When JM says he doesn't remember the last time he had a crush, that doesn't mean he's single. Whoever thinks that is what he's saying needs a crash course in English and/or life.
A crash course in crush... lmao (yes, I am easily entertained).
So, JM had to turn to the youngest member of SGMB (lol) to remind him what it feels like to have a crush. And yet, as I have explained in the Minimoni post, Muse might not be autobiographical, but that doesn't mean that there aren't personal aspects to some of the songs, and the lyrics. Feelings expressed being real feelings drawn from his trove of inner thoughts, feelings and life and love experiences.
I will also add that although crushing is mostly one sided, and when it turns into more, as in the other party reciprocates, of course there are some of the feelings that linger. The rush, the want, the need. But at the same time things change in that the other side is feeling the same. When you look at them, they look back, gazes linger rather than avoiding eye contact, for example. There are the touches when crushing, and there are the touches, just as hesitant, after it becoming MORE. The first are one sided and usually hidden as something else (for example: "I just need to check your arm muscles for a sec"), while the second are two sided, intentional but at times hidden from others.
The differences might be so very slight at times, but if you have a keen eye you can definitley notice them. And they sure were noticeable when it came to Jikook.
Another thing before I start.
One word:
SERENDIPITY
Idk why, but I feel like Rebirth is a prequel to Serendipity. Even though Serendipity was not written by JM (although I do believe he had input into the song just like or even more so with John Billion - remember how JM says he's an American RM...), it most certainly was claimed by him and JK as theirs. You are me I am you being their trademarked catch phrase. A love ode from JM to JK. That song JM said he will gift his loved one and did. Followed by GCFT, JK's love ode to JM. And if I'm going down that road, well, if Rebirth is the prequel to Serendipity I'd say that Letter is the sequel to Serendipity. I kind of think I've mentioned this before in one of my posts about Letter.
Now that I'm done with my precursor, let's move on to the actual song. A song that out of the lot of them in this album seems to be the most personal. The only song that we didn't get to see the process of writing or recording of in content we have gotten so far for Muse (promotions now over).
[Verse] If I'm tryna be special Can I get closer to you? I can feel my heart pounding When your fingertips graze past me If I'm tryna be special So that I can sing while making eye contact with you I'll show you, baby Oh, I didn't realize Oh, I didn't think I'd care Oh my gosh, now I Won't hide You are the light in my darkness Like the sunshine vibe It spreads quietly [Chorus] That I want a real good love, good love, good love I'm tryna find a love, good love, real love I was in pitch black, but I couldn't stop thinking of you all day long I want to take one step and two steps closer without you knowing Stay with you, with you, with you, with you I will be your reason, rеason, reason, reason I hope this feeling rеaches you, to you, you To you [Outro] White clouds The wind passing by Floating petals It feels like it's been waiting just for us When that door opens When I get closer to you I'll tell you this I will be special all for you Special just for you For you (For you) For you (For you) I wanna be with you
I will share with you what went through my mind once listening to Rebirth, all while reading parts of the translated lyrics. The flashing scenes. Parts that screamed JK or Jikook.
"I can feel my heart pounding When your fingertips graze past me"
This:
And this:
And this:
And this:
More:
I can go on with this all day long. Being one of the most obvious sus behaviours with these two. But seeing that I don't want to exceed my image limit in this post I think this is where I will stop. Point made I guess.
"So that I can sing while making eye contact with you"
This was the first thing that came to mind:
😭😭
Although these did too:
And do we recall JK's sentiments about making eye contact with JM on stage?
They connect on stage. Before, during and at the end of the performance. We have seen it and they have told us so throughout the years.
Was that what JM was thinking of while writing that line?
This is clearly a line that is taken from his own personal experience. Singing while making eye contact is not something that regular people like you or I would come up with to express a feeling of love or want towards someone.
Drawing from his own emotions and experiences, how it is for him and how he might have used to wish it would be.
This line, more than any other is clearly that.
"Oh my gosh, now I Won't hide You are the light in my darkness" and "Like the sunshine vibe"
The latter, as JM explained to RM, was a word game/pun for which he asked permission from Taeyang to use in his song, seeing that his name literally means sun and Vibe was his song, lol.
But, we also know there is someone else, much closer to home, much closer period, that is referred to as the sun. Someone that makes JM happy. Someone that makes JM laugh even when he's sad. Someone that JM chose to go into the army with, together!!! Someone that is the other half of the sun and moon duo, the sun to JM's moon.
And what about this?
I'm tryna find a love, good love, real love
And he found it.
Coincidence? I don't think so.
"When that door opens When I get closer to you I'll tell you this I will be special all for you Special just for you For you (For you) For you (For you)
And he is. JM is special for JK. He has told and showed us this in so many ways in the past.
"I wanna be with you"
I wanna be with you...
Again, JM told us the songs aren't about his life, right? And yet, that doesn't mean they don't have a personal connection, that while writing he didn't take from his own experiences or feelings, that after writing he feels an emotional connection with the song, that even if not intended to it hits closer to home than others. And I feel like this is the case with Rebirth. I do believe that there is a reason it is the connecting song between Face and Muse. That there is a reason the interlude separates it from the rest of the songs.
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Falke and Memories
I'm gonna preface this whole thing with a big Signalis spoiler warning even outside of a tag because this is a lot to have spoiled if you haven't beat the game yet.
Under the cut I'm going to talk about the evidence that Falke has memories from Ariane just as she does Elster, I'm gonna try and be kinda brief rather than fully essay mode because I'd rather do that in a google doc than a tumblr post.
Okay first I wanna show the evidence that is fairly easy to point out. To be honest these things alone I feel are enough evidence, though it's far from the only evidence.
First is the lineup from the fakeout ending:
In the fakeout ending, when the scene shows the lineups of all the versions of Elster, and also the versions of Ariane, Falke can be seen at the front of both.
All the way on left here.
And all the way on the right here.
And if she is at the front of the Elster lineup because she has Elster's memories, then she most likely is at the front of the Ariane lineup for the same reason.
Next is Falke's intro screen prior to her boss fight:
This one is also relatively known though I feel like it gets treated more like trivia or goes relatively forgotten after people learn it. This being that when Falke's face is shown up close right before her fight is the same as Ariane's from when she's shown up close in the endings.
It is worth noting that FKLR units in truth don't actually bear any resemblance to Ariane, but here Falke is a nearly one for one match. A very reasonable explanation for this is Elster herself, she is being shown awakening because that is what Elster is seeing. She is recognizing the Ariane within Falke, or recognizing that Falke is becoming Ariane.
Or even another alternative explanation could be bioresonance, a power able to shape reality, is literally molding Falke physically into who she has started to or has become mentally.
This detail overall is extra interesting when you consider Falke is corrupted, she has degraded physically in a similar way to all the other Replikas. Yet she is still shown looking like Ariane to both the player and Elster.
Third is what I would consider kind of obscure but still pretty well shown/known:
This relates to the position Falke has within the story. Much like Ariane she is asleep, laying in a bed rather similarly to how Ariane is laying in the cryogenic pod.
For Elster to reach Ariane she has to also reach Falke (Artifact ending is kinda different to this, you don't ever physically have to reach Falke, but you also don't physically reach Ariane either.)
If/when she awakes, it is Elster's goal to kill her. If Elster is to ever fulfill her promise to Ariane, she must also fulfill it to Falke. (I touch again on this later)
Okay with those three mentioned I wanted to talk about more of the obscure things the game does to show Falke having Ariane's memories.
First 'This God Won't Forgive You' (this is one of my favorites):
Immediately prior to fighting Falke, these words flash on screen. Which on a surface level are easy to ignore as just a way to establish murderous intent on the part of Falke, and yeah it is that, but with how deliberate everything in Signalis is, this quote kind of stands out. There's not really an obvious reason for Falke to have this kind of feeling for Elster. Elster hasn't really done anything to Falke. There would be nothing for her to forgive Elster for, but there would be for Ariane.
Elster died before she could fulfill the promise, and as evidenced by the story of Signalis existing at all, it had a big effect on Ariane. And though in the relevant ending she seems accepting of Elster returning to fulfill the promise, she still sees Elster dying first as having failed to keep it the first time.
This is further evidenced by the wording of the line, 'THIS GOD' would suggest there's another god who could forgive Elster, of course, this other god is Ariane. The wording also implies that what Falke cannot forgive is the same thing Ariane may forgive. Which as siad before is very likely the fact that Elster died first. Falke, blinded by grief and rage will not forgive Elster for dying before Ariane (or herself through memory).
Second the music:
Two parts to this section, ill keep the first short because it's pretty self explanatory, and also the second is just plain more interesting.
First is Falke's theme is Ariane's theme backwards. This is HUGE evidence, but I just simply don't have much more to add to it as far as facts go.
Second is related to the song in the OST called 'The Promise', it's essentially a remake of the middle two minutes of 'Raindrops' by Chopin. If you aren't already aware, 'Raindrops' makes its own appearance at the beginning of the game right after you take The King in Yellow for the first time, and as you see the signal begin to send, and also where the words 'Remember our promise' appear for the first time (if i am remembering correctly). That is to say the song is strongly associated with the promise between Elster and Ariane.
That makes it interesting then that 'The Promise' is the song that starts to play as you defeat Falke. In fact it's punctual to the point that the paino motif that makes its refrence to 'Raindrops' and the promise in game clear only plays the moment Falke actually falls over dead. This is done as if to suggest that Elster is fulfilling the promise in some form to Falke as she intends to do for Ariane. This is further realized though how the second instance of the 'Raindrops' motif, which is much more intense, plays as Elster begins to trek through the gate toward the Penrose 512. The song eventually concluding as she successfully enters the ship to show that the though Falke's death was to fulfill the promise to a recreation of Ariane, now is the opportunity to fulfill it for the Ariane.
Third the artifact shows when Falke is vulnerable:
The artifact, or the symbol for it is one of the most open to interpretation aspects of the game. Not much is ever explained about it, and its main role in the story is for the secret ending which is a whole can of worms on its own. Falke does have a role on both the Ariane and Elster side of this secret ending, but that isn't what I want to touch on here. Rather I want to emphasize that one of the few things that can be observed about the artifact symbol is that it always appears in relation to Ariane in some way.
Leading to Ariane's room.
On the back of The King in Yellow
Over Falke to signify her vulnerable state.
With other examples of the artifact and its symbol being used in strong connection to Ariane it being used on Falke shows how Ariane is as much a part of her as Elster is.
Unordered things that are kinda relevant/worth mentioning:
Signalis is a very deliberate game, which makes Falke's journals interesting. They do pretty explicitly mention her memories melding with Elster's, but in other places its rather intentionally vague. Lines like "We were dancing to that song they start the broadcast with. We feel asleep watching that movie we had seen before so many times. If only i could take us back to that time when we were happy. These memories are mine now." Which don't state which perspective these memories come from. Or another note which contains the line "Memories from other lives" the plural use of lives implying the memories of multiple individuals.
I also wanted to give a bit of speculation why Falke's diary and overall narrative frequently mentions her being overtaken by Elster's memories when Ariane's are also implied to be present. One possibility is that contending with memories from both was too overwhelming when two would already be too many and so she could have suppressed the memories from Ariane such that she would still be able to function after on some level, or until she went to sleep and stayed that way.
Another possibility, and my more favored one that also fits a lot of the evidence here is that it has to do with what Falke can and cannot do. With the memories of Ariane and Elster in her head Falke was immediately confronted with the fact that Ariane would not accept her as Elster and that she would be incapable of fulfilling the promise. Thus never allowing her to reach an apotheosis for the the part of her that has become Elster. What she can do, however, is mimic the role of Ariane. She can sleep, and she can wait for her beloved Elster to arrive. This is further helped along by the fact that she does not awaken to Elster's presence until Elster remembers that she is seeking out Ariane and not Alina. In this way she can achieve a form of Apotheosis for the part of her that has become Ariane. This allows her to more easily process and accept those memories as a part of herself. But her inability to do so for the memories of Elster causes her to become lost between herself and this other identity. "I’m no longer fully myself anymore, but I've not fully become someone else either." In more simple terms, she can "become" Ariane thus accepting this new part of herself and maintain her identity, but she cannot "become" Elster which leaves her lost between identities incapable of being Elster or staying as herself.
Anyway that's the post! Hope my insane late night ramblings made sense. I may do a more extensive post on this some day, where every little detail is described and mapped out with complete arguments and no left out evidence (which believe me there was a lot). But that day is not today. If you liked this though I'm posting a lot about Signalis, and I'm writing a fanfic that build a a lot off the ideas presented here through the scope of Falke loving and wanting to be loved by Elster and Ariane. Most of what I post are updates on that or funny thoughts I have so follow me if that sounds like something you'd like!
#signalis#falke signalis#ariane yeong#elster#falke posting#signalis spoilers#signalis theory#falke/elster/ariane#my post#okay im done
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Is there a reason why season 1 is and feels so different from the rest of the show? Usually just pilots look and feel slightly different because they are the "prototypes" but here the entire show is different in a good way. The theme song and intro and the transitions are different, this is the only season where they announce what date it is at the beginning of each episode and arguably the only season where the 70s setting is apparent and relevant. While there are some inconsistencies, this is the only season that seems like a year before the timeline becomes a Jeremy Bearimy (The Good Place reference sorry). Also there are changed in the characters' personalities- you said you feel like Laurie was smarter but the biggest change is with Kelso, while he has always been a jerk in season 1 he was good at math and technology and a bit of a geek. Fez seemed more innocent and Donna more feminine and styled better. Their families were somehow different too- Donna had two sisters and Jackie's mom was actually working and played by a different actress. I was wondering, is there a reason they changed so many things in season 2 onwards?
Quite a few reasons. 😅
After season 1, the creators/showrunners decided to tone down the 1970s sociopolitical aspect of the show. This aspect fades more each season until That '70s Show is essentially That Show.
Simply a creative decision for season 2 to change the theme song to sound more like the characters are singing along.
Mostly same with the bumpers (transitions), but money was also a factor. Season 1's first batch of bumpers had the characters speaking and showing a bit about who they are. But to keep on doing that would've been costly and disruptive to the show, especially once the characters are established. Having the actors in front of a green screen and performing actions silently allowed for many combinations of characters, depending on who was in the scene preceding or after the bumper.
Donna's sisters disappeared because of money and screentime. More characters means more actors, which means a bigger budget and less screentime for the main cast.
Jackie's father was supposed to be a recurring character, too. Not in every episode but more than three. Paul Kreppel (who played Jack Burkhart) was in a few of T7S's original press release photos with the rest of the main cast. He got cut, too -- likely after Fox's first order for more episodes in season 1.
Eve Plumb, most famously known for portraying Jan in The Brady Bunch, was likely intended as a one-off as Jackie's mom. Unlike Paul Kreppel, she wasn't in the original T7S press release or "That '70s Pilot" (1x01).
The show did great casting in season 1 for '70s nostalgia. Marion Ross, mostly known for playing Mrs. Cunningham on Happy Days -- a show set in the '50s but made in the '70s, a parallel to T7S being set in the '70s but made in the (late) '90s -- portrayed Red's mother in a recurring role. Her death episode ("Grandma's Dead") was the original season 1 finale. It was moved much further in the airing order after Fox gave the show a full season of episodes.
As for the changes to characters' personalities ...
Some of the changes can be attributed to season 1 getting not one but two orders for more episodes. The original amount was twelve or thirteen. Hyde's characterization in "Grandma's Dead" fits his original characterization from "That '70s Pilot" through the episodes produced during the first extension. In the original, shorter season 1, the non-triangle triangle is left as a non-cliffhanger in "The Best Christmas Ever," which I think could've been the original season finale. But in my research, I read that "Grandma's Dead" was intended to be the season finale.
Moving forward, the non-triangle triangle is resolved during the first extension of season 1 episodes. Hyde's role as Eric's romantic foil is over. "A New Hope" was meant to be (and marketed as) season 1's finale -- with the cliffhanger of whether or not Donna and Eric were going to be together after the events if the episode.
Then Fox ordered more episodes. I have no idea who was in charge of shuffling the episode airing order, but it was shuffled significantly. When looking at the production order and airing order, the focus of T7S post-"ANH" is clearly on Hyde and rebuilding his character -- to lead to what ultimately became the season finale: "The Good Son".
"Career Day" (1x18) was produced for the original thirteen episode order from Fox. It was moved much later in the airing order to start focusing on who Hyde is and why -- and the who changed in the final episodes that were written and produced. Hyde needed a character overhaul since his antagonist role was over. T7S's creators confessed on camera that they had no idea who Hyde was when the show first started. Outside of being the conspiracy theorist and Eric's romantic non-rival, they hadn't developed him.
But with "Career Day" in its new airing spot as episode eighteen, we then get "Prom Night" (1x19) that rewrites Hyde from the inside-out. It establishes his moral center, his instinct to protect the vulnerable, and his self-sacrificing nature.
"A New Hope" airs after "Prom Night" and was produced right after "Prom Night," too. Other reasons for producing episodes out of airing order exist besides trying to create a cohesive narrative from unexpectedly getting double the episodes to produce. For example, guest stars might not be available certain weeks (a common reason). But this is generally not the case for T7S season 1.
Upon getting a full season of episodes to produce, "A New Hope" was no longer the finale. The Eric/Donna cliffhanger was subsequently ignored. But the original plan was for Eric and Donna to be broken up during season 2.
After "A New Hope," every episode that follows depicts new!Hyde except "Grandma's Dead" (which, as explained earlier, was moved far later in the airing order). "Water Tower" and "Punk Chick" were inexplicably aired in the reverse order. If Hyde hadn't stayed in Point Place in "Punk Chick," he wouldn't have been present to paint a pot leaf on the water tower -- as Eric directly states in "Punk Chick".
Laurie's character shift in season 1 is also due to T7S getting twenty-five episodes after the initial thirteen episode order.
Kelso losing his math and tech prodigy characterization is likely due to the writers not wanting to work as hard. I'm not being facetious. Kelso in season one is very interesting because he lacks common sense, yet he's a genius in two sophisticated fields. But continuing with that dichotomy would have complicated his story arc in season 2. The writers went with a simpler characterization for him to make their jobs easier.
As for Donna, she wears less makeup after season 1 because it fits her character better. (A real-world explanation might also exist. I have a vague memory of it, but it's so vague that I'd have to find proof to substantiate it. So I'll leave you all with that mystifying nugget. 😅)
Last bit before I end this very long explanation-exploration: "Eric's Buddy" was not produced during the original thirteen-episode season. It was the first episode produced after Fox originally ordered more episodes. "Career Day" was going to air as the eleventh episode in the thirteenth episode season 1.
#that 70s show#that '70s show#steven hyde#michael kelso#donna pinciotti#ask#love-geeky-fangirl#my meta#meta#essay#my essay
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HI I AM ALREADY LOSING MY MIND OVER THE SIGN OF FOUR AND IT'S ONLY PART 1. I'VE. I'VE MADE AN A3 MINDMAP WOULD YOU CARE TO HEAR MY RAMBLINGS
Will contain spoilers!
Tagging @blujellyfish21 because I'm blaming you for my mindmap, you've rubbed off on me, and @justabit-silly because uh I just want to share my stupid observations and far fetched theories with you 👉👈
RIGHT OKAY HERE WE GO
Right, first off, a 40 minute episode hello??? Is every part going to be this long?? That'll make the whole case just under 7 HOURS.
The music box at the start is undoubtedly the one John and Sherlock have found.
I HEAR YOU, SHALLOWED BREATHING BETWEEN THE CHILDHOOD RECORDING AND THE VOICE NOTES
So the diamond had been 'stolen' from the Morstans even when Mary was a child.
(Small note that those clips before the theme tune messed me up. I was so scared, but so excited, I was shaking. Because, okay, I read the warning 'minor in distress', and then little Mary popped up, all big-eyed and giggly and I went SHIT NO LEAVE HER ALONE)
The magpie thing is 100% an analogy for the thieves. Oh, sorry, there weren't any thieves? Oh, they're not in it yet.
Note John's "4 for a boy" around the magpie superstition, and note his tone of voice. That is guaranteed going to be relevant. Perhaps it means Tonga (I'm very sorry, I can't remember his name and if I did I couldn't spell it).
John's having more leads! Massive ones too! Yippee!! But Sherlock's not happy. Is he jealous? Or...
OKAY LISTEN TO ME PLEASE. The dynamic between the main 3 has been thriving recently, they've taken their time to develop into a wonderful healthy relationship. Sherlock's sudden spite today was a surprise to me. His insult towards John and Mariana was uncalled for and deliberate. Why? Having a bad day? Or maybe he's doing it on purpose. Distancing himself. Maybe he knows something. Maybe he thinks losing him will hurt less if their memories of him are bitter. Must keep an eye on him.
How interesting that in the book, Mary goes directly to Sherlock for help, but in the podcast, she doesn't even know she's connected yet.
I was wondering when and where the birdsong after the voice notes and before the theme music was set. Yes, it could be irrelevant, but the creators would have had to put thought into it, wouldn't they? Then I went oh my god what if the birds are magpies? I'm not familiar with bird calls, but that would be an AMAZING detail.
I'll end this by pointing out how obviously upset John was in the intro. The whole show is literally about murder, but he always manages to find something to laugh about. So if he actually shows that he's upset, how bad must things be?
#if you've read all that thank you <3#im a bit scared as to how much of a hold this case has on me already#it's like actually been on my mind constantly all day#sherlock and co#bee.rambles#sherlock & co#sherlock holmes
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Fuck's a pro shipper?
We've got a new one boys try not to scare em off /j
Okay but seriously, I'm more than happy to explain. I assume that if you're asking this question you're not aware of the proshipper vs antishipper, uh, "conflict", I guess. So, here is what both of those terms mean, to the best of my descriptive abilities:
Antishipper (often just "anti"): someone who vaguely believes that consuming problematic fiction (usually specifically problematic sexual fiction like lolicon or incest) is either a true reflection of them as a person or a corrupting force that will cause them to play out these desires in real life, onto real people. Basically, if you read age gap, you touch real kids in real life or secretly want to.
Proshipper (sometimes "profic"): someone who does not believe the above, and believes that fiction is not the same as reality because it doesn't harm anyone and therefore people should be left alone as long as you have no reason to believe that they would ever do something like that irl. Often hand in hand with things like anti censorship, kink positive, etc, though being a proshipper does not necessarily mean you have a problematic ship or kink yourself (example: me).
You're probably asking this question because you saw me day in my bio that I am a proshipper. I've tried to stay neutral in this initial description, but obviously I probably didn't manage to be completely unbiased considering that I believe myself to be right (most people do) so if you want to ask further questions after this that's perfectly fine. That being said:
Why am I a proshipper?
So, to understand this, let's first look over the issues within both communities— every group has issues, after all.
What problems do proshippers have?:
- sometimes 4chan assholes co-opt the label "proshipper" just because they're lolicons, even though there's good evidence to suggest that they would do or even have done criminal sexual acts in real life, or that they possess actual csam (child sexual abuse material, a term being used in favor of "cp" these days as porn implies consent). Proshipping has nothing to do with the harmful idea that you should be allowed to exploit and abuse real children.
- there are still many gray areas which proshippers themselves don't agree on. For example: I've seen a bunch of arguments about if writing fanfiction of live action shows or movies changes the equation. The general consensus of proshippers is that writing fanfiction of a character played by a child actor is definitely a more delicate situation and should not be sexual as it's inextricably tied to the image of a real child, but there are others who believe differently.
- I'm genuinely struggling to come up with more of these. Um, sometimes lolicons are really shitty people, like in point 1. This isn't SUPER relevant though cause in reality the overlap between predominantly queer or female proshippers and Reddit incels who just wanna jerk off to a petite anime girl is pretty small, though I'm sure it exists somewhere .
Now, what problems do antis have? (Fair warning, this is gonna sound even more "biased" but I hope my logic is still sound from the outside :p):
- I don't have any statistics on this (haven't exactly been many research papers on fandom drama), so you're going to have to trust me when I say that antis are absolutely NOTORIOUS for extreme harassment campaigns. The first time I was exposed to the word "antishipper", it was attached to a story of a former animator committing suicide because antis had gotten them fired by "exposing" their porn alt on Twitter and they could no longer afford medication for their disability. So, hell of an intro!
- their opinions are, in pretty basic ways, not backed by science or even practical common sense. The human brain can distinguish between fiction and reality after around age four or five
and people certainly aren't trying to hand nsfw content to children that age so I think it's safe to say that the people who are reading these things won't be "confused" by them or whatever. Also, even just using your brain and talking to these people, you find out most of them project onto the YOUNGER character.
- they claim to support victims but often simply don't. I won't keep dragging threats into the spotlight because I know there are probably antis who aren't as violent, but it's honestly astonishing to me how often they jump straight to wishing death and terrible things on people, and this has included more than once telling a rape victim they hope they get assaulted again just because they're a proshipper. See, a lot of these "taboo" sexual fantasies like age gap and incest actually themselves stem from a traumatic experience, and any therapist will tell you that fiction is a much healthier way to explore intrusive thoughts and urges than more dangerous coping mechanisms like self harm or substance abuse. And when confronted with this, in my experience and many others', antis will simply ignore that fact or say that the therapist is some sort of evil enabler.
-the general cognitive dissonance of believing an incest fanfiction will make you "forget" that incest is bad vs being fine with horror movies and slashers speaks to a deeper and honestly kind of worrying anti-sex mindset. I'm not sure I'm qualified to tackle this particular topic, but I definitely agree that it's a thing; after all, I have no idea how else those two things could coexist.
Anyways, I'd like to close this off by saying not everyone is as crazy opinionated as I am, I'm just autistic and like talking lol. A lot of people who id as proshippers just have a sort of minding their own business, ship-and-let-ship mentality, and a lot of antis are unfortunately just teenagers who were told proshipper = evil pedophile groomer and thus they put "proship dni" in their bios just cause they don't know and don't really care what it means. It is undeniable that many antis are kids themselves, and that does worry me, because fandom drama (especially Twitter fandom drama) is dangerous and vitriolic and also they're putting extremely serious threats on their digital footprints at the tender age of 14! But whatever, I'm not their parents, that's just my worry. Sorry for rambling this long lol, I wouldn't blame you if you dropped out halfway through but this is basically my summary of this whole thing. Do with this knowledge what you will! Or, you know, don't! I'm not a cop!
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Anime Sakura vs Manga Sakura
I first got into Naruto the way a lot of English-language fans very clearly did: by virtue of the anime starting to run in my region. More specifically, I got into it partway through the first Toonami airing of the Wave Country Arc -which, for those who don't know (or don't remember), lead to the anime looping back to the beginning as soon as that arc concluded while localization worked on getting the following episodes localized.
I was sufficiently hooked that this wasn't really enough for me, particularly once the anime got back to the episodes I'd already seen, so I checked out fanfic, became aware the series' original form was a manga, and started reading that. This confluence of events resulted in me becoming aware of something I suspect a lot of fans never notice:
That the anime actually changes a lot of early scenes.
Some of this is actually quite appreciated. For example, in the manga Naruto's classmates don't exist in the first chapter: Sakura and Sasuke don't exist until it's time for team assignments in the second chapter, and the rest of Naruto's classmates don't exist until they show up in the Chunin Exams -this is why Naruto breaks the fourth wall and gives an intro for each of them when they show up there, even in the anime where we actually saw them all in the very first episode. The anime adding them in to the beginning is nice!
By a similar token, the manga actually skips the fight between Tenten and Temari, so jarringly I actually had to double-check and make sure I wasn't missing a chapter somehow; the anime giving us the actual fight in detail is also appreciated!
Other changes are sort of random-feeling if you're not familiar with the tendency for anime adaptations to overtake the manga they're rendering in animated form, but understandable if you are familiar with this point: for example, there's an entire episode dedicated to Naruto having a Wacky Adventure in trying to get to the Chunin Exams' final stage on time, involving silliness like running from an entire stampede, which... has no relevancy to the larger plot because it's an anime-only filler episode to stall for time, not based on anything from the manga.
And then there's how Sakura gets changed.
This is kind of weird to describe, because the anime doesn't cut anything or completely rewrite any scenes: it only ever adds bits. The problem is, the bits that are added are... problematic. Consistently, up until about her Chunin Exam fight scenes. But since it is only addition, I'm going to start from just describing Manga Sakura, then explain the changes.
In the manga, Sakura starts essentially exactly as she does in the anime; she doesn't like Naruto, she's pursuing Sasuke... the only 'difference' is that of course Ino doesn't exist until the Chunin Exams and so the whole Ino/Sakura rivalry thing doesn't come up.
However, in short order Sakura starts changing her mind about Naruto; she attempts to confess to Sasuke, it doesn't work out, and she finds the rejection a fairly unpleasant experience and then connects this pretty immediately to her own rather harsh rejections of Naruto's requests for dates and resolves to not be such a jerk to him in future.
And she does in fact stick to that for... at least everything I read. (I've yet to get fully through the Shinobi World War Arc, so I suppose it's possible she goes back on her word somewhere past there)
This is how Manga Sakura goes overall; she starts as a bit of a shallow, thoughtlessly cruel person who isn't really taking this whole 'life and death battles as a ninja' thing adequately seriously, but tends to be quick to engage in introspection, resolve to change such behaviors, and then stick out this resolution; the Sakura we see in the Chunin Exams is something of a culmination of how Sakura has been progressing this whole time.
Anime Sakura still has these moments, but... they get undercut. The date thing is the bit I still vividly remember: Anime Sakura makes her resolution to not be so cruel to Naruto-
-and Naruto immediately shows up, asks for a date, and Sakura punches him out and goes 'never mind' about her resolution.
There's a lot of moments like this with Anime Sakura: 15-45 seconds of content added to otherwise-faithful-to-the-manga scenes where said added content is 'comedy' moments that horribly undercut Sakura's character development. Taken seriously, they make her into an incredibly unpleasant person who intentionally rejects opportunities to become less unpleasant; it's little wonder that so many of the fanfics I saw in the early days really did not like Sakura.
Once the Chunin Exam starts these added bits of unpleasantness stop occurring, but after so long seeing Anime Sakura do things like make resolutions and immediately break them, I imagine lots of viewers found Sakura's Big Resolutions and Major Character Development difficult to take as intended; if I'd not read the manga, I know I would've been expecting these moments to not really stick.
The whole thing is particularly frustrating for how easy it is to overlook; if I'd not been experiencing the manga and anime near-simultaneously, I never would have realized these quick bits of character assassination were anime-only additions. And if you go look at a wiki or the like, you're not going to trivially learn this info, unlike how basically everyone knows that the Anime Filler Arcs are, in fact, the Anime Filler Arcs.
So I've long suspected lots of people are unaware that Sakura comes across very differently in the early anime vs the early manga.
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braven and superbia theory :]
so my discord server allowed me to be stupid on main and rant about bravern at 11:30pm my time, so here’s just.. everything copy and pasted LMAO
also, posting this before ep4 drops, i can’t wait to see if any of my ramblings made sense
theory under the cut, spoilers for bang brave bang bravern ep. 1-3 and ep. 4 preview
the theory is this: bravern and superbia are the same species, possibly related to the deathdrives
firstly, in episode 1 and episode 3 we see bravern with a mask thing covering his face. and when you look at superbia, it seems as though they have something similar
i wouldn’t say that part is superbia’s actual face, due to the purple highlights/crystal looking things on their body. bravern’s eyes are green, and he does have a green crystal or piece of glass on that gold part of his face
and also, bravern has a green background in his transformation sequences and when we first meet him.
there’s also a green trail left by him when he flies in the intro + uses his blade.
the show’s logo briefly flashes green in the op
and the green in bravern’s cockpit + the weird green liquid from ep3
and superbia’s eyes do flash purple in the op, so i’m willing to bet superbia wears a mask much like bravern when we first meet him
and now when you look at bravern and superbia, they do seem very much alike
plus, the opening hints at superbia being somewhat relevant at least, due to the fact that in most anime openings, the fight featured in it is at least somewhat relevant to the story
and also, bravern knows superbia
the “you never change” implies that bravern’s fought against superbia before, or known them in the past
plus, the opening and show kind of confirmed lulu pilots superbia
1. lulu and isami have very similar outfits when piloting
2. this scene in the opening. the character does resemble lulu and the necklace looks like it was made to resemble superbia
3. again, the weird liquid in the mechs’ cockpits
so in other words, bravern and superbia are definitely very similar
plus, we saw that bravern was losing to superbia without isami
without a pilot
and lulu magically appeared on a beach after superbia was defeated. and coincidentally, superbia was in the deep waters when we first see a hint of them.
and i just wanna point out that smith had no idea what lulu meant when she said her name, but bravern understood.
and he didn’t look too happy about that
and in the preview for episode 4, we see a few scenes of bravern essentially being in a shitty mood. kind of looks like he’s lashing out here?
and then at the end we see a scene of lulu looking confused, and we immediately cut to this?
so to just tldr the point that bravern and superbia are part of the same species:
1. they share similar traits and visuals in the show (mainly the colours i talked about)
2. they both have pilots
3. they have a history together (we see superbia scoffing at bravern a few times, and bravern’s quote: “you never change”)
4. bravern shows a clear dislike for superbia and isn’t all too happy about lulu
and now, the other thing: bravern and superbia are some advanced form of the deathdrives, or are related to them
so first off, when the deathdrives are defeated, they go kaboom and explode into this weird cube shaped stuff
and what happened to superbia after bravern and isami’s attack?
additionally, when battling superbia, bravern attacked them with a punch, which they stopped with a purple shield
and what else uses a purple shield?
yup. the deathdrives
and in episode 2, bravern explains that they’re inorganic, metallic organisms that gained something like a conscience. and both bravern and superbia show to have that
bravern’s can be sean very clearly. he talks a lot.
superbia? all we hear from them are shrieky noises and scoffing. and what do we hear from lulu? also that
so to just tldr this entire rant/rambling:
bravern and superbia show signs of being from the same species. they both needing a pilot to achieve their true strength, without them they’re not as strong.
the deathdrives also show similarities to them; that being the similar way they “die” (we’re not sure if superbia actually died in ep3, so i’m putting the word in these “ ”guys), similar abilities (barriers/shields, flight, weaponry?).
so basically, to put all of this short: bravern and superbia are some advanced form of the deathdrives, probably existing to be something like commanders in an army, seeing how superbia kind of teamed up with the deathdrives?
anyway, hope this makes sense LMAO 😭
#bang brave bang bravern#yuuki bakuhatsu bang bravern#bang bravern#bravern#superbia#isami ao#lewis smith#lulu#bravern theory#bbbb#brave series#brave#tzuu’s writing
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Doc 3 is about PZ's kid
And yes, that means what you think it means. We've been talking. A lot.
From my Twitter thread:
Needed some time to think.
I've been trying too hard to make too many people happy, even with contradictory needs. I've been letting people jerk me back and forth on what they think is right. I've been trying REALLY hard to be nice.
Biding my time. No more.
PZ’s kid is okay.
Back in October, after months of worrying about optics, we decided that it was too important: we had to see if Poppy’s kid was okay. They’d literally ESCAPED, ffs. They’re 23, but still.
And before anyone says anything, I WAS RIGHT. This is the first thing they said to me:
Yes, I understand the delicacy of the situation. Yes, I understand how this looks. But please understand: I’m not just some internet rando who’s in way over her head. I’ve been supporting abuse survivors in deep and intense ways for decades, and I’m damned good at it.
I’d fuck off if they had a negative response. I’d push for them not to be involved in any efforts against their mom. In the end, what ended up being our priority was making sure that The Kid (no real name plz) was okay and knew we were there if they needed help.
Fuck the optics.
I helped them clean up the tracks that led to them, then we started talking. Initially, I insisted on this being strictly for support. They wanted to get involved and I pushed back. Said if they really wanted to, they could send me screenshots, not thinking they’d apply.
Oh boy.
First they sent them to me to illustrate their points, but they insisted that I was free to use any of them. That first batch of 12 was jarring enough.
Then, unprompted, they sent me 70 more.
They want me to tell their story. They want me to show you how PZ lie.
And they’re not in a rush. They want me to be thorough.
So in a move I was barely okay with, they gave me access to their 3200-message Signal chat log so I could figure out where relevant screenshots are and have them take them.
I’m taking my time because they’re hard to read.
My mother left when I was 3. My father remarried 4 years later and she was abusive to me for the following 16 years.
I felt unwelcome in my own home, incapable of doing anything right, constantly eggshelling.
Zena makes my experiences with my stepmom look like Sesame Street.
There are little things you notice when you have texts in DB format.
Like how Poppy said “I love you” to her kid eight times from July ’21 to June ’22.
Only twice from July ’22 to June ’23.
Watching them be believed less and less over Zena, who started blatantly lying.
For the past couple of months, when I’ve been able to, I’ve been studying a way-too-intimate look at the death of a mother’s empathy for her child. I’d chat with them sometimes and give them what support I could. Figure out how to respond to ones like this:
I know I’ll only get one shot at this, so here’s what the doc will consist of:
A more complete intro about the above
Transcripts of when PZ have cited The Kid’s abuse on stream
A tally of claims to track
The screenshots
Examples of the “assignments” they were given
A 3.5-page long, single-spaced list of what they deemed unacceptable treatment, which PZ promptly wrote off as bullshit and complained to their friends about
Screenshots from those friends
Direct rebuttals against PZ’s on-stream claims
Additional context from my conversations with TK
Somehow forgot to mention a major chunk: dozens of screenshots from TK’s personal discord with a few close friends, serving essentially as a diary of their experiences. Purely testimonial on that front, I know, but…
I feel like maybe it's worth seeing what a young adult in their early 20s says to their close friends in private about in what's essentially a group chat.
See, PZ’s 23-year-old kid has POTS, a circulatory disorder that affects your body’s regulatory systems, including respiratory. Things that negatively affect POTS:
Skipping meals
Excessive physical labor
Heat
What if I told you PZ would punish them with food restriction?
What if I told you of at least three separate mentions of TK being worked to collapse or illness? That they ignored TK’s symptoms and scolded them for not just eating better? That they worked TK for 8+ hrs some days?
What if I told you that TK is 5’1” and 80 lbs (unrelated)?
What if I showed you when, on-stream, Poppy accused TK of intentionally crying so intensely that she dissociated? Or of abusing Zena?
Can you imagine being pushed so far by your parents that you're in wailing tears, and they don't stop until it reaches that point? And then they accuse you of manipulation?
If you're like me (and what I'd imagine is many members of The Foundation), you don't have to imagine it.
What if I told you that what PZ called “intentionally faking forgetting instructions” when TK was really just having a hard time?
What if I told you I knew what the mysterious psych test Poppy trotted out as proof on stream actually says? What if I told you that Poppy harassed the kid until they gave it up, even though she’s not legally entitled to any of it? Even though she’s abusing the authority of her license?
Remember how Poppy talked about having to rush to the bank to make changes to her accounts because TK withdrew all of their own trust money? What if I told you I have proof that she was talking to them as early as the next morning and TK was completely cooperating?
I’ve heard a lot of horrific testimonies about the things that Poppy has done, but this… This radicalized me.
And it’s radicalized anyone I’ve shown it to.
TK has asked me to use everything I can from them to expose @ZenaandPoppy for what they are:
Abusive Hypocrites
So ultimately, how does this incredibly personal violation of privacy factor into the big picture? Yes, I know what this is. I know what it looks like.
But these are abusive parents who have been using their platform to use their own victim for pity points. That’s how they win.
What I’ve been trying to prove is abusiveness. PZ are recklessly abusive people who hide behind victimhood (and what they used to disdainfully refer to as “idpol”).
This is extensive proof not just THAT they’re abusive liars, but also HOW.
This is what Zena is like with power.
This is a ways off. Still lots to do. But I just want everyone to finally know why I’m still in this.
I know what Poppy and Zena are. Intimately. Not because I’m a “stalker.” Because I’ve had people come to me about how PZ hurt them. 20+ of them with claims from the past year.
I can’t share all of their claims because they only have so much proof. But I believe victims. And this? This I can prove, extensively.
This is why it’s funny when people accuse me of clout-chasing: I have no online brand to care about, and if I did, this would be insane.
People have asked me what the end goal is.
My goal is COMPLETE deplatforming.
For nobody in this community to trust them with their mental health ever again.
They are justifying their abuse with therapy speak and TEACHING THEIR FANS TO DO THE SAME.
They’re dangerous.
Oh, and Zena! Zena! Yeah, right here. I know you were really sad about being left out of the abuse allegations, but trust me, there will be #noZZerasure on this one. You’re a solid 80% of this one, sweetie! How’s that monkey’s paw working out for you?
And in closing, I’m just going to give myself this one additional… treat.
If you’ve been following for a while, you know this reference.
But this one’s for the abuse mob:
You still don’t take us seriously, do you?
Or rather…
Are you taking me seriously yet?
Because you will. I promise you, you fucking will. Because you’re about to understand that this has never been for me. It’s never been about me.
It’s about making sure you two have as few avenues as possible to prey on this community ever again.
See you in school.
#zenaandpoppy#poppy and zena#I told you I was being nice#nozzerasure#“you have no idea what you're actually getting into” right zena
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Fallout New Vegas represented a subtle evolution from FO1 and 2, from a world where people did whatever they needed to do to survive, to one where they tried to rebuild according to their resources and needs. It explored how, under the gun, people would hold onto their traditions, how the old ways that destroyed the world would attempt to insidiously weave their way into the new one.
It also explored how, despite that insidious instinct, things would change for the better, or that, at the very least, they could change for the better. New traditions would arise, new practices, and eventually, the old ways would either fade or mutate into something unrecognizably different.
The fallout show chose to erase those ideas, set things back to zero, undo the growth that had already happened and replace it with a civilization that was neither stuck in their traditions nor willing to advance, a hopeless tale justified by a shadow-government of hyper-competent, hyper-intelligent billionaires who cannot be reasoned with or overcome, and who apparently do not make meaningful mistakes.
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The intense narrative regression that takes place between Fallout: New Vegas and the show is frustrating, but what's even more frustrating are the people who so gladly embrace it.
In a recent interview, Todd Howard asserted that Fallout games would never be set outside of America, and noted that "It’s okay to leave mystery or questions..." and that 'Americana naivete' was core to the identity of the game franchise.
I'll try to ignore the fact that they felt the need to 'answer the mystery' of 'who dropped the bombs' in the show, a mystery that, given the miserable, myopic answer (evil billionaires oh nooooooo) would have been better left unanswered.
The more egregious idea is that Americana has a deep relevance to the themes of any of the official stories in the setting. Even in Bethesda produced titles, it is, at most an aesthetic element.
Anticommunism, consumer culture, American exceptionalism, rugged individualism, western chauvinism, and other ideas that could be explored through the lenses of retrofuturism and Americana are roundly ignored in Bethesda titles, where those lenses are used entirely to generate advertising and nostalgia-bating appeal instead.
In earlier titles, those subjects are expressed, but are either not the main focus of the games or are simplified. The intro cinematic to the original Fallout includes a shot of an American soldier executing a soldier of annexed Canadian and then waving to the camera, followed by a power-armored head placed proudly before an American flag. The opinion here is not clarified further because it doesn't need to be: American imperialism is bad, and was likely a contributing factor to the apocalypse.
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Some people think that Liberty Prime from fallout 3 and 4 constitutes a commentary on something, or espouses some value or philosophical ideal.
If it does, and if you agree with it, congratulations, you are the commentary.
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Character Driven vs. Plot Driven
I had someone message me asking what these terms meant and which Miraculous was and if it explained the writing, especially in context of the ending of season five and that's not something I can answer in a quick reply, so you all get a post instead!
Intro
At first glance, “character driven” and “plot driven” are somewhat confusing terms because almost every story has characters making choices that make things happen and almost every story has some kind of plot that's driving the action, so what do these terms even mean? Why do we use them?
The answer is that we generally don’t? These are high-level categorizations that I’ve almost exclusively seen talked about in things like writing classes where the instructor is trying to help you figure out your style preferences or perhaps painting a genre in broad strokes. I rarely see these terms come up when discussing specific works because they’re not that useful in the mirco. They never excuse or explain writing choices the way something like genre might because genre is a meaningful category and these really aren't. They're too vauge.
Also, as with many such binary categorizations, there’s a spectrum here. On one side is pure plot-driven and on the other is pure character-driven and in between them are most of the stories you'll consume in your life. In spite of that minor issue, I am going to start by defining what these two terms mean at their most extremes because that is relevant to the discussion. We’ll then use Miraculous to get into the nuance of the spectrum.
Character Driven
Character-driven narratives are stories that focus heavily on characters doing – or not doing – things because of their unique personalities, thoughts, and feelings. Stories where the events unfold almost entirely because of who the characters are and what very personal choices they make. Switch the characters and the story would look wildly different or even not exist at all.
When I think of pure character-driven works, I generally think of coming-of-age stories where there’s almost no plot to speak of. It’s just a teenage character struggling with life and learning to accept it. Character studies are another good example.
Plot Driven
Plot-driven narratives are stories that you're engaging with for something other than the characters. The characters are just set pieces that are there to be used by the plot. This means that the characters are probably making choice, but we’re not going to focus on the deep, nuanced reasons for those choices. Change the characters and the choices remain the same because the story is focused on something beyond the characters.
When I think of pure plot-driven stories, I think of stereotypical action movies. Movies where the villain is throwing things at the hero and the hero is overcoming them as fast as they can and so much is happening that you barely even know who these characters are because you're not here for the characters. You're here for the action, so it's fine if the characters are pretty generic. Mystery stories also tend to fit this category as those are often just about the mystery and the characters that aren’t developed beyond what is needed for the puzzle to work.
Nuance
So which is Miraculous?
If we must pick a side, then it’s going to be plot driven because that is Miraculous’ main writing style. It’s not here to study the characters and let them drive the action. It’s here to entertain kids in 20-minute-long chunks where the kids don’t need to know the greater context of who the characters are in order to get what is going on. Pick a random episode and it’s probably going to be one where a random akuma shows up and where everything that happens will never come up again. That is not what character-driven narratives look live. This is not a show brimming with things like Chat Blanc and the season five final. Those are exceptions to the rule.
However, the existence of those episodes and the fact that some of the characters aren't interchangeable shows that this isn’t a purely plot-driven show. The writers do want the characters to effect the world in unique ways decided by their personalities and motivations and relationships. Those are character-driven elements and is why these categories are kind of meaningless in this context. Plot driven vs character driven doesn’t justify or explain Miraculous’ writing choices because many of the writing choices make no sense in either type of story!
Narratives that are mainly plot-driven are not narratives plagued by poor characterization. They’re just ones where the characterization elements aren’t the main focus. You still want your characters to feel authentic and make sense and you can even have moments where the action is effected by who the characters are because plot-driven isn’t some hard rule. As I said at the start, it’s just a general categorization! Genre and format are infinitely more limiting and worthy of discussion because they actually come with some pretty clear rules.
Dunking on Miraculous
The problem with Miraculous is not that the plot is the main driving force of the action. The problem is that characters often make no sense! They act widely out of character for the sake of dragging out the plot, which is the plot driving the narrative, but that doesn’t make it good writing! “Because plot” is not an excuse, it’s just an explanation. In fact, because the show so often ignores the characters’ personalities for the sake dragging out the plot, it actually undermines the entire story because it feels cheap when the story tries to use the characters’ personalities to justify further delays Oh, now you’re letting this matter? Really? How nice. F-off.
Here are some examples of what I mean about the plot-driven nature of the show making inauthentic characters:
Alya is obsessed with finding out everything she can about the miraculous and even becomes a full-time team member in season four with the explicit job of tracking down the butterfly and the peacock, but she never does anything meaningful in that role. We never see her trying to track down the villains even though her character would absolutely do that. Her lack of action is wildly inauthentic.
Gabriel and Nathalie learn all of the temp heroes identities at the end of season three and make two minor efforts to do something with that information that before letting their god-tier knowledge fizzle to nothing even though those same temp heroes never stop being used. This is out of character for both of them, especially Nathalie. In a story that was true to its characters, this would have meaningful consequences such as all the temp heroes having to be benched and/or the villains guessing that Ladybug is someone who knows these people since they have some obvious connections.
The secret identities are the only reason Ladybug lost all of the miraculous at the end of season four and Adrien knows this. The season also ends with Ladybug promising to trust him more and the next season opens on an episode where she does just that. In spite of this, Adrien never even tries to tell her about the secret identity thing and Ladybug never seems to become more open with her partner because, if the show did those things, then an identity reveal would happen and they can't let that happen so, once again, plot trumps characterization.
When a show is plagued by asinine choices such as these while also trying to claim it has these overarching plots and meaningful character beats, the story can come to feel disingenuous and frustrating to a lot of fans. That’s why we can get something as divisive as the season five ending. Because of the poor writing that lead up to that final, it’s hitting different people in different ways depending on how tolerant they are of a lot of the shows previous flaws.
Would it be hard for Marinette to tell Adrien the truth? Sure! That struggle is - in theory - a genuinely good character beat, but it falls flat for many because it comes after multiple seasons of forced, inauthentic delaying tactics that spat in the face of established characterization for basically every meaningful character. With those in mind, it’s hard to view the secret keeping as some authentic, meaningful choice for Marinette’s character when she and many others have been denied so many other authentic, meaningful choices.
This is extra true because her choice to keep both Adrien and Chat Noir in the dark just compounds the issue of the authentic growth that Marinette has been denied! I briefly touched on this in that last example in my list, but we just spent an entire season watching her and Chat Noir maintain their distance in spite of that being something that should have changed based on the character-based events of the last season. Remember, season four gave us this moment in Penalteam:
Ladybug: (looks around them and frowns) I'm sorry, I've been a bad captain. I played a solo game, I forgot we're a team. I'm gonna need all of you now, more than ever. Rooster Bold: Are you sure? I'm not really.. Ladybug: You're an excellent player, Rooster Bold. That's why I chose you. That's why I chose all of you! Let's play together, and bring all of our individual strengths together onto the field!
And this moment in the final, which is the two-part episode directly after Penalteam:
Ladybug: Why don't you just give up on me? I've lost ALL the Miraculous! I'm the worst Guardian EVER! I wanted to control everything, I didn't listen to you, I lied to you, I kept you at a distance! Every time you offered me a helping hand, I never took it! I really made a mess of EVERYTHING! (continues sobbing)
We are, as always, going to ignore that these things don't really match the story that season four told and instead take them at face value since this is the stated lesson. The viewers are being directly told that Ladybug went into season five having learned to trust others and stop keeping Chat Noir at a distance.
But did she? What actually changed in season five? I can't think of anything. Season five maintained all of the secrets and ended by adding new ones. We also had to suffer through Marinette doing absolutely nothing to try to find the missing kwamis even though that is wildly inauthentic to her character. Once that girl has a problem to solve, she obsesses over it! It's one of the few things that consistently gets her acting normal around Adrien, so why did her brain shut off and go full-Adrien for all of season five?
Add in the fact that a major plot of season five was outing Lila's lies and lies being bad and Marinette keeping this secret falls incredibly flat both plot-wise and character-wise. There's a reason that one of the main justification people use for the lie is a scarf from season one that we have literally never seen again and that Marinette never actually lied about. The show simply did not set itself up to make Marinette's lie feel like some authentic character beat. The best justification most people can give is that a 14-year-old would probably struggle to reveal this secret.
To be fair, that is a believable justification. That's believability is why the season five ending could have genuinely worked in a better show where the characters felt more authentic or even if it came much earlier in the story. If this was the season two ending, then I think that most people would be engaged by it and I’d probably even be defending Marinette’s actions because this is a massive thing to put on someone’s shoulders and she was early in her journey. Heck, I have defended her actions by pointing out that she was the last-informed of the group of people in the know and none of them are telling Adrien, so this is not all on her.
But that's the best I can do while being authentic to the story because this lie isn’t part of a story with authentic characters. Marinette has not been set up to lie like this and the lie is being told at the end of a season full of poor storytelling after multiple seasons of stalling tactics, making it impossible to take this lie seriously. Even if Miraculous was a primarily character-driven show, you can’t use that to justify the lie while ignoring all the poor characterization that surrounds it. The writers gave Marinette the kind of journey that should lead to her being brave enough to tell the truth, not the kind of journey where she was too much of a coward to tell the truth. The writing also never set up Nathalie or Kagami as the kind of people who would just bow to Marinette's wishes. It is glaringly obvious that this is all happening as a delaying tactic and not because it's a good choice for the characters or the plot.
#anon ask#ml writing critical#ml writing salt#ml season 5 salt#marinette deserves better#marinette defense squad#Stop giving my girl growth and then taking it back damnit!
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*future hotd spoilers*
so i believe that helaena IS pregnant with maelor, but im really worried about how the show will integrate cause she didn't look visibly pregnant in s1 so she might be at most 3-4 months along? and s2 starts 10 days after the s1 finale. so will she be pregnant when rhaenyra takes KL? is she gonna give birth while hostage or will she unalive herself while pregnant, adding to the tragedy?
sorry for the wall of the text, but the timeline of this show is soooo confusing and i have zero idea where they're taking it!
Well, I'll take this part of the book as a basis:
Well, it's no secret that Maelor was born the same year that Helaena danced with Jacaerys. It's pretty obvious that Maelor was conceived that same night, we had a jealous Aegon who probably found this as a good excuse to hang out with his wife and have a good hardcore sex session. I wouldn't be surprised if the writers take that as an example and put episode 8 as the time of conception, what terrifies me is if they put Helaena as a victim who was abused by her "possessive psycho" husband and this resulted in a pregnancy (and having TB whispering in my ear "rapegon" for the next 2 years).
Assuming episode 8 is Maelor's conception, this occurs only a few days before episode nine, hence three weeks or less before the start of season 2. So Helaena wouldn't even be two months pregnant before b&c, which would explain her lack of a belly in the previews we've had of her.
I honestly don't know what they will do with Maelor. In the intro you can see how Aegon and Helaena have three children, but I don't know if this has any relevance (I hope it does).
Considering that the writers like cliché, I wouldn't be surprised if Helaena has a miscarriage (as a parallel to Rhaenyra's). Of course this would be a big mistake, since Maelor is the reason Daeron commits so many war crimes, but then again the writers don't seem to care much about the latter. Another thing I consider likely they will do is Helaena giving birth as a hostage and, in an attempt to whitewash TB, Rhaenyra sparing the baby's life (just as Aegon II spared Aegon III's life).
#house of the dragon#hotd season 2#helaena targaryen#aegon ii targaryen#helaegon#maelor targaryen#pro team green#blood and cheese
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The Secrets of Power, Sin, the Weird Route, and More
Variable Angel Theory - Part 2
Hi! Noelle Holiday here!
I went over a lot in that last post, but I didn't go over everything. Partially because it would have taken too long (it was already over 10000 words), and partially because I hadn't found everything there is to find so far in Deltarune, and I'm sure I still haven't here.
My main goal is to refine my theory more and give you even more evidence, in case the original post didn't have enough to convince you. As it turns out, there's actually quite a lot more evidence than I thought there was, and considering how solid it already felt at the time, I'm more and more certain I'm right. Plus, I found a lot of new stuff too.
I’d also like to request anyone that finds this interesting please share it around (along with part 1 of course, for context), I want to start a community discussion on the topic.
Like in part 1, I’m expecting you’re at least mostly familiar with Undertale and Deltarune, and know all major routes released so far, because I’m not going to retread the basics. This post will contain spoilers for Undertale, and hopefully Deltarune as well.
Plus, of course, make sure you’ve read part one first.
Here’s the new stuff:
More info on “Power”, A.K.A. Soul Power
How Kris’s soul works, a unified explanation for the new abilities we have access to in Deltarune (and possibly even abilities we had in Undertale)
What the vessel in the intro is for
A general idea of Gaster’s involvement
A clearer picture of the ending
A more thorough analysis of Jevil and Spamton
An analysis of “Holy” and “Sin” in the same vein as "Angel" and "Demon"'s analysis in part 1
A guess on what the hell NEO is
An alternate purpose behind the DT extractor
The possible identity of the Egg Man?
A vague idea of what The Song from the Sea might be
A comically thorough analysis of Rouxls Kaard as an angel candidate
Save file mitosis
The worst plot twist of all time
Much like the last post, this won’t have exclusively stuff directly and immediately relevant to Variable Angel Theory in it, but will instead show most of what I found in the process of refining this stage of Variable Angel Theory. This is because of how interconnected everything in Deltarune’s world is, it can be hard to completely isolate one element from the others, and even the less relevant parts can still be useful context, so I’ve decided not to bother trying to separate them. You’re getting not just VAT, but a lot of the smaller stuff I found along the way. Just know that, if some parts are wrong, and at least something probably will be, that doesn’t necessarily invalidate the rest.
Finding more evidence isn't the only purpose of this post though, there's also just some stuff I decided I wanted to mention after I published the first one, so that'll be in here too. Originally I was just going to call this "Extra Thoughts", but there's more than enough stuff here that "Part 2" feels warranted. This post will probably end up bigger than the first one, so expect at least 10000 words, possibly closer to 15000.
Something to keep in mind about Deltarune, that I may not have placed enough emphasis on in part 1, is that the idea for Deltarune, and specifically its ending, came even before Undertale. One can expect then that many details in Undertale intentionally relate to Deltarune, and so far, that seems to be the case. That’s why I’m so confident making these connections based on information that isn’t directly in Deltarune itself.
Another important thing to keep in mind, again, is that we only have 2 chapters of Deltarune so far. With so little information, I’m basically forced to rely on foreshadowing, narrative parallels, double meanings, and the like as evidence for my theories. Aren’t we lucky, then, that Toby has proven himself a master of that craft? I’m willing to rely so much on this evidence that might be shaky or meaningless in any other game because this isn’t any other game, this is set to be Toby Fox’s magnum opus, and I’m confident he’ll put everything he has into its story.
I'll also be taking some other points as read that I hadn't before, most namely Timeloop Theory (that the game will end in a reset and the world of Deltarune is in a time loop because of this), and Jaru’s Asriel/Ralsei theory (the general idea of it, not the specific hypothetical scenario Jaru gave for how it could have happened). It's only relevant a few times in this post, and you still don't need to know it to understand what I'll be talking about for most of this, as long as you're willing to go along with me and trust that I believe it for a good reason. Or, dozens upon dozens of good reasons, as the case may be.
The game hints at both of these theories all over, pretty blatantly in a few places. I wouldn't assume them as true without being very confident in it, and the reason I’m choosing to take them more as fact here, aside from my being confident in them (I would genuinely be shocked if either were somehow incorrect in their broad strokes), is that these theories are somewhat important to certain parts of Variable Angel Theory that I’ll be discussing here.
Most of Variable Angel Theory and its branches remain valid without the Asriel/Ralsei theory (the time loop theory is a little more important since it’s the entire reason for the weird route at all), but since we’re now getting into the details and specifics, I don’t want to keep restricting the information I draw from. I was originally going to remove most references to Jaru theories, despite how well a few of them compliment VAT, to avoid hate related to him, but as I'm setting up this thing for posting, I've decided fuck it we ball. I've been working on this thing for like a year, I'm making it how I want it.
However, even though I’ll be assuming these theories as true, even the parts that involve them are often not vital to the theory. It’s strong enough, I think, that taking out some pillars won’t bring down the whole structure, so even if you don’t believe them, you’ll probably still get something out of this post. Quick primer on the Asriel/Ralsei theory for those who don’t care to look up the full reasoning: In spite of what Toriel believes, Asriel is dead (like in Undertale). Kris feels guilty for it and may have caused it (but if they did, without an intent to harm, their light world LV is still 1, or perhaps human LV starts at 0 and Frisk killed someone). Kris absorbed Asriel's soul (humans absorbing monster souls was clearly foreshadowed in Undertale but never happened), and Ralsei is a lightner/darkner hybrid made partially from Asriel's dust (hence his weird similarities to Asriel and Flowey, and why the game goes out of its way to never explicitly call him a “darkner”). Kris's unique soul means Asriel is the one possessing them (and the person we play as, similarly to how we play as Chara possessing Frisk in Undertale), and it gives Kris special powers like being the only one able to seal a dark fountain, grazing, shared damage between party members, etc., powers that, despite their variety, Variable Angel Theory’s understanding of soul power can and will explain fairly simply. I can’t tell you specifically how Asriel died, there’s just one or two pieces still missing, but there’s so much evidence pointing to it having happened that despite this I still have a lot of confidence in it. Kind of like Variable Angel Theory itself, actually! You can still get the big picture even if you're missing the details, I think.
I'm also assuming, of course, that you've read my first post on this theory before this one, as rehashing all of that groundwork would take way longer than is worth. If you haven't, maybe go do that or you'll be really confused. If for some reason you really just want to read this part and don’t care about the evidence I used for part 1, there’s a TL;DR at the bottom of that post. This one too, for the new stuff.
Soul Power: Determination, Magic, and Love:
To start us off, I have a better idea of what soul power is that I want to share, or more, a refinement of the idea I already had. I think that, much like determination, magic (as in, the magic used by darkners and some monsters in the dark world, as well as Undertale's monsters) is an aspect of soul power. We know that magic is strongly tied to the emotions of its users, as is determination, being a physical embodiment of the will to live.
Magic, too, operates on many of the same rules as determination, and so does a power like LOVE. So, I think all 3 of these are aspects of soul power. That explains how high LOVE manifests powers similar to determination, why monsters’ emotions have so much impact on their magic, and how Undyne was seemingly able to generate her own determination. It all comes back to emotion, and the power of the soul. In hindsight it's kind of obvious.
What can this tell us? In Deltarune, many party members show a magic stat. The tie between magic, determination, and LOVE may mean that someone's magic stat can be used to get a rough idea of their other soul power stats. And, of course, I have the most latent magic, having as much at LV 1 as Ralsei would have at LV 3. Ralsei seems very knowledgeable about and experienced with magic, one could extrapolate that he's probably the equivalent to a fairly skilled mage. If my base magic is above this, that backs up Queen's insistence of my latent power, and of course my candidacy for ascension in the weird route. Of promptly available choices for a new angel, my high magic stat may translate to high soul power in general, thus making me the best candidate.
Catti:
Of all likely party members we know of, Catti seems to have the most potential to rival me in magic. She has enough associations with it that it would be odd not to make her a primarily magic-oriented character, and the "nekomancer" pun feels too good for Toby to pass up. The earliest she'll show up, I think, is chapter 4, which, as I said in my last post, I feel places her a bit too late to be a serious angel candidate. I think, however, that she’ll have her biggest role in chapter 5, as I believe that’s the most likely chapter to take place in the church, a location that would fit very nicely with Catti’s whole theme and aesthetic. But really, who knows specifics? I sure don't!
What I'm wondering is, what will her magic stat be? For game balance reasons, it would make sense to have a higher magic stat than I do (11 at LV 1, 16 at LV 2 in the weird route), as most of the party will be at least LV 4, maybe even higher, by the time she joins. This should place Ralsei's magic stat around 13-15, possibly up to 18 or more depending on how violent you've been. Maybe Catti's spells will be stronger to compensate for her lower magic stat? Maybe she'll start with a higher LV?
My best guess is that I'll have higher magic at this level in a weird route, assuming I show up (I might not), but in a normal route, Catti's magic may be higher. Though, it's also possible that her magic will be extremely low, on the level of early-game Susie, despite her magic associations, and Toby will use this to make a point about the nature of magic and soul power.
Either way, I think that by the end of even a normal route, it will be farther hinted in some way that I have more potential power than Catti, regardless of what her stats are, and in a weird route, I'm sure I'll be much more powerful by the end than Catti would be. All signs point to it.
LV, Love, and LOVE:
So, what's dark world LV? It's a different stat than light world LV, so what's it mean? For the main members of the Fun Gang, LV increases upon encountering a dark fountain. This makes sense. The fountain seems to be raw magic, and magic, like determination and light world LV, is an aspect of soul power, so they have a solid connection. Light LV, though, is tied directly to killing, and Dark LV isn't. That explains why Dark LV, instead, is earned through exposure to fountains of raw soul power. This could be extrapolated to mean that all stats (HP. ATK. DEF. EXP. LV. (maybe not gold)) are aspects of soul power. Which, again, feels like it should have been obvious from the start, with the way emotions affect this, and maybe most other people have already picked up on it, but it was kind of a minor revelation for me. But, with most major stats all tied back up with soul power, it's almost like we've come full circle. It's a bit harder to say anything uniquely useful about them when they're all tied to the same thing. Either way I think magic in particular is the closest, other than maybe LV, to quantifying "power".
What strikes me as odd is that I start at LV 1, and while I can become LV 2 through the weird route, which I think makes some sense, I can also become LV 2 by just acquiring a title. This raises the question: is this purely a gameplay thing, or does this mean something? Do titles have some tie to soul power? Maybe! I think it's too early to tell either way. Maybe a title is somehow some achievement for your soul that allows it to draw on the power of others nearby? Maybe Kris being LV 2 at the time of title acquisition allows my soul to power up to that level? Or maybe it's related to their unique soul and the powers it has from absorbing Asriel? It could be related to why Ralsei levels up from dark fountains despite not directly being there for their closing. Kris's soul may be uniquely tied to party members, (like how everyone takes damage when Kris's soul is hit) so when Kris levels up, so do other party members. We'll have to see if other characters have their LVs raised mid-chapter this way, our sample size may just be too small, but with Toby it's never safe to assume that a gameplay mechanic is just a gameplay mechanic.
So, with basically every theme of the game tying back to the power of the soul, or the power of the heart, we have an explanation for the bizarre plot importance of all the romance theming, but that still makes Ralsei seem a little weird. My best guess is that Ralsei maintains the essence of affection for Kris from Asriel, like how he might have affection for Susie because of Asriel's interest in hot purple dragon girls (discussed a bit more in the next subsection, as it’s strangely relevant), but that affection takes a different form. It’s possible romance itself enhances the power of the soul, and the romantic implications of the weird route are in part a deliberate choice by the entity possessing Kris.
As a bonus, here are a couple more hints I noticed after the last post about Kris and Susie potentially having, or more likely, foreshadowing that they will have, a romantic relationship. Alphys subtly hints that, when she didn’t know where Kris and Susie went off to, she suspects they might have been doing something of a romantic or sexual nature together. When I show up, and ask Kris and Susie what they’re doing outside of the storage closet, the options are “hanging out alone in the closet”, obviously implying romance, and “crime”. Selecting “hanging out alone in the closet” leads to Susie stumbling over her words, acting almost flustered, and remarking that they were just “touching brooms”, a clear innuendo.
Kris’s Soul:
Speaking of Kris, I’m writing this section about 2 weeks after the previous one, and I think I’ve figured out sort of why Kris’s soul acts the way it does. I’ll go over all of Kris’s soul’s special abilities here (at least the ones new to Deltarune).
Shared damage between party members, and not dying until all of them are defeated
Grazing and TP
Shining “power” on a party member to grant them new abilities
Sealing fountains
Trance
Fighting battles even without Kris present in them (Susie Vs. Lancer)
Surviving briefly without a soul
Wielding determination without a soul
Raising stats without leveling up
I think Kris’s soul has the ability to “sync” with soul power, creating a line of connection between Kris’s soul and other souls and soul power. This alone can explain every single one of their demonstrated abilities introduced in Deltarune.
Shared damage between party members, and not dying until all of them are defeated
With Kris’s soul synced to the party, it acts as a shared soul between them for battling purposes. As such, they can all take damage when it does, and are only defeated when everyone is.
Grazing and TP
Bullet patterns are established in Undertale as being made of magic, and darkness seems to be magic manifest. As such, darkner bullet patterns are likely also magic. Since magic is an aspect of soul power, Kris’s soul being able to gain strength and share it with the party by staying close to concentrated soul power in the form of bullets makes complete sense.
Shining “power” on a party member to grant them new abilities
This ability, and the abilities it unlocks, require the presence of a fountain, because it provides the party with power that Kris doesn’t have inherently. Instead, it channels the fountain, made of raw darkness A.K.A. magic A.K.A. soul power, into the party to give them a boost while in proximity.
This also explains why the party only levels up when Kris closes a fountain, except me. Instead, my level syncs to Kris's when I earn a title, as matching the level rather than exceeding doesn't require the use of a fountain (probably). This may also be how Catti and other potential party members will get on par with party level. A good lore-friendly fix for scaling issues.
Sealing fountains
Because the fountain is made of magic, and can be opened with determination, one can assume soul power is also capable of sealing it somehow, but determination alone can’t make that happen. Instead, the hole in the fabric of reality created when the fountain was stabbed into existence can be sealed by connecting the soul power back together, patching the hole as if sewing it up. It’s a bit of a different implementation of a soul connection, but still follows a similar principle I think.
Trance
Soul power is heavily reliant on emotion, and trance seems to subtly manipulate its target to be more suggestible and open by syncing their souls together.
This could also explain how ACTs work, but that’s more ambiguous because Frisk can also ACT effectively. It’s possible that the presence of Chara within Frisk allowed them to ACT, and trance may be an ability associated more with combined souls/essences in general, rather than specifically a human soul that absorbed a boss monster soul. It’s also possible that, since Chara was absorbed by a monster, their spirit maintains the trance ability from that, since we don’t know for sure if a monster absorbing a human can use trance the same way a human absorbing a monster seems to be able to.
There’s also a chance that trance isn’t an ability tied to Kris’s soul at all, and it’s just tied to equipment, but I think it would be more narratively compelling if it weren’t exclusively an equipment thing. As I trust Toby’s writing to generally pick the most compelling option, I think it’s more likely that trance is actually connected to Kris’s soul, unless Toby has other major plans for trance, some possibilities for which I’ll explore later.
Trance is one of Kris’s abilities that I’m the least sure about. There are a lot of ways it could work and it may be distinct from Kris’s other abilities, but it doesn’t have to be. Toby could take it many different ways and it would still fit nicely, I think.
Fighting battles even without Kris present in them
While the soul is Kris’s, it isn’t Kris. We know Kris likes Susie, but so does Asriel, the other likely component of the soul, which we can glean from things like the How to Draw Dragons book, and Susie’s reaction to his room in Queen’s mansion, which implies Asriel’s search history heavily involves purple dragon girls, hence why Asriel didn’t want Kris to be able to see it and closes their eyes when attempting to look inside without Susie present. It’s also possible that Kris just doesn’t want to see their brother’s search history. Sharing a soul might mean Kris already knows how weird it is.
Either way, Asriel’s likely affection for Susie, combined with Kris’s, may be what gives the soul the ability to maintain its connection to Susie over a longer distance. We’ve always checked what Susie is up to at a distance, but never Ralsei, after all, but even if that changes I think there’s still merit to this.
Surviving briefly without a soul, and wielding determination without a soul
As the soul belongs to Kris, and can sync over short distances, Kris may still be able to use the soul’s power even while it’s not in their body. I’m imagining it like a cable astronauts use to tether them to their spaceship for spacewalks. Go too far, or stay out in space for too long, and it might snap, or you might run out of air. Figuratively, I mean.
Raising stats without raising LV
Defeating enemies with violence, as established earlier, can raise your stats. Much like the link to dark fountains, Kris’s soul establishes a link to the darkners they defeat, siphoning off a small amount of power from them, much less than a dark fountain, but enough that your stats can be increased by defeating multiple. Of course, this bonus is shared with the team through Kris’s soul sync as well, farther splitting the power and explaining why it takes so long for a relatively small increase.
If I had to guess on future abilities, the soul may have the ability to sync up with a target soul so forcefully that it can override their own control of their body. If this happens, it will likely be in the weird route, and I think this is what the vessel may be for. I’ll provide more details later. It also may be possible for Kris’s soul to drain a target’s power until there’s nothing left to take.
Funnily enough, you could call elements of this soul connection a “hyper link”, but as Spamton’s “[Hyperlink Blocked]” seems to just be a standin for the word “love”, that might not be intentional. Or maybe Toby is on some galaxy brain nonsense, it would certainly explain a lot.
Holy:
Undertale has no mentions of "holy" anywhere in its dialogue, so that’s a pretty easy one. Instead, I just want to mention something interesting I noticed. Like I talked about in the first post, the Angel religion shares a lot of similarities to Christianity. It doesn’t have sin as a concept, but other than that, the aesthetic resemblance to specifically Christianity feels significant, especially given its incorporation of angels, all the mentions of demons, the heavily implied existence of Christmas, that sort of thing.
One of Jaru’s theories (that I’m less confident in than the Asriel/Ralsei one but still seems like a valid possibility) is that, long ago, there was a previous angel, and that angel sealed away magic into the dark worlds, as well as memory of it, and gave the monsters physical bodies (that still turn to dust so monsters can maintain their cultural traditions involving it). If this is true, but that angel is no longer around, that could make sense, as the magic and the then-magical bodies of monsters would fall under the purview of an entity with significant control over Soul Power. So would memories, as we know from Undertale that a reset isn’t actually a perfect time rewind, since people still keep some memories, and Flowey specifically mentions erasing memories as a particular part of the reset process.
As such, the making of a new angel now calls to mind the second coming of Christ, with the roaring resembling the rapture, but instead of some people getting sent to heaven while others are left behind, the darkners are turned to stone and the lightners are left behind. It feels like an intentional parallel now that I think on it, which makes me even more confident I’m on the right track comparing some of UT/DR’s supernatural elements to their Christian counterparts. Plus that also explains why the angel religion exists at all, and seems to have been a presence in the world for a decent length of time. If the angel hasn’t been made yet, why would that religion exist, unless there used to be an angel long ago? The prophecy doesn’t seem well-known enough to have spawned an entire religion from it, especially in the light world.
Deltarune:
The “Holy” element
“Holy Fountains, whose shadows are creating a new world… OUR world.” by King
Berdly calls his weapon a “Holy Halbird” a couple times
“HOLY [[Cungadero]] DO I FEEL GOOD …” by Spamton before the Spamton NEO fight
“Holy Circuits Are You Serious” by Queen upon learning about the roaring
“THE HOLY”, song that plays when encountering a dark fountain
Unlike the word “angel”, “holy” doesn’t seem to have as strict of rules regarding its use. Half of these probably mean nothing.
The “Holy” element
Deltarune’s element system is barely relevant to anything. It’s almost entirely unimplemented, with only the Cat:Puppet pair actually having even the slightest bit of functionality. Holy’s pair element is “elec”, probably short for “electric”, reminiscent of a divine smiting with lightning or something. The only place you can actually see a character’s element is in the recruits menu of the Cafe, and thus far, no one appearing there has the Holy element.
There are a few people with the Elec element, Holy’s pair, specifically Ambyu-Lance (Order:Elec), Tasque (Cat:Elec), Werewire (Elec), Maus (Mouse:Elec), and Werewerewire (Elec:Fight).
Oddly, Mauswheel and Tasque Manager are not Elec elemental. Mauswheel is just the Mouse element three times, and Tasque Manager is Cat:Order. Jevil appears there too, in the game files at least, with the element Chaos:Chaos. Fitting.
It’s hard to tell what information we could draw from this due to how little implementation and relevance the elemental system has had thus far. I can assume, by the fact it exists at all, that it will have more relevance going forward, but what that relevance might be I’m unsure. I’m hoping it will have much greater combat relevance, as while I love the lore and story of Deltarune, the gameplay feels a bit samey, especially if you’ll end up having to play it for 7 chapters at least twice over, possibly more depending on how much the pacifist and neutral routes diverge, and whether there will be significant changes in subsequent time loops. While I trust Toby to write the story well, I’m not so sure if he and his team will nail the gameplay, as it’s only the bosses that are particularly interesting in that regard so far.
The only thing I can gather right now lorewise is that the Cat:Puppet pair may be a bad omen for Catti’s involvement later.
“Holy” fountains
This makes sense. I think darkness is made of raw magic, or at least something closely tied to soul power, something in common with the angel, who I think is made manifest via high concentrations of soul power. It would be perfectly in keeping with that to consider the dark fountains “holy”. It also implies the knight has some connections to holiness, which tracks for candidates like Alvin, or a dark world being made from Gerson’s dust, the candidates I think are most likely to be the knight given what we know so far.
The Holy Halbird
We’ve already examined Berdly briefly as an angel candidate in the previous post, and I haven’t found any new indications that he’ll be a viable angel candidate since then. However, Berdly often fights on my behalf, treating himself as my knight in shining armour and the like, so it makes total sense to call his weapon holy when he’s so often using it on behalf of the angel. It even makes sense when he teams up with Susie, as she’s also a likely angel. I don’t think Berdly knows about this of course, he’d be kind of a weird character to give some deeper hidden knowledge to, especially since he never gives any indication of knowing anything secret, but it makes sense from a thematic standpoint.
HOLY CUNGADERO!
From everything I can tell, “cungadero” is just a nonsense word that might refer to a fictional type of car or something. In that case, a holy cungadero could be that vehicle I briefly mentioned in a hypothetical extrapolation of the thing Alphys went into about The Symptons, but even given Toby Fox levels of foreshadowing that seems like a bit of a stretch to actually mean anything. It could, though! Outside of that, this just seems like an exclamation, I don’t think it’s foreshadowing much in specific.
Holy Circuits!
The same goes for this, I think it’s just an exclamation. It could mean Queen’s circuits are holy, maybe in a similar way that King and the dark worlds are likely holy, but if it does mean that, that still doesn’t really tell us anything new.
THE HOLY
One could potentially dismiss the fountains being “holy” as something King thinks given his particular position and goals, but the fact that the fountains are also called HOLY by the soundtrack itself puts more merit behind King’s referring to them as such, unless the songs of the soundtrack are meant to be named by a particular character rather than by Toby or whoever else worked on the music, something that doesn’t seem to be the case so far. We know that ALL CAPS song titles tend to be related to Gaster, so if anyone named the songs in-universe it was probably him, but then, why would ANOTHER HIM not be called “ANOTHER ME” or “ANOTHER SELF” or something?
Sin:
Oddly, despite sin not being a part of the angel religion according to Alvin, the concept of damnation seems to still exist, as “damn” is a swear used a couple times in the game. That may not mean anything, but it’s possible sin used to be a concept in the religion but was gradually lost to time, or it might mean that both the angel religion and Christianity exist in this world, hence the presence of Christmas, and a potential reason why Monster Kid might be wearing a cross necklace.
The angel religion may bear similarities via cultural exchange, or evolving from Christianity into its own thing around the time of the first angel, like how Christianity itself came from Judaism around the time of Jesus. Though, if that’s true, it’s a little odd that Christianity is never really referenced by the characters outside of Christmas, but not so odd as to be out of the realm of possibility. It would explain where Asriel got his concept of sin from, which is why Alvin mentioned that sin isn’t a thing in the religion in the first place.
I’m not sure, it could swing either way. Damnation might also just mean something completely different or even positive in the angel religion. It wouldn’t be the first time Toby has inverted the meaning of a word like that.
Undertale:
“It means you’ve lived a life of sin” by Ragel after performing his mushroom dance
“You felt your sins crawling on your back” and “weighing on your neck” in the Sans fight
“The potted plant is judging you for your sins” in MTT cafe
All of these use “sin” in basically the same way, and all are exclusive to the merciless route, so one can assume that killing a bunch of people is a sin. Not exactly revelatory, but it means in Undertale at least that sins aren’t somehow a good thing, probably. The narration in the Sans fight, however, could imply that sins can physically manifest and potentially damage the host, but that may also just be a flowery description and isn’t meant to be taken literally. It’s possible none of these lines are all that useful, and I’m starting to think that I made the right call in choosing “angel” and “demon” as my main words of analysis in VAT1 rather than “holy” and “sin”, as these so far have been much less impactful.
Deltarune:
Discussion with Alvin
Forgiveness from Hathy
“My hearts go out to all you sinners!” by Jevil
The Hathy one is much the same as how Undertale used sin. If you’ve defeated a Hathy with violence, they can forgive your sins against them if you talk to them in Card Castle, and you can still get the pacifist ending as long as you only hurt one of them. As for Alvin, we’ve already discussed it earlier, touching on it in this part and going over anything relevant in part 1. That just leaves Jevil.
Jevil:
Jevil's lines are hard to parse without some idea already of what's going on, but I think we've figured out enough by now that we can start to understand what some more of these lines mean.
“MY HEARTS GO OUT TO ALL YOU SINNERS”
The “multiple hearts” thing could just be a joke about his attacks firing multiple hearts, or the “hearts” suit. It could mean Jevil has multiple souls, as absorbing a soul is something Spamton established as a possibility for darkners, but he doesn’t seem powerful enough for that. Sure, Jevil is widely considered one of the most powerful residents of the Card Kingdom, but that implies Seam would also have a soul to match him, and that the residual essence of a lightner’s passion was enough to give Spamton NEO power on par with an entity that stole a lightner’s soul. None of it feels right, so I don’t think Jevil actually has a soul, let alone multiple. As for sinners here, I believe we, on principle, stand in opposition to the Angel’s Heaven, making us sinners in a sense, as he uses this line even if you play pacifist.
“I AM INNOCENT, INNOCENT! I JUST WANTED TO PLAY A GAME, GAME!”
Jevil believes he’s the only free one because he’s the only one in the kingdom, other than Seam, who’s accepted the truth. Everything will be reset in the end, so it doesn’t matter how many people he’s hurt, all will be undone, thus, effectively, no crime was committed. Though, since Jevil did this before the start of chapter 1, it’s possible that the reset will go back to before chapter 1. It’s also possible that it won’t, as regardless of when a dark world is created, its history seems to be created retroactively.
“NOW I WILL SLEEP FOR THE OTHER 100 YEARS.”
Following this, it’s possible the card kingdom had 100 years of history before the time we enter it, and it may have 100 more years in its time before it ends, or rather, dark worlds in general may have 100 more years, given we seal the fountain at the end of chapter 1. Time does seem to flow differently in dark worlds, and Ralsei’s impatience when we first return to him at the start of chapter 2, and his not knowing for sure how long a day is other than that it’s supposed to be short, may mean that the time he spent in the dark world alone was much longer than the time Kris and Susie spent in the light world. Susie saying “just waiting for today felt like years” is obviously a joke about it taking multiple years for chapter 2 to release, but it may also be hinting that, for Ralsei, the time he waited was much longer than it was for Kris and Susie. This would also explain how he set up so many rooms in his castle so quickly.
If Dess is trapped in a darker world, as I think she might be, (a dark world created within another dark world, like Berdly almost did in chapter 2), the time dilation may be even worse. She might be unrecognisable by the time we find her, and unfortunately for her, due to soul power’s association with modifying the flow of time, the odds that dark world time flows very differently are pretty good. If Dess is trapped in a dark world, that may be the reason the unused fountain theme that Toby still wants to use somewhere has an acoustic guitar playing the melody, one of the very few things we know for certain to be associated with Dess from the Spamton Sweepstakes. It's possible she's been trapped for centuries, or millennia, unable to die, being surrounded by the energy that gives things life. Would she even remember me?
“AS PUNISHMENT, THEY CRAVED TO IMPRISON MY BODY. BUT I’M FAST, FAST, CLEVER CLEVER. THEY LOST THE CHASE, AND LOCKED UP THEIR ENTIRE RACE, NOW I’M THE ONLY FREE ONE.”
As far as Jevil is concerned, his mind is still free. He’s the only one who’s accepted the truth. There are no crimes, there are no victims, all will be undone, and as the only one who can accept this, he’s the only free one. Locking him up just allows the rest of the card kingdom to stay in their own mental prison, not accepting that they can do anything they want. To Jevil, the time loop isn’t a curse, it’s a blessing.
It’s also possible that, if Jevil has stolen a soul, he may be able to project it out of his body like Kris and influence things outside of his cell that way. Seam’s vague light connections may mean that he also has a soul, and thus, is the only person that could defeat Jevil. But so far, soul projection and soul sync, being able to operate without your soul, seems unique to Kris. If Darkners don’t have souls normally, and it seems like they don’t as they’re basically made of soul energy anyway, Jevil may not need the soul in him, but would that allow him far greater remote control of his soul than Kris has?
Importantly to note, if Jevil does have a stolen soul, it’s odd that Spamton NEO is seemingly comparable in strength to him without one, so I’m far from convinced of this possibility. It seems just plausible enough to be worth the mention.
It’s possible Seam has a soul but Jevil doesn’t, as Seam is more powerful and has the only Delta Rune in the dark worlds outside of Castle Town, but much of Seam’s history is still a mystery. However, when you ask about Jevil, Seam says “After all the trouble I went through to lock him up, you want to release him?”, which implies that it was difficult. If Seam had a soul, and Jevil didn’t, shouldn’t it have been much easier than Seam seems to let on?
Maybe Seam’s seap song is just called “lantern” because Seam’s face kind of looks like a Jack-O-Lantern, with the orange glow inside Seam’s mouth and the pointy triangle teeth when Seam smiles, and I’m reading too much into it. But given how important a character Seam seems to be, I’m inclined to think there’s more to it than that.
After selecting “Do not play a game”: “HOW CAN YOU REFUSE, WHEN YOU ARE ALREADY PLAYING?”
There’s obviously the meta interpretation, as Deltarune is a video game, but considering Jevil has every reason without meta knowledge to interpret his reality as some kind of playground, I don’t think we need to assume he actually knows that Deltarune is a video game. He might, I just don’t think it’s necessary for anything Deltarune’s seemingly trying to do, so I don’t want to assume he has more meta knowledge than he necessarily does.
After selecting “Do not” when asked to use the key on Jevil’s door: “YOU CAME TOO FAR! YOUR CHOICE HAS RUN OUT!”. The door unlocks anyway.
Pretty straightforward, but given secret boss doublespeak, he may also be referring to the end of the game where, no matter what you do, the angel resets, or it may be a warning about the weird route. At a certain point, you go too far and you don’t get to stop anymore. If I had to guess, (and when it comes to this sort of stuff, it really is just a guess) it’s when the vessel takes over, which I’ll be discussing later.
“OH, IT’S JUST A SIMPLE NUMBERS GAME. WHEN YOUR HP DROPS TO 0, YOU LOSE!”
This one actually could point to Jevil knowing that his reality is literally a video game, but it might also be that, as darkners are made of soul power, and all stats seem to be an aspect of soul power, he may know about it that way. So far, everyone to mention stats, I believe, is either a darkner, or in the case of Ralsei, partially a darkner. This makes me wonder though, Sans, Flowey, and Chara all reference game stats, but I believe they’re the only people in Undertale to do so. Flowey and Chara make sense, as the game’s angels, they may have that special connection to soul power. Sans is somewhat different, but as he has ties to Gaster, and Gaster’s main subject of research is soul power, it makes some sense for him too. As such, we can assume Gaster also knows about stats. Keep in mind that, while these are game mechanics, most if not all of Undertale and Deltarune’s game mechanics have some lore reason for them as well, so knowing about the game mechanics doesn’t necessarily mean someone knows that Undertale or Deltarune is a video game.
Pirouette
I think the pirouette ACT operates by Kris soul-syncing with Jevil’s chaos? Something like that. Each outcome is on a cycle, repeatedly looping, much like Deltarune’s reality itself. Beyond reference to that, the number of outcomes doesn’t seem to match with the number of chapters, though it might match up with the number of dark worlds by the end of the game or something? Or, the number of options may have no secret meaning. I just don’t want to dismiss something in a secret boss fight as meaningless before considering the possibilities, y’know?
Hypnosis
This one is a little more confusing. This ACT makes Jevil far more tired than pirouette. It requires the use of Kris, Susie, and Ralsei. How it operates could potentially be a combination of Kris’s soul sync and trance, and Ralsei’s pacify, though that doesn’t explain why Susie has to be involved. Toby has proven time and again that a game mechanic is rarely just a game mechanic, so I’m inclined to think it means something. It may be that, as Susie is frequently prone to falling asleep, she may be used as a conduit to intensify the sleepiness effect?
There are 3 different messages that can appear upon using this ACT.
“Ralsei chanted something!”
It may be a lullaby, it may be some magical incantation, it’s too vague to say. A repeated instance of music and specifically singing being used in a hypnotic context, as putting someone to sleep is generally the stereotypical hypnosis effect so one could argue Ralsei’s standard lullaby is hinting at a hypnosis song. I don’t think Ralsei is actually using the Song from the Sea here, which I think may be a hypnotic or mind-altering song, but it puts the possibility on the table for that song to exist.
“Susie spun something around!”
Another instance of spinning, looping. The entire fight supports the time loop motif extensively. Even the music, when it uses the “Don’t Forget” melody, loops one part of it over and over and over and over until the very end of the song when it starts all over again. Focusing on something spinning can be a good method of hypnotic induction too, I just wish the way this was worded wasn’t so vague so it’d be easier to extrapolate something.
“Kris gazed strangely!”
“The eyes are the window to the soul” is a fairly well known saying. It’s possible that trance, operating via soul sync, is more powerful under Kris’s gaze, creating a stronger soul link. Hypnotic eyes are also a common trope in hypnosis-related media.
“UNFORTUNATELY, YOU KIDS CANNOT HAVE SUCH A PLEASANT DREAM. FROM NOW, A NIGHTMARE WILL AWAKEN IN YOUR HEARTS. IN THE SHADOW OF THE KNIGHT’S HAND… LIGHTNERS, CAN YOU STOP IT?”
Deltarune is all about the woke agenda, and I can prove it!
We know from Undertale that “nightmare” is often in reference to Flowey/Asriel, arguably Undertale’s most significant angel. In Deltarune, Chapter 2 is referred to as a dream, though in the weird route, I call it a nightmare. So we can assume then that the “nightmare” in Deltarune is related to both the weird route and either the angel or Asriel specifically, or even both. Both is what I’m inclined to guess, as there are a lot of readings I can make of this line.
The “nightmare” in your hearts, or the Asriel in your soul, makes complete sense for Kris, as far as my understanding goes. Will Asriel begin to awaken? Has he already? One could argue our control over Asriel, and thus indirect control over Kris, is awakening us as the nightmare within Asriel and Kris’s heart.
Reading “nightmare” to more generally mean something akin to “angel” or “weird route” makes more sense for me. My growth in power and participation in chapter 2’s weird route is referred to as “waking”, and Queen insists that the events of chapter 2 have already awoken me too much. She makes clear that she thinks I should rest, go back to sleep. Whatever awakening the nightmare would do in the weird route, as far as Queen is concerned it isn’t anything worth doing.
Susie: Get out of our way. Susie: Noelle needs to wake up!
Queen: Wake? No, She Has Already Awakened Too Much Queen: Let Her Close Her Eyes And Sleep Away Queen: Into A Darker, Darker Dream
“Darker, Darker Dream” makes me wonder if the reason Queen wanted to expand the reach of darkness as a way to “help” me is because she agrees with me that Dess may be trapped in a darker world, and expanding the reach of darkness may give me a way to find her. Sure, it’s possible she just misinterpreted the bits of my search history pertaining to Dess, that’s the implied reading, but it’s also possible that she actually completely understands what I want and how much it means to me, and it’s why she wanted so badly to help me get her back.
The “shadow of the knight’s hand” could be referring to “the actions the knight takes’, but it could also be referring to the dark worlds the knight creates, the “shadows” of the knight’s hand.
There’s also, of course, the lack of distinction made between Ralsei and “lightners”, farther implying that Ralsei isn’t just a darkner.
“HA HA HA! WHAT FUN!!! YOU’RE FAST, FAST, STRONG, STRONG, BUT THERE ARE YET FASTER, YET STRONGER. THE HAND OF THE KNIGHT IS DRIFTING FORWARD. SOON, THE “QUEEN” RETURNS, AND HELL’S ROAR BUBBLES FROM THE DEPTHS… LIGHTNERS, CAN YOU STOP IT? UEE HEE HEE! EITHER WAY, A MISCHIEF-MISCHIEF, A CHAOS-CHAOS…! LIGHTNERS! FROM INSIDE YOUR LITTLE CELL!! TAKE ME AND DO YOUR STRONGEST—!”
We've presumably met the queen. Hell's roar, I assume, is the roaring, with hell possibly being a darker layer deeper down? Given the constant personification of the Earth I'm inclined to think the roaring is literal, although the wording of "bubbles" is confusing. There's enough in VAT to make sense of a lot of this, but I don't think we know enough just yet to make sense of all of it.
Spamton:
Writing this in mid October trying to finish up this post on time despite the executive dysfunction, here we go! A lot of Spamton’s lines aren’t all that relevant to Variable Angel Theory. Most of the ones that are are on the weird route.
1. LOOKING FOR [Irresistible Deals] THAT WILL [Blow Your Mind!?]
As with all Deltarune lines, but especially with secret bosses and heavily lore relevant characters like Spamton, we're gonna have to do some reinterpretation to find out what Spamton might mean here. "Irresistible Deals" could mean multiple things. Kris can't resist making the deal, we force them to, and we make this deal for the thorn ring, with Trance, so I presumably have a harder time resisting orders. I still think Kris (or their soul) has some innate trance ability, allowing ACTs and the like to be so effective and getting me to this point in the weird route in the first place, but it's possible for the truly heinous stuff, like killing a friend, I'd need that extra push (I sure hope I would!). "Blow Your Mind" has similar connotations, but given Spamton's crass nature sometimes, it could also mean "blow" in another sense, like you're getting "mindfucked" or something, but I’m kind of “maybe” on that. While we’re on the subject, the ring of thorns reminds me a bit of the biblical crown of thorns Jesus was given to wear prior to his crucifixion. Possibly a coincidence, but, I think, probably not one. Either way, for anyone concerned about my safety in this route, red flag! Add it to the pile.
2. THIS IS [One Purchase] YOU WILL [Regret] FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!
This farther reinforces to me that the weird route isn't going to end well. We'll touch on specifics of how I think it's most likely to go wrong a bit later, as one of Spamton's lines sort of changed where I was leaning on this, albeit not too significantly. It's also possible he's not talking to specifically Kris here, but us as the player. I don't think Spamton exactly knows that the player exists, he might but that's unclear, but I think it's possible this line is meant for the player's eyes as much as Kris's and could hint at permanent consequences for the weird route, even on subsequent playthroughs, much like what happened with Chara in Undertale. My best guess for that consequence is that Kris is effectively erased from the game and replaced with the vessel on subsequent playthroughs, but that's potentially more work than the team would be able to do reasonably, so I'm iffy on it. I'll go into more detail in the Gaster section later. Either way I don't think we'll see it until chapter 7 releases, so it'll be a few years until I'm proven right or wrong on that guess, unless chapters 3 and 4 introduce the vessel earlier than I expect they will.
3. THANKS TO YOU AND THAT LIL [Hochi Mama]
Spamton calls me stuff like this all the time, reinforcing the romance tie between myself and Kris, especially with how much more often he does it in the weird route. "Side chick" is another one that we've gone over.
4. SOON I'LL HAVE EVERY[One] IN THIS CITY EATING RIGHT OUT OF MY [$!$!]!
Ew. But I guess this implies Spamton's ambitions are mainly for the cyber world, he seems like he only wants his good old life back rather than anything much grander, he just wants to make sure it can't get taken away from him again. Plus, he's bitter and might be wanting to dabble in light revenge.
5. IT'S NOT MY JOB TO BE SOME KIDS' [Extra Boss]!
This could be talking about Kris, but including them in "kids", as is perfectly reasonable to do, implies a different boss, like fate or the player or the soul or something. This is how I expect the player to be mainly referenced, with some degree of ambiguity. I expect only a few characters, Gaster especially, are likely to call the player out directly.
6. KID! I'M BUSY BECOMING [God]. GO PLAY [Minecrap] OR SOMETHING!
Of course this could imply greater ambitions. Maybe he doesn't want to limit himself to getting his old life back and keeping it, he may want to completely control the cyber world to an even greater extent than Queen. Maybe he even wants to escape the dark world entirely, and perhaps with the Power of NEO he could, as it's wrapped up in the hopes and dreams of a lightner, maybe that would allow him the ability to exist outside of a dark world.
It's equally possible that that wouldn't work, and even with this power he's still trapped in the cyber world. There's also the tie drawn between God and Demon and Angel but I don't think this is an instance of that being so meaningful. "God" has always seemed the least restricted of the three, and Spamton NEO isn't nearly as powerful as even 6 soul Flowey, which we required 7 souls to beat rather than the mere 1, arguably a max of 3, required against Spamton NEO (the solo fight would have, at most, Kris, their possessor, and myself). And the true 7 soul Flowey, more of an actual god, was only defeated when he chose to give up. I'm still under the impression that actual gods, like the angel, would be essentially untouchable to anyone but their equals in power regardless of what Spamton implies here with the vocabulary.
7. THANKS TO YOUR [Total Jackass stunts] I HAVE [Becomed] NEO.
Catti wanted to talk about this one, she's been helping me finish up this section.
a bit of my own theorycrafting here. what the hell is neo? cuz like neo is "new" right? or something like that. so is spamton neo like... neo because its a new version of himself? supposedly theres some sort of "power of neo" but what the hell even is that, the power of new shit? deltarune and undertale are both stuck in time loops so like. the only real new thing is the influence of the player, so is that the power of neo? are instances of "neo" something the party wouldnt have encountered on their own in any loop? so like, they never meet jevil and they never activate spamton neo? jevil's instance of neo btw being the voice line "a true and neo chaos" when performing his finisher thing with devilsknife. (noelle has filled our brain with so much weird niche deltarune info) presumably frisk never fights mettaton neo without being influenced down the geno route, if this holds true. so like... noelle talks about this more later but, gaster is seemingly drawing on the power of neo for whatever purpose he has? cuz if the player's influence is the power of neo and he's the one that makes contact, that's probably what he's going for. either breaking deltarune's time loop or maybe studying it to figure out something greater, like how and why every universe in the undertale/deltarune multiverse seems to be stuck in a time loop? idfk, its the ingredients of a theory but im not sure how to mix them all together.
8. AND NOW IT'S MY [Mansion]! MY [City]! MY [World]!
This line solidifies his ambitions as, at least, reaching greater heights than he had before, and wanting to be able to strongly influence or even control the cyber world. But again, there's no indication of ambition beyond that. He may just be content controlling the cyber world, spam and ads taking over computers. What a cruel fate we've subjected these people to then, they really need an adblock. At least Kris seals the fountain soon after, and we avoid all that.
9. I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN YOU WOULD HAVE USED MY [Ring] FOR [Evil]... OH [Right]. THAT'S WHY I SOLD IT TO YOU
We already have a lot of evidence that Spamton knows future details, but he kinda just confirms it here. Though, if he does, it's odd then that he didn't expect to be stopped at the fountain after taking over. However, much like Ralsei seems to, he might not know all the details. Ralsei was surprised at a few events in the weird route, things not going how they were "supposed" to, most notably Susie's interactions with Noelle in her room and our perspective not following them.
Maybe it's some external influence, like the player, not directly interacting with the world but making decisions people in that world wouldn't normally make and there isn't really precedent for it in Spamton and Ralsei's knowledge of the future, or of past time loops, or whatever info they might have, and we exist as some external intervention brought in to break the loop via indirect influence.
10. YOU THINK MAKING [Frozen Chicken] WITH YOUR [Side Chick] IS GONNA LET YOU DRINK UP THAT [Sweet, Sweet] [Freedom Sauce]? WELL, YOU'RE [$!$!] RIGHT! BUT DON'T BLAME ME WHEN YOU'RE [Crying] IN A [Broken Home] WISHING YOU LET YOUR OLD PAL SPAMTON [Kill You]
We've discussed the "side chick" thing before, but this line is so great I wanted to include the whole thing. The important part is the latter half. This one makes me think there's actually a real chance the one ending is the weird route actually working, breaking the time loop, but you've essentially killed the world you saved.
I think "broken home" probably means home world, or hometown at the least, because Kris's home is already broken. Toriel and Asgore have divorced, evidence suggests Asriel is likely dead and possessing Kris, there's not all that much more broken Kris's home specifically could get if Spamton is just referring to the household itself, plus that would be a little underwhelming a consequence.
I'm inclined to think we'll essentially destroy the world, and only then break the time loop, and when we do, we have nothing left worth saving anyway. After all, Spamton likes Kris. He finds them relatable, a kinship between puppets. They can become friends in the normal route which Spamton likely knows about to some extent, so I think calling Kris his "pal" is sort of genuine. Spamton may actually think killing Kris is doing them a favour, and he gives an actual reason why that isn't just that their souls might be freer together like in the normal route.
Either way, at least when it comes to Kris, I don't think Spamton likes to be malicious, so I'm inclined to trust his information.
11. I’LL ADMIT YOU’VE GOT SOME [Guts] KID! BUT IN A [1 for 1] BATTLE, NEO NEVER LOSES!!! DIDN’T YOU KNOW [Neo] IS FAMOUS FOR ITS HIGH DEFENSE!? NOW… ENJOY THE FIR3WORKS, KID!
Catti may actually be onto something. In a one on one battle, the player’s character has always had a chance to win as far as I can recall. Of course, this places Spamton NEO as the Neo in this scenario, and to beat it we have to get help making it no longer a 1 for 1 battle, so I’m unsure exactly how this relates. If Neo does mean the player, being able to reset any mistake could be considered having high defence? I think we’re still missing a couple pieces we need to know quite what Neo is supposed to be, but I figure we’ll have what we need with the release of the next 2 chapters, or at least a lead more concrete than “maybe something player-related”.
12. THERE WILL BE NO MORE [Miracles] NO MORE [Magic]. YOU LOST IT WHEN YOU TRIED TO SEE TOO FAR…. …YOU LOST IT…
Another hint at a sad ending, but it makes me wonder if Gaster really is trying to harvest the darkness from this world or something, if the weird route ends with no more magic. This could also be a reference to trying to see into H E A V E N, which I’m gradually becoming more convinced is some other layer of reality where Gaster is or something, whether that be a darker world or something else entirely. Speaking of whom:
Gaster:
Yeah, we have to talk about this guy now. I wasn’t sure if he was all that relevant before since we know so little about him, and I don’t find him that interesting because, again, we know so little about him that there’s not much to get invested in, so I didn’t bring him up much in part 1. I assumed he probably had some relevance, seeing as this is the ending of the game angel stuff we’re talking about, and Gaster’s presence is felt all over the game, but it wasn’t until recently that I figured out what that presence might mean. I still don’t know many of the details, but I’ve gotten the broad strokes in place I think. Don’t expect me to go super in depth with the specifics. Either way, this section is going to require more guesswork than the rest of this post, and I’m already working with only the evidence I didn’t find for my last post. If something in here is wrong, and there likely will be something, don’t disregard the rest of it. Plus, if these guesses (educated guesses at best) end up being right, I want to be able to say I called it!
The Egg Man:
I think the Egg Man is Gaster. Revolutionary, I know. But specifically, I think there are two Gasters, the Undertale Gaster and the Deltarune Gaster. Which one is which, I’m unsure, but we know that Gaster in Undertale was researching things like darkness, a concept that may be exclusive to Deltarune and certainly wasn’t explored in Undertale, unless you consider the underground to be something of a light world / dark world hybrid, which you could make an argument for. I don't have a lot of evidence for this, especially not in-game evidence, this is just who I think is most likely based on what little I know about it.
People have said that the Gaster dialogue in the 2024 Valentine’s newsletter, while it has similar formatting and speech style to Gaster, doesn’t really sound like Gaster. It sounds too goofy and too casual to feel like something Gaster would say. However, since there could very easily be two Gasters, I think it’s not difficult to reconcile this. Toby may be planning both a Gaster similar in personality to what the fandom expects, and another Gaster, the Egg Man, who’s a lot goofier and less serious to fit a style Toby seems to really enjoy writing. He could get the best of both. The first song in the game, in the sequence talking with Gaster, is literally called “ANOTHER HIM”, and the egg man is only referred to as “man”, “he”, and “him”. I just can’t tell you which Gaster is which. The Undertale Gaster may be originally from Deltarune for all I know.
The Vessel:
I think the Vessel is exactly as advertised. I don’t quite know what it is, but I have an idea of where it might come in useful. I think that late in the weird route, around chapter 6 or 7, Kris will decide they have no choice but to stop the soul by any means necessary, and will attempt to remove it, willing to die without it to ensure the soul doesn’t have a body to possess. This is where the vessel comes in, a convenient alternative to ensure our time loop breaking plan comes to fruition even without Kris’s help. The reasons I think it will be so delayed are twofold:
1. I think that the vessel replacing Kris isn’t something that people are going to just brush off, so it has to happen pretty late as otherwise there would be multiple chapters that have to get rewritten. If it happens at the end of chapter 6 through to the middle of chapter 7, as I think is its most likely window of timing, the amount to rewrite will be much more manageable.
2. There’s a sword with the trance ability, the Twisted Sword. As Kris is the only one who can use swords, and so far the trance ability seems to affect the user of the equipment, this implies we’ll use it in the weird route to keep Kris docile enough that they won’t try to stop us until the situation is much more dire. Unlike Undertale’s merciless route, the steps to play out the weird route in Deltarune are already very specific and precise, and already require the use of specific equipment in the thorn ring, so this is entirely within the realm of established possibility. It’s also possible, however, that since it’s a weapon with the ability rather than something wearable, it inflicts trance on a target. It may do both, but we don’t realise it affects Kris until later because of how rarely they’re able to express themselves during possession. If, after equipping the sword in the merciless route, Kris suddenly stops getting a lot of their moments of independence and character establishment, we’ll know what it does.
As the sword presumably turns back into a pencil in the light world, this shouldn't change chapter endings much. Since I offer Kris a candy cane pencil in chapter 1, something that could easily match the description we have of the Twisted Sword once it transforms in the dark world, it’s possible I already have the Twisted Sword, though what that could mean I don’t know.
As for the fate of Kris, I think they’ll die. Without their soul, I don’t think they could survive long, and as Susie says, it would be a shame for Toriel to have to bury her child. Which one? Both?? Especially given the ultimate fate of Chara in Undertale, a character Kris very clearly has many parallels with, things aren’t looking good for at least one route’s version of Kris. However, even for Deltarune, killing off Kris in pacifist feels like a stretch. Kris won’t die in pacifist, at least not until the very end at the earliest, they might die in neutral, but I think it's more likely than not that it will happen in weird.
The Song from the Sea:
My ideas on this are very limited. My best guess is that it may have something to do with how trance works, like a siren song, or Shyren song as the case may be. It’s possible this can be used to override the will of a target. At the very least, it seems to be messing with Onion’s head, as they have severe memory problems that they didn’t seem to have in Undertale. They mention hearing music coming from below the water, likely the bunker that’s probably underneath town, and Shyren’s in the hospital for straining her voice too much that day. This could be related to what happened to Shyren’s sister, Shyra. Maybe she died attempting to perform the song from the sea, and Shyren may suffer the same fate. Maybe the Song from the Sea is “Hell’s roar bubbling from the depths”, as Jevil says, but the phrasing implies that to be related to the roaring.
Either way, I’m confident this is in some way related to “voice”, and if it is, the connection to trance is supported by the emphasis placed on my being able to hear the commanding “voice” in the weird route irrespective of Kris. Beyond the “voice” relation though, I think there just might be too little info to extrapolate very far with any confidence.
The File Select:
Potentially more evidence in support of additional Gasters is on the file select screen. Choosing a save slot to copy to is choosing “a target for the reflection”, and upon doing so, “the division is complete”, like mitosis. Could Gaster be cloning other selves? Is that “another him”? Multiple vessels? Even cloning timelines, hence its presence on the save file screen? Whatever the process, you can’t copy a file onto itself, because it’s “immune to its own image”.
If he’s cloning himself, it could be so he could have more eyes on his work and more minds thinking before the reset erases his memory.
If he’s cloning timelines, maybe he’s trying to simulate as many options as he can to find a way to break the loop, or maybe the entirety of Deltarune is a reality of Gaster’s creation, hence why he can seemingly destroy it at the press of a button. It may be that the Deltarune we play through is one of these simulations he’s using to find a way to break the time loop. Though, the idea of Deltarune being basically a game within a game feels as though it might undermine investment somewhat. Much of the rest of Variable Angel Theory is so convincing to me in part because I trust Toby as a writer to create a compelling story, and I think VAT is pretty compelling, but if, even in its own fictional universe, it still isn’t real… it just feels off, almost like poor writing. Maybe Gaster is using darkness to bring these simulated universes to life and make them real? Maybe Undertale was a simulated universe? But I still don't know why he would do something like that other than the reasons I already gave.
Long shot, but maybe “the other 100 years” is the amount of time our Deltarune’s reality has left before it gets deleted? Maybe Seam’s “toast to the end of the world” doesn’t mean the reset, but the literal, actual, permanent end of the world? To me, all of this feels like a needless extra layer on top of a story that could already be complete without it. I trust Toby as a writer not to undermine his own story, or the importance of Gaster in it, especially after all the hype he’s let build up, so I’m inclined to believe I’m misreading something here and this isn’t actually Toby’s plan. If it is, there must be a lot more to it to make it work and be compelling.
While I agree with Jaru on most things related to Deltarune, and he’s the reason I got into Deltarune theorycrafting in the first place, hence why I’ve brought up his work so often, the idea that Deltarune can’t be as compelling if it’s a video game in-universe and explicitly addressed as such isn’t something I agree with quite as strongly as he seems to. It’s a very risky play, and I don’t think the payoff would elevate Deltarune’s story very significantly even if Toby makes it work, but I don’t think it’s unachievable or anything. All rules in writing have certain situations in which it can be better to break them. It’s just that personally, even as a writer myself, and one who prefers less conventional stories, if I were writing it, I don’t think it would be worth the risk, unless I have some very specific and exceptionally compelling plan in mind, which Toby may well have given his clear passion for the story he’s dreamed up.
As such, I won’t rule out the possibility that even in-universe Deltarune is a simulated world akin to a video game, I’m just inclined somewhat against it given the limited amount I’ve looked into Gaster thus far. It’s possible there’s far more evidence in favour that could make this much harder to deny, and I just haven’t found it yet, and it’s not like it would be too far opposed to the themes established in Undertale. After all, Undertale and Deltarune both operate in-universe on many video game rules, this wouldn’t be coming completely out of nowhere if it happens.
It’s even possible that the undermining of narrative importance from this is actually the point, making it even easier to distance yourself, because even in this fictional world these people are still not real. It’s just another reason why your choices don’t matter. Even then, will you still choose to be a good person since their world is still real to them? Will you be like Jevil, and just have fun with it, thinking (probably correctly) that you’re not actually doing any harm? Or will you be like Ralsei, even knowing that the consequences of your actions are so minor, still choosing to be as good a person as you can in spite of it? I think by the time chapters 3 and 4 come out, I’ll be able to more easily swing one way or the other, so I’ll have to follow up on that once that happens. Right now, I’m kind of 50/50 on it, but if it does happen, I wouldn’t be surprised, especially since the more I think about it, the more I write this, the more I’m convincing myself that it’s a genuine possibility. If things keep going the way they have been, it's like the entirety of Deltarune is a buildup into making one of the worst twists in fiction actually hit properly and be kind of good, just for Toby to prove that he can.
If Gaster is cloning vessels, it could be that he’s trying to create the proper one for the job, breeding iterations until it matches his specifications. That fits fairly well with one of my Spamton Sweepstakes pages, wherein I’m breeding pets in a video game to get the right one, and of course, one of them is a glitchy egg that I can’t maintain proper memories of. Whether that’s due to the passage of time, or some supernatural force, I don’t know, but given how many things in Deltarune could potentially have control over your memories and ability to maintain them, and how odd it would be to drop this hint and have it not mean anything, I’m inclined to believe that the memory loss is supernatural in nature and not simply related to the passage of time. Memory of Gaster in Undertale seems to have been erased, so something associated with him might be fair game for erasure as well. Of course, this also makes me wonder, could Gaster be breeding universes? Is that why he would bring them to life? Or might they already be alive by default?
I don’t think the pipis is the same thing as the eggs from the egg man, Spamton clarifies as much, but they may be related. The egg man eggs may duplicate via mitosis as well. Are they an “easter egg”? Or are they meant to be a bug in the code or something? Are they like the “bad egg” in Pokemon that turns other things stored with it into more eggs? Once we put the egg in Asgore’s fridge, and it duplicates, the narration doesn’t clarify if the pickles Asgore had are still there or if they became the second egg that appears in the fridge.
Might the eggs hatch into a new universe, even? Homestuck comes to mind, a project Toby worked on, where, to create a new universe, you have to breed frogs until you get the perfect one that can then become the new universe. If universes or timelines are alive, could the Song from the Sea or some other Trance method be used to influence them? Do all Undertale/Deltarune realities end up in a time loop, and Gaster is attempting to create one that doesn’t by manipulating it manually? I’m not strongly inclined toward any one possibility just yet, but I wanted to lay it all out in case anyone reading this comes up with any ideas, or any more evidence for the ideas I’ve proposed. The idea that Gaster is cloning or breeding universes seems entirely plausible, though to what end, I’m unsure. As for why there are three files, the only thing I can think is Kris’s soul sync with Ralsei and Susie adding up to 3. Susie, as a lightner, should be able to wield determination, and Ralsei, who I believe to be a darkner/lightner hybrid due to his relation to Asriel, should also have this ability. It’s also hard to tell exactly what Gaster’s interaction with these files means. It doesn’t seem like saving in the light world is possible, though the angel may be able to, as Flowey attained that power in Undertale and it didn’t seem to require being underground to work properly, so maybe it’s something Gaster has some access to?
But it’s hard to know exactly which properties Undertale’s underground has in common with Deltarune’s dark worlds, all that seems consistent and clear is that as you go underground, the presence of magic, of darkness, increases. It’s probably why we fall into dark worlds, why the true lab was so deep down, and what the CORE was tapping into to power the underground. As you go deeper, things get dark, darker, yet darker, to borrow a phrase. Thematically too, it seems like the deeper you go the darker the story gets. Toby loves those double meanings. Whatever happens in that bunker, it won’t be good.
The DT Extractor:
In Undertale, the DT extractor is never explicitly called a “DeTermination extractor”. I think that’s one of its functions, (Alphys doesn’t seem to have a deep enough understanding of soul power to be able to do what she did without it, and some of her logs imply the DT extractor is what she used to extract determination) but there’s a good chance it stands for something else or has additional functions, especially given Toby Fox as the writer. It resembles a caprid or cervid skull, which calls to mind the Dreemurr and Holiday families, and some version of Asriel uses it as an attack to erase the timeline, something we’ve just established Gaster may be able to do as well.
I think, at least in some routes, the DT extractor is one of if not the final step in the angelmaking process. If it can extract soul power, which it seems like it can, that gives us the perfect repository for soul power and a way to get it all into one person, as Undertale established it can be injected into someone to allow them to use that power. As I think the angel will reset the timeline, it’s yet another parallel to Undertale, where Asriel, Undertale’s angel, used Hyper Goner, an attack that looks suspiciously like the DT extractor, to reset the timeline. One could ask, why not just inject Kris with so much soul power? After all, we have control over them, it would be easier not to reset the timeline if we have direct control of that power, rather than indirect control through me in the weird route. I see six reasons:
Giving Kris soul power may allow them to override our control, especially as they can already somewhat do that. Undertale established that sufficient soul power allows someone to override our control, and we don’t even control Kris directly, we control them via Asriel, or at least via the soul, so that should give them an even better chance at taking control from us with that much power.
We don’t know if humans can even wield soul power in the capacity an angel would. Chara seems to, in Undertale, but they've been dead for presumably decades, and the abilities of ghosts, if Chara even counts as one, are extremely vague and underexplored. Chara is a very special case and I don’t think we can extrapolate from them exactly how it would operate with Kris. The reason I think we can assume it would give Kris control, then, is that It’s also shown with Flowey that high soul power allows someone to wrest control from us, and even though it happened in a different way with Flowey, with him taking control of the timeline rather than control of our actions, it creates a thematic throughline.
By the time we come across the DT extractor, the roaring will probably have started already. Shelter from the roaring is an obvious "in" for exploring the bunker. If Kris did take control from us, they would likely choose to reset, because just like Susie, their hand would be forced.
Everyone’s memory is reset for each loop, it’s hard to know all of the possibilities you’re working with under those conditions. Gaster might know how soul power works in monsters, but he’s much less likely to know how it’d work in Kris, as not only are they a human, something in short supply in Hometown, they’re likely a human with a monster soul, which complicates things farther. It’s not like he could just check how it works because, unless that was his plan from the start, his memories would be erased and he would have to relearn everything each loop. Not only is it a gamble, it’s a gamble he’d have to choose to take as one of his first options.
It’s also possible that Gaster might have more time than I think. If he’s holed himself up in a dark world, or a darker world even, the time dilation effects may allow him to concoct some plan I can’t foresee, making this reason a bit shakier. However, the fact that the reset has already happened several times at least, and it definitely has, may point against him having a successful plan, as if he did, why would the time loop be happening at all anymore? This could also mean the time loop is part of his plan, but if that’s the case, I’ve no idea why.
Maybe, if you’re in the dark worlds, you’d be immune to the angel’s resets? But if that’s the case, the stakes for darkners are null, they shouldn’t be erased in the dark world. If it’s exclusively a property of darker worlds, that also doesn’t make sense, because then Gaster could easily just go there and savescum until he has time to come up with a working plan. However, if Dess is down there like I think she might be, and she had the determination to create a darker fountain in the first place, she may have more determination than Gaster and is therefore blocking him from resetting.
But if that’s the case, Gaster may not have a DT extractor at all, as otherwise he’d have been able to give himself more power to reset with, something that feels a little off to me as the DT extractor has always felt like it meant something bigger, beyond just what we saw of it in Undertale. Its resemblance to the hyper goner and gaster blasters, and the giant pit under it, which may be used to harness darkness from deeper underground, feel too significant, I don’t think Toby would just leave it at what we saw in Undertale especially with Deltarune being so much more Gaster-related.
Maybe Gaster can’t do it with himself, maybe he’s split into too many pieces or something, and that’s why he’s trying to create an angel by proxy? Maybe his experience with Dess is why he might think I’m a good candidate?
It’s also possible that, if Gaster does maintain memories, he’s already tried just about everything he could. Much like Flowey, he’s gone through loop after loop after loop, and can’t find a way out, so his solution is to reach outside the bounds of Undertale and Deltarune’s realities, and contact us, as hopefully we aren’t bound to fate the same way they are.
When we take control of Chara in Undertale, Flowey posits that it might be because we heard him calling Chara's name, which, while I'm not sure what it means, is an interesting consistency. We have to be called, before we show up. A demon that comes when you call it's name? Maybe Gaster is desperate enough to make a deal with a demon, like Kris tried to. Granted, that's a bit wonky with the angel-demon synonym idea, so I'm inclined to wait for more evidence on it before I consider our involvement demonic, but it's something.
Injecting Kris with this power and making them the angel feels like one of the less interesting ways this could go, given everything we know so far and all the potential character arcs we could be in for, and I don’t think Toby would go with anything less than an extremely compelling option, especially for the endgame. Of Kris, Susie, Ralsei, and myself, I still hold that Kris is the least compelling angel candidate of the four. I just think there are better places to take their character.
This whole thing is so incredibly speculative that there could be dozens of reasons we don’t even know about yet.
The Roaring:
There’s a good chance that Gaster tapping into the deepest parts of the Earth, like he did in Undertale with the CORE, may be what causes the roaring. If the Earth is alive (which it very well might be given how it was personified in the legend and how darkness brings objects it makes contact with to life), Gaster tapping into it may be the very thing that causes the roaring to happen, as a more literal roaring, the Earth itself being the biggest and most dangerous titan of all. “Crack with fear”, “her heart pounding”, I think there’s a good chance this isn’t going to be metaphorical, even though at first, before you know how darkness operates, it sounds like it would have to be.
Normally, darkness seems to be contained in a separate layer of reality, but with dark fountains punching holes in it, and potentially darker fountains punching holes in the layer beneath those holes, it may only be a matter of time until the Earth’s roar bubbles from the depths. If I had to guess, I’d say the roaring starts at the end of chapter 6 or the start of chapter 7. I expect we’ll explore the bunker in chapter 7, which has a good chance of looping around back to castle town where we’ll end the game, at least in pacifist, being surrounded by all our new friends for the reset. Plus, everyone hiding in the bunker at the end parallels Undertale, where everyone hid in True Lab, the bunker’s likely equivalent, in the merciless route.
Another reason I think this, aside from the fact that it makes sense from a storytelling perspective, is how weird the entrance to the first dark world was. Unlike with the Cyber World, we don’t immediately jump into it, there’s a brief part where Kris and Susie, still appearing in their light world outfits, walk through a room that’s too large to be a closet and doesn’t have any nearby walls. If this happened again in chapter 2, I would be more willing to dismiss it, but there’s clearly something special about this closet that’s being hidden by being shown first, and therefore seeming less weird because we don’t have much to compare it to.
Unfortunately, 2 examples is a little less than we need to establish a pattern, so knowing for sure if there’s anything particularly weird about the closet may have to wait until the next chapters release, so all I can do is guess that it’s connected to the bunker in some way, be that figuratively or literally.
The End, Again:
So uh... that's basically part 2! A little all over the place, but I just wanted to share my thoughts on pretty much everything I've come up with in the process of researching VAT since part 1's release. A lot of stuff here is a little more half baked, but that's kinda what you get working with scraps of the scraps of info we have from 2 chapters I guess.
Rouxls Kaard?:
Here’s something a little less serious to wrap up, like a palate cleanser or something. A couple years back, Jaru made a video going over every even somewhat significant character in Deltarune (and Undertale), to figure out roughly how likely they were to be the Roaring Knight. For some reason, Rouxls has so many similar attributes to the knight, including even sharing the same initials as the knight’s title, that he seemed to be an intentional red herring. And gamers, he’s done it again. Toby Fox has done it yet again. The amount of ties Rouxls has to the angel is actually so damn goofy and it makes me wonder if maybe this does mean something, angel forbid.
Rouxls may have more knowledge about the nature of reality than most characters, as one of his lines gets cut off by the size of the text box, and he complains about this at the end of that line in the game files “Thou gazeth upon a man most handsometh. This daringst genius, adoredeth beyondth all hey let me speakst”
Rouxls’s speech patterns call to mind sort of a parody middle ages type of vibe, a time period associated heavily with Christianity having a strong influence. Especially if there was an original angel centuries or even millennia ago, as there may have been, invoking a time long past. Of course, his speech has to remain somewhat comprehensible, and what it’s going for needs to be understandable by most players, so even if the angel was around well before Early Modern English, it still makes sense for Rouxls to speak in that style to give the general vibe.
The fact that he frequently uses English loan words in the Japanese version, in combination with an older style of Japanese itself, also leads me to believe that specifically Early Modern English is the intended style of his speech and not just something chosen because the game is in English, as otherwise, his use of English-related words even in the Japanese version feels a bit off. I don’t read or understand Japanese nearly well enough to verify this myself. It’s possible my understanding is incorrect, and I know Japanese has a lot of English loan words so it’s unlikely that only Rouxls uses them. I’m just going off of the information on the wiki for this one.
Rouxls says he has some sort of “Reale Powere” we haven’t seen yet, and oddly I’m inclined to believe him. He looks like he has some pretty flashy powers, and those powers seem to operate via holy light. He even teleports with a beam of light from the heavens. I wish we knew what element he is, in case it’s holy, or holy’s pair element, elec.
Rouxls maintains a consistent presence throughout the game, establishing him as important enough to potentially get a role like the angel if he weren’t such a goofy and comedic joke character
The angel would probably have control over the “rouxls” of the universe (or at least the rules of Soul Power), making it the new rules card essentially
Rouxls views himself as above just about everyone, except maybe for the entity he chooses to serve at any given time
Rouxls can fly (or at least levitate a bit), and much of the other information about the angel implies this is common among angels
In Rouxls’s unused proper battle theme, there are bells playing in the background Church bells seem like a likely instrumental motif for the angel, both because of its connection to Christian religion, and the end of the world (when the bell tolls). While the bells in this theme don’t seem to be church bells specifically, they’re still bells, so it seems worth a mention.
The same goes for his shop theme, but as Swatch demonstrates in chapter 2, that seems to be a generic shop theme rather than specifically a Rouxls theme. Since Rouxls is the first one to have it though, and he visits Swatch’s shop, you could make an argument it’s also a Rouxls theme.
White may be a colour associated with the angel, with black or dark blue being a colour associated with darkness and/or the roaring. Rouxls’ colour scheme has both of these colours, exclusively, unless you count the inside of his mouth being lighter blue.
Rouxls is able to create decoy save points, using one for a puzzle in Chapter 1. They’re supposedly “the light only you can see”, so how would Rouxls know generally what it looks like?
Rouxls’ ability to mind control certain characters implies he may have an ability similar to Trance, which could be something people with significant Power have access to. Though, it also operates through equipment, (the Control Crowne) so maybe that’s evidence that trance only works through certain items rather than through the powers of a specific person. Keep an eye out for any disc shaped lifeforms that might be a threat if mind controlled, and any crown shaped crowns that might do the controlling.
The sound of Kris creating a dark fountain at the end of chapter 2 is a modified version of Rouxls’ teleporting sound
So either Rouxls is a masterful double-red-herring, which, knowing Toby, is entirely possible, or he’s actually vital to the plot. However, since Toby wasn’t initially sure if players would even like Rouxls, and actually thought he would be disliked, on top of his goofy personality and status as a mostly joke character, I assume he, at the very least, isn’t a realistic angel candidate. Though, since Toby would have realized how positive his reception was soon after Chapter 1’s release, that could have given him time to give Rouxls a more important role somewhere else.
As both a writer and hobbyist game designer, I just don’t see how a Rouxls angel could have nearly the same impact in the story as myself, Susie, Ralsei, or even candidates I don’t think are all that viable, like Kris, Catti, and Asriel. Knowing how much the impact of this ending means to Toby, being the main inspiration for Deltarune’s creation, and probably even Undertale’s by extension, I don’t think he would risk undermining that ending with Rouxls as the angel.
Maybe Rouxls was the previous angel and he wants to reclaim his lost glory? But that implies the angel serves some specific entity, and while I think the angel is still beholden to fate, I don’t know that you’d really call “fate” an entity. Maybe Rouxls used to serve under the previous angel? But if he did, he sure doesn’t act like he’s been around for that long, and if it was thousands of years ago, or even more than a couple hundred, playing cards may not have even been invented yet, let alone a modern-enough looking rules card that the narration wouldn’t point it out as odd.
Rouxls Kaard even slightly resembles Gaster, so I have to wonder if he’s potentially a triple red herring for something related to that. This character is a mess, and as I’m writing this, I’ve just noticed yet another thing. "My hobbies includest calligraphy, lawkeeping, bugkeeping, cages..." If Jaru’s knight theory is correct, and Gerson’s dust and hammer was reanimated like Ralsei with Asriel’s dust, then Rouxls’s hobbies each match one of the main three opposition characters in Deltarune. Calligraphy for the knight, as Gerson was a writer. Lawkeeping for the angel, as it has control over soul power and the laws of reality itself. Bugkeeping for Gaster, as in programming bugs, given his association with errors in reality and the like, and cages because the game places everyone (except Jevil, he’s the only free one) in a metaphorical cage via the time loop.
That’s all, folks!
At least for now, anyway. Maybe I’ll find even more stuff to share and I’ll have to make a third post about this that’s even longer! But that will probably have to wait until the release of chapters 3 and 4. In the meantime, you can expect the occasional update with some more minor theories of mine, unless the wait is significantly longer or shorter than I expect it to be.
Thanks to Kris, Catti, and some out-of-system friends for helping me puzzle this all out. Without people to bounce ideas off of I would have lost the motivation for this months ago and might not have even finished part 1. Thanks to @jarujaruj, who, without his videos starting me on this nonsense, I would have never gotten this far. Thanks to Toby and his team for not releasing the next 2 chapters before I finished this, despite the multiple scares they gave me in the process and this potentially being the month it'll release. And thanks to everyone for reading, and hopefully, now that you’ve presumably read 2 of these giant things, being willing to give my theory a fair shake.
Here’s your TL;DR:
Kris may be able to sync up their soul with other souls and sources of soul power like dark fountains, potentially explaining every power they uniquely have access to in Deltarune and the dark world leveling system. The angel is created by high soul power, power of the heart, hence the romance themes with Kris and the main angel candidates. Kris will likely remove the soul in the weird route, attempting to take us both down together even if it kills them, and we’ll have Gaster’s vessel as a replacement to ensure we complete the route without Kris’s help.
The DT extractor, assuming Gaster has one in Deltarune’s reality, is likely used to acquire soul power and inject it into a target to make the angel in at least one route. “Holy” and “Sin” don’t seem to be as strictly regulated in their use as “Angel”, so the information we can gather from them is limited, but they seem to help indicate there’s a decent chance Christianity is a religion in this reality, or it used to be, and the angel religion’s traditions evolved from it, making the roaring like the rapture. The Egg Man is, by my guess, a second, goofier, less serious Gaster, from whichever reality the other Gaster isn’t, though they may be a clone as the save file screen implies Gaster can mitose save files, possibly breeding vessels, more Gasters, or even more timelines or universes. The Song from the Sea may be able to create a trance-like effect, and if universes are alive, may be able to control them.
Noelle is the angel in the weird route, Susie is the angel in the pacifist route, Ralsei is likely the angel in the neutral route because Susie won’t have had her full character arc, but this may just happen in a particularly violence-heavy neutral route. Dark worlds have different time flow, and their histories seem to be created retroactively, there’s a good chance a day in the light world could be weeks, months, or years in a dark world, maybe even longer in a darker world (i.e. a dark world created within a dark world, like Berdly tried to do near the end of chapter 2), all decently likely given soul power’s association with time control and darkness being an aspect of soul power.
The personification of the Earth may mean it's actually alive and has a will, and this is what enables the roaring. NEO may be related to things only possible via influence of an outside force, like the player. The Ring of Thorns' similarity to the biblical crown of thorns implies I may be murdered or sacrificed late in the weird route, probably in my attempt to break the loop. I suspect the most likely conclusion of the weird route is successfully breaking the time loop, but being left with a world that's only a broken shell of what it used to be. Don’t forget, even when the places you’ve come to know start feeling like a fantasy being enacted over and over, I’ll be with you in the dark. See you next loop! It’s not like I’m going anywhere.
#deltarune#noelle holiday#deltarune theory#kris dreemurr#susie deltarune#undertale#noelle deltarune#variable angel theory#pumpkinnoelle#w.d. gaster#gaster#wd gaster#utdr#berdly#kris deltarune#ralsei#jevil#jevil deltarune#deltarune queen#deltarune jevil#spamton g spamton#spamton#spamton deltarune#deltarune chapter 2#deltarune susie#ralsei deltarune#i had fun with the colours in this#no beta read i just want this out already#this thing is 17k words what the hell
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Sparkstember Day 21: Exotic Creatures Of The Deep (Strange Animal)
Some of you might already have some idea of how absolutely abnormal I am about this album and have been for several months, without fail. It's... perfect? And you know that personal relevance will also often be a total game changer in deciding what your ultimate favourites are and such. It's personal relevance of my own doing anyway, if I can call it that, you know those memes that go something like "it's MY mental breakdown and *I* chose the soundtrack!!". Oh yeah, that's what happened here. But even that aside I might never get over how much ECOTD is EVERYTHING I might want from an album and it has not lost its power with passing time even one bit. I'm wary to call anything a number one definitive favourite most of the time, but if I really had to choose... yeah, this is my favourite album of all time, there's absolutely no denying that.
Where do I even start with this... Well, coming back a bit to the LB - HYL - ECOTD series as a whole, I love how all three of them have so much in common and each one is some sort of natural development on the previous one, keeping its core elements but also adding new ones that are unique to the new album. And I guess the style of ECOTD is the one that ended up speaking to me the most. Toning it down a bit on the repetition aspect, adding more fancy synths, heavy drums, more guitar-based stuff continuing from HYL... And its still edgier and more electronic and darker and theatrical than the previous ones. Maybe I could even call it straight up COOL sounding (at least at times) in a way that the previous ones aren't (or not quite as much). (And that's not to say that they're all not icredibly cool in their own way anyway, but, you know.) None of these three are definitely better than the others for me by the way, but. Still, love the whole evolution here a lot.
And now, of course, a word on the craziest and most ambitious idea of the century, the 21×21 shows. I spent about a month, if not more, earlier this year going through what I'm quite sure must be the majority of what's been recorded from these shows, and I have no regrets. And yeah, one of the most impressive feats in the history of music, playing 21 albums in full day after day, but also can we please talk about the visualisations they put there to go with the albums. Catching glimpses of those album covers being comically stretched or rotated and such was a very important part of the whole experience. But yeah, Sparks Spectacular, it really is so spectacular.
I actually do have specific favourites on this album rather than being obsessed with it all the same amount, but I think it deserves special treatment just like Lil' Beethoven, so, let's go, going over all of them now. And I think it's better to just dive straight into them now anyway, in order to get a better hang of this whole album and why it's so brilliant and special to me.
Intro + Intro Reprise
I love you leitmotifs that reappear throughout the album and tie it all together. Such a good touch on what is imo the most cinematic of Sparks albums
Good Morning
This happened a couple of times to me with Sparks, when I first hear a song and I'm quite intrigued and delighted but that's mostly it. And then I hear it once more after a while and I'm never the same again from that point on. THIS!!!!!! SONG!!!!! I was so right that I would love all of ECOTD even more than anything before it based just on this. This is the Russell falsetto album by the way, that's important to note. I'm very impressed by this song in many ways. I like that it starts with this specific synth sound that's VERY characteristic of this whole album. And the fake ending... This song has LB and HYL all over it but it's also its own beautiful thing
Strange Animal
This song has an effect of "stopping in my tracks the moment I hear the first note" on me to be honest, another one of my forever and biggest favourites. Right up there with all the other rocking epics to the likes of Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls, Dick Around and As I Sit Down To Play The Organ. Sparks going meta on music & being a musician is also always very cool to see
I Can't Believe That You Would Fall For All The Crap In This Song
My first impression of what would become my most listened to Sparks song was a "wait, this was supposed to be a Sparks-only playlist, am I still listening to Sparks??" But a couple more months passed and what can I say, I'm obsessed now (and have been for over half a year now). The Maels saying "fuck you" to love songs & pop songs cliches will always be one of my favourite things about them... While they're also actively alluding to and using those cliches to create something very effective. I'm sure that it being so similar to the type of electro pop songs that were getting lots of radio play in the late 00s is why I'm so drawn to the sound here. It's always all about that nostalgia effect, huh (and this album is the absolute PEAK of "oh god why are all these songs so nostalgic to me I've only known them for this relatively short amount of time")
Let The Monkey Drive
This song ends what is probably my favourite 4 consecutive songs run on any album ever. Each is so mindblowing but in a different way. Best thing about this song to me is its atmopshere. It's just SO tangible. Like, this IS driving past the speed limit on a highway in the middle of the night (we can ignore the rest of what's happening in the story here for a moment). Obsessed with Russell's voice here and also it's so great to me how such a minimalistic approach can be so effective in creating this whole very specific mental image. Just unsettling strings in the back and two notes (or repeating chords) on the piano that are sort of the most prominent "melody" here and that's all you need. The suspense, the understatedness of it all, I love it
I've Never Been High
One of the most Sparks-like of Sparks songs in a way? And another one where I could probably start coming up with lyrical interpretations for on the spot. Lots to think about regarding all of these songs to be honest. And I like how the rising piano notes at the end lead into the descending flute (?) melody at the start of the next song
(She Got Me) Pregnant
Honestly, I absolutely love this song, it's one of my favourites on the album, maybe top five material. And it somehow sounds exactly like how I could have imagined it to sound, based on just its premise, I don't really know how that works but it does, lmao. And who else would give you this sort of song if not Sparks, no one
Lighten Up, Morrissey
Glam rock bliss that does not clash with the rest of the album despite being pretty stylistically different from the rest of it. Quite saddening that it's the only song here that has a music video, when there's SO MUCH potential here, seriously, again, this whole album is so cinematic. I do quite like what we got here though, love this era of Sparks ALSO when it comes to the visual side of it all (I keep saying this over and over), but still, there's so much more we could have had, y'know
This Is The Renaissance
GOOD GOD, I LOVE THIS ONE, in love with it from the first listen. It's everything that makes this album so grand and one-of-a-kind in a nutshell. Among the top 10 Sparks songs that should have had a music video also. I have a pretty elaborate painting idea based on this song in mind, so I hope I'll be able to make it into reality at some point in the future
The Director Never Yelled 'Cut'
List of Sparks songs where movie-directing is used as an allegory of sex is somehow at least two songs long I've noticed (this + Love Scenes). Anyway, this one's a pretty heavy one to unpack so I don't think I can really do it justice today. Love it just like every other song on here though
Photoshop
Another one that could have had such a killer music video. Again, stripped-down arrangement that's just enough to hit you with the right amount of feels and overall one of the most killer Ron piano master moments overall, now that I think about it. The plea of "photoshop me out of your life" sounds pretty... on-the-nose out of context? But again, Sparks magic makes it work anyway! And the 21×21 performance is in my top 10 Sparks live moments of all time (I don't actually have a list like this but, maybe I should make it now)
Likeable
...This is the song of all time to me. Honestly, give me any song pondering the nature of what it means to love vs what it means to like someone and things of such nature and you have me hooked forever. But even that aside, musically speaking, it's just... perfection. Most cinematic Sparks song overall maybe, it's really just like a little movie, every moment is so perfectly timed and measured, I have no words honestly, for just, how incredible it all is. The melodic aspect now, it makes me so emotional, one of the most likely of Sparks song to make me cry, for real. I could start going over every different part of the song now but honestly, they're all just, equally amazing. Special shoutout to the waltz parts though, and the bridge. Oooohhh the bridge, when it all gets so intense, and then the main melody reappears with an acoustic guitar, it's just, peak of it all. And then the intro leitmotif comes back again and it's just?!?.?? My feelings on this song might even still not be fully comprehensible and clear to me. All in all, couldn't imagine a better album closer than this, hands down. And this song also closing the Sparks Spectacular series of shows, yeah (not counting the encore). Oh man. Oh maaannnnn. What a freaking ride.
#FAVOURITE ALBUM OF ALL TIME DAY IS HERE 🔥🔥🔥#pretty epic how i actually just sort of made my long-postponed ecotd essay today#cause yeah i've wanted to do this since march but somehow never got round to it#and i'm happy that i was able to pay tribute to a couple very important things with today's drawing#21×21 shows and strange animal and also the legendary pink striped suit#i'll try to be more chill again with the remaining days though lol#but also one last entry on my top 5 fav albums ever list is still coming so. we'll see how that one goes in due time#sparkstember 2024#my art#goose monologues
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