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Star Wars has three types of guy: Fump Geezgo from the Womflee system, Stabba Badguyman, and Chris

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Fairy Tales are a necessity because they dare speak the truths that the world never wants to hear;

That adults are cruel to children.

That you will suffer injustice, but that doesn't give you the right to be unjust to others.

That there are negative consequences to indulging vices.

That upholding moral principles is always the better path, even in the face of hardship.

That you will die someday.

And that inspite of all the bad in the world, it is worth persevering and finding the love and joy that is out there.

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

And they even have a very similar taste is suits!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And the concept of Nostalgia.

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

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

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it was worth a try

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The Significance of Susie, Rude Buster, and The Prophecy.

(This has spoilers for 3-4)

This is a bit of a long post, but it's an important one, I think. Let's talk about Susie's signature spell, Rude Buster. I genuinely think there is thematic significance to this spell. To get to why, though, I want to go over everything.

Rude Buster is a spell that Susie knows from the moment we meet her in Chapter 1. It costs 50% TP, and, as the description tells us, it inflicts moderate "rude" element damage to one foe, and uses both Attack and Magic in its calculation. It considers defense in its calculation, and it scales better with Attack than it does Magic.

I want to compare this spell to another spell, Iceshock.

Iceshock inflicts "magical ICE damage" to one enemy, and costs 16% TP. It scales purely with the Magic stat, and is unaffected by her Attack stat. It also cuts through defense. On the surface, Iceshock is generally the better spell, it would seem. It might not deal as much damage at first, but it's significantly cheaper than Rude Buster, ignores defense, and scales like crazy when Noelle becomes Stronger.

While this is speculative, it almost comes off as if Iceshock is being more 'properly' cast. It's described as 'magical', it seemingly instantly surrounds an enemy rather than needing to be aimed, it ignores defense entirely. But... I think there's a bit more to it than that. Noelle's magic is kind of distinct from Noelle herself in a way. There's some level of detachment. There's distance. This is (partially) why we're able to manipulate her so easily into getting stronger. It's easy to not think about it. They're just enemies. Etc. But Rude Buster? It's a direct extension of Susie herself. She might not be directly naturally talented with Magic, but hell if that'll stop her. She channels everything she has into her axe and sends it out as a bolt of rude energy.

My point is this.

Iceshock deals perfect, magical damage to an enemy, piercing defense. It's better than a Susie crit at first, and it scales drastically. It's simple, and it's cost efficient.

Rude Buster is a direct extension of Susie herself. It's her raw emotion channeled into a single attack. It's her willpower, her resolve, her hope, all imbued into one little spell. Rude Buster as a spell is, either symbolically or literally, Susie's resolve.

This is why it is a "Rude" buster. What does it mean to be Rude? To be impolite. To not follow the rules, the expectations. And, if there's one thing Susie excels at, it's breaking every single expectation anyone might have for her. Is it truly by chance that, out of everyone in the party, it is Susie who talks back to the Roaring Knight? Is it truly by chance that the only party member who can actually do anything of substance against The Knight is Susie, with Rude Buster? Kris is (in most circumstances) holding back. Susie and Ralsei are able to deal chip damage. But Rude Buster, through sheer force alone, overcomes the Knight's defense, not by being magic or anything like that, but simply because it's that good.

Consider also The Titan. Everything seems bleak, the Titan can regenerate, and there's nothing we can do. So what do we do? We call upon Rude Buster. Technically it's "Dual Buster", but...

Susie and Gerson are both clearly casting variations of Rude Buster here.

And it works. And, lets think on that for a moment. Gerson also knows a version of Rude Buster. ...Why?

It's not like Gerson doesn't have his own magical attacks he could have used here, right? They could've easily done something else for this. But... No. Gerson casts his own Rude Buster. Why? Well, think about what Gerson stands for. He believes, in the same way Susie does, that the Prophecy isn't all it's cracked up to be. He believes that it can blind you, that it's better to read between the lines. As a Secret Boss, his philosophy is "I don't care".

So, to me, at least, it makes perfect sense that he would also know Rude Buster. Because, just like Susie, when confronted with the fate of the universe in bold text, he simply laughs it off.

This is also, I believe, why Gerson is the only character who can outright reflect Rude Buster.

Because while Gerson might not have the same resolve to change fate as Susie does, he is driven in a similar way.

The Devilsknife reduces Rude Buster's TP Cost. Why? Is it just because logically a jevil-turned-scythe would be good at channeling Magic? No. Think about what Jevil stands for. He believes that because his choices do not matter, he is free of consequence. He can "do anything", because his choices are irrelevant. If he could somehow be punished, then, well, his choices would've mattered, then, wouldn't they? And he knows that's not true. So he does whatever he damn well pleases. Obviously, Jevil and Susie are not really comparable- Jevil fully accepts that Fate is unbreakable, and Susie very much seems to think The Prophecy is bogus by the end of Chapter 4.

But, I think the throughline is there. Devilsknife makes Rude Buster easier to cast, because by nature, Jevil is already used to doing whatever he wants and ignoring the 'rules'. I hope I've made my case clear. But there's even more.

This may well be where I lose you, to be clear, so I hope you take everything I've said about Rude Buster as its own thing, and consider the rest of what I have to say as an extension of that. If you don't believe what I'm about to say, that's totally fine. Without further ado... Let us consider... The Prophecy.

The Second Hero of the Prophecy is "The Girl, with Hope crossed on her heart." As many before me have pointed out, this depiction... does not quite look like Susie. The weapon is wrong. This is a much longer discussion and I don't think I can quite fit it into this post, but, in essence, I believe that this was supposed to be Noelle Holiday. Noelle actually can equip a few swords as of Chapters 3-4, surprisingly. She can equip the Jingleblade and the Blackshard. However, I don't believe that Susie is "not" the second hero. I believe that The Prophecy has been tampered with. Or, at least, reinterpretted. Think back to what Gerson said. Stories can be changed. They can be retold.

Cat Petterz the RPG is a ripoff of Dragon Blazers, which is a retelling of Lord of the Hammer, which is a retelling of The Prophecy, which is a retelling of DELTARUNE.

I believe that this sort of thing is happening to the prophecy itself. I believe that Gaster, for one reason or another, changed the prophecy, replacing "The Second Hero, The Girl" with Susie. This sort of rules lawyering is possible because Susie is also referred to later in the prophecy:

We know that this is Susie because Rude Buster is being used to identify her. This image is even called "Rude Buster" internally. I believe the original prophecy was introducing Susie as a different "The Girl". However, because it technically uses the same term to refer both to Noelle and Susie, their roles can be altered. And so, Susie, through Gaster's intervention, became the Second Hero.

But why? Why was it important to make Susie involved? I believe it's simply because of who Susie is. When confronted with fate, Susie laughs it off. She won't let it happen. Wheras someone like Noelle would try and accept it for what it is, most likely, Susie outright refuses to play by the rules. And this gets us back into Rude Buster. Rude Buster is important. It's important enough to be the name of the battle theme, it's important enough to be what symbolizes Susie most directly in the prophecy. I believe that Rude Buster, and what it represents, is why Gaster chose Susie. Noelle might, in some sense, have "hope crossed on her heart". But it'd be passive hope. Wistful hope. Susie has active hope. With every fiber of her being, she has that hope. She inspires that hope in others. It is, as Ralsei puts it, infectious. She infects herself with hope, and grows it.

She infects Ralsei with hope.

She gives Tenna hope.

And, though this is more of a stretch, she even, indirectly, infects Seam with hope.

Remember that the only reason we could even potentially defeat The Knight is through Susie's perseverance, and Susie has to defeat Gerson, (who Seam is talking about here) on her own. Remember what Gerson told us.

Susie has the White Pen, that can draw over the dark pages of fate, known as Hope.

I believe that Gaster picked up his own pen, to transform Deltarune into his deltarune, one where Susie steps up to bat as the second hero of prophecy...

...So that Susie could, in turn, pick up her own white pen, and write a new ending. Chapter 7. A retelling of a retelling. The words on the wall called her a hero. Maybe that's not what they were ""supposed"" to mean. But, does it even matter? Through her grit and determination, it won't make a difference. She may not have been intended to be the second hero, but, she is, angel damnit, and the universe is just going to have to accept it. She may not have been chosen by The Angel, or whatever the hell wrote that prophecy, but she was chosen by one Wing Gaster, who considers her Very, Very Wonderful. She wields the White Pen to draw all over fate. And, of course, that white pen has a name. "Rude Buster". When the hands of fate draw near, you can always count on a good ol' Susie Rude Buster to persevere through anything.

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am I getting therapy from them or from the dark fountain

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next batch

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people on twitter seemed to like this so sure ill put it here too

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Deltarune has given us a lot of striking images, but Susie touching Ralsei's face in a gesture of forgiveness and leaving a bloody handprint on his cheek because she punched a stained-glass window might just take the cake in terms of getting thematically freaky with it.

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Game Accurate Tenna Model

Doing animations with my tenna model

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Honestly, if you're in a battle and your side's wizard comes out to fight the other side's wizard, you should all just stop and watch the light show, because once those beardy fucks start chucking meteors at each other you're really not the deciding factor here anymore.

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deltarune chapter 3: yay funny tv guy! i love minigames! woohoo!

deltarune chapter 4:

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See you tomorrow... Deltarune tomorrow. Friend Design By - @sillyzlaurr

On an extra note, I fully meant to make this a video. (evident via ralsei gif) But given a few sobs during the editing venture I sure hope you dont mind this version!

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the fact that the bottom part of this was cut off and reposted and and almost nobody knew is one of the biggest cases of bi erasure in history

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DELTARUNE TOMORROW