they weren’t kidding that frisk someone can sure strange

anyway so the “see you in the next hell, losers” is inspired by this video ! it made me Think. undertale was their first hell(possessed by the SOUL), deltarune is their current hell(wants the SOUL back)

and the “try as you might, you continue to be yourself” is from when you get a second red flag in Ball Game in undertale ! thought it’d be ironic since. theyre kinda not acting like themself since they don’t have the SOUL anymore. not that they even really know who they were without it

also knight chara is here

Finished delta2ne last night. Final thoughts below, with spoilers:

:readmore:

1. I still hate Berdly. I appreciate his character arc fine enough but it was done pretty plainly and I’ve seen it done far better for much more likable characters. It just didn’t feel like enough, y’know? He’s a fine character just still not someone I’ve grown to actively like

2. Weirdly boomer move to pull the “addicted to screens” trope toward the end, it didn’t jive much with the rest of the themes of the chapter or Queen as a character and just felt bizarrely out of touch for a game that hits a lot of themes so intimately and beautifully

3. Shouldn’t have told Noelle and Berdly it was all a dream, that’s dumb. I’ve never liked the secret identities trope and having to keep it a secret from characters who played a major role and were really impactful on the story kinda sucks in a major way

4. The lesbianism should have been more explicit. I know it’s extremely blatant that Noelle and Susie have feelings for each other and are just blissfully ignorant but it’s a bit of a shame that whenever there’s been explicitly romantic feelings in Deltarune so far it’s been straight- Toriel’s ex-marriage to Asgore, Berdly’s explicit crushes on Noelle and Susie. Some more outright gay relationships would be appreciated. I also refuse to count Alphyne bc Undyne is a cop in this one which cancels out her gay status /s

5. Queen is very good, I liked her a lot. Aside from just being very funny and having a lot of great moments she was leagues more interesting as a villain than the King, who existed more as an intimidating figure to overcome and a force to facilitate development in Lancer than his own character

6. I’m a bit uncomfortable abt the like… very default Christian theming of Hometown? Toriel as a church mom, Gerson and his son as pastors and even having a significant subplot related to that, everyone in the town talking abt going to church and the prominence of the church as an object in the town, feels kinda… weird. Especially given that Hometown and the Dreemurr family especially are framed as ideals, the perfect town and community and the ideal family

7. Kris continues to be an icon. Eating moss, sniffing markers, making bath bombs, doing general feral activities

8. Lot of unanswered questions… I would try to list them but I can’t even remember all the loose ends the game introduced and hinted at future installments following up on, and just… gosh, I wish the full game was out, I want answers… and I wanna play more fndkfnf

9. The punch-out minigames were cute and fun, in general the chapter was significantly harder than chapter 1 but had a lot more unique ideas, battles and minigames as well as overworld challenges and puzzles. The final robot battle kicked ass

10. I don’t like Catti’s sorta weird implication that Susie will turn evil, something that’s kinda reinforced in a few places as well, just cuz it would be super uncool for the story to take that direction (imo), but it’s also weird bc Kris is like… the one doing what is “bad” in terms of the game’s story, the one facilitating the conflict is them, the Knight, y’know? So you can’t exactly have multiple secretly evil betrayal party members. There’s also a theory floating around online that Ralsei is secretly evil but I don’t personally think it holds much water

11. At one point Lancer calls Queen a “girldad” and that’s so powerful and so gender, god damn. I hope she continues to be a recurring character and I also hope Lancer just continues to collect dads like Pokémon

12. Kris being the Knight was a real cool twist but it’s surprising that we got it this early on. I was also very interested in like, the way Kris rips their soul out to stop letting the player control their actions, I dunno how that’ll factor into future events but I’m curious… like, if Kris will be the final enemy or what have you. Combined with the “your choices don’t matter” theme that keeps getting reinforced. It’s obvious that Kris is aware that the player is in control of their actions and is aware that by ripping out their soul- the means by which the player exerts their will on the character- and trapping it somewhere secure where it cannot be moved (as in battle) they can move about freely and do as they wish. My roommate theorized that there’s an additional external force controlling Kris when their soul is out but to me it makes more sense that the soul is just the embodiment or player influence- this is backed up a bit by the book on souls in the library which can’t determine their true purpose. So to me it stands to reason that Kris must have their own reasons for creating the fountains. I have multiple theories as to why but nothing concrete, one being just as Susie pointed out and was hinted at when the Lightner gang almost made a fountain, that being heroes in the Dark World has allowed these kids who were obviously very lonely (it’s repeatedly emphasized how much Kris misses Asriel and what a big deal it is for Kris to have made friends with Susie) to make friends and be important. The themes of the game so far as well as Undertale as prior knowledge kind of point toward the idea that the player is a force that influences the characters and this might not be a good thing, so Kris acting independently flies more on the path of that theme than a surprise evil influence, especially given Toby’s consistency in not writing completely malicious and irredeemable characters (I see all these ppl blaming Chara again as if they’re just some ultimate omnipotent malevolent force in the Undertale universe for some reason and I scoff), especially also since Kris’ independent actions take place offscreen, away from the player’s sight. My roommate also pointed out that Kris is the only human in the game and since we know from Undertale human souls are exponentially more powerful than monsters’ souls it stands to reason that Kris is A.) probably the only Lightner with enough Determination to consistently make fountains and B.) the only human in the entire game so far, which is coincidentally also the case with Frisk in Undertale, implying some innate ability of humans in this world to be controlled by players or that there would be some other complication brought on by having multiple humans in the Light World, presumably related to how souls interact and function. All just… super interesting stuff

13. Talked this over with my roommate as well and based on Ralsei not turning to stone in Cyber’s World like the other characters from chapter 1’s world combined with everything else (the hiding his appearance in chapter 1, his name literally being an anagram of Asriel, his knowledge of the Light World and people and places within it, his knowledge of humans and souls) it seems pretty possible that he’s just straight-up Asriel going undercover. These same pieces of evidence have been used to claim he’s secretly evil but they fit so much more neatly into place for me if he’s Asriel instead. It’s even stronger if Kris already knows this since it would reinforce my “Kris is making portals to see and spend time with their friends” theory

14. The scene where Susie stays over at the Dreemurr house was so pure and good it almost made me sob. Genuinely worried abt Susie’s potentially abusive home life (it’s vague but there’s implied Bad Stuff at home and I’m worried) but so happy to see her get to feel at home there. During the scene where Toriel calls the police abt the slashed tires I was so petrified that she was calling abt Susie and I was almost heartbroken

15. Susie, Noelle and Kris are probably my favorite characters so far, but honorable mentions to Lancer and Ralsei for just being funky little boys I’d love to hug and buy ice cream for