#Well its more of a theory than analysis but shut up

[thewertsearch]

Asks Comp 4/8

The thing is, Davesprite's situation is more complicated than an unfulfilled time loop. His timeline isn't an irrelevant offshoot - in fact, it's integral to the existence of the Alpha Timeline, and presumably always was. Davesprite forms part of a weird, fully intact time loop which spans multiple timelines.

And since this is a future Dave, you have to assume he knows about Bro. The two clearly had a complicated relationship, but he's surely shaken by his death - if nothing else, it's a sign of how serious things have become.

That'll be a fun thing to check out when I've finished the comic! It reminds me of those Hunger Games simulators that were doing the rounds a couple of years ago.

That's true. Dave knows how strong the Underlings have become - and yet, he's still confident that Jade can stand up to them. Presumably she finds some sort of workaround for their First Guardian powers?

Sunslammer is so good! A standout song, even in a comic with as many bangers as this one.

Honestly, part of why I'm dragging my feet on the album reviews is because I want to hear these songs for the first time in context. If I'd heard Descend before watching Descend, I feel like it would have robbed the song of some of its dramatic weight.

I assumed it was just because witches are associated with frogs.

That would have explained why they're part of her Land, but I'm pretty sure that Kanaya's glitched planet was also a frog Land, and she's not a Witch, so...?

*The rest of Sal's response has been redacted, lest we fall once more into the Frog Theory Black Hole.*

I'm pretty sure that's a statue of Echidna, the mother of monsters and Jade's Denizen. Dave's probably close to LOFAF's Palace!

The Seer sees all - and sometimes, she understands the implications before we do.

It'd certainly be interesting. I just reread that conversation, and the biggest takeaway would have been that the kids were going to befriend the trolls, and get involved in their personal drama. This would certainly be consistent with the tone established by an Act 1 Hivebent!

Yup. Vriska was only able to 'create' Perfect Jack because Becquerel didn't object.

Really, he could have prototyped anything he liked, no matter what Vriska did. Even if she tried to shut the Entry down by incapacitating Jade, he could simply have activated the piñata himself.

I mean, that's basically what happened!

If any Aspect is geared around survival, then it's Feferi's. There's no breath left in her body, but our girl is still in the game!

Getting back to the trolls will be interesting, especially since - I assume - we'll be zipping back to when Feferi was still alive. The Veil is a much less friendly place, now - but does Feferi know this? What, exactly, is about to happen to the trolls?

I suppose. I guess there's no reason for every Carapacian to be created with knowledge of the Rings.

Actually, Sburb might not want them to know - Jack's probably not the only one who wouldn't respect the Ring's rules. There could be potential ringwielders out there who are far more dangerous.

Thank you! I feel like I've been doing a lot more character analysis in Act 5 versus previous Acts, where most of my speculation was about the lore. It's a fun change of pace.

Damn, I didn't think we'd actually be explaining these!

It's moments like these which really enhance the comic for me - justifications for things that I genuinely thought were just nitpicks on my part. It's really gratifying, honestly.

@thelegendofgreg asked: Here's some commentary from the jade enter flash, theres uh. alot to read but its all neat stuff "I talked about this way back, maybe even in an earlier book? Well, here I go again, so hold on to your ass. There are four entry items: Apple of knowledge, Bottle of wine, Crow's egg, Dog piñata. A, B, C, D. All of them are related to new life or new beginnings. You bite the apple, you fall from grace, enter a new world, begin this wild journey. You smash a bottle to christen a ship. An egg hatches, creating new life. You break a piöata to celebrate a birthday. Each involves breaking or puncturing something. Each involves a form of sustenance, or something to consume (piñatas have candy inside). Two are vessels for the substance (bottle, Piñata), two are the food items themselves (apple, egg), and one arguably counts as both (egg). Two of them drop from the same basic tree template (apple, piñata). They ramp up in complexity. John's is a simple test: bite the forbidden fruit. Not much to it. A single unit of departure, almost conceptually elemental, like an apple, as Rose goes on about later. The challenges get trickier. Rose has to break a bottle. Easy enough idea, but things go wrong, and she has to take a blind leap to get it done. A sacrificial gesture, and one of faith in a friend (Jaspers). Dave's is even more obscure. A simple test of patience, but one that's not clear. He isn't told what to do and just has to wait. Non-action is the key, and in a way it's another gesture of faith under dire circumstances. Finally, Jade's challenge incorporates a lot of these elements. It's another "blind faith" situation. She has to take a shot in the dark. There's a sacrificial gesture, but instead of risking herself (like Rose), Jade must symbolically sacrifice her friend via effigy and cannot complete the sacrifice without help from that friend. (Bec must redirect the bullet. There's no way this works if he doesn't.) It is also a signifier that the pet she knew as a friend her whole life is about to, in a way, become her enemy. Like a good dog gone bad, who now must be put down."

So they are all intended to be foodstuffs! And, apparently, alphabetical - although I think 'Crow's egg' is a bit of a stretch.

There are also themes of sacrifice and faith that I didn't really think about before. Choosing to enter Sburb at all, knowing the stakes, is absolutely a leap of faith - and it's a game which sacrifices your whole planet. Skaia's been telling us the score this whole time.

Homestuck absolutely deals with dark themes - but they start out buried under the surface, and even now, are still in the process of revealing themselves. This makes sense for Homestuck, a coming-of-age-story whose protagonists are slowly coming to terms with some dark truths about their lives.

Awful Hospital, however, immediately says: here's our protagonist. Her baby is dying. She just woke in a strange room. She doesn't know how she got here. Her baby has been stolen. There are monsters inside her brain. By the way, here's a quip, because this is actually a funny comic. It just felt... dissonant, and not in a fun way. I don't really know what it's going for, tonally.

Don't take this as a negative review, though! I only read a couple dozen pages, so I'm really not qualified to rate the comic - I just wasn't feeling it at the time, so I shelved it. I enjoy a lot of Bogleech's writing, and Awful Hospital's lore sounds pretty interesting, so I'll probably give it another shot at some point.

Not for the most part! I'm super into time travel stories, though, so I'm well-Primed to understand their intricacies.

So there might be intermittent stages between the four we've seen in the kids' session? That'd be interesting - I'd love to see the intermediary stage between John's 2D chessboard and Rose's 3D cube.

There are, at this point, too many awesome songs for me to pick favorites. Umbral Ultimatum and Sunslammer are excellent, but what songs aren't, at this point?

I can't imagine what we're in for when we reach the Act 5.2 finale...

Ooh, interesting. Considering how many accidental references Hussie seems to make, it's honestly up in the air whether that was intentional.

That said....

Jack is looking awfully divine these days.

I suppose Tavros has probably logged the most rocket-hours, yeah.

I'm sure all Breath Players probably learn to fly, unless there are some oddball classes which don't let you interact with your Aspect.

Anonymous asked: forwarding this message to you from someone who doesn't have a tumblr account. ~DJ "Important fact. Dave and Aradia both use musical instruments for time travel, but different ones. Aradia’s is a music box, it has a single prerecorded music, the only way to “play” it is to turn it so it plays the music that was always in it. Dave’s is turntables. They contain a preexisting music, but what you do with them is to jump, cut and shuffle this music, creating something new, having full control of it. - RM"

I like it! As Time Players, they both follow the set path of the Alpha Timeline - but Dave gets a little funky with it, multiplying himself with a complex series of time loops.

Aradia, ever the fatalist, instead turns to doomed clones for reinforcements. I don't think we've ever seen her make a stable loop.

#full liveblog #asks #act 5.2

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Hi,

Do you ever think on the first conversation Inej and Kaz had in Heleen's office? It feels like theres a lot there and I wondered if you have any thoughts on it. I come back a lot to when Inej asks Kaz if he convinced Per Haskell to buy out her indenture because "you like Suli girls" and Kaz answers "i don't know enough Suli girls to say"

that's a very interesting sort of snarky answer to me because he refutes the idea that he's the type to fetishize the Suli culture to the point of being "into" Suli women just because they are Suli. But also he doesn't just shut down the idea of him being into anyone. Which ... This is post Imogen debacle, he's resigned himself to not being "into" anyone at this point for several years. He doesn't care how people see him for it either. He could have been ruder or more just more direct about this, but he wasn't. And its like that with many of his early actions towards Inej. He's nicer than you'd think he'd be and its interesting becuase i don't get a sense that Kaz fell for Inej "at first sight", i think his love for her was gradual and snuck up on him (heh) so really everything he did at first and especially not demanding she gets a dregs tatto must have been from some basic sense of compassion, although he'd shank me for saying so.

Also, i always wondered how Kaz explained to Haskell why Inej didnt get a tattoo, then i re-read the books recently i realized omg i bet he totally probably just didn't?! Inej wasn't the type talk about it, she wears concealing clothes and is not very seen/social within the gang so my theory is that lazy ass Haskell didnt ask and assumed she got a tatto and kaz just let the assumption happen. Do you think that's believable?

Hi, thanks so much for your question - and so sorry it’s taken me an eternity to reply!

When I tell you that I think about this meeting once a week… well I’m hoping that you think “woah so cool she knows so much and thinks so in depth about these characters literary analysis is awesome” and not “Jesus Christ she’s insane”. But genuinely, the Kanej meeting is something I think about a lot and I think holds an awful lot of meaning.

The “you like Suli girls” “I don’t know enough Suli girls to say” to me is such a wonderful moment because, as you quite rightly said, it immediately refutes Kaz’s endorsement of the hyper-sexualisation of Suli culture that we see so prevalently in Kerch / Ketterdam (I’ve gone into this at length before but in a whistle stop tour think about the way the Menagerie customers talk about Inej and place so much emphasis on her skin colour, her bedroom at the Menagerie being a “farcical” version of a Suli caravan, the way “the Menagerie always stocked a Suli girl”, the Rare Spices billboard, etc). And this is so important for so many reasons, but in particular because the second Heleen exits the room and she’s alone with Kaz, Inej immediately tenses at the assumption that he is going to rape or assault her- “braced herself for what would come next, fingers twisting in her silks”. And what happens instead? He asks her for her name. Her name, that has been ignored and erased for an entire year as yet another roll of dehumanisation piled against her. Even though the pair discuss and make a clear understanding of the fact that this isn’t some kind of rescue mission and Inej’s world isn’t going to suddenly fix itself, this moment makes an instant connection for Inej between Kaz Brekker and safety. Because somehow, despite everything that’s happening, this moment in Tante Heleen’s office is the safest Inej has felt for an entire year. It’s also interesting that you mentioned he doesn’t shut down the idea of not being interested in anyone and I definitely agree with that, personally I don’t believe that Kaz is asexual although I know some people headcanon him that way it’s just not something that works for me and my perception of his character, and that’s because of situations like his attraction to Imogen and several situations he’s in with Inej. His exact words when considering being with Imogen are “he knew the things he was supposed to want. He did want those things”, which to me very clearly shows that he does experience sexual attraction and sexual desire, and the limiting factor is his ptsd and touch aversion rather than his sexuality/orientation. I agree that Kaz and Inej didn’t experience a love at first sight kind of moment, but I do think that this meeting really solidified their relationship to a level of immediate understanding between them, in essence an acknowledgment of them being “twin soldiers, marching on, pretending they were fine”. They are both able to see the other, clock that they understand to some extent, and respect each other.

Kaz is quite abrasive in this scene, but what always gets me is how confrontational Inej is able to be - “And what happens when you take their money, and you become a rich man?”. (The quote is something to that effect, sorry I don’t have my book with me right now). I think that a big aspect of her being able to summon the confidence to put herself against him so immediately is that she genuinely feels this level of safety with him, because this far he represents the opposite of everything that had tormented her. Or at the very least the polar end of a spectrum that she has been tormented by another part of. And controversially to the image of everything Inej has experienced in the Barrel so far, Kaz is amused by and enjoys her standing up to him, in fact he almost seems endeared by it saying “Then you can steal all my secrets too”.

And ohh the tattoo, or lack thereof, makes me so happy! It doesn’t require much reading between the lines to understand the relevance of Kaz not forcing Inej to take the Dregs tattoo on, she even says herself that he refused to be the one who marked her again, but I love the idea that he didn’t actually tell anyone she’s not got it!! I hadn’t considered this before but it makes perfect sense with everything we know about Inej’s relationship with the Dregs - Nina doesn’t know she lacks the tattoo, and Inej comments on the fact that the others can’t see her scars from having the Menagerie feather removed but that “they all knew it was there”, suggesting she keeps her forearms covered most of the time, and the emotional disconnect she feels from the rest of the Dregs is always discussed at an intellectual level and in the way she spends most of her time with Kaz or alone rather than with them rather than any dislike/distrust/etc of her because she didn’t take on the tattoo. I absolutely love this theory because it takes away any feeling of guilt around lacking the tattoo and also makes it a far more personal thing to be shared only between Kaz and herself.

Thank you so much, I’m so sorry it took me so long to reply, but I hope this made sense and that you enjoyed reading it! <3

#grishaverse #six of crows #leigh bardugo #crooked kingdom #inej ghafa #nina zenik #kaz brekker #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #matthias helvar #kanej #kanej headcanon #kanej brainrot #*cries in kanej* #kanej my beloved #kanej supremacy #kanej has my whole heart #soc meta #soc analyst #soc analysis #six of crows meta #six of crows analysis

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

I love all your analysis! Could I ask you to chime in, if you have the time and the inclination, on my pet theory?

Here it goes: Meghan found it harder than Catherine to be succeed in the Royal family because she's not athletic.

The Aristo crowd is sporty. It's a good marker of privilege - one you cannot fake - to be able to ski, play tennis, row, sail, ride, dive. All these things require lots of leisure time, and money, and the confident, cheerful ease of the amateur sportsman.

Catherine is a good minor athlete - her reaction to the 2007 breakup was to enter a rowing challenge with her girlfriends (she went clubbing with Pips too, sure, but she was out there most mornings in her wetsuit, being healthy and determined). It's hard to explain the mindset of the "amateur athlete in friendly competition" if you've never been one, but it gives you confidence, emotional regulation, and the bone deep knowledge that small constant steps are key to achieving progress and success.

Meghan just knows that "rich people go skiing", and she gets photographed on the slopes in an unsuitable coat, thinking it's the same thing. She looks for the shortcut - and she may fool some of the non-skiers, but it's just a house of cards. It works for an influencer who will quickly move on to the next thing, but the Royal family thinks in decades, and the persona their PR builds for you must have some consistency.

And there would have been nothing wrong with saying outright "you know what, I didn't grow up with that kind of money, I can't ski or row" - she would have got lots of sympathy.

Don't you love "training montages" in movies? She could have had years of upbeat training montage PR! Or she could have gone with an "outsider perspective" PR strategy, where she would have represented the slightly ironic common man faced with the BRF.

But Meghan the Narc can't stand to acknowledge she doesn't know something. She should have been herself, and instead she tried to be Catherine and failed.

It's a good theory, but i don't think it holds much weight when you really dig into it - for exactly what you pointed out: Meghan wasn't herself.

Kate was unabashedly and genuinely herself. Long before St. Andrews or William entered the picture, and she stayed that way after everything with William. The aristo crowd probably prefers that, and Kate doesn't strike me as someone who's impressed by all that. She probably cared more about their art collection than whether they were Duke So-and-So or Earl Whozitsandwhatsits, and that's impressive on its own. (I'm reminded now of the story with Cillian Murphy; he doesn't like it when people fawn all over him and he shuts down when that happens, so a seat-filler who sat next to him at one of the recent awards shows pretended she didn't know who he was and had the most incredible conversation wtih him.)

Whereas Meghan was always playing a role, and badly at that. So it was pretty easy for the aristo crowd to see right through her and know that she was bad news. Especially once she stop pretending to be aristo-like, with the cursing and demanding to sit next to Harry/switching place cards at the dinner parties, the screaming at staff, policing what everyone was saying and confronting them when it wasn't PC (according to her).

I think being sporty/athletic helped Kate, but the vibe I get from the aristo crowd isn't necessarily a sporty set. As a whole, they seem more outdoorsy to me with the skiing holidays, the shooting parties, the horse racing, the sailing. I think William's side of the aristo crowd (like his friends and Anne's family that he's closest to) is sporty because that's what they've connected over, and Kate fits in well with that crowd so it was easier for her to be accepted by them. But there's also the "city" side of the aristo crowd like the Yorkies and the Spencers where they're more known for their holidays, artsy/culture-type activities, and spectatoring sports.

Not to say that the two can't blend - they do, obviously, and everyone is probably really good at code-switching to navigate between the different segments of the aristo world (William and Kate especially as the future King and Queen, who have to be both representational and aspirational to all segments of the populartion, not just the aristos). And maybe the more culture set are sporty too (like how Diana danced and the Yorks skiied) but sport isn't how we think of those aristos. The latter crowd is what Meghan expected because that's the world Diana inhabited and as we all know, Meghan views royalty through Diana exclusively, so when she saw Kate in that sphere, she tried to emulate that side of Kate (the evening-gown wearing, gala attending, world-traveling, tennis-watching, polo-wifeing Kate) not knowing that it's just a small piece of who, and what, Kate actually is.

It's why the role she tried to play fell flat; Meghan didn't know the whole character, she just had the PR version of Kate to work with. Or, in acting parlance, Meghan had the character notes for Kate the Bit Player. She didn't get the character profile for Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, a main character.

Going back to what you originally said, that Meghan didn't integrate as easily as Kate did because of the athletics, I'd say it's bigger than that. It's because she didn't have any hobbies or interests. Everyone in the aristo set has hobbies and interests. Meghan didn't/doesn't have a single hobby and that made/makes it hard to connect with people on any level. She didn't need to have the same hobbies or interests as everyone else, she just had to have something. But she didn't. She had nothing.

All she had was Harry but Harry assumes the personality of whomever he's dating...which is the same thing Meghan does; she assumes the personality of whomever she's dating. So when there are two people being each other, they end up with nothing. Or they end up being his mother. Which isn't that much better either.

#ask #brf #theories

[ccuniculusmolestus]

WinterBunny star sign compatability + analysis.

As you read this please keep in mind I am not trying to generalize all signs and I also acknowledge that sometimes traits obviously overlap in star signs. This is my personal theory, and it's just for fun, so if any of yall get triggered tahst on u bae. Anyway lets begin.

(ALSO keep in mind i have a HORRIBLE habit of adding texts from the book to support a point. I know its kinda pointless and repetitive but I CANT HELP IT.)

edit: I think its mentioned in the novel Henry's birthday is in December! Someone just pointed that out to me. So he's either Sagittarius or Capricorn sun sign. Which would make Virgo his ascending sign (the sign that influences your day to day personality the most) because this man is more Virgo than he is Sag OR capricorn! So we have the ascending sign, how you behave on the surface, then we have the moon sign, how your inner perception and emotions are. (Which I think both moon and ascending for him are virgo🤷‍♂️) and the sun sign is basically your archetype (which makes me believe he's a Capricorn sun rather than a Sag sun because Capricorns are more success oriented).

Henry is mostly influenced by virgo, obviously (Virgo men toxic as hell btw. Jk.).

Bunny is quite clearly a gemini.

These are the traits listed under Virgo men;

Logic presides over emotion

Patient -> Didn't murder Bunny after one interaction (jk). But he did really put up with Bunny for quite an unreasonable amount of time.

Perfectionist

VERY Picky -> About his inner circle (and somehow Bunny still got in. They were 100% fu-)

Hardworking -> Has published a literary paper before he even started uni

Methodical -> Thought well and good about Bun's murder

Usually the most valued member on a team -> Literally the leader of his group and also the best in his class

Not frivolous with money -> Obviously. Despite the money Henry had, he had quite a lot saved up and didn't blow his money on anything other than a loud, blond sugarbaby

Stylishly sophisticated -> Umbrellas and suits and long coats. Need I say more.

Not very emotionally expressive -> Yes.

Happy when appreciated/useful -> He described this desire to help Bun when he first met him, because he pitied him for his conditions. Girl that is the virgo in you trying to 'fix' something for Bunny (or perhaps fix Bunny himself). (1)

If you remember, one of Henry's complaints was that Bunny wasn't appreciative, not a word of thanks. His Virgo was shaking fr. I mean i think had Bunny been more appreciative at least Henry might have not murdered him (not to victim blame or whatever-- actually. I am victim blaming. bunny was a bitch) (2)

(1)

(2)

Also, Virgos are most commonly introverts and prefer to find meaning in their own solitude.

Now, Bunny is a gemini for sooo many reasons.

More emotional than logical

Talkative -> Bro never shut the hell up.

Playful & funny

Quick-witted

Nobody is a stranger to geminis -> He had a natural air of amiability (that was very misleading). He was the first person in the group to give Richard a sense of friendship (quickly ruined, though). He is also the only one aside from Richard with friends outside the class, and these people seem to have a generally positive idea of him

Nosy -> Bro was going through his best friend and roommates belongings. They had to kill him cuz he knew too much 😭

Not good with secrets -> We know that.

Unreliable -> We also know that (Henry could not rely on Bunny to follow the pre-bacchanal prep like the special bathing or the fasting.)

Like interesting company, prefer the exotic -> Henry was very much removed from normal. But Bunny had a strong interest in him. Aside from homo behaviour and financial dependence i think the boy was just super curious

Incredibly high standards... -> we know.

Hides his true self -> I mean so does Richard. But Richard is libra coded.

People close to him have to keep up with his mental games and gymnastics -> Bros logic is insane. (and nonexistent).

Likes arguing

So you guys may take this for yapping but certain signs are said to be more, idk, susceptible to certain illnesses. Geminis apparently usually have very weak respiratory systems and are prone to developing asthma? Bunny canonically has asthma, and doesn't smoke. Not me doing mental gymnastics to prove he is truly a gemini but i SWEaR

And of course, Geminis are very, very extroverted (usually). Plus being socially gifted helps them kind of have a chameleon sort of charm where they can fit in with lots of different kind of people. If you think back to the fact that he's the only one capable of making Henry laugh, he probably is very socially intelligent. Well...that area gets clouded over or muddied by his dumbass childish innocence (believing his friend, capable of murder, wont murder him for fucking THREATNING HIM?) (Trusting his fake ass murderous friends despite knowing theyre out to kill him to approach them near that stupid ravine? Either he's a cocky bastard who thinks he's got the protag shield or he's a dumbass child with 0 self preservation.

....he is both.)

Anyway.

If Virgo and Gemini do not go well together it's because they are so different from one another. Buuut what sets them apart also draws them together.

Both signs are ruled by planet Mercury, which rules communication and language (but both are affected differently). Gemini is gifted with social intelligence (specifically that chameleon like featured i mentione before) and Virgo is meticulous about the little things (noticing when something's off etc). Mercury also rules language skills btw- maybe henry's obsession with (and talent for) learnig languages-- (*gunshot*)

So these two signs have quite a lot in common though it isn't obvious at a first glance (typical w Bun and Henry. Theyre so different that Richard assumed at first that they hated one another but actually they are besties <3....who hate each other. its complicated (no its not. its just unresolved sexual tension)).

No but fr, these two are signs that are popularly thought to be doomed in a relationship but can defy all odds.

So Gemini is very unstable btw, like, spontaneous, and I think we get that vibe from the overall image of Bunny that's presented in the novel. I can't really think of an example of Bunny's spontaneity, so I can't say I have proof of it, I'm going based off vibes bro.

Logically, unstable is attracted to stable and vice versa, just because they kind of make it more convenient and fun for one another. So like, Virgo being stable gets some fun in its life thanks to Gemini's wild nature, and Gemini being volatile gets the comfort of stability thanks to Virgo's composed nature. Compare and contrast that to Bun and Henry as you wish.

On the bad side, Gemini can talk too much, and this tendency to over-communicate can cause arguments to be long and tiring and repetitive. Think back to how Henry describes their fights in rome.

Gemini can also think Virgo can be a bit boring, or lifeless. Virgo will not always appreciate Gemini's flightiness or spontaneity (no evidence for this in terms of Bun/Hen but its giving me great headcanon ideas also it sounds like them)

They also don't share core values (so on things like beliefs, marriage, children, or stuff like work). I mean Henry seems like the kind of guy that wouldn't really want kids, he gives the vibe (for a multitude of reasons, not just pure disdain for fatherhood. But he probably didn't have a good father and worries about becoming him idk thats a headcanon of mine). Bunny wants EIGHT children. Not with Henry, i assure you, 😂😂 but he said (i think with Marion) he wanted 8 kids. insane.

.....ah, see. There's Henry's opinion....

Kind of funny how they were put together in that scene idk. Like. Anyway.

NSFW paragraph below. There will be a bunny emoji where it ends and then there's a conclusion.

Also. This is going to be a very long yap session. Virgos tend to be quite...freaky under their façade of calm. So they're very sexual and kinky, whereas Gemini is more easy-going and curious. Now this plays into a huge nsfw headcanon I had for them (before I even started connected the dots between their sun signs and all that) but that's talked about here. But Virgos tend to be more service-oriented but both signs are dominant and submissive, so Virgo is dominant because it's kind of into crazy things when it comes to sex (BDSM...girl..when i read this i was gagged. wait. not like that) and virgo is submissive because, well, im guessing introvert LOL. Geminis are both because they're just open to everything. Also...too much sexual tension lol.

🐇

I haven't thought about Bunnys rising/ascending or his moon sign. But he is most probably a Leo rising, and idk for his moon. And Henry is Virgo rising, possibly Virgo moon, and capricorn sun. And I know I wrote this whole thing as Virgo/Gemini rather than Capricorn/Gemini and that's simply because I believe Henry has more of a Virgo energy than a capricorn one (also I had forgotten he was born in December before writing this HAHA)

So yeah anyway that's my Bunny and Henry star sign headcanon and analysis! I know theres lots of similarities and overlaps of traits between different signs, so dont get too like, idk, mad about this thing or take it too serious. it is just my headcanon! which is highkey canon coded but lets not-

haha anyway! i think richard is libra, and francis might also be virgo btw, and no i am not just saying that bcs of his hypochondria (i am😔) well he is kind of sassy so idk. Francis would be an air or earth sign. I actually believe none of them have fire sun signs except Henry. Camilla and Charles...hmm....maybe Cancer. havent given these much thought :3

#i be yapping #yap session #idk if this had a point except winterbunny #bunny corcoran #the secret history #tsh #henry winter #tsh donna tartt #winterbunny #francis abernathy #richard papen #charles macaulay #camilla macaulay #winterhare

[veliseraptor]

Hello ! I've read a lot of the posts you shared or wrote about horror, especially in reaction to "pearl-clutching" discourse against the whole genre.

It was very though provoking (thanks!) but I was wondering if/how you draw the distinction between that and, well, honest and "legitimate" bad review / negative analysis of some individual stories who happen to be horror ?

Oh, for sure. Of course there's legitimate criticisms to be made about individual horror works, or even about horror as a genre on the whole. I'm never going to claim that there isn't. While I do feel like there's a place for the "let people have fun" school of thought around media criticism, I don't think it should be a blanket smothering of all criticism - mostly, as with so many things, it is worth considering your time, place, and audience. For your own sake as well, I find.

I do think that sometimes the language of "criticizing" or "being critical" has become a handy mask for people to say whatever they want in some of the same (though less pernicious) way that people use "I'm just asking questions" to shut down discussion of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Again, #notallcriticism, much of it is good and beneficial and keeps things fresh (and me thinking), even the criticism I ultimately might end up disagreeing with. And at the same time, I do see the tendency popping up sometimes to use the idea of "legitimate criticism" as a way to shield a person from disagreement (the somewhat infamous "think critically about x" translating to "and you'll agree with me" comes to mind.)

As far as the how, well, it's certainly a little your mileage may vary - what I might read as an unfair review of a book I liked, for instance, someone else might read as a well-deserved ripping to shreds of a mediocre work, and it's certainly possible for neither of us to be "right" about which it is. Some of this - maybe even a lot of it - is a matter of perspective.

I guess I would think of two things that shape my perception of how someone is talking about a work or a genre, in general and in particular with horror:

1. Is the writer familiar with the genre? Do they have at least a passing familiarity with the conventions, tropes, and other narrative tics that tend to crop up? If not, are the criticisms they are making marked by that lack of knowledge (ime some of the discourse about the A Song of Ice and Fire falls victim to this, sometimes). I'm not saying that criticism is invalid coming from someone without genre knowledge, but I am saying that I'm more inclined to be skeptical of criticism that comes from someone who clearly dislikes the specific genre they're discussing, because it sometimes feels like a willful lack of curiosity and unwillingness to engage with a text/genre on its own terms.

> Addendum to this: is the writer familiar with the genre as it stands recently? Horror now looks rather different than horror fifty years ago, just for instance.

2. Is the argument or point they're making actually coherent? Is the analysis solid and grounded in at least some kind of evidence or source? (Is the author using screenshots of tweets in lieu of actually writing about the phenomenon they're discussing?) I can't always but I'd say I can usually at least recognize, even if I disagree, when someone is actually taking what they're engaging with seriously and when they're not (in terms of the work put in to convince me what they're saying is true, relevant, and important), and if they're not taking it seriously then why should I?

And one more, I guess, which feels obvious but sometimes on the internet isn't, because people love to have opinions (I get it! so do I!):

3. Has the writer actually read (or watched/played/whatever) what they're talking about? This ties in a little with point one but is slightly divergent, because someone can to an extent be familiar with a genre without having read it. But someone talking authoritatively about the problems with something they haven't actually had direct contact with, based purely on a set of cultural osmosis and related assumptions, is frustratingly common, and people will assume that they know what they're talking about from that alone and are qualified to make a sweeping judgment from that position. And I'm just not going to take criticism made from that perspective very seriously.

That's how I'd draw my lines, anyway. I don't claim to be an authority, certainly; I'm a gal on the internet with a big mouth and a lot of opinions. I think the important things here though are a. I certainly don't think that there's no such thing as legitimate criticism (in the negative sense) of horror works or horror as a genre, and b. I have particular standards for how I judge that criticism based on content and context.

I guess it's also worth noting, with this particular example, that the other question is "how much does this feel like it aligns with the present moral panic around dark or disturbing content in fiction?" and if the answer is "a lot" then I'm significantly more likely to dismiss it.

#conversating #social justice fire mage #actual english major lise #lise has opinions #look an actual post that required brainpower ma #i still have that i guess! #now i'm going to sleep yikes i'm tired

[daz4i]

the new op is making me insane so i’m gonna try to overanalyze its visuals, what i think the symbolism means, how it connects to this season and the manga arcs coming after it. all of it is my interpretation ofc, feel free to disagree and i encourage you to add your own takes!

i’m not gonna go over every single detail, either because i have nothing to say about it or i’m not sure what it could mean, which is another reason i encourage you to add your own analysis in a reblog if you want to :3

warning for major spoilers for the manga under the cut, as well as unholy amounts of reaching lol

first thing i wanna look at is uh. that one fyodor shot, and specifically the second before it

the number of hands is a little odd to me. at first i noticed 4 sets of hand so my immediate thought was “oh, one set for every doa member, minus bram since he doesn’t have any” but noticing that 9th one coming alongside his face threw a wrench in that. so, assuming this number is purposeful, i have a few ideas:

1. it’s not just the doa involved, but the rats as well. both organizations have 5 members we know of. fyodor is in both organizations, meaning that combined, we have 9 people, and a hand for each one

2. it IS just the doa, and 2 hands for each member (bram included), except for fyodor who is both a hand and a head. he is the strategist and planner, thus he is the head, while the others are more like the ones who execute his plans, so they merely get to be hands (not sure how much i love this theory considering at the end of the day he is not their leader, but if you stretch it you could say that in this season we have no reason to assume he isn’t the doa leader so there’s no reason to imply otherwise? or a future implication that he’s letting fukuchi think he’s the leader but is actually manipulating him? yeah i dunno)

3. another one i don’t particularly love, but: it’s less about the number of hands, and rather about the finger highlighting the number 5, since this is going to be a key thing this season

okay, on to a more obvious one:

tachihara has his back to us, as to not reveal his identity yet

he is looking upon a purple background, a color we see in some mafia members’ abilities, hinting at him belonging in the mafia

once again, tachihara has his back to us. aside from him, all of the hunting dogs are revealed to the audience and looking forward (even if not 100%), except for fukuchi who is looking to the side, and is behind the pillar, making him visually separated from the rest of the group, since he belongs in the doa rather than the hunting dogs

couple of things you might be able to get from this:

1. sigma looking to the side, his back to nikolai and bram. he is not willingly in the doa or supports their goals, more dragged along for the ride. he is a part of the group, but has his eyes shut and his back turned to them, some sort of buffer to imply his separation from them

2. the main thing we see of nikolai is his overcoat. ngl i’m not sure what the symbolism in this could mean but it feels important so i wanna point it out for maybe other people to connect the dots i can’t. possibly, this shot is to highlight the tools at the doa’s disposal, aka sigma and bram as themselves, but nikolai mainly used for his ability...?

so. first of all. they’re and red and blue, opposites of each other in color and in direction as well

but the interesting thing to me is that they’re each others’ colors - with the ada usually presented in blue and the mafia in red, here we have it backwards. possibly to imply their (partial) role reversal in the eyes of the public, the ada now being demonized and hunted by the law while the mafia gets to lay low and offer assistance

possibly, you could stretch it to say their role reversal is in part about how fukuzawa would have to sacrifice a member for his organization in order to get what he needs, a thing that’s mori-like to do

speaking of blue to symbolize the ada, ango is clad in a blue light, implying his upcoming alliance with the ada

we see fukuchi using shintō amenogozen in his battle with atsushi and akutagawa

i’ve seen people say this part of the op implies their battle will be in this season and i’m ngl, i don’t think there’s any chance of that. it’s way too much story to cram into this season. i think this part is, for now, just to imply the ada and pm working together against the hunting dogs, and him using this sword and fighting them at the same time is just a nod to sharp eyed manga readers (same with the bram cameos)

that being said. i want you to pay attention to the color of his ability in this frame (it’s a surprise tool that’ll help us later!)

yosano and the butterfly, and we specifically see her from the side, with her butterfly hairpin shining, putting emphasis on her upcoming backstory

okay, now we’re getting into the character face closeups, and here i’m gonna use these handy posts from @/dazaistabletop for reference, bless your soul for getting all of them fr 🙏

the main thing i want to get from it is the colors. tldr: the ada is a teal-ish blue, the mafia is red and purple (depending on their abilities), the guild is yellow, the hunting dogs is white, the special division is brownish-orange, the doa are the same dark blue from fukuchi’s ability earlier. this does match the general color of the members’ abilities through every group as well.

when it comes to the order of the frames, i think it’s mostly random (tho, with key characters coming early, and more minor characters we barely even really see this season if at all showing up near the end) except for a few pairs:

dazai and fyodor are the first 2 frames, the key foils of this season

fukuchi and fukuzawa are one after the other because they are divorcing each other

akutagawa and atsushi are the ones to close this section and the opening as a whole, as they often do as the key foils of the entire series

a few frames i want to highlight in particular:

tachihara’s purple is lighter than the other mafia members’ purple (added gin for comparison), implying his belonging to the hunting dogs

mushi is brown too?? not sure what that implies ngl. mostly pointing it out as a request for anyone to chip in with their own take on that

despite not working for the guild anymore (and given that he’s without his glasses we have to assume this is him working for fyodor), nathaniel is still in yellow. like with mushi, i’m not sure what that could mean. maybe they just didn’t want to figure out a color for the rats for 2 frames i dunno. again if you have your own take, hit me

poe is fully colored the same color as the ada 🥺 he’s fully part of the team by now (ok now do lucy next.)

the text appears for just two frames, nikolai and akutagawa. for akutagawa, it blends with his red background, but for nikolai it actively stands out and covers his already covered eye. unfortunately i can’t read japanese, so i would love that if someone who does sees this could tell me what the text says to see if that means something as well 🙏

edit: according to my friend @/almightyrozenidiot apparently it says rashomon! and i’d guess it’s in red because this is the color of this ability, after all. i still think its placement on nikolai’s covered eye is interesting, esp given how much it stands out (the other ability names flashing on screen in that sequence are written in white, i barely even noticed they were there), and i wonder if this might imply some future thing asagiri’s planning between them.

okay, so you were probably wondering why i skipped the fyodor flowers moment, and this is why

so. i tried figuring out what at least some of the flowers are to maybe see if there’s meaning there and either couldn’t, or the ones i did recognize did not align with anything meaning wise, so i figured the colors stand more for the colors of abilities we’ve seen so far, and mainly the ada and port mafia

the faces frames in the end of the op establish the special division’s color as orange, hence the two small orange flowers (and their yellow center could be for the guild). they definitely stand out less, as for now they are a smaller pawn in the plan. the ada - marked with the blue flowers and green leaves - are the biggest target of the current phase of the plan, and that’s why they’re closest to his face and make the most of the flowers, size wise

the only purely white ability we’ve seen so far is natsume’s. as the mediator between the three main organizations in yokohama, it makes sense for him to be in the middle of all these colors. the same white flowers are also on the outside (as seen below), since he is mainly watching things unfold from the side.

will also add that at times, no longer human appears as white or grey as well (tho usually - but not always - with a slight blue tint). this also makes sense given that dazai was in both the mafia and ada, and serves as a mediator or communicator between them at times, hence put in the middle as well.

unfortunately, i can’t tell what the pink flowers are meant to be. the only ability i can think of that’s pink is lucy’s (i don’t recall ever seeing the colored circles when she activates it, but given what anne’s room looks like it seems like a fair assumption), but it’s weird she’d get such a big part of this frame just for herself. maybe it’s because of how big her role is in helping the ada this season? again, if you have your own take please go ahead and share it!!

the flowers then stop growing and start withering as the white flowers take over

could not for the life of me find what these flowers are unfortunately, but, white flowers in general usually mean some form of purity and innocence. this does align with fyodor’s ultimate plan - to purify the world of abilities. white flowers often symbolize holiness as well, since his plan is, to him, the will of god

notice that the flowers have 5 petals as well, a repeating number of this arc and in many of the doa’s plans

edit 2: @/larathia pointed out in the comments that these flowers are japanese snake gourds! and apparently, in hanakotoba they mean “hatred of men”. yeah that checks out with fyodor lol

and... i think that’s all i have for you today! i hope you liked it! once again encouraging you to reblog with your own additions on things i might’ve missed or your own take on things, and i hope you all have a lovely day 🙏🖤

#bungou stray dogs #bsd analysis #bungo stray dogs season 4 #bsd s4 #bsd spoilers #bsd fyodor #bsd fukuchi #bsd fukuzawa #bsd tachihara #bc those 4 are the main repeating characters here hehe #this took like 3 hours to write so i'd really appreciate reblogs if possible 🥺 #apologizing for any typos or english errors btw heh. i did type most of this out in a slight frenzy bc this op makes me very excited :P #dan rambles #edit: added some stuff!! hope this doesn't make the post be hidden in search results omg

[aemiron-main]

hiiii I just want to say sorry about all these people jumping down your throat about your edward creel posts. Regardless of whether you're right or not (i think you are lol), your theories and posts are VERY well researched and well written, and also soo entertaining. how can people be upset that you've been consistently creating content during a hiatus? would they rather everyone just shut up and let the fandom fall to the shadows? truly unfathomable to me. yours and henrysglock's posts have been the only thing keeping my interest in stranger things all these months. anyway sorry I sort of rambled I just wanted you to know I appreciate the thought put into your posts and I'm really thankful to have people in this fandom who are still creating new ideas and theories even after more than a year of no new content. have a great day 🩷🧡

AHHHHHHHHHHH HELLO THANK YOU THIS IS SUCH A SWEET MESSAGE OMG 😭💗💗 YOUVE MADE MY DAY!!! First of all, HELLO FELLOW EDWARD TRUTHER 🤝🤝🤝🤝 a d second of all THANK YOU AGAIN HEHEHDH IM KICKING MY FEET AND GIGGLING!!! I really appreciate that because I do try really hard to keep my analysis (not the fanon stuff which ppl seem go somehow conflate with analysis sometimes) evidence-based and well-researched but also relatively easily/fun to read, so I really really love hearing that!!

And right?? I genuinely don’t understand why people are so upset about others delving into things!!!! I really think many of them would rather that people just shut up & let things fall to the shadows & take everything at surface value. Like even if I’m 100% wrong about every single thing, at least I made an effort to look deeper, yknow? That’s the thing for me, it’s not even about right vs wrong or dumb vs smart, it’s about being willing to take the time to even try to dig a little deeper into things before committing to surface level judgements. IM GLAD YOU AGREE BC ITS TRILY UNFATHOMABLE TO ME TOO LIKE I LOVE SEEING ALL THE THEORIES AND THOUGHTS FROM PEOPLE!!!!! Like I’ve said before, I don’t mind a super long delay for S5 because it means i get to keep having fun making theories and seeing other peoples’ theories!!!

IM SO GLAD THAT ME AND JAMES HAVING BEEN KEEPING YOU INTERESTED IN ST OMG <<<333 I have SO many more analyses in the drafts (seriously, like, content drought WHO??? i could analyze this show for the rest of my life) and so there will be lots more to come!! And James really does have such great posts, I am 4ever grateful for his brilliant analysis and friendship, seriously, i probably wouldve just stayed in my hole not posting very much analysis after the initial backlash if i didnt have james and stav to rant to!!! (and on that note I also recommend the beloved and iconic stav @heroesbyler for some more wonderful posts!!! stav is very much Onto the duffers/a fellow edward enthusiast)

Omg no worries at all about rambling/no need to apologize!! This is such a kind message to send and I really appreciate you taking the time to send it to me!!! Just!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <<333 I’m also so thankful for the fellow theorists who keep putting out their thoughts & for people like you who are so thoughtful, kind, and supportive!!! Stranger Things is so rich with subtext and things to analyze and it’s really a shame that some folks are so opposed to digging into it. Like i said, even if I’m wrong, I still had a blast digging through the show and trying to piece things together!!!

Thank you!!! I hope you have a great day too!! <<<3333

#stranger things #st anons

[sofiiel]

Me absolutely gushing and fangirling over the people of this fandom. So don't mind me 🥰

At its core this fandom is fueled by the best people I've ever met or have gotten the chance to interact with.

I've not run into one sour person. And I've been told it's because I'm not heavily active in the fandom or as diehard as many others.

But I don't think that's true. I think this fandom is genuinely filled with the most amazing folks.

I've only come across creative, gentle spirited, unique, protective, open-minded, friendly, caring, original, honest, transparent, welcoming, warm, bright, accepting individuals.

I'm in a lot of fandoms and I've never seen the community this one has. It's not just Tumblr unique either this fandoms energy spans several websites.

I know theirs a dark side to it, as their is with any fandom. But more often than not I see the good side of it.

It's incredibly easy to talk to a ST fan, even as a woman with severe social phobia and general anxiety.

I love seeing us all interact with each other. It always looks and feels like old friends chatting.

The support the fandom gives each other and the general acceptance of differences is heart warming.

It's like.... you've all become a great big version of the family the characters in the show have become.

I've seen so many people build each other up when one of us is being down on themselves. People reaching out to other fans to help. Sharing joys and sadnesses with one another.

Welcoming new people into the arms of the fandom in the best way.

But as well as protecting each other and the people who brought to life the very show that we all love as well as the industry it's driven by.

I don't think you all know how wonderful you actually are.

It's been years and I'm still blown away by this fandom. Even with it's moments of turmoil, those never last long. It gets a little ugly in some small spaces and sure like any large fandom folks bump heads from time to time. But even that usually gets resolved pretty quickly.

I've heard horror stories, but overall even in those spats ~ all sides end up having a support circle that's genuinely concerned for those involved.

Everyone whose helped build Stranger Things into what is should be proud of this community that it formed and the people it's brought together.

The ST fandom is one with so much heart it's spilling over like a waterfall.

And I thank everyone in this community for making it what it is and being who you are. This fandom constantly gives me reasons to smile.

Fanart, fics, conversations, theories, character analysis, gifs, the way you all spread news, info and hype. Good lord it's endearing and constant.

Seeing everyone rally together over things.

The overflow of empathy within people here, even those who claim they aren't good with people ... they are unknowingly great with people.

I adore how you all strive to share your interests with each other and let one another know your valid, seen and accepted.

Thank you all for making this party the best ever.

Shut up I'm sentimental 🙃 I know but seriously.

I'm so glad for this fandom community. Beautiful, priceless, enchanting, unforgettable people all of you.

#stranger things fandom #me babbling about how amazing this community is #i wanna give everyone a giant emotional hug #the good ive seen amongst us #im just thinking about when i first got invested and now im all in my feelings 🥰 #i feel like i drank too much and just said drunkinly i love you man #but here i am #and regardless you are all so amazing #also no sleep and typed all yhis on my phone so #sorry for the mess 😅

[randomfoggytiger]

X-Files Analysis: Biogenesis's BIG Problem with the Alien-Human Hybrid Virus

Mulder should not have had his brain issues in Biogenesis-The Sixth Extinction-Amor Fati, or Scully should have had them as well; and CSM would have knee-capped himself with his nefarious brain surgery (besides the obvious "dying" plotline of S7.)

Mulder Should Not Have Been Affected in Biogenesis

Mulder's brain deterioration was, by Kritschgau's words, the result of a (reactivated) virus turning him into an alien-human hybrid.

But... that doesn't make any sense; because Mulder was inoculated from the virus in Russia. Even if it was a faulty vaccine (that could have harmed more than helped in the hands of nefarious gulag operators), he walked away with no ill effects and no trace-- even if inactive-- of the virus still in his system.

But suddenly it's reactivated two years later by a map rubbing.

There are two main reasons why this wouldn't happen:

A. The vaccine worked on Mulder in Terma. He should have had some immunity to the virus, or the WHOLE POINT of the Syndicate's frantic quest and ruthless actions leading up to the Fight the Future vaccine would have been for nothing, even separate from how canonical events played out. Even if Mulder was infected with a LITTLE bit of the virus in Russia, it left no harmful trace in his system, caused no ill effects, and was proof enough to the Syndicate for them to barter with the Russians for said vaccine (so much so that they nabbed a bit of it before FTF.) And if the vaccine had to be used as a constant treatment rather than a permanent cure, then the events of FTF don't make any sense. SPEAKING OF WHICH--

The Virus Should Have Affected Scully, Too

B. SCULLY WAS INFECTED AND CURED PERMANENTLY with a vaccine in Fight the Future. If the vaccine wasn't a permanent cure, she should not only have had the same effects Mulder did in her hallway, but the same lingering or reoccurring effects because it was established to be the same virus. EVEN IF the virus mutated sometime after FTF, Scully and Mulder had the same exposure to the 'original' viral strain, the same treatment, and the same threat risk by the map (as well as being wanted to the same degree by the Requiem alien overlords, but I digress.) The map would also have affected others with the same exposure to the same degree (i.e. Krycek and Marita Covarrubias.)

The Virus: Its Beginning in 'Biogenesis' and Its End in 'Deadalive'

As shown in The Sixth Extinction and Amor Fati, the virus opens the mind to hearing others' thoughts; but the body cannot keep up with the unbearable pressure and is ruthlessly shut down. We're shown later stages of deterioration in This Is Not Happening and Deadalive: the body "dies", allowing the virus to incubate for at least 3 months, regenerate, and become a Super Soldier... which would mean after they were tortured long enough, Mulder and all of the Bellefleur abductees underwent the trauma of being locked in their telepathic minds again and 'died' from it (and not, as S8 implies, by being tortured or 'tested' until they developed wholly new symptoms to a new thing that definitely-not-at-all didn't exist before~.)

CSM Became a Super Solder After Amor Fati

Canon and its faults aside, this means two things:

A. We know how Mulder and his merry band of Requiem friends died; but more to the point: if CSM had let Mulder 'die' in Amor Fati, Mulder would have turned into a Super Soldier before S8. Neither knew this was a possibility because--

B. CSM unknowingly halted the conversion process and plugged a giant chip of Super Soldier bot programming into his own brain.

It does explain his canonical actions and profound lack of dying after that point. Surviving a rocket blast to the face aside, it points to the motives behind his road trip in En Ami-- restoring Scully's fertility (in theory) to see if a child from her and Mulder would pose a threat with its immunity or Gibson-like ability; but mainly getting the "cure all" out of the hands of the government, an opposing faction to alien colonization.

This theory holds up well in canon or adjacent to it-- at least, it explains why he didn't die after getting late-stage brain disease in Requiem or getting blown up in The Truth (if you consider that canon) or any other nonsense in the Revival.

Restoring Canon with The Facts

In summary:

-Mulder couldn't have been infected by a reactivated virus he was already inoculated against in S4.

-Scully, likewise, couldn't have been infected by this same virus she'd been inoculated against; but she would have HAD to if the map affected Mulder.

-The map would have affected anyone exposed to the virus, because it uses alien DNA to help it to incubate and hybridize.

-ALL HUMANS WOULD HAVE BEEN 'ACTIVATED' BY THE MAP because they all have inactive alien DNA in their biology, which means everyone who was in that map's vicinity should have been reduced to catatonia.

-Everyone who had received a smallpox vaccine since the 60s now have more inactive alien DNA in their systems (thanks, Syndicate), which would have created even more severe problems.

-Mulder was given the same virus THREE TIMES (even when it was cured the first go-around and cut out of him the second one.)

-Regardless of my other conjectures in this post, canonically, Mulder couldn't have been turned into a Super Soldier in S8: the infection site was CUT OUT OF HIM by CSM in Amor Fati.

-The events of Biogenesis cancel not only the canon in the past and the future but also its own singular episode: two people who have been in contact with and cured from the same virus are affected differently. The man who is being turned into a hybrid can read minds like Gibson until his body shuts down; but is back to normal when that slice of his brain is cut out (allegations of brain disease aside.) But it's not ACTUALLY cut out because it's reactivated later, though he doesn't have brain powers this time but looks really dead. But he's cured again-- not by another operation to his brain or even another vaccine: he's cured by being taken off of life support. And the woman who had just as much-- and more-- exposure to and incubation with the virus wasn't affected at all.

-If the events of Biogenesis are caused by the human genome's reaction to the map-- and not the alien virus-- then all humans would have been affected by the map. It's been canonically established that humanity has been intertwined with alien dna through two different avenues: natural evolution and scientific engraftment, meaning every human that touched the map once would have been reduced to catatonia like Mulder.

In conclusion, Biogenesis and The Sixth Extinction could not have happened with any degree of coherency UNLESS Mulder and Scully are both equally affected by the map and virus or not.

What should have happened instead?

There is no trip to Africa. Skinner and Kritschgau manage to find a way to help both agents; but Mulder is spirited away before they can cure him.

CSM cuts the Super Soldier virus out of Mulder's head and puts it in his own. He begins to turn into a Super Soldier while recovering, possibly slipping into a coma and being put on life support which speeds up the process.

Super Soldier CSM tricks Scully into a road trip, using her to get the 'cure all' away from the human race and changing her fertility (giving her a dose of the technology or tampering with her chip) to see what genes two exposed and resistant humans would pass on.

Requiem stays the same; but Mulder is an incidental abductee while trying to save the Bellefleur residents.

Mulder is returned. He is not 'deadalive' because of the events in Amor Fati. He is, however, maimed and injured; his injuries are so life threatening that Scully tries to get Jeremiah to cure him. The events of This Is Not Happening play out.

No funeral. Krycek's threat against Mulder is more genuine; and Skinner is even more torn up about terminating life support.

Mulder's recovery can play out any way possible: too injured to resume FBI business, dealing more with his PTSD and impending fatherhood and feeling left behind, etc. Or Doggett was able to get the cure from Krycek (tying it back to the government/shadow government's abilities to make a "cure all" in En Ami), rapidly and thoroughly healing Mulder in time for the events of Three Words.

If neither is affected, the episode doesn't exist.

If only Mulder is affected in Biogenesis, CSM still becomes a Super Soldier canonically.

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy!

#txf #analysis #mine #Dissecting The X-Files's Canon #Scully Should Have Been Affected in Biogenesis #Biogenesis #Why CSM Became a Super Soldier #CSM #En Ami #How the Requiem Abductees Died #Requiem #DeadAlive #Tunguska #The Sixth Extinction #Amor Fati #S3 #S8 #S4 #S7 #S6 #x-files #meta #the x files #xf meta

[chopnews]

The NBA subreddit, also known as r/NBA, is a place on Reddit where basketball enthusiasts discuss and analyze the league. Over time, Redditors have shared many interesting things there from highlights and news to analysis and theories. bnm making it the 76th most popular subreddit on Reddit. Notably, r/NBA ranks 10th in terms of daily comments per user, showing how active this community can be. Recently, the subreddit experienced controversy regarding Jaren Jackson Jr. and his home stats. A post received nearly 67,000 upvotes (likes), becoming the 13th most popular post on the subreddit. Top 5 Moments from the NBA Subreddit 1) Kobe Bryant's passing On January 26th, 2020, Kobe Bryant tragically passed away. His passing shocked not only the NBA community but also his fellow Lakers players around the world - particularly within its subreddit. Bryant's memorial post is currently the most popular r/NBA post of all time, boasting more than 107,000 upvotes - the only post ever to surpass 100,000 on this subreddit. 2) The NBA Shutdown In 2020, NBA fans had to endure a lot. Less than two months after Kobe Bryant's passing, the league was shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Rudy Gobert, then of the Utah Jazz, tested positive for influenza A virus which ended up postponing his playing career for several months. The NBA subreddit's post about this news has already received 99,286 upvotes, making it the second most popular post. 3) Criticism of LeBron James In 2019, Daryl Morey issued a tweet in support of Hong Kong. At that time, Morey was serving as general manager of the Houston Rockets and received widespread condemnation for it. In response, China decided to remove all Rockets games from their country's schedule. LeBron James declined to discuss the political tension between China and Hong Kong, noting that Morey hadn't been properly educated on the situation before sending his tweet. These remarks by James have sparked a storm of criticism around the league, with fans and analysts condemning him for his remarks. The NBA subreddit has given 94,433 upvotes to a post featuring Max Kellerman's critiques of James. LeBron James has always been vocal about the issues facing America, yet he held back from criticizing China due to the financial loss it would cause him. 4) James Harden's Strip Club Visits Analysed James Harden loves strip clubs and the NBA subreddit is well aware of this fact. To analyze Harden's performance in each NBA city, user AngryCentrist decided to do a detailed breakdown. One Reddit user attempted to establish a correlation between James' performance and the city's average strip club rating. In the end, he provided sufficient evidence to support the assertion that star players perform worse in cities with higher-rated strip clubs. This NBA subreddit post has received 89,128 upvotes and is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball takes ever made. 5) The Uvalde shooting and Steve Kerr's remarks On May 2022, a tragic mass shooting occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Tragically, 22 people died and 18 were wounded - leaving many grieving families in its wake. https://www.chopnews.com/what-is-r-nba-here-is-the-top-events-of-this-r-nba-subreddit/?feed_id=194&_unique_id=64267cadefa15

[thesmpisonfire]

Ok so

Quackity lore! And, with it, we FINALLY got an answer we've been waiting for weeks now.

Who was the hooded figure?

After yesterday, it was practically confirmed it was Quackity who was chasing Fundy in his dream, wasn't it?

But, oh, wait....

There's 3 of them! Which one was following Fundy? Who are the other 2?

One question was supposedly answered, but now we have other two to be solved.

Setting the scenario here, the first part where we see the 3 hooded figures was right at the beginning, before we saw the flashbacks and technically even before we saw the present time

One of the tease images was this one:

Which we all immediately thought it was the Grim Reaper, turns out this was Quackity, or a representation of him

Quackity was being represented as the Grim Reaper, or the Death itself.

And Death is part of a bigger group that has 4 individuals:

Death

Famine

Conquest

and War

The four horsemen of the apocalypse, the ones that will bring the end of the world

But, wait...

There was only 3 of them, wasn't it?

Well...

Here's the fourth

Fundy wasn't chased by any of the 3, he was chased by the 4th.

Fundy was chased by himself

Fundy is the 4th horsemen

This is what Fundy will become if he doesn't follow what the books, what his own conscience, warned about. This is what waits for him. A future self that he is scared and can't even recognize.

Now, you look at me saying "Des, stop all this stretch. Anyway who are the other two horsemen then, you absolutely brain rotted clown?"

First: ow, i roasted myself

Now, the 2 other horsemen.

You remember how I said we didnt even know if the first segment was set in present day? Yeah. Remember how, in the actual present segment of the stream, Quackity was alone riding Ossium? You see how all 3 horsemen have enchanted netherite swords, but Quackity only has a diamond sword during both past and present time?

The horsemen aren't together yet.

Quackity will get the revive book, and he will have the power to bring back the dead...

Wilbur and Schlatt.

Quackity is Death

Wilbur is Conquest, he was the one conquering L'manberg and that fought for it. He was the one that had the self proclaimed right to explode it, because it was HIS. If he can't have it, no one can.

Schlatt is Famine, he made Manburg starve by both shutting Niki's bakery down and letting the crops die to the point some of the inhabitants had to eat spider eyes, which are poisonous. He died sick due to only drinking and not eating at all

And, the last one...

Fundy is War.

He was the one raised in it, that had an entire life surrounded by fighting and chaos. He went into a war against Sapnap due to his love (/p) for Niki. Wars are fought with passion, and Fundy certainly has it. He fights and fights, that's all he had ever done. Doomsday? He knew it wasn't a war, it was a massacre. Also, war is not only the blood bath. Its strategy, its planning. Fundy is a smart guy, planning ahead so he complete his objectives.

Fundy's actions always are part of a domino effect that brings war. Even if its unrelated, its a important piece that starts the fall.

Now, the air horns. Nuke alarms.

A nuke is a war weapon. The power that it handles helps you conquest lands. When a nuke lands, it poisons the water and the land, bringing famine to the citizens.

A nuke causes death.

There's how the nuke connects to the 4 horsemen.

The egg?

Well, the 4 horsemen aren't the only ones that cause the apocalypse, they always have some company.

Also, Quackity trying to destroy it only made it angry. It will be more aggressive. It was just the beginning of something bigger.

Remember how Fundy dreamed about a desert, and a crater?

The time is coming, and they'll slowly meet each other again.

Wilbur, Schlatt, Fundy, Quackity

Conquest, Famine, War, Death

#if one day i dont start an analysis with 'ok so' is bc im fucken dead and someone stole my blog #dsmp analysis #Man this one is GOOD OK #dream smp #mcyt #fundy #wilbur soot #Quackity #Jschlatt #Well its more of a theory than analysis but shut up #It has some analysis ok??? #Also this theory gave me a good AU idea and i loved it so much #Anyway they are the 4 horsemen and the end is near #We love to see it

[vgfm]

Kris: Roaring Knight or Red Herring?

HEY EVERY___!

A lot has changed, hasn’t it? Last year I wrote a massive theory post on Everyman’s role in the Undertale/Deltarune series, which culminated in my theory that Everyman is the Knight. A month after that I made a follow-up post that went further down the rabbit hole and explored Everyman’s possible relationship to Gaster.

With the release of Deltarune Chapter 2 I debated making a third part to my Everyman analysis, but it turned out there’s more to talk about than I could’ve imagined. Chapter 2 has given us plenty of new Knight lore, so let’s take a look at what this means for my Everyman theor—

Oh.

Look, there’s Kris. Creating a fountain. On-screen and everything. It’s not remotely ambiguous either. Even the game files straight up tell you that Kris is creating a new dark fountain.

[Image transcript: UTModTool is showing multiple sprite entries whose names begin with “spr_kris_make_fountain”. On the right is an animation file for Kris jumping up after they open the dark fountain. End image transcript]

I’ll be honest, when I first saw this scene I wasn’t terribly surprised. The writing already seemed to be on the wall when the Queen provided a glimpse of the Knight creating her fountain. Her description of the Knight’s outstretched hand holding a blade might as well have been a blaring neon sign that said “Doesn’t this remind you of Kris?”

[Image transcript: Queen looking at a project of a giant hand and a blade. Her dialogue says “It Coursed Its Will Into Its Blade” End image transcript]

I’ve had some time since that first playthrough to mull things over. I can’t deny that Chapter 2’s ending makes my own Knight hypothesis seem less likely than it did at the end of chapter 1. However, I don’t think things are as open-and-shut as they first appear. Before I can make an all-encompassing follow-up to my Everyman analysis, I have to take a bit of a detour with our friend Kris. Think of this as a “part 2.5” of my Everyman analysis (warning: may not contain Everyman).

Disclaimer

Just so that we’re on the same page, I want to make a distinction between two characters: Kris and the Soul.

Throughout the course of this analysis, I will use the name “Kris” to refer to the identity of the human protagonist of Deltarune, specifically when referring to their backstory and the actions that Kris takes without (or in spite of) player input.

Conversely, “the Soul” will refer to the red heart that we can control through player input. Many fans refer to this entity as “the Player,” but I’m accounting for the possibility that the Soul is an in-universe character with their own backstory and motives that may align with and symbolize the player’s while remaining distinct. This is not unlike how Frisk was an individual with their own name outside of the player’s influence in Undertale. TL;DR the Soul is not simply the Player, the Soul is an entity that the Player is using to control and interact with the game through Kris.

In cases where a player would take a course of action in Kris’ body, I may use “Kris” or “the Soul” interchangeably or in tandem—the game isn’t always 100% clear on where Kris’ actions end and the Souls’ begin when they’re together, especially when said actions are attributed to “you.”

[Image transcript: Kris looking at their own reflection. The narration box says “(It’s what they call ‘you.’)” End image transcript]

However, I think most of us can agree that we’re meant to take them as separate entities.

For the purposes of this analysis I’m tackling the idea that “Kris” the non-player human character is the Knight, not the idea that the Soul is the Knight or that the combined Kris/Soul that we control is the Knight. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone theorize that the Soul is the Knight or even related to the Knight’s machinations, but I just wanted to clear the air.

One other quick disclaimer is that this analysis contains evidence from the game as well as my own opinions on theories and storytelling. There will also be speculation about future reveals and story events. The end result is that some of my arguments about Kris’ possible Knighthood are based on the text and some are based on things that just bug me.

Nothing I say should be taken as gospel—I tend to play fast and loose with my theory writing so as to weigh the various possibilities rather than settling on one objective answer. My goal isn’t to make readers agree with every point I make, but to inspire further thought and discussion on topics even if you disagree with my conclusions.

The Case for Kris

With that out of the way, let’s address the elephant in the room: Kris made a dark fountain inside their house. There’s absolutely no way to deny this. It happens right in front of us and the game files for this scene outright name Kris’ sprites as “kris_make_fountain.” What’s more, Kris is the only character so far who has created a fountain onscreen, meaning they are the top Knight suspect by default.

Let’s quick go over the evidence that points towards Kris being the Knight:

Queen implies the Knight is a lightner with determination, which humans are known to have

[Image transcript: Two Screenshots of Queen looking at the horizon. The dialogue continues across both screenshots, saying “This Power Of Determination… Is This Not Something That All Lightners Possess…?” End image transcript]

Kris’ knife resembles the bladed weapon that the Queen shows in the Knight’s hand

Kris’ whereabouts can’t be fully accounted for at night, when the previous fountains may have been created

Kris has regular access to the areas where fountains have appeared

The Knight is referred to with they/them/it pronouns in Chapter 2, lining up with Kris’ pronouns

[Image transcript: Four screenshots arranged in a grid. In the first, Sweet says “’Knight’ this, ‘Knight’ that, ‘Fountain’ that…” and Cap’n says “Like, what does that Knight even have going for it that I don’t!? C’mon!!” In the second, a Swatchling says “Where the KNIGHT creates the Fountain by its own hand…” In the third, Susie says “Whatever they are, they’re making these fountains…” In the fourth, Queen says “Unfortunately The World They Created”. End image transcript]

Kris’ dark world form is dressed like a knight

Kris creates a dark fountain on-screen

Out of Deltarune’s entire cast, Kris easily has the most direct evidence in favor of them being the Knight. While most of the points on this list aren’t smoking guns on their own, together they paint a clear picture and the final point (Kris creating a fountain) brings it all into focus. If a “Knight” is someone who’s created a dark fountain then Kris is undoubtedly a Knight, but is Kris the Knight? That’s the million-kromer question.

Before anyone accuses me of being pedantic by making a distinction between “a” Knight and “the” Knight, keep in mind that the game specifically entertains the idea of more than one Knight existing.

[Image transcript: Four screenshots in a grid. The Queen is looking at holographic portraits of Kris, Susie, and Noelle. Her dialogue continues across all screenshots, saying: “Is This Not Something That All Lightners Possess…? If One Was Simply Determined Enough Could Not Anyone Make A Dark Fountain?”  End image transcript]

The whole plot of Chapter 2 revolves around Queen attempting to create a “new” Knight. Hypothetically it could happen in later chapters, if it hasn’t happened already.

Any Knight suspect needs the means, the motive, and the opportunity to open a fountain. In Kris’ case, it’s self-evident that they have the means to open at least one fountain. But did Kris have the means, opportunity, and motive to open any of the other fountains that we’ve seen?

The Castle Town and Card Castle fountains both exist in the school, and Cyber World resides in the public library computer lab—both are areas of Hometown that Kris would have access to. Granted, the library is open to the public so that’s a bit of a “free space” for Knight suspects.

We don’t know when the two fountains from Chapter 1 were created, so it’s a big question mark whether Kris had the opportunity to create them during whatever timeframe they were created. We can assume that these fountains were both created before the beginning of Chapter 1, which is a time period that we (as players) did not have the ability to observe.

We know that the Cyber World was created between Chapters 1 and 2—whether Kris had the opportunity to create this fountain has been hotly debated in the fandom and there’s a lot of points to go over, so that will get its own section later. For now, what interests me most is motivation.

What’s Kris’ Motivation?

We have yet to hear Kris speak directly, so we can’t say with certainty what their motivation was for opening the fountain in their house, or what their motivation could’ve been for opening other fountains (if they did so). There are a few possibilities:

Kris wants to have fun new dark world adventures with Susie

Kris wants to destroy the world via the Roaring

Kris is looking for something (or someone) in the dark worlds

Kris wants to grow stronger from adventuring and/or sealing fountains

Kris wants to prove to the people of Hometown that dark worlds exist

This doesn’t cover every possible motive there could be, but these five are each rooted in information that’s been previously established in the story. Let’s go over them one by one:

1 Kris enjoys exploring new dark worlds.

This is likely true regardless of whether this is Kris’ only motivation for opening the fountain or not. We’ve already heard Noelle and Susie sing their praises of the dark world, and Susie in particular is eager to explore more of them.

[Image transcript: Four screenshots in a grid. In the first, Noelle says “I wonder if this world… wouldn’t be so bad?” and in the second Susie continues, saying “Kris, isn’t this world just… BETTER?” In the third and fourth, Susie says “Whatever they are, they’re making these fountains… But… is that really a bad thing?” End image transcript]

Kris also has the option of agreeing to Susie’s plan to try to bring Ralsei and Lancer into Hometown, though it’s unclear how much of that is their own opinion and/or the Soul’s.

[Image transcript: Four screenshots in a grid. In the first three, Susie says “You, Ralsei, Lancer, everyone… that’s why, y’know… Don’t you think we should… Try to have them come to OUR world?” In the fourth, a choice is offered between saying “Seems a little far fetched” or “Yeah let’s do it”.  End image transcript]

Right before Kris opens the fountain in their home, they take a moment to check on Susie.

There’s also the possibility that they slashed Toriel’s tires in order to prevent her from driving Susie home.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Toriel on the phone. She says “And when I checked our car—The tires… looked like they’d been slashed.”  End image transcript]

If Kris made the library fountain then they may have planned in advance to explore that fountain with Susie at their leisure. However, this would mean that the two fountains in Chapter 1 couldn’t have been made with Susie in mind since Kris and Susie weren’t even friends yet.

One could argue that Kris may have explored either of the school fountains previously, given that a “Kris” save file can be found when saving for the first time.

[Image transcript: A fresh save slot with LV 0 and 0 minutes played. The filename says “EMPTY”.  End image transcript]

(pretend this says “Kris.” I didn’t want to make a fresh save)

There’s also the flavor text upon first saving where the game refers to save points as “the light only you can see,” though it’s unclear whether this is referring to Kris or the Soul.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Kris at a save point. The narration states “At times, you see it flickering. The light only you can see. By second nature, you reach out, and…”  End image transcript]

If it’s the Soul then this could be referring to prior experience in Undertale’s world (or some other world with saving), but if it’s referring to Kris then this could imply that Kris has been in a dark world before, although this wouldn’t necessarily have to be any of the dark worlds that we’ve seen during gameplay.

If Kris has been in one of the school fountains before, this raises the question of why no one in either dark world recognizes Kris or implies any prior history with them. There’s also the fact that Kris seems afraid of the first dark fountain that they uncover, which would be a peculiar reaction if they’ve created these dark worlds. Kris noticeably does not react with the same level of fear to the Library’s fountain, so why would they be (or pretend to be) afraid of a fountain one day and then not be afraid the next if they created both?

[Image transcript: Two screenshots, each of Susie and Kris opening the door to the dark world in Chapters 1 and 2, respectively. In the first, Susie says “Fine! If you’re gonna be a WIMP, then I’ll…” In the second, she says “H… huh…?”  End image transcript]

Either they wouldn’t be afraid at all or they’d act afraid both times to keep up appearances.

2 Kris wants to destroy the world via the Roaring.

To me this seems like the least-likely motive. For one thing, Ralsei’s legend indicates that sealing the fountains will banish the angel’s heaven, with the implication that this will stop the roaring.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots from the Legend. The text says “Only they can seal the fountains and banish the ANGEL’S HEAVEN.”  End image transcript]

This would put the whole fun gang at cross purposes with Kris’ true goal if they’re the Knight.

However, at no point does Kris indicate any resistance to the idea of sealing the fountains, nor do they ever try to sabotage this effort in the light or dark worlds, which Kris could’ve easily done by steering Susie away from the Library in Chapter 2.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of Kris and Susie standing outside the computer lab dark world with two dialogue options presented. The first says “Let’s go! Let’s go!” The second says “We can use the computer at my house”.  End image transcript]

While there are selectable dialogue options for this, Kris’ phone call with Toriel indicates they intend to take Susie to the Library.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of Kris balancing a trash orb on their head. Toriel (on the phone) says “Oh, you are going to the library later?”  End image transcript]

Note that they only say this after Noelle first asks Kris to bring Susie to the Library, so this doesn’t necessarily indicate that Kris had some “master plan” to bring Susie to the Library all along.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots. In them, Noelle says “Have fun, you two! I’ll, um, be at the Library! (Kris, if you could bring her by later…)”  End image transcript]

Susie even backs up this line of thinking by saying she came to the library because of Noelle, not Kris (or at least not solely Kris).

[Image transcript: A screenshot of Susie telling Noelle: “… you invited us to study. Remember?” End image transcript]

Moreover, Kris has had even more definitive ways available to end the threat of the three heroes. At the end of Chapter 2, Kris has the sleeping Susie (aka “Snoozie”) completely at their mercy but does nothing to harm or impede her, despite her being one of the heroes of legend who’s integral to the group’s mission of sealing fountains.

Likewise, there have been two opportunities where the soul has left Kris’ body while they (presumably) speak with Ralsei unfettered.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots, from Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 respectively. In both, Ralsei tells Kris “So that’s why”.  End image transcript]

On neither occasion has Kris seemingly taken any action against Ralsei or even threatened him, despite Ralsei being the one most adamantly opposed to the creation of new fountains while also being the one being most susceptible to Kris’ influence. As far as we can tell, Kris doesn’t even make an attempt to mislead or manipulate him when given the chance.

It’s obvious that Kris and Susie are close friends, and although Kris may be more lukewarm towards Ralsei we haven’t seen any intent to oppose him, let alone harm him. These facts are consistent with less-destructive motivations for opening fountains, but not if Kris intends to cause the roaring. Unless if Kris is being set up to have a change of heart through the power of friendship, I just don’t see this as an option for them. If there’s another Knight out there then who knows if they feel as charitable?

Somewhat relevant side note, but it’s weird that Queen refers to the Knight as the “Roaring Knight.”

[Image transcript: A screenshot of Queen saying “The Roaring Knight…”  End image transcript]

What makes this weird is that no one else prior calls the Knight by this title and Queen herself doesn’t even know what the Roaring is.

[Image transcript: A text transcript of Ralsei talking to Queen. Ralsei says “Queen, why… Why do you want to unleash the Roaring so much?! Queen says “What Is That” Ralsei says “Um… the Roaring” Queen says “Yeah That What Is That” Ralsei says “If too much darkness is released… Titans will emerge from the fountain… And destroy everything. All Darkners will turn into statues… And all Lightners will be lost in eternal chaos.” Queen says “Holy Circuits Are You Serious” Ralsei says “You REALLY didn’t know that!?” Queen says “No” End image transcript]

Does this imply that perhaps the Knight introduced themselves as the Roaring Knight and that’s where Queen learned the title? We don’t see Kris make any such declaration with the fountain in their house. I wonder if this was an oversight or if there’s some deeper meaning behind the title and its origin? Either way it doesn’t look like it points to Kris, but we can’t be sure.

3 Kris is looking for something in the dark worlds.

This is the notion that some event in Kris’ or the town’s past led to something (or someone) being lost in a dark world and Kris is now trying to look for them.  This could be as simple as Kris looking for an old keepsake to Kris trying to find Dess, reach Asriel, encounter Gaster, or perhaps even find their own soul.

This motive may be possible if Kris isn’t the Knight but doesn’t seem very likely if they are the Knight. Why? Because Kris eagerly scouring dark worlds doesn’t align with the idea of Kris being afraid of the first fountain (unless it was their first time seeing it), nor does it align with the Knight creating the Library fountain during the night and then immediately “taking their leave” just to explore it later.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of Queen saying “If The Knight Has Taken Its Leave”  End image transcript]

Even if you’d argue that Kris was “saving” the Library fountain for later to explore with Susie, you’d think someone as introverted as Kris would prefer to look for something at their own leisure, especially if it’s something personal. If what they were looking for was a person then time would be a factor and if they’re willing to go far enough to open fountains then you’d think they wouldn’t hesitate to begin searching ASAP. For example, if Dess was lost in Cyber World then do you think Kris would wait a whole day to look for her while she wastes away from potassium deficiency?

Unless we’re given further context, this goal seems like it would be mutually exclusive with Kris as the Knight.

4 Kris wants to grow stronger from adventuring and/or sealing fountains.

This theory proposes that it’s not the fountains themselves that Kris wants, but rather that they’re a means to an end—that “end” being power. Whether it’s power through combat and better equipment, or power through the accumulation of LV.

One lingering mystery (among many) in Deltarune is why the fun gang’s LV increases between Chapter 1 and 2. This number increases a second time once the fountain in the Library is sealed.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots, from the beginning and end of Chapter 2 respectively. In the first, Kris is a LV2 Bed Inspector: Inspects all beds inexplicably. In the second, Kris is a LV3 Moss Finder: Basic moss-finding abilities. End image transcript]

Presumably, sealing fountains makes the fun gang more powerful (despite Ralsei not being present during the sealing). However, this increased LV does not carry over to the light world.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of the stat menu in the light world. Kris is still LV 1 and has 0 EXP.”  End image transcript]

What’s even weirder is that the “creator” (implied to be the soul) will grow to LV 2 when saving in a dark world in Chapter 2, but this level will not increase to 3 after sealing the Library fountain.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of a save point message in Castle Town at the end of Chapter 2. The file is LV2. End image transcript]

So we’re left with three different LV values at the end of Chapter 2: Kris, Susie, and Ralsei are LV 3 in the dark world, the creator/soul (?) is still LV 2 in the dark world, and Kris is LV 1 in the light world. I can’t even say whether this discrepancy is fully intended or a partial bug, at least in the case of the creator/Soul’s LV.

It’s not clear why LV works this way in Deltarune or whether Deltarune’s LV is even mechanically the same as Undertale’s LV or not. It would be hard to argue that LV works the same in both games unless if the fountains themselves are somehow “alive,” which I suppose can’t be ruled out for a late-game plot twist.

More importantly, one could argue that Kris isn’t gaining any immediate benefit from the party’s increasing LV. Kris is most active in the light world, where their LV is still stuck at 1. One could maybe argue that sealing the fountains somehow made Kris powerful enough to assert themselves at the end of each chapter, but the presence of the bird cage in Kris’ room implies that they’ve been able to do this since before their dark world excursions (that we know of).

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Kris looking at their wagon. The narration states “It’s a red wagon with a rusty birdcage in it. Looks like it’s seen quite a few crashes.”  End image transcript]

I’d argue that if anyone stands to gain from sealing fountains it’s Ralsei and the Soul. Ralsei has made no secret that he wants other fountains sealed, and each time that happens his own kingdom grows.

[Image transcript: Three screenshots of Kris and Ralsei in Castle Town. Ralsei says “(Kris, as you bring Dark World Denizens back here… The power of our Fountain… Will transform this town more and more.)”  End image transcript]

However, we also see that Ralsei firmly shuts down Berdly when he attempts to create a fountain, despite everyone else being on-board with it.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Berdly attempting to create a fountain. In the first, Berdly says “I will make a new Fountain…” In the second, Ralsei yells “STOP!” and Berdly does so.  End image transcript]

It’s fair to say that Ralsei isn’t playing both sides of the fountain conflict—it seems he genuinely wants no more fountains, even if he stands to gain when they’re created and later sealed.

The Soul’s motives are more difficult to pin down but there’s some potential overlap with Ralsei. The bulk of the Soul’s time is spent in dark worlds, where they’d profit from the increase in LV. In Chapter 2 we also see that Ralsei’s Castle Town has been named after the name that we enter as the name of the creator/soul.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of a Rudinn in Castle Town saying “Oho. Welcome to GERSONTown! Or so I heard it’s called.”  End image transcript]

Darkners in Castle Town also refer to their “boss” when spoken to, in one case seeming to make a distinction between Kris and their boss, implying they’re separate entities.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Jigsaw Joe saying “Boss! If you know Kris’s ACT will give an enemy 100% mercy…”  End image transcript]

It’s not clear how the darkners would be aware of the existence of the Soul or its distinction from Kris. Clearly they don’t reference this distinction when you encounter them in their own dark worlds. Based on what we’ve seen, there’s a strong likelihood that not only is Ralsei aware of the Soul but he may have also told his citizens about this distinction, or at least let it slip.

Unlike Ralsei, we haven’t seen any definitive evidence as to whether the Soul is adamantly against the creation of new fountains, regardless of their proclivity for sealing them. We can gather that Kris doesn’t want the Soul to interfere when they make the fountain in their house, but it’s not clear whether their fear is founded or not.

In the Snowgrave route, Spamton has one line that hints at a possible use for the fountains:

[Image transcript: A text transcript of Spamton saying “AND NOW IT’S MY [Mansion]! MY [City]! MY [World]! SO WHY ARE YOU [Stealing] THE [Fountain]!? TO [$!$!] ME OVER RIGHT AT THE [Good part]!? WHAT ARE YOU, A [Gameshow Host]!?”  End image transcript]

Spamton claims that Kris/the Soul is “stealing” the fountain rather than “sealing” it. As the new de facto ruler of Cyber World, it’s likely that Spamton views the fountain as his property. However, the more important implication here is that the act of sealing the fountain is, in fact, “stealing” it. Keep in mind that it’s the Soul that seals fountains, not Kris.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Kris and Susie at the fountain. The narration says “(Your very SOUL was glowing…)”  End image transcript]

This implies that the Soul is somehow “using” the fountain or taking its power instead of simply negating it. After all, you wouldn’t accuse someone of “stealing” electricity if all they did was unplug one of your devices without plugging in one of theirs.

So I think there is a potential motive for sealing fountains that extends beyond just averting the roaring and keeping the balance of light and dark in check. However, this motive would be much more applicable for the Soul’s actions than it would be for Kris’. If anything, you’d think Kris would want to avoid empowering the Soul any further, lest they permanently lose control.

5 Kris wants to prove to the people of Hometown that dark worlds exist.

What better way to wake up Hometown to the threat of the Roaring than by covering their whole town in a dark world? This theory may be the most far-fetched at first blush but it has some evidence to back it up.

First off, we’re twice given the option to tell Undyne about the existence of dark worlds.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Kris talking to Undyne. Undyne says “What? There’s a Dark World inside the school? Uh… SURE, kid.”  End image transcript]

Based on Undyne’s response in Chapter 2, it sounds like Kris goes into great detail about them and the danger that they pose.

[Image transcript: Four screenshots of Kris talking to Undyne. In the first, a dialogue choice for “Dark World” is highlighted. In the rest, Undyne says “Huh? A super-dangerous alternate world in the Library? More are appearing? People might fall inside…? Hahaha… You seriously think I’m gonna believe that?”  End image transcript]

I find Undyne’s dialogue here significant because Chapter 2 is full of moments where Kris will seem to disagree with a certain dialogue choice or will in some way undermine it via how they deliver it.

[Image transcript: Four screenshots. In the first two, Kris is talking to Alphys. In the first, the dialogue option for “Lost sleep from being Susie’s partner” is highlighted. In the second, Alphys says “You say, with no negative intonation at all.” In the bottom two, Kris is talking to Ralsei and Susie next to Queen’s punchout game. In the first, the dialogue option or “Gaming is my life” is highlighted. In the second, Ralsei says “W-wow, Kris! Your passion is amazing!!” and Susie replies “…That was the most monotone response I’ve heard in my life?”  End image transcript]

[Image transcript: Four screenshots. In the first two, Kris is talking to Berdly during the coaster fight. In the first, the “Join” dialogue option is highlighted. In the second, Berdly says “What!? Don’t say it so incredulously!” In the bottom two, Susie is talking to Kris on their couch. Susie asks “Noelle… or Ralsei?” Once Kris responds, Susie says “What!? Why are you saying it so confused?”  End image transcript]

It’s true that Undyne laughs at Kris if you tell her, but there’s nothing to suggest Kris is saying this in a joking way—the reason why Undyne finds it funny is because Kris apparently expects her to believe it. You wouldn’t say “you expect me to believe that?” to someone telling an obvious joke.

If Kris was the Knight all along then you’d think the last thing they’d want is for the cops to be on their tail. Yet the Undyne dialogue and Kris’ actions at the end of Chapter 2 make it seem like they’re openly inviting the police to stick their noses into things.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Toriel on the phone. She says “Officer, if you could please come over… You will? Soon? Thank you…” End image transcript]

Kris goes ahead with creating the fountain even after learning that the police are on their way and they even leave the front door ajar. This flies right in the face of fan perceptions of “Knight” Kris as some kind of thief in the night who painstakingly breaks into the library without leaving a trace and who goes the extra mile to eat a pie as an alibi (more on that later).

Now, why would Kris want more people to know about dark worlds? For starters, getting the cops to take the threat of the Roaring seriously would make things harder for the actual Knight, who’s been operating unopposed so far. Making the public more aware would give the Knight fewer opportunities to create fountains in public locations without being caught in the act. If needed, Kris and Susie could simply claim that someone else created the fountain in their house and have Noelle and Berdly corroborate this based on their own experiences in the Cyber World.

The one sticking point of this motive is trying to square it with the fact that Kris is the one who created the fountain at the end of Chapter 2. Won’t getting the cops involved backfire for them even if they’re not the Knight? Won’t everyone just be more suspicious of Kris instead of going after the real culprit? Well, that issue exists whether Kris is the Knight or not, but I think this gambit could be a sign of desperation on Kris’ part. Kris now knows the stakes if too many fountains are created, but the heroes aren’t getting any closer to catching the Knight at this rate.

Kris’ options are limited and this was their attempt at making a big play. One fountain was just sealed, so there’s a window of opportunity to create one more without shifting the balance any further than it already has. If doing this gets the cops, the mayor, and the rest of the town to take things seriously then perhaps it’s worth the risk?

[Image transcript: Four screenshots. In the first two, Kris is talking to the Mayor’s receptionist. The receptionist says “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. The mayor is busy right now. If you need to see her, please try causing some terrible crisis.” In the third, Susie tells Kris “People’d freak out if they knew the world’s in danger.” In the fourth, Kris opens the front door to their house.  End image transcript]

It’s a huge risk, granted, but if anyone could make a play like this it’s Kris—they (or the Soul, rather) are the one person who can immediately seal the fountain, so who better to open one for the greater good?

[Image transcript: Two screenshots. In the first, Ralsei says “Furthermore, only Kris can seal the DARK FOUNTAIN…” In the second, Susie says “You can seal it…”  End image transcript]

There’s also a less-altruistic interpretation for Kris’ motives: what if Kris wants to be the only one allowed to create fountains? They have no desire to cause the roaring, but that will always be a threat if there’s someone else running around making fountains unchecked and pushing the balance too far out of whack. Kris still wants to have fun adventures with Susie, but first they have to get rid of this interloper Knight that’s complicating things. What better way than to get the cops on the other guy’s trail and have a little dark world fun while you’re at it? Everybody wins!

This plan could still work with Susie’s desire to bring dark world residents into the light world by getting everyone in town acclimated to the idea of the dark world so that once the real Knight is caught and locked up, Kris would be free to make fountains “sustainably.” Currently we don’t know whether a single fountain can cover an entire town or if it’s even possible to make a new fountain in an area that already had one sealed. For all we know, Kris trying to cover the town in a single fountain may somehow “inoculate” it against future fountains—a bit of a stretch, but not impossible.

We’ve also seen throughout the chapter that Susie is bummed out at the idea of keeping the fountains a secret from everyone else.

[Image transcript: Four screenshots of Susie talking to Kris in the computer lab. She says “We… we just actually saved the world, didn’t we!? And no one even knows! …guess it’s better that ay though, right? …though, kinda sucks Noelle has to forget, too…”  End image transcript]

It’s likely that Kris picked up on this in addition to her desire to bring Ralsei and Lancer into their world, so letting the whole town know about dark worlds could be a way for Susie to step into the role of hero in everyone else’s eyes as well.

Why Kris May Not be the Knight

I’m sure some of you were waiting for this shoe to drop from me. I’m not the only one to doubt the idea of Kris being the Knight (or rather, the only Knight), but I’m sure it’s no surprise that the “Everyman is the Knight” guy is skeptical of a competing theory. I’ll admit up front that my own theory got (some) things wrong and could very well be completely wrong—I’ve acknowledge that possibility from the start. However, even if the Knight is not Everyman or anyone else I’ve suggested then I would still be skeptical that the Knight is Kris either.

I want to clarify that I’m not saying with certainty that Kris isn’t the Knight—I obviously don’t know that and it’s always possible that future chapters will pull the rug out from under me no matter how convincing of an argument I could make. I also grant that Kris does have plenty of evidence in favor of them being the Knight—more than anyone else, in fact. So why do I think they’re not the Knight? Let me count the ways.

Fool Me Once…

For starters, this isn’t my first rodeo. Remember when Chapter 1 was released, and everyone and their mother was convinced that Kris was actually Chara (or possessed by Chara) and that they were going to go on a killing spree? Yeah, that didn’t happen, but Toby clearly wanted to conjure that image in our heads.

Toby not only used imagery from Undertale’s “soulless pacifist” ending to shock us and play to the expectations of an Undertale “follow-up,” but he also carefully foreshadowed what actually transpired in Chapter 1’s ending so that it would still make sense after the reveal. Specifically, Toby established that Toriel had made a pie and that Kris has had a habit of eating them whole.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Toriel talking to Kris. Toriel says “By the way, I just finished baking a pie… but do not eat it all this time, all right?”  End image transcript]

This lead many fans to theorize that Kris wasn’t going to kill anyone and was instead just going to eat the pie, and these fans were vindicated.

I feel like Toby is setting up a similar fake-out with Chapter 2’s ending, only with Kris as the Knight rather than Kris as a reincarnated Chara. Specifically, this fake-out wants you to think Kris is the only Knight when they’re really just a copycat. And, like Chapter 1, there’s already hints and bits of foreshadowing that imply this fake-out.

Undetermined Findings on Determination

The Queen’s speech foreshadows Kris’ possible status as a red herring when she goes out of her way to ponder that all lightners have determination and, therefore, any lightner can make a fountain. This is in contrast to Undertale, where determination was largely exclusive to humans and beings artificially infused with human determination.

I’ve explained in previous theory posts that Deltarune’s world doesn’t necessarily play by the same rules as Undertale’s. Toby has said so himself, as you can see on the official Deltarune website’s FAQ.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of a question and answer from the official Deltarune FAQ. The Question asks “So there’s no connections between the two games?” The answer says “It’s a different world that might even have different rules. That doesn’t mean there will be no connections at all though.”  End image transcript]

If Kris is the one and only Knight then why would the game bother teasing this possibility of all lightners having determination if the Knight just ends up being the sole human we’ve met? Misdirection? I’d argue it’s not particularly good misdirection because most Undertale fans will meet this line with skepticism. Many fans would already think “only humans have determination, right?” before the game outright confirms it with Kris being the Knight.

If Kris is the Knight then there’s no time for the mystery to linger or for players to turn the Queen’s words over in their heads by thinking “maybe determination works differently in Deltarune? Kinda like how it’s implied monsters don’t have magic outside of the dark world?”

[Image transcript: Four screenshots. In the first three, Noelle is talking with Susie after Queen’s defeat. Noelle says “I’ve never… had an adventure like this before.” Susie replies “With axes… and battles… and magic.” Noelle continues, saying “Where everything can be healed with a little spell.” The last screenshot is Noelle talking with her dad in the hospital. Noelle says “I wish I knew healing magic in real life.”  End image transcript]

There’s none of that if Kris is the Knight. In that scenario, the game just blatantly foreshadows it’s Kris, tells a bald-faced lie about lightners and determination that most fans would immediately sniff out, then says “surprise, it’s Kris!” as if it’s a surprise.

The line about lightners having determination can only serve two purposes: misdirection or fact. If what Queen says is true then it opens up the story possibilities considerably. Moreover, Chapter 2’s events already imply that lightners do have determination. Queen’s plan (and thus the entre conceit of Chapter 2) would have been impossible from the start if other lightners don’t have determination.

[Image transcript: Four screenshots. The first two are Queen monologuing during the Giga Queen fight. Queen says “Her Own Will Her Own Determination Focusing Into Her Blade, She Will Create A Neo Dark Fountain” The last two screenshots are Queen talking to Noelle while threatening her friends. Queen says “Take… The Pin… I Gave You And… Stab The Earth”  End image transcript]

If lightners lacked determination, the scene with Berdly trying to open a fountain would make no sense—why was his weapon glowing? Why was Ralsei so eager to stop him?

[Image transcript: Four screenshots of Berdly raising his halberd next to the defeated Queen. Berdly says “Concentrating my will into this blade… I will make a new Fountain…” Ralsei then says “Do you realize what will happen if you do that? You’ll bring the Roaring.”  End image transcript]

If Berdly couldn’t open one to begin with, this would suggest Ralsei knows that Kris’ soul can seal fountains but he somehow doesn’t know what it takes to make one. Queen admits that she doesn’t know everything, but what are the odds that Ralsei and Queen are both wrong about this when Ralsei seems to know more about fountains than anyone?

The Berdly scene also tells us that creating a fountain likely isn’t that difficult once you know how. Berdly picked up on it almost instantly, even though he wasn’t even there for Queen’s lecture (though one could imagine he may have seen Queen’s video recordings of her fountain’s creation). If Berdly could learn in such a short time, is it a stretch to imagine that Kris could have learned from Queen as well?

Another thing to consider is that if Kris lacks their own soul and is using the red soul as a substitute then that would also imply that determination in Deltarune does not follow Undertale’s rules or limitations. If determination only came from human souls then Kris couldn’t open the fountain in their house after removing the red soul. Even if one were to argue that some residual determination remains in Kris’ body, you’d think they would’ve expended a fair amount of that going all the way to the Library and back at night, to say nothing of what they would’ve spent creating that fountain.

This is backed up by Flowey in Undertale—if the rules of determination are somehow the same in both games then Flowey demonstrates that determination stolen from a live soul can’t be maintained once that soul is removed. Omega Flowey’s powers disappeared instantly when the souls rebelled, and Asriel’s not long after when he released the souls willingly.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Asriel talking to Frisk. Asriel says “Without the power of everyone’s souls… I can’t keep maintaining this form.”  End image transcript]

One reason, at least conceptually, why lightners have determination could be as a remnant of a scrapped idea that Toby had for Deltarune. During Undertale’s 6th anniversary stream (at ~1:22:00), Toby revealed that he considered making Hometown’s residents humans who only turned into monsters/animals in the dark world. This idea was abandoned, but it could be evidence that Toby always intended for the town residents to be on “even footing” in terms of their base traits and abilities, including determination. This can be seen by how Deltarune downplays the differences between humans and monsters, usually lumping them together as “lightners” to further contrast them against darkners.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of a human on one side and a darkner on the other. The text says “For millennia, LIGHT and DARK have lived in balance,”  End image transcript]

The Knight’s Narrative Potential

While it is true that the Queen’s presentation of the Knight’s blade creating the fountain clearly points to Kris, keep in mind that the game also lingers on Kris’ icon when the Queen discusses creating a “new” Knight to replace the old one.

[Image transcript: Three screenshots of Queen monologuing while looking at portraits of three lightners. Queen says “If The Knight Has Taken Its Leave Then I Will Simply… Make A New One” As she says this, the three lightner portraits come together with only Kris’ portrait visible on top.  End image transcript]

The way this is presented could point to either Kris being the Knight or Kris being a red herring following in the Knight’s footsteps, but the narrative would have to point in Kris’ direction either way.

Kris being the only Knight would close off narrative possibilities and make the Queen’s “misdirection” feel pointless, whereas if there’s more than one Knight then not only is the Queen’s speech no longer unnecessary but the story implications of Kris creating a fountain can still be explored—it’s the best of both worlds.

Moreover, having multiple Knights would allow the narrative to explore different motivations for creating a fountain—escapism, power, creating new life, or destroying the world. Many of these motives are mutually exclusive with one another, but multiple Knights would allow for them to be explored and contrasted with one another.

Now I want to take a step back and clarify that just because I think it would be nice for a narrative to explore an idea doesn’t mean that it has to or that it will. I fully admit that I’d prefer if Kris wasn’t the only Knight, in part for this greater narrative potential, but that’s not the only reason why I think there’s another Knight out there.

I’m normally not one for Cinema Sins-styled plot nitpickery, but Kris being the Knight just introduces so many logistical questions that butt right up against everything we’ve been shown so far. What’s more, virtually all of these issues are resolved if the fountain in Kris’ house is the first one they’ve ever created.

From Kris’ perspective, it’s also much neater and simpler for them to settle on their house for a fountain location because it’s probably the only viable location within reach, given how much they struggle just to get to their driveway or even walk under their own power.

It would also make sense for Kris to make the fountain in their house now if they were just learning for the first time how a fountain is made. Not to mention they just got done having multiple conversations with Susie and Noelle about how great dark worlds are and how they’d like to explore more of them. There’s more than enough narrative setup for a non-Knight Kris to figure out how to make fountains and gain the motivation to do so—the ending of Chapter 2 practically spoon-feeds it to them.

Kris at Cross Purposes

Speaking of motivations, the Knight’s actions thus far don’t really square with Kris opening a fountain in their own house to cover the rest of the town. The previous fountains we’ve seen have all been in enclosed areas. The two in the school are in seemingly abandoned rooms that no one had discovered until Kris and Susie stepped in. The one in the computer lab, while in a public area, is notably closed off from the rest of the building.

If this was Kris’ MO so far, then why are they changing things up now? Why try to spread a fountain over the whole town when the previous fountains were confined?  It’s not like Queen was the first one to lament that her world’s fountain was confined to one location. King also expressed a desire to cover the world in darkness.

[Image transcript: Four screenshots. The first two are of Queen monologuing. Queen says “Unfortunately The World They Created Is Trapped Within The Confines Of The Library” The last two screenshots are of King talking to the three heroes. King says “Soon, this world… shall be blanketed in darkness… and DARKNERS shall RULE it!”  End image transcript]

One could argue that the Knight might’ve been trying to ratchet up the size of their dark worlds with each new fountain, with the first being a storage closet, the second being a classroom, and the third being a closet + computer lab. However, this careful, experimental approach doesn’t really jive with Kris’ history of direct action. We’re talking about the kid who eats a whole pie in one sitting and who slashes their mom’s tires—half-measures are not their style.

The fountain in Kris’ house just doesn’t fit the pattern, especially if it’s intended to cover the whole town. Why would Kris create a fountain inside their own home now if they were the Knight all along? Why didn’t they do that earlier? They couldn’t have been afraid of Toriel finding out because she’s clearly going to find out now. If the library fountain was meant to lure in Susie then wouldn’t it have been just as easy (and less risky) to lure her into their home instead?

Kris had a golden opportunity to do exactly that once school was out, since Toriel was still at the school while Kris was dropping the trash orb into Castle Town, implying that Kris usually leaves the school before their mom does.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of Kris balancing a ball of trash on their head in the school while Alphys and Toriel are nearby. The narration says “(Can’t let mom find out you’re balancing a giant trash orb!)”  End image transcript]

On any school day Kris could’ve rushed home with Susie and opened a fountain in their bedroom or bathroom or wherever. A home fountain would be easier to keep a secret, if that was ever the intention, though Kris’ actions in the Chapter 2 ending pretty much throw secrecy out the window.

That’s another thing that bothers me about Kris being the Knight: their devotion to secrecy is very inconsistent. One day they're sneaking into the library at night without a trace, having the foresight to head home before even the darkners can get a good look at them, and then for added measure eating a whole pie as an alibi for Toriel and possibly for the Soul as well. Compare that to the next day when they slash their mom’s tires while getting spotted by her.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of Toriel on the phone. Toriel says “I thought I saw someone prowling around outside…”  End image transcript]

Kris then opens a fountain right in front of her with the front door open and the cops on their way. These two approaches are incompatible. Kris doesn’t even deign to sneak to a new location to create the newest fountain like they supposedly did the night before, even though they had ample opportunity to do so while Susie and Toriel slept.

Kris’ actions at the end of Chapter 2 do not come across as someone thinking about the long-term or unintended consequences of their actions. They certainly don’t come across as all that surreptitious, beyond waiting for everyone else to fall asleep before they act (which could have been intentional or due to the time it took for them to regain the strength to remove their soul a second time). To top it all off, their big diversion in the bathroom was literally something Papyrus did as a gag in Undertale.

[Image transcript: Four screenshots. In the two on the left, Toriel says to Kris “… huh? Kris? Oh, YOU need to wash your hands too?” and then Kris climbs out the bathroom window. In the two screenshots on the right, Papyrus tells Frisk and Undyne “I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!!” before jumping out of Undyne’s window.  End image transcript]

Kris’ conduct has always felt very direct to me—they do not seem like a subtle schemer or chess master. If Kris’ goal was to have dark world adventures with Susie then their actions do seem like they’re taking the most direct path to that goal, regardless of the consequences. This is a far cry from the idea that they snuck into the library and master-stroked Susie into the computer lab at the right time to have an adventure all while covering their tracks perfectly and fooling a Soul that can control and monitor their actions for 99% of the game.

Kris and the Soul – Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don’t

Kris being the Knight also raises a ton of questions about their relation to the Soul. Kris throws the Soul into a bird cage at the end of Chapter 1, but did they leave the Soul behind or take it with them when they went to the Library? If they left it behind then can Kris exist indefinitely without the Soul? That doesn’t seem to be the case, seeing as how they put the soul back in. If they took the soul with them then how come we never saw that? The Soul is our POV character, after all—it feels a little contrived that the game would cut out there but not at the other times when the Soul is removed.

Is Kris deliberately trying to hide their true nature from the Soul? That doesn’t seem to be the case, given how they brandish their knife and grin at the soul in Chapter 1 and then open a fountain in plain view of the Soul instead of quickly stashing it in another room (which they would’ve had ample time to do). And yet every now and then you’ll see some conspiracy-theory level take that Kris ate the pie for the sole purpose of misdirecting the Soul and covering up their actions at the Library. That level of obfuscation just does not mesh with a character that we know has brandished a knife and laid their cards out on the table at the end of each chapter—why hide anything from the Soul at this point?

On top of that, Kris seems to have a hard time moving around without the Soul. Did they walk all the way to the Library under their own power? Did they take the wagon with them? Does that mean they carried it down the stairs without waking Toriel? And under these conditions somehow they were stealthy and coordinated enough to break in to the Library without a trace, a skill they haven’t been shown to have anywhere else? If anything the game has implied the exact opposite.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Kris talking to Rudy. Rudy says “I’ll be outta here in a jiff, then I can go back to, I dunno… Yelling at you for getting tangled in our light display.”  End image transcript]

I know I’ve harped on this already, but did Kris really think all of this was easier than just opening the fountain in their house from the start? And the whole song and dance with the Library was done just to hinge on the assumption that Susie would go to the Library if asked but not to Kris’ house? She’s not exactly a “Library” type of person, you know.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of Susie in the library saying “Books. God. Damn. Crazy about them.”  End image transcript]

Cyber World’s Origin

Remember when I said I’d get back to the topic of when the Cyber World was created and whether Kris had the opportunity to do so? Yeah, that’s now. If you thought I was being nitpicky about narrative coherence before, buckle up.

Probably the biggest issues with Knight Kris crop up when we try to break down the sequence of events that lead to the creation of Cyber World’s fountain. Queen says that her fountain was created “today,” which may or may not include the extreme late night/early morning hours when Kris would’ve had to have made the fountain. Let’s say that this counts as the same day, which it technically does.

Now, the problem is everything that happens between the fountain’s creation and when Kris and Susie end up inside of it. Kris goes through an entire day of school and then spends a fair amount of time setting up the new Castle Town—this can vary per playthrough, but it’s enough time for Noelle and Berdly to get a head start and make it to the Library first.

The point is, Kris left the fountain unattended between night time and mid-to-late afternoon the next day. When Kris and Susie show up at the Library we can see that the building is open and, later, that the computers are turned on. This would mean that the Library staff had to come in to open up the building and power on the equipment, meaning they would’ve discovered the fountain if it had been there all night.

Now, to be fair, the game does make a point of stating that “someone” left the Library’s laptop on.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Kris looking at a laptop in the computer lab. The narration says “(Looks like the library’s state-of-the-art public laptop. Someone left it on.)”  End image transcript]

One could argue that if Kris broke into the Library then perhaps they turned this laptop on in advance, much like how they turned the TV on before opening the fountain at the end of Chapter 2.

On the other hand, the laptop being left on could simply be an in-universe explanation for why Queen’s batteries run out at the end of the Giga Queen fight and why she’s referred to as overheating.

Either way, the laptop being left on would be a moot point since Library staff would still come in to check on things in the morning regardless, especially if someone had left equipment or lights on overnight. On top of that, one of the other computer descriptions states:

[Image transcript: A screenshot of Kris looking at a computer in the computer lab. The narration says “(Someone tried to check their email, but the internet is down.)”  End image transcript]

This would imply that someone else has used the computers in here, likely someone who wasn’t aware that the internet was out. Kris would have little reason to check their email here—not only would that potentially leave incriminating evidence but Kris would be well aware of the internet outage and wouldn’t bother. This is because, according to Alphys, Kris normally stays up all night talking to Asriel online, presumably with the computer at home.

[Image transcript: Four screenshots of Alphys talking to Kris. Alphys says “So maybe you were just… Staying up late talking to Asriel online again? ..ah, wait, you… can’t do that, right? I… I hope the internet gets fixed soon.”  End image transcript]

Now, some of you might be saying that maybe Berdly (who volunteers at the Library) was the one who opened everything up that afternoon.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of Berdly talking to Kris in the library. Berdly says “However, Kris, I am a benevolent volunteer assistant.”  End image transcript]

That still doesn’t really explain who was watching over the Library while Berdly was in school. Berdly is just a volunteer assistant so it’s unlikely he’d be trusted with opening the building each day, plus most public Libraries are open during school hours. But maybe we can fudge some details—Toby doesn’t always pay attention to logistics in his writing (notice how Toriel and Kris never seem to eat dinner when they get home?). However, there’s a bigger problem with the timeframe.

When we seal the Cyber World fountain, Berdly and Noelle are both asleep but Kris and Susie aren’t. Kris and Susie weren’t asleep when they made it out of the Chapter 1 fountain, either.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots. In the first, Berdly wakes up in the computer lab after the fountain is sealed and says “H… huh…?” In the second, Susie is standing in the unused classroom after the fountain is sealed and also says “H… huh…?”  End image transcript]

The game even goes as far as giving Berdly and Susie the exact same dialogue when they wake up, yet one of them is clearly sleeping and the other clearly isn’t. In fact, Kris and Susie can jump in and out of the Castle Town fountain as much as they want and they never fall asleep.

What am I getting at here? Simple: fountains don’t put people to sleep. Note that in the Chapter 2 ending Kris waits until everyone has already fallen asleep before they create the new fountain—if fountains just put people to sleep then waiting wouldn’t have been necessary. On top of that, Berdly and Noelle have their books out and are seated at their desks—something that couldn’t have happened if they simply fell into the fountain like Kris and Susie fell into Castle Town.

Remember that each dark world we’ve seen so far has let out an ominous dark aura when opened. Kris and Susie were both frightened by this in Chapter 1, but we’re supposed to believe that Berdly and Noelle would be just fine with walking into a room like that? Keep in mind that this is Noelle before she learned to stand up to her fears.

What’s more, Berdly set an alarm in advance that goes off once the two of them wake up, implying that he considered the possibility of falling asleep (or at least being distracted).

[Image transcript: A screenshot of Berdly in the computer lab saying “H… Huh?? My… my alarm??”  End image transcript]

If that weren’t enough, Berdly’s speech in class at the beginning of Chapter 2 puts Kris to sleep—foreshadowing that it’s not unusual for Berdly to put others to sleep.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Berdly reading aloud in the classroom. In the first, Berdly says “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” In the second, the screen goes black and the narration says “Listening to this, your eyes began to close automatically…”  End image transcript]

Noelle even claims that both she and Berdly fell asleep, with Berdly putting “himself to sleep,” though this should be taken with a grain of salt since Noelle only says this during the Snowgrave route, where she tries extra hard to convince herself that the Dark World was just a dream.

[Image transcript: A transcript of dialogue between Noelle and Rudy. Noelle says “Huh? Me? Of course! I’m fine, dad… I just… I fell asleep in the library, and… you know, just had a weird dream. Haha.” Rudy says “Noelle… I knew that birdbrain’d put you to sleep! Haha! What’d he do? Start lecturing you on his theorem… Of the inequality in children’s fighter games?” Noelle says “Hahah, no, no! He… he fell asleep, too.” Rudy says “Wow, he even put himself to sleep? Ha!” Noelle says “Haha, yeah, I guess so!” End image transcript]

All of this implies that Noelle and Berdly made it into the computer lab with nothing out of the ordinary, then set down their books and fell asleep before the fountain was created. This explanation conforms much more closely with what we see in-game than Kris creating the fountain the night before and it somehow remaining untouched and unnoticed until Berdly and scaredy-cat Noelle willingly walk into a foreboding dark world doorway before somehow finding the desk to study at, Berdly setting his alarm, and then both of them magically being put to sleep after the fact.

The Closet: Cyber World’s Smoking Gun

So then, you may ask, how was this fountain created if not by Kris? The game gives us a pretty easy answer: the Knight hid in the equipment closet and created the fountain there after Noelle and Berdly fell asleep, then “took their leave” immediately after to avoid being caught. The closet door is still open when we find it, which also serves as a tidy explanation for how Kris got the idea to leave their front door open when creating the fountain in their house.

I think the closet is the single strongest piece of evidence that Kris is not the Knight. Why? Ask yourself: why does this room exist? I’m not talking about its function in-universe, I mean why did Toby and his team put this room here and add flavor text for it? Why does the flavor text specify that “a large person could easily fit inside” of the closet?

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Kris inspecting the computer lab’s closet. The narration says “(The closet is spacious and full of old electronics. A large person could easily fit inside.)”  End image transcript]

Why is it a “large” person, specifically? I’ve heard people assume that this is a reference to Snowgrave and Berdly’s eventual fate, but Berdly is certainly not a “large” person. Why is this here? And why is the flavor text the same on all routes?

I’ll tell you why the closet is there. It’s the same reason why the pie is there at the end of Chapter 1: to give Kris an out. Only this time there’s no way to claim that this is Kris making some kind of esoteric bluff to fool the player, like I’ve seen some people suggest the pie eating was. Kris is not a large person. Berdly is not a large person. You probably wouldn’t even assume that a person could fit in that equipment closet unless the game outright told you, which it does. The description is very conspicuous, frankly. And why? Why do we need to know not just that a person can fit in there, but a large person?

You can’t even really argue that the closet is misdirection on Toby’s part either, because most players either don’t think much of the closet or (as we’ve seen) have drawn the wrong conclusions from it. Like the reveal that lightners have determination, the closet would be very weak misdirection because it doesn’t even point to anyone specific—it merely suggests that the Knight could be someone other than Kris.

The full implications of the closet don’t even make sense until we see Kris leave the front door open in their house, which would render the closet meaningless if it were a misdirection rather than foreshadowing that Kris’ knighthood is another fake-out. It’s the pie all over again.

Castle Town: The Odd Man Out

Claiming that Kris is the Knight also introduces another wrinkle: there’s almost no way that Kris (or anyone, for that matter) could have created all of the previous fountains single-handedly. Why is this? Because of Castle Town. Ralsei describes his fountain as a “grand” dark fountain that allows all darkners to exist within it.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Ralsei talking to Susie. Ralsei says “Castle Town’s Grand Fountain is made of pure darkness. As long as it stays flowing, any Darkner can live there.”  End image transcript]

This means that his fountain is special, and it’s implied via omission that Ralsei’s fountain is supposed to remain open and (presumably) does not pose a threat to the world’s balance like the other fountains do.

In other words, there’s a strong possibility that Ralsei’s fountain was not made the same way or even by the same person as the other fountains we’ve seen.  Why would someone start by making a “grand” fountain and then make inferior fountains afterwards? If anything you’d think the Knight would be getting better at this with each attempt. So even if one were to argue that Kris made the Library and Card Castle dark worlds, they almost certainly did not create Castle Town as well, meaning that there is at least one other character out there who’s created fountains before.

Kris: Master of Disguise?

Another nagging issue is the question of why no darkners ever recognize Kris. Admittedly this is a murky issue (literally) since Queen’s records show that the cyber fountain’s creation obscured the Knight’s face.

[Image transcript: Four screenshots of Swatchlings watching footage of Cyber World’s creation. In the first two, the narration says “(It’s a video of someone creating a strange pillar of smoke. There’s so much smoke, it’s hard to tell who it is.)” In the bottom two, a Swatchling says “The QUEEN has been very interested in this video recently. Where the KNIGHT creates the Fountain by its own hand…” End image transcript]

However, we’re later told that Queen was still able to identify the Knight’s hand, their blade, and the method they used to create the fountain. All darkners seem to be in agreement that the Knight exists, so they must have at least some knowledge of and/or experience with them, even if that amounts to witnessing their fountain’s creation.

Maybe it’s just me but it feels very selective and muddled that Queen is able to pick out some key details about the Knight but, supposedly, not others. I say “supposedly” because Queen never outright says that she never saw the Knight’s face—the narration just says that we can’t tell who it is from the footage, after the fountain has been created. Queen knows how the fountain was created, implying she (and/or any camera equipment in the computer lab) was able to see how the Knight did it before the fountain erupted, meaning she would’ve seen their face.

Claiming that Queen couldn’t see the Knight clearly is the only possible explanation for why Queen and the other darkners never mistake Kris for the Knight. Nobody even draws any sort of comparison between them. Queen doesn’t even make a connection between the Knight and Kris both wielding a blade, despite bladed weapons being much rarer in Cyber World than they are in, say, Card Castle.

This idea strains credulity when we break down specific characters and their perspectives on the Knight. The King of Spades is devoted to the Knight but also hates Lightners. While I do think that the Knight is a lightner (regardless of who they actually are), the irony of that fact almost becomes farcical when the King nearly kills the alleged Knight without once making the connection.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of King threatening Kris. King says “Quiet people PISS ME OFF.”  End image transcript]

Then again, Toriel blasts away Flowey in Undertale’s introductory sequence without ever knowing that she OHKO’d her own son.

Spamton and Jevil both know about the Knight and seem privy to special knowledge of future events, with Jevil predicting the return of the Queen.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Jevil talking to the three heroes. Jevil says “THE HAND OF THE KNIGHT IS DRIFTING FORWARD. SOON, THE “QUEEN” RETURNS, AND HELL’S ROAR BUBBLES FROM THE DEPTHS…”  End image transcript]

And yet, neither of them imply that Kris is the Knight. In fact, Jevil doesn’t even recognize Kris on their first meeting.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of the three heroes outside of Jevil’s cell. Jevil says “BUT LO, THREE VISITORS STANDING INSIDE? WHO ARE YOU FEW?”  End image transcript]

Spamton refers to Kris and the Knight as separate beings, which wouldn’t be the case even when taking the Soul into account.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of Spamton saying “KRIS, DID YOU KNOW THAT THE KNIGHT…”  End image transcript]

Jevil does allude to how “a nightmare will awaken in your hearts,” but this is addressed to the “lightners” and not Kris specifically.

[Image transcript: Four screenshots of Jevil talking to the three heroes. Jevil says “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?”  End image transcript]

If Kris lacks their own soul, like a lot of fans suspect, then there’s no way this line could apply solely to Kris under any interpretation.

As I’ve already mentioned, it feels inconsistent for the Queen to somehow know so much about the Knight while apparently knowing so little if it’s Kris. Unlike many darkners, Queen pays quite a lot of attention to Kris, forming a truce with them and designing a special room based around their search history.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Queen talking to a locked-up Kris. Queen says “As You Can See They Are Perfectly Suited To Your Interests (Which I Gleaned From Your Internet Search Results)”  End image transcript]

Queen has studied both the Knight and Kris meticulously and somehow never makes any connection between them.

Granted, Queen is also never able to make the connection between Noelle and Kris’ new “robotic” friend.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Queen talking to Kris and Noelle. Noelle is wearing a box on her head. Queen says “Who Is Your Friend My Face Recognition Software Does Not Compute Them”  End image transcript]

However, this is specifically chalked up to a failure in the Queen’s face recognition software. Kris has the same facial features in the light and dark world and we didn’t see them bother to wear a disguise when they open a fountain, so there’s really no concrete reason for Queen or any other darkner to not notice a similarity.

Undertale vs. Deltarune: A Case of Mistaken Identity

Let’s compare Kris to another game protagonist who has a case of mistaken identity with an unseen mystery character: Frisk. A major twist in Undertale is that Frisk is initially mistaken for Chara before being revealed as a separate individual.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of Asriel talking to Frisk. Asriel says “You’re not actually Chara, are you?”  End image transcript]

Toby even goes so far as to try to trick the player into thinking that Frisk is Chara by asking to name the fallen human without specifying which fallen human was being named.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of the name entry screen from Undertale. The text at the top says “Name the fallen human.”  End image transcript]

Undertale covers its bases by having a large gap in time between Chara and Frisk’s entries into the Underground, which explains why all monsters don’t immediately mistake Frisk for Chara (or, conversely, clarify that they’re not the same). Most living monsters only know of Chara through old stories.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of three Moldsmalls reciting a story. They say “Over time, ASRIEL and the human became like siblings. The King and Queen treated the human child as their own. The underground was full of hope.”  End image transcript]

Two monsters who did know Chara, Toriel and Asgore, both have interactions with Frisk that can be tied to their memories of Chara. Toriel’s treatment of Frisk in the Ruins clearly comes off as an attempt to recapture her experience with Chara.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Toriel and Frisk outside the bedroom in Toriel’s house. Toriel says “A room of your own. I hope you like it!” before patting Frisk on the head.  End image transcript]

Asgore outright says that Frisk reminds him of Chara.

[Image transcript: Three screenshots of a defeated Asgore speaking to Frisk. Asgore says “Young one, when I look at you… I’m reminded of the human that fell here long ago… You have the same feeling of hope in your eyes.” End image transcript]

Flowey’s interactions with Frisk are the most blatant example of mistaken identity, to the point where the emotional climax of the game revolves around this association. Compare this to Deltarune, where the supposed protagonist is actually the secret antagonist all along… and not a single character makes the connection. It would be like if Toriel, Asgore, and Flowey never once compare Frisk to Chara despite both humans still closely resembling one another. Hell, in Deltarune’s case Kris and the Knight would be identical to one another because they’re literally the same person.

You see what I’m getting at? Hinging a major twist around one character secretly being another doesn’t work when a huge chunk of the cast has supposedly seen both characters, or at least knows of them, but never makes the connection between them, not even for thematic/foreshadowing purposes—what kind of writing is that?

One could argue that doing so would have made the twist too obvious, but Queen’s demonstration of the Knight’s blade opening the fountain is pretty on-the-nose. And it’s not like Toby doesn’t know how to compare two characters in a way that doesn’t make you think they’re the same person.

[Image transcript: Four screenshots of Undyne talking to Frisk. Undyne says “You know… It’s kind of strange you chose THAT tea. That’s ASGORE’s favorite kind. You kind of remind me of him. You’re both TOTAL weenies!!!”  End image transcript]

Pacing Issues

Speaking of on-the-nose, another thing that really bugs me about Kris being the Knight is the way the reveal is paced. The Knight’s identity was seemingly meant to be built up as a big mystery. The Knight is seldom mentioned in Chapter 1, to the point where a lot of first time players didn’t even know the Knight existed. The Queen’s speech lays things out on the table so that every player is up to speed and now knows about the Knight.

Before we can even fully digest this information, however, we’re given a visual presentation that all but tells us that Kris is the Knight. There’s a brief “misdirection” where we’re meant to ponder that any lightner could be the Knight, but no alternative suspects are presented and then the ending doubles down on Kris being the Knight.

Maybe it’s just me but having your big reveal 2/7ths into your story doesn’t seem like a well-structured mystery. It also makes me wonder where the plot can go from here beyond revealing Kris’ motivation and having the rest of the cast play catchup. If there’s an important reason for this “reveal” being so early then it makes me wonder why Toby didn’t push the mystery of the Knight more in Chapter 1. Susie and Ralsei never once even comment on the Knight in Chapter 1, and if they don’t care then why should we?

The timing of this reveal just feels way too frontloaded, but it makes perfect sense for a red herring. By definition, red herrings in mystery stories are built up and revealed before the reveal of a true culprit—they wouldn’t be red herrings if it were done any other way.

Toby also needed a big moment to end Chapter 2 on. He already fooled us once with Chapter 1’s ending so he needed to up the ante—it had to be something that Kris actually does for real, even if we’re meant to draw the wrong conclusion from it.

Asgore and the Knight

Admittedly, pacing is subjective, but even by Toby’s standards the Knight “mystery” doesn’t add up if the answer is Kris. Compare the Knight’s “reveal” to the mystery of Asgore in Undertale. Both the Knight and Asgore are mysterious, unseen antagonists who are implied to be at the root of every threat you face.

The first area in Undertale and the first Chapter of Deltarune both end with the main boss telling you about your arch-rival.

[Image transcript: Four screenshots. The left two are of Toriel talking to Frisk. Toriel says “You naïve child… If you leave the RUINS… They… ASGORE… Will kill you.” In the right two, the King says “For the KNIGHT has appeared. The KNIGHT that pulls the Fountains from the Earth.”  End image transcript]

The second area and second chapter provide additional context for the threat (albeit with Papyrus referring to “the King” rather than Asgore directly).

[Image transcript: Four screenshots. The left two are Papyrus talking to Frisk. Papyrus says “THAT’S WHY THE KING WANTS TO ACQUIRE A HUMAN. HE WANTS TO OPEN THE BARRIER WITH SOUL POWER.” The right two are Queen saying “The Roaring Knight… Today, It Deigned To Create This World”  End image transcript]

So far the pacing of both games’ mysteries lines up before the sudden “reveal” at the end of Chapter 2.

In Undertale, Waterfall reveals that Asgore is the King and we learn his master plan, but this is hardly the end of the mystery.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Undyne talking to Frisk. Undyne says “King ASGORE Dreemurr… He will finally take the surface back from humanity…”  End image transcript]

We still don’t know who Asgore really is as a person, his connection with Toriel, nor do we know his underlying motivation for his plans. Information is doled out gradually and we mull over the conflicting accounts of Asgore’s personality in our heads before we finally meet him face to face.

Imagine if the Asgore reveal had been paced and structured like the “Knight” reveal. Imagine Toriel lecturing us up front about Asgore and his plans to become godlike instead of that information being saved for Waterfall. Imagine walking out into Snowdin or Waterfall and seeing Asgore, in person, stealing a human’s soul right in front of us. It would make for a shocking moment, certainly, but then what? There’s still over half the game left but nothing more to build up Asgore beyond learning his underlying motivation. Worse yet, this would deflate the tension for the next few areas because Undyne and Mettaton would pale in comparison to the bigger threat that is now a known threat.

Deltarune runs such a risk if Kris is the Knight—now what? We were already dealing with a narrative where our player character is seemingly at odds with us—making Kris the Knight doesn’t really change that dynamic. It would also make future dark worlds feel like a waste of time because they would bring us no closer to dealing with the actual threat that’s right in front of us.

There is potential dramatic irony to be had from Kris being the Knight and darkners not knowing it, but I’ve already gone over how this idea, while interesting, feels a bit contrived. There is the anticipation of the other shoe dropping when Susie and Ralsei find out what Kris did, but this would still hold true about the fountain in Toriel’s house if Kris is a red herring.

In fact, pretty much any narrative potential that could be rung out of Kris being the Knight can still be achieved by having Kris be a red herring—either way they still made a fountain and the story has to deal with that. Chapter 3 will presumably focus on the dark world they’ve created, and there could be all sorts of ironic moments where the darkners they’ve given form to notice an uncanny resemblance or risk blowing Kris’ cover.

Where Kris’ Story is Heading

I think that Kris being a red herring for the Knight not only frees up the story to explore other potential antagonists but I also think it would result in a more fulfilling arc for Kris. That might seem counter-intuitive, since red herrings are often seen as “dead ends” in mystery stories, but for Kris I think this role is meant to mirror their eventual role in the story and how we’re meant to perceive them. In fact, Chapter 2 already seems to be setting Kris up for such an arc in ways beyond just hinting that they’re the Knight.

Take for instance that the end of Chapter 2 sets up a number of things in Hometown that are left hanging: Kris swipes the Library objects that constituted the darkners in Cyber City.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of the computer lab fading to black. The narration says “(Before you left, you gathered up everything in the room…)”  End image transcript]

Notably, the game does not allow us to go back into the computer lab to see what was taken.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of Kris looking at the door to the computer lab. The narration says “No reason to go back in there.”  End image transcript]

One of the objects in the room is said to be a “state of the art” laptop, which would be sorely missed if Kris took it.

[Image transcript: A screenshot of Kris looking at a laptop. The narration says “(Looks like the library’s state-of-the-art public laptop.)”  End image transcript]

Unlike the ball of trash that Kris took from the classroom, Kris isn’t merely moving these objects from one room to another. Legally-speaking, Kris stole them. And this isn’t the first time we’ve seen Kris steal something without compunction.

[Image transcript: Four screenshots of Kris, Susie, and Ralsei in Noelle’s mansion room. In the first, Ralsei says “Huh? Umm… th-that would be stealing…” In the second, the narration says “(You stole the Susie-like Statue…)” In the third, Susie says “Hey Kris, take this for your room.” In the fourth, the narration says “(You stole the ICE-E statue for some reason.)”  End image transcript]

Kris’ actions in the Library could have serious consequences, and sooner than you might think. The cops are on their way to Toriel’s house at the end of Chapter 2, though her call with them implies that they were busy for a while before she was able to reach them.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Toriel on the phone. Toriel says “Officer…? Officer…? Thank goodness, I finally go through…”  End image transcript]

We know from Undyne that nothing ever seems to happen in this town.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Undyne talking to Kris. Undyne says “This job is SO boring. Nothing EVER happens in this town! Ngh… I just wish SOMETHING would shake things up!”  End image transcript]

So what could have happened that day that would be occupying the police (besides recapturing the wet-nose bandits, anyway)? I think you know what I’m getting at.

So why does it matter whether Kris stole the library equipment or whether the cops find out? Because it’s meant to serve as a parallel to our own perceptions of Kris, or at least what Toby wants us to think of them. While the cops would be viewing Kris as a criminal, we would be viewing Kris as the Knight—our enemy. However, both of these accusations would be leaving out crucial context. In the case of the stolen goods, we know this was done for the sake of the darkners, who didn’t want to be abandoned. In the case of the “Knight,” Kris may not be the real Knight at all, but regardless we don’t know their full motivation for opening a fountain in their house.

From here the narrative could go in a few directions: Kris’ friends and family could have their faith in them tested by these revelations, just like our own faith would be. Like previous chapters, Kris could end up imprisoned, only this time they don’t have their handy dark world allies to save them.

What they do have, however, is the Soul. This could be a turning point in the seemingly antagonistic relationship between Kris and the Soul, where they’re forced to rely upon the Soul to slip through the bars and go get help (from Susie, perhaps?).

Now I will fully admit that most of this is speculation on my part, bordering on fan fiction. However, this is just one possible example of how making Kris a red herring would add to the narrative rather than take anything away. Besides, it would be a great chapter cliffhanger if we all think the “Knight” has been dealt with once Kris and their friends come to terms, only for a new fountain to erupt on the horizon—the handiwork of the true Knight.

Toby’s Conception of the Knight

One last thing I wanted to touch on was a comment that Toby made about an unused intro theme during his Deltarune Chapter 1 stream on Undertale’s 6th anniversary (at ~23:27):

“The arrangement is really early, but I created this thinking of an animated intro for the game, similar to Wild Arms. I still see it in my head when I listen to the song.

The best part would have been at the end when everyone is running up the staircase as the silhouettes of the bosses from all the chapters show up, and the Knight, standing in a white door at the top of the stairs, turns around and looks down at them…”

This is one of the few times that Toby has directly spoken about the Knight in any capacity. I’ll state up front that any implications from this quote should be taken with a grain of salt since it relates to an unused song for a hypothetical animation that may have never been planned to be made. However, it’s possible (not certain, just possible) that this sheds some light on the Knight’s role in the game and how Toby views them.

For starters, Toby specifies that the chapter bosses are only seen in silhouette, implying that this intro would not be meant to spoil the full game’s story. The Knight is seen at the top of a staircase that “everyone” is running up. Presumably, “everyone” would include the three heroes and possibly their allies. This creates quite a conundrum if Kris is the Knight, especially if the intro is meant to be spoiler-free.

It wouldn’t make sense for Kris to be in two places at once here. The fun gang would be incomplete without them, and nobody else can really fill in for the role of Knight, correct? Some might suggest that the discarded Vessel could either be the true Knight or Kris’ replacement in the fun gang. While I do think the Vessel will play some role in the full game, showing this in the intro would be a far more massive spoiler than revealing the chapter bosses early.

We’ve also seen what Kris looks like when they open a fountain—there’s no disguise that they wear or anything that could really hide their identity as the Knight. Even a silhouette would make it pretty obvious that the Knight is a human, regardless of whether it’s Kris’ light or dark world form. The only way this conceptual intro would make any sense without spoiling anything would be if Kris is not the Knight.

Again, that is a big assumption to make on my part but I also think that a direct comment from Toby about his planning and creative process shouldn’t be entirely disregarded, even if nothing ultimately comes of it.

Until Next Time

So I’m not too keen on the idea of Kris being the one and only Knight, as you might’ve guessed. I was originally planning to make this Kris analysis just one section of my next Everyman analysis, but it quickly ballooned out of control and I realized I’d be doing a disservice to the topic if I didn’t fully explore it.

Despite making this into a separate analysis, I can’t fully uncouple my perspective on Kris from my prior Knight theories. It would be wrong of me to dismiss the idea of Kris being the Knight out of hand just because I had a competing theory, so I wanted to go as in-depth with this post as I was able, even if I may retain a certain level of bias.

It’s possible that I may have missed some key argument or clue relating to Kris. We’re only 2-3 months out from Chapter 2’s release so the “meta” is not completely settled yet. If something comes to my attention then I’ll try to address it in my next post.

There’s also the possibility that Toby will introduce some new lore that will neatly address every issue and nitpick I’ve raised and Kris being the Knight will make perfect sense. Maybe Kris teleported into the Library via one of Sans’ shortcuts, or maybe Castle Town’s unique grand fountain was made using an ancient artifact that broke, or maybe Kris’ motivation for being the Knight is that they have to open a fountain every 24 hours or else something bad happens. Maybe these aren’t likely explanations, but darkners turning into statues and fountains creating Titans weren’t on my radar during Chapter 1 either.

To tell the truth, I spent the first few weeks after Chapter 2 believing that Kris most likely was the Knight. I had some doubts but didn’t yet have the basis to form any coherent counter-argument. Moreover, I acknowledged then and still acknowledge now that my Everyman theory did get several things wrong—I will go over those in more detail in my next analysis, but I braced for the possibility of my theory being blown out of the water well before Chapter 2 dropped.

Ultimately it was other theorists in the community that helped me look at the Knight from another angle and realize that the game’s evidence for Kris wasn’t as solid as it seemed on the surface. I’ve also had time to reassess my own theories and realize that some of my ideas were more prescient than I had assumed.

I think that even if I’m wrong and Kris is supposed to be “the Knight,” I think there’s virtually no chance that (1) they created the Castle Town fountain the same way as the other fountains and (2) Kris will be the only character to create fountains for the rest of the story.

If you ask me, there’s another Knight lurking in Hometown—one who’s struck before and will strike again. And the time when we will face them is fast approaching.

#deltarune #undertale #kris #undertale theory #deltarune theory #arrow don't look

[kirisaki-daichi-scenarios]

a discussion of jabberwock with team interaction hcs + deeper nash analysis

for anon who asked "Can we get some headcanons for jabberwock members or like headcanons when they're together? (its okay if it was jason or nash only)" and made me realise it's about time i get these guys' personalities down

note before we start: cause i didn't know their names until i wrote this

zack is the bald one, allen is the one with a headband, nick is the other white guy apart from nash.

team hcs

nick gets bullied for being under 6ft, but not by jason

nah good old jason teases all of them for being short fucks, emphasising that they’re all 5ft tall in comparison to him

he 100% lifts things out of the others' reach and then laughs for ages after when they try get them

unfortunately though, they’re all used to this and now just ignore him. either that or nash stares at him so intensely jason actually repents and hands it back

zack’s another one with a very good glare, but he’s used it too often on jason and it’s since stopped working.

also jason gives me ‘straightens his back as much as possible when getting measured so he’ll measure in as 7ft’ vibes

oh and he thinks he could wrestle a gator and win. i’ve got no explanation for that except for the fact you can't tell me it's ooc.

allen’s very protective over his white headband - it’s his lucky item - but he’d never let anyone know that

he’s confident in his abilities like the rest of them, but there’s nothing wrong with wearing a headband just in case

(nash knows anyway)

they watch nba matches together and do not shut up once throughout the entire match - lots of jeering, booing each other if someone criticises a player they like, lots of “i could do that”, lots of “get your fucking hand out of my popcorn do you want me to punch you in the face” etc

they used to all live together, but nash has since moved out. he was sick and tired of trying to make people do chores, as the only one who kept their room clean.

yeah the others’ house looks like a heap of trash but also very much “where’s my toothbrush?” “it’s in the third coke can by the orange peel behind the sink” *silence* “yeah thanks” *a minute later* “who the fuck has been using my toothbrush”

they’re all “bro your dribbling sucks why are you on this team loser” to one another, but also very protective (aka arrogant for one another) if anyone else Dared to criticise one of their teammates

then again, what kind of person would criticise jabberwock

half of the time he spends with jabberwock, nash is a Single Mother TM trying to get a bunch of man children to behave; the other half of the time, he's just as bad as the rest of them

i talk about this a lot but i get the feeling nash is an exceptionally hard worker, but at least he gets to let his hair down around his teammates sometimes

nash is also the only person jason thought was truly ‘strong’ at first sight

and nash is also the only person who can beat jason in a fight, and also the only person who can get nash to train, and also the only person who can.. [etc. you see my point].

(n.b jason calls himself the ‘almighty me’, nash says that ‘even god can’t beat me’. point made.)

you know how jason silver’s motto is “I have never thought”

imagine him proudly stating that, before zack adds with a straight face, “yeah cause nash does it for you.”

in short, the team would fall apart without nash.

although the team’s communication and coordination is very fine tuned, nash is the guy who keeps everything in order off the court to prevent what is essentially a team of aces ('main characters', if you will) from falling apart

they hang out together a lot, but do all have other friend groups that do not overlap

team bbqs

unofficial rule not to criticise anchovies on pizza because the one time nick did, nash snapped

however pineapple on pizza is fair game, even though zack quite likes it

more than once, jason has brought a girl home and nick has stolen her attention away with effortless trick shots, funky ball manoeuvring etc

more than once nick has had to trek to nash’s place (with a black eye) at midnight to have somewhere to sleep

do you see a correlation?

oh and everyone in the team has been walked in on by nash when they were naked with some girl

nash has absolutely no shame

he apologises to the girl with a charming albeit insincere tone, and then remains standing in front of the bed/couch until his teammate does what he expected of them

usually it involves not having come to practice

allen learnt a few (emphasis on ‘few’) words of japanese before they travelled to japan and was disappointed that he never got to use them

that said, one of those words was hentai

and now a quick analysis of some panels

a) so there's at least one player who wasn't underestimating vorpal swords. if i were to overanalyse, i'd add that nick's wearing a hoodie (possibly athletic wear) whilst nash has a 'fancy' shirt on; perhaps nick wasn't expecting them to be going to host clubs instead of chilling/training?

b) i know what you're thinking: "how can you say nash is a hard worker when he didn't want to practice for the match". i reckon he was still pretty high on the complete and utter success of their previous match, that plus being around girls, encouraged him to have a more 'jason-y' personality. (either that or fujimaki didn't want to add too much depth/realism into nash's character bc he's unequivocally the villain, right? and obviously this helps with the plot and the jabberwock bad geniuses gom good geniuses rhetoric.)

earlier, i mentioned how nash is the only one that could keep the team together, and is thus the undeniable head of the team; here's a clear example. you can see both jason and zack have no interest in continuing - if anything, there's disgust in their faces, kinda just saying "we spat on all of japan, now we can go home". whereas nash won't allow for the slightest of possibilities that there might exist a team stronger than them, and hence agrees to the match. the key thing here is that the others do as he says without too much fuss.

another thing to note is nash's reference to harakiri. now what can we make of that, alongside his proficiency in japanese, in relation to his character? the way i see it, he's either a weeb or possibly has some japanese lineage. (you could spin that even further and say his mother was japanese, taught him the language, then abandoned him, and hence his almost excessive hatred/mockery of the japanese people.) (is that why he wanted to do another match in japan..?)

just a quick point. "thanks to him" - jason isn't so superior as to think that he could win this match effortlessly without nash's support. links pretty nicely with my earlier idea about how nash is the only person jason has always considered 100% strong.

yet another point about how nash is the strongest of the team in pretty much every way you can think of. you know how scary/powerful you have to be to shut jason up (after he's getting real pissed from being prevented from scoring?)

i personally think this is a pretty important panel, though i've never seen anyone mention it before. did nash grow up training in a professional basketball training situation, as opposed to growing up playing streetball like i suspect the others did? well, to answer that question, imma bring in another panel.

here we see visible rage on nick, zack and jason's faces - they can't accept their loss, which is fair enough. but i'd argue that nash's face seems to depict sadness more than it does anger like to rest of them, look at how downturned his mouth is - and he's looking away from the 'camera', as if hiding his shame.

when you combine that with what he says here, i have no doubt that this is someone who has experienced some proper lows in basketball - as would be expected from someone who's played 'properly'. he's possibly not even a prodigy like the rest of them - compare jason's motto with his. "i have never thought" versus "do not suppose opportunity will knock twice at your door".

there's various lines of thinking you could design with this - he might have been trained by alex (hence, himuro having heard of jabberwock, though he should have known of a team as popular of jabberwock regardless), he might have grown up with professional basketballer parents etc. but here's my own little theory:

nash received serious basketball training from early on - maybe because his parents were living vicariously through him, or maybe he always loved the sport and wanted to be no1. so there he was training away, but, as he grew older, it started getting all a bit too much.

he didn't want to dedicate his entire life to basketball. after all, his hobby is water sports and his speciality is boxing; that's a lot of different things to be keeping up with, whereas the pipeline for promising athletes demands people focus solely on basketball. as a result, nash become bitter: stopped attending practice regularly, got in trouble for trash talk of increasing severity, etc.

result was he was kicked out of the program.

only when he was no longer playing basketball again, did he realise how much he missed it. and hence he got into streetball, where he was tremendously successful as someone with so much training, 'elite skills', and the overly confident attitude to boot.

then, one fateful day, he met jason and the rest is history.

#jabberwock deserved some love and they got it! #i wasted too much time on this but happy jabberwock sunday everyone #but i did like rereading extra game #it's all about those little details man #jabberwock #allen #zack #nick #nash gold jr #jason silver #knb #kuroko no basket #kuroko no basuke #kirisaki daichi scenarios #hcs #headcanons #extra game #knb extra game #imagines #scenarios #manga panels #mangacaps #character analysis #team interactions

[snifflesthemouse]

This morning, I read an article titled “I went undercover in the sinister world of Meghan Markle hate accounts" posted to Refinery 29. The title gives the impression of a journalist disguising one’s self as a “Meghan Markle hater” for the sake of getting to the bottom of something. However, the content of the article is nothing like its title.

Before I go further, let me stress the importance of perspective. My post isn’t an attack on the article’s author. I’ve never even heard of the author before now, and I’ve no right or reason to attack a perfect stranger because I vehemently disagree with the content of their work. Making assumptions about someone solely on what they write is lazy and sloppy in my opinion. I may be lazy and sloppy, but a hypocrite I try not to be. Therefore, go forward remembering my issues are with content, not creator.

The article starts out explaining the origins of the term “Megxit”. It continues with other hashtags, conspiracy theories, and so on. The article even mentions various media platforms “attacking" the Duchess, as well as crude posts witnessed by the author.

Then the name dropping begins. First with Murky Meg, then Sue Blackhurst, then According2Taz, then Skippyv20 on Tumblr, then Yankee Wally. Eventually, names of Royal Rota journalists are dropped. Then people like Angela Levin and Omid Scobie get mentioned, with interviews from the latter. Instead of an undercover sting, we get a “Who’s Who" of Megxit, a few anonymous Sussex Squad quotations, and Omid trying his best to be fair.

What this article accomplishes is very little when it comes to objectivity. The title is a misconception, and the content essentially paints targets on the backs of the people the author carelessly considers “Meghan Markle Haters". The article reduces anyone who disagrees with Meghan’s behavior as racist, misogynist, conspiracy theorist nutters. So, not only is the content of the article sloppy and lazy, it also lacks originality. We’ve all heard this sad song-and-dance number a million times.

I guess at face value, it becomes very easy, effortless really, for outsiders looking in to reduce an entire group of people with similar views to the basic stereotypes as old as time. It takes very little thought, consideration, or critical analysis, to assume things because they seem to correlate. But correlation is not causation. Just because some people opposing of Meghan Markle’s behavior happen to be racist doesn’t mean every single opposing person is also racist. Again, lazy and sloppy.

Just like assuming every single Meghan Markle fan is also vegan, anti-monarchy, feminist, woke warriors is downright sloppy and lazy. This author has personally interacted with and found common ground with Sussex Squad people many times. Some even became social media friends. They believe what they do, and I believe what I do. We do not agree with most things regarding Harry and Meghan, but we do agree to disagree and be civil.

So, contrary to the article, not all people “hate" Meghan Markle just because they detest her behavior. It’s important to remember extremes exist for all spectrums. Every topic, especially those politicized or made popular by media platforms, have extremes. There is no denying the fact that there are people who hate Meghan Markle because of her ethnicity. Those extremists who hate Meghan for her ethnicity ironically do not discriminate, though. If they hate her for her ethnicity, they hate ALL people of that same ethnicity.

On the flip side of this coin, is the other extreme. The face is the same on each side because the face represents extremism. There is no denying the fact that there are extremists who see anyone opposing Meghan as racists. Extremists who, by default, view every issue in the world through the lens of racism. While racism is a serious problem that deserves no place in society, assuming racism is the root cause of every conflict is also lazy and sloppy. And the same could be said that these extremists do not discriminate, either. If they see race as the only issue for why people “hate" Meghan Markle, they see race as the only issue for most everything.

The problem with both extremes is when everything and everyone is reduced to racial identity, racism only continues to exist. A racist using skin color as a disqualifier perpetuates racism. Assuming racism is the only reason behind disdain for someone only perpetuates racism. Focusing on race or racism allows no room for content of character.

Especially when people defend Meghan Markle being the victim of racism with a racist rule. When opposing critics say “I didn’t even know she was Black" or suggest her physical features, her Hollywood CV, or past involvement with Black causes were nonexistent before she became a duchess or stepped down from being a working royal, the extremists on the other side often resort to the One Drop Rule.

Which means their defense for calling Meghan Markle “haters" racists, even though they might have never knew she was mixed race, is a form of racism. The One Drop Rule was borne from the Reconstruction Era post-Civil War. The “rule" essentially said anyone who appeared to have Black features were considered Black.

The One Drop Rule was the precursor and eventual backbone to Jim Crow Laws of the South. It was used to oppress and segregate Americans based on physical appearance. Considering most people who never heard of Meghan before Harry came along were ignorant to her mixed heritage, it seems grossly negligent to assume race is the real issue. How can one be racist toward Meghan when they didn’t know she was mixed race? This author wasn’t aware of Meghan’s ethnicity prior to it being pointed out (by her and Harry. Repeatedly.), mainly because this author didn’t care.

Like so many, when I first saw Meghan and Harry together for the engagement interview, I was more excited about a fellow American joining the Royal Family. After learning she was biracial, well it was even better. It represented change and progress. Does that mean I saw the Royal Family as racists beforehand? No. It means I saw them as exactly the opposite. Had they been racist, she’d not be a duchess. Her being American and divorced was more a shock to me than being mixed.

The point of all this is there are extremists on every spectrum. For a journalist to say they went undercover, when in fact they did not, to expose the true motives behind Meghan Markle “haters", only to find they did very little to really understand the other side was disappointing. Not surprising, just disappointing. This could’ve been an excellent opportunity for someone to take the reigns and make bridges between two very passionate factions. Instead it became nothing more than a hit piece.

The article fails to acknowledge the possibility – no, the probability – that most people who object to Meghan Markle do so because of how she behaves. The article only considers one possibility behind this “hate". And by calling the objections “hate", the article in turn defines all criticisms as hate speech. Again, unoriginal, sloppy, and lazy.

So here we have it, yet another article grouping and stereotyping anyone who disapproves of Meghan and Harry as racist haters. Yet again, another article name dropping people “deemed racist haters", essentially painting even bigger targets on the backs of those people. Like they didn’t already have enough hate mail. Yet again, another sloppy, lazy, article that never digs below the surface to understand why instead of assuming it.

This isn’t new, it’s just another slop drop from the sensationalism machine that has replaced fair, legitimate journalism. It would be different if there weren’t so many questions surrounding the births. It would be different if Meghan Markle actually lived by the example she so vehemently preaches. It would be different if Meghan Markle would make amends with her own family before telling the world how they should treat people. It would be different if Meghan Markle were a strong woman instead of claiming to be one.

But it’s not different. She hasn’t spoken to her father since two days before her wedding three years ago. She denies the family connections that existed before her fame. She ghosts people once they are no longer of benefit. She preaches equality and universal service while using her title every chance given. She and her husband criticize the “family she never had" while naming their second child after that family’s Matriarch. All of those are behaviors that incite strong emotional responses. Behaviors. And behavior has no racial identity.

A final note… hypocrisy is the main reason people have issues with anything. When one group of people tells another group to stop attacking a public figure, while using assumptions as their crusade call, it’s hypocrisy. One cannot say “if you can’t take the heat, then shut up!” to another without being a hypocrite. When that happens, don’t be surprised when the same exact thing is said back. If Meghan or her fans can’t take the criticism, they shouldn’t participate in it. We all have the right to choose. Just like if I couldn’t handle the criticism, I’d not be writing this.

Life is not fair. The world is a dark, cruel place. When we expect the world to bend to the will of a few, we are setting ourselves above the majority. A strong woman would know this. A strong woman fighting for others would also know that the only person responsible for how one feels is one’s self. External feedback isn’t responsible for internal turmoil. Internal feedback is. That is all.

REFERENCE:

Amoako, A. (2021 June 11). I went undercover in the sinister world of Meghan Markle hate accounts. Refinery29. Retrieved from: https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/2021/06/10518195/megxit-meghan-markle-anti-fandom

#murky meg #megxit #yankeewally #prince harry #according2taz

[missingmywing]

So I’m finally caving and talking about my theory for why SMT V felt so rushed and lackluster at the end, the way so many people have been complaining. And, in that, what I think was supposed to happen with it.

This is an analysis and theory, not a criticism. If you want to read someone bashing a game that disappointed you go find someone else. As an aspiring game dev in my senior year of Uni I’m going to be talking about the actual process of making a game while making some educated guess about what happened with this one.

So my main theory about why it felt rushed and lackluster: lack of proper time management, and shifted priorities.

(Much like KH3, which had the same problems for - I assume - the exact same reasons, that I’ll get into below.)

Okay so first off, my first and most resolute point: They were using Unreal. Rather, they were using Unreal for the first time. Key thing, there, is that switching engines means the team has to learn that engine, and that alone can take six months to a year.

Hi hello my team is dealing with that and while I’m super impressed with their progress, it can very much be an uphill climb if documentation isn’t great, or programmers have to learn an entirely new coding language. AI are a bitch and a half to make, especially within Unreal’s black box-type constraints - as my programming lead has complained to me multiple times - and SMTV’s were actually really good.

That’s my main level of forgiveness for them, and it’s the same one I gave KH3. That said, it is an issue in terms of proper time management. The team put so much time into making the gameplay flow well and making the art look amazing that they left the overarching story things until last, with the age old reassurance of:

“Once the bones are in place the story will slot right in wherever we want! Let’s focus on making sure we understand the engine and gameplay first.”

no I am NOT projecting shut up

That is, in my opinion, the major fault of why and how the game had the story issues it did in regards to the endings. The devs focused on other things first, then realized towards the end that they were running out of time, development was taking longer than they thought, and they had to get the endings done. They re-analyzed the time they had, and realized they had to cut some things.

My theory about the main thing that was cut?

The actual secret ending.

My guess is that they planned and made the main three endings first, which is why Law and Chaos feel complete - even if Lucifer’s… thing… is kind of glossed over. (Which again, felt like a “we ran out of time - here’s a vague info dump for you to extrapolate from” move.) They may have felt a little rushed, yes, but they still felt final. And as someone who went back to look at Nocturne’s endings after I finished… V’s were still more complete than whatever the hell happened there. Freedom and Secret endings were the only ones of Nocturne that didn’t feel incomplete and half-assed. The others felt literally copy pasted -

Okay I’m not going to rant about a game released a decade and a half ago being lackluster in four of its six endings because it was very impressive at the time and also it handled the alignment decisions much better. I’m actually not even disappointed in it - just how people are comparing it against V and whining about V. It was great about alignment decisions and making the sides very clear cut, which I assume was the goal.

Moving on.

Law and Order could have been a bit more fleshed out, a few more differences between the style of the paths and how you face the bosses would have been nice. But honestly, from an in-universe point of view, it makes sense. Also the games were designed to be played, not watched on YouTube, so that’s not really so much their fault because it’s not as obvious while playing. The actual path choice definitely could have been improved, but I can’t tell if that was a deliberate choice that didn’t work, or another cut. Hard to say.

Mooooving on to: Neutral

Here’s where I make my point in my theory:

The secret ending was supposed to be the base Neutral ending. Yakumo doesn’t even hint about it - he flat out says it. Many times. “My goal is to eliminate all demons from this world.” It’s not a secret side quest, it’s literally in main story cutscenes. It makes no sense for it to be a “surprise secret” twist, because it’s not. Add on how ridiculously short and definitely rushed the “base neutral” ending was and it was very clearly a sign of cuts and alterations. My guess is that they had the base three mostly done, but realized that they didn’t have the time to make the secret ending because (to my theory) it would be the most complicated and add on a lot of differences within the last area. So they instead cut apart the neutral ending and pasted the second part of it to the secret ending requirements. Which was why it felt disjointed and a bit tacked on - and why it was specifically connected to the neutral endings. blah blah coding blah blah shortcuts I’m not going to get into coding logic and or how Unreal’s variables and components work because it’s complicated and I’m not a coder so most of this is educated guessing anyway based on general workflows.

Alright then, what was the secret ending supposed to be?

I think that the secret ending was the one that you teamed up with Khonsu and Miyazu. The requirement to even get the secret ending was, very specifically, to complete their quests and leave Khonsu alive. And to kill Shiva, but I’ll come back to that in a sec.

I’ve seen a lot of people wondering why the hell Miyazu was even in the game, and why her and Khonsu’s side-quest mattered. Especially given that they were both presented as titular characters - Miyazu was introduced alongside Yuzuru and Tao. Khonsu is literally on the box art.

Alongside - what’s this? The characters representing the other three endings. Hayataro is obv a stand-in for Koshimizu/Tsukuyomi bc spoilers. (Also it looks like Lahmu is there, but I’m not sure if he was considered for an ending at one point or if it’s just a reference to the Nahobino importance.) I’m also thinking that Amanozako was probably supposed to have a slightly bigger role at some point, because her arc was ALSO kind of just dropped, so there’s probably some cuts there too - though in this I have zero clue what they could have been planning there. Not important - this is about Khonsu.

So my guess is that there was originally supposed to be a fourth option at the Empyrean if you completed the side quests to unlock the secret ending (I’m not going to rant about the objectively bad design of the single-choice option - people have done it enough) that would most likely have you detour back to the Fairy Village to get Khonsu and Miyazu - unless they were already with you by that point. I’m not going to speculate details.

My general point is that the secret ending was supposed to be based around them, and Khonsu’s goal of a peaceful world without strife or illness. To make a parallel that kind of furthers my point by establishing theming: this one would have paralleled Nocturne’s Freedom ending, while Law paralleled Hikawa’s, Chaos paralleled Chiaki’s, and Neutral deviated from anything established in the series.

I’m purposely referencing Nocturne because it’s the most well known, and really encompasses the idea of SMT’s bare-bones story that distills the philosophical debates down to their core.

And I think it had to be cut because it would require a bunch of extra cutscenes, voiced lines, maybe another character model and moveset depending whether they planned to take the tragic route and have the two become a Nahobino anyway, as well as potentially more assets for if they showed what the world looked like after it was recreated and how that would look. Again, speculation. But it would definitely take some work, and it’s very likely they ran out of time.

Coming back to Shiva because he is actually important to this concept: Shiva has to be killed for this ending, supporting the “good ending without harm” idea. In the Law and Chaos endings, if you do not kill him before taking the throne then, theoretically, he continued gather Magatsuhi to destroy the world and your reign on the throne is going to be very short. In the current secret ending, you wouldn’t need to kill him first because he’s a demon. He’d get dusted with everyone else when you metaphorically snapped your fingers. The only way it makes sense is if he wouldn’t die himself so you had to do it, and as a “good ending” then it was supposed to be a world without strife. Meaning no dance numbers to blow up the world. Law, Chaos, and the current base neutral are just doomed to be destroyed, I guess. Lucifer makes no mention of it so I assume it wasn’t included in his magical fix-it that he beamed into Naho’s head rather than sharing with the audience.

Anyway, that’s my theory about it and honestly I’m pretty forgiving of it because it was still a good story, and if you actually take the time to explore and talk to people and pay attention, the whole thing makes sense.

I haven’t stopped yelling mentally about the Miman since I found out that they were failed Nahobinos who got cursed by the Condemnation.

You just have to invest in it, and I feel like most of the people complaining are the people who don’t want to take the time to invest with hunting down worldbuilding. As someone who idolizes Bioshock, that shit is my bread and butter so I don’t understand why people are acting like it’s an awful game just because it didn’t address everything, and left most of it to your assumptions and imagination. It gave enough, and it’s a pretty standard approach for an SMT game even if it was obvious that there were significant cuts.

I’m not crossing my fingers for a DLC finish because SMT doesn’t -

Actually wait they added the entire goddamn Labyrinth of Amala to Nocturne. It is entirely possible. I won’t get my hopes up too much but… I guess I won’t discount it entirely. Honestly I love the game for what it is, and am happy to write/read fanfic of the alternatives rather than bashing the game for having a development timeline it has to follow. And after the backlash P5 got for its continued delays, Atlas has probably cracked down and taken the “cut content over delay release” approach.

#smtv #smt v #shin megami tensei v #nahobino #khonsu #analysis #theory post #also a defense #even if you don't like the game you don't have to attack it #or say it's objectively awful #i have thoughts about the secret ending #and all the endings really #but especially khonsu and the potential #keep in mind this is also my opinion and you don't have to agree with me

[lilover131]

Syaoran and Kaito Analysis

So I’ve mentioned recently in a recent fanart and in my analysis of chapter 55, but I have noticed quite a few similarities between Syaoran and Kaito, and upon some observations, I have some theories, particularly in regards to how Kaito views Syaoran. I decided to delve into that a bit, so see under the cut for more! Warning: It’s long. I wrote a lot. >.<

 I have a lot to cover, so I thought it might be best to outline in the most simple way possible some things we already know about Kaito.

 ·         He was born gifted with incredible magic. His parentage is unknown and he was “alone for as long as he could remember”.

·         It’s unclear where Kaito originated from, but it seems he spent a majority of his life in England.

·         He has moon based magic and has a wide variety of talents, but specializes in time magic. It’s unclear if he already had a skill with time magic or if this was obtained after he met Momo. It seems implied that he made a magical contract with her and maybe gained his time abilities from this. But we do know he has the ability to fly, to locate objects, teleport, to talk to animals, and to make something vanish in a mere moment.  

·         He is also talented in housekeeping skills, such as sewing, cooking, etc.

·         He used to be very cold hearted and preferred spending time alone. Kaito changed considerably in personality at some point in his life. It is uncertain exactly what caused this change, but it seems likely that Akiho’s mother was the catalyst for this.

·         He is part of a very powerful group of magicians called as we know it ‘The Association’ and is revered as one of its most powerful with the title ‘D’. He recently betrayed them and left, taking Akiho with him.

·         He protects and seems to care for Akiho

·         He is preparing for an event labeled as “that time” and needs Sakura to create a specific card.

·         He is putting himself in extreme physical danger for his goals, seemingly for Akiho’s sake.

·         He has been noted as always smiling to ‘hide his pain’.

 So when I look at all of these facts about Kaito, I noticed something interesting. Syaoran too could be described by almost all of these things. You might think “Wait a minute Chrissy! Kaito and Syaoran are nothing alike!”, but please hear me out.

Syaoran too was born gifted with incredible magic. He also draws his power from the moon (a connection that has already been pointed out by CLAMP) and has a knack for household skills as well, being very independent from a young age. Like Kaito, he was cold hearted in his earlier years, preferred to be alone (according to Meiling in the original 90’s anime in episode 43), and had a drastic change in personality later on, particularly after meeting Sakura. Syaoran is part of a very powerful group of magicians as well, the Li clan, and is one of the strongest within it and destined to be the next leader. Similarly, Syaoran too is preparing for some kind of event, a future seen by his mother, and is doing everything to prevent this, even if it causes him physical harm (as we’ve seen with him struggling to conjure the Sakura cards). In order to keep Sakura in the dark as to not worry her, he has been using a smile to ‘hide his pain’.

Now you may be wondering “Okay, so they have a few things in common, but they are still completely different!”. And you would be right. They are two completely different people after all, but try to think of them as two sides of the same coin. This beckons another question: How did two people who are so similar turn out so differently?

This is really where their differences in personality shine through, but part of it I believe is due to their backgrounds as well. For example, Kaito was picked up by the Association at a young age due to his skills with magic and was taken in to “use that magical power to accomplish their own tasks”. Based on their record of not having a great reputation, according to Eriol, and their treatment of Akiho by assisting her Clan in turning her into a magical device, it seems likely that Kaito was not treated kindly by anyone in the Association. In fact, he was probably left alone nearly all of the time unless his strengths were needed, and took care of himself in the remainder of that time. He was surrounded by people but still completely alone, and he preferred to be this way. This cold background of his really prevented him from being able to open up his heart to anyone. But he does seem to be much different around Akiho.

Syaoran, on the other hand, was surrounded by loving and caring family members. Although he preferred to be alone in his earlier years, he wasn’t actually alone at all. His mother was protective of him (like cutting his hair until he was strong enough to protect himself from things like scissors near his neck), and his sisters adored him and undoubtedly showered him with love at every opportunity. But even with that love from them, he was still somewhat cold hearted (though not as much as Kaito) until he met Sakura.

Their backgrounds do differ from each other, but I think the biggest difference in them of all is how they handle their feelings. When Syaoran first started to realize his feelings for Sakura, he struggled quite a bit and was in a great amount of denial, even physically running away at times when confronted with them. It was when he finally came to terms with his heart and confessed his feelings to Sakura that he underwent a great change and became the Syaoran we know today.

So what about Kaito?

Well, Kaito I believe is in that same stage of denial where he is refusing to come to terms with his feelings, whatever those may be. It’s clear that he cares about Akiho, but when she or Momo try to have a serious discussion with him or get him to talk about those feelings, he goes out of his way to change the subject (or once with Momo, actually fled at the first opportunity, which is just like Syaoran used to do!). It is something he is clearly uncomfortable with, and I think that is because it is unfamiliar territory for him. He is used to not feeling anything at all, so having to actually think about his feelings and reasons for doing things is unbearably frightening. He can handle any magical opponent any day (except Sakura of course), but being open and honest about his feelings? That’s another battle entirely that he doesn’t know how to handle without his magic to use as a crutch.

Momo mentioned in chapter 39 how Kaito had made a great deal of changes, all so that Akiho could live comfortably and pleaded internally “peer deep inside your heart. And don’t avert your eyes”. This was said again in chapter 51 when she stated “I implore you Yuna D. Kaito. Listen…to your heart”.

In the very next chapter, it is none other than Syaoran who has a discussion with Sakura about how his mother had told him “If you possess great magic power…when you feel pounding and stirring in your chest…you shouldn’t ignore it. You need to listen to your intuition. I think that goes for everyone, magic or no magic. I don’t think anyone should turn a blind eye to their own heart”. We also know that in that same conversation with his mother, thanks to the mini chapter provided with the special edition of volume 9, that Yelan said to him then “If there’s something you want to accomplish, then training with your spells is surely important, but...more than anything else, you have to face your heart”. She went on to tell him how important it was to listen to his heart and that “If you lie to yourself, you will sadden the person who loves you so dearly”. 

And that, my friends, is the major reason for Syaoran and Kaito being so different despite their many similarities. One listens to his heart while the other adamantly turns away from it. This leads me to my next topic (thank you for anyone who has read this long into it. I appreciate it!), and that is in regards to Kaito’s feelings about Syaoran.

I have noticed that Kaito in general tends to act quite differently in regards to Syaoran than he does anyone else. It starts at the very first time they met, when they made their introductions. Despite working so diligently to keep himself hidden from Akiho and Sakura, he did the complete opposite with Syaoran. He had to have known that being able to sense his magic and being given his name and title, that Syaoran would go and research who he was. He wanted Syaoran in particular to know who he was, which I believe is also why he allowed him to speak with Eriol initially. I say allowed, because we know he clearly had the potential to cut off communications at any point in time, and he only stepped in to shut this down when Eriol started talking to the others (Kero and Yue). He clearly wanted to control what information people knew about him, and Eriol crossed a line. He also put spells on Syaoran that would not allow him to communicate with others about him, so again showing he wanted him to know about him, but not to be able to tell anyone else about him, especially Sakura.

Another occasion I found intriguing was chapter 34 in the scene with the pool. Kaito stopped time, but for some reason, allowed Syaoran to move freely as well. Why is this? He could have easily frozen Syaoran too, but he made a conscious decision to allow Syaoran to move.

Then we come to perhaps the most telling scene so far, which is the battle he and Syaoran had in chapter 41 and 42. In a moment where he could have easily stopped time and rewound so that Syaoran never approached him, he instead decided to have a full discussion with him and even go as far as to engage in battle with him in stopped time. In this ‘discussion’, he stated several facts that he knew about Syaoran, who was pointedly not responding to them and seemed solely focused on Sakura. Some of the details about him were probably common knowledge to the magical world, but some of them seemed oddly personal, such as him being a ‘diligent student’, as if to show he had been watching him for quite some time.

Something about the interaction was different than others. It was as if he was observing Syaoran in that moment to see how he would react to hearing certain things. He then mentioned after seeing Syaoran use the Sakura cards how rewriting a contract once written takes a toll on even the strongest magician and he said “Is this all…for Sakura too?”. I think what he was trying to say here is that he recognizes the efforts he’s making for Sakura and may even feel a connection to him because of his own efforts for his own wish.

In chapter 42, continuing on with this conversation, Kaito seemed ready to turn back time the moment he realized they were no longer alone and that Sakura was able to move, but he still had more to say. Syaoran reacted to Sakura calling out for him, and it was at this moment that Kaito said “You certainly are honest, aren’t you? One look at your face, and I know exactly what you’re thinking” (even Eriol made several comments about Syaoran’s honesty in the original series). Once again, he’s showing here that he’s observing Syaoran, but why? For what reason does he bring this up? I think he says this because it is something so foreign to him and fascinates him. Kaito is so used to hiding his feelings and being unable to express them, but Syaoran is the complete opposite in the fact that he can so easily show his feelings and it is not his nature to conceal them. Kaito followed this by bringing up that Syaoran had suppressed that honesty when he came to Japan, which we know was through his fake smiles (something he is all too familiar with). Yue also said to Syaoran in chapter 27 that he had been hiding behind a smile and ordinarily was much more unrestrained in how he expressed his emotions, no matter what that emotion may be.

I wonder if Kaito said this because he wondered “how is it that he’s able to be so honest?” or maybe he was trying to show that he understood his reasons for hiding behind a smile, pointing out the similarities between them; that they were not so different despite having different goals. Kaito’s next comment in particular is probably what caught my attention the most. He divulged the detail about how Syaoran suppressed his honesty particularly to try and prevent the future that his mother saw. Even Syaoran seemed surprised by this, and he had good reason to be! This was likely a very personal moment, one he hasn’t even told Sakura about yet, and this implies that he might have been there when this particular moment happened. It makes sense too, considering Akiho had stated in her very first appearance that she was in Hong Kong just before coming to Japan, meaning she and Kaito were certainly there at the same time Syaoran was, at least for a brief time. This means he probably saw all the effort he was putting in for Sakura’s sake and maybe this resonated with him. I think maybe he also saw how his older sisters, even though they had no magic of their own, are treated with respect in the Li clan, unlike Akiho with her own. Kaito has only ever known a world where those who are strong are used and those who are weak are deemed worthless (like Akiho), but yet Syaoran lives in a world where both live harmoniously. Sakura’s world in Tomoeda is the same as well and filled with kindness, far different from any other experience Kaito has had, and this must have been quite the culture shock! But more importantly, Syaoran and Sakura have all the things that he and Akiho never had.

Another interesting thing to note here is that Kaito was supposedly expelled from the association about a year ago due to stealing a powerful magical instrument that was forbidden to be taken (which we now know to be Akiho herself). And guess what else happened about a year ago? About a year ago, Syaoran went back to Hong Kong to handle his ‘important things’. Coincidence? Well, famously CLAMP series often say there is no such thing as coincidence...only hitsuzen. 

Just as he is about to send another attack at Syaoran, he talks about how he and Syaoran both do not have the power of divination, but that “it is for the strong to decide…what the future holds in store for us all”. I think what he meant here is “Neither of us know how this is going to turn out, but the both of us are working hard for our own goals, so may the best man win”. However, before he could go any further, Sakura used TRANSFER to switch places, and he is both surprised by this, but quite quickly decides to end things and rewind time at this moment, indicating that he had not really wanted to engage with Sakura at all at this point in time. He had even stated at the beginning of chapter 42 that he had intended to keep her frozen and only have Syaoran able to move, meaning this whole situation had only been kept going for this long so that he could talk to Syaoran.

After rewinding time and talking to Akiho later that evening, he mentioned how Parent’s day was “quite illuminating”. This could have been said about his newfound knowledge of Fujitaka, but I also believe he learned quite a bit from Syaoran as well.

Now we finally get to the more recent chapters, like 54 and 55. While sitting together at the botanical garden, Kaito puts yet another spell on Syaoran to force him to smile against his will to avoid any suspicion. I feel like this was not just to keep the peace but also somewhat of a way to toy with and tease Syaoran. What better way to get under the skin of someone so honest and open with their feelings than to force them to hide these under a smile unwillingly? I think this was the mischievous side of Kaito showing and almost like a big brother teasing a little brother, but unfortunately for him, he pushed things too far with this, and not only did Sakura notice something was wrong, but this allowed the spell to be broken, and Syaoran wasted absolutely zero time saying the things he had been suppressed in saying before.

Cue to chapter 55, our most recent chapter. Sakura has managed to keep herself from being frozen in time, and she starts off with a few basic questions. The first one was if he knew about her being able to use cards. Kaito answered simply “Yes”. But when asked about if he knew about Syaoran, he gave two very specific details about him, particularly that he knew he was a gifted sorcerer and that he was the next head of the Li clan”. He could have just answered yes, the same way he responded in regards to Sakura, but instead he seems to have wanted Sakura to know in that moment that he knows a lot of information about Syaoran and not just that he can use magic. The two then exchange meaningful looks, and it’s right after this that she looks over to Syaoran and Akiho, looking almost worried. Now, it’s not clear what they were both thinking in this moment, and it’s possible that I am overthinking this one, but I find it fascinating that his answer was so detailed here, and I don’t feel like that was for nothing. Ohkawa has always been very thoughtful about the words she writes in her scripts, and I think this is no exception.

Anyways, I feel like we’ll get more definitive answers in the future, but I’m incredibly intrigued to see if there are any further and more concrete connections between them. I feel like CLAMP has done quite a bit to point out similarities between the two, and it should be a wild ride from here on out!!

#cardcaptor sakura #clear card #alaysis #syaoran #kaito #clamp #spoiler #chrissy talks a lot #this was a long one