if we’re talking about musical motifs, me and @inchwyrm were chatting about deltarune/undertale and idk if we’re overanalysing here but Spoiler the melody from Snowdin Town features a very similar melody to the ‘don’t forget, I’m with you in the dark’ line. the melodic progression as a whole is also similar and considering how there’s an in game reference (or so it certainly seems!) to deltarune, complete with ‘don’t forget’ literally in snowdin im just like !?!!?!? is this a thing??
Spoiler Yeah it's heavily implied that Kris is not a "normal" kid in some way (beyond the fact that they don't talk, which I don't think we're supposed to interpret literally anyway since other characters can "hear" them). I really don't want their story arc to be something super dark but it's sure looking that way. And man, those themes. Compare 2015 "kindness always wins! spare everyone!" Undertale with 2018 "actually kindness doesn't always win, sometimes kindness is for suckers" Deltarune. And Ralsei being almost abrasively nice. That's not the direction I expected this franchise to go at all, given how much the fandom latched onto Chara and the no-mercy run and blew the darker elements of the story way out of proportion, but it's sure reflective of our present political situation.
Spoiler: Wild Theorizing At this point I'm convinced this is both a sequel and prequel and that Sans is either Lancer or directly connected to Lancer. Somehow the Darkworld is connected to the past, and Sans' choice to not forget will have him interacting with Kris and Susie in the present in some way. The reason we can't change the result is because this is part prequel/partially about Kris making decisions at the end that are autonomous of the player. The figures of Susie, Vivi!Asriel and Kris are the people in the 'Don't forget' image. Either way, we are definitely going to learn about that fucking Don't Forget image.
Spoiler kinda sad that a mild ut blog i follow is jumping ship from chariel cause of confirmed siblings but that's fair I guess (they used to hc chara as never identifying as a dreemur)
@GlassesBlu Spoiler We're probably thinking of the same person. Or maybe there's more than one. But if we're thinking of the same person, they did one of the only ever Chasriel zines (or things covering like... Asriel and soullessness and mental health) and I'm fucking bummed.
Spoiler if its ol dan mcneely aka epic divorceman, then yes, and i love that zine. It's a damn good zine Hey everyone, relating slightly to this, come check out Thegiantrat's Chara Asriel zine based on their post game au Physical (paid) Digital (free)
@GlassesBlu It sure is :') Yeah, Ten is a good zine, and there were some good followup posts on their blog about it too.
Oh.... I didn't think about that but. That makes sense. Actually Chara sleep on the opposite side of the room in the original UT, and Asriel's bed is originally on the right.
Spoiler fighting extra boss now and oh jeez @.@ also i threw away the manual to make room for more healing items but i think i made ralsei sad because of it. if i had a box to put things in i would put it in there!! don't be sad!! i just want to NOT DIE
Spoiler: deltarune/undertale, abuse cw There's....a lot more abused kid subtext in this one huh. Like I said in my thread, uh. Toriel is...kind of a shitty mother? And was in Undertale too, but it was easy to miss it 'cause a lot was subtext? Whereas Toby just smacks you right out the gate with a room clearly divided between golden child and neglected child, with all these things kris could maybe use...except the tv isn't even plugged in anymore, for example. Fuck your favourite colour, there's no green crayon for you, Kris. I always got the view of chara that rather than being an Evil Demon, they were a severely abused kid trying to kill themselves by jumping into that hole, and who deeply resented being saved, hence their abuse of asriel, attempt to murder asgore, and eventual suicide by buttercups. And Toriel always seemed like the force of This Is Fine. No, it's fine. We're a happy family. It's fine. It's. Fine. Mother knows best. Like I've thought since Undertale came out that the single most chilling line in the whole thing is how the narrator, who I think is Chara in all routes, describes the ribbon. "If you're cuter, monsters won't hit you as hard." And smash cut to Delta Rune and Toby just making it extremely apparent right from the start that Something Is Wrong Here. The fuckin mattress is grey and grimy, Toriel hasn't cleaned the blood stain on the floor, it's just. I'm not saying Toriel's a narc mother but I'm saying Toriel's possibly a narc mother.
a thought Spoiler the deltarune/undertale distinction actually most reminds me of the alpha/beta Sburb sessions in Homestuck.
Spoiler: deltarune (including the very end) Ok I finally got a chance to play today. Rushed through it a bit due to Excitement, didn't go back to get all the secrets, and based on a couple things mentioned upthread it seems like I straight up didn't notice a few things too. I also didn't kill anybody, so I'm gonna play again later and attempt to do more murder and be more perceptive. In the meantime here's a couple messy thoughts: Sans arrived at the same time that you, the player, got there. Possibly he just moved into town, but (based on no evidence) I think he arrived in the world of Deltarune at approximately the same time as you. And I also think that Chara (assuming that's who it was in the end with the red eyes and the knife) wasn't there while you were playing the game, and the end cutscene showed their arrival into this world. Were they pulling your soul or Kris's out of Kris's chest? Basically, character creation voice (Gaster?) summons/guides you into the world -> Sans arrives (though he may have been there slightly before you, but you don't meet him until after the Dark World bit so we don't know if he was there or not. I don't think you see the area where he appears when Toriel drives you to school) -> Chara arrives in the world the night after you/Kris travel to the Dark World and complete the first chapter of the game and immediately tears out your or Kris's soul. Character creation menu soundtrack is called ANOTHER HIM. does that refer to Gaster? or maybe Asriel?? And speaking of Gaster, i'm surprised that no one has mentioned how Rouxls Kaard looks exactly like him? His face and general stature, anyway, if not his clothing. If Asriel was the one who created the world of Deltarune, did he make Rouxls Kaard as a dig at Gaster, making an incompetent vain idiot and giving him Gaster's face? Rouxls Kaard's position as Duke of Puzzles kind of parallels Gaster's position as Royal Scientist, and during the bit where you go say goodbye to everyone, he talks about how he's going to edit recorded history to make himself look more important, paralleling how Gaster accidentally(?) edited literal history to make himself nonexistent. Or is he actually a different version of Gaster, like all the different versions of the monsters in Light World? If so, why is he the only one (other than maybe Asriel) who appears in the Dark World instead of the Light? This was my first thought too! Or maybe it happened but the humans were the ones who got forced underground, considering how no monster seems to have met a human other than Kris. In conclusion, I'm gonna go play Undertale and see if anything happens when you name the fallen child Kris