Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Considering how the S.Poison and the Frayed bowtie from Spamton's shop ended up seeing use in chapter 5 (getting turned into the S.Potion and being used for the True Tie), do you think its likely the Broken Sword will see some use. If i have to quess probably as a fusion item like the Frayed Bowtie, possibly with the Aqua Knife specificly since its currently the weakest fo the flower items.
I was already confident the Broken Sword would get something and now that the Frayed Bowtie - which was already good - got an upgrade, and the S. Poison of all things became good, it feels like a lock to me.
I don't think Aquaknife will be part of that... But maybe, who knows.
Why does the Mannequin provide Puppet/Cat Defense?
It's because
It's because it's a fucking Decoy
It's a fucking Spamton Decoy
You take less damage because some of it goes to the mannequin instead
It's a fucking distraction you're meant to use it against the FRIEND Mafia because they're hunting spamton down
Hahahaha! This is a funny idea a friend came up with and I thought it was neat but like, surely that's not the intention, because it also provides defense against Sneo and Pink and stuff, so, surely it's not that, right hahahaflowershahahaha-
But No.
Because I realized...
There is an unused version of the Mannequin that's an item.
Like, a consumable inventory item. And it does nothing.
(Screenshot courtesy of another friend)
Why was this a thing. No, seriously, think about it - Why was this a thing. Why would the Mannequin ever have been considered as a standard inventory item. What purpose would this serve. It does nothing and does not get consumed on use. Is it a crafting ingredient? Sure, but why an Item, why not a Key Item or something...
And then it dawned on me.
It does nothing,
because it was supposed to be used as a Decoy,
Because I'd bet the original intention was that you'd use it when you're fighting FRIENDlings or something and it distracts them and they attack it instead of you. The cats are not too smart.
I think it got buffed into a general elemental defense armor because this was way too specific of a niche and Toby probably wanted it to have use in the time leading up to that.
It's a decoy .
I am losing my mind. Maybe it's not true but I choose to believe.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
ever since i've seen this line in livealive (lot of interesting things here, notably the orested-kris connection and the edo period 0 kills/100 kills routes) ive thought that the vessel is kris's corpse:
"Kirk's body lies motionless in the bed. Devoid of life and energy and possibility. Almost childlike in his vulnerability. His skin grows paler by the moment, as if color is desperate to flee the empty vessel."
I've never played Live-A-Live so I don't really have any particular comment.
I don't think the Vessel is Kris' body... but maybe! Who knows, really...
well holiday manor is DEFINITELY gonna be the chapter 6 dark world.
we still need the shelter code there, Noelle is becoming a more important character, it would be an incredible opportunity to drop carol lore and maybe a knight reveal…
not to mention the fact that Noelle’s computer has her cat Peter’s game on it, which means more friend lore and possibly an appearance.
What do you think will happen in the holiday manor dark world
The exact specifics of the chapter beyond the general stuff you outlined are unclear to me.
I remain generally confident that the Knight Rematch will be in 6. I suspect that whatever Seam creates with the 5 crystals will be necessary in order to get to Phase 2 of that battle.
I think The Knight is the Silver Drake.
I also think we're probably getting Fireshock as a standard Ralsei spell.
sorry mr braxium, even though it DID finally get outclassed by other gear, jevilstail was still always better than devilsknife. i;m sure you are completely stumped as to the identity of the person sending this message, given that it is anonymous, so i;ll just do you the favor of telling you myself that i am an unbiased source. you;re welcome mister brister braxium
Funny how Jevilstail has become nearly useless on the normal route, meanwhile it'll probably be nigh mandatory to survive the end of the weird route
Yep.
Jevilstail is def good in weird because it's basically one of the only "good" items you'll be able to get that can be used on Noelle. DF/MG are hard stats to build for her, and you don't get the dealmaker.
And you also skip all of 5-6.
100% recommend bringing Jevilstail for weird. 2DF 2MG is kinda bad even by Chapter 5 standards, but, on the weird route, it's about the best you're gonna get.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Ok, I think Susie will learn about Kris’ fountains before entering the shelter but I also think Kris will enter the shelter without the soul. And I’ve long since assumed the vessel from the start of the game will show up in ch 7. My theory is that the player will control the vessel for part of ch 7. Though given what happens in ch 5 weird route, I don’t know if Kris will be available in ch 7 B side so I think the vessel will be used for all of ch 7 B side
I kinda feel like we're gonna get more Kris stuff in weird... though I could also see a world where Kris functionally dies in the lake and we just puppeteer their corpse. Swapping vessels is also plausible.
Who knows, really...
I originally didn't really like Pink that much. She was neat, but not what I was hoping for out of this chapter's shadow boss. But with recent revelations, I have come to realize that there is a line. There is a line to true peak fiction, and I must talk about it.
Please, listen to my tale... I may yet convince you, even if you're someone who already thinks Pink is peak fiction... I think she can be so much MORE.
PART 1: THE FIGHT
I want to start by making it very clear that while I have some thoughts on the fight and story in context of the larger crystal stuff, I think in a vacuum, the fight itself is very good.
I am a SOUL Mode Enjoyer. We finally got Purple, and it was peak. A lot of the attacks are really creative, and I enjoyed especially the 3d Tunnel attacks.
Cutie Mew Mew Magic is maybe not my thing but it's at least very cool and unique.
And, I really like how the fight isn't even remotely subtle with it's Kris/Player relation... Maybe I was closer to the truth than I thought with what I did in SOULBlazers, but I digress. She certainly proves that cooperation is possible, and I hope it's a sign for what's to come.
PART 2: MY CRITIQUE
See, Pink kinda didn't click with me. The way the game treats the lead in to the fight really made it feel like a joke:
And while this is set-up for the misdirect with Orange it still kind of , at least to me, really set the tone that this whole thing was kinda a joke.
It was to the point that I didn't even realize she was the SB until the very moment she gave me the Shadow Crystal...
And, analyzing Pink herself, while her story and themes absolutely connect pretty strongly to Kris (and The Player), she herself doesn't really know anything about that. She's kinda just... doing her own thing.
More damningly, she doesn't really play into the prophecy/fate/freedom/destiny storyline the other crystals play into at all. Every prior Crystal Boss had been pretty defined by this aspect, and it was the one true throughline they all had. Jevil and Spamton and Gerson are all pretty strongly defined by their takes on the Prophecy and other such lore truths, and The Knight, while we don't exactly know how they feel, stands as a representative of the very fate we're fighting against.
You can connect Pink to "Freedom"... but only in the same sorts of ways you can connect most characters to freedom- She can connect pretty strongly in, say, a queer identity self-expression sense... but not really in the larger "fate of the universe" sense. This, to me, kind of left her feeling like an outlier, like she was kind of just tacked on, to the point where I kind of suspected (and still do now) that she might have been a somewhat later idea compared to the others... (For instance, why isn't the Mew Mew doll in Chapter 1? Asgore says it's the "mascot of the store", and yet we haven't heard about it until now?)
In general, it felt to me like all 4 previous Secret Bosses were REALLY united by this cote theme:
Jevil believes that the Truth is Awesome, actually, and means he can do anything he wants because he cannot be punished.
Spamton believes that the Truth is Awful, and he must do anything and everything in his power to escape it and overcome it.
The Roaring Knight is fate itself, the truth staring right back at us, a "forced loss" encounter in which failing is "FATE", in Gaster's own words. A test of our strength and resolve.
Gerson believes that The Truth is "True" but that you shouldn't get so worked up over it. Stories can be changed, they can be retold- and so can the prophecy, if you read between the lines.
In combination, the Secret Bosses, to me, also generally feel like back to back aurafarming gods of generally increasing severity.
The Strongest Darkner of Today.
The Strongest Dream of Yesterday.
The Roaring Knight.
The Toughest Monster who Ever Lived.
And then, after those back to back bangers... it's just Mew Mew, from Undertale, an optional miniboss we've already faced.
This is where I feared my thoughts on Pink would end. A fun fight, and an interesting narrative, but kind of underwhelming in the context of the crystal narrative. Perhaps a later idea, perhaps a deliberate reprieve from seriousness, but, regardless, a bit underwhelming, and the one secret boss I didn't really feel any particular connection to or feel particularly obsessed with.
This felt a little sad to me, because, truthfully, the other Secret Bosses all felt so close in coolness factor to me. I cannot really rank them against each other, they all have insanely interesting aspects to me and I truly cannot pick a favorite... and then Mew Mew is over here, and all I really know is that she's definitely not up there.
And then, it happened.
PART 3: What the Fuck
Hey, so, like, Toby???
The fuck are you doing.
You can't just. add. possibly the biggest Lore Nuke in the entire chapter in a patch.
For the uninitiated, a patch released added this dialog to Pink's shop, if you beat her, got the egg, and saw FRIEND:
In the scene, the Body suddenly grabs Kris' hand and explains a lot of lore, presumably relating to FRIEND, that is... extremely interesting, but not actually relevant to what I'm talking about here.
What is important... is that for the first time... Pink actually knows something.
And this, and things others were pointing out, got me thinking.
Is it not...
Is it not at least a little interesting that it's specifically the body who wanted to give us the Crystal? Maddie doesn't even really seem to get what it is, and seems annoyed that they're doing this at all.
And this has given me hope.
I think... I think there's a line. I think there's a line where Pink is like, significantly more interesting, at least to me, than she currently is, to the point where I could truly see her rivaling the other Secret Bosses in my mind.
I do not know if this is where Toby is actually going. But the idea just won't leave my head. So here goes.
PART 4: But what if?
Here goes:
What if Mew Mew- the Body- the Darkner- is straight up just as Freedom Pilled as Jevil, Spamton, and Gerson are.
Like, straight up, what if the Mew Mew Body Darkner knows about the prophecy, knows about fate, is very aware of her status as a darkner, is very aware of even the Shadow Crystals, of FRIEND, of all of this deep lore important stuff...
...and she just doesn't care.
You may say that this is close to Gerson. And it is, but I think there's a fine difference.
See, Gerson actively urges us to do something about it. He believes that people who follow the prophecy too closely are missing the point and are blinded by the light. He believes that Susie has the power to write over the dark pages of fate, and he believes that the story can be retold. He believes in trying to change it, and he urges us to do the same, to have hope. He "doesn't care" about the truth, but, he kinda does. He just thinks people should have a better perspective of it. Gerson sees the prophecy and the truth as intriguing, as a challenge to tackle, a test of character, that sort of deal. He is still fascinated by it.
I am proposing that Mew Mew straight up, like, does not care about this at all. It doesn't affect her.
Mew Mew, as characterized by the Fight... she's a bit ditzy? She wants to date, she loves us, she wants a new hat, she wants Stinky Fish, she wants to go to Planetarium, she wants Yogurt Mushroom. She's pretty single minded.
I am proposing that her response to the truth- the same truth that made Jevil and Spamton go mad, the same truth that Gerson feels he needs to mentor us about, the same truth that the Knight represents and maybe has thoughts on... is that she just doesn't care. It does not affect her.
Oh, there's a prophecy that's defining the fate of the universe and nothing I do matters? I'm a darkner? Okay, cool... can I still eat sand on the beach? Yes? Okay, so why do I care?
She is straight up unbothered. She just lives on, as if nothing is different, because as far as she's concerned, none of this matters to her, and her priorities are in order. She is going to go back to school, and she is going to eat Long Knife.
This, then, is why she never really talks about freedom, or the prophecy, or any of that in her fight. Because the philosophy she is representing is that she simply truly does not care, and if she were to ever bring it up... wouldn't that kind of imply she does care?
The Line for Pink being truly Peak to me is that in Chapter 6 there is some dialog that basically confirms Mew Mew has in-depth knowledge on, say, the Crystals, and the Prophecy, and all that... but just doesn't really think it matters to her specifically. It's not her problem.
My suspicion is that the dialog that was added in the patch was originally Chapter 6 dialog. I think Toby saw that everyone was upset about there not being much "lore" in Chapter 5, and particularly that everyone was switching up on FRIEND and calling them an IMAGE_FRAUD. I think Toby wanted to do damage control, so he took some Dialog from 6, adjusted it slightly to fit the specific context of 5, and added it there.
If The Line is real, then I think in 6 we will get more instances of this from Pink/Mew Mew, where it is clear that the Body is very aware of things. Maybe the Body interacts with Seam or something. Maybe the Body acknowledges you having all of the crystals. I don't know.
Point is: I think that it would be really interesting if the Mew Mew body is "Freedompilled".
PART 5: WHAT THIS WOULD MEAN / FURTHER CONNECTIONS
Hey, isn't it strange that the Mew Mew body is the one who gives us the crystal? It's because SHE KNOWS WHAT IT IS!!!
Pink tells us about the Cats and stuff with the new dialog, because while she doesn't really care about it herself, she does care about Kris, and so is willing to give us some advice/warning. It's not that she rejects her knowledge outright, it just, doesn't bother her.
Why doesn't Pink get "The Air Crackles with Freedom", but she DOES get the Battat Motif? Is it because the Battat Motif isn't the Freedom Motif? This is the first time we've had the motif in a serious context without the associated text, and the Knight lacked both the text and the Motif...
But if this angle is true, it clicks for me now.
She doesn't get the text because, despite her knowledge, she doesn't care, it's not what she's all about, and so the motif is much more subdued in the background and the battle instead "swirls in rosy chaos". Because that's what she does care about.
From a broader sense, this also creates some nice mirroring:
Jevil: ACCEPTANCE: The Truth is Awesome!
Spamton: DENIAL: The Truth SUCKS!
The Roaring Knight: NEUTRAL: The Truth
Gerson: DENIAL: The Truth ain't what it's cracked up to be. Stay strong.
Mew Mew: ACCEPTANCE: The Truth does not matter.
This sort of mirroring feels likely, especially since the first 2 secret bosses are kind of doomposters (who both fully accept the truth as "real") and the last two secret bosses are kind of hopeposters (who, under this interpretation, either don't accept the truth or don't care about it, and both of them are 'happy' outcomes/endings. Gerson inspires Susie, Pink proves that cooperation is possible wit the SOUL, etc). And then The Knight is in the middle, as true neutral... the truth itself.
And while I still somewhat feel like this is a step down from the really awesome inspiring Gerson storyline I think it also does feel at least somewhat fitting as the conclusion. After four characters defined by this stuff, we get one who is truly free of it, who has simply moved on and cares about other things.
My suspicion/vision is that the plan was to have her be completely subdued in 5- truly just focused on her actual desires, with Maddie, and everything else, and then in 6 we would get hints that she was actually as fucked up as the other ones, but had simply decided it didn't matter. And that one of these hints was moved up into 5 early as a bit of a teaser / to help do damage control.
Look, I really felt like Pink wasn't quite "it" for me. She has a lot of cool stuff going on, but it all felt, kinda separated from the rest of the crystal arc. Like it was just tacked on at the end, like a nonsequitor.
But if this is the vision? If Pink is supposed to represent someone who truly has just moved on, who lives normally, in spite of everything she knows... That's awesome. I love that.
I have hope now. I can see the Line. I don't know if it's the line Toby is taking, but... I can actually see it. I feel like there's a very real chance this happens.
Please.
Please Toby, make it so that Pink's Body is Freedompilled the whole time but just doesn't care.
Give us explicit confirmation that Pink's Body knows about the prophecy, the crystals, etc... but just never brings it up because it truly doesn't matter to her.
My life will be yours.
I have Hope that Pink can rise the ranks and become as awesome in my heart as the other Secret Bosses.
Even if you like Pink as she is... can you see the Vision? Does she not become more compelling if the Body knows all of these things but chooses to focus on New Hat and Long Knife and Eating Sand in spite of it?
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
After some deliberation, I have decided that Pink is in the INVITED, DID NOT SHOW UP category in my chart.
She received an invitation... but she didn't much care about any of it. She ate it. She says she always wanted to eat Mysterious Letter. No one can really tell if she actually knows what it was all about. It's perfectly normal for girls to do that, she says.
I see a lot of people torn between the Holiday home (because of its code and design of the place) and the hospital (because Rudy fell down) for the dark world of chapter 6, even suggesting that maybe it's both in the same chapter. But honestly? Knowing Carol, I feel like she would just demand the hospital staff to move their work and Rudy over to their home. (It might even be how we get to see more of their bedroom) Thus, we can have both the Holiday Ice Palace and Rudy revived via darkness.
I actually think we have evidence that Rudy is home.
When Noelle picks up the phone the first time, she says:
But think about what this means.
Surely, if Carol opened with "Come to the hospital, right now", Noelle's reaction wouldn't be "What? No, no, I can't right now...", surely Noelle is smart enough to realize that if she's being called to the Hospital, that Something Big is Happening.
I think this has to suggest that Rudy was taken home for hospice care. Maybe the hospital staff are working from there now, but, more likely, his condition is critical enough that there's nothing else that can be done.
The JP version of the "Fell down at the festival" line uses the same sort of phrasing as the Alarm Clock dialog does for Rudy having "fell down", which would support the idea that he has Fallen Down in a monster biology sense.
And, well...
Even in UNDERTALE, with actual magic and science working in tandem, a Fallen Down monster is effectively already dead.
So, it makes sense to transfer him home. There is nothing more that can be done for him.
The Holiday Manor Dark World is Real. Just as I foresaw...
