As the world falls, I sink upwards.

I think it's a really cool take on non-Deltarune "Weird route"!

For the most part it's well executed and my favorite parts are the small bits that imply that Red/Green are unwillingly being controlled by the player.

Point is: The Weird Route is a good demonstration of 'don't fight fate, trust the process'. But not really game breaking...maybe. Chapter 5's version might lead to something really wacky.

I think FRLG.ips, with its focus on glitches and sequence breaking, does a better job at communicating the idea of 'doing something the game doesn't expect'. Things really do start breaking down as you go along, characters start acting weird and outside their assigned roles. So while it's not as good as judging you morally for your actions, it does feel like you're doing something you REALLY shouldn't.

I do agree that the Sailor's story role was pretty derivative. It's pretty awkward to have this random NPC start acting like an important player. as opposed to Sans who does stick around a lot and shows he's at least a recurring, proper story NPC. But I do think the way his battle is structured, with several Pokemon immune to Abyss and quite a few stall tactics, is actually a good translation of the Sans fight. Sans is meant to be annoying and rendering all your stats and equipment useless because his fight is one half attempting a ragequit out of you and one half him kicking you in the crotch repeatedly for catharsis. So having a character nullify the one move you've been relying on and draw the fight out to make it as frustrating as possible is a great way of translating that fight to Pokemon's battle system. I honestly think it should have been the Gym guy, have him comment on the oddities. But I do have to admit, there is a payoff in the normal route for another infamous Gen 1 rumor.

Edit: Oh fuck, I forgot why I even sent this ask.

If anything I think it's the EXACT OPPOSITE of a "planned punishment" route because the narrative very frequently hammers in that the game itself seems to be caught off guard whenever you pursue it, and makes it ridiculously easy to get off of the route, to the very point where even a slight deviation at any given moment will force you out of it- most notably in Chapter 5 where the game almost physically tries to stop you since you need to constantly spam choos one option at a point.

There is no "planned punishment" and any horrible thing that happens just so happens to be a consequence of breaking the sequence.

It has all the hallmarks of an RPG speedrun, funnily enough highly reminscent of Pokemon speedruns (Chapter 5 Weird Route Spoilers):

I always thought of it as, again, forcing your will onto the game like you did in Genocide in Undertale. And just like in Genocide, you don't actually defy anything. The game knows you can do the Weird Route, it shows you in Chapter 3. I saw the opportunities to leave the route, in particular in Chapter 4, as the game going 'I am giving you a chance here, take it. By the time you reach Chapter 5, the game throws up its hands and goes 'fuck it, here. Take your alternate path' and now you lose all gameplay in both Chapter 5 AND 6. Which becomes immensely unsatisfying and shows you didn't listen. There's only 1 ending: your choices don't matter. I think it lines up well with Chapter 5's secret boss, Pink, a parallel with Kris and the SOUL...except you, the player, failed Kris. Comes to a head in Chapter 5 with that decision, where your last chance to avert tragedy is to just let Kris decide.

But your points are pretty close to how things play out. The route is very oddly obtuse for such a thing to happen, way more than Genocide, the connections with Spamtom do give it a more...glitchy vibe and the decision in Chapter 5 does really callback to the most common exploit in speedrunning. But I think another element really ties my point together: The secret bosses and their theme of freedom.

By their very name and nature, the bosses aren't meant to be fought normally. You can go the whole game without fighting Jevil or Spamtom NEO and lose nothing but some equipment and they're all out of the way in a way that's like the Weird Route, with their own backtracking and stuff. Very common for RPGs, I know. But uncovering these 'secrets' are themselves expressions of you trying to enforce your will. But this time, it's implied that you're meant to be doing these fights. They all provide attention context or important lessons for the game. Jevil foreshadows Queen and gives more details on the Knight. Spamtom shows you just how futile your quest for freedom is. The Knight gives you a weapon that aids in Chapter 4. Gerson especially teaches you the proper way to fight the game. And I don't think it's a coincidence that Chapter 5's boss, Pink, teaches you to trust and work with Kris. Which, if you did to get to that point, you'd never reach the Weird Route.

He's a fictional red echidna who wears boxing gloves and stands on two legs. No one is going to fuck a fictional red echidna who wears boxing gloves and stands on two legs. It is impossible to fuck a fictional red echidna who wears boxing gloves and stands on two legs.

They all act like the West Bank is part of Israel, while simultaneously being viewed as occupied foreign territory.

... I can't quite express how stupid this is. Citizens of foreign countries have never gotten citizenship rights in ANY country across the planet. Not one. Why would citizens of the West Bank be granted the rights of an Israeli citizen??? They aren't Israeli citizens. Part of the West Bank being occupied by Israel doesn't change that.

Instead of working together to erase it, we see too much of either:

Making ones status as "oppressed" an identity to cling to instead of an injustice to resolve...

OR

Seeking only to switch places between oppressor and oppressed, continuing the same dynamic while self-righteously pretending that this vengeance is justice and that the crime is any different depending on the identity of the perpetrator and the identity of the victim.

The social media platform X announced that it was complying with a Turkish court order to block access to the presidential candidacy account of imprisoned Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, which has around 225,700 followers.

According to a copy of the order posted by X on Wednesday, an Istanbul court ordered the platform to restrict access domestically to Imamoglu's account to protect national security and public order.

However, X said that it is challenging the order in court. "Although Türkiye's laws force us to comply with the order, we are challenging the order in court and, in the spirit of full transparency, are sharing the court order," it said.

Imamoglu's main X account already blocked

Elon Musk has sought to portray X as a defender of free speech since taking control of the company in 2022 but he has drawn criticism for having done away with dedicated measures for content moderation.

In May 2025, Imamoglu's main X account, which had nearly 10 million followers, was blocked in Turkey under a similar order. At the time, X also filed a legal challenge against the order, arguing against the restriction.

"Our challenge against this order remains pending before the Constitutional Court, awaiting a decision following our recent legal filings," X said.

X said that that failing to comply with these orders could result in severe sanctions, including the throttling of its services in Turkey.

Who is Ekrem Imamoglu?

Ekrem İmamoglu, the popular former mayor of Istanbul, is the main political rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Imamoglu had his university degree revoked on March 18, 2025, before being arrested on terrorism and corruption charges a day later. His arrest sparked Turkey's largest protests in over a decade.

I think it's a really cool take on non-Deltarune "Weird route"!

For the most part it's well executed and my favorite parts are the small bits that imply that Red/Green are unwillingly being controlled by the player.

Point is: The Weird Route is a good demonstration of 'don't fight fate, trust the process'. But not really game breaking...maybe. Chapter 5's version might lead to something really wacky.

I think FRLG.ips, with its focus on glitches and sequence breaking, does a better job at communicating the idea of 'doing something the game doesn't expect'. Things really do start breaking down as you go along, characters start acting weird and outside their assigned roles. So while it's not as good as judging you morally for your actions, it does feel like you're doing something you REALLY shouldn't.

I do agree that the Sailor's story role was pretty derivative. It's pretty awkward to have this random NPC start acting like an important player. as opposed to Sans who does stick around a lot and shows he's at least a recurring, proper story NPC. But I do think the way his battle is structured, with several Pokemon immune to Abyss and quite a few stall tactics, is actually a good translation of the Sans fight. Sans is meant to be annoying and rendering all your stats and equipment useless because his fight is one half attempting a ragequit out of you and one half him kicking you in the crotch repeatedly for catharsis. So having a character nullify the one move you've been relying on and draw the fight out to make it as frustrating as possible is a great way of translating that fight to Pokemon's battle system. I honestly think it should have been the Gym guy, have him comment on the oddities. But I do have to admit, there is a payoff in the normal route for another infamous Gen 1 rumor.

Edit: Oh fuck, I forgot why I even sent this ask.

If anything I think it's the EXACT OPPOSITE of a "planned punishment" route because the narrative very frequently hammers in that the game itself seems to be caught off guard whenever you pursue it, and makes it ridiculously easy to get off of the route, to the very point where even a slight deviation at any given moment will force you out of it- most notably in Chapter 5 where the game almost physically tries to stop you since you need to constantly spam choos one option at a point.

There is no "planned punishment" and any horrible thing that happens just so happens to be a consequence of breaking the sequence.

It has all the hallmarks of an RPG speedrun, funnily enough highly reminscent of Pokemon speedruns (Chapter 5 Weird Route Spoilers):

I always thought of it as, again, forcing your will onto the game like you did in Genocide in Undertale. And just like in Genocide, you don't actually defy anything. The game knows you can do the Weird Route, it shows you in Chapter 3. I saw the opportunities to leave the route, in particular in Chapter 4, as the game going 'I am giving you a chance here, take it. By the time you reach Chapter 5, the game throws up its hands and goes 'fuck it, here. Take your alternate path' and now you lose all gameplay in both Chapter 5 AND 6. Which becomes immensely unsatisfying and shows you didn't listen. There's only 1 ending: your choices don't matter. I think it lines up well with Chapter 5's secret boss, Pink, a parallel with Kris and the SOUL...except you, the player, failed Kris. Comes to a head in Chapter 5 with that decision, where your last chance to avert tragedy is to just let Kris decide.

But your points are pretty close to how things play out. The route is very oddly obtuse for such a thing to happen, way more than Genocide, the connections with Spamtom do give it a more...glitchy vibe and the decision in Chapter 5 does really callback to the most common exploit in speedrunning. But I think another element really ties my point together: The secret bosses and their theme of freedom.

By their very name and nature, the bosses aren't meant to be fought normally. You can go the whole game without fighting Jevil or Spamtom NEO and lose nothing but some equipment and they're all out of the way in a way that's like the Weird Route, with their own backtracking and stuff. Very common for RPGs, I know. But uncovering these 'secrets' are themselves expressions of you trying to enforce your will. But this time, it's implied that you're meant to be doing these fights. They all provide attention context or important lessons for the game. Jevil foreshadows Queen and gives more details on the Knight. Spamtom shows you just how futile your quest for freedom is. The Knight gives you a weapon that aids in Chapter 4. Gerson especially teaches you the proper way to fight the game. And I don't think it's a coincidence that Chapter 5's boss, Pink, teaches you to trust and work with Kris. Which, if you did to get to that point, you'd never reach the Weird Route.

This made me think of this one Star Trek TNG episode, When the Bough Breaks.

The people of Aldea have been cared for by a supercomputer they call The Custodian for centuries. It provides everything they need, cares for them when they’re sick, feeds and clothes them etc. All the Aldean people need to do is pursue whatever artistic hobbies they feel like. (They don’t even really do that with any true skill, either. They have tools that allow them to bypass the learning and skill development stages and just instantly be experts at everything they do or try. Which honestly sounds like it would get super boring after like ten minutes. They’re basically living in godmode 24/7.)

Anyways, they get to a point where they realize their bodies can’t reproduce anymore, and it’s been about 20 or so years since any baby was born on their planet. So they SOS call the Enterprise to come help them and ask for their kids. The Aldean’s reasoning is “well we can’t have kids anymore, but you guys can, so give us all your kids and you can just make some more!” Which of course is shot down immediately by Picard.

So, the Aldeans, used to getting everything they want, whenever they want, simply transport all the ships kids down to their planet and throw up a shield so they can’t be transported back. Picard is like “WTF” and the Aldeans are like “it’s fine, we’ll love them like our own! Go away now please”

Anyways, while Wesley is trying to figure out how to play hostage negotiator and also keep the kids spirits up, he gets introduced to The Custodian. He asks the old woman who wants to be his new mommy “how does the custodian work? What’s its main power source?” And Grandma Mommy rolls her eyes and says “Wesley, the Custodian takes care of all our needs. It always has. Why does it matter how it works?” Wesley responds “well, what if it breaks?” and Grandma Mommy kind of shrugs and says “well it’s never broken before”

And we realize that this whole race of people’s entire existence hinges on a massive AI that’s slowly running out of power, and nobody on the planet has any clue that there’s even anything wrong, let alone how to repair it. They’re just floating through space living like a bunch of spoiled toddlers. If the Custodian shut down, none of them would even know how to tie their space shoelaces, let alone cook a meal or grow crops or find clean drinking water or build a shelter.

Problems with breaking bad habits and behaviors also show the same issues. Punishing the symptoms of a larger issue does not ever heal the initial wounds. In order to wsnt to see the change you want in the world you have to encourage other people that there's something worth it in growth, and not focus on criticism and shame or the same mistakes will continue to repeat. You don't have to put a lot of effort into people who have bad habits, Instead of saying criticism, it's best to say "there's a better world out there and I want you a part of it."

Even just a little encouragement that tells others (and yourself in that regard) they have a future, encourages people to grow and live.

White people can learn to be a part of a larger more diverse world and find meaning and joy in supporting their friends and raising voices and being a part of a community.

Men can learn to be part of a larger and more diverse world finding meaning and joy in supporting their fellow humans, raising voices, and being a part of a community.