deltarune doodle dump

1) How does Swatch survive the weird route, if they were 'trapped' in the cafe alongside the Swatchlings?

In my opinion, the 'shopkeeper always survives' defense is weak here, because Swatch doesn't show up at all in the weird route Cyber World, but somehow, they still appear in the Castle Town Cafe at the end of the chapter.

It would technically make sense for Swatch to survive the weird route if they were MS Paint, since it is built into the operating system. But another built-in utility is Task (Tasque) Manager, and she goes un-recruited in the weird route. Shouldn't she be in castle town regardless, if she's a built-in program?

With this theory, Swatch is spared because GPUs are a physical piece of hardware, not digital software like MS Paint or Task Manager. Swatch is permanently connected to Queen (especially if they are the laptop's integrated GPU), so where she goes, they go.

Also, I don't personally believe that Swatch was stuck in the cafe on the weird route. If they were still in the mansion at that point, they would've kicked Rouxls' and then Spamton's scheming asses out immediately. I like to think they were out in the city assisting Queen in finding/helping Noelle (and attempting to find Berdly).

2) I also think the Color Cafe itself is the art program.

Above all, their main priority is to dote upon Queen. And based on Swatch's wording, the Color Cafe seems to be more of a fun hobby/side-hustle than the main component of their role as head butler. This checks out, if they truly are a GPU responsible for multiple programs. However, I would imagine that the laptop's paint app is the most commonly used creative program, so they would end up spending a lot of time there regardless.

3) I think the Swatchlings serve under Swatch in the same way that Tasques serve under Tasque Manager. Since they do a variety of tasks besides just color coordinating, I like to think of Swatchlings as the toolbar options on various GPU-intensive software.

This helps explain why, when the cafe is blocked, they are 'trapped' inside. You could even say the paint program had 'frozen', if you want to play into the chilling themes of the weird route.

4) One piece of evidence that could contradict this whole theory is Spamton referring to Swatch as an 'easel'... but then again, an easel holds and displays images, just like a GPU does (but in digital format, instead).

I think 'canvas' would've been a more fitting term for him to use, if Swatch were just an art program. And then there would've been alliteration in [canvases] and [CRTs], too... it may be overanalysis, but easel seems like an intentionally vague word choice. So vague that some people don't even think it refers to Swatch! They might be right, who knows. Maybe real mike is an easel. Call that Michelangelo 🥁🥁💥

Bonus headcanon: With every new GPU-heavy software downloaded onto the laptop, Swatch gains the power/abilities of that program. I like the idea that Swatch helped to design and build Cyber City (and Queen's mansion, and her giant robot, the list goes on) because programs like AutoCAD or SketchUp were installed on the laptop!

Bonus BONUS headcanon (this one is stupid lol): You know how I mentioned GPUs also run video games? What if Swatch is a secret epic gamer?? They do smash melons and barrels for Queen's entertainment... And maybe Queen wasn't lying when she said she only plays mobile games (aka low intensity browser games... the ones that use CPU over GPU). She's a backseat gamer haha

I think I'm onto something! Or this could all be wrong and Swatch really is just MS Paint with the wisdom, misfortune, and sparse but fascinating lore of most utdr shopkeepers lol

...Or Toby will announce we're all wrong and that Swatch and the Swatchlings are actually the LCD laptop screen and the color filters within it :´)