I want to share my thoughts on some people saying that they felt like Ralsei's and Susie's characters were off this chapter because I heavily disagree and would like to hear your thoughts.
I'll start with Ralsei because I think this is easier to address. I've heard people say he was uncharacteristically mean to Orange for no good reason and I disagree but understand the sentiment. He's had his buttons pushed all day by Flowery and the growing dread and despair of the prophecy. Of course he's running out of patience! And during the Orange and Green fight he is trying to calm her down and relate to her, but his emotional intelligence is lacking. This isn't new to chapter 5 because we see in chapter 4 he does this to Susie with her healing abilities. He doesn't mean to push her to the side and invalidate her efforts, it happens because he's so focused on the outcome and not the people around him. And while I agree that he went too far in the dialogue that happens before Pink's fight, he again has had his buttons pushed all day, and Orange has antagonised him too! And he's relatively new at being a person so of course he takes feeling anger a bit too far, he's never been pushed this much before! I feel that these behaviors are still very much in character because he's still finding himself (potential herself), and that comes with growing pains.
I've seen even more wild takes about Susie. The main ones I want to address are that she's becoming too feminine and is losing aspects of her identity and becoming "Noelle's Girlfriend" which means she's acting out of character. I think what many people are mistaking is that Susie is not losing aspects of herself, she is gaining them! We know that she always puts up defensive aggressive walls as a defense mechanism. She's always felt like she's had to be tough to survive. As the game progresses she gets more comfortable with Kris, Ralsei, and Noelle she's able to bring down her walls and try things like tea parties and ribbons! This is not a reduction of her character but character growth! And as someone with a boyfriend, a partner getting you to try new things can be exciting and helps you expand your horizons! I never would have watched Battlebots if not for him but now I love it! Susie wanting to try wearing ribbons isn't Noelle ruining Susie's development, she's getting her girlfriend to push her boundaries, which is pretty normal and healthy!
I know I'm preaching to the choir but I love how you really grasp the nuances of these characters, so hopefully you can back me up here! Sorry this was so long, but I've really been stewing on this. Thank you for understanding the story and themes so well!
Yup, I pretty much agree with all of that and more. I don't think Ralsei or Susie were out of character this chapter, it all felt like progression based on things we've been setting up in the previous chapters.
Ralsei is not only on edge from the prophecy and (we now know) knowing that Kris has made this fountain, but he's also learning how to be more of a person...and that includes being angry, or petty, or just plain wrong about people! He's moving away from Character Archetype and more towards Actual Person With Faults and that's a good thing! Heck, even if he was being really condescending towards Orange, it's not a complete surprise. I love Orange; she's my favorite of the flowers, but she was absolutely being a total brat to Ralsei and it's not shocking he'd snark back after getting a taste for it.
And sigh, I figured some fandom folks would turn on Susie again at some point in the story, but I guess I didn't expect it to be for something as mundane as this. But yes, Susie is expanding who she wants to be, and is trying new things! Heck, I don't even expect the ribbons thing to last...Noelle would probably prefer her less feminine, and if you make Susie equip the red ribbon, she immediately feels off with it and wears it as an armband instead. She just wears the ribbon Flowery gave her briefly because it catered towards her interests by being spiky (and let's be real, because this was part of a greater trend of Flowery pissing off Ralsei). Either way, she's learning to be vulnerable and trying things she may or may not like, which is something that's been deeply important to her for awhile!
But yeah, I didn't think the character writing was off for either of them here. This all felt like natural progression based on what's come before, and I enjoyed it!
