Not Really a Goddess

with that said homestuck obviously isnt required reading for deltarune, i just think it can be useful as a sort of training tool for tobys approach to storytelling, especially when it comes to metanarrative and how its used to enhance already present themes and motifs

I would say most albeit not all, but overall yes you're right.

Not just in terms of how Homestuck makes use of metaphor, but in specific character and relationship beats that get... I don't want to say reused but remixed - such as Vriska's... everything with Kris, specifically the Tavris relationship influencing the Weird Route (down to "making you stronger"), Scratch with Gaster (putatively), Lil Cal with Spamton. Hell, Susie eating chalk is a Homestuck reference.

Like are we being dead ass

Just, all of it?

Like holy shit, we have no way of knowing if Toby MEANT to

But just look at all this:

The constant repeating of the general phrase "two [X] are better than one (three, not so much)"

The Mike Trio. Three people who all timeshare the identity of "Mike"

"I'm not feeling very Pluey today" like c'mon

Clover is literally three people in one body (with three heads even!)

Just constant references to things coming in groups of three

The entire Kris/SOUL thing of "two people in one body and one is with the antagonists, but they still both have to work together to survive"

Light World and Dark World Kris have different mannerisms and talents (ie. Dark World Kris flirts, Light World Kris does not)

Susie: "Sometimes they mumble, sometimes they yell" (talking about Kris's personality changes recently. She's cool with it, meanwhile their childhood friend probably thinks they're possessed, like a weirdo would)

Light World Kris quite literally SWITCHES into Dark World Kris after getting the egg in Mancountry (described by the Forgotten Man suggesting they "get dressed")

Also the above two are usually referred to as "green apple" and "blueberry" in fandom, with the SOUL as "red apple" 🍏🍎🫐

* (You wonder if Susie would recognize you if you changed to a different fruit) I'm going to fucking scream

These symbols: 🍏🫐🍎

Kris, Blue Kris, You

The Child, The Squire, The Fool

Light, Shadow, Penumbra(?)

Hopes, Dreams, Courage

Nostalgia, Fate, FREEDOM

@friendlyfrankenstein and @facefullabugz

Not only is this 100% safe to watch if you haven't played/seen chapter 5 yet (this came out over a year ago), but right from the beginning these two are willing to talk in depth about the characters, and that, while there is a meta story being told about how we interact with fiction, the role it plays in our lives, what it can do versus what it cannot, there is also a very deep and compelling story about these characters and their hardships, their pasts and their futures, and how they matter.

When you play a video game you play a character. Listen—Listen. This is not an isekai! This game is not ending like Omikron, nobody's gonna load in and go "OKAY PLAYER, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SAVING OUR BEAUTIFUL DELTARUNE! IT'S TIME FOR YOU, THE LITERAL HUMAN PLAYING THIS GAME TO GO BACK T—" No! And that's, that's in there, but if you take a look at this as more literal: Who is this? Who is this person who recognizes this house, who is this person who wants to look at everything? Who can talk to Sans and say "It's good to see you again?" Can talk to Undyne and ask her about Alphys? Who is this person who is a part of Kris, who right now IS Kris, who kinda does their best to act normal, but also to help people? That's interesting to me, because whoever this is, both of us are gonna wind up really loving our friends, and wanting to do right for them. And being absolutely ready to go back on our word to both of them and throw ourselves into the Sacrifice Machine if it gets Susie out of this goddamn narrative

It's just so refreshing to see this being talked about outside some limited circles on Tumblr. These guys are not on the "isn't it sad that we're puppeting this poor teenager and making them do Dark Deeds (hugging Ralsei)" train, and instead are approaching it as what I feel it has always been intended, as a partnership, as a roleplay exercise in "How do I play this part of someone I barely know, a part that is unfathomably powerful in some ways but utterly helpless in others? A part that is made to empathize with what is happening in their lives, to feel joys and sadness alongside them, but also made to feel isolated and hopeless when thrown in a cage with nothing to do about it"

So, I've been thinking about Noelle’s monologue at the lake.

Noelle’s had this feeling for a very long time. Like she’s a spectator in her own life. Like she’s unable to break free from herself. Like she can only do “Noelle things,” as if she’s just a background character. Or maybe… an NPC, in a video game.

(Noelle has always been obsessed with video games… their glitches, and secrets, and creepypastas. The chilly feeling she gets when they do something they’re not supposed to. When they… change.)

She longs to be somebody else. A different type of person. Someone with the power to change her life, change herself. She wants the power to make choices.

This power, I believe, is called Determination. 

(that is, the power to determine, to make determinations.)

It’s a power that Kris, somehow, has now. Kris found out how to change. How to stop being Kris. She can see it, only she can, because she’s felt herself missing it her whole life. This is why she’s the only one who could have taken the Weird Route with Kris.

The moment Kris became the Protagonist, the Hero of the Prophecy* (that is, the moment the game began), they were filled with Determination.

And then, in chapter 4, Kris grants that power to Noelle in the most invasive way possible. They jab a piece of their SOUL into her.

And the instant she gets that power, that single red dot of determination (“Thank… you…”) she stops having to take orders from Kris. She’s able to change the narrative, and go against Kris' orders, when before (on the couch, for example) she was frozen. Determination is the power to make choices, and when you have less of it, you follow the leader. In chapter 5, Noelle uses that power to force Kris into the lake. She ignores their protests, she leads them. She takes away their power to choose, metatextually forcing them into the role of “party member.”

She Determines the path the story takes.

The power of Determination is what allows Noelle to break the game, and cross the lake. It’s what will allow her to break the Prophecy.

And!! In the normal route, we see the flipside of this!!

Susie, chapter by chapter, is pushing Ralsei to think for herself. She pushes her to ACT on her own (chapter 2), to tell them the truth (chapter 4), to use her skills with the team and not wait for Kris’ input (chapter 5). She’s… organically developing/overcoming the power of Determination, forcing Ralsei the Living Tutorial NPC** to make choices regardless of Kris (the Protagonist, who the Prophecy has ordained is the only one allowed to Choose), through the sheer power of friendship and optimism.

Both the weird route and the normal route involve ways of gaining the power to break the Prophecy. There is, after all, Only One Ending. But there’s "something more important than reaching the end" : the choice between cruelty and kindness, even if in the end it might not change anything (exactly like the choice that exists in every battle: even if sparing or fighting enemies won’t change the ending of the game like in Undertale, we are still asked to choose between cruelty and kindness. So it is in battle, and so it is for the choice between normal route and weird route).

Maybe our choices don’t matter. Maybe there’s a grand plan above that says we all die tomorrow no matter what. But even if that’s true, says Deltarune, there is still meaning in the way we treat one another.

*P.S. - Kris is the hero of the prophecy now. Chapter 5 (specifically, Asgore’s notes) has lead me to believe that Kris was not necessarily the first hero of the prophecy. There may have been a previous group of heroes, including Dess. Perhaps they failed (an event resulting in Dess’ disappearance), and then years later, the Prophecy picks out three more poor children to take on the mantle of Delta Warriors. A pointless cycle of tragedy and conflict. A lot like Cucumber Quest, a webcomic Toby Fox was a big fan of, whose author is on the Deltarune team. I could write... probably a lot more about the parallels between Deltarune and Cucumber Quest (namely about the rules of the world functioning as a game while still having real and heavy consequences for its participants, and the weird conflicts that contrast causes).

**P.P.S - I called Ralsei the “Living tutorial NPC,” because... that’s what she is, right? She’s the helpful tutorial NPC, who became self-aware. She tells you how to work each and every game mechanic as it appears, and has helpful hints for every puzzle, but in order to do all of that, she necessarily has to know about everything that's going to happen in advance. That's ... what the Prophecy is. It's the rules of the game, which she has to teach you. 

They're such a sweet and devoted... little turncoat. Like. You wanna talk mirrors to Kris? Seth straight up betrays Flowery. Seth lets the gang out of jail. Seth provides heals in the final battle with their bullet patterns. But Seths also... loyal. Seth never stops trying to stop the gang, or writing something better for Asgore to read, and Flowery so, so genuinely is. Clearly very fond of them, in turn...?

Which. Fascinates me. Because Flowery is so... not exactly hard on Kris. But so knowing about them. But then... doesn't seem to mind at all if Seth wants to do these things. Fondness? Favoritism? Too caught up with Asgore to notice...? ...honestly my read is he just. Really does believe in freedom, and wants his flowers to be able to do what they want.

Everyone. Really. Did we not play the same game?

Did we all not see this during the Jackenstein and Titan Spawn fights? And then the red heart lights up?

And it doesn't stop there, far from it

You know, at some point the gender stuff could be dismissed as just potentially unintended subtext. But this feels pretty...textual.

as though toby fox does not ever use minigames to convey major story beats. as though Ralsei's metafictional transition from tutorial character to hero to person was not intricately tied with her status as a character who explains and interacts with GAME ELEMENTS.

you look! fucking! stupid! it makes you look stupid! even if this scene is optional, that doesn't explain everything else. I'm tired of pretending to be nice to people who just "have a different opinion" about the existence of a trans character in a work that has been queer from the start.

"I'm not transphobic, I just think--" you got internal biases and that's fine! we all do! but this has gotten stupid and my patience is at a limit.