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
“i have to listen to my body’s needs” secret boss fight written by person who has chronic and disabling wrist pain which has fundamentally changed his relationship to his hobbies and his job <- i care it as someone who has also had chronic pain in my wrist/hand for 5 years
another thing i tend to think about with this. i also just think in chapter 5 there's a theme of care and dependency. the flowers have extreme guilt over being taken care of by asgore. flowery conceptualizes himself as weak and useless. in the dark world, his fantasy, he tries to return the care given to him to asgore to "make up for" asgore taking care of him when he should've died decades ago. it's an extreme example, but i also resonate with his feeling.
when your body or mind puts you in a situation where your reliance on other people becomes really explicit, you're trained by the world to see that as shameful or to see yourself as deficient. your efforts to ignore your needs just to avoid "being a burden," will leave you worse off. you punish yourself because of deeply internalized ableism.
regardless, even by virtue of being a living thing on this planet, you are already designed to need others. you have to listen to your body's needs even against a society that teaches you you shouldn't. you have to be okay with the fact that you have needs. sometimes your needs are different or are greater than the person next to you, and all you can do is listen to your body and turn to others when you need them. you're still a person when you need people.
when toby says this:
it's interesting to me how much he uses the language of deltarune to express this feeling. your hopes and dreams slipping away, and bitterness growing is literally the explanation we get for shadow crystals (and so wept the fallen star, making rivers with its tears. then, slowly, from the bitter water, something grew. it looked like glass). this is also the crushing feeling when you lose a sense of control when you're in pain, when you can't do things the way you want, the way you used to. but when you find yourself still able to fly, you do so because you've adapted. you've listened to your body. you've learned that listening to your body means changing the pace, letting yourself be cared for, letting yourself be helped.
as far as toby's said it, having to expand his team has made deltarune a better game. chapter 5 is so expansive because so many people helped to make it. Pink's fight has sprite work from guest artists, music with Camellia, bullets programmed by Toby's team. She is, to me, a love letter to Deltarune's development process as a whole and how it has shaped Toby, and a reflection of the kinds of thoughts Toby has shared with us about developing Deltarune alongside pain. I also think it's a beautiful follow-up to Gerson's themes of storytelling and authorship (letting go of "perfection" + accepting the contributions of others = both about rescinding control and embracing perseverance). Pink is also so much more than this, but I've been thinking about this a lot.
this is great meta! it also ties really wonderfully into the more obvious theme of nostalgia and an attempt to recapture some idealized time long past, and lends additional insight to that being reinforced by the semi-metatextual return to undertale and chapter 1 of deltarune!
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
I'm honestly surprised you still think Ralsei is the headband! Don't get me wrong, I was a Ralsei-Headbander all the way and I LOVE thinking about what it would mean for the themes and stuff. But Ch3 just makes it feel irreconcilable at this point, because of like 3 things:
1.) In Ch3 we get a lot of Darkners from Kris' past who know a lot about them, it really feels like Ralsei knows jack all about Kris.
2.) The Nefarious Devil Horned Red Headband Shaped Door Leading To The Eram Room
3.) Explains why Eram gets mistaken for Kris.
I'm super curious if there's angles I'm not considering for this, or stuff I'm not consciously aware of right now because there's just so much text in this game, if you're just Bigger Brained than me, etc.
(I'm gonna be honest Ralsei has such bad self-worth problems and just keep showing up mysteriously that I'm half convinced he's a mote of dust at this point, to reinforce the theme of characters being able to matter no matter how little someone thinks they themselves are or something? I'm not too good at this part)
the genuine thing is that thematically, eram is a terrible match for the red horns. the horns are a comforting fantasy of belonging, a way for a young Kris to be someone completely Unlike themself. eram is a huge pointed reminder of all the worst of what Kris sees of themself. eram is the dead opposite of the horns, to the point where if they are connected it'd have to be that the horns Broke or some shit. eram is the thing the horns let Kris Escape (which is why I believe in the mirror thing)
and Ralsei, like, it just sucks if this huge mystery of why he looks like a Dreemurr but not any of the actual dreemurrs and has these weird ties to the family while also being so distant is resolved with "he just chose that appearance right then, he's actually everyone's shadows/dust/a friendly titan/etc". bare minimum he is HEAVILY connected to Kris. I'm down for discarded drawing or whatever, hell im down for dream Kris had or Something, but horns are the Clearest most obvious symbol.
ralsei not being known by any of the ch3 Darkners could be as simple as the horns always being perceived as Part of Kris up until they were discarded. and Ralsei, um, absolutely knows a lot about Kris, he's just never saying shit,
basically end of the day: the Thematic elements are the most compelling thing to me, and I think "eram is this symbol of childhood innocence and Ralsei isnt even connected to Kris at all" is incoherent to me
I'm modifying my "ERAM is Dess" theory to include "the FRIENDs do her dirty work in the Dark World since she's stuck wherever" and "the Knight is a FRIEND that acts as her main agent, maybe even remotely controlled by her."
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
Beneath read more both because this is spoilers and: This is a long one.
Check out the "what I recommend" section if you just want to pick out sets.
So after defeating Pink, just down the road north of the room you entered in is a place filled with Flower Gear. You get Six different options, and can buy 3. This is a big choice, and one we'll have about year to ruminate on. So to make this easier let's split them into two groups.
The Gamer Gear
and The Gear That Makes Life Easier
So let's talk about them in an arbitrary order, with their individual stats listed in the order of Attack/Defense/Magic just like the in-game stat menu.
Starting with The Gamer Gear:
YellowHat - +4/4/4 & 20% bonus to magic. Armor.
This is THE catch all armor. Want Susie to deal like 600 damage with Rude Buster? Do you want a bonus that's (almost) TWICE as big as the bonus from MonarchRBN or BlueRBN to Ralsei's healing spells*? This can go anywhere for anything, if you're having trouble picking a third. This item is the Mystic Band, Power Band, and Waferguard all in one BEFORE it's special effect. The value from 3 pieces of armor in one is already insane. Just, don't waste it on Kris. They can't do magic, you know?
*the ribbons affect items and this hat doesn't, so that's a real decision you'll have to make.
BlueShoes +2/4/6 & 0% Cost Pacify. Ralsei Weapon.
I don't even care about the special effect here, even though it's really nice. Pacify is so cheap it's more for combining Rude Buster + Pacify in the same turn to get an enemy tired (attacks happen after spells so normal attacks can't do this) What I REALLY care about is the +6 magic holy CRAP*. Not only is that a huge boon to his healing, we're probably going to get attack magic on Ralsei soon. This is the damage weapon for Ralsei as soon as we get that spell. PuppetScarf is becoming it's very own JusticeAxe it seems...Also +4 defense is huge already, let alone from a weapon.
*including the gear here, there's only four gear pieces that even give +4 magic. This is the biggest boost to magic in the whole game
O. Glove +4/8/0 & 20% cost ScytheMare. Susie Armor.
So not only is this the highest attack boost you can get from armor in the game, it's also the most defense you can get. Even more than the GreenApron, which is dedicated to making someone as Tanky as possible. The thing is, it's restricted to Susie only. If you know how armor works in this game, it scales inversely with higher max HP because it's a ratio based on the damage you take. (Here's a video on stats by Soda Man. Don't listen to his gear advice for Jevil though.) But in short: 8 armor on Susie can be as effective as ~3 armor on Ralsei sometimes. So it won't be QUITE as insane as it looks until we fight someone who does over 200 damage a hit again.
That being said: "Hey do you want Rude Buster to do insane damage while giving Susie a really cheap way to spare an entire encounter?" It's probably my favorite armor right now. With the higher attack and cheaper spell, it's easier for the party to make the enemies tired by just attacking instead of going through an ACT or minigame.
(Stacking this with YellowHat is my go-to build on Susie atm)
I want to talk about this gear first, because like BlueShoes, it is THE HIGHEST MAGIC BOOST IN THE GAME. Except it's an armor that can be moved freely. With a passive bonus to The Entire Team. There is something to note though: You cannot graze to build TP while invincible. So if you want the extra magic for a Gamer Build™ then in a way, this is the most gamer of all. Just Don't Get Hit otherwise you'll miss out on even more TP than usual.
For normal people though, this is fantastic. I mean that seriously, making it less likely to get hit multiple times in a single turn is super powerful for anyone who gets hit often. Just don't waste the magic bonus by putting it on Kris.
GreenApron - +0/7/0 & Healing Defend. Armor.
Self-Healing on the turn where you also take 30% less damage is incredibly powerful. If you're someone who gets hit. The healing does 16% of your max HP, so on someone like Kris with 240HP they'll self-heal 38HP.
It seems cool to have the niche of Kris healing, but then you're not using a Team-ACT on that turn. Susie has the most health so she gets the biggest bonus from defending, but she also gets the smallest bonus from defense. Ralsei already has HealPrayer on the cheap and the lowest health he gets the smallest benefit from the heal.
I personally don't like it, but if you are someone who takes damage, seriously consider it even above or alonge side SethSpecs.
Somehow both the most and least interesting item here we have: the weapon that's bad at dealing damage. Kinda. Sorta. It's complicated. This one got kinda long actually. But it's not something I'd personally take.
See those boxes? That's the spot for the frame perfect attack input that gives you a x1.5 damage bonus. You'll notice Kris'ses is twice as big, that's because of the AquaKnife. That's still only a 2 frame window, but it's very useful for players with poor timing. Also every human on earth who isn't a robot. 1/30th of a second windows are always small enough for anyone to mess up, so changing it to a 1/15th of a second is a huge benefit. All that being said: If I'm a Gamer™ why would I ever use this over the BlackShard?
The BlackShard gives +16 attack, which is so much damage that even if I'm 1-frame late OR early I still get the x1.2 attack bonus. Which is more damage, right?! Well, only in a vacuum. If you compare the two weapons, a crit for 15-equivalent-attack from AquaKnife is a smaller number than just the base 16 attack from the BlackShard. But that's not accounting for the attack Kris already has, or gets from gear. As soon as you factor that in, the AquaKnife crit becomes more and more valuable as a tool for consistency. With only 17 base attack, AquaKnife criticals outpace the damage from a 1-frame-miss that BlackShard gives. Many a speedrunner has woes of missing crits against The Titan in Chapter 4 and losing runs from inputs 1 frame off...But this is only one aspect you should consider about this weapon.
It also gives +2 Whole Defense. This is twice as much defense as any other weapon in the game besides BlueShoes*. This means in every battle where you don't deal damage, this is automatically the best weapon for Kris to wield. Though: I wouldn't be surprised if Kris gets a weapon with +2 defense by the end of the game. But it wouldn't have those two other effects.
*wait a second, that's not blue!
"Wait, two effects?" That's right, AquaKnife has an unspoken benefit: Crits build more TP than normal attacks! This is incredibly useful in some fights like against The Titan, where landing a critical hit builds more TP than defending.* There's even a strategy in the Pink fight that would be much easier with its two-frame window, since attacks happen after ACTs, you can raise the TP cap before Kris attacks to generate more than defending if you're already at the limit. While every weapon can do this, the benefits of it being twice as easy are obvious. The usefulness of this when you could just Explode darkness enemies with the BlackShard...Are unknown. We don't know if slaying vs. purifying actually does anything yet. Or how many fights in the future will even benefit from this mechanic.
*the difference is actually so small you can't see it unless you land more than one crit in a turn. The TP bar is actually 250 points so 5 points is 2%, and you can have inbetween percents! It's cool and depthful!
What I Recommend
For the average player: BlueShoes + YellowHat or GreenApron or SethSpecs
The Shoes gives Ralsei so much defense and magic that if you're getting hit, you'll want him to stay alive longer and heal better anyways. You probably don't need to double-up on defensive picks, and it's not like The Hat gives low defense either.
For The Gamer™ Players: BlueShoes + O. Glove + YellowHat
They were all in the same section for a reason...Whether you use The Hat to double up on Ralsei's magic or Susie's damage is up to you. I prefer to put it on Susie, since The Glove doesn't give magic and Ralsei usually has the DealMaker already. If you're running a diehard PuppetScarf build, replace The Shoes with whatever you want.
For the I-Don't-Know-How-I-Got-This-Far-To-Be-Honest players: GreenApron + SethSpecs + BlueShoes or AquaKnife
I'd put The Apron on Kris, The Specs on Ralsei, and then depending on what you have trouble with more and how you're playing decide on either The Shoes or The Knife. Susie has the most HP, so for players who get hit a lot we don't need to worry about her as much as the other two lower health characters. If you like to conserve items and keep Ralsei alive to heal the party, The Shoes are the choice here. If you want to be prepared to fight but you know you're bad at timing the attacks, go with The Knife.
For the "Lore Accurate" Player: BlueShoes + O. Glove + AquaKnife
I don't know why you would do this. But yes those 3 items are the 3 restricted to a specific character.
Hey wait, what about Ralsei's Ultimate Scarf?
It has these stats. Apparently.
Maybe. As of the Fifth Chapter we can't equip it because Ralsei refuses before it breaks into this weaker form and isn't there to put it on later. Also it's bugged(?) to not show them in the stats menu so apparently Ralsei just decides to be stronger when using it. Unless his attack spell ends up scaling more with attack than magic, BlueShoes still has the advantage here.
While BrokenScarf has 2 more attack than even the PuppetScarf, it does have 1 less defense and half the magic of The Shoes. If you think you'll want that more than higher defense, magic and free pacify for a specific run, GreenApron is beloved by everyone except me it seems. Plus it doesn't have any hidden downsides like SethSpecs disabling Grazing for longer. But you know all that already I'm sure.
With that, the choice is now in your hands. Will you choose wisely?
young kris and noelle playing some multiplayer platformer when noelle gets bored and starts bonking into the invisible walls trying to clip out of bounds. kris kinda wants to keep playing but she ends up talking them into helping her. they finally manage and noelle is so excited by all the fucked up geometry and weird stuff, runs around exploring for hours. kris never manages to tell her that for days after they have nightmares about abrupt cuts in the ground leading to falls down to nowhere, light that shines from nowhere and everywhere, noelle juddering and glitching in place.
they don't tell her that they're thinking about those nightmares as she pulls them into ice-cold water.
Ramb feels like he intentionally throws out arc words to make you suspicious enough to come investigate, Aqua feels like her first words were penumbra phantasm and neither her friends nor herself knows what it actually means
like they are nonbinary. they use exclusively they/them. their presentation is completely gender neutral. even their more “gendered” looks when they do certain ACTs can be either a more fem or more masc version. at the end of the day its all headcanon i guess but idk it feels weird to me that i see people genuinely argue about this stuff sometimes
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
sincere question: how do takes where the soul in the game is Kris' original reconcile the game opening with gaster summoning that shit and trying to put it in a blank vessel. is gaster trying to kill kris. like this is fully sincere I might be missing something obvious it just feels so strange for the soul to show up as a Device Connection intended for a blank vessel and then it's. some teenagers original real soul
I'm more on the "red SOUL is NOT Kris's original" camp, but I have considered a scenario where Kris somehow learned/was told of the plan with the vessel and willingly gave up their SOUL to make things work. This was mainly inspired by Device Theory's discussion of the self-harm themes around the removal of the SOUL.
Chapter 6 prediction: when Noelle joins the party, Ralsei will introduce a system that allows the player to pick which three are active. He'll say that it's unfortunate, but there's just not enough "space" for all four of them at once.
...And then Susie goes "screw that" and singlehandedly creates a frontline/backline system so everyone can fit.
theartofmadeline
2087
yousharknotpass
amandla
kianamaiart
