Deltarune chapter 5 - not the story you asked for, but the story you needed to hear
I usually donβt write blog posts (who cares what some rando on the interwebs has to say anyhoo), buuuuut regarding the negative feedback that the 5th chapter of DELTARUNE is receiving lately, I thought Iβd throw my 5 (2?) cents into the discussion pool as well.
While I can see that the chapter is by far not as carefree or joyful as previous chapters (and theyβve become heavier in terms of seriousness anyway), Iβd still say it might be one of the best chapters so far in terms of storytelling and its core message, or messages. One could also say, chapter 5 is not a narrative/story that a lot of people WANT, but that a lot of us desperately need to hear in the times we are living in.
Other people have deciphered the point of the narratives already. Ralsei in a dress, falling (coming) out of the closet, the MewMew boss battle (still gotta do that one, missed it on my first playthrough), and Ralseis conflict with Flowery, who has no problems giving himself superpowers without a care in the world for what it might does in the long run, which Ralsei, a stickler to the rules for his whole life so far, cannot just ignore and detests with a passion.
Clearly, all of his is an allegory for what it means to be trans or on the LGBTQ spectrum, you can say, itβs quite blatant (and if there are really people who still hung on the fact that Ralsei is cis, what have you been smoking?). Iβm not saying that Rals *is* trans, I just say the narrative seems to heavily imply with its writing that this is a logical conclusion to what is going on in the story.
However, the power of DELTARUNE, and why I love itβs writing, is that while it is quite direct in certain ways, it still allows a lot of room for interpretations about its meaning. Yes, I see that chapter 5 is a parable for transness, but as I already said β the given aspects to me do not just work for someone who is trans.
It could easily just be a story about discovering that you are gay while you grew up in a conservative household for sure. But I think we can go even more broader then that.
Chapter 5 shows you that by all the rules given to you, you should not forget to dream and never give up your dreams as well, even if this might go, or does go, against said rules, or even if it seems that itβs pointless in the end to do so, because we are doomed to fail from the getgo, because it is *never* pointless to be a good person for yourself and the people around you in the end.
Flowery can be quite a douche to others, and is aware that he does not have a plan about how everything will end β quite possibly end badly! But he tries his best to be a good guy for the other flowers, the other darkners in the flower shop, as well as Asgore and for them to have a good time, so that they can live their lives in joy, even if only for a limited amount of time, and even though everything *seems* pointless in the end.
Is it pointless to know you make it possible for you and your friends to have a good time? Especially in the face of complete destruction?
These days, it is hard for many of us to stay cheerful, or even hopeful. I remember a friend telling me, completely defeated, that it just seems that humankind is evil, we are destroying the world around us, everything is just for the dumpster. We are burning to a crisp thanks to global warming β something known to us for ages, yet we still deny it or fight properly acting in the race of it -, people in charge do not care for the well-being of others, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, to have empathy for others is seen as a weakness,and to be as ass as a virtue, while people are filling their coffers with more money they could ever use in a million lifetimes, because thatβs all they learned to do in this world.
And yet. Even if we might cannot change this. Even if the upcoming years and decades will be quite bad for a lot, if not all of us. You must not just hold up these rules or possible outcomes as the great prophecy we all must life and suffer under. We are in this together. We are not dead yet. We can still dream. And we can still try to make our lives with the powers given to us a bit better. And even if we cannot rescue the whole world, maybe make it a better journey for those who are with us on this ride we didnβt ask for. And maybe, in this process, we will help other people in this process to discover their dreams as well, which will make life, in the end, better for them β even if, in the long run, some things will go down the drain that we just cannot control.
Why not try to make things better and live your dreams. Why not discover what you can be in a world, even if by the given rules, everything just seems to end in catastrophy?
And yeah, this is easier said then done, and not everyone of us can just go hypergod-mode and turn the world in a wonderful garden of flowers. The rules can actively harm us, and even make it harder for us to even dare to act against them. But just as we should not forget to dream, we should also not forget to hope, and not forget that just because some things seem to be written in stone, that said stones canβt be broken, or can be even wrong, or not the last thing we should think about when we act in our lives.
We shall continue to hope and dream. To live the best life we can.
And all of this got delivered to you in the story of conflict between an anime flower boy and a fluffy goat in a potato sack.
