Huh?

This account is purely to store my random takes about a bunch of stuff. I can get into discussions over it, love discussing, but not to the point of arguing. Sometimes, I just lost my random ass shower thought shit too.

MHA spoilers about Hifumi Toga

For being the character who ties with Mineta as being the most rapey feeling character (grape boy gets no passes but at least NOBODY liked him for it), she really was allowed the easiest route out.

I think Toga’s sacrifice in the final season of MHA is probably one of the worst writing tropes that I will never ever like; the ultimate sacrifice in place of genuine redemption.

It’s the laziest, most disrespectful trope I’ve ever had the displeasure of experiencing in media.

Engineering a scenario in which the villain is allowed to commit an act of sacrifice that ends their life to save/help the heroes is absolutely bottom tier writing.

You essentially saddle the recipient/s of the sacrifice with the unrepayable debt of a death, no matter the horrific actions they’ve done beforehand, and completely escaping from the intended consequences of their actions by going out on their own terms.

I understand the angle of, Toga was one of those people with a quirk that fell through a crack in society because nobody bothered to coach her through it and that ultimately she was only led to villainy because of that. But like… she murdered a ton of people. And also helped facilitate in tons of other murders by being a league member. And is very rapey.

Genuinely believe that she should’ve been turned into a stain on the ground. Painfully. She of all people did not deserve a peaceful death where she got what she wanted.

If that’s too much though, I would’ve been fine if she just didn’t get her last laugh. I never like it when a villain essentially traps their victims in a state of “well, she was terrible in every single way possible… but she did save my life/saved our lives”. I was already fine with them going “This isn’t about forgiving. This is about understanding her.” And like, cool. I’m down for that. I just wish that Toga could’ve been treated the same way as the other villains, being that they’re understood, but they faced the consequences.

She faced nothing. And I don’t like it.

- requires a surplus of energy (crystals/mega stones)

- requires strong emotions (bond with trainer/worship)

Ysale 100% mega evolved into Shiva.

And no, I refuse to believe any of the multiverse lore about mega evolution. Mega Evolution literally could’ve just been an irregular phenomenon first discovered when the godlike power of Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza was met with the fervent worship of early humans, creating their primal forms.

OF COURSE BERDLY’S MOM IS A TEACHER.

WHAT IS THE WORST POSSIBLE WAY FOR A GIFTED CHILD™️ TO FEEL THE SUPREME BURN OF EXPECTATION? WHAT KIND OF PARENT (as potentially evidenced by Queen’s ignoring of Berdly) WOULD BE THE KIND TO BE NEGLECTFUL AND ABSENT TO HIM WHEN FACED WITH THE TRUTH OF HIS TRUE LEVEL OF INTELLIGENCE?

BERDLY SHOWED ONE STROKE OF INTELLIGENCE, WAS PUT ON A PEDESTAL, AND STRUGGLED LIKE FUCKING HELL ONCE HE WAS ON IT. AND HIS MOM SAW IT ALL AND WOULDN’T LET HIM OFF IT.

Holy fucking shit, she probably realized soon that Berdly’s good performance was super dependent on getting help from Noelle and start to wish that he were more like Noelle. She grew disappointed in him for not meeting a precedent, and ignored his actual need for extra tutoring, letting that task get foisted onto Noelle.

Like, when Undertale first came out, I didn’t have any money to actually buy and play it. In fact, I only ever found out about it because Jacksepticeye played it and I watched his whole series of it. I never had a genuine authentic experience of Undertale, and I felt kinda left out because of how I hear how the game genuinely changed people who experienced it blind.

Then, Deltarune came out. I couldn’t play Chapter 1 and experienced it through playthroughs again, but when Chapter 2 came out with its free demo? I finally experienced something of it blind, and I loved it so much. I fell in love with the characters, the story and everything. And that was just a taste of how I felt when Chapter 3 and 4 came out, because I finally had the money to buy it for real. And playing through 3 and 4 blind? It was like magic. I think I finally felt it. That attachment? That passion to theorize? The itch of wanting to know what comes next? I felt it. I had characters I saw myself in and love, and characters I can’t wait to see more of.

There’s such a massive debate between Toriel being flawed and overly shitting on her. Meanwhile, the majority of the fandom just collectively agrees that Asgore doesn’t deserve any of that same nuance. What a goddamn joke. I love goat mom, but it’s hard seeing people pull cards and shit, talking about how Toriel is “being demonized because of Chapter 4 while Asgore gets a pass” WHEN HIS ENTIRE IDENTITY IN THE FANDOM HAS BEEN BEING THE GODDAMN PUNCHING BAG FOR ALL OF THE PATHETIC JOKES.

And now everyone’s saying that Toriel’s right that Asgore should’ve stuck to killing one kid then heading to the surface for the rest.

HUH?

Okay so we’re cool with killing the single kid, then heading to the surface to kill 6 other humans. And then what? Was everyone expecting to monsters to be able to live on the surface after their king just comes and fucking kills 7 humans???

SAY IT WITH ME FOLKS!

“I CAN’T READ, I’M AN UNDERTALE FAAAAAAAAAN!”

Toby literally spelled his goddamn backstory out in Chapter 2, and we basically have Berdly’s design document on how he acts as a character.

Let me be clear though, if you don’t like Berdly cause he’s annoying or his trope (incompetent at intellectual) isn’t your cup of humorous tea, you’re 100% valid.

If I see someone who still says stuff like Berdly’s an incel or something as far out as that, I’m just going to assume they’ve planted themselves securely under the meme of UTDR fans can’t read.

Berdly:

- is a Gifted Child™️ (spelled out in his backstory)

- clings onto people who show him the slightest bit of kindness (He developed a crush on Susie after she gave him that pep talk about him not needing to be pressured to act smart. Can you imagine if she was the first person to ever actually say that to him?)

- projects an outward facade of bravado and EXTREME confidence to mask his EXTREME insecurity (again, explained in his backstory)

AGAIN, if that facade makes you dislike him, FAIR! We have no further context and he hasn’t been present enough to endear the audience any further! That’s FAIR! I also understand if you dislike him because of him assuming Noelle had a crush on him, but also, please don’t make that out to also be incel evidence. He’s a teenager with really shitty social skills.

I think it’s pretty ridiculous how everyone’s doubled down on the Soul/Player being an evil entity in this story ever since Chapter 3 and 4 came out. This is of course, not considering the Weird Route.

It’s like we didn’t get a single additional drop of nuance to that conversation handfed to us by Toby himself.

Now, to be clear, I’m not trying to be those people who say “Kris is evil and I’m actually the good guy here!” As I said, Toby airdropped us some quality nuance in both of the new chapters.

The nuance lies in how our relationship as the Player with Kris is a transactional one. One where we have apparently been gotten ahold of due to our ‘necessity’ according to the phone call.

Yes, Kris dislikes us and takes measures to incapacitate and contain us when they need us to not see whatever they’re doing, or just because they want a break from us. Or both, as seen with Noelle’s house.

But consider, Kris is not a bad person. They’re a bit of a problem child, but they’re not malicious. I don’t believe that they would actually be going along with a fundamentally malicious plan, even if they were coerced. This means that they must have some sort of personal stake in the plan that Team Knight is trying to pull off, whether it’s helping to find/purify Dess, or supporting Rudy or Carol (in the event either of them are the knight).

Kris has shown that whatever plan they’re a part of, it’s worth acting as double agent against Susie and Ralsei, AND taking on the Soul within themselves. Which, let’s get back to.

I highly highly doubt that Kris legitimately hates the Soul. I personally believe that they dislike us, sure, but in the way that one would dislike a grueling responsibility that saps someone of their time and energy. You don’t like that this is something you have to do, but you know that you HAVE to do it, for the sake of something down the road.

I think that the sentiment that Kris is a pure victim who’s being abused by the antics of the soul and that they don’t get to eat or whatever and we’re so shitty, I feel like shit, BLAH BLAH BLAH, it’s all a load of BS.

We were summoned from whoever we came from in the void, and taken into Kris willingly to achieve whatever it is Team Knight wishes to achieve (which I have a theory for if you check out my previous post). The process is strenuous and exhausting, but in exchange, allows Kris to do things such as sealing dark fountains and banishing darkness, something no one else can do.

I firmly believe that in the coming chapters, our relationship with Kris will finally evolve, especially once Susie realizes that she befriended two different people (Kris as a person, the Soul’s actions) and was betrayed by Kris working with the Knight. We will break up with Susie (not in that way) and leave us alone with Kris, who we will have to make peace with so that we could understand them and fight together for the same good, after which we will have to confront Susie and try to get her back on Kris’ side.

Toby believes in media, and especially games, as vessels for hope and empowerment, and that people can always do the right thing.

I don’t know about anyone else, but no matter who is the knight; Dess, Rudy, Carol, etc, whatever, I only want one thing.

I don’t want an ounce of heroic nuance thrown their way.

I genuinely don’t want The Knight to end up like every other villain who turned out to be attempting to achieve a good goal despite their villainous and harmful actions; where they’re “saved” in some way by the end and have to essentially sacrifice themselves to redeem all their past actions.

I do NOT want that, not again. I’ve had enough of stories who grant free passes to characters who commit evil to achieve some kind of good by turning them into martyrs that everyone has to owe their lives/everything to at the end. I want justice, goddamnit.

Martyrdom isn’t justice. It’s the coward’s way out, the easy way into the halls of heaven.

Whoever The Knight is, they’ve already caused some harm, and has shown to be willing to stoop even further. And whenever they do get revealed, they have to pay for their actions. Not run away from them. There have to be consequences.

GENERAL SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE GAME SO FAR

WHAT IF TEAM KNIGHT’S PLAN IS TO TRAIN THE SOUL TO BE STRONG ENOUGH TO BANISH THE KNIGHT’S (AKA DESS) DARKNESS?

Okay, okay, okay, so Chapter 4 revealed that the Soul is considered necessary in some way by Team Knight.

Side note: I will not be calling Kris a victim in any way, shape, or form. Even before I thought of this theory, the circumstances pointed to Kris willingly taking on the Soul for the purposes of their plan. The phone call at the end reveals that they are being coerced in some way, but I believe that there’s a lot more willingness on Kris’ end than most people believe.

Now, the biggest question in the air after that is what exactly is the Soul needed for. The phone call itself doesn’t imply all too much, other than the fact that the Soul is needed for something Kris can do within the dark world.

So, we turn to what exactly the Soul is capable of thus far.

The most notable thing that we’ve seen the Soul do is banish darkness, whether it’s sealing a dark fountain, or banishing the darkness, Titan spawn, or the Titan through brilliant light.

So what’s the theory?

This theory is based on another assumption/theory that the Knight itself is at least, partly feral at this point. In its intro, you can see it’s drooling, which probably means that whoever the knight is, they’re at the very least, not all there upstairs.

This is in spite of its seeming intelligence and consciousness, as seen in how the Knight laughs at Susie’s face when she tries to threaten her, and even shows off during its attacks and moves. The most obvious one is most certainly when it posed while floating all the way up the stairs during the final confrontation of the first dark world in Chapter 4.

What can we determine from this?

Well, my proposal, is that Dess (she’s the knight for this theory) is corrupted somehow. Corrupted by the darkness in some way, which is somewhat supported by the fact that she’s the Shadow Crystal boss of Chapter 3. The fact that her weapon drops both the Black Shard and the Shadow Crystal seems to imply that they themselves are made out of the material, at the very least equipment-wise. If the Shadow Crystal on its own is capable of corrupting others’ minds like Spamton and Jevil, imagine if you were encased in armor made up of the same material.

Back to the original theory, there’s a clear progression in the Fun Gang’s strength due to the sealing of Dark Fountains. This includes the Soul, which I don’t personally believe would have been able to purify the Titan if it were back in Chapter 1.

I believe Team Knight’s plan is to cultivate the Soul within Kris, to strengthen it enough to be able to banish a specific kind of darkness. The darkness of the mind that the Shadow Crystal inflicted on Dess. This ties back to the supposed promise that Kris is being coerced with.

I don’t actually believe Kris to be a wholly unwilling participant of Team Knight. They may have grown to be less willing due to their growing friendship with Susie and her newfound resolve to oppose the Knight, and the fact that this meant that they were on opposite sides, but I believe they still have that determination towards Team Knight’s goal that Kris promised. A promise that I believe goes something like,

The more I think about Chapter 4’s ending, the more it just baffles me that a bunch of things happened all at once:

- Soriel was made canon, and guess what? It’s starting out toxic. No hate to Soriel shippers, but I can only imagine how it feels to have a ship get canonized, only for it to make one of the characters a worse person. Toriel, because she fell in with Sans, forgot about Kris and Susie in the rain. For the entire day. (By the way, no, I never held Toriel on any pedestal, now or ever. One of my past posts is talking about how UT Toriel didn’t have a problem with Asgore specifically killing children.) Truly, Toby Fox holds a monkey’s paw in his own paws, that rat bastard.

- Despite the tonal whiplash, it really contributed to the theme of the two chapters revealing more of Susie’s feelings, particularly concerning those that she wrong her. I mentioned this in one of my recent posts how Susie went through numerous instances of this; disliking how Tenna was hiding something from them, yelling at Ralsei for keeping secrets, etc. And with Chapter 4’s ending, Susie is presumably still reeling from a prophecy that made her smash it and cut her hand enough to make it bleed. She’s probably tired, afraid, and in need of comfort, which she’s revealed that she finds in Toriel, one of the only adults she legitimately respects because of how she comforted her when she first moved to Hometown. And what does she find? She finds Toriel at home, safe and sound, and drunk after an entire journey of trying to save her. I can only imagine the heartbreak she felt, if we’re running with the assumption that Susie herself has a bad home life with parents that may or may not be similarly drunk and/or neglectful.

- Kris was probably wrestling with the realization that Susie and Ralsei are only getting more and more determined. Despite their true friendship, they are on opposite sides; Kris with the knight, Susie and Ralsei against them. I think they may have thought that they would be able to keep their secret, but after Chapter 4, it became all too clear that it’s only a matter of time until Susie and Ralsei find out about Kris’ true allegiances. Which explained why they may or may not have jumped up to the windowsill to contemplate ending it so that they wouldn’t have to live through that heartbreak. They heard Susie’s voice and after hearing her continue to speak her resolve, they might’ve thought about it. Until it gets revealed that Kris might be getting coerced in some way, by Carol (most likely).

I’m so ready for when Susie finds out that her first true and closest friend was actually in kahoots with the knight all along.

Chapters 3 and 4 have been prepping us up for Susie’s reaction to betrayal, from her disliking that Tenna was being so secretive, to her blowing up at Ralsei for not telling her the whole deal, and finally, the disappointment in her face and words after finding Toriel at home, drunk and having forgotten about the two of them in the rain after a long, exhausting journey trying to “rescue” her.

I will be inconsolable when she sheds her first on-screen tears of rage and sadness and we’re forced to fight her, and I’m going to force Kris to face tank all that damage.

I’m going to be similarly devastated if, in desperation to keep their friendship with Susie, Kris blames the soul for their involvement with the knight. And I will have dreams of Susie’s response that it was the soul that purified the Titan and gave them light when all was said and done.