A Pink Highway lncident Magnet

First of all, congratulations to Suselle fans. You all lucky bastards are absolutely eating this chapter.

That being said, I have some (very strong) complicated feelings about how Suselle is handled in Chapter 5. In short, their development feels strangely out of place within the larger context of the Festival (and the whole chapter, honestly), and I think that's intentional by Toby’s design.

The Festival, as we know it, according to the Hometown’s residents tell us is practically built around Romance and Love.

To start there's the tradition of voting for a Festival King and Queen, two people that are set to “lead” the last attraction to the festival. Those who are voted are often couples themselves! This title is something Asgore and Toriel won repeatedly many time back when they were together.

Not only that many of the festival activities/games are designed so that only couples can participate. Like how the strength-testing game was modified so that two people have to play it together.

Oh, and speaking about Asgore, flowers are everywhere in the festival, and of course, what better way to show your love than by gifting flowers.

Love is supposedly everywhere today.

But when you actually look at what's happening around town, the Festival isn't full of romance. It's kinda full of heartbreak instead.

There are so few characters that are canonically proven to be in a relationship in Hometown, and somehow most of them are seen to be alone at the Festival.

As we all know, Asgore and Toriel are still separated. The very first thing Asgore talks about that morning when they met Kris is how deeply in love they once were and how the town adored them as a couple, voting the two as the King and Queen on the Festival. This is a memory that has been repeatedly retold by him even after YEARS of not being together with her. The contrast between those memories and his current situation couldn't be more painful for him.

Rudy is seen setting up lights alone while Carol is elsewhere near the Shelter. We already know their family has been struggling, between December's disappearance and Rudy's worsening condition. And while Ruddy and others can excuse her being busy as she is THE Mayor of the city, we all know that is bullshit, and she is just using it as an excuse (also, who the hell would leave their sick husband alone setting up lights on top of ladders, huh??)

Snowy's dad is nowhere to be found. We rarely ever got to see him (only in chapter 4 actually), but we do know he does go out of the apartment on important days like on Saturday for church and/or important reasons like visiting his wife’s grave. But why is he not out today? Maybe it’s because Sans is literally blocking the doorway and he couldn’t get out, or maybe he just doesn't want to participate in this festival centered around love when his own wife is no longer here with him.

Heck, even Mr. Cattinheimer is standing around by himself, with Mrs. Cattinheimer nowhere in sight. (I fukin looked everywhere) These two are constantly seen together hyping up their daughters and each other’s, but not today of all days?? Sus.

(Also adding to the missing couples pile, there's December and Asriel, the "perfect couple" of their generation. One is away at college. The other has been missing for years.)

Then there’s that Pizzapants Pizza girlfriend situation, which somehow manages to leave somebody heartbroken regardless of who you choose to encourage to stand and be Pizzapants’ duet partner. Picking either BlueBunny or Bratty was a fukin nightmare for me cause those two became so TOXIC omg.

Picking Bluebunny will lead to Pizzapants crashing out at BB (valid) and BB no longer acknowledging Bratty as a friend. Picking Bratty to stand up led to Pizzapant happy with his own fantasy, yes, and at least Bratty got unlimited pizza out of it, but god, the way BB just smiles at you as he says he wants to name an ice cream inspired by her POISON is WILD.

In the end, I pick Catty to be friends with Pizzapants cause at least they’re only bandmates now, and it also only leaves Bluebunny in melancholy sadness of not being the one to make Pizzapants happy and Bratty in jealous denial of her own obvious affection for Catty. LOOK, IT'S THE LEAST DISTRUSTIVE REACTION WE GET, OKAY.

Moving on

At the church, Catti sees Susie and Noelle holding hands, starts crying, and runs away. That's not a normal "just friends" reaction because we also now know that Catti herself only ever hated Susie after Noelle told Catti that she liked Susie. That confirms it for me that she must have had feelings for Noelle too and just got her heart broken seeing her crush getting together with the new mean girl in town.

And then there's Kris.

Poor Kris spends the entire day third-wheeling Suselle's first date while actively trying to respect their privacy and keep the player from intruding. They have to be an active audience to their crush falling in love with their childhood bestfriend. (TOBY IF YOU WANT TO KIL ME THEN YOU JUST SHOOT ME DEAD ALREADY THIS IS FUKIN CRUEL MAN!)

Anyway, my point is

Aside from Susie and Noelle, almost nobody is actually experiencing romance at this festival.

AND THAT is why Suselle feels so strange to me in this chapter.

We're supposed to believe that these two girls are getting a perfect, happy romantic breakthrough right in the middle of a festival where everyone else is either chillin or experiencing heartbreak, is lonely, in a failed relationship, in grief, or in separation?

I don't buy it.

That whole scene in the Lake feels like a trap and it fukin is I tell you!!

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to get new Suselle content. But the pacing feels incredibly off.

In-universe, Susie and Noelle have only been on a genuinely friendly terms, heck on speaking terms for about two days.

Noelle may has spent months crushing on Susie, sure, but Susie herself has been almost completely oblivious to it. Then suddenly in Chapter 5 she's hyper-aware of Noelle's feelings and seemingly ready to embrace them?

It feels almost too good to be true and it is

The story is deliberately presenting us with the perfect romantic fantasy and daring us to accept it at face value.

And I can’t accept that! Especially because the last time we saw Susie in Chapter 4, she was focused and dead set on finding the code to the shelter and finding a way to stop the Knight. She was serious about preventing whatever terrible future she saw.

So why does that urgency seemingly disappear the next morning?

It’s making her character seems inconsistent. But she is a teen and I can’t really fault Susie for seeking out some happiness in a day that is specifically made so the town folks can have fun and I know Susie must have some sort of affection Noelle and thus she sees the Festival as a chance to get close to her. If the story only explores just that part of their development in their relationship in this chapter then it could have been PERFECT.

Then with the help of Blue and the other flowers Susie can slowly came to the conclusion of what she actually feels for Noelle. It’ll help built up Susie’s character more and help her bond with the Darkeners in the Flower World.

But that’s not what happened.

What feels off to me is that this chapter seems to speed run all of that in the Festival, it is WEIRD how quickly Susie seems to jump from "I like spending time with Noelle" to "Noelle and I are going steady and I’m in love with her."

When I think about it there are two major forces pushing Susie toward that conclusion.

The first is Castle Town and the Dark World's constant encouragement for escapism.

Susie wakes up in Castle Town already immersed in fantasy and escapism. Everyone is excited about her date with Noelle. The Cybercity residents and Lancer are especially enthusiastic for her, hyping her up and encouraging her to focus on having fun.

I’ll talk more about Susie and her addiction to Darkworld escapism.

Cause I want to talk about my second reason to Susie’s weird behavior in chapter 5 its because of the prophecy.

Specifically, the line

"Love finds its way to the girl."

(Side tangent: As players, you and I know LOVE in Toby Fox's games can mean more than romance, care and affection. Because Toby have told us that in his game the words have another meaning, and many of us dread this line of the prophecy because of that second meaning.

But that information is something known possibly only to us, but for sure Susie doesn't know that LOVE can mean “Level Of Violence”

No, to Susie, LOVE is just love. The good fluffy feeling of affection. There was never any thought about it mean anything else.)

Anyway.

Imagine being a kid like Susie, someone we know has been starved for affection her entire life (due something problematic in her family life we have not yet known about). Then one day she learns that you’re actually one of the 3 heroes chosen to save the world by a prophecy, finally after years of being told she’s not good enough to do anything, the world itself has chosen you to be someone important, and in that prophecy, the world also literally tells her alongside her destiny to save the world, it says that love is part of her destiny.

And even with the day ending with her facing the literal Titan, seeing Toriel Drunk not even caring about how she and her child literally almost died looking for her, Susie escaped once more to the world that is filled with her friends, and for just a moment forget about the world being in danger and remind herself of all the good thing she have right now here in Castle town.

 Susie is reminded tomorrow she’s about to go on a date with someone who openly adores her. (and Susie thinks is cool as well)

Of course Susie would connect those dots as something that proved the Prophecy had predicted as well. “This must be it! This was what the prophecy says going to happened."

I absolutely believe Susie genuinely likes Noelle. I absolutely believe she could fall in love with Noelle.

But I don't think that's fully what's happening right now.

I think Susie is falling in love with the idea of being loved. She's falling in love with the possibility that somebody finally chose her.And because of that, she's viewing everything through rose-colored glasses.

She lets Castle Town hype her up. She lets Queen and the others dress her up. She pushes for the strength test when Noelle misses her chance. She encourages Noelle to ignore Carol's calls and just enjoy being free.

Everything about the Festival encourages this fantasy.

The lake scene especially feels like something out of a dream.

But then reality crashes back in. Carol finally reaches Noelle and tells her Rudy has been injured. Suddenly, the fantasy breaks.

Noelle came back to the reality that her father is sick. She remembers that her family problems haven't wouldn’t have disappeared by ignoring it. Noelle remembers that she can't simply escape into a perfect romantic day forever.

The dream ends for Noelle for now.

But I don’t end for Susie.

Even during the Dark World section, Susie continues getting reinforced by Darkners and prophecy imagery. More and more people affirm her role as the hero destined for love. And Susie is willing to change herself to fit more into that image, Ralsei says that the Girl wears the Ribbon Armor, and so she did, stating that “hey Noelle might thinks it’s cool right?”.

Yet whenever she's asked anything specific about Noelle, she struggles.

What flowers does Noelle like?

What makes her unique?

What special connection do they share?

Susie doesn't really know.

Because Susie barely knows Noelle. She doesn't know about December.  Susie just learned about Noelle's fascination with scary, weird and hidden things.

She doesn't know how close Noelle once was to Kris. She doesn't know why Noelle is friends with people like Catti and Berdly.

What Susie knows about Noelle so far is:

"Noelle is nice" (She gave her food and let her borrows her stuff)

"Noelle is cool" (she stood up to Queen, like video games, and is secretly like Goth stuff)

"Noelle likes me."

And that's normal for young folks who got crushes, the point of having a crush and go on dates is to get to know and learn your partner right?.

But how certain Susie say about how she felt for Noelle, her action says other wise

The soundtrack during the lake scene isn't called "I'm in Love."

It's called "I Guess I'm in Love."

That’s uncertainty, and hesitation.

It sound like someone trying to convince themselves of a feeling they don't fully understand yet.

Susie doesn't actually know whether she's in love with Noelle.

She knows the idea of love and to her it sounds wonderful.

She wants it to be true.

And that's why the entire thing feels like a setup.

Susie has become increasingly attached to the fantasy that the Dark Worlds provide: a place where she's important, chosen, loved, and destined for greatness.

Now she's trying to pull Noelle into that fantasy too.

The problem is that fantasy keeps colliding with reality.

And when someone starts proclaiming love after only two days of genuinely getting to know another person, that's usually not the end of the story. That's the beginning of a problem.