the courage of stars

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The Breadcrumb Glitch is a glitch in mother 1 where you can use the ripped girl, Pippi, to perform a glitch using an item called Breadcrumbs.

It gets you out of bounds in an area that looks like this:

which looks almost exactly like the evil place you can see from the Forgotten Island.

and using the Breadcrumb Glitch in Mother 1 you can skip a large portion of the game.

you will recognize this reference in this context as being evil evil evil evil FUCKING evil

The Ace that is observing this space also calls it “Lousy real estate" in reference to the houses, and also says he found it by trying to see as far as he can. “Seeing too far” is something referenced throughout the weird route, most notably by Spamton NEO in his ending monologue.

but also by Noelle here in reference to the other side of the lake.

Given this is past the boundaries of the map, this could be the coveted “World’s Edge” mentioned in the prophecy, or an edge that will count for such purposes. Given this areas ties to the weird route specifically I am skeptical of the former.

This sequence also seems to parallel sections within the SWORD ROUTE, specifically going on the raft to the ice palace (Noelle describes the waters as getting colder as she goes further, the Glacier area in board 2 is made of bizarre white geometry which terrifies Ralsei, as we see also prior to this if you go to the school, and “snow” is a common description for garbage video data (like TV static, or garbled game assets). What the Ice Palace would be in this context is... something. I'll try to discuss it later

Noelle bringing us this way also brings to mind FOLLOW THE WHITE CLOAK, though this seems like it will be needed for later. Depends on if Noelle’s survives her "voyage".

What this Out of Bounds area entails for us is unknown besides being a place of evil and doom. Going off of the glitch in Mother 1, using the breadcrumbs again in certain spots allows you to wrong warp into other parts of the game, including the door to the final boss and even the game over screen.

Possibilities I’ve considered are:

that it’s a wrong warp to an area in chapter 7

It's a hub to access bizarre areas were not meant to be in for the purposes of “getting stronger” (see Ramb’s description of the Sword Route as having more Freedom). Possibly includes past dark worlds or even ""unused"" dark worlds, though I have a specific thought I'll get to later

If the Mother 1 glitch can access rooms that shouldnt be playable like the game over screen, it may be possible to find a way of “playing” inside the games menu, perhaps ultimately leading to a fake arbitrary code execution (ACE) and breaking the game even harder.

What I think seems most interesting, however, is that it might be some way of entering the primordial “”original game”” of Deltarune. 6.

So, what is the original game?

Deltarune is full of references to stories being adapted from other stories (see Cat Petterz rpg <- Dragon Blazerz <- Lord of the Hammer <- Prophecy, or even the Dark Worlds being adaptations of the Light World).

Deltarune has also made a lot of the story of its own creation diagetic to the narrative (see how often Waiting comes up in game and in promotional material ect.),

Part of this story is a version from 2012 that went nowhere, one that appears to have lacked the sparing system based on stuff like this early version of Jevil's "numbers game" line

This suggests it was a game where you were expected to be enacting violence within the dark world, something you cant do in the game as is.

The Mantle game is described as an original version of a game modified by Tenna that (mostly) removes the Violence and Weird Route centric elements from the game and in its place adds jokes, goofy set pieces, and storylines, as well as making it more linear. Ralsei in the current chapter is also stated as clearly suppressing some violent abilities involving fire, and the Sword Route and 4th Egg room suggest Kris is hiding some violent urges too

Where is the Mantle game? Backstage in an area an area the viewer is not meant to be in. In otherwords, its literally found out of bounds.

The chapter 3 egg room (with the Ace and their binoculars) also has some other traits. It being 8-bit but with normal Kris is one but also the egg mans dialogue: Referring to a time where the world looked like this (a gamboy-esque retro game)

(Next lines might be about the games development into the modern game though I am uncertain)

While not literally the 2012 prototype of the game, I believe the weird route might be building up to a version of Deltarune more ""faithful"" to its original vision prior to Undertale (or at least presented within the story as such).

Another minor thing is that I have a suspicion that the "ice palace" we find the SWORD ROUTE might be alluding to us using the area across the water to access an ""scrapped"" dark world (perhaps intended as the Holiday Residence or the Town Hall). Its important enough to seemingly be a part of Dragon Blazers, yet nowhere in the game implies it is or could be a thing outside the ice palace. It also needs a specific party member to traverse which is very obviously Noelle, which further ties it to the weird route.

PBS and NPR were never beholden to the US government.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created so that the US government could fund public media without public media being influenced by the government. It was a private non-profit funded by the government, not a part of the government itself. This is by design. This was a good thing. It meant that even small local TV and radio stations, could afford to create media for the public good, without government influence.

This meant TV and radio stations for poor communities. For non-english speaking communities. For rural communities. For minorities. It meant that free and accessible media could be created for everyone, even if the government didn't like it.

That's why conservatives defunded it.

Because if they couldn't control it, and if it helped the people they hated, then they would have to destroy it. Do you really think that a fascist government would defund their own propaganda machine?

Not only is the idea that PBS before being defunded was propaganda wrong, but ignores the fact that defunding it is going to have long-term negative effects on vulnerable communities.

So, I think there are some important things I should address.

First: The show in question, PBS Origins, has been running since 2017. They have been focusing on these sorts of topics the entire time. This is not the first time the channel has discussed the US government's role in genocide and slavery. It's not the first time it has criticized the US government. It is also not the only shown on PBS to have ever done so.

Second: People have considered PBS and NPR to have a left-wing bias for a long time, even before it was defunded. That's why conservatives wanted it defunded, and why they had been trying to defund it for decades.

Third: PBS and NPR did a lot more than history and politics. Weather reports, local news, children's programming, cooking shows... Something like PBS Origins, even an episode as provocative as the one in the OP, would pass under the radar of most people, especially because it doesn't usually play on TV. (It's made primarily for YouTube)

Third: Defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was not an easy task. It took decades to finally pass a bill doing so. It was not something the government could just do at the drop of a hat if PBS did something the current government didn't like.