I am so normal about Susie and her family guys.
Like I do not see red when I see people dismiss the very notion that she might be living with a single mom when one of the often repeated aspects of the game is how both Kris and Noelle’s live with their respective mother alone. Their respective moms are implied to be the main physical provider while their fathers are their main emotional support.
With they both primarily living under their respective mothers (Kris cause Asgore is a bum and can’t support himself much less Kris + prioritising saving his rotted marriage over Kris’s wellbeing) & (Noelle cause her dad is dying and can’t physically be there most of the time for her without pushing himself into physical exhaustion).
Thus surely there will be no relation to a child who would rather avoid her own home like the damn plague and avoid contacting her family! Surely its her mom who is dead! Surely the Gaster shaped hole her supposed father fills will be irrelevant. Surely she is just the new kid and outside of being the new unwelcomed child who felt forced to conform to negative stereotypes of herself, her background will have no relevancy. Surely she is just on her own when her main issue is a lack of support that is willing to meet her where she is at and give her what she needs.
Nah all the damn parallels and foiling she has to Noelle only apply to her and Noelle’s relationship. Her own want to keep the present she has now compared to the past she didn’t care and wants it all to burn will surely be irrelevant with how much it parallels both Carol and Asgore’s want for a long dead past and how they use it to shield themselves from self-growth. Her family must be nobodies or irrelevant or just fucking Gaster. Her mother can only ever be dead or just out of the picture despite it being something reiterated over and over again with Kris and Noelle. Surely her family is wholely disconnected to a story so fixated on family outside of herself. Surely she was just a foster kid who got sent here by coincidence and there is nothing more there. Surely the damn parental connections between her, Lancer and King mean nothing or worse, nah it ain’t even about her, its about miss prefect victim, miss I wanna destroy the world cause I went to a dangerous place with a 10 year old and had tragedy happen to me. Surely it all just revolves around one single fucking character who isn’t the main focus of the story but how her disappearance affected everyone around her.
I want to emphasise that I don’t dislike Dess as a character, she is a nothing burger rn, the only things we hear of her are interesting but I can’t give a damn about her cause she ain’t the focus. She is treated as the goal. Heck in all Dess knight theories I see, she is still treated as a goal. She ain’t the only mystery in this game and I am tired of pretending everything falls back to her.
I am tired of her being shoehorned into places she ain’t (Same with FRIEND when by everything the game is saying it isn’t the Tail of Hell), there is a good reason Toby keeps emphasising that the Chapter bosses never saw the knight (prior to Tenna getting slashed) and I genuinely think it is because Chapter 1’s Card Kingdom wasn’t made by the knight.
Fr, it makes more sense and adds more weight to the story for it be an apology gift to Susie from her parent. To give her a safe space to vent and handle her emotions and make friends with King being relegated to the final boss that is most emblematic of her own and her mother’s struggles. It narratively makes more sense than Dess/Knight going, “alright I am gonna give these kids therapy then be outright evil to them for our onscreen interactions). For Noelle, it makes sense for the Knight to do it (and do a shit job at it) due to its connections to the Holidays, same with Kris but fr, why would Knight care about Susie when nothing about the Knight implies they even know Gerson’s ashes were in the church. And makes the future encounter with her matter more in retrospect while making card kingdom hit differently on a replay because now we know who made it and why.
I want her mom to be a presence cause I want to see Toby write a mother who has physical abused her daughter and how she wants to redeem herself and help her daughter. Especially since it is obvious from a mile away that clear abuser Carol will be getting a well-written and nuanced redemption arc that will make her the Asgore of Deltarune. I want to see the fun gang to get a very imprefect parental figure who unlike Rudy or Toriel (not dissing them), is trying to change for the better for them, to follow through with Susie’s growth by giving her the same with her family before it all goes to shit.
Anyhow HC time cause I can:
- I hc her name to be Courtnie to match with Susie
- oldest of the parents - 51 (while her late husband would have been 53 if he was still alive).
- Transfem butch/masc presenting woman
- Design is reminiscent of Susie’s with a few bird elements and more European drake compared to Susie’s more japanese dragon base (hcs yeah!!)
- has slept with Carol and Toriel in the past (old woman yuri with lots of drama).
- Child of Welsh/German immigrants (can speak fluent German and taught Susie to speak Japenese, German and Welsh).
- estranged from her family prior to meeting her late husband
- Single mother & Widow (Husband died 8-10 years prior to the story)
- Unstable employment history, mainly manual blue collar work, leading to her moving from place to place.
- 2 years sober and quit smoking around the same time
- was a raging Alcoholic after her husband’s death
- is very volatile and spastic especially when drunk, leading to Susie never trusting what she said or do.
- Is trying to make up for her past abuse of Susie, leading to her trying to never raise her voice or show anger when Susie is present, and be almost helicopter esque (why Alphys is always excusing and enabling Susie’s behaviour especially towards Kris - Courtnie has her by the throat).
- overcompensating hard for past actions to the point it makes Susie uncomfortable
- Main narrative foil to Carol -> willing to admit her own wrongdoing and desperately wanting to change things and create a future for her daughter after years of failing her and more than willing to be a carpet to Susie.
- Makes Carol look friendly and approachable
- Is physically the strongest of the parents, can benchpress Asgore, Toriel, Carol and Rudy’s hospital bed at the same time.
- Dying of Stomach cancer -> leading to her working in the roaring cult to try to make something for Susie so that she will have something when Courtnie eventually croaks (narrative foil to Rudy being someone who feels empowered by her illness to do better while Rudy’s illness makes him feel powerless to help).
- Also working in the cult to find out about what the circumstances surrounding her husband’s death.
- Genuinely the most competent member of the roaring cult and the most versatile one, beating out the knight (Like Mother like daughter).
- can keep up with the knight in the dark world though struggles to avoid damage and needs her armour to last long against the wilder onslaughts (like mother like daughter).
- Knight looks up to her as a mentor (leans into that Susie and Toriel dynamic, also evil Gerson & Susie dynamic).
- Views Carol as a semi-incompetent wealthy snob with weeb tendencies.
- Is viewed as a foul-mouth, violent ruffian whose only valued by Carol due to her experience and ability to connect with the Knight.
- Shares Susie’s smile of sorrow and despair.
- Will adopt Ralsei the moment she sees him/her, -> Lost child is now my child :D.
- Has mixed feelings about seeing Lancer, wants to give him all the joy in her heart, but also is visceral reminded of her own actions through him.
- Hates King’s guts, thought that Susie would have killed him ages ago. (Kinda wishes that Susie would just buried that axe in her skull). Sees Spade King as a dark shadow of who she is.
- Immediately infatuated when she encounters Spade Queen. She is weak to fellow old women.
- Will compliment Susie’s hoard (especially if you chose to recruit all the darkners).
- the first adult to enter Castletown (to expected shock, anger and discomfort from Susie).
- Deeply relates to Ralsei’s struggles and will destroy the world for him and Susie.
- 1# Ralsusie shipper in game.
- one of the main parents who want to move on from the past, but while Rudy and Toriel are fine to do so as is, she wants closure and stability. (Also makes a nice parallel between the three families).
- a violinist who lost her violin. :(
- genuinely doesn’t trust Noelle to be around Susie (paranoid about Carol and Noelle’s similarities).
- 1# Suselle hater in game (makes Carol look tame in comparison, though less outright hate and more concern disapproval born from her own experiences with the Holidays).
