#gum rambles

No clue how common of an idea this is, but I think Pink herself (the lightner) was the one who made the shadow crystal.

If you collected all the previous shadow crystals, Seam says this (screenshot from the deltarune wiki):

I believe Pink created the shadow crystal when she possessed the mew mew figurine in the light world, since she saw it as the perfect body, probably due to being a fan of the mew mew show.

But like she says, she can't actually control the figurine in the light world, so the realization that she has the perfect body right in front of her, but can't actually control like she wanted to is what broke her dream, and ended up forming the shadow crystal in the figurine's body.

I'm saying all this because it seems like people are under the idea that the shadow crystals are all given by the knight, despite us getting dialogue saying that Spamton found his shadow crystal in the robot body (and was probably formed from Mettaton's dream of an ideal body also being broken).

Like Queen teaching her how to open the dark fountain with the pin, her saying she wishes she could heal her father with a spell, Rudy "falling down" and Susie getting prepared to tell her the truth about the dark world.

-I wasn't expecting it but the scene between pizzapants and nice cream guy hit me im the feels, at first I was excited about the yaoi and then I got really sad. I need to see what the other options do because I don't think I'll explore all of them on my own.

-Playing wingman for Susie and Noelle was so fun and I was just so giddy when they were blushing at each other, but at the same time I couldn't help but feel bad about Kris very likely feeling like a third wheel.

-Also insane that they just told us that Rudy fell down, I know a lot of people were saying Rudy was 100% going to die but I didn't think Toby would actually do it (at least on a normal route).

About the dark world:

-I love hater Ralsei, they were really fun this chapter.

-The fucking 2d cutscene for presenting Flowery made me laugh so hard, same thing with the art of him you get in your key items. They went so hard on the presentation for this fucker that I can't help admire it. He's still an annoying fuck but I got attached to him by the end of the chapter, and I feel like he has the most understandable motivation out of any antagonist so far.

-Also equipping ribbons on Susie? Character customization is gonna go so hard now, I can already see the optimizations for a healer Susie build.

-The gameplay stuff with the feather was so cool, although it took me some time to get used to it (I think attack should have been x by default). I already thought the gameboard in chapter 3 and the climbing in chapter 4 were some nice variation in gameplay, but at this point I'm prepared for chapter 6 to just completely change the gameplay again.

-Also I had hopes for mad mew to maybe make a cameo in this chapter, but for her to be the actual secret boss with her own shop to talk to her? That was unnecessary and i absolutely love it. I need to listen to the boss theme again because holy shit.

-I really enjoyed the flowers, and I pretty much guessed correctly how they got used, but I think most people also predicted it. For me my faves were definitely Aqua, Yellow and Blue. In general Yellow and Blue's relationship was one of my favorite parts. The trial section was also a very fun gameplay section.

-Not sure how I feel about the pink coins, like it was nice that you only needed 10 to access the secret boss, but some of them were fucking hard to get (looking at you, 5 foxes that I had to look online), and I don't think i like that some of the better equipment is locked behind collecting them all.

-On that note, not sure how I feel about being locked into only 3 items for the flowers (+Flowery's scarf that I'm not sure if Ralsei will ever equip). For this run at least i chose the blue shoes, the cowboy hat and the seth specs.

-And like, did this chapter just confirm that Ralsei is transfem? Because like, imagine being in her situation, where transitioning will bring the end of the world, your assigned title is the prince of the dark, and the only person who knows and genders you correctly is fucking Flowery, no wonder she is like this.

-About Asgore I'm not sure how I feel, on one hand I feel like he went through a lot of character development without a lot of screentime, and on the other it's extremely funny that he was now willing to give Toriel some space after learning how she feels because the flower twink wouldn't stop flirting with him.

-And about the post dark world section, it is so sad that Susie considers castle town to be her home over her actual house, I really need to see what her home life is like if no one gives a shit about her sleeping outside on 2 different days without a warning.