"The Hope of Magical Girls Everywhere."

It all started with this fucking screenshot.

I use this screenshot a lot. It's verifiable proof of Ralsei acknowledging our existence and KNOWING our skillset. This is later corroborated by him saying that he knows the rules of the world. He is fully aware of who exerts control and who is at the wheel.

In fact, during a scene with Spawn where the escape route is physically behind Kris, Ralsei yells the following

* KRIS!!! RUN LEFT, NOW!!!

Ralsei has talked about battle commands in his tutorials. He has talked about the UI outright. He has mentioned our ability to SAVE. We knew this. This is not new information. What irks me is that Ralsei's nods otherwise are always... strange.

Everything good that you do is always... mentioned as Kris. Ralsei addresses Kris. If he wanted to keep us a secret, this would make sense for him to do (even if that's horseshit at this point). But then there's... moments... where Ralsei inexplicably knows who is talking. If you're mean in ch5 with the tea thing, then he switches to talking about Kris instead.

* If you... if Kris makes the tea for me by hand...

But whenever you're nice, whenever you do something or try to be kind, it's always Kris who you are seen as! Every good deed is them, while every bad deed suddenly awakens a sixth sense that "Oh it's that pesky little soul!"

This isn't fucking new to Undertale and Deltarune and I'm so mad I'm seeing echoes of it happening again with no hint of irony seen in the actual plot.

Let's go review Undertale.

When you complete True Pacifist, suddenly, everything that you did is seen as things Frisk did. Frisk was always the one doing the actions. Why would you think any different? Every mention of YOUR friends, every instance of second person, is now suddenly replaced with Frisk's name. "Despite everything, it's still you" is replaced with "Still just you, Frisk." Every single personal moment that you experienced with this game has now been replaced, but you were never Frisk. What right do you have to be upset?

Then you decide to kill everything and everyone.

And suddenly... like magic... the game turns its eyes to you. It looks through you. Sans calls you an anomaly. Chara addresses you with "You" only when the world is destroyed. It's your fault. It's all your fault. It couldn't be anyone else's fault, because you were the one who pressed the stupid little button.

So... why is it only ever you... why are you only ever acknowledged... when you do wrong?

Just as you chose to hit the fight button every single time you kill a monster, you choose to spare monsters and choose which options are most likely to end the fight non-violently. You learn about these people and try earnestly to be friend them. You begin to open your heart up and care, and the game welcomes you in to do this before-

It was all Frisk. It was all Kris.

"I hope you can be friends with everyone someday." Isn't that what you said, Toby? Then why does your writing never act like it?

Let's go back to Deltarune.

You can make every conscious choice to love. You can select every kind option to the best of your ability. You can try to watch these people grow and help them find out who they are. They never really address you in a way that you'd hope, but you can still see them flourish. You begin to change the ending. You try everything in your might to help your friends while the very person that you are caged in attempts to subvert you. But you never raise your weapon against those who accept mercy. You choose Ralsei's path of kindness to try to find a better outcome.

...and... what is the end result of that?

Pink, your BODY… it's… its own person, too.

Don't you think your body deserves a say, too!?

People have tried to twist this into Ralsei not truly understanding our dynamic. And yet, he has a sixth sense for Kris being the good piano player. Maybe that's the point. Maybe he only knows our rules, that we control, but if he knows our rules... then why not our limitations?

Oh wait, he knows where we're limited too. He is able to walk us over a carpet of spikes because we can't get over the stupid little hitbox.

So, after all of that, the undying faith is still in Kris. Kris gets outright exonerated by Ralsei for making fountains, unquestioned even the slightest. People also try to claim that Ralsei thinks it's us doing it, but he prefaced the conversation with Kris' piano playing. He knows.

Every good deed... is seen as Kris. Every misstep they take isn't actually a misstep worth a character daring to question at this point.

So then what happens when you make the conscious choice to tear it all to pieces?

Weird Route.

Welcome back, sixth sense. I missed you.

The game suddenly starts acknowledging you again. It isn't Kris' voice anymore giving the commands. It isn't Kris' voice that Noelle hears anymore. The game makes a clear distinction between Kris calling out their friends' name and you calling out Noelle's name. There's a whole scene in the hospital to rub Noelle's understanding in your face. But, this can all be excused considering that Noelle notices something wrong with Kris in a normal route too. She'd know!

Then we get to Ralsei.

Who instantly knows Weird Route is happening. There's no possibility in his mind that Kris could be doing these things suddenly, because in chapter 5, he's elated to see that they're okay! All of those deeds are suddenly no longer Kris', they're ours!

EDIT: And you can claim that this is because "Oh Kris would never do the evil things" Hey I'm not the one stabbing fountains into the ground, and half of the "bad options" you can say aren't stifled by Kris. Kris spends a whole two chapters making sure you're not mean to Ralsei, but you can say "Good, keep smiling" perfectly fine? The double-standard for what is Kris and what is us is INSANE and I'm tired of acting like they don't have their own demons. I get why Noelle, characterization wise, would detect Kris. I get why Ralsei, the person who knows the rules, would detect Kris. However, everything in this narrative was put in by a writer, and it has put in ZERO effort other than one singular Gaster line during the Knight battle to tell you even a simple 'good job'. It's not that I cannot see how characters got here, it's that I don't think the narrative sees why that's a PROBLEM.

And then I started thinking about one piece of the puzzle that never quite fit for me.

The Twisted Sword.

We know next to nothing about it, only that it offers a trance down. This has made it perplexing to me, because many have insisted that it will be claimed in the Weird Route (or an aborted Weird Route) to... subjugate Kris? Subjugate Noelle more? Loosen our connection with Kris so that we can body hop?

All inconclusive. And then Weird Route decided that it was going to send two kids into a lake without a Shadow Crystal. Aborted Weird Route still technically exists, but I'm unconvinced of the idea so far that it's going to do something.

Neither here nor there, but I'd like to talk about the Twisted Sword in relation not to the ThornRing, but the PureCrystal.

Seam says that the PureCrystal will create something that we will like, something that will be very very interesting. The only item so far that we have seen this thing used with... IS the ThornRing. The only way to get it so far is an aborted Weird Route, but the ThornRing reads to me as getting a lategame item early that you aren't supposed to have. So I'm not quite sure that there's no way we can't obtain this via another method.

Originally, I always thought the Twisted Sword was an option that would be smashing this item representing freedom over your knee to fuel your own devices.

But if the Twisted Sword is the intended path, I fear what it will mean by Trance Down. The Pure Crystal is various dreams of different types of freedom pushed together. What would a sword, wieldable by Kris, that gives trance down, actually do?

They need us. Kris needs us for whatever plan they have. They can freely remove us and put us back in to take control. They can deny our options. They have the final call in so many situations, and yet I fear the game is going to act like that isn't the case.

The good ol "Your choices don't matter, but theirs do" that everyone has been touting around.

I fear the Twisted Sword is literally just there to relinquish control, and to become a god damned battery, and the game will act like this is a good thing. UTDR has always acted like it is a good thing that you are forgotten. Let Frisk be happy. Let Frisk live their life. If you disagree with what Kris is doing, you just don't understand it yet. All of this trying? All of this caring? It means nothing, because you're other. You're too beyond them. What is that about Darkners being loved even though they're on a different level of existence? That doesn't apply to you. Why? Because that's the only story that Toby Fox knows how to tell.

So then what was the point? Why were you here at all? Were you here just to help everyone else flourish, only to be forgotten because... that's what you're supposed to do?

What... makes you any different than Ralsei's mindset in chapter 3 then?

Is it suddenly okay if it's us just because we have a 9-5 to go back to in real life?

If Toby was TRYING to do a nuanced metanarrative, then as far as we have seen UP TO CHAPTER 5, he has failed. The fact that people can't even agree on what Pink meant and use it to support whatever theory resonates with them the best is BAFFLING to me. I'm not even concerned about being right about Pink anymore. I'm concerned about the fact that Ralsei gave some of the biggest slap in the face dialogue in the game, and I'm supposed to not act like I just got punched in the jaw!

If Toby's metanarrative is just Undertale But We Poke You For Taking Up Space, then it's not a good one! You cannot imply intent for harm on our side when we didn't choose this, we didn't ask to be put in Kris, we don't do any of the shitty things that they do on their own, and IF WE EVER QUIT, THE WORLD ENDS.