tonight, pocketpenny put a frustration i’ve been feeling with deltarune for a long time into some really good words.
reading this kind of threw for a loop because of how much it made make sense, like that was why i couldn’t get as excited as most folks about noelle’s livejournal during the spamton sweepstakes! it’s because i wish that berdly also had something like that, and it’s not just because i wish he was a more important character.
it’s because noelle’s interests are more or less always taken seriously by the narrative, and berdly’s are mostly just played for jokes, even when they’re the same. like dragon blazers, and, uh, susie.
noelle liking rpgs is used to flesh out her character, to give her that line about wishing there was healing magic in real life that alludes to rudy. it’s used to make the events of the weird route even more harrowing, taking something from a hobby that gives her comfort and using it to hurt her. her love of creepypastas and horror stuff explores her complicated relationship to fear and memories of her lost sister.
meanwhile, berdly’s love of gaming is just there to be joked about. it’s so that he can freak out when queen says she only plays mobile games, and so that he can say he looked for queen and noelle in every used game store, so that he can make a gamer’s delight, so that he can reference wavedashing and not being able to taunt in online PvP. and i for one do find those jokes hilarious, but i also really wish that berdly’s love of video games got a little more… respect? is that the right word? from the narrative.
one of my favorite characters from undertale is dr. alphys. a big part of why i love her so much is that she has this incredibly dorky love of anime and manga, and while it is played for comedy a lot of the time, it’s also used to help humanize her. she has that whole ramble during the quiz show about how this one part of a dating sim visual novel is a really powerful message about friendship! we get to learn what loving the animes means for her. and her nerdiness isn’t her only defining feature as a character, but rather something that’s used to bolster who she is as a person.
i loved seeing noelle write about modding cat petters and the creepy secret door in the ice palace, because it reminded me so much about something that i loved with alphys in undertale. but i also couldn’t help but wish that berdly had something like it, too. i could easily imagine him putting his big vocabulary he’s eager to show off to use writing fanfic that alludes to his feelings and struggles in life, and how he relates to his friends. or maybe talking about what games mean to him on other forums online. there are so many reasons for berdly to love what he loves, and i seriously wish that his love of video games will be more than just a punch line in later chapters.
and as for their shared crush on susie… well, it being mostly played for jokes in berdly’s case is understandable, because it’s the one she neither knows about nor reciprocates. but i also, i don’t think that “this kid is so socially oblivious that he didn’t realize his notoriously-bad-at-speaking-up-for-herself friend has the same crush as him! isn’t he an idiot?” is a joke with a whole lot of staying power.
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