The Relationship between Susie and the Player... (Deltarune Analysis)
I had a sudden realisation when Susie talks about her experience with piano. This scene is an obvious nod to Susie's experience with learning healing, but... I think there's another, far deeper meaning to this scene.
What Susie experienced with the piano... is actually EXACTLY what happens in that earlier Piano scene when you attempt to solve the puzzle yourself.
If you were to ever to do ANY attempt on the song to unlock the door... Kris makes sure to mess up your notes before you even have a chance to finish. They forbid you from playing. The same exact way Susie was forbidden to play.
And so they had someone else play. Someone better. Kris.
Susie describes her past experience with piano as an attempt to further connect with Kris. But ironically, Kris was the one who was better. The one who basically took over the inexperienced one after they were told they weren't allowed to play.
Kris never let's us get near the piano, and makes sure to always fumble up the notes, "A Concert For You."
Susie's experience isn't a parallel to Kris at all. It's a parallel to the Player.
And we further connect this to the Healing arc with Ralsei. Where Ralsei teaches Susie to heal, but never actually let's her do healing when it's actually needed.
In Ch 4, Kris allows us to play piano, but further prevents us from trying when it's truly needed or when it's something complex.
But this also shows us that not all things are so simple. Kris is someone that truly loves piano, so it makes sense that they don't want someone else in their body to command them to play, for Kris, playing piano is their freedom, and its not something that they want someone else to take.
...Yet at the same time, there's nothing wrong with you wanting to play, even if it sucks. Because maybe, just maybe, it might become someone else's freedom too.
Neither are in the wrong in this matter. Between Susie and the better piano player that took her place, and between the Player and Kris... no one is necessarily wrong here. Things here are a lot more complicated than that.
This isn't the first time where Susie's character is aligning closer to the Player than Kris and Ralsei, with her becoming the one to speak for us for certain things when we're unable to, such as her vocalising the frustration of having people keep secrets not long after Ralsei and Kris kept hiding secrets from the Player.
Also the fact that the Ch 4 extended scene where you struggle against Kris in Dess' closet has Susie accept BOTH Kris and the Player equally rather than preferring one side over the other. She just doesn't realise it's two seperate ppl at once.
Not to mention how the Player and Susie are actively synergizing with each other in the best way possible.
Susie is the only one whose abilities you can directly enhance midbattle. Rude Buster's dmg gets raised by z spam (ch 1 + 2) or z timing (ch 3 + 4). And her healing gets enhanced the more you allow her to heal.
And it just so happens that Gerson' fight is also essentially TRAINING THE PLAYER to use these mechanics. It teaches you the z mechanic to parry. It forces you to let Susie heal to enhance it. It wasn't just training for Susie. It was also training for YOU to learn how to work with Susie as a duo.
Its really funny cause Susie's heal isn't a "Prayer" like other healing spells. And yet, Susie's heal requires a higher being's interference to raise its effectiveness.
If you think abt it, both the Player and Susie are similar in the sense that we're both outsiders to the grand scheme of the narrative, and are both trying to figure out what the heck is even going on in this town. You fought Kris in Ch 4 to help Susie while Kris is working with the Knight.
Even though everything abt Susie should make her clash with us (her ability to override choices, ignore our commands), she's the one who is the most aligned to us in terms of how we feel and experience the events of the story, and she is the one whose dynamic with the Player, has been nothing but purely beneficial to each other.
Not many people fully analyse the relationships between the Player and other characters outside of Kris (and sometimes Noelle for Weird), and I think Susie's dynamic with the Player is one that should really be looked into.
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
snowghoul
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