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sage-nebula · 3 years

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Thinking about all the clues in canon that Susie is an orphan who, before the game started, never had any friends or anyone who really cared about her (with their care for her being known to her), such as:

— At the beginning of Chapter 2, Ralsei reveals that he has set up rooms for Susie and Kris in his castle, so that the Dark World can be like “a second home” to them. When Susie sees her room, she spends a moment marveling about how she has her own room and awkwardly asks Ralsei how long he spent setting it up for her. After that, she’s overjoyed about how cool it is, bragging about it to both Kris and Lancer. While it could be that she just likes the room, the emphasis she puts on it being her own room makes it seem like this might be the first time she’s ever had a room to herself. Which, to be fair, Kris shared their room with Asriel as well, but the room Kris shared with Asriel was still their room, at least on one side of it. If Susie is from a group home, it could be that she never even had that much to herself.

— Susie seems to care greatly for Toriel, but in Chapter 1 also seems a bit jealous of Kris for being Toriel’s child. In Chapter 1, after Susie threatens Kris about biting their face off, she stops and says, “Nah. Kris, you have a good mother. It’d be a shame to make her bury her child.” If you try to skip school instead of going to the closet after that, Susie stops Kris by saying, “If you skip school, your mother will have a heart attack.” In both cases, Susie is expressing care for Toriel’s emotional well-being; however much Susie might not care for others, she does care about Toriel enough to not want to stress her out. Keeping in mind that all of this happens before the first Dark World trip, it can’t be explained away by Susie’s character development like Susie’s eagerness to bake a pie with Toriel (and otherwise adherence and respect that she shows for Toriel) in Chapter 2 can.

But going along with that, when you follow Susie to the closet in Chapter 1, Susie mocks Kris by saying, “Not used to walking without someone holding your hand? Come on, freak.” Given the respect and care Susie has already shown for Toriel, it’s clear that her mocking of Kris here is not because Kris should be ashamed for holding Toriel’s hand; rather, it could be jealousy that Susie doesn’t have someone to do that for her, and perhaps never did. It’s easier to call Kris a freak for having a loving mother who holds their hand than it is to admit that she wishes she had the same.

As a final note on the Chapter 2 interactions, Susie is surprised that Toriel knows her name and remembers her. This, in addition to her eagerness to help out with the pie, her laughing at Toriel’s jokes, etc, shows that Susie has a fondness for Toriel, who is the most motherly character in the series. Considering that Toriel acts kind and motherly toward Susie, the idea that Susie might not have never had a mother (+ people to care about her) suggests that her fondness for Toriel (+ jealousy of Kris) contributes to how quickly she latches onto / how much she cares about Toriel.

— Susie eats chalk, and while this could be a “haha monster snack” joke, not only do we not see other monsters eating chalk (in fact, Noelle thinks Kris is lying to her if you choose to tell Noelle this about Susie at the end of Chapter 1), but eating chalk can be a sign of a nutrient deficiency. Specifically, craving chalk can be a result of an iron deficiency. If Susie is an orphan who hasn’t had parents to take care of her, then she could have an unbalanced / nutritionally deficient diet, and thus she does things like eat chalk in an effort to make up for it. (Her jeans are also ripped up, and while distressed jeans are cool, it’s also possible those are the only pants she has.)

— While the other kids in Alphys’ class openly detest Susie (e.g. laughing at Kris for being paired with her, warning Kris about possible death at Susie’s hands, refusing to hang out with Kris if Kris is hanging out with Susie, etc), Monster Kid tells a story to Kris in Chapter 1 that suggests that, at one time, Susie might have wanted to be friends with them. Specifically, if you talk to Monster Kid at the end of Chapter 1, Monster Kid tells Kris about a time when the kids from Alphys’ class (sans Kris) were playing kickball in the street. MK says that Susie was “standing in a corner” staring at them, but that when the ball did get kicked over to her, she froze before kicking it so hard that it hit Undyne’s car. Monster Kid doesn’t say what Susie did after that (only that Alphys came out and kicked all their asses at the game), but does go on to insult Susie some more, and notes that Kris looks increasingly annoyed at the insults. Regardless, the thing to take away from this story here is that Susie was watching all the other kids play, and froze when the ball came to her. She kicked it . . . and it hit Undyne’s car. Monster Kid’s retelling of the story suggests that they and the other kids thought that Susie did that on purpose, but my interpretation (knowing Susie as I do now, and also knowing what it’s like to watch other kids play while not feeling invited to play yourself) suggests that it was probably an accident. Susie wanted to play and be included, but accidentally kicked the ball into the car, and was thought of as a freak and bully after despite her actual intentions.

— To that end, at the start of Chapter 1 Susie is pretty blatantly of the opinion that everyone hates her and wants her to get kicked out of school. She flat out says as much to Kris in front of the lockers at the start of the chapter. (“Everyone wants it. Everyone’s waiting for it.”) It’s not only the other students, either; Alphys is afraid of Susie and uses any opportunity she can to get Susie out of class, which would explain why Susie doesn’t hold nearly the same care or respect for her that she does for Toriel, someone who actually did care about and treat Susie with kindness.

— Susie expresses shock when Lancer wants to be like her / wants to be her friend, and in turn, latches onto him with fierce loyalty that is only momentarily shaken when she thinks he’s betrayed her (and she even reasons that with, “why would anyone want to be my friend?”). That line, suggesting that she feels stupid for thinking Lancer would want to be her friend, points to a friendless background. But her fierce loyalty to anyone who shows her even a bit of kindness also shows just how incredibly lonely she is. In fact, if we think about it, the people who Susie latches onto are those who have shown her some big act of kindness before:

Noelle: Lent Susie the candy cane pencil and smiled at her. Considering how the other kids in Alphys’ class treat Susie, the simple act of lending a pencil with a smile probably seemed like a huge act of kindness to her.

Toriel: Acts motherly toward Susie, as she does with all her students. Might not be special treatment in the grand scheme, but it’s special to Susie who typically doesn’t get that treatment from others.

Lancer: Said that he wanted to be like Susie, that he found Susie cool, wanted monogrammed track jackets with her, etc. Actually wanted to be Susie’s friend and appreciated her.

Kris: Defended Susie from the King’s attack. Note that although Susie was working with Kris before this, she wasn’t to the level of calling Kris her friend before Kris defended Susie. Also note that this is not an action that we, the player, make Kris do; Kris does it on their own regardless of the choices the player makes.

Ralsei: Healed Susie’s injured leg after Susie fell from the trash heap in Chapter 2. Granted, Susie was being nice to Ralsei before that and seemed to consider him a friend (enough), but it was only after Ralsei went out of his way to heal Susie’s injury and offered to teach her healing magic that she yoinked him off to spend time alone with him in the city and wanted to bust out of prison to find him when she thought he was being tortured in Queen’s Castle. Ralsei showed Susie some dedicated kindness, Susie latched on for life.

The fact that it takes on gesture of care on someone else’s part for Susie to be willing to kill for a person suggests that not only has Susie not had friends before, but perhaps that her feelings of loneliness were mixed with rejection to the point where she latches on fiercely to these people who care for her and doesn’t let them go.

— In addition to all this, although Susie latches on strongly, she also seems to be worried about losing those connections, too. When Lancer seemingly betrayed her, she said “why would anyone want to be friends with me?” When they returned from the Dark World, Susie hesitantly asks Kris if they’ll still be friends even if it turns out the Dark World was just a dream (well, she doesn’t finish the thought, but it’s clear that’s what she was about to ask before she fled). In the Snowgrave Route, when Noelle flees Kris at the hospital, Susie assumes Noelle is fleeing because of her and expresses dismay that Noelle is “scared of [her] again.” Susie’s default is that people fear or hate her and will run at the first opportunity despite how she tries to keep them close, which again speaks to a history of loneliness and rejection.

— Susie got banned from Free Ham Sandwich Day. This is a throwaway joke line, but if you consider that Susie might be an orphan with food insecurity, it could be less that she was just stuffing her face to be a pig and more that she was eating as much as she could because she didn’t know when she’d be able to eat again. Considering that she also eats things like chalk, candy cane pencils, apple-scented shampoo, and moss . . . well, the idea that Susie is food insecure doesn’t seem too far-fetched. (Kris also eats moss if the player makes them, yes, but the player has to choose that. Susie just does it on her own.)

Anyway, none of this is Conclusive Evidence, of course, but I think there’s a lot to suggest that Susie could very well be an orphan possibly living in a group home, and that she’s never really had the love of family or friends before the game started. Her aggression is defensive aggression more than anything else and it’s pretty clear that she just wants to be loved and give love in return. Susie’s fantastic and I can’t wait to see what more we learn about her as the game goes on.

#deltarune #deltarune spoilers #dtr spoilers #dtr susie #meta #considering how judgmental Susie felt Ralsei was of her throughout most of Chapter 1 #(and tbh Ralsei *was* - he admits himself it took him time to realize Susie being Susie was great)#it's not surprising it took her the longest to warm up to him #but now they are besties and it's great

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