#whatever could it mean

[thecabbagecrow]

leader of the mycellium resistance, the mother spore himself!

#crows art #mcyt #hermitcraft #grian #hermitaday #mushroom dance mushroom dance #whatever could it mean #it means you should join the resistance:)

[agentravensong]

Dance as a motif in UnderTale and DeltaRune

Wow, I actually went and wrote out some of my more unhinged DeltaRune thoughts. Let's not waste this and get right into the analysis.

We're gonna start with DeltaRune because I think that's where the thematic ties are more potent, and then we'll look at UnderTale to see if there's any additional stuff in it that supports it.

Firstly, a detail we'll return to multiple times in this post: Kris's solo act option in the Jevil fight is to pirouette. The specific choice of dance move sticks out to me, as it makes me think of those little ballerina figures in wind-up music boxes. We'll get to why that image sticks out to me later.

Next: In Chapter 2, there's the fight with the robot trio that's resolved by everyone dancing. On its own, it doesn't seem too thematically relevant, but I do think it's significant that this is the battle where Susie unlocks her and Ralsei's ability for them to ACT on their own. In theory, this is them gaining more autonomy... but they're still following Kris's (or, perhaps more accurately, our) command. Not to mention that Susie technically forces Ralsei into it.

I find that this brings out an interesting tension in the thematic idea of dancing: on the one hand, it's an expression of one's bodily autonomy, their skill and creativity. It's often spontaneous and symbolically an expression of freedom (think of the movie/musical Footloose, where the teens of the conservative religious town are banned from dancing). On the other hand, many dances are tightly choreographed, with high-level performers expected to perform them perfectly. And even those that aren't are still, for the most part, bound to the beat, the rhythm of the music.

In other words, dance encapsulates the dichotomy of freedom and control. Of chaos and order. The dichotomy at the heart of DeltaRune's narrative.

Kris's pirouette action in Jevil's fight also contains that dichotomy of chaos and order in it. At first, it seems like its effects are random, but one can figure out that they're actually tied to the turn number, and always occur in the same order. As Toby Fox said about Jevil's attacks, all chaos has some order in it.

Not only that, but there's also a second dichotomy one could consider as part of the first: dancing for oneself, as a personal artistic expression, versus dancing for an audience.

Here's where we begin to transition to talking about UnderTale. Because there's a character in UnderTale who's all about performing for an audience, and has super sweet dance moves: Mettaton.

And Mettaton has a pretty clear parallel in DeltaRune.

Spamton. Who takes DR!Mettaton's artistic creation (the NEO body) for his own, hoping to achieve freedom through someone else's self-expression, and is therefore doomed to fail. Spamton, a puppet dancing on his strings. Spamton, who calls out to a heavenly audience.

Spamton, whom Kris is heavily implied to relate to in some capacity.

Kris, who, when faced with the first secret boss, pirouettes. Like a ballerina in a music box, forced to spin around for as long as they've been wound up.

Kris, who plays (used to play) the piano, but can't do it - can't express themself artistically - while their body is under someone else's control.

Kris, who, when they rip out their SOUL and regain their autonomy at the end of Chapter 1, pulls out a knife and gives a cheeky grin to the heavens. To whatever audience might be watching.

...Some of that is more generally music-related or performance-related than dance-related, admittedly. There's a whole ton of stuff one could discuss re: music as a theme/motif in these games, but I'm gonna leave that for others to go into for the sake of time.

Let's properly transition into discussing UnderTale now, where I have two main examples to point out.

1. One of the pairs of items you can get are a Dusty Tutu and Ballet Shoes. Not just dance-related items, but ones of the same type (genre?) of dance as Kris's pirouette. This item pair is tied back to the blue Integrity soul. To have integrity is to be honest and have strong moral principles. You could say it means being true to oneself. This connection, therefore, basically confirms the thematic association between dance, personal expression, and autonomy.

2. Now, I could go more into Mettaton here, about how his character arc (and that of Mad Dummy / Mad Mew Mew, from whom Spamton stole the "festive jig" bit) reflects the theme of integrity; or how he has that one musical scene with Frisk where he has this strict, boring choreography while Frisk can move around however they want, but no matter what they do, the ending of the scene is still the same; and how all of Hotland is scripted by Alphys, but Mettaton still enjoys the performance, until he doesn't and then decides to make the dance his own...

And I guess by typing all that I kind of already did. But what I meant to get to, is this:

This is the dialogue for the mushroom in Temmie Village. They do a little dance when you interact with them, then look above Frisk's head with piercing eyes to deliver the rest of the dialogue.

The most interesting bit of this to me is the initial, standard dialogue, where Ragel describes their dance as being an expression of their imprisonment and torment. Their lack of autonomy, of freedom. A pain and lack unique to them, as even the destruction of the barrier won't solve their problem.

They have just enough autonomy to express their feelings via dance, but they're still limited by their circumstances. By their very body. Like how dancers are still bound to the beat, and the capabilities of their own bodies.

Can you see the parallels to DeltaRune here? To Susie, who keeps "breaking the narrative", but was also the one to tell Kris "your choices don't matter" and, at the end of the day, mostly falls in line as a Delta Warrior under their command? To Ralsei, who's wed to the prophecy but still tells Kris that their choices are important too? To Kris, who's forced to follow our commands, but begins in Chapter 2 to show more of their personality through the way they speak the lines we give them, finding ways to add their own flair to this tightly choreographed dance? Kris, whose restriction of their autonomy comes back to their very body?

Speaking of DeltaRune and Ralsei, there's one more thing I'd be remiss not to mention, as it's what set me off on this path of inquiry months ago: Ralsei has a weird, out-of-place sprite that has a small chance of showing up at a certain point in the Weird Route. A sprite that's stored, hidden, among his dance sprites from the robot trio battle. This video goes over that whole thing if you want to know more.

In conclusion, dance is a prominent motif in DeltaRune, tied to some of the game's most prominent themes, which UnderTale helped lay the ground for. We'll see how the use of the dance as a motif evolves in future DR chapters, likely coming to a head with the festival Susie teased at the end of Chapter 2.

After all, while one can certainly dance on their own... what about the time-honored tradition of dancing with a partner? A tradition that requires finding a balance between personal expression and following another person's lead?

I'll close out with a quote from the old version of the website for The Stanley Parable, which you may or may not deem resonant with what we've discussed here today:

“The game is not here to fight you; it is inviting you to dance.”

#deltarune #undertale #player theory #not tagging every character i mentioned here. nope. #mushroom dance / mushroom dance #whatever could it mean #image descriptions in alt text

[dontbelasagnax]

Our summers are both looking pretty 👁

Stare-ey

👁👁👁👁👁👁👁👁👁👁👁

#whatever could it mean #ask box

[zebra-all-the-time]

Silly dance silly dance

#Whatever could it mean

[rydrake6]

What if mushrooms really could dance tho? We'd always be doing the mushroom dance. There would be no escape.

#Mushroom dance #whatever could it mean #it means we can never escape society #We are condemned to doom #like ants in a death spiral #Always improsoned by our own constructs #6am thoughts

[the-gom-jabbar]

The whole genetics project of the Bene Gesserit may have been dubbed a failure because Paul wasn't a girl but there was nothing stopping Paul and Feyd-Ruatha acting on that sexual tension they had in both book and film.

Paul could have taken Feyd as a third Consort. Just imagine Paul with his Empress Irulan and his wife Chani sitting at his side and Feyd just sprawled on the dais steps just wearing something scandalous like

You were right Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, wasted potential.

#I mean Paul could have taken Feyd as a third consort #The Imperial Quad #Irulan could write Chani could be Paul's actual spouse #Feyd could just lounge around Arrakeen or Kaitan just looking pretty and doing whatever he wanted #Feyd would get jealous of course #dune #paul atreides #dune 2021 #dune memes #dune messiah #frank herbert #children of dune #chapterhouse: dune #duncan idaho #god emperor of dune #feyd rautha #paul x feyd rautha #feyd rautha harkonnen #house harkonnen #house atriedes #house corrino #frank herbert's dune #reverend mother mohaim #Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam #Bene Gesserit #dune part two #dune part ii #Dune 2

[traumasurvivors]

Please pass this along 🩷

You deserve to hear any all of the ones you need. So, just pick the one that spoke to you most today.

#and if you’re reading this #know that whatever you need to hear #I’d be saying it to you if I could #and I mean all of these

[saphushia]

every damn time i forget how good msp is then i open it and enter a haze for 3 hours having the absolute time of my life

#art #dndverse utdr #dndverse #tobi the tiefling #sylsariph #kinda. lmao #theres no context or greater meaning for this one i just opened msp and drew whatever i could think of #which turned out to be hot knife reflection #oc #ms paint

[snailsnaps]

Further, for thy sake Open my mouth and scream aloud with me Arise and then break out Denote my place within humanity The image of a face is on a wall with solid iron claws A happy face of me It's not a nightmare, just some nonsense

🎶🎧🎵 RECKLESS BATTERY BURNS - Ghost and Pals 🎵🎧🎶

New Hardware is a fanfic by @west-brooke - read it :) /th /aff

#YOU SHOULD READ NEW HARDWARE - NOW! #No i did not spend a whole day on the kraang flesh details whatever could you mean -- /s #hope you like it West * kisses you on the forehead /p * #i love this song sm tho #tw body horror #body horror tw #cw body horror #body horror cw #rottmnt donatello #rise donatello #rise donnie #rottmnt donnie #new hardware #rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt au #rottmnt fic #rottmnt fanfic #rottmnt fanart #snailsnaps #snails fanart #Spotify

[jinglebunns]

YIPPEE WE RISE!! This is my piece for The Magolor Collab!

I chose to draw the (hypothetical) scene in which Magolor first read about the Lor and Master Crown. I had a lot of fun hiding easter eggs (heh) in this piece!! :] Please check out the whole project, it's really amazing!! 🥚✨

Also shoutout to @desultory-novice for making a brush with the Halcandran symbols, they helped a lot with the books :]

#art #kirby #magolor #return to dreamland #return to dreamland deluxe #art collab #for the easter eggs #there's the drawing of kirb and magolor on the side #bc magolor says in game that he knew of kirby before they met #and i'd like to think magolor thought kirby was cool or wanted to be friends #there's the cast shadow from the star mobile adding to mago's shadow to look like the master crown #the tile at the center of that shadow is supposed to look like the gem of the master crown too #the crayons on the floor are dedede bandee kirby and MK pointed as if to attack #kirby's crayon being pointed the other way wasn't intentional i literally just noticed now #but it could mean whatever #and also i referenced tome trackers from rtdl deluxe for the design of the room

[pansexualnoodle5]

OH SHIT WAIT A MINUTE

OF COURSE HUNTER CAN’T SWIM

NONE OF THE BOILING ISLES KIDS CAN SWIM

LITERALLY EVERY BODY OF WATER IN THE DEMON REALM IS LIKE A MILLION DEGREES SO WHY WOULD THEY NEED TO LEARN

HOW HAVE I NEVER CONSIDERED THAT

#MAYBE IF WE GOT A BEACH EPISODE #LUZ COULD HAVE TAUGHT THE REST OF THE HEX SQUAD HOW TO SWIM. #I mean maybe there’s public pools or whatever on the isles BUT THIS IDEA IS FUNNIER #the owl house spoilers #the owl house #toh spoilers #hunter toh #dana terrace #thanks to them

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

This is the start of something new

[First] Prev <–-> Next

#Poorly Drawn MDZS #MDZS #wei wuxian #lan wangji #season 1 #*I never knew that it could happen till it happened to me* #Listen there were so many good scenes I wanted to draw and maybe one day I will but dang #sometimes when there are too many good moments to draw in a summary comic you have to abridge them into something that gets the vibes #The teen boy shenanigans that wwx drags lwj into are fine and good and *funny* #but they are also 15 and 15 year olds will say whatever comes to mind whether its well formulated or not #Less of a gay awakening and more of a moment of realizing that theres a door labeled 'homosexual thoughts' in the back of the house #and someone just threw a baseball into the window of it #poor lwj for he now spends the rest of his teen and young adult years haunted by this moment #only to cultivate it into a garden in which he will one day marry this man #Live your life in a way that would make teen you implode -> my daily advice column wisdom #Side note: this comic is vertical because I...ran out of space on my page. I have been meaning to experiment though #might continue like this? Maybe...

[potionofinstantdamage]

i hope doc ends up in gems empire honestly. i dont keep up with empires but i want him to show up to this magical wonderful fantasy sunset castle land farm village and get a makeover and paint his nails or w/e and then arm the place with land mines

#talking #doc #gem #empires #hermitcraft #by makeover i just mean like. medival clothes. but he could also get a princess dress i guess #whatever he wants smiley face

[bumpereatspants]

aftg is wild because kevin says "give your game to me." and "close your eyes and tell me what you see" and neil just says "you." and andrew has to watch the whole thing. and then andrew is the one he falls for.

#its a real plot twist #but thats just crazy like #could not be me #kevin had the whole childhood headstart adn still lost #i mean he also has the whole internal homophobia thing but whatevs #aftg #all for the game #andrew minyard #neil josten #kevin day #andreil #like the way kevandreil didnt actually become canon was a crime tbh #we were robbed #well i am procrastinating bc i hate writing and im supposed to be self-reflecting 🙄 #the foxhole court #the raven king #the kings men #tfc #anyways #txt

[anthonycrowley]

van days fob is inherently hilarious to consider. because the only adult in that situation. the person that i assume everyone’s parents agreed would be like. the responsible party. was pete wentz.

#text #my post #mobi #music:fob #like. the fact patrick and joe survived. i mean i know pete is like a father or whatever but i don’t think i could have taken care of two #teenage boys NOW