Gaster's LOVE Letter!? - Undertale/Deltarune VALENTINE'S Newsletter! 

WOW this is an extremely informative comment, thank you for bringing it to my attention! I apologize for my dismissal of it in the video, clearly I wasn't well educated on the subject.

​@@TheAdvertisement Don't worry, it think it's completely fine, (and even kind of important!) to set this argument aside and try to see if the Gaster theory stands on its own through a different lens, but I just wanted to make it clear that the argument being made when the japanese localization is mentioned has much less to do with the tone of the letter and much more with the extremely consistent characterization that the typer values have in the english version.

Japanese translation has NEVER been evidence of anything in UT/DR , that's like saying,,Chara" puts us in Kris at the beginning cuz it's the same manner of speech.

​​​​​​​​​​@@zeo4481 "Japanese has never been the evidence of anything" Ok, for starters, that is just flat out wrong. Toby Fox keeps an extremely close eye to the japanese localization. The reason why that's the ONLY language other than English that has an official translation is because it's the only other language that Toby is fluent in and, as such, the only one he could provide guidelines for an adaptation that didn't accidentally imply non-canon things. In the English version, at no point do Sans or Papyrus indicate who is the older brother. But in the japanese version, due to linguistics quirks, utilizing a term for "brother" that didn't indicate who's the eldest would likely be charged with added meaning. As such, Toby told the localization team who should be the older brother. Are you suggesting that our knowledge of who's older is not canon despite it being literally in the game just because it can only be learned from the japanese version? You say that is has "never" been evidence of anything, but that's just not the case. You just don't like it, despite a whole lot of theory crafting using the japanese localization as evidence. Do only theories that don't use the japanese localization hold value to you? Why? A lot of these choices are documented in the Legends of Localization book, which is official merch. It is unfathomable that people who don't speak Japanese seem incapable of grasping that there are structural elements of the japanese language that are objective in what they indicate. Why would the OFFICIAL, CLOSELY ORIENTED BY TOBY localization of the game not be admissible as evidence? Because you don't like what it implies? It's also not at all like saying "Chara did this" because it's the same manner of speech. First and foremost, because this would be deriving a lore implication from an internal factual information and second because it's an inversion of the logic being applied here. The goner maker sequence is entirely written in Katakana and Kanji. This is entirely consistent with the way Gaster speaks in the website archive, on twitter, and during goner maker, and is the strongest argument on why it actually IS Gaster for once. If you want to say that the official, closely oriented by Toby localization is unusable as evidence, you literally throw away the stongest argument for the most widely accepted as Gaster sequence of the game. The ending of the intro is typed in hiragana and kanji, in a way that would break the typer characterization that the original English employs. Some people suggest that the second speaker COULD be Chara, because some of the characterization overlaps, but Chara's characterization in japanese is not so bizarre that another character talking like that not being her would be weird. The same can not be said for Gaster. But that's not what the japanese version PROVES. What it proves is that THERE IS A SECOND SPEAKER, because the characterization being used in the Goner Maker is EXTREMELY peculiar and unnatural, and is a localization of something Toby almost never breaks - the typer consistency. It would be like if the entire Goner Maker sequence was written in papyrus and it suddenly changed to courier new - other characters could use courier new, but it would be strong evidence that the speaker changed regardless. The proposition "it is Chara" is not similar to what's being argued here. A parallel from the goner maker sequence would be "speakers changed". No one is saying that it's impossible to be Gaster; but if you do not present an argument to why he would wholly change his characterization besides the incredibly weak "it's to appear more casual in a Valentine's Day card" then there's no real argument to be had, as that simply does not address the real gravity of the inconsistency in the japanese version.

Does the valentine match with any other character in Japanese? Based on the English I assumed it might be deltarune's papyrus (goofy, capitalised) but I know that papyrus has a specific way of referring to himself in Japanese so I'm wondering if there are any similarities

i don't think that the last letter is switched, i think the article (El/La) is the thing being switched, and so their names do much up with their weathers.

@@CarMedicine maybe, im not really sure🤔

@@nobodyicsi say that because, to me, Lanino's appearance seems more masculine and Elnina's appearance seems more feminine

@@CarMedicine I can confirm that the last letter is switched. You wouldnt use El for niña because the word is feminine. Same thing happens with La and niño, except that in this case the word is masculine and the article is femenine.

​@@fullaccess2645 um i know that, i am a native Spanish speaker :v (i live near Barcelona, to be precise) i just think the names make more sense that way, because then the weathers match up for the Niño and the Niña, which are the main part of the weather terms, while the articles remain secondary. (just to clarify what i mean, i reckon Lanino references El Niño and Elnina references La Niña, instead of their names referencing what *each other's* designs are based on, which is confusing) Plus, we're talking about names that are referencing the terms here, not the actual terms themselves. Why should Spanish gender agreement apply in a name, an English one, no less?

Oh cool! Yeah never knew they had this much content.

Why thank you! I actually released a full video of me dubbing the letters.

The way the fandom completely switched sides from "stop saying everything is Gaster not everything has to do with him" to "omg guys it's clearly Gaster stop trying to make it something else" from this one newsletter is really funny.

@@TheAdvertisement Watching Jerma right now, can I give you an 'IOU' for a reply?

Its not Gaster lol

THANK YOU

​it's more that this is so clearly gaster that people have to be literally trolling if they think it's not. @@TheAdvertisement

Now let’s see how long they last until they’re back to their chaos

@@Jessica_Schweser I'd give it a week or so

Phew!

I can't believe a game with crappy pixel art and some minigames hasn't finished development of it's next chapter yet. wtf is going on.

@@baradragonsftw9310 With cheese, Mr. Squidward. With cheese.

​@@baradragonsftw9310 it's not just the next chapter man, it's chapters 3-5

​@@uboa8060Actually it's just chapter 3 and 4 now and not 3-5 that was the old release plan.toby said in 2023 Halloween newsletter that he would release 3 and 4 together and chapter 5 later.

Yeah cus it's true lol

@@TheAdvertisement*false lmao

This is really not how japanese works. Katakana is not a syllabary that you employ in everyday writing based on "vibes". You utilize Katakana when it makes sense to use it. I can guarantee you that every single valentine's day letter that mentions chocolate will use the Katakana word "チョコレート" because it's how we commonly refer to it in every context. Sure, one might try not to use words that are written in Katakana by default if they are committed to sounding a certain way, and that makes sense in a "love letter", but you don't simply choose to write things in one syllabary instead of other just because. In fact, Katakana is the only one that's ever employed "for the cool factor" and that comes across as cheesy most of the time. (There are exceptions, like with some pronouns, obviously) However, the way Gaster employs Katakana is not something any normal person would do. It is very much a characterization element that makes his typer come across as bizarre and peculiar. His ability to just type like a normal person would is the kind of thing that would make his previous characterization seem ridiculous. It would be like Sans not using his respective font in his card because "you wouldn't print out a Valentines Day card in comic sans". Or like Roulxs hitting you with a "sup, fam" on chapter 3. Changing his exquisite use of Katakana because it's a Valentine's Day card is something no other character with a comparable quirk did.

@@In.New.York.I.Milly.Rock. Ohhh interesting :0 So that means that Gaster's very specific use Katakana is crucial for his characterization (on more than just tone), right? Is it because it conveys both his odd way of phrasing things and his use of 'hard-to-understand-symbols' (as in Windings being a parallel to 'foreign words/characters')? And does that mean that no character in Deltarune changes the way they speak then?

​​​​​​​​@@Eye-Of-The-Beholder "So that means that Gaster's very specific use Katakana is crucial for his characterization (on more than just tone), right?" Yes, sorta. The usage of katakana resembles the usage of constant UPPER CASE, but it's actually kind of ridiculous. He often says in katakana words that are written only in hiragana, in a way that no normal person would speak. The reason why it's stronger characterization in japanese is because, while you could reasonably see other characters speak in all caps (and we do - both shadow crystal holders), you would immediately think of Gaster if someone spoke like him in japanese. It would be like if someone's typer value made them speak in Comic Sans. There is a tonal element tho. He speaks very formally - sometimes it kinda sounds like an actual form tbh - but it's not necessarily polite. In fact, he uses anata and kimi, while the most "polite" way we use colloquially is to attach an honorific to someone's surname and use that. He's not "impolite", tho, it's kinda complicated lol. "Is it because it conveys both his odd way of phrasing things and his use of 'hard-to-understand-symbols' (as in Windings being a parallel to 'foreign words/characters')?" Yes, but not quite. The odd phrasing is mostly a tone thing and it's not really associated to the usage of katakana (most of the time). With Windings, it's hard to describe. Because they are associated to the phonemes of the roman alphabet, there's no real equivalent to this in japanese, so Entry 17 kinda just translates to hepburn romaji - as in, the Windings correspond to roman letters which are emulating the japanese syllabaries. So Windings are written like his japanese would sound if it was spoken instead of written (?). If Toby couldn't find a better way to convey this, I'm not sure there is one, lol. "And does that mean that no character in Deltarune changes the way they speak then" They change their tone in japanese as much as they change their tone in English. However, they hardly ever change the linguistic elements that characterise their speech, just like in English. In Undertale, Papyrus never stops talking in Papyrus during the entire game. But Flowey speaks in Papyrus once when impersonating him. Sans is the only exception to the rule. When he breaks character, he stops using Comic Sans. In the pacifist/neutral route, this happens once (twice if you count him speaking from the shadows during the judgment). The Japanese localization is actually MORE consistent in this. With Deltarune there's a new facet to this: the Lightners change their syllabary choices when going to the Dark World, but this feels consistent with the characterization of the world more than anything. I'd imagine Toby did this because they speak in a very normal way of writing in the Light World (especially Noelle, she sounds like a regular japanese person), so there's no consistent characterization being employed by their syllabary choices instead of their tone. If this change has any meaning to the actual characters and not just the world, it's not apparent to me. The main difference between these two is that the way Gaster speaks is not like anyone actually writes, so that's *his* thing, not a world-building thing. For contrast, the fun squad doesn't have a characteristic font.

@@In.New.York.I.Milly.Rock. I see, this really shines a light on lots of things Thanks for the explanation Pal!

@@avandorhu-3389 There is no way to know how it impacts story until the chapters are released. Toby made the letter so that there is just enough doubt to prevent us from drawing a definitive conclusion. And you're forgetting it was the japanese translation that confirmed gaster was the voice in the goner maker sequence. So the fact that the manner of speech doesn't match is a big deal

@@avandorhu-3389 Please stop being disingenuous with your claims. You've been all over this comments section bashing the people who don't think it's Gaster. I've been fair to the people who think it's Gaster. You're fixating on exactly one argument, one which I spent very little time on in the video compared to ones that do address the story, and many have addressed the implications of it being Mike.

The only way it could be gaster is if he has multiple personalities/different selves. He actually doesnt talk like gaster and the spacing is similar but not the same to how gaster uses it. Also, gaster being forgotten is still only a fan theory. As far as we know, he was remembered. Otherwise asgore taking a long time to find a replacement of a similar caliber wouldnt make much sense..

Except this argument completely falls apart considering we have literally no precedence for different "parts" of Gaster speaking to us. It's a speculative justification, not evidence. We don't even know if Gaster was shattered in Deltarune, he's a separate Gaster, "another him" after all. Also for referencing us playing Deltarune, people have pointed out the significance of there being a space between Delta and Rune. As in, Deltarune refers to the game, but Delta Rune has always referred to the Legend of Delta Rune.

@@TheAdvertisement On your first point, why *wouldn’t* this be the same Gaster from UT? The Gaster that all the Goners talked about? The Gaster that has been shattered across time and space? Why would *DR* Gaster be able to manipulate the timelines of his own world? Couple this with the fact that lines from Entry 17 were used on the Deltarune website pre-2018 to tease the upcoming release solidly indicate to us that we are dealing with UT Gaster, the man who has been shattered across time and space. On your second point, are you aware that the spacing in “Delta Rune” isn’t present in the JP version of the letter? And in the JP translation of DR they also separate “Delta” and “Rune” within the Prophecy, so the letter is intentionally not referring to the Prophecy, but the game. If it was indeed referring to the prophecy, it would’ve been spaced in both versions of the letter. Returning back to the letter, it is important to look at the full context. The section reads: “ HOW IS DELTA RUNE? AS YOU ARE WAITING PATIENTLY, THE TIME IS GOING AROUND.” This indicates that the author is *not* talking about the Prophecy or Symbol, but the game. Why would we be “waiting patiently” for the Prophecy???

@@mrperson4542 Two words: "Another Him". The Japanese version is also the Japanese version. We're talking about the English version. Besides, if you wanna talk about the Japanese translation, there's a pinned comment that says plenty. Because they're talking to the player character, not the in-game characters. They still could be unaware that the world is a game, or maybe they aren't, but they're still clearly referring to the Legend. Even if you don't agree on that, it doesn't change the fact that GASTER refers to Deltarune as "Deltarune", while this new character, among their many other mannerisms that are completely different from Gaster, puts in the space.

@@TheAdvertisement It’s titled “Another Him” because its *another* “him” track, as the first one was in UT. It makes absolutely no sense for the Gaster we talk to at the start of the game to be DR Gaster as he should just be a regular guy and not an entity that exists outside of space and time. Also remember that, on Twitter, he directly asks us “HAVE YOU BEEN LOOKING FOR ME? I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU AS WELL.” To put it simply, we are talking to UT Gaster. End of story. And i brought up the JP version because you are using the whole “Delta Rune”/“Deltarune” point as a big deal when I provided evidence that this aspect isn’t consistent. If Toby wanted to tell the audience that the author of the letter was talking about the Prophecy, why isn’t both the english and JP versions of the letter consistent? And, as i have said in my original post, these differences in mannerisms and word usage is indeed important in telling us that this isn’t the speaker from the start of the game. But, again, this is *still* Gaster. Just a different piece of him. Literally one of the first things we learned about Gaster was that he was shattered across time and space.

@@mrperson4542 Wow uh, you seem entirely convinced that an argument you made up is a fact... ok then, believe what you want.