This game's message couldn't have been created at a better time, at least for me. I hope it will be able to teach me a couple of things about balancing reality and fiction, so it may inspire and motivate me to learn and practice a balance between them.
Same here. I will feel so called out. I sometimes get tunnel vision when I really get into a game, anime, movie, book or any other work of fiction. I tend to forget to do anything else aside from the bare minimum to survive. Sometimes I even forget to eat and sleep only 4 hours per day In the last few years, I tried to somewhat balance it (it was really a problem in high school) so it happens much less often. Still, sometimes I still fall into my hyperfixation phase for a few days.
I believe the same. I feel that in this times specially some people have an unhealthy relationship with fiction. For example, the people that harasses actors of creators if they don’t do the ending they want or the movie /game or whatever they want. They take it personally as if those peoples are ruining their life… while at the end you should take the good fiction gets you and if you don’t like it you can just dismisse the things you don’t like and stay with the things that have meaning for you. Also, you have to give importance to your life outside the fictional worlds. And the game does it very well because you see how fiction can do good to the protagonists but also has a downside. How they want to stay only in fiction to not confront their problems but at the same fiction helps them to be more courageous and have friendships in real life.
I'm shocked you haven't gotten more views, this is so well made. I haven't wanted to make any major observations about Deltarune without the entire game available to us but that doesn't mean Toby hasn't already planted many chekov's guns that have already been fired, and I'm deeply anticipating how Toby continues to build upon these themes
We as a community need to talk more about the layers of fiction that are going on here, because there's so much there to work with. To your point, we are in our own light world, and that's mind-blowing
Honestly? I have the headcanon that the roaring will trap people in their ideal lives. Fake happiness, basically. I've always love that idea of being put in a perfect reality and realizing it isn't what you truly want.
on top of all this, i just find it so fitting that toby decided to release chapter 2 during the height of the pandemic when we were all truly begging on our knees to escape from this horrid earthly realm
id like to mention that the weird route is also able to show the direct effect of using fiction in a negative or harmful way through morbidity (the player’s desire to wreck absolute carnage to anything & everything), in turn affecting the people around you if not kept in check (albeit in a very dramatic way given the context of the game). it allows a space for negative actions to further develop if not reflected upon ive also always thought the idea of ralsei being evil as a bit silly, and you managed to clear that up! toby is a very skilled writer, that’s for sure. he’s creating a work so self-aware it’s even predicting it’s own future… mind boggling astounding video! ive been consuming theories around the platform the past few months, and all the community’s collective points being paired with this video is like a puzzle being completed; you covered all the right things about this game! thank you so much for the effort you put into this video, down to the execution and editing. ill definitely be coming back to rewatch this a few times!
I liked the point you brought up about the weird route. Something I didn't mention in the video (or didn't make clear) was that I think the weird route is exploring another way to break our suspension of disbelief of a fictional world/video game, realizing its linear nature from a previous playthrough and trying to find a way to break away from it despite the consequences. Regarding your other points, I've seen a lot of theory videos explaining specific details about Deltarune, sometimes very specific details. I think about Deltarune as a forest full of trees. A lot of theorists tend to focus on analyzing a specific tree or a set of trees in that forest, sometimes going as detailed as analyzing the leaves, the bark, and the branches of one specific tree. My main goal with this video was that I wanted it to be a sort of overview of the entire forest that people can understand easily, and to use as a basis to start exploring that forest and come up with much more interesting inquiries about that forest and those trees. Other than that, thanks for the comment! :)
I think, in a sense, the intrusion of the dark world has already happened in the real world multiple times. With many narratives of fiction, becoming so entrenched into it, that it has literally caused physical damage. Not to make here a statement about anything, but like the clash of ideologies during the cold war, fiction has influenced the world always in such ways. A culture or ideology is after all, also a fiction that has been shaped over generations, by all those people that told their story with their own lives.
The Weird Route being an allegory for breaking the bounds of a video game and defying fate is just so clever, now that I think about it. Practically not hinted at anywhere in the game, you have to do a lot of nonsensical things that derail the plot.
Good that you added the origins of the idea, as it's very important. You covered a lot of stuff I used to need to state in eqch discussion. Loved it. Good job
I am truly incapable of expressing my amusement towards how profound Toby Fox is as a creator. All the metanarratives you mentioned and stuff, it really is remarkable. Regardless of how long it'll take, hopefully the game gets to reach its ending, unlike one certain game whose developer got caught committing unpleasant acts.
This is one of the best theories I have seen that cover the overall meaning of the game, besides some of the videos of Andrew Cunningham. Very well done you deserve more views.
I was aware of the metanarrative about fiction for a while. I mean, since people started to theorize that chapter 1 was a very inmersive dnd campaing Kris made for Susie. Ralsei is the perfect definition of a comfort character: he's cute, friendly, wants to make you happy, he's a woobie you want to protect and, most importantly, he encourage you to keep living in reality but always reassures you he'll be there for you when you need him. The exploration of fiction also makes everyone's crush on Susie to make sense. In the internal narrative of the game, Susie is the only "real" love interest available. And, despite how much I love my fluffy prince, any character shipped with him is just another deeper layer of escapist fantasy. But hey, I'm the kind of person to have my husbandos since I was little, so maybe i'm not the best person to say that. Another angle about the danger of the Roaring is that, with a lost of touch on reality, all you have is fiction; a fiction that never changes, it's stagnant and then turn predictable and unfulfilling. I think that's what it means that all Darkners turn into stone; after a while, even the most beloved characters from your most beloved fiction stops feeling like a personality and more like a statute or action figure you project if all you do is interact with it and not take breaks in reality. Still, I love how well you explain all the thoughts I had for a while in this video. Good job!
This was not only a great video in terms of its actual contents and how beautifully sums up current understanding of this aspect of Deltarune, but also it has some of the best style in a video essay I’ve ever seen!!! I could watch this a thousand times just for the visuals alone!
I'm only 5 minutes in and already I'm in love with the presentation of this. A game as the medium within a video essay to explore the metanarrative of a game which explores the concept of fiction itself...? Very clever. ;D The editing is also very satisfying! Cool, clean visuals and effects. A nice pace and structure. You put a lot of effort into this, and it shows! I really appreciate you highlighting some key words you say, but mostly using visuals to present the video part of this video essay. Some people end up making slightly fancier Power Point presentations -- but your video is fun to look at, while super engrossing to listen to. Here's a thought: if the Dark World is fiction-within-fiction of the Light World, being the fiction-within-reality from our perspective... you mentioned Berdly maybe going three layers of fiction deep... what if instead, we went one layer 'up' from our own reality?? VERY, VERY INTERESTING. Now having watched all through to the end, I can say with confidence that this was a piece of (non-?)fiction (analysis?) that I'm happy to have sunk some of my time into. I do indeed feel enriched after the experience. And now, as you advocate, I must go touch some grass. Until next time!! P.S. And of course, what Toby fan doesn't appreciate a wacky Gaster intrusion like at the end of Q2. Also, unfortunately, my Captions fail to properly capture all the symbols there, so... I'm afraid I can't follow your breadcrumbs... but if anyone else did... please do share ;) P.P.S. VIDEO_INTRO and VIDEO_OUTRO OKAY OKAY very clever ;DDD P.P.P.S. Oooookay okay!! The whole treasure hunt for the hidden messages is very, very cool. Thank you for that xD
One thing that I didn't see mentioned in the video and document (maybe I missed it): special skills in battle work off of TP (Tension Points). This is most likely also a reference to the "Fiction" metanarrative of the game. You gain it by literally just barely scraping by danger and by defending (i.e. doing nothing, which also sets more tension). From a reader's perspective, the protagonist just barely avoiding a nasty attack is tense.
this video gave me a dark thought, idk if its been said before, i hope its not right. but i think if this is true, amd that its all about missing out on real life due to escapism, i think Noelle is gunna miss her dad's death...
This video deserves a million views minimum. Holy hell! Quite enjoyed it. You echoed my thoughts & put them into words perfectly! Also I've been trying to find the secret links but either I'm too dumb or those links have been taken down 'cuz that's what RU-vid says 😅😅 In any case, that was a masterpiece of a video!
I doubt that the Dark Worlds and their inhabitants aren't real. First of all, how could something that's not real cause a cataclysmic world-ending event such as the Roaring ? And second, if characters like Lancer or Queen were not actually real, wouldn't that be a bit sad ? That all of these characters we've learned to love aren't actually real...
Kinda late, but: This video is so amazing!!! I hope more people find this and like it!!! Also, the wingdings say: FOR THOSE LOOKING FOR SECRETS A meta joke on a video about meta, perfect
I think that the analysis of “what can fiction/escapism do for us, positive and negative” isn’t quite complete without an analysis of “Greatest Living Show.” While not technically canon to Deltarune, I think GLS can be seen as an example of what a ‘roaring’ might look like in a different genre of storytelling. It’s definitely thematically linked, at least. Perhaps in another video?
I think the consequences of losing fiction goes far beyond just not having our entertainment and escapes. Our entire reality is made of stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves and the world around us. If you deconstruct enough, you can be left with nihilism, and the only way out of that is to create bonds with other people, which can happen by fiction via fandom, community, shared stories, shared morals, shared understanding. This is essentially what religion is and does, and even if you can’t agree with or participate in organized religion for its many flaws, it is still good for us as humans to come together in shared love for our common myths and stories
23:53 huh- what is this game? does anyone have any links to download and play it?? or at least could give me a rundown/explanation on everything they know about it
This is an old scrapped ARPG game I made in Unity back in 2020/2021 called SOLUS. I have a build of it still but the game doesn't really have anything of note within it other than like an inventory system, a very basic combat system, and only like 2 scenes.
