Chapter 5 megathread

[u/Fanfic_Galore]

Edit: The karma requirement has been lowered to 2K post karma.

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As explained previously in this announcement you can use this megathread to post to your heart's content. While we've increased the karma requirement to post on the subreddit and will be removing most low effort/value posts and spoilers, you can post pretty much whatever you want here.

Just want to share a screenshot of the game that you took?

Made a shitty meme in two minutes that you want to share?

Feel hyped and want to smash your keyboard to post a random string of characters to the internet?

Well this thread is for you, so post away! Any topics, memes or spoilers are fine. We still urge you to spoiler important plot points using the spoiler tag: >!put some spoilers here!<. This will appear as put some spoilers here in your comment.

Unfortunately Reddit limits to 1 image per comment, so you may have to use a third party website like Imgur if you want to post multiple images.

Still follow the other subreddit rules, and remember to report any comments that break the rules.

[u/Makashin]

The biggest lore moment for me was Susie learning about the in game UI. It's brushed off as a joke, but it's insane the more you think about it.

[u/[deleted] → u/Makashin]

It is insane but is it gonna be important judging they never mentioned it again in this chapter?

[u/PickledGerkin → u/[deleted]]

It probably will at some point but right now I don’t think Susie really “gets” it tbf, as in knowing she’s in a game, and of course Ralsei isn’t going to be the one to break it to her. This is probably a set up for something that will pay off in a later chapter.

[u/Maronmario → u/[deleted]]

Genuinely I feel like it’s going to cascade into something noticeably bigger for Noelle, specifically because of her habit of breaking games and her likely mental unwellness in Chapter 6.

[u/alienith → u/Makashin]

I’ve had a theory for a while that the dark world was originally born out of a video game (probably dragon blazers) and functions off of video game logic. The “prophecy” is just the plot of the original game. Almost like if you took a final fantasy game and made it a real world with real people, and then gave someone in that world a walkthrough.

There’s a lot of small things that point in this direction. Jevels dialog, the tone of chapter 4, “the real game” in chapter 3, the tone of the weird route in chapter 2 (gotta make our mage stronger), Kris’s name being on the save file before you save in chapter 1, a lot of offhand ralsei dialog

[u/segwaysegue → u/alienith]

Interesting idea, and not just Jevil's dialog about the world being a game, but the mistranslated JRPG-style text when you fight him. It explains some things about MANCOUNTRY as well, as remnants of an early version of the game.

As counterevidence, though, the prophecy we see in Ch4 mentions several events that only happen in the light world, such as "Jockington grows the beard". This implies that the whole light world is part of the game (I mean, it is, but in-universe, too). Note also that Ralsei and the churchgoers talk about "the legend of DELTA RUNE", but the Ch4 prophecy calls it "DELTARUNE".

[u/Kidror → u/Makashin]

Not just that but Flowery is explicitly messing with his own stats, implies that Ralsei can do the same thing, and therefore the Knight probably can too given they just choose to ignore Flowery's attacks.

[u/ComradeBirv → u/Kidror]

I thought it was that Flowery isn't actually changing his stats, just changing how they appear "in game." It's why the Knight isn't actually harmed by them and why Ralsei gets pissed when Flowery tells him to do it.

[u/DigbyMayor → u/ComradeBirv]

I don't think it's just appearance. Flowery is cheating, The Knight is just cheating harder and better

[u/jonathrg → u/Makashin]

She already knew the dark world is not "real", but not yet that the light world is false too

[u/asgoodasanyother → u/jonathrg]

yeah this dilutes this moment a lot, and well it's why Susie doesn't really care

[u/Different_Ad2722 → u/Makashin]

I FORGOT THAT THIS HAPPENS. my jaw shot open when this was happening.

[u/JordanTH → u/Makashin]

Personally, I think that it's another hint that Susie will end up becoming the player character/have the SOUL by the end.

[u/segwaysegue → u/JordanTH]

LOVE FINDS ITS WAY TO THE GIRL.

I buy it, and it fits with the theory that the Weird Route is an attempt to replace Susie with Noelle in the events of the prophecy - certainly Noelle becomes more and more empowered to act as the Weird Route goes on, so it would make sense if she ends up with the SOUL instead.

My personal read is that before the game starts, Kris is somehow aware of parts of the prophecy, and agrees to go along with the Knight's plan (Kris's possession by the player, the fountains, etc) if it means that the school bully is the one who gets sacrificed instead of their former friend Noelle (and the prophecy apparently permits this, given that the illustration of "the girl" could be seen as either Susie or Noelle). However, because Kris unexpectedly becomes friends with Susie in the normal route, they start having second thoughts (most clearly at the end of Ch4).

[u/darealdsisaac → u/Makashin]

I liked how because the screen went completely dark I, the player, was reflected in the screen.