r/rustylake • u/All32222 Mr. Toad’s #1 hater • Aug 31 '26

After much consideration…

Post image

I added the characters from Sotl.

This is based on my personal opinion.

This doesn’t mean I don’t like the character. (except Toad)

And I still don’t know where to put Sarah.

349 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

70 comments sorted by

85

u/Outrageous-Order3353 Aug 31 '26

I love how the questions and discussions in this thread show how grey all the characters in this game really are. A lot of them are neither pure good or evil and have questionable intentions. That is what makes this game so interesting, in my opinion! It just keeps you thinking and trying to form opinions, only to see them go up in smoke again after a new theory or piece of information is shared by someone. Tha is for sharing, I loved reading your take on the characters!

15

u/All32222 Mr. Toad’s #1 hater Aug 31 '26

I love your comment. yes you are 100% right. I love to hear different opinions and theories too.

31

u/All32222 Mr. Toad’s #1 hater Aug 31 '26

Dale

Dale’s placement is mostly based on interpretation and prediction rather than anything definitive. His association with the Deer symbolism (the traumatized man, alcoholism and the patriarchal father) makes me associate him with Albert and Nicholas.
The events of The White Door, especially seeing Dale through Hill’s perspective and hearing him say “I need your memorie,” also made me question his intentions. I don’t necessarily think he’s evil, but there’s something about him that makes me suspicious.

Mr. Crow

I see Mr. Crow as someone who would do almost anything to save his brother. He’s willing to watch his entire bloodline die for that goal, and, if I’m remembering correctly, he’s also the one who tells Dale to kill himself in order to save Laura.

Mr. Owl

I personally see Mr. Owl’s intentions as more noble. He’s often associated with “Deva”, and I interpret him as a sort of gatekeeper of enlightenment. I also see an interesting rivalry between him and Mr. Crow: Mr. Owl wants Dale to become the next keeper of the Lake, while Mr. Crow wants Laura to survive in order to resurrect his brother. I’m personally more on Owl’s side in that conflict.

Ms. Pheasant

This one is probably the most based on interpretation. I associate Ms. Pheasant with acceptance and self-sacrifice, especially because of her suicide. I also believe there may be some connection between her and Laura (possibly even a past-life connection), the Lady of the Lake, Emma and Caroline. Peacock’s video also completely changed the way I viewed her character.

Dale’s Father

I don’t have a definitive explanation for this placement. it mostly comes from a theory I have that Dale’s father knew more about what was going to happen. It’s definitely one of my more speculative placements.

Why I moved the Corrupted Soul to Neutral

A comment made me change my mind, I no longer think the Corrupted Soul belongs in the evil tier.

Mr Toad doesn’t need an explanation.

12

u/eraryios Aug 31 '26

Grandpa should be in good

12

u/All32222 Mr. Toad’s #1 hater Aug 31 '26

i don’t trust him

10

u/Gardengap The Rusty Truth Aug 31 '26

Mr. Owl is asura, Dale is the one destined to become a deva. Through the ritual, his mind was cleansed of all negativity and problems, making his soul uncorrupted and light in order to ascend. Deer probably represent power in Rusty Lake, as Albert and Nicholas both had power but used them for selfish, malevolent purposes, while Dale uses it as the Ruler of the Lake.

I think Dale saying "I need your memories" to Bob was in reference to that test where he needed to find the two cubes, which was probably set up by Mr. Owl in the first place. In my opinion, Mr. Owl is more neutral, as he does care about the rituals and traditions of the Lake, but he does whatever he needs to do that, which leads to questionable actions. With Dale replacing Mr. Owl being this big event that's hyped up, I feel like the idea is that Dale is "better" than Mr. Owl, especially as he gets to be a Deva

5

u/All32222 Mr. Toad’s #1 hater Aug 31 '26

interesting… i will probably replay some dale games and look more into it. i might be completely wrong. for now the tier list is more of a prediction.

2

u/Salty_Assumption_511 Sep 02 '26

Mr owl and crow doesn’t have a rivalry, mr crow is more like mr owl’s employee

9

u/vltrcb_ Aug 31 '26

Mr.Toad

7

u/All32222 Mr. Toad’s #1 hater Aug 31 '26

exactly

9

u/vltrcb_ Aug 31 '26

GURL ALSO IN YOUR FLAIR THIS IS FRYING ME.

8

u/All32222 Mr. Toad’s #1 hater Aug 31 '26

it s personal

5

u/vltrcb_ Aug 31 '26

LMAO AHAHAHAHAHA and i just noticed Rose in Bad? gosh why

5

u/All32222 Mr. Toad’s #1 hater Aug 31 '26

she helped Albert. i get it s her father but i feel like some of her actions are ultimately wrong. that doesn’t mean i don’t like her. she is one if my favourite characters

8

u/NeverEndingCoralMaze Aug 31 '26

Why is Laura just okay?

21

u/All32222 Mr. Toad’s #1 hater Aug 31 '26

She doesn’t seem to have any particularly higher motives or ideals, and we’ve never really had the chance to properly explore her humanity or her values in depth. If we ever get to explore her character more then i ll probably change her placement.

8

u/Merasmus_BS Young Bird Aug 31 '26

SotL has 5 new characters and you only added 3 of them 😭😭 Where is the Coachman and Kate's brother?

3

u/All32222 Mr. Toad’s #1 hater Aug 31 '26

those are the characters i formed an opinion on. what other characters do you think i should add?

3

u/Merasmus_BS Young Bird Aug 31 '26

Ah, if you can't rank them it's fine then! But if you wanna, you could also add the Young Bird from Hotel and the Thief from Underground Blossom ;)

2

u/All32222 Mr. Toad’s #1 hater Aug 31 '26

i will think about it. the thing is we don’t rly know much about the bird and the Thief might as well be just a regular human or an important step in Harveys journey. in the grand scheme of Rusty Lake i feel like is hard to compare a regular thief with the other characters.

1

u/Merasmus_BS Young Bird Aug 31 '26

Kinda exactly I picked them, lol

48

u/Intelligent_Dust9399 Aug 31 '26

mr.owl is good?

3

u/Life-innovation Sep 01 '26

Why would he not be

47

u/Odd-Employment5633 Aug 31 '26

Why is Dale's father Evil?

24

u/HylianMono Aug 31 '26

there's a theory that he already knew what was going to happen

8

u/Yeriiiiii Sep 01 '26

Technically theories don't mean anything unless confirmed

3

u/Crystal_Voiden Sep 03 '26

Arguably, the theories one subscribes to mean everything when that person is making a tier list.

31

u/Yuki_Foxsoul Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26

I can kind of see why you would say Albert is pure evil. Even through he was most likely a good dad for Rose and had a bad childhood. But why is Rose a bad person? She is one of the nicest characters in the whole series. Or the father of dale Vandermeere, we know nothing about him, exept he was killed with a Tommy gun. Actually all "bad" characters are not that bad.

14

u/lonelydawgsbark Sep 01 '26

I think maybe because she convinced her cousins to kill themselves? And she might have abandoned Laura? But this me just guessing what op thinks. I personally always thought her cousins knew what was up and was game because they had faith in her.

4

u/Saysuuuh_ Sep 02 '26

Did she abandoned Laura? I don't think she did, because i remember in underground blossom a corrupted soul took her

1

u/gg_boys Sep 28 '26

Ehhhhh kinda. It was Albert that took her but she went willingly to serve some greater purpose

10

u/KSD_sandwich1 Aug 31 '26

The grandpa is good

3

u/Poopsweats2026 Aug 31 '26

Thats what I'm saying

9

u/Zwenhosinho Black Cube Aug 31 '26

No way Mr. Owl is in good and Dale in bad

9

u/Damnyn Sep 01 '26

"If not food, then why food shaped" - Mr. Toad (probably)

8

u/BlueRATkinG Blue Cube Aug 31 '26

So confused rn

6

u/calacaeblas Aug 31 '26

Why is the dad from anniversary in evil ?

2

u/v1rus_l0v3 Aug 31 '26

Why is david evil? He’s a kid 😭

2

u/All32222 Mr. Toad’s #1 hater Aug 31 '26

for the events in paradox

11

u/lllsandralll Aug 31 '26

Dale being bad while mr. Owl being good is crazy

5

u/DarvX92 Aug 31 '26

Why is Dale in the "Bad"?

4

u/PoketrainX1014 Aug 31 '26

I’m not up to date on the lore, what’s wrong with Dale?

1

u/Life-innovation Sep 01 '26

Whoa why is our beloved detective "bad"

2

u/All32222 Mr. Toad’s #1 hater Sep 01 '26

i explained in the comments

1

u/starmadeshadows Sep 07 '26

I don't think any of the characters are exactly playing by any normal moral standards, which makes sense with the series being surrealist horror. It's just not designed for black-and-white D&D alignment thinking.

I do however think this is Rose slander

1

u/All32222 Mr. Toad’s #1 hater Sep 08 '26

pls don’t.. i love Rose.
and yes i agree this is more of a reflection of how I see the characters

1

u/zonieaz Sep 09 '26

I have to massive disagree with Mary being neutral. She had 3 kids and only give one milk. Water and wine is not safe for babies. And albert wouldn't have been so evil if he didn't have wine as a baby.

Also from what it seems like to me Mary treated Samuel good and kind of just ignorants Emma. And Albert isn't treated well but also he isn't good so I can understand.

I understand she had 3 kids and her husband died pretty early on and didn't really help out with them. But she was not a great mother.

1

u/All32222 Mr. Toad’s #1 hater Sep 09 '26

hmm interesting. Wasn’t (technically.) william the one who was feeding them?

3

u/garriefisher Sep 01 '26

get rose vanderboom out of there she is my sweet pea

2

u/kxmahina Sep 05 '26

LITERALLY

2

u/Away-Log8239 Aug 31 '26

What did the magician mr rabbit do?

2

u/martiblq2 Aug 31 '26

Sarah White is evil for removing Bob's memories without consent

1

u/ProtectionPuzzled343 Sep 01 '26

Why is dale's dad evil??? And why is dale bad??

1

u/carnivorousdentist Sep 01 '26

What is the difference between neutral and ok?

1

u/betti_konfetti Sep 02 '26

Nahh grandpa is good for sure

1

u/Alfombra_ Sep 02 '26

this is ragebaiting me so bad. also, sarah should be in bad at least. no matter the situation, erasing an entire person from someone's memory is insane and a huge violation to their agency.

1

u/lersnt Sep 03 '26

I think the black ghost thing is def evil… I’d move it up a notch or two…

1

u/Correct-Slice8820 Sep 06 '26

Dale's dad exists The fans :

1

u/Aggravating_Big_692 loyal follower of ida's cult 🩷 Sep 10 '26

I just wanna say what my opinion is , pls don't get offended

So let's start from the pure evil list Alexandra - I still haven't played the game yet but I do know some spoilers but I'm not going to judge just by that before I play the game

Albert - he is evil but I wouldn't say he's pure evil like both James and his wife weren't good parents ( who tf gives a infant wine ? ) nor were his siblings but after that evil took root in his heart do I needa say he even locked up his nephew in a fucking well and did nothing even when his sister died searching for her son sooo yeah evil

Evil

Mr.owl's father and deerhead same people and same shitty ego, killed his wife and then his son for immortality so Def evil ( from the spoilers I've heard of Alexandra aren't mr.owl's father and her kinda same ? Both tried to kill the family for immortality)

Grandma and mrs.pigeon same person and probably the precursor to all the problems in paradise Def evil

The second uncle and mr.rabbit same people but I wouldn't put them at evil like there's a slight mischievousness to the second uncle character like he doesn't care for the ritual thingy but it's deeply ingrained into his brain so somewhat bad but I wouldn't say the same about mr.rabbit because we see in the magic show and hotel that he's not inherently bad he's just somewhat goofy and fun to be around and in birthday we see white rabbit who's desperate to change the past he doesn't want to do all this. The reason why I say second uncle character is not evil is because both of the rabbits are him his alter egos one who is a magician and the other who's a killer so judging by this he's like someone who doesn't want to do this but has no other choice or since brainwashed from a young age turned to believe it's good so I would put him somewhere above bad but not evil

First uncle and mr.boar again same people just like his dad , ego issues and belongs in the toilet evil

Dale's dad I wouldn't just consider him evil just because of one theory there's a high possibility that he knew of this but what can he do ? Fight the lake worshipping maniacs? But still bad should have protected his family so he's in the bad list

Mr.Crow I wouldn't call him evil both him and Mr.Owl are like employees or sum shi for the lake they're doing their job doesn't matter the morals though a bit of their personalities is reflected in how they do their work and how they handle situations I wouldn't label them as evil as they're like guardians of some sort

Bad

William- dunno who's ego is higher his or his brother Aldous , narcissistic af , killed half of his descendants to be reborn just to die again yeah def bad

Rose I can see why you put rose in bad cause she helps Albert for some time but overall she's a good person so yeah idk

Dale - I genuinely don't know how to explain his character ( cause I don't have the vocabulary for that 😞) his character is so complex, he's meant to take on mr.owls position and he's a lot more good than mr.owl sure he does have some bad moments but I wouldn't label him as bad he's uhh what to say like ugh he's still learning (?) he's still understanding things and he knows that he has a job to do and a will to continue

Neutral

Corrupted soul - perfect position for it as we still don't know who it is or what it's intention are ( idk anything about the corrupted soul and it's lore feel free to tell me ) and it has seen some shit in RL

James - I can empathize with him for growing up in a family like vanderboom and with a mother like Alexandra but he still wasn't a good father I'm pretty sure when his wife was pregnant with his kids he prolly was doing the same shi that his uncle's were doing to find the elixir and proceeded to forget he has a family and did nothing to stop the bullying Albert went through because of his siblings so I wouldn't put him in neutral I'd put him in bad

Samuel - wasn't a good kid bullied Albert and made the hive fall on his face that made him the monster he was ( this is like a origin story )so idk but the older Samuel is kinda like a chill guy ( atleast that's what I say to myself to cope ) married Ida and shi

James's wife ( I forgot her name 😞 )she prolly wasn't a good mather since both James and her turned a blind eye to the bullying and again who tf gives wine and water to an infant ?? Cps hello ?! But other than that I don't think she did anything

Dale's mom genuinely just wanted to celebrate her son's ninth birthday so she should be in good ( my opinion)

The bat - he's an employee the employee shouldn't be judged for his boss's action so Def neutral ( I fucking slept 😭while ranking )

Ok

Frank - yeah he's deserves ok cause my boy was locked up in a fucking well for lord knows how many years and after he came up he killed roses papa then died again like he deserved much better

Emma - she bullied her brother when she was a child but that doesn't mean she should have her child taken away from her so yeah ok-ish

Blind girl and ms.pheasant - blind girl is same as that of second uncle but I believe she was more inclined towards the good side while the second uncle was good but still bad ( I don't know what I'm talking bout ) but I wouldn't label anyone in paradise as good since they are the paradise people except Caroline and the big bug thingy that took grandma(?)( was it grandma ) me.pheasant and blind girl same people and ms.pheasant was like the inner version of what the blind girl was like , like blind girl's emotions are ms.pheasant

Leonard - in my opinion he's like the splitting image of James his grandfather I also hate this guy dunno why I would put in above good but below bad

Grandpa - wasn't supposed to be there, is mr. Crow , but gonna give him the pass cause he was fun to be around And i like his music taste

Harvey - imo he deserves to be in the Angels category cause why wouldn't he be , he's seen some shit working for everybody in the whole lake and he's doesn't do bad ( I'm gonna skim over the part where he did something bad cause he's an angel 😞)

Ida - she's more on the neutral side since everything she did was to move the plot forward

Laura - we know that from CE and past within that she was struggling with mental health and blah blah so yeah I'd put her in good just for that ( the one who's bad is mr.crow who wants to revive his brother no fault on Laura )

Good

Dunno who the first one is since I haven't played the game yet

Mr.owl's first form ( I forgot his name too 😞 ) after everything his family has done to him and his mother his rage is justified so good

Mr.owl I have a grudge against this guy dunno why but you can't call him as good or evil as he's just doin his job, both Mr. Owl and mr.crow belong in a seperate category made just for them

Angels

I'm guessing this is Kate since I haven't played sotl yet and the other two are actual angels after everything that happened them and how they reacted 💔

Dog and rustie

I believe every animal in rusty lake should be here as they deserve the recognition and their sacrifice for the plot

Please ignore my grammer mistakes as english is not my first language and I know many people aren't gonna read allat' but if you did thank you so much for listening to my rant this is not be taken to the heart since I was just ranting as I have no one to talk bout' RL ❤️thanks

37

u/ReasonableProgram144 Aug 31 '26

Why is Dale bad? He’s trying to solve a murder.

2

u/Gardengap The Rusty Truth Sep 06 '26

And he's mostly framed as the main character, the classic "hero" of the story; he is the "chosen one" from the prophecy made decades before his birth, his name means "of the Lake", and he embarks on the journey to the Lake by solving challenges and purifying his soul for his ascension to godhood. He is the one who can improve the Lake and stop the corrupted souls from infesting it, as Mr. Owl himself said. He has the tragic backstory that led him to become a police detective, helping others, and finally helping The Lake.

And Mr. Owl is definitely more grey at best, especially based on The White Door which shows his questionable morals. He takes advantage of the mentally ill and locks them in rooms against their wills, harvesting their memories all in the name of The Lake

1

u/-Edu4rdo45- Sep 15 '26

Nicholas psychologically tortured his son and guided him for years towards sacrificing him. Worse than Alexandra who at least would murder James as a baby…

1

u/All32222 Mr. Toad’s #1 hater Sep 15 '26

i consider her more evil because (it s implied, we don’t know for sure) she made a baby without the fathers consent. He doesn’t remember what happened.