Ralsei the Prince of Darkness: A character analysis (Deltarune Theory/Discussion)

hello again people and today we are talking about the goodest of boys the best boy the cutest little toothpaste boy there ever was of course we are talking about Rouse the Prince of Darkness today is going to be an interesting video because we will not only be talking about the past present and future of Rouse but also the potential motivations behind his design the delun prophecy itself and the dichotomy between lighteners and darkers when talking about Rouse we meet these pitfalls information that simply cannot be answered without the full context of the game's conclusion because of this we are forced to fill in the gaps of these pitfalls to arrive at our conclusion this entire video makes assumptions on many factors considering Rouse's life so take it with the understanding that I do not know for sure that these outcomes are certain with that out of the way let us begin our analysis of Rouse the Prince of Darkness Rouse is no one based on everything we know about darkers they are inanimate objects which come into contact with the dark Fountain these things could be physical like stuffed animals or even ethereal things like spam emails so this means that Rouse does not have life he might not even have a soul this could be symbolized by his attire as we can clearly see there is a black spot on his clothes in the shape of a soul we canonically do not have an example of a black soul so we could assume that Rouse is without Rouse has no previous history aside from that in which he States He waited within Castle town for Chris and Susie to arrive the initial reaction to this would Point towards Rouse waiting within this place for a very long time but I would argue it's the exact opposite the castle Town dark Fountain is within the Supply Closet of a moderately busy school sooner or later this dark world would have been discovered on accident considering the Supply Closet would be a place visited often if not roughly once a week to restock supplies using this assumption and the the fact that Rouse does not have a complete understanding of the passage of time complex social ideas like sarcasm and holds a very one-sided worldview I can truly say with confidence that Rouse is only weeks old at most I honestly believe he's younger maybe even a few days by knowing this we can easily create an understanding of Rouse's beliefs prior to chapter 1 before we detail Rouse's beliefs let's see if we can pin down what Rouse is from the beginning of chapter 1 people have accepted the theory that Rouse R is a pair of red horns that Chris would wear when they were very young the mention of these horns disappearing as well as Rouse's knowledge about Chris would support this the only detail that stops me from agreeing with this theory is Rouse's design with every other example of darkers we can see that their physical characteristics are a direct result of their counterpart in the light world if the same rules apply to Rouse then he should be red instead of green well actually I would expect Rouse to have red spikes in horns all over his body the actual rules which determine how much of the physical object influences the darker are very vague I could absolutely see Rouse being the red horns but I think he may be something else it would be crazy to gloss over the fact that Rouse looks like a younger version of azreel Chris's brother the resemblance is so uncanny that the only lightw World counterpart I could see would be a picture of azriel himself perhaps it was a picture of azriel that Chris Drew when they were younger aside from what Rouse was the only thing we need to go over concerning his past would be what he did in the short time he existed before Chris and Susie showed up Rouse would more than likely spend time alone waiting in the castle rehearsing a speech to the light ners perhaps even watching them from a distance if he has the ability must be lonely in his castle I would like to take the time to adjust Rouse's seemingly unnatural level of knowledge the sheer volume of information that Rouse holds compared to the other darkers is one of the main reasons why a section of the player base do not trust him while I don't agree I understand why some people would have this belief Rouse is naive when it comes to things like complex social interaction understanding deception moderation and the passage of time Rouse suddenly becomes an expert whenever you ask him questions regarding things like darkers liers and the relationship between the two the deltarune prophecy and even places outside of of his own domain when a character has different levels of knowledge people begin to wonder why you'll notice that the things that Rouse doesn't understand are things that would come naturally from life experience this is one of the reasons why I believe that Rouse is so young the things that he is told would easily be understood through direct mentorship I believe that it is safe to say that Rouse has a mentor a teacher who has given Rouse the information he has while purposefully leaving out information the mentor has deemed not essential whoever is giving Rouse information it is clear that they did not give him all of the information he needed to deal with the likes of suszie I highlight all of this so we can understand Rouse's views going into chapter 1 Rouse believes that his job as the Prince of Darkness is very important he has very specific worldviews regarding the formation of friendships and because of this Rouse holds a very benevolent personality as Rouse soon realizes being nice doesn't guarantee that people will like you the first time we see Rouse is when he has completely hidden away his face Rouse explains later on that he was hiding his face because he was worried how Chris specifically would react to it this not only tells us that Rouse is aware of how much she looks like Chris's brother but also how he is aware that Chris might be upset by this it could also be a matter of self-consciousness Rouse is eager to make friends and as someone so young and completely green to the idea of making friends he could be self-conscious overall about how he looks in his mind he believes Chris and Susie are to be the big and strong Heroes ready to save the world he desperately wants to make a good first impression he claims that this is the first time he is meeting Christen Suzie and yet he knows their names every other darkener had no idea who they were taking to calling them clowns or light Bringers Rouse as far as we know is a darkener and can only exist within a dark World lest he be transformed back into an object despite this he has Vivid and accurate knowledge about the outside world the other dark ners did possess knowledge of the outside world as well but not nearly as accurate this highlights a blind spot which most darkers possess which Rouse does not either that or what I believe is the answer is that Rouse in fact received this information from a third party considering how young naive and innocent he is I cannot see any other possibility other than that Rouse was told this information by someone else someone he trusts I doubt we will know the true reason why Rouse knows what he knows until the game's conclusion until then considering this is the most convincing explanation I could come up with I will be continuing this analysis under the assumption that this is the case keep in mind I may be wrong but for the sake of drawing a conclusion I am going to be assuming that I am correct like I have said before if the game comes out and proves me dead wrong I will make a video correcting myself jumping back to the moment we meet Rouse for the first time he welcomes Chris and Susie into his castle and begins his speech which he practiced many times before their arrival this only furthers the idea that Rouse has been told to do this the overall point of the distinction between whether Rouse is being told this information or not is to discern motivations Rouse's true motivations are not his own as his actions are influenced by an unknown third party Rouse is acting of his own valtion but also is acting on The Limited information given to him from this we can only take what he says with a large pinch of salt Rouse offers to explain the prophecy to Chris and Susie you have the option to agree and an expository cut scene plays or you can say no to skip the cut scene and the prophecy altogether if you decide to skip Rouse is completely shocked as if he never anticipated that The Faded Heroes would not want to take part in this Grand Adventure this is exactly what happens as Susie claims the end of the world is none of her business Rouse is completely silent either confused or too upset over Susie's words this scene is the first in which Rouse shows his naivity naive showing a lack of experience wisdom or judgment Rouse just met two people who are far from home and just fended off an attack from Lancer there is no way they would have agreed to take part in his prophecy as especially considering they just met it doesn't take long for Rousey to show what kind of person he is despite susing not having any interest in the prophecy whatsoever he still shows interest in her safety Rouse is nice almost completely altruistic if it wasn't for the fact that Rouse wanted Susie to take part in the prophecy his concern for her would be labeled as selfless Rouse is by all accounts a pacifist he tells Chris that the way they treat people will affect how this story will end also specifically explaining to us that if we want the passivist ending we need to spare everyone Rouse is the tutorial he references buttons on your controller or keyboard and more importantly he references the ending of the game there is one and possibly two explanations for this either the person who has been mentoring Rouse is aware that this world is a game and Rouse is just paring things without knowing what they mean or Rouse himself is aware that he is inside a game considering Rouse has not gone insane like spam or jevil we can assume it is the former there is always the possibility that Rouse has been made aware of this and has simply accepted it I am more inclined to think that this is the case because this would explain his behavior during the aftermath of the Spanton fight after learning of his true nature that he is upon in this game Rousey adopts this blissfully ignorant coping mechanism there is nothing he can do to change his fate so he will simply accept it something that really strikes me about Rouse explaining gameplay mechanics mechanics is how blatant the tutorial speak is Chris knows how to put on clothes but Rouse still takes the time to explain to them how to put on a ribbon when they find one when you start off a new video game that game has a series of controls and systems which vary in depth depending on what type of game you're playing delun is a different breed of game however delun is a game where the narrative and the mechanics blend and it becomes incredibly difficult to discern the two how much of what Rouse is saying should tip us off to him having forbidden knowledge and how much of that information is given to us simply for the sake of player convenience Toby understands that anybody who plays delun for the first time will need to be given information regarding how this game is played Rouse is the chosen vehicle for this knowledge but was this Choice made so that the player could be informed or is this extra information made to carry store significance I think it is best to move forward saying that the given knowledge is Forbidden Knowledge and the fact that he has this know know will hold story significance while we're on the subject let's take a moment to break down every single action within Rousey's tutorial Rouse begins with the basics as he explains that during battle you will use your soul the culmination of your being it seems as if the soul is something that Rouse knows about further adding to the information he was given the way in which Rouse explains the soul intrigues me Rous cites the soul as the location of your will and compassion almost implying that it is both these things that are only present within the soul and you would lose them if your soul were to be removed he then states that the fate of the world is also within the soul but for this description Rouse lowers his head slightly almost as if he is trailing off either remembering something or dreading something that is meant to happen in the future Rouse starts you off with some training wheels you are meant to dodge a simple attack if you dodge all of the pellets Rouse will compliment you if you fail and take damage Rouse will apologize to you no matter what happens Rouse then proceeds to teach Chris how to attack Rouse explains that fighting is unnecessary to then show Chris how to inflict harm for the sake of giving a complete lesson this is a contradiction and one of the reasons why I felt the need to reference the line between giving the player information and the establishment of future story implications this is Delta run a game where certain characters reference gameplay mechanics without it falling under the classification as a breach of immersion the direct reference of video game rules and phenomena within dialogue is done through specific characters to signify something that has set them apart from the others it is no coincidence that the two other examples of this are secret bosses which possess incredible power this secret knowledge of knowing that they live with inside a game gives them unspecified advantages over all of the other Dark World Dennison and I feel like Rouse is no exception after the tutorial Rouse is more than happy to allow Chris to attack every single darkner who attacks you despite asking you not to do it but here he is showing you how Rouse is against fighting but for some reason he's not against showing Chris how to fight if anything I believe this would only embolden the idea of Rouse following the orders from his mentor Rouse does not believe fighting is something you should do but because he must give a thorough lesson as instructed by his mentor he shows you anyway there is a level of information that has to reach the player's head for them to understand the gameplay mechanics it would make sense from a story and character perspective for Rousey to admit the portion of the tutorial where he explains how to fight however it is within Toby Fox's best interest to explain to the player how to use the fight mechanics here and now for now my explanation for Rouse contradicting his message of not fighting and teaching Chris how to fight would be that he was given this information to pass on to Chris he may not agree with it but it's something he has to do throughout this entire tutorial sequence there's a lot of different things that can happen starting with the moment when Rouse asks you to attack the dummy if you attack and Miss entirely Rouse will apologize and explain that you must press the attack button again continuing to miss Will begin to push Rouse's patience as he settles for you pressing the attack button multiple times if you land the attack Rouse will compliment you on your strength and playfully ask if you have done this before a very interesting question to ask yes it would be the normal interpretation to assume that Rouse is just being koi and complimenting Chris but if you have watched the series so far you know I'm not settling for that I think that Rouse is referencing Chris's familiarity with the gameplay mechanics as a way to speak to the player think from a new player's perspective chances are a new player might think that this is like a normal RPG where you select attack and little animation plays and the enemy takes damage then you would not assume that you would have to press anything after the attack has been selected if you were on your seventh playthrough like I was you would be an expert at the fighting system and more than be able to hit a perfect attack every single time in any standby phase where Rouse wants you to do something specific you have the freedom to select any option in battle continuously attacking the dummy will mean that razi believes you don't like him and even offers to let you hit him if you feel like it this option is the first reference of a potential toxic Trend in Rouse's relationship with his friends sparing the dummy before the fight is over will make Rouse accept that you understand the basics and end the fight prematurely this trend follows with other actions such as continuously missing this is really just to highlight that Rouse may be accommodating but he does have limits to his patience hugging Rouse multiple times will lead him to admit that he has never been hugged before and only knows how to hug the dummy implying that Rouse has rehearsed this tutorial before as well repeating an action instead of casting pacify onto the dummy will leave Rouse confused he wonders if humans are not even allowed to ask someone else to cast a spell this offers a nice bit of World building magic was something that was briefly mentioned in undertale and seemingly mag magic has similar rules within Delta run magic is something that exists in the dark world and can be used by dark Nur but according to Rouse spells cannot be used by humans this limitation is specifically for humans rather than lighteners the most interesting piece of fourth wall breaking craziness in this tutorial comes when Rousey explains the defend mechanic when you defend you build this resource called TP or tension points these can be used to cast the previously mentioned spells Rouse takes his explanation a step further by referencing the bar on the left let me say that again Rous says to watch the big orange bar on the left can you tell me dear viewer what is wrong with that sentence exactly the bar is behind them don't get me wrong this is not me nitpicking the dialogue this is a revelation if I have ever seen one uh a slip if you will a mistake that Rouse makes when he's talking to Chris this lesson isn't for Chris this lesson is for us the player Rouse is talking specifically to us my main question would be why why does Rouse keep up the facade perhaps it's because he knows nothing will change perhaps he was specifically told not to talk to us and to only address Chris directly either way this will not be the first time that Rouse talks to us specifically I am certain that I missed a part in this tutorial section that tells us something else about Rouse but I would say it's time we moved on for now no matter how well the lesson goes Rouse will give you a manual which explains the combat system attempting to read this manual will give you a dialogue about how dense the material is the only way to actually view this manual is to go into the game files themselves I was in initially planning on using this manual to help with my analysis but the way I see it this manual is unusable simply because it houses things that are not in the game such as talk option and also says that you can restore TP at save points which doesn't happen in most cases material like this could be used for analysis but considering this was never used in game and the material doesn't coincide with the game itself this unused manual will not be analyzed what will be analyzed realized is the fact that if you choose to toss the manual enough times Rouse will become saddened by your decision and he will promise to make a better one in the future this is another event that continues the trend of Rouse's toxic positivity we'll have time to talk about that more in Chapter 2 right before Chris and Rouse leave they walk through this massive doorway and on my first playthrough of delt room this specific action is when I started to question Rouse and his role in all of this it's this specific action of Rouse walking through the door turning to look at us then the door shutting with such great force is either nothing at all or the most blatant hint in this whole game for starters the fact that the door shuts quickly would imply that Rouse is physically stronger than he would have you believe that door is approximately three times taller than him and each side would require no less than that amount of force to be pushed closed this hidden power could make sense as I previously mentioned that darkers with Forbidden Knowledge like Spanton and Jil are exceptionally powerful either way he didn't need to look back to close the door if it was one click fluid motion then I would not be analyzing this moment as much as I am quick lesson in pacing everyone pacing when referring to storytelling is a reference to how slowly or how quickly a story unfolds if something dangerous or exciting like a chase scene is happening then the story progresses quickly to match the excitement M of the situation if the situation is more calm and formal then there are a lot less movements and the story is on pause to focus on other things like developing relationships between characters or explaining story information music is a fantastic way of representing the pacing of a game and Toby has been known to use the music to express the pacing very expertly the BPM or beats per minute of the music that plays during the chase scene is much faster than the music that plays after the chase signifying that it's time to rest this spefic specific moment feels so deliberate because the Music Stops [Music] altogether Rouse turns around a second goes by and all you see is the door shutting this scene was intentional well every scene in the game is intentional but the only thing I want to know is what the intention was ultimately I can only imagine the reason why Rouse stops briefly is because he gets a brief moment to look directly at us he can't talk to us he can't tell other people about us but he knows we are there for a brief moment he has the chance to perceive us so he does of course he swiftly remembers he's not allowed to interact with us so he shuts the door quickly almost as if he knows he almost messed up and clued us into the fact that he knows we are there I wonder what Rousey would say to us if he had the chance rouse and Chris happen to cross Susie to which Rouse explains that if she intends to get get home the three have to travel together Rouse acknowledges that suie wants to go home and he needs the fountain to be sealed so he explains that suie can get what she wants by following them Rouse most likely assumes that despite Susie's reluctance to help people he can temporarily negotiate cooperation this is the first of many instances where Rouse takes on the role of The Negotiator talking out his problems to reach compromise all in an attempt to make both parties happy later the group happens across Lancer after he has been practicing his evil laugh I did this for suie so now let's talk about Rouse's chosen name for the lighteners the Legendary Heroes The Herald of fun and friendship wow that is a mouthful you'll notice that the title contains a colon these are used for introduction usually preceded by a description Legendary Heroes is obvious this is literally a legend regarding the Delta Warriors while heral of fun and friendship would describe someone who is Anointed with the official job of maintaining fun and friendship there is such a hilarious dichotomy with this title that Rouse has chosen every piece of this title screams the word official when it's just talking about friends having fun together the two big takeaways from Rouse's grandiose name are that Rouse has a specific view of friendship and he believes with all his heart that what he is doing is important he never had friends before Chris and Susie arrived as sad as this is it's obvious that Rouse has a slightly warped view of what friendship actually entails he believes that to make a friend you simply have to be nice to the specific person and the friendship will follow if I remember this correctly I touched on this very briefly in the suie video Brouse and Suzie are on different sides of the undertale spectrum if you will Rouse wants to befriend everyone suie wants to fight everyone the reason why it's so important for these two characters to find compromise in the chapter's climax is because at this stage in the story they are both extremists without any sort of moderation I mention this because we can see with all of Rouse's actions he believes that the Friendship is dependent on his actions alone if you've been around longer than Rouse you probably understand at this point that it takes two to tango there will always be people who dislike you regardless of how you treat them and it's not even your fault you simply cannot control the the way that other people feel about you you can only influence it slightly with your own actions it is your responsibility to conduct yourself in a way that is kind but this does not guarantee that people will like you it's important for Rouse to realize that friendship is not just people being nice to each other it's more so about people forming an emotional connection building trust and all that good this is one of the reasons why su's eventual betrayal catches Rouse offg guard he believes that suie will eventually want to be his friend too if he continues to be nice and warm but he neglects to actually form an emotional connection with Susie he refuses to converse with her on her level now I'm not saying Rouse is wrong for this like I said he's only days old potentially there's no way he would have had the social skills to identify Susie's interests while only knowing her for an hour the other thing to take away from Rouse's name for the lighteners comes from how overthe toop it is rouse believes in this Prophecy with all of his heart this prophecy is something he has dedicated his life to a cause that he believes in because it's all he knows this prophecy is something he was made for he never took the time to think about his life other than his role in the prophecy I wonder what would happen if Rouse completed the prophecy what would he do if he thought his life didn't have purpose anymore the group finds itself face to face with k no matter how the battle ends Ral seizes the opportunity after the fight to ask suie to not fight enemies one of Rouse's desires is for Chris to spare Dark World Denison and recruit them to Castle Town what I really want to talk about is how Rouse presents his argument perhaps I am simply seeing something that is not there but does anyone else get the impression that Rouse is talking down to suie after the K fight he specifically says I suppose you didn't hear me earlier implying that the reason why susia attacked K is because she didn't understand what Rouse was saying when in fact we know that she heard him she just didn't want to listen to him this almost gives off the impression that Rouse expects suie to do what he says because he said it suie downright ignores or refuses to listen to what Rouse is saying and he settles for Susie simply considering what he says he does try to bargain with Susie and find compromise but ultimately this behavior is most likely what leads to su's reaction remember Susie is still early on in her progression I explained in her video that what she does is the right thing to do in her own mind what really striked me about this was Rouse's wording whether you like it or not you're a hero with the power to bring peace to the Future can you start acting like one oof Rousey got hands but seriously Rouse has come to the understanding that Susie doesn't like being a hero and says that even though SU doesn't consent to the title which has been given to her she should act accordingly to it anyway this would make sense for a person to say if they were told what to think their entire life but Susie is different she's rebellious she's independent and she's afraid Rouse doesn't even take the time to argue that this is the right thing to do this is something that is expected of all of them and by that Merit alone is why they should do it after Susie switches sides Rouse realizes is that what he said made Susie upset and is the reason why she felt like joining Lancer keep in mind there is no party here that is 100% correct Rouse believes he was doing the right thing by sparing enemies and Susie believed that she was doing the right thing by knocking enemies out of her way even after Susie and Lancer create the dark fun gang Rouse maintains his strategy let's just be nice to her Chris he remains firmly in his belief that Susie will come around if he is simply nice to her some more Rouse continues to help Lancer and suie as they plot against him this Behavior Rouse portrays would be more dangerous had Lancer and Susie actually been competent opponents Rouse understands that Lancer is wearing a disguise and wants to design a machine to use against him but he goes along with the plan anyway for the sake of friendship another example of Rouse being too accommodating to the effect where he literally helps his enemies defeat him perhaps Rouse can't help but admire Lancer and su's cohesion or maybe he feels guilty for making Susie upset as we will see later on Rouse's drive to help his enemies will almost be his undoing the group finds themselves captured in card Castle when Susie escapes Rouse sits with Chris to tell them to think very hard about suie and our perspective changes to suie we will talk about these sequences in Chapter 2 when it happens again so for now let's just skip skip ahead to the top of King's Castle the king is beyond upset that Lancer has failed to kill the lighteners and on top of that let them make their way into his castle before moving on to the moment which twists Rouse's worldview I wanted to take a second to analyze the dichotomy between lighteners and darkers The overarching Story theme of light versus dark is simple easy to understand and yet very ambiguous light and darkness could be interpreted in many different ways depending on the person person as these concepts are very abstract light could be interpreted as information as we need light to observe things Darkness could be interpreted as emptiness or possessing nothing or even the lack of information there are many definitions for each word but interestingly enough some definitions use the concept of the other to describe itself for example if you look up the definition of dark it will read as the absence of light this has me wondering about the deeper history between the dark and light from what we have seen so far the darkers need the lighteners to exist as far as we know only a lightener can create a dark Fountain Perhaps it is this inequality that has made the king so scornful of the lighteners either way Rouse does not share this ideology he is aware of the Staggering level of Freedom that lighteners have over the dark and yet he Embraces his role in it he proudly States that it is the purpose of the dark to serve the light Rouse is positive in his place as a darkner happy as can be but I would argue that he is just as ignorant as the Spade King in fact the running theme with all the darkers is ignorance lacking knowledge or awareness in general Lancer was ignorant to ways of fighting his foes Queen was ignorant when it came to the intentions of the Knight and what Noel actually wanted Rouse is ignorant to how actual friendships are formed and almost all of them are are ignorant to the fact that they live inside a supply closet or a library the list stretches on and on with every single darker being ignorant to something you can't really blame them considering what they are objects brought to life with little to no life experience Darkness the absence of light the absence of information the lighteners are naturally the inverse while not being a genius Susie knows how to threaten people Noel is smart in general and Chris if theories are true is painfully Ware that their entire life is just a game I could list abstract ideas and comparisons all day but the active conflict of light and dark is simple the dark wants what the light has but will never get it even if the Spade King were to escape he would simply turn back into a playing card he will continue his quest blissfully ignorant to the fact that he can never Escape his world they put the Spade King in a Cell in Chapter 2 but the cell is redundant he's not going anywhere Rouse just put him in there so so he wouldn't bother anyone this is all more interesting when we talk about how much Rouse knows he knows that the darkers cannot exist outside the Dark World which is most likely the reason why he wants the darkers to be brought back to his world he understands that this is all he can be so he just wants to make a place for his people to live maybe that's why Rouse is content with his role because he's the only one who can do it he sees himself as the bridge between light and dark so he wants nothing more than to make a place for his subjects to live in peace after after using Lancer as a bargaining chip the king engages the fun gang with a barrage of attacks despite the king's Proclamation that he is the bad guy Rouse is certain that the situation can be resolved peacefully the Spade King denounces Rouse's idea describing his words as simple-minded platitudes a platitude or a remark or statement especially one with a moral content that has been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful the king believes that Rouse is too inept to actually understand that there is no peaceful solution in this in the king's own words the very existence of the lighteners goes against his own he has seen the differences between Darkness and Light and has come to the conclusion that they were never meant to cross all lighteners must die and because Rouse has assisted them he will die as well the battle reaches its conclusion when you defeat the king or let him Tire himself out the cut scene changes depending on how aggressive you were but the events that follow are very similar the king is weakened from the fight appears to collapse and begins to sing a different tune the King asks for peace Susie is understandably reluctant to trust the king having gone through a shift in morals herself she knows that you don't just flip your ideals like it's a coin toss Susie was right not to trust the king but things go south specifically because of how much Rouse trusts the king without even thinking twice Rouse perceives the king in pain and proceeds to heal him presumably to full HP without missing a beat the king attacks all of them and Rouse is so injured from the attack he doesn't have time to process what he has done Rouse throughout all of chapter 1 has put an incredible amount of stake in his friends and the idea of friendship in general there is a technical term for what Rouse has done to his friends it's called a big oopsy Rouse's act of kindness almost led to the death of his first two friends he is completely torn by this event naturally he apologizes for endangering his friends but what really intrigued me about this moment was his words this isn't a world where kindness always wins this statement is true as much as it sucks Rouse's entire worldview has been shattered almost as if he has just been told that Santa Claus isn't real it hurts and I think that's Susie understands this so she does what she can to calm him down I really like the fact that Susie doesn't get upset at Rouse for healing the king in most cases she would lay into him calling him an idiot or a big weenie but I think she can see for herself what Rous is going through and decides he is already punishing himself enough right before Chris and Susie part with Rouse he stops them to tell them something he rips off the bandage and it is clear for everyone that Rouse looks a lot like a member of the dreamer household Susie is completely shocked over the fact that Rouse looks a lot like toriel however much like every event before Chris remains stoic now let's take a moment to talk about the implications of Rouse's design Rouse overall is cute fluffy and distinguished a proper gentleman the way in which he walks would imply that he is very proper always holding his hands behind his back to show everyone how much of a gentleman he is people relate Rouse's design to a younger version of azreal mostly over the fact that their names are anagrams of each other this anagram is no coincidence just how delun being an anagram of undertale is also no coincidence delun contains pieces of undertale rearranged from characters to con ceps Rouse is the same Rouse has white fur just like azriel but Rouse has horns the same but different I suspect that Rousey is aware of how he looks and how the way he looks could make Chris feel this self-consciousness would only generate if Rouse had knowledge about Chris their brother and their relationship with said brother with Chris's feelings in mind Rouse put up the smoke screen to not make Chris feel uneasy like many other things things we can assume that Rouse obtained this information from his mentor however what is truly the purpose of Rouse looking like azriel the only explanation of Rouse looking so much like azreel would be to better earn the trust of the lighteners think about it whoever created Rouse would have profound knowledge of Chris and perhaps even Suzie if they were specifically targeting Chris and Susie to be the two lighteners to the point where they would lock the supply closet doors behind them they would want to make it as easy as possible for the two lighteners to trust them they would have to be aware that Susie looks up to toriel and that Chris looks up to azriel it's much easier to trust a familiar face and despite his mistakes Rouse has earned the trust of his new friends let's move on begin chapter 2 and the first time we see the fluffy Prince he is exatic over the return of his friends Susie mentions how they were only separated yesterday and Rousey response stating he has never had to wait this long for his friends before even the most neglectful of player would now realize that Rousey does not have an understanding of the passage of time or rather his scale for the passage of time is different compared to most people for most people a day is just a day but for Rouse a day is a very long time Rouse's Des synchrometer or his time blindness is not caused by anything physical this like many of Rouse's traits is explained by the fact that he is so young he has no frame of reference in the span of time that Chris and suie have been gone Rouse has taken the Liberty to make rooms for both of them the rooms which Rouse made are fully decorated and furnished with custom doors to boot it could be inferred that Rouse used magic to build them but despite this these rooms took an awful lot of time to build so much time that I believe that we are to discern from this gift that Rouse does not need to sleep the Dark World seem to be locked in a state of Perpetual night so I would imagine that they just sleep when they feel like it he can sleep he just doesn't need to Lancer had a bed but it was specifically for his bicycle what I really want to talk about is Rouse's motivation for going through all this trouble he says that he wants the Dark Worlds to feel like a second home for them and I can't help but Envision Rouse sitting in his castle by himself desperately waiting for Chris and suie to return stunned from his loneliness he gets an idea that would make it so his friends will never have to leave him again a kind gesture on the surface but could have two underlying implications one positive one negative the first is based on the idea that Rouse has the ability to look into the light World Rouse sees Chris's room and Susie's lack of her own room and as a kind gesture he gives them the room they wish they had these are all things that Rouse believes they would want so he gives it to them admittedly the next interpretation is unlikely to be true but not impossible the fact that we know that Rouse is lonely inside his realm and how he values his friends so much to the point where he made rooms for them could Point towards Rouse having possessive Tendencies think back for a second when Rouse was trying to tell suie how to act in chapter 1 he just met suie for the first time and now he is asking her to act accordingly to his standards granted those standards are not unrealistic Rouse was trying to get Susie to stop attacking people but the fact that Rouse is shocked when suie doesn't listen to him is an indication that he believes by Merit Susie should do what he says perhaps it's a mix of both interpretations but either way it was a lovely gesture and it shows that Rouse wants his friends to feel safe inside his kingdom later when Rouse finds out that Susie and Chris have schoolwork that has not been commenced he becomes borderline irate he states that the two lighteners are banished from his kingdom until they begin their project begrudgingly they agree and leave to the library to start their project this reaction from Rouse caught me off guard when I first played chapter 2 on the Merit of Rouse's mood change alone up until this point Rouse has been accommodating passive and kind of a pushover to be this Stern out of nowhere is a very interesting change of pace on the surface level this reaction would Point towards Rouse being a proud ad advocate for Academia Rouse has knowledge knowledge he most likely obtained from a mentor or parental figure this knowledge allows Rouse to have advantages over his subjects and because of this he has adopted a positive opinion on the importance of study Rouse values learning skipping ahead briefly to when Rouse meets up with Chris and Susie he states that he felt a dark presence and hurried on over while the fact that Rouse can sense new Dark Worlds is an interesting detail it is dwarf by the fact that he can move between Dark Worlds moving from Castle town to the closet world is one thing as they were connected by the great door however this is very different to be fair the library is next to the school but there is an awful lot of foliage in between this feat has two explanations either one Rouse has a special darkener way of traveling between Dark Worlds using magic or two Rouse has an uncanny ability to leave the Dark World and maintain his physical form and he simply walked over to the library the first explanation is most likely the case although I should mention that the second one is the one that suie assumes is the case this is most likely the reason why suie plays with the idea of Rouse joining them in the light World however he managed to do it we can safely chalk this up to another advantage that Rouse has over his subjects continuing to look at the scene we get possibly the biggest and most subtle hints that we have ever gotten from Rouse this is going to be a pretty big accusation but I have no other way of explaining this look at the scene where Rouse talks about a new Dark World opening when Rouse says it seems like a new dark world has been opened he turns and looks directly at Chris I think that Rouse knows that it was Chris who opened up this dark world or at least he suspects it he doesn't look at Chris before or after he looks Direct ly at Chris when he says this specific line Susie doesn't even notice this gesture because she's too worried about Noel but the gesture was there this was a deliberate choice and the only explanation I can come up with is the fact that Rouse suspects that it was Chris who opened up the Dark World the only question is why does Rouse not do or say anything perhaps it's a simple suspicion and nothing worth accusing Chris over especially considering he doesn't have any proof maybe Rouse is afraid to accuse Chris of anything this wouldn't be the first time that Rouse is afraid of criticizing Chris in chapter 1 you have the ability to order Rouse to attack every darkner you see and he does nothing he only ever criticizes Suzie this theory is just conjecture but I see no other reason Toby would choose to change the Overworld heads Sprite and the talking Sprite at the same time the fun gang unites assumes their Battle Stance and proceeds into the cyber Dark World later on the group meets sweet cap in KK and the battle breaks out over a disagreement in Susie's video I analyzed the fact that she had Linus's dance from the Peanuts Christmas special I poked fun at myself a little bit under the impression that people would say that I'm overanalyzing things but actually people were very interested to see how I analyze the Chris and Rouse dances so that's what I'm doing however I ran into a little problem I have no freaking idea who this kid is and as it turns out I'm not alone whenever I look up videos on YouTube about this dance scene the people in the comment section just refer to him as the orange kid I will reiterate I am not an expert when it comes to the Peanuts cartoon or the comic strip so I had to do a little bit of to figure out who the heck this was at first I just thought this was a random backup character a random design that was thrown in just to fill up space kind of like these two girls here who look exactly the same you can easily explain them as being twins but the real reason is that it's just to save the animator some time okay after looking through the entire roster of Peanut's characters I am pretty sure that this character's name is five yes no no that's that's his actual name given to him by his father so the story of this actually comes from one of the comic strips so essentially five's father is worried that numbers are taking over people's lives and because of this he changed all of his children's names to numbers because of the strange ideology of five's father their real name was taken away from them and they were given a separate name that is not their own this child does not have a name he doesn't have an identity and in a way Rouse doesn't have an identity either Rouse confides in Chris during the swan ride scene that Rouse doesn't really know what it's like to be Rouse like this could be why Toby chose this dance Rouse doesn't have a true name or an identity much like five Rouse's name was most likely given to him by his mentor or his father this name being an anagram of azriel this name was given to Rouse but perhaps it doesn't represent him fully I think this will be the summit of Rouse's story I think Rouse would find his own name I think he'll find his own identity I think eventually he'll do away with the name of Rouse and get a new name a name that better suits him now let's move on to Chris's dance thankfully I didn't run into any problems at all when I was interpreting Chris's Dance Chris does this kick dance that is taken directly from when Snoopy does it for starters this could be a representative of the isolation that Chris feels living in a town filled with monsters much like Chris Snoopy was adopted into the Charlie Brown family he walks and dances like everyone but never talks just just like Chris there's even this part in Chapter 2 when you're exploring with Noel if you jump off of this button Noel makes a joke that she has to treat you like a dog the parallels between Snoopy and Chris make the most sense compared to the other two dances after looking over some Charlie Brown clips on YouTube I found the moment that Charlie Brown adopted Snoopy while you were talking to the man I was looking through their records someone else bought this dog but then returned him you got a used dog Charlie Brown as it turns out Snoopy was the last one in the litter and on top of that Snoopy had already been adopted by another family and then returned this makes me wonder if this ever happened to Chris perhaps later in the game it will be revealed that Chris was adopted by a human family but because they rarely talk they were brought back to the orphanage think about it 99% of the time Chris is mute not the most interesting child on the surface level I could absolutely imagine a family adopting Chris and having trouble communicating with them or perhaps another interpretation is maybe Chris wasn't always so quiet maybe this event is the reason why Chris is so quiet maybe they were more comfortable speaking their mind in the past but now they're so afraid of being abandoned again they stay absolutely silent to eliminate any chance of offending their new family Charlie Brown Brown never cared that Snoopy was a used dog and you know what I don't think toriel cared either we are going to have to skip ahead quite a bit as we don't get another character moment from Rouse until the acid Tunnel of Love and in this scene we have a lot to talk about let's start by breaking down the entire situation by itself for those who aren't familiar The Tunnel of Love is a ride that is typically seen at fairs and theme parks primarily for the purpose of attracting couples the ride is slow moving and with the addition of the swan-shaped boat the intention of the ride is for the two passengers to share a very personal conversation swans are often seen as symbols of love and romance with the addition of the acid I think Toby is trying to say something allegory a story poem or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning typically a moral or political one the swan is a representation of Rouse's feelings for Chris he canid that just spending time with Chris is nice the acid represents the dangerous underlying fate that could await the two characters one slip up one mistake could send either of the heroes into a searing demise could this mistake be a piece of information that Rouse is withholding perhaps Rouse is sitting on information that could make Chris exceptionally upset the acid could also be a representation of how Rouse feels like he must be cautious when talking to Chris more broadly it could be a representation of a potential toxic relationship between the two I'm sure by now you've noticed this Rouse never goes against Chris not once Rouse asks Chris not to fight in chapter 1 but no matter how you respond Rouse is positive as if he is willing to drop his morals for the sake of Chris you can fight every single enemy with Rouse and chapter 1 but he only ever criticizes suie Rousey encourages Chris in everything they do despite their actions even during the scene Queen tells Chris to get the banana haha funny joke haha but adamantly Rousey declares that Chris would never do what queen says however if you choose to get the banana anyway Rouse stutters for a bit and then pretends like it was just the right thing to do it's very clear that Rouse values Chris it does make sense after all Chris was Rouse's first real friend maybe in Rouse's quest to maintain his friendship with Chris he is unwittingly creating this toxic relationship between the two because Rouse is so focused on maintaining his first friendship he would never dare say anything against Chris Chris's mute characteristics could also be a potential factor in this as someone who used to be mute myself it can be very hard for other people to tell how you're feeling this kind of Silence can put people off it can make them feel uneasy Rouse isn't necessarily afraid of Chris eles but more so losing Chris as a friend they can share words have a cozy moment together but Underneath It All Rouse is worried that it could all just burn away like acid now on to the dialogue itself where Rouse can fides that he was afraid of making a bad first impression so he hid away his face he begins to say that he didn't want Chris to see and then he starts to Trail off almost as if he was going to say something specific but decided not to Rouse's preconceived notions of kindness always being rewarded with friendship is something we have touched on quite a bit already so I won't go too much into that but I will talk about how Rouse has changed Rouse references suie and how she is the exact opposite of him and still manages to make friends he understands now that making friends is about forming close bonds with people and doesn't always require that you have to be nice to them being nice helps out a lot but really connecting with someone through their their interests is a much quicker way to their heart Rouse explains that everything is a first for him and it's at this moment that I think how surreal it must be to be a darkener born from an inanimate object unable to leave your domain collected like a Pokémon incredibly young and somehow ingrained with knowledge you didn't learn yourself no wonder they go crazy when they realize how small their world is right after Susie enters Noel's room and they make their escape on the ferris wheel we are left outside our perspective is tied to Chris it is in this moment much like the moment in chapter 1 where Rouse simply tells Chris to focus on what suie is doing and then like before our perspective changes we have the ability to perceive what Susie is doing but our control remains firmly with Chris it would also appear that to some extent Susie can still hear us but with the idea that we are the soul and not Chris this whole situation gets a little complicated so complicated that to draw a conclusion I'm going to have to assume something Rouse is not talking to Chris he's talking to us the fact that Rouse is aware of the player's presence is not much as a stretch as you might think he is aware of things like the soul controls on your controller or keyboard and there are even hints that he knows how the story is supposed to end you'll notice that every single time we do this it's during pivotal moments during su's progression if we never saw the moment between suie and Lancer then the sudden change in motives would take us completely by surprise the actual mechanics of how Rouse is able to help us do this are unknown but the fact that Rouse knows to do this with us during pivotal moments of su's progression would imply that he knows the story he has a script that he must follow this could potentially be why he acts so surprised when things go wrong during the snow grave route we'll talk about that in just a moment finally we arrive at the penultimate moment of rav's progression the epitome of delun Storytelling the subtle details you don't notice until your 50th playthrough yeah now this is character growth no longer will Rouse be cursed with weak legs he will have dense bones and strong muscles okay but seriously the moment after the queen fight carries Rouse significance and story significance the looming threat of Devastation was the motivator for Rouse's actions but now we have the added context that this Devastation will be caused by specific things to stop birdley from creating a new Dark World Rouse tells everyone that the Roaring and the Titans will destroy the world if the dark fountains are allowed to be opened indiscriminately this added context means that there was a part of the prophecy that Rouse knew about and chose to with hold because of this we can only assume that there's even more to the prophecy the obvious answer to Rousey withholding the Titans from Chris and suie is that he didn't want to scare them off it's clear with the way he talks that he sees this initial interaction with them as a big sales pitch he wants to make the two lighteners feel like they are a part of something important and the threat of massive Titans would probably make the sales pitch unappealing I wonder what else the prophecy entails that Rouse is not telling them while we're on the subject let's talk about this prophecy as The Story Goes three Heroes will appear at World's Edge presumably this is referring to the dark world's Edge the boundary between two worlds human monster and a prince from the dark will be these Heroes vague but not the most vague prophecy I've ever heard it's actually funny when chapter 1 first came out I had a theory that Lancer was actually supposed to be the third hero and that Rouse was wrong to assume it was him I thought of this Theory because Rouse is a self-proclaimed Prince with no subjects when Lancer is in actual Prince the actual mechanics of the prophecy are simple if more than one dark Fountain is open at one time the balance of light and dark will shift and eventually the Titans will emerge from The Fountains this turn of events appears to be bad for both the darkers and the lighteners it describes that the darkers will eventually be crushed by Shadow seems like a strange thing to happen considering they are made of Darkness but then again it is possible for people to die from having too much oxygen so I digress before we move on to the Future section let's briefly talk about Rouse in the snow gry route really the only notable change comes from when they are about to enter Noel's room in a regular route Susie enters and Rouse does his Chris meditation thing and we can see the scene from Susie's perspective here Susie enters the room and Rouse tries to initiate the sequence with Chris but gets no response Chris simply ignores them and Rouse is content with waiting a couple seconds to try again later Susie later comes out and Rouse is completely shocked as far as narrative deviations go in which gameplay elements are directly referenced Rouse is the biggest culprit of this but here Rouse is surprised by the occurrence of events as if someone has flipped the script so to speak if this was a normal event he would simply acknowledge Suzie has returned and carry on but it is his reaction to Suzie com out so quickly which makes him feel like something has gone wrong it is clear that rousa is bothered by this Audible and thinks that Suzie is the person responsible for this change which is why he questions her yet we all know that the cause of this audible is the player and Chris is doing his reaction and his eagerness to get to the bottom of this change is a Telltale sign that Rousey has a lot more preconceived notions than we initially thought this all points to the fact that there is a strict set of events that R has been informed of and is expected to carry out if there is a deviation in these events Rouse takes it upon himself to sniff out the cause and identify the perpetrator but as I mentioned before Rouse could never go against Chris at least for now the story of The Fluffy Boy Rouse is far from over this little ball of fluff has a wayte to go and I think he knows it himself I think the reason why there is so much mystery surrounding him is because his very identity is a mystery to himself the swan ride explains this perfectly everything is a first for him he is a completely new person with his own set of wants and needs and understandings and they simply haven't developed yet I hope in the future we get a whole chapter dedicated to him and that he will decide what his role will truly be in all of this Rouse believes that his future is set and he cannot change his course but as he said to Chris your choices matter Rouse's story will be about finding who he is something will eventually happen to him which will make him question his given purpose this event will cause him to go against the wishes of his mentor when that moment happens where Rouse cannot sit by and let his friends suffer an end that he anticipates he will turn and look directly at us and warn us about the impending doom Rouse will speak to us because he knows that it is us who truly have the power to end this Rouse will speak to us either through Chris or just speaking out loud he will explain that we need to do something to make sure his story has a happy ending very similarly to what flowy did there's a reason we can see our name written in the castle town this world wasn't made for Chris or suie it was made for us and the eventual fate of this world will be put into our hands with the addition of the snow grave route we can only assume that we have two choices to make if we choose to treat this world with respect we will get the fabled happy ending that Rouse knows is going to happen if we don't do that I suspect that Rouse will eventually catch on and he will try to stop us Rouse will be the final boss of the snow grave route if we choose to not respect the lives of these characters I suspect that Rouse is going to be the one to put us in our place but no matter what our decisions will bring Rouse will make the choice to Define who he is Rouse's story will be about identity exceeding past your previously established limitations deciding for yourself who you want to be questioning the people who you used to trust and when that moment comes I hope that Rouse is happy with his choice until next time thank you all so much for watching goodbye [Music] for

Channel: Nighthawk

Views: 26,915

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Id: iSLzTP9wqqQ

Length: 62min 39sec (3759 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 06 2024