1. The Unspoken Tension

Do Kris’s friends know the real Kris?

Yes. And I’d argue they know Kris better than we do.

What little we know about Kris often comes because one of their friends makes an observation about what they’re doing or saying.

Susie, Ralsei, and Noelle can see every face Kris makes and hear every word they say. We can’t. We only know when one of them points it out.

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Something that I don’t think gets a lot of fandom portrayal is how playful Noelle gets with Susie when she gets comfortable:

Random TCF Shower Thoughts Time:

do you think Cale would K.O. if he used Instant and Record at the same time?

How bad would Cale's records act up if he was trapped under some rubble somewhere for days during part 2, far from his family?

(longer idea inspired by us questioning Cale's third ability below)

Give me Cale with some sort of Survivor ability. Where Kim Rok Soo lives because he literally can't die. Where whenever he's on the edge of death, when his heart is about to stop, Survivor kicks in and goes above and beyond his limits to keep him from dying, be it by fighting or running away. Where during a battle Cale is fatally injured and his body stills for one second before immediately getting back up, forcing broken bones back into place and wiping blood from his face and gunning it towards the enemy like doom incarnate.

His family is screaming because "gods dammit Cale-nim/Unlucky bastard/Cale-nya/Human/Young Master/Dongsaeng you're bleeding out!!! you've done enough, stop fighting!!!" And something feels so Wrong about this and they don't like it one bit. But they can't place what's wrong until after the battle once they've forced Cale to lay down and realize he hasn't said a word and has been diligently listening to their demands that he rest and let them handle the rest.

His eyes are blank, not like when he uses Record, no it's worse somehow. There's nothing behind his eyes at all-Survivor is active and in control, not Cale. Cale's down for the count, deep deep down somewhere recovering because that attack did more damage than anybody realized and he's not waking up anytime soon.

Give me everyone losing their minds over this with worry and fear because there is Something walking around that looks like their beloved red head, Something that mechanically eats apple pie and drinks lemon tea but doesn't pet the kittens and give them a scammer smile. Give me the kids rambling about their days in his lap. Give me Alberu offering Cale golden plaque after golden plaque. Give me Choi Han quietly whispering to Cale in Korean while he guards him day after day. Give me everyone doing everything they can think of to get his attention and wake him up, only for Survivor to ignore it all.

Survivor is there to ensure Cale's physical wellbeing-to help him survive, not to help him live (because yes there is a difference)

Recently reread the scene where we see Yoo Joonghyuk's interaction with Jang Hayoung for the first time and?? Holy shit?? Like, there's literally no other explanation. This man is jealous Kim Dokja made friends and plans with someone who wasn't him.

Like yes, Jang Hayoung pissed him off with her way of speaking immediately, but there have been ruder people. Why was it on sight for her? Why is he so sour over them just chatting? Kim Dokja is like "Hey look! Isn't this guy super useful (for us)?" and Yoo Joonghyuk is like "I'm better than this jerk." Jesus christ.

You are an anonymous professional assassin with a perfect reputation. You lead an ordinary life outside of your work. You’ve just been hired to kill yourself.

I think the reason Ralsei doesn't turn to stone in other dark worlds might not be because he's created by the Grand Fountain. I think...

...It's because belonging is at the very core of who he is. Kris wants more than almost anything else to belong, to fit in and not be an outcast. But to do that, they would have to discard everything that makes them themself. Ralsei is what Kris wants to be, but not in the way you might think. Kris wants to belong, and Ralsei is who they would have to be in order to belong.

He's a goat, like the rest of Kris's family. He's smart, polite, helpful, does whatever you ask him, and lets you walk all over him. He doesn't treat himself like a person. Everyone's always asking, why can't you be more like your brother? And now you are. And that's what Ralsei is.

The people in the light world would take him for granted, just assume he's happy, and not wonder how he really feels. Fortunately, however, Ralsei's friends are Kris and Susie. They're not like the rest of hometown. They just want him to be himself and learn and grow with them. They just want to be his friends.

Let me be clear: Ralsei is his own person. He's only just starting to figure out who he is, beyond what I've described above.

I just hope we can be friends with everyone some day.

Don’t GOAT Breaking my Heart: an Anti-Hate Meta for Toriel AND Asgore

I’ve seen a lot of hate going around regarding the situation these two are in. Sometimes, in defense of one goat someone viciously bashes the other. It doesn’t have to be like that, though.

                                                       TORIEL

It seems like a lot of people are condemning her dislike of Asgore in their defense of him. But…I think we should try to understand her point of view too.

                              Why is she so mad at Asgore?

It is heavily implied the children he killed were her children, in the same way Frisk is. Maybe for years.

It’s safe to say Toriel didn’t just nab these kids’ shoes and send them on their way. Some or most of them stayed long enough to need to new shoes and grow out of their old ones (or they’d still be wearing them when they left the Ruins) - a process that takes months or years depending on their age. Their old ones were put in the bin. They left, and died in their new ones. Rinse and repeat.

Added to this is the photo frame in the children’s room. This frame is empty; if it were meant for her old family in New Home, it would still have them in it or not be there at all. It’s empty because the children, the humans who occupied the room before, in the picture died.

They were not just children that were murdered; they were her children. The same way Frisk is.

This isn’t just two exes disagreeing over policy; from her point of view, he killed six of her children (only one way into the underground, and that’s the hole in the ruins; Chara fell there too) and was starting on a seventh. It’s understandable that she can’t forgive him.

                           But did he kill the other 6 humans?

Unfortunately, yes.

The humans made it to Asgore, but they didn’t make it past him.

It seems the other childrens’ items were lost along the way, and scattered over decades, not markers of the childrens’ graves; it’s mentioned that the “faded ribbon” was dropped down a hole. The other items likely met a similar fate; however, all the humans made it Asgore at the end. They did not make it past him.

                        Why did she take Chara when she left?

She didn’t do it out of spite, but believed that they deserved a proper burial.

          Why didn’t she leave the barrier, and kill six people herself?

Toriel never wanted that plan to go through.

Toriel never wanted humans to be killed to break the barrier, even to free her kingdom. She would never have killed anyone to make it happen.

She didn’t call him out because she thought he should have left the barrier to kill more humans, she called him out because he gave everyone false hope and killed people; if four humans died and no others arrived then monsters would still be trapped forever, but the humans would still be dead.

Even when she’s facing down someone who killed her children, she cannot allow someone to take his life. She didn’t just come here to save Frisk; she came to save Asgore. No lives could be taken to exit the barrier. The value of life was absolute.

                                                     ASGORE

…and I think we should try to understand Asgore’s plight as well.

                     He declared war in a moment of devastation.

When Asgore declared war on humanity, he had just lost two children. He watched his son die from the wounds the humans inflicted on him, when he didn’t raise a finger to harm them. Humans who locked them in a hole to rot for thousands of years.

                          …and then couldn’t take it back.

The kingdom was in despair too; they had lost their prince, they lost their hope for reconciliation with the humans with Chara. He promised his entire kingdom he’d take the humans’ souls and free them.

He saved his kingdom from despair, and by the time his own grief had settled it was too late to take his promise back. He couldn’t take away their hopes and dreams.

He had a duty far beyond six souls of the humans - who doomed them to their situation and murdered his own son after he cared for one of their children - to the thousands of people in his own kingdom. It would have been justified for him to leave the barrier and kill six more humans after he got the first soul, right?

    Even after everything the humans did, he still valued their lives.

This is why he didn’t leave the barrier after getting the first soul.

He couldn’t state outright that he didn’t want to kill them to the kingdom, and plunge them back into the horror of being trapped in the dark forever. But he still hoped to never kill another one, even after they kept coming. Even after the sixth. If he could avoid killing even one, he would. To this end, he even instructed his scientists to find any other way to break the barrier, without a single other person having to die.

For the record, here’s how he looks at Frisk when he sees the very last soul he needs to free his people from millennia of imprisonment that they never deserved:

He takes two steps back and stares at Frisk in utter horror. There’s a long silence. He actually panicked when he saw Frisk.

            And how many times does he try to to spare your life?

Translation: Please don’t come into the next room.

“If not, I understand. I am not ready either.”

Translation: Please turn back.

There’s still time.

And when he finally does fight you…

He holds himself way, way back. He has the ability to one-shot you. He has the potential to not get a scratch on him from Frisk’s tiny LV 1 self. What’s going on here?

Because they are made of magic, monsters’ bodies are attuned to their SOUL. If a monster doesn’t want to fight, its defenses will weaken. And the crueler the intentions of our enemies, the more their attacks will hurt us.

This is how much he doesn’t want to fight you. Along with holding back his last attack, so you can only ever die if you’re already at 1 HP.

                       So why’d he destroy the mercy button?

He doesn’t really want to win either. And in the event he loses, he doesn’t want mercy. If Flowey doesn’t show up…

He dismisses his idea of living with Frisk peacefully as a fantasy, says Frisk and his other human child “have the same look of hope in your eyes”, thinks Frisk could be the Angel of the delta rune prophecy, and believes they can free everyone from outside the barrier. He then takes his own life.

                   He was not wrong to want to spare the humans.

Despite their souls being necessary to free everyone, It’s important to understand the stakes here. With each successive soul, he is not just looking down at the possibility of taking another child’s life when they show up. If he gets 7, he will no longer have an excuse to stay below ground. He will have to break it. He will then have to destroy the lives of billions to let his people on the surface.

                                        but if one shows up….

If a human shows up in his castle, it is because they want to leave. The confrontation is then inevitable, because they have to take his soul to do that. He never hunts them down. But if it comes to fight, he has a duty to fight and try to take their soul, for the entire kingdom. Their hopes are riding on him. So he killed them.

…and the barrier really couldn’t have been be broken without 6 of them, and the souls of every monster underground except Napstablook.

I think it’s possible to appreciate the agonizing position Asgore was put in, as a person so gentle he couldn’t even painlessly take the lives of humans, who killed his son and trapped them underground, with the hopes of the entire kingdom, and the destruction of an entire species, resting on his shoulders to do it.

I think it’s also possible to appreciate the position of Toriel, who has lost several of her children to his hands, and can’t forget it or forgive it, but still believes he deserves mercy.

It’s no competition. Please love both of the goat parents. Neither are bad people and they’ve been through too much.

Bonus: Are they ever ever getting back together?

 They are not ever ever getting back together.

…but he’s still smiling in the end, isn’t he?

Cale is so ready to take on everything.

I’m rereading the heart scene and, just- his life as Kim Rok Soo had such an impact on how he handles pressure, it’s actually sad. When he was KRS, people relied on him. Heavily. As the team leader, people saw him as a life line.

He never took breaks, he put himself in danger and sacrificed his well-being by using his abilities (for example, Instant), and as we hear later on- he had a 0% mortality rate. When people around him were weak, he became strong in order to overcome it. Nobody died when he became the Team Leader.

And in the world they lived in- yes! I’m not surprised at all that people latched onto him. No matter how much they care about him, they couldn’t help but allow him to save them. Over and over again.

So Cale had this expectation for himself too! When others give up -> he does not. In front of impossible tasks, he rises up, because that’s how it should be. How could someone who had so little as a child- no parents, no friends, no stability or safety or reliability- how could he possibly give up what he’s managed to attain? How could he let his friends get hurt when he knows that he could be hurting instead?

And then he becomes Cale, and he relaxes. His new companions are strong, and he’s not going to be with them for very long anyway. He will slack off, chill out, and take his hands off the wheel.

But he can’t- he just can’t stop helping them. Like an addiction, he helps Choi Han get a connection to Ron and Beacrox. Then he saves Raon. He helps Lock, Amiru, Mary, Alberu, Queen Litana. It’s fucking impulsive. It’s for his own benefit but he tangles himself into the story because tampering with Fate is a fucking side hobby for him.

Then he develops relationships and friends- and when he sees danger approaching he stands up against it like a solid wall. Over and over again.

And, what? He naturally expects the people behind him to stay behind that wall. To listen to him and help, but to stay safe in the long run. He expects them back off when something looks impossible. Because- well, he’s right here isn’t he? Overcoming the impossible is second nature for him!

But the people around him… aren’t standing by passively, like they did when he was KRS. When he was KRS they let him protect them for 15 years. Then he’s Cale Henituse and they don’t. They learn from him. They learn to stand up against the unpredictable and the indomitable. They see him and learn.

They aren’t happy about his sacrifices, but he tells them to be full and content and to eat well… so they listen. For a while. They understand wisdom and they take his words and learn their limitations.

Right until he stabs himself in the heart. What the fuck?! Biggest hypocrite in history right??! Can’t trust this guy to not bleed and sacrifice himself for shit!!!

So they angrily push aside his worry and their limits and they decide that it’s THEIR turn to protect him. Even against a GOD, Cale has shown them that nothing is impossible so they’re going to turn the tables and THEY’RE going to be the ones to cough blood!!

This scene is so heart wrenching, but it’s Cales disbelief that hurts the most. He’s fucking stunned. He’s someone who can’t even imagine the lengths that a person would go for him. He’s a person who protects without ever expecting to receive that same effort.

Sure, he knows he’ll be protected. He’s not naive. But he puts 200% and expects 50-100%. He goes above and beyond, but prepares for average. Prepares for lackluster.

So when everyone tries to push him aside to protect him? He- he doesn’t even notice their efforts! It’s like looking for a leaf in a forest, but he’s supposed to be looking at the entire forest. Why would he think that they would give him a forest’s worth of leaves? He’s oblivious. So he looks for a single leaf.

Then they really do push him back and protect him- they defend against the orb that’s exploding and it’s like they’re screaming “It’s the forest! It’s always been the forest!”

And he’s lost. Absolutely, utterly lost. It’s heartbreaking, how distressed he is that his friends are hurting and they won’t let him handle it for them. He’s not even hurt, after all! He hasn’t fainted, he’s still useful! He’s ready! What he’s done so far hasn’t even been too difficult! Why won’t they let go and give it to him?

Everyone is so angry at him, or busy pitying him, that he’s left alone with this. While reading this scene I’m filled with a strong disconnect. He is surrounded by his friends but everyone is far away from him. Their goals have never been farther apart than this moment.

He’s always been one step ahead.

He’s always been ready. He’s always waiting.

And then he stabbed himself in the heart, and everyone but him felt the shift in the stars.

And then the next scenes are his friends trying to wrestle the responsibility out of his white-knuckles hands. They fight for it! Yet all the way until the orb’s time to explode, he holds onto it with an iron grip. I don’t even think he realized they were trying to take it out of his hands.

He kills the White Star, he Embraces the Ancient Powers, and he even manages to Embrace the Sealed God into the book and take over the temple in one move. We get to see everyone’s reactions to his stubbornness too.

So they become twice as stubborn. They cough up blood, they faint, they do 200% of what they’re naturally capable of. Why?

Because they saw Cale do it first. Because they refuse to let him do it again.

And Cale?

He can’t say anything.

Some doodles as well!!

I was reading abralhugres ' "one last death" and "I'll save you when you're weak"