NOW I'M THE [[It Burns! Ow! Stop! Help Me! It Burns!]] GUY! Deltarune and The Real
i won't be the first person to make these connections, I just want to put my pencil down to paper.
the real, the symbolic, the imaginary
for those unfamiliar with jacques lacan, here's the crash course: lacan divides human experience into three registers or orders.
the real isn't what we typically think of as "reality" - it's the raw, unprocessed, impossible-to-symbolize truth that exists beyond language. it's the terrifying void of pure existence, the thing that burns too bright to look at directly. it's not that the real is hidden; it's that our minds literally cannot process it without mediation. the real is not "the sky is blue", the real is "the photons", and you interpret blueness from it. it's impossible to access directly.
the symbolic is the realm of language, law, and social structures. it's how we organize and make sense of the real through words, systems, and meanings. it's the filter that makes reality bearable.
the imaginary is the domain of images and fantasy - our idealized self-image, our fantasies and illusions. it's where we construct narratives that help us navigate the symbolic while avoiding the real.
deltarune's nested realities
now look at deltarune's structure:
- the real - the actual physical world where we, the players, exist
- the creator level - gaster(?)/the survey program creator/the voice
- the light world - hometown, the "normal" world of kris and toriel
- the dark world - the fantasy realms created from objects
- nested fantasies - games within games, like Mantle, noelle's various video games
this isn't just cute meta-fiction - it's a lacanian structure. each layer down is a further retreat from the painful brightness of the Realness above. it's no coincidence that the further "down" you go in deltarune, the more underground, the more shadowy things become (and the creepier).
the sun as the unmediated real
let's focus on the symbolism: in deltarune (and undertale), "realness" is consistently associated with light, particularly sunlight, while "fantasy" is associated with darkness and being underground.
the light world exists aboveground, in sunshine. the dark worlds exist below, in shadow. the bunker - which likely houses even deeper truths - is furthest underground of all, a black void of complete darkness.
in undertale, the human world is aboveground in sunlight, while monsters exist underground in the darkness of mt. ebott. humans have physical bodies made of matter; monsters have magical bodies that dissolve into dust when you breathe on them wrong. it's not just that humans are "stronger" than the monsters - in a very determinate sense, humans in undertale are "more real" than the monsters.
(this doesn't necessarily carry over to deltarune - i mostly just bring it up to show that this is a theme that he's been playing with and refining for quite some time. it shows up in the halloween hack too!)
this imagery isn't arbitrary. the sun functions as the ideal symbol of the lacanian real - it's the ultimate object that cannot be directly observed without causing pain and damage. you need protective filters (sunglasses, the symbolic order) to even look at it.
the horror of unmediated reality
this explains why characters who glimpse higher levels of reality break down. in spamton's dialogue, the japanese version specifically refers to burning from brightness, not acid. jevil's madness comes from seeing the world as a prison. their pain isn't from seeing something hidden - it's from seeing too clearly, without the necessary filters.
かってはタダのメール送信担当。いまは[[待ってまぶしすぎて目が痛いもうやめて]]担当death！
In the past, I was just in charge of sending emails. Now I'm in charge of [[Wait! It's too bright! My eyes hurt, stop!]]
ralsei knows the truth too, but bears it with great difficulty. it's torturous to him. why? because as a darkner, he knows he's just a creation, an object given temporary life. he knows the light world is "more real" than he is, and that knowledge is almost unbearable.
the shadow crystal bearers are all people who understand better this distinction between the real and the fake. jevil understands that, because he is "not real", then there is no consequence. spamton instead strives for "realness" - to an extent, he understands that he is "a character", and instead strives to become "a person", like pinnochio. we don't know what the knight's deal is, but gerson, notably, has a liminal position as both a lightner and a darkner. i think that's why he can just throw his crystal in the desk and forget about it - he knows already that he's not real because he knows he's dead, and has already accepted and made peace with it. the crystal holds no allure because he knows that sunlight would dispel the illusion.
escape into darkness as protection
the dark fountains create dark worlds - spaces of fantasy and imagination where the burning light of reality is softened, diffused, made bearable. they're not just escape hatches; they're necessary psychological protections against the overwhelming intensity of the real.
this is why kris keeps creating them, why noelle retreats into them, why susie seeks refuge there. it's not simple escapism - it's a vital mechanism for psychological survival. "darker, yet darker" isn't just a mysterious phrase - it's a description of the essential movement away from the unbearable brightness of unfiltered reality.
game_change and deltarune's mechanics
even the game's mechanics reinforce this. the new "game_change" function toby implemented (allowing separate game instances to launch) mirrors the creation of dark worlds - separate, isolated fantasy spaces that provide relief from the continuity of a singular reality.
each chapter's dark world functions as a self-contained fantasy with its own rules, its own internal logic, yet they share connections. this mirrors how the imaginary order allows us to construct separate but interconnected fantasies that help us navigate the symbolic.
the trauma of awakening
awakening to higher levels of reality is consistently portrayed as traumatic in deltarune. look at how noelle reacts in the weird route when forced to confront the truth that her actions weren't just a dream. the realization leaves her devastated, because the protective fantasy has been stripped away.
that's why the narrative keeps emphasizing how characters create additional layers of fantasy - it's a psychological necessity. mantle exists within the dark world as yet another layer of abstraction and protection. it's fantasy within fantasy, a recursive structure that puts more and more filters between consciousness and the blinding real.
when spamton says that he wants to stand tall with kris and look into heaven, the "upness" of the heaven in question is a necessary part of what he's saying. "the real" exists "above". (this is also why i think "the angel's heaven" is the real world that you and i live in, and the game will end with us being "banished" from hometown, but i won't put too hard a stake in there in case i'm wrong). heaven is above the clouds, where the sun is. when he stands tall, that means he wants to access more realness than his position as a darkner gives him access to.
conclusion: the necessity of fantasy
ultimately, deltarune isn't condemning fantasy or escapism - it's showing how necessary these mediating structures are. we can't directly confront the real; we need the symbolic and imaginary orders to survive.
spamton exists in microcosm. i'm sure you would react the same way if someone forced you to stare into the sun, too.
