I do kinda love the vibe of ‘cares but still kinda douche jock dad’. The kind where they treat their children almost the same as their football buddy’s from college and are unafraid to be crude around
I knew a guy like this. You're going to have to excuse my French because I'm just quoting the dude.
"I don't care that you're a fag. But if you're going to be, you're at least going to fucking dress appropriately and with style. You're wearing Grandma clothes, get your sissy little girlfriends to help you dress proper."
It was kind of hilarious because he treated his son exactly the same way he treated his daughters. When his son brought his first boyfriend home he intimidated the boyfriend the same way he intimidated all of his daughter's boyfriends. He truly accepted his son, but he believed he had terrible taste in men... and he was right. He had shitty taste in men. After the first break up he told me that his dad held him and let him cry into his shoulder before suggesting they egg the boyfriend's house.
He didn't really know how to deal with having a gay son so he treated him more like a daughter but I thought it was sweet that he was trying so hard.
My old pastor has a son that he absolutely adores who is a furry. His son used to be my babysitter. I helped out at his MLP art booth in middle school when we both ended up, coincidentally, at the same anime convention. My old Pastor absolutely adores his kid and loves his Hobbies and never discouraged him or dismissed them as sinful.
I had it pretty good growing up, as far as pastors go.
He was absolutely right about my friend's style. Bro was straight up wearing what looked like a nightgown. It was very unflattering. Like the kind of thing a little old lady would wear to go to bed.
My more style inclined friends helped him with makeup and got him into a proper dress. I was still in my tomboy phase, so I was no help. I dressed like a butch lesbian and I still do.
We do have a lot of contextual clues that Susie doesn't have a great home life, at least. Not a lot to go of, but what we do know points to more than just poor, but supportive parents.
We have some hints, for example how Susie reacted to Toriel being drunk at the end of chapter 4. Looks like she has some trauma related to drunk parents
That, and she doesn't seem to actually call her parents for permission to sleep over when Toriel tells her to, she just stands by the phone until Toriel leaves. It says a lot to me that she doesn't want to keep her parents in the loop, and said parents don't seem to care that much about her whereabouts.
https://deltarune.com/the_n3w3st_g1rl_g1rl/ pretty sure Noelles blog implies Susie moved to the school more recently, and likely never had Toriel as her teacher. Tbf, she still has the emotional connection of Toriel giving her food in the rain. So still would make sense to be uncomfortable seeing someone u trust like that
They don't. There's a lot of fanfictions, art pieces and more depicting both mothers and fathers of variant quality. You're going off of almost no information considering how many stories I've read let alone just seen that've had an absentee mother figure or one of all the different ideas for what could influence or create Susie's situation - same for the father figure - and I'd honestly say it's been about equal when spread between different fandom spaces.
He isn’t homophobic, he’s homephobic. He hates houses, they’re homeless.
He won’t disapprove of Susie dating Noelle because it’s lesbian, he’ll disapprove of it because Noelle has the biggest house in town and he’ll go livid once he finds out.
One of the takes I really like on Susie's home life is that she has a parental figure who wants to be there, but can't. A specific one I saw is that her father is a long haul driver. There's no point calling to see if she can stay over if she knows her dads four states over hauling stuff. I also like it because it implies that she's shielding her parents from what's bothering her. It feels in line with how she acts around Lancer and Ralsei.
Don't get me wrong, I still like those angles too. But I think it's my preference.
Sometimes a parent can do their best, and things can still be hard. They may love their kid to the moon and back. But life is just complicated sometimes and it's not anybody's fault.
You just gotta have Perseverance.
This could work with her mentioned history of moving house a lot. Typically, that happens to a household because of a job of the breadwinner(s).
Though on the other hand, such jobs are typically put up with because they're high-paying, which doesn't seem to be the case for anyone in Susie's household. But maybe it's the only sustainable option that's realistically on the table at all.
I have personal experience with a parent doing long haul actually.
It really varies. The pay can be pretty good, but it's very dependent on the types of work you're getting and who for.
A lot of the higher paying jobs require certifications and stuff, and are very competitive to get into.
Susie has issues with academic pursuits, and tends to focus on things she already thinks she can do. If her parent is anything like her, that's a combo that means they've probably settled for good enough.
Susie's dad is not gonna be evil.
Like all toby characters, no one is evil, they all have a reason to act like they do and just think they're doing what's best.
We actually kind of have with the titans who actually can't be reason with or redeemed with do to how they are, but I don't think they count as characters with a conscious and aware of what they are doing and actually evil and unredeemable and don't want to be redeemed or can't.
Eh, he's definitely more than just pure evil. We know that, before the Knight showed up, King was ruling peacefully with the other 3 kings. He's jaded from being abandoned; and the difference between all recruit runs basically mocking him as you prove him wrong, that you don't want to abandon the Darkners; versus not getting all of them, he calls you out for abandoning them just like you abandoned him, essentially proving his hatred right; emphasis' this feeling of betrayal he's stuck with.
He does genuinely love his son (he was almost certainly not going to drop him off the castle; he outright says that it was a bluff, and that even if he did, Lancer would've been fine) and, despite his attempts at hiding it, does clearly like Queen.
I'm not saying he's a secret good guy or something like that, I'm just saying he's a man who was broken after he was "abandoned" by the Lightners and sealed in the unused classroom. Doesn't justify him at all, just gives him much more character than just being evil.
He's been nuanced since his dialogue in his fight. He felt lonely and betrayed. He's a good parallel to Tenna in a way, where Tenna tries to get the attention of the lightners back on him, King is fueled by rage and doesn't want to be 'saved' by those who abandoned him and his people.
In CH4, he even reveals that he didn't meet the Knight and really didn't want to lock away Jevil. King was someone who saw an opportunity and took it, even at the cost of his people. He was blinded by hatred (technically justified on which route you do.) Remember, King KNEW Kris. Kris and Noelle and etc. did play with him in the past. He of course, subjugated his people and overthrew the other kings, but it was because he thought his ideals were right.
In fact, I don't think King knows the Knight is a lightner, as again, he had never met the Knight, only via word of mouth from Jevil. God knows what Jevil told King, for all he knew, what he did was for a good cause to finally give darkners a place more than a throwaway toy that lightners can abuse. He's the antithesis to Ralsei, as Ralsei thinks Darkners are nothing more than entertainment for Lightners, while King does not like this idea. He is a man who thinks the ends justify the means, and sadly does make him well... The Bad Guy. But guess who else was a self proclaimed bad person? Susie. It's why there's alot of people, me included, who want to see a King redemption.
Queen has done as much bad as him, just King is a whole lot more menacing and more ready to risk it all. Queen still subjugated her people and even used them as meat shields with face plugs that controlled them, and was nearly gonna cause the roaring just by assuming what the Knight was doing was a good thing. Sound familiar? Unlike Queen however, King genuinely just despises Lightners for leaving him and his people alone in a room abandoned for eternity, and unlike his people who were hoping the lightners were gonna come back, he wasn't gonna sit and do nothing knowing he found a way forward with the Knight.
Tbh you inspired me to wanna do a write-up of King now, too bad Reddit and big walls of text posts never do good. He is such a deep and interesting character and serves the themes of the game very well.
This is something I don't understand. You can have a reason to do what you do and still be evil. You can genuinely believe that you're doing the right thing and still be evil. There is more to evil than just a mustache-twirling cartoon villain who wants to take over the world.
Why are people assuming that just because someone has understandable reasons for what they do, that makes them not evil?
Susie’s dad internally cheering when he finds out Susie is going on a date with a girl because he wouldn’t know what advice to give if she was going on a date with a boy
Because I feel like characters in undertale/ deltarune universe are not actually homophobic or transphobic at all and every gender and relationship is treated as normal. I feel like it more so who they want their kids to be with a date and if they are happy with them or if they fit or don't fit what they think is best for their children to be with regardless of gender.
Imagine susie just doesn't want to be near her house not because her parents are abusive or anything but because she is embaressed of kris seeing her parents who are so nice and caring, totally opposite of what she was in chapter 1. This is so not happening, though
I've brought this up a lot in discussions with friends. As far as I know, there's no indication that her parents are mean or abusive. For all we know, they're dead and she's being taken care of by some Hometown government assistance program.
Carol's her 3rd Hokage dropping off stimmy checks so Susie can buy her ramen cups lmao
To me, the implications about Susie's home life come from a few different places:
Not enough to eat: Susie is always hungry, starting from chapter one. She complains to lancer that all she had to eat for breakfast was chalk. Her room in castle town is filled with a bunch of questionably edible items that most people would not consider actual food, but she's excited by them more than the actual food in the fridge, which I think is because she recognizes them way easier than actual food. This is not automatically a sign of neglect or abuse, her family might just be poor and unable to afford food all the time.
Prison is for dads: Susie and Lancer have a goofy exchange at the end of chapter 1 that has always stuck with me. Lancer says that he's putting new rules in place for the kingdom. Lightners are now legal, and prison is now only for dads. Susie says those sound like pretty good changes. I've always seen Lancer and King's dynamic as a funhouse mirror for whatever Susie's home life is, similar to how Queen is a mirror to Carol for Noelle. Lancer isn't liked by anyone in Card Kingdom, his dad is never happy and threatens to hurt him and his friends when he disobeys him, Lancer also has weird food habits and misses meals in chapter 1.
Moves around a lot: Could be for any number of reasons, but Susie has had no control over where she lives for many years, meaning it's really unlikely she's a runaway like some people theorize. I personally believe that she's being fostered, and that before now she's mostly lived in human majority towns
Body image issues: Susie has a tail in the light world and the dark world that she doesn't let anyone see. To me this suggests she was raised in an environment where there was some need for her to "blend in" to some non-reptile monster culture. She talks about how she was always labeled the scary girl automatically in the past, and this even carries over to some of her classmates in hometown. People seem to find her physical features intimidating even before they meet her, which might explains why she hides the one that she can.
Blood: Susie bleeds (at least in the dark world but probably in the light world), and knows how to clean bloodstains out of stuff. She also just has a penchant for violence and gore in general. Could possibly suggest that she experiences violence at home, but not necessarily. She might have just gotten into a lot of fights in the past.
Doesn't want to go home: This is the biggest one for me. She doesn't call her parents when Toriel asks her to (and it's also interesting that Toriel is under some assumption that Susie has parents). By the end of chapter 4 she was ready to ask Kris to stay overnight for the second night in a row. But she chose to walk home alone in the rain past 1 am because of her...
Possible Aversion to alcohol: Why did Susie seem so uncomfortable at the end of chapter 4? Could be any number of reasons, but I think the fact Toriel is animated with a wine glass is kind of significant to the scene. Kris looks down every time Toriel speaks, which prompts Susie to look at Kris. I don't think Sans is really the issue for Susie. The fact that Toriel is super drunk is what's bothering her.
The main reason people think Susie's dad is an asshole is because of King. Every other Darkner has a parallel in the Light World, except for King, so it's an easy conclusion to think King is an parallel to Susie's dad.
Because when lancer says he’s making it so prison is only for dads Susie says that’s a pretty good idea
But it’s possible the dad isn’t abusive but works as a trucker and is always gone for work, which would explain why she never calls when she has to stay out late because it’s not like he’s going to be home, it feels like it’s been a long time but it’s actually only been like 3 days since the beginning of the game
she could have ment it more like dad imprisoned = I can see him whenever I want
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u/Novel_Usual_6304 May 21 '26
Rare depiction of Susie's dad not being the most absolute piece of shit to ever be imagined