(Mostly ramblings)

I’ve been taking a break from posting since my best friend passed away. Lately, I’ve been spending time on Discord with one of my close friends, talking while he streams Deltarune for me.

I’ve become fascinated by the symbolism in the series and I’ve been trying to unpack it without relying on theory videos. Early on, something about the themes and characters felt familiar. Similar to the lectures I listened to over a decade ago. That’s when I realized, Toby Fox is drawing heavily from Carl Jung’s philosophy to shape the characters and their motivations.

The Dark World is a dreamscape rooted in the collective unconscious. Themes of fate and free will are central, and the characters embody classic Jungian archetypes. Someone like Susie and her shadow self represent the Outlaw, Spamton as the Trickster or Everyman consumed by his desires, and Kris as the Ego: the conscious self, capable of breaking the cycle through free will.

This realization has led me to revisit Jung’s teachings—especially his ideas on repression and the need to confront our inner shadows (unconscious desires, repressions, potential). I’m starting to see that my own repression was a defense mechanism against pain I’ve long refused to face. One of the things Jung taught was to explore yourself through confronting this shadow self and creating a harmony with it instead of rejecting, hating, or being consumed by it. One of the ways he stressed was through art and expression as a form of reaching this harmony. Something that I had been doing, but neglecting recently. More importantly, I wasn’t exploring deep enough…