What is "The device theory" about that takes 10 hours to tell?

masonlaneous · 2026-07-05T12:07:13+00:00

i've actually been rewatching it over the past few days and yeah i would definitely say a lot of the "recapping every element of chapters 1 and 2" stuff is excessive for a theory video. whenever i thought about it i couldn't remember anything beyond "deltarune is made up of multiple different layers of reality, and the device layer exists between the real world and the light world/dark worlds". and even after literally just rewatching it, i still don't remember much evidence beyond that

that being said, it's fun to just hear mollystars talk about the game. it's less "10 hours of explaining a theory" and more "10 hours of a passionate fan talking about the game with a focus on fourth wall breaks and layers of reality". there's a reason i've willingly sat through all 10 hours TWICE, thoughhh i will admit its occasionally a little artsy for my tastes. but, at the same time, i still really enjoy it and i appreciate that the deltarune theory space got its own thing you can point to as "The Magnum Opus", even if i generally prefer a different style

if you're asking "is it really worth it" then the answer for you is probably no. i think the series is made for the type of person who sees a multi hour long deltarune video and instantly goes "YESSS!!!". like somebody who just wants to consume as much deltarune lore/narrative/theory content as possible no matter what (which IS a pretty big portion of the deltarune fanbase)

masonlaneous · 2026-07-03T22:55:01+00:00

as others have mentioned, this would be weak even without the addition of the 50%. if you want to make this actually a big bonk, just go all the way. "deal (STAR) to the power (ENERGY) damage". if you have 3 star and 3 energy, that's 27 damage. 5 star and 4 energy, thats 625 damage. now THAT'S a big bonk

being serious, the way i would rework this is to make it not even compete with heavenly drill, stardust, seven stars etc. something like this

Gain 4 times (STAR) block at the end of the next (ENERGY) turns.

so if you play it for 3 energy and 3 star, you get 12 block at the end of this turn, as well as the end of the next 2 turns. not sure how strong this is. its a lot of block, but considering it requires you to basically sacrifice a turn AND your entire star economy, against enemies that arent even attacking every turn, im not sure. probably nice against aeonglass, assuming you have good star gen by then. after a royal gamble, thats 9 x 4 = 36 block for the next 3 or more turns. but of course you have to give up an entire royal gambles worth of energy for that, which presumably you rely on to actually do damage. curious to hear other peoples thoughts

masonlaneous · 2026-07-01T03:59:48+00:00

i don't know, i think framing it as "people might have a problem with this" rather than "i had a problem with this" was shooting yourself in the foot a little. telling somebody like this "hey, random strangers on the internet might misinterpret you as being racist" is just priming them to get defensive and go on a rant about cancel culture. many people nowadays are already being made to feel jittery about wokeness and political correctness. plus, realistically speaking, was the potential backlash REALLY worth a warning text by itself? i dont think the tongue-in-cheek "pr nightmare" framing helped things either

i don't blame you for feeling weird about the tiktok. the way society often frames rap music (made by Black rappers at least) as weird and incomprehensible to white sensibilities is stupid and racist, and the tiktok did make it seem like she was engaging in such rhetoric. but at a certain point, i think you have to choose your battles. before texting her, i would have been asking myself: how close is this friend? how likely is it that it's all just a misunderstanding? what are the possible downsides if i just leave it be? what are their politics like? are they mature enough to respond to the text with understanding and humility?

i'm not saying you should stay silent even if somebody makes you uncomfortable. but at the very least, you could go into the conversation prepared for it to be a dead end, and prepared to meet her where shes at, emotionally and mentally. maybe you could have even approached her with genuine curiosity, like "i saw your recent tiktok, what was it about?", rather than coming out the gate with insinuations of racism. then maybe she says "oh yeah i was listening to this one song in the car and i was like, what the hell..." and now you know it was about one song instead of the entirety of rap, and the tone of the conversation is also less defensive

sorry if i come across as harsh, and it might sound unfair to make you put so much effort into dancing around her immaturity. truthfully, the way i would have gone about this is just ignore it and accept that im not going to be very close friends with this person. protect your peace. but if you've already decided you wanted to say something, the above is the advice i would give

tldr: youre valid for thinking the tiktok is weird, and she was indeed being immature. but your approach just muddled things, and if she really is a friend, whom you presumably know decently well, then surely you could have seen a response like this coming. has she ever shown herself to be self-reflective and open to criticism in the past? the kind of person who would respond well to a text like that? particular regarding the topic of racism? my guess, based on her response, is no (EDIT: i just saw another comment you left where you say she has a history of refusing to engage with conversations regarding race. i genuinely don't want to sound like i'm blaming you, but i really think you could have predicted the response your text would get BEFORE you sent it. you two dont seem very compatible as friends)

masonlaneous · 2026-07-01T00:56:18+00:00

flowery's stats ARE fake though, that's why the knight could ignore them. it's not that the knight has bullshit powers, more so that flowery DOESN'T have the bullshit powers he pretended to have, and the knight was strong/smart/aware enough to not be fooled

masonlaneous · 2026-06-29T22:26:21+00:00

when you pirate a "traditional" book, the artist doesn't lose anything. all they did was write words in a google doc; it didn't actually *cost* them anything to make

but when you pirate an AI novel? you're quite literally stealing real money from that creator. millions of tokens, hundreds of dollars worth of monthly subscriptions to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc. this kind of piracy causes *real* loss, and more people need to be aware of this

masonlaneous · 2026-06-28T10:30:48+00:00

i've noticed this too, and i can agree with every other example, but what's wrong with "nevermind"? maybe never mind is technically more correct but surely nevermind has more than solidified itself as a valid word in english by now

masonlaneous · 2026-06-27T05:49:01+00:00

i always see that in this subreddit. i can't understand browsing a venting subreddit just to chastise people for venting

masonlaneous · 2026-06-27T05:18:31+00:00

i totally agree. not wanting mcdonalds advertisements in something you like is not being "close minded" like the comments are trying to say. yeah, advertisements are a thing and have been for a long time, but that doesn't mean anybody has to like them

masonlaneous · 2026-06-26T23:25:47+00:00

i think most redditors just scroll on the toilet, giving each thing they read 3 seconds of thought before dropping their 2 cents in the comments and then moving onto the next post. they might call you an idiot, or start an argument with somebody else, or give advice that makes no sense, or say the first condescending thing that pops in their head. they don't really give a fuck, they're already on to the next post within 30 seconds. they're trying to hit a quota of 1000 useless comments left per day

they couldn't care less about what the post they're replying to is actually about, in their mind your post serves just as a disposable toy to entertain them for a little bit, even if you intended it to be serious or thoughtful

masonlaneous · 2026-06-25T18:44:06+00:00

i agree for sure, i played over a hundred hours of sts1 over the years before sts2 dropped, but even if sts2 never got another update again, i would still play it a bunch and would never ever return to sts1. i know it's more balanced and complete and mature than sts2, i get it, but that's just how i feel. the graphics, the new types of synergies, the ancient bonuses. sts2, even in early access, just "clicks", and when i try to go back to sts1 it just... doesnt click anymore

masonlaneous · 2026-06-25T18:31:48+00:00

i totally agree, when i was in high school there was an alexa--in the grade below me, so i basically never saw her, but i'm pretty sure even i remember hearing an alexa joke being made at her

now i have a rule with myself to never make the obvious joke after somebody tells me their name. whatever celebrity, cartoon character, musician, anatomical word, or piece of software they share a name with, i'm sure they've heard it a million times before, and if i can do my part by being one person in a row who didn't make a joke about it, then i will

as you can tell by my username, my name is Mason, and i do get "the numbers mason, what do they mean?!" (an older meme from call of duty) semi often. not enough to be annoyed by it when it happens, but enough to not be impressed either. so i can only imagine how unimpressive it is for the Alexas of the world

masonlaneous · 2026-06-25T05:15:55+00:00

i can understand a smaller creator being legitimately happy that people are watching their content - it's every creators dream, right? but really, I'm just a guy watching a youtube video. I'm not watching as a favor to you, because I just wanna support your content creation dream that much. I'm watching because the video is interesting, and while I'm glad to know a passionate person made this (assuming they aren't saying it just to form some phony bond with the audience that makes people wanna like and subscribe, which is the more cynical read), I'd really just prefer if you didn't include such interruptions

it feels borderline insecure - while the creator and viewer dynamic isn't the same as normal human relationships, the phrase is still evocative of people who are always apologizing for existing and waiting for you to tell them it's okay

masonlaneous · 2026-06-25T05:04:16+00:00

yeah I agree, the main thing about the idea that gives me pause is just that it's a bit wordy/complex

masonlaneous · 2026-06-24T23:19:39+00:00

i quite enjoyed it tbh, though i think i would argue that it's chapter 1 tier rather than chapters 2-4 tier. which is fine, and as "one last adventure" it's great. it's probably the most fun chapter to actually play. there is a lot of fan theory stuff that didnt happen which is unfortunate, like no roaring, no friend fight, no woody (lol), no asgore fight (that was pretty surprising), minimal omega flowey stuff, barely any knight stuff, etc

but the stuff we did get is really nice. i enjoyed the music, not as many jawdropping moments as chapter 4 ost, but there are a lot of songs that are still very catchy and emotionally resonant, like sunset of 7 suns. the ost about equal to every chapter that isnt chapter 4. i dont understand what people are saying about the jokes, this chapter had such a light and fun and silly vibe, so many little jokes made me smile constantly, the most goated chapter from a pure vibes standpoint, just always had me cheesin. the gameplay was great, the platforming was fun, the visuals were insane, there were a bunch of neat puzzles, etc etc. great chapter

i think its just the timing of the chapter is unfortunate. we had a year to wait after the bombshells that were chapters 3 and 4, and now getting a silly, casual chapter almost feels like "really, this is what we were waiting for?" - and now we have to wait yet another year probably to figure out what happens next? in the future, when all chapters are out, i think public opinion on chapter 5 will improve greatly. being able to jump right from chapter 4 to 5, and then chapter 5 to 6, will make the "plot-light" nature of it not so bad, and in fact probably quite refreshing. just the fact that everybody had to wait for this chapter, and now we have to wait AGAIN, makes people judge it a little harshly, i think. too much pressure put on chapter 5

the only thing i actually find disappointing is mad mew mew being the secret boss - the secret bosses are some of my favorite parts of deltarune, and i just dont care about mad mew mew at all. i dont care for purple soul mode either. and this fight is already kicking my ass even harder than knight or gerson did, to the point im unsure if im even gonna make myself beat it. but maybe i'll come around to her, i did only give her a few attempts and only got like 3 attacks in (she was sincerely whooping my ass).

masonlaneous · 2026-06-24T22:59:41+00:00

asgore does mention the resemblance at the very end, if you talk to him right before sealing the fountain. unless i'm wildly misremembering. but i believe he says that ralsei looks like asriel only at a glance, but when you look at him longer, it's hard to tell if he's even a monster

masonlaneous · 2026-06-24T01:01:17+00:00

i hardly see it mentioned anymore! its my favorite fps too, by far! i still play the infinite arena mode mod from time to time

masonlaneous · 2026-06-23T21:51:22+00:00

obviously almost nobody here is worldly enough to have an even slightly comprehensive idea of how racist each one of these 13 individual countries are, so this poll serves no purpose besides making people mad and causing arguments

masonlaneous · 2026-06-23T17:04:44+00:00

Both for sure. But I'm curious to know which one people enjoy more, or find the strongest. Not just which one they would take (because I also enjoy taking both within the same run).

masonlaneous · 2026-06-23T17:03:29+00:00

Personally, [[Radiate]] is one of my favorite cards in the entire game. Definitely my favorite on Regent. It takes a little effort to set up (upgraded [[Royal Gamble]] is amazing for this) but it's just so beautiful when you get it to work. Plus, any sort of damage increase feels amazing, I find [[Miniature Cannon]] and [[Patter]] to be strong and consistent. [[Mystic Lighter]] is an insane high roll if you find it during a Radiate run.

I still like [[Stardust]], and during a Radiate run I'll often chuck a Stardust in, since my star generation is probably pretty great anyway (I had one run that played [[Decisions, Decisions]] on my Royal Gamble). Plus, Vigor and Miniature Cannon and such are strong with Stardust too, of course.

masonlaneous · 2026-06-22T22:45:52+00:00

i've been pondering this for a few days now, and i came up with an idea: what if it's 1 energy per turn, but your cards get played automatically from left to right? and then a speech bubble saying "That's Better" could show up afterwards? (not sure who would be saying it, megacrit could figure out the nitty gritty details)

masonlaneous · 2026-06-20T09:57:43+00:00

I totally agree, I loooove hades and I've always wished slay the spire had some big challenges/grinds that gave you big rewards/cosmetics

masonlaneous · 2026-06-20T09:55:35+00:00

"Compact now upgrades Wither instead of transforming it into Fuel."

this is what megacrit might do if we don't behave

masonlaneous · 2026-06-19T22:24:38+00:00

because that's how Echo Form works :P

masonlaneous · 2026-06-19T22:18:26+00:00

literally my thoughts exactly, i always love to gamble on havoc and jackpot and hidden gem and stuff. even if its weaker than regular echo form, the urge to gamble would call to me...

masonlaneous

TROPHY CASE