BunBun, and Secret Bosses

Interpetation

BunBun, based on my interpretation, appears to be set up as the secret boss of this chapter. I like this a lot if true, because it could tie into what I think the general theme of the secret bosses could or should be: Abandonment.

The schizobosses of Deltarune are all connected by the theme of Freedom, and this parallels the struggle Kris is going through. Now, what is Cole going through in DRY? He is (or at least I interpret him as) a foster child rotating through families, some with unpleasant memories attached, and who is currently living with the dread that, after rooting himself in his current home, becoming close with his friends and adult acquaintances and a loving caretaker in Martlet, and against both his wishes and the wishes of those around him, it is going to happen again. There are a lot of angles this can be approached, Foxlace telling the straightforward act of loss and discardment, and BunBun could tell a different but just as potent story.

With BunBun's juvenile name and function I interpret the character as being dear to a very, very young Kanako. Now in her teens, she probably has a lot of sentimental value for her old plush but wouldn't go out of her way to play with it. BunBun is kept around, but this lack of attention is its own form of Abandonment—draw your Toy Story parallels here.

What makes this interesting is BunBun has not only been given sapience and the ability to communicate directly with its cherished owner, but unlike other darkners has had the nature of reality partially revealed by someone. BunBun is aware this Dark World is ephemeral, that the fountain will be sealed and that it only hastens its destruction by helping the Lightners.

This is BunBun's last ride. It is the last time it will be able to play with and receive significant attention from Kanako, treated as a living thing and a close friend. This experience might reframe Kanako's view on the plush in the future, but it still won't be the same.

So, much like Cole is trying to do with his final week, I think BunBun's motivation should be to make the most of this fleeting time. With Kanako's drive to rescue her father and Cole's general no-nonsense jaundice attitude, they're not going to stick around. BunBun ends up doing something desperate.

Ideas

This section is pure fanfiction spawned from my daydreaming and not a prediction of the current plotline.
I know there's an unimplemented boss early on in the Upstairs; rather than BunBun leaving at its own behest, what if it took a hit to protect Kanako? It insists it's fine, but its mood seemed to shift a bit even before this attack. Once it leads you to the Rescue Rangers, it says it needs to go do something and goes off in the direction you entered; if you backtrack, you see small bits of stuffing that alarms Kanako. The balloon BunBun took is gone, and using the door to return to Robotopia and exploring the area shows a fluff trail you can follow.

The calculator shopkeeper mentions a shady back alley that didn't have anything implemented in it. With this questline, I can imagine it being a chop shop: finding the key needed to enter and interrogating the shop owner reveals an Interloper did come by for an "upgrade," but refuses to say anything more, except that it won't like what it got.

BunBun's long cloak came off as suspicious to me the moment I saw it, and I assume there's something hidden underneath. With this plot, there actually wasn't anything unusual underneath when BunBun first arrived, but the chop shop put in a lot of work.

BunBun is eventually tracked down at a dead-end alley, looking weak and weary. It tells Kanako how happy it is to get this chance to play, one last time. It remembers how much it was cared for, and it knows this is going to be the last time Kanako thinks of BunBun as a real, living friend.

It knows Kanako wouldn't want to fight it. It told the chop shop it was prepared to take care of the Lightners, interloper or not. BunBun got what he wanted, even more than that.

It takes off the cloak. Sewn to its plush head and plush limbs is a torso of heavy machinery, buckling its knees with its weight. It limply lifts a hand for a wave and smiles.

Kanako, after screaming at it for doing something so foolishly horrible, asks if it hurts.

It puts on the happiest expression it can manage, and says, "...not much."

Without warning the torso fires a shot, blocked by Kanako's barrier. Kanako asks for this to stop, and is told BunBun doesn't have full control of its body anymore. It was the only way a robot would agree to help an interloper, and the only way to make Kanako play in earnest.

tl;dr: Jessie from Toy Story becomes real for a moment and then engages in voluntary Stroggification.
This concludes the fanfic of a fanfic of a fanfic.

Criticisms and suggestions for character

One more thing to touch on with BunBun: I feel it doesn't have a consistent voice, as in the character's diction. You've mentioned that you're not a writer, and I think one of the biggest things you could improve on is giving characters distinct ways of speaking. This doesn't mean speech quirks like Jevil and Spamton have, just giving the character a specific manner of speech and being consistent about it.

For BunBun, being a young child's stuffed toy that provided warmth and comfort, makes me think of two children's stories in particular: Winnie the Pooh and The Velveteen Rabbit.

I could see the former inspiring BunBun's diction: a soft, gentle voice that doesn't shout. Perhaps if BunBun wasn't told about the nature of a Dark World it could be as worry-free as Pooh, able to live its life enjoying every day for the day it was; but, the weight of this knowledge has changed BunBun. It can try to think and feel how it would, but it ultimately can't act ignorant of its reality.

The Velveteen Rabbit was a sawdust-stuffed toy that became, in its eyes and the eyes of the little boy that loved it, Real. Its shortcomings as a toy, the lack of articulation, the negative comparisons between it and the actual animal, failed to phase it, for it knew it was Real and that something that becomes Real cannot be made unreal again. BunBun is in the exact opposite scenario of this: In the Dark World it should believe itself to be Real, but someone has pulled away the curtain and revealed how unreal it is, and that it will cease to be Real once the fountain is sealed. There's a melancholy to that. An innate joy has been plucked out of the rabbit, and this tempers the warmth it should feel at being able to see, speak to and touch the child so dear to it.

Whatever you go with for the character, all I hope for is that you have a voice in mind. More specific, nitpicky suggestions I would give for this character's writing are that it probably shouldn't say "I was lucky not to lose my mind (being told about the dark world)," but rather to insist that it handled it fine. It didn't, but it doesn't want Kanako to know that. And for a more diegetic talk about the someone, rather than BunBun directly saying it wasn't Chujin I would have Kanako ask concernedly if that someone was her father, which BunBun assures her it couldn't be.

Future

Going forward with secret bosses, I think they should be viewed through different lenses of Abandonment. An object might be passed along from owner to owner, ending up in the hands of the Outlaw who discarded it in the next Dark World. Another object could be boxed up, stamped, ready to be mailed away; jailed, terrified of where it might be taken. If a chapter happens to be themed directly about Abandonment it may not need a secret boss at all, much how Ramb in Deltarune doesn't serve as an antagonist but still leads Kris to what he thinks could be a solution to his problem; a character in that chapter might serve only to console Cole. I strongly believe Cole's red letter should be the game's emotional core; I don't know anything of the Outlaw's motivations but I would probably fit even that into Cole's imminent departure. Undertale and Deltarune are chocked full of reoccuring motifs, not only in its music but in its narratives.

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Pub: 02 Jul 2025 09:47 UTC

Edit: 02 Jul 2025 10:02 UTC

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