an attempt at a rouxls speech guide
a while back, i set out to try to make a little guide/list of patterns of speech for rouxls kaard, spurred on by the never-ending brainrot this blue freak has caused me. i’ve tweaked it on and off for a long time now and am still not 100% confident in what i have down, but i feel that at this point if i don’t share it now, i’m never going to. so… here’s this!
a couple of things first:
•not directly related to his speech patterns or anything like that, just generally: if anything written here seems off to you, let me know! i’m likely going to update this as time goes on (the incoming release of new chapters means this whole thing could become potentially obsolete, who knows, lol) & i’d love to have help on it! if you have anything you think would be good to add or change, feel free to shoot me an ask @stunfiskz on tumblr! :) just please be kind, it’s just me working on this for fun lol
•toby has said that rouxls is just making up his accent as he goes!
•because of this, there’s not going to be any sort of singular formula or right way to apply his accent. this is more about identifying patterns in rouxls’s speech, both in how his accent works and how he speaks disregarding it. my hope is that this will be able to help anyone who’s struggling to write his dialogue (because He’s Weird As Fuck) find a more natural way to go about it. like a lot of stuff from this game, though, Rouxl Of Funny will always be in effect first, and none of this is a necessity.
•i sourced the majority of these quotes from the deltarune dialogue dump, some from the valentine's cards/other newsletters, and one from the cutting room floor. for the sake of consistency in how the images are displayed, i remade them using this textbox generator. thanks so much to the organizers of these resources :)
let’s get to ruling some cards!
part one: how does his accent work???
rouxls’s fake accent is a horribly butchered version of early modern english (also called shakespearean english). in his version, “thou” is used as a replacement for “you”, and “-eth”, “-est”, and the letter “e” are tacked on to the end of words at random. the actual conventions of early modern english do not matter to writing rouxls’s dialogue- he is a massive faker, and probably doesn’t know shit about it himself.
thou
“thou” is used as a direct replacement for you. he does not use it as a replacement for “i” or any third-person pronoun. when referring to more than one person, he often uses “thoust” instead (made the fuck up by him), although he does occasionally use it for one person as well. he uses “thine” as a replacement for your/yours, and has not used the word “thy” so far. he doesn’t use “thou” exclusively, though- particularly in examples where his accent is lightened, he will simply use “you”.
“thoust” (plural), “thoust” (singular)
using both “you” and “thou” in this line- example of him being more inconsistent when startled or otherwise speaking frantically.
(another fun part of him using “thou” as a replacement for “you” is that it shows that he does not know the difference between “your” and “you’re”.)
-eth, -est, and other add-ons
rouxls randomly adds other additions to the ends of words, usually being -eth/-th, -est/-st, and the letter e. occasionally, for verbs using suffixes, he may add it before the suffix.
“likedeth” and “envisionethed” show the varying placement of “eth” in words with suffixes
the “-eth/-th” endings are most commonly used for verbs, though this is not a strict rule & there are plenty of examples otherwise. “-est/-st” tends to be used for all types of words. the difference between “-th” and “-st” as endings to their -e having counterparts is verbal. the endings with an “e” add an extra syllable to the word. which one is used simply depends on the flow of his speech.
assorted quotes showing some of the uses of the different endings. try saying them out loud to hear the difference! it isn’t fun!
similarly, an “e” on its own at the end of a word indicates an emphasis on its ending- i read it as him drawing the word out, but this could differ depending on how you read it. if the second to last letter is “e”, he may swap its place with the last letter to add this emphasis (ex: “er” -> “re”). additionally, if a word has an “e” at the end, it is usually capitalized regardless of its place in the sentence. this random capitalization at the beginning of words similarly indicates emphasis, in this case at the start of the word.
showcasing the capitalization for emphasis, as well as it accompanying the “e” ending. also shows the occasional movement of the “e” in words that end in “er”.
something else of note is the fact that his fake accent is much more heavily applied in chapter 2 than it is in chapter 1. in his shop dialogue, there are several long stretches where very little, if any, embellishments are added. it is possible to develop an in-universe reasoning for this- his fake accent is him attempting to seem sophisticated and intelligent (it does not work). it is possible that, following the loss of his previous position under the king and sealing of the card kingdom dark world, he would fall back to doubling down on this in an attempt to maintain the previous status quo. however, it’s more likely that it was simply just the fact that toby found him easier & more fun to write as he went along & seeing people responded well to the bit in chapter 1. regardless of the actual importance, the change is interesting.
an example of his toned-down accent in chapter 1.
the end of this example, him asking how lancer is doing, could also imply that he drops or lessens his accent when he is being sincere. however, he is a slimy, spineless little faker, so there isn’t much to go off of for how he would actually act in that case.
part two: even without the accent, he speaks like a freak
though rouxls’ fake accent is definitely the most obvious part of his speech, it isn’t the only defining factor of it. his speech is notably bloated and full of other indicators of him trying and failing to be viewed as educated and sophisticated.
even without the accent, rouxls tends to use incredibly convoluted phrasing. one example can be seen when he is lying about having been planning to overthrow king:
removing the rouxlsisms, “cannot you conceive of my plan?” or, even more generously, “can you not conceive of my plan?” is a very warped way of saying “do you not believe me?”.
this is easier to spot in lines like this, where his accent isn’t heavily applied, if at all:
the way that these lines are phrased help make them seem fittingly “rouxls-y”, fitting in with the rest of his speech well even in the absence of random “eth”s and “est”s.
rouxls tends to have a very over-embellished word choice, matching his attempts to sound sophisticated. he tends to use fancier-sounding alternatives to a word he wishes to use, which often results in it being spelled wrong (he calls queen “beautious” instead of “beauteous”) or simply just something he made up (“appetizement” is not a real word). he also occasionally sprinkles in some bug related words- most commonly calling other characters worms, but he also talks about a “roach’s inn” (likely talking about a roach motel) and calls lancer a water-beetle. it makes sense, with his interest in bug keeping!
his attempts at “sophisticated” word choice often result in him saying words that aren’t actually real.
examples of his non-worm bug talk.
in contrast to his typical faux-sophisticated word choice, rouxls will also often use informal language wrapped in with his regular speaking patterns (in particular, he often says “guys”). these are examples of him badly failing to hold up his very bad aristocratic persona.
his usage of a more modern, informal word by calling king “that guy” after his previous statement and his use of the phrase “beat the crap out of” show the occasional use of informal language, further emphasizing that he’s awful at faking being sophisticated.
additionally, this man simply just does not shut up. he occasionally uses long sentences, long enough to be split across multiple text boxes, but in general, he is very long-winded.
can someone please make this thing shut the hell up.
finally (though this section may have made more sense to have put at the beginning…), he will often open his sentences with a single introduction. there isn’t a single one he tends to use most, but he tends to begin his sentences with dramatic laughter most commonly, particularly when he first enters. this can be used as an attempt for him to seem menacing or simply for decoration.
a handful of opening exclamations he uses. “gehaha” and other, longer variants are his “signature” laugh, but he’s also written as laughing more normally in other cases.
part three: how he talks to others
rouxls also has a few quirks in the way he speaks to other people. interestingly, he almost never addresses others by name. instead, he usually calls them either “worms” or another nickname/insult that he simply made up. however, he does refer to himself in the third person, by his own name, often, which is a fun display of his self-centeredness. the only other exception to this is him having referred to lancer by name once (you could argue that he also does this for king and queen but… their names are their titles. regardless, it also shows that despite his ego, he is too sycophantic to insult his superiors).
examples of rouxls avoiding the using names of others & using his own.
him referring to lancer by name. he also calls him a “water beetle”.
in general, when speaking to those who he views as the ones in control of a given situation (see “rouxls is ALWAYS on the winning side” above), he’s prone to very shitty, empty flattery. he will also brag about himself a lot- even past the text limit if given the opportunity.
his inventory description in-game versus the full text.
this flattery is far more about attempting to benefit himself, putting himself in the good graces of the person/people he is speaking to, than it is any genuine feelings held. there are multiple examples, such as him attempting to “woo” tasque manager under the assumption that she is queen or not even remembering what queen looks like in the valentines card for her, that show this. similarly, he is quick to go from insulting to praising someone if they gain the upper hand in a situation. much of this also shows his tendency to not think through what he does or says very much, if at all. he does not go into situations with a plan he follows, rather just acting in the moment with how he thinks would probably work (he is not good at deciding this).
he does not actually care. the attempts at romantic gestures are empty and are simply for his own benefit.
the emptiness of his speech can also be seen in how he attempts to leave unfortunate situations- he is shown to use poor excuses/avoidance to get out of a situation as quickly as possible if it is not going his way. similar to not planning out exactly how to make a conversation go to benefit himself, he also does not think of any legitimate way to leave if it doesn’t work out.
he seems to suck bad.
similarly, if he is startled enough by something, he drops the accent altogether. additionally, with the primary example for this, rouxls also uses more of the game’s pg-13 permitted swearing when taken aback. however, this is not the only time that he uses similarly crude language. while obviously not meant to be taken as 100% canon, he does use similar low-level swears in the debug text for his chapter 2 battle. you can come to your own conclusions on whether or not he would swear, but i personally at the very least think he would not in any way be scandalized by others swearing. this, once again, also works as an example of his occasional use of informal language wrapped within his more bloated speech patterns.
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i…do not have any real conclusion for this, since this was a bit all over the place & may be subject to change with future releases. still, i hope that this was somewhat helpful, or at least entertaining to read! this is just what i’ve noticed from my time pouring over his dialogue (excited to get to update my notebook where i’ve written all of it down when chapters 3 & 4 release!). it isn’t super consistent, but that fits his character very well and is part of what makes him so entertaining :)
thank you for reading!