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great-brilliant-radiance-au · 3 days ago

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Deltarune CMYK Theory

[ Written before Chapter 5 | July 22 , 2025 ]

One of the most glaringly strange aspect of Deltarune is Kris for some reason being bright Cyan , its often brushed off ,

However , we feel Kris being Blue / Cyan is a big key to Deltarune in understanding what exactly is happening .

We've personally haven't seen anyone mention CMYK aspect of Deltarune , so this theory is entirely our (@5thcloud) own theory and take .

[ Note: This is about Canon Deltarune , only posting it on our AU blog as this theory is the basis of our AU as well as this place just being more deltarune related , other blog is just art .

This post does Not talk about our AU

Also for easier reading , we uppercased names of colors and important words . ]

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[Start of Theory]

Color has always been part of UTDR , Undertale as color SOUL traits and importance of color association

And here in Deltarune , the importance of Colors is stronger than ever , more than what you can possibly imagine .

1 . How CMYK and RGB Models works and Ties to Deltarune

You may know CMYK from printer ink and RGB to something like LED lights , its because they're the Primary Colors for their respective Models .

However , they do not work separately , instead they work as one . They create each other and are equivalents of each other , they cant exist without one another , just as the idea of Lightners and Darkners , and how Darkners have equivalent objects

(Red , Yellow , Blue are considered outdated colors for paint as they cannot make all colors , however of course it can still be used)

And either way if its Subtractive or Additive Model , Color is light itself , if theres no light then theres no color . The Models are only used for How the color is being created or achieved .

As to why we feel Kris is Cyan , its so that the main trio creates a sort of corrupted CMY model , Cyan being Kris , Magenta being Susie , and Green / Yellow being Ralsei / Noelle ( will get into this part in sections 2 and 3 )

Also , yes this does mean Cyan and Blue ARE considered different colors on this post and in these Color Models despite both generally being seen as just different shade of blue .

Its also fun note that the color question while making the vessel does mention Cyan separately , we do feel its still poking fun at fact that "its literally just light blue and blue is already here" as well as reference Kris

But this is stronger gesture at these Models as , along with Cyan , the other answers are "Red , Green , Blue" , the 3 Primary Colors of Light

It also important remember that Undertale also counted Cyan and Blue as different things for the SOULs , being Perseverance and Integrity

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2 . Additive and Subtractive Models for Lightners and Darkners are swapped Despite being Lightners , Cyan (Kris) , Magenta (Susie) , and Yellow (Noelle) are of the Subtractive Pigment Model that mixes to Black , they aren't the primaries for light .

While Ralsei , who is a Darkner , is Green which is part of the Additive Light Model that mixes to white , he Is light .

( Though it is noted that Kris can actually be seen as both Blue and Cyan addressed in Section 4 , we also arent addressing Berdly as he never joins party to confirm his color associations as of Chapter 4 , as Noelle is more of a Pale Green-Yellow in Dark World , yet is associated with Pure Yellow without Green )

The Cyan and Magenta can also be "mistaken" colors , as they Are lighter than Blue and Red , but reason why the primaries of Subtractive Pigment is lighter is because they mix darker , thus starting lighter helps ,

Think of paint , how you'd mix lighter shades of paint in small parts instead of going too much at once as it can get dark n muddied fast

‼️So in other words , they Appear to be "light" , however in actuality its so they can mix to darker more vivid colors .

How we would more specifically word it is that , the Lightners are named that Not because they're the bringer of light or are light , but because they start as light in color and also of course because they reside in light

But truly , Lightners bring darkness

And the opposite is true here , Darkners are not bringer of darkness or Literal darkness , but instead start as dark and reside in dark , and become light .

Darkners are bringers of light .

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3 . Ralsei's Green and Noelle's Yellow are equivalent Yellow (pigment) and Green (light) are equivalents of each other .

Ralsei is Green and his association is of Pacifism , while Noelle is Yellow and strongly associated with the Weird Route (ie. deltarune's no mercy route equivalent) .

They both draw ties to each other in both idea and color , they both are support , associated with prayer , magic , with same heal spell , and so far in story , Noelle and Ralsei dont appear in battle together

So whether its Ralsei or Noelle in party , or if Kris is either Blue (light) or Cyan (pigment) , the party will still make a corrupted form of CMY

Also , because Green isnt part of the CMY Model that Kris and Susie are part of , it can be extra reason why Ralsei's room is entirely blacked out . His color isnt part of the trio

Its also noted that the depiction of the Deltarune symbol in Kris' room , its the Green triangle that points away

Additive Light Colors start dark , and mix to light .

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4 . Kris' Cyan , Blue , and maybe Black of K .

In the Additive Model , you mix Green and Blue to get Cyan , Kris' color . Its been noted at start of game that "the green crayon is missing" , green sweater , as well as Asriel's possible association with Green and Ralsei's resemblance to Asriel (even though he isnt Asriel)

In Subtractive Pigment Model , Yellow and Cyan together makes Green , colors of them in Light World

To make Blue in Subtractive Pigment , you mix Cyan and Magenta , which are already the other colors of Kris in dark world .

The colors they are mix into themselves to create more of their own colors .

- Do also note that , even if feel these are too specific , Kris also inverts into Blue and Cyan , which is another reason why they could be Blue / Cyan

Another thing that more of a stretch , youll see that CMYK acronym , Black is abbreviated as K as B is taken by Blue (K being taken from last letter)

Kris' name is more generally spelt more like "Chris" with a C , it can be seen as "changed to K to make more original or differentiate from Chara" which we dont doubt is the main reason or the only reason

However , K is represented as Black and is of course part of the Subtractive Pigment Model . Considering Kris' strange association with the Roaring Knight as well as opening Dark Fountains , its certainly something !

Why Kris specifically ? The Dark Fountain is often colored Cyan / Blue ( their colors ) as well as Black , the Prophecy is depicted Blue and Cyan

Black too is also a rainbow of all colors just as White , just that all colors together in a Subtractive Model will become Black .

To us , Blue / Cyan is a very interesting choice for Kris cuz as far as we personally know , they're not associated with anything Blue in the Light World ,

But in both CMYK and RGB , Hues of Blue are present in both Models undeniably , while Magenta - Red , and Green - Yellow are seen as very much different colors ,

many people especially non-artists will see Cyan - Blue as the same just different shades ( goes back to the vessel creation joke of both Cyan and Blue being listed as possible favorite colors )

Not to mention here with Black being K because B already taken by Blue , so Kris (to us) being associated with Black , Cyan , and Blue , hell even possibly White because of the odd save point , its a really powerful thing .

They're part of both Light and Dark .

Blue and Cyan are powerful .

Extra note , Kris portrait is Very Oddly a very noticeably different shade of "Cyan" , which more strongly reads as "Blue" , which is odd outlier as rest of characters have portrait colors very close to their HP bar

However if color pick their portrait , it says it's still "Cyan" , however we argue that this is simply for accessibility as "True Blue" is very dark and doesn't appear well on Black , As well as lighter tones of "True Blue" WILL appear Purple .

And imo after testing colors that keeps the Brightness and Saturation and just changing the Hue ,

the Color used for their Portrait is closest to Blue as can be while being Saturated and clear on a Black Background as a small sprite .

Remember , Colors are subjective as all eyes and interpretations are different

So even if it does sound like a cheap excuse to consider them Blue part of the Additive Light Model despite portrait "really" being more Cyan ,

it doesnt change fact that their portrait Specifically was made into a different shade that strongly reads as Blue instead of Cyan , and nowhere near the same Shade or Hue as their HP bar unlike the other characters .

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5 . In Pigment , Magenta and Yellow creates Red In Subtractive Pigment Model , Magenta and Yellow mixes to get Red . Magenta and Yellow is associated with Spamton , as well as him referencing being on puppet strings in relation to Kris too

Though , our Spamton association with Magenta isnt perfect as his pink is more so of a Red-Pink while Magenta is instead more on the side of blue , however hes been at least drawn One time with specifically Magenta so , yeah </3

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Magenta and Red are Equivalents and more interestingly to us , Magenta (pigment) and Red (light) are equivalents to each other , which is something think about as the Player is given several opportunities to try and sway Susie .

Not to mention , Susie's secondary color is Yellow , being her eyes , teeth , etc. , and heart detail on her belt

Not only that , Susie parallels the idea of the Player , that being of Control . At the start she is the one to echo "You are not in control" , idea of control is often represented in Red

So for Susie's Magenta to be Equivalent to Red , for Yellow and Magenta to mix into Red , for the Player to also be prompted to sway her , its ... wowie .

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In Light , Blue and Red creates Magenta Self explanatory , Blue of Kris + Red of Player or Kris' SOUL , itll mix to Magenta

So color wise , Magenta and Red are very strongly associated

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Magenta in Trio Magenta for the main trio has always been an interesting color to us

Despite the trio being mostly monochrome , Magenta is shared across the whole trio , with Susie being mainly Magenta by default , Ralsei's scarf being Magenta , and Kris' cape having Magenta stripes to reference Frisk

Even more drawing to this is how Ralsei's battle portrait is only one with a 2nd color , being Magenta .

Noelle Doesn't have Magenta , however she does keep her Red nose , again Red and Magenta are equivalents .

Her Red nose as well Doesn't change at all whether in Dark World or Light World , which is extremely notable as All character colors have at least a noticeable change even if small (like Berdly's Blue and Yellow)

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6 . Why Might Kris' Save Point Light be White ?

In Additive Light Model , Green and Red mixes to Yellow , giving the Undertale's signature Yellow save point . If you add Blue into it , itll become White as its RGB all together .

White is also all colors combined , the full rainbow

It can of course also be just interpreted as "all light together" instead of specifically "yellow light + blue light"

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7 . Dark Sanctuary's Hue Shift

To quickly cover , in Dark Sanctuary of Ch 4 their colors Do change , however we dont know how much this proves or say anything about our theory

At first glance it feels like it Must say something , however its simply just a color shift of all colors to one direction (in this case , clockwise)

it Is interesting as this only place so far in story where their colors are different , Ralsei becoming Blue , Susie being Yellow-ish plus Green secondary color ,

While overall Kris practically stays the same . This goes with the idea of how Blue and Cyan are still Hues of Blue

So despite having the roughly same amount of shift , they still appear as their own color unlike the others .

Blue and Cyan are powerful .

Also interesting note , despite Ralsei's and Kris' Magenta being Extremely close in color in their usual form ,

Here in Sanctuary , Ralsei's shifted Magenta to Orange looks much more Yellowish and lighter , lot softer . While Kris' shifted Magenta looks much more of a harsh Red-Orange

Not about Deltarune Theory but more just Color Theory relating to light , despite being a simple hue shift with some extra adjustments , we feel this is a great example to show how colors of light and rainbow Arent perfectly spaced even ,

some colors of light take up much more space such as Green , while others like Yellow take up little space (but does blend lot with Orange to Red)

So when shifted , despite our Susie edit overshooting the Green , it still lands on green ! If this was somewhere else on the wheel , itd easily land on a completely different color

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[End of Theory]

This whole theory can very much be "looking too hard" ,

but it just feels too uncanny to us with how , to us , it so strongly explains why Kris is Bright Cyan , and why Noelle's color association is Pure Yellow despite being a Pale Green-Yellow in Dark World , all this Magenta , and also the Deltarune's White Save Points being able be explained with Additive Light color mixing

As well as , these are still VERY specific colors chosen , they couldve been Any color , yet they all specifically line up with CMY + Green (and possibly Blue , both still part of the RGB Light model) , and CMY not being of Light primaries .

We dont have any doubts that it Can just be "these colors look good together" or more of a small reference to these models thats not serious , but you never know

Anyways , thats all ! hope learned something new from this even if find this theory to be a stretch :]

The color theory , hehe 🐕

Feel free share this around or screenshot , rlly want ppl know this

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