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The single scene I believe nailed down Kris's entire trajectory, that explained the most about them as a character, has to be their chapter four piano concert:

We, as the player, have no input in this scene at all. If you try to play the long sequence right, they'll just mess it up, prompting the dialogue anyway. There's no command from us that they twist in order to be "allowed" to play, no nudge from us in the right direction- they just snatch control, because Susie wants to hear them.

This is such a complete stab through the gut, not just because of their passion and the fluid animation and sheer expressiveness, but because Kris can just do that! It isn't that they physically can't play piano with the soul in the driver's seat, they just won't, until Susie empowers them to. No matter how badly they want the freedom to express themselves on their own terms, they restrain themselves. They let us take the reins and try to just submit, and they can't keep it up.

The interpretation this strikes me with, coupled with their "knighting" and their "promise" to the mysterious caller and their unspecified egg trauma... We know they know how we work, and that their plans with us are premeditated and calculated, at the behest of (maybe multiple) adults who have significant power over them. At least the Mayor is directing them to let themselves be turned into a vessel. We know this would have to have started before they went to the first Dark World, when Susie was still a bully, Noelle estranged and Ralsei not even in the picture.

We know that by the opening of the third fountain, by the time they're spinning prompts to get into banter with Susie and blocking us from being mean to Ralsei and drawing messages on windows and sneaking in as much of themselves into their relationships as possible, they've been turning themselves into our tool to be ultimately pitted against the group since day one. That no matter how much they can be coaxed out, at the end of the day, they have to be shoved back in their place, if not by us, by the Knight/mayor/etc who've facilitated this entire thing. That their choices don't matter.

Evil-Kris officially out, Deeply-Conflicted-Kris officially in. Of course earlier Kris tries to keep themselves closed off from the Extended Fun Gang- no matter how much they adventure together, how much they grow to like their company, Kris will inevitably, in their eyes, have to betray them. Because they made their choice before the story could even begin. Because they promised.

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Been wanting to make something Krusielle related, and this is what my brain came up.

[COMMISSIONS OPEN if interested]

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Kris having a crush on Susie and Noelle makes me giggle and kick my feet. Seeing them blush around both of them makes me laugh.

I feel like Kris is the type of person just will totally feel safe enough around Susie to pick them up and fall asleep in her arms bridle style cuz she’s so strong.

I totally believe Kris would just fall asleep around Susie to get her to carry them, but I raise you another headcanon: With everything that's going on with the Soul, Kris struggles with fainting spells and fatigue, and knows Susie will make sure they don't hurt themself and get them somewhere they can rest till it wears off or gets better.

Kris never explains what's going on or why they're having fainting spells/get head rushes when they stand up too fast or whatnot, but Susie picks up on it and gives them shit for "pretending".

Noelle only finds out about these fainting spells later and is immediately worried about it, seeing as they didn't have them as a little kid. I can see Susie calling her at some point to come over after a particularly bad fainting spell from Kris (they probably hurt themself from falling over or something) and Noelle immediately takes up bossing Susie around to help, and keeping an eye on Kris.

Kris doesn't know what to do with being coddled by their childhood best friend and their current best friend, but they probably try to act like none of it's a big deal.

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Carol's relationship to Kris's soul is weird.

Red text for "you" implies that she's not only aware of the soul (which should be common-ish knowledge, right?) but of the outside influence exerted through it.

Carol specifies that the Kris who is welcome in her home is one who is controlled by us, even though we're working against her plans while free Kris supports them. Seems backwards.

But when you look at Kris's personality without our input: the pranking, the swearing, the general hooliganism, it makes sense that Carol would prefer US.

By comparison, the average player-controlled Kris is a polite, thoughtful, talkative pacifist. We even make them stand up straight (you could argue the slouching and shambling post soul removal is due to pain, but Kris is able to sleep through the night with no soul, which makes me think soullessness is more fatigue-inducing than painful).

We can gather from Kris killing the black deer during the quest for the shadow mantle that Kris feels responsible for whatever happened to Dess.

All this together makes it tempting to think the player gaining control of Kris's soul is less a parasitic invasion and more of a deal with the devil (they sold their soul).

Kris could have made a practical decision: "I need guidance from someone with a god's-eye-view to survive what's coming and help Carol resurrect Dess or whatever" but Kris could have also made a resolution to become a different person: "I need someone less impulsive to force me to be a good person because I clearly can't do it on my own". Think of how our role as the player is often to take our time choosing between a kind dialogue option and one that reads like an intrusive thought.

If you really want to drive yourself crazy, you can imagine Carol encouraging Kris to take this hypothetical deal (from Gaster?).

This explains why Kris does not seem to be searching for a way to permanently escape our control. They resent us, but if our arrangement were completely involuntary instead of just coerced, then I'd expect the rage we see in the trashcan-kicking scene in chapter 4's snowgrave route to be the baseline.

Anyway, this reading gives Kris about a thousand parallels to the self-worth issues Susie has going on, and it frames her antics with Kris shenanigans as an opportunity for them to be validated for being themself.

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one big happy family

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Oh, heck yeah!

I'd like to see a DessKnight animation of some sort using Dominator from Wander Over Yonder. I think that'd be cool.

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I'd like to see a DessKnight animation of some sort using Dominator from Wander Over Yonder. I think that'd be cool.

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castletown retirement home

inspo:

continuing my pursuit of being their biggest advocate

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susie's story (esp in ch4) is so deftly realised. so often you see the "character who thinks little of themself is encouraged to pursue their True Value" storyline unfold in a way that has the character redirected away from "unfitting" desires, like a physically weak character who wants to be physically strong learning to value their personality instead or whatever but susie. susie who is - mechanically, in her stats in the game - best suited to hitting things with an axe, who "doesn't look like she should be playing the piano", is encouraged to pursue a skill she doesn't have because an educator took the time to get to know her and realise what she has genuine passion for. and she's not automatically great at it! she has objectively bad spelling and grammar in her letter to alvin, it's not like she unlocked some secret hidden talent - storytelling and communicating and creative expression in general is something she cares a lot about and genuinely enjoys, but it's something she has to work for. there's a reason why the gerson fight is so long and gruelling. but through this hard work and better understanding of herself we see susie learn how to reject imposed frameworks that occlude her actual personality - she literally shatters the tapestry that tells her the one and only way her story can end, and in doing so prevents Kris from ever having the chance to think of her in that position, whatever it is. it's her story, and she's learning how to tell it.

AND all of this is done without for even a second implying she needs to be even the tiniest bit more feminine than her rough and rude masculine self. hell, from the way she and gerson mirror each other in their loud and abrasive laughs, her unapologetic butchness is presented as a trait that aligns her closer with him and from there with her truest self

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Susie seems to be having a much more lighthearted adventure than everyone else. She just wants to learn about the power of freindship🫶

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Okay while I'm absolutely getting my ass kicked on the Roaring Knight boss trying to actually beat it, I noticed something and I decided to talk about it.

So, in this fight, Kris does the least amount of damage to the Roaring Knight when attacking.

Despite Ralsei, supposedly, having a lower attack stat than Kris, even he's doing more than Kris. But Chapter 4 proves that in some way, they are involved with the Knight in a way. So it's obvious what's going on. They're holding back their punches. And, in a way, so is the Knight. When KO'd, Kris is more often than not set to -80 hp, while Ralsei and Susie are often set to -999. The Knight- whatever it is and how it's related to the Holidays- sees Kris as an ally and someone to not seriously hurt. And vice versa.

Well, except for once condition.

When both Susie and Ralsei are KO'd, and Kris is left standing.

Suddenly, it seems that Kris' attack significantly spikes. Now doing more damage than Susie typically does, who is the strongest one of the trio. Doing more than double the damage they were originally doing to their supposed ally.

The ONLY condition of this damage spike, at least from what I've seen, is when Kris is the only one of the group still able to fight. nothing else.

This tells me a few things. One: that Kris genuinely does care for Ralsei and Susie. Both of these are already proven both before and after this fight, but for Ralsei in particular the evidence was rather limited. It's only Chapter 3 onward (debatable) that they show care for Ralsei, when pre-Chapter 3 there was hesitance. Gesturing to the Ralsei tea. Kris caring for Susie, in comparison, is a lot more obvious thanks to their more frequent moments alone together.

What's more important to me is the second thing this says: That when put in the situation to choose, Kris will prioritize RALSEI and SUSIE'S sake rather than the Knight.

I've been a "Kris is not evil" believer since the start, and I feel like this is evidence for that. While we as the SOUL don't fully know what's going on with Kris, what we do see is Carol and/or the Knight having some type of hold on them. Something about a "promise". They know more than we do, possibly as much as Ralsei knows, and will fight to prevent us from knowing more. And yet, when put in a fight that already shows them holding back, they suddenly stop when they're the last ones protecting their friends.

They may claim otherwise in the future. But actions speak louder than hidden dialogue. If they had to choose between the Knight, someone that you could argue they have a history with, or their new friends?

It's Ralsei and Susie they'd choose.

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i just keep coming back to like. I'd long thought Kris might think of themself as uniquely evil, responsible for Dess' death, a scourge on Noelle's life, etc, but i just. never in a million years imagined their depression being reinforced by a trusted family friend going "no yeah you're correct. it is all your fault." like what the fuck

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CLASS PHOTOS

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I think there is a certain Tragedy that Gerson was the exact teacher Susie needed most when she arrived in town, but just had to pass away before they could meet.

Throughout the chapter, Gerson is shown to see Susie for who she is and, most importantly, fully accept her for it. While Toriel and Rudy do act respectfully and nice to Susie, there is a degree in which Toriel's opinion of her is painted by Alphys (Toriel knows from Alphys that Susie has a bad rap and her dialogue with Kris at the end of Chapter 2, when Susie is off-screen, suggest she doesn't fully trust susie as a result). Meanwhile, as nice as Rudy is, the same problem with Noelle applies here, he is extremely limited how supportive he can be when he is trapped in a hospital bed.

Not Gerson. He isn't just respectful of Susie, he is encouraging of her He joins her and helps her. He laughs with her. He endorses her brand of antics and comments he finds kids who are not afraid of causing chaos and trouble more agreeable than "nice kids" who always seem to do as they are told.

And if he had not passed away, as Alvin says, he would have been Kris' and Susie's teacher.