#deltarune corrupted route

[utdr-fractured]

G R E E T I N G S : )

This is the blog for the UTDR Fractured AU.

Keep Reading For More Info

In this pinned post you with find the links to the released pages, FAQ's, and rules for asks. This post will be updated regularly to keep things organized.

SUMMARY

During one of their visits to the Dark World, Kris and Susie find that two humans had mysteriously appeared from seemingly nowhere. Unsure of what else to do, Kris beings them back to Hometown to figure out who they are, where they came from, and more importantly, why they were covered in dust. With nowhere else to go, the two are essentially adopted into the Dreemurr family until they can figure out how to get back home.

MASTERPOST

Prologue

Page 1 - 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

Page 7

Page 8

Page 9

Page 10

Page 11

RELATED TAGS

Looking for something specific within this blog? Here's a list of tags that could help you narrow things down.

#Consequences: Posts that have/will directly impact the comic in one way or another

#Influences: Posts that have/will influence one or more of the characters in the comic. This could be influencing a character's actions or their psyche.

#Mod Answers: Answers that I personally answer

#KFC Answers: Answers that any of the KFC gang answers (These are illustrated answers)

#Utdr Fractured: Uploaded pages for the Fractured comic.

ABOUT THE MOD (COMING SOON)

Figured for anyone who is interested to know more about the person creating the comic, I'll give a little bit of info!

FAQ'S AND CLARIFICATIONS

When does the comic upload?

Ideally, every Friday …. But you know… Life can get in the way sometimes!

When does Fractured take place?

The beginning of this comic begins after the events of Deltarune chapter 3, and eventually branches off into it's own route.

How does controlling the KFC gang work?

At the beginning of this AU, Kris is controlled by one player while Frisk and Chara are controlled by another. The connection to these two players are eventually lost/corrupted leaving the three open to any and all players (you, the readers) to take control or influence their actions. The words you comment on posts, the questions you ask, and the answers you give in polls can impact what happens in the story. Not everything will have an influence but it will always have a chance to. Occasionally, players will be in control of the actions of characters for a limited amount of time. How this works is certain pages will be captioned with who you are controlling and instructions you need to follow. Players will submit what they would like said character to do through asks and I will pick a handful that will occur until they are disconnected from you (I do tend to get quite a bit of submissions so I will not be able to use all of them, please understand that).

How will you know what has influenced the story?

I will respond directly stating that it will have an impact. Most of the time I will state how it will influence the story, however, I do want to keep some things secret occasionally.

How do the players communicate to Kris, Frisk and Chara?

Players are able to communicate to them primarily through any screen such as a tv, computer, phone, ect. On occasion they can communicate to them via ominous voices inside their heads. Otherwise, players can not directly interact with their world and will not have a physical appearance. I should also add that only the KFC gang and V are able to see or hear the players' messages. No one else is able to.

RULES FOR ASKS & INFLUENCING THE STORY

In this AU, Frisk and Chara are 12 while Kris is 17. THEY ARE ALL NONBINARY so anything inappropriate, rude, or offensive will be deleted immediately.

I’m trying to stay as canon as possible, however, if your ask includes fangames or other AU’s (ex: Undertale Red and Yellow) I will try to work it into the story if I can. I’m not very knowledgeable about other AU’s but I’m willing to at least try.

Considering that I’m basically running both an ask blog and uploading a comic, I may not be able to answer right away. Please be patient with me, I’m doing my best over here…

RFERENCE SHEETS (WIP)

[spam-monster]

Theory: The Plot of Deltarune is ANIME IS REAL

...okay it's more like about escapism and stuff but there's definitely some Evangelion-ass bs going on in here

"Abusive controlling parent manipulates a bunch of kids and their relationships in order to bring about end of the world in a way that will allow them to remain with their loved ones for eternity instead of fighting for free will and accepting the cycle of life and death and moving on"

Analysis/Theorycrafting longpost under the cut:

Part 1: Religious Cult being led by Carol trying to bring about the Roaring and the Angel's Heaven

Carol has learned part of the prophecy, and is trying to take control of the implementation of it by manipulating and controlling key figures within it: The Knight, The Angel, and one of the Heroes.

The Knight is Dess, corrupted by something in the shelter into becoming a dark twisted version of herself. The real Dess was implied to be rebellious and into a bunch of stuff their religious mother probably wouldn't have tolerated (punk, heavy metal, horror, etc). The Knight is twisted into an obedient servant who only works to further the cult's goals.

The Angel is Noelle, who has been groomed into a timid shell who is bad at saying no to authority figures and people she trusts. She is forced to act "pure" and suppress her own personality around others. In Undertale, the Angel was the one who would either save the world or doom it - the fact that Carol seems to encourage your manipulation and corruption of her daughter on the Weird Route (even against Kris's wishes) makes it seem like she wants Noelle to become a mindless killing machine who will destroy everyone without question or mercy.

Carol has also forced Kris into helping her create fountains somehow, even against the wishes of the other heroes, even though it involves painful manipulation of the SOUL that's been forced into their body. What has she promised Kris in return? Freedom? Fixing their parent's marriage? December and Noelle's safety?

Other members of the cult/those assisting her:

Father Alvin - As the center of religion in the town, he could easily be manipulated into helping bring about "Heaven" for the greater good. it's shown he has a low opinion of himself - perhaps Gerson's letter to him (as relayed by Susie) is not only encouraging him to write again, but to defy the prophecy and choose to do the right thing over mindless obedience?

Asgore - It's implied that he had something to do with Dess' disappearance, and whatever it was lost him his job and family and the respect of the town. And yet Carol has been supporting him and hiring him to take care of her house. Maybe he's being used as a scapegoat? He seems to think that there's something more going on, and is convinced that figuring it out will lead to everything going back to the way it was...but he's too trusting of Carol to question her involvement, and could also be being influenced by the dark shard he's been given.

The Voice - The same person who manipulated Jevil and Spamton and Tenna. Presumed to be Gaster but I'm just calling them Voice for now. Someone who is pulling the strings behind the scenes...even Carol's.

Part 2: The Corrupting Voice and The Angel's Heaven, and why the cult would want to bring it about

We know from Ralsei that the Roaring will destroy both the Dark and Light worlds. But many of the Dark World bosses were led to believe that the Dark Fountains would be good, or were worth the risks - King, Queen, Tenna, Spamton. Or like Jevil, they were driven mad to the point that they didn't care.

What if the Cult/Carol is being manipulated in the same way? What if they were led to believe that the Roaring would lead to Heaven, and Heaven would be a paradise?

We know now that the Dark World can, under certain circumstances when the Fountains are created by certain people, "resurrect" the dead monsters if their ashes are within the zone. We know that Rudy is dying, Dess is corrupted...what if Carol has been led to believe that The Angel's Heaven is your own personal Dark World where everything is as you want it forever?

Carol could keep her husband even after his passing and regain her daughter.

Asgore and Kris could live in a world where the Dreemur's marriage didn't fall apart and everyone is back together.

Even Susie could have a world of her own where her Darkener friends could hang out in the real world with her and she'd be a cool hero.

Nothing would have to change...Darkeners could be real, Lighteners would never lose anyone again...

But of course, it's a lie.

The Voice just wants destruction.

Part 3: What Happened, and What's Going to Happen

What happened to Dess?

She went into the Shelter, and came back wrong. Asgore fumbled her "rescue" somehow by:

Choosing to protect someone else over saving her.

Attacking her/keeping others away after she became violent.

Forcing everyone to close the Shelter instead of going in to look for her because of the dangers.

(In Undertale, Toriel left Asgore because he chose his kingdom over the lives of children. Thematically, it would make sense that he chose something else over saving Dess, and that's why he's disgraced.)

It's also possible that Rudy's illness could be something he contracted while searching the Shelter for Dess, and that's another reason Asgore forced them to stop.

Who corrupted her?

A. Her mother, who wanted to make her more obedient so she'd agree to become the Knight and help her bring Heaven.

B. The Voice, who then made a grieving Carol believe that she could get her daughter back and save her husband by helping them bring about Heaven.

I think B is more likely - Toby is good at making most of the antagonists have depth, so it makes more sense that Carol is doing horrible things because she believes it will fix her family and not For The Evils.

What will happen:

Weird Route - We manipulate Noelle into killing everyone in both worlds and get Bad End, and Gaster mocks us.

Normal Route: The prophecy plays out and the worlds are saved at a great cost.

Good Route - Susie is tempted by the promise of the Angel's Heaven and being able to escape her problems instead of dealing with the end of the Prophecy, but eventually she and us and Kris and Ralsei and Noelle and everyone band together to defy fate and save everyone, even if it means things change and there will still be loss.

(Practically, Carol wants Noelle x Soul/Kris because it makes her easier to manipulate for the prophecy, and is opposed to Noelle x Susie because Susie is the wildcard that could break free from the prophecy and change everything. Thematically, Christian Mom Does Not Approve Of The Lesbians.)

There's obviously a lot more stuff happening, like why do this? Who are we? What does the prophecy say will happen? Is Sans dating our mom or did he know shit was gonna go down at church and kept her away as a distraction so the Knight couldn't get to her?

But that was a hecking lot of theory for now. So later.

[obstinaterixatrix]

the more I think about it, the more attached I am to the idea that asriel is either in hometown or is somehow otherwise involved in what's happening

would be narratively tastier; if he's uninvolved he'd just be another guy who doesn't know what's going on with kris, which is like, 99% of the cast, so him coming back to be Just Another Guy That Knows Fuck-All doesn't leave a lot of room for impact (aside from like dramatic self-sacrifice or something)

his role in undertale. lol.

but even stepping away from technically-not-canon-to-deltarune iterations of asriel, this dialogue always stuck out to me:

first of all, characterization-wise, he's being set up as a guy who can be Pretty Neurotic about guilt; I do not think he'd have an easy time dealing with a tragedy that resulted in the disappearance of a friend (and/or romantic interest?) PLUS the dissolution of the dreemurr-holiday coalition PLUS the divorce of his parents, it just sounds like a recipe for doing something drastic

second of all, parallels-wise, in the sparse asriel anecdotes we get, here's one that involves him knowing about kris' "sin" (does not exist in their religion) and trying to take responsibility in some way

I think I'm with everyone about the roaring knight being dess (the antlers, the bat) so it's not possible that asriel is *the* roaring knight.

but also:

the roaring knight is introduced right before we meet a character that is kind of technically dead but not the actual guy who was dead sort of

since gerson('s darkner iteration created from his funerary object) cannot exist in the light world, it'd make sense if the same applied to dess('s ??? iteration created from ???), especially since we never actually see the knight when we leave tv time (susie just chases someone she thinks is the knight)

it's pretty clear that kris knows something about the knight based on how determined they are not to let the player direct them to imagine it

phones can't be used in dark worlds; whoever's calling kris is in the light world

so, the roaring knight is probably not making those calls (or at least, not alone). I see people speculating on carol being involved, and she probably is, but she's not the voice on the phone talking to kris -- we see her call kris and talk to them in very normal text boxes at the end of chapter 4 weird route. asgore is definitely up to some shady misguided shenanigans, but I really don't think he'd (knowingly) involve kris. suspiciously absent asriel, on the other hand, would be a pretty fun choice. as for the weird phone text boxes/sfxs... it'd be pretty funny if he was possessed by the roaring knight (dess? a corrupted version of dess? an entity related to dess?) like how kris is possessed by the soul (More Parallels) but I don't have anything to support that other than vibes alone.

[maplethedarkshine]

I know my normal content isn’t about deltarune, but I’ve already had this EXACT dream twice and I need to get it out of my chest or else I’ll go insane

It’s chapter 3, the fun gang is on a casino area, have you ever played omori? It’s like that casino area, but bigger, green, and also it’s a prison because Tenna has you captured, so a colorful prison of gambling. The door is closed unless you have enough money, but it’s like, an impossible amount, and everyone, Sussie, Kris and Ralsei, get separated by Tenna in different parts of the casino, and everyone gets the money on their way. To continue normally you gotta gamble, and the slot machines there are rigged so you eventually do get the money.

But in the dream I didn’t do that, instead I just interacted with absolutely everyone else out of curiosity, and for some reason every time I did the game decided to violently steal the money. There’s no animation, just the narration test like “There’s a purse here, you want money?” “You snatched the purse, stole the money and tossed it to the floor, you go $20” and every time you select “yes” the description of stealing the money became more and more violent, I mean like to the point of triggering npc battles for the money (this is a battle free area).

And if you interact with everything you’ll get the money you need, but instead I interacted with everything again and again and again for someone reason, getting more and more money, the game kept pestering me about already having enough but for whenever reason I continued.

If you continue doing that you eventually get money than you need, like, a sickening amount of money, if I remember right it was just a bunch of 6. When you do, you get the weird route dingle, you know the one, and then you’ll have nothing else to do there, if you interact with anything it’ll just say “useless”, so you’ll proceed.

So, you get reunited. Ralsei congratulates you for getting so much money, but like, with an awkward smile, like if he knew something we don’t, and the fun gang gets reunited again. But when you open the door Tenna intercepts you and scolds Kris for making such a chaos on his poor casino, he goes “Boys! Get ‘em” and the fun gang gets surrounded by enemies, like the transition to the castle in chapter 1.

The screen goes black and kris is alone in a blue hallway with a save point that goes to the right. Idk what was there, probably the normal route. Because I went left, for some reason. It was a dead end but I continued and walked out of bounds for like about a minute.

Then you get transported to another area. There’s the egg room music but no egg man. It’s a gray labyrinth of Catacombs, and the echo of Kris’ steps is louder than the music. Anyways, you find your way, and between the door of the exit there’s… Berdly? For someone reason? And then he says like.

“Hey Kris”

“Did you that freezing your milk helps it to not spoil?”

“In a way it’s almost like”

“Freezing it it’s making it last forever”

“…”

“I’m joking”

“You haven’t done anything good here”

“You know what you did”

Then he goes through the door.

You go to the door too, but Berdly isn’t there anymore, it’s just a big ass hall where you can run. So you walk and walk and walk. You get in the background distant sound of Ralsei and Sussie talking, like what happened with Lancer in chapter one. Every once in a while you’ll get talking boxes. The sprites are correct, but the text isn’t. Either it’s empty dialogue boxes, half the letters are missing, or the text it’s corrupted. That goes on for a minute, then you get a Ralsei box dialogue. The music cuts up suddenly. His talking sprite is normal, he’s even smiling, but he doesn’t have a voice sound, and the font used it’s distorted, but still understandable.

“WHAT ‘ONE ENDING’?”

You get to the end of the hall, and as soon as you open a door… Something spawns behind you and you need to run. Have you ever played Omori? It’s like the cat chase sequence but harder. The creature it’s a black and white big thing, I would call it Gaster, it’s probably meant to be him, but distorted beyond recognition. You run through a labyrinth and you can’t almost see shit. The sound is loud as fuck, I’m calling it sound because music it wasn’t. I don’t know how to describe it, it’s like the echo of distant screaming and wet sound of meat.

So anyways, every time the creature got to me there was this loud, incoherent, glitchy sound, and the screen went to black. It was a game over, but instead of getting the game over screen you just got placed back to the last checkpoint, the one before the Catacombs, remember? On the blue hallway, and well, I had to do it again. And again and again and again.

It wasn’t a softlock, it pretty much was possible to win, I just have a skill issue even in my dreams, so I eventually ragequitted and that’s when I woke up

And that I’ve already dreamed of TWICE so I need to make it public because I do NOT want that fuck ass dream again

[shesprettymeh]

The Prophecy's End

**Spoilers for Chapters 3 and 4 of Deltarune**

In the end of chapter 4 after establishing the prophecy as both highly specific and all but guaranteed, Susie learns how the prophecy ends and responds by breaking the glass it was on. Ralsei then has a breakdown, apologizing to her to which she responds by telling him that they are not going to let it happen.

So what is it?

My first immediate thought while playing the game was that they all died. The final tragedy is the heroes all sacrifice themselves for the greater good or something like that. However, after further reflection, I doubt that to be the case. Ralsei, especially in the first chapter, would have been more then willing to throw himself into a pit for the prophecy. Susie's reaction does not seem to line up with that idea either, with lines like "Like something like that would happen" implying that if this prophecy should come to pass they would not get much choice in the matter.

After thinking about it for a bit, I'm almost positive it is about Noelle. First, the prophecy goes at great lengths to mention that Susie falls in love of some form and we can safely assume this is about Noelle. Now this is Susie's darkworld so it's possible that the reason that image is shown a lot is because Susie is thinking about it. It is also possible that the reference to Susie's love is as important as the reference to Lancer calling Ralsei "Toothpaste Boy". That is to say, not at all. However, that being said, Noelle has importance beyond being Susie's love interest in the form of the weird route. With Chapter 4 it is clear that the weird route is not about corrupting and manipulating various characters but rather Noelle specifically. If the weird route is a way to escape the prophecy and get a different ending, the fact that it focuses on Noelle is notable. Especially since the idea is her getting stronger, perhaps strong enough to circumvent her own death.

Beyond this, if the Knight is Dess or Carol, as many have theorized, the idea that it would take Noelle's death to stop them is not far fetched. It would also bring a certain layer of irony if you believe the theory that Carol is doing this in an attempt to bring Dess back, she would lose one daughter in return for the other.

There is one part where Susie asks Ralsei what he knows about Noelle and he only mentions what armors she can equip. His portrait does not indicate any worry or concern surrounding the topic, so maybe it's not about her. Of course, maybe that's why he is apologizing so much after Susie finds out, because he knows he lied.

Granted, we will not know for 100% until we hear it from the game itself. I just thought it was some fun food for thought.

[thewhitefluffyhat]

Have you played the new deltarune chapters? I have lots of thoughts on them.

Hahaha what an excellent and timely question! No, I have not had a chance to play the new deltarune chapters yet. …But my curiosity got the better of me and I've been reading a bunch of theorizing this week anyway. 😂

So yes I would LOVE (wait, uhhh maybe I should use a different word there) REALLY LIKE to hear your thoughts!

My own rambling impressions (spoilers for all of Chapters 3&4, including the Weird Route):

.

Deltarune has always been an intriguingly odd blend of genres.

As presented in Chapters 1 and 2, the Dark World plot is a very classic portal fantasy story. We have our group of misfit teens who get whisked away to a magical land where they are the Chosen One(s) and must to Save the World from some nebulous Evil Thing according to a Prophesy.

Indeed, we've known for a while that the Darkeners are everyday objects such as toys that are brought to life - thematically tied to escapism and play. It's the kind of story set up where you expect the protagonists to go on an adventure, learn some big lessons about themselves, and then they say goodbye to their fantasy friends and return to the "real world" as better and more mature people for the experience.

Naturally, adults can't and shouldn't know about the other world, because this is fundamentally a Coming of Age story centered on kids.

…So what initially shocked me most about the events of Chapters 3&4 is how much that portal fantasy is already breaking down and bleeding into the normal setting. Adults are being abducted. The Prophesy is not just known but tied to religion in the town. Asgore has a Black Shard and looks about to create the next Fountain. What the HECK is going on with Carol and why does she know about the Red SOUL??

(But of course, there will still be a festival arc! Can't miss that, hehe.)

Which brings me to the other genre Deltarune draws from: the small town mystery with a disappeared child and a surreal secret. The way that Dess haunts the narrative (especially the Snowgrave/Weird Route) has always had strong Life is Strange/Night in the Woods/Omori/Beacon Pines vibes but I get even more of that impression now.

So what happens when these genres collide?

Omori in particular has a lot in common with Deltarune, including having an otherworld themed around escapism and taking part in a fun heroic quest. [Implied spoilers for Omori for rest of paragraph] Also, the more we see of Kris's true personality (and I'm fascinated and endeared by the new flashes we see in 3&4), the more it seems like they're a quirky but well-meaning goofball. I could very easily see the mystery at the heart of Deltarune's backstory ultimately being similar to the mystery of Mari. Perhaps one of Kris's pranks accidentally went very wrong and got Dess killed/corrupted, and they drifted apart from Noelle for the same reason Omori can't bear to be around Basil.

(But would such a story - two kids getting in over their heads, and the trauma of that reverberating to the present - be too predictably similar to Undertale?)

I'm unsure how the Bunker fits into this puzzle, because that seems the nexus of where the genres break down the most. My current theories are all wacky stuff like: "Inside the bunker is something akin to the True Lab, where Carol (and/or Gaster??) were experimenting with SOULs but the Red SOUL got accidentally put into Kris instead of its intended vessel when they wandered in. Also somehow Dess was involved (and maybe some part of her became the Roaring Knight after being infused with Kris's original SOUL?). The fallout from this shattered the Dreamurr family and Asgore is still trying to figure out what happened."

But that doesn't explain the Dark World and what's going on with the Prophesy. It also feels a little too abruptly and incongruously sci-fi… though perhaps I shouldn't discount that given how fundamental EarthBound is to this genre soup.

What else…

So far, I don't think anything in the new chapters has contradicted my big theory post from Chapter 2! Heck yeah! If anything, a lot of 3&4 confirm pieces of it, removing any doubt that Kris's actual personality isn't malicious, and that they do care for their friends.

I think the one major aspect I'm more certain of now is what the Red SOUL wants from Noelle on the Weird Route. Given the way the SOUL can read her thoughts, some of the strangeness with missing dialog/rain after That Scene in Chapter 4, and maybe even some things people have found digging into the code… I'm on board with the theory that she's being turned into a second vessel. (Hence Kris's horror at everything, given how much they hate being a vessel themselves!)

The Red SOUL wants out of its cage, and into a stronger and more cooperative body.

And yet I still come back to the same question I was circling at the end of those Chapter 2 thoughts. Why does the Red SOUL want this? Is it trying to break free from the Prophesy? To adhere to the letter of it, but subvert the spirit? ("Love will find its way to the girl", huh…) Or is it trying to enforce the Prophesy, when in the normal route we will find a way to go against destiny?

(Or are its motives something else entirely? Like Undertale, Deltarune is in many ways a ghost story…and what does Dess want? Or Gaster, for that matter?)

Gah, I haven't even played 3&4 yet, and I'm already desperate for Chapter 5! :D

[maripr]

I do have a theory about deltarune that's not as smart as other people's theories, so don't really look too much into it

Also I'm not trolling

My theory is that Kris is Chara. Not as in haha Kris is evil and is gonna destroy the universe.

But that Kris is the actual human who fell down and we named in Undertale. They seem to be a troubled kid, with both good and bad qualities. I think Chara is the "true name" in the sense that it's a placeholder name for the PLAYER

So in Undertale the player and the fallen human end up having the same will to destroy everything just to see what happens in the genocide route, overwriting frisk's personality. But Chara introduces themselves as the demon that comes when people call its name.

Meaning literally when the player inputs the name. That's why Chara is the "true name". At the end of the day, it's the player who's to blame. Chara confronting us at the end of the genocide route is kinda like the game turning on us, like "this is what you wanted after all"

The character we name in Undertale has a backstory and gets corrupted into a demon by us in the genocide route, while possibly just being a narrator in the pacifist.

I simply think Chara is not a real name lmao.

The difference between Undertale and deltarune is that the fallen human is long dead in UT and the barrier between them and the player is thinner. In deltarune they're still very much alive and resisting our control.

Basically this is my theory: Chara is the True name of a completionist player. Kris was the true name of the human being who fell down and died in Undertale, but survived and grew up in deltarune, albeit with a difficult upbringing.

This also makes me wonder if Frisk exists in the deltarune universe and if we're gonna meet them

[allinory]

So my arguments why the Knight is Carol rather than Dess:

Dess is in the fucking code, she's not even in the world of Deltarune

ONLY Carol has such sharp antlers amongst the Holidays. They even showed Dess in childhood and it's visible hers are round like Noelle's and Rudy's, while Carol's are sharp

Carol literally is in cahoots with Kris on helping the Knight cause (weird route ending confirms it's her calling)

Adding on to the previous point, whereas the Knight fucking SLICES through Susie and Ralsei at the end of the battle, with Kris they just.. gently push them to sit on the ground? As if they know Kris will comply and there's no need to strike them

The repeated enunciation that she brings in the cold with her... Susie said that temperature dropped when she arrived, the "ice" on Kris's shoulder, and what do we see during the fight with the knight?

The northern and eastern winds are COLD. It's cold in this area just in general, but she brings in cold with her with winds

She is one of the people who knows the code to the bunker. And she keeps it inside the guitar because she knows nobody would touch Dess's stuff (the room looks like it was untouched since the disappearance). Like, Dess knowing the code and keeping it a secret like that wouldn't make any sense, but the mayor very much does

Carol has THE motive to be knowledgeable about and opening dark worlds. We know now it can bring dead people back to 'life' (in a way) and who would want to bring someone back to life more than a mother of a child who went missing and is, let's be realistic, dead? But the thing is, she doesn't have Dess's dust, there's nothing to pull her image out of, so perhaps in realization she can't do it, she went a little bit insane from grief....

Finally, why would Dess be... evil? Like, the Knight isn't just some mindless creature, they have sentience, they have a plan. I don't buy that something happened that corrupted her and now she's suddenly evil™ and also fucked up and twisted. No, when we read her hidden lines in the code, she just sounds like a normal kid lost in a scary and unknown place. Only her mother I can picture being ruthless and violent like that. I mean, hello, even in normal life she's clearly (at least psychologically) abusive to Noelle, what can you expect when she enters the world where everything is supposed to be tailored to the lightner's needs?

Bonus point: apparently Carol owns a katana for some reason?? O_o like okay, she even has an experience with swords, can explain how she's so good with them in the dark world 👍

[extensionallydefined]

Okay, so I've finished my first playthrough of both of the new chapters of Deltarune, and boy do I have thoughts! I just want to put down first impressions/theories (more directed at understanding ch3/4 thematically than predicting 5/6/7). So of course major spoilers ahead, be very careful with this post!

Alright, so, for context, I obtained both eggs and both shadowcrystals, and I also got the shadowmantle. So you can imagine more or less how I engaged with these chapters. I have not yet played them in Weird Route.

So, thoughts!

- I love Tenna and Gerson. Wonderful new characters added to the cast.

- I adore that Toby gave my boy Rouxls more stuff to do. And he's a bisexual poly king! Go Rouxls! That whole part of Chapter 3 was delightfully hilarious. I also quite enjoyed Elinina and Lanino, on that note.

- Ramb is very Spamton/Jevil coded. He's very shadowcrystal boss/freedom coded. I feel like his role in ch3 is analogous to that of the other secret bosses, but it makes sense that he isn't a fight. I feel like narratively he also serves a role, weirdly enough, related to Ralsei? They both seem to be extremely selflesss darkners with the purpose of aiding Kris. For Ramb, it's to give Kris the games they want, and "freedom". For Ralsei, it's preventing physical and psychological pain for the heroes. It makes me think in what other ways Ramb and Ralsei could parallel each other, if there are any (one comes to mind - Ralsei becoming a pushable block in the videogame sections/Ramb asking Kris to push him out of the way).

- What was up with the curtains in the S Rank Room? Who could've been behind them? They give Kris a sword and check if he's hurt, they ask if they can dream... It's very strange. I feel like someone else can dissect that more effectively. I also find Mike as a whole quite confusing, even with the new information we're given lol.

- Friend Inside Me was not real. My last minute investment did not pay off. Oh well. It was still a funny theory.

- One of the craziest things about these chapters to me still has to be the fact that freaking image_friend shows up on endogeny's body of all things during Ralsei's beginning speech in ch3. Like, huh????? Endogeny and image friend??? There's an implication there of friend having to do with dark stuff, probably? It also shows up in Queen's basement and on the cats that Eram/Shadowmantle uses against you.

- On that note, I'm very curious about the thematic importance of the yellow/pink color scheme. It shows up on the oddcontroller, in Spamton's eyes, in Mike/cat's eyes (although I doubt that's important), it also shows up on the loading screens for the game boards... it seems to be some sort of freedom/corruption color scheme?

- On the topic of the oddcontroller, could it be the controller under Asriel's bed?

- Is the Kris that leaves the videogame being controlled by Eram/Shadowmantle? That kind of seems like the implication to me, since it says that it has work to do. It's a very cryptic character. But I feel like little videogame Kris might come back to haunt us players who got the mantle - kind of like how people have been theorizing for years about the discarded vessel.

- Chapter 3 is a wild ride. It feels like a constant mix of "haha happy go lucky games!" and "hey remember this lore thing you've been theorizing about for 4-7 years?". And the cherry on top is the Knight reveal. I think I prefer Chapter 4 overall, but comparing them is kinda lame. I do love the whole aesthetic and sountrack of Ch4 though, and it's so JUICY in lore implications. The whole section in the Holiday Estate must be studied.

- The Knight looks like a Holiday. My current thoughts are it might be Dess/created by Dess/created by Kris during the events of Dess' disappearance. It's definitely connected to the Holidays in some sense, that's for sure, and to Kris too - after you fight it and survive, it very clearly "knights" Kris instead of attacking them.

- The theme for the shadowmantle boss is called "BURNING EYES". Based on its post-fight dialogue and on the whole videogame theme, I feel like it might be referencing when you play videogames for so long/so locked in that your eyes burn. It could be just another case of Deltarune directly referencing getting "sucked into a fictional world", a videogame in this case.

- I find it interesting that when playing the shadowmantle videogame, Kris tries to run away from the bunker/shelter rather than try to go towards it. Basically, they don't want to go there in the game. Originally I chalked this up to Kris having some sort of trauma regarding the bunker, but after playing Chapter 4, could it be moreso that they don't want us to see what's inside the bunker?

- The Titan's battle theme is called GUARDIAN, and its pre-fight sprite resembles an uncanny human head. Slight photoshop Flowey vibes. What could it all mean? Well, Ralsei says Titans are fear-of-the-dark. Coupling that with his early chapter 3 speech... If Dark Worlds are what happens when you take away the light that isn't there, letting the imagination run wild and see things beyond light, then creating a dark fountain out of that makes sense as somwthing that would invoke terror. A Titan being an intense fear of the dark makes sense.

- However, the Titan's angelic and humanoid appearance is a bit confusing. In the prophecy excerpts during ch4, it seemed like the angel *wants* to be banished. Could the angel have something to do with the Titans? Is the angel a Titan? Is it the boss Titan? If the Titans represent fear of the dark, maybe the only way to defeat them is with bravery, like how Susie and Kris defeat the Titan. Then maybe banishing the angel might entail some sort of sacrifice? Maybe this is what Susie saw in the prophecy that Ralsei wanted to hide. But what is a Titan a Guardian of? The darkness? The angel?

- Speaking of that, I also thought it might have to do with Noelle. Weird Route might give me answers there, unsure. Maybe it involves fighting Noelle, or sacrificing her? "SHE WAS USED UP"

- Gerson's dialogue about rewriting stories/changing them as iterations go on is soooo interesting. On one hand, I feel like it goes directly against the supposed idea that "there is only one ending". With Ralsei himself saying that he can't bear there only being one ending, I feel like this idea was something Toby intentionally planted as part of the story, and not unbiased dev commentary on the game. Also, it further brings out the parallels between Dragon Blazers and Deltarune, connecting them to the prophecy and to Lord of the Hammer. It makes me wonder whether this will connect to Deltarune and Undertale's relationship - Is Undertale another iteration of Deltarune's legend, one written countless times after the original? Is it the other way around? I can't wait to see what Toby pulls off there. I trust him as a writer to make the metatextual part of the game make sense and be awesome.

- "The place where it rained" hit me like a truck. Chills. Does this mean we've been mistaken about Sans' name? Is he truly Sans Deltarune and not Sans Undertale? I don't have a concrete answer, but I'm soooo curious.

- I feel like the way that Gerson as a darkner works kind of refutes the idea that Ralsei could be made from Asriel's dust, because whilst it does show that a darkner made from dust and an item is entirely possible, the mechanics seem to go against the idea. "A very specific will" creates a dust darkner according to Ralsei, and Ralsei is not straight up Asriel, he has different memories and a different life. By all means, the knowledge that Ralsei has, which seems incredibly vast and sometimes perhaps beyond his own comprehension, is not knowledge Asriel would reasonably have. Their connection must come from elsewhere. Ralsei's chapter 3 dialogue about his face also makes me sus - perhaps he only adopted that face to make himself palatable to Kris? Maybe he didn't have that face until he took off the hat.

- What the hell is going on with Tenna/Kris/Knight? Game-world Tenna seems to have made a deal with Kris, whilst regular darkner Tenna seems to have made a deal with the Knight. Does Kris Knight still have hope? I'm very curious about this all. It seems the Knight wanted Tenna to keep the Heroes occupied, and Kris also wanted something from Tenna. This might imply a connection between Kris and the Knight.

- Tenna and Spamton's connection is also a bit confusing to me still and I feel like we don't yet have the full scope of Spamton's fucked-up-ness. Tenna and Spamton's falling out seems to be more focused on their interpersonal drama which stems also from Spamton's metaphysical issues but isn't directly affected by them. We can also see that Tenna straight up does not recognize Spamton in the Dealmaker Bonus Room scene. Spamton might've actually changed and shrunk since he was in Ch3. Tenna also mentions that "they never should've took that laptop home", which coupled with Ramb's dialogue kind of leads us to think that Spamton and Tenna's meeting happened when Kris and presumably Dess took Queen and King home and all the darkners interacted. Does that mean Spamton's "corruption" happened during that time too, before Queen returned to the library? I feel like there's a lot to speculate about there. After all, King always says the lightners left him behind. Perhaps he misses the days of Kris and December playing with him, and that's the "being forgotten" that he references.

- The videogame Tenna edits is just Dragon Blazers, right? Then why does the title screen appear to say Manhole? Is it yet another iteration of Dragon Blazers, like Gerson said?

- Susie and Gerson's dynamic is actually goated. One of the best parts of the entire game. I also quite liked Gerson's fight mechanically and narratively - I'd say it was peak ludonarrative consonance.

- I also quite liked the Knight fight, although some attacks maybe could've used some more refining. I'd say the Gerson fight overall feels a bit better, although I understand that the Knight fight is meant to be very very tough. I'm sad that the Knight is a shadowcrystal boss that doesn't use the freedom motif, but it's fine... I just really like that melody. And I do dig the idea of getting past a loss that seems scripted. Gaster sort of breaks the fourth wall in a new sense with encouraging you to go against a seemingly scripted failure.

- Speaking of the Knight, its BlackShard seems to do quite a lot of damage to the Titan - Kris did basically as much damage with it as Susie did with Rude Buster, in the final Titan fight. This leads me to believe that BlackShard's SlayDark ability applies against the Titan. Nothing revolutionary, sure, but it makes you wonder about the Knight's relationship with the Titans, if it holds a weapon that can heavily harm them. BlackShard also doesn't seem to do extra damage to the Titan's *shield*, so perhaps the winged angel-like shield is actually light element wise? More fuel to the weird angel-Titan connections.

- The Egg Man has gotten quite more interesting. He seems to be increasingly associated with liminal spaces, and his location in ch4 seems to even parallel/resemble/be a mental hospital? Frankly, that implication is one of the most unsettling things so far in the game. Is Man okay? Are they letting him be okay? Are they letting him not be okay?

- From what I know, obtaining the Eggs is also that one method of avoiding the chapter end achievement. I wonder what this means. Do the Eggs let you bypass some sort of normality principle? They're not too important... but not too unimportant.

- I feel like everyone was so certain that Jockington and Catti would show up in a dark world, and then they just... didn't, lmao. Seems to me like ch2 doesn't really establish a formula but rather very intentionally brings Noelle and Berdly specifically into the dark world.

- I do kinda hope we get to bring Berdly back into a dark world. He's fun.

- Dess seems extremely essential to everything going on. Not a surprise, but it feels earlier than I expected?

- Gaster (presumably him, pretty likely it is him) talking to you when you retry the Knight boss is hype as fuck, and really curious. It feels like one of those "defying fate" moments. I hope we get to use all our shadowcrystals on a non-weird route for something. Gaster also speaks at the very end, and title drops the game... very fun Mr. Fox.

- My favorite minigame was by far the rhythm game, not just because I'm very good at it, but the music and lyrics are very interesting. The lyrics seem to invoke Dess, but also our possession of Kris.

I think those are all my initial thoughts, at least right now. I hope they at least gave you avenues to think through! Feel free to leave your thoughts in a comment or reblog.

[ofthedragonflies]

rambles abt deltarune chapters 3 and 4

quick note that these are some things I have noticed although I may have missed some things or they could have potentially been brought up before 

ralsei talks about how darkeners can only really exist in their own dark worlds - has it ever been said why he can travel through multiple dark worlds?? also, based on this, if every darkener has an object-form in the light world, what could ralsei be?? due to him being able to travel through the dark worlds, could he be something belonging to kris/susie?? maybe something they carry around?? I have seen people speculate that it’s tied to his origins, but the dialogue in which he talks about darkeners and their object forms did make me think

this is probably a reach but I noticed in the knights attack during the battle they seem to use what looks to be gaster blasters which (in turn would make sense if the knight is corrupted by gaster) but also I looked at them side by side and they kinda looked like the hyper goner / chaos blasters (whatever they’re called) used in the asriel boss fight in undertale. I noticed the little horns and to me they kinda look like they are pointing down rather than up compared to that of the gaster blasters??? idk if that makes sense (please take these takes with a pinch of salt i rly was just in need of a ramble and I have a lot of thoughts)

this is not rly a question but it did make me think why susie’s dark world changed colours - even when kris made a dark world they kept the same colourings 

carol coming home in the weird/snowgrave route did make me think about why she would be home when kris didn’t tell her about the guitar, so we didn’t get the “I’ll be right there” dialogue, to be fair it could have been to do with the dialogue in the kitchen but just made me go hmmmmmm

anyways I just needed these out of my brain and to talk about it with someone pls pls pls if u have any theories or rambles feel free to message/comment I NEED to talk about this. I’ll be back to ramble some more probably

[spam-monster]

Random Assorted Deltarune Post Ch 3-4 Theories:

Our choices may not matter...but the choices of the other characters do, and our actions can influence them. We can choose to influence Noelle into choosing to blindly follow our instructions and become a killer in the Snowgrave Route, but we can also choose to spare and recruit all the Darkeners we can and encourage Susie and Ralsei (and maybe even eventually Kris) to choose to try and defy the prophecy.

"The ending will be the same" isn't as restricting as it seems; consider that in Undertale the True Pacifist and the Genocide routes both end with "no more monsters in the Underground" even though the circumstances surrounding how it happened is wildly different.

Jackenstein was meant to become the secret boss of the Church Dark World, and maybe the main antagonist of the chapter like King/Queen/Tenna was, but Gerson intercepted the dark shard and kept it away so that he wouldn't become corrupted. The important thing was that we ended up with the shard after a boss fight; Gerson just manipulated things so that he became the boss fight instead and as a result the world is a lot more peaceful.

Asgore is going to be the next Dark World boss/secret boss fight. He has the same motivations and themes as a lot of the other main bosses - a parental/caretaker figure who feels abandoned and is trying to recapture past happiness to make everything the way it was before.

Carol is trying to control those with ties to the prophecy to make sure it goes according to plan. Us choosing good routes over the Snowgrave routes and Susie getting involved at all are the biggest obstacles to her plans, because we're encouraging free will and doing the right thing over blind obedience.

Kris used to be a he/him before figuring out they were really a they/them, but Carol still thinks of them as a boy. Mostly because it fits with "Snowgrave route is toxic het relationship that religious mom approves of" versus "Normal route is cute lesbian relationship that mom does not like" allegory. (Not that Kris/Noelle can't exist in a non-toxic way, but that Snowgrave specifically is forcing Kris into a corrupting male role over submissive girl Noelle).

Carol also doesn't like that Dess used to be into punk rock stuff, and is forcing Noelle to suppress the part of her that likes horror stuff. Both girls would usually have similar tastes to Susie, which is another reason Carol wants her to stay away. Her family has an Image to Maintain.

Sans knows more than he lets on. It's possible he knows the Knight is after Toriel for some reason, and that they were going to make a Dark Fountain in the church to try and get her again, so he purposefully distracted Toriel from choir practice and hung out with her all night so she would be safe. He isn't aware however that we were looking for her all night or that Kris and Susie were gonna be so upset by the whole thing.

Knight!Dess is not dead, but not alive either - she's in the same "fallen down" state that the monsters who eventually became amalgamations were in the original Undertale, and Carol is trying to bring about the prophecy and Heaven to restore her daughter back to "normal" instead of accepting what she became. Part of the reason the Knight acts so erratically is mental stress because Carol locked her away from everyone else and is constantly rejecting her as her daughter.

Carol = "Ruthlessness is MERCY upon ourselves"

[shayminlucario07]

It's so interesting to me that the widely accepted theory for Deltarune is that it'll end up being Us, the player, vs. Kris in the end. I understand why this is the perspective a lot of people have- Kris doesn't rip their soul out for no reason, obviously, and based on everything we've seen, such as the Post Spamton-NEO dialogue choices, it very much seems like we have the ability to make Kris make choices they otherwise wouldn't- but it seems especially cynical to me to assume that means Kris is going to be against us, or even that there is an antagonistic relationship between Kris and the player at all.

From everything we've seen, such as Kris' room in the light world being almost completely barren, and Toriel's memory of Kris asking when their horns would grow in, it doesn't seem like Kris likes themselves that much- and with that perspective, and the knowledge via Catti that she and Kris used to try and summon demons together, I've always had the perspective that we exist within the narrative of Deltarune less as a malevolent outsider forcibly imposing our will on the world and more as a benevolent force, called on deliberately by Kris' own actions to help them reshape their life into something they like more.

I think people tend to get very caught up in thinking of UTDR as very inherently cynical stories, especially in their metanarratives, due to the Undertale Genocide route. But that isn't what these stories are- or rather, it's not what they're *supposed* to be. The Genocide route, and its Deltarune counterpart, the Weird/Snowgrave route, are *corruptions* of the existing story and world, caused not by the player's mere existence, but by the player's refusal to engage with the game the way it asks you to- for Genocide, you have to actively go out of your way, to great resistance, to hunt down and kill every single monster, despite the game telling you that showing mercy is the best option. And in Snowgrave, you have to actively push back against the existing narrative in very specific ways, using the more diverse combat system to circumvent the restrictions it has- rather than attacking enemies yourself to kill them, as that simply causes enemies to run away, you circumvent this by manipulating Noelle to freeze them all with Iceshock, preventing them from running away. Noelle DOES NOT do this deliberately based on everything we've seen, and it is very apparent from her dialogue (both internal and external) that it is unnatural to her and that we, the player, are making her do this. And in the Snowgrave route, it is very understandable that Kris would take an antagonistic stance towards us, given, well, Snowgrave, but it must be remembered that the Snowgrave/Weird route is paralleling the Genocide route, and how did that route end? With the demon that comes when you call its name ushering the world, and our influence upon it, into oblivion. That sounds to my ear awfully similar to how the Roaring has been described. Some people have theorized that perhaps the Weird route will be necessary to avoid the Roaring happening- but what if it's the opposite? That's a separate subject, though, and I'll leave it for later. Given all the very apparent parallels between Kris' design and Chara's, mirroring the parallels between Snowgrave and Genocide, it makes perfect sense that Kris would be antagonistic towards us at the Weird route's end- but in the normal route, what have we truly done to warrant antagonism from Kris?

It's very heavily implied, if not outright stated, that Kris' life before Chapter 1 is... not exactly good. Their parents are divorced, very messily, their brother is away at college, their friendship with Noelle has grown distant, and they've been unable to befriend Susie like they wanted to. But then, we show up, almost out of nowhere, and Kris is whisked away on a magical adventure, where they can be the special version of themselves they've always wanted to be. Sure, they can't use magic themselves in the Dark World, but they can ACT, which seems to be enough. And yes, we can make choices they don't necessarily agree with, like saying Kris is fine after Spamton NEO, but Kris also has Ralsei and Susie as a support network, who see through that lie- and many of us don't make that contrary choice at all. I know *I* didn't. And the crucial thing to remember- we aren't completely controlling Kris. Even when Kris HASN'T removed the Soul, they've acted independently of us. They block King's attack at Susie, they back away from Spamton NEO, and perhaps most importantly of all, is Ralsei- Ralsei, who on two separate occasions actively stops Kris from being observed by us, proving this is possible both without removing the Soul, AND for people other than Kris to do. Kris is not a slave to our will- they go along with us by choice, even when we make decisions they don't agree with. Because they DO have the power- the Determination- to resist us. But they don't. What does that tell us about Kris, and the greater narrative?

Circling back to the metanarrative point to conclude this excessively verbose post, what we need to remember moving forward is that Toby Fox is not a cynical writer- at least, not by nature. He expects you to engage with the narrative he constructs on its own terms, as any writer would, but he also wrote the Genocide route specifically to deconstruct how the refusal to do so will inherently ruin the story. As Sans says when he dunks on you, if you actually cared about being friends with him, you wouldn't be on the Genocide route. There's no reason Deltarune won't be the same. Undertale did not punish the player for playing the game, it critiqued the player for not engaging with its narrative. Our ability to Save and Load didn't make us evil- our influence being exerted on the world of Undertale wasn't inherently bad. Even when it comes to actions like killing Toriel at the end of the Ruins and reloading to spare her- this isn't evil. In fact, it is the opposite. Flowey attempts to make us think it is, but he's already been lost to the same apathetic lack of engagement that we are in the Genocide route. Our presence in Undertale is not inherently negative- without our part in that story, the monsters would never have been freed from the Underground. I have no reason to believe Deltarune will be any different.

TL;DR: Our influence over the story of Undertale was not inherently bad unless we misused it by refusing to engage with it on its terms. This led to the Genocide route. The Weird/Snowgrave route is a deliberate parallel to this. As such, there is no reason to assume our influence over Deltarune is inherently bad; it will only be bad if it is similarly misused. The same can be said about our relationship to Kris- it is not inherently antagonistic, and has no reason to be unless misused, such as in Snowgrave.

[eyesteeth]

there's an inherent discomfort to how deltarune presents its two 'obvious' romantic options and it ends up giving kris this aromantic vibe.

like, for the main route, we have ralsei. ralsei canonically looks so much like asriel that it’s mentioned at least twice. and you, the player, can choose to make kris lean into his affections. how do you think kris feels about this? do you think maybe they’d be uncomfortable with that? with ralsei’s feelings, and being made to reciprocate? at chapter one's conclusion, there were theories that ralsei was asriel. what if this turns out to be true? how will you respond to your hand in it?

or what about noelle in the weird route? you’ve corrupted a friendship for the sake of ‘love’. a 'love' that, much like undertale's, is built upon violence. you get your ring and your angels, the perfect image of a childhood sweetheart marriage. but does kris want to be ‘something else’ with her? even in a reality where there's not a horrible string of abuses tying them together? or do they just want to keep being her friend, playing laughed-off pranks on her?

why do you, as the player, feel drawn to these choices of romance? are you pursuing your own interests, what you find interesting? are you giving kris what you think they’d want? or are you going off a learned impression that love is the final reward, the ultimate treasure, without knowing if it’s what they desire?

undertale has one save slot, so resets are part of the game. you need to reset if you make a choice you don't like, and the world will find a way to respond to it. but deltarune has multiple, allowing for alternate universes. kris won't know if you make them flirt with the person who looks like their brother, or if you give noelle that pointed ring. you could do both, if you wanted, and still have room for one more world, where kris stays friends with everyone and romances no one.

perhaps that'd the one they'd like best.

[utdr-fractured]

To Mod: I feel like there should be some clarification in some places:

Are the players able to physically alter/manipulate the world in their asks or are they just words through Kris's phone?

What role did the players have before the events of this AU? Were they directly controlling Frisk/Kris before and lost that when the AU started? Or were the players' decisions commands that they had to follow?

Where in the Deltarune timeline is this set? What chapter is it before, after, or during?

Yes, thank you! I do plan on making a masterpost that include links to chapters and FAQ's/clarifications. When I do upload that is up in the air though but ideally by the end of the week haha...ha... maybe.

Anyway! To answer your questions:

Players are able to communicate to them primarily through any screen such as a tv, computer, phone, etc. On occasion they can communicate to them via ominous voice inside their heads. Otherwise, players can not directly interact with their world and will not have a physical appearance. I should also add that only the KFC gang are able to see or hear the players messages. No one else is able to.

Before this AU multiple players had controlled them merely for the fun of it. They made all the decisions and the three had to go along with them like puppet on strings. However, only one person could control them per timeline. For example, one player could control Frisk (and Chara) for the pacifist route. After the pacifist route, another player resets and would take control to do a genocide, and the cycle repeats. The same happened with Kris but not to the same amount of times. Frisk and Chara went through countless resets while Kris only went through a handful of save files. In the next few chapters of this au, the connection to the current players is lost/corrupted and that leaves the three open to any and all players to take control regardless of any resets or saves.

When this takes place is after chapter 2. Depending on how the next few chapters of Deltarune go, the au MIGHT take place during chapter 3 and 4 as well. That decision depends on if I can make the chapters fit logically into this au. But again, that is a decision for later time!

Okay, that was a lot of information, I'm so sorry! Let me know if you need me to clarify anything further. It makes sense in my head but putting them into words like this is a little harder for me...

[lunarflowerdragon]

Warning: blood and implied death

Deltarune chapter 3 and 4 will be released this year! I was going to celebrate with a drawing of them, but I discovered that I don't have any (complete ones at least), so I decided to post one of Undetale instead. I can't wait to see what our beloved protagonist, forced to be under our control, will do now!

If anyone wants details about the drawing, it's an AU that I made in my head where Frisk is basically in a time loop and can only get out if they do the true pacifist route. The problem is that they don't know this or how to do it, and they did it so many times that they hit rock bottom and did a genocidal route. The genocidal route corrupted their soul, but it gave Chara enough strength to awaken, who was beyond furious that Frisk had killed everyone they considered their people. After finding out what was happening to Frisk, however, Chara decides to help them in exchange for them opening the barrier and freeing the monsters.

Chara is only visible to Frisk as far as they know, they can possess Frisk's body for a while and can freely switch between their human form and monster form, which they received after fusing with Asriel. Frisk has impulse issues, their soul is corrupted and, despite their LV 1 now, their other stats are at maximum, and this dichotomy makes their soul want to destroy everyone in order to increase their LV. This sometimes causes a blackout that, if Frisk doesn't stop themselves or Chara doesn't possess them in time, can end with Frisk killing someone.

[sleepdepravity]

deltarune speculation post, spoilers for chapters 3 and 4

Disclaimer, I don’t actually think this is at all something believable, it’s just a thought that came into my head when my sister told me about what happens when you pray for asriel

(From this video)

It seems like a weird response and I kept wondering why, so then my brain went “what if asriel is the roaring knight” with absolutely no actual proof or solid reasoning.

The blank way of saying asriel’s name implies something like reluctance? But not in the same way if you try to pray for Noelle in the weird route. With asriel, it’s sort of like Kris doesn’t think he needs praying for. Which sort of makes sense to me if they know asriel is the knight and praying for him is sort of like praying for him to hurt Susie and ralsei? Which is a pretty conflicting situation to be in.

Of course, asriel is supposed to be in college. And the knight has the antlers and the snowflake attack and other things that would imply the Holidays over literally anybody else. And the theories about Dess being the knight is compelling. But if Dess is the knight, that means she can go between the light and dark world, right? If she’s some sort of “corrupted form,” that doesn’t seem feasible to me. (Though of course we don’t necessarily know the rules about all that or whatever.) And, if she can go between worlds, why not, like, just go home? Why stay missing?

The other thing is, when you have the option to think about the knight, Kris sees the image of the knight slowly taking their helmet off before they immediately interfere by imagining jockington instead. Whenever we close our eyes and do this type of thing, it seems that the thing that happens *is* the thing that happens. Which means the knight *can* take their helmet (and presumably armor) off. Which doesn’t seem like a thing that a “corrupted being” could do.

Also, if we assume the person calling Kris on the phone is the knight, that means the knight has a phone, which I’m not sure that Dess. Would have access to. Asriel would, though.

But anyways, like I said, I absolutely don’t consider this a feasible theory lol it just sort of kept sticking in my mind and I figured I’d throw it out there so it would stop bothering me.