#i remember youre snowgraves

[the-legendaryphoenix]

I couldn't help myself lol

[yeets-ix]

GUYS WHAT HAPPENED TO MY TMOSTH COPY, WHAT DID I DO

HE CAN'T ACTUALLY REMEMBER NO WAY

[thelegendarymonarchart]

F A I L U R E! The prequel to my snowgrave ~ fatal post I made on my main a while back. Faith: The Unholy Trinity armirite?

[the-lucas-personly-blog]

Ȋ̵̦̯̠̬̋͠ ̴̳̓̅̓͂́͂͐̅́͛̒̚͝͠͠d̶̢͔̭̙͈̮̉̾͑͐̐͋̊̽̈̍̚͘͜͝ö̵̢̫̠̖̫ͅn̸̨͙͈̱̘͓̭̖͖̤̟͐̒̓̓͊̋͒͂̂͂́͠'̵̞͓͕̬̄̋́ț̷̢̟͈̗̳̠͉͚̟͚̹̺͕̠̘̓̿̀̔̀̒́̐̄̃̔͛͜͝ ̷̢͓̥͈̯̦̤͍̬͖͉̤͖̰͍̗̽̽̐̌̒̿̀͠f̸̹̲̑̂̎̓̈́͗͗̒̆͗̚͝ͅe̴̝͇̥̱̣͔̞̼͇͓͇̮̪̗̎̋͗͛̓̈́̌̋͑͠ẹ̷̛̫̦̞̻͔̥̳̦̖̾̔̓̓̓͌̿͠l̷͔̳̪̻̭̹͉̠͈̜̠̀̈́͊ͅͅ ̶̢̦̯̲̫̙̠͈͔͓̗̮̘͌̽́̋͐͝ș̸̡̢͖̰̬͇͈͈̳̹͓̝̬̂͆͋͘o̷̞̗͕͈̫̖̤͇̬̠̤͛͛̀̽̌ ̶̛̗͚̝̔͗͑͋̈̃̅̿͋̐̕̚g̴̩̦͈̪̗̝̹̠͎͓͉̱̟̠͎̠̬͋́͆̾o̶̢͋̎̉͑͑͋̄̋̿͌̍̈́̕͘ŏ̷͇̽d̶̙͍͙̀́̂̕ ̶̢̨̝͔̘̳̩̬̺͓̯͉͌́̌̔͊̐̈́͂͝͠͝͝ę̷̛̪̻̞̰͔̻̫́̑́̎́̑͒į̵̡̧̝̳̩̖̬̠͍͚̱̙̳̾̀̿̀̆̇̈́̐t̴̛̞̟̥̖̫͔̹͇̫̩͂̄͌̾͐͋̒̊̕͝h̸̪̀̀͗e̷̳̲̤͛̀̃͊̃͆̀̊̏r̸̛̗̯̹̤̥̬̱̄̃̋͆̈́̽̊̃̐͆̌̓̏̐͂̕ ̵̛͚͐͛̓́̚

[photos-print3d]

I'm going to genoseam you

[carlyraejepsans]

speaking of dr, there's something that really annoys me about how shallow the ship discourse around kr4lsei is. I'm not sure I'm 100% behind this for the same reasons i doubt toby will go full in with noelle's mom being abusive, ie "those are very delicate and complex topics to handle, does he have the time and space to deal with them in deltarune's story?" so take this with a grain of salt.

(warning for brief mention of incest, so I'm putting this under a readmore)

i think the discourse being framed as "thinking ralsei is presented as a romantic interest" vs "thinking ralsei is compared to kris' brother or like a family member" is incredibly stupid because those are... both true at the same time. yes, there's an unskippable "tunnel of love" scene, and it looks like ralsei could have somewhat of a crush on kris. but ralsei still 1) looks just like a dreemurr, 2) clearly plays, as a character, on our feelings and memories of asriel from playing undertale, as evident by their designs and their names being anagrams 3) i am 99% sure Noelle was going to say "that kinda looks like asriel" while looking at him eating cotton candy with Susie, and Susie herself suggests telling toriel he's "a long lost cousin". either way, if ralsei is meant to play on our feelings towards asriel, then as asriel's sibling, kris is likely gonna feel similarly.

are you uncomfortable? good! you should be. that's the point.

it's not random that the snowgrave route was framed and portrayed with the imagery of a wedding. first the freezering, then the thorn ring are explicitly compared to wedding rings. "we're just friends"/"we're something else". "YOU'VE BEEN MAKING [hyperlink blocked (...LoVE?)], HAVEN'T YOU?" noelle with whom kris had a strained relationship, whose feelings (platonic? romantic? we don't know) we brute force in what is the most chilling, manipulative, cruel iteration of chapter 2's story we could take... it's almost as if deltarune uses kris being forced into romantically coded situations they're deeply uncomfortable with as a way to showcase their lack of agency in the story.

and being pushed into romcom-like situations with a guy who looks like their brother works pretty darn well to follow that pattern, if you ask me.

now, if a forced romance with noelle represents their lack of agency in regards to the player, then... a forced romance with ralsei could represent their lack of agency towards Fate. The Plot/Story. unskippable cutscene, remember? not to mention ralsei's whole purposepilled shtick he clearly has a complex about.

this does raise a couple of questions about susie though, as the third option in the "who would you take to the fair with you" question, the one option kris seems to agree with, as well as being a character who is actively resisting the narrative.

because there's people who are very much FOR krusie, just as there are people against it, i doubt their getting or not getting together would work to represent kris gaining their agency back. and i believe i speak for everyone when i say that susie is going to play a huge part in that arc. either way, i'm curious to see how this develops.

idk! like i said, I'm not sure just how much toby is gonna go into this because it IS a very delicate subject. but it's an example of what i mean when i say "there's more to fandom than shipping" and "fixating so hard on Shipping Good Things" can be detrimental to analysis. I'm not cancelling anyone with this post, go on doing your thing whether it's kr4lsei or r4lsusie or krus1e. but if your first thought going into this was "I'm gonna ignore the part where the game compares ralsei to asriel because that would make my ship incest and that is Bad and uncomfortable" then... that's a very cheap way to interact with media? lol. sometimes being uncomfortable IS the point. god knows utdr makes you uncomfortable on purpose sometimes. ok rant over :P

[deltarune-au-domain]

I had a dream that as apart of the last reward for the Spamton charity, there was some game play of a chapter where you went to Noelle's house for a party but arrived early. So it shifts into an Undertale style battle, similar to the papyrus date so no battling but also all colored in for some reason and you had to suggest things to do to pass the time before the others got there by clicking on things around Noelle.

One of the things I remember was "You tried to show Noelle a funny thing on your phone. But the site was blocked by something..."

And if you chose the wrong thing, wich was apparently a bag of frozen strawberries you suggest blending up, everything changes. Music stops. The lights go out. Noelle stops smiling before saying "I don't like that answer." Before straight up casting Snowgrave on you. It was weird.

Here's a vague map of what Noelle's house looked like. I didn't get to see the upstairs. Most of the game play took place in the kitchen and Noelle was standing in front of the fridge while Kris stood by the party table.

Some extra drawings.

[hiis-theme]

love how "kris i remember you're snowgraves" became "human i remember you're genocides" became "human i remember your non-binary." very good progression great job nutdealer fandom-

[teammateswap-au]

There are 2 main routes in cryocrypt : the “I remember your snowgraves” route and the “I forgor” route

[kaydafaux]

So, I thought of something interesting. (Dark but I guess I do that a lot)

Berdly is a character who has this feeling that he needs to keep up this intelligent image. This thought process holds him back, makes him extremely insecure, and hurts him in more ways than one.

Much like how Noelle's problems hinder her and are the main topic in the weird/snowgrave route.

Now, this is where I go/sound crazy over idea I had for a current hyper fixation (that being deltarune)

What if there was a "weirder route/Thornroute"?

You may ask "What does that even mean?" And I ask the same. I can only give my original thought process. My main Idea is that after freezing Berdly, you go back to Spamton's shop in the trash zone. He has a new item to sell. "ᴘᴏʀᴛᴀʙʟᴇ ʜᴇᴀᴛᴇʀ"

What is the portable heater? The portable heater is an old heating unit from "BIGSHOT Autos!!"

You buy this portable heater and use it on Berdly's frozen body. Leaving him to thaw for 5 irl minutes. (If you leave the room the timer resets)

After saving Berdly, you "apologize" to him. He accepts and barely remembers what happened to him anyways. You have him in your party now. Before you continue, you must backtrack and kill 7-8 enemies that managed to hide when you were freezing your way through the cyber world. How? You use the attack Berdly uses in all 3 of his fights (not including plug Berdly I think) Now you may continue.

And as you make your way into Queen's mansion, you notice it is different. There is an entire new floor exclusive to this route. It is filled to the BRIM with puzzles. Almost every other room has a puzzle in it.

Why?

Because this is how we manipulate Berdly. We force him to complete puzzles, however.. He just can't manage to do it. After waiting one minute and talking to Berdly, where he goes to the middle of the room, breaks down, and lays there defeated. We then solve the puzzle for him (with ease) and tell him to get back up.

After a while, Berdly actually completes the puzzles, faster and faster each time. And as we kill the enemies in Queen's mansion we see Berdly is actually very capable. His physical incompetence is linked to his mental image and intelligence actually being used.

After a while we get to the end, defeating Queen very easily. The only issue is, now we have to fight Berdly.

Why?

Berdly is so powerful and confident that he decides to take a stand against Kris. And so we get the hardest boss fight in the game (so far)

After defeating Berdly, we seal the fountain like usual. (No interruptions like NEO or anything like that)

After everyone wakes up, Noelle is confused and happy that Berdly is alive. But Berdly? Berdly doesn't think about how he's late for his shift with Ms. Boom. Instead, he walks into the main library area and is reading a book. Something technology related, something he wants to do. Something he isn't too dumb for or needs help with. For the first time, He doesn't need anyone but himself.

Anyways!! Hope this isn't such a crack idea or crazy post to start off my tumbler adventure with. Hope you all enjoyed reading ❤

[fairlyqualityanon]

Digging Your Own (Snow)Grave

You thought the sins of Frisk/Chara/Kris were confined to the game world, that when you closed the window, it all collapsed back into a mess of 0s and 1s. 'Your choices don’t matter,' it said. But what you do online doesn't necessarily stay online. Chara corrupting your game data on Steam isn't the worst outcome from a Genocide route.

5.6k words of reader insert fluffy vore featuring Spam//ton NEO (on whom I now have a massive Switch crush) for 8/8 Vore Day, I had fun with this and I hope you enjoy! (read on AO3)

Masterlist

-----------------

You pick up the novelty glasses you’d found in a shop. They were just sitting on a shelf with a ton of other junk, so you had held them against your face while you sent a selfie to your friend.

//Spamton cosplay when? 😛//

It was actually a little weird how much they looked like they’d popped directly out of the game: one lens yellow, one magenta; opaque looking in, nearly transparent looking out.

Only a couple of dollars, so why the heck not?

-----------------

You scrunched your eyes, not wanting to wake up. Fumbling for your phone, you squint to see what time it was. No signal. Ugh, had the tower gone out again? The battery was getting pretty low, too, so you sat up with a grumble and opened your eyes.

Um. This didn’t look like your bedroom, or your house at all. Everything was lit by the blue light of a computer screen, as if you were in some cyberpunk dystopia.

You stood up and cracked your knuckles. This was absolutely a dream, so why not make the most of it?

Something was taking up space in your pocket, you noticed, phone not wanting to go all the way in. With your free hand, you rummaged through the mess. What the heck was all this stuff? You started to pull your hand back out, surprised by the window materializing in front of you. It looked not-all-there, kind of like menu options in VR.

'Inventory', it said, listing a fair number of items. Hey, you recognized some of those!

Freeze Ring

> Devilsknife

A small charm in the shape of a colorful scythe, about the size of a keychain ornament, appeared in your hand.

Was this dream based on a video game? Deltarune was an odd choice, if so.

So. Your subconscious based the dream on Chapter 2, Cyber World's Snowgrave route. A first-person visualization of the map was absolutely beautiful, and you wondered from what your mind was drawing to flesh out the dream.

Glancing to your right, you saw a large dumpster, surrounded by bags of printer sheets. You stood on your tiptoes to peek inside it. That weirdo NPC vendor Spamton had abandoned it when you triggered his breaking into the Castle, you remembered; had he left anything behind?

No, just the pillow that showed in the flavor text of any dumpster you checked. At least it was behind a clothing store, otherwise the smell would have been overwhelming. Oh, and some twist of fabric on top of the pillow.

Yoink! Like any good RPG player, you picked up everything Just In Case.

Puppet Scarf was added to your weapons.

Why was it in there, though? It was the reward for defeating Spamton NEO through violence, or else finishing the Snowgrave route, so either the player character or the final boss should have it.

It was a really interesting NPC, everyone scrambling with theories and headcanons; nobody could have guessed ‘battle theme remixes are canon’. The obligatory 'Gaster did it' featured, of course, but you couldn't keep up with all of that.

Maybe you should follow along, staying out of sight in case Berdly hadn't been Frozen yet. You didn't know if you could die here, but you weren't taking that chance. You felt a little chilly, so you wrapped the scarf-weapon around your neck. Much better.

There had been a SAVE point around here somewhere... There! A flickering blue-white four-pointed star. You touched it eagerly, wondering if it would say 'Kris' or else the character name you'd picked before the first chapter.

Blank. Guess you got to pick your own name. As you focused on the menu, it changed to the keyboard screen, a transparent cartoony hand indicating the first character slot, which was empty. The next five, however, were filled.

_ASTER

You tried to move the pointer to the other slots. No luck. Shrugging, you selected the blank space. The hand flew down to point at the letter 'G'.

You sure as hell weren't picking that one. What would happen to you if the game crashed?

Just like the name field, you couldn't move the hand to any other letter.

This was a dream, right? You were already lucid, so why not try to control it? Squinting your eyes at

SELECT

ENTER

you willed a third option into existence

SELECT

ENTER

> delete

... Are you sure?

You nod your head curtly.

'G' disappeared from the keyboard, leaving a darker hole in an already dark background.

Well, you still couldn't change character position, but you needed a first letter. Something nonsensical didn't sound any fun. 'M'? 'E'? 'C'?

'F', you decide, reaching for the symbol.

MISS

"‘Taster’? That's stupid," you scoff as it confirms the name and returns to the SAVE screen.

You followed the trail of recently-living ice sculptures, passing a mini iceberg. You tried to avoid looking at it, feeling guilty for the quasi-Genocide Run.

No one - not even the fearful NPCs - spotted you as you slipped into Queen's Mansion. The door to The Basement was right there, the one with the scratched-out panel.

That rapid teacup ride was annoying, but you descended unscathed even though your thoughts were filled with questions, not just 'how did I get here?' but also ones such as 'what will I find down there?'. In your own save files, you'd had to restart the Pacifist Playthrough a few times in order to SPARE Spamton NEO with a full inventory, because the double-secret dialogue cracked you up.

Able to enter the basement, you weren't certain if the discarded robot had been activated. Kris sealed the Cyber World Fountain immediately upon freezing Spamton NEO, so it couldn't have been defeated and progressed past already. The door was blocked when you entered the Mansion in-game, because Spamton had already taken it over. So where was the antagonist NPC?

You crept through the basement, taking a single step into the end room where the robot was stored, all the way at the very end. You could just barely see it from here.

The Empty Disk wouldn’t be in there, would it? Snowgrave didn’t have that quest; your character never formally met him since you indirectly helped by clearing the way. You wanted it, though, if you could still turn it into the Loaded Disk and then definitively bring both bosses with you to the next chapters.

A sapient - or sentient, at the very least - floppy disk? Lancer's flavor text was funny enough, but the glitchy NPC's dialogue was completely novel. Toby Fox had really outdone himself, using Chapter One to trick you and other players into thinking choices at best only altered a few lines. Jevil was completely optional and gave one piece of equipment; Spamton NEO was optional normally but also the final boss of Deltarune's 'Genocide Route' equivalent.

Adjusting the Puppet Scarf around your neck, you reached into the cavity of the machine and fished out the glasses.

DEALMAKER was added to your wea

Was added to your

added to y

[ERROR]

404 [STYLE] Not Found

"What the [BEEP] was that?" you muttered. Starting to fold the earpieces together, you paused and - on a whim - decided to put them on. Maybe it would wake you up, a sort of double negative?

Hmm. Nope. You bet you looked stylish as hell, though. Time to go find a mirror!

You were wondering if you could hack somehow the Mannequin into your inventory, get the full set of secret-second-boss-themed equip. Those Addisons didn't have full-on shops the way Gerson, Burgerpants, Seam, or Roulx did, so you couldn't simply collision box glitch your way in. Were they one of the enemies you froze while grinding to get Spamton's Thorn Ring? Eh, you'll check on your way back out.

The background music was really starting to set you on edge, though. The Basement was inaccessible during Snowgrave after you'd hit enough internal flags. But the Genocide Route music - Flowey’s slowed theme - featured. It was spooky, making you feel like you were being watched. All the NPCs were either hiding, locked up, or deadfrozen.

A low rumble shook the room and you wobbled for a moment, arms flailing. Was that Giga Queen? You didn't actually fight her in Snowgrave, though. The Spamton NEO fight? That happened outside the mansion. Better hurry and get out of here.

You heard the rumble again, but this time the floor remained steady. Turning around, you called out - perhaps foolishly - "Who's there?"

Something scraped against the far wall, a metal-on-metal sound that threw off a shower of sparks not quite bright enough for you to see what had made it.

Backing up slowly, you panned your gaze back and forth in the gloom. This was quickly going from 'quirky dream' to 'outright nightmare'.

You caught a blur of motion and tilted your head up and up, and up even more, your eyes adjusted to the dark enough to trace the outline of the towering figure seeming to coalesce from the shadows, two large circles flaring with the illumination of a non-existent sun.

Oh bleep, you think to yourself, automatically self-censoring. The Spamton NPC had been smaller than all four of your controllable party characters, and those were schoolchildren. The abandoned robot was roughly Queen’s height, and the optional boss Spamton NEO had been between two and three times Kris’ height.

But this? This thing? It was colossal, and almost bulky compared to its vibrant buggy Slenderman aesthetic in-game.

You finger the Devilsknife in your pocket before firmly grabbing its handle and swinging it out in front of yourself in a defensive stance. You realize it’s the same battle posture as the Kris character, though Susie was the only one you could equip the bonus boss’ item to. You were glad you’d taken the violence option in Chapter 1, originally because it blatantly implied you were bringing said boss along with you, but now because it gave you a sharp object to cut the wires of this boss.

As you did so, your surroundings spun away, replaced by the arcade style background of the Battle screen. The dissonant notes of 'Deal Gone Wrong' played under the echoes of Spamton NEO's battle intro.

"HOLY [Cungadero] DO I FEEL GOOD. ...HERE I AM!! [Player #1]!! IT'S TIME FOR A LITTLE [Specil Tour]!!"

Was that his normal dialogue? It sounded familiar, but you didn't think it was strictly accurate. Time to put your Mad Gamer Skilz to use; hopefully those translated over to the dream.

In your playthrough, the videogame boss had a set animation pattern, only 'looking' in a direction based on its attack. Even when firing off various projectiles, its head and gun arm always pointed in the exact same position per cycle.

But the very real creature - person? machine? - shooting very real bullets at you was tracking your every movement. Though you strafed and jumped - something the top-down 2D game definitely didn't allow for - Spamton NEO followed you with no delay. Freaky.

Your arms were so sore, completely unused to the weight of such a heavy scythe. It giggled uncannily as you whipped it through the air, fortunately encountering no resistance, but your hands were covered in sweat and struggling to keep your grip on the handle. The impact of the Pipis fragments - whatever the blue bouncing eggs were supposed to be - wasn’t doing you any favors either.

And then it happened. Lungs burning, you swiped at a Pipis you were too tired to dodge, whiffing entirely. Rather than colliding in a burst of pain and depleting HP, it exploded on contact into a tangle of wires just like the ones holding the machine up, though yours were blue instead of green.

"TIED [down] TO A [loan] YOU CAN’T REPAY? [Die now] AND SEE IF YOU QUALIFY FOR [forgiveness]."

The cartoon heart beating in front of your chest dimmed - no, was changing color - and you felt a surge of emotion. Was this the Determination mechanic from the first game? A green light flashed in your vision, accompanied by the beep of health restoration.

"THERE'S A NEW [palette] TO YOUR [facial glow]... GETTING YOUR SECOND WIND, [Player 1]?"

There it was again. The boss was supposed to address your character as ‘Kris’, except for when ‘you whispered Noelle’s name’. No such thing as ‘reading too much into it’ here: too vivid to be a dream, too much pain to be a hallucination.

With each pulse, the orange heart became darker and darker until it glowed green. That wasn’t a feature in this game, unless it would be a mechanic in the upcoming chapters: kindness and shield mode. You didn't have a shield from Kris' DEFEND action, nor the Spear Of Justice from the Undertale fight with Undyne.

"THIS [final boss] HAS A [limited time only specil] JUST FOR YOU!"

"Shut up! Shut up!" you yelled, "Your voice lines are even more annoying than that other secret boss, how do I skip your dialogue!?"

Your wires tightened, lifting you into the air until you were dangling at a level to look Spamton NEO in the eyes from across the battlefield. The words

(Wrong choice...?)

floated before you. According to the wiki, Spamton and Jevil were rivals, so you probably touched a nerve.

"NOW IS THAT ANY WAY TO TALK TO [your old pal] SPAMTON? AFTER HE’S [offering] YOU SUCH A SWEET SWEET [meal]?"

Wait what. This sounded sketchy as frick. "You’re just a computer program, what kind of ‘deal’ could you offer me, a real person?"

Bitcrushed yet cacophonous laughter echoed and you winced, unable to reach your ears to cover them. You couldn’t look away from the grotesque mouth gaping in a maniacal cackle, stretching almost up to the glowing bichromatic lenses. They gleamed in turn, like when you were playing Undertale’s Neutral Route and had to fight Asgore, and you prepared to dodge... however that would happen without Muffet’s webs to hop and your SOUL green instead of purple.

"AN UNFORGETTABLE [never] IN A LIFETIME DEAL."

"What if I don’t like the sound of your deal?" You were blushing; you knew what you’d heard, as much as you'd like to pretend you didn't.

"ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO TURN DOWN THE CHANCE OF A [very specil tour]?"

You mentally cursed your heated cheeks, probably as bright now as the hue of a Determined SOUL. You were pretty well cornered, with so few options. Right on cue, an ACT prompt materialized.

CONCEDE

DENY

Good thing the menu screens didn’t require your physical body for interaction. How could you lie? The truth was evident.

> CONCEDE

DENY

"But I used Incognito Mode!" You protest. The exact outcomes of dialogue selections were difficult to predict, but you weren’t going to complain about this one.

"HA HA HA. YOU THOUGHT YOUR USING [the Google Bing] WAS [blockchain encrypted]!?"

The rooms in Queen's castle were supposedly personalized based on the various NPC's web searches in Hometown, giving you clues into their backstories, but how would your real world searches be scraped? The original file name of Deltarune Chapter 1 seemed to mock scam programs, but it couldn't really be a Trojan or something.

It didn't make sense. Actually, it made total sense but should have been impossible.

"Well... Yeah," you admitted, adding suspiciously, "I want to know more about this deal of yours: what are you demanding in return?" Acting interested at first was how you SPAREd him in the Normal Route, so it couldn't hurt to hear him out as your HP blipped back to full.

The noises of the Basement returned in a deafening rush and Spamton's wires - no, yours... No, both of yours - dragged you closer together, battle screen below you vanishing as well.

"I mean, this is a video game; you're a boss NPC and I'm not a character at all!" What did it want from you? What could it possibly want?

His ever-present grin turned sharklike, sensing a captive potential customer as certainly as smelling blood in the water.

"[Player 1]! I WANT. THAT SHINING SOUL. YOU HAVE. THE [determination] OF A PERSON [level grinding] TO REACH THE HIGH [leaderboard]."

Yeah, no. Not happening. You didn't fancy dying in a dream, even one as weird as this. "No. Absolutely not. You can't have it. I kinda need this to, you know, live?" You dipped your head to indicate the vulnerable green SOUL.

His wings arched forward, as if reaching out to you. They cast twin shadows over the whole room, but stopped just before crossing the halfway point.

"WHEN I'M OFFERING YOU A [free cruise] FOR [hot singles in your area]?"

You just narrowed your eyes, remaining silent.

Spamton NEO shook his head reproachfully. "I KNOW I CAN'T [alt-tab] MY WAY OUT OF [the most dangerous game] BUT WITH YOUR [no background check required] [cheap rental] SOUL POWER I CAN STILL. BE BIG. SO VERY VERY BIG. SEE PAST THE DARK."

He knew it was a videogame, that you were a real person and he just a program. What sort of implications did that have for Deepest Lore? It seemed Spamton just wanted control over the game itself, unlike Chara, who wanted both the game and reality. You could live with this on your conscience. Hopefully it wouldn’t ruin the SAVE files of whoever’s computer this was.

"THIS OFFER IS [for a limited time only] UNTIL YOU [ctrl-alt-del] BACK TO [aren't you tired of working a boring 9-to-5 desk job?]!"

"So... Temporarily? I'll still own my SOUL. And not die?"

Silence. Just for a moment. And then he bowed, one hand behind his back and the other extended in the classic 'let's shake on it' deal stance.

Your vines descended, unraveling and falling to the ground in loops at your feet.

What had that stuffed cat NPC said after you beat Jevil? "He started saying bizarre things that didn't completely make sense - But didn't completely not make sense, either."

Time froze again, even the flicker of the nearby Dark Fountain reflected on Spamton NEO's massive teeth. You glanced at the small menu in front of you.

AGREE

REFUSE

You hovered your ghostly disembodied finger over the damning words before drawing in a nervous breath and firmly pushing

> AGREE

REFUSE

Your arm stretched out - almost without thinking - placing your right hand in the robotic puppet's. It was so small by comparison, your entire hand barely covering even one of his fingertips.

Spamton's too-broad grin widened - somehow - even further, carefully pinching your hand between thumb and a single index finger, giving it the tiniest shake.

You smiled hesitantly, emboldened by the gentle contact and what appeared to be a warm cast to the glowing lenses. That smarmy stereotypical 'used car salesman' expression was so hard to read; you had to make wild guesses from his posture and the area around Spamton's glasses. He didn’t seem the slightest bit hostile anymore, and Mercy +100% had flashed the moment you picked to agree to his deal, so you felt you could trust it.

Facial expression unchanging, he released his hold on your hand and, barely a second later, lunged forward with his own, wrapping all three fingers around you in a firm grip. You couldn’t tell if Spamton NEO stood back up or if it was the wires tugging him upright; searching for the answer was rather low on your list of priorities right now. Instead, you were hyper aware of just how high up you’d been snatched, and that you were staring directly into the eyes of a giant who’d just agreed to EAT you.

Struggling wouldn’t do you the least bit of good; while you would certainly survive a fall from that height, you couldn’t possibly limp away fast enough. You were pretty sure your SOUL was still green, anyway.

The boss seemed content to study you placidly, and you swallowed nervously, hoping the hammering of your heart wasn’t too obvious. It gave you a better view as well.

The Saw-like red dots on his cheeks from the original body were gone, leaving a uniformly shiny bone-white surface. Spamton NEO’s plating and wings, on the other hand, were incredibly garish, but also weirdly pleasant to look at; the tiny animated figure on your computer screen simply did not do the character justice.

You could faintly see a pair of thick carats on his face behind the glasses. Hadn't the Addison shopkeepers mentioned he'd been one of them, 'just a little unlucky'? That was certainly support for the theory. You also thought you could see your reflections twinned in pink and orange staring back apprehensively, you were so close to his face.

Even if it wasn't a dream or hallucination, nobody in the real world would know about this. It's not like you'd ever had a vore dream, so you didn't want to look this gift horse in the mouth. Though, you were looking him in the mouth, worried about just what lay behind those gleaming teeth. How would this even work?

Uneasy didn't even begin to describe your emotional state right now; all the vore scenarios you'd read and seen heavily featured trust, something untenable at the moment. You had to fight against the very human response that was cringing in fear, failing entirely when Spamton NEO opened his mouth. Was this the Money Vacuum attack? It looked like you’d been betrayed!

Except... You didn’t hear battle music, not a single one of the many themes. Instead, you were popped unceremoniously into his mouth the way a person might toss back a TicTac, or perhaps a breath mint.

You lifted your head to watch the shrinking window of light, vanishing fully with the creaking slam of a garage door. No backing out now; the deal had been sealed behind you as surely as his teeth.

Everything was dark. So, so dark. The Battle Menu had been the only light source besides Cyber World's Dark Fountain, and now you had neither of those. You didn't really want to move around, what if you fell? The texture you were on was too smooth to be fabric, but had too much give to be metal. What else could there be in the robot body?

You started to stand up, deciding that maybe exploring was a good idea after all, when something large knocked into you, causing you to fall back over again. Pushing yourself awkwardly to your knees, the whatever-it-was bumped you again, far more cautiously this time.

Huh. The robot had a tongue. Not too far fetched of an idea, you thought. It gently pressed against your side, almost like an affectionate dog, if dogs were slightly damp and had the faint odor of ozone.

Deals go both ways... 

You obligingly leaned on it, gradually transferring all of your weight. Apparently taking that as permission, it slicked up your arm, halting just below your head.

If this thing - you really needed to be fairer and treat it like a person, as a ‘he’ and not an ‘it’, since the NPC seemed to be fully sapient - knew about your frequently-cleared search history, then he would also know you didn’t like the harsher and more violent types of vore.

A professional salesman might make underhanded deals, but it would be a poor salesman indeed who failed to deliver on those shady promises.

It felt weird to think of yourself as ‘tasty’, but that was clearly Spamton’s opinion, tongue insistently scooting you to the smooth inside of his weird teeth and starting to cover you all over with whatever its equivalent of saliva was. Maybe your hitting the wrong letter on the SAVE screen was some sort of Freudian slip, or the game giving you a sly nudge and a knowing wink.

The average - the sane and normal - person would consider this to be a living nightmare, but you? You were loving this. You let out a contented sigh and finally allowed yourself to fully relax. The warmth and steady pressure was doing wonders for your acquired aches and pains.

Aches and pains that Spamton NEO had caused, beating the absolute crap out of you in your battle.

Were you the equivalent of a boss encounter, one where you needed to FIGHT to lower the enemy's willpower? You certainly never would have admitted to this otherwise...

He absolutely owed you a massage for that. Not really the best start to a business relationship, now was it?

His jaw creaked open just enough for you to see back out through it. When had he traveled to the Dark Fountain? Eh, didn't really matter.

You were tipped very deliberately over the row of teeth, tucked safely down in the confines of Spamton's cheek pocket.

"AND NOW. [Player 1]. WITNESS THE [alternating current] OF SPAMTON [NEO] EX."

'Ex'? You hoped you weren't about to be in the middle of an explosion.

You waited expectantly, practically seeing the

(* . . . )

scroll in the text box.

"MY [power level], IT’S STILL NOT [over 9000]!"

The words were pretty well garbled - he was clearly trying very hard not to hurt you - but they were laden with helpless anger. You actually felt bad for Spamton; seemed a real person was insufficient, or perhaps incompatible with the wherever-you-were. In the game’s Normal Route, he hadn’t attacked your party until noticing he was still trapped by the computer cables masquerading as puppet strings.

The crackle of TV static failed to mask what was clearly a wail of utter despair.

At a loss for what to do, you wriggle one arm free and pat the cheek surface. Hopefully he could feel it, your attempt to offer some measure of comfort. You’d tried. You’d really really tried, and even wanted him to succeed.

A knot twisted in your stomach; you’d never felt such strong emotion towards a simple videogame character. Susie’s words to Kris in the beginning of Chapter 1 when the game wouldn’t let you pick a dialogue option echoed in your mind - ‘Your choices don’t matter.’ Seemed that had been directed at you and the other players after all, not the in-game character Kris. All you’d done was give him false hope.

"FINE." Sure didn't sound 'fine' to you. "FIREWALL ACTIVE. ALL [sales] FINAL. [Frequent flier miles] NOT ELIGIBLE FOR REFUND." Intensely frustrated, but not angry. Or at least, not angry at you, fortunately.

Working his jaw awkwardly, he fished you back out and swished his tongue over you one last time before propelling you to the rear of his mouth. You’d have been fibbing if you’d said this next part didn’t make you even more nervous.

You were over the edge before you knew it, unable to so much as yelp in shock as your entire world collapsed into a tiny cylinder.

Tight. So tight that you could barely draw in even a half breath. The 'gulp' of a swallow sounded more like a 'click' followed by the 'whirr' of whatever was squeezing you down his throat. Despite trying to take shallow breaths, you felt dizzy. Or was that just the blood rushing to your head?

You almost didn't notice when you'd left his throat, since the stomach-analogue was similarly lacking in space. The only real clue was the cessation of dispassionate swallows.

Once you were fully inside the thankfully-much-drier chamber you heard what sounded like a semi truck's air brakes. Was that a sigh?

Even though your end of the deal was just loaning the Power of Determination found in human SOULs - or rather, attempting to - you were still kind of glad Spamton had enjoyed eating you. After all, your favorite scenarios involved the predator character being just as pleased as its prey, a mutual satisfaction. ‘Vore as a comfort mechanism’, the meme went. Even if he didn't get the resultant power he’d wanted, at least he’d scored a delicious ‘snack’ out of it.

You realized you were blushing again; seems you really were ‘vore trash’. You knew you’d be hyper-critical of every piece of vore media you found from here on out. tHaT's NoT hOw It WoRkS, you thought with a grin.

Resting your head on the pebbled-but-yielding material, you realized that neither of you had so much as mentioned duration. Not that you minded being in-

Um... Where exactly were you?

How long had it taken him to swallow you? It felt like forever, but couldn’t have been all that long; the robotic neck hadn’t looked nearly so thin from the outside.

If it was indeed Mettaton had drafted this body with Swatch - probably in Paint, going from how tastelessly the color scheme clashed - then you have serious questions about that NPC; what exactly was a depressed ghost that wanted to be an attractive robot thinking, making something like this!?

You took in a breath of air that tasted alarmingly like fried circuits, ready to ask just how long Spamton planned on holding you, and if he knew how to get you back to your world, then a pleasant breeze tousled your hair. Oh good, no worrying about oxygen; you would neither suffocate nor asphyxiate.

Totally safe, the only enemy with higher HP than his NEO form was the Giga Queen, and he could boost his Defense to an insane level at the end of a Snowgrave Route, so all you had to worry about was if Spamton experienced the coding glitch equivalent of a psychotic break and tried hurting you.

Now, if only you had the room to stretch out...

"[Dial up] CONNECTION ESTABLISHED." Wow, now that sound was a blast from the past.

The walls around you suddenly crackled with static, some remaining black - their cathode tubes probably burnt out - while most displayed the old test card bars, like pixels, countless miniature TV screens forming the surface of his stomach.

All but a couple, comprising two circles - just a few feet in diameter - directly in front of you shut off. They looked like his glasses... Could he see in here!?

The circles swept up and around, back and then down, evidently focusing on you.

"It seems I'm too broke[n] to [afford] a spacious [apartment]."

There it was, the semi-lucidity after a battle’s end. Chapter 2 had the most minor of Easter eggs regarding Tasque Manager and Jevil, so it was highly unlikely you or any other player would learn what had twisted either secret boss’ mind.

"You don’t hear me complaining." You curled up, managing to twist yourself the other way so you were reclining rather than laying down at an angle. "It’s pretty nice in here." ‘And you handed me my ass in battle,’ you decided against saying.

"[Some assembly required.]" A dry critique.

"Hey, um..." You watched as several screens dimmed to static and back to dull coloration, Spamton apparently struggling to get his new body's glitches under control. "I'm really... I'm sorry."

The yellow oval moved upward a few inches while the magenta one stayed put. You thought that was like raising an eyebrow.

"I didn't deliver on my promise. You gave me everything I asked for, but you couldn't use SOUL power at all. Even if that wasn't going back on the deal, I'm still sorry."

Everything went dark again and you startled, not sure if you were concerned more for yourself, or for Spamton. But the screens came back to life right away... was that a blink?

"I WAS NEVER IN IT FOR THE POWER. FOR THE [Kromer]. FREEDOM. THE FREEDOM TO MAKE MY OWN [download now!]. MY OWN CHOICES. AND. I FOUND ANOTHER SATISFIED [customer]!"

You chuckled. "Me? Or you?"

There was that annoying laugh again. "A SUCCESSFUL [meal]."

Yep. He meant himself. You didn’t mind in the slightest; in fact, you were probably more happy even than you were embarrassed.

You reached out your hand, as filled with the Power that was surely Determination as you had been when making your 'Taster' SAVE file, and tapped the space between the colored ovals. "I don’t know where ‘here’ is in relation to the real world, if it’s an instance on someone’s computer or what, or whose computer that would be, but just in case... I’ll make sure to send Kris by."

What if you played a new Snowgrave route, but stopped at the final SAVE point before fighting Spamton NEO, pulled that save file and move it to a secure position on your computer in an entirely different folder? That would be as close as you could get, in reality, to fulfilling the NPC’s quest. Hopefully you’d remember when you woke up from this really-not-half-bad dream.

"I WON'T FORCE YOU. I CAN'T. I CAN'T FORCE YOU. BUT. A VALUED [customer] MAKING A [comeback tour]? MY [clearance special] WILL HAVE A [membership card] ONLY ON [layaway]."

"Got it. I’ll keep that in mind." This was all so stupidly bizarre, you wanted to blow up a friend’s phone with DM notifications, but would they honestly believe you’d had such a strange and vivid dream? Far too good to be true, so it definitely had to be a dream. 

-----------------

You blinked your eyes out of sync. Had you fallen asleep? If so, that was one [Holy Cungadero] hell of a dream. Super weird, too, though the details were fading quickly.

You sat up and yawned, stretching your arms over your head. You were so sore; napping at your desk hadn't done your back any favors.

Hang on, what was that in your hand? Oh, just those silly thrift store glasses.

... Did they always have that paper price tag on it? Fastened with instrument - looked like guitar - strings? There was writing on it, too.

//THANK YOU, VALUED [Taste Tester]! YOUR FREE TRIAL HAS [frozen]. Please purchase a subscription in order to [Reload] for the low low price of [$19.97] per month!//

... You are never going to toss these.

-----------------

A/N:

I headcanon that the stomach in Spamton's NEO form is actually up in his chest cavity, and the yellow triangle is a screen that displays the SOUL of any Lightner prey.

“the Google Bing” physically hurt me to type out

(G)ASTER was originally just going to be a jab at Theorists, but it wound up being significant

The dialogue - especially Spamton’s - is not up to my usual exacting standards, but I think it’s good enough for this little project.

'>delete' and '...Are you sure?'/'(Wrong choice...?)'/'(* . . . )' were supposed to be two different fonts separate from the main font

If you enjoyed, please feel free to give me a little feedback (and/or AO3 kudos), it really helps with my motivation.

[the-legendaryphoenix]

so the matpatify browser extention

...

yeah

[paraparathecow]

Kris is not "a knight", Kris is THE knight.

Of all the characters we know, Kris seems to be the one most emotionally attached to the unused classroom.

It just makes sense that the only human teen in the entire town, who grew up with divorced parents and no special achievements, would try to do something like making a dark fountain when their big brother leaves.

Another thing that ties the card kingdom fountain to Kris is how it "recently appeared". Do you know what else happened recently? Asriel went to college. You could assume both things happened at around the same time.

But wait, if Kris did indeed open the fountain in CH1, how come king doesn't recognize them?

Well. The simple answer is that king literally never met the knight. The knight must be a lighter, since only lighntners can open fountains. If king met the knight, and realized it's a lighter, wouldn't he change his opinion about them? Well, you could say king is a hypocrite, but even then -

There is no in game evidence for king (or any darkner, in fact) meeting or knowing the knight.

(yes, even the secret bosses didn't necessarily meet the knight.)

The closet thing we get to this is a couple of characters saying "the knight arrived" (which, considering dark world lore is retroactive, means about as much as "the fountain was made")

The closet thing from king is during his battle when he says "my knight..." Which isn't too different from saying "my god..." Or something in this style. Definitely doesn't mean king ever met the knight.

What about chapter 2, then? Surely that one completely disproves the theory right? Well, if you pay attention to details, NOPE.

Let's go over the counter arguments one by one.

Q1: If Kris made the fountain during CH1's ending, how come Noelle & berdly had their books on the table and bags on the floor immediately after the fountain was sealed?

A: remember this scene in CH1?

We could easily assume something similar happened to Noelle and berdly. The papers on the floor stayed Normal, so maybe the table did too. They walked in, realized it's dark, put there stuff down, then fell.

Q1.5: why were the books outside the bags then?

A: Look at how they carry their bags and books. There's your answer. alternatively, maybe they started studying in the other room but realized they’d rather work in the computer room.

Q2: why were they on the other side of the table? wouldn't it make more sense if they put their stuff down earlier?

A: there are two possible answers.

One is that this was ignored to make it so that the characters you are talking to are facing the camera (for better presentation)

Another is that it's possible that the light switch of the room is usually positioned in such a way that would make them go around the table before actually realizing it's not where it's supposed to be.

Q3: why were they slouched over when the fountain sealed?

A: why wouldn't they be? We never get to see how Susie and Kris are the first time they exist a dark world by sealing it. It could very easily be an experience that knock you unconscious for a bit. Another explanation is for a bit of extra suspense in snowgrave. You don't immediately know if berdly will wake up.

Q3.5: whey weren't Kris and Susie slouched over then?

A: we don't actually know if they were. When Kris falls asleep in class, there's no special sprite for it, and they definitely were slouched over.. another option is that Kris woke up after Susie so we never get to see her unconscious. A third option is that you can get used to this experience.

Q4: why don't Noelle and berdly mention anything about entering the room when it was very dark or falling down?

A: they don't mention anything else about how they got into the dark world either, so it's not that strong of a point. But it could be due to shock, being evrowhelmed, believing it was also part of the dream...

With this, I think I covered all the counterarguments to Kris being the knight. If I missed any, feel free to add them below, and I'll try to answer as many as I have free time for

[seirette]

I don't know why I wrote so much. This is a rough collection of thoughts. It's not particularly organised.

Also as a note, these are my own feelings of a theme about the game, or at least about the blorbos in the game, it's not necessarily an analysis, it doesn't look at Deltarune 'lore' but rather... maybe life?

Drivel About "Choices and Decisions"

A.K.A that "One Line" that Susie says in Chapter 1

Some people say it's only a single line, but to be honest, with a game as long as Deltarune you can explore any generic theme or idea easily (both 'for' and 'against'!).

Chapter 2 - Noelle and SnowGrave

Something I find interesting about SnowGrave route is that Noelle is 'getting stronger', but she's being told what to do, she doesn't even KNOW what she's doing (e.g., what the goal of the actions are), and she doesn't decide things for herself.

I mean at the hospital she decides to "take control", but she wants to use "Ice shock" against an Ice enemy. She isn't really thinking. In life, you can't ALWAYS just do what you're told, you have to think it through… use the info you have found, to make what you think is the best decision at the time. Use the right tools to get the outcome you need.

The sad part is that we don't get to know if the Ice Palace boss is actually weak to Ice (in other words, weak to itself!). Also note that Rudy doesn't say Ice Shock isn't a real move. More on that in Pacifist route writings.

I've seen people comment that Noelle is more 'confident' in this route but I do not see this as true confidence.

I mean, she made a decision to go with IceShock, but when someone points out the flaw in her decisioning she can't commit to it. Noelle doesn't believe in the choice she made, in SnowGrave she is blindly following your orders - once she thinks you (Kris/the Player) are gone she's easily swayed. Note that after this part she is surprised to see Kris at the door.

Now let's compare it to the Pacifist Route (sorry for no Faces):

In this scenario, she wants to take the battle herself, like in SnowGrave. But she's not blindly following Rudy's orders.

She exclaims "No, dad! This is my battle!" then PAUSES... before allowing him to help. Personally I interpreted this as, initially wanting to complete the game herself, but she wants to spend time with dad - she mentions this in Chapter 1:

Actually, you could also interpret this as Noelle not knowing what to do and getting ordered around by Rudy to try stuff. Which sounds like SnowGrave, doesn't it? But it's different. Rudy suggests Fireshock:

But she reports back with information on why she can't use FireShock - so her dad offers another solution, which is to use her Blaze Potions:

... and when she follows her Dad's suggestion, it backfires and they get hurt. Sounds like you shouldn't let others make decisions for you, huh? But at least now they know not to use fire attacks = new info = work towards a decision you believe in. But we should compare this against SnowGrave again, specifically the part where we ask her to use SnowGrave:

In SnowGrave, she mentions that she cannot cast a spell she doesn't know. In Pacifist, she tells her father she cannot cast FireShock because the mage is not there.

In SnowGrave, she is pressured into casting the spell she doesn't know and things don't work out so well. In Pacifist, she talks things through with her dad. Things also don't work out well (spell reflected). But...

In SnowGrave, when she tries to make a decision (that she doesn't understand), and when her father responds that FireShock might be a better idea, she just dismisses her own choice and doesn't even stand up for it (I mean it's kind of hard to rebut against Fire vs Ice logic but I digress).

*Please remember Ice Shock might be a real move in the game they are playing since Rudy doesn't say it doesn't exist.

When she makes the "Wrong Choice" of IceShock in SnowGrave:

... and she gets flustered, then remembers the 'weird dream' she had.

When she finds out that FireShock was the "Wrong Choice" in Pacifist:

Notice the difference in her reaction. It's like in Pacifist she feels like it's okay for her to make a mistake. You know... like she's in a... safe space 🤔👀🤔?

Even if things didn't work out so well in Pacifist, she seems more confident in Pacifist, in contrast to being more (for lack of better words) messed around with in SnowGrave. At least in Pacifist, NOW she knows what she CAN'T do, and she can work towards finding a solution. She seems more confident to me, in Pacifist route.

(Also remember that she wanted to actually do it herself, before letting her dad help.)

You can also note that she runs home in SnowGrave, both after SnowGrav'ing Berdly, and after seeing Kris in the Hospital, and also after Kris says "it wasn't a dream" (I think, I forgot already). SnowGrave is a powerful move. But should you only focus on the physical kind of strength?

Summary: The contrast between Noelle's reactions and feelings towards decisions she has been forced to make, in comparison to choices she has considered herself, and the positive effect it has on her mentality and growth despite her mistakes, disproves the idea Susie shares that "your choices don't matter".

But by HOW much does it disprove this?

This is where I remind you that this isn't really an analysis of the game but a write up of my feelings towards life and the blorbos in the game. I am guessing you can kind of feel it by now. More on these feelings later. But you can still see it's possible to analyse the game under the theme/topic of "Decisions and Choices" or "the importance of choice" - on both 'for' and 'against' - if you really wanted to.

...Anyway with 5 Chapters left, who knows? What if you can out-ice the Ice Boss? Hail Master? Snow Rook? I can't wait for the rest of Deltarune... but I want to savour it forever. Anyway, I suppose out-icing the Ice Boss would be the equivalent of Brute-forcing your way through sh*t in real life, or a metaphor that you could be your own worst enemy... You could add that to the "FOR" side of "Your choices don't matter" (but we would have to wait until later Chapters!)

The only other thing in SnowGrave that I would point out is that Noelle focuses on Kris' strange behaviour. But she gets scared and runs home… I wonder how weird route choices are going to be dealt with in later Chapters. What if Noelle grows past her 'nightmare' and really becomes stronger for her own motives? Well, let's explore that.

Personally I believe going through bad experiences is a part of life, and it's true that you can come out stronger, but it takes a lot of patience and a good community to help you through it. So I would never want to put anyone through it. There are so many people who grew up in healthy households that weren't put through these things, and they can function perfectly well, and excel in life. So why force anyone to go through such a bad experience? Let's go back to Deltarune.

In Deltarune you can get a teen girl to kill her friend (allegedly, it was all a dream...? 😜). Which is kind of extreme. So you get my point with the paragraph above, right? Side note, if SnowGrave ends up being 'better' for Noelle there had better be a good reason for it!

Anyway I don't think a 100% Pacifist run is great in 'real life' either... neutral is best. You need some 'bad' to know what 'good' is. I wonder if there are differences in an aborted SnowGrave Run where you have the items to create the Twisted Sword?

Anyway that's a lot about Noelle. What about Kris and Chapter 1, and SnowGrave? Please stop here and take a breather if you need it.

Kris and Decision Making with the Player

First I'll talk about my feelings. We make a lot of choices for Kris. I think it would be cool where, if the player chooses mostly 'nice' options, at the end of Chapter 7 Kris says something along the lines of "Thanks for helping, but I realised I'll never be satisfied unless I make these decisions on my own." [Assuming they asked the player for help in the first place.] Sorry this is just my own feelings/wishes.

Making your own choices will always satisfy you more than if someone made the same choice for you.

There's evidence that Kris is dismayed by the bad choices we make. But there's not enough evidence where Kris LIKES our decision, but wishes they made that decision themselves. Saying "I'm not okay" after the Spamton Fight might be an example but I don't think it's quite concrete enough. I wish I had evidence both 'for' and 'against' here. That's okay though - just keep in mind Kris sometimes doesn't like our decisions.

The reason why I am saying this - let's use a real life example. Sometimes people live a life picked out by their parents (NOT ME). They might live a very good life. But when their parents pass, or in going through the cycles of life, they start to make their own choices. It's tough, but satisfying. You get to learn more about the world. You learn more about what 'choices' you liked, and the choices YOU want to make. Exploring the self. Let's go back to Deltarune.

I think it would be very cool if the Choices the Player sees are actually Kris's passing thoughts.

But what about SnowGrave? Am I saying that Kris WANTS SnowGrave to happen? To this I have the following rebuttals:

Noelle comments that Kris would actually say something like 'Proceed'

You cannot tell me that YOU as a human, have never had a nasty thought. A nasty thought about someone else, or YOURSELF. Wanting to do things to others, or yourself. Maybe you did it. But you definitely didn't act on ALL of them. They were terrible thoughts, but they just popped into your mind, for a flash... Or maybe you could not stop thinking about it, even though you wanted it to STOP! ... The difference between YOU and KRIS is that Kris can be FORCED to act on these passing thoughts at the Player's whim. I think this makes SnowGrave even creepier, from Kris' perspective.

I know there's a theory that Kris is inhabited by something other than the Player, but I don't think that detracts from what I'm saying next.

... Although I think it is a very cool idea that these are all Kris' passing thoughts, I don't think it's the intended lore. But I still think it's very cool. Don't you think!? Please tell me my idea is cool, or at least Dot Point 2 was creepy. (Some people on Twitter pointed out that SnowGrave (the move) shouldn't be known to Kris, as well as the Sans dialogue in Chapter 1, but I think it's easy to make up some reasons for these interactions). Anyway this is all just my own desire, I still don't think it's going to be canon. But, I'm really happy to know some people had the same ideas as me on Twitter.

Anyway, now that I tricked you into reading my headcanon, how does this link back Ralsei's Acid Tunnel of Love interaction with "choices"?

You could bullshit some essay line like:

Summary: Kris' dismay in the choices the player can make for them, and Ralsei's exploration of what it means to be 'Ralsei-like', and the irony in Ralsei seeing a "Kris" that may not be doing things that "Kris" would do, shows that an individual's Choices DO Matter in the journey of exploring and understanding one's own identity and a sense of self.

EXTRA - In the events of SnowGrave, and if the choices the Player sees is truly Kris' passing thoughts, it shows that one's Choices clarify their true, desired intents to the people around them (Also something about how our Selected Choices filter out the things we do and do not want, so again, Choices DO Matter in Self-exploration)

It's December 2022 right now so I am going to make Choice to see my friends (increased Grass Touching Quota due to Holiday Period. That sounds snarky but I need to see them or I will self-implode) and play MineCrap. The rest of this is going to be a collection of thoughts and dot points...

Kris hesitates or reacts slowly a few times. Kris hesitates to... make choices in How They Should Act.

Kris hesitates when responding to Susie in the_n3w3st_girl_girl. They don't know what to say. It does not matter what they said - or if they said anything at all. Just the fact that Kris hesitated, is important. Like... of all the things they could think of, they were not sure if they should say it. They were unable to make that choice for a minute.

There's a theory Kris could be under the control of another entity, but for this exploration, it doesn't matter if Kris might be inhabited by another entity, because they can still talk and move on their own at times (i.e., they can make choices when it is important = Kris does think that they have to make a Choice at some times = Choice Do Matter +1).

Snowgrave choices affects: relationships between people, Noelle and Kris's mental state, Berdly's physical state, Cyber World and recruits are messed up.

In Chapter 1 the obvious one is the Sucky Machine vs Normal Machine that you get to design.

In Chapter 1 your Vessel is thrown away (until Later Chapters, this counts as a +1 for "Your Choice's Don't Matter" FOR NOW. But I feel like if the invention you create in Chapter 1 affected Chapter 2, the vessel is probably going to end up coming back and mattering too..)

What about Susie?

In the case of Susie

You don't necessarily have to analyse every single character and action under this theme/idea, or any other theme. I haven't thought about it too much for Susie. But I'll still put a little statement for her.

In Chapter 1, Susie seems like she is doing what she wants to do, and I think there's plenty of analysis about her 'tough' exterior vs what's actually happening (her family situation in Spamton Sweepstakes, recoiling from being hugged by Ralsei in Chapter 2). Anyway I don't want to say too much. But if she was potentially projecting onto Kris during the_n3w3st_g1rl_g1rl, then...

what if she was projecting when she said "your choices don't matter"?

Being dealt a sh*t pile of cards when you're brought into the world... when everything around you is sh*t, you will really feel like you cannot claw your way out of a hole.

Other interesting things that I have not organised: Noelle blindly follows Kris in SnowGrave, Susie follows Kris only after she thinks Kris can be trusted.

Current Conclusion before I submit myself to MineCrap and Friends:

If you want to know what I really think. I think your choices DO matter, and it is always more than you think.

But also, not all the time - so yes, you can relax sometimes. You can have that candy bar. Life is serious but also not that serious 100% of the time. Don't burn out!

Sorry for such a boring adult answer.

End Notes

Wow, I REALLY want something about this theme in the game. I have a comics script briefly touching this, I don't think I am ever going to get to them.

Of course if nothing like that happens, I don't mind. I like reading everyone's theories even if I disagree (it's fun!!!!!!!!!!!), and I'm sure whatever happens in the game will be written decently…

In the end, Susie saying "Your choices don't matter" is a single line in the game. I am a boring adult. When I saw things in Chapter 1 all having roughly the same ending, and Toby's notes, I thought 'maybe because the Journey matters more than the End'. Then Chapter 2 coming out with the new note of "Only 1 ending...?", I honestly took it as "Toby has a bigger team now, so maybe it's possible to flesh out the game more". Of course, this is the boring adult way to see it. But even my own boring adult thoughts don't matter to myself.

The thing is, the game is going to be 7 Chapters. Regardless of Chapter 2 maybe having the most cutscenes - 7 Chapters is A LOT of content, I feel by that point, you could analyse the game under any topic you want!

When Chapter 1 was released the game meant something a little different to me. Same vein, but different. With a game this long, I wonder how many topics and themes could be explored? Exciting to see how a single game can affect so many people's lives differently.

Anyway if you made it this far... it's embarrassing posting something like this. So thanks a lot for reading it. I probably won't reply to anything, but I still like knowing people's thoughts. So if you want to reply you can do that...!

Don't take any of this stuff too seriously. I'm an 80% kind of person.

[agentravensong]

On Susie, the (Roaring) Knight, and the Angel

In a post of mine from less than a month after DR Chapter 2 came out, I compiled a list of details about Susie that seemed, for lack of a better word, sus. You can read the full thing here, but right now, I want to focus on one specific path of inquiry I went down there - really, just one line:

This is Susie's title as a party member in the time between her joining the party "for real" in Chapter 1 and her learning healing magic in Chapter 2.

I don't think I need to explain why seeing the narration - the game itself (or whoever the narrator is) - call Susie a Knight unprompted is concerning. However, I don't think it's evidence toward Susie being the Knight. What it means instead? Originally, I wasn't sure.

But I might have come up with an answer. Let me try and lay this out:

We know little about the Knight's motivation, but I believe we can at least be confident that they want to bring about the Roaring. After all, Queen introduces them as "The Roaring Knight", but is shortly after revealed to not know what the Roaring even is or entails. In my mind, the only reason she therefore would have called the Knight that is if they introduced themself with that title; and it would be weird for them to name themself after a calamity they don't intend to cause.

That being said, I think there's a likely secondary component to the Knight's motivations. I mean, the Roaring doesn't seem to be good for Darkners (who all turn to stone) or Lightners. So either the Knight just wants chaos (making them Jevil 2.0), or to have the Titans end the world because of nihilistic bullshit, or... there's something else we're missing.

Remember how Ralsei's initial prophecy describes the heroes saving the world(s) by "banish[ing] the Angel's Heaven"?

I think bringing about that Heaven is the Knight's true goal. That, whatever it is, the Knight believes it's worth bringing about the Roaring for.

Now, why is all this relevant?

Well, the Angel has been associated with light, both directly ("Let the Angel's power light your way." - Father Alvin) and via references to Heaven's light. So, if the Knight is in some way working on behalf of the Angel, then one could technically call them a "light knight".

And Susie? Susie's a dark knight.

Which is to say, it's my theory that Susie will be the one in most direct opposition to the Knight in the end, with the two potentially even being narrative foils to each other.

...That's where I was originally going to end this post. But then I started thinking more about the hints we've gotten about the Angel so far, and I remembered how Noelle, especially in the Snowgrave route, is associated with angelic motifs.

And then my brain hit on something, in the same vein of the dark knight / light knight dichotomy:

You know how Susie's signature move is Rude Buster, and one of her additional stats is Rudeness?

What would you say is the opposite of "rude"?

If that seems random and unrelated, consider this dialogue from Catti:

To be clear. This is not me saying Noelle is the (light/Roaring/Holy*) Knight... though, Queen certainly seems to think she has it in her to become such a Knight. And considering that she's almost the one who goes with Susie into the supply closet in Chapter 1, and then gets trapped in the library dark world, with the Knight potentially having waited in the closet for her (and Berdly)... one could argue that the Knight is taking a particular interest in her.

* I put "Holy" as an alt title for them because, ya know, angels are holy, and the fountain track being called "The Holy"... but now I can't help but think of the Christmas carol "O Holy (K)Night". Hmm.

But no, I don't think she's that Knight.

And this isn't meant to throw a wrench into Suselle endgame or anything. I dunno if it even means that Susie and Noelle will ever be pitted against each other.

But I do think it's a possibility. That Noelle, upon finding out about what the Angel's Heaven is, might be... let's say... swayed. Especially if she, say, loses a family member, and is told that it could bring him and/or her missing sister back. Especially, again, on Snowgrave.

Meanwhile, I know Susie would, despite what she said to Ralsei in Chapter 1, do anything to stop the Roaring from actually happening, simply because she cares so much about her friends, Lightners and Darkners, and, as I already said, the Roaring would be good for neither group.

But of course, Noelle is one of those friends too. And I don't think it's a given that Noelle would be so easily swayed either; even if she says that she isn't strong, and that she can't say no to most people, she proves by the end of Chapter 2 in the normal route that she has a strong will of her own (something that, again, Queen already recognized in her). I imagine that will of hers will only develop further as the game progresses. It'd take a lot to convince her, especially at such a later point of development, to be willing to doom the world.

So, really, I don't feel confident making any predictions about anything that might happen between her and Susie based on all this.

The "dark knight" / "light knight" thing, tho? That's gonna be something. Even if the game won't use the term "light knight" (cause it does sound kinda dumb).

Now, some of you might be wondering: what about Kris? Whether or not they're the Roaring Knight, which would complicate everything even further, they clearly have some knight coding, with their dark-world outfit and all. Not even just coding; their creation of a fountain at the end of Chapter 2 technically makes them a Knight. So, what kind of Knight are they?

Well. I have my own speculations, but I think it comes down to someone else. Especially if that someone - or something - else is, as some theorists have speculated, the true Angel.

(The SOUL. I'm talking about the SOUL.)

For now, Kris is a neutral party, caught between both worlds. We've seen them make at least one fountain now, but was it for the sake of helping bring about [[Heaven]] on Earth? Or do they have different, "darker" intentions?

What really is the ideological difference between "dark/rude" and "light/holy/polite" that this post has been circling around? It likely has to do with the overarching thematic tension in the game between chaos and order, freedom and control. But what does that actually mean?

What would it mean for Susie to be the Knight's true antithesis? If the Knight is acting in service of the Angel... then who - or what cause/oath - is Susie taking on the role of Knight for?

And if the dark and the light are truly opposites, then why does it take bringing about an overflow of darkness to fully realize the Angel's Heaven?

Questions for another time.

...though, as much as it pains me to say (/lh), Berdly may in fact have pointed us toward the answer to that last one:

[drowninnoodles]

Good morning deltarune theory here

What if the song 'don't forget' Dess sings to Noelle?

When the light is running low

And the shadows start to grow

Uh, Noelle enters the dark world in chapter two, logically the shadows grow, right? Disregarding the reference to Entry Number 17

And the places that you know

Seem like fantasy

Noelle thinks throughout Chapter Two that she dreams that she is in her fantasy. She doesn't acknowledge that it might be real. Every place she knows has become her dream.

There's a light inside your soul

That's still shining in the cold

Light in the soul because Noelle is a lightner? Still glowing in the cold, well. Cold, snow ... Snowgrave?

With the truth

The promise in our hearts

Maybe they promised each other something? Hell, they are sisters, they must have promised each other something. Maybe Noelle won't forget about Dess? Because in the city everyone has already forgotten about her ...

Don't forget

I'm with you in the dark

Dess reminds me of Gaster, I mean she's missing and nobody remembers her. However, there is someone who has not forgotten about her. Noelle

Sans made the same promise to Gaster, which is why he has a picture with the words 'don't forget'

Also, as we know, Dess could play guitar, maybe she can also sing?