#ralsei titan theory

[darkcandy-starfait]

Theory: Ralsei is a Titan (or at least a Neo darkner)

Hey so. this theory and analysis has been long over due, I'm so sorry but I kept forgetting and getting sidetracked with school work.

Okay so many people have noticed how weird Ralsei is, he's honestly a whole can of worms on his own without considering every theory being made about him.

But I have had this particular theory in my for like almost a whole fucking year, so let me propose a weirder one: Ralsei is a titan.

What do I mean by that? Honestly, I kind of only half way know what that means, since this is more of crack theory but here are my points

We all know that Ralsei looks different between the first two chapters. But a few people have pointed out that Ralsei's transformation from chapter 1 to chapter 2 is rather strange, as the two look very different. Toby has said that Ralsei looking different was a recent choice made during development.

He first starts out as this black, fluffy figure in a ratty looking robe, with his hands mostly obscured, and a hat. but after he takes off the hat, he suddenly looks very different: white fur, and more boss monster like. in chapter 2 we see his robes are neater looking and his arms are visible with black sleeves.

I find this bizarre, because it's such a drastic change. Looking at his two forms side by side, it almost looks like two different characters. Like, taking off a hat should not change your form like that, even if it might be dark world logic.

Ralsei is also shown to disappear when he's downed in battles. Susie, Kris and Noelle all have sprites of them kneeling or collapsed on the ground when their hp reaches 0. But ralsei just... turns into a pile of his clothes, in both forms. Almost like he's made of nothing??

Ralsei also seems seems just show up in dark worlds without Kris or Susie bringing him there in his supposed object form. Other darkners like Rouxls and Lancer are physical objects (both of them are playing cards), and need to be carried in Kris' pocket to the Cyber World. Kris has to physically take all the objects from rooms and bring them back to the supply closet.

Since we still only have two chapters at the moment, what object Ralsei actually is in the light world is currently a mystery. Some say he could Kris' red horned headband (personal favourite of mine), or even the missing green crayon in the Dreemurr house.

I even theorised that he might be Kris' mysterious knife they always seem to have on them, which is why he's always in the dark world shortly after Kris and Susie arrive there. But we never see Kris' knife in their inventory anywhere, unless Kris is just. materialising the knife out of thin air???

This still doesn't change to fact that Ralsei, if he did have an light world object equivalent, would have to be carried around like every other darkner in order to travel to other dark worlds. But he doesn't. He just... shows up in Cyber World to help Susie and Kris without any explanation other than "I felt a dark presence."

Most interestingly, he later explains that darkners who don't belong in other dark worlds will turn to stone. All the Card Castle characters in the Cyber World turn to stone in chapter 2, but Ralsei doesn't. He does say that Castle Town's fountain is made of pure darkness, so that's why all darkners can live there.

Ralsei being Castle Town's ruler helps him in this case, and the fact that a piece of text in Toby's concepts for Ralsei's manual says that Ralsei's form is made from Castle Town's fountain. Makes sense that a being made from pure darkness would be able to live in every dark world. But here's another question I have.

WHY is Castle Town's fountain made of pure darkness? How did it get this way? Is it because the fountain has maybe been around longer, while others like Card Kingdom and Cyber World were created only recently? What makes a fountain pure darkness?

Well here we bring up some interesting lore from Queen in chapter 2. Queen says that she needs a lightner to help spread more darkness, by literally opening a dark fountain inside a dark world. In the Giga Queen fight, she calls it a Neo Fountain.

Berdly almost makes this a reality, only to be stopped by Ralsei, who suddenly drops the lore about the Roaring.

The Roaring is a prophecy of a sort of apocalyptic event, where opening more dark fountains and fountains within fountains could cause mass destruction. Giant beings known as Titans will form from all the fountains, and will cover the world in darkness, turning darkners to stone and leaving humans to fend for themselves.

Ralsei speaks of this like its either a prophecy that was passed down to him, or something he even witnessed first hand. Maybe that's why he has no subjects in Castle Town. But I want to go back to everything I've said here about Ralsei, the most important ones bolded.

• is able to change forms by the drop of a hat (haha)

• is supposedly made of pure darkness like Castle Town's fountain

• fades into nothing when he's downed in battles

• can travel between dark worlds without being brought physically in the light world

• doesn't turn to stone when in other dark worlds while many other darkners do

• knows about a catastrophic event where more fountains are made and giant beasts made from darkness ravage the land

That last part. When I remembered that Ralsei said that the titans are formed from dark fountains, and that Ralsei is a darkner of pure darkness... well that got me thinking: What if Ralsei is a young titan? His first form in chapter 1 could be closer to his true titan form, and he might be taking a new form in chapter 2 to appeal more to lightners.

(Side note Ralsei taking the form of a boss monster, the species that Kris' family is, is another can of worms I have to save when I talk about their connections.)

What if Ralsei is a product of a Neo fountain being created? What if he's the last remnant of a time when there were more fountains, when the sky was black with terror, and the land cracked with fear.

Like, NEO fountains are even talked about more in the Spamton Sweepstakes. When you play this puzzle on the website, and click the 3rd option on the bottom row, you are brought to a sprite of a chair.

We all know the chair, but the phrase in the window of this page definitely seems seems be hinting at the creation of Neo fountains.

What if that's Ralsei's deal. Even if he isn't a titan, what if he's some kind of Neo darkner? What if he's more darkner than darkners in general?

_

Honestly I'm fully prepared for this theory to be steam rolled over when the next two chapters drop, but it was fun and interesting to write nontheless! I'm interested to see if anyone else has their own theory about this or if you even had the same thoughts?

[groovygladiatorsheep]

❝ No one look good with me but you.❞

So I saw Titan!Ralsei theory… have some food y’all, it’s, well, not a comic but it’s a drawing I made !

I imagine the eye to like, rip Ralsei’s skull apart or something like that.

༺═──────────────═༻

* Credits.

Ralsei belongs to - Deltarune

The theory is by - @unidentifiedflyingchoco

༺═──────────────═༻

[dafeelingsperson]

A take into Ralsei is a Titan Theory

I don't believe the Ralsei is a Titan theory.

But after seeing this image something felt strange.

It's supposed to be an inside joke of the camera being broken in that room.

But seeing how the Deltarune Team placed it it's very interesting, you can see the camera with Ralsei's photo centered between two "signs" that look oddly familiar...

You can only see this if you backtrack before Queen's fight.

In The Dark Truth. Two Skinny Titans at the side of the Main Titan in the middle.

Someone pointed out how this two things are very similar.

I know this might be stretched, but what if Ralsei doesn't want The Roaring to happen seeing what will happen to him.

I see the two familiar signs and the broken camera as foresahdowing as what might happen to ralsei when The Roaring happens.

This also can conect to why ralsei lives in a place where marks of Titans are everywhere.

This might me a stretch seeing that it's an inside joke, but let's remember that toby uses accidents like the Intro accident in Undertale to make the story of Undertale.

Source

So yeah, tell me what you think about this theory.

even if it's not true, I had fun doing it.

[fadingwinnerpirate]

The Dark Doll-A Deltarune Theory/Narrative

Kris and Dess stood in front of the imposing double doors of the strange bunker deep in the forest. It was hard for Kris to not feel nervous, especially considering that it was the middle of the night, but seeing Dess be so carefree, whistling while spinning the rusty key-ring around her finger certainly put them at ease. They hadn't brought Asriel or Noelle; those buzzkills would never let them do something this exciting! "All right, enough admiring the fine handiwork of this door. You ready to go in, Kris?" Dess said, while moving to the door's lock. "Hm, if you are," was Kris's only response, a subtle-yet-playful jab that only their closest friends would pick up on.

As the giant doors creaked open and the pair made their way inside, the quiet noise that was only barely perceptible from outside grew louder, becoming the only thing to fill their senses in the darkness of this place. "Yeesh, can it GET any darker in here?!" Dess whipped out her cell phone to illuminate the stairs ahead of them, but even that light was soon swallowed up as they carefully proceeded into the seemingly infinite dark and the ever growing drone that gnawed at their courage to continue.

Dess yelped as she stumbled and fell onto the now suddenly level ground. "You okay, Dess?" Kris called out a bit too loudly, even though she couldn't have been more than a few feet ahead of them. "Ugh, yeah, but I think we finally found something!" Dess clawed up and dusted herself off, and started walking forward with her arms outstretched, feeling around for anything that might serve as a souvenir of this adventure, which Kris was also doing, but searching around the edges of the room they found themself in. Soon, Dess called out that she'd found something and Kris made their way over to her voice, "What is it?" "Dunno... it's rumbling a lot... it has a lot of tubes coming out of it... feels like there's some sort of gas coming out the top, but it's not hot at all..." Dess tried and failed to describe what she was feeling, which fostered an anxiety in Kris. "Uh, let's try not to take whatever that thing is, okay?" Kris muttered as they stepped back from Dess towards the stairs. "Y-yeah, you're probably right," Dess also stepped back, but both of them failed to notice a new sound joining the ubiquitous drone of this place.

Cracking. Splitting. Scratching. The roar of hundreds of tons of concrete and steel coming apart at the seams under the pair's feet. Kris immediately started running towards the stairs once they felt the ground shake, their building anxiety suddenly transformed into full on panic. They thought they heard Dess call their name as they stumbled on their way up the stairs, but they never looked back, and soon the rumbling died down as they saw the light of the moon as a bright pin-prick ahead of them. However, something new took their attention as strange, unreadable symbols, as well as the meaning of those alien words flowed into their mind.

TAKE THE DOLL, AND NAME IT

PULL DARK FROM IT LIKE LIFEBLOOD

AND AGAIN FROM THE EARTH

YET ALIGHTED IN RETURN

TILL HER EYES ARE CLOUDED IN FEAR

FREE THE NIGHTMARE

FREE THE GIRL

Sure enough, as Kris reached the top of the stairs, there was a large, featureless doll sitting at the top of the final step, the only thing of interest about it being a red, heart shaped patch in the center of its chest. Kris grabbed the doll and stood outside the bunker, waiting in disbelief for Dess to emerge from the darkness.

Yet she never did. Panicking once again, Kris ran to the one person who they could trust above anyone else, their brother Asriel. He was staying over at Noelle's house to help out with something or another, which only added to Kris' panic. How would they explain this to Dess' parents, or Noelle? They wouldn't. They would get Asriel's help and save Dess before things got out of control. So, with this plan renewing their courage, Kris made their way through the forest and Hometown to the Holiday household.

Asriel answered the knocking at the door to see his beloved younger sibling with an expression that he'd never seen them wear before, not their typical boredom or their occasional mischievous smirk, but an expression of deathly seriousness with eyes that seemed to be looking far past Asriel. Noelle was still awake, laying on the couch and listening to Kris' story, though it seemed that they didn't recognize her presence until she exclaimed in horror when Kris told them about the floor of the bunker seemingly crumbling beneath Dess' feet. "W-what?! She's n-not... I-is she?" Noelle looked like a ghost, and her voice was shaking like she was as cold as the grave. After a momentary surprise of realizing that Noelle was in the room, Kris said, "I... Don't think so, but we have to make sure the town doesn't go crazy over something they can't control, right?" "R-right! We'll find Dess before the town realizes something bad happened to her, r-right? Wait, I have an idea! Kris, you know which window leads to Dess' room, right?" Kris nodded, and with some sort of mutual understanding went different ways. Asriel was completely in shock, and his mind was going a mile a minute, he couldn't believe that something had happened to Dess, he didn't know what Kris and Noelle were doing, and he felt like he needed the full story from Kris before he made any decisions. For now, he simply watched as Kris and Noelle took things out of December's room to stage her disappearance as a runaway situation. As the Dreemurrs left for their own home, Noelle seemed so anxious that she might pass out, and Kris still seemed incredibly haunted by something.

In the morning, Kris finished their story about what happened to Dess, about the doll and the mysterious message that they received. "And... You're sure you didn't hallucinate this?" As unbelievable as all this seemed, there was something in the way that Kris told this story with so much grief that Asriel couldn't help but believe them, and a solemn nod is all he received to his question. "W-well, how are we supposed to 'pull darkness' from the earth, a-and how are we supposed to bring light to that darkness after the fact?" Asriel started to wonder if playing into this message was worth it or if he should just bring it to the police, maybe Dess was just trapped under rubble in the bunker- "First things first, we need to give this doll a 'name,' some sort of identity that'll be useful to us. Maybe, since we got some kind of instructions about how to create the darkness, the doll can help us bring the light?" Kris thought for a few moments before leaning close to the doll and whispering into it, telling it of its role, of how important it was to bring light to the darkness, of the heroes it would accompany on this mission of the gravest importance, a story filled with the hopes and dreams of the one telling it. After finishing their whispered story, they handed the doll to Asriel, "I think you should give it its proper name, you're way better at that stuff than me." Asriel couldn't tell if Kris was being genuine or if they were jabbing at Asriel's creativity like the rest of his friends, but either way, this responsibility had been given to him. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't think of a name that he liked at all, due in no small part to the doll's almost complete lack of identifying features, "Hm, if only... Hey, Kris, can I see your horns?" Kris obliged, and now Asriel seemed to be genuinely considering something, "Red... I think Ralsei or something would sound good!" Kris couldn't help but chuckle about how similar that was to Asriel's name but chose not to say anything and took the doll back, being reminded of the truly dire straits that the both of them were in.

"So, second thing second, how do you think we're supposed to 'pull darkness' from this thing?" Kris thought for a moment before saying, "It did say to do it like we were drawing the lifeblood from it, so maybe we just stab it in the heart?" Asriel wasn't convinced by this Occam's Razor approach, however, saying, "And what if that isn't how you do it and you destroy our only means of saving Dess?" Kris bristled at this critique, and pushed off their bed, and into the hallway, "Unless you have a better idea, I'm going to try mine, all right?" They soon returned with a knife from the kitchen, and Asriel, failing to come up with a counter argument in this short time, sighed and sat back to see how this would go. Despite their belief in the simple solution, Kris too believed on some level that more than a simple stab was needed to achieve this feat, they needed focus. Tightening their grip on the knife, Kris thought of what they needed to do to save Dess, thought of how this was their mistake that they needed to fix. They would do anything to right this wrong, no matter what it took, no matter how long it took, no matter who would happen to get hurt because of them. Dess was trapped wherever she was because Kris didn't even think to reach for her hand that must have been extended for them, and Kris was going to reach out their own hand into the dark, until it found her.

[charrators]

ralsei’s “face reveal” doesn’t match up with his silhouetted face (longer face, longer, smoother ears and bigger, curlier horns), and that one titan looks a lot like that one statue of asriel, who’s connected to ralsei, and ralsei’s horns under his hat are the same shape as the suspiciously asriel statue shaped titan’s horns and we don’t know where ralsei’s parents are or why he doesn’t work like other darkners or why the spades king doesn’t seem to count him as a darkner and look i’m not saying that he’s definitely some sort of shapeshifting titan who chose a form similar to asriel to endear himself to kris but like. if the shoe fits

[papyrusgayfont]

* I saw a comment on an upload of “The Dark Truth that theorized that Ralsei could’ve been a survivor of a previous roaring, and that’s why he’s the prince of a kingdom with no subjects

* and that led to me thinking “ok, if there WAS a previous roaring, could that have been the thing that shifted the Deltarune timeline into what it is now, and separated it from the way the Undertale timeline played out?”

* perhaps during the war between humans and monsters, someone tried to use the Titans to wipe out the monsters; but of course. that didn’t happen, and everyone, including the humans, were affected.

* the monsters in Deltarune seemingly don’t have magic (in the light world anyways), so what if the monsters used their magic to seal away the Titans, but therefore lost the ability to use magic? But, now that they don’t have magic anymore, and as a sort-of peace offering, the humans let them stay on the surface, since they weren’t really a “danger” anymore to the humans, and also they literally saved their lives.

[lynxgriffin]

Well given you think ralsei is not a "full darkener". It's similar like how with my theory that raslei is a titan im darkener clothing(using Kris's horns) I think that because

-he knows a lot of stuff that not even queen knew about and other more aware darkners knew

-knows specifically the roaring

-can teleport in different dark realms

there are a lot of things ralsei is hiding, I mean who to said he is hiding his power because he is too kind like papyrus until he has to.

I think there's a lot of different possibilities for how Ralsei knows those things...I know I've certainly got my theories! I personally don't think we know enough about the titans to guess that Ralsei is related to them, though...do they know things at all? Are they even sentient, or are they just effectively forces of nature? No clue!

[ferronickel]

So hey, about that Titan theory...

So, like, there's a link that's been established between Titans and Save Points, what with them having save points for faces and all that. And then you have these themes running throughout Deltarune of Nostalgia, The Past, Memories and "Don't Forget", and what do save points do? They "remember" everything that's happened in the game so far, and allows the player to "recall" that "memory" of how things transpired.

Then there are some... oddities surrounding save points. Like how they sometimes seem to appear out of nowhere right after key events - right after the 2nd battle with Berdly is the one that sticks out to me the most, but there might be others that I've forgotten about. And then when using them, there's mention of a "certain power" that Kris (we) are filled with - either that we are invoking to SAVE, ala Determination in Undertale, OR power that we are "investing" into the Save Point in exchange for the ability to Save.

So, my theory is that the save points aren't just scattered about willy-nilly, but have an actual diagetic presence in Deltarune, and that every time we use one, we're in effect "feeding" them memories of our adventure - and in particular of plot-critical moments - to ensure that they are not forgotten. And following on from that, MAYBE, if we wind up feeding enough of these save points enough key memories, then perhaps they may awaken or ascend or what have you to become Titans - beings made of the memories held in darkness, with potentially enough power to "SAVE" entire timelines.

Note that there are three Titans that appear in Ralsei's description of the Roaring. And there are three save files. Coincidence? Could be. But an interesting parallel to consider, nonetheless.

But the main reason I thought of it in relation to the latest page of Looking Glasses is that honestly, it doesn't matter whether the Titans are actually made of Darkness (as in the same stuff as the Dark Fountains) or of Light (as in, the save points). After all, too much of either can still blind and damage people just the same.

Okay that's it thanks for letting me ramble Ferro! Excellent work on the comic as always :D

Oh now that's a good theory, I'm super into this! Love the idea that the titans are our save files coming to life, which might explain some of the weirdness with how the save files are connected to each other. Like how defeating Jevil in any save file will get you the shadow crystal if you start ch 2 in another file. The game could do some really cool stuff with this, I'm going to be chewing on this theory for ages. Thanks so much for sharing!

[mirror-ralsei]

THEORY: Before The Story

This theory was inspired by TheQueen0fNowhere's incredible Noelle theory series! Please check them out before reading this one!

---

The Roaring. It's set up as the penultimate event of Deltarune, a cataclysmic doomsday that will end the worlds.

But not all is as it seems. Those of us deep in the Deltarune theory trenches may even be familiar with the idea that a Roaring may have already happened, wiping the environs of Castle Town off the map.

But what if that wasn't the only apocalypse?

And what if they've both happened before?

---

A RELENTLESS FUTURE

Gaster wants us to create "A NEW FUTURE," implying there was an undesirable "old" future.

Reaper Bird's check text reads "This relentless future finally looks brighter and brighter."

Reaper Bird is a character heavily tied to Deltarune through Everyman, reflections, and arguably the CORE mercenaries, which were recruited by a shadowy shapechanger who we didn't meet in Undertale so could be a Deltarune character.

Through the lens of Mew Mew reviews, Alphys foreshadows Deltarune may be "darker" than Undertale was.

Mew Mew 1 and 2 have been used across Undertale and Deltarune as allegory for Undertale and Deltarune, respectively.

Kris seems to have been possessed before.

"Oh, Kris, er... does this sometimes."

"Looks like [the birdcage has] seen quite a few crashes."

Seam seems resigned to the world being doomed.

"After all, it's not as if whatever happens, will matter in the end."

"You, too, will begin to realize the futility of your actions. Ha ha ha... At that time, feel free to come back here. I'll make you tea. And we can toast...to the end of the world!"

The track playing over the Delta Warriors standing at Worlds' Edge, an event that has not happened yet, is titled "Before the Story."

This melody first appeared in "Premonition," an Undertale track that appears when Sans asks about a talking flower, and in the secret room containing "redacted."

"Premonition" is defined as "an intuition of a future, usually unwelcome, occurence; foreboding"

The track that plays during the Weird Route hospital scene is called "flashback_excerpt," even though it is happening in the present.

In an unused alternate scene, Susie desperately begs Kris to wake up, even though they haven't become friends yet.

Deltarune has very little truly unused content compared to Undertale, and much of it seems plot relevant, such as the dummy text strings

The southern bunker is internally described as a shelter: "obj_town_shelter_event"

The existence of such an old and overgrown shelter in a peaceful town may imply disaster has occurred before, or at least reason to suspect it was coming

In conclusion, it seems possible that Deltarune has ended badly before, or at least that bad things are expected to come.

The reason I believe it's the former is because there are two types of calamities that may be foreshadowed, and certain characters seem to have very detailed knowledge of this.

--

THE ROARING

Ralsei seems strangely haunted by the Roaring, as if it's happened before

The closet Dark World ("???") contains oozing darkness and Titan-like eye shapes, similar to Ralsei's depiction of a Roaring

The neighboring Castle Town was empty

THE FREEZING

Sans has "only seen it snow as bad as this once," when "you could barely see your bones in front of your face." Noelle after Snowgrave states "There was so much snow, I couldn't see anything..."

Charles the mole and Spamton both mention preparing for "winter," and Charles mentioning "getting stronger," a phrase associated with Weird Route Noelle

Spamton knows what will happen on a Weird Route, and may have already experienced being frozen (in the FreezeRing? Ice Palace?)

Also there's this quote from Flowey?

---

THE ROARING WINTER...?

The Roaring is associated with darkness, and a hypothetical "Winter" with cold/snow. There are a couple of instances describing both.

Gaster approaches us from somwhere "cold" AND "black."

An Echo Flower version of a killed Toriel mentions being somewhere both "cold" AND "dark"

In summary, it's possible that not only either one of these calamities could have already occurred, but perhaps even both.

---

FURTHER SPECULATION

Ralsei seems to be associated with the dark Roaring, and Noelle with the snowy Weird Route. It is notable that both of these characters seem mutually exclusive and symbolically opposed in many ways.

Ralsei looks haunted by the Roaring, as though he's seen it before. Similarly, TheQueen0fNowhere points out that it looks like Noelle may have used Snowgrave before.

If these assumptions turn out correct, then in some way, the world may have already been destroyed by the Roaring and the "Winter," resulting in a "dark, cold" state.

This would explain a lot: why Kris is allowing themself to be repeatedly possessed, for instance, or why Gaster wants us players to make a "new future."

Unfortunately, if my assumption that Ralsei is associated with the Roaring and Noelle with the "Winter" is true, and if the popular and heavily foreshadowed theory that the characters will be mutually exclusive is true, that could mean we can only stop one of these calamities...on each file, at least.

Then again, there is also Susie - representative of neither railroading nor sequence breaking, but a secret third thing... Is she the key to truly saving the future?

[patchwork-crow-writes]

New theory: The Roaring/Titans are the platonic ideal of the "Final Boss"

Dark fountains bring objects to life as Darkners. And Darkners can also form from things that don't have a physical presence, as evidenced by Chapter 2 - think Virovirokuns, Poppups, Addisons, and of course Spamton G. Spamton himself.

So who's to say you couldn't take this further? Couldn't Darkners be birthed from more abstract concepts? Things like emotions, or thoughts, or dreams?

How about narrative conventions?

Dark worlds are incredibly narrative-driven, particularly compared to the more free-form Light world:

There's a linear sequence of locations and events which is almost impossible to deviate from;

choices exist but provide no meaningful difference to the experience;

there's a big storybook-type energy - Ralsei insisting they are heroes, the existence of a Prophecy, "evil" monarch antagonists, sprawling kingdoms to travel through...

events occur in a very "plotty" way that furthers character growth and development (i.e. Susie joining Lancer and learning to shed her hardass persona in Chapter 1, or Susie dragging Ralsei away in Chapter 2, leading to Kris and Noelle teaming up, leading to Noelle's growth that enables her to challenge Queen);

and each world is resolved with a climactic boss fight that results in a big turning point for one or more characters.

None of this happens in the light world, as the big events have all already taken place and the characters are just trying to deal with the aftermath of those events. Things are much less "scripted", and you're free to explore the world at your leisure... until it's time to go home, of course.

Apply all of this to what we know about the Roaring and the Titans, which is... not a lot. They're described like an apocalypse, beings of horrifying, incomprehensible power, more forces of nature than characters, and the ultimate existential threat to the balance of light and dark. it's like every vague doomsday-sealed-evil-in-a-can scenario rolled into one... and maybe that's the point.

What if the Roaring itself is the Darkner form of the concept of a final threat? Not a specific threat in and of itself, but the idea of the end of the world given form by the darkness? An unidentifiable and seemingly-unstoppable force that exists to motivate the characters (and us players) to try and stop it, whose sole purpose is to provide us with a sufficiently epic and satisfying climax to Deltarune... and is ultimately destined to be thwarted at the eleventh hour, because that's how all the stories go?

And if that's the case, you have to wonder... are the Titans the real final threat? Or is that just what we're being led to believe for the sake of the dark world's narrative?

[lesslie-sass]

It would be very nice deconstruction of Flowey absorbing all monsters and 7 humans souls while everyone in pain

But here Ralsei turning against his will in to destructive beast and is the only one in pain

I worked too hard on this thing

Ralsei is a titan theory still superior

[revtrosity]

Deltarune Theory Time!!!

Imagine it, right...

Chapter 6 Finale. The last rouge dark fountain in the dark world. All of Kris’s classmates have become Delta Warriors. The balance between light and dark is about to be overthrown and The Knight has been defeated in the nick of time. 

Disaster has been avoided. Ralsei’s there. Lancer’s there. Rouxls Kaard...is also there I guess. Every boss who tried to stop you is now on your side and is cheering your victory.

The Knight attempts to rise as you celebrate, but can’t. Your friends notice. Ralsei and Rouxls (being the lovable doofus he is) come to their side to help. It’s clear they aren’t any more in control over their choices as Kris is and accepts they could never have succeeded in the first place. And just before Ralsei can cast a healing spell...

SHINK!!!

The Knight is stabbed. They fall over. They turn to dust. Everyone watches in horror. And the only one standing is Rouxls, goofy smile gone. Just a deadpan stare. 

He then calmly approaches the dark fountain, turns to the lightners and darkners, and dropping his Shakespearian accent says, “If you haven’t gotten it by now, your choices don’t matter.” And then, he summons The Roaring.

The Angel’s Heaven opens and with it, the titans descend. As havoc reeks below, Rouxls ascends, leaving you to fight for yourselves. And with it, the game has changed.

Rouxls Kaard being the real antagonist is a theory I’ve had for a while. Because I’ve always thought: what if he’s being a lovable doofus on purpose? Getting you to lower your guard and assume he’s just an idiot, when really he’s been calculating his plan behind your backs?

I know it sounds dumb, but really, who better could be the antagonist of this game? In a game where the overarching theme is not having control over your choices, who would make a better villain than the guy who makes the rules? The Rouxls Kaard...

[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:

[kaunaz]

aight i figure i should toss in my own Deltarune theory instead of just responding to someone else's. so let's talk about Ralsei.

this turned out to be a long-ass post, so get comfy.

so many people suspect Ralsei will turn out to have been Evil All Along, no doubt helped by his similarities to Flowey and possible connection to this universe's Asriel. he knows quite a lot about the mechanics of the Deltarune game, including how those tie into the player's keyboard. he keeps trying to ensure we follow a specific path through the Dark Worlds. he (previously) insisted on Kris being the absolute leader and submitting to them no matter what. and he clearly knows far more about the history of Dark Worlds, the nature of Dark Fountains, and the Light World itself than any other Darkner, and for some reason is very reluctant to tell us anything we don't absolutely need to know.

on one hand, i agree with the sentiment that Ralsei is hiding something Big. we haven't encountered any other "pure" Darkner (one born from the Grand Fountain), and he appears to have been alone for quite some time. he practically jumped at the chance to tell us the prophecy of the Three Heroes, but only told us about the Roaring out of desperation, and has yet to explain who or what the Titans or Angel's Heaven are.

but on the other... i can't agree that Ralsei's evil. for one, he definitely does NOT want to cause the Roaring, and i'm not budging on this. he wouldn't be having us seal the fountains if he wanted that. for two, while he's definitely a bit manipulative, the only goal i can glean from his more questionable behaviors is to keep us on track to seal the Fountains, without asking too many questions or becoming too violent. for three, having preconceived notions about how things should go isn't evil. when you spend so long waiting for something to happen, eventually you're going to build up an idea of what's going to happen, and it will inevitably happen differently than you're expecting. and it appears Ralsei has been waiting for this for a long time.

the previous paragraph assumes that Ralsei is telling the truth about the legend, the Roaring, and everything associated with it. if he's lying, that throws literally everything we've learned about Dark Worlds into question, and we end up with a scenario where literally anything is possible. if that's the case, i can't reasonably speculate on it because there'd be nothing to base my speculations on. so i'm going to continue assuming he's telling the truth.

what do i think is going on, you ask?

simple. Ralsei is trying to protect Kris and Susie to the furthest of his ability.

we know that Ralsei knew who Kris and Susie were before they arrived. and not only does he know the exact layout of the Light World, he understands its systems and culture well enough to know and agree that Kris and Susie should be doing their homework instead of slacking off in the Dark World. that tells me he's been watching the Light World for a long time, and probably knows things about Hometown that even Kris doesn't. he also knew exactly where the Cyber World was and how to get there, despite the library not being physically connected to the school. (how he got there isn't important - yet.)

with this level of insight into the Light World, i think it's reasonable to assume that Ralsei knows exactly who the Roaring Knight is.

remember that the Knight MUST be a Lightner, as Darkners are incapable of opening Fountains themselves. i'd have to replay Deltarune to be certain, but i don't think Ralsei ever brings up the Knight once. one would think that if he didn't know what was going on, he'd at least ask some questions about the Knight's identity. him saying nothing about it tells me that he knows much more than he's willing to let on.

i think Ralsei knowing who the Knight is would explain why he doesn't want to tell Kris and Susie more than they need to know. for all of his knowledge and apparent power, he cannot control what they do in the Light World. and if they were to know who the Knight is, there's a possibility that they would attempt to confront the Knight in the Light World, where they don't have any special powers or weapons. while the jury is still out as to whether or not the Knight is just as powerful in the Light World, they are clearly very good at manipulating Darkners, and it's likely they're good at manipulating Lightners too. and whatever they're trying to accomplish by opening Fountains, they are either 1) willing to risk destroying the world as we know it, 2) actively trying to destroy the world, or 3) unaware of the risks and maybe a bit insane. they are a dangerous person, and i understand why Ralsei would want us to avoid confronting them directly, at least without being as prepared as possible.

and since the Knight is so dangerous, i believe Ralsei is also trying to keep the Knight from figuring out who Kris and Susie are, or at least what they're doing. if the Knight knew who was going behind their back and sealing the Fountains, they'd probably go after the culprits in the Light World, and who knows what they'd be willing to do to achieve their goal. once again, Ralsei can't protect Kris and Susie outside of the Dark World, not directly. the best he can do is make sure they don't start the fight themselves.

come to think of it, that may be part of why Ralsei's obsessed with keeping Kris and Susie on track. the less time they spend in the Dark Worlds the Knight creates, the less time the Knight has to figure out who's missing from the Light World. perhaps the roles that Ralsei expects the party to have also play into this somehow? i'm not really sure on that one.

either way, i really don't think Ralsei's evil. while there are certainly better ways he could be handling the situation, at the end of the day, he just doesn't want Kris and Susie to get hurt. whether that's because he cares about them or solely because he needs them to stop the Roaring, it's too early to tell. all i'm saying is that i get why someone who knows THAT much about what's going on might want to keep some things a secret.

yes, i know i didn't talk about Ralsei not knowing exactly who he is, or why he talks about his identity as some sort of role he needs to fill, but that's beyond the scope of this theory. so is the fact that the prophecy was "foretold by time and space" and the possibility of connections to Gaster that raises. that's some weird shit, for sure, but i don't think it's relevant to deciding if he's evil or not.

[cloudyartkid]

now i know you like deltarune

favourite character ?

i personally like lancer and/or ralsei (( idk how to spell ))

Aaayyy first ask I’ve received! =D

I honestly don’t think I have a favorite character (or at least not one I’ve fully settled on yet.) Though I could bring up a couple ones that I really like:

Deltarune spoilers for those who haven’t played or seen the game:

Cyber Queen (Yes I like to call her that rather than just Queen, I just think it suits her):

I find her to be more interesting antagonist in Chapter 2 than the Chaos King in chapter 1. She has a well written goofy personality, yet she still works pretty well in the chapter. I usually prefer more serious and intimidating villains, but I still really like a few of them (Bill Cipher and Discord are examples of goofier villains that I still really like.) She also works well thematically as she plays a part in Noelle’s character arc in chapter 2.

Noelle:

Speaking of Noelle, she’s definitely one of my favorites. Not just cuz of her arc, but her likely connections to Deltarune’s themes seem to imply we’re far from done with her. (And Snowgrave was pretty dark- I like the whole idea that she ends up at the same point in her character arc as she did in the normal route, but the journey to get there was very different and gave them a different outlook on it.)

Kris:

I for some reason like shy quiet characters (especially protagonists-). I don’t know even why. Speaking of which, I get the feeling that there’s a 50% chance they’re the knight honestly. I know this theory is almost universally disregarded as debunked by the community, but I’d have to disagree. Most evidence that people use to say it’s impossible is weak and based off either false or only one interpretation of a scene or text that has multiple ways of being interpreted, and honestly I’d say you could argue that Kris being the knight would be more narratively powerful than baiting the audience twice in a row. (Some people probably just reject this idea simply because they don’t want to believe what they believe is bait in a giant who-dun-it mystery, even though you could argue that Kris’s motives as the knight is the actual mystery and not whether they are the knight or not (which would make sense given Deltarune’s protagonist vs player conflict that this scene could be trying to further establish, and cramming a whole who-is-the-knight mystery alongside that could probably result in both being weakened severely)) I could write an entire essay on this if I really wanted to, but I’ll leave it at this.

Berdly:

I had to remember and take another look at what this guy’s backstory was again, and honestly, I relate to this guy’s fear of the possibility of having to go somewhere without the help of Noelle, since I’m soon going to enter the adult world, and gonna have to learn how to do everything by myself without the help of people who I’ve relied on- (it was also cool to see him genuinely concerned about Noelle in the Snowgrave route before being turned into a frozen chicken nugget-)

Ralsei:

This guy’s cute and all. The suspicions that people have on him are a bit overblown in my eyes, but I can still see the possibility of something being wrong with him. (I honestly didn’t see much wrong with Ralsei supposedly talking to Kris off camera since I’m pretty sure I skipped the second one during my first playthrough cuz I didn’t know what it was when I first saw it- Nor did the whole titans and the roaring thing come across as withholding information to me since he still explained that the world would end in chapter 1. But he simply didn’t give the details for exactly HOW it would end, though you still could argue that itself was still extremely important) Still wouldn’t be too surprised if he turns out to be hiding something big though.

[stainedglassthreads]

Something very weird happened last night. I had a dream about writing and posting a Deltarune theory and... it was actually pretty coherent? So may as well post it in the waking world as well. XD

To start with, we can all agree that eyes, their visibility, and what they see seem to be a recurring motif in Deltarune. Kris, Ralsei, and Susie all begin with Kris and Susie hiding their eyes with their bangs, and Ralsei hiding his whole face with his hat. By the end of the chapter, as Susie and Ralsei have both opened up to others more, Susie’s eyes appear consistently on her portrait while Ralsei begins walking around without his hat. The first time Kris decisively shows that they are not a blank slate protagonist and have motives of their own, we get a glimpse of a red eye. Furthermore, in the unnerving landscape leading up to Empty Town, we see eyes carved in the cliffs, accompanied by the riddle ‘Only eyes blinded by darkness can see.’ These eyes later reappear on the bodies of the Titans, in Ralsei’s description of the Roaring and the accompanying cutscene. 

The theory in my dream was that, following this theme, all Chapter Bosses would have obscured or unusual eyes. And so far... they seem to! King’s whole face is a spade, giving the impression his eyes are completely hidden by shadows. Queen’s ‘eyes’ are really a visor, which she can display words and symbols on, but which are clearly different from organic eyes because she remarks on having bad facial recognition, to the point she can’t recognize Noelle as Noelle when Noelle’s disguise is literally just a bag over her head. 

A lot of people have been drawing fandesigns of the supposed boss of Chapter 3, believed to be named something like ‘Tenna’, ‘Anne Tenna’, or ‘Aunt Tenna’. A lot of these designs will draw heavy inspiration from a strange face found as an easter egg in Spamton’s basement. But when we see the grinning TV at the end of Chapter 2, there are no eyes. It’s quite unlike the smily face associated with Flowey and Chara, their ‘=)’. Really, it reminds me a lot more of Sans’ smile. A crescent, simplistic details of teeth. No eyes. It’s somewhat similar to the face in Spamton’s basement, in that the teeth are in detail, but it’s not squiggly or dimpled like the basement smile-- in contrast, the lines are quite neat. Perhaps it’s because, needing to be fit on a tv screen, Toby had to sacrifice detail. Or perhaps the face in Spamton’s basement was hinting at a different person, or was even a red herring. 

So, while we won’t be able to confirm this theory for some time, it could mean something that Chapter 2 closed on just a smile with no eyes, that that was the cliffhanger Toby Fox wanted to leave us on. Did he leave out the eyes for insignificant reasons? Or is it a recurring theme that, like our three protagonists, the bosses of the Dark Worlds all lack visible or conventional eyes? That they all possess ‘eyes blinded by darkness’? 

Might the Knight’s design also lack visible eyes? 

Guess we’ll just have to wait and see tho. 

For theorizing on who the real owner of the pink and yellow eyes could be, if it isn’t Tenna, this theory by @ariadnesweb is a rather interesting one...