#so many soff hand comments...I had to get a little extreme w it

[thesnowflake18]

Revival Theory (Deltarune Theory)

!!!THIS IS PRE-SWEEPSTAKES PT2, I'LL REVISE LATER!!! I just need to get this out!

Let me get some key observations out of the way because all of these points connect.

Kris seems to have experience with souls

Kris was scared to enter the dark world Ch1

Kris "chickened out" around the bunker

Kris and Noelle's friendship fell out after Dess disappeared most likely

Kris knows how to play piano despite not having one in their home. In Ch2 they're angry that they can only play one note.

Kris seems to stay completely still before heading to the piano and leaves once someone notices them.

We hear ocean.ogg when we first enter the dark world

Dark "fountains"

Onionsan telling Kris of a song from the sea

Sweepstakes mystery chair covered in darkness with ocean.ogg. "What if it could get darker than dark?"

Seam says that we best get home before dark, suggesting a change after dark in the DWs, leaving it up to interpretation of what's different at nighttime.

IMAGE_DEPTHS

Leaving the sink tap open, as the sound of running water fills the environment and they leave their soul under the cabinet.

THE ENTIRE GONER MAKER SEQUENCE

Gaster connections (Goner sequence, Dark Darker yet Darker, calling us into Deltarune)

Having the Red Soul (US) shoved into Kris, removing most of their autonomy

Kris's wagon "having seen many crashes" and that mysterious stain. Our soul is thrown into that cage at the end of CH1

Kris looking that the camera at the end of CH1, as well as multiple times throughout the game

Kris likely knows of a player existence and seems to plan ahead of us so they can set their ideas in motion

Susie says it would be cruel to have Toriel bury her own child after making threats at Kris multiple times

Susie says suggests Toriel would be better off without Kris, and Kris is said to have said something that made Susie back away and leave.

Kris is suggested to not sleep well, sleep through class a lot, and has been commented to look sickly, and zombie-like

So what does this all mean?

(This is all yap and random thoughts, buckle up)

First, it establishes the fact that Dark Worlds are connected to water imagery. The deeper into DWs you go, the darker it gets. The deeper you venture into an ocean, the darker and more dangerous it gets. Kris seems to be connected to this web, as they are the ones who hear this ocean sound when first falling into a dark world.

The fact they have history with the bunker, likely a dark world that wasn't sealed, and that they back away from the closet DW suggests to me that they have some vague knowledge of them. Perhaps some trauma, even if they don't fully understand what DWs are till after CH1.

I'm fully on board with the idea that it was only Kris and Dess who explored the bunker for some reason. Perhaps Noelle was too afraid and Asriel stayed back with her, or perhaps neither of them were there, as Noelle does say that "they never found anything interesting in the forest." Dess and Kris being the boldest ventured inside, but Dess never returned.

This is where I have a different idea of what happened.

The bunker perhaps is not where Kris and Dess ventured. Or perhaps it was connected to a different DW. I'm suggesting that this DW they discovered was water-themed, and they discovered it during night time. I believe that DWs become less welcoming at night, perhaps new creatures appear who are more aggressive, and the environment is harsher. We can imagine what would happen in a water DW at night, and it's not the calming scene that Kris and Susie had, but harsh waves and high tides, and creatures reminiscent of those found deep in the ocean.

Would it be too crazy to suggest that perhaps, neither Kris nor Dess made it out of that Dark World??? I believe both of them were to be lost in the darkness, DROWNED IN THE DARKNESS. Kris, however, encountered a mystery guy of sorts (YES THIS IS GASTER I'M SORRY BUT I HAVE TO INCLUDE HIM). Since they were so young, I can't imagine they remember much, except waking up once more to feeling numbed out.

I don't believe that red soul is theirs. They have a lot of connections to other soul-types (one can argue Orange or Light Blue. For this theory it doesn't really matter), so it's my belief their soul shattered in their demise, but as they were found and saved by Gaster, they were given a new chance at life through a new SOUL. The soul associated with persisting after death. Gaster could not let the only human that could work as a vessel perish. They really are the only hope for this world with a forseen demise. (Maybe this is why Gaster made us create a vessel, since Kris was likely very sickly due to this event??)

I believe that perhaps Kris tried to return to life as normal, but knowing Dess's fate eventually made it too awkward and painful to be around Noelle, therefore they went their separate ways. I also want to think this is where Kris started feeling an inkling of their autonomy slipping away to a higher force. Something or someone was pulling strings their strings, testing how far they could go. This is why they get so still, as it's someone acting for them, and they likely resort to the piano as a way to shake themselves out of that foreign control. Eventually they have to resort to removing their soul entirely, and it becomes second-nature to them by the time we're in the picture.

I headcanon Gaster to be morally grey, doing heinous things for a greater cause. It's likely he knows of Dess being alive somewhere in that vast darkness, and is trying to help however he can through controlling Kris's new determination soul, but has consistently failed. Perhaps he's even had Kris live through other DWs and nothing yet has worked. Maybe he already saw or foresaw to an extent the demise of the world, so that's why he is finally resorting to us, an even higher being to accomplish the main goal of finding Dess, course correcting this world and hopefully giving Kris and Noelle and their families a happy ending.

I'm sure that's why he attempted to give us a new vessel, but the Angel (the incarnation of fate) has kept sabotaging his attempts to save Dess and the world, landing us into Kris's body and becoming their new controller. Now he's standing in the sidelines as we try our best to fulfill this prophecy he crafted to lure us in.

Perhaps we'll have to make Kris face their biggest fears yet. Perhaps they'll have to venture into that water DW again. Maybe this is the only way to find Dess at all. I'm not sure if they're happy that they're here again. It seems like their life has only gotten worse since that incident. Perhaps that's why they've become more quiet and reserved. Perhaps that's why they keep removing their soul, it's not like it belongs to them, it was given. And for what? They don't know, but they're too scared to fall into darkness again. It's suffocating to them. Like they're drowning again. Perhaps that's why they don't back down to Susie's mean comments, and they truly believe it wasn't fate to have them survive instead of Dess. Susie says it would be cruel to have Toriel bury her own child. Susie says Toriel would be better off without them. There's an irony to her words that only Kris knows. At this rate who is Kris to back down to those statements, maybe in another timeline that would be true.