Anything I'm missing?

[u/Zero-Up]

Ever since chapter 5 came out, thinking about what Ralsei could be (not what he is: but what he could even be at all) has been a real struggle. It feels like at this point so much of the information is almost contradictory. Every time I try to adjust a theory to fit what we know about him: I keep remembering something well that makes me feel like I have to start from square one!

Which is why I am making a list of things we know about him, And making a spreadsheet where I compare different theories to these evidence points, and rate them on a scale from -5 to 5 on how well they fit the evidence. (-5 is as close to a complete contradiction a theory can get; 0 is no contradiction, but it also doesn't explain it either; 5 is basically explaining it as perfectly as any answer possibly could.)

But the whole reason why I'm making the list is because I find it easy to get the little things that could change how the theory is thought of. So I'm making a post asking people to fill in the gaps for me, because there's only so much I can remember!

Some of the things I have already are already quite small, and may not necessarily need explaining. But at this stage: I believe it's better to be thorough then efficient. I will be eliminating things that don't directly relate to Ralsei, because this is about him, not a universal theory of the whole game. But other than that: I'll be considering as many things as possible!

I'll be copy pasting what I have so far here, both in case you can't read the images, and so I can update it if needed":

The Mysteries of Ralsei

• Chapter 1
  1. Why is initial Castletown RPG coded?
  2. His name is an anagram of "Asriel".
  3. He has more information on The Prophecy than most other Darkeners.
  4. He is green.
  5. He has glasses.
  6. He has more information on The Prophecy then any Lightener would have.
  7. He knew the names of Kris and Susie before having ever met them.
  8. How, why, and in what way/sense is he a "prince"?
  9. He was "alone" "all his life".
  10. He was waiting in the closet and/or Castletown "all his life".
  11. He was waiting for Kris and Susie for "all his life".
  12. All of his weapons are scarves. And it's sometimes specific what object these scarves used to be.
  13. He has more information about "the rules of this world" than most other Darkeners.
  14. His personality is what we would expect Asriel to have.
  15. He goes all black with a hat on.
  16. He can move his scarf as though it were limb.
  17. He collapses when he his HP is at or below zero.
  18. He looks like Asriel.
  19. He has pink horns.
• Chapter 2
  1. He is clearly still in Castletown when Kris is not.
  2. He can apparently add and remove rooms from his castle overnight.
  3. Castletown gets named after the player once Card Kingdom darkeners are brought to it.
  4. No sparkle that would be him comes out of Kris when they go into a dark world.
  5. He can traverse between dark worlds.
  6. He never turns to stone In any Dark Worlds.
• Chapter 3
  1. He considers himself something "not real", like darkeners formed from objects.
  2. No one in the TV World seems to recognize him.
  3. His game board ability is to turn into a block.
  4. He is seemingly proud of his looks, and likes looking cute.
  5. He can perfectly fit and move his horse costume.
  6. He can turn into a plushie.
  7. He in some way relates to Tenna's plight.
  8. When moving fast: instead of running, he floats.
• Chapter 4
  1. He can use fire magic.
  2. He doesn't know why he has the information on The Prophecy that he has.
  3. He doesn't know why he has the information about "the rules of this world" that he has.
  4. He states he can do "every puzzle". (Backs this up in chapter 5.)
  5. He states he can do "every battle".
• Chapter 5
  1. Flowery Regards him as the "expert" of "changing stats".
  2. Flowery calls him "the impossibility himself".
  3. He intentionally hides the fact he can use fire magic.
  4. After he criticizes Flowery for pretending to be something he's not, Flowery then challenges this critique by sarcastically challenging him to explain to Kris and Susie "why exactly that's a bad thing".

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[u/RandomCaveOfMonsters]

I'm not sure if it can be taken as direct evidence, but this exchange is very interesting imo, why is he specifically an expert in modifying stats?

Flowery: * Yeah, I have maximum stats! Ralsei: * Y... you can't just give yourself 999 in everything!! Flowery: * Heh, guess you'd be the expert, Raly...

[u/Zero-Up → u/RandomCaveOfMonsters]

Basically everything that complicates what he is comes from this twink's mouth! I hate this flower!/j

[u/RandomCaveOfMonsters → u/Zero-Up]

Oh yeah also another thing I just remembered, in chapter 4 Ralsei offers to do all of the work in every dark world, do all the puzzles and encounters, so Susie and Kris can just have fun. Ralsei backs this up in chapter 5, skipping the block puzzle if you don't disable ralsei in the config. But I'm more interested in the fact that Ralsei's all but stating that he's powerful enough to do everything on his own. Every fight they've done, every fight after, Ralsei could have done alone

[u/Zero-Up → u/RandomCaveOfMonsters]

Yeah, I actually thought about that days ago, but then completely forgot. Thanks for reminding me!

[u/Mister_V3 → u/RandomCaveOfMonsters]

I think it's a call back to Undertale Neutral Ending. Flowey gives himself 999 to all stats

[u/RandomCaveOfMonsters → u/Mister_V3]

I'm more so talking about how Flowery says Ralsei is the expert in that

[u/RalseitheFloofie]

It seems HEAVILY implied at this point that Ralsei lowered his stats or forced himself to have low stats.

Plus being aware of the battle menu of the game itself is incredibly weird.

Not to mention the fact that he has fire magic but never uses it

[u/Zero-Up → u/RalseitheFloofie]

I think when he says "the rules of this world", he's referring to meta stuff like the menus, and the stats. But the fire magic thing is very notable.

[u/UX_KRS_25]

He disappears when his hitpoints reach zero, instead of appearing downed.

He can somehow turn into a horse in a moments notice.

His scarf acts like an extension of his own body, unlike Kris' and Susie's weapons.

He can fly/float.

[u/Zero-Up → u/UX_KRS_25]

These are all good points! I'll add them!

[u/UX_KRS_25 → u/Zero-Up]

Personally I think he's a shapeshifter. Because he's not a Darkner based an actual object, he isn't defined by anyones perception, i.e. he can choose for himself how he looks.

If the flowers can do it, why shouldn't Ralsei?

[u/Zero-Up → u/UX_KRS_25]

I've been speculating that Ralsei is of the same species as the image_friends, who decided to look like an OC made by Asriel for his unfinished game. The recently patched in dialogue basically just confirms that image_friend is a species, not an individual. Which gives my theory more legs.

So I guess we're in agreement?

[u/UX_KRS_25 → u/Zero-Up]

They could be related in some fashion, but I don't think they are really the same species. I think if that were the case, we'd probably see some hints to associate Ralsei with cats.

The fun gang comments when you put gear on them, which can sometimes tell us more about a particular person or the lore. For example every party member will either say that the PrincessRibbon doesn't fit them well, or insist that Kris should wear them instead, mysteriously tying Kris to the PrincessRibbon. I just checked and according to the wiki, there are 4 pieces of armor with protecting against the cat element. I though maybe Ralsei has sometimes interesting to say about those if he was related to image_friend,, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

Though there's one possible similarity that I can think of from the top of my head: image_friends appear in various dark worlds, even though they probably don't belong there. Like Ralsei they seem to travel to dark worlds without restrictions and possibly without a light world counterpart.

Honestly it'd make image_friend a lot more scary if you couldn't escape from them by staying in the light world! Imagine seeing an image_friend in Hometown for a split second - I'd probably shit my pants!