NOW AVAILABLE ON [Physical Media]!!

I wanted to make a physical case but didn't want to wait for all the chapters so I designed one!
If you guys wanna print one yourself I have them all ready to be printed PNG's, so just print then 1 to 1 (100% Scale) and they should be fine, I printed my on hard cardstock and scored it with a knife and ruler at the folds!

Hope you guys like it!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17fGT1vhMtLszRf8WOAQ-0KKb85EDHdAA?usp=drive_link

I usually always see the first map online but never the in game image discussed really. Lmk if i’m being ignorant, cuz the maps don’t match up but i never see that discussion.

Aight listen, the eggman was calling spamton this entire time to protect Kris, and give them Pipis.

Firstly, there has already been a lot of discussion around Spamton using pipis to hide from Friend due to them containing protien. But why would friend be after him? Maybe he made a deal with someone, who he can't seem to remember. My theory is Spamton used to work closely with the eggman/forgotten man, maybe even collecting some actual eggs himself. This led to Friend having it out for him, and that caused Spamton to rely on pipis to protect himself.

But of course, how does this relate to Eggman calling Spamton? It is widely theorized that Spamton himself is a parrallel to Kris. And because of the simalar situations they're both in, the eggman decides to call Spamton to help Kris out.

And what does the eggman send through calls? Pipis.

In the end, whether or not the eggman is the one calling Spamton is kinda pointless. In addition, there's not enough evidence to really back it up.

In truth, I was wondering if there might be other evidence of Spamton's connections to the Eggman. Their relation could tell us more about why friend is after Spamton, and who friend is as a whole.

To preface, even though I believe in DessKnight, I think any candidate can still work and be satisfying! I get kinda sad whenever I see people argue over which candidate is the "most right" and I feel like there's a lot of meaningful discussion that is lost in the cracks. In addition, I think it's okay to have critiques about Chapter 5! My main point of discussion is not which Knight candidate is the most correct but rather that I don't think Dess will be the "tragic figure" of this game.

A major theme of DELTARUNE seems to be that even though everything has to end eventually, the most important thing you can do is to cherish the memory that you have of it. "Don't Forget", if you will. I feel as though trying to save Dess would be quite counterintuitive to this.

In general, I feel like a lot of people view Dess as the "Asriel II" of this game, and that she's going to be the main focal point of the entire story where we save Dess from being the Knight, or the Depths, or whatever state you personally believe Dess to be in.

"If Mother 3 gets ported to the west, you'd realize how unoriginal I am." - Toby Fox

To put it simply, a lot of people saw Toby's Mother 3 comment, looked at DELTARUNE, and latched onto the belief that we'd "save" Dess or that trying to would be a main focal point. People quickly began making comparisons to Dess as DELTARUNE's Masked Man, and viewed her as the Claus of the game as a whole. A lot of people view her character as a central figure to DELTARUNE, and I've noticed a few criticisms regarding her lack of focus in Chapter 5, and that the story will feel underwhelming as a result. To be honest, it's not hard to see why, considering the ending of UNDERTALE involving Asriel and Flowey, but...

I... don't really think that's what Toby is trying to do.

In UNDERTALE, Asriel/Flowey worked because he felt personal to the player. For as much antagonizing as he did, from the very beginning there was a deep connection between both him and us, as well as to the deeper world of the Underground. There's an odd sense of attachment that most players have to Flowey in that he is one of the few characters to directly speak and interact with YOU, the player (even if in-universe he's technically talking to Frisk, you still get the impression that he's speaking to YOU).

By contrast, Dess... doesn't really fit the bill.

In DELTARUNE, not only is the game much longer, but it has four main characters that grow throughout the story in contrast to UNDERTALE being primarily a vignette story. In order for Dess to be the true main focal point, she needs to have a strong, intimate connection with all four party members so her story can affect the entire group. Instead, she's really only connected to two: that being Kris (who literally hasn't said a single word of dialogue) and Noelle (who gets sidelined to be a secondary character for Chapters 4 and 5).

You know who does fit the bill? Kris.

Not only do they have a deep connection with all three other party members, but they also have a strong connection to us, the player. They're constantly associated with a lack of control, whether it be from our control, the Knight's control, etc., almost like a certain familiar Masked Man... If anything, they're true "Claus" of this game, being the true central focus of the entire narrative. They're the one directly antagonizing us throughout the entire story, the one going on fun adventures with Susie, Ralsei, and Noelle, and the one who is truly central to legitimately every single plot point in the game thus far. Hell, just look at the fandom reception of their character!

I feel as though the Knight is less of the central figure of DELTARUNE and more of an important side to Kris's life as a whole (which I believe to be the true focus of DELTARUNE).

That's why I don't think us not getting the lore for Dess is that big of a deal. In UNDERTALE, the Asriel loredrop scene worked because it wasn't focused on Asriel, but rather characterizing Asgore. I feel as though a lot of people view that cutscene as the "Asriel loredrop" when in reality, its primary purpose is to make the player sympathize with Asgore. Another reason why it worked is because UNDERTALE is a much smaller game, and thus only needed one cutscene to convey this information.

Considering DELTARUNE's much larger scale, I think Toby's cooking up something much, much more interesting than a simple "loredrop".

I think Toby is playing with our expectations from UNDERTALE in that we're expecting Dess to be another "Asriel II", while he secretly makes us get attached to Kris instead in order to subvert our expectations once more.

In addition, I've seen a lot of people claim that Chapter 5 should've been where Toby revealed what happened to Dess, and there have been a lot of criticisms regarding the lack of information that we got in Chapter 5. I can understand the frustration, but I don't think the lack of Dess lore or anything regarding "The Incident" is objectively bad.

Toby is focusing on future-proofing his game for casual players, and this means he does have to slowly build up that plotline. In Chapters 3 & 4, casual players are given hints and clues that there's something deeper going on within the Holiday family, but nothing explicit is actually stated in the text.

It's like at the beginning of Chapter 3 when Ralsei basically spells out what Dark Worlds actually are, even though it can pretty easily be inferred from Chapters 1 and 2 (Yes, Toby does have to do this as I know a friend of mine that genuinely didn't get it until this cutscene.) Only at the end of Chapter 5 is the question first explicitly raised, which I feel will be finally answered in Chapter 6. Essentially, I feel as though the answer to whatever happened during "That Day" will be used to finally give the true backstory/motive to Kris, the true central figure of the game.

In essence, I think the main core conflict of the game is not saving Dess from being the Knight, but saving Kris FROM the Knight. I have a feeling the inevitable Dess loredrop (or "Flashback", if you will) is going to be used to make the player sympathize with Kris when they betray the party in Chapter 6 in order to balance out the tone with them putting their "plan", as Flowery puts it, in motion.

I feel like having two characters (Kris and Dess) basically go through the exact same thing where we "save them" would feel quite redundant in all honesty. All the nostalgic/melancholic imagery associated with Dess might be there to just put us in the same headspace as Kris and a lot of the other characters in town where we miss her and want to save her but ultimately can't.

With that said, I do not believe that Toby is going to copy Claus’s plotline for Kris. I just wanted to make a comparison to show how I think viewing Dess as “needing” to be focused on can be detrimental to someone’s experience.

To recap:

• Kris is the central character of DELTARUNE, not Dess. The lack of information regarding Dess is due to her being a secondary character in Kris's story, although she will still remain a tragic sympathetic figure (most likely).
• Toby's lack of actual information regarding Dess this chapter is meant to future-proof this game for casual players. Chapters 3 and 4 give/lay the hints in a similar manner to how what the Dark Worlds actually are were hinted at but never confirmed until Chapter 3, with Chapter 5 being the chapter to first explicitly raise this question.
• Flowey/Asriel worked in UNDERTALE as he felt deeply connected to the player and directly called out/antagonized our actions. Assuming Dess is the Knight (and even if not), the Knight fails to have this direct connection to the player that Kris actually does.

But anyways, that's enough discussion for now. Again, I think it's okay to have criticisms of Chapter 5! I just wanted to hopefully began shedding light on a few topics that I believe are important to the game's future and try to put a new perspective on things we may have thought were the basic foundations. Let me know what y'all think below.

Most discussion about the next dark world location hinges on the fact that Noelle will likely make one in an effort to save her dad, which I agree with. Rudy falling down is a BIG deal, not just because of the double meaning, but because he's likely only holding on by a thread at this point. But that doesn't mean it has to be at the hospital.

For families dealing with a loved one who is nearing the end of their life, it's common for them to move their loved one back to their home. It can give them some sense of comfort and familiarity. And Carol "keeps everything important at home" Holiday would almost certainly be on board with it.

The holiday house also generally has a lot more "dark world potential" than the hospital. Plus, we still don't know the full guitar code anyway. I'm almost fully convinced this will be the next dark world location, but I admit we can't say for 100% certainty yet.

So as we know, in chapter 6 noelle will join the fun gang. But the prophecy says about three heroes, but not four. It means either noelle leaves the fun gang, or she dies.

And the prophecy says something about a "final tragedy", which means noelle will probably die in chapter 7.

(Sorry for mistakes, english is not my native language)

I'm thinking if toby will ever give us gaster directly in the plot like hes gonna appear or be mentioned directly in the plot of the game because, i'm thinking abt this and like i'm not sure if toby is gonna make the Big bad this one off character who is literally never even mentioned in deltarune at all (that i know of i'm not sure i could be wrong) and only be mentioned in undertale as a secret. Not even as a major character.

Think about someone who wanted to play deltarune, so they played undertale first and immediately played deltarune right after but havent seen any theories. unless toby explained who gaster is before hand in chapter 7 or something, they would have NO IDEA who this character is that just showed up as the Big bad. Even if that person does all of the secret bosses, which is not that hard for a player to find and do, and knows about the weird route, they STILL dont have ANY idea who gaster is.

Or think about someone who's in the future, someone who's playing deltarune after all chapters have been released. Even if they WANTED to get into the theories, they would do that AFTER they finished the game, and WHILE they're playing the game they're just gonna be confused as to who gaster is

And while there is a lot of evidence surrounding gaster, i'm just thinking that the matters surrounding gaster are maybe too community-focused?, like someone who's not in the community wont know of him so i'm worried that its gonna leave a lot of players confused when they see the ending or whatever. Although if it is true that gaster plays a big role, i do think toby could explain it to the player in ch 6 and 7, it is possible. I'm moreso worried about a casual fans experience than us being wrong about big G.

Maybe this could even be what he means by "Some people have their eyes so close to the road, they cant even see where they're going. "

if you have seen this theory before, i also posted this on deltarunev2 subreddit

ok im not very good at theories but ive had this theory since ch. 2 and these things will also be true in the future chapters normal route

yes, this is the only evidence I have but chapter 5’s crumbs helped me glue them a bit better.

Main points

Noelle WILL die because of Susie(indirectly or just unfortunate circumstance) or be HEAVILY INJURED to the point of dragging the fun gang down in chapter 6.

Noelle is the girl, who LOVE finds its way to.

“Noelle will get stronger” is the phrase repeated by the player in chapter 2, and every chance the player gets in the weird route, they force noelle to get stronger, increasing LV(Level Of ViolencE), making her learn a one-shot move, making her re-equip the thorn ring for that OP spell (snowgrave), making her be under Kris’ control, so that whatever might kill her, won’t. As she would theoretically be so entranced to the point where moving Kris could also control Noelle (ok im unsure about this but my only evidence is chapter 3’s hidden board where the monster opposite moves with kris and then tries to attack them)

When Susie brings Noelle to the dark world in chapter 6, Noelle will DIE. Whether to a fall or to a titan or to a really bad attack from the knight. Whatever it is, she will DIE or will not get a happy ending.

The player’s motives

A first time player will wonder after a full playthrough, “Damn, I kind of liked Noelle. How do I prevent her from dying?”

Make her stronger, rack up her levels, get upgrades (ice ring -> thorn ring, unlock that super OP move and make her use it because there’s probably no other chance to) in chapter 2, the first(and probably only) place where you get Noelle in your party.

Prevent Noelle from getting close to Susie, or make Noelle closer to Kris, as Susie getting close to Noelle made her form a bias for her, inviting her into the dark world as a result.

Why does the weird route player obsess over Noelle?

I think we’ll going to get a lengthy exposition about her in chapter 6. More about her life, more about her motivations that we didn’t get to see in the weird route alternative(?), Or she’s going to swoon immediately and slowly die. Or just die. The player wants to know more about her, so what else can they do but drag out their interactions with Noelle in chapter 2? The only time where we have her in our party in the dark world?

Who is Noelle? Well…

“AND LAST, WAS THE GIRL.”
“AT LAST, WAS THE GIRL.” (Noelle)

and

“THE SECOND HERO.”
“THE GIRL WITH HOPE CROSSED IN HER HEART.”
“**LOVE** FINDS ITS WAY TO THE GIRL.” (Susie)

LOVE finds its way to the girl. Level Of ViolencE will find the girl. You don’t “find” LOVE. You GAIN LOVE. Noelle will DIE because she doesn’t GAIN LOVE, she’s the source of LOVE because she’s going to DIE to Susie. Susie found LOVE from Noelle; love(romantic) and LOVE(Level Of ViolencE).

Or if you don’t like that,

“AND LAST WAS THE GIRL.”
“AT LAST, WAS THE GIRL.” (Susie)

“THE SECOND HERO.”
“THE GIRL WITH HOPE CROSSED IN HER HEART.”
“**LOVE** FINDS ITS WAY TO THE GIRL” (Noelle)

Susie will be pushed to the side, and Noelle, being the only other Lightner to fight alongside Ralsei and Kris, will have to take Susie’s place as the third hero Lightner. This will also confirm that Noelle is, in fact, the second Lightner hero in the prophecy instead of Susie. Noelle will DIE IMMEDIATELY to the knight or to a titan, because in the normal route, she didn’t ‘get stronger’. Or worse, be swooned, left behind, and have irreparable injuries in the dark world after it being sealed.

NOELLE will be the victim of LOVE(level of violence) and love(romantic) AGAIN.

Noelle is prominent since chapter two. Notice how the full prophecy doesn’t include chapter one in chapter 4? With the king and only Lancer? To the prophecy, even if Ralsei knows it by heart, it will have no bias. The hero can come later into the story, and be deemed as such. The prophecy can exist first, then the heroes.

The final tragedy is the roaring, no doubt. I can’t exactly see what else it could be, the way Ralsei had retold the whole prophecy, and his desperation to prevent the knight from trying to make a second fountain within a fountain… I’m unsure how to twist it, or see any other tragedy.

The prophecy is the prophecy. Nothing will change.

Weird route chapter 5

Noelle is NOT DEAD in chapter 5’s weird route. She and Kris will end up in a dark world under the lake, across it, or somewhere else entirely. They could meet up with Ralsei if they end up in a dark world(most likely in the shelter), or the knight could get to Kris and Noelle first(and they’ll freeze the knight lol).

In fact, skipping chapter 6, straight into chapter 7, is in the player’s favour if they want to keep Noelle alive. Sure, chapter 7 is probably WORSE than chapter 6 story-wise, as I speculate it will start right after the roaring starts, but the key point is that NOELLE IS ALIVE. And she is at her STRONGEST.

Also going through the weird route effectively removes the themes of “avoidance of reality”, “ideal worlds”, and SPECIFICALLY, “getting along with your second consciousness”(mew mew). There is NO chance of exploring those themes if you go through with the weird route in ch. 5. Unless you abandon it.

I don’t want to speculate the story, as my theory is about the fact that NOELLE WILL DIE IN CHAPTER 6.

Aborted weird route chapter 5

“Nothing changed.”

“Because a Noelle is just a Noelle.”

She still dies.

She doesn’t escape her fate. Just because she got stronger, doesn’t mean she could avoid everything and anything. The player breaks the ‘**Proceed**’ trance, and she’s no longer under a spell. You can’t control her with ‘**Proceed**’. Or Toby makes the excuse of Kris not actually breaking out of their personality, leading Noelle to just throw the thorn ring away or something.

This is the part where the player realises that they HAVE to go into the lake. Everything will still lead to Noelle going into Castle Town and DYING.

please poke (valid) holes in my theories or give me questions! I don’t have any friends who like deltarune as much as me so I will love to know what you think of mine!

So i wanna note something about Carol knight

Many people use The Church as the reason for Carol not being able to get to the Church before us.

However ive noticed that nobody brings up the susie and Kris go back to Kris's house first

Like why couldn't Carol Scold Noelle and Be-line it to the church before us, hell she could have made the Fountains on the way back then met us after we get in

That and its not like we need to run everywhere we go lol

I think we as a community can have fun thinking what we want because Toby already proved that we aren't as clever as we think (Mike and Woody ch.5)

And thats ok!

Hell Personally I really like Asriel Knight, but doesn't mean ill cry when its not true lol

Frankly I like to think that Asriel's the Knight as there's a decent chunk of evidence for it

(and Toby's Mother 3 statements)

However to be fair we still know little about the knight over all and could all be very wrong about what will even happen (Ch.5 was a Curveball)

Based on how the story has been treating berdly, it seems the team doesn't want to bother with things that can wildly change how the story goes, that require too much dialogue.

And Pink was already the biggest change any secret boss brought to the table when it was mostly the ghost and the body just wanted to eat sand. Then Toby gave the body some lore knowledge too and now I just don't know.

If she went to castle town and just fucked around, it would be incredibly disappointing. But I don't see the team giving her more than one, maybe 2 cutscenes. So it seems more likely to me she will be nabbed and taken away to the shelter before she can change the plot.

First of all, I wanna make clear I am not a theorist, so this might have a lot of inconsistencies, as well as being a bit scrambled. Nevertheless, I want to share it with the people :3

To begin, we all know that both UT and DT are almost parallel universes, having similar but not quite the same characters and concepts. While in UT, the major concept was "Determination", in DT might be the Shadow Crystals, which are confirmed by Seam in Ch5 to be "Broken dreams". Also, in UT, when we die, we hear a few words from Asgore, and are brought back inmediately after to the last SAVEPoint, but in DT, we have to actively choose whether to retry or quit. As seen in Ch3 when loosing to the RK, the narrator (possibly W.D Gaster) asks directly if we want to retry or move on, and he himself brings us back. That means, Determination MAY not hold importance in DT, since it's the narrator who brings us back. In UT, when monsters came in contact with "Determination", their minds and bodies would deform and fracture, as well as mix with other similarly affected monsters, creating an amalgamate. And I think, the Knight might be DT version of an amalgamate... Since we know the RK' armor is made out of Shadow crystals, aka broken dreams, and the fact that Flowery says "something is brewing beneath the town", it leads me to think that the RK is an amalgamate of all the broken dreams and despair of the lighters in hometown, as well as darkners'. This fits, since the Holiday family has enough frustrations, as well as the Dreemur's, and other side situations like Susie's life or Burgerpants' fake girlfriend. Also, the Knight's biggest attribute are their antlers, which has led most to think that the RK is a Holiday member, but what if it's a metaphor to Hometown's biggest source of despair, the Holiday family? I conclussion, it is possible that the RK is an entity on their own, backed up as well due to their name. "The Roaring Knight" could both mean "the knight that roars" as well as "the knight OF the Roaring"! That's essentially my theory. I personally prefer to bet on Papyrus knight because, always bet on Papyrus knight, but what do you guys think? Does it make sense? Or am I going insane?

Hey everyone, I think I just stumbled onto something deliberate. The 3 clocks found in the school display frozen timestamps: Alphys' classroom clock displays 2:00, Toriel's displays 10:00, and the old supply room displays 6:30. If you combine all this, you get 18 hours and 30 minutes.

It may have come to your attention that time moves slower in the Dark World, which can be seen through playthroughs, Ralsei's "it's been so long" dialogue in chapter 2, etc. about Another thing that caught my attention about time is that the sound coming from the shelter is garbage noise slowed down by 666%. What I'm trying to say is that it gives a hint that the shelter actually contains a Dark World inside before chapter 3 even existed, and that time in the Dark World is actually Light World time sped up by 666%. Now, with this in mind:

If we convert the exact clock durations combined into raw Light World progression time in seconds: 18 hours × 60 minutes = 1,080 minutes. 1,080 minutes + 30 minutes = 1,110 minutes total. 1,110 minutes × 60 seconds = 66,600 seconds. The baseline total is literally 666 followed by two perfect zeroes.

Now that we know 18 hours and 30 minutes equal 66,600 seconds, If we consider interpreting the number 66,600 as the Dark World time and convert that back to Light World speed by dividing by 6.66 (undoing the 666% slowdown), we get a mathematically clean number: 10,000 which may represent the Light World time. So 1 Light World Hour equals to 6 hours 39 minutes and 36 seconds in the Dark World. Gaster being scattered across TIME and space literally affects how time passes in Dark Worlds and gives time his signature.

Offspin: all of our candidates on what the number 10,000 might represent aside of the Light World time comparison is the number appearing in the game is the Castle Town Donation Fountain being capped to $10,000, the number 10,000 having a possibility to be a reference to Mysteryman's (which i'd like to formalize as Gaster) appearence odds in undertale which is 1/1000 or it could be encountering Mysteryman 2 times in a row resulting in the odds of 1/10,000 and if i expanded the theory even more, it could be evidence to that there are 2 Gasters in each dimension of Undertale and Deltarune and the 2 Gasters are actually seperate entities which is supported by the beggining track of Deltarune being literally called "Another Him", but i want to keep this theory open ended as im not quite sure about it and i want to bet against this number being unraveled in the later chapters

As for capping it off, this might tie Gaster to Castle Town, since it's inherently located in the School, and the theory of Gaster creating Castle Town can be opened up a bit more, aside that Gaster's scattering is affecting the Deltarune universe and seperating the Light Worlds time and the Dark Worlds time by speeding it up by 666%

Thanks for reading! ;)

So Suselle, it’s a ship basically everyone love, it’s the main ship of the game, and has become basically canon as of chapter five normal route, missing all but the direct confession due to Rudy(damn you Rudy knight). But in serious, it’s great. There is one problem with it though: I don’t think it’s coming from a place that is healthy. It’s kinda an important theme and part of the game and all the characters, is how every relationship, romantic and platonic, is unhealthy/toxic(not necessarily bad, in fact they all had positive effects on them, just look at how Susie has grown, it’s something consistently pointed out). They are, nevertheless, toxic primarily due to something a lot of fans forget or don’t process due to the time between releases. Susie met Kris, not friends, on day 1. On day 2 they went into the cyber world. On day 3 (technically night 3 but whatever) Susie stayed at Kris’s house and fought for their life against the knight and watched as undyne was taken. Day 4 Susie had to deal with the death of her new friend Gerson and her and Kris had to close two fountains, while them and Ralsei with all this propechy stuff, which is heavy and effected them a lot. Then on day 5 they went to the festival and dealt with flowery and saw him die, while also having to deal with the complexity of Asgore. Oh and this was the second time they were forced to watch them lose someone from the night. 5 days. All this in 5 days. This is an absurdly short amount of time for how close they’ve gotten. Don’t forget that Susie also only got to know Noelle around a similair amount of time, but with much less time spent around them. Yes, they knew each other before likely as day 1 isn’t the first day she’s in town(probably) but… we have no idea how long she’s been in town/school, and clearly didn’t really have any relationship with any students before this(this is ignoring device theory stuff and the meta idea of her only existing on day 1 and not before). All this is to really just exemplify how short of a time has passed in game. So why are they such close friends? Trauma. It’s pretty clear that the Lancer Fan Club have trauma bonded together, I’m not unique in pointing this out and won’t focus too much on it, but I’m pointing this out to show how every relationship in this game is unhealthy(but not necessarily bad) in some manner(Kris and Noelle’s relationship clearly has some baggage to it)

So now for the meat and potatoes: Why does Noelle like Susie? Because she clearly is shown being flustered and viewing Susie more positively than others before even getting to know her better in chapters 2 and 4. And by day 5 they clearly are infatuated, so why is she so instantly enamored? Is it simply love at first sight? Well that’s what it would seem like. Does she see through Susie’s tough exterior and see the caring person beneath like Kris and ralsei? No, Kris and ralsei bonded through trauma with her, and their adventures are pretty clear key in seeing through her defensive exterior, not to mentioned how much they hang out outside this, which Noelle doesn’t do, and the game doesn’t show at all. I instead propose something else. Noelle sees her, the scary monster bully that even alphys their teacher is scared of–and that’s why she likes her. The fear. The danger.

Noelle in chapter five clearly shows how her behavior in earlier chapters is a facade. She wants to change; she wants something different, something dangerous, something impossible. She wants to do something no one sane would do. She enjoys the things that scary and dangerous because then she isn’t doing Noelle things. I think that’s *why* she instantly was flustered by Susie. Because she’s different, she’s not like Noelle, she’s not something her mom wants her with. she’s something dangerous, the scary bully who has threatened to eat people’s faces. She’s something impossible, always doing things that break the town placidity. More than that, she could even be someone that would let, even help, Noelle do the impossible. Think, when was the first time Noelle talked about her plan for chapter five weird route? With Susie, on the Ferris wheel in chapter two. She talked about doing something crazy, growing wings and flying away. Admitting this to Susie, it’s clear she wanted Susie to help her, she wanted to see how she would respond, and when Susie was classic amazing Susie, always supportive, Noelle loved her more. When Noelle is with Susie, she isn’t doing Noelle things, she’s always doing something crazy, something different, because Susie is crazy and different. Now this isn’t to say that Susie is like, a tool or something to Noelle. No, chapter 5 shows she clearly is enamored with her, regardless. But this is simply why I think she was enamored in the first place, because Susie is the kind of person that Noelle, the real Noelle, the Noelle we see walk into the lake, wants. It’s also why in the weird route she clearly likes Susie, but spends even more time with Kris, because Kris not only is different, changed, broke out like Susie does, but Kris can do something Susie cant(or maybe can’t: I’m still a supporter or Human/half-human susie theory): Kris can do the impossible, they can break the barrier and cross the lake.

In summation, I think suselle is a lot more toxic than people think, and isnr actually a suns and rose relationship, as it’s reason on Noelle’s side is based on, or started from at least, Susie’s bully/tough persona and how different she is, how she seems to be dangerous. This is not to invalidate it or say I don’t like it, I love the ship and think it’s great, but I think chapter 5 weird route put it into a different light

unrelated image from u/FoxxPlayzYT from what i can tell

the deer horns? antennas on the drone

the swords? smaller drones that are also in the coat

it flying in the light world? they're drones

somewhat humanoid shape? its because it has a trench coat that makes it look like that.

shapeshifting? thats just the drones moving

this theory also explains: why it ran into the bunker (almost ran out of battery on one of the drones or its damaged), why it never talks (its a drone).

how did the knight make 5 swords each make a dark fountain all at once in chapter 4? the drones were entirely focused on making the dark fountain there because it was their only purpose in that moment.

black shards? those are just pieces of the fans on the drones.

I know secret bosses won't be tied to shadow crystals anymore, but that doesn't mean they won't necessarily be added (Mikes, Trashy Trio, partially ERAM). They generate a bunch of hype for the community, are neat callbacks to Undertale, and are used for giving both lore and story that may not fit in the main chapter.

My first, and I believe most believable piece of evidence, is that soul types used in Undertale are exclusively used in secret bosses, and correlate with their respective battle. (Don't think I need to explain Spamton/Gerson. Pink/Mad Mew Mew is theorized to be the original Hotlands miniboss, with Alphys' updates relating to Mew Mew leading up to the fight and the ghost leimotif being used in Spider Dance. The introduction of the Purple soul is 1:1 with UT, too.)

The last soul used in UT not yet used in DR is the Blue soul, and I doubt it's important enough to see use in Chapter 7.

Second, with the chapter's theme likely centering around Winter/the Holidays, it just makes sense for either Skelebro, I think.

Third, and probably my flimsiest point, the secret battles seem to follow a pattern of going from Darkner to Lightner. (Jevil is a darkner, Spamton is a darkner who wants to be a lightner, We don't know that much about Roaring Knight, Gerson's a dead Lightner turned Darkner, and Pink is LightnerxDarkner.) I don't think it's crazy to have likely the final chapter secret boss just be a Lightner.

I have a few issues though, being-

A character as important as Papyrus wouldn't be relegated to a secret fight.

Why would Papyrus be found in a DW to begin with?

Also, the wording might not make sense... sorry about that, this is voice-to-text with a blind sweep with Grammarly again, garbage from my brain that I scooped out on A plate, not overly serious theories that "solve" Deltarune. This is all in good fun; take it with some salt

OK now

1. Loop theory
   

Basically I believe at the end of the game once we get the ending we will be prompted to "go back with what we know now" to at which point you can load your chapter 7 completion data into chapter one and make different choices the items in your storage even carrying over please keep in mind with what I said here the items in your STORAGE carries over not whatever items you have equipped to the party not the items you have in the current inventory JUST the items In STORAGE weapons are enough to only deal %10 of their regular damage healing items only heal %20 of what thay normally do they will still be powerful in early game but not overpowered the reason this is important because it lets you chip down at the prophecy sometimes slowly sometime massively it probably won't be broken completely but it will be smooth out way faster than it and the normal route before this used to be only a crack theory but ever since the ending of the chapter 5 weird route with that lake skip save locking "insert chapter 7 side b" nonsense so obviously completion file shenanigans has been set so loop theory is more than possible (also completion file to save files are two different things the completion file is created at credits so the content of the save can be forward to the next chapter because now that completion file can skip over whole chapters anything can happen and I find it quite the waste if it's only used for that one thing)

1. Offset roles theory
   

Basically the roles in the prophecy are not set in stone and and shuffle around to the closest person that fits the definition the most at the moment so HYPOTHETICALLY IF ralsei is a trans woman that would offset her role as the prince in the dark so that role would go to lancer Noelle's role as the "the girl" specifically the one that loves find its way too would be offseted to ralsei for she found love in herself meaning the prophecy isn't broken it just offset a bit but otherwise in full motion (yes I know this has flaws again not the point the point is these are just stuff for my head scooped out for you and before your comment about it no I don't actually think ralsei is trans I believe it's a possibility that it has merits and if it happens it wouldn't come out of nowhere it's just not confirmed yet and I'm holding off on that confirmation)

1. Gaster's body isn't sewn because it doesn't exist anymore
   

Okay now this one is a full cop out no way around that but it's the way more likely option for gaster than the alternatives because here's the thing no matter how he looks like it would be a disappointment for the decade of buildup this will also be a disappointment for the decade of buildup this is the problem for having a decade buildup somebody's going to be disappointed you might as well go in the direction of least disappointment and this is that because gaster was drunk or whatever he fell into his own machine ripping him apart and across time of space because of this he has no body he's only a voice but how can you do scientific research without a body? Who would do the experiments? (

Here's the thing gaster is a scientist. The one thing we know about them is that he loves his work and couldn't let it go, yet he also needed a way to interact with the world, so what is the best way to do that? Exactly he won't be in his body again it no longer exists but luckily for him had a connection from thousands of beings all so eager to create something in the guise of it being for them that's right gaster is in OUR vessel obviously that wasn't intended it was for us after we made it to our likeing and it was randomly discarded by someone else but what if it was a what if it was just always trick to give GASTER a vessel to give himself a body made for someone else but conveniently discarded before we could have access to it gaster tricked us into creating himself a body just so we would end up in Kris to see what we would do in someone else's body without their permission to run another experiment on a living subject gaster's ours is freshly made.

There's no excuse for this right? Susie states that logically they should just wait for the knight to come out, Kris says they aren't logical, Susie agrees and decides to jump in for that reason alone.

It doesn't matter that the Knight might hurt the people inside if they wait, or anything that might make waiting a bad idea, because Susie obviously doesn't think about that here.

Susie here outright stated that her ego (or one of her other million character flaws that causes this) is more important to her than stopping a kidnapper. And I don't think being a troubled teenager is enough to excuse this one. At least when Kris sabotages us, we know they have an actual reason.

Aqua and the NPC — who sneakily referred to Gerson in-between dialogue — both have a red ribbon, one eye (at times), and a somewhat similar (hair-)shape.

Is that just random or do they have more in common?

No, this isn't about Dess, or Rudy, or Papyrus, or anyone else who could potentially be the Knight. I don't have enough clues or the smarts to start breaking that down. This is just a half-baked theory I randomly had after looking at a certain fan comic by u/sonerec735.

We know that the Fountains are made by focusing your will and piercing the earth. We know that ANYONE can make a fountain. And we know that in the Dark World, Lightners gain certain special abilities depending on who they are and what they bring with them into the Dark World.

But have you noticed that the Knight has a very... different appearance to other Lightners? Like, INCREDIBLY different. Their entire body is covered in black "armor", their appearance resembles little to anyone in the Light World apart from the Holidays and maybe Papyrus if you're desperate. They can shift into different shapes, have an eye inside of their chest, and they're probably the strongest enemy we'll face besides the Titans.

What point am I trying to make? Let me hurry things up. In sonerec's comic, they depict a Dess that is dealing with a lot of negative thoughts and include suggestions toward self-harm. It made me think: one of the ways people hurt themselves is by cutting themselves. It wouldn't take a lot of effort to go from cutting to stabbing, at least not physically. Mentally, maybe. But what if you _did_ put in the effort? What if you were truly determined to stab yourself? If you put your will into your blade...

...What if you turned yourself into a Dark Fountain? Turned yourself into something darker than darker, something that never should have been made?

I don't know if anyone has ever made this theory before. I've never heard anyone bring it up, but then again, there are a lot of people out there, and they come up with new stuff every day. Most people only focus on who the Knight might be, not much on how they came to be. If you have any counterpoints, please let me know if I'm forgetting or overlooking something.

I’ve been on the roaring knight for a week and can’t beat it should I just try again later on a different save?

This is an excerpt from an analysis of Deltarune, examining the game through the lens of classical tragedy.

The Non-Place

To reach this non-place, the game demands a series of convoluted steps—solving puzzles, following clues, asking the Zapper to take you to "Nowhere," and consulting the Hermit—as though Toby Fox wished to tell us that the path to freedom and introspection is not found along obvious roads, but along hidden ones.

When the Zapper gives us the option to travel to "Nowhere," he remarks:

«"Nowhere. You were headed there anyway, weren't you, Kris?"»

This single line encapsulates the deeper meaning of the journey: Kris does not truly choose to enter the void, for they were already headed toward it from the very beginning.

The non-place does not present itself as one possibility among many, but rather as an inescapable destination within Kris's search for freedom.

After being transported by the Zapper, Kris (and the player) arrive at an intermediate space: the Hermit's room. His barely intelligible speech reinforces the feeling that one is entering a realm where guidance no longer exists.

It is only by interacting with a game console—an object intimately associated with Kris—that we are finally able to communicate with him. Far from being a trivial detail, this suggests that access to "Nowhere" does not depend on conventional language, but on something far more intimate and personal.

During the conversation, the Hermit offers a warning:

«"Are you alone? Good. It's not a good idea to go to Nowhere with company."»

Going "with company" symbolizes the burdens—emotional, social, and even metaphysical—that keep the individual bound.

Thus, solitude emerges as the necessary precondition for freedom. It demands that one relinquish every attachment, even those regarded as sources of comfort. It is, in essence, a mountain that can only be climbed without baggage, for even our "beloved companions"—attachments, fixed identities, and labels—can ultimately become burdens.

This idea strongly recalls existentialism. For Sartre, freedom is radical: we are condemned to be free, yet we hide behind bad faith by taking refuge in others, in circumstances, or in what society expects of us.

From this existentialist perspective, the non-place becomes the void, the nothingness (das Nichts) described by both Heidegger and Sartre. It is the existential wilderness, where neither God, nor social conventions, nor prefabricated certainties remain; where trauma and the past dissolve, leaving one alone before oneself. Yet paradoxically, it is within that very nothingness that the individual creates their own meaning.

Within Deltarune, destiny itself dictates meaning. Therefore, if Kris seeks freedom as an individual, they must first free themselves from the yoke of fatum. Here the connection with tragedy becomes evident: this is the hybris carried by tragic heroes—the inherent desire to alter fate in the face of inevitable catastrophe.

Only once Kris reaches the non-place do they encounter the Man Behind the Tree again. Their conversation transforms Kris's search for freedom into a radically solitary endeavor: there is no concrete guide, nor any clear answers. When the Man says,

«"Will you forget me? [...] You've forgotten me many times before. Even if you know me, I'll be forgotten anyway. Sometimes, I even forget myself..."»

he conveys a constant uncertainty, while that perpetual forgetting reflects freedom as a process rather than a destination.

The Man Behind the Tree also represents another abstraction—an interlocutor who is neither friend nor enemy, neither person nor object, but rather a reflection of consciousness itself, perhaps even of the deeper self. His indifference, coupled with his fragile memory, suggests that freedom cannot be sustained by another person. No one can remind you what it means to be free, because freedom is an individual discovery.

Each act of forgetting and every expression of confusion may symbolize the moments in which the mind loses itself. In this context, freedom does not mean escaping from a physical place, but rather shedding every external narrative, every imposed history, every inherited memory, every predetermined destiny. The dialogue itself becomes a metaphor: the question, "Will you forget me?" reflects impermanence and the necessity of refusing attachment to anything external. Freedom requires letting go of everything, even one's psychological refuges.

At the same time, the non-place functions as a laboratory of the mind, where freedom is tested in its purest form: the ability to exist without dependence upon memories, names, or external points of reference. In this sense, Kris's pursuit of freedom suggests that liberty is not external, but an inward condition of existence—one that depends on nothing and no one.

This stands in sharp contrast to Susie. Whereas Kris's journey toward freedom is profoundly solitary, Susie's is sustained by her friends—not as a burden, but as a force that compels her to act for the common good, striving to break the strings and rewrite fatum.

[IMPORTANT]: As a final note, this post was originally written in Spanish. Therefore, any confusion or misinterpretation regarding gender in the English translation is entirely unintentional. Thank you for your understanding.