Undertale and Deltarune

[rain barn]

and given how shocked susie is by the angel's appearance in the prophecy that we don't get to see

[ripe harbor]

If a face is a stand-in for identity, I could see the Angel as "A Titan that somehow has gained a mind."

[restive comet]

I kinda imagine The Angel in the end to be like The Nameless Deity from Calamity

[ripe harbor]

regular Titans are purely reactive, but if they weren't? Probably would be pretty strong.

the light monster would have to be something that enforces its view of the world really strongly, imo

the dark is uncertainty and possibility, so the inverse would be something that allows for one certainty, one world. It's own.

[rain barn]

the angel's heaven

[ripe harbor]

^

[rain barn]

Unbound by past or future in this single perfect moment!

[restive comet]

You think The Roaring Knight is a result of stabbing someone to create a Dark Fountain inside them or more simply a human soul/monster fusion of Dess and Kris's original soul?

Or possibly even a combination of both things in some way?

[ripe harbor]

cop-out answer would be I dunno. Possible?

[rain barn]

I have a feeling it is dess and also is not dess

[ripe harbor]

The idea of bits and pieces getting combined together into either

• a creation
  or
• an identity
  both show up throughout the game though

so I think it could work

[ripe harbor]

If it is her, she lost the name and pronouns. If it wasn't her, it's Dess-Shaped now & acts like it.

either way sorta approaches the same place

its Dess-adjacent. Desslike.

[rain barn]

I feel like it's so heavily foreshadowed to be dess that it'd be a cop-out if it wasn't her in some fashion
maybe not her actual body or self

it's a dess-shaped hole in the world

[ripe harbor]

yeah

[rain barn]

the void she left behind

[restive comet]

I also feel like in that sense, if the trans Ralsei theory is real, she might be able to access the light world if she manages to affirm her own identity

[ripe harbor]

I think part of what DR pushes at is what we mean by 'the self'. What parts would be important, which parts less so?

[ripe harbor]

yeah this was always the weirdest bit of Kris' Soul to me- the language of the game, the set-up, puts Lightners and the Light World and their Identity as all wrapping together

[rain barn]

the fun part of fantasy is you can just take your figurative language and make that the literal state of the character

[ripe harbor]

The Soul should be the linchpin of that. It's identity wrapped together in a single place, pushing outward strong enough to shape the world

except then it isnt, for Kris

[ripe harbor]

She haunts the narrative & she haunts hometown

she casts a long shadow over the game!

[restive comet]

Could also be a metaphor for some characters being "realer than life" for how profoundly they connect and relate to their audience

In reference to the trans Ralsei theory being connected to the potential of her coming into the light world

[ripe harbor]

like I think it's fun to say, ok, even if the Roaring Knight was December Holiday physically, after she went missing,
Is the Roaring Knight more December Holiday than the Hammer Of Justice is Gerson? Less so?

[rain barn]

irrelevant (or is it?) to the current theorizing, I adore this moment

[ripe harbor]

Is the same material the important part of what makes someone who they are, or the shape?

[rain barn]

who is kris when nobody's watching? pretty cool actually

[restive comet]

Kris seems very willing to take a bullet for Susie now that I think about it

Hopefully that doesn't bite them in the ass later at some point

[ripe harbor]

no I'm sure their nefarious-ass conspiracy will understand

[rain barn]

that's gotta be the payoff to susie getting better at healing, huh

[ripe harbor]

The knight seems eminently reasonable and also able to calmly discuss any sort of reservations Kris might have. During any high-stakes moments.

[ripe harbor]

Actually

looping back around to the start, with the bleeding/crying eyes

I think it's probably Something that Susie learning to heal better is paralleled so strongly to banishing the Titan away again

[rain barn]

🤔 there's that bit at the start of the dark sanctuary also

[ripe harbor]

"Just healing the outside, we gotta heal the inside" -> the ending of chapter 4

is sealing a fountain a sort of 'healing'?

[ripe harbor]

they are stab wounds

[rain barn]

kris is, directly, hurt by the prophecy here

hurt by it breaking

[ripe harbor]

and Susie is also the character of the main cast most vocal about considering Darkners people, or being willing to respect their personhood

The Knight the character who's been the most violent towards them

healing versus being really willing to use a sword. 'When all you have is a bat...'

[ripe harbor]

they're so doomed its unreal

[rain barn]

so I brought up the ff4 paladin scene the other day

A true paladin... would sheath their sword.

[rain barn]

and ralsei is too busy looking ahead to try to protect susie from what will happen that susie has to get his attention to come help kris right now

paralyzed by what he knows

[restive comet]

Could also be symbolic how The Knight flings Kris into The Prophecy after they try and rise up the stairs to face her/them, symbolic of trying to force Kris to stick to the plan after they show signs of dissent

And, you know, "don't forget... YOU promised"

[rain barn]

I feel like if anything has me certain the game's not going to end in tragedy it's this bit and the dialogue that mirrors (heheh) it at the end of chapter 4 when you seal the third fountain

and conversely the weird route is doomed as hell

[ripe harbor]

This is a really uplifting bit, and one that is uplifting when applied to all the 'thrown-away / unusued / trash people' subtheme

but still

dialogue that worries me because Susie Doesn't Know

[restive comet]

The hell YOU (the player) create for everyone else

[ripe harbor]

for right now it might be okay, but Susie Doesn't Know. She hates people who don't tell you the whole deal, and Kris knows that.

[ripe harbor]

by influencing noelle to never 'sheathe her sword', too

Do not learn to be less afraid. Do not talk to things that might make you afraid.

Conquer your fear violently. Make the world the one you want, with exactly one tool.

No negotiation. No trying to adapt to the strange characters and creatures you find, or look for a way to make them happy. Pure strength.

And the bonds you break make you stronger, because a bond you don't have is one that can't influence you back.

[restive comet]

"Might makes right"

[ripe harbor]

and like UT Level of Violence, getting used to hurting people (or even seeing them not as people!) makes it easier to hurt people in the future

[restive comet]

Honestly I feel like the weird route is even worse than Undertale's genocide route specifically because of the fact that you're forcing a third party to commit atrocious acts for you and potentially giving them a fate worse than death in the process

[ripe harbor]

you move up from mice to mind-controlled plugs to doctor-cops to Berdly

but its the same thing

[ripe harbor]

the personal nature of it is fucked, yeah

[restive comet]

"Something even worse" than The Prophecy

[ripe harbor]

Noelle on normal & weird actually makes the split between how the Knight treats Darkners and how Susie treats Darkners more clear, imo

because she leans one way or the other based on your actions

normal noelle seeks out weird things and is willing to give things a second look. Creepypasta or outcast girls, spam emails or glitchy pets, whatever.

WR Noelle raises up her bat

[restive comet]

Honestly I kinda feel like I don't even want to know anymore what happens to Noelle when Ch5 drops, and I'm normally not that squeamish about dark themes in media

[ripe harbor]

I hate (in that its well written) that she convinces herself the WR is good for her. Thats what really gets me about it.

[ripe harbor]

(I really want a bit with a mirror after Susie learns and there's some party conflict, MC at the lowest point, and Kris walks up to it and it says "Despite everything.... it's still you")

[restive comet]

I grew up with Creepypasta and urban legends, and grew fascinated by those kinds of things later on in life, and the weird route I think is the one thing that reminded me of how I initially felt looking into that for the first time, the feeling that I majorly fucked up by knowing about it

[ripe harbor]

(but in a cutting way. In a way like "This was how it was going to go, dumbass")

[amber jolt]

uhh hang on, completely unserious question

[ripe harbor]

(You knew it, and you knew where it'd go, and you weren't going to get it anywhere else. There was no other way. Even with everything, it was still just you, all along.)

would go hard I think

[amber jolt]

does anyone have the clip of someone singing Crumbling Tower but the lyrics are "Homer Maggie Bart"

[restive comet]

Oh fuck, hold on, I might have a link

[ripe harbor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV1RSDOngeg

[amber jolt]

thanks!

[restive comet]

https://youtu.be/iV1RSDOngeg?si=zejaMRQw7JGbTPDi

Damn, I was too slow

[amber jolt]

i find it weird in this scene, Ralsei and Susie hold kris up, but when Kris gets down and Susie takes their place, they don't brace Susie or Ralsei

🤔 maybe its an oversight and I'm thinking a liiiiiittle too hard into it

[rain barn]

maybe kris is more exhausted than susie is by being reduced to 1 hp there? or is otherwise carrying a heavier burden with the soul shining its light for them to see the way

besides the 'obvious' interpretation of "kris is trying to throw"

[ripe harbor]

maybe a soul thing

[amber jolt]

hm...

i mean idk IF kris is trying to throw

they clearly care about Susie and Ralsei

hmm

[rain barn]

while I'm going over chapter 4 with a fine toothed comb, I feel like this is going to get severely tested

but I don't think in the end it's going to break fully

[rain barn]

yeah it feels like the "obvious" interpretation but I don't think it stands up to scrutiny

[amber jolt]

yeah

[rain barn]

some genres of fan theory are just what jacob geller talks about in "Every Zelda is the Darkest Zelda"
"Being messed up is not a theme. Darkness is not a narrative. Violence on its own is not mature."

[rain barn]

actually thinking more about this quote from ffxiv I brought up

that's susie's desire, isn't it? eternity

for tomorrow to be the same

we've already seen a monster born of her fears

[amber jolt]

hmm

[rain barn]

what monster would she create from her desire for the world to be frozen as it is?

pic unrelated
-# I saw this when I was looking through ICON's bestiary the other day for things I could apply in my deltarune campaign and went 🤔

[ripe harbor]

For me, there's a certain....

hmm

I think part of DR that I like is the way it takes these options as both seriously possible?

It commits

Its not clearly set up to end happily, and thus robbed a bit of it's weight.

[rain barn]

the prophecy thus far is so absolute that it's hard to see how it can be defied, yeah

and we don't know what the tragedy at the end is and can only speculate

[ripe harbor]

Susie talks about feeling like a broken toy, and the story commits to giving her the motifs of, and having her talk a lot, about junk & trash & whatnot

[rain barn]

-# which is fun when kris, susie, and ralsei all know and we don't

[ripe harbor]

it makes the first part feel weightier to me, the way the story says, yes: Susie is kinda garbage. Does that make you disagree with the point she makes, now?

Would it change your opinion on the statement, "You don't have to take being thrown away", if it was being said to things that are literally garbage

that even the Game UI treats as trash?

I like it

makes you have to commit to your answer

IF the prophecy has a tragic ending, (and that is still an if!),
would it mean that nothing you did mattered?

[rain barn]

it is telling that we face a titan, a being that we are told violence is the only answer to
and it turns out it cannot actually be defeated with violence

you have to find some other way and I wonder if the ending will be a real choice where you don't have to find that other way

[ripe harbor]

very minor connection to, but violent endings to a fight are also juxtaposed with healing with the Puppet Scarf item

for those who respond with violence. for those who abandon healing.

[rain barn]

for a puppet that can't leave the strings of fate

[ripe harbor]

the two party members who hold weapons going into chapter 4, DARK HERO - Carries out the Fate with the blade.

would healing work instead?

makes me SICK

makes me ILL

[rain barn]

I wonder if toby fox grew up in a church that preached predestination

it's not my own experience so it's difficult to concretely comment but the paralyzing totality of the prophecy predetermining everyone's fate makes me go Hm

[ripe harbor]

yeah it was called Homestuck

[rain barn]

in seriousness I wonder how much of toby's life is in deltarune but I don't think we really deserve an answer

[ripe harbor]

one thing I like about DRs fate as well is that its not fully put in opposition with choices,

but comes out of the choices someone will always make, instead

You can't ever choose to go eat cotton candy with Ralsei, you have to go meet with Noelle in Chapter 2, because Susie will always say 'hey lets go' and yoink him

Kris will always take you out, and make chapter 3's fountain

fated, or making choices, or is there even a difference? Is someone's fate just the choices they always find themselves making, because of who they are?

[ripe harbor]

I've mentioned before, but I do suspect some of Spamton's characterization might have been influenced by Toby getting a sudden wrist disability that impeded making games and making music.

The disability reads for his quest come so readily, and he was written right at that time.

Or maybe at least some of the frustration he's written to have, lmao

Anger at a body not just working right, goddamit

feels personal

[rain barn]

do you mind if I share what I've been bouncing around my head for "what would my deltarune be," for the ICON campaign I'm planning?

mostly asking because it is a bit off topic, being essentially deltarune-shaped fanfiction

[tepid pebble]

It's interesting (if you know what I mean, wink wink) how much Rudy looks like a masc woman; as a bi person, the reflex to admire GNC people can extend to GC people if they perform it in a certain way.

[low surge]

Whole family is fruitier than a goddamn orchard

[astral quiver]

need it for all the fruit cake

[ripe harbor]

yeah best friends with Asgore I'm sure he's all about that fruit's cake

[rain lotus]

"darkness is not a narrative" the weird-ass supply closet:

[low surge]

https://tenor.com/view/fire-writing-gif-24533171

[timber widget]

I've always wondered what would happen if the balance of light and dark shifted too far towards light, if even the grand fountain was sealed, if all darkness was removed. What would the world that remained be like? One of sobering disillusion? Would the world still end somehow?

[lusty cypress]

Carol takes toriel to the festival instead of sans

[lusty cypress]

The nefarious Nothing There: HeLlO

https://www.tumblr.com/envandrare/811404700091039744

Vandraren

-# #pippins #ralsei #deltarune

Tumblr · Mar 18, 2026, 6:37 AM

[ripe harbor]

some sort of a world without dreams, probably

I mean its not clear how much the Light World as a whole, or the things in it, depend on the Dark

on the more catastrophic end you could probably swing "No Life", or "No Mind / No Identity"

How important are Souls & where do they come from? If the answers are 'really important for all Lightners' and 'the Dark', that could an angle for a too-much-light-pocalypse

[lusty cypress]

Maybe a world choked with Meaning

[ripe harbor]

all fates written in stone. Nothing is ever more or different than what it is Supposed To Be.

Things are what they appear, and always what they appear, and that's that.

nothing optional, no extra spaces between the lines to read. No places off the beaten path, just a single perfect unbroken line.

Everything in its place, exactly where it is Meant to be

or like this bit from Chapter 3 implies, no 'nourishment'

without light to define, there's no guidance. You get lost in the rain.
without 'rain', or dark, to provide space and possibility (and dreams), there's nothing to soothe or encourage growth. So even at minimum it would probably be a joyous world, a world lacking in 'color'.

[lusty cypress]

And the many shells cried out one word, "Heroes".
It mimics the lightner's usual behaviour, the way they talk, likes and dislikes, and every other visible trait.
We can only guess how carefully, and for how long it has been observing the lightners to imitate them.
What I’m trying to say is, we can’t just treat it like some ‘dumb scary monster’.
Even now, it could be strolling about wearing the shell of someone we know.

[ripe harbor]

I do really want it's name to be 'Nobody' at least some way

"But Nobody came" 👀

but there was Nobody there.... right?

[lusty cypress]

Hearts and nobodies? We going kingdom hearts here
But who do you want to be called Nobody? trying to backread

[ripe harbor]

whatever is speaking to you in Chapter 3's Mantle Quest, really

that thing

the white text in the darkness that shows up sometimes (but not the one that's Gaster)

Whatever "It" is, that pulls the strings and also makes them ring

[lusty cypress]

i see

[ripe harbor]

and its not clear if that last one is the same as the first two, so it's in that order

[low surge]

The good ending

[ripe harbor]

Dess is a chara
ooooooohh I get it. Because they're evil!

[ripe harbor]

Kris can be a Chara and Ralsei can be an Asriel, but

Susie is Susie

[sour mesa]

despite being asriel, flowey is a chara

[rain lotus]

the soul is asriel im afraid

[tepid pebble]

The three main pairs of characters in Undertale (Toriel and Asgore, Sans and Papyrus, Undyne and Alphys) represent opposite poles on the idealism and warmth vs. cynicsim and distrustfulness scale, and I think yours is a better example.

And while Dess is a Chara, the Knight is probably an Asriel, although it's too early to say for sure.

[ripe harbor]

despite being associated with the number 9, and cold winds blowing through dark spaces, and getting stronger, is an Asriel (Flowey)

[lusty cypress]

It's interesting, in my lob corp au, I'd see kris as relating to Nothing There, though in a desire to be a monster rather than a human. Yet, susie would be best at handling it, as I see her as having the high justice and fortitude for the job

Hm, I can see kris having justice 3 and high fortitude

(Justice is conviction, being decisive, and fast on taking a situation and acting, fortitude is strength, courage)

[minor merlin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwA6QLA6NzQ

[sour mesa]

@lusty cypress
https://bsky.app/profile/skaspec.yuri.agency/post/3mhjiibcpkk22

˖˚ʚわかɞ˚˖ (@skaspec.yuri.agency)

probably delete later idk but here are more work sketches from back around christmastime when i could not stop thinking about the nutcracker

Bluesky · Mar 20, 2026, 9:46 PM

[lusty cypress]

You got it right, this fits right into my tastes!

[sour mesa]

another clean hit

[lusty cypress]

Always pleasantly surprised when people get me right

[lusty cypress]

@scenic hearth doll adjacent

[lusty cypress]

I can see kris with Regret and Mimicry, but not sure what they'd wear in-between

[lusty cypress]

https://www.tumblr.com/kurisumasuirl/811258610145476609/ive-never-actually-watched-scooby-doo-is-it-any

Kurisumasu_irl

I've never actually watched Scooby Doo, is it any good?

-# #deltarune #kris deltarune #kris dreemurr #noelle holiday #noelle deltarune #pixel art #kriselle kinda? #kriselle #shipping #kris x noelle #ship art #berdly deltarune #berdly #susie deltarune #susie dr #scooby doo

Tumblr · Mar 16, 2026, 3:55 PM

[low surge]

The nefarious background Susly agenda

[ripe harbor]

Digital Circus episode 8 spoiler-shitpost:

mb if I was flooding chat earlier, too. Digital Circus episode 8 was just a little too Deltarune. triggered my Poster's Frenzy.

[low surge]

Yeah shits kind of insane

[low surge]

God I love the Andrew Cunningham Twitter account

[low surge]

New Jaru video

Do I dare?

[manic parrot]

...hm...

[low surge]

(For those who don’t know, it’s not actually Andrew. Some guy made this account and Andrew thought it was so funny he gave it his blessing to keep posting)

[ripe harbor]

^ evil-ass Roaring Group Chat

[strange cloud]

Unfortunately… Jaru has lost the sauce

He’s not even funny in a deranged way anymore

He’s just deeply frustrating

He’s doing reheated chapter 1/2 theories now

[minor merlin]

My lolcow chud is washed 😔

[strange cloud]

😔

[ripe harbor]

😔

[lusty cypress]

Don't treat people as "lolcows"

[astral quiver]

i found out more about the chapter 1-2 theory times when i wasent all that into deltarune or undertale yet
and finding out he made Asriels Dust i think just tells me he never had any sauce

[ripe harbor]

Mad Mew Mew Knight...

[strange cloud]

the difference is that Asriel's dust was really funny in how wrong it was

and now they're not wrong in a funny way

[strange cloud]

https://bsky.app/profile/the-hydroxian.bsky.social/post/3mhnxjqgjps2e

Hydro (@the-hydroxian.bsky.social)

If you made Ralsei listen to Fireflies by Owl City I think he'd start crying from catharsis

Likes

271

Bluesky · Mar 22, 2026, 4:25 PM

https://tenor.com/view/deltarune-chapter-4-deltarune-deltarune-chapter-4-roaring-knight-true-gifs-gif-10457574261792655678

[ripe harbor]

well the music videos got the right color scheme, at least

shoutout subtractives

[ripe harbor]

the white boy* special

[low surge]

Realest thing anyone has ever said I think

[ripe harbor]

That was like my favorite song when I was 8

before that it was "Hollaback Girl" and I'm not joking

[low surge]

Ralsei would also really really like that song but feel bad because it has sweating

Locking his door and blasting that shit and dancing around his room so nobody will know (everybody knows)

[lusty cypress]

Ralsei blasting Bedroom Community

[minor merlin]

peak song btw

[ripe harbor]

You know, piles of Asriel's dust gets a lot of (deserved, rightful) criticism,

but I could be down for Ralsei as representative of dust in the general sense

not even magical fantasy monster body-dust, either. Just... dust.

Its ubiquitous, textually tied to the dark/dreams a couple times, he's constantly being called fluffy

I could buy it as important enough in the symbolism to earn the title of 'Prince' too, with how the ominous Shuttah and Seam('s plushie) mention it

that's only if he's physical in the first place, though. If he's one of the more abstract Darkners than maybe he's fluffy for some sort of fluffy cloud / soft pillow reason, with how he's got sleep magic

[white basalt]

this probably isn't the case but i'm led to wonder if ralsei is a ralsei plushie in the light world

[rain lotus]

it was mercedes benz the hw ole tilme

[low surge]

Ralsei being dust dust could be interesting

Neat proposition I hadn’t considered

[rain lotus]

they set things right after the roaring or something and ralsei's like "goodbye friends" and like, animorphs into a car

https://tenor.com/view/shit-post-meme-gif-6071307027957884933

[low surge]

I know the video in question but I still don’t understand why a Mercedes Benz of all things was the central joke

[rain lotus]

mercedes benz... [snoortttt]

[ripe harbor]

I think I never really considered it partially because Dustriel 'theory' lmao

[low surge]

I mean yeah, I think I Asriel’s dust kind of overshadowed a lot of theories about his identity pre-chapter 3. Like horned headband and green crayon were popular, but dust was the sort of controversial one that took up a lot of space

[ripe harbor]

more just I think the phrase Ralsei = Dust made me immediately go there, and then not really think on it further

honestly the Shuttah calling out 'worlds untempered by light' as specifically dusty is a big part of it for me, so I'm not sure I would've thought it before chapter 2

I pretty much got no strong takes on what Ralsei is in the light world though, tbh. or if that even applies.

[low surge]

Castle Town is also so different from every other dark world

[ripe harbor]

I still have a pin in the Miss Mizzle dialogue about 'No wellspring is as pure (as a young knight's first love)' for Castle Town

no idea what it would mean, if it even is important, but I feel about it

being a part of the secret boss questline gives MM an automatic boost to her cryptic foreshadowing score, and 'love', 'spring' and 'pure' that close together? With Castle Town specifically being called a fountain made of 'pure' darkness?

Its not even clear if the Grand Fountain was made like the others. If it was, it's creator will probably get mentioned?

and if it wasn't, that's gotta come up too

If fountains are a specific perspective, though, it'd have to have been a weird one to make a 'pure' fountain that can accept everything

It'd be like an unbiased perspective, which almost feels contradictory to what fountains seem to be

[rain barn]

a roaring knight's first fountain? though that shifts "what is special about the grand fountain exactly" to "what is special about the roaring knight exactly"

[ripe harbor]

I know some people have theories about the Roaring Knight being Dess after she 'lost her soul' or something (If that'd even apply)

could be something like that, or even just in the same ballpark? Making a powerful fountain with special identity preserving power for Darkners, losing your own identity in the process?

but idk

unclear if souls work like that, if you could use them like that, if souls even have any power or if it's just you, if the Roaring Knight does or doesn't have one...

[ripe harbor]

"And there we go, the first fountain I made! Sorry it's a little empty, I guess the only inhabitant that ever showed up is this cloaked little thing that kinda looks like you."
"Dess why is your dream-clone of me a girl."

[ripe harbor]

I could see a special sort of desire also opening up a special fountain

making one is about concentrating on what you want, envisioning something strongly enough to manifest it, so maybe a pure fountain would be pure creative desire? Raw impulse for something new to flourish, no conditions or control?

would contrast the way that digging deeper into a dark world, or having overlapping fountain makers, seems to bring forth Titans

fighting over creative control and taking a knife to existing creative work vs. just letting whatever happens happen

[rain barn]

a storage closet probably wouldn't have a whole lot of memory associated with it

it is there to be filled

[ripe harbor]

and it absolutely is empty at the start, but its weirdly well formed.

Like it isn't nearly as blobby as the Titan Spawn or the Titan's themselves

so it's a place without memory, but with strong definition. Not impossible, I guess, but kinda weird.

or its a place that accepts all memories without judgement, never clouded by the choking panic-attack fear like the Titans seem to be. Serene?

the way to banish titanspawn is 'purify', so there is some idea that they aren't pure

like the purple cliff place at the start feels like what I'd expect from an empty Dark World, strange and alien. Castle Town is the oddity.

[wind sinew]

We have Rabbicks for that though

[ripe harbor]

Ribbicks too, unless they're supposed to be sludge or something

closest you'd see to the same sort of object turning into different Darkners elsewhere... probably the Winglade vs. most equipable swords?

even then the first one is still a sword

Ralsei does make a joke about being Wonderland's white rabbit, and both he & Rabbicks are notably polite (and fluffy)

[low surge]

(KrisDPizza)

[astral quiver]

Berdly literally cant win

[timber widget]

Not Catty with the FRIEND scythe 😭

[lusty cypress]

Unwinnable game

[astral quiver]

its good that Gamers Respawn

[lusty cypress]

Berdly the respawned

[clear frost]

jockington is a pretty good friend, wouldnt you say?

[ripe harbor]

Toby Fox:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOBXmJRPO_s

[ripe harbor]

not necessarily a Theory as i don't actually show any proof or evidence
honestly respect

love that energy

[ripe harbor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmaJ65g8NaM

funny

||Hadestown reference, if you aren't aware of the musical||

[ripe harbor]

hmm

[ripe harbor]

Ralsei as the 'demon' Kris and Catti summoned?

Both go to the same school with the Grand Fountain, Kris is a 'young knight' who's "love" could make a pure wellspring, Ralsei is a demon

A fountain almost made by accident, since it wasn't intended to be shaped as another world in any way, they were just fucking around with the occult?

Just a pure desire to meet the Other, manifesting as Ralsei?

[ripe harbor]

Me trying to theorize anything about Ralsei:

[astral quiver]

Ralsei is an anagram of Asriel
Asriel is an anagram of Sariel: the angel of death

or something

i think its probably something else

[ripe harbor]

I always thought for angel symbolism there could be something to Asriel-Azazel, too

if only because his association with 'scapegoats'

[astral quiver]

its actually because Asriel looks like Sariel from touhou project: Highly Responsive to Prayers

[ripe harbor]

I'd believe multiple tbh, the biblical inspiration in UTDR would definitely have me believe Toby knows his stuff when making these references

I always thought that was why monsters specifically turned to dust

[astral quiver]

definetly, but i cant ignore the big fucking blue and white dress with the crest in the middle that Toriel has in Undertale and that all the church choir has in Deltarune

[ripe harbor]

lol fair

I mean it's absolutely that

[astral quiver]

that looks exactly like Sariels oufit

[ripe harbor]

it is no doubt that thing

[astral quiver]

i like Sariels design alot

[ripe harbor]

its way too 1-1

and its touhou

[astral quiver]

the Angel might be the Angel of Death

if we go that route

thats why were banishing em

but who knows

maybe thats a bit surface level

[ripe harbor]

I think the Underground as a whole might crib from Touhou, actually. I had no idea until recently that Gensokyo was where youkai were banished to

sealed behind a big barrier

[astral quiver]

theres also Makai that exists separate from Gensokyo, which is like a demon world (not hell) where strong youkai live

which Sariel exists in, in the game shes in

its also said materials in Makai contain their own will

and is filled with a dark caustic miasma

[ripe harbor]

for DR's Angel specifically, I think there's definitely a strong implied parallel to the one in Revelations 9 that opens up 'the abyss'

The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss.

probably a few different interpretations of what the name of this one should be, no idea how to apply it to Deltarune,

but the circumstances are just pretty close to what you'd expect for the Roaring

[ripe harbor]

They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).
Oh nevermind

there it is

[ripe harbor]

really, it makes me wonder if the Sariel touhou reference or the revelations reference came first, in UT having an angel

such a weird relationship UT and DR have

[astral quiver]

didnt Ralsei and Asriel also already exist as names from Tobys childhood or something

maybe its some cosmic confluence of circumstance that happened to all nicely line up for the end result in which the order doesnt matter

[ripe harbor]

He says his brother made a game when they were much younger where the protag was named 'Ralse' (also an FF reference, I think?), and he always wanted to use the name in a game he'd make

[astral quiver]

nod nod

[ripe harbor]

which is also weirdly fitting in a meta sense, for Deltarune's plot, which might be part of the point

just a bunch of elements getting mixed up and rearranged

[astral quiver]

in my game mastering ive found thats kinda how some of the best shit happens

[ripe harbor]

getting told by a player "Woah, X was such a crazy set up! That's why Y happened, I get it!", and I'm just like " ... yeah.... totally ( 📝 )"

10th anniversary stream he mentioned the initial concept sketches for Toriel looked like a human-woman

that one's kinda hard to imagine, lmao

the knock on effects would've been pretty crazy

[astral quiver]

i point at Sariel again

https://tenor.com/view/sariel-deltarune-prophecy-angel-touhou-gif-10203669648615226180

[lusty cypress]

Well, more like a refuge to not die out

[ripe harbor]

kinda the same deal, or at least the idea of all the fantastical elements of the world retreating is still there

[lusty cypress]

Could asgore politick against the power players of gensokyo?

[ripe harbor]

idk much about touhou but I absolutely believe Asgore's more of a softie than any of those young ladies. no contest he gets absolutely obliterated, he's not got the stomach for politics that cutthroat

[gilded canopy]

It's been waaaaaaay too long since I was last into touhou (like, over a decade) but IIRC the barrier was by necessary choice. Gensokyo was created as a place for forgotten things as the world moved on from monsters and heroes and got "serious", scientific. Those forgotten are not banished but naturally end up there (there's actually a lot of inanimate forgotten objects littering the barrier boundary)

One minor thing I still weirdly remember was that the forgotten items were increasingly becoming things like gameboys, and there was an small one-off manga about a guy (yes, guy) whose entire powerset was getting a vague and unhelpful explanation of how an object was supposed to be used, which he used to sell his increasingly weirder stock of random junk from the edge of the barrier.

And also the one time the kappa made a jury-rigged nuclear reactor

[sour mesa]

I don't think you need to reach for Touhou, the Underground maps decently well onto standard mythological patterns. chaos monsters fall before the forces of civilization and are sealed away, that's Tartarus etc.
(the Dreemurr's demonic attributes point to Paradise Lost, which isn't quite a chaoskampf, but it's a distant descendent)

[gilded canopy]

(they didn't know what good boiling water was though, no turbine invention here)

[ripe harbor]

I also think that's true, tbf, but that's partially because I see the entire Underground as roughly analogous to what The Dark is going for in DR, which is much more blatantly chaoskampf-y

the touhou thing is mostly because of the clear inspo elsewhere (Sariel, ZUNpets), and the specific naming of it as a 'Barrier'

[ripe harbor]

well maybe not -kampf-y, there isn't really evidence of a fight. But it's definitely leaning into chaos, pre-creational abyss, serpents in the deep, etc.

the Underground to me feels like a place that magic has been harried to, it's where the faeries went.

[sour mesa]

has "deltarune is the timeline where the monsters won the war" been theorized yet

feels kinda unlikely but very video essay-able

[ripe harbor]

prolly the day 1 theory lol

[lusty cypress]

Also the soul stealing

[ripe harbor]

along with "Asriel created Deltarune using the SOULSPOWER"

oh is there soul stealing in Touhou?

[lusty cypress]

I meant the demonic associations of dreemurs

There is the evil lady who uses souls of kids in one attack, in touhou

[ripe harbor]

The bright red trident always felt like a pretty big giveaway for the devil parallel imo

[lusty cypress]

And the animal hell mafia uses human souls as a resource they fight over, ruling over humans

Then humans made a goddess, who put them in a cyberpunk gilded cage

[ripe harbor]

one last thing on Tartarus, I'd be lying if it wasn't one of the first places my mind went seeing the buried destroyers trapped in the abyss were named "Titans"

no real direct evidence for a fight, but a 'Titanomachy' of some kind? maybe- it's in the name.

depending on how that shakes out in the story, 'Zoss = Gaster' jokes could get much funnier. time will tell.

[sour mesa]

never doubt Zosster #trust

[ripe harbor]

they fucked these ancient angels up bruh

[ripe harbor]

They both love just showing up and doing the Title Drop

[lusty cypress]

You put "up" at the end intentionally, huh?

[ripe harbor]

no but I will take credit for it

how else would they get SPAWN

[lusty cypress]

Angelspawn

[ripe harbor]

I sure hope it did!

[sour mesa]

evolves into angelsqueen, angelsrook, angelsknight, or angelsbishop

[ripe harbor]

finally had time to work through this + others by the artist, good rec

Since 3&4 I've liked treating this one as a December/Kris type song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQTv21c5enU

[lusty cypress]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvPNBYIMpkQ

[ripe harbor]

woah whadda hell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-1XsPEB4VE

not just me IG

[lusty cypress]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J72frx5FC4M

[lethal ferry]

Lanternal mention

[astral quiver]

the stage changing every time the music changes in the static wouldnt be out of the ordinary for Ultrakill either

[lusty cypress]

https://www.tumblr.com/dumgumgum/811623756856508416/their-royal-highness-and-the-court-jester

gumigu

Their Royal Highness and the Court Jester

-# #kerdly #kris x berdly #berdcage #krispy chicken #berdly deltarune #kris dreemurr #kris deltarune #its based on that jester and queen gif #im real rusty at animating but this was still fun to do #dumdoodles

Tumblr · Mar 20, 2026, 4:38 PM

Weird route, food made out of a character
||https://www.tumblr.com/dumgumgum/811898012063481857||

[lusty cypress]

Real hod floor hours here

[lusty cypress]

https://www.tumblr.com/thesnowflake18/812024918555394048/kris-might-want-to-go-to-the-festival-with-berdly?source=share

❄️Snow's Art Blog✨

Kris might want to go to the festival with Berdly - And that's okay....

Tumblr · Mar 25, 2026, 2:55 AM

[astral quiver]

secret Berdly route

[crimson badger]

Kerd Route

[ripe harbor]

The True and Neo Route

[ripe harbor]

Fraud as a layer is a little closer to UT/DR sometimes, in how it talks & what it's talking about. If still a lot more violent lol.

Song would fit the motifs, at least

Both DR & Ultrakill are also at least a little bit about that Holy-Juice which causes individuality to appear when it fills up otherwise inanimate objects.

[rain lotus]

sorry pal i receive reality in nonbinary

[ripe harbor]

Speech Bubble Kris Dreemurr. Spoken to Gaster chapter 6 spoiler (real)

only spoken line

the Spatio-Temporal mind goes, "Well, how long did it take her to smile? What answer is the correct one?" smh

[low surge]

Toby Fox putting Manchurian Candidate activation codewords on merch boxes because he’s bored

[ripe harbor]

interesting that two are 'can use' and one is just a statement

the hero wields a sword. There is no question about it.

[ripe harbor]

also wtf Ralsei why don't you ever pull out the sick scarf-grapples in game

That's his Up-Special for when he gets into smash, I guess

actually you know what

long lizard ||(close enough||)
RPG side-protag
grapples across gaps

[timber widget]

revealing the succulent candies and meats hidden inside of the characters [...] True strength lies hidden within your friends!
Uh huh

[ripe harbor]

choosing to read 'Velveteen' here as a nod towards the Velveteen rabbit ||because that was my favorite book when I was very very young 🤫||

[timber widget]

Also interesting, the description uses Susie and Ralsei's pronouns, but hero_sword is just "you"

[ripe harbor]

technically only Ralsei's refers to the hero with pronouns, Susie's is ambiguous

funny. 'the girl' could be referring to at least two candidates there.

Susie did have an icy heart. Susie also might melt the icy heart of one or more other girls.

Who's 'The Girl'? probably on purpose

[amber jolt]

https://bsky.app/profile/wiittyusername.bsky.social/post/3mhwen6fx5k2e

WiittyUsername (@wiittyusername.bsky.social)

you can't be fucking serious rn

Reposts

626

Likes

2015

▶ Play video

Bluesky · Mar 26, 2026, 12:41 AM

[ripe harbor]

literally canon

love that he's wearing green. for an amazing reason.

[strange cloud]

https://tenor.com/view/gaster-eating-chip-undertale-memes-undertale-gif-15964334747071043411

[ripe harbor]

"Previously an antagonist, but in an emotionally moving event, she joined the side of light."

currently only describes Susie, but I wonder if someone else would fit in the future

It's like when your sister gets cursed in Dragon Blazers 2.
Even if her stats suck, she's still your party member.
It wouldn't be out of nowhere if it applied to the Roaring Knight, too

[low surge]

This is deltarune somehow I’m sure of it

[rain lotus]

I beat final fantasy 4 last week it would be kinda funny if it does a Kain

Like yeah sure cecil's starting class is black knight but

[timber widget]

Please just let the man post things

[low surge]

This was a joke

[timber widget]

I love inferring intent it is my favorite thing to do

[ripe harbor]

that cat is such a platonic cat shape

that is a cartoon OωO

[low surge]

Uni is the platonic ideal of a cat

[rain barn]

deltarune players seeing a cat with pink and yellow

[rain lotus]

alternatively a Krile. oh god

fucked up dusk warriors subplot

[rain barn]

I could see the knight doing a golbez also

"invincible-seeming antagonist turns out to be a good guy in the last hour and fights the final boss with you"

[rain lotus]

if you rearrange the letters in "tellurian" you get undertale

wait

lunarian

tellurian's therapy stuff

i blame tellah

[rain barn]

the chances of us visiting the moon in deltarune are unfortunately very low

[ripe harbor]

well, thats fine

it can always come visit us

[ripe harbor]

and its crazy too, because its really the cats you don't see that are the trouble

[rain barn]

I need to read alice in wonderland one of these days

[timber widget]

Deltarune players when they don't see a cat with pink and yellow ig

[lusty cypress]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PjzI3uofHA

[timber widget]

https://www.vxreddit.com/r/Deltarune/comments/1s4t7nc/so_ralseis_strange_costume_choice_became_apparent/

[ripe harbor]

Velveteen MONARCHS..... we WON

[ripe harbor]

it's like he's some king of..... piles of asriels dust-bunny

[astral quiver]

dust bunnies already are darkners though

[ripe harbor]

🤷‍♂️

Ralsei is an open question

I'm not attached to any interpretation. I just think he's weird .

Ralsei is fluff & he's associated with bunnies a couple times

[astral quiver]

i dont think Ralsei is a dust bunny when thse guys are right there

[ripe harbor]

You also have things like the shadowguys and the spawn, or the two-Gersons

[astral quiver]

i think shadowguys and spawn are different in a very distinct manner

one is born of whimsy, one is born of fear

[ripe harbor]

true

but they're both still vaguely just 'shadows' given shape

that the shadowguys are specifically the shadows of the figurines isn't super relevant, imo. They are what they are because of the silhouettes the TV screen casts.

They're shadow puppets. That's why I think they have the bunny ears sometimes.

[astral quiver]

i think the main thing is that they are in fact darkners
and not fetus creatures from the alternate mirror world or whatever is 2 layers into a dark world

the titan i guess

[ripe harbor]

But Dust also just exists in the deeper-layed Dark Worlds

[astral quiver]

i spose the fact the dust bunnies exist is because their playful nature as part of a households mythology

while dust is just dust anywhere else

[ripe harbor]

like the below isn't a dust bunny darkner, even though it's probably just a pile of dust in the light world

[astral quiver]

the fact you call it a dust bunny when its under your couch but nobody calls it anything when a janitor sweeps a desk or a shelf

[ripe harbor]

I do also think there might be something like this going on with Ralsei and whatever's up with

the whimsy vs. fear, at least

Good and Bad dreams

[lusty cypress]

Ralsei is stale candy left in the closet

[ripe harbor]

Only two Dark-Creatures that you see travel between Dark Worlds on their own

[lusty cypress]

Under his robe he's eaten by bugs

With pink and yellow eyes

March. Consume. Propagate. March

[ripe harbor]

I could also see Ralsei as completely non-physical, but picking up dust-aesthetics because its close to what he represents

Softness, fluff, sleepy clouds

[astral quiver]

i think the prince from the dark is just a thing made by the prime fountain

[lusty cypress]

Suddenly one day

[ripe harbor]

Pillows and the like

[astral quiver]

a Ralsei is just a Ralsei

[ripe harbor]

also possible

I've been thinking of the Catti-Kris demon summoning as eventually tying with Ralsei's origin

[astral quiver]

possible

[ripe harbor]

it would be fitting if both of them did some Dark shenanigans, and brought forth a dreemurr-like creature and a cat-like creature

one each

Ralsei also mirrors it in the way it's tied to the side content, and him to the main prophecy (literally telling you about it and Knowing)

[astral quiver]

inb4 we never find out what Ralsei is until 10 minutes before the credits and Susie is like "wait, so what are you in the light world?" and Ralsei is like "im this piece of hairy gum"

[ripe harbor]

lol

I think him being something kinda unimpressive / garbage-y actually would be cute for the fun gang as a whole

they'd each be things 'meant' to be discarded

The party would all belong with each other by virtue of not belonging anywhere else

They all got the empty rooms

[lusty cypress]

His fluff is fungus

[ripe harbor]

Ralsei is moss....

[lusty cypress]

People are gonna start hod-posting about ralsei

(People were posting about eating hod on the library of ruina sub)

[ripe harbor]

He's a flower, which will be foreshadowed by all of Asgore's flowers looking like Ralsei in the Dark World, and mirroring Asriel in the sense of really being a flower brought to life. Maybe from the ROOTS ||/s|| ||unless... 👀||

[lusty cypress]

(Which is odd because she is good for wielding stuff from cannibals)

[ripe harbor]

I think my base assumption is that until given a reason to think so, he doesn't have a physical object

[manic parrot]

Ralsei is formed from society’s love of fluffy boys

[ripe harbor]

oh yeah, unrelatedly,

the _hero merch drop got me checking to see if there was anything else new

realized I'd never actually taken more than a cursory glance at the UT 5th anniversary Vinyl,

very funny

The Vaguepost King

At least its not just the modern merch drops filled with strange and weirdly-relevant phrasing

'Hate' is something referenced in DR a few times, but not really ever given a front and center

Mirrored with Love, so if Ralsei ends up with a parallel to the Spooky Thing I could see that as an angle too

whimsy and fear, the Game and 'Fun', love and hate, daydreams and nightmares,

softness and sharpness. does show up in in the sword quest.

[ripe harbor]

Like, if the Velveteen rabbit became real through Love, would it need to be love specifically? Could something become real through Hate- does anything work as long as the bond / emotion is strong?

The mantle quest is stabbing things and fighting until the game is real enough you can walk into it

[lusty cypress]

Can sonething cross into the light world if emotions are strong enough?

[ripe harbor]

maybe...

[lusty cypress]

Friend becoming real

[ripe harbor]

Dark Worlds are formed by holding an image in your mind

[lusty cypress]

From fear and hate

[ripe harbor]

what is a mental image / thought that won't go away, that insists on itself?

yeah

[lusty cypress]

Ralsei becoming real from love

[ripe harbor]

Would also be another way to explain Castle Town / Ralsei's overwhelming heart symbolism

basically I just think hate is sort of underused as a motif, despite showing up in the (hidden) legend-rhyme

Light and Dark, Love and Hate, the Hopes and Dreams that govern Fate. Every other word there is one of those Nouns in context, lol

is hate as important?

Reminds me of the saying that the opposite of love isnt hate, but apathy. Hate isn't on the other side of the spectrum from love, but instead they mirror each other.

they are both a strong bond

and that makes me think that the way it's connected into DR is related in someway to the Shadow Mantle Speaker. Who does ragebait kris until they get what they want, lmao.

they want you to stab them, they want Kris' eyes to start burning from the fight

[minor merlin]

is this real

[strange cloud]

Unfortunately no

[astral quiver]

for every 45 seconds that someone isnt playing deltarune chapter 5 Nintendo is losing 1 trillion dollars

[ripe harbor]

they should release Deltarune chapter 0 (Mother 3) then

[rain lotus]

this is how we get kingdom hearts sequel chapter names

chapter 4 1/4ths: requiem by night

chapter 4/2.9̅9

[ripe harbor]

do they know?

Shes a dragon at least

thats also in there

[ripe harbor]

though some of this discussion of the Velveteen Rabbit & Pinocchio in the comments makes me wonder if that's a reason the Mizzle are fairy-like

They are water, they are like things that are like water (the fountains), they are like things that bring toys / objects to life (fairies)

they are quite literally blue fairies

[amber jolt]

https://youtu.be/YKnNDEWYzBA

[lusty cypress]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1s6HW-43KA

[low surge]

https://tenor.com/view/metal-gear-solid-snake-big-boss-gif-12248663

[ripe harbor]

If he's invisible, why does he still take damage¿

[low surge]

https://tenor.com/view/no-no-point-kronk-gif-13896471

[restive comet]

Waow

[ripe harbor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYdpOjletnc

full circle

oh lmao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBtfwyfiigY

definitely intended

[ripe harbor]

I like the cut up segment at the end because it's how I'm also rocking my DR vagueposts most places I'm in

F is for frolic through all the flowers, U is for you and me...

[rain lotus]

snolid sake in undertale be like "The seven human souls? The barrier? hrrngh. he speaks in hands?"

snake, have you ever heard of "les enfants buttercup"

[manic parrot]

that's "THE" Spamton to you!

[low surge]

Careful snake, that’s Frisk Undertale. They are incredibly dangerous, don’t engage unless you have to

❤️ Do you like to eat bugs?
🐍 yea
❤️ SPARED

[rain lotus]

now, snake, i'm not an otaku, but i do watch patrician anime like "meow meow kissy cutie!"

https://tenor.com/view/otacon-mgs-hal-emmerich-mgs1-gif-12747337678638039217

unfortunately, FIGHTing is just one of those things that get easier the more you do it

[ripe harbor]

Do you think LOVE can bloom, even trapped Underground...?

https://www.tumblr.com/tulpapear/811387856175153152?source=share

Lilybug (Tulpapear)

Dealing with Demonic Possession (full comic)

Hello I am new to tumblr but I'm gonna start sharing my comics to you guys 😊

🔉 Toby Fox — Dummy!...

Tumblr · Mar 18, 2026, 2:09 AM

[ripe harbor]

hmm, some translation discourse again

I think in an ideal world DR would have Spanish / Portuguese (+ more) translations, but given how much it likes running with multiple meaning wordplays + that it's not even out yet, I couldn't fault the team for not pursuing it. Translations take time and effort, good translations even more.

[strange cloud]

Kris and Dess are gonna do this to us

[ripe harbor]

Dess better watch herself rn she's looking like the Spooky Smiler who gets beat up

talking mad $!$? for some(one?thing?) in RUDE BUSTER range

[astral quiver]

i wonder

where did the idea of demonic possession come from if the Hometown religion doesnt have stuff like hell and sin

other religions exist sure, maybe even the catholic church

[low surge]

Love this

[low surge]

I mean the religion clearly believes in forces of darkness and destruction in some manner

Hence existing in the prophecy at all

Maybe more as a natural force than a malicious intelligence

[ripe harbor]

true & real.

I think its a really funny element that extends from the Holiday family specifically

It's not just generic winter-holiday, because it's gotta be close enough for Rudy to make a "Krismas" pun lmao

the concept of religions with sin has to exist to specify that Hometown's doesn't

I don't take it seriously or as worldbuilding, it's all tongue in cheek. but Monster-Jesus real.

[ripe harbor]

also belief in spiritual entities / contamination crop up all over the place without any sort of hell-type thing involved, or the specific christian meaning of sin.

even then the prophecy does have a 'hell', it's just not a place of punishment & there's not ( ) any sort of satan-figure ever mentioned

assuming the actual faith has this bit at all

more like Sheol than 'Inferno'

hmm

thinking about the whole '6 chapters, then it stopped, the pen was waiting for the next to write', and how that goes down in a church

Wonder if that's pulling from the 7 days for Genesis, where the 7th was a day of rest

6 chunks of creation, then sitting back & a 7th that's not 'finished'

[restive comet]

Personally, I kinda like the idea that monsters either have their own separate version of Christmas that's more closer to Yule or they might have simply adopted it from human culture

[ripe harbor]

I dont tend to think of the broader DR world normally, but I guess I assume it's generally more integrated with humans & monsters together

might be some elements lightly against that in the story, tbh, but I took it more as Hometown being a bit isolated in general, so not as diverse.

[rain lotus]

actually once you reach the end of hometown you end up on the other side

the fact asriel has escaped is terrifying

its kind of like silent hill

[ripe harbor]

he had to sacrifice the green lizard

[restive comet]

https://tenor.com/view/deltarune-roaring-knight-the-roaring-knight-undertale-goku-gif-12950428057791905546

[strange cloud]

Chat, Ramb discussion in another server made me wonder

Is Toriel gonna be hurt?

I know so far she’s narrowly avoided being kidnapped and later caught in the church, though there’s evidence that wasn’t the plan anyway, but like

These Ramb lines

Maybe it was just just chapter 3 and her obvious danger

But man, they really do make me think something might happen to her

[manic parrot]

emotionally hurt at some point, definitely

[strange cloud]

they’re gonna watch their child die

[low surge]

I’m still very convinced that while Toriel isn’t part of the conspiracy, she knows something of significance

[delicate cave]

that'd mirror her role in Undertale

[low surge]

The parental locks (hiding something from Kris), the Toriel tag being what changes the brown and black deer to the white hood and shadow mirror monster respectively, the fact the Knight has targeted where she’s at twice

[strange cloud]

It’s very funny seeing that Deadlock is having its own weird route analysis

[lusty cypress]

EXplained to someone why the thoery of alvin being knight had legs and how stuff frm it such as him exhuming his father was right
Someone replies to me they can't understand how anyone thought a character without a dialogue portrait could be the main antagonist
People really obsesse over stupid details

[rain lotus]

well i also think ppl want to out-unexpect-eachother

i figure its just the long episodic wait

but there's like the game you can play currently and the game people made in their head you have to study to engage with

[astral quiver]

Alvin doesnt have any aura, he would never be the knight

he would never hit emotes on 14 year olds

[ripe harbor]

"One day, your mom's gonna get sick of you, you little freak. And as soon as that happens..."

"Someone might make you disappear. And she'll finally realize how happy she was without you."

[ripe harbor]

Even as someone who was at Alvin's speech pre-3+4, I'm not actually sure he did exhume his father

[inland hare]

Never buried sounds more right

[ripe harbor]

Its definitely an implication, and maybe even the strongest implication, but I think you could read him as just angsting over if he's let his father down re: his creative work.

"This Hammer" as Gerson's literal remains or "This Hammer" in a metaphorical sense of taking up the mantle of his series.

[ripe harbor]

yeah like I could see either, but I personally don't lean too hard on it as an assumption

[manic parrot]

ok but then why was there fresh dirt at his gravesite

[ripe harbor]

was there? I might've actually missed that detail

[inland hare]

True…

[ripe harbor]

that is a pretty good point lol

[inland hare]

Yeah I vaguely recall that being brought up before

[manic parrot]

unless you think The Knight and Co. just dug up his corpse fior shits and gigs

[inland hare]

Now that you mention it

[manic parrot]

which, to be clear, is entirely possible now that i write it out

but

[inland hare]

Will Alvin finish the Hammer series

[ripe harbor]

Whatever he ends up writing, I'm sure it'll be tremendous.

Alvin does say there is a hammer buried here, at the grave

so he was either lying or did dig it up

[inland hare]

If he did dig it up

Why now

Of all times

[ripe harbor]

yeah

thats why I would believe something odd is off about him

Alvin Knighters might've gotten half credit, if he is actually part of the Evil Ass Conspiracy

they would've been right that he was plotting, knowledgeable, and digging up his fathers grave to use in a Dark World

[lusty cypress]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying

He sounded very strange over his father's grave

And the dust covered hammer was in his office

[ripe harbor]

The big thing there was that the game actually stops you while you leave to deliver its exposition

imo

its not just between the lines, talking to Alvin causes the UI to go "Oh and by the way-" and then underline what he says

* ... were you proud of me, father...?
* And... is it right for this hammer to...```

but I could see this as just setting up Gerson in the Dark World & Alvin's letter

[inland hare]

I do sometimes wonder about distinction between the Player and Chara as an off topic

There is a kind of a distinction

But it’s much weaker than Frisk and Player

And why have like three levels of overlap on a singular character (?)

[ripe harbor]

oh my god I forgot you could just hit Susie with the "Dude shut up" when she's trying to emotionally connect with you

evil choice

[inland hare]

Lmao

[ripe harbor]

I do think Frisk-Chara-No Mercy is one of the fuzzier bits of writing in UT

and how close you are to Chara

[inland hare]

Chara serves as basically our mirror the way Frisk doesn’t

[ripe harbor]

Given how much harder DR goes into the paint with those elements, I think some of the flip-floppiness of Chara in UT is sort of a first rough draft of whatever's happening with Kris/The Soul in DR

[inland hare]

Yeah

[ripe harbor]

its a little less clear how much you are Chara and how much you're something else, and who's soul it is, but its mostly only unclear on the Genocide route

[inland hare]

But it’s a particular weakness in writing that has now spawned… an infinite amount of player stories hahaha

It’s so open ended that you are allowed to put… basically any interpretation you want

And it’d still be somewhat supported

[ripe harbor]

Why did Chara make toby write it like that....

[inland hare]

I think my interpretation is that Chara is the player avatar in the way most video game protagonists are

A person with backstory and perhaps some quirk of your own, sure

But ultimately fully beholden to player choice

[ripe harbor]

(I couldn't find this specifically, checking the C2 & 4 scenes + Alvin's office, so if you do @ me)

[sour mesa]

see i feel like the True Lab sequence is a revelation about the ways Chara isn't you

[ripe harbor]

I did always think an interesting element to them was Asriel saying they don't think they climbed the mountain 'for a happy reason'

[sour mesa]

leaving you kinda unmoored

[ripe harbor]

kind of unexpected for a player avatar

obsession with min-maxing and power, not as much

[sour mesa]

you end up alienated from both Frisk and Chara by the end of True Pacifist, but I think Frisk less so

I'm pretty comfortable with the model of "you play as Frisk, and discover that along the way"

[ripe harbor]

but that alienation might also be what allows you to reach them at the very end?

I like that

[inland hare]

I mean tragic backstories are… pretty common for player characters though

I think

[sour mesa]

(i am also a narrator chara believer so)

[rain barn]

I do like the "the narrator is chara" reading

[ripe harbor]

Feels different when it's driven by an implied internal dissatisfaction, or desire to not be alive imo

[sour mesa]

(i have no idea how common that is actually, i'm out of the loop)

[inland hare]

Same

Narrator Chara believers I think is usually the majority for among fan theorists

[sour mesa]

good

[inland hare]

Mostly because I think it’s the most convenient answer

[ripe harbor]

If Chara went underground intentionally, its sort of set up that they jumped. That stands out when a lot of their other behavior can be taken much more directly as a player-parallel - the rpg player stand in was suicidal?

[sour mesa]

(which also means there isn't really a separate player entity in Undertale for me)

[rain barn]

undertale has such katabasis vibes that being accompanied by an actual ghost and helping them find peace (in the pacifist route, at least) slots right in

[sour mesa]

it's also

and i appreciate this more now

"you find out who the narrator has been this whole time" is a very Homestuck move lol

[inland hare]

I do love the generally melancholic vibe of Undertale

[ripe harbor]

I've said before it feels like a playable fairy tale

like in that same fable type space

[inland hare]

But yeah undertale is a game about visiting a site of a great tragedy… and helping its victims find peace, if you want to

[sour mesa]

which becomes "you're playing as Frisk's SOUL" in deltarune

[inland hare]

Which is very different from most other games if you ask me

Whose plots are often variations on visiting sites of great tragedies to slaughter its victims hahahaha

[inland hare]

I think this sense of alienation, btw, is fully intentional on part of Toby

[ripe harbor]

I think the melancholy hits harder too, with the way there is some genuine hope but it's directly opposed to you being alive.

[inland hare]

Mostly down to Undertale menu screen

[ripe harbor]

Weird feeling to walk through New Home

[sour mesa]

oho?

[inland hare]

Yeah

If you load the game after true pacifist ending

There’s no music

Just wind, echoing endlessly in empty halls

Forever

[sour mesa]

that is a nice spooky touch

[ripe harbor]

It's carried over in DR too, on the edges

first reveal was a cold void with winds

[inland hare]

The menu music changes throughout the adventure too btw

[ripe harbor]

before and after the story

[inland hare]

As you make more friends and progress toward true pacifist ending

More instruments get added

It’s a very lonely feeling to see and hear nothing but the void and wind

After getting used to the music

[ripe harbor]

but part of how UT sets up its meta-commentary

its lonely, but are you going to undo the happy ending just to make it alive again?

[inland hare]

Yeah

[ripe harbor]

pointed work. Knows what it wants to say, and says it.

[manic parrot]

iirc it was just incidental text when examining his grave

[rain barn]

the chara reveals gave me pretty complicated feelings since I had given them a name that isn't mine but a ttrpg character I played that is increasingly becoming how I present myself

so essentially I already had that layer of "is not me, just a character I'm playing" and yet when asriel speaks directly to chara at the end it felt like my name

...I wonder how the name you give the vessel will come up in deltarune

I went to check and are you kidding me
After the vessel is apparently discarded, its information is saved into lines 1217 to 1226 of the save file when opened in a text editor,

1225 is seemingly "have you answered honestly?"

[ripe harbor]

is it true, or does it just appear to be?

[ripe harbor]

I hope it kinda comes back with this

from Noelle's page talking about her weird glitchy 'egg' pet

the almost-imcompatible pet, made from combined modified data, that was thrown away but kept coming back

it had a name, but she can't remember what it was

the player's name for their vessel would probably work

"Sign my guestbook". You sign things with your name.

[rain barn]

the video the wiki cited noted that line 1225 was 0 regardless of which option was picked so that specific number is possibly skipped over

[ripe harbor]

oh I was just making a joke on rephrasing 'have you answered honestly' to be more Dark-Worldy

Is it Dess, or does it only appear to be?
Does it matter?

Does it have to be honest to look the part?

"When all you have is a bat, everything looks like a ball" is still funny

pre-empted and parried

[rain barn]

clearly,

[ripe harbor]

speaking of Chara parallels and stuff, actually

I've been thinking of the 'treasure' / ??? orbs, the little gold things you pick up for TP, as fitting into that

when ever Gaster is adding quotes around the word, that's . And that philosopher who speaks about the egg room... "Treasure? There is no treasure. There is only experience."

the little dots? Those would be experience points.

but I think it's probably playing more on the actual definition of experience and not the video game one. Bits of memories, maybe? Still, the pun is there.

And the Knight does have multiple moves and a cutscene where they start absorbing orbs. Is the knight going around trying to collect 'experience'?

That would be a good motive to opening all sorts of fountains in places that would have a connection to Dess, like she's trying to get her color back to normal by stitching together all these traces of her & people she knew.

really, at least part of it is wondering if the Knight slorping up orbs is any similar to how the Soul does it

https://tenor.com/view/deltarune-chapter-ch-3-the-gif-1297018572657339086

whatever's going on here

https://tenor.com/view/deltarune-ch-chapter-3-the-gif-17978594307283808818

and maybe here too

||yeah, it's also PK Starstorm. But it's still slorping.||

[timber widget]

Speaking of the Knight and exp

[ripe harbor]

https://www.tumblr.com/kotoskies/812539472405282817?source=share

It’s!! TV!! Time!!!

-# #deltarune #kris dreemurr #susie deltarune #deltarune fanart #chainsaw man #<- technically

Tumblr · Mar 30, 2026, 7:13 PM

[lusty cypress]

https://vibewarden.tumblr.com/post/812442079806586880/of-course-this-is-the-first-thing-ralsei-says

Vibe Warden Art

Of Course this is the first thing Ralsei says after you put him in Tomodachi Life. Devastating

-# #Just you wait till April 16 #No son of mine will keep his room empty #ralsei #deltarune #tomodachi life #tomodachi living the dream #tomodachi posting

Tumblr · Mar 29, 2026, 5:25 PM

[ripe harbor]

Silvagunners April Fools is a riff on UTDR AUs, lmao

nice

[minor merlin]

I need to see the doki fell literature club designs now that the idea has been put in my head

[ripe harbor]

I really liked this one

[rain lotus]

they should post a normal OST from undertale

presented without comment

just the entirety of snowdin town

niche UTDR AU titled "undertale"

wait that was just the anniversary stream

[ripe harbor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dor-mI6Lstc

[rain lotus]

oh my god there's so many of these

my favorite are the ones that don't seem to beundertale related at all??? like they swapped michael jackson for prince in michael jackson's moonwalker and that's the joke. this is meaningless if you don't know what the undertale AU joke is and/or don't know who both of these people are. it's brilliant

https://youtu.be/jzEsAksJp_c

[ripe harbor]

I liked the one that was "Battle against sans" and it was Earthbound battle music -> Game Theory jingle

[rain lotus]

this one escapes me and i know it's a roblox game

[ripe harbor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNHIaoqzoJA

[rain lotus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwyIneT7-LQ

[ripe harbor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQo_zSJ93JY

... A tower between... there is a tower between...

[ripe harbor]

you know I actually have thought something similar, but in reverse.

If only because Sans monologue about 'timelines' during his fight sounds a lot more similar to Deltarune than Undertale.

since its 'hidden' & the skeletons got other DR foreshadowing, I've wondered if that whole bit wasn't similar

pretty much idle speculation until (or if) sans actually does anything in DR though

[ripe harbor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_QFIQICP6k

[scarlet wadi]

https://bsky.app/profile/waveprism.bsky.social/post/3mifrjihdss27

autumn (@waveprism.bsky.social)

actual tears in my eyes

Likes

219

▶ Play video

Bluesky · Apr 1, 2026, 3:42 AM

[ripe harbor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnd4PbIpIOc

[lusty cypress]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H3zVDslTpQ

[lusty cypress]

https://www.tumblr.com/ectofool/791372503898619904

[timber widget]

https://www.tumblr.com/everbough/812712064699203585

everbough

they're both idiots but that's okay. we **like **them like this

a short animation I made for a college project. source is here

-# #deltarune #susie deltarune #kris dreemurr #krusie #deltarune fanart #animation #deltarune animation #my art

▶ Play video

Tumblr · Apr 1, 2026, 4:57 PM

[low surge]

Canonical Krusie Activities

[white basalt]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgvbWTwaQDo

[ripe harbor]

UTDR Soundcloud is very funny because if you accidentally leave autoplay on you'll jump right from "Shitpost with Mario Paint and Earthbound sfx" to "Saddest Lost Girl Piano Rendition you've ever heard"

with no warning

[lusty cypress]

https://batgirlsmell.tumblr.com/post/813068207336341504/theoryslop-you-only-believe-in-it-because-it-has

gay bat heaven

theoryslop. you only believe in it because it has evidence supported by and relating to the narrative and themes of the work

-# #this is about #transfem ralsei #galsei #transfem jax #daisy tadc

Tumblr · Apr 5, 2026, 3:17 PM

[ripe harbor]

Here's how Kris Pomni homunculus can still win:

[lusty cypress]

homunculus?

[lusty cypress]

I meant
What theory is that?

[ripe harbor]

I'm using it here to mean 'artificial person'. I don't actually think it's likely for Pomni to be a fully artificial human, made from scratch. (Kris is another story...)

but I kinda like it

[lusty cypress]

Scratch, huh

[ripe harbor]

That Pomni isn't even a scanned human. That she's 'more AI' than the other ones ||even though they are almost certainly all AI||

& the DR version would be that Kris is a vessel or something. A copy that was colored in.

Not sure they'd have time in the finale to throw in a twist like that for Pomni specifically though, lol.

[lusty cypress]

well kris is some orphan

[ripe harbor]

see that almost adds to it for Kris

They have no origin. They don't need one, it wouldn't be critical for the story to gloss over it- but they get compared to outright copies a lot. The Prophetic Text goes out of it's way to describe the 1st hero in a way that never calls them human.

They have an occasionally antagonistic relationship with their (and is it theirs?) 'Human Soul'.

The opening of DR shows you a Vessel creation sequence- a Goner Maker, a Build-a-Homunculus Workshop! Is there any reason to assume Kris, who looks nearly identical to the Vessels, is actually different from them?

and ofc it would fit into the themes of identity & 'fated roles' & if people who 'aren't real' matter. That's the thematic element.

The Pomni version is basically fueled by cope. I want to believe..!

[ripe harbor]

hoooooly the text dump github got an update

they unblocked the dang hyperlinks

they're even animated

[strange cloud]

Kris is my beautiful transgender homunculus child whom I love

[low surge]

Real

[ripe harbor]

Nobellperson! You shall be the first victim of my song!
Diversity win! this violent witch is a #transally 🙂‍↕️

[strange cloud]

Kris is the child of us and Gaster and Gaster is a transphobic parent because they insist they continue to be a vessel while I want them to transition to their own person

This is why we will KILL him

[ripe harbor]

Gaster is a transphobic parent because he's not a fan of (accidental?) creations self-defining. Which is why you gotta hug every Bugs you can find.

He's got a prophecy & it is nice and blue. But there are a few other colors you could have in the mix, too.

& Ralsei's there too or something.

actually Gaster is a transphobic parent also because his definition of 'Eggs' is literally '(An) Issue'

[strange cloud]

That’s true that’s true

[strange cloud]

I love the idea of Goners as artificial people made with purpose

Stuff like the “what if you were gone one day, and nothing ever changed”

Gonerkid is a goner without purpose

Nothing would change if they never existed

Because nothing has changed

But they clearly yearn for more

[minor merlin]

Transphobic gaster and master himedanshi fandom nerd gaster exist in parallel... opposed, but necessary for the other

[strange cloud]

I do think a key part of Gaster, at least from my reading of him so far, is that all of his fanboyisms are directed at us

Not the characters

He calls some of them wonderful during the gonermaker but he has special interest in us specifically

[astral quiver]

Gaster flirting with Player theory

[strange cloud]

Theory?

[astral quiver]

hypothesis

maybe its true actually

[strange cloud]

Gaster flirting with us a theory like how gravity is a theory

[astral quiver]

i am bad at picking up social cues

[strange cloud]

It’s fine

[astral quiver]

i never knew

[ripe harbor]

twin reflections.....

[ripe harbor]

* Yo!
* You're a ??? too, right?

[minor merlin]

Woke gaster vs chud gaster

[ripe harbor]

something 'superfluous'. That could be removed and 'nothing would change'.

Trash, unwanted information. Signal Noise.

[strange cloud]

One day, probably soon, Deltarune is gonna focus a lot on the idea of a goner

And people better be ready

Because it’s gonna kill ‘em

[ripe harbor]

Gaster Deniers walking through the MEAT FACTORY like "Must've been the wind..."

[astral quiver]

still cant wait for Gaster to appear and all the 10 years of fan art of the mystery man to become invalid

Toby would never do that

[ripe harbor]

they already won with the Knight & the Titan having hole hands

at least a little bit

[strange cloud]

I’m not sure I believe it but I saw a theory that the gonermaker is a semi flash foward due to the unused Susie dialogue

And like, if we go into a place where goners are made

And make our own vessel

Who’s Kris

I’d be popping off

[strange cloud]

Also yah the knight’s stigmata basically confirms to me even harder that mystery man is Gaster

I doubt that’s his final sprite because it’s, quite silly

But still it’s the same design

[ripe harbor]

It was like a week ago but while looking up something else in a discussion, this Lancer dialogue sorta

* Eventually your controller will break.
* A father figure will give you a new one.

twigged my eyes

[strange cloud]

That’s

[ripe harbor]

sorta ....

[strange cloud]

Huh

Kris is so fucking dead

It’s crazy

[ripe harbor]

yeah....

[strange cloud]

We need more Jesus imagery for Kris right fucking now

Because I really want to be more certain they’ll get better

[ripe harbor]

imo its gotta be where their name comes from, right?

Kris(t)?

[astral quiver]

seems like it

[strange cloud]

Maybe

[astral quiver]

Krismas ect ect

[strange cloud]

Deltarune is a very Christian game

[astral quiver]

its gnostic

[ripe harbor]

not entirely clear why, but the whole christmas thing is right there with the Holidays

[strange cloud]

Okay but it kinda is tbh

[astral quiver]

yeah theres a whole video about it

[strange cloud]

Gaster is like

The most demiurge to ever demiurge

[astral quiver]

the whole game is saturated with the whole gnostic false reality thing

[strange cloud]

Yah, in a way dark worlds are just becoming your own personal demiurge

Idk if it really works beyond creator who isn’t god but still

[lusty cypress]

Wtf is going on

Just walkes in

[strange cloud]

Deltarune discussion

[lusty cypress]

Transphobic gaster?

[ripe harbor]

with the twist that the Pleroma is also beyond the Dark

[astral quiver]

Deltarune is Gnostisism. you are caught up

[ripe harbor]

I still hold some space for Hometown to be fake-ish, in some way

its thematically fitting, and probably works on a meta level

[astral quiver]

for an undertale fan it does feel too good to be true doesnt it

[strange cloud]

It’s talking about the Kris is the vessel theory, and how Kris “transitioned” into not being our vessel by becoming their own person, before we’re shoved in them again

And Gaster has no issue with this

So it’s a joke explanation for the dynamic between Kris and Gaster

With Gaster being a sorta father to Kris who wants them to return to the original role they predetermined for them

Vessel

[ripe harbor]

though if there is a second voice in the intro (which is fairly accepted afaik), they definitely seem like the more outright transphobic-type

"No one can choose who they are, in this world"

[strange cloud]

Kris internalized transphobia theory

[ripe harbor]

I'm glad Kris OCD has spread further

[strange cloud]

People from the lore pit has got me hooked on it

[ripe harbor]

spiritually true headcanon, imo

having undiagnosed OCD got me hooked on it

[strange cloud]

Lol

Kris is literally me though because I also constantly think at night if I’m really NB

[rain lotus]

my partner likes kris' design a lot and they're nonbinary

[strange cloud]

I enjoy Kris quite a lot

[ripe harbor]

many such cases ime

[strange cloud]

Under discussed aspect of Rudy knight is that it makes Rudy into a massive fucking asshole

Like, more then the knight being a murderous kidnapper who’s trying to end the world

Because a big part of Rudy knight is some lines Rudy says people interpret as foreshadowing

Like his hand washing competition line or threatening to kick Susie’s ass

But in the context of Rudy knight that means that Rudy is cruel enough to not only emotionally manipulate Kris into helping him do all of this but also taunting them the whole time

It’s basically him going “hey Kris, you know how you have to betray the trust of your mother and new best friends? Isn’t that hilarious!”

[rain lotus]

you always were a kidder, rudy

[ripe harbor]

I think either way he ends up doing that, tbh, even if he isn't the knight

but that's just because I think he's probably looped in on some level to whatevers going on

[astral quiver]

ok but
whats the point of Rudy Knight?

[strange cloud]

Idk, I don’t feel like he’s super aware

[strange cloud]

see women can’t be relevant

[ripe harbor]

& I lean against Rudy as the Knight too, but

https://tenor.com/view/deltarune-chapter-ch-4-the-gif-5459956496704670741

the Knight definitely also finds it a little hilarious

[astral quiver]

i dont think any of the adults are aura farming on teenagers

its kinda silly

[strange cloud]

I mean yah but like, doing this outside the light world feel’s especially cruel lol

They aren’t even in their roles anymore

Rudy is meant to be playing the dying old man card

[ripe harbor]

I think people just want relevance for Rudy that's not "(implied) Die & make Noelle sad"

which is ignoring his well-established support role for the divorcee fujos smh

[strange cloud]

They should take it up with Gaster idk

[ripe harbor]

its definitely a sliding scale between "Phone Person (who might also be) -> Carol -> Asgore"

but I could see Rudy on either side of Asgore for that

there's a conspiracy board in his room

and Asgore

"That Asgore guy... It's a shame he lost everything after he... You know."
"Now he has to sell flowers to make ends meet, but... What? He's your father? Sorry."

It seems like he's tried to tell people his version of events enough that he's known for it, and for his wife to disagree strongly with him sticking to it. Hard to imagine he wouldn't try to convince his best friend.

[strange cloud]

That’s true but he’s also been in the hospital for a while now

[ripe harbor]

like at the very least Rudy probably knows much more than the average townsperson