I Always Saw The No Mercy Route Chara As Not Actually Being Chara Themself, But Instead Being A Demon

I always saw the No Mercy Route chara as not actually being chara themself, but instead being a demon that took possession of chara's body at some point or another. And here's the kicker: I believe they started existing in Deltarune first.

Not only does chara calls themself "the demon that comes when you call its name" if you play No Mercy twice in a row, but every single big mystery in the game has ties to demonic symbolism somehow. From gaster's "666" type value to spamton suddenly having extreme success due to a "mysterious man on the phone" and then skyrocketing back to the bottom of the barrel awhile later. Does that not sound like a pact to you? Not to mention how Ralsei calls himself a "good devil" if you give him one of Jevil's items.

Everything revolves around demonic symbolism, and I think that's 100% intentional. It may be controversial to say this, but I view gaster himself as being the devil of this franchise, the being who lives between the worlds of light and dark and the one responsible for Spamton's call and Kris's strange entity (or multiple entities) in control of their body.

I might elaborate on this later, but my current theory is that Kris, as a kid, always wished to be a monster, and that desire ultimately brought them to making a pact with the devil to achieve that, maybe with the help of Catti. Unfortunately, though, it did not work the way they wanted to. I guess we could say it was a "deal gone wrong", that ultimately caused a demon to enter kris's body instead — the same demon that would go on to possess chara in undertale. This is why I so heavily believe Kris and Ralsei will fuse together by the end of the game, making a direct parallel to Chara and Asriel fusing together in undertale. Kris would finally be the monter they always wanted to be.

Anyway, what do you think? I'd love to hear your takes on this!

he also looks melted apart, never stops smiling at all times and the beam of light that makes him pop up in the room is made by a gaster blaster if you look at the files- oh fuck wait

in a lot of ways rouxls kaard is like the shitty off-brand version of fanon gaster. he’s themed around giving us puzzles (but they’re stupid as shit). he’s a "dad" (lancer’s babysitter). he follows us around without our knowledge to menace us (except his plans suck and then he turns to stone). he speaks in a bizarre and overly formal fashion (but it just makes him seem ridiculous). he’s designed like a hot, goopy uboa (except he’s TOO obviously attractive, thereby negating his ability to be a True Sexyman). rouxls sucks and i love him

an addendum:

although I believe gaster is clearly a tragic character who's afraid of being seen while having an odd and extreme urge to help the world in some positive way, that does not exclude the possibility of him thinking the only way to achieve such things is through immoral acts. It is not an accident that he is so heavily depicted with devilish symbolisms all over — even a "mad scientist" could have good intentions. Maybe he has done something irreversible to the world — aka, the creation of Dark Worlds — and is trying to minimize the damage he knows his creation is about to cause.

I think he is trying to do good things through questionable means as a way to somewhat forgive at least a small part of himself for doing something unforgivable in the past.

i think one of the most telling examples of how we’ve been influenced to think about gaster is that if we say no to him after he asks if we want to continue after a chapter 1 game over, we’ll proceed to hear the absolute gentlest most heartbroken fucking unaccompanied piano arrangement of gaster’s motif any of us has ever heard and we’ll still be like "huh wonder why THAT’S there."

it’s because he’s sad!!! he’s fucking sad!!! this is the sound of an incorporeal man holding back metaphysical tears!!! WHY would the game have us linger here at a black screen instead of immediately going back to the menu like a normal RPG would? because it wants us to have this quiet moment in the dark with him, to finally catch him in a moment that’s raw and deeply vulnerable and unmarred by either cryptic mythologizing or his own mask of confident, neutral professionalism, just a black screen and a tender, melancholic song. and then he closes the fucking game himself.

it’s like, after narrating our ending, he just can’t think of anything else to say. he doesn’t want to tell us to go away because he probably doesn’t want us to, we’re both his last hope for success and the only person he’s been able to "connect" with in a very long time. he just sits there awkwardly with us while he quietly processes the situation, before he finally accepts that this is the world’s (and his) fate and he can’t force us to stay there with him any longer.

again im not trying to woobify him, what im saying is that we’re so used to seeking out spooky, vaguely sinister lore for an extraplanar entity that even when we finally meet him, it doesn’t occur to us that he could just be another character, one who’s VERY different from the other characters but a character nonetheless.

gaster is fundamentally cryptic and ambiguous, possibly in part because he intends to be hard to read. i think he hides himself between layers and behind clinical speech and trees because he’s uncomfortable with being seen, but he isn’t a perfect rational being, he’s just a guy, and he can’t connect with us without risking "pieces" of himself seeping through. just as undertale challenged us to hunt through it for pieces of gaster’s lore, deltarune is now going out of its way to give us insight into his character, but just as with his lore, we have to seek it out and consider it carefully in order to learn anything. like do you understand why im suddenly so obsessed with this guy!!! not to mention all the ways he parallels kris and chara and alphys and serves as a reflection of the player and. god. i love these fucking video james so much

Artists of all kinds, especially new artists. I am gripping you by the shoulders right now. Listen.

It is impossible to be completely original.

It simply cannot be done. No matter how hard you try, there will always be something out there at least slightly similar to what you do. And that's okay. We always stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before us, and they stand on the shoulders of the ones before them.

The first art drawn, the first song lyrics created, the first story told, were all of facts of life humanity already knew. Don't twist yourself into knots trying to create techniques, subjects or styles that have never been used before.

the irony of the creator of DELTARUNE AND UNDERTALE saying his game is "sort of simple"

You have no idea how late I am with this and I'm sure a lot of people have already written about it. But it just captivates me that even here Toby writes "Don't Forget"

That's just so....

gaster turns out to be just the most punchable loser you've ever seen

i need gaster to eat shit in deltarune chapter whatever ok? portray him as a real loser. just a guy who gets it all the time. guy you’d shove into lockers. like don’t get me wrong i love the guy and whatever it is i’ve imagined he is but i just genuinely need him to suck so fucking bad