So What The Hell Even IS The Relation Between Monsters And Humans In The World Of Deltarune?

So what the hell even IS the relation between Monsters and Humans in the world of Deltarune?

Undertale made the basics very clear to the Player straight from the opening of the game: Monsters and Humans used to live together as equals, after the war the monsters got sealed in the Underground, with humans ruling over the surface. The more specific details of Monster-Humans relations got revealed as the game went on, since both Frisk and the Player were introduced to Monster Culture. 

(That’s why I always assumed the narration is like… the standard Human narrative about the War of Humans and Monsters, what Frisk knew before venturing to the Underground. That’s why the opening narration implies it was a long and seemingly equally-matched battle, rather than horribly one-sided as described by the ancient writings in Waterfall)

But in Deltarune this is one of the things the game plays on to separate us from Kris. Kris has lived in this world all their damn life, and as the Only Human in Town, they’re probably more aware of Monster-Human Relations than most - but we’re still newcomers. And the game is intentionally obscuring and confusing the details of the dynamics from us for now.

(Kris themself might be doing it, since this is what happens when you check the bookshelf that had “The History of Humans and Monsters” innit during Chapter 2)

(which honestly kinda reminds me of…)

But what HAVE we managed to learn so far?

There’s some stuff that seems to indicate Humans living side-by-side with Monsters just like pre-war and post-Pacifist Ending in the Undertale Timeline. A lot of it is early on in Chapter 1 and I think it was kinda meant to confuse us into initially thinking that Deltarune is a direct continuation of Undertale’s Pacifist Ending.

For example, gingerbread monsters and gingerbread humans…

Compared to Toriel’s house in the Underground in Undertale, which only had gingerbread monsters

A book about “the History of Humans and Monsters”

Versus Undertale where we kept finding books about “Monster History”

Although yeah, some of those references are just part of the Deltarune Chapter 1 Misdirection, they are still real things in this world. And a few still exist way past the point of trying to make us think is this happening after the Pacifist Ending. Like Susie’s comment in the end of Chapter 2.

I MEAN…. Giant Human Movies technically exist in our world where Monsters don’t exist at all. But they’re not considered as like… a separate equivalent to Giant Monster Movies, they’re just considered ‘giant monster movies’? And there’s not so many of them? This kinda implies that Humans and Monsters are seen as equal to the point that they’re about an equal amount of movies done about them being Giant and rampaging through town.

Buuuut on the other hand, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Kris is the Only Human in Town. We have seen no other Human anywhere. There this little Rabbit kid who keeps asking them invasive questions that imply a lack of familiarity with Human biology. 

And mentions of Kris trying to fool other people with that presumed lack of familiarity

And the books in the town’s library seems to be written exclusively to a Monster Audience

So it’s not surprising that some people assume that the Deltarune timeline might the ‘reverse’ of where Undertale started. Monsters are living on the surface and the Humans…. might be trapped underground? (maybe in a certain bunker?) Or they just died out? That Kris isn’t just the Only Human in Town, but one of the few Humans around, period?

After all, a lot of the stuff that might initially suggest Monster and Human co-habitation is found in the Dreemurr’s house. Maybe Toriel bought human-shaped gingerbread cutters and books about Human history to try and help Kris feel less like an outsider in their own home?

(The other possibility is that there’s both an about-equal amount of Humans and Monsters but they tend to live in separate communities. Like, Hometown is a town in the middle of MonsterCountry and most of the humans live in HumanCountry)

But there’s OTHER stuff in the game that doesn’t seem to match with these idea, too! The thing I keep thinking about is the Dreemurr household’s shampoos.

A small container of shampoo for the hair of the one Human in the household. A gallon-sized container for the fur of the one (two? how long has it been since Asriel left for college?) large fuzzy goat in the household. 

But… in a world where there’s an equal amount of Monsters and Humans, why would a shampoo for fur be labeled as ‘PET shampoo’?? Plenty of Monsters, who are fully-sapient people, have fur instead of hair or fur AND hair. Why would Kris’ shampoo be considered ‘default’ while Toriel needs to use a shampoo designed for PETS?

At first I thought it was just a minor plot inconsistency but now I can’t stop wondering about that. 

Is it actually a thing where… Kris is the Only Human in TOWN, but Hometown is the Only Town of Monsters? Like, outside of Hometown Monsters are still very much in the minority compared to Humans? So while their library can stock up with Monster-Centric books, mass-produced products like shampoo are still very human-centric? 

I’ve heard some people speculate that Susie is New in Hometown, maybe she came from a Human-majority town where she was treated by an outsider for being a Monster - only to move to Hometown and find out that she’s STILL an outsider. Making her both the inverse and exactly the same as Kris - who lived all their life in the Monster Town of Hometown and doesn’t seem to relate much to other Humans. If they moved into a Human-centric town, they’d be just as much as an outsider as they are in Hometown, if not more. 

That might explain why she seems weirded specifically by the concept of gingerbread monsters (even though in Hometown, it seems like the gingerbread humans would be the Weird thing)

And might also explain this line from Susie in Chapter 1 

Which seems weird because if Monsters even remotely follow Undertale Rules, they do NOT bleed. I mean, the burying practices of Hometown seems to confirm Monsters still turn to dust when they die - and all the references to Kris’ blood that I brought up earlier sure seem to imply that only Humans have blood and therefore only humans bleed?

But if we assume Susie grew up in a Human-majority community… it’s possible that this is where she picked up that phrase????

I’m not sure which of these options I really believe (or would like to see happen). They all seem to have their evidence, but they all seem to have something that makes them Not Quite Work. And I’m never sure if I’m looking too closely into a silly oversight or really up to something.

What IS for sure is that the game doesn’t want me to be sure about this, at least not quite yet. There’s SOME misdirection going on and I wonder where it leads.

I’m thinking about the idea that Kris was preventing us from reading that “History of Humans and Monsters” book. Is it because they figured out we’re Not From Around Here, and the less we know, the more they can trip us up and possibly reveal us? Or is there just something in that book Kris doesn’t like reading about?

SONIC UNDERGROUND |  Redesign

extremely niche and personal ffxv headcanons

noctis edition:

unhealthy obsession with spicy food (esp heavily seasoned meat dishes), even though he can’t handle it most of the time. both prompto and him love to dare each other to try the spiciest food they can find and yes, it always ends up badly.

has an aversion to touch unless he initiaties it first. lots of sensory issues regarding skin-to-skin contact so he always keeps his hands to himself. he’s fine with hugs/casual touching from people he loves (chocobros + prompto especially) but he WILL throw hands with strangers who invade his personal space.

extremely generous. he will pay for everything if left to his own devices. a sensible budget? doesn’t know her. you tell him you need something and he will get it. he doesn’t care about money enough to put it above the needs of his friends or other people. thankfully ignis is there to keep him in line.

spotify edgelord. keeps his music library organized by mood and yes, he has a specific playlist for brooding during long car rides. tends to assign specific sounds and songs to situations in his head.

has a form of auditory–tactile synesthesia. certain sounds can trigger physical sensations in him. if he had trouble training or mastering specific combat moves during his teenage years, he’d play music to help himself practice to the beat. it helped him with tracking his reaction time and developing a natural grace to his movements.

would prefer if life had a soundtrack so he could play badass music during real battle sequences. his performance actually improves. gladio has tested it during practice and the faster the beat of the song, the faster and more agile noctis becomes. it’s almost hilarious.

funnily enough, he’s an average dancer at best. he’s definitely better at fighting.

secretly interested in dj-ing. might have considered it as a profession were he not a prince.

on that note, he fucking hates yelling. if you yell at him he actually physically feels it, which makes him go into fight or flight mode. it’s one of the reasons why he rarely yells or raises his voice, because he believes other people feel it the same way he does. if you hear him yelling, he’s probably extremely emotionally distraught or nearing a breakdown.

usually low energy in most situations, but his rare high energy episodes make him manic. he will go climb a mountain to find the best fishing spot in 5 minutes just to feel something. he WILL fight 5000 daemons, you, your entire family line, his ancient evil uncle, a god, and still feel restless afterwards until he crashes. and he crashes hard.

gladio used to make fun of him for it but a lot of his battle moves are re-purposed movesets he steals from videogames. if a character has a cool move in-game, he will learn it. has he tried to recreate the leap of faith during a high-stakes battle just so he can look cool? he has. and he will at any chance he gets. prompto absolutely goes wild whenever he does.

has a ridiculously cute handwriting style. ignis says it’s unbecoming of a future king to use so many flourishes and doodles in his cursive but he doesn’t care.

really likes fluffy things that are soft to the touch. afflicted by chronic ‘pet the cat’ disease. he will pet any cute fluffy animal he comes across even under the threat of bodily harm. if anyone hurts a cat in front of him he WILL unleash his full armiger on them. violently.

he’s a very curious person by nature. will poke around doors and random contraptions just to find out what’s inside. gets secretly excited whenever he finds maps and keys because he likes finding out where they lead or what they open. his favorite game during childhood used to be treasure hunting. he’d love whenever ignis hid things around the citadel for him to find. 

he also loves gossip, but you didn’t hear that from me. he’s the kind of person that people feel comfortable talking around, since he’s quiet and a good listener. he’s accidentally heard the WILDEST things from servants and citadel personnel but he doesn’t say anything, just silently files the knowledge away to be used at a later date if needed.

More fun thoughts about Delta Rune.

I’m betting a lot of people are thinking Toriel, Kris’s parent, has to be the one to try and step in to stop their dysfunctional behavior. That’s not going to happen.

I love Toriel but, as a parent, I see at as pretty WILD and fucked up that she allows them to just, have their own knife, and that eating a pie in the middle of the night is something to laugh off.

Toriel is a very dysfunctional “permissive” parent in a few different ways, and I really don’t doubt that was a strain on her and Asgore’s relationship. I have a lot of suspicions that Asgore’s “incident” had to do with the stress of repeatedly trying to bring up their concerns about Kris only to be rebuffed.

I think we’re going to be exploring Toriel’s key flaws in her loving, compassionate personality in Ch 3. Love is not enough to help Kris.

Kris has so much love given to them throughout their life, and yet, that really hasn’t been enough for the emotional turmoil resulting from social isolation, and possession by an entity Kris can’t even talk about.

I could even see Toriel deciding, well, if Kris wants to stay in Dark World, why should anyone stop them? Let alone their doting, loving mother.

I don't think that Kris made the dark fountain or is the Knight because the dark world was already there before them and Susie even went in the closet,Kris also seemed scared to even go in the closet which is strange if they made the dark fountain in there

I also think that it is a little bit far fetched to think that Kris would even try to kill/harm Susie.

And what happened in snowgrave was the player's doing not Kris'

Yea it is weird that Kris has a knife on them but I don't think they would try to kill someone willingly.

So at the end of chapter 2 we get confirmation that Kris is the knight, and opens portals with their blade (their knife), right? We get confirmation that at the end of chapter one when Kris tears the player out of their body, they go and make the fountain in the library, the very one that shows up in chapter 2, also.

If Kris is the one making the portals, ones that immediately suck the surrounding people into them, why didn't we immediately get sucked into the portal in the closet in the first chapter?

Well, there's three answers.

One, Toby just wanted to add suspense, and I'm looking far too into this after playing the snowgrave route and having pixelated ice-murder on my brain.

Two, Kris hadn't made the portal yet, and made it as they were in the closet with Susie, out on a whim and not knowing they were able to do so,

And three, Kris had their knife in the closet with them because they were going to harm or even kill Susie. I know this sounds far fetched but when you think about it, Susie was bullying and threatening to kill Kris, who we already know is a morally grey character. Say Kris DIDN'T make the portal before hand, why would they have their knife on them? Why would they willingly go into a room ALONE with Susie who just threatened their life?

Why would they open a dark fountain right in their livingroom while she was sleeping, knowing it'd end the world?

deltarune theory that heartless!Kris is also not real Kris, but instead Kris being controlled by something else other than the player