Deltarune Speculation - Tumblr Posts
Deltarune theory: Kris, Noelle, and Ralsei (Kris may not hate Ralsei THAT much) and other misc theories.
obviously spoilers for Deltarune up to chapter 2 and some of the Spamton sweepstakes. play the game it's free on steam. also this is a little bit long and contains a lot of screenshots. Not a huge amount of text walls I am just crazy. more info after the cut.
(credit to the deltarune wiki for these screenshots) So a common theory is that the health gained from the tea represents how close emotionally characters are to each other. If a character does not know someone else, the tea appears as nothing, such as Noelle having no reaction to the Ralsei tea, since at that point in the game they never met. People often use this as an implication that Kris does not like ralsei very much. but here is the thing that gets me:
Kris seems to get damn near the same amount of HP from Noelle as they do Ralsei. and that is confusing... because aren't they supposed to be childhood friends? meanwhile Susie used to bully Kris as implied by the Spamton sweepstakes... and yet Susie's tea gives Kris the MOST health out of all of them. not to mention Noelle seems to share the same amount of health return, but doesn't hate the tea either. What on earth is going on here?
The Theory (s?)
The unfun theory: The health means absolutely nothing. Personally I don't like this theory if you couldn't tell already. The spicy friendship theory: Kris doesn't hate Ralsei THAT MUCH, they are just uneasy about them. Alternatively: Kris probably just gets along better with someone like Susie than someone like Ralsei. The climax in every children's movie ever theory: before the events of Deltarune, something happened that made Kris upset at Noelle and it harmed their relationship. (possibly something to do with Des) The BFFSBSROFL (no that acronym does not stand for anything) theory : kris actually gels SO well with susie that they are basically best friends, making Noelle and Ralsei look pathetic in comparison. Alternatively, Kris and Susie have a much deeper history that the Spamton Sweepstakes left out. Alternatively: it could also be that Susie is the first strong friendship Kris has had in a very long time and they are in the honeymoon phase of their friendship. The shippers wet dream theory: Kris has a thing for Susie after the events of ch 1 and is jealous of Noelle. (I claim no financial responsibility for whatever the fuck the shipping part of the fandom may do with this potential bit of information.) The "my parent's friend's kids" theory: Kris never really was that close to Noelle to begin with, Its just that the Dreemur family and the Holiday family go way back and Kris being a kid was just in the middle of it. These are the theories I have so far, let me know if you guys have anything more interesting.
Other things to mention
The Laser prank. During that scene with Noelle with chapter 2, the player finds a switch that requires the player and Noelle to press a button and let each other through the laser barrier. as a player you can suddenly jump off the button before noelle passes as a joke. however, if you go too far and do it right when Noelle is too close to the laser:
you almost hurt Noelle (but she is ok) and then she pulls the same prank on Kris. then:
If you don't go too far with the prank, Noelle simply says "nice teamwork" and you continue on. This is interesting to me for many reasons. here is a few theories I have listed: 1-Kris actually was hurt (unlikely because their HP was not lowered and the player did not touch the laser) 2- Kris actually DOES care about Noelle and is horrified the player almost hurt her 2.5- Or perhaps Kris does care about Noelle and is horrified she did the prank back at them as serious as the laser was. Perhaps Kris has weird feelings about abandonment and self love considering their parents divorce and all that has been going on in this game 3- Kris is just being petty and immature that they got pranked right back. 4- Kris is potentially mis-reading the situation thinking that the player and Noelle are somehow against Kris, when in reality both the player and Noelle are just playing around. Remember that Kris is a young teenager going through a rough patch at home, so it makes sense they are on edge about this kind of thing. 5- I am reading way too deep into this bit.
The Boat Picture with Ralsei listen man. Its no secret Ralsei resembles Asriel. hell there is a STRONG implication that Ralsei is actually Kris's childhood red horns headband considering Ralsei also has red horns.
here is the bit that gets to me sometimes: Later on in Ch 2, you are on a boat ride with ralsei and a photo booth. you have the option to Hug Ralsei, show a peace sign in the wrong direction, or commit cultural appropriation against Berdly in particular (my favorite option yes i am very mature)
why does this sit with me? well-
First: daawwww asgoooooreeee second: what does this mean- there are so many implications, Again i am just going to list theories and speculation: 1- Kris does not appreciate the gremlin that looks suspiciously like their older brother and how said gremlin may be crushing on them, along with the player pushing that along. enough said. 2- Kris is OK with hugs, they just don't like it when their dad gives them a massive cuddly bear hug. 3- kris is being an angsty teen acting like they are too good for hugs. 4- Again I am probably overthinking it and Kris actually does not hate hugs (or hugging ralsei) that much. Overall, I think Kris Kross Applesauce's real problem is less about the hugging and the pranking of Noelle, but rather something deeper. behold!
THE OMEGA THEORY
Kris just wants agency over their own life. It isn't that deep really. It is implied that Kris... honestly doesn't like themselves very much and doesn't like being human. The fact they never grew horns growing up and wore plastic horns all the time was probably the first time Kris felt like an outsider, and all they wanted to do was to be like their family. and now their parents are divorced Their older brother has been off for university and can only come back on certain occasions Sans Undertale is probably fucking their mom (or sans is just messing with you because sans is a hilarious asshole) Kris probably has trauma from whatever happened to December Holiday (which has not been revealed yet other than Spamton sweepstakes hinting) And now, Kris appears to be possessed by SOMETHING. and who the hell knows what and who is posessing kris. it could be you the player doing that or perhaps the player IS kris and that the thing possessing kris is what threw the player in the cage or more. we don't know yet But the thing i know most is that all Kris just wants is to have more control over their own life. Hell considering the implication that Ralsei is the manifestation of Kris's childhood headband, perhaps Ralsei represents a part of who Kris wishes they were. either way It doesn't matter if the player messes with Noelle or hugs Kris's friend that uncomfortably resembles their brother Kris just wants it to be THEIR decision rather than the decision of an omnipotent god that has a strange affliction for hyper-analyzing their life to make an overly-produced Tumblr post. thank you for reading my crap.
DELTARUNE HOLEY SHIT I JUST REALIZED
????????????????
Mini Deltarune theories I have that are not quite big enough for a true post, but interesting to note. In order of most confident to least.
Ralsei is luring the lightners to the Dark World in order to trap them
In chapter 2, Ralsei creates rooms for Kris and Susie that "they can go to no matter what is happening outside". Unlike Queen's rooms, which are guesses based on search results, Kris and Susie's rooms are accurate to an unsettling degree. Not only is Kris' room identical to their light world counterpart, but it also has all of Asriel's trophies on their side of the room with Asriel's side gone, a reflection of their potential secret desire to no longer be under Asriel's shadow. Similarly, Susie's excitement on even having a room suggests that Ralsei could know what Susie's light world home life is like or lack thereof if she's homeless.
By creating these rooms, Ralsei is fulfilling the lightners secret desires and judging on his phrasing, wants them to go there in order to avoid whatever is happening "outside" the dark world. By doing so, he is effectively strengthening their desire to stay in the dark world so they can't escape.
Chapter 3 isn't going to be Undyne or Napstablook, it's Asgore
Chapter 3 taking place in Kris' home with the fountain being created by Kris suggests to me that the world may mostly involve whatever the Dreemur family drama entailed, which would include Asgore who was the former chief of police. Not only that, but the combination of Toriel having troubles calling the police and the station being closed in a preview for chapter 4 suggests to me that Mayor Holiday could have closed the station during the night of chapter 3 after they failed to catch the mysterious criminal wrecking Hometown, leaving Asgore as the only character left who might want to resume his policeman duties when Toriel's call is made. It is also more fitting for Toriel to kill Asgore in the hypothetical chance the Snowgrave route continues with her as she already dislikes Asgore and possibly blames him for Dess' disappearance. Speaking of...
Asgore really was involved
There's a lot of weird forshadowing on an "evil Santa". Lancer believes that "ho ho ho", a laugh associated with the mystical Christmas gift bearer, being an evil laugh. Noelle is also scared of Santa and it's revealed in Undertale that Asgore dressed up as Santa to give gifts to the monsters. All of this seems setup to me that Asgore really was somehow involved in letting Dess disappear, something that may be revealed during Chapter 3's Snowgrave route.
Dess is ruder than she appears
This is a more playing by expectations theory, however there's certain lines and implications that become interesting once looked under the lens of this theory.
It's revealed that Dess once beat Kris with a wiffle ball bat for scaring Noelle by telling her that ICE-E "eats kids". This puts a precedent that Dess has at least somewhat violent impulses in order to protect her sister, even in situations that don't need it. It's also a bit odd that unlike Asriel, no one in the hometown mentions Dess after her disappearance except for Noelle. Even Berdly, Noelle's best friend, doesn't bring her up. It could be that the hometowners may not want to hurt Noelle by reminding her of the disappearance, however since she's so open about talking about Dess to even new kid Susie it may be another reason why the hometown doesn't mention her. It's possible that the simularities to Dess and Susie (both are horror loving, somewhat violent, tomboys) are deliberate and are setting up the reveal that Dess is/was actually a bully and a future scene with Noelle may parallel the scene in Undertale where Asriel reminisces that Chara wasn't that good of a person.
Gaster blasters are named after Gaster, but not created by him
If you spare Papyrus in Undertale after an aborted Genocide run, he will say this.
The most common theory is that the "Special Attack" would be a Gaster Blaster. What's interesting to me is the phrasing "my Special Attack", which suggests that Papyrus owns this attack and it could have been unique to him before Sans or the annoying dog stole it. If Gaster Blasters are really his unique attack, it could mean that Papyrus created the Blasters and named them after Gaster, rather than the fandom interpretation that Gaster made the Blasters then gave them away.
There might not be a singular "Knight" because anyone can dream
At the end of each chapter, the characters ask if the dark world adventure they had was some sort of dream. Since anyone can fall asleep and dream, it's possible the game is setting up that trying to seal the fountains is impossible because anyone can dream and thus become their own "knight".