oh god we're starting off heavy with the existentialism huh. ralsei's awareness that he's just an illusion, the awareness that nothing in the dark world is "real". it's... interesting, because it ties into Flowey's own existentialism but without the cynical bitterness that defines his own feelings about himself. and it reflects on spampton's desperation too
i think it's going to be an interesting um. conflict. when its revealed how much ralsei and kris are keeping from susie. because it's a major sore spot for her.
and kris is going through hell in a lot of ways and keeping it from everyone around them (even if it's...... probably not by choice) and there's whatever kris knows about asriel and dess
okay so finished episode 3. i'm sure there's a lot that i missed and i'll have to go back for (need to get S rank), probably alongside replaying the first and second chapters, but it was very good
i have a lot of thoughts both in terms of theories as to where this is going and where the themes are pointing that i'm a bit too frazzled to put into words atm but. deltarune good.
i think it is incredibly obvious that the "roaring knight" that you fight at the end of chapter 3 is dess. and to some extent i do think she is the roaring knight, because one of the fountains opened in chapter 1 wasn't opened by kris, we actually know that. gaster also directly seems to talk to the player if they reload to before the battle with the knight
kris also has access to the underground shelter though, where the knight took undyne. but they had their soul in them, which i guess indicates that they still have a limited amount of power over their actions even with their soul - or the soul (and the being represented by the soul) can access the underground bunker.
crucially, the delta rune in undertale specifically represented the "angel", the angel in that game being either asriel or chara depending on the route (but arguably only chara, as the underground didn't go empty in pacifist route bc asriel was still there). the way that the game describes the kind of religious prophesy in the sprawling introduction text
also specifically talks about the heroes casting down the "angel's heaven". a lot of people have attributed the angel to noelle, but i'm pretty sure the angel in this is actually the soul.
agreed completely wrt dess I've seen a lot of people say it's "too obvious" but like. only if you've had deltarune brainrot and been a deep lore freak for years lol I think it's still being built up quite well in the game
like, i think that was basically a reveal. i'm certain there's much more to it but that was very blatantly dess lol. dess is a reindeer, dess is missing, dess used a bat, dess' disappearance is connected with asgore's life going down the drain, kris and noelle drifting apart, kris knows something larger about it.
like i've seen people say that kris being behind the dark fountains was "too obvious" when it's like. the question wrt that was always "how much are they playing it up to make the player THINK it's them?" like, at the very least they wanted the player to believe they were the knight.
whereas I feel like. both Undertale & Deltarune are quite up front about the things they are subverting and the degree to which they're subverting them
like, undertale isn't really itself a mystery (unlike deltarune). it isn't trying to hide what the story is about. there are larger mysteries within undertale but like, flowey's identity was a reveal someone could see coming but it wasn't designed as a treasure hunt for clues. if you saw it coming it was because you understood the foreshadowing and paid
crucially, most of the "real mysteries" like sans' whole deal, a lot of things surrounding chara, gaster - they were never actually solved. the characters played their role in the story and the mystery was left for the player to piece together
deltarune is a bit different because it IS a mystery but i think a lot of people are denying what is plainly in front of them mostly out of a desire to be contrary
oh i also didn't get into like. the juxtaposition of nostalgia - a past that kris feels was taken away from them when dess disappeared and asriel went missing, when they were happy and they weren't alone - and then on top of that there's a larger theme about free will especially with ralsei and kris. susie makes for a good foil bc she's so aggressively
free spirited, while ralsei is very resigned to what he is, and kris is fighting bitterly and self destructively against what it is they're "meant" to be.
Toby: i'm about to end this man's whole career.