KRIS IS LIKE THE FUCKING EARTH, BABY
This obviously calls for an explanation, which I will GLADLY provide!
Let's start with the obvious: Kris has some kinda weird connection to apples, right? One has to wonder why. Why are they explicitly stated to wear apple-scented shampoo? Why does their tea (when Susie drinks it) taste like apple juice? Why does Susie compare Kris to the apple to threaten them in the sweepstakes? These all have perfectly normal reasons to happen in the story, but this is a DELTARUNE theory, straightforward and mundane is unthinkable.
As per Radiation's wishes to see Deltarune as its own thing seperate from Undertale, I will be using this piece of dialogue from Undertale to bring forth a certain point.
Well, guess every apple has its CORE, heheh.
The origin of this text is Charles who is a worker at the CORE and it makes sense in context. But let's take it out of context because I have nothing better to do. Every apple has its core. The earth also HAS A CORE (shocking).
COINCIDENCE? Yeah, probably, but anyways... This is already very interesting, but that's not where it ends. The supplementary material of the sweepstakes highlight other aspects of the apple's composition.
Then she BIT THE WHOLE APPLE IN HALF! Including the core. She even ate the seeds, which, um, contain arsenic if you didn't know. X) Don't eat those Susie... anyway, Kris didn't react, so she continued.
Once again the core is mentioned, yes, but also arsenic. Usually when someone talks about how apple seeds are harmful, they mention cyanide instead of arsenic, but it may be the reason that wasn't done here is because arsenic brings to mind something else, the fact that it is widely distributed in the Earth's crust.
For apples, that's it, but the reason I bring them up is because they're related to something Queen says, which ties into the next part.
Kris Cross Applesauce
Applesauce is already covered, next is 'Cross'. Sure, it could mean several things aside from this Earth connection: Monster Kid's necklace, save points, the eyes in that first dark world area which look like crosses, a D-pad, etc. But you know how this goes, there's something else.
For this I'm going to have to thank some anon's post I stumbled upon in the archives, bringing my attention to these symbols when Kris opens a dark fountain. (Source: https://www.spriters-resource.com/pc_computer/deltarune/sheet/183527/)
I deliberately made it ant-sized, so you're just going to have to take my word for it that it somewhat looks like a Solar/Sun Cross. Like the rest of this theory, it sounds a bit counter-intuitive. Why am I arguing it looks like a Sun Cross when my theory is in the Earth's favor? That's because the symbol is often used to represent the Earth instead of the Sun.
Now that's Cross dealt with. All that's left is... everything else.
Once again, something I'll pull from my ass Undertale is this in the library.
While monsters are mostly made of magic, human beings are mostly made of water.
I will ignore the fact that this is a different world with different laws, and instead look at the alternative. A human being in a place which seems to only have monsters would be the only one there to be mostly made of water. About 70% of the Earth's surface is covered in water in contrast to the other planets. (Ignoring other ocean worlds, those seem to only be non-planets.) Interesting.
Parallels may be drawn with other parts of the Earth and Kris-related things, however my arguments for these are much weaker. For example, the mantle.
it's been fun to see so many arbitrary decisions i made in these original sprites carried forth into the rest of the game, as well as fanworks etc. (ie the blue shading on kris's mantle & their pink sword)
Taken from the developer interviews, Chess refers to Kris' cloth thing as a mantle. Interesting, but not substantial. Not only is this the single instance it's called that as in-game Ralsei instead calls it an ascot, it also only appears in the dark world. There are also the Shadow/Sky Mantles Kris could potentially wear, but those will probably be optional and still dark world exclusive.
One could also make an argument for the crust (aside from the arsenic thing) and how Kris can make pies and has some sort of ICE-E connection, mascot of the pizzeria, pizzas have crusts, but that sounds a bit dumb even to me.
Also also, King calls Kris 'Lightbringer'. Could mean Lucifer, could mean Phosphorus, the 'morning star' which is actually just a planet. Though this is probably about something else, since the planet in question is Venus, not Earth.
(Speaking of Lucifer, there's this Sigil/Seal that sort of looks like the DELTA RUNE, but that could just be my apophenia talking.)
That's all I have. Unless we start getting into some REAL far-fetched territory.
So we all know about W. D. Gaster, right?
Yes, yes, he's a bit of a controversial (non-)character, but hear me out! W. D. probably stands for Wing Dings, Entry Number 17 and all that. The creators of the Wingdings font are Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes.
Charles was already mentioned earlier as a worker of the CORE, Gaster's creation, but it appears he's also in Deltarune, a filename of "most_improved_1997". The font was released in 1990, 7 chapters... But I digress.
Kris, I originally thought to just be a cool coincidence or reference since K in Wingdings is a poker face symbol. But what if there's yet another comparison to be made?
Beware of the man who speaks in hands.
Classic Riverperson line. Not confirmed, but probably referring to Gaster because of the amount of hands in the Wingdings font. Multiple hands, you could say, maybe even a hundred. A Hundred-Hander?
The Hecatoncheires, beings in Greek mythology, three giants each with fifty heads and one hundred arms. (Just to clarify, the heads could be symbolic of all the potential Gaster sprites together, combined with the piece that one follower is holding. Or maybe the 2 heads on Mysteryman, several Gasterblaster attacks, whatever.) Might seem like a weird jump, Gaster himself is usually associated with the Devil, but one could say the same for the Dreemurrs which are similar to the greek Chimera in some areas while still being horned pyromancer rulers of the underground.
Reason I compare these two is because the mother of the Centimanes is Gaia, the Greek Earth goddess.
A plethora of other connections arises: she created the Titans with Ouranus, the primordial sky god, maybe something related to whoever the Angel is? The father of the Hundred-Handers is either the previously mentioned Ouranus or the primordial sea god, deepening the water connections in Deltarune. A myth claims that one of the Hecatoncheires invented armor via metalworking - blacksmithing like Gerson, a turtle, Gaster is said to work slower than Alphys, the Gasterblasters resemble turtle skulls...
Truthfully, I don't exactly know where I'm going with all this, I don't even know what it really means for why Kris stabbed the Earth. But maybe publicly posting this will have some positive effects for future theory crafting and whatnot.
With that said, thank you for reading thus far. This has been festering in my mind for quite a while. That's all for now.
edit 9/10.2.2024 (it is the transfer from one day to the next at the time of writing.)
According to some folks who've played through the Japanese version of Deltarune, at some point Susie mistakes the fountain for a person because 'fountain' has been translated as 'izumi'/'泉' which means spring of water, but can also be a given name. Although I can't point to you where exactly this is done since I know nothing about the language of Nippon nor the DR translation, this hearsay has been repeated enough times that it'd be stranger if a bunch of unrelated people somehow ended up spreading the same rumor, so... This accidental anthropomorphism of the fountain could mean Kris=Earth isn't too far fetched since the idea has at least been hinted at, something to bridge the gap between object personification = darkner and celestial object personification = ???.
Speaking of fountains, the grand fountain apparently being the only one needed to achieve the balance between light and dark, the educated guess of a reason being due to its special properties (being able to house Darkners without turning them to stone if they don't 'fit in', less apparent but probably being more accessible to Lightners, etc.) > The Earth seems to be the one who bears this unending pillar of darkness as with the others. | The SOUL/Player seems to be necessary for creating a new future per the words of the twitter takeover. > We control Kris. (Not a perfect comparison since it appears that the Vessel was originally going to be used, but Kris is still viable and combined with everything else...) Keep this in mind.
Now onto the thing I can't believe wasn't mentioned earlier:
Then, her heart pounding...
The EARTH will draw her final breath.
Come on, this is where the Earth is really first introduced as a 'character' and probably the most front and center mention so far! Better late than never, I suppose, and it ties into a later point that gets more speculative.
Looking at all this, already intertwined with the themes of destiny (?) and the whole thing about sealing dark fountains, I also can't help but think it might lead to better understanding the character of Kris.
My viewpoint is this: although I can't decipher why they put the SOUL back in, I believe part of ripping it out has to do with the Earth, certainly among other things we don't even know of. Think about it: even though it's supposed to save the world from devastation, the Earth supposedly can't be saved according to the legend, doomed to die at the end of this adventure. And there's that certain interpretation of the unused Ch. 1 introduction where a voice which sounds like Susie tells Kris to wake up. \ The Earth is the only planet we know of which supports life, so far Kris seems to be the only one capable of wielding the SOUL (excluding the Vessel probably), so THAT'S a responsibility exclusively resting on their shoulders! Yay! \ (Bear with me, this next one gets very speculative, almost fanficy!) The Earth rotates around the Sun, an eternal 'revolution'. In this case, the character used to symbolize the Sun would probably be Asriel. Not just because he's white like the Sun (and it also helps if he's blonde like his dad) and this repurposed star theming he's got going on, but he structurally serves the same purpose of being this big, important figure/celestial object (golden boy of the town/star of the solar system) (at least in comparison to Kris/the Earth) whom the planets are dependent on, they can only dream of living in his shadow. Being siblings, they have a pretty close relationship, no doubt a positive one (as opposed to another world...), but Kris may tire of being in this heliocentric system and living in someone else's shadow, that they take to living in THE shadows (the dark world) with Susie, someone who doesn't even know that Asriel exists in some playthroughs - which would explain the +120 HP kek - where they are more likely to be judged by their own merits. (Unfortunately the SOUL puts a bit of a wrench in that.) With this thought in mind, it's interesting to think about Kris getting a shield for defense, the symbol for the Sun also being a shield, and Kris' DW room seeming like a flipped and discolored version of Asriel's LW side, this time with even more stars. \ No wonder they wanna slash some tires.
Also - Kris, uh, they could be likened to a reflective surface? Susie was totally projecting in that one blog post and the Player is meant to do the same so Kris doing their own thing hits harder? This last part reminds me of another thing, actually.
https://deltarune.fandom.com/wiki/SAVE
The special text for the SAVE file behaviours before completing the first chapter. In particular, the specific language use. Reflection, subsumed, barren. But one line makes me wonder, was all this for naught?
IT IS IMMUNE TO ITS OWN IMAGE.
If it is literally Kris=Earth, then that adds some difficulties in fountain sealing and fountain making, which directly involve Kris messing with the Earth. Makes me a bit doubtful. Nevertheless, all of the previous connections still exist. Perhaps they are similar, but not one in the same. Maybe like the Player expected to project onto Kris, then a distinction being made, the same can be said for the Earth... possibly vicariously living through someone she could relate to. As above, so below. Thus, could a more apt line be...?
IT CONFORMED TO THE REFLECTION.
(or maybe kris becomes less like the earth with a removed soul, like without its core, so theyre different enough the fountain creating can still occur.)
edit 7.3.2024
YOU CAN SEE YOUR REFLECTION IN A PUDDLE, BUT...
DON'T LET A BODY OF WATER DETERMINE YOUR SELF-WORTH!!!
Not even going to try and justify how this completely unrelated water dialogue from Papyrus connects to everything else, just putting it out there.
Something else I'm keeping an eye on: ICE-E's P"e"zza replaces the i in pizza with an e. Following this logic, Kris would turn into Kr"e"s. Gaia is sometimes spelled as Gaea. Also another name used by the Romans was Tellus which is similar to Sunkus, only putting that in here to make this update a bit longer.
edit 28.4.2024
Also also, King calls Kris 'Lightbringer'. Could mean Lucifer, could mean Phosporus, the 'morning star' which is actually just a planet. Though this is probably about something else, since the planet in question is Venus, not Earth.
'Something else' I'm sure has already been speculated on by others in a much more comprehensive manner than I could manage, so let's focus on what I said about Venus instead: after further brainstorming, it has occurred to me that there is much more to say about the possible ties here than just the string of associated terms anyone could have put together with a quick search.
To start off, it is true that Earth is not the planet 'Lightbringer' as a term originates from, but it being Venus instead is the second-best option. Due to their similar size and share of other physical and orbital characteristics, they are sometimes called sister planets. In fact, it is postulated that Venus used to once have surface water and a habitable condition. Not Earth, but it still brings to mind related imagery. One can also find similarities in humanity's understanding of the planets; take the symbols they are associated with. Venus' (♀) symbol, aside from seemingly depicting - in the context of a demo where reflective surfaces like water and glass/crystals are recurring motifs - the hand-mirror of the goddess of LOVE... (cue out of context Papyrus call dialogue!)
Papyrus: MAYBE WE NEED TO THINK MORE ABSTRACTLY.
MAYBE THE L STANDS FOR...
LOVE.
Undyne: But isn't love supposed to be FIERY RED!?
Like a cartoony human-heart?
...is akin to the Earth's symbols (🜨/♁) in that they consist of a circle and cross.
Now, let's focus on that second symbol for a bit.
You could say it resembles the holy hand grenade/globus cruciger. It's a sign of the Christian God's dominion of the world represented by the orb, portrayed in the hands of rulers and angels. What really stuck out to me, however, was the meaning of 'cross-bearing orb' in Latin, since Kris as a name could be derived from Christopher, an English name of Greek origin meaning "Christ-bearer." Interesting. (Please ignore the fact that none of these symbols have clearly appeared in the actual games.)
Another thing of note may be found in the mystery surrounding Penumbra Phantasm. (There's some controversy around the track actually being put in Deltarune since it was unreleased and originally meant for H*mestuck, thus more focus will be put on the ideas Robert may have took with him into future projects.) When asked about it, Tobuscus ominously replied "AT "SHADOW'S EDGE, " SHATTER THE TWILIGHT REVERIE." referencing another post which read "The edge of the shadow, where reality and dream meet." The average person who has used up their valuable time to get to this part of my text surely already has connected some dots on the matter, but in regard to this theory it validates my previous speculation that, to Kris, the dark world is the 'umbra' mostly untouched by the Sun (Asriel).
The keyword here is mostly, there are still references such as his room in Queen's Mansion and the question mark that is Ralsei, who could be likened to the Moon as they both reflect a foreign light source (like with his appearance and name anagram "reflecting" Asriel). The Moon also affects the tides, for Ralsei - it may be the obvious that he's affecting Kris by getting them roped into this prophecy business and what may or may not be happening when the Player sees what Susie's up to , or - affecting the Player/Soul, the water in this ramshackle metaphor, since new studies theorize that the our waters are older than both Earth and Sun which would fit in with the whole "intended for people who have completed UNDERTALE" thing. Take the second explanation with a grain of salt, though, the studies appear to be from 2014 at the earliest and I doubt Fox was looking at that kind of stuff YEARS after his fever dream... Or maybe this is just a wild goose chase and the only "Moon" is the baseball one you can punch in the mech fight.
(FYI, this is the point when the edit/update starts to have less of a basis in reality.)
...Looking at the sum of this theory, what felt to me like an earth-shattering revelation at the time, now just seems complementary to everything else Deltarune's story probably has going on. That's not a bad thing necessarily - even connecting some minor points like this can immerse the player in the experience of waiting 5 years for the release and make them appreciate the game that much more while trying not to think about the possibility that they're chasing their own tail and all of this is just breadcrumbs a rich furry put out for them because that rich furry was mentored by a juggalo who knew how to make the masses go crazy by expertly placing single pixels - but I have a feeling, a very trustworthy source, I know, that all of this is much bigger than what I can imagine. In the grand scheme of things, these minuscule comparisons mean very little. To illustrate my point I'll make another one: before Undyne the Undying's fight, "But the Earth Refused to Die" plays and executing check gives "Heroine reformed by her own DETERMINATION to save Earth." Aside from the clear in-game explanation that Undyne thinks she's the Earth's last hope, the planet is regarded with a character who has a connection to determination, water and possibly the power of NEO. The problem is I can't spin this into some sort of narrative when there are already so many unknown variables that could change our understanding of how everything works, not just this theory. So it looks more like the ramblings of a madman than a conclusive story line. I don't know. I'll just convince myself that there is an end goal in sight, a WHAM moment that makes everything worth it, Fangamer releasing a book that clarifies on everything in Undertale and Deltarune because the developers saw this brain worm of mine and decided that ambiguity just isn't worth it when it begets stupidity and frivolous pattern "recognition" in such a manner, etc. As long as it isn't a fool's errand. (Or maybe I'll end up like that H*mestuck theory guy who got every single thing WRONG, honestly that would be pretty funny.)
edit 6.6.2024
Revolve around the center, and look carefully. The darker it gets, the more you see.
Once again I'm taking things out of context but... LOOK AT THIS AND TELL ME THERE ISN'T AT LEAST A MODICUM OF TRUTH IN THESE ~3000 WORDS. THERE'S A FUCKING MOMENT WHERE A BLUE-COLORED CHARACTER REVOLVES AROUND SOMETHING... And that alone would be completely normal, but THAT SECOND PART? REMEMBER "ONLY EYES BLINDED BY DARKNESS CAN SEE THE WAY"? KRIS' FUCKING SHADOWY FACE BULLSHIT???? "DARK GAIA"? Sorry, still reeling from the sudden realization. This, combined with a blue bead in the hospital following a set path... Maybe this is simply another of those frivolous connections. Who knows.
edit 26.7.2024
a) On Asriel representing the Sun: him carrying Kris to school could correspond with the Sun's gravity keeping the Earth in orbit, the pentagram star symbol sort of looks like a goat head/Baphomet and the sun is a star and boss monsters look like goats, yada yada, scroll back to the solar system symbols and you'll see that the sun's shield has a "boss" in the middle. Like "boss" monster.
b) This copy-pasted segment from one of my posts on the fourth channel about a treesicle video. World=Earth for the purposes of this theory.
I liked the sentiment of the "Kris is the world" section. He got the right idea of balance and harmony from what I remember and fast forwarded through, as mentioned in the legend, and I like the idea behind Kris standing on the delta rune symbol as they rip their soul out meaning their struggle represents the greater one of the game and its world. Depending on how you look at the savefiles and save menu, they could support this interpretation. There's three, to me it shows that the middle file is the in-between of light and dark, heaven and earth, etc. bringing to mind that talk of balance and harmony. And messing around with them before completing Chapter 1, the language used by Gaster (?) gave me the impression that they are indeed different worlds, ocean planets like this one. Whatever savefile is chosen, if there is no prior savedata, in the name field is either Kris or (EMPTY).
c) The Wood Blade's description. "A wooden practice blade with a carbon-reinforced core." Something something player-reinforced soul, self-inserting or vicariously living practice, I don't really know at this point or at any other.
d) A while back, I mentioned not knowing why Kris puts us back in their chest cavity. This has since changed. Surely there are other reasons as well, but I now believe that Kris did so in order to feel more in control, not only in the context of a possibility where the Soul was forced upon them by someone else, but also in the context of the Theogony where Ouranus hid Gaia's children inside of her. For the purposes of going off the deep end, the baby is you. While they are put in Gaia's position, they chose to simultaneously take the role of Ouranus, muddying the waters of their connection to the planet with a connection to the sky. God, I hope this makes sense.
However, this does not necessarily mean that whoever is supposed to portray the sky is the one who shackled us to this jaundiced human teenager. In my opinion, that honor or blame goes to the Earth. Envision it: in the depths of the grand fountain (or wherever it takes place), a scientist has successfully summoned a being of an ascended realm. He wishes to insert this being into an artificial vessel. Though, there is no need for this. The entity will serve as an early introduction to the fate that awaits who she has in mind, someone much more fitting and organic.
This fate, I believe to be one that awaits beyond the Earth's death. Assuming all goes as planned and the heroes fulfill the also man-made prophecy, she will draw her final breath. Then, will the populace be content with living on her corpse? Or will it turn to someone who is already so similar to her? When Kris had been handed the torch, the mantle of our world, while it had not been planned, the scientist did not intervene. For the sake of a new future, for the sake of his experiment, he let it be, as they were still a viable alternative. Why would this be any different?
edit 26.8.2024
Since I've been arguing this whole time that Kris is similar to the Earth, Kris becoming the Earth seemed like the natural progression even if I didn't have any solid evidence to back up my claim. I still don't exactly, but I have developed an idea of how it could work.
First off, it's improbable that Kris, in their current form, would be able to replace the planet, despite their similarities. (Unless Robert decides to reference that one episode of Futurama where a tiny civilization starts living on Bender.) I think it would make more sense and be more terrifying to realize if there was a terraforming process instead, slowly transpiring in the background, achieved through sealing the dark fountains.
This idea just makes the most sense to me. Sure, every party member levels up the same as Kris, but not only is it still Kris' soul/the soul inside Kris that's s(t)ealing these fountains, apparently the dark world lv is called "fakelv" in the game's code so... Who knows! Mainly I've decided on this idea based on the filename of the sound that plays when a fountain is sealed - "snd_revival". For years, I've thought the meaning of this filename didn't pertain to the regaining of life, rather the improvement of strength, popularity, importance, anything else, because no one could figure out any way THAT definition could at all be connected in any way to using the fountains. Until today. God, this is the theory that just keeps on giving.
edit 16.11.2024
About the terraforming idea: I still can't think of any other method we know of in the current chapters that would achieve the same or a similar effect. Although I think it's more plausible now, the same Soul that Kris seems to struggle walking without easily transferring the fountain's power it directly absorbed (?) to them is one of the more feasible concepts at play here, it's a slight problem to me, I'm still getting caught up over the party members' equal levels and the seeming lack of any other value that handles whether Kris has sealed a fountain or not. If Deltarune were made in any other medium that doesn't have code to track these things, I would have been 100% fine with the idea, I just can't let go of the levels.
Let's say it's all well and good, though. There's still one issue. If the Earth is on board with this plan and even hijacked the goner maker sequence to put us in Kris, why is sealing the fountains "stealing" them? IIRC while this has only been hinted at in Spamton's dialogue and Toby saying it during the anniversary stream, it does make me wonder if Earth as the second voice is actually total bogus, or at least my understanding of her motivation for doing so. The second one is to be expected, though, barely anyone thinks about her being sapient, let alone a character who does things, it's understandable that I wouldn't get the motivation (if it even exists) right on the first try.
With all that said, I think a reveal of the terraforming idea really has the potential for a memorable recontextualisation of everything and could represent some bigger change in the story, say a tonal shift. It's what I'll stick with for now.
Onto some recent realizations:
-'Earth' is an anagram of 'Heart'. Included for obvious reasons.
-The cross (metaphorical? literal?) the main characters in this theory carry, as implied by "cross-bearing orb" and "Christ-bearer", represents life and death. Included for less obvious reason which will be explained below.
What spurred on this second statement was something I recently heard about the cross, that the vertical and horizontal lines represent life and death, but this is anecdotal reasoning. A better explanation for this thought would just be logic: if I'm already bringing up the denominator of bearing crosses, why not affix the meaning of another shared trait, the cycle of life and death, to that symbol? Since the cross representing Christianity would just be out of place and this meaning has more potential for the story than the cross representing blueness or something.
And yes, it is a shared trait, at least with the inclusion of the soul/us (and maybe even the savepoints!), which propagates the cycle of life and death by dying and continuing to play.
Back to that cross, while to me it doesn't seem that big of a reach to go from Christ to cross, it may seem odd if the Earth has the (ambiguous) cross symbols during the fountain targeting sequence, while Kris... do they bear the savepoints, since they're sort of cross-shaped? Or is it just entirely a non-literal cross?
Well...
I think it's a literal mark on Kris' eyes and part of the reason why their face is covered. There are sprites where an eye is visible without any cross pixels, but in those there's hair covering their face, or it's meant to be an in-between sprite, etc. Except one.
Is that sort of claim hard to believe? Strap in, I'm on a roll.
I believe the cycle of life and death can also be attributed to the eggs, thanks to this description of an unused Darkner enemy made by Splendidland.
Funny Egg, their body contains a virtual pet. Can the fate of this pet be altered? Maybe not... Has an existential crisis if the pet dies, as their body is a battleground of life and death.
Not to claim that this idea for an unused enemy by someone who probably doesn't even know the future main plot is crucial evidence, but it's not hard to imagine that Toby might surround himself and work (lol) with people who get similar ideas. (Also eggs can just generally be associated with that, the enemy just brought it to my attention.)
For the final note of this update (which doesn't have any new connections), I'm considering turning the theory into a video. Who knows if I'll get around to it, I have zero experience in video editing that doesn't use 90% pre-made footage and I might be too lazy to finish even a shitty slideshow, but my motivation for sharing in the first place was in the hopes that all of this would be useful, for future theories, for better understanding the game, whether my pet theory was thought of as good or bad, I'd be content knowing the victims of deltabrainworms have at least considered it.
I'm thankful to everyone who has read this version and grateful for any opinions formed around it, but that is a small amount of people compared to the amount a video you can share around could reach. A wider audience could provide even more of the criticism and building upon I'm looking for.
Also it would just be plain funny to introduce it to the DELTARUNE LOREHEADS who think the legend is a complete fabrication and that WOODY_FRIEND is the key to everything or whatever. 1% chance of being real with a hard to believe premise vs pregnant gaster bee. OK, enough tooting my own horn.
08.01.2025
God, it's been a full year since I've uploaded this. Happy birthday to the crack theory that's poisoned my mind, I guess.
The video script is being worked on. The benefit of a journal sort of page like this is that I only had to organize the thoughts that I wanted to include in each update, and that gradually became a full-blown theory. In a video, it would be disorganized if I tackled the topics based on recency, so a new arrangement is in order. Probably starting from the end with that terraforming revelation, then working my way back to explaining everything else, but we'll see.
Now, aside from the obvious, giant, blatant crux of the theory that it requires way too much suspension of disbelief that even I can't ignore, I'd like to shout some questions, really, plotholes, into the void that is this page, wherein the answer basically amounts to "We just don't know."
What about Dess?
Here I am, arguing that the Earth was able to steal the soul and put it in Kris. But, somehow, she wasn't able to save Dess from whatever it was that made her disappear? If the person in the code (likely Dess) didn't exist, one could merely say that she can't save every single person out of the billions alive and only did that to Kris for... wherever her priorities lie. But since they DO exist, what the hell? Does the Earth just not care? Is Dess going missing pivotal to the story and she can't mess with that, but for some reason can with the soul? It's trying to put a peg of unknown shape into a hole of unknown shape.
What about Gaster?
His biggest connection to the theory is supposedly writing or spreading (whatever, from him.png we know that he is in some way involved with) the legend where the Earth is said to die. Everything else, like POTENTIALLY being her child (???) or making the CORE POSSIBLY named after the Earth's core or in the goner maker where PERHAPS him SEEMINGLY not doing anything about Kris getting the soul instead of the vessel could MAYBE be a parallel to taking her place, is extremely unclear and filled with too many variables. Especially that last point, he supposedly likes Kris considering they're "very, very wonderful", so why would his "new future" be one where they basically die? Or say that turning into a fucking planet somehow doesn't kill them, his new future would still involve their torture until the sun explodes or some other poor bastard needs to take THEIR place.
You'd think the conclusion one would draw from that line of thought is that I was wrong about the goner maker parallel, but then we still don't know what he has in store, if anything, after she dies, IF she dies. You'd think writing a prophecy where the Earth dies means you'd come up with a plan for what happens after! Maybe he has it! Maybe he doesn't and focused on achieving a new future without focusing on what happens next! Maybe Gaster only has two chapters out of seven and is trying to predict endgame plots and shit with ONLY TWO CHAPTERS. Maybe Gaster thinks that THERE'S A PATTERN WHERE THERE ISN'T and MADE AN ENTIRE THEORY OUT OF IT EVEN THOUGH WITH THAT KIND OF CONCLUSION YOU THINK THERE'D BE WAY MORE HINTING AND FORESHADOWING AT IT THAT DOESN'T REQUIRE THE COMBINED EFFORTS OF A SINGLE CONSPIRACY THEORIST'S TWO BRAIN CELLS TO SEE.
...OK, is Ralsei aware?
See, this is where I'm struggling. Judging from how he explains why Darkners get stoned and what the Roaring is right when it happens or right before it's about to happen, he could know about it and think everyone is on the same page or whatever his reasoning is for not explaining the prior phenomena earlier. However, his petrification explanation states that it can easily be prevented once they bring them back, and his Roaring explanation stops it. What I'm talking about can't easily be reversed, well, most likely, and it would be counterintuitive to prevent it right before it happens, since Ralsei's motivation seems to be to save the world (by following the legend) and he's A-OK with leaving Darkners behind if you fight them, if still pushing you towards a more merciful route, so he's probably cool with sacrifice.
But does this mean that he's just gonna stand there were Kris to push the big red TURN-INTO-A-PLANET button? I mean, Kris is still his friend. They're also a Lightner containing the entity he named his town after, but in this case we're probably talking after we've left, for a new vessel, the game, who knows, and the Lightner part isn't that important to the equation since there would hypothetically be more Lightners at stake if getting a new planet is that dire. The main point of contention is their friendship, which would most likely prevent him from just watching it happen or even signing off on it, if that IS what is meant to happen, since it's easy to slot into his arc where he's learning to against the "journey foretold exactly by the prophecy" and stuff of that nature.
He could also just not know. On some level. Maybe not aware of the grand conspiracy, but there's something about his human friend he can't put his finger on. Complete headcanon, but I think it'd be funny if Kris subconsciously reminded him of who is basically his mom, and then Ralsei reminds Kris of Toriel, and it's a mess. A comedic mess.
Is KRIS aware?
I DON'T KNOW.
Kris is at the CENTER (lol) of this thing with a year's worth of speculation, and I still don't know! I've crafted a narrative fit for WATTPAD FANFICTION wherein Kris comes from a goddamn cult or something (because that's TOTALLY OBVIOUSLY a theme he's going to tackle) where they're taught that they were born to be a vessel (imagine something like a vessel of God, not like the discarded vessel) and their life in Hometown leads them to believe that the cult was wrong and they can be a person, their own person, but then the Earth sends them a vision (???) and everything from their early childhood comes back and weighs down on them, and it might be why they've taken away anything in their room that could point at an identity, or don't tell anyone about us because they're meant to be a vessel anyway, among other reasons of course, which creates duality when they do rip us out to do Kris things, and I'm sure it can be a great metaphor for whatever you want to project onto them... and yet it's UTTERLY STUPID and amounts to HEADCANON. We just don't know, and a cult doesn't seem like a step in the right direction! Even if I am SOMEHOW right, it would be idiotic to read the story with this in mind if becoming a planet turns out to be a good thing somehow!
Well, to get back on track, I do think Kris is somewhat aware. If Mr. Titan (just roll with it) figures out how to save da world and tells everyone the_dark_truth.ogg, sure, I could see the characters' jaws dropping to the floor at the BIG REVEAL GUISE, but Kris would not be that surprised. Consciously or subconsciously, they know. Like, completely scrapping the idiotic cult idea, I just think it would be better for the story if we could read their intentions prior to a reveal to the audience with this in mind. No real evidence, though. And I'm leaning on deeply subconscious, otherwise I think Kris would probably be way more noticeably uncomfortable when we take them to Asgore's shop where he gives away the fruits of the Earth's labour, or I could just be looking too hard into it. Would be par for the course.
01.04.2025
It's out.
https://youtu.be/4ZkSwxP3Ck0
02.04.2025
A higher quality version is out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0EhzB04xBM