Fridge / Deltarune

As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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Fridge Brilliance

• At first, it appears as though the name "Kris" was chosen to make the protagonist gender-neutral again… but then you reach the ending of Chapter 1, and it hits you that there's something else called a "kris" in real life: an Indonesian dagger, sometimes known, particularly in other video games, as a KRIS KNIFE. In a way, they're just another weapon to be used by The Player.
• How else does Deltarune prove itself to be the opposite of Undertale's "your choices matter"? Their titles! Undertale's name on the title screen is written in all capital letters, but Deltarune is in lowercase.
• The trash in the kitchen smells like flowers. At the end of Chapter One, if you deliver Asgore's flowers to Toriel, she'll regard them with disgust, saying she'll 'find a place for them', IE, throw them in the trash.
• Per Word of God, Undertale's ending isn't affected by Deltarune in any capacity — "UNDERTALE's world and ending are the same as however you left them. If everyone was happy in your ending, the people in the UNDERTALE world will still be happy." In other words, Undertale's world is UNALTERED by the events of Deltarune, whose world is UNRELATED.
• In Undertale, after a True Pacifist run, one could find in Sans' secret room a drawing that's described as three smiling people and the words "don't forget". Before Deltarune's release, a common fan theory speculated that the drawing referenced Gaster, Papyrus, and Sans, but there's a good chance now that this drawing actually depicts Kris, Susie, and Ralsei — making this a cleverly hidden piece of Production Foreshadowing all along.
  • The theme of Deltarune has the phrase "don't forget" as Arc Words, with a party of three heroes, and Kris gets to talk with Sans personally. We also know that Toby Fox has been working on Deltarune's story concepts as far back as 2012, to the point that it may even predate Undertale.
  • In Undertale, it's only after one speaks to Clam Girl, a rare NPC who resides in Waterfall, that the drawing appears in Sans' secret room. In dialogue, Clam Girl mentions a neighbor's daughter who looks about the player's age, named "Suzy", and that she thinks they should be friends. The name "Suzy" is highlighted yellow. This implies that the drawing is likely tied to Suzy in some way, and that "Suzy" from Undertale is perhaps a parallel to "Susie" from Deltarune.
    • In the Nintendo Switch Undertale release, Clam Girl's dialogue is changed if your fun value is exactly 81. She explains how the time the player will meet her neighbor's daughter is fast approaching (before her sprite becomes greyscale and disappears). A little over a month later, Deltarune was released. This all but confirms the connection between "Suzy", Susie, and the drawing.
    • If this picture is indeed of the Delta warriors, then it seems odd that Sans would even bother letting Frisk into his room and secret workshop, since Frisk wouldn't know who any of them are. But keep in mind, Frisk and Kris both share the red SOUL and the ability to SAVE and LOAD, while Sans himself is the only character from Undertale who hasn't changed in personality or appearance. Kris has the option to tell Sans about things that they wouldn't have any idea of or reason to even know in-universe... but the player does, and it's implied to be them who's making Kris ask. So, if the Sans in Deltarune is indeed the same one from Undertale, this means Sans wasn't showing Frisk the picture in his workshop— he was showing the player after he got confirmation they have the same power as Frisk as they do with Kris.
• The Playing Card Motifs of The King of Card Castle is Spades. The Ace of Spades is also known as the death card, fitting for someone whose goal is the death of the Lighteners.
• Speaking of Motifs, most of the main enemies' use of playing cards should call to mind Alice in Wonderland, especially given the long fall you take into their realm (the series recurring element) and Seam's presence as the Cheshire Cat. But according to Jevil and the King of Spades, the Queen and the Knight, who are the likely Big Bad and The Dragon, use Chess Motifs instead like some of the minor enemies. Through the Looking-Glass used chess motifs for contrast with Alice, and given the Alternate Universe setting…
  • Speaking of the Queen, if she also happens to be the Queen of Spades (which is a distinct possibility), a certain song by Styx should immediately come to mind... "Beware of the Queen of Spades" indeed.
• Why are the Dark World inhabitants afraid of the Queen and the Knight? Alluding to the Chess Motifs, the Queen piece is a Game-Breaker, while the Knight piece is a Mechanically Unusual Fighter.
• Mr. Elegant tends to call Kris 'Horsie'. In chess, the piece that looks like a horse is a knight, and in the Dark World Kris's outfit gives them the look of a knight, complete with a sword and a shield. Then, at the end of chapter 2, Kris opens a Fountain of Darkness, much like The Roaring Knight does.
• Lancer rides a bike. A bicycle. He has a playing card motif. Bicycle is a popular brand of playing cards.
• Ralsei's tutorial is essentially a mirror image of the "tutorial" Flowey gave you in Undertale, right down to using some of the exact same language when describing your SOUL. This makes sense when you realize that, based on the ending, Ralsei is almost certainly an alternate version of Asriel and therefore Flowey.
• The Hathy enemies, based on hearts, do not speak. Instead, a second-person narrative text describes exactly what they're doing or how they're feeling, much like how the protagonists of both Undertale and Deltarune (both heavily associated with heart shapes) tend to interact with the world.
• Checking Kris's equipment before they fall into the Darkners' kingdom shows they have a pencil equipped as a weapon. What's the flavor text on the wooden sword they start with after falling? "A wooden practice sword with a carbon-reinforced core."
  • Additionally, if you have the Spookysword equipped when you return from the Dark World, it becomes the Halloween Pencil.
  • Further more, after buying the Mechanical Sword in Chapter 2, it becomes a Mechanical Pencil
• Another thing relating to the general "choices don't matter" theme going on: when you die, instead of simply dropping you back at the SAVE point like in Undertale, in Deltarune, you go from when you last saved, with anything you did since that save having never happened; what you did before you died didn't matter, so why keep it?
• Susie is actually right; your choices don't really matter. The game railroads you at almost every turn, save for a few small details. This is made clear as early as the intro sequence. Notably, the only major detractor from her perspective ends up making another horrible judgment call that nearly gets you killed; Ralsei, when he heals King back up to full health.
• In the battle against Susie and Lancer, you can temporarily knock her out by emptying her HP bar. After a few turns, however, she gets right back up with low health. This is because whenever Kris, Ralsei, or Susie fall in battle when all three of them are playable, they slowly recover HP until — guess what? — they get right back up!
• If you lose to Susie and Lancer in their battle, you get sent back to the previous room, but you don't get a game over. Why is that? As we discover later, Susie is actually a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. While she might be willing to beat someone up, she'll never actually commit murder.
• The prophecy that is mentioned near the beginning of the game mentions "a human, a monster and a Prince of the Dark". It seems pretty obvious that the human is Kris and the monster is Susie. But there are actually two Princes in this game: Ralsei… and Lancer. Both are a "Prince of the Dark" and both help you get to the fountain.
  • This actually brings an element of Fridge Horror into the mix. The prophecy mentioned A Prince of the Dark, not multiple. We can tell that Lancer is, in fact, a Prince thanks to his father, who is a King. But the only proof that Ralsei is a Prince is… him saying he's a Prince. Nobody else in the game mentions it, not even a rival King and his son. Did Ralsei lie to us about who he was? If so, why?
    • However, if he's actually a counterpart for Undertale's Asriel, he'd be an actual Prince. The monsters lived in the dark, too, so he'd be a Prince of Darkness alright.
    • Ralsei's dialogue seems to suggest that he hasn't ever actually met anyone before meeting Kris and Susie, despite being a supposed prince, and his castle appears to be outside the actual kingdom. Furthermore, you never actually go inside his castle or any of the empty buildings in the town, so they could possibly just be a facade.
    • It's possible, based on the unused manual graphics and how Ralsei reacts to small kind gestures, that Ralsei is deceiving Kris and Susie because he desperately wants companionship so badly he lies about his true identity.
• The Choco Diamond heals each party member in different amounts. Out of combat, Susie is only healed 20 HP while Ralsei is healed 50, and during combat, it heals them both by only 30. Kris, however, is healed 80 HP, both in and out of combat. The reason: Kris loves chocolate, so much so that Toriel keeps the chocolate that she bought from Sans locked in her room to prevent Kris from stealing it.
  • Inversely, they hate jelly donuts. The Hearts Donut heals them 20 HP out of combat, and in combat, it only heals 10. Susie, on the other hand, loves it, healing her 80 HP out of combat, and 90 in combat! This could be taken as foreshadowing that Kris hates the heart-shaped SOUL that's pulling them around.
  • Susie loving the Heart Donut the most also has two reasons; much like her, it has a thick(ish, it's still bread) outside and a soft and gooey inside, much like how Susie herself acts mean and offensive but has a sweet spot deep down. The second is that, well, it's a heart-shaped pastry full of red stuff, her tearing into it would let her act like she's being brutal "savaging" a candy heart and making a mess of its jelly "blood" (say you couldn't imagine her letting red jelly drip from her chin to scare her classmates), the consistency of the jelly being described as "thick and clotty" would only further enhance the image in the regard of making it look… disturbing to eat.
    • Three reasons. Its in-game name is the "HeartsDonut", when viewed from the battle screen. This is likely a reference to a joke, "Want a HeartsDonut?" "Ok" (First person hits the second) "Hurts, don't it?", fitting her aggressive personality.
• The entire Dark World and its inhabitants in Chapter 1 correspond to various scattered toys in an abandoned classroom. What object from the storage room was Ralsei an incarnation of, then? You might remember the box of crayons from the beginning that's conspicuously missing a green one. Add to that the pair of red horns Toriel mentions Kris used to own and voilà.
• A number of characters use noticeably stronger language far more often than anyone in Undertale did for the entire duration of the game: as stated by the characters in the original, they're making a point to tone down their language because Frisk is a young child, while Kris is a teen.
• K. Round's attacks make heavy use of its legs and involve a lot of jumping at you. In checkers, you capture the opponent's pieces by jumping over them.
• Jevil seems to use the word 'Chaos' at random. At first, it seems like he's just crazy, but judging by context, it seems to be how he refers to his attacks. One of his in-combat lines is 'Please, it's just a simple chaos.' This is most likely him attempting to call his attack simple (which they usually are, if hard to dodge), trying to be modest.
• Jevil is able to use attacks of all four card types because he is the joker card, aka, the wild card.
• Jevil considers himself free even though he's in a jail cell. Considering the card motifs, it's FreeCell!
• The alterations to numbers in this game has a few reasons for it. Assuming that the rules remain the same with EXP, LOVE, and Killing Intent, the difference in cast explains why the party has more HP but also takes more damage. Frisk in Undertale was a child, an innocent one if you stick to the pacifist path, so enemies would be less willing to do them harm. Inversely, Kris and friends are mid-late teens, not only are they more world-wise and willing to fight back (resulting in more HP), but the enemies also do more damage because they're less willing to hold back against Lightners that are nearly adults. Ralsei, as the most pacifistic (and maybe the youngest), also has the least HP for the same reason.
• Alphys in Deltarune leaves an anonymous review declaring Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2 an Even Better Sequel despite her Undertale counterpart thrashing it. While one could argue this incarnation of her may have somewhat different tastes to her Undertale self, it's just as likely Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2 in the Deltarune universe may be different from its UT counterpart. So as far as we know, it could very well be precisely as good as this Alphys says it is.
• Walking through spikes is easy when your body is made up of magic, and not flesh and bone like humans and Darkeners (heavily implied).
• Rouxls Kaard is the rules card, and that's how "rouxls kaard" is pronounced. It explains both why Rouxls Kaard seems to love hearing himself speak, and why he is nothing but an annoyance in the game. It also makes his "battles" more logical. Being the rules card, he can't actually do anything in the game, which is why his encounters pose no difficulty, but he is able to change how the rules work, explaining why both his encounters don't follow normal battle rules (in the first one, you shove boxes into place; in the second one, you compete to steal houses).
  • Chapter 2 confirms this.
• "Hometown" doesn't sound like a very creative name for a First Town now, does it? Then again, neither is Asgore.
• "Then the world was covered in darkness." Might be a sneaky reference to the fact that Susie and Kris are actually seemingly in a room with the lights off.
• Why are the monsters on the Surface instead of in the Underground? Because the previous game was a tale… that took place Underground. Likewise, this might explain why the red bunker is locked.
• As noted in the Fridge Logic page for Undertale, "Delta Rune is referred to by monsters as a symbol whose meaning has been forgotten — all they can remember is that an angel will save everyone, or it will kill everyone. Regardless of the outcome, the Underground would never be the same… and in some forms of scientific terminology, “delta” is used as an indicator of change." Your choices don't matter because the whole game is an actual story in the world of Undertale with an ambiguous ending that is separated by chapters! This gives another explanation as to why Toby Fox said that Deltarune doesn't affect the world of Undertale.
• Susie's magic attack is called the Rude Buster. In Undertale, we learn that the acronyms stand for things like "level of violence" and so on, implying that humans (and possibly monsters) attack using their apathy. Susie is defeating the enemies in Deltarune the only way she knows how.
• According to Ralsei and the King, Lightners and Darkners once lived in harmony until the Darkners were locked away in a sealed realm without purpose, driving the King in particular to bitterness and rage at their betrayal. Ralsei also says that the Darkners' purpose is to assist Lightners and that this is the only way they can be truly fulfilled. Recall that Susie and Kris access the Dark World through a dusty, unused classroom filled with toys that clearly have not been played with in a long time and that all of the Darkners are based on toys. This isn't just random lore — it's how toys would feel about being played with and then tossed aside once people get tired of them.
• A minor one: Susie often mentions that she's feeling hungry despite getting something to eat now and then during the journey. This might be because she likely grew up on the surface and is used to "human food" alongside monster food. Eating only monster food that is almost entirely made of magic simply isn't as filling.
  • Alternately, food in the Dark World isn't real food. For example, Dark Candy is implied to be a marshmallow-scented sticker.
• If you look around the Dreemurr house long enough, you can get a very early clue that things are quite different from how they were in Undertale. Checking Toriel's big chair has the narration refer to it as "Chairiel"; while the Toriel in Undertale also had a chair by that name, it was a small chair in her room instead of her big armchair.
• The King of Spades is almost exactly like what players first thought of Undertale!Asgore when Undertale!Toriel first described him.
• Jevil's status as a secret boss adds to his theme of freedom and Medium Awareness. Up until the elevator segment, there's almost no reference made towards him, save for an easily missable snippet of dialogue from Seam. By being the secret and optional boss, he's removed himself from the main game and its predetermined storyline, becoming the only character who doesn't have to "belong" in the plot's set order. Furthermore, if you refuse his offer to play, he says "you're already playing" his game because he can only be interacted with on his own terms, fulfilling certain conditions he gives out.
• Jevil is a playing card that has lost touch with reality. He's not playing with a full deck.
• Susie mentions having bypassed a puzzle by simply walking over the spike blockade. It could be an Offscreen Moment of Awesome for her. But consider that all the spike blockades you encounter are when Ralsei is in your party. Kris and Susie are both wearing thick shoes, but Ralsei is barefoot. Kris might just be refusing to do the same for his benefit.
• If you look at Susie's stats in Chapter 2, you'll see that her Rudeness dropped from 99 to 89. Throughout the chapter, you'll notice that Susie's considerably a lot friendlier compared to what she previously was, even if she still makes fun of others sometimes.
• How did Noelle and Berdly both end up falling into the Cyber Dark World on accident? You'd think that they would turn back the moment they saw an empty void beyond the doorframe, but remember that when Kris and Susie first entered the closet, there was a floor inside that collapsed when they tried to leave, but after that, they jumped straight in whenever entering the Dark World, so maybe the Dark Worlds have a baiting mechanism that generates a floor for first-timers to fool them into falling in. So Noelle and Berdly probably walked into the computer room, found nothing but darkness inside, tried to leave, then the Dark World sucked them in.
• Darkners turn to stone in dark worlds where they seem out of place. It's nice then that Ralsei looks like a Lightner and therefore "fits in" anywhere.
• "Your choices are meaningless"… except why is there a Genocide Route in chapter 2? Simple, it's not your choices that cause it to happen; it's not Kris working as the player's proxy to get onto that path and throw off the flow of the story, it's Noelle's choices at the player's urging, using manipulative tactics and feeding her LOVE so that she's the one that rips things Off the Rails while you follow behind her to see what happens. Your choices don't matter… but that doesn't mean you can't make others who do have the agency you've been denied make unexpected choices that you follow in the trail of.
• Spamton giving Kris the chance to be a [[BIG SHOT!!!]] may be a form of Psychological Projection. After beating Spamton NEO as the superboss, the other salesmen explain his backstory: Spamton himself started as a nobody of a salesman, until one day he met a mysterious benefactor who turned out to be his own chance to be the [[BIG SHOT!!!]] he always wanted to be. He took it and became a successful big shot at Queen's mansion… but at the cost of his friends, and it didn't last forever. Even his initial offer to Kris hints at this projection, mentioning abandonment by friends and sales going down the drain.
• The usual "smells like [x]" gag for Berdly states that it "Smells like frozen chicken." However, Berdly uses wind magic in the Dark World, not ice, so this wouldn't make sense at first. However, consider who does use ice magic; Noelle. Noelle is the real brains between Berdly and herself, since the former is only regarded as an Insufferable Genius by everyone else because he won against Noelle in a spelling bee and also studies with her.
  • Sometimes Berdly "smells like fried chicken." In the normal route, Berdly is known for siding with Queen and taking a more proactive stance in impeding Kris. While he does more heavy lifting as an antagonist, it's Queen who's still the main villain, and she disposes of him when she doesn't need him and his different ambitions anymore. If you defeat the Queen without loosening the cable attached to Berdly, he'll remove it himself at the cost of being electrocuted… or, in other words, fried.
• Berdy frequently talks about his 'mind palace'. A mind palace is actually a mnemonic device. Noelle might have taught that device to him when they study.
• One minor Running Gag throughout Chapter 2 is Berdly not having nipples. This may seem like just another way to cement his Butt-Monkey status, but remember that he's an anthropomorphic bird monster. Of course he wouldn't have the nipples that only mammals evolved.
• One of the Plugboys mentions they love digital cats. While at first this seems like nothing but a reference to cat meme videos online, it actually has relevance. He's talking about the Tasques.
• Listen closely to "NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO BE A" and "BIG SHOT", both of Spamton's Leitmotifs, and you'll notice that besides the "Now's your chance to be a big shot!" sample, they also make heavy usage of a sample of a phone ringing. This ties in heavily into how Spamton became the broken wreck he is today, as someone (or something) gave him his rise to power through talking through the phone with him, then driving him mad through some sort of "garbage noise."
• The reason why Thorn Ring doesn't drain Noelle's HP below 55? In Roman numerals, 55 is LV.
• Why does "Attack of the Killer Queen" have snippets of "Smart Race", Berdly's theme, in it? Not only was Berdly serving as Queen's right-hand man for a significant part of the chapter, but also because she's puppeteering a mind-controlled Berdly to fight you!
• Why couldn't Spamton hold his sales once his Mysterious Benefactor disappeared? He was a failing salesman before the call from the mysterious client and became over-reliant on their help for making his big sales instead of actually improving his marketing ability towards other clients. Thus, when his benefactor disappeared one day, his lack of proper marketing ability caused all his sales to plummet.
• Despite having absolutely no interest in chatting with Kris, Susie, and Ralsei, King remains sitting against his prison bars throughout Chapter 2, as if he's waiting for someone else to drop by and talk with him. That someone else is likely Lancer, given how King implicitly views him more positively after calming down.
• If Spamton's [Hyperlink Blocked] is LOVE, then there's a simple explanation for it: links to "love" from a spambot would get blocked on a PC in a public library that's easily accessible by children. It also explains why the Queen says "tity" instead of "titty" when you pick the bosom option after playing her at the arcade machine. A dirty slang like that would likely be censored within the computer itself.
• Both Jevil and Spamton NEO are based on objects that have freedom in one way, yet lack it in another. This also ties into their situations:
  • Jevil is based on a Joker card, which has Freedom of Function but lacks Freedom of Choice. The Joker is a Wild Card with varied, often powerful uses on the occasion it's usable in games. However, Joker cards are omitted entirely from most card games, which relates to how Jevil is locked up in prison while thinking that said prison is a place of freedom.
  • Spamton NEO is based on a puppet, which has Freedom of Movement but lacks Freedom of Control. It can move much more freely and fluidly than most automatons, but is completely controlled by the person pulling the strings instead of an AI or mechanism that autonomously moves it. This relates to Spamton's goal to get freedom via uploading himself to his NEO body, only to realize that he's now literally being pulled by strings.
    • Alternatively, Spamton could be based on a spambot, a program that can act independently at first glance, but is still heavily reliant on outside forces, and more specifically, outside approval. Spamton is forceful in his advances, but even with his NEO body, he in the end cannot force Kris to do anything, something he even acknowledges if you get far enough in his boss fight. His entire plan hinges on Kris accepting his "deals" and cooperating until the end. The second Kris throws up some resistance, Spamton's whole plan fails.
    • Spamton may have a bit of autodialer in him as well, what with the heavy link to phones. Which similarly has freedom of movement, either randomly dialing numbers or go to any in a set list, but similarly has no control over the contents of the call, with it either being handed off to an actual human being or playing a pre-recorded message.
• Jevil's view of the world as "a game" could have two meanings. It could mean that he's just the standard fourth-wall aware character, but it could also mean that he's aware of the nature of Dark Worlds and their denizens. Darkners are created out of items in the room when a Dark World is created (for example, the Ambyulances are likely made from the computer lab's antivirus programs). What was in the old classroom that became the Card Kingdom? Why, game pieces and toys, of course!
• If Ambyu-Lances are antiviruses, helper programs, why do they attack you too? Because real antivirus programs are notorious for overreacting and deleting safe files with nothing wrong with them. Common things they'll block are any downloads from websites the user has not gone out of their way and whitelisted, or downloads of certain file types, mainly .exe files. The Ambyu-Lance is also overreacting and believes the party members are also viruses.
• Much of the people talking about Kris is focused on what a weirdo or troublemaker they are, but there are small details that show they do have a sensitive side. Noelle is clearly a stand-out character in her relationship with Kris despite most of her time talking about how much of a prankster they are in the past. During the sequence in town where she talks to Kris (and by extension, the player) during the long chain of force field puzzles, the letters are spelling out DECEMBER, which is a trauma word for her as revealed by Berdly. Noelle doesn't slow down or even take in what the letters are spelling out when she is talking with them and they make it through just fine, with the heavy implication that Kris is closely responsible for helping them cope with those events.^note Crosses into Fridge Horror when you see that this is a huge part of what allows you to manipulate her in the Weird Route.
• During a puzzle on the Cyber Field in chapter 2, you type AGREE2ALL, and Queen, among other things, says she's now allowed to use your (the three heroes') likeness to make statues. Later, in Queen's Castle, you see that she did indeed make a statue using one of the heroes' likeness! Specifically, the Susie one in Noelle's room.
• The character tea flavors shows some insight into the characters.
  • For Kris, Ralsei Tea heals them for 60 HP, Noelle Tea heals them for 70 HP, and Susie Tea heals them for 120 HP. Ralsei's a sweet guy, but Kris met him literally yesterday and he might bring up bittersweet memories of their brother. Noelle has known Kris since they were kids, but something happened in their past that caused the two of them to grow distant from each other. Kris has only been friends with Susie for a day, but Susie has also put her life on the line for Kris, and before that, Kris jumped to her defense with no input from the player, so they obviously care about her a lot.
  • For Susie, everyone's tea heals her for 120 HP. No matter how much bravado she puts up about being a mean, tough girl, she really cares about all of her friends because she hasn't really had any before.
  • For Ralsei, Noelle Tea heals him for 50 HP, and Kris and Susie Tea heals him for 120 HP. Ralsei's had very limited contact with Noelle, and his opinion of her is based on what little information he's gleaned of her character from Susie and Kris, and notes the taste of her tea is "soft and sweet". Ralsei has never had friends before and would do anything for Susie and Kris, with many others theorizing that Ralsei's appearance is directly influenced by Kris's thoughts of their brother, Asriel.
  • For Noelle, Ralsei Tea heals for 50 HP for the same reasons listed before on Ralsei's opinion for her, Kris Tea heals her for 70 HP for the same reasons listed before on Kris's opinion of her, and Susie Tea heals her for an absolutely whopping 400 HP due to her absolutely massive crush on Susie.
    • She also wonders if it can be bought in gallons. Because she's thirsty.
    • Concerning the Kris Tea, Noelle comments it has a notable aftertaste. Among the party members, Noelle has known Kris the longest, as they are childhood friends, so she would notice things about Kris's behavior that Susie or Ralsei would not. This aftertaste may well be her subconsciously noting that something is wrong with Kris, and considering Kris is being controlled by the Soul and perhaps something else, her intuition is not wrong in the slightest.
  • All four characters gain almost no HP from their own tea, with Kris having "No reaction" and the others complaining that it tastes underwhelming or like water. Whatever properties of themselves the tea is meant to emulate, to them it's always there and thus not noticeable.
  • It's important to note that Susie seems to have a Loved by All reputation, at least inside the party; she's the only character whose tea heals everyone for at least 120 HP. Inversely, aside from Susie, who gains 120 HP from everyone else's teas, Ralsei heals the least, only healing Kris and Noelle for 60 and 50 HP respectively; it makes sense that, while he's likable, he's also only known them for a day, while the Lightners have all known each other for upwards of a decade.
  • The Ralsei Tea only heals Kris for 60 HP despite all the ship tease between the two. That's because the players are the ones who make the choices that invoke them and not Kris themselves, even when the plot itself puts the two in ship teasing situations. In fact, Kris never really did anything on their own concerning Ralsei. Considering how that sort of action plays a part in the Weird Route, the same could apply with Ralsei, only less toxic.
    • On the topic of the Weird Route, it should be noted that the Kris Tea and Noelle Tea will heal Noelle and Kris for 50 HP respectively, instead of the usual 70 HP. It's become the same healing values as Ralsei and Noelle's for when they drink their respective teas, reflecting how Kris and Noelle's relationship has deteriorated to the point where they're essentially strangers to one another, thanks to the Player's manipulations warping their behaviors.
• Speaking of food, Noelle heals little from the Darkburger. She freaks out at the Darkburger having real meat. Deer are herbivores.
  • Likewise, the unused food item Giga Salad heals Noelle for 90 HP, while it only heals 4 HP for everyone else.
• Spamton spouts a lot of indecipherable nonsense, and one of the most random instances of this is when he tells Kris that they "don't need friends; I can turn my hands into phones!!". Talking to those that knew Spamton before he became a "Big Shot" retroactively clarifies what he means by this, though: after he became famous and they all stopped talking to him, Spamton probably convinced himself that he didn't need them; he had the phone which could bring him endless success through the man on the other end.
• With Chapter 2's 1.6 Update, using the left-in exploit for the Spamton NEO fights to instantly fire a Big Shot causes him to become increasingly pissed off. However, this makes sense in-character as opposed to just being the game punishing you for trying to get cute with it: Spamton gave and lost everything in his pursuit to become a big shot, and Kris is using an exploit to get "Big Shots" risk-free right in front of him. In other words, Kris is cheating their way to Spamton's symbolic goal right in his face and doing so liberally. No wonder Spamton loses his shit at this.
• Why does Lancer love digging holes? Because he's a spade, of course!
• How is Ralsei a prince despite being the ruler of his kingdom and not the son of them? Simple, he's just using the archaic version of the word: The ruler of an area of land smaller than a country.
• The acid tunnel music is a remix of Lancer's theme, but more specifically of the variant that plays when you design the Thrash Machine in the previous chapter. The music is actually foreshadowing the return of the Thrash Machine in this area.
• Part of Noelle's attraction to Susie is due to her liking scary things. It's also established in Chapter Two that Susie never bullied her. Considering that part of why Noelle likes scary movies is because she can turn them off, allowing her to get the thrill of being scared while still being safe, it makes sense. Susie has the thrill of being a "dangerous" bully, but also an element of safety, since she never picked on Noelle. There's a reason "is a jerk to everyone except the heroine" is a classic love interest in romance novels, dating sims, and fanfictions alike.
• After the GIGA Queen fight, Queen's battery is drained, which she recharges quickly after running out. If she's a computer in the public library, then why does she run on battery power? After sealing the fountain, it's revealed that it's because her Light World form is a laptop.
  • There's also the fact that she uses facial recognition software to recognize people she's met, which a regular computer is unlikely to have unless they had a camera installed, which is extremely unlikely for a public library.
  • Also, Queen is the only computer seen roaming around like a sentient being in the Dark World. Laptops can be carried around anywhere you want to at anytime, and Queen is the only laptop in the library.
• The King and Jevil know about Queen. But how could that be when Darkners from one Dark World gradually petrify in another? Easy, Ralsei says it depends on how compatible they are with other Dark Worlds. Queen was able to stick around the Card Kingdom longer than Lancer and Rouxls could in Cyber World because of how "thematically appropriate" they are to the rooms the Dark Worlds are found in.
  • Queen is a computer, and computers being in either a classroom or library makes perfect sense.
    • From this, it can be inferred that the computer Queen personifies was in the classroom at one point, but was given to the library when the classroom became unused.
  • Lancer and Rouxls, however, are playing cards. Toys might belong in a classroom, but they definitely don't belong in a library. Rouxls is able to last longer than Lancer because the primary function of a rules card is to be read.
  • Similarly, all Darkners are said to be able to live in Ralsei's Castle Town. Where's Castle Town? In a storage room, a place you could theoretically put anything without it feeling "out of place".
  • Computers can play games, and some have in-built games such as virtual versions of board and card games. Solitaire, anyone? The game itself seems to acknowledge this, as an unused graphic within the game is titled "Queen Solitaire" and has a spade on it.
    • Similarly, there's the fact that computers are built from circuit boards and use keyboards. In essence, she's still associated with "board games" like the King and Lancer.
  • The contents of his prison in Chapter 2 implies that King not only embodies a King of Spades card^note or an Ace of Spades if you go by the "death card" logic, but is also a giant, anthropomorphic hamster. Hamsters are common class pets, so King could embody the idea of an old, neglected one, which used to be part of the now-unused Light World classroom that his Card Kingdom is based on. His son, Lancer, embodies the opposite idea: a class pet who is well-cared for, thanks to the three protagonists — especially Susie — being his first real friends.
• It's a Running Gag that Queen keeps forgetting Ralsei exists. This is probably because she tracks everyone outside her domain by their internet history, and Ralsei doesn't seem to have one. She has no idea who he is or what he wants, so he's basically a non-entity to her.
• Why is Spamton so obsessed with the year 1997? Besides seeing the release of the "Big Shot" brand of soda's commercial, it's also the year that saw the first known use of anti-spam systems for e-mails and servers. Knowing that Spamton was "the e-mail guy" who used to be massively successful before his fortune suddenly stopped, it's fitting for his "favorite year" to be the same year that introduced what would cut his function and purpose for living short.
• Spamton calls Kris a "[Little sponge]". Dating back to Shakespeare's Hamlet, calling someone a sponge refers to a person who is nothing but a mere tool, to who someone squeezes and leaves them dry. In other words, Spamton is calling Kris a mere puppet — just like him.
• Why does Rouxls's head not turn to stone? Because he's wearing a pirate hat and eyepatch, and piracy does fit with the whole "computer" theme.
  • Speaking of which, why was Rouxls dressed as a pirate in the first place? Well, he stole something not belonging to him (The Thrash Machine) and tried to do it again through his boss fight (the islands in the acid lake); both in the Cyber World. In other words, he's literally an internet pirate!
• It makes perfect sense that Queen regards Lightners as exceedingly dense and adults as being simply "bigger children" — beyond just having access to whatever information exists on the internet, she's a public computer in a small-town library, likely used most often by people that don't have computers in their homes. Even though this game seems to take place in the equivalent of 2010's (instead of, say, the 90's), the only Lightners she interacts with are likely to lean a little more tech-illiterate than the "average" of the world!
• Spamton mentions something about becoming the "[It Burns! Ow! Stop! Help Me! It Burns!] GUY" when talked to in his shop. While this can be chalked up to Spamton being, well, Spamton, it can be interpreted as something else. Spamton is a Darkner-ized version of a spambot. What do most computers and other systems have in place to block such programs? Firewalls.
  • Alternatively, it could be a reference to acid burn. One of his lines mentions "burning acid", and he seems to fear the Swatchlings so much that he panics at the mere suggestion of going to the mansion alone. Considering that he apparently tried to break into the mansion before by disguising himself as Swatch, it is possible that he was tossed into the acid river by the Swatchlings after that attempt.
  • Another alternate explanation: His Japanese lines translate the "[It Burns! Ow! Stop! Help Me! It Burns!]" quote as something more akin to implying his eyes are burning due to something bright he saw. It could refer to his mysterious benefactor showing him something that led to his madness, or even how he describes seeing Kris's SOUL as burning his eyes in their first encounter. Notice Spamton's shop background (and the end of his Pacifist boss fight) features a mural of a cheery blue sky and sun, which seems to be his vision of the elusive [HEAVEN] he seeks. If we theorize that 'Heaven' for Spamton is the Light World, it could be that he somehow witnessed the bright light and sun of the real world. He'd never normally have a concept of such things as a Darkner who dwells in the dark alleys of Cyber City where it's Always Night, so not only would that have hurt him, as anyone used to darkness would be dazzled by bright lights, but it could also have contributed to his descent to madness, as he literally saw something he should never have and was never made to see.
• Spamton, the personification of a spam email, is represented as a puppet. In Real Life, spam emails typically use fake personas to try to sell you things, the people who send them using them like puppets.
• Noelle's ice powers are incredibly effective in the Cyber World. Now, what do you normally call computer programs locking up and not responding unless you kill them via Task Manager? Freezing. This is supported by the fact that her normal ice attack can't freeze Berdly, the only enemy she can fight that's not a Cyber World native.
• Flavor text for Spamton NEO mentions that Spamton is appealing to an audience that's not there. But Spamton is a salesman, not a performer. It is likely that the NEO body, which was presumably intended for Mettaton, is affecting his (admittedly already warped) perception.
• If you beat Rouxls Kaard in Chapter 2 and then ask Swatch about him, he'll mention that Rouxls mistook Tasque Manager for Queen at one point. How is that possible if Queen's face is right on the front of her mansion, impossible to miss? Simple: Rouxls always faces the screen, so he never would've been able to see said entrance, nor would he have seen Queen's giant robot in the entrance that also looks like her.
• In the cutscene where Kris first encounters Spamton, he pops out of the dumpster introducing himself with a fanfare like he heard someone was there, yet his '!' emote and the way he turns around to face Kris suggests that he didn't actually see Kris until that point. While you could chalk this up to Spamton being his usual crazy self, remember that Spamton has a degree of Medium Awareness and knowledge of the player and SOUL as a result of his insanity. He didn't jump out because he sensed Kris approaching nearby, he sensed the player's presence looking at him and his dumpster.
• Why do Spamton's Blush Sticker facial features disappear and his Villainous Cheekbones become less prominent as Spamton NEO? It could symbolic of how he's trying to become free from the position he's stuck in. Note how he's a Perpetual Smiler who only rarely changes expressions. In his normal form, he's seemingly forced to smile. But as Spamton NEO, he's got more control over his appearance and does away with the forced happy features, letting him give more genuine expressions… albeit still having creepy grins as NEO while gaining puppet strings. Still, it's something.
• Early on in the game when you enter the city, you'll see some Swatchlings preparing for a "big event". Said event was likely meant for the final Punch-Out!!-esque boss fight that happens at the end of the chapter, where you're chasing Queen down a road.
• Following the Chess Motifs, Kris is clearly the Pawn, since, well, they're the player's pawn. But what are the characteristics of a Pawn? Once they reach the end of the board, they can be promoted into many pieces — for example, a Knight^note the only option that isn't strictly inferior to a Queen, aside from the Queen itself — and while still a pawn, the only way they can move is to Proceed straight forward, unless they are moving to take another piece (in which case they move diagonally forward while capturing and lock themselves onto a new path^note and potentially blocking another pawn's path in the process, but that's less relevant to the metaphor). Also, the first move of a chess game can only be one of two options: the pawn or the knight.
• If you try to interact with Spamton in the basement on the Weird Route, he says "IT'S NOT MY JOB TO BE SOME KIDS' [Extra Boss]!". By the time you reach this point, you've come too far and you can't stop the Weird Route. Spamton can't be an Extra Boss anymore; right now, he's the Final Boss.
• Kris creates Dark Fountains, either as the Roaring Knight or an equal and opposite force. They also have a close connection to Christmas through both their friendship with Noelle and their name (Kris — Christ/Christmas). Finally, they rarely speak, and when the do, we, the player, don't hear it. Another name we could give Kris is the Silent Knight!
• Why are the monsters' version of ACTing weaker than Kris'? Well, when they try to flirt with a Head Hathy and toast with Queen, they just make it awkward. Kris doesn't seem to have this kind of flaw, so maybe their ability to hold a proper conversation is what enables them to use stronger ACTs.
• Other than Kris and Noelle, Susie is still pretty much feared by the rest of her classmates, but she's rather lonely. While she mellowed out to Kris due to being Fire-Forged Friends, why wasn't she mean to Noelle? The conversation she has with Noelle during Susie's Chapter 2 solo cutscene reveals that Noelle gave her a pencil back then, so Susie decided to "spare" her. Essentially, by being nice to Susie, she met Susie's "spare requirements."
• One of the main reasons why the Weird Route is so... weird, is because nothing fits. The Mouse Puzzles are solved, major story points are skipped, both Queen fights are skipped, and Spamton forces himself into the story as the Big Bad. But then one realises that by freezing the enemies to death and letting Spamton Take Over the World, you're freezing a computer and letting a virus screw everything up.
• In Chapter 1, all of the non-boss enemies can have their mercy conditions met in one turn. From Chapter 2, some recurring enemies require you to take multiple turns to meet their mercy conditions. All of the mooks in Chapter 1 generally hate working for the King because of how badly he treats them, so they're more easily comforted by your kindness. In Chapter 2, Werewires are Brainwashed and Crazy, so they'd naturally be harder to calm down, and Queen's Swatchlings love her, so they take more turns to spare. As for enemies such as Virovirokun, they're not exactly loyal to Queen, so they're easier to persuade to come to your side.
• In the Weird Route of Chapter 2, Spamton will criticize you for taking that route even though he's steering you towards it and sells you one of the items you need to do it. This makes sense when you look at Spamton NEO, who is held up by strings — Spamton is a puppet and has to act in the way he's required to. Given that this is Cyber World, based on computers, it means that Spamton can't defy his programming. He's been programmed to be a salesman, so he has to make Kris the sales pitch and has to sell him the item because that's his entire purpose. But he's not criticizing Kris, because Kris doesn't really have a choice either. He's criticizing the player, who did have a choice about whether or not to buy the item from him and pursue the Weird Route.
• When Susie has her moment of clarity pointing out just how… wrong the Spamton sidequest is, she's especially unnerved with "the way he just… broke." While this can be chalked up to Spamton turning into an inventory item being a case of Uncertain Doom, Chapter 2 of the game establishes that monsters still turn into dust when they die like in Undertale. Given Kris is clearly the only human she knows, the idea of leaving behind anything besides dust, especially an unmoving, nonfunctioning corpse is probably a foreign concept to Susie.
• There's two implications about what's coming in Chapter 3. That its Dark World will be television themed, and that we'll meet a character named "Mike". Taking them both together points to the joke of the title Mike T.V.
• As one redditor pointed out, remember how the save file had Kris' name instead of the player's? If you decide to play Chapter 2 without loading Chapter 1 save data, it will play as if you made very specific decisions in Chapter 1, possibly indicating that those are the "canon" decisions that Kris would've made if they weren't controlled. For instance, Kris took the pacifist route, didn't meet the original Starwalker, didn't fight Jevil, did talk to Alphys after leaving the Dark World, didn't meet Onion, didn't talk to Sans…
• A few people pointed out that "Knock You Down!" sounds kind of like "Stronger Monsters". When compared to the other Arc Villain you've fought, Queen is effectively a "stronger monster".
  • It may also be referring to the fact that when both sides are piloting mechs, both sides have stronger monsters.
• Kris is a childhood friend of Noelle, in fact, she was their Only Friend growing up. Another name for Santa Claus in the US is Kris Kringle.
• Of the pre-existing characters from Undertale, Sans is the only one not wearing a different outfit. He's so lazy, he didn't even bother to change his clothes between games.
  • Not just that, while everyone else was updated to the new 32-bit sprites used in Deltarune, Sans is still identical to his 16-bit sprite from Undertale. He wasn't just so lazy he didn't change outfits, he's so lazy he didn't even change graphical styles.
• Going along with Noelle's Covert Pervert tendencies, it's mentioned in Chapter 1 that one of her fears is "Santa Claus", but in Chapter 2 one of the pop-ups she can click on (not accidentally) is for "Hot Female Santas" in spite of this. For the same reason as her interests in Susie, she's probably into the idea of gender-flipped Santa because it's both scary and attractive at the same time to her.
• Queen's obsession with potassium is humorous, but kind of out of left field. However, with modern communication across the internet, one of the most common casual messages of acknowledgement is just a mere "K.". Now what's the chemical symbol for potassium again?
• Deltarune was confirmed to have seven chapters. Each chapter is a day in-universe, and by far only 2 have been released, the second taking place the day right after the first. Toriel said that Asriel will be coming home for summer vacation in a week, in seven days. So Deltarune takes place the week before his visit, and just like in Undertale, the climax of the game is related to Asriel's arrival. After all, Asriel has already been associated with the Delta Rune's Angel in the past.
• Of course Queen is such a walking meme, she's the only computer with access to the internet, the cyber place known for its "LOL I so random" humor and obsession with Stuff Blowing Up.
• The Roaring being a threat to Darkners as well makes sense if you think about it: Castle Town's fountain is made from pure darkness, implying it's the only one meant to exist; too many foreign dark fountains would pollute the central one, making it just like any other, and all the fountains mixing will cause the different dark worlds to clash, causing confusion to their respective Darkners over where they belong, and therefore they'll all turn to stone.
• Should the player keep attacking the Dummy during Ralsei's tutorial instead of following along, Ralsei will say that should the time come, he's fine with Kris hitting him should they feel like it. Ignoring all the potential Fridge Horror that could come with this, Ralsei's relatively passive demeanor towards this makes sense if one considers that he's a healer, and any damage that can be done to him can negated with a simple spell.
• Spamton's claim that "NEO is famous for its high defense" at first seems like a humorous jab at just how frail Mettaton NEO was in Undertale, but he turns out to be entirely correct. After all, Spamton is a Darkner, not a monster. He's not vulnerable to Killing Intent like Mettaton was and can actually utilize the NEO form's defensive capabilities.
• In the official commercial for the Spamton plush, one of the activities it's seen doing is eating from a dog bowl full of assorted coins. Well, he's a spambot, so it sort of makes sense that money is actually what he eats.
• Spamton's shop is radically different from every other shop in the game, with his inventory being completely useless at best (the broken sword) to outright harmful to the party at worst (S. POISON). Even his two "useful" items are either stolen from Swatch (the B.SHOT Bowtie) or sold to you with an ulterior motive (the Keygen). But this makes perfect sense. Spamton lives in and sells his wares in a garbage dump. As in, it's literal garbage that nobody wants or has any use for, hence the location and terrible selection of items.
  • This also fits perfectly with Spamton's personality. Being a spambot, he's leading you into accepting something that is either completely worthless, or actively harmful to you, while benefitting from it himself. And what better way to do so than by tricking you into buying literal garbage from him, which he does by blatantly lying about their effects? The Keygen seems to be the only exception, but this is because Spamton is specifically selling it in order to use you to achieve his NEO form. In other words, it's the player forcing Kris into following an extremely shady spam email for no real reason, despite the hundreds of blatant red flags stemming from it.
• There's an interesting parallel between Kris and Spamton's deal in the normal and Snowgrave routes. On the normal route, Kris follows all of Spamton's directions exactly, only for the salesman to reveal that he was just using them to achieve his dream and attempts to kill them and take their SOUL. In other words, Spamton double-crosses Kris once he gets what he wants out of the agreement, because he wants more than what was originally offered. On the Snowgrave route, Spamton actively assists Kris in their slaughter by selling them the Thorn Ring, and Kris's actions directly lead to Spamton gaining access to the mansion's basement, allowing him to take the robot body for himself. Here, both sides get exactly what they want, and Spamton is willing to leave Kris alone after the fact… until Kris goes behind Spamton's back and attempts to seal the fountain, thus screwing Spamton out of his newfound power. Here, Kris is the one who double-crosses the other party, and they do it in exactly the same way Spamton does in the normal route — by trying to gain something more than what was originally offered (killing dozens of Darkners, and attempting to seal the fountain, which Spamton was not aware of in the original deal).
  • This would also explain why Spamton is much more aggressive in his Snowgrave fight and gets genuinely angry at Kris during it — he realized he had been double-crossed and used, and Kris was about to screw him out of the power he had just achieved!
  • This also fits in with Kris's "X-Slash" ability, which is only available during Spamton NEO's Snowgrave fight. "X" can also be read as "cross", so it would be "cross-slash"; as in "double cross", which is exactly what Kris and Spamton do to each other in the fight.
• During Ch.2, which is heavily implied to be a wish-fulfilling location, Susie and Ralsei go off to hang out, play carnival games (which neither of them is likely to have played before) and presumably consume a ton of sugary goodness - obvious wishes of them both. What do Kris and Noelle get? To reconnect with each other! While Noelle gets pranked and scared at every turn - something both of them enjoy very much.

Fridge Horror

• The birdcage that your SOUL gets flung into looks already worn out and stained by the time the game starts. Just how many times has this happened?
• Many people assume Kris is being possessed by some malevolent entity (Chara, for instance), turned evil by the player's attempted Genocide run and either completing it or aborting it half-way through. However, the ending remains the same, regardless of if you have Undertale installed on whatever you're playing on, or when the copy that is installed has only ever seen you attempt a Pacifist or Neutral run. So, if the being possessing Kris is Chara, what happened to them that made them so murderous? And if it isn't Chara, then what the hell IS it?!
  • If you talk to Sans about Toriel, he'll say that Toriel came in during the day to buy all the chocolate kisses. He also mentions that she's going to hide them from Kris, because Kris would eat them all. You know who else likes chocolate? Chara.
  • Even prior to the Genocide run, Chara did attempt to murder six people and may or may not have wanted to kill more once they had all their SOULs. If the latter is the case, there's nothing unusual going on here at all, not that that's much of a reassurance.
  • Chara described themself in the Genocide ending as an embodiment of those mechanics in RPGs that allow you to be violent. The game already had those mechanics, and our decision to use them has no bearing. How can we hope to outrun them when they are already here?
  • There's also every possibility that Kris wasn't being possessed by anything; everyone around the town acts like Kris under the player's control is being more social and generally more out of character than normal. What if a monstrous sociopath really is the "true" Kris and them ripping out the SOUL and behaving like Chara was them resuming their true personality, and not another presence stealing them from us?
    • Less likely given that Kris is implied several times to resent the player's influence over them, yet whatever tears out the SOUL we control keeps eventually putting it back.
    • If Kris were a sociopath with a soul (meaning Kris's sociopathy not being the result of soullessness but of "normal" human condition), then Kris technically had TWO SOULs, ours and their own.
    • The damaged birdcage indicates that Kris does this regularly, even prior to the player taking control, so it seems the player is not the SOUL itself but is controlling Kris's SOUL from without. Kris's antisocial behavior may be due to knowing (or suspecting) that something is dangerously wrong with them.
    • Related: Undertale established that a human cannot hold another human's Soul, just as a monster cannot hold another monster's. If this mechanic carries over to Deltarune, what does that mean for Kris?
  • Remember, in Deltarune, everyone looks the same but has a somewhat changed "role" (Toriel - guardian/teacher, Alphys - scientist/teacher, Undyne - Knight/cop). While Chara in Undertale is a manifestation of the "RPG mindset", the Chara of Deltarune might be a manifestation of the desire to Screw Destiny and do whatever one pleases, in reaction to Deltarune's lack of meaningful choice and railroading.
• Do the special flowers in Asgore's home seem familiar to you? They should. Almost all of them have colors identical to the SOULs of the six human children he murdered in the original Undertale. It gets even more unsettling when you realize there's a golden flower among them taking the place of the red SOUL...
• Also regarding Asgore, in the original game, Toriel left him because she hated that he vowed to kill any human that fell into the Underground, which meant he killed a lot of the children that she rescued. What did Asgore do in this timeline?!
  • Considering this is an Alternate Universe to Undertale where they all live in the normal and mundane town of Hometown, what happened was probably just the standard break-up.
  • Except that Toriel's actual complaint was that Asgore was being wishy-washy — a single SOUL was enough that he could have left the Underground and killed enough humans to let him free the monsters from their prison, but he wasn't willing to commit. Given that this universe's monsters were never imprisoned, and Gerson is dead, it raises questions about that tactic and its possible use…
  • When Officer Undyne sees Kris, the neighborhood kid who's lived with their mother for years, the resident policewoman's first thought is to recognize Kris as "Asgore's kid".
    • In chapter 2, if you check the board in the police office, there's a reference to Undyne taking over the chief of police spot from Asgore. There's an implication that Asgore was forced to step down, but Kris refuses to read more.
• The story seems to be an alternate universe plot where things didn't happen quite as we know it, judging by the various changes and missing character relationships. Then you meet Sans, who has his usual Leaning on the Fourth Wall nature and you have the option to proclaim it's good to see him again. Then he says he's never met Kris before, and his other dialogue choices seem to be looking for ways to entrap the player into saying knowledge the player, not Kris, would know. Even worse, you can ask Undyne about Alphys, and they've never met — something that only someone with pre-existing knowledge of Undertale would assume a connection on, to begin with. What the hell is going on that meta-knowledge from a different storyline has become plot-relevant?
  • It's possible that the SOUL/Player we control is the same one that controls Frisk in Undertale. Chapter 2's bonus battle against Spamton NEO leads credit to this theory when the SOUL inexplicably forces itself into the Yellow SHOOTER Mode that was previously used against Mettaton and his EX form, something that should normally be forced by monsters.
• Several lines imply that the mysterious individual who drove Jevil insane was W.D. Gaster. If Gaster has already made contact with at least one person, then what else has he done in the Kingdom of Darkness that we don't know about? Is he with us… or against us?
  • Gaster's report addresses a lot of 'darkness' stuff. Furthermore, his life was 'cut short' as he 'fell into his own creation'. He may have ended up in Deltarune's dark world. For all we know, he may *be* Jevil.
• On the subject of Jevil, consider his card motif: he represents the Joker, a card which famously doesn't quite fit with the rest of the deck, not belonging to any particular suit and being stronger than most other cards. This seems to fit quite well with Jevil's insane nature, as well as his incredibly challenging boss fight... except that brings us to the worrying fact that a standard deck of cards has two Jokers. Could there be someone else like him out there in the Dark World?
  • Jevil is paired with Seam, the nihilistic shopkeeper. If anyone is the other Joker, it's them.
    • But Seam can't be the other Joker. The Dark World doesn't exist completely in isolation, it's all paired with real objects from the real world. There's a real deck of cards that Jevil is one of the Jokers from and Seam is… a stuffed animal. So what about the second Joker card?
    • However, Seam as the other Joker fits within traditional Tarot motifs. In the original Tarot deck (before dedicated cards), one Joker was used as "The Fool" (obviously fitting Jevil as the ex-court jester), and the other Joker was used as "The Magician." True enough, Seam originally served as the court magician alongside Jevil.
  • It explains his "I can do anything!" in particular, since in many card games, Jokers are wild (hence why he uses attacks of all four suits).
    • He can use more than just the four suits. Before he attacks, he explains the rules of his game. In other words, he acts like a rules card too.
• If your party's HP is depleted, you get the usual game over screen, with the mysterious voice commenting that you have met an end. Usually, per gaming convention, you are offered the choice to continue or not. Not doing so will give you a message that the world will be plunged in darkness simply because you chose that option. The fridge part comes in when you realize that, either out of curiosity or because you thought it would quit to the main menu, you've now created an ending to the story where the party has been Killed Off for Real! The result? The world (and your game) is forever going to be a black void, with nothing but the darkness to see and the ambiance to hear.
  • Furthermore, once you learn about the Roaring, you realize that that's what the Game Over screen is referring to. The Roaring has begun.
• When you install the game, the terms and conditions are a simple and brief "YOU ACCEPT EVERYTHING THAT WILL HAPPEN FROM NOW ON.", There is a reason why the game tells you that your choices do not matter; you surrender any control over the outcome of the game as soon as you accept those terms.
• By throwing away the only SOUL in their body,^* The narration at some point says "[Kris'] body contains A human SOUL", which implies our SOUL was the only one within them. Kris (or whoever/whatever's possessing them) also threw away their ability to feel love and compassion towards others.
  • This could also have to do with the possible anagram of Kris being Risk when rearranged, giving more meaning towards their nature.
• Susie has very visibly yellow teeth. At first, this just seems like a quirk of her character design. But alongside other subtle hints about her character, including her ragged clothes and excessive fixation on food, may be one of many signs that she's suffering from some serious neglect at home.
  • Supporting this, Susie has an uncharacteristically serious reaction when Lancer mentions tooth decay.
  • Alternatively, it could be extreme poverty such that her family simply can't afford to care for her properly, whether they want to or not.
  • Her Violence is the Only Option quotes imply that she actually is abused, though. Just who taught her to think like that?
  • Chapter 2 gives us even more evidence for a terrible home life. Susie completely ignores Toriel's suggestion to call her parents and let them know that she's having a sleepover with Kris that night. Why is Susie so against the idea of calling her parents? Furthermore, how can she be so nonchalant about blowing them off? A sane parent would surely call the police if their teen daughter went missing on a school night with zero explanation, but Susie acts like no one will bat an eye at her absence. Something isn't right in that household.
    • She also reacts to being given her own room in Ralsei's castle as if it's a completely new experience for her.
  • Susie casually tells Kris that it's her who drinks the milk Alphys leaves in the saucer at the alley every day.
  • Equipping Susie with the two money-increasing items (Silver Card and Dealmaker) have her give the same comment about needing money, and equipping her with the Royal Pin item causes her to have a small freakout as she mishears the word 'brooch' for 'roach', which lends credence to the theory that Susie is at least quite poor.
• "Your choices don't matter." Seems to be a Take That! towards the player, right? Well, it could also actually be a message to Kris, who, for the most part of the game, never got to choose their own actions.
  • Looking in the mirror does bring up the information that "It's what they call 'you'", after all. It never specifies who 'you' refers to.
  • For all we know, multiple endings could exist in later chapters after all…
• The ending song, "Don't Forget", initially seems like a heartwarming ode to companionship, reassuring the listener, "Don't forget, I'm with you in the dark." Then you realize that that melody shows up in at least a quarter of the songs on the soundtrack, almost as though, as one person put it, "someone really doesn't want us to forget that they're with us in the dark." Given the heavy implications that Gaster has something to do with this game, the idea that You Are Not Alone suddenly starts sounding less like an abstract message of hope and more like a very literal reminder.
• Lancer frees the Lightners by overloading Kris's room with shovels. When Kris leaves their room and tries to re-enter it, there will be shovels spilling out. How close was Kris to getting smushed to death by Lancer's rescue?
• Queen's plan in Chapter 2 involves Noelle using the power of Determination. Noelle is a monster. Remember what happens when monsters try to use the power of Determination?
  • Oh, and to make things worse, Noelle and/or Berdly were still going to attempt to do so at the end of the chapter. Ralsei's explanation of why the Fountains need to be sealed is the only thing that stops at least one of the kids from meeting a horrifying end.
  • That being said, Deltarune monsters seem to be different from Undertale monsters, namely that they have actual physical bodies (Susie says "everyone bleeds" at one point, and it appears monsters cannot use magic), so it's not impossible that Lightner monsters do possess Determination in this setting.
    • But doesn't a monster in Hometown ask Kris if it hurts to be made of/filled with blood?
    • It may be possible that it was one of the few monsters who physically can't contain blood. There are unused sprites of Susie bleeding from being injured from falling, remaining unused so that Toby doesn't confirm any differences about Deltarune's monster biology early on. It could simply be that humans hold more Determination than monsters usually do, explaining why Kris is needed to allow Susie to use Red Buster and Ralsei to use Dual Heal.
• Noelle is able to be turned into a killer by the SOUL, as the only character in the hero cast capable of doing so. Taking the No Mercy route to fulfill this results in more than one NPC giving a nickname for her as Angel. Given what we know of the "Angel's Heaven", does it mean that the mere concept of an Angel in both worlds is an almost biblical arbiter of death?
• The Delta Rune was the symbol of the royal family of monsters in the underground back in Undertale, mostly meaning Toriel and Asgore along with their progeny, Asriel. Here, a mysterious golden door is adorned with the logo, which is suspicious as is and certainly eerie since it's attributed with the "Angel's Heaven" as the central threat of the story. But then Ralsei reveals "the Roaring" in Chapter 2, where mysterious Titans christened with the same symbol will wipe out the world as the Darkners turn to stone and the Lightners are left with everlasting night. And the center Titan looks like a royal family monster.
  • Even worse, the Titan's body is covered with various eyes in the legend flashback, identical to those found in the wastelands Kris and Susie had to cross to get to Ralsei's castle. No traces of this are elsewhere in the in-game world, much less any locations with Fountains. Was the Dark World built upon the graves and soil of extinguished Titans?
  • Re-examining the Delta Rune's context from Gerson's description in Undertale clarifies that the emblem itself predates written history, with the triangles symbolizing monsters and the wings representing what can only be interpreted as "the angel, from the prophecy." A prophecy that was never discussed in that game and only brought up in Deltarune. The royal family and the town's church have seemingly re-appropriated it without its original context, and Gerson's the only person that even remotely speaks up about it — which bodes ill given he's one of the few notably deceased characters in the town.
    • "The prophecy" in Undertale is actually a different prophecy that is elaborated on. It's something to the effect of 'when the angel appears, the underground will go empty.'
• Unlike in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 contains a save point in Castle Town that can be used after the Cyber World's fountain has already been sealed, rendering the Cyber World and anything the player missed within inaccessible. Ralsei actively encourages you to use the asshole save point. How does he know we can do that, and what doesn't he want us to find...?
  Ralsei: Kris... I bet you have a lot of people to talk to. But, you don't have to do everything at once. SAVE and take a break any time you want, OK?
  • After an update, though, the game itself warns you that you can't return to the Cyber World when interacting with the Castle Town save after sealing the fountain.
• During the end of Chapter 2's Weird Route, Berdly's dead body is all but stated to have been shoved into a supply closet. What will happen when he gets discovered?
• Examining the graveyard in Hometown reveals that objects belonging to the deceased monsters have been buried in the graves, with the implication that monsters' bodies still turn to dust when they die like in Undertale and can't be buried. So the fact that Berdly hasn't turned to dust suggests that he's either "fallen down" and will die eventually, or that he might be stuck in a state that is neither life nor death.
  • Given the fate of certain other monsters that "fell down" back in Undertale, it didn't take long for fans to begin speculating how the route could◊ potentially◊ continue◊ in following chapters.
  • It could also be that he has turned to dust, but the dust is frozen, thereby stuck in his shape, and will scatter when it thaws, if it thaws. Still deeply macabre.
• Based on Noelle's lines when she opens up to Kris, the two of them, plus their older siblings, Asriel and "Dess", were a small group of childhood friends. The horror kicks in when you realize that "Dess" is a nickname for December, whose name is apparently a Trauma Button for Noelle, and we've notably only seen Noelle and Rudolph out of the Holiday family. What happened to December for her very name to cause Noelle to clam up?
  • Noelle's ice magic is also traumatic for her to use. Based on the context of Noelle's trauma with December, it's entirely possible that something caused her older sister to die from snow, potentially even being frozen solid like her magic does to enemies.
  • The calendar Queen gave Noelle based off her online searches is entirely made of December 25th, implying Noelle has been frequently looking for "December Holiday". Despite the implications of Noelle's magic, Dess might be just missing instead of dead.
• It didn't take long for people to start drawing comparisons between Chara in Undertale's Genocide Route and Noelle in the Weird Route. Horrific for two reasons: first, it looks increasingly likely that as is plainly illustrated with Noelle, you, not Kris or Frisk, were indeed the one who corrupted Chara past the point of no return and subjected a small child to psychological abuse in the same vein as poor Noelle by repeatedly forcing them to kill. Second, since Chara grew powerful and violent enough by the end to take control from the player, erase the world, and prevent you from resetting unless you gave them your soul… who's to say what could happen with Noelle in future chapters if she continues to become stronger and more merciless?
  • Tying into the above, just the general way this route flips the premise on its head: "your choices don't matter." And it holds true. Your choices absolutely make no ultimate difference; fight the monsters as fiercely as you want, they won't die, they'll just run away. Kris cannot actively influence anything beyond how people respond to them. But while "your" choices don't matter, no one ever said anything about your friends' choices. All Kris needs to do is guide them into making particular choices, and…
• In Chapter 2, the Castle Town is named after you. Not Kris, but you, as in the name you put in for yourself at the start of the game. The name that no character in the game has any reason to know, since they don't even know you exist. How the hell do they know your name?
  • There are hints that Ralsei is aware Kris and the SOUL are separate beings, as he seems to have a conversation with Kris while the SOUL is following Suzie, and it is his town…
• Ralsei is very insistent that they should be sparing enemies from other dark worlds created by the fountains and bringing them back to his town. In Undertale's pacifist route, Flowey is able to transform into Asriel because you kept everyone alive which meant he had enough monsters to absorb power from. Since Ralsei is his foil, does that mean Ralsei has some ulterior motive for gathering so many darkners to his town? And why was it empty when we first meet him?
• It's an easy enough detail to miss, but your entire team starts at LV 2 in Chapter 2, and by the end you're all LV 3, even if you never even touched the FIGHT command. Given what LV stood for in Undertale, what's going on here?
  • Potentially an allusion to the end of Chapter 1, where thanks to Ralsei being tricked by the King, they have all accepted that sometimes violence is necessary against certain people. Cue Chapter 2, where you must fight the Queen in her giant mech form. Remember, LV stands for Level of Violence…
  • It seems as though sealing a Dark Fountain raises your level.
  • This, however, only seems to apply to the Dark World, since if you check Kris's stats in Hometown, their LV is 1, so it is also likely that the Dark World LV represents something else while the Light World LV follows more closely to Undertale's rules.
• Berdly's fate after the Dark World closes has 3 states: 1) You spared him: He gets up in good health and leaves carrying his own books, 2) You used violence on him but did not use Noelle's fatal magic: He is seemingly injured or otherwise not in full health, Noelle offers to take his books, but he still leaves, or 3) You ordered Noelle to use Snow Grave on him: He doesn't wake up. This pretty much clears up ambiguity toward the effects of the Dark World on the Light World; you smacking him around may have hurt him in the Light World, but that "Fatal" word on Noelle's attack seems to legitimately kill him, and this is the game's way of trying to tell you what happens in one world happens in the other, he isn't just sleeping.
• The reveal that Queen had no idea about the Roaring or the horrific effects of it. How many other villains are going to end up being well-meaning people who were misled by the Knight?
• Nobody gets out of the Roaring okay, not Lightners or Darkners. So, why is the Knight so determined to cause it? Are they unaware of the potential devastation they bring? Are they an Omnicidal Maniac who's willing to go down with the world if it means taking out everyone else in the process? Or are they something that's neither Lightner nor Darkner?
  • Given the other suspicions cast on Ralsei by some theories, and no one else seeming to bring it up or maybe know about it (except Jevil, maybe), some might presume he's not being entirely honest, and that there is a reason he'd have for not being entirely honest.
• This could be horror or brilliance, really. Queen refers to Noelle as "Honey. Darling. Sweetie. Gravy." Gravy seems like just a quirky nickname for her, or a possible misunderstanding of how nicknaming conventions work. However, when you take into account that Queen was worried about finding Noelle and also says, to Noelle's surprise, that Noelle is strong, this indicates that Queen may know about Noelle's capacity to be broken, perhaps as a result of her having access to her search history. Maybe she knows about the possibility for SnowGrave, hence the nickname "gravy", and maybe that's why she keeps such close tabs on her in the city.
• The Addison heard "garbage noise" in the same phone Spamton was talking to Gaster. If the player hears this same sound, does Kris actually hear something else?
• The song that plays in Queen's Basement is a small, not even 20 seconds long track titled "Digital Roots". It heavily resembles the very beginning of Your Best Nightmare, Omega Flowey's theme from Undertale, only deeper and slowed down. Now, keep in mind the very end of the chapter and the resemblance the TV's smile has to that form of Flowey, the name Digital Roots, and the fact that the basement is covered in vines, and you'll soon realize that the green "strings" that manipulate Spamton NEO may very well not be strings at all…
• Remember that Jevil was a simple card in an old classroom while Spamton only was an old computer in the library when both gained consciousness of their world's artificiality. How do Gaster's powers work exactly to make objects conscious?
  • Gaster didn't give them consciousness, they gained that when the Dark Worlds formed since other Darkners refer to their past. What he did do (assuming that the "strange someone" is Gaster in the first place) was take a Joker Card and Email Spambot, and effectively groom them into deranged maniacs each with a "Shadow Crystal". Telling Jevil the world is fake and a game to drive him insane, isolating Spamton from his friends, and then having his life crash down while also potentially telling him the world was fake and/or giving him a virus. Why Gaster's reason for doing this is honestly more terrifying than him doing it.
• Chapter 2 shows you don't need a physical body to become a part of a Dark World, Spamton, Swatch, Tasque Manager, and a ton of basic enemies were completely digital on a computer. Seems cool, until you realize the new Dark World was made in a room where a television was playing monster movies for several hours…
  • There's also the fact that anyone that you didn't recruit (or maybe in fact killed) doesn't appear in your town despite being programs or bugs contained within the computers. Do they just cease to exist because they didn't want to be part of your town?
• Jevil has gone completely insane, lives in his own world, and doesn't have even a single shred of sanity left. Meanwhile, Spamton has this small, small shred of sanity left that is kept quiet by… someone or something. While it might seem awesome in hindsight that, unlike Jevil, Spamton can resist whatever the hell happened to him, just what is so special about him that the strange entity (presumably the Knight and/or Gaster) wants to make sure Spamton stays under its control, while completely forgetting Jevil?
  • Well, Jevil seems to think that he's free, while Spamton is aware that he's not free, so maybe Jevil simply doesn't care about whatever's trapping him. Thus, the unknown force has no need to restrain him.
• Remember how Ralsei came to accept that some violence is necessary after what happened at the end of Chapter 1? It's subtle, but after the Queen and (brainwashed) Berdly fight, especially if you defeated Queen through violence, it becomes apparent that the heroes are prepared to beat Queen up, and Ralsei doesn't seem to object. Heck, he seems to be the only one (besides Kris) to be indifferent to Queen's battery dying after fighting her giant robot. Though, it can be justified by him knowing that she'll reanimate later, but still.
• A bit of Horror and Brilliance. The bead maze table in the hospital during Chapter 1 seems to reference the fact that this game is fairly railroaded and put on a preset ending. Yet, do a Weird Route in Chapter 2 and Kris will notice that someone ripped off the blue bead from its track — symbolizing how you changed fate, but broke something in the process. What's worse, bead mazes often have beads of four or five different colors. Perhaps future chapters will include the possibility to trigger more "weird routes", or more deaths?
• The Freeze Ring's description is a ring with a snowglobe on it, which looks like someone is trapped inside. Once you progress far enough into the Weird Route, it becomes an eerily apt description of Noelle herself, both metaphorically due to being forced to use her ice spells to kill, and literally, as seen in her victory sprite◊.
• You can lose to Berdly, twice. Here is the thing: he claims that he's beating Kris into submission and "freeing" Noelle. Instead, he accidentally kills you both. Berdly doesn't want Noelle dead. How do you think his reaction will be when she stops moving?
• Spamton casually has a literal torture device, ready to sell it whenever he sees someone worthy enough. Oh, and he claims he has at least two of those. How the hell does he have them, why does he have them, and is the Thorn Ring the only one on the list of items that could casually kill people while torturing the one wearing them?
• A big part of what made Alphys such a Nervous Wreck in Undertale was the pressure of trying to find a way to break the barrier and the guilt of having accidentally created the Amalgamates. Neither of those are factors in Deltarune, and yet Alphys is still a nervous wreck. What sort of Dark and Troubled Past does this version of Alphys have?!?
  • It's plausible she has no such dark past and is simply a person predisposed towards anxiety, manifested due to her responsibilities as a teacher rather than from something as severe as the Undertale version's experiences.
• There's a lot of speculation about how the consequences of Weird Route are supposed to fit the game's maxim that "your choices don't matter". Here's one dark possibility: What if the choice is moot because all the damage you can cause in the Weird Route is destined to occur in later chapters anyway?
• A meta example that bodes ill for future events in the game: there's a little-known Toby Fox tweet from 2014 in which he states that he had an idea for a game (explicitly stated not to be Undertale) for over 2 years, but that he learned someone else was going to make a game very, very similar to it. The game he had an idea about is almost certainly Deltarune, due to Toby coming up with it in 2012, 2 years prior to this tweet. But what's the game very similar to it? Well, given Toby's close relationship with its creator and the fact that it was first announced a couple months after this tweet, there's a very good chance that the "similar game" was none other than OMORI. Given how disturbing Omori gets later on, unless Toby changed his mind about Deltarune's story, get ready for the future chapters to get very dark.
• Spamton NEO's flavor text "There is no audience" is chilling enough on its own, since it was preceded by several lines describing Spamton desperately appealing to the audience. However, it only gets worse when you remember one of these lines describes Spamton praying to the audience, as if they were some sort of deity, which turns the meaning of this line into "There is no god".
• The last portion of this video proposes an alternate explanation for why Queen describes Noelle using phrases like "strong" or "strength" specifically— not just as in "has a strong heart" or anything philosophical, but more like "strong" as in the Weird Route's frequent usage of "Noelle became stronger". More specifically, while players may assume that Queen tore up the opening section to Cyber City, the rest of the Cyber Field is left unharmed and pristine despite her influence and frequent assimilation of its Darkeners— who aren't as frozen in fear as the ones in the opening, indicating that Queen doesn't typically leave a trail of destruction in her wake. It also doesn't seem like Queen and Noelle had even met until the latter's on-screen capture, it's not like Queen could have just known about a supposed inner strength when she first saw Noelle, and the Darkeners in the opening section aren't being specific as to what happened aside from being scared about what "she" can do. With all this in mind, the video theorizes that it was Noelle who fought her way through that area and tore it up, and blacked out after doing so… just like she did after casting SnowGrave in the Weird Route…
• A small detail that is often overlooked in Undertale is how every line of dialogue has a 'Typer Value' that indicates what font, sound blips, and size the text is. During the introduction, when you create a vessel, the Typer Value used for the text is associated with number 666, except from the point where the text reads, 'Will now be discarded', which incidentally uses Typer Value 2. Given that Typer Value 666 is associated with Gaster, who could possibly interrupt him and attempt to erase what we created?
• Kris goes into the basement of Queen's Mansion alone and nearly gets killed by the dangerous teacup ride down there. Now take into account the room Kris enters through to said teacup ride gets sealed shut, while Susie and Ralsei are busy screwing around upstairs with no idea what Kris is doing. If Kris had died down there, the two of them would have no idea what happened to their friend, and they wouldn't even have the mercy of finding a body. So Queen would unknowingly have Kris's dead body trapped in her basement, and Swatch, the only other person who knows about the basement, denies its existence and refuses to give more details, so they would indeed never get any answers.
  • Worse, this particular teacup ride is infamous for being Nintendo Hard, causing dozens of game overs to many players who dare to attempt it. How many universes were created where Kris goes missing after venturing into a creepy basement, all because of player curiosity to fulfill Spamton's quest or desire to fight the superboss?

Fridge Logic

See the Headscratchers page.

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