A Deltarune Theory
6/16/2025
Obvious spoilers for Deltarune ahead.
Just got out of the shower, after finishing Chapter 4 tonight. Absolutely
insane, by the way. The dog is a mad genius. This post isn't necessarily
about Chapter 4 in its entirety, though. Because before my shower, I was watching
an analysis video of the characters, and after Noelle and Kris's sections, and
mentions of the Weird/Snowgrave route, it got me thinking.
Chapter 2 is the only chapter where you get the ability to kill Darkners, I'm pretty sure. I haven't tried in 3 or 4, and I don't really want to, but Toby had to have deliberately put that story into that chapter for a reason, right? The chapter that just so happens to have more of a focus on Noelle, and more insight into her family and home life.
This theory isn't really about Noelle herself, but I'm wondering if it wasn't foreshadowing for Chapter 4? I just realized there are some parallels between our* relationship with Noelle in the Weird route, and Carol's relationship with Kris in Chapter 4.
The way Carol is instructing and seemingly manipulating Kris too her own ends is... pretty much exactly what we do to her daughter in the Weird route. I don't think we've gotten enough characterization for Carol or info of her motives to really say for sure yet, but that final line on the phone, "Don't forget, Kris, you promised," does sound pretty manipulative from a spectator's perspective.
Am I way off base? Maybe, but Kris is in a pretty vulnerable point in their life at the time the game starts, a broken home, their brother off at college, drifting away from their childhood friend, Noelle... Kind of an easy target for someone who might need them for something.
I'm sure they miss Dess and want her back as much as everyone else does, they want her and their brother back, their parents back together, and to be close with the Holidays again. Whatever Carol's planning, she likely used those desires to get Kris to help her. And if I can stretch this even further, I think she needs Kris specifically, because they're human. Hell, who's to say she didn't get her family close with the Dreemurrs with the intention of using Kris in the first place?
I say this because she clearly says they need the soul, us, for whatever she's planning with Kris. So it's safe to say our possession of them is probably pretty recent, it might've even begun right at the beginning of Chapter 1, after the vessel sequence. With the help of Gaster(?), we were able to 'connect' to Kris and take control of their body. I'd even go so far to say that we're the exact same soul from Undertale, having been brought to the world of Deltarune by Gaster's whole "shattered across realities" thing, to follow through with whatever the hell he's cooking up with Carol in that bunker.
But I digress. That's not really part of this whole theory, just something that popped into my head while writing this.
Does any of this make sense? Probably not. I just wanted to dump all my thoughts on that theory somewhere before I forget about it.
Tl;DR I think the Weird route in Chapter 2 was foreshadowing the relationship and roles of Carol and Kris shown in Chapter 4.
*Royal "our." I never played the Weird route, but I've seen plenty
of it to know how it goes.