The ultimate Knight Burgerpants theory
So... I am starting to believe that Burgerpants might be a more valid candidate for the knight than I thought. This is more of a loose sort of presentation than a theory, but I will try to make it as coherent as possible. Sit back as we discuss this extremely bizarre theory.
If you want the full unhinged Springy experience of this theory, you can listen to this song while you read as it was stuck in my head as I was coming up with this theory (maybe due to the scarily fitting lyrics).
Hope you enjoy!
What do we know about Burgerpants from Undertale and Deltarune?
First, let's dive into what we know about Burgerpants.
Burgerpants is a 19-year-old cat-like monster who works at the MTT Brand Burger Emporium, which can be found at the MTT Resort connected to the CORE. He is the last vendor found in Undertale, so he sells the most healing/powerful items in the game. Burgerpants doesn't like his job, so much so that he's relieved when he finds out that everyone in the Genocide Route is gone, presumably because it means he doesn't have to work anymore.
Huh? Everyone else is DEAD?
...
Does that mean I don't have to work today?
God. That it were true, little weirdo. That it were true.
Despite his supposedly soul-crushing job, Burgerpants is optimistic about becoming an actor, or at least getting another job flipping burgers under a different boss.
Little buddy! There's a brand new world out there waiting for us.
I'm sure with my (ahem) qualifications, it won't be long before I'm a famous movie star...
Or, maybe I'll just end up flipping burgers again.
But it's as I say! Nowhere to go but up! Literally, in this case!
In the pacifist route, one can set him up to go out on a date with Catty and Bratty, suggesting that he may have a crush on them even though he doesn't want to admit it.
In Deltarune, he is known as Pizzapants because he works at the ICE-E Pizza instead of the MTT Burger Emporium, which is related to his Undertale backstory and may be the same or similar in Deltarune.
So I went out to the alley to see those two ladies, and uh... you know, see what'd happen next.
...
Then my boss, uh, saw me and asked me what I was doing.
I was so startled, the hamburgers in my pockets tumbled out onto the ground.
Not wanting to lose face, I scrambled to pick them up!
But, as I was leaning over, the weight of the remaining hamburgers...
... caused my pants to fall down.
Then the girls laughed at me.
Everyone calls me Burgerpants now.
Much like Burgerpants, Pizzapants hates his job and his coworkers, but there are a few differences. He's not seen smoking, which could be an indicator that he hates ICE-E's at least marginally less than MTT Burger, and he's good friends with Asriel. However, he still dreams of becoming an actor and doesn't want to work for ICE-E's forever, describing it as "hell".
Now, time to go into the little details that could point to a potential Knight Burgerpants.
Shopkeeper stuff
All of the shopkeepers in the games so far are either implied to be connected to Gaster in some way (Seam, Spamton) or have a greater understanding of the world around them (Seam again, Gerson, Temmie, if you count her as being based on a real person).
At first, Burgerpants doesn't seem to fit the mold, but if you look at a piece of dialogue in a certain way, there might be a case where he fits in with the other shopkeepers. In the Genocide Route, Burgerpants says this when you taunt him.
Sorry little weirdo, threats won't work on me. I can't go to hell, I'm all out of vacation days.
At first glance, the dialogue is pretty funny, however the first part where he acknowledges that threats don't work on him matches up with what Gerson says when you taunt him in the genocide route.
I've lived too long to be afraid of something like you.
Try it, kiddo!
... I know you can't here.
Wah ha... Knowledge like that is the only reason I've survived so long.
It's possible that Burgerpants, like Gerson, has a greater understanding that his position as a burger salesman is actually what keeps him safe. As much as he hates his job, the lack of vacation days actually benefits him.
The fact that no one bothered to tell him to evacuate could also fit the "forgotten" motif of Deltarune, as it can be interpreted that no one told Burgerpants what was happening simply because they forgot he existed.
Frisk telling Burgerpants to go to hell is also kind of interesting in a multi-layered way. It's not implied that Frisk says this or anything like it to the other characters in the genocide route, which could mean that Frisk has some sort of weird additional reason for hating Burgerpants besides wanting to murder everyone and Burgerpants being inaccessible. Hell is also associated with the Devil, which fits with Gaster's 6 motif. There is also the fact that Burgerpants works near the CORE, a hot, lava-filled place reminiscent of Hell that was the home of Gaster's many experiments.
Connections to ICE-E's
ICE-E's is one of the stranger aspects of Deltarune; for a seemingly unimportant chain of pizzerias, there is much to suggest that the place may be more important than it first appears.
A picture of ICE-E can be seen gratified in the Dark World.
ICE-E's Pain Chart expression can be seen in a children's word search in Undertale, next to a FUN event with a snowman version of ICE-E labeled "Nightmare".
The Spamton Sweepstakes also mentions a story Noelle told about how she believes ICE-E is a cryptid, as well as a story she told about how an ICE-E pizza box winked at her, causing Dess to burn the box and Kris to bury the remains. Kris also told Noelle about how they saw ICE-E "eating children", which caused Dess to hit them with a wiffle bat for lying, but Kris is still acting like they really saw it years later.
The fact that Burgerpants works at ICE-E's puts him in the spotlight, as he is a pre-existing and well-known character from Undertale. In a future hypothetical dark world based on ICE-E's, Burgerpants could become important; many theorize that he could become a potential party member, but Toby could pull the rug out from under the players and reveal Burgerpants as the boss.
It's also interesting to note that Burgerpants calls ICE-E's hell. This is in contrast to his infamous quote in Undertale that he can't "go to hell".
By becoming the Knight, one of Burgerpants' motives might be to "get out of hell". How does one get out of hell? By either redeeming oneself or making a deal with the Devil.
Puppet/Cat Elemental Pair
Elemental Pairs are a hidden property in Deltarune that are assigned to some enemy bullet patterns and party armor. Players would normally discover them through Spamton's dialog.
HAVEN'T YOU HEARD OF [elemental pairs]!?
WITH AN [Valuable item], YOU CAN DEFEND AGAINST [Puppet/Cat], OR [Thunder/Light], [Dark/Star]…
JUST WATCH OUT FOR THE [$#&*] THAT USE [Death/Scythe]!!! NEVER AGAIN!!!!
In the game's code, the Puppet/Cat elemental pair is the 6th element and is assigned to Spamton NEO, Tasque Manager, and Tasque. Two of the characters are cat-like species, while Spamton is tied to Gaster, a character associated with the number 6.
Gaster himself has been associated with cats since Undertale, as Gaster Follower #1 is a small head and cat-like monster. The follower is infamous for telling the story of how Gaster split across space and time, and how he holds a piece of Gaster in his hand.
There are two ways to interpret the sprite, one is that the head is the "Piece of Gaster" and the cat monster is holding it. The other is that the cat monster is the piece of Gaster. If the head is the piece, it means that the cat has lost control of its own body because the head speaks for it. If the piece is the cat, then the cat-Gaster is stuck forever in a statue-like state in a laughing pose.
So what does Burgerpants have to do with this elemental pairing? First of all, Burgerpants is a cat-like monster, which fits the motif so far. But more interestingly, as a fast-food worker and an unplayable NPC, he would fit the puppet motif, since he has to work for another power and is programmed to do so. If Burgerpants really was the Knight and was working for/under another power, then that would reinforce the puppet motif.
Other examples of potential Burgerpants Knight Foreshadowing
Burgerpants taking off the head of the ICE-E costume head and saying "It's me, little buddy!" could be a similar setup to Flowey introducing himself and then echoing that in the pacifist ending where he is revealed to be Asriel.
Spamton quotes Burgerpants (or maybe Burgerpant's boss/Frisk) when discussing the Knight.
Seam warns about not visiting the dark world at night time.
...By the by, it's growing late, isn't it? You should hurry home once you finish your business here. You don't want to get caught when the sun goes down...
This could be because the Knight visits and creates dark worlds at night, which is theoretically when Burgerpants' shift would end.
Burgerpants' dream of being an actor actually matches what the Knight is - an ordinary Lightner pretending to be a great and powerful Knight.
Burgerpants is one of the few "unimportant" characters to write Valentine's Day cards, and he is also the only card writer who is outwardly negative, as even the cards from enemies and bosses are tame.
The Knight has no known motive, and no one knows the Knight's true identity. Pizzapants has no known origin as to how he got the nickname Pizzapants in Deltarune, Catty and Bratty aren't friends in Deltarune, so it's probably not the same backstory as in Undertale. Pizza/Burgerpants' real name also remains unknown, so if he is a Knight, it could be a double reveal of not only the Knight's identity, but also Burgerpants' real name.
The Knight is often referred to as the "Strange Knight," and it may be that Burgerpants' strange characteristics, or his ICE-E costume that transforms into a bizarre suit of armor when he enters the Dark World, are what make the Knight so "strange".
Toby said that the ending was based on a fever dream, and having a fast food worker be the cause of the end of the world would totally fit a fever dream scenario.
Potential Motives
I think Burgerpants would have the simplest of motives. He is tired of being bossed around and working a menial job. Creating and influencing dark worlds is the closest he can get to the true freedom and control that his life lacks. Burgerpants also feels that his life has been wasted, and becoming the Knight will give him a chance to live it to the fullest.
I'm getting on in years, so let me give you some advice, little buddy.
You've still got time. Don't live like me.
I'm 19 years old and I've already wasted my entire life.
In fact, one of the first things you learn about the Knight is that he locked up the other kings and put the current king in place. I've noticed with most knight theories, most people ignore or rewrite this detail, as it wouldn't make sense with their candidate of choice. However, Seam backs up this story, and I don't think he's the kind of person to lie about a story like this, or at least get the wrong impression of what had happened.
This is why having Burgerpants as the knight actually kind of makes some sense. Why is that? Because by putting the King in order, Burgerpants not only gets to choose his own boss, something he couldn't do before, but he also gets to subject others to the same treatment he had as some sort of power fantasy. Now Burgerpants gets to be the powerful boss, giving orders and having people cower for him.
A common misconception is that all Superbosses lose control and must gain freedom due to Spamton's situation. Jevil, however, may prove this assumption wrong. Unlike Spamton, whose primary goal is to gain freedom, Jevil has an "I can do anything" attitude about his situation. Even though he is imprisoned, Jevil believes that he is more free than those outside his cell.
So what is happening with the Superbosses? Well, I think the Superbosses operate under a sort of "give one - take one" system, intentionally or not. Basically, Gaster gives the Superbosses the information they need to achieve their goals - freedom for Jevil, becoming a great salesman for Spamton - but he also takes something away from them. Social status and/or mental state for Jevil and control for Spamton.
Assuming that Gaster is working with the Knight, the Knight would gain the ability to create any Dark World in any location he wants and the ability to have massive influence in that world, but eventually the real world will be taken away from him and destroyed by the Roaring. As an additional consequence, the Superbosses and Knight will eventually be forced to learn the true nature of their world and be driven mad by it. The Knight may not have reached this point yet, but he will by the end of the game.
By becoming a Knight, Burgerpants has the freedom to become a powerful figure, to be his own boss, and to receive love and recognition from others that he may not fully receive in the Light World. Burgerpants, assuming he knows about it as the Knight, is one of the few characters who wouldn't mind a potential Roaring. Either because he knows he would lose his job if the world ends and thus never have to work again and never see people he dislikes again, or because he has been promised/believes that with the Roaring he can recreate the world any way he wants. A world where he can become a famous actor loved by everyone and/or a powerful ruler like he became in the Dark Worlds.
It's also possible that Burgerpants' motives are actually admirable. Burgerpants may want to be the hero for a long-standing cold case, that of Dess' disappearance. Then he can gain the fame that might lead to him being hired as an actor. However, I think the case that his motives are tied to his dead-end job and his low feelings for others is a stronger argument for potential motives, as it could show how all Dark World adventures are ultimately self-sufficient. Or it could be a great contrast to how Kris' adventures are about friendship (in the non-Snowgrave route), but the Knight's are self-centered.
In any case, a Knight Burgerpants might actually be terrifying to fight, because Burgerpants would be the character most unhinged and relentless enough to put up an extreme fight to keep his dream world going.
Conclusion?
In conclusion, Burgerpants may be an unlikely candidate for the Knight, but the case for him is hopefully compelling and interesting enough to warrant further consideration.
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BRACKET ANNOUNCEMENT
THE EXPERIMENT
COMMENCES
SOON.
...
12/4/23 20:00 BST
...
THE MATCHUPS
ARE AS FOLLOWS.
HYPERLINKS WILL
BE ADDED AS THE
EXPERIMENT CONTINUES.
Left Side:
Group A:
Rabbit Kid VS Rabbit Girl
Dad Cat VS Pippins
Susie Master VS The Warrior
Clover VS K. Round
Dummy VS ICE-E
Wall Plug VS Hand Receptionist
Werewerewire VS Top Chef
Fommt VS Malius
Group B:
Red Ice Cap VS Rudy
Circus Wagon VS Bow-Bow
Jevil VS Rudinn Ranger
Onion VS Blue Ears
Trashy VS Father Alvin
Circus Animals VS Little Ball
Bunny Guard VS Bandana Plugboy
Waitress Lion VS Tentacled Monster
Group C:
Addisons VS Scissor Dancer
Tasque Manager VS Monster Kid
Snowy VS Hacker
Clam Guy VS Mr. Elegance
Starwalker VS Eyelash Plugboy
Catty VS Mauswheel
Everyman VS Asgore
Milk Looker VS Ice Wolf
Group D:
Former Kings VS Scarf Lady
Ms. Pipis VS Pair of Eyes
Block Tree VS Head Hathy
Catti VS Blue Block O
Jigsaw Joe VS Mousemillian
TP Master VS Alphys
Ambyu-Lance VS Mom Cat
Toby Fox VS Ponman
Right Side:
Group E:
Icon Man VS Aaron
Nubert VS Virovirokun
Jigsawry VS Rudinn
Plugboy VS Swatchling
Jockington VS Scared Donut Guy
Maus VS Rouxls Kaard
Wig Robot VS Kris Master
Rabbick VS Bloxer
Group F:
Bratty VS Snails
Poppup VS Pizzapants
Green Ice Cap VS Blue Ice Cap
Werewire VS Hat Monster
Swatch VS Seam
Suit Plugboy VS Starwalker Bird
Terry VS Diner Shopkeep
Flower Shop Loox VS Dad Dragon
Group G:
Pipis VS Trash Can Rudinn
Hathy VS Yes Man
Egg Man VS Temmie
Shyren VS Briefcase Dude
Fuku Fire VS Purple Guy
Royal Coat Rack VS Gimmick Saucer
Asriel Dreemur VS Froggit
Big Mouth VS Dess Holiday
Group H:
Napstablook VS Striped Bird
Ralsei Master VS Sweet Cap'n Cakes
City Werewires VS Fedora Plugboy
Ficus Licker VS Diamond Boy
C. Round VS Dragon Guard
Tasque VS The Wet-Nose Bandits
Rainy VS Mr. Society
Worm VS Politics Bear
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