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drowninnoodles · 4 months

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ULTIMATE (not really) GASTER CONNECTIONS LIST THING

Finally, I wrote down everything that came to my mind, most of them were theories. So if I missed something, please let me know. Plus, I'll probably update this when I find something new.

Devil connections:

- His stats are with numbers 666

- He fell (into his creation)

- his font has the word Wing in its name

-the first version of deltarune was 0.666

-religious connections of characters in Deltarune

- Possibility that he is an Angel

-Dark, Darker, Yet Darker

- Speaks through the Device - Ouija board reference?

- Shadow Crystals as pieces of him

- is associated with the most hell-like place in the Underground

Enemies in Undertale are similar to the Main Boss of the area-

Characters in the core:

- Final Froggit: Searching for Life Meaning/ Giving life its own meaning. Threaten/Mystify

-Whimsalot: "There's still hope", "I've made my choice", "No regrets", Prayers, Butterflies,

-Madjick: Clear Mind, Magican, Emits Cross-shaped bullets

-Knight Knight: Sleeping, Good Morningstar, Knight

Following this lead, Mettaton should not be a Core Boss -> there is no connection. This is Gaster's place

Uncategorized things:

-The core we see is redesigned by Mettaton, we do not know its previous layout

-Into voice's typer text value is the same as Gaster's

-Everything related to him in the files is written in caps

-His theme plays in Bunker

-He is described as always listening

-Like the corrupted characters he has voice lines (the word Deltarune spoken in the intro, laugh in Undertale files and BIG SHOT)

- can break the fourth wall ( takes over Twitter account)

- Deltarune crashes after typing "Gaster"

-"Man.ogg" is Yume Nikki Fansong

- talks to us in Vessel maker

- is in the Void

-Ms.Zarves and Ray as Inspiration for Gaster

-Possibly a Skeleton

- is the creator of Deltarune

- speaks in hands (probably WingDings font)

- He knows Chara personally (they work together)

- Deltarune is owned by ROYAL SCIENCES, LLC

-is scientist

-He worked for Asgore

-Dark Totems in Core - Dark Fountains first version?

-Memoryhead emits Gaster-like bullets

-Memoryhead says “Lorem Ipsum Docet” -> It means something like "Pain teaches”

-Memoryhead can give you a piece of themself

-Piece is called “Bad Memory”, Follower 3 is recalling Bad Memory connected to Gaster

-Noelle’s Blog page is reference to MysteryMan’s appearance in Undertale

-The entirety of Deltarune is an experiment

-Freezing is both reference to Freezing computer and Dante’s Inferno

-is connected to phones - Part of Memoryhead looks like phone

-”Another Him” uses Giygas soundfont

-Gaster seems to be heavily inspired by Uboa from Yume Nikki and Giygas from Earthboud

-Giygas and Gaster have a machines tied to them. Both are strongly associated with the theme of the devil and prayers.

HIS CREATION = BLACK HOLE:

-“A jump into a black hole is a one-way trip. Black holes are regions of space where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape them, not even light. Even before you reach the event horizon – the point of no return – you would be “spaghettified” by the black hole's tidal forces.” -Supernova

-You fall into a Black Hole

-“Of course, no matter what type of black hole you plunge into, you're ultimately going to get torn apart by its extreme gravity and die a horrible death. No material that falls inside a black hole could survive intact.” - Spacendbeyondthebox

-is everywhere at the same time - after being torn apart

-“Negative Photons reading”

-He was scattered across time and space

-theory made by Reddit user Garble365:

“in Interstellar (the sci-fi movie), Cooper falls into a blackhole, and he gets access to every place in the universe, in this infinitely small blackhole. Basically he is everywhere, at the same time. He can look at his daughter and hear her. But he cannot speak to her with his voice, the sound doesn't reach her due to some reason. So he resolves to knocking a few books in a bookshelf in his daughter's bedroom. Her daughter thought it was a ghost, being small. When she grew up, she realizes it was morse code in the form of books being knocked over. It was her father. He was speaking with his hand”

VIRUS CONNECTIONS:

- causes the files to become corrupted - the characters go insane after the meeting

-“The virus starts propagating, which is multiplying and replicating itself. The virus places a copy of itself into other programs” - Wikipedia

EGG CONNECTIONS:

- mysteryman head shape

- Scientists/intellectual people are called Eggheads

- Humpty Dumpty Reference

- Eggs given by the Man - possible Gaster pieces?

-The eggs stick together into one piece

-eggs break the game's fourth wall and move between save files

-When you drop an egg it says "what egg?" as if it doesn't exist

GERSON AND GASTER CONNECTIONS

-They were both replaced by Alphys after they left

-They are both highly respected by the people

-Religion references - Gerson’s son is priest

-Gaster in tarot card deck was replaced by Gerson

-GERSON is an anagram of the word GONERS

-Gerson in Undertale has knowledge that other monsters do not have

GASTER’S THEME:

-Gaster Blaster looks like Turtle skull

DRAGON CONNECTIONS

-Noelle is playing dragon blazer's 3. She is currently at the snow drake.

- Gaster blaster resembles a dragon's skull and the "beams" could easily be snow, similar to the snow grave spell

- "knight knight" who has a strange reoccurring motifs of day, nights, and dreams. Her sprite is labeled as a dragon

-susie's axe, which is said to be made of a dragon's mane. Implying that susie herself is a dragon

“must.Him.Ogg”

Another Him

Darkness Falls

Scarlet Forest

Card Castle

Rouxls Kaard

Chaos King

The Circus

The World Revolving

The Holy

Friendship

Man

Girl Next Door

Queen

Welcome to the City

A cyber’s world?

Giga Size

BIG SHOT

Spamton

Dialtone

#Noodle you will need this #deltarune #undertale #undertale theory #Deltarune theory #deltarune meta #Undertale meta #utdr #gaster #wd gaster #wd gaster undertale #deltarune gaster

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right-brain-left-brain · 10 months

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A potential idea for Deltarune's chapter 3 secret boss

I think this post might get me some weird looks, but fuck it we ball.

I'll just stop beating around the bush and propose the idea (ramble): Chapter 3 will have a Sonic-like secret boss.

You have Woody Theory, now get ready for Sonic Theory.

Now please, hear me out.

The core idea here isn't to just rib at all the bad Sonic OCs in the internet (okay, maybe it was), but I wanted to reflect a theme that fits Chapter 3's take on a TV themed world well (a Hollywood-like setting); stardom, or the loss of it in this case.

For context, in the 90s, due to Sonic the Hedgehog's success, there was a trend where every mascot platformer tried to emulate Sonic (mainly his US portrayal at that time, an effort to make him appeal to the American market more) as much as they could; high speed/fast paced action, a mascot with a cool and snarky attitude, and advertising focused on just how fast the game could go and/or how cool and edgy the mascot is. As with all trends, it eventually died out, with a majority of the titles fading into obscurity (though the Sonic series it self is still very relevant and thriving) if not remembered for how tacky they were.

Basing a secret boss on this fits with the currently known secret bosses’ theme of forgotten and/or discarded objects (Jevil = jester card, Spamton = spam mail). In the context of Chapter 3's Hollywood-esque setting, this makes for a character that was once a star. They were the talk of the town, a household name until they suddenly fell from stardom, mimicking the fast but short lived success of the trend. Now, they wish to reclaim the fame and star power they once had, no matter what and how.

All the secret bosses are heavily tied to the theme of freedom and control. Jevil, believing that he's the only free person in the Card Kingdom, feels like he can do anything (as in being in full control). Spamton constantly seeks freedom and to release himself from his strings. Making the Chapter 3 secret boss an in-game game character also reflects the themes of freedom and control; game characters tend to be played (or controlled) by something beyond their world (players). As a game character, this secret boss's take on freedom and control could be interesting. Instead of wanting to no longer be controlled, they want to be controlled, to have a direction for them to go along with. Now abandoned, they have nobody to follow and be guided by. This mimics a game; playable characters only do something when you move them, let go of the controller and they just stand there, waiting to be moved again. This can also play with the theme of you, the player, and your dynamic with Kris, the character. Kris, someone who's haunted by the idea of all their actions not being in their control, being met with someone who wants to be controlled all the time, their antipode, can make for interesting encounters.

The Dreemurr household has a game console with two controllers; one official and the other a knockoff/off-brand one. Toriel mentions Asriel liking a character who is essentially the Deltarune universe's version of Yoshi in its version of Super Smash Bros. As 'Super Smashing Fighters' is a clear reference to Super Smash Bros, which as a series is played on consoles, this further confirms that there's a game console somewhere in the house. As the game console is something that Asriel have ties to, this gives Toby the chance to further explore Kris as a person, their thoughts and fears, and dynamics with others (especially family) even with Chapter 3's more lighter and gameplay focused take. The console is currently tucked under Asriel's bed which, while it looks like a problem, I'll get into a bit later.

Video games can still make sense in a TV World that puts emphasis on performance; they're entertainment played on television by connecting a device onto it (at least home console games). The secret boss being the main character of a game can be translated as an actor, someone who carries out the directions provided by a 'script' of sorts (the game itself or you/the player). In a way, video games are movies or shows that the player themselves have full control of; they share several elements with other forms of media, only this time with giving the consumer more liberty in enjoying.

The Deltarune status updates reveals what the OST calls a 'Green Room'. A Green Room is a "a room (as in a theater or studio) where performers can relax before or after appearances". Fitting for the direction that Chapter 3 takes for a world themed around TV entertainment. Not only does this reinforces the actor and performance theme that Chapter 3's direction goes for, which can especially be applied to the secret boss, but it confirms something; the Dreemurr house's second floor being involved. Before this sneak peek, a lot of fans assumed that only the living room will get Dark World-ified, but this single screenshot seems to be saying otherwise. We get a loose layout of the second floor's hallways, the potted cacti are the same in shape, the couches mimic Kris and Asriel's bed, the starry wallpaper comes from Asriel's side of the bedroom, and some even say the box of (prop?) swords represent Asriel's pencil box. This still gives the chance of the game console as a secret boss, or any other things in the second floor to be referenced as well.

In one of Spamton's QnA answers, we may have the elements of the next secret bosses revealed. Spamton himself have the Puppet/Cat element, sharing it with Tasque Manager according to the game's files. We can assume that Death/Scythe in this answer belongs to Jevil (though the game's files lists it as Chaos/Chaos, possibly as a joke), as the JevilsKnife is basically a scythe and Spamton dislikes him. This leaves us with Thunder/Light and Dark/Star. Thunder/Light fits well with the secret boss being a Sonic expy, as both are very fast things, while Dark/Star could refer to what this possible secret boss is; a star that fell from fame into obscurity (or darkness).

Now, onto fan theory territory.

1. Memoryhead: There's a theory suggesting that the Memoryheads represent the currently known and future secret bosses. Here's the Memoryhead itself, along with the circled parts showing Jevil (red) and Spamton (yellow):

Obviously these aren't the only faces on the Memoryhead as we also have this face:

Should look familiar right? Of course this isn't really definitive proof of the concept being plausible. I wanted to point out just how eerily similar one of the faces on the Memoryhead is to Sonic's conjoined eyes.

2. SOUL colors: A more common theory is that each secret boss would have their own SOUL color/modes based on the Undertale Genocide Route bosses in reverse order (Sans = Jevil = Red, Spamton = Mettaton = Yellow). On top of this theory, another theory from Reddit says that the secret bosses reflect an inversion of each color's virtues; in the case of the currently known secret bosses, Red for Determination, Yellow for Justice. Jevil accepts the truth with no resistance and deludes himself into believing he's free to do anything (the opposite of Determination) while Spamton is a crooked salesman who pressures Kris into making bad deals and scams his customers (the opposite of Justice). Following this pattern, the Chapter 3 secret boss's SOUL color/mode is either Purple or Green. Let's talk about how this could work for our Sonic ripoff.

Purple is the color of Perseverance. Inverting Perseverance could give us something along the lines of Apathy. To persevere is to stand tall even against the odds and the many trials of life. As the trend of Sonic-esque platformers lived for quite a short time, it can be said that it didn't persevere through the tests of time. Maybe we could have someone who's long gave up their dreams of returning to the spotlight, where they consider their current state as being eternally lost, until an opportunity (Kris and their SOUL; something to control them) presents itself. This sends them in a more frenzied and desperate state that makes them do whatever it takes to become famous again, no matter what they'll face in their path to have 'freedom' once more. This portrayal can both invert Perseverance as well as display a twisted version of it.

Instead of spiderwebs, the lines could be TV scan lines, tying the chapter's TV theme with the secret boss' basis of a video game character. The lines could also refer to game consoles and controllers, with both using wires to connect themselves onto the TV.

Alternatively, this secret boss uses the green SOUL, the color of Kindness. Inverting Kindness gives Selfishness or Meanness. This still lines up with the secret boss being a Sonic clone, as the games that tried to ride and capitalise on Sonic's success tend to forgo Sonic's kindness and heroism for being cool and edgy for the sake of being cool and edgy, ending up with a character whose only defining trait is 'being totally rad' even to the point of self-centeredness. With that interpretation, the secret boss can instead be selfish and shrewd, disregarding others and doing whatever they can no matter what to get their hands on Kris' SOUL. On the surface, they still try to keep a kind and heroic persona (but not without the snark) despite no one remembering them. All of this to reclaim the image that they once have, their stardom, and their life. Why should they matter? They're not the ones who have their lives and acclaim suddenly robbed from them right?

While it skips the Purple SOUL, the Green SOUL returning in Chapter 3 can be inferred from Seam saying that the "next opponent" (presumably the secret boss) is impossible to beat without the 'Shadow Mantle'. A mantle can mean many things, for one it could mean a cape of sorts or a covering. As Seam says that we need the Shadow Mantle to fight the next secret boss, it can be inferred that it acts as a second shield for the Green SOUL, covering the area not protected by it.

3. Heaven and Hell: So far, all the known secret bosses have made references to Heaven or Hell. Jevil, besides being a demonic jester, says “MY HEARTS GO OUT TO ALL YOU SINNERS!” before one of his attacks. Spamton have made several allusions to Heaven (“ARE YOU WATCHING, [Heaven]!? IT'S TIME FOR SPAMTON'S [Comeback Special]!”) and has an angel theming (the mini Spamtons that heal half your health, Spamton NEO). Making the Chapter 3 secret boss a star past their prime by basing it on a dead gaming trend still fits this theming. They’re a star that fell into obscurity. In other words, Lucifer, the morning star, a fallen angel.

Okay, all of this is cool and weird. But then, what about the flowers? The ones Asgore gave to Toriel? Wouldn't that, a discarded thing that sits fairly near to the living room, also be secret boss material?

Simple, they can still be a part of this potential secret boss, just not as the boss itself.

Instead, the flowers can be the stage for the boss fight. A lot of Classic Sonic games (read: Sonic games at the 90s) start off in places with a fair amount of vegetation, especially trees and flowers. I can see the flowers also acting as the trees. In short, the trash can itself will be the stage for the secret boss's fight.

And now, some personal ideas.

1. Speech quirk: As an embodiment of a long gone fad, this secret boss's speech quirk would be speaking in 90's slang frequently while putting certain letters in bubbles, as if they're buttons on a game controller, with T being replaced with a + to evoke a D-pad. Something like so:

2. Gaster design motif: It's heavily implied that Gaster have some involvements with the secret bosses. They also have design motifs that they share with Gaster; Jevil have Gaster's eye cracks (or is it just clown makeup?) while Spamton have Gaster's fashion sense. I think, for a character that plays into the theme of a former star that long for their fame to return, the Chapter 3 secret boss will have a hole on each hand, just like Gaster's hands. On top of rings being the main collectible of every Sonic game as well as loop-de-loops being a common feature in Sonic level design, hands with holes can symbolise grasping for something (in this case fame/stardom), only to fail.

3. Amusement park ride: Each secret boss so far seem to have an amusement park ride theme of sorts, with Jevil's fight being in a carousel (or at least similar to) and Spamton's fight taking you on [[a ride around town]] on a rollercoaster. As the rollercoaster is (unfortunately) taken, I'm gonna have to go with a pendulum ride. Besides being a very fast ride (some even swinging in a full circle, just like a loop-de-loop), it can symbolise this character's arc of wanting to reach their past stardom only to slip away.

Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if the entire cowboy thing ended up being a hint to the actual secret boss itself, but, knowing Toby Fox, I also wouldn't be surprised if it isn't. If this ends up being inevitably deconfirmed by Chapter 3's release, I can still claim him as an entirely original secret boss complete with an orange SOUL mode. All in all, I just needed to put this out somewhere, for some unfortunate souls to read.

TL;DR: The Chapter 3 secret boss is a Sonic expy as a riff on the Mascot with Attitude trend from the 90s and to parallel a movie star past their prime (according to Chapter 3's direction), desperate to be guided and to have fame once more.

#deltarune #deltarune secret bosses #deltarune secret boss #deltarune fan character #deltarune oc #deltarune chapter 3 #deltarune theory #deltarune au #well it's a crack theory for sure #sorry if it came off as rambly #i've been holding on this for some time #sonic theory #woody theory

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kozykricket · 9 months

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Some less-lore-oriented Gaster Thoughts(TM)

y'know, i don't imagine this is anything New per se, especially in terms of like. theorycrafting for lore, but. for a perspective of looking at undertale through a literary lens, maybe it is you ever think about the parallels between gaster and toby himself? I mean, both use the official undertale twitter, and... gaster is like, this super powerful plot device used to explain certain things. it feels like in a way, gaster is tobys real self insert. ive even heard rumors that his easter eggs were added as a way to make sans powerful and make that make sense

but i've been thinking about gasters fate, tobys history with UT/DR, and how it mirrors what dark fountains and dark worlds seem to be attempting to deconstruct, what they're literary metaphors for

For some reason, I remember always thinking that... "falling into his own creation" just. Literally meant he fell into either the core or... shoved himself in the DT extractor. But I mean, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what that can mean. To fall into something can be to get absorbed in it in every facet of your life, to be thinking about it lots, or... just letting it take you over, in a way. To fall into ones own creation is to obsess over it. Was he obsessed in his research into... ah, we're getting into actual lore. Whoops Anyways, it would be odd for toby to have written this if you think about it as a parallel to the absolute success of undertale, since hes very humble and didn't expect a huge success... but when you think of it in the context of how much he, not a thriving community, was absolutely absorbed in his own creations? How he stopped the development of deltarune to make undertale? How hes still working on making that one dream he had years ago come true?

I think it pieces together as... quite poetic. I wouldn't say it was enough to make me believe it was intentional, though. When I piece that together with the brilliant theory that Andrew Cunningham posed in his video about determination in deltarune, though? Well, specifically that... deltarune is aiming to deconstruct our relationship to escapism, and that dark worlds are metaphors for creating fiction... Maybe gaster really was the first one to create a dark world, and. well. what happens when you go into a dark world? you fall into it. Perhaps gaster made himself more than just a simple dark world, but the entire world of deltarune, and thats why hes the... narrative god or whatever, at the beginning. Whether he made one or not, I cant say for certain. But I think I can say that toby may have made one, and thats one thing I'm curious to hear insight into after deltarune is all said and done. Was it always meant to be about a creators relationship to creations? about getting absorbed in fantasy? And how might this narrative have changed, as his own work became as loved and famous as it is? Only time will tell, won't it? Mr. brilliant White Dog ...

#undertale deltarune #deltarune theory #gaster #white dog gaster am i rite #jake ramblings

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f-e-360 · 2 months

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Deltarune Is The Narrator Theory

After rewatching Andrew Cunningham’s video on Deltarune’s narrator (https://youtu.be/vx3JfFuKGXM?feature=shared) and mollystars’s videos on the Device theory (https://youtu.be/bSyaeIUrznQ?feature=shared)(https://youtu.be/dbu5MfJ9V0c?feature=shared) I’ve made my own theory regarding the identity of Deltarune’s narrator.

youtube

I believe Deltarune’s narrator is Deltarune.

There are two possibilities for Deltarune’s world:

1. It is a video game on a device which Gaster is connecting us to.

2. It is a world outside the device that the device connects us to

Both of these possibilities dont cancel out my theory.

Gaster created this device to connect us to this world, and, given his connection to the legend(deltarune.com’s old him.png), bring about its prophecy. This explains the narrator’s incredibly vague phrasing. The device is programmed to carefully us down the path that will lead us to through the prophecy, concealing any information that isn’t entirely necessary for your progress. It also serves as a way to immerse you, a form of escapism, a “video game” if you will. This is why it seems to flip flop between being from the in-universe characters’ pov and being omniscient. This is, why no matter what actions you take, Deltarune and its chapters only ever have one “ending”. The device is only programmed to bring you to a single ending no matter how far you deviate from the intended path. It restricts your control of this world and forces you into carrying out the legend. In the same way that the game Deltarune is Toby’s way of reaching that dream he had back in 2011, the device is Gaster’s way of reaching the ending he desires, the legend of deltarune. Deltarune is a way to bring fiction into reality. https://preview.redd.it/7oqxhjesca471.png?auto=webp&s=77b165a7bbc63b60a3771317b2779f24e1e47b35

This leads to two further theories:

1. The third entity inside Kris is the device, given that the device is the medium through which you even have control over them. This would explain why, at the end of the Weird Route, Kris would still create a Dark Fountain, given that the device needs to progress to chapter 3 no matter what changes in the world have been made.(i personally dont want there to be a third entity but i realized this halfway through writing and just thought I’d throw it in)

2. Ralsei serves as a manifestation of the device’s will. He serves as the in-universe vessel to carry out the legend exactly as it has been foretold. This is why he becomes angry with Berdly after he attempts to preemptively begin the Roaring. Outside the dark world, the device has no in-universe way of carrying out its will, as it has no “determination”. Inside the dark worlds, all inanimate objects gain the will to live, which would include the device. Ralsei is a darkner born from the device itself, which is why he can travel to any dark fountain, since all dark fountains in Deltarune exist within the device or are connected to it. In a way, Ralsei is the device’s “determination” to carry out its intended programming. (why this makes him look like asriel, i have no clue. maybe because the device is connected to Kris???) https://preview.redd.it/ralsei-was-hired-by-gaster-theory-v0-xucmxsxjbi2b1.png?width=540&format=png&auto=webp&s=ac0c6314f58f2c7f0023307e583f86de44773a95

Now why Gaster wants to carry out the legend, I have no idea. Maybe he’s like the devil or something idk. Or maybe… GASTER WAS TOBY FOX THE ENTIRE TIME⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️

Hope someone reads this. This is my first post on tumblr so maybe this theory will be forgotten, and then confirmed true in 2066 with deltarune chapter 7. Who knows. Thanks for reading.👍

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springbloggy · 12 days

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Inception theory

I recently rewatched the movie Inception and noticed a lot of its rules and events shockingly fit with the events seen across Deltarune so far. I am not saying the game is going to be a 1:1 recreation of the movie, but I figured to break down some of the movie's themes and plot points with Deltarune to create a hopefully interesting theory. This will take some elements from @jarujaruj's discussion on meta narratives ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gDOfNzI1RI ) as well as Auroa's FUN theory ( https://old.reddit.com/r/Deltarune/comments/iizlvc/megapost_the_fun_theory_solving_gasters_mysteries/ ) Spoilers for Inception below. TW for suicide.

In the movie Inception, a group of people devise a plan to plant an idea in the mind of the future CEO of a rival company, causing him to dissolve his company. In order to do this, they create a complex plan with a lot of rules. For the sake of clarity, I am going to go through the plan and the rules in order to make this theory clearer to follow. However, keep in mind Inception is a movie that largely follows interpretation. My breakdown is mostly surface level observation, but there's still a degree of interpretation here. Also I will provide a glossary below as a shorthand for some of the characters I will mention during this theory.

Glossary

Red - the red soul seen in the goner/vessel creation sequence

Mal - the real world wife of Cobb in Inception

Sub-Mal - Cobb's subconscious recreation of Mal

First Steps - Connection

The first step of the plan is to get the target to fall asleep; once he is asleep, the main character, Cobb, and his associates will be able to enter his dream with drugs that are administered through a machine.

The setup of entering a dream through a mechanical connection is similar to the opening scene of Deltarune. At the beginning of Deltarune, Gaster creates a "connection" for Red to enter the world of Deltarune.

This "vessel" is then used to enter the world of Deltarune, but is forcibly taken away by an unknown second party. In the "meta-narrative" side of things, the player enters the game of Deltarune, but in the narrative, Red enters an alternate universe, timeline, or world from wherever they originally came from. Much like the characters in Inception entering a dream, Red must enter Deltarune through some sort of device/vessel for whatever reason. But why is Gaster doing this? We may have an answer in Undertale.

Very little is known about Gaster in Undertale, but we can learn a little about him through his various Goner followers and through entry 17.

Entry 17 states:

ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN DARK DARKER YET DARKER THE DARKNESS KEEPS GROWING THE SHADOWS CUTTING DEEPER PHOTON READINGS NEGATIVE THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT SEEMS VERY VERY INTERESTING ... WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK

Though vague, it implies that whatever Gaster was working on involved darkness in some way, the same power that creates the Dark Worlds in Deltarune. Some further insight into what his creation entailed can be found through his followers.

It makes sense why ASGORE took so long to hire a new Royal Scientist. After all, the old one... Dr. Gaster. What an act to follow! They say he created the CORE. However, his life... Was cut short. One day, he fell into his creation, and... Will Alphys end up the same way? ================================================== Alphys might work faster. But the old Royal Scientist, Doctor W.D. Gaster? One day, he vanished without a trace. They say he shattered across time and space. Ha ha... How can I say so without fear? I'm holding a piece of him right here ================================================== I understand why ASGORE waited so long to hire a new Royal Scientist. The previous one... Dr. Gaster. His brilliance was irreplaceable. However, his life... Was cut short. One day, his experiments went wrong, and... Well, I needn't gossip. After all, it's rude to talk about someone who's listening.

Now we have some more insight into Gaster's life. We now know that he created the CORE, "fell into his creation" which "cut his life short" and caused him to be "shattered through time and space". He was then replaced by Alphys long after.

Using these details and details from the movie Inception, I will now create a basis for what might have happened to Gaster, what his experiment might have been, and even the secret the super-bosses know.

Dreams and Universes

At the end of each chapter, each of the lightners that enter with Kris express disbelief of their adventures, asking if their adventures were dreams.

When entering a dark world, the characters enter a dream-like state in the light world, yet have an adventure that seems real to them. This matches up with Inception's portrayal of shared dreams, or dreams-within-dreams. While in a dream, the dreamer has no idea they are dreaming, they believe the world they are in is real.

ARIADNE But are you trying to fool him that the dream is actually real life?

COBB (nods) While we're in there, We don't want him to realize he's dreaming.

ARIADNE How could I ever get enough detail to Convince him that it's real?

COBB Our dreams reel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up we realize things were strange. Ariadne gestures around them ARIADNE But all the textures of real life- the stone, the fabric. cars... people... your mind can't create all this.

COBB It does. Every time you dream. Let me ask you a question∶ You never remember the beginning of your dreams, do you? You just turn up in the middle of what's going on.

Once the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming in a basic shared dream, the world around them is destroyed in order to awaken the dreamer. The importance of not destroying the illusion then takes on an additional layer of danger, as the traveler must now escape deadly scenarios within the dream in order to keep it going.

A similar depiction of the importance of not breaking dreams can be found at the beginning of Deltarune Chapter 2. In it, Lancer turns to stone because he can't fit into the environment of the Cyber World.

So does that mean the Dark Worlds are literal dreams? Well, no, because there are hints that they are real, like Kris creating one at the end of chapter 2. The biggest clue, however, is in Entry 17: if Gaster is working on the same darkness that powers the Dark Fountain, then that means that the Dark Worlds do exist somehow. But how? Well, let me introduce you to Limbo. In Inception, Limbo is a realm that appears when a person goes deeper into a multi-layered dream than intended, or dies in a multi-layered dream; once in Limbo, a person forgets that they are dreaming and accepts Limbo as their reality. Only by dying in a dream can one escape Limbo.

The description of limbo and multilayered dreams fits Gaster's story of being shattered across time and space. Perhaps whatever Gaster was working on was meant to be a portal to another world/universe/timeline. This could be supported by some of the genocide dialogue from Sans.

our reports showed a massive anomaly in the timespace continuum. timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting… until suddenly, everything ends.

Instead of going to one alternate universe/world/timeline, Gaster's machine broke down and he went through all the universes/worlds/timelines at once, losing himself spiritually in the process, as one would go through in Limbo. Limbo then introduces the next part of this theory, what else was Gaster working on?

Gaster's secret experiment - AKA the dangers of recreation

From what the followers tell us, Gaster was replaced by Alphys. Alphys' main experiment shown in the Secret Lab is reviving monsters that have fallen down with a substance called Determination.

I've done it. Using the blueprints, I've extracted it from the human SOULs. I believe this is what gives their SOULs the strength to persist after death. The will to keep living… The resolve to change fate. Let's call this power… "Determination." ASGORE asked everyone outside the city for monsters that had "fallen down." Their bodies came in today. They're still comatose… And soon, they'll all turn into dust. But what happens if I inject "determination" into them? If their SOULS persist after they perish, then… Freedom might be closer than we all thought.

After injecting the monsters with determination, Alphys is able to revive the monsters for a short time.

Everyone that had fallen down... ... has woken up. They're all walking around and talking like nothing is wrong. I thought they were goners...?

But the bodies cannot handle the determination, and they fuse together to become the Amalgamates. What is interesting about Alphys' experiments in the context of Deltarune is that Alphys refers to the flower that becomes Flowey as a vessel, the same phrase used by Gaster in the vessel creation sequence at the beginning of Deltarune. She also refers to the various fallen monsters as goners, which is similar to the goners that infamously "follow" Gaster. All of this implies that Goners are dead monster souls in monster-like vessels, but unlike Alphys' experiment, the Goners aren't gooey amalgams; their original forms are still intact. The vessel sequence at the beginning of Deltarune may provide the answer to why the Goner forms are still the same; instead of being injected with Determination, Red is offered various body parts to create a vessel. It seems that Gaster's method of resurrecting souls is more mechanical than Alphys' organic solution. However, there's a catch, all of the Goners look grey and sickly in comparison to their living equivalents, this can be seen in action with the clamgirl Goner.

I think the closest equivalent to the Goners in Inception are what the movie calls "projections", specifically sub-Mal. In Inception, Cobb and his wife Mal both entered Limbo and recreated buildings from their lives. In doing so, Mal forgot that she was dreaming and accepted Limbo as reality. In order to escape Limbo, Cobb had to convince Mal that her "reality" wasn't real, but once she awakens, the idea that her reality is false never leaves her, and she kills herself in the real world in an attempt to wake up from her perceived dream. This backstory is similar to that of the superbosses, specifically what Seam tells about Jevil.

Like Mal, Jevil is told something that affects his perception of reality, he begins to see his life as a game, something that isn't real and therefore acts drastically different than the person he used to be before.

The truth the superbosses could know is that they can't escape the dark world and be freed because it is another universe/timeline/world than the Light World. Like the dreams in Inception, one must "wake up" to escape, which ultimately involves death. Alternatively, the truth that superbosses know is that the darkners don't actually exist. Inception explains that projections are people created by the subconscious that cease to exist once the dreamer awakens. Like Lancer turning to stone and the super-bosses turning to items, once the projection is no longer needed, it essentially disappears. The most notable projection seen in Inception, however, is the aforementioned Sub-Mal.

After his wife's death, Cobb learns not to recreate memories, however he continues to dream about moments he regrets in order to try and fix them.

ARIADNE But these aren't just dreams, are they? They're memories. You said never to use memories. COBB And I shouldn't. ARIADNE You're keeping her alive. COBB No. ARIADNE You can't let her go. COBB No. These are moments I regret. Moments I turned into dreams so I could change them.

This causes a subconscious projection of Mal to chase down Cobb and sabotage his dream missions in order to fulfill his greatest regret: not staying and growing old with her. However, sub-Mal is a pale imitation of the real thing.

COBB I can't stay here to be with her because she's not real. Mal looks at Cobb, furious. MAL Not real? I'm the only thing you do believe in anymore. Here-doesn't this feel real, Dom? COBB I wish you were. But I couldn't make you real. I'm not capable of imagining you in all your complexity and… perfection. As you really were. You're the best I can do. And you're not real.

I think, like Sub-Mal, the Goners are (sort of literally) pale imitations of the monsters and a human they originally were in life. Once their SOUL merges with the vessel, they become shells of their former selves, like what happened to Asriel when he became Flowey. This is probably why Gaster's vessel creation in Deltarune was overthrown by the mysterious Detractor, who tells Gaster and Red that they can't choose who they are in this world. The Detractor knows the truth about the Goners and, for whatever reason, doesn't want that fate for Red.

All of this then sheds a terrifying light on a certain character.

Let's talk about Ralsei

Ralsei is really, really odd. There's a lot that suggests he is hiding details from the FUN gang, to the point where comprehensive lists have been made about it (https://old.reddit.com/r/Deltarune/comments/up2cum/a_coherent_list_of_all_the_times_ralsei_has_acted/). The details from Inception only make Ralsei more suspicious. Like Cobb, Ralsei recreates real locations in a place where they shouldn't be.

Like sub-Mal, he is superficially similar to a real world person, that being Asriel, well, mostly. Because there's one small detail that people tend to overlook and that is Kris' red horned headband.

The meta-narrative could be that Ralsei is a representation of the player's memories of Asriel and Undertale, but the narrative is that Ralsei is Kris' childhood memories of their brother and how they perceive themselves.

Alternatively, under Jaru's controversial Ralsei theory, Ralsei is a dark world representation of Kris' guilt over Asriel's death. In Inception, Cobb feels guilty over Mal's death because the reason she killed herself is tied to himself telling her that her perceived reality is false. Sub-Mal then reflects his guilt in his dreams by acting violently to fulfill his desire to stay with her and make things right. Kris, like Cobb, could have either directly or indirectly created Ralsei as a personification of their guilt for killing Asriel or being inadvertently involved in his death, as was the case with Cobb and Mal. Ralsei would then be a way for Kris to make things right, but much like Sub-Mal is only a "shade" of the original person, Ralsei is not quite like Asriel. This uncanny nature of not quite being Asriel is ultimately what makes Kris uncomfortable around Ralsei. I am not the biggest fan of the dead Asriel theory, but this connection is interesting enough to consider.

Whether Ralsei represents childhood memories or a reflection of Kris' guilt over Asriel's death, this does not mean that Ralsei is completely innocent. In Inception, Sub-Mal uses the Limbo recreation of her and Cobb's penthouse to try to convince him to stay with her. This casts suspicion on Ralsei's recreation of Kris' room, as well as the other Dark World rooms seen in Chapter 2. Is he doing it out of kindness to make the Lighters comfortable, or is he trying to lure them into the Dark World to stay there forever? If he is trying to lure all the darkners and lightners to stay in one place, why? Does he have morally good reasons for doing this, despite how terrible the situation is? Sadly, I feel like all of these questions are big mysteries that the game is still working on, but I have a feeling that the answer may be very much related to Ralsei's goal of fulfilling the prophecy by any means necessary.

So what can be pulled from all this? Like the movie Inception, Deltarune deals with nested realities, instead of dreams it is universes, worlds, or timelines. The deeper the lightners go into the dark world, the more difficult it becomes for them to perceive reality and fiction.

As in Inception, breaking the rules of the dream causes the dream to break, such as the darkners turning to stone. Also like Inception, there's a sneaky implication of the dangers of recreating reality through dreams with the characters of Gaster, who creates Goners who are shells of their former selves, and Ralsei, who is suspicious and recreates home life in the dark world. Like Inception, knowing the truth of the dream, that the dream world isn't real and the only way out is death, breaks those who learn the truth and turns them into more reckless people.

At the end of Inception, Cobb wakes up on a plane and goes home to see his children again. His totem, an object meant to represent reality, is a top. His top keeps spinning, which is a sign that he is still dreaming, but it wobbles a bit, and the camera never shows if it keeps spinning or if it falls, which leads to the interpretation of whether he is still asleep or not. But that doesn't matter to him, what matters is that he can see his children again, as he wanted to. This reflects Deltarune's "choices don't matter" moniker, it doesn't matter if Cobb is still asleep or not, because he gets his happy ending.

This line of logic could allude to the theory that a true happy ending is not supposed to be possible in Deltarune, which is reflected in an infamous tweet reply from Toby Fox.

#deltarune #deltarune theory #deltarune meta #deltarune analysis #deltarune speculation #utdr theory #utdr analysis #utdr meta #utdr speculation #utdr #undertale #undertale theory #undertale meta #undertale analysis #undertale speculation #inception #long post #springy thoughts #tw suicide

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integrity-souls · 1 month

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ive already linked you the narrachara bible as they call it, but some other important analyses id like to recommend are all of andrew cunninghams utdr videos and mollystars device theory series. andrews videos mostly just lay out facts and avoid making major speculation, and device theory isnt finished yet and the first 2 parts mostly do the same but the final part is supposed to actually get into the "theory" stuff. i think andrews videos are just generally very good quality and a good break down of what we know and device theory, with how its going so far, is looking to be the most important theory the deltarune fandom has to offer; and even if i end up not agreeing with the conclusion it reached the information laid out in the first 2 parts is extremely important to dr and generally harder to find yourself than most other details with the niche meta nature of a lot of it

MHMHM THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL OF THESE LOL. Ive been looking for videos anyways so these are real helpful... Thank you raxz

#💌#emoangel44 #cant thank you enough i think i said thank you like 3 times in a row in the last few hours . you write so fast and so much #THATS NOT BAD THOUGH i admire it. youre very passionate about this thing and its one to be impressed about... very cool #thank you for answering my dumb questions btw . strikes a pose

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ravens-dagger · 2 months

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Hi I'm here to ramble about a Gaster Thought™️ that I had while rewatching Pt. 1 of the device theory series. It got to the part where you get an Egg, and I instantly started laughing when I put this together and I have no clue if anyone has already come to this conclusion but I'm laughing so hard.

So if Gaster made Deltarune as a way to connect to us players, and here comes those of us who Want To Find All The Things. We are looking for: Easter Eggs. So here comes Mr. Spooky Skeleton Man everyone loves to characterize as a mad evil scientist just giving us a dimensional pocket and handing us A FUCKING EGG. "HMM, THIS HUMAN SEEMS TO BE LOOKING FOR SECRETS IN MY GAME I MADE FOR THEM. WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS CALLED AGAIN? AH, YES! EASTER EGGS! I SHALL GIVE MY CURIOUS PLAYER AN EGG WHICH THEY ARE SEARCHING FOR :)"

This man is so silly I love him so much Toby thank you for creating these characters holy shit

#gaster is a silly skelly man i will die on this hill #yes hes brilliant but hes also a fucking dork #ut/dr #wd gaster #the brainrot is brainrotting gaster spins around on a pedestal in my brain i am so normal about him #im sure this isnt an original thought and other ppl have likely come to this conclusion but i had to scream about it

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jeweledstone · 1 year

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Recounting a crazy dream I had that I might draw about later

I had a dream the night before April 1st that was really fucking wild. The only reason I didn’t immediately start posting about it was because I wanted to stay “in character” for the Tridential Takeover event.

So in the dream, I was in I think junior high/high school attending a science class of sorts. Instead of a usual lesson, the teacher brought in this scientist (I forget his name but he’s important) to give a presentation of sorts involving this experiment/theory he was known for working on. The basics of it were that every object in our universe emitted some form of radiation, not only the radioactive shit we know of, but also a more harmless version called “passive radiation”. To demonstrate this, he brought this device into class that could detect different types of passive radiation emitting from something and used it on different students, me being one of them.

…The problem started when I was chosen to be the next guinea pig.

It started out ok at first, but then the scientist noticed something weird. Apparently I gave off types of radiation that were “only present in quantum entities” (which I assume is this verse’s term for reality benders, which I am canonically one of). Then, I don’t know if it was because of a fault in the machine or the fact that little quip made me nervous or something, but that’s when things went. Terribly. Wrong.

If you’ve been following my dream journal for a while, you might remember this one time where my reality bending powers went out of control when I started panicking. That basically happened again, but far worse. I lost control for a few seconds, leaving my vision as nothing but bright colors before snapping back to “reality”. At first there seemed to be no casualties and everyone seemed ok, the only thing off were that my eyes appeared to have changed a bit.

Yeah, you already know where this is going.

Over the course of the next few weeks, the people who were in that classroom during the incident began slowly turning into various Deltarune characters, but they still remained mentally the person they were before. The only exception to that being me and the scientist guy (which only makes sense since we were the closest to “ground zero” at the time. Of fucking course we’d have it worse than everyone else). I was turning into Spamton (of course) and the scientist was turning into Jevil, much to his horror. (Bonus horror points since Deltarune didn’t come out until my last year of high school so for all we knew people were just turning into random monsters)

The rest of the dream was science guy trying to figure out how to reverse what was happening before he completely lost his sanity/identity to the transformation. Didn’t help that I still was having random bursts of reality-glitching which caused us to change more in body and mind every time it happened (an ability I ended up becoming addicted to and trying to use/activate as much as possible, which became easier and easier as reality became more unstable each time I used it).

So yeah, reality’s falling apart and the only guy who can stop it is slowly losing himself to it and is basically in a race against the clock to find a solution. Seems pretty bar of the course for my dreams lol

#jewel's dream journal #deltarune #spamton #jevil #‘body horror’#‘ask to tag’

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jahmocha · 1 year

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I already commented this on Halfbreadchaos's recent video, but I want tumblr to see it too.

It's a reach, but an interesting reach:

As said in the video, when you give the Dice Brace to Ralsei he says that it reads"friendship". When you give it to Noelle, she says that Kris jumbled the letters up. It's likely that Kris made the bracelet spell out "find her", in reference to Dess (the Spamton Sweepstakes revealed this connection between Dess and "find her").

So, if you make "find her" from "friendship" you are left with three letters that can spell "psi". Psi is a Greek letter, much like the Delta in Deltarune. Psi is shaped like a pitchfork, pitchforks are associated with the devil, the devil and other vaguely biblical things are frequently referenced in Deltarune (especially with Gastery things).

Psi is also used as a symbol when discussing wave functions in quantum physics. Quantum physics is often used as a sciencey-sounding plot device in fiction for alternate realties and other mind bending things. Kind of like how beings such as Gaster (and Dess????) both do and do not physically exist, and how Deltarune's universe is kinda but not really the same as Undertale's universe.

Finally, PSI refers to psychic powers in the Mother/Earthbound universe. And we all know how those games relate to Undertale and Deltarune by now.

I don't have a grand theory for this, just that the Greek letter Psi may be important in the future of Deltarune.

#deltarune #safeutdr #deltarune theory

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rooftopswandive · 11 months

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A snippet from my “weirder route” deltarune alternate universe

NSFW

CW: Abuse, Gaslighting, Coercion, Implications of Sexual Assault

⚠️: All characters I write are explicitly portrayed as 18+. This work is purely for the purposes of entertainment. I do not condone the actions I write about. I do not encourage the condoning of the actions I write about. You should only ever practice sex in an environment with people you trust completely. If you are in an abusive situation, there are resources to help you. You are never alone.

✏️: The following work is not proof read for typos and grammatical errors. Cry about it.

♟️: Kris Dreemurr, Noelle Holiday

Noelle looks through Kris’ phone, trying to gather more evidence for her theories. Goes into their photos. Its all just her. Some in…very compromising positions when she thought she was in complete isolation

From behind her “Looking for something princess?”

shes unaltered. Scared, but unwavering in her goals. Thats their fault, isn’t it? “care to explain, dreemurr?”

“Isn’t it a bit early in our love to be using surnames?” they stand behind her, placing their arm over her shoulder and scrolling through the pictures for her. The gallery just goes on and on “I just have a bit of an interest in photography. Thought you wanted me to get new hobbies”

“Very funny. So how did you do it?”

“Im afraid I don’t understand the question” they look down at her, lying through their teeth like always

“Following me like this isn’t possible”

“Small town” they interrupt

she backs away, still clutching their device “I don’t care how small the town is! Some of these are…temporally improbable! I know somethings wrong with you and I-“ she goes to point an accusatory finger, and her wrist is grabbed

“Angel, Angel, Angel…theres nothing wrong with me. Even if there was I don’t understand why you’d care so much! I mean-“ they stifle a laugh “-don’t you like this side of me?”

“…no, I don’t” she lies through her teeth

they grab her other wrist, the phone dropping out of it onto the hardwood floor. She struggled, despite her immense physical frailness

“Weak in body but not in spirit. Not anymore. You know a month or two ago you would’ve let me break you right now. You would’ve welcomed a punishment. I’ll be expecting a thank you for that”

“Its not like that! You…y-..just…I want to know the truth! What are you hiding from me?”

“I suppose this is what I get for teaching you to stand up for yourself…” they say in a half-mocking, half-lamenting tone of voice. They shamelessly wrestle her to the floor, her face visibly red while shes living out both her worst nightmares and most lewd fantasies in one day “but I’m not ever going to tell you. I adore this side of you. Confused, scared, and so so powerful! You’ve gotten so strong…in spirit anyways haha…”

“You know I’ll find out…”

“…no, no you won’t.”

#deltarune smut #noelle smut #noelle holiday smut #dr smut #kris smut #yandere #yandere kris #kris dreemurr smut #yandere deltarune

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m0llystars · 1 year

Video

youtube

mollystars presents:

DELTARUNE and the Fourth Wall

{ a.k.a. "THE DEVICE THEORY" }

a video essay series on DELTARUNE's meta-narrative, secrets, easter eggs, and data.

Part 1 [SURVEY_PROGRAM]:

5.13.23, 12 PM EST

Parts 2 and 3 will be completed later.

thank you for your patience. see you soon! ^^

#mollystars #deltarune

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drowninnoodles · 2 years

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more ideas that don't make sense

Okay, I know that sounds silly, but I think we really should start taking the Annoying Dog as a character and not just a, well, annoying joke in the game.

I mean, I know Toby shows himself in the game. But for strange reasons, he can be found at strange times, especially that he is close to Papyrus. Or he worked where there is a Dark World in Chapter 2. Or in Undertale he says you can't fight him just yet.

I don't know much about the interviews with Toby, so did he say anywhere that he shows up as a dog?

If not, what if we actually know the most important figure in this story from the very beginning?

Correct me if he admits it is himself, because then the whole theory makes no sense.

On the other hand, Toby could show himself as the character who created the world. I still stick to the theory that DOG is GOD.

I don't know guys. I just think again.

I was reblogging a post where it said that the character from INTRO is not Gaster and I started to wonder who it could be.

Although, I still believe it's Gaster speaking through something / someone, therefore the words are not in Wingdings or Aster.

I associate this scene with the Oujia Board. Maybe it's the letters and the heart pointing to them.

But

There is a reason I think it's still Gaster even if he doesn't speak in his font.

I think we should consider that everything related to what we know about Gaster is called 'DEVICE _ (...)'. What if he doesn't speak in the font because he speaks through the device, through something / someone? Entry Number Seventeen is spelled the same way of speaking and was written in the Laboratory. Where Gaster was. We know that as a scientist, he could have created some device through which he communicated. We just don't know what the device is.

In my opinion, Gaster, in his scientific way of speaking, could call anything a device, even a telephone or a computer.

In Deltarune, you can change the menu to that old fashioned black and green version. A version that looks like computers from the Lab.

In Wingdings, parentheses ( and ) are associated with telephones.

honestly, I know that doesn't make Gaster more or less epic. I just think he likes to use electronic devices

Another thing:

I believe we should study Gerson more.

• The name itself is made up of the same letters as the word Goners.

• His knowledge allowed him to survive for so long. Ironically, Gaster's knowledge allowed him to live after his removal, but also caused someone to remove him

• Alphys replaced Gaster in Undertale and Gerson in Deltarune

• Gerson is like a replacement for Gaster in Deltarune.

And that is something that is important to me.

Especially since his son probably wants to revive him. This is only my suspicion, if you have other ideas, let me know. I think Alvin wants to resurrect Gerson for unknown reasons.

For this reason, I believe Papyrus and Sans want to resurrect Gaster.

The "Don't Forget" promise is a promise made by Sans and Papyrus. Maybe it was that they would fix the machine or something. As we know, Sans doesn't like promises, I think he forgot what the purpose of the machine was. But I think Papyrus remembers and still wants to put it together. In Undertale, he's repairing the machine, but as we know Papyrus has a lot of ties to Deltarune. That's why I think that in Deltarune Papyrus, as a Knight, also wants to find Gaster. That's why he creates fountains because he knows that he can find him somewhere in the dark. Or something like that.

I do not know. If I come up with something more, I will write it.

#deltarune #deltarune theory #undertale #gaster #papyrus #sans undertale #deltarune meta #wd gaster #w.d. gaster #knight papyrus #papyrus undertale

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squidhominid · 1 year

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Deltarune thread, 10/20/2021

(NOTE: This thread is one in a set of two. The second thread will be posted shortly; I am archiving my Twitter threads in case I get banned)

I saw a REALLY GOOD video analyzing Determination now that it's known to be part of Deltarune, but function differently from in Undertale.

youtube

But its conclusion made me realize some stuff the video leaves unsaid.

Its core argument is, while in Undertale, Determination was a ludonarrative device in which saving/loading is analogized as rewinding time, in Deltarune, Determination is a ludonarrative device in which creators writing stories is analogized as the creation of Dark Fountains.

This is an incredibly sound theory, but I feel like the video leaves some bits of evidence with interesting implications on the table. Specifically, with the way Darkners and the Castle Town function.

If we take each Dark World as a literal fiction, it makes sense that Darkners can't move between Dark Worlds: they're characters from one story, inserted into another. They aren't in the narrative, and may in fact be from someone else's mind, and unknowable to the author.

But this brings up an interesting wrinkle: Ralsei, and the Castle Town. This may seem like a diversion, but I want to talk about what Ralsei is. I don't think he's, in the purest sense, a 'true' Darkner. I think he's representative of a fan creator's influence on a work.

Think about it. He's acutely aware of gameplay systems. Multiple times forces control away from the player and forcing their perspective away from the narrative. When he runs out of HP, he LITERALLY DISAPPEARS from that world until he is revived.

He has a clear vested interest in telling his own narrative, one that weaves its way through several Dark Worlds, several stories. He has you bring characters from other stories into his world, where he is the master of his domain.

People already strongly suspect that he's hiding something significant, and possibly even lying about the prophecy and the purpose of the Dark Fountains. People have even pointed out that both times he pushes the player's gaze away, it's to speak with Kris privately.

We know from the ending of Ch.2 that Kris is the Knight, creating the Dark Fountains. Why would Ralsei want to privately speak with Kris, the instigator of the conflict, away from the player's control, if he knows the two are not one in the same and Kris is being controlled?

Consider Tea Theory. Kris has a diminished response to Ralsei tea compared to what you would expect. The video suggests Kris may not be a fan of these private conversations... Is Kris being coerced into something?

It is my suggestion that Ralsei is compelling Kris to open the Dark Fountains, to give a narrative context for him to weave his own story through them. And, I feel like I have some good evidence for this, but to get there we need to talk about Spamton NEO.

We already know that Kris was made uneasy by the Spamton NEO fight. People have assumed it's due to the puppet analogue being similar to how the player is controlling Kris by force. But what if that's not the only thing?

Ralsei is incredibly eager to handwave Kris's unease with events when Susie asks about it. Almost like he doesn't want Susie dwelling on why Kris would be upset. Figuring out that Kris is at least in part uneasy because Ralsei is controlling them, like a puppet on strings.

That's...pretty much the idea, but there is one last wrinkle I want to talk about. The Determination video puts forward the idea that Dark Fountains are Toby's way to talk about how he saw the world impacted by Undertale's success. But that gets things out of order.

Toby has previously said he had the idea for Deltarune FIRST, and only circled back to it now, with Undertale under his belt. But there was another project Toby was involved in that, in the same way, took the world by storm and may have distressed its creators: Homestuck.

If Deltarune is an attempt to discuss the impact of escapism on reality, using the Dark Fountains as an analogue for a narrative's ability to cause harm to the real world it inhabits, inspired by the anxieties of a creator having seen their creation set the world ablaze...

Well, I feel like that comparison writes itself, doesn't it. The fact Undertale took off even moreso than Homestuck did, probably only reinforced Toby's feelings on the message.

Oh, a postscript... Before working on Homestuck, Toby was on Starmen.net, the core of the English-language MOTHER community. A community that literally since 2015 gets together in the desert to essentially LARP an EarthBound ARG. I don't think this is a coincidence.

#deltarune #deltarune spoilers #long post #ralsei #kris dreemurr #twitter thread archive #Youtube #rambling

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