Deltarune Thoughts Post Chapters 3&4 Part 4: Loose Ends and Misc. Thoughts

This one really doesn't have a cohesive theme or point, and is more just a bunch of smaller thoughts, observations, and open questions I have about Deltarune at this point.

Jackenstein

Jackenstein says he was "BANNISHED TO THE DARK ZONE, ONLY TO APPEAR ON FESTIVAL NAIGHT..."

Now, obviously, the parallel most of the audience will draw is Halloween.

But there's a pretty huge "festival" coming up next chapter.

Easy prediction, maybe, but I bet Jackenstein will show up next chapter on its own, even without having to be brought to Castle Town.

Who Took Ramb?

To expand briefly on something I mentioned back in the first post in this series, after the final one of Ramb's "original games" where we get the shadow mantle, something seems to have dragged the slowly-petrifying (and likely already fully petrified) Ramb away from where we left him.

Talking to the Rabbick in that hallway has it get confused for a moment, apparently having thought that Kris had already gone by.

This is almost certainly foreshadowing for something, but what I'm unsure of. Is the Vessel stalking Kris? Did 8-bit Kris from the game wander off?

We don't even know whether it was whatever the Rabbick saw that dragged away Ramb, really. And frankly it's kind of surprising that Ramb didn't make it to the Castle Town, given how much of a connection they seemed to have to Kris.

Wherever these plot threads are going I'm definitely looking forward to it!

The Cabinet in Toriel's Classroom

In Toriel's classroom there's a cabinet with some drawings on it. Interacting with it describes a "primitive drawing" of Toriel.

But there's actually two drawings, not just one. The lower one is obviously Toriel, of course, and in a vacuum one would assume the upper drawing is also of Toriel. A purple stick figure with horns would be a decent enough "primitive drawing" of her, especially since it generally seems like Toriel has the younger kids in the school.

And it probably is just Toriel, of course.

But purple is also a pretty dark color, and a common way to show black if the actual color black isn't available in a palette for some reason.

And, well. The Knight does rather look like a stick figure with horns.

Again, I doubt this will really go anywhere. But it's an interesting thought, and something to keep an eye on in future chapters.

Here's the cabinet, for reference:

The Prince's Fire Magic

In the prophecy visuals we saw in Chapter 1, "The Prince from the Dark" is extremely ambiguous. I'm not the first to observe that Lancer also fits that description and that the cloak in the image is definitely loose enough to cover a pretty round body.

Chapter 4 has done a lot to convince me that Ralsei does at least believe that he's the prince in the prophecy. But it's also made it even more glaring that we're (theoretically) half way through the game and Ralsei's yet to show even the slightest ability to use fire magic. Which is pretty suspect, given how fire was such a key element of the visuals we got in Chapter 1.

The image of the heroes I'm referring to, for reference:

Holding One's Breath

When getting the egg in Chapter 3, the man behind the tree tells you to "HOLD YOUR BREATH, HEAD TO THE LEFT, AND COUNT BACKWARDS TO 100..."

Now... obviously this primarily points to the next step in the egg quest. With an interpretation of "hold your breath" that is really just pointing towards the dirt-themed Ribbick enemy.

But there is a spot where we can actually "Hold Breath": the Knight fight at the end of Chapter 3. Having Kris hold their breath causes the heart to speed up the first time it happens, and then Kris just smiles subsequent times.

Seems most likely that this is a coincidence. If there's another secret somewhere in the Knight fight that nobody's found yet I'm not sure what it could be. But it is something to keep track of moving forward, I think. Just in case.

Actually, thinking about this further the flavor text in the Knight fight is remarkably hung up on imagery relating to suffocation, isn't it? Copying right from the text dump:

* You felt lightheaded.
* You saw silver stars...
* Kris held their breath.
* Their heartbeat quickened.
* The SOUL now moves faster.
* Suddenly, the north wind blew fiercely.
* Your vision narrows.
* Your chest feels tight.
* You felt lightheaded.
* You saw golden stars...
* Suddenly, the north and east winds blew fiercely.
* Your vision narrows.
* ... Your head is spinning.
* You felt your chest twisting.
* You felt lightheaded.
* You felt a migraine coming on...
* Suddenly, a tempest.
* Your vision narrows.
* ... The world revolves around you.
* Your heartbeat becomes twisted.
* You felt something hovering close behind your head...
* You feel surrounded.
* You feel cornered.
* Your heartbeat becomes twisted.
* Susie grew pale.

Last Line of the Prophecy

...Okay, second to last line. Just before "ONLY THEN, WILL THE WORLDS BE SAVED".

Ralsei knows it, Susie now knows it, Kris might well know it given how much else they're apparently in on. But we don't. So what in the world could it have said to elicit such strong reactions?

It's a very interesting question that we have nowhere near enough information to answer. But speculation is fun, and just going off my gut feeling of what would make Susie and Ralsei react like that... my money's on the last line being something that either is or reads like "the last fountain needs to be closed".

Especially with Susie's "And obviously YOU wouldn't let it happen."

Kris's Web of Gambits

I've mentioned this before in this series of posts, but Kris is really at the center of a pretty staggering web of plots and I wanted to highlight that here.

At a minimum, they are:

1. Conspiring with Ralsei behind the back of the player and Susie to accomplish something
2. Conspiring with the Knight... somehow, given we've yet to see the Knight talk
3. Definitely conspiring with Carol regarding Noelle and probably Dess, even when that means keeping secrets from Susie
4. Probably either conspiring with Gaster or somehow attempting to interfere with Gaster
5. Tenna had some sort of deal with Kris, based on his line when you're walking towards him in the secret game: "I did what you said, Kris! Ha... just like our deal! Y-you aren't gonna turn me off again, are you...?"

And then there are all the small things they're doing that may or may not be connected to the above plots. For instance, their actions with Noelle between chapters three and four on the Weird Route arguably count as another plot they're trying to carry out under the player's notice.

It's interesting that in every one of these cases they seem extremely motivated to keep the player from learning about their motives. I don't think we have enough information at this point to even begin to speculate why that would be, but it's clearly significant.

And man, given Susie's reaction to Ralsei's level of secret keeping it's going to be quite the production when she finds out what Kris's own is like.