For the longest time, I was so certain that a key part of Deltarune and Undertale was the acknowledgement of the player/their actions, in big and small ways. I imagine most people who have played them feel the same way. Deltarune in particular seems to amplify this - the themes of choices mattering or not & being controlled by (or sometimes controlling) someone else, the clear separations between Kris and "the player" especially in Weird Route, among many other things. This supposed acknowledgement of the player was one thing I was always so sure about with Deltarune - what I would build many theories and character analysis upon.
Lately, however, I'm starting to accept the possibility that this may not be the case. That rather than the player being the main driving force for anything that happens in the game's world (or if we're even really being acknowledged by the game at all), it was at best coincidence to what's actually happening, which might be Kris struggling with their emotions, or they're having dissociation issues/part of a system as a number of others have suggested. Any or all of this being made more fantastical due to the fact there's magic and such going on in the plot, of course.
And for the most part, I can definitely see being able to swap out supposed player influence with "Kris doesn't know how to handle certain emotions/is having someone in their system take over" and it still working - even Weird Route yes. In fact a "playerless" Weird Route is actually very interesting to think about in my opinion, and what it would say about Kris.
there's several small things that I don't know make much or any sense, if the player isn't being acknowledged. Namely...
Why would Kris be looking at the wall like this, if there was no one to look at? (They will do this anywhere you get caught as far as I can tell)
You could argue they're looking at the heart, it's a bit hard to tell to be fair...
But why does Ralsei do the same here? Why would he look behind the chairs in a panic upon hearing Susie ask why Kris made her wear the ribbons?
How is Kris able to read people's minds?
Where do we even start, with the entire Sword Route honestly?
And, maybe the biggest question mark in all this...
Who's making this vessel if not the person playing the game???
And who would be naming their vessel and selves any combination of "Kris", "Papyrus", "Gasste", "Beep", "Person", "Nathan", "Abby", "Thing", "Ralsei", "Asriel", etc etc etc
I'm open to hearing any ideas on how these are referring to something other than the player - or perhaps more solid rebuttals to the idea the player's not being acknowledged. Just been thinking a lot and am stuck on some moments in the game I suppose.
I'm sure I missed other moments that are very obviously hinting to the player, or am being too generous with the idea that it could be something else (the "close your eyes" bits with Ralsei in every chapter are a potential example where I'm being too generous).
