You know, for all the existence of the weird route has gotten people thinking Toby Fox has to be lying and Deltarune will definitely have multiple endings; I recently find myself thinking think it would be way more interesting if the events of the weird route (& and the speculated “twisted sword route”) did somehow re-convene back on course to the same ending as the normal route.
I mean granted, I’ve never been a fan of any idea of Deltarune having more than one ending. Because back in the chapter 1 days when Toby told us Deltarune would have 1 ending; I remember it sold as what differentiated it from Undertale.
Undertale was the game where your choices mattered, where actions had consequences, and where nobody had to die; so you were punished pretty heavily if you made everyone die to the point consequences last into future playthroughs. But it also had a very meta view on why you as a player would do that; it knew such a player would do anything to see all the content, like killing everyone to get a secret ending where the world ends, and was able to scrutinize their actions and morals effectively because of it. Those were major themes of Undertale that…aren’t really in Deltarune.
Deltarune explores more what it means to have one prophesied ending, for your choices to not matter, and what that means for even having freedom at all (ex: if your choices can’t change anything important and have no major consequences, are you more or less free for it?)
Put that way: This string of really evil things you can do that does get you a different ending kinda flies in the face of that, doesn’t it?
And furthermore it just seems more interesting & impressive writing if, for as disparate as the routes are, they somehow reconvene to the same ending. Which doesn't seem impossible rn.
Like, Rudy's condition means Noelle's not gonna be in a good mental state even if you haven't been messing with her, so that's one major form of consequence for player actions we may learn doesn't matter in the end.
And for another...for all the angst fans have enjoyed in the idea of Kris & Noelle drowning to death in the lake; we know that's not literally what happened. (If I may ruin the angst forever, it is canon that Kris cannot die because we just reload the save.) They seem to have no-clip sequence broken into the final level as Noelle's good at doing. So as far as we know...they headed into where the protags are headed in the normal route anyway.
So if both routes are seemingly headed to us going into the Depths (or wherever) with a mentally unsound Noelle; then events lining up to the same ending does not seem impossible.
And honestly; that sounds more interesting than "Toby lied and Deltarune is actually exactly like Undertale in the one way it was supposed to be different."
And besides; do we really want all the awful things done to Noelle in the weird route to reward the player with what you should want: disproving "your choices don't matter" by attaining an alternate ending? And if not, isn’t the best way to do that to just not give them a new ending?
I know the routes sharing an ending may sound unappealing because it must mean either a) the normal route must have a tragic ending or b) the weird route shares the same good ending as the normal route, which sounds jarring. Some even want the weird route to have a bad ending to punish it's players like Undertale did.
But think about it; you want this to be like Undertale? Get meta like Undertale. What do the weird route players want but a different ending; to prove there’s more than one ending and they can get it, that their choices can matter. Even if that ending was tragic & sad, and the normal ending was hopeful & inspiring & had Susie defy the prophecy, a weird route ending would still be the proof of player autonomy, the choice that matters. It would be a reward no matter what.
So what’s the best “punishment” for such players? Not giving them a new ending, and proving the player’s choices don’t matter.
Besides; weird route Kris & Noelle getting a happy ending where Susie saves them after everything the weird route players put them through sounds like it's own kind of appealing.
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