There is no One True Girl: A Deltarune Theory (MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ALL OF THE GAME SO FAR)
PART 1: INTERPRETATION
One of the most contentious topics in the Deltarune fandom since the release of Chapters 3 and 4 has been the prophecy provided to us in the latter, or more specifically...this prophecy about the second hero.
And it's pretty easy to see why. After all, up until now we've been led to believe that Susie is the second hero of legend, and yet there are many aspects of this depiction of that hero (particularly the use of a sword) that suggest she isn't supposed to be here. Instead, the girl may be someone ELSE, with the most popular prediction from what I've seen being Noelle.
Now, what's MY stance on this debate? Do I think that Susie is going against the rules by being here instead of someone else? Well...no...but also yes? Basically, I am of the belief that the prophecy is not nearly as strict about the identity of the girl (along with most other participants in the story it has written) as the characters have been led to believe. As such, Susie is not necessarily breaking the rules by being as involved as she is...however, she may still be an obstacle in the way of someone else's plan.
This is my first time really making anything about Deltarune on this blog, so I may very well get things wrong here and there, and a lot of what I talk about will be up to subjective interpretation, but I feel satisfied with the research I've done and kind of just...want to share my perspective on things. Even if I make counters to arguments that others have made, I'm really not trying to put anyone else down, nor am I attempting to "solve Deltarune" or anything (I think to do so after the newest chapters completely destroyed my expectations would be the definition of hubris), but this is just one of many ways I think things could play out, and any counterpoints I do make are more for the sake of validating my own theory than proving anyone else "objectively wrong".
This theory will delve into how the prophecy works and how it can be "subverted", the machinations of the various conspirators manipulating things behind the scenes (who I'll just be calling the "Knight crew" for simplicity's sake), where certain aspects of the narrative could potentially go in both the normal and weird route, and a little bit about the origins of the prophecy at the end for good measure.
It's also a VERY long one, which is rather on brand for me, so I've decided to split it into four parts, albeit the fourth part will be more of a bonus that covers topics that are only semi-related to the core argument of this theory, but still something I wanted to talk about anyways.
I'd also like to give credit to a theory written by @justdeltarunethings, which can be found as their pinned post (at least as of the time I'm writing this lol.) Their theory ultimately talks about very different subject matter than mine and comes to some conclusions regarding those topics that are very different from my own, but their views surrounding the prophecy in particular are extremely similar to how I've come to see it, and I would not be making some of the points I'm about to make if I hadn't heard it from them first, so I'd encourage people to give that a read if they haven't already, as it's very well made. :).
Anyways...this could get pretty long, and depending on how late I stay up writing this it could also go down some deep rabbit holes, so uh... buckle up!
Before I dive into any other topic, it's important to establish just...how I think the prophecy even works on a broad level, and to do that, we're going to need to examine the words of the character in Deltarune who is the most consistently correct in what he says; Gerson "Old Man" Boom.
So, I'm sure that anyone reading this has caught onto the fact that basically every dark world we've visited so far (with the arguable exception of Castle Town) have been based on forms of entertainment that allow for escapism, like the internet, TV, etc. Chapter 4's dark world (which I'll be referring to as "The Sanctuary" for the sake of a catch-all term) is a bit less on-the-nose with how it continues this trend, in part due to the fact that the society and history within the dark world is less of a primary focus than in other chapters, but I would still argue that 'writing' is the main theme here (albeit it's not just fictional literature, but also things like religious scripture and musical notation.)
And Gerson, despite not even being a Darkner originally, is one of the clearest examples of this, being the author of a renowned high fantasy series that seems to have heavily influenced the Sanctuary's aesthetics and way of life for it's residents. Throughout the chapter, Gerson grants us various insights into his philosophies surrounding the art of writing stories, and how authors and audiences alike should engage with them. He also shares a very insightful way of looking at the prophecy with the fun gang; that being to not focus on it too hard that they neglect to forge their own path in order to achieve a more favourable outcome.
Now, considering that Lord of the Hammer is BASED on the prophecy, I think it's reasonable to assume that any views Gerson expresses on one of them can apply to the other, and given just how much the game wants both the player and the fun gang to take his words seriously, I feel like his views can grant us further insight into how the prophecy actually works.
Essentially, this is just a long-winded way of saying that Gerson values INTERPRETATION of stories above all else. Whether he's talking about his own creation or an ancient handbook of destiny that had an entire religion formed around it, this guy is the biggest advocate for the importance of media literacy and personal engagement with written works I think I've ever seen. His existence in the game is single-handedly destroying the notion that Toby Fox hates it when people theorise about tiny little details he never really intended to matter, and it grinds my gears so much that some people continue to get mad at theorists "on his behalf" despite that.
He smashes the glass tapestries not because he's completely opposed to the prophecy (he says it himself that believing in it here and there is beneficial as it can inspire hope, and I think it would be unreasonable to hold complete disdain for something that grants a method for saving the world from complete destruction while also being as morally upstanding as he is), but rather because he believes that taking it at face value will prevent the fun gang from seeing any alternative options that may help them achieve a better ending than whatever the prophecy grants.
And then there's the most blatant example of him sharing his ideologies of interpretation, where he says that he believes "Stories can be retold. They can be changed", IN DIRECT REFERENCE to how Lord of the Hammer re-interpreted the prophecy, and then subsequently had itself re-interpreted by Dragon Blazers. Despite being a famous author himself, Gerson strongly believes that the author's intended meaning when creating their story should not be taken as gospel if not made overt, (I...might not apply that line of thinking to this analysis of Deltarune itself, but theorizing about how an unfinished story may go in the future kind of requires us to try and get into the author's head at least a little bit, because otherwise we have no way of discerning what any given detail might be trying to imply, so...I'll make an exception here, sorry Gerson), and that how the audience interprets the story in front of them is just as, if not more important, and can completely alter the meaning of the author's words from what was initially intended when those words were written on the page. Basically, the literally dead author character is a believer in the "death of the author" principle. Wow.
So with all of that being said...what happens when we apply Gerson's philosophies regarding literary analysis at large to the story detailed by the prophecy? Well, simply put, it leads to the conclusion that the prophecy only has control over what is directly stated within it. It doesn't matter if its creator wanted to imply much more than what we see, because if they weren't explicit about what they wanted in the magical floating glass text, then it is up to the interpretation of the characters as to what any of the vaguer aspects of the script even means, and they can follow that script however they choose by finding loopholes and wiggle room.
The reason the prophecy is so vague in so many parts (e.g., what the "Ring of Heaven's Call" even IS) isn't just for the sake of keeping the player guessing, but because it's actually just THAT vague in-universe. In fact, I think it's entirely possible that this isn't a scenario where the creator even wanted the prophecy to be ultra-specific about the most minute of details, and they deliberately wrote it in a super vague way out of curiosity for how people would interpret and subsequently enact it, but...I'll get more into what that might mean at the end of this theory.
The fun gang...might just not be able to "break" the prophecy. There may very well be no method of making what it says completely invalid. But at the same time, I think that they might be overestimating just how set-in-stone everything it says is, and that the solution isn't to destroy it or overpower it, but rather to OUTSMART it, to get creative and interpret its words in a way that differs from the obvious conclusion.
And thankfully, I have more proof for this being how the prophecy works than just Gerson's philosophy. I think we've already seen the fun gang do exactly this, even if they didn't intend to! A lot of people have already drawn attention to this, but I think it's important to have a more clear-cut example as evidence instead of just conjecture based on one character's perception of fate, so I'm bringing it up anyway. This example is, of course:
Tenna's prophecy. Now, this prophecy is not incorrect whatsoever. That Lord of Screens really WAS cleaved red by blade. But...imagine for a second that you somehow stumbled upon this prior to the ending of Chapter 3. What would you think upon seeing this? Well, that Tenna would die, of course! But the thing is...while that can still happen if you haven't recruited everyone in TV World, it's obviously possible to completely prevent that from happening. Namely, the two things that prevent it are your decision to recruit everyone, an aspect of the story that is ultimately in your hands and not those of the prophecy, and Susie patching him up, and well...even if I'm about to argue that she works as the second hero just fine and isn't breaking the prophecy by being here, it's impossible to deny that the idea of going against the rules and taking matters into her own hands is like...her schtick at this point.
It's not as if what this prophecy describes didn't come to pass or was completely subverted, just that...Kris, Susie, and Ralsei were able to make it pass on their OWN terms, and ultimately, the obvious meaning of the prophecy was kind of just...entirely invalidated by their own actions; actions that were not predetermined by destiny, but not against it by technicality either.
We obviously do not know what the "final tragedy" at the end of the prophecy is yet, and I'm not really here to discuss that, but whatever it is...I think it'll be a scenario where the terror that Susie and Ralsei feel towards it at the end of Chapter 4 is more of a gut reaction, and that if they take the time to look at whatever it says from a different angle, they'll find a way to gain a happy ending without doing something that leads to a massive upheaval of the laws of fate.
I...guess I might as well mention before anyone brings it up that...there is a possible instance where the prophecy has just been straight up denied, and that's the one which proclaims "THE QUEEN'S CHARIOT CANNOT BE STOPPED", presumably in reference to Queen's car. Now, assuming this one is past the point of being applied to some other event that has yet to come, then...yes, it is true that it doesn't line up with what we see in Chapter 2, as her car is stopped by a traffic jam.
This is definitely an interesting topic, but...it's not especially relevant to this theory oddly enough? If this discrepancy implies anything, I think it's either suggesting that the Annoying Dog is a literal deity that exists above the rules of the prophecy (as it presumably started the traffic jam), or more likely, that our meeting with Spamton was somehow not only not written in the prophecy, but actively goes against it, which is...honestly pretty on-brand for him. However, I feel like this probably has more to do with shadow crystals and the strange powers they grant than anything else, so...that might just be a theory for another time.
Regardless, there is one last aspect of the prophecy at large that I think is important to draw attention to in order to understand the one about the girl, that being how the prophecy refers to all of the people who play a part in it. Because with the exception of Jockington (which once again, is a topic for another time and...in his case probably another person as I don't know if I have it in me to write a theory about his role in this under the assumption I'll be taken seriously, and I believe it says more about him than it does anything else), no one in the prophecy is ever referred to directly by name. It's always a title instead, like "The Lord of Screens", "The Pointy-Headed Boy", or "The Prince", as opposed to just "Tenna", "Lancer" and "Ralsei".
And if we analyse this recurring detail under the assumption that the prophecy only has complete control over what it describes in explicit detail, I find this to be....uh....(do not say very very interesting do NOT say it)....really, really intriguing. Because, this should imply that the prophecy...isn't actually that strict about which specific people play a part in it. I think it's beneficial to almost look at this as a sort of...casting call for actors that are needed to play parts. Like, in the case of the third hero, the prophecy isn't necessarily looking for "Ralsei", but just "a prince alone in deepest dark", which if not for the fact that he fits "the pointy-headed boy who says "toothpaste" and then "boy"" better, would've arguably worked just as well for Lancer. This...might not be the best example as I do think there's a solid chance Ralsei was created for the sake of being the third hero, but that doesn't necessarily need to have been by the same person who made the prophecy, and like...whatever, you get my point right?!
Actually, on the topic of Lancer, there is one other aspect of the prophecy's specificity that I think needs to be acknowledged, and that is the pictures underneath each piece of text. Because while, like I said, the prophecy never refers to people by name outside of Jockington, it DOES tend to have images depicting the people it's talking about. Generally, these images are still pretty vague in terms of who they're depicting (with the heroes being pretty noteworthy examples of this)...but there are exceptions to this rule, namely Lancer and Asgore.
Now, I have seen some people suggest that these images are more indicative of how the Sanctuary's creators interpret the scripture, and therefore do not matter as much as the text. This is because the church in the light world is stated to not have any pictures of the prophecy, and because only the text is directly stated to not warp when viewed through the lens of a shadow crystal.
This would...certainly give me less strawman arguments to counter, and I think works fine in the cases of the first and third sanctuaries, given that how much the Knight knows, or just...what is going on in their head is a pretty open book, but with that being said...I'm not that convinced.
This is mostly because, if this were true, then why does the prophecy about the first hero in the Second Sanctuary depict something that Susie has absolutely zero knowledge of, despite it being a dark world of her creation? Better yet, why do the prophecies we first see in the Second Sanctuary remain consistent in their imagery when they re-appear in the third? I think the reason the prophecy appears in the Sanctuary at large is just because it's the dark reflection of the church, and I don't think you can argue that the images reflect how the church-goers interpret the prophecy, since they are explicitly stated to not have images of it, have never met Lancer if their names aren't Kris and Susie, and if they genuinely thought Asgore had a role to play in it, I imagine they'd be more hesitant to act the way they do towards him.
So...yeah, I do think these images are just...a part of the prophecy, and likely have similar if not identical levels of influence over it to that of the words. That influence doesn't neccessarily need to be "the person or thing we're talking about looks like this", because last I checked Kris was not literally a soul and two arms, but I think it needs to be at least somewhat representative of the accompanying text's subject matter. But even then, I think it's entirely possible that much like the words, the images can also be interpreted in different ways by different people. Well...ok, I think the picture of Lancer is pretty hard to interpret, but...even though I do find it curious how the prophecy only draws attention to a small aspect of his pretty significant role in the story, which might suggest that most of what he does is purely out of free will, and that the reason why Ralsei is so weirdly cold to him at times is because he kind of just expected him to be a minor comic-relief character and oh my GOD CARD KINGDOM WILL BE SO RELEVANT YOU GUYS I SWEAR TO GOD-...uh...yeah this one is still pretty jokey in nature, and if anything, the idea that Lancer's intended level of significance to the prophecy is so small makes me think that it's creator would care less about leaving the role of "pointy-headed boy" open to multiple outcomes for who gets it, so I'm just gonna take this as the opportunity to draw my "I wouldn't worry about it" card...kind of.
But then on the other hand...we have this one:
Most people here have taken Asgore himself to be the "Flower Man" in this prophecy, and more specifically, assume that he will be the ruler of a dark world inside Flower King during Chapter 5, and that the "trapped in asylum" part refers to either his dynamic with Carol, how the darkners of his world may treat him, or both. And...yeah, I can totally get behind this! I might question the notion of us fighting Asgore if he's not...possessed by an IMAGE_FRIEND inside him or something, but this is a completely logical assumption to make with the information we've been given!
However, unlike with Lancer's prophecy, which leaves very little wiggle room for who the Pointy-Headed Boy is, I'd argue that this one is much more up to interpretation, even if only for the fact that...we don't have Chapter 5 at the moment, so most speculation is ultimately pretty open. But aside from that...maybe the flower man is actually a really important darkner based on a flower! The "trapped by asylum" bit could refer to how they're treated by Asgore, and would fit quite nicely with the image beneath the text.
Am I saying this is more likely than the flower man being Asgore? No, either option is equally possible in my eyes! The point I'm trying to make here is that even if the image is clearly depicting Asgore, it's still vague enough for them to be someone else instead, and thus, I consider this image to be another example of the prophecy being interpretable. In short, I think that much like the text, the images can be viewed and therefore manifested in reality in a variety of ways. Some are easier to find alternate interpretations to than others, but ultimately, I think the same principles I've applied to the text in the prophecy can apply here as well.
...And last, was the girl. At last, was the girl. That's basically just a nerdy way of saying that I'm finally at the main point of...this part of the theory, good lord. So, for a very brief recap of what I've just laid out:
The prophecy is written (likely deliberately) in a way that is very vague and indirect, which allows anyone who decides to get involved with it to interpret it whenever something is not explicit in its meaning, and they can subsequently steer it in a direction that they find preferable wherever there is wiggle room.
This also means that, with one bearded exception for some god damn reason, and...maybe also Lancer(?), no specific individual is necessarily destined to be a part of the prophecy. Instead, since the prophecy only refers to people with titles, it is more like the prophecy is seeking out people with specific qualities to play the various parts in itself, and it doesn't care who those people are as long as they meet the requirements. So with all of that finally established...what does this mean for The Girl?
If we look at this prophecy while taking into account the interpretation of how the prophecy at large functions that I've outlined, it becomes clear just how...not specific whatsoever it is? To start off, we have the requirements needed to fit the role of the second hero, those being "girl" and "hope crossed on heart". One of those is...obviously not difficult to come across by any stretch of the imagination, and the other is INCREDIBLY abstract , and could mean so many different things for so many different people. And as of Chapter 4's ending...Susie clearly identifies herself as both of these things. Sure, she only says she has "hope crossed on her heart" AFTER seeing this prophecy, but to assume that doesn't come from a genuine place that is reflective of her arc thus far and strong emotions regarding everything she's been through would be...antithetical to the themes of her character if I'm putting it lightly.
So by all means, Susie fits the writing here perfectly. Sure, that's not exactly the hardest thing to do, but still. So then, what about the image? Again, it's quite vague, and I can see why people interpret aspects of it as being more Noelle-like. The spikes coming from the back could be angel-wings, and the top part could be her hood. Obviously she has antlers, but if we ever see her wearing her hood and the sprite doesn't show them, then...this line of thinking could still work.
But that being said, I don't think it's at all unreasonable to claim these details could also be perceived as representative of Susie's hair and snout at the same time. The ONLY thing here that might suggest the girl cannot be Susie is, as many have pointed out, the sword, as while Susie has never wielded a sword, Noelle...also technically HASN'T, but hacking the game reveals she can use the Jingle Blade and the Black Shard, and she'll almost certainly re-join the party at some point in the future.
Now, how do I plan to adjust this potential hole in my argument? Well...uh...look, I definitely do have ideas as to how this can work with what I'm suggesting here, but...I'm going to need you to wait a little bit before I explain how, as it's more based on hypotheticals about what could happen in future chapters, rather than any inherent laws of Deltarune's world, and...I'm gonna need to cover some more subject matter before I can get to that. So for now, I'm just going to ask you to suspend your disbelief for the time being, but I PROMISE that I will cross that bridge when I come to it.
...Ok I lied. Yeah so uh...I'm editing this part in after I've already written a bit further ahead, and I do still have some interpretations of what the deal with this sword could be to share in a later part, but there is one possible explanation for how the presence of this sword can co-exist with Susie being the girl that I just came up with, and that doesn't require a whole deep dive into other subject matter before I can get to it.
So, during the fight against Gerson, he urges Susie to pick up "a white pen called hope" in order to face the coming trials and tribulations on her journey, before she proclaims that her weapon is more like a hairbrush. This is referencing the fact that pens and pencils manifest as swords in the dark world, while brushes manifest as axes.
Now Gerson, of course, is ultimately supportive of Susie's declaration, as it's an example of her being true to herself and existing outside of her supposedly predetermined role in the grand scheme of things. This honestly might be further evidence against the idea that Susie would ever pick up a sword, but that's not the point I'm trying to make.
The point I'm trying to make is that we now have a comparison between hope and a pen, and by extension, hope and a sword. And ultimately, Susie still comes to view herself as a person with "hope crossed on her heart." As such, I think that you could interpret the sword seen in the prophecy about the Girl in a more metaphorical sense, and it would still fit Susie very well, even if she never comes to actively wield a sword. I may circle back around to this idea, either to expand upon it or provide alternative interpretations on what the sword in the prophecy may represent, but for now, I think this is a suitable justification for why I think Susie can still be the second hero despite the sword.
Other than all of that, I would like to suggest that the Girl wielding a sword is...not the best evidence for her being Noelle? Like, it's more than what Susie has going for her if we're talking about the state of the world at the moment, sure, but swords are not Noelle's primary weapon, rings are, so to me, it feels kind of weird for her to be SYMBOLISED with swords if she is destined to be the girl, which as I've already made clear, I don't believe is even how the prophecy works to begin with. If anything, Noelle's weapon choices point more towards her being a candidate for...whatevereth this thing is.
...Especially since there's a clear dichotomy between this and the "Tail of Hell", the latter of which many believe to be Friend, who seems to have some sort of connection to Noelle...but all of this is probably a discussion for another time. It's also worth noting that the two swords she can wield have specific connections to her beyond just what type of weapon they are. The Jingle Blade is just her pencil, and the Black Shard...look, I'm going to try my best to avoid talking about the absolute chaos that is the Knight's identity over the course of this theory, but to keep it brief, it doesn't take a genius to notice that Noelle is STRONGLY connected to them in some way or another.
Ultimately I don't think these details really matter THAT much for the sake of this theory, I mean, assuming the sword HAS to be representative of the girl's primary weapon of choice is a subjective interpretation in its own right, but I thought I might as well mention it just because it came to mind.
Basically, what I'm getting at here is that...there is no clear definitive answer as to who "The Girl" even is. Whoever made the prophecy does not seem to have a specific individual in mind for the role, and even if they do, the fact they didn't make their desire clear in the prophecy itself (I'm assuming the glass is the original place where the prophecy was first written given its magical properties and potential connections to Shadow Crystals, the latter of which is a whole beast of its own) means that even if the girl isn't who they intended, they don't get to proclaim them as the "wrong choice" as long as they fit the criteria, as authorial intent does not give them full power over their creation.
Could Noelle be The Girl? Well, if we're talking about that in the sense of "does she have the potential to become worthy of that title", then yes! In fact, while I'll explain my reasoning for this in a later part, I actually think it's possible that the identity of the girl has yet to be set in stone at this point in the narrative, and she could potentially take the title from Susie before either of them are officially deemed as the holder of the title later on. But she isn't DESTINED to be the girl, and Susie, while also not destined in her own right, isn't breaking the rules by playing the role of the girl thus far.
Her arrival in the dark world was probably not destined, yes, but she still functions just fine as the second hero, because she still meets all of the required criteria. In fact, part of why I wanted to make this theory in the first place, and by extension argue against the notion that Susie is literally incapable of ever being the girl, is because I don't like the idea that Susie's presence alone has just completely invalidated the prophecy, and it's been broken since Chapter 1.
Not only do I feel like this would remove a lot of the stakes and pressure associated with the prophecy, but I think it takes away from what makes Susie so compelling in the discussion of Deltarune's themes of freedom, and what makes her as free as she is. That being...the fact that she's just some guy who showed up. Like, Kris has the Soul, Noelle has the angel motifs and the weird route, Ralsei is...Ralsei, but Susie? She's just authentically herself, she isn't bound by her circumstances (...at least on a cosmic horror destiny level, her home life and troubled past are a different story but that's not the point I'm trying to make right now), and this is because she's just...allowed to be a regular person.
If it turned out that Susie just...had willpower so strong that she defied the entire system of fate in Deltarune's world...I mean, I'd be rooting for her, "Susie Rulez" and all that, but I think it would take away from what makes her such an inspiring symbol of freedom, as it would require her to have enough inherent strength to have been overpowering god since the beginning.
And you might argue that Susie becoming the second hero would constrict her, but I believe that's entirely dependent on how she approaches it, and that she'll find a way to still be free despite playing a role. To use the actor comparison once again; Susie might be given a role to play, and she'll have to do certain things to effectively play it, but the role is thankfully not very strict in what it requires of her, and as such, she'll have a lot of control over how she plays it.
To elaborate a bit more on what I mean, look at Ralsei. It's highly likely that this guy has had his role of the third hero since his inception, and a big reason for that is because he starts out as little more than his role. His character arc is evidently one of learning to be a person outside of his so-called "purpose". So then we have Susie, who's relationship with Ralsei might just be the most blatant example of narrative and thematic foils ever conceived. Taking that into account, how might her relationship with her role contrast with his?
It's simple. While he turns himself into a person beyond his role, Susie takes advantage of the vagueness of her role, and transforms it into something that doesn't constrict her, but REPRESENTS her. Ralsei was born with his role, but if Susie becomes the girl, it'll be something she EARNED, an idea made even more clear by how the prophecy about the Prince describes him prior to the story's events, while the Girl's describes the person she becomes after a lot of development.
I don't think that Susie is literally so strong that she just completely invalidates the prophecy's existence and all of the stakes that come with it. I feel like if that was the case, it would honestly make her, and by extension the entire game's messages of freedom less inspiring, as the average person can't just topple the rules and restrictions of life with a growth mindset alone.
But I do think that she's strong enough to make the prophecy happen on her own terms. Even if she has to play a specific role, the sheer ingenuity of "Susie's Idea" (uh...as in her general creativity and tendency to question the norm, not as in her throwing her friends at opponents) will be enough for her to interpret the prophecy in a way crafty enough to achieve a happy ending, and gain her and those she holds dear enough freedom to "face danger head on"....much like Gerson said she'd have to do in a fight where the whole gimmick was her being stuck in place.
Ok, before I wrap this up, I just wanted to address something quickly, and that is this prophecy about the Girl which has an image of Rude Buster (or at least, that's what it's called in the files.)
Uh...I think the same principle that I applied to the prophecy at large still applies here? Probably? Ultimately it's nigh impossible to tell how seriously we're supposed to take the names of specific assets in the files, obviously ones labeled with "IMAGE" and "DEVICE" seem to be pretty important, but it's entirely possible that this asset is only called Rude Buster because that's the most obvious interpretation to make upon seeing it, even though on an in-universe level, it could be interpreted by the characters as something else should Susie not claim the title of The Girl in the long run (which as I said earlier, is a possibility I will cover in a later part.)
But that being said, it's just as likely that this is labeled as rude buster because that is just...what it is, and it cannot be anything else. So if that's the case and the game was to go in a direction where Noelle becomes the girl, then uh...I don't know, Noelle learns Rude Buster, and then we fight Carol in Chapter 6 and she uses a version of Dual Buster with Susie called Yuri Buster. Yeah...this isn't really something I can come up with an answer for that fully satisfies me, but I don't think the existence of this prophecy completely invalidates this entire theory, and that's good enough for me.
And...that's basically it for this part of the theory! To sum it up, I don't think that Susie, Noelle, or really anyone is destined to be the girl, but I also don't think there's anything stopping either of them from earning that role either. I also think that Susie being the girl can co-exist with her thematic role as a symbol of freedom and forging your own ending, and that she has the power to turn the title of the second hero from something that controls her, and into something that reflects her instead.
But that being said...this is far from the end of this theory in its entirety. Because while I disagree with the notion that Susie is defying the prophecy itself, and by extension its creator, by being here instead of Noelle...she might still be defying someone else by doing that. I think it's very likely that the Fun Gang is not the only group who will try to enact the prophecy in a way that benefits them. I think there are other individuals who are trying to do the same for their own purposes, and have been doing so since before the game began.
Individuals who want specific people to claim specific titles within the prophecy, with the three heroes being the most important ones. People who have been actively trying to force Noelle into becoming the second hero through various manipulations, who will continue to do so as the narrative progresses, and who may even succeed if I'm right in assuming that the Girl has yet to be officially chosen. People who are probably not very happy about Susie taking Noelle's chances of becoming The Girl. And I think the clearest example of this comes from the one, the only, Calloween Holiday.
....what, why are you looking at me like that?
Anyways, that's all for now! If you've managed to make it to the end of this, thank you so so much for reading! The theorising part of the Deltarune fandom is...quite intimidating to me at times, so I really hope that even if your opinions and interpretations differ from mine, you still had a good time enjoying what I had to say :).
In the next part, I plan to discuss what the Knight crew might be trying to do in relation to the prophecy, unpack at least a little bit about what their plan was with creating the Sanctuary and the Titan, talk about how my interpretation of the way the prophecy functions may apply to Kris, Noelle, and briefly Ralsei, and why I think it's likely that the identity of the Girl has yet to be officially determined forever.
I'm hoping to have the second part done pretty soon, and I'll update this post with a link to it when it's done, so keep an eye out if you're interested! :) <3
