I like undertale's neutral endings. I have been in the undertale fandom for over fifteen years now, and I can tell you that 90% of AUs and fanfictions follow either the pacifist run endings or the genocide ending and I think that is a shame.
Don't get me wrong, I love the pacifist ending for that game and the genocide route still gives me the creeps, however, some of the neutral endings in Undertale lead to such insane scenarios that really build on characters. Some of my favorites are the one where Toriel comes back and becomes queen, the one where Papyrus becomes king and the one where Alphys becones queen. And they vary quite drastically too with how life carries on in the underground. Some are hopeful, like the one of Toriel and some can be quite terrifying, such as with Undyne taking over. And some are truly just somber, and yet they are not spoken about much.
This isn't just a rant regarding the fandom's actions towards the neutral endings, however. This is about Deltarune.
Because just like how all of the neutral endings in Undertale are technically the same ending, Frisk tries to leave the underground with Asgore's soul and ends up trapped in eternal darkness, I too believe Deltarune will be similar in that it will end the same way regardless of how you play that?
What is the ending? Dear reader, I am here to reveal how I believe Deltarune will come to a close. The grand finale of this epic narrative where we save the world. Are you ready to see it? Are you ready to witness how this epic tale might conclude in my eyes? Dear viewer, behold the ending to a game that has been a decade plus in the making!
With Asriel going back to college.
I think that, no matter what our actions are, the fun gang *will* stop the apocalypse and save the world and things will carry on like normal, regardless of what you choose.
This isn't to say that our choices don't matter. We KNOW they do. But I think it is worth analyzing how our actions matter in Deltarune, and the simple way to put it is relationships.
See, I think that the prophecy is going to require the sacrifice of all darkners to save the world. It is why Susie is so upset about it. She has made a lot of friendships in there. She wants to save them.
But what about Kris? And this is a slight tangent, but I have a slight question to you, reader. Does Kris actually care? Not about the lightners, we KNOW they care about Susie and Noelle, but does Kris care about the darkners? Mind you, the darkners are manifestations of their and the knight's mind, likely from a very very long time ago when they would actually give objects a personality (yes, I think that the knight is Dess. This is not about that though.) A big theming with darkners is the idea of irrelevancy. That they don't matter. That they aren't real, and I think that is how Kris sees them as well. At least, at first, if you choose to show them that path. If you choose to teach them to care. Because the truth is, Kris not only thinks they have outgrown most of these darkners, such as Tenna and Ramb, they also believe that it isn't worth truly connecting to them since their fate is set in stone, as is Kris: to be a cage, a vessel who will likely die as soon as we leave their body and the story ends. To them, it is hopeless. To them, they are trapped.
And yet. When meeting Spamton, they still take a step back in fear. And they still shout after the Neo fight after they likely thought Spamton was dead. So clearly, they aren't completely apathetic. And this becomes more true the further into the stiry we go. Kris' relationship with Ralsei will increase and grow fonder if we allow it to. And it is true that they are trapped and just a puppet on a string.
But my question in here, dear viewer, is, are we really the ones pulling their strings? If so, why does the prophecy describe them as a cage? Why were we given a vessel, a creation, only for it to then be discarded? Why are they so adamant at keeping the SOUL at arms' length?
But that is a theory for another day. The point is, Kris, knows that this story only has one ending and they see this as a curse. But it is as Gerson said. Endings can be rewritten, stories can be reinterpreted and there is a reason why Susie is the one holding the pen. And you know what I find particularly interesting? Susie, while she CAN and WILL go against the SOUL's commands, she isn't aggressive or rude about it and she is willing to comply when she thinks that we are right. You know, the Gerson fight is the soul and Susie working together, we defeat the titan by acting together and those are only a couple of examples. Think about all the acts that we can play with Susie. In other words, sure, Susie isn't passive towards the SOUL, but she isn't difficult either. She just doesn't always agree with us. You know. Like friends often do.
But I think that both Susie and a player who has gone out of their way to recruit ALL enemies can agree that they don't want all darkners to die. And even if darkners do need to make a sacrifice, that doesn't necessarily mean that they need to die. Much like how in chapter two, different darkners will offer different skills after you collected them, couldn't they do the same in the final battle against the titans? Couldn't their sacrifice be about helping us with however they can without losing their lives in the process? Can't the sacrificial lamb appease god without offering its blood?
I also believe that the final ending of Deltarune will have a few other relationship changes among darkners, for example, Susie and Noelle might get together as will Undyne and Alphys in the good ending. If you push them to. And so can Kris snd Berdly and maybe even others! (Rudygore, I'm looking at you. Actually, it would be really funny if Deltarune ended with a divorce of Carol and Rudy ngl)
As for the snowgrave route. Well. I am sure you can imagine that likely won't end well for most darkners and for the lightners, we will end up either strained or worse.
Finally, we have the neutral routes. The whole point of this post. See, Deltarune already does neutral routes a lot better than Undertale did, because depending on who you have recruited and saved, you can get special events. So, sure, maybe you didn't spare everyone in chapter 2, but thay doesn't mean that Tenna can't become King's jester in chapter 4.
And even if there is only one ending, even if this ending isn't anything grandiose like most theories seem to believe it will be, Deltarune is about the inside. It is about the journey and, literally, the friends you made along the way. Deltarune is about the space in between, the quiet moments that will take you to those destinations. And it is about deciding who is worth saving the world for.
That is all to say, I look forward to seeing the neutral routes in Deltarune. I hope others will too.