Dess not being saved in the end of Deltarune would be wildly out of character for Susie
Been mulling this one over for a while, so long rant/theory/analysis incoming.
I just don't see it not happening. It's completely out of character for her. It goes against the themes of the game. I've seen interpretations of potential endings where the game focuses on the aesop of moving on from the past. But to be honest? Let me tell you something. And FYI, this is only directed at anyone who thinks she won't be. For everyone else, this is just semi-serious exaggerated funny rhetoric.
Look at me. Now look at Susie.
Are you seriously going to tell me.
That Susie "Hope Crossed on her Heart" Motherfucking Deltarune
The girl who told you your choices don't matter, negated your LITERAL GOD POWERS OF CUTSCENE PAUSING (repeatedly), who declared that she would NEVER let the tragedy happen, and whose optimism is so infectiously powerful that it causes LITERALLY everyone around her to gain character development.
Would ever be caught dead or alive in a million years watching Noelle --- THE PERSON SHE LOVES MOST --- CRY, because she just learned her sister is DEAD and GONE FOREVER, and saying "Yeah this is fine"?
No. That would be WILDLY fucking out of character for her. That would be character assassination. She would not fucking say that. She would not fucking do that. Susie would say, "I don't accept this. I WILL save her whether anyone likes it or not. NOBODY makes my friends cry. I will kill GOD if I have to."
And one might say, "Oh, but what if she can't?" Okay, first off? Yes she can. How many fucking rules and impossible fights has she broken by now? With the player's help, this girl is damn near unstoppable. All she needs is one monumentally stupid idea and it will follow her 100% successful track record of dumb ideas that work. You will click Susie's Idea and then she will kick god's ass. That's how Susie works.
But fine. Let's assume she can't. Here's why that's FUCKING STUPID and also CONFLICTS WITH THE THEMES. It is deceptively simple: Deltarune is a legend about HOPES and DREAMS. This categorically excludes a tragic, sad ending where you just have to accept a monumentally bad outcome for something.
But, we already got the dreams covered, right? Shadow crystals. The pure crystal. What's the opposite of a broken dream? A fulfilled one. There's your dreams. Now what do we have to cover the hope part?
JUST SAID IT. IT'S FUCKING SUSIE.
Not only do we have undertale telling us that we can even save someone who is already dead, even if they are still kinda cursed (dragon blazers 2, btw, the cursed sister), but we ALSO know that Toby Fox is not the type of author who just tells you to go fuck yourself when you make an effort to do everything right, AND after BAITING YOU WITH HINTS AND MESSAGES that tell you of this mysterious character who everyone wants to find, and telling you to do it!
The ARG tells you to find her. Every character who mentions her misses her. The entire catalyst of the game is her vanishing. Nobody can fucking move on from it unless they either get closure or get her back. She's not even explicitly dead like Mari was!
You can't just tease an audience with the prospect of finding a lost person and bringing them back only to hit them with the UMM ACKSHUALLY THEY'RE DEAD GET OVER IT LOL hammer. This isn't Omori (where it worked) and that's not toby, and he's the one who made this damn legend up in the first place. I don't care how closely he worked with Omocat, no way in hell is that happening. That would be out of character for HIM.
So if that's the case, Susie's hope HAS to succeed. It just doesn't make sense for it not to. It would leave the story on an EXTREMELY unsatisfying note with a cliche'd played-straight aesop from an author who is known for subverting your expectations in creative ways that are impossible to predict because you can't penetrate his mind.
So it's out of character for Susie. It's out of character for Toby. It conflicts with the main themes of the game. It leaves the player unsatisfied after years of teasing. It leaves the characters unsatisfied. It provides NO additional substance to the story that has not already been explored by many other pieces of media. It does not pay off the buildup to her. And it is not. Just. It is not deserved, for ANYONE.
These are all of the reasons why it is HIGHLY unlikely (and inappropriate) that Dess is not going to be saved at the end of the game. I just can't see it happening, there is no fucking way that would be a good enough ending to justify this two-decade-long crusade to make a dream reality. It just doesn't make any sense. And if her being saved isn't in any ending, I will consider it a dealbreaker unless there is something absolutely insane included that makes it magically okay.
End of rant. Try not to take this post/theory/analysis too seriously, I'm just venting 3AM thoughts that aren't directed at anything in particular.
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