I think any Deltarune analysis is incomplete if it doesn't acknowledge the fact that the player has no agency in this relationship either. A lot of early theorizing was that playing the game itself was bad, and comparisons were made to spec ops: the line.
Spec Ops has become something of a cliché in game criticism/theorizing because it represents one of the first times where the relationship between the game and the player was more complicated than just being a player insert power fantasy. Where it was explicitly part of the text that by playing this game beyond the first minute, you were already defying orders and risking lives. If Captain Martin Walker turned around, everything would have turned out much better.
That's not the case here and I hope that is clear by now.
We were *tricked.* The intro is us being promised a blank vessel, then forced into an already occupied body. We had no choice in this. Our only other option is non-existence, and that's not a choice anyone can really make.
Of course, we can make this relationship positive or negative. There's every sign that before we entered Kris's life, they were almost an empty shell of a person. They hadn't been to school in a while. They're extremely unkempt. They have nothing on display in their room. What friends they had have been alienated. Whatever happened to them before the game started, it seemed like they had stopped *living.* like they lost their soul, or, perhaps, their Determination.
We give that back to them.
Each chapter shows them growing progressively more autonomous. They take a more active role and show more of their personality. They defy us when they don't like what we tell them to do in increasingly forceful ways. They have fun without us telling them to. On a normal route, we are mostly a positive influence in their life. Of course, they resent us still. They're a teenager and we're a force of control in their life. Of course, they want freedom.
Maybe we can help each other with that.
(Weird route is, quite literally, another story)
blakekathryn
theartofmadeline
turnnoffyourmind
izzy806
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