Sorry. don’t know That. Never will. Been real.

[moss-stepper]

Through a strange confluence of events, I am most of the way through editing my first Deltarune theory video :)

It’s about retro tech and games and how I think they’re relevant to Deltarune

I really want to turn my courage post into a video too…

I will post it when it’s done here. I hope people will like it but it’s also just been fun making it for me n_n

[moss-stepper]

Changed my url now that I’m actually using this for more than one post. Might start putting together vids for YT also.

[moss-stepper]

Insert Chapter 7 Side B is about cassette tapes, NOT disks

I was discussing Weird Route with someone recently and they explained something to me I’d never known before: it used to be common practice to pirate video games for computer systems via radio waves saved to cassette tapes.

Most people think this is a reference to old games saved on multiple disks. That was my takeaway too, I’ve played many of those games.

The thing is, video game disks don’t have a Side B.

Sure, vinyls do, that’s fine, they’re…kind of like computer disks…but at the end of the day, they aren’t vinyls and equating them doesn’t make much sense.

What else has a B side? Cassettes.

When I learned about the video game pirating via radio waves on tapes thing, it sounded frankly fully outlandish to me, but some cursory searches made it clear this was actually very real.

This is the most comprehensive article I could find on the matter.

I think the theorizing community needs to shift to this thinking sooner than later. ESPECIALLY the fact that the pirating over radio waves was a thing. Sure it’s a win(?) for Pirate Gaster Truthers (do those exist???) but it also MIGHT relate to something else REALLY important…

Garbage noise.

[moss-stepper]

The Chapter 3 Antlions Are The Family Photo

I’ve seen some confusion about this, particularly that the RED antlion is the red horned headband.

I think that’s only half right.

First, you literally are using a camera to capture it.

Unearthed (meaning brought back up or discovered, like a memory) WITH a photo (it is THROUGH the photo that the headband is brought up/discovered)

Three blue antlions and one red. And if you’ll excuse some crude speculation on the family photo

The antlion IS the headband, but only a photo of it. The real object is likely still missing.

Bonus: I think it’s very cute that when you remove the color from them by taking photos of all of them they do this. It doesn’t matter who is who to this family. They love each other without that getting in the way.

[moss-stepper]

Kris' Theme IS Faint Courage

I have believed this for eight years and I'm sick of the 7/4 theory!!!!!!

THESIS STATEMENT

The word COURAGE comes up in the game VERY frequently, but also very quietly. I've not seen anyone else react to the word being dropped the way I do, but I've felt strongly since the very beginning that COURAGE is Deltarune's equivalent to Undertale's DETERMINATION narratively

As in, it's not the same thing, obviously determination exists in Deltarune. I'm not even saying courage is a metagaming superpower or anything, it could just be...courage. My point is, in Undertale, determination was a WORD ONLY up until True Lab, and then it was revealed to have been a force/mechanic the entire time.

It was important, it was carrying-the-entire-plot-IMPORTANT, even though we didn't know WHAT it was until later.

I believe that level of significance is going to be given to Courage, and Kris specifically, in Deltarune in the end.

EVIDENCE

Chapter One has some of the best evidence because:

When Ch1 came out, Toby Fox didn't technically know if all of Deltarune would ever truly exist, so it stands to reason the symbolism is pretty densely packed

Beginnings often include the heaviest foreshadowing, the biggest Chekov's guns, etc.

It's where the song debuted! So it was relevant EVEN when ALL that existed was Chapter One.

Here are all instances of the word COURAGE in Deltarune I think are significant.

Ralsei drops it before even taking off the damn cloak!!!!!!

Kris' SPECIAL ABILITY in the King boss fight is literally called COURAGE.

This is the strongest evidence in my opinion. It is SUCH a significant thing, and this isn't really a mechanic we see repeated, but literally Kris gains something just called "courage" in place of speaking. If you think of Kris' agency as a narrative device, the fact that their speech becomes instead something stronger, something called Courage, that instils the word with a very deep meaning I think!

We are all so focused on Kris' lack of agency, and here the game is saying that their Courage is perhaps even more powerful than their voice!

Anyone else remember that localization book where Toby Fox clarified that "determination" is just de- plus termination as in to undo death?

Encourage here is the same.

Kris has the ability to give courage to others. Kris' ENCOURAGEMENT is Kris GIVING COURAGE to others. Kris has a special affiliation with courage.

Here's more of that:

and for the road, some Chapter 5 dialogue where courage COMES BACK AGAIN! IT KEEPS COMING BACK!

(the FIRST thing Kris' FATHER says about them is they've become COURAGEOUS!)

CHAPTER FOUR: DARKNESS, FEAR; LIGHT, COURAGE

Chapter 4 introduced the darkness mechanics used in the Titan fight. I think with Chapter 5 out, we can see that 4's place pacing-wise was the first big spike in stakes and drama, as well as a look into what the deeper truths and challenges of the overall story may be. I think the darkness mechanics and Titan fight were an important look into the, heh, depths, of the story.

Before we fight the Titan, we get a tutorial fight in the form of the Titan Spawn, which is described in the game as "a shard of fear" that "appears in places of deep dark."

In the fight against the Titan Spawn, this happens:

Which mirrors this in the Jackenstein fight:

So what is ???...

It's COURAGE.

Courage is the byproduct of banishing fear with light. Your TENSION (TP) increases as you gather Courage. It's not easy...You need it, all that courage, even though you feel tenser as you gain it, because courage is the source of the light that can purify the fear known as darkness.

I can't help but wonder if some people misremembered that the tiny yellow pellets are light. They're little yellow dots in a black setting, that's what distant lights look like. Little specks of light in the dark.

On that train of thought, though, they're even smaller than the light from the soul. Tiny, tiny little pellets. A small light...when light is small, we call it:

Faint.

But it's not faint light. It's courage. Faint courage.

In the same chapter where it's revealed that the connection between the soul and light is tremendous.

But you might say, Okay, so Light is associated with the SOUL, the PLAYER, not KRIS, to which I can only say:

The save point, the one that reveals Kris' extant save file OUTSIDE of the influence of the player, of the SOUL as we know it. If these lights are how we save, then Kris, at LEAST once, accessed it. Kris, at least once, saw the light. The light that gathers courage and banishes darkness.

Edit: I didn’t think of this in the moment but we “gather” the pellets of courage, as in, we accumulate them, but that’s actually another play on words! When one bolsters oneself against fear, we call that “gathering your courage”!

THEMES (AURA FARMING SEGMENT)

If Courage is Deltarune's Determination, I have some thematic backing.

Frisk in Undertale was the only character we met (aside from Chara, who we don't properly meet until the VERY end) with vast and unconquerable determination, in the end.

All Lightners seem to possess determination. It's not unique to Kris, not the way saving and ACTing are. But something IS unique to Kris. Whether that's the soul, whether that's whatever happened before, whatever caused Kris' save file to exist at all.

Kris is described as fearful of the shelter. Kris is a kid who was put into therapy for some reason, following some sort of event. Many speculate, with good reason, that Kris' fear of the shelter (as spoken of by other kids and also as demonstrated in the Sword Route minigame) is linked to whatever therapy Kris went through as a child.

Now, you'll have to do your own research or take my word for it, but I've done a lot of research into childhood trauma and PTSD in my life, and it sounds a lot to me like Kris was put into therapy for treatment of PTSD. Art therapy in particular is really effective for younger children being treated for PTSD! Which can even include a single-event trauma that doesn't end up staying traumatic long-term (but I think we can all agree the trauma is still relevant to Kris as a teenager!).

Kris experiences fear uniquely in Deltarune.

Everyone has determination, every Lightner has the will to keep going, as the drive to keep living.

But maybe Kris is unique in having faced something truly fearful. Maybe Kris' self-harm imagery between the scene with the sink running, with them attacking the soul in the bathroom in the weird route, with Toriel AND Asgore softly acknowledging how badly Kris is doing and offering nothing but gentle words and sympathy...it all indicates that this fear is overwhelming, so absolute and consuming that it puts them in danger. Even in the Light World. It's always there.

And yet, Kris has courage. Kris knows the deepest dark in some way, in some form, and while others may be determined enough to make Dark Fountains, I don't think all of them have the Courage to face what's down in the deepest depths.

That's what Kris has. Kris has courage.

But they're still scared. They're terrified.

It's faint, but it glitters stubbornly, catching light even in the deepest darkness.

Faint Courage.

ALSO THE FAINT COURAGE MOTIF WAS IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO BE DROPPED IN THE UNDERTALE 10TH ANNIVERSARY STREAM SO IT'S COMING BACK BIG TIME, MARK MY WORDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[moss-stepper]

Great cover to listen to if you like this theory btw. Devastating how few good covers there are of Faith Courage but this one has some really great moments and I think captures the essence of why I think the song has massive potential on a purely musical level.

[moss-stepper]

I have no proof of this because I’m not a data miner but I think Noelle’s line about “I’m just a Noelle that has to do Noelle things” is likely referencing that all her dialogue, sprites, behaviors etc likely include the word “Noelle” in the code to indicate they are properties that make up The Character Known As Noelle.

Does anyone know how accurate this assumption is? I think it’s important to look at what Makes Noelle Who She Is very literally…especially if we think she’s about to start breaking things

[gamey-geemer]

I will need to double check the actual code base, but I am pretty sure that the individual lines are just stored as whole conversations in the code, since they're sorted like obj_[variable] on the Deltarune Text Dump.

Her sprites are definitely labeled as Noelle, but I think she uses a default follower script to determine her behavior while following you

[moss-stepper]

That’s great to know, thank you!

[moss-stepper]

I have no proof of this because I’m not a data miner but I think Noelle’s line about “I’m just a Noelle that has to do Noelle things” is likely referencing that all her dialogue, sprites, behaviors etc likely include the word “Noelle” in the code to indicate they are properties that make up The Character Known As Noelle.

Does anyone know how accurate this assumption is? I think it’s important to look at what Makes Noelle Who She Is very literally…especially if we think she’s about to start breaking things

[moss-stepper]

Kris' Theme IS Faint Courage

I have believed this for eight years and I'm sick of the 7/4 theory!!!!!!

THESIS STATEMENT

The word COURAGE comes up in the game VERY frequently, but also very quietly. I've not seen anyone else react to the word being dropped the way I do, but I've felt strongly since the very beginning that COURAGE is Deltarune's equivalent to Undertale's DETERMINATION narratively

As in, it's not the same thing, obviously determination exists in Deltarune. I'm not even saying courage is a metagaming superpower or anything, it could just be...courage. My point is, in Undertale, determination was a WORD ONLY up until True Lab, and then it was revealed to have been a force/mechanic the entire time.

It was important, it was carrying-the-entire-plot-IMPORTANT, even though we didn't know WHAT it was until later.

I believe that level of significance is going to be given to Courage, and Kris specifically, in Deltarune in the end.

EVIDENCE

Chapter One has some of the best evidence because:

When Ch1 came out, Toby Fox didn't technically know if all of Deltarune would ever truly exist, so it stands to reason the symbolism is pretty densely packed

Beginnings often include the heaviest foreshadowing, the biggest Chekov's guns, etc.

It's where the song debuted! So it was relevant EVEN when ALL that existed was Chapter One.

Here are all instances of the word COURAGE in Deltarune I think are significant.

Ralsei drops it before even taking off the damn cloak!!!!!!

Kris' SPECIAL ABILITY in the King boss fight is literally called COURAGE.

This is the strongest evidence in my opinion. It is SUCH a significant thing, and this isn't really a mechanic we see repeated, but literally Kris gains something just called "courage" in place of speaking. If you think of Kris' agency as a narrative device, the fact that their speech becomes instead something stronger, something called Courage, that instils the word with a very deep meaning I think!

We are all so focused on Kris' lack of agency, and here the game is saying that their Courage is perhaps even more powerful than their voice!

Anyone else remember that localization book where Toby Fox clarified that "determination" is just de- plus termination as in to undo death?

Encourage here is the same.

Kris has the ability to give courage to others. Kris' ENCOURAGEMENT is Kris GIVING COURAGE to others. Kris has a special affiliation with courage.

Here's more of that:

and for the road, some Chapter 5 dialogue where courage COMES BACK AGAIN! IT KEEPS COMING BACK!

(the FIRST thing Kris' FATHER says about them is they've become COURAGEOUS!)

CHAPTER FOUR: DARKNESS, FEAR; LIGHT, COURAGE

Chapter 4 introduced the darkness mechanics used in the Titan fight. I think with Chapter 5 out, we can see that 4's place pacing-wise was the first big spike in stakes and drama, as well as a look into what the deeper truths and challenges of the overall story may be. I think the darkness mechanics and Titan fight were an important look into the, heh, depths, of the story.

Before we fight the Titan, we get a tutorial fight in the form of the Titan Spawn, which is described in the game as "a shard of fear" that "appears in places of deep dark."

In the fight against the Titan Spawn, this happens:

Which mirrors this in the Jackenstein fight:

So what is ???...

It's COURAGE.

Courage is the byproduct of banishing fear with light. Your TENSION (TP) increases as you gather Courage. It's not easy...You need it, all that courage, even though you feel tenser as you gain it, because courage is the source of the light that can purify the fear known as darkness.

I can't help but wonder if some people misremembered that the tiny yellow pellets are light. They're little yellow dots in a black setting, that's what distant lights look like. Little specks of light in the dark.

On that train of thought, though, they're even smaller than the light from the soul. Tiny, tiny little pellets. A small light...when light is small, we call it:

Faint.

But it's not faint light. It's courage. Faint courage.

In the same chapter where it's revealed that the connection between the soul and light is tremendous.

But you might say, Okay, so Light is associated with the SOUL, the PLAYER, not KRIS, to which I can only say:

The save point, the one that reveals Kris' extant save file OUTSIDE of the influence of the player, of the SOUL as we know it. If these lights are how we save, then Kris, at LEAST once, accessed it. Kris, at least once, saw the light. The light that gathers courage and banishes darkness.

Edit: I didn’t think of this in the moment but we “gather” the pellets of courage, as in, we accumulate them, but that’s actually another play on words! When one bolsters oneself against fear, we call that “gathering your courage”!

THEMES (AURA FARMING SEGMENT)

If Courage is Deltarune's Determination, I have some thematic backing.

Frisk in Undertale was the only character we met (aside from Chara, who we don't properly meet until the VERY end) with vast and unconquerable determination, in the end.

All Lightners seem to possess determination. It's not unique to Kris, not the way saving and ACTing are. But something IS unique to Kris. Whether that's the soul, whether that's whatever happened before, whatever caused Kris' save file to exist at all.

Kris is described as fearful of the shelter. Kris is a kid who was put into therapy for some reason, following some sort of event. Many speculate, with good reason, that Kris' fear of the shelter (as spoken of by other kids and also as demonstrated in the Sword Route minigame) is linked to whatever therapy Kris went through as a child.

Now, you'll have to do your own research or take my word for it, but I've done a lot of research into childhood trauma and PTSD in my life, and it sounds a lot to me like Kris was put into therapy for treatment of PTSD. Art therapy in particular is really effective for younger children being treated for PTSD! Which can even include a single-event trauma that doesn't end up staying traumatic long-term (but I think we can all agree the trauma is still relevant to Kris as a teenager!).

Kris experiences fear uniquely in Deltarune.

Everyone has determination, every Lightner has the will to keep going, as the drive to keep living.

But maybe Kris is unique in having faced something truly fearful. Maybe Kris' self-harm imagery between the scene with the sink running, with them attacking the soul in the bathroom in the weird route, with Toriel AND Asgore softly acknowledging how badly Kris is doing and offering nothing but gentle words and sympathy...it all indicates that this fear is overwhelming, so absolute and consuming that it puts them in danger. Even in the Light World. It's always there.

And yet, Kris has courage. Kris knows the deepest dark in some way, in some form, and while others may be determined enough to make Dark Fountains, I don't think all of them have the Courage to face what's down in the deepest depths.

That's what Kris has. Kris has courage.

But they're still scared. They're terrified.

It's faint, but it glitters stubbornly, catching light even in the deepest darkness.

Faint Courage.

ALSO THE FAINT COURAGE MOTIF WAS IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO BE DROPPED IN THE UNDERTALE 10TH ANNIVERSARY STREAM SO IT'S COMING BACK BIG TIME, MARK MY WORDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!