i have some predictions for rudy in deltarune chapter 6.
we all know by now what happened at the end of susie and noelle's date scene in chapter 5.
oh boy. i've been thinking about this for a while now, seeing as rudy is one of my favorite deltarune characters. we've been teased with his potential death since the beginning, and while this isn't exactly a confirmation of his death per se, it's hard not to make the connection to undertale's concept of monsters that have "fallen down" (gone comatose prior to turning to dust, iirc).
of course, my initial reaction was that of the more popular interpretation of rudy having collapsed at the festival due to his weakness. this makes sense for me too; if going to church in chapter 4 took that much energy out of him, it's highly likely he could have simply passed out, having exerted himself too much setting up the festival lights.
of course while i'd rather rudy live, like any other deltarune fan wants, i've been leaning more towards the "rudy is going to die/will be dead in chapter 6" camp lately-- especially in the past few hours, after getting inspired by a youtube short that appeared in my feed.
and then, seeing this comment.
immediately, i had a brain blast. there's been a pattern of dead mentors lately. we already have the obvious dead mentor in gerson, who taught susie that it's okay not to be perfect and that she should never give up on the things she wants to get better at, but it wasn't until this comment that i clocked flowery as ralsei's dead mentor too, as he pushed him to have hope that the prophecy can be changed (and also might have nudged him towards exploring his gender identity).
this led me to wonder if kris might also end up with a dead mentor. assuming that this hypothetical motif isn't just a coincidence and we end up hearing it again for another dead mentor in the next chapter, i believe it would be interesting to have kris' dead potential mentor... be rudy.
if rudy turns out to have passed away in chapter 6 and the dark fountain is in the holiday home as many people have begun to theorize, what if he's revived via his dust like gerson was?
obviously, a large focus in chapter 6 is going to be on noelle, seeing as susie intends to properly introduce her to the concept of the dark worlds in chapter 6. assuming she's receptive to susie's offer (and assuming kris even lets susie go through with this plan, considering they don't want susie to get any closer to the code in dess' guitar) if a dark fountain opened up in the holiday home, imagine the desperation and trauma of having just watched a loved one pass away, only to see them alive again while you're still processing your grief?
that on its own would be a wonderful and tragic B-plot to the main prophecy and shelter code story, but i've wanted to see more of kris and rudy's relationship for the longest time, so having him follow the trend that gerson and flowery started? i think it would be really effective from a storytelling standpoint.
rudy's always given "cool uncle" vibes towards kris. makes sense considering he and asgore are close friends. while rudy and kris haven't interacted much in game beyond his dialogue in the hospital and his brief scenes in church and at the festival, it's clear to me that rudy cares a lot about kris and feels comfortable enough to tease them a little.
if rudy were to act as kris' mentor in chapter 6, i don't think it would be about kris' relationship to their soul. at least, not completely. while there is some loose evidence that he could know about kris' soul and the dark worlds, being this line of dialogue which you'll know all too well if you're a rudy knight believer ...
... i'm hesitant to go all in on rudy being fully in on the knight and carol's schemes. although i am a huge fan of rudy knight and, admittedly, do kinda hope he IS the roaring knight, for the sake of this hypothetical, i'm gonna say this line was rudy maybe overhearing a call between carol and kris. perhaps they were discussing the plan from chapter 2 to slash toriel's tires and open a fountain in the dreemurr house, and rudy was making a joke about it, not totally understanding what the conversation was about.
although again, rudy knight IS interesting, this isn't about that; if you want more rudy knight, i highly recommend this video... it's what converted me from a dess knight fan to a rudy knight fan.
sorry, got off track there for a moment. this isn't a rudy knight prediction. this is a "what if rudy dies" prediction.
so, anyway, if rudy were to end up being kris' dead mentor, i don't think they'd talk directly about the soul. rather, i'd want them to explore kris' past. the dreemurrs and holidays had a close bond before dess' disappearance, and kris clearly has complicated thoughts about how everything panned out. due to kris being controlled by us for a majority of the game, we don't really get to learn that much about them since they don't get to speak for themselves often.
i think if rudy could push kris to confront their past more directly, maybe express a desire for the two families to come together again in his memory, as a result, kris would need to be honest with us and be more clear about what they want from us, mirroring mew mew's arc in chapter 5 of learning to compromise with what her body wants and what she wants (which is an analogy i've seen people make between kris and mew mew lately that i like a lot).
additionally, if chapter 6 had a focus on kris as their own character, it would make sense why the weird route skips right to chapter 7. it just wouldn't make sense to explain kris' backstory and desires in a route where the player clearly doesn't care what kris wants.
i have a feeling that kris finding solidarity with the soul will be an important factor in the coming chapters. there's most definitely going to be a near-falling out with susie sometime during chapter 6 or 7 seeing as her finding out that kris is in cahoots with the knight is the biggest chekov's gun in the entirety of deltarune, and i feel that part of how kris will make it up to susie will be explaining their connection to us.
and, of course, the dead rudy's advice and guidance in the dark world would be the catalyst for kris' decision to try and understand us better. when playing the normal route, most of us are trying to do what's best for kris, or rather, what we THINK is best for kris. by letting them have some heart-to-hearts with rudy and learning more of their backstory, we will better understand what we can do for kris.
that, i think, is one of the directions deltarune could go with rudy and kris in chapter 6. part of me is still ride or die for rudy knight... but i think this might be more realistic considering deltarune's themes.
there's a lot more i could go on about when it comes to the idea of the dead mentors theory and further exploring rudy and kris as characters, but all this thinking is tiring me out. discussion is encouraged and i'd love to theorize and answer any questions.
that's all i got for now. if you made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read all this! i know it's a bit of an essay... but i couldn't sleep. too much deltarune on the mind. i'm sure you get it.
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