I’m sure that by now pretty much everyone who’s played Chapter 4 has noticed that the Titan we battle in the Dark Sanctuary, compared to the prophecy’s depiction is… oddly angelic?
Feathered wings and countless eyes, a battle amidst the church heights, a general fear-inducing presence… I could go on, but you get the picture. If titans are primordial embodiments of darknesss and fear of the unknown, then it’s very likely that this particular titan was shaped by fear of The Angel itself.
Though it’s not as easy to identify which traits are titanic and which are purely angelic considering we don’t even know what The Angel looks like. Even Susie’s and Ralsei’s responses to an obscured depiction are rather vague, though it may be more than a little disturbing.
Nevertheless, all depictions of The Angel thus far have been deliberately vague: the featureless doll in the hospital room, the aforementioned hidden prophecy visual, and the delta rune we’ve seen since Undertale is little more than a round blob with wings.
The identity of The Angel is similarly unknown, though possible candidates include Gaster, The Discarded Vessel and possibly even The Gamer Playing It All, given our otherworldly presence and control over the narrative as we watch over its characters combined with our actual Angel disguise in the Holiday’s house. The imagery couldn’t get more literal if it tried.
But this isn’t the only way the Angel makes its presence known throughout both Undertale and Deltarune - The NEO designs also seem to share a strangely angelic design. Why is this, I wonder?
The NEO vessel, which Spamton uses as part of his desperate attempt to reach Heaven, was built by Swatch following a certain Somebody’s abandoned dream. Thankfully, this dream seems to be awakened in a different way, thanks to Mr Tenna and what we know about the underground’s glamorous TV star.
The NEO design, having been shaped by a Lightner’s dream, may have somewhat been inspired by the imagery of angels. After all, Mettaton’s name is a reference to the angel Metatron. And this may also be the case in Undertale - the NEO and EX bodies were built by Alphys according to Mettaton’s design much like Swatch’s attempt, yet the Delta Rune has remained consistent. It’s possible the imagery of angels played a part of Undertale’s NEO design as well. And both NEO designs, much like Asriel’s ms paint art, bears the Giant Boss With Rainbow Wings visuals of Undertale’s God Of Hyperdeath. And until we came along, neither of them would see the light of day.
Speaking of which, let’s talk about Asriel for a bit. He possibly fulfills the role of The Angel in Undertale’s happiest outcome, and his name is both an allusion to Azrael the Angel of Death, and an anagram of Sariel, another angelic figure and also a Touhou boss.
What I find interesting about Asriel’s boss battle in Undertale is his self-proclaimed title God of Hyperdeath. It’s very much a consequence of this battle being one big self-insert between him and his best friend, complete with grandiose attack names and impractical weapon designs. It’s pure wish fulfillment: Asriel gets to play with them again, the monsters get the freedom they’ve always wanted, and the player gets one heck of a final battle. In more ways than one, the Angel has been met with its desire.
But there’s something about this fight that still bugs me: considering all the aforementioned angelic aspects, why is this form titled the God of Hyperdeath, when Angel of Death fits just fine? The easy solution is Asriel’s just power tripping, but that discrepancy makes me wonder if this really is the full picture regarding Undertale’s Angel.
Gerson notes that the Angel of Death seems to be another way of looking at the Delta Rune Angel. With the clear parallels between the Dark Sanctuaries and the Waterfall region, along with the snippets of the prophecy we learn in both, I think it bears mentioning how River Person plays into this idea of The Angel of Death. Considering the idea of Charon the Styx ferryman, along with the reappearance of the underground in Ralsei’s explanation of Dark Worlds as an Other Side of reality and the yet to be seen elemental pairing Death/Scythe, I think we should lookout out for any further connections between The Angel and the idea of The Grim Reaper. Speaking of which…
I need to talk about Reaper Bird.
Out of all the true lab amalgamates, Reaper Bird still eludes me, because where the heck did it go? It’s nowhere to be seen in the epilogue even though it has obvious component monsters, but the CORE is simply populated with shadowy silhouettes lacking distinct features. And in Deltarune’s graveyard, there’s no tombstone to be seen, even though all the other amalgamates with known counterparts are there. Friggin’ Everyman has a greater presence in Deltarune than this poor bird. While the memoryheads are nigh unrecognizable and missing from the epilogue due to lacking definite families, they still at least reappear in the elevator cutscene. We know where Reaper Bird came from - but it’s out of the picture entirely, as if the game forgot the bird even existed.
But the mystery of Reaper Bird doesn’t end there. Along with Everyman’s ubiquitous presence in Deltarune, the overworld sprite is oddly similar to Asriel’s chaos buster attack, and that butterfly swarm strangely resembles the Lost Souls. And both butterflies and birds are common depictions of departed souls in various myth, along with the word Psyche (meaning breath, life, or soul) being the name for the Butterfly winged goddess and partner of Eros, the feathery winged god of love and desire from classical mythology. Knowing Undertale, this may be a little intentional.
There’s also the place we find Reaper Bird - in a hallway of glass mirrors, surrounded by Golden Flowers. Right after we see Alphys’s plans to use a Vessel that is neither human nor monster, and right before we discover the location of the blue key: a chilly place initially filled with a variety of indistinct figures with rather interesting descriptiors. These things play a rather important role of the story, but Reaper Bird just chills between them, hidden in the glass until it emerges from your speech bubble itself.
And the hardmode monsters that make up Reaper Bird all have rather interesting connections to Deltarune:
Whimsalot, the mothlike knight who attacks you with butterflies, and who has a rather grim beta design.
Final Froggit, who strangely resembles the dust froggy you use to escape to ManCountry.
And Astigmatism, whose eye/smile design oddly mirrors that of the Roaring Knight, and whose design and flavour text allude to eyes and glasses.
Unlike Madjik and Knight Knight (who also have a strange connection to Deltarune but that’s another story), these monsters are never described as mercenaries in the flavour text, and when you face them all at once, a very interesting description is used:
Returning back to Deltarune’s Titan after this diatribe, I want to bring up another intriguing aspect of this beast that takes on a rather new meaning given Undertale’s Angel-related imagery.
How Ralsei described it as hatching, along with the way the fountain cracks as clawed arms and wings emerge...
The banded talons as it hatches and the feathers shed as it heals...
The initial silhouette resembling something curved and pale like an eggshell, before feathered wings unfold...
The spawn with an elongated head resembling the early stages of chick development...
…and the winged star design much like the not-so-original starwalker, found right before the first egg room.
The Dark Sanctuary Titan isn’t just angelic.
And have you noticed how quite a bit of this angelic imagery goes hand in wing with birdlike imagery?
Spamton and the pipis are a sillier example, but Swatch’s involvement with NEO, Reaper Bird being called Reaper Bird, the Angel’s ubiquitous feathered wings, even the idea Kris is supposed to be The Cage with a Human Soul?
Even the seemingly one-off birdlike darkners have their relevance.
the dolphin/bird Poppups show you some of the Lightners’ interests and turn pink upon recruit like the church mizzles, the swatchling flavour text shows glimpses of Kris's past, Guei forms from hope candles and has flavour text for each of the buried amalgamates, Winglades correspond to light world quill pens - the white pen of hope perhaps? Especially considering a white feather falling from Guei is what teaches you about the money fountain in Gerson's study (which may also explain why Winglade earns you more money after battle - the only other items to do so are the silver card and dealmaker so idk???)
And don't even get me started on the holy halberd's bizarre resemblance to the Knight's weapon and nearly making a darker fountain. Or the fact that the Knight can turn into a bird and fly, while Berdly is the only Lightner thus far who can fly and appear out of Gaster-knows-where like he’s in creative mode. Or the sky mantle sharing properties with Berdly's glowy armour. Or the NEO battle combining Berdly’s rollercoaster and wired battles. Or Berdly being completely removed from the prophecy despite being vital to Giga Queen’s Battle. Or that Berdly being comatose messes with your Normal Bird librarby interactions in ch4. Or that Berdly’s desk is where the Eggroom Eggs are counted. Or the 3% chance of encountering the Rotten Fruit flavour text in the Snowgrave Jackenstein Fight. Or the heartbeat descriptions in both the titanspawn battle and Berdly’s weird route ost. Or one particular titan attack resembling an unused Reaper Bird attack. Or the scrapped Undertale encounter Larpy that was supposed to have retro-RPG mechanics much like the Jackenstein fight. Or the bird ambience surrounding the throne room where Alphys chose a vessel, as well as the shelter.
Or the room from the 10th anniversary livestream that indirectly references So Many Thinges, and the teacher is A Bird Lady Dressed Like Lisa Simpson.
I Am Actively Losing My Mind Here.
In my attempts to keep on topic I’ve cut out so much of the Weird Bird Events that are yet to be explained, but I hope I’ve made my point somewhat clear.
Just as The Prophecy, Heaven and Freedom can be tied back to the mysterious Angel… so do The Birds.
