UT/DR THEORY: HOW THE HUMAN SHIRTS MARK PURPOSE
.....So, have you ever wondered why Kris wears a Chara shirt ? Some of you might think it's obviously because Kris *IS* Chara. Others might say it's just a red herring or it's to signify how, one way or another, Kris is a fusion of Frisk and Chara. After all, Kris is the Dark World has Frisk's colors, as opposed to the Light World !
The thing is, Kris isn't the only human we're shown in Deltarune, we have another.
And interestingly enough, they have TWO stripes, like Frisk. Making a nice symetry between our vessel and Kris. That's nice !
Actually, it kinda reminds me that the vessel is our puppet, kinda how Frisk was.
Perhaps they may even be the true human hero.
Note that "Kris" isn't called by name.
And Kris seems to be in Chara's shoes.
...but there's more to this than that. Because the vessel isn't somebody we created, at least not fully.
When Gaster asks us to tell him how we feel about our vessel, he notes that it will not hear. Why should be worried about that ? Unless the vessel has a mind of it's own. A mind I very much believe we already met, in a different time.
Time and time again, they will appear.
The demon that comes when we call it's name.
Fun fact: the Vessel specifically has a max letter name of *9*, Chara's favorite number !, While your name can go up to 12 letters.
So, the vessel is the "Chara" of Deltarune. I would go as far to say that they ARE Chara. Why do I think this?, Well, I would like to bring attention towards the RED trait:
If Chara IS the demon that comes when you call it's name, then they are ALWAYS that demon. So when you name the vessel, you are ALWAYS calling Chara. The only way this can happen is if the Vessel is the Deltarune version of Chara.
But the problem is that KRIS already has Chara traits like affinity for knives, chocolate, and the focus of this post: their shirt. And the vessel has a shirt simiar to Frisk as well. . .
These two humans are mixes of Frisk and Chara in one way or another. So.... What traits are with who ?
Well, let's start with the shirts. Because there's something else I want to bring to the table. You see... There's another (?) human that is key to this point, one that most people don't like to talk about.
This THING. "chara", in the files.
Contrary to popular belief, this isn't Kris, as the skin is not similar. At least not Deltarune's incarnation of them. They are ALSO not beta Frisk, given how Frisk already had their design back when the demo released. And this is ALSO not beta Chara, given how Chara's design appeared as a mistake Temmie made early on, when she drew Frisk with one stripe.
This human is not a mistake. In all likelyhood, this was intentionally hidden for people to find in the files, much like Entry 17.
They only appear in debug as a reflection... And have a two striped shirt, like the vessel and Frisk. A literal reflection of them. I believe they are THE VESSEL, and by extention, Deltarune Chara. A younger version of them, pre-gonered. Although, they do seem to have no facial features, much like our goner. The difference in skin color and hair color can very much be explained by the possibility that Chara spent quite a while living in a cave deprived of sunlight, as well as the fact that the way they appeared in geno is supposed to look like a corpse.
This Chara has traits that Frisk has in Undertale, but which?
There's two options here: either these roles are based on their respective routes, and/or their role in UT in general. Let me explain: the only route in which Chara actively appears and interacts with Undertale's world is in genocide, the route where you increase ALL of the stats that Chara represents, and the mirror narration compares you to them with "It's me, Chara", as opposed to "Still just you, Frisk" in pacifist. In geno, Chara erases the world, while in pacifist, you take the role of hero. Do you see where I'm going with this? This could parallel how the Vessel is the hero, and how Kris might just cover the world in darkness one way or another.
There's also the other option, which plays on the role the humans have throught the entire game. Frisk's role was being the player's puppet, and we outright designed the Vessel to be whatever we choose, and to be the main character of the story, before being discarded. As I've already pointed out, there's a good chance our goner is the actual human hero, while Kris is must fulfill whatever role Chara had in UT, although Kris doesn't enjoy the weird route at all, so they don't represent the LV part of Chara. So what OTHER role did Chara have, that would be connected to Frisk's role one way or another?
I think Chara is the Narrator.
(Graph made by the ever brilliant @under-lore)
I understand if this theory sounds flimsy but it's not. As we can see here, the narrator PROGRESSES along with Frisk during the entirety of the game. Why would Toby put a bunch of insults in the narration, only for him to progressivly make them more infrequent until Snowdin, if not for NarraChara?
There's also THIS, in which the narrator DIRECTLY asks Frisk if they didn't laugh, after almost ranting about laughing until tears start forming. Where did this come from, if not from an entity that is neither Frisk nor us ?
The narrator very likely isn't just a representation of the game or smth given how it still shows signs of having it's own personality, like with the fact that the text you get by hitting with hitting the dummy with higher LV stops using "you", and says things like "Feels good" or "Who cares?", as well as the show puff descriptions, ending with the narrator sarcastingly asking us what they even are, or the licorice flavored candy, etc.
A bunch of the stuff Chara shouldn't know already is a thing even without NarraChara, given that you NEED to kill Snowdrake in order for geno to continue, even if you've never encountered him. Or how Chara can still feel how many monsters are left in Waterfall....
So, for the sake of this theory, CHARA is the narrator in UT. But there's a problem, and it's that DR doesn't have a diagetic narrator. So, how DOES this role of Chara's translate into Kris...?
Well, we need to think of something more broad, thematically coherent with Frisk's original role...
What about, let's say, a STORYTELLER ?
Dark fountains are allegories for fiction, so however creates them is, in a way, a writer. With this in mind, it's clear that Kris HAS this role, not just of the creator of chapter 3's dark fountain, but as the ROARING KNIGHT themself.
Now, this DOES bring up an issue. I've said that the VESSEL is our puppet, while Kris has another role. How then, is Kris NOT our puppet ? They even parallel Spamton!
Well, Kris IS our puppet, in a sense, but not our true puppet. This is because we don't have as much control over them as you might think. We can't stop Kris from saving Susie. We can't stop Kris from taking out our SOUL. It's only through Noelle that our choices matter. Everything else has little consequence, and cannot project ourselves into them as much as we'd like.
There's also somethimg very peculiar. The upcoming Twisted Sword LOWERS the Trance effect. The same effect that Noelle had in the weird route. Why ? It doesn't seem as if Kris actually LIKED the massacre at all, so this isn't lowering THEIR trance. In the other hand, if the Vessel DOES represent the LV part of Chara, either because if Kris didn't represent it, then it would, or just because it IS Chara, then you would already have no problem with grinding darkners. Unless, the trance effect lowers for... Us?
Think about it, we are effectivly reduced to spectators in the normal route, having many of our own decisions denied, simply following what others want. Kris is a puppet to us, but we may as well be a puppet to not just Kris, but the world. Perhaps by being in Kris' body we have this effect, and the clashing wills cancel each other.
So the Vessel is Chara in the pupeteer role that Frisk had in UT, and if you couldn't guess it, I believe Kris is Frisk in the storyteller role Chara had in UT.
There's one thing I've HAVE to talk about before I end this post.
This is the description of "Important Person (Kris)'s Shirt"
How could this tie into the theory..?
Perhaps, their love could be referring to the stories they make become yours. In a way, UT no mercy becomes a story in which killing monsters is encouredged, given how the supposedly objective narrator starts going off the rails and counting how many victims are left, even if they have regrets regarding the Dreemurr family.
In Deltarune, the perspective shifts yet again, and the Cyber World starts having frozen traffic lights even before Noelle freezes her first puzzle. The weird route alters Kris' story, to the point Lancer and Roulx Kaard turn to stone much earlier than they're supposed to.
To be blunt, this is the weakest point for the theory, and has stronger connections with the puppet role anyways. Unless the pattern isn't just referring to Chara and Kris, but Frisk and the Vessel as well.
There's also a much simpler explanation: it is tied to their main trait: LOVE. Basically, Papyrus implies in a phone call in Hotland in elevator L3 that Love is a cartoony fiery red human heart, so that makes me think that Love is the Red trait, which as I've already mentioned is associated with being oneself. Therefore, this could be saying that what makes you you, and what makes Kris them, becomes indistinguishible. As well as stating that Kris' relationships become yours.
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