my very specific and long read on kris- they have really, really low self esteem, probably stemming in some part from whatever happened with Dess and also that they're the only human in town.
I've seen the suggestion somewhere (I'm not sure but I think it was part of the deltacast?) that how we got here was kris basically handing their body over to someone else, because they felt so useless and thought anyone but them piloting this body would be better. or maybe it has something to do with their promise, or getting Dess back? or it's both- the promise requires it, and they were willing because they just wanted to step back and give their existence over to someone more worthy.
they can't really just Not Have the soul- they take damage, they struggle to move around, and I think it would be generally bad to have the culmination of your being separated from your body?
also part of it might be that they don't find anything really important in their life anymore. there's nothing worth having them around for. they could just vanish and the world wouldn't change. but as the story goes on they find themself getting attached to the world again through susie and ralsei and the dark worlds.
they make the chapter 3 dark fountain in part because they want to feel something. they don't want to wait around for the next chance to maybe go to a dark world.
the birdcage with the crashes? I think that they weren't throwing their soul in there because they had something else possession-related going on. I think it was because they hated themself. they hated being a human. and the soul was a representation of both of those things. maybe without it, they felt more like they belonged, more in control of their destiny. the pain of it, too, the rough behavior with the soul, all something like punishment.
I don't know if this is what toby's trying to imply, but with a teen that keeps a knife in their bedroom, who waits until they're hidden away at night, my personal read is immediately self-harm because it's just so eerily similar.
and maybe they wanted to find some way to rewrite their soul, like they felt so inherently wrong and horrible, and if they could just change their soul-
and the promise they made? I think they know something about Dess disappearing. it's mentioned kris used to follow around the older kids all the time. maybe Asriel and Dess had found some dark worlds, and kris followed them in, maybe ended up tagging along for some of their adventures. they weren't allowed to tell Noelle because the dark worlds would have been too scary for her, or Noelle did come, but she blocked it all out. could be why Kris has a save file in the closet dark world before we save over them?
and something went wrong. inexperience, prophecy, whatever. and Dess went missing. but before Dess was lost, Kris promised her they would get her back out. or afterwards, they told Carol what happened, and promised they'd find her.
for something very particular, I think possibly due to kris tagging along, Dess had to pull some kind of sacrifice play to protect them, and they've been living with the horrible crushing guilt since. that's what carol and whoever else is involved is pulling on to keep Kris with them- that guilt and the promise to help Dess.
specifically with Don't Forget, that one in my Tinfoil Hat Universe could be a song Kris and Dess wrote together, with Dess as the singer? and the dark world group had some kind of semi-formalized friendship promise to not leave each other behind; to stay with each other. and that's the promise. music in deltarune is a whooole other deep pit of symbolism and theming I can't quite figure out.
vaporwave
theartofmadeline
origamiaround
turnnoffyourmind
2087
jacobvanloon
dailybridgerton
