February 3: the most cruel thing Maruki did to Joker
February 2 is infamous for obvious reasons, but it's only the day Joker finds out the truth about Akechi. February 3 is the day he actually loses him. I wanna talk about the other tragedy of February 3, specifically how it relates to Maruki. TLDR at the end if you don't wanna read.
Based on the journal notes in Maruki's palace, this is Rumi's birthday. It's also the day Maruki loses her.
Maruki is an unreliable narrator. He's not like the other palace rulers where you can take what they say at face value. Remember that he has no shadow, so he consciously omits the specifics of Rumi's story. It's only by finding the video tapes and these hidden journals that the Phantom Thieves piece it together on their own. It makes sense he wouldn't want to discuss it, since it's a painful memory.
The truth is at least 50% of Maruki's motivation is the pain and guilt of what happened to Rumi. That's an exact statistic btw: there are 6 journals total and the first 3 are entirely about Rumi. Even the last journal ends with a dedication to her. When he and Joker have that boxing match on the bridge, he specifically screams HER name.
There's a misconception in the fandom that Maruki is this selfless savior who only cares about helping others. In reality, his motives are complicated. He does care about others (which is why he was researching this topic long before this. Maruki's empathy is a core part of his character, I'm not denying that), but the reason he goes to such LENGTHS is because of personal traumas. Had the 2/3 tragedy not happened, he never would have taken things that far. Love and trauma make people do crazy things.
To him, February 3 is a day of heartbreak that marks the loss of his true love. This palace's deadline is basically some fucked up birthday gift from a grieving man to his ex-fiancée to alleviate the guilt of not being able to save her. He wants to overrule that by making it the day he saves everyone instead.
But it wasn't enough for him to deal with suffering on his own. Just like on the bridge of the final fight, he had to drag Joker down with him. By setting this as the deadline, Maruki guaranteed that this would be a day of heartbreak for Joker too. From now on, Joker has to live with the guilt of letting Akechi die again on February 3, just like Maruki with Rumi.
And Maruki knew what he was doing there. The dialogue below shows that Maruki speaks from personal experience when it comes to losing someone to unjust circumstances. Even Joker calls it out:
What's even more telling is that after discussing Rumi, Maruki immediately segues the convo to Akechi. He knows how traumatizing that experience was for Joker and he exploits the hell out of it, with leading questions and a knowing tone, nudging him to relive those moments.
That's what these black and white flashbacks cutting in between the dialogue are supposed to be. They're not just a refresher for the player— Joker himself is recalling those moments in real time.
Maruki spends the entire conversation putting the burden on Joker ("YOU were the guiding light to my research. YOU showed me the way"). Putting the life of a loved one in the hands of a teenager is a morbid and heavy thing. That is the most cruel thing Maruki has ever done because he's fully aware of how this hurts Joker. Because love and trauma make people do crazy things, like doom the entire world just to give their loved one another chance at life. Maruki knew this would work on Joker because it worked on him.
That brings us to Akechi and his role in all this. Maruki never got to ask Rumi what she wanted. She was incapacitated so he made the decision for her. That's not the case with Joker and Akechi, who are actually able to discuss it. Akechi directs the burden onto himself instead ("I will carve MY OWN path", "a betrayal of MY wishes"). Look at the difference in phrasing:
"Joker leads the way" vs "Akechi goes his own way." I don't even know if Akechi realizes he's doing it, but he's countering Maruki's manipulation tactics by taking some of the burden off. This way, Joker isn't chosing to let him die. He's just letting Akechi choose his own fate.
Not that this is much of a consolation though. It's still Akechi's life in the balance. Joker STILL has to lose his deepest wish and live with that decision. And it was Maruki who did that to him.
TLDR: Maruki did everything in his power to guarantee that February 3 will not just be his traumatizing anniversary of heartbreak, but Joker's too. He made use of every manipulation tactic in the book to get Joker to fold, even if it meant inflicting the same pain he went through onto an innocent kid.
I've been thinking about the next Deltarune chapters recently, and I would like to share a speculation of mine, which is that we will acquire the Thorn Ring in Chapter 5 to use Snowgrave and/or create the Twisted Sword in a normal route (not an aborted Weird Route, currently the only way to keep the Thorn Ring).
I prefer to call this a "speculation" rather than a "theory", as I don't think I have HARD evidence for this (in fact, I'll point out possible issues with it at the end). It's just a possibility based on a few interesting bits of the game. If you've seen anything similar to this speculation elsewhere, please share! I'd love to know what people think.
Twisted Sword
The Twisted Sword is a currently unobtainable weapon. It is mentioned in the Top Bakery as a fusion between the Thorn Ring and the Pure Crystal.
As of Chapter 4, the Thorn Ring can only be kept in your inventory if you aborted the Weird Route after acquiring it. It would seem like the Twisted Sword would, therefore, be exclusive to that scenario. I will speculate on why that could not be the case later, but let's address the Pure Crystal first.
The Pure Crystal is an also currently unobtainable item, but it is likely the product of all shadow crystals combined. Its description reads "The shadow purified by the cat", referencing Seam. After giving Seam the Knight's shadow crystal, they will say this:
Now you've got three. Only two more, and we should have enough…
… to make something I think you'll quite enjoy. Now good luck… and I'll be taking that Shadow Crystal.
Seam states that they need five shadow crystals. As we've been getting one crystal per chapter so far, I think it's fair to assume that Chapter 5 will contain the last Shadow Crystal necessary to create the Pure Crystal.
So, this is probably how we will acquire one part of the Twisted Sword. What about the Thorn Ring?
Chapter 5: Flower King
I think most people in the Deltarune community, myself included, already believe that Chapter 5 will take place in Flower King, Asgore's flower shop. But I'd like to reaffirm that belief by looking at the evidence so far:
Gerson's battle dialogue regarding Lord of the Hammer parallels Deltarune itself. Chapter 5 is titled "The Field of Pink and Gold", which are the colors of Asgore and Flower King itself.
The chapter is described as "the vast garden is charred in an inferno of jealousy." The word garden here perfectly fits Flower King as well. The jealousy aspect has been theorized to refer to Asgore potentially being jealous over Sans and Toriel getting closer.
A secret room in Chapter 4 includes a prophecy with Asgore. This prophecy is named "boss3" in the files. The only other panels named like that are those referring to Queen and Tenna, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3's bosses respectively.
The Fall 2025 issue of the Undertale/Deltarune Newsletter, which. Come on.
(It's like he's mocking me...)
Anyways, if Chapter 5 takes place in a field of pink and gold inside of Asgore's shop, we'll definitely see many, many plants/flowers. And lots of plants, such as roses (which Asgore is known to gift to people), possess thorns! The Thorn Ring in the Light World is simply a normal thorn.
I believe that Chapter 5 COULD present us with an opportunity to get a Thorn Ring, no Weird Route required at all. This, in conjunction with the Pure Crystal, would allow us to create the Twisted Sword.
Furthermore, Gerson's battle dialogue also states that Chapter 6 was the last one. It would make sense for Chapter 5 to be our last opportunity to get these sorts of resources and powerful weapons, before a major shift.
Snowgrave alluded in the Normal Route?
While my main point is done, I'd like to bring attention to two parts of Chapter 4: an organikk's dialogue on the way to the Egg Room and an unused prophecy panel.
Both of these texts seem to reference Noelle. She is the one who is able to cast snowgrave, and we call for her help in the fight against Weird Route Spamton NEO.
It's interesting that an apparently Weird Route exclusive spell is referenced in the normal route, and I do believe that the prophecy refers to the normal route. The Original Game refers to it as "the forbidden path", and in the Weird Route, Ralsei wonders if an ending other than what the prophecy predicts wouldn't be even worse.
If we do get the Thorn Ring in Chapter 5, would we be able to use Snowgrave? The fusion with the Pure Crystal would only happen after the chapter is done, of course, so would we be able to use it during it if Noelle participates? Hell, what happens in the Weird Route or aborted Weird Route, where we would have two rings? Tough to say, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
(Sidenote: While researching this, I found out that if you abort the Weird Route after buying the Thorn Ring, and then defeat Spamton through violence, he will say that you should have at least bought TWO rings. Thought it was interesting.)
Potential Issues
While writing this, I recognized a few issues that could be brought up. I don't really have an answer for them, so take it as another point for discussion.
While I do believe Chapter 5 will take place in Flower King, I have to admit that I don't know that for SURE.
The Thorn Ring is so connected to the Weird Route that it almost feels weird that it could be acquired in a Normal Route, especially one where you recruited everyone. Though, aborting the Weird Route in Chapter 2 returns everything to complete normalcy, just with less recruits.
Again, while I believe that the prophecy is referring to the Normal Route (until we break it in a GOOD WAY, I hope), it could not be! The Mantle quest that parallels the Weird Route is in the so-called original game, not to mention theories that state both routes are following the prophecy in some way.
Small one, but the Snowgrave panel is unused. For all intents and purposes, it's not in the game.
TL;DR
I think that Chapter 5 will take place in Flower King, and this Dark World will grant us a Thorn Ring and the last Shadow Crystal to create the Pure Crystal. With these, we'll be able to create the Twisted Sword. The Snowgrave spell is slightly hinted at in the Normal Route, and might be able to be cast in a non-Weird Route setting.
i'm way too lazy. imagine i moved my deltarune art here. imagine like a lot of kriselle because i like kriselle more than anything in the world. cool . thanks
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