my in-depth analysis of dess's room: a long, long thread
before you read: this is a thread focused on each part of dess's room, and it includes my own theories and headcanons about certain aspects of the story. feel free to comment/reblog with anything i missed or if you have any differing views! (likes & reblogs are appreciated, i worked a lot on this ^_^)
walls & floor: the walls (and overall colours of the room) seem to represent northern lights! turquoise, dark shades of blue and purple, with that pattern, are very clearly northern lights.
it immediately made me think of the song "northernlight" in the soundtrack, along with the message in the cave ("go to northern light") in the second s-rank game, and i wonder if it’s supposed to reference something about dess. it could be related to where she truly is/where fragments of her are, but the message could also just be about the weird route and how to find the ice door.
the floor in her room seems to be a fuzzy carpet meant to look like snow or straight up a turquoise floor that represents ice, fitting with the theme of the holidays.
stars + calendar: of course, glow in the dark stars to go along with the northern lights... it could be just decorative but maybe she herself was somewhat afraid of the dark as well? going along with the "don't forget" song (that i personally headcanon as dess' "lullaby”), it might've been a song for both for herself and for her sister. any light is better than total darkness... and also it matches with asriel's part of his own room, he has his own stars that turn light green in the dark :,) my cuties!
next to them there's a calendar, but i don’t know what to make of it, since it can’t be interacted with it. it just makes me think of the calendar in noelle’s room, with the dark world counterpart having all dates be december 25th, but i’m not sure what connection to make here.
posters: the posters on the closet door… ough my heart hurts. it’s so nice to think she had the posters of some of her favourite groups next to her own with her own show(s) that she may or may not have ever done!!
obviously the most noticeable one here is the one with a sword, it reminds me of the knight… the other poster that seems like it’s drawn out is also interesting imo, honestly i can’t figure out exactly what it is but it looks like either a bed or an attempt at drawing a piano which could imply a dess and kris duet that never happened? maybe it could be part of the reason they’re so reluctant to play…
stop/caution tape: speaking of the decorations on her closet door, it intrigues me how the “caution” tape and the stop sign are there instead of her front door.
it might not be that deep, maybe it’s just because carol is so strict on having everything look perfect on the “outside” so dess had to put them somewhere inside her room, but it does make it seem like there’s something forbidden in there. it could tie in with her possible fear of the dark as well, something like “monsters in your closet” paranoia except they’re actually real and she is/was terrified of them, so she wouldn't want anyone to go in there (but i might be reaching). this also has an interesting parallel with the closets seen at the end of each room where the dark fountains were opened, which could potentially be where the knight is hiding.
dess' bed: alright, finally the first item in the room: dess' bed. talk of the town! why is it facing the wall in the corner of the room?
i have two guesses: 1. she's being a rebellious teenager or 2. the bed position ties in to my theory of her paranoia. 1 is plausible just because she seems to be a rebellious, messy teenager, standing as an antithesis to her mom’s "perfectly organized" life, so she'd want to make her room as chaotic as possible, including the layout. 2 is just a continuation of my previous theory about her being "scared" of what's in her closet, so she's facing away from whatever that is, so she doesn't have to see it when she goes to sleep. besides all that, she also has quite a few items under her bed, as detailed down here.
they seem to be simply related to her interests (music/sports) and survival items (possibly related to the shelter?), with the silly little addition of a badly traced drawing of a dragon, clearly referencing the book asriel still hasn’t returned to the library <\3 my dessriel… he clearly doesn’t have the heart to return it… and also this could be me being delusional as always but can i just add that dess' blanket and mattress colours are the same colours as the two main colours shown in the roaring knight fight… coincidence? maybe. i think not!!
shelf/desk: i think it's kinda cute that she kept all the holiday-themed games/movies and pretty funny that she hid the scary ones behind those LOL
the next line really made me think more about dess & kris' relationship even more 🥹 it just keeps on getting clearer to me that they really had a close bond and maybe dess told kris they'd be able to play some of these together (or lend them to kris) when kris was older but… it never happened ;; ough my favourite little guys… and it’s pretty interesting to see that her computer monitor was unplugged?
was there something she was hiding? was there something she was seeing on there, similar to the weird things that noelle has seen on hers? was part of her disappearance planned? because why else would there be a conscious decision of unplugging it before disappearing? who knows… (and also do notice that the mouse is on the left side of the laptop, implying she might be left handed. you know who else is left-handed? the knight. just saying !!!)
cd player: this little dialogue is just adorable to me!
despite her punk rock tastes being very clear asriel still gave her a ska cd that she still kept in her collection even if she never listened to it. these two are so silly and it’s just really interesting how much of asriel is intertwined with dess, how they were so close, how we can see glimpses of their distant past… man. i really hope we can see more of this in upcoming chapters as well !! and the lamp… is just there. just a lamp. cute colour tho
box of odds-and-ends: a very fascinating box! the first few items are actually pretty interesting, because they can be glossed over as just other survival items, but the fact that they seem to have been used is intriguing to me.
the lighters are already burnt, the knives rusted, the rations expired, this could indicate a previous failed “mission” related to the shelter (or several), depending on whatever dess’ goal was. the walkie-talkies could indicate that there might’ve been a plan to split up, maybe her heading into the shelter, who knows… binoculars and a pair of shoes for dess wrap up those items, fit for someone who is planning or had planned some sort of survival expedition, perhaps in the woods as it was mentioned that the holiday and dreemurr siblings went once.
next, no surprise at the violent comic books, seems like her type, a cracked hockey mask from her days as a hockey player, and frayed yarn and buttons that could’ve been used to repair/modify toys/plushies? (seam?)
deeper in the box, asriel’s retainer… i had to laugh a bit because my first thought was he took it out before they kissed and it was lost forever at some point LOL it could be something else (like eating or smoking, considering the next item) but that was my first reaction & i stand with it! dessriel is real!!!! and of course can’t leave out the old cans of mint leaves with unique leaves. definitely something she’d have and take a hit of from time to time lmfao
instruments: interesting that she has so many different ones in this corner.
it seems to me that carol was trying to push dess into more classical, elegant musical hobbies instead of what she really likes, but it didn’t seem to work as all the high quality instruments sound like they’ve been roughhoused with, because she wasn’t (perhaps purposefully) delicate enough with them, or she actually overused them to the point of damage lol i wouldn't be surprised if she tried to learn many of them but ended up sticking with the guitar! and speaking of the guitar, i feel like i don't have much to say about it since the only thing we know about it is that it's dess's main "symbol" (as seen in the deltarune website) and it's used to hide one of the codes, but nothing more…
rollerblades & wifflebat: knowing kris' history with dess and the wifflebat, this is honestly pretty funny, like they must gotten hit quite a couple of times for them to get a headache just looking at those.
i wonder if they got chased while dess was on rollerblades as well it's so hilarious to think about… lightning fast rollerskating dess chasing small kris to hit them in the head… and also i think the head hurting could have a double meaning, signalling that just the thought of these memories / remembering those times hurts kris as well…
and now... CLOSET TIME!
clothes: i cannot overstate how HAPPY i was when we saw her closet, because it's been my own personal headcanon since chapter 2 that this is kind of how she dressed (just missing a varsity jacket imo, esp considering how many sports she does)! the army/camouflage jacket works well with all her survival gear, the red flannel is just a classic and makes sense since it evokes winter and a more masc vibe imo, the other black/silver ish jacket i can't tell exactly what the design of it is but it could be a winter jacket, and of course last but not least asriel's sweater <3 my dessriel heart… it's so cute that she has a sweater of his, i'm sure it's something he must've let her borrow once (or more than once, as noelle mentions very casually how dess was wiping her younger sister's tears with azzy's jacket, definitely making me think she was wearing it) and just kept it bc of how close they are :( it's just so sweet!! and noelle saying the sleeves smell like cinnamon… dess i can see you being a yearner girl you can't hide from me !!
hearts: i think it would be hilarious if the reason she had these in her closet os that dess kept hiding the hearts that kris would find around the house to scare noelle with and shove them in her closet, stopping the little menace that kris is!!! and could it have any symbolism with dess perhaps being aware of the soul as well to some capacity…? i don't know exactly how she'd be aware of it, maybe shelter shenanigans before she disappeared, but yeah who knows just a thought i'm throwing out here!
hockey gear: ice skates, hockey sticks, hockey pucks, she was definitely a hockey girl!! maybe carol tried to push her into ice skating at first (esp considering ressemblances in the knight's moves and ice skating) but she likes the rougher aspects and competitiveness of hockey!
instruments: more instruments! here we see a trumpet, a drum set, and her famous guitar again! like i said before she might've tried to play several instruments before sticking with the guitar, including these other two, and she might've kept these to perhaps start a band, reflecting the chapter 3 round 2 minigame which seems to be inspired by her. the concert posters could be related to all of this as well.
red shoes + baseball balls: it's funny how both of these piles are abundant with these red and white items, i have no idea why she'd have so many of both of these things except if she tends to ruin/lose both of these very often somehow. dess did your parents not know what to give you for christmas or do you just keep ruining your shoes while playing sports/baseball/anything with your wifflebat. answer me !!!
miscellaneous items: i think the santas and the gift boxes were solely put there for the little soul obstacle course, i'm not really sure they're there for any lore reasons but i could be mistaken. i just don't see much relevance except yk. holiday family has holiday items everywhere! maybe she hid these santas from kris since they glued shut the other ones LOL
and that's what i have for my analysis of dess's room! thank you if you've read until the end, it was pretty long but i hope it was worth it! i've been a fan of dess (and dessriel!) since chapter 2 so this was an insane moment for me and i'm so happy about this ❤️!!
