#deltarune device

[abyssalmemorial]

Alright, but we can all agree that The Device™ is what allows Hometown to have dark fountains, right??? There's no chance in hell that dark worlds would've gone undiscovered up until Deltarune's events if creating them were always as easy as stabbing the ground while concentrating. Plus, there's "garbage noise" both over the phone in dark worlds AND emanating from the Shelter, which is BY FAR the most likely location of The Device. Like, am I crazy for thinking The Device is a quite literal plot device created to allow the perfect conditions for the Prophecy to unfold specifically in Hometown?

[romstred]

DELTARUNE: TV TIME! THE DEVICE

[abyssalmemorial]

Only Grand Fountains Should Exist (Deltarune Theory)

While for a long time I believed that outside factors facilitated the creation of Deltarune's dark fountains, my thoughts have recently grown more nuanced. Below, I'll lay out my heavily revised theory on the nature of dark fountains and their relation to the Grand Fountain.

The Grand Fountain has mystified the fandom since chapter 2's release, yet I feel we've been largely overthinking it. Creating a regular ol' dark fountain requires determination, right? So it would follow that a grand fountain, capable of hosting any darkner, simply necessitates a significantly higher level of determination from its creator. From Ralsei's utter lack of concern about the Grand Fountain's existence, we can also surmise it's far less destructive, if not outright healthy, for the balance between light and dark. TLDR: Grand fountains are an infinitely more concentrated and less dangerous version of dark fountains. They are the domesticated golden retriever to the ravenous grey wolf that is regular dark fountains.

So what was the point of creating such a clear distinction between the two (known) types of dark fountains? Simple: to highlight the fact that less determination = more volatility, whereas more determination = less volatility. It's almost as if grand fountains are the only variant of dark fountains that are supposed to exist. And if that's even slightly true, then what does that imply about the existence of regular dark fountains...?

ENTER: THE DEVICE

If you're reading this post, you likely already know what The Device is, but TLDW: it's a machine that W.D. Gaster designed to facilitate key aspects of Deltarune's plot: From Kris's soul to the Goner Maker sequence to even the game's UI, The Device is somehow responsible for all of it. The Device is also notably a physical object that resides somewhere within Hometown (but most likely the Shelter).

This theory suggests yet another potential function of The Device, one that I've never seen anybody else propose: thinning the barrier between light and dark within Hometown, thus lowering the determination threshold for the creation of dark fountains. In other words, The Device's activation allows for the existence of more volatile dark fountains within its Hometown-spanning radius, whereas only grand fountains could exist prior.

Not only does this proposal solve the years-long mystery that is the Grand Fountain's nature, but it also patches up a plot hole that's acted as a long-standing fandom meme: The fact that dark fountains, to our knowledge, have gone undiscovered up until the game's events despite their ease of creation. After all, if creating fountains were always as simple as "feeling a bit determined while stabbing the ground," Deltarune's world would've ended several times over by now.

—

I'm currently overwhelmingly confident in this theory, but please let me know if you disagree for any reason! I'm not always aware of the existence of potential counter-evidence.

[nikicherry1234]

So, with the Device in mind, as the thing allowing for the creation of Dark Worlds. The Determination Extractor should be what allows the Underground to have saving and loading. Meaning that, one of the timelines in the God of Hyper-death fight, could have been Gaster's. More likely it isn't and was deleted from existence entirely, somehow. The DT Extractor, maybe the whole Core, could be the same kind of thing as Deltarune's Device would be. A machine, in the world of the game, which allows it to have it's properties. And the thing, which allows for our connection to be able to happen in the first place.

So many people have speculated, that the red heart in the Extractor is Chara's soul. The original one. That way, Frisk's soul would be ours, literally. That is us, what we have been reduced to or compressed to. That way it really would make sense why we are the one asked to give it up, after the No-Mercy/Geno route.

I'm using "The only Human" analysis document for this. It makes a lot of sense looking back at all the stuff.

Their original soul being used to power the machine which would allow for the timeline resetting. And if not as a power source, then as a catalyst. And perhaps it allows for not just the reseting, but creation of Dark Fountains as well. It's just, no one has tried to open one in Undertale, nor does anyone know how to do it at all. No one but Gaster. In Deltarune you can still reset the timeline, can you not?

It would be fun if, in Deltarune, Gaster was whole, in one piece and alive. In contrast to Dess and his own variant in Undertale. Perhaps in Deltarune, Dess offered to test run the Device. Perhaps she found out on accident and Gaster just let her, as an unknowing test subject.

It could be that, Darkness makes inanimate objects more alive, but it makes Lightners more unreal. The longer the exposure to Darkness is, the less real you become.

Now I want to see an Undertale Dark World au. Where we reset again, and somehow convince and communicate to Frisk, that they should open a Dark Fountain in the True Lab. That would make a really scary Dark World.