#dess theory

[superbubba4eva]

Some Dess sketches (but shes human)

[chasm-craft]

WARNING FOR DELTARUNE CHAPTER 5 + WEIRD ROUTE SPOILERS

For the longest time I've struggled to wonder why Dess, as a monster living in a town populated mostly by other monsters, would want to be a human. However, Deltarun Chapter 5 has made me realize why that may be.

A lot of people have begun to speculate that by going into the lake, Kris and Noelle have broken (through) some kind of barrier. Many have compared this to a quote from Alphys where she basically tells the player that a human soul isn't enough to cross the barrier alone: it takes both a human and a monster SOUL. If Dess was a monster, she'd want to be a human so she could leave the town, or she'd want to take Kris with her because she'd only be able to leave if Kris came with her. She's a monster, and they're the only human in town. The combined power of their SOULs would be enough to break out of the confines of the game.

Honestly, Dess could have also wanted to seal dark fountains, too, and she could have only done that with a human SOUL. The only human in down would have been Kris.

Now that I think about it more, if Dess was a human who was insecure about not being a deer monster like the rest of her family, I doubt she'd have so many red heart-shaped objects in her room. They resemble human souls. I feel like they would just make her feel really insecure about being a human.

I still believe Dess is a human though, I feel like I've supported it too strongly to say I don't now. Human Dess dies with me.

Can't help but go all in. Heterochromic snake eyes can't win

[masukuu2]

Dess=December

Yayayayayay Happy Holiday

[rejoyous]

I had a dream where chapter 6 of Deltarune came out and Dess was revealed as a nerdy girl who wore a bright green sweater and had big ass circle glasses

[cryptidwarlocke]

Ok, so i have a completely crack theory that probably has a bunch of contradictions, but i came up with it while listening to "Raise your Bat" and I think it could be a cool idea, so here it is:

So the chorus of "Raise your bat" right? That definitely feels Dess-adjact.

"Come follow me into the dark / With your heart as the ark / Which shall shine you the way / Because l'm with you in the dark / With your heart as my mark / Which shall guide you the way"

No matter if you subscribe to Dess-Knight or Lost-Dess, Dess being connected to the dark worlds somehow is pretty much agreed upon, and the "Heart as the arc" line makes sense, without the soul, it seems like dark fountains can't be closed, so it becoems dangerous and hard to leave, plus kris takes the recruited darkners baxk to the pure fountain, an arc from a dying world.

those last lines though,

"With your heart as my mark, which shall guide you the way"

What does that mean.

It sounds like The heart belongs Kris or us, but came from the singer, implied to be Dess. But Dess was a monster, she had a monster soul, right?

My theory is the the soul we control isn't Kris's, its Dess's, and that Kris wasn't the only human in Hometown once upon a time.

Here me out.

When Toriel tells you about the headband she says;

"Remember when you were little. You asked when your horns were going to grow in? So we bought that headband with the little red horns on it. Oh, you wore it for months! Whatever happened to it?"

This doesn't sound like she and Asgore had the idea to do that, that sounds like they were given the advice to by someone whose raised a human before, someone they trusted,

Like Rudy and Mayor Holiday, who the family were close to at the time, and which they could encourage if two of their children were humans too.

If Rudy and Mayor holidays rebellious eldest child was an adopted human.

That could also explain why Dess had antlers during Tenna's flashback, the Holidays went through something similar and had the idea to give a struggling human a costume piece to help them fit in.

Someone had to tell Kris they weren't actually going to grow horns, and something tells me that none of the dreamurrs did. Maybe other kids at school would, but we know kris doesn't take heavy stock in what others say, especially during bullying attempts, so they probably dismissed them outright.

But Dess? Good friend and fellow human December Holiday? They'd believe her, and she'd probably break the news to them, feeling its unfair to keep them in the dark.

So why does this matter?

Well it probably doesn't, BUT it feeds into my own working theory about the Knight and Dess. That whatever happened to Gaster, shattering him across time and space, also happened to Dess, but in a more localized universe, rather then across the whole multiverse. So Dess exists in a space between existing and not existing, with pieces of her doing stuff.

The Knight is one piece of Dess, working with Kris and Carol to do...something idk, while others are trapped in the code or dead or whatever.

But if Dess is a human then her soul might've been left behind. Left for a human who may need that kind of light in their life. Left as a connection point for us into the world of Deltarune.

After all, shes not using it.

[janehaster]

[Theory] Dess Isn't Missing. She Might Appear in Chapter 5 For The Festival

So far, where it concerns the Roaring Knight's identity, the fandom is departing from the assumption that they are December Holiday (Dess), Noelle's missing sister. But what if Dess wasn't missing?

We learn in Deltarune that Dess is Noelle's older sister (in the scene where the Holidays and the Dreemurrs are watching TV together, Dess is "bigger" than Noelle) and that she is approximately the same age as Asriel. Both spent time together with their younger siblings, Noelle and Kris, and often went on adventures together.

We also know Dess was quite an energetic girl judging from the many belongings she has in her room. She had several different pastimes, going from sports to music, and had quite a rebellious streak. We know she convinced Kris to watch a forbidden music video depicting a girl in a bikini once. She may also have hit Kris with a bat for... reasons unknown.

She is also the mayor's daughter, which means she was raised in a wealthy household, and had access to possibly anything she desired. Does that mean she was spoiled? Possibly, but we have no way to be sure.

Taking into consideration the few clues we have about Dess, there are three possible interpretations of what happened to her to justify her sudden disappearance:

1_She entered the Dark World via the Shelter and somehow became the Knight.

The proof are the Knight's appearance and weapon of choice. They have hooves instead of feet and antlers that look remarkably like the ones Carol Holiday has. Their weapon can also be interpreted as being a bat instead of a long knife, though some have speculated it is actually a katana, mirroring the katana Carol sometimes uses.

This is the standard theory, and the one the fandom has come to accept. HOWEVER, there are other two possible interpretations to Dess' fate:

2_Dess went to college just like Asriel and may return to her hometown for the Festival, possibly even accompanying Asriel.

Remember, she and Asriel are likely the same age and have become adults by now. If Dess was a good student, she is likely in college now, and far away from her mother. We don't know how her relationship with her mother was, but judging by how harsh Carol is, Dess quite possibly saw college as her ticket to freedom, leaving poor Noelle to deal with her mother on her own.

If Dess returns in Chapter 5, it's possible she'll be shocked to see her father, Rudy, bed-ridden in the hospital. This could have a significant impact on the Holiday family structure and in Deltarune's plot as a whole. Will she argue with her mother and demand she treat Noelle better, as well as further help her husband Rudy with his treatment?

3_ Dess was disowned and kicked out of the Holiday's home. She ran to the Dark World and either became the Knight or became lost in there.

This outcome is based on Dess' rebellious streak. There's a possibility that Asriel was the good student and Dess was the feisty one. She does seem like quite a talented, but restless person. Whereas Noelle is tame and obedient, occasionally showing her true nature when she feels safe and comfortable around someone (like Susie), Dess may have been the exact opposite: headstrong, opinionated, independent and fierce.

(Tenna does say Kris found Dess to be cool, and Kris did seem to put her on a pedestal. She played the guitar and may have been in a band at some point, probably formed of her school friends.)

Now let's explore Dess' two possible outcomes:

If Dess remained a good girl throughout adolescence, then there's a chance something unexpected happened and she got lost in the Dark World, never being able to return home. Some lines of unused dialog hint Dess is still lost in there, amidst the deep darkness, able to only hear a scratching noise now and then.

Other clues as to her being the lost girl is the "find_her" song, the number 1225 being the code that shows an easter egg in Chapter 3 where that music plays, 1225 being the code on Dess' guitar which also opens the shelter - meaning Dess knew how to open the shelter - and 12/25 simply being the Christmas holiday.

If Dess is lost in the Dark World, then that means she cannot be the Knight. They would have to be someone else. As to why the Knight resembles a Holiday, they might have mimicked Dess' overall appearance if they were a shapeshifter.

Another possibility is that a Darkner learned how to possess Lightners and sometimes possesses Dess when they want to execute their plan, thus turning her into the Knight.

In the song Kris plays in Chapter 3, there's mention of a demon and blood gushing. It suggests the listener "raise up their bat and get ready for the fight", which implies there's a demon in the Dark World and that Dess confronted them at some point.

Who could that demon be? Perhaps the same mysterious entity that has been watching Kris in every chapter and who stole the Shadow Mantle?

Could they also be responsible for giving the Shadow Crystals to each of the secret bosses (Jevil, Spamton and Gerson Boom)?

However, if alternatively, Dess indeed became spoiled by how her mother got her everything she wanted and developed a rebellious personality as a result, Carol may have been fed up with her attitude and kicked her out after a serious family fight.

If Dess somehow failed school or failed to enter college, that could have been enough reason for her mother to kick her out and tell her to go live by herself, since she reached adulthood and was no longer a child.

Unable to deal with her new reality, Dess might have run to the Shelter, opened up a dark fountain to escape from reality and somehow, became the Knight.

And now, with Kris' - willing or unwilling - help, she might be trying to drag the whole town into the Shelter by causing a calamity - awakening the Titans - and forcing everyone into the Shelter, where she will execute her vengeance.

The reason why I believe this is the Knight's plan is due to Alphys' dialog with Kris in the church in Chapter 4. She says she learned the shelter was created in the case of a calamity, in which the denizens would hide safely in there. This sort of information isn't dropped casually, moreso if we consider two important facts:

The shelter is locked with a code, which only a select few know. Among them are the mayor (pine tree), Undyne (police badge), Asgore (police badge) and, likely, Alvin (the Deltarune).

There's a Dark World in the shelter, to where Undyne was dragged by the Knight, and Chapter 4 was about Susie trying to get the code and enter the shelter. Had she succeeded, she would have foiled the Knight's plan.

Another important fact must be mentioned, which isn't in the game, but which seems to permeate the main plot of Deltarune:

TW: mentions of death and sacrifice

The Christmas holiday is not Christian in origin. It's a pagan rite, which, in older religions, involved the sacrifice of people. Some cultures called it Saturnalia, or Satinalia, and it involved naming the town's fool the King of Fools and then violently killing him by the end. Some people also burned victims alive as an offering to the gods, as well as committed excesses, such as heavy drinking, sexual activities - consensual or not - and the use of narcotics.

This ritual was commonly performed in December, and thus the month has a bad stigma associated to it. Ironically, that stigma is the very opposite of the meaning of Christmas: a time for celebrating the birth of Jesus, a symbol of love, spiritual enlightenment and forgiveness, all values diametrically opposed to the chaos and madness associated with Saturnalia.

How does that relate to Deltarune, the Knight and the shelter?

The Knight's plan consists of a mass sacrifice.

They will bring the Roaring and plunge the surface in darkness. As the Titans destroy the town, its denizens flee to the shelter, where they are trapped into the Dark World. With no one to stop it, the Darkners all turn into stone, the Knight's actions thus effectively killing them all. Both Lightners and Darkners are sacrificed.

Now let's wrap everything up. We have some known facts which allow us to predict what was Dess' fate and what will likely happen in Chapters 5 and 6:

Dess might show up with Asriel at the Festival.

The Knight brings the Roaring and the whole town might try to hide in the shelter. As Jevil predicted: Chaos! Chaos!

The town's denizens are trapped in the Dark World and the darkners all turn to stone. The mass sacrifice happens.

The surface is covered in darkness as the Titans ravage the town, and then, the world.

The Delta Warriors fail to stop the Roaring. Tragedy ensues. The Final Prophecy comes to pass.

From here on, the Angel will likely appear and, upon "meeting with its desire", the worlds will be saved.

A lot of people believe Noelle to be the Angel. But judging from Susie's reaction to the Angel's depiction in the prophecy, there's a possibility they might be someone else.

Could the Angel be December Holiday after she is finally found in the Dark World?

Could it be the Knight was keeping her imprisoned in the deep dark, so they could lure Kris into the Dark World?

Could Dess be the one to have to sacrifice themselves rather than Noelle to save the world from the Roaring?

If that were to happen, it would be perhaps the biggest plot twist of all. Or perhaps not. Her name is, after all, December Holiday.

[anotheronlineartist]

Dess is the knight- a possible talking point:

Theories supporting Asriel being the knight often include that Kris's outfit, which is probably Asriel's old clothes, turns into armor in the dark worlds. This means when Asriel falls in, it's likely that hell have a similar style as Kris.

Fanstatic marvelous revolutionary amazing

BUT

During the scene where Noelle reminisces on adventures in the woods with Kris and their older siblings, she mentions Dess wiping away her tears with Asriel's jacket.

A) Dess borrowed Asriels sweater. Falling into a dark world wearing it would produce knight's armor.

B) She was wearing it while exploring the area near the Bunker, where many theorize she is trapped.

C) Unrelated, but the Knight is always referred to with the ambiguous "they". A deliberate move to hide their gender? Nb character? Who knows!

Feel free to discuss

[superbubba4eva]

Hey, I've seen your drawings of Dess and Kris and I think they're really cool! What do you think their relationship was like?

(Thank you!!!)

Very strained. Mostly nice and fun, but still very strained.

I drew the "Dess is human" version, where the Holidays have a human older daughter. I guess the only 2 humans in town would be very close, yet somewhat weird?

Hence, the whole disappearance of Dess and Kris working for the knight thing idk.