So with the ‘Odd Controller’ being described as ‘strangely familiar’ and being the one ‘no one wants to use’, I don’t think it’s a stretch to link it with the controllers the Dreemurr siblings used to play with, and specifically the knock-off one.
Obviously these descriptions also link to the Odd Controller’s connection with Spamton, maybe it’s just ‘strangely familiar’ to Kris cause the buttons remind them of Spamton’s glasses…. But, well, Spamton is also thematically linked to the concept of knock-offs because... he's Spamton. So it could be both at the same time.
I dunno if the Odd Controller is literally the Dark World counterpart of the knock-off controller, but... it’s clear that memories of Kris and Asriel playing games in the living room on Tenna are a huge part of TV World. I mean, this is the main component of Tenna’s game show.
Reflections of that console and its controllers are all over this Dark World, so why not specifically the knock-off one?
And, like, since day one fans have made connection between one controller being a ‘knock-off’ and Kris feeling like an outsider and ‘second-rate’ in their own home. Kris feeling they’re the ‘knock-off’ and unwanted Dreemurr kid. At the very least, Chapter 2 establishing that Asriel let their little sibling use the ‘real’ controller
Comes off as a small but very sweet demonstration of what a cool big bro Asriel is.
So the idea that in order to play the Mantle Game, the Player is forcing Kris to use some representation of that knock-off controller is… well, it really reinforces how much, despite what Ramb might think, the Mantle Game is nothing close to freedom for Kris, but just another example of us forcing them to act against their will. And it starts with how Asriel used to let them use the real controller and now we’re forcing them to use the knock-off one.
And it ends with…
And if you wanna look into the Thematic Implications of the Knock-Off Controller, it’s like we’re forcing them into this position of being the ‘second-rate’ kid and an outsider. We're the one forcing them to reject their family’s efforts to always make them feel included and loved, to forcing them to ‘admit’ they are the ‘knock-off’ that they never wanted to be.
As just the first fear made manifest by the Sword Route.
That might also be why the Sword Route also seems to reference Kris' old horned headband
As another thing that reminds them of their outsider status in their own family.
And on some level… this is just what we’re always doing to them. Like, it seems that Kris has felt like an outsider for a long time, but we have absolutely made the situation worse. Being secretly possessed by an Amoral Time Demon is a very isolating experience. And since we are a Human SOUL, it’s an experience that only could’ve ever happened to Kris. An experience that’s inherently tied to the thing that makes them different from everyone else in their community, their Humanity.
And, like, despite how they might feel sometimes, Kris does absolutely belong in their family and community, but the Player is truly an Outsider. The Player has just shown up at the start of Chapter 1 and is totally clueless about this place and these people, the only knowledge they do have are experiences from a totally different universe that are often inaccurate to the status-quo in Hometown.
And since the Player can usually only interact with this world through the medium of Kris, we’re making them act like this confounded outsider, trying to figure out as much information as we can about this world that Kris has always lived in and these people they have known for all their lives… I guess in a way, we’re the Odd Controller marking them as an Outsider.
