I FUCKING KNEW IT I FUCKING KNEW IT I FUCKING KNEW IT I WAS LITERALLY JUST TALKING TO MY WIFE ABOUT THIS FORUTNSHABFVVGB
My theory. Roughly. I’ve talked about this for months, but I present…
DESS DROWNED.
ok made that image as a joke last month but anyway. Let’s Discuss. (cont. below the cut)
So. What is the concrete information we know about Dess.
Dess is Noelle’s sister.
affinity to bats (of the baseball variety)
Dess is a MUSICIAN.
Another thing we need to establish is the relationship of Darkness to Water. Essentially…. Deltarune uses them interchangeably, and uses synonyms of one to describe the other.
the most obvious, dark fountains are… called fountains
Images OF darkness (called IMAGE_DEPTHS) in the files is an (edited) image of the ocean.
Depths… are also another way to refer to deeper water, including within Deltarune.
The dark fountains are literally overlayed with image_depths. They’re also referred to as geysers.
Darkness is described with “waves”
From the song Raise Up Your Bat— “Come follow me into the dark / with your heart as the ark / which will shine you the way” places the listener following someone through the dark (or water) with their heart as the ark (which is… a boat)
From here, we make connections. I present thee: ONIONSAN.
In their chapter two dialogue, they say this:
“Y’hear… Y’hear closely for a second. Y’hou’re my friend. Right? As my friend… do you wanna… ya’hear a secret?”
“…”
“Sometimes… I hear a song at night. Just a little piece of a song, y’hear. It sounds like… it’s coming from under the water. Deep.”
“…”
“Do… Do you think think…”
“Someone’s auditioning for my band?!”
“Oh, I’m about to make another friend! I can feel it, y’hear!!”
“…”
“Do you wanna y’hear another secret…?”
“…”
“…I think…”
“…Maybe…”
“…”
“…I’ve heard that song before… coming from the sea.”
“The whole thing.”
“It’s not a ‘new’ song.”
“But… I can’t remember… I can’t… Can’t remember, y’hear!”
“I’m going to investigate, y’hear! Come back here tomorrow, y’hear! Onion is on the case!”
Onionsan, notably, does not come back the next day.
So… deep (a term used also to describe darkness) underwater (synonymous with being in darkness)… there’s a snippet of a song… but it’s not a new song. They’ve heard it before in the sea. DESS…… is a musician. one song we know she’s very likely written?
Raise Up Your Bat.
It’s not a new song. In FAACCTTTT
BEFORE CHAPTER THREE EVEN CAME OUT NOELLE POSTED ON HER BLOG THAT SHE WAS LISTENING TO RAISE UP YOUR BAT BY THE BLOOD CRUSHERS.
“COME FOLLOW ME INTO THE DARK” DESS IS LITERALLY GOING INTO THE DARK (WATER) AND YOUR ARK WILL SAVE HER
i think kris was there. kris watched her drown and couldn’t do anything. there could be a multitude of reasons why, but i bet it was because they couldn’t swim. leading to the immense guilt. they could’ve saved her, but they were without something.
they were without the soul.
The Ark. AND NOW WE’RE FOLLOWING HER INTO THE DARKNESS TO SAVE HER NOW THAT WE HAVE A HEART AS THE ARK. ADDITIONALLY, GERSON SAAAYSS to Susie in the Hammer of Justice fight. “Can you hear its song, singing from the deep...?”
He says this is the hammer of justice. I believe this is DESS. HE USES THE SAME WORDS ONIONSAN USES TOO. A “SONG” FROM THE “DEEP,” HMMM???????
EVEN MORE META. IN THE LITERAL CODE OF DELTARUNE. OUR UNUSED TEXT. SOMEONE TRAPPED. IN THE DARK. I won’t be sending the entire thing, but I will be pulling some relevant quotes.
“It’s dark. It’s so dark here.”
“No one can hear me, can they? …I guess not. To be honest, I’m not even sure I can hear myself. It’s so quiet here… and yet, sometimes, I swear I hear something… Something like… scratching?”
“I always did have that nightmare. Walking into darkness, with the light shining from the doorway… Then the door slams behind me. And everything goes black.”
“Has it been days? Hours? If someone told me it’s been years, I might believe them… Before, the sun came up, and so many wonderful things happened that made time meaningful.”
“I don’t eat or drink anymore. I can’t tell if I’m awake or dreaming. I can’t even tell if I’m dead or alive. It’s nothing but pitch black silence… except for the noise. The scratching noise I sometimes hear… This sounds crazy, but even though no one can hear me, when I hear that noise, I feel like someone’s listening. Anyone, if you’re there… thank you.”
dess is in the darkness. dess is in the water. The only one who can get to her is us, which is why kris has us, and is teamed up with Carol (DESS’S MOTHER). It’s their guilt. Even IF we do EVERY SINGLE EVIL ACTION POSSIBLE, Kris takes us back. They need our light, our ability to go BEYOND THE DARKNESS, to BE THE ARK TO SAVE DESS
only WE, THE PLAYER, can read the code of deltarune. the characters cannot. (besides gaster ignore the gaster shaped elephant in the room)
To get a little more Normal and not Reachy at all, it also helps that noelle and the holidays are associated with ice and ice is just cold water and. You know.
chapter 4 has the secret book hidden in the place to get to the egg room, reading:
“and so wept the fallen star, making rivers with it’s tears.”
“then, slowly, from the bitter water, something grew.”
“it looked like glass.”
while the glass it could be referring to could be the prophecy panels, which function very much like glass, it could also refer to the shadow crystals… which are described to “move like water in your hand,” and in the light world, they’re glass. prophetic glass, notably.
The Knight Distributes The Shadow Crystals AND the knight has Star Attacks (LITERALLY THE ELEMENT OF ‘STAR’) AND THE KNIGHT IS DEFINITELY DESS AND CALLING HER A FALLING STAR WOULD BE FITTING AND IT IS ALSO CONNECTED TO WATER AND TO TIE IT BACK TO ICE AND NOELLE:
the BitterTear, an item you can get in chapter four. bitter water, tears? it’s just like the book…… when fed to noelle… NOELLE SAYS “It’s like when we ate snow.” SNOOOOW? HHMMMM PECULIAAARR
(susie says “isn’t that rain” and ralsei says nothing… for reference)
Anyway. The Deltarune ARG is like…… beautiful vindication. If you read all this……. thank you. You don’t have to believe this. Drowning could also just be an allegory. I’d be okay with that. Chapter 5 could also disprove all of this. I hope NOOTTT but…!!!
That was Dess Drowned!! I’m sure other people have thought of this before, I’m just happy to share my version and evidence!