#roots theory

[kinkajoupaige]

[drangel76]

thinking of roots theory... was this meant to be pink/mew mew, do we think?

[eevee-d]

All (my and others) Roots related theories that I liked fitting in!

This is taking the roots prophecy making it into the trees in hometown, and its roots all over it. The bread crumbs glitch of earthbound/mother behind also the out-of-bounds place to reach with Noelle, the glitch helps you skip large portions of the game. Considering this a glitch that connects to the dark world isn't crazy either. The out of bounds is gray like the goners. Ralsei is a Tree/plant roots. Friend in relation to all this. And the whole connecting what is similar in Omori that others have done a connection of the themes, Mari and Dess...

[yiptsu]

What do you mean the root beer has Actual Roots inside of it. What did you mean by that

[bigjohnnycheese]

Weird route + ch 3&4 spoilers

Not exactly a theory but more of a discussion.

Has anyone really thought about how, on the spamton sweepstakes page for the weird route, chapter 4 is significantly smaller than 5? Even though you put the thorn ring back on Noelle, locking you into the route? You'd think it should be a big moment for the weird route, so why is the number so small?

I understand chapter 2 being the biggest (and chapter 3 being the same size lol), but 5 being bigger than 4 is SCARING ME 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

If we consider the recent festival screenshot (posted officially) and the fact ralsei was edited into a battle in the teaser, that means Noelle is likely to be added to the party at some point in the dark world. We don't know for sure tho lol

I don't know if you can see but the (purple?) line below ralsei is thinner than the rest of the line, hopefully implying he was edited in.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts lol what do you think is gonna happen? Roots theory or whatever

[rockylikesbeeef]

A short addendum on Deltarune's Weird Route & the 'Roots Theory...'

^first: this video by Goldpro which outlines the Roots Theory is really great, and I will be referencing it directly in this post; if you haven't seen it already, I would highly recommend you watch before reading!!

I'm very excited by a lot of the speculation presented in the Roots Theory, but I think the idea that really stands out to me is thinking about the 3rd part of the Mantle minigame (aka 'bit_roots') as an extension of the Weird Route 'tutorial' which begins in the 2nd part of the Mantle minigame. By broadening the scope of the Mantle game's Weird Route connections, we can evaluate the 2nd Mantle game's snnowgrave parallels as a cue to thinking about the entire Mantle game as a kind of symbolic Weird Route guide: Part 1 hints at the idea of Kris becoming stronger through violent combat, Part 2 gives specific instructions to disconnect the player the flow of normal gameplay (and maybe even The Prophecy?) through Noelle's ice magic, and Part 3 gives a hint as to how to push Kris even further in the yet-unknown world of 'Roots,' maybe by acting with violence towards Hometown's NPCs.

Right? Well, I actually think we might be able to push that logic a little further: in the Mantle mini game's 3rd part, there's actually...a little tiny moment before 'bit-roots' that I'd like to consider:

Anyone remember this tidbit? In the urban area that looks a bit like the apartments at the edge of Hometown? That little part where you casually kill hero_axe and hero_scarf to progress? Sure hope that doesn't mean anything significant...

But what if we were to apply the Roots Theory's logic about the Mantle minigame to this particular section? In that case, the message seems morbidly clear: Susie and Ralsei need to be 'removed' somehow (killed, even???) in order for Kris to get stronger, and for the route to progress. This feels....like, incredibly radical, and incredibly scary, but I think given what we understand to be true about the Weird Route so far, it might make sense for a few reasons:

First, the practical side of things: by pushing Susie and Ralsei out of the picture, there is no longer a Light World or Dark World 'safeguard' who would otherwise attempt to steer Kris away from acting out the disruptively anti-social and violent actions which the Weird Route requires in both worlds. It would also enable an absolute, uninterrupted glance into the bond between Kris and Noelle (being mediated through the Soul, of course), which would.......well, wait, what would that mean? What is the actual point of the Weird Route, again?

I'm moving into very speculative territory here, but I have some ideas. The Weird Route seems to have an obsession with looking back towards Kris' past (which seems to harbor some sort of literal/metaphorical darkness), particularly through the preservation of their relationships with Carol and Noelle. Through these relationships, and through key bits of dialogue offered in the Weird Route (moments such as Friend speaking to Kris about the 'part of them who enjoyed yesterday,' among other small cues into Kris' character which are not revealed in normal gameplay), we begin to get a more vivid sketch into the parts of Kris' life they would rather us not know.

So, I wonder, then: what if the 'reward' of the Weird Route isn't the obsessive chase of violence but rather the obsessive chase of knowledge: namely, the knowledge of Kris' internal tendencies and memories which they are able to withhold from us during normal gameplay? What if the Weird Route is truly about severing Kris from all the support they've ever had, so we can then isolate them under a cold, harsh spotlight of our own design; and then, in our obsession, we can then preform a sort of metaphysical autopsy on them; pushing their body to its absolute limits to see what truths we might uncover about them and about Hometown? Thinking this way, the Weird Route itself becomes an act of theorycrafting: its the Player 'shaking the frame' of the game to see what secrets are hiding in the dusty corners, especially those kind of secrets that might be better off left in the darkness. (I think this would also slot in nicely with Susie's normal route passion for carving out new endings and reinterpreting the future-- the Weird Route, then, becomes a thematic counterbalance mediated through Noelle where the Player can earn a fetishistic deep-dive into the past, but in doing so will forgo any possibility of a better future). But that's all just (a small extension of) a theory....a game theory.....about a game within a game....

(I'm also very curious to hear other responses to the Roots Theory and its thinking about the Mantle minigame, so don't be afraid to share your thoughts!!)