I have some thoughts on The Roaring Knight, recently revealed in Deltarune Chapters 3+4! I made some sketches and wrote down some vague ideas I got after thinking about it for a bit.
“Did we fight this in Ch. 4??” [Looking at the central titan in the image of chapter 2’s prophecy addition]
“Actually some kinda titan???” NOTE: The titans to either side of the one in the middle do look a LOT, though not exactly the same as, the Knight. They also don’t look much like any lightener seen in the dark worlds so far…
“Looks more like these guys than like the lightners”. [Pointing at some little doodles of the titan spawn shown in the battle with the titan]. I’m thinking that the Knight shares more properties with the titans so far than with the Darkners or Lightners, which could be why they could enter the Light World with Undyne and also carry her all the way to the other end of town without anyone noticing a thing, and without Susie catching up to them.
“Strangely bird-like… Shapeshifting??” [Pointing at the Knight’s form as they kidnap Undyne]
“NOTE: Clearly not wearing a cloak.” That and the Knight’s mysterious orb form, as well as their screeching animation before their fight, makes me think that they’re actually more amorphous than their sharp-edged look might suggest.
Their form also destabilises when Susie hits it: (I don’t know how to shrink the image on i-pad)
And also when they lose, they flicker between this and the mysterious orb again:
“What’s this? Baseball? “Soul”? Darkness? Dess’s Dust?” [Pointing at the mysterious orb] “Inky darkness wrapped around this?”
“Maybe this is to Dess, as that statue thing was to Gerson?” [Pointing at the Knight holding aloft their very bat-like weapon, which also becomes a sword]
I was thinking that maybe that’s not really Dess, but it is enough to make Carol (and Kris??) think that they might be. We still have no idea what really happened, so I’m going to speculate a bit.
Option 1: Dess is actually dead and Kris was there for it, but Mayor Carol knows about dark worlds and believes she can be brought back with the dark fountains somehow. The player is needed for closing dark fountains. Kris also thinks or thought at the time that the plan could actually work, maybe because the Knight was the result of some attempt at this?? Maybe the Knight is not Dess but wants to be??
Option 2: The Knight is not Dess, but some manifestation of fear relating to her, as the titans are stated to be the fear of the dark, the things that go bump in the night. The Knight knighting Kris and Kris struggling to fight them before Susie and Ralsei go down may have to do with potential guilt about being involved with Dess’s disappearance. This idea also assumes, therefore, that it was Carol talking to Kris on the phone. Maybe the Knight manifested during or after the incident?? Note that Queen only saw them at a distance and that King never actually met them (according to post-ch.3 dialogue in which he talks about Jevil talking about the Knight). Though… Jevil might have met them. Maybe.
Option 3: The Knight resembling the Holidays at all is all one big trick, as their form flickers and shifts. Their weapon is solid (Susie chips a shadow crystal and a weapon-sized shard off of it), but they don’t seem to be fully solid. Maybe the orb is their true form, and the rest of them can look however they please?? It’s a bit of a stretch but maybe. And what if there’s multiple “Knights” in the future? How real is this antagonist..?
Also I have very little idea about what to think of their weapon possibly being made out of shadow crystal. I’m sure that implies something important… Or maybe it just confirms that the Knight is responsible for shadow crystals and therefore the secret bosses receiving/finding them. (Gave one to Jevil? Left a shadow crystal in the NEO suit as a trap for Spamton? Left one lying around for Gerson, who didn’t take the bait?)
Another thing I find odd is that Ralsei has nothing to say about the Knight. While Susie’s doing her epic heroic speech, Ralsei’s kind of just there. He doesn’t seem afraid of the Knight in the same way he was of the titan. Did the prophecy mention the Knight anywhere at all? Titans and the end of the world are, but I don’t think the Knight is.
“HAHAHAHAHAHA!! Was Susie right? Or wrong..?” [Pointing at some sketches of the Knight’s goopy-looking laugh, referring to Susie declaring that they’re helpless in the Light World and that without the Dark Fountain they’d be beaten straight away.]
(Also what is “aura farming” and why do some posts about the Knight say this is a thing that they’re doing?)
