Rudy says he's in the hospital because the doctors "found some crap." When the Knight roars at the end of Chapter 3 before you fight them, its chest opens, and you can see something inside. What if somehow, someway, there's a dark shard inside Rudy? This idea specifically is kind of far-fetched, but still plausible. Moving on to more concrete stuff.

At the end of Chapter 2, Rudy says he might be able to go to church tomorrow. Chapter 3 happens overnight, and in Chapter 4, the Knight is in the dark world of the church.

You bring Susie to visit Rudy in Chapter 2, and Rudy tells Kris to "take her to the movies." As Chapter 2 ends, Susie sleeps over, the TV is playing a movie, and Chapter 3 takes place in a TV-based dark world.

If you keep investigating the sink in Rudy's room in Chapters 1 and 2, he'll ask, "Practicing for tonight's... Handwashing marathon, Kris?" At the end of Chapter 2, Kris goes to the bathroom, turns the sink on, rips the Soul out, and sneaks out the window.

Before the Knight creates a Titan in Chapter 4, Susie says, "You can't beat us in the Light World, can you?! That's... why you keep running, isn't it?" In response, the Knight laughs. Rudy is sick and in the hospital; he’s in no shape to fight in the Light World.

In Chapter 3, during the flashback of the Dreemurrs and Holidays spending time together watching TV, people start slowly leaving. And the second-to-last person to disappear, just before Asriel, was Rudy. He stuck around even after Toriel and Asgore separated, and after his entire family stopped visiting.

That's why Kris already knows what to do and when to do it, even if we choose to ignore all the other NPCs and rush through everything. Rudy and Kris discussed this before we took control. Kris didn't randomly decide to make a fountain when Susie was sleeping over; Rudy told them to beforehand.

Remember when we first saved in Deltarune Chapter 1 in the Dark World? We overwrote Kris' file. (I know there are a few saves in the Light World, but those were only added because people kept asking Toby for them, meaning they weren’t supposed to be there normally.) With this in mind, it means that Kris has been in a dark world before.

**There's more.**

At the end of Chapter 3, the Knight grabs Undyne and runs, locking themselves in the bunker. In Chapter 4, after church ends, Rudy goes back to the hospital. If you visit him, Susie will ask how he's doing, and he says, "I'll... I'll get there, just... church was a lot."

I'm not buying that. Going to church, watching a sermon, and chatting for a bit was too much for you? No. No way. The REAL reason you're tired is that the night before, you had to grab Undyne, run OUT OF the Dark World and THROUGH the Light World, to drag her to the bunker. You didn’t expect Susie to still have the strength to chase you after you fought them in the Dark World, so you had to overexert yourself to make sure Susie wouldn’t catch you.

**This is when things start drifting from what most of the fandom believes.**

**The Knight actually planned to get** ***Undyne*** **at the end of Chapter 3 and** ***Toriel*** **in Chapter 4, rather than being after Toriel in Chapter 3.**

When Toriel calls the police, she says she heard noises outside, and when she went to her car to get the sugar for the pie she and Susie were making, she saw slashes on the tires. Kris purposely made a lot of noise to alert Toriel, and then slashed the tires of the car to make sure she would call the police so the Knight would be able to grab Undyne.

However, Undyne was taking forever to show up. We went through the entire chapter, and she only showed up at the end. So when the Knight appeared, they saw Undyne was a no-show, and settled for taking Toriel. At this point, the Knight killed Tenna because Tenna was about to let the Lightners seal the fountain before the Knight could take Toriel. The gang gets whooped, but then Undyne shows up and attacks the Knight. With this, the Knight goes back to the original plan and grabs Undyne.

Undyne was taken to the bunker, and the plan was to grab Toriel at the church. But Toriel says at the end of Chapter 4 that choir practice was cancelled due to the bad weather, and Sans took Toriel home. Rudy and Kris didn't plan for that to happen, so Rudy wasn't able to take Toriel.

**This is why Kris sneaks out of the house at the end of Chapter 4.** The Knight failed to get Toriel, so Kris has to sneak out of the house to meet up with Rudy to try and come up with a plan to take Toriel. That’s why Kris locked the Soul in the cage at the end of Chapter 4, but not at the end of Chapter 2. There was nothing to hide at the end of Chapter 2, but since they have to talk with Rudy, they can’t let the Soul hear anything.

The final nail in the coffin is this.

In Snowgrave Chapter 2, when you visit Rudy, after you leave his room while Susie stays to talk, you hear Noelle. She says, "I... I have to figure it out. Why Kris is acting so strange... Why they keep coming... to the hospital..." THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT, BECAUSE THIS DIALOGUE PLAYS EVEN IF YOU DON'T VISIT RUDY IN CHAPTER 1. THIS MEANS THAT KRIS WAS VISITING RUDY BEFORE WE TOOK CONTROL!!!!

When you visit Rudy in Chapter 1, he acts surprised, asking Kris, "Why you here? Did your mom make you come here?" Noelle has no reason to lie about this while she's *talking to herself,* so if Kris has been regularly visiting the hospital, why is Rudy surprised that Kris is there?

It's simple. He's PRETENDING to be surprised because he and Kris both know the player can hear them now. He's pretending that Kris showing up is uncommon, so when things start happening, the player doesn't suspect that he and Kris are involved in it. If he isn't involved in the events of Deltarune, why would he pretend that Kris isn't visiting often?

Every time we make Kris visit Rudy, he drops hints about what's going to happen, whether it be to remind Kris of what to do or to confirm that he's able to get involved.

1. "I might be able to go to church tomorrow." The Knight is inside the church's dark world.
2. "You should take her (Susie) to the movies." Chapter 3’s dark world is focused on TV with Susie sleeping over at Kris’ house.
3. "Practicing for tonight's handwashing marathon, Kris?" At the end of Chapter 2, Kris goes to the bathroom, turns the sink on, rips the soul out, and sneaks out.

The Player taking control of Kris wasn't a random occurrence; it was planned. And Kris, Rudy, and whoever else may be involved, prepared for it. All the events that take place are set up. The Player THINKS that they’re in control of what’s going on, when in fact, they’re following along with everything the mastermind wants, whoever that may be. It fits in perfectly with the theme of the game, “Your choices don’t matter.” It doesn’t matter if you spare or attack your foes; you’re still doing the important things that are expected of you.

That’s why in Chapter 3, it says, “THE ***FORBIDDEN PATH*** BEGAN WITH ICE MAGIC.” No matter what you do, the events that occur are the same, but doing Snowgrave actually changes things. Doing Snowgrave is how you actually break off from whatever is planned.

I’ve spent actual hours thinking about this, and I think I’ve covered all my bases.

Can’t wait for Toby to release Chapter 5 tomorrow and reveal that Catti is the Knight.

I figured it out. Rudy is the Knight, and it actually all makes sense. (MASSIVE RANT!)