What exactly is the SOUL in Deltarune? Ralsei calls it the culmination of your being (as does Flowey in Undertale), the books in Librarby call it the source of our compassion, etc. And in our pov, the SOUL is what connects us to the world of Deltarune. I wanted to dive deeper into the themes and symbolisms, plus the philosophy that surrounds the SOUL, the Light and Dark, HOPES and DREAMS and FREEDOM, and what this may imply about the future of Deltarune.

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First of all, the SOUL seems to emit light. It emits light to seal the dark fountains, it emits light in the Dark Place to shine the Fun Gang the way, and it is what controls Kris’s dialogues and actions, thus consequentially the force that decides them and their friends, the world around them. But how are all these ‘traits’ of the SOUL congruent? What does Light have to do with sealing fountains, what does it have to do with deciding stuff? To understand this, we need to look at what Light and Dark represents in Deltarune.

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**LIGHT** sure is bright. Light naturally illuminates things, it makes them seen and understood. The real world in Deltarune is called the ‘Light World’. Light symbolizes what is **seen**, **orderly**, and the **Apollonian**. I’d say **LIGHT** in Deltarune overall symbolizes ‘**meaning**’ in general. Light shines in the darkness and shows us the way, it is that ‘white pen of **hope** that overwrites the dark. Too much light can sure be suffocating though. Susie lives in Castle Town now cuz her home life seemingly isn’t good. Both Kris and Noelle are slowly suffocating under the weight of Hometown’s reality and facticity, like the Tory-Gory divorce, the Dess-appearance, their estrangement, etc. As put by Gerson, it can be a ‘path so blue, its all you can see.’ Seen from this, **LIGHT** isn’t all good nor bad. It’s all about perception, the light can bind us sometimes, but it can also give us hope in dark situations.    
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**DARK***** ***sure is dark. The dark naturally obscures things, it is a lack of light, of meaning. The seemingly ‘fake’ world in Deltarune is called the ‘Dark World’. Darkness symbolizes what is **unseen**, **chaotic**, and the **Dionysian**. I’d say **DARKNESS** in Deltarune overall symbolizes the simple **lack of meaning**. Darkness provides us a fresh view of reality, it gives us room to imaginate, it transforms mundane everyday objects into Darkners that reflect their subconscious meaning and history in relation to the maker of the dark world. In the ‘pure’ darkness of Castle Town, every recruited Darkners grow together, and build a new dream that grows with hope. Darkness is **dream**. As put by Gerson yet again, ‘why dont we go between the lines? It’s **darker** there!’ Yet darkness also gives fear, it gives meaninglessness. If too many darkness is unleashed, the Roaring happens in which all darkners lose their meaning (turning to stone) and the lightners get lost in an eternal night (symbolically nihilism). So yeah, **DARKNESS** isn’t all good nor bad. The darkness can be liberating dreams for transformation, but it can also give us fear and nihilism in excess.    
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Now, what does the SOUL do? We control the Soul which is inside Kris, makes decisions regarding dialogue and actions, controlling the game’s settings as well. But do we ever add anything new or foreign to Kris themself? Actually no, not even the Weird Route choices are “new” (Kris knows what to do just by ‘proceed’). Does that mean every dialogue option and action choices given to us are reflective of Kris’s true desired self? That’s not true either. Kris clearly hates the weird route, they say some dialogue options with confusion or with frustration (implying that’s not what they want to say), they say some dialogue with enthusiasm (implying that’s what they really wanna say). Ultimately, we are the bright **Apollonian** deciding force inside Kris that navigates through their dark mind, the deep subconscious of Kris, and ‘fishes’ out choices and dialogue for them.     
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Note the lyrics of <Raise Up Your Bat> here, \*“Come follow me into the dark with your heart as my mark which will shine you the way, because I’m with you in the dark with your heart as the ark which will guide you the way, through the waves”\*

In a way, we are the **ark** inside their mind that shines through the way (hope). You know what? The lyrics of “Don’t forget” include “There’s a light inside your soul, that’s still shining in the cold, with the truth, the promise in our hearts: don’t forget, I’m with you in the dark.” We the Soul are with Kris in the dark, with their friends in the dark. We contain that ‘**promise**’ diagetically by purchasing the game and getting to control Kris throughout the game. Indeed, the Soul is the ‘**ark**’ that navigates through the waves, the ‘**ark**’ that carries the promise, the **ark of the covenant**. (Yup its no secret that Toby uses crazy amounts of biblical symbolism he’s basically Gerson atp)

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So yeah, basically I’m predicting that when the Roaring happens in the future (the Roaring being analogous to the biblical great flood), the **SOUL** will guide the characters the way. I reckon this will be both literal and symbolic, as character hold onto each others’ hearts, their shared care for each other as well. That’s why Flowery says as long as they stick together, he thinks they’ll be able to overcome the dark path laid ahead of them. Their compassion, their hearts, their love, their SOUL will act as an **ark** that guides them through the darkness, through the waves.     
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And in fact, I’d argue we see what happens when we “shatter the promise” in our hearts. Well, not exactly breaking the promise, but twisting and perverting it. That’s the Weird Route imo. Instead of letting the light shine through the dark, letting them mix and transform, in the weird route we shatter the boundary between light and dark violently. Yes, light and dark can also symbolize the conscious and the subconscious shadow, the ego and the superego, all that psychoanalytic stuff. In the normal route I predict the events will lead up to all of the characters, especialoy Kris and Noelle, confronting their own shadows (shadow mantle and ERAM KnightmarE hmmmm…) as Blue (blu hu hu) suggests in chapter 5 “True victory comes in confronting the shadow of the mind” or smth like that. In fact this mixing of light and dark makes huge sense in a Nietzschean view (yup this post has always been about Nietzschean philosophy uee hee hee). According to Nietzsche, the best form of art comes from the natural and sensual mix of the Apollonian and the Dionysian (thus he looved those Greek tragedies. its not a joke when Deltarune fans compare Deltarune to a greek tragedy, IT’S REALLL!!) 

BUT in the weird route we just outright shatter the boundary between the light and dark, Kris and Noelle’s conscious and subconscious, without their consent. We choose all the deepest and darkest ‘id’ of Kris and such choices naturally lead to Noelle’s ‘id’ surfacing as well. In fact we shatter the boundary between the Light World and the Dark World too, by telling Noelle it wasn’t a dream, by re-equipping the thornring, etc. That’s why the lyrics of <Raise Up Your Bat> are seemingly achieved early in chapter 5 in the weird route, not with love but with LOVE, with a twisted empowerment stemming from ressentiment, ultimately from a sense of weakness. As we make Kris and Noelle proceed into the lake, the screen goes blazingly LIGHT with the SOUL guiding them violently to the other side, breaking them free from their deafening reality. But in this case Kris and Noelle aren’t hopeful in the slightest. That ‘light which shines you the way’ that was supposed to be a hopeful light against the deafening darkness, has itself become deafeningly bright, an Apollonian tyrant. And diagetically, because we break the game, because we glitch out, we break that ‘promise’ we made, we break that ‘connection’. That’s why the game diverges significantly (no chapter 6 for you), we have broken that ‘connection’, that ‘promise’ within the soul. That’s why in the aborted weird route in chapter 5, Kris’s title reads “Lv. 5 Shattered Rose. Only one knows the meaning of the rose.” Kris and Noelle are both shattered, the promise in their hearts is shattered, the boundaries between their surfaced self and shadow self are shattered. 

Analysis of the SOUL, Light and Dark, among other things…