Why Ch6 being "Noelle Focused" is flawed (or not possible) (or weird) (or deltarunic)
[Hiii!! I just made this theory about ch6 for the deltacriticism subreddit, i kinda surprised myself while writing it so i decided to post it here as well. Please dont police-sacrifice-next-week me in the comments!]
This time it's going to be short, i'm just going to make a list bc my last post about Suselle had too much body and i don't think i expressed myslef correctly (english is not my first language anyways!). You don't gotta agree with me, since it's just my opinion, I'm just sick rn and don't have anything better to do :)
Why I think there's no room for this thing that's kinda already agreed upon by the community (assuming toby genuinely stops vagueposting, "wdym only one big reveal?!"):
- We still only know one out of three codes: at the end of ch5, susie gets flowery's code before Kris can rip it up, great! now we only need the other two to enter the shelter (it's implied by susie in ch4 that you need all 3), one on the church and the other in dess' guitar. If we only get that second one on the next chaper, then there's still one missing!
- Why can't we have the church one still missing: If we assume that we have 2 codes by the end of ch6, that'd make ch7 unwrittable! the list of things happening in ch7 would look something like this: The chapter starts with a really brief intro, we go into the church hurrily to get the code in the lightworld (bc we can't make the dark sanctuary again, assuming the roaring is close), another brief scene planning the entrance into the shelter, the whole shelter darkworld, going outside to find the roaring or whatever, the whole roaring, probably a knight rematch, battle against the angel (sealing their heaven), ending scene. It's too much!!
- Why the ch6 dark world can't be in the Hospital: No Dess code! we can't just akwardly go back to noelle's house in the middle of the night to grab the guitar, it's something that the gang should do with time because carol is probably blocking the way!! The only thing going for this is the song "waiting room", Noelle just rushing out of castletown before Ralsei has a chance to explain the state of their crumbling world, with her still not having much idea how the darkworlds work (meaning she doesn't know how to get out), all in a single scene is not good writing!!
- Why the ch6 dark world can't be in the holiday MANNOR: it's too big! biggest than any other darkworld before, and it's been confirmed that this is a SHORTER chapter (which i'll just assume is about ch1 or ch3 length). The only way to get around that (which shouldn't be a necessity in good writing) is to make the darkworld EXCLUSIVE to Dess' room (the guitar is supposed to be there), but... why would they? Noelle wouldn't, it's COMPLETELY obvious that it won't bring Dess back, since there's no "Dustner Object" there or anything, it'd just make another Tenna! And Carol could just.... hide the guitar? take it with her??
- Why can't it be ICE-E's then?!: ... No direct relationship with the holidays (for the casuals who don't watch theories or read through the whole spamton sweepstakes), No real reason to make one there without forcing the story to do so, and again, no Shelter Code. [AND IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A SERIOUS CHAPTER, NOT FREDDY FAZBEAR'S!!]
- Why Noelle wouldn't react too harshly about the existance of the darkworld: While it's true that she might initially have conflicted feelings about it, There's no way she is getting out of castletown before the gang (and specially ralsei) can talk her into reason. Yeah, her father is hospitalized, but ralsei would probably tell her that IT CANNOT BE CURED WITH DARKWOLD MAGIC, this is a key point, since it's true, we see it with Flowery: Lightworld wounds can't be healed with "magic", especially not lethal or virical or medical or whatever ones, she is NOT going to be able to help him, even if she tried, so why bother when the world is also at stake?
- Why she wouldn't/can't get out of castletown on her own/fast enough: Not only would she be in complete shock when she realizes her dream was real, there are several characters that have pseudo-CONFIRMED INTERACTIONS with noelle: Queen is bound to talk to her, so is Tenna (from the ch5 dialogue), etc... ugh... i guess cap'n too... Also, like it happened when berdly almost made another darkfountain in ch2, Ralsei gets REALLY serious whenever the possibility of doing stupid stuff that causes the roaring shows, he has the knowledge and now also the will to say it (after the events of ch4 and partially also ch5), he could stop her and drop one of his sepia-colored cutscenes: "this is more serious than you think Noelle", because it is! her father would die regardless if we don't do something NOW! Noelle is rational enough to figure that out with the help of susie and kris, we can't just circle around the problem any longer, we've been doing that for 5 chapters!! [Also, and this has been added later, Kris's dad is also close to being sacrificed in the "police sacrifice next week", so same boat]
- Oh, well. where could it be then SMARTASS?!: I belive that ch6's darkworld will be in the shelter (yes, i know this is frowned upon or considered bad theoryzing by the community). the order of events would look something like this: "Noelle gets brought into castletown inmediatelly after school (it's monday again, damnit!!), after learning about the state of the world and what's at stake she hesitatingly joins the fun gang and helps in the making of a coherent plan (finally!), there's a long lightworld section where they get the two codes (I guess that it's done with some degree of difficulty, involving sneaking into her house like kris used to do, etc.), they go to the shelter (or group up with ralsei at castletown first), the whole darkworld happens, they get out and the roaring has probably already started."
- Why I think this is the most feasable outcome: There are still to many things to clarify, most of them don't fit in a snowy, holiday-themed ice hell (not because that'd be a bad darkworld, but because SOME OF THEM are exclusive to the shelter!!) some of them are: Image_Friendlings and their pack-master (there are different theories to who they might be, and i'm not touching that), Kris Confrontation (the aknowledgement of them working with the knight/triple trucies), THE POLICE SACRIFICE! (the exclamation on this one is me remembering it's existance while writing this, since its purpose is not really discussed a lot. Go on future me, add the note two blocks avobe).
- Why I think these would fit into a shelter darkworld: Eram/MantleHolder/SwordRouteVoice is the most probable "Hunting Pack Master" (whoever they're supposed to be, since we don't know lol), they inhabit the shelter (as shown in the Mantle Minigame) which, and this is not very relevant at all since it can be proven otherwise, has the shape of a massive 6 (again, ignore this if you belive it's just a coincidence, i'll love you the same <3). The police sacrifice, and obviously having to rescue Asgore and Undyne, happens 100% in the shelter, because that's were they're bringing the hostages. Finally, the Kris confrontation, while not exclusive to a Shelter-ch6, would make the most sense if we consider the following: Roaring knight focused chapter.
- Why Roaring knight focused chapter?: The shelter is their base of operations for one, that'll get the theme started without inmediatelly revealing that they're Dess at the beggining by making the dark fountain on her old room (too obvious!). Secondly, we ALREADY have a chapter for each fun gangererer (Ch1 = introduction, Ch2 = Noelle, Ch3 = Kris, Ch4 = Susie, Ch5 = Ralsei), so following the natural course of the story... why would Ch6 = Noelle again...? And lastly... THE BIG REVEAL.
- The big reveal?!: Toby fox recently confirmed that ch6 "focuses on one aspect of the story", only one, "whether we're ready or not". I don't think it's the Dessapareance since, at this point, we would all be "pretty ready for it", considering we were expecting it for ch5 and didn't get it. I don't think it's gaster (might not be real, i don't wanna get flamed in the comments) or the angel's identity (too early, honestly). The only thing that would be COMPLETELY SHOCKING is the age old question: "Who is the Roaring Knight?" Because we still cannot say for sure!! there's no terminal evidence for it, and both sides get fed every chapter (Flowery paralleling Rudy and the knight at the same time, and Dess throughout the entirety of ch3 AND the actual fight, etc. I'm trying to stay neutral!!).
[... and honestly? what would the Noelle-Centric chapter reveal even be? The Dessapareance? at this point it's not even THAT important, she just got lost in the forest (probably led into the shelter) and then unimaginable horrors happened. I'd much rather something else that isn't as weak as that, considering there are only 2 chapters left!]
Thank you for reading the whole damn thing! (thought I said I wouldn't write long stuff... why was I doing this again...?) If you disagree with this... it's OK!! you can write down your own point of view or any flaws you find in here... but be nice, or else...
Bye Bye!!!
Posted Sep 25, 2026, 10:52 PM UTC