Kris and Noelle: Control

About soulless Kris.

In Chapter 1 and 2, we see Kris rip out their soul and do some interesting stuff. In Chapter 1, Kris looks at the screen with a knife, and makes a huge grin right at the camera, with their red eyes shining right at us. Kris also eats the entirety of Toriel's pie. In Chapter 2, Kris leaves the sink running, then falls out of the room into some weird dark area that we cannot interact with. Soulless Kris also rips their SOUL again, slashes Toriel's tires, and creates a fountain right in the living room of Toriel's house. Susie and Toriel are present, sleeping in the living room.

So what does this mean? Part of me thinks that Kris is entering a state similar to Flowey when they tear their soul from their body. Flowey is known to be mischievous, giving us evil grins, and so on. And Flowey doesn't have a soul. However, one issue is that Kris seems to enter a weak state before ripping off their soul. Maybe they're stressed out about doing it, because it seems to be painful. Maybe someone else is controlling Kris.

As Toriel mentions how Kris has stalled in the bathroom in the past, and the visible bloodstain on the cage, Kris has repeated this in the past.

Here is what I think what happened to Kris's soul. In the past, Kris had a soul. It was different before Chapter 1, as the monsters in the town remark about how Kris has acted differently since Chapter 1. Then the player got into the equation. My guess was that Gaster wanted to create a vessel for the Angel, who I think is the player. Then someone stopped the whole experiment, and forced the new soul to overwrite Kris's soul. Kris is a different person. They are unable to play the piano, they are more talkative towards everyone (such as Noelle and Rudy), they befriended Susie and Noelle, and they even started visiting Rudy in the hospital.

However, then why would Kris rip out their own soul, if they had a perfectly fine one in the past? It's possible that Kris has been being controlled by someone for a while, way before Chapter 1. It seems whatever is possessing Kris, they probably like messing with the player (Kris literally looks at us evilly in the ending of Chapter 1), and they force Kris to act as a knight (by creating a dark fountain), going against Ralsei's wills. Ralsei mentions that there was a balance between the Light and Dark World for millennia, so whoever is possessing Kris, probably learned more about the Dark Worlds, and only recently made Kris start getting into knight business. Though they did make Kris do other things in the past, of course.

Kris is probably suffering as a result. They have had to deal with some entity controlling them, forcing them to rip their own soul out even in the past. And now the player is in the jumble, forcing Kris to do certain things that they may not find desirable (cough cough, Weird Route).

The reason why Kris cannot just keep their soul in the cage for good is that Kris needs the soul to survive. Remember, Asriel without a soul became Flowey.

Warning: Very Speculative

Alright, this is getting into even more speculative theory. Anyways, Ralsei seems to be firmly against the Angel. Ralsei mentions that Kris, Susie, and himself must banish the Angel's Heaven. Here is a great post that discusses Ralsei's connections with the devil. I am beginning to think that the Angel may be the player. The Darkeners know of the Angel's existence as well, which is indicated by an unused dialogue of Clover, where they discuss the idea of the Angel. The Lighteners worship the Angel in their religion. Alvin says something like that he hopes that the angel watches over Kris, and smiles upon Alphys. More information about how the Player is in the Angel is in this YouTube comment. In Undertale, the Angel is mentioned to either liberate the monsters by freeing them from the underground, or by slaughtering them all. Sounds familiar? Anyways, what is the Angel's Heaven? My guess is that it is the source of connection that allows for the player to enter into the world of Deltarune. Gaster created the Angel's Heaven, so the player could manifest into Deltarune. However, the Angel's Heaven will be banished in the future, as Gaster says so in him.png. Gaster was probably doing this for experimental purposes, and then he allowed for the heroes to banish the Angel's Heaven, realizing the problems of the Angel. Maybe Gaster just wanted the player to have fun with Deltarune for a bit. Maybe Gaster didn't create the Angel's Heaven, but had the power to extract the player from there into the world.

Alright, now to address the deer in the room: Noelle. Noelle is the only other character that shares numerous connections with the Angel. She and Dess created the faceless angel doll present in the hospital, she is an avid church attendee (like Asriel), and she even wishes that she could jump off a high distance and grow angel wings in the Ferris wheel scene. Spamton also calls her "Angel" numerous times. Noelle is also the only character that can majorly alternate a route. She can freeze enemies alive, and even commit fatal spells. She was also the only one able to defeat Spamton NEO in Weird, while Kris and the player together were unable to. It is implied that Noelle can even hear a voice that does not sound like Kris's in the Weird Route, if Kris's HP is down. Noelle can even vaporize enemies with Snowgrave. In Chapter 1, the gang plus the player cannot kill enemies at all. They just run away. The route does not change either. The only punishment that happens is that the angry mob in the end of Chapter 1 just refuses to help you defeat the King. It is only through Noelle that the Weird Route can happen in the first place, and that enemies can literally die. Plus, Snowgrave is described as "fatal". So Noelle is extremely powerful, and when discussing the Angel, overlooking her is a poor decision.I think that Noelle has the power to become an Angel. Weird Route will focus on Noelle becoming strong enough to match the power of the Angel. As a result, I personally think that future Weird Routes will be exclusive to Dark Worlds that involve Noelle. This is probably why there was no Weird Route in Chapter 1. I think that in the Normal Route, Noelle will probably investigate what is happening to Kris. She realizes that Kris is not acting their normal way, and my idea is that she may even help Kris free themselves from being controlled by the player (or whoever else is possessing Kris). Of course, it is heavily implied that Kris, Susie, and Ralsei will be the ones that banish the Angel's Heaven. But I think Noelle will play an important role in helping the heroes do that in the future chapters.

And I think the end of Deltarune for the Normal Route will be that Kris will be free of control from the player, and whoever else is controlling Kris. Then Ralsei will probably tell us to quit. Flowey in the ending of the pacifist route gets upset if we try to join Undertale again after the pacifist route, telling us that Frisk is happy. Ralsei will warn us in the same way, telling us to leave Kris alone. Ralsei has the ability to interact with Kris, even when the player's soul is busy watching Noelle and Susie go on an adorable date.

As for the Weird Route, Noelle will become strong enough to match that of the Angel's Power (this could happen in the Normal Route, but I think she uses this power for fighting reasons). She will be in a similar position as Asriel or Chara was in Undertale. Maybe what will happen is that Noelle will use her power to banish the Angel's Heaven itself, realizing how evil we truly are. If the three heroes do banish the Angel's Heaven instead in Weird, then it ends with Noelle pulling a Chara, and snowgraving the player's soul. The game crashes, and Deltarune enters a similar state to Undertale after Chara destroys the world.

Noelle may find the idea of the Angel's Heaven pleasing initially. After all, she is very stressed out from her strict mother's high expectations, Dess's disappearance, and Rudy being sick. There is also some foreshadowing that Rudy may pass away. He did pass away in Undertale.

One issue I see with my idea that I cannot seem to resolve is that the soul may be an independent character of its own. Great theory about this here.

Very Speculative Part Ends Here.

Noelle will become an important character. There is unused dialogue in the castle town where Swatch talks about Noelle. I think Noelle will visit the castle town at some point, and she'll become an official party member in Chapter 3 or 4. The name "Noelle" is one of the three names that is described as "wonderful" in the introduction (Kris and Susie are the other two). She has had a deep past relationship with Kris and Asriel. She also has a huge crush on Susie, and this relationship has been built heavily in Chapter 2. Toby Fox mentioned Chapter 2 as probably being the grandest chapter, and this chapter was heavily dedicated to Noelle. I'll just list the connections between the Chapter 2 Dark World and Noelle here:

• The numerous car puzzles. Deer are known to collide with cars, so this could resemble one of Noelle's fears. When crossing the car puzzle, she's always Holding Kris's hand, staying close to them. She's clearly afraid.
• The Queen lives in a mansion, rather than a castle. This is despite the fact that the King has a castle to himself. Noelle also lives in a mansion. I think the Swatchlings could also resemble how Noelle lives with multiple butlers in her mansion, though this is just speculation.
• The Queen has a deep respect for Noelle. The Queen does care about Noelle, even if her methods of doing so aren't great. She asks Kris to give her regards to Noelle, and she wanted Noelle to make a Dark World that makes Noelle happy.
• The puzzle that specifically spells out "DECEMBER". This is likely a reference to Dess.
• Noelle gets a larger room than everyone else I think.
• There are mice everywhere. Noelle was afraid of mice early on in Chapter 2.
• The Queen seems to reflect Noelle's mom. She is described as tyrannical, and she is deeply watchful over Noelle, constantly looking for her. She also forces Noelle to use her power, even when she isn't interested in doing so. Sounds familiar to Noelle's mom, who is described as a strict and cold mother, who owns a mansion, and is the mayor of the town. The Queen also is quite controlling of Noelle in Chapter 2. She could resemble Noelle's mother being overprotective. Watch this video.

What are your thoughts and opinions here?