shadow crystal collector

ok so this is a really random crack theory for deltarune. i apologize if its not the most coherent, it’s like 10 pm and also my brain just hates organizing things. spoilers for chapter 2 under the cut

alright so i don’t have much evidence for this at all it’s just pure speculation and i’m going based on my memory.

so after the snowgrave route once you go to back to the light world, there’s a scene where noelle is talking to herself once you go to the hospital. she says the line (according to my memory) “i have to figure out what is wrong with kris.”

now, toby fox has said that deltarune will only have 1 ending, and i thought that, with the introduction of the snowgrave route, didn’t really make sense. how can something as big as the snowgrave route just happen and still lead to the same ending?

and then i had a random thought:

what if the ending of deltarune is kris finally breaking out of the players control for good and being able to live out their own life?

i think it makes sense with all the other stuff in chapter 2. there seems to be a lot more of a focus on kris being in our control and showing signs of wanting to not be in it anymore. some notable examples are the ending cutscenes in both chapters 1 & 2, where kris literally rips the soul out of their body and tosses it away to do their own thing. the second is spamton neo’s entire boss fight. the big theme in his boss fight is being a puppet on strings yearning for freedom. kris is very emotionally effected by this, as can be seen in the dialogue after the fight. it’s very clear that the feeling of being a puppet is something that hit bards with them.

meanwhile, the snowgrave route just gives noelle a motivation to try and figure out what is going on with kris and possibly even break them out of the players control. noelle is subjected to the horrible control of the player, and becomes aware of the fact that it’s definitely not kris, as i stated with the quote i mentioned wayyyy earlier in my nonsensical rant.

so, my basic theory is that: in a normal, fully pacifistic route, kris will attempt to break out of the players control for good, and possibly succeed. in a route where snowgrave happened, kris will possibly receive assistance from noelle, who will probably help kris break free from their control and possibly succeed.

it might be kind of a stretch, and it’s really hard to say with having only 2/7 of the chapters, but at the very least its something interesting to think about.