Nihilistic humour is very much part of Gen Z teenagerhood. Kris is probably like "fuck yeah perish. I'm gonna snap both my legs and instantly die" or some similar sentiment.
For the Ralsei gaming dialogue during the arcade game part, i like to think it's a 4th wall jab like "Haha wow you must be great at games", knowing the way we interface with Deltarune's world is through a videogame. (Now that's also assuming Ralsei's oddly extensive knowledge does im fact extend to us as the player.) That being said, Kris' response is interesting as "Gaming is my life" would be referring to them being controlled like a videogame character, whether on purpose or not. And saying "Gaming is not my life" feels oddly specific whereas usually someone would respond "Not really" or something similar. To me it wounds like a verbal show od defiance toward their controller.
2:11 possibly the fact that Kris chooses to order Noelle around shows something about their friendship, as that is also what happens in Snowgrave? I don't like to think that's the case though, as I prefer to see their friendship as healthy and the player being the bad influence in Snowgrave
One thing I wanted to note after watching both parts (amazing videos btw, this topic is something that I think will become more and more relevant with each chapter), is near the very beginning of chapter 1. When Kris and Susie find the very first dark world in the school closet, Kris backs away, seemingly in fear, after being prompted to go in by Susie. Personally I believe this implies that Kris not only knew what it was (supporting evidence being the save file with his name in the Dark World), but something happened in there that he DID NOT want to go through again (COUGH COUGH DESS COUGH COUGH). Obviously that's an extrapolation, but I think the implication of his hesitation (and surprisal) is something that is worth mentioning regardless.
I fully believe Kris said perish so enthusiastically was because he either a) wanted to sound cool (unlikely) or b) knew bosom was an option and really, really, did not want to say that. kinda like the 'are you ok' post puppet fight. Also if Kris wanted to perish at all/all that excitedly he would just chuck the soul into a birdcage or just knife if.
I have a few thougts, that I would like to share with you all. 1. Ralsei saing that Kris was energetic with saying that Gaming is their thing. I saw a theory, that Ralsei knows about us, the player, and he just wants us to have fun. And that answer fits that theory pretty well. Even if Kris don't feel like this, we are playing the game, some of us might be gamers, and becouse Raslei wants us to have fun, he won't say that our answer isn't entusiastic, when we might be honest with it, and players who dont look into the theorys might not even know that we are controling Kris againts their will. I didin't know untill I wathed some theorys. 2. Asriel's room. I think that was interesting part that you haven't talked about. In the Queen's mantion there is choice "Asriel's room, look in?" If we choose no there is "You feel like you wouldn't learn anything new" and if yes, Kris does it with eyes closed. For some teason, they really dont want to see whats in this room. It might be that they just dont want to see their brother's shearching history, but I think thats to small thing to refuse to see what is there entirely. I remember the answer so clearly, becouse I felt really bad after reading that I forced Kris to do something they refused to do.
i think using tea to suggest that kris is uncomfortable with ralsei and doesn't like hugs is... a bit of a stretch. because you didn't hug him on the swan boat ride, you missed the fact that the cutscene post spamton neo changes, and i think the way it pans out is a lot more informative about kris's feelings toward the hugs than just going "i just think they wouldn't do this bc of tea". ralsei hugs kris to comfort them during that scene, and shortly after, kris asks for a hug from susie, which is very strange if they were just made uncomfortable by ralsei hugging them a minute ago. also, ralsei asking susie if she wants the hugging picture is actually pretty par for the course for his dynamic with susie. he has a tendency to tease her about himself and her liking cute things quite a bit. it's a part of their dynamic, not something that indicates weirdness between ralsei and kris. (hell, if you put the white ribbon on ralsei while susie is in the party, he specifically asks SUSIE if he's pretty, rather than kris.) speaking of the white ribbon, it's not mentioned here, but it's equipped to ralsei if you start a default ch 2 file.
I was wondering whether Kris would tell Undyne about the Dark World, but now I'm leaning yes after seeing a theory on slashing the tires was so Toriel would call the police, since they seem to have limited control/strength when taking out the soul. I think Kris takes this seriously and would talk to Undyne, as when they were in the Dark World in chapter 1, Kris mentions their world being in danger to the 3 captive kings. I also think that when getting the chocolate to deliver to Alphys after the bike accident, Kris would totally take the chocolate and split it with Susie. I mean, Toriel has to lock sweets away from her for crying out loud. 😂
when kris enthusiastically says "perish" in chapter 2, i don't read that as self-harm humor or ideation; instead, that kris is _getting into character_. at this point in the story we know kris enjoys their adventures in the dark world, and, with deltarune's themes of escapism, understands that the dark world has a lot of unreality to it. and queen's villainy is mostly slapstick, so kris wouldn't have taken a flowery threat like "Perish In The Chill Of Absolute Destruction" seriously coming from her. after all, her most recent evil plot was to play video games with them. telling a villain you'd rather die than give up is a typical heroic thing to say, and kris likes playing hero, ig. anyway. i'm sure i'm not the first person to say this by now. cool video
29:30 it’s because Kris tried to convince Undyne about the dark world for 2 chapters and maybe he wanted to have a reason to lure her into the house in which he made a dark world?
The main character, a silent protagonist with a complicated sibling relationship (and divorced parents) utilises escapism and also falls down several stories due to said escapism.
Yeah, I swear. Toby and Omocat definitely had to have this arranged between each other. Cause it's absolutely impossible that ALL of this is coincidental. Some other bits that I think weren't in the video: +Susie is implied to have had an impoverished upbringing, and when we look at Aubrey's house, this certainly was the case for Aubrey. +Hero and Asriel are both universally admired in the town, with everyone looking up to them, seeing them as the perfect golden children. +Ralsei is implied to be holding dark secrets, and we know for a fact that Basil did have them. Ralsei's shyness and avoidance is also possibly due to what he is hiding.
13:58 Oh my god, I didn't know that. Everytime I saw a letsplayer do that they all picked "Yes." That's actually so amazing and reinforces Kris basically being the best character alongside Susie. 30:17 "..." gang represent!
I wouldn't consider the Unbread twins a "main boss" because that the Unbread twins are an optional fight and it's possible to beat the game without knowing they even exist
Kris wants to say what we dont want to say that i want to say what kris wants to say but kris forgets what to say and kris knows what not to say and it's what we want to say then what kris wants to say and susie wants kris to say and what i want to say is that this comment is complete nonsense and you should realize that you just wasted your time reading this stupid comment that i made.
Aside from not mentioning the Kris prank on the players with the pie. Something no one talks about is that Kris doesn't actually try fighting back with Spamton NEO (Jaru points out that Susie intervenes and the Player fights back in his Spamton video).
For the piano thing... couldnt it be something more along the line of Kris NOT wanting to play the piano and just pressing random keys as badly as possible to get out of it as soon as possible? Maybe something traumatic about their past is related to the piano?
About Ralsei’s dialogue at 8:30, I personally think this could tie into the theory about Ralsei being an important object from Kris’ past (like the devil headband and the locket). It would explain why Ralsei is, yknow, so Asriel-coded, and why he would think that Kris likes gaming. Like if Kris had poured all their love, good times and memories with Asriel into the object, like wearing the headband while hanging out with him and associating the object with those feelings. Then Ralsei would still retain that love, be made from it, and have vague memories of a kind about Kris’ times with the object around. Therefore thinking Kris likes games a lot because they had so much fun gaming with Asriel when they were younger.
For the "gaming is my life" option, we do get indications that Kris still plays video games (with Berdly, actually). Kris having a reputation for being a "pro gamer" is something that Noelle seems to endearingly tease them about. Personally I always interpreted that moment as either Kris saying such a grandiose thing in a monotone voice as some dry humor, or them being exasperated with the player for making them say such a lame/embarrassing thing. It's fun to speculate whether Ralsei giving a misleading impression about how passionately Kris said it is a hint that he's trying to accomodate the player's choices, which we get more hints of later, or whether he's just not the best at reading social cues (focusing on the specific words instead of the manner in which they were said), which we also have indications of. For why Kris slashes the tires - wanting Susie to sleep over is the immediately obvious answer, but it also seems relevant that they open the outside door before creating the fountain. It seems possible they might be trying to lure police (Undyne specifically?) into the Dark World. EDIT: I forgot to mention that Kris opening the door also acts as a staged break-in by "the Knight".
