DELTARUNE / What is Ralsei? / A Horrifying Theory 

Y'all ain't ready for this one.

"Ralsei is such a submissive character that he can conform to the will of any dark world." i cannot fucking get over the word choice here

Theory: The reason Ralsei knows Kris' and Susie's names, as well as the layout of the school and the culture of Lightners, is because his glasses are made of Shadow Crystal and so he can see into the Light World even from the Dark World.

The fact that Asriel was able to tell Toriel he was coming to visit is pretty much the only detail needed to completely invalidate this theory

I feel like this theory started out really well and sounded possible, and then it went off the rails and stopped making sense half-way through. The thought of Asriel’s parents not questioning him going off the grid one night and not telling anyone beforehand is absurd. I expected you to propose that Asriel died without Kris knowing, and their parents told them that Asriel went to college as way to stop them from finding the truth. Also, the whole thing with Asriel being the player has way too many holes. Your argument about Frisk not rebelling doesn’t make sense because Frisk is designed to be a vessel for the player. Deltarune was quick to draw the line between Kris and the player, but Undertale never did (debatably it did actually when Frisk told Asriel their name in True Pacifist route). Frisk was portrayed as a complete blank slate, an entity that has no free will of its own that exists only as a bridge into the world of Undertale. In Deltarune we literally create a similar entity, the vessel at the beginning of chapter 1, but then it gets discarded, and we are thrust into control of Kris. It tells us “No one controls who they are in this world”. IN THIS WORLD. Comparing Kris and Frisk isn’t exactly something you can do here. This theory works in a vacuum, but in the context of some other aspects it quickly falls apart. But with some tweaking here and there, I think it can work as a solid explanation for a lot of the games mysteries. … If Asriel’s death can create a darkner with his likeness and personality… then can Dess do the same, assuming that she died? Food for thought.

I think the biggest hole in this is that everyone takes Kris's work that Asriel goes off to college. No way Toriel just accepts that he drops off the map with no communication at all for months

I always thought that Ralsei was what Kris wanted to be as a child. The pink headband is what made me think of that. That's why Kris is so uncomfortable about Ralsei when you take the tea into the equation. Kris didn't want to be human, in fact I think Kris genuinely feels uncomfortable about other humans in general. Maybe what made Ralsei come to life was a drawing that Kris made of who they always wanted to be, more like their brother. After bitterly hiding the drawing and headband in the abandoned classroom Kris forgot about it. But because Kris has a lot of determination because they're a human, Ralsei ended up gaining a lot more power than he should have and gained more self awareness than every other darkner. That's why Ralsei looks like Asriel but also doesn't. Even the glasses could be explained by Kris knowing that their mom has similarly shaped glasses when she's reading. Why did Ralsei know Kris and Susie's names? It's because Ralsei is Kris and they're connected like that. That's why Ralsei knows that layout of the school, knows what homework is, etc.

given how interested toby is in deconstructing video game tropes and making the player take responsibility for their actions, and given what happened with chara- where the majority of the fandom saw them and immediately placed all the blame for their own choices on them- i just can't see toby introducing another possession character that he *knows* will be used as a scapegoat (ha) for every horrible thing the player chooses to do.

I love how the one chapter is just “oh god please no”

I think Ralsei *is* the headband but more importantly what the headband represented. It was Kris’ desire to belong fully to their family, to resemble them and not humans. The reason they’re so awkward around him is because he is what they feel they should have been: A well-behaved goat child rather than a rambunctious human prankster. We know Kris doesn’t like thinking about other humans because of how quick they shut the book about them when we interact with it in the library.

lol i like how for the second half of the video he sounds like he's about to break down in tears and also start laughing hysterically.

**sees theory** oh, kinda reminds me of omori's plot twist **remembers toby said that omori was one of the many inspirations for deltarune** oh. _oh no._

piles of asriel's dust ..................

16:18 after hearing the theory beforehand, my idea was that his head didn't turn into stone because he had a pirate hat and an eyepatch. Pirating is something you can do on computers. So rouxls caard's face and head would fit in but the rest of his body wouldn't. That's only my idea though

Honestly, what I found most convincing is Sans saying you'll see Papyrus when your brother comes home implying you'll never see him because Asriel's dead. That sort of meta-joke is so incredibly Sans-y, as well as being a classic Toby Fox bait and switch.

I like to imagine Toby sees all these theory videos and just watched everyone go slowly insane trying to solve the deltarune lore like “mmm yes, very interesting, please continue”

No matter what universe he’s in, Asriel is always dead. Like damn he cannot catch a break, let him live in peace.

Two quick questions: 1) If Kris killed Asriel, even accidentally... why is their LV still 1? Killing a Froggit is enough to raise Frisk's to 2; I'd imagine killing a boss monster, their brother no less, would have granted Kris even more EXP. 2) UT tells us that the attacker's intent has as much impact on how much damage a monster takes as the monster's emotional state does. We see proof of this in the "fight" with Undyne after burning down her house, where, whether you fight or act -> fake punch, Undyne will only take 1 damage - not because her guard is up, but because Frisk doesn't want to hurt her. So could Kris even kill Asriel accidentally? And if not, I think we'd agree that they wouldn't try to actually hurt him on purpose, so... I def think there's interesting stuff here, with the Flowey Ralsei parallels, and the idea of an item with a monster's dust being exposed to a dark fountain (I'm personally betting we'll see such a thing happen with Gerson's hammer), but I don't think the scenario you've proposed works.

There's one thing that bugs me about this theory. Toriel attempts to call Kris while they're in the dark world in Chapter 1, right after she couldn't find them. This explains to me that she's worried that Kris could have disappeared. Surely Toriel, who cares for both of her kids, would also want to check up on Asriel herself? It doesn't seem like her to not want to talk to Asriel.

I honestly think your theories are so wild and crazy and out there that they ain't gonna happen, but the way you present them is so entertaining, and I can't help but watch videos that are hours long about something I love

I will point out that there is a MAJOR flaw in your personal theory for Deltarune's big twist. This is a big if, but IF we're in fact controlling Asriel in Kris' body, then this question needs explaining: Why does Noelle not recognize Asriel's voice in the Snowgrave route the moment she starts hearing another voice through Kris? If what you say is even REMOTELY true, then she HAS to...no, she is LEGALLY required to recognize that it's Asriel talking to her! And yet she doesn't anyway. This isn't a case of hearing Flowey. But hey, there might be a reason.

I have my own theory for all of this. Ralsei is a darkner in the posession of a lightners soul. Think about it. Spamton wanted Kris's soul because he wanted to be free from his strings. So it stands to reason that posessing a Lightner's Soul frees you from the constraints of darkners. Stuff like, yknow not being able to exist in other dark fountains, or the Light World? And maybe even the power to save and load? Now where could he have gotten it from? Candidate 1: Dess Holiday Dess's disappearance could very well be chalked up to her accidentally stumbling into a dark world and then perishing, where ralsei took her soul for himself. Candidate 2: Asriel Dreemurr Tbh i don't like this explanation, it explains that Asriel Ralsei connection but it also presumes Asriel is dead which i just don't buy, sorry Candidate 3: Kris I know this one sounds crazy, but i raise you this scenario. What if there was a timeline where the heroes failed? What if ralsei, at wit's end took the soul of that timeline's Kris, and used it to reset, returning everything to normal. But there's a problem. If ralsei still has that Kris's soul, after the reset happens, they are left without one. An empty vessel, perfect for Gaster's program to connect to. And he puts our soul in Kris's body. This fucking thing took me multiple rewrites and ended up taking me 2 hours to make and all it amounts to is a gosh darn comment on a video

57:40 just a note, Frisk did rebel against players control one time at true pacifist run, when the player tells to frisk tease So cold, they just refuse to do it.

16:32 I believe the reason he didn’t fully turn to stone is because he’s a pirate and piracy exists on the internet

1:02:00 Quick interjection: Ralsei isn’t a Card Kingdom Darkner. He’s the sole occupant of his own dark fountain, located in the schools closet. Which is also strange as all heck, because wouldn’t there be other supplies in the closet that could become Darkners? Why is Ralsei the only one? Also, it’s never mentioned that the Prime Fountain was created by the Knight, so where’d it come from? It couldn’t have been created that long ago unless literally no one ever goes to the schools supply closet. There’s a lot of mystery surrounding Ralsei that I excited to see resolved in future chapters. I’m personally holding the belief that Ralsei has been given a script from “time and space” (AKA probably Gaster) and sees it as his duty to make sure the story stays on a certain track. He knows when certain cutscenes are supposed to play and gets visibly concerned when they don’t. He’s aware of the player and seems to be trying his best to get into our good graces rather than Kris’s, probably knowing that we are controlling Kris. He displays awareness of the game mechanics. And so on and so forth. (Also, he tells Susie that only Kris can seal fountains, but never elaborates on why this is.) It’s likely that the core conflict of the game will be between these characters trying to escape their roles as game characters and the broader experiment Gaster is carrying out with us, the players. Things are very, very interesting indeed.

When I hear this theory . It makes me think a little more deeply about certain things that The narrator said. If you take The money from Asriel’s Storage and click on it again. The game will say “ you have already taken enough.” And if you check out the book that asriel got from the library it say “ your brother will never return this book”

Your “who is Kris” theory was cool but the last theory about Asriel possessing Kris is totally a LOOONG stretch

Very well Mr. Jaru. These are good things you pointed here... But.. there's one thing that's bothering me a bit about your theory... You said Kris killed Asriel and absorbed his soul... But If we check on the light world, the menu hud is the same as the one we had in Undertale, with the same options and the same specifications... including... EXP and LV. We can't say they work exactly as they work in Undertale, but, because of how it smells the same, everyone is tempted to say the answer is yes. But if we look to Kris' LV, we see that it's still on 1, wich mean... Kris didn't kill anyone on their life! What do u say, sir?

I really like this theory. I'm not 100% convinced but it's well argued, and brought up a lot of very interesting ideas I hadn't considered before. One other thing this theory has going for it, though, is that it would helps explain why Noelle's older sister baggage got so much focus in Chapter 2. Like Kris, Noelle also had an older sibling who they loved and admired deeply, and who often acted as a protector for her. It's strongly implied that Dess either died or disappeared some time ago, and that Noelle is still deeply scarred by that even years later. If Asriel is secretly dead, however, then Noelle makes a great narrative foil for Kris. Her grief and possible guilt over Dess parallels Kris' grief and guilt over Asriel very nicely. It provides a useful way for the games to explore those themes before dropping the big reveal on us.

The thing I always say when people bring up ralsei not turning into a statue is that ralsei said that castle town’s fountain is made of pure darkness and that’s why everyone can stay there. Ralsei being the prince of the dark, likely the dark as a whole probably means he’s made of the same stuff

CW: Suicide This is a super convincing theory but I see that people in the comments pointing out that Kris couldn't have killed Asriel without gaining EXP or LV. And a really dark theory came to my mind: What if Asriel took their own life? Like maybe the pressure of college or his parent's divorce or any other reasons we may find out in later chapters could have driven him to this point (maybe Asriel found out about not having control over his own life much like Jevil/Spamton... which could have been too much for him to handle). And Kris happened to come across his brother during this (like Kris was about to perform said prank in the costume but saw their depressed brother wandering off and followed him). Kris tried to stop him but is too late, causing Asriel's dust to spread across the costume and his soul to merge with Kris'. In a panic, Kris hides the costume in the closet and is traumatized by all this. They don't know what to do and they don't want to break the news to ANYONE. Thus they cover up by saying Asriel is off at college. And they desperately try to find a solution to this before summer break rolls around since they cannot keep up this lie without drawing suspicion. That's why they get into the occult as a means to revive their brother. They would find out about the dark fountains eventually (the jello knife could have been their first attempt at making the first fountain to avoid any suspicion of Toriel's kitchen utensils gone missing). Once Kris sees Ralsei after entering the first fountain, THAT's why Kris makes more fountains despite awful things like the snowgrave route. Kris desperately wants to make the fountains in hopes to see/revive their brother while Asriel controlling Kris's body wants to seal them back up (as a sort hint to Kris to move on with their life and avoid the Roaring) Damn I hope I am wrong, this is just far too dark, but this definitely lines up with this theory so well... This makes some scenes like the swan boat ride hug scene so much more heart-wrenching. I really, REALLY want to be wrong.

I think you've made a good call on the red herring of "Asriel is returning from college". There's been too much talk of it, too much foreshadowing for it to just play out mundanely. Maybe he's dead, maybe he's evil, there's a lot of possible twists that could occur. It could even be possible that he died and his essence fell onto the horn-headband... but it seems far-fetched to think Kris was wearing a Ralsei costume and accidental-stabbed Asriel. I don't agree that Asriel and Ralsei act "identically", or anywhere near so. We only saw Asriel post-Flowey, and very briefly pre-Flowey, but... Ralsei seems to prioritize kindness and peace above all else; but Asriel's curiosity and yearning for adventure will eventually override this. To put it another way, do you think a soulless Ralsei would ever go insane and start murdering people to see new things happen, even if he was stuck in a time loop for thousands of years? Another difference, ironically, is that Asriel has always struck me as an anxious, fearful sort. Note how he confesses his sins for dropping not-Yoshi into the pit, for instance. In contrast, Ralsei never really seems to doubt himself, always just charging forward and doing what he feels is right in his heart. See how quickly he spoke up when people started talking about making new Dark Fountains. It's really hard to explain, but I spend a long time analyzing Asriel's character traits for RP reasons, long before Deltarune was ever released. Thus, my immediate impression of Ralsei's behavior was "This is what people THINK Asriel is like, but it's not who he really is." Then again, who knows what happens when you merge Asriel's essence with an object that becomes a Darkner? Clearly there's SOME connection between Asriel and Ralsei... they look similar, their names are an anagram... but that's just it: they look SIMILAR but not identical, and their names aren't the same. Ralsei is something strange, most certainly... not a mere Darkner, highly unlikely to just be a Lightner. Definitely not just "Asriel" with no caveats. Why does he know all these prophecies...? Why does he know about the Light World? How did he get from Castletown to Cyberworld? I don't know if "he's Asriel's essence on some horns" explains any of that. Did Asriel's knowledge and understanding linger in him? He knows Kris' name and Susie's name, but why doesn't he know what other people look like until he sees them firsthand? Why does he claim to not know how to administer a hug? Why doesn't Noelle Tea give him much HP, if he knows her and likes her? At the very least, it explains how he got from place to place: a combination Lightner-Darkner would easily be able to shift from dimension to dimension. It's also plausible he'd have gotten to the Library unseen; only Undyne may have witnessed him, and she seemed preoccupied with car-lifting. No other witnesses... I think you're within a stone's throw of right. You've found a lot of great data, we just need a little more insight to put the pieces together.

14:50 it’s always been my belief that Ralsei being able to go to any darkworld without turning into stone is the same principal as any darkner being able to live in the castle town darkworld. It’s described as a fountain of pure darkness, and it’s located in a closet where you can just thrown in anything and the darkners will be able to exist in it with no problem, whereas the other darkworlds were created specifically in one place for a specific cast of themed characters. If Ralsei’s item(s) were given life by the pure dark fountain (and also he’s the prince of the whole darkworld), he can belong in any darkworld just like any darkner can belong in the castle town/closet darkworld. Also, if the items we are assuming are Ralsei’s lightworld equivalent are correct, then the reason he can go anywhere Kris goes could be because those items are significant to them?

The reason why Ralsei seems to teleport to his castle town could be because his true form (whatever he is as a dark world being, if he is one) never left the closet. So, because that item is still in the closet, his true form was there. So, once you close the fountain, he just gets transported back in his castle.

There are some elements I don’t entirely agree with, but it’s still interesting to see other peoples theories. The Flowey/Ralsei similarities are something I never thought of that is actually really interesting, though.

I just realised, this theory makes even more sense if you go to the library in Undertale, there's a section that reads: ''Monster funerals, technically speaking, are cool as heck. When monsters get old and kick the bucket, they turn into dust. At funerals, we take that dust and spread it on that person’s favorite thing. Then their essence will live on in that thing...'' That helps allot to support this theory.

This is a really cool theory. I’d look forward to something dark, yet darker than Undertale! But… to play devil’s advocate, and build the best theory possible; if the Dark World is related to Asriel’s death that Kris is trying to cover up, why would we have the option to go to tell Undyne about it in the police station in Chapter 1? Moreover, why would Toriel be okay with Asriel going to college without even telling her, and without a phone to contact her? We know she’d be worried sick! And if Asriel is controlling Kris, why would he be okay with seeing the existence of Ralsei? Separately, Frisk could also be unable to rebel due to them likely being a younger child. Even then, there are some instances where they do, albeit more moderately, like “You couldn’t think of anything to say”… “You decided xyz”, etc.

I feel like Asriel being dead is plausible, but not in the exact way mentioned in the video. I doubt he would leave without saying goodbye or anything, so I feel like his death must have occurred either after he left or between him saying his goodbyes and leaving… on top of that, I feel like the knife in the closet stab scenario is a bit of a stretch, and rather, his death was likely accidental and Kris was the only one who knew. Another wonderful commenter suggested that the familiar song onion san heard is Asriel’s ringtone, so many Kris tried to keep people from trying to check in on him after his death? I had always gotten the impression that Kris was very attached to Asriel, so, what if Kris tried to tag along with Asriel on his way to college secretly and this resulted in a car accident? This could explain Kris’s potential guilt about his death without making them directly kill their brother. If Kris could collect the dust, maybe hide it in the closet (along with potentially either incriminating evidence or things that reminded them of Asriel too much), and then start looking for a way to bring him back…. Well, that’s what I find a little more plausible than a random attempted scare in a closet Kris had no reasonable idea whether someone would even be there to scare in the middle of the night lol

Less than half-way though and just wanna say- Another HUGE problem with the concept of Ralsei being Asriel is his behavior around Kris. Someone shouldn’t be getting all flustered around their adoptive brother. If Ralsei is straight up Asriel, Toby has a lot of explaining to do.

Here's something I realised: Someone DOES address Ralsei as a Lightner, albeit indirectly. When you find Susie and Lancer chilling in the poolside chairs and being fanned off by the 2 guard guys, one of them specifically refers to you and Ralsei as "Lightners". Plural. He could be referring to Kris and Susie, sure, but that's not likely, since Susie was already there, and he then addresses Susie after saying "Lightners". There are only 6 people in that area, 2 of which are new arrivals, 3 others being Darkners for certain, and the last one being Susie. AND, he specifically says "Lightners", plural. As I said. Meaning that he does specifically recognise Ralsei as being a Lightner, along with Kris.

I think the thing to take with a grain of salt here is that most of the information we get on Darkworlds and Darkners comes straight from Ralsei. So if he really is lying about himself, we don’t have much to go on.

this was really entertaining to watch, like i'm in a chair in a dimly lit room with someone who's going off the deep end while thoroughly explaining to me a conspiracy board with 83 pictures and documents pinned onto it. please keep up the good work lmao

Here’s what I believe. Ralsei is a darkner. A PURE darkner. Do you remember what he says to Susie and kris when lancer turned into a statue? “Castle Towns dark fountain is made of PURE DARKNESS!” This type of darkness allows him to enter different dark worlds and not turn into stone. He is a pure blooded darkner and that is why he is “the prince of the kingdom of darkness”

Somehow Sans' wink while saying "Maybe when your brother comes home?" really solidifies is for me. Even before that, it totally makes sense for Ralsei to be the dark world version of a dust-covered object, likely Asriel's dust, but the way he dies and everything doesn't quite make sense. Although Kris having absorbed Asriel's soul does make sense. Gaster definitely has something (if not everything) to do with Kris being controlled by a soul, though. 3 save files also does make it seem like there's 3 human souls at play.

Are we sure this dude isn't just matpat with a voice changer

Ralsei is an imposter. The way he gets from dark world to dark world is by venting

I feel like this theory is kind of a stretch but you still detroyed me emotionally with the whole idea so congrats. Unfortunately I can kinda see Toby Fox pulling an at least similar twist and boy am I not ready

This perfectly showcases what Jaru means about being a fanfiction writer instead of a theorist, dude just made a fanfic about Deltarune being an entirely different Quirky Earthbound Inspired RPG, there's so many holes in this crackpot conspiracy theory like taking the Jello Knife so damn seriously, and the entire rest of the cast having seemed to have said goodbye to Asriel before he went off on his Collegue Trip. But hey, as long as Jaru is having fun with his fanfic and isn't claiming it's objectively true, LOL, definitely not his best work though if you ask me.

watching this is just essentially watching JaruJaru miss an obvious piece of evidence that shuts his whole point down as he descends into psychosis

I've kinda fallen in love with this theory. I've seen many people say that Kris is evil and I've just never been able to see it. This theory paints Kris as a way more tragic character, and I couldn't agree more. Even if this isn't what's truly going on in Deltarune, the idea is so good on its own.

I liked this theory until you said that Asriel was somehow dead. I like the idea that Ralsei was made by a lightners essence. But I don't think the essence was dust. Also if Asriel was dead how would have nobody noticed the dust in the closet? Or how suspicious Kris would have sounded? It just has too many holes for my liking.

This theory blew my mind multiple times. Like dang, it makes SO much sense! I don't know how you're so good at this stuff!

how is this so absurd but still makes perfect sense

I'm incredibly skeptical of the timeline/ explanation for Kris killing Asriel by accident. Especially the part where Asriel is supposed to have just disappeared at night to go to college. I struggle to believe that anyone would believe that Asriel, supposedly an incredibly nice and considerate church boy, would simply vanish off the face of the earth to go to school without telling anyone. That alone would require a kind of comedic stupidity on behalf of every single character in the game that I cannot believe anyone would actually write that. At the same time, how is he supposed to have even gotten to school in this story Kris is making up? Both Toriel and Asgore have cars, so they could take him, but obviously they couldn't take him in the story. For either of them to have taken him that would require the incredibly contrived situation in which Kris told the other parent that the opposite parent already took them, and this never being caught. Toriel and Asgore don't talk much, but they at least seem willing to talk about plans regarding Asriel given the scene in San's shop. This requires Kris to juggle two separate stories. If he tells someone "Oh Asgore took him" and they happen to go talk to Asgore and ask how the ride up was that immediately ruins the story and is incredibly suspicious. The same problem applies with other friends of Asriel taking him, like Pizzapants, who are confirmed to have a car. All someone has to do is ask Pizzapants (or whatever friend supposedly took him) how the ride was or what it was like at the school for the story to fall apart. The transportation problem again requires a level of comedic stupidity and contrivance for every single character involved I cannot believe anyone would actually write that. To my knowledge, we also don't know if Asriel even has his own car. Hypothetically he could have driven himself if he did, avoiding any transportation story inconsistencies. However, unless my characterization of Asriel is entirely wrong, I struggle to believe anyone would believe he would simply up and vanished for no reason in the middle of the night without telling anyone. It was also never even mentioned that Asriel vanished suddenly. No one ever said "hey it sure was weird that Asriel left without saying goodbye" or anything similar to my knowledge. I'm skeptical people would really trust Kris enough to take him as the only source for this. But even if they did take his word as gospel, I would expect someone (probably Pizzapants, but I could imagine Catty as well) to tell Kris they are still surprised Asriel left without saying goodbye when you talk to them about Asriel. The entire situation is incredibly contrived. Side point, if within this theory Ralsei is supposed to have actually walked from the school to the library, that would have required walking right past Undyne and the traffic jam. There's no specific reason Ralsei might want to hide to my knowledge, but it seems weird to me that Undyne wouldn't mention seeing a suspicious goat she didn't recognize. Maybe she was really distracted by bench pressing the cars, or later was distracted by having arrested the dog bandits, but it would be a hell of a thing to not mention for someone always on the lookout for bad guys. Additionally, using Asriel soul possession to explain Snowgrave only pushes the problem onto Asriel instead of Kris. You attempt to address this by saying that Flowey kills people in Undertale because of trauma. Maybe. But the real reason given in Undertale was *boredom* and not feeling love. Flowey tells us that he only kills people later, once he's exhausted every single good ending he could find. Even soulless, Flowey's initial actions were to try to be nice, try to make everyone happy. He only starts to experiment with killing people and seeing what happens when he becomes entirely numb to and bored of the kind routes. Unless Deltarune is taking place in a time loop (or every single instance of Deltarune is happening at the same time or some other funkiness) there isn't reason to assume that Asriel is bored and already knows everything that will happen and so is now willing to kill just to see what would happen. Assuming there is timeline funkiness, maybe this isnt the first loop (which could explain some of Kris' actions) in which case maybe. But there is nothing to go off of and is relying mostly on a mischaracterization of Flowey. But on the other hand, doing a reverse run of what happens with Chara and Asriel in Undertale does sound like a Toby Fox thing to do. So if this is the case I hope Toby has some serious explanations justifying it, because if not that's going to be an incredibly contrived mess that might undermine the entire game for the sake of cheap shock value.

I'm not convinced by this theory but the video itself is incredibly well made. I was genuinely shocked by alot of the points made. The delivery on lines like "You don't get to see Papyrus." and how the theory while having lots of holes would explain a huge chunk of the mysteries in this game is seriously impressive. Normally I don't do serious comments on RU-vid and people saying "You've earned a sub!" is a pet peeve of mine but you have definitely earned a subscription

The thing that hit me hardest with this theory is sans’s line about meeting papyrus when asriel comes home. It’s like he know what happens and is making kris feel guilt on purpose.

this theory is so unironically good that I wish I hadn't seen it cuz it feels like I'm being spoiled💀

In the Snowgrave Route when you use Snowgrave on darkners, they probably turn to red dust because they're DEAD. Ralsei doesn't do the same when he's knocked out because... well, he's only been knocked out. It's pretty obvious that Ralsei is Kris's old headband, so I bet when all the clothes fall to the floor it's because he's reverting back into his headband form. He's still there, he's just hidden by the clothes because he's a headband. Edit: P.S.: Ralsei's appearance is clearly based on Kris's hopes and dreams. They wanted to be a goat monster, and more like Asriel, hence why Ralsei is so much like him.

An answer to why Ralsei wants to recruit everybody could be to fulfill his purpose as a darkner. His world is the storage closet so he logically he would want many other darkners there. This also could explain why any darkner can exist there because there is no set theme.

I hate how much sense this theory makes, there's strangely too much good evidence to back this up. If the game really goes in this direction, it's gonna be Omori all over again-

Piles of asriel’s dust….

I have a few thoughts after watching the vid: - There are other darkners that seem to know a bit about the light world as well. Namely Queen, who clearly knows that her dark world is confined inside a library. She also knows Noelle and other lightners. It seems that darkners seem to retain some info from their light world counterparts. - Queen and King, Spamton and Jevil know each others, so either the computers from the librarby were in the unused classroom at some point, or the darkners can travel somehow between... their realms (somehow even before their respective fountains were created) - Adding to the last point, it seems that darkners have existed even before they were sprayed by the fountain. Maybe the fountain is not necessarly a life... bringer, but more of a way of mixing both worlds (while also confining them to that space) 👀 - To the point that Ralsei is a Flowey-like being; yes, it makes A TON of sense, but a small counter point: Flowey looks nothing like Asriel, while Ralsei is very similar to him. It may point to the fact that whatever Ralsei's light world counterpart may be somehow related to Asriel in looks, but the monster remains may be of someone other 👀 Of course this might be just dark-world stuff not working the same way as how Flowey was created, but still 😗 - I like the idea about "submissiveness" being related to why a darkner would persist for a longer time in a world, but maybe its also related to what would fit in the light world counterpart? Playing cards wouldnt really fit in a computer room, while... you wouldnt be surprised to find anything inside a storage room, which is what the lightworld counterpart of Ralsei's fountain is 👀

I love how this is going full on Omori plot line, but i’m absolutely loving it.

This makes SO much sense I am actually reeling. Absolutely incredible. It solves every conundrum I was struggling with. You're so perceptive. Absolutely subscribing, I'm gonna be SPRINTING to this channel once chapters 3-5 drop.

My biggest opposition to this theory is mostly from a thematic standpoint. I much prefer the idea that everything that happens in the Snowgrave route is directly the player's fault. The Genocide Route in Undertale already attempted to demonstrate that, but it was done in such a way that a lot of players could throw Frisk or Chara under the bus if they didn't want to feel responsible for it. I don't like the idea of the same thing happening to Asriel. Toby Fox's strength is in deconstructing the relationship between the player and the game, but I feel like a lot of people miss it when they try to justify everything with in-univetse logic. Not saying this theory is bad or couldn't be done well, I just personally hope they go in a different direction.

Going by this theory's logic, could it be that the second narrator who interrupts the first (many consider to be Gaster) during the character-creator opening and discards the vessel is Asriel? After all, they say no one can choose who they are in this world. Sounds like someone who can't choose for themselves if they're stuck in a Humans body.

there are two things that bother me about this theory the first thing that bothers me is that anyone, ESPECIALLY toriel and asgore, would believe kris when they say that asriel has headed off to college, without telling anyone but kris, without bringing any of his stuff with him, without saying goodbye to anyone in town, etc. im sure it would never cross their minds once that kris could be covering up asriels death, but while asgore may be a jolly enough fellow to take it on faith, toriel does not think that kris is perfect or incapable of lying, and something this ludicrous would be hard to believe. i SUPPOSE that it COULD be the case that asriel was getting ready to go to college, or was even on his way to college when the accident with kris happened, but the theory is already getting pretty thin at this point, and im not sure it can be stretched quite that far. the other thing that bothers me is that asriel going crazy doesnt make a lot of sense. in undertale, floweys singular goal was always to regain a soul, be it his own (impossible) or a humans (relatively more possible). asriel, even if he somehow loses all compassion, should have the same desire to become whole by gaining his own body, and logically understand that the best way to do that is NOT to ruin and murder all of his siblings friends. what he SHOULD do is, upon seeing ralsei, leave kris' soul, which we KNOW absorbed souls can do because we see it happen in the omega flowey fight, and fly into ralsei, which would then just result in a full asriel. asriel soul + asriel body + determination + personality of asriel = one full goat boy. being a part of kris doesnt seem to give him any extra powers, and in fact carries the large downside that at any time, kris can rip BOTH their souls out of themself, and then somehow shamble about without needing either. it COULD be that asriel has gotten a taste of the power to save and reload, and wants to take the timeline for a joy ride, but again, it doesnt make a lot of sense that he would want that. if flowey can still feel emotion, then asriel with his own soul still intact shouldnt be trying to cause kris as much suffering as he possibly can in as short a timespan as he can. i cant imagine asriel holding that much of a grudge, and even if he did, noelle is one of his friends too, no? we hear that asriel and dess took kris and noelle out into the forest when they were all younger, and noelle seems to have been constantly nice until snowgrave route, when... asriel convinces her to kill berdly? for the lols? the most plausible explanation for asriel not just going into ralsei is that he would lose the ability to save and reload, and asriel MIGHT hold a grudge against kris for killing him, but that doesnt explain why he would try to turn noelle into a murderer. and, actually, if asriel has been the one in charge all this time, wouldnt that mean that HES the one thats been researching how to use magic, and HES the one lying to toriel, asgore, and the whole town? i guess you could try to work around this by saying that asriel has, somehow, for some reason, been 'asleep' this entire time, and only 'wakes up' when gaster(?) talks to him in the opening cutscene. and why would gaster(?) be taunting asriel, literally going "heheh hey kid, go ahead and make a human body. hahaha no, you dont get one. get dicked nerd"? UNLESS, gaster(?) is talking to the PLAYER, and is taunting THEM, not letting them make a human body, and then making them control ASRIEL, who is controlling KRIS? WHY? i can see the logic you followed in order to get to this theory, but i cant imagine any path that toby could have followed to actually end up writing something this convoluted. i like your past theories, and this video has good points, but i dont think the conclusion you reached is whats really going on.

My personal theory Is that Ralsei Is a manifestation, a spirit trapped in a loop that just wants to prevent the roaring and break the cycle. He would have similar knowledge to sans, where he can only faintly Remember stuff from his previous lives. The reason why he Is so similar to asriel Is part of his scheme, where he wants to appeal to both kris and the player to make sure the player Will trust him to stop the knight

I love the absurd amount of effort you put into your videos. They're always very intriguing and fun to watch

"Not once has frisk rebelled against the player" except they do? They tell everyond their name, move independently in multiple points of genocide, and i'm pretty sure they give some unsolicited answers to other characters that we can't hear. Frisk also isn't "the strongest wielder of determination" considering flowey could reset, and i'm inclined to believe the other humans can too. After all, determination is the will to go on. The reason they died is that they gave up hope, just liks chara when they deliberately decided to die to free monsters and then got shot down. The reason kris rebels is probably because, either A, the narrative role of the player changed from that of undertale (which probably isn't the case considering flowey tells us to leave frisk to live their life at the end of pacifist) B, kris is simply older than the undertale kids, at least looking at their height There's also to consider that frisk is in general quite less characterized than kris, so maybe they're just easier to control because of that + younger Anyway, point is, that part doesn't hold up very well

“We aren’t ever seeing Papyrus” hit harder than anything else in this video

Some things that confuse me (by around 55 minutes in): 1. Even if Kris was lying about Asriel's phone being broken, why don't they have their brother's number saved in their contacts? It would make no sense to delete his number nor would a broken phone erase the contact from other people's phones. Asriel should still be a contact, and his number would probably just ring out if the phone was broken. Unless Kris suddenly got a new phone around the time Asriel disappeared and didn't know his brother's number. 2. Assuming Kris broke into the school to prank someone who would be in the building the next day, that implies that the school year has begun. Colleges tend to start before or around the time of schools, so it would be odd if Asriel just disappeared off to college, especially if he has never talked about going to college. Wouldn't there be proof of enrollment or evidence of him applying? Also, wouldn't Toriel be suspicious if her son went off to college in the middle of the night without telling anyone? With no packed bags, clothes, or any of his possessions besides what he was wearing and his phone (which broke the same night he decided to just move to college mid-semester)? No note, no nothing? Who's paying for this college? Why is there no paper trail at all? Did Asriel have a secret stash of clothes and items packed and waiting for him as he climbed out his window into the night? Would Toriel and the whole town accept this on the testimony of one kid with no other proof? Also, even is Toriel doesn't understand email, why would no one else in town? Even is Asriel has a new email address at college, why is he only emailing Kris? Would he just stop using his old email entirely? Kris wouldn't have known his new email address without Asriel making contact first. If Asriel can send an email to his sibling, can't he send one to any of friends in town? It is hard to fathom everyone accepting that Asriel disappeared off to college in the middle of night and can only contact one person by email. No new phone, no use of his old email, no reaching out to people he was friends with with a new one. Just almost complete radio silence after vanishing abruptly. There are workarounds, and it is hard to imagine anyone, including Asriel, would be satisfied with this setup. Someone would have figured out how to make contact. Internet calls, video calls, email, social media, etc. Someone computer illiterate would have asked Kris for help to put them in contact with Kris, like Toriel asking Kris to set up a video call for her to see her son and make sure he's okay. Even if not that, wouldn't Toriel ask to read one of Asriel's emails, especially if she asks Asriel to write to her via Kris? 3. We've seen monsters take full, should be lethal hits and survive, especially if one's LV and EXP were low. Isn't malicious intent needed to down a monster, especially a boss monster who is an adult? One accidental hit shouldn't be enough to dust a monster, even if it was a serious one. Most higher level monsters need to be attacked multiple times with intent to defeat them.

for everyone saying that the town wouldn’t believe kris, it could be an omori situation. (omori spoilers) asgore and toriel know what kris did, but keep up the lie to protect their child.

Father Alvin mentions that Asriel would repent for many small things, and Ralsei, after clicking on the machine gun add, literally says "I repent!!!"

Holy heck, I never considered that maybe Ralsei is a special case that could be in the Light World despite being a Darkner! It also makes sense seeing how he came in last into the Cyber World, AFTER Kris and Susie confronted Queen.

I honestly forgot about the soul possession lore, thanks for putting the parts together

Great theory Jaru! I like how he starts calm in the beginning and then as he goes on to the last part he starts shouting when it all makes sense

1:08:44 I never knew we’d have a “Asriel Trauma Spectrum”, but here we are!

This is the greatest deltarune theory I have ever watched. Even if you are wrong I have IMMENSE respect for this theory and what it accomplished from the information of TWO chapters… TWO!!!!

Something I would also like to add to this theory that might be interesting is that Kris’s room in Ralsei’s castle looks almost identical to Asriels side to their shared room in the light world. And maybe when Kris finds the book How to draw dragons in the drawer, the dialogue says “Your brother will never return this book”.....It sounds so creepy in the context of this theory😬 But I may be just overthinking and it only implies that Azzy is REALLY attracted to the dragon lady 😂

I like this theory a lot but where it loses me is the insistence that we the player are controlling asriel which is just kind of ridiculous sounding to me because there's no precedent for our ability to control a monsters soul not to mention how bizarre of a twist it would be to reveal "no no, you aren't controlling the character you can see, you're controlling the soul of the goat boy attached to the soul of the human you can see" not to mention how much of a character assassination of asriel it is when he generally is a character with a lot more personality and agency than this theory would suggest

i love how jaru is slowly going insane at the end

There's too many holes in the theory No one would really find it strange that Asriel just decided to go to college one day randomly and never told anyone about it? He just.... left and only told Kris, and never contacted anyone after it, ever, only Kris, why isn't anyone not even a little bit mad at him? They all still hold him at high regard How didn't anyone notice dust in the closet? Not Alphys, not Toriel, not anyone that happened to go there after Asriel died Why does Kris gets weaker when they take Asriel's soul out? Also like ehh, i'm sorry but i don't like it lol, not because it doesn't make sense or because it's "too dark" it just feels unsatisfying But i do agree with the idea that "Kris will never have their brother back" I think he's alive and will return from college, but... he won't be the same, he'll be very different from the Asriel Kris knew before he went off to college, basically the complete opposite, and there's nothing Kris will be able to do about it really, people just change and that's natural, but Kris won't be able to accept it specially since Ralsei provides very clearly the difference between old Asriel and Current Asriel, then they'll snap and... do something, start the roaring maybe idk

On the Ralsei teleporting thing, I'm sure it's not full-on anywhere-to-anywhere teleportation, but I can definitely believe Ralsei having the special power to move between dark worlds. If he's the "Prince of the dark" with special knowledge and properties that allow him to stand apart from other darkners, it makes sense that being able to transport between dark worlds would be one of those properties About the theories surrounding Ralsei, Asriel, and Kris, I'm not sold on it, or at least not on that particular version of events. You did sell me on Deltarune being a darker story than Undertale though, the Mew Mew comparison made perfect sense (and feels like brilliant foreshadowing from Toby), and invoking "darker, yet darker" with how much more of a presence Gaster is being set up as also strongly pushed the idea that it's gonna be much more dark

This is fascinating as this is extremely similar to Omori, and Toby actually alluded on twitter once to Omori having done an idea he had before him.

The theory that ralsei is an item covered with a monsters dust that was brought to life by a dark fountain is honestly something I never thought of but is very intriguing given the fact that that lore bit is directly mentioned by Alvin - it’s information we’re intended to know, and usually when key information is given, it has a payoff at some point in a story. The part where asriel is actually dead in this timeline loses me however. There’s countless contradictions and the story of kris accidentally killing him is absurdly presumptuous to the point you could make up pretty much anything in that period of time as to how asriel ‘died’ and it would make about as much sense as it. No offence of course - we just don’t have any information that can accurately piece that part of the story together at the moment. I think more likely Ralsei is connected to an alternate timeline - we already know that there is timeline mysteries just exploding out of the game, like gaster references, sans and papyrus’s mysterious existence in this timeline as he seems acutely aware that we have prior knowledge of him and his brother from before he first meets us, etc etc. Flowey is one of the only other characters connected to saves and timelines besides the skeletons and gaster, so with their presence in this world perhaps somehow flowey also was able to come to this world, or a variation of him at least. It’s obviously hard to say in the current state - it just makes more sense to me that ralsei would be connected to an asriel of a different world than that of this worlds asriel. Though, I still have my problems even with that slightly. Ralsei is shown to show quite a lot of affection to Kris, including borderline romantic implications occasionally, in a very childlike innocent way of course. It’s not hard for anyone to tell why that would be extremely weird with kris being asriels sibling. Though, I suppose it’s fair to suspect ralsei would have no sibling connection to kris if he was an asriel from a timeline where kris never existed and thus never knew them - there’s no reason that he couldn’t have a crush on kris if he’s never even met them before. But still - the connotations are just super weird and awkward. I think I’m still leaning a bit heavier on theories of ralsei being essentially kris’ monster-sona lmao. The person kris wants to be, has always wanted to be. Their determination to be a monster like the brother they idolize that so strong that it was able to physically bring ralsei to life as a being of pure determination coating kris’ old monster horns, unable to be carried around like other darkners.. perhaps because Catty taught kris about a dark magic practice that could ‘turn them into a monster’ perhaps by doing a seance like ritual using their pair of monster horns as a goal or source of determination and plunging their knife into the horns themselves or something similar. However, this ‘magic ritual’ was misinterpreted by catty and instead of turning kris into the monster they wanted to be, it simply brought to life the monster they wanted to be alongside them in a realm created entirely of determination. A bit of a stretch of course, but that’s sort of the nice thing about this part of the story/game - we don’t know everything so we all get to toss out our best guesses and see what’s right and what’s not eventually :] love the ideas here man! I always enjoy a video that can get my theories and thoughts going

Interesting theory, too many contradictions and leaps in logic for my taste. You did forget one thing he could be, he could be a titan. His world looks like the description of a world destroyed by titans and the titan shadows do look a little like asgore. Also flowey likely lost his compassion after spending an eternity saving and loading and it’s hard to sympathize with people who behave like npcs in your mind

I like most of this theory, but while Kris absorbing Asriel's soul is definitely possible, it would be EXTRAORDINARILY out of character for Asriel to force Kris to do the Snowgrave route In Chara and Asriel's story, Chara was still very much Chara. Yes Chara wanted to kill the humans and yes they were ultimately consumed by their hate for humanity, but at the end of the day they were ALWAYS like that I find it very hard to believe that Asriel would not only lose his sense of self but would also force Kris and Noelle through something so traumatizing, AND possibly severely injure Berdly in the process, for absolutely NO reason. Like at least Chara wanted to kill the humans in SELF DEFENSE, Asriel (if this theory is true) actively sought out and killed Darkners and Berdly for the heck of it.

Late to the party but just want to say: I really like the idea that there is no natural law that a being without a soul can't learn to love, just that Flowey was fucked up because of what happened to him. It makes sense considering his inability to see any wrong in chara or the people around him and rather just see himself as flawed, and I think it makes sense considering the message Toby was trying to get across in Undertale/Deltarune that your choices really do matter even if you can't change your past/your fate.

Okay, so, I've been watching your vids lately, and gotta say, I've been loving your theories so far. But this one I'm a bit skeptical over. Your ideas are sound, but I have a hard time believing Asriel just vanishes and no one seems to have much concern, just believing Asriel just left for college. I mean, Noelle's own sister disappears, and there was concern for her. Just seems a bit odd to me. Other than that, it's an interesting theory, even if I don't agree with all of it.

No pressure but I rely on these videos to get through the deltarune hiatus :^)

What if Flowey is evil because he was urinated on by his own father, unaware of his sentience?

Bro i am scared and traumatized by those theories, they are so goddamn deep and cool. Wont sleep and will think about that a lot. Thanks for your work.

19:31 If Ralsei is Asriel, then the reason he looks different could be the same reason Kris and Susie look different in the dark world. Lightners just simply change appearance in the dark World

While I can't actually see any problems with the idea of Kris knowing and covering for Asriel in some way, him directly dying of a prank seems too... shallow for Toby to actually do. What I think is more likely is that they got into the bunker, and something happened there, if it is true that Asriel is dead. It is also much against Kris's known nature that they would hide such a thing- while they are mischievous and enjoy a good prank, actual harm or the DEATH of their brother is something that would certainly break them. While your theory covers a good number of holes, I think it could be improved upon surrounding the idea of Kris killing their brother. Good video! The overdramatic suspense gets a little much closer to the middle, but everything presented is really well organized and detailed. Great job! Also, continuing on the thought line of Asriel controlling Kris... If it is possible for the human souls to rebel against Asriel and Asriel against the fallen child, the rules of possession are clearly more nuanced than just sheer determination. Both of these examples are human v. monster souls, which could change the dynamic. The Fallen Child is clearly very determined as to likely have killed themselves to get monsters to the surface and persuade their brother to kill other humans. And if the human we see at the end of the genocide route is actually the Fallen Child, they are determined to stay around for approx. 100 years to see monster kind escape, or die trying. That is immeasurably determined in a dark way. Frisk, however, is immeasurable determined in a kind way - everything about their person, their clothing and items tells us that they were kindhearted and refused to fight. Their bandage was literally made to help them escape from battles first attempt. If that is true, why didn't they rebel during the genocide route? If that's the question, why didn't Kris rebel during the Snowgrave route? Perhaps these times of great tension from the thing possessing them would leave them unable to break the possessing parties' power- only when they are relaxed enough can they attempt to take control. Both the Underground and the Dark World are places outside of consequence as well. Resets are possible in both areas, with save points in both areas. If Kris and Frisk understand this, perhaps they also know that if the possessor is unsatisfied, they will just make them live through the hell of possession again. I still think the Player is the possessor in some way, but perhaps by secondhand power. A lot of things go back to the bunker in my mind, and whatever happened to Asriel likely is the same event we got control from. Whatever the case, I can't wait to see how Toby Fox will overturn and throw everything in my face. The gratification I get from his stories and plot twists is immeasurable and I can't wait for Ch3 and anything else to come from him.

I cannot believe that I had the sheer patience to listen to this theory.

Ralsei is just a Flowey explored from the other end of the Compassion spectrum. The reason he knows so much is because he's lived this story many many times.

Mmm, pretty interesting lore analysis in the first half of this video. But things get a little forced in the second half. Connecting the funeral ceremony of sprinkling ashes on an object and the dark world bringing objects to life, is pretty interesting. But nothing in that second theory really makes any sense. Toriel's son goes missing, and she just....believes that he went off to college? That doesn't make any sense. I thought you were going to suggest Asriel died and they lied to Kris about it, which is still a very weak theory. Every thing you mentioned about Kris's behavior is just like...completely normal behavior. They didn't need to be explained. Kris just misses their brother, and is eager for him to be home from college. Also, if Kris killed Asriel, they wouldn't be LVL 1, if you want to be a nerd about it.

The only issue I have with the theory is that in order to ensure no one would be suspicious this would have to have happened right before Asriel was suppose to go to college, Asriel would need his own car or some way to be transported without using Toriel's car, and NO ONE would be suspicious or concerned about Asriel just leaving for college in the middle of the night without saying goodbye to everyone. That last bit makes it really hard to fully believe the theory with how everyone loves Asriel. Though I have issues with the full theory it makes some actions in chapter 2 make more sense like cutting the tires to Toriel's car to limit her ability to try to drive outside of town just in case they can't get everything done by the goal they set.

57:49 this is just speculative, but I think Frisk not really having a lot of agency between their actions and ours, boils down to the fact that Frisk is implied to be incredibly young. Their sprite is smaller than Kris’, their general build is more stout like a young child, and they seem roughly about the same height as Monster Kid, whom judging by the way they speak, is probably at the oldest, 10-12. I imagine Frisk still being easily influenced or impressionable, especially given the strange and sometimes scary situations that they find themselves in. And given the timeline of events, it’s very possible that monsters have since become a myth, so Frisk’s general opinion on monsters are likely neutral/nonexistent until we help them decide how to approach situations and how they should be looking at monsters. Yes, Frisk is powerful, but Frisk is incredibly young, and needs guidance. Kris, while still being a child, is relatively older- probably a teenager. Kris has their own opinions- more experience in life to have more fervent beliefs or wants. Not to mention, Kris has more avenues for guidance and company during battles, while Frisk is almost always alone in their battles, apart from us. Kris doesn’t really need us outside of possible power, and I doubt Kris liked us hijacking their body anyways, whereas Frisk might have actually allowed it, or wanted it, especially for battles.