Predicting Deltarune's MAIN VILLAIN | Deltarune Theory and Discussion | Antagonist Video Essay 

Sans is the main antagonist, we must find a way to travel back in time in order to stop him from befriending our mother.

Batman is the knight **CONFIRMED**

Everyone loves Nubert. Which is why its betrayal and reveal as the main villain is so shocking.

By your own criteria, the most likely main antagonist is Noelle. Here's why: 1. Motive: Noelle's life is miserable. Her dad is dying, her mother doesn't care about her, and her sister went missing. She comes to enjoy dark fountains as escapism in Chapter 2, and ends up thinking the experience was just a dream. Moreover, she is shown to cast spells she does not know about, forget events that happen right before her eyes. Something weird is up with her either way. She has all the reason in the world to open them. 2. Means to Defeat Protagonist: Stated to be incredibly strong, able to open dark fountains and initiate the roaring. She is the only character who has so far been able to kill another in the game. Clearly, she is the most threatening entity in the game. 3. Important to the Story: Noelle is absolutely central to the story. She is the main focus of Chapter 2 and the Spamton Sweepstakes, and implied to be of great importance in later chapters too. She ties into the religious themes, themes of escapism, themes of friendship and relationships. She is tied to Dess, to Gaster, and to ICE-E, all of which are big open mysteries. She is one of the only 3 characters referred to as "wonderful" in the intro survey, yet is not part of the heroes of legend. 4. Connection to the Protagonist: She is a childhood friend of Kris, and has a strong crush on Susie. Unusually, it is implied that Ralsei dislikes her -- and she actually takes the same role of mage as him. As revealed by the Sweepstakes, she has been contacted by Gaster, and is manipulated personally by the Player. All boxes are checked. 5. Core belief system: Ralsei believes that there needs to be balance between light and dark, otherwise the world will be destroyed. Noelle however would prefer to escape reality, and live in the dark worlds, as stated by her in Chapter 2, and even manages to convince the other Lightners of this. Her belief fundamentally clashes with that of Ralsei, yet has its own merits. And again, her character ties into the religious themes, the conflict between us and Kris, the themes of escapism, themes of friendship and relationships. She ties into the theme of freedom, of control, and the theme of pre-destiny, by her being the only way we can change our route in Chapter 2. And yes, she is even referred to as "Angel" whom the heroes of legend are supposed to oppose. She is a literal Jesus figure, being crucified at the end of Chapter 2 by Queen, while Kris, Ralsei and Susie (as well as Gaster) are all referred to as some variation of evil, beasts, dragons, demons and devils -- it is incredibly on-the-nose. Her heaven, the "Angel's Heaven", are the dark worlds we close. By banishing the Angel's heaven, we destroy her means of escapism.

To me, the presentation of the Titans makes them feel more like forces of nature than actual characters, so it had never really crossed my mind to consider them as potential antagonists.

Part of me believes that Toby wouldn't just *give* us Gaster in the end because that's too obvious, but another part of me knows that he knows that we've been waiting for Gaster to be fully realized in game for years and would try to make it satisfying. In other words, I can't wait for Chapter 7's secret boss fight that you can only access when you have all the shadow crystals where Deltarune OST 666: YOU FORGOT plays and you battle a 3/4 angle version of the Mystery Man sprite.

Funny enough, while you were talking about "what makes a good antagonist" i thought to myself "Wait, isn't susie like... a perfect antagonist?". But I kinda thought about an opposite approach: what if it's WE(kris/soul) who turns out to be not that good, and susie, who became just a great, good person, will be forced to stop us? Kind of like sans in undertale. Except susie will be closer to papyrus in her belief: she will believe that our intentions are good untill the very end.

You are wrong. Starwalker is the final villain, as there are many hints to such a thing. As the story progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that "Starwalker" is the ultimate villain. Not only do they possess immense power and a ruthless streak, but they also have a personal vendetta against Ralsei. Their actions and motivations are driven by a desire for revenge, making them a formidable and dangerous opponent. Additionally, clues and foreshadowing throughout the story point to "Starwalker" as the final villain, adding to the theory that they are the ultimate antagonist. Overall, "Starwalker" is the perfect candidate for the final villain due to their power, motivation, and foreshadowing in the story.

The thing about Toby Fox's writing is that his twist are actually impossible to predict. Take Flowey, for example. When you first meet him you know that something is up, but you would never know his origins as a flower injected with Determination AND that he's Asriel, because you would have to beat the game more than once to know these things. He doesn't give that information away until the reveal, so there's no way to know beforehand. We can only go off of what we know, but Toby doesn't work that way. It can only be something we don't know that he is withholding from us until the end.

I like to think that the Titans or the Angel will happen to them the same as Asgore. We will fight them and even if we convince them to become good, the main antagonist will finish them off and make their appearance. This antagonist could have small clues throughout history where the most observant will feel satisfied to be right. I have a little theory that the goal of the final antagonist will be to make THEIR decisions matter even if it means killing people.

the best argument was Susie's music not being completely full and you're right it feels like a lite version of what its suppose to be. It even had me saying "damn" cause its kinda true

I would like to ask your opinion about the vessel as the main antagonist We know that the vessel has a mind since we literally make its mind like ours and the voice clarifies that the vessel will not listen to our opinion that we have about it. The vessel is the definition that your decisions do not matter, since its creation it was created for a purpose and they discarded it as soon as it was created, all this without your decisions mattering

I think Kris will be the final antagonist, but in the Weird route specifically. If you pay attention they actively try to stop you from completing the game. They’re actively preventing you from seeing Susie and Noelle in fear of one of them getting hurt, or worse. And at the end of the Spamton fight it’s YOU who calls Noelle, Kris likely would rather die than be the means of killing everyone they know, and love. In the normal/pacifist route they aren’t actively trying to stop you from completing the game, but instead they’re just trying to just do their own thing. At least I think so…

I think you're partially right with Kris, Susie, and Ralsei but not quite from the perspective described. I think that *we* are going to be the final antagonist. Kris has plenty of reason to resist us, and plenty of precedent for it. Susie is very willing to fight against or completely sidestep our authority and has done so multiple times. Ralsei, outside of Kris and potentially Spamton, is the only one actively aware of us and seems to be aware of the controls of the game, and makes it a point to talk to Kris when we're not around. We're connected to our protagonists, debatably being the protagonist ourselves or being in direct/indirect control of them. The final boss being the player ties together *our* vs *their* choices mattering, the theme of control, and the morality of escapism. Our incredible presence throughout the story and our tenured tie to Kris, Ralsei, Susie, Noelle, and potentially Gaster gives us plenty of narrative significance. As for means, we've proven to be powerful strategists and reliable dodgers of any attacks that come our way, felling all foes who have crossed our path yet. It also doesn't seem like Kris can act too well on their own. Motive could vary. Perhaps we fail or for some reason Kris has decided they're completely done with us, rips us away, and the soul does battle with the party. Perhaps we choose to fight the party because we learn information they do not know and can act on the dramatic irony. Perhaps we simply don't want the game to end, the Roaring to occur, the prophecy to be completed, the week to loop, to make a hard or impossible choice, etc. and we have no choice but to sever our ties to Kris and do battle. I don't know whether in such a situation we would be made to play as the three heroes or as the soul, but I think a large part of the appeal to Undertale was the inherent subversion of standard RPG tropes where you don't have to kill anybody. To now subvert the trope of a found family group of teenagers fighting a god at the end of the world, *YOU* are now a god of sorts fighting a found family group of teenagers at the end of a world that you know was never real to you sounds like a perfectly fitting twist. Additionally, I feel like Snowgrave's conclusion, particularly at the end of the Neo Spamton fight, cements this, as we see Kris call for their party members and no one came to their aid, however, *WE* call for Nicole, whose voice she recognizes as the one that commanded her, and she appears. I feel like if we the player continue to take advantage of the lack of control Kris has, and the rare absence of Susie and Ralsei, we can rather maliciously develop our own party of friends to oppose the three heroes, friends who, in a better timeline, may aid the three heroes in resisting us. Having us end up being the final boss reconciles the seeming discrepancy between the notion of there being one ending and our choices not mattering, yet having radically altering routes of gameplay and narrative. It doesn't matter because those characters will join the fight anyway, but either for you or against you, and it's one ending in that we are the final boss, and presumably may be defeated somehow. Perhaps we are completely booted from Kris, or from the world of Deltarune, perhaps Kris saves back over our file in their own name, or we are forced into the Goner. I don't know, I'm largely throwing thoughts at the wall having finished the video, but I thoroughly believe that this checks every box, ties up every loose end or discrepancy, acknowledges certain build-ups, and leaves plenty of wiggle room for adjustment, while completely matching Toby's MO. But hey, who knows?

I just had a weird thought. What if the titans have been around the whole time? What if we spend the whole game gathering them into castle town in an easily contained form? What if…they’re Lancer and his family? The titans are shown as having bright glowing lights in their eye region, Lancer and pals all have black voids in those areas with only queen being only a small exception with her occasional text. It could be we’re being tricked into gathering them all up in one spot or Ralsei is attempting to get us to jail them in a gilded cage while they remain unaware of their true nature, accidentally playing into the villain’s true plan of unleashing them all at the same time. I dunno, food for thought.

The reason Ralsei is focusing on Susie too much is because the theme of Deltarune is about EVERYONE having a crush on Susie.

I really don't understand why no one is saying it could be Asriel. The game starts with us learning that he'll be coming to visit in 7 days, and the chapter select reflects this. The first shot we see is a room comparing him to Kris. A ton of dialogue describes the relationship between Kris and Asriel, painting Asriel in a bright light and Kris in a bad light. We learn that the first portal was opened in the room Asriel used to play with Kris in. Asriel is the PERFECT antagonist for Deltarune. Kris struggles with maturity and taking initiative, whereas Asriel already has his life mapped out. Asriel also "abandoned" Kris in a sense (Not saying that's wrong or anything; just bad in Kris' perspective). Asriel is likely the reason Kris feels the need to act out to get attention. The reason they put control in someone else's hands in the first place. Gaster may be the one that put us in control of Kris, but Kris is allowing us to take control willingly, save for when they feel comfortable doing things on their own, or find it necessary. Last point. Ralsei almost definitely already knew Kris before we met him. He knows what Kris was supposed to look like, he talks to Kris about things he doesn't wants us knowing about, and he tries to lead us into doing things a way that falls in line with how we would expect someone like Kris to want to act; for example, being nice to people to make friends. He would have no motive to do so if his real goal was simply to close the portals. Ralsei also clearly has a connection to Asriel in the way of looks and in his name being an anagram to Asriel. Either he is Asriel, or he was created to mimic how Kris remembers/wants to remember Asriel. Why are we being introduced to a character with so many parallels to Asriel so early if not to point our focus towards him and make comparisons? Besides, what bigger reveal could there be than the big brother that's been set up since the first few lines of dialogue, who we're told is perfect and delightful to be around, actually being a major problem for the protagonist? From what we know, Asriel would carry Kris to school, get them hot chocolate, as well as a bunch of other quips that suggests that Asriel has an intense feeling of responsibility. Isn't it clear that he's been smothering Kris? And wouldn't it make perfect sense that that smothering is what's going to push Kris to stand on their own two feet and live their own life instead of hoping their brother or someone else will just fight all their battles for them, like we've been doing the whole game?

The only probleam i have with the "Gaster was the one behind all", is that someone who has not found any of his easter eggs or checked any of the theories, could be another Necron case for them. In Undertale, is not obligatory to investigate about Gaster, and none of the main characters mention him. But someone can argue that "Deltarune is made for people who have played Undertale", subtly saying that, even if not a sequel, is made for people who were invested in UT, and I can understand that. I hope that, if that's the case, Gaster has a lot of build up in this new universe. Kris and/or Susie are more appealing, i think. Kris seems to want freedom at all cast, and the one who's playing does not allow that. And Susie is all about contradict the "powers" of the player, so when she finds out, would be completely against the control that you are exercising to this world. Excellent video!

I also think Gaster is almost certain to be the true villain of Deltarune, and one of my biggest reasons actually directly counters what you said was an oddity in the theory. While it's not very clear without going into a deep dive of the game's lore, Gaster isn't nearly as much of a good guy as he seems to be. He's only _manipulating_ us into believing he is. Undertale already told us to beware of The Man who speaks in hands. He's characterized as creepy and not to be taken lightly, and, as you said, with otherworldly presence we have little way to understand. He's associated with the demonic number 6, And he also seems to have an interest in what can only be described as an all-consuming darkness. (As depicted in Entry number 17.) Everything regarding him in Undertale seems to paint him as a true eldritch horror. And Deltarune continues this. One of his biggest roles in Deltarune is his implicit role in the Secret Bosses' stories. Both Jevil and Spamton seem to have been contacted by Gaster, periods of contact that directly resulted in them _going insane._ But his relationship with Spamton reveals something else about his character. That he has a pension for _manipulation._ Spamton, after being "helped" by Gaster in his business practice, seems to have become some kind of metaphysical puppet. His body has changed to look like a ventriloquest dummy, and once he gains the Spamton Neo body, an array of strings appear from his body. Gaster had somehow turned Spamton into his puppet, and once he got him to do whatever he needed him to, (most likely further spreading the horrific secrets he spilled to Spamton and Jevil, given ventriloquism,) he dipped. Took everything away and left Spamton's life to go down the drain. If Gaster is known to manipulate, than it brings whole new meaning (or more importantly, encourages us to bring new scrutiny,) to the times where he seems to act uncharacteristically benevolent. In the Chapter 1 Game Over sequence, Gaster is notably non-encouraging towards one option or the other. Every other game over scene we've seen in Toby Fox's games has involved some sort of "Don't give up" statement, but Gaster's simply reads "It appears you have reached an end" with responses for each choice simply reading "Then the world is in your hands." and "then the world was covered in darkness.", as if the choice does not matter in his eyes, perhaps even as if he expects them to both lead to the same outcome. The Goner Maker is also implied to have some suspicious undertones in it by the characterization of the Soul itself. You in the video said that the protagonist is the soul, not Kris, but the game heavily implies, if not outright states, that the Soul _Is Kris's Soul._ Ralsei outright states it, Spamton outright states it, There's no evidence of more than one soul in Kris's body, yet Kris's consciousness is very clearly present, and at the beginning of the Goner Maker the soul seems to be teleported in, rather than created. Implying, that the soul we play as was _Stolen_ by Gaster, with the intent to put it into the vessel. An intent that was seemingly thwarted by someone putting the soul back into Kris's body, possibly even Kris themself. If Gaster has already established a pension for manipulation, then it seems incredibly likely that Gaster's vessel plan going through would've led to him being able to manipulate US into doing whatever he wants. But the biggest role Gaster plays in the story is what ties Gaster into the theme of the game. _Gaster wrote the prophecy._ Years before Deltarune, even years before _Undertale,_ an exerpt from the prophecy written in wing dings was posted to deltarune.com. One of the main points about the prophecy is that it tells of a calamity named the Roaring caused by all-consuming darkness. Likely the same kind of all-consuming darkness that Gaster found so interesting and seemed to have some level of control over in Entry 17. And the prophecy seems deliberately misleading by portraying the Angel's Heaven as the threat that needs to be stopped, even when the scales are tipping in favor of darkness, not light, and Jevil tells us that Hell is going to be the threat. (Connecting back to Gaster's association with 666.) Almost as if the prophecy is meant to trick the 3 heroes into stopping the one thing capable of re-balancing the scales. The prophecy isn't a prophecy, it's a master plan Gaster is manipulating into fruition. Gaster is trying to consume the Deltarune world in darkness, and to do it, He's manipulated the secret bosses, Spamton implies he's manipulated the Knight in a similar way, he tried to manipulate the player but it didn't work, and he's either manipulated Ralsei or is using Ralsei to manipulate us even after his initial attempt failed. Gaster is attempting to enforce his will across everyone involved. And on top of simple manipulation the two biggest totems he's using to do so are Destiny and Nihilism. What do destiny and nihilism have in common? They can both be used as the reasoning behind the same assertion. *_Your choices don't matter._*

After much research, I know who it is. It's not Ralsei, not Kris, Not Susie, Noelle, Gaster or heck, even Lancer. The true villain is the strongest creature in every universe, the one who brought us the most pain. After centuries of loneliness and neglect, this creature decided to become the villain. I hope I am incorrect, because if I'm right, then we have no hope in beating it. That's right. Jerry returns.

This is a lot longer than your last videos, and you've improved quite a bit too. Nice job!

I think I saw some fandub comic thing on RU-vid once and it was about Susie and Kris hanging out like at Park or something. It was made before chapter 2 came out but it about Kris's lack of control. Kris expresses how they feel and Susie tries to understand but after a minute or two the SOUL appears and Kris freaks out and has a panic attack and tries to stab themself so they would be under its control. Susie stops them because she doesn't understand what's going about the heart or why Kris has a knife. But the soul takes over and Susie realises that something is clearly wrong. "Kris" goes back to default and doesn't know about the knife incident and asks if they want to go on a dark world adventure with them, which was what Susie wanted earlier. But she says that they will do it tomorrow and starts to scheme behind "Kris's" back. At the end Susie says that she'll go back to dark world to find answers to help Kris. I'm bringing this up because I believe this kind of idea is the best way to make Susie the antagonist. We make Susie care about Kris and it bites the Player in the butt when Susie turns against the player to save Kris. WE made her a better person and now WE pay the price as long as WE, the Player, continue to have Kris on our strings. She now has friends and she defies the players choices already. What's stopping her from outright turning violent to the Player once she's aware of US and what WE are doing to Kris? She might Battle the Heart Undertale style even just to Kill the Player Soul instead of how Deltarune Battles which hurt the body too. Susie was referenced in Undertale so...

I really do think that Gaster will be the main antagonist, and that the Knight, whoever they may be, will be a secondary antagonist of sorts. In the original Star Wars trilogy, you had Darth Vader, who was for all intents and purposes the central antagonist of Episodes 4 and 5, and then you had the Emperor, who was mentioned repeatedly in the first two movies, but who only became the central antagonist in episode 6, the third and final film in the OT. I think we may have a similar situation going into Deltarune. That's not to say that Gaster will only become the central antagonist in the final chapter at the very end of the game, or anything. I just think that the Knight might be given more of the initial spotlight in the coming chapters as we learn more about them, and then the Knight's story arc will transition into Gaster's story arc, in the same way that Darth Vader's story arc transitioned into the Emperor's time in the sun. I'm not even sure at this point if the Knight and Gaster have anything to do with each other, but I think there will be some sort of connection between the two, especially if the Knight turns out to be Kris.

Talking about the titans, I have a belief they'll either end up being secret bosses or prefinal bosses. Kinda like Porky in Mother 3. As for the main antagonists, I don't have a clue lol but I would be emotionally devastated if Susie ended up being it.

to me the titans and the roaring feel more like a goal for the antagonist then the final antagonist themselves. were way to early to know why but that's what it feels like so far to me. another way to look at it is that the roaring is a consequence for the antagonist, one he is either aware of or not.

Hey, your susie theory actually made me have a brain aneurysm, in a good way: Susie at chapter 1 was 100% set up to be the antagonist judging by the way she acted towards Kris. Not saying she's evil, but she had an inclination towards it. Then they fall into the dark world, Kris is literally a generic figure of a hero while Susie even has spikes in her outfit, something that is usually related to evil or complicated individuals. When Ralsei explains why they were there and why they must close fountains and _wradah wradah_ Susie is like "Nah" and just goes away after Lancer's battle. In your theory you stated that Ralsei is always doing whatever makes Susie happier, while it could be his personality trait shining through his actions, I think there's a deeper meaning. Ralsei is the only one who knows about the profecy, right? Then in theory, he could change it a tiny bit, right? What if Ralsei changed the profecy so Susie, the Villain, and Kris, the Hero would join forces against a imaginary threat so Susie could get friends and don't end up as a villain? We don't know what Ralsei is, but what if he can also open dark fountains and is making these kingdoms so they can have their little adventure until Susie is satisfied? Christ's sake, he were _told_ that Kris and Susie had to study at the library and conveniently there's now a fountain in the computer room. Susie is delighted to have another adventure and Ralsei was already inside when we entered? Hell, what if the profecy isn't even real? There is a profecy, but he made this heroic one instead of a darker profecy so everything could turn out ok? *Tl;dr:* So my theory is about how Ralsei is trying to fulfil Susie as to avoid her becoming a threat. It fits since he's a pacifist, and it would be ironic since in undertale you can be a pacifist to avoid problems but here Susie will explode out of control anyways.

My theory is that Gaster will try to help us with our quests for a while, however his ultimate goals go against our own and we'll eventually have to defy him.

I feel like the titans would play some role similar to the 4 giants in majoras mask, they are not a protagonist nor the antagonist, they are just doing their job.

Ralsei's legend is at least partially true because if you refuse to listen to it then lancer will say "what you don't recognize me, the teardrop shaped kid from the prophecy"

I disagree on the notion that King isn't a narratively important villain. While yes, he's only ever seen for the final fight, his presence is felt and made clear from very early on. We spend most of the chapter fighting Lancer, but Lancer is King's son, and the climax of his and Susie's character arcs revolves around the pressure of having to fight King, and what that *means* for the two. Furthermore, deltarune is ALL ABOUT the relationship between us and the objects/stories around us. King, being a resentful, bitter darkner serves as the PERFECT introductory antagonist for Deltarune, laying the groundwork for themes used by more complex antagonists further on.

The knight has one factor that confounds their ranking- they have a secret identity. We could have a moment like with uncle Aaron in spider-verse, where the antagonist only clicks when the two characters become understood as one.

I think it's pretty obvious that jockington will be the main antagonist. Compared to everyone else he loves sports more than everyone else and he will prove it! Legit though, really like the way you constructed this video, super easy to follow and I like your take on Susie being a potential antagonist. Also super interesting how it's possible to find a plausible and believable antagonist in basically all main characters (except lancer lol). The following chapters could really turn anyone into a potential "villain"

I have a small feeling (one that could be totally off) that since the knight seems to be a lightener, maybe the titans are as well. They could be important adults in Kris’s life, that try to squash what they view as silly pretend play that Kris and Susie are “too old” for

I don't know why, but my number one contender is Noelle's mom. The mysterious, implied to be abusive and controlling, mayor of the town who we've never seen before and would have easy access to the school and library (if the knight is the main villains) as well as a potential motive (disappearance of her daughter and eventual death of her husband) I really believe Noelle's mom is going to be a major part of the story

The titans are a force of nature from the information we have; they don't have to have motives they do it because that's what they are. They aren't the main antagonist they are what the antagonist will unleah. (presumably)

I forgot i was watching a deltarune video by the end of the batman segment lol

The titans are more of a consecuence than a threat.

The Waffle House Has Found Its New Host

Nice video! Just my 2 cents Personally, I think the Angel is the Player, and [Heaven] is our real world. Makes sense to me that the secret that drives characters like Jevil insane is understanding how impossibly weak they are compared to Reality. I believe the skelebros both have 4th Wall Madness as well, all these characters handling the Truth of Angel's Heaven differently. Ralsei knows for sure. Maybe Toriel is slowly being taught by Sans... I think characters are eventually going to start talking to us directly through the game and it's going to be creepy as hell.

The dark world isnt fiction, depending on how you play chapter 2, berdly can either have a nonfunctional wing in the light world if it was burned in the dark world, or he can end up in coma (he might not even just be in a coma, he might literally be dead for all we know) after you kill him with snowgrave

Sincerely? I see the titans more as a final attack or a possible end,or maiby even just somone's objective,thr angel just ad something that could happen,and if it starts,not even a battle. Just something that inevitably ends. The knight ad a ch5 final boss,ralsei as just somone that knows a lot more that many,anf just wants his friends to be happy untill th4 end,gaster as somone who will ever be the main thing,just that is for the ones who searchs too see,and good or bad,it may be something that even changes with your choices. For kris i still see them as good,and snowgrave the fountain still gets open to get help for toriel,and a battle against the soul is sure to happen for me... and if they making peace is an option? I am not sure. Also chess theory. The seventh piece of chess is the player. For susie? For her to go against us is something i have never really thinked about. That is rewlly interesting. Anyway,a really good video.

I really don't think that fighting the abstract concept of death at the end of a game about mortality is that much of a "deep dive" "fan theory". It could have been handled better but it's not really as bad as you're making it out to be. Stories aren't boxes.

13:30 You're right the main antagonists being the titans would make a boring villain with what we know as of right now, but there is another place where you've seen a titan before. It's the statue you give the umbrella to in Undertale

Excellent analysis! I’ve been hoping to see a video breaking possibilities down from a narrative perspective rather than in-game logic, and I agree with a tonne here. I personally think there will be a complex mix of antagonists and antagonistic forces at play, but I think your Susie theory is particularly compelling. We can’t ignore all the themes and references pointing to her as someone whose arc will have a very critical impact. The connection to the “your choices don’t matter” line is very interesting. If Susie is let down, we know her aggressive nihilism comes back strong. I wonder if there’s a connection between Susie and Gaster?

Honestly I dont think there's going to be a villain in DELTARUNE, the same way there was no villain in UNDERTALE. Sure, Asgore is the antagonist, but he isn't villainistic- he isn't killing you to be malicious, he just needs to free his people, and when he finds out that it can be done peacefully he stops trying to hurt you altogether. All the villains we've met in DELTARUNE so far mostly fit this bill- Spade King is cruel but he has a streak of humanity in that he cares for his son. Queen is bold and brash and more goofy than evil honestly, and she only does what she does because she wants Noelle to be happy. Toby Fox tends to write all of the antagonistic characters like this, people who do bad things with a streak of humanity. The closest thing we have to a "villain" in DELTARUNE is the player itself- us, in other words- when we do the Snowgrave route.

I'm here to mald about the Necron segment. The main antagonist of FF9 is absolutely still Kuja, which means (imo) FF9 does still have a good antagonist, and complaining about Necron is basically pointless. Given the accurate descriptions of what protagonists and antagonists are, I'm surprised you also somehow appear to assume the last bad guy fought in a story is somehow "THE Antagonist". Necron is a thematic obstacle, and they do a good job at being that. They aren't here to be the main antagonist, or to replace Kuja as that. Sorry if this seems aggressive lmao, I just didn't expect my old passion for Necron arguments to resurface in 2023. At least it wasn't complaining about Yu Yevon, who IS Necron But Better.

I totally agree with you vs Susie. That song has tons of potential and an extended/ reprised version would be great for a Susie fight in a later chapter. If not for her being the main antagonist, it could be for a fight with her later on in the weird route, or something similar to that

I'd like to say something about 2:29 Sans isn't trying to save everyone, he's the only other person left (other than Asgore) there is no one else to save.

I read a theory that there might be chess metaphors in Deltarune, what with "knights" and "kings" and "queens"; especially with the knight being the only piece able to conduct its moves relatively unhindered as the pawns sleep. I personally think that's pretty reasonable, especially if you order the pieces by value. you get the order "king, queen, rook, bishop/knight (equal value approximately), pawn" for the six different pieces. note that there's another aspect to chess; the player, with a base value of 0. I highly suspect that chapter 3 will have the antagonist with a last name like "rook", ofc being Mike (described as a shifty sort of gameshow host by smapton, 'crook' comes to mind). chapter 4 I'd expect to be centered on the church and a bishop antagonist, chapter 5 on the knight, chapter 6 the 'pawn' and the concept of being a literal pawn under control, and chapter 7 will be the players themselves. As an aside, I'm surprised that you didn't cover the possibility of Asriel being the end antagonist; there's some background conflict between him and kris and he's due to return on the last 'day' of the game. though I suspect that Asriel and Ralsei and the prophecy will be very intertwined

Regarding the Titans, I think they should be viewed as a Force of Nature as opposed to an outright antagonist. Antagonist suggests motive, intention, goals, etc. but the Titans don't seem to be evil or anything (going from what Ralsei's spoken of). They're simply an inevitability of the balance becoming disrupted

You were right about the final boss in ff9 but damn it’s sucks to see ff9 slander 😔

I'm a bit late but this is a great video! I'm always a fan of videos that analyse Deltarune from a thematic perspective rather than a literal one, and I like the conclusions you've made. Nice work!

i didn't even watch the video but WRONG it's obviously Trashy (who is gaster)

Great vid

*D E S S* ...that's the only thing I said throughout the whole video. I really think Dess will be both The Knight and the main antagonist.

Gaster is like mega ultra apotheosic in terms of buildup, goober's been messing with us since 2016 at least. Like were going pass out, as soon as we see a single winding.

My top three probable main villain of Deltarune guesses are: • Gaster • Us • Kris There are very strong arguments for all of them

I think this is more Phantasy Star horror than Kirby horror. After all, while Undertale is compared to Earthbound and inspired by the social structure of ShinMagami; Deltarune is more based off Sega RPGs like Persona, and as I fear, Phantasy Star for the protagonist you never really meet until the end: Dark Falz, the Cancer born of human hate.

The Knight, Angel and Titans all would have pretty simple motivations and relation to the game's themes as parts of the prophecy. These beings could have the motivation of simply "The prophecy says so, therefore I must do it, I do not have a choice" This would fit in pretty well with "Your choices don't matter" being deltarune's "It's kill or be killed" in that it isn't true and we spend the whole game disproving it.

Okay, I don't really know whether Toby would like to make Susie the antagonist, still entirely a fair point on your end, but there is something you are so correct about. Lemme put it in a slightly weird way but I still vibe with it: Kris (or the amalgam of Kris + Soul) might be the protagonist, but the main character is Susie. You feel me?

I have stated this theory before but what if some of the future antagonists are us? I mean, in Chapter 2 we can type “AGREE2ALL” and then we disobey doing whatever Queen orders us to do but the she says “I’ll still use your likeness”. What if Queen made copies of us using that data of us that agreed to be her minions and then the clones spent the whole of Chapter 2 downloading which is why we don’t see them. But if the fountain got sealed, they would be left behind and turned back into regular code right? I think perhaps the clones of Kris, Susie and Ralsei saw a shadowy figure about to seal the fountain and quickly sent an email of themselves to Kris’ computer. Then the clones got a notification that the person who sealed their own fountain, who destroyed their home was in the TV and using TV sharing, the clones make their way into Chapter 3. Queen coded the copies to go after Kris, Susie and Ralsei and to obey their Queen however, if Queen is on our side, shouldn’t the clones be on our side too? The clones don’t know that Queen is on our side and once it is revealed to them that she is, they will probably become our allies.

It seems as though The Knight is being built up as the main focus atm, being the one who's opening up Dark Fountains. Learning their identity seems to be what the next few chapters will be about, assuming the Knight isn't Kris. Kris would be an interesting option, making them simultaneously the Protagonist and Antagonist, being the Player Character while also creating the conflict in the story and directly opposing us the Player. However, I doubt the Knight will be the only/the final antagonist in Deltarune.

Well, Ralsei could just be trying to make Suzy happy so that she doesn't leave the party and become evil like Chapter 1, if she leaves the party then the prophecy can't be fulfilled, he also might be talking to Kris about this in the times we change perspective. I believe Suzy will become evil for a chapter regardless of Ralseis actions and even maybe that's when Ralsei leaves too seeing as he failed to bring the prophecy or smth, dunno I am just yapping.

I personally think that there is one villian far behind the reality our characters see..... pulling the strings from the distance. Itssssssss G- You. It's you. Congrats. Your a terrible person. That's what it says. A terrible person. We weren't even testing for that.

Can’t wait to see the antagonists and all these choices are very convincing. My guess is either The Angel and The Knight.

I would like to hear more people making up crackpot theories about the discarded vessel, it doesn't get enough love

Honestly that Andor spoiler wasn’t called for. I’m currently unable to get Disney+ warn people when the show is recent or newish.

However unlikely I still think it’s going to be Toby fox himself

I have my own reason to believe Ralsei would abandon the party, and it's around game difficulty. Think about it. This game will probably end up being 2 or 3 times longer than Undertale, so it would make sense if Toby decided to make later chapters harder. What does that have to do with anything? Look at Noelle's spell list in chapter 2. Gameplay wise, she seems to just be a better Ralsei. Sleep Mist is just Pacify but works on multiple enemies at once. Heal Prayer is the exact same as with Ralsei, and she isn't purely support, having an offensive spell in Ice Shock. Taking this into account, her power in Snowgrave can be explained as just her being built for harder parts of the game. From a game design standpoint, replacing Ralsei with Noelle to balance the team's power a bit better and allow for harder fights makes perfect sense.

Ghaster would be too much like Necron He too is a character that mostly just exists thanks to fan theories and obscure things revealed outside of the game My personal theory is that the game's true main villain is either Kris, Ralsei, or even the player themselves

Sorry, But I really have to argue against you saying that Necron is not a good antagonist and not fullfiling the story's main motifs. Necron is literally the manifestation of death that came out because of Kuja's genocidal actions. Keeping it brief, the whole story of Final fantasy IX is about how the character deal with grief and there own mortalities again and again. It is pretty much the manifestation of Kuja and overall all of humanity's paradoxal fear and desire for Death. The Main plot of the game is because of a death Planet literally parasitizing the Planet the story takes place on so it can extend it's life. The Whole end of Final fantasy IX is Kuja, after realizing that despise his god like powers he can't escape his early death, that he will go back in time and prevent life from ever existing. Necro might not actually be a character we meet through the game, but it is pretty much the embodiment of the themes of accepting mortality and embrassing all the life you have left that the characters have to face. I'm pretty sure this isn't even a Theory, Its name literally means death and it says that they want to fullfil Humanity (And Specially Kuja)'s desire for nothingness.It says that it will always exist as long as life and death do. I think is very explicit in the text.

It seems like no one has said anything about US. The person playing this game. We could be the "Villian", controlling, corrupting, and manipulating people in the game. Like the Weird Route, us controlling, corrupting, and manipulating Noelle to our will. And how it could change the whole outcome of the game depending on what our actions. But they already did that in Undertale, so It might not be true.

0:50 I'm glad you distinguish between villain & antagonist! One is an evil being, the other creates conflict for protagonists. 15:11 I agree it's unknown if The Angel exists, but it'd be an odd waste of detail & resources to include a Dark World prophecy about the Angel & not have it show up; I'd say it LIKELY exists. But it is definitely possible it doesn't exist, I agree. For example, maybe Ralsei didn't give us the complete truth or something. 16:38 I feel this is a good point. Don't recall it being brought up. To answer the question, maybe some spots or times are better for Dark Fountains? 18:12 This is a good point. Suspicious. Anyway, neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!

Who is the main antagonist in Undertale? Is it Flowey or The Player? After all we are the only one that can rip the timeline apart to destroy the perfect future purely because we want to see what happens. Make no mistake, Even if Gaster and The Knight are important pieces, the player playing the chess game is by far the one to make the moves even if they are predetermined, moving a pawn, that can only move 1 way. Forward. PROCEED

I'm not far in but I'm not sure if you can say Flowey isn't a villain. They start the game trying to literally murder you, they do murder Asgore in neutral, and have been stated to have murdered practically *everyone* in the underground at least once(But brought them back through loading the save). I'm not sure if you can get much more villainous than murdering everyone, reloading, and doing it again

We’re only viewing the antagonist under the guise that it’s a character in game. Doesn’t it make more sence for the story and for the meta that the main antagonist is the player instead? By your criteria: 1. A motive, that is to finish the game 2. A threat to Kris AND every enemy/character around him, and we physically control his actions and can bring ruin to everyone 3/4. To be important to the story and to have a connection to Kris, to both we qualify 5. To have a core belief system that ties into the game, which we do in the actions we take

Okokok listen...The discarded vessel is the knight. No, I do not have evidence. No, I will not explain it.

deltarune fans trying to predict the entire storyline of a game that only has the first two chapters out

I have a feeling it will be the us vs Kris. There ain't no way there is such buildup for it to NOT be us

There're too much possibilities... I should've listened to mom when she said to not watch any theories while theorising! I feel like my head is gonna blow up...

Does anyone have a link to the post mentioned at 21:29? I tried looking for it myself on tumblr but it looks like they've deactivated, so a reblog should work but those don't turn up in search :/

The main villian is us, the player. I haven't seen the video yet but my guess is us playing Kris.

Glad you mentioned Toby Fox's commentary about the unused Main Theme. While using commentary from an unused track may be seen as dubious to some, personally it's such strong evidence to me that it's what makes me strongly believe the Knight is the main antagonist/villain. It's my top pick. And, while we don't know for sure who the Knight is, that's... a whole different conversation that would take way too long to talk about in-depth here. My top picks for THAT are Kris or Asriel, sorry not sorry. About Gaster, it's pretty much a necessity that he is included in Deltarune since he's been very explicitly built up to be related to it (if you don't believe me just go watch the Pieces of Gaster videos by 2 left thumbs. It's pretty much as explicit as Toby could possibly be without straight up stating it), unless Toby is planning to make a THIRD game where he actually reveals more about Gaster, which is... unlikely. He IS my 2nd pick for the antagonist- despite how little we know about him, and how little evidence we have of him being possibly malicious or opposing us, I think his ominous and powerful vibes fit more with the image of an antagonist than an ally, and since he HAS to be important in some capacity, he'll probably be an antagonistic force, though I'm not sure if he will be the main one. Susie I don't have that much to say about because to me, she seems like a generally good, very genuine kid. Some really bad things would have to happen to send Susie down a dark path to the point she's an antagonist, and while it's not impossible, if we're just going off the chapters we have, I don't think they're implying or foreshadowing that at all. It COULD happen, but nothing we have indicates it, I think. Kris is more likely, since they REALLY seem to have some ulterior, mysterious goals, it is something that is clearly shown and highlighted to the player in spectacular manner in the last scenes of both chapters. It implies Kris possibly knowing more and having a bigger plan than any explicitly shown character, and the end of ch1 is definitely trying to imply something sinister about them, though they're also implied to be a normal kid to SOME degree, or at least were. As stated earlier, Kris is one of my two top picks for the Knight's identity, with the Knight being my top pick for the game's main antagonist. If we're talking about Kris as the main antagonist WITHOUT being the Knight, that'd probably be my 3rd pick overall. My weirdest, wildest consideration is Chara(Undertale). They're perfectly malicious, they talked about "moving on to the next world" at the end of the Genocide Route, there's credible evidence to believe they're the person who interrupted Gaster during the vessel creation sequence and sent us to Kris... I mean, it's still unlikely as fuck, but hey, it's there, there's a chance! Though there's a bigger chance of them being AN antagonist, but not the 'main' one. My 4th pick is the player/SOUL: even if it's obviously not malicious in the normal/main route, Kris has plenty of reason to oppose it, and so would their friends if they happen to realize it's puppeting Kris's body against their will. And obviously this would require us to think of Kris as the protagonist rather than the SOUL, which you do not in this video. The final possibility is that there is no actual character that will be the antagonist and by the end, all the good guys will be faced with the conflict of The Roaring and the Titans (which, for the sake of this discussion, I don't consider to be "characters"). With the information we have, I think this is unlikely, as it'd be hard to set up an emotionally effective ending (like in Undertale, for example) in this case. Then again, we don't know much about The Roaring or the Titans, so maybe there WILL be a way for them to make for an emotionally effective ending. Finally, while I am as biased about this pretty much as much as anyone could possibly be biased about anything (I am extremely attached to Ralsei to a degree higher than ANY other character from ANYTHING ever) I really don't think Ralsei is malicious in the slightest. I will admit there's scenes in chapter 2 where it really could not be more fucking obvious that the intention is for the player to be suspicious of him, but that's just that, some sort of general 'suspicious' behaviour, not anything in particular. At the very LEAST, he is hiding SOMETHING important, that's something I agree we can be completely certain of, though I'm personally not 100% sure he's doing it intentionally, and at the very MOST, he might become a temporary antagonist due to conflicting interests with the protagonist, but that's about it. There's many reasons why I think that, even if that last thing I suggested DOES happen, he will be on our side by the end of the story and he will not be on the opposing side of the final battle. (I WILL have my good boy by the end of this, I am totally NOT huffing copium) Also, to sorta keep talking about Ralsei, in the Susie segment you just made me think and realize that dark worlds and darkners not being real in the slightest is still very much a strong possibility. This would destroy me for obvious reasons, but yeah, looking at both in-universe elements and how it would work as a twist in the story, there's a decent chance that's the case. Damn.

I am the true villain of Deltarune.

3:58 I had this playing in the background and I misheard that as ‘the antagonist needs memes’

Ralsai will be replaced by Lancer I'm calling it. someone from the future pls tell me if I was right

21:34 but that doesn't make any sense, because that would mean making genocide in undertale non-canon, which i don't think toby would do

One thing that could add to Susie being an antagonist again would be the flavor text when using a Dark Crystal in the light world in chapter 2. Using it says "For some strange reason, for just a brief moment... You thought you saw Susie glaring at you, coldly... But when you moved the glass away, you see her looking at you, smiling and making a rude gesture" If going by the theory that the Dark Crystals in some way reflect the truth (Because when used in chapter 1's dark world it says you briefly saw toys lying around which refers to the abandoned classroom that you wake up in. And in chapter 2 it says you briefly saw the computer lab or something) and the truth in the dark worlds is that they are inside the actual locations, then maybe Susie views Kris in a cold way and is faking her friendship towards Kris in some way, and that could maybe add more motive to her turning against us or Kris later on again

Smh my h, everyone knows that the main antagonist is *OBVIOUSLY* gonna be Rouxls Kaard 🙄 In all seriousness though, I do love the analysis you go into, no only into the story of the game but also into the literary side of things to explain what would make the best villain and why. I also like the point you brought up about Susie potentially being an antagonist at some point but the only thing that I disagree with is that Susie has been confiding in Kris this whole time and, more importantly, Kris considers Susie their friend too. Even with our interference Kris has developed a strong bond with her and seems to genuinely care about her and I can see that possibly being what would deescalate an encounter with her if it were to happen in later chapters. Kris is still very much their own character and even though we technically make the choices for them, they still have control over how they make those choices and in some cases are able to take advantage of our lack of control during cutscenes to act on their own accord. It's through this that we're able to tell that Susie and Kris do have a very real friendship despite our control over them. In the aftermath of the king fight when Ralsei heals him and he attacks them, Kris moves of their own accord to block the attack despite being hurt in retaliation. In the aftermath of the Spamton NEO fight, when Susie calls out how weird and creepy the situation was while Ralsei tries to brush it off, Susie takes the time to look at Kris and ask how they're doing and, depending on which answer we give, they still are able to show how upset they are, to which Susie helps to calm them down. At the end of the Chapter when Susie asks who Kris would ride the ferris wheel with, the only answer they give that doesn't sound confused is "Susie", showing that they genuinely would like to go with her. Even selecting the "..." option will prompt Susie to mention that Kris is staring at her. Last but certainly not least, Susie Tea heals a whopping 120 HP to Kris, with the dialogue from the other party members mentioning that a) Kris is staring at Susie, and b) they "seem into it". Kris is still very much there and experiencing everything as the game goes on (which makes things like the snowgrave route even worse considering how all of the options that will abort it will be said very enthusiastically by Kris but all the options to "proceed" they refuse to say to the point of Noelle recognizing that the voice she hears is one "unlike Kris's", showing that it is now our voice speaking independently of Kris) and it will be their experiences and their freedom, their voice that will be key to saving everyone else. The only other option I can think of is the voice we have yet to put a face or name to, the one that interrupts the goner creator segment at the very end after presumably Gaster puts so much effort into catering to us, the player's, desires and creating a vessel to house our soul. The voice that discards all of that and presumably forces us into Kris . Who that is or why they did that would of course remain to be seen but at least it wouldn't be an entirely new character I guess

The waffle house has found its new host

I don't think Susie is a viable candidate for the MAIN villain/antagonist. I say this because she is set up like a traditional protagonist, she has flaws and goes through character development going from a bully to a genuine friend. Most of the main cast like her a lot like Kris, Noelle, Berdly etc. She even inspires/helps people (even just by being a presence) whether it be consoling Berdly after admitting his faults or Noelle's admiration of her ability to be true to herself leading to her scene where she firmly tells Queen that she is against what she is doing. I'm bringing also this up because it seems that the story is heavily leaning towards her being more of a protagonist (to an extent even moreso than Kris) with her personality not to mention what we know about her in general suggesting that she wont be a main villain or antagonist.

THEORY: I believe that the player is the knight, and we are currently one side and the fun gang are the other, whoever is protagonist and who is antagonist we can’t decide yet. As the game keeps driving that theme of how the characters’ choices don’t matter, they don’t have any power over them and we are the ones pulling the strings. As we are controlling kris, that’s why it looks like kris is creating the fountains, but that’s us in kris, us making the dark fountains being symbolic of us getting the games to keep being created, the new chapters of deltarune, making kris make the new dark worlds, the new games for us. In undertale’s genocide route we’re addressed for doing horrible things in this game just for the content. For our entertainment we’re doing bad things in this one game, with deltarune, our hunger has grown, (as has the community, it’s power, and it’s own hunger for content) and now we’re doing bad not just for this one game but making whole new games as well, making whole new worlds to destroy for it all. I feel like this could all tie in with that duality and the conflict between us and kris, kris representing the characters in the game who are being controlled. I feel like, especially when you consider who it is making the games, deltarune is probably going to go meta like undertale did, and it’s already started to do, and really develop that theme of the player behind the screen, and the power of the characters within.

"Not necessarily kirby eldtrich horror suspicion" Lmfao

Honestly the situation with Kris, us, and the vessel, especially what you brought up about the Kris who Susie has spent time with is us and not the actual person, reminds me a lot of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle by CLAMP

Maybe Gaster gave us the connection to Deltarune in order to obtain a SOUL (willingly) so that he can help free the monsters from Undertale, which was the ultimate goal of his experiments?

I really don't think Gaster would be the main antagonist, because his character is almost entirely built on fan speculation. It wouldn't make sense to someone who plays the game without looking at fan theories, and I don't think it would make for a good story overall. It's more likely that he would be a secret boss, if anything. Would fit better with his secretive character too. Imagine if you're a fan of the game but don't engage with theories, and suddenly a character you've never seen before is the antagonist? Idk, it just doesn't seem right unless he gets a proper story introduction in later chapters. I'm not against the idea entirely, it would just be kind of weird from a storytelling perspective. Besides, most of what fans know about Gaster is unconfirmed, so it could all be wrong, lol.

An Antagonist that defies these rules is Garou from One Punch Man. He does have narrative importance, motive and a philosophy but he doesn't have a strong connection with Saitama or the ability to reasonably defeat him

Everybody thinks Gaster will be the antagonist, but an huge part of me don’t think so. It just seems too obvious to me. And probably Toby knows about fan theories and making happen one of the most popular theories would be a mediocre plot twist. Like One Piece creator who said if someone will guess the end, he will change it.

Alright those were not the spoiler warnings I was expecting

did anyone eles forgot what they where watching 13 minutes into the video?