#[Just because the game; to the player; always referred to them as Frisk doesn't mean they had to always go by that name in their world >:) ]

[dreamerchildunofficial]

If the fallen human is named frisk hard mode is activated. It ends at the end of the ruins so there's not much else to say. Also what is the optimal number of cats?

* OH!! You mean the names the player gave... the first human? I'm not talking about that thank angel. No, I'm talking about MY name. The name Asriel refers to me after I tell him my name and everyone refers to me after he breaks the barrier in the times I did a pacifist run lol * Also, the optimal number of cats is however many you can possibly keep and still feed comfortably, so if you had infinite food... * INFINITE CATS!!!

* >:D

[patchwork-crow-writes]

Hi Patchwork! After I saw a video about this theory/analysis, I was thinking and since yesterday I've been wondering what would you think about it: Lots of UTDR characters have unique ways of expressing themselves and this is seen mainly in the dialog boxes, for example, Toriel who always uses "My child" to refer to Frisk - Do you think it makes sense for Ralsei to have a speech pattern where he mentions the name of the individual he actually wants to refer to? Since he likes to repeat names a lot in his dialogues? I mean, when he says "You" much more to talk to us than to Kris, and especially when he mentions "Kris, you ..." to talk specifically to Kris? Would that make the way we see him, Kris and the player a little different? In terms of reanalyzing his dialogues? XP

Btw, all this came from this video! At minute 13:20, I recommend checking it out if you're interested in it!That's it, good morning/afternoon or night! ^^

Hey Gaby, thanks for the ask! I'm sorry it took so long to get back to you - it's been a hectic time over in patchwork crow land XD

This is a really interesting point for a couple of reasons! I think the ambiguity around Ralsei using "you" to refer to Kris is very intentionally designed to blur the lines between Kris as a character and their own person and us players as an entity occupying the role of "Kris". Furthermore, I do think it is feasible that Ralsei is sometimes talking over Kris's head and directly to us, particularly with regards to game mechanics but also in other contexts - see the "you-like" dialogue in the acid tunnel (I wrote a fic about it when I first joined the fandom, it's pretty good :3)

Where it gets interesting is whether Ralsei is deliberately doing that with his use of "you", or if it's a product of his deference to the Prophecy. I do think he wishes to see Kris come into their own, as their own individual, but the way that can potentially come into conflict with his directive to serve the narrative, it's also possible that he lapses into "serving the player/SOUL" mode without realising. Alternatively, it's entirely possible that he is deliberately referring to both Kris AND the player at the same time using a form of doublespeak. I'd imagine that for Kris this could cause some stress, as they either might not be able to tell when he's addressing them or the entity controlling them, or they're fully aware that he knows they're there and might harbour some resentment towards him because of that.

Of course, it should also be remembered that Ralsei has managed to engineer a situation where he is able to talk to Kris without us watching, so it's possible that they know far more about the whole situation that we give them credit for, depending on how much Ralsei has divulged to them about it.

I also wanted to touch on Toriel's use of "my child" in Undertale when referring to Frisk, and how it's entirely absent in Deltarune when referring to Kris. The expression "my child" is almost synonymous with Toriel as a character, it feels like, so the fact she never once says that in Deltarune is a curious detail. It could be that this was done as a way to differentiate the two Toriels (haha), to show that they are not the exact same character across the two continuities. But I think the more interesting possibility is that Toriel doesn't call Kris "my child" for another reason, perhaps relating to something that happened in the past. Perhaps Kris did something, or was involved in something, that changed or denatured the relationship between them in some way. I'm thinking of the Simpsons episode where Bart is caught shoplifting and Marge distances herself from him as a result, if you're familiar with that - perhaps something similar happened between Kris and Toriel?

...alternatively it might just be because Kris doesn't like being called that, haha.

Anyway, thank you very much for the ask Gaby! Hope you're doing okay out there :D