#and it kind of annoys me when i see people enforcing the deltarune concept

[firemama]

On the topic of undertale and deltarune and player-role i think both games approached the topic very differently

Undertale had a stronger implication of not "pushing" you, yourself, the player, onto the protagonist. It was just mildly assumed that you ARE the protagonist, as is the case with most video games; the result of undertale is that you and frisk are one and the same, and the game was about you, the protagonist, exploring the consequences of your choices and your curiosity and your desire for completion. In the end, Frisk finally gets their name when the story ends- not because you were never frisk; they get their name because now the story is over, and the protagonist you made- the you that you have been this whole time- is finished and is now released into "their" world to live with the results they, *you*, earned. To live with their consequences, one could say.

Deltarune is the evolved form of that notion, in a sense. The implication of Undertale was that you are the protagonist, that you are frisk, and these are your choices. The implication of Deltarune doesnt focus as *directly* on you choices, on your consequences, so much as it is focusing on that first part. Undertale foucsed on you are the protagonist, *these are your choices*. Deltarune is putting its attention on *you are the protagonist*, these are your choices.

And the most intentional thing you can focus on, and make a statment about, is that it isn't true. You are playing a game- you arent the protagonist. Kris is the protagonist. These are their choices. The game of deltarune is saying it boldly that you and Kris are not the same thing, the same person. In undertale, you impressed yourself upon Frisk because Frisk has no background, and their choices are yours and you make them, and your frisk is who you decide them to be. Deltarune starts with a character creator and then you are denied- because Kris is not you.

This difference in interpretation is pretty drastic to me and i consider it extremely important. Mostly because it makes me want to handle the lore they present to their themes very differently. Undertale's Frisk is like getting to make a character that fits the story, and piecing the causes and effects together in a sensible way that suits the reasoning. A lot of people turned to chara as the villian and generally missed a part of that, missed the fact you were supposed to factor your own choices in. That it was your own curiosity and your own intent that made you a viable target for chara's violence; you killed the monsters, chara just encouraged you and yook over at the very very very end, in the last moments. And because you invited chara in, they are with you forever, even in your pacifist routes, and you cannot escape your consequences. It was you, it was always you. But from there, you can still make REASON to it. My general reasoning with the lore is that a genocide route comes first because frisk is a scared kid in the underground, but murder doesnt help, and in the end, the underground bites back against murder and things get more diffiuclt until... until you dont escape, you dont Win. You have to start over- and do it right. Naturally, nuetrally, fighting where its simple to win, wher eyou "have to", because you HAVE to get to the end, i am frisk and i am in the underground and i must get out because that is my goal. And then the pacifist route, because i love these characters- i am frisk and i love my friends and i want the monsters to be happy. My happy, true pacifist ending is tained by my sins; my murders are still with me, and that makes me weak to chara's haunting, and they will always be a temptauon- to play again, to start over, to see of i can do it all again.

I never played all the routes, i only ever played the true pacifist route, but this is the way the lore always shapped in my head, from the perspective of frisk (me).

Deltarune is wildly different in that in never wants you to be watching the world from Kris' perspective. It never wants you to see the world from the characters angle- it wants you to see the game as the Player, and only the player, inhabiting the character you barely know if at all. Theres no *explaining* you actions to fit the lore- theres no reasoning. You are simply a being from outside and you are making kris' choices *for* them, whether theyre the choices kris would make or not. I personally canon the choices you are presented are all, some level, an unconscious thought kris has and thinks or considers- but ultimately you're looking at those thoughts and choosing them, and kris has not choice until they resist you by ripping you out and taking themself back. Theres no reasoning your choices as "what kris would do" or "this is why kris would do that" like reasoning why frisk would or wouldnt do xyz. YOU ARENT Kris. You arent.