#it goes well with the way they're associated so strongly with chara who's also a very subtle yet important part of the narrative.

[shimmershy]

Buttercups and Golden Flowers

[patchwork-crow-writes]

@dougielombax I was going to put this into a reply to your comment, but unfortunatey I didn't have enough space, so I've appended it to a reblog of the main post. That way, other people can also see what my thought process was here, in case there was any confusion :P Essentially, what I'm getting at is that there's a common trend that associates Ralsei very closely with Asriel - specifically, Undertale's incarnation of Asriel - to the point where people consider Ralsei to be another aspect or form of Asriel, rather than seeing him as his own person. And you can see where this line of thinking comes from, since their names are anagrams for each other, they're both young boss monsters and princes of underworld-esque kingdoms, and Toby Fox is well-known for pulling all sorts of interesting meta-weirdness in and across his projects. It almost feels like we're being conditioned to believe that these similarities between Ralsei and Asriel are significant, and are perhaps intimately linked in some way across universes or what-have-you…

The problem is, this idea runs completely counter to a pretty major theme of Deltarune's, which is that of distinguishing yourself from what came before. Chapter 1 of Deltarune arrived hot on the heels of Undertale's runaway success (indeed, the two are anagrams of each other, just like with Ralsei and Asriel!) and when you first start playing it you see all these recurring motifs from its predecessor:

the introductory character creation screen with the character that speaks very similarly to how Gaster is established to speak

the cold open with Toriel waking Kris up

Kris wearing a sweater near-identical to one that Chara wears in Undertale

all the familiar characters like Alphys and Undyne

the way that the text box interface looks and acts identical to Undertale's

Deltarune initially goes hard on selling the illusion that it is very closely tied to Undertale in some significant way, whether as a direct sequel, an alternate universe, or some strange reset shenanigans.

And that illusion persists right up to the point where Kris falls into the dark world, and everything is suddenly very, VERY different to what you're used to. Combat works differently in this game, the menus are different, you control three party members at once… In one fell swoop, Deltarune radically diverges from Undertale in a big way, cluing astute observers in that this game promises to be much more than simply Undertale 2.0, despite the superficial similarities tying them together.

I believe that, similar to what I've outlined above with Undertale/Deltarune, Ralsei's similarities to Asriel are in fact only superficial ones that don't actually tell us anything about who this character is, and even flattens and diminishes that character in key areas (coughhisfriendshipwithKriscough). And similar to how the beginning of Deltarune is a giant misdirect for people who were/still are anticipating Undertale the Sequel, I strongly believe that the links tying Ralsei to Asriel are also an exercise in misdirection - whatever the Prince of the Dark's character is culminating into, through his own exploration of his identity issues and his notions about purpose and destiny, I feel extremely confident in saying that Asriel Dreemurr, in any of his various guises across both Undertale and Deltarune, will play absolutely no bearing on that character, either in-universe or out.

I hope that clarifies things a little bit for you!

...I've just realised something.

Ralsei... IS Deltarune. Just as Asriel IS Undertale.

Look at the names. Think about what the former is in relation to the latter. Think about what Deltarune is trying to say with its similarities to Undertale. The same spritework, the same characters, but at its core a fundamentally different story, a fundamentally different experience.

Early on we're made to think that Deltarune is a continuation of Undertale, right down to its dialogue options looking incredibly similar, until it YANKS the rug out from under you, revealing those similarities as confected and superficial and severing the notion that these two stories are in any way related to each other.

Flip it back to Ralsei and Asriel. See how what I've just said about Undertale and Deltarune tessellates NEAR-PERFECTLY onto them. Do you see what I'm getting at here. Do you see? Do you?

...I'm very normal about this, as you can doubtless tell. Now excuse me while I go and be normal about it in the kitchen. Because I'm hungry.