#open disclaimer: i am not a strong believer in the thematic ties between chara and noelle

[not-ariadnesweb]

Okay, so Kris and Noelle's relationship in snowgrave is:

A very pointed reference to Chara and Asriel's deal:

2. Messing around with the idea of who is supposed to be the protagonist in the story -

because in the Normal Route, Kris plays a pretty standard protagonist, being a vessel for us to interact with the world, a vessel for us to have a heroic adventure alongside our friends. Noelle plays the role of side character here, slowly gaining courage to enjoy the surrounding world, and to maintain her own values in the face of danger.

and in the Weird Route, Kris becomes our tool to torment and manipulate Noelle to do our bidding. In the process, Noelle becomes the protagonist of her own horror novel, as her reactions and words become the main focus of the route. Noelle is also the character with the most sudden improvement in power by the end of the Weird Route, being able to freeze anything in her path.

3. able to give some pretty interesting parallels to Undertale's Chara and Frisk, another videogame duo capable of killing all (friendly) enemies they come across. Options for the parallels are:

A. We have Noelle as similar to Chara, as both are the more emotional and talkative of the duo, and undergoing the main journey of the story (changing into someone able to kill freely and easily). Both Chara and Noelle spell out their thought processes as to going along with the murder routes, and these thoughts involve dehumanizing others and prioritizing their own strength (self-gain). Also, both have notable 'Angel of Death' motifs, and are the ones to commit the final blow at the end of their murder routes.

B. We have Kris as similar to Frisk, as the silent tools we players use to commit the murder route in the first place. With similarly kind, quiet, goofy dispositions, that get overridden for us to commence the route. Not much is known about either to guess their thoughts about the story route they are own, but while neither is exactly happy to be on the murder route, we don't get a lot of push back from them.

AND

C. We have Noelle as similar to Frisk, being the practical unwilling killers of the murder route. The crime of murder is placed on their heads. As well as the benefits of murder, given the 'strength' and stats from the kills. These two also have similar relationships with the 'enemies' they encounter, which is to say, an absolute lack of relationships. While the normal storylines in both games involve giving these kids some friends, the murder routes in both involve making these kids murder any possible outside connections.

D. We have Kris as similar to Chara, being the 'commanding' shadow of a person 'giving orders to kill'. (Or in Kris's case, being attributed for a commanding presence.) Contradictory, these two are also the main driving force of the routes, while still being openly discouraging of the path taken. They both have significant relationships with the idea of power.