#shoutout to stefan on the server who said they had thought of this idea too

[agentravensong]

i mentioned back when i made that poll about who the second voice from the goner maker sequence might be that i think ralsei is a decent candidate. since the topic came up in the server i'm in today, i figured i should make a post out of it.

to be clear, the idea is that the voice that discards the vessel, says "no one can choose who they are in this world", and throws the soul into kris* might be ralsei. this would require that he was aware of that sequence as it was happening (which i don't think is that unlikely, given all the things he knows) and had the power to interrupt it (much harder to swallow, i know).

here are my three arguments in favor of this theory:

1) the way ralsei's first lines of dialogue are presented is exactly the same as the second voice

this is not a foolproof thing, but i think it's worth noting that this is our first impression of him, not long at all after the gonermaker sequence.

2) the sentiment that "no one can choose who they are in this world" aligns with ralsei's current philosophy. he wants kris (or us) to believe that our choices matter, but he's also insistent that kris and susie are heroes. not to mention his more personal feelings on the subject as a darker and their role in relation to lightners.

3) there's a decent potential motive for ralsei to eliminate the player's "wonderful creation": kris being the vessel for the soul/player makes them the protagonist. we have evidence that ralsei wants kris to feel special (see his whole thing about acts being kris's special thing in chapter 2). it's likely that their role would have been lessened if we were playing as the vessel**, and i could see ralsei being opposed to that. especially if ralsei has some special tie to them and/or asriel because of however he came to be / whatever item he's derived from. and considering, again, his seemingly positive feelings towards darkners' purpose being to serve lightners, it would be in character for him to see kris's role as the bearer of the Light as an honor/blessing — one it would be a terrible shame to deny them.

*it's possible that gaster was the one who put the vessel into kris as a last resort rather than the second voice being responsible. that being said, you could argue the second voice (ralsei in this case) figured he would do that, was perhaps even counting on it.

**it seems unlikely they would have been replaced all together considering that gaster will say you are going to meet them if you put your name as "kris"; i imagine they would have had a noelle-like role and presence in the plot

tbc i'm not 100% convinced of this theory right now, i think there are at least a couple other strong second voice candidates, but i think this one should at least be part of the discussion. would love to hear what y'all think :)