#sorry for the uncreative theory name i couldnt think of something better askjd

[str4y-c4t-strut]

The Little Prince Theory (Deltarune)

So, after hearing some comparisons of Ralsei to the story of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery, and The Little Prince himself I feel that the course of Deltarune is following a similar pattern of narrative development. So, I don’t think Ralsei is inherently evil or good, I believe he’s a neutral party and that our next Dark World bosses (not the secret ones) will follow the course of The Little Prince.

Ralsei is introduced to us under the title of the ‘Lonely Prince’ who ‘has no subjects’ and appears to live in Castle Town completely alone. He tells Kris that “I've been waiting alone here... Um... My whole life for you two to arrive.” Ralsei superficially resembles The Little Prince with both of them being mainly dressed in green, and most interestingly a line from the novel states "Once upon a time there was a little prince who lived on a planet that was scarcely any bigger than himself, and who had need of a sheep . . ." Ralsei lives in the supply closet of the school, a very small area objectively, and resembles a goat which is similar to a sheep in appearance. More importantly, keep in mind that the prince’s planet was hardly any bigger than himself (the planet was himself, he was his own home) and Ralsei was living alone (he is his own home in an empty world). 

Now I’m going to transition to something wildly different. The Little Prince travels through seven different worlds, the seventh being a desert upon earth. Deltarune has seven chapters in total, implying possibly six different Dark Worlds, and the final being The Roaring. Each world has an adult inhabiting it that the prince talks to. On the first world he meets a king who says he rules over everything but in reality he rules over no one and nothing. Similarly, the Fun Gang meets the ruler of the Card Castle, King. King has fired all his puzzle makers, and the guards he employs hate their jobs, his only willing servant is Rouxls Kaard, a card that never participates in the game, thus is literally ruling over nothing. King has an extremely weak force of command that is immediately shattered when in True Pacifist all his subjects rebel and overthrow him, protecting the Fun Gang because they dislike their ruler. 

On the second world, The Little Prince meets a conceited individual who only sees himself. “But the conceited man did not hear him. Conceited people never hear anything but praise.” We see both Ralsei and Kris are the most unacknowledged characters in the presence of Queen in Chapter 2. Queen, although her drinking tendencies are glaring, has another much more broad issue. She is obsessed with herself. Vases have her image on them, the Mona Lisa has her face pasted overtop, there’s a giant robot version of her in the centre of her mansion, there are cleaning posters with her endorsing the product pasted around the Trash Zone, shops have images of her modeling, the very entrance to her mansion is in the shape of her face. Queen only sees what benefits her or praise that claims she’s entertaining. 

So far, in Chapter 1 and 2, the Fun Gang have met two adults of Dark Worlds that are selfish, immature and poor role models. This is a smaller aspect of my theory that leads me to believe that the next major antagonist of Chapter 3 will have the same issues the third adult The Little Prince meets does. The third adult is a drunkard who is full of shame and has no self-respect. Note that: “This was a very short visit, but it plunged the little prince into deep dejection.” In post-Undertale, it is known that Toriel has a penchant for drinking to the point of getting drunk, especially out of despair. We also know that Flowey took care of her during, from what we know of, at least one of those binges. Toriel, being in the vicinity of this Dark Fountain, is likely going to get sucked in with Kris and Susie. From the observations of how Kris interacted with Queen, especially during the “Toast” ACT, where they made their own toast and Susie comments in surprise “(Why did they make it so emotional?)”. Likely Kris helps their mom with her drinking binges in Deltarune, and perhaps if Deltarune continues to follow The Little Prince route, our next antagonist may end up being Kris’ own mom and her drinking habits, resulting in Kris plunging into a deep dejection over it. Now why did I equate Kris to The Little Prince’s reaction in this third world when I first compared The Little Prince to Ralsei? Well, here’s why.

I believe that Ralsei is a projection of Kris. Toriel mentions that Kris used to wear a red headband with horns all the time as a child before it went missing. Kris before that would always ask when their horns would grow in, thinking they were the same species as their parents. As Kris grew up in Hometown, I have no doubt that as a kid they played in the school, probably in the old classroom and entered the supply closet where they lost their headband playing pretend or daring others to go in because it was spooky and dark. That headband was the culmination of what Kris thought they would become, the culmination of belonging. Ralsei, a lonely prince, reflects Kris’ own loneliness in Hometown where their brother outshines them and they are the only human as well as ‘the weird kid’, likely a product of feeling alienated and alone. Ralsei in the acid tunnel reflects that he’s not quite sure what being ‘Ralsei-like’ even is. Ralsei has a lack of identity or understanding of himself other than his purpose to serve Lightners. Ralsei likely has this servitude mindset because if Ralsei is the headband, then his whole purpose was to serve as a piece of Kris’ identity, although confused in what being ‘Kris-like’ even means when Kris is a human, not a monster. Kris, at the point of time where the headband was lost, likely had the same confusion over their identity. 

Ralsei seems to be the personification of what Kris thought they were when they were younger and what they desired to become. However, Ralsei also holds the lack of self-realization that Kris still holds, with an empty bedroom, social outcast life, no desire to be religious like their parents (and maybe Asriel) – Kris has hobbies but they are either chided by their mother over them (eg. making bath bombs and doing weird experiments) or ignored and overshadowed by Asriel’s hobbies. Notice Kris, when they examine Asriel’s side of the bedroom, list all of their brother’s interests but none of their own, we learn their interests through Queen’s personalized search history room and the hospital piano as well as other characters. Ralsei giving Kris in Castle Town the side of the bedroom that resembles Asriel’s is likely a reflection of what Kris at the time of losing the headband wanted to become (looking up to their golden child of a brother) and perhaps in a way still desires. 

By extension, I also believe that Ralsei is acting as the guide to Kris’ coming of age in Deltarune, and that Kris and Ralsei are two sides to The Little Prince coin. Undyne, when Kris tells her about the Dark World, laughs them off like it is just child fantasies. When left without a project partner their mom babies them, saying that she can help with the project, leading Kris by the hand into the school like a lost child. "The grown-ups are certainly very, very odd," he said to himself, as he continued on his journey.” This line in The Little Prince sums up how I believe Kris feels about the adults in their life. Ralsei takes Kris through these Dark Worlds with various adult caricatures to help them learn about love, friendship, mercy and compassion. Kris thus processes the oddities of the real world through this fantasy and comes to form their own sense of autonomy and identity.  

This is another aspect to my theory that is not explained through The Little Prince, but rather how Toby Fox may extend and complicate that narrative through his inclusion of the secret bosses. I believe that if the major bosses reflect immature adult aspects Kris’ encounters in the external world that they come to process in the Dark World - an internalization of their character development - then the secret bosses represent Kris’ reactions to those external adult aspects. 

Jevil is the polar opposite to King in that King believes he has total control and Jevil relinquishes the idea of control in favor of the idea of chaos and rebellion. We see that Kris, when out of the Player’s control, often does things contrary to what is expected of them. Instead of being Asriel-like with track and field, awards, a broad social network and community participation Kris opts for having no extracurriculars, satisfied with their average third-place in class, essentially had no friends and mostly acquaintances, only attends church for the juice and routinely makes experiments their mom disapproves of. They are known to be mischievous just like Jevil, scaring Noelle with cryptid tales and the like or spreading rumors about the bunker. Hell, chaos bombs, bath bombs stuffed down the toilet - results are the same with destroying something for kicks. 

Spamton, on the other hand, is a little more difficult to explain in his core opposition to the Queen because on the surface they both seem obsessed with themselves. However, what I think a lot of people miss that is integral to Spamton’s identity (or lack thereof) is that he is a puppet - he is almost a carbon copy of the Addison mannequin we see in the blue dress. A mannequin, or puppet, is a projection of other people’s desires. They have no identity of their own and are not supposed to as they are manipulated by external forces into what is desired for the purpose of their existence. I have a theory I posted a while back that Spamton was never a white Addison, but rather a regular Addison downloaded into a mannequin for ease of control and desirability. Spamton, as a mannequin manipulated by Mike and the ‘mysterious person on the phone’, comes to represent an inherent lack of self. He is a projection of what others expect him to be - a salesman and an ad. Where the Queen is full of herself, Spamton completely lacks understanding of his own desires. He only wants what was expected of him, to make lots of money, sell lots of stuff, influence (manipulate) others through ads and constantly aspire to be a ‘big shot’ in order to reproduce the means to do the previous things listed. A ‘big shot’ has the influence and money to sell more stuff. Spamton has been a doll, a plaything for others, to the point that he is only obsessed with expectations of him rather than what he actually is - thus his egomania is less born out of his own self-obsession, but rather the programmed expectations he has been forced into for a majority of his existence (ie. be a ‘big shot’ to make that money through that influence of popularity and reputation). Spamton’s predicament resonates so deeply with Kris because they are both literally puppets on a string, performing actions not on their own account but solely to exercise another person’s desires, as well as Kris being constantly compared and held to the expectations of their brother. Kris is used to having a lack of identity, wearing the red headband is the epitome of them trying to fit into the role they are inherently not - they aren’t a monster. Kris is constantly, subtly surrounded by expectations of them being just like their ‘big shot’ of a brother. Spamton and Kris both seek freedom from this predicament. 

Kris both rejects the ultimate control of adults and feels forced to pretend to be something they are not, resulting in deep identity issues. These internal conflicts show in-game why the secret bosses are so much harder to beat since they are essentially Kris fighting against themself and being forced to recognize their own reactions in an uncomfortable act of self-realization. It’s easier to recognize others’ problematic actions, but it’s much harder to recognize your own and overcome them. And this is where I believe Toby Fox furthers the narrative of The Little Prince where Kris doesn’t only see the odd actions of immature adults, but also comes to see the odd actions of their own and develops accordingly. 

Ultimately, I believe the existence of the Dark Worlds is a reflection of Kris dealing with internal and external conflicts in their life through an exercise of imagination in order to develop as a person. As The Angel’s Heaven comes about in the legend, with three heroes appearing at the edge of a desert strongly resembles the final planet the Little Prince visits - Earth. He lands in the Sahara desert and believes Earth to be devoid of existence except for four creatures he stumbles upon - a snake, a fox, a flower and the narrator (a pilot who crashed their plane in the desert). The narrator, through hearing the Little Prince’s tales, comes to realize their own childlike imagination as a gift and that the practical, material aspects of the world that adults are supposed to be obsessed with are meaningless and immature. There are some strong parallels between Deltarune and The Little Prince that I cannot put together coherently:

The Little Prince’s rose and their rejection then final reconciliation that their rose loved them and they did not understand that (also that they protected their rose with a glass) vs. Asgore’s collection of SOUL coloured flowers and the roses he gives to Rudy in the hospital and that all those flowers are protected with a glass covering (Rudy also mentions a short joke relating to Beauty and the Beast  and the roses - having love connotations)

The Little Prince dying at the end of the novel after being bitten by the snake and falling down soundlessly as his body was too heavy to carry to his planet, with the final pictures being him dying under a star and then a lone star in the night sky as it shines over the desert vs. the Darkners turning into stars when reverting to items or falling from Kris’ pockets as stars in Castle Town

Who the snake, the fox, the flower and the narrator could represent in Deltarune, if Toby Fox chooses to incorporate those ideas

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the long post and if you have any additions or ideas please feel free to share!