#the fic had some really good moments like chara becoming revived as a sort of gloopy amalgamate human soul putty thing

[andreabandrea]

So, I am absolutely not the smartest Undertale or Deltarune theory crafter out there, not by a long shot. But sometimes I think about how I called it with regards to the abilities of the red soul without really trying to.

In early 2018, I wrote a (too-edgy, really) story called 'Unname the Fallen' in which a post-No Mercy route Frisk learned magic when starting a new run through the Underground (in the interest of not rambling about my unfinished fic and making this post even longer, I'll leave it at that).

(I later deleted it because I was embarrassed by the Ow The Edge factor.)

In the fic, Toriel was teaching Frisk how to use their newfound magic.

“I believe a stick is a wonderful idea! The ability to summon multiple will come in handy. Perhaps one day you will encounter multiple dogs who want to play fetch. You’ll need lots of sticks for that,” she said. It took a moment to resume her pedantic, teacherly front rather than her dorky mom side. “… Anyway.”

(Excerpt from Unname the Fallen.)

She taught them that every different soul color has a type of magic associated with it, and that magic can be projected onto other beings.

For example, blue souls could make others turn blue (like the way Papyrus could. Even though he had a monster soul, monsters could use magic associated with soul colors-- like Undyne turning you green, and Muffet turning you purple, and so on).

Now, every soul color in Undertale has a sort of virtue associated with it, right? Cyan is patience, yellow is justice... we learn these from the 'ball game', but we never learn one for the red soul. Fan theories have gone around on the red soul's true nature. 'Hope'... 'Determination'...

And smarter people than me, again, have written about how it's unlikely that the red soul is 'determination', since all human souls have determination. So I interpreted the red soul as 'individuality'. "Try as you might, you continue to be yourself," the ball game says. "Despite everything, it's still you."

"But Andrea," you're saying, "other theory crafters suggested that already! You didn't come up with that!"

You're right, I didn't. But what I did come up with is how 'individuality' could be projected onto another being.

You might think that turning another soul "red" would just give them freedom to move around the box however they want (and possibly to grow little legs and flee from combat). The way I interpreted it is that projecting red soul magic onto a monster is that it gives you control of them. You project your individuality- your will- onto them.

This time, red bathed the monster slowly, spreading like a disease. Its little arms became immobilized, and it tried to run, but then its legs followed suit. Something interesting: now they could feel everything it felt. The pounding in its chest. The wideness of its beady eyes. [...] They moved Ice Cap’s legs as if parts of their own body-- no magic words, no moving their own arms, they were simply able to turn it around and walk it toward them like a remote-controlled toy. Its face was frozen in fear at what was happening to it. They walked it around more, experimentally, even making it jump and crouch.

(Excerpt from 'Unname the Fallen'.)

Using the power of the red soul, Frisk was able to control monsters. It was a power unique to them-- unique to the soul. This, rather than the red soul being 'individuality', is what I think I predicted.

Later that year, in 2018, Deltarune Chapter 1 was released. And we learned that Kris is possessed by the red soul, which is controlling them.

And in 2021, with Deltarune Chapter 2 and the weird route, we learned how the red soul can be used to manipulate monsters-- even when the host is down.

Granted, the red soul didn't literally possess Noelle and make her walk around against her will, but it did command her nonetheless.

I'm sure I'm not the first one who came up with the idea. The Undertale community is full of extremely clever and creative people, and like I said, others had thought of the red soul as 'individuality' before me.

I'm not trying to claim to be the first one to come up with this idea, and I certainly don't think I came up with it before Toby himself or anything. I just remembered my old fic the other day and I thought it was funny, so I wanted to post about it.

"Why are you only posting this if you think it's funny?" Because it's my blog. You're at the circus, you might as well watch the clown dance.

BONUS:

“I am sure you are aware of auras. Most humans cannot see them. They are extensions of the soul. The auras of humans are quite powerful because you have physical forms,” she said.

^ Excerpt from Unname the Fallen, early 2018.

^ Screenshot from Deltarune Chapter 1, late 2018.

The idea of Frisk using magic came from screenshots of early builds of Undertale in which Frisk could use a 'spell' command.

'Talk' was later changed into 'Act', of course, and 'spell' was never implemented. We do know that humans can use magic in some capacity, since they sealed the monsters underground with "a magic spell".

With more chapters of Deltarune upcoming, and many questions still surrounding Hometown and the nature of magic in the light world, I'm excited to see more regarding magic and the red soul in the future.

This has been me rambling over a now-deleted fanfic, thanks for reading if you made it this far.