#the notion of a narrative that we're being guided through with some elements of resisting and changing the story

[swirlingreblogs]

I’m still reading the post, but I did a quick skim and there’s a couple points I want to add to the Gerson suspicion pile.

When creating the gonervessel, there’s a few names we can give it (or the player) that get a different reaction than most possible names. Kris for one, as shown above, along with a bunch of the main cast of Undertale and Deltarune alike - and Gerson is one of those names.

I very strongly suspect we’re going to see each of those characters in the dark world sooner or later. Gerson being dead means he won’t be showing up in the light world, but the dark world? We know that Darkners have corresponding objects in the light world, and there’s a drawing by Alvin, seemingly of Gerson, hanging in the unused classroom.

Enough to form a darkner based on Gerson, with the weight of hopes and dreams the turtle accumulated in his years of writing and teaching? Maybe. Seems plausible.

But past that notion, the first prophecy Ralsei gives us, with its correlation of light-hopes and dark-dreams - that’s been sticking with me too, and drawing my attention to any time someone mentions hopes or dreams. We’ve got the memorial bench by the graveyard, which we can read in chapter 1 to find the following:

Dreams, connected to the dark.

Writing, connected to dreams.

Old writing, which may be the foundation of the dark world we first land in.

I think it’s interesting the way the town of Ralsei’s kingdom is so blatantly flat, so 2-dimensional set dressing, until we start recruiting darkners from other worlds to give it more dimension.

As though that world was mostly made of drafts of old worldbuilding, with its walls of eyes dripping darkness, those white lumps like sleeping figures snoring away... and those pillars of stone at odd angles looking like ruins or an old battlefield. Although we can’t seem to go back up to re-explore that area, once we go down into Ralsei’s area, the waterfall continues to carry us the shadow crystals if we gather them in other save files. It’s still relevant. 

And maybe it’s relevant to the backstory Seam starts to mention before cutting himself off, and the 100 years that Jevil has implies he’s been sealed away - how long ago did Gerson start his writing career, anyway? Long enough that the backstory of the dark world and his writing are tied together...?

Deltarune Theory: Who Spoke to Jevil and Spamton?

The answer is not as obvious as you may think!

We’re back at it again at Deltarune.

With the current state of the game’s release, it seemed like there wasn’t much left to talk about until the next Chapters come out. But the anniversary update and Spamton Sweepstakes inspired me to finally address the game’s most mysterious, most vague character: Someone.

As far as we can tell, “Someone” is the closest thing to a canon name or alias that this character has. In the past I’ve referred to them as “the strange someone,” in keeping with how Seam first refers to them in Chapter 1.

[Image transcript: Seam saying “One day, he met a strange someone… and since then, he began to change.” End image transcript]

“Someone” is the one who communicated with Jevil and Spamton and currently serves as the common thread linking together the Shadow Crystal secret boss sidequest. Join me on a long journey to uncover who this mysterious stranger is.

What We Know and Don’t Know

So far the strange someone has been addressed by other characters with no pronouns and once as “they” by an Addison who didn’t seem to know them, offering little avenue for speculation there.

[Image transcript: An Addison saying “They must have been helping him,” End image transcript]

This is in contrast to the character behind the tree, who is firmly established to be a man in all of his appearances.

[Image transcript: Narration of a tree saying “Well, there is a man here.” End image transcript]

One other established trait of the strange someone is that they’re described as encountering Jevil and Spamton before the arrival of the Knight and the creation of the dark fountain. This seems like it shouldn’t be possible, given that darkners can only take form once a dark world is created, but it’s nonetheless true.

[Image transcript: Seam saying “But, recently, a strange knight appeared… And three of the kings were locked away.” Jevil saying “But the boring kings found such fun to be a trouble.” End image transcript]

Jevil says that he was sealed away by the four kings—Seam says this happened after Jevil met the strange someone, and the four kings remained in power until the Knight appeared. Spamton’s timeline is less concrete, but the residents of Queen’s mansion refer to his downfall (presumably brought about by the disappearance of the strange someone) as an event that happened some time ago, whereas we know that the Library fountain was created within the past 24 hours.

[Image transcript: An Addison saying “Spamton? … Haven’t heard that name in a long time.” A Swatclhing says “Spamton? This used to be his room…” Queen says “The Roaring Knight… Today, It Deigned To Create This World” End image transcript]

I won’t delve too deep into the “how” of the timeline since I’m not entirely sure about it myself. It could be that the strange someone simply spoke to the light world objects that became Jevil and Spamton and somehow that information was retained in their minds once they became darkners. Alternatively, the strange someone might have some bizarre dimensional/temporal abilities that allow them to retroactively change the history of dark worlds that don’t exist yet.

It’s also possible that dark worlds suffer from a form of “Last Thursdayism,” a term referring to a world that is suddenly created with an artificial history built into it, down to fabricated signs of age and even simulated memories. The term originated as a way to mock the idea of young Earth creationism. Given who I believe the Roaring Knight is, the term may be apt here. Still, this idea wouldn’t fully explain how this strange someone could insert themselves into the fake history of multiple dark worlds.

The fact that this strange someone has interacted with multiple dark worlds makes me skeptical that they could be a darkner. While being a darkner could explain how they could take part in a single dark world’s history, it seems implausible that one darkner could have shaped the history of all dark worlds. Even Ralsei, a “special” darkner who can seemingly travel between dark worlds freely, is still bound by linear causality and has not retroactively inserted himself into another world’s history.

Additionally, Spamton first contacted this Someone by making a call.

[Image transcript: An Addison saying “Somehow, he made the right phone call, and found someone. Or, was he… found BY someone?” End image transcript]

We know from the Spamton sweepstakes and other context clues that Spamton can communicate with lightners and that, as spam mail, this was his primary goal.

[Image transcript: An Addison saying “For some reason, his products never seemed to hit… and the Lightners never even looked his way.” End image transcript]

Thus, it seems likely that he was talking to a lightner when he met this Someone. The strange someone has also been associated with “garbage noise” (more on that later), which can be heard coming from the Shelter at the bottom of Hometown, implying that this phenomenon has a presence in the light world and so does the Strange Someone, however esoteric their methods may be.

The Roaring Knight vs. the Strange Someone

While I’m here, I should make a quick distinction between the Roaring Knight and the Strange Someone. Before Chapter 2 came out I once conflated the two characters in my (outdated) Everyman theory. Seam refers to both the Knight and Someone as “strange,” but with the release of Chapter 2 I’m convinced these two individuals are very different from one another in their methods and likely their goals as well.

By all counts, the Knight seems to be an ordinary lightner who is accessing light world locations through mundane means and opening dark fountains there. This is established in Chapter 2 when we’re told how the Knight opens dark fountains and we see for ourselves how Kris does it—no teleportation or timey-wimey shenanigans required.

[Image transcript: Queen saying “Could Not Anyone Make A Dark Fountain?” followed by Kris opening a fountain. End image transcript]

The strange someone is another animal entirely—somehow they’re consistently beating the Knight to the punch by meddling with histories of dark worlds that haven’t been created yet, and all without leaving any clues to their methods in the light world (that we’re aware of). At the bare minimum the Strange Someone must possess a keen and esoteric knowledge of darkners and dark worlds, including how to interact with them through means outside the norm, likely done remotely.

Whether it’s through astral projection, time travel, teleportation, 4th-wall manipulation, reality warping, or just being really good at talking to inanimate objects, the strange someone has a way with dark worlds that no other character so far can match. Even characters like Ralsei and the man behind the tree, who’ve mysteriously traveled to multiple dark worlds, have only managed to show up after the Knight has made its move.

There’s not much else that can be said about the Strange Someone directly, but there is one thing that they and the Knight have in common: both are recruiting darkners. So far the Knight has enlisted King and Queen, either directly or indirectly by inspiring them to protect dark fountains from the heroes of legend. Likewise, the Strange Someone has also gathered acolytes: the secret bosses Jevil and Spamton.

The Secret Bosses

As of Chapter 2 we can see a pattern emerge regarding the Someone’s recruits. To date, both secret bosses have:

Been outcast characters made from objects that are typically discarded (Joker card, spam email)

Been concerned with freedom

Been at odds with the rulers of their dark worlds while formerly serving under them

Experienced a “rise and fall” in their station prior to the creation of their fountain

Lived in less-than-ideal circumstances as a result

Seemingly known each other

Been deadlier opponents than their fountain’s ruler

Been known by Seam

Made use of vocals in their dialogue or music

Used “The World Revolving” as a motif

Been associated with doors appearing in strange places

Been associated with the word “strange”

Spoken mostly in all-caps

Given out shadow crystals and a choice between armor or a weapon when defeated

Been spareable or fightable with different dialogue and outcomes

Used a super/special attack

Encountered the strange someone who has since vanished

Not discussed the strange someone with the fun gang directly, instead relying on former friends to fill in the gapsIt is through these two bosses that we can try to glean more information on the strange someone and build a case. However, one last thing to go over is the other common thread linking these secret bosses: the Shadow Crystals.

Shadow Crystals

Shadow Crystals are the recurring collectable key items that are obtained from beating secret bosses. They’re described as crystals in the dark world but appear as shards of glass in the light world.

[Image transcript: Kris’ light world inventory, which includes Glass. End image transcript]

Seam describes the crystals as “nearly invisible,” with only their shadows being visible.

[Image transcript: Seam saying “That Crystal… It’s nearly invisible, but you’ve been holding it this whole time. Shadow Crystals, so called because you can only see their shadow.” End image transcript]

Its description reads “A sharp shadow moves like water in the hand.”

Additionally, Shadow Crystals have the ability to show strange visions when they’re used in the dark or light world. Much has been speculated regarding these visions, but all I can say is that they seem to show the world in a state other than what it currently is.

[Image transcript: Narration saying “You looked through the glass. You thought you saw Susie glaring at you, coldly… But when you moved the glass away, you see her looking at you, smiling and making a rude gesture.” End image transcript]

These visions can occur in both the dark and light worlds, implying that the crystals’ power is not solely reliant on the presence of a dark fountain and, by association, further implying that the strange someone might be a lightner. At bare minimum, the Someone would need to have a greater awareness of the light world than any darkner we’ve met.

When used in dark worlds, the crystals show the light-world room that was used to create that dark world. This sort of vision could potentially explain why Jevil began viewing his world as a game, since the unused classroom was filled with toys and game pieces.

[Image transcript: Narration saying “You held the crystal up to your eye. You thought you saw toys strewn on the floor.” End image transcript]

Speaking of Jevil, it’s worth mentioning that shadow crystals were not originally part of his encounter in the Chapter 1 demo. It was only when Chapter 2 came out that Seam noticed a nearly-invisible crystal in the fun gang’s possession. A later patch to the Chapter 2 demo added in flavor text for the shadow crystal after Jevil’s fight.

The fact that Jevil’s fight predates the addition of shadow crystals as a story element in Chapter 2 means that there’s likely very little information that we can glean from Jevil himself or his backstory to shed more light on the crystals. At most we just know that he sees the world as a game due to his interactions with the strange someone.

Although Shadow Crystals have been associated with the strange someone, I think it’s important to clarify that it has not been established that the strange someone is giving shadow crystals to the secret bosses. In fact, Chapter 2 seems to contradict this notion.

Seam specifically states that Chapter 2’s shadow crystal came from the Neo machine in Queen’s basement.

[Image transcript: Seam saying “Oh, is that so? That salesman had found the crystal in the old machine…?” End image transcript]

This was the machine that Spamton became obsessed with once he lost contact with his strange benefactor. It’s unclear whether Jevil discovered his shadow crystal on his own or had it given to him by the strange someone. The latter could be explained by Seam stating that Jevil “met” a strange someone, implying an in-person encounter.

This is in contrast to Spamton, who only ever seemed to interact with the strange someone over the phone. In his case, it’s possible that the strange someone may have told him where to find the shadow crystal but took no direct action to procure the crystal for him. What’s unclear is whether Spamton only gained possession of this crystal once he became Spamton Neo or if he was able to take the crystal from the body in a previous encounter and only came back to use the body as a last resort.

Despite the questions surrounding how and when Jevil and Spamton got their shadow crystals, I think it’s still likely that the strange someone and the shadow crystals are connected in some way, given that we’ve only seen the crystals show up in the hands of individuals who’ve made contact with this enigmatic being.

Who is the Strange Someone?

In order to try to decipher who the strange someone is, I’m going to forego the method I used for the Knight when I laid out a case linearly from each point of evidence. Instead, I’ll go over my four main “Someone” suspects and detail how they potentially relate to the information we have.

Yeah, I’m going to come clean right now: I don’t have a definitive answer to who the strange someone is. Instead, I’ve settled on four candidates that I feel are comparable in their likelihood but each come with their own pros and cons. Since this post is super-long (spoiler: you’ve only been reading the intro so far), you can find a shortcut to each candidate by using Ctrl + F (or your search method of choice) to look for “Candidate 1”, “Candidate 2”, etc. I’ll start with the candidate that most of the fanbase has gravitated towards: