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[weaselweaselw]

Deltarune: Why Gaster has a Split Personality

Holy shit... so, in case you're living under a rock, the Deltarune Winter Newsletter came out last night, and its release sent ripples throughout the entire UT/DR fandom.

Included in the Newsletter is a development update which states that Chapter 3 is pretty much complete.

The only aspect of the chapter still being worked on is the localization process from English to Japanese – the entire team is now working on Chapter 4. So that's nice - they even have an internal deadline for the actual game, so we can expect a release within the next year and a half.

However, the main selling point of this entire newsletter was the fact that it's themed around Valentine's Day. And as a result, there were a lot of Valentine's Day letters sent from the various Undertale and Deltarune characters. Here's one from Undyne:

Here's a list of all the letters. Some are short, some are more comical - but many of them reveal interesting things about these characters.

Especially one character in particular...

That's right! Even Gaster has a letter of his own! In fact, it's the rarest letter of them all that to my knowledge, only one person received, until minutes later, the letter itself was erased from Fangamer's website. However, the letter was archived in the nick of time.

Wow, so that was a lot, right? There's quite a bit to analyze here, from Gaster needing help, to him forgetting someone - and it certainly added fuel to the fire that is the deltarune theory community.

However, there's one particular debate taking place all over the internet right now, for you see... some people don't think that letter was sent by Gaster. For one, the tone of this letter doesn't match his usual scientific, detached, and robotic demeanor he's usually associated with. He appears much more down-to-earth, speaking in a much more formal way than he usually does. And for many in the fandom at the moment, that is enough ground to say this character isn't Gaster.

Despite how utterly insane and ridiculous this might sound to you, these people do bring up good points. And of course... these people also use the Japanese translation as evidence. In the Japanese version of Undertale and Deltarune, Gaster speaks in Katakana and Kanji, two rather complex and sophisticated alphabets, but in this letter, Gaster speaks in Hirigana - a more casual, laid-back, and simplistic alphabet, reflecting his demeanor.

So, what gives? Is this a different Gaster? Are there two Gasters at work here, who may or may not be at odds with one another? Is there going to be a Gaster War?

No. People seem to be forgetting something: Gaster was shattered across time and space, as revealed by Undertale.

This isn't just some figurative jargon - one of the Gaster Followers quite literally holds a piece of Gaster in his hand. I know this is often overlooked, but what do you think the psychological effects of this could be?

It would likely be an extremely traumatic experience, if I'm going to be honest - as parts of your mind and body become fragmented across the entire universe and across time itself. So: it's quite possible that Gaster simply has... a split personality.

There aren't two Gasters or anything ridiculous like that, but rather, the one Gaster we know has his mind scattered across the universe, quite literally fragmented - such that different aspects of his personality present themselves at different times. In fact, such a condition exists in the real world: it's called Dissociative Identity Disorder, and it is most often associated with trauma resulting in the compartmentalization of the mind into multiple personality states, otherwise known as alters.

These are not separate people - think of it like turning a light switch on and off, or closing a door. And this is my solution to this debate that has begun about Gaster - I like to think of it as a compromise, but Gaster having a split personality like this can really spice up the story a bit - and could even solve some of the lingering mysteries about what happened to the secret bosses, but as of now, this only exists as theory tape.

Thanks for tuning into my rant.

[weaselweaselw]

Unraveling the Truth Behind Deltarune's Dark World ONCE and FOR ALL

For those of you waiting for Part IV of my Deltarune Dark World theory, well, uh... I can't say if it'll come out. However, I will say that I ended up condensing all my thoughts into a 30-minute YouTube video which I highly suggest you watch:

[weaselweaselw]

The Origin Of the Dark World

PART III: THE ORIGINS OF THE CLOSET DARK WORLD

The Closet Dark World is by far the strangest Dark World we've come across so far. It's almost like an anomaly. The last two Dark Worlds we've visited all share similar patterns, but the Closet Dark World just doesn't follow any of that.

Let's go through it.

This is our starting point: The Cliffs — a section of the Closet Dark World where we find ourselves after falling asleep. The walls here don't look like any school closet I've ever seen... they look more like a moldy old cellar.

How does this compare to the other dark worlds we've visited? Well, let's take a look at the unused classroom first:

As soon as you step through the door on the left, the classroom comes into view, like a time capsule frozen in a bygone era. The purple mat on the floor alternates with scattered red building blocks and playing cards, a vivid clash of colors that speaks to the playful energy that once filled the room.

But now, the only remnant of that energy is a forgotten plush toy lying abandoned against the wall, its once-soft fur now matted with dust and neglect. It's a poignant reminder of the children who once played here, now grown and gone, leaving behind only a memory.

As you move further east, your eyes fall upon a red-and-black checkerboard, its surface covered in a jumble of chess pieces and checkers. Up north, a completed puzzle. And in the farthest corner, a large cabinet looms, its shelves crammed with cards of every variety.

The layout of the Card Kingdom largely follows this.

When you enter through the Great Door to the west, you traverse a vast field with purple winding paths dotted with crimson trees that occasionally have candy hanging from them. As you make your way north, you meet Seam, a shrewd merchant with a twinkle in his eye and a wealth of information about the Card Kingdom. In the Light World, the abandoned classroom is watched over by this same forgotten plush toy, the sole witness to the passage of time.

After crossing the Great Board and wandering through the forest, you find yourself standing in front of the imposing Card Castle, guarded by upgraded versions of all the card Darkners you've fought in the past.

...

So we see how the abandoned classroom became the Card Kingdom. Now, let's do the same by looking at the next room a Dark Fountain was created inside: the Computer Lab.

As you step into the Computer Lab, you're greeted by a sea of UFO-green carpeting. The walls are a muted tan, plastered with diagrams of computers and colorful graphs that illustrate complex data sets. In the corner of the room, a bold poster advertises an upcoming festival in Hometown.

The desks that populate the room are made of what appears to be polished pine wood, each one holding a computer. There's a state-of-the-art laptop in the center of it all. All of the machines are connected through a tangle of cords and wires that snake their way back to a power strip, plugged firmly into the wall.

As you step into the Cyber Field, the winding paths of green and gray stretch out before you, with Darkners in the form of computer tasks and viruses scuttling about. The steep jumps and slides are reminiscent of the furniture you have to climb to get to the computers.

The roller coaster you take to get to the Cyber City is clearly inspired by the surge protector that all the computers are plugged into. The Cyber City itself is modeled after a keyboard, with alleyways and roads representing the gaps in between keys. It is here that you meet the various mouse-based Darkners as well as pop-ups.

It's clear that many creative liberties have been taken in designing the Cyber World, while still staying grounded in reality. By grounding the world in something recognizable, it ensures that the Dark World doesn't become formless and lose its essence.

With all that in mind, what's so special about the Closet Dark World, anyways?

Well, everything.

Let's look at the Cliffs first:

I've seen supply closets before, and none of them have had blueish-purple walls and jet-gray flooring. And putting aside the very intricate details about colors, the area is just bizarre. Dry, with cracks and mold everywhere. There are strange eye shapes carved into the walls that look like the eyes of the Titans as described by Ralsei about the Roaring, and occasionally, there is some kind of black liquid pouring out from these cracks.

Just like in the Cyber World, there are steep jumps and slides, as well as puzzles with cryptic text like "In this land, only eyes blinded by darkness can see the light..."

This takes on a completely new meaning when we consider the ramifications of the existence of the Depths, almost foreshadowing that idea the party will visit in the future.

The other part of the Closet Dark World is the Castle Town:

The Castle Town is fine, nothing too out of the ordinary for it. Of course, Ralsei knows enough about the characters' personal lives to be able to base Kris's new room on the room that actually exists in the real world:

... even going as far as making the trophies on Asriel's side of the room magically belong to Kris, which is just so god damn bizarre because it implies that Ralsei knows about Kris's envy/inferiority complex toward Asriel, who they constantly live in the shadow of.

The same issues arise for Susie's room, but of course we don't know what it actually looks like in the real world, so a direct comparison unfortunately can't be made, however, I will say that Ralsei knows enough about Susie to realize that she is malnourished. But that conclusion can be made just by playing the Chapter 1 Dark World segment and realizing how hungry she is all the time.

However, this entire thing warrants... discussion.

PART III.V: WHAT THE HELL IS THE DEAL WITH RALSEI?

Right off the bat, Ralsei knows things that he just shouldn't know, such as the names of Kris and Susie, before they've even introduced themselves:

How is that possible, anyway? It's understandable that Darkners can immediately recognize Lightners (and as suggested by Spamton, the thing that distinguishes them could be the soul Lightners have), but clearly not their names. It just doesn't work out.

... and this isn't a fluke either. Look at the Prophecy itself for just a moment, just, LOOK AT IT:

These three heroes are BLATANTLY Kris, Susie, and Ralsei. There's no conceivable way that he could know the identities of the two Lightners that will randomly enter a closet on a Thursday morning before it actually happens. It's just not possible.

... And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Ralsei knows about SAVEing - a concept that isn't even noticeable to anyone in Deltarune.

In Undertale, saving and reloading a file is basically just time travel - going back in time to correct a past event and try again. Several characters can tell if you've reloaded a save, and they get a feeling of deja vu when that happens.

But in Deltarune, that doesn't happen.

Why? Because in Chapter 1, we get to see what really happens when you use the save menu:

Look at the way the text is written. All capitals.

So it's clear that the person really doing all of this is... Gaster. Cool. Very cool.

But aside from that, we are given three save files - three timelines, and when a file is overwritten or deleted, that timeline is destroyed. That's what is happening. It's not anything like a time loop or time travel, so there's no conceivable way that Ralsei could know any of this...

Or about the festival...

Or about THE FUCKING PLAYER, FOR THAT MATTER.

How... how the FUCK? How does Ralsei even know about the Player? Okay, you can make the case that Ralsei likes the Player or Kris or whatever, I mean it's commonly accepted knowledge that Ralsei knows about the player, but like...

How?

...

Discarding the possibility that Ralsei is an all-seeing-eye of the game, there is really only one way that Ralsei could have the knowledge that he possesses — because there is only one character in all of Deltarune that shares it.

Gaster.

Let's knock away the obvious one first: in the 'DEVICE_GONERMAKER' sequence, we directly give our name to Gaster - meaning that the only person who even has the capability of knowing our name is Gaster. So Ralsei knowing the name of the player is straightforward: it was revealed to him by Gaster.

It goes without saying that Ralsei isn't the only Darkner that has been contacted by Gaster in the past. Jevil and Spamton have been as well:

And the 'forbidden knowledge' that he gave Spamton and Jevil drove them insane.

So... what is it that Gaster revealed to them about the world?

Well... I believe I know the answer, and it has to do with what these darkners did with this knowledge.

So, to begin, what did Jevil do? Right, he went insane. He began to view the world as nothing more than a game, a game where you never face consequences for your actions. A game where you can do anything! A game where you can fight everyone.

And Spamton? He became desperate. After the phone calls stopped coming, he lost his magic and his corporate empire crumbled.

Over time, he became insane, speaking like a madman, and then, upon finding Kris, the very first thing he tries to do is STEAL THEIR SOUL.

An odd callback to Undertale, but why does he do that?

Well, it's simple. Ralsei lays it out for us at the very beginning of the game:

Our SOUL holds the fate of the world inside it. In other words, possessing it could lead someone to believe that their choices matter, in a world where you can't choose who you are.

That only means that the straw that broke the camel's back for these Darkners is the revelation about choice - that it doesn't matter because fate is controlled in the Dark World by the will of the fountain, which comes from the Knight upon creating the Fountain.

Mirroring this:

The Second Voice - the voice that discards the Vessel and tells you that no one can choose they are in this world... that voice belongs to the Knight.

The Knight is the second voice — and in this world, their world...

Your choices don't matter. They never have, and they never will. And I think that's why Snowgrave exists - because by abusing Noelle's IceShock, we are able to completely derail the narrative of the game, have Spamton temporarily become a big shot despite fate itself denying it, have Rouxls Kaard turn to stone earlier than he does in a normal run, and more - kill everyone.

Maybe that's why a player would choose to go through this route.

What's interesting is that each S.Boss's reaction to this knowledge is a representation of a stage of grief. Jevil embraces the revelation with open arms, realizing that he can do anything if your choices don't mean anything, while Spamton viciously fights back against the will of the fountain.

Jevil represents Acceptance, while Spamton represents Bargaining.

So, what does Ralsei represent?

Denial.

Ralsei actively believes that your choices matter - in fact, he desperately tries to make it so our choices matter more than anyone else's choices out of sheer spite, which shows that he knows the truth, but doesn't want to believe it just because of how horrible of a truth it is.

Denial is the first stage of grief. Acceptance is the last. It is important to realize that trauma can last for an extremely long time, and in some cases, never be resolved at all. One of Chapter 2's focuses is Ralsei trying to figure out his own identity, which is actually very interesting, because the Castle Town itself is... barren, and empty by the start of Chapter 1. When the Darkners from the Card Kingdom are brought to the closet, the Castle Town transforms. New buildings completely replace the old ones.

If we go with the idea that Ralsei is an extension of the Castle Town, or vice versa, or something like that, this is very interesting because it means that whatever identity Ralsei had before the start of Chapter 1 is something that he actively hates and wants to replace with something new.

The Castle Town is barren, the shops empty. In short, Ralsei doesn't think he's good enough...

I think Ralsei might have depression. How many characters is that? Three? Kris, Spamton, Ralsei? Oh, and you can't forget Noelle.

... I'm starting to notice a pattern here - which is that the lives of all these characters suck. It's blatantly obvious that all of them suffer from a form of depression, so when Ralsei does reach the next stage of grief... uh...

I guess he's welcome to the party!

Anyway, we now know the source of Ralsei's knowledge: Gaster. Gaster contacted Ralsei in some way, providing him with forbidden knowledge, including the Prophecy (which is spelled out on deltarune.com back in 2016):

And compared to the other Darkners, Ralsei seems to be taking all of this information very well.... for now.

Cool, very cool. Except... not really.

Let's have a look at the Castle Town again.

Those torches... we've seen them before, right?

Wasn't it Gaster that contacted Jevil?

... wait.

It looks like this area right here is an extension of the Castle Town, despite it being the stairway that leads to Jevil's cell.

What's the deal with that?

And while we're at it, what's the deal with the rest of the Closet Dark World? The cliffs shares a similar vibe to this place, along with...

This place.

Now, tell me. Do these locations remind you of any specific places in Undertale?

Of course they do.

The one thing that ties all these locations together is that they are the places of dwelling for darkners that have been given forbidden knowledge by Gaster.

... but it has to be more than that, since these locations have commonalities, most notably with the Castle Town and Jevil's basement.

Jevil's basement area looks like it was ripped straight from the Castle Town… almost like it's separate from the dark world, almost as if it was created by somebody else.

Remember when I said that it seemed that the S.Bosses were fighting against the very nature of the Dark World they lived in?

That... shouldn't be possible. Recall this:

The Darkners are meant to reflect the will of the Dark Fountain. Anything else just... turns to stone, yet the deal with Spamton and Jevil is... strange - because it's a clear contradiction here to this very rule. Well, maybe...

Maybe it isn't.

I'd like to ask you a question: using the idea that the will of the fountain originally comes from the will of the Dark Fountain's creator, what would happen if two people made a Dark Fountain at the same time?

To be more specific, say that the two individuals have opposing agendas. What would happen?

Well, logically speaking, they'd cancel each other out. Whatever is representative of each person's will would end up fighting until one side would come out victorious, that's just how it is.

... and what happens with the Secret Bosses?

It's like they're fighting against the very nature of the Dark World itself. The areas that they are in, they all share commonalities, as though they were created separately from the rest of the Dark World, and by a different person...

Almost like the Knight's dark fountains are being corrupted by a force deep down, in which a specific Darkner is chosen to be given forbidden knowledge.

... so Gaster is in reality just messing with the Dark Fountains that the Knight is making. So how do we explain the strangeness of the Castle Town?

Well, simple. Gaster created the Castle Town... which actually makes sense, since it's a Pure Dark Fountain. Any Darkner from any Dark World can live there, and Gaster, with the knowledge about Darkness that he's implied to have, is probably one of the few candidates that are even capable of making one.

... but what does it mean to be 'pure?'

PART III.V.V: DEEPER, YET DEEPER.

The Closet Dark World is the only Dark World whose fountain seems to be... below the room the fountain appears to be inside.

The room eventually caves in, collapsing and sending Kris and Susie into the Cliffs.

And in the cliffs, you start to hear the song 'ocean.ogg' before suddenly waking up and hearing some ominous music.

That isn't how Dark Worlds work. The Dark World is a room filled with Darkness. I mean, we see Kris make a fountain themselves:

The room doesn't collapse or anything, it just fills up with Darkness, transforming it into a Dark World.

Wait...

What if the Closet Dark World is 'beneath' the closet? What if it is 'deeper' than the other Dark Worlds (since it takes longer to fall into)>

What if the Closet Dark World is literally inside the Depths?

That's right- the Dark World in this case is BACKWARDS - surrounded by something akin to the barrier between light and dark. If you want a real life comparison, think of a submarine.

It’s pure in a way the other fountains aren't - the darkness is completely pure without much exposure to the Light World.

That's why the fountain is a Pure Dark Fountain.

This would make the Great Door a door that could connect to any Dark World. If the Castle Town is in the Depths, it could easily move around the Depths, or ‘connect’ to a certain point in the Light World, allowing the Castle Town’s entrance/exit to be virtually anywhere.

This explains how Ralsei is able to travel from the Castle Town to the Cyber World. The Castle Town simply ’ moved over.’

And it also explains the conundrum about how the Castle Town needs to have been created recently, otherwise it would have been discovered earlier, despite Ralsei saying the Castle Town was around for millennia.

It simply wasn't always in the closet. It only moved there when it needed to - a.k.a when Kris and Susie both went to the closet.

This sounds crazy, most likely, but it's the best way to rectify this situation right here. It also explains... something else.

[LINK TO PART IV TO BE POSTED LATER]

[weaselweaselw]

The Origin Of the Dark World

PART II.V: THE POWER OF DETERMINATION

As you might have realized by now, the Cyber World has some chilling connections to Noelle, almost as though the world itself was centered around her.

Let's start with something you're probably very familiar with, and then build things up from there.

When talking to Noelle in Chapter 1, you get this dialogue:

And similarly, when talking to Rudy at the end of Chapter 2, he has this to say:

Rudy's words suggest that Noelle's mother has always been a harsh and demanding parent, putting a lot of pressure on her daughter. This might be why Noelle feels so anxious and unhappy now that Rudy, who was the more relaxed and fun-loving parent, is lying in a hospital bed and can't be there for her.

But Dess is missing, and in Noelle's mind, she could be dead, and Rudy is hospitalized.

And then there's.... this.

Queen plays a similar role in the dark world. She claims to want Noelle to be happy, but she doesn't care about what Noelle actually wants or feels. She manipulates and coerces her into doing things that go against her nature. Only when Noelle finally gathers the courage to confront Queen and tell her that she is not making her happy at all does Queen relent - It's like a twisted version of a mother-daughter relationship, where the mother thinks she knows best and ignores the child's voice.

Maybe that's what the dark world is for: a way for the Lightners to escape from their real-life problems and face them in a different way. Noelle can't stand up to her real mother, but in the dark world she has the power and the support to do so. The dark world seems to reflect the wishes and struggles of the Lightners (Kris, Susie, Noelle, and Berdly) and gives them a chance to overcome them.

And this... this... is very important. Let's go back to the very beginning...

This is how the Knight made the Dark Fountain:

Seems pretty simple. The Knight focused their determination into their knife and stabbed the ground - creating a Dark Fountain.

But the word 'Will' as a noun has been used in the context of Dark Fountains before...

Since the word "will" seems to be used in the same context that Ralsei uses, the obvious connection here is that the will of the fountain is derived from the will of the fountain's creator, which in this case is the Knight. This elevates the lightners, but more specifically the creator of the dark world itself, to the status of God…

But also, something of importance, evidenced by just how blatantly it is that Queen is a projection of how Noelle feels about her mother, is that the will of the Dark Fountain is not just influenced by the creator of the fountain... but by the lightners present in the Dark World as well.

Okay, let's go over what else is going on with Noelle...

In the Spamton Sweepstakes, she has this to say.

Does this sound familiar? Of course it does, because if you stand underneath the sockets for too long, they begin smiling:

And what happens when you stand underneath a hanging plug?

It zaps you.

Noelle's fears never truly went away, because these fears were exaggerated and personified in the Cyber World- a Dark World that she didn't even create, but through the sheer power of her determination...

The Dark World was bent to her subconscious will.

...

While the fountain's will is influenced by the lightners… the dark world itself was originally created by one person.

And despite what Kris, Susie, and Berdly want, Lancer still turns to stone.

The Knight's will is above all else in the Dark World.

The will of the fountain's creator seems to override everything.

It's interesting, because even with the S.Bosses, they appear to be fighting against the dark world itself. They all lose in the end, and never get anything they want.

Except... one time.

This... all of this... takes on a completely new meaning once you consider the Snowgrave Route.

The route in which you abuse Noelle's unnatural amount of determination to bend the rules around the dark world... and completely break the game.

This is the only route in which Spamton can be a big shot...

And only for a little while.

Noelle, put under enough stress, given enough strength, and realizing her own strength, can override the rules of the Wark World itself, and override the Knight's will.

This is interesting, because it sets Noelle up as an extremely overpowered character. Her ungodly amounts of determination means that unlike Jevil, Noelle might be able to do anything...

She just doesn't use her determination.

Wait.

Wait. A. Minute.

Queen wants to make Noelle the next Knight.

What if this desire... if from the Knight themselves?

What if the reason the Knight wants Noelle to be the next Knight is due to her determination?

If Noelle and the Knight were to make a fountain together, it would certainly be enough to completely shatter the barrier between Light and Dark.

Causing the roaring.

What does any of this have to do with Dess being trapped inside the Depths?

Well, everything. Since the Depths is the source of all darkness, every single Dark World would have some kind of trace leading back to Dess that we'd be able to find, right?

Yes. Yes, it does.

Notice that baseballs appearing in all of the Dark Worlds seems to be a common theme.

While not enough for this theory to stand on alone, there's the other evidence brought up previously that should suffice.

Dess has likely gone insane whilst trapped inside of the Depths, and its possible that in the presence of these Titans, Dess has been… brainwashed. Perhaps succumbing to the collective will of the Titans to be free and unleash their revenge upon the world for imprisoning them.

This would make Dess the Roaring Knight.

Okay, I'm gonna be honest, this part isn't as compelling, but it's still interesting to consider, because the ramifications of Dess being the Knight are interesting.

Of all the popular candidates for the Knight (Kris, Father Alvin, the Vessel, ugh... Oberon Smog), Dess is by far the most interesting, because the characters in the game know her and have that connection.

Kris can't be the Knight because it's physically impossible for them to create the fountain for the Cyber World, and judging by how Noelle and Berdly were already seated and... studying... when the Dark Fountain was sealed at the end of chapter 2, we can assume that the Knight created the Dark Fountain while they were studying. At that time, Kris and Susie were bumming around in the Castle Town, so it can't be either of them.

There's of course a lot more evidence, especially in the Chapter 3 previews provided several months ago (which honestly look like they were taken straight from the Cyber World. Why? Because Kris was probably thinking of their fun Dark World adventure while making the fountain. The Knight wouldn't do that, would they?), among other evidence, that can disprove the notion that Kris is the Knight, but in the end, it's unnecessary, as Kris being physically unable to make the fountain in the Computer Lab is what I consider silver bullet evidence.

As for the Vessel... no. By the time the Knight is actually revealed (let's say the climax of Chapter 5), I imagine most players will have forgotten about the Vessel. And besides, the Knight being a "blank slate" character that then decided to go evil is something we've already seen... in Undertale. Many times, actually. It would be much more interesting for the Knight to be a character with pre-existing motivations and reasons to be creating the Dark Fountains.

As for Father Alvin, well, him being the Knight sets up the Knight as the stereotypical religious fanatic that wants to cause the Rapture and end the world just feels cliche and wrong. It isn't that interesting. But I will say that evidence-wise, Father Alvin seems more likely to be the Knight for now, but I'm suspecting that Toby Fox is baiting us with that, just as he did with the main antagonist for Undertale.

As for "Oberon Smog," honestly, I don't even need to tackle it. The idea that Gerson's hammer somehow became a darkner, gained the ability to travel to the Light World, and then make dark fountains, is honestly so ridiculous that you begin to question why it was even conceived.

Anyway, this, all this, might not even matter. The possibility of somebody being trapped inside of the Depths is... interesting, but maybe it isn't so simple. After all, if the Depths resembles the bottom of the ocean, then no human could ever hope to survive there. But then again, Ralsei only mentions that Darkners get crushed during the roaring, not Lightners, so maybe the rule applies to the Depths as well.

[LINK TO PART III]

[weaselweaselw]

The Origin of the Dark World.

Sit down, because this is probably the longest Tumblr post I've made.

INTRODUCTION:

I have a simple question for all of you:

Where do the Dark Fountains come from?

To most of you, this may seem like a pointless thought exercise. Nowhere! Why does it matter where they come from, anyway? I hear you asking. But the truth is that it does matter, a great deal - actually.

If we understand where the Dark Fountains originate from, we can gain a far greater understanding of how they work, and subsequently, how the Dark World works — because as of right now, what little we know about the Dark Fountains has been spoonfed to us by Ralsei, King, Queen, and other characters, when the reality is that Dark World lore is incredibly deep, and we already have many of the puzzle pieces. All we need to do with these pieces is to put them together.

So, first of all, since it's been a year and a half since Deltarune Chapter 2 was released, I think we could all use a refresher on the game's mechanics involving Darkness.

The Dark World is the realm that Kris, Susie, and later Noelle and Berdly visit occasionally. These realms are imitations of escapist fantasies - in which these so-called 'Lightners' traverse through the world, battling enemy 'Darkners,' gearing up, and generally having a good time. 

Some patterns are seen in the two main Dark Worlds that we have visited, such as there being three main areas to visit, including a vast open area to start with (Field, Cyber field) before traversing into a more enclosed space with more enemies to fight as well as higher stakes (Forest, Cyber City), before finally entering the residence of the Dark World's ruler/main boss (Card Castle, Queen's Mansion // King, Queen). The Dark Fountain is typically located behind the final location, and beneath the final location is the place in which the Lightners battle the secret boss of the Dark World (Jevil, Spamton NEO).

In the real world (referred to by Darkners as the Light World), the Dark Fountains act as a bridge to travel to the Dark World. A Dark Fountain is created by a Lightner focusing their determination into a sharp object and then stabbing the ground, causing Darkness to leak out and fill up the room. The room then transforms into a new Dark World - a fantastical reflection of all of the objects it once contained.

In the Dark World, the Dark Fountain is seen in the center of the Dark World as a pitch-black geyser spewing Darkness into the sky, giving the land its shape and form. The Dark Fountain is considered by many darkners - most notably by rulers and nobility - as holy, and therefore must be protected at all costs.

The Dark Fountains themselves influence the Dark World greatly, with Ralsei directly stating that they determine the shape and form of the Dark World upon its creation, and that the 'will of the fountain' determines the qualities of the Darkners living inside.

Now, this introduces a conundrum...

Because before the Dark Fountain was created, it is implied that the Dark Worlds had histories spanning many generations, with Ralsei himself stating that Light and Dark have been in balance for thousands of years.

How do we resolve this?

Well, there are two possible ways that this can be rectified. The first and most apparent explanation is that the Dark Fountains create a history of the Dark World spontaneously and retroactively; an event may not have physically happened, but after the fountain was created - from that point on, the event always has happened. Think of it like a real-life retcon.

The other explanation, while certainly less ideal due to the ramifications it has for the characters, is in my opinion both more interesting, as well as more evident. Here is the idea:

The Dark Fountains create a history and then give the Darkners living inside the Dark World false memories of that history. Think about it this way: it's possible the entire world, along with all of your memories, to have been created last Thursday, and you'd have no way to be sure. For example, events like Spamton's rise to power didn't physically happen, but everyone remembers it, and the world was created as if it physically DID happen. 

The evidence for this is simple: all of the events that happened post-fountain creation in Chapter 2 are more clear-cut than the events that transpired pre-fountain creation.

For example, the Sweet Cap'n Cakes trio states that the moment the Dark Fountain appeared, Queen has become more extreme in her ways. Why? Because she finally has the chance to be herself for once — and that includes behaving as the wacky and diabolical ruler that she is.

The same explanation applies to why Spamton suddenly tries to recruit the same exact trio to break into Queen's mansion and steal the NEO body he so desperately wants to use: because he hasn't existed until now — and there isn't any time like the present.

With this in mind, the second explanation - last Thursdayism - is much more reasonable, and hell, it's more intriguing story-wise because it makes us question how the identities of Darkners even come to be. In my mind, it's an excellent plot mechanic, especially considering that Ralsei has spent the last two chapters trying to develop his own identity. This theme around identity is interesting — for reasons I'll mention later.

But let's get back on track.

Where do the Dark Fountains come from?

You'd probably say that they just pop out of thin air, but that's not satisfying. That's the equivalent of throwing your hands in the air and saying "I quit!"

Theorists don't do that.

And besides, I think I know exactly where the Dark Fountains come from.

We've been there before...

… and we'll be there again.

PART I: THE ORIGIN OF THE DARKNESS

The background image for the 'DEVICE_GONERMAKER' sequence (the one where Gaster (UT's first Royal Scientist) asks you to create a vessel to use) is named 'IMAGE_DEPTH.

This is how it's made:

Pretty interesting, right?

Now, what's really interesting is that 'IMAGE_DEPTH' looks a lot like what the Dark Fountain looks like from the perspective of someone in the Dark World, of course after some color-correction matching so that the fountain's colors line up with the 'ocean' background that 'IMAGE_DEPTH' represents.

Obviously, it's not perfect, but it doesn't have to be. Look for yourself.

Now, I'm going to suggest something - something that's probably insane to you, yet you're probably thinking of the possibility of it right now: what if 'IMAGE_DEPTH' is the source of all the Dark Fountains?

The answer is... maybe.

Nah, just kidding.

The answer is yes.

You see, what is probably the most interesting thing about all of this is that the word 'depth' is only ever used ONE TIME in all of Deltarune.

Right.

Here:

Jevil, a man whose insanity is highly suspected to be the direct result of Dr. Gaster's shenanigans - is now talking about some place called 'the Depths.' Gaster, who speaks to the player in some strange dark realm whose background image looks like the inside of a Dark Fountain - literally named 'IMAGE_DEPTH.'

And he says that "HELL'S ROAR BUBBLES FROM THE DEPTHS."

We know exactly what Hell's Roar is:

The Roaring.

The event in which the very barrier between light and dark shatters, causing fountains to rip out of the ground — piercing the sky and blanketing the world in darkness, all while TITANS march from the fountains, destroying everything in their way.

Sometime later, the pressure of the darkness blanketing the Earth becomes so great... that the Darkners all turn to stone.

So...

What are "THE DEPTHS?"

Well, you probably already have a good idea of what it is. It's the source of all Darkness.

A second layer of reality - an 'in-between,' if you will. A place that likely resembles the conditions seen at the bottom of the ocean. And while we're on the subject of the bottom of the ocean, I recently discovered a very interesting connection:

In Greek mythology, after ten years of fierce battles, the Titans were imprisoned beneath Tartarus - the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked.

...

Just like the Depths.

And if Gaster was there, then it's likely that it's the very place that he was referring to in Entry #17:

In Undertale, the Gaster Followers say that Gaster fell into his own creation. And while most people assume that they are referring to the CORE (since it is mentioned earlier) ... what if it ISN'T?

Remember that the CORE is simply a giant electrical plant that harnesses geothermal energy from the ground and uses it to power the entire Underground. There shouldn't be anything special about it to warrant being shattered across time and space, so then, there's one other conclusion that can be made:

That, when Dr. Gaster was "shattered across time and space" in Undertale, the creation he fell into was a dark fountain.

One singular surface-level Dark Fountain most likely won't cause the Roaring, but keep making them, and you're perforating the barrier between Light and Dark where the Titans are, making it easier for them to break out - and heaven forbid you make a fountain within a Dark World.

No wonder Berdly nearly gave Ralsei a heart attack: keep diving deeper into the darkness, and something might come up to meet you.

We always ask what happens if it could get darker than dark.

... but now we know.

Gaster ventured too deep into the dark, falling into the Depths. And because of it, he became shattered across time and space — because the Depths itself defies time.

Maybe THAT is the answer to the Dark World History Conundrum: that everything does happen in a certain way, but that it doesn't affect or matter to anything outside the Dark World because the Depths - and by extension- the Darkness - DEFIES TIME.

And this... THIS... can very well explain how Gaster is capable of contacting the S.Bosses before the Dark Fountain was even made - because, again, the Depths defies time.

So that's it, right? We know now where the Dark Fountains flow from, that means everything's solved, right?

Nope.

PART II: DECEMBER HOLIDAY AND DETERMINATION

So, to recap:

The Depths is the place in which all of the Dark Fountains originate from - a second layer of reality if you will. Another dimension, or in other words - the true Dark World. And since all of the fountains are connected to the Depths - the Dark Worlds are all connected in a sense. And time likely doesn't hold much of a meaning inside the Depths.

Now, let's take all of this one step further.

I've already made the case (based on Greek mythology) that the Titans are inhabitants of the Depths. But... what if they aren't the only ones there?

In fact... what if someone from the Light World is trapped inside the Depths as well?

...

Let me tell you about a mysterious character in Deltarune who has vanished without a trace:

December Holiday.

She was Noelle's older sister. However, something horrible happened a long time ago - a memory that both Kris and Noelle have buried deep in their minds... as she is missing, and has been for a long time, as evidenced by visiting https://deltarune.com/december/.

This is a specially-coded 404 message. Any misspelled URL on delrarune.com redirects to a gif of a sleeping dog:

Dess's disappearance caused a lot of grief and anger between the Holiday and Dreemurr families. They only began to reconcile when Noelle and Kris entered the Cyber World, as shown by the Character Teas.

Noelle likes Susie, so drinking Susie Tea heals her. Kris feels the same way.

But when they drink Noelle Tea, something is different. It heals much less HP…

Kris and Noelle used to be very close friends when they were younger. They spent a lot of time together. But something happened to Dess that involved the Dreemurrs, and especially… Kris.

This memory... that last memory of Dess... Noelle claims that they 'didn't find anything interesting back there.'

But clearly, whatever happened was very stressful. She's repressing her memories, and it's likely that Kris is doing the same.

However...

When it comes to trauma, objects and physical reminders of a repressed memory could make things infinitely worse...

And nowhere is that more apparent than when Kris and Susie visits the bunker - in the forest behind the graveyard...

When we visit the bunker in Chapter 2 with Susie, she comments on how Kris is freaking out. Remember that she’s as dense as a rock when it comes to figuring out people.

Kris likely blames themselves for what happened, and thinks they are at fault for Dess's disappearance.

That bunker. The one that is labeled ’ shelter’ in the game’s files... It’s obviously connected to Gaster in some way, considering it plays a version of 'snd_smile.wav’ slowed down by exactly 666%.

If that number wasn’t obvious, then hear this: 'snd_smile. wav' is the same song that plays during Undertale’s Entry #17.

We know that entry is canonical to Deltarune because the "THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT SEEMS VERY YERY INTERESTING” shows up in windings on Deltarune’s website back in 2015.

... now, back to that bunker... it would be REALLY interesting if that bunker had a Dark Fountain inside it.

... given that monsters cannot seal a Dark Fountain, when Dess stumbled into the bunker, and then into the Dark Fountain, she must have gone deeper and deeper down... until she found herself inside the Depths itself.

And we hear echoes of her calls for help if we dive deep enough into the game files... deep enough into the code...

Deep enough into the Depths...

And believe it or not, one of these lines is repeated by Spamton in his Shop.

To further explain this theory, I must introduce another one... I'm sorry.

[LINK TO PART II.V]

[weaselweaselw]

Understanding the Balance between Light and Dark - or in other words - What in the world are THE DEPTHS???

Let's start with a basic idea - what the heck is "balance?"

What would equate balance between Light and Dark?

Right now, it would be really easy to say that two entire Dark Worlds spanning the size of two rooms on Earth is very unbalanced.

However, in the Prophecy, Ralsei states that the exact opposite is true.

Let's just cut right to the chase: Where do you think all the darkness the fountains keep spewing out originates from?

Nowhere?

I understand that Deltarune is a game about magical worlds, but I would expect Toby Fox to have the decency to abide by the freaking laws of physics, especially since the very character that introduces us to the game — Dr. W.D Gaster — is a scientist.

Although characters from Undertale have different roles in Deltarune, many of them are right where they have always wanted to be. Toriel, for instance, is a teacher, something she always wanted to be. So Gaster is most certainly a scientist in this game if Entry #17 isn't enough for you.

So the Law of Conservation of Mass is at work here — which basically says that matter cannot be created nor destroyed.

Great, so the Dark Fountains must be flowing from somewhere. Where is that? Underground?

No, of course not. If the darkness was flowing from underground, people would have definitely noticed long ago, yet nobody even knows what a Dark Fountain is.

So where is it?

Well, presumably, it would be an area where it's just darkness. Considering how Darkners are essentially reflections of items in the Light World, in a world of just pure Darkness with no items to reflect, there... wouldn't be anything to reflect. It would just be an endless sea of darkness...

Just like the place where we awaken in Chapter 1:

This isn't just a random place, either. This vortex looks exactly like what the inside of a Dark Fountain would look like, so this "area of Darkness" is definitely where we wake up in Chapter 1.

And believe it or not, the place actually has a name - thanks to Jevil.

After defeating him violently in Chapter 1, he speaks to the Lightners, warning them of a dark future because of the Knight's hand thrusting forward or whatever — basically them making more fountains.

And then he drops this massive bombshell:

The line "SOON, THE "QUEEN" RETURNS, AND HELL'S ROAR BUBBLES FROM THE DEPTHS…" is especially frightening with the added context of Chapter 2, where we meet Queen, and most especially, discover through Ralsei what the Roaring is.

Jevil knows what it is, and Jevil even knows about Queen. Hell, Queen's name is even in quotes because her true name is "Serial Number Q5U4EX7YY2E9N."

As for why that's possible, well if you read my earlier theory, you should be able to figure out the answer. However, that's not what I'm interested in here. What am I interested in?

"HELL'S ROAR BUBBLES FROM THE DEPTHS."

The Depths...

And the name of the Dark Fountain-like background in which the GONER MAKER sequence takes place is called “IMAGE_DEPTH” in the game's files.

It's all connected. "THE DEPTHS" truly exists — it's a realm in which all of the dark fountains flow from, and it is from here that the CONNECTION is made with Gaster at the beginning of Chapter 1.

And speaking of Chapter 1... when you first fall into the Closet Dark World, "ocean.ogg" plays in the background.

This moment has always been interesting, and now we know why. When you hear this, you can hear the depths as you fall into the Closet Dark World.

The vibe of The Depths would likely be the same as going into the Mariana Trench — a place of crushing darkness that has never ever seen light since its formation and never will.

Of course, that doesn't mean The Depths is literally in the ocean, I just mean that the conditions inside the Depths would be very much like living at the bottom of the ocean.

But since there's the connection to the ocean — and the ocean is dark and spooky... that would make the Dark Worlds we've gone to act like the beach. A place where ocean and land meet - where you don't drown instantly.

So we finally have an answer to what the "balance" Ralsei talks about in the beginning of the game truly is. The balance being shifted is due to the fact that the Darkness from within The Depths is leaking into the Earth (or the light world). It seems that after a certain amount of Dark Fountains are created, a critical mass will be reached, and it results in the sky being covered by darkness, and the Roaring will begin. This will cause the Earth to become an extension of the Depths.

An interesting choice of words is that the surviving Darkners will be Crushed by the Darkness.

In the same way that within the deepest depths of the ocean, the very pressure of the water can crush any creature or object that cannot withstand it, the Darkness itself - once it overtakes the Earth - will crush every Darkner into stone.

And as mentioned earlier, the fact that Ralsei says "the surviving Darkners" implies that the Roaring itself will bring untold devastation for both Lightners and Darkners when it happens. We can also see that Darkners ain't really that resilient either — they can early be turned to stone or die if they end up in a fountain they didn't originate from.

In real life, there are certain creatures that can withstand being crushed by the pressure of the ocean. And the same exact thing is true for the Depths of Deltarune.

Meet the Titans.

Once these creatures are unleashed by the Dark Fountains, they will annihilate everything in their way. They will destroy the world and every single living creature on Earth, crushing it into nothing more than rubble.

The actions of the Titans are not malicious though. The Titans are just making the Earth their home - like their old home was, but now they have been awakened from their dormancy after being disturbed - after The Roaring.

Though... the Titans aren't the only ones inhabiting the Depths. In fact, there is somebody trapped inside it that we all should recognize.

December Holiday.

The Depths is the place in which all of the Dark Fountains originate from - a second layer of reality if you will. Another dimension, or in other words - the true Dark World. And since all of the fountains are connected to the Depths - the Dark Worlds are all connected in a sense. Though the Depths' connection to all of the Dark Worlds is important... later.

Anyway, Brix, a member of Andrew Cunningham's Discord server, made this helpful diagram so you can better understand the relationship between light and dark:

The blue represents the sky, and the green represents the Earth. The gray bubble represents the Dark World, and the white triangle represents the Dark Fountain. The red is supposed to be the barrier between the Earth and the Depths.

What does this have to do with Dess? Well, a lot - actually.

Dess Holiday was Noelle's older sister - who vanished without a trace one day, causing a rift to form between the Dreemurr family and the Holiday family, one that only ever started to heal itself once Noelle and Kris became lost in the Cyber World.

You can see all of this in real-time, actually, through the Character Teas.

When Noelle drinks Susie Tea, it heals a lot of HP, and that's because she really likes Susie. The teas restore health to someone depending on the character's opinion on the character the tea is based on.

When Kris drinks Susie Tea, this happens:

They clearly like it, because they like Susie a lot of it, the tea even reminds them of Susie so they look at her while drinking it.

But what happens when Kris drinks Noelle Tea? This happens.

They're drinking it...

Kris and Noelle were very close childhood friends and bonded a lot. Whatever happened to Dess clearly had something to do with the Dreemurr family, and specifically... Kris.

And it does.

What's the one thing inside the forest behind the graveyard?

Oh right, the bunker, whose music sped up by 666% is the same as 'mus_smile.ogg,' the same theme that plays during Entry #17. The bunker that probably belongs to Gaster, and is the place of dwelling for all his equipment, machinery, and scientific experiments involving Darkness, or souls, or whatever.

It's locked in Chapter 1, but in Chapter 2, going with Susie and interacting with her there produces some... interesting results.

It is hard for Susie to read people. She's very clearly oblivious to the fact that Noelle has a very obvious crush on her.

... and yet she can very clearly tell that the bunker scares Kris.

Whatever happened at the bunker on that one fateful night where Dess vanished must have been extremely traumatic for Kris.

And they must really think it is their fault.

So what happened?

Well, let's have a look at Entry #17.

This, is of course, from Undertale. Back then, we didn't have Deltarune to aid us. We didn't know anything about the Dark Fountains, or the Dark World - any of that.

So instead, the Undertale fandom created a hypothetical realm called the Void - a dark realm that Gaster is trapped in, or something. Because what else could it be given only the context of Undertale to go by?

But now that we have Deltarune, we can theorize further on what exactly this is:

This is Gaster tapping into the darkness. Entry #17 is a documentation of Gaster opening a doorway to the Depths for the first time, and documenting his observation, before then talking about a potential experiment that can come from this discovery.

"THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT

SEEMS

VERY

VERY

INTERESTING."

Which is the exact same text that deltarune.com said back in 2015 before being changed to the prophecy in 2016 - which I used to prove that Gaster likely created the Grand Fountain in Will Theory.

Anyway, Entry #17 is from Deltarune, clearly. So what happened with Dess?

Well, she snuck into the bunker one night, and something awful happened - a tragedy that Kris likely blames themselves for - that caused Dess to disappear into the Depths.

Is she dead?

Well, probably not.

https://deltarune.com/dess, in the Spamton Sweepstakes ARG, displays a guitar alongside a variant of "Lost Girl" but this time played on the guitar. And towards the end, it turns to a somewhat happy note.

Dess is alive.

But is she the same...?

Probably not. As I mentioned before, the conditions inside the Depths are likely the same as the conditions in the bottom of the ocean. Lightners may be able to survive, but they might begin to be changed by the Depths itself. Crushed, molded, whatever. The point is - when we eventually do find Dess in Deltarune (the song is called "findher.ogg"), she won't be the same - which is why the song cuts off at the end.

Remember Will Theory? The gist of it is that the dark world is created based on the will of its creator. It's simple, and what happens in-game seems to support this theory to a tee. Well, what do you think happens when the Dark Fountain is made with the will of... more than one person?

Well, we already know what happens thanks to the situation with the secret bosses - it's like there's a separate part of the dark world that is actively fighting back.

Look at the entrance to Jevil's cell. Notice how the ground just cuts off there, as though this was literally the end of the world - the Card Kingdom. It's separate, or in Jevil's own words - the Darkners have locked themselves away.

But now we have Dess's will - which may or may not be scattered across the Depths - infecting the Dark Fountains. And there are signs of Dess everywhere.

From baseballs appearing randomly in the Dark World (Dess plays it a lot)...

To Dess's cries for help whilst trapped in the Depths...

... being echoed by Spamton… years later.

Dess's fate is dark, very dark. We will find her...

But she won't be the same.

Not anymore.

[weaselweaselw]

https://dream.ai/

I managed to get this AI to recreate Waterfall from Undertale.

[weaselweaselw]

Ralsei didn’t hide the Roaring

At the beginning of Chapter 1, he gives Kris and Susie the low-down about the Roaring.

Although he didn’t use the name itself at the time, he described the Roaring exactly to both of them.

Later, in Chapter 2, this same graphic is used when Ralsei talks about the Roaring by name, confirming it’s the same event.

He’s also shocked that Queen didn’t know about the Roaring.

Ralsei thought the Roaring was common knowledge, and didn’t realize he was apparently given an advance copy of the Prophecy.

Keep reading

[weaselweaselw]

Will Theory: How Deltarune's Dark Worlds Are Created

Alright.

I'll admit, I'm posting this here for only one reason: because of Determinators' recent post.

I'm not here to claim credit for that particular theory. The idea that the dark worlds are shaped by the will of their creator isn't new, in fact, people have theorized about that since the day chapter 2 dropped. Though now, it's gaining traction. I'm making this post because there are some rather important implications that come with this theory being true. So, first of all, let's briefly go over the evidence of this theory.

When Lancer turns to stone during Chapter 2, Ralsei explains the following:

This coincides with how Ralsei describes the fountain in Chapter 1:

This confirms that the dark world is created the moment the fountain is created. Simple enough. Any kind of history for the dark world that existed before the fountain's creation would then have to be fake; they are false memories meant to justify the darkners' sense of being. And there's actually evidence for this:

As soon as the fountain opened up (which had to be no earlier than after class ended, seeing as Susie and Berdly were both present, so not too long after we enter), Queen's behavior changed drastically, becoming more tyrannical. And Spamton's behavior changed as well, immediately trying to recruit these three into breaking into Queen's mansion, presumably to steal the NEO body, but why now of all times?

It's almost as if they never got the chance to be themselves until now.

This kind of philosophy actually has a name, Last Thursdayism, as a way to mock creationists who say fossil evidence is fake by saying "the world could have been created last Thursday, and you would have no idea!"

This is funny, since if we assume Chapter 3 is on a Saturday (we are told there isn't any school, hence why Susie sleeps over at the Dreemurr home), Chapter 1 starts on a... Thursday, which was when the previous dark world was likely made. Toby, you're such a sly dog.

Anyway, Ralsei's comment also noted that the fountain has a will, a will that is reflected in the darkners, and probably to a certain extent, the dark world itself. The context for this usage is the same as "God's will." And speaking of gods... the word "will" is used within the context of dark fountains somewhere else...

The Knight inserted their will into their blade, and thrusting it into the ground - they created the dark fountain. Since the word "will" seems to be used in the same context that Ralsei uses, the obvious connection here is that the will of the fountain is derived from the will of the fountain's creator, which in this case is the Knight. This elevates the lightners, but more specifically the creator of the dark world itself, to the status of God...

And as you can see very clearly, the Knight is worshipped as a God, by both King and Queen.

The power of the Will, or as Queen labeled it, the power of Determination, seems to be set up to be a major theme in the coming chapters. The Knight's will seems to have a strong influence over the Dark World, but we don't know what exactly that looks like. We wouldn't know unless we had a different frame of reference, a new perspective, a dark world that isn't created by the Knight. And you're probably thinking we'd have to wait until Chapter 3 releases to compare and contrast the dark world made by Kris to the dark worlds made by the Knight...

But we don't have to.

Something that is commonly overlooked by many people is that the Castle Town is separate from the Card Kingdom. It's in a completely different dark world, after all, when we seal the fountain in Chapter 1, only the Card Kingdom is destroyed.

The only reason we were able to traverse from the Castle Town to the Card Kingdom was because of the Great Door, which in the light world is the door separating the supply closet from the old classroom.

And once we compare and contrast that dark world from the others, the differences become very apparent.

These are The Cliffs. The area of the Closet Dark World that we wake up in. It's worth noting that the background for these walls does not match any kind of school supply closet I've seen, it more closely resembles a rotten old basement.

Meanwhile, if we compare the other dark worlds, we can see the obvious similarities. Let's start by comparing the Card Kingdom to the unused classroom:

The Classroom compared to the Card Kingdom:

You exit the Great Door into the Card Kingdom, which in the light world is the door that stands between the unused classroom and the closet.

We start at the field and head towards the Great Board, then through the forest and into the Card Castle. This is a direct parallel to the unused classroom, where traveling right, and starting from the door, you go across the purple mat, passing by Seam up at the north, then crossing the chess board, and then finally reaching the cabinet.

The inside of the cabinet is dark, which might indicate why it is black in the dark world, and the shelving indicates floors. Even the locations of the darkners correlate to the locations of the cards and other objects in the classroom.

Contrast that with the computer lab and the Cyber World.

There doesn't seem to be a set direction, you just start at the green carpet which symbolizes the Cyber Field. The terrain seems to be loose- with steep jumps and slides, which we don't see an equivalent for in the computer lab. We traverse through the carpet until we get to the power outlet, and right above it is a big green box which could be a circuit breaker, but then again we see a closet next to it which probably serves the same purpose.

This box is just like the box we go to in the Cyber World in order to get onto the rollercoaster, which represents the cord which travels to the surge protector that the computers are connected to. The endpoint of the roller coaster is the City, and the light world equivalent of it is probably the keys of the keyboard, but there are also colored lights that are very similar to those in the closet.

Queen's mansion is also probably the large cabinet. Unlike chapter 1, chapter 2 takes a lot more creative freedom in regards to how the dark world is constructed, however, we can at least see the similarities. In many ways it seems like an improvement to the previous dark world, which supports the Will Theory, in which there is more room for experimentation, freedom, etc. Think of it like Light experimenting with how to kill people using the Death Note.

Meanwhile, the Closet Dark World doesn't even resemble a closet. I've seen supply closets before, and none of them have had blueish-purple walls and jet gray flooring. There are breathing piles of dust everywhere in The Cliffs, which also gives credibility to the Will Theory if we assume the Knight didn't create this world. We know what happens to piles of dust in the Card Kingdom: they become literal dust bunnies.

The obvious conclusion is that the Knight didn't create the Closet Dark World, though that should already be clear because the sole darkner present there, Ralsei, is against the Knight. He inherited a prophecy that was foretold to prevent such a Knight from causing the Roaring. Why would the Knight create a dark world that would eventually orchestrate their own destruction? And of course, the Closet Dark World breaks the tradition with the Knight's dark worlds by having Ralsei, the prince of the Castle Town, not want to spread the darkness like the other rulers, and isn't "evil" by any stretch of the word.

I know that it's a tad bit early to ask this question, but if the Knight didn't create the Closet Dark World... then who did?

Well, the answer to THAT question is handed to us on a silver platter, because back in 2016, deltarune.com didn't look like the flashy site it is now, but rather looked like this...

It looks like a completely black image... but let's save the image and then brighten it up:

Ah, Wingdings. Well, that's not much of a surprise once you think about it. The voice that greets you when you boot up Deltarune has a typer value of "666," which is strongly associated with Gaster in Undertale. So yeah... Gaster is saying whatever this is, so what is it?

Well, if we translate it, it reads this:

THREE HEROES

APPEARED

TO BANISH THE

ANGEL S HEAVEN

It's basically the prophecy, just very condensed. The implication here is that Gaster wrote down the prophecy, and that this prophecy he created somehow ended up finding its way into the Closet Dark World.

And the only way I see this as being possible is if Gaster was the creator of the Closet Dark World.

... but isn't he shattered across time and space?

No. He isn't.

I can't believe I have to explain this, but Deltarune is a completely separate universe from Undertale. Characters that were alive in Undertale are now dead in Deltarune, like Gerson. Gerson's identity has changed as well. In Undertale, he fought in the war and eventually became a salesman in Waterfall, and in Deltarune, he was a famous historian who also regularly taught at the school. And without being trapped in the underground, the monsters don't need a CORE to provide power to themselves, and thus, there is no creation in which Gaster has to fall into to become shattered across time and space.

And this seems to be supported by the actual game files.

The survey portion of the game is controlled by DEVICE_CONTACT.

The data for the character creator is stored in DEVICE_GONERMAKER.

(And some unused stuff for the survey is stored in DEVICE_CHOICE.)

The background in the survey is controlled by DEVICE_OBACK.

Other visuals for the survey are handled by DEVICE_APPEARANCE.

the game-over screen is contained in files labeled DEVICE_FAILURE.

The save/load menu screen is controlled by files labeled DEVICE_MENU. (And before you complete your first playthrough of the game, the menu will look extremely rudimentary and primitive, like a very old computer.)

Gaster is using physical equipment to make contact with us, both in the GONERMAKER sequence (The beginning sequence of the game where we make a vessel) as well as the game over screen. This would imply that he needs to be alive to create such machinery, much less use it.

So there, the barrier to entry has been eliminated. There's the chance that Gaster is the creator of the Closet Dark World... but it's only a chance. There's no solid confirmation yet, so we need to gather more evidence...

Well, there is. The background image for the GONERMAKER is called IMAGE_DEPTH, which implies an ocean, and what is the sound that plays as soon as you enter the Closet Dark world? Well, it's called ocean.ogg. The atmosphere is also way off.

There is of course more evidence as well...

Jevil.

Jevil was contacted by a mysterious man many years ago, a man who filled his mind with strange ideas, eventually resulting in him seeing the world as nothing more than a game with everybody as its participants. This justified his insanity.

Jevil is of course Chapter 1's secret boss. Chapter 2's secret boss is... Spamton. Who was contacted by a strange someone over the phone, teaching him how to be a big shot...

But then suddenly disappeared.

The "garbage noise" is interesting because it is the noise your phone makes when you try and make a call in the dark world, and it is also the same exact sound that plays during Entry #17 in Undertale, which is titled "room_gaster." And the sound itself is called "mus_smile.ogg." In both games.

So, that settles it. Both of these characters were contacted by and were driven insane by, Gaster. But this is common knowledge to most inside the Deltarune community. So why am I bringing it up?

Because this is what Jevil's area looks like:

It looks familiar, doesn't it?

Of course it does. Same exact candles, same exact floor texture.

The problem with the Last Thursdayism idea is that, though it is directly supported by Ralsei and Queen, and even further by the histories of the dark worlds, is that it doesn't account for Gaster's appearance years prior to the fountain's creation. But when we introduce Will Theory into the mix, it starts to make a little more sense.

Gaster is the one that created the Closet Dark World. And Gaster was the one that indirectly drove Jevil insane by giving him some kind of forbidden knowledge. And Jevil's basement area looks like it was ripped straight from the Castle Town... almost like it's separate from the dark world, almost as if it was created by somebody else...

If the will of the dark world's creator shapes the dark world, and there is a section of the dark world separate from the rest, one in which all of its inhabitants are "free" from the rest of the world, then there is only one explanation I can think of...

That two forces are at work here.

There are two conflicting wills here, clearly. And while Jevil embraces the whole "the world is nothing more than a game now so let's mess things up" idea (which seems to be an extension of the "your choices don't matter" idea, just an outlook of it), the basement area is still separate from the rest of the dark world. And just for good measure, the bassline for THE CIRCUS (the music that plays while you are in this area) is EXACTLY the same as the bassline for THE LEGEND and Empty Town, which are both themes that relate to the Closet Dark World. It's all a circular loop - the evidence is clear as day here.

With Spamton... well, he clearly is fighting against the will of the rest of the dark world. His mantra seems to be more about choices not mattering, seeing as he wants to go after our soul to become a [[Big Shot]] again, which doesn't seem too important at first glance until you realize that Ralsei says our soul holds the fate of the world inside it...

And in a scrapped dialogue scene, Ralsei states that the soul has the power to "determine fate."

In a world where your choices have no impact on the world, wouldn't you want the power to determine fate, so you can finally be a big shot again?

The conclusion here is straightforward: Gaster didn't physically enter the dark worlds, the history of the dark worlds involving him is likely a result of manipulation of the dark worlds... somehow. I'm not sure exactly how yet, but if something happened to him after creating the closet dark world that resulted in him becoming "ghostly" or incorporeal, then it is possible that he can easily manipulate the fountains... or, he's doing it from the inside. Honestly, there's no solid evidence for any of these, after all this is Gaster, a character we quite frankly know less about in this game than the Knight.

...

The voice that discards the vessel you created and states "No one can choose who they are in this world" is NOT gaster. A quick look at the Japanese translation of Deltarune proves that, as the voices use completely separate alphabets.

And this ideology - the belief that no one's choices should matter - is echoed in all of the dark worlds created by the Knight - from the Card Kingdom to the Cyber world. Spamton and Jevil have both been made aware of this through forbidden knowledge given by Gaster a long time ago...

And Ralsei goes out of his way to convince us that our choices DO matter in this world...

Right after the GONERMAKER sequence, where a second voice appears, discards the vessel, and tells you this.

Ralsei is somehow aware of the GONERMAKER sequence, otherwise this is one hell of a coincidence. And considering how much ties there are between Ralsei and the Closet Dark World as a whole to Gaster, I refuse to believe this is a coincidence.

And considering this ideology is core to the Knight's dark worlds, using Will Theory, I can only come up with one explanation:

The Knight is the second voice.

Which means the Knight knows about the player. In fact, this is PROVEN to be true because Jigsawry is aware of the battle controls of the game, as are many other Darkners...

But Susie is not. Making these interactions 100% canon to the game

This is looking great. The Knight is aware of the Player's existence, and has known about it since probably the start of the game.

And since it's hinted that Gaster or one of his machines handles saving...

The Knight probably knows about saving as well. Which means the Knight will always be one step ahead of us.

The future is looking very grim for all of us...