(I'M WORKING ON A RESPONSE VIDEO!! No promises on how quickly it will be out because the semester has started up and I've got a lot going on but I am working on the script for it right now. I do read every comment!)

Hi everyone!! I'm already kind of blown away by the reception this video has gotten, so thank you all for being willing to hear me out, and for all your thoughtful comments! I don't think I can feasibly respond in depth to all of them, so to put some general statements here:

1: I am wrong about the Japanese regarding the Knife, please don't listen to me there. I don't think this changes much about my overall point but I am still incorrect so you should know that. This is embarrassing since I do speak quite a bit of Japanese and have lived there but yes please politely ignore me there lol.

2: I don't think this has to say that this game isn't attempting to explore anything about the relationship between a player and their character. To go back to my Persona 5 example: the Only reason the final section happens the way it does is because of an emotion Joker carries regarding a certain character that the player may not at all share. This doesn't mean that I'm not still playing as Joker, nor does it mean that this feeling of his is irrelevant since I'm the one moving him around. Since P5 isn't really about exploring this potential dissonance (not a negative, it just isn't), Joker doesn't really need to think about if and why and how this 'part of himself' may feel differently.

Kris, however, DOES. Deltarune, in this lens, would be looking at what it would be like if you suddenly felt like one part of yourself was entirely at odds with another. What happens when a protagonist and the person playing them are entirely at odds with each other, if the player is still playing as a PART of the protagonist? How would that be reflected to the protagonist within the context of the game, if that was something they actually had to contend with? A part of yourself wants to be mean to Ralsei, while another part of you doesn't. What does that say about you? Are you then Only the half of yourself that pushed you to be mean? Are you entirely unrelated to that half of yourself that feels uncomfortable and scary and foreign? This can simultaneously be an exploration of Kris' relationship with thoughts that don't feel like theirs (but still are! and that's okay, and doesn't have to say anything about you!) while also being an exploration of how much of a playable character's personality or motivations or actions or whatnot are actually attributed to You or not, even if you are still playing as them. You are Kris' soul, but are you All of Kris? Is a part of yourself you don't like All that you are?

3. MY CONDOLENCES TO SEAM. oh my god. girl who has seen that particular scene virtually all of one time goes yep! i definitely remember the very specific way this name is meant to be pronounced! (<- does not actually remember the very specific way that name is supposed to be pronounced) 'Sham' came from me remembering that there was supposed to be an 'Sh' sound and virtually nothing else lmfao. you can point and laugh for that one i just hope it doesn't take away from anything else i'm talking about 😭

Assigned prince of the dark at birth has entered my vocabulary

Just want to say, this is genuinely the best character analysis on Kris I have ever seen. You managed to so strongly pin down their flaws, motivations, and place in the narrative with so solidly and while breaking down their relations to the other characters on a sub-textual and in text level. Also---somewhat to the same effect---you managed to sneak in one of the best arguments for Dess being the Knight I've ever seen as well, in spite of half of the entire fandom being dead set on that being the truth. Two thousand likes is an injustice for such a cohesive analysis!

I appreciate a theory that analyzes deltarune from a storytelling, thematic perspective, which is the kind of thing I wished I saw more often in this community. People tend to miss the forest for the trees in these parts, so this is extremely refreshing.

Honestly I think the fact I disagree with you so much on the possession theory actually made this video better for me, it's such a breath of fresh air to listen to someone's thoughts on deltarune that differ so much from my own, as well as the thoughts of the rest of the fandom while also treating everybody with respect and not saying the people you disagree with are stupid, it makes me really happy. Also it sounds like I have to check out Princess tutu

I, unfortunately, have been subscribed to Possesion Theory since 2018, but this is a PHENOMENAL take on the SOUL’s role in the story.

Stories can be interpreted in multiple ways, and that’s beautiful.

Very interesting interpretation and analysis. On one hand, it resolves a number of apparent inconsistencies with the "possession" theory, such as:

-Why the narration seems to refer to the soul and Kris as "you" interchangeably
-What happened to Kris's "original" soul before we "possessed" them (they have always had their own soul under this theory)
-How to reckon with the fact that Kris's relationships and character development seem largely due to the player's actions
-Why Kris doesn't take more actions to stop the player during the weird route, especially right before the lake scene.

However, I still feel like there are a lot of examples that are better explained by some form of possession, even after trying to read them from the lens of the soul simply being an aspect of Kris. Off the top of my head:

-On the Weird Route, the Shadow Mantle Holder says to Kris: "Part of you is just enjoying this, isn't it? The same part that enjoyed yesterday, knowing you could say it wasn't really you." I'm not sure how this would make sense if some part of Kris is ultimately making all the decisions.
-In the chapter 4 closet scene, Noelle says Kris has only started sounding and acting differently recently. It's not like she hasn't interacted with her classmate in years, so I don't think this can simply be chalked up to her forgetting what Kris is like. The weird route also very explicitly makes a distinction between the player's voice and Kris's voice, and I don't think this works very well without possession unless you basically diagnose Kris with some kind of split personality.
-Why are we able to move the soul around outside of Kris in chapter 4? Why have this mechanic at all if the soul is just meant to represent Kris's moral compass?
-Why draw attention to the fact that we can hear Noelle's thoughts in the chapter 4 weird route? Plus other meta elements like the player not being able to see the screen Kris and Susie are playing the racing game on in the chapter 3 green room.
-The soul has to physically drag Kris out of bed in the chapter 5 weird route after Toriel says "Well, no one can make you get out of bed, honey." I don't know how this could be interpreted as anything other than someone else (the player/soul) making Kris get out of bed against their will.
-The gonermaker lets you name the vessel and the creator differently, and it is the creator's name that is applied to the save files and to Castletown. I think the way you explain this as Kris remembering their own creation as a goner and their original chosen name overwriting "Kris" is a bit too convoluted, although it does fit somewhat with the Chara/Frisk name reveal in Undertale.
-The chapter 5 egg room narration says "Kris felt a strange melancholy. It was a feeling that they should not look for the man anymore. Even though they had never done such a thing in the first place." Again, this seems to draw attention to the soul/player's will being separate from Kris's.

It's rare to see a genuinely fresh perspective like this that is so well laid out, but I would hesitate to dismiss the possession theory being the overwhelming consensus as simply a lack of reading comprehension among the fanbase. The game seemingly goes out of its way in every chapter to draw attention to the separation between the soul's will and Kris's will, and while I think there is overlap (i.e. the dialogue box choices are provided by Kris), it's difficult for me to get fully on board with this theory. I do think your analysis of Kris's guilt and motivations for working with the Knight are compelling and work regardless, and I'll definitely keep this interpretation in mind if I do another playthrough.

this is genuinely one of the best deltarune analyses i’ve ever seen. i don’t even agree that kris isn’t possessed(i think it’s a middle ground where we’re hitching a ride but all of the options are from kris. like every single option is a thought of theirs but it’s up to us to choose. it’s a Big Metaphor but it still is. a little bit literal because we DO need a vessel. the horror of being forced to act on your intrusive thoughts and enjoying it even a little despite that is too compelling to me) but i agree with literally every other point and you speak so succinctly and well :)

>Princess Tutu in the first few seconds of the video

Now, that's how I know this will be a good video

this video put a completely different perspective on kris for me as a character and is one of the few first actual interesting analysis's that i enjoyed because they actually dive into the topic with afterthought for a narrative story rather than theories that try to predict things all the time without having information which most of end up being wrong because deltarune isn't fnaf

Minor hole, the shard left at the original crime scene and the one at the computer lab are not shadow crystals but rather Black Shards, broken off pieces of the Black Knife, the Knight's weapon (we know this because you can obtain a Black Shard by "defeating" the Knight in chapter 3, and the description of the black shard reads "A dagger-like shard of the Black Knife. Strikes the weakness of dark-element enemies." Curiously, it's only Dark World item that does not change form in the light world. If you have the black shard equipped, it is also equipped to Kris in the Light World, which has some implications about the nature of the Black Knife

Incredible video.  Really a breath of fresh air.  And while I did not find your argument that Kris is not possessed logically convincing, honestly, I don't think it even matters because I think you are 100% on the mark in terms of theming and I think Kris and the Soul/Player's relationship is very much a metaphor for their own dissociation and self loathing.

I think possession makes more thematic sense if you view it as a two way relationship.  Yes, the soul "controls" Kris and makes them do things they might not to some extent, but Kris is described as a literal cage that the soul was forced into against our will, and they just as often imposes their will over us, restraining our actions.  We both step on each other's toes and restrict each other's freedom, but also, we are both entirely reliant on each other.  We are totally helpless without Kris, not able to do much other than float around without a body, while Kris will literally die without us.  I don't think possession necessarily contradicts the game's themes.  I mean, Pink is literally a ghost who possesses an entirely different darkner character but their arc about self love and understanding isn't diminished because they are technically two different people.

I don't really think of possession theory to the extreme you make it, more so "you move kris around and pick an option out of a couple of their (sometimes intrusive) thoughts". There's also just too much evidence to fully dismiss it, and there's already a lot of skirting around with the explanations for alternatives in the video for some of the possession cases. There's definitely room for all the themes to hold true while possession being still a thing.

Also, with Pink's fight basically being deltarune's thesis statement in 3 minutes, there's also the fact that pink is a lightner possessing a darkner...

14:09 THIS HAS BEEN MY KNIGHT THEORY FOREVER!!!!! DESS IS STUCK IN THE DEVICE LAYER PLAYING DELTARUNE AS THE ROARING KNIGHT!!! IT’S HER VESSEL!!!

39:00 I do understand the metaphor you're trying to make, but I don't think it entirely works for the Ralsei/Flowery dynamic because Ralsei can wave a magic wand. They can absolutely get the gender identity they want, or pack on the fake stats, or dance or whatever. The disability is self-inflicted, and it's born out of an obligation to us or to the prophecy. That's why Flowery pisses them off so much, it's because they flout the supposed rules of the game for their own benefit, something that Ralsei desperately wants to do but thinks that they can't. And it's why Flowery dying at the end is so tragic, since it seemingly reconfirms that fate can't be subverted, no matter how awful it is.

Watching this video feel very cathartic.
Growing up with Undertale its was nice example of moral agency and freedom of choice.

Deltarune as a response/ beta fever dream does sort of the opposite. Even if you can't change your circunstances you still have certain choices, even if you couldn't go back in time and change it like in Undertale.

I really enjoyed this video! I feel like your readings of Dess and the Fun Gang are among the most resonant I've seen in the community, and the way your interpretation ties it together with the themes of the game are second to none. I agree with almost all of your points! My only thought is that I feel like your conclusion can coexist with the Possession interpretation, albeit not the version you argue against in the video.

I feel like in the normal route we act as a type of guardian angel to Kris, we're an outside influence that has a uniquely intimate understanding of what this self-loathing teen wants out of life but denies themself. So, through our influence we pick the options they want to say and take them down avenues that they're too afraid to walk.
Kris is free to stop us at any point, in fact I think the commonly held view of Kris as a victim of us in the normal route is outdated, but when we're doing our job right they have no need to. And when the journey is over, we will gladly sublimate into them to become the moral compass you see us always being. We won't get to decide how things go any more, but we'll be with them in the dark.

And in the Weird Route, we instead fan the flames of their worst impulses like the devil on their shoulder. Again, I agree with you that the Weird Route is far more interesting when you admit the part Kris plays in it, but also think that our outside influence is what pushes them to act on those desires rather than anything within the world. Those thoughts can still totally be Kris's and be part of the shame they feel with us being an outside influence.
In a twisted way, the intended experience is likely for a player familiar enough with the finished game to find the Weird Route also being one who knows Kris has had violent impulses and a discomfort in Hometown and their guilt they'd do anything to escape. So, we still give them what they want in the most unhealthy way possible.

In a game about self-agency, of characters overcoming their roles to be something they want to be, wouldn't the culmination of that be to let us choose who we want to be to these characters too?
tl;dr i can be your angle or yuor devil

But yeah, this was excellent work that allowed me to see the game from a new perspective!

While I find a lot of this video interesting and compelling, I believe too much of it hinges on a lot of what we experience being metaphorical and ignoring a lot of the physical realities that are shown on screen. While I do respect a mostly textual analysis of Deltarune, I think the sheer amount of separation there are between what Kris experiences and what we experience as their soul is too massive to not acknowledge. Chapter 4,s Holiday manor segment comes to mind as the soul clearly has total agency when outside of Kris. The soul hears conversations that Kris is not aware of. It would also imply that Kris can just. Read minds and see from perspectives that don't make any physical sense. The fact that you know nothing about Kris' life despite ostensibly being a fundamental part of them is very strange. They are aware of and know and have feelings about even very innocuous things that a repressed memory doesn't convincingly explain, at least not to me. I believe a lot of the metaphorical things you discuss here can coexist with the idea that you're also possessing Kris' will if you separate the physical reality and the themes and allow them to not be completely dependent on one another. In much the same way you dismiss the idea that the knight can't be anyone besides Dess to be narratively satisfying despite it being the obvious choice, I think the reveal at the end that you actually are Kris is one that doesn't have to exist and the idea that you aren't Kris can be allowed to be a reality that is established early on. I believe there's a happy middle ground here where both your perspective and the commonly accepted one can be true to some degree.

I was initially very pleased with myself because I arrived at the "actually, You Are Not the Soul" interpretation years ago in the chapter 2 era. But this analysis showed how shallow even my own revelation really was. Very well done.

I'm an intermediate Japanese speaker married to a Japanese native, and neither of us are entirely sure that the (your?) translation of the Japanese at 11:49 is necessarily the appropriate interpretation of にて. The problem we're admittedly both having is that にて isn't exactly everyday common spoken language, but we are both inclined to say that the nuance is probably usually closer to "by means" で（黒き刃で生み出す・黒い刃で○○作る ==> uses the black knife to make ==> which makes with blackened knife, as the official English original） than "from" から（黒い刃から生み出す ==> made out of, made from the black knife）. I don't know how much your thesis relies on this detail, but at the very least it might be worth a bit more scrutiny?

I mean; if your reading is correct, it's not merely a clarification of the original idea imposed by how Japanese works, it's a complete grammatical inversion of the original official English. Just thought it was a bit conspicuous.