I figured this out last night myself, nice to see more people talking about it as this seems to be a massive key to cracking open the Weird Route/B-Side. A lot of this will be modified from a comment I made earlier on a YT video, though I promise this should be interesting
The Ace that is observing this space also calls it “Lousy real estate" in reference to the houses, and also says he found it by trying to see as far as he can. “Seeing too far” is something referenced throughout the weird route, most notably by Spamton NEO in his ending monologue.
but also by Noelle here in reference to the other side of the lake.
Given this is past the boundaries of the map, this could be the coveted “World’s Edge” mentioned in the prophecy, or an edge that will count for such purposes. Given this areas ties to the weird route specifically I am skeptical of the former.
This sequence also seems to parallel sections within the SWORD ROUTE, specifically going on the raft to the ice palace (Noelle describes the waters as getting colder as she goes further, the Glacier area in board 2 is made of bizarre white geometry which terrifies Ralsei, as we see also prior to this if you go to the school, and “snow” is a common description for garbage video data (like TV static, or garbled game assets). What the Ice Palace would be in this context is... something. I'll try to discuss it later
Noelle bringing us this way also brings to mind FOLLOW THE WHITE CLOAK, though this seems like it will be needed for later. Depends on if Noelle’s survives her "voyage".
What this Out of Bounds area entails for us is unknown besides being a place of evil and doom. Going off of the glitch in Mother 1, using the breadcrumbs again in certain spots allows you to wrong warp into other parts of the game, including the door to the final boss and even the game over screen.
Possibilities I’ve considered are:
that it’s a wrong warp to an area in chapter 7
It's a hub to access bizarre areas were not meant to be in for the purposes of “getting stronger” (see Ramb’s description of the Sword Route as having more Freedom). Possibly includes past dark worlds or even ""unused"" dark worlds, though I have a specific thought I'll get to later
If the Mother 1 glitch can access rooms that shouldnt be playable like the game over screen, it may be possible to find a way of “playing” inside the games menu, perhaps ultimately leading to a fake arbitrary code execution (ACE) and breaking the game even harder.
What I think seems most interesting, however, is that it might be some way of entering the primordial “”original game”” of Deltarune. 6.
So, what is the original game?
Deltarune is full of references to stories being adapted from other stories (see Cat Petterz rpg <- Dragon Blazerz <- Lord of the Hammer <- Prophecy, or even the Dark Worlds being adaptations of the Light World).
Deltarune has also made a lot of the story of its own creation diagetic to the narrative (see how often Waiting comes up in game and in promotional material ect.),
Part of this story is a version from 2012 that went nowhere, one that appears to have lacked the sparing system based on stuff like this early version of Jevil's "numbers game" line
This suggests it was a game where you were expected to be enacting violence within the dark world, something you cant do in the game as is.
The Mantle game is described as an original version of a game modified by Tenna that (mostly) removes the Violence and Weird Route centric elements from the game and in its place adds jokes, goofy set pieces, and storylines, as well as making it more linear. Ralsei in the current chapter is also stated as clearly suppressing some violent abilities involving fire, and the Sword Route and 4th Egg room suggest Kris is hiding some violent urges too
Where is the Mantle game? Backstage in an area an area the viewer is not meant to be in. In otherwords, its literally found out of bounds.
The chapter 3 egg room (with the Ace and their binoculars) also has some other traits. It being 8-bit but with normal Kris is one but also the egg mans dialogue: Referring to a time where the world looked like this (a gamboy-esque retro game)
(Next lines might be about the games development into the modern game though I am uncertain)
While not literally the 2012 prototype of the game, I believe the weird route might be building up to a version of Deltarune more ""faithful"" to its original vision prior to Undertale (or at least presented within the story as such).
Another minor thing is that I have a suspicion that the "ice palace" we find the SWORD ROUTE might be alluding to us using the area across the water to access an ""scrapped"" dark world (perhaps intended as the Holiday Residence or the Town Hall). Its important enough to seemingly be a part of Dragon Blazers, yet nowhere in the game implies it is or could be a thing outside the ice palace. It also needs a specific party member to traverse which is very obviously Noelle, which further ties it to the weird route.
I am sure I will develop more on these ideas but rn this has been circling my mind since last night when I thought to look more into the "breadcrumbs glitch"'s relationship to Deltarune. If anyone wants a name for this thing, idk like "Original Game Theory"
