DELTARUNE - AMPHITHEATER THEORY
(Note: This theory will most likely be posted very close to the release of the Chapter 5 trailer, probably meaning a large part of it is either going to be immediately proven right or immediately proven wrong. Both of those options would be really funny. Either way, I hope you enjoy!)
The words in the Proofread ACT.
What the hell is up those, eh?
Well, if you're as deep in the Deltarune rabbit hole as I, you probably already know what's up. They're mostly songs from the soundtracks of Chapters 1 through 4, as well as a few exceptions, which are theorized to be the names of tracks used in the future. These being:
ROOTS (of which we've already heard two variants, Chapter 2's Digital Roots and Chapter 3's BIT ROOTS)
FLASHBACK (of which we've already heard an excerpt of, in the form of the aptly-titled Flashback (Excerpt))
From what I've seen, the fandom already has a general idea of where the first 4 of these tracks will play. ROOTS in some kind of spooky-dooky penumbra basement IMAGE_FRIEND lorenuke area, FLASHBACK in the inevitable Dess Exposition Cutscene™, FESTIVAL during the Festival (duh), and SYNTHESIS somewhere in the Flower King Dark World (due to the name being interpreted as short for Photosynthesis).
AMPHITHEATER, though, is interesting. Not just because it's the one where we have no idea on its placement, but because despite its current absence from Deltarune, we have already heard it.
On April 2, 2012, Toby Fox posted a collection of six short Yume Nikki fantracks, titled "made up yume nikkis", on this very site. Of these six, two (namely, Waltz of Seccom Masada and Waltz of Seccom Masada (8-bit)) have already been reused on the Deltarune soundtrack (as man.ogg and man_nes.ogg, respectively). Another one of these tracks, the one I included above, bears the name Amphitheater. Interestingly, unlike those two tracks, this one seems to retain its original name, indicating the presence of some kind of amphitheater area in the future of Deltarune.
Now, where am I going with this?
Before going ahead with the theory proper, I'll make the first of many bold, yet surprisingly evidence-backed claims on which it hinges on: Every single song teased by the Proofread ACT is going to appear in Chapter 5. Chapter 6, much like the overdramatic scientist the number is associated with, is a subject that Toby has deliberately been very tight-lipped on, and we only really know 7 exists because of the Chapter Select menu. Taking this, as well as the fact that Chapter 5 was originally meant to release alongside 3-4, into consideration, I believe it makes sense to attribute most small details that scream "Look at me! I'm foreshadowing!" to be hinting towards the next instalment, rather than something down the line.
PART 1: Business is B(l)ooming
Let's start off by going back to the beginning.
Since the very first days of Deltarune theorizing, one particular subject has fascinated the fanbase to no end: the list of character names the GONERMAKER Narrator makes a note of. Many different takes on this list's meaning have been posited over the years, though a certain interpretation has only grown more evident over time: it being a list of Lightners who we will see in a (pre-Roaring) Dark World. With the exception of the Knight, a being of vague identity and dubious Lightner-hood, every single named Lightner we've encountered within a Dark World so far has been a name ticked off the suspicious list.
Now, let's look at those names, and whether they've been ticked off yet:
Asgore: *️⃣ (Basically confirmed already)
We'll start with Asgore, as his inclusion in Chapter 5 is the most telegraphed, and I believe has the most to tell us about the rest of the chapter's contents.
...Okay, so this dude is definitely planning to make a Dark World, right? Are we on the same page? No objections? Cool. Let's move onto the where, the how, and the why.
Where is he planning to make his Dark World?
How does making one help him?
Why is he doing it on the day of the Festival?
In my opinion, the answer to those questions lies in one particular line of that speech:
Nice business for Flower Man, eh?
So, it's been established by multiple in-game sources that the Festival is expected to bring a record amount of customers to Flower King, both because of the Festival's decor including a lot of them, as well the heavy implication of "taking someone to the festival" being something of a romantic tradition and, as Asgore himself says, "Flowers are for people you love."
And if Asgore's plan is to clear his name by exposing the existence of Dark Worlds to as many of Hometown's residents as possible...isn't it really convenient that he just so happens to own an establishment that a lot of them are likely to visit tomorrow?
It's just about time we revisit the other names on that list. Let's look at every character whose name hasn't been ticked off yet, and whether they have an already-established reason to visit Flower King on the day of the Festival:
Rudy: He's got two, actually. Buying flowers for his wife and visiting his old friend.
Bratty and Catty: Asriel's return to hometown is imminent, and they likely want to beat each other to the punch of giving him a loving welcome.
Catti: Wants to keep Susie away from Noelle, and has very much been set up as a sort of love rival for her. Something something inferno of jealousy.
Jockington: Accompanies Catti everywhere. What more do you want from him?
Alphys: With Undyne being busy playing Sword DDR with the Roaring Knight and all, she might work up the courage to try and ask her second biggest crush, Asgore, to go on a date.
Asriel: If he is, in fact, returning during the Festival, would likely want to visit his dad.
Papyrus: Not that we know of.
QC: Not that we know of, though something tells me the much-anticipated return of the Shop Screen has something to do with her.
Now, am I saying that literally every single as-of-yet unchecked name on The List™ will appear in the Flower King Dark World? Not necessarily, but enough of them check out that I feel confident in saying: there might indeed be a compromise option between the "Chapter 5's Dark World obviously takes place in Flower King" thesis and the "No, Chapter 5's Dark World will be the Festival and have a lot of Lightners participating" antithesis.
A Synthesis, if you will.
PART 2: Chekhov's Gun Rack
Speaking of Synthesis, now that we've established how the Light World segment will lead into the Dark World, what will this Dark World actually be like? What will its theme be? Because if there's one thing that's been consistent with every Dark World so far, it's that they've all been themed after some form of escapism, whether that be a form of entertainment or social ritual. Chapter 1 is tabletop games and role-playing. Chapter 2 is the internet. Chapter 3 is TV and video games. Chapter 4 is religion. Chapter 5 is...Festival? Gardening? Like, don't get me wrong, gardening is a fine hobby and all, but it's a little too specific for the kind of commentary that Deltarune seems keen on doing. And the festival theme has the opposite problem, where it's a little too broad. Surely, there must be a more specific form of escapism which lends itself well to the "social gathering" theme, fits the idea of Asgore trying to expose the truth to Hometown, and has already been alluded to within Deltarune?
Let's just look at some of the things the game has foreshadowed so far, and see where we end up.
First thing to consider is the most direct hint we've been given to the nature of the Flower King Dark World: Miss Mizzle's comments about "the bluest flower". Since we know the seven preserved flowers in the back of Asgore's flower shop were from the bouquet Toriel held during her and Asgore's wedding, it definitely checks out why they'd be acquainted with the denizens of the Dark Sanctuary.
So, we have a quote that paints "The Bluest Flower" in a very similar light to how Undertale characterized the Integrity Soul, indicating that Asgore's flowers will parallel the fallen humans of Undertale to some extent. Pretty standard assumption, right?
That's what I first thought, too. But every time I've reread this line, something has always stuck out to me as odd.
...What the hell does "A disciple of my speech" mean?
The Blue Flower trained their way of talking under Miss Mizzle? Sure, it might partially be a callback to the Echo Flowers, but why is this important enough that it's the first thing she mentions about them? The thing Undertale consistently associates with Integrity is ballet, famously an artform that doesn't exactly involve much talking. And the way she specifies "The Bluest Flower", while yes, could simply be hinting to the other 6 flowers having also visited the church, tells me that they, too, are "disciples of Miss Mizzle's Speech", with the bluest simply being her favorite "student".
But what does that mean? What role would the flowers play in Chapter 5's Dark World that would need them to be disciples of Miss Mizzle's speech?
To figure that out, let's talk about the other biggest fallen human allusion in Deltarune and see what it tells us:
Now, I know what some of you might be thinking. "Kate, why are you using the Mike Zone as evidence for a theory? Don't you know its only purpose is Toby telling us that our theories are dumb and wrong?" Look.
When analyzing the Mike Zone, one thing that must be considered above all else is at what point in development it was added: that being, after it was decided Chapters 3-4 would be releasing without Chapter 5. Thus, it is safe to say that its purpose, outside of riffing on the fandom a bit and making use of the Switch 2 hardware, is to give us some things to chew on in regards to Chapter 5 that he wouldn't have really had to foreshadow, had we just gotten it alongside 3 and 4.
So, let's look at them hats:
A boater hat with a dark blue tint
A sun hat with a green hue
A newsboy cap with hints of a pale magenta woven in
And the obligatory cowboy hat
Taking the flower-soul-hat connection into consideration, this only leaves our Flowey-looking flower hatless, which does check out. So what is Toby trying to tell us here? "The Flower Darkners will wear these specific hats"? I don't think it's that simple. I don't even think all these hats will even show up in Chapter 5. I think the specific idea being foreshadowed to us here is the idea of them wearing costumes.
So, the two things we can glean about the Seven Flower Darkners is that they wear various costumes, and had to train to be able to talk a certain way.
Almost as interesting as the fact that, throughout all of Chapter 3, there is one particular aspect of the TV theme that Toby pretty much avoids with a ten-foot pole. Tenna makes the Fun Gang interact with basically every single aspect of what you can watch on TV, from game shows, to the weather report, to cooking programs, to fucking MTV, but there's one thing he very notably avoids. He never gives the lightners a script. He never has them running lines. Even in the short bits of gameplay where they are ostensibly part of a scripted program, like the Susiezilla and Horse Ralsei minigames, they're always a part of an action sequence where they're more stunt double than actor proper.
Almost like Toby is saving the whole "actor" idea for a later chapter so it doesn't feel redundant when it appears there.
Almost like tackling acting as a concept is much more poignant when you've just spent pretty much all of the last chapter's Dark World focusing on the Fun Gang's role in the Prophecy.
It certainly wouldn't be the first time the game's drawn a connection between the Prophecy and a stage production with costumed actors.
If you'll recall, the prediction I started this theory off with is that the tracks teased by the Bibliox, including Amphitheater, will all make their debut in Chapter 5...
Well, now we can make an educated guess as to who'll be performing on the stage of that Amphitheater.
PART 3: Resemblance to Lightners is Purely Coincidental
So, a stageplay-themed Dark World, huh?
Seems like a concept with a lot of potential. Darkners performing a recreation of The Cowboy Show as a sort of royal play to entertain their king, perhaps a minigame where one or more of the actors go missing so Kris & Co. have to take their place, maybe even a sort of Pseudo-Fun Gang fight with our heroes crashing a production of the Prophecy and fighting the actors playing them. You could get a lot of fun stuff out of that idea.
...But what does such a Dark World really mean for Deltarune, anyway?
Like, Chapter 1's game theme served the purpose of bringing our heroes together, Chapter 2's search histories shone a light on Noelle's character and desires, etc...so what will Chapter 5 end up doing?
I've spent a lot of time making my case for why I think The Chapter 5 Dark World will have a stageplay theme, but focused much less on why Asgore's Dark World would have it. That is to say, why would Asgore's will manifest in the form of costumed flowers on a stage?
Simple. It's because of why he's making the Fountain in the first place. He wants to expose the truth of Dess' disappearance. He wants to show Hometown what really happened.
A lot of people people, myself included, think we are closer than ever to The Big Dess Exposition Moment™, but from what I've seen, most imagine it as more like Tenna's backstory monologue than anything. Asgore, or Asriel, or Carol, or whoever giving us the deetz while a PowerPoint slideshow of sepia-tone images plays in the background. But I doubt it will be that straight-forward. I believe, that as far as The Dessxposition™ is concerned, the stage has already been set.
Quite literally, in fact.
The idea of the game dropping the Flashback on us in the form of Asgore's Pepe Silvia conspiracy corkboard isn't exactly a novel one. Hell, it's basically Deltarune theorist orthodoxy at this point. But I've never seen anyone suggest how this moment could interact with broader ideas that may be set up earlier in Chapter 5. And would a theatrically-themed Dark World not be perfect for delivering such a moment? Just think about it. The final piece of the day. The final piece of the puzzle. All the Darkners you've encountered throughout the chapter solemnly playing the part of Hometown's Lightners, acting out the events leading up to the disappearance of December Holiday. ...Perhaps with a certain cat with a pointed tail making its first proper appearance, reprising its role from the real incident?
Well, I won't dwell on that idea for too long, as making basically any prediction about FRIEND's nature at this point is about as futile as exercises in futility get. What I will do is dwell on something else.
Darkners that resemble Lightners, in a false recreation of Hometown.
Where have we heard that one before?
Basically, when I said "every single song teased by the Proofread ACT", I really did mean "every single song".
I presume everyone is already familiar with Roots Theory, but for those who are unaware, I'll give the cliff notes version. Basically, it's the idea that the manhole dungeon in the Mantle Game's third board is actually foreshadowing/instructions for a future chapter's Weird Route, similar to how the Ice Palace-looking place in the second board was instructions for Chapter 2's Weird Route.
The most common interpretation of this is that the Player, through Kris, will go on a rampage of Actual Hometown and kill Actual Lightners, like a sort of funhouse mirror version of the Chapter 1 "Kris is possessed by Interdimensional Poltergeist Chara Undertale and will murderize everyone" theories. But this idea has never really sat right with me. It feels very unrefined. It feels very "i remember you're genocides". I seriously doubt Just Doing The No Mercy Route Again But In Another Game is what Toby is going for with the Weird Route.
What we do know about what Toby is going for, though, is that the route is very Noelle-centric and focuses heavily on sequence breaks.
And what's more Noelle-centric than literally making her watch the metaphysical representation of her own childhood be destroyed before her eyes to send her a message about how she needs to let go of her past to Become Stronger? What's more of a sequence break than interrupting one of the biggest, most influential mystery reveals of the game, essentially preventing the story from telling itself?
So, while yes, Chapter 5 would most likely include a significant amount of Hometown's residents in a Dark World, the event teased by the BIT ROOTS minigame wouldn't exactly be killing them. Just their likenesses.
Speaking of those residents...
PART 4: It Takes a Village (to Cause the Roaring)
For our final point, to figure out this will play into Chapter 6's story, let's revisit the whole "like a third of Hometown in the same Dark World" thing.
This is more of a ramble than part of the actual theory, but I've noticed that, for some reason, it's almost become a sort of taboo in some corners of the Deltarune theory space to theorize about the idea that Chapter 5's Dark World will prominently include non-Fun Gang Lightners outside of Asgore, Noelle, and like maybe Sans if people are feeling particularly spicy with it. Some look at The List as a punchline, an example of fans extrapolating non-existent patterns on par with Chess Theory, even as it's only gotten more evident with Chapter 4 checking off the most finnicky inclusion on the list. People are just resigned to the idea that the whole Chapter 2 Berdly Arc was essentially a fluke, and we'll never have an "unimportant" Lightner playing a major role in a Dark World ever again.
And, like, part of me gets why. The way Chapter 2's ending set Chapter 3 up sort of baited people into thinking Toriel and Undyne would be playing significantly larger roles within the chapter, and their absence for the majority of it made some fans think this was just ol' Tricky Tony getting one over us again. The List believers just didn't see the full picture.
But if you were to ask me? Then if anything, it's the people who scoff at the idea of the Skelebros in a Dark World who aren't seeing the full picture. It's the Catti Deniers™ who are picking up on patterns that aren't there. Because I have a much better reason than just patterns to believe Toby would include such a Lightner-heavy Dark World at this exact point in the story.
And that is: how I believe the Roaring will go down.
Imagine you're a resident of Hometown. Perhaps, you are the shy and awkward teacher, Alphys. Or, the affable fun-loving sportshead, Jockington. Maybe even the mild-mannered honor student, Noelle. Now, imagine that you have just witnessed a world and an adventure unlike any you could have ever dreamed of. A world borne from a simple blade to the ground, with talking flowers and pink-gold fields, beings of pure darkness venerating the local police-chief-turned-florist as their king, and the revelation that two out of the three Heroes your religion venerates are simply a pair of teens from your little town.
And then, you wake up in the aforementioned florist's house, alongside the other people you met. At first, you dismiss your experience as a wild dream. Perhaps, of a kind you've already had before. But gradually, around you, everyone starts sharing details. It appears as though they all had the same "dream", too. Gradually, one by one, you all come to the same bizarre realization: everything you saw was real. Kris and Susie are the heroes of the Prophecy. The fantasy world of your desires can be created by merely plunging a blade into the ground with sufficient determination. You could make Mew Mew real. You could play all the sportsball you like. You could heal your sick and dying father.
Now, taking this information into consideration, what is the first thing you do next morning?
If you answered anything other than "Make a damn Dark World, stat", I'd like to reveal that there is an AzzyKnight behind Door #3 and implore you to reconsider.
I mean, what's the worst that could happen? You've basically got the damn saviors of the waking world on speed-dial. If you were to want your dark world gone, you could just have them get rid of it, right? Surely the Divinely Prophesied Heroes wouldn't fail, right? They wouldn't get overwhelmed, right?
Half the town couldn't have come up with the same idea, right?
Now, stop imagining. You're you, reading a theory about a video game on the internet. Hope you didn't get too attached to your role as a clueless Hometown resident.
So, what am I really proposing here?
Well, essentially, I'm thinking that after Chapter 5 sets the scene for a Hometown that is aware of the Dark World, Chapter 6 will expand on the whole "duty and responsibility" theme established in Chapter 4 by having it so basically all of Hometown immediately takes Kris and Susie for granted, fully hoisting the role of saviordom onto them in an effort to distract from their own problems. In a gameplay sense, this will most likely manifest in the form of a "several mini-dark worlds" chapter, located in areas that have been shown as having potential Dark World indicators, though not having enough detail or thematic value to qualify as a full chapter's worth of darkness.
...Will any of that be true? No clue.
Will anything I've said in this theory be true? Perhaps.
I just hope you all enjoyed me rambling about the funny darkness game. We will most likely see it for ourselves in tomorrow's Direct, after all.
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