there are two wolves within me:
one wolf thinks that krusielle is possibly endgame, because susie's arc is likely culminating in her learning what love means (as per the japanese translation of the girl panel as 'the girl will learn the true meaning of love'). this may mean she learns that her love is vast and for everyone and that she deserves love from others.
noelle's arc is a continuation of her learning to be her own person, outside of the box of 'the girl next door', and advocating for herself with the love of others as the deltarune plot unravels before her.
kris' arc is likely going to culminate in them learning to be honest with their wants and that they deserve to be happy. this could work in both rekindling their whatever-ship with noelle and mending their relationship with susie.
and while mixed in messaging, there has been canon acknowledgment of throuples. i can easily see where toby amends the love triangle (despite how messy it is) in a thematic way by having them all romantically bond together. everyone wins, everyone's happy
the other wolf thinks that there is a much more interesting thematic angle this could take and that is the message of learning to let go and learning to value all types of love, not just romantic love.
unrequited crushes are things that happen all the time irl and i feel it's an especially important message for the teen/young adult demographic of this game to understand that letting go and moving on from the heartbreak is a part of life, that you can form an important bond and be significant to someone without it being romantic.
deltarune is a coming-of-age story and that is especially true for kris, who is unable to let go of the past, either by conspiracy or by their own doing. imo the romance subplot was primarily to give a reason as to why kris will not waver in the plan anymore and to further drive home the point that they are othered. there is no place for them beside susie and noelle in the way they want, and this is how it's always been for them.
we see an example of this happening when they were young. suselle is riding the ferris wheel, clearly romantically-coded, and we know that azzy and dess were romantic, so this scene is meant to parallel how they felt left out then and still feel left out now.
seriously, toby could've given kris the kind of platonic crush/squish that's 'oh i want to be with them', but instead he specifically went out of his way to show that kris' special spaces with susie are being opened up and it is not framed as something positive, because it's paired with kris feeling lonely and unimportant (the ending hammers this in so hard).
by the end of the festival date, susie is having a blast with just noelle.
she refuses to flirt with enemies:
and excludes kris from the lake by redefining 'we' to mean 'her and noelle', not 'her and kris', which was *their* special thing:
all of this serves to reinforce that kris losing their spaces is a painful reminder to them that they do not fit in and that someone 'better' will always take their spot in others' hearts.
the real kicker is that based off everything we know so far, it seems like kris has a romantic crush on susie where she's exclusively special to them and they want her to think of them as 'exclusively special' and possibly????? do things that are considered romantically exclusive like smooching if the plant joke, straw bite, constant flirting etc was anything to go by lol.
but unfortunately, this sentiment is incongruous with susie being with noelle. it is so incredibly clear to me that neither susie nor noelle see kris in a romantic light compared to how they see each other:
like suselle is literally the poster child for romance and neither of them feel this way towards kris
thus kris gets their heart broken at the end of chapter 5.
and i frankly don't know if a polycule is going to solve kris' sense of self-worth when they've already displayed jealousy. they want to feel special and exclusive, but end up having to share. if kris was like... in their late 20s, this could work out, but we have 2 chapters left and they're a maladjusted 16 year old with a death wish. in fact, all three in this triangle have shown jealousy towards the other pair which is ummmmmmmmmmmmmm.
personally, i think kralsusie is much more likely to be a throuple because they have an actual group dynamic (and this has been alluded to twice in the game DIRECTLY) compared to krusielle buuuuuuuuuuut....
though who knows, maybe toby will go with krusielle to combat the monogamous expectations of the festival
or he could fight the amatonormativity of it all by having kris and susie's bond be redefined as something special to them, with no labels or social norms. much like the bell game, these two always play outside the rules of the game.
it could be that the lesson is to let go of romantic conceptions and define love your own way. not platonic, not romantic, not familial, but something unique to just them. susie may not have a word for her bond with kris, but what she knows is that they're important to her as much as noelle, her romantic partner is.
and isn't that also an important message for deltarune's audience too? that you can treasure other types of love just as much as romantic ones? that you don't have to solely focus on your romantic partner?
while it sucks that kris won't get their romantic crush returned or possibly do romantic things with susie (or well who knows idk), i think what's most important for them is to know that they're valued and important. kris is a sweet kid with so much love inside their heart and i believe in them to overcome the heartbreak of their unrequited crush and realize that they can be loved in a way where they're special all the same.
love is more than just romance, after all.
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