"Hurt people hurt people" - Deltarune "Egg Route" and Weird Route Analysis
This is a sequel to another post I made regarding my theory that obtaining the various eggs from the Forgotten Man is key to what amounts to the "True Pacifist" counterpart to the Weird Route's Genocide. I did plan for a while on a sequel post on the specifics of how I think it would go, but i'm not starting on that note. Instead, i'll talk about a theme throughout the game that might provide a key to why the weird route and the egg routes are set up as opposite routes as they are.
I will say upfront that I live a fairly comfortable life and thus have no trauma to speak of, and I am by no means an expert on the subject, and this is just my analysis of how trauma is used and presented in Deltarune. This entire opening bit was inspired by a blog post from No Chocolate in regards of Asriel being a case of abuse by his adoptive sibling Chara.
So onwards to Deltarune, most of the source of this trauma seems to originate when "Lost where the forest would grow, the children follow the pointed tail", as alluded to in the ROOTS room of chapter 4 and the adjoining Art Therapy Room, possibly involving FRIEND and certainly the shelter. This would ultimately lead to Dess disappearing and (almost certainly) later becoming the Roaring Knight.
As a result of this, Toriel and Asgore are divorced (the latter having an entire conspiracy board likely dedicated to Dess's Cold Case), This is likely a catalyst for Asriel leaving town (and maybe going to college?), Noelle is missing her sister and Froze up when just merely spelling her name (and likely went alongside Asriel, Kris, and Dess into the forest where they followed the pointed tail and repressed all memories of it if a line about them exploring a forest in chapter 2 is to go by), Susie is implied to have a negligent if not abusive homelife, and Kris is pinned between us controlling them, and being bound by a promise by the voice on the phone (either Carol or the Knight, it honestly depends).
This is not even going into about what's Dess is doing, as I bet she's probably gonna be scarred for life even if she is restored from being the Knight (and that's assuming it's not weird route exclusive either, which I hope it's not the case). I doubt being trapped in darkness for years and turned into whatever you consider her knight form to be is at all pleasant.
Thus, we enter the three routes the game can take: the normal route (where you don't do the weird route but also don't get all the eggs as well), the Weird Route, and my proposed Egg Route.
The Normal Route represents escapism, shocker that being a big theme in the game after all. Not becoming worse due to what you are experiencing, but not becoming better for it, and overall just ignore the festering wound at the centre of it all.
The weird route is to become worse people for it, manipulating and abusing others. It's said by the shadow mantle holder that Kris enjoyed the events of the weird route from the previous chapter, knowing they can blame it on someone else (either Noelle or, more likely, us). I also heard this could be indicative of us acting on Kris's darker impulses (hell, I made a theory this isn't Kris's first rodeo as far as using Noelle as a cryomantic death machine).
Naturally, this leads us to the Egg Route. Digging through our pile of guilt and trauma till we are at the roots of it. Being open about what hurt us back then, and what it ultimately led to us doing in the present. In Kris's case, working with the knight and carol on some illumaniti-type bullshit (probably involving Gaster if entry 17 being played at -666% speed in the holiday mansion's basement is anything to go by). Helping others heal from their trauma as well as your own.
Trauma is, at least from what I gather from us passing the halfway point, a major theme of Deltarune, and I feel like this would most manifest in the game's various routes.
The first thing to bring up is something a commenter said regarding the Forgotten man, and that its likely gaster also forgets about him. It's likely from the Voice's perspective, we just kinda blipped out of existance when we get into these egg rooms and good W.D. had separation anxiety or something and deemed it enough of an issue to ding us some playstation achievements.
The second thing is regard to the prophecy, and that the Forgotten Man is basically THE character most free from it. On account of the whole (how the hell can you record a man who everyone forgets) thing. If the Forgotten Man finally pops out of that tree (and honestly by law of checkov's gun, its going to happen at some point), he's basically the most FREE character in the entire game. At this point the prophecy is unlikely to adjust to him fast enough before he does something importent to screw with it, and considering how generally cordial the forgotten man is with Kris he's 100% going to be an importent ally.
Another observation is the coloration of the secret bosses and thats the usage of Pink (sometimes purple instead) and Yellow. Jevil is purple and yellow, spamton has yellow and pink glasses and Spamton Neo is also Yellow and Pink, there's the Yellow and Pink eyes of a friend (and purple is used for the background for FRIEND's one and only introduction scene), and Gerson has a yellow eye and a pink bandana. I bring this up due to Susie and Noelle, whose battle menu icons are those colours. While susie is purple in the light world, pink in the dark world, and has yellow eyes and bracelet spikes, noelle has blonde hair to justify her icon color. Considering the colors connection to secret bosses, how noelle has a history with spamton and the knight (not to mention devil's knife smiling at her), i suspect this is a significant detail. If the Egg Route were to end up roping both of them into a quest to save Dess and possibly defeat Gaster as well, combined with Kris being buddies with the forgotten man, the prophecy and the game as a whole would end up going fucking sideways. Especially if the forgotten man is a shard of gaster or something along those lines.
turnnoffyourmind
prguitarman
kaledo-art
snowghoul
stormborns
tangentwithtanner
gummygunk
izzy806
