never gonna be relevant in this site

#1) Refresher & Corrections

A Quick summary of previous information from Seam 101, that I still believe is applicable: 

Seam is inherently connected to Asriel due to his computer wallpaper, their concept art description and location of shop, the Halloween pencil, Toriel's computer background, and the spinning button eye referencing omega flowey.

They’re based off (or inspired by) Asriel’s favorite Smashing Fighters character, “The Fiery Magician Girl”, as they’re the only darkner who is a “magician”, is interested in battles/battling  (as well as games), and their theme song is a slowed down rendition of “Rude Buster”, the main battle theme. They also had a streak for fighting- if the Seam Ripper flavor text is to be believed.

When re-examining the original post, there are a few details I'd like to add.

In "Detail #4: Shadow Crystals, and the Flow of Information", I argued that Seam is purposefully obscuring information and the extent of their knowledge. Despite not being a shadow crystal holder, they know everything about the crystals, who has it, the holder's power level and even how to "craft" something out of it. They refuse to give direct names despite knowing who the holder is (such as Jevil), until after confirmation of their defeat. Seam casts various information as "hunches", despite being perfectly accurate (ex: dialogue about the Machine in Queens Basement + Shadow crystals appearing somewhere close).

Whilst the original post highlighted Seam's strange behavior in regards to that, I realize that theorizing whether or not Seam was intentionally obscuring information was unnecessary. This is because they outright state, "But if you have some time, I'll offer you a biscuit and a hint", "By the by, I cant offer any advice when you're not here...So I'm not sure my hints will be much use after all! Ha ha!", when you don't have a shadow crystal. Admitting to giving us "hints" implies they know more than us.

In terms of gameplay, Seam's obfuscation of info feeds into player curiosity. Through vague hints and promising future reward, Seam is capable of manipulating players into collecting 5 crystals. This isn't inherently bad as spoiling main events and secrets would ruin player enjoyment. Thus, this is a good trait for gameplay. In terms of character, Seam's trait creates a situation where they're leading the heroes into dangerous situations, without the team fully understanding the threat. In Chapter 2 when failing to obtain Spamton's crystal, Seam even acknowledges this danger, "... It seems that you didn't get another Shadow Crystal. / Hm. I understand. It's no small feat to fight an opponent that has one. /... / Well then, forget it all. / You're a Lightner. Don't take your life, well, lightly!".

Plus, the only reason they start to consider the team as "heroes" is because they defeat Jevil, an incredibly powerful Darkner who intends to KILL (aka: his "HP drops to 0" game). They don't warn us of this fact, simply stating "Hmm, now that you mention it, it could be troublesome if he was left alone... / Yes, perhaps it's better if you heroes dealt with him now...? / After all, it's not as if whatever happens, will matter in the end. / Perhaps a little chaos might be fun." This lack of info is likely their faith in the heroes abilities. However, when there was none (i.e before we fight jevil/not thinking the team is THE heroes), their trait of guarding info implies a somewhat lax attitude towards the heroes safety.

NOTE: Seam does tell us whether or not they think we're going to be able to defeat our foes based on their knowledge of our holders power level. Gerson and Knight are incredibly powerful. Seam offers a Mantle to aid us, and believes we'll win Gerson's fight regardless of his power level (they're right). So technically, they warn us by saying we can't even win.

As of now, neither player nor Kris are privy to what Seam's crafted "item" is. We don't know what the shadow crystals are (aside from being glass), what they do, where they come from, or if it'll have caveats/consequences. All we know is that they'll create something "incredible" for us. Which, depending on what route we're on can be a cause for concern.

In a chapter 5 teaser, Seam admits to owing an explanation to Kris. Defining the crystals is just the FIRST PART of that explanation, considering we don't know how Seam got this information about the holders or the crystals. The only thing we know for certain is that Jevil told them about the prophecy. Jevil told King about his rise to power, the fountain, and the Knight. Considering he's close companions with Seam, he likely told them even more information. ("He started saying bizarre things that didn't completely make sense - / But didn't completely not make sense, either. - Ch1, "Jevil" dialogue).

To determine whether this is truly a character trait or solely a curated way to engage players- we'll compare them to a similar character:

Ramb. A purple plugboy, disliked by most, if not all TV-world Darkners. He hold connections to Kris and Asriel. Asriel brought him home and Ramb is Kris's toy. In terms of gameplay, his role functions as a shopkeeper- overlaid with a similar "bartender" aesthetic Swatch has. He is the key to accessing a secret area related to a shadow crystal holder, and references two holders: Spamton and Jevil. Somehow, Ramb is a near-copy of Seam in both color scheme (purple), connections (Asriel & Kris), gameplay (shopkeeper type), secrets (MANTLE game), and even has a similar speech quirk to Seam's hinting trait. (The difference between the "darker yet darker"/ "Ring a bell" and "only for Bigshots" is that Seam is more subtle.) He's also the opposite of Seam, being actively disliked whilst Seam recalls various friendly interactions with other Darkners, and is even invited to the heroes farewell party in Chapter 1.

Ramb's "hints" is in the form of the player reading his thoughts. If you don't have S-rank, these are accessible via obtaining the Z-rank gift box and saying "no" when he asks if Kris is having fun. In comparison to Seam, Ramb is incredibly blunt and honest with the "secrets" he keeps behind locked doors. He explains to Kris exactly what is happening and what he's trying to do. By the time both Kris and the player walk into the game room, we know we're playing the "original game". He even says, "Not often a Dark World pops up in your own house, you know? / ...though it could. If you ever wanted it to. / Sorry, Kris. Don't know what I was saying there." We later learn that Ramb saw Kris create the Dark Fountain, meaning this line of dialogue was Ramb's slip-up, teasing deeper knowledge than he lets on. In juxtaposition with Seam, they never have these "slip-ups", are never direct or fully explain things even after we've obtained the shadow crystals (if they do explain they coat it as a "hunch"). If the information in the teaser remains true, it means they'd continue to obscure information until the desired result (obtaining all 5 crystals) occurs. They're intentional and know what they're doing. Ramb rambles and slips up. He's trying to do what Seam does, but fails as that's not the character he is. He cares so much about Kris that he doesn't think about hiding anything from them, likely struggling to do so, whereas Seam leads us into the unknown with ease.

In the section, "Theory: The Plush Belongs To Nowhere." I theorized that Seam was not originally a Card-Castle resident. Instead they're a Darkner from TV-world, or residing in the area surrounding the studio (i.e in the purple cliffs, watery basin, etc.) This is because of Darkners such as Ramb, Pippins, and Catti's Zapper exists in TV-world. Meaning that Darkners from different fountains can still coexist as long as they "fit in". Plus, Lancer enters Castle Town through the great door, implying Darkners can travel through it without petrification.

While I believe the previous points still hold up, my argument that Seam is the only non-classroom themed Darkner does not. I proposed that every Darkner is formed in relation to their Darkworld, with Card Kingdoms theme being "old board games/classroom items". However, Darkners such as Malius: a toy hammer, Topchef: presumably a spinning top, and Bloxer: playing blocks, do not fit the "old board games/classroom items" theming. It's possible that the toy hammer, spinning top and toy blocks, might've been transferred from Toriel's classroom. Items like the toy blocks even appear as overworld sprites in her room. Since they technically fall under the" classroom" category, these characters could've easily existed within Card Kingdom.

However, children's classrooms can have stuffed animals in them. This works as evidence against my own claim, but since Seam is heavily implied to be Asriel's plush- and characters like the pippins and Ramb still identify as being from previous Darkworlds despite not being "formed" in there- I believe my argument holds up.

NOTE: This is in response to @ness010 's wonderful tags. Thanks for commenting! Loved the idea that if the abandoned classroom is Gersons, then Malius fits in due to being a hammer. Sadly, I don't believe the theme is "toys", due to characters like the Caged Animals and Scissor Dancer. Though your critique helped me re-examine my argument, so I thank you!

----------------------------

Originally I proposed that Seam had an awareness of SAVE files, due to their Chapter 2 dialogue when you fail to collect Jevil's Crystal. They're so certain Kris had fought Jevil, they actively question Kris's memory, imposing that they "don't remember yet" and accurately guess how crystals appear.

If you obtained the crystal in Chapter 1, then start a fresh save file in Chapter 2, Jevil's crystal will appear in the west side of Castle town. If you did this, Seam is 100% correct. Kris did not experience the previous Chapter 1 save file, but the player did. Therefore, Seam's "That's right, as long as you ever defeated that enemy in the past...Then perhaps, even now, that Crystal might turn up somewhere close... Perhaps!", hints to the player to search for the crystals location. By mentioning a "past" that has not occurred, I believed Seam had a level of awareness of our save files. However, I realized that Seam's knowledge of future events could have influenced this. Seam can infer how the heroes will obtain the crystals due to knowing the future, thus the order of Dark worlds formed, as well as the location of the crystals and who has them. Therefore, they wouldn't need/have knowledge of our Save Files.

Still, it's an odd detail considering that if the player never found Jevil, this dialogue is incredibly out of place. The line only functions as a way to inform players that they're missing a crystal, or that the crystal is in the left-side rubble in Castle Town. Acknowledging Kris' existence and the fact this never happened in their perspective, makes Seam out to be almost delusional here.

This dialogue gets even more confusing when you actually have the crystals:

[After starting Chapter 2 from a fresh SAVE file and having defeated Jevil on a previous Chapter 1 SAVE file, then collecting one of his items from the west of the Castle Town, after already talking to Seam in Chapter 2: "Ah, yes, that's right. It didn't occur to me until just now, but... / You three defeated that clown last time, didn't you?_ / ... Oh? What's that? It seems like he gave something to you." ] - Info from Deltarune Wiki.

Seam realizes we fought Jevil after we pick up his crystal. Seam doesn't notice that Kris has a crystal, until after this "realization". Whilst this seems like evidence of some awareness, they also act genuinely surprised when we hand them 3 crystals at once. Perhaps this is for transitioning into shadow crystal dialogue, then hinting at anything. Still it's still incredibly odd, especially considering the PROGRAM tracks shadow crystals; the only item in the game that's tracked like that. Though I no longer believe Seam knows about SAVES and such... I honestly don't know what to make of it all. This cat is the only Darkner whose involved with an item the PROGRAM is interested in. As of now, not even Ralsei can compete with that.

#2) Box of Odds-and-ends

When visiting Dess's room in Chapter 4, you can find a "box of odds-and-ends". Inside are various items, listed as followed:

"A couple of burnt lighters, rusted multitool knives, expired rations, Walkie talkies, loose binoculars, a pair of shoes fit for hooves, violent comic books, paintballs, a cracked hockey mask, frayed yarn and buttons, you brother's retainer, and old mint cans with unique leaves inside of them."

Whilst this information seems irrelevant and random, these items are intentional.

"A couple of burnt lighters" - In the Spamton Sweepstakes, the website /icee/ , titled, "Have you seen him?", shows Noelle as a child recounting a Ice-e's pizza box presumably winking at her in the dark. Dess comes to her aid and burns the eyes of the box using her lighter. Having multiple burnt lighters means she used these items a lot. With little to no evidence of cigarette usage or any lighter-needing items, we can assume she did this frequently.

"violent comic books, paintballs, a cracked hockey mask" - She has ice-skates in her closet, roller skates, baseball bat, and a wiffle bat. These objects help characterize her as an athletic person. Generally, these items in her room assist in describing her character. The Deltarune Wiki goes deeper into it, so feel free to read.

The description of the box being "a box of odds-and-ends" and the lines, "frayed yarn and buttons, your brother's retainer" connects to Seam. They're the only character that actively collects items and refers to said collection as "odds and ends". Examining the items in this box, "frayed yarn and buttons" doesn't match with the rest of Dess's interests. However, when paired next to the lines, "your brother's retainer", and acknowledging that his shirt is in her closet, she has drawings of Dragons under her bed (aka: likely used his How To Draw Dragons book), shows he has a habit of leaving his items with her. If Seam is his plush, then he could've left them with her. Plus, the "frayed yarn and buttons", refers to the only character with buttons that can be sewed with yarn.

Seam's over-world sprite matches the color palette of her bed, juxtaposed to Asriel and Kris' room. Dess shows signs of making DIY items, such as her custom made posters on her wall. While she is messy and disorganized, she doesn't destroy items she cares about. Instead she stores it in a box, keeps it in her closet, or piles them in a specific area. She also collects comics and videogames. If Seam is based off of a video-game, (likely one Asriel played) she could've taken inspiration from that. If not, then she purchased them and given Seam to Asriel as a gift. Since Seam appears in Asriel's computer wallpaper, they might be an OC she plush-ified for Asriel. It's possible the black patch on Seam's head is the leftover evidence of Dess "fixing" Seam, as she does have black clothing in her room that could've been ripped to patch them up.

Unless Toriel's room is revealed to have sewing materials and implication of her creating and/or buying Seam- its more likely that Dess created Seam, or at the very least, fixed Seam up. In the Holiday Newsletter, Toby fox created a semi-official drawing of Seam for Fangamer. Toby implies that Seam has a tail (thus rendering the Plush semi-official due to lacking one), and that it's been torn off by cruel and loving hands. She could be the reason for the tail being torn off, or she's the person who fixed them after someone tore Seam apart. Considering she has the buttons and thread and Seam matches her room's color scheme, it's likely the latter.

Asriel is characterized as someone who cares deeply for the inanimate. He even asks Alvin to grant him and Kris forgiveness for the sin of dropping the green dinosaur from their videogame. This is despite the fact that "sin" isn't a thing in their religion. If Seam is a gift from a close friend, is based off of his own favorite game, and he's deeply empathetic towards the inanimate- why would he abandon them? Perhaps Dess' disappearance meant that Seam became a reminder of bitter memories and "broken dreams". Then when going to college he, abandoned them. ... Under this context, I'd like to compare the Lightner's Machine in Queen's basement to Seam.

The Machine was made and imbued with the hopes and dreams of a Lightner and became incredibly powerful. In end, nothing ever came of it. Now it's abandoned in a basement with rest of the corrupted data. Seam is referred to and exist in places with the theme of Hopes & Dreams. In the Holiday Newsletter, Toby states their, "dust magic twinkles like broken dreams", Seam's shops is in field of "Hopes and Dreams" and they're in the "abandoned" classroom. Seam shows clear signs of being deeply cared for, with Asriel's drawings of them on his wallpaper and their design indicating they've been patched up and stitched back together. In the end, they were abandoned and left to rot- just like the Machine.

This is where I believe the description of their magic being "broken dreams", and their theme being a rendition of Rude Buster comes into play. Seam was imbued with love, hopes and dreams of their lightners. They became powerful- hence their song being one of fighting spirit. Plus, they're were able to withstand and trick strong Darkners like Jevil. As time progressed, they became this broken dream, abandoned and left to decay. Now they refer to themselves in a self-deprecating way, stating, "Ha, good luck. It makes no difference to me. / Neither Light nor Dark hold a future for a Darkner in my condition.". They deride their wares as "old junk", despite evidence of their items being useful (Halloween Sword, Food & Defense items) or downright legendary (Shadow Mantle). They claim that the heroes will have "little reason to return here" due to finding stronger items, completely discarding that the heroes would find value in talking to Seam over just buying their stuff. Alongside this is their nihilistic view of the world due to whatever Jevil told them. They are, as they say, in a bad "condition".

To be fair, a surrounding theme of Deltarune is this ever-present feeling of abandonment and loneliness. Whilst Seam isn't the only Darkner to be abandoned (ex: Tenna), I still felt this would be worth stating.

SIDE NOTE: There's arguments that the mantle is the burnt ice-e pizza box from the /icee/ post. This is due to ERAM, or how I refer to them as: Nightmare's appearance resembling the "mantle" King wears and the song title being called "Burning eyes". The box's eyes was burned and Kris put it over their face. Their eyes are red like "pretty flames" and Kris likely positioned the box's burned holes where their eyes are. Personally, I believe the shadow mantle is a piece of the black clothing in her closet. Either way, it relates to Dess and her actions.

SMALL TANGENT:

Her room has glow-in-the-dark stars, stars need darkness to shine and the mantle defends against the dark/star attack element. This element is used by the Knight and the Titan. If Dess is the Knight or somewhat related to the Knight, and if she fixed up or made Seam- then her own creation knows her weakness. Of course, if you don't believe Dess is, or related to the knight, this detail is entirely irrelevant.

This borders on theory-land, but Dess has survival gear and collects an unreasonable amount of military rations for a rich girl. She has walkie talkies, loose binoculars and a god-awful number of shoes. It seems she did something involving multiple people (walkie talkies), watching from afar (binoculars), needing food (rations) and light/heat (lighters), and multiple shoes (gets ruined/ripped/waterlogged/dirty). If she wrote and hid the Shelter code in her guitar, then perhaps she did stakeouts/snuck around to find the code keys. In Noelle's recollection in Chapter 2, she describes the night her, Asriel, Kris and Dess explored the forest behind the graveyard, "Ha, I know we never found anything interesting back there.." This implies they're searching for something. Since she's a Holiday, she could've secretly gotten the code from her mother. If the Knight wanted Toriel, then it's implied she (or the Dreemurrs in general) might be the key to the "DELTARUNE" keycode - since Chapter 4 already happened and it wasn't there (unless the code is the fire extinguisher, haha). Since Asgore was deputy of the Police Force, he's practically two birds with one stone. Once she gets his code and enters the Shelter, Asgore would be on file for extreme negligence, thus getting himself fired. If the Shelter holds something related to the Darkworlds or beyond, he wouldn't be able to face whatever was there. Since no one would believe him, he'd be unforgiven by Toriel and fired on the spot. The only way to make people understand is to create a darkworld. He already has what is presumably a shadow crystal in Chapter 4, and Chapter 5's teaser shows garden themes. Asgore owns a flower show, a prophecy panel depicts him, Gerson says, "Chapter 5, The Field of Pink and Gold", his clothes are pink and yellow and Flower King shop is covered in that palette. Plus, Carol (thus the Holiday family) are implied to be Japanese, and the teaser shows heavy inspiration from Japanese culture. Carol already seems to be contacting Kris/might know more than she should about their soul situation, and each Dark World is based off of the creators memories/mind- it's possible she makes this fountain. If not, then Asgore or the Knight will. If she doesn't and the Knight does, then I guess.. more evidence for Dess Knight theory.

... Credits to @ace-spadespoken for telling me about this box and the correlation with Seam. I would've never found this if it weren't for you, so I thank you.

Credits to Drune for making me realize that Seam is something that can be crafted, rather than just bought. If something like your adorable Pikmin can handcrafted with love and care, perhaps Seam could too. You reminded me of my old handmade plush, Mr.Turt (the turtle). He's flawed and that's beautiful because he's my little monochrome copy of turtle, who I've colored with love and care. Thanks for reminding me of him.

#3) Question the Cat

In a Chapter 5 Teaser from Toby Fox, Seam's dialogue describes the Shadow Crystals as pieces of glass containing the power of "will" or more accurately: Determination. In Chapter 2, Queen states that all Lightners posses this power, allowing them to make Dark Fountains (e.g Susie and Kris in Chapter 3 & 4). This implies that Darkners lack this power and would need an alternate source in order to access it (i.e Queen with Noelle). If Lightners naturally have will and determination, why would they need more? Perhaps that the threat in Chapter 5 (or onwards) is so vast, that the heroes would need more determination that ever before. That they'd need an item so powerful, that it can only be made out of these shards of glass. (Unless Kris doesn't have DT without the soul, which in that case, perhaps the item is a glass heart? Our soul "shatters" after all.)

However, we know characters like Spamton have already tried to gain more power through using power items imbued with a Lightner's hopes and dreams. If darkners do not naturally posses these abilities, it's possible these crystals function as the alternate source to access that "determination". Since the Darkners who hold these crystals are immensely powerful... How powerful would a Darkner with an item imbued with determination be?

Plus, there's the "Pure crystal" ingredient teased by Malius. There's leftover code in game that defines this as "the shadows purified by the cat", and its used to make the Twisted Sword- an item currently associated with an abandoned Weird Route.

There are 4 definitions of "purifiy" that may work with this description. To clear from material defilement or imperfection. To free from guilt or moral or ceremonial blemish. To free from undesirable elements. To grow or become pure or clean.

and "pure" as: Unmixed with any other matter (pure gold). Being thus and no other : sheer, unmitigated (pure folly). Free from what vitiates, weakens, or pollutes. Containing nothing that does not properly belong. Free from moral fault or guilt.

A question arises whether or not the Pure crystal rids the shadow crystals of the horrid visions (seen when used in the light world) and any "excess" material that may muddy it's determination power. OR does it extract and concentrate these visions and negative elements into a singular shape? If the thorn ring isn't gained via peaceful means in Chapter 5, then this item is connected to an abandoned Weird Route. The Crystal Route, defined by our shadow crystal collection, guides us into learning about the Weird Route- due to the MANTLE game. Since both are related to the Weird Route, maybe the Pure crystals are a concentrated version of these nightmares?

The fact that both the player and Kris are in the dark throughout all of this- is a concerning detail when considering that we also don't know how the story ends. If Deltarune's ending is unsatisfying or too grim for players, they'd want to get a better ending. In the process, Players would search for the crystals or attempting to break the prophecy with the Weird Route. However the game is unfinished and I can't predict whether or not the player's intentions are good or bad. Is the Crystal Route the extent of our curiosity and desire for "more", or is it the desire for "better"? I raise this question because in trying to obtain the Knight's Crystal via the intended route (aka obtaining Mantle), we learn how to do the Weird Route. Also, the Knight fight can only occur via reloading a save, implying we'd have a reason to reload and learn that the Knight isn't just a cutscene. This may mean that after the Normal Route, Crystal Route is next, then Weird Route. That order of playthrough is concerning especially if the "Twisted Sword" is only obtainable via an abandoned Weird Route.

To re-emphasize: Seam knows how to "craft" things out of these crystals. Even mysterious characters like Ralsei doesn't hint at having knowledge about it and we're suddenly supposed to believe that a random old shopkeeper just does? Seam knows the holder's power levels (Knight & Gerson) and can guess at the holder's personality (Gerson). They have the Shadow Mantle, thereby knowing the Knights weakness/element. They state the "sun going down" as a danger to escape and in the Chapter 5 teaser we see a setting sun in the Darkworlds horizon. They don't fully explain things until the very end, and we follow them blindly. The only thing we are certain is that they'll give us an item, they believe we'll "like".

Personally, I doubt Seam will actually use the crafted item to their own advantage. A bonus fight against Seam seems rather repetitive. We've been doing nothing but fighting secret bosses, so another boss fight + some lore isn't as exciting as an item that can help altar the course of Deltarune's story. It also seems slightly out of character, considering Seam's self-deprecation. However, with Seam's theme being a rendition of Rude Buster, their concept art from Toby resembling a battle sprite- there could be a "catch" to creating this item. A gimmick, perhaps? Plus, this is all assuming that the "Pure crystal" is the item we will obtain from them. Seam could give us a completely different item depending on our run! Or not, we don't know.

......

To continue the questionnaire: Seam knows the exact order the heroes are supposed to obtain the crystals, and who has them. While seemingly insignificant in place of characters like Ralsei, Gerson and Jevil who all display future knowledge of events- my concern arises when we consider that Seam knows the ROARING KNIGHT has one, and has items catered to defending against it.

The knight acknowledges this item's defense through its attack mechanics: "If the Shadow Mantle is equipped in the first armor slot, the mantle's wearer will always be hit by at least two attacks before targeting becomes random. Once a party member not wearing the mantle is hit, the wearer will be focused for the next two hits again. This cycle carries over across all attacks with the same targeting rule, thus guaranteeing the wearer to be hit at least 2 times out of 3 in them." -Deltarune Wiki

To my knowledge, there isn't any other character that does this- even Spamton NEO when using the Mannequin/Frayed Bowtie (defends against his puppet/cat element) doesn't directly target the wearer. Considering how the Knight's mechanics also allude to their partnership with Kris, as it avoids targeting them- targeting of the Mantle wearer might mean the Knight acknowledges that item is effective against them, thus prioritizes defeating the wearer. So, out of every character in Deltarune, Seam not only knows it has a shadow crystal but has items the Knight is weak to. This random Darkner has the ONLY item in-game, as of now, that can protect you from being a one-shot by the ROARING KNIGHT OF THE PROPHECY. It's speculation but: if that cat can fight and their shop song is a rendition RUDE BUSTER then,then out of every character, Seam is only one knows how to fight the knight and prepared items that can help survive it.

It's speculation but: if that cat can fight and their shop song is a rendition RUDE BUSTER then,then out of every character, Seam is only one knows how to fight the knight and prepared items that can help survive it.

Continuing on Seams knowledge of the crystal holders: In Chapter 2, Seam states, "That salesman had found the crystal in the old machine...?" meaning that Spamton wasn't an actual holder, the machine was. Thus the order would've been Jevil, Machine, Knight, Gerson, until Spamton used it. It's also important to note that the machine was abandoned, and likely unfinished. There's a possibility that if the machine was finished, we'd fight it- assuming it would've been an actual entity existing in Cyberworld. It's also interesting to note that cat element is #6. I say "cat" element, because Tasque Manager and Tasque have the same element as him. In the recruit menu, they're described as Cat:Order and Cat:Elec(tric). The only commonality between Puppet/Cat, Order/Cat and Elec/Cat is the "cat", thus I think the cat element is 6.

Instead of talking about Spamton in the same detail they did as Jevil- they talk about the machine. Their "guess" is correct and supported by Swatches' own recollection. Seam doesn't hint at the Spamton directly (i.e "ring a bell") or give any items to help defend against it (i.e shadow mantle), instead just saying "more adversaries like [Jevil]". Kris explains things to Seam (we can't hear them so we have to infer via Seam's dialogue) about the "salesman". Since Seam believes that Kris can't actually see the crystals, "You can't see it, so perhaps you didn't notice..." and that it's nigh invisible " That's right... You must not have noticed it. / That Crystal... It's nearly invisible, but you've been holding it this entire time.", either Kris happened to see it prior to the fight but didn't collect it- or Seam added that detail on their own. Either way, both infer that chapter 2's crystal belongs to the machine.

Also, Seam mentions Queen- noting that it's nice to see her again. Knowing Spamton's Bigshot Era, his connection with Queen (e.g having a room in her mansion, his own adverts covered up by hers, Swatchlings and Werewires mentioning him), Ramb's note about the World's Collide (aka Kris and Noelle bringing the laptop and cards to Kris's home), Seam should know Spamton. Seam is Jevil's closest companion and he's already known to have relations (largely negative) with Spamton and Tasque Manager. If not through direct interaction, Seam knows Spamton through Jevil. There is no excuse for why Seam refuses to talk about Spamton, unless they deemed him irrelevant to the crystal.

NOTE: Though this seems to be obvious in hindsight, but it largely went over my head due to fandom's depiction and constant remarks of "spamton" being a shadow crystal holder. He was never supposed to have that power in the first place, machine or crystal. He was supposed to be just a puppet, but somehow became a little more- even for a split second.

#4) Welcome to Theory Land

In the secret "ROOTS" room a book to the left of the prophecy panel, that states, "And so wept the fallen star, making rivers with it's tears. Then slowly, from the bitter water, something grew. It looked like glass." There's only two things in the game that relates to both water and glass: the prophecy panels and the shadow crystals. Since we can assume the prophecy panels are the Darkworld interpretations of the Church's stained glass windows, this leaves the mysterious origins of the fallen star's river of tears.

In case of any biblical inspirations: a falling star can allude to Lucifer, the fallen angel. There's a plethora of angelic and religious themes in Deltarune. The Titan (a being of pure darkness) has white "angel" wings", King describes the Dark Fountains as "Holy", and there's the entirety of Chapter 4. Even the minigame "Pluey", a game about saving cats from rain, refers to the cats as "chosen ones" you take to the "ark"- likely a biblical reference to the tale of Noah's Arc. Following "Toilet Theory " by CammyboiG, he proposes the "Depths" (a water texture) as the artistic representation of "pure/intense darkness". Chapter 4 is coated in the depths texture, with even the prophecy panels having the "depths" texture. The Dark fountains are "fountains" and even the shadow crystal and shadow mantle are both described with water in mind. Even the "Vessel Maker" exists entirely within this water-based darkness.

Overall, it seems that darker you go, the more "heavenly" you are. If our vessel maker is coated in "darkness", what does that say about the VOICE, our PROGRAM and "Hell"?

With that question raised, we'll examine look at the rest of the room.

I was searching for any hints as to what the "ROOTS" panel may mean. The prophecy panels refer to future events or things that we've already experienced (e.g Tenna getting "cleaved", Lancer saying "toothpaste boy"). Since there's no houses in Hometown that match the design of the ROOTS panel, I turned to the "GALLERY" panel. "Gallery" is the title of a particular song that plays just before fighting the Titan, Queen and King. As of now, the representing image doesn't relate to any instances the song is used. It's possible the image for ROOTS isn't one-to-one with how its going to be used, similarly to GALLERY. If the song "Bit Roots" plays in the MANTLE game's version of the shelter, and "Digital roots" plays in Queens basement- then perhaps "ROOTS" is a song that takes place underground. Perhaps both ROOTS and GALLERY's images are supposed to be more metaphorical. If so, then the image and title may refer to mean a person's "roots"- such as childhood home or place of residence. If the song takes place underground, maybe that's where their origins are.

Then there's the Organiks unscrambled line, "Lost where the forest grows, the children followed the pointed tail. The poor children!". There's one prophecy panel that refers to a tail. Its imagine is an an S-shaped line of balls, stating, "THEY'LL SEE THE TAIL OF HELL TAKE CRAWL". We've established there's multiple connections to darkness and themes of heaven. Thus, it's possible that the lighter it gets, the more "hellish".

The Organiks have lines likely referencing the VOICE from beginning of the game and Vessel Creator. Organiks are religious Darkners described as wearing light-blocking masks that allow them to commune deeper with the "truth of the dark". If the VOICE resides someplace darker than dark and Organiks commune with said darkness- it's possible they'd deem "light" as a bad thing. Hence, "poor children".

If your lost in forest, you'd need a trail to find your way out. If your lost in the dark, you'd need light to find your way out. If hell is light and we follow a tail's trail- then wouldn't the "point" would be a direction.? If Organiks villainize light, ROOTS is a song about to ones origins that plays underground, water represents darkness and if Chapter 5 (or beyond) holds a forest in said murky waters of dark, then the story may go:

"In the dark of the forest, the children are lost, so they follow the "tail" of light. Its "points" to a direction underground, from there they'll find their "roots". The origin from whence it all began. A reverse tale of Hanzel and Gretel, how sad for these poor children."

From what we have, that's all I can piece together before Chapter 5 comes out.

Of course, there's the "THEY'LL HEAR THE RING OF HEAVEN'S CALL" panel. Key terminology is "hear" and "call", implying either a voice or calling device like a telephone. There is about one instance of a telephone's ring that relates to futures and/or prophecies: Spamton's telephone. He's also connected Noelle, a girl with angel themes (she has angel wings, she plays minigames with angel cats.. etc.), and he even has "cherub" versions of himself. He's a "puppet", defined by his co-dependent relationship to a telephone that tells him things of the future (e.g Tenna death). Plus, the only object that doesn't change when entering a darkworld is Kris' phone. When used in a darkworld, it plays mus_smile, which is the exact same sound as undertale's room_gaster If it refers to a voice? We have instances like the SOUL calling to Noelle. This creates the idea that things outside of the Deltarune's inner universe (such as the player) can be "heard". If a voice can be heard from things outside of the Deltarune's inner-universe, and the VOICE speaks like "Gaster"... then perhaps that the "ring of heaven's call", is a voice from the darkest depths (heaven) coming from a phone.

If so, then to "hear the RING heavens CALL" and following the light in forest, going back to one's "roots", sounds like someone calling their "children" to "come back home" and following the house's light- in a strange way?

Small tangent: A popular notion is that the "Tail of Hell" is literally, a tail of balls/circles. I want to preface that there are multiple instances of circle-like "chains" present on characters like Spamton, Jevil, Maus (2.0). Even King's the heart/spade on his chain attack, is literally called "chain of hell". It's more likely that these circles are Deltarune's artistic depiction of "chains". These chains are always attached to ones body, whether the hands, head, or heart. If this tail works similarly to these previously established chains, then its attached to a person's lower end. If it's "pointed" then we're looking at something SHARP, attached at the end. Like... the crystals! or the black shard? maybe a knife? Since it's a popular belief that the Tail is related to cats, I propose that it's a "CATenary". Also, while there's no literal chain attached to Kris' SOUL, figuratively Kris is already "chained" to it. So if you want the "Tail" to be attached to someone, you need someone who hasn't shown their butt yet.

As all things, these are my speculations and theories. I wouldn't be surprised if this all was completely wrong.

#5) Addressing the CATs in the room

To state this now for the Deltarune theory folk: I know about the Spamton Sweepstakes. However my speculation above completely disregards DEVICE_Friend. For that, I barter a new proposition.

For those that are unaware: The Sweepstakes was a charity event, hosted on the official Deltarune website on September 17, 2022. The site functioned as a ARG teaser for Deltarune chapters 3-4, allowing participants to access new information and rewards through donation goals. Within this event, a sequences of teaser would be announced through finding secret/hidden links.

Acknowledging that Toby fox says, "I only consider anything in the game itself to be 'canon', so there is nothing critically important on there...", I can't use these sites as concrete proof or evidence for theories. However, these websites and certain blog posts do give us additional insight into events within Deltarune that can assist in theorizing as well as understanding certain characterizations.

Firstly, there's a sequence of links in the Sweepstakes that relates to this entity. I deem this the "link loop". Starting with these three links: /code/, /Man/ and /catpetterz/. Two of these links are part of Noelle's series of blog posts. /code/ is her talking about how the official website for called "Dragon Blazers" has 40 new links but does not appear to be an ARG. It functions as a signal to the event participants on how many new links were added to the website. /catpetterz/ is her talking about her favorite game "Catpetterz Petters 2", and her childhood fear of the game glitching out with error message stating "Incompatible pet". Lastly, /Man/ is black page with a single tree from Chapter 1's Field and Forest areas. All of these links, lead to /egg/, Noelle's blog post where she receives a "SPECIAL" white egg that she's unable to delete from her computer. Upon caring for it like a normal pet, the egg "left home due to happiness".

From there the link loop will occur: /egg/ -> /rain/ -> /rarecats/ -> /windows/ -> /lostwheretheforestwouldgrow/ ->/window/-> /thepoorchildren/ and then back to /egg/. There is no way out of this cycle unless you meet "DEVICE_FRIEND" in /rarecats/.

To explain: In /rain/ she describes how when Carol cancelled school during heavy rains, she'd relax by play Cat Petters. Noelle talks about the various mini-games, a mysterious cat the lowers the score, and her friend Catti- who came over in the rain due to a misunderstanding of the word "Cat Petters". Clicking on the word "try it for yourself", you're sent to /rarecats/. This small game functions as a teaser for "Battat", motormouth mike's mini-game in chapter 4. Within this game is an entity known as "DEVICE_FRIEND", that has previous brief appearances in multiple chapters of the game. The most obvious being the MANTLE game in Chapter 3 and in Battat's mini-game.

Whilst the above may be common knowledge nowadays, I find this quote to be quite fascinating: "And of course no one else has ever seemed to see this...Actually, I get the feeling someone else I know has seen it, but, I just know that even if I asked them, I probably wouldn't get a straight answer XP ugh...". There are very little characters in Deltarune referred to with they/them pronouns, and very little of that casting pool who are close to Noelle. So I assume she's talking about Kris, implying they already know who and what this "entity" is.

Next is /windows/, titled "Aren't you forgetting something?", is a page of Chapter 4's stained glass windows, with the 36th window leading to /lostwheretheforestwouldgrow/. This page functions as a tutorial for how to get to Chapter 4's Therapy Egg Room. In order to arrive at this page, you must play /rarecats/ until the "ANGEL" cat appears, then click the stained glass window before it fades away. For every cat, there's a 0.1% chance Friend will appear. On the 100th cat, the face of DEVICE_FRIEND will always appear. You need to click the link in order to progress and continue the cycle of links or else Friend will kick you out, delete your points, and send you to the home page. If you want to leave, Friend is the only way to leave the cycle of links.

/lostwheretheforestwouldgrow/, titled "ROOTS" showing the tree from Chapter 4's prophecy panel, which leads to /window/. It's the same as /windows/ but the 18th window leads to /thepoorchildren/, titled "Therapy". This sequence of links function as a tutorial both Chapter 4's ROOTS room and Therapy EGG room. There, Kris attempts to draw whats "behind the tree" but end up creating so many lines in the attempt, that page becomes entirely monochrome. After finally drawing the object with one single line, Kris paints a tree over it.

There are two pieces of text I want to emphasize: "/.../ Next, a tree was painted over it.../... painted over everything... /...leaving nothing but a simple still life. /...After all, there wasn't anything to look at in the room besides a single tree. /... / Kris got up. It seemed the painting was complete.) /... / But, their hand, smudged with graphite... /...was still moving, as if to trace some unseen shape." and, "You ran water over your hands, and dried them. Between your fingers, a faint grey crease glittered stubbornly.... You can never wash it all away." This text artistically depicts the effects of traumatic experiences. How repressing them won't make the harm truly go away, but through therapeutic measures, time, and generally being able to address the issues in a safer and better environment that encourages healing- can we truly progress.

However, this "tree" from chapter 1 seems to function as Kris's mental blockage or "repression" of these memories. Traumatic experiences can effect the individual's memory, hence the "Are your forgetting something?", title of /windows/ and the man is referred as something "forgotten". He also appears at least twice in areas related to Kris' past (Chapter 3+4 EGG room). In this scene, Kris gets to a point of remembering and addressing the issue, but their pencil (mind) keep trying to avoid remembering. By the time they draw (remembered) the figure their "canvas" is completely illegible. In the end, they blurr out the lines and blocked the memory. Leaving only the body to remember the trauma.

In addition to this, in /egg/ the SPECIAL egg she receives is reminiscent of the EGG that we obtain from the Man. No matter if we try to use it, drop it, or get rid of it, the egg will always come back. That attitude is similar to her SPECIAL egg, which she couldn't move nor delete. Only after until she started caring for it, does it finally leave. If both /catpetterz/ and /man/ link to /egg/, then its possible Toby was making a connection between the two types of eggs. When we obtain the EGG in-game, each egg has their own recipient area to be placed. Each chapter we gain an egg which slowly introduces us to Kris's own mind and trauma. We discard the egg by placing it in grocery stores, in a fridge or on someone's else's desk. We never truly care for it, leaving it to someone else or trying to "freeze it". Thus, they constantly gain a new egg, never truly getting rid of them as they're always arrive back at the school, with Temmie. If Noelle fully got rid of hers by giving it attention and caring for this egg, then Kris is doing the opposite. It seems both the tree and the egg coincide with this idea of traumatic experiences.

(Also, Friend is from Cat Petters (transferred to RPG) and the SPECIAL egg is from Cat Petters 2 ( in /bluecircle/ Spamton shows up here). Unless the same mini-games got transferred to the sequel, wouldn't these be completely different games with different "abnormalities"?) ................ When exploring the fandom theory space, I was guided to believe that Friend directly correlated to this trauma due to being connected to /windows/. But link loop shows its the "angel cat", that progressed you towards the religious glass window. Friend is the only entity that doesn't allow you to progress the cycle of forgetting, due to kicking you out and sending you to the main page. The "angel" cat, which is part of the angelic and religious themes of chapter 4, does. Remember, we're banishing the "angels heaven" as imposed in Ralsei's rendition of prophecy. We're hearing the "ring of heaven's call", and we've already established the darkness & heaven thing. It makes sense that the "angel cat" would link to the religious window, which is a part of a church about a prophecy that's likely the reason for us, the SOUL, to be within them.

So then if not the tail of hell nor related to Kris's dilemma, what is Friend? First, examine what it actually does in the game.

Friend has about 4 appearances in every chapter, excluding chapter 1. First, above the teacups in Queen's basements. Second, in Ralsie's explanation of Darkworlds. Third, in both MANTLE game sections. It appears on both sides of the pyramid, and during ERAM, or as I call: Nightmare's fight. Fourth, hiding the dark when obtaining a Wafergaurd in the third sanctuary. It's sprite stares directly at a particular direction, usually towards Kris. In the code, its name is "DEVICE_FRIEND" in all caps. This text trait is reminiscent of the VOICE and our PROGRAM, which is in all caps in the code. In the Darkworld it doesn't move or speak. The only times we hears its laughter is in the in-universe video-game, or in Ralsei's explanation. It simply exists quietly, appears then fades away, hides in the dark and stares at Kris. If they're literally a "device" that watches Kris from shadows, it's almost as if they're some type of watchdog.

Alas, I wanted to see if there was more: In /rain/ Noelle implies that Kris knows and has seen Friend before. As I say, the Sweepstakes helps characterize relationships we otherwise wouldn't know about in-game. This is one of those moments. When sifting through Asriel's room in Chapter 2, you'll come across this flavor text stating, "Underneath the bed is an old cartridge of "Cat Petters RPG". "catti & catty" can be seen faintly written on it in worn gel pen". Looking under his bed in chapter 1 states, "There's also a game console. It has one normal controller, and one knock-off one." Since the MANTLE game utilizes the ODD controller, likely being the knock-off controller Asriel once used- perhaps the Mike Trio's minigames comes from his Cat Petters RPG. Plus, in /rain/ Noelle directly states that minigames from Cat Petters (where Friend is) got transferred over to the RPG, so its not too unlikely. If Asriel has the game, Kris could've played it- hence how they know Friend.

Following the cartridge to the Cattenheimers, Catty shows an interest in the Cat Petters franchise as she attends the Cat Petters 2 movie, and has her name on the RPG cartridge. She also incredibly familiar with Kris, even stating, "Aww, Kris, like, if you wanna come in... Our cat-flap, is like, always open to you...", and was even asked out by Asriel. Susie mentions Catti and Kris being rumored to summoning a demon together and she's interested in magic, which that Kris indulges in. This is shown by the search results in their room in Queens Mansion. This, alongside Kris knowing who Friend is, being invited to the Cattenheimers homes, Kris stealing Catti's remote (the Petrified Zapper. ch.3), their interest in magic and that they likely played Catpetters at some point- alludes to both Kris and Catti being friends prior to the game. Furthermore, Friend's iconic "pink and yellow" eyes change color in Battat's minigame to a "magenta and yellow" color. When examining Catti's sprite(s), her pant's color, shoes, and dyed hair color is the exact same with Friend's new palette. She also has yellow eyes, though the colors aren't exact to Friend's. Funnily enough, the Cattenheimers house is also pink, with a yellow doorknob/hinges.

NOTE: If you want a pink and yellow area, the Flower King Shop uses the color palette a lot more. It seems the Dreemurs are more associated to this palette than any other characters. Examples of Dreemur-related pink and yellow usage: Spamton representing Kris, and Friend potentially being summoned from them.

If Kris and Catti are rumored to have summoned a demon, they're both are interested in magic, Catti is constantly talking about "hell", "hexing", Kris knows who Friend is, and Friend references Catti's color palette in the Cat Petters minigame that belongs to her and her sister's game cartridge: Its possible they summoned Friend together. Kris isn't very talkative and Noelle laments getting an explanation out of them, leaving Catti to explain the event. Catti refers to everything in the hellish and gothic terms, so she could've called Friend a DEMON- even if that wasn't what it was. If it's "rumored", then its possible everyone perceived it to be a "demon", even if that's not the case. Since Kris likely had the soul prior to player joining/connecting, perhaps the fake magic turned real due to the SOUL's strange properties?

If Friend is connected to the PROGRAM, which is linked to the VOICE, SOUL, the Vessel Maker and thus the heavenly depths/darkness.. This might make Friend a being of the dark or "heaven". It always appear in the darkest areas and in the explanation of the foundations of dark worlds. Of course there's popular belief that the VOICE is Gaster, whose related to hell's number "666". If the Voice is related to hell, then all the "device" appearing in the code is hellish. If I'm correct, then that aught to be a good thing, since Heaven is associated with the unfathomably bad prophecy. If Friend is the tail of hell because Cat Petters (& inspiration: CATZ) uses circles for animation, wouldn't that mean any cat from the game would work? Noelle only mentions Friend appearing in the minigames, not even in the default, egg raising- circle animating- cat petting- game. We also see its entire, full-body sprite in Ralsei's explanation which forms from a chair. Are we admitting that the tail of hell comes from... a chair? In fact, every Dark world we've been in (except chapter 1) has chairs (or church bench). Wouldn't Friend appear everywhere because its the most common item?

The only argument I have against my claims is Jevil stating, "SOON, THE "QUEEN" RETURNS, AND HELL'S ROAR BUBBLES FROM THE DEPTHS...". Since the Queen "returned" in chapter 2, most assume that "Hell's Roar" refers to the Roaring Knight. If that's true, then this is an exact retelling of Chapter 3, where the Knight coming out of the darkness to cleave Tenna. Both the "tail" and "roar" is described as belonging to "Hell". We know that the Knight doesn't have a tail, so it's possible that "Hell" isn't a singular entity but can be multiple. DEVICE_FRIEND could be one of those entities due to sharing a laugh sfx with the Knight. Perhaps Catti is correct and Friend is a demon- and the "poor children" could really mean the pointed tail and the tail of hell are inherently bad. If ROOTS imagery is about the CATZ/Catpetters game and it isn't about childhood but actually related to Cat Petters, thus Friend- then perhaps Friend is truly an evil antagonist of the story. Perhaps! I'm sure it's possible.

......

But then, there's the MANTLE game. I ask, why would Friend need to be here?

See, it's common in theory spaces to theorize who is "ERAM", or more accurately: "Shadow Mantle" as it's sprites are named, "Nightmare" as it's song/.ogg file is named or "Mare", which is "ERAM spelled backwards. However, I believe theorizing WHO Nightmare is, detracts from WHAT it does and represents.

The MANTLE game as a whole, serves as a twisted depiction of the heroes adventures. Upon obtaining the sword, we're tasked with killing every enemy. (These enemies resemble Undertale's characters, thus referencing the "genocide"/murder run. Even the idea of kill=power is pulled from Undertale, then iterated on through Weird Route.)

At the center of it all is Nightmare. It's sprite resembles King's mantle, signaling that Nightmare is the "mantle" the game title suggests (like Princess Zelda, in "Legend of Zelda"). The name of its song "Burning eyes" both references Kris's eyes, "flickering red, like pretty little flames", and the /icee/ post where Dess burns the eyes from an Ice-e pizza box (which Kris puts over their face- likely seeing through its burnt out eyes). Its song also takes from "Black Knife", with the beat being largely the same but the song ends quicker. We know the Knight resides in the Shelter, making Nightmare to be a representation of the Knight.

Following the songs .ogg name, "Nightmare", we can see how this entire game functionally works as a way for Kris faces their fears. Kris is constantly turning back at us in concern with our actions, even fighting our controls when trying to enter the game's version of the shelter. There's the check text during the Knight fight implies an almost panicked mental state or a recollection of a traumatic head injury. Kris is faced with the representation of themselves, through HERO_SWORD being a real, controllable entity, separate from Kris. Overall, this game shows Kris an ugly reality of betraying their friends, of the Weird Route. It forces Kris back into the shelter, back towards facing the "knight". In a twisted and cruel way, MANTLE forces Kris to face their fears and their grim reality. Hence, the name "Nightmare" as the final boss, seems fitting.

Why say this? Because when completing the weird route and playing this game, Nightmare says, "The same part of you that enjoyed yesterday. / Knowing you could say it wasn't really you." Meaning that Nightmare knows about the weird route and of the SOUL. Characters like Ramb, Seam or whomever, can't possibly know that. They weren't even there! Plus, Ramb already has trouble keeping secrets from Kris and actively states, "I can't say I know your motivation" and "Could it be... you just wanted to have fun again? " in his dying moments. It's quite a stretch to say he knew about the SOUL and the Weird Route before TV World was even formed. On top of that, Ramb would need to know who Seam is, what the shadow crystals and mantle might do, and be able to steal the mantle. Since that's nigh impossible, the only character you could refer to would be Friend. However, Friend already appears as a separate entity to Nightmare. It even has to be summoned manually by Nightmare.

Thus, Nightmare is simply itself. An entity that forces Kris to reconcile with their fears, actively taunting and questioning their inner thoughts and motivations. It functions as a representation of the Knight, which serves as a warm-up for the upcoming battle.

However! Despite having a mouth, Nightmare doesn't actually use it when communicating. It doesn't address HERO_SWORD, instead referring to Kris directly. There is an argument to be made that this is Friend communicating directly to Kris. Friend is already connected to the PROGRAM due to being a "device" and since the player and the SOUL are linked to the PROGRAM, Friend would know about the SOUL. It's followed us through every chapter of the game except for Chapter 1, so it'd know about the Weird Route. Friend constantly appears in the dark and stares at Kris, meaning Friend can see in the dark. If Kris already knows Friend, then it'd know their name. This also plays into the "Haha.. well, enough of that! We both have work to do!", since Nightmare can't leave it's game to do "work", but Friend can. The controller we use to import the soul into this game- thereby controlling HERO_SWORD even outside the game, is pink and yellow. This is the same color scheme Friend uses. The controller also appears randomly without any proof of someone placing it down. Since Friend is an entity that resides from a videogame (Cat Petters), entering another may be natural for it. If Friend can place down a controller, then it can steal a Mantle without Seam ever knowing.

This leaves us with two possibilities: Nightmare is saying all of this and just knows this information intrinsically due to being a weird reflection of Kris' fears. OR, Friend is talking in place of Nightmare.

If the latter is true, then Friend knows about Seam, the shadow mantle and crystals. It's actively questioning Kris and their idea that these crystals and mantle will give them what they desire. Its likely that an entity from a videogame, that's related to the player's PROGRAM (our way to play this game) would encourage and want Kris to continue playing and to have "fun". If Friend can't naturally speak/laugh outside of videogames or cutscenes (it's a silent entity in-game), then MANTLE would be it's only chance at communication to Kris. Unless you're playing Battat, which in that case it tries to stop you from playing after reaching an ungodly amount of points. Personally, I can't tell if that's a fail-safe to stop you from playing the game forever, or if its personality is that of a troll.

Funnily enough, since the controller is what allows the player to live in HERO_SWORD, this entire game almost functions as a ROM hack. Which is similar to the website /romb/'s name- which is the teaser for the MANTLE game. It even uses Seam's dialogue word for word!

After all this, we return to the book.

If that book is in the ROOTS room and we argue that Friend is apart of that prophecy and tail- then we'd have to argue it's also apart of the Crystal Route. That doesn't align with what we've established prior. See, Friend doesn't do much in the game that supports it leading anyone, anywhere - like the Organik describes. But as I've already told you prior, Seam "leads us into the unknown with ease".

When it comes to "following" the pointed tail, I already established how Seam uses the player's curiosity to lead us into the collecting the Shadow Crystals. Seam doesn't explain things fully until they very end. They guide us with subtle hints and we follow, just as the Organik describes. In fact, I am unsure how many players realized that their Shadow Crystal Collection is permanently affecting their save slots. Even when deleting all 3 slots, your collection will stay. By following this cat, you have permanently altered your PROGRAM. Within our Chapter Select screen is a menu that tracts our shadow crystal collection. Remember how DEVICE_FRIEND, is connected to the PROGRAM? Perhaps, Seam's fetch quest is now on its radar.

In terms of hell themes, Seam's Lightworld sprite at the end of Chapter 1 sits directly under the clock where both hands which points to 6, and as result it points at them. Seam also happens to be close companions with a Darkner called "Jevil". Jevil looks like and is referred to as an "imp", a devilish creature. His weapon is the DevilsKnife, and his name is a portmanteau of "joker/jester", and "devil/evil". Seam is connected to Asirel, and possibly Dess- THE lost girl. They actively leads us and Kris into increasingly dangerous battles- two of which scaring Kris (Knight & Spamton), two that talk solely of prophecies (Gerson & Jevil), and one who might be their dad. Seam directly, word for word, references "Darker yet darker", a quote from Entry 17, associated with Undertale's GASTER. Gaster, is connected to the fun values and goners in Undertale, with one particular fun value event being the mysterman, an entity with the fun value of 66. In addition to this, I believe the "Cat" element is #6, and well... they're a cat.

Seam collects the shadow crystals, an item tracked by THE PROGRAM, and knows everything it. These things formed from the fallen's star's river of tears, in turn connecting them to the book in the ROOTS room. Even their plushie design is deemed semi-cannon due to lacking a tail, with Toby Fox himself encouraging fan interpretations- emphasizing the lack thereof. They literally come from the only chapter FRIEND DOESN'T APPEAR. We also don't have an in-game, canonical, full-body sprite of Seam. We can only see their upper half, and as I stated, we need a character who we haven't seen the butt of yet, and we've already seen Friend. If my theory is correct and Hell=light, then they're shop theme is called "Lantern", a literal LIGHT in the dark. Continuing on with that: fans found Toby's inspiration of Friend to be the shadow of a cat from WatchiField. If you look to the right, there's an anthropomorphic cat whose holding a LANTERN. Then there's also the weird save-file related lines I cant fully understand (as stated in Section #1). I haven't even mentioned the fact their "shop" looks near-identical to Ralsei's original houses, or how there's only new dialogue for the "shop" house- that plays ONCE. Just like how the box of odds-and-ends can only be read, once.

I've seen a few people bring up the idea that the process of finding Jevil acts like a tutorial for opening the shelter. We need to find 3 keys (the Keypad) hidden about in order to unlock a mysterious prison door (Shelter Door) that's underground (Underground Shelter). Inside is a dangerous entity that was locked away for the good of everyone else (what ever is inside the shelter). In that analogy, Seam is our tutorial guide, or.. our "pointed" tail? They offer one key upfront (i.e Dess's code in the guitar) then provide us a hint for the second (Undyne- Police) with the final key we need to find on our own (The Dreemur's key). If Friend does end up being the pointed tail in the end, then perhaps Seam is "tutorial" version of that. They're both smiling cats, after all. Seam literally has half their face sewn into a permanent smile.

-------------------------------

Crack Theory Tangent: In Ralsei's explanation of Dark Worlds, we see eyes and a flowing river to the right of DEVICE_FRIEND. After all, you need eyes to cry a river. We also know that entities like the Knight, Titan and the Shadow Mantle use/defend against the Dark/Star element. There's also the green hands and a purple tendril embedded in the wall to the left of Friend. There's nothing that truly correlates to this in Deltarune, aside subtle hints at Kris loosing their hand. Then, what is the purple tendril? After reading the "torn off, by cruel and loving hands.", a strange connection formed between a PURPLE cat, and multiple hands grabbing at the air whilst attached to might be a purple TAIL. Plus, if the shadow crystals are referenced in the ROOTS room, and Seam collects these crystal which are tracked and permanently stored in the PROGRAM. Then its not implausible, just INCREDIBLY unlikely that it's foreshadowing Seam.

(It's almost ironic how its implied that both Kris and Seam have lost a body part at some point in time. With Seam's design implying they lost one of their eyes. Of course, "only eyes blinded by darkness can see the way", right? The only time we see a Darkner loose body parts is Tenna, when he gets cleaved. IF Dess is the knight, then the destructive streak might've gotten Seam. After all, it is a slash scar under that button.)

#6 Personal Anecdote

Hey, its ya boi, Squieky (pronounced: Squeaky). So I originally started writing this late last month. Then when I really started to get into writing it, Toby announced the Chapter 5 teaser. You can imagine how I felt when I sudden got dropped into a sleep deprived writing rush hour. I wholeheartedly doubt that anything I say here will be "new" or even "correct" in any way. Though, I think it was fun to do and really pushed my abilities in terms of writing and analysis. So ultimately, I think this little insane ramble was worth it- not really to be "correct" but because its was an experience I enjoy. I, hopefully, will never do this again- unless Seam and Jevil decide to be relevant in a way that is akin to the Spamtenna ARG. Which in that case, you'll find me shot dead in an alley with words on the bullet saying "Toby fox did this".

I don't know will actually read this a few weeks before Chapter 5 come. If you did, props to you and your dedication to the theory space. I'm flattered you've chosen to take the time to read this. If you want, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Whether that be questions & concerns, or arguments against or for my claims. Respectful and civil discussion is at the heart of all fan spaces, so I encourage said behavior!

Cheers to Chapter 5 and beyond! Lets all have one more adventure, before the sun sets. ....

#1) Refresher & Corrections

A Quick summary of previous information from Seam 101, that I still believe is applicable: 

Seam is inherently connected to Asriel due to his computer wallpaper, their concept art description and location of shop, the Halloween pencil, Toriel's computer background, and the spinning button eye referencing omega flowey.

They’re based off (or inspired by) Asriel’s favorite Smashing Fighters character, “The Fiery Magician Girl”, as they’re the only darkner who is a “magician”, is interested in battles/battling  (as well as games), and their theme song is a slowed down rendition of “Rude Buster”, the main battle theme. They also had a streak for fighting- if the Seam Ripper flavor text is to be believed.

When re-examining the original post, there are a few details I'd like to add.

In "Detail #4: Shadow Crystals, and the Flow of Information", I argued that Seam is purposefully obscuring information and the extent of their knowledge. Despite not being a shadow crystal holder, they know everything about the crystals, who has it, the holder's power level and even how to "craft" something out of it. They refuse to give direct names despite knowing who the holder is (such as Jevil), until after confirmation of their defeat. Seam casts various information as "hunches", despite being perfectly accurate (ex: dialogue about the Machine in Queens Basement + Shadow crystals appearing somewhere close).

Whilst the original post highlighted Seam's strange behavior in regards to that, I realize that theorizing whether or not Seam was intentionally obscuring information was unnecessary. This is because they outright state, "But if you have some time, I'll offer you a biscuit and a hint", "By the by, I cant offer any advice when you're not here...So I'm not sure my hints will be much use after all! Ha ha!", when you don't have a shadow crystal. Admitting to giving us "hints" implies they know more than us.

In terms of gameplay, Seam's obfuscation of info feeds into player curiosity. Through vague hints and promising future reward, Seam is capable of manipulating players into collecting 5 crystals. This isn't inherently bad as spoiling main events and secrets would ruin player enjoyment. Thus, this is a good trait for gameplay. In terms of character, Seam's trait creates a situation where they're leading the heroes into dangerous situations, without the team fully understanding the threat. In Chapter 2 when failing to obtain Spamton's crystal, Seam even acknowledges this danger, "... It seems that you didn't get another Shadow Crystal. / Hm. I understand. It's no small feat to fight an opponent that has one. /... / Well then, forget it all. / You're a Lightner. Don't take your life, well, lightly!".

Plus, the only reason they start to consider the team as "heroes" is because they defeat Jevil, an incredibly powerful Darkner who intends to KILL (aka: his "HP drops to 0" game). They don't warn us of this fact, simply stating "Hmm, now that you mention it, it could be troublesome if he was left alone... / Yes, perhaps it's better if you heroes dealt with him now...? / After all, it's not as if whatever happens, will matter in the end. / Perhaps a little chaos might be fun." This lack of info is likely their faith in the heroes abilities. However, when there was none (i.e before we fight jevil/not thinking the team is THE heroes), their trait of guarding info implies a somewhat lax attitude towards the heroes safety.

NOTE: Seam does tell us whether or not they think we're going to be able to defeat our foes based on their knowledge of our holders power level. Gerson and Knight are incredibly powerful. Seam offers a Mantle to aid us, and believes we'll win Gerson's fight regardless of his power level (they're right). So technically, they warn us by saying we can't even win.

As of now, neither player nor Kris are privy to what Seam's crafted "item" is. We don't know what the shadow crystals are (aside from being glass), what they do, where they come from, or if it'll have caveats/consequences. All we know is that they'll create something "incredible" for us. Which, depending on what route we're on can be a cause for concern.

In a chapter 5 teaser, Seam admits to owing an explanation to Kris. Defining the crystals is just the FIRST PART of that explanation, considering we don't know how Seam got this information about the holders or the crystals. The only thing we know for certain is that Jevil told them about the prophecy. Jevil told King about his rise to power, the fountain, and the Knight. Considering he's close companions with Seam, he likely told them even more information. ("He started saying bizarre things that didn't completely make sense - / But didn't completely not make sense, either. - Ch1, "Jevil" dialogue).

To determine whether this is truly a character trait or solely a curated way to engage players- we'll compare them to a similar character:

Ramb. A purple plugboy, disliked by most, if not all TV-world Darkners. He hold connections to Kris and Asriel. Asriel brought him home and Ramb is Kris's toy. In terms of gameplay, his role functions as a shopkeeper- overlaid with a similar "bartender" aesthetic Swatch has. He is the key to accessing a secret area related to a shadow crystal holder, and references two holders: Spamton and Jevil. Somehow, Ramb is a near-copy of Seam in both color scheme (purple), connections (Asriel & Kris), gameplay (shopkeeper type), secrets (MANTLE game), and even has a similar speech quirk to Seam's hinting trait. (The difference between the "darker yet darker"/ "Ring a bell" and "only for Bigshots" is that Seam is more subtle.) He's also the opposite of Seam, being actively disliked whilst Seam recalls various friendly interactions with other Darkners, and is even invited to the heroes farewell party in Chapter 1.

Ramb's "hints" is in the form of the player reading his thoughts. If you don't have S-rank, these are accessible via obtaining the Z-rank gift box and saying "no" when he asks if Kris is having fun. In comparison to Seam, Ramb is incredibly blunt and honest with the "secrets" he keeps behind locked doors. He explains to Kris exactly what is happening and what he's trying to do. By the time both Kris and the player walk into the game room, we know we're playing the "original game". He even says, "Not often a Dark World pops up in your own house, you know? / ...though it could. If you ever wanted it to. / Sorry, Kris. Don't know what I was saying there." We later learn that Ramb saw Kris create the Dark Fountain, meaning this line of dialogue was Ramb's slip-up, teasing deeper knowledge than he lets on. In juxtaposition with Seam, they never have these "slip-ups", are never direct or fully explain things even after we've obtained the shadow crystals (if they do explain they coat it as a "hunch"). If the information in the teaser remains true, it means they'd continue to obscure information until the desired result (obtaining all 5 crystals) occurs. They're intentional and know what they're doing. Ramb rambles and slips up. He's trying to do what Seam does, but fails as that's not the character he is. He cares so much about Kris that he doesn't think about hiding anything from them, likely struggling to do so, whereas Seam leads us into the unknown with ease.

In the section, "Theory: The Plush Belongs To Nowhere." I theorized that Seam was not originally a Card-Castle resident. Instead they're a Darkner from TV-world, or residing in the area surrounding the studio (i.e in the purple cliffs, watery basin, etc.) This is because of Darkners such as Ramb, Pippins, and Catti's Zapper exists in TV-world. Meaning that Darkners from different fountains can still coexist as long as they "fit in". Plus, Lancer enters Castle Town through the great door, implying Darkners can travel through it without petrification.

While I believe the previous points still hold up, my argument that Seam is the only non-classroom themed Darkner does not. I proposed that every Darkner is formed in relation to their Darkworld, with Card Kingdoms theme being "old board games/classroom items". However, Darkners such as Malius: a toy hammer, Topchef: presumably a spinning top, and Bloxer: playing blocks, do not fit the "old board games/classroom items" theming. It's possible that the toy hammer, spinning top and toy blocks, might've been transferred from Toriel's classroom. Items like the toy blocks even appear as overworld sprites in her room. Since they technically fall under the" classroom" category, these characters could've easily existed within Card Kingdom.

However, children's classrooms can have stuffed animals in them. This works as evidence against my own claim, but since Seam is heavily implied to be Asriel's plush- and characters like the pippins and Ramb still identify as being from previous Darkworlds despite not being "formed" in there- I believe my argument holds up.

NOTE: This is in response to @ness010 's wonderful tags. Thanks for commenting! Loved the idea that if the abandoned classroom is Gersons, then Malius fits in due to being a hammer. Sadly, I don't believe the theme is "toys", due to characters like the Caged Animals and Scissor Dancer. Though your critique helped me re-examine my argument, so I thank you!

----------------------------

Originally I proposed that Seam had an awareness of SAVE files, due to their Chapter 2 dialogue when you fail to collect Jevil's Crystal. They're so certain Kris had fought Jevil, they actively question Kris's memory, imposing that they "don't remember yet" and accurately guess how crystals appear.

If you obtained the crystal in Chapter 1, then start a fresh save file in Chapter 2, Jevil's crystal will appear in the west side of Castle town. If you did this, Seam is 100% correct. Kris did not experience the previous Chapter 1 save file, but the player did. Therefore, Seam's "That's right, as long as you ever defeated that enemy in the past...Then perhaps, even now, that Crystal might turn up somewhere close... Perhaps!", hints to the player to search for the crystals location. By mentioning a "past" that has not occurred, I believed Seam had a level of awareness of our save files. However, I realized that Seam's knowledge of future events could have influenced this. Seam can infer how the heroes will obtain the crystals due to knowing the future, thus the order of Dark worlds formed, as well as the location of the crystals and who has them. Therefore, they wouldn't need/have knowledge of our Save Files.

Still, it's an odd detail considering that if the player never found Jevil, this dialogue is incredibly out of place. The line only functions as a way to inform players that they're missing a crystal, or that the crystal is in the left-side rubble in Castle Town. Acknowledging Kris' existence and the fact this never happened in their perspective, makes Seam out to be almost delusional here.

This dialogue gets even more confusing when you actually have the crystals:

[After starting Chapter 2 from a fresh SAVE file and having defeated Jevil on a previous Chapter 1 SAVE file, then collecting one of his items from the west of the Castle Town, after already talking to Seam in Chapter 2: "Ah, yes, that's right. It didn't occur to me until just now, but... / You three defeated that clown last time, didn't you?_ / ... Oh? What's that? It seems like he gave something to you." ] - Info from Deltarune Wiki.

Seam realizes we fought Jevil after we pick up his crystal. Seam doesn't notice that Kris has a crystal, until after this "realization". Whilst this seems like evidence of some awareness, they also act genuinely surprised when we hand them 3 crystals at once. Perhaps this is for transitioning into shadow crystal dialogue, then hinting at anything. Still it's still incredibly odd, especially considering the PROGRAM tracks shadow crystals; the only item in the game that's tracked like that. Though I no longer believe Seam knows about SAVES and such... I honestly don't know what to make of it all. This cat is the only Darkner whose involved with an item the PROGRAM is interested in. As of now, not even Ralsei can compete with that.

#2) Box of Odds-and-ends

When visiting Dess's room in Chapter 4, you can find a "box of odds-and-ends". Inside are various items, listed as followed:

"A couple of burnt lighters, rusted multitool knives, expired rations, Walkie talkies, loose binoculars, a pair of shoes fit for hooves, violent comic books, paintballs, a cracked hockey mask, frayed yarn and buttons, you brother's retainer, and old mint cans with unique leaves inside of them."

Whilst this information seems irrelevant and random, these items are intentional.

"A couple of burnt lighters" - In the Spamton Sweepstakes, the website /icee/ , titled, "Have you seen him?", shows Noelle as a child recounting a Ice-e's pizza box presumably winking at her in the dark. Dess comes to her aid and burns the eyes of the box using her lighter. Having multiple burnt lighters means she used these items a lot. With little to no evidence of cigarette usage or any lighter-needing items, we can assume she did this frequently.

"violent comic books, paintballs, a cracked hockey mask" - She has ice-skates in her closet, roller skates, baseball bat, and a wiffle bat. These objects help characterize her as an athletic person. Generally, these items in her room assist in describing her character. The Deltarune Wiki goes deeper into it, so feel free to read.

The description of the box being "a box of odds-and-ends" and the lines, "frayed yarn and buttons, your brother's retainer" connects to Seam. They're the only character that actively collects items and refers to said collection as "odds and ends". Examining the items in this box, "frayed yarn and buttons" doesn't match with the rest of Dess's interests. However, when paired next to the lines, "your brother's retainer", and acknowledging that his shirt is in her closet, she has drawings of Dragons under her bed (aka: likely used his How To Draw Dragons book), shows he has a habit of leaving his items with her. If Seam is his plush, then he could've left them with her. Plus, the "frayed yarn and buttons", refers to the only character with buttons that can be sewed with yarn.

Seam's over-world sprite matches the color palette of her bed, juxtaposed to Asriel and Kris' room. Dess shows signs of making DIY items, such as her custom made posters on her wall. While she is messy and disorganized, she doesn't destroy items she cares about. Instead she stores it in a box, keeps it in her closet, or piles them in a specific area. She also collects comics and videogames. If Seam is based off of a video-game, (likely one Asriel played) she could've taken inspiration from that. If not, then she purchased them and given Seam to Asriel as a gift. Since Seam appears in Asriel's computer wallpaper, they might be an OC she plush-ified for Asriel. It's possible the black patch on Seam's head is the leftover evidence of Dess "fixing" Seam, as she does have black clothing in her room that could've been ripped to patch them up.

Unless Toriel's room is revealed to have sewing materials and implication of her creating and/or buying Seam- its more likely that Dess created Seam, or at the very least, fixed Seam up. In the Holiday Newsletter, Toby fox created a semi-official drawing of Seam for Fangamer. Toby implies that Seam has a tail (thus rendering the Plush semi-official due to lacking one), and that it's been torn off by cruel and loving hands. She could be the reason for the tail being torn off, or she's the person who fixed them after someone tore Seam apart. Considering she has the buttons and thread and Seam matches her room's color scheme, it's likely the latter.

Asriel is characterized as someone who cares deeply for the inanimate. He even asks Alvin to grant him and Kris forgiveness for the sin of dropping the green dinosaur from their videogame. This is despite the fact that "sin" isn't a thing in their religion. If Seam is a gift from a close friend, is based off of his own favorite game, and he's deeply empathetic towards the inanimate- why would he abandon them? Perhaps Dess' disappearance meant that Seam became a reminder of bitter memories and "broken dreams". Then when going to college he, abandoned them. ... Under this context, I'd like to compare the Lightner's Machine in Queen's basement to Seam.

The Machine was made and imbued with the hopes and dreams of a Lightner and became incredibly powerful. In end, nothing ever came of it. Now it's abandoned in a basement with rest of the corrupted data. Seam is referred to and exist in places with the theme of Hopes & Dreams. In the Holiday Newsletter, Toby states their, "dust magic twinkles like broken dreams", Seam's shops is in field of "Hopes and Dreams" and they're in the "abandoned" classroom. Seam shows clear signs of being deeply cared for, with Asriel's drawings of them on his wallpaper and their design indicating they've been patched up and stitched back together. In the end, they were abandoned and left to rot- just like the Machine.

This is where I believe the description of their magic being "broken dreams", and their theme being a rendition of Rude Buster comes into play. Seam was imbued with love, hopes and dreams of their lightners. They became powerful- hence their song being one of fighting spirit. Plus, they're were able to withstand and trick strong Darkners like Jevil. As time progressed, they became this broken dream, abandoned and left to decay. Now they refer to themselves in a self-deprecating way, stating, "Ha, good luck. It makes no difference to me. / Neither Light nor Dark hold a future for a Darkner in my condition.". They deride their wares as "old junk", despite evidence of their items being useful (Halloween Sword, Food & Defense items) or downright legendary (Shadow Mantle). They claim that the heroes will have "little reason to return here" due to finding stronger items, completely discarding that the heroes would find value in talking to Seam over just buying their stuff. Alongside this is their nihilistic view of the world due to whatever Jevil told them. They are, as they say, in a bad "condition".

To be fair, a surrounding theme of Deltarune is this ever-present feeling of abandonment and loneliness. Whilst Seam isn't the only Darkner to be abandoned (ex: Tenna), I still felt this would be worth stating.

SIDE NOTE: There's arguments that the mantle is the burnt ice-e pizza box from the /icee/ post. This is due to ERAM, or how I refer to them as: Nightmare's appearance resembling the "mantle" King wears and the song title being called "Burning eyes". The box's eyes was burned and Kris put it over their face. Their eyes are red like "pretty flames" and Kris likely positioned the box's burned holes where their eyes are. Personally, I believe the shadow mantle is a piece of the black clothing in her closet. Either way, it relates to Dess and her actions.

SMALL TANGENT:

Her room has glow-in-the-dark stars, stars need darkness to shine and the mantle defends against the dark/star attack element. This element is used by the Knight and the Titan. If Dess is the Knight or somewhat related to the Knight, and if she fixed up or made Seam- then her own creation knows her weakness. Of course, if you don't believe Dess is, or related to the knight, this detail is entirely irrelevant.

This borders on theory-land, but Dess has survival gear and collects an unreasonable amount of military rations for a rich girl. She has walkie talkies, loose binoculars and a god-awful number of shoes. It seems she did something involving multiple people (walkie talkies), watching from afar (binoculars), needing food (rations) and light/heat (lighters), and multiple shoes (gets ruined/ripped/waterlogged/dirty). If she wrote and hid the Shelter code in her guitar, then perhaps she did stakeouts/snuck around to find the code keys. In Noelle's recollection in Chapter 2, she describes the night her, Asriel, Kris and Dess explored the forest behind the graveyard, "Ha, I know we never found anything interesting back there.." This implies they're searching for something. Since she's a Holiday, she could've secretly gotten the code from her mother. If the Knight wanted Toriel, then it's implied she (or the Dreemurrs in general) might be the key to the "DELTARUNE" keycode - since Chapter 4 already happened and it wasn't there (unless the code is the fire extinguisher, haha). Since Asgore was deputy of the Police Force, he's practically two birds with one stone. Once she gets his code and enters the Shelter, Asgore would be on file for extreme negligence, thus getting himself fired. If the Shelter holds something related to the Darkworlds or beyond, he wouldn't be able to face whatever was there. Since no one would believe him, he'd be unforgiven by Toriel and fired on the spot. The only way to make people understand is to create a darkworld. He already has what is presumably a shadow crystal in Chapter 4, and Chapter 5's teaser shows garden themes. Asgore owns a flower show, a prophecy panel depicts him, Gerson says, "Chapter 5, The Field of Pink and Gold", his clothes are pink and yellow and Flower King shop is covered in that palette. Plus, Carol (thus the Holiday family) are implied to be Japanese, and the teaser shows heavy inspiration from Japanese culture. Carol already seems to be contacting Kris/might know more than she should about their soul situation, and each Dark World is based off of the creators memories/mind- it's possible she makes this fountain. If not, then Asgore or the Knight will. If she doesn't and the Knight does, then I guess.. more evidence for Dess Knight theory.

... Credits to @ace-spadespoken for telling me about this box and the correlation with Seam. I would've never found this if it weren't for you, so I thank you.

Credits to Drune for making me realize that Seam is something that can be crafted, rather than just bought. If something like your adorable Pikmin can handcrafted with love and care, perhaps Seam could too. You reminded me of my old handmade plush, Mr.Turt (the turtle). He's flawed and that's beautiful because he's my little monochrome copy of turtle, who I've colored with love and care. Thanks for reminding me of him.

#3) Question the Cat

In a Chapter 5 Teaser from Toby Fox, Seam's dialogue describes the Shadow Crystals as pieces of glass containing the power of "will" or more accurately: Determination. In Chapter 2, Queen states that all Lightners posses this power, allowing them to make Dark Fountains (e.g Susie and Kris in Chapter 3 & 4). This implies that Darkners lack this power and would need an alternate source in order to access it (i.e Queen with Noelle). If Lightners naturally have will and determination, why would they need more? Perhaps that the threat in Chapter 5 (or onwards) is so vast, that the heroes would need more determination that ever before. That they'd need an item so powerful, that it can only be made out of these shards of glass. (Unless Kris doesn't have DT without the soul, which in that case, perhaps the item is a glass heart? Our soul "shatters" after all.)

However, we know characters like Spamton have already tried to gain more power through using power items imbued with a Lightner's hopes and dreams. If darkners do not naturally posses these abilities, it's possible these crystals function as the alternate source to access that "determination". Since the Darkners who hold these crystals are immensely powerful... How powerful would a Darkner with an item imbued with determination be?

Plus, there's the "Pure crystal" ingredient teased by Malius. There's leftover code in game that defines this as "the shadows purified by the cat", and its used to make the Twisted Sword- an item currently associated with an abandoned Weird Route.

There are 4 definitions of "purifiy" that may work with this description. To clear from material defilement or imperfection. To free from guilt or moral or ceremonial blemish. To free from undesirable elements. To grow or become pure or clean.

and "pure" as: Unmixed with any other matter (pure gold). Being thus and no other : sheer, unmitigated (pure folly). Free from what vitiates, weakens, or pollutes. Containing nothing that does not properly belong. Free from moral fault or guilt.

A question arises whether or not the Pure crystal rids the shadow crystals of the horrid visions (seen when used in the light world) and any "excess" material that may muddy it's determination power. OR does it extract and concentrate these visions and negative elements into a singular shape? If the thorn ring isn't gained via peaceful means in Chapter 5, then this item is connected to an abandoned Weird Route. The Crystal Route, defined by our shadow crystal collection, guides us into learning about the Weird Route- due to the MANTLE game. Since both are related to the Weird Route, maybe the Pure crystals are a concentrated version of these nightmares?

The fact that both the player and Kris are in the dark throughout all of this- is a concerning detail when considering that we also don't know how the story ends. If Deltarune's ending is unsatisfying or too grim for players, they'd want to get a better ending. In the process, Players would search for the crystals or attempting to break the prophecy with the Weird Route. However the game is unfinished and I can't predict whether or not the player's intentions are good or bad. Is the Crystal Route the extent of our curiosity and desire for "more", or is it the desire for "better"? I raise this question because in trying to obtain the Knight's Crystal via the intended route (aka obtaining Mantle), we learn how to do the Weird Route. Also, the Knight fight can only occur via reloading a save, implying we'd have a reason to reload and learn that the Knight isn't just a cutscene. This may mean that after the Normal Route, Crystal Route is next, then Weird Route. That order of playthrough is concerning especially if the "Twisted Sword" is only obtainable via an abandoned Weird Route.

To re-emphasize: Seam knows how to "craft" things out of these crystals. Even mysterious characters like Ralsei doesn't hint at having knowledge about it and we're suddenly supposed to believe that a random old shopkeeper just does? Seam knows the holder's power levels (Knight & Gerson) and can guess at the holder's personality (Gerson). They have the Shadow Mantle, thereby knowing the Knights weakness/element. They state the "sun going down" as a danger to escape and in the Chapter 5 teaser we see a setting sun in the Darkworlds horizon. They don't fully explain things until the very end, and we follow them blindly. The only thing we are certain is that they'll give us an item, they believe we'll "like".

Personally, I doubt Seam will actually use the crafted item to their own advantage. A bonus fight against Seam seems rather repetitive. We've been doing nothing but fighting secret bosses, so another boss fight + some lore isn't as exciting as an item that can help altar the course of Deltarune's story. It also seems slightly out of character, considering Seam's self-deprecation. However, with Seam's theme being a rendition of Rude Buster, their concept art from Toby resembling a battle sprite- there could be a "catch" to creating this item. A gimmick, perhaps? Plus, this is all assuming that the "Pure crystal" is the item we will obtain from them. Seam could give us a completely different item depending on our run! Or not, we don't know.

......

To continue the questionnaire: Seam knows the exact order the heroes are supposed to obtain the crystals, and who has them. While seemingly insignificant in place of characters like Ralsei, Gerson and Jevil who all display future knowledge of events- my concern arises when we consider that Seam knows the ROARING KNIGHT has one, and has items catered to defending against it.

The knight acknowledges this item's defense through its attack mechanics: "If the Shadow Mantle is equipped in the first armor slot, the mantle's wearer will always be hit by at least two attacks before targeting becomes random. Once a party member not wearing the mantle is hit, the wearer will be focused for the next two hits again. This cycle carries over across all attacks with the same targeting rule, thus guaranteeing the wearer to be hit at least 2 times out of 3 in them." -Deltarune Wiki

To my knowledge, there isn't any other character that does this- even Spamton NEO when using the Mannequin/Frayed Bowtie (defends against his puppet/cat element) doesn't directly target the wearer. Considering how the Knight's mechanics also allude to their partnership with Kris, as it avoids targeting them- targeting of the Mantle wearer might mean the Knight acknowledges that item is effective against them, thus prioritizes defeating the wearer. So, out of every character in Deltarune, Seam not only knows it has a shadow crystal but has items the Knight is weak to. This random Darkner has the ONLY item in-game, as of now, that can protect you from being a one-shot by the ROARING KNIGHT OF THE PROPHECY. It's speculation but: if that cat can fight and their shop song is a rendition RUDE BUSTER then,then out of every character, Seam is only one knows how to fight the knight and prepared items that can help survive it.

It's speculation but: if that cat can fight and their shop song is a rendition RUDE BUSTER then,then out of every character, Seam is only one knows how to fight the knight and prepared items that can help survive it.

Continuing on Seams knowledge of the crystal holders: In Chapter 2, Seam states, "That salesman had found the crystal in the old machine...?" meaning that Spamton wasn't an actual holder, the machine was. Thus the order would've been Jevil, Machine, Knight, Gerson, until Spamton used it. It's also important to note that the machine was abandoned, and likely unfinished. There's a possibility that if the machine was finished, we'd fight it- assuming it would've been an actual entity existing in Cyberworld. It's also interesting to note that cat element is #6. I say "cat" element, because Tasque Manager and Tasque have the same element as him. In the recruit menu, they're described as Cat:Order and Cat:Elec(tric). The only commonality between Puppet/Cat, Order/Cat and Elec/Cat is the "cat", thus I think the cat element is 6.

Instead of talking about Spamton in the same detail they did as Jevil- they talk about the machine. Their "guess" is correct and supported by Swatches' own recollection. Seam doesn't hint at the Spamton directly (i.e "ring a bell") or give any items to help defend against it (i.e shadow mantle), instead just saying "more adversaries like [Jevil]". Kris explains things to Seam (we can't hear them so we have to infer via Seam's dialogue) about the "salesman". Since Seam believes that Kris can't actually see the crystals, "You can't see it, so perhaps you didn't notice..." and that it's nigh invisible " That's right... You must not have noticed it. / That Crystal... It's nearly invisible, but you've been holding it this entire time.", either Kris happened to see it prior to the fight but didn't collect it- or Seam added that detail on their own. Either way, both infer that chapter 2's crystal belongs to the machine.

Also, Seam mentions Queen- noting that it's nice to see her again. Knowing Spamton's Bigshot Era, his connection with Queen (e.g having a room in her mansion, his own adverts covered up by hers, Swatchlings and Werewires mentioning him), Ramb's note about the World's Collide (aka Kris and Noelle bringing the laptop and cards to Kris's home), Seam should know Spamton. Seam is Jevil's closest companion and he's already known to have relations (largely negative) with Spamton and Tasque Manager. If not through direct interaction, Seam knows Spamton through Jevil. There is no excuse for why Seam refuses to talk about Spamton, unless they deemed him irrelevant to the crystal.

NOTE: Though this seems to be obvious in hindsight, but it largely went over my head due to fandom's depiction and constant remarks of "spamton" being a shadow crystal holder. He was never supposed to have that power in the first place, machine or crystal. He was supposed to be just a puppet, but somehow became a little more- even for a split second.

#4) Welcome to Theory Land

In the secret "ROOTS" room a book to the left of the prophecy panel, that states, "And so wept the fallen star, making rivers with it's tears. Then slowly, from the bitter water, something grew. It looked like glass." There's only two things in the game that relates to both water and glass: the prophecy panels and the shadow crystals. Since we can assume the prophecy panels are the Darkworld interpretations of the Church's stained glass windows, this leaves the mysterious origins of the fallen star's river of tears.

In case of any biblical inspirations: a falling star can allude to Lucifer, the fallen angel. There's a plethora of angelic and religious themes in Deltarune. The Titan (a being of pure darkness) has white "angel" wings", King describes the Dark Fountains as "Holy", and there's the entirety of Chapter 4. Even the minigame "Pluey", a game about saving cats from rain, refers to the cats as "chosen ones" you take to the "ark"- likely a biblical reference to the tale of Noah's Arc. Following "Toilet Theory " by CammyboiG, he proposes the "Depths" (a water texture) as the artistic representation of "pure/intense darkness". Chapter 4 is coated in the depths texture, with even the prophecy panels having the "depths" texture. The Dark fountains are "fountains" and even the shadow crystal and shadow mantle are both described with water in mind. Even the "Vessel Maker" exists entirely within this water-based darkness.

Overall, it seems that darker you go, the more "heavenly" you are. If our vessel maker is coated in "darkness", what does that say about the VOICE, our PROGRAM and "Hell"?

With that question raised, we'll examine look at the rest of the room.

I was searching for any hints as to what the "ROOTS" panel may mean. The prophecy panels refer to future events or things that we've already experienced (e.g Tenna getting "cleaved", Lancer saying "toothpaste boy"). Since there's no houses in Hometown that match the design of the ROOTS panel, I turned to the "GALLERY" panel. "Gallery" is the title of a particular song that plays just before fighting the Titan, Queen and King. As of now, the representing image doesn't relate to any instances the song is used. It's possible the image for ROOTS isn't one-to-one with how its going to be used, similarly to GALLERY. If the song "Bit Roots" plays in the MANTLE game's version of the shelter, and "Digital roots" plays in Queens basement- then perhaps "ROOTS" is a song that takes place underground. Perhaps both ROOTS and GALLERY's images are supposed to be more metaphorical. If so, then the image and title may refer to mean a person's "roots"- such as childhood home or place of residence. If the song takes place underground, maybe that's where their origins are.

Then there's the Organiks unscrambled line, "Lost where the forest grows, the children followed the pointed tail. The poor children!". There's one prophecy panel that refers to a tail. Its imagine is an an S-shaped line of balls, stating, "THEY'LL SEE THE TAIL OF HELL TAKE CRAWL". We've established there's multiple connections to darkness and themes of heaven. Thus, it's possible that the lighter it gets, the more "hellish".

The Organiks have lines likely referencing the VOICE from beginning of the game and Vessel Creator. Organiks are religious Darkners described as wearing light-blocking masks that allow them to commune deeper with the "truth of the dark". If the VOICE resides someplace darker than dark and Organiks commune with said darkness- it's possible they'd deem "light" as a bad thing. Hence, "poor children".

If your lost in forest, you'd need a trail to find your way out. If your lost in the dark, you'd need light to find your way out. If hell is light and we follow a tail's trail- then wouldn't the "point" would be a direction.? If Organiks villainize light, ROOTS is a song about to ones origins that plays underground, water represents darkness and if Chapter 5 (or beyond) holds a forest in said murky waters of dark, then the story may go:

"In the dark of the forest, the children are lost, so they follow the "tail" of light. Its "points" to a direction underground, from there they'll find their "roots". The origin from whence it all began. A reverse tale of Hanzel and Gretel, how sad for these poor children."

From what we have, that's all I can piece together before Chapter 5 comes out.

Of course, there's the "THEY'LL HEAR THE RING OF HEAVEN'S CALL" panel. Key terminology is "hear" and "call", implying either a voice or calling device like a telephone. There is about one instance of a telephone's ring that relates to futures and/or prophecies: Spamton's telephone. He's also connected Noelle, a girl with angel themes (she has angel wings, she plays minigames with angel cats.. etc.), and he even has "cherub" versions of himself. He's a "puppet", defined by his co-dependent relationship to a telephone that tells him things of the future (e.g Tenna death). Plus, the only object that doesn't change when entering a darkworld is Kris' phone. When used in a darkworld, it plays mus_smile, which is the exact same sound as undertale's room_gaster If it refers to a voice? We have instances like the SOUL calling to Noelle. This creates the idea that things outside of the Deltarune's inner universe (such as the player) can be "heard". If a voice can be heard from things outside of the Deltarune's inner-universe, and the VOICE speaks like "Gaster"... then perhaps that the "ring of heaven's call", is a voice from the darkest depths (heaven) coming from a phone.

If so, then to "hear the RING heavens CALL" and following the light in forest, going back to one's "roots", sounds like someone calling their "children" to "come back home" and following the house's light- in a strange way?

Small tangent: A popular notion is that the "Tail of Hell" is literally, a tail of balls/circles. I want to preface that there are multiple instances of circle-like "chains" present on characters like Spamton, Jevil, Maus (2.0). Even King's the heart/spade on his chain attack, is literally called "chain of hell". It's more likely that these circles are Deltarune's artistic depiction of "chains". These chains are always attached to ones body, whether the hands, head, or heart. If this tail works similarly to these previously established chains, then its attached to a person's lower end. If it's "pointed" then we're looking at something SHARP, attached at the end. Like... the crystals! or the black shard? maybe a knife? Since it's a popular belief that the Tail is related to cats, I propose that it's a "CATenary". Also, while there's no literal chain attached to Kris' SOUL, figuratively Kris is already "chained" to it. So if you want the "Tail" to be attached to someone, you need someone who hasn't shown their butt yet.

As all things, these are my speculations and theories. I wouldn't be surprised if this all was completely wrong.

#5) Addressing the CATs in the room

To state this now for the Deltarune theory folk: I know about the Spamton Sweepstakes. However my speculation above completely disregards DEVICE_Friend. For that, I barter a new proposition.

For those that are unaware: The Sweepstakes was a charity event, hosted on the official Deltarune website on September 17, 2022. The site functioned as a ARG teaser for Deltarune chapters 3-4, allowing participants to access new information and rewards through donation goals. Within this event, a sequences of teaser would be announced through finding secret/hidden links.

Acknowledging that Toby fox says, "I only consider anything in the game itself to be 'canon', so there is nothing critically important on there...", I can't use these sites as concrete proof or evidence for theories. However, these websites and certain blog posts do give us additional insight into events within Deltarune that can assist in theorizing as well as understanding certain characterizations.

Firstly, there's a sequence of links in the Sweepstakes that relates to this entity. I deem this the "link loop". Starting with these three links: /code/, /Man/ and /catpetterz/. Two of these links are part of Noelle's series of blog posts. /code/ is her talking about how the official website for called "Dragon Blazers" has 40 new links but does not appear to be an ARG. It functions as a signal to the event participants on how many new links were added to the website. /catpetterz/ is her talking about her favorite game "Catpetterz Petters 2", and her childhood fear of the game glitching out with error message stating "Incompatible pet". Lastly, /Man/ is black page with a single tree from Chapter 1's Field and Forest areas. All of these links, lead to /egg/, Noelle's blog post where she receives a "SPECIAL" white egg that she's unable to delete from her computer. Upon caring for it like a normal pet, the egg "left home due to happiness".

From there the link loop will occur: /egg/ -> /rain/ -> /rarecats/ -> /windows/ -> /lostwheretheforestwouldgrow/ ->/window/-> /thepoorchildren/ and then back to /egg/. There is no way out of this cycle unless you meet "DEVICE_FRIEND" in /rarecats/.

To explain: In /rain/ she describes how when Carol cancelled school during heavy rains, she'd relax by play Cat Petters. Noelle talks about the various mini-games, a mysterious cat the lowers the score, and her friend Catti- who came over in the rain due to a misunderstanding of the word "Cat Petters". Clicking on the word "try it for yourself", you're sent to /rarecats/. This small game functions as a teaser for "Battat", motormouth mike's mini-game in chapter 4. Within this game is an entity known as "DEVICE_FRIEND", that has previous brief appearances in multiple chapters of the game. The most obvious being the MANTLE game in Chapter 3 and in Battat's mini-game.

Whilst the above may be common knowledge nowadays, I find this quote to be quite fascinating: "And of course no one else has ever seemed to see this...Actually, I get the feeling someone else I know has seen it, but, I just know that even if I asked them, I probably wouldn't get a straight answer XP ugh...". There are very little characters in Deltarune referred to with they/them pronouns, and very little of that casting pool who are close to Noelle. So I assume she's talking about Kris, implying they already know who and what this "entity" is.

Next is /windows/, titled "Aren't you forgetting something?", is a page of Chapter 4's stained glass windows, with the 36th window leading to /lostwheretheforestwouldgrow/. This page functions as a tutorial for how to get to Chapter 4's Therapy Egg Room. In order to arrive at this page, you must play /rarecats/ until the "ANGEL" cat appears, then click the stained glass window before it fades away. For every cat, there's a 0.1% chance Friend will appear. On the 100th cat, the face of DEVICE_FRIEND will always appear. You need to click the link in order to progress and continue the cycle of links or else Friend will kick you out, delete your points, and send you to the home page. If you want to leave, Friend is the only way to leave the cycle of links.

/lostwheretheforestwouldgrow/, titled "ROOTS" showing the tree from Chapter 4's prophecy panel, which leads to /window/. It's the same as /windows/ but the 18th window leads to /thepoorchildren/, titled "Therapy". This sequence of links function as a tutorial both Chapter 4's ROOTS room and Therapy EGG room. There, Kris attempts to draw whats "behind the tree" but end up creating so many lines in the attempt, that page becomes entirely monochrome. After finally drawing the object with one single line, Kris paints a tree over it.

There are two pieces of text I want to emphasize: "/.../ Next, a tree was painted over it.../... painted over everything... /...leaving nothing but a simple still life. /...After all, there wasn't anything to look at in the room besides a single tree. /... / Kris got up. It seemed the painting was complete.) /... / But, their hand, smudged with graphite... /...was still moving, as if to trace some unseen shape." and, "You ran water over your hands, and dried them. Between your fingers, a faint grey crease glittered stubbornly.... You can never wash it all away." This text artistically depicts the effects of traumatic experiences. How repressing them won't make the harm truly go away, but through therapeutic measures, time, and generally being able to address the issues in a safer and better environment that encourages healing- can we truly progress.

However, this "tree" from chapter 1 seems to function as Kris's mental blockage or "repression" of these memories. Traumatic experiences can effect the individual's memory, hence the "Are your forgetting something?", title of /windows/ and the man is referred as something "forgotten". He also appears at least twice in areas related to Kris' past (Chapter 3+4 EGG room). In this scene, Kris gets to a point of remembering and addressing the issue, but their pencil (mind) keep trying to avoid remembering. By the time they draw (remembered) the figure their "canvas" is completely illegible. In the end, they blurr out the lines and blocked the memory. Leaving only the body to remember the trauma.

In addition to this, in /egg/ the SPECIAL egg she receives is reminiscent of the EGG that we obtain from the Man. No matter if we try to use it, drop it, or get rid of it, the egg will always come back. That attitude is similar to her SPECIAL egg, which she couldn't move nor delete. Only after until she started caring for it, does it finally leave. If both /catpetterz/ and /man/ link to /egg/, then its possible Toby was making a connection between the two types of eggs. When we obtain the EGG in-game, each egg has their own recipient area to be placed. Each chapter we gain an egg which slowly introduces us to Kris's own mind and trauma. We discard the egg by placing it in grocery stores, in a fridge or on someone's else's desk. We never truly care for it, leaving it to someone else or trying to "freeze it". Thus, they constantly gain a new egg, never truly getting rid of them as they're always arrive back at the school, with Temmie. If Noelle fully got rid of hers by giving it attention and caring for this egg, then Kris is doing the opposite. It seems both the tree and the egg coincide with this idea of traumatic experiences.

(Also, Friend is from Cat Petters (transferred to RPG) and the SPECIAL egg is from Cat Petters 2 ( in /bluecircle/ Spamton shows up here). Unless the same mini-games got transferred to the sequel, wouldn't these be completely different games with different "abnormalities"?) ................ When exploring the fandom theory space, I was guided to believe that Friend directly correlated to this trauma due to being connected to /windows/. But link loop shows its the "angel cat", that progressed you towards the religious glass window. Friend is the only entity that doesn't allow you to progress the cycle of forgetting, due to kicking you out and sending you to the main page. The "angel" cat, which is part of the angelic and religious themes of chapter 4, does. Remember, we're banishing the "angels heaven" as imposed in Ralsei's rendition of prophecy. We're hearing the "ring of heaven's call", and we've already established the darkness & heaven thing. It makes sense that the "angel cat" would link to the religious window, which is a part of a church about a prophecy that's likely the reason for us, the SOUL, to be within them.

So then if not the tail of hell nor related to Kris's dilemma, what is Friend? First, examine what it actually does in the game.

Friend has about 4 appearances in every chapter, excluding chapter 1. First, above the teacups in Queen's basements. Second, in Ralsie's explanation of Darkworlds. Third, in both MANTLE game sections. It appears on both sides of the pyramid, and during ERAM, or as I call: Nightmare's fight. Fourth, hiding the dark when obtaining a Wafergaurd in the third sanctuary. It's sprite stares directly at a particular direction, usually towards Kris. In the code, its name is "DEVICE_FRIEND" in all caps. This text trait is reminiscent of the VOICE and our PROGRAM, which is in all caps in the code. In the Darkworld it doesn't move or speak. The only times we hears its laughter is in the in-universe video-game, or in Ralsei's explanation. It simply exists quietly, appears then fades away, hides in the dark and stares at Kris. If they're literally a "device" that watches Kris from shadows, it's almost as if they're some type of watchdog.

Alas, I wanted to see if there was more: In /rain/ Noelle implies that Kris knows and has seen Friend before. As I say, the Sweepstakes helps characterize relationships we otherwise wouldn't know about in-game. This is one of those moments. When sifting through Asriel's room in Chapter 2, you'll come across this flavor text stating, "Underneath the bed is an old cartridge of "Cat Petters RPG". "catti & catty" can be seen faintly written on it in worn gel pen". Looking under his bed in chapter 1 states, "There's also a game console. It has one normal controller, and one knock-off one." Since the MANTLE game utilizes the ODD controller, likely being the knock-off controller Asriel once used- perhaps the Mike Trio's minigames comes from his Cat Petters RPG. Plus, in /rain/ Noelle directly states that minigames from Cat Petters (where Friend is) got transferred over to the RPG, so its not too unlikely. If Asriel has the game, Kris could've played it- hence how they know Friend.

Following the cartridge to the Cattenheimers, Catty shows an interest in the Cat Petters franchise as she attends the Cat Petters 2 movie, and has her name on the RPG cartridge. She also incredibly familiar with Kris, even stating, "Aww, Kris, like, if you wanna come in... Our cat-flap, is like, always open to you...", and was even asked out by Asriel. Susie mentions Catti and Kris being rumored to summoning a demon together and she's interested in magic, which that Kris indulges in. This is shown by the search results in their room in Queens Mansion. This, alongside Kris knowing who Friend is, being invited to the Cattenheimers homes, Kris stealing Catti's remote (the Petrified Zapper. ch.3), their interest in magic and that they likely played Catpetters at some point- alludes to both Kris and Catti being friends prior to the game. Furthermore, Friend's iconic "pink and yellow" eyes change color in Battat's minigame to a "magenta and yellow" color. When examining Catti's sprite(s), her pant's color, shoes, and dyed hair color is the exact same with Friend's new palette. She also has yellow eyes, though the colors aren't exact to Friend's. Funnily enough, the Cattenheimers house is also pink, with a yellow doorknob/hinges.

NOTE: If you want a pink and yellow area, the Flower King Shop uses the color palette a lot more. It seems the Dreemurs are more associated to this palette than any other characters. Examples of Dreemur-related pink and yellow usage: Spamton representing Kris, and Friend potentially being summoned from them.

If Kris and Catti are rumored to have summoned a demon, they're both are interested in magic, Catti is constantly talking about "hell", "hexing", Kris knows who Friend is, and Friend references Catti's color palette in the Cat Petters minigame that belongs to her and her sister's game cartridge: Its possible they summoned Friend together. Kris isn't very talkative and Noelle laments getting an explanation out of them, leaving Catti to explain the event. Catti refers to everything in the hellish and gothic terms, so she could've called Friend a DEMON- even if that wasn't what it was. If it's "rumored", then its possible everyone perceived it to be a "demon", even if that's not the case. Since Kris likely had the soul prior to player joining/connecting, perhaps the fake magic turned real due to the SOUL's strange properties?

If Friend is connected to the PROGRAM, which is linked to the VOICE, SOUL, the Vessel Maker and thus the heavenly depths/darkness.. This might make Friend a being of the dark or "heaven". It always appear in the darkest areas and in the explanation of the foundations of dark worlds. Of course there's popular belief that the VOICE is Gaster, whose related to hell's number "666". If the Voice is related to hell, then all the "device" appearing in the code is hellish. If I'm correct, then that aught to be a good thing, since Heaven is associated with the unfathomably bad prophecy. If Friend is the tail of hell because Cat Petters (& inspiration: CATZ) uses circles for animation, wouldn't that mean any cat from the game would work? Noelle only mentions Friend appearing in the minigames, not even in the default, egg raising- circle animating- cat petting- game. We also see its entire, full-body sprite in Ralsei's explanation which forms from a chair. Are we admitting that the tail of hell comes from... a chair? In fact, every Dark world we've been in (except chapter 1) has chairs (or church bench). Wouldn't Friend appear everywhere because its the most common item?

The only argument I have against my claims is Jevil stating, "SOON, THE "QUEEN" RETURNS, AND HELL'S ROAR BUBBLES FROM THE DEPTHS...". Since the Queen "returned" in chapter 2, most assume that "Hell's Roar" refers to the Roaring Knight. If that's true, then this is an exact retelling of Chapter 3, where the Knight coming out of the darkness to cleave Tenna. Both the "tail" and "roar" is described as belonging to "Hell". We know that the Knight doesn't have a tail, so it's possible that "Hell" isn't a singular entity but can be multiple. DEVICE_FRIEND could be one of those entities due to sharing a laugh sfx with the Knight. Perhaps Catti is correct and Friend is a demon- and the "poor children" could really mean the pointed tail and the tail of hell are inherently bad. If ROOTS imagery is about the CATZ/Catpetters game and it isn't about childhood but actually related to Cat Petters, thus Friend- then perhaps Friend is truly an evil antagonist of the story. Perhaps! I'm sure it's possible.

......

But then, there's the MANTLE game. I ask, why would Friend need to be here?

See, it's common in theory spaces to theorize who is "ERAM", or more accurately: "Shadow Mantle" as it's sprites are named, "Nightmare" as it's song/.ogg file is named or "Mare", which is "ERAM spelled backwards. However, I believe theorizing WHO Nightmare is, detracts from WHAT it does and represents.

The MANTLE game as a whole, serves as a twisted depiction of the heroes adventures. Upon obtaining the sword, we're tasked with killing every enemy. (These enemies resemble Undertale's characters, thus referencing the "genocide"/murder run. Even the idea of kill=power is pulled from Undertale, then iterated on through Weird Route.)

At the center of it all is Nightmare. It's sprite resembles King's mantle, signaling that Nightmare is the "mantle" the game title suggests (like Princess Zelda, in "Legend of Zelda"). The name of its song "Burning eyes" both references Kris's eyes, "flickering red, like pretty little flames", and the /icee/ post where Dess burns the eyes from an Ice-e pizza box (which Kris puts over their face- likely seeing through its burnt out eyes). Its song also takes from "Black Knife", with the beat being largely the same but the song ends quicker. We know the Knight resides in the Shelter, making Nightmare to be a representation of the Knight.

Following the songs .ogg name, "Nightmare", we can see how this entire game functionally works as a way for Kris faces their fears. Kris is constantly turning back at us in concern with our actions, even fighting our controls when trying to enter the game's version of the shelter. There's the check text during the Knight fight implies an almost panicked mental state or a recollection of a traumatic head injury. Kris is faced with the representation of themselves, through HERO_SWORD being a real, controllable entity, separate from Kris. Overall, this game shows Kris an ugly reality of betraying their friends, of the Weird Route. It forces Kris back into the shelter, back towards facing the "knight". In a twisted and cruel way, MANTLE forces Kris to face their fears and their grim reality. Hence, the name "Nightmare" as the final boss, seems fitting.

Why say this? Because when completing the weird route and playing this game, Nightmare says, "The same part of you that enjoyed yesterday. / Knowing you could say it wasn't really you." Meaning that Nightmare knows about the weird route and of the SOUL. Characters like Ramb, Seam or whomever, can't possibly know that. They weren't even there! Plus, Ramb already has trouble keeping secrets from Kris and actively states, "I can't say I know your motivation" and "Could it be... you just wanted to have fun again? " in his dying moments. It's quite a stretch to say he knew about the SOUL and the Weird Route before TV World was even formed. On top of that, Ramb would need to know who Seam is, what the shadow crystals and mantle might do, and be able to steal the mantle. Since that's nigh impossible, the only character you could refer to would be Friend. However, Friend already appears as a separate entity to Nightmare. It even has to be summoned manually by Nightmare.

Thus, Nightmare is simply itself. An entity that forces Kris to reconcile with their fears, actively taunting and questioning their inner thoughts and motivations. It functions as a representation of the Knight, which serves as a warm-up for the upcoming battle.

However! Despite having a mouth, Nightmare doesn't actually use it when communicating. It doesn't address HERO_SWORD, instead referring to Kris directly. There is an argument to be made that this is Friend communicating directly to Kris. Friend is already connected to the PROGRAM due to being a "device" and since the player and the SOUL are linked to the PROGRAM, Friend would know about the SOUL. It's followed us through every chapter of the game except for Chapter 1, so it'd know about the Weird Route. Friend constantly appears in the dark and stares at Kris, meaning Friend can see in the dark. If Kris already knows Friend, then it'd know their name. This also plays into the "Haha.. well, enough of that! We both have work to do!", since Nightmare can't leave it's game to do "work", but Friend can. The controller we use to import the soul into this game- thereby controlling HERO_SWORD even outside the game, is pink and yellow. This is the same color scheme Friend uses. The controller also appears randomly without any proof of someone placing it down. Since Friend is an entity that resides from a videogame (Cat Petters), entering another may be natural for it. If Friend can place down a controller, then it can steal a Mantle without Seam ever knowing.

This leaves us with two possibilities: Nightmare is saying all of this and just knows this information intrinsically due to being a weird reflection of Kris' fears. OR, Friend is talking in place of Nightmare.

If the latter is true, then Friend knows about Seam, the shadow mantle and crystals. It's actively questioning Kris and their idea that these crystals and mantle will give them what they desire. Its likely that an entity from a videogame, that's related to the player's PROGRAM (our way to play this game) would encourage and want Kris to continue playing and to have "fun". If Friend can't naturally speak/laugh outside of videogames or cutscenes (it's a silent entity in-game), then MANTLE would be it's only chance at communication to Kris. Unless you're playing Battat, which in that case it tries to stop you from playing after reaching an ungodly amount of points. Personally, I can't tell if that's a fail-safe to stop you from playing the game forever, or if its personality is that of a troll.

Funnily enough, since the controller is what allows the player to live in HERO_SWORD, this entire game almost functions as a ROM hack. Which is similar to the website /romb/'s name- which is the teaser for the MANTLE game. It even uses Seam's dialogue word for word!

After all this, we return to the book.

If that book is in the ROOTS room and we argue that Friend is apart of that prophecy and tail- then we'd have to argue it's also apart of the Crystal Route. That doesn't align with what we've established prior. See, Friend doesn't do much in the game that supports it leading anyone, anywhere - like the Organik describes. But as I've already told you prior, Seam "leads us into the unknown with ease".

When it comes to "following" the pointed tail, I already established how Seam uses the player's curiosity to lead us into the collecting the Shadow Crystals. Seam doesn't explain things fully until they very end. They guide us with subtle hints and we follow, just as the Organik describes. In fact, I am unsure how many players realized that their Shadow Crystal Collection is permanently affecting their save slots. Even when deleting all 3 slots, your collection will stay. By following this cat, you have permanently altered your PROGRAM. Within our Chapter Select screen is a menu that tracts our shadow crystal collection. Remember how DEVICE_FRIEND, is connected to the PROGRAM? Perhaps, Seam's fetch quest is now on its radar.

In terms of hell themes, Seam's Lightworld sprite at the end of Chapter 1 sits directly under the clock where both hands which points to 6, and as result it points at them. Seam also happens to be close companions with a Darkner called "Jevil". Jevil looks like and is referred to as an "imp", a devilish creature. His weapon is the DevilsKnife, and his name is a portmanteau of "joker/jester", and "devil/evil". Seam is connected to Asirel, and possibly Dess- THE lost girl. They actively leads us and Kris into increasingly dangerous battles- two of which scaring Kris (Knight & Spamton), two that talk solely of prophecies (Gerson & Jevil), and one who might be their dad. Seam directly, word for word, references "Darker yet darker", a quote from Entry 17, associated with Undertale's GASTER. Gaster, is connected to the fun values and goners in Undertale, with one particular fun value event being the mysterman, an entity with the fun value of 66. In addition to this, I believe the "Cat" element is #6, and well... they're a cat.

Seam collects the shadow crystals, an item tracked by THE PROGRAM, and knows everything it. These things formed from the fallen's star's river of tears, in turn connecting them to the book in the ROOTS room. Even their plushie design is deemed semi-cannon due to lacking a tail, with Toby Fox himself encouraging fan interpretations- emphasizing the lack thereof. They literally come from the only chapter FRIEND DOESN'T APPEAR. We also don't have an in-game, canonical, full-body sprite of Seam. We can only see their upper half, and as I stated, we need a character who we haven't seen the butt of yet, and we've already seen Friend. If my theory is correct and Hell=light, then they're shop theme is called "Lantern", a literal LIGHT in the dark. Continuing on with that: fans found Toby's inspiration of Friend to be the shadow of a cat from WatchiField. If you look to the right, there's an anthropomorphic cat whose holding a LANTERN. Then there's also the weird save-file related lines I cant fully understand (as stated in Section #1). I haven't even mentioned the fact their "shop" looks near-identical to Ralsei's original houses, or how there's only new dialogue for the "shop" house- that plays ONCE. Just like how the box of odds-and-ends can only be read, once.

I've seen a few people bring up the idea that the process of finding Jevil acts like a tutorial for opening the shelter. We need to find 3 keys (the Keypad) hidden about in order to unlock a mysterious prison door (Shelter Door) that's underground (Underground Shelter). Inside is a dangerous entity that was locked away for the good of everyone else (what ever is inside the shelter). In that analogy, Seam is our tutorial guide, or.. our "pointed" tail? They offer one key upfront (i.e Dess's code in the guitar) then provide us a hint for the second (Undyne- Police) with the final key we need to find on our own (The Dreemur's key). If Friend does end up being the pointed tail in the end, then perhaps Seam is "tutorial" version of that. They're both smiling cats, after all. Seam literally has half their face sewn into a permanent smile.

-------------------------------

Crack Theory Tangent: In Ralsei's explanation of Dark Worlds, we see eyes and a flowing river to the right of DEVICE_FRIEND. After all, you need eyes to cry a river. We also know that entities like the Knight, Titan and the Shadow Mantle use/defend against the Dark/Star element. There's also the green hands and a purple tendril embedded in the wall to the left of Friend. There's nothing that truly correlates to this in Deltarune, aside subtle hints at Kris loosing their hand. Then, what is the purple tendril? After reading the "torn off, by cruel and loving hands.", a strange connection formed between a PURPLE cat, and multiple hands grabbing at the air whilst attached to might be a purple TAIL. Plus, if the shadow crystals are referenced in the ROOTS room, and Seam collects these crystal which are tracked and permanently stored in the PROGRAM. Then its not implausible, just INCREDIBLY unlikely that it's foreshadowing Seam.

(It's almost ironic how its implied that both Kris and Seam have lost a body part at some point in time. With Seam's design implying they lost one of their eyes. Of course, "only eyes blinded by darkness can see the way", right? The only time we see a Darkner loose body parts is Tenna, when he gets cleaved. IF Dess is the knight, then the destructive streak might've gotten Seam. After all, it is a slash scar under that button.)

#6 Personal Anecdote

Hey, its ya boi, Squieky (pronounced: Squeaky). So I originally started writing this late last month. Then when I really started to get into writing it, Toby announced the Chapter 5 teaser. You can imagine how I felt when I sudden got dropped into a sleep deprived writing rush hour. I wholeheartedly doubt that anything I say here will be "new" or even "correct" in any way. Though, I think it was fun to do and really pushed my abilities in terms of writing and analysis. So ultimately, I think this little insane ramble was worth it- not really to be "correct" but because its was an experience I enjoy. I, hopefully, will never do this again- unless Seam and Jevil decide to be relevant in a way that is akin to the Spamtenna ARG. Which in that case, you'll find me shot dead in an alley with words on the bullet saying "Toby fox did this".

I don't know will actually read this a few weeks before Chapter 5 come. If you did, props to you and your dedication to the theory space. I'm flattered you've chosen to take the time to read this. If you want, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Whether that be questions & concerns, or arguments against or for my claims. Respectful and civil discussion is at the heart of all fan spaces, so I encourage said behavior!

Cheers to Chapter 5 and beyond! Lets all have one more adventure, before the sun sets. ....