There’s something very, very wrong about this line.

For one… the allusion is pretty blatant. “Side B” has been full of evocative romantic abuse imagery where we, through Kris’s body, prey on the vulnerabilities of a sheltered minor and alter her concept of consent. 

Like with Ch 4’s Weird Route scenes, there isn’t a literal assault happening, but the very intentional phrasing is meant for us to have it in the back of our mind. Through the choices given, we’ve normalized a kind of “violation” done to her and now she’s learned the lesson and turned it back onto Kris.

It is bizarre to have such a mundanely evil phrase like this come out of, not just Noelle, but anyone in this game full of cozy, cartoonish characters. She isn’t talking like someone out of Hometown anymore, she’s talking like someone from our world. 

In the same tone uttered a thousand times to hundreds of thousands of victims. 

But that’s just the metaphorical message behind the line. From this point on, I kind of want to go on a stream of consciousness, a less factual deep dive on my more literal interpretation I’ve perceived from this one line.

What does she mean by “like you used to”?

This is Noelle talking about the Player’s voice being different from Kris, it’s been constantly established that Kris is mumbly while we sound more like a speaker.

She’s hearing the Player say “stop”. Distinguishing from how Kris had previously said “stop” to her.

When in the world would Kris have had to tell Noelle, of all people, to “stop”?

And isn’t it kind of odd that Noelle brings this memory up right at the cusp of dragging Kris by the arms into a ritualistic suicide?

There’s another scene in Chapter 5 that could possibly provide some connective tissue:

If you manage to have Noelle ride the ferris wheel with Kris, Noelle reminisces about what led to their ride together as kids. 

Noelle, perhaps out of jealousy for Dess and Asriel’s relationship and some genuine fondness for her childhood friend, had Kris put their misspelled names in the ballot. Obviously not winning, Noelle cried over the results, only stopping when Kris shook the ferris wheel ride while they were on it. 

You’re given a choice:

To shake the wheel and convince Noelle that Kris really was trying to cheer up all those years ago, (perhaps one of the first steps to mending their relationship).

There’s a lot going on between the lines here.

Most of this is bullshit of course. Time and time again, Noelle constantly undervalues her past with Kris to cope with how strained their relationship is now. Noelle even tells Susie with some genuine naivete, that she and Kris were forced to be close because they were neighbors when she continues to have keepsakes of their time together.

But it is kind of bizarre that Noelle believes that she forced Kris into having a romantic connection to her, when that’s what we’re having Kris do to her in a different save file.

And that last line… Just like what?

Just like “me”? Just like “someone else”? Or maybe it’s not even referring to a person. Is it an event?

Did Noelle force Kris to do something as kids that got so bad that Kris told her to “stop”?

Prior to this, our understanding of Kris and Noelle’s childhood relationship was of a devious troublemaker who frequently pranked the meek family friend. If anyone was the bad egg who overstepped boundaries and made the other upset we’d assume it would be Kris. Fan interpretation very rarely deviated from this.

@therivertm

But here, there’s an implication that there may be more to investigate into what Noelle and Kris were really like together as kids. 

Did Noelle, being far more comfortable with Kris than most, reveal more of her unfiltered self to them?

Did Noelle push boundaries with Kris that possibly led to Kris distancing themselves with her in the present?

Is it strange that when Noelle excitedly tells Kris that “they’ve changed” it’s when she perceives Kris as forceful and controlling? And whenever Kris hesitates or fails to finish the plan, Noelle seems angry at them to imply that the old Kris is the meek one who had to tell her to “stop”?

From: Deltarune | Forced Weird Route 2 - Resistance

Truthfully, there’s no way to guess what this “stopping point” is. We’re in new territory and we don’t have much to go off of.

But the ambiguity of this one line, the place when it's said, and especially the way it is said, makes it feel worse than what the actual event could be.

…And by the way.

If at any point during my rambling you started getting into darker, gross thoughts on what I may have been implying, I’m not really subscribed to that.

But I don’t blame anyone, I did as well. And I think that’s proof of the title on this post.

Originally, I stopped there but I started thinking more (as usual) and I think I’ve come to a conclusion on what I believe the Weird Route’s purpose might be. If you wanna see that- 

Think Persona’s Social Link endings.

Fire Emblem’s S support endings.

Visual Novel dating sims endings.

A side ending where you can select the character you like the most and have two people get together in the end through just a couple of drinks and less than a dozen conversations.

The core story does not change. The only thing that does, is who is paired by the end of it.

It doesn't matter how shallow the dialogue leading to the ship is, how disrespectful it is of the character's own interests or crushes, how strange your choice is, or how objectifying the idea of picking the prettiest, the coolest, or the nicest is.

The characters are just toys for you to play with. And once you've decided on that, til death do they part.

I’m not trying to say that Dating Sim elements are inherently bad, when they’re done well they can actually communicate a lot about the boundaries of love and the deeper parts of the characters involved.

But there is a weird side to dating sims. A level of projection inserted into a game from both its creator and their players that can border on some creepy territory. Some of them ride off of sexist stereotypes and reward players with coercive behavior. Some let you romance… some very interesting options. 

This is honestly one of the least problematic examples you can pull from.

The ability to choose between a roster of attractive characters and accomplish a true love specific to your tastes with them is a power fantasy. And all of these games set an expectation that the character you control is aligned with your romantic taste and that you get to decide who they end up with.

One of the most important aspects of Undertale and Deltarune is giving the illusion of agency to fictional characters. That’s why there’s so many secret dialogues in the game, why characters react to everything, why there’s so much rich history that is left unsaid about.

We’re supposed to see these characters as real as possible and personally investigate our relationship to them when we alter their lives for the better or worse.

Our control of Kris, aesthetically resembles the silent protagonist who we project our personality and choices onto despite their pre-existing history. But the big twist, the most novel framing device of the game, is that Kris is their own distinct person who is both explicitly genderless and has entirely separate motivations from their pilot. 

Chapter 5 makes a great effort to point out that, no matter what ship we subscribe to, Kris has a personal, somewhat ambiguous taste that we are not privy to change.

We can’t choose who we want Kris to take to the Festival, because Kris will only answer Susie.

We can’t choose to support Suselle, because Kris feels jealous about their best friend and potential childhood crush being in a relationship.

And Kris won’t let us confess anything to Susie, perhaps because we misread romantic attraction or Kris just doesn’t want us to influence that relationship any further. 

Noelle aesthetically follows the “unrequited childhood love” trope. She’s a very feminine neighbor of the main hero, whom she has a deep longing for but cannot get the words across. The insecurity becomes so prolonged that they’ve drifted into other relationships over time.

The soundtrack even names her main theme, “The Girl Next Door”. It is an undeniably popular trope with some of the most popular characters in many fandoms being this exact archetype.

It’s so popular that, even when these characters don’t end up together, fandoms ship the childhood best friends to stardom. It’s one of the most appealing fantasies that any piece of media can mine for viewership. And it’s not hard to see why.

It’s a relationship built on a pre-existing relationship, it carries so much yearning feelings and emotional insecurity for the characters involved. Most of all, it raises the stakes on how those two will feel about each if their dynamic were to change. And that’s exactly what drives the core drama between Kris and Noelle.

Problem is, we don’t know if Kris “loves” Noelle that way and vice versa (though much more clear on Noelle’s end) or if they want to reciprocate. We can guess, we can theorize, but in this story we can’t force them to.

But what we can do is make Noelle fall in love with “us”.

Because the Weird Route is not about Kriselle, it’s the silly-named but aptly titled SOULelle ship. 

Kris doesn’t tell Noelle that she will ride with them, it’s “Noelle will ride with Me”. Kris doesn’t answer that it’s their voice on the couch, the person who’s talking is “Me”. Noelle even says in her deranged state that she’s fallen for the new Kris, the one who’s changed. The one who’s interesting now. 

In a series that subverts genre and games themselves with a high respect for the character’s personal interests, this is how it would dissect dating sim elements.

You can date Papyrus and Alphys but they aren’t into you because they have their own tastes. You can flirt with Toriel (and call her mommy) and she’ll make fun of you for that at the end. 

You can try to request Kris to go out with someone other than Susie and they’ll just whisper the words or jump into a spa before they let you decide that for them.

Noelle too, has her own tastes and it’s very much likely that Suselle is the endgame. It is even prophesied. “Love finds its way to The Girl”. And this is the part of the Prophecy we are breaking. (or at least reframing)

Only in this case, the purpose is to drag the princess away from the dragon so she can end up with the "hero".

It’s why we require a 6 year long, 4 chapter journey to destroy all of her psychological defenses through verbal and physical abuse to finally get to this point. And on the way, the game will never stop reminding you how personally degrading and awful it is for a player to play matchmaker. 

If you want these two characters to fall in love so badly, you’re gonna have to do the work and force the wedding ring onto them, even if it makes them bleed, and even if it makes them force you as well.

But most importantly, this is only possible because you play as the character who Noelle already has a complicated longing for. None of this can work if Noelle isn’t physically looking at Kris, the only vessel that can make this possible on the only character who can be manipulated this way.

Hell, even in Chapter 5, Noelle still cannot wisen up that she’s not speaking to anyone remotely close to Kris anymore despite how many times we’ve made the distinction. 

Noelle has wanted Kris to acknowledge her feelings, to finally confirm that they did have something special after all and by forcing that acknowledgement out of them, we’ve accomplished two major goals.

Kris has finally given up, and has become our self-insert and we decide who their ending will be with.

And Noelle has finally chosen “you”.

@annakulak5

In my previous post about the meaning of the Smile ARG, I concluded that the “smile” was not a literal smile but the moment Noelle attains absolute power and becomes fully indebted to us for granting it.

The power in display would be the moment Noelle uses her innate glitch hunting/narrative altering ability to create a sequence break in Deltarune’s story.

But I couldn’t tell you what or where this sequence break would be since a lot of this was mostly 3rd party evidence... and honestly vibes so far.

Until now.

Look carefully. This isn’t the lake we all know from previous chapters.

There’s different trees. There’s no bench or the spot to sit. And Kris is coming from the right side, not the left.

This scene is on the other side of the lake. The lake.

The lake that has been alluded to having a song playing in both the Light and Dark Worlds, one of the most cryptic lore details of the whole game.

The sequence break is crossing over to the other side. Splitting the red sea Moses style, which would fit into Noelle’s angelic themes.

The Flower King shop is right next to the lake as well, meaning Noelle won’t need to travel far in its Dark World to find a massive ocean version of the Lake to perform a miracle.

And the text associated with this image?

“You only need to see her once, and you can move on."

Who is “her”?

It can't be Noelle, the point is to keep her in our control and what would it even mean for Kris to see Noelle and move on?

The answer is blatantly referring to the “her” in “Find Her”.

What if the other side of this lake lies the secret of Dess’s disappearance? The ultimate, endgame level secret of the whole game? The secret that is keeping everyone trapped in the past that will undoubtedly be solved in the emotional climax of Chapter 7?

Source: @tac_bats

What if instead, we and Noelle spoil this ending 2 chapters and minimum 3 years earlier in the making?

What if Noelle finds Dess, regardless if she is dead or alive and figures out the how or the why she vanished?

What would make Noelle "happy for the first time in her life" more than having her trauma not only resolved but for someone to teach her to resolve herself through her own hands?