Art and stuff

So, let's give it a shot!

WHO is Responsible?

It bears repeating, but the two most likely candidates - The other Card Kings or the Roaring Knight - Are directly deconfirmed, both by the torn banners being exclusively of spades, meaning that this happened AFTER King took power, along with Seam's dialogue placing their imprisonment as something that happened a while ago in the Dark World's history.

Whilst the Struggle within the Throne Room seems to be something that happened WHILE the Fun Gang's adventure was underway (Unless we want to argue that King forbade anyone from cleaning up his throne room for an exceedingly lengthy amount of time). And of course, Spade King never met the Knight given his ch4 dialogue, no less that the Knight would have no reason to attack someone that is constantly professing loyal to It.

So if not them, who else in the Dark World could?

Let's start off with dismissing all regular darkner enemies for obvious reasons, we see how a rebellion from them looks in the pacifist ending of ch1, after all.

With that we're left with NPCs and the other main antagonists and starting out way from one who was not only within the Castle BUT also the one character we see right before the throneroom...!

Hm. Okay, maybe not.

And of course same goes for the likes of other Castle residents such as Lancer (Don't even need to explain) and Jevil (Still locked in the basement), nor even characters beyond the castle like Mr. Elegance and Mr. Society (Their resistance against the King is not THAT intense) and of course, characters like Seam are clearly very neutral on King's reign to bother doing anything this ridiculous.

So- was this entire segment a waste of time? YES! :3

But it is important to make it clear how nobody in this entire Dark World that we meet would have the motivation or even capability to do something like this... Except.. What if it is someone we DIDN'T meet but WAS present in this chapter?

THAT'S RIGHT! THIS IS AN ERAM THEORY!

For those not in the know, during the chapter 1 anniversary stream we were treated to this fascinating "odd" mention by Toby Fox, by calling King's "cape" a Mantle, not even as part of a joke, he just says "Cool Mantle Bro" as if wanting to clarify that it is one, on the stream that reveals ch2's launch in which the mystery of the Shadow Mantle is revealed.

And upon inspecting the Mantle Holder's sprite in ch3, we see that there's a VERY clear similarity between the two, with the Mantle Enemy's "Horns" infact being the shoulder pads of the cape and Its mouth being exactly in the same spot where King's own second mouth is located, as if to further drive the similarity between them.

And timeline-wise, this checks out! Seam's Shadow Mantle could've only been stolen in ch1 as after that ERAM would've needed to somehow enter Castletown and smuggle it out through the entire city as opposed to the far more remote location of Seam's shop in Card World.

So In Chapter 1: ERAM possesses the Shadow Mantle akin to a vessel and has It fly out of Seam's Shop, It then flies off into Card Castle, enters King's Throneroom by flying to the top of the castle where the Gallery Arena is and entering from the north entry way and A STRUGGLE ENSUES.

After that we DO see the aftermath of the fight; ERAM as the Mantle is being worn by King who seems to have wandered off the throneroom and seemingly standing inert in the Gallery Arena... Before Lancer arrives.. And after the Battle... Well.

The second that Spade King has been defeated in the eyes of everyone, we're given a brief moment of TOTAL SILENCE as the only moving thing in view is the Mantle removing itself from King and literally flying off like a butterfly... It was a living piece of black cloth that ditched King the second he was no longer of use and then 2 chapters later we fight another living piece of black cloth.

We were looking for another character that'd be along with King after the Struggle and here we have it.

WHY did this happen? WHY to Spade King?

ERAM's motivations are a mysterious thing, I won't lie, but without getting too much into it, the SWORD ROUTE is very clear that its plans are centered around the Weird Route becoming a reality and is seemingly a being that exists entirely outside the Prophecy's control.

Along with ERAM being the ONLY CHARACTER besides Seam, to say the words "Shadow Crystals", no less displaying an extremely clear awareness of the "hunt" for them. And both the Weird Route and the Shadow Crystals are pathways to fighting against the prophecy, so if we have anything, that's gotta be their motivation for meddling with King in chapter 1. SO: How does ERAM messing with King achieve that?

For starters, I think we can rule out the Shadow Mantle empowering King in his fight. It is after all a protective item specializing against DARK/STAR attacks and nobody in the Fun Gang has such attacks. No less that all offensive attacks are exclusively coming from King and his fight ends because he gets tired... So not that strong, tbh

A different idea is that by virtue of being worn, ERAM was able to quite literally whisper words in King's ears and give him all manner of thoughts. ERAM has after all been cleanly characterized as a manipulative entity with an extraordinary capability of dragging out the worst impulses and darkest thoughts of others into the forefront... And well...

While King in ch2 reveals this was a bluff as Lancer is infact a "Bouncy Boy", It does feel like King is acting extremely more aggressive, erratic and downright cruel in his chapter 1 appearance as opposed to all the chapters following after, something that is once more commented on by Toby, even if he placed the culprit being the "Fountain" itself.

King remains as an EXTREME ODDITY compared to every other Dark World Ruler after him. The other Rulers are VERY clear in their love of Lightners and wishing to do nothing more than to make them happy, any conflict with them naturally emerges from said dynamic.

Queen wants to force everyone into a Dark World so they can exist in bliss. Tenna wishes he doesn't get forgotten and the Flowers are attempting to create a world to make Asgore happy. But Spade King by comparison?

He wants them DEAD. To be slain and to have the Light World covered in darkness (under the flawed belief) for darkness to rule them instead! Both as revenge for the classroom having been forgotten and abandoned but also to ensure that they never again return to said "dark" times. It makes him extremely jarring compared to all other Dark Worlds that come after him and it is fascinating!

Suffice to say, ERAM isn't a character that is attempting to make people "Evil", in their talk with Kris they instead drag out the dark and subconscious thoughts of theirs already was there.

So when applied to King, ERAM would merely make him act upon his worst impulses and validate his worst thoughts perhaps?

But, this feels like a crude argument if we're honest. Spade King was already vowing his war against Lightners and as late chapter 5 is still preaching of his hatred of them for how they abandoned him and his fellow darkners. ERAM would've essentially being preaching to the choir if their goal was to "corrupt" the already pretty bloodthirsty King, no less that the Struggle in the throneroom would've absolutely not helped.

If anything, ERAM's presence only put Spade King in a massive disadvantage and was a key aspect of him loosing... WAIT WH-

WHY is King so easy to Tire?

I may have glossed over it and We may have all joked about King being a "fraudulent bum" compared to other Rulers that came after but... This entire post is literally detailing the mystery of the Struggle that King was the victim of. Wouldn't THAT be the reason why he's the ONLY boss in the entire game to ever be beaten through... Literally not doing anything?

What would've happened if King wasn't weakened by needing to fight the Heroes right after the Struggle in the throneroom? Well for starters, It would be impossible spare him. The only other character to have ACTs like King in Deltarune - Where we're given the choice to ACT and then we get instantly shut down by the enemy - is the Roaring Knight who can only be defeated by attacking them.

The Struggle has seemingly allowed us to be able to defeat King through pacifist means... No less that in a non-pacifist playthrough of Chapter 1, King is only defeated through Ralsei's Pacify if the residents of Card World don't come to save us.... In which we get this exclusive dialogue..

If King wasn't so utterly tired from both the Struggle in the Throne Room and the battle here, he would not have been viable to be pacified by Ralsei. And if that didn't happen...

Well, it goes without saying, but Ch1 of Deltarune remains amongst the only chapters in which not being a pacifist doesn't results in a character getting seriously injured if not outright slain. Berdly burning his wing in ch2, Tenna being cleaved apart in ch3, Jackenstein falling to his death in ch4 and Flowery in ch5...

Flowery isn't beholden to our will or the prophecy for it to determine his Destiny... So he dies whether or not we're nice to everyone because he acts independently of Us and his will is his own.

And I think something very similar happened here, ERAM in an extremely strange twist of expectations seems to have actually saved King's life by messing with the Prophecy?

This would perfectly fit in with ERAM's motivations and capacity to mess up the prophecy as a rogue element, but why Spade King?

Spade King has spent the past 4 chapters being comically inactive in everything as he has (willingly) remained imprisoned within his cell in defiance of the Fun Gang... So it's not like him remaining alive has changed anything..

Buut, the same could be said of every single other person in Castletown we recruit.. It is literally the "Retirement Home" for the characters we meet and who have played their part in the story. They cannot go anywhere else, for their story has concluded.

And King on the other hand isn't "playing along". He refuses to let go of his hatred of lightners and acts like he'll actually manage to have his revenge... But that is impossible, King's story ended in chapter 1, he is no longer a part of the prophecy, he is quite literally optional content now and therefore non-vital to the story, he is redundant in its eyes.

That is.. Assuming King is still subject to the Prophecy.

That is assuming that King didn't have his "original" story altered by the Struggle born of a Being whose actions seem to be a rogue element within the Prophecy and whose actions cause its instability.

That is assuming that King didn't have ERAM directly in his ears for a prolonged period of time to peerhaps whisper certain secrets?~

And a way to alter his destiny. A way in which he can fight the heroes on his terms with no Prophecy dictating his inevitable appearance and his inevitable defeat.

Without a Prophecy to dictate him as the "Bad Guy" for the "Heroes" to defeat..

At least that's what It could've told him to make him agree to follow along, not like he has another choice in his current state. As for ERAM's actual motives, IT MUST have a plan in the main route, after all not every timeline is going to be the Weird Route or Secret Bosses and banking on the cosmic lottery of "Being in the right timeline" feels weak.

And well, given everything we've seen, King being forced into a meeting with ERAM through the Struggle seems to be an integral part of the setup by It for whatever Its "default" plan ends up being in the Main Route, for what may await us next!

Like I am sorry Knight Candidate Theorists, but the struggle literally only existed in the Chapter 2 Era, Ch3 merely showing us the Knight's design Genocided 90% of the popular candidates and Carol was the ONLY serious theory that opposed Dess Knight after that.... And then it got hard deconfirmed in ch4 unless we got the Mayor Money Funded Tunnels.

So I am sorry gang, the most intensely debated "Creative Freedom Before It Gets Confirmed" we got is if Dess' official design has her be blonde or not. She simply cannot be who Toby is referring to.

SOO, who is a character so mysterious and so well hidden and mysterious that is a constant well spring of fanworks and interpe- It's Gaster, I am talking about Gaster. I don't even need an example, He is GASTER. The most well fermented Mystery Man in all of UTDR who canonically has the hots for us (who I need so badly).

So... Is Toby saying that We'll get THE Gaster Reveal in Chapter 6? Do we dare even hope for something that majestic..?

... No. That's just a fantasy, isn't it?

It must be someone else then.. But who else? What other character do we have that it is at the moment a massive nexus of fan interpretations, fan designs and theorizing? We do have FRIEND..! (I didn't have a better picture, sorry)

And the Fat Cat has infact been a MASSIVE wellspring of theories and interpretations and even possible desgins buut- That already ended?

Chapter 5 happened and Mew Mew straight up gave us the general gist of WHAT it is, "WHO" it is and WHAT it is doing. So just like Dess Knight, IMAGE_FRIEND has gotten a rather universally agreed upon interpretation compared to previously where you could argue it was a literal Businessman of a cat, a literal demon king thing, a sentient virus or just- A Person in general.

FRIEND is now a very specific thing that everyone agrees in it being that, resulting in a LOT of pre-ch5 FRIEND interpretations having now become the "Time Capsules" that Toby was specifically talking about.

So if not the Knight, if not Gaster and if not FRIEND then who is left? . . .

There is one such character.

A character without a confirmed Name

A character without a confirmed Design

A character without a confirmed Role

A character without a confirmed Backstory

Jane/John "ERAM" Shadow Mantle Holder, is a freaking ENIGMA. Too bizarrely sparse in appearance to be confidently acknowledged as a big player but also just connected in stuff far too important to be dismissed in any capacity.

It is the ONE individual in the ENTIRE story that "subtly" encourages towards the Weird Route, no less that if we take into account questions like "Who gave the ThornRing to Spamton?" may actually be the one making it a reality for us to be able to explore. No less being the only possible candidate for the Voice of the "ThankYou" ARG given various oddities in personality that no other character (whose personality we actually know) could ever fit.

Both of these things instantly place ERAM as a being with LUDICROUS amounts of awareness of the inner secrets of the world in order to not only know about the "Forbidden Path" but to actively be able of making it possible just for Us, whose existence It has made clear to be very much aware of and not even making any efforts to hide it unlike characters like Ralsie or Kris.

Like ALL this? This isn't even theorizing in my eyes, that's straight up the baseline data that can be gathered for It that then gets used for actual theorizing in figuring out its Identity, Motives and general place in the story.

If there is ONE character who has yet to get their "True Reveal", the one that invalidates a thousand theories and a thousand fan works that can exist at this current moment It must be It. There exist no other character on its level that... We can concretely say ACTUALLY exists to begin with.

So, why was ERAM comparatively so niche compared to other characters theory-wise? Heck, even compared to other Secret bosses when it first was revealed?

SO- What happened? Are We illiterate?

Well, not like this, I think what happened kinda was the most natural and realistic follow up to the entire build up of the post-ch2 "Era".

What happened is that FRIEND happened.

We saw this wacky and scary sprite jumpscaring us in ch2 when it first came out, in the already scary and wacky "Digital Roots" Area and... Honestly nothing really happened? IMAGE_FRIEND was still a fresh thing and most still saw it as just a "Spamton-themed jumpscare" given the shared eyes.

Yes, there were the theories of this being "Mike" as well as people realizing that the "Neon Cat Signs" in that specific Save Point were also Pink and Yellow and people GENUIENLY figured out that FRIEND was a cat THAT early (Which is just amazing.), but they were ultimately in the minority for obvious reasons.

But theeeen-

And this is where things became EXCEEDINGLY strange.

Because THIS here is where FRIEND proper was born in the mind of the community, first appearing in the "Chair" Page that if you clicked mutliple times lead to getting what straight up was foreshadowing for FRIEND's on screen appearance in Susie's Room during Ralsei's explanation, in the form of FRIEND's eyes along with a cut sample of its signature laugh.

This is instantly confirming that "It" was a separate being than Spamton. And from there the floodgates of theorizing opened.

Then there was Noelle's blog about Catpetterz, which was the first time we got direct explanation on what "Catpetterz" was beyond just a stereotypical random game, which kinda was the seed to FRIEND's mysterious connection to that game that we have to this day.

No less that the second round of Sweepstakes on the months preceding ch3-4's launch we got even more fuel on this connection by getting even more Catpetterz "lore" in the form of the "Rarecats" page LITERALLY having FRIEND jumpscare appearance in the mini-game.

So let's take note of what we had to work with.

We had a mysterious Cat-Character who was connected to Spamton

It appears literally everywhere as a weird Easter Egg

It's appearances are giving a strong "Creepypasta" seriousness

We have zero clue what any of this meant or what it was FOR.

That forth point may seem like a bad thing, but for The Theorists of The World, this was a GIFT FROM [[HEAVEN]]- aka It is theory bait - That's what FRIEND freaking was for all of these years prior to like a month ago after ch5 came out.

FRIEND was SHEER POTENTIAL of relevance but with NOWHERE for them to go. It was a character whose appearances were just... It appearing, but unlike say Everyman, the Annoying Dog or Starwalker - FRIEND's placement was intentional in evoking an atmosphere that this one was Serious rather than a running Gag.

It had to MEAN something! Why would Toby constantly showcase this goofy cat everywhere if it didn't mean anything...?

Anyways and then in chapter 3's FIRST FREAKING MOMENTS we get a MANDATORY MAIN ROUTE appearance of a full-body design of IMAGE_FRIEND in Ralsei's monologue about Dark Worlds.

It appeared in an explanation! Someone's visualized headspace! Why?! What did that even MEAN?

Do you see what I mean? The FRIEND Hype Train wasn't the result of theorists getting bored and deciding to write fanfiction, there was GENUINELY so much fuel for this bizarre cat... But nowhere for it to go! You simply COULD NOT deny FRIEND's relevancy in the story but at the same time nobody had a clue as to what it even WAS.

And then the SWORD Route happens and it just continues.

Then Chapter 4 happens and it juust continues

And then Gerson's Secret Boss Fight happens and it JUST CONTINUES

And WITH ALL THAT in place..

Do you think you could convince people that FRIEND was just a minion of "ERAM"?

AAALL that hype for effectively the "Elite Goomba Summon" of "ERAM"? Who in comparison, their foreshadowing prior to this chapter literally was a sound effect put over Seam's dialogue?

NOW, make no mistake, this isn't some sort of "FRIEND Apologism", trust me when I say the opposite, I was vehemently against any theories of ERAM just being FRIEND and not actually a character. I was against FRIEND being treated a mastermind type figure as Gaster 2.0 when we literally didn't know anything about it...

And yet, not even I could believe in that FRIEND would "Just" be ERAM's little minion. It all had to be this actual important character, right?

Well apparently not.

FRIEND was infact an "Elite Goomba Summon".

This SHOULD have felt like a grand revelation, right? A massive shocking twist where we all realize we had been misinformed by the game?

But, not really. As I said, the weird thing about FRIEND was that it was fuel for something that... Had nowhere to go. Toby Fox only needed to JUST give us a concretely established place to direct all of this attention and relevance and the entire thing would finally calm down.

FRIEND suddenly became a character with an identity and a role and a personality/motives that could be contradicted and make it impossible to be stuffed into whatever you wanted them to be... So a normal character.

HOW did FRIEND become this?

Like forget about patting ourselves on the back for "calling it before it was revealed", we had YEARS of FRIEND becoming this massive deal in the community, I have like an entire folder of utterly amazing fanworks for the damned cat as proof of that!

And all of this happened because Toby seemingly "fumbled" IMAGE_FRIEND's setup, He created all of this attention and all of this focus on this bizarre cat and gave it its own identity and visual motif and associations with other characters even themes and yet NONE of those ever lead to something that IT did.

FRIEND became a big deal in chapter 2 and it took until 2 weeks AFTER chapter 5 for us to FINALLY figure out what this character actually was setup for? Why do it like this?

Even "supposed" attempts to counterbalance the massive momentum that FRIEND had picked up directly as a result of the Sweepstakes like the Vending Machine dialogue literally calling it a "Servant" seriously failed because it still depicted FRIEND as an intelligent - if not outright graceful entity capable of speech, rather than literally a collective of beasts driven by near primal instincts and orders as Mew Mew presents them.

No less ERAM's mere existence by comparison being the aforementioned bizarre mystery that it is, which just didn't give it enough "stopping power" to absorb FRIEND's momentum into itself

... Which let's finally talk about that!

HOW was ERAM "fumbled"?

If it hasn't become clear by this entire post being more about FRIEND than ERAM at this point.. FRIEND was the most efficient sandbagging attempt of the character. FRIEND was seen as literal secret boss material TWICE, both for ch3 and then again in ch5. It was a black hole of attention to obscure other secrets.

FRIEND was literally being theorized to be what ERAM already was... But FRIEND actually had the "relevance fuel" to backup such claim with faaar greater ease than ERAM.

Which leads us to the second point; What was the issue with ERAM? Sure, FRIEND was a bomb of pure theorizing potential. But ERAM actually had a personality, goals, motives and relationship with characters like Kris, no less that it ACTUALLY talks.

So it should've still been able to carve out its own part of the story with complete ease, it was after all a secret boss, those always get their own complete sto-

WELL ABOUT THAT...!

Not ONLY does ERAM have to contend with the likes of Ramb being "Secret Boss Bait" and "fake shop lore vendor" type figure that is revealed to in-truth not know CRAP.

Not ONLY does ERAM have to deal with IMAGE_FRIEND being a runaway hype-machine that just reached critical mass after its mandatory reveal in the very same Chapter.

BUT ERAM has to share its "Secret Boss" status with the freaking ROARING KNIGHT - THE MAIN ANTAGONIST OF THE STORY.

And the Knight is the direct opposite of the semi-self-contained stories that the Secret Bosses as it is THE overarching antagonist of the ENTIRE story so far and this was its MAJOR Main-Route Reveal after the setup of both King's, Queen's and Tenna's respective hyping It specifically for this moment.

WHAT THE HELL, TOBY?!

This makes ZERO sense to happen accidentally. It is such an amazingly well constructed attempt to smokescreen EVERY aspect of ERAM both before AND after its reveal.

FRIEND was custom made to be hyped up so high from the Sweepstakes that It'd make us tunnel vision and expect FRIEND to be somewhere and the few bits and pieces of it that DID appear were seen as further confirmation of such expectation... Even if they didn't fully make sense.

Ramb also is the one character that we spent the most time with in relation to the whole "Questline" and in the before the final segment of the SWORD ROUTE you would be forgiven to assume that this was HIS story and his questline leading to him being the secret boss, bait or not.

And then when ERAM finally appears and we finally fight them and we finally defeat them and finally get the Shadow Mantle... We can go finally do the Knight's Fight and get that juicy shadow crystal!

Because in context, you will kinda be doing the entirety of the MANTLE Game FOR the Shadow Mantle. ERAM was straight up not even SUPPOSED to be in this story to begin with! The very chapter is not even trying to position them as a individual of interest, it's like a weird stop-gap to go (try and) kick the ass of the actual individual of interest of the chapter.

It stole the Shadow Mantle from Seam as a way to force us to go through its inserted added Sword Route boards to make sure we would see what it had to offer.

And with that realization, we're beginning to reach the conclusion of this entire maddening rant disguised as an analysis post.

ERAM intentionally was attempting to keep itself hidden every step of the way.

Obviously it can't control stuff like the sweepstakes, that'd be crazy... But ERAM can use IMAGE_FRIEND as its eyes and ears to spy on us, leading to all the countless sightings from the cat being a smokescreen for ERAM being whose constantly spying on us every step of our journey without ever revealing its own self.

And ERAM stealing the Mantle was especially designed to lead to the entirety of the SWORD ROUTE where it gets to deliver important information to us in such an indirect manner - even its voice in the game is hiding its actual one. Even the Shadow Mantle Enemy is hiding its true form, it is just the Shadow Mantle itself possessed into a shape that loosely resembles it rather than ERAM itself.

The entire purpose of us fighting our way through all of these dungeons is to specifically allow ERAM to deliver their important message to us in a way that doesn't leave a TRACE of their true identity.

No less, that a rather funny realization of mine that even the Forgotten Man is less of a mystery than ERAM. The Man who literally had his identity erased from the world and can only speak to us once, is still more easily comprehensible in his place in the world, his story and even general identity - because he wants to be found and remembered.

ERAM on the other hand, is someone attempting to remain unknown and even be forgotten about beyond what it provides us in a sense.

I mean it's so freaking well hidden that I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out it was also the goofily mysterious entity literally called "Someone", just literally someone.. It is so hilariously and intentionally vague that it'd fit like a glove...

Such fun, but anyways!

To at Last Conclude This!

TOBY FOX IS LYING!! "I had a different expectation about how certain info would be interpreted or combined." MY BUTT!

HE CREATED the ENTIRETY of the IMAGE_FRIEND Theory Industrial Complex to Sandbag MY GOAT for an ENTIRE YEAR until Chapter 5 came out! HE planned this all out!

HE IS A LYING MUTT! "Personally, I really don’t read or watch theories. That’s because I already know what my game is." LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE!! THIS SICKO is SO in deep into the theorizing game He is throwing the MOST DEVIOUSLY ENGINEERED Theory Sinkholes to cover his EVIL MASTERMIND TRACKS.

HE got that CAT in Castletown to lie for ERAM and make up fake Entry 17 Quotes to make us THINK this was Gaster's Doing!

BUT NOT OUR TOBY! COULDN'T BE PRECIOUS TRICKY TONY FOX!

BUT I AM ONTO YOU! The rest of these lore plebeians may have fallen for your petty tricks BUT I'VE GROWN WISE TO YOUR FOUL SCHEMES! MY SOUL SHINES WITH RADIANCE IN THIS SEA OF ILLUSIONARY DARKNESS YOU'VE GROWN!