Noelle was the one responding in the Thank You Emails ARG
You've probably seen the responses to the Thank You Survey before. And like most people, you've probably thought it was somebody like Gaster or ERAM responding.
In particular, there were some responses in the third round of the ARG that were downright humorous. Almost as if Toby broke character, and was responding as himself.
But what if I told you this wasn't Toby breaking character at all?
It's not Gaster or ERAM too, as humorous as the idea of a skeleton or a sentient mantle talking to us by text would be.
Rather, it's actually a character we see in game, and we can match the speaking style to clearly. One who is the focus of the Weird Route and of this ARG.
Firstly, lets cite the Deltarune Wiki on Noelle's speaking pattern:
Some of this matches how the person in the emails speaks. They speak in a proper manner, and they're polite. We don't see the verbal tics, and we don't have a Japanese localization to compare to as the ARG wasn't run in Japanese. We also don't see the person mumble or really stutter.
But we do see them get flustered in a few ways that are very Noelle like.
Some people really did think so.
We also see the person respond with ellipsis in a manner very similar to Noelle a lot.
If you go through basically any of Noelle's dialogue, you'll see that she uses ellipses a lot. Particularly when she's thinking ,or in the Weird Route. It's a trait that shows up a lot.
Also you may be wondering "Why would Noelle refer to herself in the third person like that? That doesn't make sense!"
But that's actually a thing Noelle does often, especially in the Weird route. And it's a key aspect of her character.
NOELLE AND DEPERSONALIZATION DEREALIZATION DISORDER
Noelle gives a textbook description of the concept of dissociation in Chapter 5's Weird Route when Kris meets her at the lake. I have a bigger post I want to make on this later, but for now I recommend reading up on the concept of dissociation disorders at the link above.
While it's not named specifically, what she describes matches pretty much perfectly with depersonalization-derealization disorder. She's disconnected from her sense of self, and feels like she's watching things from afar. The glass metaphor is VERY common with DPDR.
This is in play in both routes of Deltarune. It's not unique to one route or the other. But in the Weird Route of Deltarune? It comes to the forefront a lot more. You'll see Noelle talk to herself as if there's another Noelle as a seperate person.
So what changed exactly? Well, on the Weird Route, the player came into the picture. And our actions clearly had an impact on Noelle's psychology. Not in a healthy or welcoming way either.
After this point, Noelle's responses in the Thank You ARG (Round 2 and 3) match how we see her talk in Chapter 5.
She's still Noelle, and she still refers to past events that are disconnected and dissociated in the third person. That's why a lot of timestamped events in round 2 are in quotations.
But no longer is she the the Noelle who is afraid of things, or worried about bad things happen. In her own words:
WHY THE ARG HAD THREE ROUNDS
Once you realize that Noelle was the one responding, it becomes a bit more clear why there were three rounds:
The first round occurred after Chapter 2, but before Chapters 3 and 4. Players had discovered the Weird Route, and Noelle had trauma over the events of what happened in Cyber World. But she was still in denial. In a psychological sense, Noelle was still behind the glass denying everything, and there was a Noelle doing Noelle things in her place. So anyone who submitted an answer got to move on.
The second round was after Chapters 3 and 4. We saw the Thank You response in game. The original animation was a rose falling apart, but Toby replaced it with shattered glass when people got the wrong impression from it. This was Noelle coming to terms with the trauma that happened, and recognizing how Kris had changed in all of this as well.
The third round was right before Chapter 5. Where would she wait for Kris? At the lake. This is where we got the most detailed answers to the ARG, and none of them are out of character for a Weird Route Noelle that has come to terms with the trauma, and has accepted that Kris has changed as well.
When the second round was going on, my first impression of who was responding was "Is Kris themselves responding to us?" And I couldn't shake that impression. But it makes sense now why I had that impression in the first place. Kris and Noelle know each other better than anyone, per Noelle's own words.
Once you recognize just what kind of character Noelle is, it clicks, and every response that was given off in the ARG lines up with something she would say.
And if you don't believe me, just look at a few of these responses:
Who would know Noelle's smile better than herself?
Someone recognized that Noelle was losing track of time, which happens in Chapter 2.
She's seen the prophecy, and she knows she's going to smile again, so she can confidently say these two people are getting ahead of themselves.
Dark World locations. Noelle is the Roaring Knight, but players mostly hadn't figured that out yet, so that's the bad news that they'll figure out themselves.
We were already in Noelle's room in Chapter 4, hence why she asks "someplace different?"
Look at all the answers for yourself, honestly. Decide for yourself. I think if you look at the answers in the context of the game and the Weird Route itself, you'll come to a similar conclusion.
Thank You Emails Verification Project
Thank you survey on Deltarune Wiki
