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A lot of people think the Shadow Crystal quest will be instrumental to "subverting the prophecy". From my observations, when people are working out how they think the rest of the game will unfold, they tend to conceive of the Crystal quest as being more or less analogous to the Pacifist quest in Undertale. You can complete the game normally, get an unsatisfying ending, and then if you go back and complete some missable tasks you can get the "happy" or "true ending" instead.

This is not a totally unreasonable take. We've seen throughout these chapters that recruiting every Darkner often nets a more favorable outcome, even saving some characters from their potential demise. And the Crystal quest centers around facing seemingly insurmountable odds, with Seam, the quest-giver, becoming progressively more hopeful that fate may not be decided with each powerful foe brought to heel. One of Toby's recent teasers even hints that the power of the Shadow Crystals may in fact be Determination, described in Undertale as "the resolve to change fate". Gerson urges the heroes not to put so much stock in the prophecy's exact words, and Susie comes out of Chapter 4 resolved to struggle against the fate that's been written for her. It almost seems like a foregone conclusion that there will be some happy ending where we and the heroes defy fate.

But... more and more, I'm beginning to doubt this notion, personally. So with this post, my goal is to rain on everyone's parade. I'm here to say: no, actually, we won't just change fate, because that's boring and it goes against the themes of the game.

I know many people will be resistant to that notion, but please hear me out.

The first and simplest point I want to make is that the existence of a true, happy ending would be a retread - and a boring, predictable one at that.

One of the very first things Deltarune establishes about itself is that it is a thematic foil to Undertale. In Undertale, you are god of the world and get to make choices freely, with your Determination bending the world towards whatever your desired ending is, whether that be a "happy" or "evil" one. This makes a lot of sense for the narrative of that game; Undertale is in large part a metatext about branching path choices, the dissonance between player freedom and structured narrative, absorption in and attachment to fictional universes, etc. Deltarune is also about these things, but it's approaching it from the opposite side. Whereas Undertale highlights video games' tendency to offer the player agency and the opportunity to carve out their own power fantasies, and how that can coexist or conflict with narrative priorities, Deltarune, like the Earthbound Halloween Hack, emphasizes the fact that all narrativization is ultimately pre-decided, and that the only "freedom" away from the hand of the author is to step outside the bounds of the narrative itself - into Nowhere.

Toby has long been intrigued by this theme of narratological fate, with it playing an especially prominent role in his early EarthBound fanfiction projects; it can be traced to ideas explored in Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid 2, a formative game for the young Toby Fox.

Now, I'm not here to say that Toby hasn't grown at all from his somewhat juvenile teenage perspective, where his reaction to this conundrum between choice and fate in video game narratives was to contrive a "big joke on the player". But I also want to point out that if a story about fate has you simply disregard it because you don't like it, does that story have any bite at all? Or is it like all those other games which young Toby describes as "making you feel so empowered when you're really not choosing anything"?

The reason why defiance of fate worked in Undertale is because your "happy ending" was counterbalanced by the game's awareness of your alternative timelines. The game asked: "what does your happy ending matter where there are hundreds of other timelines where these characters are suffering? What makes this ending realer or more meaningful than the other ones you've played or seen?" Ultimately, it left you to answer that question. By contrast, it is rather hard to conceive of how a Deltarune where the bad stinky ending can just be undone by fulfilling the right conditions wouldn't just be a straightforward execution of the standard wish-fulfillment video game narrative tropes which young Toby was so tired of. Ask yourself, is the version of Deltarune where you just need to collect X many McGuffins to trivialize the prophecy, formally speaking, any different to any other "True Ending" quest you've seen a billion times before?

Structurally, it doesn't really pass the smell test either. Undertale's Pacifist ending could feel earned in part because an unspoiled player was unlikely to fulfill all the conditions of the pacifist route on their first go. Even a player on LV 1 was likely to miss some of the optional dates before reaching the end. Contrast this with Deltarune where - yes, the secret quests are missable, sure - but most players with any serious investment in the story, especially with the current release structure, are playing through each Chapter sequentially on their "main pacifist save". The wait between Chapters affords anyone who cares to plenty of time to find and complete all the secret optional quests before moving on, assuring that the vast majority of players, at least until the full game is out, will never even get the opportunity to see fate unfold before their eyes because, apparently, they've already fulfilled all the conditions towards getting a happy ending. It doesn't really matter that Toby's initial plan was to release all the Chapters at once; ultimately, part of the issue is that we're already familiar with Toby's tricks from Undertale. Toby expects most players to be on pacifist (and tries to railroad you onto that path harder than he ever did with Undertale) and he expects most invested players to snoop around for secrets as they're playing. There's no way around the fact that just doing Undertale again has huge diminishing returns.

But you know what doesn't? Using people's expectations from Undertale against them. Getting people to hope against hope that the ending can be changed, getting them to think of it as a foregone conclusion even, before revealing that no, that just won't work this time.

Back in Chapter 1, riding high off our victory against Jevil, Seam warns us that one day soon:

And you know what? I have yet to see this particular gun fired. At this point in the narrative, Susie and most players are still convinced that they can outrun fate. And so is even Seam themself, funnily enough! The reveal of the full extent of the prophecy in Chapter 4 may have spooked us a little, but most are pretty sure we've still got this. So why would Seam say this (and think Doylist here!), that we will realize the futility of our actions, if that's not something we're ever really gonna get the opportunity to feel? Remember that this is Crystal quest exclusive dialogue. Toby, through Seam, is saying: you may feel pretty invincible after defeating that Secret Boss. But when all is said and done, you too will understand Jevil's perspective.

You may think this is cringy, nihilistic hogwash. Bear with me! I promise I'm not suggesting Deltarune will go pure grimdark. But I think we may need to consider that fate might actually mean fate, in the game with fate as its central theme.

Maybe you're wondering by now: if Deltarune really does just have one ending and it's this unavoidable tragedy, what's the point? What's the point of Seam becoming more hopeful? What's the point of Gerson urging you not to stick to what the prophecy says? What's the point of Susie's naive hope? What's the point of the Shadow Crystals?

Let me start by addressing Susie. Most players are fully, 100% aligned with Susie when she rejects the power of the prophecy at the end of Chapter 4. From what I can see, the general opinion is that Susie is the game's true protagonist and from now on it will center mostly around the player and her working together to resist the fate that's been set in stone for them, using the power of friendship and hope and anime. It's not hard to see why, of course. Most people don't want an unhappy ending for their blorbos. It would just be too sad. So screw what the prophecy says.

That's all well and good, but might we also consider that Susie is being a little naive? I mean, of course she is, Ralsei says as much, but maybe this naivety won't just be completely, unconditionally rewarded? If you've read literally any tragedy you should know that a hero rejecting the power of prophecy is definitely not a surefire sign that the impending tragedy will be prevented. Usually, actually, it's a sign of dramatic irony. In ignoring or even trying to prevent their prophesied fate, the tragic hero usually ends up inadvertently bringing it about.

Are there any signs that Susie is being too naive? Well, let's look at how her perspective has been presented by the game.

Susie is undoubtedly the least informed of the story's main characters. Kris is in a conspiracy with the Knight and possibly Carol, Ralsei knows the entirety of the game's events and the "rules of this world", Noelle senses that something is up with Kris, even Asgore is actively investigating the Dark Worlds, and almost every character has some degree of knowledge about the backstory with Dess's disappearance, the shelter and the Angel's religion and prophecy. Almost everyone - except Susie (and us, to an extent). This makes her a perfect player analogue, but it also means that it's hard to put much stock into her opinion, when even we know a bit more than her. And not only is she ill-informed, she's sort of slow on the uptake and often neglects to ask some pretty crucial questions (such as: "why the hell is there a Dark World in Kris's house", or "hey, this local religion's prophecy sounds awfully like our adventures"). In Chapter 4, she starts taking things more seriously and tries her best to do some detective work, but one can't help but feel that she's mostly serving as a red herring exposition machine. We should take it as a clue that the Knight just laughs at her when she speculates about its nature.

But okay, the extent of Susie's knowledge isn't really what's important here, it's her outlook and attitude, so let's look past what Susie specifically says and instead pay attention to how Susie feels and orients herself towards the world. There's no doubt that the game treats Susie's hope and self-assuredness as a positive, admirable attribute. It enables Ralsei to start self-actualizing and treating himself as an actual person who deserves his own wants and desires. It helps Tenna get over his predicament and move on from his past. Her passion and reckless assertiveness is presented as the antidote to many of the story's ills.

And yet, there's also a subtle, yet ominous undercurrent to her naivety.

* The Roaring Knight... * Whatever they are, they're making these fountains... * But... is that really a bad thing...? * Since they started showing up, * Everything's gotten a lot more interesting, hasn't it...?

Of course, Susie loses this ambivalence about the Knight next chapter, turning firmly against them, but it's, I think, pretty telling that Susie initially feels sympathetic towards their actions. You may think she's gotten over this, but...

* An ending, huh... * ...If I could choose… I guess... * I wouldn't have an ending! * It's just better if stuff just... goes on forever, right?

The funny thing about this interaction is that it's right before Gerson says that Susie wields the pen of hope which can counteract the dark which threatens to wash across the whole world. Many, understandably, interpret this as meaning that Susie is the only hope against the Roaring. But - things going on forever? A story "burning bright and black"? "Burning up everything"? This is itself the language of the Roaring. The impulse to continue the story forever is precisely what motivates Berdly, Noelle and Susie to almost cause the Roaring in Chapter 2. King's bitterness over being cast away and Tenna's desire for his show to continue forever are their main motivating flaws and what the Knight used to recruit them to its side. Susie describes the Knight as someone who wants to "see everything burn".

What do we make of this seeming contradiction? Well, I think part of it is that Gerson actually positions Susie as someone who can only use her white pen of hope after the ocean of ink has spilled across all the pages - so, maybe not as much of a contradiction there as we're thinking.

But either way, Susie's perspective is ideologically aligned with the Knight's seeming goals, of course culminating in the Roaring, which has thus far been presented as a pretty bad thing! So I think we can at least say that Susie's naivety and hope is limited. Which is something I expect she'll have to confront, especially since acceptance has been such a big theme of the game so far, especially where the antagonists are concerned. Acceptance of change, acceptance of things ending.

Gerson himself is often interpreted as someone staunchly opposed to the prophecy, someone who thinks that stories can be changed. So it's natural to think that the wisdom he imparts to Susie is that she should simply dab on the prophecy, right? Screw what it says!

But if you look a little deeper into it, it's a tad more complicated.

* Hmm! The prophecy! A very nice fairytale, that... * Well now, a fairytale is a pretty little thing. * Ain't it nice to believe a glimmer here and there...? * I jus' think, those words shine a bit too bright. * A path so blue, it's all you can see. * So I say... why don't we go between the lines? * It's darker there... Geheh... geheheh!

Right. So as we can see, Gerson's viewpoint isn't exactly that the prophecy just sucks. It's nice to believe a glimmer here and there. But staring at it too long can also blind you, so what's Gerson's avenue for subverting it? It's not to erase the words, or replace them, but to go between the lines. That its to say: to read between the lines. To impose your own interpretation and viewpoint on the text. And to go between the lines, there need to actually be lines to go between, yeah?

* The words on a wall called you a hero. * ... Whatever you end up being, I'm sure it'll be tremendous.

Again, not a flat rejection of the prophecy! Gerson just advocates the freedom to interpret things differently. The words say you're this, but maybe you're something else. It's notable, I think, that Gerson focuses on the symbolic, the descriptive. Gerson doesn't focus on actions or events, what Susie is said to do, but instead focuses on what the prophecy designates Susie to be.

My impression of Gerson is that he basically has an unconditionally celebratory view of hermaneutics (and Becoming more broadly).

Once the question that haunts post-mythic consciousness — that of the seemliness of religious symbols — had been asked, the ancient texts were, in their pristine form, no longer acceptable. Then interpretation was summoned, to reconcile the ancient texts to “modern” demands. Thus, the Stoics, to accord with their view that the gods had to be moral, allegorized away the rude features of Zeus and his boisterous clan in Homer’s epics. What Homer really designated by the adultery of Zeus with Leto, they explained, was the union between power and wisdom. In the same vein, Philo of Alexandria interpreted the literal historical narratives of the Hebrew Bible as spiritual paradigms. The story of the exodus from Egypt, the wandering in the desert for forty years, and the entry into the promised land, said Philo, was really an allegory of the individual soul’s emancipation, tribulations, and final deliverance. Interpretation thus presupposes a discrepancy between the clear meaning of the text and the demands of (later) readers. It seeks to resolve that discrepancy. The situation is that for some reason a text has become unacceptable; yet it cannot be discarded. Interpretation is a radical strategy for conserving an old text, which is thought too precious to repudiate, by revamping it. The interpreter, without actually erasing or rewriting the text, is altering it. Susan Sontag, "Against Interpretation"

He doesn't seem much for essentialism and teleology. A perfectly admirable view, except for the fact that he's in a story, and stories - insofar as they are stable and comprehensible - are characterized by exactly that, which is kind of the whole point of the game's occupation with fate, really!

So there's a conflict here. Gerson's view is positioned as wise and admirable by the game, and yet it's also incomplete because there's clearly some value in a story having at least a temporarily stable being, right? To reinterpret, like Gerson urges, there needs to be a coherent story to reinterpret. And if the point of the game is to allow players the freedom to reinterpret, it needs to actually tell its story for us to do so.

Changing "fate" with the Crystals isn't meaningful freedom at all - it just means following another fate, every bit as pre-decided as the one in the prophecy. The main difference, really, is that a happy ending would narcotize most with easy, shallow contentment; hardly something which incentivizes creative interpretations of the text.

Toby, as Gerson, may believe that everyone deserves the freedom to tell their own stories, and to have their own perspective on the stories that others tell. But here's the thing: Toby has his own story to tell, too.

For the past 3 years I've been waking up in the middle of the night unable to go back to sleep because I've been thinking about the scenes that happen in the game. Even though so many details are still hazy, I really want to show you the things I've been thinking about. That's really my only reason for making this game. If I don't show you what I'm thinking, I'll lose my mind. I HAVE SOMETHING SOMETHING I WANT TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING I THINK YOU WILL FIND VERY VERY INTERESTING If you ever wonder what I'm doing, I'm vibrating rapidly and working on my game. Every year it doesn't come out I shake more. I don't want it to take too long, but after a few more years I can clip into the floor while doing an ollie and earn tons of points, so it's not all bad AFTER ALL YOU AND I, WE HAVE BOTH BEEN WAITING SUCH A VERY LONG TIME. SO TO BE HERE FINALLY ON THE VERGE OF CONNECTION IS QUITE EXCITING. I don't want anyone to burn out waiting for this... But... we haven't burned out making it yet! Actually, the opposite!! We're on fire!! A lot!! Ouch!! ONCE MORE I THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES. YOU HAVE DONE EXCELLENTLY TO PERSEVERE. I understand what it's like to have to wait before you can talk about something. ...because I was waiting. BUT IT IS STILL WAITING. HOW MUCH LONGER NOW...? MY DELTARUNE.

And it's a story which was born from an ending.

In 2011, when I was away at school, I got very sick. I ended up having a terrible fever and couldn’t get any medicine for it, and while I was sleeping I had a vivid dream about the ending to a game. Since then… I felt like I had to make the game with that ending. I have to make what I saw in my dream. I don’t even know if it’s particularly good, but I have to do it…

Toby worked backwards from this dream. He contrived characters and a plotline to bring it to fruition. Getting to show it is the whole reason Deltarune exists at all. And I don't know if you noticed, but we haven't seen the final prophecy yet. Toby is trying to preserve its impact. Because we're gonna see it. We're gonna see the dream. In fact, us getting to see his dream is the crux of the narrative; it is, put simply, Deltarune.

But I still haven't answered the question. What's the point of the Shadow Crystals, then?

* Treasure? There is no treasure... only experience.

The point is experience.

Ask yourself. Do you not feel the same, ultimately?

Rewind back to Chapter 1 and consider. Did you embark on the Shadow Crystal quest to change fate? Was that even an inkling in your mind? Or did you do it because you wanted to? Because it seemed intriguing? Because it seemed... fun?

That's why you're searching for them, aren't you? The SHADOW CRYSTALs... Do you honestly think it'll get you what you want...? ... no, part of you is just... enjoying this, isn't it?

Because it meant something to you, to prove to yourself that you could? Because you got to spend a while longer with these characters and this world? Because it gave you assurance that, truly, you did everything that you could do? That you reached the absolute?

It has no special powers. However, in order to attain this item, you became much stronger!

Because the harder the challenges you faced, the more you felt accomplished. The more your eyes lit up.

* Don't have a long face, now. We all knew nothing would come of this. * But it was fun... to pretend it might, for a little while. * Thank you.

And even if you didn't accomplish everything you thought you could... Even if the change wasn't very big in the end...

* Hmm, a treasure, is it? Here, why don't you take it? * Well now... suppose there ain't much after all. * But even if your path don't lead nowhere... * Least you got some exercise goin' down it. Geh heh heh. * (For some reason you felt healthier to a minuscule degree.) * (Your Max HP increased by 1.)

You felt a little better. Because...

Deltarune is a game about Connection, absorption, the experience of playing it. What you give it is what you get. And what Undertale's Pacifist route and the Crystal quest do have in common is that they are rituals of devotion. Far from undermining the narrative and its fate, they serve to crystalize your love and faith for this secondary world you belong to. And so;

DELTARUNE GLOWS BRIGHTLY FROM YOUR HOPE.

What is Deltarune? What isn't Deltarune? A survey program. Lines of code, some assets, audio files. Words on a wall. Inert and meaningless until you make it not be.

(It’s a strange letter. It’s more or less completely illegible…) (But, if you squint your eyes, and, you squint your heart… For some reason, you feel you could understand it.)

Which is why the diegetic author-figure, almost certainly responsible for creating the prophecy, does not chide you but rather looks on in awe as you threaten to defy fate.

INCREDIBLE. I FELT IT THERE SHINING. YOUR POWER.

There is no contradiction. Because from the start, the Crystal quest was never characterized by a hostilty towards the story being told and always, conversely, by how far you were willing to go to actualize Deltarune in your mind and your heart. It was never about collecting some silly crystals. Oh, to be sure, Seam will cook up something interesting for us. It will lead to something we will "quite enjoy". But these rewards, whatever they will be, are formalities almost, as are the Crystals themselves, retroactively added as they were from Chapter 2 onwards mainly, I have to imagine, to serve as a reward structure for the quest. The Crystals provide such an intriguing mystery that we almost forget that they are post-hoc, pats on the back, Deltarune's acknowledgement of the effort you put in, but they've never been the impetus for said effort. Any player who collects the Shadow Crystals was always going to do what they did regardless of what they got out of it, simply on the basis of their determination.

* This is a dream that grows with love and care. * Don't be afraid to dream!

So will the Crystals change the ending? Of course they will. How could they not? The path you took to collect them fundamentally altered your experience with the game, led you to a different outlook, to a new understanding. You gave it your all and dared to hope that something would come of it. And hope isn't dependent on outcomes. Hope simply exists for itself, as Deltarune does, sustained by your power and will in the face of sheer oblivion as long as you don't forget.