#core undertale

We all know that Undertale was made as a proof of concept for the story Toby Fox really wanted to tell, and we can see this in the characterization of the monsters in the Underground. They all exist to fill their role in the story, wrapping things up in nice, neat bows.

Deltarune is much more complicated, with characters being far more textured and nuanced, sometimes acting "out of character" or "against the narrative". We don't see characters completely out of the story with the single exception we know and love, our main man Gaster.

Our mystery man only exists in one room, until interacted with, when he fades away into nothing. With the aid of the Gaster Followers, the fandom has come to the general consensus that Gaster was the original royal scientist who fell into the Core, shattering him across time and space and almost entirely erasing him from reality.

Gaster's story serves zero purpose in Undertale, he is a mystery for the sake of it with no real reason to be there. That is, unless you consider him the proof of concept for something much larger in Deltarune.

Hear me out here. The two biggest mysteries in Deltarune as of right now are the identity of The Roaring Knight and what happened to Dess. If you've seen my recent Deltarune posts, you'll know that I believe TRK is Kris and Noelle amalgamated together

(https://www.tumblr.com/enderhasentered/820592953674399744/people-asked?source=share)

What my theory lacked was an explanation of how Kris and Noelle become shattered in the first place. This brings me back to Gaster.

Gaster was shattered across space when he fell into the Core, the heart of the Underground, the source of their power and energy.

When Flowery is sliced in half by TRK, he says "Everyone, listen carefully to me. Us plants, are neither Darkners nor Lightners. We are living beings... ... that take on new consciousness in the dark. We can feel things others can't understand... Something horrible is stirring underneath the town. A darkness beyond your imagination."

Whatever is beneath the town, it's powerful. So powerful that Kris and Susie would not be able to imagine it. Does that sound familiar?

What if, by going into the late, Kris and Noelle find a way to access the darkness beneath the town? What if that powerful energy building below their home holds the same reality bending properties as the Core?

Yes, what I am suggesting is that Kris and Noelle essentially walked into a growing core in the lake. Gaster, the humble mystery man, serves as a set up for the concept of being shattered across time and space by forces more powerful than we can understand, and while he may not have directly impacted the story of Undertale, TRK has certainly made an impact on Deltarune.

And just because we're having fun here, lets point out some similarities. Obviously, they've both got the holes in the hands, but their visual similarities go deeper than that.

Both have uncanny, wide smiles, vacant eyes, black and white designs with sharp shapes, and lines that seem to split them apart. What I find most interesting in their visual similarities is two key points:

One, they can both change size. TRK is known to have several different forms that all vary in size, and Gaster becomes larger and is head slightly elongates when he's interacted with.

Two, they both seem to split their chest. While TRK very obviously has an open ribcage when they're roaring, Gaster has a far more subtle line through the white on his chest. If this were simply clothing, this line would make no sense. However, if we interpret him as we do TRK and assume that all of this is part of him, it instead appears that his chest has been split open as he disapears.