#evil ralsei

(previous redesign i called "Ravle")

In Chapter 6:

Noelle will join the party and, with her superior magic skills in healing, pacifying and dealing damage, will slowly replace the niche Ralsei fulfilled as the team's magician--this dynamic, a slow peeling back from Ralsei, will be brought on the back of the much closer relationship that Susie and Kris have to Noelle over Ralsei. This abandonment, of course, would not be intentional, they both deeply care for Ralsei. It's just that, well, y'know. Noelle is quite awesome, and seems to do well with the enemies and puzzles.

Spurred on by Flowery teaching her about the power of being determined even in the face of the impossible, Ralsei's perspective on the Prophecy shifts. She tried to spare enemies instead of attacking them, and yet the Prophecy continues. She tried to establish a set of rules for the Dark Worlds--to do the puzzles instead of walking past them, of engaging in battle with the Darkners and going along with the rules of engagement, but the Prophecy continues. In fact, being so attached to engaging in battles in her "correct" way is precisely what caused Noelle to be chosen over her.

As well, Kris outright stopping the Fun Gang from being able to go to the Shelter--not just opening Dark Fountains, but being an active impediment, will feel like an immense betrayal for Ralsei, when she finds out about it, causing her to sit on her laurels even harder.

If the others don't want to play by the rules, if they want to not have the third hero that the Prophecy clearly dictates should exist, then why play by the rules at all? These "friends", so quick to abandon, shouldn't be of any consideration at all. The Prophecy cannot happen if the heroes are dead. Not her, of course--the only way to save the WORLDs, as the Prophecy dictates, is the death of the Prince. It's a shame she lost anybody to be vulnerable enough to tell the truth about herself, that she's no Prince...

Just like the Spade King, Ralsei's heart will crack with hatred.

Across Hometown, the sudden vanishing of Dess has effected several people. The Player got to bear witness to the way that it effected Asgore--a man so obsessed over plans and information that his ability to do anything was utterly paralyzed, chilling the people around him away. Carol, after Dess was gone, took an opposite approach. To her, Dess vanished because she let it happen. She did not express enough control over the situation, and now her daughter is gone for it. Carol decided to become ruthless, stiflingly so. Nobody dares to commit crime, not in her town. It's her festival to plan, and her Noelle to ensure the safety of, from hooligans and rebels.

This control has culminated in a deal, with Kris. Carol knows too about the Dark Worlds, and knew Asgore was not responsible for what happened to Dess, and intends to use the Dark Worlds in some way. She gets the help of Kris, because they can seal Dark Fountains with the power of their SOUL, to lure back the same creature that took Dess away all those years ago. Kris is to engage in trucies with the Knight, lure it into a sense of security by opening Dark Worlds and letting it steal away Hometown residents, until it gets into position to be captured. Asgore wasn't a do-er, he was a thinker. Thought about parading the Knight around town, but never was able to do it.

Ultimately, this pursuit of the Knight by Carol was but a distraction. Sure, you can have control over everything you'd like, but people are disappearing under her thumb, just like how Dess did. No amount of trucies will bring her back, and so she takes a step back from her authoritarian control of her surroundings. The nature of the trucies between Kris and Carol will be the "one thing that will be clarified".

Overall, Chapter 6 will be one of tension between the characters. Susie will be unbelievably livid at Kris for their trucies with the Knight. Ralsei at Susie for abandoning her (after all, even before she was abandoned, she viewed Susie's relationship with Noelle as an unfortunate means to the end of Susie's happiness. Susie will also be incredibly furious at Ralsei for her choice to try and kill Noelle, and Ralsei at Kris. She only tolerates Kris's trucies because she doesn't know why they do it, after all. Flowery was right about how hollow the companionship between the Fun Gang is, and Chapter 6 will end off on that husk finally shattering.

Chapter 6 will end in Ralsei doing something so terrible, being so utterly threatening that she must be killed. Then, and only then, will the nature of that final tragedy, that Ralsei spent so long avoiding a la Oedipus, be revealed.

(At some point, the characters will enter the Shelter, and we will get to see what Flowery had warned us of.)

In Chapter 7 Side A:

Well, this sucks. Ralsei's dead now, so her home feels emptier than ever. The revelation that the Dark Worlds are but a distraction is slowly creeping in, as reality begins to hit her.

Anyway, nowhere really left to go but her house. Seems like this whole Dark World business has only gotten her in deeper trouble. She comes home to the news that she's going to have to move away. Susie had hoped that she could make up with Kris and really, really get a chance with Noelle, but just like every other time, it's gone now.

The Chapter overall will be a character dissection of Susie. What she wants, what she's willing to do in order to get it, and the way that changes the world around her. Similarly to the Player in Side B, Susie in Side A is the main character of the narrative, who bends and breaks the narrative over her knee, something she's known to already do. In this case, the lingering questions of the story, and all the plot points that the Player may care about, are abandoned--in its place is the sharp pivot towards Susie's ultimate plight, which is moving out.

Overall, Chapter 7 Side A will feel deflating for the Player, through most of it. It'll feel like Toby Fox has gone completely insane, and that his ability to write is compromised. This will be caused by the narrative focusing its efforts on making the narrative feel engaging and satisfying for the characters in the world, instead of the Player.

However, it will feel perfect for the characters--Asgore and Carol both have moved past their grief over Dess, and the loss of Rudy bringing them together to share his memory amongst each other. Susie, now another adoptive child of the Dreemurrs, finds a family that truly loves her.

At some point in Chapter 7, Kris will make amends with their SOUL, deciding to let you have an independence that they had never afforded you, just like what Pink's ghost afforded to her. As a result, Kris will dress up their hair, and shuffle up (or find a new) sweatshirt to match the one you had originally designed for the Vessel. It's still Kris, though, just one that likes you. The revelation that this mysterious force that had occupied their SOUL must leave, though, will be bittersweet. As their SOUL is swapped out for one more suited for them, they'll bid you goodbye, ending Side A.

In Chapter 7 Side B:

If you've completed Chapter 5 Side B, your current Deltarune installation keeps track of that globally. You won't be able to access Chapter 7 Side B immediately, however; you'll have to wait for all of Chapter 7 Side A to complete.

To somebody who has never played Side B, the bittersweet ending of the two families finally coming together will be where they think it ends. Sure, it's nice, but... there was so much unaddressed. No Knight, no ERAM, and no explanation as to that weird voice that made that grey body at the start of the game. Surely this can't be it. There has to be more. Who would write a game and have it not let the player know about all these loose ends?!

This fact will be precisely what motivates a prospective future player to check out a potential other way out. This mechanism is what will motivate the Player to try and activate Side B. Killing Kris's friends, breaking Noelle's psyche and drowning Kris and Noelle, it's either that or the Player doesn't get to know what's under the Knight's helmet.

...At the end of Chapter 5 Side B, the SOUL lost any body to occupy. But, that can't do. There has to be somewhere for you to go, because this wasn't meant to happen, at all.

Where else, but Kris, again?

To somebody who has played Side B, the bittersweet scene of the two families finally coming together will be the midpoint of the entirety of Chapter 7. Kris will not bid their new SOUL goodbye, but something will suddenly feel different, deep in their core. A cold, uncaring and perverted sentimentality. But, Kris won't know that it's somebody else.

Hometown was the place where it snowed. You know you don't have any magical prowess, so you must find something to get Noelle back to her powerful self once more. You retread your steps in 2B to get the GildedRose, paralleled by the entering of the manhole cover in SWORD Board 3, after the white mage leads you along the maze. With that GildedRose, a terrible snowstorm will befall the entirety of Hometown--LOVE WILL FIND ITS WAY TO THE GIRL.

Kris's visions of their dreams being broken--the things they see when they look through the ShadowCrystal in the Light World--all come to fruition. All of the people they knew and loved, all frozen in ice. Everybody outside is dead, but the Shelter still has people. So, you burst in, to see what will happen if you kill Undyne and Asgore, and everybody else that was taken by the Knight in Chapter 6. Susie's there, apparently having been told something by the Knight. She, now bearing the title of the Axe of Justice, will be the last stand between you and the last vestiges of life in Hometown. As it turns out, the Knight knew that something like this might happen. It egged Susie on through Chapter 4 specifically to tee her up for a fight like this, against the Player and the will they represent. It was kidnapping people to hide them in the Shelter, from You. Ultimately, though, it failed, and now there's nobody left. Noelle too has outlived her usefulness, and the Knight, clad in darkness, can be PURIFIED with your SOUL, leaving behind a desiccated corpse of a human.

Kris, at this point, has had enough. In an instant, from the happiest moment of their life, has seen everything been taken away from them. Just as HERO_SWORD leaves the bounds of the game after you beat the Shadow Mantle Holder, Kris will finally and completely reject you, creating a new set of black, glassy armor, and loading a SAVE they had, one that was very, very old, in hopes that they could do better, to stop you. The Knight had intended to take Asgore and Toriel in particular, because they wanted to ensure the safety of their parents in particular.

Chapter 7 Side B will not have an ending. It will be you, through a red SOUL, wandering aimlessly around the frozen wastes you've caused, forever.

The ending:

There will only be one, and it will not be what is important to the story. That's what can be said with certainty.

Neither Chapter 7 Side A or Side B gave anything like an ending. A false ending, and an endless stretch of time in a barren world. But, you know the ending of Deltarune--you almost certainly have seen it for yourself. Whenever you've Game Over'd, and chose to give up, you've seen the one ending to Deltarune.