Random Deltarune thought:
In the game files, the fan-named âSnowgrave Routeâ is internally called:
Alternative Route, Side B, or Weird Route.
Which that last one, uh... seems awfully weird to do! Like, compared to the uncomfortable, gratuitous mental abuse the player can force Kris to inflict on Noelle, along with the mass-murder, it almost seems... too casual, too irreverent.
However, itâs not exactly unprecedented...
In Undertale, in the fan-named âGenocide Routeâ/Bad Kid/Kill-em-All/No Mercy Route... Papyrus makes it the most obvious that he knows weâre going around killing people, outright mentioning the dusty powder on our hands, & he calls us âfreaking weirdo!â
And then, thereâs Burgerpants, who usually calls us âlittle buddyâ if weâve talked to him. But if weâre in the G-Route? He switches to âlittle weirdo.â
Then there was even Asriel, if we backtrack all the way to the Ruins at the end of the True Pacifist run, reflecting on the fact that he had repeatedly tortured & killed everyone in the Underground...
âI did some weird stuffâ indeed...
Maybe itâs kind of a reflection of the playerâs mindset (since Asriel also kind of considered himself as a âplayerâ in a âgameâ when he sufficiently dissociated from reality).
Players who do such routes arenât necessarily cruel people or real killers at all. Most of them are genuinely horrified at what they uncover. Theyâre just curious. They just want to examine all the âwhat ifsâ, & learn more about the characters they love, by observing their behavior in new circumstances. And they know itâs just a game.
Especially if we think oldskool, before Letâs Play streams & online revelations. Those of us old enough to remember that time, had to find out secrets tentatively, like a pioneer, & most games didnât reward so many levels of curiosity. But, sometimes they did. & the thought of discovering something new about a game you love is exciting. So, if you just decided âI wonder what would happen if I killed everyone in this game,â your friend might just kind of be like, âAll those nice characters? Wow, youâre weird.â
Not sure if thatâs the intention, or if there may be some other meaning behind it, but... itâs an interesting pattern nonetheless.