#knightster

UNALTERED

proto-game UNALTERED stuff is the basic groundwork here. UNALTERED, the "original game," happened first, and undertale was the world that followed after the "final tragedy." it's not certain how this happened, but considering undertale's similarities to a dark world (magic and video game puzzles as basic constructs of the world), I like to think it was created from the "blank slate" the world had become after the roaring's whole genesis flood deal. if you want to imagine UNALTERED as similar to MANTLE, a more "basic" rpg where violence went unquestioned, you could understand this as mirroring toby's own creation process with undertale and deltarune: deltarune came first as basic prototype that was never finished, then undertale looked at those rpg mechanics and deconstructed them (an act of imagination and creation, "seeing another side"), then he went back to deltarune bringing those mechanics along. the sanctuaries also do this: the knight created the first, susie's second sanctuary destabilizes and questions it, then the knight creates the third which integrates stuff from both but kinda feels like it's unraveling at the seams.

UNALTERED part 2 where I talk about those wacky skeletons

the skelebros are the only ones who remember UNALTERED, and sans and gaster's Mysterious Science Past in undertale came from their efforts to go home. sans eventually decided it was no longer worth it and stayed in undertale, while gaster went to extremes by shattering himself across space and time to go back - and he succeeded, even if it meant losing everything. it adds another layer to sans's dinner conversation with frisk, I think.

(if you want more, here's a nice write-up on gaster from deltarune and here's a post about gaster and sans that breaks my fucking heart)

why those three specifically remember what happened is unclear, but I've heard this exact thing happens in mother 3 - where a new world is created, things become mixed up in the process, and someone is assigned the task of remembering what came before - so it doesn't seem farfetched to me. toby taking heavy inspiration from mother 3? say it ain't so!

co-authorship in the original game, and how we got here

so, the knight and gaster's relationship and co-authorship took place in UNALTERED - gaster, as the middle brother, being around the age of dess and the heroes. considering his level of knowledge and investment in deltarune as both a story and Game, I believe he was one of those original heroes, with ralsei currently acting as his replacement. (that's why ralsei was made to wear a cloak at first, because he was pretending to be The Other Guy.) but like kris's collaboration with the knight now, gaster was working with the knight back then on what was essentially their dnd campaign. (it's like how the dark worlds mirror kris and noelle playing pretend - this whole world-ending quest used to just be a game of make-believe and now it's Real.) their relationship parallels mettaton and alphys, where the knight doesn't REALLY want to end the world but is pretending to for the sake of the game, and them both knowing it's a farce helps them smooth things along. did the other heroes know they were playing a game, or did he lie to them that the world was genuinely at stake? if gaster is as insecure as alphys, maybe he thought they wouldn't be friends with him otherwise.

so they WERE collaborators originally, both authors of deltarune in the same way the players and DM of a campaign are both its authors. the knight creates the setting and enemies, but it doesn't mean shit without players to engage with them and make decisions. they were creating the story together. but something fractured their relationship, whether that was the roaring itself or that conflict led to the roaring. it's teenager shit, a breakup or rough patch that feels like the literal end of the world. so many characters in deltarune used to be close before growing distant due to some kind of tragedy, and I see them in much the same way. we even have seam/jevil and tenna/spamton as both duos of performers whose show ended once they separated!

as for what that event actually WAS, it's hard to say, but looking at the reasons for other duos splitting (especially those two) can give us kind of a silhouette. maybe one or both of them pushed too far and someone got hurt, maybe their relationship strained like alphys and mettaton's did, maybe one of them hid something from the other. whatever the case, it's not hard to imagine them having trouble at some point. if gaster is conflict-avoidant like ralsei and noelle, and the knight lashes out when hurt like susie... yeah, that might not go well!

in the end, the knight was sealed away and left behind as everyone moved on to undertale. when gaster describes these events in the prophecy, he characterizes them as an angel - they and their heaven had to be banished in order to save the world. (the reason for this is up for debate. but when seam describes locking away jevil, it's because the royal court forced them to lock him away since they were his only friend - perhaps because jevil's attitude of seeing everyone as part of a game caused him to hurt someone. looks over at all the beat-up objects in dess's room and the knight fuckin SWOONing people. hmm.)

and now you have gaster going BACK to the world he destroyed (hi player-gaster parallels), to try and fix what went wrong before. but someone's still here… or maybe even his act of restoring the world brought them back?

and ok yeah I'm just gonna bring you over to this post. the knight is clearly on the same level of game-awareness as gaster, they are actively fucking with his plans.

"his deltarune," and why the knight hates his ass

so why does the knight keep enacting the prophecy? put yourself in their shoes for a second. you and gaster made this story together - a piece of art you were both in on. he was the first friend you made after years of being alone following your disappearance. he reached out to you where everyone else feared you as the monster who took their daughter (suselle parallel, the one person who showed kindness to the "scary girl"). you even got to play with kris and noelle, just like you used to! like any piece of art, you poured your heart and soul into it - it's an expression of who you are. you got to be the villain, but on your terms this time: as a costume to have fun with everyone else. for a rebellious punk musician like dess, this kind of self-expression was probably very important to her.

things didn't work out in the end. and one part of you is bitter and angry about it, wanting to blame gaster for what happened. but some part of you still cares about that guy and the story you made together, and fears it was your fault. you miss him.

after years, he comes back. oh shit. maybe now you can finally work things out, make something out of this broken world, and…

he doesn't say a word to you. he brings the world back to the way it was, before he ever met you. you wait for a friend who never comes. when you start the story on your own, he's been replaced by a tooth-rottingly cute goat boy who looks like asriel. the guy who refused to watch horror movies with you, who cried at kris being mean in a video game, who couldn't handle any of the "scarier" parts of you even as you were together. and now you're watching the person you thought understood you rewrite your entire story, sanding off any of the rough edges and chiding you if you even THINK of hurting a fucking playing card. he calls this "his" deltarune. an improvement. a world where he never met you. a world where all that "scary" stuff is gone. a world where he can pretend none of this was his fault.

maybe I would also dig my heels in and say fuck you, this is MY story, I'm not letting you have it, and also, I want to stab you with knives. even if it's self-destructive, it fulfills a need to feel seen and in control over what's happening, just as gaster's actions fulfill a need for connection and security. it calls to mind pink's dilemma - her body shows affection for someone else (the player) and starts acting differently, and her ghost sees those desires as cutesy and frivolous and not who she REALLY is. but deep down, she's scared - pink being "like her" made her feel okay as she was, so when her body changed, she felt like she was losing a part of herself. she initially tries just destroying the source of the problem and dismissing her body's needs, so they can just go back to being together again, but what they TRULY need to balance being together is to listen to each other and compromise. otherwise, they'll both keep going to extremes to find what the other isn't giving them. (lanino and elnina have a very similar conflict!)

conclusion

a love that reached across time and space itself… two people coping with the same trauma and heartbreak in different ways, both stuck in a loop of repeating the same mistakes. one too scared to take a leap of faith because he believes no one will be there to catch him when he falls, the other too scared to open their heart because they believe they'll just be hurt again. it feels impossible, but maybe… just maybe, they can be there for each other through the darkness ahead.

if this sounds like a "doomed future" version of suselle, that's because it pretty much is LOL. they're meant to contrast each other to make a point, y'know? the old and the new. they're both sort of a distillation of deltarune itself, themes-wise.

I… hope this stuff makes sense? genuinely, let me know if you have more questions or want clarifications / additional evidence on certain points, my frame of reference for how people think about this game is so fucked because I've been in the gaster mines basically since ch3/4 came out. while I try to work on a more concise explanation of What The Fuck I'm Talking About, every bit of input helps. :]