Another idea on the nature of Darkners
So, light is what allows people to see. The light reflects off of reality in order to create perception. As the light level decreases, detail becomes scarce and perception becomes more and more disconnected from reality, although influenced by it, and in the total absence of light, there is no knowledge of what's out there at all.
In the un-shine of anti-light, when the photon counters tick backwards...perhaps the flow of causality is reversed. Dark reflects off of the perception onto objects. Because of this, although Darkners are a kind of pattern screamer, they are not hostile; they are not undefined beings pulled into a state of painful partial existence, as they have some existence or awareness from natural human perception in their light world forms; darkness beyond darkness just allows them to interact on a more even playing field.
I'm still trying to thread the needle to marry this concept of "Darkners are the perceptions of lightners made real" with my other "Darkners are tsukumogami" concept. I think given Toby's involvement in JP localization, the general JRPG-ness, EarthBound influences specifically on story and styling, and Touhou Project influences on the battles, that we can safely use Japanese cultural contexts to analyze Deltarune. So far, all I can really say is that it seems like abandonment is a major theme with major Darkners, and that this may tie into the notion that objects become independent and animated by their tsukumogami if abandoned for one hundred years. Touhou in particular may give us the lens to examine how things work since it has major themes of belief allowing the kami and youkai to exist.
