Just realized something and im genuinely curious why people havent pointed out yet.
You know how we all kinda collectively agree that Shadow Crystals drive people (or at the very least darkners) crazy, right.
And how the crystals like⌠show you things when you look through them, yeah? Things which may or may not be true.
And you know how the Knightâs armor is like. Made entirely out of both Shadow Crystals and Black shards, right.
And how the knight kinda acts a bit⌠Off? At times? Like it isnât *entirely* there?
SO. I realized a few things:
1. Um. The knight is basically constantly looking through its armor which is made entirely out of shadow crystals. things which alter your perception even in the light world. MAYBE that might be affecting its behavior. Idk. Maybe being covered in crystals containing *someone elseâs* will & desire might not be good, actually?
2. I ALSO remembered that a major inspiration for Undertale is Moon: Remix RPG Adventure. And in Moon, thereâs a character called Hero who is actually a different character who went missing and is trapped inside a cursed set of armor (He was put in there by the minister that works for âKing Carefreeâ) that distorts their perception of reality. To the Hero, they are a holy warrior, viewing everything as a game with them as the valiant hero. Yet to everyone else, theyâre just completely delusional and needlessly violent. By the end of the game they deal 9999 damage to everything, capable of instantly killing anything they come across, near the end of the game theyâre even able to repeatedly deal 9999 damage to the dragon. (Killing the dragon in-universe ends the game btw. The dragonâs death and the game ending are also prophesied in tablets and is implied to be inevitable.)
3. I also ALSO remembered that in Mother 3, (Spoilers for Mother 3 btw) the masked man is a character who was lost (presumed to be dead) but was revived/turned into a human chimera by Dr. Andonuts under the orders of Porky Minch (Aka, King P), so that Porky can use the Masked Man to pull the 7 needles (which Iâm not the first to bring this up but pulling the needles really feels similar to how creating a fountain is portrayed but like⌠in reverse) so that the future he wants (an apocalypse which will destroy the universe) will come to pass. Mother 3 also has a dragon (The Dark Dragon) which ends(?) the game/world when it wakes up.
This apocalypse is also kinda implied to be âinevitable.â since the magifolk (Iâm not calling them by the fan-translation name.) kinda imply that this needles have to be pulled *eventually* and that whether the end is good or bad will depend on if the intentions of the person pulling the needles is good or bad.
The reason why i bring up both Mother 3 and Moon is because... wellâŚ
An inevitable apocalypse. A dragon that ushers in the apocalypse. A masked, brainwashed, supposedly-dead individual whoâs related to another character & is ultimately working towards causing the apocalypse. This individualâs ârevival/brainwashingâ is ultimately caused by a person who works under a king. Hm. I wonder what implications that might have for deltarune. I really wonder.
Hell, the starting town in Moon is called Castle Town, and the town in Mother 3 is called Tazmily Village (with the soundtrack notably referring to it as âMomâs Hometownâ)
Uh⌠Fuck, this is kinda all over the place i kinda started rambling too much about Moon and Mother 3.
0. This theory kinda only works if you subscribe to Dess Knight being true.
1. I think the knightâs armor being made of shadow crystals, crystals which contain the will of *something or someone* and distort reality when looking through them, might be affecting its behavior.
2. I very strongly feel that the knight is inspired by both the Hero from Moon, and the Masked Man from Mother 3, both games which we KNOW Toby really likes. (I also think the knight is inspired by The Batter, but i have less evidence for that other than the fact that the batter also causes his gameâs universe to end at the end of the game and that being his ultimate objective. Also just the general baseball theming surrounding Dess.)
3. Because both the Hero & the Masked Man were âcreatedâ by a person serving directly under a King, I feel like Gaster is directly involved in whatever happened to Dess that turned her into that. It also very neatly resolves the issue of why Gaster and the Knight have overlapping theming/narrative imagery in certain areas.
4. Because both the Hero & the Masked Man are âbrainwashedâ I feel like the Knightâs armor is also forcibly imbuing the will of the shadow crystals into the knight. With the caveat that the Knight is not completely mindless, but only partially piloting its own body. Hell, it might not even be that the Knight is âbrainwashedâ and more like both parties are mutually using each-other. Kinda like how we control Kris, yet Kris also is using us for their own goals. (Also neatly works with how the Knight parallels Kris) (Side note: If the will thatâs partially controlling/working with the knight is Gaster, that would kinda explain why the only instances of gaster talking to us are when the knight is directly in front of us (the Knight Fight) or when the knight is talking to Kris (End of Chapter 4)) (oooh but what if the knight was like⌠dessâs soul is actually in the vessel we made at the beginning of the game and the âarmorâ isnât even armor its just the condensed form of dessâs will leaking out and taking on a form vaguely resembling dessâs prior body. and bc the vessel was made by us and gaster it contains both our and gasterâs wills as well. Folks this is how oblivion theory can still win.)
5. Really want to emphasize that the whole âThe knight being imbued with the shadow crystalâs will being why its so off-kilter mentally speaking.â thing is more-so like⌠a symbiote kind of deal? rather than a full on mind-control thing. or like. ok this is stupid but its like. Imagine that the will in the crystals is like a videogame HUD saying âGo here.â or âDo this.â or giving flavor text or something. Or like. Someone being possessed. Where theyâre still like. Cognizant? But their mind is definitely still being influenced and how much of âthemâ is still there can fluctuate depending on the scenario. Like being straight up-injected with the emotions, desires, and perspective of another person. Itâs like that. Itâs like narrachara or asrielâs whole deal after exiting the barrier but if chara was gaster instead and asriel was dess. Like they have to actively work in tandem or something or else their body wont actually work. 2 kids in a trenchcoat type shit. Am I making any sense or is this nonsense.
Gonna be honest Iâm not entirely sure how much of this theory I believe Iâm kinda just going off of like⌠Vibes, here. Like. âYeah that sounds like it kinda makes sense.â