wouldn't describe myself as well-versed w deltarune theorizing but. two cents. i find it interesting that not a lot of people think about kris and their parallelisms to chara and frisk in a way that doesn't mischaracterize chara and frisk. i have to thank this post specifically for opening my eyes, and i recommend everyone who hasn't read it to please do!
the thing about deltarune is that while not everyone will get a 1:1 appearance like they did in undertale, majority of the main characters Were There. you can even argue susie and the holiday family were there, even as super minor off-screen characters. and for me, that always begs the question of who kris is in the context of frisk and chara. and while many of us accept that kris kind of is a mixture of Both, i feel like it is still very mired with misinterpretations of frisk and chara as characters.
for example, frisk isn't simply a self-insert. if you read the post i linked earlier, you'd know frisk if their own empathetic person, filled with childhood whimsy and innocence. frisk, while someone we control, is not a self-insert. meanwhile, chara represents the consequences of the player's insatiable curiosity for completion. chara does Not represent a one-dimensional need for violence. chara was a suicidal kid who tried to commit suicide (jumping into the mountain), failed, was heralded as a god, and committed suicide Again, but this time as a means of giving into the narrative imposed onto them.
i feel like if you consider these two things about frisk and chara (and again, pls read the post i linked), you'd probably wonder why they don't have two counterparts instead of One which is kris. hell, the other fallen down humans already got their own counterparts too. and now that we are realizing that the red soul kris has is not exactly their soul, that begs the question of, where did the red soul come from?
and i mean, i don't know if i can answer that question fully lol. again, i'm new to a lot of deltarune theorizing even if i've been here since the beginning. but what i find fascinating is the implication that frisk's soul — that inclination towards whimsy and hope and innocent love — is trapped in the soulless body of kris. furthermore, kris has a lot of parallelisms in terms of chara's narrative as a tragedy — the inability to control one's fate, being forced to be a killing machine, the dire need for Acceptance in the midst of suicidal tendencies — and it makes me think if we are still playing frisk as a soul trapped in chara's body.
it's such a reverse of dynamics from undertale. in undertale, we play as frisk with chara as our jestful and sarcastic narrator who changes their dialogue and demeanor depending on the narrative the player chooses (and imposes onto them). chara is first dead, frisk is latest alive. in deltarune it is implied that frisk's body is dead, but remains alive in chara/kris, who kept growing old. and chara/kris, still alive, does not simply live their lives doomed by a tragedy through meager narration and dialogue — it is their Entire Being. maybe you can argue frisk is the narrator this time around, i'm not tje most certain, but kris really does impart the vibe of, what happens if chara survived their second suicide attempt? what if they grow up and they were still doomed to follow what people expect of them?
that does beg the question again, of what then happened to frisk in deltarune? that i leave in your hands, because i just wanna put my two cents into kris as extensions to frisk and chara. i think a whole new world is to be explored if we perceive frisk and chara as two wholly unique characters.
