Deltarune Thoughts Post Chapters 3&4 Part 5: The Mayor

First: A Correction

In the previous part in this series I brought up the fact that Ralsei has never used fire as a major point against him actually being "The Prince from the Dark" in the prophecy. Unfortunately that's completely incorrect, as he does in fact use fire in one specific ACT in Chapter 4.

It's against the Balthizard enemy, if you use the LightUp Act:

I have to wonder how many people even used this Act. Given how that fight goes I would think most would wind up using the Shake Acts instead. I certainly never used that one! And they're easy enough to avoid when backtracking that it's unlikely one fights that many more of them than one needs to Recruit them...

Now, Actually the Mayor

So. The Mayor. Carol. She's clearly a real major force in all this. Frankly, she gives me the creeps. Everything we've seen and heard from and about her indicates she's bad news to cross, as I briefly mentioned earlier in this little series of posts. Oddly, the specific details about her can get a bit... murky.

What does she know?

Based on Carol's lines as she kicks everyone out of the house in the normal route, she probably knows about the player... to some extent. The red 'you' in her dialog seems quite obvious, after all. But then what about in Snowgrave? Surely she'd notice something about Kris not acting quite as she expects?

It almost seems like Kris is pretending that we're in complete control of them and that they're just a vessel. The fact that the normal route phone call in the kitchen was in third person seems to support that, at least, given if the one on the other side knew they were talking to Kris they'd surely just use the second person instead.

That's not very strong evidence, though. It could be a conference call, for instance! With who I have no idea (the Knight?), but still.

The Code

The Mayor is only concerned about Susie not getting the code. Not Kris, which would make sense, but also it seems not us. Kris, meanwhile, very much doesn't want us to have the code. I do wonder if the Mayor actually cares about Susie having the code or not, or if Kris is hiding the player's influence by pretending it's just Susie they're keeping the code from... which in combination with the above would entail Kris pretending that we are keeping the code from Susie so that Carol also keeps it from Susie.

Relatedly...

Actually, tying back in to the above once more, it does almost seem that Kris is concealing a lot about their relationship with the soul/player/us from just about everyone. Ralsei, certainly, given Ralsei often seems unsure about how much of what he's saying should be directed at Kris versus the Player - with him, it seems Kris has Ralsei under the impression that we have less control over Kris than we do, in contrast to Carol where she might believe we have more.

Even the Knight could be getting deceived by Kris. If Kris has the Knight believing that it's Kris fighting the battles instead of us, then that could be why the Knight seems confused when we fight them hard enough to no-hit the fight. Or it even could be that the Knight thinks it is conspiring with us rather than with Kris? The Knight does directly attack the screen in a way other enemies really haven't, which might indicate some fourth-wall knowledge. It would be rather interesting if we are the "LORD OF SCREENS" that gets "CLEAVED RED BY BLADE", based on the attack's shape being so similar to the image on the corresponding prophecy panel...

More Minor Points

I'll wrap this post up with some smaller points that I want remark upon, even if I don't have much to say about them.

They-Slash-Them

If the player manages to actually beat the Knight, something slashes Susie and Ralsei and downs them immediately. It's obvious that we're supposed to think it's the Knight that does so, but having watched a YouTube video on the topic it's rather hard for me to keep believing that. Frankly, at this point I'm pretty convinced of the "Kris Slash Theory" as the YouTuber called it (AKA "They-Slash-Them Theory" as seems to be what most call it... which is admittedly far catchier).

I won't reiterate all the points in the linked video, as further explanation more or less would devolve into. Go and watch the video, if you're interested.

The one additional observation I'd make is that in Undertale, almost every monster could be one-shot by getting them to the point of being ready to SPARE and then attacking them. This even sometimes had special portraits or dialog attached to it.

So a similar "backstab" from Kris doing massive damage does have some precedent.

The Red Screen

The red-screen dialog box that shows up in the Weird Route after The Scene With Noelle (you know the one...) is rather fascinating. Not much can be made of it, but it's clearly going to be important. Panic on Kris's part, perhaps, overwhelming any ability to not just act but be commanded? Who knows.

Trees

So... the tree from the art therapy scene is almost certainly the one that the Egg Man stands behind, of course. And as we've all seen, that tree is the same one that was used in the forests of Chapter One.

What does that mean? I haven't the faintest idea. Did whatever traumatize Kris happen in or around the school rather than the bunker as most seem to have predicted? That would line up with the observation of the bunker area in Ramb's last game, I suppose.