A Thematic Analysis of Darkness in Deltarune

This was a very cool video! Just wanted to add a small note: entry number 17 describes photon readings as negative. Darkness is simply the lack of photons our eyes are able to detect, or in other words, darkness is a lack of photons, zero. Negative photon readings should be impossible. This is no normal darkness entry 17 is studying, but something more all encompassing, a true void.

You touching on the link between darkness, the secret bosses, and abandonment/obscurity tickled my brain a little. I'm gonna go full free-associative for a bit if that's okay. The very first time anyone saw the phrase "don't forget" associated with UT/DR was the note patched into Sans's lab in Undertale- this patch being the first Undertale ever received and the same one that allowed Fun events to occur without save file modification (ie. everything to do with Gaster). The date this patch was released - January 2016- means that Toby would have had a clear picture of just how successful Undertale's launch was while preparing it. Or more to the point, it was the first content added to Undertale since Toby realized he'd be able to make Deltarune. Deltarune, as a concept, predated Undertale but was ultimately scrapped and cannibalized by said project (possibly due to concerns of scope, but that's speculative). This, in a very literal sense, meant the abandonment of most of its story and characters to (as far as Toby would have known at the time) permanent obscurity. If we assume that W. D. Gaster isn't just a random Undertale easter egg that's been retconned into DR's story, but is in fact a major character from the original Deltarune that was retconned into an Undertale easter egg after the project was cancelled, it's very tempting to read a double meaning into Sans's note. Intradiegetic: "Don't forget Gaster". Extradiegetic: "Don't forget Deltarune" If we go along with all this, we get Gaster as a potential figurehead/symbol/incarnation of what it means to abandon an idea, or a dream, or a creative work. To cut content. If Undertale flopped and Deltarune was never made, would that count as it's world being covered in darkness? To be clear: this question is not rhetorical, I literally don't know. This is just free-associative mode. But on at least a vibes level this ties in with the pattern of secret bosses being hidden or abandoned , the Spade King resenting the Lightners for abandoning his people (ie. not lending them a place in their imaginative worlds), and Dess being mysteriously absent from both the physical world of Hometown the game's narrative after potentially having been lost in a mysterious dark place. I know even less what to make of this last connection, but there's even a potential thematic parallel with Kris and Chara, the latter being (according to my speculation) a bizarro version of the original Deltarune protagonist now known as "Kris" who was violently edited-down and recontextualized as an Undertale character after Deltarune was scrapped, much in the same way Gaster may have been. I'm way out on a limb here, but it would at least lend Kris some metaphysical link to this through-line of abandonment/obscurity/material cut from a narrative. The biggest unknown I'm still left with is how any of that ties into Ralsei, the prince of pure darkness itself, aside from Asriel literally being abandoned in a dark place at the end of Undertale. For any of this to make sense he has to be hiding something pretty big, but then again, who would that really surprise at this point?

Yo, thats wild that the game states "once upon a time, a LEGEND was whispered among shadows" and the legend about banishing the angels heaven was figuratively "whispered" (uploaded without fanfare in a strange font) "among shadows" (on an unknown website with a dark background and text) "once upon a time" (even before undertale's release)

Deltarune video with Pokémon Mystery Dungeon music? 10/10 combo

It was a LEGEND of HOPE. It was a LEGEND of DREAMS. It was a LEGEND of LIGHT. It was a LEGEND of DARK. Dark is on the same side as dreams, Light is on the same side as Hope. I think these are the meanings of light and darkness. In the Asriel fight, the Hope act is "You held on to your hopes... " so to speak, so Hope is the ability to hold on, to persist, it reduces the amount of damage you take. Hopes prevent you from losing. The Dreams act is "You think about why you're here now..." Dreaming could be interpreted as why you keep going. Dreaming spawns an item in your inventory that restores your HP. Dreams remind you to persist. I think that dreams without hope are fleeting, and hope without dreams is directionless. In the roaring prophecy, the darkners turn to stone, and the lightners are doomed to wander in darkness for eternity. I think this represents losing sight of dreams among a sea of them or being unable to fulfill any of them because you can't choose or hope for one. In don't forget, the light is running low, the places that you know seem like fantasy, but there's a light inside your soul. fantasy is largely irrelevant to reality. I think this represents a choice between finding that hope and reasserting reality or giving up hope and letting fleeting dreams replace reality.

I feel like people miss something about "photon readings negative" a lot: this is impossible. The phrase 'photin readings negative' implies not just an absence of light (what darkness actually is) but the presence of UN-light. Photon readings ZERO is absolute darkness, negative is nonsensical. I'm pretty sure this is just a sort of clever joke line, but it also kind of falls in line with how there seem to be like.. lamps that shoot beams of darkness in the dark world. As if dark were a thing on its own and not just the lack of a thing.

I feel that darkness is a metaphor for the subconscious. The Dark World and the Darkners who inhabit them can be said to have a dream like vibe to them. Plus, they can very much play the role of the Juengian shadow representing the parts of the characters' self that they choose to repress. In the Snowgrave route, multiple references are made to "waking up" and "sleeping." Which would make sense since dreams are often seen as manifestations of our subconscious. It fits with the themes of escapism since the subconscious is responsible for things like impulse control, desire, hopes, and dreams. And if darkness represents the subconscious, then by that logic, light is a stand in for the conscious mind. It would be things like logic, thought, and awareness. The angel strikes me as an alien being focused on logic, discipline, and hierarchy. There's no hard evidence for that it's just the vibe I get. It makes sense why you'd want to balance the two. A world a total darkness would be a world ruled by Id, where we'd never be able to process our hang-ups or solve our problems. But a world of light would be a world without hopes and dreams, the things that give us the determination to imagine and build a better world. Obviously, since we're only two chapters in, I could easily be proven wrong. But, where the story is right now, that's how I've come to interpret darkness and light.

"Close your eyes and see...". Darkness can facilitate imagination- monsters in the closet and under the bed, the excitement and mystery of basements and attics, and, of course, dreams at night. There are so many comparisons to fiction I could make. You can connect with friends through fiction- like the Lightner kids are doing in Dark Worlds- fiction can change you as a person, like Dark World adventures change them (most prominent with Susie), fiction can be harmful or helpful, its shape depends on the will of its creator, etc. Dark worlds as fantasy/imagination/escapism, and the Roaring as a total disconnect from reality/living in an imaginary world/ignoring your actual life make a lot of sense to me.

Nice use of Michael as an example of a more vengeful angel, given that ol Mike there is the knight-captain who leads the angels during the battles on earth in the apocalypse

13:26 "Now, I haven't done a three hour long video on what the shadow crystals are" You've either watched that video and know it or you don't

Thank you for mentioning how the Dark Fountain in Castle Town is different from the others, because it definitely explains what Ralsei can do if all other dark fountains come from the one he came from

the entry number 17 room literally has gaster in the room name. also balance implies that both are important and, more importantly for the prophecy, in regard to the angel's heaven, too much of either can be a bad thing which means too much light could be just as bad as too much darkness

Great video! Just one small connection, Entry Number 17 is called "Room_Gaster" in the files so it's pretty much confirmed

About the angel; It's pretty likely that the angel is an force of darkness, as you were saying. We obviously don't know anything about what specifically the "angel's heaven" is but we know it's some sort of fountain/dark world for sure, something with a clear connection with escapism. We know that only lightners can make dark fountains from Queen's monologue, so it seems like the Angel is a being of light (aka a lightner), just one who's making dark worlds to bring about whatever their version of "heaven" is. Making the Angel a lightner would still subvert the idea of the angel as a heavenly being of light, since though they do fit that description to the darkners, to the lightners they're just an ordinary person. The angel being a lightner would also tie into common imagery of angels as descending from a higher plane to a lower one, usually to give something to or guide those below. This idea fits with both Deltarune's angel as the creator of a fountain/dark world (being a godlike being to the darkners, which gave them a world to live in) and Asriel as undertale's angel being an incredibly powerful entity who would appear from a seemingly impossible place to free the monsters from the underground. As for who the angel may or may not be, there really aren't a ton of concrete things to go off of other than vibes. I'd personally put my guess to Noelle, though. Toby seems to be consistently connecting Noelle and the angel, with tons of allusions throughout the script; Her dark world appearance, association with the light world's church, desire to "grow big angel wings and fly", those craft angels she and Dess made, Noelle's above-curve power level (decently so in the regular route and terrifyingly so in the weird route), etc. Noelle, like the rest of the main cast of lightners, knows about how to make fountains and has at least considered it before, and there are currently a lot of loose plot threads that she's related to and will play parts in (Dess's disappearance and the rift between the Hollidays and the Dreemurs, Rudy's failing health, Noelle's mom, the inevitable Susie/Noelle relationship).

11:15 I think something that could also be possible is that the other fountains contain in some way the will of the Lightner that made it. Queen says, 'Coursing Its Will Into The Blade' or something along the lines of that, talking about The Knight creating a fountain. If the will to create a fountain is coursed into the blade, maybe it 'taints' the fountain created, and the Kingdom of Darkness does not have the will of a Lightner creator in its fountain. That's why any Darkner can live in Castle Town, and Ralsei can be in any Dark World without being turned to stone - though I've seen some other interesting theories about a Darker conforming to the world to avoid turning into stone.

Just wanna say, you made a very good theory. It's interesting as to how the darkness would work later in the future, and how there are different meanings for it.

that was very cool!!

I think that covering the fact the Seam warns you about getting home before it gets dark seems like a big hint good video

I think there's an aspect to this dichotomy of light and dark that tends to be overlooked by most who talk about it in the community. That aspect being the diagetic nature of darkness. When you take a look at Undertale and other works by Toby Fox such as Skies Forever Blue, you can see that he has a large investment in exploring the relationship between the player and the game. Kris so far has been our call-out for that. Darkness can be regarded as fiction, abstraction, nonexistence and suspension of disbelief. This would explain why gaster and dess are such elusive characters. To be succumbed to the darkness is to fall into the literal depths of unreality and unknowing. Don't Forget also supports this, as the "light inside your soul" can be the will of the player itself being expressed through the soul. Think about Toby's intentions when it comes to deconstructing game mechanics. He wants you to care for these fictional entities, and he does a great job at it. Think of his other works and how he's asked the question "Where do they go when you don't play it anymore?". Well the processes halt, the screen stops displaying its reality, and for all intents and purposes, it's returned to the world of fiction. It's succumbed to darkness. Many people wonder the motives of Kris, especially after the fountain. But if Kris is aware of the player, and the player, a being literally superior above everything else in Deltarune, is responsible for keeping everything loaded, then Kris may feel the obligation to keep it entertained and enticed that it may come back and shine the light of reality on their world. I really hope this is a correct assessment of a facet of light and dark. As it gives a lot more leverage and weight to the whole concept of balancing the two forces. We may get to see what kinds of absurd distortions of reality may come if it falls out of balance. (Also the player is literally above everything where the sun ought to be. As if the player may be an angel observing the entire game and conducting it's will through Kris. Banishing the angels heaven may literally just be the end of the game. That one destined ending that technically must always happen.)

Loved this essay. You were able to extract a pretty good amount of meaning out of a lore element that, although omnipresent and a universal force, is slowly being explored and expanded upon by the narrative and metanarrative. The first step in understanding Darkness is realizing it is escapism, fantasy, and adventure. The second step is likely much darker. What is that going to mean? There might be a curve ball around the corner that is currently not predictable by what we know. Just something to chew on in the mean time. Can't wait for the next one!