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YMMV / Deltarune

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Due to the game's nature and its relation to Undertale, all spoilers will be unmarked!

Do not add Alternate Character Interpretation examples until after the game's full release. All we currently have is a demo, and for all we know certain interpretations will be proven or jossed in the full game.

This page is for the game in general. For specific chapters, use the links below.

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    A-E 
  • Adorkable:
    • Lancer is just a genuinely friendly child who happens to be on the side of evil.
    • Ralsei is a big fuzzy pushover whose reaction to Kris hugging him is to basically be reduced to a silent, blushing wreck. He even blushes in Chapter 1 if Kris stands face-to-face with him long enough.
    • Alphys is the same dork she was in Undertale, but as a school teacher.
    • Noelle is a Gamer Chick and a Shrinking Violet who blushes deeply when Susie is around.
  • Awesome Music: As to be expected from Toby Fox. So much so that it got its own page.
  • Broken Base:
    • Debates about whether Kris breaks free of the player's influence or they get possessed by Chara or another character in Chapter 1's ending tend to become Flame Wars very often, due to the fact that Chara is one of Undertale's most Base-Breaking Characters. These debates tend to open old wounds about how good or evil Chara is and how much if any control they have over Frisk in Undertale's genocide run. Ultimately, all these debates were resolved in the most comedic way, when Chapter 2 revealed that Kris took the knife and just ate the pie Toriel baked for them. Although them ripping out their SOUL is implied to have actually happened and have consequences for the rest of the game, given that Kris does it twice more near the end of Chapter 2, and managed to open up a new debate of whether or not Kris is the Knight, due to their ability to open fountains.
    • As with the prior game in regards to Frisk and Chara, there's been heavy debate over whether or not Kris is canonically nonbinary, arguably even more so given what's been shown in-game. One side says that the constant use of they/them pronouns by people who knew them their whole lives and Kris explicitly being shown to be their own character from the get-go is canon proof that they are, while the other side argues that it could just be a case of Gender-Inclusive Writing and that Kris being non-binary is only one interpretation among others. Some even argue that the pronouns for Kris is also a case of gender-neutral writing to make their gender ambiguous while others claim that it's not ambiguous and not using they/them would be misgendering Kris. Like before, some fans say that it's pointless trying to argue over their gender identity while others say that there's enough evidence to consider them canonically nonbinary, especially since nonbinary characters get little representation as is already. Whenever the topic is brought up, it can get pretty heated at best or turn into a Flame War at worst.
    • W.D. Gaster's role, if there is any, is a hot-button issue, with some people believing he will have a major role later in the story, while others believe he is completely irrelevant to the story, and any potential hint to his involvement is merely a Red Herring on Toby's part.
  • Common Knowledge: There are many, many, many fan works that have only four Addisons in them: a blue, yellow, orange and pink one (and sometimes a bonus fifth one if they portray Spamton as an Addison). In reality, there are at least seven of them: two blue, two orange, two pink,and one yellow.
  • Crack Pairing:
    • Shipping Susie with Berdly of all people had a following behind it for a time, in spite of them having never interacted in Chapter 1 at all and Berdly's whole characterization boiling down to being a Smug Snake Academic Alpha Bitch. This ship now has some legitimate steam, with Berdly coming to fall for Susie during the events of Chapter 2.
    • Taken a step further with Kris/Berdly, which started as somewhat of a joke, but ended up gaining genuine support. It seemingly exists for no reason other than it's the only pairing between the main Lightners that doesn't come into conflict with the fandom's most popular pairing of Susie and Noelle.
    • Twitter user PopitTart suggested Nubert/The original        Starwalker, i.e. the ultimate Deltarune ship.
    • The "1 2 3 blueaddison cyber cafe sex" meme inspired jokingly shipping the blue Addison with Swatch, due to interpreting "cyber cafe" as the Color Cafe, where Swatch naturally is.
  • Crazy Is Cool: The two superbosses qualify to a high scale:
    • Jevil is verifiably crazy, crazy! So much so that he was actually locked up in order to keep everyone else safe, yet he insists that he is the only free man and the rest of the world is imprisoned, referring to the inside of his cell as "the outside". He's also aware of the fact that he's in a video game, has a bullet pattern that revolves around the bullet screen in 3D, foreshadows things that no one else even mentions, and has voiced lines, so he's verifiably also awesome.
    • Spamton doubles this with Creepy Awesome. He speaks like a corrupted machine, is obsessed with "making deals" with Kris, and looks like a messed-up salaryman version of Pinocchio crossed with Mettaton NEO during his secret fight.
  • Creepy Cute: Both of the superbosses are seen as this by fans:
    • While Jevil is without a doubt an insane, erratic Monster Clown, people still find him oddly adorable, given how he's a small, pudgy imp.
    • Bizarrely, Spamton. Despite his villainy and creepy qualities as a glitchy and manipulative Perverse Puppet, many fans view him as an Adorkable and Ugly Cute Jerkass Woobie whom they want to take home and give a hug.
  • Crossover Ship: Spamton is frequently shipped with Chimata Tenkyuu from Touhou Kouryuudou ~ Unconnected Marketeers due to both being egotistical money-obsessed businesspeople with colorful designs that look like they're made from patchwork.
  • Diagnosed by the Audience: A sizable chunk of fans headcanon Kris as autistic. This interpretation focuses on a large number of traits, but the most prominent ones are their aloofness and disconnect from their peers as the only human in a town of monsters, which is easy to read as an allegory for being neurodivergent in an otherwise neurotypical social environment, their Heroic Mime status, which resonates well with nonverbal and semi-verbal autistic fans, and their surprisingly in-depth enthusiasm for odd, niche subjects, which parallel autistic special interests. Other commonly-cited parallels include their dislike of big, sudden hugs, their unusual and sensory-centric taste in food, and the Easter Egg where the player can repeatedly flush a toilet, which autistic audiences cite as resembling a stim.
  • Die for Our Ship:
    • It took until Chapter 2 for Noelle to truly even interact with Susie, but her expressing attraction back when the first chapter was released has led to many jumping to conclusions that this will be Alphys/Undyne all over again and are livid at the idea of Susie paired up with anyone other than Noelle. On the other hand, there are those who wish death for Noelle so that they could instead ship Susie with someone else.
    • Ralsei also gets ship-related kerfuffles hurled his way from people who would rather ship Kris with someone else due to his reactions to being hugged by Kris and him blushing around Kris if they stand close to him being perceived as Ship Tease.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: At least one person speculates that King has more of a Freudian Excuse than he lets on, even if there are practically no notable redeeming qualities of his. This would end up becoming Hilarious in Hindsight come the release of Chapter 2, which actually does give him some very minor redeeming qualities and some genuinely funny dialogue with Queen.
  • Dry Docked Ship:
    • While their relationship is rather vague in-game, a lot of fanworks portray King and Queen as ex-lovers and Lancer's parents, to the point that many consider it Fanon.
    • A common interpretation of Seam and Jevil's relationship is that they were a couple before the latter went insane.
    • Due to the meme of Spamton being a "divorce mascot", it's common fanon that he's divorced, with the most common candidates for his ex being Swatch and Jevil.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • While the main party of the game, as well as major character Lancer, are certainly all-around well-received, so too are two minor antagonists: Rouxls Kaard, for his hilarious ineptitude in stopping the party throughout the castle, and the superboss, Jevil, for how utterly unique his arena and nature are, the fascinating hints of the game's greater backstory he provides, the fact that he has actual voice lines, and providing an awesomely challenging boss fight. Rouxls Kaard appears again in Chapter 2, having a new role and even his own minigame.
    • Among the minor enemies, K. Round gets the most love for its ridiculous concept and fun fight gimmicks. Clover also gets a lot of attention and fan art due to her design, to the point where a rematch with her was made available as one of Castle Town's challenges in Chapter 2.
    • Seam the shopkeeper gets some love from the community from their Punny Name, their stuffed toy appearance, their cheerily nihilistic personality, and their Hidden Depths involving Jevil. Again, in Chapter 2, Seam set up a shop in Ralsei's town.
    • Despite her very small role in the main story of Chapter 2,note  Tasque Manager quickly gained her own set of fans after the game's release thanks to her soothing and sultry voice clips, her whip motif, and her comparatively curvy looks. Her popularity ended up rivaling Spamton, with fans describing her as "Deltarune's Muffet".
    • While introduced in the 6-year Undertale anniversary stream as a joke background character everyone somehow already knows and loves, Nubert has had a pretty positive reception, though it likely mostly stems from the hilarity of playing along. Still, seems everyone really does love Nubert. My man!
    • The original        Starwalker. Like Nubert, they're a random gag character with no impact on the plot, but after joining you in Chapter 2 and somehow surviving the whole journey (even taking part in the final battle), they skyrocketed in popularity for this very reason.
    • Due to their roles in Spamton's backstory, being estranged old friends and possible siblings who eventually come to lament what became of him after he transforms into your gear, the Addisons end up getting a share of focus thanks to Spamton's explosive popularity. The Pink Addison (or Addisons if they are different vendors) is especially popular, due to a combination of getting slightly more screentime than the others, being seen selling the heroes cotton candy in one segment and selling the Freeze Ring on the Weird Route before Noelle submits him to Uncertain Doom, and also having a design with a ponytail that's easy to Self-Fanservice into a Long-Haired Pretty Boy. The Blue Addison(s) also get some bonus fame thanks to being portrayed as a Nice Guy who tried to help Spamton after he hit rock bottom (and a memetic fanmade error message implying they had sex at a "Cyber Café").
    • Sweet Cap'n Cakes, because of the name of their band serving as a neat Homestar Runner reference and being a trio of funny Cute Machines.
    • The Swatchlings became this to the Furry Fandom to a rather big degree due to being Battle Butlers characterized in-game as Mr. Fanservice workers with Adorkable sides. Likewise, head butler Swatch has also grown pretty popular for their handsome design, polite personality and alluded-to relations to Roulxs and Spamton.
    • Father Alvin, a minor hometown NPC, has started to gain large amounts of popularity due to his potential to be The Knight.
  • Epileptic Trees:
    • Why is everything the same, yet different? What is with the Significant Anagrams? Why is everyone acting like the events of the first game didn't happen? Why do these things contradict the first game? Just about everyone agrees that it must have to do with the space-time continuum getting screwed up and/or having something to do with Gaster.
    • Who is Kris? Are they Chara, Frisk, some sort of fusion, or someone completely new? While their design is most reminiscent of Chara, they do share certain elements with Frisk that Chara lacked (most notable being the yellow skin tone, something Frisk had while Chara's was more pale). The ending of Chapter 1 heavily implies them to be like Genocide Ending Chara, but that still doesn't explain why they're called Kris or why no one recognizes them as Chara. It's worth noting that Toby has stated that "...what you're seeing here is not the world of UNDERTALE. UNDERTALE's world and ending are the same as however you left them." Although, knowing his storytelling style, there's absolutely the possibility of an Exact Words situation coming to light come Deltarune's full release.
      • When you save for the first time, you save over a previous save file for Kris, and the new save file from then on will be under the name you gave yourself, the player, at the beginning. What's going on? Who are you? What have you done?
    • What exactly is Gaster's involvement in the game? There are tons of apparent references him throughout the game: the mysterious figure on Toby Fox's Twitter account who introduced it uses the phrase "VERY, VERY INTERESTING", the speaker in the game's intro sequence who speaks in the same way as the aforementioned figure, the game shuts down if his name is inputted in the character creator, the "garbage noise" that plays when Kris uses the phone in the Dark World (which is the same as mus_st_him, which plays during Entry 17), the slowed-down "garbage noise" playing in the bunker, the mysterious figure in Jevil and Spamton's backstories (who are referred to with clear references to Gaster such as "darker yet darker" and "garbage noise"), the text that seemingly describes "mysteryman" in the code, and most crucially the Wingdings textnote  on the game's website from 2015 up to the game's reveal in 2018. Many people have also tied his "DARKER YET DARKER" log to the game's "dark" theme, as well. Is he going to be vital to the plot? Or is this all an elaborate Red Herring?
    • What does Susie have to do with all of this? The Clam Girl/Goner from Undertale mentions a "Suzy" multiple times in the game, so is this the same one? If so, what does she have to do with Frisk and Gaster?
    • Who is the person Jevil met that caused him to Go Mad from the Revelation? His vision of the world being one big game is generally agreed to point towards Gaster since Seam quotes him when discussing Jevil, but Gaster himself isn't really associated with the fourth wall in Undertale. Is it the Knight, who he mentions but never appears?
      • This is followed up in Chapter 2 by Spamton, who much like Jevil is said to have once been a normal Darkner corrupted to near-insanity by an unknown figure, mentions the Knight in his dialogue, and also has what appears to be a suspicious nod to Gaster in his backstory (in this case, the reference to the "garbage noise" on his phone; the noise on Kris's phone, which is the same as that from Entry Number 17, is also referred to as "garbage noise"). In addition, both bosses are revealed to hand out Shadow Crystals when defeated; these similarities seem to suggest they were both corrupted by the same entity. Just who was it?
    • How many of those questions are answered simply by Toby's official statement that this is "not the world of ''UNDERTALE''"? One might even say that the original world of Undertale is UNALTERED and the new world is UNRELATED, which is very suspicious on its own.
      • For that matter, just how truthful is Toby's statement that 'your actions don't matter in this world'? On one hand, the game goes out of its way to try and deny the player freedom of choice and technically Chapter 1 ends with the King being overthrown no matter what the player does. However, the context of the King's overthrowing is vastly different depending on how violent the player was during the course of the game. Either Kris or Susie get run out of the world by the Darkners if they took a violent approach, or Lancer overthrows his father and the two Lightners depart from the world on civil terms by the pacifistic one. How much choice does the player actually have? Was the statement just a Red Herring to throw people off who have grown on to the original game? Or will circumstances like what happens in Chapter 1's ending lead to some turn of events that will somehow undo whatever the player has accomplished?
      • Chapter 2 ended up making this even more complicated. While playing through the chapter normally will take you through a regular plot with 1 ending, there's a hidden "Weird Route" you can take by building up Kris's bond with Noelle and coaxing her to freeze every foe possible with her ice spells, culminating in using the secret SnowGrave spell against Berdly, which is implied to kill him in the real world. This ends up having multiple consequences on your playthrough, despite the ending being the same. Just how much control do you have over the game's events? Toby Fox has said that Deltarune will only have one ending, but that the choices the player makes may not be meaningless, as there are things other than simply reaching an ending.
    • The whole point of Deltarune is that "your choices don't matter" by turning your "choices" into Quick Time Events that quickly get subverted, rendering it impossible to click X or Y decision. Why is that completely ignored when you enter the Light World? Is there any significance to it, or is it only because Toby wanted the players to be able to relax and dig up the lore of Hometown on their own without being forced to?
    • Just what is being said in the garbled vocals of Spamton NEO's theme? How can we tell if we aren't mishearing the lyrics, or if these are even supposed to be lyrics and vocals at all? The most people have been able to interpret is "pull the strings and make them ring", which is one of the possible descriptions in the text box during the fight.
    • Who is the Knight? Is it Kris, since they clearly opened a fountain in front of the player's eyes? Is it The Vessel we created at the intro sequence due to the Knight being referred to using it/its pronouns and the visuals of the fountains resembling the background of the "Goner Maker"? Is it Undyne, since she has the weapons, determination and escapism needed to both want to and actually make the fountains? Is it Father Alvin, since he is clearly remoseful for using his father's hammer for something, and has the same ties to Holiness as the Knight? Is it Pizzapants?
    • A common theory is that Sans is from the world of Deltarune. Commonly cited evidence includes him having the same sprites in both games, Sans's dialogue in his boss fight talking about how he "can't go back somewhere anymore", Snowdin residents mentioned how him and his brother "showed up out from nowhere" and the picture in Sans' secret room having the Arc Words "don't forget".
  • Evil Is Cool: To say Spamton is beloved by the fanbase is underselling it, and even before the Weird Route he stands out as one of the most malevolent characters in the series since Flowey, being exceptionally murderous, insane, and all-around shady, making even Jevil look lucid and sane in comparison, with a disturbing secret boss fight with one of the darkest contexts since the last game. This reception continues into the Weird Route, which showcases some of his worst actions, manipulating the Player's curiosity regarding the route to turn Noelle into a murderer so he can take over the dark world, dropping any semblance of sympathy in one final encounter full of Evil Gloating. This contrasts with the route's other villain, the Soul/Player, who is more feared and disliked among the fanbase (morbid jokes not withstanding) rather than loved.

    F-P 
  • Fandom-Enraging Misconception:
    • The antagonists of Chapters 1 and 2 are named King and Queen, respectively, and nothing else. King is occasionally referred to as "the King" in Chapter 1, so there's a bit of leniency, but he's never officially been called "Spades King" or "King of Spades" as was common in the earliest days of the game's lifetime.
    • While present in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 makes it clear that Kris is a separate entity from the player, with their own backstory, thoughts, feelings, and motivations. This applies especially in the Weird Route, where other characters will notice that Kris looks shaken and stressed out. As such, treating them like they're a blank slate for the player to insert themselves into will result in fans quickly correcting you.
  • Fandom Rivalry: With Hiveswap, though the hatred is mostly one-sided. Despite the fandoms of their respective source materials being Friendly Fandoms, Hiveswap's Troubled Production, as well as the radio silence from said game's developers, has led to many Deltarune fans poking fun at the fandom, claiming that they're idiots who spent two million dollars on vaporware. It's worth noting that some of the Deltarune fandom is made up of disgruntled Hiveswap fans who were sick of the endless Schedule Slips and silence from What Pumpkin.
  • Fanfic Fuel:
    • Since Kris and Susie changed in clothing and coloration when they entered the Dark World, it's common to speculate what would happen to other characters stumbled into it. Particularly Noelle (before chapter 2 gave her a canon Dark World design).
    • Lancer not taking off his hood unlike Ralsei has led many to wonder what his face may look like. Depictions range from looking like a puppy, otter and teddy bear-like, or a vaguely Sans-looking monster. Others interpret that Lancer isn't wearing any headgear and just looks that way naturally.
    • Many have also taken a crack at visualizing and characterizing a Queen of Spades (before Chapter 2 introduced Queen, who becomes Lancer's adoptive mother once the Cyber World plot wraps up). Similarly, there are plenty of interpretations of the different Kings and Queens of the other suits due to the former's brief appearance but currently minimal role.
    • The customization options for a vessel at the beginning of the game have lent themselves to speculation about where the vessel could regain prominence, as well as acting as a vehicle for human fan characters.
    • The Shadow Crystal Holders are established as having their own lives before their insanity-inducing encounter with mysterious entities, told through secondhand perspectives from people that knew them. As it all happened offscreen, many fans like to create stories that explore their former friendships and interpret how they must have acted before and during their life-changing revelations.
      • Similarly, there's the fact that Jevil has become dreaded by fellow Holder Spamton for vague reasons, despite being from separate Dark Worlds. While Spamton has a fear of clowns in general, he also singles Jevil out as one reason for trying to achieve a much stronger form. This leads to fans guessing what must've happened between the two to cause such fear, and wondering what their relationships with the other Holders will be like, assuming every secret boss will be able to know about each other.
    • As Dark Worlds are created with household items in the room a Dark Fountain is opened in, there are many interpretations for hypothetical Dark Worlds across the town. With the Card Kingdom representing toys and Cyber World involving the internet and technology, fans tend to design these worlds concerning entertainment mediums they could riff on.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • The main villain of Chapter 1 is only called "the King" or just King in the game itself, so some fans (especially prior to Chapter 2's release) call him the Spades King or King of Spades to make it clearer as to who they're referring to. He's also occasionally called Chaos King, from the title of his battle theme.
    • Ralsei is often called "Fluffy Boy" by fans, owing to the text that appears when using Castle Town's save point after befriending him in Chapter 1.
    • Asgore, as of Chapter 2, is commonly referred to as "The Most Divorced Man" in reference to how poorly he dealt with Toriel divorcing him.
    • Most of Spamton's nicknames are him being shamed for his short size, the most common version being "gremlin".
    • The collective Undertale/Deltarune universe is referred to by some as "UTDR".
  • Friendly Fandoms:
    • Deltarune fans seem to be getting along well with Paper Mario fans, as many have made crossover art of the resident Monster Clowns, Jevil and Dimentio.
    • Kirby fans also get along with Deltarune fans. Fanart depicting Magolor, Taranza, and Susie as the game's main trio (Magolor is Kris, Taranza is Ralsei, and Susie is Susie), along with Marx as Jevil has become very common. It helps that Kirby Fandom VIP Gigi DG (creator of Hiimdaisy and Cucumber Quest) is a close affiliate of Toby Fox.
    • As with the previous game, this game's plethora of adorable animal-people characters has led to a strong fandom crossover with Furry Fandom artists; with the term "fluffy boy" even becoming a term of endearment among furries.
    • With the release of chapter two, the Cruelty Squad community has taken a liking to Spamton, noting that his non-sequitur-filled dialogue and erratic, sales-and-[[Hyperlink Blocked]]-obsessed behavior would fit in well with the sort of deranged NPCs that populate the game's setting.
    • Deltarune fans typically get along well with fans of OMORI, owed to how both games provide similarly offbeat dramedy takes on the JRPG formula. Also helping is the fact that Omocat is a close acquaintance of Toby Fox, who gave a shout-out to Omori during the livestreamed playthrough of Deltarune's first chapter for Undertale's sixth anniversary. Crossover fan content between Omori and Deltarune is consequently fairly common.
    • Several Deltarune fans are friendly with fans of "Web Animation The Amazing Digital Circus" due to Jevil and Pomni both being mentally insane jesters trapped in an And I Must Scream scenario. Fan art and crossover songs of the two are common, particularly with "The World Revolving" becoming associated with Pomni and her predicament.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: It's stated that Asriel's CD collection includes "religious ska" (which is in fact a real thing). In January 2022, an Italian circus troupe performed a ska remix of "Megalovania" to none other than Pope Francis himself.
  • Idiosyncratic Ship Naming:
    • Ralsei/Kris is often called "Toothpaste," with the male Kris variant being called "Toothpaste Boys."
    • Kris/Noelle is usually referred to as "Kriselle", but some call it "Kris Kringle".
    • Jevil/Rouxls Kaard is often referred to as Nosuit.
    • Kris/Berdly is referred to as "Krispy Chicken".
    • Spamton/Rouxls Kaard is generally called "Business Kaard".
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
    • Susie, of all people, seems to be the go-to character when it comes to pairings in the fandom, probably due to a combination of factors (muscles, Troubled, but Cute, Tsundere, etc.) that make her appealing to ship with others.
    • Not falling short from their predecessor is Kris, who is commonly shipped with Susie (two friendless misfits growing into Fire-Forged Friends), Ralsei (Extreme Doormat that seems fully devoted to them and loves to be hugged by them), Noelle (one of the few to treat them nicely, evidence of childhood friendship and family interaction, pranks…), and that's just the three of the biggest ones in roughly descending order.
  • LGBT Fanbase: As with Undertale before it, Deltarune has a sizable LGBT fan following thanks to its cast including a few well-represented LGBT characters (e.g. Noelle, who has a crush on Susie and gets a fair amount of Ship Tease with her) and ones who appeal to LGBT subcultures (such as Swatchlings, which generally appeal to the Bara Genre). The fact that Kris uses they/them pronouns particularly attracted a sizable following among that demographic.
  • Love to Hate:
  • Memetic Badass: After comparisons between the Weird Route of Chapter 2 and the infamous Genocide Route from Undertale, fans tend to jokingly reimagine the signature battle with Berdly by having him survive SnowGrave to become the story's equivalent to Undyne the Undying. Interpretations may or may not be herald this by having Berdly utter the "Gamers don't die; we respawn" line that's now heavily-associated with him.
  • Memetic Loser: While Berdly can be a challenging opponent in Chapter 2 and has his more heroic moments, fans like to focus on how his nerdy and smug nature tends to repel everyone around him. Much lighter takes on the Weird Route will show Berdly being frozen as deserved, but only after toning the seriousness of the situation down.
  • Memetic Psychopath:
    • Thanks to describing the sprite as "the last thing you see before you die", later making good on the joke with his Fission Mailed encounter in Chapter 2, fans have taken to portraying the Annoying Dog as constantly roaming the streets in search of people to run over with his toy car.
    • Ralsei's status as the moral compass of the party often gets subverted by the fanbase in response, with art of him wielding various firearms and war machines popping up after Chapter 1 and art depicting him smoking a large marijuana blunt becoming the next defining community in-joke from Chapter 2's release. For a less humor-focused take on this, fans began to question Ralsei's behavior during certain moments of Chapter 2's story.
  • Memetic Troll:
    • After Chapter 2 made a clearer distinction between Kris and the Player's SOUL, fans occasionally depict the SOUL as reveling in making Kris act out of character in minor ways. Examples include being forced to hug Ralsei when it's implied that Kris is only lukewarm towards the fluffy prince at best, and bewildering them by mentioning things from Undertale.
    • Kris themself also has this reputation thanks to the fact that they are canonically a prankster, with plenty of anecdotes from their exploits being commented on by characters of Hometown.
    • Jevil's playful and psychotic personality, as a Monster Clown with an insane boss fight, all lends to fandom portrayals of him as a twisted prankster, especially since fellow Shadow Crystal Holder Spamton canonically dreads and despises him.
  • Moe:
  • Never Live It Down:
    • In the game itself, Susie ate a single piece of chalk on-screen, and has been implied to steal some a couple times earlier. She also eats just about everything else she comes across, making her Extreme Omnivore tendencies clear. In fandom, however, the specific example of chalk has been over-exaggerated, turning it into a Trademark Favorite Food for her, and greatly downplaying her tendency to snack on other things. This gets brought up one or two times in Chapter 2, but it's mostly an aside reference to her broad palette.
    • On a similar note, the fans aren't going to let Kris forget that time they ate moss any time soon, considering how often it shows up in jokes and fanart. It's become an actual Running Gag by Chapter 2, as whenever moss shows up, their willingness to eat it is not forgotten. Even Susie can get in on the moss eating action if you bring her to some! Noelle is, understandably, confused at Kris's tendency to eat it.
    • A Running Gag with Berdly in Chapter 2 is his obsession with gamer girls. Due to this trait being stereotypically associated with a certain crowd of teenage Redditors, fanworks often extrapolate this to Berdly fully embodying the stereotypical teenage Redditor circa 2019, often wearing Minecraft clothes, showing off or referencing memes to random people who don't want to see them, and frequenting many subreddits associated with this crowd. In the game itself, it's just used to show how socially inept he is, and he's otherwise a fairly typical nerdy high schooler who's in over his head.
  • Nightmare Retardant: Invoked on the website with the "sighting" page made for the Spamton Sweepstakes, which shows a grainy, grayscale image straight out of some YouTube horror video thumbnail... of the Spamton plush sitting on a toilet. Made even better by the use of "Digital Roots" and the camera zooming towards and away from the image as if trying to accentuate some disturbing hidden detail in it.
  • No Yay: While by no means an unpopular ship, some people feel this way about Kris/Ralsei due to Ralsei visually resembling Kris' brother Asriel. While the exact connection between Ralsei and Asriel is still unknown, and there does seem to be some genuine fuel for the ship in canon, some fans can't help but view the pairing as having Incest Subtext.
  • Older Than They Think:
    • This isn't the first time Toby has made a game about a knight with shadowed eyes contemplating the validity of their actions.
    • The game itself was in front of everyone for longer than they expected (partly thanks to its prolonged gestation) — the game's website has existed since at least December 2015, although it only contained one asset — "him.png," an image of lines of Wingdings text that quotes Gaster's Entry Number 17, "This next experiment seems very, very interesting," later changing to quotations of the legend as the three-year interim between Undertale and Deltarune progressed.
    • One of the bigger ones; the death animation displayed by Darkners hit by SnowGrave has been in the code since Chapter 1 (being referred to as simply "deathanim"), but was only discovered when Snowgrave was added in Chapter 2, meaning that the animation had existed for over 3 years of fans searching through the code and was somehow never discovered.
  • One True Threesome: Kris/Susie and Susie/Noelle fans that don't want there to be fighting in the fandom have come to accept Kris/Susie/Noelle as an outcome where everyone wins. The ship only increased in popularity with the release of Chapter 2, which provided Ship Tease between Kris and Noelle on top of the former parings.
  • Pandering to the Base:
    • Kris's one-time incident of eating moss while in prison is turned into a recurring joke by Chapter 2, with dialogue from Noelle even noting that Kris actually likes doing so. Susie's eating chalk also gets a few nods, to a much lesser extent.
    • Toby was initially uncertain about Spamton due to middling opinions about him by test players. Following the immense popularity he's received in the fanbase since the release of Chapter 2, Toby has given him a spotlight eclipsing almost all his other characters (even rivalling Sans) in terms of official acknowledgement, with Undertale's incredibly elaborate 7th anniversary sweepstakes being based entirely around him. Spamton may now very well be a Breakout Character for the game as a whole.
    • Fans viewed the random explosion when Lancer crashes into Ralsei as one of the funniest moments in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, it becomes a Running Gag where objects randomly explode with the same Stylistic Suck explosion effect.
  • Play-Along Meme: Many fans pretend that Chef Lancer, who is just Lancer with a mustache, is a separate character from Lancer, and a common joke "theory" is speculating that the two are related somehow.
  • Popular with Furries:
    • Even as early as Chapter 1, this game has already garnered a furry fanbase. Helps that this game is meant to be related to Undertale in some form or fashion and has a good amount of characters from the last game including, but not limited to, Toriel, Asgore, Undyne, and Alphys.
    • Some of the new characters introduced in this game have earned some attention as well, like Susie, Ralsei (who looks suspiciously like Asriel under his hat…), Noelle, Seam, and Clover, among others.
    • Tasque Manager gained her own following in the furry community immediately after Chapter 2's release, due to having a very humanoid design with a mix of a fox and a cat's facial design. Not to mention her in-battle voice clips sounding surprisingly soothing.
    • On the masculine side of things, Swatchlings are muscular, bird-like Sharp-Dressed Men. This was even anticipated, given a shop where several are posing suggestively in the background. Swatch themself (the Swatchling running the shop) is particularly beloved for their polite and charming personality.
    • The Werewire and Werewerewire enemies in Chapter 2 are popular as well, partially because they bear a heavy resemblance to the "protogen" original species that was created by the furry fandom and already highly popular before the chapter's release. In addition, the colorful design welcomes the creation of fan-made OCs with a variety of colors and patterns.
  • Portmanteau Couple Name: Several among the fanbase.

    R-W 
  • Recurring Fanon Character:
    • Mike, a living TV and the unofficial Arc Villain of the upcoming Chapter 3 who is generally portrayed as a gameshow host who might or might not be the one puppeteering Spamton NEO. That said, Mike is an interesting case, as he is a pre-existing character combined with another pre-existing character; Spamton directly mentions a Mike that he was once friends with twice throughout Chapter 2, while in The Stinger of Chapter 2, Kris creates a Dark Fountain which lets the TV in their house become a living Darkner. However, while they may be Ambiguously Related, there is nothing outright saying they are the same character. This doesn't stop the fans from acting like they are the same person and that Mike will be the successor to King and Queen (bordering on Common Knowledge), and creating hundreds of art works, fanfics, theories, and outright battle themes for him. If a person follows the chess-based theme naming for Arc Villains, then Mike will be portrayed as a rook and/or have his full name be "Mike Rook".
      • This finally came to a head in the Spamton Sweepstakes, where it's heavily implied that both are indeed different characters; Spamton considers Mike to be one of his only friends to the point of even defending his honor, and the person he told Kris not to trust and thinks ruined his life is someone named Tenna, who is hinted to be the living TV. This came much too late for over a year's worth of content featuring Fanon!Mike.
    • SHOW_RUNNER, a character created from an Urban Legend of Zelda about an unused shop that can be found in the game files that sells only one item: a Disk Fragment (or DiskFrgmnt). He, like Spamton, lost everything, and it's implied it was because of Spamton. He became popular with the fans thanks to his so-far pretty unknown backstory, his Ugly Cute design, and interesting 'unused' storyline, being aware of the fact that he's not supposed to exist.
    • Prior to the actual Queen's appearance in Chapter 2, a hypothetical Queen of Spades was a common character in fan content following the release of Chapter 1. Similarly to the later, canon character, she was popularly depicted as King's wife and Lancer's mother (though the canon Queen is instead implied to be King's ex). Unlike Queen, these fan versions typically featured more overt spade motifs in the vein of Card Kingdom's residents.
    • After the fandom found out about the Snowgrave route, Berdly the Defrosted (a.k.a. a version of Berdly where he managed to survive Noelle freezing him to death, and becomes an Expy of Undyne the Undying as he's ready to face-off against the player for corrupting Noelle) became a popular idea among fans.
    • Skuntle Bingoid is a supposed secret boss of Chapter 3 portrayed as a lawn gnome. He is usually occupied by a track from Undertale: Halloween Hack known as "No More Nuzzles" played at 115% speed. He is used to point out the convoluted methods of how to find the secret bosses and how they always have awesome music, which fans then painstakingly try to recreate by finding the obscure soundfonts and samples used in them.
  • Salvaged Story:
    • A common complaint was how the Pacifist Run adhered to the Crime of Self-Defense trope, requiring players to not attack creatures intent on murdering you. By comparison, Deltarune takes a more realistic approach, featuring enemies that can only be placated by tiring them out and casting a spell on them. Additionally, while winning fights through violence prevents enemies from being recruited, doing so will not cause the story to diverge from the Pacifist route like in Undertale, unless the player actively seeks out the Weird Route, which requires a much more active and intentional form of villainy.
    • The game is also less condemning of violence against foes with zero redeeming qualities to them. The King outright exploits the characters in a Pacifist Run by claiming to have a Freudian Excuse and being willing to talk it out after his battle, only to sneak attack the characters after he tricks Ralsei into healing him. Ultimately, he doesn't pull a Heel–Face Turn; either he's overthrown by Lancer and his subjects and thrown into the dungeon, or Ralsei realizes the King had tired himself out and uses the Pacify spell to tranquilize him, depending on whether you made a "kill" on regular encounters.
  • Self-Fanservice:
    • While one piece of official art shows Susie with some level of musculature, it's only as much as is required for an axe-wielder, and her in-game sprites depict her body type as flat and not particularly "buff." Fanart would say otherwise, and artists often take her Barbarian Heroine look to give her both large breasts and muscles to spare like they're giving her both sides of the Frank Frazetta treatment.
    • While Noelle is already quite Adorkable, fanart tends to give her a cuter face that's more standard among anthropomorphic deer characters, ignoring the tall, long-ish face and buck teeth she has in canon.
    • Queen is borderline flat-chested in the game proper. This isn't exactly kept in most fanart of her, which tends to give her a bosom most would accept her hellish reign for.
    • While Tasque Manager already had a much curvier design compared to other characters in the game so far, some fan-artists accentuate her features even further, particularly her hips, chest, and rear.
    • Conversely, while Swatch and the Swatchlings are already quite top-heavy, a lot of fan-art makes them more evenly muscular with more proportional legs while rounding their sharp edges. The Swatchlings in particular are also frequently drawn with less clothing.
    • Spamton in canon is a tiny Demonic Dummy prone to making some deranged facial expressions. While a lot of fanart out there tends to preserve these aspects of him, art of him during his days as a BIG SHOT frequently make him Tall, Dark, and Handsome. Similarly, his NEO form (a mechanized body barely held together by wires, with all of his body parts aside from his Arm Cannon hanging limp) tends to get this treatment: if fan artists aren't actively sexualizing it, the armor is drawn as looking way cooler than it actually is.
    • The Addisons (a bunch of minor NPCs from Chapter 2) tend to get this a lot. There's nothing conventionally attractive about them in canon (they're all perpetually-smiling multicolored men stuck in one pose), but if you look up "Addison Deltarune", expect to see a lot of fanart that transforms them into Bishōnen.
    • Kris will often be portrayed as muscular in fanart despite seeming rather skinny in canon.
  • Sequel Difficulty Spike: While there are some additions to soften the curve (having three party members to distribute commands across, a bigger inventory for healing items, the Defend Command, and Ralsei's healing prayer), Deltarune's difficulty rises much quicker than Undertale's. Enemies deal more damage to counterbalance your higher HP, bullet patterns are more complex and require grazing them to take full advantage of the TP system, field obstacles can drain your health outside of fights, you have to spare enemies individually instead of all at once, and it's impossible to flee from battles. Additionally, in Chapter 1, your stats are all static outside of equipment. It says a lot that the very first fight in the game against Lancer has him spam projectiles that you have to guide around the arena to dodge properly.
  • Ships That Pass in the Night:
    • Mettaton and Rouxls Kaard don't meet in either chapter, or even give anything to indicate that they know the other exists. This has stopped absolutely nobody, probably owing to their somewhat similar (yet contrasting) personalities and roles.
    • Shipping Rouxls Kaard with Papyrus has also taken off, as they're both Large Hams with a love for making puzzles.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: Let's just say that tensions have been rising between fans who ship Susie with Kris (Krusie), and those who ship her with Noelle (Suselle). Given that both pairings get Ship Tease moments in Chapter 1, neither side wants to budge an inch. Let's not get into those who ship Kris with Noelle (Kriselle), which arguably has as much Ship Tease potential, especially in Chapter 2.
  • Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: An interesting variant — while still (possibly) story-relevant, the sidequests to reach and fight the superbosses are overall the most popular parts of each chapter despite being relatively hidden within each chapter, due to having access to the most unique characters in the game.
  • Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • Theme Pairing: Rouxls Kaard is sometimes paired with Mettaton (due to both of them being confident, bombastic characters that serve as recurring antagonists for the player) or Papyrus (as both are Large Hams who are also rather bad puzzle-makers).
  • Trans Audience Interpretation:
    • Headcanoning Berdly as trans — both as a trans man and as a closeted trans woman — is also somewhat common among fans, in part thanks to his fascination with having nipples in Chapter 2 and his close association with Noelle, herself commonly headcanoned as a trans woman. The "closeted trans girl" interpretation of Berdly further stems from longtime jokes in the trans community about dudebro gamers who are fascinated by "beautiful gamer girls" and constantly play as female characters before eventually realizing that they were the beautiful gamer girls all along.
    • It's also common to headcanon Spamton as a trans man, due to him wanting to transfer himself into a different body, and refusing to be put into the mannequin that looks just like him but wearing a dress.
    • A fair amount of people interpret Noelle as transgender; this likely stems from her already being a confirmed LGBT+ character (having a crush on Susie) and the fact that, despite being a female reindeer, she has antlers during the same time of year as her father.note 
  • Ugly Cute:
    • Lancer is hardly what you'd consider traditionally cute; he has crooked teeth and his eyes are rarely visible (and when they are, he's not making a very cute face◊, either). But he's still quite adorkable, being a Cheerful Child implied to be yearning for affection and approval, which makes him endearing to many fans. Not to mention, the way his tongue hangs out of his mouth may bring to mind either a puppy or a child making a raspberry.
    • Despite (or maybe even because of) their Facial Horror, there's a large number of fans who see Seam this way. Being an anthropomorphic cat toy probably doesn't hurt them either.
  • Unexpected Character:
    • While it's hinted that Berdly plays a role in Chapter 2 when Noelle asks Susie and Kris if they want to study with her and Berdly, not many expected his abrupt Dark World introduction.
    • Of all the monster characters to return from Undertale, very few were expecting Onionsan to return, especially given how bizarre their original appearance in Undertale was.
  • Unnecessary Makeover: Some fans felt disappointed when Ralsei took off his hat, revealing his goat face, having gotten used to him as a cute, spider-like black furball. Though given the name... The beginning of Chapter 2 has a Leaning on the Fourth Wall moment regarding this, where Susie will indirectly state how she liked Ralsei's appearance better when he had his hat on. However, some people did quickly warm up to hatless Ralsei due to his variety of new sprites and various portrait expressions, which range from adorable to hilarious (and even some genuinely serious ones) with much greater variety than his old look ever had.
  • Unfortunate Character Design: King wields a spade on a chain that comes out of a mouth right above his crotch. Alternatively, since the mouth is placed where his belly button would be, the spade tongue could be seen as his umbilical cord.
  • Unpopular Popular Character: Pretty much nobody In-Universe likes or can stand Rouxls Kaard due to his misplaced confidence, cowardice, and general obnoxiousness. The main exception is Lancer, who treats him as a surrogate father, as well as him having at least a couple admirers in the the first chapter. By the second chapter, however, Rouxls Kaard has become The Friend Nobody Likes and a Butt-Monkey to boot, with nobody in the Cyber World taking him seriously. Among fans, though, he's an Ensemble Dark Horse due to both his hilarious incompetence and being a Parental Substitute for Lancer.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion:
    • Kris was very widely mistaken for male when Chapter 1 was first released. This likely comes down to Kris' androgynous design being taken as a male design (even down to the name "Kris"), as well as their status as a Contrasting Sequel Protagonist to Undertale's Frisk, who was moreso just a person to control without much character in their own right (and fell victim to gender debates because of it) whereas Deltarune make sure you know you're playing as an actual character this time. However, just like Frisk, Kris is consistently referred to with they/them pronouns in-game; this confusion has died down significantly since Chapter 2's release due to a large pushback forming against it.
    • Due to Susie's sprite in her introduction having her wearing ragged clothing, fitting her being The Bully, not having many feminine features, her hair going past her eyes and her overall resemblance to Joey Ramone, many initially confused Susie to be a long-haired guy.
    • Due to Ralsei wearing pastel green robes with a heart on them, a reddish-pinkish scarf, an interest in baking, and his face being rather feminine-looking after he takes off his hat, some players confuse him for being a girl. The latter even had an analysis video made by YouTuber Treesicle, which got the same traction of humiliation as Game Theory's "Sans is Ness" video in the fandom.
    • K_K is sometimes mistaken for female due to his chest speakers being mistaken for a pair of breasts.
    • Swatch is not referred to with any pronouns in-game as of Chapter 2's release, which resulted in fans referring to him with they/them pronouns until Spamton referred to him with he/him pronouns in a question on Fangamer's Spamton Q&A a whole year after Chapter 2's release.
  • Viewer Pronunciation Confusion: Many fans who are unaware of Rouxls Kaard's "rules card" pun pronounce his name with an audible "x". This was later referenced in Chapter 2, as when he explains the rules of his battle he mentions offhandedly that "Rouxls" is pronounced "rules".
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: It's rated T and is intended for folks who are familiar with the game's predecessor, which was rated E10+ and ran into the exact opposite trope for its darker content, but its colorful and quirky cast of cartoony characters can lead to players being caught very much off guard by the Ruder and Cruder dialogue compared to Undertale and the occasional Surprisingly Creepy Moments. This isn't even getting into the new level of creepy with the hidden Weird Route…
  • The Woobie: Has its own page.

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