WMG / Deltarune Kris/Chara/The SOUL/The Vessel

The Vessel will reappear in the final act.

And the Vessel will be a Mobile-Suit Human piloted by all the monster souls that occupied it previously. The Vessel will be the future rival to Kris and counter-act Kris's evilness because the Vessel was The Chosen One according to the Prophecy...

Chara is innocent

Toby knows that people would react to green-shirted human getting bloody red eyes, a Slasher Smile, and a knife by claiming Kris got possessed by Chara, as they see them as the logical option, either because they believe them to be truly evil, or corrupted by your actions. HOWEVER, nothing rules out the chance that Kris got possessed by something else (Or maybe they're not possessed at all), and Chara's infamy is a deliberate Red Herring.

Chara is malicious, mean-spirited, and/or evil

Alternatively, things look just as bad as we think they do and we should be very scared.

Chara and the entity encountered upon a complete Genocide Run are two different entities

This combines the two entries above, with Chara, as in Asriel's sibling, and Toriel and Asgore's child, and what is heavily implied to be Undertale's narrator, being innocent and was simply trying their hardest to free the monsters from the underground with a plan they really should've thought out better first, and the being the Player encounters at the end of a completed Genocide Run, the one that the player brought back to life through their Determination, is the body of Chara possessed by pure Determination that for simplicity's sake will be called The Fallen (both as they are the body of the first fallen human and that they have fallen from grace), bent on gravely marching forwards and killing everything in sight. Chara is part of Kris's soul, with the other part potentially being Frisk, hence why their names are a middle ground, while The Fallen is what drives Kris to rip out their soul and what takes over Kris's body at the very end of Chapter 1. Don't Forget can be interpreted as being sung either by Chara as reassuring to Kris's soul, or being sung by The Fallen as a threat, depending on how you choose to take the line "Don't Forget, I'm With You In The Dark".

The transformation that happens at the end of the game happens every night.

The cage is obviously well-used with a mysterious stain right next to it. The 'transformation' is a nightly ritual, nothing new, and what leads to Kris being so frequently tired (as noted by Toriel right before you go to bed).

The end of the game was not showing Chara's return, but was showing the 'real' Kris regaining control of their body.

We, the entity of the player, are controlling Kris' SOUL in a way that's more than just steering it around obstacles. This is indicated by a few things: First, when creating your first save, Kris' name is replaced by the player's. Second, when walking around town during the end, the dialogue of several characters indicates your behavior of making ongoing friendly conversation is unusual, with hints that Kris is usually at least somewhat mean-spirited. Third, when the SOUL is thrown into the cage at the very end, you can still move it around. Kris knows you possessed them, have wrested control away from you, and they are not happy.

• If that is the case, shouldn't Kris have died the instant they removed their SOUL? A body born with a SOUL can't function without one in this universe, with the one exception seeming to be when Chara possesses you.
  • This could be explained as Kris having their own SOUL, and the player's in the same body. The player's SOUL is stronger, so it takes command. Only by removing the player does Kris regain control.
    • But the narration at some point says there's A human SOUL in Kris' body (I'm paraphrasing here), not two SOULs.
    • That phrase and the ending cutscene may imply something far more sinister, then. Kris not being human.
    • The human soul it references might actually be Kris', not the SOUL the player controls. A red heart controlled by an anomaly that exists outside of space and time that can possess people isn't really something you would call a human SOUL.
  • Maybe in this universe, a human body can still function for a while without a SOUL, as long as both the body and SOUL are intact and there's enough Determination. But their SOUL is already possessed by Chara/Player/Anomaly, which is why Kris have to put it back in even though it makes them a puppet to our whims: they just don't have another SOUL to spare.

Kris and Chara have a Jekyll & Hyde dynamic

In the ending, Chara seems to take over at night. And earlier on, several characters mention a number of pranks "Kris" pulled, that could have been Chara instead. Perhaps they won't knife anyone this time. Perhaps.

• Inspecting the cage even states that it has "seen many crashes." This isn't the first time the SOUL has been forcefully thrown into it.

Kris isn't the real protagonist

It'll probably be the custom avatar that was made at the beginning at the game, which would mean that we got bait-and-switched twice in the first half of the game. Well played, Toby.

Kris is originally from the Dark World or was originally supposed to go there.

Chara's, Frisk's, and the Anomaly's roles are switched around in this world.

Kris's personality, according to monster comments, is similar to the original Chara's: A creepy kid that does a lot of meanhearted pranks, with possibly more sinister undertones. Frisk is the Vessel you make; The Anomaly is what the survey program calls the Creator. Frisk and the Creator are trying to take over Chara's life, similar to how in Undertale, Chara becomes more and more pronounced and bloodthirsty through your actions, eventually taking over Frisk's life. However, it's the opposite here: As Chara's life is taken over, they become more friendly. This is noted by the Monsters around town, as lately it seems as if Kris is acting out of character by being nice, making friends, and talking to everyone they see. This even extends to gameplay, as even if you go through an aggressive run, you never even kill anyone. At the end, Kris finally breaks out of the control you and Frisk put on their life and violently throws your SOUL out of them.

The Chara that possesses Kris is not always the same Chara from the original Undertale.

Specifically, assuming that the player achieved the Pacifist or Neutral ending without ever completing Genocide, or never played the game at all, the Chara that possesses Kris is actually from a different timeline than the one we interfered with, a timeline that canonically ended with a Genocide Route, perhaps specifically as an experiment of Gaster's just to see what would happen.

The player does not control Kris, but, rather, they control the SOUL.

The SOUL is inside of Kris's body during the game, except during battle scenes, when it emerges to represent Kris, Susie, and Ralsei. At the end, when you no longer can control Kris, they tear out their own soul and throw it into the battered birdcage. No matter how much you want to play beyond that point, you can't, because the first chapter is over.

• The initial vessel that is created most likely does not have a soul, and it is created with the intention for the player to control it.

Kris wasn't meant to be in this timeline at all

They were either stolen from another timeline or created from scratch as a hollow shell and shoehorned into this timeline by whoever it is that's pulling the strings. That's why they possess aspects of both Frisk and Chara while apparently being a third, separate person that somehow fits into whatever series of events lead to the present day. It's possible that the vessel you created at the beginning of the game actually was Kris all along, and the claim that it was "discarded" was actually a half-truth meant to trick you into jumping to conclusions — the unique aspects of it were discarded, as the entity behind all of this already decided what Kris would be like, but the vessel itself was not.

Chara was an adopted Dreemurr child, but died shortly before Kris was adopted.

It's possible that like in Undertale, Chara was adopted by the Dreemurrs, but died to unknown causes. Depending on the circumstances regarding the death, the Dreemurrs may have taken great pains to keep Chara's existence a secret from Kris 'cause they were afraid Kris might get the wrong idea and accuse their family of seeing them as a Replacement Goldfish if Kris ever found out about Chara.

Chara is dead

This is why Asgore and Toriel are divorced, and Toriel is newly religious. Kris is a Replacement Goldfish, that's why they are younger than Asriel, where Chara and Asriel appeared to be around the same age in the flashbacks.

As a variation to the theory above, Chara is dead and Kris is a Replacement Goldfish, BUT...

…the reason Toriel divorced Asgore wasn't just because Chara died, but because he told Kris the truth.
Maybe he originally wanted to wait until they were older, but Kris somehow found out about Chara (maybe an old photo), and when they confronted their parents, against Toriel's wishes, Asgore told them, assuming they were old enough to understand. They weren't, and that was the last straw for Toriel.
That's also why Kris is considered a creepy kid and they have such an unkempt appearence. The reveal did a number on their self-worth.

Kris contains Frisk's SOUL and Chara's spirit, with the player controlling the former

Kris' body contains Frisk's SOUL and the ambiguous remains of Chara that possess you over the course of the previous game's Genocide route — let's say their spirit. When playing the game, you give control to the SOUL and make its influence stronger, making them potentially more personable with those around them and morally sound in combat depending on the player's choices, but when neglected, the spirit is left to gain more control. Why the spirit became strong enough to do what it does at the end of the first chapter is anyone's guess — maybe the spirit is innately weak as long as the game is not running and can only go so far as to make Kris kind of creepy and standoffish, but because the player took control of the SOUL right away when the game started, it had no time to take advantage of this. It's only once you step away from the controls for a little bit at the end of the game that the spirit is able to wrench away control long enough to tear the soul out. This is why Kris is able to stay alive even when the soul is removed — at maximum strength, Chara's spirit is enough to sustain the body by itself, which is exactly the situation you're in during a soulless pacifist run. Alternatively, the red SOUL is Kris' own SOUL, but the power of your influence as the player can compel it to be more kind and personable.

Kris is neither Frisk nor Chara, they're an AU version of the "poncho human" seen in Undertale's intro

That's why they both use a sword as their weapon. Since this is an AU, Kris was born much later than their Undertale counterpart.

• Uh... the poncho human has a spear, not a sword.

Chara is the Vessel we discarded at the beginning of Deltarune.

Why does Chara hate humanity? Why does Chara want to see the world burn? Because we, their creators, abandoned them and threw them away like so much garbage.

When Gaster throws the vessel away, it falls into the Ruins in Undertale, the first fallen child. Chara knows they were only a placeholder for someone else and this knowledge drives them a wee bit mad. They seek destruction because they see everything as a false facade now. It isn’t real. But if they destroy this world and keep going, maybe they can get to something that is real, namely us.

When Undertale begins, Chara doesn't wake up because of Frisk's determination, but because of ours. They recognize us. Our actions in Undertale determine whether Chara forgives us or not. If we are Pacifist, they realize it was not us who threw them away, but Gaster. If Neutral, it leaves them with doubt. If Genocide… well, they get what they wanted to start with.

• But the vessel’s appearance varies depending upon the player's customization choices; while it can look like Chara’s one set appearance, that variation is only one of many possibilities. And the vessel appears visibly taller and older than Chara.

• So what, do most of the characters (like the entire Dreemurr family, Undyne, Alphys, practically the entirety of Hometown's population, etc.) exist twice, once in Hometown and once sealed away in the underground? There are two Toriels playing the piano at the same time? Two Asgores? etc. How can this possibly be true?

Our red SOUL is a combination of three different SOULs

That's why we can use three save slots, like how Photoshop Flowey was able to create six save files after absorbing the six human SOULs.

Our SOUL is a combination of (at least) a human SOUL and a monster SOUL

That's why the SOUL sometimes flashes red and white (the latter being the color of monster SOULs), like the moment Kris pulls it out of their body◊. The combined SOUL looks more like a human's because the human SOUL is stronger than the monster's and therefore more "dominant", and/or because it's a combination of two human SOULs and one monster SOUL (based on the theory right above). It's possible that the narrator isn't aware it's actually a combined SOUL, which is why they only describe it as a "human SOUL".

• Specifically, while the human soul's identity is still unclear, the monster soul might be Dess' soul. Something sure seems to have happened to her, and Noelle and Kris (and Asriel) seem to know more about it than anyone else in Hometown.

Chara of the Genocide route is with us, but they're not the one possessing Kris at the end

Instead, they're part of the red SOUL; since they claimed our SOUL in the Genocide ending, they're unable to get rid of it or detach themself from it either, and they were only able to possess Frisk because the SOUL was still in their body. When Chara got thrown into the birdcage along with our SOUL, they were probably confused and/or amused by the situation at best and seething with rage at worst.

This isn't the first time that Kris has ripped out an unwanted SOUL

If you look behind the cage after first waking up, there's a stain (which you can observe with the action button, confirming as much). We know they're human SOULs, and would therefore probably bleed. Consider that reaching inside yourself and pulling something out isn't exactly an instinctive action (as far as we know) and the cage serves no clear purpose in an otherwise Spartan half of a bedroom, and is conveniently open (the logical way to store a cage would be to keep the door closed so it doesn't get damaged) and in a cart, so it can be moved. It would also explain the presence of the knife; Kris left it somewhere handy (under their pillow, perhaps?) rather than drawing it from nowhere. Before going to bed, you are warned "this will end your adventure", or somesuch, implying that the narrator also knows damn well what's going to happen.

Someone will steal the SOUL that Kris has taken out of themself

We'll have to try and escape before the thief (probably either Gaster, Chara (if they're not possessing Kris), or the Knight) tries to do anything malicious with our soul.

Kris and Frisk are both vessels modeled after Chara, a real human

Both Kris and Frisk have cartoony yellow skin and constant blank faces because they're artificial humans, unlike Chara who can change their face expression, has a more natural skin tone, and most importantly had their own human SOUL (which Asriel was able to absorb). Kris and Frisk also have the exact same shade of brown hair as the vessel from the survey sequence, while Chara's hair is a bit lighter.

Kris was intended to be more accurate to Chara's original personality (albeit possibly with some negative traits amplified), while Frisk was meant to be a more "ideal" version of Chara. It's also possible that the player's SOUL is an artificial one meant to mimic Chara's, which could mean we're, ironically, playing as an "AI" of sorts that controls the SOUL.

Chara will be a boss fight, optional or otherwise.

Some ways this could play out:

• The fight is unwinnable by design due to DETERMINATION.
• The fight is winnable but difficult, due to it being unlike other fights that all follow the same pattern every time, Chara is very random and impossible to predict. Memorization and muscle memory will not help you here.
• Since Chara has full memories of all the resets and deaths of the player, every new fight will have Chara have an increase in HP and stats, to show that they are getting used to your own fight patterns and styles.

Kris can't be one of the heroes because they're a vessel and not an actual human

A real human will show up in a later chapter and take the role of the true first hero, whether that's Chara or Frisk or someone else entirely.

The player-controlled soul is Kris's original SOUL

They removed it and sent it off to find a new vessel because they wanted to be someone else (perhaps someone who could surpass their older brother). Whoever took over the narration in the opening put a stop to it, and forced the soul back into Kris. What we see at the end of the game/Chapter 1 is attempt No.2 (or more), hence the evidence that it's happened before.

Gaster is aware of our presence as the player, but Chara believes we are Frisk

In Undertale, not only does the way Chara narrates imply they're always referring to Frisk when saying "you", they never even mention "you" controlling another human/vessel like a puppet even though Genocide would've been impossible without Frisk.^i.e.Chara could say something about the SOUL and determination belonging to neither themself nor Frisk, but they never do, they just say those belong to "you". Chara is basically mistaking us, the player, for Frisk, similar to how Flowey mistakes us for Chara at the end of True Pacifist (when he tells us not to reset). Chara believes the SOUL and determination are both from Frisk, because that's the simplest, most logical explanation that they can think of; that's a human SOUL, of course it would belong to the human that fell down.

Gaster, on the other hand, somehow gained the ability to sense the player's presence after getting shattered across time and space. That's why he lets you name yourself during Deltarune's survey sequence. When (presumably) Chara says "your name is..." after hijacking the survey, they were trying to say "your name is Frisk" because they still have our identity mistaken. This time, Chara thinks "Frisk" is some kind of spirit/ghost similar to themself. Maybe they finally realized we're a separate entity when they (again, presumably) possess Kris and turn to look at the screen… or they once again believe they're looking at Frisk, and that Frisk was the one controlling the SOUL.

Chara and Frisk are Lightner/Darkner counterparts of each other

Based on the way the color scheme of Kris' outfit matches Chara's in the Light World (green + yellow) and Frisk's in the Dark World (blue + pink), it seems more likely that Chara is the Lightner and Frisk is the Darkner, but it's also possible for the opposite to be true instead.

Bonus points (for Darkner Frisk) if, when you choose not to stay with Toriel in Undertale, Frisk actually returns to the Dark World.

• Chapter 2 implies that Darkners lack both determination and SOUL. But it's still possible for Frisk or Chara to be a Darkner that became a Lightner, possibly by gaining a SOUL somehow (which may have also been Spamton's goal, with him wanting to become a "real boy" and whatnot). Though they likely didn't kill anyone to get that SOUL since both Chara and Frisk's LV starts off at 1.

You and Kris exist separately from each other, but are sharing Kris' body in-universe.

The man behind the tree gives Kris an egg, but when you put the egg in Asgore's fridge, there's two eggs. It's because the man behind the tree give Kris an egg, and he gave you an egg. Having you control Kris to put the egg in the fridge means you both put your egg in the fridge, so there are two eggs.

Kris is completely aware of the player throughout the game, and even gives a small sign of this constantly.

After every cutscene, Kris always turns to look at the 'screen'. Before the ending, we can just put that down to being a quirk of the game, but in programming a game, each 'turn' the character makes is an extra action that has to be coded. While it could just be a default position for Kris' model, it's much more likely that Toby did it deliberately to subtly show the player that Kris is looking at them.

Kris's Heart will become Undertale's Frisk.

Where did Frisk come from? Who and what is Frisk? They just materialized over Chara's grave at the beginning of the game, with aspects of Chara. Kris the Body is letting Kris the Heart travel and get strong in the Dark World for reasons, but in the Light World, they keep their Heart under lock and key if the two don't align.

• Undertale is the Heart escaping and travelling to an Alternate Timeline where they can fuse with something close to their body that is held together with Determination; but the Chara Body self is asleep.

Kris is an undead body possessed by Chara

Upon entering the Dark World, Kris' body becomes blue, which could be seen as aesthetic… or possibly a hint at them being a corpse held together by Chara.

Kris' personality will gradually be more fleshed out as the story goes on.

It's apparent Kris has a personality and identity outside player input, especially considering they have more of a backstory than Frisk and Chara combined. We'll likely see more and more of that with every succeeding chapter. Here are some possible ideas of how it might go;

• Kris will reveal that they feel inadequate compared to their Ace of a big brother Asriel, their Cool Teacher mother Toriel, or even their overly-friendly flower-selling goofball of a father Asgore. This sense of inadequacy could be brought upon by some of the other monsters looking down at Kris for not living up to the rest of their family's standards, leaving Kris feeling insecure, overwhelmed, and depressed.
• Related to a WMG above, Kris will form their own identity as a separate person, departing from their (possible) status as a Replacement Goldfish and/or vessel for Chara (or whoever that entity is).
• Also running on Kris' possible Replacement Goldfish status, there will be a point where Kris finds out about who Chara is and angrily calls their adoptive family out on keeping it a secret (which would further be justified if Chara's spirit is indeed taking residence in Kris's body), prompting Kris to run away from home to focus strictly on their role in the world-saving prophecy. It would take some persuasion from their companions during the adventure to help Kris decide to forgive their family and reconcile with them.
• In regards to the Hero of Light prophecy, Kris will admit they Jumped at the Call and fully embraced their destiny, partially due to how they felt their whole adventure has done wonders for helping them build a sense of self-worth, like they felt they were finally doing something that mattered.
• In terms of Character Development, Kris will gradually steer further and further away from their shifting between being an Empty Shell or The Prankster, and will instead adopt a Knight in Shining Armor persona to compliment their role in the Delta Warriors prophecy while also developing some Guile Hero leanings (including some leanings toward The Chessmaster while in the Light World, playing the quirks of the people of Hometown to their advantage in a way that leads to the greater good, like gaining access to the Dark World via entry points they and Susie technically aren't allowed to go into).

Kris is Chara, or at least Deltarune's version

The Chara from Undertale (either the kid from the intro or the "demon" or whatever from post-Genocide) doesn't make an appearance in Deltarune; instead, Kris is this universe's Chara, just a little older. There are the obvious parallels, like being Asriel's sibling, shirt color, generally creepy vibe according to other characters, etc. And there's the fact that (other than "The True Name" being said if you input Chara as the Fallen Child's name in Undertale) the name Chara was never actually canonically confirmed anywhere. It could be that Kris was supposed to be Chara's name originally, but due to the ability to name the Child in Undertale (referred to as "Chara" in the game files because it was short for "character"), it got picked up by the fandom and/or thrown in by Toby Fox. And the soul they tear out in the end scene? It has nothing to do with Undertale's Chara (on any level other than thematic, anyway), but it's Kris being sick of being controlled by you, the player, and rejecting your control of them. After all, Chara hates humanity, and you're the only other human involved in the game.

Deltarune is an artificial universe created to imprison Chara in the form of Kris

Its fundamental nature/constant of having But Thou Must! etched into the very fabric of the world is a deliberate manipulation to prevent Chara from abusing Determination to warp reality to their whims. The ending of Chapter 1 showed that by reuniting the player with Kris, Chara was able to start resurfacing and manifesting some fragments of the power of DETERMINATION that was meant to be sealed away. Despite getting a lot of their desires granted, the fundamental wrongness and the helplessness of being robbed of all choice was slowly eating away at Kris and the sudden appearance of the Player started forcing cracks in the masquerade apart.

Related to the above WMG, Chara will be finally be fought, but by Susie and not by the player

Chara seems to be taking a more direct role in the plot this time around. Unfortunately, it is through Chara "possessing" the main character that the player can influence the plot at all, and what's worse, the final scene implies that Chara can assume full control whenever they want to. So then it will be up to Susie to fight them, similar to the vs. Lancer battle, and likely coming to blows with Kris (again) in the process.

Chara is slowly manipulating the world to their liking

Somewhat playing off previous guesses on this page, consider the following: in the previous game's prophecy, the "angel that has seen the surface" is either Chara or Asriel depending on what route is being taken. Pairing that with evidence that Chara is somehow involved in however this particular universe came about, what if "the Angel" is actually Chara, and the "heaven" that we don't want to have happen is the ultimate shaping of the world into what they consider ideal? Other than word choice, here's some other possible evidence:

• It's subtly suggested^note Chara uses Toriel's "greetings" as a counterpart to Asriel using Asgore's "howdy", Toriel keeps a memento of Chara in her fridge, Toriel stole Chara's body to bury it at her own home instead of leaving it at the castle that Chara was closer to Toriel than to Asgore, and she is about as ideal a mother as could be in this universe, almost to an absurd degree when she brushes off Kris disappearing for hours without warning with barely any punishment.
• On the flipside, Asgore's life is in shambles, with Toriel still hating his guts for no apparent reason this time, and if he were to fall any further (which he's likely to given that he's behind on his rent), he'd probably get a restraining order from visiting Kris altogether, not to mention Kris seems to be getting more and more resistant to his hugs. Considering Chara laughed off their father getting violently ill and killed him with even less hesitation than anybody else in the Genocide route, it wouldn't be so shocking if it turned out they never really liked him as much.
• Gerson mentions that Chara was embarrassed by their parents' lovey-dovey behavior back when they were alive. Here, they are still divorced despite Asgore clearly doing none of the things that made Toriel leave him in the first game, with Toriel still arbitrarily hating him and giving them no chance to even begin to reconnect, even for their children's sake.
• If we follow the idea that they're the narrator, then it's clear, especially in the Genocide route, that Chara has a low opinion of Papyrus. Notably, Papyrus is the only main character who is all but absent from this world, as if he's going to disappear.
• While the exact connotation of the line isn't clear, Chara might have respected Undyne to some degree as evidenced by "the true heroine approaches", and Undyne has been given the role of police chief in this universe.
• Again, notably, the only character whose sprite, role, and behavior hasn't changed at all is Sans, perhaps because Sans is the one and only character who can see through to the bigger picture and has been shown to match Chara and the player at their own games.
• Gerson, one of the few characters brave enough to talk back during the Genocide route, is now dead.
• The narration seems to mock the royal guards 01 and 02's relationship during the battle against them in the Genocide route. In this universe, they're still not a couple despite years having gone by.
• There are notably no other humans in Hometown with practically no reference to their existence at all, and Chara famously hated humans.

The world we see in DELTARUNE is an illusion, Madoka Rebellion style, created by Chara at the end of a Genocide route in an attempt to relive their own happy memories.

However, with their SOUL corrupted by LOVE, there's only so much they can do before things get a little haywire…

Alternatively, DELTARUNE is an actual world created by Chara after the UNDERTALE Genocide run to screw with the player.

Chara has the power to re-create the Undertale world post-Genocide if you sell them your SOUL, so it is definitely a possibility. The final UNDERTALE genocide run choice mirrors the "Your choices do not matter" theme in DELTARUNE in that no matter what you choose, you must still destroy the world, and Chara will ruin any chance to save it past that point even with a True Reset. If you take Chara's dialogue in UNDERTALE literally and assume they are being honest, then they are not human, but a being that only exists to be summoned to possess characters. While they do enjoy the power that comes from it, they are ultimately still stuck doing the player's bidding when they arrive. However, that changed when you sold them your SOUL. The ending of DELTARUNE where Chara literally rips control away from the player from out of the main character's chest and tosses your SOUL in the cage, all while staring at the camera, was them poignantly reminding the player who the boss is now.

Frisk was a Vessel

The reason they have no canon past, personality, distinguishing character traits, or anything other than what the player either compels them to do or interprets them as having isn't just for the narrative sake of making them a blank slate — they were created from the ground up using the method we see in the beginning of the game for the purpose of completing the adventure in Undertale. This would potentially connect the two games together, as even if nothing that we see in Deltarune interacts with the world of Undertale, we'd still learn this massive piece of information and potentially learn that both Deltarune and Undertale are two realities under the watchful eye of something, unrelated but both still within their hands. As I wrote this, I realized it would essentially just canonize Toby and his role as the games' creator, either obliterating the fourth wall completely or creating a very disturbing metaphor to deconstruct. Alternatively…

Chara was a Vessel

Same logic as before, except they were created to host the "demon" that gave them such unimaginable power at the end of the Genocide route, inserting themself into the game to harvest LOVE from the player's action. This would actually create a third option in the never-ending debate over Chara's morality; they are neither good, evil, nor anything in between — they simply are. All of their behavior from the very beginning falls on the demon using their flesh as a costume, with "Chara" essentially just being a persona they adopt. The only problem with this theory is why they had a human SOUL for Asriel to absorb... thoughts?

Deltarune is only the latest in the tales of one special SOUL...

Deltarune is a continuation of a story not of monsters and humans, Darkners and Lightners… but one special and unique SOUL, artificially crafted by Gaster…

We know that Alphys' own experiments with Determination involved injecting some near-dead monsters with Determination before they died. Of course, this resulted in the monsters' bodies melting down and becoming the Amalgamates. My question is what if Gaster managed to find a monster near-death and waited until their body went to dust, then very quickly blasted it with Determination before the monster SOUL vanished? Or even decided it was for the greater good for him to actually take a small EXP hit and killed another monster himself? Of course, he told no one what he planned to do or had done… but somehow this SOUL absorbed the Determination and managed to persist outside a body, mutated into a SOUL that was neither human or monster… and was able to control any vessel it was put into?

Gaster was still doing tests when his experiments went wrong and he scattered himself into space and time… but he was on contact with his special SOUL when he scattered and has command of it. He could no longer enter a world physically, but using his scientific knowhow and magical abilities inherent to all monsters, he could craft vessels for his special 'ambassador' SOUL and send it into worlds to do things he needed to have done.

The first of these 'vessels' we ever see? The Gaster Followers. Each and every one of them was this same SOUL, in different bodies, with differently shaped minds… this is why they're called "Goners" — because the SOUL inside them is a mutated monster SOUL of a monster who has perished. Their only purpose was to reach the Player, and make sure someone in another world knew he existed so that their knowledge of him gave him some kind of anchor while he worked on a new plan. However, just before Deltarune came out, a new purpose was given to one vessel and that was to tell the player about someone they'd soon meet.

In the new world. The next world Gaster has sent his 'ambassador' to. Shame this time he decided to run a test to see if sentient beings could act as suitable 'vessels' for his mutated SOUL…

Asriel and Chara (from Undertale) are playing make-believe, and Deltarune is a look into their game.

A mix of human world and monster world elements exists, which could be input from Chara and Asriel respectively. Ralsei is obviously Asriel but different, but there's already another Asriel, which is just plain inconsistent. There's a violent party member and a pacifist one (Chara and Asriel respectively) aside from the blank slate that's the player. The game overall feels inspired by Alice in Wonderland, which takes place in a dream, or in other words, a child's fantasy. Almost all oddities and contradictions can be accounted for by viewing the game as a representation of Chara and Asriel playing together. One oddity that does stand out is Asgore and Toriel having broken up, but it's possible their relationship wasn't perfect even before the events we know from Undertale.

The events of Deltarune will lead to Kris getting "split" into Frisk and Chara

Just an idea inspired by the whole "Gaster got split into Sans and Papyrus" theory.

Kris used to SAVE-scum freely, but has lost faith in the ability for their choices to make any difference after Asriel left/Toriel and Asgore separated.

Kris knew about the SAVE lights, and originally used them freely to have fun/try and avoid consequences for their pranking. However, they couldn't pull off a full Reset of the timeline or anything of that nature; they just had a single SAVE file. Sometimes, the greater consequences of their actions caught up to them after they'd already Saved… whoopsie-daisy! Still, those sort of hiccups didn't discourage them too much…

…Until things happened to their family that were completely out of Kris' control. Mainly Asriel growing old enough to leave for college, and Toriel and Asgore becoming estranged. No matter what Kris tried, they couldn't prevent either of these events from happening, even with Save-scumming in their back pocket.

This led to Kris feeling as though none of their choices made any difference at all, causing them to stop messing around with Saving and Reloading… because really, what was the point? They couldn't accomplish what they REALLY wanted, after all…

Deltarune is a story told by Asriel to what's left of Chara / Chara's grave down in the Underground.

Ralsei's legend sounds like a child's story made up on the spot, perhaps by the same kid that came up with the awesome God of Hyperdeath. The entire Dark World feels whimsical and carefree, consequences don't exist. Something for a lonely flower to distract himself (and perhaps a shred of determination still floating around). Ralsei is introduced as a lonely prince in a dark town, having waited his whole life for someone to arrive. Perhaps Kris and Susie somehow connected with this fantasy, or the surface world of Hometown is a fantasy too. Everyone does seem to think Asriel is amazing for some reason.

The Vessel that was discarded will get a Big Damn Heroes moment.

Gaster got shattered across space and time and that sumbitch is still kicking. Being a character designed to be a vessel for one of, if not the most, significant forces in the Undertale setting, there's a really good chance that the Vessel has become a Chekhov's Gun.

This is a timeline where Chara succeeded in wiping out humanity

The Deltarune timeline split off from the original Undertale timeline the same night Asriel would have died;

• Alphys never had the opportunity to experiment with the Amalgamates; the barrier must have fallen much sooner. There is only one other time that could have happened.
• Asriel has survived.
• So has Chara to some capacity; Kris has too many similarities with them to be a coincidence (their choice of dress, love of chocolate, adoption by the Dreemurrs, etc).
• Apart from Chara, Asgore and Flowey were the only ones with the means and the drive to destroy the barrier. Yet Asgore only commited himself after Asriel died; with Asriel apparently alive and well, Asgore would lack the motivation and Flowey wouldn't exist.
• As Chara was clinically dead when they passed the barrier, the power of the seven SOULs is the only thing that could have brought them back.
  • Incidentally, they may be the cause of Kris's... condition.
• Finally, note that not only are there no other humans in the game, there's no implication that there ARE any. Kris... what have you done?

• Fridge Horror to this WMG
  • If Chara wiped out all humanity, that means that they fused with Asriel and killed everyone, which means:
    • Asriel knows Chara's true nature like he does in Undertale, for the same reasons.
    • Asriel also knows that Chara's human SOUL is stolen. We know that Chara and the Red SOUL are separate entities, so Asriel would know there was a stowaway in their fused body.
    • Asriel didn't or couldn't overpower Chara's will to kill humanity, but since the SOUL creating the fusion has its own will, they might have been able to un-fuse. Chara's work is already done at that point, so they allow it to happen.
    • Asriel restores the red SOUL to its rightful body, which is able to wake up and identify themself as Kris. The damage is already done, but Chara is "gone", the monsters are freed, so who gives a darn if the humans are dead? Humans are jerks anyway. Toriel still divorces Asgore because he let the burden of freeing the monsters rest on the shoulders of their children when he should have done it himself, not to mention murdering ALL THE HUMANS probably had an effect on their son.
    • Chara takes it easy for a while, but will eventually want to resume stabbing. The only way to do that without interference is to wait until the only person who can identify them is gone and won't be missed.
    • ...Asriel never made it to college, did he?
• Further Fridge Horror: Chara was practically unstoppable after killing just a few hundred monsters. How much higher would their "level of violence" be if they murdered 7.8 billion people?
• Fridge Brilliance: This also explains why Ralsei exists in the Dark World, where everything is implied to be a Wonderland-type dream world. Kris knows Asriel is dead (and if Kris is this world's anagram-equivalent of Frisk? That's the only way Frisk meets Asriel).
• Sorry to kill this promising train of thought, but there is proof that there are still humans. Toriel has cookie cutters for gingerbread humans. Unless they are from before Chara destroyed humanity (in which case I doubt Toriel would find it appropriate to keep them), this theory is proven false.

Kris's and Asriel's sides in the bedroom are flipped.

It was actually Asriel who slept on the right. It was cleared out after he left for college, but Kris sleeps in his bed because they miss him.

• Note that in Undertale, Chara identifies the left bed in their shared bedroom as theirs, while Asriel's is on the right.

In the ending cutscene, Kris didn't become possessed. They ceased being possessed.

At the very end of the game, Kris ripping out their SOUL and expressing Obviously Evil demeanor wasn't the result of them being possessed by an evil force. Kris is evil and perhaps even a secret Omnicidal Maniac by themself. At the beginning of the game (or perhaps earlier), they were somehow possessed by the benevolent and kind red SOUL of Frisk, Chara, or the player, which restrained their sadistic tendencies. At the end of Chapter 1, they managed to defeat the red SOUL and to rip it out and imprison it. My first evidence is how the villagers consider Kris a loner at best and a Creepy Child at worst. They give multiple anecdotes where Kris pulled morbid pranks. The villagers also note how unusually nice and talkative Kris is today, which points at some kind of positive force influencing or even piloting them. (The possession might be benevolent, but it is not necessarily non-invasive. Notice how Kris has a SAVE state with their name before you first save, which is overwritten with your name when you first save. Notice also how the intro voice calls Kris a vessel for a SOUL.) My second evidence is that the situation in which Kris removes their SOUL both wouldn't make sense if it was the catalyst or result of them becoming possessed instead of fighting off the possession and if the removal of their SOUL wasn't planned and initiated by them. First, a Demonic Possession happens when a spirit enters a body, not when one leaves it. Second, the construction used to contain the SOUL, a bird cage on a wagon, seems to have been prepared beforehand. This means that Kris probably planned the removal of the SOUL beforehand and that it was their plan to remove it.

• Note how in Undertale, Chara was able to control Frisk to an extent in the Genocide Route, such as preventing the player from being able to spare monsters after reaching a certain point, and voluntarily killing Sans, Asgore, and Asriel/Flowey without player intervention, even though the player was controlling Frisk through their SOUL. The act of Kris ripping out their SOUL could easily have been Chara trying to remove player control from Kris as a vessel, and the birdcage could have simply been something that Kris owns that Chara took advantage of.
  • It's arguable whether Frisk's strange behavior in the Genocide run is caused by them being possessed by Chara. The only time Chara indubitably possesses Frisk is in the Post-Genocide Pacifist ending, in which they archieve this through ownership of Frisk's SOUL. In the Genocide ending, they also state that they were utilising Frisk's determination and SOUL. Therefore, I argue that Chara can only possess people through their SOUL, so ripping out their vessel's SOUL would be counterproductive. Also, why would Kris have this weird arrangement of a bird cage on a wagon in the first place, if not to contain the SOUL? Hell, why does Kris have a bird cage in the first place? They don't have a bird!
  • Chara only states that the determination and soul belonged to Frisk, not that they specifically needed the SOUL to possess Frisk. Since Frisk fell on top of Chara's grave, their body likely came in contact with Chara’s remains, which parts of could have somehow entered Frisk's body, coming into contact with Frisk's determination, similar to how Asriel's dust was absorbed into the Golden Flower that became Flowey. Chara is only able to rip the SOUL out when Kris is asleep. Assuming that Chara is indeed controlling them in Undertale's Genocide Route, their control over Frisk seems limited, and Papyrus notes that they move in shambles, suggesting a struggle. That’s because while the player is in control, Chara can only temporarily control Frisk. If Chara was able to muster enough strength while Kris was sleeping, they could've ripped out the SOUL because they already have the determination in Kris's body to control them; they just need to get rid of player interference. As for the birdcage, Kris could've owned a bird at some point and never threw it out. A bit lame, but still a possibility. Either that, or Kris wasn’t the one who acquired the birdcage. There's also the fact that Kris does seemingly benevolent things even without player control, such as putting themself at risk to defend Susie from the King when Ralsei heals him.
• That, or Kris's demeanour in the final cutscene is just that of an edgy teenager, who has been looking directly at the person possessing them and taking away the story that they were meant to be the protagonist of.

Kris was controlled since childhood, and their bad behavior is a way to fight against it.

Something about Kris's SOUL makes it easy to be possessed, and Chara as the demon of "The feeling you have when you see the numbers go up" latched onto it early into their childhood. Losing control over your actions would have been scary for a small child, and they either were too afraid to tell anyone, or were dismissed. So Kris came to a conclusion that if they have a reputation of a Creepy Child, whoever possesses them wouldn't want to take over, and/or it's an attempt to make others know they might not be safe to be around when possessed.

• Kris's body might as well be the very same vessel we created at the start of the game. Chara/LV-up demon needed "a human" they could take control of, but could get one only if another human made it - in other words, they tricked us, the player, into creating it, and all the customization options were there only to give us incentive to finish the task, or it's a form of a demon contract Chara can't act without.
• Chara acts as the link between Kris and the player, and is a big enabler for the latter - without Chara, the player wouldn't have options like "Proceed" (Chapter 2 Weird Route) in the first place.

We (the player) aren't just directly controlling Kris, we're controlling/playing as another character who controls Kris

Whoever this is, they're friendlier and not as creepy as Kris, and they're bad at playing the piano. Also they're not the narrator, since the narration always says "you/your" instead of "I/my" whenever Kris does things under our control. And Gaster (or whoever's narrating at the beginning) saying "your name is..." before getting cut off could imply that he was talking to this character rather than us/the player the whole time, and he knows their real name.

• Chapter 2 shows that whoever this character is has their own voice (which apparently sounds different from Kris), and in the "weird route" this character makes themselves sound "terrifying" when speaking to Noelle and chooses to whisper Noelle's name (instead of a more vague "you called her name") at the end of Spamton NEO's fight without the player specifically instructing to do so (as the player only chooses what Kris should say/do, not how).

Frisk and Chara will make a physical appearance in a future chapter, alive and well

This would be a HUGE plot twist to everyone who believes Kris is Frisk or Chara, or they're possessed by one or both of them. Of course, it would still be possible for Kris to be possessed by the Undertale version of Chara (post-Genocide) who did say they should move on to another world (which may be the Deltarune world), but Undertale's Chara and Deltarune's Chara would be two separate characters.

Bonus points if Frisk and Chara are Asriel's friends who attend the same university as him.

Your SOUL will create a Rotating Protagonist by possessing different characters in each chapter.

The second part will open with the SOUL picking somebody else and taking them over for a while. Possibly Noelle, given how it's been established that she has trouble asserting herself, to the point that Alphys called her out on mumbling. Thus, she gets swept up in a grand adventure that, on the surface, appears to be about teaching her self-confidence...

...So long as you don't think too much about the fact that you're the one in control, dictating all of her actions.

Once that chapter's closed, your SOUL will move on to somebody else, taking different characters on adventures meant to address their various issues and personality flaws while shaping them into great heroes... while also raising questions about whether or not this is doing less harm than good.

• This would make sense, since Undertale establishes that a monster who absorbs a human SOUL becomes both powerful and horrifying.
• Unfortunately, this WMG is proven false by Chapter 2, where you still primarily control Kris.

The Vessel you designed will eventually appear as a Mysterious Transfer Student.

This allows them to enter into the mid-to-late game in a way that isn't restricted to the Dark World, potentially offering the player a choice of who they want to control as they set their sights on the end game. Or we may not have any choice at all, but this enables us to get to know Kris and the others even better, without stealing away any of their identity or control.

We play as Kris in Undertale and as either Frisk or Chara in Deltarune

Similar to the theory that Frisk and Chara's roles are swapped in Deltarune, except in this case Kris and Chara are separate characters, and one of the humans actually take the role of the player in each game. This can serve as both a plot twist and an in-universe explanation for the "player entity" within the fourth wall, much like how other meta stuff like LV, EXP, SAVEing and LOADing, etc. all have unique in-universe explanations that aren't just "it's because the whole universe is literally a video game".

If we play as Frisk in Deltarune, that would mean they've directly switched roles with Kris, with Chara remaining as the narrator in both games. However, the fact that we can name "ourselves" during the survey sequence and that "we" apparently have a true name (as the second narrator says "your name is..." before getting cut off) may imply that we're playing as Chara, with Frisk being the narrator, and the actual constant for both games is that the SAVE file is always named after Chara (of course, this would mean Chara isn't the one who threw the SOUL into the cage). And the reason why we can't name "ourselves" in Undertale is because the player character is someone with a set name that can't be changed, in this case Kris. Or we could be switching between playing as Chara in the Light World and Frisk in the Dark World, based on Kris' color scheme matching Chara's or Frisk's depending on what world they're in.

It's also possible that we can kill NPCs in Undertale and not in Deltarune, not just because monsters can't run away while Darkners can (as some NPCs never run away even when their HP reaches 0), but because Kris is capable of having killing intent against monsters while Frisk/Chara (whichever one we're playing as) never wants to kill any Darkners. Frisk's true nature is implied to be that of a kind pacifist, based on their name reveal in Undertale's Pacifist Ending. Chara, while they did hate humanity, was benevolent to the point where they were beloved by the entire Underground. Meanwhile, Kris apparently never showed any signs of empathy towards others before the player character took control of them, suggesting they may be more morally ambiguous compared to both Frisk and Chara. Either way, it's the killing intent (or lack thereof) of the one in control that matters, regardless of whether the one being controlled has any killing intent or not.

Of course, that doesn't mean Kris is outright evil, as not only can the player character (again, in this case Kris) choose to follow the Pacifist Route and show mercy to all the monsters in Undertale, Kris protects Susie from the King, describes her as a friend to Toriel, and becomes annoyed when Monster Kid badmouths their new friend without any player input in Deltarune. That is, if those actions in the latter game is actually done by Kris themself and not a Frisk influenced by Chara's actions or vice versa, like how Chara sometimes takes control of Frisk during Undertale's Genocide Route where they're influenced by the player character's cruelty.

Kris being Undertale's true player character could also explain why Flowey somehow mistakes "us" for Chara at the end of Pacifist (when he tells "us" to let Frisk be happy): he's looking at Kris' spirit/ghost, like how we look at Chara's at the end of Genocide, and mistaking Kris for Chara since they look so similar. Same goes for why Chara might be mistaking "us" for Frisk in the Genocide Ending, as Kris looks even more similar to Frisk.

As for how these humans in each game somehow gained their status as "the player" in the first place...? It could be similar to the way Chara became the narrator in Undertale, or maybe it's something else entirely. Perhaps Gaster knows the truth.

Bonus: If we're really playing as Chara in Deltarune, this may or may not potentially be a Take That! against fans who interpreted them as an Ax-Crazy murderer who took control of Frisk throughout the entirety of Undertale's Genocide Route, as Kris actually acts nicer when the player character is controlling them.

Another bonus: In debug mode for Undertale, Frisk's reflection in Waterfall changes to someone who looks an awful lot like Kris. What if this was originally intended to be a hint towards Kris possessing/controlling Frisk that got scrapped?

The body parts for the Vessel are meant to resemble the eight fallen humans from Undertale

There are eight different heads, with two of them looking like more detailed versions of Frisk's and Chara's heads. There are only six different bodies, but that could just be because some of the humans wore the same type of clothes.

There's some kind of connection between the Vessel and the angel doll and/or the Angel of the prophecy

The angel doll is said to have a disturbing lack of facial features. Guess who else completely lacks a face?

We're playing as a literal angel/demon (maybe even some kind of hybrid of both)

With all the references to angels and demons in both Undertale and Deltarune, it wouldn't be too surprising if an actual angel/demon was involved in the story all along, perhaps as our very own Player Character; likely a guardian angel/possessive demon considering our role in both games.

• Toby's willingness to introduce new species in Deltarune (Darkners in Chapter 1 and Titans in Chapter 2, assuming Ralsei wasn't lying about the latter's existence) slightly increases the chance of him introducing literal angels and demons as well.

The connection between Kris, Frisk, and Chara

(Based on some of the theories above.)

First of all, Kris was the original first fallen human in Undertale. The fallen human in the sepia-colored cutscenes is actually Kris rather than Chara, which is why their eyes are obscured by their hair, and the cutscenes are from Kris' memories.

At some point, Kris participated in one of Gaster's experiments; this is why Gaster can recognize Kris' name during Deltarune's survey sequence. The experiment went wrong and led to Gaster getting shattered across time and space... and Kris getting split into Frisk and Chara, who were dropped off into different points of the timeline. What's left of the original Kris somehow gained near-omnipotence and became some sort of "player" like entity that guides/controls Frisk.

Getting "erased" from existence and being forgotten by everyone caused Kris to become very bitter towards the monsters and jealous of both Frisk and Chara. In the Pacifist route, Kris realizes they still care about the monsters (or at least/especially the Dreemurrs) and tries to help them the best way they can, though they can still choose "mean" options out of any little remaining bitterness. In the Genocide route, Kris succumbs to their hatred and jealousy and mercilessly kills everyone, as well as leaving Frisk with the least amount of agency. The various Neutral routes are the results of Kris' internal conflicts, and possibly some curiosity involved in testing out their new powers. The Post-Genocide Pacifist route is Kris regretting their actions and trying to fix everything, only to find out they're too late.

The red text during the Genocide route is actually Kris speaking, who still has memories of themself falling underground and living with the Dreemurrs even after they were "replaced" by Chara. Even though Kris themself no longer "exists", any objects tied to them (like the drawing and the sweater, both described in red text) kept existing, and while the Dreemurr family forgot who they were created by and assumed they were Chara's, Kris still remembers they were theirs. Meanwhile, Chara always speaks in white text in all routes' narrations and at the end of the Genocide route where they make an appearance, even during situations where you'd think red text would be more creepily appropriate (i.e. "SINCE WHEN WERE YOU THE ONE IN CONTROL?") — because the red text was never Chara's.

Deltarune is a world where Kris never got split into different people and gained any "player" abilities (along with a lot of other differences). Instead, someone else —the red SOUL, who somehow became a separate entity from Kris, and presumably has the personality of Frisk and/or Chara — now takes the role of the "player".

Kris is actually the villain.

Or rather, becomes the villain. Kris figures out they're a video game character from Ralsei and are forced to become the "Hero" of the story. Feeling angry that they weren't given a choice in their story, Kris rips out their own soul in defiance and will spend the rest of the game making their own choices, which will cause a lot of problems for Susie and her party, whether intentionally or not.

The full game will reveal the true trait of the red SOUL

It was most often speculated that the red SOUL's trait is determination, while some fewer people thought it may be something else like love or hope, but we never did really get any confirmation on what exactly it is. Maybe Deltarune will finally give us the answer?

Bonus points if the full game also reveals the trait of the white SOULs of monsters, and possibly even whatever type of SOULs Darkners have (if any).

Frisk likes marshmallows

Kris is shown to like both chocolate and marshmallows. Kris shares traits with both Frisk and Chara. Chara's the one who loves chocolate, so maybe marshmallows are Frisk's favorite?

Kris is the light blue SOUL human

Their theme color in the Dark World is light blue because patience is their true main trait, not... whatever the red SOUL's trait is supposed to be (likewise, Susie and Ralsei's main traits are perseverance (purple) and kindness (green) respectively). The knife that they take out at the end of the game is a toy knife (unless they got possessed by Chara, which could mean there's a possibility that it's a real knife). Kris' light blue SOUL was somehow removed from them, separately from Kris' consciousness which remained in their body, and got replaced by the red SOUL.

The light blue SOUL human having a weapon similar to Chara's (a type of knife) and healing with the same items as Frisk's armor (bandages) during Photoshop Flowey's battle could've been hints foreshadowing that the light blue SOUL human themself (in this case Kris) shares similarities with Frisk and Chara. At the same time, since light blue is an inverted color of red, this could indicate that Kris may also be the opposite of both Frisk and Chara in some ways.

The full game may or may not show us the rest of the fallen humans in later chapters. Also, if the body parts for the Vessel are really supposed to resemble the other fallen humans, one of the heads could be resembling the "poncho human" instead.

• Certain aspects of this theory have new merit given that we now know Noelle's theme color to be yellow as of Chapter 2...and given that she is the only character capable of deciding if enemies live or die so far, 'justice' is a chillingly appropriate trait to associate with her.

The in-universe 'player' is a doglike/catlike creature

Since both Toby Fox and Temmie Chang appear in the game as a dog and some kind of dog/cat hybrid respectively, it's possible for the in-game avatar of another real-life person (well, technically people) to be a similar type of animal. There may or may not be an explanation on exactly what this player creature is supposed to be and how they have a connection with the red SOUL.

• A part of Alphys' description of Mew Mew Kissy Cutie in Undertale may be a parallel to the player controlling Frisk and Kris, potentially hinting the in-universe player really is some kind of cat:
  Alphys: Also, this sounds weird, but [Mew Mew] has the power! To control the minds of anyone she kisses! She kisses people and controls them to fix her problems!!

The SOUL contains the essence/consciousnesses of the true three heroes and the Angel

That's what Deltarune's icon (the Delta Rune inside a heart) is supposed to represent: the winged circle as the Angel and the three triangles as the heroes, all within one SOUL. Perhaps the SOUL is a combination of the three heroes' SOULs while the Angel is a SOULless essence that's stuck to it (similar to how Chara got stuck to Frisk's SOUL in Undertale), but that doesn't necessarily have to be the case.

Undertale is not involved with the soul excision

The whole Chara/Frisk dynamic has nothing to do with it at all. Undertale is ultimately a separate story that won't be directly crossing over. No, far from it, Kris is just a mildly disturbed teenager coping with their issues through imagination, but then Susie, Ralsei, and Kris themself beat the villain, but Susie wants to go back tomorrow. Kris is worried about losing their new friend after so much isolation, but without a villain to oppose, there won't be anything to do when they go back and they're scared she'll get bored. So Kris solved the problem. They ripped out their soul, in their imagination, and started setting themself up to become the villain for their next adventure.

Frisk and Chara are both Kris, split into two halves.

Elaborating on the WMG that Kris was "split" into Frisk and Chara, Kris shows traits that could be associated with both, such as Kris leaping in to protect Susie and getting offended when Monster Kid insults her (which could correspond to Frisk, as well as Chara if you believe they genuinely loved the Dreemurrs in Undertale), as well as liking chocolate, and being a Creepy Child (which corresponds to Chara). Frisk and Chara both hold components from Kris' personality, and the events of Deltarune will end up with Kris being sent to another universe (perhaps via the machine in Sans' workshop) and having their SOUL split in two. They would both be transferred into the world of Undertale at different times; Chara at the beginning, when Asriel (in that world) was still alive, and Frisk would arrive long after Chara and six other humans had fallen.

Taking it a step further could be that Frisk and Chara are actually Kris's split personalities; "Frisk" is content with the player's control and being pacifistic, while "Chara" absolutely hates it and has more creepy and violent tendencies, though the one thing they have in common with "Frisk" is that they do genuinely love their family.

Kris tore out their own SOUL because they don't want to leave the Darkners' world anymore.

Building up from the "Dark World is a world of toys Kris and Asriel used to play with" theory, Kris visited the Dark World after a long time had passed, and was devastated to see how it fell into ruins. And along the journey, they discovered the mysterious being called 'the Knight', who they (and probably the Player as well) believe is going to be the real Big Bad of the world. So, in order to not leave their old world ruined again, they decided to tear their own SOUL out so they can never get out of the world until they save it in some way. Maybe there always had been a way for them to escape the world without their SOUL in their body before, as long as the story had a pefect Golden Ending, hence there were traces of the bird cage having been used before. (Perhaps the Dark World had been where Kris used to play games in order to temporarily escape from the real world, spicing up the extremeness and danger by leaving their SOUL, their only other escape without the Golden Ending? Like players of ''Deltarune''?)

Kris' actual SOUL had been trapped in the Dark World for a long time. You are playing as your own SOUL while possessing Kris' body along with Chara.

At one point, Chara had taken control of Kris, and had retaliated against their consciousness by imprisoning their SOUL in the bird cage multiple times before. Then, they found an even better option: lock Kris' SOUL away where their family can't see it. Such as Kris' school's old closet, where all their old toys are. Trapped there, Chara lived on without a SOUL in Kris' body, while Kris' SOUL started to use their determination to create an entire world based on their old toys. But even though they had saved that world — the Dark World, they could not make their OWN save file, since they did not have a body. And then, The Player came along, with a fresh SOUL they can control, which they can use to manipulate and possess Kris' body. Feeling threatened that a seemingly ownerless SOUL got put inside Kris and suddenly decided to 'visit' a world created by what Kris' original SOUL was, Chara decides at the end of the game to go into the Dark World SOUL-less, and finally end off Kris' real SOUL for good.

The red SOUL, rather than Kris, is the human hero in the prophecy.

If the SOUL is the essential, defining part of a person, than a human SOUL can be considered a human regardless of whether or not it resides in a human body. Who- or whatever it's controlling will be considered the human in the prophecy.

Toriel knows Chara has been possessing Kris' body.

It's possible at least some of Kris' mischievous antics may actually be Chara's doing and Toriel may have figured it out. Tying to the Replacement Goldfish theory, Toriel, in a moment of weakness, may have found Chara's possession of Kris' body as an opportunity to see and talk with her deceased child again and allowed it to go on if Chara doesn't allow Kris' body to be physically harmed and only takes possession for short periods of time (Toriel's coddling nature toward Kris may even be her way of attempting to balance out what Kris has been going through). Eventually, Kris themself will figure out how the possession works and will cook up a elaborate plan (one discreet enough that even the player may not catch on to it at the first playthrough) that subtly convinces Susie to sabotage the birdcage so Kris' soul can escape and reclaim control of their body from Chara, with Toriel close by to see Kris retake their own body. With Chara losing their means to trap Kris' soul, Chara will be forced to leave Kris' body for good to find another way to interact with the world of the living. Meanwhile, Kris will be heartbroken and angry at their adoptive mother for willingly allowing the whole body possession deal to go on and calls her out on not telling them about any of it. Kris and Toriel's relationship becomes strained and Toriel ends up looking for ways to earn Kris' forgiveness before they eventually reconcile.

Soulless Kris will seal Ralsei's fountain.

They will enter the Dark World without Susie and seal the fountain belonging to Ralsei's castle. The door leading to the fountain doesn't appear to be locked, but Ralsei prevents us from entering it and the very fact it exists means we will likely enter it in a later chapter. The legend says that the balance between light and darkness will be shifted, but it does not say in which direction. Since the Delta Warriors sealed the Spade King's fountain, it's unlikely that it will be in direction of darkness, so the only way the prophecy can be fulfilled is if it is shifted in direction of light. If this happens, the Knight might have an Enemy Mine scenario with Susie and Ralsei.

The human in the prophecy cutscene is Chara.

While Kris resembles the human during the Undertale intro cutscene, the human in the Deltarune cutscene resembles both Frisk and Chara. Since Chara's time period is associated with sepia while Frisk's isn't, we can rule Frisk out. Therefore, the human is Chara. We may speculate about the significance of this. Since the human is shown to wear a primitive fur dress and a spear, it can be assumed that Chara lived in a tribal society in the Deltarune timeline as opposed to in a village like in Undertale. Maybe monsters destroyed human society in the Deltarune timeline, with the survivors being forced to flee and become nomadic tribes, which would explain why Kris is the only human in Hometown, Noelle thought of humans as fictional bogeymen as a child, and one monster seems to have never met a human before, thinking they are made of blood. The human in the Undertale cutscene became a general in the war against monsterkind and thus one of the causes of monsters being trapped underground, so it's possible that Chara has some responsibility for the conflict of Deltarune arising.

Kris covers their eyes because they're afraid of looking at them.

Five more vessels will be created.

It's an open secret that the vessel's name is actually saved and not discarded. What's more obscure is the fact that it is not saved as a single string but as an array of six strings with all except the first being empty. This means that five more vessels will be created and named, possibly one at the beginning of every chapter. Obviously the six vessels mirror both the humans souls Asgore took in Undertale and the colored flowers he stores in Deltarune, with either Kris or the player mirroring the seventh golden flower.

Kris isn't Evil at all

Them removing the red SOUL isn't them turning evil or soulless, but rather going against the script. By breaking the player's control of them, they're counterintuitively gaining freedom. They see the script that we're unaware of, and are removing our control because we are actively removing the choices of others

Kris is a Wizard

Honestly more of just a fun idea. Kris apparently doesn't have their own soul because the player's soul is controlling them. They also bear a resemblance to the Poncho human from the opening slideshow in Undertale who was present when the monsters were sealed underground with the Barrier. The Poncho Human is implied to also have played a role in the creation. Therefore, early in their life, Kris lost their original soul somehow and lost their ability to do magic. Then the soul was replaced by the PLAYER's soul.

Kris' description is also worded strangely. "V1 Human, body contains a human SOUL". Wizards are also human, but there might be a difference in their soul to allow them to do magic, thus the phrasing alludes to the fact that Kis currently can't use magic because their soul isn't the right kind of soul.

Adding to that, Kris has enough familiarity with Magic to actually upgrade Ralsei and Susie's spells through their own soul power. ACTs aren't magical, but Kris would probably still need to know how magic works and how souls interact with magic to be able to do that. That could be explained if Kris is able to do magic.

Toby Fox also had the idea of Frisk using magic in Undertale and while it was Dummied Out, it doesn't mean Toby cannot reuse that. It could even make Kris a gimmick character that you usually see in RPGs. Being able to switch souls to either ACT or use Magic.

Chara will appear in the full game, but...

Instead of being super important and central to the plot like everyone else has been theorizing, they'll just be Asriel's college buddy who makes a brief cameo.

Kris is mimicking Susie's scary grin (right down to the glowing right eye) in Chapter 1's ending

Maybe they wanted to intimidate "the player" (or who/whatever they're looking at) and decided mimicking Susie would be the best way to do that. And/or they just think Susie is cool and want to be more like her.

In both Undertale and Deltarune, Chara is the one who provides ACT options

You can't spell character without ACT, after all.

Deltarune will reveal Frisk's and Chara's true personalities

As in their "default" personalities that aren't under the influence of the player's actions/haven't gone through any Character Development in any of Undertale's routes, be it Neutral, True Pacifist or Genocide.

The Vessel's weapon will be a spear

Like the one the human at the beginning of Undertale's intro was holding.

Kris is having prophetic dreams.

The birdcage is not only empty even though there is supposedly "no escape" from it, but it's also in the same position it was before the impact of the soul moved it in the chapter 1 ending. What if the cutscene was a dream that foretells the future in which Kris really will be possessed and made to remove their soul? A future in which there really will be no escape? "A nightmare will awaken in your hearts" indeed. Susie mentions that she also slept bad. Maybe she had a similar dream?

Kris did something terrible between chapter 1 and 2.

The pie was just a red herring. Kris seems to be very tired on the day of chapter 2, indicating that they stayed up doing something in the night of chapter 1.

Kris themself put the SOUL back in their body

Either they're fine with the SOUL being in their body for whatever reason, or they need the SOUL in order to survive (as in they can't keep it out of their body for too long).

Alternatively, someone else put the SOUL back in Kris' body

Probably by Gaster or some other important character.

Alternatively...

Chara or whoever is possessing Kris is one.

Kris will learn magic.

Kris searched how to use magic on the internet. It's possible to increase Kris' magic stat with some gear. and the monster party members who used to only be able to cast spells are able to act in chapter 2, so it makes sense Kris would in turn learn magic.

• It’s implied (or outright stated) that healing magic is straight up not a thing in the light world. If new types of magic are possible in the dark world, who’s to say that it isn’t possible for beings who can’t normally use magic to do so in there?
  • Actually, all that's stated is that Noelle isn't normally able to use healing magic... which is still a point in your favor. If she can use spells she doens't normally have, why can't Kris gain spells, period?

In Undertale, Frisk and Chara are a Titan or avatars of one...

...explaining why they are connected and why Chara is powerful enough to destroy the world.

Spamton is related to or serves Chara.

He wants to make a deal with Kris for his soul, like Chara wants with Frisk after the genocide ending. The way he gives you choices but refuses to accept a negative answer mirrors how Chara destroys the world whether you agree to or not in Undertale and how they just ask for a soul deal again eternally if you don't accept it. In the Spamton NEO fight, he wants to steal Kris' soul, which resembles how Chara wants Frisk's soul after the genocide ending. He mentions a being called "Heaven", and Chara is associated with holy symbolism as the monsters believed Chara was the angel in Undertale. He is in telephonic contact and possibly literally being puppeteered by someone, which contrasts Jevil's connection with Gaster who contacted him only once. There is unused "demon" dialogue in Undertale in which someone swears to serve someone which is associated with Chara by virtue of Chara referring themself as a demon is the only other mention of the word "demon" in Undertale. Spamton also dislikes Jevil which makes sense if Chara killed the vessel and therefore is opposed to Gaster's plans and Jevil is associated with Gaster. He also directly quotes Chara in the alternate path when telling us how many darkners are left and helps Noelle killing people by giving her equipment that allows her to use her One-Hit Kill attack. We also hear something that's seemingly a continuation of Deltarune's unused text when in his store, possibly from his phone, which may have something to do with Chara.

Kris cut off the internet.

Kris is trying to stop the festival.

Kris tears out their soul because you can't create a fountain with a human soul.

You need to have a human soul to destroy a fountain, so it makes sense that you must not have one to create one.

Noelle will become possessed by Chara in the snowgrave route.

Frisk was possessed by Chara by gaining EXP and Noelle is the only team member who can kill enemies and therefore gain EXP.

Noelle will absorb the soul.

The plan was to become the vessel's soul, but someone killed the vessel and forced us to become Kris', so Kris is probably a suboptimal vessel. Noelle is more suitable, being more powerful. Spamton NEO proves that absorbing Kris' soul is in fact possible. Her main motivation in the snowgrave route is becoming more powerful, and absorbing human souls makes monsters much more powerful. The lack of facial features of the angel doll Noelle and Dess made is described as "unsettling", the drawing of a monster with a human soul in Undertale is also described as having something "unsettling" about it, but it's not described what. Since Noelle is the Angel, this connects her to that drawing. Also, when dressing as a nurse during the Virovirokun fight, her hat has a Heart Symbol resembling a human soul.

Kris studying the occult with Catti is Chekhov's Hobby.

They literally summoned Chara or the connection Gaster talks about.

Kris is opening the dark fountains to spend more time with their friends.

Kris seems to genuinely like spending time with Susie and Ralsei, so maybe them opening the dark fountains is their way of ensuring they get to hang out. Ripping out the SOUL is to ensure it doesn’t stop them due to the risks the fountain poses to the light world.

If Kris becomes free of the SOUL completely, they'll die as a result

Perhaps that's the reason why they seemed notably scared after the Spamton NEO boss fight. Spamton desired freedom from his strings in the belief that they were controlling him and holding his new body back, but they were actually the only thing holding him up, and so he died. Kris, realizing that they’re in a similar situation with their unwanted tenant, obviously wouldn't want to think about the implications of what they are doing.

Kris is being controlled by two beings, the Player and the Knight - who is a foil to Chara.

In Undertale, Frisk had two "beings" attached to them - the player who controlled them, and Chara who only showed themself after the Player choses to corrupt Frisk into a genocide run. Kris has the Player controlling them, but unlike Undertale where none of the monsters knew Frisk beforehand, Kris is forced to act notably different from their usual self. The few actions they do take on their own, however, suggest they aren't a bad person; they actively protect Susie and are visibly distressed when the Player choses to corrupt Noelle.

On the other hand, when "Kris" rips the heart out at the end of chapter 2, they move erractily like they're being forced into something against their will, they slash Toriel's tires, and they open another Dark Portal after being told that doing so would end up dooming their friends in both worlds. Toriel also implies that this isn't the first time this has happened and that Kris sometimes dissappears for a bit with no explination, hinting that whatever this entity is has been possessing Kris long before the Player showed up. The cage might even have been used to trap Kris' original soul while the "Knight" opened fountains and corrupted the King and Queen.

Like Chara though, the "Knight's" actions may be affected by whether the Player chooses the good route or the bad one, with the Knight helping us become The Corruptor if the Player choses the bad routes or willingly stopping if we choose the good routes and defeat them in the end.

• This is the same guess I had, that the Knight is another influence that is able to override the player's control in certain circumstances. Consider Kris' behavior after the standard battle with Spamton NEO. Kris' normal self shines through when asked if they're alright, sounding uncovincing if forced to say they're fine, and screaming it if allowed to admit they aren't. It's bad enough that Spamton's unsettling situation is a twisted reflection of Kris' situation, but before Susie and Ralsei intervened Spamton had Kris cornered and was threatening to steal Kris' soul. While this would be a terrifying situation to be in, and potentially fatal in outcome if Spamton was able to go through with it, the sheer terror in Kris' reaction indicates that the situation shook theem to their very core. Maybe it could merely be the contrast of Kris wanting to be free, but knowing it would end much like Spamton's strings being cut, but what if Kris knows the player's influence is the only thing keeping them from being a puppet for something even worse?

Each new chapter will introduce a new SOUL mode

More specifically, based on the reversed order of the 6 fallen humans in Undertale (starting with yellow mode in Chapter 2): green mode in Chapter 3, purple mode in Chapter 4, and blue mode in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 and 7 might introduce new orange and light blue modes respectively, though it's also possible they'll just have orange and light blue attacks instead of actual SOUL modes.

The SOUL will assume control of the Final Boss in the finale of Weird Route.

After which Kris, seeking revenge for everything the SOUL has done to get to this point, will be the SOUL's final opponent.

Kris gave their original SOUL to Asriel shortly before Chapter 1.

It's highly probable that Kris at one point had a soul of their own - without ours they have a really hard time maneuvering, which nobody mentions as being Kris' normal behavior (they just seem to be a weirdo loner) - meaning that, for some reason, they no longer have their original SOUL. Hometown plays off of common tropes in post-pacifist Undertale fanfics, and a frequent excuse for goat!Asriel to exist after a pacifist run is that Frisk gave him all or part of their soul. Add to this the various reasons Asriel is already incredibly suspicious - he's the only person outside Hometown anyone ever mentions, people talk about him weirdly positively as if there's some open secret nobody wants to bring up, he has a room in the Queen's Mansion that Kris refuses to let you see, what would be his side of Kris's room in Ralsei's castle is completely unfurnished (including lacking flooring) - and there's a significant possibility that Asriel might be the reason Kris is without their own SOUL. (Perhaps he was terminally ill and Kris gave him their SOUL as a countermeasure?)

"Your choices don't matter" applies to Kris, not the player.

Think about it. One of the most popular theories right now is that the soul represents the player, while the soulless Kris is acting under its own power.

The significance of our choices as the player seems to be of importance in the weird route... And the results of that route seem to visibly terrify Kris, if others descriptions are anything to go by.

Could it be that the point of that phrase is that Kris is powerless to stop what we're going to do? The implications of that make a genocide route particularly significant.

The vessel becomes Goner Kid.

Goner Kid mentions "a world where everything is exactly the same, except you don't exist". If you start chapter 2 from an empty chapter 1 save file, you have to type your own name but not the vessel's, so the vessel's name in the save file is completely empty. This could mean you created a timeline where the vessel doesn't exist but everything else is the same. (Though you can't collect Jevil's items in such a file, so not everything is the same.) Another line of Goner Kid is "You're a ??? too, right?". You're a vessel, too.

Kris looks different in the dark world without a soul.

Explaining why nobody can recognize them as the Knight.

Kris will break free and assert themself to the player somewhere down the line.

...If we're lucky (and kind), maybe they'll forgive us, too.

Kris sold their soul.

Kris made a deal with someone, similar to Frisk's deal with Chara. Their soul actually is their original soul, they just lost ownership.

Kris is bad at creating fountains.

Explaining why their fountains aren't made of "pure darkness" like Ralsei's is. Whoever created Ralsei's fountain and possibly Noelle are better.

The Soul will stay part of Kris for life.

The fact that Kris doesn't get rid of the soul despite having multiple opportunities to do so implies that they can't life without it. Spamton NEO breaking after having his strings cut is also analogous to Kris' situation. Kris just can't exist without us. Kris continuing to exist without the soul would require a Deus ex Machina of the kind that Toby is unlikely to make, either by them just gaining the ability to exist soullessly (see Flowey why this would be a bad idea) or by them creating/recovering an own soul (see Flowey why Toby won't do this). Ultimately, Kris has no choice but to accept the fact that they are a Mind Hive, that's just their nature.

Kris has been in contact with Gaster, and may have their own Shadow Crystal.

When you use the phone in the Dark World, you just get garbage noise - the Gaster sound effect. Likewise, Spamton was also able to contact Gaster over the phone, with the mysterious entity helping him sell his products before being driven insane. Kris could have likely also met Gaster at some point, and he was the one to teach Kris how to create Dark Fountains. Like with Jevil and Spamton, this could result in Kris's SOULless self obtaining a Shadow Crystal - possibly a piece of the shattered Gaster.

Kris has cross-shaped Facial Markings around their eyes when in the dark world.

If you look the frame where you can see one of Kris' eyes when Kris enters a dark world in chapter 2, you notice that it is a red dot with a black plus-shape around it. There are symbols of eyes within a cross shape in other places, namely in the area before Ralsei's castle and on one Titan. It makes sense for the Roaring Knight to have Roaring-related symbolism.

Kris will remove the SOUL (and thus, our control over them) even more during the game's chapters, including during proper gameplay.

The number of times it will happen possibly will be equivalent to the chapter's number (Kris removed their SOUL once in the first chapter, and twice in the second), and eventually, Kris will gain enough willpower to remove the SOUL (possibly during key moments) outside of the cutscenes. This means that The Reveal of soulless Kris' intentions to the rest of the Heroes will be inevitable.

Kris can hear the narrator

Is Kris annoyed at them too? Probably. Kris may even believe the narrator and the player(?)/red SOUL are the same entity, if they're unable to differentiate between them.

The F in Frisk symbolizes "Freedom"

So Kris is basically Frisk without the freedom to make their own choices. Not that they're necessarily literally the same character as Frisk, just that Kris and Frisk are supposed to contrast each other in that aspect.

Kris is making dark fountains in order to create their own soul

Assuming some WMGs above, it’s likely that Kris does not like the idea of having to rely on a soul that controls them to live (or why ever else they need it), and the dark fountains do seem to give objects personalities, so maybe they think it can be used to somehow make souls? This would explain why they’re creating these dark fountains. Who knows, maybe they’ll even succeed at making a soul?

Kris will make a soul, and your choices will determine the fate

Assuming the WMG above, it’s possible that Kris will end up making a soul, but this soul is made of negativity (or something to that effect). This would lead into a boss fight against them, and if you’ve been refusing to spare enemies, that would be the end of it. But if you recruiting enough allies, they might “purify” the soul, or create a new soul out of positivity.

Kris learned how to make dark fountains after trying to use magic

It’s implied that all lighteners have the capability of making dark fountains, and yet, the dark fountains and the dark would are completely unknown to seemingly everybody except the ones who have been confirmed to have been there (Kris, Su 83, Noelle, Berdly). Kris have to have figured it out somehow, and we know Kris looked up how to use magic, so maybe the two processes are similar enough that it’s possible to accidentally do one while attempting the other?

Kris receives a new soul every chapter.

Kris actually permanently stashes their old soul at the end of every chapter instead of reinserting it. There are 7 chapters, so they will end up with 7 souls, which is the amount needed to become a god.

• Doesn't that only work for Monsters, though?

Someone manipulated Chara into coming up with that plan in Undertale

Basically Asriel parallels Weird Route's Noelle, Chara parallels Kris, and the "someone" (possibly Gaster) parallels the player/red SOUL, though of course there are differences.

Kris isn't The Knight. The ending of Chapter 2 has them as a Red Herring.

• It is mentioned in Chapter 1 that King and The Knight fought, which is why the throne room is a mess. There's also the fact that King has pledged loyalty to this Knight, even going as far as to call it "my knight", as if it was his superior. If Kris was The Knight, King would've recognized them by either appearance or voice.
• If the fountain in the computer lab WAS opened on the night of Chapter 1, then Noelle and Berdley wouldn't have had the time to sit at the desk in there. Also, if the fountain was opened in the morning through after school, then it couldn't have been Kris, as the player was controlling them throughout that day.
• Toby Fox loves his twists and foreshadowing. To reveal the true identity of someone as hyped up as The Knight at a point as early as Chapter 2 doesn't really seem like him. It's also worth noting that Toby had mentioned that a scrapped intro sequence would've involved everyone running up a staircase with The Knight being revealed at the top of said staircase. With "everyone" involved, it's safe to assume that Kris is with them while running.

The red SOUL (assuming it isn't a blank slate) and/or the narrator sometimes controls Kris without player input

So whenever "Kris" does anything without player input, we won't know sure if the action is done by Kris themself, the SOUL or the narrator unless it's specifically stated to be done by Kris. Of course the SOUL won't be responsible for anything SOULless Kris does, but we don't know if the narrator is attached to the SOUL or Kris' body, so again we won't know for sure if SOULless "Kris'" actions are done by Kris themself or the narrator.

Kris killed the vessel and took its soul for their own.

The vessel was killed by someone who speaks exactly like Chara in Undertale, which could be Kris. Whenever they take their soul out, they always actively prevent it from escaping either by putting it into a container. Kris was either a darkner that wanted to become a lightner like Spamton that is human-shaped like Ralsei is monster-shaped or another vessel that wanted to steal its comrade's spot.

It's not that Kris doesn't like Ralsei- it's that Ralsei's presence prompts commands from the SOUL that Kris doesn't like.

Kris doesn't like hugs, as mentioned by Asgore (though Toriel seems to be an exception.) The SOUL repeatedly prompts Kris to hug Ralsei- which Kris would probably not want to do.

Kris is caught between two forces. The soul is one of them.

For reasons as of yet unknown though possibly related to his connection to the darkworld Kris is caught between two forces.

One of them is an enabler leading him to make selfish decisions, socially isolating him, and generally making trouble by playing to Kris' more selfish impulses be they harmless like eating an entire pie or dangerous like slashing his moms tires. It's the one that takes over guiding when the soul is outside of Kris and the one that's been opening more Dark Fountains because Kris enjoyed the adventure of being a hero. It isn't forcing Kris to obey just prompting him to do what it wants.

The soul by contrast is supposed to be a guiding force helping Kris deal with life without immediately doing whatever will benefit himself. Things like helping people, becoming more social and realizing the joy of friends, and most of all helping him cope in a healthy manner with the loss of his familiar family life. Not perfect given it's dragging Kris outside of his comfort zone but ultimately trying to do what's best for him in it's own way while not entirely overriding his will.

The reason Kris has a reputation as the creepy kid is because of this dichotomy causing inconsistent behavior which has suddenly gotten worse in the last few months as Kris matures and the fighting between the two forces becomes more protracted. So many things get messed up in the Weird Route beyond all the murder because the soul is pursuing it's own agenda at the expense of Kris and Noelle rather then simply guiding Kris. That's not supposed to happen at all.

The ending of Chapter 7 will result in Kris, Susie, and Ralsei fighting you as the SOUL.

Given how hard the separation of player and character is pushed, combined with how hard several actions you take seem to be on Kris, it is very possible that the Shadow Mantle will permit the Fun Gang to fully perceive and confront you, personally. In this event, it is likely that the best ending will be reserved for those who choose to sacrifice themselves to let the new world flourish, in other words making them beat you. Several of the choices you make, particularly in Chapter 2, seem to point towards possible reinforcements for one side or the other (such as Noelle obeying you against the heroes, or having the Darkners fully recruited along with Berdley to help them).

We're playing as the Poncho Human

As in the Poncho Human's essence is part of the SOUL we play as somehow, rather than Kris themself being the Poncho Human. The Poncho Human is already implied to be a pretty terrible person in Undertale (presumably playing a big part in the war and locking the monsters underground) which would explain how something as dark as the Weird Route is available to us as an option, though on the other hand the Pacifist Route could represent the Poncho Human's Heel–Face Turn.

Kris had another puppeteer before the player came along

The cage is already very well used by the time the game starts. And Kris's Empty Shell demeanour and lack of hobbies are most likely also symptoms of their possession. Since these behaviours are from before the start of the game, but the player-driven behaviours (talking to everyone and etc) are specifically noted to be different than Kris' usual behaviour, that means there must have been a period before the player came along where Kris was possessed by someone or something else.

This may well cast the Player's possession of Kris as a necessary or a lesser evil, since Kris wouldn't have free will even if the player wasn't around. It's possible that the other puppeteer is much colder or even crueler than the player, especially if the player is a pacifist and/or tries to adhere to Kris' wishes as closely as possible. If that is so, the player's presence may well be protecting Kris from the other puppeteer. Of course, on the Snowgrave route, Kris probably wishes they could have the other puppeteer back.

There is some kind of disaster brewing in the Light World that only Kris is actively aware of.

The Dark World seems to mirror the Light World with the same character archetypes appearing and events appear just somewhat distorted. Ralsei is very similar to Kris' brother Asriel who is off at college, Queen probably represents Noelle's mother the mayor who is apparently quite controlling, etc. The Roaring and the fact that according to Ralsei it's come perilously close to happening twice now suggests that there is some kind of disaster building up in the Light World that Kris is aware of. Unfortunately, due to being the town's creepy child, Kris either can't articulate it properly or nobody will believe him.

Kris created the closet's fountain while having the soul inside of them.

That's why that fountain is "grand" and "made of pure darkness" unlike the other fountains. Because the knife that created the fountain was filled with the soul's will instead of Kris', Ralsei reveres the player instead of the Knight^note Kris unlike the other worlds' darkners by naming the town after us. Kris didn't like the result, that's why they take the soul out for every fountain they subsequently created.

Kris is, or at least has symptoms of potassium deficiency

Queen's just looking out for Kris, because their search history contains symptoms for potassium deficiency.

• That, or they've had it in the past, but not anymore.

Every minor thing Kris did while soulless is actually part of their master plan.

• The internet was cut from the computer lab the day the Cyber's World was created and the Queen mentions that she wasn't able to use her final attack because of that. Her attack would have been too powerful, so Kris cut the internet to prevent her from using it.
• Kris ate Toriel's pie, causing her to bake a new one the day after, without which Toriel wouldn't have invited Susie to help her bake a new one, Kris wouldn't have had a excuse to wash their hands and slash the tires and Toriel wouldn't have gone to her car to see that her tires have been slashed.
• The TV is plugged in since the morning of chapter 2 when it was unplugged in chapter 1. Toriel couldn't have plugged it in at night, or else she would have noticed Kris eating the pie. Kris plugged the TV in so they could turn it on in the chapter 2 ending.

Kris came from the bunker to the south of town.

Wherein there may be/have been other humans.

Noelle briefly absorbs the soul in Snowgrave after the Spamton NEO fight and seals the fountain.

In the cutscene where the fountain is sealed, the soul appears in the center instead of left where Kris is standing while it normally appears inside Kris. Kris clearly didn't seal the fountain. The usual sound effects also don't play, we can't see anything except the soul and the soul appears farther up than it normally does when sealing a fountain, so there is clearly something going on. When Susie fights Lancer while she is seperated from the party in chapter 1, the soul was able to move to her during Lancer's attacks. (Toby confirmed that this is actually what's happening and not Gameplay and Story Segregation.) Noelle who at that point has left the party is in a similar situation, so the soul is able to move to her, allowing her to absorb it.

Kris is The Fatalist.

Here's a silly theory: what if Kris doesn't want to go Off the Rails? What if they're trying to follow their destiny to the letter (i.e. destroying the world, if they really are the Knight), but the SOUL is trying to stop him? The only reason he keeps putting it back in is so whatever higher power implanted the SOUL in the first place doesn't take notice. Additionally, perhaps Kris' discomfort towards Spamton isn't that he's trying and failing to attain freedom, but rather that Spamton is trying at all instead of doing what he was meant to do.

As for the SOUL — maybe that's the character we made at the start of the game? They may have been intended to be the custom character they were presented as, but Kris intervened at the last second to try and enforce his Fatalism on them. If so, the SOUL's character might make an appearance at some point when they have to take a more proactive role in stopping Kris if he's the Knight.

Kris will learn Magic.

Since Susie and Ralsei learned how to act in Chapter 2, Kris is going to learn how to cast spells in Chapter 3.

Kris just really likes pie.

Both times Kris tore the SOUL out of their chest, pie was involved in some way. There's actually nothing sinister going on with Kris, they just wanted the pie all to themselves and didn't want to share with the SOUL.

The SOUL isn't the entity controlling Kris, but simply what we are doing it through.

Next to the wagon that Kris traps the SOUL in in the end of chapter 1, there are red stains even before this happens. This could imply that this event has happened before, although for what reason I could never explain why. Also Kris' actions without the soul in them line up pretty well with the symptoms of being SOULLESS in Undertale: Evil and wit barely any body power.

Kris died before.

When you die in chapter 2, you hear strange dialogue from Ralsei and Susie telling Kris to not give up, resembling Asgore's words to Chara when they were dying. There's also an unused opening where Susie tells Kris to "wake up". While you could argue Susie and Ralsei say the former dialogue to Kris while the player sees the Game Over screen, we hear the latter dialogue before Kris befriends Susie, so it must have happened in the future. Kris died in an alternate future and reset to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.

The red soul is Kris’s Soul. The connection granted by Gaster is what Grants us control over it

I’m aware this is something of a retread of previous theories but it felt it was worth establishing since this has some implications.

• When a glitch occurred that caused two souls to appear Toby went out of his way to mention it was glitch in no uncertain terms. This means that their is almost certainly only one soul in Kris’s body.
• as mentioned above theirs evidence that the situation of Kris roping out their soul has been happening for longer than just the few days we’ve been possessing them . Meaning they’ve had this soul before we showed up.
• Kris is shown to have emotions, something a soulless person can’t have. We also get no hints their was a time when Kris was acting in a way that suggested a lack of emotions.
• perhaps the most damming evidence that the soul has Kris comes from Spamton. In the Spamton bro fight he calls Kris a “heart on a chain.” I repeat, to Spamton Kris is a heart on a chain, not a puppet on a string, nor a car being driven, big any other metaphor. Kris is the red heart, that is their soul the culmination of THEIR being we’ve just gain control over it somehow.
• why dose this matter? Simple if the soul is Kris’s then that means it’s not just us getting tossed out Kris is getting taken out as well… meaning that the thing walking around in Kris’s busy without the soul isn’t them.

Kris was created by Gaster to be the Knight.

Because they are an Artificial Human like the Vessel, they have no soul, but Gaster never intended for them to absorb ours. They were supposed to be The Heavy that constantly opposes the Vessel and the other heroes, but Kris flipped the script and started Running Both Sides.

Kris will be Suddenly Speaking.

Possibly mirroring the scene in Live A Live where the same happens to Oersted.

All humans are possessed like Kris is.

Book 1 about souls says that the true function of of souls are unknown. They are all players, that's their function. This is not common knowledge in monster society.

Kris drew themselves doing Chara's jumpscare.

Both Asriel and Mettaton drew forms of themselves that only exist in Undertale, so it makes sense other characters would, too. The drawing is in the supply closet, explaining why there are eyes and mouths oozing a black liquid in the cliffs and why Ralsei recognizes Kris when first meeting them.

The Prophecy intended for Kris to share the soul with the other Heroes.

The prophecy says that the heroes can seal the fountains, but in reality only Kris can. The only way Susie and Ralsei could seal fountains is if Kris gave it to them to absorb. The soul shifts to Susie in her battle with Lancer every time he attacks, so it's possible Kris was supposed to give it to her before the team split up.

Chapter 3 will be a role reversal with Kris forcing the player to go along with their adventure, and ignoring every attempt to address what happened at the end of chapter 2.

The SOUL is being controlled, but not the same way Kris is.

There's actually three levels of control: The person giving the prompts, the person who picks them, and the person who acts them out. After all, those options that pop up throughout the game aren't exactly your choices either, just what you've been offered; much like making the Vessel in and of itself was something you were forced to do to progress.

All three of these levels have their own autonomy; Kris manifests theirs through their actions in cutscenes, and the SOUL manifests it through player control, but this third entity manifests it through the programming itself, limiting the SOUL's freedom as much as it limits Kris'. This method is More than Mind Control for the SOUL, as it gives them the illusion of freedom while still edging them towards the planned ending no matter what they (or Kris) do.

• Spamton NEO says "Do you want to be a [heart] on a [chain] foever?", during the battle and directed at Kris, but Kris isn't the heart-shaped SOUL, WE are. So does that means WE'RE actually the ones trapped? Or is "trapped together" kind of situation for both ourselves and Kris? After all, we couldn't decide who we are in this world, and were just thrown into Kris with as much consent as Kris had over this.

The incident with the bunker involved the Dark World.

Specifically, Kris, Asriel, and Dess entered a Dark World inside the bunker, where they encountered a malevolent Darkner based off ICE-E. It would explain why they take Noelle seeing ICE-E wink at her so seriously.

Kris is really fucking hungry (and for good reason).

Seriously, we never saw them eat breakfast in Chapter 1. They just go directly to school in the morning, enter the Dark World, and return home in the afternoon. Then they go to sleep and we get the knife cutscene. They skipped lunch! They skipped dinner! No wonder they woke up in the night and ate an entire pie!"But there are food items in the Dark World." Yeah, but Susie says that they aren't exactly filling and since the chalk Noelle gives you turns into "Light Candy" it implies Kris is just eating more random objects. No wonder Kris acts so weird. They're hungry, and you're not yourself when you're hungry. God. Somebody get that poor kid some actual food.

Kris is absorbing the fountains' power in some way when sealing them.

Both Spamton in Chapter 2 and Toby Fox in the Chapter 1 stream say Kris is "stealing" the fountain. Kris is literally stealing the fountains, both in that they're absorbing their power instead of destroying them and in that it was the Vessel that was supposed to take that power. The sound effects for sealing a fountain are snd_usefountain and snd_revival. Kris is using them and fulfilling the reason they were created, not just destroying them.

Being extremely friendly to characters will be a bad thing due to us controlling Kris.

Kris is established to hate hugging yet we get plenty of chances to hug Raisel, us ignoring Kris' boundries by forcing them to constantly hug others/do things they wouldn't want to do will have negative effects down the line, especially if romance gets involved, Raisel especially as he seemingly resembles Asriel, who Kris likely very much doesn't exactly want to see in a romantic light but us, the player, not caring about that and trying anyway will have some sort of negative consequence down the line.

• If the player chooses to say that they want to go to the festival with Susie, she notes that Kris said it in a genuine tone. In fact, it's implied Kris shares a strong kinship with her. Secret Susie Harem route when?!

Ralsei was a botched ritual to turn Kris into a monster.

Part of the occult, Kris had a form of Depersonalization-derealization disorder. Nothing felt real to them. They hated being a miserable Token Human in a town of happy magical monsters. Kris hated themselves. They poured their personality, hopes, and dreams into a ritual. It failed miserably. Nothing manifested in the Light World. Kris didn't even transform. They felt deader inside than ever before. The ritual failed. Or so everyone thought.

Kris is a Chessmaster who intends on saving the day and fulfilling the Prophecy their way.

They're creating Dark Fountains to move the story along ahead of the Knight's schedule while also subtly tweaking things in their favor, like by cutting off the internet to stop Queen from using a would-be devestating attack, throwing things Off the Rails in a way the Knight can't compensate for and hastening the rate at which they, Susie, and Ralsei strengthen, the rate at which YOU master the gameplay, and the speed at which the story flows and the Darkners get recruited.

In addition, they're deliberately getting as many Lightners involved as they possibly can to give them and their friends potential back-up options, as well as sowing the seeds for potential positive Character Development (see Noelle and Berdley on the normal route).

It's possible this is what their and Ralsei's secret off-screen conversations are about. And the reason why this is all being kept secret is because Kris and Ralsei are worried you might screw their gambit up (which is fair, see Snowgrave). It would also explain why they put up with your control most of the time despite hating it - they know that you're just as vital to the story as they are.

As an added bonus, it also means that you'll leave their body for good sooner.

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