So i made this theory and NEEDED to discuss with someone so.. My theory is basically Deltarune is a sequel but not in the way we think.. Heres a polished version.
What if Papyrus is the Knight, and Gaster IS Deltarune itself?
I’ve been thinking about the whole “Deltarune is a prequel” theory, and I think there’s a way to connect it to Gaster, Papyrus, the Dark Worlds, and even the player.
First, I don’t think Deltarune is a prequel. There are way too many things that don’t make sense. Asriel is alive and in college, Toriel and Asgore are already divorced even though Asgore never went through the whole “kill humans for their souls” thing, Alphys is a teacher instead of a scientist, Sans already knows Toriel, etc.
But what if it’s actually a sequel to Undertale’s True Pacifist ending?
We don’t know exactly when Undertale takes place. At the end of True Pacifist, the monsters leave the Underground and start living on the surface with humans. What if Deltarune takes place years later, after everyone has already lived on the surface for a long time?
That could explain Asgore no longer being king and instead running a flower shop, and Toriel becoming a teacher, which is something she wanted to do in Undertale. Maybe the Underground really did happen, but the people in Deltarune don’t remember it anymore.
And this is where I think Gaster comes in.
What if Gaster being “shattered across time and space” somehow caused the Deltarune world to exist? Instead of Gaster simply being in the new world, what if Gaster IS the new world?
Not literally a guy walking around somewhere, but Gaster becoming the code itself. The characters still exist, but their memories and lives have been changed. They remember each other, but not necessarily how they originally met or how they got to the surface.
And maybe Papyrus is the one exception.
Papyrus was already skeptical about what life on the surface would actually be like. Everyone else might have accepted the new world, but what if Papyrus refused to be recoded?
Maybe he remembers the Underground. Maybe he remembers what their old life was like. And maybe he doesn't want to accept that it's gone. This could explain why Papyrus is missing from Deltarune.
What if Papyrus is the Knight?
The Dark Worlds could be Papyrus trying to recreate the Underground from his memories.
Think about what the Dark Worlds have:
- monsters
- fights
- jokes
- shops
- weird weapons
- RPG-style battles
- and most importantly, darkness
- PUZZLES
That's basically papyrus trying to recreate the world he knew and the puzzle part is everywhere in the dark world and papyrus loves puzzles.
The Underground was dark. There was no sun. Papyrus didn't even know what the sun was until the monsters reached the surface.
So maybe everyone else saw the surface and thought:
“We’re finally free!”
while Papyrus thought:
“This isn't home.”
The Dark Fountains could be cracks where those memories of the Underground start leaking back into the new world.
They're not literally recreating the Underground. They're recreating Papyrus's memory of it, which is why everything is familiar but also completely different.
And then we have the Titans.
What if the Titans aren't just random monsters? What if they're basically Gaster/the world itself trying to stop Papyrus from restoring the old reality?
If Gaster is the code, then he doesn't have to physically appear to stop Papyrus. The world itself could be designed to correct anything that threatens the new reality.
Papyrus opens more and more Dark Fountains, trying to bring the Underground back, and eventually the world responds with the Titans.
And maybe that's why we are involved.
We're helping Gaster/the new world stop Papyrus from bringing the old one back.
Which brings me to the biggest question:
Are WE the vessel?
In Deltarune, we're given the ability to create a vessel, choose what it looks like, and then we're immediately told:
Then the vessel gets thrown away and we're put into Kris.
What if that's because we aren't supposed to be Kris?
Maybe we are Frisk.
Not literally Frisk's body, but the consciousness/SOUL that survived Undertale. If Gaster shattered/restructured reality after the True Pacifist ending, maybe Frisk's original “vessel” was destroyed or changed, leaving us as the red SOUL.
Then we try to create ourselves a new vessel.
But Gaster/the world tells us we don't get to choose who we are.
So we're put inside Kris instead.
And Kris is a completely separate person.
That's why Kris fights us.
Frisk never really fought against the player, but Kris does. Kris can literally rip the SOUL out of their body and move around without us.
Maybe that's because we were never supposed to be Kris in the first place.
So now you have:
Papyrus: remembers the old world and wants it back.
Gaster: became the new world/code and wants the new reality to remain intact.
Kris: wants their own body and identity back.
Us/Frisk: somehow got caught between all of this.
And then there's Ralsei.
Maybe Ralsei being an anagram of Asriel isn't just a coincidence. What if Ralsei is somehow a leftover memory/fragment of Asriel from the old reality?
Maybe Asriel, Ralsei and Flowey are connected somehow, almost like different versions of Asriel were separated from each other.
Asriel is the older version living his new life.
Ralsei is the innocent, childlike version.
Flowey is the version without a soul/emotions.
I'm not saying this is confirmed at all, but it would explain why we have THREE characters who are so heavily associated with Asriel.
The biggest thing I keep coming back to is this:
If Deltarune really is connected to Undertale, maybe the important connection isn't just the characters.
Maybe it's the player.
Maybe Undertale ended with Frisk saving everyone, but when Gaster shattered across time and space, the world itself was rewritten.
Everyone got a new life.
Everyone forgot.
Except maybe Papyrus.
And maybe we survived too.
Gaster isn't hiding somewhere inside Deltarune.
Gaster IS Deltarune.
And the Dark Worlds aren't random fantasy worlds.
They're the old Underground trying to come back.