Deltarune Chapter 2 goes deep. Not that Chapter 1 was any different, but
the amount of information we have now is really making me start to question what I thought
I knew. So much that I’ve been thinking about how
the remaining chapters will play out. And this is what ultimately lead me to this
video. Why Ralsei Will Be Deltarune’s Greatest
Villain. A claim that sounds… Well, quite absurd, no? Ralsei, the kindest heart to grace the dark
world may not be all that he seems. With the introduction of Chapter 2 things
are becoming interesting to say the least. But would our lovable goat mage really betray
us? Yes. I strongly think that could be a possibility,
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this video and supporting me as a content creator. So with Chapter 2’s release we found out
that in total Deltarune will have a whopping 7 whole chapters. That’s quite the adventure. But with an adventure that long and the hype
for each chapter increasing with every release going forward… Toby is going to have to really pull some
twists to keep this train moving the way it is now. And that’s a ton of pressure. If you think about it… Both the King and the Queen were memorable
characters in their own ways. But I’d argue that difficult challenges
tend to over shine character traits. Why did we all rally against the Sans fight
in the Undertale Genocide route? Because it was hard as heck. A comedic character absolutely thrashed us. In Deltarune, we have similar situations with
the secret bosses. Jevil was a pretty brutal fight and the goofy
lad gave us a run for our money. You could say that Spamton one-upped Jevil. Maybe not in difficulty depending on how you
felt about the fights, but in emotional attachment. Spamton was a super memey character and hearing
his backstory really broke our hearts. So even though I thought Jevil was the more
difficult of the two, Spamton still one-upped the Jevil experience from chapter 1… And that’s hard to keep doing. I can’t help but think of series like Dragon
Ball Z where the only way they could ever move forward and maintain hype in the show
and manga was just by scaling the power creep through the roof. Now one-upping the previous encounters is
not 100% necessary, but the pressure is what can cause this way of thinking. Now I promise that I’m saying all of this
for a reason and it will eventually come back to Ralsei. Chapter 3’s villain or secret boss, who
is presumed to be Mike, already seems like they had power or influence over Spamton. I recommend checking out my Spamton deep dive
video after this one if you haven’t seen it yet. So the stakes are already really high going
into Chapter 3… But this pattern can’t be repeated forever. It loses its punch after a while. If every chapter had 1 main foe and 1 secret
side fight, would the impact slowly diminish? Toby is already under a lot of pressure from
Undertale. He’s hinted at this over the years and I
imagine it made creating another game hard. What if it didn’t meet the expectations
of the first? Mentally that has to be overbearing. I spend a lot of time overthinking things
but even with YouTube the goal is to always do better than last time… and that’s brutal. So what is the one way to truly release the
emotions of those playing your game? To throw a curveball and leave them flabbergasted? Well.. Betrayal. There’s nothing more gut-wrenching than
having characters that you love betray each other. I can’t help but think back to the game
Bomberman 64 on Nintendo 64 - probably the one betrayal that still has me shook to this
day. You can beat that entire game and not know
you were helping the villain the entire time. It’s insane. Most players who didn’t 100% the game had
no idea that the person helping you from the start was the bad guy… The person who taught you things, gave you
power ups, and even aided you in fights. And the credits rolled and they never went
back to playing that game. Unknown to them, the true villain worked with
them the entire game and now had one of the most powerful artifacts in the universe. In that timeline the player left the story
in a really bad spot… But the player had no idea and they celebrated
their victory. But if you 100% the game, that same character
reveals his true motives, annihilates the end game boss who you thought was bad, and
now the true fight begins. It’s so screwed up but such an awesome twist
reserved for completionists. All of this to say that I think Ralsei will
betray us. But what does betrayal in this sense actually
mean? Well.. Let’s talk about Ralsei’s weird behavior. Because it starts early on and it grows more
and more strange as time goes on. Starting off, Ralsei already knows about souls. He brings it up during your first fight. Ralsei also knows about button inputs since
he tells Kris to move boxes near the start of chapter 1 with the z command despite Susie
having no idea what he’s talking about. Obviously in the tutorial battle he brought
these up too, but having another character react to it definitely gives some more merit
to the idea that he knows things he shouldn’t. So let’s talk about that legend… The legend that only Ralsei seems to know
about. I think the biggest red flag with this legend
is that only Ralsei can explain it to you and that he purposely withheld further information
regarding the legend until the final confrontation from Queen. Not even Queen knew about the roaring, which
sounds like the strange cousin to Attack on Titan’s the Rumbling. Ralsei withheld this information from us until
the final moment before something seemingly bad happened… And we don’t even know what else he is hiding. Something else that is pretty suspicious is
that Ralsei knows about the school and where the pieces and parts of chapter 1’s area
are at. His directions are really specific at the
start of Chapter 2. Quote “Kris, I have something to ask you. I need you to return to the Light World… And go to the old classroom, to the EAST of
the closet doors. Inside, gather everything on the ground… And bring it back here, could you?” End quote. For someone who has spent all their time in
the Dark World… How does he know exactly where everything
is at? More so he is telling Kris as if Kris needs
these directions to find the room again. It’s pretty suspicious… But it only gets worse. We enter the dark fountain in the library
and come face to face with Queen. And despite landing in an area floating in
the void and surrounded with cliffs on all sides, Ralsei meets up with us from the way
we came. There’s only one way to get to that area. It dead ends and there are no paths leading
to it… Except, from the light world. So somehow, in theory, Ralsei entered the
light world, went to the library, and came into the new dark fountain. Again, how he knew where to go in the town
is questionable… As is his ability to leave. Other Darkners turn to stone if they spend
too much time in the wrong dark world. Like for example, Lancer. But Ralsei seems immune. Why is that by chance? Just who exactly is Ralsei… Or what? Given that he just sort of wanders over and
plays it off cool, what exactly is the deal with him waiting for Lightners at the start
of the game? If Ralsei was just waiting for the Lightners
to show up in chapter 1, did he have memories before that? Or is it similar to chapter 2 where once another
dark fountain was opened, it seemed like that place had always existed and it was added
back to the timeline - despite it seemingly not existing before? It’s hard to tell if Ralsei’s memory is
immediately updated as reality instantaneously snaps into place. Near the end of chapter 2 in the secret encounter
with Spamton NEO, there’s a cutscene in the hallway that happens right after the fight. Kris is overwhelmed and shouting in the basement. Susie is freaked out herself but Ralsei assures
them that everything is fine. Ralsei’s straight up gaslighting the situation
saying that everything that happened didn’t mean anything and that it was just a corrupted
program. Mind you, he’s doing this while glancing
to the side in his photo. This is weird. So so weird. It’s not fine. Your two partners are freaking out for good
reason. Ralsei then tells Kris not to think about
what happened too hard and to just think of something else. After Susie leaves he tells us everything
will be okay and then just sort of walks through the wall behind us. Like… what? All this happens if you chose that you’re
not okay. But if you choose yes, that you’re okay,
your character strains to say they are fine. This freaks Susie out because she knows it
isn’t true, but Ralsei is all “well they said they’re okay, so let’s roll”. He always is radiating kindness but it feels
like the anime character who smiles all the time with questionable intent. The character who is two steps ahead always. I mean, Ralsei knew everything about our characters
the moment we stepped in the Dark World. How did he know our names before telling him? It’s… odd. And all of this leaves me with this sense
that Ralsei knows everything about Deltarune. He knows who you are, what you must do, and
how all of it fits together. And he plays the role of a kind mediator who
cheers you up when you’re down and fills you in when you need help. But all of it is according to his plan. And sure, Ralsei could be the light to Kris’
darkness. Kris is out here popping fountains while Ralsei
is trying to plug them up. The prophecy at the beginning of the game
is all about the two sides of the universe, but for some reason only the prince of the
dark knows everything about it… He even drops that blasted phrase “space
and time”… Something we’ve heard often. But what is Ralsei’s goal really? These dark worlds opening up don’t necessarily
seem like a bad thing since they breath life into an area. We don’t know if the prophecy is even true,
especially with how weird Ralsei has been lately. The King is a murderous jerk and a horrible
father, but his dialogue in his fight might very well be true. The Knight is creating new worlds for Darkners… And is that truly a bad thing? Ralsei seems to think so, but in the end it
seems more like worlds are being opened, conquered, and then their residents have a choice to
either come back to Ralsei’s town or perish as their world closes off. Doesn’t sound like much of a choice to me. Of course, there’s the chance that Ralsei
is truly doing this for the greater good. And maybe they are. Maybe everything I brought up is only what
we assume based off his actions. But even with all that said… And even if Ralsei is good… I think he will still betray us. Here’s why. In Deltarune it’s really important to understand
the dynamic of what isn’t said. Subtle things seem to go a mile, and the story
we’ve experienced so far has been with a team of five people… Not four. Kris, Susie, Ralsei, Noelle… and the player. The player being this unseen force that is
literally us, but in the game world it is a force that can make anyone do anything. In the Snowgrave route, it’s the player
- not Kris - who makes Noelle do terrible things. A voice she hears in her head even when Kris
is eliminated. And when we’re pushed to our final moment
with Spamton NEO and Kris begs for their friends to come… No one shows up. And it says Kris is making these asks… Until we ask for Noelle. And then it’s us. You. And Noelle cannot resist the command, the
overarching power of the player’s authority… And so, she kills Spamton in cold blood. Literally. So why do I bring this up? Well, it’s because Ralsei knows. He’s aware of this entity that’s controlling
Kris… And perhaps that explains his weird actions. He doesn’t ever dare tell the player things
they shouldn’t know, and he thinks he sometimes is avoiding the player when having private
conversations. Much like Noelle does after the hospital when
she starts talking about the voice that has been commanding her… And then Kris shows up out of the dark to
answer. If Kris equipped her watch in the dark world,
she then freaks out because she realizes what happened wasn’t a dream. And I don’t blame her because that realization
would be quite terrifying. So even if Ralsei’s intentions with Castle
Town are pure and not selfish or malevolent, at some point, he will have to cross us. Mind you, I’m referring to the player who
uses Kris like a puppet. Ralsei has been extremely helpful during our
entire journey so far but a betrayal is coming… And it’s going to have an impact greater
than any secret boss would. Whether it be withholding the truth to something
extremely serious until it’s too late to make a difference… Or to confront the player to stop them from
manipulating Kris into altering the timeline and what is supposed to happen. And by our choices… Perhaps the dark path we took, that then makes
Ralsei the enemy. As the king puts it… The bad guy. Much like how the King was fighting for their
own justice and sense of righteousness… Either Ralsei is going down or the player
is. It’s all about perspective of who the perceived
villain is. And that battle of light vs dark is going
to be one of the most powerful encounters in Deltarune. But then again… Maybe Ralsei is the true enemy. They claim they are the prince of darkness
but they have no subjects other than the ones they manipulate into coming to their town
through kindness. What if there’s a unknown, bad reason Ralsei
is gathering them all there? Ralsei also gave themselves the title “prince
of darkness”. Whereas Lancer is truly a prince of the dark. Is Ralsei just the dark world rendition of
that head band with red horns that Kris used to wear as a kid? Or is he something way more powerful than
he lets on? How about Asriel’s tie in? Well… That’s for us to find out, maybe I’m completely
wrong, but I’d love to hear your thoughts and theories in the comments below. Thanks for watching, and cheers.
To me, the final boss is kris body trying to get control of his life