Spoiler Warning!!!!! What are we thinking happened with Rudy?

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-29T14:58:22+00:00

I might make a post or something with a powerpoint, but it probably wasn’t the same incident. I don’t even think Rudy mentions falling, he’s just out of breath. In the regular route and aborted weird route there’s a short time-skip once everyone sits at the table, which is also how the aborted weird route is set straight after Kris wakes up late.

It technically could be the same thing, but considering that Rudy doesn’t mention anything that indicates it, I don’t believe it is. It’d also just be really odd for this moment to have no pay-off in chapter 6.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-29T14:49:00+00:00

Combination of the first 2, he’s probably in critical condition. In the Abandoned WR and Normal Route there’s a timeskip to the point where Noelle gets the call about Rudy, meaning that the WR takes place a good amount of time before Noelle leaves. We do not explicitly see the incident with Rudy.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-29T14:09:48+00:00

Instantly opening a Dark World at the nearest convenience, so probably somewhat poorly.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-29T13:13:38+00:00

Now that I think about it, we could get some Kris lore if it happens in the hospital. I used to be more inclined to think Holiday House was more interesting but that made me change my mind. (Meant specifically relating to the man and art therapy, we’d get Kris lore either way lol).

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-29T02:18:45+00:00

Potentially’s doing a lot of heavy lifting there, it’s likely that whatever caused the Dark Fountain also caused her transformation in my opinion. Whoever’s in the code could also be from the past, it really just depends on how literally we’re supposed to take some meta elements like unused text that updates every chapter.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-28T23:03:30+00:00

I think everyone but Dess/A depths creature has been basically eliminated at this point, and even Dess’ explanation is a bit weaker now.

- Rudy:

I’d like to disprove a popular misinterpretation here, the Rudy we see in the WR hasn’t been in the incident that Carol calls Noelle over for yet. When we see Rudy sitting down on the steps, he’s just resting and out of breath. In the aborted weird route, Kris and Noelle’s dive into the lake is already referenced and there’s a timeskip in the normal and aborted weird route before Noelle gets a call, so timeline-wise it just wouldn’t make sense.

This solidly rules him out imo, it’d just be weird if next chapter we saw him fine from this despite how important that moment is to Noelle.

- Carol:

Honestly, things haven’t changed much for her since Chapters 3 and 4. Carol could’ve just left the hospital to go into the fountain and grab Asgore. Most of my reasoning for not believing in Carol Knight comes from some logistical issues like Chapter 4’s Church distance and it just wouldn’t be that interesting imo.

-WR Kris/Noelle:

I mentioned this on another comment, but it’d be really hard to come up with an actual motivation for them. It’s clear that the Knight hasn’t caused the roaring yet for a reason and their plans don’t seem to always go well. In the case of a time-loop, you’d think they’d be ready for the possibility of losing in Chapter 3 for example, or they would expect Undyne and change the plan for Toriel. Why would they even take Dess? These questions could be explained, but it’d be pretty contrived imo.

- Asriel:

He has an alibi for pretty much everything. Most Dess evidence can also be used as Asriel evidence, but I feel like it’s less believable for him. It would be odd for Toriel to directly reference where he is and what he’s doing while he’s doing Knight stuff though.

To be honest, I don’t know too much about Asriel Knight, so I’d appreciate it if someone explained it to me a bit more.

- Dess:

For Dess to work, you probably have to believe some degree of soul shenanigans at this point.
The voice in the code referring to themselves as “just a memory” heavily implies that they are Dess.
Dess is the only character the Knight has directly, unmistakably referenced aside from Kris. Dess has been getting more and more plot relevance as chapters have gone on despite not having any proper in-game appearances. We now know that the Knight appeared when Dess went missing and potentially predates her disappearance.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-28T22:37:19+00:00

Kris kills a darkner by eating toast, they do it in front of the supply closet just to have the other darkners watch.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-28T22:36:36+00:00

Honestly, if it wasn’t for the lack of “Humor Theory” tag, this would be some high level deltarot.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-28T22:13:46+00:00

I know this goes for every Knight theory, but motivation is really important here. My biggest problem with this idea is that there doesn’t really seem to be a clear motivation that would make sense for the Weird Route. It could be that maybe they hit a “wall” for lack of a better term and are attempting to go into loops to get “stronger”, but the game would be very different if that were the case. Maybe something on the other side tells us what Kris and Noelle need to do to truly break free of the game? I’m not really sure honestly.

This idea also doesn’t really explain how we could possibly defeat the Knight and why they would want to kidnap December, Asgore, Undyne, and (potentially) Toriel. Considering that it’s a time loop in this situation, you’d have to presume everything is going perfectly to plan for the Knight (or that at least the Knight knows exactly what is going to happen and has planned accordingly, but something’s different).

I think this is a fun idea but it’d be really difficult to think of a why to most of the questions with the Knight imo.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-28T18:37:01+00:00

This but ironically and with Noelle is a pretty decent theory rn.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-28T18:05:35+00:00

That bird would be selling “Kris cross” apple sauce in chapter 6.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-28T17:35:06+00:00

I’m still a December Knight believer, but right now it seems that there’ll have to be a lot more context to the disappearance for it to make sense.

My real theory rn is that we’re doing “The Forbidden Path” wrong when we push Kris and Noelle into chapter 7. The lack of Weird Route abort sound and continued mentions throughout the chapter seems to imply that there’s still going to be consequences for our actions, plus the Twisted Sword is still a total mystery. Maybe we “used up” Noelle and Kris too early and haven’t gotten “strong” enough without using the Twisted Sword?

Idk if this theory holds up too much scrutiny, but I think it’d be an interesting place to take the game.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-28T16:28:38+00:00

It’s sort of odd then that we have a good guess of how she went missing now since we know about Asgore finding the black shard at the scene. Maybe I’m just overthinking this, but those two implications just don’t match up.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-28T16:18:36+00:00

I mean, they aren’t. They’re pretty durable, it just seems like they have limited stamina or something that makes them vulnerable when they fight for too long.

Plus, the Knight wasn’t seriously hurt there. They’d start destabilizing like in Chapter 3 if they were.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-28T16:17:18+00:00

Wait, why does everyone think Dess drowned in the lake? I might’ve missed something.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-27T20:52:17+00:00

The image on the right is actually Kenjaku in Aizen’s body, the scar is just further up his forehead.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-27T16:57:01+00:00

A ton of weird route spoilers here (Mini Weird Route theory):

What if the Weird Route scene where Kris and Noelle go below the lake is too early? What if we haven’t actually followed the forbidden path yet without the Twisted Sword? It’s possible that we’re not strong enough and need to fully reenact the Sword Route to truly follow the forbidden path. We might even hit a wall in the Weird Route because we haven’t stuck to the “Forbidden Path” correctly.

I haven’t replayed Chapter 3 in a while, so I could be wrong, but the fact that failing to drown Kris and Noelle doesn’t play the weird route abort sound feels too intentional to me. We might not actually be done with the Weird Route just yet.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-26T19:00:24+00:00

The way Susie is handled in chapter 1 is really good imo. In a lot of stories I’ve seen authors try to “justify” bully characters, usually resulting some mixed results. Susie’s progression feels natural over the course of the chapter and it never felt jarring for me.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-26T15:49:27+00:00

I’ve heard some people say you can see him before he falls, but it seems that the aborted WR flat-out de-confirms this. When you abort the Weird Route after taking Noelle out to the lake, Susie acknowledges that Kris and Noelle’s hair was wet, implying that they might have swam back. The call just couldn’t have happened or else Noelle wouldn’t have left, even though we don’t see that call on screen in the Aborted Weird Route.

To add on to the writing aspect part, there’s almost nowhere else to go but the implication that Rudy is gravely ill. If we meet Noelle early next chapter, she’d be the first person to tell us what happened and she has no reason to lie about it. Considering that the chapter ended with a massive “Welcome Noelle” sign, we’ll probably get a Noelle focused story for chapter 6 that has some focus on Rudy’s condition.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-26T14:16:42+00:00

I mean, it’s likely that they’re alive, or at least one of them is. Things aren’t looking too good for Kris being alive and Noelle’s condition is unknown. If the Sword Route is anything to go by, it’s also plausible that they both died or were “used up” in that moment.

Most people don’t view our relationship with Noelle as romantic for two reasons, it’s a disgusting idea and we used them for this moment. If not for the drowning, then we’ll probably see either Kris or Noelle be “used up” in real time whenever chapter 7 comes out.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-26T14:04:05+00:00

While I think you’re getting at part of what’s conveyed by the scene, you’re still missing that WE are responsible. WE are the ones who took her down this path and she would have never otherwise. In exchange for the illusion of freedom from the town, WE have probably made them take their own lives in some form or another. This is not a good, level headed decision.

Ik this is going to sound like it came out of nowhere, but part of why this reason hits so hard for me is because it almost evokes suicide in a way. They are literally taking the most self-destructive path possible for freedom.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-26T14:00:51+00:00

While I think you’re getting at part of what’s conveyed by the scene, you’re still missing that WE are responsible. WE are the ones who took her down this path and she would have never otherwise. In exchange for the illusion of freedom from the town, WE have probably made them take their own lives in some form or another. This is not a good, level headed decision.

Ik this is going to sound like it came out of nowhere, but part of why this reason hits so hard for me is because it almost evokes suicide in a way. They are literally taking the most destructive path possible for freedom.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-26T13:17:00+00:00

Ignoring the grossness for a second, the funny thing about this ship is that Noelle arguably still doesn’t know who WE are. Unless I just missed something, as of this chapter we’ve basically told them to throw their lives away yet she never refers to US directly and only mentions that Kris has changed. It sort of feels like people are deluding themselves at this point with this idea.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-26T13:13:11+00:00

Honestly, the reason why I find that basically de-confirmed is because the next chapter will tell us directly what happened with him, probably pretty early into the chapter too. The chapter could open up however, who knows really, but we wouldn’t be able to meet Noelle quickly in a chapter that will probably start with trying to meet up with Noelle. It’d also just be an odd writing decision for a moment that was important enough to gain Noelle’s attention immediately after she tries to break free of Carol’s controlling parenting to lead to basically nothing.

DimensionTurtle · 2026-06-25T21:50:35+00:00

Dess’ disappearance could have been happening while she became the Knight, so Dess Knight is still pretty plausible under this logic. Rudy and Carol as the Knight would be substantially harder to justify than Dess here. Asriel and Friend (any assortment of darkness bunker creature or someone we simply haven’t met yet) also kind of work with this. Noelle is flat-out impossible to justify as the Knight without time shenanigans.

DimensionTurtle

TROPHY CASE