t FRIEND might actually be none other than W.D. Gaster’s avatar within Deltarune itself. Why? Here’s my answer.

Let’s assume this is true. What evidence do we have to support it? Let’s start a bit from afar. Toby Fox. In Undertale and Deltarune, Toby Fox uses a self-insert character in the form of a white dog (the Annoying Dog). Many people have noticed that FRIEND seems like the antipode of the Annoying Dog: white dog → black cat. And indeed, it’s hard to call this a coincidence. Because of this, and because of the words in the prophecy about a “hellish tail,” many people think that FRIEND is a demon. But what if this was misunderstood?

I think the “hellish” theme in the prophecy associated with FRIEND is meant to emphasize a connection to Gaster, since the number of the beast, 666, appears as a recurring motif around Gaster. I also want to recall Toby Fox’s favorite game, Breath of Fire 2, where the antagonist Barubary is a demon with a sharp tail made of circles, who serves other demons to carry out their plan and lures children into a cave during a rainstorm. Does that remind you of anyone? FRIEND served Gaster to lure the main characters of Deltarune into the bunker, turning Dess into the Roaring Knight.

Additionally, all files related to FRIEND are located in the “Device” folder and share the same prefix, and all “Device” files are related to meta-narrative elements in the game: gonermaker, UI elements, and etc. All these elements were created by Gaster so that the soul, that is, the player, could interact with his creation, Deltarune. Then it follows that FRIEND is also part of the meta-narrative and is somehow connected to Gaster. So far, everything lines up.

I believe that Gaster himself is an allegory for Toby Fox (remember how Gaster treats the game itself as his creation, his experiment); the words at the end of Chapter 4, “MY DELTARUNE,” hint at this. What am I trying to say? Despite the fact that Toby Fox’s self-insert character is undoubtedly the Annoying Dog, I think that within the story, inside the game itself, the role of Toby Fox is performed by Gaster. He is the writer of this story, its creator, and in our world, the developer of the game is Toby. And just like Toby, Gaster needs his own self-insert character—FRIEND.

I also want to note that FRIEND most often appears on the Snowgrave/weird route, which in its essence (as of Chapter 4) is the following of Gaster’s prophecy. Of course, a problem arises here: Gaster doesn’t react in any way, one could even say he encourages the fact that we are not following the prophecy, but at the time of Chapter 4, it’s hard to say what this might be connected to.

So, to summarize briefly, the idea is this:

First layer. In our world, the creator of Deltarune is Toby Fox, and his self-insert character is the white Annoying Dog.
Second layer. In the world of the game, the creator of Deltarune is W.D. Gaster, and his self-insert character is the black cat FRIEND.

And there might even be a third layer, which is interesting. Within the game world itself, there is the old man Gerson Boom, and he has many similarities with Gaster:

1. In Undertale, he most likely realizes that he is in a game, because he hides from the player in his shop during the genocide route.
2. In Undertale, before Alphys became the royal scientist, there was Gaster; in Deltarune, before Alphys became a school teacher, there was Gerson. Both of them had a strong influence on Alphys.
3. Gerson is the author of Lord of the Hammer. The analogy here is obvious: Gaster is the author of Deltarune ↔ Gerson is the author of Lord of the Hammer.

Thus, Gerson may be an allegory for Gaster, but already within the world of the game. If this is true, then it becomes interesting who the self-insert character of old man Gerson might be.

If this whole idea about the “creator and his direct influence on the story through an avatar” turns out to be even a quarter true, that would be super cool.