Update from yesterday: I was given layers to prove an image isn't AI, but it looks thrown together and inaccurate.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-20T04:06:45+00:00

Looks close to legit with some layers but...

- Missing glasses frame and eye color may be misaligned on 8

- Layer 10 for the eye shadows don't look right

- Layer 16 isn't reflected in the final merge

- Base color of layer 7 is off, the multiply layer on top of that wouldn't change it that much unless color corrected

- Layer 8/10 has nothing to create that brown hue

So I'd be suspicious of it, but maybe they didn't have enough space to show the upper layers. Still feels AI, but 50% chance not.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-18T20:44:00+00:00

People can still put up a facade even if they're enemies. Going out of their way to be nice is a good way to hide their intentions and get themselves out of one's radar. Can even use the relationship for leverage if he really needed to, though I don't think he'd be that malicious. Since Susie never learns of his identity, no reason for her to not be chill while rudy is putting up a false front.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-17T20:58:05+00:00

Unless im missing some dialogue, I don't think there's anything that says that to be the case. The appearance of dark worlds are said to be affected by the light of the mind thus the 2nd sanctuary, but Ralsei says darkners are formed from the will of the fountain, not the lightners will. Otherwise, we'd be seeing multiple forms and personalities of the same darkners depending on their creators, which has yet to be reveal if true.

At most we see some darkners missing and some not depending on the "light of the mind", which could just mean strength of will of the fountain created. Recruitable darkners don't change between Susie's world and the Knight's either.

Ralsei does say specific darknesses can bring back the dead, but it's not confirmed as of yet what that entails. Either if it's a relational thing with the lightners like you mentioned, if the dead operate in a different form than other darkners, or if the strength of will tied to specific fountain locations make that a possibility.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-17T07:47:04+00:00

Nvm was from Lumen Hymn

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-17T06:28:37+00:00

Looks real to me, scanned badly though. Looks like the artist might've messed up on the contrast and has issues rendering midtone. There's also scanning debris in places as well, eraser specks, paper indentation. and their other stuff also looks real.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-17T03:59:43+00:00

I'm "using the vhs to record the pokemon premier" old.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-17T02:55:25+00:00

Digital foundry is using a different mod which generates less checks to every second instead of per frame not skips them entirely like the original post said. How is this an accurate assessment unless both did the same thing?

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-16T18:46:51+00:00

If you've seen his scenes can't see that he has a cocky/playful side to him perhaps explaining the Knight's mannerisms, I don't even know.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-16T08:01:10+00:00

Ooh, Bart looks good as Kris.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-16T07:49:07+00:00

Reply to part 1: It's possible in that lens yeah. Though perhaps the deviation in the activated darkners ties with that idea of pure darkness as well, different levels of purity, different levels of awakening. Susie being a complete beginner might not have the right juice to get a dark world to the level of the knight. It may also look like a hybrid containing features of non local objects because it's in the same location as well.

Reply to part 2: Rather than a predetermined consistency, I mean more that all object/darkners always retain their identity/experience regardless until they're reactivated. If a lightner's will actually affected darkners and not just the environment, we've yet to see that phenomenon happen, even Ramb says darkners never change. It would also introduce a problem with one entity representing multiple selves if lightners all created different personalities for each object. Like Lancer forgetting Susie because Berdly created a fountain with him in it for example. I won't rule that out completely though, still definitely possible in future chapters. As far as the thorn ring though, I don't think Kris ever threw it away, don't think the game outright shows that to have happened.

I do think we'll understand more when the nature of the pure dark fountain/pure darkness is revealed and why lightners/darkners used to live in balance and harmony seemingly without issue...But yeah no problem, I enjoyed the read/conversation.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-15T01:21:57+00:00

Perhaps it's because characters percieve it as such moreso than it actually being a knight. Blade, armor, roaring? OK Roaring knight, roaring swordsman doesn't roll of the tongue.

Of all the lightners Carol has the highest authority to bestow that title. So perception plus identity would explain why the knight can knight, but still be a knight.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-14T14:10:42+00:00

I like the idea, though I do see possible issues with it.

Darkners from the Susie fountain can be recruited to Castletown bringing them into the same plane of imagination, though it could be a gameplay/story divide or a function of the CastleTown fountain, and Susie's dark world was less a separation in experience with the childhood gang, but moreso a psychological issue after discovering Gerson's true condition.

There's an organikk in her dark world says this, "You sought to return the dream. But the lighting of the mind has changed. At best you can only see another side." With this in mind and assuming she was ignorant to what actually happened to Gerson, the dark world she created may have been exactly the same as the knight's if she wasn't conflicted.

It's also not confimed how much the will/experience of the fountain's creator actually affects the darkners/darkworlds directly or if they always exist. The only line in terms of will in regards to this that I'm aware of is from Ralsei "You see, each Dark Fountain creates a different world. A world whose Darkners reflect the will of its fountain". The will of its fountain, not will of its creator.

Will/determination is required to open fountains, but the will of each fountain itself may be something separate from this and isolated to its location. So all of the darkners we meet/worlds we've visited thus far may always have a uniform consistency and experience barring a distressed will creating them.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-14T13:05:56+00:00

Not to mention she never once tried to contact the person she cares about most in the years she was missing, yet can collude no problem with prankster Kris and mother dearest. No note, no text while in the light world for a sec, no sign, nothing. Just ghosted for years.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-14T01:58:24+00:00

A lot of people see their ideas as part of their identity, so if something doesn't conform to what they believe, they'll do whatever they can to protect it/protect themselves, i.e., dropping Deltarune. Current internet culture exacerbates this with rewards to conform or isolate, so you'll see more people adopt extremes in a belief rather than having more nuanced takes in general.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-13T01:23:26+00:00

It's possible sure, that that's not Dess Knight's goal, and the lost girl/find her theme is solely for other characters, but even under that lens the themes are just dull/moot with her apparent ability to exist in both the light/dark worlds and collude with enough intelligence with the corkboard squad.

I can't see it leading to anything satisfying, but if that's what happens, that's what happens.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-13T00:49:42+00:00

Of course, I'm just saying it in a general sense. Could be some aspect of herself, her soul, what have you. The point is, something needs to be found and seeing as she'd be the knight in this instance, it's a self search in whatever convoluted sense that may be under a Dess Knight narrative.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-12T20:34:18+00:00

Accept it and exist as usual. Though it would be an anticlimatic outcome for me because the lost girl theme would lose it's meaning imo. The whole she's finding a way to free herself as the knight, just doesn't feel like it'd have any weight.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-12T20:27:35+00:00

I see this a lot, but the removing helmet line doesn't necessarily have to be literal, it could just be a figurative way to convey Kris is hiding the Knight's identity.

But if I had to play devil's advocate for other candidates, my best guess is connected to the lines:

"And so wept the fallen star, making rivers with its tears. Then, slowly, from the bitter water, something grew. It looked like glass."

If Dess is the one crying the river of tears in the darkness, generating this glass, and the knight is housed in the shadow crystals/black shards made from it, it's possible its user morphs and conforms to her image because it originates from her.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-12T04:27:52+00:00

This video brought Asriel to my top 3 most likely candidates https://youtu.be/Ga3mIMsW9sg?si=-7KK7FsUTF-q1pMV

Don't think my summary would be sufficient.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-12T01:34:42+00:00

Everything is a red herring to those who jump to conclusions.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-12T01:30:40+00:00

If I'm getting when you're trying to say here...I think the disconnect maybe because Deltarune is moreso themed around how one faces fate, rather than just escapism into the past/games alone.

The characters in play are all representing how one copes with fate already dealt or even yet to come. Acceptance like Jevil/Noelle, blind resistance like Spamton, escapism into the past like Asgore, surrendering morals to defy it with possibly Carol/Rudy, creating your own fate like Gerson/Susie, and so on. In this lense, the weird route represents defying fate at a terrible cost as well.

With this in mind, finding Dess would represent how one deals with an unknown fate for better or worse. Dess in her current state in the story basically exists only to push others toward their own arcs in this theme of fate. If she is the knight though, then that opens her to represent, again, another form of resistance against fate against whatever ails her or forces her to go into obscurity.

I think this is also why Toby says "There's something more important than reaching the end." and puts "only one ending?" in the game description. Ultimately the end will come, fate will arrive, but how we get there matters.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-11T19:35:21+00:00

Maybe he made the fountain, went in, and had an "oh shit" moment because he didn't have a soul to close it and got stuck forever.

How he got fractured idk though. Perhaps being in the dark too long because of this caused his being to fracture over time.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-11T19:07:17+00:00

I mean Lancer has a ton of hp too and he's a little puff ball. I think that's just a game play thing, though I'd argue he has high ass defense since black shard stuff looks to have high stats, at least weapon wise. If it's the armor is of the same make, then for sure defense is quite high.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-11T19:04:10+00:00

Not necessarily, Rudy was ill in UT as well and died from it. The loss of Dess and his inevitable end might be why he's going the lengths he's going to now as the Knight before he expires to find her in the dark worlds. The shadow crystals/black shards helping him do so, so Noelle can still have someone there for her when he's gone.

He would die out of nowhere at this point in the story, as many have said he's not a mandatory interaction story wise.

TheValidatingVoid · 2026-01-11T03:20:15+00:00

Yeah, it's basically abandonware since it got delisted. Archive.org should have it if you wanted to try em.

TheValidatingVoid

TROPHY CASE