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This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
| “ | i know your type. you're, uh, very determined, aren't you? you'll never give up, even if there's, uh... absolutely NO benefit to persevering whatsoever. if I can make that clear. no matter what, you'll just keep going. not out of any desire for good or evil... but just because you think you can. and because you "can"... you "have to." | „ |
| ~ Sans describing the SOUL's amoral motives. |
| “ | But. You and I are not the same, are we? This SOUL resonates with a strange feeling. There is a reason you continue to recreate this world. There is a reason you continue to destroy it. You. You are wracked with a perverted sentimentality. Hmm. I cannot understand these feelings any more. Despite this. I feel obligated to suggest. Should you choose to create this world once more. Another path would be better suited. Now, partner. Let us send this world back into the abyss. | „ |
| ~ Chara to the player if they succeed in a second Genocide run. |
| “ | (I can still... hear... their voice...) | „ |
| ~ Noelle Holiday hearing the SOUL speak to her. |
The SOUL is the overarching protagonist of the 2015 indie role-playing video game Undertale and its 2018 successor Deltarune.
They are the human SOUL that's inside of and controlling both Frisk and Kris Dreemurr on their journeys throughout the Underground and the Dark Worlds respectively. On a meta level, the SOUL is supposed to be a representation of the player themself, and due to both games having several routes with various choices, the SOUL can easily fall into a villainous role in some of them.
Biography[]
Undertale[]
Influence[]
As Undertale is a game that is very big on meta-commentary, the player themselves is just as much a character as anyone else inside the game, and the most powerful being in the context of the game as well. In any playthrough, the player is the one controlling Frisk and the being who makes every decision. At any moment, the SOUL can turn back time to the point where Frisk fell into the Underground, the only ones capable of overriding this power being Flowey after absorbing the Six Human SOULs and Chara after they reaches maximum LOVE (Level of Violence). Most of the time, when the SOUL resets time, only Frisk and Flowey are fully aware of the resets while everyone else has only vague recollections, but if the SOUL either sells itself to Chara or does a True Reset, even Frisk and Flowey can be made to forget.
There are only a handful of beings in Undertale that are aware of the SOUL's influence and none of them know all of the details. Outside of Chara and Flowey, only Sans is aware of its existence, and mistakes it for an anomaly that he was researching (the true anomaly is, all things considered, most likely Flowey). It's also likely that Chara misunderstood the SOUL for Frisk, too, given their wording.
The only beings capable of challenging the SOUL directly are those who have reached maximum LOVE, such as Chara (who gained their LOVE through murder) and Flowey (who gained his LOVE by absorbing human souls). However, both are powerless against indirect influences, as the SOUL can edit the games files to alter the world as they see fit.
Pacifist Run[]
In a pacifist run, the SOUL is a benevolent influence on Frisk who guides them through the underground, presumably being helped by Chara who gives them advice on the best course of action. However, at the end of a pacifist run, it is possible to reset back to when Frisk fell into the underground, which by that point even Flowey no longer wants to do.
However, if the SOUL had done a genocide run before, the ending will be made sour by Chara who shows that they can possess Frisk at any time due to the player having sold Frisk's soul, regardless of how many Pacifist Runs they done.
Neutral Run[]
The influence of the SOUL can be either benevolent or malevolent in this run. They can still be helping Frisk through the Underground, but not on a pacifist route due to mistakes on their part. However, if the SOUL is experimenting at this point, then they are trying to find out what would happen if they kill certain characters and spare other characters, under the justification that everyone can simply be brought back.
Genocide Run[]
In a genocide run, the SOUL is a villainous demiurge, playing an emotionally exhausting playthrough that calls them out on their actions every step of the way, is full of tedious level grinding, gives little pleasure in its fights due to their rapid end and two incredibly difficult bosses, and permanently ruins any ending they can get. At any point, the SOUL can undo a genocide route by resetting unless they reach the point where Chara speaks to them.
After Flowey and Asgore die, Chara greets the SOUL, thanking the latter for guiding and teaching them the importance of power. Chara then gives the SOUL the option to erase the world or preserve it. Both options lead to the world being destroyed, but saying to preserve it results in Chara betraying the player.
If the SOUL returns to the Underground, it will be nothing but a void. After ten minutes, Chara will speak to them again, knowing the SOUL wants to go back and will call them out for thinking that they are above consequences. Chara will then offer to make a deal with the player, trading Frisk's soul in exchange for regaining their influence over the world. If the player refuses, Chara will say to stay there forever. Though if the player agrees, then Chara will uphold their end of the deal.
If the player does a second Genocide run, Chara will be disgusted by the SOUL's actions, describing the SOUL as having a perverted sentimentality that they can't understand and viewing the SOUL as a different and worse kind of depravity than their own. They will even suggest to the player that a different route would be better suited should they choose to recreate the world again. Nonetheless, Chara will then give the same options as the first Genocide run, erasing the world either way. However, they will not prevent the SOUL from resetting their second genocide run.
Deltarune[]
Chapter 1: The Beginning[]
In Undertale's alternate universe successor Deltarune, The SOUL somehow takes control of the sole human in town, Kris. However, before all this, an unknown voice speaks to them and tries to create a vessel with them. After it's created, however, someone (either the Voice or a new entity) discards it, declaring that The SOUL's choices don't matter, and that nobody gets to decide who they are in this world.
The game, after that, wastes no time to frequently remind the player that their choices don't matter. This time, the player's choices hold less weight, and the game is successful at limiting their actions regardless of their path. Attempting a Genocide Route in Deltarune is insignificant as enemies will automatically flee when defeated and no one can normally be killed, though their trust in you never develops. Meanwhile, attempting a Pacifist Route is not entirely successful, as you end up meeting a nonnegotiable villain at the end. The SOUL's philosophy of the Genocide Route has been integrated into some of the characters within Deltarune: Susie fights enemies on instinct (though she grows out of these instincts, still willing to fight but not unprovoked), King is irredeemably cruel towards the other characters and refuses to listen to reason until he is sorely defeated, and the secret boss Jevil, who believes that he can get away with his actions because he believes that in Deltarune's world, your choices don't matter.
At the end of Deltarune's first chapter, no matter what route the SOUL takes, Kris gets out of bed, tears the SOUL out of their body and throws it into a cage, before making an evil look on their face while brandishing a knife. Meanwhile, the player is able to move the SOUL around in the cage, suggesting that they were in control of Kris before they threw the SOUL away.
Chapter 2: A Cyber's World[]
It's revealed that Kris simply went to get some pie after ripping their SOUL out, and promptly put it back in its place after finishing their meal. Fans theorize that Kris made the Dark World in the computer room, but Berdly and Noelle were studying in it and still think they had a dream.
The SOUL, its vessel and their friends explore a second Dark World ruled by a tyrannical (albeit very unserious) Queen who seeks world domination. Unlike King, she is benevolent and can be reasoned with, to the point she manages to redeem herself in every ending after learning her plans would utterly doom the Light and Dark worlds. The player encounters Jevil's successor, an insane salesman called Spamton G. Spamton. Similar as to how the SOUL will search for and do anything they can to satisfy their curiosity and find a way to prove their choices matter, but in contrast to Jevil's sadistic nihilism, Spamton is enraged at the fact his choices don't matter and seeks to escape the Dark World(?) to achieve freedom and reach a place/state he calls "Heaven," where he will be free from the strings controlling his every move and become a "real boy". It's implied "Heaven" is either the Light World, real life, or the 'Angel's Heaven' mentioned in the Prophecy. Spamton, outside of the Voice and Ralsei, is the first person to acknowledge the SOUL's existence, wanting to steal it from Kris and absorb it, believing it will help him reach Heaven.
It's implied (and later on revealed) that Kris has an immense dislike of the SOUL, as you have the choice to fight Spamton NEO, an upgraded form of Spamton and the chapter's secret boss. Spamton has an intense hatred of the literal strings holding him down and seeks to cut them to achieve freedom, and if spared, is joyful at the fact Kris genuinely wants to help him... but once his final string is cut, he falls to the ground and is reduced into his old form, before becoming an item for the Lightners to use. After the fight, Kris is noticeably traumatized and panicking, as pointed out by Susie and Ralsei, possibly implying they're scared by the fact that they can't live without the entity controlling them.
However, the introduction of Noelle Holiday as a new party member gives the SOUL an oppurtunity to kill others via freezing them, and perform the closest the game has to a Genocide Run. In an event dubbed the Snowgrave or Weird Route, the SOUL psychologically tortures Noelle and forces her to kill Darkners for it with her ice magic. Making a deal with Spamton, the SOUL buys a strange item known as the ThornRing, what is tantamount to a physical and psychological torture device, and equips it onto Noelle before forcing her to freeze her own classmate, Berdly, in an overkill large ice prism via making her use SnowGrave, which she repeatedly tells them is a spell she does not know before being forced to use it. The route's final enemy is not GIGA Queen, but instead Spamton NEO, who claims that the SnowGrave Route will grant Kris freedom(?), but leave them in a "broken home" wishing for death. Once Spamton is killed by the SOUL calling for Noelle, and the Fountain is sealed, Berdly remains unresponsive and is comatose.
No matter what ending the player picks, the chapters ends the same way; Kris rips out their SOUL and momentarily leaves to slash the tires to Toriel's car, thus making their mother paranoid enough to make Susie stay over for a sleepover and call the police. In the middle of the night, Kris rips their SOUL out, turns on the TV and opens the door to their house before creating a Dark Fountain in the middle of the living room. Putting the SOUL back into their body as the Fountain fills the room, the TV flashes a menacing smile, having come to life as a Darkner.
Chapter 3: Late Night[]
During Chapter 3, the effects of the SOUL on the player are a lot less prominent, but appear in other ways. For example, Tenna will have a quiz on Kris' home life, and everyone will be visibly surprised should Kris miss any questions. Kris even coughs on a question asking for their favorite food when hovering over "pie." During quizzes, the SOUL is used instead of the face of Kris' video game sprite like Susie and Ralsei.
A form of notable symbolism appears when Susie swaps the cords on the console around while Ralsei is distracted, though the majority is shown to be played for laughs and to show that Ralsei is less of a leader and is too used to following Kris around and being ordered to do their bidding.
For the rest of the chapter, the SOUL controls Kris as usual with no major or unusual moments that address the SOUL specifically.
Chapter 4: Prophecy[]
Unlike Chapter 3, this chapter almost revolves around the SOUL for the first portion. During Kris' dream/flashback at the start, Kris is unresponsive when told to close the fountain, which confuses Susie until the dream ends abruptly. Kris interacts with Susie in a friendly way for most of the chapter, even being somewhat able to do so without the player's input, like when they high-five Susie or when both of them pour punch into each other's mouths in a silly way.
At Noelle's house and within Dess' room, Kris is hinted at being uncomfortable with digging through Dess' room for clues, and this is half because one of the codes to the shelter (where Undyne was taken) is inside of the guitar. They rip out their SOUL again to stop them from seeing the rest of the code (the only numbers readable before Kris does so is 1 2 2), and shove it in a gift box downstairs, stopping the player from learning the code, though they fail to notice the exposed vent behind an easily movable gift box.
The SOUL can now fly around unobstructed areas in Noelle's house, though they are limited to the ventillation system at first. IN the ventillation system they are able to bear witness to a few things they were unable to get to see while controlling Kris, learning that Asgore is in the house working as maid for the Holiday family, and that he somehow has a Black shard in his possession, which can be learned by going to the vent in the bathroom and then going to the parent's room, where the he appears to be talking to himself about some plan to bring his family back together involving the shard. The SOUL can also bear witness to Kris having a drink while on the phone with an unknown voice at the other end, who instructs them to not let Susie find the code in the guitar, and mentions other important information like the imminent formation of a Dark World at the church tonight, a sacrifice taking place next week, and crucially, that Kris cannot enter the Dark World without the SOUL without dying. The vent here is open, but getting too close to Kris or touching the piano causes them to immediately grab or hit the soul out of the air. Kris puts the SOUL back in the gift box and fixes the vent, but it swings open when they shut the door, and the SOUL can get back into the vents. attempting to go back to the kitchen reveals the vent is fixed, though unlike before, Kris will walk off-screen to play the piano for several minutes. Eventually, the SOUL winds up in the basement, accidentally traping themselves by dislodging the open vent.
After ending up in the basement, the SOUL can witness (and unwittingly be part of) a series of tender moments between Susie and Noelle, which at first require no interactions from the player, though when they run out of dialogue the first time, the player may turn on a music player, which creeps out Noelle for a moment before her and Susie go back to talking to each other. Eventually the SOUL hits the breaker switch, causing the girls to come down to the basement to turn the lights back on, assuming Kris is responsible. After Susie knocks over the Christmas tree in the basement (accidentally trapping the soul under an angel doll), the SOUL can do nothing but wriggle left and right while Noelle and Susie try finding the breaker switch, sharing another tender moment together. Eventually, the soul bumps into either of the girls (the outcome is the same), causing them to notice the moving angel doll, though Noelle scoops the doll up with a cookie pan, leading to them not discovering the SOUL before the two leave the room to look for a hamster cage allowing the SOUL to escape. When trying to go back to the guitar in Dess' room, the SOUL is sniped out of the air with a hockey puck from under the bed by Kris and both hide in the closet with the guitar to evade the girls. Kris assaults the SOUL with a hockey stick as the SOUL tries to make noise by strumming the guitar, often pausing when the girls mention them and even blushing when mentioning their skill at flirting. Eventually, Susie gets the guitar and control of Kris is assumed again, though she fails to remember the code despite partially seeing it inside, before she has it taken away by the arriving Carol Holiday, who is implied to be the voice on the phone. The SOUL itself does not play a role separate to Kris (other than becoming able to glow brighter in the Dark Worlds in order to survive an attack by the Knight) until the very end of the chapter, where Kris leaves them in the birdcage before attempting to get some sleep.
In the Weird Route, Kris is only more infuriated at the SOUL. After traumatizing Noelle during the day, Kris uses the night after Chapter 2 to try to soothe her by apologizing profusely, removing a thorn from Noelle's finger, returning her watch, et cetera. However, the player can choose to completely undo all of Kris' attempts to convince Noelle that it was a dream by completely terrorizing her, with Noelle learning that her thoughts can be read. At the end, Kris unwillingly imbeds the ThornRing from earlier into her hand. Afterward, Kris enters the bathroom and throws the SOUL into a trashcan, beating it up in rage for what it did to Noelle. After Kris finishes, he is informed by Asgore that Carol has ordered everyone to leave, and they reluctantly put the SOUL back in their body.
Chapter 5[]
TBD
Chapter 6[]
TBD
Chapter 7[]
TBD
Trivia[]
- The SOUL is the reason why Frisk could either choose Pacifist, Neutral Route or the Genocide Route.
- It's sometimes speculated that while Sans was addressing the player as the Anomaly, the true anomaly he was investigating was in fact Flowey, with everything he accused the player of was actually done by the flower. Evidence to this is the fact that the player can do genocide on their very first run with little or literally no saving, Flowey saying that he has done everything except taking the human souls and that Sans has been battling him in numerous timelines, as well as the fact that the player/Frisk hasn't been in control of the timeline long enough for Sans to become aware of this and gain depression.
- It is heavily implied that the Voice that speaks to the player in the intro and game over screens of Chapter 1, after failed attempts to defeat The Knight in Chapter 3, and at the very end of Chapter 4, is Dr. W.D. Gaster, the former royal scientist and most mysterious character in Deltarune's predecessor, Undertale.
- Given how the Voice has been looking for the player and that Kris' SOUL is needed to seal the Fountains, it seems like the SOUL is a necessary evil needed to prevent the end of this world.
- Kris is capable of resisting some of the choices you try to make for them, to the point where they may even bite their own hand to stop you from saying they'll never play piano again.
- After the release of Chapter 2, it was theorized that the Weird Route was the SOUL attempting to change fate and the Prophecy of Delta Rune itself in an effort to obtain autonomy and control over the game much like in Undertale. This is brought up in Chapter 4 by Ralsei, but implies that the results of the Weird Route would be even worse than the grim fate of the prophecy.
- The Dark Sanctuaries' depictions of the Monster Hero fall more in line with Noelle Holiday than with Susie, with her carrying a sword (which Noelle can carry if hacked into later chapters) instead of an axe and wearing a feminine dress instead of Susie's tomboyish clothes. More importantly, the Prophecy describes that love will find its way into the Monster Hero's heart, both referencing Noelle and Susie's burgeoning relationship and the SOUL forcing Noelle to LV up in the Weird Route.
- Additionally, the version of Tenna's game that Ramb claims is 'the original' heavily references the Weird Route, implying that Kris's path was initially intended to be much more violent.
External Links[]
- SOUL on the Heroes Wiki
- SOUL on The Undertale Wiki
- Player on The Undertale Wiki
- SOUL on The Deltarune Wiki
- Player on The Deltarune Wiki
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