How Deltarune Faces Fear || COURAGE THEORY

Here it is! My Big Theory. Thank you for watching!! This has technically been cooking for years, but I’m glad I worked on it more seriously when I did. It honestly was Asgore calling Kris “courageous” that tipped me over the edge on how I felt about the word in the game, so my other two videos were basically warmup for this one! It is nothing short of a miracle that this video made it out of the oven at all, also. My computer had some trouble at the finish line, but if you’re reading this now, we managed to cross it somehow. Hopefully this won’t be an issue for any future videos now that I’ve cut my teeth on this. I have no particularly grand plans for future videos, mostly just some stuff I wanna point at and go “HUH?!” because I myself have not made sense of all the strange little details yet. However, this really was The Big One for me, and future videos might come out more slowly as I take a little time to focus on other areas of my life for a bit! I’d also like to shout out a few videos here!! Of course there’s Goldpro’s video on Shadow Crystals (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raOxyr6IRHo) that came out while I was writing the script and really helped me connect the dots regarding the relationship between determination, hope, fear, and courage. I also mentioned Andrew Cunningham’s Ink Theory (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TrrPvz6nHI), which I think is just the most comprehensive analysis of symbols we have at the moment, and I think it helped me understand the place courage holds in the game a little better. Not mentioned in the video are two others I’d like to bring up. The first is Freezie’s video on Kris and OCD representation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY8krggrTgQ), which has stuck with me since I first watched it. It’s a very earnest and thoughtful analysis of Kris’ character and, genuinely, even if I end up being wrong about Kris having NOT done something violent in their past, it’s a big reason for why I want to avoid categorizing them in that way until the shoe finally drops. The second is ElliotOnline’s recent Kris analysis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n2USlDO_mo) which I watched after writing my own script. It is a really good companion piece, and I think we came to a lot of similar conclusions despite working from very different angles. The section about Toby Fox personally talking about his experiences with setbacks and health concerns galvanized the stance I took in this video. If you liked my video and somehow haven’t seen this one, check it out. Also, when I finished recording, I decided to do my due diligence and actually check nobody had made a video on courage in Deltarune ALREADY…I found one from pre-Chapter 3…but I can’t find it anymore?? I would shout them out here but I can’t find proof it ever existed, so if you’re out there and remember it too, just know I genuinely didn’t watch it until after writing this whole script. SOURCES: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ID9KocIOzS8-v7vP7tRGX1Ew-jBvx22duZ2UnrjM984/edit?usp=sharing Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/moss-stepper.bsky.social Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/mossstepper And a reminder, please be chill about Ralsei pronouns in the comments. Even well-meaning comments can, unfortunately, cross over into harmful ones accidentally, and I’d like this space to be clear of that kind of harm. The only thing stopping me from using she/her was an absence of textual precedent, and if you don’t like either of those options, let’s simply agree to disagree. Thank you! That’s all for now!! Moss OUT! CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction 02:14 Faint Courage and Leitmotif Analysis 08:08 Courage and Encourage in Chapter 1 16:52 Courage and Encourage Throughout Deltarune 22:52 The Big One: Courage in Chapter 4 32:58 Kris, Noelle, Trauma, and Fear 46:26 Courage and Tension 49:10 Susie’s Bravery vs Kris’ Fear 58:21 What Happens When You Lose 1:10:36 Trust 1:16:25 Heart