u/Practical-Photo659

I'm making a Dusttale take where sans, instead of doing a genocide run, instead does a Weird Route.

the idea is, living in snowdin for so long after leaving Deltarune, has thematically connected himself to the cold. so in the eyes of the darkworlds, he can cast ice magic.

with the human falling down, and the power of the shadowcrystal he hid away in his lab generated by his lost dream to get back to hometown, he creates Darkfountains with his Natural determination (he is a deltarune monster, so he has enough Determination to make fountains) and freezes enemies to get stronger. emptying the fountain of life, making no distinction between lightner or darkner. working his way up to finding a prick of thorn in Asgore's Throne Room.

now onto what I need help with, the fight will take place in Asgore's Throne Room. first phase will be against sans in the lightworld, before he makes a fountain and the fight transitions to the darkworld, with Ice magic and many Flowery darkners to kill. the longer the fight goes on, the more flowers sans freezes, and the stronger sans gets.

does anyone have any ideas for bullet patterns for either stage of this fight? I don't want it to be just completely bones or completely Gaster Blasters, so ideas for some alternative bullet types would be helpful . also in the dark world phase 2, he will have some ice magic bullets, and attacks reminiscent of the Roaring Knight.

some differences from normal Dusttale:

instead of Sans remembering past genocide runs, he looks into the shadow crystal and remembers your Weird routes.

he doesn't try to kill Toriel or Papyrus. they are killed by the human. but anything and anyone else is fair game.

Sans doesn't go Insane like he does in Dusttale, though he is motivated and obsessed with the Human's soul. seeing it as the peice he needs to finally fix his machine found in his lab. (he recognises Kris and Frisk acting the same, and assumes the soul can travel between the two worlds as it pleases).

He doesn't take other monster's magic, but he might mimic them using bones in the lightworld, or ice in the darkworld (like toriel fire for example)

finally, I know it's common place in usual dusttale fights for sans to have the colour switching hiding attacks or the soul, but I don't want to use it since I feel it's a bit too unfair to play lol.

EDIT: Also, if you know of any music that might fit for this fight, lmk!

I couldn't think of a way to translate the darkworld design artistically, so i just bulletpointed out my ideas for how it would roughly look like.

here is the original DustFountain post: https://www.reddit.com/r/AUDeltarune/s/v6C6l8GAzD

During a genocide run, the Human breaks into sans' lab behind his house. this intrusion by the anomaly, along with their slaughter, causes sans to take a look at the broken machine again. and find the shadow crystal formed from his lost dreams of returning home.

Sans, remembering what he saw before he entered the Underground, taught himself how to open dark fountains, (as he is a Deltarune Lightner, he has the needed determination to do so.)

using this power, Sans creates multiple Darkworlds, using his magic to violence as many darkners as he can. getting 'stronger' in the darkworlds.

once the player makes it to the last corridor, sans isn't there. replaced by a fight against Asgore, and then the murder of flowey.

Instead, once the player enters the Throne Room, sans awaits them. creating a dark fountain surrounded by the field of Asgore's flowers.

this AU would basically be a more "canon" (in my opinion, obviously this assumes DR sans is Undertale sans) way of doing a strengthened killer sans. as sans doesn't have to go insane, or kill his friends/loved ones. Instead just motivated with one last chance of truely returning back to his home timeline, with the enhanced strength of destroying Darkners, a shadow crystal, and a hundred Flowerys lol.

This multi theory connection is built upon a few key observations.

1. Deltarune is a story about Hopes and Dreams. (as stated in the opening prophecy when loading the game)

2. Shadow crystals are made of/are the power of Lost Dreams.

3. The (Implied) Strongest characters in Deltarune's Darkworlds are Flowery and Ralsei (metaknowlege and potential strength), The shadow crystal holders (Jevil, Spamton, Gerson, Pink), and The Roaring Knight.

with this in mind, I want to state some of my personal theories, and how they tie back to the Themes supported by deltarune's narritive. [DISCLAMER: these are all in my opinion, all other theories are valid and cool (*: ]

--#1 the Shadow Crystals --

unlike what was believed pre chapter 5, I think its more likely now that Shadow crystals aren't given out to specific people. rather I think that it's implied that they are created/generated when something or someone experiences a shattering of their dreams. Jevil's dream to escape the confines of his reality, Mettaton's dream for a corporial body (the drawing that become the Neo body that spamton took over), Gerson not being able to finish lord of the hammer (which he accepted, why he chose not to use the Crystal's power. or the crystal was because of Father Alvin's Dreams to live up to his father idk), and Pink's dream to be a cat girl (and the such)

since Shadow Crystals have been revealed to be the power of lost dreams by shawm, I do believe that lost dreams in general have an immense power in the dark world. wether it's someone getting a hold of a shadow crystal, a darkner made from or heavily influenced by a Lighter's dreams, or something or someone getting swallowed by these lost dreams, litteraly or figuratively.

-- #2 The Nature of Flowery and Ralsei --

Ralsei and Flowery are two sides of the same coin when it comes to having Meta Knowledge, and how they use it, and their pholosophy surrounding it. yet neither are exactly Lightner nor Darkner, according to the rules about Darkners we currently know of.

the idea of Plantners has been floating around the community, but I would like to propose a different grouping for this third kind of entity - Dreamner. (name is dogwater, but let's roll with it.) Why Dreamner? well, I belive that beings like Ralsei and Flowery are given such immense power because of their connection with a Lightner's lost hopes and dreams.

for Flowery, he has been with Asgore since his College days (I think), and Asgore loves and speaks to is flowers all the time. (see the Asgore/sans pickles dialog in chapter 2). so, I think Flowery has been flooded by Asgores hopes over the years (marrying Toriel, getting divorced, all Asgores hardships) which gave him the knowledge and power over meta aspects that he shows in chapter 5.

for Ralsei, I think he represents Kris' old childhood hopes to be a Boss Monster. that's why Ralsei has so many Asriel Parralels, because he is litteraly Kris' OC based of their brother. it also explains why he is everywhere, because he isn't an object, but an idea. and 'belongs' in every dark world because The openers of the fountains both know who Ralsei is. Kris because Ralsei is their OC, but also the person that Kris would have told alot of lore about too. the person that Kris spent the most time with growing up.. The Roaring Knight to be.

-- #3 Who and What is the Knight? --

It's been implied that the Material that makes up the Knight's armour is either very simular, or the same as, the Shadow Crystals. since the black shards don't change in the light world, and neither does the Shadow Crystals. following the same logic, the Knight's armour is made up of Lost Dreams, conceptually (or litteraly), consuming its wearer.

now, who would be a person that, Has a motive to be the Roaring Knight, is close enough to kris that they trust the knight In kidnapping Asgore and (attempting to kidnap) Toriel, would be wracked up in Lost Dreams [Grief perhaps], and has no other great place in the narrative or the game on their own, and has been mentioned increasingly more and more throughout the chapters? well, I belive that to be Asriel.

before you raise your "Narratively unsatisfying" pitchforks, let me cook for a second.

I wont go into specific AsrielKnight evidence in this post, (maybe in the comments if asked), but I think that Asriel is being set up to be a player in the plot. and since he didn't appear during/after the festival, I really dont see a way for him to enter the story outside of what I'm about to propose.

"And so wept the fallen star, making rivers with its tears.. It looked like glass"

from the love letters in Asriel's room to Dess, and what we know from is character in Undertale, I find it very unlikely that Asriel would have been able to completely move on from Dess. hell, he still misses Chara at the end of True pacifist in Undertale, so that he spends his last moments before turning into a flower, watching over Chara's Grave.

I belive the Dessaperance would have emotionally SHATTERED Asriel. this isn't to say he Didn't go to college at some point, but if he is anything like his child self. he would have dived into any avenue he knew of to figure out how to find December. since he is mentioned to be very devout by Alvin, I think he would have sunk deep into his religion, and the prophecy. learning the power of the Knight that makes with Blackend Knife. and how to become the Roaring Knight of the prophecy, fueled by consuming grief, to find out what happened that day, and how to bring her back.

little aside with the quote I put above. Asriel has very prominent motifs with both Crying and Stars throughout both UT and DR. with him describing himself to be a crybaby, and having star attacks in undertale, to Asriel having many glow in the dark stars above his bed, and being implied to being the "crying and crying boy" by the rubbish ribbiks in chapter 3 (In contrast with the lost and lost girl, Dess). also I want to add that Shawm was likely invented by Asriel (Shawm was on Asriel's computer), Shawm said he Had the shadow mantle in the past. which eram now(then) has, inside the console under ASRIEL'S BED using ASRIEL'S KNOCKOFF CONTROLER to even access and gain the shadow mantle. (i don't think i need to explain the connections between eram/shadowmantle with the knight)

anyway, this is to say that Asriel, the Hopes and Dreams character. in the game that has the story about Hopes and Dreams. where Hopes and Dreams are powerful forces and attributes that can heavily enhance someone's power. may just be the Roaring Knight. which explains why Ralsei can exist In fountains made by the Knight and Kris, creates a very cool new lens to the Flowery vs Knight fight in chapter 5 (which becomes a personification of Asriel's struggle in Undertale, but viewpoints are flipped between monster and flower), gives Asriel a place in the story, ties up the Shadow Crystals story in a neat bow, and creates a very compelling (and very different) story about grief and escapism that ties very nicely into the themes and story of Deltarune, Undertale's parrallel story :]

thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. please leave any questions in the replies, but if your just going to say you really dislike asriel knight because of [insert x reason you think it's bad that Asriel is in the story because of undertale reasons], please reread this post :^)

edited from TF2: Expiration Date