Why Does Kris Remove Their Soul in 'Deltarune'? The Eerie Question Has Haunted Fans

For fans of Undertale, the arrival of Deltarune was a welcome drop by the creator of both games, Toby Fox. But Deltarune is more cryptic than its sister game, leaving players with almost as many questions as answers.

Among those answers is one of the most pressing: Why does Kris remove their soul? As the protagonist of the game and main player character, Kris's behavior has raised some eyebrows and created endless fan speculation about how they relate to the player, what's going on with their soul, and how it might tie into Undertale.

Kris seems to be your average teenager who stumbles on a mysterious Dark World. Until that is, the soul-ripping starts and things get weird.

Here's what we know.

To understand why Kris removes their soul, represented as a heart, we have to first determine whose soul is in their body. You might think that the obvious answer is: of course, it's Kris's soul. Why wouldn't it be?

But nothing is easy when it comes to Toby Fox games, so we have to think outside of the box a little bit. Or outside of the body, if you will.

We already know from the beginning of the game that Kris's vessel is inhabited by the player.

So that would suggest that Kris's body is capable of housing souls that don't belong to them. So is the soul us, the player, or does it belong to Kris, or someone else?

We don't actually know, yet. But seeing Kris rip the soul out and stroll off to cause mischief, at least presumably, can be confusing to witness. After all, since we get left behind with the soul as Kris slips out of the room to parts unknown, it would suggest that we, the player, are Kris's soul.

But whether or not that assumption is correct, the question of "why" is even harder to answer.

On Reddit, some users speculate that Kris does it because they don't want their soul, the player, to witness what they're about to do. Others suggest that the soul is weighing heavily on Kris, and they tear it out for some relief. As to why they put it back, well, Undertale, and the existence of the puppet-like soulless Spamton would suggest that Kris can't live long without the soul.

Whether that means that we have supplanted or fused with Kris's soul, or something else is going on, remains a mystery even now that Chapters 3 and 4 of the game have dropped.

But we can assume that Kris is removing the soul to get up to some trouble — for what purpose remains to be seen.

Of course, to understand the world of Deltarune more thoroughly, we have to understand how it intersects with Undertale.

If you haven't already figured it out, "Deltarune" is an anagram of "Undertale," and the connections don't stop there.

Both series share several characters in common (Sans, Alphys, and Undyne), as well as events and places, just a little scrambled up.

As Game Theorist notes in a video exploring the connection between the two games, Toby actually admitted on X (formerly Twitter) that Deltarune was created before Undertale. At least, the concept was.

So when people saw hints in Undertale that seemed like references to Deltarune, they likely were exactly what they theorized.

The going theory is that Deltarune is an alternative universe version of Undertale, perhaps created by the actions in Undertale.

As Deltarune continues to unfold, more answers will be forthcoming.

At least, we hope.