---
Title: The Angel is You
Status: published
Date: 2023-08-12
Modified: 2024-07-08
Category: fandom
Tags: undertale, theorizing
ad: hearts and minds and souls and hearts
---
*"...okay, fine, you can have one more, but only because of the name"*
*a Deltarune theory*
::: aside spoiler-warning
Spoils Homestuck, Undertale, and Deltarune
Answering the questions raised by Ralsei's prophecy:
- Who is the Angel?
- What is the "Angel's Heaven"?
- How can it be banished?
## Angels and Heavens
First, here's a list of all the references to "Angels" or "Heaven" in the text of Undertale and Deltarune, which I'll go through one by one:
- The human in Undertale is called an "angel" for coming down from the human world (this is a red herring) (this could also refer to Asriel but it doesn't matter)
- The Angel's Heaven from Ralsei's prophecy
- The Heaven Spamton is pursuing
- The Angel worshipped by the Hometown church
+ The Angel doll Noelle and Dess made in church youth group
### Undertale
First, the "angel" (lowercase) from Undertale, which I'll ultimately want to write off as a distraction.
In Waterfall, you can ask Gerson about the Delta "with-a-space" Rune, the royal emblem, and he'll exposit:
* Eh?
* You don't know what that is?
* What are they teaching you kids in school nowadays...?
* Wa ha ha!
* That's the Delta Rune, the emblem of our kingdom.
* The Kingdom...
* ... of Monsters.
* That emblem actually predates written history.
* The original meaning has been lost to time...
* All we know is that the triangles symbolize us monsters below, and the winged circle above symbolizes...
* Somethin' else.
* Most people say it's the 'angel,' from the prophecy...
* Oh yeah...
* The prophecy.
* Legend has it, an 'angel' who has seen the surface will descend from above and bring us freedom.
* Lately, the people have been taking a bleaker outlook...
* Callin' that winged circle the 'Angel of Death.'
* A harbinger of destruction, waitin' to 'free' us from this mortal realm...
* In my opinion, when I see that little circle...
* I jus' think it looks neat!
* Wahaha!
There are two pieces of this that I think are relevant to Deltarune proper:
- Gerson understands the "little circle" as being a distinct shape, not necessarily part of the "wings" of the angel.
+ One interpretation of this is that the "angel" is the whole upper half -- wings and circle -- that's made of two components: the circle, and its wings. We see some of this in Asriel, as he has a distinct form without the wings, but then chooses to grow them in his god form to symbolize power and ascension, effectively stepping into the role of the angel.
- Undertale knows the rune used to have a meaning, but it was lost to time. The meaning they have now is reconstructed from legend. Contrast this with Deltarune, where the meaning comes directly from a specific Prophecy.
But, as this description relates to the story of Undertale proper, it doesn't map cleanly onto the world.
The delta rune doesn't quite "fit" Undertale (likely because it was written and designed with Deltarune in mind): the "angel" ambiguously refers to the player character who descends from the surface to either bring freedom or death depending on the player's choices, or just Asriel and later his god form.
In Undertale, the three triangles don't refer to anything in particular, just "the general population" of monsterkind.
This is much weaker symbology than in Deltarune proper, where each component of the rune itself has a specific meaning. I briefly discussed this in [Post-Ch2 Deltarune Theories:](https://blog.giovanh.com/blog/2021/10/05/post-ch2-deltarune-theories/#speaking-of-ralsei-how-about-that-delta-rune)
> The Delta Rune itself is the triangly-symbol littered throughout Ralsei's section of the dark world. (Lancer and the card people also seem to know of it, although it's possible they originally heard it from Ralsei or his kingdom.) In Chapter 2, we get Ralsei's depiction of the rune itself in color, with Susie and Kris at the top, and Ralsei at the bottom (possibly signifying their roles as Lightners/Darkners)
>
> 
We're given explicit meanings for the symbols on the bottom half of the rune, leaving the top half collectively again as our "Angel".
### Prophesy
In Deltarune, Ralsei tells us the prophecy of the Delta Rune outright:
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
For millenia, LIGHT and DARK have lived in balance,
Bringing peace to the WORLD.
But if this harmony were to shatter...
A terrible calamity would occur.
The sky will run black with terror
And the land will crack with fear.
Then, her heart pounding...
The EARTH will draw her final breath.
Only then, shining with hope...
Three HEROES appear at WORLDS' edge.
A HUMAN, A MONSTER, And a PRINCE FROM THE DARK.
Only they can seal the fountains
And banish the ANGEL'S HEAVEN.
Only then will balance be restored,
And the WORLD saved from destruction.
```
::: aside tangent
"WORLDS' edge" is a great phrase to have here, because not only is "WORLDS" in all-caps like a game-universe proper noun, the apostrophe outside the word explicitly puts it in the plural possessive.
That means what's being described here is the edge of *multiple* worlds.
There are lots of candidates for what those multiple worlds are, though. The Dark Worlds are separate Worlds, and we've seen they have distinct edges at the fountains.
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
* You see, each Dark Fountain creates a different "world."
* A "world" whose Darkners reflect the will of its fountain.
* But, though those Darkners can exist in their own worlds...
* They might not "belong" if they go to another one.
```
But Hometown also seems to be a kind of world, as is THE DEPTHS, and even the save slots are in the running as possible "separate worlds".
So what's going on here?
First, the prophecy is taking some liberty with the timeline for stylistic purposes. The harmony between light and dark *has* shattered, and the three heroes have appeared, but the earth hasn't actually drawn her final breath *yet*; that's the disaster that's supposedly imminent. Again, I think this is an intentional stylistic decision -- think Alduin's wall -- and not some kind of lie or narrative contradiction. It's describing a set of events that all happen at around the same time.
More importantly, the prophecy tells us the real antagonist of the conflict. Once out of balance, LIGHT and DARK will both be destroyed (the EARTH, or the singular WORLD seems to include both, and the allegiance between Lightners and Darkners also emphasizes this), and the way to prevent this is to "banish" (expel, remove, defend against, **sever**) the "Angel's Heaven": a third realm distinct from the LIGHT and the DARK that threatens both, and is "possessed by" (owned by, or the realm inhabited by, or is specifically related to) the ANGEL, singular.
::: aside furthermore
Unlike our traditional conception of a heaven populated by angels, Deltarune conceptualizes the Angel as one specific being throughout. This is doubly emphasized in the prophecy because "WORLDS' EDGE" is correctly pluralized, but we're not warned about an "Angels' heaven", we're specifically told that we care about one specific Angel, The Angel.
So that tells us a bit about the Angel by way of the HEAVEN, which is an in-universe force that's positioned as antagonistic to the balance of the world. We know the presence of heaven corresponds to the start of the conflict and the disturbance of the balance of power, and the ultimate resolution to that conflict will be to defend *against* heaven.
### Spamton
We get *quite a bit* of talk about this conflict with Heaven from Spamton in the weird route. In fact, Spamton's entire gambit in the weird route seems to be making the most direct attempt to attack or even enter "Heaven" we've seen in the story so far.
Spamton describes the Neo body specifically as "heaven-piercing":
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .spamton .no-line-nums}
* LISTEN. IN THE [Deep Abyss] OF QUEEN'S [Mansion]
* [[A Great Deal]] IS WAITING For [[A LimiTed Time Only!]]
* A HEAVEN-PIERCING [[Workout-Ready Body]]
* [[Designed BY The Classics You've Come To Expect! (C)1997]]
* KRIS THAT [Little Nipper] IS OUR [One-way Ticket] TO MAKE YOU [Big]. MAKE ME [Big].
* BEFORE YOU KNOW IT WE WILL BE TAKING [ A Ride around Town on Our Specil Cungadero]
```
When the NEO body isn't enough to "pierce heaven" alone, Spamton decides what he was missing -- what he needed to get *into* heaven -- was their SOUL.
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .spamton .no-line-nums}
* HERE I AM!! KRIS!!
* BIG
* BIG,
* [[BIGGER AND BETTER THAN EVER]]
* HA HA HA ... THIS POWER IS
* FREEDOM.
* I WON'T HAVE TO BE
* JUST A PUPPET
* ANY MORE!!!!
* OR... so... I... thought.
* WHAT ARE THESE STRINGS!?
* WHY AM I NOT [BIG] ENOUGH!?
* It's still DARK... SO DARK!
* KRIS.
* KRIS.
* KRIS.
* KRIS.
* THAT'S RIGHT.
* YOU.
* I NEED YOU.
* TO BE BIG.
* WITH ME.
* VERY VERY BIG
* SO BIG WE'LL STAND UP TALL AND SEE PAST THE DARK
* STAND UP WITH OUR HEADS IN THE CLOUDS AND LOOK INTO
* H E A V E N
* I
* JUST NEED
* THAT LITTLE,
* [[SOUL]]
* Y O U HAVE
```
During the fight, Spamton seems particularly cognizant of Heaven, and even taunts it directly:
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .spamton .no-line-nums}
* [Heaven], are you WATCHING?
* IT'S TIME TO MAKE A VERY [Specil] DEAL...
```
And, right before cutting the final wire, as Spamton imagines cutting the strings will provide him with the ascension he's been seeking, he again addresses his victory speech toward Heaven:
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .spamton .no-line-nums}
KRIS!!! I UNDERSTAND NOW!! THE GREATEST DEAL OF ALL!!! [Friendship]!!!
KRIS!!! MY DAYS AS A [Long-Nosed Doll] ARE OVER!!!
CUT THAT [Wire] AND MAKE ME A [Real Boy]!!
ARE YOU WATCHING, [Heaven]!? IT'S TIME FOR SPAMTON'S [Comeback Special]!
AND THIS TIME... I LIVE FOR MYSELF!!!
NO... MYSELF AND MY [Friend(s)]!!!
```
[](https://www.tumblr.com/spiritedsketch/663062422570106880/are-you-watching-heaven)
[spiritedsketch, tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/spiritedsketch/663062422570106880/are-you-watching-heaven){: .image-caption}
Note the emphasis throughout on Heaven *watching*. Spamton expects Heaven (or its population?) to be observing this fight directly, visually. He even "looks to the heavens" directly, although throughout the fight his head jerks around at many different angles, including towards the screen.
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
* Spamton looks to the heavens.
```
What's more, in the Snowgrave route, Spamton drops a rare direct Angel reference.
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .spamton .no-line-nums}
* [Angel], [Angel]
* ARE YOU LOOKING FOR THE [Ring] of [Thorns]?
* THEN [[Why]] GO TO A DUMPSTER!!!
```
When we go to the dumpster to buy the ThornRing (which only the player might know about, as it's in the castle town item recipe list), Spamton addresses the Angel directly.
This could be a way of addressing Noelle, but she isn't the one looking for the ring.
But that still doesn't tell us much about the Angel. Strangely, the only people who know about the Angel are in Hometown, and they seem to know a *lot*.
### Religion
The Overworld in Hometown, in true Americana small-town fashion, is *dominated* by the church. And this church worships... the Angel.
The Delta Rune is absent from the church (conspicuously so, in fact, given how well it could have been incorporated into the stained glass), but what is present is the isolated angel symbol as a steeple.
Further, when talking with Father Alvin, in place of a blessing like "God be with you", he says
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
* Good day, Kris. May the Angel watch over you...
```
and
We get a little bit more about the church from this set of lines with Rudy:
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
* (It's an angel doll.)
* (Its lack of facial features is unsettling.)
* That angel?
* Noelle n' Dess made it in youth group.
* It's kind of like a good luck charm to me now.
* Oh, right, you and Azzy tried to make one too...
* But you wasted the whole time making huge wings for it!
```
There's a lot happening here.
- Noelle and December made an angel doll as a craft in church youth group, pointing again to the Angel being a key figure in the town's religion
- There's another reference to Asriel designing his hyperdeath god deviantart god OC, which is cute
- The angel doll is kind of creepy, because it's a doll without facial features.
A doll without facial features is a *very specific thing* in Deltarune, and it's something very, very important:
The narrator finds the lack of facial features in the doll unsettling. Notably *Rudy does not*, so perhaps the Angel is traditionally depicted as faceless, or is canonically a blank slate? Hm.
Remember when I said the Angel is only talked about in the light world? That's not quite true. Rarely, in the Clover fight, they'll say the lines
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
An angel is watching us.
You BELIEVE that garbage?
Please stop, you two...
```
I think the "You BELIEVE that garbage?" line suggests that this might be referring to the *religious teachings about the angel* and not the Angel from the prophecy itself. Another "how are the light and dark worlds connected, exactly?" question in the pile, but I'm still marking this under "angel religion" for that reason.
## The Angel is You
So who is the Angel? The player, the real human, on the other side of the screen.
The player is the only one who fits the two key roles played by the Angel: The Watcher and the Light.
::: aside note
### Other Connections First
Noelle's doll doesn't have a face, and the church might understand the physical form of the Angel as not having one.
In the gonermaker, in reference to the faceless goner vessel, we are told unambiguously
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
THIS IS YOUR BODY.
```
### The Watcher
So, first, the angel is understood as a watcher. Specifically, someone watching, and specifically *watching the events depicted in the game*.
Alvin:
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
* Good day, Kris. May the Angel watch over you...
```
Spamton:
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .spamton .no-line-nums}
* [Heaven], are you WATCHING?
* IT'S TIME TO MAKE A VERY [Specil] DEAL...
```
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .spamton .no-line-nums}
ARE YOU WATCHING, [Heaven]!? IT'S TIME FOR SPAMTON'S [Comeback Special]!
```
Clover:
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
An angel is watching us.
You BELIEVE that garbage?
Please stop, you two...
```
"Watch over you" even implies a kind of watching "from above".
This is directly, tautologically true. The player *does* see everything that happens in the main story. We watch over Kris, we watch every fight, we even understand Spamton's plight.
More, we literally *watch over* the game in the form of the top-down camera angle. Like an angel, we are "above" the world and look "down" into it without being literally vertically above the characters in the same space.
### The Light
The Angel has another role. They "light" Kris's way with their "power".
From Alvin:
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
* Let the Angel's power light your way.
```
This one is a doozy.
You, the player, impact the game via the SOUL; Kris's SOUL. You move it directly in menu screens and in battle, and it seems to "possess" Kris. It's even there in the gonermaker, at moment zero, at your very first interaction with the game world.
The SOUL is your instrument, and its how your power impacts the world.
In the game, the SOUL is very specifically described as having "power":
Versus Spades King:
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
* Your SOUL shined its power on Susie!
* Susie's will is changing...
* TALK became RED BUSTER!
```
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
* Your SOUL shined its power on RALSEI!
* Ralsei's will is changing...
* TALK became DUAL HEAL!
```
Kris's SOUL emits light. Not literally, but metaphorically, as a metaphor for power:
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
(As you stood in front of the fountain,)
(You felt something strange.)
(It was as if)
(Your very SOUL was glowing...)
```
But is it specifically the SOUL that's interacting with the fountain? Yes. In Chapter 1, Ralsei tells Susie
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
* Uh, Susie.
* We need YOU to finish it.
* Sometimes, proceeding will take all 3 of us.
* Furthermore, only Kris can seal the DARK FOUNTAIN...
* So if you don't accompany us, you won't make it home!
```
Only moments ago, they said the prophecy said "only they \[the three heroes\] can seal the fountains." But now it's just Kris. Why the distinction? Because it's the *soul* that seals the fountains, and only Kris has one.
Speaking of Ralsei, he knows *a lot* about your SOUL, even seeming to see and reference it directly during both variants of the battle tutorial:
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
* See that HEART, Kris?
* That's a SOUL, the culmination of a HUMAN's being!
* Not only does it represent one's WILL and COMPASSION...
* But it also has the power to DETERMINE FATE.
* When enemies attack, BULLETS appear.
* Please avoid them and protect your team's FATE!
```
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
* See that HEART, Kris?
* That's your SOUL, the culmination of your being!
* Within, it holds your WILL... your COMPASSION...
* ... and the FATE of the world.
* If it gets hit, you and your friends will lose HP.
* If everyone's HP reaches 0, we'll lose the battle.
* So, please take care to avoid the enemy's attack.
```
The fate of the world definitely does hinge on the SOUL. Is Ralsei just talking about death ending their quest, or does he know the SOUL is tied to something greater? [Ralsei sure is weird!](https://blog.giovanh.com/blog/2021/10/05/post-ch2-deltarune-theories/#ralsei-isnt-a-darkener)
In Don't Forget, we're told directly "There's a light inside your soul", further emphasizing the Light metaphor.
But the strongest link here, the one repeated the most often, is the save point.
At the first save, you see the message
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
* At times, you see it flickering.
* The light only you can see.
* By second nature, you reach out, and...
* You bathed your body in the light.
* A power shines within you, breaking through the darkness.
* The pain you had melted away...
* (HP fully restored.)
```
Only Kris has see the SOUL, whose own Light interacts with the Light of the save point. Further, when they save, the power that shines comes from *within them*, from the SOUL.
In fact, at almost every save point, you're told that saving is a Power Shining Within you.
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .no-line-nums}
* The power of this place shines within you.
* The power of fluffy boys shines within you.
* The power of adventure shines within you.
* The power of backtracking shines within you.
* The power of mean girls shines within you.
* The power of the forest shines within you.
* The power of reoccurring bake sales shines within you.
* You are filled with the power of immediate nostalgia.
* You are filled with the power of friendship-based architecture.
* You are filled with the power of a new adventure.
* You are filled with the power of pointless backtracking.
* The game is wrecked. You are filled with the power of videogame violence.
* You are filled with the power of noise music.
* You are still filled with the power from the cat sign.
* You are mostly filled with the power of fluffy boys and mean girls.
* You are filled with the power of not knowing what a sugarplum is.
* Noelle is no longer in your party. All of you are filled with the power... Of not knowing what a sugarplum is.
* You are filled with the power of musical bagels.
* You are filled with the power of silence.
* You are filled with the power of chicken nuggets.
* You are filled with the power of vacation homes.
* Looking at these legs fills you with a certain power.
* You are filled with the power of book holes.
* You are filled with a certain power.
* You and Noelle were filled with power.
* After a long day, you have returned to the castle town.
* But, you still feel the power in your hands...
```
It's not subtle. The power fills Kris like a light. It stays with them whenever you're there playing. So whose power is it? We're given the answer to that too, in the name of the sound that plays when you use your power through the soul to seal a fountain:
So, after all that, at the end of Chapter 2, when we're told it's the Angel's power that lights Kris's way?
[Your the angel.](https://homestuck.giovanh.com/tbiy)
## Banishing the Angel's Heaven
In Homestuck, by the time you get to Act 7, the narrative itself is compromised. The ultimate evil has secured enough in-universe power that he can continue killing everyone, living or dead, in any universe, in any time, forever.
So our heroes leave the narrative.
They use a reality-manipulating AURYN-inspired magical item to create a new universe *outside the narrative itself* and escape there as the story implodes on itself. And when they do, the story ends, necessarily.
Deltarune starts with Gaster initiating a "CONNECTION" with us. As soon as the game starts, we're connected to the world in a very tangible way. The diegetic connection made between the player and Gaster maps to the act of us playing the game. In fact, in that setup, we can be "disconnected" by making an invalid name selection, which physically exits the game.
::: aside tangent
There's another line from Spamton's shop dialogue where he describes his ascention to the heavens indirectly:
```{.text .pre-wrap .deltarune .spamton .no-line-nums}
* I USED TO BE NOTHING BUT THE E_MAIL GUY, NOW I'M THE [[It Burns! Ow! Stop! Help Me! It Burns!]] GUY!
* [[Amazed at thi5 amazing transformation? You too can]] HAVE A [[Communion]] WITH [[Unintelligble Laughter]]
* SOON I'LL EVEN SURPASS THAT DAMNED [[Clown Around Town!]]
* BUT UNLIKE HIM I'M GONNA [[Shoot For the Sky!]] AND GET ON THE PATH TO ...
* [[The Big One]]
* I'LL GET SO.
* I'LL GET SO.
* I'LL GET SO.
* I'LL GET SO.
* I'LL GET SO.
* I'LL GET SO.
* [[Hyperlink blocked.]]
```
What I want to pick out from this is that mention of having "communition with \[unintelligible\]" (ending in something censored) as part of getting his Neo body and transcending the dark world.
"You too" implies this is something that's happened before, presumably with Spamton himself. If (as most people think) Spamton (like Jevil) had a relationship with Gaster at some point in the past, but that's since ended and his life as a Darkner fell apart after, this aligns perfectly with what we know.
But even if Spamton himself *hasn't* had a relationship himself with Gaster in particular, the dynamic is still the same.
The idea of having a communion with a mysterious, obscured, unintelligible entity as a logical part of bridging the world and a space beyond it maps *again* very well onto our connection with the worlds of Deltarune being mediated by Gaster.
Ultimately this conversation emphasizes the idea of a connection between the world and an ascended space, that connection being an active (and terminable) force rather than a passive state, and the connection requiring a mediator, exactly like Angel Theory posits exists between the player, Gaster, and the in-universe soul.
That connection also maps to the imbalance predicted by the prophecy. When we start the game, the story starts, and the harmony of the world shatters.
As long as we play the game, we are present in the world as the Angel, as both LIGHT and DARK are connected to our ANGEL'S HEAVEN. We exert power over the world, mostly through Kris (although only they are directly aware of this fact).
According to Ralsei's prophecy, only after the three heroes seal the fountains **and banish the ANGEL'S HEAVEN** will balance be restored and the world saved from destruction.
This might even be foreshadowed by the circle/wings distinction I mentioned earlier. The angel is an entity that is empowered over the world, but this is from composition, not nature. The Angel can have their wings clipped.
"Banishing the Angel's heaven" sounds abstract and philosophical, but if we're indeed the Angel, it isn't. To banish the angel's heaven, to sever the influence of the angel from the world, you need to disrupt the connection between the angel and the world: the connection between the player and the game.
---
[](./mafa.png)
::: discord avatar_Mafa="https://cdn.discordapp.com/avatars/163003741572825088/3616161c0bdaa5442c8964f7298813cd.png"
- Mafa
+ THE ANGEL BEING THE PLAYER EVEN MAKES THE CONNECTION OF GASTER AS THE DEVIL STRONGER BECAUSE THE ANTITHESIS OF A PLAYER IS A GAME DEV
+ Fuck this theory is so big brained