Mettaton is the Roaring Knight
No, really.
At first I wasn't particularly married to the idea of Mettaton being the Knight, in particular. I just thought the character had some narrative threads that felt unresolved from Undertale. But the more I looked, the more I found that he’s somehow always in the right place to work as a Knight candidate… hidden in the background, posing glamorously…
This theory takes it as a given that
- Deltarune and Undertale are two halves of one whole, that Toby is expecting you to have 'completed' Undertale first.
- W.D. Gaster is extremely relevant, and is the first person in the character creator
- Toby's expected player is someone who's reasonably invested in the story and would have read most of the non-optional dialogue.
- Toby's likely outside inspirations are valid evidence, or at least worth considering. (I put most of this in its own section though.)
Pass on this theory if you disagree with those, it won't be for you.
Part one: What we know from Undertale
Before we go into what's suspect about Deltarune Mettaton, I think it's worth recapping all the things we know about Undertale's version of Mettaton.
IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE?
Was Mettaton even around when Toby thought up Deltarune?
Certain characters, such as Napstablook and Undyne, were definitely made for Undertale.
Napstablook was never in my original plans to be in the game. He was just a placeholder character I made up for my mockups. My friends really seemed to like him, though, so I ended up making him real.
-Toby Fox, Undertale art book
Undyne is one character that took a long time to reach her final state….All I knew is that I wanted her to be the first boss that would really try to kill you.
-Toby Fox, Undertale art book
Toby once posted a concept art with Mettaton, Sans, and beta Papyrus. It’s from the same notebook that mentions the brothers have a ‘something’ that’s Redacted, possibly Dr. Gaster or Grandpa Semi.

We know Sans and Papyrus are linked to Deltarune somehow, so Mettaton being drawn on the same page could mean the same. At the least, it does indicate he’s one of the older characters Toby made.
Okay, so it’s not literally impossible he’s the Knight. What else?
UNDYNE
Mettaton’s a narrative foil for a few characters. Let’s talk about one that was explicitly made for Undertale, Undyne.
Mettaton is a perfect foil for Undyne. They’re both from Waterfall, missing an eye, they’re dually linked to Alphys’s fate, both own a 'hot fridge', he loves humans while she hates them, Papyrus idolises both, she’s loyal to her friends while he leaves his behind.
Deltarune confirms Undyne can't sing, while Mettaton can.
Sometimes the police chief comes in to play the piano.
Her playing is nice, but when she starts singing...
We have to ask her to leave.Hospital NPC
(I sometimes hear beautiful singing from that house over there.)
(How eerie... could it be a ghost?)
(That would make sense. A ghost lives there.)Ribbick next to Ghost house
They’re two of the three bosses in the Genocide route. And, perhaps most importantly, they are both proof anime is real.
According to the art book, Undyne used to have interest in ‘fashion and singing’, both Mettaton things. Toby also admits he had difficulty writing her at first.
“Undyne is one character that took a long time to reach her final state. Not just appearance-wise… I couldn’t decide on anything about her.
All I knew is that I wanted her to be the first boss that would really try to kill you. I struggled with writing her. I tried giving her all kinds of accents to make her more “interesting”. It didn’t really work. She had an interest in fashion and singing for a really long period of development, too.”-Toby Fox, Undertale art book.
So, I think it’s pretty likely Toby started to come up with Undyne's character by basing her, and then basing her against, one he had already made, Mettaton. Sounds reasonable, right?
Undyne’s gimmick is that she's a knight.
“I tried giving her some sort of serious British knight accent or something… Like Frog from Chrono Trigger”
-Toby Fox, 10th anniversary stream, talking about Undyne fight.
But your time's up, villain!
You won't hurt anyone else.
A knight in shining armor has appeared.Undyne talking about herself, Neutral Route
Which means her counterpart would be… a dark knight.
This is a Kingdom without King or Prince.
Flaky disciples, lost in meaningless worship.
Old scholars, greyed by research forgotten.
Fairies, princesses, soldiers..
On the outskirts, ghasts, wild beasts of horror and sloth...
... And, of course, a Dark Knight!Cuptain, Chapter 4
Undyne also tells Papyrus in a phone call that Mettaton gives her ‘bad vibes’.
Papyrus: I HEARD YOU GOT TO MEET METTATON!!
Undyne: Really? Careful, that dude gives me bad vibes.
But there's a lot of Knights in Undertale, you might rightly point out. Maybe Undyne was developed afterwards, but what's the big deal? They’re both main characters.
Well, you’d be wrong, because Mettaton is not actually a main character. Not officially, at least.
NOT A MAIN CHARACTER
The main characters of Undertale are Asgore, Undyne, Alphys, Toriel, Sans and Papyrus. We see them in the loading screen, and in the photo at the end of True Pacifist. They're grouped in merch, and often in events. These are the six characters that were lost souls at the end of Undertale.

You can see in the full loading screen that Mettaton is in side character purgatory.

This is demonstrated in the Winter Alarm Clock dialogue. Mettaton is keeping the score of the match, but he's not actually a player.
Undyne: The last match we all played was UNFORGETTABLE!
Undyne: Me, Asgore and Sans versus Alphys, Toriel, and Papyrus!
Undyne: Action! Betrayal! Teamwork! It could have been a movie!
Mettaton: Hmmm... a disaster movie, maybe.
Undyne: Hey, what the heck are you doing in my monologue!?
Mettaton: I was the referee, darling.Undyne talking about an ice hockey match. Undyne's Winter Alarm Clock dialogue
So, why is Mettaton not officially a main character? You fight him at least twice. He has more content than some of the characters that made the cut. Depending on who's counting, he has more songs than any other character in either game.
Even though he's excluded from the lost souls, the game makes sure to remind you he exists during the climax- he chips in during the earlier conversation, and the lost soul Alphys uses his attacks.
The fact there are six lost souls is suggestive to me. The special Undertale number is not six, it is seven. There could be room for Mettaton and Alphys as a duo, if you squeezed Undyne in with Sans and Papyrus. But Toby didn't do that.
Could there be something weird about Mettaton that stops him from being a lost soul?
If Mettaton is the Knight, then there's a practical answer you'd exclude him- Toby didn't want to give him too much content, because he's a Deltarune main, not an Undertale one.
But could there be an in-universe reason as well?
Supposedly, the save, file seven, is missing from Undertale’s files. Save seven. Seven human souls. Seventh lost soul.
And… I actually think he's there anyway. At least in this photo at the end of True Pacifist.

In one of Tenna's boards, a Pippins gives us this clue.
*A FLOWER TORN IN HALF! I WONDER WHO TOOK IT... THE PHOTO, I MEAN.
Who took the photo?
Could it be Mettaton? He does spend half the game filming you, so it would be appropriate.

Similarly but unrelated, in Sans's 'poorly drawn picture of three smiling people', who drew the picture? We focus on the subject, not the author.
So Mettaton is there, but he isn't there. He's in between being a main character, and not. That feels thematically relevant to Deltarune to me.
MAD MEW MEW
Mad Mew Mew is a later added iteration of the character, Mad Dummy, Mettaton's cousin.
She was added in the 2018 Switch update.
This means Mad Mew Mew was created while Toby was making Deltarune.
Mad Mew Mew happens to be a pink and gold puppet cat. She has a dual form (a happy one, and an angry one that is grayed out).
The lietmotif ‘Dummy’ features in Spamton’s theme, and she is found in the Dog Casino that foreshadowed Deltarune.
So is it possible this character was actually re-invented with Deltarune in mind? If so, what hole in the story was she designed to fill?
She has mentioned Asgore twice so far, so could she have a role in CH5, the Asgore chapter?
We haven’t had a female or Lightner shadow crystal boss yet, so maybe she could be it?
The newer catgirl version is a little different in characterization from the dummy version. The character has become anime, calls herself 'a hero', is now a transgender allegory, and starts mentioning money and showbiz in the Dog Casino dialogue.
Shucks, you came to support me at my first gig with my new look, mew?
TOO BAD!! You gotta pay for photos of me! I'm trying to build up my BRAND!
Mew Mew shows remorse for ignoring Napstablook, saying she 'can't face them since [she] left to try to find a body'. She has gone from not mentioning Mettaton to being jealous of his success, going to his restaurant to replace pictures of him with ones of herself. She has also taken to tormenting Burgerpants, calling him a 'Freak', a 'creep', and tries to 're-screw his head on'. She is now robot-adjacent instead of being a doll, being described as an 'animatronic'.
Basically, the update also made the character more Mettaton-lite.
Why do this? Just fanservice? Setting up a character parallel for some plotline we haven't seen yet?
...Deliberate character redundancy, in case Mettaton's Deltarune writing does something to alienate fans...?
SERIOUSLY WHO IS THIS GUY
So how much about pre-Undertale Mettaton do we actually know?
Fanon consensus has it that he looks like a pink Napstablook… but we don’t know that, we're just assuming because of what his house looks like. Mettaton also predates the Napstablook character, who was made as a test character, although we don't know when the decision to make him a ghost character was made.
Fanon also calls him 'Hapstablook', but that’s explicitly incorrect. No one can remember what his name was.
Undyne: WHAT? You broke into Napstablook's cousin's house!? That's... That's...! Hey, what was their name, anyway?
Papyrus: HAPPSTABLOOK, THE HAPPY GHOST.
Undyne: Okay, that's DEFINITELY wrong.
Papyrus: IT'S NOT WRONG. IT'S JUST MY HEADCANON.
We don’t know what his ghost form’s speaking patterns are in Undertale, just his written ones.
As for his age, that’s ambiguous again. Napstablook’s Undernet username ends in 22. Papyrus’s ends in 95 and Undyne’s in 91, implying these are birth years. If Mettaton was also born in a year ending with 22, he’d have been around for all the fallen humans. But Toby implies in a few deleted tweets that he never met a human.
His knowledge of humanity comes from media, so due to western cartoons maybe he's unsure how many fingers they actually have
Right, but 4-fingered characters still exist. That's why he has many types of gloves. To not leave anyone out-Toby Fox, Twitter (he deleted it you’re just gonna have to trust me bro)
Although, Toby did mess up the timeline of the Nose Nuzzle champs, making them 100 years old, so this one might not add up to much.
We know Sans and Alphys have a dubious friendship.
Papyrus: WAIT, ALPHYS, I DIDN'T KNOW YOU KNEW SANS.
Alphys: Well... I...
Sans: doesn't everybody? ;)
But we also know Sans and Mettaton have canonically met, because Sans works at his resort and Mettaton knows all his employees.
(It's a performance schedule.) (Comedians, dancers, Sans...)
-Flavor text in the restaurant at the MTT Resort.
We even see them both in the same room in Snowdin, and drawn together by Toby. But we’ve never seen them interact, we don't know what their character dynamic is. Considering how much lore is locked behind the Sans and Alphys friendship, which we similarly have not seen much of, there might be something more to this.
And lastly, it’s heavily inferred that Mettaton knows the truth of True Lab.
Look at this dialogue for him from the epilogue.
Oh, Frisk.
Why don't you go see how Alphys is doing?
Since the flash of light she's been working hard to set everything right.
Ha-Ha. About time, huh?
After he is done talking about merchandise, he tells you to go look for Alphys.
Nowhere does he express surprise about what Alphys had actually done, or anything to indicate he had no idea what was really going on. He seems to still be mad at her, not surprised.
This recontextualises the bitterness in his pre-battle speech earlier. This is why he says that Alphys is pretending to be a ‘great person’.
ALPHYS HAS BEEN PLAYING YOU FOR A FOOL THE WHOLE TIME.
AS SHE WATCHED YOU ON THE SCREEN, SHE GREW ATTACHED TO YOUR ADVENTURE.
SHE DESPERATELY WANTED TO BE A PART OF IT.
SO SHE DECIDED TO INSERT HERSELF INTO YOUR STORY.
SHE REACTIVATED PUZZLES. SHE DISABLED ELEVATORS. SHE ENLISTED ME TO TORMENT YOU.
ALL SO SHE COULD SAVE YOU FROM DANGERS THAT DIDN'T EXIST.
ALL SO YOU WOULD THINK SHE'S THE GREAT PERSON...
THAT SHE'S NOT.
(I think there is also something to be said about what this monologue might tell us about the motivations of Gaster, but this isn't the place)
Mettaton has links to the families of two amalgamates. He mentions Shyren’s sister falling down.
Dear Diary: Shyren's sister "fell down" recently. It's sad. Without her sister to speak for her... She's become more reclusive than ever.
He also employs Snowy’s father, who Burgerpants tells us spends all his time crying about his family.
You somehow understand comedy EVEN LESS than that guy who keeps going on stage and crying about his family.
Sans is also implied to know about True Lab.
Papyrus: WAIT, THAT BAG OF DOG FOOD LOOKS FAMILIAR... I REMEMBER SEEING IT... IN SANS'S ROOM? YEAH! I ASKED HIM WHY HE HAD IT! HE TOLD ME HE WAS TRYING TO EAT HEALTHIER. (Calling Papyrus a second time on the Lab's first floor.)
It’s possible Alphys might have told some friends about what she did, but with Mettaton, this backfired on her and caused him to cut ties.
In any case, this is probably the real reason Alphys and Mettaton stopped being friends.
True Lab feels… relevant, in some way, to Deltarune, in ways we don’t entirely understand yet, so I think this will come up later.
GASTER
We’ve mentioned the characters Mettaton knows. What about a character there’s no chance he ever met? Every theorist's favourite elephant, Dr. Gaster.
Mettaton’s box body was built so Alphys could impress Asgore, and become the new royal scientist. Without this, Mettaton is just some random ghost from Waterfall. So there’s no way he can have interacted with Gaster, right?
But, despite this, Mettaton actually does have a few connections to Gaster.

- Gaster speaks in Wingdings 1, and it’s always in capitals. A capital M in Wingdings 1 is a cartoon bomb. This is Mettaton's main weapon in all his forms. A bomb icon like this was often used as an early computing symbol for ‘fatal system error’, which is probably why it was chosen.
- MTT makes an appearance in every place Gaster is associated with- Waterfall, Hotland and the CORE.
- Mettaton EX’s broken cut face sprite resembles the Mystery Man sprite’s face. Toby confirmed this cut sprite is still canon in the 10th anniversary stream.
there are unused faced sprites where you can see the left side of his face and it’s all robotic
originally i imagined revealing this when he was defeated and stuff but i decided not to
I got to reuse that idea for NEO though
why do the 3 final bosses of that route all have 1 cool eyeToby Fox, 10th anniversary stream, talking about Mettaton EX fight

Is that a cut on your face, or part of your eye?
The gash weaves down as if you cry.
The pain itself is reason why.Unused code in Deltarune's files.
Gaster built the CORE. And there are things in that area that hint at Deltarune. For example, the CORE has odd statues, internally called 'Darkness totems'. The detail of the Warrior’s Path, the Sage’s path, or the hidden patience path could be a reference to the Fun Gang also.
The signs above the entrance and the room where you fight Mettaton match prophecy/ Knight sword visuals from Deltarune.

Three of the inhabitants of the CORE are upgraded versions of monsters we’ve met before.
These versions are now fantasy themed, similar to what happens when a Lightner falls into a Dark World. They also have some traits in common with the Knight. Astigmatism has the same eye-mouth effect, and Whimsalot has a knight mask.
If the same three types that make up the amalgamate Reaper Bird gather, you get the line 'What a nightmare!'. The Knight is associated with nightmares.

The other two are new- themed after a Knight, and a wizard.
Madjick has a cut song called 'Star', and cut floating hands.
Obviously, Knight Knight resembles the Roaring Knight. Interestingly in the art book, her concept is said to have been made by Toby himself, and is placed next to an 'Everyman' concept art.

Well, Mettaton is the boss of the CORE. Its theme is in his song, his Resort is right next to it, and he hires its inhabitants to kill you. Everyone in the CORE is fantasy or knight themed, except for Mettaton.
Mettaton also has a link to the cut character, Grandpa Semi.
Grandpa Semi is a character who appears in the demo’s code.
We don't know if he's still intended to be a character, if he’s a distinct character from W.D. Gaster, or if he truly is just cut content.
A common theory, and the one I believe, is that he is the Man we meet behind the tree.
- The song, grandpasemi.ogg is a file that appears only in the Undertale Demo. It gets reused as a joke song for Temmie later. Metal Crusher uses it as its intro. This song is also reused as a sound effect for the Castle Town Mike minigames, when you delete all your saves.
- Datamining indicates there's a cut Horse Stable from the Blook farm that had a [redacted] speaking in WingDings in it.
(Suddenly, from inside the [redacted], you hear a
This dialogue seems to be triggered by a trash can in Napstablook's courtyard. Inspecting it if the unused Flag 92 is less than 3 will cause the same figure from room_water_redacted to appear inside the "stable" and say the following message in WingDings. This message exists 7 separate times, and was likely originally unique dialogue before being completely replaced.
-The Cutting Room Floor, Undertale, Unused Text, Waterfall - The same area had a skeleton NPC that warned you about attacks in the same area.
That skeleton over there just told me how to dodge "orange attacks."
Dialogue from an unused NPC named obj_orangeattackNPC. This was intended to be part of the snail farm, as its object is listed next to the other objects for that area. The skeleton that this NPC is referring to is unknown, though it is theorized to be the scrapped Grandpa Semi, likely referring to the previously mentioned stable.
-The Cutting Room Floor, Undertale, Unused Text, Waterfall - The 10th Anniversary stream has a schoolgirl Mettaton take you out of bounds to talk next to a tree, oddly similar to the Man behind a tree interactions.
- The name ‘Grandpa Semi’ might imply a relation to SEMI OCR fonts, which are used in the manufacture of machinery.
Okay, so what does this all add up to?
The only real link I can think of between the characters of Gaster and Mettaton is the same one the Amalgamates have.
That they exist because Alphys made them. Meaning they exist because Gaster does not exist. Considering how important not existing is to Gaster's character, maybe that’s it.
Alternately, maybe the two characters do interact… but in the world of Deltarune, instead.
Let's think about another parallel. Alphys’s key trait is that she’s the universe’s inferior replacement for guys whose name begins with G, right? She replaced Gerson as the teacher, and she replaced Gaster as the Royal Scientist.
In Undertale, Mettaton is Alphys's friend, and she makes him a body. He pretends to kill you on her instruction, but eventually he betrays her for his own agenda.
Now, what if we replace Alphys with Gaster?
What does it look like if Gaster recruited Mettaton, built Mettaton a body, and then sicced him on you?

This is the basis of Mettaton Knight theory, and we will get into how and why this would work later.
To summarize, Mettaton is a major character who is non-optional, but is also explicitly not a main character. His most obvious foil is a heroic Knight. We don’t know what his former name and appearance really were. He has connections to the True Lab and Sans, but these are left unexplored. He has more Gaster connections than he should, and probably the most connections to the cut character Grandpa Semi. New content directly adjacent to him (Mad Mew Mew) has been created post-release.
Toby had to make a boss fight area and some lackeys for the character, and he chose to make them fantasy themed with references to Deltarune.
Okay. So we’ve established that Mettaton as a candidate for Knight or Mike or whoever else isn’t complete lunacy.
What do we have to work with in Deltarune?
Part two: Deltarune
HOW WOULD HE DO IT
We know from Undertale that ghosts can fly, go invisible and phase through locked doors such as the RUINS.
Oh, and don't think about trying to explore the RUINS... The door's been locked for ages. So unless you're a ghost or can burrow under the door, forget about it.
-QC, Undertale.
All of these would be useful abilities, if you need to travel stealthily around town making fountains and putting things in closets. He wouldn’t even need the door code to go in and out of the Bunker.
Mettaton would know about Undyne having the bunker code through his cousin Napstablook.
In a body, Mettaton would be able to restrain Undyne, as he’s the next boss up from her in Undertale.
WHAT HAS HE ACTUALLY SAID
So far, the only interactive narrative has been for Mettaton to ask us about Tenna, and take him off our hands.
Now, this whole subplot is extremely meta, when you stop and think about it. ‘Nobody’ in the ghost house has got to be Mettaton, right? But if you didn’t complete the mystery key sidequest in Undertale, which is optional content, you won’t know why the person in the house talks like Mettaton and why he won't come out.
So, you know this unnamed character is Mettaton… and you’re giving him Tenna, likely with the expectation that doing this will make Mettaton more like the character you remember.
Ok, so this dialogue is unusual subtextually, but is it weird in the game itself?
To me, Mettaton's dialogue sounds like he is aware we are present, and he is tailoring his replies for us. But he keeps slipping up.
Allow me to take this chance to ask you something.
Since the internet went down, I haven't had much...
Entertainment.
If you have anything entertaining, darling...
Could you bring it by to me tomorrow?
Mettaton starts his request by asking for something ‘entertaining’, because the internet has been shut down.
He also asks for it tomorrow, even though he doesn’t know if you’ll even be there tomorrow, and this is supposed to be the first time he's ever spoken to you. This is quite bossy, for a guy who’s supposed to have no self esteem.
Later, he retroactively upgrades the request to ‘anything I could watch’.
Oh my... I'm so starved for entertainment...
It greatly embarrasses me to ask this, but...
Would you two have anything I could watch?
Nothing in the word ‘entertaining’ implies something to watch, you could just as easily be getting him a book or a CD.
It's almost like he knew in advance your TV was getting trashed.
When you try to give a broken Tenna to Nobody, he will guess correctly twice what Tenna is, calling him a ‘robot’ and a ‘video boy’. That’s some suspiciously good guesswork.
Actually, we have like... this friend, Tenna...
Oh? They're like a little video boy?
... I mean... actually...
They're kind of... broken right now.
Yeah, uh... nevermind.
Broken? Oh my, what are they, some kind of robot...?
No, they're just... I mean, we'll fix him. I think.
I see... well, thank you, darling.
But this dialogue has more issues than that. Do you see the issue here?
Robots aren’t real!
Mettaton is the only robot in Undertale, because he’s not a real robot, he’s a ghost possessing one. All the other mentions of robots are fictional ones.
“Hotland was originally going to be full of robots and cyborgs but as time went on it felt weird to have any besides Mettaton.”
-Toby Fox, Undertale art book.
Toby's one mess up with this was Tsunderplane, and he’s been pretty clear about how that was a mistake.
“Originally I was going to have robots and stuff but I decided that it’s best if MTT is the only robot to make him more unique and for the story to make more sense.
But there is an airplane
That’s different”-Toby Fox, 10th anniversary stream
“I guess tsundereplane isn’t like an actual plane but just a monster that resembles a plane.”
-Toby Fox, 10th anniversary stream
I don’t see this being different in Deltarune, as it is a relatively mundane setting where the monsters don't even use magic.
This is supposed to be the reason Mettaton’s a shut in in the first place, because he has no Alphys to build a robot body for him.
So, him casually asking if Susie’s ‘friend’ is a robot makes no sense.
Okay, but what if he’s assuming Tenna is a toy robot, and he’s playing along with her whimsy?
But that doesn’t work either. In the other version of the dialogue, he immediately questions the logic of why she would name a TV.
Oh my, it's a handsome little thing, isn't it. What's the brand?
Uh, I dunno, but his name's Tenna.
... your TV has a name?
No. I mean, uhh, yeah. But just like, a nickname.
Like "antenna?" How cute... I'll take it.
I’m informed the 'he's broken' dialogue is equally confusing in Japanese, but I don’t speak Japanese so I can’t entirely verify this.
Anyway, I don’t think Toby writes dialogue this messy. I think he is lying.
This actually is an established trait we've seen before. Mettaton is a good liar, but he is not good at keeping a cover story straight.
Bratty: So, like, Dr. Alphys built Mettaton, right?
Catty: That's like, what they TELL you.
Bratty: But like... Mettaton always acts like...
Catty: ... being built was HIS idea somehow.
Bratty: And even right after he was built...
Catty: ... he acted like Alphys was an old friend.Bratty and Catty, Undertale
When you look at it through this lens, it's amazing how much of "Nobody"’s dialogue starts looking like bad acting, or even sinister.
Ahh, whatever am I to do... this boredom, this ennui...
But, it's, uhh... really good. It's a really good TV.
... I see. Could you bring it on by?
No, they're just... I mean, we'll fix him. I think.
I see... well, thank you, darling.
One other interesting thing is that, late Chapter 4, you can knock on other doors in the area, but not the ghost house’s. This is probably because there is a cop living there, but I still think it’s worth mentioning.
(Knock Knock Knock…)
(No response)-Knocking at random doors downtown
(Knocking might wake somebody up…)
-Knocking at ghost house.
Another piece of dialogue interests me in its double meaning.
If you knock at Nobody’s door constantly, he calls you a ‘fan’ of his.
... Are you still there, darling?
Oh my. So obsessed with a nobody like me.
It's almost as if you're... a fan of mine.
... Go home, darling.
Chances are, if you keep knocking at the door to exhaust his dialogue, You are, indeed, a fan of Mettaton from the hit indie game Undertale.
Okay, so let's accept Mettaton is a liar with an agenda of some kind. This in itself does not prove he’s the Knight.
We know Carol probably got Alvin to dig up the hammer and put it in his desk, so she might have recruited other people.
(You heard Alvin mumbling to himself as you walked away.)
... were you proud of me, father...?
And... is it right for this hammer to...
What would Mettaton want with Tenna? Well, I put that in its own theory.
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE KNIGHT?
Let's forget about vibes for a minute. What concrete information do we have?
- It’s heavily implied to be a Lightner, because only Lightners have made fountains so far.
- It’s someone who could sneak into a library during the day, so it’s probably not vantablack all the time.
- Whoever it is probably knew Gerson when he was alive, as the Dark Sanctuary has a fleshed out depiction of him.
- It’s associated with stars.
- It’s a parallel of Kris, both being Knights with swords.
Mettaton actually checks off all of these points, and he doesn’t have an alibi for any of this.
CHARACTER DESIGN

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. The Knight’s design and Mettaton’s more humanoid bodies are basically exactly the same. They even have the same amount of fingers.
In the curled over sprite where you can see some of its hair, the Knight has hair similar to Mettaton NEO’s.

In terms of the physicality of the Knight, it is elegant and light on its feet, like a dancer. It also has an arrogant and flashy way of moving, expending needless energy on attacks. All of this checks out for Mettaton.

It also has an eye visible in its torso during its roaring poses.
Undertale characters having torso faces isn’t too unusual, which makes me think Toby or Temmie just likes them in general as a design trait. But still, Mad Dummy and Mettaton both have one. As does the Mystery Man sprite, if you turn him upside down.

On the matter of the Knight’s eye, there is one other mention that’s significant.
There's an interesting piece of dialogue with a set of NPCs on the way to the egg room.
What do you call a man with one eye?
Why does the angel make its cry?
Who will call the girl who snows?
I don't know... ha ha ha... I don't know!
This universe has only two one eyed men. Gerson, and Mettaton.
I think this is thematic in nature. Our main darkner bosses, King, Queen, and Tenna, all lack visible eyes.
In this land, only eyes blinded by darkness can see the way...
IF FOUNTAINS FREED, THE ROARING CRIES.
AND TITANS SHAPE FROM DARKENED EYES.
Gerson is both a darkner and a lightner, so he has one eye.
In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is King.
Popular proverb
Undyne has one eye in Undertale. But in Deltarune, as clueless Lightner, she has two. She has been kidnapped to the Dark World and we haven't seen her since, so she might be about to lose an eye.
The only answer the NPC can give to the question is 'I don't know'.
Neither Gerson or Mettaton are given names in Deltarune’s narrative.
Darkner Gerson is 'Old Man', although he does get to be named 'Gerson' in the code. Mettaton is 'a nobody' and uses the generic 'no_name' in the code.
Looking at the sprites, the Knight arguably has one pupiled eye, that can move around its body and emote in a sassy way. When it has an eye on its face, it’s only the one that’s the same as Mettaton EX has visible. (Edited for visibility)

KNIGHT'S PERSONALITY
The Knight seems to change its tactics with each darkner boss.
It beats Spade King into submission in a show of might. (Maybe. I have thoughts)
It demonstrates new information to Queen, then leaves her to her own devices to interpret the information wrongly.
It promises Tenna something he wants.
Assuming the Knight is not multiple people, this characterizes the Knight as not just a force of destruction, but a thinking enemy. This isn't a feral zombie we're dealing with.
Is the Knight truly evil? I think this is ambiguous. Yes, it can cut down Tenna and Jackenstein. But we never see the corpse of either of those characters, which in the laws of fiction means they are probably still alive.
The Knight will beat up three teenagers, but it declines to kill them. It has enough self control to whittle its foes down to one hitpoint each. It’s entirely possible most of its doings are part of an act, where it merely pretends to play the heel.
Either way, we do know the Knight has a malicious streak and a manipulative personality, because of the way it treats Kris and Tenna.
With Kris, there is the Knighting scene, which, given the hesitance Kris shows to kneel, feels like a power play. Kris likely has mixed feelings about betraying their friends, so this could be a reminder of ownership.

But what about Tenna?
When the KNIGHT appeared...The ROARING KNIGHT.
And I was told that if I keep you three busy, I can have ALL the people watch me that I want.Tenna, CH3
The Knight promises Tenna something he wants. But it has Kris be the one to make the offer, as a way to emotionally manipulate Tenna. Tenna loves Kris, so this is just another layer of emotional manipulation.
Now, Kris does not like Tenna, so making them do this also doubles as a way to put Kris in their place as a peon even more.
Trying to kill and manipulate people are behaviours we’ve seen from Mettaton before.
For example, he lies to Muffet.
They said a human wearing a striped shirt will come through.
I heard that they hate spiders.
I heard that they love to stomp on them.
I heard that they like to tear their legs off.
The person who warned us about you...
Offered us a LOT of money for your SOUL.
They had such a sweet smile~ and... ahuhu~
It's strange, but I swore I saw them in the shadows... Changing shape...?Muffet fight, Undertale
But there’s something more to this as well.
This deal with Tenna is the source of the only dialogue we have from the Knight.
Obviously the deal was brokered by Kris, but I don’t think Kris would invent something like this. They have a very low patience for Tenna in general.
This offer is well targeted to Tenna’s insecurities, but it’s not quite right. What Tenna truly wanted was connection to the families that grew up with him. He didn't just want attention for the sake of attention. A Knight candidate acting with the motivation of bringing the family back together, like Carol or Rudy, would have known this.
"I can have ALL the people watch me that I want."
This sounds more like something Mettaton would think was tempting.
GERSON
Okay, what do I mean that Mettaton knew Gerson?
The Dark Sanctuary Dark World was likely made by someone who knew Gerson when he was alive, maybe as a teacher or mentor, because it has such a fleshed out depiction of him.
Based on the drawing of Alvin present in the room, the Unused Classroom that became Card Kingdom is probably Gerson's old classroom. The classroom became ‘abandoned’ when Gerson died, which caused King’s bitterness.
This would also explain why King calls his weapon the ‘chain of justice’. It’s something he inherited from Gerson who is the ‘Hammer of Justice’, and once gave the room purpose.
Seam has some speculation when you ask about the NEO body.
I wonder... if perhaps, long ago, that old machine was very important to someone.
A certain Lightner, perhaps... or maybe it's just a hunch. Haha!
Why would Seam be familiar enough with Mettaton to speculate on his identity?
Seam has strange knowledge they should not have, but it seems limited to the Dark World and the holders of the crystals so far.
Seam's light world form is implied to be a stuffed toy cat in the unused classroom. So they could have met there.
Recall that Undyne, Mettaton’s foil, was herself mentored by Gerson.
Put these all together, and it could imply Mettaton was once taught by Gerson.
"STAR"
In general, the Knight is linked to stars. Its attacks use the element Dark/Star, and the attacks are stars.
Also made some attacks, like the Knight's star attack, box cutting attack, and also Shuttah's attacks.
Credited to teammember Taxi, Chapter 3 and 4 Look Back
Gaster is also linked to them.
The tarot card ‘The Star’ is number 17, and Gaster's True Lab entry is also number 17.
I think this is deliberate, considering the 66th music track ‘CRUMBLING TOWER’ is likely a reference to the 16th tarot card ‘The Tower’. The Tower card means revelation and disruptive change, and it always follows ‘The Devil’ card in a deck.
Most obviously, Gaster's name contains ‘Aster’, meaning star in Latin.
But what link does this have to Mettaton?
A 'peculiar book' in Dark Sanctuary reveals this text:
And so wept the fallen star, making rivers with its tears.
Then, slowly, from the bitter water, something grew.
It looked like glass.
We can't get around this: calling a person a star is Mettaton phrasing.
I was pretty sure about this, but I didn’t want to take it for granted. So I did a quick count through an Undertale text dump I found, and the majority of uses of the word ‘star’ were related to Mettaton in some way. Either him talking about himself, or other people talking about him.

In fact, even the ones that were unrelated to him mostly refer to the metaphorical use of the word, including showbiz terms such as ‘rock star’.
Deltarune doesn’t break this pattern. Although it's definitely diluted, and Starwalker doesn't help. But regardless, the majority mentions of stars are in a showbiz context via the TV World.

So our fallen star is far more likely to be a failed TV star, perhaps.
Do we know anyone like that...?
MAKING
The showbiz connotations don't stop there. The term “Making” or “Made” is used a few times.
Liar! Your hands are shining. You took and made, took and made.
YOU'VE BEEN MAKING [Hyperlink Blocked]!
THE KNIGHT WHICH MAKES WITH BLACKENED KNIFE.
The Knight
The Roaring Knight...
Today, It Deigned To Create This World
Reaching Its Long Hand To The Sky
It Coursed Its Will Into Its Blade
And Made
Thrusting The Fountain From The Earth
I think it's going to be short for ‘Making/Made It Big’ - becoming a BIG SHOT.
He'd shoot his mouth about making it big someday.
Addison about Spamton
now that mettaton's made it big, he never talks to me anymore.
Alphys, True Lab entry 11
Freedom's just a thing for big shots.
TEARS
If the Knight weeps, are there any connection to tears?
COLDWATER FELL FROM THE TOP OF THE SKY.
I’m inclined to believe this means rain, instead of snow, as we know it’s ‘raining somewhere else’.
Bitter water that fell in droplets from the sky. Recovers all HP.
... Isn't that rain? [When using it on Susie]Bitter Tear consumable item from CH4.
'It's Raining Somewhere Else’
Undertale OST track 63
‘The place where it rained’
Deltarune OST track 70
Rain is linked to Waterfall. Waterfall is where much of the Gaster lore is found.
Rain
Reach the place where it rains.Undertale steam achievement for reaching the raining area in Waterfall.
Mettaton is from Waterfall, of course.
Originally I planned for [Mettaton] to leave a sparkling trail of tears when hit.
Toby Fox, Undertale Art book
CONCH
There's a strange conch you can find during the mantle game.
A CRACKED CONCH, SURROUNDED BY WASHED UP GLASS.
NOT A PERSON SEEMED TO WANT IT.
LISTEN TO IT?
THE SOUND OF THE OCEAN...
A PITY, IT WAS JUST REPEATING ALL IT KNEW.
BUT YOU COULD STILL HEAR THE SOUND OF THE OCEAN.
I think this is likely meant to apply to multiple characters. For example, someone 'repeating all they knew' could refer to Ralsei and his knowledge of the prophecy.
It feels like there's this repeated motif of... trash, too. Unwanted things. Like the Waterfall dump.
A gamepad no one wanted to use.
The buttons are an ugly pink and yellow.
Kris and Ralsei control Susie via rope like an unwanted puppet.
I felt like you.
I felt like a broken toy no one wanted.
But something interesting about a conch is that is the empty body of a sea snail.
This could be vessel imagery.
(And let's not forget, Mettaton worked on a snail farm in Waterfall)
MTT REFERENCES.
I haven’t actually listed all the amount of things you can read as references to Undertale, or to each Knight candidate, because I’m not that crazy yet.
But I am certain that if Mettaton really is just a random side character, the amount of references he has is completely disproportionate.
There are almost no mentions in the Light World. Although Bratty is wearing EX merchandise, despite EX not existing in this world.

But in the Dark World, there are three characters that are walking Mettaton references. Queen, Spamton, and Tenna.

QUEEN
Queen is one big Mettaton EX homage.
In general, I’m pretty sure her name and styling as an aristocrat is a homage to the song by the glam rock band, Queen.
Attack of the Killer Queen
-Title of 32nd track on Deltarune CH2 OST
“REAL DRAMA!! REAL ACTION!! REAL BLOODSHED!! ON OUR NEW SHOW..."ATTACK OF THE KILLER ROBOT!"
-Mettaton EX, pre- CORE battle
Perfume came naturally from Paris (naturally)
For cars she couldn't care less
Fastidious and precise
She's a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, gelatine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind-”Killer Queen” lyrics, Queen, 1974
Even her brainwashing to create a utopia seems to be a reference to Mettaton’s neutral epilogue, unless Toby already had her in the back of his head while writing the Undertale endings.
so mettaton just kind of... took over?
he's brainwashed everyone with his stupid TV show.
and made the underground into his personal paradise.-Sans, Mettaton Ending
They have some smaller similarities, like using one of the same attacks, the motif of a boot, even her serial number containing ‘EX’.
- I Am Known As Serial Number Q5U4EX7YY2E9N
Queen also keeps mentioning she’ll ‘turn Noelle’s face into a robot one’, which does not go anywhere.
SPAMTON
Spamton obviously narratively exists to wear the NEO body. But his name, his greedy personality and taste for licensed merch, and even his hair line up pretty well with Mettaton’s.
TENNA
Toby confirmed in an interview that he wanted players to look at Tenna and think Mettaton.
"When I was coming up with the concept for Tenna, the first thing that came in my mind was that I wanted the players to think that the character looks like Mettaton."
But why did Toby do this at all? MTT’s a good character and all, but recycling him three times feels excessive.
The common explanation is that this is a reference to Undertale, as part of ‘reverse Undertale theory’. That every main character in Undertale is getting a Darkner equivalent.
But I don't see it. If TV World is supposed to be Hotland, where is the Alphys Darkner? If the only point of NEO was to make up for something we didn’t get in Undertale, shouldn’t a boss fight against an Alphys stand-in be on the agenda?
It makes sense for Asgore, Toriel or Carol to be referenced, such as Queen having Carol's controlling tendencies, or King being the world’s most divorced man like Asgore is. They're the parents of our teen protagonists, so they're automatically relevant to the story, even just as secondhand characterization. For example, by learning to cope with Queen, Noelle subtextually learns to handle her own mother.
But (We) are the only one in the cast who knows Mettaton... so we are left with three Mettaton-shaped plot points, and no real reason for it, as yet.
There’s a few smaller references too.
Two of the recruits in the Color Cafe can ask for a Starfait, which is something Mettaton invented in Undertale.
Hey, boss! I'll have a Dark Candy Starfait!
I'll have a double Starfait. No, triple. Oh, hi, boss! (Smile)
This is a pretty clever piece of writing on Toby's part. Swatch sets the cafe menu, and Mettaton and Swatch had direct contact, so this makes perfect sense. It implies he spent more time on that computer drawing things, too.
One question that I think deserves examining is if the Dark Worlds track as something a Knight candidate might have made.
TV World has elements of Kris’s psyche, like snow, 1225, Mancountry and the divorce couple, so it follows that the Knight’s Worlds might also reflect their creator.
One fun thing is that all three of the Knight’s worlds have little dancing guys in them.
Card Kingdom has black and white dancers, Cyber World has these spinning NEO-looking guys with yellow Soul mode heads, and the Dark Sanctuary has Jackenstein’s dancing pumpkins.

In general, the Jackenstein fight’s theme of finding a key for a haunted house in a vaguely Pac-man-esque scenario tracks for Mettaton’s psyche too.
One other thing I noticed is the background, namely the shop outside which you purchase the Freeze Ring.
If you fill in the negative space beneath the pink shoe, you can find a hidden M.

This reminded me of the Disney practise of a 'Hidden Mickey', where Disney artists hide a Mickey Mouse face subtly in their work.
I was curious if there were other things that looked like Ms in the scenery. I could find examples in the Card Kingdom’s throne room, and in Jackenstein’s fight.

It seems pretty logical an artist would sign his work, right? Something he might have learned from Gerson, perhaps.
And a signed copy of The History of Humans and Monsters, by Gerson Boom.
Part three: WHAT IS THE KNIGHT?
So what is the Knight, exactly? If it truly is a body that Gaster built for Mettaton, how does that work?
Let’s talk first about its general cognito hazard deal, which is inherited from Gaster- that it’s in a state between existing, and not.
THE KNIGHT IS FORGETTABLE
We know King never met the Knight, right?
No.... we don’t.
It’s implied Seam had the shadow mantle, until Jevil stole it and gave it to King. Why would you need that item? Maybe if you were planning to fight the Knight. A fight so bad it wrecks half your own throne room.

The other Kings are basically pushovers, so I don’t think a fight with them would cause this much damage. And King is obsessed with the Knight to a fanboyish degree, which is strange if he never actually met it.
Neither King or Susie can actually think of anything to say about the Knight, despite the fact it beat up Susie maybe only a few hours ago.
Soon you will meet your demise, by the Knight's hand...
We lived, idiot.
WHAT!? YOU met THE KNIGHT!?
... Aheh. A rare show of mercy, I suppose.
With their full strength, you'd be SPLATTERED!! Hahaha!!
...
... What... were they like?
Umm, they seemed a little...
A little? A little what?
You know. A little... y'know?
A little WHAT!? DRAW A PICTURE, WENCH!!!
Spamton tries to tell us something about the Knight in his shop. But in a later Sweepstakes tweet, he claims no knowledge of the Knight.
KRIS, DID YOU KNOW THAT THE KNIGHT...
WHO THE [$#&] IS [The Knight]??????
Spamton, Spamton Sweepstakes
This 'redactive' aura is something we've seen a few other places. Noelle in the Spamton Sweepstakes mentions her Cat Petterz egg that 'left due to happiness' had a name, but she forgot what it was.
The Sword Route TV displays 'No Controller', even though you have the Odd Controller plugged in. Susie struggles to remember Seam’s name when seeing them on Asriel’s computer.
HAHAHA!!! WHAT IS THIS COMPUTER WALLPAPER???
What AGE did you and your brother draw this at!?
Glad we didn't go to THIS Cyber World! Haha, what the hell?
Hey, and in the corner, that's that cat thing from Castle Town!
You know, the shop thing! The... cat... the stitch thing! Whatever.
And of course, The Forgotten Man.
Two people listened to the phone for Spamton's mystery caller and heard 'nobody', or static. But there was someone there, they just forgot what they heard.
AND HE RAN RIGHT OUT OF THE ROOM WITH THE RECEIVER HANGING!
SO I WENT TO PICK IT UP...
THINKING IT WAS FINALLY MY CHANCE TO BE A BIG SHOT.
... BUT THERE WAS NOBODY THERE!Tenna, CH3
He must've left in the middle of a conversation,
Because I could still hear someone on the other end...
...
But when I put the receiver to my ear...
There was nothing but garbage noise.Addison, CH2
It’s like these things are so hostile to reality, your mind starts starts trying to forget it to protect yourself. Because if you did remember what reality tried to forget, you’d end up left behind by it, and become a Goner, or mad like Jevil or Spamton.
Notice how many of these examples revolve around having no name, or having your name forgotten.
Onion-San forgot his own name.
... Actually, since no one talks to me, I forgot my own name...
Darkner Gerson is never directly named within the narrative, he is merely 'Old Man'.
If you try to name your character Gaster, the game resets. Similarly, when you enter MICHAEL on the Mike game, it resets and the Grandpa Semi theme plays.
Sans's name means 'without'.
In Queen's mansion, there's the "prestigious big shot [whose] name has been erased from the records". (I will mention this more later)
When alone on the piano in CH4, Kris plays a song internally called ‘kris_piano_sevenfour’. In Japanese, seven four is pronounced nanashi, or ‘nameless’.
Knight uses the Dark/Star element. Everything else with that element is either dead or forgotten.
Deltarune Mettaton tells us he is 'a nobody'.
One thing I find strange about the ghost house is that, unlike every other house on the same street, the inhabitants of the ghost house don’t seem to have any history with the Dreemurr family.
In fact, no one really notices the ghost house. A Froggit NPC on the street doesn’t even realize three people live there, not one.
(I sometimes hear beautiful singing from that house over there.)
(How eerie... could it be a ghost?)
Ribbit.
(That would make sense. A ghost lives there.)
As we’ve seen with Onion-San, having no name and nobody who knows you exist makes you Goner bait. Or potentially worse.
Even in Undertale, both Papyrus and Undyne forgot Mettaton’s name. And Undyne makes a point of this...
Undyne: WHAT? You broke into Napstablook’s cousin's house!? That's... That's...! Hey, what was their name, anyway?
THE KNIGHT'S HAND
Often when the Knight is mentioned, a certain phrasing is used that focuses on the movement of its hands.
THE HAND OF THE KNIGHT IS DRIFTING FORWARD.
FROM NOW, A NIGHTMARE WILL AWAKEN IN YOUR HEARTS.
IN THE SHADOW OF THE KNIGHT'S HAND...
The QUEEN has been very interested in this video recently.
Where the KNIGHT creates the Fountain by its own hand...
Soon you will meet your demise, by the Knight's hand...
The Knight
The Roaring Knight...
Today, It Deigned To Create This World
Reaching Its Long Hand To The Sky
It Coursed Its Will Into Its Blade
And Made
Thrusting The Fountain From The Earth
Its battle description also has some of this phrasing.
The Knight's hands glow a strange color...
Who else gets hand symbolism? Kris has a LOT of it, especially considering their fixation on washing their hands and the Art Club Easel scene.
(You thought about Susie's words and took a deep breath.)
(Your hands began to move on their own...)
The Titan has some.
The Titan's hands began to move once more.
But, there is one curiously Knight-esque description of a hand in motion... Mettaton, making the NEO body.
That robot was the embodiment of a Lightner's dream.
A dream I helped create... once.
Splashing color from the motion of their hand.
Of course, this calls to mind Gaster, 'the man who speaks in hands'.
THEN, THE FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS.
But it's also puppet symbolism. How does one control a puppet? With a control bar, held in your hand.
Defined as a thing that controls a character, this symbolism might extend to a gamepad, such as the Odd Controller that puppets Mini Kris.
Puppets... strings... hands...
What the hell does any of that mean?
And the way he just... broke.Susie, after Spamton NEO fight, which did not contain hands unless you count hands that turn into phones
THE KNIGHT IS A PUPPET
There is one prominent puppet in Undertale, and that’s Mad Dummy. This character exists to demonstrate the mechanism of how a ghost selects a body, possesses one, and tries to bond with it. And, on the Genocide route, how a ghost that successfully bonded with its body can permanently die. It’s basically exposition to explain Mettaton’s storyline and fight.
The word ‘vessel’ is used by two characters- by Alphys, describing the Flower that became Flowey, and said by Mad Dummy, about the body it’s possessing.
We'll need a vessel to wield the monster SOULs when the time comes.
After all, a monster cannot absorb the SOULs of other monsters.
Just as a human cannot absorb a human SOUL...
So then...
What about something that's neither human nor monster?
Us ghosts spend our whole lives looking for a proper vessel.
Slowly, slowly, we grow closer to our new bodies...
Until one day, we too may become corporeal beings.
Beings able to laugh, love, and dance like any other...
Does that sound familiar to you? Puppets, vessels, choosing who you are? It’s directly relevant to the themes Deltarune explores with ‘the cage’.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Toby wrote both of those storylines with direct compatibility for Deltarune’s mechanics in mind.
A feature of a string puppet can be that it has holes in its hands, to put the strings in.
Both Mettaton and Mad Mew Mew wear gloves, and none of the dummies have hands, so it’s possible this is a consistent feature with puppetlikes we just haven’t seen yet.
So yes, I think the Knight is also a puppet.
It parallels Kris with the same ‘Act’ poses, because both Kris and the Knight body are controlled by another.
Its ‘roaring’ pose is very similar to Berdly's pose when he is forced to generate bullets by Queen’s mind control.

The Knight's pronouns 'they/it' would be appropriate for a ghost possessing an inanimate object, as they’re what Mad Dummy uses.
THE KNIGHT IS A ROBOT
If the Knight is a vessel, it is at least partially a robotic one. It has a ‘laser’ in the files.
If it’s Mettaton, this makes even more sense, as it's established he’s the only robot in the cast.
This is where we get to the Knight’s supposed antlers.
Let's talk about something said in chapter 2, by Sweet Cap’n Cakes.
This is said only when you have Noelle in the party.
Cap'n: And who is that, ahem, madimoyzel?
Sweet: Leave her alone, Cap!
Cap'n: Nice radio antenna you got there...
Sweet: Those are antlers, Cap!
Cap'n: H-huh!? I, uhh... hmm.
Cap'n: ...
K_K: Let's play her a song!
Cap'n mistakes Noelle’s antlers for radio antenna. When he's corrected, he doesn't seem to know what to make of it. It’s like he’s mentally erroring out. K_K quickly changes the subject.
Cap'n is meant to be the smooth one, so making this mistake and then not knowing how to recover the situation are both out of character for him.
Why would he have this confusion?
Now, we know what these three guys are- they are sound equipment, two boom boxes and a speaker. This is confirmed both outside the game, and inside the game.
Sweet shimmies defiantly.
Cap'n spins his cap around.
K_K is a CD player.
"I was asked to draw a character based on a "boom box" theme, so I gave Toby three designs to choose from."
Nelnal, character designer, Autumn '23 newsletter
Cap'N- Radio Cassette player
Sweet- Speaker
K_K- Radio Cassette playerLabelled 2021 artwork concept by Nelnal
There is no sound equipment visible in the library, so these three must be in the library closet.
This is the same closet the Knight could have hidden in.
(The closet is spacious and full of old electronics.)
(A large person could easily fit inside.)
I think the CD player that became Cap'n saw the Knight, which is a robot with antenna on its head. Some part of Cap'n remembers this. But because the Knight comes with a metaphysical censor bar, he’s confused.

So why would the Knight have radio antenna? I think the Knight operates via, is partially shaped by, and possibly travels, via a radio signal.
This is why it slumps over before attacking, similar to a Werewire- the signal connection to its puppeteer dropped.

Tenna uses his own antenna a few times in the chapter to make calls, using a sonar sound effect.

A place that became a Dark World wouldn't need an actual radio in it to receive or boost the Knight's signal.
Many devices with unshielded wires can become inadvertent antennas, picking up radio stations. This includes speakers and microphones.
Old sound equipment, like Cap'n the radio boombox.
Kris's phone could carry a radio signal, as could any landline phone.
Tenna clearly could. In fact I believe this is where he got his name- in a previous draft, his name was Mr. TV Guy.
On the website, the chapter 4 message page links to two sound files, called M and E. This means ‘Me’, of course, like in Chapter 4's Weird Route scene, but it could also spell out EM- an electromagnetic wave.
EM waves are what makes up radio, TV, phone calls, and WiFi.
Elnina and Lanino are radio wave Darkners, being the weather channel. So EM waves can have tangible effects in the Dark World. The two of them can even persist in a Dark World Tenna isn't in- because they’re not a physical part of Tenna, they’re air waves.
AIR WAVES, a Mike room track, has the 'World Revolving' motif.
‘Waves’ are mentioned in Raise Up Your Bat, but I suspect this is a dual meaning.
Because I'm with you in the dark
With your heart as my mark
Which shall guide you the way,
through the waves
It’s not just water waves, but sound waves. Sound and light are both air waves.
Sonar is also sound waves, similar to the pools in Dark Sanctuary. Dolphins, Queen's theme animal, use Sonar.
Phone calls are a motif, too. Spamton gets a strange phone call. Someone calls Kris, and the phone switches on by itself.
Kris's phone remains a phone in the dark worlds, and it plays mus_smile.ogg. A song associated with Gaster.
In Undertale, if a call is made when one of the goners is in the room, the phone does not turn on.
Static is featured in Flowey’s fight, but also makes sense as an association with Gaster- it’s the ‘space in between’ channels. It’s possible this is the ‘garbage noise’ the Addison heard on Spamton’s phone.
The term 'Ghost radio station' or 'numbers station' is sometimes used for radio broadcasts that have no known origin, broadcast meaningless numbers, and are rumored to be used for espionage.
We know Toby would be familiar with these concepts, because Alphys in the MTT bomb game says she is using an ‘EM field’ to trap a glass of water.
What is an EM field?
An electromagnetic field (also EM field) is a physical field, varying in space and time, that represents the electric and magnetic influences generated by and acting upon electric charges.
Chapter 5, The Field of Pink and Gold.
Gerson, CH4
[The] old Royal Scientist, Doctor W.D. Gaster?
One day, he vanished without a trace.
They say he shattered across time and space.Gaster Follower, Undertale
Okay, so the Knight’s powers are sonic in nature, if it works by a radio wave. That feels right, considering it keeps very quiet during battle, despite being named for its scream.
I think we can go further. I think the Knight has the power to use its voice to put people to sleep.
THE KNIGHT IS A SINGER
One point of curiosity is that Berdly and Noelle both wake up after the Cyber World, like they'd been asleep. They already had their books spread out, like they were working for a while beforehand, and they don’t mention falling into the Dark World. This indicates the fountain was made when they were in the room, but they’d probably notice that, right?

I think it is plausible that the Knight put them to sleep, before making the fountain.
It used some power or ability to do so in a less violent manner than SWOONing them, as they have full HP when you meet them.
The Knight is associated with nightmares… and so, with sleep. So this works thematically as part of their power set. Toriel has a nightmare if you fight the Knight, but she never wakes up. I think it's possible the Knight put her to sleep as well, as we know it was near the house.
But what does this have to do with singing?
There is the spell pacify, that both Ralsei and Noelle start with.
The animation for pacify does not have singing, but I think it is thematically linked to a lullaby.
Noelle and Ralsei are both good singers. Ralsei says in chapter 4 that he learned “singing” for you.
Noelle, your singing has gotten so lovely...
Baking, sewing, singing... those are all just...
Things I thought to do... for you two.
Ralsei Master says the spell can soothe babies, like a lullaby can.
Ralsei's spell's called PACIFY. Use it on BABIES, before they CRY.
Ralsei MASTER
There's something backing this in Undertale, too. You can send Knight Knight to sleep if you sing to her, and can do so much easier if you learned Shyren's song. Shyren is Mettaton's friend, so he would know the song as well. Frisk is capable of doing this, meaning it isn't even an ability you need magic for.
And I think it just makes sense the Knight is a singer. It is the 'Roaring' Knight after all.
It belts out a death metal scream for us. The Knight is a vocalist.
Passionate about music, but often taken advantage of by sinister types.
Shadowguy description.
Some other Knight suspects we know are singers include Dess, who sang along to Tenna with her guitar, and Asriel, who sang in choir.
Dess, rocking her guitar and singing along with those nasty, nasty songs!
Kris, if you want some of our "sick" Fruit Juice, you should come to our service.
Our choir sounds a bit thinner since your brother went away.
Undertale Mettaton is established to have ‘the voice of a siren’, and in Deltarune a Froggitt outside Blook house comments on singing within.
(I sometimes hear beautiful singing from that house over there.)
(How eerie... could it be a ghost?)
They say I have the voice of a Siren...
...awooga!
He also has a link with electric guitars, same as the Knight's theme, as they’re in EX’s intro.
THE BAT SPRITE
What if... it's not a bat? It has that weird pointed top. Would it work as... a microphone, with a fluffed up top?
![]()
This would work with the Knight's theming as a singer, but is there anything else to suggest this?
Shyra, Shyren's sister, died very recently, as she is not buried in Susie's flashback. She was buried with a microphone.
SHYRA
A KARAOKE MICROPHONE FOR A BRAVE SINGER
Why is this relevant? Because the Knight reuses one of Lemon Bread's 'teeth' attacks from True Lab. The Knight bullets are called 'teeth' in the files.
One of Lemon Bread's components was Shyra.

Also, notice the big cyclops eye just like the Knight's.
I don't know if it would be literally the same mic, because karaoke mics don't look like that. But Mettaton is directly adjacent to Shyra. I think it means something, in any case.
Okay, so the Knight is a musical robot that can sing. Sounds like a guy we know.
But we’re looking too small. What’s the big concept that links both games, and is more important than even Determination?
Part four: What is NEO?
In Undertale, Mettaton goes off the rails of Alphy's plan, wanting to carry out his own agenda. The same is likely true of Deltarune Mettaton.
Whatever this plan is, I think it has to do with a vessel that is entirely his own - the one he made a long time ago, NEO.
THE DRAWN NEO BODY
The name of the music track for Queen’s Mansion is ‘Pandora Palace’.
Pandora is the name of a character from Greek mythology. When she was given a box she was warned not to open, she opened it anyway. All the evils of the world flew out. However, one thing remained in the box, hope.
This story is sometimes used to debate whether hope is a good thing, or something evil as it is used to taunt mankind.
So if Queen’s mansion is Pandora’s box, what represents Hope? It must be the NEO body, left behind in the basement, and created as part of a certain someone’s ‘hopes and dreams’.

(It's an angel doll.)
(Its lack of facial features is unsettling.)Flavor text for a doll in the hospital.
Again, notice how meta this plotline is. Why would you ever think to connect the stranger in the ghost house with the NEO plotline, unless you were aware of Mettaton NEO from the Genocide route?
Most of what we know about the drawn NEO body is from Swatch.
... So that's what happened.
...
That robot was the embodiment of a Lightner's dream.
A dream I helped create... once.
Splashing color from the motion of their hand.
The Lightner filled it with their own hope, giving it an incredible power.
... but, in the end, nothing ever came of it.
And it was left in the basement with the rest of the corrupted data.
... But that crooked salesman! Somehow, he learned about the robot,
And thought he could use its power to fulfill his own twisted dreams.
What a pity. To think he was once a valued customer...
Interestingly, Swatch has so much personal stake in his creation, he is willing to lie to a Lightner about it. This is probably not something Queen told him to do, either.
What? Basement? There's no basement here.
You need to relax. Have a drink, and talk softly…
You're bothering the other customers.
Kris has a very bad time after the Spamton NEO fight, visibly upset to both of their friends.
(If you say it all strained like that,)
(... I'm not gonna think you're OK...)
A common reading of the basement scene is that Kris is afraid of being our puppet.
DO YOU WANNA BE A [Heart] ON A [Chain] YOUR WHOLE LIFE!?
But actually, their freakout starts before the fight. If you interact with the machine again after putting the disc in, Kris will hit and kick the NEO body without pausing, after you’ve put the disc in.

(You tapped the mechanism.)
(... Nothing happened.)
(You shook the mechanism.)
(You hit it.)
(You kicked it.)
(...)
(Nothing happened.)
I was wondering why Kris has this strong reaction. The only other time we see them have a similar fit of rage is when Kris kicks the heart around on Weird Route.
I wondered if it might be because the NEO body looks human, and Kris is implied to dislike humans. It would make sense, but it’s not a piece of characterization that feels immediately relevant.
But what if it’s just about who drew the NEO body in the first place?
It reminds me of Kris's flavor text in the Knight fight, where they seem to be having a panic attack.
You felt lightheaded.
You feel surrounded.
Your chest feels tight.
You felt your chest twisting.
You feel cornered.
Your heartbeat becomes twisted.
Spamton got puppeted, then Used Up, by someone who directed him by phone. That has got to feel pretty bad if you’re Kris, who is taking orders from a mysterious voice over the phone.
We actually don't know what happened to the drawn NEO body after Spamton is done taking it for a joyride.
On the Normal route, we are moved to a small room to talk to Spamton. The original room and the teacups become inaccessible.
In Weird route, we call for Noelle, then the game immediately goes into the fountain cutscene. In both scenarios, we never actually see it destroyed.
So it might be making a reappearance at some point.
That might be endgame, considering...
THE POWER OF "NEO"
What is 'NEO'? It seems to be an overarching concept.
It’s possible it has something to do with Gaster, as it is in capitals. Or it could be an acronym of some kind, similar to LOVE.
Jevil, Queen, Spamton and Tenna all mention 'NEO'.
THE TRUE AND NEO CHAOS!
-Jevil's spoken voiceline
Focusing Into Her Blade, She Will Create A Neo Dark Fountain
-Giga-Queen, her final battle
BUT JUST LOOK, KRIS. LOOK AT THE [Power of NEO] AND ASK YOURSELF...
WELL, DON'T YOU?
DON'T YOU WANNA BE A [Big Shot]!?-Spamton NEO
NEO shows, NEO programs, just watch, watch, WATCH!
-Tenna
ERAM's theme indirectly references NEO, via its Battle With A True Hero sample.
In Deltarune, both descriptions of the NEO body refer to it having a ‘power’.
The Lightner filled it with their own hope, giving it an incredible power.
At any rate, it's truly unfortunate a Darkner decided to steal that power...
This seems to call back to the song title, ‘Power of “NEO”’, which is the 99th track on the Undertale album.
Where else is NEO used? A few places in the files. Both significant (Susie's intro is called sneo.ogg, Ralsei's CH2 exposition of the Roaring is called obj_legend_neo) and insignificant (some Lancer assets).
Choices are a different color once you enter the Dark World, because Deltarune is flagged to flip from obj_choicer_old, which is identical to Undertale’s choice picker, to obj_choicer_neo.
Naming new stuff ‘neo’ seems to be the standard way of renaming newer versions of assets. I think it probably has the same meaning on a meta level. It's a new version of reality. Like the 'new future' Gaster wanted to build with us.
"I LOOK FORWARD
TO CREATING
A NEW FUTURE
WITH YOU."Gaster, Twitter, 2018
'Neo' is an anagram of 'One'. Power of NEO… Power of 1?
[[Number 1 Rated Salesman1997]]
BUT IN A [1 for 1] BATTLE, NEO NEVER LOSES!!!
Spamton NEO
He's the One
Tenna intro

The thematic power of being exceptional, one of a kind... but also alone and friendless.
The Knight is alone, as Susie points out.
Thing is, you actually...
You? You're all damn alone...
Even... even if you knock me down...
As long as Kris has got a hand to lift me up with...
Kris is isolated during Weird Route and Sword Route, when they switch the NEO body on. Even the Egg rooms seperate them from the team.
This runs a pretty decisive through line between the idea of being NEO, and of being a “Big Shot”.
If you’re Big, and you’re NEO, then you’ve successfully remade yourself into someone who does not want or need other people.
It's the exact thematic opposite of our heroes learning friendship and relying on each other.
ONCE I WAS LIKE [The other Addisons], JUST [A little shorter than the others]. BUT ONCE I STARTED USING [The] SPAMTON [Method] EVERY DAY, AND BECOME [Big] IN SECONDS! NOW THEY'RE SO [Small], SO [Microscopic] I [can't even see them anymore, even if I wanted to.]
Spamton, Spamton Sweepstakes
now that mettaton's made it big, he never talks to me anymore.
Alphys, True Lab entry 11
In Undertale, Mettaton NEO is almost a joke. You can kill it in one hit.
I think there’s a hidden explanation for that, which we see demonstrated with Undyne.
If you strike down Undyne in the Genocide route, she channels the power of Determination to face a being who’s a threat to both humans and monsters, which allows her to become Undyne the Undying. However, if you kill Undyne on a neutral route, she is not able to do this and simply melts despite trying to stay alive, because you’re not evil enough.
I think the reason Mettaton NEO gets cut down so easily is similar. Undertale Mettaton wasn’t capable of channelling NEO, because he wasn’t acting selfishly enough. He was acting to protect Alphys and humanity. It was too positive an emotion.
Deltarune Mettaton, however, has no friends and nothing to lose.
Visually, NEO looks not dissimilar to the Knight. There are a few other links between NEO and the Knight, too.
Spamton says he's going to get on the path to The Big One, presumably NEO.
BUT UNLIKE HIM I'M GONNA [[Shoot For the Sky!]] AND GET ON THE PATH TO ...
[[The Big One]]
And in his shop, he tries to sell you a broken sword, that he also calls "The Big One". This is odd, because NEO does not use a sword.
Broken Sword
A rejected sword cut into 2 pieces. Not even you can equip this...
My best guess is that it being a broken sword is a reference to Varik breaking his weapons with use in Brandish, which is a game Toby says inspired Undertale.
Spamton describes the sword as 'Criminal!'
CUT ANYTHING
2 PIECES! CRIMINAL!
Spamton also calls Tenna, who the Knight does later cut 2 pieces off, a ‘criminal’.
KRIS!!! DON'T BELIEVE [[Anything You See On TV!]]
THE MAN'S A CRIMINAL, I TELL YOU!! A CRIMINAL!!
So, that broken sword might be a busted former possession of the Knight's.
Spamton also links NEO and 666, which is the Gaster number, in a Sweepstakes tweet.
SEND ME [666666] NEO[Kromer] I WILL BUY THEM FOR YOU!
-Spamton, Spamton Sweepstakes
He mentions communion in relation to the Knight, and his only other religious moment is in relation to the NEO body.
[[Amazed at thi5 amazing transformation? You too can]] HAVE A [[Communion]] WITH [[Unintelligble Laughter]]
Eventually, [Spamton] just spent all his time in the basement... praying.
When things went downhill, he became obsessed with that artifact.
There’s a point of ambiguity present with its shadow crystal, too.
Oh, is that so? That salesman had found the crystal in the old machine...?
Kris is the one who offers up this information to Seam, and by extension us. We have only Kris’s word that this is what happened. Kris, who can hide their inventory from us.
I think Spamton wasn't worshipping the crystal in the machine. He was actually worshipping the ‘power of NEO’… whatever that is.
Part five: What and When?
Okay, back to Mettaton.
We've established he could have done it. What else?
WHY WOULD HE DO IT
What would his motive be?
I think there's a few answers for this that are spread out, but first, let's look to Susie.
Gerson asks Susie why she thinks the Knight is doing what it's doing. Susie is not sure, but assumes it just wants to see the world burn.
Making fountains... kidnapping people.. like...
Why do ya reckon they're doin' it?
... Huh? I... I dunno. Maybe they just...
I mean, maybe... they just wanna see everything burn.
Just like she had suggested the Roaring ‘might be kind of fun’ before her character development.
B-but Susie, without you, the... The world will...
So what?
If the world gets destroyed...
It's none of my damn business.
Might even be kind of fun, honestly.
To me, this implies the Knight's real motive is actually something Susie would understand really well. She says as much when you seal the fountain in CH2.
It looks like we're here again, huh...
The Roaring Knight...
Whatever they are, they're making these fountains...
…
But... is that really a bad thing...?
Since they started showing up,
Everything's gotten a lot more interesting, hasn't it...?
Susie loves the dark fountain worlds, and doesn't want the adventures to ever end.
Mettaton is exactly the kind of person who would get drunk off too much escapism and turn it toxic. The main example of this is his Neutral ending, where, without any real friends to connect him to reality, he turns escapism from the Underground’s problems into a delusional denial there are problems at all.
UNDER MY RULE, THE UNDERGROUND'S PROBLEMS ARE OVER, BABY!
CROWDING? DREARINESS???
WHO NEEDS THE SUN WHEN YOU 'VE GOT THE SPOTLIGHT!!?
ECONOMIC COLLAPSE? EDUCATION PROBLEMS? WHAT!?
EVERYTHING'S COVERED IN GOLDEN GLITTER!
THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS, BEAUTIFUL!Mettaton, Mettaton Ending
KNIGHT'S MOVEMENTS- CYBER WORLD
We’ve already established Noelle and Berdly were in the room when the Knight made the fountain. I think it would be good to look more closely at the Knight’s movements here, and the character of Queen, as we know the most about the circumstances of this fountain.
Queen is a laptop computer. The game makes this very clear. She states it in her intro, Ralsei shows this in a cutscene, Ramb mentions it, Tenna mentions it.
I Am Known As Serial Number Q5U4EX7YY2E9N
No I Am: A Computer (Smart)
In the Light World, in reality...
Lancer is just an average playing card.
Queen... is just a laptop.
Heh, only kids like you two would take a laptop home just to play make believe.
... I WISH THEY NEVER BROUGHT THAT LAPTOP HOME...
So I suspect the fact Queen is a physical object is going to be relevant in some way. I think this is because she filmed the Knight making the fountain on her webcam. There's a room in her mansion that features this footage.
This is today's dinner entertainment.
I've heard it's called "The Birth of a Fountain."
The QUEEN has been very interested in this video recently.
Where the KNIGHT creates the Fountain by its own hand...
(It's a video of someone creating a strange pillar of smoke.)
(There's so much smoke, it's hard to tell who it is.)
As the only confirmed witness we have, I think Queen will be able to identify the Knight.
(In fact, I think there is a non-zero possibility she already knows their identity and just doesn't think to relay this information, thinking like an overliteral computer as she does)
If that's the case, who Queen is established to have interacted with is vitally important.
We know she’s interacted with an unspecified ‘girl’.
Her mansion has rooms for Kris, Berdly, Noelle, Susie, Jockington, Catti and Asriel. She would likely be familiar with the Holiday and Dreemurr parents as well, because she was taken to the Dreemur house.
She would also be familiar with Mettaton, as he drew NEO on her.
(Queen doesn’t seem to realise December Holiday is a real person and not a literal holiday, but that might be more of the redaction effect, so we can’t strike Dess off the suspect list.)
WHY WERE THE LAPTOP, AND THE WEBCAM, LEFT ON?
Kris plugging in Tenna caused the House Dark World to transform into a TV studio, as Shuttah tells us it was originally much different.
There once was the great wilderness here! Yes...
But, the world became the theater, and us, children of Tenna's contract.
In the once upon a time, there was a land like purple cliffs.
A frozen waste, watery basin, a metal desert.
But, this theater was built upon that... and, it grew.
Tsk... You have seen naught but that tempered by light.
You should thank Tenna for brightening everything up.
Now, consider that “someone" left Queen on. What if it was for the same reason? That her light transformed the Dark World?
(Looks like the library's state-of-the-art public laptop.)
(Someone left it on.)
What would the Cyber World look like if Queen and her castle weren't there?
Characters that we know live in the laptop specifically are Queen, Swatch, Spamton, Nubert(he is likely a laptop Nub), the Swatchlings, and Tasque Manager. Without Queen, Cyber World has no ruler or antagonistic force.
I see 3 possibilities:
- The Knight wanted Noelle to have a character arc. Kris would have known Queen’s personality, so it could be as a way to teach Noelle how to stand up to her mother.
- The Knight actually did talk to Queen to do its bidding, but Queen forgot this, like King did.
Or, option 3. - The Knight knew there was something in Queen's databanks that it wanted to manifest- Spamton and the NEO body.
This actually does matter a lot regardless of who the Knight is, because if it’s 3), this means Knight is enabling the Shadow Crystal bosses.
Swatch says 'somehow, [Spamton] learned about' the NEO body.
No Lightner could have known that it was there, apart from Mettaton.
(Maybe a non-Mettaton Knight could have been told by FRIEND, whose face was seen in the basement? But that implies the Knight and FRIEND are allies, which... ?)
The Knight enabling the Crystal bosses could also mean they are enabling... the Weird Route.
You cannot begin the Weird Route without Spamton.
I have written more about this here: Rosegrave, Or Who Made Weird Route?
I think it's one of the more interesting parts of the Knight not being a Holiday, that we can entertain them having a guiding hand in the Weird Route.
WHO HAD KRIS’S ROOM?
We know there was an unnamed male 'big shot' in Queen's mansion, the one who had Kris's room.
This mansion used to be a luxurious home for upper class citizens.
Your room? It belonged to a prestigious big shot...
Sadly, his name has been erased from the records...Swatchling standing in front of Jockington's room
This is explicitly not Spamton, who had Jockington's room and is mentioned seperately.
Spamton? This used to be his room...
Swatchling standing in front of Jockington's room
This could be a Darkner, such as the Forgotten Man.
But could it be a Lightner? I think so. The line about upper class citizens might just be there to set up Spamton's story, and the Swatchling doesn’t confirm this 'big shot' was a citizen.
I think we can be less literal about what this means. Queen is a computer. The rooms are made out of her internet search history.
So 'erased from the records' could be a way to phrase that you deleted your internet search history or user profile. That’s a pretty normal thing to do on a public computer.
We know Mettaton used the laptop, but he does not have an accessible room. His leftover data is 'corrupted', which would be consistent with improperly deleting his account.
The NEO body was never deliberately deleted. That’s why it’s in the basement, and not the Trash Zone. It was locked away, because the only user profile with permission to access it was erased.
IS HE LITERALLY JUST MIKE?
If Mettaton was 'deleted from the records', what did he do to deserve being called a Big Shot?
There is one pretty clear candidate, but we need to ask ourselves a question.
Is 'Mike' a real guy, or just an elaborate reference to a commercial that got out of hand?
I’m inclined to think he is real.
It’s the letters M, and E.
These letters in music tracks are featured on the website's chapter4 page.
The song title ERAM, used when fighting the Shadow Mantle boss, is likely meant to be flipped to be ‘Mare’, as in Nightmare.
Mare and Mike have the M and the E in the same place.
In a bluesky post, Toby compares Tenna and Spamton to ‘Spy Vs Spy’.
Before the game came out, I thought people wouldn't really care about Tenna and simply dismiss him as a budget Spamton. I'm glad everyone seems to like him just fine. I see those two as intentionally similar characters who mutually enhance each other. You know, like Spy vs. Spy.
Toby Fox, Bluesky
The plot of this comic is two spies with pointy noses who have a heated rivalry. But that comic also has a third character- the Grey Spy.
Grey Spy is an attractive, bowtie-wearing character who always bests the other two whenever she shows up, usually by trickery.
If Mike is our Grey Spy equivalent, it’s possible Mike isn’t as benevolent as he sounds- in fact, he may be the person who set both Tenna and Spamton up to their present unfortunate circumstances in the first place.
I looked the name up, and in standard radio communication, ‘Mike’ means an M.
This was when I started wondering. Is Mettaton literally just Mike?
What are the odds that Tenna and Spamton have a mutual connection with a guy whose name starts with M, twice?
I mean, if you told me Mettaton was named Mike, I’d believe it. It's a good name for a pop star or a silly robot character. Box Mettaton's almost always holding a microphone, it's even on his plushie.
Consider the Knight’s forgettability aura. It’s possible Spamton and Tenna remember they have a connection to a guy named M, but not what his actual name was, so they’re just attributing it to the sound department.
Does this work on absolutely any level? I genuinely do not know. I tried to make a timeline for this game and promptly became insane. And the fact that resets and time loops might be involved doesn’t make things easier to parse.
Part six: What would he do next?
THE SHADOW MANTLE BOSS, AND ALSO THE VOICE
Let’s talk about the Shadow Mantle Boss.
We know this character has a tentative link to NEO through its use of the leitmotif of ‘Battle With A True Hero’.
This thing has fire attacks. Fire is mostly associated with, although not exclusive to, the Dreemurr family.
But what about its other attacks?
I mentioned the cartoon bomb being Mettaton's key weapon earlier. The cartoon bomb is actually a very specific bullet pattern, and we've only seen four characters use it. Mettaton, Pyrope, Spamton NEO, and this character.

Pyrope’s doesn’t have the plus sign on it, and Spamton stole the attack from Mettaton NEO.
So really, this variant has only been used by two characters, Mettaton and Mantle boss.
The previous Shadow bosses to this point, Jevil and Spamton, have turned into their items. And this thing is shaped like a floating cape. When it flies off, we find the mantle in a chest it passed. So, it would make sense for it to be the mantle, and it just turned into a wearable item. But this can’t be the case. Because in its pre battle speech, it says it is already ‘holding’ the shadow mantle.
That's why you're searching for them, aren't you?
The SHADOW CRYSTALs...
... and the SHADOW MANTLE that I'm holding!
How do we reconcile this?
Say if Mettaton possesses the mantle. Then he can be both holding the mantle, and be the mantle itself.
That would also explain why that chapter’s secret boss was pieced out between the two characters, Knight and Mantle Boss.
Why Mantle Boss says it has work to do, and then the Knight is late.
Haha... well, enough of that! We both have work to do!
It's just the Knight, taking a form where it's actually allowed to trash talk Kris as it so badly desires, and is not allowed to do in its mute Knight form.
Let's look at the intro of the game, where we make a vessel.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.
YOUR ANSWERS
YOUR WONDERFUL CREATION
Will now be discarded.
No one can choose who they are in this world.
The first voice is, of course, W.D. Gaster.
But who is the second voice, the one who seizes and discards our vessel?
The Japanese translation potentially has more of a clue to the voice of this speaker. They have speaking patterns not dissimilar to Chara. Because Chara had similarities to Kris, it's led some people to suggest this could be Kris's speaking voice, which we haven't heard before.
I thought so at first too, but I changed my mind, and the reason is the December ARG.
In this ARG, we're given answers by a mystery voice about ‘when she smiled'. This ‘she’ is implied to mean Noelle on the Weird Route.
Two disembodied snarky voices are too much, so I think ARG voice and the voice at the start of the game are likely the same person.
Crucially, there was no Japanese translation ever provided for the ARG emails. I think this is because Toby didn't want people to identify the voice by looking at the Japanese speaking patterns.
This voice isn’t anything like Gaster's. It is informal, sardonic, and most importantly, it is flippant about the fate of Noelle. That doesn't feel right for Kris or Chara.
You answered 16 years.
Then,
“It was the first time she ever smiled in her life.”
You answered Until she met Susie
Aww.
You answered She lost track of time..
Look at you, trying to be all original!
You answered Who is Noelle.
What is this, a game show?
You answered Not applicable..
It is.
You answered When the cold water falls from the sky.
You’re getting ahead of yourself.
Generally it's an informal guideline in writing that you meet an important character first, such as a hero or a villain. This isn't a rule of course, but Undertale does so. The very first character we meet there is Flowey, the main antagonist of the game.
Second voice is vocalising the direct theme of the game, so it's probably someone important, right?
To me, this person sounds like the Mantle Boss, especially since they mention a 'game show'.
Kris... oh... Kris...
Is it fun, Kris?
Playing around like this...
That's why you're searching for them, aren't you?
The SHADOW CRYSTALs...
... and the SHADOW MANTLE that I'm holding!
YOU GOT THE SHELTER KEY
Oh, you found that, too!
Perfect, just perfect...
Thanks for all your hard work, Kris!
Oh, don't make that sour face.
I can see in the dark, you know!
The question is...
Can you?
There! That's what I wanted to see!
Flickering red, like pretty little flames...
But is the Mantle Boss, who most don't even expect to appear again after CH3, important enough to have this place in headlining credits? It doesn't feel right. Unless it's the Knight, who is the main antagonist. That definitely qualifies as important enough.
And... this voice sounds like a more malicious Mettaton, right? I'm not crazy?
It’s got the pauses, the Ohs!, the mocking, the vocabulary. The hot pink.
Let's go back to what Second Voice actually does. It takes away the vessel you made.
On the face of it, this is to shove the SOUL into Kris.
But why else would Second Voice need to steal a freshly made vessel? Because he doesn't have one of his own. At least, not one without strings on it.
When you talk to the backstage Rabbick NPC in TV world, it says Ramb was taken.
(K... Kris!! I was so scared, I couldn't move!! Ramb was... Ramb was...!)
(... wait a second, that's funny. Kris... didn't you already go past?)
The half-petrified Ramb disappears from his position after you start the videogame. But the Rabbick is coded to only have its reaction AFTER you beat the Shadow Mantle Boss. (Or so I've been informed. I am not a coder)
I think this is because the real point of the dialogue is the second line.
(... wait a second, that's funny. Kris... didn't you already go past?)
The assumption is that it is talking about mini Kris. I think that's the red herring. It's actually talking about the Vessel.
Rabbick saw the Knight leaving the Mantle game while possessing the vessel, and assumed it was Kris, because the vessel looks like a human in a striped shirt.
And Rabbick could only have this reaction after you beat Shadow Mantle Boss, because Shadow Mantle Boss left in the Vessel.
The game points out that the Rabbick is specifically a recruit from CH1. The same chapter also adds a way you can lose the Rabbick as a recruit, because CH3 features a disguised one you can beat up.
(By the way, I accidentally came here stuck on your clothes.)
(I'm sure you'll take me back to Castle Town later.)
This character is a witness to what the Knight is doing on its own agenda, so is it good or bad for Kris if they stick around?
KRIS PARALLELS
Kris and the Knight have been set up as parallels in a few places. They’re both knight types with swords, although Susie is the only one of the trio who’s ever been called a ‘Dark Knight’. They match poses. The black figure that matches your movements in the Sword Route might be intended to represent the Knight.
Kris is a human who wants to be like a monster- wearing a horn headband and making a snowman of themselves with horns.
They don't seem to like humans much, shutting the book with the humans in it quickly.
Remember when you were little...
You asked when your horns were going to grow in?
So we bought that headband with the little red horns on it.
(It's you and your brother catching snowflakes.)
(The snowmen you made each have two branches stuck diagonally in their heads.)
How To Care For A Human
(There are photos of unfamiliar humans inside.)
(You shut the book quickly.)
This is shared with Chara, who ‘hated humanity’.
[Chara] hated humanity.
Why they did, they never talked about it.
We have actually seen an inverse of this behavior.
In Undertale, Mettaton is a monster who wants to have a human body, with a colorful human soul, and calls himself a hero of humanity.
Well, darling! It's either me or you!
But I think we both already know who's going to win.
Witness the true power of humanity's star!
In genocide, he only acts to stop you when you become a threat to humanity. Even in the Deltarune universe, the body he drew appears human. This single minded devotion to humanity has never been entirely explained.
AFTER OUR FIRST MEETING, I REALIZED... SOMETHING GHASTLY.
YOU'RE NOT JUST A THREAT TO MONSTERS... BUT HUMANITY, AS WELL.
OH MY. THAT'S AN ISSUE.
These two have a few other things in common. They both take the lead position in their bands, they have a similar taste for mean pranks, Kris's dark world forms and Mettaton EX share a color palette.
MTT Resort also sells a ‘legendary hero’ sword sandwich, which makes it one of the only times Undertale references Kris directly outside of the human characters.
I think I know what this is all adding up to. What we see in Undertale, Mettaton's obsession with humanity, is a surface-level version of the original concept that was planned for Deltarune. What Deltarune Mettaton is actually interested in, like Spamton NEO and like Gaster, is Us. The Soul.
(Look at you, leaping around the stage...)
(Can't keep your hands off, huh?)
(Is that how humans dance?)
(Humans are stranger than I thought.)
(Oh! They're really getting into it.)
(Moving so far...)
(Who can blame you?)
(Hmmm, I'll have to get used to it...)
(Even better than I thought...)
(So that's what it's like.)
(Dancing with... A human.)Assorted Cut Undertale Dialogue for Dancing with Mettaton
Look at the hands on this prophecy panel of the Cage. Three pointy fingers, like the Knight. All the other depictions of hands have a human amount of fingers.

THE CAGE, WITH HUMAN SOUL AND PARTS!
If Mettaton is a human shaped robot, and he got his hands on the Soul, he could supplant Kris’s role as the cage.
The endgame of this I can’t speculate, but it would definitely fit with his preexisting characterization of always trying to be the hero.
Part seven: Meta Stuff
METATRON/BIBLICAL REFERENCES
Mettaton’s name is similar to Metatron, the name of a biblical angel.
In most writings, Metatron was a human being named Enoch, who became an angel.
This Enoch, whose flesh was turned to flame, his veins to fire, his eye-lashes to flashes of lightning, his eye-balls to flaming torches, and whom God placed on a throne next to the throne of glory, received after this heavenly transformation the name Metatron.
There's those letters again. M and E. Metatron and Enoch.
This is not unlike how Mettaton was a ghost before he became a robot.
Gaster is Satan-coded, so I don’t think references like this are out of the question.
Mike's name also happens to be that of an angel- the archangel Michael.
Now, we have two prophecies in both games, and both mention an angel. One who makes the Underground go empty, and one who gets its desire and then is banished.
I don’t think Mettaton is literally supposed to be either angel. But he does have an ego complex, and giving himself a name similar to a powerful angel would easily play into this. Attempting to brute force himself into cosmic importance this way does feel appropriate to the character, and is somewhat reminiscent of Spamton in the NEO body.
[[A Great Deal]] IS WAITING For [[A LimiTed Time Only!]]
A HEAVEN-PIERCING [[Workout-Ready Body]]
Metatron's role is that he's a celestial scribe, or 'recording angel'.
Mettaton's fight has 'Rec/Rew' functions. Spamton NEO doesn't have these, it uses the same mechanism but reflavors it to be Wreck/Spew.
A cameraman would qualify as a new take on a 'scribe'.
If you double back, the camera from the acid tunnel has been placed, trashed, between two of the NEO-like dancers.

Metatron's "burning eyes".... every crystal boss except Jevil mentions burning eyes.
MY EYES ARE [[Burning]] LIKE [[DVDs of ANY movie at Half-pr1ce!]]
There! That's what I wanted to see!
Flickering red, like pretty little flames...
Your eyes can't hide it, Kris.
But you, my dear? I see a story lit up in your eyes...
Burnin' bright...
Burnin' black.
Burnin' up everything.
He sits a throne....
THRONE
INVESTIGATE THE THRONE
Deltarune PS4 and PS5 Achievements
Now, these parts might be stretching it, but I do think the name itself is a reference.
Shin Megami Tensei has a winged humanoid robot 'demon' character named Metatron. Toby says the inspiration for Undertale’s talking system came from that game, so we know he’s played it.
The ACT and MERCY commands were inspired by Shin Megami Tensei.
Toby Fox, Nintendo Interview
FORBIDDEN CONCEPT ART
There’s a few pieces of concept art we’ve never seen. I suspect this hasn’t been shown in full because it has spoilers.
- There is no concept art of Mettaton NEO in the Undertale art book. Even though there is Undyne the Undying concept art.
- There is no concept art of the final version of Spamton, or of the NEO body on Spamton.
- Chess says in the ‘Chapter 2 Development Team Interview’ that “giga queen had a pointy nose in toby's concept art”. However, none of the concept art from the chapter 2 art dump is of Giga Queen. Giga-Queen is a vessel that exists in all playthroughs, and it happens to get a chip in its tooth that makes it resemble Rouxls's mouth drip. So I am pretty sure we haven't seen the last of it.
THE FLOATING THING
When the Knight is escaping, it turns into a floating... bird like thing.

I think it's a reference to the ghost dog, Zero, from A Nightmare Before Christmas.
A very appropriate homage, considering the Holiday theming with characters like Dess. Naturally a 'haunted suit of armor', like Mettaton Knight essentially is, would be Halloween themed...
CODE/INTERNAL NAMING
No Knight theory would be complete without dubious speculation on code variable names. Is there any for Mettaknight theory?
The Knight is associated with North and North East in its fight.
Suddenly, the north wind blew fiercely.
Suddenly, the north and east winds blew fiercely.
Possibly this is a reference to Atlantis being found in the north.
Chapter 3, The Isles of Northernlight.
The heroes travel among the islands and catch a glimpse of a lost land.
ATLANTIS AWAITS IN THE NORTH.
Well, you know what ‘obj_town_north’ is in the code? Mettaton’s dialogue, when you give him Tenna.
There aren't any other dialogues that are directly directionally named like that.
The only other dialogue containing 'north' in the filename is ‘obj_homealone_north_convo’, where Asgore talks to a black shard.
‘Room_town_north’ is the map below Kris’s house, which includes the Holiday gates, ghost house, and Flower King shop.
‘Room_town_northwest’ is a black void, possibly unused?
There is no listed ‘room_town_northeast’, but presumably it would be the route to ‘room_beach’, the lake Onionsan vanished from.
This north west-north-north east motif appears in a few other places. The school map, the UT skeleton houses (if the bone picture is indeed where Gaster's room was), and possibly the hospital too.
CUCUMBER QUEST REFERENCE
Roaring Knight is based on the Nightmare Knight, a character in gigi dg's webcomic, Cucumber Quest.
Deltarune homages this webcomic in the Goner Maker by including QC, the diner NPC, as a name that is reacted to. (Toby ‘associates these letters with rabbits’)
Toby made 2 fan songs for the webcomic.
One was for the Nightmare Knight. We haven't heard Toby's Knight song in full yet, although a motif from it shows up in The Chase.
The other song was for the character Noisemaster, a one eyed henchman of the Knight. (He also bears a resemblance to Sweet of Sweet Cap'n Cakes)
Noise master’s theme was recycled into Metal Crusher, Mettaton's theme.
Toby confirms in the ch2 Concept Art dump that Queen was inspired by another character from CQ, Rosemaster.
It took me a very long time to figure out Queen's design. I wanted her to be intimidating and cool. Inspirations included, Hexadecimal from Reboot, the alien queen from Alien, Power Ranger bad guys, and Rosemaster from Cucumber Quest.
Toby Fox, CH2 Concept Art
Rosemaster is another minion of the Knight, a charismatic femme fatale who uses mind control.
As we've earlier established, Queen is one part Mettaton, meaning it's possible he was inspired by Rosemaster as well. The CQ character, Rosemaster, is also transgender, and Mettaton is an allegory for that.
Supposing… just supposing… Toby combined the qualities of these three characters he liked into one, and it became Mettaton?
A MASKED MAN REFERENCE
The knight appears to be mostly left handed, carrying its sword in the left hand in most of its sprites. The game seems to consider this a clue of sorts, as it has tried to play to it by giving almost every computer a left handed mouse setup.
Well, this actually brings to mind a character from a different franchise- The Masked Man, from Mother 3.
I will try not to spoil this game, but people who bring this character up generally argue in favour of a certain candidate, based on its story detail.
But I think it's more superficial than that.
The Masked Man is a one eyed ‘slave robot’ that wields a sword in his left hand, and an arm cannon on his right.
NEO has an arm cannon on its right hand.
So this is why the Knight favours its left hand for its sword. It's not because it is strictly left handed- I doubt a shape shifter has a set handiness at all. It's a developmental decision to leave room for the arm cannon, so the animation can be mostly reused later.
When Mettaton gets his hands on that NEO body of his, he's keeping his Knight sword.
Remember the broken sword in Spamton's shop...?
Part eight: Why though.
WHY THINK THIS AT ALL?
A reasonable question would be why Mettaton being the Knight would make the story good narratively.
How can Mettaton be relevant to the Deltarune story, if he has nothing to do with Dess?
Now, we don't know Gaster or Grandpa Semi's deal yet, and this theory needs Mettaton to be tied to one of them to work.
But thematically, I think it's still a big hitter.
No one can choose who they are in this world.
When did you start being yourself?
There's no character who chose who he was, and discarded who he used to be, more than Mettaton.
And in Deltarune he can't do that, any more than we can.
Ahahahaha!! Why... why didn't the skeleton...
Have anybody to dance with?
Because... he... had no "body" to dance with! Hahahah!!Toriel, Chapter 4
There is also the fact it is an alternate universe at play.
Consider Genocide route.
Sans won't fight you if Mettaton NEO says you were 'holding back'.
Mettaton NEO only says so if you haven't killed enough people to complete Genocide Route.
I KNOW. I CAN TELL FROM THAT STRIKE, DARLING.
YOU WERE HOLDING BACK.
YOU AREN'T ABSOLUTELY EVIL.
IF YOU WERE TRYING TO BE, THEN YOU MESSED UP.
Sans admits to not paying complete attention to all the people you kill.
hmmm... over lv3, huh.
you killed some people on purpose, didn't you?
that's probably bad.
though, maybe some of it was in self-defense...
i don't know. help me out here.
i wasn't watching.
anyways, don't do that.
So I think it's implied Mettaton NEO's words are the cue for him fighting you or not.
This could be part of the reason we haven't really seen them interact.
i always thought the anomaly was doing this cause they were unhappy.
and when they got what they wanted, they would stop all this.
and maybe all they needed was... i dunno.
some good food, some bad laughs, some nice friends....
yeah, you're the type of person who won't EVER be happy.
This refers to Flowey, of course, but let's look at it more broadly.
Say if you have a person who is evil, because he was denied everything he once hoped for. What if, in a different world, that person got their hopes and dreams granted by a nice friend?

That person would be... still kind of lowkey evil, honestly. Greedy, selfish, the ‘type of person who won't EVER be happy’. But someone capable of the occasional act of genuine heroism.
do you think even the worst person can change...?
that everybody can be a good person, if they just try?
I think this is the kind of character exploration through alternate worlds that would be interesting, and actually use the premise of 'different characters, that have lived different lives'. There is not much point in reusing Undertale characters, unless you're actually going to do something with that parallel worlds idea after all.
CONCLUSION
So, hopefully you'll see what I am trying to say here with this theory. Even if this isn't the Knight theory for you, which is understandable.
Mettaton being the Knight isn't just a random guess for the same of being contrary. It would actually have a lot of relevancy to the overall themes of the story, the character of Kris, the framing device of Gaster, and the idea that Undertale and Deltarune are parallel stories.
Think about it.....

My Other Deltarune theories
Dess is the Earth
Rosegrave, Or Who Made Weird Route?
Tenna's getting possessed