Bye bye!
Mwhahaha!
Deltarune is full of tons of colorful characters
- both dark and bright. Throughout our journey
we encounter many along the way, and as quickly
as we meet them, we say our goodbyes as we
move on. However, there is one character that
was off the beaten path. A character that
most players seemingly overlooked unless they
chose to resist the path outlined before them.
A troubled soul locked in a cage who starves
from the loneliness of his enclosed world.
This is the story of Jevil… The Joker of
Deltarune.
Sponsorships help out a ton, so I want to
thank Displate for sponsoring this video.
Displate produces some really slick, high
quality metal posters in collaboration with
artists from around the world. They have amazing
metal prints featuring plenty of your favorite
video games, movies, and tv shows - along
side other eye-catching artistic pieces. I
received a Displate about a year ago as a
gift from my brother and I absolutely loved
the idea of it - so working together with
them is really awesome. Every time you buy
a Displate, they plant ten trees as well - which
I think is a great concept. So, if you want
to support some talented artists and receive
some one-of-a-kind, truly unique metal posters
to spruce up your place - check out the link
in the description below to see the great
sales they have going on right now. And, I
want to thank Displate for supporting me as
a creator.
By now, we’re used to characters that seem
out of this world. From strange doctors scattered
across time and space, to corrupted individuals
who seek power, to those bound to forever
sail the edge of reality. But when it comes
to adding to the ranks of these characters,
our joker friend fits in very nicely along
side them. In fact, Jevil’s story is one
that ties Undertale and Deltarune directly
together… And in this video, we’re going
to be talking about that fragile bridge between
worlds.
So, first and foremost, we need to set the
stage. Let’s go over what we know about
Jevil and his bizarre behaviors. When you’re
within card castle’s elevator, Jevil’s
floor is marked with a series of question
marks. It seems weird that someone would be
locked away this far up on the castle despite
there being a full-fledged jail in the basement.
However, given the type of character Jevil
is, perhaps a special cell was needed. Why
they chose this location though was a mystery…
Upon exiting the elevator for the first time
and proceeding down the long staircase, that’s
when we first hear Jevil cry out from the
dark. Our characters stop in front of his
dark cell as they hear a series of “boo
hoos” cry out from the darkness. This is
when Jevil shares his story of woe, and how
he is truly innocent. He was locked up due
to a game he played going over badly, but
he proclaims that he’s truly the clever
one because despite being locked up, he’s
really the only one that is free. He claims
that everyone else is imprisoned and that
they locked up their own race by building
a prison around the whole world. Despite claiming
he is free, his loneliness is eating him alive…
Thus he asks our characters if they wish to
play a game. A game in which they’ll set
him free.
And this is where our quest to save Jevil
begins. We’re on the hunt for his key, and
he tells us to visit a particular shopkeeper
to inquire about it. When we head back to
Shawm, yes - that’s how you apparently pronounce
it - when we head back to Seam to ask about
the key and Jevil, he is pretty surprised.
He doesn’t believe we’re actually asking
about him, but when he realizes it, he tells
us that he was the one to lock him up - and
apparently it was a lot of trouble. However,
leaving Jevil alone by himself could be even
more trouble… And he thinks that maybe it’s
a good idea that us, the heroes, deal with
him now… After all, as Seam the shopkeeper
puts it, it’s not as if whatever happens
will matter in the end… Which is pretty
cryptic. Seam then gives us a piece of the
key and tells us where to find another part
- almost as if he was the one who broke it
and hid it there.
Upon retrieving the key pieces, we take them
to Malius who then crafts them into the full
key. However, while doing so Malius tells
us the key has a terrible energy coming from
it. He says he only fixed the key in hopes
we never have to use it… But despite his
warning, we go to use it. We go back to card
castle, approach Jevil’s door, and then…
our choice doesn’t matter. If we choose
to open the door, a smaller door appears and
opens, but if we choose not to open the door,
Jevil tells us we’ve come to far and our
choice has run out! The door opens regardless,
and we step inside to meet Jevil face to face.
This is when we learn the game we signed up
for isn’t something fun at all. It’s a
game of life and death. As Jevil puts it…
A simple numbers game. When your hp drops
to 0, you lose. And thus, our fight begins.
But despite not having any choices for majority
of the game, we have the choice to attack
Jevil or pacify him. While they lead to similar
conclusions, the results are actually different.
One one hand, if we spare Jevil, he bestows
upon us the Jevilstail, which is armor, whereas
we receive Devilsknife if he is defeated through
attacking. What’s interesting though is
that on one occasion, he tells us to take
the Jevilstail with us, whereas he says “take
me” when the Devilsknife is gifted to us
- meaning, he’s transformed himself into
a weapon - the weapon we’ve been seeing
in his fight. Between his two different dialogue
endings, he references that the Knight’s
hand is drifting forward and the queen is
returning. He also states won’t have pleasant
dreams because a nightmare will awaken in
our hearts.
The last bit of provided information we have
about Jevil is if we return to Seam and select
his new dialogue options. When asked about
Jevil specifically, he states the following:
Jevil was a funny little man. Once, the court
jester. I, the court magician. A friend…?
could I consider him a friend…? Perhaps,
perhaps not. But he was the only one who matched
me in the games we used to play. One day he
met a strange someone, and since then, he
began to change. He started saying bizarre
things that didn’t completely make sense.
But they didn’t completely not make sense
either. Soon he began to see the world as
a game, and everyone as its participants.
As the court mage, and his only companion,
Seam was forced to lock him away. Or, rather,
lock us all away, in his own words. Since
that time, the strange words he’s said have
stuck inside my cotton. And my view of this
world has become darker, yet darker. Reflecting
on these old memories, I think, perhaps - I
miss playing games with him. And I wonder,
if I hadn’t been asked to lock him up…
Would I have found a little more purpose in
my life…?
When Seam is told you won against Jevil, he
is surprised and says the following: “You
defeated him!? You REALLY defeated him!? I
see… perhaps you three may truly be “Heroes”
after all… But Jevil was just a taste of
what you’ll face from now on. One day soon…
You too, will begin to realize the futility
of your actions. Ha ha ha… At that time,
feel free to come back here. I’ll make you
tea… And we can toast… to the end of the
world!
And that’s everything we’re told in the
game… But this is where things get interesting.
Because now that the stage is set, it’s
time to talk about why Jevil is our bridge
to Undertale.
Now first thing’s first. We have to talk
about what actually IS Deltarune in regards
to what it represents. This will tie into
Jevil in just a bit. Judging by the conclusion
of the game, it’s apparent everything we
just experienced within the game drew influence
from what surrounds us. The game pieces, the
cards, the stuffed animal that looks like
Seam. One would immediately think, Deltarune’s
Dark World doesn’t exist. It was merely
Kris opening up to Susie and playing a game
similar to Dungeons and Dragons with them.
A game within a game so to speak… This was
Kris’s domain where they could be whatever
they wanted to be. A brave, commanding warrior
that was different than how they were in real
life - a quiet kid that others often judged
as being slightly creepy. And it’s easy
to take in that narrative, and doing so makes
the ending seem pretty abrupt. Was everything
we experienced not real? Was it truly just
a game? Do we miss our brother enough to create
him within our world? One would think that
is the most logical theory, but it doesn’t
entirely have to be true. The direct message
of the game changes depending on how we view
this, and while those motives certainly make
the most sense for the character plots, the
Dark World does exist… And there’s a couple
different instances that prove it.
First and foremost, our character’s reactions.
Upon exiting the world, Susie has no idea
what just happened. The lights were off and
now they’re on, and the room is a mess.
They entered the closet initially, but ended
up in the classroom beside it. If we spent
the entire day simply playing games in the
classroom, it wouldn’t make sense for her
to question these things. They’d be filled
with joy rather than confusion, because they
just had an awesome gaming session. Of course
Susie recognizes this after leaving and definitely
wants to go back to the Dark World.
But two… There is one specific item that
remains in our inventory upon leaving the
Dark World… Something I mentioned in my
second video. While it’s apparent that our
weapons and items directly translate to school
objects, the egg we can receive from the mysterious
man remains. And if we add it to Asgore’s
refrigerator, it can multiply. This is strange
because if it was something we gained within
the dark world, why does it remain unchanged,
unlike all the other items after we leave?
Obviously Temmie had an egg in the classroom,
but we never went back into the classroom
to take it. The fact that this multiplies
is very similar to the Dog Residue from Undertale
too - an item seemingly duplicating for no
reason.
But what does this all mean for Jevil? How
does this influence things? With the Dark
World being birthed from imagination based
on our surroundings, it spawns another repeating
timeline similar to Undertale. A game within
a game - but still under the rules of the
original. A lot of people assume the one Jevil
talked to was the Knight himself… And upon
doing so, this corrupted Jevil’s thoughts.
But the thing is, this doesn’t make sense.
The Knight has had plenty of influence among
other characters in this realm, and other
characters like the King have surely spoken
to him - especially if he was put in charge
by the Knight. If this broke Jevil, it would
have broken others too. In addition to this,
when Seam mentions the knight, his name pops
up in red… But when he talks about the strange
someone that Jevil spoke to, it isn’t red.
So Jevil’s insanity has been drawn from
elsewhere… A figure we’ve never actually
fully met, but we know he exists.
I believe that Jevil interacted with W. D.
Gaster.
Now hold on, before popping down into
the comments, let me explain why. Everything
about Jevil’s demeanor and the story surrounding
him matches up. First and foremost, his theme,
the World Revolving, references both the carousel
we see during our fight, but also the idea
of a game starting over. You play to the end,
and you start over at the beginning. A cycle
that mirrors what we know about the timelines
in Undertale. But beyond that, the backstory
from Seam surely dances around the topic of
Gaster. When Seam talks about Jevil and the
way he spoke to him, he said the words were
something he couldn’t forget. He himself
began to change… And his world became darker,
yet darker. Now that phrase obviously is going
to spark a memory with many of us. If we rewind
back to the hidden version of the 17th lab
entry from Undertale, the one written in Wingdings
- we hear this same phrase. “Dark Darker
yet Darker. The darkness keeps growing, the
shadows cutting deeper. Photo readings negative.
This next experiment seems very very interesting.
What do you two think?”
We know that those who follow Gaster question
their own existence by how Goner Kid reacts.
Anyone who has ever had direct contact with
Gaster, following his accident, seems to lose
themselves. If Jevil were to truly be going
insane, and speak about things from a game
perspective, that means he knows what Gaster
knows. He can see the world for what it is
- a game world. He knows we have HP, similar
to how Chara identified that same stat. But
the reason why Jevil is insane and Seam is
not is because he heard it directly from Gaster
himself. Having someone show you the secrets
of your world vs someone merely telling you
about them are two different things. It’s
why some people argue ghosts or ufo’s exist,
while others won’t believe it unless they
experience it themselves.
But it goes even deeper. During Jevil’s
fight we have the rare chance of encountering
Everyman - who was the character that would
appear in Reaper Bird’s attacks in Undertale.
Reaper Bird, and Everyman, were amalgamates
created in the true lab… The lab that Gaster
once resided in. They were the results of
Alphys’ continued research on determination
through experimentation. Research that Gaster
started but never finished. Everyman makes
another appearance in the alleyway too where
we find Alphys in Deltarune, so its existence
is surely mirrored in this world. But for
Jevil to manifest this image into his attacks,
it only adds another point of evidence to
the idea that Gaster was the one who broke
Jevil’s mind.
We know traces of Gaster exist in this game
by his iconic noises being sprinkled about.
From phone calls within the dark world, to
the underground dwelling located south of
town. And the story of Jevil only ties Deltarune
to Undertale’s behind the scenes events
even more. The aspects of the story that were
outside the realm of the story itself. Jevil
proves that the experiments of Gaster have
affected this world, even this sub world…
A world created by the act of people playing
with toys and game pieces, but it’s something
much more than that. It’s not just in their
heads - somehow, it is reality. But what does
all of this really mean? What is the Dark
World really? Why is the Knight’s hand moving
a bad omen? And what do all the aspects of
it really mean for Deltarune and even Undertale?
Well, next time I’ll be covering just that.
We’re going to analyze the Dark World from
top to bottom to dissect the mysteries, metaphors,
and everything in-between to show how what
started as a simple game in a classroom birthed
a world that fights for existence.
But in the meantime… Let me know what you
think about Jevil’s role in the story. Beyond
the joker card in a deck, how do they tie
into the plot in your eyes? Let me know your
thoughts in the comments below!
And with that…
Thanks for tuning in to this revolving world
of madness! I highly recommend checking out
my video on Deltarune’s king and why he
isn’t the true villain. And we’re not
talking about the knight either… Anyways,
thanks for watching guys and gals, and until
my next video - cheers!
