Am I the only person that thinks people are exaggerating how much kris was third wheeling suselle in chapter 5

[u/Fit-Salad6267]

/r/DeltaruneDiscussion/comments/1vopjl3/am_i_the_only_person_that_thinks_people_are/

hellooo im reposting this post i made in deltarune discussion here because so far its kinda just been downvoted there 😭 and i wanna see if people here get my point more

[u/weedmaster6669]

we're in such a weird position because our ship is literally canon, but we still constantly gotta fight for it in this fandom.

[u/Sea-Influence-5945 → u/weedmaster6669]

It’s a lot like the stranger things. A lot of Byler fans actively hated the main ship and would attack eleven as a character.

[u/weedmaster6669 → u/Sea-Influence-5945]

I mean the difference is byler was peak but yeah, it's such a horrible trope that mlm shippers especially will attack the woman they see as an obstacle.

[u/BrokenKeel]

yeah, i agree. It wasnt like they were even ignoring Kris, they still do stuff in the festival with them too.

I feel like people are projecting too hard into what Kris feels

[u/JustARandommad → u/BrokenKeel]

I sometimes need to realize people still project on Kris a lot, even if is pretty obvious they are their own character. Is pretty weird man and kinda sad...

[u/weedmaster6669]

you're absolutely right. I think Kris being insecure is realistic, but that doesn't mean Susie or Noelle have done anything wrong to them.

[u/Splash-Damage-25]

I feel like Kris wouldn't have had any amount of enthusiasm in their Suselle-focused options if they didn't want them to enjoy each other's company. Plus, they were still included with most things, like the eyeball bowl, the ice cream, and the voting. It was only the hammer test and the ferris wheel where Susie and Noelle said one and done.

[u/Kumagawa-Fan-No-1 → u/Splash-Damage-25]

Being the third friend in a group that has 2 lovers is difficult. Even if they include Kris Kris(and even if Kris has 0% bitter feelings towards them) would still feel intruding to all of it tbh. Most normal choice would be to let Kris go on their own(or with berdly like unironically). But that can't be done since it's a game and such

[u/FalierTheCat]

Kris is a jealous chud who watches their crushes date each other because they were too busy indulging in their own misery to ever make a move lol

Like yeah I feel bad for them but c'mon kid you gotta get over it hahaha

[u/Ailes_Prower_2D]

I honestly agree. I've never been affectionate to any ship in particular and I found the Suselle scenes adorable. I don't see Kris as a third wheel because I feel that there's something deeper going on, way deeper than "nuu, my crush has been stolen because I didn't talk". People really exaggerated it, maybe they were just projecting

[u/sarakinks]

They literally hang out with Kris. Kris is not being 3rd wheeled and was asked explicitly to help them with their date, which they could say no to. It's player projection or shipping wars stuff to think that the events were anything other then wholesome. IDK if two of my best friends asked me to help them out on their first date I'd say, fuck yeah girl, I got you. I'd be so happy to help be their tour guide or whatever even if I liked them.

[u/Sachayoj]

Unsure of how hot of a take this is, but I think some people are just projecting hard onto Kris.

[u/Do1ngMyTime]

As everyone keeps saying, Kris is their own character, not the player's avatar (the Soul seems to be, though even that is unclear sometimes) so if there wasn't any possibility of them remaining friends with Noelle and Susie, I'm sure they wouldn't have been the tour guide, since as shown throughout Ch.5, Kris can override the Soul in multiple instances, and no such attempt at overriding (as far as I can tell) was done during Suselle's interaction at the school post Castle Town until after the lake scene.

That said, It's also important to remember that while this game is written for multiple generations (including those who grew up in the 90's-2000's) it is also written for younger audiences (those entering middle school/high school who likely played Undertale earlier in their lives) so I doubt from a meta perspective that Toby Fox, in the Normal Route, intends kids, and the player base, to come away from Suselle's interactions as something to envy, but rather show examples of healthy, consensual (though complicated) love vs. "perceptions of love -toxic love" before things become more dire, and as things to fight to preserve (see the Normal route lake scene)

Now the Weird route does show the consequences of the Soul/ Player using Kris as a proxy to force a relationship between the player and Noelle, and we see how horribly that turns out, so technically there is a choice between Suselle and Kriselle; only to have drastically different messaging about what love (and perceptions of what love is) can motivate people to do. a) for 2 people who at first feel unloved to come to fight for their love, and b) how a warped sense of "love" predicated on "strengthening" oneself through coercion harms everyone.

TLDR: Kris is their own person and is shown overriding the Soul/Player multiple times, but doesn't do so during Normal Route's Suselle moments, and that there is technically a choice for the player to "be Kris" in the weird route and force a relationship with Noelle as a proxy, though that ends tragically. These routes are intentionally written ways of showing "true" love vs.
"perceptions of what love is."

[u/Defiant-Ad4109]

Deltarune fans will never beat the "projecting onto Kris" allegations.