post #3401317 post #2942314

SnowGrave refers to both a powerful ice spell that can be used by Noelle in Deltarune Chapter 2 and the story route that it is relevant to. The spell is infamous not only for its unique property of being lethal to darkners and being able to put lightners in a comatose state, but also for the method required to unlock it.

SnowGrave's story route, also known as Weird Route, begins when Kris meets Noelle in the Cyber World, one of many dream-like fantasy worlds, and she joins the party. It requires the player to use Kris to coerce and manipulate Noelle into defeating enemies using IceShock, a spell which freezes darkners solid if it depletes their health to zero. The player repeatedly intimidates Noelle, forcing her to freeze puzzles instead of completing them normally and kill shopkeepers to steal equipment from them, which desensitises her and eventually puts her into a trance-like state where she mindlessly freezes any enemy she encouters. The route finishes with the player acquiring the ThornRing, a weapon equip for Noelle which drains her HP but reduces the TP (mana) cost of SnowGrave from 200% to 100%, making it usable. After SnowGrave is used to freeze Berdly, Noelle's classmate, in a crystal of ice, Noelle becomes lucid and leaves the party in distress. From here Chapters 2 and 3 are locked into Weird Route's story, but Chapter 3 is not altered substantially as Noelle never appears.

Weird Route continues in Chapter 4 as Kris and Susie visit Noelle's house in order to look for clues on their quest to stop the Roaring Knight. This sequence plays out differently if Weird Route was completed in Chapter 2. Instead of Noelle hanging out with Susie, she invites Kris into her room to talk about the events of Chapter 2. Kris removes their SOUL from their body before this, preventing the player from controlling them, but the SOUL can find its way to Noelle's room through the vents and insert itself into Kris' body while Noelle isn't looking. Noelle talks about how after Chapter 2, Kris removed the ThornRing (which manifests as a rose's thorn in the Light World) from Noelle's finger and assured her it was all a bad dream. Through a set of dialogue choices, the player can reassert control of Kris, present themselves to Noelle directly (to Noelle's horror), and re-insert the ThornRing into Noelle's finger. Chapter 4 does not change drastically in Weird Route, but it ends differently. Instead of Kris looking out of their window to see Susie, they recieve a call from Carol who tells them Noelle is looking forward to going to a festival with them the next day.

SnowGrave/Weird Route carries strong themes of emotional manipulation, nonconsent, and mind break. This tag is generally suitable for anything depicting the spell being cast, Weird Route in action, or the consequences of it. Posts with Berdly or another character encased in a hexagonal prism of ice are suitable for the tag.

Chapter 4's progression of Weird Route is notable for the cutscene in which the ThornRing is inserted into Noelle's finger. Initially, on the moment of insertion the screen would cut to black and play a heavy impact sound as a sprite of a rose deflowering appeared in place of Noelle's finger. In a patch update, this graphic was changed to a red shattered glass pattern expanding over the same spot. While not confirmed, it is likely this change was due to many players interpreting the scene as Noelle being sexually assaulted.

See also

• Deltarune
• Noelle Holiday
• Kris (Deltarune)

External link

• Weird Route - Wiki Article