[00:00] * ... uhh, yeah. * It's 2202!&nbsp; * And, like, um, codes...? Are for NERDS!!! LOL!!!
[00:12] * I used to be a forgettable little bluebird. You may be staring at the title and thumbnail&nbsp; and asking, "What the hell are you talking about,&nbsp;&nbsp; Dorked?" If you are, I would not blame you.&nbsp; This silly theory of mine is pure crack,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:24] I may be spiraling into feathery madness,&nbsp;&nbsp; but ever since we discussed the idea in&nbsp; the Deltacast, I knew what I had to do. So let's take flight, dear viewers, as I explain&nbsp; why Berdly may know the final Shelter code.
[00:42] There's an odd amount of foreshadowing if you know&nbsp; where to look. For instance, at the end of Chapter&nbsp;&nbsp; 2, Berdly mentions a shift with Ms. Boom. The Boom&nbsp; family is a rather prestigious family in Hometown,&nbsp;&nbsp; in no small part thanks to Gerson Boom's legacy&nbsp; as a historian and an author, but also due to&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:56] Alvin's role as the priest at the church. The&nbsp; Delta Rune religion holds great power in town,&nbsp;&nbsp; as it shapes not only the prophecy that defines&nbsp; our heroes' journeys and the Knight's actions,&nbsp;&nbsp; but it's something that basically everyone seems&nbsp; to know, if they don't outright believe it.
[01:10] It's so pivotal that it's bled into major&nbsp; pop culture, such as Lord of the Hammer&nbsp;&nbsp; and the Dragon Blazers series. We know that the&nbsp; Holiday family holds one of the Shelter codes,&nbsp;&nbsp; and Asgore held another. But what about the&nbsp; code that represents the Delta Rune itself?
[01:23] Some people have proposed that Toriel holds&nbsp; it, but I find that incredibly unlikely because&nbsp;&nbsp; she seems so clueless about the goings on and is&nbsp; eager to move on from the tragedy all those years&nbsp;&nbsp; ago. Conversely, both Alvin and Ms. Boom seem&nbsp; deeply alarmed when Kris brings up the shelter.
[01:37] * Shelter? No, no, now you know&nbsp; that's not a wholesome place!&nbsp; * You could stand to learn a thing or two&nbsp; from that polite young man... Burghley. trusting him and seeing him as a role model.
[01:53] While he doesn't mention&nbsp; Berdly, Alvin has this to say: you are experiencing recently, but... * ... Kris, please, look to the Angel&nbsp;&nbsp; for guidance. I will pray for you as well. * Kris... stay away from the shelter.
[02:09] Alvin knows something about the shelter. We don't&nbsp; know what, but given his family's influence,&nbsp;&nbsp; it would not surprise me if Carol at one&nbsp; point entrusted Gerson with the secret of&nbsp;&nbsp; one of the codes, and this was passed on&nbsp; to his children. It's worth noting that&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:21] Gerson's passing seems relatively recent, as&nbsp; Alvin laments that Kris couldn't have him as&nbsp;&nbsp; their teacher. So perhaps he died within the&nbsp; last few years, but after the Dess incident. how come Kris and Susie never found it? Why wasn't&nbsp; Alvin kidnapped, as I had originally speculated?
[02:40] It's possible that the code was located&nbsp; behind the door that Kris refused to let&nbsp;&nbsp; us see. It's also possible that it was hidden&nbsp; in plain sight… But more on that in a bit. The point is, if Berdly works with the Booms,&nbsp; it's possible that he learned the code by proxy,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:53] even if he's out of the loop for the greater&nbsp; meaning behind it. The Catty quote from the&nbsp;&nbsp; video's intro could also hold a double meaning,&nbsp; with "nerd" referring to Noelle and Berdly both. why would the Roaring Knight consider Berdly&nbsp; a threat? By all accounts, he's a normal,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:09] forgettable kid who just hangs out with&nbsp; Noelle. He'd be the perfectly unassuming.&nbsp;&nbsp; Susie certainly wouldn't consider him&nbsp; a possibility. And this leads me to… Something that sticks out to me about&nbsp; the fire extinguisher Darkner is that&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:24] who was in plain sight, who held a code&nbsp; the heroes needed to progress the plot. In the Weird Route, we force Noelle to freeze&nbsp; Berdly with Snowgrave. In subsequent chapters,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:39] he's hospitalized, likely on the verge of death,&nbsp; and unresponsive. For all intents and purposes,&nbsp;&nbsp; he's removed from the narrative. Even if&nbsp; you abort the Weird Route in Chapter 4,&nbsp;&nbsp; he doesn't recover, as far as we can tell. With&nbsp; the hospital blocked, we can't outright confirm,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:51] but his absence remains, whereas in the normal&nbsp; route, he does show up, even if he burned his arm. Since the Weird Route skips Chapter 6,&nbsp; this may be moot in the Weird Route itself,&nbsp;&nbsp; but it may carry consequence in aborted versions&nbsp; of the route where it's still necessary to locate&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:04] the codes. If Berdly is comatose,&nbsp; and if he does know the code,&nbsp;&nbsp; this could lead to a fascinating point&nbsp; of divergence with amazing payoff. But additionally, there'd be an&nbsp; extra layer of dramatic irony if&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:17] the Delta Rune code was also the exact&nbsp; same code held by the fire extinguisher,&nbsp;&nbsp; once again hidden in plain sight, too obvious&nbsp; to be taken into serious consideration. unless Toby delivered a double punchline, so I'm&nbsp; tempted to say that the fire extinguisher would be&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:33] setup for the idea of Berdly as the source for the&nbsp; shelter code without literally also holding it. holding vital knowledge. Berdly, of all people,&nbsp; being a key to saving the day. It's a very&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:47] Toby-like approach to comedy, but beyond that,&nbsp; I do think there is some story potential here. Well, for starters, Susie established at the&nbsp; end of Chapter 5 that they need to rope Noelle&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:59] into the Dark World adventures in earnest.&nbsp; That means telling her the truth about her&nbsp;&nbsp; "dream" at a time where she's in great&nbsp; emotional duress due to her father. That&nbsp;&nbsp; Asgore is missing. Undyne is&nbsp; missing. After a certain point,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:14] the people of Hometown can't simply ignore&nbsp; the obvious signs of something wrong. And Berdly is extremely close to Noelle. If&nbsp; something was wrong, he'd be there for her,&nbsp;&nbsp; as the festival segment shows that he's ride&nbsp; or die for her, putting her happiness above&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:26] even his crush on Susie from Chapter&nbsp; 2. In the absence of Susie and Kris,&nbsp;&nbsp; it's possible that she already contacted him, or&nbsp; he contacted her. We don't know what happened at&nbsp;&nbsp; the festival after Kris and Susie entered the&nbsp; Dark World, but given the state of the town,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:39] It doesn't seem like Carol to let&nbsp; the town remain such a mess. She's&nbsp;&nbsp; And while Berdly isn't as smart as he&nbsp; pretends to be, I think he'd notice.
[05:52] This positions Berdly to play a supporting&nbsp; role in Chapter 6. I don't think he'll be a&nbsp;&nbsp; whereas Noelle already has party functionality. But this could still allow Berdly to learn the&nbsp; truth and perhaps share what he does know. With&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:06] how close he is to Noelle, it'd be interesting&nbsp; to see what he knows of her troubles and woes.&nbsp;&nbsp; How much has she confided in him, as opposed&nbsp; to merely being a study buddy and gamer pal? If it becomes known that Susie is after the&nbsp; codes and wants to save Undyne and Asgore,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:19] Berdly may see it as an opportunity to be&nbsp; a "valiant hero" like in his video game&nbsp;&nbsp; fantasies or even make up for his mistakes&nbsp; in Chapter 2 if he learns the full truth. So, not only would Berdly Code Theory be funny&nbsp; as hell if true, but there's some genuine&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:31] emotional gravitas to it. And if Berdly does get&nbsp; kidnapped, that changes a lot because now it's&nbsp;&nbsp; not just adults, but even people more directly&nbsp; associated with the Lancer Fanclub and Noelle. Not to mention, if Berdly finds out about&nbsp; Kris' involvement, this could lead to a&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:44] more serious confrontation with him outside&nbsp; of the Weird Route, and I'd love to see how&nbsp;&nbsp; it could develop. Would he get kidnapped by&nbsp; the Knight? Utterly curbstomped? Would Susie,&nbsp;&nbsp; Ralsei, or Noelle try to intervene, or&nbsp; would Susie also stand against Kris?
[06:56] the more I think it has genuine potential. so I just wanted to address some possible wrinkles&nbsp; in the theory as a result of the new information.
[07:12] Regarding Chapter 6, Toby said: "From Chapter 6&nbsp; onward, there are no more wacky silly adventures,&nbsp;&nbsp; and you will begin to see the results&nbsp; of the setup that has been made so far." twist like Berdly Code theory has no&nbsp; place in the proceedings. However,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:28] a more serious and focused chapter doesn't&nbsp; necessarily mean zero levity. Rather,&nbsp;&nbsp; it means that on the whole, the chapter&nbsp; will be moving the plot forward and more&nbsp;&nbsp; focused on the overall stakes than the&nbsp; more lighthearted humor of Chapter 5.
[07:41] well as characters like Jackenstein and the&nbsp; aforementioned fire hydrant. To that end,&nbsp;&nbsp; Berdly code theory would offer a similar&nbsp; glimmer of hope and levity amidst the darkness&nbsp;&nbsp; of the growing conflict with the Knight,&nbsp; Rudy's failing health, and the shelter…
[07:56] I do think it could still work and even&nbsp; streamline the story by making the solution&nbsp;&nbsp; for the third code more attainable…&nbsp; outside of aborted Weird Route, anyway. So, what do you think? Is there a chance&nbsp; Toby might go in this ironic direction,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:10] I have more Chapter 5-focused&nbsp; videos planned in the future,&nbsp;&nbsp; but I've been fairly busy of late and haven't had&nbsp; time to really sit down and organize my thoughts. me on Patreon! You'll get a lot of awesome&nbsp; perks and help me continue doing what I love,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:27] while also supporting the silly orange&nbsp; kitties I rescued a few months back. As always, thanks for watching,&nbsp; and I'll see you next time!