Deltarune memes have arrived, and they only continue to grow in power

Undertale spawned a following that turned it into a cultural touchstone for an entire generation of gamers. So when its creator, Toby Fox, released a new chapter of his Undertale spinoff, Deltarune, there was no surprise that this new section of the game would inspire players to create art and write fanfiction. Fans are now filling Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube with Deltarune Chapter 2 memes starring two of the game’s main characters, Kris and Susie.

Deltarune is a spinoff of Undertale. The entire game isn’t out yet — Fox split it into chapters, and released the first one in 2018. In September, he announced a surprise release of the second chapter via an anniversary stream for Undertale, and has since said that he will release chapters 3-5 simultaneously (though he has yet to announce a date).

After years of waiting for updates, Deltarune Chapter 2’s release brought the game’s fandom back to life online. Streamers posted clips of themselves playing, TikTokers made jokes about the fandom, Twitter was flush with fan art, and a new meme format was born.

What does the Deltarune meme mean?

In the variations of the meme, we see Kris and Susie in some unusual settings, and Susie says, “God FUCKING DAMMIT Kris where the FUCK are we,” or some variation of that, as her eyes bug out.

The line isn’t real; it’s Photoshopped. The meme doesn’t even reference an actual line in the game — but if there were a character in the Deltarune universe that would say “fuck,” it would most definitely be Susie. The loud-mouthed ax-slinging monster always seems to be provoking trouble with others.

The made-up scene instead alludes to the overall scenario of the game. At the beginning of Chapter 1 of Deltarune, Kris and Susie go into a school closet, only to find themselves trapped in an alternate universe called the Dark World. People are riffing on the scene by putting the characters into the worlds of other video games, and captioning it with Susie’s fictional line.

Twitter user socialllinks drew Susie in the style of the horror game Doki Doki Literature Club on Monday, to the tune of nearly 35,000 likes as of press time.

Here are Susie’s and Kris’ sprites added into Pokémon Black and White, where they sit in front of Reshiram and Zekrom.

In honor of Wariogon, Polygon’s monthlong celebration of Wario, I had to include this animation that puts the two into WarioWare: Touched!.

This one turns the two into stick figures and puts them in the Henry Stickmin games — which are produced by Among Us developer.

This one is a deep cut and my personal favorite. It’s not a video game reference, but rather, a take on the landing page for 16Personalities, a popular website used to figure out your Myers-Briggs personality type.

Here is what Kris and Susie would look like if they joined your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I must say, though, I think Susie would make for quite the rowdy neighbor.

Here are the two in the Banjo-Kazooie universe.

Here they are in Double Fine’s Psychonauts.

Susie and Kris take a trip to Green Hill Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog, although Tails looks concerned.

Here’s a reference to a game that hasn’t even come out yet. I’d give Susie and Kris about five minutes to live in the horror-fueled world of Metroid Dread.

This meme is just stunning. This GIF shows the two drawn and animated in the style of the game Omori.

Fox’s games have always been ripe for making memes. Undertale’s Sans, a skeleton named after the font Comic Sans MS, became a meme icon of an entire generation. Deltarune continues in this silliness — just an hour or so into exploring Deltarune Chapter 2, we’re fighting spam monsters, negotiating with a wine-loving robot queen, and going off on a side mission to look for Twitter-esque blue check marks. So it feels fitting that this format took off.

Deltarune’s first two chapters are now available free on Mac OS, Nintendo Switch, and Windows PC.