Work Text:
Rudolph Holiday being the Knight is one of these theories I’ve never considered before, but it’s the one that grew on me with time, to the point I am rather close to proclaiming him as the Knight over Dess. Don’t get me wrong, Dess as the Knight does have a plethora of evidence and more than decent potential from the narrative standpoint, but there are just too much stuff going on with Rudy to simply brush it off as coincidences or jokes; furthermore, the answer of Dess does have enough issues on its own, even if they could have a reasonable explanation later down the line or be neglected outright for the sake of a bigger story.
For starter, Dess’ whole character is being set up as that horribly lost girl who needs to be found – and yet the Knight roams around Hometown and Dark Worlds alike with little issues? Dess could be corrupted by darkness indeed, with the main goal of the conspiracy being about healing her, but such an answer appears to be a little bit contrived. Apparently, Dess is both horribly corrupted by the darkness, and yet she can unleash Dark Fountains and venture into the Light World? She is conscious enough to cooperate with Kris and yet isn’t in control of herself?
We know that the Knight unleashed three Dark Worlds by themselves: the Card Kingdom is proven by Jevil’s testimony, the Cyber World is proven by Queen, the Dark Sanctuary is proven by the closet flavor text. And so, how could Dess reveal all these worlds without attracting any attention, especially if she moves as an undefined creature of darkness? And it’s not like she could unleash them from the primordial darkness or anything, as revealing the Fountain from inside the darkness was proven to be disastrous in Chapter 4.
Moreover, a good chunk of supposed evidence for Dess being the Knight is either a subject to a confirmation bias or flatly incorrect. For example, people claim that both Dess and the Knight are left-handed, even though the Knight mostly attacks with their right hand, or that the Knight’s demeanor of being playful and cocky perfectly fits Dess despite the fact we know so very little of her to make such judgments about her character. If anything, Dess striking Kris with her bat, vowing to take Noelle to the big city and burning that ICE-E pizza box paints her as a strong and protective figure who won’t waste her time joking around; also, her special connection to Kris, which is universally accepted by the community, was never implied to exist in the game proper. Theorists even bring up the supposed voice found in one of the Knight’s sound effects, completely ignoring that the sound in question should be heavily tampered with to reveal the hidden voice, and that such tampering with different sounds proved similar results. Of course, none of this should disqualify genuine evidence in favor of Dess, but some of the said evidence certainly deserves to be examined with a more critical eye.
While the theory of Dess being the Knight is wildly supported by the community, it is rather clear that it does not try to expand on Dess’ established character, with many rendition of the said theory proclaiming her to be a living corpse, a corrupted beast of darkness or a victim controlled by another antagonist, thus robbing the Knight of any agency and defeating the very idea behind Dess being the Knight.
With that out of the way, allow me to present the case for Rudy Holiday to be the Roaring Knight.
Rudy is the Knight.
Despite enjoying a rather minor role in the story thus far, Rudy Holiday appears to be deeply tied to multiple key characters: he is husband of Carol, father of Dess and Noelle, a parental figure to Kris, the best friend of Asgore and an old friend of Toriel. As such, it would be completely natural for his character to be explored in more details, not just exist for supporting Noelle’s story. Carol, Noelle and Dess all have undeniable prominence and importance in the game, so Rudy being singled out here seems to be rather strange. Moreover, Rudy was acknowledged during the Vessel creation unlike both Carol and Dess. Since we would have known about Dess’ existence since Chapter 1, there was no reason to neglect her name to avoid spoilers, which could have been an explanation for Carol.
When Susie is musing over the Knight’s identity and their connection to the Shelter codes, Rudy checks all three boxes here: he is married to the mayor, his best friend was the police chief and he attends church, the only Holiday besides Noelle who was shown to do so. Yet again, it grants Rudy suspiciously much relevance despite his rather minor role thus far. Speaking of, both Carol and Asgore have conspiracies of their own, and Toriel explicitly criticized Carol over indulging Asgore, so Rudy is undoubtedly aware of their respective schemes, at least on some level.
On top of that, we were never shown what Rudy feels over Dess’ disappearance that haunts both Carol and Noelle, further proving that his character is yet to be fully explored. Naturally, Rudy’s feelings for Dess would serve as his primary motive for being the Roaring Knight.
Many people, myself included, initially presumed that Rudy’s sickness was provoked by him indulging into the Dark Worlds in his search, but, considering his fate in Undertale, there could be another reason that also explains why did the conspiracy take action only recently. Rudy accepted the mantle of the Knight because he realized that he is dying, and him risking it all – and especially himself – to find his daughter could be what he believes to be his last worthwhile endeavor.
Furthermore, Rudy is the only member of his family besides Noelle who was shown to be religious, and if the Angel’s Heaven is supposed to be good for the Lightners, it is not out of question for him to risk provoking a calamity that will destroy Dark Worlds in its wake, even if bringing it forth is not his main goal. Assuming that the Roaring will happen as it was explained in Chapter 2, perhaps Rudy is willing to risk the whole world for the sake of his beloved daughter – especially considering how little the Knight was shown to care for the fate of Darkners, with them provoking havoc in their wake, attacking Tenna and unleashing the Titan.
Speaking of, the Knight was actively avoiding any confrontation with the Heroes at the Sanctuary, which is rather strange to say the least. If they wanted to deal with them quickly, they were shown to do so effortlessly on multiple occasions, and if they wanted to test them by creating the Titan, which seems to be the primary theory in the community as of now, why wouldn’t they unleash it immediately upon Ralsei joining the party?
As far as the theory of Rudy being the Knight is concerned, the answer could be a bit simpler: he unleashed the Titan because Susie was completely right in her assessment, and it was either him forcing the battle with a powerful enemy so that he could hide or allowing Kris and Susie to seal the Fountain and lose it all. Remember that the Knight did not escape the church, and such a development could be perfectly explained by Rudy being so thoroughly exhausted, giving in was his only option.
The Knight laughing out loud at Susie’s suggestion that they could easily defeat them in the Light World is an important clue here, and the overall demeanor of Rudy fits the Knight perfectly. Rudy is rather playful, cocky, and he constantly jokes about beating up various monsters, including both Kris and Susie. Carol’s characterization does not match the Knight in the slightest, and the answer of Dess is built on circular reasoning, proclaiming her to be playful and cocky because the Knight acts playfully and cocky. However, very little of Dess’ established character does concord with that reading.
Here, we should also keep in mind that the Knight is drastically different from any Lightner or Darkner we have seen thus far. Their body is gaunt, malleable, decaying and, at times, seems like it's struggling to function. All of this would fit Rudy, a man suffering a horrible illness, quite naturally. In general, struggling with an incurable disease is not at all an unfamiliar theme for antagonists in fiction, which only strengthen the argument for Rudy.
While it’s more than likely that the Knight’s conspiracy existed for quite some time, it was put in motion only relatively-recently, which does coincidence with Rudy being administered to the hospital. Yet again, Rudy is aware of both Carol’s and Asgore’s conspiracies but his relation to either of them was never explored thus far. So, if Rudy was investigating Dess’ disappearance alongside Asgore, Carol or both of them working together, he would have came into the contact with mysterious Dark Worlds.
All Dark Worlds created by the Knight thus far can be connected to Rudy: both King and Queen are parental figures like him, and Queen’s very characterization is reminiscing of Carol, a controlling authority figure; if she was created by Rudy’s will, it’s perfectly reasonable for her to be genuinely caring towards Noelle and a little bit goofy – that’s how Rudy would see his wife who uses a sword to cut his pastries. Even Tenna, whose Fountain was unleashed by Kris, shares enough traits with Asgore, which further supports the idea of parental figures being antagonists. Considering another theme of Deltarune adults being stuck in the past, Rudy seems to be a clear outlier here, which is yet again re-contextualized by him being the Knight. Even baseball imagery associated with the Knight could be attributed to him teaching Dess to play in the first place; all things considered, we know surprisingly little of Rudy.
The question of Gerson is really interesting here, as it was repeatedly reinforced that he was teaching older kids – which does include Dess, who could have formed strong enough attachment to Gerson to revive him in the Dark World. However, there is a peculiar piece of evidence people completely forgot since the release of new chapters: Father Alvin’s drawing in the abandoned classroom. From his dialogue in Chapter 2 it is implied that he can’t be much younger than Dreemurrs and Holidays, considering that he was reassuring Asriel when he was a child. Thus, Gerson could be old enough to be Rudy’s teacher as well.
But what was Rudy’s plan for Chapters 3&4, exactly? For better or for worse, we can’t say without indulging in speculations that aren’t really supported by tangible evidence. What we can infer, however, is that Toriel was indeed the intended target of the Knight: the Fountain was unleashed at her house, Tenna was ordered to keep her safe and asleep, the Knight tries to abduct her before being interrupted, and the Fountain in Chapter 4 was unleashed at the church, a place Toriel was explicitly told to visit. Him acting cautiously while taking Toriel could be explained by keeping her asleep, and Undyne’s appearance was possible only because of Kris’ actions in Chapter 2, which I believe to be them intentionally sabotaging the Knight; I touched upon this idea in my speculations regarding new chapters, and I will certainly revisit it in more details later.
Be that as it may, Rudy does treat Kris warmly, and Tenna’s memory of Holidays visiting Dreemurrs shows him leaving the last, even after Noelle. If Rudy is indeed the Knight working closely with Kris, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that they would be rather close and intentionally neglect to bring up anything related to their plans in the Soul’s view. Of course, Kris would need a personal reason to proceed with the conspiracy, and there are some hints to establish that they feel immense guilt over some event that happened in their past and, presumably, could have led to Dess' disappearance; it is also abundantly clear that their loyalties aren't absolute and already began shifting in favor of Ralsei and Susie. Interestingly enough, Rudy would react to Susie uncharacteristically coldly if Kris tries to introduce her in Chapter 4, which would make perfect sense: their only encounter beforehand happened in the Dark World, with Susie preventing the Knight from abducting Toriel.
On a final note, the Dark Worlds were explicitly told to function like Dragon Blazers games, and Rudy, as evident by his dialogue at the hospital, genuinely likes them, which would explain the Knight being ridiculously strong in the Dark World.
And so, Rudy is a perfect character to fit the mantle of the Knight. He is a deeply loving father who wants to bring his daughter back against all odds before his affliction would overcome him. His jovial demeanor perfectly fits the Knight, his lack of any alibi provides him a wonderful opportunity for unleashing Dark Worlds, and his growing weakness justifies the Knight evading any direct altercations with the heroes in Chapter 4. Not to mention, Rudy’s horrible disease would justify the Knight being so drastically different from any Lightner we saw thus far, and his coughs could very well be translated as the Knight’s Roaring.
Addressing possible counterarguments.
1. Prior to Chapter 4, all scenes involving Rudy are entirely optional.
While Rudy does have a unique voice and a character portrait, all of his scenes prior to the service could be skipped. This argument could have some merit to it, however other suspects share the very same issue: Carol did not appear in the game until Chapter 4 while Dess was only sparsely mentioned thus far, and we still know so very little about her character. But, of course, two of them were brought up in optional dialogue before, which gives both of them more characterization.
Furthermore, Deltarune is a game that rewards exploration, to the point some of its mysteries are hidden away in the game’s code, so the writing relying on players talking to Rudy before Chapter 4 is not out of the question. Also, Asgore is told to have a prominent role in Chapter 5 despite the fact his first unskippable scene also takes place in Chapter 4.
2. If Kris visits Rudy in Chapter 1, Rudy openly states that it is something very unusual.
We know for a fact that Kris cooperates with the Knight, and that their reason for following them, considering their promise, must be very personal. But if the Knight is Rudy, such reading will not work, as two of them aren’t particularly close. Or are they?
Rudy was depicted to be the last person before Kris and Asriel to stop watching Tenna, which shows him visiting Dreemurrs long after Toriel and Asgore got separated and Noelle herself stopped coming around. Furthermore, he chats warmly with Kris, calls them by an affectionate nickname from their past and openly shares his personal worries about Noelle when Kris is around. This all proves that Rudy has a much closer relationship to Kris than people might be led to believe.
Rudy’s surprise in Chapter 1 might be genuine even if he is the Knight, as being openly visited by his accomplice is not something he probably expected. Furthermore, Rudy, being an antagonist, could simply lie to the Soul he should be aware of.
3. Rudy could have not overpowered Undyne, nor ran towards the Shelter so fast.
We know that the Knight and Undyne’s altercation happened in the Dark World, with the Knight being ridiculously strong there. As such, them knocking out Undyne before or immediately after leaving the Dark World is not out of the question. Furthermore, the Knight, despite getting an admirable head-start in the Light World, was almost caught by Susie, which implies that they indeed struggled while carrying Undyne. It is logistically impossible for Carol to be the Knight, and she is the only member of the Holiday family we can reasonably assume to be able to overpower her. Be that as it may, we saw that Rudy was struggling in Chapter 4, the very next day after the Knight sprung into action.
4. Rudy was shown to struggle only after the service.
A common counter-argument here is that Rudy was shown to be fine for the most of the service: he was merrily chatting with Toriel and joking around with Kris, but his condition seemed to worsen only after Kris and Susie visited him at the hospital. However, we also saw that Rudy did not stand up for the hymn, and him putting up the façade as not to make Noelle worry is a reasonable explanation. The most demanding action for Rudy was going to the church in the first place, with most of his free time there spent either sitting still or taking with Toriel.
5. Rudy endangering Noelle in his search of Dess seems to be out of character.
Curiously, this point could be applied in favor of Rudy being the Knight. If his primary goal is to find Dess and bring her back home before his illness overcomes him, it reinforces him as a loving parent who would not let anything stop him from caring about his daughter. Also, if he believes that his time is nigh, bringing Dess back would greatly help Noelle as well, with Dess being her overly-protective older sister who could take Rudy’s place and balance their mother’s cold attitude.
Finally, the most interesting antagonists in fiction are contradictory people who follow imperfect morals: Rudy is both a loving father who tries his best for Noelle and the Knight who is risking the Roaring for his goal, which could endanger the family he swore to protect.
6. Hospital staff should have noticed Rudy sneaking away.
Rudy could have simply gone outside for absolutely any reason, as he is not bedridden nor is forced to stay at the hospital as was established in Chapter 4. Even if his movements are being explicitly monitored by the staff, blabbering about it to Kris and Susie is not something that should be expected, especially since the receptionist nurse never talked with Kris about matters that did not concern them directly. Furthermore, we know that at least for Chapters 1&2 the Knight visited Dark Worlds only briefly, so Rudy could have certainly sneaked away for a moment – again, even if he is caught, it’s not like the nurse would share such a gossip with Kris.
7. Rudy being so weak and powerless would undermine the Knight as a capable threat.
Not necessarily. While Rudy did feel especially sick in Chapter 4 to give the Heroes a proper fight, he could get into a better shape in Chapter 5 or Chapter 6; the theories of him immediately dying or collapsing seemed to be a little bit too dramatic for the sake of it. However, there is another option here, which could, in fact, justify Rudy collapsing due to his sickness: during his next confrontation with the Heroes, Rudy would do his best to stop them, but, as his health deteriorated drastically in these two days and the Heroes obtained new gear and learned new spells, it would be a proper battle this time, which ends with Rudy finally giving up as he simply cannot continue the fight. In other words, Rudy’s illness could be a major plot point beside him collapsing at the Festival, which would neatly tie into his second fight and his ultimate defeat.
8. Rudy is being set up to be healed by Susie, thus concluding her arc as a healing master.
We don’t know how Rudy’s sickness would behave in the Dark World and whether it could be healed by its magic at all. For now, we were shown that only serious physical injuries are being transferred between worlds, and that Dark World afflictions, like Berdly harming his arm, can’t be healed in the Light World. Furthermore, Susie saving Ralsei with her healing magic would make a much more natural conclusion to her healing master arc, especially if it would be connected to her going against the Legend that never accounted for it.
9. Rudy is not that tall to be described as a ‘large person’ while Dess is implied to be taller than her parents.
While it’s true, this flavor text could refer to the Knight being an adult instead of a person closer to Kris or Asriel’s age. Also, the evidence of Dess being taller than her parents is based on the shirts in her closet, and we know both that sprite work in Deltarune could be rather inconsistent and that the perspective at the Holiday’s in particular was intentionally skewed to draw attention to details, like highlighting interactive objects in Noelle’s room.
10. Rudy was shown to genuinely like Susie, so him attacking her seems rather strange.
Rudy is a deeply loving father who is trying to find his daughter, so, when push comes to shove, him prioritizing Dess over Susie, a girl he knows for a day at most, is an obvious answer. The same explanation goes for Noelle’s crush, too: if Rudy had to choose between his daughter and a girl Noelle was crushing on for a few weeks, the choice should be obvious.
11. Rudy could have simply asked for help instead of playing around in the Dark Worlds.
We don’t know all the details of Rudy’s plan and what it could involve to assume that he should have had no issues with asking Susie or someone else for help. Again, Susie is a person he doesn’t even know and Ralsei is a Darkner, and we learned of the Knight’s attitude towards them by this point. But even if we assume that Rudy’s actions are pure and have no harmful consequences besides the threat of the Roaring, no one but the Holidays would be willing to endanger the world so that they could have a chance of rescuing Dess, and we see that Carol is connected to the conspiracy indeed while even Asgore is implied to conduct himself independently of the Knight and work against Carol.
12. Dess being the Knight is more interesting from the narrative’s standpoint.
A rather subjective idea, even if it’s not without a merit. With that being said, the theory of Dess being the Knight would reinforce Rudy as a purely supporting character existing to further Noelle’s story, which is a role Dess has. Carol, Noelle, Kris and Asgore – their actions are guided by the ghost of Dess haunting them, so Rudy should fit naturally among them. Dess is already a supporting character for so many people, and trying to re-contextualize her as the Knight is not necessarily a good turn for the story.
13. Rudy being the Knight is just a worse version of Carol being the Knight.
Again, it is entirely subjective. I will say though that I was a proponent of Mayor Holiday being the Knight before Chapters 3&4, and some of the argument in favor of her does work in favor of Rudy. If Rudy is the Knight, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that there is more to his character than meets the eye, and a generally-friendly and kind character being the ultimate villain would certainly be no less interesting than an obvious culprit.
14. If a theory needs so much room to counter its criticism, it can’t be that good.
Nothing in the game itself outright contradicts the theory of Rudy being the Knight, and a decent amount of possible counter-evidence are merely personal opinions or speculations. Furthermore, the theory of Dess being the Knight, once again, has enough issues on its own to be declared as the only possible answer.
With that being said, there are a few genuine issues with this explanation, and for all of them the answer of Dess works better. Rudy being a student of Gerson does require a little leap in logic to justify, him teaching Dess baseball was never confirmed outright, and he almost certainly lacks any parallels to both Kris and Susie Dess has in abundance – unless it could be argued that Kris took on Rudy's mannerism, which has just as much evidence as them taking after Dess. Furthermore, the conspiracy itself could pursue the goal that isn’t only concerned with bringing Dess back into the Light World, which could re-contextualize the Knight’s actions and paint Dess as a more ambiguous figure rather than a selfish villain risking everything for her own sake.
Summary.
And so, to summarize my argument in favor of Rudy being the Knight:
-
Rudy is an important character with many connections who seems to be almost deliberately cast aside by the narrative.
-
Rudy would make a good antagonist, giving his personal relations to Kris and Noelle, his presence in the story since Chapter 1, his theme of parenthood shared with all main antagonists thus far and his contradictory character of a loving father whose actions could endanger the very family he has sworn to save.
-
Rudy could obtain all three codes needed to open the Shelter.
-
Rudy could have unleashed all Dark Fountains revealed by the Knight.
-
Rudy’s general demeanor fits the Knight perfectly.
-
Rudy jokingly threatens to beat up both Kris and Susie, which the Knight does.
-
Rudy’s sickness would explain the Knight’s malleable and decaying body.
- Rudy's hospital room is adorned with stars, and the Knight uses Dark/Star-type attacks.
-
Rudy growing weak after Chapter 3 would explain the Knight not engaging the Heroes directly and hiding instead of running away in Chapter 4.
-
Rudy is right-handed, and the Knight was shown to attack predominantly with their right hand.
-
Rudy genuinely likes Dragon Blazers, which would explain the Knight being so powerful in the Dark World.
-
Rudy addresses Susie uncharacteristically coldly and cautiously in Chapter 4 if they never met before, which could be explained by him only knowing her as that girl who messed up the Knight’s plans.
-
Rudy can’t be much older than Father Alvin, so he could have been taught by Gerson: this would explain both the Fountain in Chapter 1 and Gerson’s prominent role in Chapter 4.
-
Rudy as the Knight would parallel Asgore as a grief-struck father who vainly hopes to see his family reunited.
-
Susie claims that they could easily defeat the Knight in the Light World, and their actions afterwards do little to disprove her statement.
-
Judging by Kris’ reaction when they are ordered to think about the Knight, they are a person the Soul could recognize.
Rudy being the Knight is certainly an interesting possibility. Despite not being seriously entertained prior to Chapters 3&4 release, it's now considered as one of the three major theories regarding the Knight’s identity. With that being said, the idea of Dess being the Knight became so prevalent, all other candidates are barely given enough attention, which is especially true in Rudy’s case. The theory of Rudy being the Knight is almost always dismissed at a glance, and more often than not such neglect is based on personal dislike – and that’s despite the fact he is the only person besides Dess who could be reasonably declared to be the Knight. After reviewing potential evidence surrounding Rudy as the Knight, I am confident in proclaiming him not just a plausible answer, but equally as valid as Dess being the Knight.
The theory of Rudy being the Knight appears to me as perfectly suitable to fit in the story of Deltarune and more than satisfying on its own. A father struggling with a horrible disease gives it all to save his daughter while endangering the world is more than a compelling narrative, especially if his actions would end up harming not just himself but his very family.