One third of the fandom
>Oh HEAVENS no thank goodness Toby removed that rose so that weird route has nothing to do with r***, that should never be in a hecking kids game. I will not think any deeper about what is happening in the scene or the implications of Kris bloodily penetrating a girl with a thorn, this is just my wholesome anime "mindbreak" for all ages
Another third of the fandom
>AHAHAHAHAHA YES KRIS LITERALLY PHYSICALLY RAPED NOELLE SO HARD HER HYMEN WAS DESTROYED. THE IMAGERY CHANGE MAKES IT **EVEN MORE RAPE THAN BEFORE** OH GOD YES THANK YOU TOBY FUCKS
Reality
>Weird route is full of imagery and symbolism for arranged marriage and non consensual romantic encounters. The bloody snowflake is described as "strengthened imagery while maintaining the scene's intended meaning" so most likely the purpose of the change was to emphasize that "equipping" the thorn is the extent of what is happening in the scene, IE the rose was too easily misinterpreted as representing something else Kris did when the screen went black, EG a literal subsequent rape, which was unintended. The act itself of penetrating Noelle with the thorn remains undeniably rape imagery and of course that was not lost on Toby or his team

While driving today I thought of another reason Kris might be the one Susie sees dies in the prophecy.
Ralsei repeatedly favors indulging Kris over Susie.
Near the start of chapter 2, Ralsei tries to give Kris the choice of going with him or Susie, but Susie thwarts this.
We also know Ralsei framed the battle system in a way to make Kris feel more special. In chapter 2 when Susie asks why she and Ralsei don't just choose to dance, Ralsei tries to insist that ACT is Kris's special contribution. And when Susie makes Ralsei dance unlocking R-action, Ralsei apologizes to Kris.
In chapter 3, Ralsei follows Kris's league on everything. Ralsei follows behind Kris instead of Susie in the game, and Ralsei always looks where Kris's selection is when choosing an answer in the quiz segments.
Ralsei also just seems less willing to criticize Kris's actions or performance. The only time I can think of is if Kris doesn't attack the Titan while it's vulnerable, then Ralsei freaks out at Kris. Otherwise Ralsei will twist himself into a pretzel to OK what Kris does even if Ralsei just said "Kris will never do that!" But Ralsei is much more comfortable admonishing Susie. It's not just in chapter 1 when she was bad. It happens in the guitar hero game, and at the start of the church dark world when Kris gets cut up, as examples.
If Ralsei knows the human has to die then that would explain a lot of his behavior. It also kinda underscores the meaning of him talking about feeling selfish when he cries or gets gloomy, a feeling he talks about several times and always as an aside to Kris. Like he's saying "I'm trying to make this the best time for you that I can given the circumstances, I'm sorry I'm fucking it up."
Admittedly this is all still circumstantial and can easily exist with Susie being the one to die. But I really prefer the interpretation that the only thing that would make Susie angry enough to shatter the glass is if it showed her killing Kris.

why thread so slow...

AC is cool but I don't get why he's married so hard to Carol being the big bad