>>713853114
i need to sort my collection of post-chapter 3/4 stuff

Some new schizo theory I have baked.

TL;DR
>Dess was lost in the dark for years going mad, wanted anyone to talk to
>She thought of her old doll, Seam, who originally had both yellow and pink buttons for eyes
>Something in the Dark took a similar form and approached her, presenting as a FRIEND
>That something helped her gain power and become the Knight and everything else that follows in the main story
>But all the Shadow Crystal FREEDOM stuff is Dess and FRIEND working behind the scenes
>The goal being to make the heroes strong enough to achieve FREEDOM which Dess and FRIEND will also take up on
>But FRIEND isn't something that should be freed, it's something wicked using a nice face

As for what FRIEND is exactly and how he connects to Gaster, I'm betting he's a tool used by Gaster for the sake of this world. Maybe he's even like a part of the code itself. That's why he's tied to the "at your humble service" lines in the code.
Gaster's Deltarune is down the normal path of the game. FRIEND is doing the FREEDOM stuff to break free from serving Gaster.

Okay, I put my schizo ramblings from last night into one giant conspiracy theory image.
I've become just like that Pippins.