>>530551463
Chapter 3, the Dark World entirely focused on Kris's personal history, has a ton of references to Dess, from talking about her history with Kris directly to bizarre cryptic shit like the gacha machine secret. There's more about Dess in Chapter 3 than Asgore, Kris's own father.
Noelle is not mentioned in the TV World at all. She's only referenced in the MANTLE game, or if you go out of your way to tell Ralsei you're taking her to the festival. Noelle's relationship with and feelings toward Kris are complicated but she wasn't lying when she said "Even then, there were times when I wasn't sure if we were even friends." Kris was closer to Dess than Noelle.
Establishing Kris's connection with Dess also explains and adds layers to Kris's connection with The Knight, who is Dess.

>>713865176
BECAUSE I'M WITH YOU IN THE DARK
WITH YOUR HEART AS MY MARK
WHICH SHALL GUIDE YOU THE WAY

>* Time flies... Seems like just yesterday you and that girl had everyone here lined up.
>* Queen on her side, King on your side, Tenna in back... Oh, it was chaos, CHAOS!
>* Heh, only kids like you two would take a laptop home just to play make believe.
>* ... how is she, Kris? Are you two...? Well, it's alright. Everyone changes. 'cept us.
You maniacs, you really did it

>>712663175
Chapter 1 is also a wacky comedy Chapter, you just have Lancer goofing around with you instead of King
Chapter 1 is more serious/dark at the beginning and end, Chapter 2 has fucking Snowgrave, and Chapter 3 has both the intense beginning/end like Chapter 1 and constant jabs of dissonance from the tension between Susie and Ralsei and Kris's past and family life getting dredged up.
It's very much meant to feel like the story is distracting you from your problems and holding on to the good times that can't last forever because that's exactly what's happening, and it ends when the problem can't be ignored anymore.

>>712653964
>The Knight is just pretending to look like a reindeer and transforms their weapon from a baseball bat and turns into a baseball to fly around because uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
>The Knight is first encountered in a cold snowy area that feels familiar to Kris locked behind a door with the code "1225" and tries to take something that was on top of a fucking Christmas tree because uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
It's just fucking Dess
You don't need to overthink it
You're not being tricked
It's just fucking Dess

>>712512945
In case this line was too subtle