>>714748892>>714749017Here's my schizo reasoning:
The Knight is clearly working with Kris regardless of path here, so if she was the one behind the Shadow Crystal stuff, why wouldn't she just give them the one she has (or more since she looks to be possibly made of them)?
Simple, because she can't. Something is forcing her to play this role, be it Gaster, Carol, the Prophecy, whatever. She seemingly has to go down this path.
The Shadow Crystal stuff is all side content that seems deliberately set up by The Knight and FRIEND to push the heroes to their limits, gain more power, and desire Freedom. This will eventually lead them to possibly breaking free from everything going on here, and in doing so the Knight and FRIEND could be freed as well.
You could say that FRIEND is just doing it all by himself with the same motivation, but I feel like his connection to The Knight seems too obvious to not do, given the bit of her being all made of this shit. Not to mention how this all ties back into Seam who may have been Dess' old doll and maybe even what FRIENDs appearance is based on.
It's all a "secret plan" type thing to fuck over everything and get freedom in the end.