>>88503
The Knight is the person on the phone, Kris is not on the phone, but soulless Kris is the person last seen doing Knight things.
It seems obvious to me that there is a sleight of hand here, "Kris" is the dagger being used to open new fountains, not the more literal knife he wields, and the player (soul) is in fact fighting for control of Kris with a third party, the true Knight. The optional bosses and collecting shards will likely be the bonus ending for piecing back together the scattered Gaster, transplanted from an entire different universe, and defeating him for real, ending his omnipresent manipulations.
The more interesting question is what's so Weird about the Weird Route? Is it the only alternative route, or simply the deepest in the story, with the most time to simmer?
The answer to me seems to lie in the introduction of alternative "acts" from other characters. These fit into the narrative that Susie is getting really into it and she wants more agency, and this is all about Kris getting new friends and developing as a person, but it's also a deliberate reduction in his power has a character. The Weird Route inverts that, with Kris developing a compelling power over Noelle, who is capable of killing enemies that the programming has decreed Kris and his "full time party members" incapable of killing.
The [Freedom Sauce] Spamton refers to, and his role in the story, seem to be on the idea of e