Still thinking about chapter 3.
So Kris opens a fountain in his own house, knowing the Knight would arrive to take Toriel. You'd think this means that he's aware the Knight is going to make a move, and is trying to prevent it by scheming up a way to keep all of his friends together for the best shot at protecting her, right? Except, no-hitting the Knight shows an implication that Kris and the Knight staged the entire fight. Win or lose, the Knight moves in to grab Toriel. In comes Undyne, whom is immediately kidnapped as the Knight flees the scene. So what's the purpose of the chapter? The Knight needs to bring somebody to the bunker, for some reason. If they needed just anybody, why not grab a nameless NPC? Why Toriel? Why is Undyne fine, too? Narratively, I think the purpose is to give the player a vested interest in opening the bunker, and for some reason it had to be done without directly addressing the player and telling them that they need to go there. For some reason, it is important that the player is not made aware of the fact that more people than just Kris specifically the Knight and probably Carol are aware of the player. Maybe that's why he kicks the shit out of you after you ThornRing Noelle; you literally tell her that you're listening. That's the point of no return.
The entire chapter was made up of board games that nobody except the player, hopefully, wanted to play, fitting the throughline established in the previous two chapters. Enter a new world of intrigue, find a tyrant that's making the Darkners miserable, go through some wacky hijinks and earn a heartwarming ending where the tyrant either gets overthrown or decides to stop being such an ass. Of course, the fact that Kris made the Fountain is going to be in the back of the player's mind the whole time. I'm wondering if this is why Toby wanted chapters 3,4,5 to be bundled together. 3 serves an important narrative bridge to 4, but that bridge comes at the ass-end of the chapter. It also serves as a way to front-load most of the comedy in this bundle of chapters into a tightly-packed Tenna time bomb. It's forced, but it's in service of getting you to question the main character's motives as well as the villain's, while also giving you more opportunities to have fun. It might be a bit much for some players if you didn't have that buffer.