original? 
If true that might be vs Kris? The inner division fits Kris. Idk how that would work, but it would make sense on the aborted weird route where we get the twisted swd that would make Kris lose control? Also ch 6 boss seems to have different bosses which would explain why its taking too long? But thats if I understand this correctly. Idek aboute thate.
Would you believe me if I have said this multiple times in multiple threads in concert with how image_friend and obj_baseenemy are basically inverted concepts if we're talking funny device.
no
Yeah that's my current bet.
The fact Maddie is like, lightly goner/vessel gray in palette.
Regarding the post, maybe we'll get smth like ch 2 where the party divides again into Noelle, Kris and Susie, Ralsei. It would then probably be different for normal and aborted weird root. Just speculation tho. Kinde regardse 
Good catch! That would be Kris then I suppose because of the losing colour without the soul. Makes sense, bute we wille seeth. 
Uh, I understand them not being the Tail of Hell, but where does this come from...
Oh i have a whole thing on this.
image_friends' color scheme, Pink and Yellow/Gold, is NEVER associated with Hell in the actual text of the game from what I can tell; Cat Petterz/the cat clicking minigame's rarities as listed by Noelle arrange the cat in order of increasing holiness:
chances
80%—-normal
15%—-blue ora
4%—-rock & roll
0%—-ANGLE WING!!!!
00000%—————-SUPER HOLY ANGlE WING!!!!
for context, the listed rarity of an image_friend encounter on the wiki for this game is .1%. that's a pretty holy kitty.
spamton is associated with heaven and attempts to get there in spamton neo, pink and gold.
within Battat, image_friend replaces the rarest cat possible intermittently, and more relevantly, is Capable(tm) of giving you more points than the orange aura angel cat ever could, so any argument of 'but the cat makes you lose points, so it's a devil' is moot.
The point loss thing also To Me with the references to stack overflows in the cat bite event in 5 reads as 'tried to give so many points to you it inverted to a negative value". Like gandhi's friendliness in civ famously.
After you advance too much far away, they start to swarm you from all angles and sides, to stop you... What if they appear near the end of the cave because its to exit? The exit to the heavens...
Note: If i'm not mistaken, Battat takes place in a cave and you entered it with a ship.
kitties barring the way would also honestly work well with the fact that they're tied in with the forgotten man egg room stuff.
a lot of interpretation of egg stuff that isn't literal easter eggs has them be like, repressed knowledge/trauma/etc.
some king of 'knowledge of good and evil'...
kitties barring the way to things makes sense if they're heavenly.