Oh tricky tony. Youâve done it again. Youâve created a character whoâs deliberately meant to make the player uncomfortable, who holds a mirror to us and makes us question why, exactly, our happiness and our fantasy matters more than his, why our dark world and our friends take precedence over his. In the chapter that most clearly parallels undertale too!!
It surprises me so much that, in a game universe whose biggest core messages are that of subversion and getting the player to question their own place in its narrative, so many people, including me, fell right for the trap of hating Flowery the moment we saw him.
By using a combination of common tropes associated with two faced or twist villain characters, and the fact so many of us, whether subconsciously or not, were prepared to face a character whoâs supposed to be âDeltarune Floweyâ, weâre immediately confronted with the fact that, one, Deltarune Isnât Undertale, and two, Flowery is right. Flowery, most often than not, has a point.
The game wants to make you uncomfortable at your own hypocrisy. It intentionally tries to convince you that it was your idea to start hating him. So that you, as the player, start to try and make excuses as to why even though the both of you want pretty much the same thing, what you want matters more than what he wants.
Flowery seems like he could flip a switch any time he wants. You spend the whole chapter just waiting for it. Waiting for him to drop the mask, but he never does.
He really does love his friends. He really does love Asgore. He doesnât kill the fun gang, you donât actually get a game over screen when you lose to him. He reveals his weird meta knowledge to Susie pretty much right when he meets her, and it isnât difficult for him. Itâs not over complicated or stressful, like it is with Ralsei. He tells her where the shelter code is hidden. Right in his soil.
The whole entire game, he is nothing but honest with us. Unlike Ralsei. Susie. Kris. He is just honest and it just feels like it shouldnât be that easy and thatâs why we want to hate him so bad.
