hm, do you think that might explain the whole “Flowey ran away,” thing? going through that pain because he can’t understand, he just can’t understand.
(and somehow dragging himself away??? i have never understood that line.)
it is interesting to think about how much of asriel is left in flowey. not much, but there are some shreds of who he used to be. i wonder how many “pacifist” routes he must have gone through before becoming so sick and tired of it?
flowey really does show some traits of the player. what i mean by that is - a player might go through every possible pacifist run. like, challenging themself by never saving, never getting hit, only using the bandage and stick, etc etc for all those challenges sans will comment on. and then, people get bored - they’ve done everything…maybe they could try getting all the variations on the neutral routes?
so they do that. and then, they do all possible neutral routes with all of those challenges just to see how sans reacts.
and they do it again and again. but, they’re so bored of this game…but they really do want to see what would happen, if they did a genocide route…they don’t really want to do it, they just want to see what happens, right?
flowey literally did the same thing. he explored the entire underground. he discovered everything this world had to offer until there was nothing left. then he started killing people. then he started killing everyone. people can recognize this as wrong, and an example of how twisted flowey had become - but they don’t understand that the point of this is to reflect on THEM.
honestly, people get so worked up and upset about a “ruined game” when…the only difference at all is a few seconds after the credits have ended. there are so many tutorials literally titled “Consequence Avoidance” that take so much effort to do something that will modify nothing but a few seconds at the very end of the true pacifist route.
(and also what chara tells you at the end of a second genocide route, but that isn’t particularly important to anyone.)
it’s because they don’t want to admit it. they don’t want to face the consequences. they feel guilty for killing people they have befriended, but it’s not really them. it was chara. flowey specifically calls people out on this, but no, “It was Chara! Chara did all of this, Chara was controlling Frisk!” etc, etc.
the thing that amuses me is, “Chara took your soul because they want to go to the surface and kill everyone there!” chara doesn’t want your soul. they want the world to stay dead, but you, as a player, have more power, and that’s the only consequence they can take.
the whole thing about LV and EXP in the game is that it’s your ability to separate yourself from what you did. your stats increase because your will to hurt increases. but people still don’t understand that message even when it is reiterated so many times. by blaming it on chara, they are separating themself from what they did. but no one wants to admit that, it is completely lost to them.