I've seen people say that Asgore doesn't care about the flowers like at all because he ignores them or that he's waaay worse in deltarune than in undertale and that's just???? Not true???
Like cool I guess you skipped over the part where he explicitly says that he still thought their gestures were thoughtful and that all of them seemed like lovely people, and his eyes noticably shine when thinking about it
I guess you skipped over the part where he says he literally can't stay with them because he has to keep them alive!!! Which he wants to do!!!!
I guess you didn't see the part where he then mentions that he wants to keep taking care of them not because of misguided nostalgia but because they're important to him for different reasons now! Like????
Yeah, he's a dick for ignoring them, like he's a dick for ignoring his own kids, the latter of which he realizes and apologizes for– and he might? be apologizing for the former as well here depending on who he's referring to by "everyone"
True, Asgore IS wrong for that. He's wrong for that and it's meant to parallel how he was wrong for what he did in Undertale. This is not exclusive to Deltarune in any way and he's not somehow only worse here. Asgore declared war on all humankind like an idiot because his two kids died to them and he was wracked with guilt over it . And the thing is I don't think the situation is all that different in spirit?
The holidays and the dreemurrs were CLOSE. Close close. He's known Carol and Rudy for AGES. Rudy was the best man at his wedding, presumably his college roommate and his best friend, their kids grew up alongside eachother and were just as close, and he was the head of the police (AKA in charge of making sure everyone is safe). And then, whatever happened to Dess happened to Dess. Under his watch! Obviously he's obsessed with it because he can't even look his sick best friend Rudy or a clearly silently grieving Carol in the eyes without somewhere in the back of his head being reminded of it.
And obviously he's MAD at the person he thinks committed that injustice. He's willing to wage a war against all humans for his own kids, I'm not surprised he's willing to kill one person who in his eyes did something horrible to Dess and has been a danger to all of hometown.
Undertale Asgore had decades to cool down from his rage and realize he fucked up by letting his guilt drive him the first time (not that that helped him become less self hating or guilty) so it's logical to me that Deltarune Asgore is still on about bloody vengeance. We're just witnessing it directly for the first time.
I don't know what my point here is. I guess my point is that Asgore was never going to be in the right mental headspace for the flowers' attempts at connecting with him to work, not because he doesn't give a shit about them, but because he has the Asgore tunnelvision switched on that makes him blind to whatever he needs to sacrifice in the name of the greater good.
I also ☝️ think that flowery making him realize how he's acting to Toriel is about more than just "oh that was harassment"
The fact that he mentions playing along and thinking it was thoughtful but the affection still not being asked for, feels like it (in drawing that comparison in the first place) implies to me
that that's what toriel is doing, playing along and not being as firm as she is in undertale because she doesn't hate him (she prays for him in church, she waters the flowers even though she throws them in the trash, she expresses her gratitude to Rudy for Carol helping him out even if she doesn't like her funding his conspiracies)
And she might appreciate the gesture, she might not want to hurt his feelings and just want to go on with her day so she keeps letting him down easy instead of putting her foot down (which he misinterprets). He doesn't just realize what he's been doing because he couldn't figure out harassment was bad?? he realizes the true context of toriels actions towards him which he had been tunnelvision rationalizing as something else. She was just playing along, like he is.
Anyway this post is far too fucking long already. Conclusion: you can hate Asgore all you want for his actions because they're definitely Bad, but one thing you can't do is claim he's being purposefully malicious because that's simply Not The Case.
Also! Deltarune Asgore is not in fact worse than Undertale Asgore because Deltarune Asgore didn't murder six children! Come on now
