im not going to add it onto the post because itâs too long already (sorry sheepdoge) but i think when you look at floweyâs perception of being in a game as his way of processing trauma, then his further inability to understand friskâs kindness towards him and his reaction of running away becomes more relevant to us, as people playing games, as well.
because like, isnât that kind of the same way a lot of us reacted upon first playing the game when it threw us a curveball? we went into it expecting things to go a certain way, conditioned by years of video games that followed the same typical formula; self contained, existing in a vacuum, ultimately completely outside of ourselves as individual people even if they did relate to us on personal levels.
but undertale is very good at being very close with its players, and making us uncomfortable in the process. are we, as individuals, obligated to help strangers at any range of cost simply because we are capable of doing so? is it valid for us to judge people based on first impressions? and then undertale takes these questions, throwing them in our face: hereâs a literal child dying over and over to free a race of people, simply because theyre the only one who can! hereâs these people who are trying to kill you, but if you go back and talk to them later youâre realize they have their âreasonsâ and have their own problems.
flowey has learned to accept a world where kindness is meaningless, worthless, and a weakness; has learned to reject it, has learned the value of presenting it to manipulate others; has come to expect the world around him to operate in a certain way based on these assumptions.
we have learned that video games will not literally talk to us on an individual level, that they have some variability but no real value in terms of culbability; that characters who present themselves as tropes will fill those roles.
and upon first being confronted with something outside of these expectations, persistintely and without apology, we justâŚcanât understand
gracieabrams
germansingergirl
ellievsbear
kianamaiart
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