Everyone on Planet Earth Is Wrong About the Berdly & Noelle Dynamic Except for Me and the Actual Deltarune Team (1/3)
Okay umm, so I'm glad people are hearting this post so quickly! Unm... I didnt mean to post it yet? So please expect heavy edits until this little note here is removed. I want to be more clear on why exactly I think Berdly has autism, and how it ties into his more controversial traits. Thanks! 💕
I have an online friend that got me onto Pinterest recently, and I like making character boards so far. There's just one problem: The thing with me is, I really, really like platonic representation between female and male characters. And I REALLY like Noelle and Berdly. In my opinion, they're one of the most realistic depictions of messy childhood friendships, while presenting it all quietly in a cheeky-yet-layered 'Undertale' way. But if you try to look up Berdly content, or Berdly and Noelle together, a majority of content (not all of it) falls under these categories:
Kris/Berdly (This is an overwhelming majority of Berdly content. Nobody likes him except as meme fodder or in a dynamic w Kris 🥀 /hj)
Berdly simping for Noelle and/or Susie
Berdly being malicious to Noelle ('No L but you lost your sister'/If I was named after a month I'd disappear too')
Noelle does not see Berdly as a good friend and is just too nice to abandon him already
Noelle wants to hurt Berdly and is actually one slip-up away from breaking his scrawny neck
Not to yuck anyone's yum– I've learned a few years ago that people enjoying media or characters in their own way isn't bad, so long as they're not putting down anyone else in the process.
But that's just it– The fandom-wide dismissal or even hatred of Berdly, especially when channeled through Noelle, feels more than a little bad to me who grew up as an "annoying" kid (as I will explain here). And by neglecting him, I think a lot of fans are missing out on HUGE aspects of Noelle's character that I find to be really interesting as well. So, part 1 is an assessment of Berdly's real feelings on Noelle, where he may fall flat in this relationship, and why; part 2 will do the same with Noelle, and part 3 will get into an aspect of their dynamic I have literally seen NOBODY mention, and why it means that Berdly HAS to be taken out for the Weird Route to even work.
Part 1: Reassessing Berdly From an Autistic Lens
If you don't already know about the Universal Mother theory, there's a great video that sums it up:
The TLDR is that Queen's interactions with each of the main characters in Chapter 2 provides insight into their parental relationships (or lack thereof in Ralsei's case), and it's most evident with Noelle. It's obvious in Berdly's case, too. The Smart Race fight is full of flavor text like this:
Berdly, an obnoxious kid, is constantly doing The Most to please Queen and get her attention in the way a kid might engage with a parental figure, but she wants nothing to do with him. And let me tell you, THIS dialogue after the fight is what RADICALIZED me:
Real talk: How many neurodivergent people have experienced this growing up? How many of you have overheard something like this?
You engage in social situations authentically with the peers and adults around you, and overall you're nice and you're not wanting to hurt anyone. But maybe you talk too much, or you're just a bit too loud because you're so excited, or you say something you don't know is wildly inappropriate for the social situation? Suddenly, everyone around you quietly (or explicitly) does their best to take a wide berth around you at best, or they try to humiliate you for their amusement at worst.
There's not a lot of characters in the Light World that reference or interact with Berdly besides Noelle, and the examples we have are quite negative. Toriel (a public educator, mind) says that Berdly "harasses" Kris about library money they genuinely owe, Kris is implied to prank call Berdly repeatedly, Alphys never touches the apples Berdly gives her, Rudy calls him "Nerdly" and enlists Kris to help him throw stuff at him (sir that is a CHILD), and if you subscribe to Universal Mother theory, even his own mom is overstimulated by her kid and actively avoids him.
Specifically, I do think Berdly is autistic. It explains EVERYTHING about his behavior that most fans find annoying or bad, and his treatment of Noelle. NOT because autistic people are inherently annoying or bad, but because our perception of the world and how we process information often leads to social faux pas that other people then judge as annoying. We can't all be Peridot or Papyrus, where our neurodivergent traits are consistently funny and quirky and easily digestible for allistics. Sometimes, we are awkward in an uncomfortable way! Sometimes, we are cringe! And bullying or neglect early in life can unfortunately compound these traits.
This is very likely why Berdly is hostile by default to Kris and Susie. Bullied and ostracized kids will often don an 'armor' and reject other people to protect themselves from being rejected first; we all understood this with Susie's character. And how many times have you heard or seen in media, "They're just jealous of you because you're smart"? Being tough and scary was Susie's armor of choice, and being smarter than everyone, #1 I class, is Berdly's. It's why he falters immediately when Susie takes his preemptive cynicism at face value (she is also used to being rejected, but she has friends now, and doesn't feel the need to protect herself by being mean back), and backs off. He doesn't want to be alone, and a part of him wants their company– he just doesn't realize that he may now have the option to have it, genuinely, without being bullied. His 'smarts' are also, seemingly, the only thing he has that gets him occasional praise or positive attention.
But, the outlier is Noelle. She can't admire Berdly's smarts, from his perspective; she's the one tutoring him, so she can see right past the smart persona he's put up in order to earn attention. And yet, she doesn't ignore or bully him, either. She helps him, cares about his safety, has trouble saying "no" to him, and brings him to her house and her room regularly enough that he got to rename her plant. They play racing games together!
He clearly isn't used to all that; he isn't used to positive attention that he doesn't have to "earn" by being smart. On another level, Berdly is a boy, and Noelle is a girl who's giving him positive attention. What's the conclusion that a lot of boys in this situation come to? What does Berdly assume when Susie accepts him, even after he 'admits' to being an idiot?
"She must have a crush on me" is exactly the kind of silly 'stuck in your own head' kid-logic that a kid like Berdly would use, and he thinks with a skew often. If we take Berdly's thoughts seriously for a second and pretend that Noelle did have a crush on him, then the scene is pretty endearing as well. He emphasizes that he really values their friendship, and when he perceives Noelle's bewilderment as embarrassment, he shuts that down right away. He didn't have the heart to 'reject' her before this point, partially because he really doesn't want to embarrass her, and partially because he really believes that this is why she's willingly remained in his life. His whole plan was to leave Hometown forever and live in Cyber City, specifically because the thought of eventually drifting apart from Noelle terrifies him.
He's desperate to keep Noelle in his life. He wants to keep her for help and support, yes, but also for her friendship. He could have easily centered his 'Smartopia' around himself if he just wanted to create a place where he would always be validated as the smartest. But, his ideal, perfect world is one that he shares with her.
So... Why do they clearly have so many problems?
His inability to connect fully with Noelle as a friend stems from multiple factors– a big one, I think, being his autism. He is sensitive to Noelle's demeanor, and he's always the first to ask if she's okay or reach out to her in multiple instances where she is upset or conflicted.
And sometimes, he gets close– He correctly identifies that Noelle does have a crush, he correctly identifies that Noelle is being pressured to do things she doesn't want to do– He just fills in the blanks he has with his own worldview and perception. Again, very normal autism thing to have situationally low empathy, or like– You project your own worldview onto others because it's hard to conceptualize outside of that. I looked it up and apparently it's called 'mind blindness'? Someone smarter than me can correct me on that if need be. XD
Even the people who like Berdly and understand that he cares about Noelle will often say, "He just needs to listen to Noelle's feelings!!" Well, I'll get into this in-depth in part 2, but Noelle doesn't really share her feelings. It's not just that Berdly is projecting his own worldview onto her; many autistic people need you to explicitly state your wants and needs to them, and Noelle doesn't do that. Or when she tries to speak up, she quickly gives up when someone (usually Berdly) is talking over her, or she's under any sort of pressure. She'll tell Berdly that she's gifting him a platonic flower (again, he's not used to affectionate gestures, so he can't view the flower for him as simply platonic), but she starts to say 'yes' when he literally asks her out on a date in chapter 4.
And, although it's meant to be silly filler, let's look at this newsletter gif again:
It's implied to be summer here, and therefore hot. Berdly is fanning Noelle instead of himself to look out for her and keep her cool. And, heck, try doing this yourself: This is a labor-intensive task that's hard to do for more than a few seconds! But because Noelle's back is turned, he can't see that he's actually inconvinencing her– and Noelle seems to give no reaction and doesn't confront him about it. I think this right here is a nice little summation of how Berdly's autism and Noelle's refusal to say something leads to awkward situations and miscommunications. Which will be discussed further... In Part 2!!
So, to review the content that often mischaracterizes Berdly:
Berdly isn't a simp. He views Queen as a parental figure, Noelle as a platonic friend that he genuinely misunderstands as having a crush on him (because he can't understand kindness that he doesn't have to earn), and Susie... Well again, he's not used to getting positive attention that isn't tied to his smarts. I think if he got to know her, he would realize quickly (like he did with Noelle) that he doesn't really have a crush on her. What he loves is the idea of being accepted unconditionally.
Berdly's ignorance to Noelle's feelings is likely due to him being neurodivergent and having mind blindness, NOT him not caring or having malicious intent.
TLDR: Think of Berdly as autistic, and then play Chapter 2 again.
There's so many other little bits of dialogue that the 10-image limit won't allow me, like Queen 'comforting' Berdly towards the end of Chapter 2 by saying: "You Cannot Calculate Other People's Feelings". And I say 'comforting' in quotes because Berdly starts to open up and ask Queen if she understands how he feels, but she was only trying to comfort Noelle. How sad is that?
Anyway, thanks for reading this far! 💖 I obviously relate to Berdly quite A Lot, but I think Noelle is one of the best-written child characters... Like, ever, and I hope to also do her as much justice in Parts 2 and 3. I guess we'll see! X)
