There's a lot of speculation about what the Chapter 3 secret boss will be based on, with people guessing things like something of Asriel's, such as the contents of his drawer you can look in, or the suspiciously-similar OC he designed on his computer, or even the TV Darkner itself.
But I don't really see anyone talk about something that jumped out at me almost from the beginning - Asgore's flowers that Toriel keeps throwing in the trashcan. And you might be all like "What? When did that happen? What even is that?" but hear me out a moment.
Long post under the read more!
So when in the Dreemurr's house at the beginning of each chapter, you can inspect the trashcan, and it'll mention that it's "emitting a pleasant floral scent". And you think nothing of that, because some people spray air freshener in their trashcans to stop them smelling bad. But by visiting Asgore at the end of Chapter 1, he'll give you Flowers, which you can give to Toriel, who mentions that she'll find somewhere "suitable" for them. Then in Chapter 2, inspecting the trashcan again reveals that the floral scent "has increased".
So this tells us that Asgore has been trying this for a while, and every time Toriel gets his flowers, they go straight into the trash. And I mean... yeah? They're divorced, seemingly in rather acrimonious circumstances, and while he'd quite like things to go back to how they were, she seems very much past it all. Seems like an understandable, if rather cold, response to unwanted advances from an ex.
So... what's the deal here exactly? Well, consider that darkners are beings born from objects in the light world that exist to serve some sort of purpose - namely, to serve lightners. And consider, also, that darkners are capable of becoming resentful should they become unable to serve this purpose and are abandoned - the prime example of this is King from Chapter 1. Finally, consider that all of the secret bosses up to this point have originated from items that are typically discarded - the Joker card for Jevil, a spam email for Spamton.
With me so far? Good, because it gets better.
Imagine a beautiful bouquet of flowers, painstakingly arranged with care, with the singular intention of winning back the love of somebody you wronged. Imagine that love and care suffused into the resulting darkner, eager to serve this purpose. Imagine they reach their intended target, how they might feel when they are met not with pleasure or gratitude, but weariness and scorn. Imagine the despair they must feel when they are thrown away, abandoned, never to fulfill their destiny, never to see the light ever again.
Now imagine this happening again. And again. And again. Day after day, week after week. Imagine the love of their creator turning to obsession as he tries anything and everything he can to win back his lost love. Imagine the increasing exasperation and disdain that his desperate efforts are met with time after time. Imagine being forced to absorb these incredibly intense and conflicting emotions as you are tossed upon a growing pile of your past selves, corpse upon corpse upon corpse, into a bottomless pit where life, love and optimism slowly putrefies into death, resentment and nihilism, where the only constant is that soon there will be more of your number to join you.
What kind of a darkner could possibly result from such a horrifying cocktail? And what would such a being do when ostensibly given a second chance by some... mysterious benefactor?
And that's even BEFORE you get into the whole Flowey parallels, with a plantlike being who becomes increasingly bitter and twisted as he loops through time again and again and again, and eventually becomes a monstrous godlike entity through the power of SOULS. A plantlike being that USED TO BE THE SON OF THAT GAME'S TORIEL AND ASGORE.
...if this doesn't convince you that those flowers are going to be Chapter 3's Secret Boss, then nothing will. And if they're NOT the Chapter 3 secret boss, my jimmies will be considerably ruffled. So there lol
