i think "evil/eldritch player" headcanons are lame because nobody knows how to do anything more than surface level for them tee bee eich. it's not even reinventing flowey, because flowey at the very least had a tragic element and backstory to it, it's just that everyone's been reheating the same "UT player headcanon" nachos forever from the game where the player isn't even an active member in the narrative (which makes the detachment required for resets so much easier), so they're stuck in this weird awkward place where the player is undeniably an active member of the narrative but also somehow inferior and unimportant compared to other characters as well as specifically bereft from the themes of the narrative. both detached and non-detached, like everyone's got some sort of sixth-sense to not like the player or something. it's especially funny to do this in a game that depicts the struggles between "more real" and "less real" characters and worlds, like toby just made the player diegetic for zero reason. you're right anon, i'm sure ralsei would hate you specifically.
And that’s why I write, because I do actually think the concept of the player being eldritch from another perspective is cool, but it’s always done with the intent to make the player evil.
Yes, from a lower being’s point of view, you could be downright terrifying. But instead of leaning into that terror and basically saying “yeah you. The people playing the game. Are inherently bad and cannot connect”, you can deconstruct the eldritch nature. Look at the perspective from Ralsei’s character. He knows the rules you have to follow. He knows you can influence other people and gets terrified when it is implied. However, people never think about what he would think, seeing a being like that choose to be kind.
Also that’s a human person. Imagine figuring out that this guide is just a person who is fallible and is trying to be kind and to be friends. Heart breaking shit
It’s not even that outlandish that you can be kind! In fact, Ralsei asks you at the Grand Doors to be kind for a more favorable outcome! He trusts that you CAN do it, and puts his faith in you to do so.
The otherworldly nature of us can be cool, but I don’t think people realize that these little acts of kindness and hope are what drives deltarune as a narrative. You don’t have to go out of your way to be kind, but it changes small things for the better. As we were told when we were first brought into the game, deltarune shines brightly from your hope.
I think people are stuck in Flowey’s line of thinking where the power to save and load is a power that must be stopped in the end. You are a threat by virtue of having that ability. However, what people don’t analyze enough is that this is likely him knowing what HE would do in our shoes, which is partially why he’s so unfair about it. It also completely ignores the fact that, in order to get UT’s best ending, you must use that ability at least once! You have to go back and do things better no matter what you do! Your ability to save and load prevents a worse future from occurring. It is the resolve to change fate, and in a narrative like Deltarune where fate is etched in glass, I’m so confused as to why people do not acknowledge how useful save points could be.
And yeah! I really don’t get the whole “everyone has a sixth sense to hate you”. People reduce Susie to an attack dog who would bite your face off when Kris says the word, when we’ve seen anything but! Susie is known to try to talk things out with her enemies now, including people who she thinks have betrayed her. Do you really think that she doesn’t see herself axing lancer over and over again in her nightmares? She has improved from the person she was in ch1! She knows what it was like to be thrown away, which, considering that the banishment likely refers to us, is a fate that is ETCHED in our story. We WILL be banished, and I think that would be horrifying to her.
Ralsei constantly, even if not directly, looks to you for help. He trusts you from chapter 1 to change the prophecy even when he hasn’t voiced what its ending is. He asks you to please be kind in hopes that it can change IN CH1. He TRUSTS YOU TO DO THAT. And, in dire moments, he pleads to you. When spawn appear, he tells YOU to run left. When you win against the Knight, he says that he hoped for a moment that you had diverted things early, and only recovers at the end to switch to Kris.
And Kris. Yeah, they got problems with us! It’s by design that we were severed from our body to be placed in a cage. Their sole purpose is to keep us in line for whatever promise they’ve made. They have so many reasons to beef with us, but they’re not pure! Those reasons are not scotfree! They caged us. They’re unnecessarily rough with the soul. Sure, they probably are having an identity crisis because who wouldn’t when your friends like this new you better? But ultimately, I wasn’t the one who chose them. That was their group’s fault.
Deltarune fanbase is the fakest idgaf’ers ever and is more determined to make all of the characters hate them for some reason instead of engaging with the themes of identity and connection. It sucks ass that you had a chance to be yourself in the narrative with your vessel, and then it was stolen out from under you. Your presence in the world was stifled. Just like with frisk, your good deeds will only be seen as someone else from now on. Even if you get your vessel now, are they even going to recognize you?
Your chance to be friends was taken away, and instead of struggling for that to ever change, people are willing to just give in to “Your choices don’t matter”.
