Hmmm.... chewing on the parallels between Miquella and Ralsei.
They're both childlike princes who are in part associated with dreams - Miquella through St. Trina, and Ralsei through the dreamlike Dark Worlds - and both are beloved figures, though in the latter's case it's more out-of-universe than in-universe. But what's causing my brain to go brrrr about it is the concept of eternal childhood and how their eternally-nascent natures might serve to "compel" affection.
This is long, so it's going under a read more!
As social creatures, we humans are predisposed to fawn over infants, not just of our own species but those of many animals. We associate early childhood with innocence, naivety and purity, Hearing a crying baby is particularly distressing to us, and in many people instills a compulsion to attempt to soothe, look after and protect these helpless creatures.
In Miquella's case, it could be that his eternally youthful state preys upon this instinct in people, and they are drawn to serve and protect him despite his standing as an Empyrean. Indeed, it's possible that he has learned to weaponise it, placing himself beyond reproach as a platonic ideal of purity and innocence, which he could potentially use as a veil to commit some questionable actions. And I think there's something to be said for applying this view to Ralsei, as well.
While the Prince from the Dark is assumed to be a teenager, and around the same age as Kris and Susie, a lot of Ralsei's characteristics are more typically childlike - his very large eyes in proportion to his head (accentuated by the huge lenses of his glasses); his general naivety of the greater world, the people in it, and even himself to a degree; his relentless optimism that no-one needs to be hurt or killed, not even the most monstrous of foes; and above all, his overwhelming need and desire for companionship, manifesting in an almost-religious devotion to people he considers his friends. It's clear that these traits are designed to play on those instincts to nurture and protect, in us players if not necessarily the characters in-universe. This isn't even going into the potential nostalgia of his associations with and connections to Undertale's version of Asriel.
I have often considered Ralsei to be a prime example of a "supernormal" stimulus - an extreme over-exaggeration of certain traits that provoke an equally extreme instinctual response in creatures susceptible to it. Think of herring-gull chicks who will prefer to peck at a bright red spot on the bill of a dummy adult, rather than an actual live adult with a less-bright red spot. Whether because he was designed that way, or because he's deliberately cultivating that impression, Ralsei's playing-at-childhood-innocence has a similar effect, serving to "compel" affection from players in a like fashion to how Miquella is able to "compel" the affection of characters in Elden Ring.
Where this gets REALLY interesting is when we take Undertale and Deltarune's incorporation of meta elements in their game universes into consideration. There is a compelling case to be made that Ralsei's main target for his affection, Kris, is actually just a proxy to his real goal - us. Considering all of the above regarding his childlike traits, it's hard not to think that at the very least, Toby and his team are trying to engender this strange pseudo-reciprocity of affection between us and Ralsei, even if the character himself is not actively trying to achieve that in-game. And it is when we look at Miquella, who serves as a template for how such affection can be compelled, that we can see just how Ralsei has managed to achieve such a vast and devoted following, despite his seeming lack of depth as a character and his being a literal expy of Asriel from another game.
Of course, since we don't currently have all the information to hand, we don't know to what end this potential angle could take us. But I find it extremely fascinating to consider that there is actually quite a strong case that we are being groomed by Ralsei - or his creator - in some way. Especially when you consider what Miquella actually ends up doing with his abilities, it raises some pretty interesting possibilities that just might make us consider our favourite fluffy little cinnamon roll in a more nuanced light, as opposed to the false binary of "uwu baby" and "diabolical villain".
Thanks for reading! This wound up being much longer than I'd initially planned for, and it's just a jumbled assortment of thoughts I had upon learning about Miquella in Elden Ring, and how the nature of his being might transpose onto Ralsei. Hopefully this made you think a little bit about that too!
