Chiya

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pick a side, raly

hey gang, long time, no see

Obliterate this twink NOWWWW

SPOILERS!!!!!

Yes, his intro, with its fuckboi voice clips and fully anime art style, triggered an immediate bile response in us, and I think that's by design, but the reason both the players and Ralsei are so tilted at him (aside from the fact that anime was a mistake) is that everything about Flowery invokes the Mary Sue tropes that were particularly prevalent in the 2000s. He's this impossibly perfect, attractive, knowledgeable, all-loving pretty boy who immediately attracts both affection and ire from the main cast. He even introduces himself as someone with an existing close relationship with Asgore, calling himself, his "best friend and college roommate" even though no one's ever mentioned him before. His stats are maxed out, with an HP of 999 (which itself is a callback to Undertale lore, where I think it was stated as part of that canceled alarm clock app that 999 is Chara's favorite number), nothing anybody does to him ever messes up his bishonen looks, he dispenses gifts and wholesome life advice even to the people who are working against him, and there's a ridiculous rainbow aura that follows him as he flies through the air without any visible means of propulsion, like some kind of fruity Superman. By every single metric, he's a Mary Sue.

And he knows it. The reason he comes across as so impossibly perfect is because it is actually impossible. While he isn't being dishonest with the Fun Gang about his goals or values, a lot of his other traits are a deliberately crafted facade. He's not human like he's pretending to be, he's not Asgore's best friend from college (that would be Rudy), and even he admits that his impossibly high stats are fake during his confrontation with the Knight. He's knowingly crafting an inflated persona, an illusion that he thinks is necessary to protect the happiness both of Asgore and the other flowers in the bouquet.

The Mary Sue traits also cement the parallels to Asriel, especially as he appears as the final boss in the True Pacifist route. There are implications that Asriel's "Absolute God of Hyperdeath" form is based on Asriel's own self-insert OC (which makes sense for him to have, since he's an actual child), with the ridiculous epithet and overpowered attacks. He even has the same rainbow aura as he flies around as Flowery. Flowery, as a living thing grown and cared for by Asgore, even seems to consider Asgore as a father figure, at one point in his fight with you wondering aloud if Asgore will be proud of him for beating you.

But while his parallels with Asriel are striking, Flowery is an even more obvious foil for you, the player. Like you in both this game (since you only see him if you're not on the Weird Route) and the Pacifist route in Undertale, Flowery is motivated by his hopes, dreams, and love for his friends. Because he and the rest of the bouquet are flowers, not Darkners, they'll be in even worse shape once the fountain closes than they will be. Darkners are implied (by the explanation Ralsei gives in Chapter 3) to still have sentience and be capable of living independent lives for as long as the lights stay off. Flowers, though, don't have those advantages. Sealing the fountain means stealing away their very sentience. Flowery is fighting for his home (the Dark World in the flower shop) just as you are fighting for yours (your Castle Town). He directs his allies, including recruits in the area, against you during combat. He's even capable of using ACTs to raise your party's Mercy meter, something that really shocked me during my first attempt at his fight. Like you (or Papyrus in Undertale), he truly is playing as a pacifist. There's no Game Over screen if you lose to him, he simply drops you off at the bottom of the stairs with full HP and a couple of infuriating taunts. That he parallels you so closely as a boss kind of makes his fight the Deltarune equivalent of the final showdown against Ganon in Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Here's someone who can use the same strategies, skills, and quirks as you. For the first time, you're throwing down with an actual equal (or, at least, someone who aspires to be your equal).

Sorry to keep you waiting!

Deltarune Chapter 5: Flowery Intro Animation Sequence