DARENK8P

Matcha Cookie is trying to cause a disaster in the lab? Just snaps his fingers in an "aw man" kinda way (not literally) and asks his researchers to restrain her. Matcha Cookie ACTUALLY causes a disaster in the lab? Ah well. Time to move on and get back to work. Dark Enchantress Cookie is fucking dead and his laboratory is entirely destroyed. Feels gutted that DEC isn't around to say what ingredient Matcha Cookie is missing but otherwise is already on his feet and ready to get a move on.

BR is a minor character and has never been given significant screentime, which I think is the problem you've identified within your post. He doesn't have a sense of interiority, because his innermost thoughts, his internal narrative, remains unexplored. This presents him as a somewhat one-dimensional character if he's only viewed through the lens of the main story. (I wrote a post on the Hotel Costume story which I believe expands on his character beyond the scope of the primary text).

I think the theory that none of this bothers him doesn't necessarily have a canonical basis. We don't know what he's thinking or feeling, as it's not depicted. I also think part of his tendency to remain cheerful and composed IS a facet of his need for control - control over oneself is the basis of that desire. If everything else falls apart around him, he can still wear a bright smile and restrain his emotions. However, I still think he did experience a loss of control in the lab story - in a literal sense.

He doesn't look angry but his sprites all lean towards a smiling demeanour. That was a purposeful design choice. But one of his subordinates calls him out for almost dropping Batch 99 - what can we infer from this? That he was distracted?

He can't control Matcha, so he ends up having her restrained.

But that doesn't work either. BR has underestimated Matcha - actually, all of them have. The team of researchers, the other COD - none of them could anticipate what came next (note: I'm omitting some scenes between that last part and the next).

Butter Roll immediately tries to assure others he's got the situation under control, but he doesn't. Again, his own subordinate steps in to remind him of the bigger picture here, the actual problem - not the crack, but the imminent explosion!

I think it's interesting how Butter Roll's first instinct appears to assure others that everything's fine, he's got it all in hand, under control - but doing so stops him from locking in and actually putting his focus on what needs to be done (trying to deal with matcha and not minding the product of their research potentially dropping from his grasp; trying to fix a crack when the lab is about to be totalled). He also looks agitated to say the least in that above screenclip.

It's difficult to determine what effect this has on him emotionally, but I agree with you that he doesn't look terribly put out by the aftermath:

But if you consider the above incident as the direct result of Matcha, who he could not control, having him lose control of his own lab, with this particular clip:

His tone sounds distinctively resigned to me compared to all other points he's spoken - as if he can't maintain his perfectly composed mask in that moment. That's the single moment I think we see his emotions slip. He can't do much else after that but rally together his team.

After all, what would losing control achieve? He has a team of subordinates that rely on his direction, and direct colleagues who are judging his performance (Pomegranate being one). One of those colleagues is Matcha, who is trying to undermine him and succeeded - what is he to do? Lose his temper? Shout at her? As an assumed newcomer? There's little he can do. In any case, he knows part of this was precipitated by him directly:

He admits his part in provoking her and that he underestimated her - both behaviours were problematic and contributed to this situation, that he lost control of! So to further antagonise Matcha by taking out whatever negative emotions he had would only cause more issues. And he's there to do one thing: research. It's his purpose. He isn't going to jeapordise that by causing his own failings in this situation to be highlighted more than they are.

I agree that an exploration of BR's internal narrative is needed to develop him as a character. But Matcha Cookie is paired with him by the writers because she represents his inverse. A controlled, composed and cheerful cookie with a messy, temperamental and moody cookie. He can't control her.

To this end, you would think he would act as the rest of the COD do and ignore her, right? But he wants to interfere or be involved with her business. Why? I think the writers just wrote it that way because it's humorous to have them bickering. But I can't help but view it as him being competitive with her. She undermines his control in the work he does - not just in the lab, but in the hotel:

and of course this results in the luggage tumbling, which poor Licorice has to clean up (again).

as a side point I wanted to address something that I thought of when reading the tags of your post

I appreciate you weren't the one to make this comment, however, I think there is a difference between character development as written being contradictory or poorly thought out versus not being what a fan or multiple fans desire to see. When it comes to underdeveloped characters, any development or further depictions beyond what is initially shown can certainly be more polarising due to the lack of base material in the first instance.

I certainly was surprised not to see some confrontation between Espresso and BR in the final chapters of Beast Yeast, but all the characters in the COD suffered the issue of being sidelined for the ~main act~ (shmilk lol). However, his alignment with Matcha as the story sets out is not inherently deterimental to his character nor hers - we literally have so little to go off of to confidently make that assertion from the perspective of literary analysis. [And I think people should read the hotel costume story. I think more people should consider it!]

Also...

Now I really don't mean this directed to this tag specifically because you outline your thoughts with nuance that it is just your perspective/notion and not an assertion of what is right/wrong. I have just seen a few times people dismissing Matcha's presence in BR's narrative as problematic in some way - from a social standpoint to problematic for their writing as characters. It's an issue for female characters in general that many others have observed and outlined several times across various fandoms. Female character's presence skews the writing of male character's, the pairing isn't compelling etc. And the inevitable solution appears to be replacing the female character with a male character.

💐~Butter Roll and Matcha's Wedding Costume~💐

She intended to hang her employee ID around her neck to tease him while he was away, but he ended up snatching it away from her. That is how the two ended up wearing each other's employee IDs.

The two are an incorrigible duo at work.