[let me rizz you up in the kitakami festival]

I believe Flowery bearing witness how marriage and the nuclear family failed Asgore is a major factor in his motivations. He has a firsthand account of the unforeseen risks/negative consequences of marriage gone wrong, including Asgore becoming largely isolated from his family, his support system wearing down, and having his heart broken. There are observable flaws in this cultural "life script," in that it doesn't account for a backup plan if an all-encompassing partnership should fail. And after taking on "higher consciousness" in the Dark World, Flowery revels in the fact that he doesn't have to follow the rules that the Light World runs on. From the minute he's transformed, he uses his new power to create a "better" world for him and his friends.

Flowery is outwardly affectionate towards his so-called best friend and goes above and beyond to make him feel appreciated, in an "unusual" fashion that a lot of players automatically read as gay. But if you look closer, nothing he actually does is 100% explicitly romantic in nature. The same friendly encouragement, physical proximity, petnames, gifts etc. that he grants to Asgore are shared among the Fun Gang the the rest of the Flowers.

He crafts a unique relationship with each Flower in particular: friend, sibling, sparring partner, and so on. But each relationship is grounded in that same camaraderie and appreciation, with everyone's unique strengths being called upon by Flowery in the final battle. Which leads me to believe that Flowery doesn't rank these relationships based on utility or Light World societal rules, and his overt friendliness is how he expresses that belief.

It also fits in with the game's tiny homages to the Flower Power movement, a hippie-lead extension of the American anti-war movement that aspired for radical pacifism, which adopted flowers as its main symbol. Flower Power notably intertwined with the Free Love movement, which sought to remove the government/church from interpersonal affairs, and the two rallied together under the stance that marriage is "a tool for those who support war and favor the traditional capitalist culture."

Though heavily associated with current-day aromantic spaces, lovequeer philosophy mirrors the Free Love movement in that they both seek to challenge the institution of marriage, promote romantic/sexual autonomy, and advocate for adults' freedom to enter any and all interpersonal relationships as they please.

[Slight tangent: I read that the inclusion of sexual relationships in the Free Love movement was framed as the promotion of promiscuity by the general populous of the time... which is hilarious, considering the predictable influx of "in chapter 5, Flowery fucks your dad" jokes. Given the way I interpret Flowery’s innate nature and plants lacking certain instincts, it makes sense to me for him to be asexual too I guess, but I think he’d identify more with “aro” since sex is irrelevant to his guiding principles on love and friendship in-game. A “just aro,” if you will.]

Worth noting that this could be tied to how, as a plant, he might not understand monsters' social norms about relationships, especially in a setting where those norms are undoubtedly influenced by human beliefs. So despite the aspirational qualities of his relationship anarchy, it makes sense how Flowery mirroring multiple of Asgore's real-world loved ones works to both his benefit and detriment. On the upside, the way Flowery expresses his love for people is very freeform and liberal, and this allows everyone to feel valued in his eyes, regardless of the type of relationship they're in. On the downside, Asgore probably thinks it's weird™ that Flowery is trying to imitate his college bestie, his son, and his ex-wife all at once. So because he likely draws lines between all of these relationships under a Light World framework, Flowery's plan kinda backfires, in that his actions weren't able to please Asgore in the way he needed after all.

I really appreciate how Flowery’s relationship with Asgore is shown to be flawed in this way, as much as I admire his (theoretical) ideology. He comes across as overbearing to Asgore (and Ralsei) at times, which is a stark reminder of how people have their comfort levels/preferred relationship styles and mold their lives around different aspirations. Try as he might, Flowery’s unique form of self-expression won’t gel well with everyone, especially if they were taught to read certain gestures as romantic and will think he's coming on to them. But thankfully, when Asgore does eventually reject his “advances” after the final boss battle, Flowery respects his wishes and backs off. I'd factor this into the aro argument too, seeing as he doesn’t appear to get upset by this rejection like someone with a crush would.

This wasn't part of my initial assessment, but I like this post and it made me wonder if Flowery likes love as a concept moreso than in practice, which is another common aro experience. He's almost always the initiator when it comes to affection, so I'd totally get it if being reciprocated makes him feel eughghh. There's no one way to be aro after all.

But to close off, regardless of if he likes love conceptually, or embraces it more radically, "free love" is integral to Flowery's personality. Even if some people don't understand it or they adopt a certain negative perception of him, he HAS to be earnest either way. Perhaps in hopes that someday, he'll meet somebody who sees things from his perspective.