no but okay okay. like. i am genuinely really fascinated to think about asriel in this narrative... it could seriously be so hard hitting when he's the town's Golden Boy Who Could Do No Wrong, where you're right that even suggesting something like that would immediately have people spring up examples of his character as it being something far-fetched, unbelievable, out of character, etc., while that's like the whole entire point, right!? that abuse like this often manifests in the home, can be covert even under a strict parent's gaze, can appear to come from complete left field from the most unassuming people, and where the people involved have a genuinely complicated relationship that stretches beyond one time perpetrator-victim. like. Dude. all while kris is coincidentally seperated from him at the moment...
YES exactly. exactly. the whole idea of deltarune is false images and fantasy and nostalgia clouding out reality. characters attempt to take refuge in nostalgia only to find that it is a much worse place to be than the present. fantasies are fulfilled to the detriment of everybody involved. your methods of escapism have their own problems and if you stick around them too long they'll try to keep you forever. the basic structure of the narrative relies upon the relationship between fantasy and autonomy and how your idealized images of things can and will be corrupted and turn on yoy the moment they're given the necessary amount of power. this is all a total simplification of what deltarune is really getting at but the important thing here is exactly what you're saying: there is an idealized image of how things are, there is a fantasy of a safe and clean past, and then there is reality.
i think it's super presumptuous to write off asriel as an ineffectual nice guy for so many reasons even beyond ths fact that we haven't met him yet. look at chara and asriel! we all understand that their relationship was incredibly complex and that they both fed into each other's worst behaviors. they enabled each other's self harm, they got themselves killed together, and then depending on the route you take, they either manage to tentatively heal while still separating themselves from one another indefinitely or they make each other worse until they die again. so. why is it so commonly assumed that kris and asriel would have a simple relationship? there is no evidence for a simple relationship. i would go as far as to say there is very little evidence kris likes asriel in the first place!
with chapters 3 and 4, it is made clear that kris's previous discomfort with ralsei was not about ralsei. the first nice and comfortable interaction we ever see between kris and ralsei, where neither of them are attempting to follow a script, is this:
kris becoming comfortable with ralsei is directly tied to them separating him from asriel, to the point where the idea that they look similar is laughable. this continues into chapter 4, where they are very concerned with making sure susie can see exactly how different they look:
they start to like ralsei because he isn't asriel! that is fucking huge!!! it was assumed for so long by so many people that kris didn't like ralsei because he was trying to be asriel and failing. we have it set in stone now that the opposite is true. the moment kris realizes ralsei is nothing like asriel, they start to think of him as a friend and will not even allow the player to say mean things to him. there is a fucking issue between kris and asriel.
i really appreciate you mentioning that this is all going down during a time where kris and asriel happen to be seperated. the internet is down for the entire town, and the only narrative consequence of this so far has been that kris can't contact asriel. whenever this is brought up, it's hometown residents who have made it quite clear they don't understand kris at all saying things like, "i bet you miss him so much." after four chapters of these people demonstrating how little they know about kris, why are their assumptions about kris and asriel's relationship being taken at face value? kris has expressed nothing to indicate they miss him. that is an assumption from the player. kris avoids looking in his room at queen's mansion, they are extremely uncomfortable with susie being offered his clothes and his bed, and this is what happens if you make them pray for him:
the feelings kris has expressed regarding asriel up to this point have been avoidance, tension, and discomfort. the comments made by people in hometown and by their parents and by tenna about how much they must miss him are entirely based in their own inaccurate perceptions of kris as a person.
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