#even when unsettling

[michainabox]

Okay so I’m revisiting Undertale after a long time and I just have to say this. This is a very very long post.

I don’t know if I should tag this? But uh. I guess I go a little in depth with Flowey and the major spoilers of Undertale, have a brush of a spoiler for In Stars and Time, and just major ramblings.

Flowey somewhat unsettles me.

And I don’t mean fear or scary enough that it distresses me, I mean truly unsettles me in an uncomfortable sense where I have to take a step back to analyze.

Like. Yes that’s the point, he is suppose to be an unsettling character. But my thing is, it is hard to unsettle me. You can ask my partner and anyone I know, I consume a lot of horror media. It is hard to unsettle me, or make me uncomfortable with certain things. And with games? Even harder. There has only been a couple of times where media has unsettled me that I can count only three instances of this.

The book Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White (had to unpack a lot of my religious trauma with that book. Good read though.)

Act 5 of In Stars and Time because I related a bit to much to Siff’s breakdown and the fact that you can’t stop it no matter how much you wanted too. You were powerless to do anything. You just have to sit and watch and follow.

And then of course. Flowey. The character himself.

What spurred this ramble Micha? Well. I’ll tell you.

We find out that before Frisk had fallen, Flowey had enough determination in that stupid little flower body to reset the timelines himself. Without the souls, he still had the powers of a god, but it was limited much like Frisk. He has reset hundreds, if not thousands of times. He says that he has tried anything and everything to change the variables. Maybe doing little things like planting ideas into monsters heads, or bigger things. (After all if anything goes wrong he can always reset.)

But nothing could change.

No matter what he did, it never mattered.

It never worked.

It would drive people insane.

And then Frisk shows up. And Flowey doesn’t have the power to reset anymore. Instead, this little kid with a red soul (and the same fashion sense of his dead sibling) shows up and destroys everything. And if you go with the pacifist route. Doesn’t head the lesson of kill or be killed.

And it start to work out for Frisk. It also works in Flowey’s favor too. We can imagine that Frisk is the first ever child to face Asgore for the first time since he started to collect human souls, and Frisk has the power to come back, Frisk even reminds Asgore how many times he has killed them. And Flowey watches as Frisk can either spare or kill Asgore in the final moments. But the players choice doesn’t matter.

Because Flowey was waiting for this opportunity. With the souls unguarded, he can use them. And of course, he can practically torture Frisk until he is ready to claim their soul. And even after all of that, you can choose to kill Flowey or grant him mercy. And he doesn’t understand if you do give him mercy. Because for him, it really is killed or be killed.

(I also have my own theory or analysis for the phone call and where Frisk went after the neutral ending, but that’s another post if anyone is interested in my thoughts.)

Anyways. After the phone call he pops up again, and here is where the unsettling part comes in.

He plants the idea in the Frisk/Player’s head that there is another way. That they didn’t truly save their friends, they didn’t truly save themselves.

And Flowey knows Frisk would try anything to get that happy ending.

Because we would want to find out what that happy ending looks like. Because it’s human nature to be curious and want something better.

He preys upon that and uses it to only serve as his own stepping stone. He isn’t even sure it will work. But he does that anyways. Because if your playing pacifist he sees the fact that Frisk took the time to befriend and spare all the monsters.

Flowey isn’t unsettling because he can change his face, wants to kill Frisk, and even attempted and succeeded multiple times.

It’s the fact that while he says he is soulless, that he can’t understand why he is being spared, he learned just enough to prey on that human nature to get what he ultimately wants.

That’s what ultimately unsettles me about him.

(If anyone has any questions about my thoughts or other theories just ask. I love rambling)

(Note. I edited it slightly to fit in more with the games because of some issues I had with misremembering events)

[obsob]

despite, despite, despite!!

[transmascutena]

things i think about a lot

[asurrogateblog]

the inclusion of this in the end credits of head (1968) brings up many philosophical conundrums

[cheeseandballin]

me when im giving unsettling woman with a mental disorder vibes while my wife serves face

[thewisherr]

Therapist: volume 2 Kabru isn’t real, he can’t hurt you

Volume 2 Kabru:

[serpentface]

are the talking crows still around? what are They doing while all this drama is going on around them in the world

Mostly doing their own crow things and not commonly having direct and mutual interactions with other sophonts. They're similar to yotici in the capacity that they have Very different modes of living than most other sophonts, and they generally are not recognized as 'People' in the same sense as humans, elowey, qilik, caelin, and delkhin. However, (given their strategic and intelligent capacity for word mimicry) talking crows tend to be comprehended as unique magical animals or spirits, or are not recognized as a distinct type of entity but rather feed into broader corvid folklore (as they are very difficult to visually distinguish from many common crows).

They make a few appearances in Whitecalf as small flocks of crows trailing the pilgrimage, picking at its food supplies and occasionally scavenging on its dead. This is a family unit of talking crows that has suffered heavily in the drought, with very few of their chicks surviving infancy and even some of the healthiest adults dying of thirst and starvation. They have recognized this mass movement of big two legged people as a source of potential sustenance, and are very persistent and skilled in keeping themselves fed.

In-text they may come off as an ambiguous, possibly magical element (or partially hallucinatory) from the character POVs, due to them going from a mundane presence indistinguishable from common crows to them uttering dire threats in clear and fluent Wardi. This is very unsettling and hard to reconcile for most who witness this, but is actually just a learned method of taking advantage of beliefs in corvids as ill omens to frighten off or distract targets while another crow snatches bits of food or a nice wineskin.

[karmicpunishment]

tachihara dropping the elevated mafia persona when he gets back and falling into his natural way of walking, which from both growing up around parents who hated him and military spy training, is extremely quiet. this is to say he scares the shit out of a lot of people during his first few weeks back.

[doostyaudi]

Tbh id like to think that Simon has "human teeth" which deeply unsettles every other sprunki around him. Tho they aren't that compatible to human teeth cuz they don't have canine nor molars, mainly just incisior teeth, which makes his teeth even more unsettling to those around him

[youtube-fucker]

Yeah I think I'll just make a separate blog for this stuff now... but in the meantime!

Look! It's a kid! They're having fun! They have their tongue out! They're winking! They're being silly!

Surely nothing bad would happen to them, right?

...

You wouldn't hurt them, would you?

...

Would you?

Would you hurt them?

Are you sure you wouldn't?

W O U L D Y O U ?

W H Y ' D . . . Y O U . . . D O . . . I T . . . ?

Anyways! Credit to @howlonomy once again! I hope you enjoyed... whatever the fuck this is!

[ms-hells-bells]

this bizarre politicisation of the existence of basic empathy driven fear and horror really confounds me.

when the christchurch attack happened, much of my country was significantly traumatised. i remember watching the news for hours, just crying. it was terrible. because people died. in a really horrible way. and because country kinship exists, you go 'oh, i probably knew someone who died or know someone who knew someone who died'. my roommate had friends at the mosque.

i'm not talking about the politicisation of the event in terms of how the american government used it to justify the invasion of iraq, i'm not talking about the politicisation of the event to spur racism and nationalism and xenophobia. i'm not talking about the politicisation of the event in terms of being used as an excuse to further push into a surveillance state, as per the snowden files.

i'm just talking about the mocking, minimising, and derision of what is essentially just a large group of people that witnessed something horrible and have strong feelings and memories because human beings have empathy. no amount of 'well, other people have it worse elsewhere' changes that. by that logic, no one should be scared and upset about mass shootings on the other side of the country, no oppressor group actually feels bad about oppression because 'it's not happening to you', countries that dealt well with covid shouldn't have any residual issues from seeing what other countries went through, and vicarious/collective trauma would not exist as a psychological concept.

[jade-doodles-questionmark]

guys hear me out...

reference is from Silence of the Lambs (1991)

[sainteclectic]

Always a big fan of hcs that include Soul staring at Whole with the biggest wettest most pathetic eyes that are full of absolute devotion. And he's holding onto Her so so tight. He won't say anything he just Watches Her laugh and smile like the autism creature he is

this is so so true... soul loves to rest his head on her lap and look up at her with the widest eyes full of the most admiration you've ever seen. it's so adorable that whole starts laughing - she can't help it, he looks so cute like that, and soul is just looking up at her smile like

[pharawee]

So you see, that's where the trouble began. That smile. That damned smile.

[indigospyder]

[ghostbeam]

I think gojo is very shameless about just staring at u and paying attention to u at all times when people notice or say something about how he can’t look away from u he just shrugs cause it’s true he stares at u from across the room and doesn’t take his eyes off u and when u catch him he’s just happy ur looking back at him