This post means a lot to me after completing the Pacifist Run. Of course I was sad Asriel couldn't come to the surface with us, and that he seemed resigned to living the rest of his life as Flowey, but we did save him. We freed him from guilt and regret and everything he'd been carrying with him. And I like to believe that in time he can gain a soul and come to the surface.
2. Flowey/Asriel is an unreliable source of information.
People often forget that sometimes characters are unreliable narrators for various reasons, and Asriel's a kid who's been through hell and knows all the awful things he did as a flower. When characters who have shit for self esteem paint themselves as the worst, it's because they believe it. Same with a character who had a falling out with someone might paint the other person as the bad guy due to bitterness. In the same token, a character might put their crush or best friend or a family member on a pedestal when said crush/friend/family member has flaws like anyone else.
Asriel is a traumatized child who remembers everything he did as Flowey and gives Frisk the option not to forgive him because he knows what he did was wrong. Frisk forgiving Asriel is you getting to play out the unreliable narrator trope - "I don't deserve forgiveness." "I disagree, now I'm going to hug you."
Asriel may be waiting a while to come to the surface, but he's not trapped in a cycle of death and self-loathing anymore.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2022-10-28 07:44 pm (UTC)People often forget that sometimes characters are unreliable narrators for various reasons, and Asriel's a kid who's been through hell and knows all the awful things he did as a flower. When characters who have shit for self esteem paint themselves as the worst, it's because they believe it. Same with a character who had a falling out with someone might paint the other person as the bad guy due to bitterness. In the same token, a character might put their crush or best friend or a family member on a pedestal when said crush/friend/family member has flaws like anyone else.
Asriel is a traumatized child who remembers everything he did as Flowey and gives Frisk the option not to forgive him because he knows what he did was wrong. Frisk forgiving Asriel is you getting to play out the unreliable narrator trope - "I don't deserve forgiveness." "I disagree, now I'm going to hug you."
Asriel may be waiting a while to come to the surface, but he's not trapped in a cycle of death and self-loathing anymore.