I'm gonna use this to post a long ass tweet about Toriel's character lmao
(1/2)
While I don't think Toriel is inherently or intentionally malicious, she selfishly prioritizes her own emotions and will over the wellbeing of others and responsibilities under the ignorant pretense that her motherly and caring instincts and moral stances justify inaction, control of others, and lack of accountability, even when those actions ultimately harm the very people she claims to care for.
She is emotionally indulgent. She is deeply unwilling to confront discomfort or complex obstacles in meaningful ways, even when that discomfort is necessary for healing or progress.
It's counterintuitive to her intended goals. This isn't just if she's morally correct for doing any of these actions.
This persists throughout Undertale and Deltarune.
While in Undertale, she does learn that keeping Frisk against her will to cope with the lost of another child is wrong, that is only just one part of a bigger, fundamental problems that gets left completely unnoticed.
After leaving the throne, she did not spend her time in the Ruins attempting to devise an alternative, peaceful solution to free monsterkind. She didn't research magic, history, or the nature of the barrier.
She read books about snails and perfected a butterscotch-cinnamon pie recipe.
This isn't just about avoiding emotional discomfort; it's a complete avoidance of the responsibility of a leader. Compare her to Alphys, who, for all her crippling flaws and deceit, was actively trying to solve the problem. Alphys's experiments were a disaster, but they were born from a desperate attempt to act.
In the True Pacifist ending, she arrives to stop the fight. She is absolutely justified in her condemnation of Asgore's plan to kill Frisk.
However, she delivers this condemnation from a position of unearned moral superiority, completely ignoring that her abandonment of him and the kingdom is a major contributing factor to why he was able to carry out this plan for so long.
She never says, "I'm sorry I left you to face this alone." Or "I had abandoned my people at their darkest hour."
In the end, she simply reassumes a role of leadership (as a teacher, a nurturer) without ever being held accountable for the consequences of her actions.
All of these aspects of Toriel still persists to a lesser extent in deltarune.
She still holds Kris's hand on the way to school. She's also Kris's default partner for school projects, limiting their interaction with peers. This behavior, while seemingly born of affection, stifles Kris's independence in a similar way to how she acts towards Frisk in Undertale.
Anecdotes from others in Hometown reveal she can be extremely overprotective, having once made Asriel go to church for a week straight after he kissed a girl. This showcases a tendency to react with disproportionate control when her children step outside her prescribed boundaries.
Toriel seems oblivious to the profound issues affecting Kris. Kris's side of the bedroom is devoid of personal interests or accomplishments, a fact Toriel doesn't seem concerned about. Also, she has repeatedly checked out library books on "How To Care For A Human," implying a long-term struggle to connect with and understand her adopted child. This suggests she's more comfortable with the idea of being a good mother than with doing the difficult work of understanding her child's specific, and clearly complex, needs that go beyond a book of instructions.
Toriel is aware of Kris's strange behaviors, like putting bath bombs in the toilet, but treats them as quirky antics rather than potential signs of a deeper issue. This is a form of emotional indulgence; it's easier to dismiss behavior as "weird" than to confront the possibility that her child is struggling in ways she doesn't understand.
She says that she's worried about Kris to Alphys, but doesn't directly go out of her way to ask Kris herself.
Do you see the pattern here?
>does nothing for 4 chapters but try to fix his marriage
>wife sleeps with a skeleton while her kid is home
His crashout will be justified