Hm, I thought the segment at New Home with the monsters telling the story of the king's son was actually quite poignant. Maybe it was just the music, or maybe it was because before this point I had been indiscriminately killing every enemy I encountered and starting to feel quite guilty about it (I had heard there were several routes, so why not try the bad one first?).
Actually, playing this way, the offhand comment in the library book about how humans have proven that they don't require love, hope, or compassion to have a soul was particularly painful to read... And going back to New Home, hearing (well, reading) that story actually made me cry, I'm not afraid to admit. That flute section that played when the monsters were describing how the human child had fallen ill and died was particularly devastating. "Telling" not "showing" or not, it tugged at my heartstrings, especially since I'd actually -seen- how the monsters reacted to my mercilessness (plus it added actual stakes to the narrative, making their hopes and dreams of one day returning to the surface by any means possible contrast more sharply with my one-minded determination to do the same, killing any who got in my way as I went).
Remarkably, though I had intended to complete the run killing everything, I had a last-minute change of heart after the Flowey battle. The decision to spare him in that moment felt impactful in a way that I can't really describe. Maybe I had finally realized how senseless the violence I was causing was, maybe I felt that killing Flowey would only confirm his worldview. Maybe I even empathized with him, and wanted him to change along with me.
But in that moment, when Flowey ran away, I had felt I had made a -real- choice, done the inexplicable in a way that even confused Flowey. That moment is when I decided I wanted to "do things right", though a lot of stuff that'd be considered spoilers also pushed me in that direction throughout the game- there's some real heartbreaking stuff in there. I didn't just want to do things because it's what the game told me to do, but because I had actually felt some degree of real remorse as well.
Actually, playing this way, the offhand comment in the library book about how humans have proven that they don't require love, hope, or compassion to have a soul was particularly painful to read... And going back to New Home, hearing (well, reading) that story actually made me cry, I'm not afraid to admit. That flute section that played when the monsters were describing how the human child had fallen ill and died was particularly devastating. "Telling" not "showing" or not, it tugged at my heartstrings, especially since I'd actually -seen- how the monsters reacted to my mercilessness (plus it added actual stakes to the narrative, making their hopes and dreams of one day returning to the surface by any means possible contrast more sharply with my one-minded determination to do the same, killing any who got in my way as I went).
Remarkably, though I had intended to complete the run killing everything, I had a last-minute change of heart after the Flowey battle. The decision to spare him in that moment felt impactful in a way that I can't really describe. Maybe I had finally realized how senseless the violence I was causing was, maybe I felt that killing Flowey would only confirm his worldview. Maybe I even empathized with him, and wanted him to change along with me.
But in that moment, when Flowey ran away, I had felt I had made a -real- choice, done the inexplicable in a way that even confused Flowey. That moment is when I decided I wanted to "do things right", though a lot of stuff that'd be considered spoilers also pushed me in that direction throughout the game- there's some real heartbreaking stuff in there. I didn't just want to do things because it's what the game told me to do, but because I had actually felt some degree of real remorse as well.