It's a heck of a way to wrap up a game like Undertale; it's almost a taunt, especially in a culture driven by capitalism and consumption. We are expected to buy a package of entertainment, feel entertained, and then toss the package away and move on to something else—unless the entertainment is designed to keep you hooked for the long term, like an MMO. But Undertale is a self-contained game with a finite number of options, like most video games are. So what's the point in lingering over it?
But there's lots of people who do linger over Undertale, and indeed who enjoy going back to the same self-contained entertainments over and over. I've done it myself: it's a neurodivergent thing, I suppose, to go back to the same movie or same song or same game, again and again. In a life full of pain and confusion and collisions with the "real world", you stumble across something—some work of art—that stirs such profound and irresistible feelings that it transports you; for a little while, you feel like you're somewhere else, somewhere happier, and so you keep going back.
But "don't you have anything better to do?" Western society tends to turn up its nose at people who devote themselves too fixedly to any item of special interest (with some exceptions; it's okay to fixate on money, for example) and that goes double and treble for any interest that's perceived to be frivolous, like movies or games, or—even worse—a particular movie or game. It's seen as mere wallowing in escapism or couch-potato laziness, an insult to the austerities of Real Life™ and the social imperative to be always "productive". Only very recently, as history goes, has it become possible for a human being to make some kind of career out of playing games or movies over and over.
Now if you play Undertale over and over you might have some detached and practical purpose; maybe you're a speedrunner. But it's more likely that you returned to the game because you had some feeling of emotional attachment. Even if it was simply a matter of curiosity about walking other paths through the game, there must be something about the experience of the game that you're keen to see more than once. Maybe you like the music. Maybe you like the characters. Maybe you like waiting for just the right moment to stab Toriel. Whatever the reason...it's some kind of answer to "don't you have anything better to do?" Somewhere in your brain is the thought: "this is important enough to experience more than once."
But Flowey / Asriel ask you "don't you have anything better to do?" when you've already gotten all the way through to the Good Ending™ of Undertale, the Pacifist route as it's called, which has also been called the "True Ending"—and wow, that word "True" is bearing a very heavy load. If the only point of playing Undertale (or any other game) is getting the emotional satisfaction of a happy ending, and you've already seen that happy ending, then what's the point of going back? That's not a trick question. I myself believe that there's plenty of legitimate answers to the question. Even if your response to "don't you have anything better to do?" is to go back to the Underground and kill everything you can, there's still some reason for it, an emotional reason. Clearly there's some emotional need that demands satisfaction from going back to Undertale in order to wreck shit.
It's difficult to talk about these things. We inhabit a culture that's trying as hard as possible to pretend that feelings are meaningless, or at best that they're luxuries, like helping yourself to a decadent chocolate dessert or taking a vacation, so you can feel something special. And it's not quite encouraged to admit that you do anything in your life, even if it's something like playing a game, for reasons that aren't wholly "rational" and "objective" and intellectually justifiable. It's tough to justify playing a game over and over merely because of some feeling, especially if it's a shameful sort of feeling (like, say, wanting a channel for violent or vengeful emotions) or, even worse, a feeling that you can't pin down and explain to anyone.
Do I have anything better to do?
I hope the time comes when the answer is an unequivocal yes. Until then, I'm still in doubt.
~Chara of Pnictogen
