I kinda feel like Friend, so far, is entirely reliant on "hype moments and aura", and is a bit shallow as a secret heavily foreshadowed character.

Something weird I've noticed is that recently I've started to become more of a Friend skeptic. I've always thought since Chapter 2 that Mike and to a lesser extent Friend would be semi-important characters at the least, and so I feel like should be grateful there's so much discussion of him being one of the most important characters in the game, right? But I kinda am starting to think people are over emphasizing Friend's role, clocking him as the main villain and saying he'll be this super cool pure evil villain and that just kinda seems like a leap to me.

A couple of things about Friend kinda make me side eye his potential reveal, especially if he's as big a villain as people make him out to be.

Friend doesn't really have the appeal of a super secret character anymore, as the game is incredibly overt with showing his image everywhere, most notably during the Ralsei scene, the Eram fight (which almost all Shadow Crystal hunting players are going to see), and the Mike Room. The "Field of Pink and Gold" is also a huge telegraph that Friend will be important in Chapter 5.

If he appears there, it would make him the most telegraphed boss Darkner in the game, despite his secret status.

Conversely, there is zero concrete information about Friend, but the implication of the Tail of Hell and his Chapter 3 jumpscare imply there is some significance to the character.

This is kind of the worst of both worlds, he's way more overt than secret characters like Everyman, Ice-E, and even Gaster, a character who has a decently solid role in the story. But with the very esoteric foreshadowing he's getting, to the point where even seasoned players can't fathom what he is, let alone a casual player (which people wrongly state about Gaster, the guy who shows up at the start of the game), if he's a major part of the overarching story the lack of concrete details about him prior to Chapter 5 would feel odd to me. Even the Knight, which we know nothing about, we know they've been opening fountains and causing King and Queen to go nuts.

I worry he's all secret no substance. Like a character like Spamton is funny, terrifying, and full of mysteries, but the character is defined and well done enough that he's likeable even outside of theorycrafting. Spamton also didn't have this massive amount of exposure before his reveal, his role is immediately set when he shows up on screen.

The Knight has very little characterization, but it's made up for by their excellent boss fight and surprise early reveal completely changing the tone of the story, and it also makes complete sense for the Knight to be here and answers the mystery of why Kris opens the Fountain on both routes.

Friend killing the Knight or Asgore or something or possessing it or whatever at the end of Chapter 5 wouldn't be surprising because of the amount of telegraphing and "evil-coding" the character has, but it wouldn't really make sense because of how confusing the telegraphing is, like the Knight was set up back at the start of Chapter 1 to be the main antagonist.

I kinda wonder how to make this character be both surprising AND make sense? Idk, I think it'd be lame for this character to not be important after all this telegraphing but all the telegraphing is kinda just vagueposting? I do have some issues with Chapters 3 and 4 but on the whole I think they're pretty good at revealing surprises. From minor surprises like Tenna's design to major ones like the Knight and Titan's early reveal and Gerson's heroic major role.

So yeah, I feel like this character is kind of weak as a secret because of his heavy telegraphing, but is conversely kinda weak because none of the telegraphing really means anything (yet). I can't really imagine how his reveal would be satisfying as either a surprise or a major plot reveal. Maybe he could be like the literal entire Dark World somehow? That would be unexpected I guess?????? Idk.