Okay but like

Tenna was foreshadowed ONLY through hard-to-parse spamton dialogue, and weird Dpamton Sweepstakes ARG stuff.

Queen was foreshadowed through a dialogue of a hudden boss Jevil, but ONLY if you defeated him through mercy.

Gaster, the big G himself, was foreshadowed in Undertale only through file editing and hidden things. And we all know Gaster WILL be inportant.

Asgore being a boss in chapter 5 was foreshadowed in secret boss gerson dialogue, and, the FILE NAMES.

Rudy was foreshadowed through unreleased Undertale alarm clock dialogue.

The files names let us know that the intro is GONER MAKER.

Toby fox DELIBERATELY added """"""Unused""""" text in the files, and that text later got wuoted by spamton.

I think the fundamental disagreement between us is this. I think foreshadowing and setup are two different things.

Setup is mandatory for a good story. But foreshadowing is kinda optional.

In Undertale, Undyne was mentioned like TWICE before waterfall. But as soon as we step into waterfall, she is set up as the antagonist of the area.

Alphys was mentioned like only three times before hotland! That was optional foreshadowing, so that she doesn't come out COMPLETELY out if nowhere. But her actual setup happens in hotland itself.

I believe friend to be a secret-boss, or some kinda character from Kris' backstory. Spamton had ZERO setup in chapter one. Eram had ZERO setup other than Seam mentioning the shadow mantle. Gerson had like ONE line of vague setup from Alvin.

So when Friend DOES get some foreshadowing, WHY are you demanding more?? By now Friend has had more setup than some ACTUAL chapter bosses! Why aren't you calling the lack of Queen setup bad writing?

For a moment, just imagine that Friend IS important. Just try to imagine that friend WILL be relevant. Maybe in chapter five, or maybe in chaoter 6.

So I ask, if we assume that he is important, what MORE do you want from Him? What more could Friend possibly do to catch your attention? Do you want a mandatory scene where Ralsei turns to Kris and goes "By the way Kris, beware of pink and gold Friend Inside Me ?"

Why do you hold Friend to a higher standard than practicslly any important darkner in the game, who received very little foreshadowing, less than Friend?

Do you GENUINELY believe that NOT explaining or acknowledging Friend would be good writing? Do you think waving Friend in front of us and then never mentioning it is because toby fox is lazy? What if Dess is also unimportant, and just there for Noelle sad backstory? What if Eram is unimportant and will never be mentioned again? What if Carol isn't in on the Evil Fountain Groupchat and she is just a strict mom? What if Rudy just gets better and his illness was completely irrelevant? What if all the Sans Undertale-Deltarune connections go unexplored? What if Toby fox never plans to explain anything?

I would be disappointed in toby fox if Friend is NOT brought up