Berdly

Berdly is a major character in Deltarune, serving as a minor character in Chapter 1 and the secondary antagonist of Chapter 2.
== Biography ==
=== Past===
As a child, Berdly was described as "forgettable", and few people even bothered to remember his name. Berdly's only real friend was Noelle Holiday, a timid classmate whom he frequently studied with.
One day, at the school spelling bee, Berdly and Noelle were the final two, but Noelle became nervous and couldn't speak when spelling the word "December", which meant that Berdly won by default after he spelled the word correctly (most likely because it was related to her sister: Dess). Hearing the Acclaim from his Classmates, Berdly finally got a taste of being successful and "superior", and developed a smart student attitude to maintain this self-image. However, Berdly secretly felt he did not deserve the victory, since he knew Noelle was smarter than him. To maintain his position as "Number 1" student, Berdly made sure to help Noelle study whenever he could so she could get better grades, believing her to be the key to his success.
===Chapter 1===
When Kris comes into the classroom, Berdly is introduced as one of Kris' main rivals, as he criticizes their intelligence and laughs at the very idea of even associating with them. When Noelle asks Alphys if Kris can join them in a group of three, Berdly interrupts her to prevent this from happening and because of that, Kris is partnered with Susie instead.
After school, Kris can visit Berdly in the Librarby, who sarcastically congratulates them for surviving Susie and reminds them of their late fees on overdue library books (which he has been keeping track of for years). If Kris visited Rudy Holiday in the Hospital, they also ask Berdly to stand by the Hospital window so Rudy can throw something at him, but Berdly aptly declines the offer.
===Chapter 2===
In Chapter 2, Berdly has a far bigger role, serving as the secondary antagonist of both the Normal Route and the Snowgrave Route.
====Normal Route====
The next day, while working on his group project in the Librarby computer lab, Berdly and Noelle are transported into the Cyber Dark World and captured by Queen, who plans to use their Lightner powers of Determination to expand her domain across the entire Light World. While Noelle is reluctant to go along with the plan, Berdly immediately accepts Queen's offer, hoping that the perfect new world will allow himself and Noelle to rule over everyone in a "Smartopia" much to Queen's discomfort. Despite Berdly's enthusiasm, Queen sees him as annoying and hopes to use Noelle for her plan instead. Berdly remains oblivious to the fact that she dislikes him and remains her loyal peon.
When Kris, Susie, and Ralsei arrive in the library's Dark World, Berdly battles them on the roller coaster, boasting about Queen's plan and insulting Kris for teaming up with Susie (since she does poorly in school). The heroes attempt to reason with Berdly, but he believes they are only jealous of his success, so instead they destroy his car, sending him flying off the roller coaster. Queen does not bother to look for him because he's an annoying dimwit.
Unable to find Queen or Noelle, Berdly decides to form a temporary truce with Kris until they can find their respective teams, but doesn't realize that Queen and Noelle are hiding from him in a nearby alleyway. In hopes of impressing Queen, Berdly commissions a giant golden statue of himself and bakes her a battery acid pie or as he likes to call it: A gamer's delight, but she continues to avoid him. Berdly also spends this time to continue annoying Kris despite their truce, demeaning their puzzle-solving skills. When Berdly finds out that Noelle has teamed up with Kris, he battles them both, incorrectly assuming that Noelle has been kidnapped but he loses anyways.
When Kris and Noelle reunite with Susie and Ralsei, the player has the choice to give a gift to Berdly, and if so he will join the party for a room before almost immediately leaving to search for Queen. 
When the gang reaches Queen's mansion, Queen arrives and threatens to kill Berdly if Noelle does not assist her with her plan, but this plan fails when Berdly finds the queen and runs to her. The Queen enacts plan B instead, which involves capturing Noelle and unleashing her power by force. Berdly is infuriated at this act, and she captures him along with the rest of the lightners with electrical cages, she then puts them in rooms she designed for them.
Realizing that Queen betrayed him and also realizing that Noelle's in danger, Berdly teams up with the heroes to save Noelle after he is freed by Susie, but becomes annoyed with his inability to solve puzzles. When Kris finishes solving all three puzzles, Susie gloats that Berdly's not as smart as he pretends to be, and Berdly confesses that he was only ever "smart" because Noelle helped him, and he regrets putting her in danger to chase his delusion of a perfect world. Susie tells Berdly it's okay to make mistakes, but he misinterprets this and believes she's telling him to be stupid. When Susie makes a reference to DB2, Berdly becomes impressed by Susie and quickly develops a crush on her. Berdly then vows to be as stupid as possible, much to Susie's complete annoyance.
Berdly and Susie split up from Kris and Ralsei, taking a secret passageway through Queen's Mansion to rescue Noelle. Susie finds Noelle and has a moment with her, but when Berdly suddenly appears, Susie leaves them on the roof so Berdly can take Noelle to safety. However, before he can do so, Berdly confesses to Noelle that he has a crush on Susie. This shocks and infuriates Noelle (who also has a crush on Susie) and she begins strangling him. After this, the two are recaptured off screen by Queen, who attaches a plug to Berdly's face so she can mind control him in battle against the heroes.
When Queen battles the Lightners, they must free Berdly from her mind control by loosening him. If the party attacks the queen instead of freeing Berdly, he will break free from the wire himself, completely frying his right arm. (this injury carries over to the real world as well) Regardless, Berdly is drained by the plug and too weak to help the heroes fight, so he instead collects the Darkners they befriended along their journey to construct a giant thrash mech, which they use to battle Queen in her giant mech. After the battle, she manages to grab the Lightners with the last of her energy, but Noelle confronts Queen, and she lets Noelle decide for herself if she wants to follow through on the plan or not. Berdly offers to open a new Fountain for her to make a better future before Ralsei stops him and warns them about the Roaring: an event that makes everyone. Queen says she didn't know about the roaring, and gives up on her plan before being invited to the castle town.
After Kris seals the Library's dark fountain, Susie, Kris, Berdly and Noelle wake up in the Library computer lab, believing what they just experienced was just a dream. Despite this, Berdly's opinion of Kris and Susie seems to have increased significantly, and he entertains the idea of studying with them again before bidding them goodbye.
====Snowgrave Route====
In Chapter 2's alternate route, Berdly's encounter with Kris and Noelle goes much differently. Here, the player commands Kris and Noelle on the path of genocide using Noelle's ice magic, which begins to take a toll on the latter's emotional state.
When Kris and Noelle approach Berdly, he expresses relief at finding her, but Noelle doesn't recognize him at first, believing him to just be another enemy before she snaps out of it. Realizing something is seriously wrong, Berdly drops his egotistical facade and decides to battle Kris to save Noelle, despite her pleas for him to run away. Here, Berdly's attacks are stronger and only target Kris, but even if he succeeds in defeating Kris this is not enough to free Noelle from the player's control, as she can still hear their voice. Using Spamton's Thorn Ring, Noelle casts "SnowGrave", a fatal spell that freezes Berdly in a block of ice, defeating him instantly.
After Kris seals the Fountain and the Lightners awaken back at the computer lab, Berdly is vaguely described as seeming not awake, while Noelle assumes he's just asleep. Due to this and an earlier flavor text remark of a nearby cabinet being a good place to hide a body, it's heavily implied that he is dead.
==Appearance==
Berdly resembles a large bluebird, with bright blue feathers and a yellow beak, and he wears framed glasses and a button-up shirt.
In the Dark World, he wears white-and-orange futuristic armor which glows in the dark, and an orange lens. In battle, Berdly uses a green laser halberd, with a yellow axe blade and yellow eyes embedded into the axe head.
==Personality==
Berdly is sarcastic and arrogant. If spoken to in class, he chastises Kris for being late and says he is already partnered with the second smartest student, implying that he is the smartest. He vehemently does not want to work with Kris on the class's group project, disparaging Kris's skills and arguing that he actually wants to get a high grade. He argues vehemently when his partner, Noelle, asks Alphys for permission to let Kris join them and make a group of three.
A lot more is revealed about Berdly in the second chapter. He is not as smart as he acts, and has low self esteem due to his lack of friends. He only comes off as intelligent because Noelle tutors him and because of this, he genuinely cares for her as a friend. He also admits that he is afraid that if he goes against Queen's orders, she would do something to Noelle, although he is unaware that Queen cares about her well-being too. After Susie tells him that he doesn't have to pretend to be smart and arrogant, Berdly becomes more kind and courageous.
It has been shown that Berdly is willing to drop his jerkish personality if push comes to shove. This is demonstrated on the Snowgrave Route, when he notices Noelle's emotional pain when meeting her and Kris after the player forced them to kill the enemies in the area. Believing Kris is to blame for this, Berdly drops his arrogant act and only attacks them, all while ignoring Noelle's pleas to run away, optionally sacrificing his own life to save his own friend
==Themes==
===Berdly by Toby Fox===
===https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S8I1h-wNzc===
=== Smart Race by Toby Fox===
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZO3xw91eHw
===Bluebird of Misfortune by Toby Fox===
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsQEhy1aZdI
==Trivia==
*Berdly's appearance in the Dark World may be a reference to Falco Lombardi from Star Fox.
**Berdly also wears a "Smart Scouter" similar to Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z, and even crushes it in one of his flavor texts in a reference to the "It's Over 9000!" scene.
*It is suggested that Berdly is a fan of "Super Smashing Fighters" (the in-universe equivalent of Super Smash Bros), as he makes comments about wavedashing and Noelle's father mentions that he likes to talk about the "inequality of children's fighter games".
* Berdly seems to believe that he is Queen's right-hand man, or at least a high-ranking minion, but he was only reluctantly accepted by Queen as a peon, meaning he is most likely a low-ranking and insignificant minion of hers.
*In his conversation with Queen about his giant golden statue of himself, it is suggested that Berdly has no nipples, but wants them. This is a reference to the fact that he's not a mammal.
*Berdly is able to move his head 180° like an owl.
==External Links==
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