YMMV / Smile for Me

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Tim Tam's requests aren't really beneficial for anyone, and only seem to provide them with amusement more than anything else - but are they getting their kicks from getting to boss Flower Kid around and make them do pointless tasks For the Lulz, or are they just happy to have someone to cause general mischief with?
  • According to Tiff, Dr. Habit apparently breaks down in tears every time she tries to break off her record contract with him. Is this manipulation on his part, or is he genuinely that distressed at the prospect of one of his employees leaving him? He didn't have any problem mocking Wallus or Kamal until they quit, after all, but considering his mental state by the time the game begins, it's hard to tell.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Dr. Habit is set up to have a dramatic final showdown with Flower Kid, but is easily disarmed in all three endings. This may be intentional, since Habit is revealed to be just as miserable as he is insane, and even calls the turn of events in the neutral ending an Anti-Climax... but still, one would expect a little more back-and-forth, given how strongly he felt about his plans before and everything he did to suppress any interests that didn't line up with them.
• Fanfic Fuel: What exactly Dr. Habit does with himself after the good/neutral endings is unknown, since Flower Kid has to leave the Habitat not long after, thus ending the game. Naturally, a lot of fanfic for the game centers around this premise.
  • Hell, this could apply to any of the Habiticians, since the ones you helped end up leaving the night before the big event and a few are implied to have more complicated issues than just the ones we solve in-game. There's a surprising amount of general fanfiction that either leave any Shipping in the background or forego it entirely in favor of focusing more on individual characters or platonic relationships.
• Fanon: There's a lot of fanmade content that portrays Dr. Habit's puppet (affectionately dubbed "Lil' Habby" in official merchandise) as a separate entity from the real deal, albeit one that was still created by him in the same vein as the Carlas.
  • A lot of fans also like the idea of Habit and Putunia becoming surprisingly close after the game's good ending, sometimes even to the point of Habit becoming a Parental Substitute after enough time passes. This is likely due to the implications on the game's website and in Habit's final PSA that they come from similar backgrounds, or at the very least, that Habit sees some part of himself in her.
• It Was His Sled: Dr. Habit's sprite was supposed to be a spoiler, as the most you ever see of him before the game's final act is the puppet modeled after him. Due to him quickly becoming one of the most popular characters in the game, however, it didn't pan out that way.
• Rainbow Lens: A younger Dr. Habit refers to his lily with he/him pronouns, is beaten by his father when he finds him giving said lily a kiss, was pressured by his parents to abandon his goal of becoming a florist in favor of a more socially acceptable medical career, and later mentions destroying and burying any seeds he had left, "deep, deep where they wouldn't resurface," which only results in a deeply depressed and emotionally unstable man who actively refuses to recognize how harmful his current way of living is. The good ending involves giving him a newly grown Tooth Lily, which serves as both a reminder of the once genuinely altruistic person he used to be and one of the few things that brought him genuine happiness in his youth, and as seen in the game's credits, this one act moves him to begin pursuing his old passion again.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The game is about a temporary group home for the depressed or otherwise jaded that sucks at rehabilitating its patients, namely because the owner himself is a depressed Psychopathic Manchild who was never given an opportunity to try and move past his lingering trauma. With a premise like that, players who were expecting a longer game that offered an in-depth look into how depression affects people from different walks of life paired with a distinct 90s' cartoon-esque aesthetic might be a bit disappointed to find an engaging but rather short point-and-click puzzle game that only really goes in-depth with one character's issues, with the rest of the cast either having relatively simple problems or implied to have bigger things to worry about off-screen.
  • Trevor's conspiracy theory that Doctor Habit is a vampire planning to turn all the patients into vampires sound like it could be interesting plot.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Dr. Habit, once again. While his backstory is certainly tragic, it can be hard to sympathize with him because he is a Psychotic Manchild Depraved Dentist, who mistreats his employees (to the point that one of them hides inside the walls of the Habitat and refuses to come out), neglects his patients and their actual needs, gets angry when Flower Kid actually helps the patients because he wants to be the one to help them, and secretly planning to turn all the patients into mindless, giggling, toothless, people. All of this is so he can steal teeth for his smile under the logic that if he has a big enough smile he can make the whole world happy.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Dr. Habit was mistreated and physically abused by his father at least once as a child, was forced to leave behind his rather humble dream of becoming a florist in favor of pursuing a career in medicine, and has been sinking deeper and deeper into depression and insanity with each passing year while trying (and failing) to keep up an outwardly energetic and caring persona. He's also completely off his rocker by the time the game begins and has made a habit out of stealing people's teeth for himself in the hopes that he'll somehow make everyone happy, claiming that he deserves them more than unhappy people while desperately trying to ignore the fact that he's clearly miserable.

---