This Is Self Indulgent

this is self indulgent

Nightmare, introduces himself and his gang to a new, potential ally.

Nightmare: By now you know who I am. *Points with a tentacle at Killer* This is my second in command, Killer. Despite his behaviors and mannerisms, he is reliable in completing whatever task I ask of him.

Killer: hiya! *twirling a knife*

Nightmare: ... be mindful when he is bored. Killer tends to like being active. *Pointing at Dust* This is Dust, my third in command. Do not even think of getting anything past him. He is very observant.

Dust: *Just shrugs*

Nightmare: He is also fairly quiet and falls asleep easily...*Points at Horror next* Here is Horror. He is the finest tracker in all the multiverse, an excellent cook, and the muscle of this team.

Horror: hello, pal. *grinning*

Nightmare: Do not turn your back on him or enter a dark room and turn on the lights without looking for him first. Horror is rather fond of 'jump scares.' *Points at Cross* Now lastly, we have Cross. He is the youngest of this group, but a very skilled fighter. Cross is also the more polite and civilized one here.

Cross: *smiles a waves* (thinking to self: please leave it at that. please just leave it at that)

Nightmare: *Naturally does not leave it at just that* He also is the winner of a 2023 Sexyman poll among AU Sanses that thousands of mortals voted on.

Cross: *Dying of embarrassment* boss... why...?

Nightmare: Take pride in your accomplishments, Cross.

To everyone who thinks that Asgore can dodge like Sans

This idea is based on something Undyne says to you on her date.

It never says that Asgore dodged Undyne's hits. She just said she couldn't land a single blow. This could mean any number of things:

Asgore wasn't moving at all. Undyne simply missed her attacks. Undyne was young and hot-headed and no experience, so this is very possible.

Asgore's DEF was too high for her to hit. In Undertale, your attack can "miss" a monster even if they clearly don't dodge and you hit your attack. When a monster's defence exceeds your attack too much, your attack does no damage and is labelled a miss. You can see this in the first Mettaton fight. Asgore could've just been that much stronger than child Undyne.

Asgore blocked the attacks. Undyne battles in a way that forces the opponent to stay still and attempt to block attacks. Asgore could have parried all of them with his trident.

And EVEN if he did in fact dodge Undyne's attacks, it doesn't necessarily mean he can dodge your attacks.

Monsters use magic offensively by launching projectiles in patterns. There's a difference between magical attacks and physical attacks. One fires moving projectiles that the target tries to avoid, the other just hits. Sans is not traditionally dodging, moving to avoid an incoming hit. He is fundamentally BREAKING THE RULES, which is what his entire fight is all about.

Now, I'm not claiming that Asgore definitely can't dodge. He may very well be able to, but I often see people claiming this is definitely canon when it's much more ambiguous.

This misconception probably comes from the save points displaying the text 'Determination.' on the genocide route only. Plus the genocide boss battles are insanely difficult. Sans' battle requires you to move around with no end in sight for an entire 13 minutes before he is the one that gives up.

But although the genocide route definitely requires Determination to complete, it doesn't give you any, because you have nothing to hope for. Nothing to dream of except another dialogue box.

Also I have a wack headcanon that the eye of any Sans displays the colour of his two dominant traits: In this case Justice and Patience. The original Ask!Dusttale says "one day he gained determination to remember the resets" (The AU doesn't give any reason for this) so now Determination has become a major trait. As Dust started killing monsters, he lost the yellow of Justice, letting the red of Determination take its place. Killing monsters did not give him more DT, it just removed Justice.

Killer has no explanation lol. Still like him though.

It's really funny to think about Dusttale and Dust-adjacent AUs and how they use wacky "LV = power = Determination" logic...

and then there's Undertale's Mercy route, where the human can heal themself, reduce the damage they take, form healing items, SAVE their friends' souls, and straight up refuse to die outright to someone that's essentially a god through their own determination...

all without having to harm anyone.

Every time I see the art of Sans that's uncomfortably realistic to how he'd look in-game, my world trembles.

Like, I'm so used to the fandom making him just this cute little guy, you know? Just a cute little guy with a few nihilistic issues and pranks glore.

And then you find art that destroys your perception of Sans just being a cute little guy because no, a mofo skeleton that doesn't stop smiling and somehow winks without any muscles and threatens to kill you only to offset it with a joke is not whimsical, it'd be fucking uncomfortable to any normal child who's, at most, maybe twelve or thirteen.

And I don't mean how some of the fanart portrays Sans in the genocide route; covered in blood, glowing eye ablaze, ready to put some kid in the dirt, or even during the dinner date in the Pacifist route when he threatens to kill Frisk where they stand with his eyes all blacked out. But rather, as just an unsettling character when he's just STANDING there; an uncanny person (if you can even call him that) with too many secrets to fully trust and too many pranks to take him seriously, quirky theme song be damned. He doesn't even have to do anything for the vibe to be off, for you to be uneasy.

It's hard, but fairly common, to make Sans of all people threatening with all of his unexplained powers and knowledge, or to make him seem scary at the cost of him not seeming like Sans (cough cough, Horror tale), but I feel like it takes just as much effort (if not a little more) to make him uncanny without relying on horror or the intensity of the genocide route, but rather keeping up that quirky upbeat persona that he has and still having his design by default make someone uneasy. Not afraid necessarily, but something you'd put an eyebrow up for questioning before you shrug off the weirdness and move on.

I'm honestly in such a dilemma rn because while I like the depiction of Sans just being some cute little skeleton guy who may or may not be canonically two feet tall and just so HAPPENS to have crazy scientific knowledge on random shit while also knowing how to cheat the RPG system Undertale is built around, him being intimidating not because he's trying to be, but because he's naturally uncanny rules too, so I can't decide.

Maybe he's just a weird middle-ground somewhere. I'm still looking for more art that portrays him as both and not either or though, like, yeah, he's this short little skeleton guy who doesn't take life seriously, but also is a freaking weirdo just because he can be.