Undertale Discussion - Tumblr Posts

There's a detail in the genocide route that I haven't seen anyone talk about... Chara tells you to "erase this pointless world and move on to the next". What world are they talking about? Deltarune? The afterlife? The player's life?

It's something I've been wondering for a while now.

What if Sans' invincibility frames were inspired by a hiccup during development?

Think about it: Toby programs damage into the game but forgets to add I-frames resulting in ludicrous damage during playtesting. While I have never programmed a game, invincibility frames are something the casual player never thinks about, so it seems like an easy mechanic to forget to add.

So Toby Fox realises he needs to add invincibility frames to his game and does so. But when it came to making the Sans fight, a fight against an character who you'd never expect to be strong but breaks all the rules, he remembered how the lack of I-frames made the even the easiest enemies do stupid damage and removed them again for this fight.

Now I don't believe this (I have no proof), but it's interesting to think about.

No one in Undertale knows your name

Just think about that for a second. The entire pacifist run, no one ever asks "Oh, by the way what's your name?" while you're dating and befriending them. Toriel just adopted you without even considering this question for a second. If you were to never leave the ruins you would probably spend your whole life being called "my child".

Flowey just stalks you through the game thinking you're Chara and NEVER HEARS ANYTHING THAT WOULD MAKE HIM QUESTION THAT ASSUMPTION.

Sans does not know anything either. On genocide this man has not heard the word "Chara" in his entire life. How would someone who popped into Snowdin with his bro one day know Asriel's story? This guy manipulates reality in your face and does not know your name.

Opinion - Sans wasn't threatening you on that date

The iconic line. It's shocking, it's unexpected, it comes from the last person you'd expect it to, and it's fucking terrifying.

But I don't think Sans really intended it to be that way.

Look at where he's facing. He turns AWAY from Frisk when he says that. Sans wasn't trying to threaten you, as one person said he's just darkly stating what could have happened had he not made that promise to Toriel.

Afterwards Sans says to lighten up, which is likely in response to a negative reaction from Frisk. Wouldn't really make sense to do that if he wanted you to feel threatened. Then he tells you to 'take care of yourself, because someone really cares about you.' capping off the conversation with a reassuring message.

Unfortunately, he couldn't have accounted for the existence of sudden music cuts and talk sprites, which kinda ruined everything.

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.

Theory on who/what the mysteryman is

So those who argue mysteryman is Gaster point to all the things linking him to Gaster, the FUN value, the sound he makes when disappearing, etc. While those who argue against it say that none of the evidence is definitive and Gaster was scattered across time and space, therefore he can't be in one piece.

But what if mysteryman is not quite Gaster himself, but the result of a lot of pieces of him colliding?

Pieces of Gaster are scattered across time and space. Some end up in the void, some in the hands of followers. But in this timeline, a lot of pieces, by sheer random chance, managed to drift in the same place, forming the Mysteryman.

This would explain why mysteryman is so connected to Gaster, and why the event is so rare.

I’ve seen many different takes on this so…

As a lot of you know already, if you call him an idiot after sparing him, he will respond with “WHY MUST YOU BELITTLE YOURSELF…SO LOUDLY?”

there are other instances like this where a mental attack is dodged. But was he really oblivious to your intent? And if not, how much was he hurt?

I like to think in that moment Papyrus actually didn’t know, because it makes it so much funnier, but what do the majority of tumblr think?

(Please reblog for sample size)

What if souls with the same colour are linked in the underground?

I've always found it weird how Frisk became entangled with the first fallen human. Why is their name on our stats? (Do they gain LOVE even if our kills were not their fault?) Why do they narrate our world? Why do we hear the last thing they heard before they died, when we die? Why do the game's files seem to imply that we use their save file when saving? They're dead, right? They were awakened thanks to our determination? That doesn't explain much if I'm being honest.

This isn't really a theory, more so a thought. What if souls that are the same colour become linked to each other in this way?

So if a kindness human fell down after a neutral ending, the other (dead) kindness soul would awaken and narrate their world, their name would be on their stats, and upon death you could hear something they heard. It's a bit odd, especially when you think about multiple humans of the same soul colour falling, but I think this could make for really interesting AUs.

(Note that the question is HOW aware, not IS he aware)

EDIT: I think my question may have been somewhat misinterpreted based on the responses.

The "all his knowledge is just based off observation" choice implies that he has LESS deja-vu than other Undertale characters. If you think that Sans has no more and no less deja-vu than monsters like Toriel (Remembering your pie choice) and Undyne (Getting a feeling you might have been friends before), pick the second option. Choose the first option ONLY if you think he has a weaker/non-existent sense of deja-vu compared to them.

I can't be the only one who noticed this

Because Frisk does not remember a true reset. On normal resets, Frisk turns around and shakes Sans's hand before they are told to. The only reason this interaction would not occur on a true reset is if Frisk didn't remember it.

If you go back to the game after a true pacifist run, Flowey says "Let everyone be happy. Let Frisk be happy." A true reset goes against what Frisk wants. Normal resets are performed by Frisk. True resets are performed by YOU.

(Note that the question is HOW aware, not IS he aware)

EDIT: I think my question may have been somewhat misinterpreted based on the responses.

The "all his knowledge is just based off observation" choice implies that he has LESS deja-vu than other Undertale characters. If you think that Sans has no more and no less deja-vu than monsters like Toriel (Remembering your pie choice) and Undyne (Getting a feeling you might have been friends before), pick the second option. Choose the first option ONLY if you think he has a weaker/non-existent sense of deja-vu compared to them.

Lesser dog is always alone

Lesser dog to me used to be just a cute, funny dog. C'mon, what could be strange or sad about this cutie?

That was until I looked in the trivia section of the Undertale Wiki and found some things that I had never noticed about lesser dog before: Lesser dog is never mentioned by the other guard dogs, killing them provokes no reaction from them, and if lesser dog is the only royal canine left alive the way it behaves at grillby's does not change. Also, the red bird NPC comments on the royal guard dogs being missing even if lesser dog is still there.

In the true pacifist run, lesser dog is the only dog to not be outside the snowdin library playing with Endogy.

Even the way it's encountered feels disconnected from the rest of the canine unit. All the other dogs are scheduled encounters that occur in specific places with a cutscene and stuff, but lesser dog just appears like any other monster and there's no guarantee you'll run into them at all.

Lesser dog sitting alone in the corner of grillby's, playing card games with itself and losing used to be just funny, but now it makes me wonder. Why are they so isolated from everyone else? Do they feel lonely? Why did Toby Fox include these details? To make us sad? Will we never get the answers?

Sprite movement probably doesn't correlate with how much effort a monster is giving

There's a popular theory that suggests that how much effort a monster in putting in fighting you correlates with how much their sprite is moving. Toriel (Who is extremely reluctant to hurt you at all) and Napstablook (Who skips entire turns because he doesn't feel up to it)'s sprites barely move at all, while characters that really want to kill you like Undyne and Sans sprites bob and wave a lot. Undyne the Undying has a crazy amount of movement and is also the monster who puts the most effort into fighting you. This theory seems to have substantial evidence backing it up and is often used as a reason for why Papyrus would have to be ridiculously powerful.

It's also (probably) wrong.

Let's look at two other monsters who have completely stationary battle sprites.

Monster kid's genocide battle sprite is completely stationary with no animation at all. Zero. Zilch. This theory would imply Monster Kid was putting 0 effort at all into standing in your way, which obviously cannot be the case.

Ok, but monster kid is just a minor enemy who doesn't even do anything except trigger the Undying fight. One could argue that they don't have an animation because they don't create bullet patterns.

When Dogamy is slain before Dogaressa, Dogaressa will become enraged. Her attacks will do more damage, the patterns will go faster, the flavour text states that she "on the warpath", and she literally says she's going to chop you in half.

And you know what happens when you kill Dogamy?

Dogaressa STOPS MOVING.

So we have a case of a monster that starts putting MORE effort having LESS sprite animation. In my opinion, this proves that Toby Fox could not have designed sprite animation with effort in mind.

By the way, if you kill Dogaressa before Dogamy, Dogamy will become heartbroken. His defence drastically drops and the attack pattern he uses become significantly easier, a sad dog chucking a single heart at the ground. The dog doesn't even do damage. A pair of monsters with differing responses to grief. One who becomes depressed. One who becomes enraged. This would have been a PERFECT moment for Toby to drop a hint as to how the more effort a monster is putting in to fighting you, the more their sprite moves. But nope, Dogamy's sprite does the same thing as Dogaressa. Just stops moving.

And honestly even without that piece of evidence the theory was still a stretch to begin with.

-Sans is sweating buckets and trying harder to stop you than he's probably ever tried in his life and yet barely sways. Moldbygg has way more animation than him.

-Mettaton NEO barely moves either. His EX form (and arguably his box form) moves more than his NEO.

-If that theory were true even regular Undyne should have more animation than anyone else in the game.

-Asriel's final form moves way less than his god of hyperdeath form.

OH WAIT I FOUND MORE EVIDENCE FOR THIS.

If you abort the genocide run by sparing papyrus, go to hang out with him, and then inspect his box of bones, he says this. Not in a neutral. Not in a pacifist. Only in an aborted genocide does he tell you about how lucky you are to have not been blasted to pieces by his special attack.

Undertale theory - Papyrus was planning to fight you in the genocide run

We all know the story. We approach Papyrus, and he welcomes us with open arms, to return our "hug of acceptance". In battle, he spares us... and we murder him in one hit.

"W-WELL, THAT'S NOT WHAT I EXPECTED..."

Except it is what he expected. In the game's data, a monster's defence gets drastically lower when they spare you, representing their trust and allowing for betrayal kills. But Papyrus is the only monster who's defence goes UP when they spare you, instead of down. He literally has his guard up when he offers you that hug. And if you do spare him, he says

"WOWIE!! YOU DID IT!!!"

"YOU DIDN'T DO A VIOLENCE!!!"

*sweats* "TO BE HONEST, I WAS A LITTLE AFRAID...

BUT YOU'RE ALREADY BECOMING A GREAT PERSON!"

All the evidence seems to suggest that Papyrus was expecting you to attack him. But if that was what he was expecting, why so shocked when you kill him?

Maybe it's because he wasn't expecting you to do it in one hit. I think that Papyrus was planning an Undertale Red, giving you one last chance to turn back and choose a better path, and if you refused he would try to stop you by force... except he never got a chance to. He thought raising his defence would prevent an instant kill, but he was wrong. With his HP gone and his head on the snow, all that could be done was to say "I believe in you!", one last plea to stop this genocide.