Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26006155-20181123023529/@comment-26006155-20181206233323

I've made a new Youtube Playlist called "Undertale Research', to keep track of all the bits an pieces of lore I've found along the way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLkzhh-6MgA&list=PLaWKNfthQx_kNqlEAolrdwiMAZHef4MLM

And now, back to the script in progress

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- Part 6 - The Secret of Sans -

Why would Gaster, a mysterious ghostly figure with amazing powers, be afraid of personally fighting Frisk, whose most furious strike can barely knock over a tomato?

Because Frisk is more powerful than he seems. And after taking a long fall and waking up wearing a bandage that has already been used many times, Frisk is an amnesiac, who can’t remember his previous life, or his previous skills.

Frisk’s true, full identity is a secret that I’ve reserved for the end of this video. But the first step to getting there involves background details that are easy to overlook: Long, dramatic flashes of light, following by thundering darkness.

The first surge of light happens when we first type in our Character’s name at the beginning of the game, the name we’ve choose for Chara during this run. There’s a surge of deafening sound, a blaze of whiteness that drowns out all reality.. And when Frisk’s story begins, as we wake up at the beginning of the Ruins, having just fallen down on a bed golden flowers, in a room with an exit to the east, with a door at the end that makes the whole room look strangely like a key.

The second surge of light and sound happens when we leave the Ruins after encountering Toriel and Flowey, and first step out into the Underground. This flash is not itself a result of traveling between the two realms because when we come back at the end of the True Pacifist Ending this gate is simply an open door we can walk through, without anything strange happening.

A brief reminder of the beginning happens after Undyne sends Frisk falling again, having a quick dream about when Asriel found Chara, and then wakes up on another conveniently placed set of golden flowers, which Undyne claims just grew there one day on their own accord.

And the final blast and thunder happens at the end of the neutral run, after dealing with Omega Flowey, and walking through another door, where reality whites out again and we’re treated to another BOOM!, Undertale, by BOOM! Toby Fox.

This ending isn’t set in stone. After completing a True Pacifist Run Frisk wakes up in another version of the Key Room from the beginning of the game, surrounded by his friends. And going this the door this time causes a flash, but no thunder, as Frisk and his friends truly leave the game of Undertale.

And on a genocide run we never see a flash at all, because Frisk’s story ends before he can reach the exit, his life and soul taken over completely by Chara.

But I’ve always wondered, if a dramatic flash at the beginning of the game marks the start of Frisk’s story, and another at the end marks the end of Frisk’s story.. Then what causes the flash that occurs when Frisk first leaves the ruins, after an encounter with Flowey in a room that mirrors the Neutral Ending? Whose story begins when Frisk walks through this door?

It just so happens, that the first person we meet after leaving the Ruins, is Sans the Skeleton.

Sans is a very strange sort of monster from the start. While he’s officially on duty to watch for humans, and immediately recognizes Frisk as one, Sans decides to help Frisk rather than turn him in.

Sans tells Frisk to hide behind what he himself calls “that conveniently-shaped lamp”, that’s sitting out in the field away from guard station, unplugged, and seemingly useless. It turns out this lamp is a pixel-perfect match to Frisk’s silhouette! As if Sans not only knew what a human looked like, but what Frisk would look like in particular. Although it turns out this step wasn’t necessary, since Papyrus doesn’t know what a human looks like anyway, and takes no notice of Frisk standing in the open even when he doesn’t use the lamp.

The trip to Snowdin sees Sans and Papryus becoming less like enemies and more like friends each step of the way, with one half-baked attempt at puzzles and japs after another. It’s hard to tell exactly how much Papyrus knows, because in his phone calls when Frisk approaches the Core Papyrus seems sad and reflectful for a moment, as if knowing in advance that the something bad is going to happen. But it soon becomes clear that Papyrus has no intention of hurting Frisk either, passing up multiple chances to attack Frisk himself and instead engage in friendly conversation.

Even if you lose Papyrus’ boss fight, all he does is lock you up in the garage/doghouse/guest room to wait for Undyne, which you can simply walk out of as easily as the over-wide bridge fense. If you repeatedly take damage Papyrus will try to play it cool, and start giving you hints about how to do better, adding some hot dog pieces to the dog food and becoming increasingly concerned for your safety after your repeated escapes. If you keep losing on purpose, Papyrus will ask if you just a room to stay in, revealing that he never had any intentions of turning you over to Undyne to begin with. And if you persist in failing, Papyrus will actually offer to skip his fight entirely and accept his own defeat so you can progress in the game.

For all of his show in being a Skeletor-esque human-hunting fanatic, it’s clear that Papyrus will never actually hurt Frisk under ANY circumstances. Sans could not have possibly chosen a better companion for his goal in pretending to help Undyne capture Frisk, while letting him escape every time.

Undyne remarks how Sans puts in just enough effort to not get fired from his job, while still being terrible at it. In the dramatic scene where Undyne is running after the escaping Frisk, Predator-style, she will actually stop for a moment to stare at Sans sleeping at his guard station, give an angry fourth-wall breaking GLARE to the audience, and THEN continue chasing down Frisk, and Sans once again proves himself to be a lazy failure at his job.

But is Sans really just lazy? Or putting up an ingenious act, staying just lazy enough to prevent Undyne from staffing the guard station with someone who actually would hurt Frisk?

In the neutral ending where you kill every main character except Papyrus, Papyrus becomes the ruler of the Underground, and Sans works tirelessly in the background trying to desperately keep the monster world together, something very serious and uncharacteristic of him.

If you call Papyrus uncool while dining with Sans at Grillby’s, Sans will call you out on your sarcasm, and note that Papyrus was the one who pushed him to get the sentry job in the first place. Sans likes that Papyrus is there to call him out for being lazy. “Even though nothing could be further from the truth.”

Sans is definitely nobody to trifle with. The end of the genocide route reveals that Sans is by far the most powerful boss in the game, several orders of magnitude stronger than even Asgore, the “King of all Monsters”, quote unquote. If at any point, Sans actually wanted to be the ruler of the Underground, Sans could have grabbed the crown, and not even Undyne the Undying could have stopped him. But Sans never becomes ruler of the underground, even when all the other characters die, not because he can’t, but because he CHOOSES NOT TO, for reasons of his own.

It takes Chara all of her epic gear and LVL 19 prowess just to have a ghost of a chance at defeating Sans. If Sans wanted to kill Frisk when he stepped into the Underground, blinking at the light like a newborn baby bird, Sans could have destroyed Frisk effortlessly.

But, again, Sans chooses not to hurt Frisk. Again, for reasons of his own. One of the largest mysteries in the game. And we’re left wondering… why?

Is it really just because Toriel asked Sans to protect the next human, while they were having fun playing knock knock jokes through the Ruins door? This is what Sans says to Frisk at the MTT dinner.. But the genocide route tells another story. And just before the famous Megalovania fight begins, the last thing Sans does is sigh, and say: “Sorry old lady. This is why I never make promises.”

In fact, the MTT Dinner is where Sans has one of his creepy moments, gazing at you eyelessly while promising that if it wasn’t for what Toriel said.. Frisk would be dead where he stands.

Monster souls are full of love and happiness. Only human souls harbor the type of darkness you find in Chara, who actually enjoys causing pain to other people. Yet underneath his comic exterior, there is a darkness within Sans that is most unnatural in an Undertale monster, and more befitting in a real one.

Unlike Papyrus, Sans is not an innocent character. He has killed others before. And at the very least, he’s killed Flowey multiple times in various timelines, because Flowey’s repeated dialog before the Omega Flowey fight reveals that Sans caused most of his “resets”. Usually because Flowey tries to mess with Papyrus in some fashion.

But while Sans is willing to kill Flowey just for inconveniencing his skeleton friend.. Sans is actually willing to sit back and watch Frisk KILL Papyrus himself.. And do nothing to stop him.

Sans could kill Frisk, but chooses not to, even when he has more reason to do so than for killing Flowey. Why won’t Sans fight Frisk, unless there’s no other way?

Because to reason Sans the “skeleton” is stronger than any monster, darker than any monster, and unwilling to take the crown of the monsters.. Is because Sans isn’t a monster. He’s a human.

Just like Frisk.

(to be continued)