Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5413572-20170219072514

I've mentioned this idea in the past,and knowing how widespread this community is, someone else has probably thought up something similar, but I've had an idea for a while on what caused Gaster's disappearance.

Put simply, I think that Gaster was doing experiments with SAVING and LOADING. Both of these actions in the Undertale universe involve moving back through time and subsequently creating alternate timelines, and Sans' dialogue in his Genocide fight indicates that they knew of the existence and creation of these other timelines. Plus, whenever Frisk dies, the subsequent Game Over involves Frisk's soul shattering, the pieces falling off-screen, and then Frisk reappearing at the last SAVE point with their soul intact. Gaster "shattering across time and space" is consistent there- he was attempting a similar experiment, and so shattered just like Frisk. However, SAVE points are specifically tied to Determination (as per Flowey's dialogue on the subject), which Gaster would lack as a monster, ergo he had no SAVE point with which to pull himself back together, and was scattered across time and space. (It's also possible, though perhaps less likely, that this is also what scattered his followers, hence them only appearing at certain FUN values.) Plus, as one more minor detail, the screen goes black during a Game Over (at least until the Game Over message and Asgore's dialogue), which could explain the whole "dark, dark, yet darker," thing in Entry 17.

Thoughts? 