Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27907368-20160428221757/@comment-27907368-20160430155754

“'''He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.'” – Beyond Good and Evil''

Seriously, this quote alone is fascinating. The monsters in this game lack "will to power" or determination - many of them accept fate and let you kill them - only Flowey begs for his life. Monsters don't seek power because of their SOUL composition; even Asgore sits on 6 human SOULS and waits for the 7th.

Nietzsche championed the power of the human spirit and feared nihilism because it is the concept that the future cannot be changed (and that nothing matters, anyway), which makes self-realization worthless. Most monsters are nihilistic in nature because they are bound to core traits and lack "will to power"; in all routes of Undertale, we determine their fate.

Without the protagonist and Flowey, the plot would not move forward. Alphys would never date Undyne or come clean about the Amalgamtes without us. The group wouldn't have assembled in Pacifist without Flowey. Even the end credits show how we changed these monsters lives by doing the smallest things.

So, the first sentence in this quote fits quite well - though we fight monsters, we shouldn't become like them and lose our determination. We have to stay determined! The future of monsters and humans depends on it.

And then, the Abyss. Now, Nietzsche (I believe) meant the Abyss as a symbol of nihilism and the lack of meaning that exists because of it. There are two instances of an abyss (or a bottomless chasm) in Undertale - the enterance to the Underground and the post-genocide Abyss.

The use of the verb "gaze" means that there is some thought going on while looking into the abyss. Some say that this symbolizes insanity because the abyss isn't sentient - it's a bottomless pit. If you focus on something for a long enough time, it becomes a greater part of your reality and you give it life. Fear and anxiety can be akin to this - if you are always thinking about dying, about death, about dying some more - you'll believe that these concepts are a greater part of your life than before.

In reality, they're everpresent. You've given them sentience by focusing on them. Just because we look does not mean that it looks back.

So, the other Abyss - post genocide. This is the epitome of nihilism. There's nothing to do. We sit on a black screen while wind blows for TEN MINUTES. Did you sit and wait those ten minutes, hoping that the abyss will look back? You're lucky that it does.

I believe that the commentary on "will to power" comes full circle in this route. If you sell your SOUL to Chara, it's over. There aren't any happy endings for you. You don't control fate anymore. When Chara tells us to move on to the next game, they don't mean the next timeline; they mean another videogame. Chara says that they will compromise - compromise meaning that we have two different viewpoints; we want to play again and Chara wants to move on.

Second genocide is when Chara names the black screen - "let us send this world back into the abyss". We no longer have a future because of our abuse of "will to power".

So. Determination, "will to power" - maybe they sound sinister. In all reality, "will to power" has been misunderstood time and again as simply "kill or be killed".  This fallacy operates in a fictional universe where one being alone can be all-powerful and still find a way to self-actualize'''. 'An all powerful being removes meaning from action and thus succumbs to nihilism (look at Flowey - he did it all and became crazier and more detached from reality.)''  Nietzsche himself scoffed at the interpretation of "kill or be killed" and clarified that the "will to power" does not seek out unnecessary violence; it accumulates allies that share the same goal or viewpoints and pushes back against those opposing it.  So, there you have it. The entire moral of Undertale. Power isn't always related to how much you can kill - having allies that share a goal with you makes you just as determined as someone that walks alone into the abyss.