Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-32182236-20190721003717/@comment-32182236-20200113115039

I am a firm believer in the value of the Scientific Method. In a Mystery, the puzzle pieces are cut in such a way that we should be able to come to rock-solid conclusions about certain events in a story, and then stand on those conclusions to solve deeper parts of the Mystery.

But in an actual world, there are duplicate pieces, and pieces that have to be separates into its components.

The biggest difference I seem to have with others is that I cast a wide net when it comes to evidence. If an artist ever did anything Deliberately, whose reason isn't immediately apparent, I'll ask questions about that thing until I see what it might be trying to tell us, then try different models until I find one that works.

It could just be a random thing. Don't assume that every single object is a key. Yes, we shouldn't contradict evidence, but leaving a few things as random occurances is fine. Sometimes, a rock is a rock. (Though if the theory tells us there shouldn't be any rocks, and we get one anyways, then yes, we need to explain them-Or at least show why that's not a problem.)

We don't always have to know the exact numerical value of something in order to use something as evidence. Just knowing the Relative Difference can work.

Yes, we can use inequalities and variables instead.

A massive difference between two things also sticks out: Human souls are far more powerful that monster souls. And while we know Undyne was a normal monster who got power infusions both from human Determination, and channeling the power of all the remaining residents of the Underground when she became Undying, Sans offers no explaination for his incredible powers that surpass even her.

Exactly, she channels determination from the monsters counting on her. So why can't that be where her determination came from in the first place? In Undertale, physical determination and the feeling of determined are intertwined, having one gives you the other. This is why while Frisk was unable to save and load during Photoshop Flowey's fight, they WERE able to do it in Asriel's fight, despite Asriel having more total DT than Photoshop Flowey. Frisk gained more DT in that fight,

Sans must be getting his power from somewhere.. but it's a secret. This is why I think he must have a human soul, we have no other means in-universe to explain this.

I refer you to Jacky.

(By the way, the Darkner hypothesis is ALSO an attempt to explain why they "just showed up one day". And a few other anomalies Sans has, like the blood, and even the ability to dodge. [Yes, darkners can DODGE! Only if you warn them about Susie, but still, they can dodge!] But the idea that these are just exploits are indeed a possibility. A good one as well, considering its parsimony-We already know he was doing research on the anomaly, and one of the things that make it the anomaly is their ability to save and load. Which would lead him straight to the HUD.)

(...Though we'd still need a reason why he appears to bleed.)

Rustic Snowdin is only a few miles away from the Futuristic Core, but when comparing tech it might as well be from another world. That technology several centuries ahead of Snowdin could exist only miles away.. but not yet spread to Snowdin itself except in small things like the Dimensional Boxes?, makes the compelling case that the infusion of future tech was recent and hasn't had time to spread.

Several centuries? I see this happening in the 22nd century...

Anyways, as I said, Gaster is gone. Nobody knows how the future technology works, so nobody can actually spread it anywhere else. They don't know how to make copies. Alphys is doing what she can to follow Gaster's research, but she has to start where Gaster started. She's faster because she already knows what she's trying to get, since she can see that future tech. But she has to start with the older technology Gaster made. Because some of that is required to then make the more advanced technology. And since most of Gaster's technology is based on dimensions... Alphys is doing research on dimensions. She's succeeded somewhat, enough to make dimensional boxes, but she's nowhere near Gaster's level yet.

Something seemingly humorous like Undyne's confusion over Anime Being Real is also important. Toriel knows that in the human world above, Anime isn't real, they're just comics. Yet the Core has technology like jetpack phones that fire lasers, and sentient transforming robots, stuff you might find right out of anime. The monsters got most of their tech that we see in Snowdin like electricity by studying human garbage.. but the surface humans never had Anime Super Tech like you see in the Core. That tech didn't just come from outside the Underground, it came from another world entirley.

There's an assumption, though. The assumption that it was outside the Underground in the first place. YES, it didn't come from the humans. Because it came directly from Gaster. A monster.

So in my book, if the artist has deliberately made two different things sharply different from each other when compared, that's evidence every bit as strong as an alegra equation.

As Jacky said, we can put those differences as a part of the equation.

Sans doesn't just have Determination, he has the full ability to Save and Load, something that Undyne with her 2nd-hand Determination lacks.

What, because Sans gives us that time traveler test? Yes, he wants to know if we're a time traveler, but he never said that HE is one, and he has a codeword that he uses so that he can be sure that a particular person is indeed a time traveler.