Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26006155-20190403163405/@comment-32182236-20190420184931

--Chapter 7-The Wacky Skelebros--

We’ve already covered many reasons why Sans must be a human. Alright, I'll just rapid-fire the rebuttals so far.

Bending the rules to give yourself an unfair advantage doesn't count as being more powerful, Sans is reading Frisk's face, not remembering timelines, Sans' promise did happen, he'd rather not just destroy all humanity, and he'd rather have the dog rule, or someone more qualified. Not someone who has the power to do it, but someone who can do it well.

But there are many more clues to Sans’ human condition throughout the game. And the best place to start is by comparing Sans to Papyrus, who’s supposedly his skeleton brother. That won't prove that Sans isn't a monster, it'll prove that either Sans or Papyrus isn't a real monster.

Papyrus is definitely a real monster from the Underground.

I could say the same about Sans. If Sans is a human, Papyrus is a Starman. I'd say there's about an equal number of clues for each. His fleshless bones are in clear display, leaving no room for a disguise.

Exactly. He's not a human. What about a Starman? :3

He turns to dust right in front of our eyes just like all the other monsters, rather than bleeding like Sans.

Do Starmen bleed? ...Actually, I'm going to look back at earlier threads. I'd like to find out how our conversation about Sans' bleeding ended.. I know we ruled out it being ketchup (unless Sans disgustingly decided to try human ketchup, or didn't actually eat the ketchup, but put it under his shirt or something.. I don't think the former is true. He only eats at Grillby's, and they serve monster food.), but I'm not sure if there were other possibilities as to what it could be. Though now that I know determination isn't necessarily yellow, maybe that's what it was?

...No, I can probably rule that one out too. At least under the presumption that he's a monster, that is. The amount of.. whatever that stuff is, is far more than what you might get from an injection. He'd start melting, wouldn't he? Maybe another look at the True Lab and Sans' death animation will help settle this once and for all, though. Toothy Chica in Grilly’s mentions that monster food doesn’t pass through the body like human food does, but vanishes, which explains how Frisk can eat six Legendary Hero subs in a few seconds without exploding. So even if Sans drank a tanker truck of ketchup before his fight with Chara-possessed Frisk, it still wouldn’t linger in his system to leak out after he was stabbed. So when Chara stabs Sans, that isn’t ketchup we’re seeing.

Like that! If you return to Grillby’s after killing Papyrus on a neutral run, you’ll learn that Papyrus only ever drinks milk, which makes sense because he’s literally made of calcium. Sans, though, is Grillby’s #1 customer who orders a vast variety of food, and now that Sans has left after Papyrus’ death Grillby is worried about his restaurant’s financial future.

Yes.. Other monsters like eating food besides calcium as well. Papyrus never eats his own spaghetti, and neither does anyone else, so Papyrus’ side of the fridge is always packed with the stuff. But Sans’ side is empty except for a single bag of chips.

Papyrus: SANS, WHY DID YOU PUT THE CHIPS IN THE REFIGERATOR? THEY GO ON THE FOOD SHELF! YOU DON'T REFRIGERATE CHIPS, SANS!

Sans: oh, papyrus. you know I like to keep things cool.

Papyrus: SANS!!!

(Disclaimer:Those quotes don't actually appear in the game)

Undyne knows Sans uses the fridge because she’s noticed him making “hundreds” of midnight snacks at times when she was visiting and crashing on the living room couch.

Sans: hey, when grillby closes down, what else can i use to eat?

Papyrus: I'LL BE HAPPY TO COOK YOU SPAGHETTI, SANS! And Papyrus recalls Sans once making an egg pie, which resonates with The Abandoned Quiche Frisk finds stashed under a bench in a hidden room you can only access with bridge flowers, or by teleporting. Hot dog-obsessed Sans definitely eats a variety of things, and knows how to cook food that’s edible by humans. Isn't just about ANY monster food edible by humans? It's still monster food nonetheless. Besides, if he DOES eat human food, then why can't the red "blood" be human ketchup? Papyrus might nap, but he never truly sleeps.

Yeah. He's really something special. Sans is unique from the monsters in several ways, and here, this is something Papyrus is unique in. As Undyne points out, monsters DO sleep. Papyrus doesn't. So, if we're going by clues.. Papyrus is a Starman. Or at least some kind of alien.

...Or, he's just an outlier. Like Sans. While many monsters sleep, Papyrus can’t. But his “brother” Sans sleeps frequently. Exactly. Sans isn't the outlier here, Papyrus is. So if this points to anything, it points to Papyrus being the fake!

..Though I don't think either of them are fake. Not yet, anyways. Then you can see the truth right on the skelebros’ faces. Papyrus has a fully animated face, with moving jaws and a full range of dramatic expressions for every possible emotion.

Of course. He does have the form of a skeleton, alright. But one thing about him is that he can't stop smiling. Let's take another look at our first time meeting them.

Sans: come on, you're smiling.

Papyrus I AM AND I HATE IT! <span classBut Sans’ mouth never moves when he talks. In fact, Sans’ huge maniacal cartoony grin NEVER changes, forcing him to act and emote entirely with his eyes! Even when stabbed, Sans’ head just leans back for a moment, with not even the pain of near death breaking that grin.

Though he DOES sweat.. from ABOVE his eyes.. ..Just something I'd like to point out. It’s almost like Sans is a little kid, wearing overly baggy clothes and a huge costume skeleton head to conceal his true nature from the human-hunting monster world.

Alright, so I've looked through the animations, and then decided to look at Undyne's as a control group... And you're right that Sans never moves his jaws!

Papyrus: SANS!! ARE YOU SERIOUSLY TOO LAZY TO EVEN MOVE YOUR MOUTH? FIRST YOU DON'T EVEN CAPITALIZE YOUR WORDS, AND NOW THIS?

...It's probably not laziness. So now both Sans and Papyrus have 1 clue that they're not monsters. So far, my premise stands:They both have the same number of "not a monster" clues.

Granted, it does look like Sans has a thin skeletal neck when you look at him from behind at Grillby’s. But Frisk, sitting right next to him, also has the very same cartoonishly thin neck. So this body type isn’t out of place for Undertale humans.

Of course. Let's see what else you have to say. San also tries to scratch his head and side during the dinner, acting as if the skin he wasn’t supposed to have was itching.

I thought that in the magical sense, their bones ARE their nonexistent skin?

Scratching a costume, by the way, probably won't relieve you of itching. Sans loves making Skeleton Puns, and reminding anyone watching that, yes, he and Papyrus are both brothers, and yes, they are both skeletons, just in case there was ever any doubt!

Didn't he only introduce himself as Sans the skeleton once? That being when we first meet him? Though yes, he is a pretty punny guy. The puns don’t tickle Papyrus’ funny bone because as an Actual Skeleton, he finds them borderline racist. A feeling that Sans, as a human, doesn’t share. What makes you think THAT'S the reason? I'd say it's for the same reason why he doesn't like Sans being lazy.

And Sans knows what the Sun is, and what humans look like, two things Papyrus doesn’t claim to know. And even if Papyrus is kidding about not recognizing humans, which all the other Undertale creatures seem able to do, he really hasn’t seen the Sun. If his Undernet persona CoolSkeleton95 was born in 1995 he’d be in his 20’s or so. Papyrus was born in the Underground, and has never seen the sun.

His TWENTIES?

Undertale doesn't take place in 201X, Ferret. That's the year Chara fell. It's been a LONG time since then. Like, I'd say centuries.

I'm pretty sure the monsters would know what the sun is, though. Not because of them seeing it for real, but because they know where that light from the Surface is coming from. The library in Snowdin says that monster souls are full of hope, love, and compassion. And it also says that the true nature of SOUL is unknown, because humans have proven that their SOULs don’t need these positive elements to exist.

It says that people say that monster SOULs are made of love, hope, and compassion. That's a myth, by the way. The entire underground was devoid of hope, and everyone's SOULs didn't start fading away. The author of the waterfall glyphs was surprised that the humans attacked and started the Ancient War, saying that even though a monster with a human soul had appeared, called Kanashi by some of the Undertale Fandom, the humans still had nothing to fear.

They STARTED by saying the humans had nothing to fear, because of how powerful they are compared to humans, THEN brought out Kanashi, and then said that THIS is what the humans feared. Take another look at the order of the glyphs.

This kind of presentation has been done before. Have you ever seen someone make a reasonable claim, only to debunk it later on? That's kind of what's going on here. Most of the monsters that attack Frisk in Undertale are either misunderstood, or can be reasoned with in some way, and are just attacking Frisk because their King ordered them too. And even Asgore, the Dreaded Lord Fluffybuns himself, is ultimately a nice guy who was forced to make a terrible choice for the good of his people.

Yeah, but what about Jerry?

But Sans… is different.

Whatever he is, Jerry's far, far worse. And while he does his best to hide it underneath his japes and jolly exterior, Sans wears his happiness like a mask just like the one that covers his human face.

So not being happy is darkness? If not being happy is enough to qualify as darkness, I once again lead you to the case where the entire Underground was devoid of hope. And now and then his eyes disappear, leaving empty holes, and suddenly his grin takes on a sinister quality that chills us to the bone.

Sinister? What's so sinister about him? Sure, he turns serious every now and then, and when we're a literal genocidal maniac, he fights to kill us, but Undyne does the exact same thing. Just sooner, and in a different way. Because Sans isn’t an innocent character like Papyrus. We know for a fact.. than Sans has killed someone before.

How do we know this? Also, we know that six humans died at the hands of monsterkind. So monsters have killed before. If murder is where we draw the line of darkness (And I'd agree:Murder is enough to cross the line), monsterkind HAS proven that it can turn to darkness.

And while he seems ashamed and self-conscious of this wound upon his soul, and tries hard to make the best decisions in a tense situation, his LOVE level is actually very high.

How do we know how high it is? I say because of his 1ATK and 1DEF, he's at LV1. And if he wants to, Sans can give you a very, very bad time.

As I said, that's solely because of his Gaster Blaster technology, and his special KR ability. It's not strength, it's special abilities. Sans used up all of his points on INT, blue magic, and probably a long path to bypass invincibility frames. (Or keep reducing it until it hit 0.) He sacrificed his HP, ATK, and DEF, all the way down to 1 to do this. He's the biggest powergamer in the entire history of Outside (Undertale edition) Sans is willing to hurt others when the situation calls for it, and is very capable of doing this.

Just like Undyne, hmmm? ..Maybe she's not a viable control subject after all. Let me look at Toriel's animation.

..Yep, her mouth does move. The conclusion remains the same.

So far, you haven't proven Sans is any darker than Undyne. Who we know is a monster.

And even though he does try to reason with No Mercy Frisk, he’s also willing to trick Frisk into surrendering, then kill him as a betrayal action, just like how Chara-possessed Frisk himself might have dealt with other bosses like Toriel and Papyrus. Sans: if we're really friends, you won't come back!

It's a message to Frisk. Sans IS going to spare Frisk.. But they're going to have to reset and bring everyone back first.

If Frisk does come back, and fights in response, he'll mention that since Frisk came back anyways, they never really WERE friends. But now we have a paradox to solve: Why was Sans willing to kill Flowey many times in other timelines for the crime of simply messing with Papyrus.. And yet sit back and watch Frisk actually kill Papyrus.. Sans’ own blood brother in bone… and do nothing about it?

You think it was JUST for messing with Papyrus? Oh, please. That's not right.

"It all started because I was curious. Curious what would happen if I killed them"-Flowey

He was going to kill them all. He too, was doing a Genocide Route. And I'm convinced that just like with Frisk, Sans only stepped in once everyone else was dead because of Flowey.

But even if this wasn't the case, Sans only promised to protect humans. Not flowers. (See my response to Chapter 6 for why I think Sans DID make the promise.) Sans could have easily saved Papyrus from Frisk. Just like Sans would have easily crushed Frisk the moment he emerged from the Ruins, like stepping on a baby bird. But even when Frisk betrays Papyrus’ goodwill attempt to spare him, Sans does nothing other than complain about it angrily over the phone.

He was going to keep his promise.. And only break it if the entire world depended on it. ...This is WHY he hates making promises. Because of just how bad they can turn out. The very moment Papyrus falls, Sans stops going to Grillby’s. And we see Sans in the background of Shyren’s musical fight soon afterwards, selling tickets made of toilet paper if he’s happy, or just watching darkly with his hood up if he isn’t.

I think Sans would recognize if his brother was dead. He also spots you just after the fight of Papyrus. If Papyrus can spot the dust on your hands, couldn't Sans do the same? And yet Sans still refuses to fight Frisk, forcing himself to watch the destruction, instead. And it’s only when Frisk is so thoroughly evil that failing to stop him would result in the destruction of the entire universe, that Sans finally gives Frisk his legendary Bad Time. Of course. Because that's when he can't afford not to care anymore. And why would Sans, who is so protective his true identity, go to such great pains to secretly give Frisk the fabled key to his room? He would not have done this for just any human passing through.

Hey, if the truth is just that the human got owned, it'd be fine. He probably only left the Silver Key out there AFTER Frisk passed. (Or he was too lazy to hide it and put it away...) I have reason to believe that other humans HAVE passed through before, while Sans and Papyrus were in the Underground.

Can you EXPLAIN your reasoning? Because Sans makes it very clear that Papyrus has never seen a human before. And how did Sans know exactly what Frisk would look like, and stir his lazy bones to build The Convenient Lamp, when much simpler ways of hiding Frisk were available? Even when the action of hiding Frisk from Papyrus wasn’t even necessary to begin with?

I refer you to Chapter 6. Sans definitely knew that Frisk was coming, and exactly what Frisk would look like, down to the pixel. And Papyrus likes Frisk so much that he refuses to stop believing in him, even when No Mercy Frisk answers his offer to spare him with a stab.

Papyrus is that way about EVERYONE, not just Frisk.

And socially-awkward Alphys was so flustered at meeting Frisk before she could fresh up that she went into a panic. And Queen Toriel was willing to put her own life on the line just to test Frisks’ character at the start of the game.

It wasn't to test Frisk's character, it was to see if Frisk was strong enough to survive. She was going to block the way until Frisk proved they could survive out there. Which leaves us with a thundering question: WHO IS FRISK? And why is he so special to everyone?

Let's see:They're the last SOUL everyone needs! Toriel doesn't want Asgore's plan to succeed, Papyrus doesn't want to kill a potential friend, and watching a human on a screen camera makes you root for the guy!

The simplest explanation might be that Frisk is an innocent human. And only a truly innocent human can unlock the True Pacifist Ending, save Asriel Dreemur, and finally bring about The End of the Barrier.

Nope, I found a simpler explanation. The one the game literally gives us. Sans, who has killed before, is no longer innocent, and is no longer capable of achieving this happy ending on his own.

If you reset, you lose the guilt, and become guiltless again. Hence why you can get a True Pacifist even after killing. So all those times he killed Flowey don't count. But Frisk must have gone somewhere, because Sans always has to leave him a message.

What's to say they didn't bonk their head on the barrier trying to reach the surface? Normally, Sans talks to Frisk like a friend. But on particularly dark runs, Sans will add something else to his dialog: A warning that Frisk should never come back.

Yeah, don't come back, or they'll kill you-Oh, wait..

Sans' phone call has even said before that Frisk shouldn't give up wherever they are as well.. Since it's the place they were working so hard to get to.

Sans probably didn't know that Flowey took Asgore's SOUL, and thus assumed that Frisk DID cross the Barrier, using said SOUL, even though they actually didn't. Now consider there’s an elevator to the True Lab in the Core that leads to both Alphys’ lab and Asgore’s castle. And as we covered before, there’s a time and space portal somewhere in the Core.

The only elevator we see in the CORE is the one that takes up right to the top. There are two elevators in the True Lab:One to Alphys' Lab, and the other straight to New Home. Not the CORE, New Home. The only way Frisk could have escaped from the all-seeing eyes of Alphys and Sans is if he left the Underground completely, without passing through the Barrier.

It took physically rummaging through Asgore's castle to discover the tapes. We also don't see any hidden cameras in Asgore's castle. Asgore's castle appears to be a blind spot. And that's exactly where we were. Sans’ room might have been an alternative, but in order to realize that he had to key for that, Frisk would have to have already earned the True Pacifist ending, and likely left the Underground completely.

It was Asgore's castle. But that's just it. If you reset the game just before the credits would roll, but after you get Sans' key, you SHOULD be able to get into Sans' room if your theory is correct. So let's conduct an investigation, shall we? So our friend Frisk likely went back in time. And either this allows him to start over from the beginning, or it allows him to re-insert himself into the story at a different point in time to try and change things for another version of himself.

It's neither of the two. They're still at Asgore's castle.

Also, resetting is tearing everyone from one timeline to a new one. If Frisk did go back in time, to try to help an earlier version of himself get a better ending.. What would that look like to the earlier version of Frisk that encountered his future self?

There'd be two Frisks, of course. When Frisk calls Papyrus outside of Alphy’s Lab, Papyrus mistakes the word “Lab” for “Labrador”, and wonders if there are dogs inside? Sans winks, and says “I wouldn’t rule it out.” There are indeed dogs inside.. In the amalgamates downstairs in the True Lab. Which is why Alphys keeps a massive bag of dog food upstairs. Sans likely did work there with Gaster. And the dog food probably gives it away. But if you're saying that he was there before as an earlier Frisk, that actually crumbles your theory. Because you can only enter the True Lab in a True Pacifist Route. Sans is sleeping on the job just in time to allow Frisk to escape from Undyne.

Eh, he was probably sleeping the whole time. Sans establishes a hot dog stand in Hotland right at a point where Frisk would badly need some food.

Right where they'd badly need some food? Can you elaborate as to why that specific spot is where Frisk would need some food?

And the snow on the roof suggests this is the very same stand he had in Snowdin, which he teleported to Hotland along with himself.

Of course! Sans also repeats this trick in Deltarune by warping both his house and the renamed Grillby’s out of the Underground and up to the surface, making him a very powerful psychic indeed.

He definitely does have PSI.. But monsters DO have magic.. And during his battle with Frisk, Sans is the only character in the game who can actually dodge Frisk’s attacks, almost as if he can see them coming.

Why can't he just know about the HUD, and watch for tells that Frisk is aiming for the FIGHT button, and time his dodge to match the delay between the press and the slash? Although he doesn’t know everything, because if you HAD died before then, Sans is curious about the expression on your face.

Which rules out the idea that he remembers timelines. Else he'd remember you die, and not be confused. It wouldn’t just be Sans who lost his memory, going back. It would be Frisk, as well.

He was talking about getting to the Surface, not going back! Even if we do get to the surface, we'll just forget everything. He's talking about the monsters forgetting everything. And Sans did have somewhere he wanted to go back to, he wasn’t born in the Underground. Or even, strangely, the surface world directly above.

He probably means back to the timeline that Gaster existed in. But when he weighs the options of a life of food and friendship with the monsters, or ruining all of that by killing their beloved King just to go home again.. Sans choose to spare Asgore and stay in the Underground. And Sans tries to convince Frisk to do the very same thing.

He wouldn't need to kill the king, because he's not leaving the Underground, he's going to a different timeline! Sans and Frisk are almost the same size and shape, the same kid-size that makes them look like dwarves to most of monsterkind.

Monster Kid is smaller, though, so it's not very unusual.

And you see that both Sans and Frisk have the same cartoony pencil-necks when they sit side by side at Grillby’s.

What about everybody else, though? And why can't this be because they're skeletons? And whatever Frisk orders, Sans agrees with, so they seem to have similar tastes in food.

Or he'd just eat any of those foods. When we first see Sans, he’s a darkened silhouette that creeps up behind Frisk, so that for a moment, we have only a shape to compare with Frisk’s own. And the two shapes then face each other, each appearing almost like the mirror reflection of the other.

It's better to compare them when they're both facing the same direction. https://youtu.be/LYS8Ef17E5g?t=43

Can't you notice a few differences? This comparison is even more powerful the last time we see Sans in the judgement hall, where both Sans and Frisk are silhouettes with the very same stained glass windows behind them, and a pillar separating the two almost as if they were ink blots on a symmetrical page.

...Or, the pillar is literally just a pillar. And Sans never asks Frisk what he’s thinking when he reflects in the Judgement Hall, became somehow, Sans always seems to know. ..Or he meant THAT kind of reflection, and that's what the pillar is for! Sans knows that Frisk knows Sans.. from another time.

Oh, he suspects that Frisk made friends with Sans first. But he still says this, even if Genocide is your first run. Before both the dinner at Grillby’s and the dinner at the MTT resort, Sans tells Frisk he’s going to show him a shortcut. Then, after they both walk the wrong way, or even up a dead end alley, somehow both Sans and Frisk appear together right where they want to go.

Teleportation! Strangely, though, Sans never teleports Papyrus with him. In post-Papyrus Grillby’s you learn that Sans always appears first during his frequent visits, and Papyrus always arrives a little bit later, looking annoyed. Either Sans was just being a joker by refusing to teleport Papyrus with him… or Sans wasn’t able to bring Papyrus, because Papyrus didn’t have the ability to teleport along with him. Maybe he was annoyed just because he had to go to Grillby's. He hates the place.

GRILLBY’S? WE’RE TOO REFINED FOR THAT GREASEHOLE. -Papyrus, if you call him and Undyne while at Grillby's.

Or, this might have happened. (These quotes you're about to see ALSO don't appear in Undertale.)

Sans: hey bro. wanna come to grillby's with me?

Papyrus: WHY WOULD I COME TO GRILLBY'S WITH YOU!

Sans: sorry, your loss, i guess. see ya. i'm taking a shortcut. *teleports*

Papyrus: NO, DON'T LEAVE! WAIT FOR ME, SANS!!! *runs to Grillby's* Psychics as powerful as Sans are certainly rare, even among humans. But we see at least two of them in Undertale. But Sans isn’t the one teleporting here! Sans is definitely intending to kill Frisk, and isn’t about to warp him to safety this time.

There seems to be some unstated rule that every attack HAS to be possible to avoid. Though if Frisk can teleport, they should do this WHENEVER they're about to get hit, not whenever time expires. It might be because Chara’s a ghost, and it might be because Sans and Frisk are both powerful psychics radiating their thoughts.

It's the former. You can't read Chara's face, or see them aim for the FIGHT button if they're invisible. Asgore is the King, and highest political authority. Undyne is the strongest, and has the most unyielding sense of justice. Papyrus is the most innocent, and most worthy to call out others on their misdeeds. Alphys is the smartest, and has the best knowledge of what Frisk has been up. And Toriel has all of these qualities put together!

Asgore's a fluffy pushover, Undyne DID judge Frisk, but lost, just like Sans, Papyrus wouldn't say that ANYONE's evil, Alphys is too unconfident and shy, and Toriel's more focused on teaching than judging. Sans is the only one left. Saying that it's because Sans is Frisk is quite a big leap. And when Papyrus finds Frisk on the treadmill in Sans’ room, it takes him a moment to realize that he’s looking at Frisk instead of Sans. Because Papyrus does seem to know what Sans actually looks like.. And the resemblance is close enough to make him think for a moment to tell one from the other.

This is the same Papyrus who couldn't tell a rock from a human, and we WERE in Sans' room.. The Silver Key machine is likely the vehicle that Sans, and whoever came with him, originally used to warp into the Underground, which then broke when they tried to return through the Barrier.

How do we know this? What's to say the machine wasn't built just to further Gaster's experiments? What's to say they even warped here at all? WHY would they warp here? But at some point in the future, Sans and Papyrus both used the portal in the Core to warp back in time in an attempt to change the future. The shopkeeper in Snowdin recalls how they both just appeared in town one day, and asserted themselves.

In the Beta timeline, Gaster fell before the Skelebros would have been born. Their origin literally doesn't exist anymore. This is the reason why there aren't two Sans-es and two Papyrus-es. There was no Beta Sans or Beta Papyrus. There is only Alpha Sans and Alpha Papyrus. Which is why Sans doesn’t want to fight Frisk. Because if he did, he would literally be fighting himself. Even here, he wants to get Frisk to just give up and reset. And while the final knife strike does hit Sans, Frisk is the one who actually falls and generates the Executions Points that Chara receives, as she finally takes over Frisk’s body and soul completely, effectively killing him.

..We control Frisk again until Asgore's fight. Chara and Frisk likely share control until then. But Frisk still has more control, since we can still reset. Which is why “You Won!” doesn’t appear at the end of the Sans fight. Because Frisk doesn’t win. He, and eventually the player, have just lost everything.

Chara dealt the final blow. That means they won against Sans, not Frisk. That's why "You Won!" didn't appear. Sure, Frisk started looking zombified before Snowdin, as Sans said Frisk should continue pretending to be a human, but this is likely another case of the popular "You're not even human, are you", in response to someone acting so violently that it's unbelievable that a human would act this way, and without any emotional guilt about it either!

But once Chara strikes, Sans realizes the battle is over: Not because he’s been defeated, but because there’s nothing left of him in Frisk to save anymore.

Oh, Frisk can still reset afterwards. They're not completely gone. It's probably that Sans has been defeated. After all, he did try to speak to his dead brother (Near-death experience/hallucination?), and you get EXP when you kill someone. And since Frisk can still reset before fighting Asgore, they're not dead. So Sans leaves, bidding Chara a fond farewell as he creates a portal to another timeline, and says hello to another Papyrus as he travels to a dimension where his best friend is still alive.

He asked Papyrus if he wanted anything (after saying he's going to Grillby's) when we could still hear him! So he was asking Papyrus if he wanted anything.. from THIS timeline! An alternate Papyrus wouldn't be able to hear that! He must have been speaking to our Papyrus.. who is dead! And leaves Chara to her doom of a lonely universe full of nothingness.

Um, that's exactly what Chara wanted, Ferret. It's not doom. <span class="green"When Sans asks Chara-possessed-Frisk his famous question: “Do you think even the worst person can change? That everybody can be a good person, if they just, try?” Sans wasn’t asking for Frisk’s sake.

He was. He only asks that question in Genocide. He also follows up by asking if they want to have a bad time. Under all his defenses, Sans seems to be a good person who tries to do the right thing, but is living with the guilt of having made a terrible mistake.

How do we know he made a terrible mistake? You haven't provided any evidence to that claim yet.

Sans left his timeline and traveled to the past because the ending he got on his own run wasn’t good. And the scars on his soul from his own bad decisions still weigh on him.

So how is this any different from your typical "reset after a bad ending" that we, as Frisk do right now? So when No Mercy Frisk does his dirty work, Sans forces himself to watch every bloody knife-swing. Not because he enjoys it, but because he feels he deserves the pain of watching, and knowing.

How do we know he did this? What's to say Frisk's face and/or all of the dead monsters isn't enough to let him know what Frisk did? Sans didn’t travel to the past only to find someone who could save the monsters…

He didn't travel to the past, he analyzed the timelines! Sans wanted to find someone would could save himself, too.

Well, there's another error that made it through the proofreading process. "would could"? But as I said, resetting should be enough. And help him undo a cursed legacy that haunts him to this very day

Resetting should be enough!