Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27907368-20160506131212

Hey there, team! I've been playing some of Toby's other works, and some of the themes made me see Undertale in a new light. A motif in Undertale is that the player (or Chara) pilots another character that has their own personality. In the past, Toby has made commentary on this via means of NPCs being critical of the protagonist - they'll inquire things such as: "Hey, what's wrong with you? Why do you just nod at everything I say? ... Are you okay?"

Frisk is the protagonist that would befriend all monsters and, according to Flowey, the one we should leave alone at the end of the game. Here's where I get suspicious. I don't trust Flowey. Why is he appealing to my morality and trying to get me to leave everything alone?

Consider this: with the player gone, he'll regain control of the timeline. And this time, he can load that one SAVE file that he had from before Frisk fell. Remember that, unlike the Photoshop fight, he didn't mess with save files in the boss fight. Alternatively, he could true reset.

Now, we know that Frisk has been "awoken" in this route - their SOUL may retain the ability to "re-fuse" if we leave well enough alone. This means that Frisk has no ability to save the game. Unless they can access the main menu, their heart never shatters... which is reason to believe that they can't load from last save. Since Frisk doesn't have this ability, it's reasonable to believe Flowey will regain it.

After this SAVE/reset, Frisk would most likely complete a pacifist route (again) – which will either default in neutral or summon Asriel, again. Or something else. Who knows, if Flowey is keeping his memories.

Frisk would endlessly try for a happy ending, even if it’s impossible to achieve. The sense of duality being singularity in ‘’Undertale’’ is significant – things that we think are polar opposites are actually one and the same. Just look at the Delta Rune Prophecy. It thinks of the “angel” and “The Angel of Death” as separate fates, when really they’re both from TP.

Moreso, Toby often questions the value of choice in video games. Many linear RPGs, for example, will allow you to save one friend or another. Ultimately, this doesn't change much - perhaps a few lines of dialogue. In this rendition, the player has ultimate choice! However, the protagonist is the character that will perpetuate the same cycle time and again.

It's all meaningless.

This is the fate if we leave the game at a TP ending. Frisk will endlessly try to save everyone, and time and again things would be reset.

So, we know of one solution that puts everyone out of their suffering – Genocide. The route in which Flowey is dead, and the timeline is gone. Frisk will not achieve this ending on their own. So, knowing what we do – perhaps we should offer Frisk and company mercy. Mercy from life. From Flowey. Let me know what you think! 