Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-30326084-20161026101955/@comment-27701762-20161027025330

I’ve seen this claim before, and just as before it leaves me with the same impression, which is that the basic argument is to twist the facts to fit the narrative being spun. And it leaves us without any reason to adopt the idea that HP stands for “hope” rather than “hit points.”

The underlying premise, that HP has to mean something other than “hit points” by virtue of the fact that LV and EXP do not stand for “level” and “experience points,” is on its own a fallacy. The latter acronyms are specifically explained to us within the game’s narrative to stand for something that we did not initially expect. There is already something special about them that makes them distinct from the remaining acronyms. In order to apply the same premise to HP, we would need either A) some indication that HP is supposed to stand for something else, or B) some indication that all generic RPG acronyms stand for something else. In terms of the most common acronyms, such as ATK, DEF, and G, every piece of evidence we have from the game suggests that they stand for what we would normally expect: Attack, Defense, and Gold. And there is no indication that these acronyms stand for something else. So why should HP belong to the category of LV and EXP, which are explicitly explained, rather than the category of ATK, DEF, and G, which conform to our expectations?

The structure of the argument is also weak: by providing a rendering of how the idea of “hope” or “hope points” works to explain particular bosses, the theory has no more merit than an explanation which uses “hit points.” If these same bosses and their health bars can be explained by any other acronym, “Heavenly Power,” “Happiness,” “Happenstance,” “Hero Points,” “Heart Points,” then the method being employed has no utility, as it fails to prove anything. The rendering is useful if and only if the basis of the argument has a different foundation.

A more direct point could be made by looking to a piece of narration in the Asriel fight. When you select the ACT “Hope,” the line comes up “You held onto your hopes…You reduced how much DAMAGE you’ll take this turn!” One could construe this line to mean that you are literally holding onto your hope, and so you take less damage because you holding the HP that would have been taken away. This would support the conclusion that HP stands for “hope.” However, one could also construe the line to simply mean that your defense is increasing, and so HP would still refer to “hit points.”

If you want to provide proof of your theory, provide proof like that. Don’t simply construct a narrative that explains how the theory works. Look to the text of the narration and dialogue and see if there’s any evidence that HP stands for “hope.”