Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-37345491-20190406164451/@comment-31147727-20190604134700

Billybobjoe111 wrote: Asthonman wrote: While Sans doesn't develop much as a character throughout the game, I think that's largely because most of Sans' character development happened PRIOR to your arrival. He discovered that his world can reset without any warning at the whim of a single person, and fell into a state of apathy PRIOR to you falling down the mountain. He made a promise with Toriel to look after any human that exits the ruins PRIOR to your arrival.

On the subject of the promise, I think Sans' statement that if it wasn't for the promise you'd "be dead where you stand" implies that he may have a prejudice against humans, which would make that promise a big step in character development. The fact that he develops outside of the game and not during the game is not an excuse. If he doesn't have any development in the actual game then it doesn't really work. Promise or not, I don't think Sans has any motivation to harm you because he knows the timeline will just reset anyways. He only fights you on Genocide because you killed everyone and that is his motivation. where does it say that a character has to develop during the course of the actual story? There are plenty of characters that don't develop over the course of the story. Obi Wan didn't develop much along the course of A New Hope, because his role (being Luke's mentor) didn't call for him to change as a character. Sans is the same way. He's the judge; the one who reminds you of your past actions in the game. He constantly calls into question whether you're doing the right thing, whether asking your opinion on his brother, asking you whether what you have to do is really worth it, getting less joking and more serious as the game progresses, leading up to his final judgement.

Basically, Sans is more of a mentor figure. Mentor figures don't need to change as the story progresses, and in fact it's usually better for them not to change. They influence the protagonist, not the other way around.