Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-33310970-20171117184418/@comment-32182236-20171120231625

Alright, let's take a look at the role of the Player, and why Frisk appears both to be silent (We never see their words once) and able to speak (Yet they DO get a response, as if they DID speak-Take for example Frisk calling Toriel "Mom")

That right there appears to be a paradox:Frisk both MUST be mute, but also CAN'T be mute! ...Except not really. The answer to this strange conundrum is the narrator.. Specifically, Chara the narrator. Chara's the one narrating everything to us, using those boxes. All the flavor text? Chara! So, what's to say Chara's not ALSO narrating what the other characters said? Telling us what's going on, so we can properly respond? But then, what about Frisk? Well.. Chara's narrating to Frisk-They have no reason to narrate to Frisk what Frisk just said.. So the text doesn't appear. There, paradox solved!

Next is, of course, how the player fits into all of this. Well, the answer is twofold-In terms of identity-It's that the player is Frisk. We have no evidence of a relationship between the two-So we do for this what we do for every other game in existence.. Say the player is the protagonist. But if you mean the concept of a player, then things get MUCH more complicated-In that case, the player is Flowey. And they're also Frisk again. And possibly Chara. Just hear me out, I'll explain why this makes sense.

What exactly IS a "player", anyway? There's several defining characteristics of "player" in meta-terms. The one with the power to SAVE and LOAD is a major one.. Another would be one that "plays" around with the world.. Using said SAVE and LOAD abilities-Viewing the world as nothing more than the code it is to us players. There can also only be one player at a time. Now, let's take a look at how these work, shall we?

The ability to SAVE and LOAD, to use the menu interfaces.. They all rest upon the one with the most determination. (Yes, even the name entry screen. "I already CHOSE that name!"-Flowey) If you were previously the one with that power, the "player", you will remain self-aware of this, remembering RESETs, and able to see the HUD menus. Therefore, the original "player" is Flowey. And just as we have (if not in Undertale, in other games), Flowey played around with the world, seeing everything, killing just to see what happens. Then, we came along, stole it from Flowey. We know he's aware of the HUD because he explains to us about there being an "LV" at the corner. Now we're the ones using that power to help us. Flowey steals it back at one point, and it is then when we can figure out Flowey's point of view. We can see the HUD, but can't interact with it, other than LOADing Flowey's SAVE he has prepared for us. Flowey's the one who LOADs if we die, too.

Now do you understand?