Ok, so bear with me… because I started rambling at some point…
In game the rules are simple:
Rule 1: When you kill someone, your EXP increases.
Rule 2: When you have enough EXP, your LOVE increases
Rule 3: The more you kill, the easier it becomes to distance yourself.
Rule 4: The more you distance yourself:
A: The less you will hurt
B: The more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others.
Then we have the definitions, and that’s where things start to get interesting:
"Execution points" A way of quantifying the pain you have inflicted on others.
1 - A painful and cruel death would give you more EXP than a merciful one.
2 - You can gain EXP just by purposefully inflicting Pain, without ever needing to kill.
"Level of Violence." A way of measuring someone's capacity to hurt.
LV is way of measuring someone's capacity to hurt.
Capacity to hurt increases when you distance yourself.
So LV increases when you distance yourself.
Note it does not say you need to kill to distance yourself, it just say it gets easier. So it’s an ability you already have, and take a look at the effects.
A: The less you will hurt
B: The more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others.
Does that sound familiar? Don't monsters change their status in battle? Could they be mentally distancing themselves from the conflict or overthinking its implications when they find reasons for not wanting to fight?
Could be that in that situation:
The less you will hurt = DEF increases
The more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others = ATK increases
And if LV and EXP are two different things would it be possible to have one and not the other? How about:
To those questions I raise you 2 Headcannons:
LV 20 EXP 1 = Sans Killing the player in a no mercy run.
What is the pain he inflicted on others? Minimal, he kills one person, and at that point the player is running to his blasters and still he gives you all the opportunities to step back (He actually just asks you not to step forward! How hard is that?!).
What is his capacity to hurt? Have you ever seen his fight? He just took on the player at its maximum power and won!
Have you ever met Health Professionals? Have you ever realized how they have to learn the ability to detach themselves from their patients to protect their own emotions?
A surgeon cannot think about cutting open someone's mother, is just tissue... muscle, fat, organs. They have to distance themselves, at least for that moment.
LV is the "capacity to", not the actual detachment.
A good surgeon can both empathize with their patients, to know them and create good interpersonal relationship and detach from them to perform better during surgery.
But what if you never distance yourself from the pain you inflict? What if you feel every sorrow for every death you've caused? If every pain you inflicted to others, you felt it tearing your soul apart?
That is a tricky one, because of Rule 2 "When you have enough EXP, your LOVE increases"... But what is “enough”? Doesn't it seem arbitrary? What if it is?
What if the only thing that define if the EXP will turn into LV is your own will of not getting LV? The will of not distancing yourself? Of not protecting yourself from the pain you are inflicting on others? Of not condoning violence, even if you are being forced to cause it?
And for that I raise you:
LV 1 EXP 999 = Disbelief Papyrus
See, Papyrus is the only in game character that will never kill the player. What he does, however, is beating them to an inch of their life. Why would you think that he would change on a no mercy run? You just took away his friends, he is wearing the dusty hoodie of his only family, all the royal guards are gone and he is the only monster standing between a defenseless King and the cruelest of murderers.
Do you think he would enjoy causing you pain? No, he much rather you to realize your mistakes and change your attitude.
Would he not kick your ass? He would absolutely fucking obliterate you! And give you a sermon while he does it.
He would see every drop of blood, every pained breath, every HP dropped and he would feel it in his own soul, it would hurt him like nothing else, because he knows that pain and violence won’t bring anyone back, because he knows that with each hit he is getting closer to become the very thing he is fighting against.
And, oh, it would so easy be to give up on his resolve of not condoning violence. So easy to distance himself from the player and just not care anymore, like his brother, or to justify that he is the justice fighting an evil doer, like Undyne.
But that's not him. That is not The Great Papyrus we all know and love. He may not believe in the player anymore, but he does believe in himself. And he is going to do the right thing, even if it tears his soul apart.
So, can you gain indirect LV or EXP? No idea! But without killing? Absolutely!
