Let’s Talk About Gaster and Alphys For a Moment
Ok, so (kinda) theory time. Yes, I have boarded the Undertale hype train along with everyone else; it’s a fantastic game, and since I’m such a huge Mother 3 and OFF fan, it was right up my alley. Anyways, I have been particularly fascinated with the anomaly of Dr. W. G. Aster, or “Gaster”. Hidden in the games files, scattered in weird phone calls and creepy journal entries...all we really know about him was that he was Asgore’s first Royal Scientist, and that he died by falling into his “creation” (which could have been the Core, as he built that, but it is never specified if that’s what he fell into). We learn that information from this guy:
Then, he goes on to say something kinda odd:
I wondered about what this line implied for quite some time. Sure, it might just be the monster making idle conversation, but I think Toby put that line there for a reason. In the True Ending, Alphys no longer has a need to work on research pertaining to breaking the barrier, so there’s no way she could create something potentially fatal to her. Likewise, in the Genocide end, she evacuates everyone before Chara and you destroy the world; so there was no time for her to get wrapped up in dangerous research. Whatever this line was referring to had to be about something Alphys had already done, and already created. (Hint: it’s not Mettaton).
Yup. The Amalgamates. And while the Amalgamates are dangerous, it wasn’t the physical threat they posed that posed the greatest danger to Alphys. It was the mental one.
Alphys was completely devastated over what she had created. It was enough to make her fear answering the phone, lose nearly all confidence in herself, and need validation from you to feel happy again. She talks about how glad she was that you still care about her despite what she did, and how she might have stayed away, or done something “cowardly”, had you not been there. This line is left ambiguous, but I think we can glean that taking her own life was what she was referring to.
And thus, the significance of the grey monster’s line becomes clear. He wonders if Alphys will also meet her death at the hands of her creation, and she nearly might have...but the hands to perform the deed would have been her own.
There is a lot left to discover about Gaster, his role with Sans and Papyrus, and his legacy. But I wanted to detour before diving into all that, and talk about a line that, if intentional on Toby’s part, is equally parts clever and utterly tragic.
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