Undertale, Fandom and "Character Canonicity"
Recently, with the trend of "Hard mode Sans" going around the bird app I found interesting the varied different reactions the people give Sans to being told his exact story to his face during the geno route.
Going from being utterly broke down, to "lol but that means i still befriended your mom" I want to focus on these last ones.
Because I've seen people say those takes on the concept are like how the "True Sans" would react. And to be fair, I think thinking like that robs us of the scope of exploring these characters on situations they are unfamiliar with and the reactions they would have considering Undertale does the complete oposite with them.
The fandom thinks these characters (Specially the skelebros) are static and impossible to break from their usual molds because that would be "Out of character" and "Undertale doesn't do that."
You know what character breaks off from their usual personality in this game and isn't "out of character" for it?
Undyne.
In all three routes, Undyne shows different facets of her personality, depending the situation unfolding.
At first glance, we see her and believe she is this determined unstoppable soldier who will never stop until our head is mounted on a wall and our soul is in a capsule.
That is when we meet her, but on another circumstance (Papyrus staging a hangout with Frisk and her after helping her out of a heatstroke) we see the true Undyne.
And she's a total goofball.
Like, sure she talks about us about how she feels, about her relationship with Asgore and Papyrus, but she is overall just having fun cooking with Frisk, complete oposite to how she was just a few hours prior at most.
She comes off as a friendly, if very extroverted person.
But now, what if she fought against a real threat?
A threat not only to the entirety of monsterkind, but the whole world?
We know the answer to that.
The geno run answers this question with her defying death and achieving a new form to beat you down to the ground. Becoming a true hero in the process.
There's layers to her personality. But they only shine on different circumstances that all three routes show.
I want to talk now on the fancontent side, specifically with Papyrus.
Papyrus, the jolly and optimisitc, if a bit naive skeleton who is basicly the moral paragon of the Undertale cast. The purest out of all of them.
But even if he is naive. His mask of confidence slips on the same route Undyne becomes a true hero. Right on his final encounter.
He isn't stupid. He knows you killed people.
"Then why does he try to talk to this unapologetic murderer?"
Because, maybe, he thinks you are afraid.
Monsters are at war with humans when Frisk falls down. In Papyrus's mind, you maybe havent had a single positive interaction with a monster in general.
He wants to prove to you monsters are good too.
This is his naiveness coming into play, which may or may not cause his own doom. (After all, most players first trying this route quit here.)
Even when dying by your hands, he still believes you can redeem yourself and be a better person.
But what if you spare him?
Well, he admits himself that he was deathly afraid.
With all his bravado and all of his ego. He still believed somewhat he wasn't going to make it out of this one.
And now I propose this one scenario: "What if Papyrus lost Sans?"
Undertale doesn't show this, of course. But that's why we have fanworks exploring that!
I want to highlight three AUs where this is the case: Disbelief, Papyrus' Belief and Dustjar.
Disbelief is fairly known in the AU fandom, it's premise is that after countless resets of masacre, Sans remembers and decides it is time to stop you, so he makes Papyrus evacuate early and face you alone at the end of Snowdin.
This, of course, fails.
But the interesting part comes that now, at the end of the route at the Last Corridor, Papyrus is the one waiting for you. Claiming he knows about what you did to Sans, Undyne, and all other monsters. And he wants to "give you a lesson."
To give a BIG tl;dr of the entire animation, he's actually just faking it all. He was trying to act how he thinks Sans would've acted in his stead. And it's only on the final phase where he truly acts like himself.
His disbelief was faked. (He says so himself.)
Some people think this is too "Fanon" and "He wouldn't act like that."
Which is why the fangame and take of Disbelief called "Papyrus' belief" exists as a more "Canon like counterpart." In this, Papyrus is as happy and jolly as ever and determined for you to change...and to be honest, I think thats pretty out of character.
His brother died, his best and only real friend died (Flowey doesnt count, he's fake af.) And he's still acting all jolly and cocky? That's a bit unrealistic to how a real person would act in general. (To be fair, If I remember right by the fangame's lore, Papyrus DOESNT know you killed Sans or Undyne, he just knows you killed people in general so im willing to let that slide because, lets be honest. Do you think Papyrus would still act the same if he knew his brother to whom he spent all his life died because of someone evil? If that isnt the case tho, correct me if im wrong.)
The OST rocks tho, "Frankness" is very good.
This brings me to the third AU which I think is the closest to how Paps would act if he ever lost Sans: "Dustjar" by Zarla.
This AU explores a post-pacifist timeline where Sans falls down, and dies soon after. Papyrus carrying his dust in a jar.
https://www.deviantart.com/zarla/art/It-s-always-too-soon-596700826
https://www.deviantart.com/zarla/art/trapped-854902395
I like this AU and recomend you to check out the art gallery by Zarla. Because it explores a facet of Papyrus we dont see in the game: How would he face loss in general.
Maybe it is a bit angsty, but then again, Papyrus. The most emotional and empathetic character in the game wouldn't grieve?
Im fairly certain he would overcome this, 100%. But acting as if he cannot express sadness locks us from very interesting stories and concepts we could tell with his character because he's quite honestly not ready to take a loss like that so suddenly.
https://www.deviantart.com/zarla/art/just-thought-i-d-share-605850980
Going back to the hard mode trend. Acting as if reminding Sans of his past home and friends from Deltarune wouldn't move him a bit is frankly not knowing the character at all.
(This is him expressing sadness at not being able to go back btw. He would be moved, guys.)
Sure, he would know this is to get a reaction out of him, but he is still a person. Acting as if this wouldn't phase him is acting like he didnt care about his past life at all.
"But Sans never loses his composure!" What do you call his desperate throwing on the soul wall to wall as the final attack in his fight then?
I'd like to shout out what is possibly the best take on that concept, and that is B3rry_Boo take on the bird app.
https://x.com/B3rry_Boo/status/2020632248958190045
Sans's masks slips, but as soon as he loses it, he shoots back at you with clear anger, but not much as to give you what you want. Proving to you, the player, that you haven't learned anything at all these past ten years if what you thought to do with this information is go back to Undertale, kill everyone, and tell Sans this just to see what he would say.
It hammers more than anything that you became just like Flowey.
Which is why I love it! Sans wouldn't respond back with a "yeah but im better lol" or a "wtf is wrong with you?"
But more like "so what? that just means your soul is as rotten as ever. says more about you than me, pal."
But sometimes fans take what we see in the game too literally, and believe the characters could only act the way it is shown in the game.
Now I dont mean "Go and make 500 dusttales" because im not saying Sans could or would act like he does in that AU. (As much as I love the fallen hero archetype. Lol.)
But I mean more like...if you would like to explore how this character would face against "x" scenario that this other character faced. Go ahead and write it/draw it.
"Fanon" is mostly a buzzword in this fandom these days more than anything. Aside from the truly OOC stuff. (Again, Dusttale with Sans or Papyrus as the murderer.)
Go and invent 500 interpretations! Like the Fox said!
EDIT: FORGET EVERYTHING I SAID ON PAPYRUS' BELIEF!
It turns out that it is canon for the fangame that Papyrus knows you killed, but thinks that it was a one time thing and doesn't know about Sans and Undyne. The video where the characterization I mentioned comes from is from a very old build of the fangame.
(Kassheart, main dev of the fangame.)
Despite that, my point about Papyrus being able to be characterized in other ways still could be applied with Dustjar, just ignore that small section about Papyrus' Belief. I won't delete it because that's for cowards, lol.
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