monster checks
(undertale spoilers)
a popular narrachara theory is that chara is the one who provides the check information based on their own knowledge, because they were familiar with the underground and its residents. however, there’s a pretty big issue with this: many of the monsters in the underground weren’t alive when chara lived there. many claim to have never seen a human before, which probably would have been impossible if they’d lived in chara’s time.
for this post, let’s assume that chara is, in fact, the narrator (although most of this is relevant even without the narrachara theory). however, let’s also work based on the assumption that there’s no way chara could possibly know everything about every monster, including ones only born after they died. with both of these assumptions in mind, let’s explore the nature of the monster checks.
a monster’s stats reflect their feelings
early on, we learn that the amount a monster is hurt and can damage is based on their feelings towards the one they’re fighting. a monster’s defence is also reliant on the intentions of their attacker.
this can be seen in actual gameplay too – when certain monsters are ready to be spared, their defence will often drop down into the negative thousands.
checks are said out loud
on a few different occasions, monsters actually respond directly to the information said in checks – napstablook and papyrus immediately come to mind.
the accusation that napstablook “doesn’t seem to have a sense of humor” prompts them to respond in an upset manner. additionally, if the check option is selected after the “dapper blook” occurs, napstablook will take offense in the same way they would had the “threat” ACT been selected.
when checked in a neutral route, papyrus will respond by echoing the thing he “likes to say”, suggesting that he only says it because the information provided in the check reminded him of it.
aaron responds to the act of checking rather than the content of what’s in the check. still, this proves that some monsters are aware of when a check is being performed.
when checked, tsunderplane denies the question proposed in typical tsundere fashion. this is a direct response to the check text.
from this, it is reasonable to suggest that at least some checks, if not all of them, are said out loud by frisk/chara.
monsters provide their own check information
there might be a small, unseen conversation that occurs each time the “check” ACT is selected. in this conversation, frisk asks the monster about themself, and the monster responds, describing their stat numbers and sharing a little bit of personal information. chara then condenses the important bits into what the player sees after using the “check” ACT.
why would anyone actually assume this? glyde’s check information says it all.
always trying to look cool, glyde’s attack and defence stats are only listed as “high”. according to the datamine, glyde’s attack is only 9 and its defence is -20. the next part is important: it says that glyde “refuses to give more details about its statistics”. we can infer from this that it was glyde who told frisk its stats – chara didn’t figure this out on their own.
this evidence suggests that all monsters may actually tell frisk their check info on their own.
monsters tell lies about their stats
if monsters are the ones who provide their own check info, this explains why some of the stats are false. just as with glyde, many monster’s check stats don’t line up with the true monster stats in the game’s data.
let’s use undyne the undying as an example.
her check info states that her attack and defence are 99, but her damage doesn’t really seem to live up to these numbers. in reality, checking the game data will reveal that she actually has 12 attack and 5 defence. that’s a pretty significant difference. it seems that undyne is trying to look as threatening and powerful as possible here.
asriel is an interesting one.
despite the fact that his check info states that his attack and defence are infinite, the true stats tell quite a different story: asriel’s hp and defence are both 9999, but his attack is a somewhat pathetic 8. this is true for both of his forms. although it seems likely that his attack stat has the potential to be infinite (or at least go up to 9999), the fact that he never attempts to use his full power, even in his second form, says a lot about his feelings toward chara.
chara’s feelings
most checks in the game seem geared towards hinting at how to achieve sparing conditions. in certain cases in the genocide route, that gets thrown out the window entirely. important or unique enemies are graced with completely new checks. it seems that chara replaces helpful check descriptions with their own feelings. nonetheless, as with undyne the undying above, stats are still unreliable and are probably provided by the monsters themselves.
in the genocide route, chara doesn’t have much to say about papyrus.
glad dummy’s check is particularly cold and malicious. to really drive home the point, when glad dummy is attacked, they stop smiling.
the rg01 and rg02 checks are direct quotes from kitchen by banana yoshimoto. toby fox stated that: “in general think references are OK as long as the material stands on its own without knowledge of the source material”. therefore, we should assume that chara quite literally “couldn’t stop laughing”.
the first part of sans’ check is both true and ironic.
the second half of sans’ check appears to be orders from chara: “keep attacking”.
in the genocide route, the checks stop focusing on monsters. instead, the information provided reflects chara’s feelings towards them.
tl;dr
there’s no way that chara could have known all the monsters in the underground, as it seems some only showed up after chara died
glyde’s check seems to suggest that it is monsters who provide their own check information
some stats in checks do not match the actual data in the game – if monsters provide their own check info, then some lie about how strong they are
this could be their way of covering up their weakness in front of humans
chara does have the ability to influence what is said in checks, as shown in the genocide route
