Here it is, the sans essay (more under cut)
Sans Undertale
Sans the skeleton is a very popular character from an indie game called Undertale. Undertale was released in September of 2015, it is a 2d role-playing game created by Toby Fox. The game gained an astounding amount of popularity in just a few short months after the game’s release, selling over 500, 000 copies on steam (Undertale, Fanlore Wiki). Though, the main focus of this writing shall be on Sans specifically.
Sans is a very interesting character, although simple in design, sporting just a hoodie and shorts, he has captured the attraction of many fans. In the game he is just any other Non-Player Character who, depending on how you play the game, you could face off against him in battle. Sans has befallen the fate of several similar characters before him, and has been claimed by a phenomena known as "The Tumblr Sexyman". This is a strange online phenomena that dates back to early 2012, where users on Tumblr, a social-media website that is popular amongst the stranger people of the internet, would latch onto one character and create countless fanworks related to them. To give credit where it’s due: the original and most recognisable Tumblr Sexyman is the Onceler from the 2012 movie "The Lorax". Since then, there have been many Sexymen, even enough to have a large list called the Sexypedia to compile them all, but few reach peak fame levels such as Sans. According to Sexypedia there are only two “Apollyon”(highest Sexyman rank), Sans, and the blueprint of it all: the Onceler (Sexypedia).
While I could have done this essay on any other Sexyman, I chose Sans because he was a direct influence on me when I was younger. In late 2015-2016, I was 12 years old and on the internet, which naturally led me to discovering Undertale, and Sans in turn. I cannot say exactly why I loved him so much, but there were many others like me who had inexplicably fallen for this short, hoodie-clad skeleton. Most of my research has been strongly based on the knowledge I already had, with quite a few modern takes and rereading to make sure my facts are correct.
Routes
There are multiple routes in Undertale, which is another reason why people loved the game so much. With each choice the player makes in combat, ie. whether to spare or kill a creature and how many they choose to kill, has an effect on later interactions and the overall outcome of the game. The most common is the neutral route, where the player kills one or more monsters, in which there are several versions once again depending on which major boss is killed. The second route, if the player chooses to do a standard run of the whole game, is the pacifist route, where the player kills no monsters. However the first time playing through to the end of the pacifist route can be considered a neutral ending, or sometimes an “imperfect pacifist run”. It is here where the player has a choice to go back and complete certain things which were previously inaccessible in the route, such as going into the True Lab, a location only accessible in the True Pacifist route (Undertale Wiki). Finally, there is the "No Mercy" route, sometimes known as the "Genocide Route" though notably this name had controversy around it and is less commonly used. This route is somewhat self explanatory, where the player never uses the “MERCY” button which spares the monster’s lives in encounters, and instead kills every monster they come across. The "No Mercy" route is difficult and comes with strict requirements, such as combing through each new area and killing the monsters until the counter (which only appears in this route, to help you complete it) reaches zero. Another notable feature of this route is that the bosses are much more challenging.
Sans plays an interesting role in each route, He appears right before the last boss in the Final Corridor, and assesses the player on their actions in the game. It is here that if the player has gone through the "No Mercy" route, they will face Sans in a boss fight.
The neutral route has the most variation of interactions Sans can have with the character. There are many specific facets of this route that I could cover because of its inherent versatility. One notable place that is inaccessible in any other route can only be accessed in an imperfect pacifist route, or a no EXP neutral route. After encountering Sans in the final corridor, the player must reload their game from the last save before they talk. In doing this, Sans will notice and the player has already heard his monologue and instead gives a codeword, then another which is revealed by once again reloading the save. Sans then gives the protagonist a key to his room, which has been mysteriously locked up until that point. Sans’ room is extremely messy and somewhat , however, in his drawer the player will find a key that leads to another area that was not able to be unlocked. Only if the player had wandered around the town thoroughly would they have found the locked door, as it is very difficult to find due its location behind Sans and Papyrus’ house. The key leads to a place called Sans’ workshop in the basement of the house. This room bears much resemblance to the True Lab that the player can explore in the "True Pacifist" route. There are blueprints and a machine behind a curtain in the room. There are pictures in the drawers: one of Sans and one of a bunch of people the protagonist does not recognise, and depending on the players actions, there is another picture of Sans, the protagonist and all of their friends. This room is what sparked many theories with Sans’ connection to Alphys’ True Lab and possibly W.D Gaster, who is a character that never appears in the game and is for the most part a mystery(Undertale Wiki).
The True Pacifist route is only accessible after a kill-free neutral route, therefore many Sans-specific things will be repetitive up until the ending. In this route however, the player is able to access the True Lab beneath Alphys’ regular lab. Here it is strongly implied that the two worked together in the past. In one of the rooms there is a device called the DT Extraction Machine(Undertale Wiki). This is the machine that was used to remove the souls from the fallen children that were captured in the underground. The machine resembles a deer skull, similar to that of Asriel in his boss fight. Another character who has an animal-shaped skull weapon is Sans, although his skull appears to be more like a canine.
The No Mercy route is by far the most infamous route of the three possibilities. It involves, as the name suggests, never using the Mercy button in the game. The player has to kill every character and boss they encounter in order for it to succeed, as well as exhausting a “kill counter” (Undertale Wiki). The kill counter does as the name suggests, count the number of monsters killed in an area. The player must kill monsters until the counter reaches zero before progressing or else the run will fail. Usually during a standard playthrough of the game the No Mercy route is the one players do last, because it also has effects on any play of the game after. Correlation is one of the things that made Undertale stand out, as at first it just appears to be a cute RPG that has slightly dark lore. However some of the characters being seemingly self-aware, for example Sans, make it more interesting. The No Mercy Route is where the player gets to see more of what he can be like as a character. His change in demeanour is noticeable right away, he makes comments about the player “pretending to be human”. Before entering the Snowdin town he warns the protagonist that if they continue on as they have been doing and end up fighting Papyrus, that “they are going to have a bad time.” This line, as well as a few others Sans says in this route, have become iconic due to the shock factor of this popular lighthearted character suddenly becoming threatening in an instant. After his Snowdin threat, Sans disappears for the rest of the No Mercy route until the last corridor. His absence is very apparent, in any other route he pops up multiple times, providing funny banter and silly puns. Sans returns in the final corridor where, for the first time in any route, he will fight the player as a boss. Despite his in-game description as the “easiest boss in the game”, he is considered the most difficult (Undertale Wiki). His defence and attack stat is both 1, making him the weakest, it is the fact that he dodges the players attacks that makes him different because no other boss does this. His attacks also come so quickly that the player has to constantly avoid them, even going so far as to break the fourth wall and still cause the player damage in the fight menu.
Prior to entering the final corridor the player walks through an area called New Home. This is where the King, Asgore Dreamurr, planned to have most of the monsters live. After a while they spread out and fewer monsters lived in New Home. It is a monochromatic grey city, strikingly different to the brightly coloured and inviting areas elsewhere. There is a house that is an exact replica to the one Toriel lives in in the ruins, this is Asgore’s home. It is completely identical except for being entirely grey like the rest of New Home. Here is where the player can find the True Knife and the Locket. In any other route they are known as the Worn dagger and Heart Locket (Undertale Wiki). These are items belonging to the first human that fell into the Underground, Chara. In neutral and Pacifist routes the attack and defence stat of both items is 15, but only in the No Mercy route does it become +99, making them the most powerful items in the game. These are the items the player wields during their fight with Sans.
Bonus information
In the game Sans is a very humorous character. His dialogue often features him making jokes and especially puns. He is a very laid back monster often getting called “Lazy bones” by his brother Papyrus. Sans interacts with the protagonist playfully throughout the whole game, sometimes pulling pranks on them (i.e. putting a whoopee cushion on the player's chair). Despite this, there are times in the game where he will suddenly become eerily quiet and threatening. He talks about an “old lady” he befriended, who is later revealed to be Toriel, a character the player meets earlier in the game. Sans explains that he had made a promise to her: that if he met a child that came out of the ruins, he would protect them, and Sans says that if he had not made that promise “t h e y ‘ d b e d e a d w h e r e t h e y s t a n d” (Undertale Wiki). It is at this point where the player's perception of Sans changes. Where at first he seemed like just a comic relief character, you realise that Sans is much more than that.
Sans is notably apathetic towards most things in his life, which is why he is often seen by other characters as just "lazy". He works four jobs and is scolded frequently by his brother. However, Sans cares deeply for other people in his life, namely his brother Papyrus, and also the townsfolk of Snowdin where he lives.
He also is shockingly observant and very good at analysing the intentions of the protagonist, being able to tell if the player has chosen to do certain things in the game, such as kill or reset. Towards the end of the game, there is a place called the Final Corridor, where you meet Sans once again before proceeding to whatever ending the player’s actions have led to thus far. It is here that Sans judges the player based on their Execution Points (EXP) and Level Of ViolencE (abbreviated as LOVE). A player's EXP goes up if they kill a monster, and depending on who specifically it was, for example Papyrus or a different main character, Sans will react differently. It is here where his true colours show through, where he speaks jarringly analytical and cold, rather than just the humour he used to relieve tense situations before.
Throughout the game Sans occasionally makes jokes or says things that hint at him possibly having more knowledge than the rest of the NPCs. After the player resets the game Sans will remember if the player killed people in the previous route. There are only two characters that do this, Sans, and Flowey. Flowey has the ability to break the fourth wall and remember previous routes due to his backstory. Sans, however, is surprising due to his innocuous role. Learning more about him and his past, working with Professors Alphys and W.D Gaster, who himself is a mystery, it seems Sans is more than just a funny comic relief character (Undertale Wiki).
Papyrus is the younger brother of Sans, despite being nearly double his size. He is a stark contrast to Sans’ laidback attitude, as he is loud and energetic where his short brother is not. Sans gets scolded by Papyrus on his laziness frequently, but it is never done maliciously. He tells him off light-heartedly, more out of genuine concern and love. In their house there is a sock on the floor of their living room that is surrounded by sticky notes transcribing a written argument over whether or not Sans should pick it up. He also worries a lot about Papyrus’ seemingly endless kindness, as he can only see the good in people, whereas Sans reads people's real intentions. Sans cares deeply about him and even goes so far as to lie to him about the deaths of monsters if the player kills anyone in a neutral route (Undertale Wiki). When fighting Sans in the No Mercy route, his dying words are asking Papyrus if he wants anything from the local diner as he stumbles off screen.
The door to the ruins is near where Sans works at one of his many sentury jobs. Throughout the game Sans often mentions an “old lady” he talks to behind the door. They make jokes together and develop a friendship despite never seeing each other face to face. When Toriel finds the protagonist after they fell into the underground and she realises that she will not be able to keep them safe in the ruins, she makes Sans promise not to hurt them when they inevitably leave her. Towards the end of the True Pacifist routeToriel leaves the ruins and meets Sans face to face and they both seem happy about it. The both of them enjoy making jokes to one another, which makes Toriel’s ex-husband, Asgore slightly jealous because of how well they get along. Whether their relationship is romantic or platonic is up for interpretation by the player, however the general view is that they flirt jokingly but are just friends.
Throughout the game there are a few minor hints that Sans may have worked with the monster science Alphys, as well as a mysterious former scientist by the name WD Gaster. Not much is known about Gaster other than he built the Core, which provides power for the Underground, and that he died after accidentally falling into it. In the epilogue of the True pacifist route Sans briefly mentions knowing Alphys, as well as prior to entering the True Lab he calls the player and says to be careful of the dogs inside. This implies that he is aware of the monster experiments Alphys was secretly doing in the basement of her normal lab, where several dog monsters had ended up melting together to form an amalgamate for Endogeny. There are also other mentions of Gaster doing research on timelines, and he was working on a machine which looks very similar to one of the attacks Sans uses in his boss fight. Sans is aware of timelines and the player’s ability to reset and change the game, even noticing if the player has gone into the game files themselves to mess around and cheat. Flowey, Sans and Gaster are the only characters who seem to be aware of these things, though Sans and Gaster are likely the two who have had past interactions. Fans have also speculated that W.D Gaster might possibly be related to Sans and Papyrus. WD in his name stands for Wingdings, and there is one journal entry in the True lab presumably written by him because it is written in unreadable wingdings. This makes him the only other character other than the aforementioned skeleton brothers to not use the standard font as the rest of the game and be named after a font.
In the town of Snowdin where Sans lives with his brother, the residents are all very friendly. The player can walk around and talk to them all, a few mention that Sans and Papyrus did not always live there, but instead just showed up one day from nowhere and made a place for themselves. The monsters of Snowdin always speak fondly of the two skeleton brothers, especially in Grillby’s, the town diner. Sans is a regular here and all the customers know his name and speak jovially to him when he comes in. He takes the player in for a meal at one point, and when leaving he tells Grillby to put the meal on his tab. It is suspected by many that he has never paid off said tab.
Alternate Universes
Another part of Undertale that made it so different to other fandoms was the countless Alternate Universes, or AUs for short. AUs are usually fan-made re-imaginings of a certain source, whether that be a TV show, movie, or in this case, a game. Some media have canonical AUs in it, Marvel is a great example of this. Undertale’s Aus were all fan-made however. Fans would change the personalities of characters and redesign them and place them in something similar but slightly different to the main story. Some AUs built off of each other or were mash-ups of two entirely different AUs by separate creators. This is where things get really convoluted and hard to follow. Sans was a big fixture in any given AU as he was a fan favourite. Many AUs created by people did not even have redesigns for the whole cast, and some were just Sans with a different outfit and storyline. This is why Undertale fans, and specifically the fans of Sans, were so unique.
There were many AUs created, too many to name in a short paper. However there were two that quickly became the most popular: Underfell, and Underswap (Fanon AU Wiki.). These two have the most content and in depth character lore out of all AUs, as they were also among the first to be created. Being such popular creations, these in turn inspired fans to create more, and have each AU connect in some way, usually through Sans.
Underfell is essentially a reimagined version of Undertale, but instead of most of the monsters being nice, they are actively cruel to not only humans but other monsters as well. All the characters take on a similar mindset to Flowey in the original game: that you either “Kill, or be killed” (Sans/Underfell). Underfell Flowey is the opposite and takes on a friendly protective roll to Frisk. The two of them try and befriend the murderous monsters as they travel through the Underground. The AU is a darker version of Undertale, with most of the characters taking on more reds and blacks into their design. In Underfell Frisk is still the protagonist, and they travel the Underground much like the original. In this AU, Frisk is accompanied by Flowey, who is significantly more wary and meak, and together they traverse the Underground trying to make it out alive. Underfell Frisk, in most interpretations of the AU, tries to “reform” the evil monsters along their travels. This is similar to Undertale but with the added difficulty of the whole monster race being genuinely bloodthirsty and cruel rather than just misunderstood.
Underfell Sans, sometimes known as just Fell(or Red, or Cherry) to fans, is very different from his original character (Sans/Underfell). For starters he lacks the love for humour and puns. He does not greet Frisk and actively shows hatred for the child in the beginning. Fell Sans believes in the kill or be killed motto in most interpretations of the AU. He also is significantly more depressed, but shows it more in the form of aggression and mean comments rather than jokes. His relationship with his brother is very different, Papyrus calls him weak and physically abuses Fell Sans believing that he is lazy and would die without his reluctant protection. Fell Sans also suffers from insomnia and is often depicted with an apathetic expression with deep bags under his eyes(which does not make much sense because he is a skeleton, but most just suspend disbelief). He is capable of caring, but it is a sign of weakness in his universe so it is mostly reserved. Many depictions of Fell have him speaking with a lot of profanity, which has led to a few humorous interactions with other Sans AU characters who try to censor him as he speaks.
Fell Sans does not share Undertale Sans’ love for ketchup, it is actually listed as one of the condiments he hates the most (Sans/Underfell). Instead he is often drawn drinking mustard, or less commonly relish or mayo. He also does not use puns like his original counterpart, and prefers practical jokes or mean sarcasm. A fan comic of Underfell showed his brother adopting a cat, to which the both of them discovered Red’s allergy to them. This was later established as canon by the author.
Sans is considered lazy in Underfell to the other characters, much like Undertale, however it is brought up with malice rather than playful teasing. Fell Sans still lives with Papyrus in this AU despite the two of them having a significantly more strain relationship than in the original. Underfell Papyrus is both verbally and physically abusive to Sans, and in some fanart depictions have shown him going so far as to keep the shorter skeleton on a leash. Sans’ canon fragility is common throughout the AUs and Underfell is no different. This leads many of the monsters to try and kill him for fun. While it seems like they dislike each other, Fell Papyrus will usually stop these fights from happening in order to keep his brother alive, however he states that he only keeps him around for convenience. When out in public Fell Papyrus demands that Sans call him “boss”, and will hit him if he does not. There are very few times that Fell Papyrus seems to actually care for his brother, though in private and when around Underfell Frisk, he is less mean to Sans. Fell Sans sometimes slips up and calls Papyrus “bro” out of habit, which is what usually gets him hit, but Papyrus seems to care less when the two of them are not around other monsters.
At first Sans hated Frisk, but because he is a weak monster he never fought them. In some art people show Frisk befriending him before the Judgement hall, however the original creator said Sans only promised not to hurt them after their encounter in the hall. Most fans accepted the non-canon interpretation that they became friends early on after Frisk befriends Papyrus, rather than the actual story of the AU . The three of them are often drawn goofing off much like in the original, Underfell Papyrus even makes the three of them spaghetti, which may or may not be edible.
Underswap is the second most popular AU of Undertale. It is a very in depth AU, where most of the characters' roles and personalities have been swapped. This concept leaves room for many possible versions, for this paper I will be speaking about the most common Underswap made by Popcornpr1nce (Sans/Underswap). In this version all of the major characters have been swapped with a counterpart they seem to have the most contrasting parallels to eg: Sans and Papyrus, Frisk and Chara, Toriel and Asgore, etc. The swapped characters keep the colour schemes that they have in the original for the most part, only switching their styles of clothing slightly. The “routes” in Underswap are generally the same as in Undertale. There is not an official fan-made game for Underswap but there is a group called Team Switched in the process of making one based off of Popcornpr1nce’s version (Sans/Underswap).
Underswap Sans’ personality was switched with Papyrus, from the original game. For the most part he is the same: loud, playful, and kind to the protagonist. Swap Sans keeps the same laugh as well, albeit slightly altered so instead of “Nyeh heh heh” it is “Mweh heh heh” (Sans/Underswap). He is ambitious and is trying to capture a human to become a part of the royal guard, just as Undertale Papyrus was. It is also a known fact that Underswap Sans is slightly self conscious of his height, which remained small like his original counterpart. Due to this, Underswap Papyrus slouches down significantly to make Sans feel less small, but this also ties into his laziness which Sans scolds him for. When he first meets the protagonist he challenges them to a battle but will refuse to kill them if they take too much damage and lets them go free.
The relationships between Underswap characters remain essentially the same as the original game, albeit with switched rolls. Underswap Sans loves his brother but frequently scolds him for being lazy or apathetic. He is training with Alphys, who in this AU is head of the royal guard. However she mainly goes along with him to be nice, knowing that he would be too kind hearted to actually be a part of the guard. He is sweet and usually shown as very innocent, leading many people to give him the affectionate nickname “blueberry” (Sans/Underswap). Underswap is also often mentioned to be a “glitch” by various other fan-characters who exist outside of the universes. One such character is Error Sans, who has tried to destroy Underswap multiple times because of this.
Other AUs
Outertale is an Undertale AU that follows the main storyline of the game, with the exception that it has a space-like setting. The colour palette of the game changes to be mostly dark blues and gold or yellow, with star motifs. Frisk of Outertale is sometimes drawn in a spacesuit, usually though they are depicted wearing a blue sweater with overalls and gold buttons.
Aftertale is an AU that was made from a long running comic under the same name. Unlike other AUs that were mainly just redesigns with some short comics and drawings, Aftertale was quite long. It follows the No Mercy run of Undertale, while providing more fan-created context and additional appearances of the character Chara, who appears at the end of the No Mercy route of the normal game. In this AU, while Sans fights Chara, who has taken control of Frisk’s body, he injects himself with determination. This allows him to have access to the SAVE screen which comes into play more so in the game as a way to break the fourth wall, with various characters mentioning the player’s resets and such. The Sans in this AU has been nicknamed Geno, due to the fact it follows the story of the No Mercy, or Genocide route.
Inktale is a Sans-centric AU, in which the original creator only made content about him. It was a short comic that was only a few chapters long, however the artist made an extensive FAQ about Ink Sans for people to reference from when making fan-works of it. In Inktale it begins with several of the main Undertale cast shown as half finished drawings. In later pages Ink Sans rips apart his half drawn soul and escapes the blank canvas into the void. In the void he finds he has no emotions or memories, but has the ability to capture colours that occasionally appear and grant him temporary emotions. He canonically exists outside the multiverse and in many instances is drawn appearing in other AUs by different creators.
Error Sans is another character who exists outside of the multiverse. He is a part of another Sans-centric AU which originated from an ask-blog on Tumblr, rather than a comic like many of the others. His narrative was fleshed up and created in reaction to submissions to the blog by fans. Error Sans is also created by the same artist who made Aftertale
Echotale is not completely Sans-centric, but he is one of only two main characters. The start of the comic has several other characters as it leads up to the main part of the story. It begins with Frisk being taken in by Professor Gaster, Alphys and Sans who are all working on a determination extraction machine in the lab. After an accident with the machine, the entire underground goes into disarray. It caused all the lands to mix and shift, the world itself losing a constant, static form. It also caused Sans and Gaster to merge together to become a singular but entirely different person, Frisk calls in Gsans, or just G. Frisk changes as well, they grow up significantly but still have knowledge and memories they had when they were still a child. Throughout the comic the two of them travel around the mixed up world in hopes to try and fix it.
Underlust is set in a strange version of the underground where all the monsters had suddenly been affected by a widespread infertility. The Royal scientist, Gaster, created what he believed was a cure and injected every monster that had passed a certain age with a LUST chemical. This AU is a hypersexualized version of Undertale and all the monsters, except Mettaton who instead deals with trauma and is seemingly the only monster the chemical did not affect. In this AU it goes into more detail about the relationship between Sans and Grilby. Underlust Sans is aware of the multiverse and it often burdens him so he confides in his friend, who is later revealed as a love interest.
Horrortale is, as the name suggests, Undertale if it were a horror game. The monsters in this world have been driven crazy by starvation and not only kill, but eat any human that falls down. It follows a character named Aliza, rather than Frisk, as it is set many years after Frisk fell into the underground. Sans has a more menacing presence in Horrortale than the original game, even including his boss fight. He has a large head wound from an attempted murder, but after nearly killing his attacker in response, he is left alone.
Reapertale is an AU that started from the simple concept of a ship between Sans and Toriel if they were the god of death and the goddess of life. The artist then created more lore and comics that were posted out of sequence as they did not care much to make a clear story for it. Reapertale Sans is a grim reaper and very nonchalant about his job, which is reminiscent of the original. He occasionally appeared in other AUs, and is the most popular character from Reapertale.
Shipping
With any popular media comes shipping. It is the inevitable factor that has caused many disputes and in-fighting among fans. Shipping comes from the word relationship, when someone who likes two or more characters in a series and thinks they would be cute together, they ship them. Fans may draw the characters together or write fanfiction about them. The shipping that happened to Sans is quite unique. There were of course many normal ships involving him and other Undertale characters, but some ships were more disturbing like him being with a young child, or even his own brother. It was the AUs in the end that added the final layer of strangeness to this simple skeleton man. Much like the previously mentioned Onceler, there were countless AUs of Sans, which opened just as many shipping possibilities. It got to the point that it even garnered its own term: Sanscest.
There are too many different ships of Sans with different versions of himself to name here. Most notable ships from the AUs mentioned above would include: Geno and Reaper Sans, Error and Ink Sans, Red and Blueberry, Red and regular Sans, or Blueberry, Red and regular Sans all together. Some fans even took it a step further to create children of the Sanses. These fan-made offspring sparked mixed feelings, even in the side of the Undertale fandom that really liked Sans as a character, AUs and all. It was mainly the bizarre nature of having a character being “born” from to alternate versions of the same character. The rabbithole goes even deeper, as an even smaller group of people sometimes shipped different Sans’ with the children of other Sanses. The most well-known example of this was with a Sans child named Paperjam (Undertale Au Offspring Wiki). Paperjam is the child of Ink and Error Sans, who was created by magic because skeletons cannot give birth. They were created by stray strings of magic from Error combined with leftover ink from Ink Sans, and over the course of a few years he became alive. For some unknown reason, quite a few people began drawing Paperjam in romantic art with Fresh Sans. This ship was highly controversial and in my opinion, rightly so. As Fresh Sans is technically Paperjam’s father in a way, and, if they are not considered related, the age gap is concerningly large. Shipping is inevitable with any media that has fans, so in the end most people ust accepted the peculiarity and let it be.
As well as comics that created AUs, there were also a few very popular and notable fan made creations that were not technically full AUs. Some of these may have been theories about the original game, or a spinoff of another AU, or just a bunch of Sanses interacting with each other.
Christmas Party AU was one such Sans-based comic. It was created by the same artist who drew Aftertale, loverofpiggies. It was a very popular comic that got a comic dub of it posted on youtube that currently has more than 11 million views. The comic is set in the void outside of the universes where Geno Sans lives. Geno gathers a bunch of the other Sans’ and a few Papyrus’ from the AUs to come and have a christmas party with him, the AUs being: Undertale, Underfell, Underswap, Reapertale, as well as ErrorSans, FreshSans, and Gaster who makes brief appearances throughout. Hijinks ensue, but unfortunately the comic was left unfinished in 2017.
Handplates is a long running comic written by zarla on Tumblr. It is technically an AU, but it follows the main concept of Undertale, mostly being set before all the main events of the game. It follows the theory that Gaster, the former scientist that worked in the underground, is related to Sans and Papyrus. It follows their story being lab creations of Gaster, as he raises them and then what happens after Sans pushes Gaster into the core, thus erasing him from existence and everyone's memories.
Overgrowth was a fanfiction written about an AU called Flowerfell, which is a spinoff based on Underfell. It followed the same story, with the exception that Frisk had a fictional disease called hanahaki. Hanahaki causes flowers to grow out of peoples lungs and body, which will eventually claim their life. In Flowerfell, flowers would grow out of Frisk everytime they died in a fight, and because of its setting in Underfell, it happened frequently. Overgrowth was incredibly popular on the website it was originally posted on, so much so that it led to many people reposting it elsewhere and claiming it as their own. Due to the theft the original fanfiction was taken down by the author. As of now the original story is permanently removed, however there is a three part reading of it on youtube that the author gave an ok to, as well as the whole story being readable on his patreon for only a dollar.
Paperjams daycare was a highly controversial creation. It was an askblog on Tumblr, where Paperjam, as well as other offspring of various Sanses, took care of the baby versions of Sans. Every page was a response to submissions people would send, saying things to the characters, prompting actions, etc. The concept was very strange, as it was the children taking care of their own parents who were babies for no explained reason. However at the time of 2016-2017 it was wildly popular. Since then the creator has been called out on the weirdness of the comic, as well as some pedophilic themes that cropped up in some chapters. Its popularity died in the past but it was too much of an iconic comic not to mention.
Undertale was such a unique game with so many interesting characters that it is unsurprising the amount of fan-created content it generated. Sans was a part of what made the game memorable, even though his fans were a little strange they were creative as well. The game was able to bring out motivation in so many people to look deeper and explore theories and create their own art. While it had its weirdness, nothing else can truly compare to the rare kind of community it built.
