frisk can resist the player
throughout undertale, frisk has shown positive qualities through their actions independent of the player. however, most of their decisions are made by the player, which includes kind or cruel ACTs, FIGHT, and MERCY. whether the battle options are provided by frisk, chara, or a combination of the two is left up to speculation. regardless, there is evidence that frisk is a pacifist at heart. in certain circumstances, frisk will resist the player and refuse to be cruel even when instructed to do so.
frisk can only enter undyne’s house if all monsters have been spared. even if frisk kills a monster after fleeing from undyne’s battle, undyne will refuse to open her door, saying she “won’t hang out with a murderer.” the hangout can only occur if frisk is completely innocent of murder, and thus free of chara’s influence.
during the hangout, there are many instances where options are provided to the player. one option has the player choose how frisk will pound the vegetables.
UNDYNE:
Envision these vegetables as your greatest enemy!
Now!! Pound them to dust with your fists!!
NARRATOR:
(How will you pound?) [Strong / Wimpy]
regardless of which the player chooses, frisk does not harm the vegetables.
NARRATOR:
[Wimpy]Â (You pet the vegetables in an affectionate manner.)
[Strong] (You punch the vegetables at full force. You knock over a tomato.)
it appears that if frisk has not committed murder, frisk is gentle with the vegetables even when “strong” is selected, despite having been asked to “pound them to dust.”
there is an even more compelling instance of frisk refusing to cooperate with the player at the end of the visit. after undyne accidentally lights her kitchen on fire, she will challenge frisk to a final rematch to regain her lost pride. in this fight, the player can choose to FIGHT. however, no matter how accurate the hit is, the attack will only deal 1 HP of damage, the exact same amount as the “fake hit” ACT. having befriended undyne, frisk appears to resist the command to fight and instead uses the “fake hit” action. since frisk can only hang out with undyne in the pacifist route, this means that frisk’s personality is dominant. undyne cannot be harmed by frisk because frisk has no desire to hurt, even when they are instructed to.
the date with alphys is another event available only if the player has not killed any monsters. what makes this event unique is that it’s the only time where options are provided in a bizarre style: the words have improper capitalisation and incorrect grammar. because of how unusual it is, it’s possible that someone other than the narrator, perhaps frisk, provides these fun and flirty options for the roleplay.
OPTIONS:
YOur cute,
THEN SHe Kisses YOu
Yo your one hot hotbaby
Alphys gives u a kiss,
while this isn’t an indication of frisk resisting the player, it is a possible example of frisk influencing or overriding the available options.
battle with snowdrake’s mother
the true laboratory is available only when the run is locked into a pacifist route. it is in here that multiple amalgamates can be fought, including snowdrake’s mother. interestingly, in the fight with snowdrake’s mother, there are two ACTs that can be selected to be cruel: “laugh” and “heckle”. no other fight gives the player the opportunity to act cruel.
if the player selects “laugh,” the flavour text reads as followed.
the narrator is confused because frisk did not follow the selected ACT; frisk refused. this is something not generally seen in the game.
if the player selects “heckle”, the flavour text reads as followed:
once again, the narrator has to correct themself because frisk refused to act in the expected manner. the narrator may even be upset with frisk, if the second flavour text is directed at frisk.
it’s important to note that once frisk enters the true lab, there is absolutely NO potential to kill any monsters. any attack on the amalgamates will do no damage – instead, random words flicker in place of damage numbers and the amalgamate’s health bar increases. while the attacks on snowdrake’s mother can do damage, her health bar will never lower completely after a certain mark. this means there can be no more kills once frisk enters the true laboratory. this prevents the player from aborting the pacifist route at this point.
approaching the amalgamate
there is another event that occurs in the true lab that showcases frisk’s resistance, as pointed out by @z0eya. it occurs in one room in the true lab, where there is a bathtub with a strange shadow.Â
despite there being no obstacles to slow frisk down (such as spider webs or water), frisk walks at a much slower pace than normal. it’s much slower than frisk ever walks in any part in the game. it’s interesting that this occurs only in the true lab. it showcases frisk’s fear or hesitation, which is a form of resistance against the player’s choice to move forward toward the shadow.
the last fight of the true pacifist route is also unique. in the fight with the lost souls, none of the options are malicious, with the only exception being the “insult” ACT towards papyrus, who takes any comment as a compliment. whether these options are provided by the narrator or frisk is uncertain.Â
however, there is another unique circumstance in this fight. attacking the lost souls will result in all attacks missing. unlike in sans’ fight, none of the lost souls move to dodge or avoid frisk’s attack. it is possible that this is simply the nature of the battle, given that frisk cannot land a hit on asriel either. however, frisk has shown to be able to hold back on fight in undyne’s fight, so it’s not too far a stretch to believe frisk can intentionally miss as well. frisk may be refusing to hit the lost souls, despite being commanded to do so by the player.
what these events demonstrate is that while frisk is under the player’s control, they can resist the control in certain situations because they are free from the negative impact of murder. this theory supports the ideas that:
frisk is more than just a puppet, and has their own sense of agency
frisk is kind and nonviolent at their core
the player (and chara) has far less influence over frisk in a pacifist route when there are no kills
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