So someone decided to debate ships with me. XD
Just because Toby leaves the ending up to the player does not make your ships any more possible in the game.
Alphyne is canon and Asgoriel is hinted at. (with an entire scene of the two together mind you. Among various other things.)
As for their personalities? You clearly have no understanding of these characters that you claim to ship.
Let’s start with Undyrus and Alphyne.
Alphyne is hinted at a lot throughout the games with numerous phonecalls and more showing that Papyrus and Undyne are just bffs. Papyrus even attempts to call Alphys for Undyne. (She gets flustered about it too.) There is also how Alphys acts on her date. She has all these things for Undyne, further proving that while she maybe bi or possibly even pan, she likes Undyne the most and has bonded with her over the course of their anime binge watching. Undyne also feels the same way. Papyrus is shown to be naive and not quite understanding of certain concepts of dating. The players date with him, should you choose to flirt with him during his fight, is very clearly nothing more than a playdate. When you go to Undyne’s, you have a cooking lesson. Nothing there either. But Alphys date… It outright shows you Alphys and Undyne’s relationship of not only close friends, but as two individuals trying to figure out how they feel about each other. Papyrus and Undyne have NEVER had a moment like that and Papyrus is a fellow supporter of Alphyne as are a few other characters. (Again, he tries to call Alphys for Undyne.) Notice how in the true ending that Papyrus is not in the scene with Undyne. Instead, Undyne is at the beach with her new girlfriend. (Even kissing her on the cheek for a cute moment.) Alphyne is canon and Undyrus is a brotp.
Now onto Soriel and Asgoriel. First of all, I would like to refresh your memory on how boss monsters are different from regular monsters. The Dreemurrs are the only known monsters called boss monsters. (Being an in game boss is different from being part of the boss monster species.) Boss monsters do not age and will out live anyone close to them, even their closest friends. The only way for boss monsters to age is to have children. Now I would like to talk about past Asgoriel. Asgore and Toriel were together for probably eight centuries if we go by the weapons in the intro and real world history. (medieval times etc.) It is highly likely that boss monsters must be highly sterile. We do not see any other boss monsters like the Dreemurrs. (If there are other boss monsters, then they are likely in the capital and other unreachable towns in the game.) Being two of the only boss monsters left after the war only cemented their royal status as king and queen. (It can be inferred that their parents died in the war or beforehand as they did not age until having Asriel.) Asgore and Toriel have one of the strongest, if not THE strongest relationship in canon. They were together for multiple centuries which is a testament to their love. Even having cute moments in bed they taped on VHS. Also, they sleep in the same bed in that video. It is my (and various others) headcanon that the rooms under maintenance are likely just their bathrooms. (Likely their pipes got clogged with fur as that is shown to happen in the kitchen sinks.) Asgore and Toriel clearly were in love. Gerson even mentions a few cute stories about the two further cementing their history and relationship. Gerson is also the one to teach the player about boss monster biology.
Now that I have talked about the past (trust me, I skipped over a lot of extra fluff details that Gerson says.) let me talk about the current situation. Soriel, just like Undyrus, is a brotp. Toriel and Sans have a few conversations but nothing builds on them having a future together. All they did was share some puns and a single recipe. They did not even tell each other their names. Sans is implied to have worked with Gaster and his followers among other things. Is that ever brought up? No. Toriel was the queen. Is that ever brought up? Seeing how Sans just calls her an “Old lady” (which he calls her MULTIPLE TIMES on different runs) they likely did not talk about themselves too much. All Sans knew about Toriel was that she wanted the humans to be safe. Anyone can tell you that. All Toriel knew about Sans is that he has a brother named Papyrus. Again, this an obvious part of his character that he would talk more about his brother than himself. He does that through the entire game. This proves that while they are close friends, they did not trust each other with personal stuff. Toriel does not give her reasoning or past when asking her new friend to take care of the next human. She just assumes that there is at least one monster on that side of the door who would not kill a human. Sans decides to humor her and accepts the promise. Sans specifically states that he hates to make promises and would have straight up killed Frisk if he did not do decide to help this old lady who he assumes from the tone of her voice, is very sad. Helping your elders is nothing new. The motivation was not love or LOVE. It was straight up friendship. Sans does not even comment on Toriel’s death. Only his brother’s.
Now back to Asgoriel. There are quite a few hints that Toriel actually does miss her old life with Asgore. This becomes blatantly obvious when you notice her decor. Tons of plants and flowers. Who is a gardener? Asgore. She is trying to fill the void. (Heck, the two may even be codependents.) The only plants that are doing well are the cacti, low maintenance plants, and a single golden flower in her room in memory of Asriel. This is likely one of the first to grow and the one that she cultivated seeds from. (You can find home made seed packets in a drawer.) Again, something she would have seen Asgore do many times. Not only this but she continues to make snail pie and butterscotch cinnamon pie. She and Asgore normally bought snails from the Blooks. (Napstablook and MTT got to see them together. Lucky…) Again, she is trying to fill the void. She can not even accuse Asgore of the killing at first. She says the monsters, followed by Asgore, will kill you. Not that Asgore and the monsters will kill you. She is still hoping that Asgore is not the killer. Fast forward to Asgore and you can see he is an absolute wreck without her. (Again, they could both be seen as codependents.) Asgore not only has removed plants from his house, but he as let the color fade from his home as well. Clearly the signs of a depressed individual. You can see just how broken he is. He has to write in his diary that it was a good day. He also still has a brand name chocolate bar for Chara and the sweater Chara made for him. He also has a Santa suit. Something Chara likely brought to the monster culture. Asgore and Toriel have both held onto the past and have not received any closure. Move onto the fight and Asgore is holding back. Throughout the game you learn about the father-daughter relationship Asgore and Undyne have. Whether it is through training or just having hot cocoa, they are very close. Speaking of training, Undyne mentions that Asgore is amazing at dodging. (Any no hit runner can tell you Undyne is hell.) Asgore’s fight can even go on indefinitely. Asgore has amazing speed, 80 attack and defense, and a HUGE amount of health. What does he do? He lets you hit him. He takes the abuse because he no longer wants to live. He mentions that he is a pacifist too and was only trying to give his people hope. (Hope is a component of a monster soul as stated in a few books in game.) He was trying to keep his people alive. He even says that if you want, you could live with him and Toriel as a family. But then he is killed. Even if you spare him, in a certain ending you can get by doing neutral runs a certain way, Asgore admits that being forgiven for the past would be difficult and that there is no other option. (He hired Alphys to find a way through the barrier but she never did find a solution or soulution if you prefer.) He straight up kills himself in front of you to give you a chance to escape through the barrier and find a solution he was not able to. Now, I would like to note here that Frisk does in canon see Asgore as a father-figure. If you talk to Gerson enough, the two of you will talk about the possibility of Asgore being Frisk’s dad. Frisk is implied to talk, just as they are implied to say various other things. So goatdad is canon. Now to move onto the cutscene you all like to focus on. Everyone is together and talking. Asgore asks if he can be friends with Toriel. She says no. This is actually important because if she had said yes, he would be in the friendzone 100%. Instead, she says no, meaning that Asgore is going to have to rebuild his relationship with her in order to become friends and eventually back to lovers. This is actually extremely realistic and true to life. Back to Soriel. Sans and Toriel joke around, even playing keepaway with a phone. This in no way means a relationship. Friends and siblings do that all the time. It is a brotp. Also, something EXTREMELY important to note is during the Asriel fight. Asgore and Toriel are still affecting each other’s souls. They are connected at the soulular level (Lame pun I know.) after decades of being apart. They are still close no matter how much Toriel is too stubborn to admit. Sans and Papyrus have an extremely close bond as well. No, not love but brotherly love. So much so that they affect each other. Alphys and Undyne are separate because they are just starting a relationship so they are not that close yet. Now I bring us to the final point with Asgoriel. The ending. Asgore and Toriel are shown to have reconciled to the point of happily working together. It is not wrong to assume they could have possibly reconciled all the way. Afterall, now they would have time to have the closure they needed and Asgore would be able to actually apologize. (Something everyone interrupts.) Not only that but statistically, most romances start at work. (Just look at Undyne and Alphys. They both worked for Asgore.) Asgore and Toriel certainly have some tension and they are working together. It is easy to see them reconciling.
So there you have it. Alphyne is canon, asgoriel is supported, and the rest are brotps. Obviously, I could not add in ALL my evidence but I did put in a majority of it. I know how to read characters because I am a critic. I am a realist, a cynic, and more. I am logical and the evidence is in my favor. If you try to ship the brotps as anything more then you should not be in the fandom. You are erasing part of these characters that make them so real to the actual fans. The reason I shipshame is to protect what Toby Fox gave us. A lovely story with just enough realism to make us connect with the characters. I will support the canon no matter what people may say. If you build off of canon, great! But if you are erasing character traits you can leave. These characters are perfect and should be respected, fictional or not.
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