What is this nonsense, and why did I draw it? Ah. Well. Apologies for the bad handwritten text. I guess this is an opportune time for comic book homage, that I’m too lazy to polish now. Enjoy!
Soul Dichromatism: Love, Hope and Compassion (Part 3)
In BlackRazorBill's fanfiction Soul Dichromatism, monsters broke the barrier and are in a decades-long war with humanity. There seems to be no end in sight. But when an experimental device used on a human captive (Frisk) unexpectedly turns the human into a monster, monsters believe “monsterification” is the way to end the war. This is due to monsters’ beliefs monster souls are made of hope, love and compassion. (the HLC belief for short) By turning humans into monsters, it is believed humans shall more hopeful, loving and compassionate. By turning humans “good”, the war will end.
But if monsters are so compassionate due to their souls being partly made of compassion, why do they still commit non-compassionate atrocities of war?
I speculate this is due to four reasons:
"Depersonizing" Propaganda
Personal Experience
Emotional Exhaustion/Maintenance of Morale
Out-Group Threat
1. Depersonizing Propaganda
(I’m using “depersonizing” as a species-neutral alternative to “dehumanizing”, because it’s the humans being “dehumanized” by virtue of their being human, not monster.)
The first reason monsters don’t act compassionately is propaganda. The HLC belief, and other beliefs on monster and human souls works as depersonizing propaganda, even if it wasn’t originally conceived as such. The beliefs on human souls imply humans are inherently spiritually inferior to monsters, and are less loving, less compassionate, and more prone to “negative emotions” than monsters. With this in mind, killing humans isn’t as horrible as, say, killing a monster.
The HLC belief and other beliefs on human souls are so widespread and/or strongly held, they persist even in those sympathetic to humans. It is Alphys, a scientist who studies human souls and loves human anime, who claims human souls’ “stronger potentiality for negative emotion” as the basis of her suggestion Frisk’s hatred for monsters will subside once fully monsterified.
Even Asgore, who adopted a human child and surely interacted with humans prior to the first human-monster war, seems to believe humans aren’t as hopeful, loving and compassionate as monsters (though they can be, if helped):
(Chapter 3) Asgore: “Humans… are a troubled species, Asriel; as much as we became now… but they can be capable of love, hope and compassion as much as we are, if we give them the chance.” (This suggests Asgore thinks humans aren’t already as capable of those emotions as monsters)
(Chapter 26) Asgore: “…[Asriel], do not sell [Frisk’s] ability for compassion this short. Humans…may be more disconnected from those emotions [hope and compassion, possibly love] than us, however, with the help of loving friends, I do believe-”
As far as can be told so far, only Asriel denies the claim human souls do not need hope, love and compassion to exist:
(Chapter 32): “There were many monsters who thought that, because humans could live without Hope, Love and Compassion, that they didn’t need those things. [...]Asriel knew it was untrue from the time they knew Chara. [...]Asriel knew humans fell down too. They did not lie down and rest like monsters, humans still moved, talked and could even pretend nothing was wrong, but they were falling down all the same.[...]Humans needed Hope, Love and Compassion as well.”
2. Personal Experience
The second reason monsters don’t act compassionate are the personal experiences of soldiers, and those affected by the war. A battlefield is no place to make friendships with the other side, but that’s Undyne’s only exposure to real humans. Though Undyne admires human-made anime and the ideals of anime, she is not compassionate towards humans because they murder soldiers she cares about.
(Chapter 26) Undyne: “[When Asgore was unable to] I ended up teaching most of [the new soldiers].” [...] “I think… I think the hardest is when those youngsters end up dying before I do. I got no kids yet, but… but I bet this is how parents feel when… when they lose their children.”
Artie (Monster Kid's name in the fiction) also has personal reasons to feel no compassion towards humans, even if humans' effect on him is indirect. Artie’s sister fell in love with a soldier. When that soldier was killed by humans, his sister fell into despair. Eventually, she became so hopeless she became “fallen down”, a coma-like state preceding death. (in the fiction, monsters can die from lack of hope) Artie seems to blame humans for his sister's death. This blame, a possible desire for revenge, and perhaps glamorous TV ads of war1 motivates him to become a soldier.
It’s unclear whether Sans believes the beliefs on human souls. He might have personal reasons to believe humans are cruel, due to Frisk trying to kill his merciful, friendly brother Papyrus. He calls Frisk “an enemy” on multiple occasions, and his “skeletons in the closet” story in Chapter 16 might suggest he thinks humans are violent and untrustworthy.
However, Sans says he doesn’t think he hates Frisk. He wishes he could, but Frisk is not easy to hate. It’s possible his distrust of humans comes not from propaganda, but from realizing the two groups are on opposite sides of a conflict with two different end goals. He might not have a strong animus against humans in general, just Frisk in specific.
3. Emotional Exhaustion/Maintenance of Morale
The third reason monsters aren’t compassionate to humans is emotional exhaustion/maintenance of morale. Some monsters, such as Asriel and Asgore, have positive associations with humans but still do not act compassionate to them. This is because the circumstances of war mean there is presently no feasible way to be compassionate2; Humans are simply too dangerous as individuals and as a society.
Extending compassion to the enemy, but being unable to stop the war, might cause a sense of internal turmoil and helplessness. Beyond the direct threat of humans, this gives the war an extra layer of danger: in this fiction, HP is an acronym of “HoPe”, so when monsters are totally hopeless, they fall down and die.
Hardening their hearts and cutting out all compassion for the enemy, (if it’s even possible for them) would help them cope with a war with no end in sight. It’s possible this hardening of the heart is an effect of gaining LV.
One can see coping mechanisms in Asriel and Undyne. Despite his positive experiences with humans, Asriel feels nothing when he kills them,3 and if what Frisk thinks is true, Undyne’s face becomes emotionless in a “mask of war” and she dissociates4 to cope with the horrors of combat.
(Chapter 30) Torria: “The people at large must have hope, and it is up to us [the rulers] to give it to them…”
Due to monsters’ need for morale/HoPe, at many points in the fiction various monsters reduce the human-monster Frisk to nothing more than a symbol: a symbol of hope for a peaceful future where monsters don’t have to kill. In doing so, they have no empathy/compassion for Frisk. When it comes to humans more generally, Torria (a relative of Asriel on the Boss Monster council) suggests using monsterification on children to raise monsters’ hope, as well as population.
4. Out-Group Threat
(Alphys in front of a prototype for a magic cannon that can blast across continents)
The fourth reason is that monsters believe humans are a threat to their existence. Humans are very dangerous both as individuals and as a whole, due to their physical strength, “killing intent” bonus, sheer numbers relative to monsters, and, to a lesser extent, military technology. Indeed, they’re so dangerous it’s too much of a risk to make them prisoners of war, so every battle is “take no prisoners” by default.
While many of their tactics failed against monsters, humanity still seems to have a massive military, to the point of still causing trouble at the western coastal front of the war. Though humans tried diplomacy in the past, it failed, for monsters were too “drunk on recent victories”. Now, monsters have killed so many humans that monsters believe diplomacy is no longer an option. As monsters believe the humans would annihilate them if given the chance, monsters feel the only way to ensure their own survival5 is to destroy humanity, either completely or almost so.
Even if monsters are indeed more compassionate than humans, it certainly doesn’t show up when fighting humans. They seem subject to the same psychological tendencies as humans, for greed, rage, and a desire for revenge were factors in both starting the war and continuing it.
Reducing or eliminating the threatening nature of a situation reduces out-group hostility.6 It is possible that, if humanity had a ceasefire and stopped attacking monsters/trying to regain territory, aggressive or non-compassionate sentiment towards humans would subside. However, it is unlikely at this point. Just as in the first Human-Monster War, the fear of a being with godlike power (here, Asgore) is likely to interfere with anything approaching diplomacy. (especially since diplomacy was refused before)
At this point, monsters believe there’s no backing out of the war. As Flowey might say, “In this world, it’s kill or be killed!”
“Nice TV images”, Chapter 9 ↩︎
Not for lack of trying: “They [monsters] tried to keep human prisoners before, they were still trying occasionally, but it turned out to be too risky [because they kept trying to flee and harm monsters]” -Chapter 1 ↩︎
Chapter 21, Asriel: “…I think… I think the actual hardest time…[killing a human]” He snorted and looked at her with an expression of tired sadness. “…It was when I realized I felt nothing at all anymore.”
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Chapter 12: Undyne had her face completely devoid of any emotion.
A mask of war… something Frisk had seen on human soldiers.
‘Dissociation’, her dad had told her… Get away from the pain… get away from the horror… Become [a] spectator of your own body."
↩︎
Chapter 25, Undyne (to Frisk): “I think you’re WRONG about most monsters deserving punishment for what we do to your people, I DO believe we’re justified still, both to fight for our survival, AND to get revenge on what your people did to us in the first war.” (Emphasis mine)
↩︎
The Oxford Handbook of Diversity and Work, page 102. ↩︎
