Someone says that the interactions between Papyrus and sans feel kind of... performative? And I can't stop thinking about it.
Because when you think about it, it does really feel like acting cuz the first time we see them, it's like they're making a point to do the whole thing where characters kind of introducing themselves in a subtle manner to the audience like both sans and Papyrus make it a point to call eachother 'bro' and 'brother' respectively and the whole Papyrus doesn't see us behind the lamp thing (though if there is the theory of Papyrus can see from our perspective and that explains this- but then that mean that he knows you are here, how long has he been seeing from our perceptive? Has he been watching us from the runes?) and funnily enough Papyrus seems to be the the most suspicious cuz like- sans knows we're there, it could be him trying to kind of disarm us since that's what's he keeps on doing the whole time we're in Snowdin trying to make us less scared of papyrus (as if we're scared in the first place... For someone who can read expressions, he's a bit of an idiot isn't he?) but Papyrus has no explanations (...if you ignore the fact that we should be very visible from his point of view) and what's weird is that sans doesn't keep on doing that. His actions don't really feel like performative, at least in a way where it feels like he's on the stage and acting for an audience.
Papyrus doesn't stop. he keeps on acting that way and that's without considering the numerous of suspicious stuff about him.
Flashback to those times I was yelling at anyone that would listen about Papyrus acting...
Papyrus is acting, and his brother is.... doing the absolute bare minimum to pass, as he does with everything. If he cared about not scaring us, he wouldn't have done that forest bit. Or the death threat at the hotel, this guy is one promise away from goring us.
If Papyrus breaks character, it could stop the whole game, so he keeps it, and strange thing slip between the cracks. Undyne telling us that he doesn't know how to sleep, not being able to call him in certain areas.. some of the things he says..
I don't entirely understand Papyrus' goal in making the pacifist ending available to us, does he intend for us to do the murder run, too? Or is it simply something he can't get rid of, the final choice being in our hands?
Anyway yes, I believe that Papyrus can see things from our perspective, he has a call where he describes things from our perspective, too. (Waterfall)
"Has he been watching us from the ruins?"
I would like to repost my favourite pair of screenshots!
By a technicality, it is before Snowdin.
Anyway, Papyrus' act is entirely part of getting us to the pacifist ending, this is also why he doesn't care about anyone talking garbage about him like his brother does. He's playing a character that needs to be played to make the pacifist ending possible.
He NEEDS his brother to not kill the player, so he made him get a job, where he met Toriel behind the door, and made that promise. He tells us himself that we would be dead where we stand, if he didn't make that promise.
He tells us this btw.
Papyrus also needed us to not get murdered by Undyne. So what did he do there?
In the same conversation, we're told that he went to Undyne's in the middle of the night to ask to be let into the royal guard. She refused, but he stayed all night outside her door and she decided to settle on giving him 'training'.
He gives her gifts of bones, strangely the same colour as Frisk's skin. Maybe purposely associating something nice with the human that will eventually visit. (I tried counting the bone presents in the drawer too btw, there's at least eight which is not a suspicious number at all /lying)
There's no evidence that Papyrus had changed anything after that, which makes sense, both MTT and Alphys seem extremely unlikely to kill us, same as Asgore. It was his brother and two friends which were the main concerns.
