I mean yeah, I already knew about the cowboy segment… and the Kikiyama interview… but still!
…Wait, they might remove the cowboy segment??? Noooooooooooo!!
Moving on for now… Love that every headcanon I’ve ever had about Grillby and Sans panned out 🥹
^The snow man thing is adorable btw?? I might cry…
Oh Sans, never change 😂
Edit: just checked out that Pop n’ music Sans thing, and Toby’s right, he looks great
Also this Temmie interview is the cutest thing, I love it
Fantastic additions all in all, 20/10, I’ve never been happier to be subscribed to the Truck Freak tier (even if I do have to be made fun of a bit for it…)
Nice to know Deltarune Ch. 3 is coming along nicely! Wait a second...
Oh my god, I love her
Next up, a Sans deleted scene...?
Cool! Let's see it then!
...no...
Toby Fox, is this meant to be a freaking Sans Undertale speedrun killer????
It freaking is adhsgdhwg Toby you sly dog 😂😂😂 I love this
And now, the Papyrus interview, which needs to be documented for posterity and preserved forever gfhdjfhssbd I love it so much
He's so precious I love himmmmmm I'd die for him😭
Well, that was freaking adorable, but also Papytton confirmed?? Papyblook perhaps?? Pan Papyrus?? /hj
These two have such wonderful sibling energy, I love them so much TT^TT
Wait, this last one...
Wait a second...
There's no such thing as green grass anywhere in Undertale's underground that's habitable. The seagrass in Waterfall is dark blue
And I don't remember seeing any other grass anywhere else. Not in the Ruins, and definitely not in Snowdin or Hotland! The only place there's any grass at all is Asgore's throne room, but they couldn't have been living there!!! That's a single room without any living space!
Sans Undertale, get back here and answer the question! What are you hiding?? Is this confirmation for the "Sans and Papyrus originally came from Deltarune" theory??? He can't keep getting away with this!!!
so yeah, I am a weak, weak woman and I said I wasn't gonna do this but the thought won't leave me alone so here you go! A compilation of every headcanon/canon info/"Word of God" about Bruno that makes me love him So Much it's INSANE.
SPOILER ALERT!!! WE WILL BE GOING THROUGH THE MOVIE WITH A FINE COMB, SO IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED ENCANTO AND CARE ABOUT SPOILERS DON'T READ THIS POST!!!!
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Ok, now we can begin
(Here's another link to Part 2, just in case, for your convenience)
First, let's start from the very beginning with what we know of the triplets' childhood. He's the youngest of the three, the baby of the family, which makes his later self-imposed exile all the sadder.
Jared Bush, one of Encanto's directors, once mentioned Bruno was the “star” of the family at one point (sorry I haven't been able to find this tweet again), probably because even back then he was the same - always been willing to do his best to help others - and people would naturally be inclined to seek him out to find out about their future… at first.
However, as he aged and people realized that his visions weren’t always positive, they began to fear him as a “bad omen”, and he had to deal with all that distrust, blame and animosity. I can’t imagine that Alma was all that helpful in quelling the ill-feelings against him, since she tends to put the needs of the community above those of her family. The town probably went easier on him when he was small then got meaner and meaner as he got older, since it’s easier to blame a teen or an adult for things than a small child.
We can see in this picture that even as a child he was most likely an introverted, awkward person, so dealing with those kinds of negative feelings towards him probably wasn't easy.
Over time, that kind of thing sticks with you. He probably ended up eventually half-believing some of their nonsense, and started to think of himself as a “Bad Omen”. This is probably why he tosses salt, and skips the cracks on the floor, and mutters “healing” phrases, and knocks on wood, over and over again.
It’s like he’s trying desperately to compensate for his “unlucky” existence, so he has all these rituals to evade bad luck and drive away ill omens. And he does them all the time, even when he isn’t planning to have a vision any time soon, so it’s not just his gift he’s trying to counteract either.
As Bruno grew more isolated, and started to despise giving visions more and more (and perhaps himself as well), his tower changed to reflect his needs, and transformed itself to more easily dissuade people from trying to get a vision from him. One of the best clues regarding this is the first thing you see of the room: The sign at the entrance that reads “Your Future Awaits” sounds more like something you would find at the door of a Town Fair’s fortuneteller than something you’d normally put in your room.
It’s clearly meant for visitors, not family, much less Bruno himself. Meaning Casita, following Bruno’s wishes, made the staircase longer and his vision cave more unwelcoming, until it became the creepy, nigh-unreachable thing we see in the movie.
I don't agree with the impression some fans (and the people of Encanto) seem to have, where Bruno gave visions out randomly, on the streets even, in order to cause chaos. It's clear, both from the way he tries to deny Mirabel when she asks him for a vision, almost running away from her,
and how after Mirabel didn’t get her gift he didn’t try to find answers in the future himself, but his mother had to BEG him to do it instead. Even in the greatest “crisis” his family faced, he didn’t have a vision of his own will. And probably with good reason.
Anyone who wanted a vision, family and townspeople included, probably had to go see him and beg him to have their future read, just like Alma did… and then when they didn’t get what they wanted to hear they blamed him (for shame), which probably only made him more anxious and withdrawn from society. That in turn only made him seem more like a spooky specter haunting the town, resulting in a self-perpetuating cycle of distrust and self-isolation.
In regards to his family, I'm sure the adults tried their best to not let the rumors change their impression of Bruno, but it seems to have affected them to some extent, as evidenced by Felix yelling about how having a vision from Bruno "was a nightmare". It probably got worse after the whole wedding ordeal.
With the children, however, I firmly believe (AND I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL) that Bruno was and is excellent with children. The evidence is thus:
1. That whole deal with Hernando and Jorge looks suspiciously like something you do to amuse children, especially with the way he took the time to explain to her that it was "actually still him", like you would need to for a child who hasn't developed object permanence yet. Also we need to take into account that Bruno last interacted with Mirabel when she was five (5) years old so... yeah, I bet he tried a trick that used to work on her to redirect her attention but it didn't work as he hoped on Teen Mirabel 😂
2. He's artistic, dramatic, quirky and fun, things most children enjoy seeing in adults.
3. He’s clearly a very good caretaker for his rats, since they seem to be willing to perform any task for him, and they seem very comfortable being near/on him. They all look very well taken care of too. I have to assume that aptitude has to translate to child care, at least a little bit, since both require a certain level of attention, respect and care. It certainly extends to other animals, like Antonio's coatis and capybara
4. The only positive/neutral versions of Bruno come from Isabela and Dolores, the oldest children and the only ones of the grandchildren besides Luisa who could have had clear memories of him. And this is despite the fact that Bruno gave Dolores a painful vision of her own. Somehow, she still understands that his gift was a burden to him and seems excited upon his return at the end of the movie.
5. This tweet by Jared Bush seems to supports this theory
6. And finally because he is just SO GODDAMN SWEET AND GENTLE ALL THE TIME but we'll get back to that later.
While we're on the topic of children: in regards to Camilo's view of Bruno, I believe it was a combination of rumors from the community (like the above tweet states) + being 5 years old when Bruno left (and thus very short in comparison to Bruno).
However, the “rats along his back” bit leaves us with two possibilities; either Bruno’s rat affinity predates his departure from the family, and Camilo vaguely remembers seeing him with them, or maybe Camilo caught him sneaking out of the walls to find food when he was little and passed out from the shock 😂(“when he calls your name, it all fades to black🎶”)
(@swedenis-h made a fantastic comic about this headcanon btw you should check it out)
The second headcanon is more funny but I personally lean towards the first one, since to me it makes sense for Bruno to have an affinity for a creature that is repudiated and hated by others through no real fault of its own :(
Next, let us move on to what we see of him in the movie. The very first time we see him he is VIBING IN THE BACKGROUND OF HIS OWN DISS-TRACK, BOBBING HIS HEAD AND EVERYTHING (I love this funky little rat man)
The next time we see him it's inside the walls of Casita, and we get to see the room he spent the past 10 years living in. Let's explore it a little:
It really shows how creative, resourceful and artistic Bruno is. He seems to have fixed up and repurposed many things to use as his furniture, such as the bucket? he turned into a lamp and his crate-come-rat theater. I also love how he has little drawings of his rats going on adventures on his walls, and how he went to the trouble of building them a little maze as enrichment 😭
(If you want to read a more in-depth analysis about every detail of Bruno's room, you can find it here)
I also like how he seems to try to keep himself as clean as he can: even though his clothes look quite worn down, they don't have any stains I could see, his hair doesn't really look greasy or unkempt, and his hands are clean without any dirt under his nails. Also the clothesline in the background of this image leads me to believe he regularly washes all of his clothes. His mother raised him well lol (or maybe so strictly that even in these conditions he can't bring himself to disregard his hygiene since it's so ingrained in him). I do worry about the rats but I hear that rats are actually quite clean as pets?
It has also been mentioned that they scrapped a scene showing Bruno using pipes to get water to wash himself, but maybe they still make the cut in some way and are what we see in the background of this shot?
AND THEN THERE’S THIS GODDAMN PLATE – JUST THE IMPLICATIONS OF IT MAKE ME LOSE MY MIND.
HE WANTED SO DESPERATELY TO BE PART OF HIS FAMILY’S LIVES BUT HE KNEW HE COULDN’T, SO HE PLAYED MAKE-BELIEVE, TO MAKE HIMSELF FEEL CLOSER TO THEM.
HE PROBABLY JOINED THEM FOR EVERY MEAL HE COULD, BUT NOW I CAN’T HELP BUT THINK ABOUT HOW WHENEVER THE FAMILY HAS A MEAL OUTSIDE HE CAN’T SEE THEM AND THAT’S HIS ONLY TIME TO "BE" WITH THEM, SO I CAN'T IMAGINE HOW SAD AND LONELY HE MUST HAVE FELT ON DAYS WHERE HE COULDN'T SHARE THAT TIME WITH THEM, I'M IN AGONY NOOOOOOO (you don't know what it did to me the first time I saw it in cinemas)
And then we learn why Bruno has been living here in the first place. We learn that the vitriol of the townspeople has worn him down so much over the years that he genuinely believes his family is better off if he isn't there with them. He believes that he's saving them from the burden of his curse-like "gift" by leaving, but he just didn't have the heart to truly be apart from them, so he has stayed here. And even now, in this most humble of abodes with little to no resources, he's still helping his family every single day by doing his best to patch the cracks in Casita.
But wait! That was actually a red herring, because even with all the abuse he suffered from the people of Encanto, and even with his low self-esteem, it still wasn't enough for him to leave his family.
We then learn that the real reason he gave up his family's regard, his living space, the respect of his mother, and the affection of his niblings, was to protect his beloved sobrina from facing the same kind of ostracization that he had been dealing with his entire life.
And I think that's so beautiful, especially since up until this point Mirabel just isn't used to anyone except her parents putting her first, and even then in many cases the needs of the rest of the family and the community can get in the way (*cough* like when they don't believe her about Casita cracking *cough*. Still great parents, and I get why they didn't believe her, but I can't help but wish they had)
Truly, these writers are geniuses. They turned what could have been framed as an act of cowardice if it had been purely for himself, i.e. hiding himself from the negative opinions of his community, and turned it into an act of bravery and sacrifice and, above all, love.
(this will be continued in Part 2 because stupid tumblr won't let me put more than 10 pictures in one post)
Here's a link to part 1, if you hadn't already read it.
Now, back to business, let's keep listing all the ways Bruno is amazing!
Let's take a look at The Last Vision scene. There’s so much to love about it. If you want a more in-depth look at only that scene nael-opale made a whole post devoted to it, but here are the things that stood out to me:
1. The expression on his face when Antonio hands him his plush jaguar: he goes from surprised (seemingly at the fact that someone is showing him kindness??) to a smile so gentle and full of gratitude that it breaks my heart, (also he turns the jaguar to “face” him a little bit so he can look it in the eyes as he smiles? omg HELP-),
2. How he lets Mirabel place her hands on his instead of just grabbing them, and then closes his hands around hers so softly, gently, without gripping her too tight despite how anxious he obviously is about the whole thing (hnnng I'M IN A GLASS CASE OF EMOTION)
3. Then there's this look of absolute despair he has when he thinks this is just another "unlucky", terrible vision like the one before, the strangled "I have to stop", the way he curls into himself and raises his hands towards his face as if to cover his eyes - (great, I made myself emotional... I need a minute)
4. Next, as the vision starts to take a turn for the better, he still mistakes an embrace for a fist fight (maybe because he hasn't had any physical affection in at least ten years) and Mirabel snaps at him a bit, and he gets this startled/sad look that just makes me wanna cover him with a blanket and cuddle him, the poor thing
And then when he realizes the true content of the vision he looks so excited about finally, for once, giving someone a happy vision, until he realizes Mirabel is angry and he looks so... defeated and resigned. I know they played it for laughs but it still breaks my heart when I think about it, because he went from this
to "yeah, this has happened a million times before in a million different ways, but the result is always the same... no matter what they say at the beginning, if the vision is not something they wanna see then they'll get angry at me. Every. Single. Time".
(and don't get me started on how he was probably super pumped about this one despite Mirabel's angry shout of Isabela's name moments before because he hasn't had a chance to hug his own sisters in over 10 years and he'd give anything to have a chance like that and so this must obviously be a happy thing for Mirabel too, I-)
And then there's that little scene after the vision where he tells Mira “YOU’RE EXACTLY WHAT THIS FAMILY NEEDS”, just BRUNO GOING OUT OF HIS WAY TO GIVE MIRABEL THE VALIDATION SHE’S ALWAYS NEEDED, from someone who is not her parents and therefore obligated to do it. And he does it so sincerely too, with such a tender look on his face (*sobs in Bruno-feels*)
Next let's take a moment to appreciate how after Casita comes down he gets a horse from god knows where to search for Mirabel, and when he finds her he CONFRONTS HIS MOTHER, DESPITE HIS PREVIOUSLY STATED FEAR OF HER, JUST TO PROTECT MIRABEL, AGAIN (and his grand entrance was FANTASTIC btw)
We're near the end of the movie, and I want to add a little bit of speculation about Bruno's relationship with his sisters here: looking at how they immediately accept him as soon as he returns, they probably never bore any genuine dislike or hatred of him. Maybe they let some of his reputation get to them, as I said before, but I don't believe they were antagonistic at all.
Pepa in particular probably used her anger about the Wedding Incident to ground herself after he left, to drown her grief over his absence and push it to the furthest recesses of her mind. I bet they did grow a bit distant after the wedding thing, yes, but it was never true anger until he disappeared. It’s probably another reason why his name is a taboo subject in Casa Madrigal – thinking about him just hurt too much.
On the topic of Pepa, I am 100% sure Bruno and Camilo got along like a house on fire after his return, much to Pepa's amusement, once Camilo got over his biases against his tio (they both have such strong Theater Kid energy after all)
And I’m convinced Pepa’s children are all huge fans of Bruno’s rat telenovelas (Antonio because rats, Camilo and Dolores because
D R A M A 😂)
As a bonus, let us end with Bruno just being Soft™, gentle and cute - a compilation:
a. That one time he slightly raises his voice against Mirabel and then immediately apologizes like he can't bear the sight of her startled face, like he can't stand the thought of her being frightened of him or hurt by him, pLEASE I CAN'T-
b. THE LOOK ON HIS FACE WHEN MIRABEL PROMISES TO BRING HIM BACK HOME, IT'S JUST SO FULL OF HOPE IT'S MAKING ME TEAR-BEND
c. HE TOOK THE TIME TO SAVE HIS RATS EVEN WHEN THE HOUSE WAS COLLAPSING ALL AROUND HIM WTH
d. When his sisters and Agustin hug him after his return to Casita, he looks very awkward at first, probably because he hadn't interacted with an actual human being for 10 years and even before that he had been isolating himself, but then he looks so very happy in this moment look at himmm T^T (also Camilo, he's a smol king, 7-foot frame my ASS)
e. His excitement over helping with the spackle for Casita’s new foundation (I know you can just barely see it in the picture but he's smiling under that bucket, jesus)
f. When they hand her the doorknob to the new house he looks SO FULL OF PRIDE for Mirabel, JUST LOOK AT HIM HE’S LOVELY. And that whole "You're the real gift, kid" thing?? My hEART-
g. Also from this video, look at the 1:26 minute mark. I adore the way he steadies Mirabel like 3 times when Casita moves them all over for the family photo, like he's concerned only about her well-being and helping her keep her footing. Zero care about steadying himself :'(
In conclusion, Bruno Madrigal is an immeasurably kind, gentle individual who is capable of showing compassion even to the smallest, most disliked of creatures. He got a bad reputation because of a gift he cannot control and a quirky, introverted personality, and despite being subject to hatred and disdain from his community as well as the disappointment and pressure of his family he continued to do his best to improve all their lives and was willing to give up everything he had in order to protect one of his niblings, and presumably would have done the same for any one of them. He also can be quite spunky, and is capable of great acts of bravery, especially when protecting those he loves. And for all of those reasons, I would die for him. Protect him at all costs
If you want to read some fantastic Bruno-centric Encanto fics that explore his childhood and his relationship with his niblings, I recommend these two:
I'll brick by brick rebuild us (out of how's and why's not when's), by Acewithapaintbrush
We don't talk about Bruno, by Moonybird
Also please watch this Encanto animatic about Bruno and Pepa's relationship because it's beautiful and it crushed me emotionally
6 years have passed since the release of Undertale, and there’s still so much we don’t know, especially in regards to Sans. I didn’t write much for Undertale’s anniversary last year, mostly just reblogged other people’s gorgeous fanart, but I’ve been mulling everything over and I wanted to write a bit about everything we know, everything we don’t, and my takes on how those threads connect, in honor of Undertale’s 6th anniversary and the release of Deltarune Chapter 2. Here we go!
What we know:
1) Sans was most likely some kind of scientist, as evidenced by his workshop, his quantum physics books, and this statement:
Key word “our”, meaning he was most likely involved in obtaining those reports somehow.
2) Sans was somehow involved with Gaster, the previous Royal Scientist who built the Core and who “shattered across time and space”. The biggest evidence to support this is of course his use of the infamous “gaster blasters”
Most likely, he worked alongside Gaster while studying the timelines, and he is the other person Sans is referring to when he said “our reports”. The only other possibility would be Alphys but she, unlike Sans, never once insinuates that she has any knowledge of alternate timelines or the power to RESET. She also mentions that you seem familiar if you RESET after befriending her,
Unlike Sans, who keeps whether or not he experienced any déjà-vu hidden (probably out of a sense of self preservation)
3) Sans has dealt with Flowey’s RESET BS before, and probably remembers enough to know he’s dangerous. If you reset enough times after battling Asgore, eventually Flowey will tell you this little gem:
so Sans has confronted and killed Flowey for his timeline shenanigans several times. Also, during a normal playthrough Sans tries to warn you about Flowey
I know he later says that “someone must be using an echo flower to play a trick on [Papyrus]”, but am I supposed to believe that while telling his brother about the flower giving him “encouragement, advice, predictions”, Papyrus never once mentioned that this flower was golden?? No, Papyrus being Papyrus he probably told Sans ALL about his little golden flower friend. So why be so cryptic about it? Why warn you at all? I believe Sans remembers or has figured out enough to know that the flower is dangerous, that it has hurt Papyrus before, so he tells you to keep an eye out for it, and he does so in such a way that, were Flowey to overhear your conversation (which little Mr follows-you-everywhere-you-go totally could), he’d be unlikely to suspect that Sans knows anything.
4) Sans dealt with RESET shenanigans for far, FAR too long - I made a post a while ago about exactly this, but the TL;DR of the matter is that Sans has had to deal with at the BARE MINIMUM around 70 years worth of RESETs. And that’s being extremely generous, with the more likely number being over 130 years.
5) As a result of the aforementioned exposure to time hijinks, he’s most likely struggling with at the very least dysthymia, if not actual Major Depressive Disorder - It’s never explicitly stated, but the signs are all there, some better hidden than others. If you call Undyne at the Snowed Inn she tells you that she usually doesn’t sleep over at Papyrus’ house because Sans gets up constantly during the night, repeatedly waking her up.
This could of course have been done on purpose as a prank to make her lose sleep, but it seems a little too mean-spirited for him. Usually his pranks are completely harmless, like whoopee cushions or leaving a red ring around your eye or telling you he’s selling fried snow (without ever actually letting you waste money by buying it). Taking the fact that he naps constantly during the day into account, as well as this statement by Papyrus:
then we already have 2 of 5 criteria from the DSM-5 (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders created by the American Psychiatric Association) required to diagnose Major Depressive Disorder: fatigue/loss of energy and insomnia. Other criteria exhibited by Sans include:
Constant hopelessness
Not feeling interest or joy from things he normally would (aka anhedonia)
and Altered appetite (if we take what he says at face value, it seems like he is eating more than ever, since he says goes to Grillby’s to eat every 30min or something like that, but we never see him actually eat anything even after ordering, and some conversations with Grillby’s patrons seem to indicate maybe he actually has a decreased appetite, and is hiding it by feeding his meals to the Dogi when no one is looking)
There’s also this dialogue for the Ugly Fish, which directly contradicts what Sans said previously about his eating habits.
The game doesn’t give us direct proof for any of the rest of the symptoms, like thoughts of death or excessive feelings of guilt/worthlessness, but it is quite possible that someone in his position would struggle with those things as well, and in any case what we do have evidence for is enough to make me fairly certain that he’s dealing with a disorder on the depressive spectrum. Also, we may not have a time frame for his symptoms but as stated before he’s been facing Flowey’s bs for literal decades, so he’s probably had these issues for quite a while, and it’s undoubtedly affecting his life since he can’t bring himself to put more than the least possible effort into anything.
6) Even with everything I’ve already explained, despite finding life so pointless that he’s pretty much given up on finding happiness or in doing his best at anything for himself, the poor guy still does his best to provide and care for Papyrus. He’s basically his hype-man, he defends him from anyone who insults him, he supports him in every endeavor (both emotionally and financially), he makes sure that he has every luxury they can afford (even if he doesn’t buy any for himself), he does his best to spare him from harsh truths, and so much more. It’s part of why I love him so much; despite the world continuously trying to stomp out his empathy, he still cares deeply about his loved ones and will go to great lengths to help them.
This includes Toriel (besides making and keeping his infamous promise to her for as long as he could, he also supports her however he can in every neutral ending)
(and some of you still wonder why Soriel is a thing)
Also Alphys (he seemingly helps feed the amalgamates and he supports her wholeheartedly during the Queen Alphys neutral ending)
That’s pretty much everything we know with any degree of certainty about Sans. Time to head into...
Headcanon territory (continued under the cut)
1) How much does he remember? - I’d say Sans must remember SOMETHING of the previous timelines. Many people argue that because Sans always seems to talk about his knowledge of your actions in relation to things he can observe, like your expression, he remembers nothing. Others argue that his level of intuition is so uncanny that he MUST remember everything. However, I believe that the actual truth is somewhere in the middle. We know that other monsters have at least a sense of deja-vu,
so Sans must likewise remember at least that much. Perhaps his knowledge of timelines, LOADs and RESETs or his experiments with Gaster allow him to dig up more memories than others could (or at least actually pay attention to what those feelings of deja-vu are telling him without dismissing them as most of the others do), which would explain how he’s able to tell exactly how many times in a row he’s killed you and give you a warning when you’ve killed Papyrus in a previous timeline.
2) So why keep quiet about his deja-vu? Why not be like his brother and make it clear that he has vague memories of you? It’s as I said at the beginning of this post - self preservation.
We’ve established that Sans is most likely aware of the threat Flowey poses, that he knows of timeline shenanigans, that he can keep track of events between LOADs/RESETs and that he’s very smart (and even used to be a scientist of some sort). A person like that could probably infer that the reason Flowey&Frisk RESET so much is because they “have to see what happens”. So what can he do, with his very limited power, to reduce the amount of RESETs as much as possible?
Simple - he gives them as little variation as possible so that they’d have no reason to RESET anymore. He hides his knowledge so that the anomaly can’t go “oh look! this dude remembers, so he could have a different reaction every single time! How fun! =)”
We know Flowey at least found great joy in the changes brought about by the presence of someone who actually remembered. So much so that he was willing to do nearly anything to stop you from leaving
In light of that, of course Sans would keep anything he knows as under wraps as possible. This is why I’m very reluctant to believe he only “figures out stuff from your expression”.
3) How much of a threat is Sans to a Pacifist Frisk? - many people speculate that Sans would be useless in a fight against an opponent with no EXP, since they believe his KARMA will not work at all against such an enemy, leaving him with only his natural 1ATK to work with. I, however, don’t think that’s true.
Sans’ KR can do a maximum of 40HP of poison/drain-damage, plus 30HP of damage per second of contact with his attacks (due to his invincibility cancel) at LV19, so clearly the HP lost is not exactly equal to your LV. If we say that KARMA is a form of retribution for your crimes, as it appears to be,
then we can assume that KR does more and more damage the more EXP/LV you’ve earned, yes. However, I don’t think KR would do NO damage at LV1, and I don’t believe that Sans’ most powerful weapon, the invincibility frame cancellation, would disappear.
After all, LV is a quantification of your capacity to hurt others. You start at LV1, not LV0, since even at LV1 you’re perfectly capable of killing people. You can even be LV1 after having killed a monster (specifically a whimsun). And that’s not even taking into account how complicated and hard to dodge his attack patterns are.
Therefore, little LV1 Frisk with their miserable 20HP would near dead after only half a second of contact with his attacks (which would deal 15HP of damage), AND I bet they’d have to deal with at least 1-2HP of extra drain/poison damage every turn.
So yeah, if he chose to fight Frisk as soon as they came out of the Ruins, Sans would most likely still be one of the hardest battles in the game.
4) Does Sans care for Frisk? - I’ve seen a lot of debate about whether Sans ultimately feels anything for Frisk or not (in Pacifist timelines of course, he undoubtedly hates you if you kill Papyrus and he judges you harshly if you’ve killed people),
particularly because even if you’ve got 0 EXP, even if you’ve gone to Grillby’s with him and bought his hotdogs and had fun together, this still happens
So he realizes you’re the anomaly, and therefore a threat, no matter the run. However, I think he says this because, at this point, even if you’re LV1, you could still turn around and kill people. You could even completely decimate the population of Hotland and the Core, Genocide style. So this is most likely both a warning and a *cough* “kind” suggestion to behave.
However, I think Sans does eventually change his mind, and it’s probably at this moment:
at this point, you’ve gone through the entire underground without killing anyone. There’s literally no reason to kill anyone anymore, since there are no encounters in New Home (unless you go back and hunt the few monsters remaining in the Core, though I’m not sure if spawns still happen there after Mettaton. I couldn’t find anything clear) so he’s probably pretty confident that you’re a pacifist. I believe at this point he allows himself to trust you
Look at that: he tells you you’re loved, and that he believes what’s in your heart will most likely be the right thing for everyone. It’s actually very sweet of him...which makes going back to kill people at this point even more screwed up and heartbreaking imo.
Then there’s this little tidbit from Asriel while he’s holding everyone’s souls, which I feel is the biggest piece of evidence:
After all, Asriel doesn’t strike me as a very good liar. Even as Flowey the whole “friendliness pellets” thing was sus af in hindsight. And what reason could he have to lie at this point? If Sans didn’t love Frisk, all Asriel had to do was not mention him by name, just like he didn’t mention Asgore. In my opinion, this is proof positive that Sans must have at least some positive feelings for Frisk (this makes the soulless pacifist endings even more horrifying now that I think about it omg Toby why must you hurt me in this way)
5) Why doesn’t Sans stop you from killing Papyrus during a Genocide run? - I’ve seen people call Sans cold or uncaring because he only ever intervenes in the worst case scenario, but we’ve already established that Papyrus is one of the few things Sans can still bring himself to care deeply about. So, why doesn’t he stop at least Papyrus from confronting a blood(or dust in this case)-thirsty psychopath?
I have 2 theories about this (though they are non-exclusive, in fact they most likely both impacted equally on his choices). The first is that Sans, who canonically can teleport together with other people, helped warn the Snowdin residents of the incoming threat, and he was assisting in the evacuation efforts when Papyrus backtracked to confront the human, leaving him alone for long enough to kill him.
The second is that Sans knows from experience that there’s just... no point.
(look at his anguished expression in that last image, jeez)
As we’ve said, Sans has been dealing with this time problem for a very long time. Since we know for sure Sans can tell when Papyrus has been killed in an alternate timeline, I’m certain that at first he did try to protect him, before deciding that it’s both hopeless and too painful.
I imagine it went a little like this: near the beginning of Flowey’s loops, Sans did his absolute best to protect him without Flowey realizing what he was doing, and likely succeeded. Sadly, the only thing Flowey would’ve had to do was to LOAD his save file and find a way to circumvent Sans’ interference. Then do that again. And again. And again, for every one of the hundreds of times Papyrus was killed. Eventually, Sans must have realized that not only was there absolutely nothing he could do to stop it, but that trying would just lead to him probably witnessing Papyrus’ death himself, helpless to save him, making it doubly painful.
He probably tried to tell people a few times, to ask for help, but that likely stopped pretty quick. Telling anyone would just cause them mental and emotional pain without being able to change anything, so he probably decided to spare them from the knowledge and just...bear with it.
After a while, broken, beaten, and terribly alone, he likely just... gave up on trying to change anything or even putting more than the bare minimum amount of effort into anything. After all if it all was gonna reset without warning, why bother?
Why do his best at his job(s)?
Why bother trying to build anything?
Before a Determined being, nothing lasts and nothing matters.
6) If all that is true, why does he try to stop you at the end during Genocide? - I’ve seen people argue that Sans fights you for revenge or to save himself from dying once the world ends, but I have to strongly disagree. If it was petty revenge, he would just kill you every single time you kill Papyrus after all. It’s also very unlikely to be self-preservation, since as we’ve said he’s most likely suffering from depression: he has no hopes for his own future, no ambitions, no will to accomplish anything except maybe see Papyrus happy. Why would he suddenly sprout a desperate desire to survive out of nowhere, enough to drive him to fight a literally unwinnable battle, possibly hundreds of times? I find that hard to believe.
The most likely answer is that, if you destroy the world... Papyrus would never come back, and neither would any of his friends. Every time you kill them, he at least has the dubious comfort of knowing you’ll probably bring them back during your next run, but not this time. If you win this time, you’ll take the timeline with you, and he’ll never see them again (huh... that sounds a bit familiar:)
So he fights.
Despite knowing he can’t beat you.
Despite realizing his only hope is that you get tired and give up
Despite coming to the fight with the knowledge of every single previous failed attempt
Despite having to exert himself to the bone
He fights, and clings desperately to the slim chance that you’ll try to be better
He doesn’t mean not to come back to the Underground at all. After all, that’d mean that Sans would be stuck in a world where his brother and most of his friends are dead forever. Most likely, he wants you to not come back to this Sans, to this timeline. He wants you to RESET, and to make better choices next time. He wants another chance for Papyrus to be happy, even if it’s for a short while.
I feel like his very last words, revealing the only thing at the forefront of his mind during his last moments, is what’s most telling of the truth:
As with everything else he does, it’s all for Papyrus
In conclusion (TL;DR), Sans might not be an epic hero fighting for the good of the entire world like Undyne, but he’s a deeply hurt individual struggling basically alone to survive a horrifyingly bleak situation, who despite simultaneously coping with a serious mental disorder as a result is STILL a fundamentally kind person, who does his best to spare his loved ones from the worst outcome, is always willing to help his friends and family to the best of his ability, and who, despite his best efforts to the contrary, still cares so much, to the point of even giving the benefit of the doubt and coming to care for the same anomaly that might doom him.
That’s the core of who Sans is, and that’s why I love him so, so much. It makes me hope that the True Pacifist ending really is the “True Ending”, and that somewhere, he has finally found peace, relief, and a future free of suffering together with his loved ones.
(*Note: this art was made by greenbudbowl on Deviantart)
Can we all take a second to appreciate how my boy Zuko is a GODAWFUL LIAR? Jesus, he’s such a bad liar. He always fumbles his words or glances away, not once was he able to look anyone dead in the eyes and tell a lie with a straight face. He literally can’t lie to save his life, and I LOVE him for it😂😂.
Exhibit A: uuuhhh yeaaaahhhh we toooooooootally didn’t destroy our ship because we ran into the Avatar! RiGhT, uNcLe?
Zhao: did you really expect to find the Avatar? He was killed a 100 years ago...
Zuko: *internally* oh crap oh crap don’t screw it up don’t give anything away...
Zhao: shit really? He’s alive?!
Exhibit B: Uuhhhh noooooo I’m SOOO not good at swordfighting! I’m TOOOOOTALLY not the Blue Spirit! Really, I swear!!!
(my boy REALLY has to work on glancing away when he lies)
Exhibit C: shit, what’s a good fake name??? Maybe Lee, it’s super common in the Fire Nation so it should be just as common here RiGhT?? Yeah, let’s go with that! Wait I forgot about Uncle! Uuuuuuuuhhhhhh.....
Exhibit D: Shit shit shit this kid’s name is the same as my fake name! I can’t use it! Quick, think of something else! “I’m...... Uhhhhhhh.....”
Oh thank god I’m saved!!!
Exhibit E: uuuuhhhhh what is a believable excuse for moving around so much?????? Because we were refugees looking for a new home? No, too trite. How about...
Oh no now she wants to know what I did in the circus!!! What talents do I have that would fit in a circus??? Parkour? Nah. Swordfighting? Nah. Picking up/balancing stuff with my swords? Nah. Oh she said something thank god!
This absolutely can’t go wrong, I mean it’s not like she could ask me to demonstrate or anythi- OH SHIT
Exhibit F:
shit shit shit shit the Avatar is probably alive! I can’t let Azula know!
She knows!!!! Aaaaaaaaahhh Ok don’t panic I just have to deny it!
Oh no I looked away, I have to maintain eye contact!! That’s important when lying believably right???
Nailed it!
My boy does the glance-away thing even when he’s not outright lying but someone just says something he knows is untrue 😂 Like here with his father:
Or here when Aang tells him maybe the altitude affected his firebending
He’s so bad at lying it’s painful at times, thank god the Father Lord wasn’t looking at his face that one time or he would’ve been in real trouble.
My poor honest boy, hopefully once he became the Fire Lord he worked a bit on that “glancing away whenever he lies” thing 😂😂😂
I was thinking recently about what exactly Alphys meant when she said this:
Because most people I know assume she’s talking about her own attraction to Toriel (since she looks similar to Asgore, and it’s clear in canon that Alphys used to have a crush on him before she fell for Undyne), and that’s a pretty valid take, but I don’t think so because usually THIS is Alphys’ reaction to someone addressing her crushes, past or present:
We’ve also seen a full-on confession of her feelings to Undyne, during which she was blushing and sweating and stumbling over her words. Therefore, I really, REALLY doubt someone as shy and anxious as her would just laugh and look smug when insinuating that she finds someone she knows attractive. In which case, she must be talking about someone else.
Of course, she could always be referring to Asgore and to how he continues to pine for Toriel, but if so why say Toriel has “no idea”? She is completely aware of Asgore’s lingering feelings for her and, in fact, she rejected him to his face just a few minutes before that scene! So, who could Alphys be referring to?
Maybe Toriel had a huge fan club of some kind on Undernet, being the queen and all, that Alphys is aware of. Maybe it’s just Toby Fox breaking the 4th wall (again) and making a comment on how there’d surely be tons of people online who find Toriel attractive.
OR MAYBE, just maybe, she could be talking about someone else... someone who’s been talking to Toriel for a while, possibly for years... Someone who’s clearly fond of her...
Someone who gazed happily into her eyes right in front of Alphys just a little while ago... (also look at poor Asgore’s reaction to their interaction, and Undyne’s sympathetic look in the 2nd image. Do they sense something between them too...?)
(note: I also can’t help but notice how Close to each other they’re standing, and how it looks almost like they’re holding hands...)
Someone who made her a very important promise and talked at length with her about the most important thing in the world to him (namely, his brother), despite not even knowing her name...
Someone who... met with Toriel very often.... right in front of one of Alphys’ cameras??
And that, beauties and gentlebeauties, is the main reason why I joined the Soriel bandwagon. Well, that and the text messages she sends Frisk, especially the part where they fight over the phone. They’re like the cutest dorkiest couple and I love them.
I really wish I had literally ANY drawing/animation skills because I desperately want to see an Encanto animatic about Bruno to the song "King" by Lauren Aquilina, but it doesn't exist yet and that's CRIMINAL.
I have such a clear mental image of how it all could look, and the song fits so perfectly, that I can hardly believe it hasn't been done but I need it, so I'm forcing all of you guys down with me.
I imagine it could start out with a mob of townspeople complaining to Abuela Alma, then we'd see a young Bruno, age ~12, hiding in a corner a short distance away, sitting down and crying with his hands covering his ears, wearing an expression kinda like this:
Then, as "so what?" sounds in the background, we'd suddenly see a hand appear on his shoulder. It'd be Pepa, with Julieta close behind her, who'd then sit next to him and hold him close. He'd give them a tiny smile through his tears.
Next, at "glass half empty, glass half full", we'd see Isabela holding one of Bruno's visions, looking joyful and excited, while Bruno gazes upon her with pride (maybe like this)
quickly followed by an image of Dolores in the same position, face shocked and with tears streaming down her eyes, as Bruno looks sadly towards the ground
At "well, either way, you won't be going thirsty", we'd see Dolores, her eyes still misty, extend tiny hands towards her tio, and hug him around the waist; to show him she still loves him, despite the terrible vision he'd given her. He'd kneel to be eye-level with her then embrace her, holding her as tight as he could, as "count your blessings, not your flaws" can be heard.
At the first chorus, we'd see Bruno giving visions to townspeople in his vision cave, first happily (as a child), then a bit reluctantly (as a teen), then finally with a very pained look on his face (as an adult). Then we'd see his tower's staircase grow ever taller as he leaves the room, shutting the door behind him and trying to make himself seem smaller. His sisters then would step up to him, hold his face and smile encouragingly at him.
At "you don't get what all this is about", we'd see him being asked for the vision about the future of the Encanto after Mirabel's gift ceremony, then seeing the loss of the miracle in the future, realizing what it could mean for Mirabel, and destroying it.
Then at the second chorus, there could be a sequence about him installing himself in his little crook in the wall while his family searches for him, talking to his rats, working on fixing the cracks and finally going back to his "room" to rest. He'd sit in front of The Plate, and hear his family saying "we don't talk about Bruno" angrily, leaving him heartbroken ("rid of the monsters inside your head"). He'd then curl himself into his chair, holding his rats for comfort.
Next, starting from "there's method in my madness", the animatic could loosely follow the events of the movie after Mirabel finds him in the wall. The following sequences could kinda go like this:
*Bruno initially refusing to ever have another vision -> "there's no logic in your sadness"
*Bruno being encouraged by Mirabel, who insists she won't think ill of him no matter what the vision holds because they're both the "family weirdos", then finally being convinced and holding her hands -> "you don't gain a single thing from misery, take it from me"
*Him starting the vision and saying “I have to stop” when it seems to still show the family's destruction -> "you’ve got it all, you’ve lost your mind in the sound"
*Mira pointing out the butterfly, and them following it -> "there’s so much more, you can reclaim your crown"
*Him holding the vision with Mira and Isa happily -> "you’re in control, rid of the monsters inside your head"
*Him encouraging Mira to reconcile with her sister -> "Put all your faults to bed, you can be king"
*Casita collapsing, him seeing Mira in the wreckage – "you’ve got it all, you’ve lost your mind in the sound"
*Him riding a horse to find Mira – "there’s so much more, you can reclaim your crown"
*Him standing up to Alma, then her hugging him – "you’re in control, rid of the monsters inside your head"
It could end with all Mirabel extending her hand to him, pulling him into the light, as the rest of the family runs to embrace him, his sisters first of all ("put all your thoughts to bed, you can be king again")
