Undertale is a 2015 role-playing indie game developed by American creator Toby Fox. The story goes that the two races of Monsters and Humans lived together until a war found the Monsters banished away to the underground, kept there by unbreakable magic.

The game follows our protagonist, a child who falls down a hole on the steep side of a mountain into a cavern, where they meet their first monster…

Undertale is a game where our every choice affects where our story goes, making it somewhat of a more than usually emotionally immersive experience. Our choices represent us as people; therefore, the result of every choice hits home harder.

This article is of the longer and more in-depth type, so I advise that before you begin, you relax, and have yourself your tea or beverage of choice, because this shall be a little journey we shall all take.

 

*Note: This article will contain spoilers for the game, if that is something you care about depends on you, should you wish to continue with this article.

 

First Encounter

Flowey is the first character that we face, as soon as we begin the game, having fallen down. He is overly friendly, with a cheerful theme playing, the kind you would hear at amusement rides. He explains to us the fundamentals of the game, explaining our ℍℙ (health, which manifests itself as a red heart), and 𝕃𝕍 (why, LOVE of course!)

You may guess that a bright-looking golden flower offering us “friendliness pellets” may probably not have the best of intentions with us.

 

And you would be right.

The True Pacifist And Genocide Route

Despite the plethora of choices we are offered throughout the game with various NPCs, following the furthest of both sides of moral behavior lands us two different endings that tell the story in a way deeper than our normal choices would.

The Pacifist Route is one where we choose not to attack any hostile character, instead interacting with them, and eventually, choosing to 𝕊ℙ𝔸ℝ𝔼 them instead.

Every interaction depends on the character we find ourselves facing, offering a unique method of creating bonds and sparing every one of them.

This adds more depth to the average hostile NPC than your usual RPG game, allowing us to rather feel more inclined to spare them as well.

The Genocide Route, however, is as opposite as you might expect. Instead of interacting and learning about every character, we simply choose to kill them instead.

The Genocide Route takes it one step further, however. You choose to stay behind in every area you enter and “grind” by continuously killing monsters, gaining more 𝔼𝕏ℙ, and 𝕃𝕍, boosting your stats like you would in any other RPG game. But due to these actions, a clear shift of tone begins to occur, the normal background theme is replaced with an ominous rhythm.

Soon, the pop-up that occurs when you encounter an enemy is replaced with a smiley face as your player begins to delight in the battles they face. Monsters no longer appear before you, allowing you to proceed further into the caverns. . .

Although other routes such as the Neutral route exist with different possibilities, we will only be focusing on these two, as I consider them to tell the story in its fullest capacity.

Character Breakdowns: Design, Themes, And Interactions

Undertale is a game held up majorly on the basis of your interactions with Monsters throughout the game. Discussing each of the most important characters we interact with essentially also helps us navigate the story Undertale tries to tell and its overall message.

 1. Toriel

 

Caretaker of the Ruins and the beloved “Goat Mom” who saves us from Flowey at the beginning of the game. Her character is always accompanied by a soft and inviting melody.

Toriel served as a character who further led us among the underground, introducing to us the concept of ‘sparing’, and choosing to interact with the Monsters we encounter rather than resorting to violence.

She is shown to be a genuinely caring and affectionate person, holding our hand through dangerous puzzles, inviting us to her home, and making Cinnamon-Butterscotch pie, as she doesn’t know which flavor we’d like.

But eventually, we as the character wish to find a way home, a question that Toriel is less than willing to answer.

This is the first point that we begin to question her warm and motherly character, insinuating that perhaps something more sinister is at play.

If you ask her enough times, she will leave the room, down the staircase that leads to the basement.

There, she reveals her intentions to destroy the only way out of the ruins and into the deeper underground.

We learn we are not the only human who she’s taken care of, but all who left were killed and had their souls absorbed by ‘𝔸𝕊𝔾𝕆ℝ𝔼‘.

We are forced to confront her at this precipice and engage in a duel.

In a Genocide Route, however. .

 

 

. . . However, should you choose to spare every monster you’ve encountered thus far, and keep sparing Toriel, she will become less and less reluctant to fight you throughout the duel, eventually waning and letting you leave, with one final embrace. . .

 

2. Papyrus

 

Papyrus The Skeleton is a character of many qualities rolled into one, the most obvious and blatant being his thirst for glory, and  his yearning for adoration and friends, and he intends to achieve this by capturing a human, and joining the royal Guard!

A valiant goal in his eyes, but underneath the bravado, Papyrus is a soft character, trying to best us through a parade of enigmatic puzzles and tricks, daring us to eat the spaghetti he cooks but never eats, why?

“BECAUSE EVERYONE LOVES IT!!!!”

 

Despite his puzzles always being thwarted he doesn’t lose hope and begins to gain further respect for us, the human.

Papyrus’s theme is one of a misfit, with a playful and over-the-top feel to it, much like his own character, always speaking in capital, shouting about his own brilliance, but always staying determined to beat us.

 

Papyrus finally faces us in a final showdown, dishing out to us his complex feelings:

” THE JOY OF FINDING ANOTHER PASTA LOVER.

THE ADMIRATION OF ANOTHER’S PUZZLE-SOLVING SKILLS.

THE DESIRE TO HAVE A COOL, SMART PERSON THINK YOU ARE COOL.

THESE FEELINGS. . .

THEY MUST BE WHAT YOU ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW!!!”

 

Through defeating him, we gain the option of befriending him or not.

Should we choose to befriend him in this True Pacifist Route, Papyrus becomes excited and giddy, later allowing us to go on a friend date with him.

Papyrus, apart from his brother Sans, serves as a major source of comedy within the game, dropping remarks due to his oblivious and naive nature, but remaining a determined character, showing up every day to Undyne,  at the royal guard’s house, till she agrees to train him.

Through our decision to spare him, Papyrus is one of the first Monster friends we make in the Underground. His need to be the best and his choices to not harm us even in battle makes him an endearing character and one we grow to care for in our journey through the Underground.

However, this game would not be what it is without presenting you with other choices:

 

Because in this world, it’s Kill or Be Killed.

 

3. Undyne

 

Undyne is the head of King Asgore’s royal guard, renowned in the Underground as a heroine.

Our first interactions with her are ominous ones, starting with Papyrus agreeing to help us pass without Undyne detecting us. However, she continues to stalk our steps, as we continue past Snowdin and into the area of the Waterfall, resulting in chilling close encounters.

During our time at Waterfall, we meet an adolescent Monster, a fan of Undyne and oblivious to us being human. However, in the Genocide Route, once they discover our true nature, they confront us about it, so we choose to eliminate him.

However, before a single attack lands, Undyne suddenly appears before us, having taken the hit.

Due to our immense power in the Genocide Route, accumulated from killing Monsters and gaining 𝕃𝕍, Undyne is killed in one hit.

But Undyne is not the average Monster.

What makes us unique as a human in Undertale, is our power of 𝔻𝕖𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕞𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟, which allows us to keep returning through ‘save points’, even if we are killed in action. It is an ability that gave humans the edge over Monsters.

But that doesn’t stop Undyne, who through her sheer will, refuses to die either, instead, becoming something much more. . .

. . . But in a Pacifist Route, we end up befriending the Monster, and even saving them from falling of a bridge, allowing Undyne to gain a certain respect for us.

By the end, a high-speed chase ensues, in which we have to dodge her continuous spear attacks, before finally escaping by falling down a garbage chute.

To proceed further past the Waterfall, we have to finally engage with Undyne, and it is here she explains to us the value of the human soul.

The magic used to create the barrier that keeps the monsters trapped underground cannot be broken by any Monster effort, but only through the power of the Human soul.

Seven human souls are all King Asgore needs to acquire the power to break the barrier and free his people. Our soul would be the last soul, and this is why Undyne will not let us pass.

Undyne’s theme has a more powerful feeling of resolve, and echoing that of a just cause, for it is the highest cause for Undyne, as it is a service to her people.

Undyne is one of the first more difficult bosses that we have to face, especially in a Pacifist Route where we choose not to attack anyone.

Eventually, as her attacks start to get speedier and more difficult to dodge, we have to option to flee. This allows us to run past her and into the tunnels that lead to the ‘Hotlands’. Undyne chases and catches us a handful of times too. During the chase, Papyrus calls us to invite us to hang out at Undyne’s place later, while she is chasing us. Before long, when we make it to the center of the area, she is unable to move any further, due to the heat of the Outlands and her sweltering armor, she collapses.

Here we may make the choice of whether we wish to help her or not. In our Pacifist Route, we choose compassion, pouring the cup of water on her, allowing her to be rejuvenated.

But as Undyne now faces us, she chooses to leave without saying a word, making it clear that despite her goal to capture us, she cannot do so while being in our debt, displaying Undyne’s own morality allowing her to be more 3-dimensional.

Here we can choose to backtrack, taking Papyrus up on his offer and meeting him at Undyne’s house, where he is enthusiastic to have us meet her and make a good impression.

Undyne greets Papyrus cheerfully, before recognizing us, and solemnly invites us inside, where Papyrus decides to promptly take his leave:

Leaving the two of us alone, Undyne reacts with hostility, asking if we’ve come to gloat, and in her passionate nature, decides to make sure we hang out and have a good time, framing it as the ‘perfect revenge’ after her defeat.

Needless to say, her efforts in hospitality soon become more and more aggressive till it burns her house down, promptly ending our second friend date in the game.

Light-hearted moments like these help to solidify our emotions in these characters. Undyne’s character in particular, from a mysterious foe to a friend who burnt her house down in her effort to be the best at hosting guests there could be, it’s another example of the kind of storytelling Undertale employs to help us immerse our own emotions into these characters, as if we ourself our making these new friends.

 

But there are darker moments in this game.

In the Genocide Route, our battle with Undyne The Undying is the most difficult boss battle we have experienced in the game this far within this game. Her demeanor is much more serious than before, having revived herself through her own sheer 𝔻𝕖𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕞𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟. 

Her theme now has a much more emotional composition, labeled “Battle Against A True Hero”. Undyne practically embodies all of the hopes of the Monsters trapped in the underground, their wishes and their dreams all reside in her in this battle.

She is the protagonist of her world, a final hero standing up against the evil endangering all the Monsters.

She is their final hope, their final power.

 

Surely, she will finally vanquish the evil threatening to devour them all?

 

Surely she will be triumphant and finally free the Monsters?

That would not be the case.

4. Alphys And Mettaton

After we proceed from the point where we initially revive Undyne, we enter a laboratory, where we discover a large monitor tracking us.

This is where we meet Alphys, Asgore’s Royal Scientist, who we discover has been spying on us through hidden cameras ever since we left Toriel in the Ruins. (However, in the Genocide Run, we never encounter Alphys, only finding Mettaton, who chides us on our actions, and informs us Alphys, has been busy evacuating all the Monsters).

Alphys is a shy and anxious character, always stuttering in speech, and prone to making self deprecating comments about herself and her skill. She is the definition of a textbook geek, her hobbies including anime, fanfiction, video games etc. She is most passionate and confident whenever she momentarily begins to talk about her interests, but often shuts herself up at the last moment. Despite her seemingly simple and geeky nature, brief moments and dialogue allow us to notice that there is a deeper sadness inside Alphys.

Alphys’s theme is a comparatively simpler one, comprising of a digital pattern that gives off the impression of a classic computer nerd who ends up  getting bullied.

Mettaton is one of Alphys’s creations. Initially meant to be an entertainment host, Mettaton developed a serious case of homicidal tendencies alongside aswell, particular towards us, the human.

His first introduction is shortly after Alphys, when he bursts through the wall of her laboratory.

We find ourselves roped into Mettaton’s Game Show, where we must answer a series of questions in a quiz, that get more and more absurd, failure including having our health zapped in half. However, Alphys discreetly shares with us the answers. Out of annoyance, Mettaton then asks us to guess Alphys’s unrequited love interest, which deeply embarrasses her. Mettaton then takes his leave, on account of loss of ‘dramatic tension’.

Mettaton is a fantastical and flashy character, doing everything he does with a certain splendour, posing at all chances he gets. He is egotistical, boasting of his own splendour, and loves adding glamour and violence to every aspect of his entertainment production to boost his precious ratings,  that includes putting us in mortal danger.

Mettaton’s theme resembles that of a typical game/ quiz show where contestants must perform with time running out, with an added robotic element, reflecting his own shallow nature when it comes to regarding the existence of others.

Throughout our traversal through the Hotland, Alphys assists us through our newly upgraded cellphone, through numerous puzzles and traps, while Mettaton further seeks to destroy us in front of a live television audience, with elaborate schemes, such as making us defuse several normal objects disguised as bombs, attempting to steal our 𝕊𝕆𝕌𝕃 with a chainsaw to bake as the main ingredient in a cake, and even presenting us with a sonnet, warranting appreciation:

He then immediately proceeds to attempt to kill us with flaming walls of fire.

But with every dazzling attempt, we always manage to thwart him through heavy assistance from Alphys, managing to save us in the nick of time.

It is here Alphys confides in us that, before she met us, she didn’t really like herself, and thought herself a “total screw-up”. Guiding and aiding us has helped us feel a little better about herself, and she wishes to thank us for it.

After passing the Hotland and the MTT Resort, we make it to the CORE, the core of the Reactor which powers all the Undergound. Alphys guides us through a maze filled with encounters one last time, before finally we reach its end.

At the last corridor, we meet Mettaton, who reveals the truth. Despite what Alphys had led us to believe, there was no malfunction within him, his homicidal drive was purely an act and that he actually harbors no animosity towards humans. He carried out this act because ever since Alphys watched our journey through the undergound, she became attached, and practically inserted herself into our story, with Mettaton playing the antagonist, and Alphys being the one to save us.

But it was time to drop the act now.

Mettaton then engages us in a battle, through which Alphys reveals that to stop him, we only had to flip the switch on his back. Once accomplishing this, it fails to power him off, only instead, transforming him. . .

METTATON EX.

Although Mettaton has another form known as Mettaton Neo, it is shown briefly in the Genocide Route, as he is killed by us in one hit on our cruel spree in the underground.

Mettaton EX is Mettaton in the full culmination of his identity as an entertainment star, with a unique battle sequence, including a display of ratings as the battle proceeds, and a continuous slurry of flashing attacks.

It is accompanied by a more engaging theme, labelled ‘Death By Glamour‘. It is bedazzling and colourful in nature, it intensifies the mood further then before, presenting a feeling of being included in the most aggressive dance-off.

During our duel, Mettaton expresses his desire to leave the underground with our SOUL, to move onto a bigger audience and fully fulfill his potential as an idol star. But finally, when tinkering on defeat, Mettaton notices the scale of his ratings, and the following scene occurs,

Despite his egoism, Mettaton has a genuine passion for what he does and it’s positive impact.

 

On our final journey, from the CORE to the Royal Palace, Alphys confesses to us in guilt the true nature of the barrier. A human SOUL can only break it alongside a Monster soul, and for that, we must kill ASGORE.

5. Sans

Undertale managed to cement itself into gaming pop-culture for a variety of reasons, but it’s success and fame can be pin-pointed by the fame one particular character. Sans is perhaps Undertale’s most iconic and overall mysterious character.

And our first introduction to him is through a well-meant fart joke.

Sans The Skeleton, brother to Papyrus, and the laziest character we encounter.

Our first interaction with Sans is almost immediately after we bid farewell to Toriel and leave the ruins. It is there that he hits us with “the ol whoopie-cushion-in-the-hand trick‘. Sans, like his brother Papyrus, often serves as a form of comedy in the game, often accompanying his brother on duty and attempts to capture us through his puzzles. He is often at the other end of Papyrus’s temper, due to his lazy and laid-back attitude, and to Papyrus’s temper he always has a retort in the form of a bad pun.

Sans’s theme is the epitome of a Sunday laziness, something one would put on in their background as they laid on their bed, drooling and doing nothing as sunlight waned from their window, instead of writing a post about Undertale like they are supposed to.

But unlike Papyrus, Sans is not all as ordinary a character, for one, Sans is aware of the fact that we use our 𝔻𝕖𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕞𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 as a way to use save points, and more often then not, if we are killed by an enemy or play another run, Sans will be aware of the fact that this isn’t our first time meeting him and will even remark on it.

Besides these, he displays other curious abilities such as being able to teleport to locations far apart via ‘short-cuts’, and being able to vanish in front of us in the blink of an eye.

But more then that, Sans seems to be aware of the deeper things happening  around in the story of Undertale.

Sans also happens to be aware of the fact that the timeline resets everytime someone loads a SAVE file, and this can be used to explain his general disregard for things and usual laziness, living in his very own version of ‘Groundhog’s Day’.

It is also hinted that he may have once been a scientist like Alphys. If you manage to acquire the key to his shed, there you’ll find blueprints, a machine hidden under a tarp. This sort of speculation goes well with his many strange abilities.

No one knows where he or Papyrus came from, other then the fact that they just “showed up one day” in Snowdin.

After we leave the Hotland and approach the MTT Resort, Sans will greet us outside and take us in through “a short cut”. Inside, he questions our goal to go home, stating he knows the feeling, but “sometimes its better to take what is given to you”. Stating that, is it really necessary for us to return, when we could be perfectly content here? With friends?

At this point, Sans will decide to share with us a story. Standing guard in the snowy forest as a sentry for humans, is a boring job. But hidden deep in the forest is a giant locked door, so he decides to use it to practice knock-knock jokes. But one day, a woman’s voice responds back through the door, and finds his jokes hilarious. Soon she starts dishing some back, and it continues as a tradition.

However one day, the voice is more solemn, and requests him, that if any human should pass through here, that he’d protect and look out for them. Sans states that someone who enjoys making the same bad puns as him, has an integrity he can’t say no to, but he makes it clear, If she hadn’t made her promise to him,

Our next encounter takes place with him in the Last Corridor, where he explains to us the real meaning of our 𝔼𝕏ℙ and 𝕃𝕍.

From here on out, in the Genocide Route, when we finally reach Sans in the Last Corridor, he asks us a question, that can even the worst people change?

Consider the events that have taken place in this path we have chosen. From the moment Toriel took us in, we killed all the Monsters in the Ruins, we killed Toriel. And from our journey from there to the Last Corridor, we killed almost everyone we met. Undyne, Mettaton, especially Papyrus, every single lesser Monster we encountered, fell to us, exponentially and disgustingly increasing our 𝔼𝕏ℙ and 𝕃𝕍 to an exhorbant amount.

Throughout the Genocide story our player begins to act on his own, often moving at their own will threateningly towards other characters, as if another presence was triggered in our curiosity to see what would happen if we killed everyone in the underground.

Sans tells us, that if we take another step forward, we will have “a bad time”, and alas. . .

 

 

What ensues is the most difficult boss battle to exist within the entire game, it is the full unleashing of Sans’s power as he makes every effort to kill us. It is perhaps one of the most difficult boss battles in indie game in generals, and reveals most of what made Sans so iconic: his one blue eye peering out of a socket, the speed and intensity of his attacks. Not only is it difficult to keep up with and dodge, but it seems to go on forever, and many players here die multiple times, always coming back from their save points, a fact Sans is aware of.

The theme of this battle also cemented itself as the most popular of the Undertale OST, and has become a part of the wider pop-culture, recognizable by those who haven’t heard of Undertale. It is a theme with a powerful and electric beat, an encapsulation of a blitz match, perfectly aligning well with the sheer scale and speed of all of Sans’s simultaneous attacks, hinting that maybe this is Sans’s true identity all along.

His will to end us extends far, that should we even decide to SPARE him at one point, he will feign acceptance,  before reducing our HP to 0 in a single attack.

Eventually however, Sans will continue to grow visibly tired, his attacks will begin to become slower and more careless, being reduced to slamming us side to side. If we let Sans rest for a bit, he will pass out, giving us an opportunity. Should we strike him, he’ll instantly dodge with a grin, but he would have no such luck. .

Defeated, Sans finally trudges off to his death, bleeding, dying. . .

Genocide Route Ending

One fact about triggering a True Genocide Ending, is by naming our character in the beginning, as ‘Chara‘. Before  proceeding further into the final stages of the game in the Pacifist Route and the last Monster we have yet to cover, ASGORE, we will first see the destination we arrive at, at our insistence to simply know what will happen if we treat every character as nothing as NPCs to be grinded to boost our stats.

Before reaching Sans in the final corridor, we are allowed to proceed further into the palace, where we enter an area, similar to Toriel’s home at the start of the game, but devoid of colour, existing only in black and white.

Every object and feature of the home we interact with, sometimes displays information in usual white text, but sometimes, in a red text, talking in a more personal tone, again hinting at the presence of a second character within our a player. There, we encounter a familiar face,

Flowey begins to tell us the tale, of where he came from. He tells us of how he remembers waking up first in the garden of the palace, and being scared. Loud he shouted, screaming for help, “but no one came”.

When the King eventually found him, no amount of consolation helped. He discovered he was unable to feel anything, no love, no compassion resided in him, and so he eventually left, far to where he thought the only person might be able to help him feel.

Far to the Ruins, to Toriel.

But she couldn’t.

Flowey concluded that he couldn’t live in a world without love, “without you“, mostly likely referring to the character inhabiting our player through our acts of genocide, indicating that this character was of Flowey’s past, the one Flowey believes himself to be speaking to, Chara

In a world not worth living anymore, he tried to end his existence, and he succeeded. But something primal burned inside him, something that didn’t wish for him to die, and through this will, he awoke, back at his ‘SAVE point’.

So out of curiosity, he began to experiment, bringing himself to the brink of death multiple times, only to return through the power of 𝔻𝔼𝕋𝔼ℝ𝕄𝕀ℕ𝔸𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ.

He began to interact with the people in the underground, solving all their problems, befriending all of them, it was all amusing to him. But the appeal wore of, as they became more and more predictable.

“What will happen if I gave them this?

What will happen if I say this to them?

Once you know the answer, that’s it.

That’s all they are. . . “

The details of his experience mirror our own playing Undertale, through the choices we are always presented, a multitude of crossroads at every turn, affecting our story, we are incentivised to replay the game, in the hopes to see an ending different then the ones we have already achieved.

But he soon changed his demeanour, being essentially bored, and started killing the characters. He tells us we of all people know how liberating and freeing it must feel to act this way, without bounds, without any ethics to stop us, knowing we can just reset everything if we wish to.

“Atleast we’re better then those SICKOS that stand around and WATCH it happen.

That want to see it, but are too afraid to do it themselves.

I bet they’re watching right now, aren’t they. . . ?”

Flowey essentially breaks the 4th wall at this point, directly accusing us, the player, for our actions. We ourselves chose to begin this path, killing every monster no matter how deeply tragic, continuing just to see the events that will continue. He frames that we are weak for it, that WE are the sickos, who enjoy seeing this unfold.

But even that has grown tiring to him, he seen and lost everything, made and destroyed, he’s seen it all, but WE were who he could never predict. He didn’t recognize us when he first met us, but afterwards, he tried to load his SAVE file, but it wasn’t there. Our 𝔻𝔼𝕋𝔼ℝ𝕄𝕀ℕ𝔸𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ overpowered his own.

He wonders now, how we came back to him from the Ruins? Did we hear him calling? Here he is obviously referring to the second character within the player, Chara. He realizes that Toriel must have given us a proper burial.

This reveals several things, that Chara was from Flowey’s past, before he became a flower, someone who he was deeply attached to. This someone died somehow, and now their SOUL inhabits ours.

He spews ideas, of stealing the six human souls from Asgore, terrorizing the surface world. Because in this world, its STILL Kill Or Be Killed. But as he continues to speak, of his similarities with us,

He falters. . .

The score that begins to play is one devoid of any harmony the previous themes were, made fully from a character who goal only is to move forward, and tear anything in their way.

“Creatures like us wouldn’t hesitate to kill each other.”

He begins to shake out fear, suddenly realizing everything in that moment, and backtracks on all his words.

Maybe we should go back.

Maybe the underground is fine the way it is.

He eventually flees from us in panic, and we proceed further. . .

 

After killing Sans, we finally make it to the Throne Room, where we make our encounter with ASGORE. . .

BUT before we are able to strike him down, he is killed, falling to his knees, and sprinkling into ashes.

It was FLOWEY who killed him.

These actions happen through the cutscene, with the player no longer in control, the spirit in us mercilessly hacks down Flowey, finally triggering the end, to the True Genocide Route. . . 

Chara thanks us, it was through us that she was brought back to life.

Her human SOUL, her 𝔻𝔼𝕋𝔼ℝ𝕄𝕀ℕ𝔸𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ, it was our’s, but HER’S.

Through our guidance, our actions, our atrocities, she learned why she was brought back to life: Power.

But destroying everyone in the underground, we gained so much strength, feeding her, and now, it was time to erase the timeline, and move onto the next world, implying that we will break the barrier, and unleash her onto the surface world.

Here we are given a final option:

Erase? Or Not?

Choosing to erase, Chara is pleased, saying that we will be together forever.

Or choosing a final act of redemption, and not erasing, she will remark, since when did we have a choice?

Either way. . .

Kill Or Be Killed.

Undertale’s True Pacifist Route

On our journey in the Underground, exploring the area of Waterfall, we will encounter a lone statue under a light.

When shielding it from the rain, it allows the music box inside to begin playing.

The melody is one of childhood, right from the cradle, of old memories.

Of a happy, of a distant time, a time that exists no longer. . .

After leaving Mettaton, and hearing Alphys’s confession of the real way to cross the barrier, we make our way  from the CORE, to the palace, where we reach the home, devoid of colour, but just like Toriel’s.

There we meet many monsters, and all of them tell us the tale, the tale that shook the underground.

A long time ago, a Human fell down into the underground. Wounded from the fall, the human cried out for help, and the King’s son, Asriel found them.

 

Asriel takes the human to his home, to the King and Queen. Overtime, he and the human became closer then siblings, the King and Queen took the human in as their own child.

But one day, the human fell sick, bringing their family to worry.

On their dying wish, the human ached to see the flowers of their village one last time, a wish that could not be fulfilled. . .

Grief overwhelming him, Asriel absorbed the human’s soul, and transformed into a God-like being. Clutching the human’s body, Asriel crossed the barrier with his and the human’s soul, and into the sunset, to their village. .

There, Asriel laid out the humans body, on a bed of golden flowers. The villagers, seeing Asriel in his form, thought he killed the human child, and attacked him relentlessly. Despite the power Asriel held, he chose not to fight back at all, instead taking every blow dealt, and leaving, with a smile on his face. .

Asriel found his way back home, back to the underground. Inside the palace, he made his way to the garden, where he collapsed into ashes, his dust spreading everywhere.

The entire underground fell into despair, the King and Queen had lost two children in one fell swoop.

We finally make it our way to the throne room, where Sans is there to greet us. He explains the truth of our 𝔼𝕏ℙ and 𝕃𝕍, but this time, it seems, we didn’t gain any. Sans praises us instead: throughout everywhere hardship, throughout every difficulty, we chose not to harm a single Monster, despite our option to do so, we always chose to do the right thing.

It seems that we didn’t gain any LOVE, but we gained love.

Now we face our most difficult challenge yet: if we refuse to fight Asgore, he will kill us and take our soul, or if we choose to kill him, we will leave the barrier, and never return.

Either way, Sans believes that whatever decision we make, it’ll be the decision that is right to us in our heart.

We move past the throne room, and finally make it, to the garden. . .

6. King Asgore Dreemurr

 

We meet Asgore in the garden, his back turned to us. It is a serene scene, birds chirping, the garden full of plants and flowers. Asgore can be seen humming to himself, and turning around, he greets us cheerfully, before seeing us. . .

Asgore recoils back, in a mixture of shock, and a little bit of horror. The murderous king all the Monsters warned us about, the killer of six humans before us, stepped back in fear at the sight of us.

Asgore paces around the garden, awkwardly tries to make pleasant conversation, perfect weather for a game of catch its supposed to be, but to no avail. .

Asgore tells us to enter the next room when we are ready. Following him, he tells us not to be afraid, to think of it like, “a visit to the dentist”. 

It is quite apparent that the reason for Asgore’s initial fear, his attempt at small talk, his reasoning to lessen the tension of what’s about to happen, he dreads this. It is clear he is not a violent person, as the previous warnings may have made him out to be, he does not wish to kill us, not really, not in his heart. But Asgore is haunted by the past, and the past is what drives him to do what he does next. . .

 

Asgore destroys the MERCY button, the option that allows us to spare monsters at every turn. Asgore will not allow us to spare him, not in this fight. If he must kill us, he will do so by forcing us to fight back. Asgore, deep inside, believes he is not worthy of any kind of mercy from us.

The battle that occurs is one of heavy emotions, it’s a battle where neither person wishes to fight each other, but are now compelled to.

Asgore’s theme in this battle is one of the typical final boss battle music, filled with themes of rising tension, but also  more subtle deep tones, reflecting the tragic circumstances that led to this moment.

We are forced to  use the ATK option for the first time in this playthrough, bringing down his health against the race of time, as his attacks become more and more difficult to face.

But finally, when his health is teetering at it’s edge, Asgore drops to his knees.

Asgore recalls the day Asriel died, the pain he felt, and the anger that lead him to condemn every human that would fall down here. He would take their souls, he would free the Monsters and kill all the humans on the surface, so the Monsters could freely live. But his wife, the Queen was disgusted at his actions, and she left, never to be seen again.

But Asgore doesn’t want to kill anyone.

He doesn’t want to fight anyone.

The underground was devoid after Asriel’s death. All Asgore wanted, was to give the Monsters hope, hope that they could still be given freedom one day.

But he is tired. Asgore urges us to take his soul, leave the barrier, to leave this wretched place.

We are given the option, to end his life, but next to it, is the option of MERCY, reattached from all it’s broken little pieces.

We choose Mercy and Asgore is hopeful, he recalls his wife’s warmth, he recalls the memory of his family.

He promises us, if we choose to stay, we can be a family.

He and his wife will take care of us.

“Howdy!”

Undertale: The Ending?

Flowey, having killed Asgore, reveals that he has stolen all six human souls, and he could not have done it without us, bringing Asgore to his knees.

And all Flowey now needs, is our SEVENTH soul, to complete the collection and become a God.

Our SAVE file is now gone aswell, Flowey having  removed it, plans to make this moment our SAVE point, so he can tear us to bloody pieces,

Over,

And over, 

AND OVER. . .

The fight against Omega Flowey, a fight against evil itself.

It is one of the most climactic and bizarre sequences of events in Undertale. The battle, if you can even call it that, consists of nigh in-escapable attacks, if you can even call them that, completely unconventional with the mechanics of the game.

It consists of random, creepy and bizarre aspects: Venus flytraps, nukes, a pixelated human face peering through Flowey’s monitor at random.

We have the option to ATK at intervals, but all it does is inflict a measly damage of 1hp to Flowey’s enormous health bar. The battle continues whenever our health drops dangerously, with different human souls appearing on the monitor, turn by turn.

With each human soul occurs a series of obstacles to dodge, each accompanied by its own twisted variation of Flowey’s original theme. But at these points, we are presented the option, to call for help. Managing to click on this, all our obstacles transform into positive objects, that gravitate towards us, replenishing our health, before we face Flowey again.

This cycle repeats with each of the six human souls, each time Flowey’s attacks start to grow faster, the threatening score sped up, the attacks becoming more and more unhinged in nature.

Finally, after calling enough help, all the souls unite in unison and rebel against Flowey, dropping his defense to 0!

Our attacks now finally start leaving dents in his health, until finally, we defeat him.

Through the power of the remaining human souls, calling for help, and connecting our experiences to their own, we managed to vanquish an enemy far more powerful then us.

The souls were never Flowey’s to wield, the world never his to control.

Or was it?

Flowey instantly reloads his save file, bringing his health, all the way back up.

All our attempts were nothing but a farce. The massive amount of 𝔻𝔼𝕋𝔼ℝ𝕄𝕀ℕ𝔸𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ he stole, it meant nothing we did mattered, he could just load a save file, and keep us trapped, FOREVER.

He obliterates us in one hit, reloads, kills us again.

Reload.

Kill. 

Reload.

KILL.

Flowey mocks us, mocks the connections we have made, that no one would come to save us anymore. He jeers and dares us, to call for help, one last time.

And when no one came, he makes his move to finish us off once more.

But NO. Our health bar instantly regenerates to maximum, much to Flowey’s confusion, and his attempt to load his SAVE file fails. It seems, the six human SOULS have united once more.

In a grand act of rebellion and united 𝔻𝔼𝕋𝔼ℝ𝕄𝕀ℕ𝔸𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ, Flowey, is destroyed.

We have a choice to make.

Killing Flowey will end all the trouble he has put us through, will end the threat to the underground, it will act as revenge for all the hurt he has caused us.

Why SHOULDN’T we end his life? Why not finish the job?

Because of the same reason we have not hurt any other Monster. Compassion over revenge, over violence. Choose love, not LOVE.

Choosing the option to spare Flowey is baffling to him, and we are again presented the same choice several times, each time we choose to spare him.

Flowey assures us he hasn’t learnt anything, if we continue to spare him he’ll only come back and kill us and everyone we love. He almost desperately tries to drill this supposed fact into us, as if almost pleading for us to kill him.

He eventually grows more confused and angry. Why? Why are we being so NICE to him?

Our act of mercy eluding him, Flowey runs away

We find ourselves in an area similar to the one we fell through. We cross the gate ahead,  and the credits roll. . .

. . . .

We recieve a call from Sans, a sort of update ever since we left the Underground.

The Queen returned, and now ruled the underground. She declared that any human that fell down would be treated as a friend rather then enemy. However, all the six human souls had vanished, setting back the hope for the Monsters freedom back.

Undyne quit the Royal Guard and now helps Alphys as an assistant, to help her find an alternate way out of the underground. Papyrus is now captain of the royal guard like he always wanted, although they disbanded after Asgore so he’s a one man team.

Sans tells us it’s not our fault what we must have had to do, to leave the underground, but he does miss Asgore.

The final person to greet us is Flowey, without his usual demeanor and animosity. He tells us being nice just ends up hurting ourselves. All the great friends we made, we set them back so much despite doing everything right? Is there always destined to be a bad ending no matter what we do? If we had gone through everything without caring, we wouldn’t feel as bad as we do now.

But perhaps there is a way to have a different ending, a way in which, maybe we can free everyone.

All we have to do, is load our SAVE file. .

True Pacifist Ending: The Laboratory

All the events that have occured up till now in our choice to choose kindness above all, has been part of the regular Pacifist Route. The True Pacifist run is triggered, when we load our previous SAVE file, back to before we fought Asgore. Asgore asks us whether we have any unfinished business left before we fight him, and to return once it is done.

We head back from the palace, from the CORE, where we receive a phone call from Undyne, with hushed noises from Papyrus. Undyne asks us to deliver a letter for her to Alphys, and to meet her at Snowdin.

When we make our way all the way back to Snowdin, Undyne, hands us the letter to deliver to Alphys, which is sealed tightly. She wants us to deliver it and not he since the letter is more. . .  personal in nature.

We make our way to the Hotland at the door of Alphys’s lab. After slipping the letter underneath it, we hear Alphys’s voice from inside as she uses industrial equipment to open the letter sealed too tightly.

Reading the contents of the letter, she opens the door, only to find us standing there, and visibly becomes flustered.

The letter was unsigned, so she assumed it’s from us. She tells us she didn’t really expect to be forgiven by us, even this passionately.

So here we are.

Alphys gets dressed, all fancy, but before the date can begin, she insists on presenting gifts.

A gift is the best way to ensure date success, and she’s prepared beforehand.

An armour polisher? We couldn’t use that.

Waterproof cream for our scales? How would we even. .

Magical spear repair kit? Now just wait a minute. .

It’s quite apparent Alphys’s anticipation was meant for a certain someone else.

Alphys picks the perfect place to go on our date: why the garbage dump of course!

She reveals it’s where her and Undyne originally met, and speaking of the devil, she notices Undyne approaching, and masterfully hides her presence:

Undyne approaches us, having changed her mind, wants to give Alphys the letter herself. Learning we do not have it anymore, she leaves in search for her.

Alphys reveals the reason for her being flustered: the actual person she wishes to go on a date with is Undyne.

She decided to accompany us to make us feel better, and partly because she felt she owed it. But the real reason she’s never asked out Undyne, is because she thinks herself a fraud.

She’s lied to Undyne before, so she thinks Alphys is cooler then she actually is.

“They say just be yourself“, but herself is someone Alphys never really liked, why not just live a lie where both people are happy. Telling Undyne the truth would only make her hate Alphys.

It’s something we as the player ultimately sympathize with. Alphys struggles with a lot of self-deprecating issues and anxiety, again indicating a deeper reason for her sense of guilt.

Alphys relents however. It’ll hurt everyone if they find out on their own about her lies, so she must tell the truth.

One thing leads to another, and she ends up causing a commotion that leads Undyne to her. Alphys confesses to Undyne all the things she lied about.

A flurry of comments escape her mouth, things like the history movies she sees are actually anime etc.

Undyne stops Alphys from getting anymore flustered, embracing and calming her down.

Before immediately dunking her into the nearby trashcan.

Undyne makes it firmly clear it doesn’t matter to her whether she watches anime or history movies, it’s all the same nerdy mumbo jumbo to her.

She likes Alphys’s passion, she likes that whatever she cares about, she gives it her 100% maximum.

To help her feel better about herself, she recruits Papyrus to go make her run a 100 laps shouting great things about herself.

After the date ends, we make our way through the garbage dump, where we get a call from Papyrus: he’s sent Alphys home way early, and now, for no apparent reasons, feels strongly that we should go there.

Making our way back to Alphys’s lab, we find a note, thanking us for our support. But to rid herself of her guilt, she needs to come clean. The door to the north side of her lab will reveal the real truth to us: the real reason for her guilt all along.

We find ourselves in one of the most ominous and creepiest areas of the game so far.

On our way down, the elevator powered off, making us stranded here for a while.

Through unordered excerpts on the walls, we find out that once Alphys was assigned to investigate the concept of 𝔻𝔼𝕋𝔼ℝ𝕄𝕀ℕ𝔸𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ.

Above is the DT Extraction Machine, DT being the determination that Alphys extracted from the six human souls Asgore previously captured.

We also learn the concept of ‘fallen down’ monsters, fallen down being a state monsters enter right before death, before they turn to dust. We learn that Alphys injected the extracted  𝔻𝔼𝕋𝔼ℝ𝕄𝕀ℕ𝔸𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ into these fallen down monsters, but their bodies could not retain it, it melted them, and they became amalgamates.

They were twisted, demented versions of the fallen down monsters, and we encounter them throughout the True Lab, in the most fearful scenes, straight out of horror movies.

Through more search, we can also find VHS tapes, that have only retained their audio. It is of the Dreemurr family, of Asriel, Asgore, the human, and Toriel.

We  learn that that Alphys  injected DT into empty vessels aswell, particularly, GOLDEN FLOWERS.

The True Lab theme, labelled ‘Amalgam‘, is a ghostly one, with an unnecessary but welcome hard beat, fit for the likes of Halloween parties and in our case, traversing a haunted lab.

We finally manage to turn on the power at the centre of the lab, but are surrounded by amalgamates, inching closer and closer

Thankfully, Alphys arrives just in time. The amalgamates become cranky if not fed in time. Alphys confesses to us a summary of what we gathered from the text panels on the walls. She was assigned to study 𝔻𝔼𝕋𝔼ℝ𝕄𝕀ℕ𝔸𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ, an experiment which went horrifyingly wrong as fallen down Monsters could not handle those concentrations of DT and melted into each other.

No matter how much everyone asked, she knew she could not tell the families of the monsters what had happened. She had been living with this guilt for so long.

But that was going to change now, she will tell them everything. It won’t be easy, but she’ll have friends to support her. She thanks us one last time, before taking her leave. . .

Undertale: The Real Story

We enter the elevator once again to leave, but it begins to spasm uncontrollably. It seems, it took us all the way back to the palace instead of Alphys’s lab. It seems we are nearing a certain conclusion. .

Finally, we are facing Asgore once more, but before he can proceed with the battle, Toriel arrives, and saves us the same way she saved us from Flowey in the beginning of the game.

She tells us she had become increasingly worried for us on our treacherous Journey. She decided that it was unfair fo us to make a decision to take a life to have to leave the underground. Loss of lives was what she was trying to prevent.

Asgore calls out to her in hope as “Tori”, but Toriel remains stern and cold with him.

Undyne and Alphys rush in to prevent a fight they believe would happen between us and Asgore.

Papyrus too makes his famed entry.

Sans follows soon after, and Toriel recognizes his voice, finally greeting him face to face. Tension grows between Alphys and Undyne and Mettaton urges them that the audience wants them to kiss already.

Everyone gathers around in mutual support. HOPE is once again returning to the underground.

Alphys wonders who called them all here, and Papyrus naively reveals he did, and a Flower helped him to pick the right time.

Flowey captures everyone, having taken the human souls and now with the Monster souls at his grasp, he intends to reveal his true form.

He’d give us a happy ending if we beat him, but that’ll never happen.

He continues to do what he does, because this is all a GAME, a game he couldn’t play anymore if we left the Underground.

Whether or not Flowey meant to break the 4th wall here or not by directly referencing Undertale as a game, it would not be his first time.

Flowey intends to keep us here forever, even if it means killing us a million times.

Flowey claims the souls of every Monster in the room, and the screen starts to fade, and fade. . .

7. Flowey. . ?

The lost son of King Asgore and Queen Toriel. Fitting together clues from all over the game, we can piece together his story once and for all.

A human fell down into the underground once, and was discovered by Asriel. They both grew close together and the human was adopted by Asgore and Toriel. When the human eventually perished, Asriel absorbed the humans soul to take their body to the surface world. After sustaining damage from the humans, he returned home and perished into dust on a bed of flowers. We can extrapolate from this that his ‘fallen down’ essence may have been transferred into these flowers, which were later used by Alphys as empty vessels which she injected 𝔻𝔼𝕋𝔼ℝ𝕄𝕀ℕ𝔸𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ into, thus re-igniting Asriel’s spirit into a flower, allowing him to bend the timeline but unable to feel compassion or any other emotion due to his lack of a proper SOUL. After going through an ordeal similar to that of many Undertale players, resetting the timeline over and over for different endings, he eventually grew resentment and found it liberating to act more and more morally depraved.

In the final battle, the theme is of Hopes And Dreams, of every Monster in the underground, of the friends we’ve made, and our own, to see our friends happy.

Asriel states that he doesn’t care for destroying the world anymore, that he is fine with resetting the timeline, because WE will do it for him. As the player, our fixated goals to provide the characters we have emotionally invested in a happy ending, will assure that the timeline will be reset. And mayhaps that I’d already the case if the pacifist run wasn’t our first.

Everytime we are killed in this battle, our  heart never shatters, but instead refuses to die, piecing itself back together, but Asriel notices this. Everytime we die to him we lose a bit of ourselves, and we will end up dying in this world FORGOTTEN.

But this is not a game where our will alone can overcome an enemy. The only way to triumph over Asriel is by doing what we’ve been doing with every Monster in the beginning: connecting with them the way we have this whole time.

We call to the Lost Souls of all our friends trapped within Asriel, their faces blurred, and having forgotten us, trapped to be the way they were before us.

Undyne is hostile to all humans, but we clash against her with all our might, allowing her to respect our spirit, she remembers that we’re her friend.

Alphys is afraid and puts herself down, believes everyone secretly hates her inside. We ask Alphys to help us in a quiz, what her favorite anime is. Alphys is dying to tell us, and she is reminded that she is not alone, she has friends.

Papyrus remains fixated on capturing humans to finally gain recognition, Sans is nonchalant and dull. Cracking jokes with Sans, asking about puzzles with Papyrus and complimenting his cooking, reminds them that they are ultimately rooting for us.

Toriel is vehement to keep us by her, that no child will leave her again. Asgore remains cold and only states what he must do is out of duty. We tell Asgore we will never hurt him, no matter what he does, opting for MERCY. We let Toriel know that even if we leave, we will always see her again. We free them both from resetting, and they remember that we are their future.

The final battle of Undertale is a giant recap, a final topping to the layers that was our bonding, antics, and struggle we went through with each character, ultimately bringing a positive change to their lives after all.

But it’s not over.

All our friends may be saved, but, there’s still someone else that needs saving. Something bigger than all of them still resonates in Asriel’s soul, and we shout out his name,

“ASRIEL DREEMUR!”

He’s taken aback by this, and he keeps attacking relentlessly.

“ASRIEL DREEMUR!

He threatens to tear us apart, but it’s no use.

“ASRIEL DREEMURR!”

His attacks begin to steadily wane.

Asriel relents to us that he continues to antagonize everything and fight, because we’re special, we’re the only one worth playing with anymore. . .

“ASRIEL DREEMURR!”

But it’s more then that, he cares about us deeply, more then he’s ever cared about anyone. Asriel projects the same love he had for the previous human, with us.

“ASRIEL DREEMURR!”

He never wants to lose another person like us again, and he begs us to let him win, let him win this time so he never has to lay another body in a bed of flowers ever again.

“A S R I E L  D R E E M U R R !”

The grief overtakes him, and the light takes over everything. . .

Asriel wipes his tears away, and apologizes for everything he’s done every friend he’s hurt, it’s unforgivable.

He understands if we are never able to forgive him again, but right now all the hearts of the monsters in him beats as one.

Funny thing Monsters are, they all care about each other deeply. They’ll hardly know you, but you’ll feel they start to love you, just like the way we made all our friends in the Underground, just like how Asriel found his own first friend.

So there is only one thing left to do for him:

With the barrier now destroyed, it won’t be long before Asriel is no more. The SOULs that he absorbed to maintain the form that he inhabits, it won’t hold once he releases them.

He’ll go back to living a life without love,  back to a life without compassion, back to Flowey. We should just forget about him now.

But we would be nowhere if it weren’t for the love we have given from the beginning.

The journey we have been through, this game is one that promotes the message of keeping a tenderness within our heart for others even all we face is adversity or cruelty from them. All the Monsters in the game were never of the hostile type to begin with, a fact we learn when we deviate from the normal game function. The function to simply kill, gain points, fer stronger. We saw what happens when we do that.

Taking the time to put ourselves in their places, being a part of their world, thats what makes Undertale different then most games: that it doesn’t put a lot of distinction between the character we control and us the player. This distinction only arises once we choose cruelty as a model instead.

With the lack of distinction, every bond we make in the game feels real, not something our character did.

When Asriel asks us our real name after shattering the barrier, it’s revealed to be “Frisk“, something our character didn’t bother to reveal the entire time. It was never necessary to begin with.

We wake up as if in a bad dream, and see all our friends around us. They remember nothing, only now that the barrier was gone, but they were worried sick about us.

We made a family where we are, we got our happy ending, but it wasn’t as useless or pointless as Flowey had made it out to be. It was an ordeal that allowed us to confront him directly. We did so, through our own effort, through our own compassion, through our own determination. We gave the underground hope, we gave all our friends hope, and we made their dreams come true.

If you managed to read this far, thank you for everything.