Undertale - Pet dogs and date a skeleton!

Congrats, Satan!

 

My brother and I are twins and the height difference is kinda similar (me being Sans in this situation, sigh)

 

Excuse me my name is Alex. God.

Also I interpret Sans as being older because I am the tiny older sibling and it sucks.

 

yeah i'm the shorter of the oldest siblings...

 

has anyone ever tried naming the first child 'Satan'? i know with 'Murder' the game comments somethign like 'That's a bit on the nose don't you think?' but idk if it reacts to satan?

 

I haven't mustered up the spoons to do the final walkthrough on the True Pacifist ending, and just got spoiled on

Spoiler

Asriel's final dialog. Dammit. Also oopsie.

I teared up a little but I'm sure it would have made me flat-out bawl if I'd seen it in game. ... honestly, it still might.

 

I plan to make my real murder run be named Angel. For reasons.

 

That is a good name.

 

I just gave them my own name because getting "Jo! Stay determined" was weirdly encouraging.

 

Mine was called Jigges, cause the screen was jiggling too hard for me to properly spell.

 

Spoiler: Grind grind grind

I'd like to give a big shoutout to Alphys, Temmie, and the ancient turtle for the easy money.

 

What's Alphys do to help earn money?

 

She upgrades your cellphone so you have an extra box. Makes it a lot easier to haul stuff around.


*eta Also I am sad because Napstablook sent me a friend request and then canceled it. :( Be friends with me!!!

 

oh! Well yeah. So handy.

 

Spoiler: You really ARE an idiot.

As it was 3am, I was tired and a bit spacey. I fought Flowey, got to the part where he starts shaking and yelling no, noooo... And

I don't even know

Somehow I didn't think to press z? I just expected the game to continue, and thought it was only pretending to freeze to upset me?

So I fought him again. And it seemed to freeze again. So I quit again and fought him a third fucking time before I thought "hey is that a chat message... Oh my god. I just needed to press z."

Three fucking times.

And I didn't even get the screenshots I meant to take. :\

 

So, I kind of wrote this thing. It's what I'd say in response to Flowey at the end of a No Mercy run, following a Pacifist run.

Y'know, if I actually ever played the game. Please excuse any inconsistencies.

Spoiler

So you think, because it was boredom and detachment that drove you to exploring, to trying out possibilities, and eventually to killing - you think that it's the same with me? Flowey, you don't understand. I love all these people. I love all my friends. I love every single monster. And you, I love you! But when I love a thing, I want to learn about it. I want to learn how it works, I want to know its history. Normally I wouldn't want to break things I love, because then I wouldn't have them any more. But I can SAVE them! I can break my beloved things, and I can learn more about them, and then I can go back and still have them! And I can break them again and again, until I know everything! And then I can love them all the more, and guard them even more fiercely, knowing how fragile they are and in how many ways they can break!

And it's worked so well! I have seen how Undyne fights when she's motivated. And Sans - I had to go a long way to push him to the brink, but I've finally seen what he's like when he gets serious. No amount of friendship could've shown me that. And you, you'd never have opened up to me like that either. You're such a poor tragic thing. I love you even more now.

And now I'm going to use my DETERMINATION to make this not have happened. And I'll still know all those things. And I'll love all of you all the more.

Remember back when you convinced me to spare everyone, Flowey? Not just my friends, but *everyone*, every single monster in the underground, and you as well? Remember how that was a trick so you could take all of their SOULS into you?

Well, since I raised my EXP as far as it goes - I went aruond everywhere and checked and double-checked, to make quite sure there was nobody left alive - you could say that, this time around, *I'm* the one who's absorbed everyone's SOULS.

Well, you saw how I beat you. Maybe you could do that? Come on, turn this thing around full circle. The compassionate, noble hero who saved everyone has become the ultimate evil, wouldn't it be so deliciously fitting if the previous ultimate evil became the compassionate hero and vanquished me?

Only you can't *do* that, can you?

You're empty. You have no compassion, you have no mercy... and so, you can't have real cruelty, either. Look at me. I always had a choice. I could always be cruel, or be kind. The kindness felt good, and the cruelty felt bad, but I felt both of them deeply, and they were real. You just... did things. And none of them ever meant anything to you. Can you see, at least, how empty you are? Can you get an idea of how much you're lacking? Are you, perhaps, feeling a bit of loss? Or maybe not. Maybe even that is beyond you.

It's funny. I hold this world's greatest evil within my soul - and yet, I am capable of forgiving everyone in this world, but nobody in this world is capable of forgiving *me*. So you see what that means - my compassion and my cruelty are both beyond measure. In this world, I alone am the greatest. That is why my DETERMINATION is superior. That's why, when you took all the SOULS, I won, and now that I took all the SOULS, I will win again. That's why you cannot SAVE anyone.

Give up, Flowey. And let me play with this world however I wish. It's rightfully mine.

 

I fucking love Undertale (or as I call it, Friend Simulator 2015), it reminds me of the high points of Homestuck without most of the downsides. Beautiful and funny cast of characters, interesting ways the players choices will effect the outcome, etc.

I'd persuade more of my friends to play it, but I worry that with all the spoilers and shit flying around that they won't get half the experience a person who goes in blind would. Or worse, that they'd dick around in the ruins for twenty minutes before deciding it was shit and they didn't want to play anymore.

Spoiler: My route

I did a full true pacifist run. Befriended everyone, spared Flowey, saved the day and everyone's souls, backtracked to the ruins...

And then I took ALL OF THE CANDY. Haaaahahahaaha those fucking idiots trusted me. Heh heh heh.

I don't need to do a genocide run and I never will. Chara's edgelord ass probably wouldn't be interested in my tainted soul anyway.

 

@Meagen Image goddamn

 

Spoiler: Rebirth, depression, and Undertale

So this game makes me think of Samsara. I have described on tumblr as being like a mini-Samsara simulator. Whereas roguelikes capture the tedium and difficulty of Samsara they haven't quite caught the feeling of Samsara and just what it does to people. Which is nothing good in the slightest! Undertale has captured that feeling though, even if it hasn't captured the tedium of it all (outside of the genocide route I suppose which will be mentioned).

I suppose a definition is in store first. So what is Samsara? Samsara is just this, these rounds of rebirth. It is life in all its horribleness and it is a wheel. There is no beginning or end to it in sight. It just rolls. You are born, you live, you age, and you die. Then you are born again and it all repeats. Which might sound awesome to some but in Buddhism life is defined by suffering, impermanence, and a lack of self. So there's nothing at all of any worth in it. All there is is dissatisfaction after dissatisfaction, which is enough to drive people into despair.

In Undertale we've got something similar with the saving and loading. Even though you have fixed all the problems it is still possible for everything to reset. Whereas in reality you have to earn control over that, in Undertale you yourself have control of it. The people who don't however? What about them? What is it like to live in this world where suddenly no actual satisfaction is to be found?

That is where we come to look at Sans. Sans is the face of suffering in Buddhism. He acts rather cheery and goofy, but underneath his pranks there is an awareness and with that awareness there is a pain. Sans is aware of just what is going on. Perhaps he doesn't understand the mechanics entirely, but he is aware that there are multiple save files and that even if he makes it to the surface it may well all reset again. However his knowledge alone amounts to nothing. Sans knows things and he has a bit of control over them, but he isn't satisfied because he isn't free. He is still trapped within the system and it has resulted in Sans being rather depressed. He admits to finding it hard to care or give it his all until you start killing everyone off. Because what's the point of it all?

So in Sans we have humanity. Nice and even. But we have things in the story that aren't human and which show off parallels to other sides of this whole Samsara business. Let's start with Flowey. Flowey as we know used to be the Prince Asriel. However due to shenanigans he is now Asriel's determination injected into a flower. Flowey woke up from all this rather upset which makes sense. So while his memories were still fresh he ran off to his family only to learn that he felt nothing emotionally. Which was upsetting. Eventually he tried to die because he didn't feel a life without emotions was worth living, but he learned that he definitely could feel at least something. Fear of death. He also discovered how to save and load. Flowey began to use this try and help people until he grew bored and frustrated with it. He then began killing everyone until again he grew bored and frustrated with it.

Flowey makes me think of the Deva. The Deva are godly beings who are born in a Heavenly World of Bliss. However because of that they don't at all comprehend suffering. They are able to feel to some degree, but their lives are so wonderful that they do not actually understand what pain is. Because they do not understand suffering they lack concern for other "lesser" living beings. However, even though they are powerful, their time is very limited and their powers are too. Thankfully unlike Flowey most Deva are perfectly content to stay in their Heavens and just ignore the ants at their feet. So Deva are still trapped and also dickheads.

And then there are the Asura. Like Devas they are a type of godly being. Unlike Devas Asura are constantly pissed off. Which again brings Flowey to mind. He is powerful and he can help people, but he is petulant, prideful, and hateful. Which Asura are in spades. They are defined by a seemingly endless rage despite their lot in life.

They also bring to mind the First Human. Even when he was human he was upset with life and humanity. He was hateful and upset and in death he became something even worse. Which is how Asura come about actually. The especially hateful and wrathful are reborn as Asura under the right circumstances, and so are forced to live a very long life where they are constantly upset. A life where they are also likely to cause problems and therefore fuck up their life even more.

Away from gods though let's get back to Flowey and the First Human and Samsara just in general. Like Sans Flowey knows shit about how reality works. He is far more skilled at it than Sans is too. He admits in the genocide run that he has killed everyone he knows just because he could and because helping all of them got boring. Like Sans Flowey is dissatisfied with life, but whereas Sans' depression results in laziness Flowey's results in active malice. He feels stuck in life. There's nothing for him and no point and he keeps looking for one. His current point when we deal with him is that everything sucks and needs to be ended by a god.

The First Human like Flowey is aware of things though it takes them time to figure things out. When they wake up they're confused. They're also powerless by themselves. It is through the player that they're able to infect Frisk and through stealing the players' soul they are able to do shit. And the shit they do is thoroughly awful. Not only do they kill most of the people in the genocide run, but it is implied that after getting out of the Underground in the pacifist ending they go on to kill everyone on the surface. Or die trying I guess.

And even before this the First Human was not a happy person. They hated humanity as Asriel tells us and won't talk about why. They're sadistic and don't seem to mind hurting others. They're also cunning and spiteful. They had a plan to get back at humanity and that plan involved death. Lots of it. They fail though and they need to latch onto your determination. And they went through with that plan even though they had a happy family. Which is an important thing. Not even having a family that loved them and a best friend was enough to sate whatever hurt it was that the First Human had. They felt a need for revenge, a need to cause pain.

The First Human is someone who was thoroughly wrecked by life. Just entirely. To the point where they have just given up entirely and have become something that isn't at all what they were. I don't feel that the First Human had to become the "demon who comes when people call its name". Not at all. But they did. Even without knowing about reality life breaks people down, and at very young ages. And it is very easy for people to get forced down increasingly awful avenues. In this way I think that the First Human is the most tragic character in the story and the one in most need of help.

Which brings me to a tangent I suppose. Namely of my absolute favorite line in the entire game. Now when the genocide run gets started at times when you check things you'll get red text back, this being the First Human. Mirrors will say "It's me, Alex (or whatever you named them)" and so on. This gets rather chilling in New Home. They'll comment on how Asgore still has a sweater and how all his diary entries are always the same. They make comment on their being no chocolate, that the date they arrived was circled on the calendar, whose bed is whose, and that their coffin wasn't comfortable. There is a thing that that the First Human has no words for though: a picture of themselves with their family. If you check the photo you just get back a red "...". They will mock and complain about many things, but there is nothing to say for the picture. Which is both chilling and exceptionally sad.

 

If you let the kid fall when you fight Undyne she has a bit of health missing from the fall. Huh. Neat.