Something I wanna point out cause it got kinda lost in the script writing: When counting the categories, I wasn't trying to imply mixtures don't occur, aggressor and protector were often combined. What I tried to go at is that if you dialed up all these categories to the extreme, his character becomes too contradicting. You can still turn it into something somewhat comprehensible, but again, you REALLY need to go through hoops to have it make any sense
I want you to give "Silly characters who are NO joke" a watch (Forgot the creator's username) because I feel Sans is characterized VERY well there (similar to your own thoughts too), aswell as everyone else included in that video.
sans threatining us to see if you'll be intimidated (in order to know if we're not the anomaly) sans saying that we've never died a single time waiting for your expression (to prove that we are the anomaly) i wouldn't be suprise if sans trolling us in our first meeting was actually just a way to check us to know if we've massacred the ruins or not
I remember seeing jokes online about how messed up it realistically would be for a guy to threaten death to a child in a public diner, but it makes more sense as a test to see if you’re afraid of death like most people or view it as meaningless because of your powers
I wouldn't say it was to check if we killed people in the ruins, more-so that entire encounter seems like a very thought out way by him to get in depth knowledge on just how we act. In the stalking scene, he can see if we're paranoid, trigger happy, combative, unobservant, skittish, etc. depending on how we react to a strange figure stalking you through the woods. Next, he can get a clue on how you are social settings, see if the way you act changes to give signs of wearing a mask, and other general personality traits that aren't revealed via testing the fight or flight response. These methods, while less effective on us that don't talk much, still are very effective to give a general profile of the human in ways that aren't just "Hey, that person killed a lot of people".
@@fruitloops2058 Fans call it Judgement Hall because of the part Sans plays in that room, but for all we know, Sans being a judge probably isn't anything officially placed by Asgore. The game never implies Sans was hired by Asgore to be some "royal judge" Sans is probably judging us of his own accord in that room just because it's the "last corridor" to the end of the game.
Sans is such an interesting character because who he's seen as is entirely a facade. He's seen as lazy, uncaring, and generally chill but all of those are so far from the truth. Sans walls himself off from others under this layer of irony so he never has to open up about himself and make himself vulnerable, because why bother when it's all going to be reset anyways? Might as well just enjoy the time he thinks he has left instead of trying to address any of his problems. Despite this however, Sans proves not only is he not lazy in the king Papyrus ending, but that he's not as laid back and uncaring as he pretends to be in every other neutral route and even genocide. From his point of view, knowing about the anomaly is like coping with a terminal disease diagnosis with no timeframe given for how long he has left. He can't change it, and thus slinks into a habit of letting others pick up the pieces until he thinks the anomaly is satisfied and he can go back to living. This is why he suddenly stops being "lazy" in every ending like in the king Papyrus ending, he never was lazy. He steps up to the plate once he thinks the anomaly is "satisfied" and won't undo everything that's happened. Edit: fixed a small typo Edit 2 (additional note): some people with depression sleep a lot to escape their emotions which I think is interesting given Sans is known for falling asleep just about anywhere.
@wildfire9280 sans’ inability to remember resets doesn’t invalidate what OP said. sans knows that there’s an anomaly out there that can reset everything, so sans doesn’t do anything because there’s still no point in his mind. everything can get erased and reset to its beginning and he would never know. he doesn’t know how many times it’s happened or how many times it will happen again. why would he ever try to achieve anything in a situation like that?
i dont really think sans is depressed, at least not anymore than anyone else in the underground is. he just knows a little more than everyone else. hes lazy, theres signs of him always being that way. he tells jokes because he genuinely likes it. I really dont think hes "depressed". but thats just me. and for the sleeping thing, i like ur idea, i always saw it as something else. if u go to the inn u can learn that sleeping raises ur hp above its max, anddddd whooo has the lowest hp in the underground... sans. I always imagined this is just his way of mitigating it.
Fun fact: Sans's dialouge changes if you didn't die once. Instead of noticing your expression, he comicaly emphasises that it's because of him you didn't die once. Whenever he's onto you, or just joking to make the "not-anomaly" feel safer, it adds even more depht to him.
With depression also comes mood swings. I myself have severe depression and with that I have episodes of times where I act, for lack of a better term "out of character" and "inconsistent". Perhaps that can be one reason as to why Sans' cannon characterization is so inconsistent.
Hope you recover from your depression mate. And I agree. Once had depression and I either go from cheery and talkative to just silent and only talks when needed and as much needed.
I feel like Sans being a popular character in a massively popular game is what contributed the most as to why his personality tends to change alot in various depictions from the fans. Not only that, but he is also a character that is written in a way that basically invites people to dissect him and try to figure him out. More so than any other character in Undertale. Much like other characters in media like Shadow the Hedgehog from the Sonic series and Beatrice from Umineko: When they Cry. Sans to me is a simple enough character as you say, but only at a surface level. Once you start diging deeper you find a lot more questions than answers.
I always saw the promise as an excuse for sans to try and feign hope, rather than an excuse to not fight you. I thought it was more like sans being: "welp, I made a promise, guess I HAVE to try now." Perhaps it can be both.
I actualy don't see Sans as a nihilist, but more of an absurdist. True he does deteriorate when he realizes nothing matters, but he doesn't stop functioning. Sans seems to find his reason in joking, and as he puts ot, "some good food, some bad laughs, some nice friends". He puts it into the things he enjoys and into tracking down the anomaly. He only seems to fail at this in hapiness in the genocide run.
I personally believe there's two types of nihilism. There's the "nothing matters, so why bother trying," and "nothing matters, so I'm going to do whatever I want." Sans falls somewhere in between
He doesn't really fit absurdist honestly. He still fits nihilist more. He is kind of an odd one. Because Sans is very complex. But I do personally think he fits nihilist more than absurdist.
Not to necessarily be that Guy, but I always thought of him as a "Determinist". After all he never really says that 'nothing matters'. Or claims or behaves in a way that shoes that nothing matters to Him. He cares about Papyrus and his Friends, as well as Frisk, The Player, and The Fate of The Timeline (to an extent), a great deal; Trying to look for hope in every decision you make and trying to support the ideals of Your's and Frisk's kindnesses and Papyrus's and Toriel's Beliefsm in Mercy, in just about every opportunity, even when he's Judgemental or Critical of it. But what he struggles with is "Trying". He tries to do everything he can to reach a Proper Happy Ending for everyone even if it’s not The Ending where everyone gets to make it, 1 where He gets to be Happy, or if it isn't even all that Happy of an Ending at all, but then when everything RESETS and he knows it. He starts wondering why he even bothers, because of the chance of it all happening again, or somehow getting even worse, until like always, he's given another reason with You or the same old 1 with Papyrus. Sans is very cynical and honestly pretty depressed about his situation, from what we can tell, but he never really stops because it's all he knows how to do and all he believes he can do. Because in the End, he belives that his Fate and Everyone's Fate is already Pre-Determined. And whether he likes it or not, it's Determined, by "You".
@@Nobody0333 sorry but I don't like this take because I'm a "determinist" and don't see Sans doing that. (Besides for Sans actively saying that he can't care anymore in the genocide fight we can agree that it's a different scenario). Determinism has no metrics that what you do don't matter but you should still try- That's absurdism!!! That's exactly my point! I don't think he thinks everything is predetermined because we have 3 routes, 3 outcomes, and 2 versions of Sans. We have the happier live your best life Sans and we have the depressed jaded Sans. That's where I get the absurdism from. In Geno it's depicted more as nihilism but I think that's because he sees all his efforts falling apart. Sans isn't a determinist. He's an absurdist who sees his philosophy die when you mercilessly slaughter his entire reality. He tried his best because he knows nothing matters. He creates his own reasons for living: creating what he thinks is the best life
11:49 honestly why can’t he be a mix of all 3? It makes for a perfect conflicted character. He has this deep resentment towards you/humanity for whatever reason. “The aggressor”. But that sentimental connection he had with Tori to keep the promise, followed by developing a genuine bond with frisk, causes his to suddenly care even if he doesn’t want to. “The protector”. You can’t control how you feel sometimes. So he has this inner battle within himself and you can see how both sides come out when talking to you. Followed by him trying to cope with it all by using humor and being a jokester. “Dumb funny guy”. As someone who copes with memes after something upsetting happens, I completely understand him. Lil dark humor to hide the battling thoughts in that skull of his. But hey, that’s just a theory, A GA-
But anyways I’m so glad there’s someone else understanding more of the media literacy and sans’ depression. Seeing his individual characteristics is nice and all but I wanna see his whole complete self more often
I did mean to mention that mixtures do occur but got kinda lost in the rewriting of the script. Point was how extreme these categories would show themselves Oversight on my part ^^'
One of the main reasons Sans is one of my favorite characters in the game (and, let's be real here, in general) is because of the seeming contradiction between Sans's nature as the comedy relief and being among the most dangerous people in the Underground. Not just because of how he's really strong in weird ways (karma, shortcuts, etc.), but because he's so freaking smart. Sans and Flowey seem to be the only ones with a proper understanding of what DT can do, and he can figure you out with just a *look.* By extension, that makes him the only person to know how much of a threat *we* are. That and his lack of involvement outside of his role as judge gives him a real "above it all" vibe I really enjoy. I've noticed that a large portion of interpretations of Gaster also have this sort of dichotomy. A lot of them seem to be either walking memes (like Wing Gaster, the Roya-AAAAA), bins of bottomless depression (like Handplates), cold and calculating nightmare fuel (like XGaster), or some combination of those three.
Figuring us out by a single look is a written well ability for him to have. He's socially adept in the underground and almost know everyone. He's popular in grillby's, a comedian in MTT hotel, befriended someone he's never even seen (Toriel), he's got ties with Alphys, and more. So, he knows with his experience how to read faces.
Sans interacts in such a way that the Player's responses and expressions will give him a TON of information. He will get an idea of how many times you've met, what you've done in other timelines, and so on. His pranks SHOULD take you by surprise... If they don't, he knows what's up. Very clever.
This is GENIUS, my eyes literally widened and a small "oh my god" escaped my frickin' mouth. The part, the realization, that THE JOKE in the dinner scene was the THREAT all along made a chill down my spine. It's an indication that Sans didn't even threat Frisk anymore in that line, no, he threatened US, the PLAYER. It genuinely made me felt scared and watch when I realised that, like he could almost see directly to US from the other side od the screen. But this essay is the most easily understandable, complex, and a creative way to look at Sans's personality, both mix of the good side of canon and fanon personalities. Love this video so much❤🎉
honestly, the whole section here 20:24 was extremely well done. i remember raising my eyebrow when i first saw that line all those years ago, but this whole part genuinely unnerved me with a realization that a lot more threat went under my radar than i ever knew. and its so freakin' _cool._ like- ugh, tobys writing of sans is so amazing, because the subtle threat in that line is SO subtle, most people completely missed it. i love the way this calls attention to it.
I grew up thinking sans is just a protecter whos a badass When i became older, Depression and nihilism got to me, Feeling how sans does is not very fun
Weirdly enough, my interpretation of the resort scene on first blush didn't align with any of the 3 you listed. I've noticed that in most fan renditions of the threat, Sans is depicted as very direct about it, looking Frisk dead-on when delivering his line. It does seem in line with the rest of his character when you think about it. But that's not quite how it went down. There's a detail often lost in the shock of it. If you play it back, Sans is turned _away_ from Frisk when he makes the threat, only turning back to face them after trying to backpedal on it. When I picked up on this on my first viewing, I couldn't read it as a "threat" at all. I read it as guilt. He's essentially admitting that he might have enacted prejudice on Frisk if not for making a commitment. He may have some obvious apathy in retrospect, it's true, but Flowey's blurbs do seem to imply he exercised less restraint when dealing with him. But him admitting this to you, here, in the context of a Pacifist route, implies to me that he does genuinely view you as contextually innocent, and having a capacity for good, and that he has some remorse for that he might not have been initially been planning on giving you a chance if not for that commitment. You've given him reason to doubt that you're hiding your true nature, that you'll just reset. So he lets some of his inner thoughts out, too. Just a bit. This coupled with him skewing more lighthearted with you in the time travel shenanigans later feels to me like the resort scene was him coming clean to you. It lets him get what limited closure he can on your relationship while still being covert enough to not let you in completely. I don't think he liked keeping his cards close to his chest, not really. In the end, all he wanted was for you to be a friend.
I noticed this body language, too. In fact, Sans looks to the side several times during the MTT conversation. Normally, Sans is able to keep the jokes going even as he's emotionally wrecked inside, as we saw from the Lost Soul fight. So for him to be visibly uncomfortable? Something is very wrong. I have a few ideas as to why. And while my conclusions might be different from yours, I like your thought processes, too!
This. This is beautiful. I really enjoy seeing this kind of interpretation of Sans, because, you know, he is a complex guy. Not just a function, but a PERSON, a person we, Player, know nothing about... despite some basic traits His sense of humour. His love for his brother. His good relationships with literally everyone. His high intellegence. His laziness, of course. And his tragedy. And that's shere the bad part starts. People always think they understand him, they understand what happened to him and he copes with it, while in reality, we have, like, zero information about what actually happened to Sans. We don't know his situation and still - we judge him, oh, what an irony. Judging the judge. We say we know why he is - let's use this word - depressed, but WE DON'T KNOW ANYTHING. We say he is lazy and laid-back while in reality Sans himself says it's not truth but we already saw a part of the painting so we think we can see the whole of it. I think his dialogues are really, really difficult to understand. Almost impossible from the first try. Never forget one thing: Sans is a lot smarter than he wants to be seen, it's his intelligence that makes him dangerous. He uses logic to understand things that took decades and, probably, hundreds of years to understand for Flowey or Gerson. Sans is obviously younger than Gerson, damn, he is something between a teenager and a young adult, while Gerson is... ancient. And Flowey. Flowey had as many Resets as he wanted to get the information, but Sans? Every Reset is the first try to him. And he cayches every small detail to understand the mechanics of the world, to understand the anomaly Do not trust his words. Sans is not someone you should be afraid of, not someone bad or violent. He just... is not really honest with you, you know. But you still can get answers if you look closely. As I said, this guy is a lot smartef than you think, so don't let him fool you ibto thinking he is simole and dumb. He isn't. He is always there, watching your step, analysing you. So you better start doing the same thing. Try to look closely. Try to understand the hidden meaning of his words. Probably, the better way to become friends with a really smart, but "closed" person is to understand them. Sorry for bad English, it's not my native language. Hi from Russia!
Damn undertale video essays getting released mere hours ago. I’m so glad this game is thriving as much as it is now. It was such an important part of my childhood and I was worried about it having fallen off. Before I was jealous this game was settling into obscurity while FNAF was in the spot light but I guess things have changed.
Yeah I wouldn’t worry about it honestly, Undertale’s a timeless classic. People will be talking about this game for generations to come. It’s one of my favourite games and I know I won’t forget about it.
In all honestly I absolutely LOVE how you portray sans in your dusttale revamp comic, especially how you portray alphys in a light that I haven’t seen many people apart from myself see. It’s beautifully put together and from author to another if you ever release original stories out there for the world to see, you have my support! I love you narratives and I love your art work Rean!
Good analysis, talk about inaction that depression can cause hits hard. The fact the "you haven't died once" throwaway is actually an expression read hinting to reload shenanigans is crazy, this game is so good
So glad i am not the only one trying to figure this scene out The main thing that bugged ME about the dialogue is how the death threat didn't seem to make sense. Sans wouldn't throw such a line just to intimidate a child, so that threat was either directed at us being human or the anomaly... and neither made sense to me: HUMAN) Sans is not a zealous human hater, he pretty much says so in his introduction. Another motivation for killing us would be the rewards of the capture of our soul and potential freedom of monsterkind. First of all, seems like a bit too much initiative for someone who slacks off his job as a sentry with his supposed target. Secondly, if really saw at some value in trying to capture us, why is this promise the ONE thing suddenly restraining him? ANOMALY) Sans already knows we are the anomaly. But, why would he be so damn confrontational? He's not stupid, he knows a battle with us is a pointless venture. And what good is a promise here anyway, Sans wouldn't be eager to fight us in the first place? Your interpretation is helping me to clear things up. Perhaps it was a sorta warning/bluff. And him being restricted by the promise makes the threat both more intimidating (it wouldn't be intimidating if he didnt provide a reason why he doesn't just throw hands with us right now if he's so pissed) and weirdly comforting (due to him communicating that Toriel is looking out for us even beyond the Ruins' door)
I now understand what makes sans so unique, the layering personalities, the depiction of so many different emotions and responses to certain situations, that's how you make a 3d character
It's amazing how he has so many layers and the more I see him the more I discover new things. He comes across as lazy but he is someone who works hard behind the scenes (works in different positions, tried to keep a promise even at the cost of lives even his own brother and fight for his world that was in danger) and someone who tries as hard as possible to make sure that the people he cares about don't get hurt where he lies to Papyrus that his friends went on vacation (King Papyrus route) omitted about Papyrus' death to Toriel (Queen Toriel route) and helps Alphys as much as he can (Queen Alphys route) and manipulates you into going on a good route with a similar type of manipulation Chara has with Asriel ridiculing you and making you feel bad when you call him. He is a character who, even at times when he says that he has given up and that nothing really matters since everything can be restarted, he is the most hard-working guy I have ever met.
I love that Toby Fox keeps pushing forth the narrative that Sans is lazy: * Sans Inaction Figure * "Sans is too lazy to . . ." * "ALL YOU DO IS SIT AND BOONDOGGLE." And yet Sans is the one who spends the most time on the clock. The more you find out about Sans, the more you appreciate him. Top-tier character writing. I maintain the stance that Sans did "give up" in a lot of ways, but he never truly lost hope. If he did, he wouldn't be doing all he does.
actually it's not the first time at the dinner where he points out at your ability to reset, he also does it in Snowdin(I mean the first 100% one) when you solve Papyrus's XO∆ puzzle he says something about you doing a great job because it can't be possible that you have seen this puzzle before
I think the "somewhere else" is whatever place sans originally came from. He's thinking of how it's raining "somewhere else", and since he feels homesick, he's thinking of the rain, almost like his home is missing him back. That's how I interpret the song and title, anyway.
oh oomf/moot has a youtube channel. neato. i definitely enjoyed this video. i like watching essays on sans since it's fun to see what goes on in other people's minds about him for sure. as for the stuff talked about. 7:10 a lot of people think that sans doesn't care about people being mean to papyrus because he knows papyrus is "tough", but like, come on. it's his goshdarn brother, and as someone else on twitter said, "it's very much a "only i and close friends can tease him situation". most people probably don't know this because they pick that papyrus is cool, lmao... 7:36 sans has been implied to have been a scientist in his past, he might have been involved with the true lab stuff, in a way. 9:10 i mean, yuh, prolly 'cus there isn't anyone else super close by. there's a few other people in the room but nobody immediately close, and dinners are often a place where you tend to feel more open anyways. 10:06 i feel like sans protects you more mentally than physically in undertale. he knows you can reset, infinitely so, so there isn't any reason for him to step in and protect you, you'll try again. what he DOES try to protect is your will to keep going. a lot of people get upset at hard points in video games, or just in real life, and quit doing them. sans wants us to keep going, to win, to make it to the end, and the best way to raise someone's mental health is jokes. when someone is feeling down, you want to make them laugh, feel happy. he also DOES sell us healing items, so there's that. 10:22 i think he probably is just trying to get a reaction out of you. like he knows you can reset/reload/whatever, he's like tryna see if that he's correct on that theory based on what you react like. 11:48 and yeah, these three lines are definitely what caused the split. it's very bizarre, but i understand WHY people have gotten him wrong. a lot of his dialogue is vague like this. 12:49 like yeah, it's really weird how the game scripts sans, but like i said i think he is protecting you mentally rather than physically. 14:12 probably deltarune lmao 15:55 yeah this is how i view the actual promise making. 17:55 i don't think i will ever remember where the judgement hall misconception came into play but i vividly remember watching more and more people use the term. 20:52 and this is why i believe that sans is genuinely good at reading your face. him remembering resets is 100% not canon and makes no sense, but like, yeah, he knows how many times you've died, and he knows what's happened to you. he gets nostalgia of past resets/reloads like everyone else, and since he's been watching you throughout your journey, he'd get that weird nostalgic feeling at the points you died at. if he got none, "oh, they didn't die. neat." 21:42 and uh, about us being the anomaly. no, we aren't the anomaly he thinks we are. he definitely believes we are "the anomaly", but the one he was talking about in genocide is flowey. he got those timeline reports likely way before we fall, and it wouldn't make sense for him to say this if your first playthrough is geno, or geno is like, your second or third run. we are AN anomaly, flowey is the one he talks about in his fight, however he thinks that WE are that anomaly. 22:01 oh hey, we agree on it lmao. 24:25 funny how all of sanses themes (megalovania isn't his theme imo) are just "sans." remixed differently. peak video, you explained him very well. sans undertale approved. 👍
Honestly i think the protector & aggressive personality types mainly come from people kinda molding him to match the personality of the writer. After all I think a lot of us can agree that if we were in Sans's shoes some of us would try and protect or save our brother or save frisk from the player. If we can't do that, then might as well crash out & try give the player hell for what they did. I don't understand the jokester role tho.
As I continue to watch this video, I continue to breath a sigh of relief every time when you point out how much sans has varied when it comes to his interpretation When I made my video discussing the entire fandom as a whole, when I went to sans bit. I was sorta afraid I was misremembering or I would be gettin stuff wrong While I did get small stuff wrong, I’m happy how I talked about it wasn’t wrong as cited with your video Tho now I can’t do a video talking about this in detail cause you did it so good, you bastard (I’m joking of course XD) But this is genuinely a really well made and put out video
"When I made my video discussing the entire fandom as a whole, when I went to sans bit." I really liked this video. "Tho now I can’t do a video talking about this in detail cause you did it so good, you bastard (I’m joking of course XD)" I say the more the merrier. If u ever did do a video like this (too), I would love to watch it.
The fact you covered so many parts of his character I love perfectly made me very happy. And I myself can relate to sans, I've been in those moments A LOT, and I still feel them today. Seriously, I really admire his character. AND AS A SANS FANGIRL, I will admit he is my comfort character. I could go on and on but I'll just end it there. Thank you for making this essay.
I updated the description with the track names. The question was more about "before the story" but might as well list them all. Being in this brainrot makes you forget not everyone memorized the track names lol Track Names In Order: -sans. -Premonition -It's Raining Somewhere Else(also end track) -Snowy -Mysterious Place -Quiet Water -Memory -Ghostfight -An Ending -Before The Story(Deltarune Menu) -Small Shock -Your Best Friend -Dummy! -Megalovania(slowed down) -Reunited
I intend on deleting this account sooner or later, switching over stuff so I can do my own things on TH-cam with a tighter sense of security, assuming of course that I ever get to that. This comment won't be up forever is what i'm tryna say but i feel it's worth posting regardless because i can't thank you enough as to the portrayal of this character that you've brought to light, so many people look at sans and even the rest of the main cast in this one dimensional way when ultimately, there's so much more depth to it than that, so many more layers, so much more intrigue, so many flaws, and that's good, characters are meant to be flawed, because people are meant to be flawed, it's okay to be flawed, to have masks that you hide behind, it's okay to not have your sense of self figured out right now, not many people know who they are, or what they want, it's okay to let the rain come down once in awhile, but above all else, it's okay to let it rain, somewhere else, and I think more people need to know that.
I remember when I first played Undertale when I was young (11-12) I got to that “am i wrong?” bit and internally freaked out. Something along the lines of, “He knows. Is that a bad thing? Have I been actodentaly torturing him with how bad I am at this game?!” Ah, good times. But I’ve also been wondering recently, what if Frisk was honest about the Resets? Specifically in the early runs? How would people react? It’s honestly kinda fun to think about for my AU.
I always viewed sans as someone jaded by constantly seeing the world reset and having his friends die, so he trys to appeal to your humanity throughout the run. Only after he can no longer hope you will change through grace, does he physically try to stop you. It's an Interesting take on someone broken by nihilism, but just as determined as you to accomplish their goal.
I saw the thumbnail and I was so excited. When I first watched the game during its heyday, the dinner and its accompanying song “It’s Raining Somewhere Else” were some of my favorite parts of the game and even though I hadn’t thought about it in a while, as soon as I saw this video I was like “damn I remember that scene, that was fkin iconic”. Your analysis did not disappoint, thanks for the food for thought 💜
Really cool analysis on Sans, I love the layers of Sans and I think that the analysis of the Dinner scene really shows just how much you can infer about this guy. On one level he’s a nihilistic skeleton with depression, struggling to properly live in the moment due to this yearning for whatever home might have been to him. But on another level, he’s basically warning you “I know what you are so you’d better stay in your lane”. He’s such a well written character. I also love the discussion around It’s Raining Somewhere else and how he may view stuff like the promise with Toriel as an excuse to keep acting how he always has (even if he does genuinely want to keep up that promise)
Honestly, you did an amazing job on this essay. Even after spending all this time in the fandom and watching many other essays about this character, you provided something new. Thanks for the great video and have a nice day.
THIS WAS AMAZINGGGG I completely agree with all the points you made!! It’s hard to see a character as a full, complex person sometimes, but Sans was written in such a good way that he feels *real*. He cares, truly does, from the bottom of his heart-yet can’t bring himself to _show_ that care due to a deep-rooted belief in the absence of meaning in his life. It’s tragic, sad, but his arc in Pacifist is perhaps one of the most uplifting things a depressed person could go through; learning how to hope. Beautiful analysis, and beautiful video (love your artstyle)!!! Much love 💜💜
For a video essay I think you did a phenomenal job explaining sans, I’ve been the fandom ever since 2016 and always saw sans as just a chill fella and nothing more but this really opened my eyes a bit more to his character and pretty much who he is so big thanks for that, I’m glad I found this vid in my recommendeds and I hope to see more from you soon! ✨⚡️✨ (Also yes megalovania WAS overplayed, still a great song tho lol)
thank you, i lost track of time and was focused on the video for the entire duration of it, thats really good considering my attention span! You surely deserve more exposure then this!
Okay first off, your art is gorgeous. I need to check out more of your art. Second, this video is awesome. This scene is my absolute favorite in the game, it adds so many layers to Sans as a character in a single monologue. Toby’s a freaking genius, and you went through this scene and Sans as a character perfectly. Also fun fact: I actually picked “It’s raining somewhere else” as the music for my senior ballet solo because I loved this scene, this game, and this character
When I played the game for the first and only time on my PC save (I’ve vowed to never reset it) I never died a single time up until that point. I only died once the whole game and it was with Asgore. So when sans remarked on my death count, I remember he actually says something different. Something about being right about his previous statement and then taking the credit for doing a good job protecting you.
I just wanted to point out that before the fight starts, sans says something along the lines that he's sorry for not being able to keep the promise old lady, and it obvious that he was referring to the promise he made with toriel. I like to interprete that as he is a sincere person that keeps a promise even if it is at the cost of the life of the person closest to him (papyrus). He only breaks that promise when you genocide and kill everyone.
Sans' unwillingness to fight is multi-faceted: he is aware of your ability to RESET and has timeline apathy for a Groundhog Day that's ultimately out of his control; he genuinely cares and hopes you'll learn and turn things around; and his promise to Toriel. Sans is vehemently against injustice, but he's a "wait and see" / big picture kind of guy. He picks his battles. Even though, in reality, he'd prefer not to fight at all. I see it this way: Sans is very serious about keeping promises, but he views not stopping the Player as the bigger sin. Ironically, if Sans does stop you, you'll RESET the timeline to where he never breaks his promise in the first place.
Edit: You know I wrote this halfway the video so seeing this is pretty much the same conclusion is funny. I think what's so special about Sans to me is how you can see the contrast of his philosophy vs how he actually. From his knowledge on the reality of his world he thinks it's futile to do anything cuz it will not matter in the end that you as a "time traveler" could do anything without care so befriending you is a hollow act and, his brother and the entire underground death in the end doesn't matter, nothing matters, and that constant thought could drive someone crazy or in Sans case, majorly depressed. But, he still can't make himself not care, even if he know it's meaningless he still cares about his loved ones and still gets emotional about them, he could genuily form a connection with Frisk even if knowing they can time travel cuz they can have the hope that you actually care and that there's hope for a good ending even if his philosophy would tell him it doesn't matter and still push himself to act and move forwards, this also applies to his geno fight where even if he knows you'll win and that everyone dying doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, when pushed to the limit he takes that hope for a better outcome regardless of how foolish it may be. He's a nihilist that Sucks at nihilism.
I think it's also interesting that, as you've mentioned about yourself as well, the initial Undertale fandom that saw Sans - and, for lack of a better term, boxed him into one of those three character tropes, - has grown up. The game came out almost 10 years ago, I myself was a teenager back then and legit had a crush on him because he was so ✨mysterious✨, but now I can look at him and see him for what he actually embodies: a flawed person who has given up, but who still tries his best to be kind to others. And I think that's very comforting. Thanks for this video ❤
Personally, I actually read the restaurant scene as a kind of confession. Basically every major character in Undertale tries to kill you at some point (and Toriel brings you to the brink of death and Papyrus locks you in a shed to be delivered to someone who will kill you and Alphys engineers situations where you /think/ your life is at risk so they aren't really in the clear either...) except for Sans. And the only reason Sans doesn't is because of the combination of his own nihilism, his suspicions that you're the anomaly, and the promise. So I read the whole restaurant thing as him... trying to dispel the notion that he's any better than them, I guess. Because he knows he would have killed you, under different cirumstances, while you're still under the impression that he's your staunchest ally. (as low a bar as that is) Because as a threat, I don't think it really... makes sense? He at the very least strongly /suspects/ that you're the anomaly by that point, especially if you've had the various sans sus interactions in Snowdin, and he makes it clear in the genocide run that he understands that he can't really do anything but annoy you. So when he says "you'd be dead where you stand" he definitely knows exactly how little that means. And he's already hinted that he Knows several times by that point (see: grillby's scene, pointing out if you've solved Papyrus' puzzles before) so as a way to tip you off to that it's... slightly more definite than what he's already said, I guess? But not exactly news if you've been paying attention. And it actively works against his goals to tell you that he's not as caring towards you as you might have assumed, because it actively endangers his whole "get the anomaly to like me so they won't want to kill people" plan. The fact that he'd risk actively alienating you when he considers you such a threat is very notable, I think. So I can only really read it as an integrity thing. Him feeling guilty for not proactively protecting you like Toriel would have wanted, or for the fact that if it weren't for the promise and you being the anomaly, he wouldn't have hesitated to hurt you. Good video, by the way! I clicked on as soon as I saw the title because that specific conversation is probably my favorite interaction to pick apart in the whole game (short of like. the sans geno fight). It's so interesting to me that I once wrote an entire fanfiction specifically about digging into it. You brought up a lot of interesting ideas, many of which I haven't considered before. Solid 9/10!
Man, at the end of the vid I was like oh man where is this gonna go, then I looked at the timeline and was like WHAT? Its over? Noooo! Amazing vid, you did a very good job on it!
thats a really good catch i dont think ive ever heard anyone say anything about him saying you have never died but you don't agree also this is a really good vid with really good art sub really ffast
12:25 Sans never intervened in Papyrus's fight because he knows that Papyrus could never kill you. Even during the fight, when you drop down to 1hp, Papyrus simply captures you and "locks" you in his shed. And if you lose to Papyrus 3 times, he'll actually let you skip the whole fight and go past him. Saying that he can't continue fighting you forever out of exhaustion and annoyance for your stubborness.
(Bombshell comment ahead) 20:36 I think his specification of not dying "a single time" also helps in revealing his meta-awareness. He could've said "but hey, you're not dead yet, right?" Or some variation of that, but he specified you haven't died "a single time". This implies death is repeatable, which shouldn't make sense for an npc, who up until this point hasn't shown any signs of self-awareness, to say. At this point of the story, the only in-game character we know is aware of our reset ability is Flowey. So Sans, this comic relief who has done nothing but joke, saying this as a throwaway line immediately changes our perception of him. Sans saying "you havent died A SINGLE TIME" wouldn't make sense unless he KNOWS you can reset. Him threatening us is one thing, whatever. As you said, death doesn’t scare us so much since its something we can always come back from. It's something we've been threatened with many times so far. But to be exposed like that? The only other character to threaten us AND be self-aware of the game mechanics is Flowey, but he's the antagonist. Sans of all characters doing that, who's done nothing but make jokes, be friendly and pop up along our journey? Flowey tried being our friend at first, but he quickly lifted the veil. Sans succeeding in befriending us, endearing us to him, then not only threatening us but dropping that he might even know we can reset? Suddenly he becomes legitimately intimidating, and so, SO much more interesting.
God, this is the best analyse of sans I've ever seen. Tysm for telling us all that this is so cool to be able to see sans like this... (Sry for my bad english )
Yknow what, i love this idea and its so nice to see someone really explain how different people can view 1 character One thing though, Not only the dinner can change everything but also his judgments (although less popular). He will mock you and even encourage you to do better at killing which not only messes with the other views but almost makes one itself. I dont know though, after all its not like no one has noticed before. "Am i wrong...?"
When I saw that this video was about Sans and then when I saw that Jax is mentioned, I was kind of scared to watch it, but surprisingly, it managed to avoid pitfalls that often make me uncomfortable in videos like this, I am pleasantly surprised.
I think when he says that you didn't die a SINGLE time is when he knows FOR SURE about the anomily cause hes right you didn't die one single time you died a fuck ton
I f'd up the phrasing somewhere. When questioning why he didn't rîntervene with papyrus, it wasn't in the sense to help you with those monsters, the clip I used there was of the geno confrontation with pap to imply his lack of intervention to save pap if he claims to be that protective. The promise of protection was more to indicate his trait of protectiveness and how that inaction contradicts it. Script writing is hard guys TwT
dude it never even crossed my mind in all these years that "you havent died a single time" indirectly implies that he knows we can die more than once. its all a threat to US, not frisk. the more i realize about sans' character, the more he becomes my favourite character. props to you for realizing all of this!
12:38 I think people overestimate how strong Sans is. He’s strong, but he’s not that strong. The only reason he stands a chance in his fight is because Frisk had karma for being level nineteen. Imagine how easy Sans would be if you had invincibility frames. He would still be hard at level one, but what about level seventeen, the highest level you can get on a neutral run.
People don't overestimate Sans. Lowered IV's and KR are both really strong abilities of Sans (u can't just take one or both and say, Sans is only strong because of them or would be weak/weaker because of them, because yeah, that tends to happen when u take abilities/powers from a character). And Sans has a bunch of other skills, powers, tactics, etc. And KR being linked with LV/EXPs is pure fanon, and even if it wasn't. Ur KR would still be quite high at LV17, if KR was connected to LV/EXP, which again, is pure fanon. Sans may not be the strongest in Undertale, but he is still one of the most powerful in his own rights.
@ Assuming that karma being connected is exp is how it works, then you wouldn’t have it at level 17. You can get to level 17 on a neutral run and not get it. The K.R. is meant to stand for karma, it makes more sense, to me at least, that you would get an effect called “karma” for being a terrible person, rather than picking a fight with a skeleton.
@@JosephMaddoxJoyce KR isn't just a power that randomly happens, if it was just because of ur own KR killing/hurting, then other monsters should be able to do use it (If u are LV17, u certainly have enough sins to be hurt by. Like, u can still very much be a terrible person at lower level, and yet, Karma doesn't just appear for other characters. Because it is Sans' ability/power, not just an effect that randomly appears out of nowhere. Like, u do realize Sans has also caused Flowey some of the most trouble too, right? Causing Flowey a fair share of resets, and making it so Flowey warns you to never let Sans find out anything about you). KR is Sans' power/ability. Sans is tired to judging as a character; hence the KR, Karma, sins, etc. stuff, because it is part of his character, not because KR is tired to LV and EXP which has no real proof in canon, besides the Karma name, which just isn't much proof honestly (also, Karma's original meaning anyways just means consequence, rather for good or bad actions, .sooo...). KR is Sans' ability, and such, if u were to fight him at not LV19, he would still have the ability. Same with lowering IV's, because that is also an ability he has. Among his many other powers/abilities and skills and etc. "it makes more sense, to me at least, that you would get an effect called “karma” for being a terrible person, rather than picking a fight with a skeleton." Ok, and like KR being tired to LV and EXP, there is no actual evidence or basis for this in canon. There is even less "evidence" for this. U can believe it if u want, but I personally don't, and like I said, there isn't (much) real evidence for it in canon.
I never even thought of the fact that the whole time sans was simply trying to get reactions out of us to deduce whether we were going to murder his entire race or grant them all the freedom they've wanted for over a milenia, and that comic showing frisks reaction and Sans' smug grin as he finally catches you describes it perfectly (especially with the slowed down megalovania)
Sans is my homie because he's a cool dude with intelligence that I've found as a kid, while y'all like Sans for being horny. *We are not the same.* Not to sound sigma but fo real he's a type man who's never show his feelings, because his non-chalant already speaks itself. And that's badads and depressing at the same time.
I want the people here to give "Funny guys that are NO joke" a watch up here on TH-cam (Forgot the creator's username) because I feel he characterizes Sans VERY well there, aswell as everyone else included in that video.
What’s crazy is I’ve met more people that don’t know who sans is, including sprite and music, then I have who have met him, and two of those people are my roomstes
For the judgment hall bit, the save file( don't know if pc file also calls it the LC) calls it the last corridor- the last obstacle you need to push through to reach Asgore. The last thing standing between you and the end- weather that end is good or bad .... Okay maybe last corridor does also fit but at least for genocide I think judgment hall fits cuz yknow, you're getting judged
".... Okay maybe last corridor does also fit but at least for genocide I think judgment hall fits cuz yknow, you're getting judged" U get judged in basically every route too, not just Geno. Judgement Hall might not be a canon name, but I do think it really fits and is fine (mostly) to call LC (which also fits and is cool too) that. And basically everyone will know what u mean too, if u call LC, JH instead.
@Dragon_Aoi in pacifist and neutral our judgment is basically sans dunking on us with roasts, or at least I find it funnier to think that's how it goes and we just see the more official part like his speech on LV, EXP and such. Now geno is where we get serious judgment for basically erasing monsterkind and reality as they know it from existence so we get a really bad time, so painfully one never did it in the first place- but hey ya did it so now its your turn of suffering Actual judgment besides getting roasted. Now does any of this make sense? Probably not but im sure some people will agree that the other routes are light compared to the beatdown one receives from sans and oh boy the mental shock they'd receive from the dunking that's just pouring gas on a raging fire that is their rage
12:18 Sans knew Papyrus was harmless, he said so himself. Papyrus won’t kill you, even Toriel will if you try hard enough, but Papyrus never will. Sans also couldn’t stop every enemy, he clearly didn’t want you to know until that dinner.
Something I wanna point out cause it got kinda lost in the script writing:
When counting the categories, I wasn't trying to imply mixtures don't occur, aggressor and protector were often combined. What I tried to go at is that if you dialed up all these categories to the extreme, his character becomes too contradicting.
You can still turn it into something somewhat comprehensible, but again, you REALLY need to go through hoops to have it make any sense
Holy Fuck (interest) sans is a bastard
I want you to give "Silly characters who are NO joke" a watch (Forgot the creator's username) because I feel Sans is characterized VERY well there (similar to your own thoughts too), aswell as everyone else included in that video.
@@thedarknessinthelight9824username is Rad Chad
@@obsessionsofthevoid W
I knew about sans before I knew about Undertale
sans threatining us to see if you'll be intimidated (in order to know if we're not the anomaly)
sans saying that we've never died a single time waiting for your expression (to prove that we are the anomaly)
i wouldn't be suprise if sans trolling us in our first meeting was actually just a way to check us to know if we've massacred the ruins or not
I remember seeing jokes online about how messed up it realistically would be for a guy to threaten death to a child in a public diner, but it makes more sense as a test to see if you’re afraid of death like most people or view it as meaningless because of your powers
yeah cause he instantly goes on with the "my brother would really like to see a human, so keep pretending to be one" thing just a couple scenes later
I wouldn't say it was to check if we killed people in the ruins, more-so that entire encounter seems like a very thought out way by him to get in depth knowledge on just how we act. In the stalking scene, he can see if we're paranoid, trigger happy, combative, unobservant, skittish, etc. depending on how we react to a strange figure stalking you through the woods. Next, he can get a clue on how you are social settings, see if the way you act changes to give signs of wearing a mask, and other general personality traits that aren't revealed via testing the fight or flight response. These methods, while less effective on us that don't talk much, still are very effective to give a general profile of the human in ways that aren't just "Hey, that person killed a lot of people".
ngl I forgot that judgement hall wasn’t a term used in game until this video 😭 genuinely tho this essay is amazing omg
I still usually call it like this despite knowing that it's officially name is different.
Wait what’s the actual name? 😭
@@getjinxed101Last Corridor.
It's called out a few times that Asgore is bad with coming up with names, as they're all too literal.
@@xdman0289 guess Judgement Hall sounds too cool for the naming scheme of the underground
@@fruitloops2058 Fans call it Judgement Hall because of the part Sans plays in that room, but for all we know, Sans being a judge probably isn't anything officially placed by Asgore.
The game never implies Sans was hired by Asgore to be some "royal judge" Sans is probably judging us of his own accord in that room just because it's the "last corridor" to the end of the game.
Sans is such an interesting character because who he's seen as is entirely a facade.
He's seen as lazy, uncaring, and generally chill but all of those are so far from the truth.
Sans walls himself off from others under this layer of irony so he never has to open up about himself and make himself vulnerable, because why bother when it's all going to be reset anyways?
Might as well just enjoy the time he thinks he has left instead of trying to address any of his problems.
Despite this however, Sans proves not only is he not lazy in the king Papyrus ending, but that he's not as laid back and uncaring as he pretends to be in every other neutral route and even genocide.
From his point of view, knowing about the anomaly is like coping with a terminal disease diagnosis with no timeframe given for how long he has left.
He can't change it, and thus slinks into a habit of letting others pick up the pieces until he thinks the anomaly is satisfied and he can go back to living.
This is why he suddenly stops being "lazy" in every ending like in the king Papyrus ending, he never was lazy.
He steps up to the plate once he thinks the anomaly is "satisfied" and won't undo everything that's happened.
Edit: fixed a small typo
Edit 2 (additional note): some people with depression sleep a lot to escape their emotions which I think is interesting given Sans is known for falling asleep just about anywhere.
This is so well-written and explained thank you for your typing this ❤️
He knows of resets, but does not remember them. His depression probably comes from somewhere else.
@wildfire9280 sans’ inability to remember resets doesn’t invalidate what OP said. sans knows that there’s an anomaly out there that can reset everything, so sans doesn’t do anything because there’s still no point in his mind. everything can get erased and reset to its beginning and he would never know. he doesn’t know how many times it’s happened or how many times it will happen again. why would he ever try to achieve anything in a situation like that?
i dont really think sans is depressed, at least not anymore than anyone else in the underground is. he just knows a little more than everyone else. hes lazy, theres signs of him always being that way. he tells jokes because he genuinely likes it. I really dont think hes "depressed". but thats just me. and for the sleeping thing, i like ur idea, i always saw it as something else. if u go to the inn u can learn that sleeping raises ur hp above its max, anddddd whooo has the lowest hp in the underground... sans. I always imagined this is just his way of mitigating it.
@TrulySomeone Thank you for explaininggg!
Fun fact: Sans's dialouge changes if you didn't die once. Instead of noticing your expression, he comicaly emphasises that it's because of him you didn't die once. Whenever he's onto you, or just joking to make the "not-anomaly" feel safer, it adds even more depht to him.
Anything for if you've died exactly once? And/or if you reload, die, and then redo the cutscene?
With depression also comes mood swings. I myself have severe depression and with that I have episodes of times where I act, for lack of a better term "out of character" and "inconsistent". Perhaps that can be one reason as to why Sans' cannon characterization is so inconsistent.
Hope you recover from your depression mate.
And I agree. Once had depression and I either go from cheery and talkative to just silent and only talks when needed and as much needed.
same
@@totallyregulargiornoYou described my personality perfectly lmao
Me too. My depression sometimes makes me moody or prone to slight jolts of unproportional anger.
I got it under control, but damn is it *EXHAUSTING*
I feel like Sans being a popular character in a massively popular game is what contributed the most as to why his personality tends to change alot in various depictions from the fans.
Not only that, but he is also a character that is written in a way that basically invites people to dissect him and try to figure him out. More so than any other character in Undertale.
Much like other characters in media like Shadow the Hedgehog from the Sonic series and Beatrice from Umineko: When they Cry.
Sans to me is a simple enough character as you say, but only at a surface level. Once you start diging deeper you find a lot more questions than answers.
Undertale movie PLEASE
I always saw the promise as an excuse for sans to try and feign hope, rather than an excuse to not fight you. I thought it was more like sans being: "welp, I made a promise, guess I HAVE to try now." Perhaps it can be both.
I actualy don't see Sans as a nihilist, but more of an absurdist. True he does deteriorate when he realizes nothing matters, but he doesn't stop functioning. Sans seems to find his reason in joking, and as he puts ot, "some good food, some bad laughs, some nice friends". He puts it into the things he enjoys and into tracking down the anomaly. He only seems to fail at this in hapiness in the genocide run.
I personally believe there's two types of nihilism. There's the "nothing matters, so why bother trying," and "nothing matters, so I'm going to do whatever I want."
Sans falls somewhere in between
He doesn't really fit absurdist honestly.
He still fits nihilist more.
He is kind of an odd one.
Because Sans is very complex.
But I do personally think he fits nihilist more than absurdist.
Not to necessarily be that Guy, but I always thought of him as a "Determinist". After all he never really says that 'nothing matters'. Or claims or behaves in a way that shoes that nothing matters to Him. He cares about Papyrus and his Friends, as well as Frisk, The Player, and The Fate of The Timeline (to an extent), a great deal; Trying to look for hope in every decision you make and trying to support the ideals of Your's and Frisk's kindnesses and Papyrus's and Toriel's Beliefsm in Mercy, in just about every opportunity, even when he's Judgemental or Critical of it. But what he struggles with is "Trying". He tries to do everything he can to reach a Proper Happy Ending for everyone even if it’s not The Ending where everyone gets to make it, 1 where He gets to be Happy, or if it isn't even all that Happy of an Ending at all, but then when everything RESETS and he knows it. He starts wondering why he even bothers, because of the chance of it all happening again, or somehow getting even worse, until like always, he's given another reason with You or the same old 1 with Papyrus. Sans is very cynical and honestly pretty depressed about his situation, from what we can tell, but he never really stops because it's all he knows how to do and all he believes he can do. Because in the End, he belives that his Fate and Everyone's Fate is already Pre-Determined. And whether he likes it or not, it's Determined, by "You".
@@Nobody0333 sorry but I don't like this take because I'm a "determinist" and don't see Sans doing that. (Besides for Sans actively saying that he can't care anymore in the genocide fight we can agree that it's a different scenario). Determinism has no metrics that what you do don't matter but you should still try- That's absurdism!!! That's exactly my point! I don't think he thinks everything is predetermined because we have 3 routes, 3 outcomes, and 2 versions of Sans. We have the happier live your best life Sans and we have the depressed jaded Sans. That's where I get the absurdism from. In Geno it's depicted more as nihilism but I think that's because he sees all his efforts falling apart. Sans isn't a determinist. He's an absurdist who sees his philosophy die when you mercilessly slaughter his entire reality. He tried his best because he knows nothing matters. He creates his own reasons for living: creating what he thinks is the best life
@@DoJayMi that's just claiming nihilism is an umbrella which includes absurdism... Which it is not.
11:49 honestly why can’t he be a mix of all 3? It makes for a perfect conflicted character. He has this deep resentment towards you/humanity for whatever reason. “The aggressor”. But that sentimental connection he had with Tori to keep the promise, followed by developing a genuine bond with frisk, causes his to suddenly care even if he doesn’t want to. “The protector”. You can’t control how you feel sometimes. So he has this inner battle within himself and you can see how both sides come out when talking to you. Followed by him trying to cope with it all by using humor and being a jokester. “Dumb funny guy”. As someone who copes with memes after something upsetting happens, I completely understand him. Lil dark humor to hide the battling thoughts in that skull of his.
But hey, that’s just a theory, A GA-
But anyways I’m so glad there’s someone else understanding more of the media literacy and sans’ depression. Seeing his individual characteristics is nice and all but I wanna see his whole complete self more often
I did mean to mention that mixtures do occur but got kinda lost in the rewriting of the script. Point was how extreme these categories would show themselves
Oversight on my part ^^'
I feel like this a very apt description considering some people are like this irl. You can both hate someone and love someone after all
"if you somehow avoided spoilers in the past nine years"
One of the main reasons Sans is one of my favorite characters in the game (and, let's be real here, in general) is because of the seeming contradiction between Sans's nature as the comedy relief and being among the most dangerous people in the Underground. Not just because of how he's really strong in weird ways (karma, shortcuts, etc.), but because he's so freaking smart. Sans and Flowey seem to be the only ones with a proper understanding of what DT can do, and he can figure you out with just a *look.* By extension, that makes him the only person to know how much of a threat *we* are. That and his lack of involvement outside of his role as judge gives him a real "above it all" vibe I really enjoy.
I've noticed that a large portion of interpretations of Gaster also have this sort of dichotomy. A lot of them seem to be either walking memes (like Wing Gaster, the Roya-AAAAA), bins of bottomless depression (like Handplates), cold and calculating nightmare fuel (like XGaster), or some combination of those three.
Figuring us out by a single look is a written well ability for him to have. He's socially adept in the underground and almost know everyone. He's popular in grillby's, a comedian in MTT hotel, befriended someone he's never even seen (Toriel), he's got ties with Alphys, and more. So, he knows with his experience how to read faces.
relatable and I relate to him alot
Sans interacts in such a way that the Player's responses and expressions will give him a TON of information. He will get an idea of how many times you've met, what you've done in other timelines, and so on. His pranks SHOULD take you by surprise... If they don't, he knows what's up.
Very clever.
This is GENIUS, my eyes literally widened and a small "oh my god" escaped my frickin' mouth.
The part, the realization, that THE JOKE in the dinner scene was the THREAT all along made a chill down my spine.
It's an indication that Sans didn't even threat Frisk anymore in that line, no, he threatened US, the PLAYER.
It genuinely made me felt scared and watch when I realised that, like he could almost see directly to US from the other side od the screen.
But this essay is the most easily understandable, complex, and a creative way to look at Sans's personality, both mix of the good side of canon and fanon personalities.
Love this video so much❤🎉
honestly, the whole section here 20:24 was extremely well done. i remember raising my eyebrow when i first saw that line all those years ago, but this whole part genuinely unnerved me with a realization that a lot more threat went under my radar than i ever knew. and its so freakin' _cool._ like- ugh, tobys writing of sans is so amazing, because the subtle threat in that line is SO subtle, most people completely missed it. i love the way this calls attention to it.
For me, "The Scene That Changed Sans" is also the scene that changed Undertale for me, from my perspective.
I grew up thinking sans is just a protecter whos a badass
When i became older, Depression and nihilism got to me, Feeling how sans does is not very fun
As someone who has gone through similar things, yeah it really ain't great 💀
very cool video, that breakdown of the "am I wrong ...?" line is especially cool, haven't really seen anyone else talk about it
The "am I wrong...?" Line was the one simple motivation I had to do a no-die run when I first played the game
Weirdly enough, my interpretation of the resort scene on first blush didn't align with any of the 3 you listed. I've noticed that in most fan renditions of the threat, Sans is depicted as very direct about it, looking Frisk dead-on when delivering his line. It does seem in line with the rest of his character when you think about it. But that's not quite how it went down. There's a detail often lost in the shock of it.
If you play it back, Sans is turned _away_ from Frisk when he makes the threat, only turning back to face them after trying to backpedal on it. When I picked up on this on my first viewing, I couldn't read it as a "threat" at all. I read it as guilt.
He's essentially admitting that he might have enacted prejudice on Frisk if not for making a commitment. He may have some obvious apathy in retrospect, it's true, but Flowey's blurbs do seem to imply he exercised less restraint when dealing with him. But him admitting this to you, here, in the context of a Pacifist route, implies to me that he does genuinely view you as contextually innocent, and having a capacity for good, and that he has some remorse for that he might not have been initially been planning on giving you a chance if not for that commitment. You've given him reason to doubt that you're hiding your true nature, that you'll just reset. So he lets some of his inner thoughts out, too. Just a bit.
This coupled with him skewing more lighthearted with you in the time travel shenanigans later feels to me like the resort scene was him coming clean to you. It lets him get what limited closure he can on your relationship while still being covert enough to not let you in completely. I don't think he liked keeping his cards close to his chest, not really. In the end, all he wanted was for you to be a friend.
I noticed this body language, too. In fact, Sans looks to the side several times during the MTT conversation. Normally, Sans is able to keep the jokes going even as he's emotionally wrecked inside, as we saw from the Lost Soul fight. So for him to be visibly uncomfortable? Something is very wrong.
I have a few ideas as to why. And while my conclusions might be different from yours, I like your thought processes, too!
This. This is beautiful. I really enjoy seeing this kind of interpretation of Sans, because, you know, he is a complex guy. Not just a function, but a PERSON, a person we, Player, know nothing about... despite some basic traits
His sense of humour. His love for his brother. His good relationships with literally everyone. His high intellegence. His laziness, of course. And his tragedy.
And that's shere the bad part starts. People always think they understand him, they understand what happened to him and he copes with it, while in reality, we have, like, zero information about what actually happened to Sans. We don't know his situation and still - we judge him, oh, what an irony. Judging the judge. We say we know why he is - let's use this word - depressed, but WE DON'T KNOW ANYTHING. We say he is lazy and laid-back while in reality Sans himself says it's not truth but we already saw a part of the painting so we think we can see the whole of it.
I think his dialogues are really, really difficult to understand. Almost impossible from the first try. Never forget one thing: Sans is a lot smarter than he wants to be seen, it's his intelligence that makes him dangerous. He uses logic to understand things that took decades and, probably, hundreds of years to understand for Flowey or Gerson. Sans is obviously younger than Gerson, damn, he is something between a teenager and a young adult, while Gerson is... ancient. And Flowey. Flowey had as many Resets as he wanted to get the information, but Sans? Every Reset is the first try to him. And he cayches every small detail to understand the mechanics of the world, to understand the anomaly
Do not trust his words. Sans is not someone you should be afraid of, not someone bad or violent. He just... is not really honest with you, you know. But you still can get answers if you look closely. As I said, this guy is a lot smartef than you think, so don't let him fool you ibto thinking he is simole and dumb. He isn't. He is always there, watching your step, analysing you.
So you better start doing the same thing. Try to look closely. Try to understand the hidden meaning of his words. Probably, the better way to become friends with a really smart, but "closed" person is to understand them.
Sorry for bad English, it's not my native language. Hi from Russia!
О, привет!)
Damn undertale video essays getting released mere hours ago. I’m so glad this game is thriving as much as it is now. It was such an important part of my childhood and I was worried about it having fallen off. Before I was jealous this game was settling into obscurity while FNAF was in the spot light but I guess things have changed.
Yeah I wouldn’t worry about it honestly, Undertale’s a timeless classic. People will be talking about this game for generations to come. It’s one of my favourite games and I know I won’t forget about it.
yea.....
Yeah, I think deltarune has definitely helped…
snas dundretale
nice thunder speech
Very snarky
Man, I think that Astalos hit you with a little too much voltage.
Snad nuderman
@@hybridvenom9NUUUUUUUUUUUUDE!
In all honestly I absolutely LOVE how you portray sans in your dusttale revamp comic, especially how you portray alphys in a light that I haven’t seen many people apart from myself see. It’s beautifully put together and from author to another if you ever release original stories out there for the world to see, you have my support! I love you narratives and I love your art work Rean!
Good analysis, talk about inaction that depression can cause hits hard.
The fact the "you haven't died once" throwaway is actually an expression read hinting to reload shenanigans is crazy, this game is so good
So glad i am not the only one trying to figure this scene out
The main thing that bugged ME about the dialogue is how the death threat didn't seem to make sense. Sans wouldn't throw such a line just to intimidate a child, so that threat was either directed at us being human or the anomaly... and neither made sense to me:
HUMAN) Sans is not a zealous human hater, he pretty much says so in his introduction. Another motivation for killing us would be the rewards of the capture of our soul and potential freedom of monsterkind. First of all, seems like a bit too much initiative for someone who slacks off his job as a sentry with his supposed target. Secondly, if really saw at some value in trying to capture us, why is this promise the ONE thing suddenly restraining him?
ANOMALY) Sans already knows we are the anomaly. But, why would he be so damn confrontational? He's not stupid, he knows a battle with us is a pointless venture. And what good is a promise here anyway, Sans wouldn't be eager to fight us in the first place?
Your interpretation is helping me to clear things up. Perhaps it was a sorta warning/bluff. And him being restricted by the promise makes the threat both more intimidating (it wouldn't be intimidating if he didnt provide a reason why he doesn't just throw hands with us right now if he's so pissed) and weirdly comforting (due to him communicating that Toriel is looking out for us even beyond the Ruins' door)
I now understand what makes sans so unique, the layering personalities, the depiction of so many different emotions and responses to certain situations, that's how you make a 3d character
It's amazing how he has so many layers and the more I see him the more I discover new things.
He comes across as lazy but he is someone who works hard behind the scenes (works in different positions, tried to keep a promise even at the cost of lives even his own brother and fight for his world that was in danger) and someone who tries as hard as possible to make sure that the people he cares about don't get hurt where he lies to Papyrus that his friends went on vacation (King Papyrus route) omitted about Papyrus' death to Toriel (Queen Toriel route) and helps Alphys as much as he can (Queen Alphys route) and manipulates you into going on a good route with a similar type of manipulation Chara has with Asriel ridiculing you and making you feel bad when you call him.
He is a character who, even at times when he says that he has given up and that nothing really matters since everything can be restarted, he is the most hard-working guy I have ever met.
I love that Toby Fox keeps pushing forth the narrative that Sans is lazy:
* Sans Inaction Figure
* "Sans is too lazy to . . ."
* "ALL YOU DO IS SIT AND BOONDOGGLE."
And yet Sans is the one who spends the most time on the clock. The more you find out about Sans, the more you appreciate him. Top-tier character writing.
I maintain the stance that Sans did "give up" in a lot of ways, but he never truly lost hope. If he did, he wouldn't be doing all he does.
actually it's not the first time at the dinner where he points out at your ability to reset, he also does it in Snowdin(I mean the first 100% one) when you solve Papyrus's XO∆ puzzle he says something about you doing a great job because it can't be possible that you have seen this puzzle before
I think the "somewhere else" is whatever place sans originally came from. He's thinking of how it's raining "somewhere else", and since he feels homesick, he's thinking of the rain, almost like his home is missing him back.
That's how I interpret the song and title, anyway.
oh oomf/moot has a youtube channel.
neato.
i definitely enjoyed this video. i like watching essays on sans since it's fun to see what goes on in other people's minds about him for sure.
as for the stuff talked about.
7:10 a lot of people think that sans doesn't care about people being mean to papyrus because he knows papyrus is "tough", but like, come on. it's his goshdarn brother, and as someone else on twitter said, "it's very much a "only i and close friends can tease him situation". most people probably don't know this because they pick that papyrus is cool, lmao...
7:36 sans has been implied to have been a scientist in his past, he might have been involved with the true lab stuff, in a way.
9:10 i mean, yuh, prolly 'cus there isn't anyone else super close by. there's a few other people in the room but nobody immediately close, and dinners are often a place where you tend to feel more open anyways.
10:06 i feel like sans protects you more mentally than physically in undertale. he knows you can reset, infinitely so, so there isn't any reason for him to step in and protect you, you'll try again. what he DOES try to protect is your will to keep going. a lot of people get upset at hard points in video games, or just in real life, and quit doing them. sans wants us to keep going, to win, to make it to the end, and the best way to raise someone's mental health is jokes. when someone is feeling down, you want to make them laugh, feel happy. he also DOES sell us healing items, so there's that.
10:22 i think he probably is just trying to get a reaction out of you. like he knows you can reset/reload/whatever, he's like tryna see if that he's correct on that theory based on what you react like.
11:48 and yeah, these three lines are definitely what caused the split. it's very bizarre, but i understand WHY people have gotten him wrong. a lot of his dialogue is vague like this.
12:49 like yeah, it's really weird how the game scripts sans, but like i said i think he is protecting you mentally rather than physically.
14:12 probably deltarune lmao
15:55 yeah this is how i view the actual promise making.
17:55 i don't think i will ever remember where the judgement hall misconception came into play but i vividly remember watching more and more people use the term.
20:52 and this is why i believe that sans is genuinely good at reading your face. him remembering resets is 100% not canon and makes no sense, but like, yeah, he knows how many times you've died, and he knows what's happened to you. he gets nostalgia of past resets/reloads like everyone else, and since he's been watching you throughout your journey, he'd get that weird nostalgic feeling at the points you died at. if he got none, "oh, they didn't die. neat."
21:42 and uh, about us being the anomaly. no, we aren't the anomaly he thinks we are. he definitely believes we are "the anomaly", but the one he was talking about in genocide is flowey. he got those timeline reports likely way before we fall, and it wouldn't make sense for him to say this if your first playthrough is geno, or geno is like, your second or third run. we are AN anomaly, flowey is the one he talks about in his fight, however he thinks that WE are that anomaly.
22:01 oh hey, we agree on it lmao.
24:25 funny how all of sanses themes (megalovania isn't his theme imo) are just "sans." remixed differently.
peak video, you explained him very well.
sans undertale approved. 👍
This was a great breakdown and you helped me learned a lot more about sans than i ever thought. I think i get sanes characterisation
The theme at 16:33 is the PS4 theme for undertale but also is used in deltarune In before the story
Honestly i think the protector & aggressive personality types mainly come from people kinda molding him to match the personality of the writer.
After all I think a lot of us can agree that if we were in Sans's shoes some of us would try and protect or save our brother or save frisk from the player.
If we can't do that, then might as well crash out & try give the player hell for what they did.
I don't understand the jokester role tho.
As I continue to watch this video, I continue to breath a sigh of relief every time when you point out how much sans has varied when it comes to his interpretation
When I made my video discussing the entire fandom as a whole, when I went to sans bit.
I was sorta afraid I was misremembering or I would be gettin stuff wrong
While I did get small stuff wrong, I’m happy how I talked about it wasn’t wrong as cited with your video
Tho now I can’t do a video talking about this in detail cause you did it so good, you bastard (I’m joking of course XD)
But this is genuinely a really well made and put out video
"When I made my video discussing the entire fandom as a whole, when I went to sans bit."
I really liked this video.
"Tho now I can’t do a video talking about this in detail cause you did it so good, you bastard (I’m joking of course XD)"
I say the more the merrier. If u ever did do a video like this (too), I would love to watch it.
The fact you covered so many parts of his character I love perfectly made me very happy. And I myself can relate to sans, I've been in those moments A LOT, and I still feel them today. Seriously, I really admire his character. AND AS A SANS FANGIRL, I will admit he is my comfort character. I could go on and on but I'll just end it there. Thank you for making this essay.
I updated the description with the track names. The question was more about "before the story" but might as well list them all. Being in this brainrot makes you forget not everyone memorized the track names lol
Track Names In Order:
-sans.
-Premonition
-It's Raining Somewhere Else(also end track)
-Snowy
-Mysterious Place
-Quiet Water
-Memory
-Ghostfight
-An Ending
-Before The Story(Deltarune Menu)
-Small Shock
-Your Best Friend
-Dummy!
-Megalovania(slowed down)
-Reunited
I intend on deleting this account sooner or later, switching over stuff so I can do my own things on TH-cam with a tighter sense of security, assuming of course that I ever get to that. This comment won't be up forever is what i'm tryna say but i feel it's worth posting regardless because i can't thank you enough as to the portrayal of this character that you've brought to light, so many people look at sans and even the rest of the main cast in this one dimensional way when ultimately, there's so much more depth to it than that, so many more layers, so much more intrigue, so many flaws, and that's good, characters are meant to be flawed, because people are meant to be flawed, it's okay to be flawed, to have masks that you hide behind, it's okay to not have your sense of self figured out right now, not many people know who they are, or what they want, it's okay to let the rain come down once in awhile, but above all else, it's okay to let it rain, somewhere else, and I think more people need to know that.
This cutscene has put me in a new light of looking at it, Damn. Good work
I remember when I first played Undertale when I was young (11-12) I got to that “am i wrong?” bit and internally freaked out. Something along the lines of, “He knows. Is that a bad thing? Have I been actodentaly torturing him with how bad I am at this game?!”
Ah, good times.
But I’ve also been wondering recently, what if Frisk was honest about the Resets? Specifically in the early runs? How would people react?
It’s honestly kinda fun to think about for my AU.
I always viewed sans as someone jaded by constantly seeing the world reset and having his friends die, so he trys to appeal to your humanity throughout the run. Only after he can no longer hope you will change through grace, does he physically try to stop you. It's an Interesting take on someone broken by nihilism, but just as determined as you to accomplish their goal.
You know, I actually forgot that the pope listened to megalovania. Thank you for reminding me of this hilarious moment in history
I saw the thumbnail and I was so excited. When I first watched the game during its heyday, the dinner and its accompanying song “It’s Raining Somewhere Else” were some of my favorite parts of the game and even though I hadn’t thought about it in a while, as soon as I saw this video I was like “damn I remember that scene, that was fkin iconic”. Your analysis did not disappoint, thanks for the food for thought 💜
Really cool analysis on Sans, I love the layers of Sans and I think that the analysis of the Dinner scene really shows just how much you can infer about this guy. On one level he’s a nihilistic skeleton with depression, struggling to properly live in the moment due to this yearning for whatever home might have been to him.
But on another level, he’s basically warning you “I know what you are so you’d better stay in your lane”. He’s such a well written character.
I also love the discussion around It’s Raining Somewhere else and how he may view stuff like the promise with Toriel as an excuse to keep acting how he always has (even if he does genuinely want to keep up that promise)
Honestly, you did an amazing job on this essay. Even after spending all this time in the fandom and watching many other essays about this character, you provided something new. Thanks for the great video and have a nice day.
the fact you knew deltatraveler i realized that you were a shayy fan lol.
excellent video essay!
Well crap. I need to make a sans au now. Ik I'm a bit late to the train, but also, I have IDEAS.
THIS WAS AMAZINGGGG
I completely agree with all the points you made!! It’s hard to see a character as a full, complex person sometimes, but Sans was written in such a good way that he feels *real*. He cares, truly does, from the bottom of his heart-yet can’t bring himself to _show_ that care due to a deep-rooted belief in the absence of meaning in his life. It’s tragic, sad, but his arc in Pacifist is perhaps one of the most uplifting things a depressed person could go through; learning how to hope.
Beautiful analysis, and beautiful video (love your artstyle)!!! Much love 💜💜
I really got no words to say how amazing this vid is
For a video essay I think you did a phenomenal job explaining sans, I’ve been the fandom ever since 2016 and always saw sans as just a chill fella and nothing more but this really opened my eyes a bit more to his character and pretty much who he is so big thanks for that, I’m glad I found this vid in my recommendeds and I hope to see more from you soon!
✨⚡️✨
(Also yes megalovania WAS overplayed, still a great song tho lol)
everybody determined till the scientist calls ur bluff
thank you, i lost track of time and was focused on the video for the entire duration of it, thats really good considering my attention span! You surely deserve more exposure then this!
this is very fun and a very good video essay to watch ngl please make more of these 🙏
Okay first off, your art is gorgeous. I need to check out more of your art.
Second, this video is awesome. This scene is my absolute favorite in the game, it adds so many layers to Sans as a character in a single monologue. Toby’s a freaking genius, and you went through this scene and Sans as a character perfectly.
Also fun fact: I actually picked “It’s raining somewhere else” as the music for my senior ballet solo because I loved this scene, this game, and this character
dude you're so good at video essays this was 10/10
this has to be my favorite interpretation of sans character and just makes me appreciate him even more!!!!
i love stans bunderdale eating dinner with krissk glumbertune
Absolutely amazing, you broke down his character in such a meaningful way and I love it nwn
The intro amused me
When I played the game for the first and only time on my PC save (I’ve vowed to never reset it) I never died a single time up until that point. I only died once the whole game and it was with Asgore. So when sans remarked on my death count, I remember he actually says something different. Something about being right about his previous statement and then taking the credit for doing a good job protecting you.
I just wanted to point out that before the fight starts, sans says something along the lines that he's sorry for not being able to keep the promise old lady, and it obvious that he was referring to the promise he made with toriel. I like to interprete that as he is a sincere person that keeps a promise even if it is at the cost of the life of the person closest to him (papyrus). He only breaks that promise when you genocide and kill everyone.
Sans' unwillingness to fight is multi-faceted: he is aware of your ability to RESET and has timeline apathy for a Groundhog Day that's ultimately out of his control; he genuinely cares and hopes you'll learn and turn things around; and his promise to Toriel. Sans is vehemently against injustice, but he's a "wait and see" / big picture kind of guy. He picks his battles. Even though, in reality, he'd prefer not to fight at all.
I see it this way: Sans is very serious about keeping promises, but he views not stopping the Player as the bigger sin.
Ironically, if Sans does stop you, you'll RESET the timeline to where he never breaks his promise in the first place.
Edit: You know I wrote this halfway the video so seeing this is pretty much the same conclusion is funny.
I think what's so special about Sans to me is how you can see the contrast of his philosophy vs how he actually.
From his knowledge on the reality of his world he thinks it's futile to do anything cuz it will not matter in the end that you as a "time traveler" could do anything without care so befriending you is a hollow act and, his brother and the entire underground death in the end doesn't matter, nothing matters, and that constant thought could drive someone crazy or in Sans case, majorly depressed.
But, he still can't make himself not care, even if he know it's meaningless he still cares about his loved ones and still gets emotional about them, he could genuily form a connection with Frisk even if knowing they can time travel cuz they can have the hope that you actually care and that there's hope for a good ending even if his philosophy would tell him it doesn't matter and still push himself to act and move forwards, this also applies to his geno fight where even if he knows you'll win and that everyone dying doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, when pushed to the limit he takes that hope for a better outcome regardless of how foolish it may be.
He's a nihilist that Sucks at nihilism.
i just watched a WW2 sans fan game before this, like a whole 30 min game. this community is insane for this guy and i love it
hell i even made a fan game EXTREAMLY bear bones but hey its real
I never really left the ut fandom, but youve dragged me down to a deeper level now lmao
Yo, I love your art so much, I need more Alphys content lmao
I saw this video and bc my favorite undertale song is its raining somewhere else i didnt have another thought after that
I think it's also interesting that, as you've mentioned about yourself as well, the initial Undertale fandom that saw Sans - and, for lack of a better term, boxed him into one of those three character tropes, - has grown up. The game came out almost 10 years ago, I myself was a teenager back then and legit had a crush on him because he was so ✨mysterious✨, but now I can look at him and see him for what he actually embodies: a flawed person who has given up, but who still tries his best to be kind to others. And I think that's very comforting.
Thanks for this video ❤
I kinda figure Sans was saying that not as a threat but as a regret for what he might have done if he hadn't made that promise.
Yo this is an amazing video, I loved it :)
Personally, I actually read the restaurant scene as a kind of confession. Basically every major character in Undertale tries to kill you at some point (and Toriel brings you to the brink of death and Papyrus locks you in a shed to be delivered to someone who will kill you and Alphys engineers situations where you /think/ your life is at risk so they aren't really in the clear either...) except for Sans. And the only reason Sans doesn't is because of the combination of his own nihilism, his suspicions that you're the anomaly, and the promise.
So I read the whole restaurant thing as him... trying to dispel the notion that he's any better than them, I guess. Because he knows he would have killed you, under different cirumstances, while you're still under the impression that he's your staunchest ally. (as low a bar as that is)
Because as a threat, I don't think it really... makes sense? He at the very least strongly /suspects/ that you're the anomaly by that point, especially if you've had the various sans sus interactions in Snowdin, and he makes it clear in the genocide run that he understands that he can't really do anything but annoy you. So when he says "you'd be dead where you stand" he definitely knows exactly how little that means. And he's already hinted that he Knows several times by that point (see: grillby's scene, pointing out if you've solved Papyrus' puzzles before) so as a way to tip you off to that it's... slightly more definite than what he's already said, I guess? But not exactly news if you've been paying attention.
And it actively works against his goals to tell you that he's not as caring towards you as you might have assumed, because it actively endangers his whole "get the anomaly to like me so they won't want to kill people" plan. The fact that he'd risk actively alienating you when he considers you such a threat is very notable, I think.
So I can only really read it as an integrity thing. Him feeling guilty for not proactively protecting you like Toriel would have wanted, or for the fact that if it weren't for the promise and you being the anomaly, he wouldn't have hesitated to hurt you.
Good video, by the way! I clicked on as soon as I saw the title because that specific conversation is probably my favorite interaction to pick apart in the whole game (short of like. the sans geno fight). It's so interesting to me that I once wrote an entire fanfiction specifically about digging into it. You brought up a lot of interesting ideas, many of which I haven't considered before. Solid 9/10!
Amazing vid! Would love to see more. Subbed!
12:33 It’s probably a bit too risky with 1 DEF. If Undyne can’t break out of that with all of her struggling…
It's flowey with 6 souls. Not even Sans can compete with that.
Man, at the end of the vid I was like oh man where is this gonna go, then I looked at the timeline and was like WHAT? Its over? Noooo!
Amazing vid, you did a very good job on it!
thats a really good catch i dont think ive ever heard anyone say anything about him saying you have never died but you don't agree also this is a really good vid with really good art sub really ffast
HOLY SHIT YOU DO VIDEO ESSAYS NOW 😭😭
(Haven’t watched it yet, I’m just so suprised)
24:45 nahh he ness
So the most accurate way to write him is basically Colombo with depression
12:25
Sans never intervened in Papyrus's fight because he knows that Papyrus could never kill you. Even during the fight, when you drop down to 1hp, Papyrus simply captures you and "locks" you in his shed.
And if you lose to Papyrus 3 times, he'll actually let you skip the whole fight and go past him. Saying that he can't continue fighting you forever out of exhaustion and annoyance for your stubborness.
Awesome video! Love this fun and cool essay! You're such a unique and fun channel, ya got a new sub!
(Bombshell comment ahead)
20:36 I think his specification of not dying "a single time" also helps in revealing his meta-awareness. He could've said "but hey, you're not dead yet, right?" Or some variation of that, but he specified you haven't died "a single time". This implies death is repeatable, which shouldn't make sense for an npc, who up until this point hasn't shown any signs of self-awareness, to say. At this point of the story, the only in-game character we know is aware of our reset ability is Flowey. So Sans, this comic relief who has done nothing but joke, saying this as a throwaway line immediately changes our perception of him. Sans saying "you havent died A SINGLE TIME" wouldn't make sense unless he KNOWS you can reset.
Him threatening us is one thing, whatever. As you said, death doesn’t scare us so much since its something we can always come back from. It's something we've been threatened with many times so far. But to be exposed like that? The only other character to threaten us AND be self-aware of the game mechanics is Flowey, but he's the antagonist. Sans of all characters doing that, who's done nothing but make jokes, be friendly and pop up along our journey? Flowey tried being our friend at first, but he quickly lifted the veil. Sans succeeding in befriending us, endearing us to him, then not only threatening us but dropping that he might even know we can reset? Suddenly he becomes legitimately intimidating, and so, SO much more interesting.
The slowed megalovania with the line reveal was perfect
God, this is the best analyse of sans I've ever seen. Tysm for telling us all that this is so cool to be able to see sans like this...
(Sry for my bad english )
Yknow what, i love this idea and its so nice to see someone really explain how different people can view 1 character
One thing though,
Not only the dinner can change everything but also his judgments (although less popular). He will mock you and even encourage you to do better at killing which not only messes with the other views but almost makes one itself. I dont know though, after all its not like no one has noticed before.
"Am i wrong...?"
When I saw that this video was about Sans and then when I saw that Jax is mentioned, I was kind of scared to watch it, but surprisingly, it managed to avoid pitfalls that often make me uncomfortable in videos like this, I am pleasantly surprised.
I think when he says that you didn't die a SINGLE time is when he knows FOR SURE about the anomily cause hes right you didn't die one single time you died a fuck ton
I f'd up the phrasing somewhere. When questioning why he didn't rîntervene with papyrus, it wasn't in the sense to help you with those monsters, the clip I used there was of the geno confrontation with pap to imply his lack of intervention to save pap if he claims to be that protective. The promise of protection was more to indicate his trait of protectiveness and how that inaction contradicts it.
Script writing is hard guys TwT
7:52 Hm... Sans with toilet paper? Why does the underground have toilet paper?
piss and shit theory real
dude it never even crossed my mind in all these years that "you havent died a single time" indirectly implies that he knows we can die more than once. its all a threat to US, not frisk. the more i realize about sans' character, the more he becomes my favourite character. props to you for realizing all of this!
12:38 I think people overestimate how strong Sans is. He’s strong, but he’s not that strong. The only reason he stands a chance in his fight is because Frisk had karma for being level nineteen. Imagine how easy Sans would be if you had invincibility frames. He would still be hard at level one, but what about level seventeen, the highest level you can get on a neutral run.
People don't overestimate Sans. Lowered IV's and KR are both really strong abilities of Sans (u can't just take one or both and say, Sans is only strong because of them or would be weak/weaker because of them, because yeah, that tends to happen when u take abilities/powers from a character). And Sans has a bunch of other skills, powers, tactics, etc.
And KR being linked with LV/EXPs is pure fanon, and even if it wasn't. Ur KR would still be quite high at LV17, if KR was connected to LV/EXP, which again, is pure fanon.
Sans may not be the strongest in Undertale, but he is still one of the most powerful in his own rights.
@ Assuming that karma being connected is exp is how it works, then you wouldn’t have it at level 17. You can get to level 17 on a neutral run and not get it. The K.R. is meant to stand for karma, it makes more sense, to me at least, that you would get an effect called “karma” for being a terrible person, rather than picking a fight with a skeleton.
@@JosephMaddoxJoyce KR isn't just a power that randomly happens, if it was just because of ur own KR killing/hurting, then other monsters should be able to do use it (If u are LV17, u certainly have enough sins to be hurt by. Like, u can still very much be a terrible person at lower level, and yet, Karma doesn't just appear for other characters. Because it is Sans' ability/power, not just an effect that randomly appears out of nowhere. Like, u do realize Sans has also caused Flowey some of the most trouble too, right? Causing Flowey a fair share of resets, and making it so Flowey warns you to never let Sans find out anything about you).
KR is Sans' power/ability. Sans is tired to judging as a character; hence the KR, Karma, sins, etc. stuff, because it is part of his character, not because KR is tired to LV and EXP which has no real proof in canon, besides the Karma name, which just isn't much proof honestly (also, Karma's original meaning anyways just means consequence, rather for good or bad actions, .sooo...).
KR is Sans' ability, and such, if u were to fight him at not LV19, he would still have the ability. Same with lowering IV's, because that is also an ability he has. Among his many other powers/abilities and skills and etc.
"it makes more sense, to me at least, that you would get an effect called “karma” for being a terrible person, rather than picking a fight with a skeleton."
Ok, and like KR being tired to LV and EXP, there is no actual evidence or basis for this in canon. There is even less "evidence" for this. U can believe it if u want, but I personally don't, and like I said, there isn't (much) real evidence for it in canon.
I never even thought of the fact that the whole time sans was simply trying to get reactions out of us to deduce whether we were going to murder his entire race or grant them all the freedom they've wanted for over a milenia, and that comic showing frisks reaction and Sans' smug grin as he finally catches you describes it perfectly (especially with the slowed down megalovania)
24:45 you had the chance to have the piss and shit theory slowly fade in *sob*
Sans is my homie because he's a cool dude with intelligence that I've found as a kid, while y'all like Sans for being horny.
*We are not the same.*
Not to sound sigma but fo real he's a type man who's never show his feelings, because his non-chalant already speaks itself. And that's badads and depressing at the same time.
I want the people here to give "Funny guys that are NO joke" a watch up here on TH-cam (Forgot the creator's username) because I feel he characterizes Sans VERY well there, aswell as everyone else included in that video.
Great job, mate.
There are three extremes, and a line between them, sans is the line
What’s crazy is I’ve met more people that don’t know who sans is, including sprite and music, then I have who have met him, and two of those people are my roomstes
We all got that one skeleton bro who’s air of whimsy doesn’t hide that dead look in his eyes
"was it on purpose to help you or was it to piss you both off?"
"both? both. both is good"
"I may die a thousand times but you only need to die once!" I loved that sentence
For the judgment hall bit, the save file( don't know if pc file also calls it the LC) calls it the last corridor- the last obstacle you need to push through to reach Asgore. The last thing standing between you and the end- weather that end is good or bad
.... Okay maybe last corridor does also fit but at least for genocide I think judgment hall fits cuz yknow, you're getting judged
".... Okay maybe last corridor does also fit but at least for genocide I think judgment hall fits cuz yknow, you're getting judged"
U get judged in basically every route too, not just Geno.
Judgement Hall might not be a canon name, but I do think it really fits and is fine (mostly) to call LC (which also fits and is cool too) that.
And basically everyone will know what u mean too, if u call LC, JH instead.
@Dragon_Aoi in pacifist and neutral our judgment is basically sans dunking on us with roasts, or at least I find it funnier to think that's how it goes and we just see the more official part like his speech on LV, EXP and such. Now geno is where we get serious judgment for basically erasing monsterkind and reality as they know it from existence so we get a really bad time, so painfully one never did it in the first place- but hey ya did it so now its your turn of suffering
Actual judgment besides getting roasted. Now does any of this make sense? Probably not but im sure some people will agree that the other routes are light compared to the beatdown one receives from sans and oh boy the mental shock they'd receive from the dunking that's just pouring gas on a raging fire that is their rage
*be careful out there, kid.
*'cause someone really cares about you.
12:18 Sans knew Papyrus was harmless, he said so himself. Papyrus won’t kill you, even Toriel will if you try hard enough, but Papyrus never will. Sans also couldn’t stop every enemy, he clearly didn’t want you to know until that dinner.
Thank you for the video.