#Undertale fandom commentary

[the-fabled-void]

Give you a fandom phenomenon? Uhhhhh how about the fact that people overcorrected with Sans and his edgy 2016 characterization and instead had him...not care over anything, including Papyrus' death. I'd be mad at it but honestly I can't help but imagine people cringing so hard at their 2016 characterization that they went in the complete opposite direction and it's so funny

Oh yeah it's a very interesting phenomenon for sure! It's extra noticable with Sans due to how popular he is. As for you mentioning people cringing at their past interpretations - that's probably a part of it. People who joined the fandom as angsty preteens are now young adults with different views.

Not to mention, especially the AU fans, but also a lot of others spent a huge amount of time in fanon echo chambers (cough cough, evil Chara effect) instead of interacting with the source material. The fandom being a video game you can only play a few times before it feels repetitive probably doesn't help.

So, there are the old fans. But mainly in 2020, other people have also joined. And unlike the old ones, they just started interacting with the game. It's still fresh in their mind.

... And 2020 led to a lot of people who are new to fandom joining fandoms without knowing proper fandom etiquette. Those people that comment on noncanon ship posts to complain about the fact that it's not canon, and neglect to ignore that fandoms are about fun.

By trying to make him more 'canon' people basically just make him fanon in the complete opposite direction. I also feel like people saw what they did back then by making him so depressed, not just from his brother's death in a no mercy, but also just in general. Usually from a knowledge of resets.

One thing that I haven't noticed a change in is interestingly enough is how people treat his knowledge. Which is way less than people make it. He knows there's a possibility and that the human is connected to it. Hell, he tests if Frisk is a time traveler by giving them a silly password because he doesn't know for sure.

Not that I'm criticizing stories that give him more awareness. The fact that there's so many just means it has great potential. Aftertale is probably my favorite example of that. Geno is such a cool character and the nightmares are a creative way of handling it. 4th wall breaking is probably my favorite phenomenon in all of fiction.

Recently, people have started exploring the idea of other characters having that awareness. I mean, Flowey is canonically aware, and is a mere millimeter away from grasping his world's nature as a video game. He's already treated it as one himself. So, UT!Dusttale was born.

A lot of AU Sanses have that baked into their very character, so I get why people wouldn't touch that (though, it would be extremely interesting to figure out how Dusttale or Something New would work if it was just a deja vu feeling)

I am totally not biased to say I would love a take involving Chara. Pretty sure No More Deals is a similar thing. And you specifically know exactly the details I've thought of for Storyshift: Elevation :)

Oh, and another aspect of the overcorrection thing: AUs.

Back then you could just read up on the concept of an AU Sans and put him somewhere and nobody would give a shit about mischaracterization. Which, you know, isn't perfect but I have to admit it was really fun to do.

Nowdays you compare Dreamtale to Celestia and Luna ONCE in a Discord server to make a bad joke and all hell breaks loose. I get wanting to respect creators more than we did back then, but we have to remember that AUs are just as fanon as 'Don't curse around my bro' Sans.

The creators' words are not gospel.

As much as I love Toby, his words aren't gospel either.

People are allowed to have their own takes, their own opinions. I am never going to police anyone's takes on fandom shit. But one important thing to note is: people can have their own takes, but people should also aknowledge what's their own take and what's the creator's original vision.

[forestlovesyou]

I got hit by a huge wave of nostalgia and fell back into the Undertale rabbithole and I just couldn't resist the urge to make a Handplates skeleton lore accurate oc who I am pretty proud of ngl :] adawd

[moved-to-civic-hub]

❝Frisk...I take it as a compliment.❞

[invictarre-archive]

leon's undertale sona is dogamy. I'm accepting no criticism at this time <3

[gothmime]

Goat Mama is here to protect meh | Undertale

[civicmuses-a]

To the person who thought that Papyrus isn't cool, Sans would like to know your location.

[undertalethingems]

Howdy. Odd question, but do you have any advice for new peeps joining the fandom?

i don't know that it's a super odd question, but, i also don't know that i'm the best person to ask, having been in the fandom so long XD

But, I guess I'll give it a shot...?

Watch/play the source material! Undertale wouldn't have such an extensive fandom if the game itself wasn't incredible. If you can't play games or it's too expensive for you right now, there are plenty of great playthroughs on youtube--I like MarcoMeatball's and Symbalily's neutral/pacifist runs. If you really want to explore everthing, Hawlo's no-commentary playthrough is extremely thorough and good for getting immersed.

Watch the 5th anniversary concert! It seems a fair few people have missed it over the years, but it's a beautiful rendition of nearly all of the game's soundtrack by a full orchestra. Their dedication and skill is truly impressive, and the instrumentation is excellent. It's best experienced with some good headphones :>

on a similar note (heheh), the Undertale covers by RichaadEB and Amie waters are great too, and there's plenty of other excellent covers out there. Definitely take some time to seek the work other fans have shared--there are some really talented people out there ^^

when it comes to finding fic or fanart however, i'm not sure how easy it is to search for; the tags on tumblr are notoriously unreliable, both because the search function is not great, but not everyone uses tags. But, if you can find a few blogs who post things you like, check out who they reblog from too--you might be able to find more that way. Don't be afraid to go back into a blog's archives too--there could be buried treasure in there :>

That's all i can think of for now, but I'm sure my followers could think of things to add, so check the comments/reblogs once this post has had some time to simmer ^^

[mswitchdog]

In Super Eyepatch Wolf's video "What The Internet Did To Undertale", he brings up Dreemurr Reborn as being emblematic of people wanting more Undertale. For a relatively short game that stirred such intense emotions, it showed the fandom a way to free these characters from the confines of the narrative. A happier ending than our bittersweet one.

That's why the recent trend of Mouthwashing's Actor AU has been fascinating to me. There's been a lot of fucked up and distasteful responses to the game, and it's a lot more grounded than other fandoms with intense fan content. It's not a game that allows for much else interpretation.

The AU lets these characters and their "actors" live on. But it also integrates responses to the fans into itself. It's commentary on fan reactions to the story, while also commentating on other instances of fandom culture. The recent video from Joetastic, "Mouthwashing Post-Steam Awards Special" had me thinking about it.

The way everyone else got serious questions but Anya's actor gets brushed aside felt so real. The eye roll she does when she gets asked something so stupid not only felt validating, but it also genius. A reaction to the fan culture itself, commentary on how women are treated in media, and also layers upon layers to both Anya's character and actor.

I think this AU has become a way to artistically vent those frustrations we have towards the culture. I don't know how far it'll go, but the fact that Mouthwashing has reached this point should go to show just how impactful it's been.

[carlyraejepsans]

what i am saying is the alternative universe, the canon divergence as a trope, carries extreme potential in a work as derivative, thematically rich and opinionated as undertale. it's a tool of analysis and commentary. the fandom is dumb as hell. that's what's ridiculous to me. no not in spite of how elaborate and dedicated it is, if anything it's because of it. just dozens and hundreds and thousands of people doing a fascinating tool like that an injustice, stripping themes and narrative and commentary off of the original to make it reproducible to the maximum degree until it's blander and thinner than a graham cracker, instead of using said tool as a lense to decode the original with.

and that annoys me! a little bit.

[starlightshore]

i think enough time has happened that i can talk freely about Undertale Event...2! if you haven't watched it, uhm. Please do!

Undertale Event

2!

I voiced Dr. Alphys and I did all the artwork.

The only two real fangames were:

Sans the Game

and

Giga Sans

Everything else was made by a couple of friends (and a guest submission, GTA Sans) and me.

Here's my 4 trailers if you just want to see them isolated.

for an explanation to what the hell this even is under the cut:

This is a parody of UnderEvent, a yearly Nintendo-Direct like showcase of Undertale Projects. I know people/have particpated in this since the first year.

While I try my best to keep to myself in the fandom, I do talke with people and dive a little bit into what's going on. I know the words "dust-trust" and "last breath" but i could not tell you what specifc AU they are each. I'm not good at video games so I only really play the big ones (UTY, TS, and most recently Delta-traveler). So like, I'd say i'm halfway there to knowing the basics of whatever the hell is going on in this fandom lmao!

I love how weird and silly this fandom is. I've got my own gripes about different aspects (cough, Sans Therapy: sans has mental illness the fangame was made in part with my extreme frustration with how the fandom handles the topic of mental illness. Like, seriously, cut that crap out...)

but anywayz off my rant for the day, there's a lot of this fandom I can admire from an, admittedly, confused distance.

I'll actually refrain from talking too in-depth about my thought process on the trailers as we plan on doing a commentary edition for the video. That'll be fun!

As for if we'll have a sequel...?

We have no idea yet if we are. I'd only want to make one if we can justify its existence. If you're in the fan-project community and want to be involved, please reach out to me! I can't guarantee we'll let you in as, as I said, I don't even know if we're making a sequel yet. But I love the idea of making a bigger, badder, and more ambitious sequel!

Alas for now I must go...... I'm writing this the night before and i'm sleepy lmao. Hope you enjoyed the video!

[the-real-rain-world-confessions]

Devs literally have commentary abut the Iterators not conforming and that pronouns sets are not limited to the ones they listed. Literally look at in-game and Rain World interviews and QNAs. Like do you have to be so thickskulled to ignore that the Devs are indie developers and that indies tend to not be able to put ALL canon material in at once??? And ASSUMING that to be up to date on Rain World lore is JUST playing the game when they have OTHER STUFF IN STORE... Has no one ever read a comic that became a game later on? Has no one ever looked at Undertale and Toby Fox calling out misgendering of his they/them characters in his alarm and QNAs in-character? Is all of that kind of stuff suddenly not canon for those fandoms? So why is there such a GRUDGE abut incorporating dev commentary and thoughts to headcanons and what COULD be canon?

.

[moraymoth]

Welcome to unagidevis page

this is an introduction post! (and a very very long one.)

–

Table of Contents

-Introduction

-Tags and Meanings

-Art Rules

-Social Media

-Conclusion

–

Introduction

Hello there! My name online is unagidevi but please refer to me as Devion, Devi or Dev. Often people use Devi or Dev for short as it is easier and shorter to type. I have high-function autism, ADHD, and short-term memory. I like the color green and I have many, many pets. I also like Gacha and Art, as I do both as well as writing and animation. I'm a big fan with making my own OCs and I really like Dreamswap even if the creator is a little shaky. My birthday is August 21st.

I usually add my own spin onto Dreamswap characters like Dream now is a brunette otherwise he looks like a highlighter as well as other designs being altered. I don't stick to one ship, I ship multiple things.

Some fandoms I'm in currently in 2023/2024 are:

Warrior Cats

Undertale AUs / Dreamswap

IBVS

The Umbrella Academy

Gacha Games by Lunime / Luni

I won't exactly post many other fandoms besides Undertale AUs and Dreamswap or a little bit of Gacha sprinkled here and there. Often for my art I use Gacha Club for reference and hues in my artwork, as of currently the tints. I play the Sims 3 mostly and I have around 6-7 expansions for it with no regret. Umbrella Academy is one of my favorite medias due to the story-building and characters in it.

I have a few AUs I own myself, some are: Dreamsleep and Ampletale. Despite Ampletale having barely any content here it is being reworked and redesigned while Dreamsleep has an entire story and such.

Even if Dreamsleep has canon ships, people are always welcome to make their own.

–

Tags and Meanings

–

I have plenty of tags, there is going to be a very long list listed here. Of course, I'll be using normal tags like #dreamswap, #undertale or #art but this list is for my very own. They will all be color-coded; Pink is main tags and ask tags, Purple is for shipping or certain asks, Blue is for stories and OCs, Red is for tags relating to me, Green is for a list of characters in Dreamsleep, Orange is for Other. Now that we have the colors, let me explain the tags.

dreamsleep explanation - explaining dreamswap or for the characters references

dreamsleep - a story in the works that follows two trainee sorcerers through their journey of dreamsleep and it's lands

asks for dev - you asking me questions and getting results

devs anon asks - anon asks that will sometimes have this tag if I remember

dev rambles like a lunatic - me rambling on about something stupid or nothing important.

undertale yt au / youtuber au - an au that revolves sans aus running youtube channels

whimsical dreamswap - a fantasy au based off dreamswap with elves, creatures, and other things

fastfood dreamswap - mcdonalds, starbucks and elsewhat based on dreamswap lmao

spikes 'n commentary - youtuber au commentary squad team name

little distractable men - our youtuber au markipiler/distractable squad team name

legion of starry smp - youtuber au minecraft group team name

finchfeathers - a dreamswap ship that ships Finch and Dream

bluetooth - a dreamswap ship that ships Blue and Hacker

paintedwings / fink - a dreamswap ship that ships Ink and Finch

burntstring - a dreamswap ship that ships Finch and Error

tatteredwings - a dreamswap ship that ships Finch and Cross

skullcandy - a dreamswap ship that ships Hacker and Cross

terrorvisions - a dreamswap ship that ships Randy and Dream together, as some call them 'gay dads'

stellars jay - a dreamswap ship that ships Blue and Finch

starryskies - a dreamswap ship that involves Hacker and Nightmare, a reference to starryelem

redsoul - redsoul is a ship in dreamsleep that canonically ships Error and Cross or better-known Mal and Klaus

arella - a ship that canonically ships Blue and Ink or known as Arledge and Ornella

riclydei - a poly dreamsleep uncanon ship that ships Horror, Killer and Dust which are known as Ripple, Lorelei and Clyde

cedarnu - a dreamsleep ship that uncanonically ships Farmer and Swapfell or Dinu and Cedar

hatobias - a canon dreamsleep ship that ships Harrow ( Nightmare ) and Tobias ( ? )

nich - a dreamswap ship that ships Nightmare and Finch

noelzzy - a ship that just ships two of my ocs, izzy and noel

izzy coleman - an oc that just has two characters in it

noel barker - an oc that just has two characters in it

dakota feverview - a dreamswap self insert elf character thats mostly as a side

rory caskey - a ibvs oc

casimir dream - whimsical dreamswap au dream

swindler ink - whimsical dreamswap au ink

cobalt!blue - whimsical dreamswap au blue

anwar bobby - whimiscal dreamswap bobby

azeban cross - whimsical dreamswap cross

kamaxe hacker - whimsical dreamswap hacker

rana randy - whimsical dreamswap randy

akli nightmare - whimsical dreamswap nightmare

arc error - whimsical dreamswap error

lorcan finch - whimsical dreamswap finch

dev the simp - a tag some people use for me simping for said character

devs pets - some photos or drawings of my pets

dev ideas - ideas put into paper or in a written post

dev links - i link something or someone

dev makes fanart - rarely use this tag, but for fanart not from a fandom

dev ao3 - i link my ao3 posts

harrow deskin - dreamsleep nightmare, a trainee sorcerer and main character/protag

luka deskin - dreamsleep dream, a trainee sorcerer and antagonist

malifunction crimewave - dreamsleep error, an elfin demon

klaus silk - dreamsleep cross, a vampire who is siblings with ink/ornella

tobias harrison - a dreamsleep character made for fun and put into the story as a friendly character

arledge fernfield - dreamsleep blue, a jackalope character

ornella silk - dreamsleep ink, a scorpion

resign shadowsong - dreamsleep science, crazy science guy

erie skies - dreamsleep outer, a science experiment which was originally a sparrow

cerasus vi kiao - dreamsleep nim, a dead sorcerer with many good folktales around

tove deskin - harrow and lukas grandmother, plays the role of maybe neil

esadora davis - dreamsleep character, mentor and mother of main character and antagonist

robijn highlock / robbie highlock - dreamsleep fell, the princess of the ruby kingdom

atasi nevada - dreamsleep crow/bird, the mayor of skystead and a bluebird

vesei redwood - dreamsleep geno, an immortal stuck in the passage of time

grim robinborn - dreamsleep reaper, a grim reaper thats here and there

kendall locket - dreamsleep ccino, plays the role of keeping a safe place for the main character and friends. you never know who they may know or have relations to

cedar key - dreamsleep swapfell, a blood elf

dinu maverick - dreamsleep farmer, an elf farmer in the cherrytown farms

cashew fernfield - dreamsleep honey/carrot, a young weredeer and little sibling of arledge

jasper crimewave - dreamsleep core!frisk, little sibling of mal and a varying demon

ripple chunkfoot - dreamsleep horror, a werewolf

lorelei enida - dreamsleep killer, a human

clyde ninya - dreamsleep dust, a sun demon

icterid 'starling' fink - dreamswap shipchild of paintedwings shared with @starryelem

nolan 'peridot' silva , nelson 'ruby' silva - dreamswap shipchildern and twins of ds errormare, shared with @starryelem

western 'cypher-text' bradford - dreamswap shipchild of bluetooth, share with @starryelem

hypno carmine - dreamswap shipchild of koriot and cross, shared with @starryelem

lavender von licht - an adopted child by dreamswap dream, shared with @starryelem

any youtuber au character - like cace levi, or issac soar, or ezra philip. it'll say youtuber au in the tags

– Art Rules

–

What are art rules? basically rules if you use my art for anything, all i hope is you follow one or more of these. I'm sorry if these are strict but it seems to be often needed.

~Do not steal my art and call it your own, i don't appreciate any of this and it takes quite a while to make a big piece.

~If you use my art as profile pictures or background, please credit me.

~Don't repost it and call it 'exposure' or anything else. Though reblogs are welcome and don't count.

~commissions and requests are always very welcome here on tumblr or instagram.

~Please do not trace my art, thank you! Though putting bits and pieces of my style in yours is okay!

– Social Media –

I don't really post many places often besides Tumblr or Youtube, however I have some social media.

–Youtube, where I make art and gacha videos

–Ao3, where I sometimes write stories

–Come support me on Patreon!

–My instagram, where I make some art pieces I post here and sometimes don't.

–My twitter I sometimes forget I have

–

Conclusion

–

This is the end of my introduction post, this is a remake of my old one and I'm very proud of how it came out. I would appreciate lots of support on my posts in the future but for now I'm okay with where I'm at.

[moved-to-civic-hub]

Sans is just going to destroy the anon's camera.

[corvidmellow]

moved cause i genuinely hated thinking about my main LMAOO

anyways

welcome to my blog!!

here is where i post art i’ve made and reblog art i like!

i’m a traditional artist who usually uses alcohol markers for my colour work

…undertale and oc hell, sorry not sorry. the special interest is strong and underfell sans has had a vice grip on me since 2016

asks are open! feel free to bug me about my little shit characters or request a sketch

more under the cut

here's some stuff about me :D

favorite colour? cyan!

favorite genre of movie? horror!

favorite genre of music? ...quite literally everything. my liked songs is a minefield. rn i really like rage rap and swing though!

favorite song?

favorite musical artists? will wood, hozier, jhariah, do not resurrect, BABY GRAVY, pierce the veil, melancolia, deftones, kendrick lamar, tyler, the creator, nothing but thieves, depeche mode, ghost, the decemberists, colter wall, etc. my music taste is the equivalent of throwing a dart at a roulette wheel

favorite literature? oscar wilde my beloved (i left his book at home don't ask me trivia blease i just love him), biology, thrillers, societal commentary

fandoms? undertale (obviously), UTMV (obviously), homestuck, deltarune, the magnus archives/protocol (no spoilers pls), the arcana, marble hornets, creepypasta… sorry.

favorite aus? underfell!!!! though i am also very fond of understate, echotale, and sunnemona’s dreamtale!

gender and sexuality? am trans and some flavor of asexual idk. but i'm also the asexual who's posting pure filth on ao3 and will not shut up about being attracted to underfell sans and nightmare

my aus and fics, currently! (corvid_mellow on ao3)

-UnderHeist (unpublished)

-Veneraverse (unpublished)

-Death and Despair Multiverse (unpublished)

-FINAL GIRL (18+)

-Finis Via

-being so normal series (on hiatus)

-Should I Stay or Should I Go (on hiatus)

-The Cat and the Canary (under major reconstruction and hiatus LMAO)

-The Proxy Projects

-a surprise tool that will help us later (i need to finish my breakdown and analysis so i can start on my rewrite)

i consider myself to be somewhat ship neutral!

that being said, i don’t go through and block people for ships and stuff, and the less i think about it the better, BUT!! i am incredibly uncomfortable with incest and a lot of comships! whether that be fontcest, dreammare, frans, etc. sanscest is fine (id fuck an alternate version of myself, but never my siblings), but please don’t bring any of that onto my posts 🫶

also dni if you're any kind of queerphobic, racist, fatphobic, ableist, hateful in general, OR support the harassment of people over silly internet things. you really won’t like me anyways lmfao. i will be mostly avoiding fighting with people on this blog, so i'll just block you if i catch your ass being hateful in here. i do not tolerate the hate of those who have done nothing to deserve it.

#'s!

i tag my art with “steel arts”

reblogs are “steel bebloggin”

asks and text posts are “steel blogs” and/or “steel says stuff”

me being absolutely down bad (usually underfell sans) is “steel simpery”

my writing tag is “steel be writin”

the (hopefully) occasional drama is tagged with “interfandom drama oops”

aaaaaand my ocs are tagged with “[character name] posting”

i try to tag everything i reblog with important tags, and i don’t do politics here!!

love y’all :)

divider by @kodaswrld !!

[midnightfox450]

My big undertale fandom hot take is that I think there is a direct correlation between the number of people who boil the game's message down to "violence bad" and entirely miss the message about how to care for things responsibly + the number of people who hate alphys specifically and grossly underestimate her importance in the game.

It is so clear within the text of the game that Alphys is supposed to represent the type of person who would love Undertale. She represents fandom. I think the reason why she is hated so much (besides misogyny) is because we don't want to admit that she's a commentary on us.

There is a reason why the deciding factor separating a pacifistic neutral run from a true pacifist run is the alphys date/true lab segment. There's a reason why monsters literally cannot be free until she learns to love herself. There is a reason why she is the character who created flowey. There is a reason why she is important. There is a reason why you are asked to care about her. Think on that.

(Anyway watch dorked's video essay on alphys and hbomberguy's old undertale video. They explain Alphys' thematic importance more succinctly than I ever could.)

[civicmuses-a]

❝This is why I don't make promises.❞