#Undertalethingem chats

[undertalethingems]

How do you think Sans reacts to Papyrus’s death during the runs?

If you mean in the base game, uh... we kinda already know? If Papyrus is killed, Sans doesn't show up again until the final corridor, where he'll ask "if you have some sort of special power, isn't it your responsibility to do the right thing?"

If you answer yes (that you do have that responsibility), then he responds, without eyelights or sound font, "Then why'd you kill my brother?"

And if you answer no (you aren't responsible), you get "well, that's your viewpoint. i won't judge you for it.... You dirty brother killer."

There's also the line of description you get if you go on to have a concert with Shyren after killing Papyrus: "A hooded figure watches the commotion from afar." It replaces the line that mentions Sans selling toilet paper tickets to your concert, and of course, of all the characters with hoods in the game, he's the one who would be most concerned with tracking your actions after killing Papyrus. So, it makes the most sense to infer that this hooded figure is Sans.

So his reactions, to me at least, suggest that not only is he heartbroken, he's furious with you. But Sans isn't one for direct confrontations and shouting like Undyne is, so he watches, and I think he still tries to understand why you'd do something so horrible. But that doesn't stop him from being angry because there's no excuse for killing his brother, but sparing other monsters, that he can fathom.

I'm personally not a fan of depictions of Sans sobbing over Papyrus' dusty scarf--he just doesn't strike me as a guy whose first reaction is to cry. For my understanding of him, it makes more sense for him to go numb, initially, then save his anger for his parting shot in the last corridor. No matter what you answer, Sans gets the last word in, and it's always to remind you that you did not have to kill his brother.

So uh, yeah. that's what I think.

[undertalethingems]

Er, except we can know some of it, because of the screenshots shared above as well as many more points of data. We know Sans reacts very negatively to Papyrus dying, because we can compare that to other character deaths and how he generally doesn't react to those (the only other one that comes close, surprise surprise, is Toriel, someone else he cares a lot about.) He's clearly not nihilistic about it. And no. We don't know that he doesn't go full ugly crying offscreen, but again--Sans doesn't come off like a character who finds it easy to be that vulnerable, even when no one is watching. He keeps his emotions close to his chest. Even if he were to cry, it might not be until well after the events of the game.

For folks who want to understand Sans as he is presented, or are artists trying get his character right, his canon is important to take into account. Many people, myself included, like Sans as he appears in the game, and are disappointed when so many depictions of him veer too far off course, resulting in someone who doesn't feel very much like the character we care about. If you can sell it with your premise, you can push things further in either direction--people often "break character" under extreme duress. but, if you're still claiming to be writing canon Sans while making him a sobbing nervous wreck, or making him callously nonchalant about the people he's known to care about, without good reason...? Well, it's not going to feel like a complete understanding of him.

People can, have, and will make whatever they want, and that's fine... but if we want to talk about Sans' canon character and what we can realistically extrapolate for him in fanworks, it's important to review the information we already have--what he says, how he says it, how he acts, what the people around him say he's like.

The discussion's not really about being right or wrong--it's about trying not to simplify a complex and interesting character into a shadow of their former self ^^;

Overcorrecting

Actual canon:

Furthermore:

I get wanting to distance yourself from old inaccurate fanon but recently it feels like the fandom is just being contrarian and overcorrecting so much they create a new fanon, just in the opposite direction

[undertalethingems]

I'm going to see the moon eat the sun

Yup, I'm going to see the eclipse! But I'm traveling this weekend to do so, so I won't have enough time to finish the comic update--look for it the following week, Thursday 11th!

Idk if I'll get pictures, but if I do I'll be sure to share :>

[undertalethingems]

ough

sorry for making everyone worry; i did mean to upload new pages this last thursday (the 18th, the date on the eclipse post was a mistake :"D), but, well, obviously that didn't happen

i'm not 100% sure what's going on but i think a new medication i'm trying is making me feel much more tired than usual, and it's difficult to feel motivated, which i already struggle with and was something the medication was supposed to help. ironically.

I don't think it's burnout on the comic specifically, because I haven't felt like doing any sort of art, which as you can imagine is pretty frustrating for someone whose main hobbies are all art.

i think it'll ultimately be ok, but I think I'll have to take what i guess is an official hiatus from posting comic updates for now. I plan to still work on it and hopefully build up a bit of a buffer in the meantime. With any luck I'll get things sorted out, and be able to get back on top of updates like normal.

Thanks for all your patience so far, and I really appreciate the folks who sent messages to check in. How about we meet back up May 16th? :>

[undertalethingems]

That's what I meant by going to the actual blog page--but, I guess I don't know how accessible it is on the mobile app (i never use it) >>;;

It's the kind of thing I'd put in a pinned post, but I like having the latest page be pinned... So, maybe I could tag the 1st page of each chapter accordingly?

I'll have to do it when it isn't late and I'm supposed to be asleep, eheh.

Hey there, i saw your reblogs on unexpected guests--yes, it's still going, and if you go to the actual undertalethingems(.)tumblr(.)com blog page, there's a tab that has links to the beginning of each chapter, as well as any pertinent extras. Calysto left off right at the beginning of Chapter 6, Act 3 :>

Thanks, but I checked that blog and didn't see anything like that. Each page had a link to the previous page and next page, as well as the beginning of the comic, but I didn't find any link to the start of each chapter. Idk tho

[undertalethingems]

Why does flowey care for Sans’s forgiveness?

Well, he doesn't, not really.

With Sans figuring out the terrible things he's done in past timelines, Flowey feels he'll use this information to guilt-trip or blackmail him, and Flowey doesn't want him to have this advantage over him. So, he reasons that if he can bring Gaster back, he and Sans are even. If Sans tries to hold something over his head or take issue with something he's done, he can counter with the 'favor' of bringing back his old colleague--hence why he says "He (Sans) can't be mad at me ever again!"

That's, uh, not how apologies work, but Flowey's still viewing things as a transactional 'game' he can 'win'. =u=;

[undertalethingems]

Quick question, for ao3 you locked your fics, but is there any benefit to it? (Genuinely just curious ^^)

it is, hopefully, to prevent web scrapers from using my works for training data in assorted automated plagiarism schemes =_=;

[undertalethingems]

man, idk if i can describe the Undertale dream I had last night... but i'm going to try, and it's a long one:

It started out as me playing an entirely different (fictional) game, but next thing i knew a glitch sent my character out-of-bounds or something like that. I tried to reset, but instead of going back to that game, it flicked through alternate Undertale timelines every time a reset was attempted. I don't remember what most of these were like, aside from largely being role swap AUs--one featured a confident Alphys who had seemingly put her soul in a robot body, and was happy to see me/my character because we could potentially help her research this weird timeline stuff she'd noticed...

how many times you could go back was limited, so eventually things got stuck in a timeline that was quite different from the normal game--and then i/my character left normal game space entirely and entered what seemed like the storage area for like... an appliance store? Idk, there were fridges and furniture and other junk scattered around--yes, very backrooms, i know. But my POV character wasn't the only one down there.

They found dozens of other monsters that had fallen out of the assorted timelines and ended up in this strange space. Most were random NPCs, but several were versions of the main Undertale cast. I recall two Mettatons who were dating each other, and an Undyne who filled Toriel's role in her original world. Sans was there too, seated on a couch, but... I tried to say hi to him, and got no reply. It seemed the whole experience had essentially broken him, and the only thing he cared about was making sure the Papyrus next to him hadn't Fallen Down--even though it was swap!Papyrus, and not his original brother.

In fact, there were seemingly no other Papyruses at all (though i don't remember there being any Asgores or Toriels either, ahah.). But as the group of lost monsters started moving to try and find a way out or get some answers, another monster appeared: Gaster. Though, he looked like he was wearing a paper-mache mask--it had that lumpy, papery texture, but no eyes or mouth... And apparently, all these disappearances were his doing. But he promised he had his reasons, and if we followed him we'd find out who he was and why he was doing this. So of course the crowd rushed to follow him down a corridor that got progressively more... unfinished looking, like the garbage area where Spamton lurks, with blocks of missing pixels. It looked unsafe, but i was excited to see what all this was leading to. i just had to follow him around the corner...!

And then I woke up.

Yep. Trolled by my own brain. this isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened to me either--I've had several dreams where i was going to learn some incredible secret, only to wake up moments before the reveal. So, now you can share my disappointment too, but I guess I didn't clairvoyantly reveal spoilers for Deltarune XD

[undertalethingems]

^ alphys @ gaster in the last update

you found the meme! yes good that's her exactly XD

[undertalethingems]

Fun thought, would Undyne and Papyrus like LARPing? XD

YES especially if alphys makes undyne a combat-safe giant sword

they both love a good excuse for a fight and LARPing is one of the best excuses to hit your friends with foam swords I can think of, so I definitely think they'd be into it wholeheartedly.

Like, there's a reason one of the things i've drawn them doing is jousting on the backs of the special attacks:

[undertalethingems]

Hi, I really like your comic, the Unexpected Guests one, but I feel like there's not enough Papyrus 😭 Where is he and what are your plans for him? I miss him 🥲

well, there's still plenty of this chapter to go... :>

[undertalethingems]

Just read your whole comic I am obsessed. Pulled me out of a depressive loop I was going around in since last night. Idk why I'm saying that but. YOUR WORK IS SO COOL it gave me the will to get out of bed today.

So thank you!

It took me a little bit to reply to this because man... what do I even say? That my fun little story helped you feel better, if only for a day...

That really means a lot. I'm glad you told me, anon, thank you ^^

[undertalethingems]

Hi, first, boy oh boy is your comic good, I started reading it last night and was entrapped, but my phone died and now I don't know where to continue reading, do you have a master post? If not I will just start digging again, down the mines I go.

Hehehe, glad to hear you've enjoyed it! According to my activity feed, you made it to the last page--you left a comment saying as much, anyway! but for future reference, I do have a page on my blog with links to the beginning of each chapter, plus a few extras, here :>

[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 ^^

[undertalethingems]

Heya! So, as I was reading your comic (Unexpected guests) I noticed that when sans gaster blaster dragon thing was fighting asgore, sans physical got tierd himself. I was wondering how are they physical connected? I know that the blasters are an extention of their soul. But to what extent? If the blaster dies will they die? Or will they just get extremely weak. I've been thinking about this for a while now and I wasn't sure if I should ask or not.

heheh, no worries! I actually made a post about how this works a while ago, so here you go ^^

[undertalethingems]

Will there be anything after unexpected guests? Like a continuation or aftermath things, etc? Or when it ends must we simply salute the legend and say our goodbyes?

well, tbh, once I'm done with unexpected guests I'd like to take a break from big fandom projects, ahah :'D

But, there's still a fair bit of this chapter to go, and then there are indeed several loose ends to tie up afterward; the main thing is that I haven't decided how many of those will be comics vs. fic chapters. So, it won't be over anytime soon, even though we are approaching the end of the story.

I also have other UT stories I want to work on, so even when unexpected guests is done, that probably won't be the last you hear from me XD