#flowey the human arc

[golden-explosions-main]

holidaygirl1225 asked:

Can you believe it guys? Christmas! Just a week away! Christmas is in a week! Woohoo! I am so happy about this information. Christmas just a week away! Oh wow! Can you believe it? Christmas! Just in a week! It got here so fast. Christmas.

Frisk: "Yayyyyy! I love Christmas so much, I don't even really mind that my birthday is so close to it, it's so nice seeing everyone be happy, minus the holiday rush stress,"

Asriel: "Or the seasonal depression, but yeah, you're right, Christmas and the other holiday stuff is...actually nice when you overlook all the nonsensical consumerism,"

Frisk: "I'm still so happy you genuinely like it,"

Asriel: "Yeah...I may be horrifically jaded but I'm not a complete Grinch,"

Frisk: "Which is another reason why we're best friends,"

[the-determined-daydream]

I hope it proves useful to you in the future.

Anyway, you guys have video games right? I haven't had a chance to play one in a while, be a good way to get my mind off stuff and relax.

Asriel lights up at the question and Frisk giggles.

Asriel: "Of course! We both have games, but I've got very sizable collection,"

Frisk: "When I first brought him to the surface, playing video games became one of his most favorite activities, next to learning about space and trying different foods,"

Chara: "Oh no, they're reminiscing again,"

Frisk: "Sorry, can't help it, that first year was really exciting for all of us, it was memorable,"

Asriel: "Here, let's go to my room, you can pick a game out, Frisk- you can reminisce during,"

Asriel then motions everyone to follow him, leading the way to his bedroom.

[invertedfate]

Why did Frisk' soul also shrink when Asriel separated them from Chara's? Correct me if i'm wrong, but doesn't Soul Fission only "cure" conditions related to amalgamation? Sorry if i sound rude, i'm just kind of confused as to why Frisk was affected by Asriel's doing if their soul was already whole when they came into the underground.

Flowey was too sloppy. He took the switch soul mode and literally tore it down the middle when Frisk and Chara still shared an HP pool. He didn't take the time to carefully and permanently break the tethers in a way that would maintain 20 HP for both of them. So as a result, both got diminished HP. It's not untreatable, but it's something they'll have to deal with for a while, at least. Undyne stockpiled enough DT over the years that she at least has a good amount to give treatments to help strengthen their SOULs.

[ask-the-determined-river]

Their squinted eye gives you a look over. He seems to be trying to find the right words.

“I truly envy your position, you know. Asriel got an infinite number of opportunities to make up for crossing his points of no return and we don’t even get one, and you…you never took that plunge. You got out of the Underground for good. You broke the cycle, while Asriel’s ‘best friend’ makes sure there is nothing left within a few months at best.”

FRISK huffs, rubbing beneath the hair bang concealing their left eye.

“I deserve nothing less. It’s a hell of my own creation, a fitting punishment for a mass murderer, but that did not mean others had to suffer for eternity for my mistakes.”

Frisk lets out a sad empathetic sigh at their response.

"You do remember that we were only children when we fell down in the mountain, right? Our small brains weren't fully formed...and it's clear that not every timeline is exactly the same, but it seems like it's a similar story every time...,"

"I don't know about you, but my first monster was Flowey, he was quite scary once he pulled down his smiling mask, he told me 'in this world, it's kill or be killed'...he truly believed that nonsense,"

"I listened to his 'warning', but I never felt the urge to hurt anyone, I just wanted...to play,"

"But I can see now how a different Frisk would believe in those words, it didn't help that everyone was literally trying to murder us, they were very frightening, I understand if it led you to believe they were untrustworthy and just as bad as Flowey said they were,"

"Again, we were just children, in a scary and strange place, being led along by a force we didn't truly understand, with power that allowed us to become desensitized to death... ....and well, your guilt is very telling,"

"I apologize...I'm rambling...I've had a long time to myself to think about these painful things,"

"Tra la la...I just hope you someday find your peace,"

[carlyraejepsans]

UTY!Flowey, "lore" and how to criticize a fan prequel without being an insufferable pedantic, a guide by Biscia.

(for my muskless fellows, here's a transcript of my thread on Undertale Yellow that I posted on Twitter. enjoy!)

There's this really frustrating attitude in fan spaces i like to call "lorepilling" where people are substantially more concerned with encyclopedic knowledge of details & minutiae (so called "lore") in place of full-text thematic/narrative analysis as if the two are mutually interchangeable.

It's especially common in large franchises and story heavy videogames, and it's like... Are You Treating This Piece Of Art Like A Trivia Battle Or Are You Treating It Like A Story

This is coming from a person who is also deeply autistic about UTDR trivia btw, I'm just saying that when it comes to transformative *stories*, depending on the impact it has on character, themes, and narrative structure... lore is expendable.

Ultimately this is why most of the UTY criticism i see (on twitter specifically) falls flat. What does it matter if "lore" means Flowey couldn't chronologically be there when the justice human fell, as long as the game narratively justified his presence in the story in a compelling way?

The real criticism, in the end, is that it didn't.

He's a plot central, main cast character from the canon returning in a cast of mostly OCs and what does he have to show for it? An admittedly sick boss battle in 1/3 endings, sure but... not much else. He has no significant "presence" in the story, no tie, interaction, or even just... an opinion on the rest of the cast. Which is a huge miss when Flowey's meta role is to be Thee completionist player mirror. He's the OG lorepilled UT fan! He's an opinionated little shit!

This isn't to say that UTY *didn't* engage w/ his metanarrative. When me and @a-town-called-hometown first started playing the game (we were both skeptical of Flowey's inclusion), he immediately said "It would be really cool if they made it so this has been going on for a while and Clover has no idea". Which is precisely what the game did in the neutral ending, and what I will openly say was the most well written & well executed part of this game's story...

...a part we almost didn't see, because the pacifist ending disappointed us so much we lost all will to replay.

To put it in the words of my friend Mel @clowwwnbytes, there's a deafening hollowness to UTY Flowey's motivations & core principles where his guilt towards Chara—and resulting black and white thinking—should be. You're telling me Mr Kill-or-be-killed, "sacrificing yourself to do the right thing is stupid", would stand there after 1000s of failed attempts to make Clover survive, look on as they make the same mistake Asriel he did, and fondly call them friend? Cue the guitar, roll the credits?

He would lose it. Oh my god he would lose his goddamn mind, he would throw the nastiest temper tantrum in the world. Are you serious? How dare you. How DARE you. All this effort, all my patience, and you just let yourself DIE for a few worthless idiots? I should've let you ROT!

*clears throat* sorry got a bit too into character. as i was saying.

I can understand a UT prequel wanting to distance itself from the canon Chara storyline in order to form its own identity, but then turning around and choosing Insane About Chara The Character™ for a sidekick is... far from optimal. In the end, Flowey comes across as underutilized and inconsistent, with a whole lot of wasted potential.

This is an issue I have with UTY's character writing (original AND returning) and story structure as a whole. Lots of inconsistent character arcs, tonal dissonance, overuse of situational sadness... it's an amateurish work, after all, and you can feel it. There's no shame in that.

(Though, there ARE some issues that i take more seriously with its writing, especially when it comes to its two main female characters—Ceroba's lack of narrative agency and depth borders on misogynistic writing imo. But that's a topic for another day)

Over all, UTY was an incredible piece of collaborative transformative work, with gorgeous art and a genuinely incredible OST, which... would have benefited from more experienced writers. But hey, you can only ever learn by trying!

For all it could've been a better story, it certainly did not fail to entertain: both when my friend was playing it, and after in our many discussions of its writing, its faults and how it could've been improved (royal scientist!ceroba character fix you will always be famous. to ME!)

I'm sure this project served as an incredible source of experience for the developers: as individual creators AND as a team. I look forward to their future projects!

but also if i have to see another person say UTY is better than Undertale i might turn into The Jonker.

end of the essay! really couldn't stand any of the pedantic ""criticism"" I'd seen of this fangame so far, so i had to say my piece as someone more versed in analysis. happy to elaborate on anything in the replies or in my inbox!

[supercrazyangel4]

i think the thing that makes people mischaracterize and completely miss the point of chara is that theyre written to be two very different things concurrently that dont really mesh together.

from what we know concretely about chara as a character, they were a very mentally ill child and complicated person who simultaneously hurt and helped people around them, who held both a lot of love and hate in their heart. they are fairly vague but also have specific character traits such as liking chocolate and filling up water glasses to the brim to maximize efficiency. they take speaking patterns from toriel and an interest in gardening from asgore. if you believe in the narrachara theory, they even have a character arc that changes depending on the route you take. they are inarguably a character who haunts the narrative due to their decisions in life having lead to tragedy that shapes the very plot of the game inextricably; and arguably a character that haunts the narrative and shapes the story much more literally in being a conscious force and companion that accompanies our journey.

at the same time, chara isnt treated as a character at all and is instead a meta-narrative device meant to act as an in-universe player stand-in. in this way chara isnt actually a person with character traits, but a vehicle for toby to provide commentary about the people who play video games. they are a concept that represents the state of thoughtless exp grinding. in the no mercy route their main purpose is to be a reflection of you and your mindset, even more directly than flowey. the reason theyre named after you is because, for a number of aspects in the game, they are supposed to be you; with no notable separation like there is with frisk.

this problem also heavily applies to frisk, for who there is an effort to separate their identity from yours at the end of the pacifist route but who still ends up with no real character traits of their own. people compensate for this by using black-and-white thinking; which results both in assigning frisk and chara a sort of "good-and-evil" dichotomy leading to their early fan interpretations, and in thinking that frisk and chara can only be either fully fleshed out characters or mindless player inserts leading to people favouring option one and basically ignoring the player as a concept except to occasionally use it as a generic big bad.

i think toby prioritized meta-textual implications over actual textual characterization for the human characters in undertale. this left chara as a character feeling unclear, unfocused, and incongruent due to them trying to be several things at once with no real through-line; and frisk as a character feeling practically non-existent outside of being a vessel. there are effectively two different charas in undertale, the character and the plot device, which makes it hard to talk about them as one consistent whole. i think this is why in tobys second game hes been putting such a focus on kris as a character and their separation from the player, as to improve on what he didnt properly touch on in undertale.

[the-afterparty-au]

[✨*ABOUT✨]

The Afterparty AU is briefly summarized as taking place in a party within the void, lasting forever after a genocide route that was never undone. After many months of nothing but wind, our first fallen human realized the world was not going to be reverted by the player, and they stayed true to their word of Erasure. Chara however, simply getting bored decides to play a game framed as a experiment & brings back all the monsters you failed to befriend in a Genocide route back for a encore. Allowing everyone to reside in the void, a space between files & between deltarune and UNDERTALE. The amount of monsters that are happy about this is uncertain, but all of them are certainly questioning literally everything that brought them here.  (Lightly Inspired by these fanworks so, Thanks to @garbagechocolate, @djsmell & @jazze-bee for accidentally inspiring me to make a whole AU)

By; Modphys (They/them) (Main Blog & Art Blog: @kates-cave & @ryzies-ralley)  Modtaton (He/they) (Main Blog + Art Blog: @spiltmilk34 & @spoiledcheese34 | Instagram ) Papymod (She/they/he) (Main Blog + Art Blog: @theartistthatcantraw & @fail3dexp3rim3nt) Also thanking this for the text boxes haha

[*TAGS]

#ModAlphys🍍 #ModMTT🦝 #ModPapy💀 - Content from specific Mods

#OutOfVoid - General out of character posts/Asks/Announcements Etc.

#PostsFortheVoid Reblogs of any Fanart or random posts I/we might reblog

#PostsOfTheVoid Extra Content asks lore etc. not relevant to the actual plot Or announcements

#TheAfterPartyAU In universe & Main Story posts

#AskAfterparty is any asks in character

#ModsQ&A, Any Asks directly for the mods + #ModsArt is any Art Directly from the mods (not counting story)

[📋*RULES 📋]

[*Current AU Status: Active]

- No SERIOUS NSFW media. Swearing and certain (Chara Frisk & Flowey are all children) jokes are allowed but actual sexually explicit content & HARD GORE is prohibited. Plus the mods are minors 

- Harassment towards me, Or anyone of Any group, will not be tolerated

- Repeat asks will probably be ignored, sorry.

- Please Be patient, This blog does not have a schedule & updates come out when they’re ready (aim for at least 2 weeks) 

- No Magic!Anon please, While this story is a bit aimless it’s still there, plus Keep Roleplaying limited maybe. Makes my life easier.

- Technically not a hard rule but If you’re asking & have an ask blog I recommend you add your @, Love seeing other AU/Blog’s Out there in the wild!! Doesn't matter the fandom either :D 

- Probably will close the ask box if it gets too full, might cap it at 20 0r 25.

* Have funnnnn. =)

[*⚠️ *WARNINGS ⚠️]

This AU is estimated to be 15+  

While I don't plan to include shipping, it might sneak its way in here, who knows.

Swearing in Asks Is allowed plus the mod swears. (Steer clear of slurs, even if you can reclaim them.)

Scarring, Blood, Death, themes of unreality trauma & gore is around, Everyone was brought back from the dead. Additional CW for mentions Genocide considering this au is after one. 

potential mentions (& possible depictions) of suicide & Self harm, Fratricide, Mind Control (Possible Manipulation), & Divorce.

While this aims to be (kind of) joke au, General CW for potential disturbing content is out there. 

Feel Free the DM With any warnings I missed & should include

[*ACT - ASK] - ASK BOX STATUS [OPEN]

*Chara - 💔 *Frisk - ♥️ *Toriel - 🔥 *Papyrus - 💀 *Mad Mewsy - 💢 *The Undying - 🦈 *Muffet - 🕷️ *Mettaton NEO -  👾 *Sans - 🦴 *Asgore - 🔱 *Flowey 🌻

 DNI LIST

Homophobes, Terfs, LGBTQIA+Phobic, Racists, Xenophobes, Pro shippers, Anti-Anti's, Misogynists', Cancel Culture & Cringe Culture, NSFW/18+Blogs, Abelists, Zoophiles, Anti Semitism, Hate speech, MAPS/Pedos, Discourse Blogs, AI supprters, Y’know the basic DNI criteria stuff  (Just don't be a dick man this feels dumb to make.)

[*LINKS – 📎]

Beginning - N/A

Arcs  - N/A

Character Sheets - N/A

Most Recent - N/A 

[lilybug-02]

Just realised the CT Wierd Route sets up a kinda depressing but interesting scenario. Chara is dead (by their own volition), and Asriel likely would have to leave QC's with their body (parallels). I can see Asriel getting a *kinda* similar arc to Flowey after this, alongside maybe Kris becoming pretty jaded. After all, the price for their freedom was a human soul. Snowgrave is stopped, but Berdly never gets better, Noelle and Kris are still scared of each other, the class still feels a little emptier each day. And, when they graduate and prepare to move for Uni or apprenticeships, the class photo just seems like someone is missing.

Damn, that is one hell of a hard pill to swallow. THE PARALLELS THOUGH.

Chara was really hoping you'd leave on your own accord, but when you didn't... their soul just couldn't handle it and it shattered :(. And the parallel of Asriel having to carry out Chara- gosh dang thats so sad. He'd probably spiral into himself after having yet another one of his friends die (Dess and Chara), feeling it was his fault again. And Kris would have to live with the guilt of knowing they inadvertently killed Asriel's friend and the one person to know what they were going through.

And Frisk...they got the news the day after.

[mysteriousbp]

Second Chance AU Masterpost 1

Canon posts

Original posts:

Second Chance AU concept

Kanako life in the true lab

The broken cries of a innocent child

Some mistakes can't be fix...

Kanako Kitsune

Don’t listen to Clover…

MEANWHILE

Kept Alive concept (one of the arcs of the Second Chance AU.)

YOU GOT MAIL

Friends reunited

Extract explanation

Forgotten face...

Holding to the past

Baby Kanako design

Why Chujin didn’t absorb the soul

True Lab dinner

Chujin's ice magic

My hero

Chujin and Kanako winter coat

Undertale Cyan lore (one of the arcs of the Second Chance AU.)

The best of us

Teaching Axis morals

Human souls surface designs

ASKS:

The coffins are empty... Except one...

Chujin and the souls

Chujin and the souls during Omega

Thank you for opening my eyes

Memories and dreams

Those two really need therapy...

Information about the dreams and Lila routes

After Omega

Orphanage picture and human names revealed

Monster families

Alphys DT talk with her children

Kanako's fusion powers

Control over the body

Souls backtracking

Reunited part 1 / part 2

Fallen monsters and save points

Limbo void time explain

Kanako used in political discussions

Kanako is now a BIG SHOT

Kanako updated moves

Lila reunites with Endogeny

Lila and Tom in the void

Undertale Orange (one of the arcs of the Second Chance AU.) QC

Kanako's Cleithrophobia and Trypanophobia. With a side of mom comfort.

Kanako's scar

Melody during Chujin's experiments

Clover and Chara playing cards

Melody kill count and scar explain

Dalv and Melody on the cliff

Frisk memories of the others and just being depresed

Political discussion explain

Frisk after flawed pacifist phone call

Flowey is a jerk

Hope and Sunny's deaths

Gerson and Undyne after Hope and Sunny came back

Hope x Sunny confirm

Water under the bridge

Frisk meets Kanako

Asriel second chance

Parent hangouts and family trees

Clover learning how to be a monster

Friend groups

Where's Clover?

Human souls and the lost souls

Clover with Sadie and GK

Calling mom/dad

Alphys getting the kids into cosplay and Kissy Kissy Mew Mew

Snowdrake's father and Mettaton AU lore

Frisk first death

Clover is back

Kanako school life

Tom reunites with QC

Sunny with her family. Melody apology to Kanako. And reason to climb the mountain

Flawed pacifist dream

Melody with Dalv

The kids with the internet and where is the mountain

Is this what they would have wanted?

Adult Kanako design

Why the humans forgot about the monsters

How Mad Mew Mew's powers affect the fusions

Lila, Frisk and Asriel with Toriel. Also Lila's death

Flawed pacifist Clover vs Asgore

Kanako opinion on save points

Kanako with stress

Afraid of Clover

GK teen desigh and Tom and Hope adult designs

How many runs Frisk did

Gerson apology to Hope

Does Clover mature mentally

How the monster and human relationship is going

Sunny trying Papyrus's spaghetti

Southern Kanako

The souls after Uty geno reset

Frisk in the coffin room

Clover's body

Panic Asriel

[nyriatamare]

Hi, you know that GZtale is no longer owned by golzy, yeah it's owned by you now, and you can decide the story and doing whatever you want with that AU,

but yeah I still want to share my theory about GZtale idk if this is cringe or doesn't make sense, I don't know if you actually read a my theory that was like 3 paragraph

Remember gztale was being cancelled, so I was having some theory about GZtale, after bloodshed arc, it was caretaker arc, I was thinking caretaker arc is just like amnesis arc but Ganz doesn't do a same mistake, so papyrus it's not mad to ganz and if you see the cover arc concept ganz was walking with Luke and Jean, and papyrus it's like helping some Royal guard member, so frisk is finally meet her brother in this arc and maybe pacifist will happen in here but because ganz is not felt depressed, Mel is pointless now, and began to Die/Dissapered I got the theory about Mel die if ganz happy from repost comic on YT idk it's canon or not but the style is like original from golzy, but because he don't wanna die he is use RESET, since ganz is absorb determination pill maybe he could use a reset, and To be continued to animosity arc....

In animosity arc

It's just like same like bloodshed arc, the difference is ganz is not holding back he doesn't want to protect human anymore, he choose to run with undyene than run to ruin, I got this theory from fake screen shot that golzy made, then ganz is not scared to fight undyene or his brother until he is get a lot of scar after a battle fighting them, then he is run to ruins and get some medicine by toriel, in the ruins he is meet Mel again, and asking why he is use reset abilities, then ganz is trying to kill Mel just like in fake screen shot I saw, after that ganz is feels hopeless after what he did and everything reset back again because his dad try to fix his mistake, he is use his soul to reset and dissapered from all timelines, and to be continued to Determination Arc....

In determination arc

In this arc it's like bloodshed + caretaker

Ganz it's not break half papyrus soul, but he is claim as a criminal for protection Jean

Frisk is try to run from ruins, and she is finally made a friend with a monster and other monster try to make other believe that human it's not dangerous, and all the monster is believe, except papyrus.

papyrus is meet flower and they are work together to catch frisk, because it's papyrus is the head of Royal guard so he is can't disappoint his king, so he is go to alphy to ask her to make a trap, but she is doesn't agree because human is not actually dangerous, but actually she is hide frisk from papyrus, but frisk is accidentlly go to secret alphy lab just like the original Game story, and meet papyrus in the last corridor, and papyrus became a paylor, and he is finally catch frisk, then papyrus bring frisk to asgore, but the other monster is came and help frisk because frisk is not dangerous human, while other monster is fighting asgore and papyrus, flowey is trying to trap everyone just like the original game and use their power to became asriel dreemur, and then pacifiapacifist route is happening in here, in the ending Mel is said goodbye to ganz since ganz is no longer depressed.

And GZtale comic is over here...

I don't know this is was real story or not

This is just my theory

This is a good theory! But unfortunately not how the story was intended to end :O When Golzy made the comic it was mostly, on the fly to say the least. Golzy didn't write a whole paragraph of scripts just went with it. I myself don't know the true ending of Gztale, but ever since given the ownership, I took creativity to make my own ending. To fit the current canon and to give more of a bittersweet ending than an all perfect good ending. Firstly, Mel was made to be a 'Nightmare Catcher' a creature that lives inside of every monster. The idea came from my own au UnderNC (UnderNightmareCatcher) and I asked Golzy to make an NC for Ganz since I made one for my own Sans, Sensy at the time. Hence the existence of Melancholy Ganz. Mel's original purpose was to be the embodiment of Ganz's depression. Basically a creature made to make Ganz depressed constantly. And the only way for Ganz to remove him from his soul, was to rip his soul in half. There was a lot of artwork that Golzy made that was 'for fun' and wasn't intended on being canon most of the time. Some art was just symbolism and some where when Golzy was bored and wanted to draw angst and sadness :') So by the end of it, it's up to interpretations.

[koiisure]

WOah pd undertale AU by me?? insanee

Recently got back into undertale and uhmm also i have a lingering PD brainrot so whyyy not combine them!!

some explenations for who is who and why under the cut :3

William - UHm obvious reson? chara and william are my faveourite characters, i AM in fact playing faveourites. LMAO but no they both have themes of resurection and death. PLUS LIKE the whole no mercy run,,uhm william is morally gray enough for that.

Ashe- Originally i was going to draw Dakota as asriel but then i got reminded of Tidalwave Divorce and honestly? Ashe asriel is awesome. like considering also the whole trickster thing like uhmmm flowey thing. yeah uhm yeah guys see the vision.

Vyncent- AS FRISK?? THE HUMAN?? insane. but yeah i thought it woudl be intersting to make the only non human in pd crew a human lmao. Also like vync has morality problems in the whole pd arc, it fits with the no mercy or mercy route like. yeah uhm yeah.

Dakota- he is the Monster Kid because i mean uhmm it fits actually! MK and undyne vs Dakota and Ms G DO YOU SEE IT?? Do you get me?? the personalities also kinda fit so it slike guh guh shakes you.

You can see in the corner but yes i drew Summer and Doug as Pap and Sans,,,,i love them

Tide is Toriel and Mark is Asgore real and true.

Lightspeed Alphys?? real true!! Prof Cross as Gaster.

Le frog as Tem cuz it would be funny

Pary city ghost is mettaton now too btw

uhm forgor big style if there were other ideas-

BIG BIG SMILE AND THANKS TO @ollylotl !!!! thank you for listenign to my brain rot and feeding me ideas yipee yipee!!!!

[golden-explosions-main]

*She chuckles at Frisk's flirting*

I appreciate the flattery, and while I have a soft spot for Frisk's, you're a bit young for me dear. But, there are always spots in my cult should you wish to join.

Though speaking on that, it's overly ambitious, but I plan to have a majority of humanity under me so that I can show them that monsters are more than they think.

Frisk: "Ambitious- yes, but it's still a very good idea, I believe you can do it,"

"Annnnd I'm spoken for, so when I flirt with others these days, I never mean anything serious about it, it's just innocent compliments, heheh,"

Chara: "I wonder how your partner feels about it,"

Frisk: "My very attractive partner very maturely knows how I am, so they aren't too bothered by it, they only get jealous when other people make a move,"

Chara: "How do you feel about Frisk's partner, Asriel?"

Asriel: "They seem adequate."

Frisk: "Heheh, I think they seem more than adequate,"

Asriel: "Yeah?"

Frisk: "Yeah!"

[the-determined-daydream]

*She chuckles a bit*

Still really glad I created that little trick. I always have a bar of chocolate handy when I need it. I'm glad it didn't get twisted like the rest of my magic.

*She lets out a sigh as she holds out her hand and a golden rose appears in it, she holds it up to her face. The others can feel a calming aura radiating off the rose, even Chara*

Except for these, if only they worked on me.

*She hands it to Frisk*

Here, could come in handy in the future. The flower will never wilt and will always put out its aura as long as I want it to.

Frisk looks at the rose with awe, handling it carefully.

Frisk: "Oh wow, thank you so much, this is a beautiful gift," they look up at their best friend "what do you think?"

Asriel: "It's impressive, keep it safe, we can definitely use it if any of us freaks out,"

Chara: "Mm,"

Frisk: "Oh don't worry, I will, I always try my best to take care of all my gifts, which is why I'm so sweet to you and Chara,"

At that, both Asriel and Chara let out begrudgingly amused (and flattered) groans, but thanks to the golden rose's calming aura, they're both very chill about it.

[cheddarchandelure]

Zenith Martlet might be my favorite video game boss but the fight is still absolutely devastating! Let me explain.

Throughout the pacifist route of Undertale Yellow (and neutral) Clover and Martlet form a very special bond, a bond with some maternal undertones. Hell, undertones is a stretch because at one point Martlet calls Clover her kiddo. So yeah, these bitches are found family and its great, I love them :). And while they may become separated at the end of the game, Martlet still cares very deeply for Clover.

Part of what makes their relationship bittersweet is how Clover is implied to have an unhappy homelife at best, and an abusive one at worst. Even before Flowey puts Clover on the alternative path, Clover wants to stay with Toriel. Its clear that Clover greatly desires a mother figure in their life, even before meeting Martlet. But once they do meet Martlet, she gets to act as their mother figure (and maybe also Ceroba but this ain't about her and even then the mother-child bond is stronger with Martlet and Clover) Even if for only a little bit, Clover finally gets a mother figure in their life.

And then we get to the genocide route. The once sweet Clover becomes corrupted by their twisted sense of """justice""" and seeks to eliminate all in their path. Not even Martlet can see the good in Clover. Her character arc about learning to trust and love a human despite Chujin's advice has gone the complete opposite direction. Now her arc is about Chujin's advice being Validated and seeking to stop the human threat. Clover has become so far gone that they are willing to pull a gun on Martlet, and Martlet's desire for humanity to be good has all but faded, and now she must put aside part of her good-natured self to stop Clover.

And thats whats so devastating, these two people who should have loved eachother, and been what the other needed, now want eachother dead. And to me, that is fucking heartbreaking.

Oh you thought I was done? Nope! I have one more thing about the Zenith fight I wanna point out, because from a story perspective, Martlet should have won.

Think about it, up to this point, the genocide route has been a story about evil prevailing. Clover has gone on an absolutel rampage, murdering innocent monsters left and right. But in the darkest hour the hero of the story, Martlet, gains incredible power to defeat the villian once and for all, to have good triumph over evil! A classic trope.

But thats not what happens, because this isn't a story about good triumphing over evil. The whole point of the genocide route is having Clover finally break free from fate but at the cost of literally everyone else and canon itself. The genocide route is a story of evil triumphing over good and plunging monsterkind into despair. So to have Martlet undergo a heroic transformation, to become the zenith of monsterkind, and still lose after everything all because this is isn't a story about heroes winning fucking devastates me.

I'm not sure if I managed to get my thoughts out in a intelligible manner but I hope you enjoyed my ramblings nonetheless, and who knows, maybe I helped you appreciate Zenith Martlet (and Martlet in general) some more!

[stuffyflowers]

Masterpost of everything we learned from the Kissy Cutie AMA with Merengue on ACDS for those wondering

(Merengue is the creator I should probably mention that lol)

The game, particularly its theme of racism, derived from the rise of Trump in 2016, during which hatred towards Mexicans was popular. As a Mexican woman herself, she says this was a very personal source of inspiration and she considers Kissy Cutie a "healing journey."

Similarly, Sona is inspired by her personal experience living with a controlling parent. Her confusing motives and reactions take you off guard. She depicts a complex person who is full of regret but fails to be better.

The endings were were a criticism of dating sims, trying to follow Undertale's ending style and the fandom.

She regrets making the truest ending so hard to obtain. She is tempted to make TikToks showing people how to get all the endings to stop the suffering.

She would love to remake Kissy Cutie, but "ran out of budget on the intro." In all honesty, she would think about it if people are really interested.

The game has so many artstyles as no artist wanted to compromise to draw all the sprites. While the end product worked, she would have preferred a more homogenous artstyle.

If she were to remake the game, she would like to redraw everything herself.

The yellow soul was renamed to Clover as the demo of Undertale Yellow had released during development. There are also references to Flowerfell (such as in Sona's final transformation), which was another fan creation she loved.

Sona's powers had many changes during production. She was going to be a doll-like monster that absorbed human souls (and goes bald at the end?), then she was going to have Flowerfell reset powers, but in the end she was made to be a witch whose powers came from an ancient artifact. She is also able to turn the monsters human through "determination."

She wanted to explain every loose end left in Undertale, hence the focus on Chara's backstory and their upbringing with Sona. She says Chara is the main character, not Sona.

She was nervous about doing a Sans path due to his popularity at the time. So she made him "that way" on purpose.

She handles the Frisk/Chara/Player relationship "like the Catholic Church handles the Holy Trinity."

She has played Danganronpa, but has not read Homestuck or watched Glitchtale.

The characters with no sprites are a result of their artists abandoning the project.

Alphys, Mettaton and Toriel paths were planned, but never got far.

The Alphys route was being written by a friend who she began to distance from. She never got to see any of it.

She has not played Undertale Yellow, only the demo.

The disappearance of the 42 Ayotzinpa students is another source of inspiration (The scene in which you find Mettaton's body likely alludes to this).

She loves and encourages fan content of her game, including using the game's code as a base for projects.

The humanification arc was intended to explore how a racist would 'solve racism' without violence, by turning everyone into "someone like them."

The human designs have slightly pink hair to reflect Sona's influence. Human Papyrus was inspired by his in-game comments about wanting muscles and hair, human Sans was "the typical fandom approach," and everyone else became anime characters.

The music was the last thing worked on. It was rushed and they didn't know what they were doing.

Sona was not intentionally similar to Monika or Makima.

Sona is (supposedly?) wearing a black mourning dress (Likely mourning Chara hence the yellow flowers).

The cover of Waterfall is her favourite track.

The idea of Sona being a skeleton named Arial was tossed around briefly.

The truest ending was created after some staff requested the option to save Flowey and Sona. It also fulfilled her plan for Sans and Papyrus to take over the orphanage.

Sona's final transformation intended for her to be kept human "but not without her sins showing"

The glitchy text character was Flowey. The glitchiness showed the interference and Flowey being manipulated

[carlyraejepsans]

I don't know how you can look at sans' pacifist arc which is all about letting himself care about the future again and rekindling that ember of hope he never truly lost in the shape of this tiny, sensational, cosmically terrifying human kid in order to finally move on from his past life and fully live the life he has NOW with his new friends, trusting said kid with his story, letting them know it's okay (sans with a lot of people you don't recognize. you and sans with all of your friends. it doesn't matter, he looks happy)

...and then go "i think post pacifist frisk would hate him".

that adds nothing to the characters and it's so needlessly mean spirited it becomes straight up cheap. hate him for what? not keeping his promise in full? letting them die? this kid fought a god and won, frisk doesn't give a crap about dying! the only times they react to death in any capacity in canon it's:

1) someone else's death (which they caused)

2) a way to make their opponent feel bad and stop fighting

3) after flowey takes their SAVE powers.

this kid gets beaten to death by asgore an uncountable number of times and they still trot over to gerson in the epilogue to be like "is he a goat? is he immortal? okay but what if he adopted me, could he adopt me? i'm very adoptable you know". be real now.