#unintentionally the true lab can be read as a pretty solid analogy for the fan response to undertale

[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.)