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This has done more positive impact for the autistic community than any autism organization has.

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Reblog just because this is genuinely so well written and I love Sayaka Miki so, so incredibly much.

Thinking about redemption yesterday got me thinking about fallen heroes today, and how rare it is to see a character initially painted as a hero be driven to heinousness for legitimate reasons.

Often times, if a hero goes bad, it's because of an external force corrupting their mind. Or it's a misunderstanding and they were secretly still good all along. Or they were just having a rough day and they'll be good again in five minutes.

We rarely see get to see heroes go sour purely on their own merits. Maybe because their values weren't so benign as they'd seemed when pushed to a natural conclusion. Maybe because they expected too much of themselves or of others. Or maybe personal experience taught them to believe something else.

Whatever the case, as often as writers will attempt to examine the transformative power of better angels, we rarely get to see the transformative power of worse devils.

Which brings me to....

Sayaka Miki is a character that holds a special place in my heart, not for overcoming her flaws but for being consumed by them. She's a cautionary tale into the perils of righteousness.

I need to preface this by bringing up that the characters of Madoka Magica are children. They're irrational, judgmental, ignorant of risk, and quick to throw themselves into horrible mistakes with absolute confidence. Because they're children. That's how this works. The villain of the series is a psychological predator who feeds on the impulsivity and poor judgment of youth, grooming them into self-destruction.

The entire system of Magical Girls exists to give these children enough rope to hang themselves with and then to kick the ladder out from under them. That is the plot, with Sayaka being the primary means by which the show demonstrates the complete journey from rope to ladder.

I just. I need you to understand that even at her worst, Sayaka is a victim of predatory incentives and calculated coercions meant to cultivate her worst traits while stripping her of hopes and dreams. To drown her in mistakes she could never take back. She didn't have the life experience to know better. That's why her predator targets children.

Sayaka's rope is woven from virtuous self-image. It's not immediately apparent when we meet her, but Sayaka's fatal flaw is ego. Her moral compass is wound extremely tight, and it's only later that we realize it's wound around her neck.

Like many children, Sayaka is trying on an identity moreso than expressing her inner self. She wants to be altruistic. She wants to be selfless. She wants to be a true hero. She wants to live by nothing more than high-minded ideals, expecting no reward for her efforts (but receiving it all the same).

She wants to be the kind of person that Mami was.

But she has no idea who Mami was. She wasn't there to see Mami fracture. To see her break down in vulnerability and express the isolating misery she lives in.

Sayaka didn't see that. She only saw how cool Mami looked when she was killing Witches. So when she tries on an identity, she's specifically trying on the identity of Mami - blissfully unaware that her interpretation of Mami was nothing but a mask. She is emulating the behavior of a victim already consumed by the predatory incentives she's accepting.

Sayaka was doomed from the moment she made her wish.

Once again, the show does a brilliant job of concealing this at first. Right off the bat, it's easy for Sayaka to be the hero. She saves both her BFFs Madoka and Hitomi from a Witch in her debut adventure, before being immediately thrust into a moral argument that's super easy for her to win.

This is what a hero looks like! Should we stand by and let monsters eat people YES/NO

Sayaka says no. Sayaka says letting monsters eat people is bad. Solid Bioware-level moral dilemma she's got here. Sayaka won +10 Paragon points for the choices she picked out of this conversation tree, lemme tell you!

Moments like this work to disguise what's going on here with Sayaka. Obviously Sayaka's making good choices and doing the right thing when the alternative is Kyoko going "Want me to break your crush's limbs so he needs you for life support?" That's awful, so since Sayaka's against it then that means she must be right. Right?

Kyoko is the devil. Sayaka is the paragon.

But this is a story about nuanced and complex people. Sayaka isn't that person. Sayaka likes the idea of being that person. She's being dishonest - With herself, with others around her, and with the universe.

She's trying on an identity, not fully understanding who she really is or what her limitations are.

Incidentally, so is Kyoko, which is what makes their Yin and Yang dichotomy so potent. Having never been tested like this before, Sayaka is more selfish than she truly understands - While Kyoko, damaged by trauma, is more selfless than she wants to believe.

The thing Sayaka doesn't quite grasp is that, to an extent, it's okay to be selfish. It's okay to want things for yourself. Again, the identity she's trying to live up to was a lie to begin with. She only saw the mask; Never the humanity underneath. So she fails to recognize her own humanity; Her own needs and wants and desires.

She imprisons her own mind in a cage of altruism.

Sayaka is warned multiple times against spending her wish on another person. But she doesn't understand the perils of it. She lacks the necessary perspective to grasp the level of sacrifice she's making. (Because she is a child. I cannot stress this point enough.)

When she makes her wish, Sayaka wants her sacrifice reciprocated. She wants to be rewarded. But she doesn't want to want that. She wants to be the selfless hero for Kyosuke. To silently grant him a miracle because it's the right thing to do for her friend. But she expects, without consciously thinking about it, that the universe will deliver her nice things because she is good.

But life doesn't work like that. It doesn't give you things you aren't willing to reach for. Sayaka said she just wanted him to be happy. She just wanted to help people. She just wanted to dedicate her life to virtue and altruism, with no wants or needs or desires of her own.

Kyoko was being cruel and unfeeling when she suggested crippling Kyosuke; She was trying to express a mask of selfishness, the same way Sayaka's been trying to express a mask of selflessness. But she wasn't the only person telling Sayaka that it was a mistake to do this. She's just the only person who said it after the fact.

So the universe calls her bluff. While Sayaka waits for her sacrifices to be rewarded, fracturing more and more from learning what those sacrifices truly entail, someone else claims her prize. The work gets harder, not just physically but emotionally. And she only gets what she asked for. Nothing more.

This is what a hero looks like. She wanted to be Mami.

Remind me. What was Mami's reward for her sacrifices?

Oh. Yeah. That's right.

The thing of it is, there is a reward for a Magical Girl's sacrifices. There is a prize you're meant to receive for the unjust hardships and self-destruction that you're volunteering to undertake.

It's the fucking wish.

That she, in her righteousness, gave away.

Sayaka's rope is woven from virtuous self-image. Her fatal flaw is ego. She was undone by arrogance expressed in ignorance, not of glory the way we often think of egotistic people, but of righteousness. She held herself to a standard no reasonable person could ever live up to, and it crushed her as it came crashing down.

And yet, she was a victim all the same. Because she was walked, hand-in-hand, to that pier by a predator. Children are meant to learn from their mistakes. Not to die for them.

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Hoping on the Homura did nothing wrong train, can someone tell me why they believe Homura did do wrong?

I'm not trying to debate or refute points, but I feel like if I knew what some opposing opinions were, I'd be able to make a stronger, evidence-supported reason for my beliefs. Being in a constant echo chamber is one way to ensure your opinions and thoughts aren't challenged, which makes for a shaky foundation to theorize because you NEED opposing views.

Anyhow, if someone could write/DM me a list of actions/flaws/thoughts or theories of things Homura did wrong, or things directly wrong with Homura, I'd greatly appreciate it. Again, this is not so I can debate with you, I just want to see some different viewpoints.

#madoka magica rebellion #pmmm madoka #homura did nothing wrong #homura akemi #devil homura #magica record #madoka rebellion #puella magi madoka magica #madoka kaname #madokami

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*Eats your art* It's so beautiful! And no problem, I'm happy to help :)

I was so out of the loop in last quarter of 2023 (family emergency) so i only just found out there was a way longer translated Walpurgisnacht Rising trailer rn !!!!!!

If anyone knows any good trailer analysis or theories or whatnot pls send my way

I avoid the "haha suffering" shitposts cause thats not how i see the show. I dont have enough pmmm friends to chat with about this stuff orz

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Waaaa! If a theory is what you want, I'm here to help!

So in the trailer, we see Homura making a phone call. Now it's not confirmed, but it's heavily implied that she's the one now making contracts with girls and then giving them their powers, asking them if they accept the responsibility (of what, we have no idea, but I'm assuming that she's going to be using the magical girls as a way to contain and control Madoka's power or maybe her power, similar as the Kyubey used the magical girls to control entropy.) I'm not sure if this is true yet, but that's what it seems like.

We then get a bunch of shots of the OG timeline, the Wraith Timeline, and then Rebellion where several voices are pretty much making fun of Homura and calling her a devil. When Homura says "Can you fight against the curse of this world?" I'm curious if she means HER curse specifically, considering that's what the entire labyrinth is. "Just bring hope," again, Madoka becomes the embodiment of hope when she makes her wish to destroy witches, the bringers of curses, but now she's gone due to Homura separating her from the entity known as Madokami, or Ultimate Madoka, I'm curious if Homura is now using other magical girls as bringers of hope so that Madoka won't have to become Madokami again, kind of like a substitute for the Law of Cycles somehow, and given the voices are saying, "Release that girl," it could be either Homura's subconscious or Madokami or some weird other omnipotent entity connected to the other magical girls. Again, all speculation.

A "new magical girl we've never seen before," I'm gonna be real, I have no idea what part they could play, but the girl we see looks like a combination of Homura and Madoka. Now this is a VERY big stretch, but I'm leaning toward the idea that this new magical girl is somehow the embodiment of both Homura and Madoka's power, like, they became a separate physical entity. I'm not sure how this would've occurred, but given that Madoka and Madokami are now separate entities, it wouldn't surprise me if Madokami somehow became a different magical girl, influenced by the labyrinth of Homura. If you remember in Rebellion, Madoka was stripped of her Godhood and turned back into a normal person because she needed to get into the barrier without Kyubey detecting her. I'm wondering if this is the same deal, only because Madokami was effectively stripped of Madoka, we get this other form instead that looks VAGUELY like Madoka but otherwise has a lot of Homura's influence in her design.

We then get a shot of Madoka(?) flying toward a witch-looking thing, or at least what appears to be, but there are flickers of rainbow. Now if you remember in Rebellion, when Madoka was transforming, there were flickers of rainbow meant to symbolize Madokami's influence.

I'm almost certain that Madoka is being engulfed by the OG power of Madokami, curses and all. The fact that her shoes are left behind on the building could either have one or two meanings, both equally important (keep in mind I'm using a TV Trope screenshot, so take it with a grain of salt, lol.)

In this case, Madoka (if it really is Madoka) is committing metaphorical suicide (again, lol, because that's literally what her wish was supposed to be about given that she become a concept) and also transitioning into an ethereal state of being as she's merging with Madokami. I'm sure this is fairly obvious, however, but eh, still fun to talk about. And a lot of people have speculated that that might not even be Madoka, so I have no idea.

It's pretty much confirmed that all the Homuras we see are different entities, similar to Kyubey, but each Homura has a different purpose and meaning. We of course have the Homura who makes contracts, the one we see at the end of the trailer who looks stressed out, and then this other Homura we see meeting Madoka who is surrounded by asphodels. A commentator on the Madoka Movie Trailer cleverly connected the meaning of asphodels to the meaning of underworld, death, and mourning, more specifically the phrase "remembered beyond the tomb' or 'my regrets follow you to the grave." It's known as the immortal flower in Greek Mythology as it grew in the underworld, specially in Purgatory, a place where spirits neither good or evil lived.

Also, the flowers surrounding Madoka are roses, which have many ties to Christianity and the blood of Christ, and the branching them reminds me of the rainbow arc she had at the end of her transformation in Rebellion when she posed, more references to her godly nature.

And then we have the OG girls. As everyone has been quick to point out, their magical girl outfits have changed, which I'm sure, again, is because of the influence of Homura. What I want to talk about specifically is Sayaka and her bandages. If you look closely at the GIF I inserted earlier, you can see that Sayaka has bandages around her neck as well. Now they could mean one of three things; either Homura is directly targeting her so that she won't talk to Madoka and the other girls, or she can no longer heal effectively due to Homura since that was the gist of her power, meaning she has to resort to bandages, or it's just a design change (which I heavily doubt.)

I'm leaning toward it being something about Homura needing her to essentially shut up because if you look at the concept movie trailer that came out a few years ago, Sayaka's mouth was fully covered (which is why I included it in the GIF). It's essentially a "speak no evil," type of deal is what I'm thinking.

And...

Like I said earlier, it's confirmed that there are multiple Homuras (think of Homura's familars) and that the Homura we see at the end is the ACTUAL Homura. Again, she needs to maintain control of the labyrinth, so it makes sense why there has to be more than one of her.

Finally, we have a full shot of Madoka in her new design, which has a gigantic lock on it. In Rebellion, there was a spool of pink thread that was descending into darkness, and here Madoka is doing the same thing. This makes sense, as she's essentially "locked" in the labyrinth and also locked into her fate of being a magical girl (not if Homura can help it.) The threads of fate have been referenced repeatedly in the series (remember in the OG timeline, where Homura and Madoka had images of them being tied up against a clock with string, in Magia Record, when Madoka was transforming, she had pink ribbons tied around her and finally, the ribbons in general, where Madoka give Homura her ribbons and then Homura gave them back at the end of Rebellion.) Threads, ribbons, and string, always are tied down by something essentially.

In terms of Walpurgis, I think that the series is leaning toward everything being how it was during the OG timeline, only this time, Homura is Kyubey (only in terms of position, Kyubey can go rot in hell and Homura cares what happens to the other magical girls, I hope at least.) If Walpurgis is rising again, it may be because the circumstances in which she was first born are happening again, or her death wasn't prevented because, in this world, Madoka wasn't there to make her wish. Walpurgis may be a culmination of all of Homura's power (though I don't think that it is Homura herself, maybe it's just a culmination of all the magical girls' despair or curses in combination with Homura's.) If Homura doesn't have a way to purify it all because, regardless of her familiars, she's still only one person, it makes sense why it would possibly bring forth Walpurgis once again.

And these are all of my thoughts and theories! They're a bit basic, but I'm always in support of simple theories. If I'm missing anything or messed up anything, let me know so I can either fix it or explain my reasoning.

I was so out of the loop in last quarter of 2023 (family emergency) so i only just found out there was a way longer translated Walpurgisnacht Rising trailer rn !!!!!!

If anyone knows any good trailer analysis or theories or whatnot pls send my way

I avoid the "haha suffering" shitposts cause thats not how i see the show. I dont have enough pmmm friends to chat with about this stuff orz

#madoka magica #madoka kaname #madoka magica rebellion #mami tomoe #kyoko sakura #sayaka miki #homura akemi #puella magi madoka magica #magica record

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Fucking facts.

I'm so sick of it. Male characters can literally attempt rape, kill innocent people, etc, etc and it's "muh morally grey."

And then female characters are either claimed to be Mary Sues, want to leave said male character or will bring up social issues and then people will literally think the characters shouldn't exist. And it's not even like the characters themselves are poorly written, they're usually realistic in a feminist sense.

Attempted rape that isn't even in character for the male character? We can excuse that and call it character building or even worse, defend it, because, "he's morally grey, he's not supposed to be a hero 🤓👆."

There's a joking line about men being annoying/an undesirable quality? (Or even worse, they talk about wOke gIrl pOwer!") And people will actively boycott and want to destroy the character with FIRE.

I'm not saying that we can't have morally grey characters. I LOVE morally grey characters (if it fucking makes sense in the context of the character and the story) but the female to male character-hating ratio is so fucking disproportionate for the most stupid of fucking reasons.

Being a mild feminist that make sense for the character? Hell no, that's too woke and I feel uncomfortable and it's annoying.

But then we have the plot come to a screeching halt for a rape/attempted scene that lasts longer than it needed to and people will be screaming about how realistic it is and therefore should be kept in.

Edit: Watch how people bring up a female rapist character and be like, "Well I (and other people) don't hate her, so therefore that refutes everything you just said! I still think it's fine for characters to be morally grey, regardless of gender," and it'll be one example of a female character for which this fits, maybe two, who are directly called out in the plot for being terrible people, and even so, you won't find a male character being hated in turn for preference of that female character.

people make fun of the "oh you only hate her because she's a WOMAN" crazy feminist mentality but yeah actually you guys do only hate her because she's a woman a lot of times. for every hated female tv character there's ten male tv characters who are a million times worse and still given at least the "intriguing morally grey character" treatment if not straight up praise. for every hated female celebrity in real life there's one hundred famous men who have done worse and don't get half the hate she does.

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I love how incels/misogynistic people are like, "for girls to love you, you need to be six feet tall, be super rich and have a lot of muscles, and even then, you'll STILL be cheated on!"

And then you look at Sans fans and they were ironically the most loving people ever and were willing to turn a blind eye to everything so long as you were a skeleton and mildly funny.

And I'm being so dead ass here because the funny part is, he doesn’t have nor ever had any redeeming qualities in or outside of a relationship.

Like, dude canonically eats mayonnaise and drinks ketchup for fun:

Doesn't take baths regularly:

May be two feet tall (I'm still crying at the possibility that he's the height of a toddler, though I'm sure that was heavily exaggerated on the part of the fandom.)

But at most, he's the height of a child who's 12/13 at the oldest, so he's around four feet at the tallest (😭😭😭)

And if bro is too lazy to get a shower regularly, what makes Sans girlies think he'd be a good contender for a relationship? 😭

He's literally the exact thing that incels say a girl wouldn't want, and yet he was Tumblr's number 1 Sexyman purely for his personality (I'm choosing to believe it was purely for his personality because like, what else CANONICALLY (I'm looking at you traumatizing glowing blue hotdog fanart that is STILL ON GOOGLE and clearly visible by just looking up Sans) does he have going for him 😭

And even worse, I'll list all of these facts and people will STILL be in love with him.

To all of the Sans fans who have grown up and started dating (and maybe you outgrew your fangirl status and maybe you haven't), I wish nothing but the best for you because lord knows it doesn't take a lot to make you guys happy it seems 😭

I wonder where you guys are all at in life, dating or otherwise.

#sans #sans character discussion #undertale #deltarune #undertale deltarune #undertale sans #sans fangirl

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So the Madoka Magica movie is coming out and there's a lot of speculation about how it's going to end (or rather, be the start of a new series of movies/a show? Idk, it was extremely vague.)

And while I love the idea of Homura and Madoka ending up together because they both deserve some happiness, I can't help but feel like the best ending for Homura at this point is letting Madoka go so she can become a healthy adult (which, let's be real, that's not possible in this world.)

And by "letting go," I don't mean cutting contact or abandoning her, I mean they can still be friends while Homura can become a person who sees herself worthy of living with or without Madoka. Because as much as I love my favorite tragic lesbians, Homura isn't her own person in the relationship with Madoka.

Like, Madoka has a loving family, loving friends, and people cheering her on. And even if she doesn't believe she's good enough to do anything, she still objectively has things going for her, a safety net if you will. And she still has a goal in mind that doesn't involve one specific person, but rather she wants to become someone that people can depend on/wants to help other people (regardless if this is at the cost of herself.) I'm not saying it's a good or even a healthy goal but with some tweaks, I could see the goal becoming something she could work toward as a means of personal growth and not just because she thinks she's useless.

Meanwhile, Homura doesn't even have parents as far as we're concerned.

The only ties she has that we're told about are the catholic school she attended and the hospital she pretty much lives in. No friends, no family, and no aspirations of her own. And because of her circumstances, she really wouldn't be able to. It's no fault of her own. I get why, then, she attaches herself to someone like Madoka. I'm sure ANYONE would attach themselves to Madoka if they were in the position Homura was in.

And then that starts the obsession. A long, tiring journey in which this poor girl sacrifices her mental health, her youth, countless years spent trying to save this doom girl and her doomed friends while she herself is also doomed. She's pretty much made herself Madoka's sole protector while also not allowing herself to even do or enjoy the one thing she wanted in the first place; being Madoka's friend.

It's all but confirmed that Homura hates everything about herself as seen in her backstory and rebellion when she was destroying her labyrinth. Her saving Madoka is the one good thing she thinks she's associated with, so much so that she's OK with dying either to protect Madoka or in a world without her.

Like, the concept of one person being the only reason you continue existing is so unhealthy (note that I'm not saying their relationship itself is, it's just her mindset.) I completely understand wanting to help your friend you know...not die a terrible death, but Homura doesn't think she has anything going for her outside of protecting someone else and that's such a sad thought to me. She thinks of all her past friends as enemies now, and she alienated herself from everyone. She thinks, now, that it's her versus Kyubey, the other magical girls, and Madoka herself. The girl is borderline, if not entirely, suicidal.

I'm hoping so badly that in the next movie, this is the start of healing for Homura (though it probably won't be because Mr. Uro loves his sad/bitter-sweet endings.) I hope this is the start where she's able to piece together who she is outside of wanting Madoka, who she could've been had Kyubey not manipulated her and the other girls into making contracts, had her parents not died, had her body not been as fragile as it was, had her confidence been strong, had she felt she was good enough to befriend and get close to other people without fearing her hurting them or them hurting her.

Sayaka was able to let the bitterness of not being with Kyosuke go, accepting that even though she wanted him, she couldn't be with him and even if she was, she never would've been happy. She was able to realize the flaws in her "ideal magical girl" concept and accept the fact that she's just one person and even though she's not perfect and didn't get the thing she wanted, she's still able to be a hero in her own right in the company of people who actually love and support her because she's Sayaka Miki, not because she's a heroic magical girl.

Mami was able to be honest with herself, similar to Sayaka, that she's not a perfect person, that the perfect magical girl illusion was never her. She's able to admit to herself that she was inherently selfish that all she wanted was friends and family, and that there's nothing wrong with that. She doesn't have to keep up the pressures of being perfect and mature and all-knowing because, at the end of the day, she is still that little girl who almost died in a car crash that claimed her parents' lives, and she has to live with the fact that she didn't and wasn't able to save them even when she had the chance to. And she's able to come to terms with the fact that though she was alone, she didn't have to be lonely. She's able to realize that it's not too late for her and she can make her own family that will stick around with her, flaws and all. And she can be a good role model for her little sister surrogate and also orphan Nagisa, but this time, she can be a realistic big sister rather than an idealistic one.

Kyoko can move past the pain of her family's demise, and unlike Mami, feels as though she is directly responsible for it. She was a naive kid who only wanted the best for her family and yet, by doing the "right thing" her father goes on a massive suicide-homicide rampage and she's left to think that her naivety, that her wanting to do the right thing, was what killed them. But no, it wasn't. It's ok to have hope and to have the desire to help others and do the right thing. While the actions of the wish were undesirable, it didn't change the fact that Kyoko's heart was in the right place and that she could continue to try to help others without fear of it coming back to haunt her. She can let the tense guard she's had up since her family's death and enjoy the little things in life she never got to when she was too poor; food, drink, comfort, and having others around that care about you. While she thought that it was her wish and her misunderstanding of what her father wanted that ultimately killed her family, it's the same desire and intentions that push her to save Sayaka and befriend her and the other girls later on.

Now Madoka is an interesting case because she, like Homura, is sort of trapped in being who they were before they gained powers.

Now that Madoka is essentially back to where she started (unlike everyone else who at least has something/someone in their lives now in Rebellion compared to the OG series where they were missing those intimate connections) again,

she's left to feel like she's missing a key part of herself (only in the OG series, she was missing the confidence she had the in OG timeline as a magical girl whereas, in Rebellion, she's literally the missing part of the Law of Cycles) and you're left to wonder if she'll be satisfied, or will she challenge this new world that seems too good to be true, a world that was made just for her and only her?

And Homura?

Poor Homura.

Being an orphan and having no one, not even doctors or nurses it looks like, be close to you? Being unable to live comfortably due to a physical condition you had no say in? Having to be behind because of said physical condition and then having an inferiority complex WHILE teachers belittle you for things out of your control? So then you consider yourself a burden and truly believe only death and loneliness await you? AND YOU’RE ONLY 14???

And then you think you've met this amazing person, this girl who thinks you're interesting and cool with no ulterior notices, a girl with amazing powers that are as wonderful as her only to have the rug pulled under you and realize that the cost of those powers and your protection is her's and others like her inevitable demise.

So then you attempt to right that wrong because even further than your want to save your friends, you know the system that they're in is objectively terrible and needs to be torn down.

But then you try to warn said friends about the system and all they do is belittle you and admit they're comfortable in something that's designed to kill them before they turn twenty, and when (or even if) they're finally aware of the system and the terrible reality of it, they STILL blame you for not telling them sooner even though you tried your damn hardest? Or even worse, try to KILL you after they find out for themselves?

And then top that off with an oppressive alien race trying to control you and pretty much end your life prematurely or turn you into an immortal Lovecraftian Paper mache creature that looks like it was created by five-year-olds should you fall into despair at the hands of this default depressive system and you'll have to remain like that, killing and trapping people while you have no memories of your life as a human and have to live as an animal of pure instinct and evilnesses until some unknowing other magical girl puts you out of your misery, and the cycle will rise and repeat eternally.

Then not to mention other magical girls who try to "game the system" (which only leads to them dying/witching out even earlier, indirectly harming the girl you're trying to protect) or even worse, the girls see you as competition because they're insecure/power hungry instead of joining you in taking down the system set up so where death is an inevitable thing regardless, indirectly siding with the species that are literally killing them slowly but surely (and yet you're somehow still the problem in their eyes.) And then to add the shit sprinkles to this shit show of life, you have to battle this biblically accurate German clown of a witch that's a bunch of witched-out magical girls mashed together like a Cthulu-esque Ren and Stimpy-type creation (that's also pretty much invincible to everything that you and all of the nukes and missiles you store in a tiny, rinky-dink space-time shield you were pretty much cursed with while everyone else gets a built-in weapon.)

Not to mention the PTSD of having everyone and everything around you die and crumple to bits for 12 years over and over again, failing at every turn to complete the only goal you have for yourself (which isn't even for you, it's just saving another person because you believe you're extensible at that point) and at every twist and turn, you're beaten, bruised, belittled, scared, tired, pushed to the brink and all alone with no one to depend on because you're the ONLY one who can and will remember anything once you have to go back in time.

And then you learn the more you go back in time, the more fate and karma you're attaching to this girl which makes the aliens target her even more because of the level of potential she has. And even worse, you find out that the girl you've been fighting so hard to protect is now an entirely different person, lacking the confidence and outgoingness that made you fall in love in the first place, her desire to become a confident magical girl being unfulfilled because of you.

But you have to play the smaller evil. You have to deter her from making a wish, even if it means inadvertently scaring her away from the idea, even if it means being cold and calculated and harsh because she won't listen otherwise.

You have to crush that confidence because that desire will only lead to her death, but she can't know that because well, you still want her to trust you.

But because you've been trying so hard to scare her away from the idea of becoming a magical girl, she ends up becoming scared anyway and distancing herself from you, meaning you don't even have the comfort of knowing you two are friends anymore.

And even still, all of the other magical girls, including her, always end up dead or turning into witches no matter what you do, leaving you to fight the final boss witch alone and failing every single time because it's just too powerful.

But you can't stop. No matter what, you can't stop. Because stopping means death for you, the girl you love, and the entire world, whether it be because of Walpurgis or Madoka's witch which is only so powerful because of you and your time-traveling shenanigans.

So you do another timeline, and things go wrong like they have for the past 100 timelines so you're just numb to it now, and while you're fighting the boss witch, you get critically injured. And now armed with the knowledge that you'd just be putting an even bigger target on your friend's back, you resolve that your efforts were all in vain and useless and decide to just let yourself witch out because you have no other choice.

Only, you're interrupted by your friend, who's finally ready to put her fears aside and make a wish.

Your biggest fear is coming true and you're powerless to stop it.

So she makes her wish and becomes a magical girl Jesus pretty much and restores hope to every magical girl.

Every magical girl except for you.

She says your efforts are the reason why she was able to make such a powerful wish and thanks you for your service, as if you're an old veteran about to retire, and then she ejects you to a remade world, a world without her.

And you're doomed to fight in this world, the world she gave her life to protect, a world in which only you remember her. You don't let yourself become too close to the other magical girls for fear of losing that connection once the Law of Cycles takes them away.

So you're doomed, essentially. The one thing you've fought to protect is gone forever and there's no one but you left to grieve for her, and you start an endless fight against the new evil creatures in place of witches until you're about to disappear yourself.

But you don't even have the comfort of peaceful passing on because AHA!, that evil alien race wants to you use as a sadistic experiment to inflict suffering on you and the other magical girls while controlling the one saving grace you all had, to restart the terrible system you were trying to run away from in the original world.

So they place you in this fake simulation of happiness and fun and magical girl transformations all for the sake of controlling you and the girl you fought for and thought was safe.

So you take matters into your own hands and resign to destroy the labyrinth, even if it means your death, hoping the other magical girls put you out of your misery once and for all.

But if you die, then who would be left to protect that girl you love so much?

So you take matters into your own hands and override her power, creating an idealized world in which everyone can be happy at the cost of making all of your past friends your enemies later.

Even the girl you love and gave your life for time and time again.

All for the sake of keeping her safe once more from not only herself since you pulled a piece of her from the Law of Cycles, but also those terrible aliens who can only think about themselves and their sick curiosity.

I so badly want a happy ending for Homura, and I'm so hoping that that happy ending is one without magic or Karmaic fate or the weight of 26 years of repeated time travel or having to save her girlfriend from a terrible demise or dooming herself to magical Jesus type limbo for eternity all while she's the only one who can remember.

Outside of Madoka, what does Homura enjoy now in Rebellion? What were her dreams, if she had any? Her aspirations? What was her childhood like (even though we know it was lonely) was there anything in her life that even remotely made her feel that living was worth it?

If and when she becomes an adult, what will she be like? What career what she want to pursue? What interests her? What does she want the most for herself? Power? Fame? Company? Comfort?

And will it even be possible for her to enjoy anything outside of Madoka so long as she attaches her self worth to this one, ordinary girl?

Will she succeed in protecting her at the cost of herself? At the cost of anyone else excluding the kyubey?

Will she give up ultimate control over the world, or will she double down; ok with challenging her friends-turned-enemies all for the sake of her love?

And if so, will she succeed as Madoka's sole, eternal protector forevermore, or she be dethroned and killed, left to rot in a labyrinth of her self-hatred and mistakes? (God, I hope not.)

Or...will she finally be saved and released from the shackles of fate, time, and space so she can live her life as a normal girl, a life she wasn't granted even before she made her wish?

My excitement for this movie is beyond real.

#madoka magica #homura akemi #pmmm madoka #sayaka miki #kyoko sakura #mami tomoe #puella magi madoka magica #madoka x homura #madoka magica rebellion #madokami #magical girl madoka magica #devil homura

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*tears streaming down my face as i desperately grab at the fabric of your shirt* am i at least cringe and annoying in a fuckable way

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I loved everything about Sans, but there's something I'm completely curious about. Does he really care about the player/fallen human? I mean, he made that promise to Toriel, but for me he's a little indifferent about almost everything, including the human. What do you think?

Will also be reblogging this to my new Undertale sideblog, lefthanded-sans.

Oh. my. goodness. I am *so* excited to talk about this! Like you, I love everything about Sans, but his apathy is one of his personality traits that intrigues me and resonates with me the most. There is a fascinating depth and complexity to Sans’ indifference and how it relates to the individuals around him.

I believe Sans legitimately cares about the human. While it is true Sans has become apathetic to the world’s events passing around him, he retains in his heart affection for certain people like his brother and the human. The human is not a simple neutral presence to Sans: in fact, they are a positive inspiration to Sans. Sans regards the human as a friend and becomes inspired by their motivation to change the world. By the end of his time with the human, in fact, Sans is speaking with an internal philosophy that is not nihilistic or apathetic at all! He is speaking with hope and clear affection toward his human friend.

Keep reading

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That is such a cool take on Senerity, I'd argue even cooler than the cookie cutter fairy tale Princess story we got in the actual manga canon.

ooo, would you care to elaborate on "embodiment of bitterness"? (I haven't actually seen much SM but don't mind spoilers/deep meta)

OKAY SO

In PGSM (the live-action series), Princess Sailor Moon is a form created when the spirit of Princess Serenity possess the regular Sailor Moon.

In this canon, Princess Serenity is actually pretty scary. She is the one who destroyed the Moon Kingdom in her grief over her lover Endymion's death (in the manga, she commits suicide in her grief but doesn't harm anyone else), and her restless spirit is still full of bitterness and rage in the present day. She is utterly ruthless in her objective to reunite with Endymion (now Mamoru Chiba).

In fact, Princess Sailor Moon is actually the ultimate antagonist of PGSM, not Queen Beryl or the Dark Kingdom in general. It's definitely an extremely interesting take on Princess Serenity. PGSM is known for being really creative with characterization in general and not being afraid to deviate from established canon.

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I've heard so many good things about Yume Nikki, it being the backbone behind Omori, Undertale, Lisa the Painful, all that jazz.

I played all of the Mother/Earthbound games and fell in love with pretty much all of them with maybe the exception of the first one because it's an old game and kind of bare-bones as a result, but I saw the animations of Yume by Gobou on Youtube and assumed it to be similar to Undertale and the like just because of how whimsical it all looked.

Both Omori and Undertale got spoiled for me by some toxic fans, so I never got to play those games completely blind, but because the Yume fandom is relatively quiet, I managed to avoid knowing pretty much anything about the game.

So I had little to no expectations besides it being an early 2000s "Omori-like" game just from what the fans of the said game always relate it to, and the only thing I did know was what the main character looked like.

So I downloaded it on my PC the other day and whoo boy.

Now I'm not saying it's bad, not by a long shot, but it feels like an acquired taste. I had no idea what I was doing or why I was doing anything apart from progressing (which I know is the point, since it's supposed to be a purely exploration-type game) but when there was no dialogue, no interactions with NPCs aside from them either chasing you or doing little animation before it resets once you leave and come back, I was taken aback.

I've yet to finish the game, but from what I've heard others say, there's not a story, no plot really, so I'm having a hard time trying to endear myself to the game so far.

And who knows? Maybe my thoughts will change once I actually finish it.

#yume nikki #madotsuki #madotsuki yume nikki #monoe #monoko #uboa yume nikki

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Every time I see the art of Sans that's uncomfortably realistic to how he'd look in-game, my world trembles.

Like, I'm so used to the fandom making him just this cute little guy, you know? Just a cute little guy with a few nihilistic issues and pranks glore.

And then you find art that destroys your perception of Sans just being a cute little guy because no, a mofo skeleton that doesn't stop smiling and somehow winks without any muscles and threatens to kill you only to offset it with a joke is not whimsical, it'd be fucking uncomfortable to any normal child who's, at most, maybe twelve or thirteen.

And I don't mean how some of the fanart portrays Sans in the genocide route; covered in blood, glowing eye ablaze, ready to put some kid in the dirt, or even during the dinner date in the Pacifist route when he threatens to kill Frisk where they stand with his eyes all blacked out. But rather, as just an unsettling character when he's just STANDING there; an uncanny person (if you can even call him that) with too many secrets to fully trust and too many pranks to take him seriously, quirky theme song be damned. He doesn't even have to do anything for the vibe to be off, for you to be uneasy.

It's hard, but fairly common, to make Sans of all people threatening with all of his unexplained powers and knowledge, or to make him seem scary at the cost of him not seeming like Sans (cough cough, Horror tale), but I feel like it takes just as much effort (if not a little more) to make him uncanny without relying on horror or the intensity of the genocide route, but rather keeping up that quirky upbeat persona that he has and still having his design by default make someone uneasy. Not afraid necessarily, but something you'd put an eyebrow up for questioning before you shrug off the weirdness and move on.

I'm honestly in such a dilemma rn because while I like the depiction of Sans just being some cute little skeleton guy who may or may not be canonically two feet tall and just so HAPPENS to have crazy scientific knowledge on random shit while also knowing how to cheat the RPG system Undertale is built around, him being intimidating not because he's trying to be, but because he's naturally uncanny rules too, so I can't decide.

Maybe he's just a weird middle-ground somewhere. I'm still looking for more art that portrays him as both and not either or though, like, yeah, he's this short little skeleton guy who doesn't take life seriously, but also is a freaking weirdo just because he can be.

#sans character discussion #undertale deltarune #undertale sans #sans undertale #deltarune #sans #undertale art #undertale

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I have zero sympathy for zionists.

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Compilation of Mysterious Papyrus Things

Random Strange Facts:

Papyrus is the only character to speak without an asterisk

Papyrus’s dialogue shakes on a consistent basis when no one else’s does

Papyrus is described as “forgettable,” something only mentioned elsewhere in context with Goner Kid and Gaster

Papyrus seems to be able to see what the player is looking at when he calls them (”THAT BAG OF DOG FOOD LOOKS FAMILIAR…”)

Papyrus seems to know that MTT has eyes before MTT becomes MTT Ex

Papyrus has a total of 2184 lines in the game—more than any other character, and almost as much as the narrator of the game, which is at 2418 lines. The next closest character is Undyne, with 1268 total lines.

Similar wording is used to describe Papyrus as it is to describe Gaster. (It’s rude to talk about someone who’s listening)

Papyrus’s theme, “Nyeh heh heh/Bonetrousle,” is used in all of the trailers of the game

Papyrus and Sans break the 4th wall in the stream greenlight trailer, which shocks Toriel

Papyrus flies/breaks the laws of physics casually and seemingly on a regular basis

Papyrus is one of the few characters that refers to gameplay mechanics (“PRESS [C] ON THE KEYBOARD FOR DATING HUD!” “HOLD UP LONGER TO JUMP HIGHER, JEEZ!”)

Papyrus says himself that he knows nothing about his hands because he always keeps his gloves on.

There is nothing, nothing known about his past before his showing up to Snowdin. By the end of the game and after some research, you can basically know more about Gaster and Sans than you do about Papyrus, despite him having the most dialogue in the game besides the narrator.

Papyrus has such control over his magic in his fight, that he can make his attacks do zero damage because he refuses to kill the human.

You are healed to full HP right before the Papyrus fight, as well as immediately after if you are captured.

Papyrus doesn’t seem to realize that Frisk is a kid, despite Frisk wearing a striped shirt, which is a common indicator for childhood in monster society. (is he unfamiliar with common monster culture, for some reason?)

Sans reads Papyrus bed time stories on a regular basis, but Papyrus himself never seems to sleep

The Undertale Q&A that Toby Fox did for Undertale’s anniversary revolves around Papyrus

His defense raises in the spare phase of his fight, unlike every other monster. He seems to be able to manipulate his own stats.

Relationships:

The two 4th wall breaking characters (Flowey and the Annoying Dog) seem to have a special interest in Papyrus

Annoying Dog:

Steals bone attacks on two separate occasions (Papyrus fight and aborted Genocide hangout, in which the “special attack” is hinted to be Gaster Blasters)

Steals bones in general on two occasions (Under Papyrus’s sink and during the hangout with Undyne)

Eats Papyrus’s lasagna

Snuggles with Papyrus

Flowey:

Says Papyrus started a “Flowey Fan Club”

Says Papyrus took a long time to get boring on his repeated runs

Asks Papyrus to call Frisk before the True lab, gather everyone together before the True Ending, and probably leave a note in Alphys’ trash can

Flowey is the only one who knows Papyrus’s favorite food, which is dinosaur oatmeal (no, it’s not spaghetti. Papyrus has never eaten it.)

When Flowey attacks the group during the True Pacifist fight, he binds everyone with two vines, except Papyrus–who he binds with four.

Sans (overlooking the bounteous brotherly goodness of the two):

Papyrus lies to him on a consistent basis

This is to probably humor Sans about his level of knowledge?

Papyrus still expects Sans to know more about Papyrus than Papyrus does himself?

Papyrus acts negatively towards Sans’s puns, but then turns around and makes the most (and arguably best) puns in the game out of anyone

Personality:

Doesn’t outwardly acknowledge criticism

According to Sans, he is trash-talked a lot

May have self-worth issues

Extremely blasé about his own death

Doesn’t seem to have friends, despite working very hard to get them

He phrases things in really strange ways. (”UNMANDATE IT SAFER”)

Papyrus staunchly refuses to really hurt people, despite it being very likely that he could be just as hard or harder of a fight than Sans

He has a strong and unshakeable belief that people can change (does he know this from personal experience?)

He hates Grillby’s and Hotland

He is an amazing artist

He considers himself a great chef, even if he doesn’t necessarily eat what he cooks

Quotes:

“DEADLY SPIKES, PRECARIOUS BRIDGES! TRULY THE PILLARS OF YOUTH!”

[when dying] “ALAS, POOR PAPYRUS. [this is quoting Shakespeare while he’s dying] WELL, AT LEAST I HAVE MY HEAD!”

“I WOULD NEVER TAKE A VACATION FOR ANY REASON!”

Undyne: “Papyrus… doesn’t know how to sleep??”

“I WANT TO MEET DEATH!”

“YOU CAN SEE YOUR REFLECTION IN A PUDDLE, BUT… DON’T LET A BODY OF WATER DETERMINE YOUR SELF WORTH!”

“IT’S MY LEAST FAVORITE NIGHTMARE!” – referring to Hotland lasers and conveyors

“A MYSTERIOUS SCIENCE HOUSE. […] LABORADOR-Y?” When talking about Alphys’s lab with Sans present.

“A LAB?? MY BROTHER WOULD LOVE THAT!” –when talking about Alphys’s lab without Sans present.

“ICE CREAM? THANKS, BUT I LIVE IN SNOWDIN! THERE’S ICE CREAM ALL OVER THE GROUND!” –when talking about ice cream when Sans is present.

“I TRIED TO CAPTURE YOU… WHERE’S MY ICE CREAM.” –when talking about ice cream without Sans present.

“STOP LOOKING IN MY EMPTY MAIL BOX. THAT’S MY EMPTINESS, NOT YOURS.”

“I AM A PRETTY BRUTAL KIND OF GUY.”

“HOTLAND! I KNOW IT LIKE THE BACK OF MY HAND. WHICH, SINCE I’M ALWAYS WEARING GLOVES… I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT!”

“WELL, IF YOU WANT TO GET SOMEONE TO OPEN UP, YOU SHOULD ENGAGE THEM IN COMBAT! HUM HUM HUM…” – before the Shyren encounter. This is one of the few times where Papyrus actually gives you something helpful, but how does he know?

Links for additional reading/theories(most links to @batter-sempai, @papyrus-knows, and @queenofdragons6 posts and reblogs): Optimism does not make Papyrus naive Papyrus casually breaking laws of physics  Strange music (or lack of) in Papyrus’s room Brutal kind of guy screenshots Some disturbing connections Some suspicious screenshots Part 3 of a sans theory where the writer realizes Papyrus is ridiculously mysterious Chara and Papyrus similarities–they’re always smiling! Phone call and 4th wall suspicions Papyrus surprising cynicism Sans and Papyrus dynamic speculation Vague Gaster and Papyrus connection Papyrus’s skewed views on what is safe for kids… possible backstory connection? Another compilation of sketchy Papyrus-y things Insomnia and nightmares More on music and rooms Papyrus creeped out by echo flowers Papyrus and Annoying Dog interactions (there are a surprising amount) Sans and Papyrus dynamic speculation 2 Papyrus: treated like a child Papyrus: nasty words with a huge grin The fodder for many an amnesiac theory Papyrus is literally the skeleton in the closet Papyrus battle mechanics and minor Flowey connections The dude is lonely Theory: is Papyrus Gaster? More Papyrus fighting skill plus reality breaking phone call He’s a gentleman Papyrus doesn’t sleep Undertale Q&A/Papyrus’s favorite food Reference–How many lines each character has in the game Debunking Stupid Papyrus 1 – he knows what death is Debunking Stupid Papyrus 2 – the sink height. Strange, but workable Debunking Stupid Papyrus 3 – “solving” the horoscope Debunking Stupid Papyrus 4 – the lab Debunking Stupid Papyrus 5 – pet rock Debunking Stupid Papyrus 6 – spaghetti

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Princess / Neo Queen Serenity by Naoko Takeuchi

Cre: chibi_rabbit_

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Small rant about Sans' character that no one is ever going to read and is probably kind of inaccurate, but I'm going to scream into the void nonetheless because why the hell not and I'm kind of bored.

I feel like the concept of Sans as a whole has been so utterly gutted by the fandom and not in the way you'd think. Not because of the AUs which are all so oddly Sans-focused (but at least we have Underverse which is actually pretty good) but in the sense of the people who claim to "actually understand Sans canonically" and "try to stay as canon as possible" while also equally missing the point sort of. Hence, why we have this long and overplayed image I'm sure everyone has seen a billion times:

If I could lay some groundwork down, Undertale came out in 2015, nearly a decade ago. The internet was a different time and place then and fandom creativity reached new peaks that no one had ever seen before, and as a result, a lot of Undertale was exaggerated, changed, cut up, and then put back together. Why? Because in all honesty, Undertale was a really simple game with a simple premise. Sure there were bits and pieces scattered throughout, parts like who Gaster was, who Chara was when they were alive, who Sans is in general; all the typical fandom theory shenanigans we've come to expect in the recent years. And in that excitement, Sans became the staple of Undertale pretty much, or at least everything it represented. This macabre, yet adorably misleading game with funny moments and interesting think pieces that people are still speculating about. That's pretty much the basis of Sans. So I get why Sans became the quintessential poster child for such a subversively ambitious game. I get why, then, people try to showcase Sans as this badass God character who knows and remembers all of resets and cries over Papyrus and is just an edge lord in general. It doesn't mean it's accurate in the slightest, but I get the idea of it nonetheless. In the absence of content, and there's a lot of it in Undertale, (I mean, it took me 4 hours to 100% it in the Pacifist and Neutral Routes, and 5 hours to beat Genocide, including the times it took me to beat Undyne because she thoroughly kicked my ass and Sans as well) the fans filled those gaps with what they saw fit and what they saw fit was so wide and diverse that the gap overflowed and the game pretty much became unrecognizable.

And I (except for the truly questionable and gross stuff, you know what I'm talking about) love the fandom for that, I truly do. Just the sheer number of comics, spin-off games, AUs, art, and fanfiction that answered every question I had and more was and is impressive, but even so, there's only so much that can be done with the context Undertale provides us before the content gets...stale. Hence my point on why Sans' character was so exaggerated is because Undertale as a whole had been exaggerated and oversaturated and overplayed and generally...not what the game or Sans was originally. But that was peak 2016-2019, though, a few years ago. And the interpretations and eras, like everything, have changed.

Now back to my actual point. It's now 2024. The fandom has noticeably slowed down. All of the AUs and theories and fanfictions that were popular have either been forgotten about over the years, randomly rediscovered or still ongoing, or just abandoned entirely. The game has been pretty much combed through until every file has been cracked, every document leaked, and every secret discovered. It's like a picked over turkey at this point and a lot of the old creators have indeed left behind the game in pursuit of newer things, which is understandable. It's not the center of attention it once was and in that wake, we don't really have a lot of the same pillars in the Undertale community that we used to. And in this transformed community, we have the left over children, now young adults and teenagers, to pick up the pieces. And in that, Sans' character, as well as Undertale itself, has again, been reformed.

That was a lot of words. But I hope I at least set the center stage. My issue, pretty much, is that the leftover fans deem themselves as "above the cringe" the old fandom left behind, which, is fair enough. And in doing so, a lot of the foundation of the 2016-2019 Undertale fandom was kind of overwritten. No, now Sans is no longer this edgy, overpowered God figure ready to right the wrongs of the player, no, now he's this apathetic guy who doesn't care about anyone, including himself, and is only powerful because he cheated. And to be fair, I see some merit in this interpretation. Sans is in fact, a pretty morally ambiguous guy. He doesn't even attempt to stop the player during the genocide route until there's nothing left. He threatens the player on the pacifist route even when we pose no threat. He makes so many allusions about himself not caring about anything. So I get it. Everyone is tired of everything Sans-related. I was too at one point. But in trying to counteract this fanon interpretation of Sans, I feel like this new one is also semi-inaccurate. This new interpretation of Sans is meant to be seen as "mature" and "not cringe" when in fact, Undertale is and always will be sort of cringe. And that's OK! That's why I and others love the game so much, because it's not afraid of being anything other than what it is and what it claimed to be. It had a story in mind that it wanted to tell and it did so unabashedly. The need to separate Undertale and Sans itself from the cringe is so pointless and almost a little juvenile. And imo, even ruins the character of Sans himself.

Sans does care about Papyrus, so so so much. He reads him bedtime stories. He plays along with his illusions of grandeur. He calls out the player when he's killed, despite Sans having to remain objective as a judge. I feel like Sans not intervening in Papyrus' death isn't because he doesn't care, it's because his entire job is to act as a judge and in a position where he's mostly neutral. He knows the player has powers to redo and undo things, so thus, he gives us room to make those choices, for better or worse. He's like, the anti-toriel. He refuses to hold your hand. He tells YOU to make the right choice, and by you, I mean the player. And in that sense, I feel like that's not something a completely apathetic guy would do. Someone like that wouldn't even see the point of choices, of having an option. Someone like that wouldn't care about getting out of bed in the morning, getting several jobs, or telling a person with higher power to just engage with your brother.

Like come on, don't say he doesn't put effort into anything, like he went out of his way to make sure Pap's Holiday party went perfect. He's constantly going above and beyond for his brother.

Sans has emotions and they're so complex and so well-written, but I feel like this counter-cringe culture of the fandom wants him to be this guy who's either too depressed or too lazy to engage with others, or someone who would simply shrug off the death of loved ones when we have proof that Sans does indeed try hard for Papyrus in the ending where everyone dies but his brother. It's an "oh shit" sort of moment when he realizes that Papyrus is the only person he has left and thus, he puts in the effort to be better for him. It's not that he doesn't care or see the point, he's just kind of numb at this point. If Papyrus dies in the neutral routes, you don't see Sans again until the judgment hall and he'll call you a dirty brother killer and tell you to go to hell. That's something someone who at least cares a little would do. He's not above insulting the player and he's not above getting pissed. I've never really seen him as a, "well that's that then," character when it comes to Papyrus dying, for me, it's always been, "I'm angry, but I can maintain my composure and still do what I have to do."

Even in the genocide routes, Sans wants to give up and do nothing. He wants to let himself die without much thought. But he knows that he has to stand between you and oblivion. It's another, "Oh shit" moment, but in the opposite way. He knows he's gonna die. But he still has hope. Not necessarily that you'll be a good person, but that you can try another way and make better choices. He embodies the same mentality Papyrus did at the beginning of the run, believing there's a better chance for another future where everyone can be happy.

Sans isn't a nihilist, not all the way. There's still a chance, still a part of him that has hope for everything, regardless of the route. And should the Pacifist route be completed, you'll see that he's genuinely happy. He DOES care, or at least he's beginning to know that caring about things is ok and healthy even.

Ex 1: If you go to Sans' lab after completing a True Pacifist Route, you get this bit of dialog:

Ex 2: Sans and Papyrus talking about a Christmas party they had on the Newsletter of the 5th Anniversary of Undertale.

The strongest, yet most complex example of this that we see is that he upholds his promise with Toriel and will continue to do so until the genocide route at the very end because he wants to at least give us, the player, a chance. And even if it was a cop-out for being lazy, I believe that Sans legitimately believes there's a chance for us to turn around and be a better person, or at the very least, make better choices. We know that Sans is a person who doesn't like making promises at all, and even though he said that his threatening to kill Frisk is a joke, had he not made that promise to Toriel, I can't 100% say that he still wouldn't intervened in the genocide and neutral routes.

And if you think about it, Sans upholding that promise just makes me question him even more. Like, even if you kill his brother, so long as you don't kill everyone, he won't kill you just because of that. He sticks to his promise and his morals so much, even if it costs him everything because well, what type of judge would he be if he didn't stick to his moral code?

"If you have some special power, don't you think it's your responsibility to do the right thing?"

And by that logic, if he made a promise with someone, don't you think he'd feel he'd have the responsibility to uphold it?

We also know that he makes an effort to give us updates on the Underground after we leave in the neutral routes because he still wants us to know, at least, the consequences of our actions, so it's not like he's just lazily letting us get away with anything with do (even if he does physically.) He still holds our actions above our heads. He still keeps his promise. He still knows that we can make a better outcome. And if that doesn't say anything about him, I don't know what does.

Even in the neutral route endings where things are objectively going terribly for the monsters with Frisk killing Asgore and taking the souls to leave the barrier, Sans still never gives up. Sans, of all people.

And sure, Sans isn't a saint, not by a long shot, but he does have some moral weight in the long run, and by playing the part of a judge, he has a certain level of disattachment that's necessary when it comes to doing his job. Nowadays, I don't see the "fanon" sans that everyone loves to rag on, the one that's overly emotional and jarringly out of character, more so, I see everyone ragging on that interpretation, and then coming up with an equally inaccurate interpretation of Sans just not giving a shit and letting Frisk get away with everything just because he's "not emotional and only wants to be lazy, blah, blah, blah, nihilism, existentialism, it's more canonically accurate, unlike that CRINGE FANON SANS!" /or being a total unserious prankster with no other personality traits, and that's equally as jarring for me.

So in conclusion, I feel like "Fanon" Sans, the one where he's breaking down and sobbing over Papyrus and holding his scarf is just as inaccurate as the "more canon one" where he's apathetic and simply just not caring about his death, or at the very best, says "it is what it is." Sans is a character whose emotions aren't apparent, but he still does care in his weird philosophical way. He loves Papyrus and genuinely thinks he's cool. He's a jokester character who loves a good laugh and being laid back. He doesn't like putting in effort, but he will if he has to. He wants the player to make good choices, so he generally tries to stay out of the way to give us that freedom. Not because he knows we're gonna kill Papyrus, but because he knows we have greater power and wants us to use it to do the morally right thing. He isn't above doing morally grey things either, like threatening to kill Frisk in case they pose a threat to monster kind, but I believe even then, his hesitation to just accept a human in the underground is somewhat understandable given the oppressive tension between humans and monsters. Additionally, he does put in effort when it comes to caring about monsters other than Papyrus, Toriel, and even Alphys and Asgore, he cares about them all: (it's implied that he feeds the amalgamates in Alphy's old lab as proven by the same dog food we see in the lab being in Sans' house and Alphys even calls him a good guy because he helps her in the aborted genocide route ending, him telling jokes to Toriel and genuinely trying to bring some joy in her life even though she's a stranger and doesn't have an obligation to, even staying with her in the Ruins after she's dethroned in the Queen Undyne ending, him acting as the judge before Asgore and even being in such an important position requires you to have a solid sense of morality and conviction, his respect for Undyne as a warrior/leader depending on the ending and in the Undertale Newsletter, he makes an effort to score a goal for his team in Hocky, and Undyne of all people seems proud of him, and pretty much everything that has to do with Papyrus he's at the very least involved or interested in.)

My words don't have a lot of merit. I'm simply saying how I interpret things. But as a big sister, I see Sans as a good big brother who's not too involved, but also deeply cares about his younger brother and his friends. I get that stoicism and being "logical" and "cold" is the new trend and whatnot with all these edits of badass characters and longing for a time when everything was less...emotional, but in doing that, it shuts a lot of discussion about Sans as a person and his complex emotions as a whole. I feel like it's too difficult and kind of silly to chalk him up as either one or the other. I feel like there's a nice middle ground between the "cringe" fanon sans and the "cool, apathetic" canon sans that a lot of fans either go one or the other on. Anyway, that's about it for my rant. It's kind of nonsensical and a little hard to follow, but I hope I was able to get my thoughts across nonetheless.

I guess it was a big rant after all. Oh well. It is what it is.

#sans #undertale sans #undertale #deltarune #papyrus undertale #sans character discussion #undertale deltarune