No, this isn’t an emotional vent, or me pointing fingers at any member of the Undertale fandom in particular. But, there are some common things in this fandom that I dislike, and I feel like addressing at least some of them.

1: Sans remembers prior resets.



Okay, people, you need to think this one through a bit. Sans is a very smart guy, and the Genocide route proves that he’s already plenty capable under the right circumstances. So just imagine how insanely tough he would be if he did remember previous resets!



If he remembered everything, how would Flowey have ever killed him? Why would he never confront Frisk about resetting after a neutral or pacifist run? Why would he continue using the same attacks in the genocide boss battle if he’s already seen that you’ve memorized the patterns?



Sans remembering does not make any sense and isn’t supported by any of the dialog in the game. So, for the life of me, I don’t understand why the fandom is so attached to the idea.



2: Flowey/Asriel is often very poorly handled as a character.

I hate to say it, but I’ve only seen a few people REALLY handle this character well. To be fair, he’s by far the most complicated character in the game, and his character arch is mindboggling. Regardless, most depictions of the character seem to fall back on a few common mistakes.

People writing Asriel to be a simple cute kid whose utterly blameless.



Writing Flowey to be a sadistic demon who only wants to hurt people.



Writing them to be two fully separate people.



People assuming Flowey is some sort of memory clone.



Fans-creators insisting that Flowey/Asriel is actually an adult.

Fans insisting that Asriel deserved everything he got.



Basically, in fanworks where Asriel is saved, he’s a normal innocent kid that doesn’t have any real problems. If he isn’t saved, then he’s reverted to being a sadistic killer and isn’t allowed things like friends or any real happiness.



What people tend to overlook with Asriel is that. While he isn’t innocent, during his time as Flowey he’s essentially a mentally ill child that’s been given godlike powers and left on his own.



Guess what, that’s interesting! It’s also sad as heck!



It renders him a character that’s simultaneously dangerous while being wholly sympathetic. That’s hard to do, and I’m still applauding Toby Fox on pulling it off so wonderfully.



That doesn’t mean I oppose depictions of Asriel where he’s a harmless kid without any problems, or depictions of Flowey that make it clear that he’s a very dangerous individual. However, in stories, I always prefer it when there’s more to the character than that.



Also, before anyone says it. No, I am not badmouthing the mentally ill. I’ve known people that were mentally ill, and I have mountains of respect and sympathy for what they have to go through.



3: Chara is both Frequently Mishandled, and is Ultra Divisive

The fact of the matter is, very little is known about Chara. They’re kinda vague in many real ways. This is the only reason I don’t place this higher on this list. The game’s vagueness does give people a lot of leeway with their version of the character.



That being said, I do find some of the softer depictions of the character to be strange considering how darkly they’re depicted in the game. Even that I would not see as all that big a deal, except that fans of that depiction then go out and attack people that don’t conform to that depiction. I very much dislike that sort of behavior. Fan communities live or die based entirely on fan creators. If you attack the fan creators, a fandom will eventually wither and die.



So don’t, freaking, do it!



I also find it kinda odd how the mental illness aspects of Asriel/Flowey are often reassigned to Chara. <_<;;



4: Casual Depictions of Abuse, Vindictiveness, and Brutality.



I really should place this higher on the list, but oh well.



You’d think a game where mercy and forgiveness was one of the major themes, you’d see more people willing to cut X or Y character slack. As it happens, you’d be wrong.



I’ve seen characters depicted as ultra-abusive on one hand, or deserving of abuse on the other! Often, I see abusive behavior played up for humor, and we’re supposed to be okay with it because, the person receiving the abuse is horrible, according to the artist.



This is especially true for Flowey. Who in some fan content is abused pretty horribly by Sans. To the point of even being partially eaten alive in one rather extreme case.



Yeah, that’s not cool! Especially when it’s a “good guy,” doing the abuse.



So no, playing up abusive behavior for laughs, or trying to justify horrible mistreatment for one of the characters, doesn’t sit well with me. Sadly it’s already far too common.

And that’s all I have to say on this front. If you sat through that, thank you for bearing with me for the whole thing. Also, please keep in mind that all this is only my opinion, and nothing more.

I don’t actually wish to attack anyone specifically. I only wrote this all because these are things I’ve seen over the past year that have bugged me a lot.

