Undertale Theory - Blog Posts

File attribution theory

In Undertale, there are 10 numbered SAVE files, going from “file 0″ up to “file 9″.

The UNDERTALE folder on the player’s computer may contain file 0, file 9 and file 8 depending on certain conditions.

These files mutually take each other into consideration. The fact that “file 6″ exists means that there was a “file 5″ already, otherwise file 6 would have just been called file 5. File 5 implies the existence of file 4 and so on.

This means that either all of those files are canon, or none of them are.

The game makes it pretty clear that we are in the first scenario given that the Flowey X fight directly refers to those files being an in-world thing.

Another case in which we can clearly see the impact of the different files within the game has to do with Frisk.

Lets say that a neutral route is played, then, the player SAVES just before fighting Asgore. Afterwards, instead of fighting the king, the player decides to RESET. The player then decides to go through the ruins without SAVING even once, but is eventually killed by a monster.

Where does Frisk come back to after dying in this situation ?

One would expect Frisk to either go back to the flower bed at the very beginning or to LOAD back to near Asgore where the player last SAVED.

But neither of those is what happens. Frisk actually comes back to this location :

And that’s not all. Lets say that now, the player closes the game and opens it up again. Where does Frisk LOAD to then ?

This time, they do LOAD back to near Asgore.

Frisk has just LOADED to two completely different points in space and time without having SAVED in between the two. This should be impossible with Frisk having control over only a singular SAVE file.

What happened here was that two different SAVE files were actually used :

“file 0″ and “file 9″.

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Dudes, i think the Undertale forgot that those gloved hands Gaster spawns in EVERY FAN MEDİA are belong to the bravery soul. Like i know Gaster has the same hands BUT he could be holding them/ wearing them PLUS we know Bravery knew how to teleport stuff the the chest. Y'know just saying they might have parent-kid realationship going on X]>

theory: who's the person with the creepy smile?

By hacking into Undertale's files, you can find a secret room named Room 123 in Waterfall. By moving through the grass, you can encounter a monster trying to catch a bug. If you continue to talk to her, she'll ask you to "do something about your friend."

After examining this dialogue, I've come to the conclusion that this could match 4 different people. But who are they?

1. Sans

Sans is frequently implied to be following you throughout the game, and he is constantly smiling. However, when I think of this:

I don't think of it as creepy, I think of it as jolly. His smile is supposed to put you off-edge, which makes it even more surprising when he fights you at the end of a Genocide Route. You might be thinking, "What if he's doing his bad-time face?" That might be a possibility, but I doubt he makes that face all the time, especially if you're doing Pacifist at the time.

So we can officially rule out Sans as a suspect.

2. Flowey

Flowey's smile can definitely be described as creepy. However, like Sans, he doesn't do his "evil face" all the time, especially not while he's following you. And, like Sans, this face:

It's not supposed to scare you, it's supposed to trick you into thinking Flowey was friendly. So unless the bug-catching monster was all-seeing, I doubt she would have noticed Flowey was evil. So we can eliminate Flowey as a suspect.

3. Chara

It is almost confirmed that Chara would be following you around the Underground. And Chara's face can DEFINITELY be described as creepy (this doesn't necessarily mean they're evil). As for the fact that the monster can see Chara, this room is only accessible through file-editing. So it would make sense that this monster cannot really be considered as an Undertale Canon character. So I think we can put Chara as Suspect #1.

4. Gaster

This one requires a bit of inferring. If we assume that this unknown monster is Gaster:

Then his smile could defintely be seen as creepy. Considering the fact that this room can only be accessible through file editing, and Gaster is seen in almost every file-edited room, it would make sense for him to be the "one with the creepy smile".

Who do you think it is, Chara or Gaster? Or maybe Sans or Flowey? Maybe we'll never know...

theory: sans and alphys used to work together

Everyone in Undertale has a very distinct relationship with one another (not necessarily love). It is very obvious that Sans and Papyrus are two brothers that care about each other. It's obvious that Toriel and Asgore are former lovers. But what about Sans and Alphys?

While trying to speak to Alphys at the end of the True Pacifist Ending, there's a short conversation between Undyne and Alphys, and Sans tries to make a joke. But Alphys interrupted him with the same pun. So obviously Alphys knew Sans well enough to guess what he would say in that situation. But where did they know each other?

Let's backtrack.

We know that Dr. Alphys was a scientist before she became the Royal Scientist. She did experiments in the True Lab using DETERMINATION and recorded entries in there. But one particular entry stuck out to me.

ENTRY 5

In this entry, Alphys used "blueprints" to extract determination from the human souls. But what are these blueprints? In fact, the only other time the word "blueprints" is mentioned in-game is in Sans' workshop.

Since this is literally the only other time "blueprints" is mentioned, we must assume that these are the same ones Alphys mentioned. So if Alphys and Sans both have or had the same blueprints, and they were about scientific experiments, that could only mean one thing.

Sans was also a scientist.

There is actually more evidence that Sans was a scientist because of the items that he owns in his house.

We must assume that this is Sans' book, because it was hidden away inside of a joke book. I highly doubt someone would read a quantum physics book for fun, unless they could actually understand what it means.

Let's go back to the blueprints.

Now that we know that Sans and Alphys were both scientists, and probably worked together, let's see what other information we can find about the blueprints. If you interact with them, it says, "You can't read the symbols they're written in.."

Symbols? What symbols? Nobody writes in symbols!

Nobody except the author of Entry 17, widely speculated to be W.D Gaster, the old Royal Scientist. But what is Gaster saying? Well, he isn't speaking gibberish. He's actually speaking through a font called Wingdings, which can be translated. The exact translation is:

Dark

Darker

Yet Darker

The darkness keeps growing

The shadows cutting deeper

Photon Readings Negative

This Next Experiment

Seems

Very

Very

Interesting

What do you two think?

Now that is very cryptic, but it also gives us a lot of information. For example, if these are the symbols used in the blueprints, that means Sans and Alphys could understand Wingdings, and possibly worked with Dr. Gaster.

Does this mean that the "two" that Gaster was talking about were Sans and Alphys?

It's very possible.

However, how close were Sans and Alphys?

Alphys was most likely alone when she conducted the experiments on the fallen down monsters, and unfortunately turned them into Amalgamates. She seemingly didn't tell anyone about this and fell into a spiral of depression. But did she tell the one person who could have understood what she did? Did she tell her old coworker?

When you call Papyrus outside of Alphys' lab without befriending Undyne, he and Sans say this:

Now Sans could be joking, but a lot of Sans' "jokes" turn out to be serious, so what if this was also serious? Does this mean that Sans knew about the Amalgamates? It's highly possible, especially with this dialogue:

I highly doubt that Sans was trying to eat healthier by eating dog food, but why would he give the bag to Alphys? For all we know, she doesn't have a dog. But she does have another "type of dog." That's right, Endogeny the Amalgamate. It's pretty likely that Sans knew about the Amalgamate Experiments, and if Sans is the only one she told, it's obvious that these two were very close.

But what did Sans do as a scientist?

And how do these two know Dr. Gaster?

I guess we'll never know...

Unless I'm really bored and decide to make another craZy tHeorY-

theory: frisk climbed the mountain to jump off

It's never really explained why Frisk tried to climb Mt.Ebbot. A lot of people believe that is up to the player's interpretation, but let me remind you that Frisk and the player are not technically the same person. This is supported by the fact that sometimes Frisk moves and talks without the player acting for them (like going behind the lamp or giving their name to Asriel). Here are three reasons why I believe Frisk climbed the mountain to unfortunately, end their life.

1. The kid in the intro is not Frisk.

You may be thinking, "But Frisk tripped and fell in! You can see it in the intro!" But the kid in the intro is not Frisk. Frisk has two stripes on their shirt.

The person in the intro only has one stripe on their shirt.

Who else has only one stripe on their shirt?

That's right, Chara. The date of the flashback also says "201X", which is the date that Chara fell into the underground. This confirms the person in the flashback is Chara, not Frisk. Frisk could've fell into the Underground in the same way, but remember, this is a game where nothing is the same.

2. Frisk had a bad relationship with their family.

Now this required a bit of inferring, but I think I've gathered some evidence to back it up. So, by the time Toriel leaves Frisk alone in the RUINS to get groceries, Frisk has probably known Toriel for around 5-10 minutes. And yet if you decide to call her, you already have the option to call Toriel "Mom".

Why would Frisk be so willing to call someone their "mother", especially someone who is practically a stranger? This could only mean that Frisk either doesn't have a mom, or doesn't have a very caring mother. Nothing in the game suggests that Frisk is an orphan, or grew up with a single parent, so we must assume the latter. Another thing that supports this is the final decision in the True Pacifist Ending.

Tons of times, it is shown that the choice on the left is the one that Frisk would be most willing to choose.

So why would Frisk want to leave their family behind to live with somebody that they met only a few days ago? If you're thinking, "Maybe Frisk is an orphan!", that could be true. However, the second option contradicts that, as it proves that Frisk does have a family to return to. This proves that Frisk did not have a very close relationship to their family, that maybe their parents were abusive? This could be the reason Frisk decided to jump in.

3. Even Asriel knows.

At the very end of the True Pacifist ending, just before you exit the Underground, you can travel back to the RUINS and you will find Asriel at the bed of golden flowers. If you continue to talk to him, he will question you on why you climbed the mountain.

Frisk managed to solve dozens of puzzles while traveling the Underground, so I doubt that they would be foolish enough to climb a mountain that people are said to "disappear from". Asriel then asks if it "was fate". It could be, but that's not a real reason.

And there it is, the biggest hint the game could possibly give us. A (almost) literal confirmation that Frisk likely jumped off the mountain purposely. Even before telling us this, Asriel uses tons of "..." while speaking. He only does this in stressful or sad situations.

I think he probably figured out the reason before he tried to ask you.

And so there is the proof that Frisk likely jumped off the mountain on purpose. I hope you enjoyed this theory!

Stay safe everyone! <3

My personal undertale headcanon is that Flowey isn’t emotionless and incapable of connecting with others because he lacks a soul or is inherently “bad”, it’s because he was deeply traumatized from watching his best friend/sibling kill themselves in an incredibly painful way only to die violently himself hours later at like, the age of 11?

That would break anybody. To make things even worse, he woke up an undisclosed amount of time later in a body wholly alien to him, unable to move, completely alone until Asgore found him. If that wasn’t bad enough he then had to directly face the consequences of his and Chara’s plan, and the deep pain that it caused everyone in the underground. His father, the king? Broken. His mother? Missing. His people? Devastated and hopeless. Chara? Gone.

And to make things just that much worse, when the pain and grief of everything gets too much for him, and he deems himself broken beyond repair and decides to take his life he finds out that he has complete control over time itself.

He then spends an unimaginable amount of time experimenting with this power, constantly trying to do the right thing, constantly trying to help people and make the world better. But he’s never satisfied. He’s never happy. He does this, again and again and again. He grows older and older but never actually ages, he sinks deeper and deeper into his own tiny world, becoming even more distant and disconnected from the people around him as situations repeat themselves and peoples lives loop and loop without end. 

Eventually he becomes so unbearingly bored of the endless, unescapable cycle that he starts to experiment with more negative situations. Afterall, his actions no longer have consequences, right? Anything he does, he can and will undo eventually. Even the most horrific actions hold no weight in Flowey’s impermanent world. The only person who ever has to deal with the consequences of Flowey’s actions… Is Flowey himself.

So he does it. Slipping deeper and deeper into his delusions. Falling deeper and deeper into genuine insanity as the years repeat themselves onto eternity and Flowey disconnects completely from the world around him.

At this point, he feels that he’s experienced quite literally everything the world has to offer. He probably lived as Flowey far longer than he ever did as Asriel by now. He’s befriended everyone, he’s hurt everyone. He’s saved everyone, he’s killed everyone. He’s done everything. Even violence doesn’t interest him anymore. So what does he do? He stops.

I’ve always wondered how Frisk even had the chance to fall into Mt. Ebott and usurp Flowey of his powers if he was constantly resetting the timeline, but I think I finally get it.

Flowey probably just… Stopped completely at some point. He stopped resetting, stopped interacting with the world and sat himself at his best friend's grave and just… waited. Waited for something, anything new to happen. Eventually enough time passed for a new human to fall, a human who inherently overpowers Flowey’s control of the timeline and so, for the first time in what must have felt like eternity Flowey was finally free from his power.

-

After everything that Asriel experienced leading up to and during his death, he probably would have needed intense therapy to overcome the trauma. But that’s not what he got was it? He didn’t get therapy. He didn’t get the chance to heal. He got the powers of a god and the curse of his actions no longer having consequences. I don’t believe Flowey is incapable of connecting with others or feeling true happiness or love. I think that’s just a lie he told himself so his situation wouldn’t hurt as much.

-

But, even after all of that I believe Flowey still has a chance at happiness. We see his character shift dramatically after the Omega Flowey fight. After he is once again stripped of his power over time, he has an intense moment of vulnerability that shows what I believe to be his true colors, followed by him coaching Frisk on how to get a better ending for everyone.

Sure, this was likely a trap for Flowey to take everyone’s souls, but once again, after his defeat as Asriel and returning to Flowey’s form, he has yet another character shift.

He’s genuinely happy at this ending. He’s happy that everyone escaped the underground, happy that Frisk gets to live their life. He begs the player to just leave everyone to their lives and to move on themselves. He doesn’t want his power back, he doesn’t want the cycle to continue anymore.

For the first time in god knows how long, Flowey is satisfied.

And maybe if the alarm clock dialogue is anything to go by, given time Flowey can finally heal. Flowey can finally find happiness and love again.