#the fandom's 'angsty romantic figure' version of sans

[ethanhuntfemmefatale]

The thing about Sans that (esp in the context of Sans Deltarune) makes the character endlessly funny/sad is how badly he wants to be Just Some Guy. Here he is cursed with knowledge of saves and resets and game mechanics and faced with an anomaly in time and space that could tear his entire world apart, and his response is basically to say "gee that's a lot, hope everything goes okay with that." Then his friend ropes him into PROTECTING the potentially universe-destroying entity and he says "sure" and basically just. Checks in with the kid every so often to be like "hey u still alive? killed anybody yet? oh a lot of people? ok proceed" you dont have to fight him unless you have literally tracked down and murdered the entire Underground. heck you dont have to TALK to him past snowdin until chamber of judgement. Man THRIVES as an NPC it is his calling it is all he wants to be. But through circumstances beyond his control he has to keep getting involved in emotionally traumatic morally complex bullshit. We're all laughing about sans' reaction to "eggs-husband" as if his reaction to ANY conflict in UT isn't to turn around and hope it ends soon.

This is the central tragedy of sans' arc in any of the neutral runs and finally genocide. You see just how far Sans will go to stay out of all of this. Just how badly he doesn't want to hurt this kid. Especially early on in the Genocide run, when you're being creepy, disregarding Papyrus' puzzles, and--lest we forget--hunting down every monster in the area so that the entire town flees from you--there's this odd kind of peacemaker desperation to Sans' dialogue. Pretending to like Junior Jumble. Not returning any of Papyrus' jabs. Saying "cmon just humor him you might like it" to a child who is showing every sign of being a homicidal maniac. Even his (objectively terrifying) warning before the Papyrus bossfight seems pretty weak given the situation he's in (faced with losing his brother!) and the power we know is at his disposal. He is literally doing the equivalent of filling up a watering can and pouring it on a burning building. He does not WANT to be the antagonist! He does not WANT to be the hero! He wants to be the weird funny little guy who tells jokes! He wants to be the convenience store guy! But the game won't let him!

#this is also really funny to me in the context of #the fandom's 'angsty romantic figure' version of sans #the key to sans pov fic is having him avoid all crises present in the narrative while having cryptic conversations #with the three (3) people he cares about in the world #sans #sans undertale #undertale #undertale pacifist #undertale neutral route #undertale genocide #papyrus undertale #papyrus #ut frisk #ut sans #ut chara #tw murder mention #tw mass murder #cecil sans stan era