No Better Place To Stay Warm

Day 31. Halloween Costume

One common Undertale misconception that really frustrates me is when Sans is portrayed with a strong innate sense for RESETs and alternative timelines. Like, that he remembers the RESET timelines better than the other characters who only have occasional feelings of deja vu or even that he can sense when a timeline is RESET.

And that’s, like, almost the opposite of the actual text of the game. While pretty much every main character can have slightly-different dialogue in a Not-True-RESET, especially if the Player had previously befriended them, based on the idea that they have lingering memories/feelings from before the RESET - 

Sans has no real dialogue changes based on this conceit. All of his changes are based around noticing Frisk has different reactions based on their memories of the precious timelines. 

Other characters do also make observations like that about Frisk, like Mettaton and Toriel. But Sans is distinctive because this is the only way his comments change between RESETs and there are a lot of them from him.

Because that is what really frustrates me about this misconception. People mention it as one more thing that makes Sans cool - but the actual truth is far more badass. Sans is one of the people in the Underground who remembers RESETs the least. I think memory-resistance to RESETs is probably tied to Determination. Flowey, the second-most Determined person in the Underground after Frisk, can remember everything perfectly.

Everyone else has some vague feelings and deja vus. And Sans, he’s the least motivated person in the Underground - both in the sense he’s lazy and in the sense he’s fucking depressed.

That probably means he has very little Determination. Thus, he doesn’t remember anything that happens between RESETs.

And yet, he is still the character most aware of them. Because he has the technological know-how to read and analyze timelines.

And because he has the observation and analytical skill to notice a RESET from other people’s reactions and behavior. Whatever it’s Papyrus thinking he recognizes someone or Frisk’s behavior implying that they know something they shouldn’t have. Sans main RESET-related skill is just being able to identify these moments and come to the correct conclusion about them. And with that he manages to be the most aware character in the entire Underground.

Like, the one point where it might seem like Sans remembers something from a previous Timeline is the Fake Spare scene during his boss battle. 

But it’s all pretend. Unlike the previous lines from other characters that I mentioned, this dialogue plays even if the Murder Route is the first time the player touched the game. Sans isn’t remembering anything in this scene. But he makes an educated guess that the Immoral Time God probably tried using their powers for good at first, so they were likely ‘friends’ in a previous timeline. And in most cases, his guess is right on the money - tricking many players into thinking this is another case of the game actually reacting to their past actions.

And as always, Sans can only tell if his lil’ trick worked or not based on the expression of the Player Character.

Arguably, Sans even uses his lack of Determination and cross-RESET memory to his advantage in his boss battle. After all, the whole point of this fight isn’t to kill the Player - Sans understands this is impossible. This is a war of attrition, trying to get the Player so frustrated and annoyed with the unfair fight that they just ragequit or RESET the Timeline. And this war of the Player’s patience versus Sans’ stamina and will is infinitely easier for him when he doesn’t actually perceive all the Player’s previous attempts against him.

Like, for the Player this might be the billion time they go up against him, they’re aware of some of his patterns and tricks now but they’re probably also frustrated and angry and exhausted. Meanwhile, from Sans’ POV, this is still the first time this is happening. He knows it’s not from the Player’s behavior and Frisk’s expression - but he doesn’t feel it like the Player does. 

He doesn’t feel the frustration and repetition of the endless stalemate. So he’s always as fresh as a daisy no matter how rugged the Player is getting.

And that’s part of why Sans is so cool in the first place, like, in general. He’s technically the weakest person in the Underground, lacking in every standard evaluation of power in the setting - no ATK, no DEF, no HP, no DETERMINATION. But he’s darn clever enough to overcome these weaknesses and even use them in ways that make them into strengths, enough to be one of the most dangerous and most aware guys in this whole setting.

Sans can’t remember anything, and that makes him awesome.

there can never be too much dog!!!!!!

Something that's really funny about Little Shop 1986 is the juxtaposition between the narrative often not taking anything seriously/making fun of itself and the characters and plot to the point that it's meanspirited at times (like Seymour describing the lifelong abuse and neglect he's gone through being framed in a very comedic and flippant way that's clearly making fun of him to the point that there might as well have been a laugh track playing, this happens with Audrey's introduction as well) but at the same time the performances (especially those of Ellen Greene and Rick Moranis) are so sincere.

This is most prominent in the theatrical cut ending where some of the dialogue feels like it was written in that Spongebob sarcasm font ("ThIs Is BeTwEeN mE aNd ThE vEgEtAbLE") (the very mocking tone at parts probably comes from them being pissed off that they had to redo the ending and seeing this new happy ending as stupid and fake and vapid which is fair) but it still feels like the actors are taking it fully seriously. If they were pissed at the audience like the writers clearly were I certainly can't tell. I refuse to look up interview quotes for any of this because most times I've looked at an interview quote for this movie it's been completely antithetical to every single thought I've ever had about it and made me wonder if I've watched the movie that it's talking about but yeah. Also probably no one involved would admit it if they were pissed at the audience but like... the writers probably were based on some of that dialogue/framing. No I don't know who 'the writers' were despite having written the equivalent of two doctoral theses on this movie. Because researching the authorial intent is painful for the reasons I've described.

How did this post get derailed this hard

Anyway tl;dr the juxtaposition between the narrative not taking anything seriously/being very mocking and the performances being very sincere is fun, it really adds to the feeling of Seymour and Audrey trying to survive in a world/society that hates them when the narrative itself is taking the piss out of them half the time.

Audrey has prosopagnosia (face blindness). Why do I headcanon this? It would explain her not being sure if she thinks Seymour is cute or not, and it would make the leather jacket scene more interesting if Seymour actually looked like Orin to her for a second (parallels between Seymour and Orin as Seymour spirals with guilt and wonders how alike they are we love to see it.) I also like the idea of her primarily associating him with things like the way he carries himself and his characteristic hand gestures in her mind. Like, when she hears his name she thinks about those things instead of his face. She developed prosopagnosia after falling off one of her boyfriend’s motorcycles, and she can compensate for it well enough that she doesn’t realize that she has it, although she sometimes gets a vague sense that something is off with her ability to recognize people.

Wattpad

Run Away Engie, Run And Hide (a tf2 angst )

Cover art is not mine all credit goes to the artist Also sorry i had to censor it bc i got flagged for self harm. tw: p...

Yall should read my fanfic 😇 erm ok bye!

#lsoh #littleshopofhorrors

LSOH reference

Hello? This is your mother! Are you coming home?

Since Orin is a workaholic for his job that doesn’t involve much strenuous physical activity, he is ironically not that strong. Audrey is probably stronger than him (I can back up the idea of her being physically strong with the fact that she canonically pushed his motorcycle while he was on it.)

Two doodles of Seymour and his Audreys. He gettin a smooch from one of them, but definitely not his preferred one 🌿❤🌿❤🌿❤🌿